Field Trippin'

I only remember a few field trips from back in my school days...I grew up in Chattanooga and recall taking one very exciting trip to Rock City, and another to the Warner Park Zoo. The first task was packing as many of us first graders as could fit on as few school buses as possible (a novelty for me, the kid dropped off by parentals), and handing out our brown sack lunches. Then we were divided into groups of three and assigned an adult from the collection of parents or grandparents who had agreed to chaperone. For some reason, we all thought this was great fun.

Last week I took another field trip, but this time I got to be one of the family volunteer chaperones, and I must say...it was far superior to any other field trip I've ever taken. My sister-in-law invited me along to help out with her kids while we explored Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. I was thrilled to tag along! I'm always looking for ways to earn Aunt of the Year from Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thingette.

We didn't board a school bus but did enjoy comfortable, air conditioned, and safety belt-equipped seats in the minivan. Rather than sack lunches, we visited the fine dining establishment of Chick-fil-A. Field trips have come a long way. :)

Thing 1 actually put his hand in the horseshoe crab exhibit! I was shocked, as he is far from the daring type...I mean, the poor guy screamed when a three foot shark started swimming towards him from behind the glass. And I use "towards him" loosely. Like his aunt, he usually prefers to enjoy from a distance, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm convinced that Thing 2, on the other hand, would have picked up the whole crab...had he only been tall enough to reach over the counter. He's the tough one. :) 

I am not ashamed to tell you that Thing 1 and I shared a favorite exhibit...the Nemo tank, what else? It really was beautiful with the coral, and all the Nemos, Marlins, and Dories swimming around. 

There they are! Taking in life on the reef! Dory was so fast...it was hard to get her still enough for a picture, but I got pieces of several here so I guess that counts.

Poor Thing 2...maybe next year, buddy. I'm not even sure what was going on in this tank anyway. It doesn't look like he was missing much, but whatever was there, he was definitely missing. :) 

Takin' on the jellies! These things were so pretty. They just sort of gracefully propel their way around, like some kind of gangly extra terrestrial ballerina...or something. It's clear I haven't given it a lot of thought. 

Finally, something he can see! Thing 2 gets a really good look at the penguin display. 

And, lest you think we forgot her in the car, here's Thingette, who managed to sleep her way through the entire Aquarium. :) 

The Hobby Hunt

 “All young ladies are accomplished! They sing, they draw, they dance,speak French and German, cover screens, and I know not what.” --Charles Bingley, Pride and Prejudice, 1995 A&E Miniseries 

I was starting to feel very under-accomplished this week; one can only get so into washing dishes and folding laundry. So I set out to find myself a hobby. No, literally. I literally “set out” and went looking for a hobby. 

I started at Michaels, the craft store, which should make you laugh. I am about the least crafty person there is but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. I went to the back corner of the store, under a sign that said “Yarn,” and surveyed the row upon row of knitting needles. I’ve attempted knitting before, but never with any amount of success. I strain my eyes, neck and fingers trying to worm a slippery strand of yarn around an even slipperier pair of oversized “needles” (they call those things needles), all the while trying to keep count of how many stitches are in my row without dropping any of them. It conquers me every time.

I was sitting on the floor, reading through a beginners knitting book, and was really leaning towards giving it another shot when I realized how absolutely like punishment it seemed. The more I tried to make sense of the confusing instructions and indiscernible diagrams that accompanied them, the more my head hurt. I decided against putting myself through the torture again. At least for now. 

I left Michaels, my head spinning with gibberish like “casting on” and “binding off.” I decided to stop off at Books-A-Million and see what I could find there. It turned out to be a pretty god place to find a hobby. I saw books on jewelry making, gardening, flower arranging, letter pressing, soap making, origami, mosaics, “creative reuse” (fancy way of saying recycling, I think), mini-book making, and pottery. So much to choose from and still...nothing. 

My visits to book stores inevitably lead me to the cooking section, and it is here that I finally felt myself back in familiar waters. It might not be the most rewarding hobby, or have the most permanent results, but it is one in which I have gained considerable ground over the past couple of years, most recently in the bread making department. 

I’ve put my quest for another hobby on hold for now, deciding rather to continue my pursuit in bread art. Here are my latest masterpieces. :)

Cranberry Cinnamon bagels. Not the pretties thing to make, but Todd said they tasted good. I made this out of the leftover dough from my original artisan loaf (pictured in my previous post, My "What About Bob?" Moment)

After half a century of eating anything she liked, my mother contracted a bizzarre collection of food allergies, among which is gluten. This gluten-free brioche loaf gave her something other than cardboard to eat her non-red lunch meat and goat cheese (also thanks to allergies) sandwiches on.

You can't help but feel a little gourmet when you make something called Pear Tarte Tatin with whole wheat briche. It's especially good with whipped cream. :) 

With my leftover whole wheat brioche dough, I whipped up these sticky buns. They were about as good as they looked.

All of these recipes (and many more!) can be found in the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. 

I Just Had to Take My Camera: an unusual and somewhat ridiculous photographic account

 “Our life holds few distinctions Mrs Bennett, but I think we may safely boast, that here sit two of the silliest girls in the country". --Mr. Bennett, Pride and Prejudice, A&E 1995 miniseries.

Yesterday, mom and I visited a Mennonite Bulk Store way out in the country, about an hour from our home in Kingsport. 

I took my camera. 

When Todd found out that I walked all over this tiny, old-fashioned, “general store”-esque establishment (serviced by strong, capable women with varying headwear) with my Nikon slung over my shoulder, he laughed. It's ok...you can laugh too, if you want.

But I just couldn’t help it. I know I'm silly, but places like this thrill my ridiculous soul to its core for two reasons: one, the apparel of the employees transport me back a few centuries, and two, they’re uber cheap. There was no way I was going to visit such a place and not document it photographically. 

That said, here are a few pictures from our excursion. I attach them in the hope that they might inspire you to visit this little gem of a store, or one like it. We had a great time! 

Welcome to 1890s...minus the Infiniti. 

It's the bread baker's dream...an entire row of flours and other baking supplies. 

But, if you're not into baking your own bread, you can always buy a loaf of theirs.

This...now this is incredible. Choose your spice(s) of choice!

Ok, awkward confession: Honey Butter is one of my (many) made-up nicknames for Todd (if he knows you know this, he might audibly groan). Would you believe it's one of the more normal ones? I tend to call him whatever comes out of my mouth first. He takes it like a champ. :) I had no idea that honey butter was an actual substance. I wonder how it tastes...

There were lots of free samples for our tasting enjoyment. These guac bites were fantastic!

Wow! The final tally was outrageously cheap! Let me fill in the blanks for you.

I purchased (the items go in order down the receipt):

5 lbs. white whole wheat flour

.1 lb. star anise

1.3 lbs. cornstarch

1.1 lbs. wheat bran

.4 lb. cinnamon sticks

1 lb. wheat germ

.7 lb. active dry yeast

.9 lb. raw sunflower seeds

!!!

This was the absolute best part of the entire adventure. It's a peach fry pie, and it was de-li-cious! I sincerely hope you manage to eat your fill of these before you depart from this earth. I'm glad the bag didn't list the calories...it wouldn't have been pretty. 

The Evils of the PB&J

Near the end of February, I was faced with a devastating fact: I weighed more than I did in high school. No, it didn’t really come as any surprise, but all those years of staying off the scale because “weight doesn’t matter” hadn’t paid off. I was really unsatisfied with the way I looked and felt most days, and decided enough is more than enough.

That’s when Todd saved the day (as he is prone to do) by showing me MyFitnessPal.com and introducing me to the concept of the calorie. This is pretty basic, folks, but the light hadn’t flipped on for me before this point. The secret to losing weight is to eat fewer calories than your body burns! Tada! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. :)

Well...not exactly.

While this was a “clicking” moment for me, and while it did spark a two and a half month serious diet, it was extremely difficult. The first few days were literally painful. I felt tired, had terrible headaches, and no energy. My stomach was shrinking though, and within a week or two, the pain was pretty much gone. But oh...it was rough.

God obviously gave me the self-control needed to make it through the first couple of weeks...feeling hungry all the time is agony. But...the converse? The part where you watch the scale tell you how much weight you’ve lost?? A new wardrobe was a given. And oh, when you can buy jeans off a smaller rack, that’s a good feeling. :) 

Calorie counting is an aggravating art...to loose weight, I couldn’t eat more than a whopping 1200 a day. Lest you think that’s not a big deal, let me put it in perspective: a serving of peanut butter, or two tablespoons, is 190 calories. Have you ever tried to put just two tablespoons of peanut butter on a sandwich? It’s like trying to roll up a snowman with the flurries native to the greater Tri-City area; it turns out brown, undersized and held together with grass. No, I’m thinking the normal person puts more like four or five tablespoons of peanut butter on a sandwich, and then there’s the bread (ranging anywhere from 60 to 100 calories a slice, depending on the kind) and possibly jelly (approximately 50 calories a tablespoon). One average PB &J could easily eat (no pun intended) nearly half of my daily calorie allotment! 

The calorie counting made the biggest difference in my weight, but it also made me conscious of how helpful a good workout could be. If I did a workout that burned 200 calories, that’s 200 more calories I could eat in a day. Handy. :) I already exercised most days, but while I was dieting (and now, as I continue to be careful) I make an effort to be active for a portion of just about every day. 

So to sum up, my weight loss journey started as a realization that I was overeating every meal of every day, and was not getting nearly enough exercise. The change happened when I began eating smaller portions, and cutting out empty calories. I started my tracking process on MyFitnessPal.com, but only used it initially...I then just kept a rough track of what I ate in my head. 

I’m pleased to say that I’m happy with my weight and have maintained it for almost two months now! Praise the Lord! Goodness knows, I wouldn’t have had the willpower to succeed unless he had granted it. :)

This is one of my favorite summertime lunches; salad with blueberries, raspberries and pecans, with a side of tuna. :)

My "What About Bob?" Moment

My favorite Bill Murray movie is What About Bob? While I expect most have seen this hilarious flick, the premise is that Bob (Murray) has about every fear you can have, the most extreme of which is not having a psychiatrist to visit daily. Until he finds Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), Bob never tried anything new, or even normal. But, when he follows the Dr. on his family vacation, he finds himself in all kinds of previously-terrifying situations. 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie (and they’re all good) is when Bob allows himself to be convinced into going sailing with Dr. Marvin’s daughter, Anna, and her friends. The scene shows him literally tied to the mast saying, “"I’m sailing! I’m sailing! I’m sailing!… I’m sailing! I’m sailing! I sail! I’m sailiiiiiing!" As he disembarks the boat, he says to Dr. Marvin, “Isn't this a breakthrough, that I'm a sailor? I sail? I sail now?”

Well...let me share my latest “sailing” experience with you...

I bake bread! I’m a bread baker! I bake bread from scratch! With yeast and flour! I’m a bread baker! BRRREEEAAADDD BAAAAKER!

When I go through my list of wifely things that I never expected to do, bread baking and sewing were (sewing still is) at the top of the list. Bread baking scared me, primarily because I felt like it was too much work and required a bread machine. However, I recently learned that making lovely loaves (pictured below) is easy, fun, and potentially nutritious. 

The book that caused the breakthrough is Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. The book is about 300 pages and reads like a bread textbook, complete with lots of recipes for whole wheat, whole grain, and gluten free breads (among other treats). The book is part of the “Artisan Revolution” and is actually the sequel to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I went with the sequel because of its claim to produce healthy breads...I try to be semi-conscious of what I ingest. 

The method is super easy to follow and and the results are truly picturesque, not to mention delicious (also important). The secret is to make a large batch of dough on one day, without kneading, and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Pull off a hunk, let it rest, and presto! You’re ready to bake homemade, healthy bread that looks like it came from a bakery! You wouldn’t believe all the corners you can cut in the bread process, and still end up with great bread! You don’t have to proof the yeast, knead or punch the dough, or poke a rising loaf. Could it get any easier?

I’ve only tried the master recipe so far, but there are sooo many others in the book that sound amazing. I really hope you’ll check out the book, or at least the website, and see for yourself just how easy this stuff is and be able to say along with me...

“I bake bread!” :) 

Photographing Kids: Everything from what to expect...to expectoration

In my limited photographic career, I most often find children posing (or crying) in front of my camera. While a child shoot isn’t as stressful as a wedding gig, it’s certainly not as predictable as, say, an engagement session either. 

The reason for this is simple: kids are a mess, most often in the literal sense. A fun mess, but a mess. Perhaps they didn’t get a good night’s rest, or maybe there was a vegetable battle over lunch, or a tricycle accident that morning, resulting in a scabbed chin. Anything can be a factor in the quality of the pictures, and the results can vary across an extreme spectrum. 

 Allow me to illustrate.

First, we have the classic screamer. This is what you absolutely hope does not happen, for obvious reasons. It’s the worst possible scenario in a photo shoot because, honestly, who on earth wants that framed above the mantle? If you’re lucky, the little tike will perk back up with some comical dancing around by mommy. In this instance, it worked! I'm pleased to say that the unhappy camper below came around nicely :) If you’re not lucky...better just pack it up and blame the untimely teething process. 

Next, let’s move on to The Expectoration, most commonly exhibited in children under the age of 1 year as a the result of significant jostling. While an occurrence of The Expectoration does not necessarily bring about an early end to the session, it can cause wardrobe complications to the unprepared. I’m pleased to say that this particular shoot was not inhibited by the reappearance of this little man’s 4 o’clock feeding, thanks to his  lovely and got-it-under-control mama. :) 

A third example of the unpredictability of children photo shoots would be an attitude flare. The factors contributing to this type of picture are literally endless and range from outfit disagreements to a general disdain for having one’s picture made. Don't be deceived...the tiny diva pictured here is a fantastic actress. 

The prospect of photographing a single child poses infinite outcome possibilities, but do a set of siblings and you have double-infinite outcome possibilities. Yes, double-infinite is a real quantity. I would know. 

The Pulling-of-the-Hair is not an uncommon result of pitting brother against sister in a photoshoot...

...but then, neither is the inevitable Wrestle-to-the-Death. Now that’s the perfect Christmas card. Notice how they're trying to suppress the urge to completely crush each other :) 

Extra points to the photographer who can manage to capture the proper end of both siblings simultaneously. 

The “I’m going to laugh harder than you” is a fun shot to capture, but difficult to create...especially when the subjects involved are brothers under the age of 3, and if the father is unable to contort his face and body into positions hilarious enough to cause a giggling contest. Amazingly enough, we got it. 

Then there’s the sweet hand holding shot. Word to the wise: Take age and audience into consideration. Only a big sister who feels that her 11 year old coolness isn’t threatened will allow her 6 year old little sister to run up and grab her hand. 

At the end of the day, I recommend a children’s photographer try to be as laid back as possible (a laughable proposition, coming from me) and use rapid shot. That plus an especially cute subject makes taking the perfect picture easy to achieve. :) 

Pizza...pie

Today was a day of firsts in the kitchen!

A few weeks ago, I found a book called “Mini Pies” published by Love Foods and ordered it online. I failed to note that the book was out of stock and it took it forever to finally arrive, but it was worth the wait. This little gem of a cookbook contains recipes for a variety of tiny pies and tartlets from cherry cream to Mississippi mud, but the one I picked out from the beginning was key lime. Todd loves key lime. And as he is a man of many likes but very few loves, I really try to play to those. 

I decided to try these miniature pies out for my friend’s shower tomorrow (yes, one of the friends getting married...surprise surprise), as she is a big fan of the KL as well. The picture in the book has lovely little graham cracker crust cups filled with beautifully pastry-bag pushed filling, and a light lime zest garnish. I couldn’t resist fantasizing about how perfectly artistic my rendition would be, which was a bad idea. I really should have known better. As much as I like to cook, and as often as it comes out pleasantly edible (I have had my flops...), I can never make things look pretty. It is the bane of the utterly unartistic. But they are sooo cute in the book. 

Anyway, the part that had me worried was the graham cracker crust, a mixture of light corn syrup (and by “light” they mean light in color...that stuff is definitely not light in anything else!), melted butter and powdered crackers. After I combined it and plopped (my signature move) little balls of it into a mini muffin tin. Todd gave me the brilliant idea of pushing another muffin tin on top to mold the crust to the cup! He’s such a genius. After I got it started with the tin, I finished forming with my finger tips and the back of a small spoon. Pop them in the over to bake for a few minutes, let them cool, and presto!  Little graham cracker crusts! I was really impressed with how well they turned out, and held up. I removed all of them from the tins without breaking a single one, and for this aesthetically challenged girl, that’s an accomplishment!

The filling, unfortunately, was a less successful venture. The ingredients were just heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and zest. I wondered how that combination would thicken, and with good cause; it never did. 

There are a couple of possibilities here: either I didn’t whip the heavy cream long enough to allow it to thicken, or my limes were extra juicy. Regardless of the cause of the failure, the result was a bowl of limey liquid and an emergency trip to the grocery store. I ended up going with a cream cheese based filling, which still included sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and zest. It created a thicker filling, but still not the right consistency for a pastry bag presentation. So, I just used my old standby technique: the 

highly technical plop. 

Here’s the finished product; I'm really rather pleased :)

Friday nights are traditionally pizza nights at the Overbeek house. Usually this means throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, but tonight, I used a recipe my highly resourceful sister-in-law was good enough to provide. Just yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and white/wheat flour go into this tasty vehicle for sauce, cheese (not for me, thanks) and meat. And I do mean meat. I better not find a vegetable on my pizza. Actually, just keep them off my plate altogether. 

While Todd and I are generally carnivorous, we rarely ever cook with red meat. I have discovered that turkey will work for just about anything. For tonight’s pizza, I cooked up some italian turkey sausage. I also use turkey for tacos, burgers and meatloaf. It’s leaner and I really prefer the taste. 

The crust was super easy to make, and takes next to no time at all if you have a KitchenAid mixer. Like my mom does. Maybe I made my crust at her house. Maybe not. 

Put a jar of my mother-in-law’s homemade pizza sauce on that delicious white/wheat crust and you’ve got...pizza Friday! 

The Year of the Wedding

It is a distinct possibility that 2012 will go down as the year of the most weddings ever officiated. It’s only the first day of June (historically a very popular month to say “I do,” I might add) and I can count several weddings I’ve attended. Before the summer ends, I will have been in two weddings and photographed a third. I have a dish on my end table in the living room that is filled with wedding-ish invites, ranging from the actual blessed event to showers and bridal luncheons. I access Facebook with anticipation, wondering whose status has changed today from “In a Relationship” to “Engaged”. 

My bank account has seen the effects of all this as well. I have a standard price range for wedding gifts and, if I’m being honest, I’d probably better go ahead and confess that I have a standard gift as well: Target giftcard. So I don’t like printing registries or finding the “18-piece Antebellum Sterling Silver Service Utensil Collection,” which is invariably impossible to locate. Judge me.

Beyond the actual wedding gift, there’s the “girly” shower git to buy as well, if you’re a friend of the bride, and trust me, the frills and the lace do not often run cheap. You’ll breath much easier when you darken the doors of the delicates provider of your choice if you can rope a pal into going in with you.  

Your financial trouble may end there...if you’re not in the wedding, that is. If you are, I’m sorry. I’m a bridesmaid twice this year, and I must say that the ladies getting married (congrats Jordan and Liv!) did an excellent job of finding their bridesmaids really affordable (I’m trying to keep it chic by avoiding the word “cheap”...but it would apply) dresses. I’m talking sticker price of  under $30. I have great friends. In addition to this, they both--unbeknownst to each other--settled on the same color shoe so I can kill two wedding-white love birds with one Vera Wang size 8 1/2 nude color stone. But you should probably not dwell too long on my good fortune...this isn’t really the norm. 

Money aside, there’s the actual day of the wedding to consider...and days before the wedding, in some cases. Our first wedding of the year was a big one. My husband's best friend from school got married, and Todd was the best man...and cake designer/decorator. He did this incredibly brilliant (like himself) bronze cake, with a huge cake ball decorated like the Dailey Planet and a motorized Superman actually flying around it! The thing was sharp, no doubt about it, but the creative juices required to assemble it had leaked out all over my living room floor. I'm not sure how the bride and groom's houses faired, but my place definitely looked like a ransacked wedding central.

I was just thinking this week how much of a person’s day they are willing--nay, obligated--to surrender to the social event that is the wedding. Especially if they are in the actual ceremony. For instance, I’ll arrive at the wedding I’m in next week at 10:00 am, and will probably leave, exhausted, at about 5:00 pm. That’s almost an entire work day for most of the country. Add on the three or so hours I’ll spend at the rehearsal the night before, and I’m making overtime. 

But when it’s all over, the screams and maniacal waving of the be-ringed left hand, the shower invitations and white wrapping paper (because who wraps a bridal shower gift in circus tent stripe-color paper because they didn't have anything else remotely appropriate...moving on...), the choice of music and cake flavor, the new dresses and incredible achy feet at the end of the day, everyone thinks back at how much fun the last few months have been. It’s been great to see so many people I know prepare to tie the knot with their beloved this year.

 I’ve heard this is just my time in life, that it won’t always be like this. I’m “at the age” of weddings. In a couple of years, I’ll be “at the age” of babies, and with the kind of action going down this year, that age will probably be the second Baby Boom. Regardless of the “age” I find myself in at any given point, though, I hope I can come out the other end of it saying what a good time it’s been... 

I do love a good wedding. :) 

This was taken at a wedding I photographed last month. Congrats Coupers!