Chicken Stock Epiphany

I know, I know. The language is a bit strong...an epiphany over chicken stock?!

But if you've read much on nutritious cooking, a good homemade stock pretty much gets #1 on the list of must-haves. It's full of minerals and valuable electrolytes, it's easy on your digestive system, promotes digestive healing, reduces allergies, helps your body get every bit of value out of the protein you eat, boosts your immune system, and is frugal and easy to make. Basically, it's a wonder food. You just have to know how to make it right.

My mom taught me how to make chicken stock when I was a teenager, and I had always used a relatively similar process. However, the nutrition experts said to simmer the stock for 6-24 hours to get the full nutrition from the marrow, and by then, my stock smelled so overcooked I didn't even want to taste it.

But I have overcome. And you can too. (if you care, that is). The secret is to simmer the bones for 6-24 hours, but add the veggies in only at the very end. It was the vegetables that were getting nastily overcooked.

This is my new method (my apologies to recipe lovers everywhere--just apply this method to your favorite stock recipe if you are into following rules and that kind of thing):

- Soak chicken bones in cold water to generously cover, along with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, for an hour or so. (The vinegar helps get the minerals and gelatin out of the bones and into your broth).
- Simmer on low heat all day, for 6-24 hours.
- An hour or two before you're taking it off, add two quartered onions (with the peel on), a couple celery stalks, several chunked carrots, parsley, salt, and whatever herbs you desire in the pot.
- Drain broth into a large bowl, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate overnight. You'll know sweet success if your broth has turned into a gelatin--this means you've gotten all the good stuff! You can skim the fat, but it's a good-for you kind of unsaturated fat, so I usually keep it.
- I freeze my broth in two- and four-cup portions, and make an ice cube tray of broth cubes for those times where you just need a 1/4 c. of broth.

I am now making stock every time I get a good bag of leftover chicken bones saved up in my freezer, which is about every week or two. Since it's so nutritious, I substitute broth in for the water in casseroles, rice, stew, and even pasta sauces. It tastes 10 times better than Swansons, and is infinitely more nutritious.

Just had to share my latest culinary victory!

Convos, Take Two:

A few more conversations from the last few days:

Isaac, to Vance on a walk, just after Vance had beaten him in a race (Isaac was biking):
"Daddy, you're full of slowness. I'm full of fastness!"

(He's confident. Not a very good grip on reality, but the confidence he has in spades :)

Isaac, to me, as I spilled a good bit of pudding cake batter on the counter, in a disappointed voice:

"Mama, I'm not very impressed."

(do I get at least an E for effort? I was making dessert for a weekday meal, for crying out loud! That almost never happens! :)

They just keep coming at me...

Talking with Little People

One of the best parts of my job has to be the crazy and curious little conversations I have with my little ones during the day. They frequently say such crazy things, or make me say things I never thought would come out of my mouth. I know I've posted some of these on facebook, but since this is my "official" family record, they need to be taken down here as well...

At dinner:
Vance: "Isaac, would you pray tonight?"
Isaac: "Okay. GOD!! (big sigh) Stop the hateness!! Give us loveness! Amen."

Again, at dinner (wherein all the items on his plate are things he likes, but my arrival to the table veggie in hand was met with a cacophony of "BROCCOLI!!!!!!" from my kids..as if I never feed them green things):
Isaac: "Mama, can I have some more broccoli?"
Me: "Um, sweetie, you haven't eaten anything else yet. Eat some potato, and then you can have more broccoli."

At bedtime (wherein Isaac wanted me to put him to bed instead of Daddy):
Isaac: "I don't like you very much."
Vance: "Oh. Well, I love you. Do you love me?"
Isaac: "Yeah."
V: "Do you like me?"
I: "No."
V: "Oh. Well, I like you, Isaac."
I: (sighs) "yeah, me too."

Talking about the new baby:
Me: "Isaac, do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?"
Isaac: "I think it's a girl"
Me: "Why do you think that?"
I: "Because I like girls. Girls are my favorite!"
(Lock up your daughters, ladies :)

Claire hasn't come out with such extended strange talks, but she has her own slew of cute-isms. She is the most encouraging two-year old I know. She is constantly exclaiming over things I do, saying, "Good job, Mama! Good job!" She told me that yesterday when I was making dinner: "Good job, Mama! You are a good cooker!" (I'm sure the fact that we were having pasta for dinner did not sway her judgment in the least :)

She also likes to call me "honey" or "Terri" at random times. It's particularly sweet and unexpected when she calls me honey or sweetie. She will do that to Isaac too, and if he is crying or whining she will run to find him, calling, "What's wrong, honey?"

Claire wants to be a big girl, and tries to keep up with her big brother as best she can. Isaac has been sounding out lots of things lately, and she's trying to do the same. After a car ride full of Isaac's " B says, b, b, Bicycle!", Claire decided to try: "B says b, b, stroller!

She's almost got it, I think.

Protected...

that's how we feel tonight. And a little shaken up.

We were driving the bridge over the Bay tonight after church when we heard a sound like a gunshot. I whipped my head around to see Isaac's window splinter into a thousand shards, and then Isaac and Claire both started screaming. As Vance pulled over, I realized that Isaac was holding a tennis-ball sized chunk of concrete next to his face.

It was scary, what with all the screaming and the flying glass and the blood (which turned out to be from Isaac's nosebleed 20 min before). But when the glass settled, we realized how protected we'd been. Somehow that chunk of concrete came directly through Isaac's window and hit him in the face, yet he had nothing but a little rash from the abrasion. No blood...not even a scratch. Thank you, Lord.

In typical fashion, Isaac bounced back almost immediately--it shows you the power of childlike faith that he could immediately calm down because God was his protector--but Claire took on the fright and had a much harder time calming down. We drove home a little slower, with the window blown open, suddenly much more aware of how helpless we are to truly protect anyone we love. And suddenly much more grateful for the sovereign King who is able to do all that we cannot.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Well, that's what it feels like, at least. We've had strawberries coming at us since the end of November. Now that we're nearing the end of the season (and I have finally purchased a freezer for bulk storage), I'm trying to put up a few more flats of berries for smoothies. And then I realized--embarrassingly enough--that I hadn't yet taken the kids out strawberry picking! They've been out in the fields several times, and done some impromptu picking, but I hadn't given them the job of picking. Until today :)

Picking strawberries revealed my kids' ages and personalities. Claire rolled around in the sand, eating any berry of any color she could get her hands on, putting a few indiscriminate berries in the bucket occasionally. Isaac refused to eat any ("Mama, you can't eat them until they're washed!"), and earnestly asked me if every.single.berry he picked was ripe and ready. He's my rule-keeper :) At the end, though, desire got the better of him, and the berries ended up in his mouth more than the bucket.

Claire didn't feel the need to resist :)

It's not a good picture, but it's the only pregnancy photo I've got right now, so please excuse the squinty eyes. Baby and me at 15 weeks--still at the "girl, you eat too many cookies" stage. Early baby bumps, it turns out, are for short people, no matter how many pregnancies you've had :). Maybe next month I'll have something more definitive to show for all the work I'm doing ...

Thoughts on #3...

I suppose some of you might want to know more details than simply that I resemble a can of spaghetti sauce right now :)...

Baby Whitaker's estimated time of arrival will be somewhere around September 20th. That puts me at 14 weeks, and I'm starting to feel significantly better. It's funny how each baby treats your body differently. I've definitely been more sick this time (it's the only time I've ever lost weight while pregnant), but not as tired as I was with Isaac. By this time, too, I'm much more in tune with my body, and I feel like I am aware of every.single.twinge. Of which there are many :).

This may very well be my last pregnancy (although not necessarily our last baby), so I'm trying to savor every moment of it. Even so, everything felt pretty surreal until I heard the heartbeat a couple of weeks ago, and then it finally hit me: there's a PERSON in there! Pretty exciting! I held a friend's newborn this week, and that brought back a flood of memories. It's such a privilege to get to grow and nurture a little one...and I get more and more excited about the idea of meeting this tiny one.

Although I am looking forward more and more to being a mom of three, it's pretty interesting to note the shift in public opinion going the other direction. Of course most of our family and friends are excited for us--but occasionally someone will give me a bit of a hesitant response. Funny how in America today one child is too few, two is just right, perfect, and enough, three is going a little overboard and anything more is just plain INSANE. :) I can't tell you how many people have said, "Congratulations!........sooooo, how many kids are you guys going to have?!?"

They must be concerned about overpopulation :)

We, however, are over the moon. Isaac loves to talk about how big the baby is, and it's so fun to share the little developmental milestones with him. Claire is in love with babies, and she was adoration incarnate when we visited our friends' newborn, oohing over his tiny ears and head. I know they are going to have so much fun with this little person. And I'm (crazily enough) not really worried about our adjustment to a family of 5. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for panic around month 8.

I honestly don't care if it's a girl or a boy...either way will be wonderful. I do, however, think it's a boy, and Vance lights up like a first round draft pick when I say that. It's obvious which way he leans. Isaac is adamant that it's a boy (of course). We shall see in about 6 weeks!

yep. That's me! Coming September 2010!

My Four Year Old

We are praising God for our raisin-eating, tractor-loving, train-obsessed, tool-wielding, orange-picking, loud-talking, guitar-playing, active, happy, passionate boy that God has given us!

I've been thinking back to his actual birth-day today, and the months leading up to it--how I was praying for him and felt like God was telling me that he would be someone with deep joy. That was part of the reason we named him Isaac. Well, I smile now when I think of that, because it is so true! He is such an intense little person! He wears some people out, I imagine, but I love his energy for life.

I've also been thinking about his heart...the surgery-requiring defect he was diagnosed with before he was born, the NICU staff whisking my firstborn away from me right after his birth, Vance following Isaac, me being left alone to wait and wonder, talking on the phone with Dad and seeing Vance walk in the room beaming, hearing him say, "his heart's perfect. Perfect." and crying with joy, but also feeling totally unsuprised because of the faith I had that God would heal him. Most of the time we forget about his heart now, but that's because of the healing he experienced before his birth.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do in Isaac's fifth year. His brain is exploding with questions and interesting thoughts these days, and he is learning obedience and respectfulness and helpfulness and patience. It is such a privelige (even when it is an exhausting one) to be the one to explain God and the world to him. The best job ever, and I can't say enough grateful words to express how much I love my sweet boy.

Gasparilla

Today we had one of our first experiences with a genuine Tampa tradition: Gasparilla! It's a city holiday that celebrates Jose Gaspar, one of the last pirates to terrorize the west Florida coast. Of course, legend has it that he buried untold treasure somewhere around her (maybe our backyard?). He is Tampa's excuse to have a bang-up pirate extravaganza. The "adult" celebration is next weekend, but the kids' festivities were today.

We started out with flybys of old WWII bombers, a very cool parachute landing from the U.S. Special Ops.

The kids got pretty bored waiting for the floats and the bead throwers (pretty much the main event of the parade is the dozens of beaded necklaces--pirate booty?-- thrown from the floats). They blew through my healthy almonds and raisins in about 30 seconds...so Daddy came to the rescue with a 3 gallon bag of kettle corn. What's a momma to do besides let them ruin their dinner?

The obligatory "act like you love each other" photo. Although they weren't that excited about the picture-taking, Isaac LOOOOVED the parade. He was screaming and jumping and waving and begging for necklaces and having the time of his life. Claire was not so gregarious, but she did wave to the floats, and received her fair share of necklaces as well.

They have built the only modern, fully-rigged pirateship around (so I was told). They dock it in the Bay year round for your viewing pleasure, and then it fires cannonballs at the crowd for Gasparilla. I shudder to think how much that pirate ship cost, but it was pretty cool! The pirates have now defeated the city, and next week the mayor will hand over the keys to the city, and more pirate festivities will ensue.

We ate dinner at a friend-of-a-friends's house (who lives right on the bay!), and walked back along the shore while the "Piratetechnics" exploded overhead. What a night!

Reupholstering for Dummies

There are so many projects to get done around here, and so little motivation! A lot of that has to do with the projects that I don't really know how to do...the intimidation factor has a way of slowing you down. Fortunately, this reupholstery project was as easy as I had heard! I hope that gives me motivations for the 1520 other projects left on my to do list.

I got the chair from Goodwill for about $10. The heavy-duty fabric was much pricier, but I got it for 60% off at Calico Corners, and I'll (hopefully) use the rest of the bolt end to make a lumbar pillow or a throw pillow. It only took a screwdriver, a staple gun, and about an hour of my time.

I can't believe I forgot to take a before picture, but it was a dusty-rose brocade, which is why no one else had snatched it up, I think. I didn't even rip the old brocade off...I just put the foam and new fabric right on top.

I don't know about you, but I'm all about makeover projects that take less than a naptime to complete :)

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Look who is 2!!! Just like last year, Claire celebrated her birthday with family, pasta, and hamming it up. She loooved being the center of attention, and flirted with anyone who made eye contact with her all dinner long. But the real party started once she saw the candles and realized that everyone was singing just for her.

Talk about delight! She even made an excellent attempt at blowing out her candles.

She has been changing so much in the last couple of months. Up until just a month ago, she wanted very little to do with books. Whereas Isaac had been into books since he was about 9 months old, Claire just had too much to do to sit still. But just in the last month, that has started to change. She's really getting into reading, and that makes her mama very happy!

She's also breaking out the full sentences, and more complicated syntax. Although she's quieter than Isaac on first contact, she has quite a bit to say after she warms up to you. Some of her favorite words right now (and mine) are "Sis-mas wites" (Christmas lights), "Taw-babies" (strawberries), and "Baby Soup" (bathing suit). She loves her daddy's new profession, and would eat strawberries all day every day if she could. She loves food, and is very adept with her fork and spoon. She loves to sing (quite loudly), and I'm starting to wonder if she's going to be the next family vocalist. She provides BGVs for a lot of the songs we play in the car, and she regales us with "ABC's" and "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" all day long. She still loves to be held, and wants to be in the center of it all as long as she can be close to someone she trusts. Although she has earned the nickname, "Clairedevil" for her reckless attempts to break a bone or try something outside of her age level, she is also very cautious around almost any kind of animal, and some people.

Claire is no shrinking violet...she has to keep up with Isaac and does so without any problems whatsoever. We're working on not grabbing, patience, and obeying the first time.

Claire has definitely taken the place of cutest Whitaker in the household, and she is a joy to live with. We love you, sweet girl, and can't wait to see what is in store for you this next year!

Christmas with the Fam

We had a lovely Christmas with my family last week! Dad, Deonni, Allie, and Persephone (Allie's cat) came to celebrate with us. We had moved in just 6 days before, so there was still (is still!) a large stack of boxes in the garage, but no one seemed to mind. Christmas Eve was spent cooking (me), working (Vance), shopping (D&D), exercising & resting (Allie), and playing (guess who :).

Christmas morning was a twist on the old classic...we had our traditional breakfast outside on the patio, since it was warm enough! We had a good time of fellowship reflecting on the Incarnation, and then we read the Christmas story together out of one of our children's Bibles.

Isaac and Claire really got into the presents this year, and they had fun delivering packages to all the recipients. They also enjoyed the unwrapping and playing :).

Claire enjoyed her dress ups, but her clear favorite was Baby (who has been named Navia by Isaac).

Isaac loves his new pirate ship from Uncle AJ, that floats in the pool and shoots little cannonballs!

Isaac was very excited all day about the "party for Jesus". In my mind, that's what all the eating and unwrapping and sharing and reading and singing really is--celebrating in every way we can the greatest event the world has ever known. God became man, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. It's worthy of a little partying in my book!

Stolldorf Cousins!

My attempt at a cousinly photo...obviously the lighting wasn't great, but we took what we got. Melia is being the perfect little angel, Isaac is cheesing, and Claire is just being her goofball self.

Isn't she adorable?!

I always remember having so much fun going through the toys at my grandparents' houses; I guess it was the mystique of playing with my parents' childhood toys. It's fun to watch my kids enjoy a few of the things we played with growing up!

family photos

We tried to get a few family photos done one morning ("tried" being operative). We did get a few! Here are my 3 favorite people in the world...

aren't they cute?

this was my favorite family photo failure: in response to, "Isaac, look at the camera!" :) Gotta love it!

Yet more Thanksgiving...

the kids got some much needed R&R on the back porch while we prepared delicious victuals for their gastrointestinal enjoyment

Mamie (Claudia's mom) gets a few smiles out of Baby Evan

the kids are ready to dig in to some goodness

so is Vance, as a matter of fact!

More Thanksgiving...

awww, cousins....aren't they the cutest?

Cousin Seth, enjoying the shared childhood passion: the Oliver tractor

out joyriding with Papa

all the Whitaker cousins!

Home for Thanksgiving

We got to spend Thanksgiving in NC, and we had a rockin good time! We got lots of cute pictures with all the photo ops available....