Goldfish and the Family Tree

Hey Dad, take a picture of the goldfish. So here they are, Bubbles
and Squeak, version 2 (Version 1 went to the great swirly bowl). These guys (or gals) start off at one inch and are now at least 4 inches. I guess it was their turn for a guest shot as the dog and cats have all made appearances.

Anni is modeling her favorite red t-shirt, the family tree shirt with all 9 branches including ours.

Today was All Saints' Day. We celebrated by preparing for All Hallows' Eve. We finally got our halloween candy and arranged the mini menu for our celebration. We found lights for our steps and some fun crafts to creat for tomorrow. Now, if I can just remember where I put that CD with the spooky music.

As promised yesterday, a project update:

1. Eat seasonally, locally, sustainably, and organically. - This has been one of the easiest goals to work on. We love the challenge and comraderie of this goal. We get to chat with the farmers who grow our food.

2. Grow more of our own food - This is a work in progress. The garden is beginning it seasonal slumber. We still have a lettuce bowl growing. Our next garden step is to get a green house constructed.

3. Increase community, decrease our consumerism - Just by working on goals 1 and 2 we have experienced an increase in our community commitments and participation. We are passionate about quality local farming and access to farmers' markets. We also feel more connected to the environment around us and so are willing to commit time and energy to green causes.

4. Live and play simply and locally - We are doing more fun things as a family; cooking, crafting, gardening, marketing. We walk the dog more and just have more time to be with family and friends. By experiencing our state and its neighbors, we get to do more experiencing. So far we've been to the Portland, Yakima, the Winthrop area, and Leavenworth.

Brand new voter and cozy corner moment

A ghostly tree in the morning mist.

Ari is a fully fledged new citizen! She voted for the first time, via absentee ballot. It was a very long ballot this time with the national, state, and local folks and a bunch of initiatives.

Alex had his theatre program today, and it was a marathon day for Anni. She had her vision ed, OT, and speech today. I made it to the gym again (yahoo!) this evening.

For dinner tonight, we heated up the unused sage turkey mix from the ravioli the other day in organic turkey gravy and served it up with freshy mashed yukon gold potatoes (CSA), brussel sprouts (farm stand). Terrific.

And a brand new feature - Cozy Corner: warm stuff to keep folks warm when the thermostat can't go beyond 62 (our setting for the evening/night in our continuing efforts to be a bit greener). Today's cozy moment was the fluffy robe right from the dryer - toasty!

Tomorrow - a project update!

Apple Chutney and the Bee

10 Jars of Apple Chutney

Lisa, Alex, and Ari striking poses before the start of The Putnam County Spelling Bee this evening. David and I saw this musical on Broadway during our trip to New York a couple of years ago. It was so great, we wanted the older two kids and friends to see it too. It was a total blast! Very funny!

The chutney was why there was no posting yesterday. I was preserving! The kids say it's become an obsession! But I say necessity, to deal with lots of green tomatoes and apples! The whole house still smells like chutney! Bring on the masala veggie burgers!

More news tomorrow as I'm going to close now and figure out how to use the very special green gift David gave to me. No, not my very own personal leprechaun or a giant boogie. Not even a bag of peapods or a jar of dill pickles. Not an evergreen tree or a 4-leaf clover. It was a green Nikon Coolpix camera that gave a donation to a green cause apon purchase. David got a great deal on the camera and a very big kiss, I got a very cool camera with a zoom lens (yahoo!), and the charity got a donation. I just love triple wins. The instruction manual for the camera is 3X bigger than the camera and twice as thick. I feel a techno-oh-no headache coming on, but for the sake of close-up, I'll chance it. Pass the tylenol.

New baby in the family!!!

Anni and Alex decorating for Halloween

CONGRATULATIONS to Cousin Andy and his gal Clare on the birth of their brand new baby girl - Megan Rose. She's lovely! We wish you much joy and hopefully some sleep!

This weekend was another busy one for the farmers down on the Funny Farm. Saturday was the last local farmer's market of the season. We met our friend, Lisa, at the market for the final tour of this year's fall offerings. We found squash, cilantro, hazelnuts, peppers, melons, cheese, and even some oxtail for making soup. We even found an apron for Anni's cooking group. She's thrilled.

Then it was breakfast at Tullys, better known as coffee time! Alex had a $5 bill that was burning a hole in his pocket, demanding to be spent at the comics shop. While he and Ari checked that out, Anni, Lisa, and I looked in the games shop. We added a few more learning games to Anni's game basket.

Then it was Ari's turn. So of course we ended up at the used book shop. Sticking strickly to the bargain aisles, we found all kinds of goodies. Ari found a dracula book ($7). Alex found an X-files video ($0.50) 2 geography computer games ($0.50 each) and 2 John Bellairs novels($3 each). Anni found 2 Arthur computer games ($0.50 and several books ($1-$2 each), and I found an armful of best sellers ($2 each) and some great music CDs ($1 each), soothing instrumentals, funky holiday songs and some favorite pop, including Hootie and the Blowfish, whom I love! We had a great time checking out all the cool goodies, and we didn't have to spend a bundle.

Yahoo! I've finally made it to the gym three days ina row. I'm on a roll now or is that a treadmill? So far, I've hit the treadmill, bike, and ellipse machines. Tomorrow, I'm swimming!

We tried out a new recipe tonight, homemade turkey-sage ravioli with a sage mock-cream sauce, carmelized carrots, and bread. It was great, but very time consuming to make. We started dinner at 6pm and dined at 9pm! Everyone had a great appetite by then!

Autumnal Colors

Autumn comes to the backyard maple.

The final garden protecting marigolds standing guard over the last of the cherry tomatoes. The garden is looking just plain sad now that almost everything has been fall harvested. The lettuce bowl still looks bright and healthy.

Ari, Alex, and Anni all had their flu shots today (they were thrilled!) Then Anni had a blood draw (definitely not thrilled at all!!!), and Ari had one additional vaccination. Now, hopefully the flu will give our family a pass this year.

Anni had her cooking group with her friend today. They made monster mouths out of apple slices and peanut butter with candy corn teeth. It was very silly and quite tasty!

For dinner, we stuffed a couple of delicata squash (farmer's market) with wild rice, sage (CSA), onion (CSA), garlic (farmer's market), and almonds (PCC) and baked them to perfection. We served them up with a wild greens (CSA) and pomegranate (CSA) salad, and fresh pears (CSA) for dessert. Delicious!

Fall Foliage and Strange Sightings

This little Japanese maple is in full fall foliage colors tucked between the rosemary bushes.

Alex and Anni were trying out the costumes after we unloaded all five of the Halloween boxes this morning. Today they are modeling fine wizard and witch hattery with their candy buckets.

One October Day

Trees in Fall Foliage at the Park

In produce news, the CSA box arrived today, full of goodness. This week it contained an acorn squash, ginger root, cauliflower, carrots, sweet corn green onions, collard greens, mushrooms, salad mix, sage, thyme, fingerling potatoes, pears, plouots, kiwi, lemons, limes, and a melon. Now, it's time to consult with Chef Alexander about how to use all this autumnal yumminess.

Anni had her EEG early this morning. Considering that she only had 3 hours of sleep, she did very well. The tech even put some electrode buttons on her teddy bear. We're hoping she can stay off one of the anticonvulsants as her memory and mental alertness have been more stable without it.

We are all looking forward to tomorrow as it's Halloween craft and decoration day! We have pumpkins to carve, gravestone to paint, and skeletons to connect. We are also going to have a browse through the costume boxes to see what we can come up with for fright night. We've decided to just trick-or-treat around our neighborhood this year and then have a mini party with healthy finger foods. (We need to balance all that sugar somehow!)

Monday Madness and Use-Your-Noodle Soup

The last photo from our weekend farming adventure, a morning view of Ames Creek Farm.

Today was our typical Monday madness. Ari had college. Anni had yoga PT, and Alex had his lines to study for theatre. It was a very Northwestern fall day with plenty of rain to go around. I had an indoor workout this afternoon at the Y and then took Anni swimming.

Today, we dug out our Halloween decorations and craft box out of the garage. It should make for plenty of fun for the next week or two.

Alex made a terrific noodle soup for lunch today. He wanted to share the recipe for all to enjoy, so here it is:

Alexander's Awesome Use-your-Noodle Soup

1 pkg. fine udon (we like Koyo's organic)
4 cup low-sodium beef broth (or chicken or veggie)
1/2 cup peas (frozen are fine, edame works well too)
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
3 sliced green onions (very thinly sliced sweet onions will do too)
1/2 cup sliced boy choy (or savoy cabbage or spinach)
1/4 cup finely slice roast beef (or poultry cooked or tofu)
1 Tbsp. reduced sodium soy sauce

1) Bring 8 cups of water to boil in large pot. Add whole pkg of noodles and cook according to pkg instructions. Drain and rinse noodles with cold water.

2) While noodles are cooking, heat broth to boil in another large pot. Add veggies and meat or tofu. Simmer for 2 minutes. Add noodles and return to simmer. Remove from heat and add soy sauce. Serve up in deep bowl with chopsticks and spoons for the broth.

The room without a view

More photos from the farming experience yesterday. A lovely view of the Snoqualmie River on the left and one of the farm's crop fields on the right. That's purple kale and collard greens growing.

I needed to post some beautiful scenery because Alex and I spent all day digging out his room (Scary! Not scenic at all!). I was demanding to see some vacuumable floor space. Alex is our future architect. He loves to built. We had to disassemble loads of lego, erector set, bionicle sets, and several other building set that I'm not hip enough to know the name of. It took four hours to clean that room! Then another couple to do all the laundry we found under his bed!

We stuck a pot of chili verde in the crock pot to bubble while we did our clean machine express. It was delicious with homemade tortilla chips and salsa.

Down on a different funny farm

Here's our friend Lisa on the banks of the mighty Snoqualmie River (that would be the beautiful river pictured to the right).

Today Lisa and I worked with the Helping Hands group out at the Full Circle Farm's Ames Creek site in Carnation.

What did we do? We worked with WA Conservation Corp guys to plant trees and shrubs (Douglas fir, Red Cedar, Willow, Dogwood, Snowberry. and one tree type I can't remember).

Why? We're replanting the river bank with native species in order to help stop the invasive species and to provide a more optimal environment for the river's salmon run. The fish need shaded, cool water. First we had to dig holes through the matted reed grass and then stop the soil from dropping through the reed grass while we planted the tree or shrub, all to the aroma of a nearby dead and decaying coyote. It sounds grim, but we had a great time! We also harvested some beets (not me!) and red kale (yes, please!). Full circle also gave us some celery and leftover lunch pears and apples.

It was a great win-win-win-win effort. We had fun, got some exercise, and a bit of produce. The farm got some volunteer labor. The local food bank got lots of veggies donated by the farm, and the salmon got a much improved habitat. We also had a great time chatting with the other volunteers, a diverse group including honor students from Newport High School, two former cheese guys from Whole Foods, a writer, and many fine other folks.

In other news, we swung by the Redmond farmer's market on the way home. (Lisa needed hazelnuts.) In a strange cosmic consequence of "It's a Small World Afterall", it turns out that the hazelnut farmer's family is from Colchester, Essex, England. Perhaps his relatives know my aunt and uncle???

Today's dinner selection was inspired by all our local goodness. We made an Italian parsley (CSA) and hazelnut (farmer's market) pesto over organic penne and served it up with the last of our cherry tomatoes (garden). For dessert, Alexander made a delicious applesauce cake with the applesauce I made the other night, yum!

Corn and Apples

A wonderful weeping willow at Juanita Bay Park.

The suburban farmers have been off the blog for a day or two, learning and preserving. On Tuesday, we had a viewing of the video King Corn which we highly recommend. Did you know that most of the carbon in an American's body comes from corn? And not necessarily the healthy kind! This video is a real eye opener.

Last night, with another 15 lbs of apples, we made quarts and quarts of spiced applesauce. It was lots of peeling, slicing, and stirring, but we now have 11 jars of delicious organic applesauce.

We harvested 3 more pumpkins today and 50 green tomatoes. Some time soon, we're making apple-tomato chutney. Next week, we have to start processing all those pumpkins. Thanks mom for the pumpkin recipes!

The leaves are finally beginning to change color. We've taken Barkley on 3 walks so far this week to take in all the colors. He's in doggie heaven!

Missing stuff and mushrooms

Hmm, I can tickle my own toes!

This morning we finally took we beat the rain and took Barkley for a walk at the park. He was so exciting he was practically doing back-flips. We've got to get that woofer out more often.

Then it became a very frustrating day. I spent alot of time looking for things: Anni's missing backpack, the missing telephone, the missing academic materials, and the missing computer ink cartridges. As cartoon Cathy would say, "Arrrgggg!!" We found the phone and ink cartridges, but not the backpack or academic materials. Oh well, they'll show up eventually. Things usually do.

I took a walk along the river this afternoon. I saw 1 heron, 2 comerands, 3 teal, and lots of Canada geese and crows. I also saw 29 woolbully caterpillars. They were bravely crossing the bike path.

We decided to use the chantrelle mushrooms tonight. The recipe winner was baked polenta with mushroom ragout. It was extremely tasty! We served it up with a fresh garden salad and some rosemary bread.

Smells, Fishy and Sweet

We visited the fish hatchery to see the Chinook salmon running up the stream. We also saw Coho and Sockeye mixed in. There were hundreds of fish! The dead fish released a pungent odor.

We spent part of the day digging our cold weather coats out of the garage. Then we decided to excavate a few other things out of the garage: cardboard to the recycler, used clothes and books to charity, and a few bags of unreuseable junk for a run to the dump.

Later this afternoon, I went in search of a big box of local apples, and hurray I found one, 25 lbs of gravensteins even. So, we spend most of tonight turning a third of them into spiced apple butter. They cooked for over 2 hours releasing a heavenly scent into the whole house. We made 8 jars. Tomorrow, we're making apple sauce.

Dendritic trees and brain cells

A pic of a very cool curly tree.

Today was market day! It was 37 degrees when we set out for the market this morning. We had to scrape a layer of ice off the prius! So, we pulled on our sweater and jackets and braved the weather for our fresh fix. The market was full of fall splender. We found 3 varieties of apples, bought 3 types of squash from among the 9 present, and our friend Lisa bought a beautiful bouquet in a pumpkin. We also purchased some short ribs from our favorite cattle guy from Bow, WA. He was featured in Sunset magazine this month. We also found fresh Italian sausage from one of our favorite egg and meat farms on Hwy 2. We also found some lovely Yukon gold potatoes and leeks to make soup for lunch next week. Our special market find of the week was chantrelle mushrooms! We're having a family contest to see who can come up with the best recipe for using them by Monday.

After the market, we had a coffee and hot chocolate warm-up and visited the games store. We found a great game about world geography. One of the favorite items in the shop were the stuffed critters in the form of body cells, viruses, and bacteria! Lisa bought a black death fuzzy. I had to have the brain cell so I could wiggle it at the kids when I have a mommy moment, exclaiming, "You're all getting on my very last nerve cell!"

Our next stop was the library to return books and check out some movies. The guys had a Matrix-fest this evening. There was lots of grunting and blasting going on. For lunch today, we whipped up a Chicken-Veggie-Noodle soup. Here's the recipe:

(For veggie friends, substitute tofu or corn for the chicken)
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 large onion finely chopped1 large carrot scraped and finely chopped
1 large rib celery finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
Up to 1 cup of finely chopped other veggies (I used 1/4 cup summer squash, 1/2 cup green beans, and 1/4 cup green peas)
1/2 pound lean chicken, finely chopped
1 clove finely minced garlic
6-8 cups of low-sodium chicken or veggie broth
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 pkg. of favorite noodles
1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1) Heat oil in large pot over medium low heat. Add onion & cook for 2 minutes. Add rest of veggies and cook for another 2 minutes. Then add chicken & garlic and cook until chicken is no longer pink. Sprinkle with sage and stir well.

2) Slowly add broth and stir. Turn heat to medium and bring to boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.

3) Add noodles and cook for the recommended time. Remove from heat. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Add parsley and serve. Hmmm!

Funky hats and a recycling machine

In our continuing saga of our adventures in Leavenworth, we noticed a proponderous plethora of funky hats around town. We followed the silliness to the local hattery and had fun trying out a few. Here is Lisa modelling Tom Turkey and A Gardening Pot on myself.

The fall temperatures have finally arrived! It was pretty frosty this morning. The garden plot is looking very sad.

This evening we headed to Britain for our menu inspiration; sheppard's pie with steamed carrots and cabbage. I got a chance to try out the little veggie/rice steamer. It worked like a charm! Anni discovered that she loves brown sauce!

Ari and I went to the bookstore this evening to peruse the used books and magazines. There was great R&B band playing in the common's area. We encountered a lady with an interesting machine. I looked a little bit like a small spinning wheel. We had to ask what it was. Turns out, it was an unraveler. She purchases used sweaters of interesting wools from the used clothing stores and unravels them. Then she blends these yarns with other fibers to make beautiful scarves, blankets, etc. We thought this was a pretty cool recycling gadget!

Sausage Signs and Produce

More images from Leavenworth. One of the scenic street corners. We laughed at this propriator's name and chosen business

Today was a marathon day. Ari had college. Alex had theatre. Anni had vision, OT, and speech. David had work and a haircut. I had mom's taxi service going full tilt! I also got a haircut (at last!) and finally replaced the rusty garlic squisher in my kitchen -yahoo! And we harvested another basket full of tomatoes today.

It was also CSA farm box day. It was another good one with 2 kinds of onions, red potatoes, corn, broccoli, kale, mustard greens, Italien parsley, mushrooms, napa cabbage, tomatillos, oranges, pears, pomegranate, plucots, and a mango. Sadly, for the first time there was a goof on the order. No melons were included - oopsie!

Tonight for dinner we headed to the southern inspiration for fried green tomatoes (garden) with cream gravy, black eyed peas (pantry) with jalepenos (CSA) and fresh corn on the cob (CSA). Sadly there was no time to make the corn bread.

Saturday at the Sleeping Lady

During our past weekend trip east we went out to The Sleeping Lady Resort for a delicious gourmet lunch. First we self-toured their amazing organic garden. Karen snapped this pic for us in the gazebo.

Here are Karen and Lisa smiling in the garden.

Even the flowers were smiling!

A lovely view of the mountains in clouds.

Evil eye glasswork on an apple tree outside the dining hall at the Sleeping Lady. We like these so much that we found them in a local nonprofit store in Leavenworth.

Back at home we harvested 2 more pumpkins, 4 more squash, and a bowl full of tomatoes.

In the fridge, I discovered we had some broccoli in need of using so it was cream of broccoli (farmer's market) soup with aged cheddar (local-organic), homemade bread, and local apples. The combination of the soup simmering and the bread baking made the kitchen smell heavenly and very fall!

Encountering Bigfoot on a Road Trip

It's been a few days since our last post. Ari and I took a road trip with the other members of our writing group. On the way over to Steven's Pass we encountered a Washington celebrity near Index.

Ari, Karen, and Lisa posing with Bigfoot.

Even the trees have eyes around here, spooky!

Congratulations to Ellie and Joey on their new jobs! Way to go, young-uns!!!

Forest Fungi and Pumpkin Muffins

This was a very large mushroom we saw on the trail during our adventure in the North Cascades.

Today, our weather returned to fall with rain. We harvested 2 more pumpkins and another basket full of tomatoes.

We baked up 5 trays of pumpkin muffins for munching, Anni's cooking group, and snacks for the writing group's upcoming retreat.

Strangest sight of the day, the nude jogger we encountered on the drive back from writing group. He was totally stark naked except for his running shoes. We laughed the rest of the way home!

Knight's helmets and a kettle of soup

These are the "knights" bashing each other during the demo at the Twisp farmer's market this past weekend. It's the age old debate of which is better a sword and shield or 2 swords?

My head is clear enough to respond to the question, just what did we get at the Twisp market? Besides a beautiful drive over the mountain pass and lots of sunshine. The answer is red onions, garlic, a winter squash, lemon cukes, peppers, pears, soft wheat berries, heirloom seeds, and lots of organic apples.

Today, we went to our local farmers market for yellow onions, cucumbers, bok choy, squash, sweet potatoes, asian pears, and still more apples. We really love our apples!

It was Ari's long day at college today. She sneezed her way through as she now has the cold! Alex was practicing his monologue for his theatre class. I think I have it memorized now. Anni worked with her speech therapist, her OT, and her vision teacher today.

I had a bunch of kale I needed to use so I made a kettle of Italian kale and bean soup. It's easy, very fall and so delicious! The basic soup is veggie (vegan even!). Here's the recipe:

1 large bunch of kale
4 large cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp. of olive oil
3 small peeled (or new) potatoes, cut in half and finely sliced
6 cups of cooked canneloni beans (canned and drained are fine)
4-5 cups of bean liquid, veggie broth, water or a combination of these
4 fresh sage leaves or 1/4 dried sage leaves
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup fine cornmeal or corn flour
2/3 cup water

1) Wash and stem kale leaves. Chop into course pieces. Put in large bowl of cold water. Leave to soak.

2) Heat oil in large pot over medium-low heat. Add finely minced garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Then add potatoes. Cook for an additional minute, taking care not to burn garlic. Add 1/2 of liquid and 3 cups of the beans. Stir gently to combine flavors.

3) In small batches, combine remaining beans, liquid, tomato paste, and sage in a blender or food processer. Puree. Add to pot, along with salt and pepper to taste.

4) Drain kale, add to pot. Cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

5) Mix lemon juice with fine cornmeal or corn flour. Add enough water to make one cup. Whisk to remove any corny clumps. Once soup has cooked for 30 minutes, add this to it and cook and additional 10 minutes over LOW heat, stirring occassionally. Season to taste again with salt and pepper.

6) Serve this soup with freshly grated parmesean cheese, and with red pepper flake for those who like spice. For the carnivores out there, it's wonderful topped with a few slices of chicken sausage. Serve it up with fresh bread and cherry tomatoes. Enjoy!

(Yes, Lisa! I'll bring you some tomorrow!)