weekend.

We decided to stay close to home this weekend. The things we enjoy about our city are not inside at all, they are outside - and the weather hasn't been really outside compatible yet! So we did a bit of everything at home. Spring cleaning, room arranging, furniture moving, playing, talking, baking, cooking, reading, game playing. All the good stuff. Those are always the best weekends too - when it feels like time flies, but at the same time you can't believe you fit so many things into one weekend.

Some of our favorite things from this weekend?


Dandelion flower salve making.


Dandelion syrup (and dandelion vinegar, and dandelion oil!).


Windows full of fragrant basil.


The first rhubarb of the season.


Little boys in the kitchen. Kneading.


Learning things like how to braid.


And of course eating the results (here is where I found the recipe).


Getting out for a walk at the botanical garden - before a surprise rainshower sent us running and laughing soaked into the building.


Two harmonicas, a guitar and a drum machine (what more do you need, really?).


Seeing so many flowers - so much SPRING - in one little spot at the botanical garden that we stood silently together just staring at it all. It was so beautiful, blooming like wild even in the cold and rain, it reminded me of this::

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

The weather is looking up this week, so I see a lot of mulch and dirt in my future. It was nice to have a quiet weekend before we jump into outside and 'catch up in the garden' living!

Hope you had a nice weekend!


.

weekending ... kitchen catch up.

While we don't really need to treat weekends differently than weekdays we do love having Brice (my husband) home so it does make weekends special. The boys have always been 150% during the day and fall asleep early kids, and so don't get a lot of time with their dad in the evenings during the week. And my husband works a lot. So weekends we try to do *at least* one family thing to spend time together - a park, a lake, a museum, a walk, a small town treat. And we try to always have home time so Brice can relax and just hang out with his boys. He needs that down time and they need that dad time. That is usually my time to get stuff done in the kitchen...


So while the boys are playing at the park or riding bikes or building radio kits or flying kites or playing Pokémon or board games or just snuggling and reading books with dad I play mad scientist.


This weekend we had a home day on Sunday - and it was HOT outside! We did a lot of deck clean up and yard work, and then the boys spent the afternoon outside with Brice while I caught up on some things. Catching up for me includes things like baking, bottling a batch of kombucha, soaking something or other, making almond milk, making yogurt cheese, or attempting to organize the pantry after a week of boys rummaging through it. ;)


And lately of course it also includes starting more seedlings, checking trays, and hardening trays off to go out. In the summer it usually means canning and preserving.


By Sunday evening I am usually happy to be out of the kitchen (and the garden).


And have something to show for it.


.

so much.

Oh, this time of year is ... so much. So much beauty, so much change. So much to see, so much to balance. So much to look forward to, so much to get ready for. So much happiness, so much melancholy, so much sunshine, so much rain. Each season brings so much - we change our wardrobe, our activities, our day to day. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is...not so easy. So we tuck in, snuggle up, create traditions and rituals to help our passage to the next season go smoothly. To remind us, center us. We find comfort in remembering what it is that comes next, and soothe our bodies as they adjust to the light, the dark, the heat, the cold, the dry, the wet.







It's all so much. I love fall.


.

corner view:: sweets

The Corner View this week is "Sweets".

My husband and 5 year old love sweet things - glazed brioche, cookies, cakes, gummies. My 5 year old currently plans to be a baker when he grows up and have his own 'famous bakery' where he makes pastries, breads, and other goodies. G always says it is time to bake so he can practice - so we make a lot at home. We try to have at least one 'baking day' each week where he gets in the kitchen. We bake bread or he makes something special with me - custard, bread pudding, iced cookies, drop cookies, dark cookies, butter cookies (get the theme, here? ;)), ice cream, bars - whatever we have on hand and/or is is fresh and seasonal. Right now he is into making iced cookies, as he has been expanding his collection of good quality icing colors and loves to experiment and mix.

My 6 year old and I don't really like things too sweet. Our favorite sweets usually include some sort of organic fair trade dark chocolate. I could nibble on oranges or nectarines all day. Or, at a bakery, we love things like this


What are your favorite 'sweets'?


Visit Jane at Spain Daily for more Corner Views from around the globe!

january days.

The January blah's have hit me hard. I have so much work to do and absolutely zero energy to do it (I work after the boys go to bed at night). This happens every year at this time, but every year I still try to fight it. My body wants to be still and rest in the numbing cold, but my to-do list is miles long.

Lucky for me I have these two little boys who just keep going, and going, and going. They drag me along in their enthusiastic wake and energize my January slug.


The past few days we have spent a bit more time in the kitchen. The kitchen is a good place to be when the temps are below zero and there is just no way we want to go out again. The warmth, smells, and process of making something to nourish us in more ways than one energizes us all.

G, the little chef, loves to cook and bake the most, I think. He loves measuring, scooping, stirring, assembling, watching through the oven window, and seeing what we have created together.


So the past few days we have baked bread from a wild starter, cranked out noodles we made from semolina flour and eggs, slow cooked chili, made caramel popcorn, and juiced and blended our breakfasts. Our counter is covered with soaking things, sprouting things, trays of greens, and freshly baked bread.


With all of this, G came to me with a photo from the latest food catalog (his favorite reading) showing pink icing sprinkle covered heart cookies, and wanted to make some. Now. He said to me, they are white sugar cookies, mama, not brown (ahem). He told me in his G way that he loves our brown cookies (whole wheat flour), but in the photo they are white. With PINK icing. So, together we made white sugar cookies. With pink icing. And sprinkles. Twice. Perfect!

I'm looking forward to February for more energy, more garden planning, more sunshine, less work (ha!), more fun, more sleep, inspiration, fresh air, and maybe, just maybe, more heart shaped pink icing covered sprinkle coated sugar cookies.

long winter days.

This little guy has been sick so we have been home taking care of him. His big brother worried about him so - every time G cried out or got sick, A would sob "OH NO! MY BROTHER!" Sweet boys.

In the middle of taking care of sick boy this week I had an acupressure massage appointment that took me out. I know the work needed to be done to relieve some issues, but wow! It is amazing how getting stuff moving can really unload into the system. The sore/migraine/fatigue isn't so hot when my child is sick and not sleeping well. I just want to curl up and sleep in a sunny window! Yep, kind of like her:


Today I did some baking with the boys. The wonderful smell of baking banana bread wafting through the house makes everyone feel a little better, I think. Warm, familiar, comforting.


Yum.

We have a new science kit we are ready to explore, gardening plans to finish, seeds to purchase, sewing to complete, places to go, and V-Day projects to start! I think we are ready!

a few good books.

I usually can only read late at night after the house is asleep and my work is done. I always have a big stack of books next to the bed and read into the wee hours. Since reading is my way to unplug, unwind, and chill out, I like books that are peaceful, positive, or good for the brain. Here are two of my favorites so far this month...



Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R.J. Ruppenthal

I am liking this book! While I already do a lot of what is in the book and definitely enjoy the exercise I get from nodding my head throughout the entire book ( ;) ), it is written and organized well and I like the tidbits of information and resources for each section. For the small space/urban/suburban gardener - growing vegetables, growing fruit, sprouting, making yogurt and kefir, fermenting, growing mushrooms, raising bees and chickens, disaster planning - all great! Of course this book is not a deep 'how to' book, but an overview and guide with resources of what you can do in small spaces, where to find more information and supplies, and the benefits to be reaped with each thing. An easy read full of great info!





Baking Bread with Children by Warren Lee Cohen

This book is a wonderful resource for baking with children. It not only has the recipes - but also has activities, songs, and history to go along with it. There are chapters such as Recipes, Songs Poems & Blessings to Celebrate Bread, Building a Bread Oven, Enlivening the Senses, Seven Grains and Nutrition and more. Many of you know how we love to bake bread in this house, and my boys help with every step whether it is grinding flour or kneading...and having the stories and songs just makes it that much more fun and meaningful!


I also have a big stack of gardening books that I am really enjoying - I can re-read the same books every year and not get tired of them a bit! What are you reading this week?

In the Kitchen.

Is everyone else having the wacky weather too? Yesterday was in the 40's, and everything melted. This morning was 42º and cloudy. By this afternoon it had dropped to 20º and we had sleet and then snow. Tonight it is already down to 1º, with wind chills way below zero, snow, and with 40+mph wind gusts. By tomorrow morning the temperature will have dropped about 50 degrees within 24 hours (not to mention wind chills). Wow!


So, more days at home - it seems this is what we do every January. Today we played in the kitchen to warm us up, have some fun, and get messy. We made a delicious soup and baked a yummy sweet treat - Pineapple Coconut Bars from the Tassajara Cookbook (yum!).


The boys won't even let the bars touch their lips (coconut! egads!), but they had fun helping. My husband doesn't mind having the whole pan to himself though!

Sprouted Bread.

Today we baked bread using the sprouted grains started Friday. YUM. I had to tweak the recipe because I didn't want a log, and it turned out just right. Nutty, light, easy to slice, not too crumby. Want the recipe? I blogged it here...

Busy in the Kitchen.

In addition to all of our crafting, we have been having fun in the kitchen too. The boys love baking. Well, I should say the boys love measuring and making a mess. But it is all good. Today we made a delicious ginger spice cake (here is the recipe!). We have made other goodies too - many of which are posted over on my food blog.

Spice Shortbread
Candied Orange Peel
Solstice Butter Cookies
Cream Cheese Cookies

What are you cooking/baking/mixing/gifting from the kitchen?

Apples, apples, apples!

I just love fall. And even with the sunny, hot and humid weather of this weekend we got out and still enjoyed it. Even with the heat the colorful leaves and combines in the fields just seem, well, perfectly fall.


We visited a local apple orchard to pick more apples this weekend with the boys. At only 7 miles from our house, the narrow winding country road, steep hillside, and 1800s buildings make you feel like you have gotten away. The mosquitoes helped us set a land speed record for picking 45 pounds of Jonagold apples in just 15 minutes, wagon hauling included. Sure helps to have 2 excited small boys!


When we got home with our bounty we set up a wash/rinse/bag station in the yard. Apples were checked, washed, rinsed, and bagged. Our process attracted the attention of all of the kids in the neighboring houses, and everyone helped and participated. It was fun. And, each kid got their own apple to munch on as everyone just enjoyed the nice afternoon.


We got started on the apples right away. First, we started apple butter (which takes many hours of simmering to get that nice thick spreadable sweetness). Second, we began a batch of apple cider "syrup" which is YUMMY and sweet on oatmeal, granola, or yogurt. We have plans for our dehydrator tonight too - so that we have dried apples which will be great for home made granola and oatmeal ... The boys have been great helpers and really enjoying all of the fun "appliances"!!!!!

It's here!

Yes, this is it! Locally grown WHEAT! Grown in McFarland, WI, just 10 miles from us. We picked it up from the farmer today--I cannot wait to bake with it!

First loaf.

Our first try with the hand crank grain mill? A success. The boys LOVE to crank. The bread was rich and moist and light and textured and nutty and amazing.


I was not familiar with the type of mill my husband selected - and wasn't sure how fine the grind would be. But you can just set it to the finest setting and run it through twice and it is perfect for bread. The rolling mill is also for making cereal/flakes from whole grains, so there are many other uses I am interested in trying.