Shannon Yee

Every morning I get up and make a big breakfast for our family to enjoy together. It always includes coffee, water, and vitamins, but the rest varies with the day. Some of our breakfast staples include pancakes, waffles, scottish oatmeal, biscuits, and almond muffins. Each morning I try very hard to get everything on the table so that once I sit down, I don’t have to get up and I can imagine that I am in a lovely restaurant. The illusion is really very nice. I cannot think of a better way to start the day than the Yee Family Restaurant.

Here is my pancake recipe:
Soak 2 cups whole wheat flour and 2 T. ground flaxseed in 1-3/4 cups buttermilk, 1/2 cup milk, 2 T. butter, melted. (Mix together and leave on the counter overnight.)
In the morning, add 2 beaten eggs, 2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, and optionally 1 t. sugar and mix well.
Cook on hot griddle, flipping once when bubbles appear. Keep warm in oven. Serve with warm maple syrup, peanut butter, or fresh fruit.

It seems like everywhere I look, I’m hearing about, reading about, learning about what it means to have community. I live in a city with a pretty big community center where I spend lots of time taking kids to classes or taking classes myself. But, I don’t think taking classes is what community is really about. I think community is about belonging. It’s about sharing things in common and sharing even when we don’t have things in common. I think community is about being together – learning, laughing, loving, living. What do you think?

I’ve been seeing lots of 2wordstory.com around my community and wonder if someone’s story might be: Community? Community. Mine could be restated that way.

So, I finally bought a Nutrimill. And, I’ve been using it and enjoying fresh flour in all sorts of baked goods. Today, I made some pretty yummy muffins. Here’s the recipe:
Muffins
2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup applesauce
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen.)

Crumble Topping – mix well with fingers or fork
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg and salt
2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature

Mix dry ingredient together in large bowl. Mix wet ingredients and add all at once to dry. Stir until just combined. Add blueberries, folding in gently. Scoop approximately 1/4 cup of muffin mix for each muffin into buttered muffin tin and top with about 2 T. crumble. Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

There are a few blogs that I follow regularly and enjoy reading about how other people live life and whatnot. Usually, I get some good ideas for things to try at home or a little laugh, but today I was a little surprised when I visited one of these blogs. After reading the entry announcing her divorce, I skimmed through the comments, which I only do occasionally, and with over 250 comments I expected at least one negative comment. I didn’t see any. Most people were appropriately very sympathetic and apologetic over the end of her marriage. Many people shared that they have walked that road. This is all very nice, but what shocked me was the number of people who said “Congratulations!” or “Good for you!” There were lots and lots of comments encouraging her in having made a good choice to walk away from a marriage that had grown cold. Not one comment challenged her to fight for it or get some help or anything like that. I know that divorce is common and even acceptable in our culture, but it hurts and it isn’t right and while she acknowledged that in her post, she is just giving up and that shocks me and saddens me immensely.

It also makes me even more grateful for my amazing husband and the marriage that we have, while not a picture perfect love nest all the time, we love each other and more so all the time.

After a fabulous week in Los Angeles, visiting my sister, we are enjoying some serious home time. The overnight flights were great for us and the time in the sunshine was just what we needed to survive the rest of this winter, which apparently is still going strong as we got another inch or two of snow last night…

Well, we are back home. Thaddeus is still pretty sick with his second case of stomach flu in two weeks. We are in quarantine mode and it actually suits us just fine. Eila is still going to school, which gives the big ones a much needed break from each other every afternoon. I’ve re-discovered the wonders of the Ergo and am very much enjoying the cuddle time with my sick baby. I am trying out some new – and very delicious – bread recipes from a book that Brian got me for my bday. Now, I just have to order my grain mill and I’ll be in the real bread business.

I mentioned today to some acquaintances that we are taking a family vacation soon and that I’m hoping that all three kids will sleep as we are taking a red-eye flight. The responses were many variations on the same theme. Some more sympathetic than others, but mostly just shock and horror at the prospect of flying overnight with three little ones. Maybe they are right and I really have fallen off my rocker, but it seems like a better plan that trying to entertain my wee bitty baby for five hours in my lap… Those older two will watch movies til their eyes fall out, so they should be fine no matter what, right? I pray these are not my famous last words.

So, for my birthday, I made myself two cakes. One for breakfast and one for dessert. It was a wonderful way to start and end the day, and they were both delicious.

The coffee cake was inspired by Ina Garten’s. Here is my yummy breakfast cake recipe:
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or yogurt (I did a mixture)
2 cups white whole wheat flour
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sucanat
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the streusel:
1/4 cup sucanat
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped pecans

For the glaze, whisk together:
1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar
1 t. real maple syrup
few drops water

Mix together buttermilk/yogurt and flour and allow to rest covered at room temperature or slightly warmer for at least 8 hours.

After flour has been soaked, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and rest of ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the batter mixing until mostly smooth.

Pinch together streusel ingredients with your fingers until it forms a crumble. It’s easiest to add nuts at the end, but it doesn’t really matter. Put 1/2 the streusel in the pan, pour half the batter on top and then sprinkle with remaining streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Eila says it’s “Onolicious!”

If you know me well, you know that I enjoy freshly baked cookies over just about everything else. But for a birthday, the kids informed me that I had to have a cake, so I found a chocolate chip cookie cake that looked like it would fit the bill.

Cookie Cake
4 T. (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup succanat
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour 9-inch round cake pan.
Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugar, scraping down sides as needed. Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly, another minute.
Add the dry ingredients and combine on low speed until just a few dry streaks remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Press the batter into a smooth and even layer in the pan. Bake until lightly golden and puffy around the edges, approx. 25 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes and then run a paring knife around the edge of the pan to release the cake. Cool in pan on wire rack for several hours.

My firstborn now has two adult teeth and an extra set of molars growing in her mouth. Before I can even accept this information, she’ll be getting her wisdom teeth pulled. She turned six a few weeks ago and asks every day to get her ears pierced. Despite being sick, she competed in her second gymnastics meet and was determined to stick it out even though it was really hard – because it seemed like the right thing to do. We’ve had to institute parent controls on the computer and time limits on the Wii. She can’t say or understand anything in French. What happened to my baby?

Tonight, we cuddled and looked at the American Girl Doll catalogue. She still asks me to lay down and cuddle with her for a few minutes each night, but she doesn’t need me to sing anymore and she says her own prayers. We have a dance party at least a few times a week and I’m still told to follow her lead. The highlight of her day is often “Tickle Time.” And, every morning she needs a few minutes of mom-time before her day can begin. I hope that never changes…

I know you must be crazy with worry about what is going on in my head and in my life. Well, do not fret. No terrible calamity has befallen me. I’m simply maintaining the same routine as always which leaves me with very little to say at times…

We are sequestered at home as a bad cold/flu bug creeps through each family member. Plus, it is so cold and snowy that I don’t know why we haven’t relocated to someplace much, much closer to the equator. On a happier note, our home is pretty clean and we have plenty of food and are playing lots of fun games.

Be Gracious.

I know that I will utterly fail in my intended lifestyle improvements, so I will be gracious with myself and simply try again.

My children will fight and whine and irritate me – a lot, but I will be gracious with them and help them to learn to feel those big emotions without hurting themselves or others. I will do this many times each day, every day.

My husband will not be my all in all and I will be gracious and look to Christ for fulfillment rather than my great man.

I hope you will be gracious too.