The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Hollering

I get home and do dinner and dishes and bedtime with the kids...and by the time I get to sit down and type anything my brain has shut off and I sit here drooling on the keys for a while.

Since I still don't have anything new or exciting that I feel like writing about at the moment, I'll post a couple of pictures I took the other day.  I was mostly going around taking pictures of little green things coming up and little flowers blooming and so forth.  Alex was outside playing with a plastic TMNT that he got in his most recent Cheeseburger Happy Meal, and so I asked him to run from one end of the yard to where I was.

And so he went over near the back of the yard, where the vegetable gardens are...

And he started running...

And running...

And all the while...

His mouth...

Never closed, and he never...

Dropped his turtles.

Opening Day (of Trout Season) Recap

It was a successful day, though not as successful as they had hoped.  Only four trout caught - two each, though, so at least they were even.

Still - no matter that it was only four - it was still FOUR! and made for a good lunch.  Bill got the Weber going and soaked some wood chips.  He just drizzled the fish with olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper on them.  With a side of jasmine rice....delicious.

If you go here, you can take a look at some of the images from that day, once Bill and John returned home.

Both my kids love seafood, and Julia was not particularly happy when Bill put a whole smoked trout on Alex's plate and just picked some of the tail meat (which has the fewest bones) off and put it on her plate. 

"I want one like Alex!" Julia pouted.  So I peeled the head, spine, and tail off the meat on my plate and gave it to her.  And that was enough. 

She paid no attention to the flesh Bill had already put on her plate.  It was more fun to explore the remains.

(Beth, if you're reading this, you might want to stop now...I don't think you'll be pleased with what's coming next.)

If you notice in the photos taken after the fish were cooked, you can see that the eyes...well...they cook into little white balls and pop out and sit atop the rest of the eye area.  Sorry - but they do. 

And...Julia ate the eyes.  At least two of them.  And then she took the remaining bit of goop from the eye socket and smushed it around between her fingers and asked if she could eat that too.

And there you have it.  My daughter ate fish eyes.  Happily.  And with gusto.  Of course, in plenty of other cultures the fish eyes are delicacies.  So...she is just...culturally advanced.

Alex just went for the flesh, and he was very good at picking it apart to get out the tiny little bones that run through most of the flesh along the rib cage.  He ate about half of his fish and mostly all of the rice. 

No eyes for him, though.

Opening Day Dawning

It's not five thirty yet as I begin to write this.

We - Bill and I - got up at 4:30. 

It is OPENING DAY OF TROUT SEASON IN RHODE ISLAND and so Bill and his best friend, John, are off to catch their limit.  They left the house at five.  As they were going out the door, I heard Julia on the monitor..."mommy....mommy...mommy."

And I was not the least bit surprised.

She was also up at twenty past twelve...eleven past two...sixteen past three...and again around four, I think, though sometimes I believe I sleepwalk through some of her waking times.

I don't believe this is ever going to end. 

But anyway.  The boys men left and I waited a few moments to see if Julia would just go back to sleep.  She got quiet, so I poured some coffee and switched on my laptop.  Within minutes, she was awake for real.

I got up, got her something to drink, and let her lie with me (and the imaginary Daddy that I pretended was there sleeping) a couple minutes.  And all the while, I pretended that it was the middle of the night.  Which, since it's still dark out, wasn't too difficult. 

I put her back in her crib, covered her up with her three blankets (the blue care bear one from Auntie Diane...the yellow one...and the nice, soft, purple one), gave her a kiss, switched on her music box thing, and tiptoed out of the room.

"Be careful going in your bed, Mommy!" she stage-whispered to me as I shut the door.

"I will!" I stage-whispered back.  And crept down the stairs, staying to the edges, where there is less creaking.  The sound of her music box would cover up any of the minimal, unavoidable creaking that happens no matter where you step.

And I got my coffee.  Got my laptop.  And now am sitting here in the darkness, in the living room, on the loveseat by the front window.  And I hear her even breathing on the monitor, so I am hopeful that I will have a few more minutes after I finish this post.

Right after the music ended, I heard her whisper to Alex..."Alex!" "What." (I am amazed he even woke up for that - he sleeps through just about everything except her angry screaming.) "Be careful on your bed, okay?"

The sky is getting lighter.  Earlier, before John arrived, I moved my car out into the street so it would be out of the way of the truck when the guys left later.  Bill would have moved it for me, but I wanted to go out.  I love that early morning quiet. 

I went out barefoot - it's quieter than wearing boots - like that even matters - and the paved driveway felt cold but not unbearable.  The sky was cloudless and filled with stars.  I could see Ursa Major and Ursa Minor just above our neighbor's house.

DAMN THE GUY DOWN THE STREET AND HIS CAR ALARM!!!!!!!!!!  (that wasn't while I was outside, that is NOW, and now Julia is awake and sounding eager to begin her day.  DRAT!!!)

Anyway - cloudless, stars, peaceful, blah blah blah.  Well, it was really nice.  A lone cardinal calling out to anyone who might be listening....

...........

Well.  I'm two for two this morning.  Julia had to go potty.  I went into her dark room, picked her up out of the crib and heard a crinkly papery sound.  And as she said "that's my pull-up" I realized she was, indeed, completely undressed.

"I don't want my pull-up," she told me in the bathroom.  "Just my elephant and my bum."

"Just go potty." I said.

Her elephant is a floppy, pink creature that she will no doubt need in college in order to get to sleep.  It is her Linus blanket.  Her Maggie binky.  Her...well, her elephant.

Her bum needs no explanation. 

And amazingly, when she was finished, she went back to her crib without a fuss.  The music box is still running, so who knows what will happen when it finishes.  But for now, I have typing time.

It's getting lighter outside, of course. 

It's almost six.  Look out, trout.  Their tranquility will be ending shortly.

As will mine.

Easter Recap

We had a nice little kid-oriented Easter.  Julia woke up around quarter to seven.  I thought I could get her to go right back to sleep after she used the potty, but then - amazingly - Bill was out of bed and ready to go.  So down the stairs we went to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.

Bill recorded the hunt for the Easter eggs on our little DVD camera.  The kids were very cute - shrieking "I FOUND ANOTHER ONE!" every few minutes.  Alex helped Julia at first, until she got the hang of it.  He'd find two eggs and give her one.  He's a good little man.  Eventually she got into it, and they both scurried from room, in search of. 

Bill (Mr. Easter Bunny) got them some MAJOR bubble-blowing contraptions, and despite the wintery temperatures, we went outside after breakfast so the kids (big and small) could "do bubbles."

Pretty cool stuff.  But very cold - we didn't last for very long out there.

 

Later on, we went to my cousin's house for a late brunch, preceded by their annual Easter egg hunt for all the kids on both sides of the family.  This year there were only three little kids competing for the eggs in the front yard.  The older kids had a separate hunt in the back yard.  Alex was off and running.  He had scoped out the yard a bit when we arrived, so he just bee-lined from egg to egg, a man on a mission.  Julia did well for herself - she had some help, but hey, she's the very youngest.  Alex found a total of 29 eggs, and Julia a respectable 21.  I don't know how many the other little boy found, but he did well for himself, too.

Brunch was great - as always.  It's one of those annual gatherings where certain people are basically required to bring the same dish every year.  My cousin's wife makes a couple different pans of stuffed french toast...someone else makes a pan of potatoes and eggs and chourizo...someone else brings the baked ham...someone else - the seafood lasagne.  Ahh.  There are other things too - bagels, a couple of quick breads, fruit salad, devilled (deviled?) eggs, chocolate covered strawberries (my kids loved them) and carrot cake cupcakes.  And wonderful coffee.  Lots of coffee.  And mimosas.

My son ate a couple platefuls of food - I didn't even see what he had, but I know he went back, on his own, to get seconds.  He also consumed many strawberries.  Julia didn't want much of anything - she was busy being shy, which meant she was stuck to my upper body like large and weighty brooch.  But.  She eventually tried some of my seafood lasagne, and she basically ate most of it.  Then she went into the kitchen and asked for some on her own.  She is tiny.  And she's standing there looking at my cousin, Steve, who is holding a plate and giving her a questioning look.  He looked at me - "She wants seafood lasagne?"  Yep.  Load her up.  She ate all of it.

   

On the ride home - about twenty minutes or so - she was asleep in maybe two minutes.Zonked right out. 

We were all tired - except Alex.  We all took naps - except Alex.  I woke up listening to him playing in the living room...I think a T-rex was chasing a stuffed bunny rabbit or something like that.  All I could hear were sounds like "aarrrggghhhh!"  "ppppkkkkkttttt!!!"  "DOH!"  "kkkkkkkaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh-ssssppppppttttt" "NO!" and so on.  It was pretty entertaining, actually. 

And that was about it.  This week has been busy for me at work...the weather has been nice but we're supposed to get snow/rain/sleet/who knows what starting later tonight.  Which means who knows when the peas and broccoli rabe will poke through the ground.  I wouldn't if I were them. 

Bill transplanted some of our little seedlings on Sunday as well, and he had them outside for a few hours the other day, to start hardening them off. 

I guess that's about it for the moment.  This Saturday is my husband's  High Holy Day, as I have written about in the past.  So he and his best friend, John, will set off on their quest to catch their limit of trout.  I haven't decided what I'll do that morning.  I'm quite sure it won't involve sleeping late, since my kids invariably wake up three seconds after Bill and his fishing partner (whoever it may be) drive away from the house.  I'll see.  Many possibilities, since I'm in kind of a clean out the house frame of mind.  So...who knows.

Picasso

...has had an obvious influence on Julia's budding style as an artist.

Hoppy Easter!

Outdoor Garden Update

While the kids were watching "Happy Feet" for the third time since last night, I ran outside to check on the peas and broccoli rabe, and anything else I might find in a hurry.

First of all,

No peas yet.  We have six of these 5-gallon buckets, and Bill planted peas in all of them.  This is the only orange one, and with the blue tarp to one side, it made at least a colorful image, even without anything green visible beneath the row cover.  No broccoli rabe, either.

Some new leaf growth on our monster rose.  The monster rose started out as a tiny little rose plant in a 5 inch pot that we bought at a plant sale years ago.  There was this house near the tiny place we rented before we bought our current home... The husband had a little greenhouse in one corner of the yard and GORGEOUS flower beds covered most of the rest of the property.  Every August he thinned out his gardens and potted up the overflow and sold it.  We bought a lot of irises from him and two rose bushes.  They were just little bitty things, and we had no idea what they would grow into.  I thought they were mini roses, I think.

Well, there's nothing mini about this one.  See the thick end that's obviously been trimmed?  Bill trimmed that last year.  It was NEW GROWTH last year.  You know Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors?"  Well this is her cousin, Wild Crazy Rose.  No matter how much Bill cuts her back, she just spreads and stretches and shoots out a ton of new growth every year.  If left untended, she would take over the block.  Before lunch time.

I like her - she has a ton of small pink blossoms all summer - they have no fragrance, but they look beautiful, sprawling along the fence and planning a mutiny against Bill with the other roses.

And this is the other "mini" rose we bought way back when.  This one doesn't sprawl - she's much more docile and content to stay at the corner of this garden near the driveway.  Again, there's new leaf growth.  The flowers are a funky orangy pink.  Not my favorite color, but she blooms a lot and really brightens up the yard.

And while we're visiting roses, this is Mr. Lincoln.  Mr. Lincoln is a long stem rose bush with beautiful dark red blooms.  And they smell like roses.  (Okay, duh.  But - oh, man, these flowers smell like other roses wish they smelled.  Yeah.  I'm reaching.  But still.  Really.  So very fragrant.)  Bill bought Mr. Lincoln a couple of years ago because this variety is incredibly hardy and our climate isn't always the friendliest for roses.  If I remember right, the other roses we'd moved from Bill's mom's gardens after she passed away still hadn't settled in and started to flourish, so I think Mr. Lincoln was mostly a gift from Bill to himself to keep from going insane about the other roses. 

And it's truly hardy.  I don't think Mr. Lincoln is going anywhere.  Which is fine with me.  Don't tell the others, but I think he's my favorite.

And this is Emmett.  Our garden gargoyle.  He's currently residing under one of the two forsythia plants we bought last year.  He seems content.

This was supposed to be our first daffodil this year.  Well, techincally it still is, but last weekend a small child (one of ours or possibly the little boy from across the street - he and Alex were running around through the yard with sticks and it's possible this is when tragedy struck.)  But even with a nearly broken stem, this little daffodil bloomed anyway. 

And finally (for today) - little bits of green peeking through the dead leaves and debris in our little strawberry patch.  We planted new ones last year but weren't supposed to harvest any in order for the plants to get strong and established.  This year we can pick them.  Yay!

And that's it for tonight. 

When Fathers Dress Their Toddler Daughters...

And later...

And then...

And finally...

TA-DA!

Garden Update

Not a whole lot new from last week - the seedlings are growing, but it's been pretty cold out, so Bill can't start to harden them off yet.  Things are kind of in limbo until we get a bit warmer weather. 

But here are a few pictures I took this morning...

Cilantro...

This is the arugula (above) - it's doing really well.  One of my favorite greens...nice and peppery.

Summer thyme continues to get bigger...

 

And pac choi...

Tiny forests.

Garden Update

This morning I took a few pictures out the front window.  It rained last night and everything was still sparkling and dewy...

These were the first two pansy blossoms left over from last year...

And these...

are some of the pansies my son picked out last weekend. 

And there were white ones too, like this bud.

Meanwhile, in the basement, those seeds Bill planted last weekend have sprouted and the seedlings are shooting up tall and skinny.  Much like my husband did when he was a sprout, I imagine...

Here's some arugula underneath the plastic cover...

And through this hole in the plastic, you can see some summer thyme.

And finally, some swiss chard.

There are lots more little baby plants poking up through the soil.  I haven't checked outside to see how the broccoli rabe is doing.  I don't believe the peas are up yet.  But it's just a matter of time.

We've got lots of tulips coming up too - we planted a ton of bulbs in the front gardens, along the front walk, and in the garden beside the driveway.  Our lone daffodil blossom was ready to bloom on Sunday...until a small child stepped on it.  Not sure if the small child was ours or the neighbor's.  Ah well.  There will be more....

Admonition

"But you're a ballerina, so you shouldn't be on top of the house."

(Alex and Julia are playing with Julia's "Little People" dollhouse.)