Fond Remembrances

 

Walking on the walls of Canterbury,
I paused with a smile and watched two boys taking turns on a rope swing.

They offered me, with generous grins and boyish boasts, a turn.

I didn't see the cathedral that day, to me the entrance fee was too dear,
but my hair felt the wind and my toes pointed toward heaven

On the wall, inside the city, on the wall, inside the city, on the wall.

Wherein I find our Homeschool Lacking

Boba Fett says this isn't a Valentine. 

 

I don't know what he thinks a valentine is but this is definitely one.

On the back it reads "I SCOTT lots of love for you."

If this isn't a valentine I don't know what is.

Heart? Check.  

Handmade from construction paper? Check.  

Punny, implied yet non-committal declaration of love? Check.

Obviously my kid would have learned this if he had been to public school.

In other news Nutmeg has been over the moon excited about Valentine's Day.  She has been counting the days all month long.  This morning she woke us up 2 hours early running into our room screaming "It's time!" 

Since we don't make a terribly big fuss over Valentine's Day, last week, I wisely I asked her why on earth she was so excited about it.  "Because I want one of those heart shaped boxes with chocolate." she replied.

Silly girl, every one knows that the reason to be excited about Valentines Day is the 30 year old Moss Family Tradition. 

Cinnamon-Marshmallow Valentine Suckers,  the sure fire way to be the most popular kid in school one day a year.

Trifles

The little one I babysit is turning one this weekend so the kids and I made her this kitten for a birthday gift.

The pattern is Pointy Kitty from Wee Wonderfuls and it is free.  Boba Fett christened her "Raspberries."

I also knitted up this darling heart for a Valentine gift, 

 

the pattern also free can be found here.

I have been having fun doing a 30 day photo challenge on Facebook.  Today's photo was to be a picture of my biggest insecurity.  I immediately

identified my biggest insecurity but just couldn't find a photo to capture it so I got out the Petite Blythes and staged a lonely photo shoot.

Pretty adorable, pretty sad, pretty lonely.

This was so much  fun I think I should do it more often.

Speaking of Petite Blythes, I found another one that I just HAVE to have.  I had thought that we were good with the number of Petite Blythes we had because "Janie" (above) looks like me and "Greta" looks like Nutmeg and we also have 3 others to play with.  But over Christmas vacation I saw this little darling and she REALLY looks like Nutmeg.

 

I HAVE to have her, but she cost $75 at that time who knows how much I will have to pay if I ever am able to buy her.  She is called "Matryoshka Maiden" and if anyone ever sees her on a trip to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, where ever please get me one!

If we ever do get a Matryoshka Maiden she will be "my" doll until Nutmeg is much older.  We will probably name her Katya after the heroine we found in this book.

Reagan: The Centenary

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

-Ronald Reagan

100 years ago today a true warrior in the cause of freedom was born.  He is one of my heroes and my favorite president. I remember as a child being so proud of him as our president.  I still cry when I hear him speak.

Salmon en Crote avec les Police

Otherwise entitled "How fulfilling my 2011 goals ended in a visit from the sheriff."
Monday was a busy day. I babysat in the morning and then set out with 3  kids in tow to do the bi-monthly grocery and sundries shopping trip.  When I got home I hustled to make a pumpkin pie from scratch and make dinner before friends arrived for games and dessert (see pumpkin pie above, and fulfillment of 2011 goal "socials" and continuation of 2010 goal "Find a Friend for Boba Fett.")


Pie:  There wasn't quite enough time to bake a pie and let it cool before our guests arrived so I ended up serving warm pumpkin pie.


Dinner:  On the menu was Salmon en Croute from Jamie's Food Revolution.

  I am really keen on this book not because I don't know how to cook but because I am serious in my kitchen laziness.  I want delicious healthy food fast with little trouble or clean up.  I am going to share the recipe/process with you here because the point of this book is to SHARE the recipes with friends.


First a little olive oil on the pan.


Then roll 2 sheets of puff pastry out together to fit the pan.


Next a little more olive oil and a salmon fillet on top.
I used a much smaller piece of salmon than I usually use for a salmon meal for my family.  I was pretty concerned about it but it turned out fine and I even had leftovers.


Then spread a bit of black olive tapenade over the salmon. 
I couldn't find a black olive tapenade and I know that I don't care for other tapenades; I was going to skip this step all together but I felt that there should be some sort of zing to the recipe so I added about 2 tsp of mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice for an impromptu ailoi sauce and spread that on the salmon. 


Next layer some fresh basil leaves over the salmon.


Then crumble a generous amount of fresh mozzarella cheese over the leaves.


Then lay out sliced tomatoes on the cheese.


Salt and pepper the cheese and tomato layers.


The final step is to pull up and pinch the puff pastry around the sides of the fish like a fish baby in a blanket.  I thought it looked so cute.


Bake in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes
I had a pie in the oven so I had to bake it at 350 and that was unfortunate as we shall see.

The Review:
This was delicious!  Moose liked it, I liked it, Camrock liked it.  Boba Fett and Nutmeg thought that they would rather die than eat it, but they did eat it and they didn't die.


As any mom knows 3 out of 5 is a win!


The consensus was that it would have been much better if the pastry had been cooked at a hotter temperature it would have been crispier.  It was a bit doughy on the bottom which makes sense considering it was cooked 50 degrees too low.
 
I was also fairly inexpensive.  As I mentioned I usually use twice as much salmon for a meal for our family so this was half the salmon price plus a box of puff pastry which wasn't bad.  The mozzarella wasn't too pricey, and if you have basil or tomatoes from the garden...
It was a very posh feeling meal for so little effort.


The Gathering:
Our guests arrived just as dinner was put away and the pie came out of the oven.
We played games and had a good time while the boys ran around the house being boys.  We ate warm pie, it was good.


The Police:
Just as we were finishing up our pie one of the boys said that Boba Fett had called 911.  Just as we turned to look at Boba Fett the newly-installed-in-the-library-that-very-afternoon phone rang.


Boba Fett's face turned to one of despair as he cried "I thought it was a fake phone!"  Moose answered and told the nice 911 operator that it was a mistake and got the lecture and he hung up.


Our guests were packing up to leave when there was a bang-bang-bang on the side door.  It was the sheriff's deputy he had been wandering around the house looking for the front door.  He didn't find it.  When Moose showed him into the dining room Boba Fett hid under the table crying.


It was chaos.


I hope our guest will come back again sometime.


Dinner was good.