Eating Like Kings

In this season of abundance we have been finding great joy in seeing just how much we can base each meal in food grown here in our own earth. It has been an experiment of wonderful satisfaction and fulfillment…not to mention excellent nutrition! And we have been eating like kings! The kind of kings that grow, pick, and prepare their own food…but kings nonetheless!

Each day we venture out into the garden to tend and harvest. In this late August time it is becoming quite the jungle. More than once a little one has found themselves hopelessly trapped by the prickly vines of an extremely overzealous squash patch. (Check out that squash craziness below!)

As I plan my meals for the day my mental calculations are not of what I have in the cupboards to work with…but what I have ripe in the garden to work with…and we go from there. (During the school year I like to plan out my meals for the week, but in the summertime I find us living much more day to day…it is a refreshing break, and makes us all the more ready for the weekly meal plans that come back in the fall!) With the overwhelming abundance in the garden right now there is no end to the delicious meal possibilities. Lately we have been thoroughly enjoying a meal of corn on the cob, swiss chard salad, and tomato and pesto sandwiches. We are not vegetarians, though we eat very little meat, and this one of our favorite all-veggie meals of the summer.

In this heat the swiss chard needs to be picked quite young before it “bolts” and turns bitter (and yucky!). Though the most common way to eat swiss chard is cooked in some way we find we love it best fresh in a salad. For this salad I tore up the swiss chard in bite size pieces, added chopped cucumbers and tomatoes and a bit basil on top. (I believe that I am in serious danger of becoming hopelessly addicted to basil…it simply intoxicatingly fragrant and savory…oh sweet basil!) I served the salad in a favorite pie plate with poppy seed dressing. This poppy seed dressing is one I discovered and tried on a whim earlier this summer. It’s genius. Absolutely delicious and super easy to make.

Poppy Seed Dressing

Mix together in a blender:

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon onion (grated)

Add the following ingredients while the blender is running:

1 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

Makes about 2 cups.

Tomato sandwiches are something I look forward to all year….thoroughly enjoy all during tomato season…then look forward to again the following year! Don’t be alarmed if you are a bit apprehensive of a tomato sandwich. My own husband hadn’t tried one (I think mainly out of bewilderment and fear!) until this summer. He eats them all the time now!

This is a sandwich that is definitely open to interpretation and personal variations…but this is how we like them. Lightly toast two slices of homemade bread….like this one. (You don’t have to use homemade bread but if you’re choosing a store bread be sure it has some substance…this sandwich will not work with a “wonder bread” type loaf.) So… on one of your lightly toasted bread slices spread a bit of mayonnaise and on the other a layer of fresh basil pesto. Place a ~3/4 inch slice of tomato on the bread, sprinkle with salt, cover with the other slice of bread, and enjoy! I love it when the tomatoes get so huge that the slice extends past the edges of the bread! Tomato season is heavenly! Pesto on the tomato sandwiches is a new development this year as we tried pesto on just about anything it is just so delicious. (Previously we just spread mayo on both slices of bread.)

Fresh pesto can be made with a very wide variety of greens and nuts. Though fresh basil and pine nuts is the most common, I also love mint and almonds. And to be honest I most often use walnuts in place of pine nuts in basil pesto as it is what I commonly have on hand. Pesto is very much a “to taste” sort of recipe and can be adjusted in infinite ways to suite your tastes. This is the basic recipe that I use. I actually don’t have a food processor so use a blender…which is much harder and more tedious. I dream of food processor pesto making!

Pesto

2 cups basil (or any green…packed)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup nuts (chopped very fine if you’re using a blender!)

3 medium garlic cloves

salt & pepper to taste

Combine basis and pine nuts in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts pulse them a few times on their own before adding the basil.) Add the garlic and pulse a few more times.

Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes approx. 1 cup.

***

Though I love so many times of year and what the bring…I do believe that I love this “harvest” season best of all. Today’s harvest season adventure…picking a wild abundance of tomatoes and canning them up as juice, soup, and stewed tomatoes. Ah…the joys of the earth.

China Cabinet Refinish

The sweet little thrifting fairies have been very very good to me lately. Somehow they caught on to the new musings and dreams in the project sector of my brain centered on remaking tired old furniture into something truly amazing. (So easy to make something truly amazing in ones brain isn’t it!) My infection with the itch to get my hands on some great furniture pieces has been largely fueled by this blog that my sister introduced me to. My daughter and I have great fun looking through the project before and afters and I find myself very inspired. I do have to admit that there are times when we prefer the “before”!

The first piece that entered my life (for the dazzling price of … free!) was a dated china cabinet with damage from being stored in a hot humid garage. As with all furniture redo's not all pieces are created equal. In terms of wooden pieces such as this there is little use putting time and effort into remaking a poorly made piece. Particle board…MDF…wibbly wobbly construction…not worth it. Look for solid wood pieces with strong joints. Aside from considering construction and materials the next challenge is to look at the piece for its lines and shapes and forget whatever unpleasing finish is currently on it. This is trick as some finishes are quite distracting in their hideousness…yikes!!

In terms of this cabinet I knew several things right away. I knew it was a well built solid wood piece despite the peeling veneer and and broken hardware. I knew I wanted it as a dresser and not a china cabinet. I knew the lines were good…despite the dated treatments. I knew the glass was more of a canvas than window…the only question was what to put on that canvas. I knew it needed to be mine!

I started by getting rid of the molding at the top of the cabinet and removing all the loose veneer. I sanded the entire piece and spray painted. I was very pleased with the quality of finish the spray painting produced. It was my first time spray painting anything. There were serious doubts from the peanut gallery on whether it would turn out well…! Choosing hardware turns out to be just as much fun as choosing buttons. I highly suggest little children for this activity. It is so much fun to see what they love and are drawn to…and all those little handles to try out! Yikes! We do love hardware store trips.

With new paint and hardware the only thing left to do was create some kind of finish on the glass. Because I was planning to use the cabinet as a clothes dresser I wanted some opaqueness to the glass…but not all opaque. After way to much deliberation I decided on a graphic floral design and bold stripes. This was by far the most tedious and time consuming part of the project. But I love it….so it’s easy to forget about the work involved! I covered the glass with contact paper and traced my design onto it.

Then…little by little…bit by bit…I cut away the pieces with an exacto knife.

After the pieces that I wanted to be opaque-ish were cut away I used a frosting finish for glass and sprayed several even coats. Then the best part…peeling off the contact paper and revealing the finished design.

I am sooo happy with how it came out! It’s fresh and modern and just the look I was going for. I love using it and am so excited to finish more pieces.

BEFORE

AFTER

moments

I’ve stepped out of this space for a bit adventuring with family.  It was a  wonderful “slowing down” time as most of our moments were spent in the still and isolated (cell-phone and internet free) hill towns of western Mass.  Though I believe our life is quite still and calm, lived mainly at home all together and so much in tune with the rhythms of the earth, I was wonderfully surprised with just how much stillness I was missing…and just how good it felt to simply be.  Though I will bring you up to date little by little with our adventures today I simply bring you a few moments from our days. 

A beautiful drive made even more beautiful by a sleeping babe and the entrancing stories told by Natasha.

Ahh sweet stillness.  And what could possibly beat an Auntie who will sit forever and look look at and throw rocks into the water with you?!?!

 

Now we are back.  The laundry is running.  Children are happily reacquainting themselves with their favorite playthings.  And they are here.  Baskets and bushels and tubs and bowls of fruits and vegetables are everywhere.  Though I am immensely grateful for the produce grown by our hands and the hands of those we love that is currently filling the kitchen I am a bit daunted by the task that these hands will be facing in the next 48 hours.  Ah…sweet harvest season…welcome back.   

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

Many Views of Mr. 2!!!

Our little man-cub is 2 today!

Two of my very favorite pictures of my little guy.  Try not to smile looking at them…I dare you!!!

Celebrating the birthdays of your children as a mother is so very different than celebrating any other birthday at all.  As a mother the birthday celebration is a celebration of the little soul whose day it is…and the birth that happened that day.  My two little loves, though remarkably similiar in temperment (we had a glimmer of hope that this little guy was going to be calm like his Dad…yea…not so much!!!)  came into this world in very different ways.  Now that they are here there is not the smallest iota of difference between them in how much they are loved and treasured.  Each of them is a miracle that I am truly grateful for.  Yet I find I can look back on the events of this day 2 years ago with a bit more ease and calm than the events of Oct 8 and 9th 5 years ago.  Birth aside, this a little boy to celebrate and enjoy.  His smiley, funny self has brought us such joy.  These days he is never far from his sisters side mimicking and learning and getting oh-so-big much too quickly.  Though you might say that at 10 lbs 3oz and 23” long he started out big!!  Big or not…this is a little guy with spunk and healthy dose of goof…the perfect little brother!!! 

It is so wonderful to celebrate this little man cub today.  There will be plenty of these…some vintage toys…handmade gooness…outdoor adventures strategically planned between the forecasted thunderstorms…the perfect pizza…and all sorts of birthday love.  

  Oh does he love trucks…and tractors…and fire trucks…and basically anything with big wheels!!

   

Now I would not be truthful if I didn’t admit that this birthday also brings with it the twinge of sadness as yet another babyhood comes near its end.  Such is motherhood I suppose.  Though I am so excited to get to know this little 2 year old man cub I will dearly miss this little guy.  But not much has changed really…he stills spends a great deal of time in the swing though he has given up sink sitting for sink filling (yikes!)…and more often than not you’ll find him playing in the sand box or getting dirty in the garden.  What a delightful little soul he has! 

Patience

It seems that whenever I focus on, dream of, and strive for increased patience, (see yesterdays post!), than oh-so-much happens to help me learn patience.  Oh-so-much.  Yikes!  I’m not a super impatient person, I think I do pretty well…but I’m not a saint!  It’s usually the time between making dinner, and children asleep in their beds, that I’m inconsistent in the patience department.  The key for me is remembering to pause before I speak or react in any way.  I don’t count or anything…just take a breath and pause…then (try) to make sure I am speaking (tone and words) in a way that I won’t regret.  It’s a constant effort…some days tested more than others.  Yet always, despite my best efforts all day long, my evenings are often filled with musing and wonderings and twinges of guilt and regret at failed efforts for patience.  Someone once told me that guilt is a mothers constant companion.  And although I truly believe that there are other much more beautiful and impactful companions to mothers…guilt and wonderings of “what if?” lurk their ugly little heads in the corners.  At a moment that I was particularly overwhelmed with my imperfections as a mother, my own mother reminded me that my memories of my own childhood are happy despite an imperfect (in her mind!) mother.  It is good to be reminded of that. Because when all is said and done children are resilient and forgiving, and mothers are constant and loving, striving for happiness and all that is good for their children.  And so that is what will stay with them as they grow and someday become parents of their own little band of marauders, striving for their own increased patience.  I hold onto this thought as I go through my days…constantly pausing and practicing my own patience. 

If there is one thing I have learned as a mother, it is that there are infinite ways to mother.  After all…we are all different and have different children…so naturally our mothering is different!  There is so much to be learned from those around us living the same life in a different home!  I would love to hear how you practice and increase your own patience.  Do you pause, count, visualize something…?  Please share!!!

Tree

 

I have been thinking of this tree lately.  I find it stunning.  A bit twisted and kind of funky…but still amazing.  Creating a bit of beauty in its small space in this big wide world for those who come upon it to bask in and enjoy.  I’d like to be this tree.  Twisted and funky is no problem…I don’t think I can avoid that…but the rest is a constant effort.  Today’s goal: patience, patience, patience…and uber-productivity.  Wish me luck.