Happy New Year!

A mezze platter to take to our friends' house tonight. Hummus, olives and crudités with homemade baked pita chips. And raw dolmades, with grape leaves I canned from our vines this summer, and a diced parsnip (instead of rice), pine nut, red pepper, avocado, lemon juice and tomato filling.

I have been reading so many "good riddance 2011" articles, about what a terrible year it has been. I work at our parish food bank, and that is where you see it. The people working two and three jobs who still can't feed their families, the hard workers who are skilled and experienced in struggling industries, who used to make a great living, but just can't find work any more. My family has so many more pressures and barely-squeaking-by times than we ever used to have. We are skating very close to the margins every month. But it still bothers me to ring out the old year with contempt. It was a good year! We had so much fun. Right in the middle of it, R turned from a shy sweet funny seven year old to a shy even sweeter and funnier eight year old.

So from a very selfish perspective, I have loved this year. The garden and D and Charlie and R, a child who is busting out all over with so much new information and excitement about life that she talks out loud in her sleep. Last night she was reading Roald Dahl's Matilda under the covers with a flashlight, and she got to the part that lists the books that four year old Matilda reads. It is such a great list that I will have to put it here:

• Great Expectations
• Nicholas Nickleby
• Oliver Twist
• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Tess of D'Urbervilles
• Gone to Earth
• Kim
• The Invisible Man
• The Old Man and the Sea
• The Sound and the Fury
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Good Companions
• Brighton Rock
• Animal Farm

And with each new title R would shout out to me, muffled from under her blankets, "What is that one about? Who wrote it?" and when I explained the authors and plots of the ones I knew (all of them but Gone to Earth? The Good Companions? Brighton Rock?), she would yell out, "Could you get that for me to read?" And she knows I will, I'll add it to her giant and growing bookshelf downstairs.

You could say that it has been a pretty universally awful year for--for, I don't know what to call it. For what I think is important in culture, social justice, general quality of life for humans. For some modicum of moral responsibility that would check or temper greed, or lacking that, legal restraints imposed by a wise and ethical and considered body. A friend made me laugh last month when she blurted out "There's one for our side!" about something in the news. That's why I love this Tennyson poem so much. Let the bad of the old year die. There was tiredness and falseness in it, but "ring out wild bells, and let him die."  There was so much goodness too. Call out the bad things and work to fix them. But ring out the wild bells, against the snow!

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true . . . 

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good . . .

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Olive Bento

Black olives; apple slices; turkey pepperoni and cheddar; homemade tomato quinoa bread; green salad with tomatoes, radishes and celery; granola bar in the center.

Balmy November

Warm enough for shirtsleeves today as the sun is going down.


R appreciates Charlie's hard work on his bone.

Grissini

Grissini, thick and thin and all ready for Thanksgiving. Whole wheat glazed with butter and honey; whole grain herb and garlic; seeded sourdough. 

Hibiscus Bento

Carrots and a radish rose; lemon hibiscus apples that I canned on Saturday, with oranges; organic granola bar and almonds; cheddar and whole grain crackers on spinach salad; and cherry-flavored dried cranberries in the center.
 
I canned a lot of apples this weekend. My generous neighbor Becky always gives us the apples from her unsprayed tree in October, but this year they were all black at the center (codling moth?), so we only got a couple of jars of pie filling out of them. I finally broke down and used store-bought apples, because we love opening jars of spiced apples and applesauce all year long. I made spiced apples for pie filling, and tried something new with dried hibiscus blossoms. Hibiscus blossoms are high in vitamin C and anti-oxidants, and they have a lot of heart-healthy compounds. They give the apples a fresh, citrusy taste that is complemented by fresh lemons. I infused green tea in the syrup, but the flavor didn't come through. The blossoms turn the apples a beautiful natural rosy color. I sweetened the apples lightly with agave.
 
R really likes these, and the jars look so pretty lined up on a shelf with the sun shining through. The dried blossoms make a nice tea too, either added to black or green tea, or by themselves with honey and lemon.

Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake

My lovely cousin Lara had a birthday yesterday, and I made her a lemon cake with raspberry syrup and lemon curd in between the layers, frosted with lemon buttercream. Sometimes short, two-layer cakes are nice. I used lemon extract, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, so it was really zing-y and lemony. I kept the raspberry syrup on the tart side too.


I made a mini-cake with the leftover batter for D & R. I frosted it with whipped cream (that I whipped a little too long, it almost turned into butter). They loved it, but they were sad it wasn't bigger.

Rustic Ciabatta

Cooler weather makes me want to start baking bread again, keeping a starter and experimenting. I have been reading this book by Jim Lahey, the originator of the no-knead bread method that was popularized by Mark Bittman in the New York Times. I have been playing around with it, using a sourdough starter and then following the book's instructions for proofing and baking. Pre-heating a dutch oven and then baking the dough in the hot pan is one secret to the brick-oven like crust and fantastic oven rise. Today I made a dough so wet that it had to be poured into the heated pan. I was hoping for a very free-form flat ciabatta, with a big open crumb and blistered crust. The dough is mostly white bread flour, with some rye and whole wheat flours, wheat germ and flax meal added.

It made such a beautiful, messy rustic loaf. 

I dusted the top with kosher salt before baking, and it developed a shattering, crisp crust almost like a handmade pretzel.

The crumb could have been more open, but the flecks of flax and wheat germ, and the grey cast of the rye flour, make it interesting. This differed from the no-knead method in that I used a sourdough starter, and proofed it for only six hours instead of the 18-24 the book recommends. I have half of this dough on a slow rise in the refrigerator. I'll bake that off tomorrow and see what the difference is. In the meantime, a fantastic loaf for sandwiches or just eating plain. D loves it.

Flower Bento

Mangoes and raspberries; green grapes; ranch dressing; raisins and carrots; green salad; turkey sandwich on oatmeal bread with carrot curls, cheddar flower and spinach leaf; gingerbread elephant & dog in the middle.

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.

Teriyaki Bento

Cherries; mangoes; carrots; teriyaki chicken on brown fried rice; granola square.

Garden Tomato Bento

Carrots; cantaloupe; tomatoes from our garden; cheese and spinach on a whole grain mini-Sandwich Thin; chocolate covered cashews.

Summer Fruit Bento

Cherries; Tuscan cantaloupe; cole slaw with purple cabbage, broccoli, and carrots; chicken salad with spinach, apples, grapes and pistachios in phyllo cups; yellow pepper heart; gingerbread Scottie dog. Lots of colors means lots of antioxidants!

Love Bento

Watermelon; leftover birthday cake; carrots; whole wheat sausage, spinach, carrot and cheddar pinwheels; yellow peppers.

8th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to our R!

Her kid party is in two weeks, but we had a family party on her actual birthday. She requested popcorn chicken, watermelon, Caesar salad, and sparkling grape juice.

First she had to finish her homework. Sad!

Lots of tulle hides how crooked the cake is. I was rushing to finish it before school pick-up.

Cookies & Cream ice cream!

Calico Critters for her dollhouse.


She fell in love with this stuffed raccoon from the grocery store. She begged us for it for a month.

Turning eight is momentous. She said, "I feel like a different person. I am in third grade and I am eight, all in the same week."