Breaking for Bread

My mom told me that my brother started making bread and had me thinking about trying it out. Now that I am older and can focus more, what better time than to be reintroduced to the Tassajara book. I do remember glancing at the book once or twice when I was younger but the directions alone can scare off anyone! Now that I am far less manic, I was interested for the first time to add bread making to my list of domestic duties.

My dad used to make bread that would fill our house with the aroma of a bakery. I never watched him make it although was the first to give a taste test. Years later he invested in a bread maker and readied the ingredients at least once a week. At the time one of our cats was especially fond or should I say addicted to the yeast. She somehow learned how to open the section where the yeast was placed and would lick every grain out.




To my surprise, Mom gave me the book for Christmas and a couple days later she showed me some of her own tricks and pointers on how to make bread. It is quite a workout but worth the labor intensive process. I immediately fell in love with the bread and we polished off one of the loaves in the first day. We even made miniature loaves for Noah and his cousin Adeline. If I could, I would bake my own bread over store bought anytime. We will see how possible it is with a feisty 2 year old running around the apartment.

Traditions and Family

Christmas with the Crowder/Pasquarellos!

Yes, I am the sentimental type and heavy on family traditions. Because my memory is not so great I always made a point to take pictures and thanks to the advanced technology in photography I won't miss those important moments!

If only I kept a list of gifts that I gave to my family....I am sure they would make me laugh hysterically.

Christmas at the Crowder's (and Pasquarellos) always starts with an early rise so we could tear into our stockings! We are flexible about the time of arrival now that we are older but still engage in paper shredding through our stockings.

There was one point when we had a membership to Price Club (warehouse) and our stockings were filled with 6 dozen pencils and other bulk items like post its and scotch tape! We still continue the tradition because it would not be Christmas without it!


The next phase was Christmas breakfast, which always includes grapefruit topped with meraschino cherries and the usual makings like scrambled eggs or pancakes and even buckwheat waffles....I suppose it was the preparation that made has made it memorable because there is something to say about too many cooks in the kitchen.....

This year we had a cranberry coffee cake and pomegranate with dill and pistachios. Delish!

Once our tummies were full we proceeded to the living room, exchange gifts and play with our new toys for the rest of the day.

photo: circa 1996

Rekindling my passion....for Lacrosse.

Most of you may not know that lacrosse used to be my life until my second year at Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, OH). I prided myself in the fact that my agility on the field let me face girls that were twice as big as me. For reasons that were not necessarily in my control I decided to quit playing and for over ten years I "hung up my stick", until a recent opportunity arose.

On my way to an appointment, I stopped for coffee just outside of Central Park West. I saw two Asian girls with their lacrosse sticks stretching on the steps and was immediately drawn to speak to them. After a quick introduction I asked them if they were part of a team and how I could join. I shared with one of the gals that I used to have nightmares of myself being unable to catch the ball. With the quick exchange of conversation and jotting of notes I signed up to play with the Central Lacrosse NYC team.

I started to have flash backs of the many hours I spent in training, running 3-5 miles a day, going to spring training in place of spring break fun, traveling to tournaments and week long summer camps.

Flash forward, I realize other than carrying Noah up and down the stairs my work out regiment has been minimal. Let's hope my weekly West African dance classes will relieve some of my concern! My adrenaline ran high after meeting the girls and signing up for the lacrosse team and I wanted to immediately go for a long run. It came to my attention that today and probably for the last five years that it is mandatory that all women lacrosse players wear goggles, something I am not familiar with at all.

I have a week before my first practice in over a decade!

May the force be with you!

I hardly remember what age I was when I first watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi but I know I was pretty young. My brother's had a collection of figurines from Star Wars that I was not too interested in but do recall playing with them once or twice along with my barbies. I know my mom still has one of the space ships in the attic.

For whatever reason we decided to dress Noah up as Yoda. I figured it was too easy to find one of the cute baby costumes so who was better than the wise one? I originally wanted to dress him up as a turtle but the holiday crept up so quickly we did not find it in time. Since there was a shortage of women from the movie, by default I was Princess Leah. John of course wanted to be Obi Wan Kenobi so the family theme was in full affect.

I went to the Halloween Bazaar in Union Square and even a week before the store was a mob scene. There was a section dedicated to Star Wars characters. I was appalled when I saw the price for the Princess Leah costume, $74 while John's costume was 1/3 of it. I ended up buying the wig of two braided buns and sewed a similar dress together from a white bed sheet. With little time to plan I did not have a chance to fix some minor details but I did save $50 and dabbled in some sewing - a dream of mine.

Halloween has become a multi million business. It was reported that in 2006 an estimated 2.5B was spent on costumes and this year roughly 5B nationally. In the suburbs vacant business warehouses become Halloween Headquarters. Everyone is getting in on the fun - dressing up, carving pumpkins, handing out candy and especially decorations.

We have 365 days to think of what we will dress up as next year!

We all have a little country in us.

Durham Fair, CT
http://www.durhamfair.com/content/44/default.aspx

In high school my friends and I would trek to the North Haven Fair, Orange Fireman's Fair and the Durham Fair in Connecticut; all of which fell between August and September. Who could not resist the amusement rides, cotton candy, and fried dough with tomato sauce?! My favorite ride was the Zipper, a two minute ride that jolted every inch of your body and was one of the best adrenaline rush!

My sister in law mentioned that the last day of the Durham Fair (in Durham. CT) was coming up and I couldn't pass the chance to go for old time sake. Though, since I was going with Noah I would not have a chance to ride the Zipper, not this time at least. There was an abundance of other attractions to keep us busy.

The rush of excitement as we were taking the shuttle bus to the fair grounds had me giddy even as I was pinned between Noah in his car seat and the rest of the stroller. With tickets in hand we were ready to conquer all.

We walked through the large warehouses of livestock that included - goats, poultry, rabbits, llamas, swine, sheep, dairy cattle. There was also competative arts and crafts exhibits, vegetables, canning, baking, needle work and so on. I can't wait until Noah is old enough to appreciate the Fair for all of its glory.

It would not be a fair without all the food vendors. We indulged in an onion flower, fried dough, root beer float and also had to force ourselves not to let our temptations get out of hand considering the food was pricey.

Next time we will have to allot more time to see everything! Can't wait for next year!

Durham Fair 2008 - http://www.durhamfair.com/

It is hard to keep up with all of the new developements that Noah is reaching. I hope I can be better at tracking them just in case he is ever curious when he is older. The introduction to solids came pretty quickly. So far he is indifferent to the tastes of rice cereal, carrots, potatos and newly introduced peas. I hope that we can keep a strict diet of veggies and fruits rather than the so called healthy snacks that kids eat.

I may have been like any other youngster who had an aversion to vegatables but I would rather Noah does not have the same sweet tooth I have. I remember my problem with sweets escalated to the point where my father and mother put me on a diet of candy only. I think it was supposed to be for a month but because I enjoyed it so much they realized their plan backfired. I am sure my mom caught on that when I was about 8 or 9 years I used to sneak the brown sugar up to my room and snack on it when I needed a fix.

The picture is of Noah around 6 1/2 months. He prefered to feed himself but of course the books suggest that we allow him to partake in the feeding process.

I think I will feed him in his diaper from now on. The food seems to get all over his clothes than his mouth!

Summer is by far my favorite season. It reminds me of the Philippines. If I close my eyes and substitute the sounds of trucks for jeepneys and cars for high pitch mufflers of the tricycles. I especially love it when we have an afternoon thundershower, which is very common in Manila.
I prefer shedding my fashion layers to my usual tank shirt and shorts. If I could, I would wear my tsinelas -- flipflops year round I would. I like to let my skin breath.........

I am not has enthusiastic as I once was about pools and water sports. Part of it was because I spent many summers in my youth at a pool club and I guess you could call it overkill. I was on the swim team, took diving lessons and spent an unimaginable amount of time in the pool. Those early mornings preparing for swim meets and jumping into the cold water had me water logged. I do miss the competitive side of it though and loved it while I was doing it.

This year has been about firsts, especially for Noah. Everything is new to him just as much as it is for us. It is great that Grandma has a pool in her backyard. He may not become a competitive swimmer like I once was but hopefully he will have some appreciation for it.

Fisher Price flashback

Thank you Lisa for reminding me of the original great toys we grew up with.

I visited my friends house and she showed me some Fisher Price items she purchased through ebay. A few days later she mentioned that she was looking for FP little people that were made of wood. The older toys were made with wood.

I went online to search for some sites that might have these little people. I came across a collector's site that itemized practically every imaginable FP toy dating as far back as 1930's. There was some categoric language that I had no clue about but I was having such a fabulous time looking at toys. I remember playing with each of the toys - the register, barn with doors that moo'd, dog with the coiled tail that you can pull and so many more. I felt like I was in a time warp!

What was your favorite FP toy?