Quarantine Baking

 

I don't really like baking, that's what I claim.  But the amount of baking I've done since the beginning of quarantine tells a different story. Some of it was about finding things to celebrate. Some of it was about lack of bread at the store. Some was because I wanted to minimize trips to the grocery store or bakery. Book food spurred me on once or twice. Birthdays were a good excuse. But no one held a gun to my head and told me I had to bake a buche de Noel.  I must like baking, at least a little bit. 

Here are a few highlights, starting with the buche de Noel above. The buche de Noel was inspired by one that I had a slice of last Christmas. It was from La Farine bakery in Oakland, and it was delicious!

Little did I know this was the year of buche de Noels! I saw LOTS on social media. I used this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, mainly because it used frangelico, which I know was an ingredient in the one from La Farine. For decoration we made our own marzipan (because I was unable to find any to purchase and I just happened to have some almond flour). Marzipan made up the cranberries as well as the core of the almond pinecones. The mushrooms are meringue. Even though we didn't have very three dimensional stems (because our meringue wasn't stiff enough) they still turned our incredibly well.  They were also tasty. Next time I will use more frangelico in the filling and sprinkle some on the sponge cake before rolling too. 

The first quarantine bake was for Pi Day. I took some shortcuts. The pie crust was a frozen one I rerolled and shaped. The interior was savory--potatoes, onions, and palak paneer (also purchased frozen from the grocery store). 

Next up was a cabbage galette to use up leftovers from St Patrick's day. I found the recipe here. I subbed in oat milk for regular milk because at this point of the pandemic, you just used what you had (not to mention, that's a pretty good strategy in general). 

 

Ariadne had wanted to go with a practical joke theme when it came to food for her birthday party. The plan was a burger cake, and a cake made of sandwiches, all at the beach with friends. The beach part was replaced with a zoom party where the kids played with legos, chatted, and watched Frozen 2. But we still made the burger cake! Ariadne helped. The 'burger' was a brownie mix and the buns were yellow cake. Marshmallow fondant made the cheese and lettuce, as well as the sesame seeds for the bun. The brown of the bun and the red of the ketchup were a challenge. I used many colors from our 16 color gel food coloring set. 

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Like everyone else, we got in on the sourdough craze. A friend knew a friend with a starter. Pretty soon my entire group of friends from park day had sourdough starter. At this point in the pandemic, no one could get bread at the store, and yeast was sold out too. 

We tried plain, olive and rosemary, and cinnamon and raisin. Olive and rosemary (above) was my favorite. At times the starter was quite explosive! 

A local restaurant was experimenting with meal kits, often paired with staples like toilet paper or bread and eggs. One of their kits was for homemade pop tarts. They came out pretty well, and were a good activity for the kids (and we got TP! Yay!).  Strawberry, PB&J, and cinnamon and sugar, if I remember correctly. 

For Easter, I decided to make a layered carrot cake from one of my favorite cookbook authors, Abigail Johnson Dodge. Here's the inside. 

Book food! I have the most ridiculous hobby. I make food from books and other fiction. These cookies were from The Testaments, Margret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. They are basically modified oatmeal raisin cookies. Maple syrup is used in place of sugar, and they also include sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. The book references childhood memories of eating cookies with raisin eyes pumpkin seed smiles. 

Random pancakes. 

 

Cherry pie was part of our AP Week/ Hike Week.  The older two kids had a full week of AP tests between them. All administered at home. In order to give them a quiet work environment, I took the younger two kids out for a hike everyday (as homeschoolers, we had the flexibility to do this). On the last day we went cherry picking! When we got home, I just had to make a pie. 

Random popovers (my favorite) and GG Lois's scones--a blueberry version.

 

Alright, I didn't bake this one, but I need to throw it in for posterity. A tres leches cake from Safeway's bakery for Solomon's high school graduation. I will likely have a full post on this up sooner or later, but just in case I don't here is most of the spread. Caprese salad is just out of the frame.  Until ordering this cake, I had not set foot in a store for months! As we hit high school graduation, I realized that I probably needed to be able to shop at least some, since instacart was frequently down and was really hit or miss for our family of six. (Often they substituted with wildly less than I'd ordered, or left out all the main courses for our meals). 

A friend posted about making chocolate beet cupcakes. I needed to try it. We liked it so well, chocolate beet cake has shown up in several iterations since. 

Fourth of July flag desserts! In an attempt to eat a little healthier, these have a wasa bread base, slightly sweet cream cheese, strawberry stripes and blueberry stars. Not quite baking, but they are pretty. 

 

 

We did a LOT of baking leading up to Ariadne's book one violin recital, which was August 1st. The first batch were sugar cookies decorated with royal icing and stars. They needed to be sturdy to withstand shipping to friends and family in Minnesota. Treble clefs and stars were fitting for a Suzuki violin recital. And Aria's favorite color is pink. 

Our second batch was for in-town guests. We made eighth note jam-jams (jam-jams of any shape are a favorite on Charles's side of the family). Nutella Cellos also made an appearance. These are the cookies we invented for Charlotte's book one cello recital several years ago. Delivering cookies, programs and coloring pages to our local friends was a surprise highlight. Aria and I got in several impromptu conversations with friends we hadn't seen in person since March.  

  

 

All for one and one for all! This is not a sanctioned way to use bows, but fun nonetheless! 

More book food! In the last Harry Potter book, Harry has a birthday cake in the shape of a snitch. Charlotte finished the book series this summer and insisted we make the snitch birthday cake. Small wouldn't do, so we used two mixing bows for baking!  The cake was chocolate beet cake, and excellent combination. Marshmallow fondant and edible gold dust covered the entire thing, with paper wings to make sure everyone knew it was a snitch. Then we watched the book seven movies after Aria was in bed. 

 

 

Asana cupcakes. Charles got a new job during the pandemic. I made cupcakes in the shape of their logo. 

In fall we tried out a recipe for apple cider caramels my friend Marina made the year before after our field trip to an apple orchard. They were SO GOOD! I made a second batch and we shipped some to family in Minnesota, along with some more of those oatmeal smile cookies I'd make for book club months back. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. 

Book food strikes again! Conchas from The First Rule of Punk turned out to be one of Charlotte's all time favorites. 

The conchas came back at Thanksgiving by special request, along with bao, inspired by the Pixar short. We had a bun brunch on Thanksgiving, with baking headed up by Charles and aided by Ariadne and Charlotte. 

 

December 1st 2020, the universe conspired to give me a cake. This is when I knew I'd been baking too much. Miraculously, I had all the ingredients for a very particular recipe I had never seen before, Bon Appetit's heartbeet cake. 

Beets--check

Dutch process cocoa--check

coconut oil--check

everything to make chocolate ganache--check

edible gold dust for decoration--CHECK!

Too. Much. Baking. I made it anyway, it was delicious! I don't think it was as healthy as the recipe made it out to be. 

Baby/Toddler Gear ages 1-2

Awhile back, I wrote a post about baby gear for the first year.  It was fun.  It was a trip down memory lane.  It was a bit of a historical document, given that we started this whole baby thing 14 years ago, and a few things (like recommendations on starting solid food, for example), have changed.  Anyway, here's what we found essential for 12-36 months.

PS There were meant to be so many more toddler photos here but my electronic filing system leaves something to be desired.  I figure it is better publish what I have than leave it in draft mode forever.

 A high chair



Baby Gates

Baby backpack/soft carrier on the back

Stroller

Baby Bjorn bib (or similar)

Baby Bjorn Little Potty (or similar)

Cloth Diapers and Covers

Reusable swim diaper

Wet Sack for outings

Underwear!

Car Seat

MPR/A Good Book Club (for me)


Snow Suits!

Robeez boots (for Nova, these were the only ones we could keep her from kicking off).  Pictured on Ariadne.



Baby Dishes (These saw the most use this year)

Toys

Blocks

Stuffed Animals (not too many)

A ball

   

Books


A toddler bed?  Nova was all about getting her very own bed, the others not so much.  

Day time and Night time clothes--before age one all outfits seem to blend, as did night and day for the small person wearing them.

Soft soled shoes--we liked robeez, because they stayed on the best.  See Kai Run was our first brand of soft soled shoes that also had a rubber tread.  It very well may be these brands have been replaced by others at this point, but the concept remains the same.

Fridge/freezer lock--Charlotte pushed us to level up our child/baby proofing.  She was mobile at 7 months--nearly half a year before her older siblings.  She as also better at getting into things--nimble little fingers. 

Cabinet lock

Outlet Covers

Screen Door Lock--Ariadne in particular liked heading outside whenever the spirit moved her. 

Kids' Music--I swore I would not play 'kid music' way back when I just had a tiny baby.  Why not just play them good adult music? I  thought.  If that is what I raise them on they should be just as happy.  Nope.  Wrong.  When Solomon was 13 months old, we made it the last four hours of the drive from Tulsa to Minneapolis only by playing 'Raffi Song' (The More We Get Together) on repeat.  He wouldn't even consent to the whole album.  Just that one song! Other favorites include Lauri Berkner and The Okee Dokee Brothers.  Ariadne is our outlyer here. She likes hard rock and always has.  When I switched from 'Sex and Guns and Rock and Roll' to a Beatles ballad, She screamed and yelled for me to turn it back--though she might have been three at the time of this incident.

Books on CD--These days this might also include kids podcasts.  The library is great source.  This makes car trips SO much better.  We usually get a mix of picture books that come with the actual book and one or two novels of general interest, alternating as attention span allows.  We handed back the book when we thought the kid was old enough to keep it in one piece.. 

Pencils, crayons and paper--Drawing time!  With our first it snuck up on me.  I remember asking my mother-in-law  "Do you mean I can give an 11 month old writing implements--won't he eat them??"  (She is a family practice doctor and so has some expertise here).  Turns out, with direct supervision, drawing was a great activity for 1-2 year olds.  They scribbled, drew shapes, and eventually people and letters.  Three sided crayons and pencils are great for promoting the 'proper' grip.  However, pencil grip seems to be very personal.  My two youngest had a picture perfect grip well before age 2, while my 12 year old still prefers more of an overhand grip.  But gets by just fine.  (I will add proof if I get a hold of her drawing file).

Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes

Driving back from a playdate, Charlotte's friend Elise told her about a fantastic book involving cannibalism.  My ears perked up as I tried to figure out what book for 7 and 8 year olds could possibly tackle the distasteful subject of cannibalism.  She kept talking.  There were giants, and a little girl named Sophie.  And it dawned on me--I'd read that book as a child, The BFG  (Big Friendly Giant) by Roald Dahl.  We got the audio version, stuck it in the car, and for the next two weeks, every drive was a pleasure.  In fact, Charlotte would ask me every morning hopefully, "Do we have anywhere we need to drive to today?" Aria got into it too, though she kept falling asleep in the car.  We finished up reading the actual book at bedtime.  They are soooo excited about the upcoming BFG movie. 

 

I found out about the Roald Dahl cookbook, Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes almost by accident, googling snozzcumbers but never expecting an entire cookbook.  As some of you may know, we occasionally make food from books.  This cookbook was a gold mine that came to our attention at the perfect time.  Charlotte received a boxed set of Roald Dahl books from her aunt and uncle for Christmas, and we have been happily working our way through it. Writing a cookbook was the last project the author had been working on before his death in 1990.  His wife and several other collaborators continued with the book, publishing it in 1997.  I'd missed it as a child (my peak Roald Dahl reading years were 1987-1989).   

We dove right in, making the BFG's least favorite meal (but his only non-human option), the snozzcumber.  Along with it we made the very tasty giant beverage, frobscottle.  Though they look appropriately disgusting, they are indeed delicious.  I had hor d'oeuvres similar to snozzcumbers, right down to the black poppy seeds, at a wedding reception.  We modified the recipe slightly, using feta cheese in place of popcorn for the white patches.  Frobscottle was the favorite, a carbonated drink made with kiwis and raspberry drinking yogurt (kefir). 

A few days later we made Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake from Matilda.  We'd read the book the previous summer, one of our first chapter books that Aria was actively engaged in.  Both girls were actively involved in baking too.  I must say--it was an amazing chocolate cake.  Rich without being overwhelming, moist and flavorful, I can see why the Trunchbull ordered one every day.  Folding in whipped egg whites may be one of the keys to its success.    

  

We recently finished James and The Giant Peach, a favorite among favorites.  Ariadne kept asking to read it at bed time for a week after we'd finished.  She just wanted more and more.  It was a hit in my 3rd grade classroom too.  I vividly remember the entire class choosing to stay in from recess (and, I now realize, my teacher Joanne Toft choosing to skip her lunch) in order to finish the book one hot day in spring.  

We are about to set out on our next adventure--Charlie and the Chocolate factory, perhaps? After all, it would give me an excuse to make lickable wallpaper.