Queen for a day

We have been meeting once a week with two other families for a History Coop this year. The curriculum that we are using is called  The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Revised Edition by Susan Wise Bauer. She has written the history of the world in a 4 volume set and we are at the end of the 2nd one. An activity book for the text has been giving us ideas for projects, games, and crafts throughout the year. I really like these books, mainly because they are a good outline for studying history. We do a lot of extra reading to go along with the chapters and the parents rotate teaching each week.

This week we studied Queen Elizabeth. After teaching a lesson, reviewing the chapter, and looking at lots of portraits of the queen, we took pictures of the girls dressed and posed like her.

Here are Ellen and Arianna and our other two friends. Beautiful!

The kids in the group (2 are not pictured) love going to "history" every week. They enjoy listening to and talking about stories from the past. They especially like doing crafts and dressing up. This year we have had them dress up like celtic warriors, samurai, knights, and ladies to name a few. They've also made all kinds of weapons including cannons, axes, swords, shields, etc. mostly out of cardboard tubes, paint sticks, and duck tape. In addition, they've done all sorts of crafts like mosaics, Japanese carp kites, illuminated letters, pysanky eggs, glue batik, etc. We've also tasted traditional foods from the Native Americans and the Moors.

I'm thankful to be involved in this group. We have developed some great friendships. Learning with friends can be a lot of fun! Besides having fun together it can also serve as an accountability group. Without them I might not push through the chapters and have the energy to do the activities. I know I've learned a ton about the middle ages from this coop!

Here's the link for the rest of the pictures I took today.

Surprised by squash

I have been working on a few squash recipes this week. I am amazed at how much you can do with squash! It can be put in almost any thing -- stir fry, pizza, soup, and my two new favorites, bread and pot pie.

I have adapted my old zucchini bread recipe and I now call it squash bread. The last batch I made actually had 3 kinds of squash mixed together since I had half a zucchini left from the day before, then I added a medium yellow squash, then half a trombone squash.

First I will share the basic recipe that I have adapted from several different cookbooks. You can modify the recipe several ways without changing the flavor very much. To reduce the sugar just leave out half. You can use 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white flour and substitute coco powder for 1/2 cup flour to give it a chocolate flavor. Add a handful of chocolate chips for more of a treat. You can leave out a 1/2 cup of oil without substituting the applesauce and it still comes out great although a little dry. We put earth balance (margarine) on it anyway so I like to decrease the oil. I made the muffins above with 2/3 the sugar and 1/2 the oil last night. I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top and brought them to share with some friends and they were a hit.

3 tablespoons of ground flax seeds
1/2 cup water
1 cup canola oil or half cup oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Mix the flax seeds and water and whisk for a minute then set aside. Mix oil, sugar, and vanilla, then add flax mix, and squash.

Mix dry ingredients together then add to the wet ingredients. Add nuts, raisins, etc. last.

Bake at 350. This makes 2 loaves or 2 muffin tins or one 9x13 pan.The recipe doubles easily.



Next, I adapted this pot pie recipe from Joy of Cooking. I was excited because the original recipe included winter squash and did not involve mixing flour into the base. You simply saute the veggies of your choice individually. Then mix them together with salt and pepper and pour into baking dish. Then cover the veggies with broth. While that is baking, mix drop biscuit recipe to spread on top. Easiest pot pie I've found and it tastes fantastic. Here's the link for a simple biscuit recipe that I love. If you want more details about the pot pie recipe just let me know. I don't want to type it up unless I know someone will want it:)



I was able to use up a lot of squash this week with those two recipes and also summer squash soup. The girls are not big fans of squash although Arianna doesn't mind it as much. Everyone loves it in the bread, though. Have I said enough about squash bread to make you want to try it:)

Squash

Check out my gardening blog for a new idea for cooking butternut squash. I'm also looking for new ways to cook and serve summer and winter squash so please respond with your favorite recipe or idea.

Ahhh, Summer!

The girls and I have taken a break from school work for few weeks. We home school year-round but take several weeks off during summer and around the holidays. Lately we've been enjoying sleeping in, staying in our pjs, long sessions of reading aloud and to ourselves. I've had extra time to work on organizing our schedule for the next year and order new books for the year. The girls have been reading a lot but they are experiencing some summertime boredom. I think it's good for them to figure out what to do with themselves at those times. Since we don't have a tv and I won't let them watch many movies (usually 2 a week) they've got to be creative. We have tons of toys so I keep reminding them about all the stuff that's in the playroom and their bedroom -- hundreds of playmobil guys and littlest pet shop, a closet full of stuffed animals, an unreasonable amount of dress up costumes, etc.

So the funniest thing they said to me the other day was that they didn't want to play with all their toys because they knew they were going to have to clean them all up later in the day! It's true, when they are really into something they will spread out in every room of the house and have little homes or shops that they visit with their toys. It's great fun and imaginative for a little/long while. They are starting to think about whether or not it is worth getting it all out if they are going to have to turn around and clean it all up! I wanted to say, "Well now you know how I feel every day with cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc." Don't worry I didn't say it exactly like that:) 

They had a sleep-over last night so I've had about 24 hours without them. I really don't know what to do with myself when they are not around. Isn't it true that we get so much more accomplished when we have a deadline or a short amount of time to do it? Well, I could be planning the school year, preparing food, cleaning, bills, working on my dance classes, weeding, but...I think I'll work on the blog. I'll get to that other stuff later:)

Daniel and I had a nice quiet evening alone. We enjoyed a home-cooked meal from the garden and he played the guitar while I worked on the computer for a little while. I love it. I feel like I'm being serenaded. Ended the evening with a movie from the library.



For the latest garden news...this is what we've harvested since June 1st (the last post about the garden).

• 18 pounds of onions (almost all of the onions we grew this year)

• 4 pounds of garlic (most of the garlic also)

• 6 pounds of potatoes

• 10 ounces of beets

• 3 1/2 pounds of collards

• 3 1/2 pounds of kale

• 1 pound yellow squash (2 medium)

• 2 pounds zucchini (3 medium/large)

• 10 ounces basil

Recital photos

Getting ready for the recital.

After the show. Girls in their contemporary costume. Mom and Devon in first photo and Daniel in second. Thanks for the pictures Grandaddy William!

Graduation and Dance Recital

We have had such a busy weekend that I'm actually glad it's Monday! Our homeschool group has a graduation ceremony at the end of every school year to showcase the students' work and award certificates of achievement. Here is a link to what Daniel wrote about the event last year. This year's graduation just happened to fall on the same weekend as our dance recital so we had two long rehearsals and 2 beautiful shows to attend!

For the homeschool graduation Ellen and Arianna were in a writing class which wrote and performed 2 skits for the crowd. They were also in the recorder class and performed a solo, a duet, and another song with the whole class. All of the students set up their science projects and artwork so that the family and friends could browse around look at their work. The event also included dinner and other performances by the preschool group and the highschoolers. Here they are all together.

Here are the girls playing the recorder. This is their second year playing.




Sunday afternoon was the dance recital. Ellen and Arianna are in different ballet classes but take a contemporary class together so they each performed 2 dances on stage. They were also on stage as assistants for one of my preschool classes. They have been helping me with 2 classes this year and so I needed them onstage to help the little ones. Ellen and Arianna both are very graceful and confident on stage. They absolutely love it all and danced like stars this weekend.

I had 6 classes in the recital this year so every few minutes I was ushering another group of little ones on and off the stage. I was so proud of all my classes and really had fun being a part of their lives this year. For most of them it was their first ballet class and recital. I hope they'll have fond memories of me and that whole experience. I wasn't in the dressing room with Ellen and Arianna since they were in the "older girls" room. I didn't take any pictures of them but William came to the recital will be posting some soon, right? :) Here is a picture of one of my cute classes. They were spring fairies.

The studio that I work for and we all take classes with is called Columbia Ballet School. It celebrated its 30th year anniversary this year. The recital was excellent and the older ballerinas who are really, really talented were a pleasure to watch.

We have a break from dance for a few weeks until we start back up with camp and summer classes in July. I'll be teaching ballet, tap and the mommy and me class while the girls take ballet and contemporary.

A week of cousins

My mom and cousin are in town for the week. The girls are having so much fun together. We went to the Edventure Children's Museum on Tuesday and Lake Murray on Wednesday. On Saturday, Ellen and Arianna have their graduation ceremony for the homeschool coop where they will be performing several songs on the recorder, 2 skits, and showing their art and science projects. Sunday is their dance recital. We are happy to have family in town to get to see these events.

Saturday Harvest with Beets and Onions

• 3 pounds collards
• 3.5 pounds kale
• 11 pounds potatoes
• 4 pounds bok choi
• 14 ounces chard
• 1.5 pounds beets

We ordered all of our seeds including the multiplier onions pictured below from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. We are very excited about the success of these onions. We have harvested a portion of the bed and now they are curing (drying) in the shed for a few weeks. Most of the bulbs are a nice size and much bigger than anything we've ever grown. We also harvested garlic this week but did not weigh them (or the onions) yet. We've decided to wait until they dry. We noticed that the local organic garlic was selling for $2 a bulb at the farmer's market! I look forward to doing a cost analysis to see how much money we are saving with growing the food in our garden.

Beets! This is another crop that we are successfully growing for the first time this year. We don't have very many but the ones we have are beautiful! I love the deep red color. I'd love for a suggestion on how to cook these. I'm going to try roasting them tomorrow. I don't usually buy beets so I'm going to have to experiment with some new recipes:)

Celebrating 10 Years Together!

Today we celebrate out 10 year anniversary. 

We are still so in love. When you are first engaged and dreaming of your life together you really don't know how your love could grow. Ours sure has. 

We are best friends. We love working together and playing together. We have 2 amazing children and a wonderful life. I look forward to many more beautiful years together.

A Leafy Green Meal Plan

It has been a fun challenge to figure out how to fit all these greens that we have been growing into our meals. To begin with, I wash and rinse greens every day and that is quite a process. I've learned that taking the rib out of collards, kale and turnips make them a lot easier to eat--especially for the girls. Another thing I've figured out is that it is more efficient to go ahead and prepare all of the greens at once. For example, in the past I would only wash the kale that I would be using for the specific meal. Now if I wash and trim all 2 pounds at once then dinner prep is quick and we have left over greens that we can eat the next day.

So this is how I do it now. First I cut out the rib if necessary. Then I let them soak in a sink of cold water for about 10 minutes. Then depending how dirty the leaves are I might do that again. I then take them out (inspecting for bugs on each leaf since I am neurotic about not eating bugs) and dry them in the salad spinner. Then I bag them in a clean bag so they are ready for the meal.

I've never really cooked with Bok Choi before this year. I've found that the stalks can be used just like celery. I chop them up and add them to salads, sandwiches and cold salads like potato salad and chick pea salad.  If you are going to cook them with the leaves then they need to cook about twice as long (cook ribs 3 mins then add leaves for another 3).

Here's a meal plan for a typical weak during this season:

Sunday--Spicy Chick Pea dish and salad
Monday--Tofu and sauted kale lasagna and salad
Tuesday--Burritos with black beans, rice, collards, olives, avocados, salsa and vegan sour cream on top
Wednesday--Harvest bowl with cornbread, leftover black beans, mashed potatoes and turnips, and avocado.
Thursday--coconut milk and curry stir fry with tofu, bok choi, mushrooms and salad
Friday--Cashew cheese macaroni with sauted swish chard
Saturday--Cold chick pea salad sandwiches

Two new blogs

I started this blog almost 4 years ago. I created it after hearing from my friend Shael that blogging was a great way to keep in touch with friends and family all over the country. Since we had moved to 3 states in 3 years and all our family was out of town I figured I'd go ahead and give it a try. I was surprised at how easy blogger was to use. I also found that it was a great way to record our pictures and stories without getting all my scrapbooking stuff out!

Blogging keeps getting more popular and there are blogs for everything! Blogger now lets you monetize (place ads on) your pages but I want my personal blog to be a space were people are not bombarded with more advertisements.

I've started 2 new blogs. The first one is a gardening blog. It has the same gardening posts that I create for this blog but I modify them just a little so they are not quite so personal. Click on Southern Organic Gardening to check out the page. One reason I chose to name it Southern Organic Gardening is that we've found that a lot of the information on the web and in books about organic gardening is focused on gardening in the Northeast or West (California). Not much is out there on organic solutions for the South and as you know our climate is very different. Especially here in Columbia and in our sand for a back yard. I hope to expand the Southerrn Organic Gardening blog to include pages on our favorite products, local and national links, and answers to frequently asked questions about gardening in the South. I've also put ads and linked it to other gardening blogs hoping to cash in on all this information we are sharing :) I'm still adding lots of new stuff and since it is a blog I'll keep updating it on a regular basis so bookmark it or become a follower to help me spread the blog and the ads!

The second blog is for the new dance classes that I'm starting--Mommy and Me Ballet The class is held at the same studio where I teach other dance classes, but it is separate in that I'm doing all the marketing, class design, and billing. I started the Mommy and Me Ballet blog because I wanted a place for parents to go to get information since I was doing a lot of emailing and answering the same questions over and over again. I'm working on a website but that is taking me a while to create since I've never done one before. So the blog is the place to go for now. I've had one class so far and it has gotten great feedback. I taught this same class in Indianapolis and it was very popular and I'm hoping the moms here will spread the word and I'll be able to open up another class.

Don't worry my faithful readers, I'm not changing or deleting this blog! I'll be updating it again very soon with a week's meal plan based on greens, dance recital pictures, more recipes, etc.


 

Friday harvest and recipe

• 3 lbs potatoes
• 2.5 lbs collards
• 3 lbs bok choi
• .75 lb turnips
• 1.5 lbs turnip greens
• .75 lb radish
• 1.25 lb swiss chard
• 1 lb kale
• .75 lb little bok choi
• 14 oz lettuce
• 1.75 lb bunching onions

Here is a recipe for a Greens, Tomatoes, and chick peas dish I pulled and modified from Joy of Cooking (my all time favorite cook book.) Rachel Ray also has a similar recipe. It is quick (30 mins) and easy. Spinach is probably the best--you can even use frozen. I use whatever greens we have available. The spices may be unfamiliar but we use them a lot for Indian dishes. You can get them at an Indian grocery or on Amazon.

1 onion
1 can crushed tomatoes (can used diced also)
3 tsp. coriander
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp.  Garam Masala 7oz
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
1 tsp of salt (or to taste)
1 bunch of greens rinsed and chopped or 1 pack of frozen spinach

Heat onion in oil or water until soft. Stir in tomatoes, coriander, cumin, garam masala, turmeric and salt. Cook for 3 mins. Stir in Chickpeas and greens and cook 10 minutes or until the greens are as soft as you like!

Serve over any grain like rice, basmati or jasmine is perfect but we just use brown most of the time. I've also served this with quinoa. I usually double the recipe also.

Mother's Day Harvest

This was a wonderful and relaxing Mother's Day. I slept in and rested on the porch with a good book (Middlemarch by George Eliot) while Daniel made all the meals, cleaned inside and worked outside. I also wandered through the garden picking these beautiful spring veggies and taking pictures of flowers and bugs. We also planted most of the summer veggies that we started from seed including zuchinni, yellow squash, trombone squash, cucumber, pole beans,  cantelope, eggplant, basil, more swiss chard and bok choi. I re-potted the tomatoes since we have to wait for garden space to come available. Okra, bush beans, sweet potatoes, and watermelon are still waiting to be planted.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we are keeping track of all the produce we harvest by weighing it and charting it on a clip board in the kitchen. Here is the harvest amounts from Sunday.

• 1.5 lbs collards
• 1 lb 4 oz kale (lacinato)
• 2.5 lbs lettuce (butter crunch and green leaf)
• 10 oz spinach
• 4 oz peas
• 1 lb 4 oz radish (or about 10) 

Now you might be wondering what we do with all these greens! Stay tuned for recipes and ideas. Believe it or not by Wednesday night we have already gone through everything but a few ounces of lettuce and collards.

Science and art presentations

Last week the girls had to give presentations on their science and art projects for our homeschool coop. For science, we worked together to build a cardboard box solar cooker.  Here are the directions for the cooker that we built. We took pictures as we assembled it and tested it out on a sunny day on our back deck.

Gluing foil to the inside of 2 boxes.

Here's a picture of the big box with a whole cut into the top and crumpled newspaper in the bottom.

This is the oven all assembled and cooking on the deck. Just as the oven got up to 200 degrees we put a pot of chocolate, peanuts, and raisins inside. The hottest it got was 215 degrees.

We checked on it in an hour and it was nice and soft.

The girls wanted to be able to serve their chocolate treats to the class so they spooned it out on wax paper, put sprinkles on top and let them cool.

As you know you can melt chocolate outside on most sunny days in Columbia. I used this recipe because it was quick and easy and fun for the kids. I did some research and found that a typical slow cooker cooks at 200 degrees on its lowest setting. Later in the week I put a pot of lentils out in the oven and left them there all day. Yes, the lentils were cooked when I got them out in the evening!


In addition to the science presentation, the girls also had to choose 2 pieces of art that they worked on during the year and present them to the class.

Here is Ellen showing her acrylic sunflowers painting she made after studying Van Gogh.

Here is Arianna showing off her tree that she painted using textured paints.

This shows another student giving her presentation. You can see that the group is a variety of ages from preschool to high school--about 20 students in all.

Greens and daisies

It's that time of year again. We are bringing in tons of greens. For example, today I went out at about 11:00 am and picked a handful of lettuce, baby bok choi, sweet peas, radishes, and green onions and mixed it all together for a salad.

We ordered a scale to keep track of the amount of veggies we bring in. We are keeping record of it all on a clip board for now but I plan on charting it as we get in more food. For the first week we brought in 11.5 oz of spinach, 26 oz of sweet peas, 9 radishes, 22 oz lettuce, 15 oz baby bok choi, 1.5 lbs of bigger bak choi, 1 lb young turnip greens. And our spinach is huge.

We loved looking at it so much we just had to take a picture! Is it because of the compost tea?

This is the bak choi bed. This is an asian green that we use just like the other greens--in stir fries, steamed or chopped really thin in salads. We like it because it is a more heat tolerant than salad greens and more tender than traditional southern greens.

Here's the lettuce bed.

So I also had a birthday last weekend--yes I am 32 years old now. Thanks to all my friends and family who contributed to a wonderful weekend. I took a road trip to Nashville to meet up with my best friends from Indy. We all have soar jaws from talking and laughing so much! I got home in perfect time to receive hugs and kisses from my wonderful family, lots of birthday cards and a package with a new zoom lens! I tested it out on the daisies that are blooming in the back garden. What do you think? The pictures really don't do justice to the beautiful flowers. I really do love having flowers all over the yard.