posted by Andy

Chicken Hawk (so named because as a baby she looked more like a raptor chick than chicken) went broody, so Angie got some fertilized eggs from a friend to see if Hawk still had the mothering instinct. 100% success!

Big News in the Purviance Home

posted by Angie

We are now officially homeschooling Chris.  And loving it, I might add.  He has gone from being regularly anxious and stressed (to the point of being unable to attend school) to smiling and laughing in a matter of weeks.  Yes folks, there is actually learning taking place again!

In our quick downward spiral within the school system, here are my lessons learned: 

-No matter how hard you pound on that square peg, there is absolutely no way it is ever going to fit. It will just turn into a very sad little peg.

-Intstitutional learning is not for everyone.

-Freedom and happiness are keys to learning effectively.

-"But what about socialization?" arguement is bunk.  Worthwhile socialization cannot take place while stressed or anxious, and it's not like we keep him alone in a closet at home.

-There are many pathways to adulthood, not all must look the same.

We are currently working on Algebra everyday, reading incessantly, building another chicken coop, and Chris has discovered claymation.  He is working on a Cambrian - Cretacius claymation extravaganza.

Scotty is still in traditional school.  He loves the social aspects of HS and is thriving.  His free time at the moment is spent reading and getting ready for his next play "James and the Giant Peach".  I have two very different sons with very different needs.  Both of them fun and brilliant, in my completely unbiased opinion!

New Chickens

posted by Andy

Angie successfully hatched a batch of chicks for some friends. Here's the first one, named Hercules for his/her heroic effort.



And only after one day he's all fluff and peeps, below.



A few of the others, which we've named Cleopatra and Opus.

Fish Food: A Beowulf story

posted by Andy

Freshman English project by Scott and friend (and family) using Chris' homemade fish puppets and, um ... well, see for yourself. No animals were harmed in the making.

There's also some Fish Food outtakes

Croissants -or- Heart Attack in a Roll

posted by Angie

Yesterday DH and I went to the local French Bakery and shelled out 2.50 each for some delicious croissants. When we got home I hunted out a recipe at my favorite food site http://www.epicurious.com/ and found a recipe that yielded the best croissants I have ever eaten. Not bad for a first attempt at croissant baking. So, here goes. I did make a few changes in the directions from the original.

You will need to set aside the day to make these, most of the time is spent with the dough chilling in the fridge, but it does need attention for a few minutes here and there.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (105-110deg)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 TBS plus 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 3/4 - 4 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 TBS salt (or 1/2 tsp. if using salted butter)
3 sticks cold butter (totalling 1 1/2 cups) - 3 sticks of pure artery clogging yumminess.


Make dough:



Stir together warm milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl and let stand until foamy (about 5 minutes). Add 3 3/4 cups flour & salt and mix either by hand or in a stand mixer on a low speed with a dough hook. I used Bruno, my KitchenAid. If mixing by hand, once the dough is a sticky mass, take it out and knead it by hand on a floured surface until it is a smooth dough. If mixing by machine, once the dough is smooth knead it by hand for a couple of minutes to finish it off, adding as much flour as needed to make a soft, sticky dough (I didn't have to add any, in fact my kneading surface was only very lightly floured). Form dough into a rectangle about an inch and a half thick, wrap it in at least 3 layers of plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. I learned the hard way that layers of plastic wrap isn't enough, when I pulled my dough out of the refridgerator part of it was puffing out of broken plastic wrap.



After the dough has chilled for an hour, Roll it out to a rectangle 10" x 16", leave it in there and start shaping the butter. Line the sticks up horizontally so that the ends touch on a floured surface, lightly flour the tops and pound it with a rolling pin until it softens to where you can roll it. Make sure you have enough flour on the board so that it won't stick and roll it out to a 8 x 5" rectangle, I fudged it a bit and rolled out the butter to about 2/3 the size of the dough.



Brush the extra flour off the butter and place it on the dough, in the middle or the top 2/3, depending on how big you rolled it out. Fold the dough into 3rds, like a letter.



Turn the dough, pound it down a bit (so that you don't crack the butter) with a rolling pin and roll it out again to a 10x16" rectangle. Fold it into thirds again and repeat once more. After it is folded the final time, wrap it back up in the plastic wrap and chill for an hour. Do the pound, roll, fold, chill cycle 3 more times.



For the final chill leave it in the refridgerator overnight. I actually cheated here and only left it in the fridge for 3 hours, and they still turned out fine. After the final chill, pull out the dough and cut into 4ths. Put 3 of the sections back into the fridge while working on each in turn.



For croissants: Roll out the dough until nice and thin, cut into 3 sections using a pizza cutter and then cut each section in half diagonally.



Shape each triangle by tugging at the corners, and cut a notch in the bottom. Roll up the croissants, leaving a little tail in the front.



For Penee Chocolat: Roll out dough thin, cut into rectangles about 1 x 3" and put little chunks of chocolate in the middle of each rectangle. Fold up sides.





Put on a baking sheet with parchment paper on the bottom for the final rise. Put the full baking sheet into a new trash bag, with inverted glasses propping up the plastic inside so that it won't touch the dough. Let rise another hour or so.

Preheat oven to 400degrees. Brush croissants with an egg & milk glaze. Arrange oven racks so that they are in thirds. Place one sheet of croissants on the top rack, one on the lower rack and bake for 10 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, switch the baking sheets places and lower heat to 375. Bake another 10 minutes. Pull out and enjoy.

New Music Finds

posted by Andy

After a long hiatus I finally got around to seeing what's out there in terms of new music. These may be old news, but they're new for us:

Furr - Blitzen Trapper. Folksy tune about werewolves. This one has really grown on me.

Like a Pistol - Gray Ghosts

Around the Bend - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

You, Me, & The Bourgeoisie - The Submarines

Cable TV - Fol Chen

Sleepy Tigers - Her Space Holiday

Softer:

New Soul - Yael Naim

To Be Gone - Anna Ternheim

Come As You Were - The Bird and the Bee

Dreaming of the Plum Trees - White Hinterland

Fun stuff:

Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover) - Vampire Weekend

Sinners & Winners - The Holloways

Electric Feel (MGMT cover) - Katy Perry. I don't care much for the MGMT original or "I kissed a girl", but this cover makes me smile.

A Line You Can Cross - Lansing-Dreiden. Classic '80s epic rock.

Honor Amongst Thieves - These United States. More country than I'd like to admit, but it's hard to knock a peppy song about thieves that uses the word 'discombobulated.'

I've always been fascinated by how musical tastes develop in completely different directions, or why everything else sucks. According to a theory proposed on an NPR interview, possibly Science Friday or Radio Lab, people tend to like music that resembles material they're already familiar with. Nothing surprising there.

In the search for new tunes, this means a good song is like aged wine. Assuming you can hold it down, the longer it cycles in your listening queue the more likable it becomes. In short, give it some time. That MehP3 may become a top favorite later.

Salmon Puppet

posted by Andy

Another puppet show from Chris, this time as part of a school salmon assignment. He made the puppets himself using mom's sewing machine and various materials. There's some educational value in here somewhere ...

Flight of the Conchords S2E1! Yay

posted by Andy

HBO has released the first episode of FOTC season 2 online as a teaser. US only ... sorry New Z-landers.

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

And, if you're not already one of the 3 million viewers there's the very funny "Prop 8 - the musical" at the same site.

High schoolers are spoiled (and weird)

posted by Andy

No, really! At least around here. First, while having a discussion with the freshman in the family the following sentence was uttered in total seriousness, "The bands that play in the cafeteria aren't very good." 

Um, ... bands! At lunch! In highschool? Ok, so hip-hop isn't his thing and therefore "not very good," but beyond the bellyaching about genres, it's taken for granted that you can have music at lunch, much less live performances. Unbelievable. Of course, the school does have it's own Wikipedia page - the place is all that.

Second, there's this little video, below. Now, unlike the kids, us old folks were alive in the '80s but neither of us were aware that this, um ... experience, inhabited the same time-space as our childhood. Unfortunately, it was introduced to our household via a gang of boys who stayed up late watching the entire show. Ugh. Watch now or be somebody's fool, fool! 

I think it builds self esteem by showing you how your life could be worse - you could have been on this ...

Happy Turkey Day!

posted by Andy

Caged turkey near Corvallis, Oregon. Edited using Photoshop gradient map, Virtual Photographer plug-in and lots masking.