A few good gems

Happy Friday! I'm pretty darn happy to not wake up at 5 AM come Saturday morning -- my eyes feel so scratchy and tired! Plus, I'm super excited to see my BYU Cougars play University of Houston -- live and in person at Reliant Stadium. I've got my game day shirt all ready to go, and I've been practicing the BYU Fight Song for days now. Rise and Shout!

But before I go, a few links for your weekend perusal. . . 

via Darling Magazine

A monthly food swap? Sign me up. This one is beautiful. 

Here's a fascinating book review on Claudia Hammond's Time Warped. She actually proposes that we can control how we experience time: "We construct the experience of time in our minds, so it follows that we are able to change the elements we find troubling." I'm totally into this because when I'm waiting in line or in traffic, I'm practically crawling out of my skin. Also, I might want to lengthen out those moments I'm on a deadline, or reading a book in bed, or eating donuts. And . . . who isn't interested in mind control? Seems like a good middle age (parent of teenagers) hobby.

This is a must-read NYTimes article on how to deal with (and avoid) teen drinking. There are so many differing opinions on when and how and if to introduce drinking to teens. The article is careful to mention a number of teen drinking philosophies. Interestingly, there is statistical evidence that encourages postponing the first drink as long as possible -- that later start dates actually encourage more moderate drinking practices in later life. So there. No drinking kiddies!

I just happened upon this site, so I haven't had time to give it a proper shakedown. But it looks like it could be a good resource for YA fiction. 

While I can't recommend the ABC series, Nashville (what the heck are they doing to Tammy Taylor?), I am a fan of teen singers Lennon & Maisy. This is my latest find. I'm campaigning to have Becca learn to sing it. It's soooo good.

Like Annie, I'm thinking about Christmas over here and browsing through Etsy for interesting and beautiful gifts: 

• Love this print. And these mid-century beauties.
• This gnome pattern (But I'd have to make it myself, which ISN'T happening.) 
• These Christmas cards. Since my people are all over the place, this could replace the family photo. She only allows three people on the card, but I could try begging. 
• Becca gifted Maddie one of these when she left for college. More for Christmas! 

But while I'm waiting for Christmas, I really need these donuts. Someone. Please. 

A few good gems

Venus's lovely path over a year's worth of still photos. Summer solstice is on top, winter at the bottom and equinox where they cross.  Via

A few things to tickle your brain and/or your fancy this weekend:

- Malala Yousafzai, you are extraordinary. (Extended, unedited Jon Stewart interview here. BBC Interview here. Interview in The Atlantic here. Her speech to the UN here.) 

-The London Symphony Orchestra just created a new interactive online video experience where you can watch the orchestra play Ravel's Bolero (and I imagine they'll update this now and then with different pieces), interact with different camera angles and discover more about the musicians and instruments. Also? There are masterclasses on selected instruments and on Ravel.  Brilliant. Try it here. Created by the folks at Sennep. (Thanks, Swiss Miss.)

- This is a very cool, one page giant 2014 planner by Present and Correct. (Thanks, Pinterest.)

 -I Was Not a Pretty Child (by Hannah Dale Thompson), a poignant essay on growing into yourself and how "beauty, a word I am very hesitant to use self-referentially," she says, "is a terrible drug" (via Longreads). 

-Grammar geek humor! Kudos to Kind of Sketchy's Grammar Pirate comic strip.

-Speaking of grammar, how attached are you to the apostrophe? 

-Loved Christina Vanko's Modern Day Snail Mail project. After finding the pen of her dreams (her dad's old calligraphy pen), she decided to send only handwritten text messages to people for a week. (Thanks yet again, Swiss Miss!) 

 -I'm pretty excited about the partnership between the Paper app (by FiftyThree) and Moleskine. Oh, the book-making possibilities. Check it out!

I'm digging this Read Instead poster from BOOK/SHOP. If I don't order it, this just might be my next art project--it's no string art (loved that, Sarah) but it's a baby step in the right direction. (Thanks, Cup of Jo.)

- Dumbo Feather is one of my (many) favorite Aussie finds. It's a fantastic publication (both online and print) that lives up to its tagline: conversations with extraordinary people.  Every one of their thoughtful interviews inspires me and the magazine itself is an honest-to-goodness design treasure. Maira Kalman, Brene Brown, Maria Popova (this issue, not yet online), Alain de Botton--just a few to get you started. 

-We've been traveling a bit these last couple of weeks since it's been our spring school holidays here. I'm looking forward to cozying up in my own house this weekend and doing more nesting, less launching. I think we're going to try these Avocado Cream and Chicken Suiza Enchiladas.  And in the tried-and-true category, I can attest to the deliciousness of these Apple Brie Tarts. Even my picky brie-cheese-hater loved them. 

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Cooking again

After a summer of watermelons and popsicles, Fall finds me ready to cook something warm, and thick, and hearty. Something with substance. Something to sustain me over the 9-day winters of southern Texas. Okay, maybe sustenance isn't what I need exactly; it's more like comfort. Yes. That's it precisely. Bring on the comfort food.

You know what else seems quintessentially Fall to me? Pragmatism. In the Fall months I'm all about buckling down, getting things organized, checking things off my list. And thus, for your perusing pleasure, some practical matters concerning cooking: 

1.  I've recently been cooking from The Family Flavor, a new cookbook I came across through the blog, The Little Red House. The author of the blog, Sheena Jibson, is the photographer of the cookbook. Got all that?  At any rate, the cookbook, so far, is great and I'm extending my whole-hearted recommendation. Lots of flavor and fresh, unprocessed foods, but not so foodie that you need 3 1/2 hours just to prepare the side dish. So far I've made the Cheesy Chicken & Rice (which my family loved), the Curry and Yogurt Roast Chicken, and the Cornbread & Beef Bake with Sweet Potatoes & Green Chiles. I also have all of the ingredients to make Slow-Cooker Italian Sausage & Vegetable Soup, and honestly? I'm pretty darn excited about it.

2.  Sheena Jibson, the photographer, is also quite the cook. Her Baked Eggs with Tomato, Parmesan, and Fresh Herbs is my favorite breakfast. I make one serving (it takes about three minutes) and throw it into my toaster oven after I get the kiddos off to school. The result is smoky and rich and delightful, like something you'd get at a quaint little brunch place in Brooklyn. Except I'm in Houston. And often there are dirty dishes. Try it. I promise you'll love it.

3.  BULK HERBS!  Am I the only person who has wrongly ignored the bulk herb section of the grocery store?

Lately, I've been buying small packets of bulk herbs and refilling my existing jars (McCormick, Morton & Bassett, Central Market). I know this sounds mundane. But seriously folks, I get a little giddy as I'm hunched over the big jars of spices -- using the tiny scoop to move the spices from jar to bag. I feel like I'm getting the deal of the century.

See the big owl pictured above? It holds 1/3 cup. That's 1/3 of a cup of basil. And guess how much that cost? 11 cents! You can't buy ANYTHING for 11 cents. Except basil. And I LOVE basil. Are you catching my excitement? 

The 11 cent package is empty because I dumped it into the owl measuring cup to see just how much volume you got for 11 cents. Holy cow. Just imagine how much basil I could get for $1.00. The possibilities are endless. My mind is spinning. BASIL. That is all.

I also bought 54 cents worth of sage and 28 cents of thyme. I know. I'm getting jiggy with it.

I'm thinking I need to beautify my spices by corralling them all into a system like this or this. It's totally my style to spend the savings I garnered in bulk shopping on pretty organizational items. Don't judge me.

Guest Post: Grandma June's Apple Bars

Lucky us! Christie's guest post today will have you running to the kitchen and gathering the ingredients for these apple bars. You need these in your life, my friends.

. . . 

I married into a pretty amazing family.

My mother-in-law is a stylish, outgoing, thoughtful woman who embraced me from the beginning, even though I sported big bangs, a bad perm, and mooned over her goofy son like a lovesick puppy.

She has always been my biggest cheerleader and I will always be her biggest fan.

It stands to reason that she comes from pretty good stock herself.  Her mother (my husband’s grandmother) was every bit as amazing.  She defined classy, and I would give my right arm to have just a pinch of her sense of style.  She threw parties like Martha long before there was a Martha.  She was a gourmet in the kitchen and a hoot to play cards with.  Some of my favorite newlywed memories are going to dinner with June and Giggs, then stopping to pick up a movie, and watching it back at their place.  

I loved her.

When she passed away a few short years after I married Josh, we all mourned the loss. They divided up her cookbooks and spread them amongst the granddaughters.  I received a cookbook that was for apples.  Each and every recipe in the book is for an apple dish of some sort.  Apple desserts.  Apple snacks.  Apple chutneys and meat marinades.  

The real treasure to me was flipping through and finding her neat handwriting and margin notes on recipes she had tried or liked.  

Having a husband that begs for all things apple, I set out to try a few.  The one I am sharing with you has become my absolute favorite.  It is sort of a shortbread-like crust, with warm apples and cinnamon, topped with a sweet, sugary glaze.   It. Is. Delicious.  I cannot help but think of Grandma June every time I make it, and wonder if somewhere out there, she knows, and is smiling.

In fact, I’m pretty sure of it.

-----

Grandma June’s Apple Bars

3 ¼ + 1/8 cup flour, divided

1 ¾ + 1/8 cup sugar, divided

¾ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

1 ½ cups butter

3 egg yolks

4 cups sliced and peeled apples

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

2 ¼ Tsp. milk

Combine 3 cups of the flour, ¾ cup of the sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in butter until crumbs are the size of peas.  Stir in egg yolks.  Press half of mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan, and reserve the rest.  Combine apples, remaining flour, sugar, and cinnamon.  Place apple mixture over crust in pan.  Sprinkle with remaining dough crumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Cool and drizzle with thin icing of powdered sugar and milk.

Enjoy! 

---

You can find Christie at her blog Stie's Thoughts, where she's been keeping track of her family's adventures and hilarious sagas since 2006. She and her family have lived in Utah, Minnesota, Seattle, Boston (where our paths thankfully crossed), San Diego, St. Louis, and now lucky Dallas gets them for the foreseeable future.

A few good gems

Happy Friday! I know many of you have started school already. To tell you the truth, I'm always a wee bit ambivalent about the start of school. I'm sad to lose our slower mornings and lazier days, but excited to reintroduce some structure. I do love some structure -- that's the nerdy, controlling side of me anyway. At any rate, we have ONE more week of summer, and ONE more week before we send our baby girl off to college. I'm a little better prepared this time around, but it still feels kind of hurt-y. (At least there's the dorm room to DECORATE.)  

In my structure-less anticipation of the upcoming school year, I leave you with a few good gems: 

via offbeat + inspired

• I've got my Zoku in the freezer so I can make these Peach-Banana Smoothie Popsicles. It's clean eating. All the cool kids are doing it. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
  
• I know you've probably already seen three zillion links to this. But just in case it's skipped your corner of the Internet, you should definitely read about the Opt-Out Generation. That's us folks! (Not that all of us opted out.) What I really, really like about this article is that the difficult (impossible) situation of middle-class, American women is clearly delineated. The two-income household is stressful. The stay-at-home situation has its drawbacks. The returning to work scenario is difficult. You get the idea. Read on my women! (And my men!)
• This article is hilarious. And I tend to agree with the premise. Do you want your daughter to be nice? 
• Anne linked to Cathy Zielske's essay on her daughter's last year at home on our Facebook page, but I think it bears repeating. It's a beautiful tribute to motherhood AND to her relationship with her daughter. Bravo Cathy.
• This envelope pillow tutorial is genius. I've been contemplating sprucing up our living room, so I might whip out the old sewing machine and make a few of these.
• Finally! An article telling parents how to handle sending kids off to college. Written by a USC Dean of Students, the article brakes kiddo-launching into three phases: disorientation, reorientation, and new normal. My personal three stages are stunned and sobbing, walking around with a hole in my heart, and comforting myself with food. But the Dean of Student's way is probably better. Probably. 

A few good gems

I'm still in New York, but I saved up these awesome gems all last week. Just for you. I'm sure, by now, I've gained at least 5 pounds since vacation to me means moving from one great restaurant to another. So, by virtue of extreme caloric intake, I bring to you. . . A Few Good Gems:

via cornerblog

Ever since the tissue pom hit the design scene, I've been a big fan of hanging decor. I've experimented with changing it up a bit -- hanging lanterns, hanging marshmallows, hanging mobiles. My new hanging love? These giant paper peonies. CornerBlog makes them into pinatas (and come on, who doesn't love a pinata?). I do admire a peony.

 Jane Austen is the face of the new ten pound note. Now that's what I'm talking about! The bummer is she doesn't go into production until 2017.

I actually happened upon this Richie Parker video (which is amazing) at This Little Miggy. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The human ability to adapt is incredible, and this guy's attitude is humbling (to say the least).

Tom Rinaldi reports on the life of Richie Parker, who overcame being born without arms to become a chassis and body component designer for Hendrick Motorsports.

This is a real product currently being produced by Rustoleum. It's completely blowing my mind. 

I've never been good at suffering my children's disappointment. Because I NEED to make things okay for them. Uh oh. Read the whole article here.

"During those years between routine extrication of choking hazards from my first born’s chunky hands and now, I never gained fluency with the two-letter word “no.” I tried to make everything better — way too often. I never mastered the “oh well” shrug, because I was unable to tolerate my children’s disappointment. Had I been able to say “no,” my life would be easier, and so would my children’s." 

My husband has long had a penchant for Magic Shell (you know, the ice cream topping). And look! You can make it yourself! I'm going to make it for him as a BIG OLE SURPRISE! Isn't he lucky?

Perfect, thick & chewy chocolate chip cookies

For years I was a bit of a chocolate chip cookie floozy. Indiscriminate and flaky, I would leap from recipe to recipe. There was an oatmeal one I liked. I tried a couple of recipes handed along from friends. I even made the Toll House or Ghirardelli back-of-the-package recipes now and then.  They were all pretty good.

Then these little wonders came into my life in 2008 and I have never wavered from them since. I can't take much credit for it. I've added my own twists and touches but I can hardly claim this recipe without a salute to its geneology: I got it from Annie's Eats, who adapted it from Blonde Ambition, who adapted it from America's Test Kitchen. Since then, every single time I bring them or give them, I'm asked for the recipe. Like clockwork. Even my Sunday School class of cute little 12-year-olds asked for the recipe.

So I feel confident promising you: you will not regret making these. They are thick and chewy (not cakey), with this spectacular little glossy crust on the outside. I think what makes them so good are a few little differences: the melted butter, the extra egg yolk, the specific method of forming the dough balls and pulling them apart with a rough top surface before baking, and the rotating of the pans midway through baking. They're small details but well worth it. You'll see.

Oh (at the risk of over-selling), the deliciousness ahead of you! I'm a little jealous you still have your first taste of these lovelies in your future: 

Perfect, Can-I-Have-the-Recipe, Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2-3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 Tbsp unsalted (salted is fine, too, if that's what you have) butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla (sometimes I use just 1, depending how sweet I want them)
1 cup milk chocolate chips (I use Cadbury since I have it here in Australia) 
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (Cadbury or other good chocolate)

. . .

Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment (sometimes I skip this). 

Whisk dry ingredients in medium bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugars until combined. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat/stir just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. (The dough will feel a bit more moist than you might be used to. It's going to be okay, though. It's all part of the larger plan.) 

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball, then pull the ball apart into two equal halves. See how the edges where they separated are jagged?  Rotate the halved dough 90 degrees and, with the jagged surfaces facing up, place the dough onto the cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball. (These are big cookies so I place six per sheet.) Once you've filled both cookie sheets with portions of dough, put them on the upper and lower racks of the oven, trading their positions once halfway through baking (which will be at about 6-7 minutes). Bake until cookies are light golden brown and the edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (about 11-14 minutes total). 

 (Please turn a blind eye to the state of my oven and pans. Thank you.)

Cool cookies on cookie sheets for a minute or two, until you can lift them without breaking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. They're divine when they're still a bit warm. I dare you to try not to roll your eyes to heaven when you take a bite. (If you're feeling creative, you can also use coconut or m&ms or nuts or broken pretzel pieces.)