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.