Arizona stylin'

Yes, Arizona is warm. OK. It's HOT. And dry. And dusty. You learn to dress for the climate, just as we do for the coast, or Wisconsin winters.

Than and Collin are in period costume, for a four-day adventure pulling handcarts and reliving Mormon pioneer history. The youth and assorted adult support staff (including Carrie) experience it all during Trek - rough terrain, heat, dust, warm drinking water dipped from barrels, cooking in dutch ovens, even burying the baby that died. That's another story...

Than claims his black hat looked as though it had already been on Trek...

Back home, in the air conditioning, Lee models another typical Arizona head cover...

Of course it isn't all lizards and cowboys.  Where there are punks, there's MUSIC!  And hats.

Now here's the clean-cut, Eagle Scout candidate style...

 This house ROCKS!  In a modest, easy-on-the-ears style, thanks goodness.

Jayden keeps the beat...the headphones have a metronome.

Then there is the backyard pool style -

Now you know how to style for the desert! 

So long from sunny AZ!!

Noodlin'...

I don't always have a specific recipe in mind when I start thinking about the next meal. Sometimes I have to noodle on it for a bit, take a look in the frig, in the pantry, run my mind over flavor combination possibilities - and SOMETHING always says, "Choose me, choose ME!"

This evening the first to raise their hands and become the WINNERS, were the cherry tomatoes in the basket on the counter and the last zuchinni in the frig. Plus a surprise ingredient from the pantry...

So here's how the collaboration went: First the peeled zuch went through the spiralizer (LOVE that gadget!). Into a broad "soup bowl" with some chopped scallions. They felt like a swim, so a quick marinade was poured on top for them to swish around .

Marinade: shake in small lidded container 1 T. EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), 1/2 T. agave, juice from 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp. tamari, minced garlic.

Let the gang swim for a bit, maybe 20 minutes or so.  The noodles soften a bit, sorta 'al dente.

Then the 'maters were halved and placed around the pile of noodles.  A quarter of a cucumber was screaming, "I'm going to waste, USE me!".  So I did.  Another layer around the edges.  Starting to see a sort of mandala salad pattern forming...

Oh - those speckles?  NOT pepper - the garlic added enough zip.  Those mauvey-purpley specks are DULSE!  Soooo good sprinkled on all things veg!  And sooooo good for us!

Now the real fun begins!  Every bite becomes an artistic arrangement on the fork...

That pool of marinade in the bottom of the bowl is pure yummy goodness.  When the last noodle was slurped, the last cuc crunched - I tilted the bowl and drank the marinade!  I know, uncouth.  But who's watching!

"HEY!  WE are watching...CLOSELY!"

OK, so I had some friends over over dinner. Make that under for dinner.  Cutest bird placmats, from IKEA! 

The point of all this ~ don't wait for company to prettify your meal!  YOU are important!  Take the few extra moments to garnish, play and ENJOY! 

You'll have better digestion.

Zuchinni Pasta with Basil Shrimp

I'm sure I've mentioned, I endeavor to eat "mostly raw, most of the time". Which gives me leeway from time to time to include some of the sea bounty so available here on the coast. Like succulent sweet fresh shrimp meat.   

With fresh basil from my indoor potted garden ('cuz it isn't warm enough for my babies to make it outdoors yet - silly weather...) and my handy spiralizer, this dish comes together quickly with a zing!

 Ingredients:
one smallish zuchinni - about 7"
one tomato, about 3" diameter
1/2 lemon (smallish, not large)
1 garlic clove (large as you like)
4-5 fresh basil leaves
1/2 c. fresh shrimp meat (not the prawns)

Procedure:
Peel zuchinni.  Cut off ends, then spiralize for "noodles", or cut into thin strips with a veggie peeler. Put "noodles" into wide bowl.

Use the core and end off spiralizer (or about 2" of the zuchinni before making "noodles") plus some of "noodles" - enough to make about 1/3 c. total, and put into blender.
Add tomato, cut into quarters; peeled coarsely chopped garlic; juice from 1/2 smallish lemon; 2-3 basil leaves (keep 2 for garnish) and blitz until smooth.
Taste sauce - I added about 1/16 tsp. stevia to cut the heat from the garlic and acid tang of tomato and lemon.  This is strictly to YOUR taste, adjust as you want!  It's got zing, doesn't need salt.

Proclaiming "yummers!", pour sauce over noodles.  Top with rinsed shrimp, and  basil chiffonade from remaining leaves.  Let set for 5-10 minutes at room temp, to marry the flavors.

While this isn't a bright red tomato-y sauce, it carries the flavors well.  If you want a "creamier" type of sauce, add 1/4 c. soaked cashews to the blender with the rest of the sauce ingredients, whiz smooth.

To make chiffonade:  Roll several leaves into "cigar" shape.  Thinly slice across with sharp knife.  Use the thin shreds as a garnish, or add to sauces, etc.

Art in is in their soul!

When I find children who love to doodle and draw, I am like an addict - I just have to do art with them!

In church I noticed several youngin's who regularly brought paper and pencils to while away the time during adult presentations. It didn't take long to make an Art Date!

I rounded up some supplies from one of my favorite art supply catalogs (Cheap Joe's), and we were off on our artistic adventures!

I made tiny art kits for them, using Altoid tins. The contents are: pencil sharpener, white eraser, kneaded eraser, and two tortillions for blending. In a gallon ziplock which held the mini-kit, they also got a sketch book, an HB pencil, and a black pencil.

Two families were my target art kids. Ages range from 5 to 14.  I meet with a homeschooled family during the day, and the family with 3 older kids after school.

We started with basics - shapes, shading, shadows. Now they are developing an "artist's eye", looking for those shapes in everyday items, drawing them, then giving those shapes form with shading and textures.

 We don't have a regular schedule, but we try for a couple times a month. They are enthusiastic, talented, and great fun!

 This morning I met with the homeschool family.  I took some helpers along. My stuffed mice, a big toad that croaks, a sheep, and a massage-tool dog. We looked for basic shapes, and went from there, chatting about what we saw, how to get it on paper, and naming them!

 Here's the instigator of the project: Elijah. Five-years old Eli was my first (and youngest) art student of the group. This youngster has talent and desire - as soon as I come in the door, he says "Let's do art!"

Tyson has a passion for making stories with his art. There will always be a surprise in his drawings, as his imagination takes him past the basic lesson. This time, the mouse is holding an ipad with his tail!

Quentin quickly caught on to the technique of shading for form, and providing shadows so his drawings don't just floating in space!

A previous lesson involved turning triangles into familar forms.  After doing some drawing and shading to produce teepees, we practiced some Native American art in the sketch books, then applied the pictures to the teepee project.  A quick trip outside produced sticks for teepee poles - then some Scout practice lashing them together to put our grocery-bag "skins" over.  Wah-lah!  Teepees!  (they also pointed out, that the shape was like ICE CREAM CONES! Can't fool that "artist's eye"!)

This munchkin loves to be in the middle of the art projects. After the first few lessons, we decided it was not quite in her attention span yet! Happily, mom either distracts her with books, or three-year old Olivia finds her own entertainment.


Is Livvie not just the perfect model for a sketch of "Happy Girl" ?? My camera started getting tucked into my art tote each lesson day, for obvious reasons!

This has got to be the BEST BUNNY in the world!!

Happy days, happy times! I LOVE doing art with children!

Garden of Eatin'

When I start craving a lunch like this...

I start here - in the garden!  This is the main "salad" raised bed, with a chicken wire hood to hold shade cloth a bit later in the season.  Keeping the lettuces shaded prevents early bolting and also produces more tender leaves. 

On the left is "Salad Bowl", a large, fast-growing loose-leaf with really juicy leaves.  In the middle is "Merlot", the most succulent burgundy lettuce I've ever put a tooth in.  Then comes "Baby Cos", small romaine heads. 

On the other end of the bed are some herbs tucked in with the lettuces and other greens.  Several curled parsely plants and "Fernleaf" dill add bright sparks of nutrition and flavor. I like to grow the herbs right with the greens that will become salads, because I can snip them all at the same time!  In another month, this bed will also be providing bright red peppery "Empress of India" nasturtium blossoms and sweet little purple/yellow violas to add to salad creations.  A mixed flower/herb/greens garden bed is a HAPPY bed!

 "Fernleaf", on the right, is a small growing dill, unlike the "Mammoth" dill in another part of the garden.  Mammoth is typically used for producing - yep, dill pickles!  It grows well with the cucumbers it will partner with in a few months.

A newer greeny to my salad bed is "Mizuma", a fine-leafed Japanese green.  It is so tender, a bit nutty and spicy but not as spicy as Rocquette.  Mizuma has become one of my favorite "grazing" plants, can't help eating a leaf or two every time I pass by.  Fortunately, its is VERY fast growing, adding new leaves so quickly I can't tell the next day where I pinched some off!

An update on the front patio herbs and salad pot.  The weather has been really nice for the greens, even if a bit daunting to the 'maters!  They are still hanging out under plastic covers on the south wall - patience required!

Salad Bowl, Merlot, and Baby Cos are at the stage where I can cut off individual leaves from the outside sworls - a half dozen or so of mixed leaves make a fine individual salad bowl!

Chives grow in several places around the garden beds, always handy for snipping.  For lunch I included some of the onion-y flavored chive flowers in the salad makin's.

Filling a bowl with a mixture of greens and herbs is an exercise in taste, scent, and artistic enjoyment.  I always seem to end up with more than I can eat in one sitting!  With a topping of sweet fresh shrimp meat and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice - this is a primo salad.

This is the season when I crave fresh succulent salads at least twice a day. Nutritious tonics of greens and herbs!  Sometimes even a breakfast salad sneaks in - with hardboiled eggs and crunchy home-made whole grain bread croutons!

No feathers

We have a wetland in our back yard. Just on the other side of the fence is the swamp we played in as kids, making plank walkways through the skunk cabbage and willows. Lots of fun critters to play with, like salamanders and frogs!

 One critter we did NOT play with was the raccoon. They can be nasty - ask our dog Spotty, who got in a royal fight one night and was severely bitten in a very private place. Owie. Poor Spot - he survived to fight another day.

Coons still prowl the area. With a creek just across the road, which runs into the bay a few blocks down, it's prime coonland, lots to eat. They are opportunistic feeders. And usually nocturnal.

Susposedly carnivores, we have discovered a vegetarian among the ranks. This fine fat fellow, in broad daylight, tells the story:

"You're jokin' me.  Are they SERIOUS?  CHICKEN WIRE??  To keep a coon out?  HA!"

"SEE??  A coon ladder, all nice and handy..."

"Hmm.  Millet, a little cracked corn,  sunnies...kinda slim pickin's....Snotty blue jays have been here."

"Oh ho - what have we here?  Whoa nelly, JACKPOT!"

"Let's see now - I think I can get my paw right in here..."

"Yep, look at that!  Just a few wiggles of my fingers, like shuckin' corn!"

"Mmm- mmm good!  I much prefer black sunflower seeds, and in this handy tube thingy I don't even have to sort and spit out the millet.  Yum-ee!"

"Wait.  Did you hear that?  What th...."

"Oh-oh.  Busted.  Maybe if I give them the evil eye they'll take the hint and leave me alone..."

Well, we didn't leave him alone.  I opened the window and informed him that he did NOT qualify to eat the bird seed - no feathers!  He kept eating, with one eye on us.  I finally had to get firm to shoo him off.  He went just as far as the end of the fence, about 8 feet, and waited a few minutes, then came right back, climbed up the fence  and started noshing again!!  Bold fellow!

With a bit more scolding, he left his perch, but again climbed up to check out if we were still watching.  He attemped the rail, but it was just a bit too narrow for his fat bum to balance and walk the skyway to the seeds.  You can see the disgust...

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving.  For now."

I have no doubts, he'll be back.