broccoli and cookies

Our broccoli made some nice little crowns this fall. We decided to harvest and eat them sooner rather than later, considering we are about to leave town and these guys would probably bolt before they got much bigger. Here they are still in the garden, with the lettuce and arugula well past their prime in the background. We still have parsley and cilantro doing well, too.

Here they are close-up....so cute!

And only 30 minutes or so later, they transformed to delicious broccoli tofu stir fry:

Lisa and I have been pretty organized with our Christmas shopping, etc. So on this relatively quiet weekend, we both felt it was a perfect time to get in the holiday spirit and make cookies! We put some Christmas music on and got to work.

Don't they look just perfect?

Yes, that is a sea star, but it works. We showed great restraint by only testing one (ok, 3) to make sure they were OK. The rest were packaged and frozen to be frosted and decorated at Holden Beach for "Clusemas 2011."

We'll see many of you soon -- can't wait!!! Merry Christmas to all and safe travels!

What's old is new

We have been re-purposing, resurfacing, and in general making old stuff new again lately. A few weeks ago we dug our old hibachi grill out of storage and turned it into a fire pit. Not as fancy as some, but it was nice to enjoy the deck on one of the many mild nights we've been having. Mmm... marshmallows roasting on an open magnolia cone fire....

We recently visited my parents in New York, and the agreement for free room and board is that we have to take sh%* back with us. My parents are a little overrun with family "heirlooms" so we did what we could to lighten their load. After a little Old English, Lisa had this little dresser looking like new!

We did get a knob for that bottom drawer, although it isn't exact and needs staining first. I'm glad Lisa finally has her own dresser -- she had been using shelf space in the hall closet.

Look Mom and Dad -- the waste basket looks so cute in our bathroom! Mystery piece solved -- it is definitely the lid and kind of cute that it angles inward. Plus the hole on top lets you put little stuff in without lifting the lid! Those early 20th century potters were so clever:

And finally, we replaced the top of Vivian's bed with new sherpa (or sheepie, as we like to call it). We even had enough to re-do her pillow as well. It looks like new, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. Vivian is pretty psyched about it too.

(and yes, that is a Tupperware container of granola behind her). That's a new one.

Vivian goes to the beach

Hi everyone! It's Vivian! My moms are busy doing things (I'm not sure what, but they are awfully busy) and haven't had much time to blog. So I thought I'd share my photos of our trip to the beach. (Not that beach, a different beach).

It all started with not one, but two boat rides to get there! Doggie's 1st ferry ride:

Wheeeeeeee!

The house where we stayed had beautiful views of the ocean. I spent a lot of my time just sitting on the deck contemplating life:

All that thought made me tired, so I napped a lot too.

We did Tai Chi every morning. I got the feet right, but my ears never cooperated:

Happy hour! Even I got a gin and tonic:

There was lots of cooking going on so I supervised:

We also took lots of walks.

The waves were loud and a little scary, but I liked sniffing all the new weird smells. Sometimes I even found gross things to put in my mouth! Bonus!

When we weren't walking or eating, we were mostly reading. Well, I didn't get much reading done, but I made sure my moms did.

They say home is where your bed is (do they?), and it sure was nice that my bed had a view of the ocean for a week:

Don't we make a great looking family? Too bad Caretta wasn't here, but she'd just use the beach as a giant litter box anyway.

Sunset!!!

It sure was nice to go on vacation. Paradise Acres is ok, but most of the dogs at camp are such whiners. I hope I was good enough that they'll take me again. I feel so loved.

Disclaimer: This was a Vivian reenactment. Were this the real Vivian, she'd probably say she didn't care that she got to go and that we were boring. But she'd still feel loved.

Happy Halloween!

Hodge Podge

Sorry for the summer hiatus everyone! To be honest, there hasn't been much to report in the garden. In a nutshell, all is dead. It has been super dry and everything has reached (or is nearing) its last gasp. We even lost our little Japanese maple tree. The good news is that Lisa has only had to mow twice all summer!

We did manage to squeeze a few more things out of our garden. Although small, the eggplants actually did OK in the poor conditions, and the peppers faithfully produced in their pots on the deck:


They quickly became this tasty stir fry --


Our leeks should have been in the ground quite a bit longer, but they were wilting so badly and had ceased any growing. So we put them out of their misery. Seven leeks gave us only 2-3 cups; they look more like scallions here:


No matter. They were still delicious in our potato leek soup:


I know, soup in 99F heat. But sometimes the 82F air conditioning seems downright chilly!

One surprise in our garden has been our "crabapple" trees. We ordered these from Arbor Day, so one would assume they would have the variety correct. These are the biggest crabapples I've ever seen:


Apparently the only difference between an apple and a crabapple is just the diameter of the fruit. We hope these are edible but I'm not holding my breath. Lisa always said she wanted an apple orchard...

Our lone persimmon is still hanging in there, but it will be a few months still before it is ripe. I do hope we get to eat it.


Had to share the delicious chocolate chip scones Lisa made last weekend:


And Caretta has claimed her new favorite napping spot. I call this her Maru "more small box" impression:


Don't know Maru? Watch this: Many too small boxes and Maru
(it's a little long, but watch the whole thing. "Slim box" is the best.

And finally, Lisa had a really cool find a few weeks back:

A dried leaf? No...look closer:

It's a moth! How cool is this guy? We think he's some kind of sphinx moth, but we are not quite sure. This other blog, At Altitutude, called it a blind sphinx, but I don't know. They have some cool pictures of it, though!

Parade of Dahlias

Have we mentioned we are proud of our dahlias? They are blooming like crazy right now, and are just so beautiful. Over time, their colors kind of fade in the sun, which gives them this antique look. We can't get enough of them!





Most of our new garden is filling out rather nicely. Our nasturtiums are blooming, as are our sky & ice daisies:





Our new hydrangea (one of them) in our shade garden is flowering, too. This is a special lacecap variety that has this flat flower head and only the edges bloom. Not quite as showy as the big ball variety. So pretty!


OK, enough with the flowers. Here are a few veggie pictures:

Cherokees and lemon drop tomatoes will be ripening soon. With as little rain as we've had, and as hot as it's been, they are probably going to be done before they even get started. But we will enjoy what we get.

Our peppers are looking great. We even have one bell pepper that we overwintered and it now has something like 15 peppers on it. No joke. The others are looking great, too and I'm glad to see the ants hard at work fertilizing our Hungarian purples:

We'll have more garden to share soon! And I know you were all wondering: where has Stan been? Don't worry, Stan the toad is back, and has made a nice little nest for himself in the garden below the kitchen window. He is so cute:

Although I haven't heard any calling from that area at night, so I'm wondering if Stan is a girl? Stanrietta? Stanlyn?

And finally, dessert. Lisa has exposed me to the wonderful world of midwestern custard pies. Rhubarb custard, peaches and cream, strawberry pie (I know, strawberry pie isn't custard-based, but it is in the same genre of topless pies). Here is a delicious rhubarb custard we ate this week:

I'll have to introduce her to northeastern fruit pies (pies with tops on them). Mom, can I get your peach pie recipe?

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!