Chocolate Ganache in a Jar

I love ganache! It is my first choice for chocolate frosting.
It tastes incredible, and is super easy to make:
Chocolate Ganache
* Equal parts dark chocolate chips and heavy cream
* Clean jar with lid, large enough to easily accommodate chips and cream
1. Pour cream into the jar. Microwave (without the lid!) until cream is very hot, but not boiling.
2. Add chocolate chips. Screw lid on tightly, and shake shake shake!
3. When it's all blended, you have ganache, easy as that.
You can store it in the fridge in the same jar you made it in, no need to dirty a mixing bowl or food processor. While it's warm, you can pour it over cakes, cookies, or cupcakes for a smooth, shiny glaze. If you chill it, you can roll it into truffles. I've heard you can whip it into a fluffy frosting, but I like the glaze so much I never tried whipping it.

I invariably have some left over. And you don't just throw out homemade ganache! I make hot chocolate with it or spread some on bread to give Suzy a treat.
With the latest batch, I had very little left, so I let Suzy scrape the jar. Yum:


She was a happy girl.


Num num num!


Chocolate-induced bliss:


All good things must come to an end...


...but that doesn't mean she has to be happy about it.


But she can be consoled by knowing she sports an awesome chocolate mustache!

Vintage Linen Covered Lesson Plan Book

Every school year I cover a lesson plan book. I consider it a necessity. My favorite lesson plan book is a Ward. It has the perfect layout, but it is homely:



So homely that I would plunge into depression looking at it's grim industrial face everyday. So I pretty it up with a cover made from a vintage pillowcase.
It's a very easy, no-sew project that you can finish in less than an hour, depending on how handy you are with a glue gun.

1. Gather your supplies: lesson plan book, pillow case, 2 pieces of white felt, ribbon, rotary cutter and/or scissors, and a glue gun. Not shown is a piece of coordinating card stock.



2. Glue the felt to the covers. I line the bottom left corner of the felt up with the bottom left of the front cover, not going over the spiral.



The felt will hang over the other two edges, like so:



I find it is easier to glue the felt down first, then trim the edges.



Do the same for the back cover.



Now open the book, and use the edges as a guide to cut off the excess felt.



3. Cut off the hem (the double thickness on the open end) of the pillow case. Center the open book on the case. If you are using a thicker pillow case, you could cut it open around the edges and only use half. Generally the vintage ones I like are very thin. The pattern has more oomph in a double layer, so I keep it intact.



4. Cut a slit in the pillow case to the immediate left of the spiral, from the edge of the case to the book cover. If for some reason you sneeze and cut a notch out like I did, brace yourself to go forward with the project anyway by reminding yourself that the Japanese consider imperfections enhancements to beauty. If you know for a fact that the Japanese do not believe that, don't tell me.
Fold the top and bottom edges over the cover and glue in place.



5. Trim off the fabric of the folded edge that hangs over the left edge of the cover. This will reduce thickness for the next step.



6. Fold the left edge of the pillow case down. Tuck the corners in neatly, like you're wrapping a present. Glue it in place.



7. Take your coordinating card stock (I used a file folder) and cut it generously enough to cover all the raw edges on the inside cover.



Glue down.



8. Like in step four, cut another slit, but to the immediate right of the spiral. It makes a little tab the width of the spiral spine.



9. Fold it up...



...and tuck it under the spine.



Repeat steps 4 through 8 for the right side.

11. Decide where you'd like the ribbon trim to be. I tend to prefer it one-third or one-quarter of the way over from the spine, though depending on your pattern and trim, you may like it better centered or nearer the left edge, or running horizontally. A less busy print or solid may look nice with ribbons of a variety of widths or colors. Secure it with a few dots of glue.



12. Open the cover, bring the ribbon down, fold it under, even against the edge of the card stock. "Wouldn't it be neater to add the ribbon before you glue down the card stock, so you can hide the ribbon ends under it?" you ask? I applaud your discernment. I hope one day to have your talent for foresight.



13. My favorite part! Every year I choose a theme verse for my teaching and write it on the inside cover. This year I chose Matthew 11:29. It has always been one of my favorites, but I saw it in a new light when I was looking for verses about teaching. To teach my daughter well, I have to first learn from Jesus. I also pray that I will have His gentleness and humility in how I teach Suzy. And when I feel burned out, I can be reminded that He is the rest for my soul.



The embellishment on the inside is an arrangement of flowers cut out of scraps of the pillow case. I attached them with a glue stick, easy as pie.



If you can't read the above page, it says, "Teacher: Momma, School: Penland Academy for Young Ladies, Room: guest, Grade: first."

Here are this year's book and last year's book side by side:




When you're done, you'll have one-of-a-kind lesson plan book.



A pretty, cheerful lesson plan book makes me a happy teacher!

Avgolemono Soup

I was driving and listening to Mississippi Public Radio. I heard a man talking about his Greek family in Mississippi. Mainly he talked about food, southern classics combined with Greek home-cooking. It made me so hungry! As soon as I got home, I googled a recipe he mentioned his grandmother made for him every time he visited, avgolemono soup.
It had three things that always appeal to me in a recipe. It was exotic, cheap, and easy. I worked it into the next week's menu.
The day I was cooking it, Nate headed to the door to do some yard work. I said, "Dinner will be ready when you're done."
He said, "Smells great! What is it?"
"Well, I know you love Greek food, so I'm making a Greek soup. Avgolemono soup."
"Oh, that's neat. What's that translate to?"
"Uh..." I looked away, pretending to be very busy stirring, "Near as I can tell, from the ingredients...um, egg lemon soup."
Silence.
I looked up. Nate stood at the door, speechless with the dim hope his wife was joking, but going cold with the knowledge that she was not. I am, after all, the woman that once fed him Vanilla Butternut Squash soup.





You'll be shocked to know that I was the only one in the family that liked it. Nate declared it edible,but said he'd only want to eat it again if we were utterly destitute and couldn't afford hot dogs. Suzy wept into her soup bowl.
Before bed, she came to me and thanked me for the food. I said, "Aw, did you decide you liked it after all?"
Her eyes widened, possibly with fear that I'd make it again. "No, no not at all! But Daddy told me to say thank you anyway because you worked hard. But I did not like eating it."
Yep. I ate leftover avgolemono soup for lunch for a week.






If you'd like to make your family sob at the dinner table, here's the recipe?

Like a Baby Hat Machine...

Here is another lot of toppers for little noggins. I think the baby hat fever I had for several months has nearly abated, so I don't know when there will be another batch.





A pink pixie. The top is an i-cord that loops over.





This has a vaguely teddy bear look to it.





I like the look of this one. Love that blue.





This one is my favorite. Saving it for my little boy, should I ever have one. Hope hope hope!

A Baby Hat! On a Real Baby!

I've knitted many baby hats this year, but haven't seen them on a baby yet. I was so excited to see sweet little baby Eva wearing the hat I made for her.
Isn't she pretty?









The pattern is the Special Day Silk Hat from Amanda Keeys' book Baby Beanies - Happy Hats to Knit for Little Heads.



I didn't use silk, but a bamboo blend, naturallycaron.com's Spa and it was very soft. I love the shade robin's egg blue. It's very feminine while giving a nice alternative to pink.

Adoption Testimony

"We don't need a baby," the woman sniffed, "That's why we're fostering to adopt." I had just met her in the local library. We discovered that we had daughters the same age, we were both pastor's wives, and that our husbands graduated from the same seminary. Soon we found that we were both in the adoption process, we happily discussed the beauty and need of adoption.
When we shared which types of adoption we were pursuing, though, I could sense her disapproval gathering. Snobbery can infect all human activities, even adoption. She would have rejoiced had I been fostering, and she would have accepted it gladly if I was adopting an orphan internationally, but domestic infant adoption? That was just too much. It was not the same creature at all, and she was nipping this friendship in the bud.
I have encountered that attitude (and it's opposite, the "Thank the Lord you're getting a sweet baby and not an older kid" attitude) since my husband and I decided to pursue domestic infant adoption. Both attitudes assume that we started this process from a need to have a baby. We do not need a baby, yet I understand the woman's opinion on it, because it was once mine as well.
For years prior to our official process, I studied international adoption. I poured over websites and forums. I kept up with the news of various countries' programs, who was opening, who was closing, the living conditions for orphans, anything I could find. I knew that one day, when God opened the door for this poor seminary couple to adopt, I would be ready. I was like a race horse at the starting gate, completely focused on international adoption as my goal.
Domestic infant adoption seemed to me not just lesser, but selfish. There were so many orphans needing homes, why insist on a baby? And what about the risks and instability of the birth family taking the child back? No, that was definitely not for us.
When the time finally came that we were able to begin adopting, we went to an information meeting at Bethany Christian Services in Memphis, Tennessee. We were, of course, only interested in the session on international adoption. My husband and I were very interested and engaged, and were whispering back and forth about which country, exactly, that God might lead us. The domestic adoption session was immediately following. We were not at all interested, but seeing how we had a sitter...and someone from our church may consider it, so as the pastor, it would be good for him to be informed about the process, we went.
It woke us up. The legal security in placement was explained to us, and dispelled many of our misconceptions. Then the beauty of open adoption was presented, which we had not previously thought of, and had also many misconceptions about. Finally, the need was shown. The social worker told us the previous year, her office had two African-American baby boys who they could not find homes for in the region. They had to appeal to an office in Pennsylvania to place them. It broke our heart. Here was a need, in our backyard! Here were children, in need of a home, in need of love, but for their ethnicity and gender were shut out.
And what of the mothers? I imagined a woman considering adoption, but hearing, "We don't currently have any families open to, uh, this situation, but maybe in up north?" How crushing would that be to her? Would she give in to despair, and go down the street to Planned Parenthood? Who was going to stand in the gap for these babies? Who was going to say to these women, "We will love your children. We want them. We will raise them. They are precious, and so are you?"
That night God does what He so often does, and moved our hearts and plans away from what we were so determined, to what we had previously rejected. We chose to switch to Bethany's domestic infant program, and let our dreams of international adoption be filed away - at least for now. Instead we look forward to welcoming and loving a new baby into our home, which ever ethnicity or gender God chooses to give us. We look forward to building a relationship with the birth mother, and honoring her place in our child's life.
We love adoption - foster, international, domestic. One is not more noble than the others. Perhaps one day we'll even complete the trifecta. We know that in all of them, God calls His children to shine the light of Jesus.

Wandering and Waffle Cookies

My mom posted this cute cupcake idea on Facebook.



So I went to Sugar And Meringue, and saw the cutest baked goods! I couldn't believe how sweet everything looked.
Look at these button cookies. They may be my favorite cookie ever.



I was just drooling, looking at the posts, knowing I have neither the equipment or talent to make any of them. Then I came across these waffle cookies.



Now, I do have a waffle iron. True, the one time I used it was a disaster. The batter stuck and burnt and I had to scrape the whole thing clean for a ridiculous amount of time and I swore off homemade waffles in frustration. But maybe because I had spent the past 30 minutes looking at pretty cookies I had absolutely no chance of making, I was willing to break out the old waffle iron for one I had a slight chance of making.

The concept was to make up a cookie recipe you like, then instead of baking them, pop them in the waffle iron and have them done in 90 seconds. Easy!

I wanted to try this low-calorie chocolate cookie recipe, mostaccioli. So Suzy and I whipped up a batch as a mother-daughter project. It would be a fairly easy recipe normally, but baking with Suzy is like having an affectionate monkey in the kitchen with you. Flour and cocoa get scattered everywhere. A little blond curly head bobs up and down incessantly at my elbow. That's only in the first 45 seconds. When she gets bored, at about the 50 second mark, she begins hanging from around my neck like one of those stuffed monkeys with velvro paws.

But I knew how sad and empty the house was the week she was gone, so I didn't mind! Still, when I plugged in the waffle iron, I gave her a jar of Nerds candy to go eat so she wouldn't hang around and burn herself. I am only a little bit embarrassed that I throw out candy to distract my child. A little bit more embarrassed that I had a jarof Nerds. Very embarrassed that I know longer have a jar of Nerds, and that my child spent the afternoon weeping from the sugar crash. Learn from my mistakes!

So here's what I did while my child was ruining her teeth:


You just plop a cookie scoop or tablespoon of dough in each section of the iron. Close it up, and in 90 seconds (but I didn't even time it) you have cookies! Like these:


The missing one just stuck a bit to the top iron, but came right off.



Suzy's tasting one. She's thinking about it...



She totally posed for this, the little ham. She didn't like it really! Maybe her taste buds were singed from Nerd overload.



And here they are all on a platter. The recipe calls for a chocolate glaze, but I was out of powdered sugar, so they are bare. They're not very sweet without it. I think they go great with coffee, but they won't be very popular with my family unless I get them iced. Maybe I can convince them to use maple syrup!



I will definitely make these again, when I have all the ingredients to make the chocolate glaze. I want to try other cookie recipes in the waffle iron too. If I get one that's a hit, I'll let you know!