This Is Fun! Calculate Your Fair Salary as a 'Stay at Home' Mom

Hey! I've been underpaid  for decades--at least according to the Stay at Home Mom Salary Calculator  posted at salary.com in response to Obama spokesman Hilary Rosen's bashing of Ann Romney. Come to think of it, while I was holding down a six-figure job at home, I was also getting my #$* out the door every morning (thank you, Bill Maher, for that lovely formulation) to earn a considerably smaller "at the office" paycheck. Hmmmm... Does Ann Romney service as first lady of Massachusetts meet Maher's standard of "getting her #$* out the door"?

Could it be that six decades of progressive, increasingly radical-leftist anti-family policies from the Democratic Party since World War II have been the real "war on women"?

Our First Grandchild Baptized

Diya Chandra Huth, baptized at Saint Leo the Great Catholic Church in Inwood, West Virginia, Easter Sunday, 2012. Shown here with godfather Christopher Praveen Huth, mama Falana Lyn Huth, proud father Alexander Chandrappa Huth, and godmother Savithri Huth Perez.

Dinner for a Week on $20

 

Here is a recipe that will get a young family through the week with little preparation time and little money, both of which may be in short supply during difficult economic times: Rich stock prepared from beef bones and a small "soup bundle" of celery, carrots, and onion, to which is added several meaty beef shank rounds that disperse their flavor through the broth and add chunks of meat to the final product.

The simple procedure is to simmer the bones (two or three pounds from the butcher or supermarket) for 8 to 24 hours beginning with cold water with a half-cup of cider vinegar, skimming any scum that rises to the top of the pan during the first several hours, after which you need not pay any attention to the pot. The long simmering process extracts every bit of available nutrition from the bones, including abundant calcium. In the last two hours before serving, brown two large beef shanks (24-32 ounces), and add them to the pot with the browning juices,three coarsely chopped carrots, three celery ribs, and a coarsely chopped large onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

You will get a better and more economical final product if you seek out a local beef producer who is willing to sell you bones and shanks--such as the wonderful Hemp's Meat Market in Jefferson, Maryland that I use--rather than purchasing these items from the supermarket, where they are typically priced 30 percent more than at the butcher. Hemp's sells whole beef shanks that produce eight one and a half inch thick rounds like the ones pictured above (enough for three large pots of soup) for $2.49 a pound; the supermarket charges $3.49. Hemp's cows come from the field across the street. The supermarket cows come from who knows where, and they bring considerably less taste with them.

When you have your basic pot of soup, you can add fresh greens like kale or Swiss chard, or a turnip, rutabaga, or potato, to make it even hardier. Combine with bread and butter and a small salad for a wonderful family dinner. One pot, begun on Saturday and finished on Sunday, can serve a family of four for the better part of a week.

Saturday Crafts: Klunky Bead Jewelry

Some snapshots are too good to file away without sharing. Here is a scene from the weekly crafts session at our house with several young ladies in the neighborhood. The girls have applied themselves diligently to learning the basics of working with lead and charcoal pencils, still-life composition, and the basics of perspective (our most challenging lessons).

But sometimes girls just want to have fun, so we spent a recent afternoon fashioning gifts for family and friends from an assortment of inexpensive Indian glass beads purchased on the Internet. One of the creations matches a lime green turtleneck in my closet, and is lovely enough for the office!

Good Tools Make All the Difference

 

My Christmas present from my daughter for 2010 was a stainless steel cake decorating kit with six standard tips, which I have been using ever since for a variety of tasks. It has effectively replaced the unwieldy pastry bag that I have been grappling with for years. It's a snap to change tips in the middle of the decorating process, takes less than a minute to clean by hand, and is dishwasher safe. This weekend, I turned out a variety of vegetables stuffed with salmon spread and blue cheese dip, along with fancy deviled eggs, for an small tea party. I won't ever again plan for a meal for guests without considering how I can use this new tool to make it more appealing.

Another Treat from Julia Child

 

Here is another winner from Julia Child's The Way to Cook--beef brisket smothered in onions and chopped tomatoes. If you have an oven with an automatic turn-on, you can prepare this before you rush out of the house in the morning, let it marinate for five or six hours in the oven, and find it ready for dinner after four hours of braising in a 300 degree oven. It takes another 10 minutes to finish the sauce and microwave the vegetables. A substantial enough brisket may even serve for two family dinners.

A New Classic Lemon Cake

Thanks to Julia Child, whose How to Cook classic recipe book I've been reviewing over the past several weeks, I've discovered and tested a wonderful recipe for lemon-almond tart. Julia developed this with Andre Soltner, and comments that "it's easy to assemble and just very good to eat." She calls it Tarte Citron Mama--Lemon Almond Tart.

Autumn 2010

Asters and dinner plate yellow dahlias.

Pink, white, and maroon cosmos, with purple dahlias

Just as I was convinced I would never have time to write another post, God provided a quiet, sunny Sunday afternoon to relax and explore the garden. The dahlias, asters, and cosmos in several shades are blooming in a riot of color, defying the increasingly cool autumn weather.

Not only this, the little chicks we adopted in April have been busily producing eggs--some with double yolks--since July. We are busy eating omelettes, making custard, whipping up mayonnaise, and baking eight-egg cakes as fast as we can. The chickens also have a high entertainment value: They are ready to put on a show at feeding time, and rush up to the door of the pen clucking in unison whenever someone approaches.

A day's worth of output from the chickies

Birthday Blast

 

Mother's Day coincides with our twin niece and nephew's birthday every year, and sometimes we have the pleasure of hosting their birthday party. This year, the celebration was simple, but the weather was perfect, and a good time was enjoyed by all. We updated traditional games, including apple bobbing (suspended from the porch with fishing line), hula hoop (the winner had more than 100 spins), pin the tail on the donkey (actually, pin the earrings on Indian glam actress Asywarae Rai--after 14 blindfolded spins to note the birthday milestone), and egg-on-spoon relay race, which is a blast with no updating necessary at all.

Refreshments featured root beer, homemade pizza, corn on the cob, double chocolate cake, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Click on the collage to see the action unfold.

May Day Dinner

The dressing for this salad had a touch of sugar, which vastly improved the flavor.

Last week, I realized it had been a while since I had prepared a special meal from scratch, so I decided to create a three course menu for May 1, in honor of the Blessed Mother. The starter was a simple composed salad--Boston lettuce, endive, two kinds of oranges, and avocado, served with mustard-garlic dressing. The main course, osso bucco, was from the New York Times Cookbook . So was the accompaniment, Paula's Cold Tomatoes, which I served with asparagus spears and roasted potatoes.

The cold tomatoes were stuffed with spinach and pine nuts, and served at room temperature.
Lemon cheesecake topped with strawberries finished the meal.

Springtime in Virginia

Even on a rainy April day, springtime is beautiful in Virginia. The shrubs and tulips are in bloom, and the landscape is a rich green.



Down the road, in a low lying stream bed that can't be easily accessed by foot, the bluebells are back in bloom.

Easter Menu 2010

Our Easter feast this year ended with a delicious strawberry-covered cheesecake, seen here on the dining table set off by the lovely placemats knitted by a dear friend in my favorite color. The menu--in full--was:

Cream of fresh asparagus soup
Fresh fruit cocktail in pineapple boats
Baked ham with port and apricot chutney
Sweet and white potatoes with leeks
Wild rice salad with almonds and cherry tomatoes
Key lime torte
Strawberry cheesecake
Lemon mousse (see Top Ten Recipes)

The weather was perfect and the company was lively.

Peeps Turn into Chicks

The little peeps we got on Holy Thursday are beginning to turn into feathered chicks. Featured here are chicks Samson, Persephone, Nani, Apollo, and Aby, snapped through the screen in their little pen (top), nephew Daniel building the pen (middle), and the peeps on the day they came home. We have about a month before they definitely need a bigger place to live!

Easter 2010

 

Click on the collage to see larger snaps of our tree-house building, new little chicks (they are now housed in an old bookcase, but we'll need a bigger home for them in about four weeks), lox and bagels breakfast, key lime meringue pie, cheesecake with strawberries, and strolling musicians.

Happy Easter to all!

Comforts During Deep Winter Snows

A bouquet of tulips, preferably red.

Home made bread, preferably with raisins.

Surviving the Blizzard of 2010

It may look as though this week's record snowfall transformed our house and garden into a winter wonderland. But the blizzard of 2010 created a significant challenge for our family, and reminded us once again that we depend on the goodness of others to survive on earth and make our way toward heaven.By late Friday evening, huge drifts of snow had banked up all around our house, blocking our driveway and burying our cars (my Volvo wagon is the white hump on the right above). Several foolishly intrepid drivers had attempted to made it up the hill approaching our neighborhood, and skidded off the road: Snowploughs from Virginia Department of Transportation could not get past them, and our section of the roadway was demoted to the bottom of the list for clearing. The private service we usually rely on to open our driveway couldn't pass them either. We were snowed in and not likely to get out for days.

Then, our power went off. We jumped into survival mode. Unfortunately, we had not taken the weatherman seriously, and had few emergency supplies on hand. Worse still, we had not tested our generator for more than two years, and guess what? It didn't start.

The view from the porch into our side yard during the white-out, high wind conditions on Day 5.

Under these conditions, a house gets pretty cold pretty fast. And this was before the high winds forecast for the second leg of the storm that was scheduled to move through on Tuesday afternoon. Unlike the pioneers of old, who depended on their fireplaces and manual wells, we had no source of heat whatsoever and no water from our electric-fired pump. The shortness of the daylight was frightening: By 5:30 came the sunset, and by 6:00 it was pitch dark.

We survived for two very cold days by running the gas grill in the living room--against all advice that it might produce harmful fumes. But by Monday evening, the propane canister was almost empty. The power company projected another 48 hours would be needed to restore our electricity.

Then, the rescue squad arrived--literally. The squad consisted of our dear cousin Katie, who commandeered a snazzy new electric-start generator from a friend, loaded it into her four-wheel-drive SUV, and braved impossible road conditions to deliver it to our door, along with water, hot Italian food, and a bouquet of red tulips. Katie also brought a friend named Frank who is an ace at all things electrical. Just as the propane heater sputtered out, the borrowed generator chugged into action, and we were saved. I should mention that the generator belonged to Frank and his wife, and he cheerfully shared this very expensive piece of equipment to bail us out during the worst weather emergency in over a century.

Every shrub on our porch and in our yard is covered in ice. There will be a huge cleanup effort in the spring.

Frank was back the next day in his own gigantic truck, to deliver a new generator and three days supply of gas. He installed and tested it to make sure we were all set before he loaded up his own machine to get it home in case part II of Snowmageddon hit his house.

Mind you, Katie is close and cherished relative with whom we have had a very special relationship. But Frank is a total stranger. At least he was until he kept all of us from freezing in the dark and won a special place on our family prayer list.

Continuing Education

A Roman Townhouse, c. 2004

I have probably learned more from doing school projects with my children, than I did in college. The model of Roman townhouse pictured here, constructed for my younger son's Latin II class at Notre Dame Academy, was a lengthy effort, took considerable research, and afforded us precious time to work together for many hours. I am proud to say that the final product got the second highest score for accuracy and completeness, and was on display at the school for several years. My son cleverly added a vomitorium to the list of required rooms (atrium, cubiculum, culina, triclinium, vestibulum, and so forth), which you can see in the upper left hand side of the photo, partially obscured by the tiled roof.

In Defense of a Full Nest

On vacation this summer in Cape Charles on the Chesapeake Bay. Wish the nest could have been fuller.

I don’t like my empty nest! I’ve been through this once before, when our foster daughter married in 1990 after being with me and my husband for seven tumultuous but thoroughly enjoyable years. The house seemed as empty as an abandoned museum, and, though it is a tiny Cape Cod, I heard echoes from every footfall. Within several months, we were trying to start a new family. When the home-grown method failed, we got on the adoption bandwagon and by 1997 had packed our little place with three beautiful children from India. Now, all of them—our daughter and two sons—are grown; the elder two are married and our younger son is a junior in college.

Am I looking at the years we raised them through rose-colored glasses? Perhaps. However, I know that I much prefer the schedule of homework, family dinnertime, soccer games, Sunday school, and 10 loads of laundry a week to the order and relative quiet of my present routine. Despite the financial and physical stresses that came along with the children, there is no one moment of experience that has ever made me happier than coming in the door and seeing my husband sitting at the kitchen table with the children, school books open and the casserole I prepared before work bubbling in the oven.

I am convinced that the Empty Nest Syndrome, as many couples experience it in our modern, contraception-oriented society, is not what God had in mind when he created the family. In the natural course of things, children follow somewhat predictably upon the wedding, and in most families continue to arrive over more than a decade, perhaps two. The oldest siblings in a large family are able to help as the younger ones come along, are out the door when their younger brothers and sisters are still in grade school (or toddling), and return with their own children before long before the parental home is emptied of children. In this scheme of things, the nest gets fuller and fuller, rather than dismally empty.

In the happiest of homes I have seen, the full nest accommodates three or four generations of family members, each generation fulfilling its roles and responsibilities toward each of the others: the grandparents to dispense wisdom, the mother and father to provide and maintain the home, the children to learn, grow, and help each other, and the grandchildren simply to delight everyone else.

Peace in the Garden in Winter

What can be more enjoyable than working from one's little home office, away from the growing congestion of northern Virginia traffic and the ugliness of office cubes, which have been shown to be counterproductive in research studies of various types? Working at home and looking out at the garden after a substantial snowfall. In these months of the year, it provides beauty without the demands of weeding, watering, harvesting, and preserving. What a delight!

Ton Ten Recipes: Frozen Lemon Mousse

Le Dejeuner des Canotiers, Auguste Renoir

This wonderful recipe for dessert comes from James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. Yes, it is slightly sinful: The main ingredients are butter, eggs, sugar, and cream. But it is a virtually fail-proof and transportingly delicious end to any meal, in virtually any season. I have paired it with many a Christmas dinner, and served it successfully at the end of an informal summer lunch (like the pleasant gathering shown above) of poached chicken and vegetables with tuna sauce.

Perhaps best of all if you are considering it for a holiday menu: It can be made for weeks in advance, and stashed away in the freezer. The recipe can easily be doubled if you are having a crowd.

The only kitchen equipment required for this recipe is a citrus grater. It is based on lemon curd, and many recipes call for making the curd in a double-boiler. I have found that, with careful attention, the curd can be made in a thick-bottomed saucepan.


Ingredients8 ounces unsalted butter
Grated rind of a large lemon
Juice of three large lemons
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon of sale.
3 egg yolks
3 whole eggs
1 cup cream

Method
Melt the butter in the saucepan over moderate heat. Whisk in the rind, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Beat together the eggs and egg yolks and whisk in.

Cook, stirring, until mixture is thick, glossy and coats the side of a spoon. Cool to room temperature.

Beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold whipped cream in curd, stirring gently. When cream and curd and thoroughly combined, transfer to a metal mold. Freeze for six hours before serving.

Variations
This dessert is delicious with raspberry sauce. The lemon mousse may also be poured into and frozen in individual custard cups, chocolate cups (available at some specialty stores), or cookie baskets. Individual servings can be sprinkled with chocolate shavings or garnished with a twist of candied orange peel .