Monday, August 27, 2012

Camp Deep Creek - August 24 - Week 9

We did it!  We printed our shirts!

photo credit:  Willow Affleck

photo credit:  Willow Affleck
The summer is almost over, but at least we have some awesome t-shirts.
(And one more Camp Deep Creek Friday to look forward to before everyone goes back to school.)

For an up close view of the design, click here.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

A New Pace

As a parent I am often confronted by humbling moments.
I like to think that I am somewhat flexible, open minded and maintain healthy set expectations:  hair needs to be brushed.  so do teeth.  it is not okay to lie, but it is okay to keep surprises (Please don't tell Dad about the t-shirt we picked up for his birthday today... ) We navigate a foggy world of boundaries, social norms and appropriate behaviors.  I don't expect to always be right, even when arguing with a four year old.  Sometimes her arguments have a certain kind of logic and once I realize that logic I agree with her, just like I try to help her see my logic and hope she will do what I am asking of her.  But, sometimes, in spite of or maybe because of myself that there comes a moment when I so vastly underestimate what my child really is capable of.

I had one of those moments this Monday.

We were leaving a friend's house after hanging out for hours, and as I was setting Sylvan in his stroller seat she mentioned that there was a bike her daughter had out grown.  Ivory immediately ran over and began tugging it out of the pile of family bikes.  I eyed her pink strider laying in the grass and could not imagine how I would carry a bike home.
"Ivory, can we please come back for the bike?"
She pulled and pulled and pulled..  finally separating it from the other children's bikes.
"Fine.  You try and ride it.  If you can ride it you can take it home."
She was elated at that proposition, all though I was just hoping to put an end to this idea that we were taking the bike home at that moment.
"I know I can ride it.  I know I can."
She pushes the bike out of the yard.  Her two friends ahead of her on their bikes, my friend and I following behind with our sleeping little ones.  She hopped on, pushed, balanced, placed her feet on the petals, rode down the block and then rode her new bike all the way home.
She only stopped to turn around and tell me: "I told you that I could ride a petal bike."

My husband and I stood there watching her ride up and down the path on are yard, both happy and proud and a little tiny bit of something else.  "I didn't even get to give her a push", he said wistfully. "You never quite understand what they mean when they say that kids grow up too fast until it's happening in front of your eyes."


Our lives move at a new pace now.
Tuesday we made it to and from the library in record time.
Ivory looks for every excuse possible to go an a walk, so she can ride her bike just a little bit more.  She is confident, self aware and able and I hope she takes that with her in life, at what ever pace that may be, even if we aren't quite ready.

Monday, August 20, 2012

I finally marked that off my list....

"Look!  A Crawdad!"  


I  was scrolling through the photographs taken last weekend and this is one of the only pictures that we took of the 30 Hour Birthday Feast.   The other photograph is of me kneading that evening's third batch of pizza dough to be shaped, topped and baked in the out door cob oven.


These are the only photographs that commemorate the amazing weekend filled with friends and food, a float trip and pit roasted lamb that began my last year of my twenties.  And while I have a mental list of things I would like to do before I am thirty, I had a much more pressing issue to tackle this last week.

Remember all of those capes I made last week for Camp Deep Creek?


Well, I had an even larger pile of t-shirt scraps sitting in my living room that I just couldn't bear to throw away.  So puttering around in my living room alone, while my husband worked away in the wood shop out back, it occurred to me that I could use these scraps to mark something off of yet another mental to do list: make a floor mat for our bathroom. So I found my giant crochet hook, turned on a movie and started the tedious task of turning a pile of rags into one inch strips.
A few hours later I had this:  A floor mat that echoes the pattern of our shower curtain and used up almost every little scrap of t-shirt. 


We spent Friday morning running errands.  There was no Camp Deep Creek.  Instead we drove across town, munched on bags of popcorn while I picked out a new canning set up at the Ace Hardware store.  (Another task marked off of that never ending mental list)  This fall I want to be able to process quarts not just pints.  Afterward we walked along the Rattlesnake creek and Ivory took an impromptu dip in the water. 



My timing was off and hungry bellies and bathroom needs forced us to climb back into our car just a little to soon, promising myself and Ivory that we would come back in the evening with Adam and picnic in tow.

Picnic at the bank of a bubbling creek - check.
Soaking up the summer sun - check.
Randomly bumping into friends on a walking trail - check.

These are things were not even on my list until they happen, but they were perfect.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Roasted Beet Sushi Roll

A new take on the California Roll. 


Fake crab, cream cheese and roasted beet that bleeds a bright pink into the surrounding sushi rice.
YUM!


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Camp Deep Creek - August 10 - Week 8

 Thursday: I spent the afternoon turning T-shirts into capes.



 A lot of capes.


Capes to be turned into creatures real and imaginary. 

Friday:  With bits of lace, felt and feathers the older kids turned their capes into a sloth, a mountain lion and a blue bird.


The boys went off to patrol the borders of their animal kingdoms,


while Ivory continued to add little bits and pieces to her cape, that started out as a blue bird.  Soon the blue bird was joined by a balloon and a multitude of flowers. 


So, for all of the Deep Creek Campers that were not present this Friday and would like to make your own cape, this is what you need: 

a T- shirt
heat bonded Velcro
an iron with a steam setting
scissors
and the instructions from this tutorial

I left my sewing machine firmly in its case for this one, and I don't own a hot glue gun.  So for the Velcro closure around the neck I used heat bonded Velcro tabs that I found at Joanne's. So simple and fun!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Beet and Onion Tart

I spent the evening sitting at the ceramics studio, teasing the clay into what will hopefully become a tall, free standing sculpture.  When I arrived home the dinner dishes were still stacked by the sink, the house mostly picked up and I found Adam, Ivory and Sylvan all cuddled up in the same bed.  I resisted the urge to wash the dishes and decided instead to put together this post that has been haunting me ever since I baked my Beet and Onion Tart a few days ago.  

There is something so indescribably gratifying about being able to pull a plant from the ground, carry it to the kitchen table and share it with family and friends.  Being able to make an entire meal from ingredients almost entirely from the garden is even better.  


I pulled yellow and red onions from the ground and beets with nice lush greens, and as most times when I walk back into the house with my harvest, my cookbooks lacked an option that utilized these plants in their entirety.  After staring at my pile of vegetables for a while, I asked Adam to make a single pie crust while I chopped up the vegetables, and this is what we enjoyed for dinner an hour later:

Beet and Onion Tart

7 small red and yellow onions (and some of the leaves)
4 small to medium sized beets (and all of the greens)
4 ounces feta cheese
salt 
pepper 
balsamic vinegar
oil
1 pie crust
  • preheat the oven to 375 degrees
  • cut the onions into rings and caramelize.  Wile the onions are cooking prepare the other ingredients.
  • cut as many green onions as you wish to sprinkle on top of the tart, set aside 
  • chop the beets into small and thin pieces (an alternative would be to use already roasted beets) set aside
  • chop the beet greens into small pieces, set aside as well
  • roll out the pie crust and transfer to a cookie sheet
  • brush with oil
  • layer the caramelized onions, beet greens, beet pieces, feta and green onions in that order
  • sprinkle with balsamic vinigar, oil and salt and pepper
  • fold the edges of the dough over the toppings and brush with oil
  • bake for 45 minutes



There was nothing left.  Even Ivory, who initially resisted, cleaned her plate.  Next time I think I might just make two crusts, pull a few more onions, a few more beets and make it a beet and caramelized onion pie!!



T-shirt Design??



Images included:
boat
wildflower
insect
music

I hope it includes some of this summer's highlights.. Let me know what you think.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Time in Lists

Every morning I make a list of three things that made me happy the day before. A practice I started when life became crazy - and that was a ...