Vermont flooding

For the last few days, I have been glued to my computer looking for any news I could find about the storm damage in Vermont. My hometown was one of the hardest hit, losing several houses, part of the cemetery, and all routes out of town. They were an island, cut off from the outside world.  My mom is fine, and has been keeping herself very busy helping others. This is what Vermonters do best- pull together as a community to help those in need.  The link below shows some aerial footage of the damage.

http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4177&Itemid=38

Since these photos were taken, they have built a footbridge over the large, downed bridge span as well as created at least one route out of town. The restaurants in town have been feeding everyone, and the Red Cross has airlifted in food and medical supplies. 

Kid friendly egg salad

Max and I made egg salad for lunch yesterday. Here's how we did it. 

Hard cook about a dozen eggs. These are our guinea hen eggs, which are
slightly smaller than chicken eggs.



Peel the eggs. This can be tricky with fresh eggs. Older eggs peel more easily.
Max is really concentrating here!




The peeled eggs. Told you fresh ones were hard to peel!



Mash the eggs. Max is using a potato masher that was my grandma's.
It's one of my most treasured possessions.

The rest of the ingredients: salt, pepper, mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.



Add pepper to taste. Max loves to use the pepper grinder!




Add two large spoonfuls of mayonnaise. Also add salt to taste and 1/4tsp.
of the Dijon mustard. Mix well.



Max LOVES to make sandwiches! All kinds.



Assemble the sandwich.



Eat the sandwich. Max's favorite part!



Those of us with more sophisticated palates like to add some romaine
lettuce to our sandwiches :)



Trying something new

I had to run some out of town errands the other day. To make the outing more fun for the kids, I decided to take them out to a "real" restaraunt for lunch. On the drive over, I asked the kids if they'd like to try some new kinds of foods at a real restaurant, and they were both very excited (I was surprised!). We went to a Thai place I had eaten at before and knew was good.
We ordered three appetizers to start: chicken satay skewers, spring rolls and edamame. The kids loved them all! Boosted by my first attempt, I ordered some sashimi. The kids loved the beautiful presentation, but didn't like the fish. They did try it though, and I was proud of them.

Chicken satay skewers



Claire eating miso soup (yes, that is tofu she is gobbling up!)

 

Claire is apprehensive about the red snapper...





Claire tries the tuna



Practicing using chopsticks



I think Max gave up on the chopsticks and used his fingers :)

 

Max dipping his salmon


 

Beautiful sashimi bowl




Max enjoys a spring roll while Claire munches on her chicken




Monday morning on the farm

On my way to the chicken house this morning, I noticed this beautiful plant combination. I loved how the blue and yellow flower colors looked together as well as how the heart-shaped leaves of the morning glory mixed with the super thin and stringy ones of the yellow daisy.  I had to go back in the house and grab my camera.

Then, since I had my camera, I started noticing lots of other beautiful things to photograph. The mist was magical this morning.

The side of the barn





The smokehouse seating area




'Hardy Chicago' figs




fuchsia zinnia




hot pink morning glory




Joey's sculpture, and Ivan the cat




lima beans




ancient oak tree




'Clemson Spineless' okra




pink zinnia




retired farm equipment




sweet potato leaves




yellow zinnias




young angus calf



Memory Whiz

Claire is a memory whiz. She is really, really good. I was a big memory fan at her age, and used to love playing with my mom. I'm pretty competitive, and never let my kids win at games. I think they should have a real sense of accomplishment if they beat me. I thought I still had few years left to beat the kids at skill games. But either my memory skills are slipping, or my six year-old is pretty darn good (or maybe both). This is what happened today: we tied! (see photo below). I usually beat her by several matches. Sometimes more than several. But today we tied. Tomorrow she'll be wiping the floor with me! Go Claire!

No, that is not a horn coming out of Claire's head in the top photo- it is the handle of my tea kettle.

Taco the Terrible

Isn't she cute? I bet you wouldn't believe she was racing through the house with a pair of underwear in her mouth (I won't tell you whose) just a few minutes before this photo was taken. Ah, the joys of a puppy.

Taco is our first little puppy ever, and she has been quite a handful so far. Our last dog (Baxter, RIP) was 9 months old when we got him, so we missed all the young puppy fun. We all wanted a little puppy for our next dog, so we could train it and bond with it and most importantly so it could grow up with rambunctious children and not be freaked out by them.

We went to the local shelter and came home with a cute little two month old fur ball. I picked her out, even. Her little face reminded me of Baxter's, and I couldn't consider any other puppies after I saw her. 

She had just been weaned, and didn't really know how to eat solid food yet. So we taught her, and went through several different foods before we found one she liked. And then we had to house train her. That was messy. Really messy. But she trained right on time (according to the vet) and hasn't had any accidents in a long time. 

The worst part has been the chewing. And the stealing of items and running around the house with them. And then chewing on them. She has put holes in several of the kids few decent looking shirts and has chewed on canning jars (that didn't last long), stuffed animals, and the aforementioned underwear. This is not for lack of real doggie chew toys. She's had pig's ears, real bones, rawhide bones, and rope toys. She'll chew on those some, but nothing can compare to a good teddy bear or a Barbie doll.

As you might imagine, this makes the kids pretty upset. They've taken to playing in their rooms with their doors closed, and Max even has a sign on his door that reads "no dogs allowed" (courtesy of Claire). Legos and puppies don't mix.

She's a very sweet puppy, and we all love her despite her crazy behavior, but I've been at my wit's end lately (she has been hanging out with the neighbors some, too). So the other day, we got her an outdoor lead. I didn't really want to do it, but did I mention I was at my wit's end? You know what? She loves it! She can run around a good bit, roll in the grass, chew on sticks, and just enjoy being outside. And I don't have to worry about her chewing up teddy bears or swimming in the neighbor's pool. She still spends a good bit of time inside, including all night (we have coyotes around here), but now we have a safe outdoor spot for her when we both need a break. Problem solved, for now.

Max, not sleeping

Max is going through a phase. He's not sleeping. Well, he is sleeping, he's just not sleeping when I want him to. You know, like 8p.m - 8a.m? Or even 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.? Just normal hours? He's been going to sleep between 11p.m. and midnight. Sometimes even later. We used to let him sleep in, thinking it was summer and it didn't really matter. So some mornings he'd sleep until 11 a.m. But lately, this night owl thing has gotten old. Joey and I don't have time for ourselves in the evening, and Max is not staying in his bed. So the last two mornings, we've gotten him up early. Yesterday it was 8:30 (I realize that is not considered early for most people). We thought for sure he'd go right to sleep last night. Nope. Up 'till midnight. This morning we had a playdate at a friend's house, so again we woke him up around 8:30. We had our playdate, went to the grocery store, and then had another playdate at a different friend's house. And went to another grocery store. And then played at home the rest of the afternoon. You'd think he'd be worn out, eh? The photo above was taken during dinner tonight. Does he look tired? It is 9:00 as I write this, and Max is in his bed looking sleepy, but not yet asleep. I told him an extra long story tonight, hoping that would help...

Tomato juice and sauce

The Roma type tomatoes are coming in right now! I picked half of a 5 gallon bucket full this morning. Hmm. What to do? Tomato sauce for dinner! I knew this was risky, since both my attempts at tomato sauce last summer bombed. But I had an idea of what I did wrong, and I really wanted to try again. Here's a photo showing what these tomatoes look like.

We have some friends that have been saving seeds from this variety for years. Every spring they start a bunch and give us some seedlings.

Last years' sauce was too watery and needed to cook a long time to thicken. By the time it thickened, it was very dark in color and almost caramelized. It didn't taste good. At all.

So here was my bright idea: after the tomatoes had cooked long enough to soften, pour the whole mess into my food mill. The liquid would pour though the mesh screen, leaving the solids up top to make the sauce with. It worked! And now I have tomato juice for my V8 loving Max!

The juice is sitting on one of my recycled wool potholders.

Okay, so then we (Max and I took turns) ran all the solid, pulpy stuff through the food mill to remove the skins and seeds. Here's what it looked like when we were done:

Then we went out to the garden to collect some basil and oregano and added those to the sauce.

Max chopped up some bell peppers (also picked this morning) with a special kids' knife he got for Christmas from uncle Peter and aunt Maire. He loves it and uses it all the time. In fact, he and Claire often fight about who is going to use it :)

When he was finished, we sauteed the peppers with some garlic until they were nice and soft and browned.

We added the peppers and garlic to the tomato sauce and then used the pan to brown some ground venison. You don't really brown ground venison as it doesn't have any fat to speak of. You just cook it until it is no longer pink.

Then we added the venison to the rest of the sauce, added some sugar, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste, and let the whole thing simmer for a while until it looked like this:

We enjoyed it over whole wheat spaghetti. The kids picked out the peppers, but that was to be expected :)

Cake Makers

Today Claire and Max decided to make "cakes". They spent a lot of time on these! The main ingredients were marshmallows, chocolate syrup and sprinkles. As Claire was wiping the edge of her plate with a wet towel, I asked her where she had gotten that idea. "From Ratatouille!" she replied. I think she needs a toque!

Update, 8/20. The kids did not really eat their creations. Each kid had one bite and decided they were too sweet. They sat in the fridge for a few days (they mostly just wanted to look at them) and then we tossed them. 

Woodburn House fig picking

The kids and I went to a place called Woodburn House today. It's an old plantation house in the nearby town of Pendleton that was built in 1830. A good friend of mine works there as a tour guide and invited us to come over. The property has the largest fig tree in South Carolina, and the horticulturist in me wanted to see that! The variety is 'Celeste', commonly called the "sugar fig." It has smaller fruit than most modern figs, but they are very dense and sweet and make a nice jam. The kids had a great time running around the giant fig tree and admiring the beautiful house.
The kids on the steps Woodburn HouseThe giant fig tree