Sweet Cakes

I'm still loving the recipes in La Tartine Gourmande, especially the baked goods lately. I think I've mentioned that gluten aggravates the hubbers' acid reflux, so we try to go gluten free with most recipes. The baked recipes in La Tartine Gourmande all gluten free (I think so anyway), and delicious! I haven't found a few of the flours she uses in some of the recipes (amaranth and millet flour), though I could probably find them online. I've substituted a bit of something else, another alternative flour, depending on the recipe. My most recent favorite recipe is the lemongrass-blackberry tea cakes. These are so moist and flavorful! I've made them twice. The lemongrass is a great complement to the blackberries. If you make them, do be sure to chop the lemongrass very fine--nobody wants stringy lemongrass in their tea cake. She uses brioche molds for the recipe, but I didn't have those but found some cute flower molds at a gift shop near our house. These are so easy to make, and with a cute mold like that, it looks like a lot of work went into them, but no, they were a snap.

Birth Announcements

I've been working on making Eleanor's birth announcements when I have a little bit of time. I really should have started before she was born! I was feeling very lazy and was just going to order some. But then I felt guilty because I made Lois's when she was born. So I decided to go ahead and make Eleanor's too. Lois's were a little bird with a pocket on the back holding the announcement and a photo. You can see them here. So for Eleanor, I'm doing an owl. "Tweet, tweet" for Lois and "hoot, hoot" for Eleanor. Both can be used as ornaments afterwards. I'm hoping to have these in the mail before she's 2 months old!! My sewing machine had a mind of its own last night and it took me an hour to make just two of these. I need to do some minor repairs and I should be back to sewing tonight after the wee ones are asleep. 

Good Reads

Whew, it's been a little busy around here! I don't know how people manage with 3+ kids. Two children is quite enough for me, and I think that way even with Lois in nursery school a few days a week! It's hard to keep up... laundry, cooking, cleaning, bathing, feeding the baby, errands, etc. Just taking a shower can be a challenge. And then there's a bunch of things I just want to do for fun that I feel lucky if I can even get to them, like reading the new issue of 91Magazine. This issue is really great! I've been trying to write this post for 2 days now telling you a little bit about the articles in this issue, so rather than drag it out a few more days, just make a cuppa and take a look for yourself. Here's a peek. Oh, and you'll find one article that I wrote, page 49, here below!

Baby's First Week

We've had a very good first week with Eleanor. The second time around is much less stressful than the first, at least it has been for us, and she's been sleeping very well, which is great. The first three days were the hardest. I was really sore all over and felt very sluggish. I had her naturally, which was incredibly painful, but I do think it helped me to have a quicker recovery than the first time around, with Lois when I had an epidural. It took about a week before I felt sort of normal then. Lois has been a good little helper but we've had to watch her closely to make sure she doesn't squeeze lil' miss too hard or let her head wobble like a bobble head.