elliemoon

SINCE YOU ASKED...

here's the answer to "what's in the baskets?" i always use some combination of my favorite baby notions. this is what went in this time around. first and foremost, my most favorite, the mysterio baby tee::

did i mention i love these? mysterio predicts the future career of your child. my friend meghann just gave birth to gus, a future donut tycoon. excellent! your little pumpkin could just as easily be a conspiracy nut, a monkey wrangler or a criminal mastermind, to name but a few!

next up? classic baby beads::

if i don't sound like too much of a geek saying so, these are a tactile delight! and the little ones love them too! wooden beads, non-toxic water based paints.

now for the books. this first one is the perfect gift for baby, so sweet and well written. you might want to leaf through it even if you don't have someone to buy it for....or maybe i'm just a tad sentimental. either way, someday, someone you know is going to have a baby and this is the book you should get for them::

and this one is just plain cute. how can you go wrong with a baby book of haikus? and its beautifully illustrated::

this one i toss into all of the boy baskets, but it also happens to be one of bella's personal favorites. very funny and precious at the same time (thanks for gifting it to us way back when beth!)::

i also included a burts baby bee starter pack. so there you have it. mysterio solved!! 

 

WHAT ARE YOU DOING THURSDAY NIGHT?

come by the island merchant for this holiday season's first installment of the MILF market. this thursday, december 1st, from 5 to 8pm. i'm almost ready::

more cush changing pads and bobble hats. and this time i put together a couple of ultimate baby baskets::

come support handmade goodness! 

THANKS WERE GIVENING

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! ours was most enjoyable and i really can't believe that it has come and gone. these months are flying by, and getting away from me! i contributed desserts as usual. i made a pecan pie and then decided to make a batch of profiteroles just to mix it up. i used this recipe, which is super easy and super delicious. the trick with the filling is to strain your ricotta overnight before assembly::

see all that liquid? thats the difference between a nice thick filling and a thin and runny one! the rest is so simple, the only scary part is when you are adding the eggs to make the pate a choux. at first things will look all wrong, and panic may set in, but just keep stirring and it comes together like magic. after that its all good::

actually, thats a major understatement! 

KNIT TIL IT HURTS

that's the plan for the holidays. here's one for little lu::

just a bit more knitting, then a whole lot of sewing. almost there!

LESSONS IN ICE CREAM

out of the blue, and within a couple days of each other, kai and bella each asked how ice cream is made. rather than bore them with a lengthy explanation, i added a few things to our grocery list and dusted off the ice cream maker. i gave kai our copy of the ultimate ice cream book and told him to do some flavor research. after much discussion, we decided to go with cinnamon. unconventional choice? yes. influenced by an additional recipe for a cinnamon snickerdoodle version? yes and yes. lets go::

we stuck the custard in the fridge for the night and the next morning after breakfast i made a batch of snickerdoodles for the final hurrah. after lunch we plugged in the ice cream maker and got to work::

here's where things went south. all little hands wanted in on the cookie adding. which was fine, but before i knew it, we had lost count and little lu had filled her diaper::

this caused a few problems. first off, the recipe tells you to add the cookies way too early. my gut was telling me this, but i ignored it. while waiting for the ice cream to finish freezing, the cookies (which probably outweighed the custard 2 to 1 at this point) broke up and changed the whole mix and the ice cream would not ice. what we wound up with was still delicious, but it wasn't quite ice cream. luckily i had frozen half the batch as plain cinnamon, so not all was lost. also, don't leave to change a diaper and put someone down for a nap during the final stages of ice cream making. it just doesn't work::

in case you have or acquire this book, i added an extra egg yolk in the first step. i'm sure that the 2 egg yolks in the ingredient list is a typo. 3 are necessary. and the results? i'm surprisingly a big fan of cinnamon ice cream! and, not surprisingly, i also enjoyed the mush cream with the cookies in it! next time, i will wait until the mix is ready to come out of the machine, and then fold in the cookie pieces with a spatula immediately before packing and storing. done and done!

 

THIS YEARS LEAF PILE

the biggest yet::

and miracle of miracles, i didn't have to swab any leaf particles out of any eyes this year! good times all around!

TAKE TEA AND SEE

here's one of the bowls of bright and beautiful chamomile flowers i harvested this summer. these were snipped on a regular basis and scattered on my drying screen in the attic::

and now we've got a healthy stash to steep and sip::

so good. so sweet and apple-y. so happy i remembered the chamomile in the garden this season. it will most definitely be a staple now. for the record, its about 2 TBSP of dried flowers per 8 ounces of water. steep for five minutes and sip sip sip!

side note: this post title is a quote from grammy ellen. (there is a brief description of her at the end of this post) she would always say "take tea and see" when she was setting up a tea party or steeping some for a simple cup. i always wondered about it. with grammy ellen, you never really knew. she had many, many sing songy tidbits. one of which was "oh dear, oh dear, i brought my own beer". so, before i used it in the title, i googled it just for "sh#ts and giggles" (another grammy ellen gem). and look at this!!! mystery solved!! take tea and see! i love you gram, and i miss you everyday!

WORSE THAN THE SAME OLD SAME OLD

with only five full weeks left until christmas (yes, that's true) and the first milf market of the season closing in, it seems fitting that i would start in on a brand new knit that has nothing to do with either of those events. here's where it gets even more disconcerting, this knit is for sunshine, you know, bella's new doll::

i'm not sure if that makes me the worlds worst procrastinator or officially an old lady, but i'm just going to roll with it. really, what else can i do?

FALL PROGRESSES

the needles are dropping on my favorite tree, many of them with the help of owen and bella. those lower branches are very well loved. even little lu got in on the branch shaking/needle shower action, after ditching bella's "pretty shoes"::

she refuses to don any footwear that isn't her sisters! it has begun!! meanwhile, the other girls are enjoying what might be their last feeding of the season, depending on the weather::

mmmm, two to one sugar syrup! the hive is heavy, full of honey and sealed tight with propolis, ready for the cold. the cold which seems to be taking its time getting here. not that i'm complaining but, c'mon, its almost december! 

 

NOW AND LATER

over the weekend, i had the idea to make some drop cookies to freeze. i've only done this once before and the concept didn't stick. all that work and then, no cookies to eat. predictably, i wound up baking them all the next day because i couldn't stop thinking about the batch of cookies in the freezer. this time i did it right. i made a double batch and baked one off and froze the other. surprisingly, not that much more work, and in the end, i had had my fill and hopefully won't be thinking about that bag in the freezer for at least a week or so::

freeze them on a sheet as pictured above. it only took about 20 minutes in the freezer and they were firm enough to package up::

now just pop them in your preferred freezer container and there you have it. bake them up on a rainy day as a whole batch, or a handful at a time whenever the feeling strikes you. these ones are the long sought after oatmeal raisin cookies.