Priorities or Something Else

Man, this morning was hectic, and not because it had to be.  I got the absolute most laziest start this morning, and of course after all the GET YOUR SHOES ON WE HAVE TO GO!!! for the 47th time, we did finally make it to the car, and I did apologize for the yelling and the reason for the yelling, which was I just wanted to do nothing all day.  But being who I am, I also had to squeeze in a tiny lecture on working together to get things done, including getting ready to go somewhere.  Don't judge me; two year-olds, almost-four-year-olds, and five-year-olds understand more than you think.

At least that's what I tell myself. 

But church was fantastic, and I'm now ready for the week, if not really so much ready for the cleaning I need to catch up.  Well, it's better than I was when I got up.  That's for sure.   But I really need to still my mind (enormous feat actually), and while the kids are napping, it seems like a good time to do it.  Time to get ready for the week, make some plans, and wish to high heaven there was a fence up in the backyard, so the kids could play out there and I could tidy up and plan a bit longer.  But a trip to the playground should be fun, too.

Things to accomplish today (some of which aren't going to happen; let's be honest):

Blog Plan for Week (As opposed to my usual by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach.)

Clean Kitchen & Bathrooms

Meal Plan for Week

Have Rose & Leif Tested for Anti-Nap Virus (Just kidding. They're just driving me crackers in their room playing at the moment.)

Bake Bacon and Pecorino Scones by Gabriela at What Liberty Ate (Recipe:  Scones with Bacon and Pecorino)  

Take Kids Out for Serious Playtime (If they ever actually nap, but alas, they are still talking, and Leif actually came in crying to me a minute ago, because he'd apparently fallen out of the top bunk goofing off, and after confirming nothing was seriously injured, I got to balance kissing and cuddling with I TOLD YOU SO.  It's one of the perks of being a parent -- countless allowable I TOLD YOU SOs)

Choose Cookie Recipe (because gasp! we're almost out of cookies)

And Whatever Else I Can Think Of In the Meantime

Okay.  I need to stop myself.  I always plan too much.  And how many hours are left in this day.  Jeepers.  And I'm sitting here, typing away like it's the only thing I wanted to do today.  It's like, if I had half the brain God gave a goose, I'd stop and get stuff done.  But am I?  No.  

Still going...

Yep, still typing.  

Okay.  I'm going now.  

Nope still here.  

All right.  Really now.  

Bye.

Farmer's Market Saturday

Oh, how I love you, local farmer's market.  A quick trip to over there after a breakfast at the nearby French bakery, then an annoyed zip to the bank after I realized that I'd decided to skip the long line at the bank on Friday, then back to the farmer's market.  (Thank heavens I only had 50 percent of my youngins, which made it a mite easier.)

I always look for the local stuff, which means from Florida or Georgia.  One of the honey farmers had honeycomb today (score!), and I love how the twins say YEAH! to everything I ask them about getting.  I don't think they really pay attention to what I'm really saying.  Otherwise, I don't think I'd have gotten such an enthusiastic response to the veggies.  But they were eating their weight in apricot cookies, so they were in a pretty good mood anyway.

Portobello mushrooms, yellow squash, blackberries, and blueberries, fresh rustic German bread, blue cheese, horseradish cheddar, and pretty sunflowers to brighten up the house.  I regret not picking up eggs from Lake Meadow Naturals.  I used to love going over to their farm to get them with the kids.  Maybe next time.  But I was sneaky and snagged a rum truffle at the bakery that I'm going to enjoy after the kids are in bed.  So all in all a good trip.

Did you go to your local farmer's market today?  Whadja get?

I Heart Cookbooks

From Nigella.com

I used to have quite a collection of cookbooks.  Not like Nigella Lawson's up above, but a nice size for a beginner.

I love seeing glimpses of her collection, though, and day dreaming of the day she'll let me sit on the floor for hours in there surrounded by them and looking through them.  

I would my cookbooks, when I got them, like novels.  To me it's a window into someone else's beautiful world, especially these days, when there's so much personality in them -- the books and the people.

Sadly, I had to give away/sell many of them when I moved up north since we were going to be sharing a small place with my parents when the transition to single momhood began.  It was rough-going getting rid of all some things, but especially books (and my lovely college SLR camera).  I still go to my book shelf wanting to reread something by Frank Peretti or Nathaniel Philbrick, etc., and am a little disheartened to find it gone.  But life goes on, and I've gained so much more in the meantime.

It was a little bit funny, though, trying to pack up and get rid of things, because every time I'd pass the pile of cookbooks destined for the yard sale, I'd think, "Oh, no, not that one," and grab it and throw it in a moving box.  So I'm not completely cookbook destitute.  But it's not what it was...

Sigh.

The silver lining -- there's always one of those, isn't there? -- is that while I unfortunately got rid of a couple of good ones, most of them were probably only so-so, and therefore their departure has made room for some better choices that I may find in used bookstores, in moments of weakness on Amazon, or receive on (ahem) birthdays and such.  And there are so many wonderful recipes online these days.  At this very moment, my home is filled with the delicious smells of Bourbon Brown Sugar Chicken, a recipe by Meg at Sweet on You.

And here are some cookbooks from my wishlist to soon replace the old:

This is one is being released in October and was written by Rohan Anderson at Whole Larder Love.  I love how he leans toward more rustic foods, and using what's local taking it a step further by hunting, growing, and gathering for himself.  And his photos are just inspiring.  It's probably a good thing he and his family live 15,000 miles or so away, or else they'd be incredibly creeped out when the five of us just popped over unannounced for dinner.  Instead, I'm getting this book one way or another when it comes out.

Interesting side note:  I checked out of curiosity, and Google Maps' suggestion for getting from California to Hawaii, Hawaii to Japan, and Japan to Australia is by kayak.  Yes, by kayak.  I think they're a little optimistic, however, in estimating it taking 56 days or so to get there.  I'm actually an experienced sea kayaker (though it's been a little while), and I'm still pretty sure I'd never make it.  So my estimated time should read something like:  Never, ever in a million years.

Hardee har har, Google people.

I love pie.  

True story:  I spent a decent chunk of my growing-up years living near Apple Hill, California.  And my mom and her grandmother would spend a decent chunk of time each year getting together and turning out batch after batch after batch of delicious variations of apple pie.  Some of these were given away as gifts, some of these were eaten at Thanksgiving, some were frozen baked and unbaked to be revived in all their original glory at a later time.  Then comes summer vacation with my brother and me spending the day alone in the house with a stand-alone freezer in the garage full of apple turnovers.  Oh, dear.  Picture me hanging over the side of the freezer rearranging items to hide my theft.  

Of course, now as a parent myself, I don't doubt for a minute that mom knew.

Bless you, Mom, for all the things you let go...

Then there was that Scottish bakery in Maryland... but I could go on forever.  Anyway, I was delighted to find Handheld Pies by Sarah Billingsly and Rachel Wharton.  And thank heaven for brilliant food photographers.

One day, Lily and I will go traveling around the world looking for good things to eat.  I have a two-year-old who will try anything.  She loves food.  I have three horrible picky children and one delightfully adventurous one.  Well, not horrible, but more than once I've cried out woefully, "Well, fine.  If you're not even going to try anything, I'll just make whatever I want!"  But I do love them all immensely in case you wondered.  But when it comes to food, Lily wants to help make it and help eat it, grin, and say, "I like it!"  It's a blessing to have a person to cook for who loves to eat.

So I'm going to grab Lily, and we'll start making things out of this French food cookbook.

And I want this one, because I, too, love butter and sugar.... and tattoos.  You can see some of Joy Wilson's creative genius, too, on her blog, Joy the Baker.

And this one, because it will look totally rad on my bookshelf.  

Ha!  Just kidding.  But the pictures are so beautiful, and it will take me a couple of visits within its pages to work up the courage to start cooking from it.

So now I'm off to surf more food blogs (Oh, my goodness!  I just found i am a food blog, and where has it been all my life.  I have a sticky note on my computer screen with the words "Pulled Pork Pancakes with Bourbon Syrup" on it, and now I'll never be the same.)

Or maybe I'll be responsible and clean house a little.

Or surf food blogs.

What are some of the cookbooks on your wishlist?  And what are some of the favorites you have?

My Swedish Kid

I haven't posted in a couple days, because I've been working on, well.... work.  When it rains, it pours. 

I've also been working on silly things like this, because it's Rose's birthday tomorrow, and I would like her to have some stylish, crafty things in it.  So I was up late last night mostly working on this:

You can't really see it, but we're having a mermaid-themed party, because Miss Rose likes mermaids for the moment.  I thought this would be pretty and fun, and I really am liking the idea of having festive decorations you don't have to throw away.  She can hang it in her room after.

I got the pattern from Little Lizard King.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  The fabric is from Nauvoo Quilt Co.  These two shops are lovely and speedy with tons of cute stuff, which basically will eventually translate lots and lots of -- well, let's call them necessary -- purchases.

But let's go back a bit.

First, I love this place:

And of course a good part of the reasoning for this is it's a cool store with furniture I can afford.  I actually had a brief moment of insanity where I almost bought TWO cute craft bins at Joann Fabrics -- two at $17.95 apiece!  People need organization, right?  Right???  But can you imagine?  Then I came to my senses and remembered to just jot it down on my running list for a future Ikea visit when I had enough on there to rationalize the amount of gas to get to the store.

Phew.

Another part of the reason is the cafeteria is actually pretty darn yummy.  And, once again, economical.  Sometimes, I can feed my kids there for free.  I don't usually plan it that way, but sometimes you just get that extra happy grace.

What I usually get there (except for breakfast, because it's woefully unavailable) is this:

But as I haven't been there in a while, I decided to make my own and experiment on my family, because what are family for except the leeway to experiment on people who have to love you no matter what?  I had made Swedish meatballs before, but this time I used this guy's version:

Because when I make his recipes, they usually turn out awesome.  (For recipe, see:  Alton Brown's Swedish Meatballs.)  Also he doesn't use sour cream in his gravy, which is good because me mum does not care for the stuff.  And while she's family and, as aforementioned, therefore well-placed for experimentation, it would not do to experiment with things you know they don't like.

Unless your kids have a fatal aversion to vegetables, and then it's just tough noogies.

In my opinion, the recipe was much better because of it.

This is my sous chef.  Or at least my sous chef for the evening.

She apparently, judging by her shirt, had some sort of Italian dish at school that day.  Nevertheless, she's good to have in the kitchen.  Whereas Lily is good for serious culinary training, Ivy is good for morale.  For me, anyone three feet tall who can fall off a two-step step stool and laugh about it is okay in my book.

So here is my sous chef on the floor.  It's so easy to find good help these days.

Side note:  My kids are a motley cultural blend of Welsh, German, Mexican, Norwegian, Lithuanian, and a little bit of Swiss and Irish just for fun.

Ivy is now all of this and half Swedish.  She ate enough of the resulting Swedish meatballs to be practically fluent in the Swedish language.  She's been listening to ABBA ever since.  She's planning a viking raid that I'm not supposed to know anything about.

Actually, I think she was doing that anyway.

I'd have taken a picture of the actual meal, but min familj inhaled them too quickly.

I shall have to explore more Swedish cuisine in my off time from now on.

Have a lovely day!

Of Gardens and Guns

Garden & Gun is my new favorite magazine.  Why?

Well, it might be because I do enjoy a good garden.  A beautiful garden is enough to stop me in my tracks and make my heart do a little dance.  Of course, I enjoy many beautifully-crafted things in this way.

It may also be because, though I am not enough of a gun enthusiast to actually subscribe to a guns publication, nor even devote a single thought to munitions in any sense in a given day, I have enjoyed a trip to the shooting range on occasion.  I was actually a pretty decent shot at one time, but it's been a while.

It may even be because, since having moved back to the semi-North for a couple years and then coming back, I have a whole new loving appreciation for the South, and I now consider myself an adopted Southerner.   I never, ever want to leave ever, ever again.

These consequential reasons aside, the absolute reason this is my new favorite magazine is that they had the perfect good sense and good taste to exhibit Wine Guy's and Chef Girl's noteworthy and beautifully handcrafted Old-Fashioned on the cover.  Can a cocktail be art?  Obviously, it can.

Of all the accolades they've received -- and The Gin Joint has received a few -- this is one of the coolest.

They also placed first in the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience for South Carolina with their Tobacco Project Manhattan.

But now I'm just bragging.

Six Servings My Eye

I have seen the future... er... my future, and it almost certainly includes weekly Costco trips.  If you didn't know already, my four beautiful, sweet munchkins are ages two (Ivy & Lily), three (Leif), and five as of next weekend (Rose).  I made these wee toddler/preschooler people what Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats calls "six servings" of oatmeal with a generous cup of raisins and divided it amongst the four of them.  (Please see above.)

This is the aftermath, or as I like to call it -- post-carnage.

That second bowl is Lily's.  You'll have to excuse her wastefulness.  She ate her body weight in penne at the Macaroni Grill the night before.

What in blue blazes am I going to do when they're teenagers?

I need to stop dreaming of a house and start looking for a farm.