Friday, July 30, 2010

Just Moved! Plus remodeling...

I have been out of touch for a bit but at least the internet and computer are set up again... instead of having everything in boxes.









We like the new house, though... and have beds now, even.










We are also coordinating with contractors to sell the old house and fix things on the new house.

This is the awesome new kitchen door at the old house. It replaced a wooden door with a small window. We should have done it years ago!
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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Banana Birthday Cake

Someone special just had a birthday (Daddy!!!) and we helped decorate his cake one morning.
A few days later, I asked the little guy what flavor cake he wants for his upcoming 2nd birthday. After pausing for a few seconds, he bursted out, "Banana!!!" It sounded more like, "nanana," but you get the drift.



I am thinking of mushing up bananas and putting them into cupcake papers to skip the whole super-sweet experiece. Unless anyone has a good recipe to share??!!
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Sunday, July 4, 2010

An Abundance of Red Currants

These tart berries are amazingly good fresh off the bush. While looking for a red currant preserves recipe online, we stumbled into the factoid that one mature 4 foot bush can produce 12 pounds of berries in a season. Our bush is about 4 years old, and this is the first year it has really blown our socks off.

Fresh currants can be eaten like grapes. I also started making almond butter and currant sandwiches by spreading almond butter on both pieces of bread and adding a layer of currants, then putting the other side of almond-buttered bread on top. I figured I was saving my child and I the added sugar of jams and jellies, while making a tasty lunch at the same time.








After my online searching for how to best keep these little delicacies, we decided to take them off their stems, boil and mash them, and add plain gelatin. We then put this mixture into jars and put them in the refrigerator. We decided not to strain it before canning it, since we like the texture and whatever fiber these guys have to start with. Online, I also learned that red currants have a bit of pectin in them, and also that making this jelly is an exercise for people with their own bushes, since they are prohibitively expensive otherwise. All of the recipes called for sugar to be added; we skipped this in favor of trying to keep our taste buds a little more pure and our blood sugar a little more stable.

Here it is, after we took most of the berries.  We also had just pruned it away from the house.  What a great bush!
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Saturday, July 3, 2010

Peaches in Berkeley!

Berkeley is known for its mild climate, with yearly temperatures staying around 60 to 70 degrees. That is why we were very excited to find a variety of peach tree that would fruit without needing the HEAT and COLD that most varieties crave.

Here they are, almost ripe...













And WOW, are they delicious!!! And it's only been over 80 degrees for less than a week total this year...
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Friday, July 2, 2010

23-month old favorite Toddler Books

The amazing part about these books is that they are all about the words instead of the flaps or the squeaking of the pages etc.  

This book is super fun to read and listen to.  Plus, he gets to choose his own adventure, so to speak.  The rhyming is great!





We have this one in English, though. The drawings are really realistic and we spend a lot of time talking about each object and how it relates back to us. Pin It

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