Swedish Crème Cookies

It started like this, a question from M, over breakfast at the “Doghouse”**

“Dad, where can we get Swedish Crème Cookies?”

The conversation went from there. Seemed that a character in a book she’d just read gets pelted with Swedish Crème Cookies (SCCs) that a friend throws from up in a tree. M wants to know what they look like and where we might get some.

“Dunno” is the answer to both questions. We look it up. The recipe is quite straightforward, and they look yummy. So we all decide to make some. A quick trip to the store to get a couple cookie sheets, vegetable food coloring, almond extract and extra butter, and we’re in business making Swedish Crème Cookies. Everyone in the house lends a hand. M is having a blast. It’s her project, and everyone else helps, but defers to her ultimate decisions. She decides on blue and raspberry colored frosting for the centers. Because it’s her first time with the food coloring, M gets a bit carried away with the quantities, leaving the frosting a very intensely blue and vivid red-purple. Oh well, that’s how we learn. And, it’s vegetable coloring anyway, so that’s fine. The cookie dough was really stiff, so I had to do the rolling pin part. D guided the baking process throughout. Lola, the Beagle, cleaned the floor.

Total output: about 14 SCCs.

So, how were they? They turned out great! The frosting was a bit soft, so D refrigerated them. We had them for Saturday evening dessert. The first impulse as you held a blue SCC in your hand was to lick off the frosting that poked out around the edges. As soon as you did that, however, you were tattooed! It was like the exploding ink packets they put in the money they give to bank robbers – marked irrefutably by the SCC. You can see the evidence In this photo:  blue tongues abound!

The blue tongue thing became a bit of a focal point, to be honest. Suddenly the kids were working the blue frosting for maximum tongue/tooth impact. Notice, however, that they did a remarkable job keeping the frosting color to the INSIDES of their mouths, which is saying something because the USDA could have used this frosting to stamp their approvals on the sides of beef or something.

Leave it to R to take it all to the next logical conclusion. One SCC, pulled apart to make “Tommy”-esque eyes to go with the blue tongue. The SCC did NOT suffer from the vivisection – it was consumed immediately after the photo was taken.

 

Needless to say, toothbrushing was incredibly thorough on Saturday night: any residual food particles practically iridesced blue color. Dads could to tooth inspection from across the room this time around!

Four SCCs survived the Saturday evening onslaught, to be used in Monday morning lunches.

 

 

** without much real explanation as to their reasoning, the kids now refer to Dad’s house as “The Doghouse”. It just seemed to happen organically. It fits.

More Quiet. Quiet Will Be Our Theme, I Suspect

Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world. The power of a paradigm shift is the essential power of quantum change, whether that shift is an instantaneous or a slow and deliberate process.

- Stephen Covey

Our newest international student arrived over the weekend. Her initials are MF, so that’s how I’ll refer to her in any posts. She’s from Japan. lives just North of Nagoya, and is studying English at Marylhurst for one month. Her English is terrific, and she’s a doll.

Even though she arrived on Saturday morning, MF stayed awake to get acquainted with her new family. Probably a good thing; she slept through the night and woke up about noon on Sunday. Good sleep will cure the jet lag fastest!

Sunday morning, C explored making crab cakes from Julee Russo’s New Basics cookbook. It was about a four hour process, as C worked through the recipe for the first time. This recipe really worked C’s cooking muscles. Not only did she make the crab cakes from scratch, but the Hollandaise sauce was from scratch, too. I suspect that C was a bit apprehensive about making something like a Hollandaise – it’s such a delicate thing. But as she figured her way through the recipe, I kept hearing her say things like “hey, this is pretty easy. As long as we don’t burn the butter, we’re fine.” And she was right. We had fun. MF helped; I helped; the kids helped and felt drawn to hang around the happy action in the kitchen.

The reward at the end of the whole process was some scrumptious food, to be sure. That, and a confidence boost for the lady of the house.

This was in addition to the homemade ham soup C made this weekend as well. I’m telling you, C seems to be discovering her inner cook in some new and  delightful ways.

Since cancer, C has dutifully prepared meals, but not really been a cook. And for good reason, if you’ve been nearby through her process of cancer and recovery. But now, she’s feeling better after the most recent surgeries. And she’s cooking as a result. Cooking with a complexity and completeness in her meals that she never aimed for in the past.

*  *  *  *

R had a bit of an active weekend, but in low-key sort of way. The annual Troop 22 fund raiser – the Laurelhurst neighborhood Tree Chip – raised a record-setting amount of money this year. R and I helped out throughout the day, covering a pick-up route, and then helping lop the trees for hauling away. It was cloudy and cold, but not uncomfortable. And, it’s gratifying to see R slowly begin to take his role seriously. He performed his job on the route admirably, and stuck with the tree lopping right to the very end. Toward the end of the session, he jumped up in to the dumpsters full of tree branches and helped pack everything down – a bit of playful work there at the end for a kid who’s come a long way.

R also attended X’s birthday party on Saturday evening. He got his compatriot fix; left him happier and more satisfied, to be sure.

Sunday afternoon, R tackled a large school assignment, completed it, and had some Wii and family time before bed.

*  *  *  *

As for M, she had a great weekend doing not much. She shopped with C and MF on Saturday. On Sunday, she announced it was ‘pajama day’ and proceeded to finish her homework, do some personal art projects, send an electronic card to Grandma Gin, and play some Wii with her Dad and Brother before dinner.

Everything on the down-low.

*  *  *  *

I so hope this becomes a theme for 2010 – quiet weekends with some down-time and some quality family time. Activities like cooking together, getting mental recharge time, calming the heck down. The year’s still in its infancy; but we’re well on our way to creating the new approach.

Here’s a case-in-point to that end: we’re planning a family ski day in a couple weeks. C got our gear sorted out over the weekend, thereby resolving more than half the logistical issues for the first trip of the season. We’ll glide into that ski day with a lot less stress because we’ve planned ahead. Nice.

So, the Typhoon seems to be seeking the calm. Perhaps that will result in fewer posts to the family blog. Afterall, when not much is happening, there’s less to share. It’s a paradigm shift, both instantaneous and slow/deliberate.

Well, I can't call it a MEATBALL...

BoingBoing posted this... I'm reposting it here.

Dried spaghetti, inserted into hot dogs, then boiled. All sorts of strikingly weird and undoubtedly delightful for children. I think we'll just have to try these!