I'm not dead! Yes, really! Just busy. As always, I have at least ten mentally-written blog posts for each post that makes it to my blog. I hope that at some point in my life I'll have more time for writing! (Though I have the feeling that it won't be for a while.)
These past few months have been terrifically busy.... dealing with the life changes brought by our eldest starting AWANA and preschool, and also dealing with baby's health issues (doctors' appointments and therapy... and the endless lineup of paperwork and phone calls that fall to my lot).
Tomorrow is our first major medical procedure.... a brain MRI. Am I happy about it? Not really. It seems like a lot of modern medicine is simply flinging this and that test wildly about in hopes that one of them will show something... this test is a long shot, and I'm not that happy that we're putting baby through the fasting and the procedure on what seem to be pretty slim reasons. However, I'm much happier that it's the MRI than the dreaded reflux test, so I will focus on that and on just getting through the morning.
Here's an interesting question: The fasting procedures outlined for me by the scheduling office and the woman who called today to remind us of our appointment were completely different. One was breastmilk till 9a, clear liquids till 10a, and then NPO - the other was NPO after 8a. Which will I do? Not sure. They definitely have their wires crossed on that one.
As December arrives, I am reminded again that we have now been without a settled church home for nearly a year (a year on Christmas Eve). This is a facet of our life which I hope changes very soon! I do not, not, NOT like being without a regular church family.
However, at the same time, I don't want to jump the gun and settle down into something that wouldn't work longterm. So it's a double-headed problem.
That being said, though.... I want a church family! I am leaving the decision up to my husband as to which church we choose (though I'm making plenty of input!), but unfortunately he is just as confused as I am.
Right now it's between two churches, with a third one thrown into the mix from a new one that we visited last week.
Our visit to that church was extremely interesting, and I'd like to tell about it, briefly... But I know that this will make some people angry, so just let me say that I realize that in advance!
Okay. so... the church that I grew up in. I always enjoyed church, but I did not become a Christian (as far as I'm aware... I don't have a down-to-the-minute "became-a-Christian" date) until I was in college. At that point, I realized that a lot of what was going on in my church (denomination-wide - I have attended and worked in tens of churches in this denomination) was really unbiblical. As my awareness grew, I was, to be frank - absolutely horrified. I realize that the denomination came from Christian roots, with an absolutely amazing guy as founder, but at the present time I would qualify it as a denomination that has abandoned the Bible as any source of authority and is into some really horrible things. For example, the denomination is openly and strongly in support of abortion. (I checked my facts before I wrote that, so if anyone doesn't believe me, email me and I'll send you the link to the position paper on the church's official website.)
I realize that not all churches in this denomination may follow that lead, which is why I am specifically not naming it. However, as a rule, I believe that there are deep, deep problems.
Therefore, when I got married, I immediately dropped all association with the denomination, and DH and I looked for (and found!) a really excellent evangelical Bible church, and I have had almost no contact with the side of Christendom which bears any stylistic resemblance to the church of my childhood.
Thus, I was in a state of shock on Sunday, when we visited a church that - stylistically - was almost identical to my childhood church (though in a different denomination). But instead of being dead and anti-Bible, it was startlingly alive, and vibrant, and full of passion for Christ and for God's Word and for the sharing of the Gospel message. It was such a shock, and such a paradigm shift, that I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it. All day I thought, "But how.... and how.... and how... and how....?"
Of course, it's quite simple! Style doesn't dictate theology! But I had had the two wrapped up in my mind so tightly that it has been hard to let go of.
I am so glad to have seen this church.... I have really missed the cultural trappings of my childhood church, and it was lovely to see them in this new guise. I doubt that we'll stay there - it might be a bit of a jump for our family, especially for my husband, who grew up ultra-Pentecostal; plus we suspect that we will not agree with their position on infant baptism - but it was a beautiful church full of vibrantly believing and loving Christians, and it was great to see.
Enough said!
Speaking of church, I must say....
On Sunday, during the service, the pastor gave a really super-long prayer - the five-minutes-plus type. When it was over, there came piping through the sanctuary the voice of a young boy, clearly and for all to hear: "Daddy, that was a very long prayer!"
Sheesh. Some people's children.
Except that said child was ours! Talk about a blushing-fest! But a great family memory (in retrospect!).
Speaking of church-related things.....
I would like to offer my readership the following advice, which is not offered in levity or sarcasm, but in an honest wish to save my readers the embarrassment I suffered: Don't give Christmas cookies to Jehovah's Witnesses. Seriously - just don't. A bad idea!
This past week I delivered some - admittedly Christmas - cookies to our neighbors, who are of the Jehovah's Witness faith. They knew that we had been making Christmas cookies, but I figured that cookies by themselves (without Christmas decorations, Christmas notes, Christmas wishes, etc.) would be acceptable. The cookies appeared back on our doorstep the next morning, with an accompanying note. Apparently our poor neighbors were really insulted! So I nipped next door and apologized in person, and harmony has - hopefully! - been restored with some truly wonderful neighbors whom we really like.
But just in case you were wondering - Don't try it!
The next few days are going to be absolutely and wonderfully crazy! I am helping with a shower for a very special snowflake (embryo adoption) baby, and I am super-super excited - and it is going to be a HUGE shower! More than twice as big as any shower I've ever before attended. It is going to be absolutely lovely!
Off to do a million chores before bed! I am going to try to get baby to eat a fourth late-night meal in order to fill him up a bit before the 4 a.m. solids cut-off. Wish us luck for tomorrow - I will be one glad woman when it is all over!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Making of a (World-Famous) Tradition
We had an absolutely superb day yesterday celebrating Lepkuchen Day! Wow! It was awesome! DH and I decided that, in terms of Lepkuchen Day, we have finally "arrived." This was our fourth year celebrating, and we finally made everything we wanted out of it.
Here's how our Lepkuchen Day history has gone:
Year #0 - We experience Lepkuchen Day at our friends' house. We are instant converts.
Year #1 - I couldn't get DH to take me seriously about wanting to celebrate it ourselves, so I made Lepkuchen and DH slept through it. That was it for that year.
Year #2 - We didn't get around to making any cookies because we had just bought a house, so we just went over to our friends' house and ate theirs.
Year #3 - We make a big batch of lepkuchen, but we forget to get our invitations out until something like 1-2 days in advance. We end up having a total of one visitor.
Year #4 - Yesterday!
Well, we got a super-late start. Our open house was 9a till noon, but I figured, "Ah, shucks, no one will actually come right at the beginning," with the end result that I was just serving breakfast and starting to preheat the oven when "Ding, dong!" - in walked two sets of neighbors (including the parents of the woman who used to own our house!). I valiantly tried to conceal the scrambled eggs on the table and did some scrambling of my own to hurry some lepkuchen into the oven so that they could have some to eat before they left.
We had an awesome time getting to finally know some of our neighbors. After that we had several waves of church family drop by, so we actually had three hours of steady visiting for a total of 11 guests - a 1000% increase over last year! (An improvement like that won't be possible to make twice in a row!)
We got all (or most) of our lepkuchen made by 1:00, and then we decided to skip nap time and head straight over to our friends' house for their 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Lepkuchen Day open house. We ended up staying for three and a half hours and had a splendid time visiting with them and their visitors while baby slept in a back room and our eldest played enthusiastically with the toys they keep for their grandbabies.
It was the best Lepkuchen Day ever. Seriously, Lepkuchen Day is now one of my favorite holidays. It's a wonderful, delicious, fellowship-filled day that has all the makings of a beautiful holiday, but instead of the sadness-tinged nature of Christmas (I always know that Christmas means the end of the Christmas season) it has all the excitement and anticipation of a holiday season just beginning.
I came to thinking afterward that Lepkuchen Day may be the answer to a prayer for me as well. I have been wanting to start some sort of annual neighborhood gathering, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it. My parents' neighborhood has always had a yearly July 4th block party, which was always a ton of fun, and I've wanted to do the same thing. However, I am a rotten hostess, being among the socially awkward of the world, and I have been very fearful that my attempts to host a July 4th party of our own would be a terrible flop. Lepkuchen Day, which I can handle much better because I'm more of a cook than a hostess, might just be a yearly gathering that we can host for our neighborhood (as well as our friends!), and perhaps it will spur someone more socially-inclined to host a proper block party of some sort or other. Just a thought.
So, in the interest of having one composite article about Lepkuchen Day, I am going to cut and paste from yesterday's article, explaining the history of the holiday, and then I'm going to add "Lepkuchen Day traditions" down at the bottom (so if you've read yesterday's writing, just scroll down to the bottom.
***
About six years ago, we met an absolutely delightful couple, Dale and Pat. Dale's mother had made a habit of making Lepkuchen in November before Thanksgiving, so when Dale married, he and his wife created their own "official" holiday - Lepkuchen Day, to be celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and to be dedicated to the making and eating of Lepkuchen cookies.
We thought it was a splendid idea, and after enjoying a Lepkuchen Day at their house (they hold an open house on L. Day to welcome neighbors and friends), we decided that we simply had to join in the fun. We were newly married, and needing some traditions of our own that weren't just adopted from our individual families, and so Lepkuchen Day became our new holiday tradition.
Tomorrow we will celebrate our fourth Lepkuchen Day (or third active Lepkuchen Day, to be honest, since we skipped one when we had just bought our house). I am so excited! I have three batches of Lepkuchen Dough waiting in the fridge (it's made a week in advance), and we have invited our friends and neighbors to join us (last year we had a grand total of one guest, but it was something!). I am really looking forward to it. Lepkuchen Day has become a very real holiday to us, and we love it!
And so, may I be the first to wish my gentle readers...
..... A Very Happy Lepkuchen Day!
And here is the recipe!
INGREDIENTS (Use high quality ingredients only)
• 2 lb. brown sugar
• 5 eggs (large)
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 “ nutmeg
• 1 “ cinnamon
• ½ “ ground cloves
• ½ cup whiskey (Seagram’s 7 Crown is very good.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (Dissolve it in the whiskey.)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (If you buy walnuts that are already chopped, be sure to check them for any pieces of shells.)
• ½ lb. pitted dates (Use very cold scissors or knife to cut up into pieces slightly smaller than a raisin. Better to cut up your own dates than to buy already chopped ones.)
• 1½ to 1¾ quarts flour (This is about 2 lb. Use a liquid-measure container.)
• Box of powdered sugar (for the glaze) and a pastry brush
PROCEDURE
A. The Batter
1. Cut up the dates and the walnuts (check for pieces of shells).
2. Thoroughly mix brown sugar, eggs, molasses, spices, and baking soda dissolved in the whiskey.
3. Stir in nuts and dates.
4. Add flour slowly (i.e., ½ quart at a time). Dough should be sticky, but not gooey. Don’t add too much flour. 1½ to 1¾ quarts usually is just about right.
5. Mix well. Use hands to blend ingredients.
6. Allow dough to stand 1+ week in covered container in refrigerator.
B. The Baking
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread a thin layer of flour on the cutting surface.
3. Have moist hands and moist rolling pin (cold water) to pat down and roll out dough (about ¼” thick, more or less to personal preference).
4. Cut dough into diamond shapes using a cold, wet table knife.
5. Use a non-stick cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Test the first tray to determine if you need to bake them shorter or longer.
7. Allow the cookies to cool, then spread a thin glaze on each. Make the glaze by adding water to powdered sugar until it forms a pasty consistency (a little thinner than Elmer’s glue).
1 batch makes 85-100 of the best cookies on earth.
* My own note: Since I don't like to spend all day rolling out cookies, I do slice-and-bake. The night before L. Day, I roll the dough into logs and wrap in plastic. They're a bit too soft to do just refrigerated, so I pop them in the freezer a few hours in advance so they're semi-frozen. I'm going to experiment to see if they can be sliced when completely frozen, and if that works, I'll post here. Yesterday I discovered that the colder they are, the better (and less stickily) they slice. Also, you can dip your knife in water to keep it from sticking.
***
Lepkuchen Day Traditions
(1) Our friends D&P make Lepkuchen Day the day that they first play Christmas music. I can't pull that off, since I start playing Christmas music in something like February (and I cheat - I really start in January), but it's a great way to do it.
(2) Our friends also make it a tradition that the first song that they play on Lepkuchen Day must be their family's favorite Christmas song. We didn't find that out till yesterday evening, so it was too late, but we'll do that next year.
(3) Our friend Dale has special air-bake cookie sheets, the "sanctified cookie sheets," that are used for nothing but Lepkuchen. They are carefully wrapped and stored and are brought out for nothing but Lepkuchen Day (and are thus in terrific shape). We may get around to this!
(4) Lepkuchen Day is also a day for inviting friends and neighbors over to visit. This is the part that makes it so special! Thanks so much to everyone who joined us yesterday! (And to those who wanted to, but couldn't!) Friends can eat snacks (this year I made apple cider in a crockpot and put out chips and salsa... I am so stinking proud of myself) and help glaze lepkuchen while they visit. We send everyone away with a plate of lepkuchen (as well as all they can eat while they're here).
(5) After Lepkuchen Day, we give Lepkuchen to neighbors and friends. We have some in the freezer for everyone who requested it and our near neighbors, plus our midwife, our mail carrier, etc.
(6) In each package of cookies that we give out, we put a paper tag that reads, "Life is hard, but at least there are Lepkuchen." Our friends this year also started putting a little paper with the history of Lepkuchen Day, and I think we'll do the same next year.
(7) This one is ours! We put a sign on all the doors that said "Happy Lepkuchen Day" and gave what is, to us, the classic Lepkuchen Day quote: "There are certain things that are nice to know, especially when the world seems to go not well -- the King is coming, my family loves me, and at Christmas there are Lep Kuchen." - Dale K.
(8) As Lepkuchen Day approaches, we post manic reminders on social media sites, as in, "Only six months till Lepkuchen Day!" By the time Lepkuchen Day actually arrives, most of our friends and acquaintances are pretty well convinced that we are either unbalanced or actively insane.
(9) We uphold Lepkuchen Day traditions with a religious fervor that drives said friends and acquaintances to the same conclusions reached in point #8. Our friend Dale is the master of this, but we do our best to tread in his footsteps.
(10) We take lots of pictures! This one we completely flopped on. Completely. Not one picture (any pics taken were done post-event.) Next year when you're over, remind us to take pictures!
***
And there you have it! This year across the nation there were five families (plus one to come) celebrating Lepkuchen Day, so, as Dale puts it, "The Lepkuchen Day revolution has begun!" If you're looking for a superb annual tradition, join us next year!
And as they say.... Only 364 days till Lepkuchen Day!
Here's how our Lepkuchen Day history has gone:
Year #0 - We experience Lepkuchen Day at our friends' house. We are instant converts.
Year #1 - I couldn't get DH to take me seriously about wanting to celebrate it ourselves, so I made Lepkuchen and DH slept through it. That was it for that year.
Year #2 - We didn't get around to making any cookies because we had just bought a house, so we just went over to our friends' house and ate theirs.
Year #3 - We make a big batch of lepkuchen, but we forget to get our invitations out until something like 1-2 days in advance. We end up having a total of one visitor.
Year #4 - Yesterday!
Well, we got a super-late start. Our open house was 9a till noon, but I figured, "Ah, shucks, no one will actually come right at the beginning," with the end result that I was just serving breakfast and starting to preheat the oven when "Ding, dong!" - in walked two sets of neighbors (including the parents of the woman who used to own our house!). I valiantly tried to conceal the scrambled eggs on the table and did some scrambling of my own to hurry some lepkuchen into the oven so that they could have some to eat before they left.
We had an awesome time getting to finally know some of our neighbors. After that we had several waves of church family drop by, so we actually had three hours of steady visiting for a total of 11 guests - a 1000% increase over last year! (An improvement like that won't be possible to make twice in a row!)
We got all (or most) of our lepkuchen made by 1:00, and then we decided to skip nap time and head straight over to our friends' house for their 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Lepkuchen Day open house. We ended up staying for three and a half hours and had a splendid time visiting with them and their visitors while baby slept in a back room and our eldest played enthusiastically with the toys they keep for their grandbabies.
It was the best Lepkuchen Day ever. Seriously, Lepkuchen Day is now one of my favorite holidays. It's a wonderful, delicious, fellowship-filled day that has all the makings of a beautiful holiday, but instead of the sadness-tinged nature of Christmas (I always know that Christmas means the end of the Christmas season) it has all the excitement and anticipation of a holiday season just beginning.
I came to thinking afterward that Lepkuchen Day may be the answer to a prayer for me as well. I have been wanting to start some sort of annual neighborhood gathering, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it. My parents' neighborhood has always had a yearly July 4th block party, which was always a ton of fun, and I've wanted to do the same thing. However, I am a rotten hostess, being among the socially awkward of the world, and I have been very fearful that my attempts to host a July 4th party of our own would be a terrible flop. Lepkuchen Day, which I can handle much better because I'm more of a cook than a hostess, might just be a yearly gathering that we can host for our neighborhood (as well as our friends!), and perhaps it will spur someone more socially-inclined to host a proper block party of some sort or other. Just a thought.
So, in the interest of having one composite article about Lepkuchen Day, I am going to cut and paste from yesterday's article, explaining the history of the holiday, and then I'm going to add "Lepkuchen Day traditions" down at the bottom (so if you've read yesterday's writing, just scroll down to the bottom.
***
About six years ago, we met an absolutely delightful couple, Dale and Pat. Dale's mother had made a habit of making Lepkuchen in November before Thanksgiving, so when Dale married, he and his wife created their own "official" holiday - Lepkuchen Day, to be celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and to be dedicated to the making and eating of Lepkuchen cookies.
We thought it was a splendid idea, and after enjoying a Lepkuchen Day at their house (they hold an open house on L. Day to welcome neighbors and friends), we decided that we simply had to join in the fun. We were newly married, and needing some traditions of our own that weren't just adopted from our individual families, and so Lepkuchen Day became our new holiday tradition.
Tomorrow we will celebrate our fourth Lepkuchen Day (or third active Lepkuchen Day, to be honest, since we skipped one when we had just bought our house). I am so excited! I have three batches of Lepkuchen Dough waiting in the fridge (it's made a week in advance), and we have invited our friends and neighbors to join us (last year we had a grand total of one guest, but it was something!). I am really looking forward to it. Lepkuchen Day has become a very real holiday to us, and we love it!
And so, may I be the first to wish my gentle readers...
..... A Very Happy Lepkuchen Day!
And here is the recipe!
~ Lep Kuchen ~
There are certain things that are nice to know, especially when the world seems to go not well -- the King is coming, my family loves me, and at Christmas there are Lep Kuchen. The following recipe goes back more generations than I know, but probably came from Germany where the K's and H's (my mother’s family) have their roots. Enjoy making the batter, listen to Christmas music while baking them, and then savor the taste...and the memories. DFK
INGREDIENTS (Use high quality ingredients only)
• 2 lb. brown sugar
• 5 eggs (large)
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 “ nutmeg
• 1 “ cinnamon
• ½ “ ground cloves
• ½ cup whiskey (Seagram’s 7 Crown is very good.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (Dissolve it in the whiskey.)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (If you buy walnuts that are already chopped, be sure to check them for any pieces of shells.)
• ½ lb. pitted dates (Use very cold scissors or knife to cut up into pieces slightly smaller than a raisin. Better to cut up your own dates than to buy already chopped ones.)
• 1½ to 1¾ quarts flour (This is about 2 lb. Use a liquid-measure container.)
• Box of powdered sugar (for the glaze) and a pastry brush
PROCEDURE
A. The Batter
1. Cut up the dates and the walnuts (check for pieces of shells).
2. Thoroughly mix brown sugar, eggs, molasses, spices, and baking soda dissolved in the whiskey.
3. Stir in nuts and dates.
4. Add flour slowly (i.e., ½ quart at a time). Dough should be sticky, but not gooey. Don’t add too much flour. 1½ to 1¾ quarts usually is just about right.
5. Mix well. Use hands to blend ingredients.
6. Allow dough to stand 1+ week in covered container in refrigerator.
B. The Baking
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread a thin layer of flour on the cutting surface.
3. Have moist hands and moist rolling pin (cold water) to pat down and roll out dough (about ¼” thick, more or less to personal preference).
4. Cut dough into diamond shapes using a cold, wet table knife.
5. Use a non-stick cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Test the first tray to determine if you need to bake them shorter or longer.
7. Allow the cookies to cool, then spread a thin glaze on each. Make the glaze by adding water to powdered sugar until it forms a pasty consistency (a little thinner than Elmer’s glue).
1 batch makes 85-100 of the best cookies on earth.
* My own note: Since I don't like to spend all day rolling out cookies, I do slice-and-bake. The night before L. Day, I roll the dough into logs and wrap in plastic. They're a bit too soft to do just refrigerated, so I pop them in the freezer a few hours in advance so they're semi-frozen. I'm going to experiment to see if they can be sliced when completely frozen, and if that works, I'll post here. Yesterday I discovered that the colder they are, the better (and less stickily) they slice. Also, you can dip your knife in water to keep it from sticking.
***
Lepkuchen Day Traditions
(1) Our friends D&P make Lepkuchen Day the day that they first play Christmas music. I can't pull that off, since I start playing Christmas music in something like February (and I cheat - I really start in January), but it's a great way to do it.
(2) Our friends also make it a tradition that the first song that they play on Lepkuchen Day must be their family's favorite Christmas song. We didn't find that out till yesterday evening, so it was too late, but we'll do that next year.
(3) Our friend Dale has special air-bake cookie sheets, the "sanctified cookie sheets," that are used for nothing but Lepkuchen. They are carefully wrapped and stored and are brought out for nothing but Lepkuchen Day (and are thus in terrific shape). We may get around to this!
(4) Lepkuchen Day is also a day for inviting friends and neighbors over to visit. This is the part that makes it so special! Thanks so much to everyone who joined us yesterday! (And to those who wanted to, but couldn't!) Friends can eat snacks (this year I made apple cider in a crockpot and put out chips and salsa... I am so stinking proud of myself) and help glaze lepkuchen while they visit. We send everyone away with a plate of lepkuchen (as well as all they can eat while they're here).
(5) After Lepkuchen Day, we give Lepkuchen to neighbors and friends. We have some in the freezer for everyone who requested it and our near neighbors, plus our midwife, our mail carrier, etc.
(6) In each package of cookies that we give out, we put a paper tag that reads, "Life is hard, but at least there are Lepkuchen." Our friends this year also started putting a little paper with the history of Lepkuchen Day, and I think we'll do the same next year.
(7) This one is ours! We put a sign on all the doors that said "Happy Lepkuchen Day" and gave what is, to us, the classic Lepkuchen Day quote: "There are certain things that are nice to know, especially when the world seems to go not well -- the King is coming, my family loves me, and at Christmas there are Lep Kuchen." - Dale K.
(8) As Lepkuchen Day approaches, we post manic reminders on social media sites, as in, "Only six months till Lepkuchen Day!" By the time Lepkuchen Day actually arrives, most of our friends and acquaintances are pretty well convinced that we are either unbalanced or actively insane.
(9) We uphold Lepkuchen Day traditions with a religious fervor that drives said friends and acquaintances to the same conclusions reached in point #8. Our friend Dale is the master of this, but we do our best to tread in his footsteps.
(10) We take lots of pictures! This one we completely flopped on. Completely. Not one picture (any pics taken were done post-event.) Next year when you're over, remind us to take pictures!
***
And there you have it! This year across the nation there were five families (plus one to come) celebrating Lepkuchen Day, so, as Dale puts it, "The Lepkuchen Day revolution has begun!" If you're looking for a superb annual tradition, join us next year!
And as they say.... Only 364 days till Lepkuchen Day!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Break Out the Whisky..... It's Lepkuchen Day!!! (And Other Delightful News)
Actually, I've never really had whiskey... it's just an ingredient in that most delectable and tantalizing German Christmas cookie, the Lep Kuchen (or lepkuchen or lebkuchen). So bring it on!
About six years ago, we met an absolutely delightful couple, Dale and Pat. Dale's mother had made a habit of making Lepkuchen in November before Thanksgiving, so when Dale married, he and his wife created their own "official" holiday - Lepkuchen Day, to be celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and to be dedicated to the making and eating of Lepkuchen cookies.
We thought it was a splendid idea, and after enjoying a Lepkuchen Day at their house (they hold an open house on L. Day to welcome neighbors and friends), we decided that we simply had to join in the fun. We were newly married, and needing some traditions of our own that weren't just adopted from our individual families, and so Lepkuchen Day became our new holiday tradition.
Tomorrow we will celebrate our fourth Lepkuchen Day (or third active Lepkuchen Day, to be honest, since we skipped one when we had just bought our house). I am so excited! I have three batches of Lepkuchen Dough waiting in the fridge (it's made a week in advance), and we have invited our friends and neighbors to join us (last year we had a grand total of one guest, but it was something!). I am really looking forward to it. Lepkuchen Day has become a very real holiday to us, and we love it!
And so, may I be the first to wish my gentle readers...
..... A Very Happy Lepkuchen Day!
And here is the recipe!
INGREDIENTS (Use high quality ingredients only)
• 2 lb. brown sugar
• 5 eggs (large)
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 “ nutmeg
• 1 “ cinnamon
• ½ “ ground cloves
• ½ cup whiskey (Seagram’s 7 Crown is very good.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (Dissolve it in the whiskey.)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (If you buy walnuts that are already chopped, be sure to check them for any pieces of shells.)
• ½ lb. pitted dates (Use very cold scissors or knife to cut up into pieces slightly smaller than a raisin. Better to cut up your own dates than to buy already chopped ones.)
• 1½ to 1¾ quarts flour (This is about 2 lb. Use a liquid-measure container.)
• Box of powdered sugar (for the glaze) and a pastry brush
PROCEDURE
A. The Batter
1. Cut up the dates and the walnuts (check for pieces of shells).
2. Thoroughly mix brown sugar, eggs, molasses, spices, and baking soda dissolved in the whiskey.
3. Stir in nuts and dates.
4. Add flour slowly (i.e., ½ quart at a time). Dough should be sticky, but not gooey. Don’t add too much flour. 1½ to 1¾ quarts usually is just about right.
5. Mix well. Use hands to blend ingredients.
6. Allow dough to stand 1+ week in covered container in refrigerator.
B. The Baking
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread a thin layer of flour on the cutting surface.
3. Have moist hands and moist rolling pin (cold water) to pat down and roll out dough (about ¼” thick, more or less to personal preference).
4. Cut dough into diamond shapes using a cold, wet table knife.
5. Use a non-stick cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Test the first tray to determine if you need to bake them shorter or longer.
7. Allow the cookies to cool, then spread a thin glaze on each. Make the glaze by adding water to powdered sugar until it forms a pasty consistency (a little thinner than Elmer’s glue).
1 batch makes 85-100 of the best cookies on earth.
*****
In other happy, happy news!
Point #1 - Our insurance has tentatively agreed to pay for the more detailed genetic testing for baby! Hurray!!! I say "tentatively" because their letter was rather confusing - they said "yes, we'll cover it, but we don't guarantee payment." Hmm. However, our geneticist's office considers it sufficient to go ahead, so we'll be getting the test done after Thanksgiving and should have results sometime in January. When we get results, we will either (1) have answers, hurray, hurray!, or (2) know that this is the end of the road, and that we will just have to treat symptoms without having a diagnosis (because there is currently nowhere else to go in terms of testing - this is it). So either way will be a conclusion!
Point #2 - We saw baby's GI doctor this past Wednesday. If you will remember, our geneticist wanted us to do a brain MRI and a reflux test to see if baby's back-arching could be due to either neurological causes (the MRI) or reflux (the reflux test). We are not keen on the reflux test because it requires fasting, barium drinking, possible intubation, and most likely restraint for X-rays. So very fun. Plus the fact that baby doesn't really show signs of reflux. But we went ahead with the pre-procedure consult, and thankfully the doctor seemed to agree with us without us even having to voice our concerns! I think her main thought was "And you are here because....?" Or rather, she was concerned about completely different issues! (Baby's low weight concerned her, but I don't think she was concerned about reflux.) Anyhow, in brief, she said, "We could test for reflux by doing test A, B, C or D, but since those are really unpleasant for baby, let's just treat him for reflux and see if it works." If it works, we'll know his back-arching was caused by reflux, and if not, that it wasn't! Hurray! So we'll be going back there in 2 months, and hopefully that will be it.
Off to take advantage of nap time! Good night, all!
About six years ago, we met an absolutely delightful couple, Dale and Pat. Dale's mother had made a habit of making Lepkuchen in November before Thanksgiving, so when Dale married, he and his wife created their own "official" holiday - Lepkuchen Day, to be celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and to be dedicated to the making and eating of Lepkuchen cookies.
We thought it was a splendid idea, and after enjoying a Lepkuchen Day at their house (they hold an open house on L. Day to welcome neighbors and friends), we decided that we simply had to join in the fun. We were newly married, and needing some traditions of our own that weren't just adopted from our individual families, and so Lepkuchen Day became our new holiday tradition.
Tomorrow we will celebrate our fourth Lepkuchen Day (or third active Lepkuchen Day, to be honest, since we skipped one when we had just bought our house). I am so excited! I have three batches of Lepkuchen Dough waiting in the fridge (it's made a week in advance), and we have invited our friends and neighbors to join us (last year we had a grand total of one guest, but it was something!). I am really looking forward to it. Lepkuchen Day has become a very real holiday to us, and we love it!
And so, may I be the first to wish my gentle readers...
..... A Very Happy Lepkuchen Day!
And here is the recipe!
~ Lep Kuchen ~
There are certain things that are nice to know, especially when the world seems to go not well -- the King is coming, my family loves me, and at Christmas there are Lep Kuchen. The following recipe goes back more generations than I know, but probably came from Germany where the K's and H's (my mother’s family) have their roots. Enjoy making the batter, listen to Christmas music while baking them, and then savor the taste...and the memories. DFK
INGREDIENTS (Use high quality ingredients only)
• 2 lb. brown sugar
• 5 eggs (large)
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 “ nutmeg
• 1 “ cinnamon
• ½ “ ground cloves
• ½ cup whiskey (Seagram’s 7 Crown is very good.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (Dissolve it in the whiskey.)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (If you buy walnuts that are already chopped, be sure to check them for any pieces of shells.)
• ½ lb. pitted dates (Use very cold scissors or knife to cut up into pieces slightly smaller than a raisin. Better to cut up your own dates than to buy already chopped ones.)
• 1½ to 1¾ quarts flour (This is about 2 lb. Use a liquid-measure container.)
• Box of powdered sugar (for the glaze) and a pastry brush
PROCEDURE
A. The Batter
1. Cut up the dates and the walnuts (check for pieces of shells).
2. Thoroughly mix brown sugar, eggs, molasses, spices, and baking soda dissolved in the whiskey.
3. Stir in nuts and dates.
4. Add flour slowly (i.e., ½ quart at a time). Dough should be sticky, but not gooey. Don’t add too much flour. 1½ to 1¾ quarts usually is just about right.
5. Mix well. Use hands to blend ingredients.
6. Allow dough to stand 1+ week in covered container in refrigerator.
B. The Baking
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread a thin layer of flour on the cutting surface.
3. Have moist hands and moist rolling pin (cold water) to pat down and roll out dough (about ¼” thick, more or less to personal preference).
4. Cut dough into diamond shapes using a cold, wet table knife.
5. Use a non-stick cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes. Test the first tray to determine if you need to bake them shorter or longer.
7. Allow the cookies to cool, then spread a thin glaze on each. Make the glaze by adding water to powdered sugar until it forms a pasty consistency (a little thinner than Elmer’s glue).
1 batch makes 85-100 of the best cookies on earth.
*****
In other happy, happy news!
Point #1 - Our insurance has tentatively agreed to pay for the more detailed genetic testing for baby! Hurray!!! I say "tentatively" because their letter was rather confusing - they said "yes, we'll cover it, but we don't guarantee payment." Hmm. However, our geneticist's office considers it sufficient to go ahead, so we'll be getting the test done after Thanksgiving and should have results sometime in January. When we get results, we will either (1) have answers, hurray, hurray!, or (2) know that this is the end of the road, and that we will just have to treat symptoms without having a diagnosis (because there is currently nowhere else to go in terms of testing - this is it). So either way will be a conclusion!
Point #2 - We saw baby's GI doctor this past Wednesday. If you will remember, our geneticist wanted us to do a brain MRI and a reflux test to see if baby's back-arching could be due to either neurological causes (the MRI) or reflux (the reflux test). We are not keen on the reflux test because it requires fasting, barium drinking, possible intubation, and most likely restraint for X-rays. So very fun. Plus the fact that baby doesn't really show signs of reflux. But we went ahead with the pre-procedure consult, and thankfully the doctor seemed to agree with us without us even having to voice our concerns! I think her main thought was "And you are here because....?" Or rather, she was concerned about completely different issues! (Baby's low weight concerned her, but I don't think she was concerned about reflux.) Anyhow, in brief, she said, "We could test for reflux by doing test A, B, C or D, but since those are really unpleasant for baby, let's just treat him for reflux and see if it works." If it works, we'll know his back-arching was caused by reflux, and if not, that it wasn't! Hurray! So we'll be going back there in 2 months, and hopefully that will be it.
Off to take advantage of nap time! Good night, all!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
A New and Wonderful HG Blog!
I am so excited to announce the presence of a new HG blog on the net!
Knocked Up, Knocked Over
The authoress is writing about her preparations for an upcoming pregnancy after having experienced disastrous HG with baby #1, and she is posting her experiences, her research, her emotions, and her plans. Good, great, wonderful stuff. Take a few moments to read through it! I especially loved her pregnancy/HG game plan (I had one too!).
I am so excited about all the new HG blogs! This promises to be among the best of them. Thanks for writing!
Knocked Up, Knocked Over
The authoress is writing about her preparations for an upcoming pregnancy after having experienced disastrous HG with baby #1, and she is posting her experiences, her research, her emotions, and her plans. Good, great, wonderful stuff. Take a few moments to read through it! I especially loved her pregnancy/HG game plan (I had one too!).
I am so excited about all the new HG blogs! This promises to be among the best of them. Thanks for writing!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Doctor #Whichever - Physical Therapy
Yesterday we had baby's first physical therapy session (all the other sessions lately have been evaluations of one type or another).
It went pretty well. I have a horrible time trying to pay attention during these sessions. For one thing, I was obsessing over the fact that I had somehow brought baby to his session with grungy socks and a onesie that had a mysterious stain on it. And he had a really bad haircut (which I've tried to since rectify... only somewhat successfully). The internal agonizing of a mother sure the therapist has written her off as a bad mother. But I digress.
The other thing that I find horribly hard about therapy sessions is that we have our eldest with us as well. And as he is emphatically not the "sit in a corner and read a book" type (like I was), I have to keep an eye on him, make sure he's okay and occupied, and occasionally discipline. So trying to do that while have a conversation with the therapist and participate in the therapy is next to impossible. Or rather, I do it, but I'm distracted and a total stress case.
Moving on.
The therapy went well, nothing much new there.
However, here's something interesting. The therapist mentioned something new to us - torticollis, or persistent head turning in one direction (i.e. right or left). Baby definitely has this - he likes to turn his head to his right, and he has the tell-tale positional plagiocephaly (flat head on one side) as a result. When I searched torticollis to see if it could have anything to do with his back-arching, I came up with something called Sandifer's Syndrome. While we're only guessing at this point, baby does match up with a lot of the symptom picture. With that in mind, we're definitely going to mention it to the GI doctor when we see her this coming week (as Sandifer's Syndrome is a complication of GERD, which will be her specialty).
Interesting stuff! I would really like some answers on this thing. I can't believe how much time and money and effort we've put into a search for a diagnosis which has only resulted in head-scratching and a collective "hmm." It would be nice to be able to have a diagnosis and move on into treatment instead of staying in limbo forever.
And now, on to a very busy weekend! Tomorrow is "Batterday Saturday," the day when we make our cookie dough for next week's annual "Lepkuchen Day" - a holiday invented by our friends, which we adopted into our own holiday traditions. Yum! I can't wait.
Love to all!!!
It went pretty well. I have a horrible time trying to pay attention during these sessions. For one thing, I was obsessing over the fact that I had somehow brought baby to his session with grungy socks and a onesie that had a mysterious stain on it. And he had a really bad haircut (which I've tried to since rectify... only somewhat successfully). The internal agonizing of a mother sure the therapist has written her off as a bad mother. But I digress.
The other thing that I find horribly hard about therapy sessions is that we have our eldest with us as well. And as he is emphatically not the "sit in a corner and read a book" type (like I was), I have to keep an eye on him, make sure he's okay and occupied, and occasionally discipline. So trying to do that while have a conversation with the therapist and participate in the therapy is next to impossible. Or rather, I do it, but I'm distracted and a total stress case.
Moving on.
The therapy went well, nothing much new there.
However, here's something interesting. The therapist mentioned something new to us - torticollis, or persistent head turning in one direction (i.e. right or left). Baby definitely has this - he likes to turn his head to his right, and he has the tell-tale positional plagiocephaly (flat head on one side) as a result. When I searched torticollis to see if it could have anything to do with his back-arching, I came up with something called Sandifer's Syndrome. While we're only guessing at this point, baby does match up with a lot of the symptom picture. With that in mind, we're definitely going to mention it to the GI doctor when we see her this coming week (as Sandifer's Syndrome is a complication of GERD, which will be her specialty).
Interesting stuff! I would really like some answers on this thing. I can't believe how much time and money and effort we've put into a search for a diagnosis which has only resulted in head-scratching and a collective "hmm." It would be nice to be able to have a diagnosis and move on into treatment instead of staying in limbo forever.
And now, on to a very busy weekend! Tomorrow is "Batterday Saturday," the day when we make our cookie dough for next week's annual "Lepkuchen Day" - a holiday invented by our friends, which we adopted into our own holiday traditions. Yum! I can't wait.
Love to all!!!
HG Musings & Advice
My good friend Jennifer, currently pregnant with Embryo Adoption Snowflake baby Matthew (SO exciting!!!) has gone through the wringer with nausea and vomiting during her pregnancy. I wanted to share some of her writings.
First, on dealing with HG, and the discouragement that comes with it:
Week 13: "Emesis"
And also...
Week 24: "Middle of the Night Whining"
And then a great compilation of her how-to-deal-with-it tips:
My Very Limited HG Tips
I always love posting writings from HG mamas, so please feel free to send me links to link to if you have written about your experience or done any "how to survive" articles.
First, on dealing with HG, and the discouragement that comes with it:
Week 13: "Emesis"
And also...
Week 24: "Middle of the Night Whining"
And then a great compilation of her how-to-deal-with-it tips:
My Very Limited HG Tips
I always love posting writings from HG mamas, so please feel free to send me links to link to if you have written about your experience or done any "how to survive" articles.
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