Desmond 7 Months

"He'll be crawling by Christmas." Your father has said that a million times in the past few months. I've had my doubts. You had developed a somewhat ridiculous mode of transportation that involved getting on all fours from a sitting position and then doing some kind of forward thrusting twist into another sitting position a few inches closer to your destination. You've been pulling up on things for weeks and I kind of suspected that you just might walk and never bother with real crawling at all. But, of course, your father must be right in all things and lo and behold on Christmas Eve you bloody well crawled all the way across the room.

Grandma put a giant pile of Cheerios (actually organic oat rings or something like that) on her very inorganic living room rug and lay (lied?) down to coax you into making the trip to her. I'm sure she has convinced herself that you were going to her, but the truth is you would do just about anything for a Cheerio these days.

And wow are you moving now. It's been, what, four days since Christmas? You are a crawling demon! You can pull up on things. You can let go of those things to stand precariously on your own for several seconds. (Even though you can crawl you are still far more interested in standing.) You can pick things up with your thumb and forefinger (like Cheerios). You sleep pretty much through the night like a pro.

We spent Christmas at Grandma's house with Sharyn and Robin and Kyle and Regan and Mr. Bradbury. You were a hit because you love everyone, which is so nice. I know you don't get that business from me. Now I have to find a place to put the ridiculous quantity of toys you received in our ridiculously small house.

On the last day Bentley, Sharyn and Robin's dachshund, got hit by a car. He escaped while the cars were being loaded up and a van hit him and drove off. Who does that? Poor baby. We thought he was going to be ok, but now they're saying his shoulder is smashed beyond repair. They love that dog so much. He's the friendliest dachshund I've ever met. I hope he's going to be alright, but it doesn't look good right now.

I'm so sad about this dog that isn't even mine. I can't imagine if it had been Rufus and all I wanted to do after hearing the news was hold you and verify your intactness. But it's hard to stay sad around you. You make everything better.

I think we're moving soon. Dad got a job in Tallahassee. We're waiting for the offer that will arrive this afternoon. If it's good enough, we'll take it. It will be hard for me to leave Grandma and Grandpa and KK and PaPa (and it will probably kill them) but our life is definitely not going to be in Palm Bay and I'm ready to start it where it will be. More on the job next time, I'm sure. I've started thinking about how we can sell this house and how we can get one up there. There's so much to do I'm not even going to spell check this post!

Love,
Mom

*(three days later) I had to come back and spell check after all.

** Bentley has had surgery. They are "cautiously optimistic." Don't know if he'll walk again at this point, but he probably won't have to be put down.

Bow Tie Cookies with Apricot Preserves- photos only- they look better than they taste

Rustic Dinner Rolls

Soupe au Pistou, generic salad from a bag of greens, and Rustic Dinner Rolls. A great winter dinner. If only we had some of that around here.

The soup is full of garlic in a supposedly immunity-boosting way. The pistou is hiding at the bottom of the bowl so that when you pour the hot soup over it the broth is instantly flavored with basil and garlic. And when you stir it? You don't have plain vegetable soup anymore, but a gorgeusly green new creation.

Unfortunately, the recipe is tragically flawed, which I suspected when I noticed that it did not involve soaking the garbanzos. Dried garbanzos take a notoriously long time to cook, even with the quick-soak method and, sure enough, they were not completely done. I'm not keeping the recipe for that reason, but if I made the soup again I would soak the beans overnight, or use a can in a pinch.

These rolls from Cook's Illustrated, on the other hand, are perfect. Dense and chewy with a crunchy crust, almost like sourdough without the sour.





They do require quite a few steps and risings, but all kneading is done in the stand mixer, which makes for very little actual work.





Rustic Dinner Rolls
Yields: 16 rolls

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water (12.5 ounces), room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons Instant or Rapid-rise yeast

2 teaspoons Honey

3 cups plus 1 tablespoon bread flour (16.5 ounces), plus extra for forming rolls

3 tablespoon Whole wheat flour (about 1 ounce)

1 1/2 teaspoon Table salt

Instructions

1. Whisk water, yeast, and honey in bowl of stand mixer until well combined, making sure no honey sticks to the bottom of the bowl. Add flours and mix on low speed with dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

2. Remove plastic wrap and evenly sprinkle salt over dough. Knead on low speed 5 minutes. (If dough creeps up attachment, stop mixer and scrape down using well-floured hands or greased spatula.) Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing 1 minute. Lightly spray 2-qt bowl with nonstick cooking spray; transfer dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Fold dough over itself; rotate bowl quarter turn and fold again. Rotate bowl again and fold once more. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let dough rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

4. Transfer dough to floured work surface, sprinkle top with more flour. Using bench scraper, cut dough in half and gently stretch each half into 16-inch cylinders. Divide each cylinder into quarters and each quarter into two pieces, and dust top of each piece with more flour. With floured hands, gently pick up each piece and roll in palms to coat with flour, shaking off excess, and place in prepared cake pan. Arrange 8 dough pieces in each cake pan, placing one piece in middle and others around it, with long side of each running from center of pan to edge and making sure cut-side is face up. Loosely cover cake pans with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. (Dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with finger.) Thirty minutes before baking, adjust rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees.

5. Remove plastic wrap from cake pans, spray rolls lightly with water, and place in oven. Bake 10 minutes until tops of rolls are brown; remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 400; using kitchen towels or oven mitts, invert rolls from both cake pans onto rimmed baking sheet. When rolls are cool enough to handle, turn right-side-up, pull apart, and space evenly on baking sheet. Continue to bake until rolls develop a deep, golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 10 to 15 minutes; rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Transfer rolls to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Cook's Illustrated November & December 2008

Because the dough is sticky, keep your hands well-floured when handling it. Use a spray bottle to mist the rolls with water. The rolls will keep for two days at room temperature stored in a ziplock bag. To re-crisp the crust, place in 450-degree oven 6 to 8 minutes. The rolls will keep frozen for several months wrapped in foil and placed in a ziplock bag.

To the rescue!

How are cute baby contests not sending me notifications that I've won without even entering? Thanks Jen!!