snow and baking and halloween

it snowed here the saturday before halloween.  which was kind of unexpected, although my phone said it would snow, i didn't believe it since it has done me wrong before and it just seemed way too early to snow.  we just returned from southern california and 70-80 degree weather the day before, so it just didn't seem like it would really snow.  but snow it did, as you can see.  we went on a little winter... uh... autumn walk on sunday morning.

snow means winter and baking, right?  so i just had to use the last of our garden zucchini for zucchini bread using my friend mary's recipe (which is my all time favorite!).  i added some frozen  blueberries and it was delicious!  we may have been listening to christmas music while we made them...

we went to a halloween art class and made haunted castles.  the castle is make from a tissue box, toilet paper and paper towel roll and shaved ice cone all painted gray.  both kids loved decorating their castles and they looked super cute as halloween decorations at  home.

this year we were princess leia and yoda.  this was the first year i did not make their costumes, which was sad and a relief.  with the multiple funerals all across the country it just wasn't in the cards this year, but next year we will hopefully go back to homemade.  but it may depend on what they want to be...

happy autumn!

late harvest

we just harvested a lot more from our garden!  do you see all those habanero peppers?!?  they are super spicy!  sam is going to make some hot sauce with them for a 'spice' party he is having with some other guys where they all bring something insanely hot to try.  not for me.

sorry i have been absent for awhile, my grandma passed away and it sort of threw us (me) for a loop.  we went out to arizona for her beautiful funeral mass that my aunts worked hard to plan, in the middle of their mourning.  they did an amazing job!  it was perfectly my grandma and i am so glad i got to go with my kids to take comfort in family, reminisce about her amazing life and take time to say goodbye.

eggplants and tomatoes

made this recipe a few times this season with the eggplants and tomatoes from our garden.  the sauce freezes well and because it is a puree i throw in anything else that is also ripe (bell peppers, zucchini).  it uses a whole lot of tomatoes so it is perfect when a ton of tomatoes are ripe all at the same time.  we still have a few eggplants and tomatoes to be picked, so i'm sure this will be on the menu again.  maybe i'll try canning the sauce.  hmmmm... eggplant and tomatoes in winter could be soooo welcome.

{this moment}

inspired by soulemama.

powerless

when hurricane irene left us powerless (and home-bound due to downed trees) we had lots of fun with flashlights. a fort was made and all the flashlights were squirreled away in there. the kids were really excited to 'read' books by flashlight. it was very cute but as you might be able to see at the tippy top of the picture, it was still light outside so no flashlight was really necessary, but to them the flashlights were essential for proper reading.

we also held a few shadow plays. very impromptu and they all somehow involved a hurricane, but (as a teacher and parent) i was especially excited to hear calvin's internal sense of story as he unfolded the dialogue of the play. he understood there had to be a problem and somehow that problem had to be solved. there were good guys and bad guys and everyone had a family that loved them.

as it got darker and darker we discovered that the shutter closed slower and slower. so when we clicked the picture button we had a few seconds to move the flashlight all around before the shutter closed. we experimented with this a lot. we tried to spell small words or our names but couldn't quite make it look right. the squiggles turned out the best.

we were lucky and got our power back later that night.  but we have played 'power's out' more than a few times since the day irene hit.  i need to keep this game in my back pocket for those cold winter home-bound days that seem to drag on and on and on.

i don't mind the power being out for a day. maybe even two.  it can be fun and we can play these fun flashlight games, but more than two days is rough.  i few people i work with still do not have power!  it's been over a week.  seriously.  it's time to take the power back.

*ps. thank you for your kind comments and emails about my father-in-law and my dad.  i am so happy and relieved to let you know that my dad's cancer was caught super early and the doctors are confident they can get all of the tumor out with surgery.  yay!  

rustic tomato tart

we grew more tomatoes than we know what to do with around here so i have been searching pinterest for tomato recipes that not only look good, but will be apetizing to everyone.  i stumbled upon this tomato tart.

it was super simple.  a great recipe to make with kids (as you can see i had an extra pair of little hands helping me).  all i had was whole wheat flour for the dough, and it was delicious!  i wasn't sure about adding the mustard, because i usually don't like whole grain mustard but it gave it a complicated flavor without tasting mustard-y at all.

maeve ate seconds and calvin had thirds!  i will definitely be making this again. luckily our garden fared very well during irene so we will have lots more tomatoes to come!

goodnight irene

a few nights before hurricane irene hit we went to my husband's company picnic. they set up a mini-carnival just for employees. lots of rides and no lines. my kids ran around barefoot and went on as many rides as they could manage, stopping only to eat a quick bite of hotdog. it was a memorable summer night.

24 hours later irene hit us. we were well prepared (food and water for days, tub filled with water, a stack of library books, a sheet fort and flashlights). we did get an evacuation notice, but decided to 'weather the storm'. for us it was not as bad as the news was making it out to be. we had a few large limbs down but they did not fall on anyone or anything. no flooding. we did loose power, but only for about 24 hours. about half the poeple i work with still have no power (3 days later!).

i feel very lucky that we escaped practically unharmed. it has been a rough week for us with a very unexpected loss of my father-in-law and a cancer diagnosis for my dad, so i think hurricane damage would have put me over the edge. we are getting through it day by day. hugging each other a little more. staying calm and carrying on...