Birthday Highlights

Assembly of the sandbox, acquiring sand, making cake, eating cake, lighting candles, assembling a table and chairs, making star eggs, and star grilled goat cheese sandwiches with candles.  All in the celebration of one of our most precious days, the birth of my eldest son.

Birthday Boy Cupcakes

My little big guy (big brother) will be three on Monday.
It is so much fun to build the anticipation of a birthday.  He is now old enough to know what a birthday is and that we eat cake.  If you ask him what he wants for his birthday he responds, "Cake with my name on it."  He wanted chocolate on his cake.  I gave him many pictures to look at and we decided on a marble bunt cake with chocolate glaze and whipped cream to write his name.
Today was the first celebration of his 3rd birthday with our friends.
We decorated chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream  and dried apricots, strawberries, blueberries,
 M& M's. and sprinkles.
Somehow very few M&M's ended up on the cupcakes.  Hmmm.

Free for the Picking Blackberry Crisp

I awoke this morning to very little fruit for breakfast, a small plum and a handful of blueberries.

The boys were interested in neither.

Then I thought about the blackberries on the Hike and Bike Trail.

We put on talk socks and good walking shoes and loaded into the stroller.

In 1 1/2 hours I picked about 3 cups of blackberries (plus the cup or so of berries the boys ate along the way), counted 3 frogs, one cat, and 5 passersby.

At lunch we discussed what to do with our bounty and decided that Blackberries are best cooked.

So the quintessential Summer dessert was born.

Our Free for the Picking Blackberry Crisp.

3 cups Blackberries, 1 small plum, a handful of blueberries

1 tablespoon of both flour and sugar.

Topped with half of the following recipe by Alice Waters.

Baked at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

The recipe said 45 minutes, but as soon as I saw it start to bubble and smell delicious I could not wait any longer and took it out of the oven!

It was perfect!

We saved the rest for tomorrow when we can get some Vanilla ice cream.

Milk Paint

I recently saw a recipe online about making milk paint.  I could not remember if it used evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk.  When I saw evaporated milk for 69 cents earlier today, I put it in the cart.

We are at Grandma and Grandpa's this week.  It was 98 degrees yesterday and very hot today.  When a storm came through we found ourselves on the porch enjoying a bit of outside.  I thought it was the perfect time to use our milk paint recipe and paint on the porch.  My boys loved it.

 We taped a few layers of old drafting paper on the porch.  Found three paintbrushes.

Then divided a 3 oz can of evaporated milk between three containers and added food coloring to our desired tint for green, blue, and yellow.

We painted until the brushes ventured off of the paper to Grandpa's porch. (We easily cleaned it off with soapy water).  I stored the paint in the refrigerator to use again tomorrow.

Gnome and Fairy Houses

We went to the park on Sunday for a picnic.
In the past storm, a few trees came down which supplied us with numerous materials for building special little houses.
We had a wonderful time collecting bark, sawdust, acorn bowls and filling them with little acorns.  Then some kind of seed was so tiny the perfect size for a fairies cup.
My 3 year old loved collecting and adding.  After I found the perfect piece for a bed, he then said, "Mama, this is the perfect rocking chair.  Do you see it?"

Then Papa and little brother joined in and a third house was built. (not shown)

Roasted Root Vegetables

The most beautiful carrots I have grown. Red, white, and purple.

We cut up carrots, beets, potatoes, radish, baby parsnips, and Rosemary from our garden.

Added S&P and 1 tbs olive oil.

Roasted on 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

The carrots were the biggest hit. So sweet.

Zucchini Bread

Anyone have a lot of zucchini in their garden?  We do not yet, but our friend who happens to be on vacation let us purge her garden.  One was so large that it had to be shredded and made into zucchini bread and zucchini pancakes.  I started with my mom's tried and true recipe but took away a cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of oil, plus added my usual additions (almond meal, coconut oil...).  My Recipe follows:

Zucchini Bread:

Mix Dry ingredients:

3 cups flour  ( half white, half whole wheat)

1/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

 pinch allspice

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Beat together wet ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil + 1 tbs. melted coconut oil

2 tbs. applesauce

2 cups grated zucchini

3 tsp. vanilla

We added some chocolate chips to the top.

Mix dry into wet. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.  I also filled a medium (6 oz.) ramekin. so they would not be too tall. On a 100 degree day I baked in my toaster oven. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes to 1 hour when a knife inserted comes out clean.

master mixer

the sides are messy from little fingers diving for chips in the dough

empty plates 

Oh, how the garden grows...

 We picked our peas and after shelling had a small pot for the family

Carrot, radish, zucchini bed early June

Carrot, radish, zucchini bed June 19th

tomato
zucchini
bed
on left
June 4th

on right
June 19th