a garden bridal shower

We had a bridal shower here last week for Ali Fox. Lisa and Carrie (Ali's sister) put this shower together in record time and it turned out beautifully. Lisa's kitchen is being redone so we had the shower over here. I didn't get any really great pictures because we were pretty busy, but it was a beautiful day and all the details were gorgeous and the food delicious, of course. Sela, Nina, and Sam had fun being servers. My only contribution was the setting but Lisa and Carrie (and Dave!) hit a home-run with this lovely party!





Ali and her grandmother. Both adorable.




My favorite new (to me) food idea from their menu was the tiny grilled cheeses on skewers over the tomato soup. Isn't that cute?! I stole this picture from Carrie because  these were gone in a flash!


The sister-in-law made this garland. It was darling and only took her 15 hours ;)





Extra soda is one of the perks for the "staff."


I guess the servers are off duty.

Huckleberry Buckle

There is a big huckleberry bush right outside the boys' window. As I was putting Evan down for a nap last week I noticed it was loaded with little red berries. We decided it might be fun to see what we could make with the huckleberries. Sela and I got out a few cookbooks and looked for huckleberry recipes. We settled on Huckleberry Buckle from Rustic Fruit Desserts, one of my absolute favorite cookbooks, especially when using less common fruits. The recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of berries, which is a lot. It takes a long time to pick that many berries because they are so tiny.  I sent the kids out with little measuring cups to fill. On the first day we got about 3/4 cup, the second day Nina found another tree in the very back of our property and got 1 full cup, and Rollin and Sela finished us off this weekend with the final 3/4 cup. This was truly a combined effort which made it all the sweeter when we finally got to enjoy our dessert together on Sunday evening. We worked on this thing from Tuesday-Sunday! And man was it worth it. Such a special dessert. Beautiful to look at, moist, slightly tart with just enough sweetness.





I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside...it looked like polka-dotted bread! 

This dessert was so good, we decided it might be worth going on a hike and doing a little more foraging to round up some more berries!

Asian Chicken Salad

Here is the recipe for the salad I posted last week. 



Asian Chicken Salad 
(www.nourishedkitchen.com)

4 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used a Rotisserie chicken)
• 3 ribs celery, sliced thin
• 1/2 lb shredded napa cabbage (I used very thinly sliced red and green cabbage)
• 1/4 lb snow peas, trimmed and sliced thin
• 4 medium carrots, scraped and cut into matchsticks
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced thin
• 6 loosely packed cups mixed salad greens
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, optional
• ginger vinaigrette, as needed

Toss cooked chicken, sliced celery, shredded
cabbage, snow peas, carrots and scallions
together and plate over mixed salad greens.
Dress with sesame seeds and ginger vinaigrette.

Orange-Ginger Vinaigrette
juice of 1 orange
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
• 1 1-inch knob ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1/2 cup unrefined extra virgin olive oil

*This is the recipe as written. I didn't serve mine on lettuce, just because I ran out of time to gather and wash the lettuce.  I also added diced yellow and red peppers and mandarin oranges. Obviously you can use whatever fresh veggies you like. I also used less chicken than the recipe called for and I may have added a little rice vinegar to the dressing to give it more of a kick. 

Peas & Potatoes

The garden is humming along keeping us quite busy. This is one of the reasons I haven't been blogging lately. That and the weather is pretty amazing right now. Definitely not the time to be sitting in front of a computer. In fact, I've sat down several times to blog and actually have a pretty big post in progress, but then I think of how I should really be picking the raspberries or attending to any number of other things beckoning my attention outside . There are definitely not enough hours in the day right now. But that's okay. However, I know the grandmothers are getting restless and anxious for some photos of their little lovelies, so here I sit on a gorgeous 70 degree sunny and breezy afternoon attempting a brief update.

A few weeks ago we had a big party with the leadership team from Zig's group. I was talking to someone about some of our gardening successes and failures (the party was outside so people were wandering around the garden). I mentioned how much work it was to grow and clean baby spinach and how it wasn't really worth it when you can get a huge, washed organic bag for $3 at Costco. Kale on the other hand, is a different story. I love that stuff and it stays so clean. Anyway, this man mentioned potatoes and said for how cheap they are, it seems like a waste to grow them as well. Probably true, but we do plant potatoes for several reasons. First, you can't get the variety at the grocery store that you can plant. Second, every time we have store bought potatoes sprout, Zig just buries them in the garden box where the potatoes go and they grow new potatoes. And finally, harvesting the potatoes is like a huge treasure hunt for the kids. Rollin spent a couple hours outside with Zig one night digging the potatoes up. He had a ball. So yea for potatoes!


Found another one!




Thank goodness we have a powerful hose to clean these guys up.

Proud of his spuds

Potato Leek Soup made with potatoes, garlic, and chives from the garden.


snap peas and snow peas







Asian Chicken Salad w/ snap peas from the garden (the kids loved this one)

Last Saturday, Zig was doing some work on the computer in his office and I was sitting on our bed reading. Rollin came in asked Zig if he would come outside with him. I knew Zig was trying to crank an important email out, so I was preparing myself to join him if Zig couldn't at that moment. Then Zig asked Rollin what he wanted to do and he replied, "Dad, I just want to walk around the yard with you and look at plants and stuff."  It was the sweetest little interchange. And then I heard Zig get up from his chair and off they went. Rollin loves his Dad so much and I really love seeing them enjoying many of the same things. He looks up to Zig so much.

chase the chickies

Evan wakes up at the crack of dawn. Every once in awhile I take him outside to walk around (and let the rest of the house sleep), see the chickens, and lately pick some berries for an early morning snack. For some reason he went all commando on the chickens today and I had to run grab my camera because it was so funny. I've never seen him saying "hi-ya!" to the chickens before, but it was pretty cute. Now if only I had the energy for karate kicks at 6am! Both videos are very similar, but I thought I'd throw in an extra one for mom, since she said I haven't been updating frequently enough. They aren't in hd so they aren't the best quality, but Zig is out of town and I'm too lazy to change the format this late at night. You get the idea :)

feel the love

Spotty had some trauma recently and has been getting some extra TLC lately. He is the best pet we've ever had (other than Kona) and it was hard to seem him in pain when his little fingernail came off and he gushed blood all over. Poor little bunny, but he is all better now.



And sometimes I wish I had a pouch for Evan. He is never far away. I thought I could read my book and watch him play outside, but look where he planted himself the entire time :) The boy loves his momma.

Balloons

One of the things we love about summer evenings is the hot air balloons that float over the yard at sunset. They are very quiet until they are right upon you and you hear the hot air blowing. Kona gets all excited and kids scream and wave, always getting a response from the people in the basket.






The kids chased one down to see it land in a field by the house.