Halloween Costume 2011

R wanted to be Kate the alpha wolf from her favorite movie, Alpha & Omega. She was disappointed that Charlie didn't think she was a real wolf. He was fairly mellow in the face of all the fierceness.
This wolf has dog treats in her paws.

End of Summer Festival

 
These are from two weeks ago, at the Summerset Festival that celebrates the end of summer. We went with R's best friend E.

We went for the dog competitions. Agility, Flyball--all the events that border collie owners like to watch to get ideas how to keep our own dogs occupied. The frisbee dogs were so much fun to watch. The pure joy and the soaring and the effortless catches, which you know took months and months of training before it looked effortless.

They spent a lot of time at the dog adoption stations and were careful to pet every dog. They said they were looking out for ones that seemed lonely. There was a lot of sadness about the dogs we couldn't take home, especially in the car on the way home.

Remember the petite Sno Cones of your youth? They got about one-third of the way through these.

We ran into a little friend from school, who had just added to her Pillow Pet collection.

And we were so happy to come across our neighbor friend playing bass with the kids' band on "Rhiannon"!

There is a corner of the park with a giant old weeping willow. The girls spent most of their day climbing the smaller trees around it and playing underneath it. I kept waiting for them to pull us back towards the rides and the festival, but this is what they wanted to do.


 The park is right next door to Columbine High School. The girls are walking back to our car through Leawood Park, where people congregated and injured kids were treated right after the Columbine shootings. This is the first time we've been here, although we live not far away. It was strange to see Columbine High school for the first time when there is carnival music playing, and kids running everywhere and laughing. You find yourself looking around for the scenes you saw on the news, the pattern of windows. It's not here. It's not here today. Is it good or bad, that waves of life just wash over this ground and mute the history underneath it. Life is fleeting, and today I am grateful for a sunny September day in the park. While I was there, I thought of the kids' voices and music as a celebration that the victims and families would be happy to see.

I lost that completely on the way home. I had a strong impression that moving past what happened there is a privilege that belongs only to people who lost someone close to them. I think we are not meant to give it only a glancing thought, "oh what sorrow took place here." On the way home we said Our Fathers and started a Rosary, but it still feels like I left something unfinished behind.

Chicken Pot Pie

The first chilly, rainy days of the fall make me feel like comfort food. Chicken pot pie was my favorite meal when I was little. Everyone got his own little Swanson's pie in the metal pan, and the steam billowed out when you broke through the crust with your fork. Here is the pie unbaked and egg-washed:


And here it is baked, with the filling. I didn't use a recipe. I roasted a chicken, made a bechamel sauce and mixed it all together with onions and mixed vegetables, fresh sage and thyme and parsley. The crust is whole wheat. It didn't brown as nicely as I would have liked. I think that's partly because it's whole wheat, and partly because I used the convection oven.


I made some little tarts with the leftover dough and filling, with vegetable and leaf cut-outs. Fresh tomato and parmesan tarts used up the last of the dough.

I think I can put these in R's lunch, but I would have to put them in a thermos and break up the decorative crust. She still had fun rolling out the dough and cutting shapes with me. She keeps these tins in her play kitchen downstairs, and I always have to go retrieve them before I bake with them. I bought them when we were planning our wedding, thinking the caterer could use them, and I remember how the man at the garage sale said, "I would think you would not want any little tarts at your wedding." We bought a giant crystal ice bucket at that same sale. It broke when R was a baby and I still grieve for it.

Carrot Owl Bento

Cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden; ranch dressing; corn wheels and a carrot owl; purple grapes; organic peanut butter & homemade strawberry jelly, with flax meal on whole grain bread; carrot curls; cinnamon almonds in the middle.

Pizza Margherita with Our Tomatoes

The best thing about tomato harvest:  Pizza Margherita with a whole wheat crust. I bake it on a terra cotta stone at 500 degrees. D likes it with half the basil cooked, and half fresh on top after it comes out of the oven. We didn't even get smoked out last night--usually a cheese drip hits the blast-hot oven, but this batch was very tidy.

Colorado Peach Bento

Whole grain crackers; Colorado peaches; cheddar squares and turkey pepperoni; green salad with Ranch dressing and tomatoes from our garden; cinnamon almonds in the middle.

Spring Greens Bento

Cherries and pistachios; Asian pears and orange slices; tomatoes from our garden; roast beef, tomato and spinach on whole wheat, on top of spring greens, with spinach and cabbage butterflies and orange pepper confetti; chocolate covered cashews in the center.