Breakfast Cookies For My Valentine

12 Feb By 20 Comments

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The beau does not like change. I have come to see that this is very lucky for me, because he would rather deal with me (being the work-in-progress that I am), than trade me in for a newer, younger, less troublesome girlfriend. Given his druthers, he prefers his routines and a set way of doing most things. Especially in the morning. Every day he has half a bagel (marble or sesame) and orange juice (Tropicana, some pulp, not lots of pulp), does his sit-ups, texts me to say ’good morning,’ and then has his tea (Black Mango from Trader joe’s) with a breakfast cookie. Yes, a breakfast cookie!  I think he invented the concept of “breakfast cookie” just so he could have a treat in the morning.

Since we do not get to have breakfast together very often, I thought I would make him a Valentine’s gift which would send him off each day with a reminder that I am one of his biggest fans. Breakfast cookies with a secret message!

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The recipe for these yummy Lemon Heart Breakfast Cookies is at the end of this post. They were easy to bake, but I overcook everything and also forgot to sprinkle them with sugar, but they still came out plenty perfect and taste great! At least I am consistently erratic.

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While they were still warm, I poked a hole in them with a skewer…

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…and laced an 8 inch piece of ribbon through the hole once they were cooled.

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Using my favorite hand-made papers and the cookie cutter for a pattern, I cut out hearts. On each heart, I wrote a series of silly love notes – like, “I love you more than the wind loves the night” and “I love you more than trees love their leaves” and “I love you more than the waves love the sand.”  Yes, very silly.

When my kids were little, I used to send notes like this in their lunch boxes. They still laugh about my funny notes! Well, there is the possibility that they are mocking me, but I will take any attention I can get from my teens.

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We are going out to celebrate Valentines Day at dinner tonight since we will be busy with our kids on Thursday, which means I am not spoiling the surprise by posting his gift today and you still have time to make this for your Valentine if you want to!SONY DSC

It looked so pretty packaged up in a white box with a gingham bow! I am happy knowing that, even if I can’t be there for breakfast, he will get a little love to start his day!

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Do you have a good gift idea for your Valentine?

Here is the recipe:

Lemon Heart Breakfast Cookies

Adapted from Sunset “Cookies”

by Annie Kip for www.plentyperfect.com

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

3 teaspoons grated lemon peel

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup ground almonds (I used Almond Meal from Trader Joe’s)

Sugar to sprinkle on top

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy, beat in egg yolk and lemon peel. Gradually add flour, blending thoroughly. Mix in ground almonds.

Gather dough into a ball and roll out on a floured surface until ¼ inch thick. Cut out hearts and transfer to greased cookie sheet. Place about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle cookies lightly with sugar.

Bake at 325 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

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Christmas Pig

3 Dec By 8 Comments

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You might think that I am  jubilantly dancing a happy dance over how well I have brainwashed my children. But I am not.

I have kids who don’t really whine about wanting “things.” They do not covet designer labels and high priced luxury goods. They feel bad asking for stuff. They have more than most kids and are pretty happy with what they already have. They really don’t need anything.

So, how am I supposed to create a good Christmas Morning Experience this year? Getting socks and underwear for Christmas is all well and good, as long as there are other presents to open. I mean, really.

My problem is that I don’t want to spend money just to spend money. We really do not need more things cluttering up our space and we have limited resources. I try to be selective about how much extra stuff we have and how we spend time. This makes gift-giving a little difficult.  My kids might think that going on trips and doing activities as a family is fun tolerable, but these things would not feel like a good present to them (because going on a trip is usually something I want to do!). Since they are used to getting what they need, things like new shoes or clothes do not feel like special presents.

And buying a heifer for someone in a third-world country is all well and good, and maybe we will actually do that this year, but it is really not very fun on Christmas morning. For us, at least. I know it is completely selfish and ridiculous that this is a big problem for me, but I know my kids will be sad if there are not at least a few things to open on Christmas morning.

My kids are not spoiled or over-indulged and I don’t want them to become that way. The problem is that they are kids who still love the magic of Christmas and I don’t want that feeling to dissolve into adult reality any sooner than it has to.

Don’t berate me, please, I already feel lousy. I know this is a screwed up problem to be worried about. I know that being stressed about creating a happy Christmas Morning Experience for my kids is gross when so many people have so little. I feel like a Christmas pig. Do you have the same issues? I would welcome any and all thoughts about how you deal with this.

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Favorite Things Friday: The Right Containers

30 Nov By 4 Comments

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I hate to admit it, but these stupid, plastic containers give me a LOT of joy. I love knowing that everything fits in them. I love their compactness. I love having a system I follow every year.

I don’t like that I had to buy them. It seems like we should be able to get along just fine with the system my parents used – wrapping ornaments in toilet tissue and piling them into an old cardboard box. I did that for years, but then one year indulged in “real” containers for my various Christmas accoutrements and I will never go back. Turns out that there really is better living through plastic. I have never been happier unpacking or packing up my Christmas stuff.

Looking for post-Christmas sales on these ornament boxes, wreath boxes, and light spools is a good idea. They really do make the whole holiday decorating effort much easier.

This year, as I am unpacking my Christmas gear, I am paying closer attention to the things that make me happy and the things that I am keeping out of a sense of obligation or plain old ambivalence. I want to pare down and have only the things that make me and my kids really happy. I have already made one trip to the donation center and this group of things went there today.

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Fake fruit (very realistic, but still unnecessary), a parasol (why have I kept this?), extra office supplies, plastic champagne flutes, sheets for a bed size I don’t own, fabric and trim bought impulsively, and a faded Easter wreath. The hardest things to give up were the clay Christmas tree hand-made by my daughter (which weighs about 30 lbs.) and the shower curtain which is pretty but doesn’t work in my bathroom anymore. All of these things have sat around my house for a long time and it is time to move them out into the world for someone else to enjoy.

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season and finding ways to make it easier and more joyful.

Are you doing anything differently this year?

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Ideas for Art – Stories, Part 1

1 May By 2 Comments

Art tells stories.  Stories help keep the memories of a family current and communicate a family identity to children.  

Knowing about this “glamorous granny” grandmother, her life and travels with her husband, the way she parented and created her family helps make sense of our own family. 

Even stories of the sadnesses that befall every family and how people dealt with them and who they became are important. The happy as well as the disappointing experiences are part of what brought our family to where it is today and contribute to our collective family memory bank.

And, of course, the stories all children love to hear about themselves when they were fat little babies.

Instead of hiding memories and stories in a photo album, you can use them to create a family wall of stories.  To keep this wall from looking jumbled, all of the photos in this display are black and white and displayed in exactly the same frame.  (A jumbled display can look great too!)  I used the least expensive frames I could find since I needed so many of them and I cut my own mats to keep costs down.  I have used these framed photos in different ways in at least three of our homes.  Over the years, the frames have been bumped and the glass has been broken.  They are certainly not perfect, but neither is our family.

 Art can take the shape of objects you love.  Instead of hiding a whimsical doo-dad in a cupboard, bring it out to enjoy everyday.

I remember this tile from my childhood.  My mother kept as a trivet in her kitchen and had always planned to have it installed in the backsplash behind the stove.  I am so glad that, being a child of the Depression, she was not the kind of person who got around to spending money on things like that, otherwise I would not have it in my kitchen today.  

This combination works because both items are ceramic, hand-made and complimentary in color.  Their shapes are different but their sizes are similar.  One is finer and the other is more rough-hewn.  Don’t be afraid to put things together.  Allow the differences to highlight what is interesting about each piece.

Items from a collection, such as buttons or pins, can make very interesting Art.  The pattern on the frame for these buttons works because it is a larger scale than the intricate details on the buttons.

This pin was brought to my mother by her father after a trip to Peru.  I would not have much occasion to wear it, but I love looking at it and knowing its history.  My kids love that it is a mama llama and baby llama!

Showing these special items together works well because they are both metal, small, and finely detailed.  Their frames are complimentary in that they are both wood in a similar tone and with strong lines, but one is patterned and the other is more plain.  The lighter wood candlestick and owl figure create even more interest.  Strategically creating contrast is a good way to pull items together into a display.

 What stories does your Art tell about you and your family? 

 

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Relaxing and enjoying the holidays this year…how’s that going for you?

11 Dec By 2 Comments
 no, I haven’t put a skirt on the tree and yes, it is time for a nap.
Every year, people vow that “next year” they are going to really try to relax and enjoy the holidays.  Seriously.  Almost every single person I know says that.  Every year. 
 
I realize I do this too as I sit here fretting over my Christmas shopping list, wondering if I have forgotten someone, wanting to change my living room draperies, wishing the dog didn’t have a big ole fat lump, and knowing that I am going to be seriously bummed in January when all the treats I have been eating have taken up permanent residence in the cellulite condos they have built on my butt and thighs.  Worries beget worries beget worries beget worries.  It’s true.  I think it might be in the Bible.

 Whenever we are doing something we say we don’t want to be doing it is because some other need has trumped our conscious intention.  (Or we are just lying to get out of doing something we really don’t want to do – like being “too busy” to do whatever it is we should be doing.)

When I eat a whole plate of Christmas cookies, my desire to look good in a bathing suit has been trumped by my body’s stress reaction and requirement that I provide comfort and quick energy.  The body isn’t coordinating with the brain at this point, so it doesn’t know that a brownie isn’t going to provide lasting comfort and energy.  That doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t know any better – and the body will do just about anything to get its immediate, basic needs met.  I don’t like it.  But, as you know from all of your own good intentions gone to hell, there are forces greater than ourselves at work here.  Your body will almost always win a tug of war with your mind.  Sort of like not being able to hold your breath past a certain point.  It’s true.  It’s reptilian.

To outwit your crazy body, you have to anticipate it’s needs and meet them before they take over.  Sort of like planning ahead so your child doesn’t have a tantrum in a store.  I know that if I don’t eat enough protein during the day, my body will be tantruming around 5 p.m. and I will eat just about anything.  Any resolution I had made to eat healthy is GONE – and I mean GONE.  Frosting out of the can?  Why not!  Handful after handful of Honey Nut Cheerio’s?  Can’t stop!   A bag of chocolate chips?  No problem!  A quart of ice cream?  Seems like a good idea! 

no thanks, I don't need a bowl.

Same thing goes for Christmas.  When we are in the middle of all of the buying, and the wrapping, and the planning of parties, and the fretting over making the whole darn holiday thing fun and happy, our resolutions to “relax and enjoy” the holidays are GONE.  I overheard myself telling myself – “as soon as you get this done, you can relax.”  (Yes - entire conversations go on between myself and myself that I completely ignore as well.)  I know I am going to feel like an exhausted pile of ”shouldda, couldda, wouldda” the day after Christmas if I don’t do something different.

How to avoid this?  I suspect there is no big solution, other than disappearing to Bali for the month of December.  Maybe  next year. 

My, personal, plenty-perfect solution has to do with first stopping to notice all of the times I am not doing what I say I want to be doing.  When I catch myself, I am going to try to figure out what the underlying need is and try to meet it more positively.  These are two very small changes I have made:

1.  Yesterday, when I was feeling particularly yucky about eating all kinds of stuff I didn’t want to be eating, I cooked up some of my favorite Chicken Marbella (a Silver Palete recipe first introduced to me by my friend, Carolyn) and packaged it in individual servings to eat for lunches this week.  For this to work for me, the food has to be something I really like and will look forward to eating and is ready to eat in 2 minutes flat.  If it isn’t, I will just ignore it and eat a whole plate of Christmas cookies for lunch.

happiness in my fridge!

 2.  I am sick and tired of thinking about buying stuff, but I can’t stop trying to figure out what to buy for friends. So, I decided I was going to be DONE worrying about finding a gift that reflected each individual friend’s special interests and qualities.  I decided to get my friends something that reflected my special interests and unique qualities.  Isn’t that nice?  Actually, it isn’t as selfish as it seems.  I realized that anxiety over gift-giving is really about my need to let my friends know I care about them.  Sharing something I like – a potted amaryllis or beautiful notepaper – along with a heartfelt note telling them I appreciate their special qualities would satisfy my need and release me from some of the stress I was feeling.  And, maybe it is all about my needs after all…because now I will be a much nicer person to be around, which actually makes other people happy.  Particularly, my children.

handmade paper note cards from The Paper Source, Wellesley

 

super cute little pouches from The Paper Source, Wellesley

I will let you know when I think of more plenty-perfect solutions, but for now I am feeling pretty good at outsmarting my reptilian brain just a little.  Sort of like when you successfully distract a 2 year old from the candy at the grocery check out line.  Little, plenty-perfect victories make all the difference. 

 

 

 

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