Mother's Day 2012

Yesterday we went to Livermore for the day, without the dogs, to visit with my mom.  She wasn't feeling well enough to come here for our traditional high tea at Ciocolat so Edward and I decided to just visit her instead.  It was a great day...because we did a whole lot of nothing but hang out.

Us Bowers picked up Thai food for lunch for everyone from Lemon Grass on the way into town.  And as a special treat, Gayla joined us for lunch.

During lunch my mom and I received cards and pretty flowers.  Eddie gave his grandma a set of blue bracelets that he'd picked out at Target--he was so proud of his choice!  And she loved them so much she wore them the rest of the day.  

Jenniward (or Eddifer, depending on how you want to combine them), gave me a HILARIOUS card.  I forgot it in Livermore but my dad promised to scan it for me so I could post it here.  I sent that picture of Eddie sticking out his tongue to Jennifer a couple of weeks ago when she wanted to see his adorable face. She's not allowed to print in color at work so she had to be sneaky and name the photo file something workish so no one would find out. It was worth it...this card is hilarious!  Especially with the Eddie quote she added!

 Then we relaxed and played with Legos.

Once it cooled down a little in the evening, my dad took us Bowers up to Gail's ranch to feed carrots to the horses and check out the possibility of getting a leaking horse trough from her to use as a planter for flowers at Eddie's school.

 And what trip to visit a grandfather would be complete without a ride on a piece of machinery?

"Go faster, Grandpa!"

That night Edward and Jennifer treated us to some Southern food from Sauced. The pulled pork came without BBQ mixed in and it was perfect.  I hate overly saucy pulled pork.

Eddie got to play in the dirt a LOT that evening, too.  In fact, I had to drag him inside from the compost and soil piles so we could eat dinner.  During the meal he said, "Mama, I want to go back outside to play in the DIRT!"  It was adorable and he got to play out there again with Auntie and Uncle.

He climbed up and jumped down the piles over and over and over again. "Mama jump, too?"  No thanks little man.

I gave Eddie a much needed bath that night before we left.  Then we took some family pictures before us kids scooted off to get some Loard's ice cream before driving back to our homes in Mountain View and Davis.  

Us Levie's

Grandma Jane, Eddie, and his mama

This morning Dave surprised me with breakfast in bed, a card, and a really pretty crystal bracelet.  He made Belgian waffles with a fancy new waffle maker that he also gifted me today.  How lucky am I?  After we all ended up eating in bed, he and Eddie went off to play so I could read my book for as long as I wanted.  Which didn't turn out to be that long because Eddie wanted me to come out and see the chalk drawings he and Dave had made for my special day.

He instructed Dave to draw a "big, big pirate ship for Mama" and also a "big, big, big, big, big blue dinosaur." Scattered around are also quotes of things Eddie said about/to me that morning.

I just did a bunch of gardening tasks in the front yard and now I'm inside keeping an eye on Eddie and the neighbor kids while they play here inside the house.  It's only noon but it's already been a great day.

Our sister-in-law, Bernie, is due to have her baby boy tomorrow but we hear he might make his appearance today.  How fun to have a baby born on Mother's Day!  What could be a better present than that?!

Happy Mama's Day everyone!

Paratha Love

Last week I finally got around to using an AmazonLocal coupon I had purchased back in January--it was for half off at a Sacramento Indian grocery store.  Indian is my absolute favorite food and we eat it a lot.  Don't forget that we named our pet chickens after some of our favorite dishes: Tikka Masala and Vindaloo.  I can make killer chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, and saag paneer.  But I'm always looking to expand my palate and repertoire, so I was excited to visit this store and see what the employees would recommend to me. And I restocked my garam masala and paneer supplies, too.

Here's what I ended up with:

My favorites so far: bittergourd chips and the two seasoning mixes.

Tonight I had a chance to try out the paratha seasonings. I can't believe I haven't ever eaten (much less made) this stuffed flatbread before.  It is amazing.  I love dishes that are so adaptable to different ingredients.  I was able to use quite a few things from our CSA basket this week: cucumber, garlic scapes, spring onion, turnip, cilantro, and lemon. 

I followed the recipe from the box and the procedure from here since the box directions were less than clear.  

I used two, boiled and grated medium turnips, plus half a block of grated paneer. These were seasoned with three tablespoons of the paratha masala spices, a garlic scape, and some chopped cilantro.

I made the dough with 2 cups white flour, 0.5 cups water, a touch of salt, and 4 tablespoons vegetable oil.  Eddie mixed in a little more of the paratha masala seasoning for good measure. I divided it into 8 even pieces.

The mixture was divided into 8 even volumes.

Each component was formed into balls.  Isn't my bovine butter dish lovely?  My mama gave it to me.

Roll each dough ball into a disk. It's great to have a toddler help with this part.

Place a ball of filling onto each disk. 

Pinch dough up around the filling.  Roll the ball out gently, making sure to flour it so it won't stick to the counter or pin.  It's okay if some of the filling pokes through.  Mine were rolled out to about the thickness of 3 tortillas.

Place paratha on a preheated nonstick pan (medium to medium high heat).  Cook until it starts to form bubbles under the surface, about 1 minute.  Then flip over.  It should have brown spots formed on that first side.  Spray a little oil over the cooked side (or brush with melted butter).  Cook the second side for about 30 seconds, then flip again if you want. It should be cooked through, and not look raw.

I don't know how you're "supposed" to eat these.  So I pretended it was like the Afghan bolani I get from the farmers market and filled it with raita (plain yogurt chalk full of tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, onion, garlic scapes, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a touch of cumin).  

It was love at first bite.  These were so, so good.  Even Eddie ate two!  

And you know what's awesome?  That the method can be altered to suit your spice preferences.  Don't like Indian flavors of cumin and cardamom?  Try making a Mexican version with chili powder and refried beans for the filling.  Or use lemon grass and cilantro with potatoes and carrots for a Thai variety.  Cannellini beans, garlic, sage, and sundried tomatoes would be a great Italian combination.  The possibilities are endless.  

And of course, I'm already thinking of all the other fillings I want to try with my that boxed Indian spice mix--perhaps these would make a good resting place for the last butternut squash I have on my counter?  Or look (and taste) awesome with those beets I got in my CSA basket?  I am sure they'd freeze very well, perfect for an easy lunch when reheated in the toaster oven.  

There's even a gluten free chapatti dough recipe that I can use to make these paratha for Jennifer!

Family Photo

While our rose bush was in full bloom a couple of weeks ago, we made sure to get a family photo in front of it. I set a piece of plywood on top of some saw horses so we could stand up higher.  Since we didn't have anyone around to take the photos for us, we had to rely on the self timer.  And since our child hates smiling/cooperating for pictures, I bribed him with chocolate.

Given those circumstances, this is the best picture we got.  Hopefully Dave can find some time to crop it better and whatnot. 

Before Christmas I was looking through all our photos to find one for our cards.  The ONLY one I could find was us dressed up for Halloween as Peter Pan characters.  So I used a coupon code to have 50 of those printed out for free.  And........then I never got around to sending out a holiday card/letter.  Ha!  People like Christmas-in-July holiday cards, right?  Maybe I'll have time to write/send them after this quarter is over.

Windy Weekend

Oh boy, was it windy this weekend!  We didn't have anything planned for this weekend (thank goodness), so I decided to have a "cleaning party" on Saturday complete with a Gmail Calendar Event and all--my way of making sure Dave knows what's going on.  =)  The house was dusty, which makes me feel icky all over.  I miss those 5 glorious months last year when we had a cleaning service.  Phooey that we couldn't justify the expense after the madness of examing/experimenting/logging was over.

Our to do list was:

Dust all surfaces in: living room, dining room, bedrooms, dining room (furniture, chairs, picture frames, etc.)

Wipe down all kitchen cabinets with orange wood oil

Wipe down all baseboards in house with damp cloth

Paint baseboard near kitchen garbage can area

Wash inside/outside of all windows

Clean bathrooms (showers/sinks/mop floors/mirrors/dishwash all sink things: toothbrush holders, soap dish, etc/refill soap containers/replace towels)

Wash all small carpets (bathrooms, front door, kitchen, dining room)
Sweep and mop dining room/living room/kitchen/hallway

Fold and put away all laundry

Outside: 

Refill fly traps
Hang bamboo shades over bedroom windows

Disassemble and throw away sand bin and crap next to it

Find (and implement) a solution to that sprinkler that keeps breaking near frog statue

Put Eddie's scattered outdoor toys into a bucket/bin/milk crate

Plant beans where tomato seeds haven't sprouted yet

Sweep driveway (yes, sweep) to get all the gravel and soil back to where it belongs

Install front door moulding (finally)

To get ourselves pumped up for cleaning we got donuts on Saturday morning.

After a full day of cleaning (YAY!), we took Eddie to his very first movie in a theater that night.  We saw Pirates: Band of Misfits.  We didn't expect much from him since he's not known for having a particularly long attention span, so we were impressed that he lasted 1.5 hours.  It helped that he got to eat loads of popcorn and too many chocolates from my purse.  Sitting in front of a handrail helped, too, since it gave him something to climb on.

Check out our soda...Eddie could bathe in there if needed!
We definitely got our fill of refined sugar that night.

We made a quick stop at the store to buy some Pull-Ups.  Eddie picked out the pink fairy princess ones and we were about to leave when....we happened to walk past a giant display of big lollipops with every flavor imaginable.  Of course he wanted to get one, so I let him, on the condition that he get to have it the next day after nap IF he was a good listener all morning.  Well.  WELL.  That damn lollipop became a thorn in my side the next day.  He was falling apart into fits of tears and whining all morning (not out of character of late, unfortunately.  He and his two little boy friends at school are all going through an overly sensitive/always hungry/rambunctious phase.  Fun, fun.).  I kept using the pop as a way to remind him that he needed to be a good listener.  It didn't really work. At one point I said to Dave, "If we just give him the stupid pop then it'll be done and he won't keep asking for it."  Parenting sucks sometimes. He did eventually get the pop.  This is why I prefer to shop on Amazon.com instead of taking that kid into stores.  Fewer impulse buys and no whiny kids running off down the aisles.

That night was the best: after Eddie went down, we had Indian food delivered and we watched a movie while eating on the couch.  We never eat in front of the TV anymore because we don't want Eddie learning that bad habit.  So it's always such a treat for us...especially when it involved Indian food.

The original plan for Sunday was to use our Groupon to go to the zoo but with all that wind and poor Dave suffering with his allergies, we decided to do some more indoor stuff.  I gave Eddie and myself mani/pedicures while we watched a show.

Toes!

And then I thought of the perfect place for us to visit: a bead store.  

About a month ago Eddie got to make a pipe cleaner and bead bracelet at Cassie's.  They were learning about patterns and had to place their beads in the same color order she did.  He was so proud of his bracelet that he wore it 24/7...until fell off too many times and the pipe cleaner wire snapped.  He was so sad.  So we took him to the bead store to make a more permanent/real/robust bracelet.  It was pretty awesome.  He was too young to be in there for long (it was a quiet place with annoying elevator music on), but we were the only customers for about 30 minutes, which was nice.  It was super awesome at the end because his other school teacher, Miss Amanda, randomly showed up!  He was so happy to see her.  =)

His bracelet turned out great.  We only helped him a little with his bead choice (mostly because he was choosing ridiculously HUGE beads that would never work on his adorable little wrist.  The lady working there was very patient with us and made sure to size it so it would rotate around but not fall off his hand.

Check out his cool bracelet!

So it was obviously a wonderful weekend: just our little family, a clean house, and a fun new accessory.  The only bad thing was the stupid wind.  Poor Dave was so miserable last night that he stayed home from work because he can hardly breathe.  Avoiding allergens: yet another reason we're looking forward to moving to the coast.

Our chickies like watermelon rind!

Picnic in the Park

Sunday was a long day for us.  We spent the morning weeding the strawberry field at our CSA farm.  They needed volunteers and we thought it would be nice to help out.  We forgot Eddie's shoes, but he didn't mind.  In fact, his friend was there and she didn't have shoes on either.  (We were definitely in good company!)

After picnicking in our van to escape the hot sun, we headed to campus where Dave tried to fix my broken instrument.  He had to unsolder and resolder a part onto a control board.  It didn't work.  Phooey.  Eddie was a champ and stayed awake and relatively contented for the hour Dave spent working.  I was also able to pop my samples into the freeze dryer and oven, marking the LAST sampling event of my 5 month long compost incubation (this is seriously a huge victory for me, research-wise).

Then it was nap time, for all of us.  Eddie, of course, didn't want to nap so we didn't get to nap.  Phooey again.  We decided to have a picnic dinner in the park so we took much-needed showers and headed off.  Of course, Eddie fell asleep after 2 seconds in the car.  He was NOT a happy kid when we arrived at a "new park" for our dinner.  After about 15 minutes and some yummy orange chicken in his tummy he was good to go.

We went to Northstar Pocket Park.  Pocket, indeed!  The map icon indicated it'd have a "tot lot" only...but it looked more like the residents in that neighborhood set out some play structures and paid someone to install a rubber mat beneath.  It was weird.  But the only thing that mattered was the we all had a good time: the temperature was perfect, our dinner was yummy, and Eddie enjoyed the playthings.

That's the park.  The WHOLE park. At least the play area.

Aaaaaaaaadorable fellas.

Boys Eat A Lot!

Here's part of tonight's Gmail conversation.  Ridiculous...*green fruit = what Eddie calls kiwi

9:21 PM me: your son is like a small pregnant lady

  he eats all the time

  he's been having two breakfasts and two dinners

  and i don't even KNOW what all cassie feeds him

 David: hah

  hungry man!

9:22 PM he is a growing boy!

 me: tonight on the way home from her house he had two banana muffins i made, half a giant oatmeal cookie i bought at school, then when we got home he had three satsumas, a green fruit, and a bunch of water

  THEN right after that he had two egg salad sandwiches with pesto and minced tomatoes (open faced...on that small bread i baked this weekend)

9:23 PM THEN he wanted another slice of toasted bread with butter

  he would have eaten another slice but bath was over so i said no, time to brush teeth

  and lately he's been wanting to have either a waffle or pancakes AND a bowl of oat meal at breakfast plus his usual 2 eggs

  then he has breakfast/snack at cassie's right when we get there

9:24 PM David: haha

9:25 PM man that kid can EAT!

 me: i know

  up until now, i didn't have to cook THAT much more for him

  some nights he ate a lot, others not so much

  and since i usually overcook for leftovers anyway i didn't notice

  but now i need to make sure i cook enough

  INSANE

9:26 PM David: yeah, that seriously seems like more food than i eat in a day

 me: haha

  i KNOW

9:27 PM well, i ate: two muffins, half a cookie, slaw, a small serving of rice a roni, a coffee, and 4 small egg sandwiches tonight

  so yes, i think he ate more than i did today

  sheesh

  SHEESH...what're we gonna do when he's a TEENAGER

 David: plus whatever he ate at cassies!

 me: WITH FRIENDS OVER EATING AT OUR HOUSE?!

9:28 PM we're gonna need giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiant garden!

 David: good thing we have a lot of land

 me: the best thing about this, is that he's hungry enough that he'll eat nearly anything. he isn't so picky about veggies (still no slimy greens in soup, though)

 David: we cant win them all

 me: :)

Anything Slaw

You know how everyone has a few guilty pleasure foods?

On a three week soils field trip, my professor asked the students in charge of buying food/drinks to get him a pack of Coors Light.  I remember we thought he was joking (cause that beer is groooooooooss).  He said he was serious, that on hot, dirty, no shower trips like that he liked that beer.  He also wanted Hormel chili in a can...as in, to eat it out of the can. 

As for me, well, I have a few guilty pleasure foods: store-brand boxed fudge brownie mix (made into brownies, obviously), chocolate donettes, and slaw.  There's this BBQ place down near Hunstville, Alabama and my grandparents used to get us take out dinner there sometimes when we visited.  This place served the BEST slaw.  It wasn't creamy at all, more of a vinegar based dressing that was the perfect combination of sweet and tangy.  The cabbage wasn't sliced or chopped, more like ground up into teeny weeny pieces.  Dang, so good.  And yes, I even love that overly oniony and too-much-mayo KFC slaw.  Creamy and crunchy?  Yes please.

I'm all for making a version of what you want with the ingredients you have on hand.  So yesterday I made a big bowl of slaw using a bunch of random stuff from our CSA basket.  Traditionally, slaws are "cole" based (brassica family: cabbage, broccoli, etc.) but really, you can put anything you want into a slaw.  Jalapenos or bell peppers, tomatoes, celery, fresh herbs, fresh or dried ginger, any greens (spinach, collards, turnips, mustard, broccoli, beets), jicama, and fennel would all be delicious.

Here I used spring onions, radishes, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrot, and turnip.

I also used a bunch of Russian kale, ribs and all.

I washed and spin-dried everything, then chopped it up into a bowl.

For the dressing I used a dollop each of mayo and plain yogurt (I personally like the fatty mayo for my slaw,  but all yogurt would be good, too), a few table spoons each of sugar, rice vinegar, and lemon juice, plus a touch of salt and tons of black pepper. 

I tossed the slaw in the dressing.

Then tasted it, knowing it would only taste better after sitting until the next day.

It was really quite tasty.  We took it in our picnic lunch that we ate after a morning of weeding the strawberry field at our CSA's farm.  It was cool, crunchy break after a hot morning of manual labor.  I also ate a huge bowl of it with my lunch at work today.  Mmmmm, slaw.