Letters from Pemberley

Chocolate Pudding!

Jan 19th, 2011 by ECM

I’ve resorted to bribery. I know, that makes me one of those moms. Tommy has become positively picky these past couple of months, refusing to eat dinners that he loved the last time I made them. So I decided to try out a chocolate pudding recipe and tell him that everyone who finished their dinner could have pudding. Worked. And the pudding was pretty good, too–and egg-free, so Elizabeth could enjoy it, too! As you can tell, she did!

Easy Chocolate Pudding

2 cups semi-sweet choc0late chips

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup butter

In a blender, process the chocolate chips and sugar until the chips are coarsely chopped. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and butter to a boil. Pour into the blender and blend with chocolate mixture until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into serving bowl(s) and refrigerate (at least a couple hours) before serving.

Posted in Elizabeth, Recipes | 5 Comments »

Making Music

Jan 18th, 2011 by ECM

The kids got some musical instruments for Christmas, and they love playing and dancing with them!

Posted in Elizabeth, Tommy | 6 Comments »

Second Round of Felt Food

Jan 17th, 2011 by ECM

This is becoming addicting…I went out and bought a couple more colors of felt and some muslin for another style of teabag. Derek set up an etsy account for me, so I think I’ll try to make up some tea related sets and sell them! The thing I’m concerned about is how much my time is worth–felt food is priced all over the place on etsy, so I’m not sure how to price things and still make a profit. We’ll see…

Tea Bag (Take two–I used muslin instead of felt for a more realistic look)

Cranberry Scone (we decided it was too big in relation to the teacup–does it look more like a slice of cake?)

Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Chip Scones (Smaller scale works better, I think. I picked up some blue to make blueberry scones eventually.)

Chocolate Vanilla-Chip Cookies

Doughnuts with Chocolate Icing

Pain Au Chocolat (I really loved this idea in my head, and it was fairly easy to make, once I got the scale down, but it doesn’t photograph very well…so I’m not sure it would sell on etsy)

(Derek also decided that baked goods are not bright white, so we needed to pick up a dough-ier color. I think “straw” pain au chocolat looks more realistic compared to the white scone.)

Lettuce and Tomatoes

Pizza!

Syrup and Butter for the Pancakes

Cherry, Lemon, and Cream Cheese Danishes

Posted in Sewing Projects | 5 Comments »

Tea and Scones

Jan 15th, 2011 by ECM

Posted in Elizabeth, Sewing Projects, Tommy | 5 Comments »

Pajamas Day

Jan 14th, 2011 by ECM

Some mornings, our PJs are so comfy that we just stay in them all morning…

(looking out at the snow)

Posted in Elizabeth, Tommy | 3 Comments »

Elizabeth at 20 months

Jan 13th, 2011 by ECM

Elizabeth is 20 months old today! (And that means I’m due in 3 months!)

She’s still a very happy kiddo–she’s singing to herself right now as she looks at books with her adored big brother. Her hair is finally long enough to pull back (we try to keep it out of her eyes, with varying levels of success). Sometimes I wonder where my low maintenance genes went–she nearly always has shoes, a hat, cellphone, and/or a purse with her throughout the day. Her first act every day is to run down to the shoe closet and pick out a pair of shoes or boots for the day. (Last week we had to run some errands at Kohls and the mall, and she insisted on bringing her purse with her…)

If Tommy’s old stocking cap is ever missing, we hear “Hat! Hat! Hat!” until we find it again.

Tommy pulled out his old chunky puzzles this week, and lo and behold, we have another puzzle lover on our hands! She’s gotten lots of encouragement from everyone, and she’s rapidly mastering the ones we have. I wish I’d thought to pull them out sooner.

She’s so verbal all day long. I miss the “I hummy” which meant “please may I have some milk”–it’s been replaced in the past couple of weeks with “I milk! I milk! I milk!” in increasing volume until Mommy responds. Other favorite phrases (always repeated several times) include “I teeth” (please may I brush my teeth with your yummy grownup toothpaste, even though I have already done it five times today?), “I up” (please may I get in my booster seat right now because I’m going to die of hunger if I have to wait a single extra second for lunch), “Uck” (that toy/hair bow/book that I threw behind the couch/behind the crib/in the back of the car is stuck and needs to be extricated right now), “I hand” (please may I wash my hands like my big brother), “I poop” (I didn’t poop, but I think it’s funny that whenever I say that, you check my diaper), “I potty” (please can you strip me down so I can act like I’m going to go sit on the potty but actually just brush my teeth with your yummy grownup toothpaste), “apple” (I want a piece of fruit–not an apple, maybe a clementine or a banana, depending on my mood), and “cheese” (I don’t like what you’ve given me to eat. I just want to eat cheese.).

Posted in Elizabeth | 1 Comment »

Our First Round of Felt Food!

Jan 12th, 2011 by ECM

Thanks to you girls who sent me suggestions and blogs to check. I was still a bit overwhelmed, but after the kids opened Kelly’s present (tons of cute felt fruit and veggies) and I saw that a real, live mom I know could do it, I decided to go for it! I’m still not sure about the whole acrylic/wool thing, but I compromised by buying felt that was 20-35% wool. It sounded like wool blends were the best of both worlds–sturdier than acrylic, less expensive (and more colors) than pure wool. I compulsively used my JoAnn’s 40% off coupons over the holidays and ended up spending about $20 on five colors. (The batting for the flatter items is leftover from baby quilts, I gutted two annoying stuffed animal Christmas presents to get the stuffing for the fatter items, and I just used thread I already had, so $20 is really all I’ve spent so far.) Here’s what I’ve made so far (with time estimates for those who wondered):

Ravioli (probably took half an hour while I was watching a movie with Derek one night)

Pancakes (maybe took an hour total while watching a movie)

Doughnuts (misread the pattern, so it took me longer because I had to pull out a seam or two–45 minutes total)

Strawberries (30 minutes total–the last two went way faster when I actually looked at a pattern!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (cutting out and sewing on the chips was time-consuming–so the whole thing took about an hour)

I’m learning a lot as I go, and I think I’ll get faster as I start doing similar kinds of patterns over again. Since the kids are still completely content with all their new Christmas food, I’m saving these things for special events throughout the spring. With the colors I have, I do want to do condiments (butter and syrup for the pancakes, etc), more varieties of pasta (their current ravioli is the biggest hit so far), tea bags, bread, lettuce and tomato, bananas, some other varieties of cookies and doughnuts, maybe a pizza. I’m waiting for another JoAnn’s coupon to get some more colors to do more fruits and veggies!

Posted in Sewing Projects | 8 Comments »