Another Roadside Attraction

2011-10-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Looky here. Jeanne is making jewelry. I think these three would look nice all stacked together up an arm.

(On a side note, how much do I love the word chartreuse? Very much.)

2011-10-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

You know your kids are going to grow up faster than you can imagine.

Everyone tells you.

You believe it.

But one day you look at a picture and it takes you by surprise nonetheless.

2011-09-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

When I first read John Holt's writing, I felt an incredible urge to meet him, to talk to him, to invite him over for dinner. I was so sad to learn that he had died before I'd ever heard his name. His writing inspires me not only due to its subject matter, but because it gives such a clear picture of a kind and good and honest man.

Today, on the 26th anniversary of his death, some friends collected quotes from his books. I've added a few of my own favorites as well.

Warning: Those of you I love who disagree with me about school and learning will find much to disagree with here. I won't be at all insulted if you choose to skip this post or if you want to tell me all the things you think are crazy about it. Although that's probably not necessary, as I think I have a pretty good idea :o). Thank you for loving me even though you think I'm nuts.

"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how."

"I would insist that much of the seemingly irrational and excessive anger of little children---'tantrums'---is in fact not only caused by things that happen to them or that are said and done to them, but that these things would make us angry if they happened or were said and done to us."

"A man can not say Yes to something with all his heart unless he has an equal right to say No."

"'Allowed to experience childhood.' At one level these words are true, but hardly worth saying. At any age, we experience being that age. Clearly the users of such words mean something else. Being allowed to experience childhood means being allowed to do some things and being spared having to do others - or forbidden. It means that adults will decide, without often or ever asking children what they think, that some experiences are good for children while others are not. It means for a child that adults are all the time deciding what is best for you and then letting or making you do it. But instead of trying to make sure that all children get only those experiences we think are good for them I would rather make available to children, as to everyone else, the widest possible range of experiences (except those that hurt others) and let them choose those they like best."

"I would be against trying to cram knowledge into the heads of children even if we could agree on what knowledge to cram and could be sure that it would not go out of date, even if we could be sure that, once crammed in, it would stay in. Even then, I would trust the child to direct his own learning. For it seems to me a fact that, in our struggle to make sense out of life, the things we most need to learn are the things we most want to learn."

"Living is learning and when kids are living fully and energetically and happily they are learning a lot, even if we don't always know what it is."

"We can think of ourselves not as teachers but as gardeners. A gardener does not 'grow' flowers; he tries to give them what he thinks they need and they grow by themselves."

"We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty rewards - in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else."

"No use to shout at them to pay attention. If the situations, the materials, the problems before the child do not interest him, his attention will slip off to what does interest him, and no amount of exhortation or threats will bring it back."

"To parents I say, above all else, don't let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. No lesson plans! No quizzes! No tests! No report cards! Even leaving your kids alone would be better; at least they could figure out some things on their own. Live together as well as you can; enjoy life together as much as you can."

"Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned."

"Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of things around them. If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process, the independent scientist in the child disappears."

"There is no difference between living and learning."

"Education now seems to me perhaps the most authoritarian and dangerous of all the social inventions of mankind. It is the deepest foundation of the modern slave state, in which most people feel themselves to be nothing but producers, consumers, spectators, and fans, driven more and more, in all parts of their lives, by greed, envy, and fear. My concern is not to improve 'education' but to do away with it, to end the ugly and antihuman business of people-shaping and to allow and help people to shape themselves."

"The anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know."

"The idea of painless, non-threatening coercion is an illusion. Fear is the inseparable companion of coercion and its inescapable consequence."

"Children, without being coerced or manipulated or being put in exotic, specially prepared environments or having their thinking planned and ordered for them, can, will and do pick up from the world around them important information about what we call the Basics. 'Ordinary' people, without special schooling themselves, can give their children whatever slight assistance may be needed to help them in their exploration of the world, and to do this requires no more than a little tact, patience, attention and readily available information."

"It is hard not to feel that there must be something very wrong with much of what we do in school, if we feel the need to worry so much about what many people call 'motivation'. A child has no stronger desire than to make sense of the world, to move freely in it, to do the things that he sees bigger people doing."

"Schools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good at it, that they will not learn unless made to, that they cannot learn unless shown how, and that the way to make them learn is to divide up the prescribed material into a sequence of tiny tasks to be mastered one at a time, each with its appropriate 'morsel' and 'shock'. And when this method doesn't work, the schools assume there is something wrong with the children - something they must try to diagnose and treat."

"What is most important and valuable about the home as base for children's growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools, but that it isn't a school at all."

"We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions -- if they have any -- and helping them explore the things they are most interested in."

"If I had to make a general rule for living and working with children, it might be this: be wary of saying or doing anything to a child that you would not do to another adult, whose good opinion and affection you valued."

"Why do people take or keep their children out of school? Mostly for three reasons: they think that raising their children is their business not the government's; they enjoy being with their children and watching and helping them learn and don't want to give that up to others; they want to keep them from being hurt, mentally, physically, and spiritually."

"To trust children, we must first learn to trust ourselves...and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted."

"The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of active learners."

"It's not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the word go. It's a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life."

"Next to the right to life itself, the most fundamental of all human rights is the right to control our own minds and thoughts. That means, the right to decide for ourselves how we will explore the world around us, think about our own and other persons' experiences, and find and make the meaning of our own lives. Whoever takes that right away from us, as the educators do, attacks the very center of our being and does us a most profound and lasting injury. He tells us, in effect, that we cannot be trusted even to think, that for all our lives we must depend on others to tell us the meaning of our world and our lives, and that any meaning we may make for ourselves, out of our own experience, has no value."

"When a child is doing something she's passionately interested in, she grows like a tree --- in all directions. This is how children learn, how children grow. They send down a taproot like a tree in dry soil. The tree may be stunted, but it sends out these roots, and suddenly one of these little taproots goes down and strikes a source of water. And the whole tree grows."

"It is as true now as it was then that, no matter what tests show, very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives."

"We ask children to do for most of the day what few adults are able to do for even an hour. How many of us, attending, say, a lecture that doesn't interest us, can keep our minds from wandering? Hardly any."

"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him."

"I think children need much more than they have of opportunities to come into contact with adults who are seriously doing their adult thing, not just hanging around entertaining or instructing or being nice to children. They also need much more than they have of opportunities to get away from adults altogether and live their lives free from other people's anxious attention."

"I can't help noting that no cultures in the world that I have ever heard of make such a fuss about bedtimes, and no cultures have so many adults who find it so hard either to go to sleep or wake up. Could these social facts be connected? I strongly suspect they are."

"What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent - in the broadest and best sense, intelligent - is not having access to more and more learning places, resources, and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgement, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of people around them."

"What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them, and advice, road maps, guidebooks to make it easier for them to get where they want to go (not where we think they ought to go) and to find out what they want to find out."

"A child wants to do and does what advances him into the world, what enables him to grow out into it, to encompass in his own experience and understanding more of the world outside him, the world of geography and the world of human experience."

"Every child, without exception, has an innate and unquenchable drive to understand the world in which he lives and to gain freedom and competence in it. Whatever truly adds to his understanding, his capacity for growth and pleasure, his powers, his sense of his own freedom, dignity, and worth may be said to be true education."

"About reading, children learn something much more difficult than reading without instruction - namely, to speak and understand their native language. I do not think they would or could learn it if they were instructed. I think reading instruction is the enemy of reading."

"Teaching does not make learning...organized education operates on the assumption that children learn only when and only what and only because we teach them. This is not true. It is very close to being 100% false. Learners make learning."

"We who believe that children want to learn about the world, are good at it, and can be trusted to do it with very little adult coercion or interference, are probably no more than one percent of the population, if that. And we are not likely to become the majority in my lifetime. This doesn't trouble me much anymore, as long as this minority keeps on growing. My work is to help it grow."

2011-07-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

There's a new humble bundle. Pay what you want, play fun games.

2011-07-20T08:12:00.001-07:00

I think maybe Jon needs to start a blog. He has a lot of opinions about how often I should post, and what I should post about. He's really very bossy.

Today he would like to see a picture of the onions and garlic I harvested the other day.

He can walk into the craft room and look at them himself. He can pick them up, smell them, peel them, cut them, and eat them. But I guess it's not real until there's been a picture on my blog.

2011-06-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

2011-06-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

The vinegar is ready.

Just in time.

2011-06-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

2011-06-07T17:00:00.001-07:00

Since we have a profusion of chives, I'm giving chive blossom vinegar a try.

It's supposed to be delicious on salad - oniony but not overwhelming. I learned the other day that if you pop a chive blossom in your mouth it is both oniony and overwhelming.

2011-06-07T16:50:00.001-07:00

It's been a while, but I finally listed another nursing necklace in my shop.

Of all my jewelry, these necklaces are my favorite to make. Pretty beads, bending wire, and happy thoughts of mamas and babies. It feels like time well spent.

2011-06-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

You'll be relieved to hear, a nice man came and fixed my oven today.

2011-06-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

I had the best surprise today! I went to check on the new strawberries Dagny and I planted this year. They look great, but more exciting was what I found on the tri-stars we planted in Spring 2010.

These are the same plants that produced til November last year. If this year's similar, we'll enjoy five full months of strawberries! What could be better than that?

Ok, ya, maybe that.

2011-06-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

My oven is broken. Do you know what this means? No granola bars. No roasted asparagus. No challah. No brownies. This is no way to live, people. If you have a functioning oven, waste no time. Carpe brownies.

Brownies

4 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, beat eggs, then add vanilla.
In another small bowl, combine flour and salt.
Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan.
Turn off heat.
Add sugar to saucepan and stir til dissolved.
Temper egg mixture with a bit of the chocolate/sugar, then add to saucepan and stir thoroughly.
Add flour/salt to saucepan and stir til combined.

Bake in a 9" x 9" pan for 30 minutes.

2011-05-30T13:24:00.001-07:00

In our family we credit good genetics for all sorts of things. For the affection for grammar, the appreciation for well-cut clothing, the love of notebooks, and the ability to spot a quality antique we thank the MacMahon side of the family. GrammaDonna's genes shone through when Dagny hit an estate sale this weekend. Knowing I had my eye out for a two-level nightstand, she was excited to find a set of two mahogany Henredon tables. Ever the bargain hunter, she waited til the end of the day and got them for half price - $25 for the pair.

There's a little ribbon in one of the drawers with a name on it - Collette Griffin. The previous owner of my tables? Did her mom or grandmother pass on an eye for finishes and hardware and construction? A desire to open things up and see how the drawer slides? To research makers and production dates? Maybe not. Luckily Dagny's Gramma did, so I get to adopt this little bit of Collette's history, and have just the spot to tuck my book at night.

2011-05-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

That honey is SO GOOD. It's making me even more excited to taste some of the other things from our yard. So far this year we've harvested maple syrup, honey, and chives.

We have quite a lot to look forward to. Soon there will be strawberries from the hundreds of crowns Dagny and I planted this Spring and last.

Loads of garlic, of course.

And blueberries, assuming the critters will share. My plan of attack was to plant so many bushes there's no way the humans, birds, and animals competing for the berries could ever eat them all. Time will tell whether I should have bettered my odds with a BB gun, as Jon suggests.

(Do you see the ant?)

Peaches, pears, plums, apples, almonds, kiwi, asparagus, rhubarb, onions, kale, lettuce, basil, thyme, rosemary, lavender, watermelon, eggplant, summer squash, zucchini, scallions, tomatoes, jalapenos - all growing in exchange for some dirty, heavy, grateful-making work.

2011-05-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

2011-05-06T11:04:00.001-07:00

It's Spring, which means there's rhubarb, which means you should do this:

Chop up some rhubarb and throw it in a pot. Add a bunch of halved strawberries, a tiny amount of water, and some sugar. Cook til it's a sauce. Taste and adjust sugar as needed.

Eat with a spoon (if you're Jon) or on toast (if you're me).

2011-05-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

The garlic I planted last fall is growing beautifully.

Not too long now til we'll be snipping snapes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Also growing beautifully are the ajuga. These grew in my parents' back yard, and when they moved a few were transplanted here. For me, a yard is not a yard without their springtime splash of purple.

Speaking of splashes - oceans, really - of purple, the violets continue to expand their territory.

This bee seemed to be taking as much enjoyment from them as I was. With each landing, her weight pulled the flower head down to the ground. Then she'd catapult off to the next blossom. I imagined her calling, "Wheeee!"

2011-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Jon and I got a surprise Sunday morning.

This basket was put together by some thoughtful bunnies, let me tell you. Every bit of it - from the handcrafted basket itself to the homemade chocolate chip cookies (nice and big), the handmade booties (and handmade buttons), the favorite candy (which successfully distracted me from other people's candy), the scrubby (purple!) and the Petunia seeds (which I think I'll scatter in a bunch of places around the yard, so everywhere I look I can see Petunia) - is full of care and thought and love, just like the people who made it.

2011-04-19T11:38:00.001-07:00

There's a new Humble Bundle available. Pay what you want, play fun games.

2011-01-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

Today I got a pot of beans started on the stove and reached into the drawer for a head of garlic. What did I find? Four heads. Just four heads of garlic left from my first garlic harvest. I knew the supply was dwindling, but I had on some level allowed myself to imagine a little magic going on in my kitchen - a drawer that never emptied, home-grown garlic always at hand.

Luckily there's another kind of magic happening out in my yard. Ordered in September, planted in October:

8 oz German Red Garlic
1 lb Music Garlic
8 oz Premium Northern White Garlic
8 oz Purple Glazer Garlic

Although it's double what I planted last year, and enough to keep the vampires away for sure, I'm making a mental note on this snowy January day that there'd be no harm in planting a little extra this fall.

2011-01-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed Victorian Farm, so I was excited to find that Edwardian Farm is also on YouTube. I find the narrator's voice grating, but I quite like Alex, Peter, and Ruth. I learned a ton watching the first series, and expect I will watching this one as well.

2011-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

2010-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here's my easiest, cheapest, everybody-likes-it-est recipe.

Grandma Carolyn's Vegetable Soup

1 bag of carrots (6 or 8 or 10 carrots, whatever you've got), peeled and chopped

1 large onion, peeled, halved, and sliced thin

1b can crushed tomatoes

8 oz tomato sauce

1/4 - 1/2 cup barley

6 vegetable bullion cubes

4 cups water

Throw it all in a pot and cook til the carrots are soft - about 40 minutes to an hour.

2010-12-01T18:19:00.000-08:00

Here there be monsters.

2010-11-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we visited Breakwater Beach, a bay-side beach in Brewster, right about where the Cape bends its elbow. Beautiful, right?

Beautiful, but much too cold for turtles. Rowan, Jon, and I joined the Dorseys on an (let's call it) invigorating walk. We were excited by the prospect of coming to the rescue of a chilly turtle, but glad in the end that there were none to be found. Hopefully they've made their way to warmer waters.

2010-11-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

"If you can control your family, you've gone terribly wrong somewhere."

~Louisa Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

2010-11-19T18:11:00.000-08:00

Cleverest witch of her age, indeed.

(Outfit designed and sewn by Rowan. Patterns are for Death Eaters.)

(Wand created by Jon.)

2010-11-19T14:32:00.001-08:00

This week Dagny turned 81.

Or 18, depending on who you ask.

Either way, we got to eat Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.

2010-11-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

2010-10-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

Do you think I am very lucky to have a piece of Laura Bowman's art in my house?

I do too.

2010-10-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, when we moved into a neighborhood of farmers, I didn't know when strawberry season was. My food all came from the grocery store, where regardless of cardboard cut-out holiday decorations, seasons don't exist. I had dreamed of growing things, imagined gardens and fruit trees, but I knew so little and was so disconnected from how food grows that I didn't have any idea what I didn't know.

For me, this has been the year of the garden. I've spent hours preparing soil and planting things, but many more hours reading. I'm learning and learning and most days feel I can't learn fast enough to suit myself. I pick up a tip here and a tidbit there, and realize that even some of the things I thought I had figured out - you pick strawberries in June, with the new summer sun on your back - aren't quite so simple.

For weeks now I have gone outside with my colander, expecting this to be the day it comes back empty. It hasn't happened yet. I go out in a sweater and a jacket and pluck strawberries with cold fingers. Bright red berries poke out from under fallen leaves, and I feel exhilaratingly off balance.

I can't wait to find out what else I don't know.

2010-07-13T13:20:00.001-07:00

Just for Anna, here's some of what's going on at our house:

The beehive got taller.

There are lots of bees in there, and the smell of beeswax is amazing.

The hydrangea are putting on quite a show.

I'm growing summer squash and zucchini for the first time.

The craft room smells like garlic.

Critters are eating all our strawberries.

And if this is what your 'weeds' look like, don't pull them - they're tall phlox.

2010-05-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter Bread

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups milk
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix peanut butter and sugar.
Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder.
Mix in half the milk and half the flour.
Add the rest of the milk and flour, and mix until smooth.

Bake in a well-greased bread pan 45 minutes - 1 hour.

2010-05-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

2010-05-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Pancake/Waffle Mix

7 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
8 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt

Whisk together and store in an airtight jar.

Pancakes:

2 cups of mix
2 eggs (can substitute applesauce - about 1/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir until just combined.

Waffles:

2 cups mix
2 eggs (can substitute applesauce - about 1/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir until just combined.

2010-05-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

2010-05-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

2010-05-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

2010-05-10T09:13:00.001-07:00

Jon found this. You can get a bunch of games, pay what you can/want to, and have whatever portion you want sent to a charity. I think it ends tomorrow, so check it out today if you're interested.

2010-05-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

Fran-Fran-Fran's Pizza Dough

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 1/4 cups warm water, divided
3 1/2 cups bread flour (or 4 cups all-purpose flour)

Mix yeast with sugar and 1/4 cup water.
Let rest 5 minutes.
Add the other cup of water, the salt, and the oil.
Add 1 1/2 cups flour and mix til smooth.
Add another 1 1/2 cups flour (2 if you're using all-purpose) a bit at a time.
Knead for 10 minutes, adding just enough of the remaining flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands.
Rub the ball of dough with a bit of oil.
Place dough in a bowl, cover with a tea towel, and set in a warm spot for 1 hour.

(I do this in my mixer using the bread hook, and knead for about 5 minutes.)

2010-04-30T06:14:00.001-07:00

I spend a good amount of time sitting on the steps outside our kitchen door. For most of the day, if the sun's out, it's a warm spot. I get a double whammy of heat from the sun as it shines on me from the sky above and radiates up from the steps below. I grab at least a few minutes a day out there in the spring, mostly just to convince myself that I'm not going to be cold forever.

So, there I was a few weeks ago, when I realized that in the tree directly in front me a bird was sitting on a nest. Considering how long I had been looking right at that spot and how often I sit and look right at that spot I had a few minutes of amazement at the fact that as here and now as I like to think I am, there must be lots of moments when I look and do not see.

That epiphany processed, I called everyone outside to see the bird.

We've all had time to feel like we've gotten to know her. She doesn't seem to mind us being around. Dagny and I have worked directly underneath her nest, our heads not much more than a foot away from her, cleaning out Dagny's garden. Rowan, Dagny, and I have watched as her partner shows up, sits on the branch next to her for a while, then hops quickly on the nest as she flies off.

The day before yesterday I noticed the male bird standing on the ground under the nest for a long time. It brought to mind cartoon dads who pace the waiting room smoking cigars while their babies are born. Sure enough, yesterday Dagny and Andrew noticed some extra feathers in the nest. There are two babies, one on each side of the mom. From the back it looks like a three-tailed bird is sitting up there.

Yesterday, on our way over to the new strawberry patch, Dagny and I stopped dead in our tracks. Dagny ran back inside for her camera while I leaned on the car and stared, barely blinking. By the time she got back the baby we had seen peeking out had ducked its head back under the mama's chest. We stood. We stared. We worried that the wind was going to blow them right out of their nest. And every once in a while, we'd see little eyes. We stood and stared some more, and suddenly there it was.

2010-04-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our house, Dagny was 7 and Rowan was 3. As I walked through the house the first day, I knew it was perfect for us at that time, but I also had an imaginary distant future in mind. A future in which our house could adapt to the kids' getting older and bigger and needing more space, with room for us all for as long as we each wanted to live here.

Now here we are. The distant future. The year 2000. (ok, if you don't know Flight of the Conchords you won't think that's funny. But I bet Rowan laughed.) And recently we've made some changes that I imagined that first day.

Rowan, whose perfect-for-a-three-year-old room was decidedly not perfect for a 13 year old, has moved into a much bigger room, freshly painted and equipped with a bed that belonged to her great-great grandmother.

Dagny has moved to the third floor, where she has both a bedroom and a living room. Rowan, Andrew, and I painted her bedroom for her as a surprise while she was away in February, and she and Andrew painted her living room a couple of weeks ago.

You can just barely see in this picture that on the wall to the left of the windows a bunch of dates are written, marking Dagny and Rowan's growth over the past ten years. Dagny carefully recorded and rewrote them when she painted, which I think was awfully nice of her considering it's a record of Rowan overtaking her in height.

Some people want their kids to move out when they turn 18. Me, I'm still imagining a distant future that includes a family growing together and a house that adapts to accommodate us all for as long as we each want to live here.

2010-04-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

1 cup uncooked lentils
4 cups water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped into small pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped into small pieces
3 Tbsp chili powder
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
Buns

Combine lentils and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

About 10 minutes before lentils are done, add pepper and onion to a medium pot and saute for 7 minutes.

Add garlic and cook another minute.

Drain lentils and add to pepper/onion/garlic.

Add chili powder, oregano, and salt, then tomato sauce and paste.

Cook 10 minutes.

Add syrup and mustard, and give it a couple of minutes to heat through.

Serve on buns.

optional: top with cheese

2010-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

2010-04-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 300.

Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and center ribs. Cut remainder into fairly large pieces - they will shrink quite a bit.

Toss with oil and salt.

Bake in single layer on cookie sheets for 20 minutes, or until crispy.

2010-04-10T16:10:00.001-07:00

When Dagny's not home there's no one here who might accidentally be wearing the same thing as me.

What fun is that?

2010-04-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

My brother and his wife made this for a birthday party recently. It's great as a dip, but also makes a delicious wrap. When I made it myself I ended up using three avocados, adding each one fresh to the portion we were ready to eat.

Pico De Gallo

1 purple onion, diced (I used less - maybe 1/3 of an onion - as we're not huge fans of purple onions)
4 plum tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeno, diced finely
1 bell pepper, diced
Juice of 2 limes
Handful of chopped cilantro
Avocado

Mix together everything but the avocado and refrigerate overnight. Add avocado when serving.

2010-04-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Roasted Chickpeas

14.5 oz chickpeas (1 can, drained and rinsed)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 dashes cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cumin

Preheat oven to 425.

Roast chickpeas on cookie sheet 10 minutes.

Stir or shake and roast another 10 minutes.

In a bowl, combine the chickpeas with the other ingredients.

Spread back on cookie sheet and roast 5-15 minutes, until brown and crunchy.

2010-03-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

We noticed last week that the river was higher than we remember seeing it, and the recent rain forced it over its banks. Memorial Park is flooded. Bridges are under water, islands have disappeared, the stage is surrounded by water, the top of Preacher's Rock is a small island in the middle of a pool. There are lots of people walking around the park, some looking amazed, some looking a bit dazed.

Proper exploration required just the right boots.

Of course, even the perfect boots can only handle so much water.

2010-03-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

As I made my way across the yard to the compost pile this afternoon I was thinking about tulips and sunshine. I was totally unprepared to see, as I rounded the corner of the garage, that our old peach tree had not survived the recent storm. I stumbled and stared and for a split second of disbelief thought some other tree must've lost a really big branch.

I feel a bit silly to admit how much affection I have for this tree and how sad I am to see it sprawled across the grass. I'm wondering if my neighbor, who grew up in this house and planted many of the trees in our yard, is sad to see it too.

Jon, Rowan, and Dagny gave me a peach tree a few years ago, so happily there will still be peaches for the Kreams.

But I'll miss the gnarly old tree that gave me my very first warm-from-the-sunshine peach.

2010-02-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

"Wait a while--just wait a while. If we don't chase things--sometimes the things following us can catch up."

~Cousin Jimmy, Emily Climbs, by L.M. Montgomery

2010-02-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

I love having a piano. I love the noise, whether it's a beginner giving it a try, someone making up a song, or someone who has been playing forever. The thing is, though, I've been having a hard time loving our actual piano. When we got it, I kind of imagined it tucked away somewhere, but it has found its home in our dining room. The kids both love it there, because it's in the center of everything.

Recently I was trying to come up with some way to change the piano to make it more appealing to me. I suggested to the kids that maybe we should paint it. They responded as people who spent their formative years running around antique stores for fun would: they were horrified at the thought.

Over the past few days I've spent some time with our piano. I polished every inch of it. I scrubbed its keys. I replaced the torn fabric on the stool. As I worked I looked past its dings and dents and stains and thought about hands building, tuning, playing, polishing. And I think I found a way to love our piano.

2010-02-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

First off, I've got to warn you that this is not pretty food. It's brownish and kind of mushy and just doesn't look all that appetizing. But a nice layer of shredded Parmesan on top makes all the difference, and the combination of flavors is really nice on a cold winter day.

Lentil Stew with Butternut Squash

3 stalks celery (I skipped this. I always skip celery. If anyone would like to explain to me the benefits of adding crunchy, stringy water to anything, I'm listening.)
1 large onion, chopped
2 1/2 pounds butternut squash (I used 1 1/2 squash), peeled and cut into 1" chunks
1 pound brown lentils
4 cups water
14 oz vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
salt and pepper
shredded Parmesan

Combine everything but the cheese. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 45-60 minutes, til lentils and squash are soft. (The original recipe instructed to combine all in a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.)

Spoon into bowls and top with cheese.

2010-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

Have you ever made yourself a present?

You should. You totally deserve it.

2010-01-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forget to look at what I like about our house. I see what needs to be cleaned or what I'd like to replace or what project has been sitting way longer than I would like. I'm using my camera a bit lately to help me see what I don't want to take for granted. What makes our house OUR house.

Ok, so to take this picture I had to dodge the very big pile of flooring that's been sitting in the (unfinished) hallway off the living room for an awfully long time. Who cares? I have a swing and a pillow pile! And so so many memories of happy people in this spot.

2010-01-27T16:47:00.001-08:00

I made these at Rowan's request the other day. It had been a while, and I had forgotten just how delicious they are.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed and cooled
1-2 Tablespoons milk or cream
melted butter
brown sugar

Preheat oven to 450.

Mix dry ingredients.

Using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until it feels like coarse meal.

Stir in the sweet potatoes, then add milk a bit at a time until the mixture can be gathered into a ball.

Knead briefly - about 10 times - just til it comes together nicely.

Pat to 1/2" thick on floured surface.

Cut into rounds with top of a glass; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Brush the tops with butter and sprinkle (generously) with brown sugar.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

(Makes about 12 biscuits using a standard drinking glass. They'll go fast so you may want to double the recipe.)

2010-01-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

2010-01-16T18:33:00.000-08:00

There's something nice about seeing a reflection of just a tiny bit of your house.

Especially when you and Dagny took all the food out of its storage space and piled it in the hallway so you could paint while Jon and Andrew pulled up a bunch of the tiles in the kitchen so they could fix the floor.

2010-01-13T07:03:00.001-08:00

From the middle of November through the middle of January we celebrate. We celebrate Dagny's birthday, Thanksgiving, Jon's birthday, Winter Solstice with our family, Christmas with my side of the family, Chanukah with Jon's side of the family, New Year's Eve, Rowan's birthday, and Andrew's birthday. Streamers go up and come down in November, a tree and stockings appear and disappear in December, more streamers go up in January.

Today the streamers come down. And I will build a fire and bake bread and make soup and celebrate the everyday.

2009-12-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

Imagine you had a sister, and you liked to talk to your sister about quilts, because you really love quilts, and she makes quilts, and you're pretty sure that as much as you love quilts you're lacking whatever gene it is that would enable you to make one yourself, but you love to look at them and dream about them and talk about them and she understands.

Ok, so you've got this sister, and you email her a picture of a quilt you like, and she emails back saying that it'd be a great quilt for a beginner, so simple!

Flash forward. You've pieced the top. Yay! Your sister comes over so you can lay the quilt out together. She eats her words.

Then she goes home. And you're slightly terrified but simultaneously thrilled with the potential prettiness.

(As I look at the picture I immediately see some squares that can't stay where they are. That's ok. I'm going to make a couple of squares out of the fabric we chose for the borders, binding, and back,

so I'll be swapping out a few.)

2009-12-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

Just for Danette, here's yesterday's soup:

Sweet Potato, Corn, and Jalapeno Bisque

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
5 cups vegetable stock
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 can (15 oz) corn, drained
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 Tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch ground cinnamon

In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic in the oil.
Add the sweet potatoes and stock.
Bring to a boil.
Simmer til potatoes are soft. (10-15 minutes)
Puree til smooth.
Add remaining ingredients.

I think next time I'll puree most of the potato mixture, but not all. A few chunks of potato and onion seem like a good idea. It was very good as is, though. The cayenne and jalapeno give it lots of flavor, but it wasn't too spicy for Rowan, who's not a fan of spiciness.

2009-11-18T12:50:00.001-08:00

Here's a recipe that will put your homemade vanilla to good use.

Vanilla Muffins

4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (I may do a little bit more next time)
8 Tablespoons butter, melted

Mix dry.
Combine and whisk wet.
Add wet to dry.
I sprinkled the tops with maple sugar - not necessary but quite good.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
Makes about 2 dozen muffins, or 10 giant-Jon-sized muffins.

2009-11-18T12:37:00.001-08:00

365 photos in 365 days. Done.

2009-11-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Shortly after my 17th birthday I met Jon.

Shortly less than 17 years ago I met Dagny.

Time flies when you're having fun.

2009-11-11T17:41:00.001-08:00

When's the last time you blew bubbles in your cup?

2009-11-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
(aka The Best Hummus Jon's Ever Had)

2 large cloves garlic
1 can chickpeas, drained
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2-3/4 cup roasted red peppers (If you're using peppers in a jar, 1 of the bigger jars, drained, will do)

The recipe I found was all about the food processor, but here's how you do it by hand:

Mush the chickpeas with a fork til smooth.
Mince garlic and peppers and add to chickpeas.
Add tahini and lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

2009-11-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't actually tasted these yet, but Jon (who may come to regret telling me he wanted giant muffins when he sees how many different kinds I want to try making) says they're good.

Jam Muffins

1/4 cup jam
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla (You're all making your own now, right? Seriously - try it.)

Heat oven to 400.
Grease muffin tins.
Whisk the jam til smooth and set aside.

Mix dry ingredients.
Mix wet ingredients.
Add wet to dry and stir until batter is just blended.

Fill muffin cups halfway.
Make a shallow well in the center of each with a spoon.
Fill with a rounded teaspoon of jam.
Cover with remaining batter.

Bake 12 minutes.

If you'd like, dust the tops with confectioners' sugar.

2009-10-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've wondered what the subdivisions that are sprouting up on the farmland down the street will look like in the future. Will they take on personality? Or will they remain (not so) little boxes made of ticky tacky that all look just the same?

2009-10-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

Roasted Carrot Soup

16 Carrots, peeled, cut into chunks (about 1 1/2 inch)
1 Yellow Onion, quartered
1 Sweet Potato, cut into chunks (about 1 1/2 inch)
6 Cloves Garlic, whole
5 Cups Stock
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Coarse Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Arrange the carrots, onions, sweet potato and garlic in a baking tray. Mix in the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast the carrot mixture for 45 minutes to an hour. Remove from the oven. Peel the skin from the garlic. (I just peeled it before roasting.)

Put into a large saucepan. Add the stock, ground ginger, and nutmeg. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, and then puree.

Simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

2009-10-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

2009-10-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

This week Dagny requested my mom’s chicken casserole. Jon’s usually in charge of making this one. He makes two batches, one following the recipe and one changed a bit for the tastes of the vegetarian-no-canned-mushrooms crowd. With chicken or without, I still call it chicken casserole. Old habits die hard.

GrammaDonna’s (no)Chicken Casserole:

5 lbs chicken breast

1 lb longhorn (sharp cheddar) cheese

1 box pasta shells

1 lb box frozen sweet baby peas

2 small jars pimento

2 small cans mushrooms

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups stock (Mom used chicken, we use vegetable)

breadcrumbs

Boil the shells and the chicken in separate pots. Add the cheese to the shells while they are hot. Add the other ingredients, then put the mixture into an oven safe dish. Cover with melted butter and breadcrumbs.

Bake @ 350 until golden and bubbly (about 45 minutes).

We usually eat it all up pretty quickly, but it does freeze well.

2009-10-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

A new recipe from Amy:

Honey Baked Lentils

1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp ginger
1 clove garlic (I doubled, as always)
1 small onion

Bake in a covered dish at 350 until tender. (1:15-1:30) You could also substitute barley or rice for some of the lentils, and add whatever winter vegetables you have.

2009-10-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Current 'Make' list:

Brown Sugar Muffins
Challah
No Knead Bread
No Knead Caramel Rolls (In the oven right now. You awake Dagny?)
English Muffin Bread
Wheat Bread
French Bread
Cookies
Peanut Butter Bars
Chocolate Stuff
Fudge
Waffles
Pancakes
French Toast
Crepes
Granola
Rice Pudding
Cider Jelly
Honey Baked Lentils
Roasted Carrot Soup
Creamy Tomato Balsamic Soup
Sushi
Lasagna Rollups
Pizza
Chicken/No Chicken Casserole
Six Cheese Gnocchi with Spinach
SOB Lasagna
Peach Salsa
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2009-10-20T13:43:00.001-07:00

I had a couple requests for the recipe for the bean stew I made on vacation. The original recipe came from Lisa Heyman, and I did alter it a bit. If anyone wants the original recipe, let me know.

Bean Stew

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 whole heads of garlic, peeled and minced
2 red bell peppers, diced
2 jalapenos, seeds removed unless you like it extra spicy, minced
4 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp honey
2 tsp chili powder
3 Tbsp cumin
Cayenne to taste
Cilantro, chopped pretty small (I do about two hands full, chopped.)
4 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 big can crushed tomatoes
1/2 small can tomato paste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a big pot.
Add peppers and spices.
Add remaining ingredients.
Simmer 20 minutes.
Serve with rice.

2009-10-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

'Joy of Homecoming on the Horizon', by Dagny and Andrew.

(Ok, named by me. Art's open to interpretation, right?)

2009-10-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

Jon’ll have to remind me where he got this recipe. I think it was Mindy’s family? It makes 4 loaves, which is a bit too much to fit in our mixer, so Jon cuts it in half. It’s great for sandwiches, but my favorite way to eat it is toasted and shmeared with peach honey butter.

Foolproof Wheat Bread

2 TBS yeast

½ cup warm water

5 cups hot water

1 TBS salt

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey or molasses

12 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine hot water and 7 cups of flour and blend in mixer with dough hook.

Add salt, oil, and honey, and continue to mix. (Rue note: Measure the oil first and the honey will slide right out.)

Add 1 cup flour and yeast mixture.

Mix thoroughly, then add 3-4 more cups flour and mix until dough cleans the sides of the mixer.

Knead (mix) at least 10 minutes.

Transfer dough into a large greased bowl, spin to coat with oil, cover with towel, and let rise 45 minutes.

Oil hand, punch down, and shape into 4 loaves.

Place in well-oiled bread pans.

Cover with cloth and let rise again, 35-45 minutes.

Bake at 350 40-45 minutes.

2009-09-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

I mentioned to Amy the other day (has everyone visited Amy's shop? It fits right in with what I'm thinking about here - buy as little as possible, but when you do buy look for quality things that will last and that are made with care) that our KitchenAid stand mixer was a great investment. We've had it about 10 years and use it regularly. Heck, we like it so much it got its own cabinet when we re-did the kitchen. I remember that when we bought it it was $200, and I was so unsure about spending all that money. (Looks like it's more like $300 now.)

Just as an aside, I never saw a stand mixer until I was an adult. I still remember the first time I saw Jon's mom pull hers out of the closet. I did a lot of baking as a kid, and finding an invention that would cream butter for me was amazing.

I was thinking about what other things we've bought that were not so easy on our budget at the time, but have worked out to be completely worth the initial ouch. Some that come to mind right away:

Calphalon cookie sheets (used ONLY for cookies - cheapo $1-$2 cookie sheets are fine for everything else). We've had these 10 years as well, and they look pretty much like new.

Good pots/pans (Actually, if anyone has any recommendations for pans that will last the rest of my life, other than cast iron, I'd like to hear them. They need to be able to go in the oven. They don't need to be dishwasher safe.)

Silk long john's

Wool sweaters

Wood furniture

Glass containers

Handmade items

For the past couple of years I've been considering the idea of a food processor. I go back and forth on whether it will really save me so much time/effort that it's worth the cost and space in the kitchen. On the one hand, I've lived just fine without ever using one. On the other hand, there are things that look so much easier to do with one (chop nuts for example). If you have one, what's your opinion? Should I stick with my knives? Is there a brand you use that you'd recommend? Is it worth getting a bigger one? I think I'd almost need to be talked into it, really. I can see my kids growing up and using my mezzaluna. I can see a food processor ending up broken and in the trash. But if I'm wrong, I'd like to hear about it.

Oh, and check these out. They have a lifetime guarantee for breakage. We go through a LOT of straws, so I'm thinking these might be a good investment.

2009-09-29T10:22:00.001-07:00

Our room is on Modish!

2009-09-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

A note for hungry readers: I've gone through some old posts to add labels to them. I think I've tagged all the recipes, so if you're interested in those they should be easier to find now.

2009-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

So far I'm the only one eating this at my house. Jon is feeling anti-chickpea. Dagny has apparently developed a major dislike for cloves. Rowan generally avoids spicy. Not sure what Andrew's excuse is.

I think it's really good, so I'm ok with not sharing.

Spicy Chickpea Ragout

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

8-10 whole canned tomatoes (reserve the liquid)

3 teaspoons ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 15 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Heat oil in a large skillet.

Add onions, garlic, and ginger.

Cook 3-5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, breaking them into pieces with spatula.

Add ½ cup reserved tomato juice with remaining spices.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Add chickpeas.

Cook 10 minutes.

Serve with rice.

2009-09-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Zucchini and Summer Squash Casserole

1/2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
1/2 cup onion, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
3 summer squash, sliced into thin rounds
3 zucchini, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 teaspoon dry thyme
1 large egg
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cups crushed butter crackers
3/4-1 cup grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 350.
Grease a 9 x 13" baking pan with Pam or butter.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.
Add the onions.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add garlic and cook about 1 minute.
Add the squash and zucchini, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the thyme and remove from heat.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to the baking dish, reserving the cooking liquid.
Combine the egg and cream in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in cooking liquid.
Pour over vegetables.
Bake until sets, about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with crackers and parmesan, then bake til golden brown, 10-15 minutes.

2009-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

2009-09-17T19:01:00.001-07:00

Here's one of the recipes from our 'make' list this week. We had never tried it before. It gave me horrid garlic breath, but it was really good. The teenagers (Am I supposed to stop calling them that now that some of them are in their twenties? Let's just think of it as an honorary title.) liked it too.

Spicy Black Bean Hummus

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1-2 Tablespoon Tahini (roasted sesame seed paste)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Dash crushed red pepper

1-2 teaspoons olive oil

Dash ground red pepper

Chop garlic and jalapeno. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. The original recipe suggested using a food processor. I use a mezzaluna. (Mine's pretty similar to this one. If you have neither, just chop the garlic and pepper, mix up the rest, and smash with the back of a fork til smooth.)

Sprinkle with another dash of ground red pepper to distract from the fact that it doesn't look all that appetizing. Weird color.

Serve with chips or toasted pitas, followed by tic tacs.

2009-09-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, tell me about planning, buying, and eating:

How does food/grocery shopping work at your house?

How often do you go grocery shopping?
Who does the grocery shopping?
How many people are you feeding?
Do you all eat meals together?
Is there a certain time you eat meals?
Where do you eat?
Do you plan weekly menus?
Do you eat out often?
What is the most important food for your family not to run out of?
Fresh baked cookies or store-bought?

I'll go first:

I have a general list of groceries I made years ago printed out. I go over that, and anything I know we need goes on my grocery list. Anything I'm not sure of goes on a '?' list. I ask everyone if there are any particular recipes they want ingredients for, then I get out my recipes and flip through for inspiration. Again, anything I know we need goes on the grocery list, anything I'm not sure of goes on '?'. As I go through the recipes I also make a list of the ones chosen, which we call our 'make' list, so anyone who feels like cooking or is hungry can check it and see what we have the ingredients for.

Ok - so we're at three lists: the grocery list, the '?' list, and the 'make' list. Jon takes the '?' list and goes through the pantry/fridge/freezer. We add whatever we don't have to the grocery list. Finally I ask everyone if there's anything in particular they want and if they think of anything not on the grocery list, I add it.

Most of the time, Jon does the grocery shopping.

We do one large shopping trip towards the beginning of the month and a medium-sized trip about halfway through the month, with smaller trips for things we forgot or decided we wanted in between if necessary. We have a number of farms nearby where we can get milk, fruits, and vegetables as needed.

We're generally feeding 5 people, but there's a very steady stream of visitors in and out of our kitchen. The fridge-full you saw in my other post will be feeding an extra four people this week.

We're all usually hungry at different times, and want different things. We do sometimes all eat together, but it's not a regular thing for us.

We eat all over the house, depending on what we're up to and whether we need a big flat surface (aka table).

We do plan what food we think we'll want to eat before we go shopping, but we don't plan what we'll eat on what day. We tend to look at cooking as something fun to do, so it's done whenever someone's in the mood, not necessarily at 'meal' times. We cook, tell everyone there's hot food, then store what's left to be heated up when it's wanted. I do pay attention to what we have available for different meals and the different tastes I know the kids have when I get the urge to cook, so that I'm not making a bunch of food no one will want to eat soon. And any of us is willing to cook if someone else is hungry for something in particular.

We very rarely eat out. A few times a year, mostly if we're on vacation.

It is very important not to run out of ice cream. You don't want to see most of us (I'm not naming any names) if we run out of ice cream.

We like packaged cookies just fine, but we usually have fresh cookies, with some extra cookie dough in the fridge.

2009-09-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Informal Learning

2009-09-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

A comment Kelly Lovejoy made while she was visiting has me thinking about refrigerators. So here's a blog challenge for whoever wants to take it: What does your refrigerator look like on an average day? Is it crammed and messy? Neat and organized? What's in it right now?

Here's what ours looked like Thursday. Jon went grocery shopping the night before, so this is pretty typical.

(Not everything is what it seems. We re-use containers - particularly jars - over and over again.)

(Petunia is diligent in her efforts to make sure no food escapes from the fridge unnoticed.)

Here's what's in our fridge right now (items marked with * are made by us):

Orange Juice
Grape Juice
Pineapple Juice
Iced Tea (I kinda wish Kelly Lovejoy would move here just so she could make us iced tea all the time. I do have her recipe. Not sure Jon would want to live without his Arizona, though.)
Sour Cream
Heavy Cream
Milk
Butter
Yogurt
(We currently get our milk from a farm but are hoping to be able to start getting it from a different one that's trying to get approval to sell raw milk - either way I'm planning to experiment with making butter and yogurt soon.)
*Peach Habanero Marinade
*Blueberry Honey Butter
*Strawberry Honey Butter
*BBQ Sauce
*Rose Petal Jelly
*Habanero Peach Preserves
*Maple, Strawberry, and Blueberry Syrup
*Strawberry and Blueberry Preserves
*Hot Sauce version 3.0
Various condiments and dressings
Jelly
Blueberries (We've planted 18 bushes, but they're not producing much of anything yet.)
Strawberries (We'll be planting a LOT of strawberries next year.)
Herbs and Veggies including (off the top of my head...) broccoli, sweet and hot peppers, greens, garlic, cilantro, carrots, ginger, zucchini, summer squash (I paid a lot of attention this summer to what veggies and herbs we eat most, so I can better plan next year's garden.)
Alfredo Sauce
Pesto
Salsa (Last week I made fresh salsa and, while it wasn't as spicy as I expected, it was really good.)
*Pancakes
Bread (You've got a good shot at fresh bread in our house, but that's on the counter.)
Pizza Dough (I'm on the lookout for the perfect pizza dough. Got a favorite recipe?)
Eggs (I've always been interested in having chickens for 'eggs and atmosphere' as someone said to me yesterday, but I don't think I'd deal well with the inevitable losses. I'm happy to be able to get our eggs from Chloe's chickens, who seem to have everything chickens could possibly want.)
*Peanut Butter Bars
Vegan Marshmallows
*Smashed Chickpea Salad
*Toasted Ravioli
*Fried Rice
*Rice Pudding
*Sundried Tomato Pesto
*Mac and Cheese
Pasta
Deli meat
Sliced , Chunk, Shredded, Ricotta, and Cream Cheese (Yes, that's a lot of cheese. Jon and Rowan are going to be learning to make cheese in November.)
Yeast
Veggie Stock (I don't know why I don't make my own veggie stock when it's so simple.)
Pudding
Applesauce (I make a mean applesauce, but this jar's not homemade.)
*Cookie Dough
Hot Fudge and Butterscotch
Hershey Syrup
Whipped Cream (We love homemade, but sometimes you just need a tub of Cool Whip.)
Frosting (Again, we like homemade, but sometimes you just need a tub of frosting.)

Leave a link in the comments if you do this on your blog.

Next blog challenge: planning, buying, and eating food.

2009-09-10T10:44:00.001-07:00

Getting ready for the craft show at Soule.

2009-09-05T19:12:00.001-07:00

This peach tree was old when we moved to our house 9 years ago. Every year we're pleasantly surprised to see it load up with peaches.

After we bought the house, but before we'd come to know every nook and cranny, I said the only thing I'd add would be fruit trees. Winter ended, blooms started appearing, and suddenly I could see we had a pear, a peach, a crab apple, and two cherry trees. None were in the greatest shape. They hadn't been tended and had all lived long lives already. But, man, the peaches from that tree are unbelievable. Not grocery store pretty, sometimes munched on by worms, but so good. My favorite thing to do is to get the one from the very top of the tree, the one that feels hot to my hand. When I eat that peach, I taste sunshine.

It's because of this tree that I learned to can. One peach tree grows a LOT of peaches. In the next couple of weeks we'll be picking and I'll be listening for jars to pop. Oh, and making peach upside down cakes, some to eat and some to freeze. There's nothing like eating sunshine when it's cold outside.

We've added quite a few trees in the past nine years - peaches, apples, mulberries, pears, plums, and almonds - gotten our blueberry patch established, and next year we'll be adding strawberries. But I doubt anything will ever taste better than the first peach I ate off this old tree.

2009-09-05T16:18:00.001-07:00

Today we made a dent in this project:

and in this one:

My bed is going to feel very good tonight.

2009-09-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

2009-09-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

A really long time ago this picture was on my blog. Remember?

Here's what the table looks like now:

(Well, actually it's a bit messier than that now, but that's what it looked like this morning.)

While we were working on the craft room (I seem to have settled into that name...) I came across another table at the architectural salvage store we like to go to. I didn't get any before pictures of it, but it was in a bit better shape than the first one. My mom and I refinished it too, and here' s how it came out:

This table has a little plaque on it that says it was property of Brown University. One of my favorite things about it is the graffiti in the drawers. (Is that weird?)

I wonder what 'Rotten ole Tom Brady', class of '51, is up to these days.

2009-09-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've got another one for you. Can anyone tell me what this is?

It's not a bush, more like a small gangling tree, and we have tons of them.

2009-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

2009-08-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

I recently had a conversation with my mom about my experience with school. We were talking about a book Rowan and I had read, in which the main character rode the bus to school on the first day of 8th grade, got off the bus, turned around, and went home. She just couldn't take one more minute of school. The word she used to describe how she felt there was "stupified".

I was horribly, mind-numbingly, stupifyingly bored from the third grade on. By fifth grade (during which year I was often sent to the hallway with an algebra book in what I believe was a well-meaning effort by my teacher to deal with my boredom) I was beginning to feel an overwhelming sense of doom whenever I entered the school building. By high school I was regularly skipping classes, intercepting mail, and changing the grades on my report card. I spent days at the town library, snuck home and hung out in the yard if I knew no one was there, went to friends' houses, went to the beach if I could get a ride. I walked to school, and some days I made it all the way there before the sinking feeling became too much to bear and I turned around not even knowing where I'd end up for the day. If I had missed one more day of high school I would not have graduated. My parents had no idea.

If I was a 'gifted' child no one ever told me, but this paper, titled To produce or not to produce? Understanding boredom and the honor in underachievement (On Gifted Students in School) pretty much sums up how I felt for 10 years of my life. I would have been thrilled in high school to have someone acknowledge the idea that there was honor in my 'underachievement'. Choosing not to produce, to disengage, certainly felt to me like the only way to keep my integrity intact, even at the price of lying to my parents.

Here's a poem I wrote on one of the days I spent at Needham Public Library when I was 15 or 16. Not great literature, by any means, but I can't tell you how clearly I remember this feeling.

Boredom lurks and then it pounces
As I sit, my mind a blank
So I draw a crazy picture
Of a ship that sailed, and sank.
Heading nowhere on a journey
To a place that's far away
Looking back at old, lost friendships
When I left, they chose to stay
In a place that's cold and lonely
While I head for sun and sand
On my ship that's made of daydreams
Sailing to a distant land.

This is not why my kids don't go to school. They don't go to school because they don't want to, for reasons of their own. But I am grateful there is nothing stupifying about their lives.

2009-08-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

2009-08-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Recently Rowan and I read The Homeschool Liberation League. One of the interests of the main character is eating food that grows wild. I've been interested myself lately in learning more about what's edible. There's an amazing amount of food growing around us that we think of as weeds or ornamentation.

I always knew roses were edible, but I really didn't know what to do with them. This weekend I tried out a recipe for rose petal jelly. I've made lots of preserves, but this was my first jelly. It's a simple one to start with.

I used petals from the Rose of Sharon we inherited from whoever landscaped our pool area.

3-1/4 cup rose petals or any edible flower petals (be sure they have not been sprayed with anything you wouldn't want to eat)

2 cups water

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup white grape juice

1 package powdered fruit pectin

3 cups sugar

1/4 cup rose petals

Remove bitter white nail of all the rose petals. Rinse petals and pat dry. Bring the 3-1/4 cups rose petals, water, and 1/2 cup sugar to a boil; reduce heat.

Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, for several hours to overnight.

Strain syrup, discarding flowers.

Combine syrup, grape juice, and pectin in a saucepan; mix well. Bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add remaining 3 cups sugar; mix well. Bring to a full rolling boil that will not stir down. Boil for 1 minute; remove from heat.

Place remaining 1/4 cup rose petals into 4 hot sterilized 1/2 pint jars (or 2 pint jars, if you're me). Ladle jelly into jars, leaving a 1/2-inch headspace; seal with 2-piece lids. Drape jars with a towel. Cool to room temperature and store in a cool place.

Yields 2 pints.

All of the color comes from the petals. The color leaches out of them very quickly when you first start to cook them. In the morning the syrup is a beautiful purple (the picture doesn't do it justice), which lightens up to pink as you add the other ingredients. Most importantly - yum.

2009-08-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

The other night Dagny and I were super hungry, so we tried this recipe for quick quesadillas. Next time I think I'd use pepper jack cheese, cuz why not. They disappeared very quickly. I'll probably mix up some of the filling to keep in the fridge. Much nicer than microwaving a frozen something.

2 zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 scallions, thinly sliced
15 oz can black beans
8 oz monteray jack cheese, shredded
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Olive oil spray
Tortillas

Drain and rinse beans.
Combine beans, spices, cheese, and scallions.
Put grated zucchini in a collander. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and squeeze out excess water.
Add to other ingredients.

Spray one side of each tortilla with olive oil spray. Place oil side down on baking sheet. Spread with filling, then top with another tortilla. Spray top of tortilla with olive oil.
Broil 1-2 minutes (until golden).
Flip and broil other side 1-2 minutes.

We had huge tortillas and found we had better luck spreading the filling over 1/2 a tortilla then folding it closed. Much easier to flip.

2009-08-07T19:47:00.001-07:00

Start with one not-so-pretty bridesmaid's dress. I'm talking puffy sleeves, lace modesty panel, acres of fabric. Add a pair of scissors, a sewing machine, and a Dagny who sees treasure where others see trash.

2009-08-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

Reedy's Ratatouille

1 eggplant, peeled and cubed (or skipped completely if you're cooking for Dagny)

2 zucchini, sliced (peel if you like)

1 red pepper, sliced

1 orange pepper, sliced

1 onion, sliced

4 tomatoes, coarsely chopped

¼ cup oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons salt

pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a large pot. Cover and cook over medium heat for as little as 15 minutes, or up to an hour. Serve over pasta. Yummy with a bit of farmer's cheese.