Cigar Box Shelves

Here is a way to make a fun little shelf that is also a hidden treasure box:

If your cigar box has a hinged paper lid like mine, you will need to slice off the lid so that you can attach the box flush to the wall.  I like using drywall screws, and I recommend making pilot holes in your box first.  Once it is attached to the wall, you can replace the removable lid:

Now you have a sweet little shelf with a place to hide your treasures.  It looks a little crooked in this picture, but in life, it is level and quite sturdy.  (As my photo assistant was pulling on my leg, I had some difficulty lining up the shot.)

These boxes have a very faint smell of cigars inside that I find nostalgic.  Most smoke shops will give them to you for free or very little money, just ask.  And, no, I did not have to smoke any cigars!

Fiction vs. Reality:  I have always thought that these would make perfect little bedside shelves for kids or in small bedrooms, but mine are actually knickknack shelves in a cluttered corner of my kitchen.  For the above pictures, I put a pillow on my cookbooks so you could see how it would look by a bed.  Here is my reality:

There are many beautiful styles of cigar boxes.  Vintage ones are usually gorgeous.  I have always been partial to these Partagas boxes, and also to the all wood ones by Nat Sherman.  Some of the Nat Shermans have sliding lids, which would also make excellent treasure box shelves.

Cookie Porridge

What do you eat for breakfast?  I make a lot of oatmeal, which is ironically the very food that prompted those ridiculously drawn out battles of wills with my parents when I was a girl.  You know, where I would refuse to eat one bite and had to stay at the table after everyone else was done, watching my oatmeal get worse by the minute.  Now I love it.  Go figure.

I also make polenta (mamaliga), grits and rice porridge (congee), but oatmeal is our hot cereal of choice.  I have recently been getting some ideas about how to spice it up from our favorite cookie recipes.  Muffin and scone recipes work well for this, too.  I just add the spices and dried or fresh fruit that are in the recipe, and cook the oatmeal in my regular way.

This morning we had Molasses Cookie oatmeal, inspired by this sublime recipe from The Silver Palate.

I added a little ginger, clove, salt, butter and cinnamon, and sweetened with molasses.  I often think of pastries that I have enjoyed and try to copy them into my oatmeal.  Blueberry, lemon zest & cardamom oatmeal was a big hit.  What do you add to your porridge?

The Secret Letter

Did you ever write an invisible letter using lemon juice?  After watching Diego check the mailbox again today without finding a response to his letter, I realized that I'd better send him something very special.  I remember doing this with my brothers when we were kids and finding it a terrific thrill.

Just assembling the materials tonight felt magical.

I don't remember ever writing an invisible letter with a brush by candlelight, but it was such a delight that I can't believe I waited this long!

All you have to do is write your letter with lemon juice and let it dry.  To make it visible, have an adult wave the paper over a flame (candle, stove, lighter), letting the flame almost burn the paper.  The areas where you applied the lemon juice will brown faster than the rest of the paper, the words will slowly appear, and you will have decoded the secret message.

Of course, I did a test:

I know that this will be so exciting for Diego tomorrow.  I'm sure any child who has never seen this before  will be totally enchanted by it, so go get out your brush and lemon and write someone a secret letter!

A Kiss to Keep

I spent approximately one half of my childhood at my best friend's house.  As a result, her parents became my bonus set of parents and I also got to call one of her grandmothers "Grandma Alice."

Grandma Alice was everything you would want a grandmother to be; she had a bright laugh, a comfortable lap, candies in her purse, a indomitable humanitarian spirit, strong biceps, and an endless supply of hilarious expressions and anecdotes that would keep us happy for hours.

Whenever Grandma Alice was about to go home after a visit, her suitcases already loaded in the car, she would put on fresh lipstick, and give each of us "a kiss to keep" on the palm of our hands.  Over the course of the afternoon, the lipstick would fade.  We would carefully examine and compare our hands to see if we still had the traces of her kisses.

Goodbye, dear Alice.  Thank you for your sweet kisses.

p.s.

I bought this great mailbox at a yard sale last year.  (Unfortunately, it was my own typical yard sale, where my neighbors and I swap our cool stuff and don't actually make room in our closets.)

Don't you want to get a letter from this box?  It looked perfect for some future castle, playhouse or tree fort, but I ended up hanging it on the wall in the play area of our living room.

Sometimes months go by without a delivery.  Other times, there is new mail every day.  I got a lovely letter this morning:

A prompt reply is clearly expected.  I'll have to write back tonight!

Open, Sesame!

A few months ago, I was watching a friend of Ruben's for a couple of hours.  Julio was sleeping and Diego was out, so I just had the two three-year-olds at snack time.  They looked up at me with hungry, expectant faces.

I sat them down on the kitchen floor and handed them each a small, silver prep bowl.  "You must be very hungry," I said, "here's your snack.  If you eat it all, I'll get you some more."  I put one raisin in each bowl.  They looked at each other and giggled.  One second later, "We want some more!"

I gave them each a single sunflower seed and said, "Sunflower seed.  If you eat it all, I'll get you some more."  More giggles, and then "MORE!"  An almond, a cashew, an oat, a peanut and a pecan later, we were all giggling and having a great time.  I was searching the kitchen for new things for them to taste, and they were happily trying everything.  Dried cranberry, blueberry and mango.  Candied ginger.  From the spice cabinet, they each tried a single seed of caraway, sesame (black, white, and toasted,) and cumin.  They were amazed by the big flavors of the tiny seeds.

They had a clove, a tiny piece of cinnamon and a grain of coarse sea salt.  I went through the fridge, giving them one tiny thing at a time: single slices of carrot, cucumber, banana and red pepper and small leaves of spinach, arugula and romaine.  The freezer gave us frozen blueberries, strawberries and peas.

I named each food as I put it in their bowls, and as they ate, they enthusiastically pronounced their verdicts: good, bad, spicy, sweet, salty, yummy, yucky, and above all, "MORE!"

Toy Bed

Here's a little toy bed that I made for the boys last winter: 

It was modeled after their bed, and was very simple to make using some wood scraps that I had around the house.  I made a little pocket on the headboard out of the same fabric that I had already used to make a pajama pocket for the boys' bed.  My favorite thing about it is that I had a bag that their sheets came in that I used to cover the mattress, so it really matches their bed.

My other favorite thing about the toy bed is how much time Julio has spent trying to figure out how to lie down on it.

Once he gets into this position, he just stays there and plays with the pajama pocket.