My kids have been really excited to find mushrooms all over our neighborhood. Inspired by my friend Kristina, I decided to take some pictures of what they collected. Mushrooms really are pretty cool when you stop to look at them. Edited to add: click on each image to see a larger version.
One word: yum.
After a day at the beach, we were in the mood for seafood and something tropical. I found the recipe here, and only changed the “salsa” because I didn’t have all the fruit it called for. I also increased the quantities for the fish. Here’s how I made it.
Coconut Crusted Tilapia with Citrus Salsa
Mix the fruit together (except the lime wedges) and sprinkle with sugar. Set aside.
Rinse the tilapia with cold water and pat dry. On a large plate, mix together the shredded coconut and breadcrumbs. You’ll need three separate plates for the breading: one for flour, one for eggs and one for the coconut and breadcrumb mixture. Dredge the fish in the flour; dip into the beaten eggs and then coat thoroughly in the coconut and breadcrumb mixture.
Heat vegetable oil over medium heat in a large skillet and place the breaded fillets so that they are not touching each other. Cook on each side for about 4 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside on a paper towel to drain excess oil.
Place each fillet on a plate and spoon salsa over top. Squeeze lime wedges over the top.
We just served it with some tortilla chips, but it would also be good with rice and salad.
Here we are in Michigan! We arrived on Thursday after driving straight through, something we’ve never done before. It worked really well. We left home on Wednesday around 4:30pm, stopped for dinner, then got the kids ready for bed. They slept for close to half of the trip, which makes for a lot less time for “Are we there yet?” We got here early Thursday afternoon and were greeted by about six inches of snow on the ground.
The girls have loved the snow. They’ve spent a lot of time already playing out in Granny and Granddad’s yard with their cousins. It’s really been fun seeing their reaction to it. They were totally amazed by the icicles at a McDonald’s we stopped at for breakfast in Kentucky. When we arrived in Michigan, the first thing Bethany did after getting out of the car was gingerly touch the snow. “It’s soft!” she said in awe.
It’s been a great weekend spending time at Cornerstone EPC’s missions conference. They are so good at both making missionaries feel welcomed and appreciated and also making real connections between missionaries and church members so that we’re not just a random picture on a refrigerator door.
If you’re going to be in southeast Michigan over the next week and a half or so, we’d love to see you. Drop us a note or give us a call so we can set something up!
I made a princess cake for Bethany’s birthday. It wasn’t too difficult, but someone asked me to document the process. So here goes!
I baked the cake in a Pampered Chef 8-cup batter bowl (which I borrowed from a friend). I also borrowed a cake doll torso thing (don’t know exactly what they’re called, it’s like a Barbie from the waist up but a spike from the waist down). Unfortunately there was some kind of mishap with Barbie the Spike and her arms were no longer attached to her body. They couldn’t be reattached, so on to Plan B!
I raided the girls’ boxful of Barbies and pulled out a Cinderella. Perfect! Almost. Unfortunately, her legs were too long–her hips would have stuck out of the cake–so they had to come off. I was able to snap them off carefully and put them back on when we were done. I wrapped her lower body tightly with several layers of plastic wrap so we wouldn’t end up with cake and frosting inside her. The only plastic wrap I have on hand right now happens to be red. It ended up looking pretty gruesome, a dismembered doll looking like she’s wrapped in red bandages. The girls thought it was pretty hilarious!
Anyway. I baked the cake the night before I needed it. I used two devil’s food cake mixes. When I filled the batter bowl there was a bit of cake batter left over, so I put it into an 8″ round cake pan. Good thing, too–I ended up using it. I set the temp and timer according to the package and took the round cake out then (35 mins or so). The bowl cake ended up taking about 50 minutes, I think. I just kept testing it with a long bamboo skewer. It did fall in the middle and ended up with quite a bubble there, but it didn’t matter–that was on the bottom and hidden when all was said and done. I froze the baked cakes overnight. It’s much easier to frost and decorate a frozen cake–far fewer crumbs.
Party day. I made a real buttercream frosting. I wouldn’t do that again for decorating. Very, very tasty but it melts at room temperature. I kept having to stick the bowl of frosting and the cake into the fridge, and my hands into a bowl of ice water. Next time I’ll either just buy prepared frosting or make a shortening-based frosting (ew).
Assembly was pretty easy. I realized that the doll looked too big for the “skirt” when it was just the cake baked in the bowl, so I sliced off the domed top of each cake to level them and put the 8″ round underneath, like so:
Except of course I put frosting between the layers. The decorating was pretty straightforward after that. First, a crumb coat:
Then, a top coat. I gently dragged a bread knife vertically through the frosting to make the ridges.
I’d bought some Disney Princess glitter cake decorating gel, which I used for the sashes and stripes on the skirt.
I did the purple first, then the rosettes (I tinted the rest of the frosting after I’d finished the ridged coat), then the stripes. I cut a hole in the top for the Barbie (I intentionally cut the hole small so she’d fit tightly) after I’d pretty much finished the skirt. I started piping rosettes onto the torso for the bodice, but everything was getting really melty by then despite keeping the frosting in the fridge and repeatedly sticking the whole cake in there for a while. I had a scary moment when I thought the cake wasn’t going to fit in the fridge, but luckily Barbie’s head was jointed and I was able to tip it to get her to fit.
(I think I may have to bust into that Celebrator later tonight, even if it was Tim’s Father’s day gift.) Eventually I was able to finish piping the rosettes on the doll, then decided to do the top of the cake too. I also added straps to the dress with the decorator gel, since the girls complained that she looked weird without them.
I should have stopped there, but I added a bit more purple gel to the top of the skirt to try to tie the parts together. I liked it better before I did that, but couldn’t scrape it off without destroying the rosettes and I was almost out of frosting.
I used the last bit of buttercream to pipe rosettes directly onto the plate, and stuck candles into them.
So there it is. Things I’d do differently: get a doll that’s intended for cakes; don’t use a butter-based frosting; stop sooner.
Maybe I’ll do another post on how I made the castle for Ellie’s birthday.
I’ve started trying to make my own cleaning products. There are a few reasons that I decided to go this route. One is simply to save some money. Another is that I’d like to have the kids doing more housework, and I thought it would be better if they were using products that aren’t extremely toxic. A third reason is that I’ve known for a long time that certain cleaning products set off Tim’s asthma, and even bother me sometimes. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal told about a certain chemical that’s in many, many cleaning products which is known to cause respiratory problems in commercial and industrial settings. That was enough to put me over the edge and start looking for recipes.
The first thing I tried is a homemade laundry detergent. It’s a combination of borax, washing soda, fels-naptha soap and oxi-clean. I’ve only done a few loads of sheets and towels with it so far, so I can’t give much of an evaluation. I’ll have to try it on some of Messy Micah’s clothes to give it a real test. I saw some other recipes on the web that involved cooking the ingredients into sort of a slimy goop, but that just didn’t sound like much fun. This one is all dry ingredients and took me all of about 5 minutes to make.
The next thing I went with was tried-and-true vinegar. I’m using a solution of about half-and-half white vinegar and water in a spray bottle. This is working well on the countertops and sinks, both in the bathrooms and kitchen. It didn’t do so well on the refrigerator or tile floor, though. It left both very streaky and not very clean. I had to go back over the fridge with glass cleaner.
The thing that had me the most excited was one that seemed odd to me. I read somewhere that olive oil is good for polishing stainless appliances. It is amazing! Since moving into this house almost three years ago I’ve used different products on my dishwasher and stove–stainless wipes, glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner–and none of them have been great. I used some light olive oil (not the expensive kind) on a soft cloth, wiped it on, then buffed it off with a clean soft cloth. My appliances look better than they have since we moved in. It took off the grungy drips on the dishwasher, splattered spots on the front of the stove, fingerprints off the handles, everything. And they’re wiping clean (with a dry towel) more easily since doing that. I’ll definitely keep that up.
I was so jazzed from that success that I decided to try it on my cabinets. Results there were more mixed. Our cabinets have a dark cherry-ish finish and show every little water spot, fingerprint, and everything else. I’ve had a hard time getting and keeping them clean. The olive oil seemed to take off some of the gunk, but didn’t leave a great finish. I switched to a mineral oil-based furniture oil that I had on hand just to compare. The mineral oil is a lot thinner and seemed to leave a nicer finish, but didn’t take as much of the dirty stuff off. And by the next day, the oil finish had dried off and they didn’t look all that different from when I started. I think I’m going to have to do some more experimenting there. I will say that the olive oil left my hands feeling soft; the mineral oil had the opposite effect.
My hardest challenge so far has been the kitchen floor. My favorite product on it has always been Spic-N-Span (liquid form, diluted in a bucket of hot water). It leaves the floor really clean with no residue or streaks. I’ve also used diluted Lysol cleaner in a Swiffer WetJet, which does okay. I tried putting vinegar and water into the WetJet with terrible results. The floor was streaky and still really dirty. So then I tried mixing up an all-purpose cleaner recipe I found online–borax, castile soap, washing soda and water. I sprayed it on with a spray-bottle and mopped it up with a wet rag on a Swiffer. It seemed to get the floor a lot cleaner and didn’t leave streaks, but has left a kind-of sticky residue that’s getting dirty really quickly. I’m not sure what to try next. Any suggestions?
Making this:
Ellie’s birthday party is in a little over an hour. Oh, the insanity.
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged so I thought I’d do a quick catch-up post. First, let me apologize for not having the most recent newsletter up here and available. I’m having a problem with the WordPress uploader. I need to upgrade, and I’m hoping that will solve it. But until I get around to doing that, I can’t seem to upload anything. If you haven’t had a chance to read the December newsletter, let us know and we’ll email it to you.
My last post was when we were in Michigan. We had a great time (the kids even made their first snowman) and made it home safely; the kids and I flew and Tim drove our “new” car back. We were given a 1993 Dodge Spirit by my parents. Before they had it, it belonged to my grandma; before that, it was my sister’s–all in the family! We call it “The Green Machine” and/or “The Mother of all Hooptys,” but it’s been a real blessing to us. Our old Subaru died an ugly death right before we went to Michigan, so we were back to being a one-car family. Most of the time that’s not a problem, but it sometimes makes things very complicated–like on a Sunday when I’m scheduled to sing at church (30 minutes away) and have to be there at 7:00 am and don’t finish until nearly 2:00. Without two cars, I’d probably have to drop off the worship team. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Anyway, I digress. We made it home safely but slightly ill. Micah had a cold that she started in Michigan that turned into a nasty virus which knocked her out for over a week (Thanksgiving week). Once she finally started to recover a bit, Bethany got it. Then Ellie went down. They were each also flat-out for a week, then Bethany got an ear infection which had her feeling poorly for a few more days. By the time everyone was healthy, it was the week before Christmas. The girls danced in their first (and probably last) ballet recital and really enjoyed it. All the illness which lasted right into that week-before-Christmas-insanity meant that we never got around to sending out Christmas cards. Oops.
So anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to. We had a great, relaxing Christmas break and are ready to get back into the swing of our regular schedule of homeschooling.
If you’d like to keep up with us a little more closely, look us up on Facebook. We’re both pretty active on there. Tim regularly updates with what he’s working on in the studio, and I comment about what’s going on with the kids and also post plenty of pictures.
So what’s new with you?
While we’re in Michigan, the girls and I are staying with my mom for most of the time (Tim’s down at his parents’, closer to the people he’s meeting with). One really nice thing about this is that my mom is a morning person, a lot like Tim. I’m not. At home, Tim always gets the girls their breakfast and allows me to wake up slowly and not have to face any little people before I’m ready. My mom has been doing the same thing for me here.
I woke up a little early this morning, before the kids were allowed out of their room. At 7:00 (their time of emancipation), I overheard this on the monitor:
(door opening)
Micah: Gwamma’s not up!
Bethany: Is Daddy here?
Micah: No!
Bethany: Uh oh…
Micah: We have to wake somebody up! Somebody has to feed us bweakfwast or we’ll STARVE!
Bethany: We will NOT starve!
I love the fact that none of the girls asked if I was up or even mentioned the possibility. I have them trained well. 
We arrive in Detroit this Wednesday, October 29. We will be there until November the 19th. I (Tim) will be on my own for most of the time while Lisa will be in Fenton helping her mom take care of Grandma and continuing the normal schedule of homeschooling. We will all be together, including the kids, for our church visits.
Here are the churches that we will be visiting. We will be at Lake Pointe Bible Church in Plymouth on November 2, and Oak Pointe in Novi on Nov 8th and 9th.
I’ll post more about our schedule as the trip progresses. I have a few visits planned but a lot of open time still. I’d love to see everyone that I can!
The best way to get a hold of me will be by email (tcocking @ gmail.com) You can try my cell phone as well 407-405-4432. Please note that number is only in use for this trip.
Tim: musician; runner; audio engineer for The JESUS Film Project; science and math teacher to our kids.
Lisa: homeschooling mom; fan of 1940s radio and music; spends too much time on the computer.
Tim's Twitter
Lisa's Twitter
