little helper

i love how much she enjoys being in the kitchen. 

she has her own kitchen at gramma's house

and one in her room here now from nana. 

her specialties are soup, pot pie and cupcakes.

although she has fake food,

she usually uses non-food items 

like play dough, animal magnets, necklace beads and tissues.

or anything else lying around.

when it's ready, she'll bring it to someone and tell them
"close eyes!"

(she never tells us to open them...so we just do)

then she gives it to us and watches us eat it. 

over

and over

and over :)

she helps in the real kitchen too and does a pretty good job, 

mainly with stirring, and adding things to the pot -or blender.

she has smoothies down pat.

i get a little nervous but she has it under control!

i wonder if i'll encourage eli to help in the kitchen too...

maybe when we make things like burgers.

and steaks.

?

ha. 

we'll see.

happy tuesday y'all! 

after nap aftermath

you never know what after nap is going to look like. 

the room or the girl. 

it's anyone's guess!

sometimes she changes clothes,

sometimes she tucks her animals in for a nap while she plays.

sometimes she carefully removes all the pictures from her bulletin board 

and places the tacks in a measuring cup neatly on the dresser. 

(kinda impressive/dangerous)

sometimes she cooks... 

and sometimes she sleeps til evening.

ya just never know.

but today i was kinda afraid to enter..... 

it didn't look good.  

oh my.

i stood in the doorway, just looking at her, with my head kinda tilted. 

she then said with a voice like she's in trouble:

"iiivyyy!" 

"what has ivy been doin in here!"

"ivy make big mess.... such a mess.... pull-ups, animals, toys, other things....."

"ivyy!"

all in a row. 

gotta say, it was funny.

we cleaned it up, had a little talk and that was that. 

believe it or not, i've seen worse.

trust me. 

:)

itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookies

These make a million teeny tiny cookies. It is kinda time consuming, but they are really cute and very addicting! These are adapted from the blog 101 cookbooks, where I learned about whole wheat pastry flour.  I haven't totally converted though, I always use 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat... in cookies, waffles, oatmeal bars, etc....  but make sure it's pastry flour. 


5 ounces mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used half white, half ww pastry)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup pecans, very finely chopped 
1 stick  butter, at room temperature
1 cup  brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, pecans, and chocolate. Set aside.

Using a mixer (or by hand) beat the butter until fluffy. Beat in the sugar and mix until it is also light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir by hand until the ingredients barely come together into a dough.

Scoop out little 1/2 tsp of dough, roll into a ball and place two inches apart on your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7 minutes or until cookies are golden. 

enjoy! 


(these kinda look burnt in the picture, but they really weren't, i promise! haha)

easiest butternut squash soup

recipe from WHOLE FOODS:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery
1 onion, diced
4 cups cubed butternut squash (this is pre-chopped and ready to go at WF)
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
4 to 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add carrot, celery and onion. Cook until vegetables have begun to soften and onion turns translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add butternut squash and thyme. Stir to combine with vegetables. Stir in chicken broth and season with salt and pepper. 

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until squash is fork-tender, about 30 minutes.  Let the soup cool slightly and carefully puree in batches in a blender. 

You could also add 1-2 T or so of  curry powder if your last name is Kanneganti :) 

It's really good!  

snowy saturday

watching one of ivy's favorites - babe :)

father/daughter outing

where do you go when you want to get out of the house, it's too cold to be outside, and your dad is kind of a nerd? why, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, of course! ha. it's basically diagonal from our building, so like a 3 minute walk. that's about as far as they could go in the freezing snow! kevin said she liked it pretty well, but got a little scared of the huge dinosaur skeletons. when she came home, i asked her what she saw and she said "big monsters!"   (kevin!!)  he's excited to take her back and check out more things.  i wouldn't mind going sometime to see the glass flower exhibition. it was created by a father and son in germany - they started in 1887 and it took them 50 years! kinda cool, no? 

am i in scotland?

we came back to freezing weather and snow covered grounds.
we also came home to a table full of gifts from the UK.
a family of five from london stayed in our apartment during the holidays while we were away (organized through our church) and left us tons of goodies including some books for ivy, fortnum & mason teas and walker's shortbread.
i had a flashback while strolling ivy in the snow and sipping my english tea :)
it took me straight back to st. andrews.

it's been a tiny culture shock coming from texas, but it's actually really beautiful and nice out.
just don't let me forget my gloves!!!
fuchsia leather ones to be exact :)  thanks mom.

hope y'all are having a wonderful january!

love

back to cambridge, or world's longest post

cab ride home

blueberry scones

we got back to cambridge monday after a long visit home for the holidays!

 i was feeling a little anxious about being 

on my own again 

after having so much help/care/everything at home, 

but i was also ready to get back in my own place and start fresh. 

new year.

new semester.

everyone a little older and wiser.

even before our plane landed, i had a good feeling about getting back.

 it's an emotional test of strength every time we pack all our stuff back up 

and i have to separate my kids from family for another few months. 

(dramatic much?) 

but i am getting so much better at it, i'm almost even good. 

(not sure if that's a good or bad thing). 

but i think i'm growing and learning 

and stretching and trusting. 

last semester may possibly have been, 

sorda

 kinda 

maybe in a way

a whiff for me. 

i really want to be someone who can handle life gracefully come what may, 

but i actually did a pretty poor job. 

(st. andrews =A, cambridge = ehh, C-). 

i gave a decent effort,

 but couldn't completely let go of woe-is-me: 

i don't have a car!/a friend!/mom/ac/washer dryer.....

where is a non-ghetto target and a family friendly restaurant 

and where in the sam hill is a normal grocery store?? 

 i was tired. 

i was stressed.

i was tired of being stressed. 

the break was a good long time for me to soak up all the help,

 go to cabo,

 rest, and get my act together. 

and it took every second. 

but i'm back!

 i feel good. 

i made some NY resolutions, 

planned out a routine for the kids, 

and let my helper go. 

 (i'm not totally helpless, 

there's another wonderful girl who babysits when we need it 

and that's a blessing.) 
but i feel like i'm becoming myself again
after a somewhat stressful transition. 

anyway, this post is not really finding a point so let's wrap it up. 

i do want to say though that our first day back was a huge answered prayer. 

so many friends (ok like 3 but that's a lot for me) 

called/texted/dropped by just to say welcome back. 

one even brought over scones. 

they probably don't know it, but it meant so much to me. 

here's to another year!

28.
come what may. 

hope y'all don't think i'm crazy.

love to all.

chaiss 

ps. i don't understand the new blogger format (clearly). agh. sorry! 

mom's loaded oatmeal cookies

1/2 cup crisco

6 T softened butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup finely chopped pecans

preheat to 350.

beat the crisco, butter and sugars in electric mixer.

add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.

add combined flour, baking soda and salt.

fold in oats, coconut, chocolate and pecans.

drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

bake 11 minutes or until golden brown.

let cool (just a little bit).

eat warm with milk.

enjoy!

5 months

5 things:

1. no longer the baby of the family.... olive's taking over.
that was a short little run, but he's still the only boy!
maybe he'll get a friend in june.

2. he sleeps in gramma's closet... 8pm - 10am straight yesterday. but sometimes he gets up for a 5am feeding.

3.he plays in the exersaucer, the swing, the bumbo, but his favorite is to hang in someone's arms. he has the funniest look on his face (mouth open, basically expression-less) and just hangs, taking it all in. (there's a lot to take in).

4. he takes a bath in the bumbo in the sink in the laundry room. i realllly wish i had a huge sink to bathe my kids in at home. maybe one day...

5. nicknames include tank, moose, honeybun.... and ivy calls him "baby eli" (sounds like ee-yi).  but sometimes when he has a dirty diaper or he's fussing she'll say "eli james!"  haha.

ivy & gus

i am so behind on the blog!  this is just what happens when i'm in texas. no christmas, birthdays, new years, recipes, hardly any olive, etc. i tend to keep things simple over here (hence, short + sweet) and i guess the holidays and being home make me feel overwhelmed! too much going on, so i don't even try. oh well. maybe i'll catch up with it later. for now, i'll just start with this picture.... 

 ivy riding her first horse!  this was at the ranch over new years. this was like a dream come true for her. she has been watching youtube clips of horses since she was like one. i don't know how that even started... maybe from riding a carousel??  maybe from not having a TV in st. andrews so things had to get super creative?  well, she loved it so much and ended up riding every day. she learned just how to place her hands and kept them there perfectly the whole time with the hugest grin on her face :)  so cute.

happy new year to everyone!

niece #3

olive rae kanneganti

december 28, 2011

10:12 PM

8 pounds 15 ounces

21 inches

ollie the dollie :)

such a sweetheart.  

congrats to gen, prav and esther!