Slowly, Slowly

Growth comes in tiny packages sometimes.

One day, I stood up and walked away from the computer without even thinking about it – no planning where to put my feet, no thinking about shifting weight from one side to the other side. Before I knew it, I was up and away.

Another day, I discovered that I can shave my legs standing up in the shower! Funny what constitutes progress.

Those plants in the banner up there? They are now so big, that they no longer fit on the table and have had to be moved outside into a tiny greenhouse that I got last Christmas. It's like Attack of the Nasturtiums.



Thank goodness the boys and their Dad are digging a new garden, we're gonna need it soon!



Owen learned to read in such tiny increments that I didn't realize what was happening. Over a period of about six months he went from not reading, to decoding print, to almost effortless reading with inflection and emphasis. And giggling, lots of giggling – Owen prefers comics. The other day, I asked him to choose a book to bring to physical therapy in case he got bored while I was getting treatment. As he ran off to grab his favorite Garfield, he paused, looked up at me, and asked "Mom? Am I a reader?" I was so happy to be able to say to him with a big smile, "Yep!"

Slowly, slowly – it seems like everything has been moving at a snail's pace. And yet here we are in sunny April, walking and reading and growing. It feels incremental and at the same time all at once.

When You Need A Little Pick-Me-Up...

Chocolate crinkle cookies.



You have not lived until you've tried them.

Our Latest Addition

Oh, made you look!
No, we haven't taken on any new children, or pets or anything like that... but check out this little beauty:



See that tiny round ball in the middle of all the foliage? That's a watermelon, growing in our front yard.
But it's not just any watermelon; it's a seed from one of the best heirloom-variety watermelons you ever tasted, and I've been saving the seed since 2007, waiting for conditions to be just right. This year, for the first time, we finally had three important things coincide: a table in the sunlight during spring, good, deep soil in the sunniest, best-drained spot in the yard, and the time to attend to both the baby seedling and the growing plant.
Also, thanks to our hot summer so far, it's growing like crazy. I'll keep you posted as to our new arrival's progress, and I hope that you are enjoying the summer too.
(I'm back by the way... probably going to be slow on posting for a while, but back nonetheless. Did you miss me?)

Scones, The World's Best Baked Good

We've been eating lots of them lately, because they are yummy and, depending how they're made, good for you too.

If you want to try some scones, may I recommend that you scamper on over to my latest Food and Family column in Parents and Kids?

Let me know if you make some, and how they turned out!

Food and Family

I write a column for Parents and Kids, called Food and Family, and I thought that I'd share a few of the more recent columns with recipes for you to try:

First, one about veggie burgers, which I used to dislike intensely but then came up with a recipe that hubby and I love.

And second, a roast chicken recipe that turns into two other yummy meals using the leftovers.

Hope you enjoy them!

When Life Gives You Apples...

... make apple cake!

For the past three or four autumns, we've collected at least two, sometimes three bushels of apples to store for winter. Our favorite storage apples include Crispins and Fujis; we love supporting the orchards right around us and enjoying the sweet, crisp deliciousness of these apples until right about now, when we need to return to supermarket fruit because we have eaten the very last one.

But this year has been a different story. We picked our three bushels as usual - and then we got six weeks of unexpected higher-than-normal temperatures, during which the apples wrinkled and softened. We gave up trying to eat them back in December, and since then have made two important discoveries:

1) They are not going bad.

2) They are great in apple cake.

Ever since, this treat has become kind of a staple around here. It is great to have on hand, it freezes well, and it makes a nice treat to bring to a party or to a friend's house, or just have for dessert.

So, here is the recipe in case you want to try it, too.

Fresh Apple Cake

2 cups sugar

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup applesauce

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups flour

3 cups diced apples (about 4 whole apples)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

Powdered sugar (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350; grease a bundt or tube pan.

2) Cream sugar, butter, and applesauce in a mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, in order, mixing after each addition. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

3)Bake 60-65 minutes at 350; cake is done when a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Invert onto wire rack and cool completely. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Soooo good!

Did Someone Say Cookies?

I know, I know... we've barely finished the pumpkin pie, and here I am in the mood for cookies!

I wasn't, until this article that I wrote over at Parents and Kids came out today; as soon as I got to the recipes, my mouth started watering. You can try out my sister-in-law's gingerbread cookies, which are soft and scrumptious, plus you've got your choice of vanilla or chocolate no-chill sugar cookies.

More than anything else, this article has inspired me to start packing up the Halloween decorations - anyone else still have bats hanging from the chandelier? come on, I can't be the only one - and get into the holiday spirit.

Cookies just have a way, don't they?

Recipe for Writing

I've written before about Luke's reluctance to write. It's much better, I think because when something is important to him, like a wish list or a letter to somebody in the Harry Potter universe, he can put aside all the anxieties that the act of writing brings up. Or, maybe what he's really doing is forgetting about them, because the task at hand doesn't really feel like a 'task.'

That's how it was recently when he got the bright idea of making his Grandma's famous cottage cheese pancakes here at our house; if he wanted them here, he had to copy down the recipe:

I love it when we make these here, partly because they are really, really good. Like, addicting-type good. Also, I love following directions written in Luke's writing. It looks so optimistic and hopeful, I don't know why; maybe because he's overcoming something hard to do, and gets such satisfaction from the delicious result.

Also, these pancakes, which you will notice require an insane amount of eggs, are also special to Luke because the eggs come from our chickens, which he cares for and loves. He worries about them in thunderstorms, it's that kind of love.

Here is the recipe, in case you can't get it from the picture:

1) Combine: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 4 tsp sugar.

2)In a separate bowl, whisk together: 8 eggs, 2 cups cottage cheese (we've used ricotta with good results, but not quite the same), 1 cup milk, 4 Tbsp oil. I know these ingredients seem like they are not in proportion, but it will work. I promise. Plus, think of all the protein you'll be getting!

In Luke's cryptic recipe: "Add 1 to 2 Whisk till blended." Then, cook as you would any pancakes - but I would add, make sure you use a non-stick surface because these stick like crazy! Until we got a non-stick pan a few weeks ago, I was using nearly a whole stick of butter to get these out of the pan reasonably whole. I am glad that we're not doing that anymore.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Peanut Butter

Have you ever noticed the tiny threads that tie your life together? The little things that weave into wholecloth, like when your five year-old does or says something and you just know his Grandpa did or said exactly the same thing when he was five? The constants that cut across time and space, and sometimes give you deja vu?

Well today, I am making the case that peanut butter is one of those things.

Consider: peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. Just-picked apples spread with peanut butter. Peanut butter and cinnamon sugar toast. Reese's peanut butter cups... which, by the way, make outstanding s'mores. See how peanut butter is part of the very fabric of life? (At this point, I hope you are not allergic to peanuts!)

As the weather turns, I get more and more in the mood for comfort food, which usually means beef stew, minestrone, and good bread. But recently, the only comfort food I crave leads back to that peanut butter thread. I've been making Pad Thai, and oh! it is good.

Now, I have no idea what Pad Thai made by the Thai people would taste like, but my version has all the right tastes - noodles, veggies, eggs, soy and fish sauce, and of course, peanut butter. I'd like to share the recipe with you, because I thought that maybe you could use some comfort food in your day.

The recipe adapts easily to use what I have on hand, and if you need to change up the veggies or seasonings based on what you have on hand, then go ahead and do it. Oh, and if anybody actually knows what Pad Thai tastes like, if you would make this and then report back as to how close it actually is, I would really appreciate it.

Pad Thai for Four

Mix together the following in a small bowl:

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp ketchup

1 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1/2-cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth, or somewhere in between. It doesn't matter.

Set the sauce aside.

Next:

Slice a large onion into thin strips, and chop the strips into 1-inch or so pieces.

Shred one large carrot.

Finely slice half a head of cabbage - our favorite is Chinese cabbage, but really any kind will do.

Whisk four eggs well.

Bring water for not-quite-one-pound of fettuccine or spaghetti to boil (or, cook the whole pound and set aside some plain noodles for non-daring children).

So now, the stage is set.

In a large pan, heat 1-2 Tbsp oil over med-high heat. When the oil ripples, add the onion and cook 5 minutes or so, until it is tender, adjusting the heat as necessary to cook the onions without burning them.

Add pasta to boiling water; cook until they're done and drain in the sink (your goal: to have the pasta finish at the same time that the veggies and eggs are finished).

Add the carrots and cabbage to the onions, and cook until the cabbage is wilted and to your liking.

Here is my favorite part of this whole recipe: when the veggies are done, push them to the sides of the pan, add the eggs into the middle, and scramble them. You'll inevitably end up with some of the veggies in the eggs, and some of the eggs in the veggies, and it's just so delicious.

If the pasta needs more time, just take the veggies off the heat. Then, when the pasta has drained, add it into the veggies, back over low heat. Pour on the sauce, and toss until everything is thoroughly mixed. Serve hot - this makes great leftovers, if you happen to have any.

Happy cooking! Think of how many threads you weave together as you make this, or whatever favorite comfort food you love. I really believe that this is how generations, families, and friends tie their lives together.

Soul Restoration, Part Two

Lately, my soul has been feeling kind of scraped up, as if it has taken a few punches. I think it started back in the spring, with the six weeks of rain; since then, every time the sky clouds over, I cringe and worry that it'll be December before we see the sun again.

And, I feel like I didn't get enough summer. I know that sounds whiny, but I find myself unwilling to put on socks, or dig out the winter clothes, or just give in already and let fall come. As if I could single-handedly keep fall at bay, through mental resistance. This is weird, too, because fall is usually my favorite season.

So, arguments with hubby have escalated, disputes with the kids end more often than not with me shouting as my eyes bug out of my head; everything seems a much bigger problem than it would, ordinarily.

And then, there's the food. We spent this summer in the grip of a huge tomato blight, and so many other locally grown favorites had trouble, too: the eggplant, the peppers, the strawberries, the cherry tomatoes, the tomatillos, the basil, the cilantro... and the list goes on.

So, that's been my underlying mindset - worrying, sadness, fear of what's happening to our corner of the world. My soul, the place inside me where joy and light live, has spent these last months with a shadow across it.

Until recently. I think it was right around my brother's wedding that I started feeling better. Also, each day brings rosier, more beautiful trees and weather that has cooled gradually; one week, I can still wear sandals, but I'd better find a sweatshirt. The next, we need another blanket on the bed. The next week, I actually want soup for dinner, with nice warm biscuits served alongside. It's like this gentle, lovely autumn is cosmically trying to make up for the recent abysmal spring.

And, because I am me, food plays a huge part in the restoration of my soul. Eggplant minestrone, our first soup of the fall, cheered me immensely, inside and out; here's the recipe, in case you want to try it.

When one of the hens started laying, that was a big strike against the shadow on my soul.

The egg from our girl is in the lower-left corner; in the House of Worrying, I fretted that the hens weren't getting enough time outside the coop, semi-free-ranging in their chicken tractor, but I don't worry about that now. The egg, alongside those we get from a local farm, is such a happy, bright orange color that it is clear it came from a happy, bright chicken. The shadow recedes a little more!

And, my friend Shannon loaned me the best book of bread-making ever, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I already loved baking bread, but this book makes it even more fun. My banner is the result of experimenting, with the book as a guide: Brioche au Chocolat, as good as you will ever get in a pastry shop (I know, tooting my own horn... it is THAT good.)

Candles help, too. What is it about candle flame that cheers me all the way through?

I think the shadow finally got gone this weekend, spent apple picking and corn-mazing with friends and relatives. Here are the boys and their cousins at a nearby farm, hamming it up for the camera:

So now, it is with a thankful heart and a restored soul that I look forward to autumn and winter, warmth and love... I hope you're having similar good thoughts and a nice fall, too.

Harvest Time

I've hardly blogged about all the food we've put up for winter, except to lament that there aren't more hours in a day, so I thought I'd share (read: brag) about a few favorite little goodies that we'll be cracking open come January or so.

From summer 09

First up, we've got the quadruple-batch peach salsa. I spent one lovely August day chopping peaches, onions, and peppers into tiny pieces, which took a really long time. But I was left with eleven lovely, lovely pint jars of peach salsa:

From summer 09

Nearly one a month until the peaches come around again! Also, although you probably cannot see it, the jar on the left in front reads 'Canadian Mason' - it's one of a few pint jars I have that my Mom used to use for her canning. When I was a kid, that jar probably held canned cherries, one of the best desserts ever invented. I just love using the same jars that my Mom used, I don't know why. Maybe because it gives me a sense of history, of preparing for winter in the same way that my mother, and hers before, did. I know, what kind of weirdo gets all mushy over a glass jar? ... But I still do.

I think I am kind of weird for the souvenirs I choose as well. Most people going through wine country, as my family and I did this past weekend, might get a bottle of wine, right? Or, perhaps, a t-shirt from Niagara Falls? Nope, not me.

From fall 2009

I got grapes! Ben and I actually came this close to an argument, because I insisted on stopping for grapes and, as we were barely into a ten-hour drive, hubby thought that our time could be used more wisely. Y'know, like to drive the heck home? But fortunately, we found a farm stand at a rest area, which ground the spousal sniping to a standstill. And, I got to make real, yummy, amazing grape jelly:

From fall 2009

It is so darned good. Also, I found that grape juice that is prepared to become grape jelly (as in, the mashed grapes are mixed with a small amount of water, simmered for ten minutes, then put into cheesecloth and hung up over a pot to drain) makes excellent grape juice concentrate. I mixed the half-cup or so that I had left over with some sugar and about three cups of water, and it was all gone by dinnertime. The kids love drinking juice from 'wine grapes,' and eating the few leftover grapes was the icing on their cake.

August and Blogging Don't Mix

To do:

Friday - Make giant batch of granola and then eat some for breakfast. Go with relatives and friends to best blueberry place ever, hands down. Pick 3 pounds blueberries. Swim with kiddos in pool. Finish drying 1/2-bushel of peaches purchased earlier in week. Stay up way too late, unable to put down Harry Potter #4 (third reading in as many years).

Saturday - Return to blueberry field and pick another 7 pounds berries. At favorite farm stand, put in order for another 1/2-bushel of peaches; while there, ask about 1/2-bushel of tomato seconds. Take home said 1/2-bushel of tomatoes. Cook down into tomato sauce. Swim with kiddos and hubby. After kiddos are in bed, can tomato sauce, interspersed with reading HP#5. Stay up way to late again reading HP#5. Swear that tomorrow night will be different.

Sunday - Wash large load of laundry and hang on line. Pick up peaches ordered yesterday. While there, notice a lonely-looking 1/2-bushel of tomato seconds; take home. Take laundry off line and put away. Prepare for and host afternoon pool party. Drink beer and eat cheez doodles and Adele's awesome blueberry pie. Swim, talk, laugh. Make sauce while hubby puts kiddos to bed and then slices peaches for the dehydrator - thanks hubby!. Make yummy fruit roll-ups for dehydrator. Stay up way too late reading HP#5.

Monday - Wash first load of laundry hang out to dry. Continue cooking down last night's sauce and prepare canner and jars for processing. Teach yoga class. Take down first load of laundry and hang second load on line. Can tomato sauce. Swim with kiddos. Get some dinner on the table. Take down second load of laundry and put into dryer, because clothes are not dry due to excessive mugginess. Forget about them until tomorrow. Read HP#5 well into night. At 1AM, smack forehead and SWEAR that tomorrow night will be different.

Tuesday - wash and hang laundry. Make giant batch of waffles with Owen. Grow crystal experiment with Owen. Read The Indian in the Cupboard with Owen. Notice that Owen is attached to right hip today. Swim with kiddos. Take down first load of laundry and put up second to dry. Swim with kiddos and hubby. Make dinner - Spaghetti Bolognese made with extra tomato sauce, love the leftovers! While hubby cleans up from dinner and takes care of chickens, slice peaches for the dehydrator. Read more Indian in the Cupboard to Owen before bed. Make more yummy fruit roll-up for dehydrator, this time in a pleasing peach-and-blueberry stripe. Write blog post. Finish HP#5? (Probably... will most likely stay up way too late :-)

Good Eats, Cheap!

Anyone else out there experiencing a certain lightness in the pocketbook? For Parents and Kids this month, my Food and Family column addresses eating well, without spending the big bucks.

Do you have any tips for eating well on a budget? If so, please share!