World of Julie

Congratulations to Anne and Kat C. for winning the calendar (chosen through a random number generator).

Don’t despair if you didn’t win! Just go get the calendar for yourself! You can buy it through the Savoring Maine Calendar website, at the stores listed on the blog, or from Amazon.com. Mmm. Blueberry buttermilk pie…

January 5th, 2009 | Tags: Food, giveaway, maine | Category: thirty second post |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Lady Lollipop and Clever Lollipop by Dick King-Smith

When I put out my huge request for chapter book titles, Anne mentioned The Water Horse. We read that (loved it), which led us to read Babe:The Gallant Pig (loved!) which led us to reading these two books about a pig named Lollipop that we have, so far, loved most of all (though I am fully expecting to read another as-yet-unknown-to-me Dick King-Smith book next week that I love even more).

These are the stories of Princess Penelope, who wants (and gets) a pig for her eighth birthday. The pig she chooses belongs to an orphan boy named Johnny Skinner, who becomes her friend. These are chapter books, but are quick reads, liberally illustrated, and funny, with good, quick-moving plots. Dick King-Smith clearly has a thing for pigs, but that’s alright, because after reading all these books I think we all have a thing for pigs too. Or at least for Lollipop, who is a genius.

The boys like to act out all the parts of this book, or to at least spend the day pretending to be the characters. I can’t believe I’d never heard of these books before last week. Why aren’t they revered as time-honored classics? Seriously, all of you, go get these from the library and read them immediately. Henry, age 5, loves them, and Eli, almost-3, is rapt with attention. Dave and I love them. I’ll even go so far as to say that 6-month-old Zuzu loves them, because she gets to be Princess Penelope and it means her brothers are fawning over her, and she loves that.

January 5th, 2009 | Tags: books | Category: Children's Book of the Week |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

Yeah, so I’ve been feeling a little leaden lately. And kind of annoyed by the over-the-jeans bloopage. I know I only had a baby six months ago, but right about now I get frustrated by my regular clothes not quite fitting right, and feel like it’s time for Action to be Taken.

So I am all about the Body + Soul magazine challenge. (Body + Soul is this Martha Stewart magazine that’s about food and living and balance and hippy crunchiness, and I have to say I really like it. I’ve almost let my subscription run out a few times, mostly because I subscribe to too many magazines and feel like all I do is read magazines and never books anymore, but then I decide that I really like what this magazine has to say, and the photos are lovely and always give me a chance to explain some new fun food to the kids, like turmeric or rutabaga.) I’ve done the Self magazine Challenge in the past, and that has definitely been helpful, but I am appreciating the whole mellow tone of the Body + Soul one right now. It seems to be more about holistic balance and mindfulness (not only eating whole grains and exercising, for instance, but also writing), which is totally what I feel like I need right now. I feel like the holidays made me into a bit of a shrieking exhausted chocolate eater (ha ha! you tell yourself that, Julie! Sure! It was the “holidays” if by “holidays” you mean “children” and by “shrieking exhausted chocolate eater” you mean “the usual loonbucket that you normally are”).

This challenge thing officially starts tomorrow, so I’m letting you all know that I’m doing it, in case you wanted to do it too. Not that I’m actually asking for buddies in this, but I didn’t want to mention it two weeks from now and have you all wishing you’d started it too. Of course, this is very presumptuous of me and assumes you care about my every in-breath and out-breath, but there you are. Perhaps you do. So: tomorrow we start by cutting back on caffeine and sugar, preparing for the dietary cleanse (which is basically eating whole grains with vegetables and beans), drinking a lot of water, and writing for 20 minutes about diet. The whole challenge lasts only 35 days, which I totally think I can handle, and which should also be a nice way to start the year.

I will also say that I do so much better with a magazine telling me what to do than having to actually be self directed, or (heaven forbid!) having an actual person in my life telling me what to do. I don’t know what it is in my makeup that is more likely to follow the advice of magazine editors than of the people who actually know me and care about me, but luckily for me, magazine editors seem to be a limitless font of directive advice.

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: challenge, diet, exercise, fitness, Food, health, mindfulness | Category: Julie |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (16)

Hey everyone! Don’t forget to leave a comment by midnight tomorrow (Sunday) so you have a chance to win one of two Savoring Maine calendars!

January 3rd, 2009 | Tags: giveaway | Category: thirty second post |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

So sometimes your kid comes up to you with a ridiculous request, like, “I want oatmeal in the biggest bowl we have!” And sometimes you are feeling snippy and you sigh and sort of pretend you didn’t hear and give him oatmeal in a regular bowl. But then sometimes you slept a little more than usual and so you think, “Why not?” and you give him oatmeal in the biggest bowl you have. And yeah, he sort of thought you were going to fill the bowl, but he was so delighted that you actually gave him this giant bowl, that he didn’t even complain about the fact that there was the normal amount of oatmeal in there.

It just goes to show you: if you’re a cranky mom 95% of the time, your kids are totally psyched when you are a normal, pleasant person.

January 2nd, 2009 | Tags: attitude, breakfast, Food, Henry, oatmeal, Parenting | Category: Children's Book of the Week, Eli, Food, Henry, Parenting, housekeeping |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Last week there was so much latke talk that I just couldn’t stand it any more and had to make some. Of course we had no potatoes, but I had this bee in my bonnet, and was very happy to find a recipe that could use the sweet potatoes we did have on hand. Yum! Pardon me as I say that there is no good way to photograph food in my kitchen after dark. They were much more appetizing than the photo might lead you to believe. We had them with a spinach frittata. It was a fake healthy food dinner, because it was really kind of like greasy diner food, but it was made with a few superfoods (spinach, sweet potato) so we’re all antioxidanted or whatever we need to be to lead long happy lives (and eggs? are eggs a superfood? no, I don’t think so. but at least we got our RDA of lutein).

I did follow the suggestion of one of the recipe’s reviewers, and drain the latkes on a wire rack over paper towels, and I think that did cut down on the grease a little, for what it’s worth. The kids were very happy about this entire meal, also, which is always an exciting occurrence.

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: Food, holidays, sweet potatoes | Category: Eli, Food |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

On Christmas morning we had these cinnamon buns from King Arthur Flour. A few years ago we made fancy yeast-raised cinnamon buns on Christmas morning, and they were great, but took a lot of time, and so Christmas morning became more about taking a break to bake something.

The buns we made this year were so easy it was kind of dumb. I felt like I was making that Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie or something, like these were Mock Cinnamon Buns. All you do is make biscuits (I made ones from How to Cook Everything), shape the dough into balls, roll the balls in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar, and then throw them in a pan. The dough recipe I used fit perfectly in an 8×8 pan. Then you wrap it up and stuff it in the freezer, and when you’re ready, put it in a 350 degree oven for an hour.

We had ours with scrambled eggs, and I think the boys were frankly astonished that I had magically produced this unbelievably yummy baked good seemingly in the time it took me to put my contacts in. I’m telling you all this in case you want to go and rightthissecond make this so you can have it tomorrow morning for New Year’s Brunch, maybe with a mimosa or something. Because cinnamon sugar is supposed to guarantee good luck for the year (in World of Julie’s Fantasyland).

December 31st, 2008 | Tags: baking, breakfast, cinnamon, Food | Category: Food |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (4)

Hurray! I have not one, but TWO Savoring Maine calendars to give away, thanks to Stacey’s generous donation. I am so in love with the gorgeous photographs in this calendar. I would love it if it only had the photos, but then! there are also recipes! I have three words for you: Blueberry Buttermilk Pie. Also: Sauteed Chard with Coconut. And: Pear and Cranberry Caramel Crisp. Also also: Fingerling Potato and Arugula Salad with Fontina. There was another one, too…ah, here: Fiddleheads, Maine Shrimp, and Smoked Ham over Fettucine (though that one may call a bit more on very-Maine-specific ingredients than others).

One incredible photo per month, one tasty recipe per month, each month featuring a fabulous Maine ingredient, and every month sure to be enjoyed by everyone, no matter where you live.

Go to the calendar’s website to read all about it. Go to the blog to read more about all the recipes and see more amazing photos, these of the recipes themselves.

I can’t recommend this calendar highly enough. The photos and design are beautiful. The recipes are mouth-watering and contributed by Maine chefs and foodies. And have I mentioned Blueberry Buttermilk Pie?

Then enter the giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment to this post before midnight on Sunday, January 4. On Monday I’ll pick two winners and send your calendars out immediately. Good luck!

December 30th, 2008 | Tags: art, Food, giveaway | Category: Food |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (19)

Let’s appreciate the fact that, as I sat down to read an article about how I, personally, am conquering clutter, my living room looked like the photo at left. “This is a fun house where no one ever sleeps!” the children said. It took me a minute to realize they were talking about the fort-from-chairs thing they were building, because this [Julie waves her arms generally at house around her] is a fun house where no one ever sleeps.

Yes, ha ha, Dave and my mom (who was visiting) and I all had a hearty laugh over the fact that I am featured in an article on decluttering. The fact is that I am a cluttered person by nature, a pack rat who often finds herself in Goodwill with an armload of cute-but-impractical shoes and small pottery pitchers (and who often then has to say, out loud, “Put it back, Julie”) (thus ensuring that I am a hypocritical decluttering expert who also talks to herself).

I told Dave, “Well, maybe I am more of a real declutterer, you know? Because I am really dealing with it, every day.” He looked skeptical.

It’s just awfully hard to stay clutter free with so many humans in the house who not only make general messes of what’s already there, but also bring in all kinds of new clutter (such as the daily possibly-genius-should-I-save-it art projects). And I have now spent every day post-Christmas walking around in tiny little circles, a new gift toy of some kind in my hand, as I revolve slowly, trying to figure out where this new thing goes.

The key is to stay on top of it. Clutter breeds clutter, and before you know it all of the little piles have hatched into sub-piles and they are marching across the counter and spilling onto the floors. I have to get rid of things daily, or else the piles start to stage a revolution, and they drag down the mood of the whole house, until we’re all suddenly beating back large grey clouds of gloom that can only be removed by taking a large black garbage bag around the house and filling it with junk. I try to deal with it before it gets to that point.

December 29th, 2008 | Tags: clutter | Category: housekeeping |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (9)