In the movie "Groundhog Day" the Bill Murray character gets to re-live one day over and over and over. Eventually he games the system and improves himself during his unnumbered extra days. It's a familiar trope in science fiction--Stargate:SG1 uses it masterfully, Star Trek:TNG has a looping episode; I'm sure there are others but let's just say it's a familiar idea.
It's an appealing situation, as well. Imagine, a bunch of free days. Sure, you might start out the day annoyingly (getting smacked in the head with a door, for instance) but it's alluring, imagining a free day, or month, or year, where you get to learn or expand in some way and can completely ignore all other responsibilities 'cause hey, it's all going to be set back up exactly like it was yesterday. Impossible to break permanently.
I finished making the apple-caramel-cinnamon rolls this evening. They aren't really cinnamon rolls anymore with all the apples and caramel, but oh, are they good. I chopped three (or maybe four?) apples and combined them with pecans and caramel sauce in the bottom of my spring-form pan. Then I topped the apple mixture with unbaked cinnamon rolls and baked it at about 350 for around an hour until the rolls were lightly browned. The pan turned out to be completely unnecessary and, indeed, superfluous since the caramel leaked. Next time I'll just use a normal pan.
If tomorrow morning I wake up and there's still a bowl of sweet roll dough in the fridge and nine apples on the table, I'll know I have to do today all over again, and I'll have to remember not to use the spring-form.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Predictable
We have a bunch of apples sitting around the house. I bought them a while ago, intending to make apple crisp, or an apple tart, or something with apples, but with life the way it is (and with lately holding up the world on my shoulders--at least according to my children) I haven't had time.
Today is a friend's birthday, so I decided that was a good excuse to make something, and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make something with apples for her. So, I made a batch of sweet roll dough and made apple caramel monkey bread with it. She called just as I was putting it all together and invited me over, so I dragged the unbaked bread over to her house (aren't I a great friend?) and asked her to bake it.
Man, I have to say, I was sad to leave that bread there when I went home. Fortunately, I made more than enough sweet roll dough to make a batch for myself. Mmm, yum.
My friend's mom called her this morning to wish her a happy birthday and asked if she'd made a cake for herself. She said no because she was expecting a friend (me) to make something for her. Sometimes it good to know I'm predictable.
Sweet roll dough
2 c milk
1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp honey
3/4 c white sugar (though I'd probably increase this for cinnamon rolls)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder (heaping)
1/2 tsp baking soda (scant)
5-6 c flour
To make sponge, combine milk, butter, eggs, yeast, honey, and 2 c of flour and mix until no longer lumpy. Combine 2 c flour with salt, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder and pour over sponge, covering surface completely. Leave sponge to rise a couple of hours. The sponge should bubble through the flour mixture. Mix together and add enough extra flour to make the dough no longer shiny (the dough will still be very sticky and wet). Chill dough in refrigerator to make it easier to handle.
Caramel
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 c cream
Melt butter in a pan. Add brown sugar. Bring just to a low boil and add cream.
Today is a friend's birthday, so I decided that was a good excuse to make something, and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make something with apples for her. So, I made a batch of sweet roll dough and made apple caramel monkey bread with it. She called just as I was putting it all together and invited me over, so I dragged the unbaked bread over to her house (aren't I a great friend?) and asked her to bake it.
Man, I have to say, I was sad to leave that bread there when I went home. Fortunately, I made more than enough sweet roll dough to make a batch for myself. Mmm, yum.
My friend's mom called her this morning to wish her a happy birthday and asked if she'd made a cake for herself. She said no because she was expecting a friend (me) to make something for her. Sometimes it good to know I'm predictable.
Sweet roll dough
2 c milk
1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp honey
3/4 c white sugar (though I'd probably increase this for cinnamon rolls)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder (heaping)
1/2 tsp baking soda (scant)
5-6 c flour
To make sponge, combine milk, butter, eggs, yeast, honey, and 2 c of flour and mix until no longer lumpy. Combine 2 c flour with salt, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder and pour over sponge, covering surface completely. Leave sponge to rise a couple of hours. The sponge should bubble through the flour mixture. Mix together and add enough extra flour to make the dough no longer shiny (the dough will still be very sticky and wet). Chill dough in refrigerator to make it easier to handle.
Caramel
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 c cream
Melt butter in a pan. Add brown sugar. Bring just to a low boil and add cream.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Sucker
This evening, after Derrick got home, Sylvia asked to get into his backpack. He told her no. Her next attack?
"But you're my best friend!!!"
And...that worked.
"But you're my best friend!!!"
And...that worked.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Picture catch-up
We've (of course) taken many more pictures than these, but here are a few showing how much Paul has grown since I last posted pictures of him.
Standing with the help of his Dad and his floor gym. Sylvia periodically shook the gym just to keep things interesting.
Not that you can tell from the look on his face, but Paul really does like his floor gym. I am continually amazed by how different he is from Sylvia. She never put up with being left on the floor to entertain herself, but he seems to rather like playing with the stuff we put in front of him. Even to the point I can leave him and get a few things done.
The little round toy is one of the best things Derrick got for Paul for Christmas. He loves the thing!
Paul has lately become very insistent that he also needs food. He knows it goes in the mouth, and if he sees something going in my mouth he wants something going into his too. We've introduced him to apple sauce, avocado, and bread, and so far he likes all three. Here's a picture of my first attempt at feeding him apple sauce. See how helpful Sylvia is with her younger brother? Shortly after these images were taken, Sylvia's father removed her from my back so I could continue to breathe.
Grandma's visiting. She likes to put Paul to sleep for me. I give her lots of chances.
Paul really does smile beautifully. Now I just need to focus on his face instead of on the crib.
Paul standing. Derrick put him there, of course, but he's holding himself up...
...until big sister comes along to help him sit down.
Standing with the help of his Dad and his floor gym. Sylvia periodically shook the gym just to keep things interesting.
Not that you can tell from the look on his face, but Paul really does like his floor gym. I am continually amazed by how different he is from Sylvia. She never put up with being left on the floor to entertain herself, but he seems to rather like playing with the stuff we put in front of him. Even to the point I can leave him and get a few things done.
The little round toy is one of the best things Derrick got for Paul for Christmas. He loves the thing!
Paul has lately become very insistent that he also needs food. He knows it goes in the mouth, and if he sees something going in my mouth he wants something going into his too. We've introduced him to apple sauce, avocado, and bread, and so far he likes all three. Here's a picture of my first attempt at feeding him apple sauce. See how helpful Sylvia is with her younger brother? Shortly after these images were taken, Sylvia's father removed her from my back so I could continue to breathe.
Grandma's visiting. She likes to put Paul to sleep for me. I give her lots of chances.
Paul really does smile beautifully. Now I just need to focus on his face instead of on the crib.
Paul standing. Derrick put him there, of course, but he's holding himself up...
...until big sister comes along to help him sit down.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
He chortled in his joy
Paul's been sitting up lately. Today, while wriggling around, he managed to get himself sitting upright and then stayed there, playing happily, for some minutes. Much as I love the squishy baby stage, watching kids grow up is dang fun.
This evening while watching the Colbert report, Colbert quoted the first stanza of Lewis Carroll's the Jabberwocky. I never memorized the poem, but in high school I hung around with a girl who had and who would regularly quote the poem. Anyway, I must have picked up more than I realized because I was able to finish the last two lines of the first stanza with Colbert. This elicited a strange look from Derrick, who'd never heard the poem (or at least, didn't remember it). We looked it up and I read it aloud, and the funny thing is, many of the words that were nonsense in the poem are, if not common, at least understood (chortled being probably the most obvious). It's not often that one can pinpoint the origin of a word so exactly, which makes the Jabberwocky very, very impressive. Read it and note how many words aren't nonsense anymore.
Over the course of my life I've seen terms coined, words created, especially regarding the internet. When I was a kid a googol was 10 to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Technically, that's still what it means. But if you say the word "google" today people assume you're talking about the search engine or the company that created the greatest search engine we have today. With the pace of language change I wonder how many generations it'll be before the English I speak would be indecipherable to my descendants. Does writing slow the pace of change, or simply preserve it? Or, as in the case of the Jabberwocky, does writing speed at least some changes?
This evening while watching the Colbert report, Colbert quoted the first stanza of Lewis Carroll's the Jabberwocky. I never memorized the poem, but in high school I hung around with a girl who had and who would regularly quote the poem. Anyway, I must have picked up more than I realized because I was able to finish the last two lines of the first stanza with Colbert. This elicited a strange look from Derrick, who'd never heard the poem (or at least, didn't remember it). We looked it up and I read it aloud, and the funny thing is, many of the words that were nonsense in the poem are, if not common, at least understood (chortled being probably the most obvious). It's not often that one can pinpoint the origin of a word so exactly, which makes the Jabberwocky very, very impressive. Read it and note how many words aren't nonsense anymore.
Over the course of my life I've seen terms coined, words created, especially regarding the internet. When I was a kid a googol was 10 to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Technically, that's still what it means. But if you say the word "google" today people assume you're talking about the search engine or the company that created the greatest search engine we have today. With the pace of language change I wonder how many generations it'll be before the English I speak would be indecipherable to my descendants. Does writing slow the pace of change, or simply preserve it? Or, as in the case of the Jabberwocky, does writing speed at least some changes?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sunbeams
Yesterday was Sylvia's first day as a sunbeam, which meant it was also the first day she attended all of the second hour of primary (the sunbeams have been coming for singing time for the last several weeks). My child being the free-spirit she is, she didn't spend a lot of time sitting. My teaching sharing time didn't help things as I couldn't really pay much attention to her and she thought she should be up with me most of the time. The older kids I think got a kick out of the new sunbeams more than being annoyed with them, which was a definite blessing. Then again, they see this transition happening every year with a new batch of sunbeams. It probably didn't hurt that most of this year's new crop are younger siblings.
Yesterday I could tell Sylvia enjoyed being a big girl in primary, but I didn't realize quite how much until this morning when she ran into her class at school and announced to her teacher that she's now a sunbeam. She takes such pleasure in these little rites of passage, in being called a big girl.
Primary went pretty well, all things considered. Paul slept through most of it, though he did (of course) wake up during my lesson. He held it together reasonably well until I could take him, though. The lesson was on choices and consequences, and we spent most of the time talking about choices and consequences experienced by scriptural personalities, including Esther (who one of the kids REALLY wanted to talk about), Mary and Martha, and the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and the 2,000 stripling warriors. About a third of the kids were gone, which meant I only had to deal with about 20-ish kids. That seems like about the perfect size for primary discussions.
One more amusing thing about Sylvia: today while walking home from school she informed me her hair is brown and her eyes are green. She's claimed for a while she has green eyes (really, they're blue with a single speck of brown in the left eye); the brown hair is a new thing. I'm beginning to think she really looks up to her dad and not only wants to be like him, she also wants to look like him.
Yesterday I could tell Sylvia enjoyed being a big girl in primary, but I didn't realize quite how much until this morning when she ran into her class at school and announced to her teacher that she's now a sunbeam. She takes such pleasure in these little rites of passage, in being called a big girl.
Primary went pretty well, all things considered. Paul slept through most of it, though he did (of course) wake up during my lesson. He held it together reasonably well until I could take him, though. The lesson was on choices and consequences, and we spent most of the time talking about choices and consequences experienced by scriptural personalities, including Esther (who one of the kids REALLY wanted to talk about), Mary and Martha, and the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and the 2,000 stripling warriors. About a third of the kids were gone, which meant I only had to deal with about 20-ish kids. That seems like about the perfect size for primary discussions.
One more amusing thing about Sylvia: today while walking home from school she informed me her hair is brown and her eyes are green. She's claimed for a while she has green eyes (really, they're blue with a single speck of brown in the left eye); the brown hair is a new thing. I'm beginning to think she really looks up to her dad and not only wants to be like him, she also wants to look like him.
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