Halloween Morning at the Brooks House

This morning all the kids dressed up for school.

Naomi, the snow leopard.


Rhiannon, the zombie bride's maid.













Xavier, the wizard.


And last evening was spent carving pumpkins.

Xavier made a jack-o-lantern eating another jack-o-lantern. (as an aside, this white pumpkin smells like cantaloupe.  It is crazy.  I am going to taste it tonight)

Rhiannon wanted to do a beagle.












Naomi also wanted to do a beagle.




















And Leo want to try his hand at carving a face into a pumpkin.

As for me, I can't wait to look through all the candy the kids bring home tonight.  Mmmmm, stolen candy.

Brooks Kids -- Photos for Pheobe

My very good friend Anne-Marie Bouchard is a professional photographer -- AMBphoto.  I adore both her and her photos.  I have had the very good fortune of getting to have her take photos of my kids on several occasions.

This past weekend she did a fundraiser for a girl in Ottawa who has a rare form of cancer.  My kids participated and here is the result.

Don't I have gorgeous kids?

Pumpkin Snake

Happy Halloween from the Brooks house!

What does a pumpkin snake taste like?  Visit the Larch Kitchen Blog to find out.

Mary

Orange Bread and Butter Horns

... the yeast begins to bubble in the bowl ...

Mary reported that at work her friend Tom asked her, "Does your mother like making bread?"

I had to think about that.

No.

I don't like making bread.

I would rather be reading. But what is a person to do if they arrive somewhere and the hosts have already bought two 10 kilogram bags of flour and a one pound package of yeast in anticipation of the warm smells that will come out of the oven when bread it made?

As well, Naomi has been looking forward to cinnamon buns.  And tonight when the Grade 7 girl next door came through the house, she asked for the recipe, "for the butter horns and for the cinnamon buns", she said, at which time her mouth went into a wide smile and her eyes sparkled.

If only I had known, she would have been by my side, learning how to roll them this week.

... orange icing read to be applied to the orange buns ...

To mix up the tasks so there wouldn't be so much boredom for me, a remembered that Fay Pitcher used to make delicious orange buns, so I began to zest the oranges in the house before allowing anyone to have one.

Draconian to others?

Yes.

But I wanted to see how that would taste in the a tradition rolled bun ... with orange icing on it.

Leo, Mary and I went wild.

The kids turned up their noses. Since my purpose here is not to make Leo and Mary happy, I have returned to making cinnamon buns. Oh, I did acquiesce to Mary's pleas for some butter horns tonight, but all that shows is that I have my own moments of weakness, due in part to the fact that I leave tomorrow.

One last time to fill the house with the aroma of fresh bread.

Arta

PS.  I didn't really use the following recipe.  But I did read it over before I began to make the Orange Buns, so I think that counts as using it.  But beware, for I was not as meticulous in my method as the writer below feels the need to be.

Orange Sticky Buns

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup warm water (for dough)
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (for dough)
• 1/3 cup sugar (for dough)
• 3/4 cup milk (for dough)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus 1 tbsp for greasing (for dough)
• 3 large egg yolks (for dough)
• 1 tbsp finely grated orange zest (for dough)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt (for dough)
• 4 cups Gold Medal unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (for dough)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (for filling)
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (for filling)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (for filling)
• zest from half an orange (for filling)
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (for topping)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (for topping)
• 3 tbsp honey (for topping)
• 2 tbsp orange juice (for topping)
• 1/2 tsp orange zest (for topping)
• 1/2 cup pecan halves (for topping)

Directions

1.    In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine water, yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Whisk to combine and let sit 5 minutes, or until yeast mixture is foamy.

2.    Add to it milk, butter, remaining sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, salt and 3 cups flour. Mix on low speed with paddle attachment until just combined.

3.    Switch paddle attachment with dough hook and increase speed slightly, add the remaining 1 cup flour in increments. Once all flour has been added, increase speed to medium and knead about 5 minutes, or until dough is slightly sticky, smooth and elastic (add a little bit more flour if it’s really tacky until it’s at the right consistency).

4.    Remove dough from bowl and place in a large lightly greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 to 2 hours.

5.    Once dough has risen, punch down and place on a lightly floured counter top and let rise 20 minutes.

6.    In the meantime, make the filling — combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt butter and keep separate.

7.    Roll out dough into a 12-by-18-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle with orange zest. Starting from the long side, roll up dough into a tight cylinder. Place seam side-down on a flat surface and cut crosswise into 15 equal slices.

8.    Make the topping — in a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, honey, orange juice and orange zest over low heat. Stir until butter and sugar are melted. Pour mixture into a greased 9-by-13-inch pan and sprinkle pecan halves on top.

9.    Place dough slices flat side-down on top of prepared topping, crowding them so they touch. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight to rise.

10. In the morning, preheat oven to 375 degrees F — remove buns from the refrigerator and let stand on counter top while oven preheats.

11. Bake buns until golden brown, about 30 minutes; immediately invert pan onto a baking sheet or serving tray. Let buns cool slightly and serve warm.

The Radio

... new orange artwork ... right centre border ...

When I was five my dad bought a brand new upright radio encased in a 3 feet tall wooden cabinet.

Maureen Beecher told me she can remember Charlie and Doral hovering over it all afternoon one day in May, 1945, the day that the Armistice was declared and World War II was over.

The radio provided a lot of entertainment for me.

There were soap operas in the afternoon and Lux Theatre at night – Lux, the soap that is 99 and 99/100th, pure as I can still hear the radio announcer intoning.

I was six when I scratched my name into the fine molding around the base of the radio.

I don’t remember doing that carving, but later when my dad would talk about giving things away, he would always say that I got the radio, for I had my name on it already.

.. good colour and the cracks in the bricks have been filled in ...

I was reminded of this on Sunday when I saw a lovely orange square added to Mary and Leo’s heath.  The artwork had been done with an orange felt pen.

 I went to Naomi and Xavier and said, “You know, I think Rhiannon has done some art work that might never come off and I think she is going to get in trouble.”

“No, that was me,” said Naomi, since she is truly candid and sincere, “and why am I going to get in trouble,” and of course the tears began to fall down her face.

No idea passed her mind that her parents might not want that there.

... the end of the hearth with a dull orange that compliments the brighter colour ...

At least she picked a colour that blends in with the bricks on the end of the ledge.

That is one bonus.

I wonder if Naomi gets the whole house, or just the fireplace when Leo and Mary get old.  Either would be another bonus.

Arta

The Ramp

From Mary:

... The Little Canadian Stream in the cool forest shade...

I was reading the article in the Salmon Arm Observer and I was thinking of my fondest memories of the ramp.

... the season turns to Autumn ...

How many times did I run down it yelling “cowabunga” and then diving right into the cold, fresh water?

... a small glen in the woods ...

How many times did I take a drink from the Little Canadian Stream beside the ramp?

Lately I have been drinking from up a little higher, but then I took a cool drink as it trickled over a board that had been placed on an old mossy log.

... looking toward Sandy Beach ...

And I can remember early in the summers, when I was shorter, walking out on tip-toes to see if I could reach the end of the ramp.

... the evening shadows fall and all is right in the world ...

One of my most vivid memories of Grandpa Doral is of him sweeping the gravel off of the ramp.

Sweeping.

Sweeping off all of those grains of sand and pebbles that I had deposited there.

Mary

A Simple Home Evening

"see p 46 for Loran runs for the jack knife"

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we ate ice-cream and read from Doral Pilling's Oral History:

1. Amanda and the poisoned oats (p 19)

2. Pinching the teacher (p 29)

3. First fight with Ivan (p 47)

4. Preseason duck hunting  (p 48)

5. The White horse (p 63 )

6. Loran runs for the jack knife under the Mexican hat (p. 46 )

Amazing, isn't it, that most of the readers of this blog will know all of these family stories.

Now Naomi and Xavier know the stories, though they don't think in the same way that their ancestors did, so there was some explaining to do. As well, the bowls of ice-cream were only medium and not large.  We are loosing some of the family mo-jo.

It is a good thing the stories are written down, so that I don't embellish them, since they are quite good as they are.  Still, I find myself adding choice words that Doral edited out of the story.

Second paragraph starts, "Three fellows went hunting
for pheasants with Frank at Brooks. 
There was a place that seemed an extra good prospect ....

Mary spent extra time after the story, for she had to explain the kindest way to take care of an old and faithful horse who could not make it through the winter.  Naomi loves horses and exegesis and a little hermeneutics didn't hurt so that she could find some closure in the tale.

I copied down the page numbers of some of the story favorites for I am finding I can't remember which ones I have read to which grandchildren, now -- but I can check them off in the index, which may help me for the next time I am here.

I find Mary's copy of Doral's memoirs, irritating, for they are bound backwards, so I am always opening the book upside down.  If it hadn't been me who gave them to her, I would complain about that.

And a big whoops to me for I forgot to tell what happened at the end of Family Home Evening.  Mary, warmed to the occasion, asked her children if they had ever seen two hairs fight.  Yes!  Two hairs fight. 

They had not and so we went to the kitchen to observe this amazing phenomenon.  If you have not seen it, please say so in the comment box of this blog and someone will show you this amazing feet, which must be seen in person to be believed.

Arta

La Traviata Highlights

My highlight of an afternoon at the opera was sitting beside a six year old grand daughter who was seeing her first opera.

She wiggled, she twisted, she squirmed, she hung over the arm rest of her chair, she ate her candy, she drank her slurpee, but that might have been more of a comment about the neon green cast on her fractured leg, than a comment on the opera.

We had parked her wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs of the movie theatre, lining it up beside the walker that was there from an older patron who was in one of the front seats. We had chosen to see the screen from the back of the theatre, so Leo carried her high and gave her the end seat of our row.

Naomi can’t read English yet. I would whisper some of the information to her from the subtitles. She watched quietly and listened, those large brown eyes glued on the screen and her hair falling down her shoulders. In the list of top three favorite moments of a day, this would be one of mine.

As well, I loved the opera. I had misgivings about its modern setting for I like the opulent costuming and elegant staging of more traditional operas. But the modern production by Willy Decker has so many avaunt-guarde twists, that a person might just forget to listen to the music and get caught up in choreography, the costuming and the lighting design.

“I don’t know if it was by accident or design,” said Leo, “but did you see the visuals of the hands of the clock repeated in the hands of the chorus as they leaned over the top of the set, all of those arms reaching down, and then the shadows of those arms being magnified, some of the shadows being cast half way down the wall.”

I agreed with Leo. That visual was a stunning one.

And how about that simple red dress, the hem of which rolled and floated as Violetta danced at lavish parties. The only other costuming for her was a simple egg-shell coloured silk slip, a metaphor for the simplicity of her real life, when her party mask was off. And having that red dress swinging from the hips of a male figure during the bull-fighting sequence – what a fantastic way to press questions of gender and role on the audience. And then to have the dress on the next traviata figure and have her carried away on the clock to the next party? – how did Farmer, Gussman, Toelstede and Decker collaborate to make all of that work with dance, light, set and costume design.

Even 10 year old Xavier got the idea that Dr. Grenvil, was a metaphor, not only for life, but more importantly, death, as he walked slowly along the stage and sat at foot of the clock, or even as he embraced Violetta, about to die.

I can’t give too much praise to a production that lets a child understand what is going on, and also embeds such complicated themes for adults to think about in the same scenes.

Were any of the rest of you at the opera.

I know it was Zachary’s baptism yesterday, so that event trumped the Met for them yesterday. But I do want to say something about the playful floral decorations – picked up on the couch covers, the sleeping robes and the ceiling – having Violetta almost disappear into them as she was singing about her 3 months of happiness in the country. I loved the chorus – all dressed the same, and functioning as part guests, mid-night revelers, even as a bull. Magnificent.

Here’s hoping I can see the La Traviata Encore.

Arta
One showing was not enough.

Arta

The Brooks Kids at La Traviata

...getting the opera treats ready, a bag for each act...

Leo and I both had our misgivings about taking the kids to the opera so we set out in different ways to prepare them for La Traviata yesterday.

Leo brought out a Christmas gift to him from Pat and Mark dated 1996 – 100 Great Operas: Act-By-Act Synopses by Henry W. Simon.

Not everyone has that volume in the home library. He also gathered together some “best of the operas” CD’s and played them. As well, we had gone to utube to look at some clips from old LaTraviata operas.

Mary prepared our snacks. I tried to help but her kids don’t like all sugars. My mini-Cadbury crème eggs and caramel filled kisses were rejected. But Leo had lucked out with the half price candy at the Candy Barn and he knows it is the peeps and the jelly sours that his kids go for.

A happy sweet moment with 3 big bags of candy packed!

So we packed our zip lock snack bags in the morning, carefully labelling each one by name and subtitling the bag with the act that it was to be eaten in.

Rhiannon participated, packing her bags, though she was going to the babysitters, while the rest of us went to the opera.

 She even bagged up candy for Elijah, the little boy she would be playing with, as well as his one-year old sister.

Mary made the mother’s mistake of looking at the bag and taking half of it out when Rhiannon wasn’t looking.

Unfortuately Rhiannon knows the difference between the cup full and the cup half full.

"Where did my candy go?  This bag was right full?"
I weally, weally, weally want my candy back.

Her meltdown occurred just as we were leaving for the opera, and being unwilling to lay the body of a screaming child on the doorstep of a baby sitter, Mary stayed home with her instead and did income-taxes.

The kids and I had read the plot synopsis many times and talked about words like cameliia and courtesan, and the concepts of the insults and family honour.

The idea of the insult of throwing money at another person, something Alfredo does to Violetta in the second act, was foreign to them, so on the drive to the theatre we talked more about insults: ignoring someone who is talking to you, throwing money at people, offering them a hand gesture.

“What is a hand gesture?”, said Naomi from the back seat of the van.

“It looks like this,” said Xavier, and he clenched his fist and pointed his finger down toward the floor of the car.

“Usually the finger is pointed upwards,” I corrected him.

“But I didn’t really want to do it, just to give her an idea of how it is done,” he replied.

We talked a little bit about swearing at people as an insult, but Aunt Catherine has been teaching Hebe that saying forbidden words at people is more of a reflection on your character than on theirs. So we took it out of the list of possible insults and I thought to myself, learning  how to handle family swear words should be a conversation to be had another day.

As we approached the theatre I said, “Look, Leo, an arm gesture.” A woman had her window rolled down and her arm was flailing out the window and her jaw was moving at a quick speed.

“Yes,” Leo replied, “I am going the wrong way down a one-way lane in this mall parking lot.”

“Well, I didn't notice this was one-way, either.  We can add that arm gesture to our list of insults. Thank you to her for that.”

There is something about sitting in the IMAX beside a 10 year old and a six year old that feels like a miracle to me. We watch the patrons taking their seats in the New York Metropolitan Opera house, the camera scanning their way over the 4 balconies, and across the magnificent ceiling. The camera pans the stalls – there is a curly headed boy in a white shirt and a well-tailored suit sitting beside his family and I thrill to think ... I am them. I get to sit here for 3 hours with Leo and his kids and soak in Verdi’s melodies with all of the amazing visuals that go along with opera.

Leo buys the kids slurpees at the first intermission, which is a good thing. I don’t know that the last two acts run in tandem until the announcer says, “We will know listen to Acts 2 and 3. The change between the two acts was cleverly choreographed – the chorus walked off the stage backwards, taking small steps backward until they had all left the stage through the one open door to the set. They walked while the overture to the third act was playing, making a seamless transition between the two acts. Dr.Grenvil walked forward in the same direction as they were walking backward, and it looked as though he was pushing them back into the world of life and preparing an empty space in which Violetta would sing her last arias for us.

The encore is on on the 28th of April, well worth the time and effort it takes to get there.

Postscript for the historically curious: In the cemetery of Montmartre, directly below the white church of the Sacre Coeur, tourists still visit the grave of Marie Duplessis, the original traviata (or misguided girl). She died Feb 2, 1846 just 19 days after achieving her 22nd birthday. Among her numerous lovers during her last years had been Alexandre Dumas fils and Franz Liszt.

Naomi and Xavier's Top Traviata Moments

Sculpture above the Proscenium Arch
New York Met / Gold Curtain
Photo credit: Wikipedia

Opera Highlights

5 Highlights from La Traviata for Naomi

1.      Eating the candy at the opera, a zip-lock bag in my lap at each act.
2.      I liked Violetta’s dancing in the first act.
3.      I liked the sculpture that is above the stage at the New York Met.
4.      I liked the scene in the second act, where the party goers are making fun of Violetta, where the man has on a dress.
5.      Grandma and I agreed to give a small poke to each other when we heard the theme of the opera.  I got to poke her first.

5 Highlights from La Traviatta from Xavier

1.      The gambling scene where the clock turned into a roulette table
2.      The scene where Alfredo threw his gambling earnings at Violetta.
3.      The country scene when Violetta and Alfredo were playing hide and seek in their new home.
4.      When Violetta said she was going to get well at the end of the opera, and then she died.
5.      When Alfredo meets Violetta for the first time and she is saying, no I can’t marry you and he is saying, I have been longing for your company for a year.

Infrastructure

From Mary:

Hey all you kids out there!

I work at Infrastructure Canada. What is infrastructure? If you want to know more, visit the fun, new kids’ section of our website.

Or go to http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/kid-enfant/index-eng.html

Signed,

Aunt Mary (and Annabelle)

Three Shots

NB: the French braid rimming the subject's face

Bonnie asked Mary for some pictures.

This morning, Mary was willing to oblige.

I think she was a willing subject because the camera was already out.

I had been taking pictures of Rhiannon. She was showing me her art work.

And then demonstrating how well she could stand on one foot.

See how tidy our tupperware cupboard is?

"I am ready for the picture," Mary said.  "This is the new me ... at least my new shape."

I wondered why Mary let me take a picture. Usually people duck the opportunity for a photo shoot and probably with good reason. My camera doesn't do touch-ups or even good candids. I get light shining on subjects that shouldn't be there (ie on Mary's shoulders in this instance), and subjects cast deep in shadows.

I don't even know this is happening when I am trying to frame a shot.

Hollywood Actress Pose

So here, Mary gave me 10 seconds and I got three shots:

Her last shot:  The Demi Moore Pose.

Like it?

Arta

The New Cast

testing out lime sherbet in a mini cone

From Mary:

Got a call from Leo and Naomi.

She now has a new bright green fiberglass cast.  This one has a bent knee so she can sit more easily.

The Dr. let her wash and scrub her leg in between getting the old one off and the new one on.

Then he set her up with crutches and sent her to a clinic to get a lesson on how to use them.

a bent cast -- some benefits, some draw backs

She is allowed to go up and down stairs on her bottom as long as she has a spotter.  No using the crutches on the stairs.

As well, a friend found a child size wheelchair at Value Village for us. 

Naomi wants to keep it, even after she is well.

That is left to be decided later.

Mary

What kind of game is that?

It was raining. 

There were small drops of water on the window pane.

"What kind of game is that?"

That is what I heard one of the parents ask. I went to look. Tom and Xavier had invented a new game. One of them held a pole and the other held a disk. The pole holder tried to throw the pole through some holes in the disk. As you can see from the photo, if Tom were a good thrower, the stick would have gone straight through the disk and into Xavier's thigh.

The brown line in the middle of the yard is really not a stick on the ground, but one flying through the air. Thankfully, off course.

After the parents decided that one of the boys, at least, had to be taught not to be on what was probably going to be the loosing end of the game, the boys were invited to come inside and play board games.

Much safer.

Arta

Wheelbarrows

 ... things aren't going right here ....

Hebe and Rhiannon play more side by side than with each other.

At one point, Catherine, trying to stop Rhiannon’s tears offered to give her a wheel barrow ride.

How do you straighten this wheelbarrow out?

Hebe watched in amazement, so Catherine gave her a wheel barrow ride, as well.

Then Catherine suggested that the 3 year old and the 4 year old give each other wheel barrow rides.

And then she was quick to see that they possessed all of the skills.

Whoopie!

Now I wasn’t that sure that this would be a good idea.

Catherine however, got the game going, and soon the two of them were scooting across the kitchen floor.

Whoops!  Down again!

Catherine and I both ran for our cameras, but there is something that about a still photo that just doesn’t capture the speed at which one of them could drive the other from the fridge to the patio door and back.

Going down?  Or coming up?

Catherine stopped the game just short of another broken arm or leg.

She tried to get the girls to play with Hebe's doll house, but it was a no-go for Rhiannon.

 ... Catherine shadowing the wheel barrow roller ...

I listened to Hebe play for a while, moving the pieces of the play house around and I asked Catherine what she was saying to the dolls?

"Oh," said Catherine. "She is explaining everything first in French and then in English, just like we do to her."


"And what about the dolls," I asked.

"She doesn't like the play figures that go with the set.Instead she uses the action figures and has wars going between them.I will buy you a little grandmother so that she can pretend you are in there."

"No thanks," I said.

I would rather be a fighting action figure.

Or at the very least, a wheel barrow.

Arta

Photo Essay - Xavier

 ... get your right hand into the dough ...

I had the kids home from school today.

How is that for good luck for me.

They have Good Friday, Easter Monday and then a professional day, all back-to-back.

 I woke up thinking of ways to entertain them.

... use your left hand to turn the bowl ...

Naomi has helped me make bread and so as Rhiannon, and not to discriminate against Xavier, I told him this was his day to learn how to make bread.

All of my grandchildren know how to make and cut bread, I said, – and he was a willing subject, rolling up the sleeves of his pyjamas and getting in there ... but not with both hands.

That is the first rule.

Can you do this, Grandmother?
Make a bubble and put your finger through it?

Keep the left hand clean so that it can twist the bowl, and do all of your work with the right hand.

Easy, he said and away he went with the task.

I kept adding flour and he kneaded it in until we had a firm ball.

Then he proceeded to show me a talent when he washed the residue of dough from his hands.

He can take soap in his hand, open up his thumb and forefinger and blow a beautiful large soap bubble.

Hold that right there while I get my camera, I cried.

He did.

 ... blow gently between  your thumb and forefinger ...

And further more, on the next iteration of his trick, he showed me how he can take his other hand and put it right through the bubble – I am putting that kid out on the busking trail for the summer.

... a close up of an amazing bubble making feat ...

As well, he made beautiful bread which we formed into beaver tails for a mid morning snack and into hot bread drizzled with honey for lunch.

... Xavier's hot bread at the end of the trail ....

How is that for another busking trick out of flour, water, yeast, salt and oil.

Arta