The "Challenge" of Fresh Produce

I picked up my first bag of fresh produce from my farm share today.  It's early in the season, and judging by my own garden, I was expecting neither an abundance nor a lot of variety.  That is the way of in season and local produce.

Available today were green beans, radishes (the spiciest I've ever had!), spring onions, sage, mint, garlic, a few small serrano peppers and eggs.

The challenge now lies in using all this wonderful goodness every week.

I will make a salad tonight that has fresh greens from my own garden, augmented with some from the store, I must admit.  I don't have enough yet and awesome gardener lady down the road says hers are too sad to share.  Bridget picked and washed the greens, then  I taught her how to par-boil and slice the greenbeans, and how to make the perfect hard-cooked eggs.  Of course the radishes will be sliced (thin!) for the salad as well.

The sage has been hung in my pantry to dry.  The garlic needs to cure another few weeks.  The mint awaits this evening's mojito.

I took a bunch of the onions.  Onions are usually treated as a background ingredient, starting a dish as the mire poix.  I just love onions and often grill, sautee, or roast them as a side dish.  Today I made an onion tart.

I blind baked a sheet of puff pastry.  Chopped and sauteed most of the onions (and snuck those shy serrano peppers in there as well) in butter, oil and sherry. 

I saved some of the onions to braise (in butter and sherry) to top the tart with.

Once the tart filling was cool, I mixed in some grated manchego.  Goat cheese would have been a good complement to the onions as well, but manchego was what I had.

Spread it on the tart shell, top with the braised onions and back into the oven.  It'll make a nice appetizer to bring to the neighbor's BBQ tonight.

I can't wait to pick up next week's bag!

Time for Change

I am so ready. 

I am so ready to be done packing lunches every day.  To be done spending 3-5 hours every single night driving from one activity to another.  I am so ready to be done studying for Spanish tests. To be done with having my dining room look like a one-room school house.  To be done with flinging together dinner in 15 minutes at 7:45 at night.  I am so ready to be done with signing planners and ICARE sheets every single day. 

I am ready.  Ready for a bit more unstructured time.  Kids in the pool.  I even think I am ready for arising daily at 5:30 for swim practice.  That time slot doesn't conflict with anything, after all.  I am ready for trips to water parks and movies.  Sleepovers in the clubhouse.

Check back with me mid-August.  I'm sure I'll be done with wet towels, 6 meals a day, OPK, the early mornings, the heat.  And be pining away for the structure of the school year.

But for now - I say bring it!

Random Musings

Nothing major going on here.... just lots of life's little joys and challenges.  Knock on wood, but I kinda like it that way.

So, in no particular order, I give you:

The Junior Girl Scout troop working on their Bronze Award.  Bridget is 2nd from the left in this photo. 

The Bronze Award is the highest award they can get at this age and these girls are doing something amazing!  They chose a local charity, Spirit Horse, for their community service project.  Spirit Horse is quite an operation and gives riding lessons to children who are physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged.  So, our girls started off by baking home-made horse treats.  They then took these to a horse show and sold them.  With the cash they earned, they bought a trailerload of stall shavings which they donated to Spirit Horse.  They also are spending their May meetings on site at Spirit Horse doing chores.  Last week, they stained the stalls of a recently constructed barn.  Yep, a crew of 11-yr old girls stained an entire barn full of horse stalls.  In 2 hours.  They were a mess, but the stalls looked beauitful.  This week, they're painting fences. 

This next picture is just plain funny.  It's Aidan after a swim meet.

He's pretty tired, eh?

Speaking of Aidan.....  not to be outdone by his smartie pants sister, he recently surprised himself by qualifying for the National Junior Honor Society.

Pssst, Aidan!  The secret is out!  You ARE smart, and you CAN get good grades!

We're proud of you, son!

And now for another photo of Bridget!  This was taken at a recent riding lesson by someone with a much better camera (and photography skills) than I.

Pssst!  Bridget, the secret is out!  You CAN jump a horse!

We are finally beginning to get some fresh local produce around here.  My own garden got in late due to running a B and B and L and D for much of March and April, but I have neighbors with mad skillz in the gardening department.  They gave me these cute 8-ball zuchinnis and I stuffed 'em w/ turkey sausage.  Yummy!

They also gave me a bunch of cucumbers.  Which I promptly stuffed in the blender along with some parsley, mint, argula, scallion, chili oil, cayenne and sour cream.....  Soup's on!  It was delish and I can't wait to make it again.  I could LIVE on that kind of stuff!

And now for something completely different....  a photo of Ray!  As you may know, his company is in NY, so when he's not on the road, he works from home.  While he has a very nice home office where he is sequestered for much of the day, sometimes a change of scenery is nice.

I wonder if the other conference call participants can hear the waterfall?

And now for something completely different - a photo of Pam's brain!  Well, not really - but what is occupying a large chunck of my brain lately......

It's a very bad photo of my calendar.  The good news is I've recently discovered Cozi, which is an online calendar perfect for families.  You can track everyone's separate schedules all on one calendar and have regular emails sent to each family member with the week's activities.  The bad news is just like this time last year, it's getting a little bit Out Of Control.  The hairy scary details include multiple swim practice changes to accomodate wildly out of synch schedules of 2 different school districts, talent show rehearsals and performances, choir rehearsals and performances, field trips and money and forms needed for all manner of things.  End of year pool parties, sleepover parties, water park parties, paint ball parties, and one much needed Mommy Luncheon which may (hopefully) include wine.

Speaking of wine.....  we hosted our neighborhood Wine Club this past weekend and had a lot of wine fun.  We have a lot of really fun neighbors and we gather on a regular basis to enjoy wine and each other's company.  These four were the only ones who allowed me to photograph them.  The names have been withheld to protect the innocent. 

 We drank explored blended wines and then experimented with blending our own.

Ray found these really cool wine blending kits on woot.com  They come with several splits of a variety of "pure" wines (cab, syrah, merlot, etc.), tasting notes on each, some "recipe" ideas and measuring devices.  We divided our party into 3 groups and each group had to come up with a blend.  We then had a blind tasting.

In addition to the splits of pure wines, there was also a bottle of a blend that won a wine competition using these very same ingredients.  Two of our groups took a lot of time to explore the various qualities of each bottle and discussed the type of blend they wanted to achieve.  They considered bouquet, finish, mouth feel, etc. and were very into it.  One of our groups CHEATED and just dumped the "winner" bottle into their decanter.  And you will never guess which blend was the resounding winner, getting about twice as many votes as the other two blends combined.  That's right, the CHEATER's blend!  And they still took the prizes!  Harumph!  You know who you are! :-)

And finally, I give you.....  Dixie.  No, you can't HAVE her.  She's OURS.  All ours, as she seems to be settling in quite well.  We're all a little disappointed in Scamp though, as he doesn't deign to play with her, he just walks away aloofly whenever she tries to get him to romp with her.  Hopefully he'll come around.

She's learned our house rules, and where the perimeter of the shock fence is.  She chases a ball, but hasn't learned to bring it back.  Any clues on how to train a dog to do this?  She's getting better on my 3 mile walk but still a little nervous when I take her out into the world.  And she recently climbed into Ray's lap and spent the better part of an evening there.

We are in the downslope of another school year.  8 years done for Aidan, and 7 more to go for Bridget, so we are more than half way done.  It seems strange that I'll be way less involved with school now that we're done with elementary school, but I have to take heart in small things like the fact that my middle schooler still seems to want me to chaperone on field trips, even though he has banned me from coming in to have lunch with him.

Which reminds me.  I must go have lunch with Bridget at least one more time before she leaves elementary school.  You take what you can, when you can.  You never know when those opportunities will no longer be there.

Aidan's First Triathlon

Aidan did his first triathlon today.  He's been wanting to do one for quite a while, and there was one conveniently in our town and of a length that I thought would challenge him, but not be so hard that he'd fail.  It was a 275yd swim (snicker snicker - the swim is NEVER a long portion of any tri), 13mi bike, and a 5k run.  All in all, I figured it would take him about an hour and forty minutes to complete.  His swim workouts are 2 hours long, so this seemed achieveable.

The first leg of the tri is the swim.  For this particular tri, the swimmers start one at a time.  They assign your number based on your estimated swim time.  Since I'd estimated Aidan's swim time at a full 30 seconds faster than anyone completed it last year (and I entered a slow time so as not to appear too cocky), I figured Aidan would be first in the water.  He was #25.  We thought maybe 24 people lied about their estimated swim time.  Turns out, that wasn't the case, there were 24 students from SMU who the race organizers agreed to keep together, and decided the best way to do this was to put them first.  Big mistake.  Huge.

I thought Ray and I were going to fall over laughing.  Aidan hit the water with 24 slow-pokes ahead of him.  He proceeded to pick seventeen of them off one by one (or in some cases in clumps of 3) by either swimming right over the top of them or dolphin-kicking underwater off the turn walls beneath them.

Out of the water he heads, the skinny kid in his Speedo, to the cheers of those lining the pool exit area.  He was among only about a half dozen kids in this race of 650 athletes.

Then reality hit.  Time to do the events that he doesn't train for every day - like biking.  There goes the scrappy kid on the big clunky mountain bike.  We knew we didn't have to worry about whether or not he'd find his way on the route as we were pretty sure he'd get passed by plenty of people right away.  It was a windy morning and he pushed himself hard.

He came in from the bike leg huffing and puffing, but had a big smile on his face.  I hollered to him, "Way to go buddy!  You having fun?"

"Yes!" he yelled back.  Awesome.  On to the run.  In a pair of old basketball shoes.

He definitely earned back some places on the run as he probably passed more people than passed him from what I could see.  But it was a confusing course w/ one part that had to be done twice, and one only once and we think he may have run that part twice as well.  So, maybe he ran about 4 miles instead of 3.

He finished the race in just over an hour and a half.  Probably somewhere in the middle of the pack which is awesome for a kid his age, for a first triathlon, for just about anybody.  We're so proud of him!

When he finished, he said "I've come to the realization that I love swimming.  I love biking.  I hate running!"

"Yes, but would you do it again?" I asked.  "Oh yeah!" he said.

Faithful

Sweet Dog.  Even though you might have had some "issues" in your old age (don't we all?), you probably picked the nicest way to go.  Lie down in your favorite spot and leave to the other side.  Did you know I called the vet yesterday to discuss something that was probably far more traumatic for everyone than how you decided it would be done?

My kitchen floors will never be as clean again, as when you would lick every stray spill and scrap of food from them.  Scamp will wonder where you went when he runs to wake you up to get treats from the UPS lady.

Thank you for being a loyal and faithful part of our family for so many years.  We will miss you and remember you always.

Disorganization

I am a bit disorganized lately.  Still recovering from the busy March and I just know that I'll barely get it together by the time I get hit with the End Of The School Year Whammy.

So, in typical disorganized fashion, here are a bunch of odds and ends for amusement and to catch you up on the Glynns.

We had visitors a few weeks ago - Ray's sis & her family from NYC.  More photos to follow once I download them from the camera, but meanwhile enjoy this one of our neice, Kailey.  She's three and adorable.  We went to the rodeo, and being a city kid, she wasn't used to the wonderful aroma of horse and cow poop.  Which Bridget and I find delicious, by the way.  Kailey held her nose the entire rodeo.

In the midst of the visitors, we had Bridget's (belated) "friend" birthday party, and Aidan's (on time) "family" birthday party.  Aidan's "friend" party will be belated too - because I'm disorganized.

For Bridget's party, we took a handful of girls to see Alice in Wonderland.  The cake is supposed to be an homage to Johnny Depp's hat.  And you'll never guess what Aidan's cake is.

Spring has sprung in Texas, and it is as glorious as ever. On my walk the other day my neighbor and I decided to go down to the lake to see if there were any Texas bluebonnets blooming.  There are usually several nice-sized patches, good for the traditional photograph of your children.

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

I don't know what grand alignment of the Texas bluebonnet planets happened this year, but there are banks and banks of bluebonnets as far as the eye can see.  It was stunning. 

Since I didn't have a child with me, I photographed my faithful companion, Scamp.  Isn't he cute?

Another outing we took when our visitors were here was to the Dallas World Aquarium.  I've got a camera full of awesome photos including getting up close and personal with a sloth, but until I get organized, this photo will have to do.

We were awaiting feeding time at the shark tank.

And, because I am in love with TEXAS IN THE SPRING, just a few more photos for your viewing enjoyment.  Ciao.  I must go get organized.

"It's so tiring being a princess....."

... is what Bridget said to me when I tucked her into bed Saturday night.

It was the annual Father/Daughter Prom and she and Ray had the time of their lives again.

"There are so many moments!" Ray said.  Like when he was slow-dancing with Bridget.  She was standing on his feet, leaning her head against him.  Ray was looking around at all the other couples, and suddenly he feels Bridget's hands on either cheek pulling his head down and she says "Hey!  Eyes down here, buddy!"

She has learned that her dates must be attentive.

As usual, we had our yearly "pre-prom" cocktail party here and it is so much fun to see the girls vibrating with excitement.  As each one arrives there is much exclaiming over the dresses, the shoes, the hair.

"You look just like a fairy!" I said to Kimberly, who had on a gorgeous white dress.

"You look just like a fairy!" said Ray, to Kim's dad.

We have just enough time for the girls to snack a little bit, drink some "bubbly" and pose for photos.  Then it's out to the cars where the daddies hold the doors for them and they get to ride "shotgun" like ladies.

At the prom, they have formal photos taken, eat dinner, and dance.  And run around playing tag behind the curtains - they're still little girls, after all.

Meanwhile, the mommies have a civilized dinner and (mostly) civilized conversation.  The brothers run around in the woods shooting each other with pellet guns and have a campfire when it get too dark to shoot.

Ray says Bridget began to wilt about 8:30 but insisted on remaining until the 9pm bitter end.  She curled up under his blazer in the car and went promptly to sleep on the way home.

It's such a sweet tradition and a wonderful evening.  Ray says that Bridget said "I love you, Daddy!" several times over the course of the evening.

So sweet!

Thirteen

Could it really have been thirteen years ago that I woke Ray up and said "I dunno, it might be gas, but let's time them, just in case?"

Could it really be thirteen years since I looked at this squirming white baby and said "Um, what now?"

What now, indeed.

Thirteen is supposed to be awkward, surly and defiant.  So far, you are anything but that.  Something tells me that your old soul, your open heart, your inner smile, all those will conspire against the hormones and you will remain the sunny, happy child that you are.

And there is a river in Egypt called DENIAL.  But a mother can hope.

Many cultures consider this age the beginning of manhood.  And while I know you are anxious for that to happen, if only to make your swimming times improve, I am not in such a rush.  I still see some "Baby Aidan" in the remaining softness of your face, and there is still plenty of Little Boy left in you.

But rather than wallow in the self-pity of losing my baby to manhood, I will do my best to help you meet it head on, with grace, good humor and responsibility.  That's my job and I take it very seriously.

As long as you continue to shower regularly, I believe we can all survive this transition.

Happy birthday, baby boy!

Swim Champs

Deafening.  Long days.  No time for regular meals.  High anxiety.  Lots of waiting.  Uncomfortable seating.  Early mornings.  No elbow room.  Cheer 'til you're hoarse.   Hot and humid.  Living on cup-o-noodles and microwave meals.  The excitement of a race well-swam.  Exhaustion.  Worry.  Pride.  Disappointment.  Respect.  Pain.  Camraderie.  Long sigh of relief......   

March Madness

As Ray said when I showed him the calendar for March, "Oh, crap!"

It's a little busy.  So, I doubt I'll be posting much, but I'll try.  I'll tweet more, so if you want to follow me on Twitter, that's where the info will be.

A few updates.....

Bridget tried out for the school talent show and.......  made it!  She'll be singing "Forever and Always" by Taylor Swift (who else?).  No, like last year, we haven't heard her sing.  also, like last year, there was a bit of self-imposed drama surrounding her decision to try out.  It's the journey.  Repeat.

Aidan's arm is still broken.  It still hurts.  The Very Big Swim Meet still starts on Thursday as scheduled.  We'll do a "test run" with no cast Wednesday afternoon and he'll make a decision on the "pain-to-performance" ratio.  Our Good Doctor is a saint to put up with all our cast shenanigans, but he's a former swimmer and knows we're weird.  And he knows how to make a cast that will be considered "legal" at the meet and has allowed Aidan to practice AND be able to still swim pretty darn fast.  We're hoping he's fast enough to keep his relay spots.

While Ray and I are cheering Aidan on down near Houston, Bridget will be seeing the sights in New York City with Captain and Nonna.  Lucky girl, and I am so glad that my little country bumpkin will get the opportunity to be amongst skyscrapers, art, and something other than livestock and wide open spaces.  There's a whole 'nother world out there, my little girl!

Open That Bottle Night was a few weeks back.  We opened that bottle, and that one, and that one, and.... all in the company of fellow wine enthusiasts.  Note to self:  Whites do not keep.  Duh!  Clean out wine collection more often.  That 20yr old Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc smelled like feet and tasted worse.  Fortunately, there were many more wonderful bottles than lost ones, and it was great to taste some of the older and pricier stuff we usually don't think to.

OK.  Next stop, The Woodlands (near Houston).  I am looking forward to the drive, as spring seems to have appeared and Texas can be durn purty in the springtime.

Cheers!