The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Passing the Word Along

In keeping with the whole KIND thing I was talking about over on my review/giveaway site earlier this week, I wanted to bring your attention to a couple of worthy causes, in case you have the urge and the funding to lend them a hand.

I've Announced the Winner!

To see if it's you, GO HERE!

Teeny Tiny Tartes Tatin

 
 
I've been spending most of this week recapping the events on and around my father's birthday last week.  There was the matter of the oven, the main dish, and one of the desserts.

Here, finally, is the other dessert I made.

Short and Sweet Giveaway!

Finally, I've got this giveaway up and running.  There's a pretty quick turnaround time on this one - the contest ends at midnight on Thursday, January 28th - so hurry up and enter!

Where?

RIGHT HERE!

Random Stuff

I made bread today.  It just came out of the oven about twenty minutes ago.  Made one large braided loaf and two smaller roundish loaves.  Nothing fancy, just...bread. 

Alex smelled it baking and came upstairs, nose first, wondering when he could have a slice - "still warm, so the butter melts."  I promised him a slice soon and went back to leaning on my kitchen work table and staring at the blogs on my Google reader, sort of catching up.

More From My Dad's Birthday Dinner

I was too rushed to take many pictures of the pasties that I made, but here, in case you're interested, are the few that I DID think to take.

First, the kind my Dad requested - layers of potato, beef, mushrooms, shallots (instead of onion), salt and pepper:

 

Updates on Julia's Room

Yes, the painting continues.  Bit by bit.

Actually, there's not a lot left to do - one side of her closet door (the out side), and the baseboard all around one side of the room and the window frame, which I hadn't done last summer because we had the air conditioner in it.  So now the time is right.

Grapenut Butternut Flan

 
I can hear you all going "HUH???" out there (or worse) (and yes, I'm talking to you, Susan) so I want to explain why I came up with this dessert.

My dad's birthday was last Friday, and he'd requested the main item for dinner, but left dessert entirely up to me.  So I was thinking about all the things my father likes for dessert.  Part of the list included things like squash pie, grapenut pudding, and, most recently, the eggnog flan I made around Christmas and New Year's.  Hmmmm.  The wheels began to turn.

The Oven Saga, or No, I Don't Want Any Coupons, So Please Stop Asking

Yesterday I wrote briefly about how my oven suddenly wasn't working RIGHT as I was getting ready to cook and bake for my Dad's 85th birthday.  I kind of figured out (after consulting the internet and the owner's manual and calling the Sears Blue Crew) that the igniter wasn't working and needed to be replaced.  That was all on Thursday.  I set up an appointment for someone to come out and handle the repair between 8 and 12 Friday morning. 

I spent Thursday doing the chopping for the pasties and whatever other prepwork could be done a day ahead of time. 

Prepwork

Today is my Dad's birthday.  (Happy Birthday, Dad!)

We're having dinner at my house tonight, and I'm making Cornish Pasties with several variations in fillings (which I will post, with pictures, after I've actually made them), and two desserts. 

Why two desserts? 

Because three would be overkill.  Hahaha. 

Pear & Pecan Coffee Cake

 
We got together for brunch at my cousin and his wife's house this past Sunday.  Normally they are with us for Christmas, but this year my cousin, Steve, went home to his native England for a visit, so things worked out a bit differently.

Anyway, brunch at their house is ALWAYS something you want to get to, because Colleen (Steve's wife) is an awesome cook and she makes enough for the whole town to eat.  And she makes this egg dish, with chourizo and tater tots and cheese (and onions?  don't remember), all baked in the oven - it's VERY good.

Vines and Elephants and Somebody's Memory

A bit of an update on the painting front.

Alex's room is DONE.  Dee, Oh, En, Eee, DONE!  Earlier this evening I had Alex sorting toys so we could put them back in their proper bins (at least for the time being), and while he was doing that, I was removing blue tape from Julia's closet.  Yay!

Here are a few shots from Alex's room first.

How French Food Ruined My Favorite Gray Sleeveless V-Neck Shirt

Yes, I'm blaming French food for ruining my shirt.  I suppose another way you could look at it is that my sloppy eating ruined the shirt, but I don't choose to look at it that way, and I suggest you refrain as well.

Anyway.  What's all this about?

Barefoot in Ski Boots

So yes, yesterday I donned ski boots for the first time, locked those into skiis, also for the first time, and checked off one more thing on the great list of "things i wish i'd done as a child because it's so much harder to start as an adult."

Language

Earlier today, sitting around the table with some family - my cousin, his wife, my parents...Bill is home with a migraine...the kids are talking about playing Wii and Alex boasts about beating Daddy at Wii tennis and Wii boxing (now that we have two remotes)...and Alex mentions that when that happens, Daddy says a lot of bad words and screams....

And Julia added, "Sometimes Daddy says shit!"

Mental note:  Have a little talk with Daddy about appropriate word choices.

Interlude

Busy day so far.  I didn't sleep well, either - Julia showed up in our room around 2 something in the morning...I couldn't sleep with her crowding me, but was too lazy to move HER back to her own bed, so I moved into her room instead and slept fitfully until around five, at which point I went back to my own bed so I could be in there when the alarm went off.  I have a little headache around one eye, and I know it's because I'm overdue for an eye exam, my prescription needs to be updated, and so on.  Ah well.

Post Postponed

I have a new giveaway all ready to go, but I don't know, I thought that it seemed a bit frivolous in light of the situation in Haiti.

Guest Posting Gig

Good morning! 

A week or so ago I was asked by Susan, of She's Becoming DoughMessTic, if I would guest post for her one day while she was off galivanting in New York and hobnobbing with her BFF, Martha. 

You know, that Martha. 

Anyway, after careful deliberation regarding my post topic - because, of course, I didn't want Susan to regret her request, I hit upon JUST the right recipe.

Curious?  You should be.  So head on over to Susan's site and see what happened!

TWD - Mrs. Vogel's Scherben

I haven't baked along with the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie since...November, I think.  I bowed out for the month of December because I knew I wouldn't have time to do everything, and so participation in TWD would have to wait.

I didn't even think about it last week, but yesterday it occurred to me that hey, it's almost Tuesday again, and I wondered what people were baking this week.  I clicked on the TWD site and saw the P & Q for Mrs. Vogel's Scherben.

Mrs Who's What?

Girly Girl

Julia had been looking forward to today for at least a week.  One of her classmates was having a birthday party AT A HAIR SALON. 

Oh, the excitement.  She's been telling everyone she sees about this upcoming party, and today, finally, was THE day.

Lounge Lizard

You've been wondering how Cricket-Catcher's doing, haven't you?

Of course you have.

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

At the beginning of December I said I was going to cut back on processed white stuff and other unhealthy food, and try to get myself in shape, since we're going skiing in February and I would like to at least give the illusion that I'm all healthy and athletic.

Hahahahahaha.  Anyway, I tried, but certainly wasn't perfect about it.  I did, however, pay more attention to what I was eating, and I think, for the most part, I ate less of the bad stuff.

Returning to Routines

For some reason I haven't been doing much in the way of cooking or baking or writing here this week.  Maybe I wanted a break from the holidays, and without really planning to, I took one.

Or it could be I've been working on other little projects here and there and I just didn't have the time or energy to spare.

Or I could just be lazy, or my brain keeps hitting the snooze button.

Paelle Prep on New Year's Eve

I'll let you know right now that I didn't remember to take a picture of the finished dish - I just completely forgot to.

But I liked the pictures, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post them.

Eggnog Flan

Or, as I like to call it, Flahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn.  Think Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek.  Flahhhhhhhhhhhhhhn.

Sorry, it amuses me.

Morning Pictures

The juncos were waiting for me this morning.  I could hear them chirping in the dark.

Finishing the Hat...

Or, in my case, the grass and the trees.

As I said in the post previous to this one, we've been working on finishing - really, really FINISHING - the kids' bedrooms.

In case you missed that saga last spring and summer, you can visit all the insanity in these posts:

Finishing the Old, as We Welcome the New

Huh?

Half a year or more ago - definitely more, actually - we began our big, crazy, re-do the whole upstairs project, wherein we divided our bedroom into two smaller rooms so that the kids could each have their own room.

Well, we're trying to get that finished.