My baby turned 2 a few days ago. Sniff.
He was thrilled. I can’t believe what a lovely little man he has become. He doesn’t fit on the guitar any more… not that he doesn’t try.
Dunedin was Uberjoyed to help with this cake. We almost had to have chocolate covered fingers on the cake instead of strawberries at the rate they would sneak into her mouth.
Can I just note… this photo came from my Iphone. For a web photo, not so bad!
A few weeks ago we had a crop of concord grapes falling from the vines behind our house. The kids were eating them by the bellyful, seeds and all. (Bellyful: adj. term of measurement equal to or greater than what an average elephant can consume)
My head filled with fears of grape vines growing in their bellies or worse: the next diaper change. I decided to take matters into my own hands and make some grape jelly with the kids. I picked a day off from work and rolled up our sleeves (or by some act of parenting wisdom, I dressed the kids in short sleeves). We picked, we ate, picked, threw them at each other, slipped on them and made a general mess.
At some point we filled a big pot.
Then we had to take them off the stems.
For some reason the kids were less interested in this part of the process, but that is what I get for paying so little for my labor costs. From there, the boiling of the grapes- then the churning, swishing, squeezing of the grapes. Interest peaked again at this point.
But not when I explained squished grapes outside were one thing- Grapes on floor and carpet a different one altogether.
In all, the whole process took almost half a day. The hardest part was telling the kids they would have to wait until the jelly set for a day before we could eat it. That’s not true. The hardest part was the whole caning sterilizing process. For some reason, I figured, how hard can it be to process all these cans in a boiling thing of water without racks? Turns out not as easy as I thought.
It also turns out I should read instructions. My husband tells me this sometimes- he may be on to something (just don’t tell him I said so). Apparently, just because I thought the jelly mixture was sweet enough with the 4 cups of sugar instead of the 7 the recipe requested, it was not the right sugar/gel ratio. Who knew chemistry would be so important in cooking…
Needless to say, I got to do the whole thing again.
Now we have some gifts to start handing out. Unless the kids eat it all first.
In an effort to add more variety(read: chocolate) to breakfast in the mornings, I bought some Trader Joes Chocolate Croissants that you leave in the oven overnight to proof, then bake. Holy deliciousness. I would have had a photo to show you of the treat, but my resident Carpet Gnomes were too fast again. Here you can see the effects of chocolate on the general mood of children.
