Hazelnut Meringue Kisses

I wanted to try these...but haven't yet. Sooo, filing them online. Where they won't get lost in a pile. So I can throw away the page I clipped from the Delicious Living magazine.

Makes about 24
These ethereally crispy clouds are easy to make, very low in fat, and a pretty addition to a candy platter or gift tin. Prep tips: Heating the egg whites with the sugar dissolves the large crystals and results in a loftier meringue. If you have a pastry bag with a large round tip, it will come in handy for this recipe. If not, just use a spoon to shape the kisses.


2 large egg whites
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup finely ground hazelnuts
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

1. Line a baking sheet with cooking parchment. Preheat oven to 275°.

2. Place egg whites and sugar in a bowl that can nest on top of a pot filled with a few inches of water. Bring water in pot to a simmer. Place bowl over water and whisk egg-white mixture until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is very warm, 3 minutes. Remove bowl from hot water and add cream of tartar. Beat on high speed until very dense and shiny, about 5 minutes.

3. With a spatula, gently fold in vanilla extract and hazelnuts. Spoon mixture into 1-inch dollops (or use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip) onto prepared baking sheet. Bake until meringues are dry and firm to touch, and almost dry inside (break one open to test), 35–38 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Sift cocoa powder over meringues and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

PER SERVING (2): 37 cal, 24% fat cal, 1g fat, 0g sat fat, 0mg chol, 1g protein, 6g carb, 0g fiber, 9mg sodium

Christmas Break Brainstorm

If I don't write it down, I won't remember, so welcome to my brainstorm. Please comment if you have other ideas (feasible in the Denver area). Thanks!

- Ice-skating and Cocoa at the Evergreen Lake
- Bus-ride to the library and Whole Foods, story time and lunch
- Deliver family's Christmas dinner
- Hammonds Candy Factory?
- "This Year You..." review of kids' milestones and favorite quotes and memories (ha! It's a brainstorm, so even ideas that will never quite get done can be included)
- Painted feet "trees" (will Zach's foot still fit the cardstock?)
- Video of kids singing "Jingle Bells"
- Update blog
- Send kid pics out!
- Head to Lil Monkey Bizness when the weather's too cold to be outside
- Head to the sledding hill when we've got more snow
- Make a snowman
- Cocoa in the car to tour the neighborhood's Christmas lights displays
- Wallace tradition: roast wieners and eat queso on Christmas Eve
- Spend a night in the mountains with a "real" fire?
- Bake some more cookies! Scott's requested oatmeal with Christmas M&Ms, and I have to try Theresa's chocolate thumbprints, at the risk of ballooning up...
(more to come)

Giving on a Budget

Ideas from Delicious Living, December 09:

1. Donate Empties ($0) - used ink and toner cartridges can be donated for resale. habitat.org, mowaa.org, humanesociety.org may be interested.

2. Feed the Hungry ($1) - foodforall.org has partnered with hundreds of grocery stores. Consider tacking $1 to your bil each time you check out at the grocery store.

3. Stop Junk ($20) - www.tonicmailstopper.com gets you off junk-mail lists *and plants five trees in your honor*

4. Surf for the Earth ($0) - use www.ecosearch.org (powered by Google) to retrieve the same search results and know that any ad revenues are donated at 100% to non-profits like Rainforest Alliance and Sierra Club.

5. Plant Trees ($5) - www.plantabillion.org

6. Moisturize for Good ($20) - spend $20 on Lush's Charity Pot hand and body cream, and 100% of proceeds (minus taxes) goes to support animal, humanitarian, and environmental foundations

7. Adopt a Polar Bear ($25) - www.worldwildlife.org offers symbolic adoptions of 100 species, and 82 cents of every dollar goes toward conservation

The article suggested reading How to be an Everyday Philanthropist by Nicole Bouchard Boles, to find more ideas on low- and no-cost ways to make a difference.

Kid Soup for Dinner

If you saw my facebook post from last night, you’ll know that Zach was pretty cute. (“Best.Christmas.Ever…Family Time,” etc.)

Today, not so much.

We were outside preparing to put up Christmas lights, when I looked over to discover him proudly grinning at me from the neighbor’s driveway. He was still standing in front of the neighbor’s Beemer. Olivia had since moved on. They had both spattered the car with red-dirt mudballs. On all sides of the car. The red dirt was dug up from the augmented “driveway” the neighbors put in. It’s full of little pebbles.

&*%$!

So, the kids went to their rooms, for quite a long while, while I hosed down the car and washed it up a bit. Then we loaded into our car to go buy (using money from the kids’ piggy banks) a chamois the kids will present to Rhonda tonight, when they apologize.

Sheesh!

I guess it’s my fault for not watching them closely enough and not having already had the you-should-never-throw-mudballs-at-the-neighbor’s-BMW talk yet.

Who’s coming over for dinner?

Christmas Tree Tips

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed up to Summit County to cut our Christma

Lodgepole Pine

Dillon Ranger District

Fireproofing Your Tree

1. After choosing your tree, get a saw and immediately make a fresh cut at the base of the tree trunk. Try to make a level cut about an inch above the old one.

2. If you need to store your tree, put in a place away from the wind. A garage, patio deck or back porch work well.

3. After you've made a fresh cut on the trunk, mix up the ingredients for the fireproofing mixture. Fill a 2 gallon bucket to within an inch from the top with hot water from the tap. Then, into the water, add:

• 2 cups Karo Syrup


• 2 oz. liquid Chlorox bleach


• 2 pinches Epsom Salts (from a drug store)


• 1/2 tsp. Boraxo (from the supermarke)


• 1 tsp. Chelated Iron (from the garden shop or plant store)


• Let the tree stand in this bucket of ingredients until you're ready to bring it indoors.

4. When you've set it indoors, fill the reservoir twice a day with remaining mixture, every morning and every night before bedtime! Now your tree will be fireproofed!

How does it work?

The Karo syrup provides the sugar which allows he tree to soak up enormous amounts of water. Without the sugar, only the smallest amounts of water are absorbed. You can expect the tree to soak up 1 1/2 gallons of the recipe during the 10 to 14 day period your tree is up.

The Boron (in the Boraxo) makes the water and sugar move to every needle of your tree. Boron does this not only in trees, b ut in vegetables, fruits, and even house plants.

Then, there's the Epsom Salts and the Chelated Iron. Epsom Salt is magnesium sulphate, and this, together with the iron, provides the center molecules in the process we know as chlorophyll production. This ensures green needles.

The Chlorine bleach stops a mold from forming when water and sugar stand for a period of time.

Olivvy-isms, another one

From 10-13-09

As we were driving by the Sheraton Denver West, Zach said, "The middle [building]'s where you got married, right?"

Me, thinking, close enough. It was where we had our reception. "Yes."

Olivia, "Me meh-y you, Mahm." Translation: I'm going to marry you, Mom.

Ah, I'll have to treasure that because it's not going to be long that she'll want to have me as her life partner. :)

Olivvy-isms

A couple from today:

After Zach said, "When I'm 21, I'm gonna drive a MONSTER TRUCK!"
Olivia said, in the teeny voice she uses to be cute, "When me wenty-wahn, me dive a (in an especially high voice) bee-bee monstah tuck."

At lunch, pulling a cloth napkin over her head and fastening it below her chin: "Me Leetle Bo Peenk!"

Obviously, we need to continue working on personal pronoun use. I need to work on recording her words, too. She is pretty darn cute!

Oh, I remember a couple of others:

Talking to Daddy on the phone one night after she should have been asleep, in response to Daddy's inquiry of, "Are you going to have sweet dreams?" Olivia answered, "No! Ine makin cookies."
*If only there were a way to share the inflections in their voices, too.

And this is almost every night he comes home from work, but maybe slightly more enthousiastically when he's been gone on a trip, "Dahddee!!!! I weely missed you soo much!!!!"
*I sometimes consider leaving the kids for a few hours, just so I can experience the 'welcome homes' he gets!

Zachism

Oh, goodness! This was cute.

Zach (watching The Big Green Rabbit on PBS): Mom, why don't we have dose white tings dat come out of our noses?
Me (not watching the show, and having no clue what he was talking about): Huh?
Zach: Dose white tings dat are long, on mammoths?
Me: Oh, tusks?
Zach: Yeah! Why don't we have dem?
Me: That's just the way they are made.
Zach: Dat's just how God made dem?
Me: Yep.
Zach (after a pause, and thoughtfully): I love God.

Yeah, Moms!

MOTHERS

Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of carpets.
Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up...
Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?' and get their answer when a little voice says, 'Because I love you best.'
Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade.....
It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother.

The Images of Mother
4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn’t know everything!
14 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother? She wouldn’t have a clue.
16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's so five minutes ago.
18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!
35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

~An email

Hawkeyes!

Back when we were freshmen, Carrie and I decided we should DEFINITELY be some of those die-hard, old lady Hawkeyes, slugging beers and sporting our striped bibs at Kinnick in our 70s.

Care - are we still on for a Hawkeye game day in about 2040, wearing these? We should maybe order some sooner than later.

Anyone else? I'll see if we can get a group discount.

And, yes, I'm aware the Hawks lost their game yesterday and now stand at 9-1. Sob. Still love 'em!

Gives You H*ll

I think this song is so fun and catchy. The kids really like it, too. (Un)fortunately, they want to sing along, so Zach asked,

"Mama, is it 'against the well' or 'teach you well'?"

Shame on me. I told him, "Teach you well."

Hopefully he won't remember that when I understands the words on his own. White lies.

8:30am Thursday, Day 2

Scott is supposed to fly home tonight. Will he make it? The weather forecast calls for 3-6" more in the metro area, 4-8" more in the foothills. We're usually somewhere in the middle of those. And 40mph winds picking up "potentially creating blizzard-like conditions."

Shooey!

Better get that drive shoveled. Zach wants to go sledding. It's only getting to the mid to upper 20s today. I'm not sure I want to go sledding.

11:30pm

Too cold to go get the wine-bottle measurement.

6:00pm

Scully: "Oh, my." (sigh)
Don't worry. That wine is swiftly removed from the cold, after measuring the snow. It (and I) is much happier inside.

A couple of inches above the bottle, and that's not even at the middle of the table.

3:30 pm

Some of this is a result of drifting, but it's still a LOT of snow.
Poor Scully.

View through the kitchen window.

7 Inches and Counting...

Still falling fast...shall we all be snowmen for Halloween?

First 1/2

As I'm wont to do, impulsively, I signed up for the Denver 1/2 Marathon about 10 weeks before the event.

In preparation, I:

- spent some time researching training plans,

- created a training spreadsheet,

- learned I was *surprise!* late on beginning,

- developed a 4-week cough that sent me to the doc: bronchitis,

- took antibiotics that wreaked havoc on my GI tract, freaking me out on my "long" run, pre-race,

- remembered it was probably the antibiotics not just the running that necessitated proximity to the trees,

- felt accomplished at surviving that 90-minute run,

- tried to get a few more 5-mile runs in, hoping my body would remember it should expect a serious pounding soon,

- purchased a new "you-look-like-a-pro" running shirt and socks, and borrowed some capris to complete "the look",

- made crock-pot spaghetti, since we were without a few appliances (though the fridge was conveniently located next to the LaZBoy (sp?) in the living room, making it all-too-easy to reach for that training-mandated, extra (insert sweet treat)),

- assisted Scott with kid-wrangling, floorboard glueing, appliance moving, moulding-painting, wall touch-up, and assorted other bent-at-the-back tasks (all essential parts of race training, according to RunnersWorld),

- rocked out with the girls at Wicked on race-eve (ditto on the parenthetical above, especially if it can limit your pre-race sleep to about 8-10 hours in two days...oh, but if you throw in a coupla days of carbo-loading, it's even better),

- created several race-day prep lists, laid out all race paraphernalia in one spot, moved it to another spot, set the alarm for o-dark-thirty, and actually managed to sleep through to the alarm with only one "Did-I-Over-Sleep?!" waking,

- met up with Alayna at the park-n-ride to head downtown,

- may/not have earned a ticket at 6:00am at the intersection of 6th and Lincoln, as we wound our way over to the start area, looking for parking,

- marveled at how the weather cleared for race weekend (previous and post-weekends had/have been mis.er.able),

- visited the bank of portapotties, solicited help from fellow runners on how to attach our race chips, threw goodie bags into the stashing area, and cued up the Shuffle, and joined the throng of runners hitting the pavement.

Whew! It was an amazing experience! Part of me dreaded it, and part was super-excited and actually a little Zen. Huh? I think all my excuses led me to be able to just take it easy, and not get all anal and competitive about the whole thing. Of course now I think I could have done better, but that's for next year...

Witchy Women

Such fun hanging with these Wicked-Great ladies. We sorely missed those of you who could not make it, and who missed the paparazzi above.

I kept the program and will keep the "Witchy Women" article inside my copy of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. A few passages stood out to me, and I thought I'd share them with you all:


"'The idea behind Wicked is that things are not as they seem,' notes book-writer Winnie Holzman. 'What you think you know, you don't really know. It is the premise of the novel that you know certain things, but you don't know the deeper story.'

"The same notion drew composer Stephen Schwartz to the project: "I'm often attracted to an idea that takes and familiar story and spins it, looking at it from another direction, like Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I like when I see things like that, and I like to write them. For me, if you take a familiar story...and you come at it from another point of view, the tension between the audience's preconception and the approach you're taking to the stry adds an extra level of response, plus it helps to clarify the points you're trying to make."

'The idea of taking what is one of the icnic villains of American culture, the Wicked Witch of the West - so much 'the villain' that we don't even know her name - and looking at it from her point of view, that seemed to me a brilliant concept. It was clear [that] a show about her could explore some of my favorite themes: the difference between surface appearances and what's really going on underneath, how life is more complex and has more ambiguity than we tend to be comfortable with and, certainly, that our public discourse admits to.'"

"Garrison [actor who played the Wizard] wisely suggested: 'There's a green-eyed girl inall of us...Everyone has felt like the outcast at one time or another. It's part of the show's appeal. It's not a children's show, but kids enjoy the fantasy of it, adolescents get the love story and adults see the political alegory.'"


I am confused by one thing, however. The show's program lists the "Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz" and then "Book by Winnie Holzman," who is listed as a "librettist" in the article mentioned above. First, I need to look up what a "librettist" is, and then I'm wondering what book they're talking about.

Librettist: (n) writer of a libretto
Libretto: (n) 1. the text of a work (as an opera) for the musical theater, 2. the book containing a libretto

So... ?? I wonder if there's a Wicked (without the ": The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West") book, as well? I would have guessed that Holzman may have written the lyrics of the show, but Schwartz did.

Thoughts?

The Park Before the Storm

I can't recall the specific meteorological conditions (as I'm adding this post several weeks later), but the title of the photo album indicates we were expecting some colder weather soon.

What a beautiful, fall day! The kids had a blast, even though the paparazzi was freezing. Didn't spoil their fun. And I'm glad I toughed it out because the kids were darn cute.

Home-Made Play Dough

Because it's hard to volunteer in Zach's class what-with his little sister-monster who'd wreak havoc in the room, I signed up to help with outside of the class prep. My first assignment of the year was to make play dough for the week. It was fun!

Preschool Play Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup salt
4 Tablespoons cream of tartar
2 cups water
1 package Kool-aid, unsweetened
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

In medium saucepan mix flour, salt, cream of tartar, and Kool-aid. Stir in water and oil. Stir over medium heat 3- 5 minutes or until mixture forms a ball in the center of the pan. Mine took about 7 minutes to form a ball.

Remove to floured surface and knead one minute.

Store in air tight container (Ziplock) in refrigerator.

* Still need to find out how long this "keeps." And if it should be kept in the fridge for the duration of its "playlife."

* Another friend suggested adding glitter to the dough! Fun!

ALSO a friend shared a recipe for EDIBLE Play Dough. (Edible as long as you're not allergic to PB):

1 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. honey
1/2 c. powdered milk

Mix together to make a playdough.
Optional: Wheat germ, coconut, decorations: raisins, nuts.

Use as regular playdough, then eat!