Pretty thing #1

I'd like to share some of my favorite pretty things that I see in daily life.

This is my chenille plant, which I love for two reasons. First, I remember being young and hearing my mom say she had a chenille bedspread as a girl and I always liked the word chenille sounded. Second, the plant looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book:

"I am a chenille plant!
I'd stop growing, but I can't!
I grow all day, I grow all night
Here in CA the weather's right!
Bring me coffee when you rise
And I'll photosynthesize."
(Wouldn't you know it, she only speaks in rhymed couplets.)

Like everything out here, the plant grows surprisingly well. It has doubled in size in the last 2 months without any fertilizer. (Occasionally I put cooled, watered down leftover coffee on it because someone, either my grandmother or my former office-mate, said the acidity was good for flowering plants.) It stays under our porch with only about 4 hours of indirect sunlight each day and I hear the cuttings easily make new plants. With babies or pets, it has to hang out of reach: the plant and especially the red fuzzies can cause nausea if ingested. And that, my friends, would not be pretty.

Here comes the Sun (song)

Remember this rockin' song by They Might Be Giants that Karen recommended and I taught my middle school science class to sing?


Well, ya know, the sun's not gas. It's plasma. So TMBG wrote another song, which appears on their new album called Here Comes Science. Aw, nerdy rockers! They're great!



But isn't miasma kind of a weird word to use? Isn't it kind of ... off? Word friends, what do you think? (Bridget, love, I'm looking in your direction. I'll go with whatever you rule on this one.)

(And now I'll probably be singing Miasma for the rest of the day. I hope you will be, too.)

Free month of Netflix

Hey! I just got 4 cards in the mail for a free month of Netflix. If you want one of them, email me and I'll send you the code.

One year and one day old

This weekend was wonderful. On Friday, my mom came to town to celebrate Scott's first birthday. On Saturday, we went to the coast.

It was beautiful. Rugged and stunning. We ate cheese and a savory tart and fed the pieces that fell in the sand to the seagulls, aiming for the fat gray gull with the soft voice.


Scott rolled down sand hills and rinsed off in the icy surf, laughing as the waves chilled his feet, then legs, then all the way up to his waist.


We saw a pumpkin patch and he explored.


We saw sheep and kittens and goats.

But it was not yet his birthday.


And then it was Sunday!


And he was ONE.

*****************************************************

We were just two "I"s, and then we were together, and then he was here and we were three.

He was tiny and nearly helpless. Nearly ... but he helped teach me strength, joy, and love. Because of him, I saw the peace of of the night, rocking and nursing while everyone else was asleep. And now he's big and sleeps all night. Now I get to remember the fun of doing somersaults and banging on a pan with a red spatula.


Happy birthday, big boy.
Welcome to this glimmering world.

Savory pie crust

Oh, homemade pie crusts. It's a love/hate thing.

This is Alice Waters's (of Chez Panisse fame) recipe and it really was easy. Not as easy as unrolling the store-bought crust, but easier than going to the grocery store to get one.

Chez Panisse!!! With baby Scott and Kelly! It was a very cool lunch.

1 c. all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tablespoons cold butter cut in cubes
1/4 cup ice-cold water (or a little less)

Use something with a flat, thin edge (2 butter knives, or thin spatulas, or a pastry cutter) to cut the butter into the flour and salt until a few large clumps remain. Pour in the water and stir it in with a fork. Fold together until the entire mixture holds together and is blended, but handle as little as possible. Add more water a few drops at a time if needed. Wrap it all in plastic and refrigerate it for an hour before rolling.

(You don't really have to wait an hour, it just makes things a lot easier. If you can't wait, just flour your counter and rolling instrument really really well.)

I made this crust into an onion tart and it was nice! I know, who would think? Luke liked it too! It was the second onion tart I've ever tried. The first I had on a pot-luck hike in Austria when two French girls brought one. On a HIKE!! Culinary skills! I think I brought bologna or something.

Food Junta

This blog, Food Junta, is REALLY GREAT. Their mission is to "empower the young, broke, and hungry" so they post easy (unintimidating, quick, few tools required), cheap, fast recipes. Three cheers from all age and income brackets!

A couple weeks ago I followed their recipe for homemade ricotta which really was less expensive and more delicious than store-bought ricotta. You probably really do need the cheesecloth, so put that on your shopping list (Wal-Mart's fabric section had some). You also need whole milk, and if you don't have a kiddo in the house you might need to pick that up, too. Other than that? Salt and lemon juice or vinegar. Yippee, kitchen science experiment time!

I put some of it on pizza crust ($2 from the shop down the street, but maybe even less expensive where you live) with diced tomatoes, sauteed onion slivers, and summer squash. Brushed the exposed crust with olive oil, baked at 400F for 15 minutes, and it was perfect.

New post!

Alright, Ellen tells me that her portrait is catching her off-guard every time she visits the site, so I'm putting up a new post. But I think from now on I'll put up a big picture of EACH OF YOU on your BIRTHDAY!

The next birthday boy/girl already has enough pictures up here for a lifetime, I think. Scott turns one year old on Sunday (and my mom is flying in for a quick visit and I'm so excited!!!). He looks a lot like Luke did at one:

Baby Luke, already participating in home maintenance

Therese and Luke, about 1 year old. I plan on recreating all of their photos with Scott and Emma, which we will think is SO FUN and they will think is ridiculous.

Scott is big -- his feet now touch the stroller's footrest, which I couldn't imagine ever happening! -- and funny and very determined. He explores everything and is social and is just a lot of fun. One is awesome.

Check out the feet on the footrest!

Scott explores the backyard, which FINALLY got some rain!

And we have an announcement: our lemon tree is expecting! Quintuplets! She's very young and is not supposed to be having seedlings for at least another year, but she is mature for her age and I think she can handle it. Our neighbors also have a lemon tree so she won't be single parenting the little budlings.

Teeny baby lemons!

One last thing: how cute are these reading Wagners?

Answer key: Very.