and so it begins...

Really begins. In earnest.

How can there be such a difference between pre-school Declan and kindergarten Declan? Between third grade Conor and fourth grade Conor?

Really. Do you know?

I swear they are years older, not weeks, not months.

While I'm missing their littler selves I'm reveling in their becoming...

I'm finding it hard to keep up.

I'm finding it hard to sit back end enjoy the show.

But I'm working on it...promise...

rotten bananas

Today was our foray into the fourth grade...I was about as excited as he was.

I also found this "banana" hiding in the shadows at the back of a shelf.

THIS we had fun with.

I found myself wishing it was really a giant vanilla bean... so much yummier...

180 days...and counting...

It's been months since I started, and stopped, blogging.

Where did the summer go?

So much we never got around to.

It felt like the lamest summer.

It felt like we didn't do anything at all.

I suppose this summer will blur into my sons' memory, part of the thing that becomes "when I was a kid..."

We raised chicks, butterflies and praying mantis...

We celebrated birthdays, went to zoos and the aquarium...

and spent time with family and friends we'd been neglecting.

and the summer rolled on, like summers always do...

too quickly for the kids comes the return to school...

too quickly for the grown-ups, greedily wishing they could squeeze in a few more hours with the kids, lazy summer hours, without all the rules that Septembers bring...


180 days...and counting...

Summertime Blues

Right smack-dab in the Summer O Fun, life happened. My cousin Nicole, and her family are moving to Florida. I think it's awesome. I think it's a great opportunity for their family. Everyone is sad to see them go, but maybe because I'm usually on the other side of that situation, I'm mostly excited for them.

The same can't be said for my boys. We don't exactly have an over abundance of cousins running around. So, today, at what was probably the last official pool party at Uncle Jimmy's, the boys plotted and planned for sleepovers and visits to Florida. Conor didn't say too much after we left.

I guess it these changes that prepare you for the big stuff of life, but it's hard for them.

Wouldn't it be nice if we suffered so little disappointment that it never got easy?




Declan's Magnolia Tree

the Jim

It's been a heck of a week. I started summer semester at UMASS on Monday and was back for more on Tuesday. Two nights in a row, out past my bedtime, I was pretty much sleeping at my desk by Wednesday! So, Wednesday night I baked. I pulled an untried (by me) recipe from my best cupcake cookbook, and the Jim was born. This cupcake was named after a co-worker whose birthday invited it into being...Thanks, Jim!

carrot, orange, & golden raisin cupcakes

~ from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. grated orange zest

1 cup finely chopped or grated carrots (about 2 carrots)

3/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I find walnuts to be the snoozer of the nut world, I used pecans)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners. Spray the paper liners with non-stick spray.

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in oil, vanilla, and orange zest until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the carrots, raisins and walnuts (pecans).

Fill each paper liner with 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/2 inch below the top of the liner. Bake until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 28 minutes.

Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack to cool completely.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter @ room temp.
6 ounces cream cheese @ room temp.
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. grated orange zest

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.

Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about one minute, then beat on medium speed for 1 minute to lighten the frosting further. Add the orange zest and beat until incorporated.

Frost the cupcakes and serve, or refrigerate. Cupcakes can be kept in the fridge for up to three days. Honestly, these cupcakes improve with a night in the cold...it gives the orange flavor time to come out.

Crisp, swimming and a royal mess...

Saturday morning the boys and I hit the Amherst Farmers Market, bright and early. The farmers, the bakers, the cheese makers, those are my kind of people. Everyone is so sweet and everything smells delicious, even the dirt. We picked up some tomato plants from Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst - that's the farm we bought a half-share in this year, so you'll be hearing a lot about them as the summer goes on. We also bought some super-delicious cheeses, a loaf of bread and some bacon and sausage, rhubarb and one quart of organic-grown-in-the-ground-in-a-green-house-strawberries. Oh my! And Oh Crisp!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Monday after a long weekend of work, Stephen opened the pool. Every year the children greet this moment like a second Christmas Morning. For two weeks Declan has been eyeing the pool longingly, trying so hard not to ask "when?"
I was sure they'd last about two minutes...I didn't realize Stephen had had it running for a week through the solar heater...they lasted a full hour...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will conclude the weekends adventure with this. A small defeat, but I was so unprepared for it. Royal icing flowers for cupcakes. They call them drop flowers, as though they just "drop" out of the pastry bag. Easy, right? The first scoop of frosting was so stiff it almost broke my spatula. I pulled a muscle in my hand trying to squeeze it through the pastry bag, seriously. So, I added more water. "This is more like it!" I thought. Oh, how naive. I actually had trouble getting the third pastry bag out of my hand, which had contracted into a perfect claw...maybe royal icing is a bit too advanced for me...maybe the person who authored that Wilton cake decorating brochure is some kind of sadist... For now I will be grateful that I can type with one hand...

the Beth: coffee banana deliciousness

All of my cupcakes that gain a spot in regular rotation are named after people.





Someday when Sweet, Sweet Broccoli is a real bricks and mortar bakery...you'll be able to order an Amy, a Sheila, an Angela...you get the idea...





The banana part - the cake part started here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/desserts_E0308WELD_T

the yummiest coffee frosting EVER started here: http://cookinginanapron.blogspot.com/2008/07/coffee-buttercream-frosting.html





I think the general consensus was "YUM!" Happy Birthday Beth!

Let's talk about chicks, man

Thanks to throwing out my back, and being mostly medicated, I'll be brief.


Today we picked up the first of what will become a group of six new chicks. These will lay white, light brown and chocolate brown eggs. The blue eggs seemed a lot less exotic after the first twenty dozen or so, so we thought we'd spice things up a bit. Declan wants to name her "Spike", Conor's suggestion: "Senior Peeps-a-lot".

Last year Declan named his chickens Jack Black and Nacho Libre...Really,I couldn't make this stuff up. My boys are a little strange, but I guess considering the gene pool they never really had a chance.

Oh, one other thing, Declan decided today that when he is older he is changing his name to Nosferatu.

Nasferatu Otto...I guess it has a certain ring to it.

40, plus one day

So, here I am. 40 plus one day.

I got to spend my birthday with the best. My family, my friends, my kids, my friends kids, my husband...it was a whirlwind of all my favorites, people and food. This morning, I am lounging with my friends, drinking coffee, dueling laptops, while our kids are playing raucously in the basement.

Really, does it get any better than this?

Sweet, sweet broccoli was inspires by a frozen green tea latte. The name, not the blog.

The blog is inspired by my good fortune. I needed someplace to think out loud. To go on and on about my kids if I feel like it. To post pictures of delicious food. To try out new recipes on the unsuspecting masses. Maybe I'll come to terms with my health and start baking things I should be eating. Maybe I'll make somebody laugh. Hard to say, yet.

What I can say is 40 plus one day is feeling pretty sweet...