Soft white sandwich bread

July 19, 2019 by Maria Almeida in baking, maria

If you look closely at these photos, you’ll notice that the crumb is a little more open than it should be. Perhaps it wasn’t shaped as tightly as possible or the dough wasn’t developed as well as it could be for even distribution of yeast development. Guess why I don’t care. BECAUSE MY EIGHT YEAR OLD SON MADE IT. I realized one day that he was totally capable of baking bread start-to-finish all on his own and that not only would it be a great learning opportunity for him, but it could also become one of his “chores”. So I walked him through the process and wrote down these ingredients as we baked this loaf together - intended to be easy and forgiving and to yield a loaf that he would be proud of and all the kids would want to devour.

top toddler picks

March 08, 2019 by Sarah Blanchard in sarah, home & family

I have three toddler items that I use constantly. They are ingenious little items that have saved my sanity over and over again. And what is more — basically everyone who sees these products in action comments on how much caCHING the inventor must be rolling in

…or wonders aloud why they hadn’t thought of it first.

Making the most of it

August 24, 2018 by Sophie Barrows in life

When a kid's birthday approaches, I can't help brainstorming cake ideas. And something about kids just demands that it be a shaped or themed cake. To me, at least. I can't help it! I wonder if an old family photo of my older brother grinning behind a sprawling cake train has anything to do with it. Very likely.

Living with Family

March 09, 2018 by Sophie Barrows in sophie, home & family

Two years ago, when Edith was just about to be born, Philip and I decided we wanted to move closer to family. Seeing that his family had been in the same house since he was 3 years-old - whereas my family hadn’t stayed in a house for longer than five - it made much more sense to move to his family in Maryland than to my family, then in Florida. We were living in Massachusetts at the time, but as soon as a job in Maryland worked out, we took it. (Quite hilariously, my family actually moved to Maryland within the same year.)

St. Nicholas' day

December 07, 2017 by Sophie Barrows in sophie, food

Whenever I think about family traditions, I realize some of my strongest and most beloved center around food. Christmas and Easter strongly evoke a Polish breakfast feast (my paternal grandmother is 100%) consisting of Kielbasa, horseradish, babka, and pierogi. Christmas also brings to mind halvah, marzipan, sesame honey candies, and pepperoni sticks -- our stocking staples. On any given birthday, it was an absolute given that the celebrated person got to decide what special breakfast, dinner, and cake that they'd like. Saturdays and Sundays always began with either pancakes, waffles, or crepes. In fact, we never let a special day or occasion (sometimes, even just a hint of one) slip by without ensuring it was punctuated by suitably festive bakes and makes.

On why showers sound like crying babies, and other reflections on motherhood

October 30, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, home & family

These little people have wrestled their ways into our lives and demanded everything from us by seizing our hearts. They have given us a singular opportunity to grow in love, to learn how to love better. We lose ourselves a bit as we give more. We look for more to give, and then we find more of ourselves! We expand in love.

Texas field trip: Newman's Castle

October 23, 2017 by Maria Almeida in maria, life

Last week I took the kids to a completely random little town in Texas (it may be that most little towns in Texas are completely random and I just haven't lived here long enough to learn that) to visit an even more completely random Medieval castle. I knew four things about this place going into it: one, that it was a castle; two, that it was somehow associated with Newman's Bakery & Deli, also in Bellville; three, that the guy who built it actually lived there; and four, that the children get to reenact storming a castle. The first and last things alone justified a visit. I'll admit, the fact of the guy living there puzzled me. I just couldn't imagine what kind of place this was! The puzzlement never really cleared up - this place remains one big (amusing) puzzle to me.