All Things Supercinski

One of Josiah’s favorite places in all the world is the park. I think that it is his second favorite place, besides our house. Why not? It combines his favorite things: being outside and swings.

Of course, it is even more fun if Daddy meets you there on his lunch break.

We had a really bad thunderstorm a few nights ago with winds strong enough to do some damage in our neighborhood. The gas station nearby lost part of it’s roof, all the soccer goals at the field nearby were uprooted and twisted up, and many trees were broken up. This is the main damage in our neighborhood:

Thankfully, all that happened to us was that one of our attic vents (one of those whirly things) blew off. The funniest thing about all of it (to me) is the dream I was having while the storm was raging at 3 a.m. I was dreaming, amidst the wind and rain pounding against our window, that Thomas and I were having a contest to see who could throw Brita pitchers against the window the hardest. I guess that’s what the wind sounded like to my subconcious mind. And yes, I can be competitive even in my sleep.

Josiah started saying his name today! Sometimes it sounds like “Ya Ya” and sometimes is sounds more like “Iah”, but it’s a start!

He really is walking better than the video shows–his shoe was falling off.

It’s that time of year again, when strawberries are affordable at the grocery store. I’ve been embracing it wholeheartedly by making my favorite spring/summer dessert: Strawberry Clafoutis. It sounds fancy, but it is basically a strawberry crepe baked in a dish. As you can tell from my photo, I can’t resist eating it and tend to eat much more than my share. I originally found the recipe here, so I must give credit where credit is due, and boy is it due here!

Strawberry Clafoutis
Serves 6 (or in our case, me with a small helping for Thomas)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 1/2 pint (3 cups or 20 ounces) fresh strawberries
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole blanched almonds
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
A pinch of salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon light rum (optional)
Confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8-inch-square glass or ceramic baking dish (or 6 1-cup ramekins for a more elegant presentation) with one tablespoon of the butter. Melt the remaining butter in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat (or in a small bowl set in the microwave for a few seconds) and set aside.

Rinse the strawberries under cool water — do not soak or they will loose some of their flavor. Drain in a colander for a few minutes, and gently pat dry with a clean dishtowel.

In a food processor or blender, mix together the flour and almonds until finely ground. Add the sugar, cornstarch and salt, and mix again. Crack in the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Pour in the melted butter, milk and rum if using, and mix again until well blended. The mixture will be thin, like crepe batter.

Hull the strawberries, cut in halves or quarters depending on their size, and arrange in a single layer in the prepared dish or ramekins. Drizzle the batter over the strawberries, and put the dish in the oven to bake for 40 minutes (30 minutes if you use ramekins), until puffy and set.

Transfer dish to a rack, and let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar, and serve directly from the baking dish or ramekins. Be careful, this stuff is addicting!

I got some great pictures last night during Josiah’s bath, so I thought I’d share them with the world wide web. As you can see, he’s really enjoying the stacking cups in the bath these days.

We busted out the monkey backpack/harness this weekend after a harrowing attempt at eating outside at Sonic. Josiah doesn’t really understand why he can’t go walking and exploring everywhere he wants, and we’re still trying to figure out how you discipline for things that are okay some places, but not okay in others. He just doesn’t quite get those difficult concepts yet.

Anyway, back to the backpack. Vanessa sent this backpack/harness as a baby gift shortly after we announced our pregnancy. If you were reading our blog back then, you might recall it. We decided to give it a try since he’s walking a lot now. We pulled it out of the box and explained it was a backpack by Thomas and I putting on our backpacks. He was excited now. He even started making his sound for monkey “eee eee” for the first time. On when the monkey backpack and, boy, was this kid excited! Little did he know why that monkey has such a long tail. He’s asked to wear it everyday since and gives the monkey hugs when he sees it lying around. Now, we just need to go somewhere and test it out in public…

If you check the original post about the backpack, you might notice some interesting comments. Several desperate mothers commented wondering where they could find a cute harness such as this one. We ended up going to our local Walmart, buying several and selling them on ebay, making a fine profit.

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

– from “Leisure,” by W.H. Davies

We ran across this article which is the result of a little ‘experiment’, involving commuters, a $3.5 million violin, and extraordinary violinist. Read the article, and if you find yourself thinking ‘This is SO long’, then the whole point of the article is just for you.
The Washington Post