pickles!

ever since cucumbers came into season here we have not been without a jar of pickles in the fridge. they are the perfect snack and perfect compliment to a summer meal. the kids love them and they are just beautiful to me, the jar all packed with summer goodness.

when i was growing up, we always had dill pickles throughout the summer too. my dad made (and still makes) counter pickles. after 3 days or so on the counter they were ready. D and i always tried to replicate them with spotty results. they were always too something... too salty, too vinagary, too plain.

but this year i found this amazing pickle recipe that is so reliable and so delicious, i think i have found MY recipe. the one my kids will (hopefully!) ask for when they are older.

the recipe is from our csa's website and it it a MUST DO if you don't already have a trusty dill pickle recipe. i think the recipe assumes that you will use a very large jar, but i just kind of tailor it to whatever size jar i'm using. it's pretty flexible.

here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 lb med. pickling cukes
• 5 c water
• 1 1⁄4 c white or cider vinegar
• 1 c sugar
• 1⁄4 c salt
• 2 dill flower heads
• 3 garlic cloves

Instructions

Bring to a boil water, vinegar, sugar, salt. Let cool. Place the rest of the ingredients in a sterilized jar and pour cooled liquid over them. Put in refrigerator and eat within 1-2 days or 1-2 weeks.

vacation & birthday week

i want to have a blog. i want to update this thing regularly. but time is just ticking and life is so full this summer. it is lovely, but it is leaving me with little time or energy to record the events. i vow to be better!

the last few weeks have been busy with getting ready for henny's birthday and our week long family vacation on martha's vineyard, then with living our actual vacation and henny's big day and finally with adjusting back to our life on the mainland. it was all so good.

we headed for the vineyard at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am. the only ferry that we could book was so early. everyone was in good spirits, though. it's hard to not be when you are driving toward such excitement.

we arrived on the island and drove off of the ferry at 7am. after a nice breakfast out, we headed straight to the beach. the beach that would become our beach, where we would visit at least once each day.
our vacation was one long week of a lot of simple pleasures.

there was a lot of this:
and this:
and this:
bee's greatest memory of the week, the thing that she tells everyone when they ask about her trip, was that we saw jellyfish. we went to a big beach with scary waves, and a jellyfish warning! it made quite an impression on bee to see the beautiful and dangerous jellyfish bobbing in the water, and to see the lifeguards treating people who had been stung!

we ate good food, and were bad vegetarians. this was my favorite meal. clams on the half shell, steamers, garlic bread with local tomatoes & cheese and tossed salad.

we rode our bikes almost everywhere. i think we only drove the car 3 times, only out of necessity. it was so nice and just a change of pace from our usual country commutes. the kids loved it too. henny would beg to "ride-a-bike!"

during the week, henny turned 2! he sang every note of "happy birthday" to himself, along with us. and then he sang and sang to himself all day long. he enjoyed the cake that we made him, the exact cake that he asked for. henny wanted a "cindy gail cake". cindy and gail are the lovely women that watch hen while i exercise at the y. they were born for their job, and henny just loves them. when we asked him (again and again!) what kind of cake he would like, he always said, "cindy gail cake". it was pretty hilarious and who could deny such a cute wish!

this trip was definitely one that we will all always remember. it may even be the first family vacation that henny remembers.

good memories. good food. good weather. good company. i love it.

angel food: a success

with pick-your-own season in full swing here, it has been berries, berries, berries for weeks! we have frozen strawberries, made strawberry jam and had plenty of strawberry shortcake. and now we are at the tail end of strawberries with blueberries, raspberries and cherries all available too. what a great time to eat around here!

last weekend, with what will probably be the last flat of strawberries on the counter, i made my first angel food cake. this was something that i had been dreaming of for months. my dream started to become a reality when i found an angel food pan at a tag sale for $1 a month ago. 

as i was researching recipes i was a little worried about the fact that all the recipes called for "very fine" sugar and cake flour. i don't like to buy highly processed sugar and i wasn't sure that our natural sugar would be fine enough. one quick email to fabulously accessible celebrity alexis stewart, who assured me that whole foods sugar would be fine, and i was off.

the next minor stumbling block was the cake flour. i found that they don't sell it at whole foods. i was told that is probably because it is processed with some kind of chemical. the woman at the bakery told me that all-purpose would be fine. 

making the cake was like a cool science experiment and ended up being so delicious. and now that we are getting egg delivery and always seem to have eggs to spare, this cake should be making a reappearance soon.

and now, what to do with the 6.5 lbs. of cherries that we picked yesterday??!

...... and the livin's easy.....

oh, do i have a blog? am i supposed to be preserving my family's history here? oops....

life is just rolling by these days. there is so much good going on. my life feels so very full. we are starting to adjust to our new summer schedule. it's a switch to have to do so much of the planning and creating to make our days special. but it's going pretty well and getting more comfortable every day.

bee wrapped up her school year last week. her school had a lovely awards ceremony for the graduates and the kids who will return for another year (like bee). bee has been feeling emotional about school ending and especially the fact that some of her friends will be moving on. it's been a bit of work to sort out these feelings and to try to help make it feel a little better.

i took this picture of bee on the morning of the last day of school:

and coincadentally, bee wore the same exact outfit to school as she did on the first day of the year. so here, just for comparison, is bee on the first day of school, last fall:

the dress sure got a lot shorter! bee wore shorts under it last week, a little too much booty peeking!

as the summer has been blossoming before our eyes, bee's drawing skills have also bloomed. 

annie, daddy warbucks, sandy and grace:

almost overnight she just draws and draws and draws. she has always leaned more toward the arts and crafts, but lately she is almost obsessive about drawing. morning, noon and into the night (well after we tuck her in tuck her in and kiss her good night), she draws. i gave her a set of these ed emberley drawing books that i had as a kid. she is off and running with them, following every step. she also seems to be just teaching herself along the way.

annie, daddy warbucks and grace again:

i even found a drawing laying around here showing bee's other latest skill:

this past weekend bee tried out riding her bike with no training wheels. she is doing wonderfully. she still needs some more practice, but she is doing it! she is only up to short bursts, with us (usually D) trailing right behind. but, soon enough, she will be off!

also exciting........our garden, the farm and our fertile valley in general, have all been so lush with produce. much more of my time has been spent cooking, preparing, canning, freezing and tending our food. it is such a good feeling.

it's dinners like this that make me love summer:
dinner for one: fresh (all local!) salsa & lettuce mix with strawberries, goat cheese and balsamic (all local too!). 

all this and i didn't even mention homemade yogurt, our upcoming island getaway (with the obama's!), fresh pickles, our construction project (!!), bee's new art table and strawberry jam!

and although this post doesn't reflect it, henny has been flourishing just as much as bee lately. he is a wild yet tender, full-sentence speaking little boy who seems to be in love with life (on his terms!). 

more to come.....

WIP: sweater blanket

inspired by the book sewing green, which i got from the library (i love you, inter-library loan!), i started a new project this week. i started by buying a bunch of wool and cashmere sweaters at salvation army. i felted them in a hot wash and dry and started cutting them up.

bee helped me with laying out the pieces so we could get a sense of what it would be like and if i had enough sweaters.
next i started squaring them off and assembling them like a frustrating little puzzle. 

then i put the whole thing away by rolling it up, in an attempt to pace myself so that i do a careful job and actually enjoy it. i can't wait to roll it out this weekend and start to sew the pieces together. i'm using an old sheet for the back and it should be a nice size for a lap blanket or and extra blanket for bee or henny's beds.

consolation

tonight bee came up to me and started peeking under my shirt as she rattled on about one thing or another. this new habit of her looking under my shirt is something that i am trying to be cool with, despite my natural awkwardness. i still have a lot of issues about my body and how it is changed now forever, after having two babies. i feel ok about it in my own head but when i think of how i look to the general population, i am horrified. i can look at the changes and see them as beautiful in their own way, i am just not convinced that anyone else will. and that is where my issues are, i guess.

anyhow, back to tonight. 

bee was chatting away and looking at my side, where the worst of the worst of my stretch marks reside. suddenly she stopped talking and announced, "this mark looks like an 'm', see."

yes, an "m". bee's first initial. of course that is the connection that bee made. she knows that she made the mark and of course it only makes sense that her initial is there. 

i know that in bee's eyes that is just the kind of magic that is so believable to a kid. i want to believe in that magic. it helps to make this body more livable, more lovable. i want to save this thought to share with bee someday. to thank her for helping me through my issues.

super-mega recap

life has been pretty good around here. so good that i guess i haven't felt like documenting it. we are fully living in the season, this time of late spring with a hint of summer. there has been so much good. so much good eating, planting and living. it's just the way i like it. 

during these lovely weeks i have thought of many posts, but just never felt the drive at the end of the day to follow through. here is an abbreviated version of some of the goodness.

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i have reunited with my love of the asian food market. i have always loved these sort of markets, ever since college when i lived near an amazing japanese market. i love getting all of those weird things that you could never find anywhere else. and the things that you can find at the grocery store are about a third of the price at the asian market. i had stopped finding time to get there after henny was born, it was just too much to add that extra errand to the list.

how happy i am to have returned and to have my kitchen filled with nori, miso, pocky, soba, kim chi and seaweed snacks!

two great meals since the return of the asian market....

make your own sushi night.

this was a hit for the whole family. i made up some sushi rice earlier in the day and then just put all the fixings out on the table. we all enjoyed making our own rolls, either nice cut rolls of just sloppy handrolls. it all tasted great and was so much fun. this will definitely become a go-to meal for the summer.

secondly, is spring rolls....
i made these spring rolls for dinner one night. we loved them so much that we made the above platter for a party. the spring rolls are totally easy, if a little time consuming. you can put whatever in them. the first time i made some with fresh raw veggies and some with rice and tofu. the rice and tofu ones were a little too plain and mushy. raw veggies are the way to go. 

the wrappers (seen in the next picture down, for reference) need to be softened in water for about 3 minutes. you then wrap them like a burrito. for these i used shredded carrot, julienned cucumber, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, shreds of green garlic, shreds of nori, slices of avocado and a handful of fresh (local!) greens. 

we made a dipping sauce with miso, peanut butter and soy sauce. it's kind of a trial and error type sauce. keep tasting until it's right. 

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one thing that has become clear in the last few week is that the kids are thriving in this weather and the new lifestyle that comes with it. they seem happier, with all of the outside play, playground visits daily and less clothes. henny seems so much older with all of the new things that he can do. bee does too. she has been testing out a bit of freedom with going outside by herself to check on the garden, so a little chore or even to swing for a minute alone. it's all so nice. even the inside time seems nicer somehow, knowing that it isn't our only option.

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and finally, the garden is growing and full of so much promise and hope. i don't have too many pictures of the garden as it looks today because it's been rainy, but it's all the way planted and just left to grow. we lost a few cucumbers and maybe a few basil plants in a late frost last week. but other than that, things are looking good. we have spinach (one planting almost ready and one just a bit behind), green onions, tons of edamame, peas, zucchini, carrots, romanesco, brussel sprouts and a bunch of kinds of tomatoes. we even sprung for the good cages this year! i figure that they will be a family heirloom. 

more pictures of the garden to come. and more early summer goodness to come!

phew.....