Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Pure Baby Explores *The Freedom Trail* !

In keeping with the Thanksgiving spirit of being thankful for our American freedom, here are some pictures of our visit to The Freedom Trail a few weeks ago! 

BOSTON COMMON

PARK STREET CHURCH


GRANARY BURYING GROUND


KING'S CHAPEL


THE FREEDOM TRAIL SEAL


SITE OF THE FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL


BEN FRANKLIN'S STATUE


OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE


FANEUIL HALL


PAUL REVERE HOUSE

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends :)


Our family will be having a gluten free / casein free (GFCF) plus Feingold Diet Thanksgiving!  This is our first GFCF holiday in a few years, and I am overjoyed at the great improvement in GFCF foods and recipes :)  GFCF food actually tastes yummy! 


Here is our pumpkin pie recipe, for the delicious GFCF (and Feingold Diet) pumpkin pie we will be enjoying tomorrow on Thanksgiving.  Our sample pie was amazingly *just like the real thing*!  So, tomorrow we will proudly share our pie with our extended family.



Pumpkin Pie
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin  (I used organic canned pumpkin from Whole Foods).
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coconut milk  (I used organic canned coconut milk from Whole Foods, but the refrigerated So Delicious coconut milk is a likely excellent choice as well).
1 pie crust  (See below).

Preheat oven to 425.  Beat eggs.  Add all ingredients, except  for coconut milk.  When fully blended, add coconut milk and mix.  Pour into unbaked deep dish pie crust.  Bake 50-60 minutes, or until set.


Pie Crust
1/2 cup garfava flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons egg replacer powder
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3-1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 450.  Mix dry ingredients.  Mix in oil.  Mix in 1/3 cup water.  If too crumbly, add 1 tablespoon water at a time, until less crumbly.  Press dough into a greased pie dish.  Bake 1 minute.    

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Pure Baby is Back!

After a bit of a moving-related hiatus, The Pure Baby is happy to be back! 

We've been greatly enjoying our babywearing coat, on our fun outdoor hikes :) 


Our older boys have been having great outdoor fun as well! 
We explored a very cool beaver pond, where the beavers have built amazing dams as well as provided impressive evidence of beaver tree-cutting skills.


Fun on top of a big rock!


Balancing on a long walk across a fallen tree!

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Homemade Babywearing Coat for The Pure Baby

The Pure Baby (PB) and I have a new winter coat - to share!  Following some great instructions on TheBabyWearer, I was able to alter an Eddie Bauer parka into a babywearing winter coat!


My Eddie Bauer parka, prior to alterations:
The parka is a size "small".  I usually wear "extra-small".  The pictures show the parka's fit on me pre-babywearing coat.

 
After measuring/marking with a fabric marker and after attaching layers together with zig-zag stitching:


After cutting out the back panel, leaving the bottom attached:


The side panels:
The side panels were my most difficult part of the project.  The original German instructions are no longer available, and I completely had no clue what the TheBabyWearer instructions meant regarding a "curve".  In the end, my curve below was very inadequate. I was able to design a curve, with the side panels sewn to the coat flap, by holding out the coat flap and making it into sort of a box (as you will see in my final result, further down).


The side panels attached to the back flap of the parka:


With both top and side panels attached to the back flap of the parka:


The inner top flap with the fleece attached:


The inner top flap fleece sewn into place:


The finished exterior:


The pouch opening:


The finished interior:


The Pure Baby (PB) in our new babyweaing coat:
PB is being worn in our Kanga XT.


We're looking forward to a winter of wintry cold weather and lots of snow!