Fraher Summer

I cannot believe summer is almost over.  Well, I guess that all depends on how you classify "summer" - here in the south, we'll experience summer-like weather for another 2 or 3 months.  But the traditional signs of summer are fading... school is back in session, pools will soon be closing, Labor Day is around the corner, the stores are stocked for Halloween, Thanksgiving and (gasp) Christmas!  


Where does the time go?  We certainly have had a full summer - beach trips, home repairs, family reunions, house guests, zoo trips, baptisms, stomach flu and learning to crawl.  


But before we bid adieu to summer, I wanted to share some of the everyday fun memories the Fraher's have made.  Warning - we've been busy - there is a lot to share!  


Reading.

Baking.

Getting into mischief.

Playing with pink doll houses (no judging - I'm wearing camo).

Creating masterpieces.

Getting cleaned up.

Swimming.

Having fun with friends.

Visiting the aquarium.

Potty training (requires lots and lots of supplies).  And, no, we're not even close to being done.

And family tickle fests!

We hope your summer brought you much laughter and wonderful memories too!

Our Favorite Game

Otherwise known as Drive-Mommy-Crazy!


If this activity weren't like fingernails on a chalkboard, I might endure it a bit more because it does keep them occupied and out of trouble (well, sort of) for the longest time!  Granted, the first time I fully "accept" this particular activity, it will cease to have any appeal to them.  I think that's a fundamental parent/child law.


Seriously, they could do it all day.  And though Fletcher seems fairly innocent, he is always the instigator - he quietly crawls into the kitchen and begins banging and sliding those chairs around.  It's like his secret call to Sydney to have some fun.


Notice the emphasis on the last few seconds of the video... I did not realize what I had just captured until I finished filming and saw the finger painting masterpiece in process!



Despite what it may seem, no floors or persons were harmed in the making of this video.


Oh, and, no - we don't believe in pants around here.

H-O-T

It has been H-O-T hot this summer!  With double digit days of triple digit temps, we needed a few more ways to stay cool.  Our community has an amazing pool that we visit virtually every Saturday and Sunday but even that, over time, gets old.  So, being the fun parents we are - we bought a slip and slide.  

Of course Mommy and Daddy had to demonstrate how it worked.  Ahem, Wow.  Not as easy as I remember.

The slip n slide was still no match for this crazy heat.  Next step - Popsicles!  And where better to eat popsicles than outside, in a pool.  Natural clean-up.

Somebody's Crawling!

Now don't get too excited.  It's not like he's moving across the entire room or anything just yet.  This is Fletcher we're talking about.  But - with the proper motivation - he has actually begun to put one knee in front of the other a few times the last couple of days.

Then he sits back down, all pleased with himself.  Or, better yet, he pulls up onto the coffee table.

This is going to be a problem.

Sugar Cookies - Part II

The icing.


Again, here is a link to the icing recipe.


There is a whole video tutorial on here about how to get the right consistency.  Worth a look, but the cliff notes are that you should run a knife through the middle of your bowl of icing.  If the indent created by the knife closes up after roughly 10 seconds, you're good to go.  


I made the whole batch of icing.  Even though I halved the cookie recipe, I thought the icing might be trickier and had no idea how much it would actually make.  I wanted extra for do-overs.


The recipe is pretty straightforward but I will give you one tip - it calls for 2.25 lbs of powdered sugar.  It's an odd amount.  One bag is generally 2lb.  I measured it out and determined there are 8 cups of powdered sugar in a 2lb bag.  Therefore, use 9 cups.


I made everything in my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.  I just used the wire whisk attachment for the first part, then once I added the powdered sugar, I switched to the paddle.


It made a lot of icing!  This is what was left over after I removed enough to make two significant bowls of colored icing.

I was a little worried about the icing drying out.  I put a damp kitchen towel over the bowl on the counter for the course of 2 or 3 hours and it worked just fine.  Supposedly you can let it sit overnight (especially if you want bold colors - they deepen over time) but I didn't try that.


Once the icing is done, scoop some out into individual bowls to create your colors and get the right consistency.  I do recommend setting the consistency individually for each bowl because depending on your design, you might want some colors to be a little thinner than others.

Let me talk about colors for a second... I read blogs and checked in with a few of my cake decorating friends - Wilton colors seems to be the consensus as the best brand to use.  And they are easy to find - Michael's.  I was trying to achieve yellow and a bright/deep purple (LSU theme especially for Pat).  I used a plastic knife to dip into the color and then slid it through my icing.  Use a spoon to mix and blend the color well, and slowly add your warm water to achieve the right consistency.  Keep in mind, the colors are very concentrated.  If you want light colors, use a toothpick rather than a knife to transfer the coloring into the icing.  Use just a little - you can always add more.


Obviously, the deeper the color, the more icing you'll need.  The yellow was easy.  Color from the tip of my knife dipped once worked just fine.  The purple was a bit more complicated and I never achieved the color I wanted.  I probably should have played with adding some red and blue to further deepen it.  Next time.


Consistency.  As I mentioned at the beginning, the 10 second rule works well.  Especially for drawing outlines on your cookies.  If you know that you'll be filling in large areas of your cookie with one color, you can make it a little thinner so that it will spread and fill the space more easily, but I wouldn't go too far.  I used the 10 second rule for all my colors and was cursing the icing gods as I was filling in large spaces on those fleur de lis cookies.  The thicker icing took forever to cover the cookie and killed my hands!  


Here is the result when your "fill-in" color is too thick.

Decorating bags and tips.  Any size bag will work.  The 12 inch is pretty common and is a decent size for  most projects.  For the tips - to get the best outline for your cookie, I agree with the experts that the #2 tip is best.  For filling in larger spaces, the #4 tip worked great for me.  Again, all these supplies are easily found at Michael's.  Once you fill the bag with icing, twist it tightly or use a rubber band to cinch it.  It's next to impossible to keep the icing from creeping back up the bag as you are decorating.  You'll have to push it back down and re-twist several times.  I actually do have some experience decorating cakes (internship years ago) but I still made a mess.  And use small glasses to help keep your icing bags upright when you're not using them... otherwise, left in a horizontal position, your icing will slowly run and slide out the top of the bag.


Now you just need a steady, STRONG hand and a lot of patience.  Steadiness and patience I lack.  Recognizing what a process this would be is what led me to cut off the cookie production line at 18.  Thank God!  I almost couldn't get through decorating all 18.  I was tempted to give up and smear some icing on the last few.  But I dug deep and got it done.  And despite a well cut cookie, an unsteady hand on the outline can really foul up the whole thing.  Some of those fleur de lis cookies were looking rough.  They started looking more like a anchors if you ask me.  

If you need to, practice on parchment paper to get the feel for how quickly the icing will distribute.  Because once it's on the cookie there is no going back!


Finally, with a lot of practice and determination, here are the final few cookies decorated.  The flower design was MUCH easier!

Let the cookies dry for quite a while before stacking or bagging them.  I didn't bag them individually - as I will be doing for the party - and I'm sure that's a whole other blog post in waiting.  Ayayay - can't think about it right now.


I'm just glad the test project is done and I don't have to do this again for a few weeks.  


Despite all my whining, I must say that with a couple of kids old enough to participate and less lofty goals for the outcome yourself, this could be a really fun family activity!  Give me a couple of years and Syd and I will be having a ball making these at Christmas!


But for now, a few lessons for myself.  

• Allow plenty of time for the whole project.  More like 2 days.
• Stick to easy, uncomplicated shapes.
• Choose simple decorating designs.
• Lower my expectations.

Sugar Cookies - Part I

If you follow me on Facebook, you saw my recent cookie post.  It was a humbling experiment to say the least but I was most surprised and grateful for the kind comments by so many.


Here is my story on the project and tips for the cookies.  I'll reserve an entirely separate post for the icing.  Yes, the whole thing - cookies and icing - is that involved.  Now I understand why bakeries are charging $3-4 per cookie!  They are seriously underpaid!


In preparation for Sydney's upcoming birthday, I decided to include those decorated sugar cookies as party favors for all the kids.  So cute, right?  And, as I mentioned, so expensive too.  Hey, why not make them myself?  Oh sure - not only am I not much of a baker, I really have little patience for tedious details.  Perfect.


Realizing this was no project I could just whip up the day before her party, I decided to do a test batch.  There's a lot to practice - icing consistency, color, decorations, cookie cutting, etc.  And you know there will be all sorts of lessons learned from the first round of practice.  I was not disappointed.


To get started, here is the link to the sugar cookie and royal icing recipe compliments of TomKat Studio (my go-to for all make-you-feel-like-a-slouch creative ideas) via Sweetopia.  RECIPES. 


I did a little research, checked my supplies and made a quick trip to Michael's for a few more.  Ready!  I originally planned to make fleur de lis cookies and decorate them purple and gold (yellow).  But halfway into my project, I realized the fleur de lis shape was perhaps a little advanced and delicate for me so I switched to a cute flower design.


I took one look at the 5 cups of flour in the recipe and decided it would be smart to cut the recipe in half for the test batch.  Thank goodness I'm so smart.  Even in half, I made about 18 cookies and still had leftover dough but just couldn't bring myself to make them.  This is a T-E-D-I-O-U-S process!


The website offers all sorts of tips and even video tutorials but let me add a few of my own.


First let me address the process.  There is a very specific method to rolling, chilling and cutting the dough.  And you will have to do it multiple times for the same batch of dough.  I tried it a few different ways and realized that the order given to me in the recipe is for good reason.


1.  For reasons that will soon become clear, I recommend splitting your dough into 2-4 separate balls to be rolled and chilled and cut.  Each time you cut out your cookies, you'll have a lot of extra in-between dough.  It has to be balled up, rolled and chilled all over again before you can cut.  This can add a lot of down time to the overall process.  If you have separate balls, you can work in stages.  While you're cutting and loading the first tray of cookies, another ball is already being chilled and ready for cutting as soon as you put the first into the oven.  Make sense?  


2.  Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.  I have a pastry sheet and might use that next time underneath to keep it from slipping around on the counter, but using parchment between the dough and the roller really is quite helpful.  After I rolled it out, I used my hands over the parchment to make sure it was all smooth and even.  The recipe says you can roll it out more once it is chilled but I think it best to just go ahead and prep it to be able to cut as soon as you remove it from the fridge.  


Thickness is key here.  My first batch of cookies was too thick.  They spread a little and then broke in a few spots when I was transferring them.  I made the second and third batches a little thinner and it seemed to work better.  Roughly 1/8 of an inch in thickness.  I think.  This is still a work in progress.


3.  Chill.  The recipe states to chill the dough for an hour.  I let my initial batch chill for probably 2 hours while I did some work.  Not good.  The dough got too cold and cracked a little.  Not that it is unrepairable - it just needs to warm back up a little and then can be rolled/molded again but what a pain! In between rolled batches, I probably let the dough chill for 20-30 minutes.  I think that is sufficient.


4.  Cut.  This was harder than I thought.  Be sure to press hard on ALL points of your cookie cutter to be sure the cut is a clean one.  And don't try to wiggle it about... you'll just end up with a deformed cookie shape.  Cut as many cookies out of your rolled dough as possible.  Then I used a thin icing spatula to help remove the in-between cookie dough leaving behind the beautiful shapes.  Sounds easy but there always seemed to be some fringe dough trying to hang onto that cookie.  It's important to get nice crisp shapes but if you mess with it too much you can damage the edge of the cookie, deform it or completely destroy it.  


At this point, I probably should have just transferred the whole parchment sheet with my perfectly cut cookie shapes onto a sheet pan and put them in the oven.  Instead, I used my spatula to lift them up and onto a clean parchment lined cookie sheet.  The process of moving them is tricky... especially if you have a very detailed cookie cutter such as my fleur de lis.  And, if the dough has warmed too much, it's very easy to all of a sudden lose a corner of the cookie.  Or deform the shape.  Argh.  


Anyway, just be very very careful in this process, whatever you decide to do.  And the good news is that this dough is very forgiving - you can reshape it once it's on the cookie sheet or ball it up and start all over.


Don't forget to re-roll that extra cookie dough and stick it in the fridge to chill.


5.  Bake.  Easiest part.  Recipe says 8-10 minutes.  My oven (on convection mode) requires the full 10 minutes but check yours after 8 just to be sure.

6.  When the cookies are finished baking, give them a few minutes before trying to move them.  They are still doing a little internal baking once they come out of the oven and too much movement too soon can cause breakage.  The great thing about parchment paper is that you can carefully slide the sheet right off of a flat cookie tray and onto a cooling rack in one smooth move without damaging the cookies.


7.  Give them plenty of time to cool and then ice!  I had a lot of breakage with my first batch.  I think it was due to 2 things - 1) they were too thick and 2) the design was detailed and just had too many opportunities for cracking.  In this picture you can see one such fatality.  Many more followed.  But also notice the slightly deformed and not-so-clean edges.  This was probably one of the first cookies I cut and transferred.  I had a lot to learn.

8.  Take your next batch of dough from the fridge - cut and bake and repeat!


Coming up next time... icing!  It's a workout!

Growing Boy. Take 57.

Every month, I sit Fletcher down on the couch and take a few (more like 100) photos to chart his growth.  His latest monthly shoot was this morning... he was feeling a little rowdy!  The boy will not stay still - and although he's not officially crawling yet, he gets where he wants to go and doesn't like to just sit around anymore.


A sampling - of the ones fairly focused - when I wasn't trying to stop him from nose diving off the couch.


Oh, look, a bear.  Easily distracted.

 I can keep this up all day - can you?

 Oh, you want me to stay still?  How about this?

 Yeah, I thought that was funny too!

 Oh, this is just way too much fun!

Under Construction

Please excuse the format of the blog for a while.  I'm playing around with different settings and trying to manipulate colors and margins and such when I really have NO IDEA what I'm doing.  Could be problematic.


My main goal is to better highlight photos that I post.  I mean, come on... that's really the reason we all read and look at blogs.  And photography has been an interest of mine for many years.  It's only more recently that I've really begun to actually do something about it.


Last fall after Fletcher was born, we bought a nice digital SLR camera.  The Nikon D90.  I love it.  Even in fully automatic mode it can make you feel like pro.  The images are so sharp and beautiful!  But I like to play and have spent a lot of time messing around with Shutter Speed, ISO, White Balance and my favorite - Aperture.  Sometimes I have great luck.  Other times not so much.  Mostly I'm just trying to capture special moments with the kids - and that's challenging enough!  Especially now that Sydney has an aversion to the camera.  She really has to be focused on whatever she's doing or else she will turn away the moment she senses a camera near.


I took a photography workshop earlier in the summer.  For the most part it was terrible and I didn't learn a thing from the "class" but it did force me to spend quality time with the camera.  I had plenty of time to adjust settings and try various settings on the same subject.  I still have a lot to learn and hopefully will find a better class to take later this year.


Often times this new hobby is an exercise in frustration but once in a while magic happens.  Last weekend was one of those moments.  I dressed Fletcher back up in his baptism outfit to take some pictures since we were a little rushed on the actual day of.  I took over 300 photos in hopes of getting one or two keepers.  Thank God for digital.  Here is a small sampling of what I captured.


Ideally, I wanted him standing to get a few full shots of his outfit.  Tough to do with a baby that cannot walk or stand yet.  I have high expectations of my kids.  

My set crew kept getting in the way.  It's hard to get good help these days. (BTW - if I could have figured out how to get two photos side by side I would have done that rather than having to photoshop them together - argh - blogging frustration).

Dang.  Lost my natural light at this angle.  I refuse to use the flash.  It's my mission in life to never use the flash.

Oh dear.  Wardrobe please!

What the heck is he looking at?  Over here Fletcher!!!  And where is wardrobe???

Then finally, it all came together.  My favorites...

And my personal favorite.

From time to time I'll share projects and frustrations I'm working on.  I welcome your comments, critiques, suggestions, ideas or personal favorites.  I need all the help and encouragement I can get!

Family Fun

Aside from the puking, we had a really great visit with our family - Aunt Tracy, Aunt Ashley, Uncle Erik and cousins Torr and Finn!


We wrestled.

And slept.  Yep, all the kiddos (except Fletcher) shared a room.  So sweet.

We ate popsicles.

Climbed and played.

And generally had fun with each other.

Torr was great with the little ones.  Even carrying Miss Priss across the playground mulch so she wouldn't hurt her delicate feet.

We braved the zoo in the blistering heat.

Yeah, yeah, the monkey's are great.  Who turned off the A/C?

Syd insisted on pulling the wagon most of the way.  Cute but so slooowwww!

The carousel is always a favorite.  This was Fletcher's first time... I think he was still looking for the A/C.

Even after the sickness set in, we enjoyed some cuddle time.

And some clean-up too!

All in all it was a great visit and we can't wait for everyone to come back!