Last Hurrah of Summer - 2015

We've been on the go this year - will think about posting a few make-up blogs with our prior trips - most were covered via my Facebook page. Parenthesis show # nights - trips are with trailer unless otherwise noted:

• Feb (4) - Skiing at Whistler & hanging out with the DeSalvo family
• Apr (4) - Spring break at Ft. Steven's and exploring Astoria
• May (3) - Memorial Day at Conconully with the Allyn & Ward families
• June (3) - Austin with Lisa & boys for Nathan & Stephanie's wedding (not with the trailer)
• July (3) - Last minute 4th trip to Ocean Shores with the Allyn & Perman families
• July (2) - Annual visit to Chelan (not with the trailer) with the Soderstrom & Hombach families and our friend, Drew
• July (3) - Cape Kiwanda with the Allyn family
• Aug (8)- Maryhill -> St. Helen's -> Rainier 

25 nights in the trailer - we pulled out of the driveway, proud at how well we have the art of packing up down. (that's called foreshadowing...). About 100 miles later, Dan asked, 'Did you by chance grab the BBQ?' and maybe another 25 miles, I realize I forgot our pillows.

We resisted the temptation to get a new portable BBQ but did indulge in new pillows - much needed!

First stop: Maryhill State Park
The sites are huge - beware of nasty thorns in the lawn - they punctured both my & Megan's bike tires. There is a beach at one end of the park though Megan and I discovered on our last day that a rocky access point was just across the road from us. Made for a leisurely wake up our last morning, complete with coffee and just the two of us breathing in the gorgeous views. We were able to use our propane fire pit here, despite the burn ban - s'mores for all!

Campground sites are large- beware of thorns!

View of the Columbia River from our site.

Smoke settled in our first full day and largely remained for the duration, often obscuring the views (even the sun). It did tend to clear a bit in the evenings. 

Down the road a bit is Horse Thief State Park. With advance registration, you can take a walking tour and visit some of the oldest pictographs in the NW; still worth a visit to see the examples of petroglyphs that are available for all to visit. As a bonus, the park has kayaks for rent - $5/half day and the ranger I booked with took us out on the lake in search of more pictographs and wildlife. We saw squirrels that live in the rocky areas, out of the reach of predators; signs of otters; herons and even a baby catfish that tried to hitch a ride in Dan's kayak.

"She who watches' - pictograph at Horse Thief State Park

One of many petroglyphs at Horse Thief State Park

Kayaking - Horse Thief State Park

For a side-trip, we visited The Dalles - sadly, the town was quite closed up the Sunday we were there. It was actually pretty disconcerting - every shop front was closed or available for lease. Given there wasn't much in town, we wandered over to the Dalles Dam for a tour - and found it much more informational than last year's visit to Grand Coulee.

Generator room - color changes in the generators give depth perception (!)

Pool near fish ladder - there's a contractor down there who has to identify AND count AND record length of every fish that passes through! Not a job I would wish to have.

And, because we weren't busy enough, we spent two nights at the Goldendale Observatory. The first visit there was a Corvette Club visiting - probably about 70 people! Made it very difficult to participate. Sadly, the second night, much of what we could see was obscured by clouds and smoke. However, we did get a very cool view of the moon and the Double Double (two sets of double stars near each other - so we were seeing 4 total) -- you'll have to forgive me for not taking notes - was too much information shared that night to retain it all.

Evening shot of the observatory building - well worth a visit (or 2).

Second stop: Mount. St. Helens
This stop should have been cut short by a day - the hikes from the campground weren't easy to find -  and given it's late August, no one wanted to hike in the sandy, dusty conditions. (2 of 3 bike tires had additionally proven to be non-repairable). Stayed at Seaquest State park - sites are very small, compared to Maryhill. BUT - we did have power & water hookups.

We spent 1-day exploring the visitor's attractions and learning all about volcanoes. The videos of the eruption are impressive.

No Scherer vacation seems complete without a drive to the ocean - and since we weren't planning to do any hikes at St. Helen's, we set off for lunch (never found it) and Cape Disappointment - lovely drive. Fun little lighthouse visit ... but I didn't have proper sandals (no heel strap) so couldn't go up with the family. Instead, I stared out at the ocean and found what I believe were porpoise playing in the surf! No binoculars to confirm - but there were 4, with fins (not sea lions). From where I was watching, they would most closely match the Vacquita found in this article - but am not sure they would be this far North.

Cape Disappointment - North Head Lighthouse

View from North Head Lighthouse, looking toward the cape

Third stop: Mt. Rainier
Third and final stop! Mt. Rainier - leisurely breakfast and pack up ... oh - it's Megan's birthday! Can't believe we have a 14-year old... and she's spend a large % of her birthdays traveling with the family. Such a good sport!

It was 86-degrees when we pulled in to the Ohanapecosh Campground. I had deliberately selected an end spot - hoping we could easily get in and out (and it worked!). We had an amazing spot right next to the river. On the drive out - the mountain was out, the day was warm - what a simply amazing area to spend the next few days!

Scoping the jump...

Looking at Ohanapecosh river from our campsite.

Megan's birthday bath - first ever rock jump into a river (never mind a glacial river) ... brave kid!

Happy 14th to our gorgeous girl!

Seriously obsessed with the hammock.

Sophia discovered a new love for hammocks ... could barely get her out of it. She built a cozy nest and would have made it through the night had it not been for the rain. At 2:30 AM. Good mom I am, I pulled her in - but felt a little guilty as it was just barely drizzling. About 20- minutes later, that doubt was put to rest as a huge downpour hit us, continuing through the early hours of the morning.




Toured the park (by car) - and sought out a few things we wanted to explore further. Had intended lunch at Paradise, but the dining room closes at 2 and doesn't reopen until 5:30. So we hung out on the mountain, hoping for her to lift her veil ... and ended with dinner at Paradise instead of lunch. Wasn't anything spectacular, sadly - but the setting is so amazing and couldn't beat the company!

Throughout the day we saw a grouse (it all but jumped in our path), a marmot sunning itself on a rock and a bear!

She didn't want to be photographed - this was the best she would give us (short of our drive in, which was clear but we didn't stop for photos). #MtRainier

Playing tourist at the entrance

On the bridge over the Nisqually River.

Steps to Paradise

This little guy was practically rolling in the huckleberries on the downhill side of Paradise

This marmot seemed to love the attention from the visitors. He would leave his perch but run back to it whenever he saw more people on the trail. 

Upstairs view of the lamps at Paradise Lodge. Can't wait to go back!

Gorgeous views at every turn.

With rains setting in, our tour on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad was canceled... and, returning to camp to find a seasonal pond at the front of our campsite, we decided to pack up a day early. Good thing too - power was out all day at home - just like camping, but with a generator and our own warm beds! =) Happy camping!

Kid's Baking Club #3

Baking Club #3 was held Saturday, November 3

Apple Pie!

I learned a lot from our first two baking club sessions - and, knowing we were making apple pie, gave some thought to the setup and orchestration of having 5 kids in my kitchen.

Fundamental Changes:

• Setup a demo pie - very quickly walked through all steps: making pie crust, apple process, assembly and popped it in the oven so we would have a pie to sample before time to go home.
• Pre-set working spot for the kids - everyone peeled, cored and sliced theiir own apples
• Pre-prepped a double batch of Never Fail pie crust
• Employed the wax paper trick for pie crusts! Roll out your crust between sheets of wax paper - it's a no mess approach and super easy
• Seasonings were pre-measured for each pie

At the end of 3 hours, we had successfully completed 5 full-sized pies - 1 of which was baked and enjoyed by the group.

Megan spent part of the morning pre-prepping applies for the demo pie and making snacks for her guests. I have to admit, she's getting the hang of entertaining - very thoughtful hostess is emerging before my very eyes.


Process:

• Kids started peeling apples for their individual pies
• One at a time, they came into the kitchen and rolled out their bottom pie crust, placed it in the tin, to be refrigerated
• Megan "floated" - offering help to everyone. To her chagrin, no one would listen to her! (ha, ha!)
• As each participant finished peeling their apples, they put the peels in the garbage and got a lesson on how to core and chop.
• When all apples were chopped, each person added seasonings to the bowl and stirred
• One at a time, repeated process to roll out pie dough and put the top on, and practice crimping the edges

Amazingly, the process worked beautifully and largely, kids all wrapped up their work in succession and calmly. The floor was remarkably free of apple debris and the kids were HUNGRY!

Pies safely tucked in the fridge, snacks were served .... followed by a slice of the still warm demo pie (with blackberries!). I didn't hear any complaints!

Only problem is the disposable pie tins are not at all reliable, and several people (parents included) got an unexpected dousing of applie pie juice!

Apple Pie Recipes:

Never Fail Pie Crust (First time using the shortening based recipe; added a little cinnamon, as always)

Apple Pie (from my BHG cookbook):

• 2.5-3 lb of apples (today, we used Fuji)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 TBSP flour
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp All Spice
• Directions:

§  Peel, core and slice apples (we do smaller chunks; they cook faster)

§  Mix apple with dry ingredients

§  Pour into prepared pie pan

§  Add top crust – trim excess and seal

§  Bake at 350-degrees, about 1-hour (cover edges with tin foil for first 25-minutes to help keep from burning) 

Kid's Baking Club #2

Baking club #2 was held Saturday, 10/6/2012

Last session, the kids were insistent on baking German Chocolate Cake at the next meeting.

I thought it might be too complicated, but decided to give it a try, including a Black Forest cake for variety!

Megan was in charge this time of researching and finding the recipes. She took on the challenge - but didn't copy the URLs. And, as we were doing final ingredient shopping, realized two things:

1. She had copy/pasted the steps for the German Chocolate topping to a Black Forest recipe
2. We had not ran the recipes through the cost calculator

I bucked up and $47 later, we purchased everything a German Chocolate Cake and Black Forest Cake.

I spent some time finding a German Chocolate cake that sounded good ... but if you look at the recipe, you will see I failed to take the numerous steps into consideration.

When the kids arrived, we did a quick pre-brief - much to Megan's horror .... (I apparently sound like her math teacher).

This time, we broke into groups of two - but Sophia and I were to be "floaters" helping .... only Sophia quickly got bored because the initial steps were difficult to include her and I had to bounce back and forth, helping the two cakes.



Black Forest Cake - cupcake & 1/2 mini-cake versions



Megan and Mikalea tackled the Black Forest Cake.... one small cake and 12 cupcakes. Only error was they used heavy cream instead of buttermilk - but the cake still rose and held it's shape. The cupcakes were a little crumbly - but... kids managed to ice them, add cherries, whipped cream topping (which had to be remade 2x since the cherry juice curdled it the first time) and DEVOUR them (one shot has them all face-first into their cake)!

Landon and Kimia tackled the German Chocoate cake ... but it required a lot of help...  I had them first make the pecan/coconut frosting ... which requies cooking + toasting the coconut and pecans. We were smart to make that part first; just overlooked that we should also have made the chocolate icing at the same time (both have to cool to room temp).

German Chocolate Cake - cupcakes + mini-cake

We got the cake going ... but the process for separating eggs involved hands (not my first choice, but that's how the kids see it on TV and was how they wanted to do it). Before I realized what was up, both kids had hands full-on in the egg yolks, mixing them up! Gooey hands ... egg yolk dripping on the table... napkins + hand washing later, I talked them through how to add scrambled egg yolks to the batter, one yolk at a time... =)

Jump forward - we now have the cake ready, buttermilk added and "ah!" have to get egg whites to stiff peaks ... quick wash of dishes + beaters and we're off again... then to teach them how to "fold" the two together vs. stirring or beating ---

Clock was counting down and the German Chocolate cake was still baking. Kids were bored, as with one cake done, one set of kids were playing and the other set of kids were more interested in socializing than in finishing a labor-intensive project. The trampoline saved my sanity again! Meanwhile, I made the chocolate icing... which also needed to cool...a step I had neglected to notice in the preview. Fridge was my only hope of having it all assembled in time to go home with the kids. 

Despite best efforts, the German chocolate cake fell in the middle. Kinda worked well though - the coconut/pecan filling went in the "dip" of each cupcake and I was drizzling with mostly room-temperature chocolate icing just as the first parents arrived.

Each kid went home with 2 German Chocolate cupcakes and 1/2 a mini-cake. So happy to see those calories walk out the door.

Feedback from the kids -

• Most didn't care for the Black Forest cake - the mixture of the powdered sugar frosting with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate cake was too much all at once (note -they happily mostly devoured their two cupcakes, however)
• Didn't have time to taste test the German Chocolate Cake .... I did though, and YUM!

I learned a lot though - need simpler recipes that the kids can assemble and finished while it's baking. They lost interest when there were too many steps involved at this point. They want to taste at every step - which was fun to pass around slivers of unsweetened and bittersweet baking chocolate!

At the end of the day, I hope they are having fun and learning a little respect for process + ingredients when it comes to food.

Next month: Pie!

This month's recipes:

• German Chocolate Cake - www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/09/german-chocolat-1
• (note: we did not make the syrup for the layers):

• Black Forest Cake - (apologies, Megan found it & didn't record the URL):
• Cake

• 1-2/3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
• Frosting for layers
• 1/2 cup "kirschwasser" (cherry water)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp strong brewed coffee
• 2 (14-oz) cans pitted Bing cherries (drained)...reserve the juice for the "kirschwasser"
• Frosting for outside
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp kirschwasser (I think this is optional... I think it broke the whipped cream)
• For decoration (we didn't use)
• 1 (1-oz) semisweet chocolate
• Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350-degrees
• Line the bottoms of 2 - 8" round pans with parchment paper circles
• Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and tsp salt - set aside
• Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined. Pour into 2 round 8" pans.
• Bake at 350-degrees for 35-40 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cool completely. Remove paper from the cakes. Cut each layer in half, horizontally, making 4 layers total
• Sprinkle layers with 1/2 cup kirschwasser (we didn't do this step)
• In a medium bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar, pinch of salt, and coffee; beat until smooth. If the consistency is too thich, add a couple tsp of kirschwasser or milk.
• Spread first layer of cake with 1/3 of the filling, top with 1/3 of the cherries. Repeat with remaining layers
• In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Beat in 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp kirschwasser. Frost top and sides of cake
• Sprinkle with chocolate curls, made by using a potatoe peeler on semisweet baking chocolate (we skipped this step)

Kid's Baking Club #1 - Cookies!

Session 1 of baking club was Saturday, 9/1

So much fun - and a little chaos too. I learned a lot today and will get better next time!

Session 1 focused on cookies! With 5 kids, plus me, we broke up into groups of 2 and each tackled a different recipe.

We kicked off talking about kitchen safety, budget considerations (we have $10 / mo to work with and already overspent!) and kitchen cleanliness.

Each group happily tackled their recipes - though I had to keep popping over to answer questions, meaning I was distracted from the batch of chocolate chip cookies that Sophia and I were making ... and, watched in horror as the butter melted when I dumped in the still warm walnuts ... quickly put it in the fridge to hopefully re-congeal in time to bake before session ended.... and after 30 minutes, as I was about to dump it into a pan for bar cookies because it was still goopy, realized we never added the flour! Problem solved... it rapidly formed up into delicious cookies!

Downtime needs to be planned ... as well as tastings... the kids could NOT wait to taste their goodies. I make them painstakingly wait until one batch of each recipe was done, and then they got to devour one cookie from each. Such happy noises coming from the living room along with the disappointed groans that they couldn't eat them all!! Post cookie indulge, they spent ample time on the trampoline while I finished baking the cookies and distributing on take-home plates. 

I did have them come through and clean up their mess ... so this time, had a clean kitchen by 5pm.  

 

Session 1 Recipes:

• Chocolate Surprise (est. cost $3.59) - http://tinyurl.com/9769yqv
• Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (est. cost $9.25) - http://tinyurl.com/9n5xvd8
• Princess Cookies (est. cost $2.82) - http://tinyurl.com/9a2chzl

I probably learned as much (possibly more) than the kids.

 

Best!

Sherry

Kid's Baking Club - Setup Phase

In August, Megan expressed interest in forming a baking club. Wanting to support her budding passion for baking, I agreed to support her endeaver to regularly host a group of kids in our kitchen.

We just had our 2nd session - so will quickly add a few posts to catch up:

1. Pre-Planning

• We talked through the size of our kitchen and agreed that she could invite 3 friends (+ her sister, that's 5 kids we're dealing with each session - all but Sophia are in 6th grade)
• Budget - we talked about the cost of ingredients and thought through solutions to help pay for the club - they were:
• $ contribution - each participant pays a fixed amount each session
• Ingredient contribution - each participant would bring a key ingredient each session
• Recipe contribution - each participant would rotate bringing all ingredients
• We landed on $ contribution ... each participant brings $2.50
• Timing - we negotiated down from weekly to monthly (whew!) and from "all day" to 2-5pm

2. Pre-Invite

• Knowing how kids get excited and parents not always so much, I issued a "heads up" email to the parents of the kids about 2-days in advance of the invite. Wanted to give the families time to prep their child for the response most appropriate for their family. I additionally gave parents the option to review and vote on the budget contribution ideas

3. Invite

• Megan called each child and personally invited - outling the details of the club and the date of the first session

4. Recipe Planning

• For the first session, I did most of the recipe planning... those posts to come
• Ideally - will pre-plan the recipes and look at the cost of each. To facilitate, I put together a very simple Excel spreadsheet and worked with Megan to build out the equations and calculate the cost of most major ingredients - for example:
• Sugar - $3.99 for 4 lb
• Ingredients list indicated 1tsp as the serving size and 454 estimated servings in 4 lb
• We calculated $0.01 (rounded up) as the cost per tsp
• We then looked up the # tsp in common measurements and built a table of costs to get to the cost per cup
• The next tab of the spreadsheet has the recipe outlined and the cost per item, based on the measurement required

This was all very "boring" to Megan, but I think useful in helping her understand that just because we're making it at home doesn't mean it's "free."

Long Overdue Update

Wow! Can't believe how quickly time goes by some days. It's been a very long, interesting 9 months. Don't worry, no new babies on the horizon here! =)

Life between posts looked something like this:

• Discovered Wine.Woot. (maybe that was before May, 2010)
• Dan visited Mt. Baker!
• Lost a job.
• First WBNA game - Go Storm!
• Back-to-School for the girls (K/4th)
• Got a job.
• Family reunion (Dan).
• FUN car.
• Drank some wine.
• Kid-free date nights.
• Got butt kicked at bootcamp (repeatedly).
• Made lots and lots of bread.
• Had fun with friends.
• New Years Eve tree lighting.

Missed more than I included - but there you are. Snapshot of what's kept me away from blogging for the past 9-months. That and Facebook makes it feel redundant - alas, will try, try again.

Mother's Day Poem, by Megan

Sherry

Fun, sweet, honest, caring
Mother of Sophia and
Megan

Lover of chocolate, sleep, coffee
Who finds happiness in love,
kisses, silliness

Who needs coffee, computer,
playtime

Who gives help, stories, prayers
Who fears getting hurt, spiders,
snakes

Who would like to go to the spa,
spend more time playing,
have a party

Who likes to wear earrings, dresses,
necklaces

Resident of Woodinville
Washington
Mom

With love,
Megan
May 9, 2010