October 9, 2014 by clumpaday

Buttermilk Banana Blueberry Bliss

Clump #240: Bake Buttermilk Banana Blueberry Bread; day five of the seven-day bake-a-thon.

Today I made another recipe from the Parade magazine article: “The Most Popular Recipes on Pinterest in Each of the 50 States.” Buttermilk Banana Blueberry Bread was the top pin in Arkansas, with the words, “Damn Delicious” under the photo. How could I resist? The recipe’s author enthuses, “A great way to use up those lingering, spotty bananas, and the perfect holiday gift that everyone will love!” Trouble was, those spotty bananas didn’t linger around this house, so I had to thaw one from the freezer and leave a note on the other two:

The recipe makes four mini loaves, which I had imagined to be the size of our mini loaf pans on right. Not mini enough. The 5 and 3/4 inch size is on the left.

In other Fall Festival news, I organized the toy room for the Mercantile, the flea market-type sale we hold indoors. Here is a glimpse of the room before:

And if you ever want to give yourself an anti-materialism vaccine, a job like this will certainly do the trick. So many junky little plastic things. I had some help to make the “after” look like this:

And here is the “after” for the bbbbread:

The aroma is decidedly Damn Delicious, and quite heavenly. I might just have to buy one myself and get the full effect.

October 8, 2014 by clumpaday

More S’mores

Clump #239: Bake graham cracker cupcakes; day four of seven-day bake-a-thon: one baked-good-a-day to avoid the usual pre-Fall Festival log jam.

Some days contain more darkness than light: exhibit my tired, worn down, and shadow-like emotional state. But even on a day like today, baking was accomplished.

I spent this past summer with the intention of making S’mores Cupcakes from a recipe I saw in Real Simple magazine. I never got around to it, so the time is now!

Progress alert: I probably tossed the magazine containing the recipe in a recycling bag during one of my paper purges. But no problem … I easily found it online. Let that be a lesson. I really don’t have to have so much paper around me.

The cake is the graham cracker part of the S’mores equation. It contains one cup of graham cracker crumbs, or nine crackers. How many crackers in a package? Nine. Very satisfying.

This was my maternal grandmother’s rolling pin. It gives me confidence, when using it, to know that she was renowned for her pies.

Disaster was averted by my husband who managed to finesse the gears back into the Kitchen Aid mixer. Heavens, is it telling me that I’m doing too much baking?

And the finished cupcakes, cooling down. I’ll freeze, thaw, and finish them later. They smell really-really good.

Ready or not, October is here and, like my goose friend in Strasburg …

one must gear-up and get with it!

October 7, 2014 by clumpaday

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle

Clump #238: Bake Pumpkin Snickerdoodles; day three of seven day bake-a-thon.

Today’s recipe (or clump, if you may) is a cookie that was featured in Parade magazine as the most popular recipe on Pinterest from the state of Oregon. All fifty states’ top recipes can be found here.

The recipe called for a dash of allspice, and I was excited to use teeny little measuring spoons that belong to my younger daughter. I never knew the difference between a dash, a smidgen, and a pinch before we had these.

The finished product. Are they as luscious as the photo in Parade magazine? Is the pumpkin flavor too subtle to the point of nonexistent? Purchase a couple at the Fall Festival and you tell me.

In they go with their cookie cousins.

Happiness is … a freezer full of cookies …

And fabulous Fall color!

October 6, 2014 by clumpaday

Our Family’s Favorite Cookie

Clump #237: Bake molasses cookies; day two of seven-day bake-a-thon for upcoming Fall Festival bake sale.

If I were to write an ode to a cookie, it would be to this. The humble molasses cookie. Comforting, aromatic, replete with family history. My mother-in-law began the tradition. Early in my married life, I was there to hear one of her older granddaughters say, “Grandma, this is the perfect cookie.” If that memory doesn’t call her to mind, there’s the molasses bottle itself:

My careless drips fall like a string of beads.

I’ve made these cookies so many times that the steps feel meditative. Sifting the dry ingredients:

I love using wax paper.

The rolling of the cookies is like sculpting with play dough.

And the final product, ready for the freezer.

As Quakers have said through the years: “Simple but of good quality.”

From the Don’t Eat Your Heart Out Cookbook, by Joseph C. Piscatella

MOLASSES COOKIES

2 C all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 C safflower oil 1/4 C molasses 1 egg or 1/4 C egg substitute 1 C firmly packed brown sugar granulated sugar

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Set aside. Using lowest speed of electric mixer, blend oil, molasses and egg; add sugar. Blend. Gradually add flour and dry ingredients; mix well.

Chill dough 2 hours. Form into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in granulated sugar. Place on baking sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with 2-3 drops of water. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. (I always opt for 8 minutes.)

October 5, 2014 by clumpaday

Cranking Up a Seven Day Baking Challenge

Clump #236: Bake chocolate chip and Reeses Pieces cookies; day one of 7-day bake-a-thon.

Not to mention any names, but a few people in my life might possibly accuse me of taking too many pictures. Once I start, I find it difficult to stop. I admit, it can get annoying, but if I didn’t have so many images to choose from, I may not have had the one above, which, now that I see it again, is the perfect illustration for my blog-making machinery in full-stop.

I took the photo at The Mill at Anselma on a recent visit with my husband. From its website: “Constructed in 1747, the Mill stands as the most intact, authentic example of a custom water-powered grain mill in the United States …”

Let the blog-wheels turn again!

When I last posted, I was riding a wave of adrenaline on a 30-day challenge before a visit from two of my husband’s sisters. We truly had a grand time together. Here are the three siblings watching a sunset “down the shore,” as they say around here:

After a challenge, the question arises, “What now? How often do readers really want to hear from me? Does anyone care? Is posting every day too annoying?” (Dark night of the soul existential blogging questions.)

My husband and I were skyping with our younger daughter today (she’s the one studying in Russia), and I was fretting over the fact that she will not be here to do her usual amazing baking job for our Quaker Meeting’s Fall Festival. And I don’t use the word “amazing” lightly. I have a certain tendency to come up with great ideas for fun baking projects, but lack the time management skills to pull them off. Not so with our daughter.

She, wisely, told me, “Just bake one thing every day before the festival … One clump a day.” Oh my goodness, why in the world hadn’t I been able to figure that out?

So here we go! Day one, starting easy. Basic chocolate chip cookies made from the recipe on the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag with Reeses Pieces to add seasonal color and pizazz. I noticed I was using a potholder with a fall festival theme … tra-la!

This is what’s fun about baking for the festival. I’d never tried this before, sticking candies onto cookie dough …

but it worked!

Double-bagged and popped into the freezer.

Voila, indeed!

September 10, 2014 by clumpaday

I Made It To 30 Days

Clump #235: Return furniture to carpeted rooms; final cooking and cleaning for guests; bring Dickens collection to car. Day 30 of the 30 day challenge … baby!

Oh, the adrenaline is flowing, friends. But one blissful fact lifts me up: Day Thirty!! Whoo-Hooo!

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: my husband’s sisters are the greatest. Fun, warm, down-to-earth, generous … just about any positive adjective you might imagine; I can’t wait to see them. If they were here, they’d say, “Don’t fuss!” So my pre-guest anxiety is wholly and completely of my own making, out of proportion to reality. I guess that’s the puzzle I’m trying to solve in these posts.

Thank you so much for reading and following along this month. Your support has meant so much to me, whether I’ve heard from you or not. It’s always a surprise when I’ve received comments. Really? You’ve been reading? How wonderful! The following message was emailed to me today by a very dear friend. I want to embroider it on a pillow … after I stop tearing up.

relax and enjoy your sister-in-laws visit.

I’m sure everything looks lovely!

No need to reveal what is hidden or

apologize for whatever you didn’t get to

You have a lovely home.

don’t forget you live there

And its the heart & soul of your family

home is where the heart is

and yours is filled with a lot of love

So please relax & don’t fret

As promised, Charles has left the building. The complete Dickens collection is in the back of the car, ready to donate tomorrow morning. If they don’t sell at Fall Festival, I will give (read, lug) them to Goodwill. (Sorry the font just shrunk … another puzzle I’m too tired to solve.)

At the end of this challenge, I’m whittling down my to-do list to what is practical for the very little time left. But I’ve been keeping up with the mail and newspapers. (I say with a shake of the fist!) Yesterday’s Cryptoquote solution, in today’s paper, was so very apt. I can’t expect the house-transformation equivalent of a twenty-year-old tree. But second best is pretty darn good.

I’ll end with a photo I took this evening from the car on the way home from visiting my mom.

The cows were coming home. I stuck this challenge out ’til the …

September 9, 2014 by clumpaday

The Weight of The World in our Arms

Clump #234: Clear out bedrooms in advance of carpet cleaner; day 29 of 30-day challenge … one more day!

The clump for today was a tremendous achievement, but not in terms of getting stuff out of the house. Our son and I had to clear the bedrooms and basement floors of every bit of clutter before a carpet cleaner arrived. Our older daughter’s room had been serving as a holding zone for clumps that our younger daughter had mined from the basement … it was especially grueling. Too late to do the necessary sorting and decision making.

In summary, scheduling a carpet cleaner felt like the best and worst thing I could have done. Wow. Up close and personal with our excess belongings. The previously cleared-out basement storage area is now re-clogged. Nooo!

I had taken the photo below of an old Parade magazine during the big paper purge. This is exactly the way I felt today. We were working against the clock, and at one point, I said to our son, “What would I do without you?” With a strained expression and pleading tone of voice he answered, “Start earlier?” From the mouth of babes (or dudes, or gents …). The truth hurts, as do my sore muscles and back.

I guess people pay good money to do step aerobics with weights. That’s essentially what the job felt like. The complete works of Charles Dickens, below, weigh about a gazillion pounds. I have hauled them from my parent’s bookshelves to our home, to at least two used book sellers (who were not interested in buying them); our younger daughter hauled them upstairs, and I lugged them back down to the basement. Somehow this description doesn’t seem to include enough hauling steps, but you’ll just have to trust me. Talk about an albatross. Enough is enough! I’ll donate them to whoever will have them. This will be the first clump out of the basement. I promise.

I’ve got the motivation, I’m in the Tow Away Zone,

soon the wheels will be on and the junk will be moving.

September 8, 2014 by clumpaday

Sowing Seeds of Self-Acceptance

Clump #233: Clear and clean downstairs for neighborhood meeting; day 29 of the 30-day challenge … almost there!

Anxiety Alert! Today I had to get the house in shape for a neighborhood meeting, which was also a good kickstart to prepare for the visit of the Aunties (two of my husband’s sisters). I will not post before and after photos of our house. Suffice it to say it was a fairly dramatic change. I’ll substitute before and after pictures I took this past weekend on a garden tour. The photo below (held down with a nut?) was taken two weeks before the garden tour and displayed by the owners for all to see:

This was the way the garden looked the day of the the tour:

Kindred spirits like me, they obviously needed a deadline to get motivated. Below, their charming water feature:

I did a lot of thinking about the unrealistic expectations I set for myself/my house when company comes. I kept trying to remember that the most important aspect of having guests over is my own state of mind. Who wants to be with someone all stressed out and frazzled? Anxiety is a bad hostess vibe with which to infuse an occasion. I will never be Martha Stewart. HA-ha-ha! Something anyone who has ever read this blog does not need to be told!

There was one Martha-like garden on the tour:

Every detail perfection.

Harmonious, color coordinated, divine.

So much “wow” packed into a relatively small space.

I must tell myself that such perfection is not in my nature. It would make me way too cranky to bear!

September 7, 2014 by clumpaday

Mail Basket and Beacon Hill

Uncategorized
Beacon Hill, Boston, Life, Louisburg Square, Paper Clutter, Photos
2 Comments

Clump #232: Clear out mail basket; day 28 of the 30-day challenge.

I am so tired. Before I fall asleep at the keyboard, here’s a small clump I forced myself to sort through. A pile of old papers is like an archeological dig … on the top, my Rosamunde Pilcher collection of novels that our younger daughter fished out of the basement for my post-surgical recovery (I actually chose to read Maeve Binchy, also cozy reading, featuring tea-drinking characters from the British Isles), and the “trashy” book my husband bought in the airport for vacation … ah, memories.

And, after, with a few remaining papers for discussion:

One reason I’m feeling so exhausted is a bit of work on behalf of our neighborhood association. When I was in Boston this summer I took a walk through the Beacon Hill neighborhood. My Fodor’s guide book recommended a tour that took me through Louisburg Square, below. Huh. I just googled it to make sure of the spelling and found a Wikipedia entry saying that “the square has been mistakenly assumed to be private property but is, in actuality, owned by the City of Boston …” Who are you going to believe, Wikipedia or Fodor’s? My guidebook said Louisburg Square was the first Homeowner’s Association in the United States. I got a kick out of that.

It’s a U-shaped collection of very exclusive homes with a small park in the center. One home is owned by John Kerry.

Louisa May Alcott died in another (not necessarily this one)

If, indeed, they do have a Homeowner’s Association, I wonder how much they pay in dues?

And what issues come up at their meetings? Doorway beautification requirements?

Cobblestone maintenance?

Tempests in tea pots, all. And speaking of tea, more tea please!

September 6, 2014 by clumpaday

Baby Steps

Clump #231: Start clearing out younger daughter’s room; day 27 of the 30-day challenge.

I’m coming down to the finish of the get-ready-for-compay challenge. Yikes. It’s time to start cleaning out the rooms where my sisters-in-law will be staying. This will have to suffice as a “before” photo for our younger daughter’s room. I don’t want to embarrass her. She spent a lot of time doing a miraculous job of clearing out the basement. She also put a bunch of old photos in albums, and this is the corner where she kept the supplies. I can’t fault her too much for leaving her room in less than optimal condition, given how much she helped out.

A dear reader of this blog sent me the following quote, which really sums up the essence of Clump A Day:

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. –Anthony Trollope

Right now, even a spasmodic Hercules sounds good to me … but I continue to clump step by step by step …

Clump A Day

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Tag / Life