Canning Tomatoes

Now look...It is not my goal in life to be cool. I would much rather start a quilting bee with girlfriends than go out for a night out on the town. I don't know why I like old-fashioned things, I just do. So that is why I get excited about things like learning to can tomatoes. It was tons of fun. My friends Nancy & Marge came over, as well as some other girlfriends who enjoy this kind of thing & we canned tomatoes! We also ate some delicious seasonal local foods, like squash casserole, green bean and tomato salad, fried squash, tomato sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches (from local chickens) with homemade pickles, blueberries and blueberry banana bread, homemade blackberry cobbler & homemade ice cream & fruit tarts.
It was crowded but fun! I hope we can do it again, because I'm so sorry that there were several people who really wanted to come but couldn't.

But I Digress...

The kids and I were having a sweet moment singing in the bathroom tonight. They were singing so sweetly and...normally. But then, of course, the camera became visible, and those tender moments dissolved into some sort of shouting match. This is such an event. I promise that only moments before it was a very sweet moment. But these are moments of parenthood, however, that make me laugh. And I am glad to catch them on film.

Catalog Living

This website is hilarious. It takes all those contrived photos from home catalogs and imagines the conversations behind the "real life" scenario.(above) Elaine wasn’t about to let some hot flashes get in the way of balancing the checkbook with the abacus.
We’re so happy you could visit! The room’s all made up for you, and I ripped out some pages of my favorite book and taped them to your wall in case you’re like me and enjoy reading before bed.Elaine was not amused by Gary’s passive-aggressive response to her request to “garnish the cocktails.”

The Little Things

Every morning, and after naptime, KB takes her assortment of blankets & stuffed animals and insists that they be tucked behind her back before she sits down for breakfast. Children and their little quirks are so entertaining. It's hard to believe that she's nearly two, and that soon we'll be welcoming baby #3 into the picture!

Missing the CSA

Hey Guys. If you haven't noticed, I have not yet signed up for my CSA, Avalon Acres. I'm a huge fan of the csa, we have been traveling a ton, so I just haven't gotten around to it. Plus, we had high hopes for our garden, and the csa is a lot of work. And a lot of veggies. But boy have I been missing it! I haven't been motivated to do lots of cooking, or try anything new. But my sister-in-law gave me her CSA share this week! Yeah!!! It's like a field day around here. It's amazing how much the csa changes our diets in my household. I'm not very motivated to buy green beans, but when they are sitting in my fridge, I think, "Okay...it's green beans for dinner tonight!" And I love the creative challenge of scouring cookbooks to find out what I can do with carrots, beets and potatoes. I would have never been inspired to make Borscht Soup otherwise.

And I'm so glad I have a history of the CSA on my blog. This is what we got in our box this time last year. Like I've said, it's different every year.

So for a recap...This week the CSA included potatoes, green beans, blackberries, carrots, kohlrabi, zucchini, pattypan squash, lemon cucumbers, corn, squash & a purple green bean.

Blueberry Muffins

In high school, I used to eat an Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffin every morning. Then one day I noticed they had like 400 calories in it. I don't know much about calories, but I know that is a lot. Sometimes I think that the only difference in a muffin and a cupcake is the icing.

This blueberry muffin recipe from Simply in Season is a pretty dramatic contrast. They are tasty and light. I have mentioned this cookbook before, but I highly recommend it if you like to cook seasonally. The recipe is extremely versatile, and is the least sweet recipe I've ever found. And my kids still loved it. I must mention that I was a bit surprised at first, because I was expecting them to be sweeter, but they are tasty, once you remind yourself that you are not actually eating a cupcake.

The basic recipe is as follows:

Dry ingredients: 1 1/2 C whole wheat flour, 1 C rolled oats (alternatively you can skip the rolled oats and instead add 1/2 C additional wheat flour and 1/2 C raw wheat germ. OR use an additional 3/4 C whole wheat flour and 1/4 C flax seed meal), 1 T baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon (optional).

Wet ingredients: 1 egg, 1 C milk, 1/4 C oil, 1/4 C honey.

The star: 1 1/2 C blueberries or any kind of berries, fresh or frozen, or go crazy and substitute an equal amount of shredded summer squash.

Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. (Other than this, these muffins are sugar-free. If you aren't ready for the lack of sweetness, feel free to give it a hefty sprinkle of the sugar.)

Blogging Friends

Hey Again Friends. I'm going to AGAIN add my blogroll to the sidebar, so would you please leave me a comment if you are still blogging? I can't find anyone anymore, and when I do, you have a tombstone for a blog!

Thanks.

Bake Sale

Bakin' for the bake sale...

Fruit Stand

We're loving all the fresh fruits & vegetables these days! Even more, I'm loving having my energy level back, and not feeling like everything I cook makes me sick to my stomach!

ADHD Linked to Pesticides

Articles like this make me angry, but also confirm my suspicions about the chemicals & toxins in our air and in our food. I just ran across this in Time magazine. An extensive study does link the use of pesticides with an increase in ADHD in children.

If you follow the links in the online article, you can see that plastics are linked to developmental problems, as well as a myriad of other household toxins that cause problems. Sometimes I feel like I'm viewed as a crazy mom who doesn't put bug spray on my children, but this just reaffirms my viewpoints.

Thoughts anyone?

15 Fabulous Squash Recipes

I was excited about this post of 15 awesome squash recipes, since squash season is just around the corner here!

Ring Bearer & Flower Girl

Cuteness! E & KB did so well as ring bearer and flower girl in Becca & Tommy Caldwell's wedding. It was adorable!!!the wedding party in beautiful estes park, coloradoi love this picture of ethan and his dad. it's rare to catch such a special moment on camera!on top of being such gorgeous scenery, the weather was fantastic! 70's every day...and then we return home to weather high in the 90's. yuck!Apparently, if myself or my husband is in a wedding, I will be 6 months pregnant and wearing this dress.

Natural Mosquito Repellant

I LOVED this! I do not like storebought mosquito repelllant, and haven't found a more "natural" brand in the stores that I like. This year, we're trying cintronella and eucalyptes plants in the yard. Remember we thought about a bathouse, but never went that route. But I'm excited to see this recipe on Design*Sponge out there! Here are a few more plants that mosquitos don't like. Think I'll be buying some of these!

What about you...What do you do to keep the mosquitos at bay?

Wedding in Estes Park, CO

Here are my cuties at the wedding rehearsal for Tommy Caldwell and Rebecca Pietsch. The kids did great at the rehearsal, so I'm just hoping they do as well at the actual wedding!!! I can't WAIT to show you pictures! The wedding is going to be shot by the amazing Corey Rich, so I hope we get to see a few of those pictures as well. I know his photos will make mine look like kindergarten photographs. Doesn't this background make you want to pack up & move? I think Lance is hoping that the feeling takes hold. The whole town is like this. Absolutely gorgeous.(rehearsing their walk! E was skipping he was so excited!)

Bump Watch

There she is, y'all. 22 Weeks and counting.

The Freshest Ice Cream Ever

Today we made homemade ice cream. And not just any homemade ice cream. This was homemade vanilla ice cream with milk from a cow that was milked this very morning. Added a little pure cane sugar from a farm nearby, and homemade vanilla extract that I made myself. The only way you get more homemade is to crank the ice cream yourself. And I'm thankful that I did not have to do that, although I loved doing that as a kid. It was so yummy! Next time, I'm going to attempt chocolate-mint ice cream, with mint from my garden!

Preparing for Travel

We're about to head to Colorado with the kids for Becca and Tommy's wedding. Lance is the best man, and Ethan & KB are ring bearer and flower girl. I can't wait to show you pictures, even though it hasn't even happened yet. The kids look SO cute in their clothes.

Anyway, I'm storing away all sorts of treats and surprises to ease the travel. We're flying there & driving back. That will be a long drive.

Rhubarb Muffins & The Local Cook

Recent posts on this blog have had me wondering...WHY HAVEN'T I USED RHUBARB YET THIS YEAR?" So I've been scouring the web for some good rhubarb recipes, when I came across another great website: The Local Cook. Check it out!

Picture from Straight from the Farm.

Broccoli

The gardening efforts took a bit of a back seat when the floods came. They washed away newly planted seed, and put other planting & weeding efforts on the backburner. On top of that, bunnies ate a bunch of tomato plants. And finally, we've been on water restrictions, so we have been asked not to water plants. This does not set us up for a successful planting season.

However, I have started to see the fruits of our labor with the broccoli plants! Yesterday, we ate broccoli that was cut right off the stalk. Fun. And yummy!

It's a Girl!!!

Well, it's official. We are having another GIRL! Tonight we celebrated with a Pink/Blue Party. We took a sealed envelope directly to a baker yesterday, along with pink & blue gumballs. She put a pink gumball in the center to reveal our suprise!!! We found out with some of our closest family & church friends! Here are a few pictures of our fun evening. Everyone was asked to dressed in pink or blue, based on their guess.
We ate bell pepper and pesto crostini, egg salad pinwheels, and jalapeno rosemary cornbread muffins with white bean hummus. the cutest little cupcakes!we had lance & my baby books out for fun & redecorated the room with baby stuff. with pink lemonade of course!the grandmothers
separated by color, right before the "reveal". the majority was voting for boy!sorry to all in here caught in the picture with their mouth full (myself included). I just love the surprised happy faces!
girlfriends karina, kelly, me, danna & paige

21 Weeks

Tomorrow we find out if we're having a boy or girl and are celebrating with a Pink/Blue Party! I'm so excited that the pink & blue hydrangeas are in full bloom!!!! I'm sure I'll be posting the results tomorrow!!!

Pigtails

Her hair is getting long enough to "fix." Pretty cute, huh? Too bad she won't let me keep it in for longer than a minute!

More Beach Pictures

We went to the beach with some friends from our life group. We had a great time, although I got a little sunburned. Did you know you could get sunburn on your toes? our precious kids.kathryn. me, paige & kelly

New Camera & Beach

Just got a new camera & took it to the beach! More pictures coming soon!!!

My Very Own Cookbook

Here it is. My very own cookbook. I made this in December, but haven't shared it because I feared my organizational nerdiness would be mocked. But Lance is calling my blog "boring" again, so I need something to blog about.

Anyway, I have been working on this for about 2 years. My stack of magazine-ripped-recipes was growing ridiculously. So when I had a few minutes to spare here & there, I found the online version of the recipe and added it to a word document. If someone emailed me a recipe, instead of printing out another sheet of paper to add to my stack, I copy/pasted it directly into my document. Pretty soon, with a few minutes here & there, my little cookbook started to grow! It now has several hundred recipes in it! I've gotta tell you how much I love this. I use it all the time, and it's SO much easier to flip through than my recipe cards, or all those stacks of paper. I grouped them all by type of food (appetizer/main dishes/dessert, etc). I would highly recommend making your own cookbook!

Volunteer State

Many of you don't know a whole lot about Tennessee. But there is a reason why we're called the Volunteer State. It makes me weepy & proud to see all that people are doing to help their neighbors right now. My brother, who owns Baja Burrito, donated 50% of his proceeds from Monday to flood victims. My church family has been helping in countless ways, including putting together over 3,500 sack lunches to victims & workers in affected areas. My husband has been picking up & delivering furniture to people who need it. In my opinion, this is Nashville's Finest Hour. I am so grateful to live in a community which Loves Their Neighbor. I love this video. It's what I've been seeing every day since our flood hit.

click on the actual video for a new full-sized screen.

Pink Pancakes & Pea Fritters

I'm still making a slow & steady return to cooking. Not quite back to normal, but I have tried a few new recipes that I'm happy to recommend. First, I tried another one of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes. Aren't these Pink Pancakes beautiful? I was afraid my son would revolt to the pinkness, but everyone loved them! Also, Martha Stewart published these Pea Fritters in her "Kids" magazine, when it existed (oh, why did you get rid of that mag, Martha?) I've been hanging onto this recipe for 5 years now. And I'm so glad to finally get around to making it. As I was making it, I was sure that it was going to be a disaster. So I made a back up snack! However, we all thought they were delicious. It was a pleasant surprise. It does make a TON, so make sure you have a hungry family around for these guys. (Fritter Photo from Martha)

Peonies & Random Thoughts

And so life goes on. Unless your house was one of the many that was extremely damaged, things just return to normal. What a weird week has this been. We do own a rental house which suffered damage, so we're trying to decide what to do about that. We're certainly not filing a claim on that one.

So now I'm returning to thinking about simple pleasures, like my peonies that are in bloom in the front yard. And wondering if my plants will bounce back from the 14 inches of rain we received in 2 days. And thinking about what kind of terrible timing it was for our camera to die the week before the worst flood in Nashville history. And hoping I get my creative blood flowing again soon. I am missing the boring little tasks of everyday life & looking forward to its' return.

FYI: Although a federal natural disaster is completely different than a car running into your house, here's my TOP 10 LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT INSURANCE CLAIMS, in case some of these things apply to some of you reading.

Watch This

Nashville In The News

picture of our downtown, from here.It's a bit surreal to be going through what our city is going through, while it's barely being mentioned in the national news, due to other also-important world events. I have included a few news clips below which do pause to tell our story. If you would like to donate relief supplies or help with recovery, visit Hands On Nashville. If you would like to help in a more personal way, I would love to talk to you about specific needs of this community. Our church is collecting many donations, including gift cards for groceries, and other household essentials for community neighbors. I'm keeping it short, still, since there is much to do around here. But please take a minute to read/watch some on the below links.

*Keith Obermann clip: In one minute, he sums up our situation, while actually acknowledging that it's a huge story that just can't be told because of other huge stories.

*A local blogger's perspective for why our story is not being told. "A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own."

NBC Nightly News & Weather Channel
NBC Nightly News & Weather Channel

Here's a flickr photo stream.

A more pensive/moving videographic collection of images from Nashville & surrounding areas. It's a good one.

The Grand Ole Opry is submerged, as are many historical landmarks. Like Downtown's Bicentennial Mall, before & after the rain. Opryland Hotel is underwater.

Here are 2 cnn links. CNN News Link #1 and CNN Link #2

Aerial Photographs from the Tennessean.com

Watch as road collapses in real time. This is what the water is doing all over here. Massive amounts of water.

If you don't live here, are you getting this picture from your news stations? I'm just not seeing it!

Sandbagging Nashville

Pictured, about an hour ago, 7:30 pm, May 3, 2010. My husband took this of people waiting to surround areas of Nashville, an effort which is not yet completed. If you are available to help, please see hon.org .

Today has been crazy. There is tons to say about what's going on here, but not much time to say it. I love my husband, and am so proud of his efforts, working so hard to help so many. Of course he's not alone. I'm proud to be part of a church community which has come together to help those in need.

If you would like to assist in volunteer efforts for Nashville, please contact me or post here. We've got a team of major efforts going on right now & I can easily get you plugged into needs of Nashville.

In the next few days, I'll fill you in on life around here. I can't believe this isn't getting more National News. They are saying this is a ONE THOUSAND YEAR FLOOD.

More to come later. Am pregnant. Must eat.