honeyflake

for friday's lunch

picked a few spring asparagus and a handful of chives to create an early-may-garden omelette. yum.

dim sum

today our family had an outing that was inspired by a really sweet book called dumpling days, which recently came home with margaret and i from our local library. it is a book we found in the children's chapter book section, but i could not help taking a turn in reading it myself. the story takes place in taiwan and is filled with description after description of all the food that the main character encounters while she is there — and dumplings in some form or another are a re-occuring theme. for days both margaret and i found ourselves bringing up food from the book in conversation — like the bubble tea, the dim sum, the chicken feet and especially the special "soup filled" dumplings!!! yeah. so you know it wasn't long before we all planned an afternoon in chinatown, nyc.

chuck, margaret and i chose a vintage tea parlor,  whose menu was almost straight from the pages of our recent read. with a little jasmine tea to start things off, all three of us picked a few small dishes to share (you can be sure there were soup dumplings for margaret)... and waited for these "little bits of heart" to start appearing on our checkered-cloth-covered table... four dumplings on a little blue plate here, four dumplings in a little tin steamer there... yum. it was all very exciting and delicious. 

afterwards, we took some time to walk around the busy streets of chinatown, where we found one more culinary stand out from the book that we couldn't forget - some bubble tea!!! a really fun way to cap off this literary-inspired adventure of ours. and we'll certainly put a bookmark here on this day so that we may return again.

on a day like today

loved going out without a winter jacket...
walking around union square...
noticing the buds and flowers adorning the urban trees...
stopping in at jivamuktea for a big salad and smoothie... 
having the time to sit by an open city window and savor the peacefulness of the day.

here is a close up of my sunlit salad bowl. greens topped with warm red quinoa, black beans, veggies and a tumeric tahini dressing. i have to say that i ate it very thoughtfully — trying to identify all that might be in there.(cumin? in the beans? or perhaps infused into the grains? or maybe in the dressing? all of the above?) i kept thinking about how i would love to recreate this at home to share with chuck and margaret. so simple but so completely enjoyable. totally something to keep in mind this season once that spring lettuce starts appearing in our garden...

welcome, spring. thanks for the warm, sunny day.

greens

backyard tulips starting to emerge...

a torta for dinner...

fresh chives sprouting up in the herb box...

knitting progress...

 

 

super bowls

supplies get gathered on the kitchen counter — blender, bowls, spoons, bananas, homemade granola, juice, honey, extra fruit and some frozen packs of açaí berries. a few ingredients are whirred up in the blender. the bowls get filled with açaí puree. the crunchy oats find their place on top of that. fresh fruit is then sliced and arranged. and next... the honey. 

these açaí bowls are all the rage in our little kitchen lately. we like them. they are fun and exotic. they are loaded with super-good-for-you ingredients. they are extra delicious and they simply bring us together at the table for a good while... and while we are still wearing sweaters and long sleeves, cruising our way through winter here, these chilled creations seem to bring about thoughts of warm sun, tropical getaways and make me want to queue up my beachday playlist. 

have you tried making açaí bowls? would you like to? these are totally something that can be easily improvised and altered, depending on what everyone's up for. before we made our first batch we watched these videos here and here which get you going in the right direction. yes,i definitely recommend grabbing some of your favorite granola, your blender and giving it a go... perhaps even turning up a few songs from your own favorite beachday mix. 

very pepperminty

 

and very wintery. the christmas baking is finally underway here. we began not with the traditional sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies but with a batch of chocolate peppermint cake pops. i used this basic chocolate cake recipe (which i've bookmarked for future use — it's a good one!) and from there just sort of followed several cake-pop recipes from various web sources (mixing the cake with frosting). to get them minty-fresh i added a few drops of peppermint extract to the melted chocolate and sprinkled the final pops with some crushed candy canes. a little bit of cool and a little bit of fun for all.

thanksgiving time

november is winding down (can't believe it, really!) with many seasonal signs and familiar family traditions as always. the sun has been shining, the golden leaves are almost all off the trees and i baked a pie for my loved ones. mmmmmm.... inspired by the "crowd favorite" at the brooklyn pie bake-off i made a basic apple crumb with an improvised bacon and caramel creation on top. a little something sweet to share at our thanksgiving meal (who doesn't love a good pie?)... and it is something that seems as authentically autumn to me as running turkey trots, simmering cranberry sauce and giving thanks (all of which we enjoyed together these past few fall days here as well). fun stuff.

hope you have been enjoying some wonderful moments that capture the season too!

sweet february

a birthday cake for the papa.

some bright lemon & blueberry scones for tea.

some cupcakes for my valentines.

so much to celebrate in this short, happy little month. 

kneading the peace and warmth this week

the days seem fresh. open. plenty of time to make a few loaves of bread and a few pots of soup... and then settle in to be nourished by said bread and soup. and repeat.

picnicking with plaid and pine

december 2010's always anticipated family tree farm outing was this weekend. we wrapped ourselves up in wool layers and packed up our essentials, the things that shape this yearly tradition of ours, the things that add a little comfort and joy  — mini marshmallows, favorite old wool blankets, thermoses of soup, hot cocoa and homemade festive gingercake.

i think this may have been the warmest weather we have had, a crisp 41º. the sun filled the sky, the scent of pine filled the air and the happy together feeling of family filled our souls. 

the foods that have been delightfully bringing us from summer to fall

red pepper risotto. 

seeing the signs of summer fade is always a bit hard. feeling the chilly fall air, feeling the house grow darker earlier in the evening, putting the bathing suits away and realizing that this time they are probably really put away until next year... and fortunately what lingers is the goodness from our garden and local farms that have been growing all summer long. the tomatoes, the peppers, the greens, the squashes... it is nice to have access to these treasures and have a kitchen that is finally cool enough to retreat to and create a bit of comfort here and there. i find myself bouncing from cookbook to cookbook to webpages lately with excitement, discovering new and old favorite recipes... certainly this is a perk to the autumn season!

stuffed tomatoes - from the italian farmer's table cookbook.

deliveries from our csa and trips to local farm stands and farmers market's in september provided piles of plum tomatoes. perfect for trying out something new like the huge plate of the northern italian stuffed tomatoes i had been wanting to try and also for making tomato soups of various kinds. one night we added some soft pretzels into to the mix and it turned out to be just the perfect comfort food upon returning from a brisk afternoon out on the soccer field.

german tomato soup with fresh soft pretzels!

the tomatoes seem to be subsiding and now we seem to be seeing lots of squashes more than anything. different types—butternut, buttercup, acorn, etc... chuck magically prepared one into a tableful of gnocci last weekend. they were pretty fun and incredible. really, how  can something as big and awkward as a bumpy squash evolve into something so delicate and tasty? another one ended up in another risotto last night and we have plans to turn yet another one into a soup tomorrow!

homemade squash gnocci - from the italian farmer's table cookbook.

as always, i guess i'm just really loving how we can connect to each season through the simple foods that are available... and i'm quite thankful for the comfort they provide during this transition, during this time that has us turning a bit more inward and a bit more towards the oven... pumpkin muffins anyone?


pumpkin muffins.

so july

next to the beach blanket. love this simple sign.

experimenting with a lavender honey ice cream recipe. (very, very sweet).

 a tomato in a tomato can. a perfect match.

 
 a petunia on a hot day. it really was ridiculously hot.

 
pretty mandala-like patterns in the garden. the dill apparently re-seeded themselves everywhere last season.

and lastly... many visits from these guys once again.

just a few little details from july so far.... 
yes. summer is awesome. 

garden snapshots

 
early shelling peas... these were in a few weeks ago and are now finished for the season

 
some dill that seeded themselves everywhere destined to top some salmon.

 
an apron pocket filled with a few carrots for a lentil salad. there are still a few out there from our first planting, and the next wave of carrots are on their way.

a handful of lettuce picked tonight.

loving

a beautifully wrapped, locally-crafted, sea-salted chocolate bar... a glass of chilled, filtered water... sunshine, with temps in the nineties... 

summer is near.

eaten in the spring

out in the garden right now we have a tall back row of lovely, wispy and seedy green asparagus. oh, that doesn't sound quite right now does it? well, it was very exciting to watch it emerge sometime in april and — shoot-by-shoot — grow into slender and recognizable asparagus stalks. at this picture perfect stage (that i actually did not take a picture of this year) we eagerly tasted only a few of these harbingers of the homegrown garden bounty... roasted with a little olive oil and sea salt... sadly, just a sample. i know. this is because 2010 is only their second year in our garden and these guys are still getting comfortable there and establishing their roots. so, following the gardening advice that we've read here and there, we needed to be (a little more) patient and let them be and go to seed... allowed to sprout on up, following nature's course, til their tightly packed tops unfolded into feathery greenery... and for our springtime asparagus fix, we've needed to turn to the markets were they easily are found this time of year by the bundle after bundle...

and i'll share my favorite way that these edible shoots have been cooked up this year. asparagus soup topped with ciabatta toast and poached eggs. yum. the recipe comes from this very seasonally-organized cookbook. i'm thinking this was my favorite because it tasted so very good, but also... it made a huge pot that lasted a couple days (a total plus) and while the asparagus is definitely springtime, the warm soup was perfect and comforting on the chilly gray days we experienced here last week. and then perhaps also there was the whole connection to this book which i absolutely love! if you've read that one, i challenge you to have a bowl of this soup and not sing the sweet and silly poached eggs on toast song. we did. several times.

so while our own asparagus harvest was slim this year, i'm happily looking forward to what is still to come. 

from the kitchen elves

  

some gifts cooked up from our table to theirs. a few of the foods prepared around here that we brought along with us to family celebrations, passed on to some neighbors and enjoyed quietly here ourselves. edible gifts prepared with intention in the kitchen as the sounds of the season jingled all the way in the background. 

as always there were cookies. the thumbprint and sugar cookies (both martha stewart recipes) i've been baking for several years now as a christmas tradition. last year we added the gingerbread (love! we decided to add it to the mix again this year). some good, simple ingredients mixed up with love and holiday cheer.

now, the whole "i'm going to make my parents, nonnie and siblings (+ their families) each their own batches of homemade ravioli as a christmas surprise!" ?... yeah, that was new this year. days before christmas i started rinsing and chopping organic spinach for the filling... mixing it up... making the dough (again, with the love and holiday cheer) and eventually rolling it out by hand... making the littlest of pillowy spinach/cheese filled bundles row by row.... then wrapping them up with brown bag paper and some salvaged bakery twine. they had just enough time in the freezer to set before it was time to deliver them...  and, um, having to tell your loved ones "oh yes, we have a little something for you here, but lets get these brown paper parcels back into the freezer quickly now shall we?" was a bit... non-traditional — however fun, festive and merry nonetheless. we'd like to think they'll bring a little comfort and joy to their tables this winter.

   

blizzard soup

 

sometime on friday i started hearing reports that some real snow was headed our way here on the east coast. it was 'expected' on saturday. with the news of a possible weekend snow-in (one never knows really), margaret and i did a spontaneous trip to the market, with no specific list in hand, and picked up a few things we might need - including random, un-planned-out veggies and beans that i imagined i might be able to cook up into an impromptu soup. just in case the reports turned out to be true.

friday night, still not sure if there'd really be snow or not, chuck helped me choose a direction for this soup on the fly and we put about 1-2 cups of dried pinto beans to soak in our soup pot overnight. saturday morning brought more of the same news —a blizzard is on the way— so we planned on spending the day together inside with a big pot of soup cooking on the stove. We used what we had, what i bought the night before and what was already in our fridge and spice collection. i took notes and wrote everything down (i think). if it turned out ok i planned on duplicating it, if it turned out not-so ok i would make sure to take another direction the next time i made soup (like following a recipe). i was a bit worried about some things like the green pepper or pinto beans (i only ever really use them with chili type spices). happily though the soup turned out pretty great, the blizzard came and went (15" of powder) and i've decided to share the recipe here with you!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 1.5 cup dried pinto beans
rinse beans. soak overnight in a large soup pot, covered in water

2 medium onions chopped
1 leek chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped
1TBS butter
1TBS olive oil

2 boxes organic chicken broth
2 bay leaves
5 small organic carrots chopped
1 parsnip chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 14.5 can diced fire roasted organic tomatoes
1TBS tomato paste
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme

salt&pepper to taste
a couple squirts of honey from the honey bear
1- 2 tsp soy sauce

cooked rice

ample amounts of grated parmesan cheese!!!

in a large skillet warm butter and oil. gently sauté onion until softened. add leek and garlic and let that saute for a bit on a medium low heat. add a pinch of salt.

meanwhile drain soaked beans (bonus: bean water can be used to water house plants!). in the soup pot add back beans and chicken broth - reserve a little bit, about a cup, to deglaze the saute pan). add carrots, parsnip, pepper, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, honey and soy sauce to soup pot. bring to boil. 

when onion/garlic/leek is all sauteed add to soup pot. deglaze pan with that last bit of chicken broth and add that all to the soup pot.

we set the rice cooker to cook up about a cup or so of white rice at this point.

let cook for a bit while the snow falls, the winds blow, the beans soften and the flavors steep and mingle. 

 

play a little christmas bingo or something of the sort... then eventually... serve soup with a scoop of rice and top with blizzard amounts of grated parmesan! enjoy the warmth and nourishment as you fuel up for some big-time shoveling and snow-ball-hurling (neighbors beware!!)

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

before & after

the before: our traditional contribution to the family-filled thanksgiving day, burdock and carrot teriyaki, ready to go (and in the background, a homemade pumpkin pie — a first for me). the after: leftovers! this weekend was quite full of holiday leftovers — turkey, stuffing, cranberries and pie... great to have lots of together time this weekend, around the table and elsewhere, to relax and be thankful.

autumn puréed

this soup used to be a favorite. i made it often for chuck and i back in our apartment days... sweet potato, corn and red pepper soup. its been a while since i cooked up a batch. so long so that when i got inspired to make it again today (a bunch of sweet potatoes appeared in our csa box this morning and i happened to have had the peppers, garlic, onion and corn on hand) i couldn't recall which cookbook i used to get it from... but thankfully after browsing through a few i remembered and then promptly began peeling, chopping and whirling together the very seasonal ingredients into a soup. a warm, orange, rustic creation that felt pretty perfect and comforting for welcoming fall.

happy autumn.

now playing

so last week i had a matinée movie date with my grandmother to see julie & julia. a date we'd been planning since back in july just prior to the film's release... and finally on thursday we were able to venture out arm in arm to the theater together... ready to be entertained and inspired by this food glorifying motion picture...

and filled with culinary inspiration it was for sure. it wasn't long after returning home that i was looking up recipes for some of the food straight off the big screen. first finding the recipe here for that bright, fresh and crispy bruschetta that the characters are feasting on in one particular scene... luckily, still being tomato season here, it was super easy to round up the ingredients for this and i duplicated it tonight... fried bread? local organic garlic and tomatoes from our csa? more tomatoes and fresh basil from the backyard? man. it was really, so very good. both chuck and margaret thought so too. an instant hit. i was pretty excited... and as soon as i was finished frizzling up the last slice of ciabatta, i plated up a little sample and ran it right over to nonnie... bringing her a small memory of our afternoon together (way better than a ticket stub).  

there were plenty of other recipes shown in the movie that i'd like to get around to trying. i'm not sure which ones, or when, however i've got my apron and my dutch oven ready.

adventure re-cap

green mountain camping... rising with the sun, settling in at dark. losing track of 'clock time' as we know it and being more in tune with the natural pace of the day. we crave this. and everything seems so right when we're there and in sync with it all.

green mountain hiking... exploring the trees and the trail. stumbling across a few ruffed grouses, some raspberries, some poison ivy, some pines, and a nice vista at the top.

green mountain eating... early morning oatmeal eaten in the chilly air (with our hats on!!) along with some warm coffee and herbal teas. local berries, local cheese and local beverages as the day winds down. some potato + carrot soup (recipe from this book) made at home, reheated over the campstove and enjoyed at night. 

from seeds to the table

over the winter, as we dreamt of our summer garden and perused the seed catalogs i became quite taken with the idea of growing some savoy cabbages... maybe not so much the idea of growing garden cabbages as with the idea of cooking with garden cabbages. and not regular green or red cabbages but the wonderful crinkly savoy cabbage. i knew they were great in soups and tortas yet we had never considered cultivating them. so for fun this year we added a pack to our order list... we planted the seeds... they grew — from this in april to this in june to the final green giant above in august. and actually, this enormous big-enough-to-feed-a-family veggie was picked over the weekend and did just that...

i had some surprise kitchen visitors during the process of turning this cabbage into a torta. and these brief visitors were all family. they helped with making the dough, stirring the the cheeses into the filling, entertaining margaret, adding salt and pepper... and most importantly sharing in conversation and keeping the process flowing...  believe it or not i think i counted about 10 spontaneous, brief guests breezing in the front door, the back door, about the yard... family everywhere... and eventually a family creation in the oven. with all the activity, the final torta amazingly seemed to be ready as quickly as it was started... then as it cooled and everyone trickled out we parted the torta and parted ways for the evening... 

i believe that i couldn't have planned a better destination for that big leafy garden globe if i had tried, than to be a part of a family recipe... created by family, for family... 

warm

reds, oranges, yellows... love the warm colors showing up in the garden collection on this very "seasonably toasty" sunday afternoon:

atomic red carrots
moonglow tomato
amish paste tomato
random cherry tomato
sungold tomatoes
random sunflower (reseeded from the previous season)

and a giveaway

a few weeks ago i received a copy of a cookbook. it is a sweet collection of stories and recipes from the blue heron ranch zen retreat center — good food and meals that they've prepared over the years for all the family, friends and visitors that stayed at their very dreamy off the grid locale. 

i immediately connected with the vibe of this cookbook (meditation + risotto + tent life? right on!)... i really liked the hand drawn illustrations throughout — images of teepees, patchwork picnic blankets, mamas wearing aprons, mamas toting babies, mamas preparing food in the lotus position, trees, flowers, oh yeah, and food too.  

 

there's a mix of recipes and stories — tales of self-sufficiency, living amongst nature, family and their zen gatherings. i liked finding a mix of recipes — some that were familiar already to us and our cooking around here (like the simple polenta on a board or the oatmeal with warm fruit) along with some new-to-us foods that we've never thought of ever whipping up (like the apricot pudding). so far both chuck and i have created a few meals from this book (chuck made the the ojai bouillabaisse for us all over the weekend with some local clams which...  was... awesome). we've also tried  the chocolate marble bundt cake, the black bear apricot pudding and the blue heron beans... i loved the simplicity of the blue heron beans! and i thought they looked quite cool too.

so, did i say i received a copy of this cookbook?  well, actually i received two. i have a fresh, new extra copy here ready to pass along to one of you! woohoo. if you'd like to leave a comment below -  please do so and on friday i'll close the comments and draw a random winner. simple as that. good luck and thanks so much to nadia for sending out these books!

•   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

congratulations to the winner of the cookbook giveaway:
"it all sounds good so good" posted by rachell

thank you to everyone who stopped by and left a comment. it is always so great to hear from you. and thank you also to nadia for passing along these copies of her cookbook.

•   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

welcome stranger

remember all those varieties of tomatoes that we started indoors this past winter? the rainbow of heirlooms, big and small... well this rogue, first-to-ripen-red-cherry-tomato-growing plant is not one of them. a spontaneous garden surprise. most likely grown from some cherry tomato seeds that made it into our compost bin — something that we've witnessed happen here in the past... what happens is, when we disperse out the compost onto the gardens in spring, we are also dispersing out random seeds from food or flowers that have made it into the composter... sometimes the seeds flourish and sometimes they don't. sometimes we see strange stray seedlings emerge and we might pluck them thinking that they are just weeds. however when this volunteer tomato plant emerged, smaller and way behind our already started tomato plants, we recognized it and let it be. thinking for sure it would never make it and catch up to the others. giving it a chance and some space because you never know... then it started to flower and get buds right along with the rest of the tomatoes... how about that? i began guessing that it would be a sungold plant since last year the sungolds were abundant. but as it ripened we saw otherwise... turns out it is red cherry tomato — something we've actually never grown here in our gardens before. a stranger in these parts. and with all the rain we've had this spring & summer, the growing seems to be a little later than normal, making our other plants out there have a few green tomatoes on them (which we are checking daily for signs of ripening) so the fact that this new one is here, ripe and ready to eat? well that is a nice welcomed surprise.

outdoor fare

no matter how long or short our stay in the woods will be, i inevitably find myself putting a lot of time and thought into the camp friendly foods that we'll be bringing along with us... breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. i flip through clipped magazine articles, cookbooks, scan a few websites — jotting down ideas old and new, doodling image after image of simple and dreamy eats to be consumed  out under the trees and sky... and always appearing on these brainstorming lists is the iconic sketch of a marshmallow on a stick over a few flames... you know, for smores: good chocolate, good fire-toasted marshmallows and good graham crackers. 

before we left i baked up a batch of graham crackers using this amazing recipe. so much better than from the box -  these are softer and more cookie-like and they travel just as well. i protected them by wrapping them up in a little parchment paper and a recycled piece of a brown paper bag....

and kept on going... by then stamping the sweet parcel... and tying a little cotton twine... (and i wonder why it was that i forgot to pack any socks for margaret. but i think the smores we ended up having outside our tent may just have made up for that little fact. and thank goodness we did remember the winter hats)

tea time

on a rainy day

baked some of our strawberry bounty into martha's strawberry hand pies. a little bit of comfort on a day with endless rain.

yoga party

we planned this little party for margaret and a few of her friends — some bending and stretching yoga fun to celebrate her sixth birthday. we borrowed some space from my yoga ashram, brought along some hand-crafted decorations and snacks and simply set up for a mini kids yoga class/party...

well actually, first there were invites... the rolled purple paper invites were inspired by rolled up yoga mats - tied with embroidery floss to have carrying handles, like some real mats do...

after we set the date and time, and you can imagine it wasn't much long after, the yoga party ideas began to flow... here are a few of the details from the day...

we created a happy mandala design that we then silkscreened on some organic cotton t-shirts for the little yogis to wear at our gathering (and to take home too) to spread the happiness. we set these out on the mats before the guests arrived. then there were the prayer flags...

the birthday-wish-filled prayer flags were inspired by the traditional tibetan flags, slightly modified for our celebration, but overflowing with good intentions non-the-less... they were a mix of simple fabric rectangles, some were painted with fabric paints and others were embellished with fabric applique on the sewing machine. these were hung over the party tables where we set out the snacks and drinks and cupcakes. i tried to keep the food as simple as i could... organic red (or perhaps party matching purple?) grapes, cheese quesadillas, water and some homemade cupcakes (with cupcake toppers to match the shirts)... and what would a homegrown party be without a "get your picture taken as a ______ board"? (remember the pirate? well we still had some wood). this one actually starts out upside down, after they had their pictures taken, the photo can be flipped and it will appear as if they are posing in a hand-stand with lotus variation...

the last thing i planned was the actual yoga and body balancing/stretching games. i prepped myself as the parties yoga teacher with a few kids yoga books, websites and library dvds (this, this, this and this) and merged all that with some things from my yoga teacher training... and with that we became a room full of roaring lions, trees in a forest, rising/setting suns, and butterflies with colorful wings, etc... the kids were fantastic. to change the pace we also planned a balancing game (sort of like musical chairs meets prehensile toes and the tree pose.) and the limbo. 

and of course there was a little happy birthday and a few candles, and lots of happy party fun.  namaste young yogis, namaste. :)

home-vs-away

home field: 1 berry

away field:  200 berries (plus or minus the few eaten in the fields, in the car on the way home, while estimating the count for this blog post, etc...)

a few stats of the season...

so far the backyard home strawberry field has surprised us with 1 shiny big red strawberry (which margaret picked, danced around with and sampled earlier in the week). yay! there are still a bunch of green berries on the plants out there - and we'll be watching them ripen and hopefully keep them protected from the bugs and birds. let's–go–ber–ries!

next up, the sweet as always, u-pick away field, with row upon row of organic berry plants filled with fruit was as fruitful as ever today. chuck, margaret and i went to the farm this afternoon. (to be able to pick a strawberry right from it's stem and taste it's flavor, while still warm from the sun is quite an important ritual of june. quite important.) we've found this past week to be a bit 'full', as this time of year tends to get, so the peaceful time out there at the away field was much appreciated by all of us i think. add to that serene setting a shining sun, that decided to make an appearance in what seems like forever...  and all was right. it was a chance to be together, taste the season, get some fresh air, and allow the limbo rock to stop looping through our brains... (who's idea was that anyway? oh, yes, right. that would be me.) well, anyway... home-vs-away... when the season wraps up in a week or so, and all these shining stars are done for the year, i'm sure that for all sorts of good reasons that both these fields, each with their own 'advantages' will come out on top. 

spring tonic

detoxing and daily dharma

my little greener-than-green wheatgrass elixir... a small glimpse of a bigger something that i embarked on a few days ago... starting this past weekend, as part of my yoga practice, i began doing a deep spring detox/cleanse... a whole spiritual-physical-mental experience meant to purify, change habits, restore balance, and good things of the like. :) 

it has been a pretty interesting past couple of days. especially the eating and drinking. i felt that our family ate very naturally and consciously as it was, however, as i've witnessed, there's always room to go a little deeper. room to strip away and freshen up a bit more. simplifying in a really pure and fresh way. going from a starting fast-day of only juices, water and herbal teas, to raw fruits and vegetables, to adding cooked vegetables, next adding legumes, nuts, whole grains, and eventually tofu, etc... (i'm sort of hovering now at the fruit/veggie/grains/legumes/nuts stage... it feels right for now, so i haven't added anything past that.) there have been lots of arugula salads, grated carrots, mugs of veggie broth, organic licorice tea and the occasional shot of wheatgrass. 

there are other aspects to this whole experience too, like fasting from news, computers, negative habits, etc... but obviously since i'm here typing for my blog, you can see that i've powered up the apple once again, but at least for now, with a little more awareness.  

ॐ

together

a few pastel hued remnants from yesterday... some cupcakes piled high with icing and a new big pink dish. lots of sweet goodness — to top off the sweet memories taken home from a day spent with my parents, my grandmother, margaret and myself... four generations chasing cupcakes, playgrounds, and a good manhattan. together.

this afternoon

baked some cookies from my new organic snack book ~ walked in the mist/rain ~ listened to some new live music from

hampton, virginia ~ sewed for a bit ~ ate said cookies.

winter: snowing

yesterday's aprés snow creation.

still moving through the winter season here. yes, now it is march and spring is really oh so near... but our day here yesterday was still truly a whole lot of winter! the winds blew in a storm which brought with it quite a bit snow. inches upon inches. calling us out to play and explore (and shovel!). outside margaret and i continued to discover new little ways to experience the season together with all of our senses until we were ready to return to the warmth of the house... at margaret's request, we brought some snow inside with us, so we could have a true taste of winter yesterday... freshly fallen snow topped with real maple syrup. something that was new to me, and something that after all the shoveling, path-making and playing was so good. an authentic, natural, woodland-inspired snow-cone creation. sweet.

xoxoxo

plenty of extra sweet valentine vibes going on around here these past few days. celebrating peace, love, happiness (and chocolate) in simple, fun little ways. starting with the little hug-offering heart-dude above that margaret sketched. i love him! so much so, that i scanned him in and printed him out in multiples as the tag for this year's valentine for her friends — same as year's past (natural marshmallows turned lollipops and dipped into a melted mixture of semisweet chips + butter + corn syrup). becoming somewhat of a tradition here i suppose... 

but we did mix it up a bit and celebrate with a new spin on the heart-themed holiday here too this year. may i present to you... the first annual valentine's day raffle!

yes. the valentine's day raffle. you know, sometimes these things appear and just evolve a bit organically... one evening you're at a potluck/fundraiser at the yoga ashram, with an herbal tea in one hand and several non-winning raffle tickets in the other — the next thing you know you're heading home sans incense, promising everyone in the car that we can have our own raffle someday where we all create the prizes — with tickets and everything! once an idea like that is out in the universe, it sticks around, hovers, inspires and then come valentine's day we're gathering in the living room after fondue to see who the lucky winners will be. 

i made some numbered tickets in the computer. these were key. how could we have a raffle without raffle tickets? and the other essential? the prizes... which we all provided - chocolate, watercolors, cedar carvings, certificates for backrubs and portraits, marshmallow lollipops, etc... just simple, little gifts from the heart. enough so that we all won something. really, this idea that found it's way to us turned out to be something quite special. a great little celebration at home together that filled both our hands and hearts. 

hope you're days have been filled with lots of love and sweets lately too.

puppeteers and birthday cheers

better than broadway... better than off-broadway... better than the latest blockbuster... tonight we celebrated chuck's birthday with priceless tickets to a puppet performance at a very close to home, eco-savy recycled shoe-box theater. 

we've been planning this all for the past few days. we knew we'd be having some big festive cake (as always), planned on having fondue together (simple recipe from this book with lots of french bread, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, apples, etc... for dipping) and as a surprise margaret and i planned the entertainment. really, i had a big shoe box that i couldn't bare to see go to waste. then when i suggested we try and turn it into a little theater for puppet shows — there was no turning back... we cut the stage out. painted it up. i sewed up a curtain. printed out a couple of tickets... and then in honor of the birthday guy...

sewed up the star of the show. mini-chuck (as margaret calls him).  i'm pretty sure we surprised chuck with this one. and i think more fun than seeing the mini-rendition of chuck was seeing margaret be the puppeteer and animate this little dude. he met talking owls, princesses, danced with his wife kristin on their wedding day, ate cake, took naps, searched for a castle and found a dragon, and took more on stage naps... nice.

 

after the performance, we got our tickets punched by our puppeteer and adjourned to the table for this year's cake. this year, for chuck's 38th birthday, i went with smitten kitchen's chocolate peanut butter cake. such a good post-theater, birthday celebration cake. 

so yeah, if by chance you find yourself a bit inspired to break out a shoebox and make a wee theater for the little puppeteers at your own house, i've uploaded the pdf file i created to print out our tickets (modified slightly) so you can print them out at home. however, i'll leave the puppet-charicatures of your family members up to you. enjoy!

crafty holiday memories

so the new year has rolled in. the house is in order... bringing a fresh sense of calm and space here. mmmm... love that. we're back to our normal daily rhythms. the pace is so very different from just a few weeks ago. remember the holidays? the excitement? the comfort? the joy? the creating? the knitting, sewing, journaling and whittling (oh yes, at our house this year there was whittling)... it's sort of strange how one minute it's here and the next thing you know the sounds of the season playlist is giving way to all rebel rockers... i don't know, perhaps its just the pine-withdrawal talking, but how about a little handmade gift retrospective for the gift-giving season of 2008? sound ok? wonderful... 

let's see. i think i began with the knitting. several surprise pairs of toasties knit... different colors and yarns for different people. i wanted to blog about some of the wool and this pattern back in december, but then that would be it for the "surprise" factor. so here they are just before being given...

i loved working on this knitting pattern from leslie each time around...

 

ok, next... remember i mentioned last month how i was very inspired by some of the toy crafts in living crafts? chuck and i both loved their cover idea of making this hobby horse simply out of a pair of socks, wool and a fallen branch. margaret has always wanted one of these, so chuck gave the project a whirl. (this was where the late-night whittling came in. some pre-christmas night's i felt as if ma and pa ingall's had just moved in and replaced us.) here's the finished horse (aka: old paint).

then of course there was some handmade from santa and the elves. for margaret there was this knitted organic wool doll sweater. looks like they too were inspired by the same magazine (downloadable pattern designed by waldorfmama).

(apparently he loves his sweater so much that he hasn't taken it off since the 25th). now to close out this little (not-so little?) crafty review... there was a new santa-made supply of doll clothes. (pretty sure he got the patterns from this book). a couple of simple dresses and pants for margaret's wee friends. 

well, thanks for coming along on this holiday recap. the end result of an ever evolving list of creative ideas/to-dos during the month of december. hope you've enjoyed seeing some of our projects (be sure to check out the links) and here's to the spirit of christmas crafting big and small.... 

 

it's been getting quite chilly here lately and so i've been...

 
baking doughnuts and serving them with mugs of hot ginger tea. (a simple elixir of fresh chopped ginger, a little lemon boiled up and then sweetened with a bit of honey).

 
playing post-office and wearing my super cozy toasties (made by erin — and delivered in person when we got to meet a week or so ago in nyc!).

working on the sweater project... the wool, the hot water bottle and the blanket surround.

stayin warm!

the calling

it started out with a call from nonnie earlier this week. next thing i knew i found myself heading out in the car, driving her on a quick errand. this sort of thing is not unusual. but on this trip, sort of out of nowhere, i mentioned, as we drove down the street, that i had been thinking a lot lately of aunt mary's raviolis. aunt mary was nonnie's sister and well, she made really, really good spinach raviolis. from scratch! i think everyone in my family has incredible memories of these little, perfectly square, hand-cut, spinach filled raviolis, eating them together huddled around nonnie's breakfast nook table with either a bowl of chicken broth or with lots of melted butter and parmesean cheese... mmmm... so anyway, as i was saying, i mentioned to my grandmother that i had been thinking about them lately and was wondering if maybe we could plan a day to try to make a batch up ourselves? i suddenly had the desire to know how. and i was hoping that my grandmother could teach me. well without hesitation nonnie suggested that as soon as she was finished with her errand that we head back to her house and get started on the dough. and that is how it came to be that i had my first lesson in making raviolis... 

starting with the basics. 

nonnie chopping the spinach super fine.

our dough, ready to be rolled with my great-grandmother's rolling pin.

me, rolling out the dough

nonnie giving me the first how-to demo.

lining up the filling

cutting, and trying to keep them small.

finito!

passing it on: trying out my new skills at home later in the week while at the same time sharing what i had learned with margaret — who was off and running with her own batch in no time. (at home i experimented with the same dough and a pumpkin filling, mainly to use up a csa squash, but next time it will be back to the spinach).