Camping on the Russian River

We had our first successful family camping trip along the Russian River in Guerneville. It was awesome. We had hot dogs and beans (classic, must haves for the first official camping excursion.) I taught Jack how to roast marshmallows, Adam had plenty of time outside, the hubs and I played dominoes until we got tired--at 8:30. It was great. We stayed at Johnson's Beach, and besides the loud group next to us (should have known better when we saw the half-empty bottle of Jim Beam on their picnic table--rookie mistake) it was quiet and very family-friendly. I even saw two mamas breastfeeding on our drive in! 

Last days of summer

 Easy sewing project for a four-year-old/ mess maker/ glasses=officially old/ smiles on the grass in San Francisco/ Daddy and his ocean

Lazy days of summer

Well, we had our first blackberry picking of the year. It strikes me how tired I look in this photo (and yet the boys look so well-rested, hmmm.) It was fun picking berries, but kind of tricky with a baby in a front-carry baby carrier. I was so worried his little legs were going to get scratched by thorns that I didn't get the large amount of berries I'm used to getting. But it was good having him so close at the same time, since whenever I picked a blackberry that was too soft to toss in the basket, it went right in his mouth! This is him after I cleaned up his face (mostly.) Jack got good and juicy.

 Here are some art projects that Jack came up with. He's into creating landscapes and pasting things on top of them. The first one is a forest, the second, dinosaurs of course. I love the pterodactyl. And look, it's even got a volcano!

 Finally, these are some shorts I made. I got so sick of trying on shorts in stores that were just too short or too long or too old-lady-looking, I just made my own. I used a pair of pajama pants as a pattern and followed this tutorial for attaching the elastic. I always just tried to wing it with elastic before, which is ridiculous because my projects never really came out the way I wanted them too. It took like 5 minutes to watch the tutorial, and it's so fricking easy, I'm kicking myself for not learning this basic skill earlier. Still, there's something to be said for trying to figure something out on your own, no?

Not the snazziest material I know, but it was all I had a large enough quantity of (that's why I should always buy yards of fabric I love when I see it--duh.) But they are perfect for playing with the boys and going for walks in this heat.

Finally, a super easy, massive amount of time-filling activity for little ones. Get a big bowl of water, fill it halfway and have your 3-4 year-old gather little objects to see which ones will sink and which will float. We are on day three of this and Jack still loves it. As a bonus, he can now use the word 'hypothesis' in a sentence.

Plum jam

We made this plum jam the other day from plums we picked off various trees in our neighborhood park and growing on the side of the road. It's good, a bit tart, but I like tart. I burned the first batch, so I watched the second one carefully and cooked it less than the recipe called for. It's the perfect consistency; I love the chunks of purple and yellow plums.

We had some plums leftover, so I used them to make a plum cornmeal galette. It was perfection. I ate the whole thing by myself in just over two days. Not a good few days for the old health, but oh--who can resist? The taste of summer gets me every time.

Find the galette dough recipe here, and a link to the Martha plum jam recipe here. She uses plums and peaches, but I used all plums. I found I needed some extra sugar and maybe two pinches of salt to counteract the added sugar. It was still quite tart, but tasted homemade and not sugary sweet like store bought jam.

Summer fashion!

Just got this Tart jumper and love it! Mine is exactly the same as the one shown, but sleeveless. I can wear it to the farmer's market, dress it up with heels or sleep in it. I think it's timeless.

And I love these cute, glittery sandals from Target, they are surprisingly comfortable.

Farmer's Market adventures

Since we found out that we'd be having another child, I've been trying to create daily or weekly rituals for Jack and me. One of these is our weekly visit to the farmer's market. We're so lucky to live in California, in the wine country no less, because we get beautiful seasonal produce all year. Our farmer's market is popular in the community, so going there is a great opportunity for us to people watch and be reminded of the kind of community we live in. There's always live music and picnic tables set up, even a little playground for Jack to play on.

We have one rule (that sometimes sticks, other times...not so much.) We have to get one healthy thing each, and then one sweet or unhealthy thing to share. Most times we get apples to munch on while we search for a huge muffin (like the chocolate cherry one above) but other times Jack surprises me and gets a pomegranate or a persimmon. Once he actually chose a basket of organic strawberries as his 'sweet treat.'

I'm hoping we can keep up this weekly tradition after the baby comes, it's such a positive way to learn about where our food comes from and a simple activity to celebrate the changing seasons...

Trip to Ireland

Sorry about the radio silence, but we've been on a lovely, long trip in Ireland. My husband is from Northern Ireland and this trip has been long in the works.

It was great for him to get back home and wonderful to introduce our little one to all things Irish. I was thrilled to get back to the country that feels like my second home. I mean, look at how beautiful and green it is...

Here is a short video of Grafton Street in Dublin. It rained on this day (and on the other 16 of the 17 days we were there--hello Irish summer!)

 So the trip plus the fact that I am now six months pregnant (!) combine to make one pretty good excuse for not blogging for the last three months if I do say so myself! I hope to do more now that we are in fall again (ahhhh) and I'm itching to get baking and crafting.

Vegan Strawberry Shortcakes

I've been obsessed with biscuits lately. Scones, shortcakes, flaky biscuits--anything that I can throw some fresh fruit and cream on. I found this great recipe for vegan shortcakes. While they are great right out of the oven--delicate crumb, balanced and light vanilla flavor--they did harden up as the day wore on. No bother, I simply split and toasted them. It should be noted too that while the shortcakes are entirely vegan, the whipped cream is not. These would be just as delicious with dairy-free vanilla ice cream.

Vegan Shortcakes

 3 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced

 ¼ cup and 2 T. white sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
6 T. dairy-free soy margarine, cut into pieces
½ cup unsweetened plain almond milk, soymilk or rice milk

 

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, toss the strawberries with the 2 T. sugar until well coated. Cover and place in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make the biscuits. In a big bowl, mix together the remaining ¼ cup sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until well-mixed. Add the dairy-free soy margarine and cut it in until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the non-dairy milk alternative and mix until the dough just begins to hold together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
3. On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and pat into 8 small round biscuits. Transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with sugar, and bake about 18-22 minutes, or until golden. Allow the biscuits to cool on the baking sheet. To serve, place two biscuits on each plate with a scoop of whipped cream or dairy-free ice cream and a helping of the sugared strawberries.

35th Birthday

We spent my birthday (35?!) at a beautiful vacation home in Calistoga.

It was truly lovely. The swimming pool, the wrap-around porch. Not to mention a hot tub. And we made a version of a salad my sister and I had in Paris years ago. Perfectly dressed greens, couscous, fingerling potatoes, carrots and tomatoes. The real Parisian salad had goat's cheese wrapped in a crepe, cooked in butter though. Mmmm.

We chose to nix the cheese in the salad because my sister made this cake, complete with goat's cheese frosting. And goat cheese on goat cheese, I don't know....too much of a good thing, perhaps.

This will come in handy this summer...

The Hunger Games

I am obsessed with these books. They are a trilogy, the first one being The Hunger Games. A review from Amazon describes the tale as "a gripping story set in a post-apocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death." I know, brutal.

At first, I wasn't sure that I could get into books with as much violence as these have got, but I quickly got over that. They are real page-turners and the plot gives you what you want. I found myself saying, I wish this would happen...and then a few chapters later, it would.  Books with short chapters are great too--they tell the stories in little nuggets, perfect for lunch breaks or nap times. And there are great cliffhanger endings for nearly each chapter. "His heart was no longer beating" or "And that is how a revolution dies." They are classified as young adult lit, but aren't as full of sappy, drawn-out conversations as say, the Twilight series (which I loved but ended up skimming over a lot of the romantic stuff.)

I'm on the last book now, Mockingjay. A friend who recommended these books found this one a bit slower than the others. I'm enjoying it so far. Anyone have ideas for good summertime reading?