One Ernst + One Fodness + Four Forresters = One Big EFffffing Family
-
Bagels
The Recipe Makes 6 Bagels, appx 2 hours Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups warm water 2 tsp active dry yeast 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar 3 1/2 cups bread flour (plus more for kneading) 1 1/2 tsp salt Toppings (optional) Mix 1 1/2 cup warm water with 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (stir to dissolve sugar), add 2 […]
-
New Year, New Letter
**Here is a copy of our semi-annual family update letter. ** Dear Friends and Family— Last year was full of travel and adventure—we all traveled to Europe in the fall, and bought a house in December, leaving little time for a holiday letter. This year was less traditionally hectic, although a house of six is […]
-
New Year, New Traditions
January 1, 2021- The first day of the new year. Usually a time for reflecting on what we have accomplished in the previous year and what we are looking forward to in the coming months. And while we certainly tried to incorporate those highlights into our day, it also felt like 2021 was deserving of […]
-
Building a Backyard Ice Rink
Given the rising COVID-19 case numbers, we opted not to do a lot of the normal winter activities that fill our days—skiing (downhill and cross-country), snowshoeing, and ice skating. However, we still wanted to be able to take advantage of outside time as much as possible this winter. We have some hills on our property […]
-
A Year on the Island
A year ago today we were homeless for a few hours. That morning we sold our house on North Oak and we didn’t close on our current home until later in the day. That meant that for a few hours in the middle of the day we didn’t have an address of our own. The […]
-
Homemade French Vanilla Ice Cream
Homemade French Vanilla Ice Cream This recipe is intended to be made with the Kitchen Aid stand mixer and the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment, but it could be made in a conventional ice cream maker as well.
-
New Roof, Who Dis?
Last week we shared how we did the ‘Great Garage Swap’. What we didn’t share was that the barn shed roof was in disrepair. We knew this when we purchased the home, but this summer we focused our energies on projects to improve our fun experiences – docks, steps and boat racks – instead of […]
-
The Great Garage Swap
Yesterday, we did what we call The Great Garage Swap, which is where we unload all of our winter gear from the storage shed (nicknamed “the barn”), load it back up with all of our summer stuff (bikes, scooters, etc) and then get all of our winter gear organized in the garage. We were under […]
-
Pumpkin Carving
This year, since COVID has impacted our ability to go trick-or-treating and do many of the other fall activities that we typically enjoy, we decided to spend some of the money that we weren’t spending on those other things on some obscenely large pumpkins to turn into jack-o-lanterns. Happy Halloween!
-
See You Later, Dock
We have a floating dock that is made from the bottom of a pontoon boat. A few weeks ago, in preparation for winter, we disconnected the gangway, loaded it on top of the floating dock, hooked up an electric trolling motor, and all hopped on the boat for a lazy ride upriver to the boat […]
-
Fall Trails
A few weeks ago a good friend turned us onto a set of nearby trails that are under-utilized. Which is great for my COVID sensibilities. Most days we never see anyone – in the parking lot or on the miles of trails that twist and turn. As if I needed another reason to like these […]
-
Firewood for Winter
Joyous Equinox, everyone! Today is the first day of Autumn, and the weather here has started to turn cold. Our preparations for winter are well under way. Our house has a wood burning insert in the fireplace, which is optimized for producing heat while minimizing the amount of warm air from our house that goes […]