Banketstaaf, or How a Mexican Fiesta Led to Dutch Pastry

this post is for My Friend Judith from High School.  or, more correctly, My Friend Judith from High School's Mom.  you see, judith's family came from the netherlands, and her mom for christmas one year made these amazing dutch pastries called banketstaaf.  believe me when i tell you that they were amazing.  cause they were.  and i always remembered them, even though i'd never heard of them before or since.

well, fast forward to this year when i was making horchata (this cinnamony rice beverage) for Cinco de Mayo.  don't worry, this will all make sense eventually.  anyway, to make horchata, at least with the recipe i found, you need a ton of blanched almonds which were pulverized and strained through liquid to make a milky milk-like substance, which you then transformed into the horchata.  i know, i didn't get the almond-in-the-rice-beverage either.  (as an aside, i found out after the fact that you can purchase horchata in the store, and it's really pretty cheap.  so, needless to say, i don't know if the whole pulverize-almonds-and-strain-them-by-hand thing is gonna happen again.)

but, even so, i had all this almond meal left over, and it seemed very lame to just throw it away.  and if you knew my mom, you would know the evil that befalls anyone who throws away "perfectly good food."  lets don't get started on the broccoli stalks.

anyway, so i threw it in the freezer, thinking i would use it sometime.  and then, i remembered the banketstaaf.  and i looked around and found this recipe to make it.  however, it didn't call for almond meal, but almond paste.  which apparently, costs your firstborn child if you purchase the quantity called for in the recipe (1 lb).  but, fortunately for me i had 3 cups of almond meal in the freezer, so i used this recipe to transform it into almond paste, and voila!  banketstaaf.

where the mexican fiesta comes in again, making a full circle of multicultural delight, is that the almond meal, having been used to make the aforementioned almond-rice-beverage, was flavored with cinnamon and lime when i used it the first time around.  so instead of your run of the mill almond flavor, it was bursting with fiesta goodness.

all this to say, it really was quite tasty.  and, thanks, judith's mom.

A Beautiful Sunny Day

so, my husband and the boys were out hiking and playing in the gorgeous june weather today, while i stayed inside at my computer desk at work.  talk about a lame way to spend a beautiful saturday!  and, in order for you to understand just how lame it was, i am posting the video he made of it:

Toothless Wonder

well, i have to hurry up and post this, because the first lost tooth is soon to be joined by the second!  yep, that's right, nicholas officially has a less-toothy-grin, as of last weekend.  the excitement began in kindergarten, when the tooth was lost during group time (hardly seems fair to miss the first one like that!), and continued on into the night, as mama, who thought she had more "wiggling" time to get organized, quickly sewed up a little tooth fairy pouch.  chris likes to make fun of me for it, so i will post it here for your enjoyment.  you can't really tell by the picture, but there are cool sparkly gems all around the fairy--every self-respecting fairy needs some fairy dust!

in case you are wondering, the going rate in this house for

 fairies, tooth or otherwise, is 4 quarters, a marble, and a shiny rock.  i know, i know, i think i got maybe one quarter for mine, but hey, with the price of gas these days, what is the poor kid going to do with a quarter?  the marble and rock are special introductory offers only, i'm thinking.

Garden Mania!

well, you may not know this, but chris and i are in the throes of an enormous garden undertaking.  he has been hauling rock for the retaining wall of our new raised bed for the past couple of weeks...literally tons of it.  we now have an area of about 225 square feet in which to plant our garden bounty....this is addition to the weeny one we had last year, which already has peas, asparagus, and strawberries growing.

and, i found this really cool toy online to help visualize the crops as they grow.  it's really fun to play with, so check it out!  you just may decide to plant a mondo one too!  :)  once you drag-and-drop your plants, hit the "grow" button and see them do their thing...

click here to play

as for me, i am wildly plotting our garden haul, as follows:

tomato plants--8 of them.  i want to can a bunch this fall.

squash--2 summer, 2 winter.  probably a zuchini and yellow squash, and butternut and pumpkin or spaghetti.

basil--tons

carrots

bell peppers

jalapeno pepper

cukes--one eating, one pickling

maybe potatoes or onions, never tried these before

pole beans

quinoa

sunflowers

poppies

cosmos

already growing in the garden:

the above mentioned strawberries

asparagus

peas

sage

thyme

chives (these are the coolest right now...a ton of purple flowers)

oregano

mint

lavender

parsley

rhubarb--left by the previous owner...anyone have ideas for using this with a rhubarb-hating husband?

that sounds much cooler than it looks right now, but i hope to have a ton of food growing in my yard come summer!

Free Ice Cream

it must be spring, the free ice cream is starting to roll out!  so, as a public service announcement, i am telling you to run, not walk, to your nearest ben & jerry's on april 29th....load up the kiddos, your friends and neighbors!  it's free, people!

New Book

my ever-other-sunday small group is starting a new book, and i am pretty excited about it.  while i have always considered myself an evangelical christian, i have often felt like the "party line" of evangelicals does not fit me.  in the politics realm anyway.  i identify with the evangelical movement in its desire to hold to the primacy of the scriptures, and its unwillingness to discount the hard passages just because they are hard or unpopular, and the idea that the good news of the gospel is being forgiven by and having a relationship with Jesus.  however, the political parcel that usually goes along with that (big business, death penalty, downplaying of social justice, environment, education) has always been hard for me to swallow.  

this book promises to address that idea, that there is a subset of devout christians out there who do not fall in line with the religious right, who believe deeply in the fundamentals of christianity, but don't necessarily think that God would vote for only one political party.  and, as well, that many of the sweeping social reforms that have occurred in this nation have had as their driving force a time of religious revival--women's sufferage, abolition of slavery, etc.

at least, it seems like it from the dust jacket.  :)  haven't read much yet. 

anyway, here it is--The Great Awakening:  Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, by Jim Wallis

image courtesy of good ol' amazon.com.  

anyone out there read it yet?  or relate to what i'm talking about?

edited to add an old-fashioned title and link, since the picture is apparently not showing up!

Sooo Handsome

ok, so i know it's been a while....

thanks to W and because we want to do our duty as good americans, we have used our soon-to-arrive tax stimulus package to finally upgrade our computer.  which means, posting will theoretically be easier.  and, in celebration i offer you:

Daniel's New Glasses!

these are circa january or so, but i couldn't get the old computer to do the pictures.  his eyes had been crossing pretty dramatically before we got them, but it seems to have corrected that.  we go in at the end of the month to see if he needs a new prescription (we've already changed it once).  meanwhile, i happen to think he is totally cute!

File This Under: You Don't Have to be a Tree-Hugging Liberal

i came across this website today, and i have to say, it was heartening. many times, i am frustrated by the inertia of the church when it comes to environmental issues. in fact, some treat the very word "environmental" as some kind of pejorative. however, an organization of evangelical leaders have come together to create the Evangelical Climate Initiative is seeking to change that, by acknowledging that the problem is real, urgent, and important for us as Christians to address. it even has a handy tab under their faq's entitled: "Does addressing climate change mean we're becoming liberals?" (just in case you were worried about that.) :) check it out!

love, your favorite tree-hugger.

Things that Make you Wanna Ralph

(in honor of the stomach bug that i had over the weekend...)

ok, so i knew somewhat in the back of my mind that teflon is not good for you....and old, scratchy teflon, worse. however, i came across this link today and it creeped me out! we have been phasing out the we've-had-it-forever stuff, but this makes me even more determined! yuck!

also, this little ditty about scotchguard, that stuff that repels stains on upholstery, clothing, and carpets. well, apparently, it's also used in food packaging like fast food containers, candy wrappers, microwave popcorn etc. apparently, it was phased out of food products, because of the persistent nature of the chemical in humans and animals all throughout the food chain. my favorite quote: "chemicals that cause cancer in animals cannot be used as food additives"--according to the fda. well. thank goodness for that.

off to peruse some secondhand cast iron....

Superfoods List

finished the book Superfoods Rx, by Stephen Pratt the other day. basically a manifesto for eating a whole-foods diet...that is, foods in their natural form, not foods from Whole Foods Market (aka "Whole Paycheck".) he focuses on the idea that foods are powerful agents for health, and while we know a lot about the different vitamins and nutrients in food, many times we don't understand the interplay of them all together in certain foods. not to mention, all the ones we haven't discovered yet. also, while it's possible to overdose on certain supplements, it is next to impossible to overdose while eating foods in their natural form. (that is, if he isn't counting cookies. or cheese. neither of which made it on the list, come to think of it.)

in a nutshell, here are the "power foods" he advocates eating more of:

1. beans--at least four 1/2 cup servings a week.
2. blueberries (and purple grapes, cranberries, bysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, blackberries, cherries, and etc. other berries.)--1 to 2 cups daily.
3. broccoli (and brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, collards, bok choy, mustard greens, swiss chard)--1/2 to 1 cup daily.
4. oats (and wheat germ, ground flaxseed. also brown rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, rye, millet, bulgur wheat, amaranth, quinoa, triticale, kamut, yellow corn, wild rice, spelt, couscous.)--5 to 7 servings daily. the trick with this one is to find whole, unrefined grains. Look for the word "whole" on the label--don't be fooled by tricky packaging.
5. oranges (and lemons, white and pink grapefruit, kumquats, tangerines, and limes.)--one serving daily.
6. pumpkin (and carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bell peppers)--1/2 cup on most days.
7. wild salmon (not farmed!) (and alaskan halibut, canned albacore tuna, sardines, herring, trout, sea bass, oysters, clams)--2 to 4 times per week. a helpful resource for eco-choices, or if you are concerned about the mercury in some types of fish is the monterey bay aquarium's seafood watch guide. they make a pocket guide that is handy on the go.
8. soy (in the form of tofu, soymilk, soy nuts, edamame, tempeh, miso)--15 grams of soy protien per day. look for organic soy--if it doesn't specify, then chances are it is genetically modified.
9. spinach (and kale, collards, swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, romaine lettuce, orange bell peppers)--1 cup steamed or 2 cups raw per day. this category is particulary protective for macular degeneration of the eyes, something which affects my grandmother.
10. tea--one or more cups daily.
11. tomatoes (and red watermelon, pink grapefruit, japanese persimmons, red-fleshed papaya, strawberry guava)--one serving of processed tomatoes (or others) daily, and multiple servings per week of fresh.
12. turkey (or skinless chicken breast)--3 to 4 servings per week. i know, you were worried this was a crazy vegetarian book.
13. walnuts (and almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews)--1 ounce, 5 times per week.
14. yogurt (or kefir)--2 cups daily

i was glad to see that some of these we are already eating regularly, and challenged to add a few of the ones we aren't. how about you--anyone still keeping their "eat healthy" resolutions out there?

Ode to a Spare Tire

on my way to cbs last week, i bundled up the boys as i normally do and loaded them in the car. fortunately, nicholas was already at preschool because chris can take him most thursday mornings. i strapped them in and started out, getting about 30 yards before i realized that something was very wrong. it was the thumpa-thumpa-thumpa that really gave it away...we had a flat tire. just to set the stage a little, let me say that jonathan was *already* screaming his face off at this point, because he was so cold.

how cold? well, let's just say it was single digits. eight degrees to be exact. fortunately, since i was so close to home, i just gingerly turned around and limped home, hoping not to damage anything by driving on the rims, jonathan screaming all the way.

so, obviously the meeting was out of the question. i took the screaming children inside (daniel is now crying because we can't go and he loves cbs) and get them watching sesame street. i love pbs right now. and i go back out to figure out what to do, because i have about 2 hours until i have to be at nicholas' school for the kindergarten pickup. i decide i need to figure out how to change the tire. fortunately, it is now warmed up to nine degrees. at least i can go inside and jump around every 5 minutes or so for warmth!

let's just say that the last time i changed a tire was...never. ok, maybe once when i learned to drive, but even that is doubtful. thank goodness for the owner's manual. and stan's automotive shop, whose workers never laugh at me when i call them up and say "ummm....what do i do now?" i will show you in pictures what happened next...

that's right, you perceptive readers....after i got the spare tire on and the car jacked back down, i realized that the spare tire was *also flat*. what are you supposed to do with a flat spare tire? did i mention that it was nine degrees? i thought so. anyway, i did what any other self respecting tire changer would do in this situation...i called stan's. and, just so you know why i love them so much, i will tell you that they sent a guy out with a portable air filler-upper to my house to fill it back up.

so, with 20 minutes to spare before i had to be at the kindergarten pickup, i had a new tire (with air!) to drive on. go stan's!

the whole time, i was also thinking, thank God that this happened where i could have the kids inside watching sesame street, instead of screaming their faces off on the side of the road in single digits while i jacked up the car.

oh, and so you know, my friend chara told me that there is a thing called fix-a-flat or something, and you can repair a flat without all this mess. stan says it's not great for your tires, though.

Hungry Planet

i just finished reading this book...anyone else? essentially, the authors visit families in different countries for a week, photographing their life and documenting what each family eats over the course of a week. each family also poses with a weeks worth of food, and there are statistics about each country so that you can somewhat compare. some interesting parts:

• how much the food in industrialized countries doesn't actually look like food--that is, they are pictured surrounded by boxes, bottles and packages, and very little that you would recognize as part of a plant or animal. by contrast, in developing nations, sometimes they would have absolutely no prepared food, or a couple of bouillion cubes or something.
• how disparate the amount of food available is, depending on where one lives.
• how much musk ox meat is eaten by people in greenland...something like 29 lbs per week. per person.
• all the different types and parts of animals that are eaten around the world...congealed blood or deep fried scorpion on a stick, anyone?

it was also striking the way that the authors would juxtapose different families...for instance, they did 2 different families living in chad, one who was a refugee family from a neighboring war-torn country, and one a local family. also, there were 3 different families from the US, and how different they were from each other, yet really very similar as compared to the world.

overall, a very interesting, somewhat shocking book...anyone else got a good read to share?

Parenting Curriculum: In the Beginning

well, i know that all of you out there have been eagerly awaiting the result of my meeting with the pastor at my church about our parenting curriculum. that is, those of you who didn't think that the whole topic was a Big Yawn from the beginning. apparently, i even ended up on the radar of a few ezzo supporters/detractors, as i got some comments from a few new folks--didn't i tell ya this was exciting?

anyway, the process has been slown (slowed? slowen?) by the holidays, first thanksgiving and now christmas, but i do have a few things to report. first of all, i was able to find a few essays by people who were really looking for more structure with a small baby, but not necessarily The Structure put forth in babywise. if you're interested, you can check them out here and here. heck, even if you're not interested, i could use some other eyes to look at them and see if they are overly slanted in one direction or another.

another thing we are thinking about including is a meyers-briggs sort of analysis specifically aimed at parents. i came across the book Motherstyles, which seems to be exactly that, taking the different personality styles and pointing out strengths and challenges for each. i think that opening the class with this could be a good way to help each person navigate which style of parenting may be better suited to them, and why. it also may encourage more understanding among different mothers (this is what i was struck by in reading it), and help to "translate" the intentions (usually good ones) that can be misconstrued between types.

beyond that, we are still on the lookout for a good overarching curriculum if we can find one. we really want it to be focused on themes of parenting like the importance of discipline, grace, spiritual development, and being intentional vs. reactionary. one possibility is a partner to this book, Raising Great Kids, which has several different workbooks for different ages....but i still need to look through it first to see if it fits. still looking for more, if there are other suggestions out there.

one thing that has been a theme among some people i've talked to and/or read online is that they did use the babywise books as a resource or jumping off point for their parenting in the beginning, but then as they were more confident they tended to modify the advice or "do their own thing" entirely. i think this is a very healthy attitude when approaching any so-called expert advice regardless of what book they wrote, because ultimately no one thing will work the best for all people. but, i am also interested to know what ways that parents who used babywise specifically modified it to fit...since this is the one we're replacing, it could help me to understand what topics were helpful from this method and what needed a filter or a modification, or can be left out entirely.

so, ye 2 faithful readers, do you have any advice for me?

Fall's Last Hurrah

chris made this video of jonathan a while back, but it's taken me this long to figure out the video feature. i'm pretty sure that poaching a neighbor's wireless connection helps, since this weekend i learned that the same program that downloaded for over 4 hours on our dialup connection (and was still unsuccessful) took all of 2 minutes with my parents' highspeed. oh, how we love the dark ages...

anyway, enjoy:

To Light, or Not to Light

in the spirit of raising issues with high emotional value, i thought i'd throw another one into the ring: when to turn on the christmas lights. knowing how deep this issue goes, it may be the most controversial one yet.

my husband loves to hang christmas lights, and he is great at it. our usual rule is that christmas things don't come out until *after* thanksgiving, unlike most major retailers and just about everyone in the world, apparently. last weekend (at my request, mind you) he hung out our outside lights because we knew we would be travelling, and we wanted to turn them on right after thanksgiving. however, now that the lights were up, the temptation was too great--hangs head in shame--we turned the lights on this week.

so, i ask you, where do you fall on the great christmas light debate?
a.) never before thanksgiving! never! never!
b.) i like to put them up whenever the mood strikes, although i save most things til after.
c.) the sooner the better! i'm a christmas maniac!

Stirrin' Up a Little Controversy

so, can we talk parenting books for a sec? i know that many of you parents out there have books that you love, and books that you love to hate. at least, those of you who approach life like i do, which is to read any and all material i can get on a subject before making the "big dive in". i did this before getting married, when thinking about starting a family, and of course, once the babies came there were all manner of things to research and think about. i affectionately refer to it as my "obsession phase", the phase directly before i make major life decisions.

anyway, in the process of doing this in the parenting realm, i came to realize just how controversial some of these books can be. who knew, right? i mean, before i got pregnant, i had *no idea* that there was this world of polarized opinions, and every parent has them. i guess it makes sense....parenthood is such a high-stakes endeavor, and everyone is just trying to do their best...but critiquing one book's message can very well offend those who thought those ideas were just right for their family.

all this to say, that no offense is meant to anyone reading who happens to think that the books i'm about to talk about are either a) the best thing that ever happened to their family, a lifesaver, something that should be read by every man, woman and child, or b) the worst, most dangerous batch of misinformed rubbish to ever be hoodwinked over the unsuspecting populace. apparently, there is no middle ground.

i have embroiled myself in the midst of this maelstrom once again, and willingly. our church offers a parenting sunday school class, and like many churches, the curriculum they chose was written by Gary Ezzo. many of the parents out there are familiar with him on some level, as he wrote the wildly popular book "Babywise." (and its many incarnations....seriously, there are about three hundred.) the books are very user friendly, so it's very easy to plug them in to a sunday school curriculum.

however, the books outline a parenting style fairly diametrically opposed to mine, as well as carrying a fair bit of hyperbole about any style that contradicts theirs. there is actually quite a cloud of controversy which i won't bore you with, (if you are interested, you can look here for one side of the debate). but more than that, i wanted to have our church be able to help parents dialogue about this and the many options available, rather than just present one side through this curriculum. as a young mom, i always felt like these books were some kind of moral imperative, but they were *so* far from my understanding of God and my role as a parent that i felt really discouraged and alone. i don't want other young families to feel this way because our church only offers one side of things.

so, i am in the midst of creating an alternative for our church. ideally, this would be a packet of discussion materials that present excerpts from at least two styles of parenting, and possibly more if i can find them. they would be grouped by subject (i.e. sleep, feeding, discipline, etc) and give a starting point for group discussion as well as resources for future research, should the parents want to pursue more information. i don't know if we will keep the ezzo materials because of their inflammatory style, but i would like to find other options that may present a similar parenting style to his so that it is still represtented in the discussion.

which is where you come in. i'm sure there are some reading who really love ezzo's books, and i respect that--in fact, i need your help. do you have any other resources that have helped you, that are similar but not "his"? or, if not, what are the most compelling parts of his system, and the ones that really "clicked"? for those who don't love them, what alternates did you find helpful? and for all...what subjects would be most important to you as far as an overview goes? also, is anyone aware of a meyers-briggs type test that could help parents discern their own parenting style?

and for those of you who aren't parents, feel free to weigh in. we are an equal-opportunity blog. thank you.

The Friendly Cudgel

well, it has been a while, hasn't it. a big thank you to my loyal readers (all 2 of them), who have mocked me back to the drawing board. apparently, i needed a little kick in the bootay....don't we all. :)

what have i been doing? well, who can say, really. its all the little things of life i suppose... driving back and forth (and back and forth) to kinder and preschool, making halloween happen (the costumes! the pumpkins!), and plotting christmas craftiness. nothing too exciting, and yet they are all the stuff of life, aren't they?

lets see if i can come up with something more interesting....

Pig Roast

addendum to the previous post on reasons to eat local:

for us, eating locally has meant being a part of our local community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. all summer we have gotten fresh, organic fruits and veggies, and the kids have been able to visit the farm, see chickens, climb trees, and maybe begin to realize where food comes from. (although, the other day nicholas asked what sort of a plant sausage grows on, and i had to break it to him that there's no such thing as a sausage tree.)

as a side benefit, this week the farm hosted their annual pig roast (hence, the sausages), complete with bonfire and tractors for the kids to play on. it was a perfect autumn day, and really exciting to see how many people are connected and fed through this one little farm.

i've posted this link before, but if you are interested in pursuing a CSA in your own community, a great place to start is the website Local Harvest. not only will you connect more deeply with your community and preserve a piece of food security in your region, but you just might start eating better, too.

Eating Local

our local farmers market sends out an email newsletter each week, and this week had a section that seemed quite timely, given the harvest season and all (hey dad, #8's for you):

Ten Reasons To Buy Local

1. Locally grown food tastes better. Food grown and sold locally is crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor because it is picked less than 2 days before it reaches your hands. Produce flown or trucked in from California or Chile spends a week or longer in transition from field to plate, enough time for sugars to turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce to lose vitality.

2. Local produce is better for you. Studies show that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly once harvested. Food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest is more nutritious than "fresh" produce that spends a week on a truck or supermarket shelf. Locally grown food, purchased soon after harvest, retains its nutrients.

3. Local food preserves genetic diversity. Local farms tend to grow a large variety of plants, instead of only a limited number of varieties that can withstand the harvest and marketing process. This variety provides a harvest all season long, an array of brilliant colors and flavors, as well as preserves the genetic material from hundreds of years of human selection.

4. Local food is GMO-free. Since biotechnology companies currently only license to large factory-style farms, local farmers don't have access to genetically modified seed, and most of them wouldn't use it.

5. Local food supports local farm families. Direct markets, selling directly to consumers, cut out the middleman allowing local farmers to receive the full retail price for their food. With commodity prices at historic lows and farmers getting less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar, supporting local farms mean that farm families can afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love.

6. Local food builds community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.

7. Local food preserves open space. As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. Lush fields of crops, meadows of wildflowers, and wild open landscapes will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.

8. Local food keeps your taxes in check. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, as opposed to suburban development. On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend 34 cents on services.

9. Local food supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued and diversity is welcomed. The habitat of a farm, with fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings, is the perfect environment for many species of wildlife, including bluebirds, killdeer, herons, bats, and rabbits.

10. Local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you are helping to ensure that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, abundant, farm fresh food

taken from the Sustainable Food Center's website.

Temporary Singledom

just a little shout out to all you single parents and occasional "business trip widows". chris has been gone since early sunday, and lets just say this week has helped me to not take him for granted. being home with 3 little ones is hard--being home with 3 little ones alone is even harder. and, i don't even have to do it that often! so, kudos to all you uncomplaining masses who deal with this all the time--you have my respect.