Family Mellmann

My King Arthur Flour classes are really paying off. Check out tonight's dinner! (in case you can't tell...it's spaghetti pasta and I will serve it with pesto)

I suppose you are wondering what fishing and Lederhosen have in common. Well, they are both part of the latest photographic update of the Mellmann Family website . Enjoy.

I have really been enjoying the baking classes that I have been taking. Not only do I learn to make something that many people can enjoy and/or benefit from (home made baked goods, pasta, etc.) I also have an opportunity to learn a new skill, stretch skills that I already have, develop new interests, and expand my horizons. I have enjoyed this new phase of learning so much that I decided to sign up for a beading class. I have been beading for several years now, but I have never taken a class. Everything I do is self-taught. One important lesson that I have learned (repeatedly) in the baking classes is that sometimes a few "tricks of the trade" shared during a class can simplify or improve my ability to do certain things, or take the mysteries out of repetitive tasks that challenge me. What was true in baking class is also true in beading class. Tonight's class was only about earrings. We learned to use seed beads, we did wire wrapping, and a dangle-y chain style.

My helper is back. Today, Katherine has a half day of school (teacher in-service day) so I prepared a few things that we could do together with the couple of hours between her coming home from school and Patrick coming home. For Cross Connections (a mom's group at church) I am responsible for "baby bags" (gift bags for moms with new babies) so Katherine helped me to fill the bags with things for Baby and Mom. She did ALL the work.

Katherine makes a great sous chef. She loved getting her own apron and hat on to help me in the kitchen as we prepared the ingredients for an evening of Raclette with Oma and Opa. We were so busy eating that I didn't get any pictures of the Raclette, but here's a picture of my sous chef. She's helping me shell the shrimp. Later she also helped me cut the mushrooms and the bell peppers!

We're nearing the end of our line-up of King Arthur Flour baking classes. Today I attended "Autumn Pasta". We made a basic pasta, in the Linguine style, with durum and all-purpose flours, and taste tested the results in class with a mushroom cream sauce (it was super yummy). Then we made a spelt pasta that turned into ravioli with a ricotta, goat cheese, and chestnut honey filling. When we ran out of filling (I had enough to make about a dozen ravioli) we made Linguine out of the rest of the dough. In this picture you can see the ravioli (in the back, on parchment paper) and the two Linguine pastas; on the left is the basic pasta using durum and the pasta on the right is the one with spelt. Except for the little bit that we taste-tested in class, the rest came home and we ate it (all) for dinner.

It has been a fun and busy time around here. The kids are both in school and all the usual fall activities are starting to fire up for the new year. Before I lose control of my to-do list again, I thought I would get some pictures on the website. Enjoy.

Waiting at the "bus stop" in our front yard. This summer Joerg bought this bench for the kids; it makes the perfect bus stop as we wait for Katherine's bus.

Patrick gets his teeth cleaned, too. I love simultaneous dental visits!

Katherine gets her teeth cleaned.

We are still having a great time learning about breads (and other baked goodies). This time, it was J örg's turn to take the class. He took Beauty and the Baguette, and look what he made! (Trust me, they are as yummy as they look.)

Today is Katherine's first day of Kindergarten. She gets to ride the bus (by herself...which is very important to her) and she's very excited. She says she will miss us while she's gone, but I suspect her day will be filled with so much new stuff that she won't have the chance.