Board of Cheese

Looking for something fun and useful to gift a special friend this Chanukah? My Brooklyn Slate Co. cheese board just arrived last week (thank you Fab.com!!), and can't wait to put it to some party-hard use!! I couldn't even resist trying it out right after opening, and whipped out some soft cheese from the fridge to experiment the chalk use on the well-oiled slate. The effect was positively lovely, and it even brought about some Camembert taste-testing from my cheese-loving 3 year old!

Check out the Brooklyn Slate Co. lookbook for serious slate inspiration. Their boards lend just the right amount of rustic warmth to liven up any festivities via cheese, fruit, or anything at all! Perfect addition to a Chanukah latke layout - nothing like some specialty cheeses to really get the party started!

P.S. It's still available on Fab from $16 - $20!! Check it here.

Now I just need some of this to care for it, and one of these to really have fun with it. :)

Playing with Pie

Just wanted to drop a line to those of you heating up your kitchens in preparation for some Thanksgiving bounty!! I've been having deep pregnancy-craving dreams of fresh cranberry sauce dribbled over slices of juicy turkey...and sweet potato casserole topped with just-browned marshmallow...and oven-roasted brussel sprouts and fresh-herb-infused stuffing...mmm! Right now I'm feeling grateful that our Thanksgiving will be spent amongst family and friends (not to mention grateful that we got invited out to an old friend's legendary kid-free feast! Thanks Sariti - looking forward!!)

Freida came down with a bout of autumn cough/cold this week (I'm giving thanks that she held off on the illness until we were settled post-move and not in the interim of it all!), so we've got our own version of seasonal bounty cooking up on the stove. I'm all about attempting to "heal through foods", and I've got chunks of root vegetables (butternut squash, rutabaga, turnip, garlic, leeks, and parsnips) simmering in vegetable broth waiting to be processed into a velvety, sick-banishing, chock-full-of-vitamins soup!

Anyways, for those of you hosting Thanksgiving feasts, and planning on entertaining families with children (not to mention your own), I thought I'd share a little delicious tactile activity that is sure to keep tiny hands busy (for a little while, anyway). 3 words: pumpkin. pie. playdough. Yep, you read that right. And just wait til you actually try this stuff out - it's such an insanely yummy (not to mention stress-relieving!) activity - you will just want to keep some on you, available for relaxation and manipulation, all day long! Plus, making the stuff is easy as pie!

Use a general playdough recipe like the fool-proof one I posted here. While mixing it all up over low heat, add in:

- 2 Tablespoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

- 1 teaspoon Maple Syrup

- Drop of Red and Yellow Coloring

Just kneading this stuff (I made it the night before the Babyccino launch - the class was "pumpkin" themed, and this dough went into one of the sensory tables), had all my senses in overdrive. It was warm and fragrant, and I simply didn't want to put it down!!

Not that you need anything extra to cook, but if you make it around to this, you can set up a kids table with pumpkin pie playdough, cookie cutters, empty pie tins, tart dishes, cupcake liners etc. and let the kids mess around with this tactile and olfactory activity while the grownups get started on cocktails! :)

Also, in case your looking for some more kid-busying activities for tomorrow, I filled another sensory table with pumpkin seeds (still shelled), and left out some measuring cups and spoons to play around with. Another 15 minutes of happy occupation makes all the difference while entertaining! And don't forget last year's hit popcorn turkey kid tablescape!!

Happy holiday of thanks to you all!! Wishing you heaps and heaps to be grateful for...!

On the Move + Weekend Round-up!

So much commotion has been going down in the cozy little home of ours! We are so excited to announce that, thank God, we signed off on a duplex lease last week and are mid-move to the glorious city of Los Angeles!!  While we have been looking to move for about a year now, we did not expect it to happen this fast (but some incredibly undeniable offers have been thrown our way and so we jumped at opportunity!), and we're still sort of in shock-drop-and roll mode; packing up boxes, picking paint colors, but not quite grasping the entirety of the transition just yet... But, with the hecticness of the holidays behind us now, and on the recovery from our annual post-Tishrei sick week, reality should be hitting home any time now. :)

About those opportunities; Manasseh has been offered a really fulfilling job that is right up his favorite alley - revamping the youth program for our new Shul and community, Shaarei Tefilah. We are supremely excited to be joining such a young, growing, and thriving community, and can't wait to get started. The first plan of action will be renovating the youth rooms (Freidafroo style!), and the before and after photos should prove to make some really fun blog posts in the next few weeks - look forward!

Also (yes there's even more!), I'm so totally stoked to be announcing that I will, God Willing, be starting a Mommy & Me class!! As a collaboration between Congregation Shaarei Tefilah and a wonderfully kind group of women behind the organization Yad Le'Ima, I was offered the job and can not be more excited to get it off the ground!!! If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, have a child under 2 years old, and are looking for an insanely awesome way to spend a weekday morning (a creative round of exploration and bonding for the tots, a lovely morning of coffee, socializing, and parent-networking for the moms!), stay on the lookout for the exact dates and times and how to get yourself and your brood signed up to the classes! I will keep you posted, but if you know you are interested right off the bat, please email me (freidafroo@gmail.com) so that I know if I am looking at some crazy number of mamas! :)

At the moment, I am pondering how will get through our last Shabbos in Long Beach, being that Freida has diligently dumped all her toys into some empty moving boxes and her room is practically reeking: vacancy. On the upside, she's been sleeping in our bed, which has proved to be super cozily delicious!  Thankfully, our move in date is Tuesday, November 1st (!!), so it won't be long now. Can't wait to give you a peek at the new place, and share the transition and home improvements with you all...!

On a side note, being that I've been so swamped, I've been feeling guilty and figured I'd at least leave you with a little weekend round-up to make up for lost posts. Here are some things I would have blogged about had I had the time:

- Crewcuts for Babies debuted this week - sheer deliciousness!

- Clever wall treatment for a shared bedroom.

- How to make your own pinatas!

- These office prints made me laugh out loud.

- Great gift for moms of boys!

- Handmade Charlotte at Anthropologie!!

- Black smoke is back!

- Hoooked Zpagetti looks awesome!

- Autumn soup at it's best!

Wishing you all the lovliest of weekends!! Enjoy the beautiful fall weather, and take advantage of all the pumpkin patches and fall festivals going on in your town! I'm very much looking forward to the peace of Shabbos, and relishing in the last weekend with our family here on this side of town.... here's to bittersweet beginnings!

Nix the Nausea

While I'm not quite certain where the term "morning sickness" came from, I genuinely despise the b*tch who came to make us believe that pregnancy nausea is something that dwindles as the noon hour approaches. It should simply be called "sickness" as it can last all day and well into the night! Thought I'd let you ladies in on 8 little things (specifically properties of citrus and ginger) that really seemed to work-it and quell my perpetual nausea:

1. Cranberry Juice Spritzer - Natural cranberry juice + sparkling water = best sunrise to sunset tonic ever. Plus, with no cocktails in long sight, there's no denying what a bright glass of fresh pink sparkle can do for mood swings! :)

2. Tangerines - I must have consumed tress full of these natural sweets! You can always be sure to find one or two of them at the bottom of my day bag; waiting for a their after-meal moment.

3. Diet Hansen's Ginger Ale - a God-sent blessing! This all-natural soda pop features ginger brewed to such an intensity that it actually burns - in the best of ways! Ice cold, with a straw - instant relief.

4. Hubert's Lemonade - this all natural citrus infused refresher is sure to expel the queasiness - specifically the pink raspberry flavor. Plus, it's just another way to stay hydrated.

5. Yogi Ginger Tea - steep one of these glorious bags in a teacup full of hot water, add some honey, and melt away as this intense remedy helps ease your stomach back to pre-pregnancy normalcy.

6. Ice - can't say enough about it's magical prowess. Suck on some to ease an unsettled meal, and add lots of it to everything you drink - the ice-cold factor seems to dispel all feelings of uneasiness.

7. S.Pellegrino Limonata - while this little can of lemony goodness is way too chock-full of sugar to consume on a normal basis, the sheer tartness of this fizzy citrus concoction is extremely helpful in a dire moment on-the-go: you can find this little number in most coffee shops across the country!

8. Grapefruit - nothing helped me more than tearing open and sectioning a mid-morning, perfectly pink citrus fruit!

Hope this little list helps even one of mamas-to-be out there!! Best of luck getting through your next meal! :)

Pickles + Ice Cream

It is with huge excitement that I announce to my very dear cyber-world circle of fellow mamas that Manasseh and I are, God willing, expecting our second child! I'm a little over five months along, and it has been almost impossible to keep this quiet - especially at the beginning when I was feeling exhausted and nauseous and having a hard time keeping up (that also had a lot to do with why I had such a hard time when my husband was MIA this summer). Anyways, being this far in, I seem to be over the difficult start-up and immensely enjoying the great satisfaction that comes along with growing a human being - I'm completely over the moon! While my little kick-boxer is now only about the size of a cantaloupe, the jabs and upper-cuts keep me awake at night smiling myself silly. Plus, there is just nothing as special as waking up to a toddler kissing your growing belly and sharing loving wishes to their growing baby sibling...! We just can't wait to welcome our newest little family member into our home with heaps of hugs, kisses, and baby massages! :)

Thanks for putting up with my insane lack of posts this summer, and sticking with me through it! Since I'm obsessively experiencing serious baby-fever, you can all look forward to plenty of pregnancy posts and newborn baby goodies! Can't wait to share the love! xx

P.S. I have honestly been consuming pints of creamy vanilla ice cream and fresh, crunchy Clausen kosher dills. And that's just the start of foodie weirdness going on in this house....!