Virtual Coffee {30}

Hello dear friends, welcome to coffee.

The holidays are upon us and time is accelerating as it does when you’re extra busy. Since we’ll be in Houston for Christmas I wasn’t in the mood to set up a whole, big song and dance for Christmas (also, I didn’t want to have to be taking down Christmas ornaments in February when we get back, and it’s not like the husband’s going to do it when he’s home alone) so we got a teeny, tiny tree this year and let the kids decorate it themselves.

If we were really having coffee I’d also tell you that I must be pms-y already (it’s like a month long thing now) cause this morning I was walking through the toy aisles at the grocery store and I saw an older lady looking up at the toys and then squinting down at a piece of paper with a confused expression on her face and as I got closer I realized she was looking at a kids Christmas list. A really long Christmas list, might I add, with pictures and stickers and such and I got all teary-eyed. God knows why. And as I passed by her I whispered something along the lines of “Happy shopping, Santa Claus” and she laughed and mentioned grandkids. It’s hard here to connect with people, even during the holidays. Everyone minds their own business and no one ever interacts with strangers. I miss that about Texas, the random “Happy Holidays” and “howdy do’s” (not that I actually went around saying howdy do). So this small, insignificant connection with a stranger made me happy, and teary, cause I’m a hormonal mess lately.

seriously tiny tree

I would also tell you that I got the husband’s party all organized finally, kind of, sort of, mostly anyways. I have a venue, guests and his present, so I’ve got the basics down. This week I’ll figure out the rest. My Christmas shopping, however, is not all that advanced. In fact, it hasn’t even gotten started. Thank goodness “Santa” in the US got all the kids presents already so I don’t have to worry about them.  Although, it’s strange, along with the crazy hormones I’m also strangely calm about everything. I’m walking around with a very relaxed “it’ll all get done” attitude. I’m just sort of wondering how, and by whom….

One would almost think I was pregnant, though I’m not, though I kind of wish I were… but that’s fodder for another post.

very proud of their handiwork

Ok, I’m off to get some Christmas shopping done, or I may just sit outside and enjoy the sun on my face cause it’s a beautiful day out. After all, the Christmas shopping will get done somehow.

we finally wrote our letters to Santa

Now mosey on over and say hi to our hostess Amy!

p.s. though it’ may sound like I’ve been smoking weed, I actually haven’t, I’m just really mellow lately. Maybe I should switch my decaf for some real coffee…

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All I want for Christmas is--- Monday Listicles

So I’m back from taking the week off from blogging. Although, I didn’t really take the week off from blogging as I went around and read (and tried to comment on) all my usual blogs. I guess I just took the week off from writing. I don’t know how I benefited from it apart from going to sleep a little earlier every night. Anyway, I’m easing back into the swing of things by joining in with Stasha, a.k.a. Northwestmommy for Monday Listicles. Today’s prompt is the ten things I hope for this Christmas, which should be easy enough as all I’m doing lately is revising everybody’s Christmas wish lists and writing Santa letters.

What I hope for this Christmas:

1. Sleep. The girl appears to be sleeping better, this past week she hasn’t woken up every night so I’m hoping this keeps up, improves even, and most importantly doesn’t all go to hell from the jet-lag when we go to Houston this year.

2. A bra that fits. The single most terrible thing about living in Italy is that they don’t measure bras in cups and inches (or centimeters), and it’s pretty hard to find a cup size larger than a C. So I usually end up having to buy a cup size that is too small or, in the rare event that the cup size is fine the band is too big. Since I haven’t been back to the US in three years and have been pregnant twice since, you can imagine what state my bras are in. My first stop as soon as I land is a lingerie store. (And target, no one’s keeping me away from target).

3. A book. And not just any book. I want to find a really good book, and I want to read it all the way through in one sitting. And it has to be an actual paper, real book. For once, I’d like to just take a few hours and read a book uninterrupted instead of maniacally thumbing through my kindle in line or in a waiting room, cause it seems I only ever read on electronic devices nowadays at the post office, at the grocery store, in the doctor’s waiting room…

4. Someone to organize all my movies, shows and music. My one and only New Year’s resolution last year was to declutter my life. I’ve managed to do some of it, still working on a lot, but what I haven’t gotten around to, and frankly have no desire to get around to it is organizing my movies, shows and music. And since chucking it all in the trash is not the answer, I need someone to just come over and do it for me. Ok? Thanks.

5. Find a school I’m happy with. I knew this was going to be an issue sooner or later, but honestly I expected it to be a little later. I don’t like the Boy’s preschool. I’ll get into the whys and hows another time. I’ve talked to them again, but if I don’t see some serious improvement I’m going to have to look for a different school and I’m not all that hopeful cause I’m afraid that what I take issue with may just be a cultural thing and not something I can fix. But I want him to enjoy school, I want him to be happy. He’s going to be in school for a long, long time starting now, and it has to be a positive experience.

6. A house. We’ve been renting for a really long time. In fact we’ve been renting forever since I’ve never owned a house. We’ve been looking at houses for the past twelve years (I’m not kidding), we saw hundreds of apartments in Milan and we’ve seen many, many houses since we moved out here in the middle of nowhere. So it’s time. I want to find a house that doesn’t make me vomit and that I can afford. How friggin’ hard is that??

7. Shoes. As I’ve mentioned I own quite a few shoes, but as I get older I’m less willing to settle for second best. So this year for Christmas I want a pair (or two) of really comfortable high heels, that make my legs and ass look great, but (and here’s the clincher) that don’t hurt my feet if I stand for longer that 13 seconds.

8. Abs. Without breaking a sweat. Enough said.

And now the last two, serious ones:

9. Happiness. This one’s two-fold. I want my children to be happy. I want to know they’re happy. I don’t want to spend many a waking (and some a sleeping) hour worrying about their happiness. And I want to find a way to make the people around me a little happier. I’m not being all altruistic either, I’m want this for me, because if the people around me are happier than I’m happier and more relaxed.

10. Health. Lately it seems all I ever read about is the great vaccine debate (which, incidentally, I now feel compelled to write about, so be warned you’ll find a ranting post in the near future), but I gotta tell you, I don’t give a crap if my kids (or I for that matter) get the flu or the chicken pox or whatever else that’s not life threatening but just a massive pain in the ass. I do, however, want the husband to be healthy. And I don’t want him to be healthy for now, or not get sick in Houston or anything short term. I want him to be HEALTHY. I want leukemia to be a forgotten word, somewhere in the distant past. I want him to be healthy for a really, really long time. In fact, I want him to die of old age when we are so decrepit that death seems like a new and exciting adventure. I want him to see his great grandkids. So Santa, or whoever, forget the rest of the list and just give us HEALTH. I can take care of the rest myself. Thanks.

So tell me, what’s on your Christmas wish list?

I wasn’t killed by a turkey

So, I didn’t suffer a fatal attack of indigestion after thanksgiving, which, incidentally, we celebrated on Sunday here because it’s not a holiday weekend in Italy. I know, why?  

Anyway, just wanted to let y’all know that I’m on hiatus this week. I’m tired and have no writing in me. So, instead of putting out half-assed crap for you to read I’m turning in early and catching up on my shows, hopefully this will get the creative juices flowing (and, more importantly, unclog my tivo). Or something.

But I’m not leaving you high and dry… I have pictures for you. Thanksgiving pictures. Because now that you’ve finally finished off the turkey leftovers and are starting to forget the family drama you absolutely need me to bring it all back to the top of your minds. You’re welcome.

Thanksgiving 2011 

Despite being in Italy, away from home for most of us, there was food:

the spread

yeah, baby!

dessert.... (the healthy fruit salad? just for show!)

And festive mise en place:

The womenfolk in the kitchen:

All the men cleared out when we mentioned carving the turkey... wimps!

Friends relaxing together:

The little kids. The big kids weren't all that keen to be photographed.

Love:

and lollipops:

 And outdoor fun

Mischief:

I'm not sure what she was getting into, but her who me face says it all!

 And dishes done:

me, in the kitchen

And lots and lots of this:

See you next week!

Butterfly (natural) Red Velvet Birthday Cake

Growing up in the south Red Velvet Cake is pretty much the birthday cake, it’s also one of those cakes about which everyone has an opinion… and these opinions are never mild mannered. Generally anyone from the South will think that anyone above or away from the Mason-Dixon line simply doesn’t get Red Velvet Cake and shouldn’t attempt to make it.

Red velvet cake needs cocoa, but isn’t a chocolate cake, it needs cream cheese frosting, some say it needs some sort of nut, most agree on pecans (I personally prefer it nut free), but the biggest point of contention is the food coloring. Nowadays it’s mostly made with red food coloring, and many will swear up, down and around that it’s the only way to get the “right” color red. This seems iffy to me for a variety of reasons, mostly because I simply cannot fathom baking anything with as much food coloring in it as red velvet cake calls for normally and also because red velvet cake’s been around longer than food coloring has, and it’s always been red. Enter the beet. I definitely belong to Team Beet, not Team food coloring.

Since I had recently fixated on making a Red Velvet Cake for the Girl’s second birthday, I searched and searched for a red velvet cake recipe with no food dye and I found it on Sophistimom’s awesome blog.

I highly suggest you go check out her pictures cause her cake looks fantastic. Mine tastes great and the color is perfect but I had to make it into a specific shape for the girl’s birthday so it’s not the beautiful three layer cake you’ll find at Sophistimom. Also, I can’t seem to get my cream cheese frosting to stiffen enough to be able to hold it’s own between cake layers. I’m still working on it! So for the cream cheese frosting, I suggest you try Sophistimom’s directly and not mine (mine works wonderfully for carrot cake though, if you’re interested!).

But the recipe for the cake itself is awesome, and if you can get past the crazy amount of sugar in it and the fact that you’re baking with beets you can enjoy the most awesome Red Velvet Cake and feel no guilt about giving it to your kids or worrying about ingesting a bunch of useless chemicals for no reason.

As usual I’ve converted almost all the measurements into grams for my European readers. Enjoy!

This is what you need:

400grams (1 ½ cups) pureed beets

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
(approx. 1 ½ lemons next time I’ll get the volume in ml)  

1 tbs. white wine vinegar


230 grams (2 sticks - 16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, but not quite room temperature


230 grams (8oz.)  cream cheese, softened slightly


480grams (2 1/3 cups) raw cane sugar
- I know that’s A LOT of sugar I actually only used 400grams – 2 scant cups)

4 eggs


1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract


250 grams (2 cups sifted) unbleached all-purpose flour


5 grams (1 ½ tsp.) baking powder


3 grams (1 tsp.) salt


30 grams (4 tbs.) natural cocoa powder(not dark or dutch-processed)

½ tsp cream of tartar (optional, and not in original recipe)

This is what you do:

The original recipe calls for roasting beets, but I used boiled beets because that’s the only way I’ve managed to find them here. I buy pre-boiled, peeled, organic beets so I don’t have to prepare them in any way. In fact, I suggest reserving the beet juice in the package cause it makes an awesome pink food coloring for frosting!

The original recipe also used three 8inch cake pans. But I used a butterfly shaped cake pan and a rectangular pan for my daughter’s birthday. I suggest using the 3 round pans though, because it makes a much more elegant, appealing cake. Go ahead and butter and flour your pans then set aside.

Cut up your beets into large chunks (peel them first!). Place in a food processor with the lemon juice, and pulse until smooth and pureed – like baby food, the smoother the better – this may take awhile.  Add the vinegar.

Cream together butter and cream cheese, add in sugar and mix until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each is incorporated. Mix in vanilla.

While ingredients are mixing, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients. I suggest you set your mixer on the lowest setting and spoon the flour mixture slowly in the bowl as it tends to become airborne if you put it in too fast! 

Scrape the bowl well while mixing, it should have the same color and consistency of chocolate mousse.

Mix the beet puree into the cake batter by hand, making sure it’s well blended and there are no striations in the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. Tap pans on the counter to remove any air bubbles – tap them well or your cake will be all holey.

Bake at 170°C (350°F) for 20-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool cakes completely then wrap in saran wrap, so they stay moist, and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to frost.

Notes: I used about 2tbs. beet juice to color the cream cheese frosting to decorate the cake. It came out really well, I didn’t detect any beet taste in the frosting at all. I also used about 3tbs cocoa powder diluted in about 4tbs. hot water to color the frosting brown for the butterfly’s body. The rest of the decorations are just various flavor jelly beans.

Happy Birthday, Darling Girl

Today you are two years old and every day that passes I’m starting to remember details from the first year of your life. Memories I thought I had lost forever, or rather, never acquired, from all the stress, heartache and craziness of your daddy’s illness. But now I’m starting to remember. Sometimes when I cradle you in my arms just so, and you look up at me, I remember your face when you used to nurse. You were so different as a baby, and yet it’s still you.

You’re only two years old, but you’re the most strong-willed little person I know. Things have to be just so, and yes, you always have an opinion about everything. You’re starting to become bossy. You tell all of us what to do, and you do it with your mean face, with your teeny index finger jabbing pointedly towards my face. You have no middle ground, if you hear “no” it’s the end of the world, you drop to the ground, face first, crying and yet two seconds later it’s all forgotten and you’ve found something else to get into.

You always wake up with a smile. It brightens even the most depressing day. And when you’re up, you’re UP! Your whole attitude to life is: why walk when I can hop, skip or run. I really hope that never changes.

You’re starting to use full sentences. I don’t always understand them, but when I don’t you repeat them till I get it, or you take me by the hand and show me, or you mime them, like the other day when you were reminiscing about the spew-fest you initiated the night before. You kept saying that you “vomit” but I didn’t understand, so you cried “mama!” exasperated and bent over at the waist and pretended to vomit. It was so realistic, and it was so clear that you were telling me to stop being such a dolt, that all I could do was laugh.

You love your brother so much, your sun rises and sets with him. This makes me so happy and I hope your relationship always stays like this, that you always have each other to count on.

You’re funny and sassy and you have  a fully developed sense of humor. I’ve learned to watch out when you come at me with a glint in your eye cause I’m going to get played.

You’re a big drama queen, when you need me you NNEEEEEEEDDDDD me, when you don’t want to do something you really won’t do it, and if you don’t like something you leave us in no doubt about it. It’s equal parts exhausting and funny.

You WILL NOT let me put your hair up, for love nor money, when I try to put it behind your ears so it’s not in your face you start shaking your head like a dog drying off until your hair’s all over the place again, cause that’s how you like it, damn it!

You’re so affectionate, you give me lots of kisses but never when I ask for them. You hug me tight, you hold my face in your little, sweaty hands and look deep in my eyes, you won’t go to sleep if I don’t hold you and rock you and you always want me to sing “You are my Sunshine”.

You love cheese and meat and pasta and chicken but you WILL NOT eat any vegetables unless they are artfully hidden.

You are so smart, you notice things I never would, you never miss a thing. We have to be careful what we say in front of you and I swear sometimes you understand even when I’m spelling stuff out.

You have no middle ground, it’s all black or white, you are not reasonable, you cannot be convinced. You make me crazy.  You want what you want when you want it. You have to have my whole, undivided attention. You’re so big already but you’re only two years old. Don’t grow up too fast, cause I can’t stand it.

I love you miles and miles, you are my sunshine, you make my heart sing.

Linking up today with Shell for Pour your heart out @Things I can't say and Wordful Wednesday @ Parenting by dummies