The List: March 2014

Whoa, where did March go? Marched right past me when I wasn't looking.

Making

My very favorite project this month was a mini art gallery for my little one's artwork, brightening up a corner of our dining room. When I asked Lila one morning what she wanted to do in school that day, pat came the answer, "I want to do potty and painting with Miss K". Umm- OK. Toddlers are so hilarious and random. But she is in fact a prolific artist and like most toddlers, we are sent home with heaps of sheets covered in exuberant finger painting and paper pasting.

If your child comes home with artwork, what do you do with it all? I'm not one to reverently preserve every scrap of art that comes home. Dusty cartons filled with years of artwork- I don't want to collect that and then saddle my kid with it. My plan is to actively enjoy and use up the artwork: I'm saving a select few (very few) in a folder to keep. Some end up in the recycling bin. Most of the rest I use up- by cutting them up and making note cards, thank you cards and gift tags. With many paintings, I simply write a letter/note on the back and mail them off to relatives and friends: a get well soon note to a grandpa, a good luck letter to a cousin for her exams, a hello note to an friend. I figure it is fun to get cheerful toddler artwork in the mail among the usual pile of bills and catalogs.

And finally, I wanted very much to display some of Lila's paintings on our walls because that's what it is- a unique and original work of art. A child's creation is as legit to me as anything in an art gallery.

The idea for these frames came from here. Here's a quick run down on how I made these:
1. Buy wide frames. These are from yard sales and thrift stores (they cost like 25 cents each). Trash to treasure, baby.
2. Remove the backing, glass, any staples etc. from frames. You only need empty frames. Wipe them clean.
3. Spray paint them. I did this outside.
4. When the frames are dry, paste magnets to the back corners of the frame with double sticky tape. Sheet magnets did not work for me. I bought something called Darico super strong ceramic magnets from the craft store.
5. Use more magnets to hold down the artwork. This way it only takes a second to switch out the artwork when the kid comes home with new creations.

I have some spray paint left so I might make more frames to add to the gallery.

In Lila's school, parents are asked to bring in a dozen filled eggs for the Easter egg hunt and non-candy fillers are encouraged. Last year I put in stickers. This year, I used some felt that I had on hand and made chick finger puppets; the inspiration is from here.

A quick sewing project: I made an envelope pillow to coordinate with Lila's quilt.









Baking and Cooking

Sour cream banana bread. I used this recipe- and to quote the blogger: "Speaking of ripe bananas, you will have your best banana bread if you use dead black bananas. They should be entirely black, and maybe with a couple of little fruit flies lazily circling them." Good point!

Lentil shepherd's pie using this recipe, but I needed to use up potatoes so I subbed them for the sweet potatoes. Good but not all that special.

This was one of the best meals this month, and took me about 10 minutes to put together.

The khichdi- equal parts rice and vaal dal (yellow moong dal would work as well), rinse, add water and a generous dollop of bisibele masala paste, pressure cook.

The subzi: tiny cubes of potato and butternut squash with mustard seeds, cumin-coriander, salt, turmeric, chili powder, pan fry until tender, garnish with cilantro. And yes, that is a puddle of molten ghee in the picture.

Reading Neil Gaiman's Coraline, a quirky story about a child who wanders into a world that is a sinister mirror image of her own.

Apart from the books I already wrote about, my favorite book this month was Home Cooking, a collection of essays by Laurie Colwin. So warm and funny. This one is a must-read. And it contains some good recipes too: I want to try baking the gingerbread and black cake.

I also started reading Castle Waiting by Linda Medley and Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee but neither held my attention and they were abandoned. I figure life is too short to make myself read books that I don't find interesting.

Watching the series finale of How I Met Your Mother, a show I've watched on and off for many years. Also watching Midsomer Murders on Netflix. One Saturday afternoon this month I watched PBS for 5 hours straight and oh, it was glorious. First, there were a couple of food shows with some recipes that I will have to try soon, like a tres leches cake on Cook's Country, then Priceless Antiques Roadshow which is always so entertaining and that was followed by a documentary on British sitcoms.

What have you been cooking, eating, celebrating, making in March? Happy April! I have family visiting this week and there's much to look forward to.