Egg time

Last year I got the best book in the bargain bin at a local used book shop, The Egg Tree. E+E love the story and I love the illustrations. This year we got a bunch of Easter-themed books out the of the library and have fallen for The Birds Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story.  I picked up a Ukrainian egg kit a while back and brought it out today remembering we won't be here next week and this may be our last chance to decorate eggs. Before reading the directions I had Eli blow out an egg only to realize we'd decorate raw eggs but it was worth seeing a mini-Dizzy in action, don't you agree? He wanted nothing to do with the long involved process but Eva stuck right with it for almost three hours. I still need to get an image of the final egg but the process is almost as interesting.

beef stew weather

I've never craved beef stew but this weather, week after week of rain-drops dripping down our windows and the back of our necks, has me thinking of nothing else. I picked up some grass-fed beef from Bi-Rite and made the most delicious and new variety of beef stew. I tried the recipe from the The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook , I think I've only made it once and it was a traditional stew made with carrots, beef, potatoes, braised with flour for thickner, you get the picture, like mom made. This particular recipe is beef stew with carrots based on a french version called boeuf aux carrottes, and I chose to serve it over boiled potatoes.

With the oven preheated to 325 degrees, I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper, braised each piece until browned on each side, set it aside. Once the beef is set aside nicely browned, I added a cup of red wine and cooked over medium heat. Now the recipe later asked to add one more cup and reduced to half, I think next time I will reduce the 2 cups of wine at once as we all felt a little drunk after this dinner (the alcohol in the second cup was trapped with the lid on), the children were asleep at 7:15 on the dot! I added 2 bunches of carrots, a quart of homemade chicken broth, a nice strip of orange rind peeled with a peeler, onions, a bouquet of garni (what I had from our C.S.A. - rosemary and sage), put lid on the enameled pot and let cook for an hour and half. It was delicious.

follow-up note: So I started this posting two weeks ago and a note: I asked the chidren last night if they wanted beef stew and they both said NO! maybe not a hit with the under 5 feet set, although their bowls were mighty empty. No wonder I never ask them what they want - they just get what I make.

Bike + Byrne

I've always loved the Talking Heads and was so pleased to get up-close-and-personal with David Byrne's Journal. He is so cool, taking his collapsible bike around the world with him on his year-long tour. I think I'm going to have to get his book Bicycle Diaries out of the library, keeps me motivated to get on Pumpkin as much as possible.

Last week I was able to ride her to Golden Gate Park, meet a friend for a walk, spend an hour at the Amish Quilt Exhibit at the de Young Museum, ride to school and home with Eva on the back. I was a bit neurotic taking Pumpkin to the Park as our friends had two bike stollen there on Saturday at the Sciene Museum bike rack. The guard tole them that someone walks up, sprays liquid nitrogen on the lock and ride away minutes later. I took both my locks that came with the bike, one weighing at least 7 lbs. With the locks and 56 lb girl in tow, I got plenty of a workout. Not realizing how exhausted I was when I got home, I promptly fell asleep on the sofa and was in bed for the night at 8:30 p.m.

carefree clothes for Eva

As soon as I'd read about Carefree Clothes for Girls, I put it on my Amazon Wishlist. When I made the big Christmas gift order, I left it on the order as a gift to myself. I love this book translated from Japanese pattern designer, Junko Okawa. Even though the patterns do not go up to Eva's size, I figured, in my naivety that  I could just add a few inches here and there. My hubris served me well for the first attempt, making the adorable apron that is shown on the cover. I used a Japanese fabric I purchased at the Senior Center yard sale. Good thing I got to much of it as I made several mistakes cutting out the pieces but soon enough Eva was sporting the apron that matches the kerchief I made her months ago, from this book also, just in time for lice to hit first grade. Eva is never without her kerchief. 

new to our shelves

sad day

My first round of sad news came when I confirmed that my SLR Nikon D80 is broken. Yesterday I had my camera at church during world communion Sunday, as they children sang a lovely song, there was processing, children fidgeting for seats and when I was asked to "move over" while I had Eva on my lap, I promptly sat on my camera - lens up. I was hoping it was only the lens only but today when I my 85 mm lens did not work either, I got it. It is worth a try to get a quote on a repair, I've been a little sick to my stomach most of the day I know it is just a camera and I should not have such reaction over an object but it has been a real companion to me and my eyes to the world for two and half years. I'd saved my "coffee" money for 9 months to purchase the $1200 package, the zoom lens  froze in Philadelphia this past winter break and I was saving to buy a new one. I'm also sad not have it for my trip to see my Dad on Thursday, I wanted to document my time with my parents. I'll just fork over some $$ and take film + I may purchase a cheap Polaroid for the instant gratification I've come so used to.

The second sad news is that Gourmet is going out business. Art just sent this article to me. Before I had a chance to read it, he first lovingly held my hand when I emerged from my bathtub after reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, and broke the news. I've not been getting the magazine for long, so I can only imagine how hard-chore fans must be feeling, but I love this magazine. I got both this and Bon Appetite for a year and there was no comparison in the layout, the quality of images, the fabulous "Quick Recipe" section and the je ne sais quoi. The latter just is all spread out and I never find myself sitting down to devour an issue from cover-to-cover like Gourmet.  Ever month I can not wait to go down to the garage and see the plactic wrapped issue waiting for me. I'm alway excited when I made something recently that was featured this month, like when I made my Dutch Baby only to have it featured in the March issue and now in Molly's book. I would bring the book up to my room and wait until I had the time to scan and possibly read it from cover to cover in one sitting, first removing all the inserts that get in the way of me folding back each page. Alas, I'll just have to enjoy what I got and keep living like it's 2009 in my kitchen for the rest of my life.

serendipity

I've been thinking for a while about making Eva a kerchief/headband. I went through my fabulous stash of new sewing books and score, discovered a cute headband in Weekend Sewing I did a quick catch-up on soulemama.com and she was featuring a new Japanese sewing book called Carefree Clothes for Girls and when I followed the link they featured directions for a kerchief. Today I did a little mix-match on the ideas, I took the kerchief idea and blended it with the elastic under strap thinking about how difficult it would be for Eva to tie herself or at least how annoying. I did make it today - will post photo soon.

inspiration

 
Last-Minute Patchwork Quiltingn by Joelle Hoverson

crafing for girls

Eva and I hosted our good friend Chloe for a long-over due visit. After the girls played at home, they wanted to go to my space. We barged in on Ro who was just finishing-up a rehearsal with Carol for their Landescape production. I put the girls to work painting quietly in the hall while I readied to finish my quota of counting bags for the first grade. The girls then came back in to work on embroidery. Eva and Eli are working on tags for a letter envelope, I got from Amanda Blake Soule's A Handmade Home , where they can store their letters, cards and sundries. They'll be able to tote their collection to a quiet corner and SOMEDAY read them at their leasure, of course this is after they learn to read in second grade! Until then they'll just be their trophy.

sewing wins

so, my own blog motivated me. I finished reading a chapter of Misty of Chincoteague to the children, walked down the hall strewn with clothes, towels, shoes, passing through the kitchen piled high with a full day of dishes to the sewing machine. I made the right decision. I was able to make the second dress in one night, not repeating any of the mistakes I made (making a few different) and go to bed with another dress waiting for Eva when she awoke. this dress speaks to me. I'll post a photo soon, she's wearing it on the last day of school tomorrow.

I can't believe the school year is over. E + E will never be in the same class again. it's been lovely seeing how Eva takes care of her little brother, well of course that come with some torture as well. Eli completely looks up to his sister. they share the same friends, work side-by-side on the same projects. when they retell the story Dagmar has filled their heads with they can speak in unison and when one drops a word the other fills-in. there is an ease to it all.

it is time however for them to part. Eva has moment of not connecting to the 5 year old in Eli. She wants MORE. she's ready to sit and learn at a desk. I've loved Eva as a kindergartener, look forward to seeing the first-grader she is to become.

Dagmar said that Eli was the perfect dreamy kindergartener. He listens, is completely creative but is under his sisiter's spell. she reaffirms it is time for him to be on his own and looks forward to it greatly.

how did I digress from sewing? this happens to me always.

weekend sewing indeed

Instead of tackling the aforementioned list of to-do's I sewed Saturday afternoon, evening and a little this evening. Eva picked out some material for me for Mother's Day. It is not my style, polyester, purple with flowers. She immediately asked me to make her something. The only clothes I've sewed was her Halloween costume. I looked through all my new sewing books and decided to make the Flower Girl Dress from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. I kept delaying the project, realizing that the material was the problem, not mention it'd be too hot to even wear this summer in humid Virginia. I took the children to Discount Fabric a few weeks ago and I got some cute Heather Baily fabric on clearance (great coordinating polka dot and striped.) I told Eva on Friday that was what I was going to make her dress out of, unlike her, she did not question me. The pattern from the book only went up to a size 4 and Eva is a 6/7 at least. I took tracing paper and decided to just enlarge it, knowing this is not recommended for beginner sewers but I did not want to pay for a new pattern when I had this one here. It took a few iterations to get what I thought to be the right size. When I held the Baily fabric in my hand, I realized, discounted or not, I'm not going to cut in to this when I do not know if the pattern will work. So, Eva is getting two dresses, the first one made from the purple material. The material posed many of the challenges and I made several errors reading the pattern but here is the dress for me to fit the straps and hem on Eva tomorrow, and indeed it was a weekend project, even for a beginner. Hopefully I'll get the other one together quickly for our trip in less then two weeks.

one of those mornings

I'm writing as a batch of ginger, walnut scones are in the oven (adapted from the New Joy of Cooking, Oatmeal Date - I use whole wheat pastry flour, oats, crystallized ginger + walnuts. Easy peasy since they use melted butter and are drop-scones.) Naomi, Leon and Marcel are coming over for breakfast soon so it felt like one of those mornings for scones. I'm a bit hazy from a bout of insomnia last night so I put some coffee on, well decaf, but that's enough for me. It must be time for breakfast as the quiet children I woke up to are more animated. I just heard Eva singing, "I had a beer for breakfast..." - thanks Johnny Cash. Top of the morning.

Raising modern, California pioneers

The children and I have made our way through several chapter books of late that are based around the theme of homesteading. We started with Smiling Hill Farm, moved on to My Side of the Mountain, and are currently in the Little House in the Prairie series. I'm cleaning the house right now, preparing for Susan Bender's visit. My task was cut out for me as I've has to go through the 7 bags of supplies from Art's bonfire party (more on this later). Just for the record - this why I could never live near the beach - sand sand sand.

Anyway, as I worked the children are busying themselves homesteading the dining room/hallway. Pinecone has killed several deers, cured the meet and fended off Eva who was trying to demand his prize. I suggested Eva try bartering with him offering him some of her wheat or vegetables she grew. Next thing I heard they were working together grinding wheat. Soon they moved to cutting down pineapples, gathering mangos and curing olives...alas, they have arrived in California.