Freeze The Good Stuff

 The nights are getting pretty chilly now, we're breaking out the footie pajamas on a regular basis. Ru asks every single morning now, "And Mommy, is it going to be cold today?" because he is hopeful that we will have a warm day which means that he can wear short sleeves and sandals, and that there will be snow, which is his fondest dream at the moment. I kinda think this cold weather business is here to stay for a while.

And we have a new family dessert, ice cream is passe, cocoa is in. A has been pioneering a new family tradition of after dinner homemade cocoa...and we're drinking them topped with whipped cream and sprinkles, in little espresso mugs. So much fun! I am hoping the trend continues long enough to extend beyond the classic rendition to: warm eggnoggy white cocoa, minty cocoa, nutmeg dusted mugs, and maybe a white chocolate variation? Its a great way to get a little, warm shot of dairy in at the end of the day. What flavor dreams am I missing?

 The boys are enjoying the leaf fall and the fact that at the moment there are giant piles to jump in, on every single curb. There are detours to be made between the car and any door....wander this direction to kick leaves....wander that direction to jump in a heap....wander over there to throw some in the air like confetti....  Such fun. Strange to see the naked trees reaching up over the horizon now though...

 Been having lots of fun in the kitchen lately. Made the first batch of Christmas cookies and packed them away in the frozen zone. I baked up some simple, no fuss chocolate spice cookies, Midnight Cracklers from Dorie Greenspan's classic baking tome. Pretty dead easy and dark, rich, chocolatey flavor...mmm...I'm not even that wild a fan of the whole chocolate chocolate chocolate thing but, yeah...these are good. They remind me of Mexican hot chocolate with the rich chocolate, hint of spice business. We're off to a good start.

 Oh...and warning. The dough is almost better than the finished cookies. So delicious. Like moist grown-up brownies in a chewy, wad-able, hold-a-chunk-in-your-hand form. Dangerous stuff folks. I bagged those suckers up for the freezer at lightening speed!

 I also baked up this pound cake a while ago and remembered, (per the recipe's instruction) that I'd frozen one for later and we broke one out to celebrate an autumn picnic in our yard after church on Sunday. This pound cake rocks and it freezes astoundingly. Its almost better out of the freezer...I'm not sure how that's possible, but there it is.

 See, aren't the colors an amazing whirl of light? Most of these leaves are down already. That's why we're glad we are lucky enough to own a camera. Nice to freeze more than just cake and cookies for later.

Happy last moments of Autumn everyone!

Autumnal Beach Explore

We took a little picnic lunch down to the shore that is a stone's throw from our house and had what I was calling at first the "Last Beach Outing of the Year." Heh. What was I thinking? It was gorgeous. Not super sunny and not over warm (high fifties) but there was no real wind and it was warm enough to be quite comfortable in our light jackets.

We explored a new beach we'd never been to (fun to learn our new neighborhood a little more), ate peanut butter in jelly in a hurried way and then spent a long time exploring the edge of the tide. So much wonderful stuff had washed up...oyster shells by the pound, pearly, purple mussel shells, claws from crabs, bits of horseshoe crab shell, and all kinds of fabulous sea weed.

Anyhow, all that to say that it was a great way to celebrate the baby turning five months old and it will in no way be our last outing of the fall.

I can't wait to go back! I forget how wonderful it is to just wander around bent backed, looking at all the ocean detritus that has rolled in and watch the boys chase seagulls and drive away with the scent of salt water rubbing off your hands onto the steering wheel.

Yay for living by the sea!

Picnicking in Earnest

It was one of those idyllic days with perfect weather. Just exactly perfect. 75 degrees, brilliantly sunny, poofs of clouds, blazing blue sky, light breeze, and as many happy children as you can possibly cram into one minivan. Its crazy at our house lately but, its that good kind of crazy that leaves you collapsing into a droopy, smiley puddle at the end of the day.

This is ideal, dreamy summer. We had a picnic lunch today with Penny, my good friend Nutmeg and also Painterly, another good chum and of course our grand tumble of children. Amazing experience really...the kind of thing that happens in books. There was a big pitcher of ice water, lots of fresh fruit, quilts on the grass, multiple hampers of goods, potato chips, chicken salad, fresh garden greens, goldfish in quantity and a bar of chocolate to share all around, not to mention plenty of babies to pass to any open lap.

All this sunshine has my brain desperately hung up on lemon. Somehow, even though they are ripe in winter and cheapest then and freshest then my mind craves the flavor right about now. To go along with the theme I have this song stuck in my head pretty much perpetually these days. Wish I could share Mason Jennings playing it with you but instead you get to hear this happy little ukulele dude cover it.

Dreaming of making a grand and floaty lemon meringue pie in July...and satiating myself by heading downstairs to mix up the dry portion of these for breakfast. I do so love muffins. And lemon poppyseed is my top, all-time favorite...I think. I also really love blueberry. I had lemon poppyseed muffins for the very first time, made from a really exciting Jiffy mix (mixes were verboten in our house) when I was a little girl by my very artistic and glamorous aunt with the corkscrew curls and the face splitting grin. She was an amazing aunt to have in your back pocket. She knew all kinds of fabulous people, collected black beach rocks, told breath-taking stories and loved chocolate intensely. I was somewhat adoring. And she made lemon poppyseed muffins for me and I was smitten and have loved them ever since.

And while we're on the lemon theme...what about this? Doesn't that look like fun? Can just imagine drizzling it over the fresh ravioli I'm going to make with herbs from my garden in July! Yay summer!

Bits of Lovely

Everything is okay again....because I found mushrooms. Heh. I do like foraging a lot and boy do I instantly feel like all is well with the world after running into a giant cluster of wild food accidentally. This particular mushroom is most often called Chicken-of-the-Woods but when I was growing up I was taught to call them Sulphur Mushrooms because of the particular shade of yellow on the underside of the caps.

And our farmer's market opened....well it opened last week but I was just days from delivering and not quite up to attending so, we went for the first time this week and caught the strawberries debuting. Mmm....am so happy to be back at the market. It was very fun to have some of the farmer's recognize us and be excited about the baby....one of my favorite vendors gave me two peonies to take home as a baby gift! People are so nice. (And you all know how I feel about peonies!)

We had a two week check-up with the babe and he's even bigger....up to 9 lbs and 12 oz. now from his birth weight of 8lbs 14oz. I feel like a very good mommy. 

And then...our incredible neighbor came over and brought a picnic lunch for children, a grown-up mommy lunch just for me and dinner and then took my boys out to the yard for playing with a giant kick-ball, bubble blowing with huge wands, fed them and her own daughter with the picnic she brought and then read them all a storybook as a wind down so I could take them right in and tuck them in for naps. Why am I not friends with this neighbor? I must get to know her. Seriously folks, people are so nice sometimes that it hurts.

*grin* My giant iris bloomed for the first time! Isn't it pretty? I've always wanted to grow one of these and this is my first blossom. Am very proud.

This is what happens when your mommy is a blogger. Your splash sessions in the bath with your kid brother get all paparazzi'd. Heh.

And here was the crowning bit of lovely. This afternoon Ru comes up to me....

"Mommy. I have an idea. Lets write a book. We are such good helpers to you that we should make a book about it and call it "We Help Mommy" and then we can send it to all our friends and aunts and uncles and we can be in it and we can make words inside."

Awesome. We're authors! Just like that.

"What do you say Mommy?"

I think we may have a book project in our future. Heh. Stay tuned. I am envisioning a really fun rainy day project.

Picnic Weather!

Was a lovely day today. Took the boys trekking over to A's work for a jolly little picnic on a bench in the sun at lunchtime. One woman stopped and said, "What fun! You know you're going to make lots of people jealous!" nodding towards the continual stream of strolling executive types clicking past down the sidewalk, clippy i.d. tags fluttering in the breeze and black dress shoes gleaming. We did get a lot of waves and hellos and folks, cold asparagus, drizzled with garlic olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a generous dose of sea salt is d.i.v.i.n.e. when eaten sitting cross legged in the sunshine with no utensils, whole spears dripping and gleaming greenly, fingers all an oily, tasty mess and that amazing color of chartreuse/grass green stacked like cordwood in the make-shift tin foil bowl. Yum. Asparagus is one of my favorite foods in the world.

Ahem. Yes. Picnic. The picnic was really grand. First of the year. That's important. Everyone cheerful even though I was about an hour late arriving. Also good. Looks like it was chilly but it was tremendously comfortable and jackets would have been sweaty overkill. We're leafless but, really balmy at the moment.

And if you need real, further proof...look. Just down the street folks were lining up rather substantially for the local Dairy Queen. Note to self: Take the boys to Dairy Queen. Its a childhood institution. I think I may wait until its really good and hot.

Potty training continues on apace. Only two misses today...small progress is laudable! Still no initiating on his part which is slightly off-putting but really, I'd be asking a bit too much if I said that I truly expect him to have it all down in two days flat. I am not insane.

 Hope your weekend is fabulous. We're grilling steaks, visiting the midwife, and jogging off for a date alone together. Much sunshiney bliss awaits. May some of it come your way too!