Category: Uncategorized

Pizza lately.

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Pizza for dinner is a regular occurrence around here.  I make a batch of dough and split it, creating two slightly thin crusts.  One becomes something more standard for whatever kids are around for dinner and one gets to be some version of clean out the fridge pizza, using up whatever I have on hand.

name 004Lately, that means what Edie dubbed “fabulous pizza” when she about 3 or 4.  The rest of the world may know it as Pizza Margherita, but in this house, pizza made with tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella is fabulous pizza.

name 003My most recent pizza experiment that turned out surprisingly well used tomatillo salsa for sauce, monterey jack cheese, arugula, jalapenos and Caromont Farm fresh chevre.  The tomatillos, arugula and jalapenos all came from the garden, as did the tomatoes and basil on the fabulous pizza.  It was one of those dishes that is better than the sum of its parts.  The mildness of the jack cheese was a nice counterpoint that tied together the creamy- savory-with a bit of a bite thing going on.

Uncle Kevin’s Art Installation.

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When we walked into Aunt Jenny & Uncle Kevin’s living room Friday evening, I couldn’t help but notice what turned out to be Uncle Kevin’s latest salvage yard score and project. Not knowing it at the time, I dubbed it “The Living Room Art Installation”.  Neither Pat nor Edie batted an eyelash at the idea of a member of my family having a new art installation in the middle of their living room, because on that side of the family, there are many artists and among those who aren’t artists, they frequently feature in their homes work by the family artists.   A new art installation in the middle of the living room just seems par for the course.

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If it weren’t so blurry, wouldn’t this image look like it was taken in a museum?

In this case, the ‘art’ in question was a very old Singer sewing machine and treadle table. Continue reading →

Same as it ever was, only with a better name.

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Technically, I’m not a Girl Scout leader anymore.  After 5 years, I’d gotten chewed out enough for a volunteer position that I decided to cut all ties and walk away from the organization.  The girls however, were a different story.  I’d spent an hour or more, with them every other week for the last 5 years.  I consider them partially my own girls.  I promised them we’d continue to do something together this year and left it open.  I was thinking we’d touch base once a month, maybe do a book club.  We got together after school started and they laid out what they’d like to do.  Turns out they still wanted to meet every other week, they still wanted me to come up with a plan for them to pitch out the window, so for all intents and purposes, we were pretty much doing the same thing we’ve been doing, only with no organizational oversight and no name. Continue reading →

Wines I drank – The Sharing Edition.

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One fine Saturday, I came home from dropping Edie off at a slumber party to discover our across the street neighbor Charles had wandered over with a lovely bottle of merlot in hand, to share with us.  It seems he had been given this bottle, and knowing it was a quality wine, immediately thought he had to skip across the street to share with me. Continue reading →

Living in her Pinterest world.

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It was Spring Break of first grade where Edie discovered that Martha Stewart was a real person and had her own TV show.  Somehow, despite having piles of Martha’s books and magazines stacked all over the house, I had neglected to expose my daughter to all that the lifestyle maven had to offer.  This is what happens when I let my child watch television unsupervised.  (She discovered Julia Child this way too.) Edie was instantly hooked.  Here was someone that understood her.  Next thing I knew, she had handed me a materials list because with Easter coming that week, she was going to dye her eggs Martha style.

2914_1127489071781_2809453_n Continue reading →

Major mom win.

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DSCN4133Edie is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan.  When she found out Taylor was coming to play in Charlottesville, she was pretty much beside herself with excitement.  Could not stop talking about going to see her show.

And then I found out how much tickets were. Continue reading →

Figs!

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play 005Our neighbor Brian was out of town last week, during which the majority of figs on the tree in his front yard ripened.  Not wanting to leave such goodness for those no-good squirrels, I helped myself.  Then Brian came back earlier than expected and I felt bad I’d helped myself to his figs.  To compensate, I thought I’d make him something with the figs.  Because there is nothing more thoughtful than preparing baked treats for your neighbors with figs they grew and you helped yourself to. Continue reading →