Mr. Postman

Last October orders were made for Christmas gifts so that they would arrive in time for Christmas.  Zach's Imaginext Batcave from Nana and Grandpapa was in this order.  Being the patient and understanding people we are, we gave it a bit more time when the December 18th deadline date of arrival came and went with no bat cave.  In January, I decided to contact the seller via amazon to let them know it never arrived.  The seller responded very quickly and was quite shocked it had not arrived, but promised to send another asap.  Low and behold, in the mail today arrived...the Batcave!

Zach was so excited and it is everything he hoped it would be.  Thank you Nana and Grandpapa!  And, being the dork I am, I couldn't help sending a tribute to the Marvelettes because we have been singing this to Mr. Postman for the bat cave.  Enjoy!



P.S.  Yes, I contacted the seller with a thank you for resolving our issue so nicely and followed that up by leaving a stellar review for them.

Six Sisters' Stuff

Ok, as I searched for something different to do with chicken today, I stumbled upon this site:

Six Sisters' Stuff

It is FANTASTIC!  I'm not saying the recipes you find there are going to be "healthy" but I did find some great potential items.  Although not the healthiest, my interest was caught when I came across the recipe for baked sweet & sour chicken.  I had to run out to the store to grab a few of the ingredients, but it was super easy and oh. so. goooood.  Charlie is pretty hard to get a nod of approval, but he said it was good and I should make it more often.  I am going to go out there and say it was better than any sweet & sour chicken I've had at a restaurant.  It was that good.

Another recipe that snagged my attention is for slow cooker Quinoa chile.  I'll be making it sometime this week and will let you know my thoughts afterward.

Baked Oatmeal Cups

In a previous post I mentioned that I have been scouring heavenlyhomemakers.com for recipes and decided to try another one.  I wanted to make something different for breakfast for the kids.  This one is called baked oatmeal cups, or even bird's nests if you want to be cute.  My kids wanted to be cute, but rejected bird's nests and declared them gecko's nests in honor of our newest guest.

I used the honey option to make these but had no other modifications.  Zach was my helper this morning and helped spoon the topping, which we chose to be mini chocolate chips.  These were delicious and I can see us making these again.  It seemed more of a dessert though so we'll hang on to the leftovers for later snacks and dessert today.  Charlie even gave his nod of approval, and then requested his standard egg and cheese sandwich I made him for breakfast.

Meet our New Friends

Last month we found out one of the families in our small community was relocating and had some critters that needed a new home.  As it turns out, we are now the third home for these critters and the kids know that we will have to find a new home for them when it is our turn to move.  

We had a nice but busy Saturday.  The pets were a surprise for the kids so they had NO idea what was going on when our friend showed up with all the equipment and fish.  Their faces were so cute when they realized the pets were coming to live.  

Clara has declared this guy, the gecko, Stripe.  He eats live crickets.  Were were told about the pet store in town to find them and are planning a little excursion there as they have all sorts of odd creatures.  Right now he is in the "classroom".  I think he will stay, but Clara is seriously lobbying for him to be relocated to her room.

There are two fish and a bottom feeder.  They must find a new location in our house.  We were not expecting such a large tank so in a rush just placed them here.  Clearly, there is a clarity issue at this time.  The water is clean, but apparently we should have rinsed the rocks before adding the water.  Charlie came in after we had started and said he would take care of it, so I will not stand in his way.  This picture was taken first thing this morning (they were delivered yesterday afternoon) and it is much clearer than it was yesterday.  We will be moving them into the classroom, but I will have to do some reorganizing first.  Clara has named them: Goldy, Spotty, and Leopard.  

While Charlie and I exercised yesterday, I set the kids up with some watercolors.  Clara did a tribute to Stripe.  To be quite honest, both kids do really well with the watercolors.  I should dedicate a post to some of their recent work.  She did a monster last night that was really cool, and a Harry Potter painting.  I was lousy with watercolor as a kid and am surprised with their talent.

Another little bonus was the surprise package by "Dupuy" sent from Iwakuni.  He very kindly helped us when we had to fly out before the movers could do our packout.  The movers refused to pack some items and he sent them to us.  Of those items were Clara's Girl Gourmet cake mixes, pictured below.  There was also some stoneware and a Pampered Chef serving dish of which I am very grateful to have back in my possession!

Groceries in Estonia

Ok, I've not lived in the states now since August of 2009, so I'm a bit out of touch with what is normal in terms of grocery purchases.  I thought I would take a minute to do a little comparison shopping with anyone that wishes to weigh in on any differences.

I made a quick run to the grocery store for some basic items.  I bought:

• four golden delicious apples that were rather small for a total of 1,03 Euros ($1.38)
• four bananas for 1,22 Euros ($1.63)
• 1 liter of milk for 0,82 Euros ($1.10 or $4.16 a gallon)
• a loaf of bread for 0.74 Euros ($0.99)
• chicken breasts for 2.73 Euros ($3.65)
• Demerara sugar for 1,99 Euros ($2.66)
• cheese for 1,45 Euros for 150 grams which is 1/3 pound ($1.94)
• half a dozen eggs for 0.98 Euros ($1.31)

Including VAT (value added tax), that total was 10.96 which converts to $14.65 USD.

I find it difficult to purchase too much at once because often the produce is not the greatest quality.  As a result, I go to the store quite frequently.  Speaking of purchasing produce, they do something I like here that they might be doing in the states as well.  I frequent three different grocery store chains on a regular basis.  Two of those chains require you to weigh your produce and select the number to print a price sticker to attach to the bag (or bananas) before you go to the checkout.  One day I actually helped someone do this, even though we couldn't communicate other than pointing, etc.  Thankfully my sponsor taught me to do this early on.

I'm assuming we are getting good rates.  I normally buy a cheddar from the deli and shred as needed, but they were out.  That is why I bought the prepackaged cheese.  The milk has a short shelf life so I do not purchase more than 2 liters at a time, but they only had the 1 liter available that night.  With such as short shelf life I chose to purchase only one.  I think the sugar was pricey, but it is healthier than white sugar so I went with it.

Oh, they do not bag your groceries for you, which is fine by me.  They didn't do it in Japan either.  Also, you either bring your own bags, or you buy them there.  You could also just wheel the cart to your car and unload them if you wished.  You can spend around a Euro for a cloth bag or a variety of "cents" for a plastic bag.   I always take my bags with me.

Other observations are that rarely do you see Estonians purchase a cart full of groceries.  Usually they might have a basket full or just a few items.  They do have typical carts available to use but I rarely see them get full.  Sometimes I do pack a full cart though.  This is different from our time in Japan because in their local grocery stores they did not have full sized carts.  They did have cute little metal frames you could put your basket in to push around.  Click here to see one.

TGIF

Before you go further, be forewarned that some of the pictures are very much out of order.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to adjust the order, only for it to duplicate and stuff.  When I see it while editing, it IS in order so I'm stuck with how it is.  Enjoy!

Isn't it just great when Friday shows up each week?  We had such a great morning.  Clara worked very diligently to complete all of her school work by 12:30 today, leaving us with plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day.  

Zach loves to help me in the kitchen.  When Clara declined the offer to help me make brownies, Zach readily agreed.  As it turns out, my good friend Donna shared the website heavenlyhomemakers.com and I have been perusing its contents quite a bit lately.  As I was scoping her recipes, I noticed that with modifications I could make her recipe for chocolate chip brownies.  

 So, I started gathering ingredients and the Zachster.  He started by helping to melt the butter (voi here in Estonia).

Then, after having everything in place, he started greasing the dish quite thoroughly.  I don't have cooking spray (although I have seen it in one store, refrigerated) so just spread a little olive oil on the surfaces.  

With direction, he added the sugar.  Her recipe called for sucanat, which I did not have.  I did have Demerara sugar though and substituted it for the sucanat.

Next came the cocoa, which I was able to find locally as well.  

 Next, he added the melted butter.

 Now comes some elbow grease as he mixes the ingredients.  

 By this time, a certain young lady was regretting her decision to not help and came to offer her services.

 Zach loves to crack eggs, and it absolutely pains me to let him do it each time, but so far he has a good track record of keeping the shell out of the food.

 Clara is helping now after Zach added the vanilla.  

 Another elbow grease activity after adding the flour.  Again, the recipe called for whole wheat flour, but I used all purpose as I had none of the other.

Now that it is all mixed up, time to add the chocolate chips.  There was a slight disagreement with which one should do the honors, so we shared.  Clara poured the first half...

and Zach added the remainder.  

 Clara then learned how to fold the chocolate chips in.

With everything ready, Clara dumps the brownie mix into the dish!

The both worked so hard to spread it evenly in the dish. 

 With the brownies in the oven, it is time to work up an appetite by going outside to play.

 Oh look, more snow.  

 While they are outside, the brownies finished cooking!

They were quite industrious and surprisingly couldn't agree to make a snowman together (I hope you know I'm joking here).  Clara says it's a girl. 

 Zach was quite proud of his too, although I missed the super sweet shot of his bashful smile.  

 Clearly, these are a little out of order, as this is Clara beginning her snowman.  

After all that hard work, it was time to enjoy the fruits of their labor!  They declared the recipe a success and we should definitely make these again.  Even though it was naughty, I had one of these too and it was sooooo yummy.  

Since Clara showed she can knock out some school work efficiently, I'm super excited that I went ahead and ordered the curriculum for her to begin Spanish and Latin!!!  Learning right along with her will be a big treat.

Harju Ice Rink

Our wonderful community liaison officer coordinated a joint time for our group to gather for some ice skating fun yesterday.  It was a nice warm day, and got up to 36 during the warmest part of the day, which meant some of our snow was melting and falling in big chunks off our roof.  Anyway, we trekked in to town.  We have not been ice skating since living in Rhode Island and Clara took lessons.  Zach was a trooper but used the cheater bars and insisted I hold on to them too, hence the shortage of pictures as Charlie had to work.  It was a nice time and there was quite a turn out.  Once Zach tired out, he and I turned in our skates and watched Clara from inside the little cafe where Zach munched on a justeburger (cheeseburger).  Clara did really well and has expressed a desire to be a figure skater.  

Clara on Ice

 Zach just getting started

 Clearly, I didn't force Clara to wear a helmet.  I did bring it though.  She did ask if she would be wearing one at the house and Zach approached me himself to say he needed to wear the helmet while skating.  I'm not sure if these are points of pride in that they think of safety or that perhaps it is an indication that I overdo on safety speech.  Naaahhh!  Seriously, Zach was the only kid wearing a helmet last night.  

 I love that it is nestled right in Old Town.  It is very picturesque.  

Clara enjoyed her time and was bummed when it was over.  We walked over to the embassy where we let Charlie know it was time to go home.  We stopped at Prisma so I could pick up a few staples to cook dinner and after adding chicken to my new favorite black bean quesadilla recipe, Charlie declared it fantastic.  Although my mixture is void of cheese, I have to say it is quite tasty and healthy too!