Girls in the Mud

Sophie and Ellie played outside on their swings today,

and got a bit muddy.

:)

Scone recipe

Whenever I bake Sophia and Ellie always try and get on my good side. They make remarks like 'That looks delicious, Margaret' and 'You are the best cook in the world'. Those remarks are way too nice to be real. But I took advantage of their cravings for scones and had them help me do the dishes while the scones baked.


I made up a scone recipe earlier this morning. It's adapted from several other scone recipes I have made in the past. They are really moist, light and flaky. I decided to share it:

Cream Currant scones

3 cups flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream ( you don't have to use cream, just increase milk to 1 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup currants or raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C)

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add butter, cream, currants, and milk, stir until a spongy dough has formed.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface ( the dough is a bit sticky, so flouring your hands helps). Pat dough into a rectangle about 3/4 in. thick and 7 inches wide. Cut into 6 triangles.

4. Bake the scones on a lightly greased baking sheet ( I use butter) and bake at 425 degrees F for about 10-13 minutes, until lightly browned.

Have fun baking!

The ever-elusive smile

Time to post more photos of baby Anna. She's a very happy, contented and frequently smiley baby, but we can't seem to capture that smile on camera.
Here are some recent attempts:

Almost a smile

Looking rather surprised

The closest one yet, but more of a grin than a smile.

Our Pets

Blaise is a smooth coated border collie. He may have some blue heeler in him too. We got him from the Kansas Humane Society when he was six months old. He is a year and a half old now. He was sick with Parvovirus when we got him, but he is a survivor.
He also is a big love sponge, he's my dog :). Despite being real cute, he's still a buthead. He took our pansies and ripped them up today! He also counter surfs, a trait from being a stray. He is the alpha dog.

Maggie is a rough coat border collie. We also got her from the Kansas Humane Society. She chases brooms, vacuums, and anything that moves. This includes people's feet. She is hand shy and hates getting brushed. She puts up with Blaise, her character is pretty submissive. She is thirteen years old. She has arthritis and is pretty grouchy.

Our guinea pig, Patch, is three years old. Her birthday is June 1st. She is sisters with Penny. We got them from some friends in Overland Park. She is pretty shy and skittish. Their hutch was built by Grandpa Jim (thank you! :) last summer.

Penny is Patch's sister. They share everything. Her personality is not so skittish, she is more brave than her sister.

Our betta fish, Princess Leia, was named by Sophia after the Star Wars character. I got him from our church Fall Festival as a prize for a game. We have had him since last October. I let Sophia name him to make up for the fact that she couldn't get one. This is because they only had male fish, we had one bowl, and males kill and eat each other.

Brew News

I finally got one of my home brewed beers bottled. It was my 23rd brew, a clone of Rochefort 10, though it turns out to be more comparable to Rochefort 8. Not too long ago, I had 4 or 5 beers in secondary which is the most I've had going at one time. This is my first post on my brewing hobby, I'll give a quick description of my brewing activity during the last 4 months. Since February 2006, I've been working through recipes from Clone Brews and Beer Captured, by Tess and Mark Szamatulski, published by Maltose Press. I frequently make substitutions on the hops, and sometimes on the type of malt, but with a few minor exceptions, the recipes from these books have worked very well.

#25 Rodenbach Grand Cru clone. Brewed 2/4/2007. O.G. 1.050. F.G. 1.010 (as of 03/18/07). A Flanders Red Ale, this is ready to be bottled. Tastes pretty good already...tart and wine-like, lots of pleasant oak character in the finish from aging with oak chips during secondary fermentation.

#24 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout clone. Brewed 1/28/07. Bottled 3/18/07. A home brew interpretation of an American interpretation of a Russian Imperial Stout. O.G. 1.080, F.G. 1.010. Tasted very good when sampled during the secondary but after bottle conditioning, it developed an unpleasant solvent aroma and taste. I hoped it would settle down with more time in the bottle, and it seems to be heading that direction based on a taste I had this weekend.

#23 Rochefort 10 clone. Brewed 1/2/07. Bottled 4/17/07. A Trappist classic. O.G. 1.080, F.G. 1.010. This one started low and ended low, and actually corresponds to the 9.2% abv of the Rochefort 8. It tastes great (dates, plums, brown sugar) and I can't wait to see how it tastes when it is carbonated (hopefully no solvent!).

#22 Spitfire Premium clone. Brewed 12/27/06. Bottled 1/28/07. O.G. 1.050. F.G. 1.010. This was the second time I brewed this recipe (first time was brew #12, 2/18/06), and it was a hit again. An English style Pale Ale, has a white, tight bubbled head which settles down to a thin cover. Good lacing. Crisp malt and mild earthy hop aroma. Taste is similar but stronger. Malt is crisp with a little sweetness, then an herbal (sage-like) and earthy hop finish. Creamy mouthfeel. Good stuff.

#21 N'ice Chouffe clone. Brewed Christmas Day, 2006. Bottled 3/18/07. O.G. 1.082. F.G. 1.012. This beer spent several weeks during secondary smelling like rubber. Yuk. However, after two months, the rubber smell went away and what remains is a very tasty beer aged in the secondary with bitter orange peel and thyme (which I think may have been the vector for the contamination causing the rubbery smell and taste). The orange peel character is more pronounced than the thyme, but the beer has plenty belgian character due to the use of belgian candi sugar (lighter body and increased alcohol) and belgian yeast character (subtle cotton candy esters), too.

Cheers,
Tony

A good day

About two weeks ago we kept a record of the day in photos...

Anna slept on Margaret's shoulder as she did her math,
Ellie played with pattern blocks,



and practiced writing her name.




The girls pinned a bug which we found in the kitchen,




and worked on a box of fluff and string for the birds (to use in making their spring nests.)






They went outside (with Blaise's help) to hang the box in a tree, then came running back in because it was SNOWING! IN APRIL!



A day after these shots we had a very hard freeze that I'm afraid has done in some of our trees and has dampened some of our enthusiasm for spring. The weather is warming back up, though, and hopefully we'll be posting pictures of our gardening efforts soon.

Books!

"Good morning, starshine. The earth says hello!" - Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005

Hello, again. I've read tons of books this last month. I read Eight Cousins by Lousia May Alcott, which I hope to have a book report due soon. I just have gotten into The Hall Family Chronicles, by Jane Langton. Her first book The Fledgling, is not really considered part of the series. But it is about the same family. I accidentally got The Mysterious Circus, which was the 7th book.

Bye,
Margaret