Tag: daughters

Garden update: November

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, fitness, gardening, raising chickens, tweens
Pumpkins gone wild!

Remember the (multiple) posts I’ve written about how much chickens love pumpkins? Well my husband did a wild and crazy thing: he bartered with the local Walmart and struck a world-class deal to help rid them of all of their end of season pumpkins. (After all, as soon as Halloween is over they have to make room for those Christmas decorations! 🙂 )

He came home with is 4-Runner stuffed to the gills with pumpkins of every size, shape, color, and some even with painted features (one had a frog!). The chickens are now in pumpkin heaven, and as a side benefit, our yard is very extravagantly decorated for fall. 🙂

Since we were having a warm day in November, I decided that would be relatively painless to check out what was left of the garden. I was thinking I’d harvest the dregs of the carrots and beets and check on the lettuce.

Well, the lettuce is not growing very much yet; maybe we got it into the ground a couple of weeks later than we should have (totally my fault). Hopefully there will be some that is harvestable and edible before the snow comes. The carrots were a big surprise though. Since I wasn’t having much luck pulling them up by the green above-ground fronds, I gave up and started to harvest them like potatoes: I dug into the ground under them and pushed them up through the soil. I couldn’t believe how many of them were lurking under there, just minding their own business. Had I not gone in after them, regardless of the presence of waving fronds, I would have missed at least half of them.

Up for next weekend: carrot soup.

P.S. Chickens also love carrot tops and beet greens.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Buon Natale

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, local fun, tweens
Izzy at Buon Natale

I took my daughter to Buon Natale, the Italian Christmas bazaar at St. Peter’s Church on Federal St. in Portland. This was something my Italian grandmother always took me to when I was growing  up, and it remains a happy childhood memory for me to this day. I wanted to share this with my daughter.

It was at the same site as the Italian Feast was in the summer. It was held inside the church, which usually would be a good thing, since November in Portland is often a cruel month.

Not today though; it was 64 degrees when we arrived about 12 noon. It easily could have been held outdoors. Inside, we were greeted by a nice lady that said, “Did you park in the Rite Aid parking lot? They’ll tow you if you did!” We assured her that we had not, and thanked her for her concern.

There was a “garage sale” room, with tables set up that had been well picked over by the time we arrived. The doors opened at 8am, so it was well more than half over. We browsed a bit in the craft show section, but then we got down to the real business of visiting any Italian venue: the food.

They had a similar menu to what was offered at the feast in the summer. Ziti with meatballs, meatball subs, Sicilian style pizza, eggplant parmigiana sub, and pasta fagioli were the main entrees. After much discussion (and viewing of what other people were ordering) we settled on the pasta fagioli to split.

For three bucks, we got a bowl big enough to fill us both up for lunch. It was the best pasta fagioli ever. 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For dessert? What else would these two Italian girls get?  Tiramisu, of course! We split that as well, but afterward, we second guessed that choice. “We should have both got one!” my girl pointed out. Note to self for next time: to each her own tiramisu. 🙂

Midlife crisis, part one: losing my mind

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

I was standing in the kitchen talking to my husband last week, and he told me he was irritated because of something I’d told him earlier in the week that turned out not to be true. 

What was it? I sure don’t know. I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now. He remembered the (alleged) conversation in great detail. As I stood there listening to him recount what I said, I thought, “One of us must be crazy (and it’s not me)”!

I am quite sure that this conversation never happened. He is quite sure that it did. So, we sensibly backed off and let it go, nervous about where this particular road might take us, should we choose to pursue it.

Then today, I got to the parking garage at work and started to gather up my multitude of bags: bag with paperwork and reading material, check. Oversized insulated bag with my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, check. Pocketbook….pocketbook…with calendar, money, scissors, teabags, special cloth to clean eyeglasses, other miscellaneous detritus…NOT HERE!

I think back, retrace my morning steps. I am sure I carried my pocketbook and old navy plastic bag (with extra miscellaneous stuff) to the car this morning, as I stepped over my tween daughter who was sitting on the floor (in full tween drama mode) blocking my exit to flee the house.

Breathe. Breathe.

I call my husband, to share the insanity. I tell him that I can’t find my pocketbook. He says, “It’s right here, hanging on the back of the kitchen chair…next to an Old Navy bag”.

HOW could this be true? Yet I was faced with the undisputable evidence that what I thought I did this morning in no way resembled what I actually did do.

Plus, now I’m worried that my husband was indeed right in the first example above, and I was wrong. Oh-oh.

At this point, instead of “I told you so!”  he then said, kindly: “Why don’t you sit in your car and meditate for  a few minutes?” I did have time to do this now, since I’d come to Portland early to shop at the farmers market, but my farmers market money was home in my pocketbook.

Breathe. So Hum. Contemplate being unconscious in my own life.

Girls’ Night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, friends, local fun, restaurants, tweens

On the (rare) days when the male members of the family are off at work, but the females have the day off, we have a Girls’ Night. Today, Girls’ Nights started early, at 7:24AM. The men were out for the day so the females were left to  our own pursuits. This is what my daughter and I did today:

  1. Breakfast: Cream of wheat for Izzy and egg white omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers for me. OJ and coffee, respectively.
  2. Met up with friends at Cafe Perfecto in Kennebunk. We split a gingerbread muffin. We ate it too quickly to photograph it. It was goooooooooooooooooooooooooood. 🙂
  3. Next, browsing at Kennebooks. We bought some cards, some books, and a really cool mushroom shaped eraser with the sharpener built right in. 

    Coolest mushroom eraser/sharpener ever!
  4. Home for lunch: PB&H on homemade bread for me; grilled cheese and bacon on whole wheat bread for Iz. Then she caught up with a friend on the phone, while I caught up on the laundry, chicken tasks, and dishes. Yay.
  5. Next, North Berwick Farmers Market. My friend Rebecca was there so we got to visit a bit. Lucky for us, it was the day of their Pie Contest, and we got to try a piece of the winning pie, baked by a 9 year old girl; very impressive. Besides pie, we got some fudge, some granola, herbs to mix with oil for bread-dipping, oatmeal coconut cookies…hmmm, seems like something is missing. What is it? Oh! The (token healthy food that was the excuse for going to the farmers market) apple! I ate that at the next stop.
  6. Izzy had a riding lesson and I spent the time in the car catching up on the last 2 days of newspapers that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
  7. At 6Pm, lesson over, we headed to Johnson’s Seafood and Steak. This is our new favorite restaurant, partly because it’s right on the way home after riding, but mostly because of the pumpkin cheesecake. OMG. It’s worth going just for that.
  8. Finally, home for a movie night. We watched The Clique. Izzy had seen it before and wanted to watch it again with me. Great mother-daughter movie.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

That’s it.  She’s gone to bed; I’m getting ready to. We had a great day. 🙂

New Arrivals

by Karen, posted in raising chickens

The new peeps were born last Wednesday and scheduled to arrive on Thursday, Friday the latest, through the mail. We did order from a new vendor, one we hadn’t ordered from in the past. We chose them this time because they allowed us

New arrivals

to buy 20 at a time instead of 25. They were cheap; like, half the price of the other vendors. It was also closer; they would ship from Pennsylvania, not Iowa or Texas. This had to be easier on peeps-in-transit, we reasoned.

So, as we’ve done at least a half a dozen times before, we placed our order, confident that they would arrive as scheduled. So confident, that when they did not come on Thursday, my husband went to the post office on Friday morning to get the package.

When they said they didn’t have a package for us, he listened carefully for the tell-tale “peep peep peep”, but heard nothing.

This was not good. Little peeps theoretically can live for up to 72 hours (key words here are “up to”), but they certainly also might not.

On Saturday, at 6:39am, the call came. The chicks had arrived! The news was promising: the package was “peeping”. I went to pick it up, dreading what we might find when we opened it. Both kids and I held our breath…

Well, the good news was this: all 21 chicks were living and peeping. All took a drink when coaxed. All found the food.

The bad news is this: with in 2 days, we had 6 dead bodies.  We’d never lost more than 1 0r 2 chicks right away like that. It was kind of awful. Every time one of us went out to check on them, there would be another little casualty. 😦

There are 15 chicks left, and all seem to be doing well. Hopefully the worst is past.

Needless to say, we will likely not be ordering from them again.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hey, we’re not ALL tourists!

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

Here in southern Maine, our population multiplies exponentially in the summer. Some of the more popular restaurants are overrun, especially the good ones, so I usually am very forgiving.

On Sunday morning, my daughter and I went out for doughnuts to our favorite donut-making restaurant, which I typically would avoid doing on a weekend morning in the summer, but we had a great coupon that was soon to expire, and my daughter really, really wanted doughnuts. 

So, off we went for our free half-dozen. We were lucky to get the last parking space in the lot, but certainly a full lot does not a short wait make. Seeing that the line for ordering to-go items was out the door (literally) was no surprise, but now we were in it for the long haul. Once you’ve promised doughnuts to the kid(s), there’s no turning back

While we waited, an owner type guy was walking around with tray of free honey dipped munchkins. I thought this was great, until he walked right by us, and offered them to some adults ahead of us in line, but none to my child. “Well, that wasn’t very nice!” my daughter said.

Then, when we finally got to the counter (half an hour later), the older lady that waited on us never smiled, barely made eye contact, and did not acknowledge my “thank you very much!” except to say “Next in line!”. To add insult to injury, she even shorted us a doughnut! To add insult to injury, our half-dozen only contained five doughnuts, which I didn’t notice until we got home.  

All in all, a very negative experience, but who can complain (except to you all!) since they were free. I guess the point is that they had generated a ton of good will towards their business by sending us that coupon, but the way we were treated when we were there to redeem it actually cost them,  in that it lowered our opinion of them.

And that’s too bad, because when all of the tourists go home…we will still be here, and there is a lot of competition for the doughnut dollar in southern Maine.

Plans that don’t work out

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

We decided to head over to Shaw’s Ridge Farm Ice Cream, BBQ, and Mini-Golf a few days ago. I’d been wanting to go there for weeks and we finally had a day off together to go. I looked it up online, got directions, and saw that it opened at “11AM daily”, but somehow missed the part where it mentions that the BBQ part was only open at that time Thursday through Sunday. Of course, we were NOT going on one of those days. Since we were primarily going for the BBQ (since it is always, ultimately, all about the food) for lunch and it was 11:30AM, we did not stay.

So now, we were kind of stuck out there in beautiful downtown Sanford with a free day but without a plan or a clue about what to do next. My husband, always resourceful, is not directionally challenged (as am I) and so is unafraid to drive around unfamiliar streets until he finds something interesting, so that’s what we do.

Bowling (I always tend toward the familiar)? Nope, nixed by the fam. We wanted to try to do something outside since (for the moment) it wasn’t raining. We decide to eat lunch first. Ted’s Fried Clams in Shapleigh, coincidently another place we’ve always wanted to try, looms large.

Ted's Fried Clams

We go. The food is great. A bonus: The Rockhouse is attached; they serve, like, a million flavors of ice cream…well, make that 999,999 flavors. We wanted almond joy but they were out of (only!) that. We got coffee kahlua brownie instead, which was terrific.

Driving further, we found some walking trails along a lake and so found our outdoor activity after all.

Lessons learned:

  1. Always check hours of operation prior to going to a new place!!
  2. Know that Murphy’s Law is always lurking out there in the world of your favorite, “go-to” ice cream flavors, so have a Plan B.

Signs (from the dead relatives)

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, tweens

Ever wrestle with a decision, wondering what is the right thing to do in any situation? Sometimes when that happens to me, I’ll think, “What would my mother or father do?” or “What would Nana think about this?”.

Well, the other day I was going back on forth about something, then made my decision and spent hours second- guessing myself. After a while, I thought, “I did what my mother would have done”; what she did in fact do many times during my life. I also thought of how generous and giving my grandmother was (both of them, actually, but on this day I was thinking of my dad’s mother) to me whenever I needed it, throughout my life, when I deserved it, and (often) when I didn’t.

Then I tried to stop thinking about it. A moment later, I got an email that included a recipe for my favorite soup that my grandmother used to make for me (escarole soup with little meatballs)…Nana giving her approval?  A bit later on, I opened up the American Profile magazine that came with the Portland Press Herald that day and there (0n page 12) was an article entitled “Pride for Popeye“…here’s where I admit that my father used to call me that as a nickname when I was in kindergarten. Now I’m thinking, “Two signs! This is clearly Dad saying, ‘Good job!'”

And then, that night I dreamed about my mother. She was in my house, visiting. I kept thinking, “I didn’t know my mother was going to be home today!”…

I had to laugh to myself when I woke up. The dead relatives showed up big time to show their support for me yesterday and I’m so happy that they did.

Fun with friends

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, italian, local fun, restaurants, tweens

What could be better than a great day spent doing fun things with your friends?  Not much; especially if it involves good food. 

friends

 

This past weekend, my daughter and I did just that. We started off at The Good Table, a wonderful restaurant in Cape Elizabeth.  Sunday brunch is the day to go; that is the day that you can have a cinnamon bun that’s (almost as) big as your head. Even if that’s the only thing you have, you will be very happy you went. 

Of course, it’s not the only thing that we had. Among us, we ordered an Italian Villa (an egg dish, not a house), blueberry crepes…home fries, toast, eggs, bacon were all present and accounted for. We had plenty left over; too bad I forgot it in my friend’s car! (yes, she saved them for me…). 🙂 

Next, being happily filled up with an abundance of excellent food, we stopped at Two Lights. We got out, walked around, took pictures of our kids and ourselves. Then we headed over to Fort Williams Park for a drive through…we didn’t have time to get out and walk around because the girls were anxious to get to the Maine Rock Gym. If you are bringing your tween to climb, please note that if they are under 12 then they will need someone to belay for them, so be prepared. About an hour is how long we (my 11 year old and I) usually last at rock climbing. 

climbing rock wall

 

The girls had been wanting to go to Coastal Maine Popcorn in the Old Port. This is a great place to take your kids. They have up to 30 different popcorn flavors, both savory and sweet. Some recent offerings are black licorice, buffalo wing, salt and vinegar, watermelon, Maine maple. You are welcome to try any flavors before you buy them. We tried, then we bought for others. 

After that, the girls (and of course, the moms!) needed a treat for ourselves. We had an “ice cream vs gelato” debate, and in the end, ice cream won. We headed to the new location of Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream in the Old Port. If you are an adventurous ice cream eater, this is the place for you. Like Coastal Maine Popcorn, they will happily let you “try before you buy”  (lavender? avocado? jack daniels? all these ice cream flavors and many more), like all good businesses do. 

This concluded our outing. We were tired, but happy. Consider your own “Fun with Friends” day in your own or nearby town.

Blackberries!

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

After an exhaustive search of my own backyard for blackberries, my take consisted of a small handful of berries from 

Blackberries picked at Susan's "farm"

 

some low-growing vines that I discovered had wended their way among the blueberry bushes. These I ate before I even made it into the house. 

My friend took pity on me. She invited me over to her house to pick some blackberries, so on Sunday, my daughter and I headed over. Well, I found out pretty quick why I only had a handful at my house…it’s because Susan has them all at her house! It seemed like millions of them. My hour and half (give or take) of picking did not even make a dent in the bounty of the blackberries. 

Now. What the heck does one do with a gallon of blackberries? 

Here’s a dozen ideas, ranging from easier to harder: 

  1. Eat them as is. No washing them off first; that’s for wimps.
  2. Stir them into your yogurt.
  3. Freeze them for use later on. You may have read advice about how you should place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen, the place them in a bag to prevent clumping, etc. I never do that; my freezer will not accommodate that on a good day (like, on the day before the food shopping). I just dump ’em all into a ziploc-type freezer bag and hope for the best. (It’s not ever a problem).
  4. Throw a handful into your (garden) salad. Really.
  5. Add some to pancake batter.
  6. Add some to a smoothie.
  7. Got a favorite blueberry muffin recipe? Try adding blackberries to the batter instead.
  8. Make a cobbler. Cobblers are pretty novice-baker-friendly. The Pioneer Woman Cooks has 2 versions of blackberry cobbler on her website.
  9. Make blackberry sauce for your pancakes, waffles, or other food of choice. This recipe has only 2 ingredients (one of which is the blackberries!).
  10. Blackberry pie would be great. If you use prepackaged pie crust, it’s even easier. Here’s a blackberry pie recipe from Mario Batali.
  11. Make a blackberry quick bread.
  12. Make blackberry ice cream. Okay, this is the most labor intensive, and you need (pricey) special equipment. Feel free to just look at the pictures of this one. 🙂

That’s it. That’s my top 12 list. I have done #1-4 so far (so many blackberries; so little time)…and I still have plenty left for other things on the list. And if I run out? Well, I know where to get more…heh heh heh…