Happy birthday, Superhero Drummer Boy!

Guess who turned 3 a few weeks ago?

And for the past 6 weeks or so he has insisted on being called "Michael Alexander Crane, Superhero Drummer Boy."  He is quick to correct me when I occasionally slip up and refer to him as "Superhero Drummer Boy, Michael Alexander Crane."  If you ask him if he is _______ (cute, silly, crazy, smart, anything), he will answer "No, I just a superhero drummer boy."

Michael has been excited for his birthday ever since his cousin Abby's birthday back in October.  At that point he was informed that it would be Liam's birthday next, then Daddy's, then Jesus' birthday, and THEN his birthday.  He was a good helper at Liam's birthday party, helping to blow out candles and open presents (although in a slightly more restrained fashion than his mama--there is, unfortunately, video footage of me at my sister's 2nd birthday party where I am being so helpful you can hear my mom from behind the camera asking my dad to get me out of Dene's face).  Then we had a long Advent talking about how we were getting ready for Jesus' birthday, with Michael nearly always adding "And then my birthday!"  And finally, finally it was Michael's birthday.

Three years old.  My goodness.  When did that happen?

This boy loves his puzzles, and he was thrilled to get several new ones for his birthday.  Mostly though I think he was just excited that it was finally his turn to actually have a birthday.  Cake and lots of attention didn't hurt either, naturally.

cousin friends :)

Playing off M's love of puzzles, I decided to do a puzzle-themed party.  And by "themed" I mean I drew a couple puzzle pieces on the cake.  And when I mentioned the theme to my mom she generously donated several small puzzles to be shared as party favors with the cousin friends.  So yeah, a themed party...

Maybe some day we'll dabble in the world of organized games at birthday parties.  Like, when he's 10 and asks for games at his party.  And Mama isn't 7 months pregnant.  Baking the cake and getting the house clean-ish was enough party effort for this year!

not quite Pinterest-worthy, but recognizably puzzle-themed, right? just say yes...

So, the cake... I decided right away to do my Aunt Lisa's chocolate cherry bars from our family cookbook.  That one is always a huge hit at any Rappana family gathering, and I figured it was pretty much a guaranteed success. My baking skills tend much more toward bread and occasionally scones and cookies, but regardless I've improved my baking (and learned a little bit about baking at altitude!) since the last cake I made when M was about 3 months old (never mind that we all got the stomach flu the next day... it really wasn't the cake, but neither Alex nor I ever intend to eat caramel cake ever again).

Well, the recipe is simple and foolproof.  That is, unless one is foolish enough to decide to not bother actually following it.  It calls for a box of devil's food cake mix, but I prefer to make things from scratch (to the point of pride--and not the good kind).  No big deal, right?  A little bit of extra work, but it would be even better if it were completely homemade.  Obviously.

Until the night before M's party, when it suddenly occurred to me that the recipe in the cookbook wasn't just adding a can of cherry pie filling to an intact chocolate cake recipe.  The box provides the dry ingredients, but the wet ingredients are modified to include the cherries.  And this didn't occur to me before because...?

There was still time to get a box, but of course I didn't.  I patched together a couple chocolate cake recipes, tried to modify the liquids they called for to more or less match what was in the cookbook, and added my cherries.  And then prayed and prayed as the cake (which ended up being a whole lot bigger than anything I'd seen from Lisa or Grandma) took almost twice as long to bake as it was supposed to.  At least it didn't fall (my first Mile High cake-baking attempt ended up bearing a closer resemblance to pie crusts than to cake).

All in all I was just glad that no one (other than Alex) had tasted Lisa's cake.  Or Grandma's (especially last summer's version made from a brownie mix instead of cake).  The texture was a little off, the edges were definitely dry, and the cherries were totally lost in the somehow massive cake.  But the frosting turned out just right!  Most importantly, Michael still liked it (in fact, I got way more compliments on the cake than I felt like I deserved).  In fact, my sister-in-law liked it so much that she recruited me to make it again for my niece's birthday party next weekend, in cupcake form.  I will most assuredly be purchasing a cake mix!

Where was I?  Oh right, birthday boy!

I love you, my Michael-Alexander-Crane-Superhero-Drummer-Boy!  You truly are my little superhero, with your sweet, cheerful disposition and your affectionate nature.  You are such an awesome big brother to Liam (even when it's hard to share), and you are a constant joy to Daddy and me (even in the challenges of potty training ubiquitous "why?"s).  Your love for reading and learning--and puzzles and trains and Legos--brings a smile to my face.  I am so excited for the future with you, and I truly enjoy so many things about the present, even when the days are long.  Daddy and I are so proud of you, Michael!  Happy birthday!

Mystery Ingredient Monday on a Thursday with a Theme... aka Deliciousness

Okay... are you ready for this?

So today's Theme Thursday is askew.  And I was wondering... how do I take a picture of my entire life right now?  'Cause I kind of feel like it's all askew.  But figuring out a single picture which would cleverly portray the ways in which I feel my like is a bit askew was taking too much time and effort, due in large part to aforementioned askewedness.  Askewity?  Whatevs.

So, I chucked that idea.  Moving along to dinner preparations, Alex and I made calzones, and Alex asked his dad for his super secret super amazing pizza sauce recipe.  Okay, so it's not necessarily super secret, but it's the type of recipe that never gets written down with any measurements or proportions, so that essentially amounts to secret in my book.

And guess what?  The pizza sauce has mustard in it.  (We're coming back to "askew," I promise).  Now, I didn't make any attempt at this week's Mystery Ingredient Monday mustard challenge because I don't like mustard.  And, askewity.  So when I saw that the pizza sauce had mustard in it I was soooo excited.  Yes, I know it's not Monday.  But the link-up is still open, and as far as I'm concerned that is essentially an invitation for late submissions.

So, I present to you mustard, askew, and deliciousness, all in one evening.

Look how he's holding the mustard bottle all askew--I didn't even tell him to do that!

Mmm...mustard (not).  So, the ingredients for the amazing pizza sauce (posted with permission, I promise) are:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium can of Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can of Italian tomato paste
• basil
• oregano
• Italian seasoning
• Worcestershire sauce
• yellow mustard
• fennel seed
• chopped garlic
• onion flakes

You'll have to figure out proportions on your own, I'm afraid.  I was in the garden picking basil while Alex got his instructions.  Sorry!  All I know is if you skimp on the oregano it will be too sweet.  And don't be stingy with the Worcestershire sauce either.

Also askew: Crane men and their sipping of Worcestershire sauce.  He is seriously taking a swig, not just posing.  A skewed taste if ever I've seen one.  Gross.

The end product (with sauce ever so precariously askew):  calzone recipe from last year's birthday present of The Best-Ever Good of Bread , with personalized fillings (mine had pepperoni, Italian sausage, green and red peppers, onion, mushrooms, Italian cheese blend, and fresh basil, topped with a rosemary garlic spice mix... are you hungry yet?).  I was so proud of myself--the calzone recipe was in the bread machine section of my book, and it turned out great made by hand.  The conversion wasn't actually all that much of an accomplishment--you just need to come up with the order of ingredients and steps yourself, which is pretty standard across bread recipes.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  The crust was very light and slightly crisp and had a delicious olive oil taste.  The pizza sauce was the perfect accompaniment (not gonna lie--I can't taste the mustard which is probably why I like it).

So there you have it, folks: link-up-mash-up-deliciousness.  Check out the other (timelier) uses of mustard at Jessica's and the rest of the Theme Thursday gang at Cari's!

Summer Flavors

Once upon a time I told myself "It's okay if you don't blog for a while... summer vacation is almost here and then you'll have all sorts of time to blog."  And then summer vacation got here and I used that time to drive to Nebraska.  And sleep.  And go for walks.  And visit friends.  And sleep some more.  And go to the zoo.  Etc.

BUT!  It is finally summer, hooray hooray!  And so yes, in theory (and hopefully in practice hereafter), I will be a little more consistent about blogging.

Also once upon a time, some people that I love very much wrote about the flavors of their past week.  I've been meaning to write this post for over a week and I have all the cute pictures to back it up, so thanks Dad and Dene' for loving me anyway even though I never blog with you on time ;)

What flavor has your week been?  Our past week weeks have tasted like SUMMER!  Oh I love summer.  Well, I love the idea of summer.  And I love early summer, when you get the occasional blazing day but there's still some cool weather to be had--and I don't feel like I'm going to die of heatstroke because I went for a walk later than 6:30am.  And how convenient--that's exactly the kind of summer we're having right now!

My summer flavors have been brauts and long island ice teas set to the back drop of bright flowers and little boys enjoying fresh air and sunshine and the sand box.

Liam's summer tastes like steak.  Literally.  His first experience with meat was definitely a hit (much more so than sweet potatoes or bananas... but I'm not at all surprised to have another little carnivore on my hands).

Michael's summer tastes like "lemon juice," but in a good way.  That's what he calls lemonade, and in typical Michael fashion he refuses to budge.  It probably also tastes like sunscreen and sand, but in toddler-land that might be a good thing too.

not pictured: trusty lemon juice

Alex's summer tastes like freedom and cookies.  Freedom from any cares and worries concerning grad school, and the cookies I baked to celebrate.

photo credit: Cici

A note on the cookies... chocolate chip were Alex's request (and my mom's amazing recipe, called Cowboy Cookies for some unknown reason--still unknown, because I keep forgetting to ask her) and the chocolate chocolate cookies were my latest cookie experiment: Nutella chocolate chip cookies, which I discovered on Ana's blog.  If you check out the recipe you may notice that my cookies look a little different than the promised finished product.  Okay, a lot different.  I'm blaming it on the altitude.  But they still tasted pretty amazing, so I'm calling the experiment a culinary, if not visual, success.

We are all thoroughly enjoying the many tastes of summer!!!

Adventures in Baking: Suomalaisruisleipä

It's okay, I can't pronounce it either.  But I can bake it!

A few weeks ago I was paging through my mother-in-law's Betty Crocker's International Cookbook and found some fun looking new break recipes.  I decided the first one I needed to try was Suomalaisruisleipä, more easily pronounced as Finnish rye bread.  It was my first time baking with rye, and I was quite pleased with the result (and, judging by the fact that only a few slices were left after dinner, so was everyone else).

Ignore the unsightly tupperware I was too lazy to move...

I baked, and Alex cooked.  He constructed some amazing Reuben sandwiches with homemade Russian dressing, sauerkraut, corned beef, and Swiss cheese.  What with all that piled on the Finnish bread and paired with an Oriental cabbage salad, we had quite the international meal.  Quite the delicious international meal.

The chef--who now has no basis to claim there are
no pictures of him on this blog.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Too good for breakfast!

What do you do with a zucchini that's almost as big as your 8 1/2 month old?  Why, make muffins, of course!

My mother-in-law gave us a giant zucchini from her garden.  Maybe it's really not that big for a good ol' home-grown zucchini, but I'm used to the dinky little ones you buy at a grocery story - and this one was seriously huge by those standards.  How convenient that my mom has an amazing zucchini muffin recipe!  So last night after getting Michael to bed I was so excited to start making some muffins.  I had already decided to blog about the zucchini adventure, because I had thought up a perfect photo of a plate of muffins and the huge zucchini - very artsy (yes, Alex and I are still hooked on the Food Network - so what?).  I was able to enjoy the thought of this perfect photo for all of a minute before I realized - as I'm sure you already have - that I needed to use the zucchini to make the muffins, thus destroying my perfect photo.  Boo!  And yet, you see the photo above!  No, I did not go back to my mother-in-law and ask for another ginormous zucchini just so I could take a picture (although I thought about it).  What this photo doesn't show you is the chunk (2 cups worth, to be exact) that I took out of the back of the zucchini to make my muffins - all the while leaving the majority intact for the photo op.  I was quite proud of my problem solving skills :)

I had forgotten how good these muffins are - I don't remember the last time I had them.  But they are way too good to just have them for breakfast.  In fact, they're practically dessert.  The half batch I made last night (only one egg in the fridge - sad day!) is already gone (Michael and I shared the last one for a treat after lunch).  On the agenda for today: go to the store and get more eggs, then bake more muffins tonight.  (Of course, that depends on the cooperation of a certain little boy who absolutely refused to take a nap this morning - despite being ridiculously tired.  To be more precise, he was perfectly happy to fall asleep in my arms, but refused to stay asleep or go back to sleep once I put him down in his crib.  The jury is still out on where exactly he gets his stubbornness ;))  After shredding the entire zucchini (by hand - new on my wishlist: a food processor) I ended up with enough for six more batches of muffins - hip hip hooray!  This plethora of shredded zucchini goodness is now safely in my freezer in two cup portions (the measurement for one batch of muffins) to be pulled out whenever we need a quick muffin fix.

So, for your culinary edification and delight, here's the recipe (courtesy of my mom, with the disclaimer that she says she probably got it from someone else, but doesn't remember from whom):

2 c unpeeled, shredded zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 c oil
1 t vanilla
1 c sugar
2 c flour (white or wheat - I do half and half)
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
1/2 t soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 c oatmeal


Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar.  Mix flour, spices, soda and baking powder together in a separate bowl.  Blend zucchini into egg mixture alternately with flour mixture.  Do not over blend.  Fold in oatmeal.  Spoon into muffin pans lined with baking cups.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until slightly brown.  Makes approximately 2 dozen muffins.


Enjoy!  They go particularly well with a glass of iced chai or a cup of Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Sunset tea (decaf, for the sake of the little insomniac and the sanity of his parents)  :)