Chest Freezer

A dream of mine came true today- or at least partly true. We have a chest freezer! We've both wanted one for several years...we have dreams of stocking it full of yummy fresh local summer produce (yes, I realize that clause could have used a comma or two) to enjoy in the winter. And today we got one! We drove out to CT (again...I've literally been to CT three times in my life, twice in the past month) and bought it from a family out there. They are new home owners and it came with their house. I'll never know why they didn't want it, but I'm delighted to give it a loving home. Can't wait to roam around the Hudson Valley picking fruit this summer...

And, lest you think fret about the energy we'll use keeping all that fruit frozen let me assure you that I have plans afoot. Plans which involve Robert building me a solar dehydrator. I've had these plans for years, too (literally since we lived in Santa Barbara!), and I'm thinking this may be my summer.

Food preservation, here I come!

Notes on the kids, garden, knitting

Yesterday the kids and I planted seeds in our "garden" (aka the 12"x 10' strip 0f dirt on the south side of our house). We planted red and green lettuce, arugala, and leeks. Zion planted the leeks and is quite possessive of them- they are his leeks, and he was in charge of watering them today. I hope we get a decent crop of seedlings!

I'm about 2/3'ds done with my first Hat for Akkol! I found out today that the founder of the group just today flew to Akkol to adopt her 4th child (and all of them were adopted as teenagers, I believe). She's taking 270 pairs of socks- one for every child in the orphanage. The goal for this coming winter is to knit nearly 800 pairs allowing the group to include another nearby orphanage.

This morning the kids were asking about the unfinished hat, and who it was for (they ask this about all my knitting projects). I explained and we talked about orphanages, the children who live in them, and how this particular orphanage was someplace very cold and so I was trying to help the children stay warm in the winter. Liel got a very concerned expression on her face and said, "Can we adopt them, mama?" I almost cried.

And this afternoon Zion and I sat down and typed out the ABCs. I had him find all the letters and he knew them all except for U, X, and Y. He's also starting to learn about the sounds letters make and when he wanted to spell a word starting with T today came up with 'tugboat' all on his own. Later he correctly identified B as the first letter in 'bunny' (OK, so he said D first, but even that was close, right?). So cool to see him learn!

MIttens for Akkol

I've joined a new knitting group- Mittens for Akkol. The purpose is to knit warm woolies (mittens, hats scarves, socks and sweaters) for children in orphanages in the far north of Kazakhstan. The winters are bitterly cold (temps as low as 40 below zero), and the kids need to be warm! Goodness knows that's something I can empathize with. I just joined today and I'm super excited to get to work!

Singing

I don't know when most kids start singing, but although he has enjoyed music and us singing since his earliest infancy, Zion has rarely made any effort to sing himself. But today he has sung "Johnny B. Goode" 3-4 times! Its especially cute when he strums his guitar while he does it.

And then, at bedtime tonight, Liel made her first attempt at singing! Her choice of song was "Train to Chicago" (by the band Drink Me). I'm not sure how mere words can capture the hilarity of a 2 year, holding her stuffed Ice Bat, swaying back and forth on her bed and singing, "Drunk on the train to Chicago, I feel alright....", so I'll just say that I had a hard time singing through my giggles and I'll try to get a video of it. You'll love it.

Spring, and dinner

We had acutal spring weather yesterday! It was gorgeous. Sunny, and 70 degrees. I felt like I was home! The kids and I went to the park with some friends and had a lovely time. Thankfully our friends shared food with us, as I was a bad mama and only had crackers and vitamin water with us!

Today was gray and 60. I know I should be grateful for 60, but what can I say? Yesterday spoiled me.

I've been on a Sichuan cooking kick since I last posted. We're having our 3rd Sichuanese dinner 4 days tonight: red braised beef, rice, and broccoli. I can't wait. Red braised beef is essentially a stew cooked with chicken stock, soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar, ginger root, scallions and star anise. It's delicious. Zion wanted to make chocolate cake, but we didn't get around to it. Maybe tomorrow?

Fruit flies

So remember how I said we were going to by some fruit flies for Newt today? Yeah. Well, we did. Liel and I stopped to stare longingly at my new favorite fish (Ranchus- they are soooo chubby I could just squeeze them!) and Robert and Zion got the fruit flies. When Liel saw them at the check out counter she wanted to join in, too, so we hurried over in time for me to hear the girl working at the register say, "OK, so your total is $19.67".

"Holy shit", I blurted out, staring at the tube of tiny, yucky flies as Robert handed over his credit card. "Did we just pay $20 for fruit flies??"

"Yes", said Robert. "We don't need a bag", he added to the employee. "They can keep reproducing in the tube for like 6 weeks."

"Wow. Um, I think maybe we'd better lobby for Newt to be released into the wild after 6 weeks. $20 for fruit flies??"

Those better be magical fruit flies, that's all I'm sayin'.

Keeping up

That's about what I've been doing lately. I'm still working on my dad's sweater vest and I'm kinda anxious about it since I don't know if he'll like the color, or if it will fit. It's coming out a bit bigger than I'd intended, but Robert says it's a little tighter than he'd like so hopefully it won't be huge?? Robert's chest is a few inches bigger than my dad's. I also made it too short so I need to rip back a row or two. Not a big deal, but more than I want to do at the moment!

A couple of days ago the kids and I were out weeding in the "garden" (right now its a strip of dirt on the south side of our house. In the summer we optimistically try to grow vegetables there. Its literally about 18" wide and 10 feet long. I'd much rather dig up a bunch of grass but as this isn't our house....) and we found a tiny salamander under a rock. He's about 3/4" long and black with red on his back. Turns out he's a Redbacked Salamander. Zion really wanted to keep him, so we set up our aquarium with dirt from the garden, and a rock and some dead leaves and moss and sticks. This afternoon we're heading to the pet store to buy him flightless fruit flies, one of the only bugs that will be small enough for him to eat. We've named him Newt, just for kicks.

In food news, I haven't baked in like 3 weeks! 3 weeks! I might go insane, but I'm making some kind of attempt at better health. I feel my resolve cracking however, and might make a banana caramel upside down cake tonight, if we pick up bananas while we are out. Yes, I know bananas are totally unlocal. But it's realllly good and frankly, I don't eat many bananas. In the dinner department I'm planning to cook up some Shredded Beef with Sweet Peppers from the ever-popular (at least at my house!) Land of Plenty cookbook. I lusted after it on my blog last summer and my badass brother got it for me for my birthday. Love love love it.