yellow

Monday's easy dinner...cheesy garlic bread, celery and carrot sticks with organic ranch and steamed artichoke hearts

Still Life with Ezra

YELLOW TUESDAY

Nana Kitty's yellow recipe book...jello salad anyone?

Inherited yellow thread... from my nana Kitty

The yellow hanging lamp

monday green

Check out Curious Bird's Color Week

i love you kimchee

Today I splurged on some kimchee while grocery-getting. I am sure I could get it cheaper at the Korean Market, but I did not have time for another stop.

I only got a small jar of it and because I know we are a sour veg/pickle loving family, I purchased some veggies to make some spicy pickle.  

The boys like to pretend to be rabbits in Mr. Mcgregor's garden while stealing some vegetables. I get to use my awful Scottish accent and threaten to put them in a pie. Of course, a radish tower must be made.

I stuffed the veg. into a jar.

Covered the veg, with paprika, hot pepper, ginger and garlic.

Water and vinegar goes on top.

This is not kimchee. I like to call it kimchee inspired. Now that I have been waiting for the bus twice a day for almost a year with my Korean neighbors, I am now very comfortable asking them for an authentic kimchee recipe. Later this week....

new

A crocheted heart that Helen gave me...

A jade cutting from Dawn in a new blue pot

my homemade cleaning supplies and a new homemade sugar body scrub

peppermint and apricot kernel oil sugar scrub

works wonders on winter legs...

Rotisserie Chicken, Cabbage salad and roasted red potatoes

After we finished this wine, Matty asked me to get some more ...bitch. I did not slap him.

Gala, Braeburn, Golden and Red Delicious

On Monday we had one of my favorite easy meals. A rotisserie chicken from Wholepaycheck, roasted red potatoes and insalata de Mariana and some great wine (a full bodied grenache with a saucy name). Then we had brownie sundaes, not pictured, and an apple tasting. We love apples and Henry loves to talk about varieties. He knows that Nana loves Red Delicious (ack) which is America's fave and also the one famous for it's role in Snow White. Tall and lovely with creamy yellow flesh, thick bitter skin, no shelf life and a taste that deteriorates rapidly when cooked. He knows that Johnny loves Granny Smith, Auntie Mamy loves a  good Macintosh, Mommy loves Cox 's Orange Pippin which is an heirloom variety that you can find at Little tree (in NY) and small ones farm (in MA) , Auntie Annie loves Pink Ladys, Grandma's fave is eluding me at the moment is it also Granny Smith? Anyway, for Christmas Henry got a gem of a book filled with lovely watercolor illustrations, histories and descriptions of all varieties of apples including popular varieties and lesser known varieties. Did you know that there are at least 4 varieties of apple featuring Uncle Jona's name? There is also a variety called Mollie's Delicious. Whenever possible, we taste and read and learn a bit more about one of our favorite fruits.  

Edith Never Was A Mourning Person

So, here she is. The mostly finished first painting in the "Bird Girl" series. She may not be totally finished.  I am planning on making a few more and trying to sell prints and cards on Etsy.  Jen, if you have any etsy advice, let me know. And if anyone, visual arts friends or otherwise  has any healthy criticism please dish it out. I am living in a bit of a vacuum here. But hey, this is not fine art it is fun art. And it seems that there is a lot of it out there on Etsy and I thought it would be fun to join the bandwagon.

hopefulness in a poem

These two are my poem. 

Today's after school snack: plain yogurt with maple syrup and blackberries. So there, "gogurt"!

I think I am feeling better. I was in a funk for a few weeks. Late winter burnout. The sun and warmth, the being outside until dinner everyday is making me feel rejuvenated. I had also started a new b.c pill which I think was also making me a bit nutty. No more of that.

Today I had one of those "I wish I could capture the moment in a poem" feelings. My kids had just eaten dinner and the sunny day din was waning outside (most kids had gone home for their dinners). So finally it was quiet, which is rare near our parts. I have earned the nickname of "universal mother" around here (free fruit, hugs, and positive remarks and plenty of "stop throwing rocks and sticks, slow down, blah blah...). There are often a slew of kids clamoring around our house. Including Henry's newest "bestest" friend who is very sweet, if a bit rough around the edges.

Anyway, my kids had eaten dinner and were crunching apple slices. I could hear the crunching and mixed in with the crunching I could hear a mourning dove crooning. We have a bunch of those doves around here and they are gorgeous. I am looking at my kids whom I hadn't felt angry with all day. They are gorgeous. Between the two of them there were two scraped knees, one scraped temple, one wasp -stung finger, one freckled, slightly pink nose (with a residual morning application  of spf ), one tawny colored nose, one missing tooth, one adult tooth, one super sweaty head, two dust and dirt covered necks and twenty filthy fingernails. If that is not a poem, I don't know what is.