performer for a child

This is the boy at the center of his universe, he actually thought the 120 other kids at the south lake tahoe library on this friday were there to see him, when in reality all were there to see the Bubble Lady and celebrate summer reading with free ice cream on this hot afternoon!

He was spinning and not keeping his bottom on the ground like normal, he got in other kids faces and wanted to hug and kiss and perform for everyone, the loudest laugh in the room, the loudest clapping, the most enthusiastic volunteer that never was picked......he just exudes the "look at me gene" one would expect from professional performers and he did have those adults around us cracking up with his acting....but alas we had to leave early he would not stop distracting other kids!

waking up to make pickles?

Let me preface this with I am NOT pregnant

I woke up a little early, munchkin still sleeping, hubby not up yet for work and had the ferdent desire to make pickles......why? I did buy some pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market and had made some fridge pickles last week....but today I wanted to do bread and butter pickles, and while perusing recipes found one for Branston pickle, and lucky me having some apples headed south and dates in need of use, I used up the end of my cauliflower in the branston pickle

The house smells odd, the dishes need to be done, but somehow I find the bottled cucumbers etherial and pretty......the branston is yet to be bottled still cooking.....all have to sit for 1-4 weeks before they are perfectly edible but I will be impatient I am sure!

3 farmer's markets in one week!!!

I went to our local fabulous south lake tahoe, california tuesday installment (on hwy 50), then the following day went to the carson city, nevada pony express pavillion offering at mills park (on hwy 50) and then sunday had me pushing the family to placerville, california for the founders day celebration and wagon train arrival/parade and we made it and parked and were able to attend the placerville downtown weekly offering saturday morning (on main street that backs up to hwy 50)......what a great week for me! I got some great eggs at two of the markets and peaches at all 3, I have to say the corn from carson city was not great, and the onions from south lake were super HOT......The fabulous vegetables have been great in everything and we are eating a tomato or two a day, they are just the best, how they make the horrid grocery store tomatoes seem like a whole different item, like comparing a cup of coffee to water, the flavors and scents are that different!

trying to cook myself out of this bad mood

blame the moon or the weather, I am just in a bad mood for going on over a week, my poor family is hiding.... I can suddenly snap and start emitting dragon like fumes and just feel like I am going to explode over small trifles......of course does not help to have hormones that seem to pour kerosene on my fire.....so today I baked these items, made fab food from the farmer's markets into meals.....yes i mucked up a bit and burnt some oatmeal and toasting nuts enough to make the house stink! I hate throwing away food, but the burnt nuts were never going to enhance the bread.....so i made the bread without the nuts, plenty crunchy as is!!!!!!

Farmer's Market finds me giddy!

The Farmers Market was FABULOUS today

tomatoes, berry bush, red onions with tops, baquette, rainer cherries, spinach, honey tangerines, salsa, nettles, peaches and eggs all found their way home with me!

time stands still for no one

I am proud of this capture, the floating fairies of dandelion puff seem to linger and dance in the shadows of the trees in our backyard on a sunny sunday morning

tears like a river

This weeks It all Begins with a color challenge • Contrast •

These pink blossoms are a local wild growing bloom, so delicate and romantic, contrasts with this rock and stone man made waterfall......the rocks are hard and stand the test of time, letting the water flow over them and keeping shape, yet the bleeding hearts easily dislodge from the stems with a brisk wind......

Both water and rocks are dense and heavy, yet the bleeding heart is almost weightless and transparent.

Those of us that are easy cries, are sometimes called bleeding hearts, and we cry tears like a waterfall....somehow the crying is a release that can relax the emotional pain, and i always find the sound of water soothing.....it is like mother nature knows if we sit still long enough to listen and hear the trickling flow we might relax enough and be open to hearing some healing....much like the act of crying is a transition.

I love waterfalls and bleeding hearts! The above is my idea of contrast, the challenge this week for a group on flickr that i joined, the group is anchored from this website: apples for poppy anne

ratatouille

Making this for dinner, just sounds good to me on this dreary day where I wish I was in bed watching chick flicks eating popcorn, drinking citrus smoothies ... hey I might just make some popcorn and take a nap while this cooks the next 2 hours! confit byaldi recipe by thomas keller

I need to win the vitamix!

I am making blueberry sour cream muffins from coconut&lime recipe is here http://coconutlime.blogspot.com/2004/07/blueberry-sour-cream-muffins.html in hopes of winning a vita mix.....plus I had some blueberries heading south, so the dough is a bit thick, like a bread dough, but I read the comments and everyone said they turned out fine.....I of course had to alter the recipe a bit, I added lemon zest and crushed dried mint leaves to the butter as it melted and a whopping tablespoon of ginger juice from the ginger people, something about blueberries and lemon, and then lemon loves ginger i think! I also sprinkled vanilla sugar on the tops of the muffins before baking, since the sugar with the vanilla pod in it gets clumpy, it is the perfect way to disperse the grains by crumbling them over the tops of the muffins! the recipe is easy, just a few more bowls than I would like to clean, but I am in a bad mood There was an abundance of dough it seemed too much for the 12 normal sized muffins, but I decided to fill them evenly, which meant FULL not 3/4 full, hoping that with the density of the batter they would not run all over and muck up the oven, they pretty much stayed in the tin, just some blueberry juice of bursting berries oozed a bit, but thankfully no mega cleaning on the oven is needed! They are cakelike and moist and not overly sweet.....i bet hubby will love them! I had one with a pat of butter to taste test.....gotta go have another!

Yeah Local Farmer's Market begins!

Tuesday mornings have a new rhythm, well kind of like an old rhythm....Farmer's Market perusing, some buying but lots more to see than we buy, so enjoy seeing all the booths, this being the first, the vendor count was a bit low, and it is early in the harvesting of crops, but it was nice to see sooo many selling plants, and starts, lots of herbs, some berry bushes and a fig tree, we got there a bit late for our usual schedule, this son of mine has a new routine of making me chase him for close to an hour to get him dressed, and out the door.....quite tiring and with my mood of late, involves lots of me screaming at him, not my idea of fun!

He talked to a few vendors and told me to take his photo and how to set up the shot near the strawberry booth, so funny a little director!

I am looking forward to figuring out what plants I can get so next week we will come home and plant them! Gotta get the raised beds in, if this rain ever stops....7 days in a row of thunder storms with significant rain, not all day but still odd weather for us!

We are also going to get some beeswax next week from the local honey seller, going to make some orange oil furniture gel stuff, mine is almost gone!