Sweet Yet Sour

My Favorite Christmas Shopping Carol

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | The Daily Special | No Comments

I grew up with a dad who loved Tom Lehrer – a comic/singer popular in the 1950’s and ’60’s.  My father, being a chemistry professor, loves Lehrer’s “Elements” song, which is sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Major-General Song”.  If you haven’t heard his songs, but can deal with a little dark humor, go check him out…

Each year as I start my (always belated) Christmas shopping one of Lehrer’s songs begins to run in my head, his “Christmas Carol”.  The lyrics have some great lines, such as, “God rest ye merry merchants, may ye make the yuletide pay”.

I thought I’d share it with all of you for a little laugh as you do your Christmas shopping…

Last Week in Anna’s World

Monday, December 7th, 2009 | Anna | 4 Comments

Anna and I had a busy week last week, but I took lots of pictures, so I can write about it here.

First, Anna had her first haircut last Saturday.  I took her to a special kids’ salon where they have special riding toys for the kids to sit on during the haircut.  Anna picked out a purple dinosaur and then gripped it tightly looking shocked for the whole thing.

First haircut

Luckily the woman was quick and only snipped enough to make Anna’s hair even all around.  She was able to get a ponytail and a bow in Anna’s hair before we left as well.  We took pictures of the new haircut afterwards and another picture of the bow, which we haven’t been able to get in Anna’s hair since.

Cutie with new hair

The new ponytail and bow:

Bow in hair

On Monday, our friend Laura came down with her daughter Piper, for a play date.  Piper is only 5 months old, so there’s not a lot of playing together that Anna can do with Piper, but still it’s always nice to get together with another mom.  We played with the girls, ate grilled cheese and coconut cake for lunch and generally had a good time.  Anna got out some of her new cookie cutter set, which we just use as toys, and decided maybe Piper would like to see them.  She would take one out, tell Piper what color it was and then put it on top of Piper.  Poor Piper was covered by the time Anna was done with her:

Piper covered with cookie cutters

On Thursday, our friends Angie and Steve dropped their son Timothy off at our house for a play date while they went to rehearsals for the symphony, where they play violin and tuba, respectively.  Timothy is one month younger than Anna and we see he and his family quite regularly for play dates.  Kids at this age don’t really play together, but you can occasionally get them to play in the same area and do the same thing at the same time.  I caught them playing with the crayons at Anna’s drawing table:

Drawing with Timothy

I wish I could have gotten a good picture of Timothy, but I wasn’t quick enough and neither of the kids stayed in one place for more than a minute anyway… All-in-all, it was a busy week, but we had lots of fun and it was great to see friends.

Finally, Coconut Cake

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | Cooking | 2 Comments

I missed the September and October assignments for Have the Cake, including the one of my own choosing, Sacher Torte.  The first few months of my pregnancy were marked by nausea and fatigue, but now I am finally feeling a bit better.  So, just under the deadline, on November 29th, I finally made a coconut cake.

Even though I’m pregnant, I’m not able to consume an entire coconut cake by myself and even with my husband’s help, it would be hard.  So, I opted to make the gluten-free version of coconut cake from my “Gluten-free Baking Classics” book by Annalise Roberts, so I could share the cake with my sister, who has a wheat-allergy.

Having learned from my mistakes from the carrot cake I made from the same book, I knew that Ms. Roberts has recipes that don’t do well at high altitude.  As I reviewed the recipe, which I won’t waste your time with here, I decided to reduce the moisture in the recipe to save myself from another Titanic sinking cake.  I cut the 4 eggs down to 3 and reduced the 1 cup of oil to 3/4 cup oil.

The cake mixed up well, although it was oddly sticky:

Sticky cake

Joyfully, the cake did not sink in the middle, but was probably the most even cake I’ve ever made.

While I made the frosting, which also called for too much liquid, the cutie came by to help out by going through the cabinet beneath where I was working.

My cute helper

After adding more powdered sugar than the recipe called for, I finally finished my coconut cake.

Finally, coconut cake!

My gluten-free recipe received rave reviews from my husband, Ellebee, who came by for a play date the next day, and most importantly, my wheat-allergic sister.  All’s well that tastes well, I say!