Gazpacho!

yellow and orange tomatoes from our garden!

Gazpacho Soup - the quick, easy, delicious way

6 tomatoes, blanched and cored, coarsely chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped (you can gut the seeds if you want, but I never do)

1-4 cloves of garlic (depending how spicy you like it!), cut into quarters

1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

a squeeze of fresh lemon (the juice from about 1/4 lemon should do it!)

1/2 jalepeno, chopped (optional. I didn't use this, the garlic made it spicy enough for me!)

In a food processor (or blender, in my case), put in tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, garlic, onion, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper (and jalepeno, if using). Blend until fairly smooth, but leave some texture! Taste. Good? Chill for an hour or so. Then eat...or forget the chilling. Just eat.

By the way, I've made this several times, and I had a better tasting soup when I used a variety of medium and cherry tomatoes than the larger, watery tomatoes. The more flavorful the tomato, the more it seems to pack a delicious taste-punch.

And just to give credit where credit is due, my step-mom gave me the basis for this recipe, telling me that what really makes it delicious is the olive oil! I think she's right!

Tomatoes!

I went through the back gate this morning into my neighbor's yard to help pick tomatoes. He had underestimated how fast they would grow and how much they would produce...wow! I spent an hour picking cherry tomatoes while Tristan slept in. My neighbor rewarded my efforts with a full-size grocery bag completely filled with tomatoes of all different varieties. 

Needless to say, we'll be eating a lot of gazpacho.

-genny

Lemonade, Road Travel and Billboards

I always just assumed lemons ripened in the summer - why else would lemonade be such a summertime drink? Now that I've owned a house with a lovely Meyer lemon tree, I see how much work it takes to give away all the lemons that actually ripen in the winter. This is despite the fact that I have three in-laws who love them and eat them by the bagfuls, and a mom who also appreciates a bagful now and then. So even though we give bags and bags away, as we approach May, our tree still has tons of lemons. Well, only one thing to do with lemons - make lemonade. We just squeeze 'em, boil up some water with agave syrup and crushed dried mint, wait for it to cool, add to the lemon potion, let it sit for a few days in the fridge, then pour into ice cube trays and freeze it. When frozen we throw them in a baggy and use them to make little glasses of lemonade. Yummy.

This morning we are headed on up the road to Portland. First trip in a while. Portland is our home away from home. Several years ago we decided we would eventually move there, now that's a little up in the air - but we still love the place. Usually we fly but since we last visited our son passed the two-year mark and you all know what that means for airline prices. I thought 2-year olds flew half price but apparently I thought wrong. That means we're driving. My son is looking forward to it because it's the only time he gets to watch t.v. - on long car trips. We have a Caillou and Elmo video for him to watch - I know, I know. I'm a hypocrite - but lordy what else to do to keep him in his car-seat for 10 or more hours? I suppose it would be less of an issue if car-seats were not the law, if it were 1950 and he just went sliding about on the pleather bench seat and dvd's were non-existent. Oh how I wax nostalgic for a time when people could drive without being bombarded by media, advertisements and billboards. I think there are some scenic byways where billboards can't be found, but be sure the billboard lobbyists are looking for ways to change that. Besides, what would it matter that there were no billboards if I'm listening to Elmo's computer say, "Elmo has mail, Elmo has mail." Ugh.

Have a great weekend!

(l)Tristan kite-flying! (r)compost hole

Yesterday, Sunday, was very industrious. We finished digging our compost hole in the backyard, and it got to be so windy that we decided to give the kite another try! We went back to the very place where my kite-flying memories took place, back in the junior-high school field. After several nose-dives our big-fishy kite took up, up, up to the sky! My husband is from Iran and told me that when he was young he would make and sell kites, so he taught me a couple of things about flying yesterday. Once you've got that baby up there, put the string directly onto the ground, not the roll of string, the actual string, and the kite will start to come right up above you. And when it starts to nose dive, give it some slack instead of pulling on it, and it will float in that tiger wind instead of fight it. Yeah! We have different ideas on how to get it up in the air initially, he likes to unreel it and have another person lift it up and let go of it once it catches a wind. I'm more of a DIY kind-of-gal (he might say stubborn!) and I like to hold the reel and let a little string out until the kite catches a small wind, then unreel slowly as it goes up, pulling and releasing as necessary. Both ways worked yesterday!

When we came home for soup and garlic bread, my son decided he wanted to go to our neighborhood ice cream shop after lunch, so I volunteered to make ice cream instead (not wanting him to have the sugar, especially just before nap!). I'd been wanting to try this ice-cream in a bag anyway that everyone except me seems to know about. I'd bought some rock salt, put it in a big bag with some ice. Combined soy-milk, strawberries, half a banana and a little agave syrup in our little Bullet (small blender) and blended it, poured it in a smaller bag and sealed it, then put the whole thing in the bag of ice and salt, sealed that and shook it vigorously for 5 minutes. At the end of all that, we had a small serving of soft ice-cream (although not as soft as I thought it would be). All the online recipes called for milk, sugar and vanilla flavoring, none of which I wanted to give Tristan - he's never been a cow-milk drinker since his dad and I are lactose-intolerant, and I attribute sugar to many of the worlds problems (not to mention a diabetic epidemic on my hubby's side of the family)!

While Tristan napped after lunch, I finished my latest collage-card paper-cut scene - A field of poppies! I like this one. Then I watched T.V. - Sunday afternoon? Not much on. Came back to my "office" and started making this cute door-handle bag with a free pattern I got from a great new blog I discovered called JCasa Handmade (on sidebar too). She's got some free patterns, interesting subjects and is fun to read.

So it was no wonder I slept like a log and woke up a little groggy...ah Monday...gym day. I'll knock this groggy-ness right out with a steam-room session!

Multitasking

Play, sugar, and peanut butter

vase of flowers

I read this brief but moving article about the untimely deaths of Natasha Richardson and Jade Goody, but more importantly, making sure your kids are cared for in case any thing happens to you: http://www.newsweek.com/id/190782?GT1=43002

O.k., so it's not the most uplifting of thoughts to begin the day, but what if something happens to you before your children are old enough to care for themselves? Even a few small measures can take care of that. More importantly, and this is what I am discovering lately, that you take better care of your children if you take care of yourself too. I find that if I have time to myself in the morning, I do so much better playing with my son during the day! I can jump in with my cup o' coffee and sit on his playroom floor and just PLAY!, leaving other stuff for later. If I don't have that time in the morning, I'm admittedly not as fun and maybe a bit more grumpy. I try not to be for his sake, but it certainly helps if I wake up earlier than he does!

Speaking of grumpy, sugar is a major culprit in our house, at least for my son and me. I can handle it a little better, but I'm a known label-reader (ask my ever-so-patient mom) - I scrutinize labels ridiculously for sugar or "evaporated cane juice" as they call it in health food stores. It wreaks havoc on my son's personality and I would bet the same is true for all kids, whether parents realize it or not. So Tristan loves these little Late July brand sandwich crackers with cheese and peanut butter inside. The cheese ones, no problem, but the peanut butter ones - well, let's just say I discovered their sugar content once I saw my son's personality change. Could be that he's 2, but I'll have to find out for sure by cutting out these crackers to see if he changes BACK to the boy he was a few days ago, pre-p.b. cracker. Peanut butter is so naturally sweet anyway, I just don't understand why sugar needs to be added to it.

And speaking of peanut butter, I made another batch of cereal yesterday (I got the original recipe from a Facebook friend) - but lacked the shredded coconut I usually put in there, so I put in peanut butter instead! It was delicious, and I was able to use less oil because of peanut butter's natural oil. I used Santa Cruz Naturals, but usually I've got Maranatha brand. And in case there was any question, neither have added sugar.

Sign of the Times

couch, lamp, early spring

The "clothesline" collage-card scene that I posted on March 21st seems to be following a trend of ideas that are indicative of the current economic situation as well as the environmental crisis that we face. I sit here everyday and can easily see our neighbors yard. He had a ton of space and used it to create a huge, beautiful organic garden including a small orchard with trees that have blossomed. It's great to see such bounty so close to such a busy street.

I've noticed the trend in my own home too. We are going to farmer's market lately - more often than we used to, and we are making a lot of our own food. My husband makes great homemade yogurt that we all love to eat daily. We strained it through a cheesecloth and made some yogurt-cheese to use hopefully instead of cream cheese. I've been making my own cereal by using old-fashioned rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit, honey, oil and spices and it is delicious. I eat cereal often and it is not cheap, so making it saves us a little bit o' money. We've been eating brown rice and veggies or salad with homemade dressing (also saves a bit).

On the going green gradually front, I've asked my hubby if he minded if we stopped buying the big plastic trash bags for our tall trash can and go back to using the paper bags we get from the store. He said yes - the only downside there is we'll have to be more conscientious about taking it out more often when it gets full. Also, I got the clothespins I've been looking for. Now my hubby has the lovely task of hanging a rope out somewhere in our backyard and I'll try a hand at NOT using the dryer!! We'll see how that goes.

Little by little is how this is going. Oh, and I found this great site through Elizabeth Mitchell's (the musician, not the actress) website. It gives specific info about having a healthier home environment for your children - (and more friendly for our Mother Earth) in "Five easy steps." If you have a child, this is a must. See the website http://healthychild.org/5steps for more information. I've also posted this in my "Places I like to go in digi-land" list.