Thursday, November 27, 2008

I Think I Need a New Rolling Pin

I've had the same rolling pin since Brandon and I got married. We got married 2 weeks after I graduated from college and with Brandon still needing one more year. Money, we did not have. So I went to my mom's and took any extra dishes/utensils she no longer needed. I ended up with a hodge podge of things, but at least I had a somewhat functioning kitchen.

One of the items she sent with me was her rolling pin. It is not a fancy rolling pin, in fact, some might consider it kind of ugly. It is green and plastic. But I remember my mom rolling pies and biscuits with this very same rolling pin. I remember standing in the kitchen waiting for my piece of biscuit dough. Or watching her make pinwheels out of the left over pie crust dough. One of my fondest memories is my mom baking in the kitchen using this rolling pin.  

My family loves biscuits and pizza. Both things we make on a regular basis and I find myself reaching for this same old rolling pin almost weekly. I like the idea of my boys creating memories of me baking them a special treat. They already stand there begging for a bite of dough as I try to us my rolling pin to roll it out.  

Unfortunately, my rolling pin had an unfortunate encounter with my vacuum cleaner. I am not sure what happened but before I knew it one handle of the rolling pin had been sucked up into the vacuum cleaner. Needless to say, neither appliance has been the same sense.  For a while, my rolling pin looked like this:

Still usable, just missing a handle.  Well, I'm not sure what happened but now my rolling pin looks like this:
I just put it back together every time I need to roll dough. It is not working our so well, but I am managing.  Why don't I buy a new one, you ask?  Because I am hoping that under the Christmas tree I will find a new rolling in from my mom.  I can not just go to the store and buy some random rolling pin.  I want the connection I have with this broken, old, plastic one.  

As I teach my boys to make pie crust, homemade biscuits and pizza dough, I want to think of my mom showing me how to make the same things.  Girls or boys, who doesn't love homemade apple pie, fresh biscuits with honey, and, well, in our house roasted beet pizza!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Many Faces of Micah

The other day I looked at Micah and realized his face was changing. Slowly going away is the baby face I know and love. I am excited to see the more boyish face that is emerging, but I am sad to say good-bye to the rolly-polly baby face.

His "I'm smiling for the camera" face

I'm not quite ready for this new look of his - I still want his baby smile!

This is my absolute favorite. This is the first time I can see the boy he is about to become.  He reminds me so much of a Carlson boy and of my nephew who shares the same name.


Friday, November 7, 2008

Soup, Soup, Soup!

My boys love soup. More specifically, they love grandma's soup.  It all started when my mom babysat Jack every week. One of the things they did together was make soup and Jack 'grew-up' tasting grandma's soup as it was being made. My mom would leave it for us for dinner and it was my favorite night of the week. Dinner would mostly be made, I would make homemade biscuits, and we would sit down for a yummy meal with little work.  Since I stopped working last year, my mom's soup has disappeared.  I was about to ask her for some soup when she came down to babysit one Monday morning with a fresh pot of soup.  Oh, I was so excited!

Since then my mom has sent down soup every other Monday when she comes down to watch the kids. We are back to having soup on our menu and the boys are loving it.  Each time we have my mom's soup, Brandon raves about it. I would be jealous, but she really does make the best soup. Mine always ends up with the same 4 ingredients: chicken, carrots, noodles, potatoes. It is good, but not very interesting.

Now when I put the pot of soup on, I hear Jack say: "I made that with grandma!" and Micah finally use a word "soup!".  It makes me smile. 
I'm hoping to see some cabbage patch soup come my way soon!