Well hello there, folks! It has been a long (four year) period of reduced posting around here, but with graduation now in the past, I'll be making an attempt at some at least occasional updates here. I'll fill you in on the highlights from the recent past and post a picture or two now and then. Nice to see you again!

Superheroic

Malcolm requested that I take pictures of his dress-up play the other day, then suggested that I post them on facebook. Therefore, I give you Professor M and the Hacky-Sack of Power:

What We've Been Doing This Summer: Beach Evenings

We have definitely been taking advantage this summer of free admission in the evening at the beach. This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights we've gone around suppertime and stayed until dark, basking in salt water and sea breezes, finding hermit crabs and tickle fish, playing frisbee and football, watching moonrises and fireworks, coming home sandy and sleepy. Perhaps I'll let Maren show you exactly how we feel about it:


Oh! And we discovered a new architectural style and method of sandcastle-building. We were pretty impressed with our spires and ridges and rock-strewn pathways to cavernous underground lakes. There's a story about this castle in the works, from what I hear, and it has to do with an ancient dragon. Click on the picture to big



I can't imagine a better place to be as the summer sun sets. Something about the vastness of the ocean, the persistence of the tide, the rhythm of the waves soothes away all the worries of the day, no matter how rough the day has been.

What We've Been Doing This Summer: Saying Goodbye

It hasn't been all giggles around here this summer. Yesterday Scott, Deb, Aidan, and Mac packed up everything they own into this moving truck and rolled three hours eastward.


I am glad that they have this chance to spend a year in a great city as Scott powers through his last year of schooling (for a while, at least), but they will be deeply missed. The church community we established together is looking for a new pastor, but can't replace the family as a whole.

And everyone in our house will feel their absence ... already today I realized that we can't call on them to help out in a pinch, or do the same for them. Maren and Malcolm had their brave faces on as they said their goodbyes, but both dissolved into tears the second we pulled away. I think this will be especially hard for Maren since she and Aidan have been in the same class for six years already, and grew up together. And I mean that literally, since we lived on the same block for the first three years of their lives! The title of this post isn't entirely truthful, though. It really is "See you later" rather than "Goodbye," a certainty that gives the kids a lot of comfort.

What We've Been Doing This Summer: Learning New Skills

Both kids like to try new things in the kitchen, but Malcolm especially loves cooking. This summer I've allowed him to use the stove for the first time (with supervision). Adding the danger of serious injury by burning to something he already loved has increased its appeal by approximately 400%.

I highly recommend stopping by for a kid-prepared brunch sometime: Malcolm has mastered pancakes and tomato soup, while the scrambled eggs a la Maren are delectable.

What We've Been Doing This Summer: Delighting

Summer brings sunshine and wildflowers and lightness, and I've been welcoming them all. There are dancing robots and children's art and wise words and bouquets above the sink every day.

What We've Been Doing This Summer: U2360°

photo creds: Mandi

Mitch turned 34 this summer and the most amazing birthday present of EVER happened this year: U2 came to town! He has ached to see his all-time favourite band live for years and years, but there's never been enough money to get to where they were. Wonder of wonders, our city made it as a destination point on the 360° tour, they brought Arcade Fire with them (YEAH!), and finished their 2.5 hour set with Mitch's favourite song, 40 (the first time they had played the whole song since 2005!). It was amazing to be part of such an incredible spectacle and to see my husband's dream come true.


Although they weren't there, the kids are U2 fans too and were fascinated by every detail of the spectacle. They had fun recreating the staging with Lego, even including the tour bus!

What We've Been Doing This Summer: Rollerblading

Rollerblading! The kids were given a too-large pair of rollerblades that can be adjusted down to close-enough to their size. The sidewalk in front of our place isn't much of a track, but it's enough for an hour or so of fun in the afternoon. Having gotten a taste for the sport, Malcolm was thrilled to join Mitch and I one night in the school parking lot while Maren was at a sleepover, where we all wobbled around for a while.

On a side note, it's kind of awesome to see them both fail at something and have fun doing it! (see picture 3)

Watermelon Gelatin

Haven't tried this yet, but I am dying to! Now if only watermelon would go on sale again ....

(adapted from Martha Stewart, via Jean)

Ingredients

• 3 cups pureed watermelon
• ½ cup white grape juice
• 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• Pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup white grape juice. Let sit for five minutes.

2. Heat the other 1/4 cup of white grape juice with salt. Stir in the gelatin mixture.

3. In a bowl, combine watermelon puree, lemon juice, and gelatin mixture.

4. Ladle mixture into individual ramekins or molds. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least three hours.

5. To unmold, dip ramekin in a bowl of warm water to loosen, then invert on a plate. Serve.

City Kids

"Hey kids, would you like a cookie?"
"Yes -- oh WAIT!" (running to the window) "Yay, it's the garbage truck!"
"Yay! We'll have a cookie AFTER we watch the garbage truck!"

O_o? Seriously?

Jeepers, can you tell they're city kids?

Potato Leek Soup

So tasty! I'm lodging this recipe here for our future reference, but I hope some of you try it out too. From David Lebovitz.

Potato Leek Soup

6-8 Servings

"I’m normally not keen on white pepper. But I use penja white pepper, which is nice and spicy, not musty like other white pepper and works really well with soups made with tubers and root vegetables. It’s also somewhat expensive and if you don’t have it, the red pepper provides a hint of after-heat. Black pepper can be used, but is better ground over the top of each bowl.

"Some might inquire whether they could use chicken or vegetable stock, which you certainly could. But I’m fine with just using water. If you’ve not used leeks before, check out my post, how to prepare leeks."

2 - 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
4 leeks, washed and sliced
salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme; optional
1/4 teaspoon chile powder
6 cups (1.5l) water
1 1/4-pounds (600 g) potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground white pepper

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the butter or olive oil over medium heat.

2. Add the slices leeks and season with salt. Cook the leeks over moderate heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until they’re completely soft and wilted.

3. Add the thyme, if using, and chile powder, and stir for about 30 seconds, cooking them with the leeks to release their flavor flavors.

4. Pour in the water, and add the potatoes and bay leaf.

5. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender when poked with a sharp knife. Depending on which potatoes you used, it could take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.

6. Pluck out the bay leaves and puree the soup with the white pepper, seasoning with more salt if necessary. I use an immersion (stick) blender, but if you use a standard blender, be sure not to fill it more than half-full and secure the lid, and cover it with a tea towel when blending, to avoid hot soup or steam for causing problems. Don’t use a food processor as that will make the potato purée gummy. If the soup is too thick, add a bit more water, until it’s the desired consistency.

Whoa. Yum: Squash and Red Pepper Pilaf with Portobello Mushrooms

Dear Food, you are colorful and tasty and smell good. I love you.


I made this Squash and Red Pepper Pilaf for the first time tonight, making a few modifications: after cooking the vegetables on the stovetop, I transferred the mixture to the rice cooker before adding a mixture of wild and long grain brown rice. The toasted pepitas (those are hulled pumpkin seeds, I've discovered) are the perfect topping, adding a deep nutty flavour as well as a nice crunchy contrast with the smooth squash.

But that was just the base layer! I sliced portobello mushrooms into lengths (about an inch wide), a sweet white onion into inch-thick rings, and a zucchini into thick medallions. Salt, pepper and savoury did the seasoning. I fried these until they were the perfect consistency for our tastes (still thick and juicy, not yet wilted away) and threw in two cloves of garlic, sliced, for the last few minutes of cooking.

We served the mushroom mix on top of the pilaf and greens on the side. What a hearty and delicious meal! Thanks to pre-cut squash, the whole thing was surprisingly easy to prepare and required very little hands-on time.

By the way, I realize that while most of you enjoy eating, very few of you share my ardent enthusiasm for cooking in general or vegetarian cuisine in particular. Cooking was on the top three list of things I was looking forward to doing for fun after the semester ended. But hey, I yam what I yam (tee hee hee) and you get what you get when you come here! And you're always welcome to come over and cook (and eat!) with us.

A Party to Make Bill Nye Proud

Last Saturday was Maren's science-themed birthday party. She loves all things scientific and knew that we could have some pretty great activities, so we went for it with gusto! The mad scientist herself greeted guests.

We got right down to pizza and cake so that we'd have lots of time for the experiments. All of the kids were really good sports, crumpling newspaper until their arms gave out and testing the effect of gravity on the cardiovascular system, but the fun really started when we took the party over to the park.


They discovered all sorts of interesting things about bubbles—what techniques produce many small bubbles, how to blow a really big bubble, how to pierce a bubble and even how to blow a bubble inside a bubble inside a bubble.


Even more exciting was the chance to make their own bubble wands that blew gigantic bubbles. Check out Maren's huge bubble worm thing up there!


And the grand finale was the "explosions" set of experiments, which required a restricted access launch area and the use of safety goggles. We had lemon rockets, alka-seltzer rockets and the Coke-Mentos geyser, which is what Maren's friend had just set off in the picture above. The most successful of these three explosions was actually the least complicated: put half and Alka-Seltzer tablet in a film canister, add a teaspoon of water, quickly cap it, shake it up, set it cap-side down and wait for the pressure to build until the thing shoots up twenty or thirty feet into the air. The kids had fun experimenting with different amounts of water and Alka-Seltzer.

To be honest, birthday parties often take an awful lot out of me, but by the time this one was finished I had had at least as much fun as the kids did. Yay for science!