Tag: family

Relaxing Summer? Yes!

I’ve had plans all laid out around the time of the time of Teenage Boy’s graduation we “remodeled” the backyard, making way for this very quiet corner to read in or work on the computer.  I’m about two weeks into summer and I’ve only had the time to sit in that chair twice-yes, exactly twice.  A positive like myself might say “Well, at least you’ve had the opportunity to recline elegantly twice!”  Right.  But I want to do it every day!

I have tended my garden and spruced up other areas of our yard.   You can see three squash plants, lettuce,
three tomato plants, and five basil plants growing there.  

 We’ve attended a fabulously gorgeous wedding of a friend. The wedding and reception took place at a local bed and breakfast, which was a perfect setting for this down-to-earth young couple.  They planted a bonsai tree together during the ceremony.  Ahh, it was lovely.
I’m taking two classes for re-licensure this summer and one is an on-line course about Personal Learning Networks (PLN’s).  We’ve learned about diigo, twitter, RSS Feeds, and Google Readers, all of which are to help us set up a community of “friends” we can learn together with.  I already had experience with each of these social networking tools but I’m sure to learn more  as we keep exploring.  Even as we set them up I can’t help but wonder about the effects of reaching out to a cyber-community instead of real people in our schools, neighbors on our own blocks, and retailers in our own local stores.
  I discovered this article through another classmate about the Waldorf school sans any technology at all.  Hmmm. I have to admit I love the idea of waiting to give youngsters any technology at all until middle or high school and this article explains it perfectly.  My own daughter reaches for my school issued tablet like it’s a drug and wishes to play with that more than anything. I think it saps her creativeity just having it in the house.  She spends all day playing with the idea that she’ll later be able to get her hand on the tablet for a few tries at Temple Run to beat her “top” score.
What say you?  Should we leave technology for later or is an Apple iPad the perfect learning tool for young students?
Peaceful Reading…

Sunrise Service

(Groovy Girl and Teenage boy share a quiet moment)

My alarm went off this morning at 5:30 am as it has for the last 5 Easter mornings.  I got dressed in my overalls and a warm sweater and woke my two children up to do the same.  I went down and warmed up the car, made sure we had blankets and a pile of hats and mittens.  My husband and his merry band of teens lead the service so he’s been up since 4 am getting ready for early risers to arrive at this beautiful spot at a nearby state park. 

The fellowship (the doughnuts and hot chocolate) makes the early morning bearable for the teenagers.
Happy Easter, everyone!  
Especially to the man who gets up early to get it all organized:
Peaceful Reading…

Weekend Cooking; My favorite cookbooks.

My mom is going to be here tomorrow for Easter dinner.  I’m Spring cleaning today.  Deep down cleaning.  Dusting, rearranging, organizing, dispelling clutter.  Soon I’m going to vacuum all the pet hair.  A natural offshoot of cleaning is to cull some of the old and this idea brought me to my cookbook cabinets.  I blew a fine layer of dust about and took a long look.

I know I get many recipes from the internet; blogs and Pinterest and I do have several magazine subscriptions, thanks to my mom, but my cookbooks are somewhat sacred. Something my mother taught me.  I don’t get rid of them easily and I don’t buy them very often.  As I reorganized this cupboard (I tend to stuff printed recipes in randomly even though I have folders to put them in)  I reflected on my top 5 favorites.

In particular order with recipe titles linked to my posted recipe:

The Healthy Kitchen; Recipes for a better body, life, and spirit by Andrew Weil, M.D. and Rosie Daly. (2002).  This book has been so well loved it is coming apart at the binding.  It splits open right at the Vegetable Lasagna recipe I’ve made dozens of times in the last 10 years.  My other top recipes in this book include the Miso soup, Tomato, Corn, and Basil soup, Seared Salmon with orange glaze, and the Lemon cayenne tonic.  Filled with pages of healthy information about spices, eating mindfully, and tips from both Weil and Daley I’ve learned plenty.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. (1997).  This one looks used as the top is peppered with post-it notes sticking out like a yellow mohawk.  My favorites recipes include the page of peanut sauces, Thai tofu and Winter squash stew, and Sweet potato muffins with candied ginger.  My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas one year and the inside front cover still holds the sticky note she included telling me how much use she thought I would get from this book.  She was right.

Fresh from the vegetarian slow cooker by Robin Robertson. (2004). This one my mother-in-law also gave me when she gifted me with a new slow cooker.  I’ve made the Caponata for book club, the No-Hurry Vegetable Curry, the light and easy vegetable stock, the Pintos Picadillo, and the Lentil Soup with Kale.  Right now I have chili cooking in the same slow cooker and I’m excited for our chili and baked potatoes.

Not Your Mother’s Casseroles by Faith Durand.  (2004) This one I actually bought myself and it is newer than the other three.  The Baked Cheesy Chili Grits, the Simple Pot Bread, the Pot Chicken and Potatoes in Cinnamon-Saffron Milk, and the Baked Buttermilk Pancakes are all fantastic recipes from this book.

Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentis. (2005).  My kids could eat buttered pasta every day of the week, making this book a perfect match for us.  Now they love several of Giada’s pasta dishes, making it easy to upgrade their taste buds just a notch.  I also started making my own pesto from her recipe and love it even more in the winter as a pull it out from the freezer.  The Checca sauce is an easy summer favorite, the white bean dip with pita chips is perfect for happy hour, and the Lemon Spaghetti is too die for because I have a thing for lemons.

Now that I’ve made myself hungry by paging through my favorite cookbooks I realize I need to explore them more, perhaps challenge myself to choosing a recipe from one of them on a regular basis.  I don’t want them to get old and dusty.  Cookbooks are like friends, something I want my daughter to experience as well.

I happened upon an article in my Real Simple magazine and found this pie baker extraordinaire, Beth Howard of The World Needs More Pie.  She lives just down the “road”, well, a few towns over but I’m thinking Summer ROAD TRIP.  I want to check out her pies, she has a new cookbook out, and she lives in the American Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa.  

Happy Cooking~
This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  Click her link to find many other food-related posts from a wide variety of bloggers.

Peaceful Reading…

If I was Queen of the Lunchroom…

My district gives us the gift of Good Friday.  I’ve enjoyed this day with all of my heart.  I got up a little later than usual and made breakfast in my jammies,  The look on my son’s face as he was preparing to leave and noticed I was still in plaid, flannel pants was priceless.   After much kissing of daughter she set off on her bike with my husband lagging behind.  Usually I walk with them but her riding the bike makes it much less fun.  I had a mission in mind anyway.  I crawled back between my aubergine sheets and read, The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker, and drifted between reading and sleep.  I love drowsy.

My husband brought me a bowl of cereal and cuddled with me for a few minutes before he left for work/church and I was able to read 5 more chapters (laughing out loud several times under the covers) before crawling out from the warm covers.  I dressed in Saturday clothes (Gap pants with side cargo pockets, Gap oatmeal long sleeve tee and a long cardigan) and took the straightener to my fat hair.  Off to the mall to gather some Easter basket treats.  I love picking pretty Spring items for my kids.  I don’t even bother with the basket now that the kids are bigger.  I use baskets from around the house.  The Easter bunny has even been know to use clay pots for his treats.  I finished at the mall and headed home to grab a snack.

On the rare days I’ve had off and she doesn’t Groovy Girl and I love to have lunch together in her cafeteria.  She’s brings her lunch 98% of the time.  She’s a picky eater and not much on the lunch menu appeals to her.  I’m not happy that she is such a picky eater but I’m glad she chooses our lunch over what the school has to offer.  Today sitting at the small round table with a gaggle of giggly girls I (again) am mortified as to what is served to our children.  Well, not my child, but most of the kids in the cafeteria were eating school lunch.

Today’s fare was either a huge slice of greasy pizza or 2 huge cheese bread sticks and a cup of vanilla ice cream. The bread stick in the photo actually has more cheese than the ones I saw today and they truly didn’t look done.   On several of the platters there was a large scoop of formerly frozen strawberries, which is at least a fruit or had been, but not one plate had any veggies.  The bread stick kids had a small container, fast food style, of marinara sauce for dunking-was that supposed to be a veggie?

Not only was the food not healthy but this is how the kids ate it:  the ice cream cup was opened and eaten first.  A few that had the strawberry mix added that to ice cream cup and stirred. Hurrah-they accidentally got one serving of a fruit that was also probably sugar-laced!  One girl at our table poured some of her chocolate milk into her ice cream.  All the 4th grade girls at our table had the bread sticks; not the pizza, and they ate some  of the heavily-breaded sticks after downing the ice cream.

If I was queen of the lunchroom I’d make a mandate that you’d have to bring up your almost empty tray to get an ice cream cup.  If I was queen of the lunchroom though they’d have a delicious tray of food, filled with veggies and bright colors.  While I can’t blame the kids for eating the ice cream first-who am I too judge dessert first-but I find it appalling as to what the “experts” call nutritious for an afternoon of learning.

Not to brag but here’s what Groovy Girl’s frog lunch bag contained;  a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, a small container of grapes, a small container of baby carrots, a clementine, and an organic juice box.  I could tell she was a little green with envy as she watched her friends scarf down vanilla ice cream, or chocolate /strawberry-infused ice cream but she quickly turned her attention back to her own lunch.  We shared the clementine and the small handful of blue chips with flax that I love.  One bonus was that she (and the other “brown baggers”) get to sit first while the other students wait in line for their lunch-her sandwich was mostly gone before the lunch trays were sliding across our table.  She only had to nibble at her other healthy food choices as she conversed with her friends.

I don’t have a cool phone or I would have snapped an amazing photo of this lunch adventure instead I borrowed my photo from this blogger, Eat Hoboken, who wrote about school lunches back in 2010.  Click the link to check it out.  Too bad she’s not still chronicling her journey.

I don’t know if Groovy Girl’s school and my school have the same lunches but I constantly look at what the kids at my school are eating (esp. book club days) and am sad that no vegetarian option is available.  Public schools need  to find funding for better food choices for our children.  Hyping them up on sugar and carbs is no way to learn. Have you ever read about what professional sports teams eat and now even college-level players?  They are working hard to make sure their players are eating well for best performances.  Why can’t we get that for our youngest generation?

On reading; I finished and loved The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.  What took me so long to pick this book up, I’ll never know but it was wonderful to read.

Blessing on this Good Friday.

Peaceful Reading…

Random Spring Break Thoughts and Photos

Mr. PR with Tarah
Blooming in March!

  • I’ve been back at work for three days now and I’m exhausted.
  • I’m so close to finishing Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.  Excellent book.
  • My next read is Mudbound by Hillary Jordan- for book club.
  • I’m trying to figure out how to use pinterest for a 5th grade project.  Any ideas?
  • I am in the mood to Spring clean and would like a blog makeover. Any ideas?
  • I “mastered” Google Music and uploaded a slew of my favorite CD’s.
  • I reorganized the picture folders on my laptop.
  • I shared sweet potato black bean burritos with two friends at work and it was unanimous eating love!
  • Through a twitter conversation I enjoyed Beth F’s lunch love for same burritos!  Made my day!
Spring Break Photo Journal:

Children’s Museum (in flight)
dramatic like her father.
Ice skating in the mall
Teenage Boy walking the dog
(how nice was it here!)
Bike Riding in my new flirty grape skort from Athleta (it was on sale).
 I love skirts and this one is versatile.  Now I want it in black.

Spring is here and it makes me so very, very happy.
What’s making you smile these days?
Peaceful Reading…

Spring Break Begins

Spring Break 2011-Little Rock

Oh, I am in serious need of a break to regroup and heal. Luckily we are staying home this year.  I’ve had a cold for what seems like 2-3 weeks and I just cannot shake it.  I finally went to the drugstore and purchased Thera-flu because I’ve done all my good homeopathic methods to better health and it just keeps hanging on.  I want to spend this coming week doing fun things NOT blowing my nose and smelling like vapor rub.  Bleech.

Luckily I’ve been to the library (with Tina) so I have a pile of good books to read.  I have a  special blog post to write about the beautiful Joan of Arc for Kidlit Celebrates Women’s History! My post will be featured on March 17th but every day they have an interesting post to check out.

I finished I don’t know how she does it by Allison Pearson this morning.  I skipped church to sleep and in order to get back to sleep( after helping frustrated daughter find something great to wear to church) I had to read a little.

I did cook one major meal last week-it was a veggie-filled soup from Tucker Shaw’s book but the soup, advertised in the book as THE sure-fire method for getting better, did not work.  Not only that my husband who loves just about anything edible didn’t even finish his bowl.  Big waste of lots of veggies.  Boo.

Any remedies I should know about, let me know…

Happy Spring Break.

Peaceful Reading…

28 Days of Things I love; #9

My mom.

     Simple.  She’s taken good care of me.  She’s passed on her love of reading, gardening, and cooking.  I’m happy when we get to cook together.  She helps me put in my garden every year.  We share books back and forth although she is way  more into the classics than I am but I’ll forgive her that.  I enjoy her company, a blessing, because in my 20’s I did not.  We were at that time on opposite ends of ideas but as I became a mother and a wife things evened out and I could see things more clearly.  This is one of my favorite photos of my mom and I; we are in the kitchen getting ready to freeze tomato sauce. It was August and my hair was unusually short for me.  The apron I am wearing was my Grandma B’s, very special. She knows just how to squeeze my hand when I need it.

Happy February, Mom-I’m happy you like getting my blog posts in your in-box.
Peaceful Reading…

Weekend Cooking; S'More Brownies

I made these brownies last weekend under the ruse that they were for Teenage Boy.  If he remains relatively respectful all week I make him a sweet treat.  It is tough to keep any teenager happy and this seems to work for him.  He loves to eat, needs to gain weight, and we get to see him smile.  It’s not like he gets to eat the whole pan by himself; I ate one or two (three or four) myself and they were out-of-this-world delicious.  I’m thinking about making them again real soon.  I miss them.

This was a spur-of-the-moment recipe and some substituting occurred.  Graham crackers aren’t a regular feature in my pantry except during the summer and early Fall s’more high season.  Club crackers on the other hand are a  staple plus I like that salty/sweet sensation.


Brownie S’Mores Bars  (makes 36 treats)
adapted from So Sweet! (Sur La Table p. 30-31)

Ingredients:
Crust
1 1/2 cups fine graham cracker crumbs (Club Crackers)
1 T. sugar
6 T. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Brownie Filling
6 ozs. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sugar
2 large farm fresh eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (I used regular-sized and groovy girl cut them into fourths)

1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350*F. Turn a 9-inch square baking pan upside down and mold a piece of aluminum foil to the outside.  You should have about an inch of aluminum foil overhang.  Slide the foil off the pan bottom, and turn the pan over. Slip the foil inside the pan.  Fold down any foil that extends past the top edges over the outside.  Lightly butter the foil or use spray.
2. Place the crackers crumbs, and sugar in a medium bowl.  Pour the melted butter over the cracker crumbs and stir with a silicone spatula until the mixture is evenly moistened.  Smash any lumps (groovy girl’s job)
3.Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and use your clean fingers to press it into an even layer over the bottom of the pan.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.  Using oven mitts, transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool for 15 minutes.  Leave the oven on.
5. Put the chocolate on a cutting board.  Using a serrated knife, chop the chocolate into small pieces.  Put the butter in a medium saucepan, place over low heat, and heat until it melts. turn off the heat, and move the pan to a heatproof surface.  Add the chocolate to the pan, let it sit for 2 minutes, then whisk until blended.  The chocolate should be very smooth.  If it is still lumpy, let it sit for another minute or two, then whisk again.  Scrape the chocolate mixture into a large bowl.
6. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mixture until fully blended.  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each egg is added.  Whisk in the vanilla.  Finally, whisk in the flour and salt.  Whisk slowly at first, then fast until batter is smooth and shiny.  It will be thick.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Using a spatula, scrape the batter into the crust and smooth the top.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Using oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven, set it on a heat proof surface.  Carefully sprinkle the mini marshmallows evenly over the top.  Gently press on the marshmallows so they mush into the brownies a bit.
8. Return the pan to the oven and continue to bake for another 15 minutes, or until the brownie mixture feels firm when lightly pressed, or do the clean toothpick trick.  Transfer to the cooling rack and let cool completely.
9. To remove brownies from the pan, lift the foil out from opposite corners.  Set brownies on cutting board and peel back the foil.
10. Spray a chef’s knife and cut into 6 equal strips. Then repeat across the other way to make even bars.  Store in an airtight container or resealable zip-lock for up to 5 days.

Taste test:  We waited for them to cool (almost) and sliced them with no problems.  They were delicious and my husband (the only one in the house lacking a sweet tooth) went back for seconds.  I would make them again using Club Crackers-I thought it added a different twist and graham crackers might make it over sweet for us.  I hardly ever use milk chocolate chips preferring dark or semi-sweet.  My environmentally-friendly self would use parchment paper in the pan instead of foil next time I make them.  I think it would work just the same since I am not a fan of cooking with or in tinfoil.

I like it when I can create something this yummy with supplies I already have on hand.  Too often recipes call for two to ten odd ingredients that I have to shop for which is fine sometimes but it is always nice to whip something up without that added shopping trip.  As I grow as a “chef” I’ve learned what will make good substitutions, even in baking.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.  Click the link to see other food-related posts.  I posted about So Sweet!
for another Weekend Cooking post about whoopie pies.

Peaceful Reading…

28 Days of Things I Love; #7

#7 I love my new refrigerator!
It came today. The trucking dude left it in our driveway, leaving my husband to maneuver it up and into the house.  It is not hooked up yet but I’m thrilled to own this new beauty.  I’ll be able to get a glass of cold water from the front door.  It has a mini-wine rack inside the door.  The freezer is ample for ice cream and organic chickens.  It is magnetic so we will feel free to junk it up with gaudy magnets and frayed photos!  The Sub-Zero that came with the house was not magnetic. Is it not sparkly and beautiful?
Happy Days!
Peaceful Reading…