Because I have so many other things to do.

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‘Tis the season and while I suppose I should be busying myself with getting ready for the upcoming holidays, I instead chose to take time to finish new potholders I had started a few weeks back.  To be fair, I was trying to make a path to the fabric stash in order to make gifts when I suddenly decided I needed to finish this project first.  The ones I have are so worn out that I might as well just use my bare hands when pulling anything out of the oven these days, so I really should have done myself a favor and just finished them when I started them.  Darn you girlfriends stopping by for a quick glass of wine!  (Actually, you’re welcome anytime.  I love a distraction.)
All materials are from the stash – a cow print cotton on one side, black linen on the back.  I like for my kitchen things to be black & white with little hints of color, so these fit the bill perfectly.
I machine quilted a thick layer of fleece to the back of the cow print, sewing around the edges of the black marks.  I added another layer of fleece when I sewed the black linen on and some red gingham ribbon and called it a day.  The cow print I picked up as a remnant probably at Joann’s, and the linen is leftover from a pair of pants I made myself a few summers ago.  It’s quite thick and durable.  I suspect it will hold up much better than the cowprint. I was a little fast & loose with the whole quilting thing, not really taking the time to ensure that all was flat and smooth and properly laid out.  (This is what my Aunt Loretta would call a typical Becky job.).  They faded in the laundry, because no, I didn’t wash the fabric beforehand.  (I’m really a lazy sewer, in case you hadn’t figured that out by now.)  I’m happy with the way they turned out though, because they are still pretty cute and in better working shape than the last pair. 
Now I suppose I can get back to working on gifts.  Or not, as I seem to recall some pants of Pat’s that need to be hemmed…..

Counting Down.

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 Many moons ago, I saw a handmade advent calendar somewhere in the blog world and thought, hey, I could do that.  And so I did.
It’s 4 rows of pockets, straight across.  Most of the materials were vintage thrifted items, including the candy cane bias tape around the edges.  To mark the pockets, I used ribbon that I wrote numbers for dates on.  Some of them are barely holding on anymore.  I keep meaning to fix that.  I know I’ve been saying that for the last few years.  Maybe this year is the one it gets done….

The appliqued ornaments and tree boughs across the top were from the Christmas tablecloth my parents received as a wedding gift.  35+ years of gravy and wine stains take their toll you know.
This is just one of the several new lives I’ve been able to give that tablecloth so that it’s still part of our holiday traditions.
 
Over the years, I’ve learned to sync this calendar with the one on the kitchen wall.  While certain activities come back every year, like “Write a letter to Santa”,  “Go Ice Skating” never happened, no matter how much I pushed it.  Some days I just pop a piece of leftover Halloween candy in there and call it a day.   By syncing it with our calendar, I’ve learned to not tell her to bake Christmas cookies the same day as her Christmas concert at school. Not all the activities are holiday based – some, like yesterday’s “Play Uno as a family”, are just things we can all do together.   It’s definitely changed over the years, as she’s gotten older and busier, but it still remains one of her favorite things about this time of year. 

It’s About Community.

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Yesterday, my Girl Scout troop wrapped up their food drive at school.   It was part of a earning a badge I wanted them to work on, called Food Power.  As most of our activities at take place at school, I asked the principal of our school if we could do this food drive there.  She answered with the request that we do it for the upcoming holidays and make the recipients families in our school community that needed a little help getting through the season.  Which was perfect, because while I knew I wanted the girls to have some connection with the recipients, ideally other kids, I had no other ideas in mind.
We teamed up with the Daisy troop at school.  (My girls are Juniors.  Girl Scouts are broken up by age into different groups, with Brownies being the age group inbetween.  I get asked about this alot.).  We also had some big help from the Student Government Association, teachers and administrators at school.  This was, in every way, a group effort.
Yesterday was the big day of sorting and packing the donations that had been collected over the last month. 
We were told there were 55 families that had signed up to be part of this effort.  We started with a bag for each and when we filled them, we started a second bag for families with 5 members or more.   In just over an hour and a half, we sorted & packed what amounted to about 80 bags.
As we wrapped up, we got all the girls and leaders to pose for a group shot.
(Most of the Daisies had their uniforms on, my girls, not so much.)
I’ve received several thank yous on behalf of the girls for this.   All our girls did was make a few posters and then sort and pack donations.  The school community donated the items.  There were a few very generous donors who stepped up and made sure we had enough for every family to receive a bag of food as well as gift cards to area grocery stores.  Credit also goes to the incredibly supportive parents (and grandparents) of the girls in both troops, many of whom came to help out yesterday.  Most of all, credit must go to the school administrators, who gave us the idea, encouragement and support to make this happen.
The girls worked beautifully together.  They all jumped in so enthusiastically and with very little direction, knocked it out. I loved seeing the big ones working with the little ones in such a seamless way.  I don’t know if the girls truly understand the impact they had on their world yesterday.  I know mine doesn’t.  What I think matters most though, is that they made a difference in their community.  Because when it comes down to it, we’re all in this together. 

My New Orange Scarf.

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Remember the orange yarn I bought at the Fall Fiber Festival?  I finished the scarf I knit for myself out of it this weekend.  I promise, it’s not as glowing as it is in that photo.  Although it is pretty darn orange.  And pretty soft.  And pretty much just right.
The pattern is this from Knitty.com.  I’m on Ravelry, but honestly, it’s just one more website for me to keep up with, like Goodreads, which I’m also on and completely neglectful of.  Occasionally I will remember to look on those websites for ideas, but I spend more time tracking down where I wrote my log-ins than I ever actually spend on the sites.  Sigh. 
Do you know about knitty.com?  I love it.  LOVE it.  I have gotten alot of ideas and patterns from there.  It never steers me wrong. 
Anyway. 
The scarf.  It’s bamboo yarn and incredibly soft to the touch.  It knit up pretty easily.  I only had 2 balls of yarn, so I didn’t make it as wide as the pattern called for, nor did it turn out as long. I didn’t gauge it, I just played around until I liked how it looked and then hoped I had enough.  When I got to the end of the first ball, I measured the length to make sure it would be as long as I wanted.  I’ve been known to knit and reknit scarves until they are *just* right using this highly scientific method.
I made some progress on the scarf I started for Edie too.
Lots of football viewing makes for getting a lot of knitting done. And our Thanksgiving weekend was definitely in excess of that activity.

On music and motherhood.

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There are certain things everyone says they will never do as parents.  Of course, most of these declarations are when we are all knowing and childless.  Sometimes these even run into the first few years of being a parent, when you still think you are somewhat in control.

The top of my list was becoming a soccer mom, going to a PTO meeting and listening to top 40 radio.
The first two have been violated, but I’m holding fast to that last one.

I have no problem admitting I’m a music geek.  I love all sorts of music (generally), as does my husband.  Even if our taste isn’t always the same, we both like discovering new bands and sharing them.  Over the years, we have both made mixes (first on CD, now on itunes for her ipod) for Edie.  Now that she’s getting older and starting to develop her own taste in music, she leaves us lists of what she’d like loaded on her ipod next.  There is a frightful amount of what I call ‘that new crap’ on those lists, and so I hand it over to her father.  He takes the time to listen to everything first, making sure it’s appropriate for her 9 year old ears.  He will also then throw some songs in there that he thinks she would like.  She recently complained that the last time she handed her father a list, he took the opportunity to practically fill her ipod with HIS music.

‘He put Nirvana on there.  And Gillian Welch.  And some other stuff you two like”. 

Suddenly, we are being roped together in this music battle – Us vs. Her.  (And yes, we’ve had some battles.) I’ve realized that my freakishly nerdy 80’s music trivia knowledge is being matched by my daughter’s equally deep knowledge about today’s music.  A few weeks ago, she was curled up in the den watching the red carpet for some music awards show and knew who everyone was.  There was some fellow I had never seen before and she started rattling off everyone he had been playing with – Nicki Minaj (I had to look that up!) as well as Usher.  How does she know this?!?!  We don’t have cable, her screen time, both TV and computer is generally limited and supervised.  I get that she wants to listen to what her friends listen to. I worry that she’s liking it, despite our work of making sure she only listens to ‘good’ music.  Our definition of good of course. 

There are moments of hope though.  I was cleaning her room a few months back when I stumbled upon an old Red Hot Chili Peppers CD in her stash.  I asked her where it came from and she answered “Well, I needed something new to listen to, so I went through your CD’s and thought that looked interesting.” (She liked it!).   She loves Ozzy.  Driving home from market on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, she recognized the Dead playing with Dylan on one of his songs, “Stuck down in Mobile….”.  I was so proud.  After all, how many 9 year olds can identify a Bob Dylan song?

That’s the thing about parenthood.  You enter it with all the best intentions, only to have most of them shattered by those beautiful little creatures.  You have to learn to let go, to surrender control and just hope that some of what you want to imprint upon them sticks. 

Living History.

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This morning there was a ceremony to unveil a historic marker in front of my daughter’s school.  The school closed in September of 1958 rather than integrate.  This was part of the movement
 known as  ‘Massive Resistance’. 
The school reopened in February of 1959
and in September of that year,
the “Venable Nine” walked up the front steps
 and into the school that had previously been off limits to them.

The steps my daughter’s class stood on
and sang in honor of them this morning.
 I’m not sure she entirely understands how
different the world was then. 
Six of the original ‘Venable Nine’ were in attendance this morning. 
Charles E. Alexander brought his mother, for as they all took a turn at a few words, each of them pointed out, it wasn’t them that decided they should attend Venable, it was their parents.
That is who they wanted to celebrate today – their parents.
 It was a good reminder that it is our jobs as parents to push our kids to change the world .

It can happen – look at them. 

When life hands you apples…….

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I have written before about my love of apples. It’s deep.
I have been an apple a day girl as long as I can remember.
They store well. You can throw one in your purse and carry it about until you are ready to eat it.
In fact, if you were to ask me what I always have in my bag, you’d find my wallet, ponytail holders, chapstick, a water bottle and an apple.
Those are my essentials.

Mollie asked I bring some apples when we came for Oysterfest. I used this as my excuse to head out to Henley’s Orchard and grab a bushel of seconds. I also thought I’d get some non-seconds, and I printed out the coupon from the website that said, buy a peck, get a free gallon.
She’d also asked for some cider and I’d heard Henley’s made some good stuff. 
Now, I know everyone in Charlottesville goes to Carter’s Mountain for apples.  Yes, the views are great.  But it also can be completely overrun.  And as much as I love the cider donuts, the cider they sell is not made from their apples – at least, the stuff I’ve seen there the last few years wasn’t locally made. And I’m stickler for local.  So, when I heard on good authority that Henley’s had good, local cider, I decided to check them out.  I can say, I will never again go to Carter’s for large amounts of apples, nor cider.  The prices and the varieties at Henleys are far better. Oh, and that cider?  Heavenly. 
But I digress.
I went to Henley’s for apples and got a bushel of seconds, a peck of non-seconds and a free gallon.
I got a mixed bunch of varieties – heavy on my beloved Black Stem, but also some Fuji, and thanks to the suggestion of the young man working at Henley’s that day (who encouraged me to pick up an apple and try it), some Cameo and Mutsu apples.  I think he threw some Granny Smith into the seconds bushel as well.
I thought I’d get non-seconds to have on hand for eating.  But as I looked through my bushel, I noticed there were a number of small apples, which are actually my favorite, as well as Edie’s favorite.  Turns out they are considered seconds.  Next time, I might not even bother getting the non-seconds, because the difference between the two were slight in the selection I got.
Again, I digress.
A bushel, a peck and a gallon. 
That’s what they looked like on my kitchen floor.
I filled a 5 gallon bucket and took it to Mollie last weekend.  Barely made a dent.
We have eaten fried apples for dinner almost every night for 2 weeks.  I made a pie – actually two, because Mollie & I made one last weekend and since I got only a bite, I came home and immediately made another one.  This morning for breakfast, we had a pan of baked apples.  Snack time around here is, can you guess?  Apples.
I finally got around to trying my hand at apple butter.  I didn’t add as much sugar as is called for, so I’m wondering if that is why it took 3 full days in the crockpot.  It’s good though.  I definitely think I’m going to start another batch.  I also keep meaning to throw some pies in the freezer.  And I promised my husband some apple crisp. I am considering making a batch of applesauce too, although that will require me to go get more canning jars, as I’m out.  I have used every last one of them in canning and pickling this year.  And I added an extra 4 cases or so to the stash this year. 
I’ve realized that a bushel, a peck (which is half a bushel) and a gallon (which is half a peck), adds up to be one and three quarters of a bushel.  Not quite two bushels.   As soon as I got home and unloaded them, I realized I may have gotten too many apples.  Okay, the fact that they took up ample space in the large trunk of my car was a clue.  And full disclosure – I didn’t unload them, my dear husband did.  Without questioning the amount of apples I had just dragged home.  Which is precisely why, he will get an apple crisp tomorrow.
After all, I did make him baked apples for breakfast…

A new one.

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I am often complimented on the cabinet in my kitchen. 
While this cabinet is in there in the name of storage, it’s not for gadgets.
My kitchen is small.
 People are surprised that someone that cooks as much as I do doesn’t have a wealth of kitchen toys.
I have carefully edited them in the name of space.  And I prefer that space be given to something I love more than gadgets.

 

Cookbooks.
(And my KitchenAid stand mixer.)
I love the cookbooks various groups put together for fundraisers.  I have an especially fondness for old ones from churches. I think some of those came from college roommate’s grandmothers.  Some of them, I’ve had forever, like before I learned to cook.  My watermelon pickle recipe came out of those books.

Mollie Katzen is probably my favorite cookbook writer.  I have a number of her cookbooks.
Oh, and I clearly have a fondness for some Betty Crocker – that’s a late 80’s version right next to my early 1950’s version.  Sadly, somewhere along the line they dropped the helpful housewife hints that recommended being ‘fresh and cheerful’ for your husband when he came home from work.  I also have the 1960’s Betty Crocker Cooky Cookbook. 

Among my treasures is this complete 1970’s set of McCalls cookbooks, in their little box.  I was amazed when they fit into my cabinet, I thought for sure I’d have to get rid of something to make room.  Just a little reorganization was needed. 
I have ethic cookbooks.  I have the classics- Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer and so on.  I have dessert cookbooks.  I have several cookbooks just on chocolate.  I have holiday cookbooks.  I have part of a late 70’s, early 80’s Southern Living series that I have picked up piecemeal at yard sales.  The bulk of my collection though are vegetarian cookbooks.  I really cannot stand to touch raw meat and so when I first learned to cook, I avoided it in my cooking.  I am still just learning how to cook meat.  I tend to stick to bacon and sausage, which is easy stuff.  (and yummy.)
I like to read cookbooks.  I will sit down with a stack to get inspiration for dinner.  If I have an idea of something I want to make but not entirely sure how I want to go about it, I’ll consult my cookbooks.  With the exception of the Mollie Katzen books, I never follow a recipe to the T.  I like to stack about 3 or 4 cookbooks on my counter and create my own from similar ones.   A little of this, some of that.  The end result gets written down in a notebook I also keep in that cabinet.  Along with several binders of recipes I have printed out from the glory of the internet.
A few weeks ago, I entered a contest on Facebook hosted by fellow blogger edible cville.  I tend to enter alot of contests, although I rarely win.  Much to my surprise, I won! 
I was excited to discover it was a new cookbook.

Anthony Bourdain.  To be honest, I don’t know much about him.  I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to celebrity chefs.  We live without cable, which means no food channels, outside of the PBS Create cooking shows (which I adore).  Although I learned to cook by watching cooking shows and reading cookbooks, I have found I don’t care for most of the cooking shows on these days when I do happen to get to watch those food channels on cable tv.  Too much flash, not enough substance.  Extreme eating?  No thanks.  Cooking competitions?  They don’t interest me either.   But a book?  That I can do.

At first glace, I really like the look of the book.  Love the font.  (That would be the design background in me, coming out.)  Paging through it, I think I might learn some new tricks. There are just good basic skills in here and not just recipes.  I love those kind of cookbooks.  I’m excited that it’s not another vegetarian cookbook.  Due to requests from a certain self-described ‘meatatarian’ that lives in our house, I have found myself learning to cook more meat. She’s pretty excited about this new cookbook too.
I might find myself sharing it.  She’s already been flipping through it, looking for dinner suggestions.
Thanks edible cville, for adding to our library and our inspiration.
It’s not often we get a cookbook around there that gets everyone excited.


Oh what a festival it was!

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It’s that time of year again.  Oysterfest.
One of the best festivals that ever was.
Where we eat lots of yummy oysters.

And I do mean lots.  There were multiple coolers full of oysters for the grilling.

And we can’t forget the fried food that line the streets of town and scent the air.
Everything you can think of is battered and deep fried.

 What’s the other 4%?  Dare we ask? 

Best sign, hands down.

Footlong Corn Dogs for everyone!
Well, not everyone.  I decided an oyster po-boy was the way to go.

You know, to break up the grilled oysters. 

This year, we went a whole day early because our girl Abigail was in the Miss Spat contest and we had to be there to see her on stage, answering her question about what was her favorite part of being in the Miss Spat and Oyster Queen competition.  (“Being with her friends and spending time with her queen, Emily”.)

I have no good shots of Abigail on stage because we were so excited for her. So when she was named “Miss Spat”, some of us (Edie), went nuts.  (Edie says this was the highpoint of Oysterfest for her this year.)

As soon as the crowning was over, Edie had to run backstage to congratulate her friend and get a good shot of our very own Miss Spat.
Then it was back to the house for celebration.  This was about the point this year’s festival was deemed “Epic” by Anne.  The celebration was big.  There was a lot of shucking going on. 
Mollie made Abigail a Miss Spat pumpkin pie, complete with crown.

Friday night is the Fire Truck Parade. The most fun parade, ever.  I took a few videos of it this year that I’ll get around to posting.  It’s the loudest parade you’ve ever heard.  60+  firetrucks, with their sirens blazing. 

Saturday morning we woke up to Miss Piggy on the grill.  (Look back up at the header of this blog.  See that pig?  She’s on the grill.).  Ryan said he got 350 pounds of meat back from the butcher when he took her to slaughter.  Edie kept patting her belly saying “Miss Piggy died and went to heaven.”.  We had bacon, brats and a few types of sausage.  She was tasty.

One of these days, I’m getting the oyster necklace.
The lone funnel cake I had all weekend.  Shared with Rieman and maybe some of the kids.

Saturday’s parade saw Abigail riding the Oyster Queen float.

By this point, our crew was large.  With a sign.

That Edie spearheaded and let the boys help.  I’m not sure that Teddy, Owen or Gus really followed instructions and I’m pretty sure at one point they really interfered with her artist vision.  But, she was a trooper and rolled with it.  It was a fantastic sign and it kept the four of them busy most of the morning.

The mom and grandparents lined up to get pictures of Miss Spat as her float came through. 
(Part of the epicness was Mimi & Woodpop and Paw & Dodie coming for the festival to see Miss Spat. There was also a grill of epic set-up proportions and an RV thrown into the mix.)

Parade was a popular game the rest of the weekend.  Here Teal gets her turn on the ‘float’.
The kids even had some personal time with a Shriner clown. 
Chocolate covered frozen cheesecake on a stick. 

Bucket of shells from Saturday afternoon. 
We ate some oysters.

Oysterfest is always a good time to catch up with friends.

And eat oysters every way you can imagine.
Those were some of Ryan’s Rockefeller style, with cheese.

It’s also a good time to try new liquors.

And to be handed mini’s by complete strangers in the drug store, as you are getting your kids ice cream at the old soda fountain counter because you might look like you need a drink.

One more run to the field of fried food for that last corn dog.  That particular one was hands down, one of the best corn dogs ever. 

Not just the best sign of the festival, also the best fried food of the festival. 
We went through 3 bags of those pork rinds, cajun flavor.
Melt on your tongue goodness.  Don’t say you don’t like pork rinds until you’ve had Sparky’s.
We made a few converts this weekend. 

Sunday morning was the Bloody Mary table, for which I contributed pickled radish, pickled peppers and of course, my green bean pickles.  
Funny thing is, I’m not that wild about pickles or Bloody Marys.
But I make good ones of each.

Abigail decided to build her own float and have yet another parade.

Meanwhile, the rest of us stood around and watched Nick assess what needed to be done to fix the steps to the back door.  Nick, I’ll be needing you at my house next.  Thanks.

We decided we weren’t quite done with oysters, so we went down to the waterfront and grabbed some more.

On the dock at Christ Church.
Look at that one.  Mmm.

Meanwhile, the children played on the beach.  Despite our motherly attempts to get them to wear seasonal clothes, they insisted on stripping down and rolling around in the sand.
Although really, can you blame them?
It was a beautiful day to be on the water. 
We stretched the already long weekend out one more day, to have some quality time with our dear friends.
I think that’s really the best part of Oysterfest.  While endless amounts of fried food, oysters and pork in just about every way possible (bacon, sausage, pork rinds, pork tenderloin and boston butts were just some of the ways we ate it at every meal), not to mention lots of beer, wine, bourbon, vodka, moonshine and the occasional mystery liquor, all help make for fun and merriment,  the time spent with so many kindred spirits makes you remember why you are all friends in the first place.
Thanks for hosting Will & Mollie.  We’ve already started the list of what to bring next year.
We can’t wait.