What'd we do this summer?

You really want to know? Well, we...

Played on the big field at the End of Year Celebration:

Built some stuff downstairs:

Made and ate lots of yummy food like focaccia:

And veggie lasagna (okay, only I ate this):

Enjoyed the sights during a visit from Grammy and Pops:

Went to Boise and neglected to take any pictures...

Toasted marshmallows in the backyard on my birthday present:

Got all mossy:

Dried some fruits & veggies with our new dehydrator:

Visited with Nana:

Hung out with the cousins at Silverwood, again neglecting to take many pictures, just a couple:

And then went back to school. (The day got better :-)


Plus more cooking, a little knitting, a little quilting, lots of driving, many camps, and a whole bunch 'o work somewhere in there.

How does your garden grow?

We started out well. Colin made more garden boxes (we now have one rectangle and 5 squares). I bought & planted some plants that are still alive (lavendar, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, peas, and raspberries). And we started a few seeds inside.

Then, duh, duh, duh...then things started going awry...

The boxes
The garden boxes look great - but they are still in the process of getting into position and getting dirt in them. It takes some digging up of existing stuff, leveling, non-rainy days, etc.

Number of garden boxes: 6 (1 existing)
Number installed: 3

The seeds
The seeds we started inside - well, about 1/4 didn't sprout and 1/3 (including those that didn't sprout) got all moldy - yuck! The ones that did sprout looked good, until they sat around too long waiting for the garden boxes to get installed and started leaning over and breaking. The ones that survived that, well, I stuck them into the garden boxes that had dirt in them, whereupon they promptly wilted and died.

Seeds started: 12
Seeds that will become food: 0.

The soil
While I examined these little sad corpses, we discovered these gel-like cubes of stuff all in the soil in the garden boxes. Turns out the soil we'd bought had these "moisture-absorbing crystals" in them; some chemical thingy that we're not sure we want to be growing food in that makes me think of disposable diapers (moisture-absorbing!). And now we need to remove that dirt and get food-ready soil.

Garden boxes with usable dirt in them: 1
Garden boxes with BAD dirt in them that now need to be emptied out: 2
Bags of bad dirt that had to be returned: 5

Summary:
Garden boxes growing food in them: 1

Sigh. So much for our new, improved, and larger garden. Maybe there's still time for this year. In any case, just think of how well set up we'll be next year...

What I've been up to

Jogging - ran most of a 5k today after 6 weeks of ramping up to running again. Walked 7 mins, but am pretty happy about that because my longest run stretch so far this year was 25 minutes. Now to get up to the full 3 miles...

Guitar - started guitar lessons a few week ago, and yesterday, picked up this gorgeous thing off of a Craiglist ad:

Gyoza & Sushi party - hosted a party for fam & friends - great excuse to get our Japanese ceramics out of storage and set the table with a non-vinyl tablecloth!

Jedi Robes

Max really wanted a Clone Wars party for his birthday. And he wanted some more boy dress-up wear. So, courtesy of these great instructions, I made two Jedi Robes for his party. Cute, huh?

There were also two clone helmets (one from a year ago, one from a Captain Rex costume I got him for his birthday, which he really really wanted but has yet to put on).

Oh, and Colin made those excellent lightsabers out of pool noodles and duct/electrical tape. Very fun and hugely popular.

Green Food

Oddly, I don't think I've ever done green food for St. Paddy's Day. But the little guy requested some, so in addition to our corned beef, we had green corn bread, green mashed potatoes, peas, and just for the orange side, carrots. The potatoes looked like playdough. Luckily they didn't taste like it.





In unrelated news... Here's what they did to our bush near the driveway to fix our very local power outage today. Ouch!

Fun in the Sun

San Diego was lovely in Februrary - we need to do this again! Got to hang with two sets of cousins, Sister and Bro-in-law, Sis-in-law, and Grammy & Pops, not to mention all the fun activities.

Here's the view from the house:

Waiting for a beach to appear:

Climbing some rocks:

Watching over the kids:

Ah, finally beach time! San Diego cousins and their friend:

Legoland - driving the boats in Miniland:

Meeting Mickey at Disneyland:

More beach time with Utah cousins:

Last night - movie time with San Diego cousins:

Max eye view of what was important in the house:



Good time had by all.

More food

Still working on random recipes from random cookbooks. Tonight's dinner, courtesy of Cooking Light's The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook (p 363):

Skillet-roasted lemon chicken with potatoes
I say yum, the rest say "ick", but I laugh last because I get the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

1 large lemon, sliced
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tbl lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
10 cherry tomatoes (I added more)
10 kalamata olives (pitted)
8 small red potatoes, quartered (1 1/2 lbs)

450 degree oven

Arrange lemon slices in a single layer on the bottom of an oven-proof 10 inch skillet.
Combine oil and next 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken, tomatoes, olives, potatoes and toss to coat.
Arrange chicken on top of the lemon slices, then arrange vegetable mixture over chicken. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until chicken is done (was 45 for me).

4 servings.

I made some couscous too, and had some crusty bread on hand, and I also sprinkled a little feta cheese on top. Yum for me!

Maybe I'll try the technique again (because it was super easy!) only with some onions & peppers on the bottom instead of the tart lemon, and skipping the olives & tomatoes (like I said, good flavor combo for me, not so popular with the rest of the house) to make it savory rather than bitter.