why I love our (now married) babysitter

We have had Katrina as our sitter since Ted was about two. We use her for nighttime and if we go away at all for overnights. She is older, early twenties, married now, and is a nurse. She' s also wonderful and the kids adore her. Tonight she arrived at 5:30. We got home fairly early at 9:30. They had baked a full batch of (more!) Nestle Tollhouse cookies, done some painting with actual paint on paper (!), eaten dinner and bathed. And they were asleep. That's more than I can do with them all day long! I'm so glad she'll still do the occasional night of babysitting now that she's married. Paul and I last went out for the Kindergarden Round-Up at Eldorado back in May or so. Katrina confirmed that she babysat that night too. It's been a while!

buddies

When they're not trying to murder each other, Sam and Mae play very well. Here they are playing "Mommy and Baby are going to Noodles." Hee.

P.S. I've been getting some nice comments about the new 'header' at the top of the blog. Thanks to Wendy for getting such a classic shot, and fiddling with it enough to make it work on the blog. We love it!

Booked!

Well, I did it. I booked my Overnight Retreat at the Shoshoni Yoga Retreat in Nederland. After reading Eat, Pray, Love at bookclub, and hearing about my friend Nathalie's wonderful experience at Shoshoni, I decided to give it a try. It helps that it is less than an hour away and incredibly inexpensive. I will arrive by 3pm and leave the following day at 5:30pm. After a full week with all 3 children home, it will be a wonderful break from the chaos. And it will be short enough that I won't get all mushy and miss everyone! Here is the schedule:

Morning
5:30 - 7:00 am	GURU GITA - A beautiful Sanskrit chant
7:00 - 8:00 am	BREAKFAST
8:00 - 10:00 am	Free Time for Hiking, Health Therapies, Relaxation, Rejuvenating and Replenishment.
10:00 - 10:30 am	PRANAYAMA - Yogic breathing techniques
10:30 - 12:00	HATHA YOGA
Afternoon
12:00 - 1:00 pm	LUNCH
1:00 - 4:30 pm	Free Time for Hiking, Health Therapies, Relaxation, Rejuvenating and Replenishment.
4:30 - 5:30 pm	HATHA YOGA
5:30	Dinner
Evening
7:00 - 7:45 pm	Evening Meditation

This will be Paul's Hanukkah gift to me. If it's as restful and rejuvenating as Nathalie described, I may beg for a repeat gift for my birthday!

Paul and I practiced yoga for most of the 4 years I attended CU. We went to a "sunrise" yoga class twice a week at 7am. I was amazed at how relaxed, calm and focused I felt after each hour-long class. Paul enjoyed it too; we even followed the teacher to a private home class when CU canceled that class. I've done it off and on since then, and I always love it when I do. I am really looking forward to the yoga, as well as to the "Free Time for Hiking, Health Therapies, Relaxation, Rejuvenating and Replenishment." Free time. What a wonderful concept! I'll be going the night of December 29th and returning the 30th. I can't wait.

Eggs in a Nest

On Monday, Mae and I went out to purchase our pre-ordered 4 dozen eggs from a local 'egg lady' I had met at the Boulder Farmer's Market this summer. Paul needed a light dinner because he is playing SOCCER again tonight! (His team was on hiatus while they changed owners at the soccer field.) So, I went to Kingsolver's Eggs in a Nest, a recipe I've tried in the past and only found so-so. Of course, I wasn't using all local ingredients, or even the RIGHT ingredients. This was superb. Very tasty and very easy. It will be fun to prepare this dish again in the spring when greens are in rich supply. This was the last of our rainbow chard...so beautiful. So, CSA rainbow chard, onion, garlic & carrots and local eggs (notice the different colored yolks? Two were dark orange and two were dark pink. Both were delicious.) The rice wasn't local...need to get on that, although we don't eat a lot of rice. YUM.

Big Swimmer!

Tuesday is swim day for all 3 kids. For the past 2 weeks Mae has been swimming in the baby class without me, which has been great for me but a little weird for the other parents who are in the pool! This week, we happened to get there WAY early and Judy had her do the "big kid class" with 3 other 3 year olds. She did great! She was a bit weepy at the beginning, but did just fine and was very happy to do the 'big slide' just like Sam. Ahhh...after 5 years of doing the Hokey Pokey, I can sit and chat and enjoy all the kids loving the water.
In other news, I broke my first board at TKD tonight (just a white one, not hard, but it was still cool!) I'm all ready with my gift giving list this year (think homemade, think kitchen, think local...mmmm) and my little "root cellar" in the basement is all settled. Baskets are already full of potatoes, squash, carrots, turnips, beets, onions and garlic. Bring on the winter. It's especially sweet to not have to get cold and wet every Tuesday!

more local thoughts

It seems like everywhere I look there are going local efforts being made across America (as opposed to everywhere else in the world where eating local is the norm). This all started back in February when we joined our CSA, Abbondanza, and began getting a weekly organic produce delivery from Denver Door to Door Organics. Both began to slowly change our eating...planning meals around what was "in our box" (i.e. in season!), weekly visits to the wonderful Boulder Farmer's Market, the "happy chicken eggs" farms, Cure Organic and Red Wagon Farms' farmstands and prompting more discussion with the kids about where our food comes from. Our book for bookclub in August was Kingsolver's acclaimed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which truly changed my life. Suddenly it all fell into place. From there, we joined the Eat Local Challenge in September. Far from being easy, I was surprised and disappointed in myself at how simple it was to eat out, pick something up on the way home, grab that can of beans from...who knows where? I did better in October, and came across the Dark Days Challenge for October and beyond. This has been easier because I have the tools and resources now to source out the ingredients I really need (and to buy organic or Fair Trade when it's unavailable-like maple syrup and coffee!). The Thanksgiving challenge was not even aimed at my section of the US, but it had a cute logo banner so I grabbed it to remind myself (and anyone else who happens to read this and is interested) that it IS POSSIBLE to plan even a lavish feast with local produce. While the meal was thought out in advance, certain things were left up to the CSA pickup 2 days before. That's OK! Our basement box of CSA squash and potatoes are doing well; our fridge lower baskets are full of carrots, beets, turnips and cabbage (all keep beautifully in the cool, dry environment). Bring on winter! Soups and stews with homemade bread will keep us warm and cozy. Occasional feasts of greens will surprise us sometimes and now I know what to do for next winter. I know to blanch and freeze any excess greens in the spring (I've frozen so much shredded zucchini...we will have zucchini bread all winter-yum!), to cook up the delicious tomato sauce I discovered and freeze that for impromptu spaghetti, and to always stock up on the local jams and jellies around Halloween at the local pumpkin patches (YUM!) I am already looking forward to the first Farmer's Market in April, determined to do even better next year. For my family's health. For environmental reasons. For the supremely tastier flavor of local, fresh, in season foods. For FUN!

Zoo Day

The last day of a 4-day weekend is always sad. Not only was it HEAVENLY to sleep in (as much as 3 little children let you sleep) and laze about in jammies, there were so many leftovers that we just knoshed whenever. LOTS of playing, lots of reading, lots of chess, some TV (*ahem*)...all the good stuff that vacations can bring. So for our last day we went to the Denver Zoo. It was a beautiful, sunny high 50's day and a perfect one for an outdoor outing. We didn't get any pics (amazingly) because I think we were too busy having fun. The kids had a few meltdowns, but all in all, a great trip. All the fresh air made me sleepy (after being cooped up in the house cooking for days on end) so I crashed out when we got home. Dinner was CSA bok choi and leftover CSA mashed potaotes with Punk Rock Gravy, plus some Seitan 'o Greatness. I hadn't made it in ages and it seemed a nice accompaniment to greens and potatoes. Yummy. The boys' lunchboxes are packed and in the fridge, all permission slips are signed and in backpacks, and we are ready for the final 3 week push til Winter Break. I absolutely LOVE that I don't have to drive the carpool on Monday mornings. Makes the transition oh-so-much easier for me. Hope everyone had a wonderful break!

No Knead Bread

I have to talk a little more about the No Knead Bread, which was a star at our T-day meal. I found it at steamykitchen, although apparently it's been around a while. I used 3 cups white flour for T-day (Erin is a die-hard white bread gal) so for tonight's loaf I tried 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups white. I was worried about it...it seemed too floury and not wet or bubbly enough...but it came out fabulous. Delicious. I am SO happy to have found this simple, tasty recipe. Our soup tonight was Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup (EDBV) and it was a perfect soup for a cold evening. It used local onion, garlic and carrots and made a TON, so some is in the deep freeze right now. Back to the bread - it comes out round, since the shape of the bowl it rises in is round and rather high. Some people have tried dividing the loaf into 2 smaller bowls, and then carving them out a la bread bowl. I might have to give that a try too. Yum!

Chess

He captured my knight in his 2nd move! He says they play at school. Whoever taught him to play taught him well - he knows how the pieces move although he doesn't have much strategy yet. Still, he beat me anyway!

Fun with a flashlight

Eat Local Thanksgiving 2007!

What a delicious and fun Thanksgiving meal! The Hackels came, including Anna and "Momo Rivka", which made the holiday festive and noisy! Ted, Sam and Henry played together so well. Mae and Henry played together well too...good times.
The local slant of our meal came off deliciously, IMO. Here's the run-down:

• Lentil & Golden Squash Pot Pie: CSA squash, onion & garlic
  

• Sweet Dumpling Stuffed Squash : CSA pumpkin, peppers, onion & garlic
  

• Mashed Potoatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy: CSA purple and golden potatoes, onions & garlic

• Garlicky Kale w/ Sesame-Tahini Dressing: CSA kale & garlic
  

• No Knead Bread: fabulous, delicious, amazing. This one's a keeper.
  

• Chocolate Pumpkin Pie : from EDBV, just OK, not great. CSA pumpkin.
  

• Family Recipe Traditional Pumpkin Pie: CSA pumpkin; delicious as always!

So, to wrap up, every dish was planned to use the CSA bounty we receive. It was a fabulous meal and very local. I consider it a success. Next year, with access to local beans and flour, I hope to make it ALL local (except for olive oil & spices, which if bought Fair Trade/organic, is at least a step.)

Ted made a beautiful card at school and had written what he was thankful for: Toys, Mom & Dad. I am thankful for so much!! At this point, the wonderful food we have access to and the precious family and friends in my life are the high points. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Impromptu Tollhouse Cookies

Sam was eager to help me with our T-day preparations this morning. I had him using the mixer for our traditional pumpkin pie (top pic)....this led to an impromptu batch of Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies (bottom pic)....

snow

Beans!! (and a simple local dinner)

Shanan (our CSA's fearless leader/owner) and I sent lots of emails today and yes! we are going to get beans, starting in 2 weeks. Cherokee purple (like a kidney but way better), hopi black (turtle), anasazi, two different garbanzos, lentils, white, Indian woman (gold,
wonderful like a pinto) and two other types! I'm so excited! Besides squash, I think beans are so fundamental in our winter meals...we're almost through the squash from our Keeper Share from 2 weeks ago and we only got 4 today (one was this cool, rare Blue Ballet - definitely T-day worthy!) I plan to do a load of cooking tomorrow, mostly baking the squash & pies for our T-day feast. Hooray!

A simple dinner of sauteed CSA bok choi & mashed (mixed types) CSA potatoes with leftover Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy. MAN I love that stuff!!

Another Local Meal...quick and easy

Honey Baked Lentils and Bok Choi Stir Fry (local honey & CSA onions, garlic & bok choi). We've had these before and they are simple, fast and delicious. Mmmm. I MUST find a local source for beans. Tomorrow is our CSA Keeper Share pick up and I'm going to ask about that. Technically we are going to receive some beans in our share...I'll ask which ones and WHEN! Hopefully in time for Thanksgiving!!

Speaking of which, here is the tentative Eat Local Thanksgiving 2007 Menu!

• Lentil & Golden Squash Pot Pie (had this for T-day '98 and it was delicious!)
  

• Sweet Dumpling Stuffed Squash (perhaps pumpkin or acorn in our case, depends on the CSA pickup on Tuesday)

• Butternut Squash Timbales with Apple Chestnut Sauce

• Mashed Potoatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (VwaV)

• Garlicky Kale w/ Sesame-Tahini Dressing (VwaV)
  

• No Knead Bread
  

• Chocolate Pumpkin Pie (Vive!)

• Family Recipe Traditional Pumpkin Pie (with CSA pumpkin!)

We're having the Hackels and family for the T-day feast and I can't wait! Every dish is as local as possible, with only spices and oils being exempt. Beans and wheat, while not Boulder-local, are within the 100-mile radius and are organic.

With a picture of our sponsored turkey, Feather, on the table, this should be a delicious, vegan feast of local foods!

Last Day *sniff*

Today is Dad's last day visiting. We'll miss him!!! He has enjoyed his slow-cooked oatmeal (with dried fruit) for breakfast and French-press coffee ala Paul. And look at his handsome shirt!
Come back soon, Dad!

Local Meal...impressed even G'pa!

Tonight we had Roasted Acorn Squash Soup with CSA acorn squash, garlic and onions, with CSA kale & garlic from a few nights ago. With roasted squash seeds on top. Yum. Plus some homemade rolls. VERY delicious. I have never enjoyed entering winter so much....there are more soup and stew recipes than I have time to cook! Yum. G'pa was skeptical, but did ask for a 2nd helping, so I think he liked it! Yum.

Cheers!

I took Dad to our favorite sushi restaurant in Boulder, Japango, while the boys did Ninja Night. It's become a tradition to go to Japango and then to the Boulder Bookstore. Dear 'ole Dad sat through 3 hours of TKD today: my 2 classes, Ted's class and then Ted's first Sparring class. He LOVED it...so much his thing. He and his little friend Kirril were really going at each other, using every move they knew. Very cute. Tomorrow we have a mellow day not-planned, so we can all relax a bit. We're keeping him busy!

Friday Adventures with G'pa

Lots of goings-on and not a lot of time to post, so here is a photo journal of our day, so far (it's only 1:30pm. *yawn*).






1. Breakfast with G'pa.
2. Ted in his new sparring gear (like the cup? hee.) Usually he will have his dobok on beneath the gear.
3. Mae painting up a storm at PALs.
4. G'pa enjoying a corned beef on rye with potato salad, a dill pickle, and a (mediocre) chocolate phosphate (he says he made better ones when he was a soda jerk.)
5. Smores...the K/1 guinea pig that we're caring for over Thanksgiving break. Oh joy.

G'pa is here!

VERY yummy...and local!

I enjoy Wednesdays. After picking up Ted at 3, we can go directly home. The kids play and I usually spend the afternoon cooking. It's the one day that I have the time to do so and I enjoy it a lot! Today's dinner has been waiting around for a good Wednesday for a while now. It was a very Vegan with a Vengeance dinner, that's for sure. Mashed Potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea gravy (VERY VERY good and I'm not really a seeker of gravy), Garlicky Kale with Tahini Dressing (zippy! but good!), and Black Bean loaf which was only OK, but good. The potatoes, garlic, onions and kale were all CSA and the chickpeas and black beans homecooked. Very 'heavy' meal...we're used to a simple soup or stew for dinner so this seemed too filling...but still good. Next time I want to actually put all the food groups together like that I think I'll wait for a Sunday and have an early dinner. I also tried a recipe for Chocolate Pudding that used tofu...easy and fast but not amazingly good. Mae and I baked 2 loaves of banana bread and 2 loaves of our wheat/spelt sandwich bread too. It was a cooking type of day!
My dad arrives tomorrow morning for a short visit! I can't wait! He can't handle black beans but can do the rest. We have lots planned so we'll be very busy but I hope to take some cute pics of him with the kiddos. Should be a fun weekend!

Family Portraits

This morning we met Wendy at Purple Park for a picture session. I wanted a family portrait (the last one was taken in April of 2005 ...before Mae was even born) as well as a picture for our Holiday cards (Hanukkah starts on Dec. 5!) In the April '05 one, we were just finishing up the paperchase and needed a family portrait for our dossier. We've had a few more random shots at Mae's welcoming party and last Thanksgiving, but they were pretty squirrelly. Wendy did an amazing job. Ted was in a CRAZY STUBBORN mood and would NOT cooperate. Mae barely cracked a smile. Ole kept yiping whenever Paul tried to get him to sit down. It was hysterical. Paul and I had made a solemn vow to not get angry at the kids so we were pretty chipper and into the bribery. It ended well. If these are the shots she got with my uncooperative children, I'd be in a financial ruin if they had all been photographically perfect. As it is, Paul and I are wrestling over which family shot we like and which ones of the kids we like...You know your photographer is seriously talented when you get this many GOOD ones with such uncooperative subjects! Don't want to spoil the surprise, so this outtake seemed fitting to share. Think 110 minutes of this and 10 minutes of happy family smiling at the camera. We love you Wendy!

Success

After my disaster with the Ethiopian stew, I knew I had to try again, because it sounded really good. And we got about 3 pounds of turnips at the CSA last Tuesday...hmmm. I doubled the recipe and only used the required TEAspoons of berbere spice, and it was good! Not quite as good as I had hoped but still yummy. The broth was a bit...dusty...for lack of a better word. I feel that way about Tumeric in general I think, so I may skip it next time. It just lends a dusty feel to the otherwise silky broth. I froze 10 cups and kept 8 (it made 20 cups! Holy cow!) and it'll be warmly welcomed on a cold Friday night this winter. This is all local except for the spices and veggie broth (made with Better Than Bouillon): CSA turnips, onions, garlic & carrots as well as home-cooked chickpeas. I also baked our weekly 2 loaves of Honey Wheat/Spelt bread and we ate an entire loaf with the soup! That steaming hot bread just tastes soooo much yummier. I have a large spice container of the berbere spice now and I've seen a few recipes calling for it with roasted root veggies, so I may try that next week. A good, if not great, local meal!

Overheard

A conversation between a daddy and his almost 3-year old daughter. (Not Mae, but hysterical all the same).

Daddy: Who are you going to marry when you get older, honey?

Daughter: Marry Daddy.

Daddy: But then what's Mommy going to do?

Daughter: We don't need her.

BWA HA HA! Thus the mystery of the complex mother/daughter relationship is explained, clear as day!

Ted's First Sleepover

Ted is at Brendan's tonight. It feels weird, having him gone. I hope he's having fun!

Caterpillar for an hour

Today after PALs, Mae stayed in the Caterpillar class while I went to get Ted and Caroline's kiddos. I was supposed to take Ted's friend home too, but he was very sad about it and ended up going home with his dad. We got to Shabbat Sing and Mae ran to me, which was super sweet. Caitlan and Osi said she did fine and she seemed content. She did fall all the way down from the loft (ow!) which REALLY upset her, and she crashed right away in the car, but in general, I think all the reading and talking we're doing about preschool is doing it's job.

Tonight Ted has his very first sleepover at his friend Brendan's from chavurah. It will be very strange not having him here!!

Yum yum yum

This Dark Days Challenge rocks. I've never had so many soup and stew recipes at the ready. And this last one ROCKED. Black Bean Pumpkin soup used CSA pumpkin, onions & garlic, and homecooked black beans. It was one of the most terrific soups I've ever had...seriously good. I have 2 more pumpkins to roast (1 sugar pumpkin seems to yield 2 cups of puree so I can prepare this 2 more times...mmmm...) And it was fast and easy to prepare.

Local UnTurkey Day

Another challenge! 100 Mile Diet is doing it's 2nd Local Thanksgiving and of course we're going to join in! This is actually going to be pretty easy, since we (so far) haven't been invited anywhere and so will be preparing all our own food. And since we're vegetarian, it'll be mostly local produce, although the spices won't be local. Hopefully, we'll get some local beans in the next CSA share and then everything will be local for the big T-Day. I love Thanksgiving. I love the foods and I love that it's a truly American holiday.

We're also going to sponsor a Turkey this Thanksgiving (I don't like using the term adopt so freely. Adopt-a-road, adopt-a-turkey...not so P.C. in the "real" adoption world). Here is "our" turkey, Feather. Cutie.

In other news, I am over my flu (whew!) and Mae has slept through the night the past 2 nights (!!!) so she is on the mend as well. What a week that was. Ted is happy to be back in school and is 9 stars away from his GOLD Victory Patch in TaeKwonDo. He is really working hard at home to get things written on his "Good Deed Sheet" for the week. Between attendance, the weekly sheet and general good behavior in class, he is averaging 2-3 stars per week. Mr. D is going to start him in Sparring at the Yellow Belt, which he is SO excited about. Nothing like suiting up in a huge puffy red suit and using weapons! This is really up his alley. My dad is coming for a visit next week and besides seeing the boys, he'll get to see my class too! I had a great class tonight and am really enjoying it. Sam hasn't been as into it lately, but that's probably age-appropriate anyway. Luckily, he is still a huge sweetheart. End of update! :-)

Flu

Friday started out well. After getting Sam off to preschool, I roasted some pie pumpkins, onions and garlic for a pumpkin soup I was planning to fix for our local dinner. Well. Sometime around 1pm, I started feeling...woozy. I thought it was the smell of the roasted pumpkins (which I thought I liked but...) so I got them packed off into the fridge and started my challah. By 4 I was a puking mess and just tried to lie down as much as possible until Paul got home. I went to bed about 6 and slept in til 8ish this morning. I feel better today but not good. I hope I lick this soon! Mae is still sick with a cold and cough, but so far the boys are hanging in. We started Winnie the Pooh tonight and Ted really liked it. It's a bit more tedious than I remember as a child, but maybe kiddos like that. In any case, it's fun to read that to him since I loved it so much myself. Here's to a non-nauseous Sunday! And I think I'll get around to the pumpkin soup on Monday.

Take 5

Where have you been all my life? (And, thank goodness I haven't discovered you til now!)

Breakfast of Champions

(She did eat her entire bowl of oatmeal...thanks for the old-fashioned recipe, Wendy! Mmm...)