Fried Salad, Summer Eating Part Three

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Our new family favorite hot weather dinner.  That’s a shot of Fried Green Tomato Salad with homemade buttermilk ranch dressing.  Our other variation is fried chicken.  We call it fried salad for short. It’s really good either way, especially if you fry your green tomatoes in bacon fat.
Both are served on a bed of greens, with homemade croutons, buttermilk ranch dressing, cheese (Pat & I prefer pepper jack, but Edie likes it with a bit more cheddar), hard boiled egg, tomatoes and corn freshly shaved off the cob. Chopped bacon bits optional.

A new pocket for purple moose.

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When Edie was days old, our dear friend Anne presented her with a small stuffed purple moose that went on to become the toy that we couldn’t go anywhere without.  You know the kind.  She still sleeps with purple moose, although after getting lost in the covers of her big girl bed more than a few times, she’s tucked him into the pocket of a large pillow I made her, so she always knows where he is. 
When Edie was ready for a big girl bed, her Uncle Gil so kindly gave her one taking up space in his attic and included this lovely white coverlet.  It had belonged to one of his family members – Great Aunt maybe?  I can’t recall.  After many years of wear though, it started showing it’s age recently.  See?
It’s just given out in great big spots. 
Edie is off to Camp Lachlan on Sunday for the next three weeks.  She’s a bit nervous about this – three weeks away from home and she won’t know anyone.   Knowing she was going to want to bring purple moose along, I cut into the old coverlet yesterday and made a new travel pillow, with a pocket,  just for purple moose to go to camp.  I thought it would be a nice touch of home for her to have with her.
He is now ready for camp.  And she’s getting there.  Knowing she will have her most trusted companion in her beloved old coverlet has helped.  (I think shopping Monday for her toiletries, new trunk and picking up her new personalized stationary helped too.)
And I actually started AND finished a project in one afternoon.  Must have been the fact that the AC upstairs by the happy corner made that the most pleasant place in the house. Any excuse to stay up there…..

Summer Eating, Part Two.

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Edie went downtown with friends the other night, leaving us on our own for dinner.  I didn’t quite feel like cooking, so I whipped this up instead.

I toasted some rosemary-black olive bread from Whole Foods, spread some Caromont Farm’s Farmstead Fresh goat cheese, added some fresh tomatoes and basil, some olives and marinated artichoke hearts on the side and voila.

It was the perfect, filling nibble while we sat outside and enjoyed a nice beverage.

Any old excuse for a party around here.

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A few weeks ago, Edie was invited to a lovely backyard birthday party and afterward mused why does her birthday always have to be in January?  January birthdays are just not conducive to having lawn games with your friends, not to mention, the size of our house really limits the number of guests she’s allowed to invite.  So, we somehow agreed to the idea of a half birthday party – not that we celebrate half birthdays on a regular basis, but around here, we’ll take any old excuse to throw a party, obviously.   Bless her heart, she was so excited about this party that she came up with a list of games, as well as whipping up the invitation on indesign all by herself.  
We started off with some games and races and even a water balloon fight.  They were on clearance when I ran to the store yesterday morning and I grabbed 3 packs of 175.  Edie, always the realist, talked me down to 2 packs.  And only most of 1 got filled up.  Filling water balloons is alot of work.  Somehow, she knew this.
As it’s July and we live in Virginia, I felt some sort of ice cream cake was called for.  I thought about ordering one from Ben & Jerry’s,  but knew I could whip up something myself.  After pondering long and hard some of the beautiful cakes Martha suggests, I realized that this was more the effort I wanted to put into it. (I need a form.  Plain and simple.  I know this about myself.  I am not ashamed to admit.  No way can I free form something square.  Straight lines & I are not something that mix well.)

It was cold, it was yummy and the children were all completely impressed.   We had real watermelon to go with the frozen and I filled the punch bowl with lemonade.  That and a couple bag of chips and we had a party.

Edie’s vision for the party also included a trip to the sprinklers at the park across the street.  (Which was great, because while I can throw an awesome party, I am just not good at entertaining children.  Especially 12 of them for 2 hours. Must be my lack of enthusiasm for games.)    So, after everyone got their fill of ice cream cake, we headed across the street.

What a pack.  You can almost see all the kids in that shot.  We had first graders through fifth graders in attendance.  We had soccer teammates, friends from school, neighborhood friends.  We had boys and girls.  Edie put a good bit of thought into her guest list and I have to say, she can throw a party. 

The kids had the run of the sprinklers at the park. We gave them all cups and while running through the water, they had water battle that kept Pat & I (and themselves) greatly entertained.
We stayed at the park until it was time for everyone to leave.  Everyone looked thoroughly exhausted and I do believe a good time was had by all. A few parents stayed for a cold beer afterwards (always a tradition at our house) and after spending my day getting ready for and then hosting a party for 12 kids, that beer that had been iced down in a cooler all afternoon was nice and cold and mmm tasty.
I don’t know if this party will become one of our annual traditions, but it was a good time, pretty low key and a good excuse for Edie to gather a bunch of her favorite people together for no reason other than just because.  Considering we throw a huge party every May for that reason, she really is just following in our footsteps.  I really couldn’t be prouder of her.

Summer Eating, Part One.

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I love having things in the fridge all ready to go for dinner this time of year.  Things like tabouli, potato salad and pasta salad in all sorts of forms.  I got the biggest craving for macaroni salad this week and so made a big batch of it, which I then proceeded to eat for breakfast and lunch all week.  It was darn tasty and might have to become a staple until I burn out on it (sometime in August.)

Becky’s Summer Pasta Salad
One box macaroni
Half a bag of frozen peas
Two carrots, sliced
A few celery stalks, sliced
Half an orange bell pepper, diced
Just a wee bit of red onion, diced
Minced Garlic
Cubed Muenster and Mozzarella Cheese
A handful of fresh herbs from the garden – rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, dill
Salt & Pepper
Mayo to taste
Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, chop all other ingredients.  I think that raw onion can be a be overpowering, so I sauteed mine with the garlic in a bit of olive oil for just a few minutes to take the edge off.  During the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking, I threw the peas in to defrost.  I drained and rinsed the pasta in cold water, then combined it all.
Yum.

Writing Camp.

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When I tell people Edie is going to writing camp, they often misunderstand me and think we’re sending her to horseback riding camp.  And they like to share stories of their camp days with me.  No, WRITING, as in the Charlottesville Writing Center.  As in, she’s writing stories. 
Edie is alot like me – she’d rather spend her summer curled up with a book than doing swim team  or anything that requires a good bit of physical activity.  Our neighbor runs the writing center and when I heard about camp, I thought it might be something Edie would really like.  Last summer was her first summer to go and she loved it.  We noticed a difference in both her reading and writing abilities after her attending, as did her teachers at school.  She requested to go again this summer and so last week she did just that.
There they are on the first day of camp.  It was held in one of the art galleries downtown.  There was a mystery theme this year – it involved a missing painting and the writing center supplied a few prompts for the kids, like a list of suspects complete with mug shots and rap sheets.  Each story had similar elements – like a letter to someone and a mention of an enchilada, but the talking cat and superhero piranha were definitely creations of their own.  The kids were detectives and their stories were solving the crime.

The last day of camp, parents are invited to a reading.  The kids were encouraged to come in detective costume, and after convincing Edie that she really didn’t want to wear my long camel hair coat on a Virginia in July 90+ degree day (not to mention it’s really too long for her), I managed to talk her into her Picasso dress – after all, she’s undercover investigating art theft, yes?  Because no, I was not running out to buy her a trench coat and she would definitely be more undercover as an art fan than she would in a trench coat anyway.

Last year’s reading ended up on one of the local TV stations and included an interview with Edie.  While she didn’t get that kind of glory this year, she still thoroughly enjoyed camp this year.  She definitely is engaged and inspired the entire week.  This past spring, she started making books for us – collections of her ideas, stories, poetry – self published, one of a kind treasures.  And she has her own blog.  That was something we felt we couldn’t say no to, because of the creativeness of it, but we did have our concerns about internet safety.  So, it’s one of those super top secret blogs, one you have to be invited to view, one you have to have a password to view and mama gets full approval of who gets to see it.  (Pretty much anyone she wants to share it with, as long as she has your email address to send you the invite.).  I never cease to be amazed at her creativity.   The next few weeks of her summer are designed to foster and encourage that – she’s doing a week of camp at the Cooking School and then a week of art camp. And then, she’s doing three weeks at Camp Lachlan, because sometimes we all have to leave our comfort zones.  It will make her a better writer, yes?

First Tomato!

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A Green Zebra Stripe.  It was yummy, although slightly on the small side.  Pat & I had it on a nice salad the other night for dinner.  (Edie was off having dinner with friends.)    I picked an Early Girl this week too.   My granddad used to say life was good if you could pick your first tomato before the first of July.  I concur.

I fried up a mess of green tomatoes the other night.  I bought them at the farmer’s market – I’m not quite ready to donate any of my tomatoes to that endeavor yet, despite our fondness for fried green tomato sandwiches.  Come August, when I’m starting to get worn out on dealing with them, I’ll pick one or two for that.  But for now, I’m looking forward to an abundance of home grown goodness and all the things I’m going to do with them.  Caprese salad.  Italian bread salad.  Tomato sandwiches. Salsa.  And of course, canning them for the upcoming winter months.  What’s your favorite way to use fresh tomatoes?

What a long strange trip it was.

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Long time no post.  I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks now on roadtrips.   Here are some highlights:
Pat got invited to a reception at the National Zoo in DC hosted by one of his funders.  I decided I needed to tag along, because I was sure it was going to be pretty cool and sure enough, it was.  They held it at the Big Cats exhibit (cut off in that photo).  They had practically the whole walk around the cats tented off, with multiple bars and food stations.  The food was quite good – they had these mini-crab cakes I couldn’t walk past without popping one in my mouth, as well as some white chocolate covered oreos that I also had a hard time walking past and not eating…  All sorts of gourmet popcorn – including cookies and cream.  That I had to try, being the popcorn junkie that I am.  It was interesting….but not as good as kettle korn.
Of course, it’s not a trip to DC without getting lost and ending up at the Pentagon.  This time, we had printed directions, a map AND a GPS and we still ended up circling around until Pat said, “Oh, look, the Pentagon”.  Sure enough, there it was.  After that we were able to get our bearings and get to where we were going, this time without circling the monuments.  Which is progress. 

So, we spent the night in DC, got up and drove to Richmond for Pat to attend a meeting for work the next day.  Ah, the life of a Riverkeeper.  While he was at his meeting, I wandered about downtown, checking out the Virginia State House.  Pretty darn Southern looking, isn’t it?  I saw a tour group on segways and got to watch one of them tumble, which amused me to no end, because hey, stuff like that cracks me up.
You’d think that after 24 hours of jet setting, we’d be ready to come home, but no.  Well, we did stop by and pick Edie up, for she got to join us on the next leg.  Pat had to be in Lynchburg for the Batteau Festival kickoff. (For those of you counting, that was 4 cities in one day.)  Edie & I decided to use it as an excuse to catch a ride down to visit friends and family down there.  So we checked out Catalano’s, the really great new deli downtown, owned by our friends Marisa & Clinton and spent a great weekend visiting with our Harrington cousins in Lynchburg.   
 We came home for a few nights in between, to do laundry, and get ready for the next week….
Pat had a Riverkeepers conference in Chicago, and since it was summer and I seem to never do well home alone with Edie during the summer, we hit the road.    Edie took a picture of her foot everywhere we stayed.

Sometimes she allowed others to join in. 

It was a whirlwind trip.  We visited a whole host of friends and family and thoroughly enjoyed our visits with everyone.  Spent some time in the town I grew up in and hit the thrifts.  Scored an American Girl Doll Dress that Edie already had the dress for the doll, so I was pretty happy to find the girl size dress for $3.  Edie had brought exactly one book for the entire trip, so we stocked up on lots of books for her.  At 5 for $1, it was a total steal.   Mickie made a fabulous dinner for us and allowed me to invite folks over – thanks Mick.  We’ll have to do it again sometime.  Saw my cousin Henry’s new house, which is a house we drove past everyday on our way to pick up my dad from work – to set foot in it was pretty amazing, as I’ve been in love with that house since I was a wee one.  (And yes, it was every bit as fabulous and cute as I thought it would be.  Maybe even more so.)  Spent some quality time with Andrea, who is still one of my most favorite people in the whole world.  We put the baby down for a nap, plopped the other kids in front of a movie and curled up in bed and chatted the afternoon away.  Just like old times.  So looking forward to our weekend together next month.  Also had lunch with my parent’s best friends.  It was great to see them and they want to come down and have some projects at our house.  I’m  looking forward to that.  Uncle Pete is very handy and very good at being handy, and I have a whole list of projects I’m ready to set him loose on.  Renee took us down the street for snowballs – how did I forget about them?  Man they are good.  They are totally a Baltimore thing and living a few hours south, they are hard to find, which I suppose is how I forgot about them. 
Last, but not least, I went to the Jedediah Thomas Smith Foundation Crabfeed.
I love crabs.  It was a good cause, a good price and all I had to do was sit and pick crabs while they brought a non stop stream of them to me.  Heaven.  Ran into folks from high school that I haven’t seen in eons and had a lovely time.  I am just in awe of Savannah.  Of course, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, despite how humble Kristin is about it.  Kristin gave me a great big bag of yarn she was giving away, so now I have a little stash to use up.  Thanks Kristin. Edie is already eyeing the cones of that yummy purple yarn for something for her. 
It was good to see everyone – we picked up something at just about every stop – plants, canning supplies, bags of yarn and more.  We ate some yummy food, had ice cream pretty much every day, and did some good shopping.  It was great to come home and see Daddy again and hear about his adventures in Chicago – including playing football with a Kennedy.  While we were away, the garden absolutely took off and I picked my first ripe tomato when we got home.  A zebra stripe.  The key I had left for the housesitter broke off in the lock, so her father & another neighbor came over to pick it and get the remnants out, so we didn’t have to worry about it when we got home.  Thanks Craig & Peter.  That was very nice of you.  The offer for drinks still stands. 
And now that we are home and getting back into the swing of things, I suppose I ought to clean this house.  June has been a whirlwind of visits, roadtrips and just general fun.  July looks to be more of the same, although at a slower pace.  Phew.  Not quite sure how much longer I can go on at this breakneck speed to be honest.  And I am feeling slightly inspired to whip this house into shape.  Better grab that while I have it.

Those coolers really do come in handy.

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We have quite a collection of coolers, acquired here & there for a variety of events and reasons.  So when the power goes out, they do come in handy for packing up and icing down the contents of the fridge.  Like the last 2 days, for instance, when a thunderstorm knocked out one of the transformers at the park and we were without power for 30 hours.  Not that I mind really.  The weather was sunny, 80 and breezy.  Just beautiful.  We have a gas stove and a gas hot water heater, so we can cook and have hot showers.  We just didn’t have a computer (although Pat did have his iphone).   I like unplugging now & again and to be able to do it from the comfort of my own home is nice.  I got a whole bunch of things done that I had been meaning to do, like weed the garden, sort through all the end of the year papers that came home with Edie, among other things, without the distraction of checking facebook and email and blogs…..I need to remember to do that more often – just unplug myself.

And, if nothing else, being able to use a bunch of those coolers when the power goes out, does make us realize having coolers in every shape and size is really a good idea.

The week that was.

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My (not so) baby girl attended her first concert this week, became a fourth grader and thus, top dog in her elementary school, and bonded with one of my dear college girlfriends.

Arcade Fire is her current favorite band and so when we heard they were coming to town, we knew she was going to want to go with us.  I even got her down on the very front row and at one point, Win Butler stood right in front of her and for about 3 words, sang directly to her.  She was in heaven.  What a great first show.  She took notes on how I managed to manuver her down in front and told me when we got home that she’s pretty sure we’ll be able to get her front row for the next few years to come.  That’s my gal.

Clarabelle came into town Thursday for the LOOK3 photo festival, so we spent Thursday and Friday afternoons on the downtown mall with her, taking in some of the events and having a thoroughly lovely visit.  I have this incredible group of women I was friends with in college and over the last 20 years or so we have loosely stayed in touch with each.  I know that I am who I am today in no small part because of them.  They are all strong, beautiful, smart, successful women and I love them, and our ongoing relationship, dearly.  We might not talk all the time, but when one of us talks to another, we bring each other up to speed on everyone.    Edie is getting to this age where she is starting to forge her own relationships with people, and so to see her do this with Clara this week touched me to no end.  Edie even included her in the latest foot self portrait shot.

Clara was more than encouraging about my new business idea.  While we were out hanging around downtown this week, two women sitting next to us at the gelato place struck up a conversation with me.  When they asked what I did for a living, I told them I was starting up a new venture and told them what it was.  They handed me their business cards and told me to contact them when I was a go, as they couldn’t wait to support me.  Which I took as yet another sign from the universe as a “DO THIS”.  So, while I might be quiet about it in this space for the time being, I am working on my master plan and I am feeling this is truly the path I need to explore.

Friday morning was the last day of school, and I helped put together the reception following the fourth grade moving up ceremony.  Hard to believe next year will be my daughter’s last in elementary school.   It really does go fast and I realize more and more how okay I am with stepping off career track to be a mom.  It’s made me a more tolerant, well rounded person, who has moments of patience, (but generally limited to those under the age of 10).  I am definitely looking forward to being a stay at home mom this summer and filling our time with home made popsicles, pool time, and just general lounging.  I’m also stepping up to be an officer for the PTO this year, so I’ll have lots to keep me busy, as if starting up my own business, being a mom and running a girl scout troop wasn’t enough.  Clearly, I like projects.