The 35th Year

I have to toot my own horn and say I'm a pretty awesome wife. Not only did I let my 35-year-old birthday boy go on a 5-hour bike ride, but also made him his favorite truffled-deviled eggs, invited all his awesome friends over (almost a surprise), got Mason to wear his birthday present (a kick-ass bike jersey from Odell Brewing in CO), and made the-most-amazing coconut cake cupcakes - EVER! Wife=WIN!


Comforts Coconut Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese and Coconut Frosting
from Glenn Miwa's Comforts Cafe in San Anselmo, CA.

For the cake:
3 1/2 C cake flour (or all purpose)
1 tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 C granulated sugar
4 large eggs, separated, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract (optional, but missed)
14 oz can of coconut milk (the real deal!)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
7 oz package of sweetened, shredded coconut, toasted (my own enhancement!)

Makes 24 cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or line with paper liners 24 standard muffin cups.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.
• Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter until smooth.
• Gradually beat in the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
• Stir in the vanilla and coconut extracts.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the coconut milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat until just combined.
• Using clean beaters in a large bowl, beat the egg whites with teh cream of tartar until medium-firm peaks form.
• Stir one-third of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in the remaining whites.
• Fill each cup 3/4ths full with batter. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Transfer to wire racks and let cool at least 15 minutes before frosting.
  
• Frost and roll in toasted coconut flakes.

For the frosting:
10.5 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 C confectioners' sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt

• Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
  
• Beat in the vanilla extract.
• Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and salt until well blended.
• Frost at room temperature (or can be stored, airtight, in plastic wrap for up to 1 week).
  

YUM!

Kenzie - Month 3

With Mason, I remember the milestone of the 3rd month being the last "hump" before we actually felt comfortable with the flow of being parents (there was the 3 day, 3 week, and 3 month) and moving past the so-called 4th trimester. With Kenzie, it is nary a hiccup - this all seems like old hat. So much so that I don't even keep track of what she should be doing at this age. Oh...she should be batting and holding things...hmmm, better get on that!
What's more interesting is see her slowly realize the world she lives in. I think she finally knows she has a brother and a dog - both of which seem to amuse her every once in a while. She has been on the verge of laughing (sounds more like an apathetic, breathy attempt at it while keeping her face in a half-crazed, clown-like grimace), but hasn't quite erupted in a cackles that I remember with Mason (though he was probably like 6 months old when that happened). But she is definitely looking Mason square in the eye and analyzing Zola's peculiar looking head.
She loves being naked and we spend a lot of time with her diaper off rolling around the crib making noises and coos and melodic intonations up and down the scale. Other than that, she likes being held. A lot. I finally realized this today when she seemed completely comfortable walking around Lake Tomahawk in the Ergo carrier vs. the whimpers she gives when I put her in the stroller. Don't worry, I'll have to break her of the stroller thing because that is our required mode of transportation for runs and walks in the woods.
The BOB Duallie Stroller has been on its maiden voyage on some short runs. My arms and legs will definitely get right back into shape now that I'm pushing around a 35 lb stroller AND two kids that weigh 50 lbs between them. Now that the weather is warming up I might actually make a habit of running to school to pick up Mason in the middle of the day. I'm starting to revel in our weekend adventures where we get to do fun things all day like go to Pack Library for story hour or head to the Arboretum for a hike. During the week all I seem to do is schlep her to and from work and tuck her underneath my desk while she naps in the mornings. It works, but really, does that make me a good parent?
Speaking of breaking her, I had a few weeks of paranoia when it seemed she wasn't taking to the bottle. Mason didn't bat an eyelash when we gave him the alternative food source, but with Kenzie she is a bit pickier. Ever since she started breastfeeding she seemed to need a little more coercing with things. We started giving her the bottle at the recommended 4-5 week time frame, but she didn't take the Avent ones we had used with Mason. After trying a few different types (and sending out a plea on Facebook and researching out the wazoo) we finally settled on the Adiri bottles, which are the most breast-like in size and sensation. All we have to do is put her on the rocking ottoman, put the hairdryer on, and then I have to be at least 10 feet away. Easy! But, at least Michael and I have a date in our future.
She is quickly growing out of her 3-6 month clothes, too. I remember we moved Mason to the next size up at about 4 months so seems like she's on track. Too bad, we actually had a really cute batch of clothes for this age range. Luckily I've got several pregnant friends who need adorable boy/girl clothes in the near future. I never can tell if it's bad taste to gift someone used baby clothes. In my mind, that's resourcefulness and, you know "reduce, reuse, recycle", but I never know if it's really being perceived as cheap. I suppose that's what you get being raised by an accountant and a frugalista (and I mean that in most affectionate way!) God, what are our children going to be like being raised by a nerd-jock and perfectionistic introvert?

The Garden Project - Part 1 (Planning)

This is the year. The year that I will have an amazing and plentiful garden. At least I hope so.
My past forays into gardening have been a challenge. At our last house, we dug into the backyard in the first year and quickly found almost an entire rusted out collection of car parts, broken glass bottles, the chance bone or two (like dog's bone), and other evidence that suggested our plot was really and old trash heap. So although we invested a couple years of sifting, churning, adding to, and seeding with buckwheat and clover, we were still left without a fully functioning and successful garden. Now that we are in our new house - with a newly graded back yard - I'm hoping the only thing we have to contend with is a bit of clay-ish soil.
We are planning to have three 4'x12' raised beds surrounding the crab apple tree. One side getting about 8 hours of sun in the summer and the other two sides partially in shade. We thought raised beds would be the best option, so that we could dump in some healthy soil compost and not have to deal with digging into the clay soil, allow for more soil warmth, getting a high yield for the space, and, you know, for aesthetics.
Instead of just talking about it, I took the plunge yesterday and bought some seeds from Botanical Interests (and also got Mason's school a percent of the proceeds). We just want to start with the basics and maybe after a year indulge in some more involved plants like blueberries and asparagus - maybe even some mushroom logs! I like the idea of finding good heirloom seeds (heavily inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) and go from there. I've got arugula, Blue Lake bean bush, Danvers carrot, lettuce blend, mache, Cal Wonder sweet pepper, Bloomsdale spinach, red & yellow Brandywine tomatoes, Gardner's Delight cherry tomatoes, and best of all my favorite Costata Romanesco zucchini (the only kind Michael will eat).
Now the hunt is on for the magic soil components that will inject life, nutritive value, warmth, and deliciousness into our vegetables! After perusing some gardening blogs, oogling over idea boards (a dream of mine has always been to have a gristmill water feature), and searching for local resources (since we live in mountain-farm central), looks like all we need is some organic compost, coconut coil, worm castings, greensand, rock phosphate, and Planters II. Easy!
So for one bed that is 48 sq ft, I think would need 6 40 lb bags of compost ($13 each), 6 coirs ($13 each), 1 bag of fertilizer ($15), 1 bag of greensand ($25), a bag of phosphate ($21), and 1 bag of Planters II ($26) from Double G Ranch in Leicester. So for a cool $243 I can have the soil of my dreams (at least in one garden bed). I figure if Michael gets his basement project...I get my gardening project. (Update: I queried one of the gardening blogs to see exactly how much of this stuff I need and was referred to some helpful gardening calculators here and here).
But we haven't even built the beds yet! We could always purchase a raised bed kit for like $300 a pop or just build our own. I found some informative videos, but also, luckily, my uncle has long been a gardener and happens to have raised beds himself in California. After picking his brain on inspired garden design, learned that redwood makes for good raised beds, lining the bottom with rabbit wire is crucial to keep out moles (which we have - didn't ask him how to keep out the bears that sometimes roam our neighborhood), and 5'x10' beds are more manageable and can fit 6 tomato plants - yikes! What will we do with that many tomatoes??? Since redwood isn't available around here, we will probably have to settle for some cedar or other rot-resistant wood, which is readily available. Good thing I have a very thrifty husband who is just hankering for a project that involves wood, a drill, and screws.
Isn't having our own garden supposed to save us money on food???