Summer Fun

In other news, "Squirty" as a nickname served it's purpose well when my li'l one was a baby, but it seems a bit...young for her now. On this blog she'll now be known as "Lissie".

Some delectable moments from this summer:


What a beautiful sight!
Lissie and I hope you are having a fun summer too, wherever you are!

The Pumpkin Saga: the Final Segment

The soup promised a week ago was finally actualized this evening.  I searched online and found several recipes, but combined and adapted them for our family.  We were very happy with the results. Here's the recipe:

Jen's Pumpkin Soup

3-4 cups pureed pumpkin
4 cups chicken stock or water with chicken bouillon
1 - 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 thinly sliced potatoes
2 thinly sliced celery stalks
green onion
some thyme
some rosemary
some salt and pepper

Servings: 8

I simmered the pumpkin, stock and herbs for two hours or so while I was at school and added the potatoes, celery and onion as soon as I got home for the last 20-25 minutes until they softened a bit and added the cream as the final delicious, fattening touch. Add salt and pepper to taste. We used roasted pine nuts (which I had on hand. Thanks, Mom!) as a garnish; an uncharacteristically gourmet touch for our family.  Nutty, savory, creamy; perfect!

The pumpkin we grew in our garden this year was a pure accident; several of the seeds from our Halloween pumpkins last year made it into the compost.  But I think considering all the yummy goodness we got out of our lone pumpkin, we might just grow some on purpose next year!

The Fruits of our Labors

Our first garden was a little half-hearted this year. It seems we struggled most with the easiest crops: radishes, carrots, peas, zucchini and summer squash. Our crops of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and even a lone pumpkin did much better than we expected. We started the bell peppers from seed, a task we heard was rather difficult, and therefore felt we'd be lucky if we got any yield. You'll see our teeny-tiny bell peppers below, but we're proud nonetheless!

And don't you think they look stunning in my lovely Chaco bag?

Thanks to Elizabeth, my absent but wonderfully eco-conscious buddy.

Up the garden path

Since I woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, I thought, what better way to use this time than to do a blog post about our garden's progress?

This little Squirt loves the outdoors, springtime, and watching Mommy and Daddy hard at work, which is perfect since we spent a few hours last Saturday at my Great-Aunt's house. As I've said before in a previous post, she's been gracious enough to let us use the growboxes in her backyard so we can grow some fresh, cheap vegetables. What a wonderful woman!

Here we are:

pulling weeds and turning soil (with an oh-so-professional shoveling technique).

My awesome cousin, Harold, also rumagged in the shed and helped us vastly improve our composting system. We now have some larger containers that allow drainage at the bottom, as well as some soil to layer with our compost.

After turning the soil, it was Derrick's job (self-assigned, by the way) to find some worms to put in with the compost. Having worms in compost really helps speed up the process. These lucky worms are able to eat in a way that very few worms enjoy.

Aunt Irene was able to get outside for a bit to join us. Taking these pictures was her idea. I think she did a great job.

Our peas have finally surfaced and are making progress. In May we'll be planting zucchini, summer squash, strawberries, cucumbers and in June we'll be planting tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and watermelons. We can't wait!

Life Goes On

The Hunger Banquet has ended, amid much success and celebration, and life continues. I'll be catching up on some photos. Here are some from the last month as well as some updates on our latest achievements and plans.

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We wait with much anticipation to plant these.

I'm thinking I'll celebrate the first day of spring

by planting the peas 'n carrots. Gluten-free Pizza Night:

Just look at their worshipful faces.

These two have missed pizza quite a bit.
I know it looks a little funny, but it actually tastes great!

This little one is undergoing many changes.

She becomes ever more mobile.

Isn't this the just the cutest view in the whole world?Look at her on those knees!

I'm expecting her to

full out crawl any day now.

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Pathological

Pathological:

1. Of or relating to pathology.
2. Relating to or caused by disease.
3. Of, relating to, or manifesting behavior that is habitual, maladaptive, and compulsive

Perhaps some of you are tired of hearing about our love of books (I don't really care). But to be honest, we're both in school and Derrick does a lot of reading for his job, so in providing updates about our life we basically have to admit that reading is our life right now. Luckily, you won't find either one of us complaining. You might say, actually, that our reading is pathological. As is our constant search for "our" bookstore. Everywhere we've ever lived (or visit) we try to find the bookstore in the area that we love. We've found one in Mesa, a few in Boston, one in St. George and now we've found one here. "Pioneer Book" might not be much of a name for a bookstore, but let me tell you, this place is amazing. Great prices, tons of books, many genres and, an often overlooked detail but one we've come to appreciate, an owner that actually likes books. Go figure.

This is the stack of books I'll be tackling soon.

Some of these are for my classes, but

most of them are treasures I've picked up as

we've searched for the perfect bookstore.

Aren't they beautiful?

Chocolat is a little treat (no pun intended) that I'm

giving myself as I wait between books for my classes.

The Uncommon Reader is a book that I actually am assigned

for one of my classes but that Derrick and I are reading together.

We're nerdy like that, and we've been that way

since before we got married.

So what do we do besides read, you might wonder? Hmm...well right now I have the family involved in a little project that I'm so excited for. My Great-Aunt Irene has been gracious enough to let me use the planters in her backyard this spring/summer for our garden. She's been really sweet about it, though she does think I'm a little crazy for digging through the snow to lay out compost. Actually, she thinks I'm more than a little crazy, but she appreciates my enthusiasm none the less. So what you see on our front porch is an old milk carton and a bucket with rotting vegetable matter that I haven't hauled up to her place yet. Our neighbors just love it. We save potato peels, apple peels and cores, egg shells, zucchini ends, and basically any raw vegetable material we would throw away anyway.
But whenever we get a moment for all three of us to get together we mostly just relax and enjoy each other's company, watching movies, cuddling, going on walks and talking. Derrick has such a busy schedule all week, and I have busier nights now with class and Hunger Banquet club meetings, that we truly savor our time together, mostly on weekends.

Savoring the moment...

And the Squirt?

She's as cute as ever, eating and enjoying finger foods, and now moving to just one nap a day (much to our dismay. Hey, she's cute, but she's even cuter when she's asleep).