Funny

unhappyhipsters.tumblr.com I hope this link works. I'm so not neat and spare enough for Dwell, so this site brought me a lot of joy!

Things Sleepy Newish Parents Like

The last few weeks have had everyone a little under the weather here at Chez Icing. As a result, we've had to revisit sleep training. Unfortunately, K is sleep training mum and dad by being very angry every night between about 3 and 5. Tonight is the fourth night of sleep re-education, and we are really hoping it's the night we turn the corner. In the meantime, here are some of my likes for these sleepy January days:
Plum jam. SO good. And, it's made by monks!

This loft home office done by Kenneth Brown. Isn't it beautiful? I just need to figure out how to get something like that in our loft.

J. Crew's extra 30 percent off their final sale. My last winter coat was purchased in 2000 and had put in many years of noble service, but it was time for something new. I love this color.

This is a fantastic book about feeding babies. As we venture into the world of solids, I find it very useful.

Cross your fingers that tonight is the night where waking up with a wet diaper is just a prelude to more sleep - not an hour of fussing!

If it isn't, this little machine and frother have been life savers! The coffee is phenomenal, and the frother is great as well. Highly recommended. The coffee comes in the cutest little tubs, and the shipping is incredibly fast.

Something Sweet for 200

As you may have noticed, I almost always choose chocolate. There are, however, some key exceptions. And one of them involves ginger cookies. When I was a little girl, we lived about 100 yards from the public library. The two librarians were the nicest women. My first library card just has my first name on it, because I was too little to write out my last name. And one of them made the absolute best gingersnaps ever. She passed away a couple of years ago, and my mother just passed along her gingersnap recipe. I wanted to share it with you all, and hope that you give them a try. I bet if you made them to eat with a cup of tea and a good book, my kindly librarian would be smiling down on you.

Ginger Cookies

1 egg
1 cup sugar
6 TBS butter (3/4 stick) (I think you could use shortening too, but I wouldn't use oil)
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp vinegar. It sounds weird, but it works
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 heaping tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves (I bet you could add some nutmeg too if you're so inclined)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine butter and sugar. Add the egg, molasses and vinegar. Mix dry ingredients separately, then add to wet. Mix to combine.

3. You can refrigerate the dough at this point, if you like. Grease two cookie sheets (or you can just use parchment paper - I'm a new convert to parchment - it's SO easy!) and make into walnut sized cookies.

4. Bake at 350 until the cookies have cracked tops (usually right around 10-12 minutes). They will still look soft. You can let them cook longer if you prefer a very crispy cookie. Cool slightly on a cooling rack, then dust with powdered sugar. Or, you could dip the cookies into regular sugar before baking.

As you can see, this is post 200 and I wanted to share something delicious. We go through these pretty quickly, so no photos :)

K's Adventures...

Santa was a little confusing, yogurt is not a big hit, but crawling around with a silly hat is a definite do!

Belated Happy New Year

Hi,

We've been waylaid by colds, teething, holidays, fun outdoors and all sorts of things, but I wanted to get back to the blog!

Here's what I'm working on this week:

Uncluttering my home office - I just love the blog "Unclutterer.com"

Figuring out how to digitally store all the old photo negatives - scanning them to CD perhaps?

Putting the childproof latches on our cabinets - someone is starting to figure out how to open them!

In terms of cooking, check out this fantastic cookbook - Chocolate and Zucchini - I was absolutely blown away by the chocolate caramel tarte!