Category: family

At long last, a cupola

by Karen, posted in family, italian, raising chickens

My husband has been wanting a cupola for years. He even pointed out that cupola is an ITALIAN, hoping to persuade me that we need one, since I am enamoured with all things Italian. (Please note: man in the picture is the installer, not the husband).

And of course, what is a cupola without a weathervane? I ask you.

So we started looking at weathervanes online for just the right one.

We narrowed it down to two: a  hen with chicks, or a llama. First, I was leaning towards the hen. After all, we raise chickens currently, not llamas (although that is an option in the future).

Llamas, however, traditionally have functioned as guard animals for chickens, and my husband and son liked the idea of having a llama (figuratively, if not yet literally) keeping watch over our flock. Once they put it that way, so did I! So, the decision has been left up to me and I can’t decide.

Vote for which weathervane you would choose for the cupola!

New baby gift

by Karen, posted in books, family

Maybe you have a lot of new babies to buy for this year.  After a long time with the arrival of no babies within my personal sphere of (gift-buying) influence, I find that having just finished putting together a gift for one new baby girl, I have two more baby girls in the picture. One is here already, one is due in the fall.

I used to have a formula for baby gifts, kind of like the wedding day rhyme: “something old, something new…” Too bad that it has been so long, I can’t recall exactly what that formula was.

So, here’s my new top 10 list for what to put in a baby gift basket:

  1. If the sex of the baby is known, consider a pink or blue addition. You may want to have all of your gifts (and even the basket itself) be pink or blue, but I’ll leave that up to your discretion.
  2. Add something handmade to the basket. I’m a sporadic knitter, so I like to add a hat or a blanket if I have time to make it myself, or buy one at a craft show if I don’t.
  3. A favorite book, like (of course) Goodnight Moon, is always a nice addition to a baby gift basket. Pat the Bunny is another good choice. You might consider having your entire gift consist of children’s books that you like.
  4. Babies excrete. Often copiously. An extra outfit or a nightgown or jammies of some sort will be needed (soiled, stained, and appreciated) over and over .
  5. Babies spew. They will need bibs. Multipacks of bibs (because, did i mention? babies drool. A lot).
  6. Babies visually track. Get some colorful, cheerful toys that appeal to many senses: crackling, ringing, textured…and safe. Check that you are buying a toy appropriate for a newborn.
  7. Babies sleep. Blankies and extra jammies are always needed, often in large quantities (reference #4 and #5).
  8. Babies travel. A diaper bag, pack-type baby carrier, and so on may be nice.
  9. Babies get dirty, so bottles of baby wash, shampoo, little facecloths and hooded towels are another idea.
  10. Babies get red bums. Butt paste, desitin, vaseline…all might be helpful for their little bottoms at some point.

That’s it. What are some of your favorite baby gifts to give? to get?

Late Summer Wish List

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, tweens

Now that summer is underway, I realized that I forgot some of our “must do” activities, not to mention several

that usually make the list but don’t get done (after all, summer is only a few short weeks and getting shorter every year, with kids having to go back to school sometimes in August (what is UP with that, anyway??).

Portland Head Light

So, here are a few more activities to squeeze in if you have time:

  1. Acton Fair runs August 26 through August 29  (consider it a warm up for the larger Fryeburg Fair coming in October). It’s not too large, so you can go in the morning before it gets too hot and the children (and possibly you) get too whiny. Depending you where you live, there are many other fairs over the next several months; find a schedule here: http://www.mainefairs.org/fair_dates.htm
  2. Perkins Cove and Ogunquit Village. There are lots of shops and restaurants in both places; park the car in the middle of both (sorry; most likely you will have to pony up some cash to park, but it’s worth it if you are spending the better part of the day, which you will definitely want to once you arrive) and explore. Once nice thing about Ogunquit, especially with kids in tow, is that there are public restrooms that are (usually) clean and easy to find.
  3. York Beach is another great place to go for a day at the beach. Short Sands Beach is great, again, because if you have kids, you can part once then spend the day. Beach, playground, bathrooms, restaurants, shops (many of which sell excellent fudge!).
  4. Downeast Duck Adventures is on my list every year (like the South Berwick Strawberry Festival) but I never get there.  In the spirit of  ‘write it down, make it  happen’…I’m writing it down. Here’s hoping.
  5. Wells Harbor Concerts run every Saturday night rain (held at the Wells Junior High School) or shine (held at the Wells Harbor Park) and are FREE. Enough of the concerts are both child and adult friendly to make it work for families (hint: bring the BUG SPRAY).
  6. The Wells ChiliFest is an annual event that will be held this year on Saturday, August 28 at the Wells Junior High School. This is a bonus because if it rains (like last year) you can still go and have a good time (hint: bring bottled water, or something to drink; sampling chili works up a thirst).
  7. Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth makes a great day trip; there are walking trails, picnic areas, and beautiful beach roses! Stop at JulChris Cookies for an amazing mid-afternoon treat on your way home.
Beach roses!

So that’s my late summer addendum. Hope you try something from this or the prior list.  Have any of you made up any lists of your own for this summer?

Spring!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, raising chickens

Gold Laced Wyandotte Bantam, 4 months old

So, there are still a few days left of spring, the time when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to… chicks! You know, the kind that come from hens (we’re talking flock expansion here).

We have been anxiously awaiting the call from Longhorn since last week’s false alarm, when the anticipated arrival date (June 11th) came and went with no new babies! The due date was revised; the new date set was June 16th.

The new date came, and this time the chicks have indeed arrived! We got the call at 9:04AM. My husband headed over with his wish list of preferred types of chicks to add to our flock.

Decisions have been made after much research online, in books, in conversation with other people (who either currently raise chickens or did at one time)…now he will try to match up our list with what they actually are offering. Room is always left to add an interesting surprise or two; following your gut instinct is important in chick-choosing.

Today the gut points to a Bantam chick that my husband describes as “interesting”. Bantams are roughly half (or less) the size of “regular” sized chickens, which can be a boon for you if you are raising chickens in a small space. Of course, their eggs are smaller (and cuter!) too, but hey, sometimes you only need a little egg for your cooking project (like when you are breading cutlets, or making an egg wash for a pie or stromboli). It can be a bigger risk  that you may end up with a boy instead of girl when you choose a bantam, but some of the Bantams are just so “interesting” that it’s a chance you willingly take. Well, we take the chance more often than not.

The new chicks are now happily ensconced in their own little coop, where they will stay until they are ready for assimilation into the main coop.

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Strawberries!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, health, shopping, tweens

Okay, the strawberries are here and Life Is Good! I have been lucky this year; I’ve been able to keep ahead of the varmints, birds, and creeping mold and get to most of my strawberries before the enemies did. We have 4 or more varieties, ranging from tiny, almost pin-head sized alpine strawberries to large, sweet…perfect strawberries.  

The first strawberries!

 

I managed to hold a few back for a picture before consuming them.  I even found a ripe blueberry in the strawberry patch. (Sorry, eaten!).  

My daughter wants to dip some in chocolate and I can’t blame her; the only thing with the potential to rival a fresh strawberry right from the garden is one that has been dipped in (preferably) dark chocolate.  

One problem though: how to keep from eating them long enough to dip in chocolate? Methinks that a trip to the farm stand for additional strawberries for dipping will be required. We’re in luck, because the Wells Rotary Strawberry Festival is this Saturday at Spiller Farm in Wells, ME.  

There will not only be strawberries there (and if memory serves, the homemade strawberry shortcake available for purchase was quite a hit with my daughter at last year’s festival) but also the grill will be fired up for the usual suspects (hot dogs, hamburgers). There will also be activities for your kids.  

The festival runs from 10am-4pm.  It’s a nice way to spend a Saturday. I’ll be there with my daughter buying (and eating!) strawberries.

Spelt Right Bagels at Hannaford

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, health, italian, tweens
Spelt Right Sesame Seed Bagel

I was shopping at the new Hannaford’s in Kennebunk (at the site of the old Stop’n Shop). There were several of those tables set up throughout the store where a person is handing out samples of food items that are sold there, along with a coupon to further entice you to buy.

I am a fan of “try before you buy” and routinely stop to try what they are offering. On this day a woman at one of the tables looked familiar. Turns out, she was. I had seen her before, but in print and online; this was the first time in person. It was Beth George, the founder of the Spelt Right Baking, which is located nearby in Yarmouth, Maine.

Well, Beth was very generous with samples of her bagels. My 11 year old daughter and I were lucky enough to try the whole grain, the sesame seed, and the multigrain. She cut us a good-sized piece of each (read: 2-3 good-sized bites) and generously spread them with cream cheese. All three types were delicious, with or without the cream cheese. Beth was also very gracious to my daughter (don’t you just love it when people are nice to your kids?).

My daughter, who just that morning would not eat the Italian Bread I had baked because it had “seeds” on it, was enthusiastically munching down Beth’s sesame seed bagel, declaring it “delicious!” and asking for another piece!

Have any of you ever tried the Spelt Right Baking bagels? Please, if you have not, do! They are excellent. You’ll find them in the freezer aisle. Beth also has a pizza dough that you can find (along with the bagels) at Whole Foods, and she runs an online store as well, that includes breads in addition to the bagels and pizza dough.

You can read about Beth’s story on her website, www.speltrightbaking.com. You can follow her blog (where she posts daily!), The Lunchbox Chronicles.

Homemade egg rolls

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, recipes, shopping, tweens
Rolling up the egg rolls

 

Our friends, the Douangsovaths, came over to our house to teach us how to make egg rolls. 

After they arrived, we took a quick shopping trip for necessary ingredients. Lettuce I had growing in  my garden, a tomato was on the counter that i picked up at the farmers market earlier that week…but bean threads? Not one of my pantry staples. 

Here’s the shopping list: 

  1. Green Cabbage (not Napa)
  2. The largest bag of carrots that I’ve ever seen
  3. Bean threads (in the asian food aisle)
  4. Egg Roll Wrappers (they brought these; I’m actually not sure where they came from)
  5. Whatever meat you want to use; we used ground chicken and ground pork (for convenience sake!). We also bought some small shrimp (and cut them up even smaller).
  6. Magic spice mix: mixed salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I guessed for the proportions. You mix them all together until it “tastes right”. Ahem.
  7. Canola oil for frying. Get a big one.
  8. One beaten egg; this becomes the glue that keeps your egg roll closed.
  9. A LARGE jar of duck sauce.

For equipment, you need a food processor, a fry daddy (which they brought with them). Kitchen tongs. 

Then, you just mix all the ingredients together in roughly equal parts. Then you use about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll it up in the wrapper as tightly (and as thinly) as you can. 

Then fry for 6-7 minutes until golden brown, drain on a rack. We made about a hundred and fifty rolls. Here’s the thing: you will not remember how many you’ve eaten if you just start cutting them up and eating them as you are making them, as we did.  I’m warning you about the egg roll fugue state that will ensue if you do this! Decide how many you will eat, put them on a plate, and then stop! (okay, you have been warned). 

The lettuce was used (and full disclosure: they bought some not knowing we had it growing in the garden already!) to wrap up the egg roll after it was fried; that’s how one of our friends eats them (he also put  a pile of a shredded carrot recipe he had made on it too). I tried it this way and it was excellent. Sort of helps you forget you are eating deep fried food when you disguise it by placing vegetables all around it. 

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It’s (probably) a girl!

by Karen, posted in family, raising chickens

Well, it’s been a little more than 3 weeks and it’s looking more and more like he is a she. Of course, all the data is not in, but very soon it will become unequivocal.

For now though, she is still a runt, much smaller then the other chickens. We attempted to take a picture of her next to a more normal sized hen, but she was running around (and at one  point actually became airborne) so much that we weren’t able to pull that off. We did manage to get one picture of her holding still, while she was held (compare to original picture).

So, the whole issue of naming is rearing its ugly head. Naming chickens carries inherent heartbreak. It seems that it’s always the chicken that you love the best that the hawk will get, or that will come down with the mysterious virus that sends them to “the corner”. When the chicken goes to “the corner”, it will usually be dead in three days.

Now is it because three days of standing in the corner will result in death? or is it that three days before the chicken knows it’s going to depart this world for the big henhouse in the sky, they seek out the comfort of  “the corner”?

It’s kind of reminiscent of the age-old “which came first…” question.

So, we are putting off naming her, but two contenders for the name of the chicken that we are trying not to name are both androgynous. Vote for the name you like the best.

Fisherman’s Catch strikes out

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, restaurants

it so happened one evening that the rest of the household had other dinner plans so i was left to my own devices, with only myself to please in terms of what my meal would be. after some thought, i decided that fried whole clams and sweet potato fries was what i wanted, with a lemonade chaser.

now, where i live there are plenty of places to get either of these things just a short drive away. i picked  Fishermans’ Catch in Wells, Maine. I’ve been there plenty of times with my family but never alone. tonight my plan was to pick up the fried clams and sweet potato fries to go, grab a fresh squeezed lemonade, and head down to the Wells Harbor Park with my book and my dinner, and think about how good life is, you know, between bites.

my bubble was soon burst however. i entered the restaurant, was happy to see that there was no line (a rare occurence) and ordered my food. i was told politely by the blonde woman at the counter that i couldn’t have what i wanted. i took a minute to confirm that they had the two items, which they did. and do they sell a clam basket dinner? yes they did. all i wanted to do was substitute sweet potato fries for the regular fries, and i was told once again that i could not have what i wanted.

she helpfully suggested that i purchase a side order of both, which would have cost me approximately $17 (tax, lemonade, and any potential tip not included). now, it’s not that i’m not worth it, but i really just wanted a dinner for one person (me!), the price of which would not make me choke on it.

am i missing something here? they had the clams. they had the sweet potato fries. why was i not allowed to substitute the fries that  i did want for the fries that i did not want? What i thought, but did not say, is that Duffy’s in Kennebunk, just a short trip down route one, gets it. they give me their menu items the way i ask for them. if i want to substitute sweet potato fries for regular fries at Duffy’s, they couldn’t be happier to do it.

so, Fisherman’s Catch lost my business. which is not good business.

here’s a quote to inspire those businesses that are falling short in this area:

If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.
UNKNOWN

Have any of you ever left a restaurant that refused to serve you what you were asking for?

hula hooping for beginners

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, health

after i wrote my prior post about hula hooping, i took things one step further and actually signed up for the WOCSD class, Hula Hooping for Beginners. it runs for 6 weeks on monday evenings and started may 17th.

when i called to sign up they said it was a big class. it was; there were 17 other brave women like myself who were daring to do something different, and risking looking like a fool for the sake of  fitness.  we ranged in age from twenty-somethings to over fifty-somethings. we all dropped our hoops and bumped into things, but it didn’t feel foolish, it felt…FUN!

the instructor, Christine MacDonald, is engaging and encouraging. she brought everything we needed, which turned out to be the hoops and the tunes (on her ipod). oh, and the enthusiasm!

you know how half an hour at the gym can feel like half a day? well, an hour of hula hooping for beginners felt like ten minutes.  so, if you are feeling like trying something different and coming out of your comfort zone, consider hooping.

Christine MacDonald teaches…well, wherever you are, most likely. here’s her website: http://www.missfithooping.com/