Farewell Summer, Hello Fall

Summer is ending and I'm fine with that. I've discovered I'm not really a summer person. While I am NOT looking forward to buckling the kids in their car seats with bulky winter coats for 6 months, I think I'm ok with the other aspects of winter. My garden was slightly disappointing-- I was very lazy about it. I think next year I'm scaling back to tomatoes and herbs only. It's too much with the CSA produce delivery. I didn't enjoy going to the pool much and all our traveling happened so early in the summer it is now a distant memory. I'm alternately excited and nervous about the upcoming school year. Excited to get a new schedule underway already, hoping Talia will genuinely like Kindergarten and have a smooth transition, nervous that I'll never get her to school on time and she'll still "hate school" and not want to go and we'll struggle 5 days a week instead of the current 3. Lots of little things coming up in the next two months-- school, the Jewish holidays, a visit from my sister, a solo visit home to NJ/NY for a quick weekend, a solo trip with Ron to Puerto Rico, Halloween, etc.

This was a summer of milestones for Alex-- starting school, potty training and a full vocabulary. What a difference from June! I'm looking forward to spending some quality alone time with him once Talia is in school. I'm also looking forward to spending a little quality alone time with myself! I haven't spent any time in my sewing room this summer. Once again I'm backlogged with baby quilts (2 babies already born, one coming any moment, at least one other this fall and no quilts finished-- only two started) and I have a huge pile of ideas for clothes and home decorations that just gathers cobwebs in my mind. So, Farewell Summer and Hello Fall-- I'm ready for you!

Giada's Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese

Um hmmmm. A nice red wine-y taste. Very filling. It's made with carrots, onion, red bell pepper, garlic/thyme/oregano, mushrooms (regular and dried-- important!), tomato paste, red wine and the trick is a little mascapone cheese mixed in. And parm of course. Here's the recipe...

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

If you are a dedicated reader of my blog (all 3 of you) you will remember that I hate potatoes (here too). That's not exactly true. I like potatoes somewhat, I just don't consider them healthy nor do I think of them as a vegetable. As a vegetarian, most of my main dishes either contain a grain- such as pasta, or are served over grains- such as couscous or rice. I don't, therefore, have any room on my plate for potatoes. That being said, if someone is going to serve me fries or mashed potatoes I'm not going to turn them down. I just wouldn't ever choose to make them. I do really like potato salad and I make it every so often but then I eat the whole thing and don't feel very good about myself. So far this summer we have gotten two bags of potatoes from the CSA. At this point they are pretty much still a novelty. If I am accurately remembering the amount of potatoes we got last year, they are soon to become loathsome.

The first batch of potatoes were made into "Burg's Potato Salad" from Orangette's book. I can't remember what was different about it from my own recipe but that's probably because Ron ate most of it before I could my hands on it. I do remember thinking it was a little labor intensive compared to my own which I love and can't stop eating, which is why I never make it (cook the shit out of the potatoes, mix it with mayo and hard-boiled eggs, mash it all up until it's the consistency of mashed potatoes and add lots of salt and fresh dill-- eat it while it's WARM!).

The second batch of potatoes got roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary. It's not difficult but it takes an hour to cook and that seems like a silly amount of time to wait for breakfast. The key to roasted potatoes (or any roasted vegetable in my opinion) is to mix the vegetable with olive oil and seasonings in a big bowl BEFORE you put it in your roasting pan. If you do it straight on the roasting sheet you are missing out on really coating the potatoes well. You might have one less dish to clean but you'll miss out completely on flavor and crunchiness. I used my convection oven for this one, setting it to 400 (so it cooked at 375) and cooking them undisturbed for 20 minutes. Then I tossed them every 10 minutes for another 30 minutes (so, 50 minutes all together). Amazingly enough, EVERYONE in my family enjoyed them and begged for more. I don't think there is another food we have ever all eaten at the same time except pizza, which I don't love anyway. Even better, I sat on the back deck with the kids looking at books while we ate the potatoes and it seemed almost relaxing. Imagine that!

Pretty Local

We had an almost completely local (and delicious) dinner:

- tomato basil mozzarella salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar: tomatoes and basil from my garden
-asian slaw: cabbage and carrot from our CSA, mint and cilantro from my garden
-green beans with lemon parsley gremolata: green beans from the CSA, parsley from the garden and local parmesan cheese (actually I used the recipe from How to Eat Supper but this one seems almost the same)

Most delicious fennel beet salad

While trying to get through my CSA produce last week I searched for a fennel salad recipe online. Usually I just slice it thinly and serve it raw with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. One of the first hits I got was for this fennel beet salad. I decided to kill two birds with one stone (fennel and beets) and make it. I had very low expectations but it was EXCELLENT! Really tangy and delicious. I won't post the recipe here but I'll send you over to the website. The only change I made was that I didn't serve it over greens because I didn't have any. I would probably serve it without greens again. It was so simple and easy and yummy. And it used up my beets-- I like beets but they are such a pain to cook that I usually don't bother with them. Now I'm hoping to get some more fennel AND beets in my CSA box. Enjoy!

Look who wore underpants all day!

This morning was rainy and this afternoon was hot. We had no plans to do anything so... to change things up a bit we put Alex in underpants! He did great! I don't know if I'm ready to make the commitment. I should probably wait until winter, won't that be so much easier? Or is it easier now? He doesn't like the "little potty" so he pretty much needs me to help him get on the big potty. I rewarded him with a sticker if he tries and two M&M's if he actually goes. In order to see if he goes, I need to be in the room with him. Not that he would lie, but his reporting isn't that accurate. Talia didn't complain TOO MUCH about all the attention he was getting-- she was very supportive and she got two M&M's if he went also. Then again, Ron was around to help too. We'll see how things go today. It's nice to know that it IS possible!

AND I grew this! and this too!

My first carrot and what may be my entire crop of shelling peas. I'm going to have to use that ounce of peas for something really special! In other news... I think I might have blossom end rot on some tomatoes. I don't know what that is yet but the butts of my first few tomatoes are black and rot-ty looking. I guess I'll have to look it up. Any words of advice? 99.9% of my toms are still green so maybe there is something I can do...

A lost front tooth!

"I No Love Mommy"

We have a new form of communcation around here. Talia can write me notes. Previous to now she could only write "I love Mommy" but her genius has kicked in and now she can add "no" to the sentence and really communicate. Ron thinks I shouldn't "let" her say that to me but I'm thrilled. I'm so proud of her for coming up with the idea in the first place. I also want her to be able to identify her feelings and say what she feels. There are too many women who don't know how to express that they are mad at someone. Of course she's allowed to be mad at me! We're not going to always get along and to deny that is false. If she isn't allowed to tell me she doesn't like me, what on earth will we talk about when she is a teenager? I think on this day she wanted something from me and I said no. I was watering the garden and she kept running out with these little notes. Inside I could hear her asking me, "How do you spell FEEL? How do you spell SAD?" I thought it was adorable and very smart. Within 20 minutes the notes turned back into love notes... just the way I like 'em.

Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

So... I made this for someone and then Alex kept hugging it and pointing to it and saying, "That mine?" What's a poor mom to do? I gave it to him and am now scrambling to make something else for my friend! Once again I'm getting behind...

Good Clean Fun

I don't see what's so great about summer. I'm not the kind of person who needs to spend a lot of time outside. It seems like it would be nice but I always find better things to do. My kids are the same. If I take them to the park they'll be happy:

-as long as it's not too hot
-as long as I have the proper amount of water and snacks
-as long as friends can be found there
-as long as we don't stay too long
-as long as I have sunscreen and bug spray
-as long as they don't have to walk too far
-as long as our park doesn't smell like natural fertilizer (ok, shit) which our park often does
-as long as I brought the right sand toys, bikes, sports equipment, whatever

Honestly, I have to pack as much for the park (a one block walk) as I do for the pool. My kids are just as happy at home. I know I'll rue the day I wrote this once winter settles in but as much as I say I want to go walking on the nature trail (bugs) or take my kids to the zoo (yuck) or even to the pool (oy) it's more the fantasy than the reality.

At the same time, I'm totally sick of being the activities director for my kids. If I hear the words "What can I DO?" one more time I'm going to scream. Talia has school three days a week as well as tennis, arts and crafts, ballet and swimming. This is not enough? You just wait until kindergarten starts sweetheart and you'll be begging me for some time off! Our days consist of a rotation of coloring, playing with Polly's, tv watching and chasing Alex around. Throw in some book reading, a few puzzles and a game here and there. I don't remember anyone playing with ME when I was little. I've got stuff to do too you know. Alex, of course is an angel and entertains himself well-- without all those activities.

I tell Talia to go into the playroom which is FILLED with toys. Legos and other building materials, puzzles galore (but I want you to HELP ME mom!), dolls and stuffed animals, trucks and trains, My Little Ponies, Littlest Pet Shop figures, Smurfs, musical instruments, dress-ups, books, games, a play kitchen, medical sets, colorforms, magnets, a fairy tent-- I could go on and on and on. Not to mention the basement, her bedroom and a HUGE art closet with EVERY material imaginable. I don't mind setting her up with something to do and even helping her do it. I want her to COME UP WITH what she wants to do. It's a real problem.

To that end, sometimes the kids really surprise me. I notice lately that when kids come to play they seem to really make their own fun together without taking out tons of toys. This Friday evening FOUR kids ages 6, 5, 4 and 2 played together with no parental involvement. I think all they used was the basement slide and the cozy coupe and maybe climbed on the treadmill (unplugged, of course). It was a dream!

Ron and I have been slowly making progress on cleaning out our storage room over the last week. One of the reasons I want to get in there is to find some new (old) toys and do a better job of rotating the ones we have out. We cleaned out a lot of boxes and I offered them to the kids. Talia wanted to make an airplane out of one of them so I helped her cut windows and attach "wings." THAT'S the creative type of play I dream of for her and I'm more than happy to facilitate it. SHE came up with the idea of what she wanted. She and Alex have been decorating her oosh (That is what Alex calls airplanes because whenever we see/hear them we say "Alex, see the airplane? Whoooosh!"). On the downside, that activity seems done-- 24 hours later.

I grew this!

I've been meaning to write a garden update for a long time. It's growing strong and I've learned some new lessons (namely, that squash plants grow really big and shade everything else. Actually I learned that last year but this year it has really sunk in!) We've eaten a crop of radishes and a crop of sugar snap peas so far.

This is my first head of broccoli. Broccoli is my favorite vegetable and we eat a lot of it in my house-- mostly just roasted in the toaster or regular oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes with a little lemon or soy sauce. Everyone likes it but Alex. Considering we rarely all eat the same thing in this house, 3 out of 4 people is an accomplishment.

The main reason I wanted to grow broccoli is that I didn't know what it looked like when it grew. Is it a big tree or bush with lots of broccoli heads on it? Or does it just come out of the ground like asparagus? Actually, it's sort of a combination-- a big plant with lots of leaves and one head of broccoli in the middle. I'll post of a picture of it when I get to that garden post.

Anyway, growing this one head of broccoli felt like an accomplishment. I had heard rumors of pests attacking, like slugs or something. I had no problem with that but I will say the other head of broccoli isn't growing quite as well. Either way, it's broccoli for dinner tonight!

The Dahlia Quilt

I finally gave this quilt to baby Dahlia, who is now about 5 months old. I think this is the first quilt I made using Kaffe Fassett fabric, although I have more. Sometimes it can take months or years for me to cut into a collection of fabric. I find myself buying a new yard of the same fabric because I can't bear to cut the first one!

I had originally started another quilt for baby Dahlia that was unisex (darn those people who choose not to find out the gender!) and when she turned out to the third girl for my friend's family I decided I had to go more girly. I bought some fabric with dahlia flowers on it and then... get this... I lost it. I kept bringing it with me to find some suitable coordinating fabrics at the store and it disappeared, along with a pattern for a top for myself. I still think they will turn up some day. I found this dahlia fabric and finally sewed it up. Once again I didn't know how to quilt it and came up with... following the backing fabric, which is all circles. So yes, I quilted it from the back side. Oldest trick in the book!

We had a really nice time out east this past week. My new nephew is adorable and really good. The kids love seeing their cousins. All Alex wanted to do was hold the baby. Is he giving me a hint? We spent quality time with NanaPapa and got to see a few friends.

It's nice to be home though. It will be nicer tomorrow, when the kids are in school...

My new nephew!

Greek Platter Salad

I know- your mouth is watering, right? This was so yummy. Ron called it "restaurant quality" which is his highest compliment. It's so easy. I layered the following ingredients in the platter:

lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, feta. (I cut everything on the chunky side.)

Over top I poured this dressing:

2 tbl red wine vinegar

2 tbl lemon juice
3 tbl olive oil
salt
pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 thick slice of red onion, minced
1 tsp dried oregano

Make sure you mix the dressing up really well right before adding it because it doesn't have any ingredient (such as mustard) to help emulsify it. You don't even have to toss the salad.

Eat.

Spaghetti with Peas and Parmesan

We had such a nice time at the farmer's market last weekend that we wanted to go again. This time we tried the Westside Community Farmer's Market at the Hill Farms Department of Transportation. There is a huge difference from the big one downtown! This one was ALL business. None of the spectacle of the big one. No balloon animal guy, no hippie clothing for sale, no kids running around the capitol green blowing bubbles or playing tag. Still, there is a definite reason to go to this one too. If you need great produce and don't want to make it a whole day activity, this is your place. You can park right up to the market and be in and out in half an hour. The food seemed cheaper as well, although I can't confirm that. We bought a huge bag of shelling peas, strawberries, rhubarb and sugar snap peas. I made a big pot of spaghetti and added the blanched peas, lots of grated fresh parmesan, salt and pepper and butter. We devoured it. As a matter of fact, I went back the farmer's market today (this time at Hilldale) and bought more peas (shelled because I'm lazier on the weeknight...) and we're having it again tonight with my watermelon, tomato, feta salad.

In other news... I'm an aunt again! I'm waiting for my sister to get home from the hospital so I can share some pictures! More on that later!

Dane County Farmer's Market

This past weekend we took our first trip of the summer to the farmer's market. Madison has the best farmer's market in the world and I am willing to argue with anyone who claims otherwise. It is quite crowded by the time we get there (late!) and we kind of have to just find a spot to park ourselves near the capitol and then Ron and I take little 20 minutes trips to get what we want. We have the garden and CSA, of course, so we don't need to get too much. This weekend we got sugar snap peas (so yum) and strawberries. It was a perfect day for the farmer's market! I highly recommend Ingrid's Lunch Box for a meal-- get the farmer's crepe and you will NOT be disappointed!

We also went to the pool and had friends over for dinner. All in all a very nice weekend.

An update on Alex's experience at school. It's getting better. Today the kids were already on the playground by the time we got there so I got to drop him off (crying) on the playground, then drop Talia off and go back by the playground to see that Alex was fine and happy by the time I left.

Alex's first week of school

So my baby goes to school now. After two years of dropping off and picking up his sissy at school it was finally his turn. The first morning went well. He seemed to understand that I was going to actually drop him off and leave. He went right in and played with the cars. I said goodbye and told him I was leaving and he nodded and I left. Easy. I called at about 1pm to check on him and they said he was doing great. After his nap, however, he woke up hysterical and cried, with heaving, for a long long time. I picked him up and he was desperate to get out of there.

The next day he cried and cried at drop off and they called an hour later saying he was totally fine and having a great day. He woke up from his nap and cried but wasn't as bad as the previous day.

The third day of school he started crying at breakfast and cried in the car. It was heart wrenching. I had to pry him off of me. They called after 10 minutes and said he was doing great. He woke up from his nap in the afternoon and was even better than the first two days.

All this weekend every time we got in the car he would say "No school!" He started crying when he saw pictures of himself at school on the computer and also when we passed the road that would take him to school. At least he's smart...

So, we're giving it some more time. He's only 2 so he certainly doesn't have to go school right now. He loves playing with other children and to tell you the truth-- I really need a break! 24/7 parenting with no break is not healthy for anyone. We rarely have babysitters here and the truth is that those three days he was in school I barely left the house. The things I want to do are at HOME. I unpacked from our last trip and got some things done from my summer list (like weeding out the kids' clothing drawers- finally!) and transitioning our mudroom from winter (there were still hats and scarves in there!) to summer. I took a little time for myself and got a much enjoyed pedicure. I weeded the garden; I went to a store BY MYSELF! I made a bunch of "business calls" that had been on my list forever-- like updating our credit card for our newspaper and Tivo service.

This deal is good for all of us because when my children were home this weekend I actually sat and read library books to them. Not just one book, but many books. For an hour at least. Just me sitting on the couch and them tucked in beside me. I played a game with Talia. I went outside with them and didn't spend every moment wishing I could go back inside and finish up whatever needed to be done.

I did consider sending Alex to school for mornings only; maybe that would be better for him. In my research I determined that once Kindergarten starts for Talia there would be no way to pick him up from school and give him a good nap before I would have to wake him up to get his sister from school. I guess I could have put him in mornings for the summer but Talia is there full days so it wouldn't make sense. Besides-- full day now or full day in three months doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

When T started school in Philadelphia she had the same issue-- crying with separation. It killed me but I stuck with it. In Philly, once you got a spot in daycare you TOOK that spot or got pushed to the bottom of the list so it was an easier decision. Talia *still* gives me crap about going to school so I guess that's just my family. I'll keep you all posted...

The Sawyer Blanket

My previous similar baby gift went over so well that I attempted another one. This one is for Ron's cousin Allison and her new baby Sawyer. For the first time I used a stabilizer for the shirt applique and it worked out really well, especially since that fabric is so thin and pliable. I like it. Now I *really* don't have any more of that brown fabric left!

Quilt for Baby D

We are back from a long vacation to the East Coast. My brother Mikey grauated from MIT with TWO master's degrees-- one in Urban Planning and one in Transportation. Mazel Tov Mikey! Along the way I got to see some friends and lots of family.

I've been wanting to show a picture of this quilt for a long time. I've been working on it since January. This is a piece of fabric from Ikea (I think it's supposed to be a curtain). I hand quilted the entire thing for my soon-to-be nephew. The back is yellow flannel and the binding is red flannel. I don't have any better pictures of it right now because I forgot to photograph it at home with my SLR camera. This is taken from my point and shoot. It's a really fun quilt and I very much enjoyed the hand quilting. I was able to do it while spending time with Ron in front of the tv after the kids had gone to bed. It also came on many trips with me-- Dominican Republic, Arizona, San Diego. I will definitely continue to hand quilt.