I'm Back Didja Miss Me?

Sorry, I was doing so well there for awhile with a slew of posted ahead posts (brilliant). Work got really crazy last week though so I was thinking about that most of the week and packing for the trip, but I think I might be back on track for posts again.

Anyway, turns out I needn't have worried about our gift. The wedding has been postponed and it was handled so badly (and I mean really quite badly), we're not going now. . . I spent the first evening of our vacation almost in tears, but that may have been a result of the extreme fatigue brought on by the work I mentioned above.

Late Saturday morning I wanted to cry again, this time a result of getting stung by a yellow jacket. It was not an auspicious start to the family weekend, but things ended much better. One highlight of the weekend was going to a couple of antique shops and finding a slew of golden books. I didn't buy all the ones I wanted (seriously $7.50 for a golden book, what are you smoking?!) but amazon has a fair selection for under $4 and I'll search them more thoroughly at some point.

Speaking of children's books, awhile ago (by which I mean over two years ago -- happy birthday little G) we threw a shower for my friend using children's books for the menu. It looks like I'll get to re-use the idea for someone else and I'm pretty excited about it (just like I was before). You know I love a theme and I love children's books so what more could I ask for? Also, a children's book themed menu is pretty simple since you can usually find a children's book to match. I happen to know this woman loves chocolate covered strawberries, thus we'll have The Little Mouse, the Chocolate Covered Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear

Some ideas we had the first time around were:

Make Way for Ducklings Salad
Deviled Green Eggs and Ham
Three Billy Goat Cheeses Gruff served with The Stinky Cheese Cracker Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Dill Pickles to Pittsburgh
Blueberries for Sal tartlets
Madeline(s)
Goodnight Moon Pies
Ice Cream Cake Larry
Chicken Soup with Rice
Bread Pudding and Jam for Francis
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs-liders
Potato Pancakes for Breakfast with Rain Makes Applesauce topping
The Smoked Salmon Pinwheels Princess
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie etc.
Popcorn or The Popcorn Book
Three little pigs in blankets
The Peanut butter, Marshmallow Chocolates Incident
The Giant Jam Sandwich Cookies

What book (or food) would you like to see if it were your shower?

A Few of My Favorite Things

We have a wedding this weekend (9/10/11 -- isn't that a brilliant date? I mean it's not my favorite date, but a close third). Lately Amazon's 4 for 3 has served me well by letting it appear we paid mildly more for the gifts we've given than we did (or the nice way to spin it is we've been able to stretch our wedding gift budget a little farther so that the bride and groom get a little extra-- total aside within an aside but do you think it was Freudian that I had trouble spelling groom and it came out as goon?). It's not terribly difficult to purchase the items off the registry that qualify for 4 for 3 and then call the place where the couple actually registered to have the items removed. So the bride and groom don't get multiples and we get the satisfaction of free two day shipping and the price of one item less.

I've been sort of putting off purchasing a gift for the wedding this weekend though. I put a lot of items from their registry in my cart for my husband to look at before purchasing (it's for his niece I figure he should get some veto power). It's sat in my cart about a month. This past weekend I decided that since she was family maybe to make her feel more loved we should buy her some of our favorite kitchen items, items she didn't necessarily register for but which might prove useful in her kitchen. She and her husband are just starting out, she's lived at home for the last 20+ years without a kitchen of her own and, as far as I know, has not done much of the cooking there.

I'm torn, in my head I hear my friend from Other Pieces of Me telling me to "Just go with the registry, that's why people make registries it's WHAT THEY WANT!!!" on the other hand I like to think I give good gifts, couldn't we come up with a gift she didn't know she wanted?! I hope I come to a decision before this posts. . . .

Below are some kitchen items I love, some I've blogged about before, some I have not. They are all items I would totally replace if we had some kind of horrific kitchen fire destroying our beloved kitchen items. It turns out picking my top 10 kitchen items is almost impossible, these items have taken a LONG time to narrow down. Far longer than a blog post should really take :). If you gave us a wedding gift and it's not featured here, just refer back to the last two sentences and assume that it's number 11 on our list!!

When you look below you'll see why I don't post pictures. I tried to put them in a different file all nicely together and then when I uploaded it, it was all too small. I am no good at embedding them polyvore-style straight into the blog though. I read enough blogs to know I did a really shoddy job but I don't have the knowledge or the time to change it.

Cow Image from Here, Microplane Image from Here, LeCreuset Whisk Image from Here, L'econome knives, Chicken Image My Own, OXO angled measuring cup Image from Here, Dexter knife Image from here, Browne-Halco 11 inch Pan Image From Here, flexible cutting boards Image from Here, Silpat Baking Liner Image from Here

The Big Lobster. . .

So I know this story is old, but I am so tickled by the whole thing that I thought I would post a link to the original story about Zabar's "lobster salad" and the almost as brilliant follow up! If you haven't already read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Who eats White Peaches?!

I just ate the juiciest loveliest peach from our farm share box this week. I mean dripping down your chin juicy. I did not want the peach to end. When we go to PA later this week we'll be going to a farmers market in Gratz --I love Gratz, PA, my husband makes fun of me saying that even the people who live there don't love it as much as I do! It was at that farmers market that I finally learned what free stone peaches are (yeah, yeah, it wasn't rocket science to figure out, it means that the pit easily removes from the fruit).

The difference between white peaches and "regular" peaches is that the white peaches tend to be sweeter and have less acidity. The thing is, I've yet to have a white peach that had good flavor. They seem like watered down peaches, sort of simpering half siblings of the "regular" peaches.

Any white peach lovers out there? If so, tell me what all the hype's about!

Prayer

I came across a draft of an email I apparently never sent. It was from years ago (the friend who it was addressed to has changed his email address more than once since then) but I thought that maybe it would be something worth sharing on the blog (and yes, I'm getting kind of desperate for material already -- you might want to help me out a little lest I start to slow down and thus stop for another 6 months).

Anyway, I was emailing about something that Lauren Winner wrote about in her book Mudhouse Sabbath (and if you haven't read the book, you really should, I'm a big fan). Ms. Winner was an Orthodox Jew turned Christian. In the book Mudhouse Sabbath she explores some of the Jewish traditions in light of her new faith. The section I was talking about in my email is where she discusses the liturgical prayers that Orthodox Jews use. They have prescribed prayers for many daily activities. When she became a Christian she fell away from that and used more free form prayers. A point in her chapter is that while liturgical prayers can sometimes become rote, they also can sometimes make us less selfish than free form prayers, molding our thoughts to the creator rather than trying to mold the creator to our thoughts.

I have discussed this chapter with a number of people since I read the book and I think it's a very interesting argument but it wasn't the point of my email.

In my email I was discussing how even those of us who were brought up without much influence of traditional prayers (I had never even seen The Book of Common Prayer until after I read Mudhouse Sabbath) tend to start to create our own traditions in prayer. In the same way that a number of Jewish prayers begin Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu (I think it's loosely translated as Blessed art though Lord God. . .) I find that often I open my prayers Dear Lord God. . . and end them with in Jesus Name, Amen (decidedly less Jewish :)). Another woman who I used to pray with used to chant throughout her prayer Abba, father. I don't know that this is earth shattering, but I do think it's interesting. How about you? If you grew up a "free form" Christian, do you find yourself praying in patterns?

Hop to it!

Um, you guys, I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I've fallen in love with these bouncing balls. It's a good thing I don't have a kid, because I am totally torn, do I love the bright red bull, the dino rider, or the hot dog best?! Maybe the elephant. You know I love elephants. . . They even have a sumo wrestler!! I mean come on, how do you choose?

Sadly, they only have two options for adults and neither is quite as exciting as any of the kids options -- go figure. I can tell you though, I am getting one for Christmas (as in don't worry about buying me one, someone already has :)).

They also made me smile because I remembered the scene in FRIENDS where Phoebe's list of things to do before she turns thirty includes a bouncing on a bouncy ball.

Have you come across anything as crazy that you're attracted to?

Some Fun and Crafty Ideas

Yesterday I challenged you to send people some fun mail. Below are some links of fun crafts you could make and then send on!

Surprise Balls --I've had these bookmarked for so long (I considered making them for kids at our wedding)

Tiny Pinatas -- you can use any leftover water balloons you have from the summer!

Elephant Delivery -- okay, so this one is the easiest, print it on card stock and let your recipient put it together. Yes, it's very valentine themed, but still, how fun to get an elephant in the mail!?

Turn a beloved paperback into a custom hard back (um, and you can send it book rate!!)

Photo Shrinky Dink Jewelry --I thought about doing this with some of my boy's art to sell at open studios. . . I don't think it would work though).

Felt Finger Puppets -- fairly flat and they could be as fancy or fanciful as your creativity/skills allowed.

Photo Napkin Rings -- send flat and let your recipient make into the actual ring, great if you or your family would be missing a holiday or other family event!

Temporary Tattoos --it's unclear to me, but I think you can just cut the tattoo paper yourself (one reviewer said you needed to own the sillouette cutter).

You can find lots more ideas for crafts all over the web, but one of the blogs I read offers you a bunch every day. Go visit Oneprettything for more ideas!