Tag Archives: food

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Updates and New Garden Beginings

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Well, the bad news is that thanks to Swine Flu our trip to the Riviera Maya has been postponed until probably November.  (Insert sad face here).  I am not sure what the rest of the week will look like for us now.  My MIL and SIL are coming to stay with the girls so perhaps we’ll find someplace to get away to for a day or two so we can still enjoy a bit of a break.

Good news is that the front  gardens are well on their way to looking the way I was hoping they would.  We have yet to get moving on the big vegetable garden for the back – that will require much tilling and will be the next project in the cmong few weeks.  But the front looks great!

When we first moved in there wasn’t any grass or landscaping done at all.  Not even the bare minimum.  It looked like this:

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See?  Nothing.  If you’ll recall, last summer we built two raised boxes on the left side there and in the fall we edged out the front right and started putting in lava rock:

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Left Side

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The Right Side

Our plan on the left side was to surround the raised beds with pea gravel, and it now looks like this:

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There’s a nice hydrangea tree in the corner that is beginning to bud.  The beds will be planted with some nice annuals flowers, sun flowers, peppers, beans and tomatoes. (the back garden will have the squash, watermelons, peas and other vegs)

The front right side now looks like this:

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In lieu of mulching every few months (or weeks with the rate the stuff gets washed out around here) we opted for some nice lava rock which has that red mulchy look to it and accomplishes the same thing.  I’ve got some bulbs planted in there which will be popping through this summer and I’ve just put in a number of perennial herbs like thyme, rosemary and lavender which should spread well.  There’s a nice Japanese Maple in the center, some nice blue vinca starting to grow around the edges, and some double blooming peonies and giant hollyhocks in the back.  Little by little I’ll be filling in the empty areas with nice colored blooms.  All in all I am very happy with how it’s all coming together.

I also finished Emily’s mermaid quilt, months and months after I started it.

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And since we’re on the sewing subject, here is Neve’s new sundress I made a few weekends ago:

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She’s worn it three times already and still loves it.  It’s holding up really well to all the punishment she subjects it to, and I love that she can feel pretty and dressy in something she can get dirty and throw in the washer at the end of the day.  I’m working on a tropical print one for Emily, whose purple hair has faded quite a bit.  But when we first colored it, it looked like this:

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Next time she wants blue.

Now I am off to do some cleaning and baking (brownies with some hidden spinach and whole wheat!!) and planning for chickens that we will be soon acquiring.  Did I mention that is one of the girls’ jobs this summer?  Helping to care for the chickens?  They are also being tasked with weeding and cultivating the big garden and piano lessons.  I have to keep them busy somehow – no lounging in front of the tv all summer.  Again.

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(Paul got them a special computer based piano tutor that has sensor stickers on the keys and progressively teaches notes, timing, finger placement and reading sheet music.  It’s set up like a game and they love it)

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Easter Weekend and A Love Letter to the IRS

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Was everyone’s weekend as full and satisfying as ours?

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We kicked off the weekend -long festivities with our friends’ annual easter party and egg hunt on Saturday.  This was Oona’s first year participating and she loved seeing all of the little colorful plastic eggs glistening all over the grass, waiting to be scooped into her basket (and she LOVED the “cAHndy” inside!).

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When they first began hosting these parties Maddie was still fairly small, and now she has grown up enough that she and some of the other older kids are the ones setting out the eggs instead of collecting them.  Time flies.

It’s been a great time every year, and I think it just keeps getting better and better.  This year there was even more food to be had and a moon bounce was rented for the kids (and the “kids”, if you catch my drift) and great use was made of the beautiful new deck they put on the back of their house, complete with the much needed fire pit, since it was colder than we’d have liked all day.  The party kept going until well into the night, but we left before dinner since we still had to color our eggs so that the giant bunny could come and hide them.  I got the Paas Marbling kit this year, and though it didn’t work quite as well as we hoped, the eggs still looked pretty.  I don’t have a picture to share because my crappy camera can’t take a decent picture at night and I didn’t feel like searching for the photo lamps.  Either way the bunny still came (and the girls couldn’t believe they never heard the dog bark at him during the night) and hid the eggs.

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Lots of delicious teeth-  rotting candy for all.  (I’m partial to stale Peeps myself).  Oona was occupied for a good while sorting through her little basket and picking out her favorite items.  Tops on her list are (you guessed it!) Reese’s peanut butter cups.  Can’t say I blame her.  She had them stuffed into her cheeks like a hamster, chocolate drool spilling down over her chin.

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(She got a good tooth brushing afterwards.)

It was a nice lazy morning spent drinking coffee and listening to the girls sort their loot and do taste tests before we headed to my parents’ for dinner.  The girls wore the dresses I had originally wanted them to wear to the dance (the girls declared them unfit for a dressy dance and picked different ones).

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We picked flowers and ate cheese and crackers waiting for my brother to get in.

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The girls had some photo – worthy cute moments (right before Oona knocked Neve off the chair).

Then Caleb got in and we ate a lovely and intimate (small group this year – usually we have more relatives in for easter) ham dinner while making fun of his bed – hair.

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The girls then were let loose on the outside world to work off their sugar and ham – fueled energy before the coming of school on Monday morning. Why the school system here does break the week before easter I’ll never know – it prevents being able to travel anywhere for the holiday.

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Emily discovered that real tennis is considerably more difficult than Wii tennis.

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Oona caused much anxiety with her full speed, face – first running style.

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Mostly though it was nice just to watch the kids playing outside without a care in the world, as it should be.

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Eventually the sun set and we had to head home to get bathed for school.  Oona’s been on a later sleep schedule with the break so it’s been hard adjusting for her and I.

Last night Paul took her to bed with him while I stayed up to trace out patterns and clean up a bit.  He closed the door to our room, claiming the girls were too noisy, and inadvertently shut the cats out.  Poor little Jasper was stuck away from his food and litter until I noticed the problem somewhere after midnight and let him in.  So when Paul went to do the taxes this morning and grabbed the cardboard box he was keeping the tax papers in it should not have surprised him that there was a gift of cat poop in it.  All over the W-2s.

Consider it Jasper’s contribution.

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Doggone It

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Happy First Day of Spring everyone!  I wish I could say that I was able to get my spring cleaning done, or even finish off any of the projects I’ve had laying around all winter, but it’s been a week, let me tell you.  I did whip up a batch of cupcakes last night for the girls to celebrate the equinox, however.  Neve had picked out a box of cake mix last time we were at Target that had springy rainbow chips in the mix and some fluffy pink strawberry frosting and has been waiting not so patiently ever since for me to bake them.  So after dinner was done last night Paul took Oona for me so I could get the little pink treats done.  I’ve never actually bought strawberry frosting before (I come from the yellow cake with chocolate frosting school of cake appreciation) but it tasted pretty good.  They looked lovely sitting on the island in the kitchen, waiting for Neve to discover them.  Too bad she hadn’t eaten her dinner.

Not that it mattered anyway, because after changing Oona into her jammies and changing the sheets on the bunks for the girls I returned to the kitchen and where there should have been 15 pink cupcakes there was instead this:

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Gone.  Paper liners and all.  You can’t see it in the picture but there was also pink smears all over the floor around the island.  And one very guiltily satisified dog lounging in the dining room, licking her paws.  Paul was beyond mad.  I was rather upset myself, considering I was the one who put in all the baking work.  But I was able to not be too angry because it called to mind the incident of my 10th or 11th birthday (can’t remember exactly which) when we lived in a rather tiny house in Kingston, NY and we had another golden retriever named Nugget.  My mother baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate chip frosting (and I was SO excited!) and left it in the middle of our dining room table to wait for the festivities.  And it vanished.  Completely.  The plate was found licked clean on the floor.  I don’t remember what happened after that but we love to bring that story up every tme a family dog eats something they shouldn’t.  I simply sent Pippa to bed without her doggy dinner last night.  After all, she was no doubt quite full.

It has otherwise been a quiet yet frustrating week.  Oona has strep, and though she has been on meds since Monday she is still not really herself.  She won’t let me put her down for anything, which makes cleaning and meal prep (not to mention showering) rather difficult.  Tuesday was our 13th wedding anniversary and since we are going to Mexcio in May we didn’t complain too much that we spent it trying to keep Oona happy (mostly successfully).

I’ve also been sitting with my eye on a large box of fabric that Paul’s aunt brought down this weekend for me.  So very nice.  I can’t even begin to tell you!  It’s a bunch of upholstery weight bolts from a closed out warehouse.  I am so psyched to make things with it that it’s been killing me sitting still with Oona, who is not happy unless my butt is parked in one spot all day.  The only thing I’ve managed is to finish Neve’s pj pants which were already cut and pinned and lingering on the sewing machine.

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Such a cute print!

Hopefully the weekend will be better and Oona will recover from her woes.  She’s just been so frowny and miserable.  I want my happy baby back!

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I’m Souper, Thanks For Asking

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I don’t know if it’s the airing out of the house or the whole “spring – ness” that is in the air, but the I’ve been pretty happy with how the last few days have turned out.  I am still suffering a bit with the stomach upset that plagued us all a few weeks back, but more or less I am well physically, and I am feeling a bit lighter and less weighed down than I have in awhile.  Oona is totally weaned and I am actually now below my pre- pregnancy weight. ( Really I don’t care so much about that, but I do want to firm up that middle mushiness that carrying three babies will do to you, especially since I got a new bikini for Mexico.)  That means a lot more options when I walk into my closet in the morning.  There’s not much that makes a girl feel better starting her day than that!

Oona now sleeps through the night, Emily’s impetigo is all cleared up and she’s back to school and we’re all back on schedule. The cloud of negativity seems to have lifted and we’ve been more productive.  Yesterday I managed to bake 2 loaves of homemade sandwich bread and whipped up a tub of dough for the fridge.  (We’re addicted to panini right now so we’re using a lot of bread).    I also made Auntie Anne’s pretzels for the girls.  ( I subscribe to Food Network Magazine and they had a copy cat recipe of those sinful pretzels from the mall and I just had to try it. )  I think my kids may have snorted them they ate them up so fast.  And yes, they do taste just like the ones you buy.  Score!

I also sent Neve to school in a peasant blouse I made for her and she looked adorable.  Emily got a new headband from a Heather Bailey pattern I downloaded  so her hair won’t look so funky anymore.    It was a good day to be the mommy of the house.  Today I continued cutting fabric for more spring and summer dresses for the girls and a halter top for me to take to the resort.  I’m hoping to pick up a set of bunkbeds this week for the girls so I can get everybody organized before summer hits and they are here all the time to get in my way complain about what I am doing slow up the process.

Today was chillier than the last 4 or 5 days have been so I decided to use the butternut squash and apples I had to make some soup.  Normally I only make this particular soup in the fall, when the apples are in season, but Neve loves it, and I have had a craving for it, so it seemed like the day to do it.   I don’t actually have a recipe I use, I kind of just “wing it”, which I find more acceptable with soups than most other types of cooking.  I knew what I wanted and grabbed the appropriate ingredients, and voila!  Yumminess!

First I chopped up a nice big squash.

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While I was chopping this up, Neve commented that the knife was pretty big.  I agreed.  Then she went on to say “But you know papa has a bigger wrench than that.  I mean a REALLY big wrench!” Which of course meant that I couldn’t stop chortling to myself with laughter, picturing the euphemisms that Paul is sure to take from that.

When I stopped giggling, I chopped up two large granny smith apples.  Then I added all the chopped stuff to a pot along with a stick of butter.  Yes, a whole stick.  No, I don’t think my recipe is on the low fat side, but I didn’t use any bacon fat or lard, and I figure it’s chock full of vegetable and fruity goodness, and plus it tastes really freakin’ good.

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I love this part, because I turn the heat on medium high and let the squash soften with the apples and it smells SO good.   Once they are all nice and starting to get a little mushy (but not too much) I add some chicken stock.  Now, when I first made this soup I was using store bought stock, and it was still good.  However, last fall I started buying whole frying chickens from Sam’s Club for $7 and making my own stock, and let me tell you.  The difference, if you’ve never done it, is phenomenal.

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A big ol’ chunk of frozen stock.  I hadn’t had time to thaw it out, but I’ve found it doesn’t really matter.  I just let the whole mess simmer until the squash is totally softened and it just smells too darn good to resist anymore.  That’s when I whip out the immersion blender and puree it all.  I used to transfer it all to my blender, but that can be kind of messy and then there’s another thing to clean.   When it’s all smooth, try not to put your face in it like a hog.  (I myself have a hard time controlling myself).

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When I haven’t had homemade stock on hand I’ve also added onions to the first step and sometimes even a bit of apple cider to bring up the apple taste.  But really, this is one of those dishes that is better for its simplicity.  Just ask the 5 year old who slurped down 2 ginormous bowls of it tonight.

SO that’s my gift to you tonight.  A yummy and easy treat and a hope that all of you are having a positive and productive week.  Enjoy!

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MwaaaHaaaHaa

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I put a heaping amount of spinach, broccoli and wheat germ in tonight’s spaghetti and meatballs, and NOBODY NOTICED!  They gobbled up all that healthiness as if it were no more than the usual favorite.  I have to admit, I quite enjoyed it myself.  (Almost makes up for the fast food we had for lunch while out shopping with grandma).  And since I cannot make the evening too healthy, I’m off to gobble up some of the leftover Vienetta from Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day around here traditionally entails a large amount of Chinese take – out and some yummy dessert.  We’ve done it every year we’ve been married.

Now I’ll leave you with the Neve-ism of the night, as just overheard by me while she played with her barbies:

“I am beautiful, so you should RESPECT ME!”

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Sneaky, Sneaky

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Yes, I am still working on that sock.  No, I don’t have a picture yet. Soon, I promise!

We woke up to  nice fresh layer of actual snow this morning – shocking!!!  The girls got a 2 hour delay from school, but I went one better and just let them stay home.  Mostly because after the school called at 6:30 this morning (instant alert system – it ROCKS!) I went back to sleep and woke at 8:00 with Emily standing over me fully snow – suited up and ready to play.  Figuring this may be the only snow we get all winter I let them stay home to enjoy it.  I rarely allow them to stay home unless they are sick (doesn’t help my sanity to keep them home when they’re not too sick to misbehave!) so I don’t feel too bad about it.   Neve  (predictably) made me miserable most of the day by responding to everything I said with a petulant “that’s not fair!”. But Emily spent much of the day working on mastering knitting.  I’m so proud!  SO even though the snow had all melted by lunch time the day wasn’t a total loss, and I finished off the batch of sneaky brownies I made.  (They’re sneaky because they’re healthy!)

I bought a book about how to sneak healthy foods into your kids’ normal less – than – nutritious foods.  I’ve tried a few of the purees added to a few of my normal dinners, and so far, so good.  No one suspected the cauliflower hanging out in their mac & cheese or their meatballs.  Or the spinach chilling in their blueberry milkshakes.  But the best, my friends, is those brownies.  The recipe is directly from the book and makes use of the berry and spinach puree (as well as wheat germ and oats), and it somehow manages to still be one of the fudgiest, best brownies I have ever made.  I think the kids aren’t the only ones that are going to be getting a better dose of nutrients from now on.

Speaking of doses, I think Neve is going to over dose on tea.  She got a tea set for Christmas that she painted herself and we neglected to put it in the oven ever since (to set the paint and render it safe to eat off of), but I got around to it finally last week and she has been requesting tea for it several times a day.  I’m thinking of investing in some chamomile, given her normal energy level.

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Think it’ll work?

Yeah, me neither.

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Christmas Crafting Has Begun

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The tree is complete.  The stockings are hanging.  The outdoor lights have been strung up (and they look pretty beast this year if I do say so myself.  And also to borrow a hip new term from the teens).  The cookie list is in process – I have yet to narrow down the exact types I’ll be preparing this year, but I’m close.  The gift knitting is in full swing.  I’ll share a little of that as I can…..but we don’t want to ruin any surprises!  Currently I am cutting red felt snowflakes to applique onto the white tree skirt I have made.  Now if we could just get a good snow to really kick the season off!  Ah, wishful thinking around these parts.  But the snowman mugs are out, the fireplace is on and the girls have their new Christmas pj’s.  Which means I have our 2008 holiday picture!

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Another Day, Another Pie

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The house is rather a mess but I feel quite a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.  I spent most of the day working on finishing up Emily’s sweater, and I should have pics of the final product before too long.  I’ve been calling it the “Gingetbread Sweater” since I started adding the color bands, since it’s a combination now of chocolate (or gingerbread) brown, pink and cream.  I hope she’ll like it as much as she likes the handknit socks.

It was a bit tough at one point working on it – Oona took a nice long nap today (she has a bit of a cold and a cough, so I guess she doesn’t feel so well) and the cats decided it was time to bombard me with attention.  At first I thought perhaps they decided for once they’d show their love and keep me company out of the goodness of their little kitty witty hearts, but no.  Nothing quite so cute and cuddly.  They were bugging me, as it turns out, because their food bowl had gone empty.  Brats.  But at least I got to take advantage of some Milo lap time.

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He stayed long wnough for me to complete a couple of rounds of color and watch about an episode and a half of recorded Ghost Hunters before he decided I wasn’t going to give up the goods and he didn’t need any more snuggles.  He took up a post with Sushi in the hallway instead.

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At least they didn’t puke in the doorway again.  It’s always fun stumbling in the darkness at 6:15 am to wake up your children for school and have your foot find a nice mushy cold pile of puke.  And what a lovely segue that makes to my evening accomplishment: the pie.

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I’m full of pumpkin-y goodness here.  Oona’s fallen off early so I think I will grab myself a slice, cozy up on the couch, put in something non – children – y, and tie up the loose ends on that sweater.  But before I go, have another pie picture.  This one’s a cutie pie.

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Bread Me Baby

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Around these parts we love bread.  Growing up in New York with access to some great bakeries and spectacular baked goods gives you a certain amount of taste for these things.  I’ve always loved baking and am proud to say I’ve managed to produce some tastey breads and such, but it’s so much work that it’s always been a special occasion thing.  Imagine my happiness finding this book.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.  Seriously – it delivers.  I snatched this book up and tried it straight away and was ecstatic to find that I can, in fact, make excellent bread in next to no time.  I’ve made boule bread almost every day and even tried the Pumpkin Oatmeal bread (which is fantastic with butternut squash and apple soup, btw…..as well as with a slice of leftover pork roast and some apple butter.  Yum!).  I’m considering a second fridge just for storing dough!!!!

I did manage to make some apple pies this weekend.  I still have an obscene amount of apples left, so I made 2 pies and only partially baked them.  Then once they were cooled I wrapped them in foil and stuck them in the freezer.  If they can be successfully thawed and baked the rest of the way and still taste good then I’ll use up all the apples this way and have pie whenever we want.  Now if only I could get anything else done, it would be a miracle.