A Dazzlin' Day

As tradition* would have it, the day after Thanksgiving we all go Downtown to watch the Holidazzle Parade. And every year G-Mama says, "I'd LOVE to be in the parade."

Well this year she and Bopa got their chance!

T-Daddy, CiBaby and I got all bundled up, drove to the light rail station and hopped on the train, which of course is an adventure in and of itself. G-Mama kept calling us to see where we were in transit.We made it just in time for the parade to start...at the other end from where we were!

Finally the parade started, and couple of dashes inside to use the potty, we got our chance to see the dynamic duo!!!

While Bopa will tell you that he did it just for G-Mama, we all know he had a good time too.


*Okay, so it's only the second year with CiBaby, but you

'Tis the season...I guess

This afternoon I wandered down into the office to quickly look something up on the computer. T-Daddy had been looking at the "news"* earlier and had left one of the screens open. This is what it said...



Black Friday crowds eager to spend
Many bargain-hungry shoppers skip Thanksgiving meal to queue up for Black Friday deals on toys, cashmere sweaters and laptops.**


Really? People actually forgo spending quality time with their loved ones to get a deal? Ditch people so you can give a bigger-badder next holiday? Seems kind of ironic to me. Don't get me wrong...I'm all about a good deal (if you need it). All about it. And I love gifts, giving and receiving.


But it's about so much more than a huge pile of expensive gifts (at rock bottom prices). It's about the thought, love and care of giving and receiving. A beautiful card with loving words, a handmade ornament, a warm smile and a hug. If someone puts their heart into a gift it will be the best gift anyone could receive.


What do I want this holiday season? A big, or little...size doesn't matter...box of love.



*Seriously, I can't stand the "news." I put it in quotes as I believe that the vast majority (not all, mind you) of the news is incredibly depressing...but they want it that way! They develop and twist reality so you want to follow and watch it like a car crash...so awful but you can't look away.
**you can read the story here if you really care to.

Shop Girl

Once again I took my annual pilgrimage out west to be a Shop Girl.* True to form we worked our tails off, but as you can see...totally worth it. The store looked beautiful, the company divine, the laughter intoxicating and the sleep much needed. I cannot tell you how much these trips mean to me. I feel rejuvenated...ready to be me again.

*Which comes in handy as I'm now currently working as shop girl!

Happy Hallo-week!

What a great week. Our Hallo-week started with an Adults-Only party. T-Daddy and I were the Time Life couple...aka Kissing Sailor. The week continued with pumpkin carving with Auntie and Great-Gram, trick-or-treating at a nearby senior living apartments, multiple parties at school, a party with friends, quick crafting by Yours Truly and of course...trick-or-treating on All Hallows Eve.

We were lucky enough to have a buddy to collect candy with us this year...of course there were times where we thought we were watching Preschooler Smackdown as they ran to see who could ring the doorbell first.

All-in-all, it was a great week...full of fun and sugar!

Eating locally on a budget...the dollars and sense

With all this talk about eating locally, I thought I should touch on the dollars and sense of it all.

The other day, while at the gym working out on the elliptical machine, I caught the last half of an Oprah re-run. It was about kids and obesity.* One thing a mom of one of the kids said really got me thinking. She said they were on food stamps and that it was not always easy to pick the healthier option when on a tight budget. Really? While I can see how that is for some things, I am having a hard time believe that as a blanket statement.**

So I've started to do a little research on the subject of eating healthfully on a budget AND eating locally. I hit the grocery stores, co-ops and the farmers' markets. I won't bore you with all of the prices, but I will sum it up with you will, on average, spend less on locally produced food when comparing like foods (organic to organic and conventional to conventional).

First, if you have anywhere to plant anything edible...do it! Be it a few large pots on your patio, whatever, it's a start. It's as local as you can get...and quite inexpensive. The same day I saw the Oprah show I went to my monthly Master Gardener meeting and it was on Superabundant Small Gardens. In 2005 the presenter decided to really see how much her organic garden produced, not only in pounds but how much it would have cost her to buy it all at the time it was harvested.***

Her garden's expenses included: manure, other fertilizers, seeds and plants, potting soil, electricity and water, pots and supports and her community garden plot rental fee. It totalled up to be around $253.50. Her crop was valued at $1,408.65, minuses expenses...for a total value of $1,155.15. WOW! Now she follows a few simple rules that I personally abide by for my own garden...When you have a small space to garden, produce what you love and costs the most to buy. Of those things look at what takes up the least amount of space, grow up verses out. Love beans but you don't have a lot of room for a large crop? Plant pole beans! Have a fence and love cucumbers? Plant the vining variety and have them climb up your fence. Find compact varieties. Interplant your edible plants into your flower gardens. Eggplant are not only beautiful, but their purple flowers are gorgeous too. Peppers, especially the hot variety add a splash of color (habanero for fall, what could be better???)

Second, if you have access to a Farmers' Market...GO! Not everyone has the room or the time for a garden (or in my case I cannot grow as much as I use) but everyone can visit a farmers' market. Not only do you get the freshest fruits and vegetables picked at their peak, you also get contact with the people who grow your food and support your local community at rockin' prices! I did overhear one woman say, "If I wanted to pay this much for X, I could just go to the grocery store." I think she's missing the big picture, don't you?

Some of my purchases at the Farmers' Market included:
Red bell peppers - 16 lbs for $12 ($.75/lb)
Green bell peppers - 8 lbs for $4 ($.50/lb)
Eggplant - 21 lbs for $5 ($.24/lb)
Tomatoes - 60 lbs for $18 ($.30/lb)
Fresh onions - 5.5 lbs for $4 ($.73/lb)
Beets (red & golden) - 8 lbs for $4 ($.50/lb)

What did CiBaby and I make with all of this (and from our garden) food, you ask?

We made salsa...lots of salsa!...(both red and green...which we eat a lot and is an easy/good thing to bring to parties), pickled beets, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, raspberry jam, pear butter, tomato sauce, eggplant parmesan, moussaka and ratatouille. I also put away roasted eggplant, roasted red and yellow peppers, green peppers, zucchini, corn, sweet potato leaves, green beans and tomatoes for future cooking use...which saves me a ton of money and everything is still peak flavor.

You don't have to be a foodie, like me, to see why this works. It just makes [dollars and] sense.


*Ironic???
**Long ago I was a check-out girl at a grocery store and saw the "food" come through on food stamps...let's just say that a good majority of it was not what I would consider good choices.
***I forgot to ask her if it was just at the co-op/grocery store and didn't factor in the farmers' markets' prices.

*FM* - Fabulous Miraculous

Farmers' Market

What a year.

Wordless Wednesday

The Art of Cooking

As many of you who know me well*...I love to cook. Not only do I love to cook, I love food, I love ingredients, I love cookbooks, I love techniques and I love to experiment. LOVE IT! Nothing gives me more joy, with the exception of my family, to try out new concoctions on friends and family and get their feedback. I consider it art.

As I stand here and sort out green tomatoes I think...what will I do with all of these? Sure sure, I can make "fried green tomatoes," or "green tomato relish"...while good...I can only eat so much of it. So now what? I search cooking websites and cookbooks for inspiration.**

While what ended up being wasn't fancy, we have many jars of green salsa from my own "recipe." My first attempt at it with unripened tomatoes. Smoked in our fireplace, no less. Darn tasty in my opinion...and friends' too!


*Recently a friend who knows these facts came to me with a potential proposition...which has gotten my wheels-a-turning on a potential business opportunity! Stay tuned!!!
**Also, those who know me know that I have shelves and shelves of cookbooks but actually rarely make an actual recipe from them. Why you ask? I use them as a basis for my own recipes. Flavor combinations. And then I wing it...with the exception of baking. I suck at wing-baking.

One year ago today - October 15, 2008

One year ago today we celebrated our first year as a family with what else? Reflection, time together and Chinese food! Today we continued our tradition...

And while many changes have occurred during the past year...some things always remain the same.

2007 - 2009

Turn off the lights...

summer is over.

Yes, that's right...the harvest has come to an end (at least in my garden). Yesterday afternoon I heard that we were going to have a hard freeze during the night so that afternoon I went out to gather the rest of the fruits. Much to my dismay, we'd had a freeze the previous night. Some things were protected enough or hardy enough to have made it through, but others were not so fortunate.

I gathered up all of the herbs to be dried or frozen, tomatoes (red and green), a big bag of arugula, most of the bunching onions and the rest of the zucchini.

And this is what we woke up to.

While I'm never all that thrilled to see the first snow, CiBaby couldn't wait long enough to get out of her jammies in order to get out there!

First Day of School! A new begining...

Today was the official start of CiBaby's formal education...PRESCHOOL! Now, as some of you may recall, last year she was a pre-preschool dropout...but this year...this year will be different, I hope.

Last week we visited our new school during an Open House and CiBaby was adamant about telling me that "today is not a school day." Of course this continued today too. When I told her that indeed today was a school day and that it was going to be SUPER FUN! (in my best cheerleaderesque persona) she declared she didn't want to go. She was "too nervous to be away from Mama." Awwwe how sweet, but kid, you're goin'...and it's going to be GREAT!

So today we made it a super fun day. First we met up with friends for a playdate, and thankfully her best bud Wibby had just come from school and said it was "super fun." Then it was a rush home for a quick bite to eat and change of clothes and off we went to school. Before leaving I did remind CiBaby that she might have to tell her teachers that she has to go potty (yes, we're still working on that). Well, upon arriving with our special bottle, that she picked out herself, of soy milk and special snacks (incase the snack o' the day is something she cannot eat) she told me she had to go potty. We rushed to the bathroom, sat her down to hear her say, "it not coming." That's when we talked about how sometimes when we feel nervous we feel like we have to go...come'on, y'all know what I'm talking about.

Once back in the room a spot opened up at the playdough table...SCORE! And best of all, it was right next to one (she has 4) of the teachers. She sat down, the teacher engaged her right away and when I said goodbye, the teacher said, "Don't worry, I will be here with you until your Mama comes back to get you." Dang! I knew I picked a great school for her!!!

Fast forward a couple hours, an ice tea and adult conversation and it was time to pick CiBaby up from school. I scooted home, got T-Daddy and off we went...we didn't want to be late. It went great and we couldn't be more relieved. She was "all-smiles, all day." YIPPY!!!

And off we go.