Strawberry Fields Forever

Our Strawberry Patch

...well not quite yet.  We finally got a bit of sun this past weekend and I decided it was time to find a patch of dirt for the strawberry plants that I've had in a pot for a year.  I planted these guys in our garden a few years ago and left them in over the winter because I felt bad taking them out when they seemed to be doing just fine.  Remarkably they survived the winter and produced a decent crop last summer. However, last fall I decided to move them from the garden into pots to make way for our first winter garden.  At the moment my strawberry patch is pretty small (and nowhere near constituting a field or enough strawberries for my little munchkin), but I'm planning a trip to the nursery to get these guys some friends and we'll see how large our patch can get.

Decluttering the Cookbook Shelves

One of my goals this year is to declutter our home and pare down on the things that I don't use.  My cookbook cabinet was an easy target.  I had several years worth of cooking magazines that were taking up one whole shelf (prior to the arrival of the little bean we used to have one evening a week dedicated to deciding upon and making a new dinner menu together) and a few cookbooks that I never used.  I didn't want to just throw out my magazine collection without saving some beloved recipes so I went through each magazine and tore out only the recipies that I loved, ones that I'd flagged but never tried, and ones that I was likely to make and like. When I was done (several days later) I organized them in an expandable file folder categorized by appetizer, soup, side dish, main course, or desert.  Eventually I'd like to put them in a three ring binder with each recipe in a clear slip cover so that I can easily take out recipes and not worry about ruining them with sticky fingers (I'm a messy cook).  I am taking all of the cookbooks that didn't make the cut to a local bookstore that trades used books.  The picture above is one of my two cookbook shelves, neatly organized with my favorite cookbooks easily accessible (and yes the chocolate cake book gets a lot of use).

Figs and the Far Side of Complexity

Our Adriatic (?) Fig Tree

In the past few weeks our fig tree has gone from bare to sporting new leaves and baby figs!! Further evidence that spring is upon us (even though it has been pouring rain for the past few days).  I can't wait until July when we get to enjoy our first crop of these tasty fruits and I get to bust out the cookbooks and start making every fig recipe I can find.  Last year two of my favorite fig recipes were figs sprinkled with warm goat cheese and figs drenched with a warm cinnamon butter cream sauce.  My mouth is watering already!!

We typically get more figs than we can possibly eat. So we let the birds eat the hard to reach fruits and unload what we can't eat on happy friends and family.  However, I recently found a local garden exchange program where we can trade fruits and veggies. This year, I'm looking forward to trading our excess figs for some tasty bounty!


I thought it would be fun to include a quote about figs and this is the first one that I happened across. I thought it was perfectly fitting.

"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Descheduling & Making Time for Spontaneity

Beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean

Is it just me or does our caffeine addicted (I recently gave up caffeine), iPhone loving, over-scheduled, multi-tasking world seem to be moving a bit too fast at times? Not that each of those things don't have their place and time.  But sometimes I think that our collective need to for constant information, constant motion, and constant noise is just a distraction from our real life.  I have to constantly remind myself to stop multi-tasking, to focus, to be present in the moment, and to enjoy each moment fully.  One of the ways I try to accomplish this is by descheduling or as I like to call it 'making time for spontaneity'.

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome in descheduling was my own guilt over being a working mom.  It actually wasn't that big of a hurdle once I identified the problem.  I used to feel a bit guilty that I'm not home between 8 am and 5 pm on weekdays to play with my son and do all the fun mommy & me activities that it seems all other kids/moms get to do.  My way of compensating for this used to be cramming a bunch of activities into our weekends.  However, no one in our family enjoyed spending our weekends jumping from one activity to the next.  It just made us feel more tired and less relaxed.  We get a lot more out of just hanging out at home as a family, doing stuff around the house, working in the garden, playing in our sandbox, going on walks, riding bikes around town, playing at the park, going on treasure hunting adventures to the beach, and spending time with friends and family.  So we scaled our activities back.  I implemented a one structured kid activity per weekend rule (right now it's swimming).  Also we try to have one unscheduled day during the weekend dedicated to relaxation, fun, and of course a few chores here and there.  These always tend to be the most enjoyable and stress-free days of the weekend.

Are the ways that you deschedule or make time for spontaneity? I'd love to hear about them.

Spring Equinox and Prioritizing "Me" Time

Matilija Poppy

Happy Spring!!  Spring symbolizes rebirth, renewal. What better time to reflect on New Year’s Resolutions than three months into the year and the start of spring!! Prioritizing my time and personal projects is topics that I struggle with, mainly because I have a lot of interests and limited time to pursue them. This year, to honor my motto, ‘It’s Time for Simplicity’, I tried a new approach to New Year's resolutions. I made a long list of the things that I'd most like to undertake this year.  These items were on the list either because they are life-long goals, because I have a passion for them, or they just really need to get done. Then I pared my list down to just a few items that I could really focus on during the year.   My criterion for keeping items on the list was simply that they have to be activities that make me happy or that I enjoy doing.  Time is my most precious commodity so there is no sense wasting my 'spare' time (if such a thing exists) on self-imposed activities that I don't enjoy.   So here is my list:

•       Become a certified yoga instructor
•       Decorate living room and makeover office, and clean out garage
•       Integrate edible landscaping into my yard
•       Enjoy every moment to the fullest
•       Do more family arts and crafts
•       Learn to play guitar

These are the things that I plan for, prioritize getting done, and work at every day.  I also made an escape plan.  In the event that I stop enjoying any of these resolutions or realize that they sounded more fun in theory than in practice, they are dropped from the resolution list.  That actually happened with the last item on the list. I’ve always wanted to play guitar so I enrolled in a beginning guitar class through the adult ed program.  Throughout the first class the instructor kept saying how important it is to practice, practice, practice.  So I sat through the first class, practicing the “The Horse with No Name” over and over and over, trying to figure out how I would possibly have time to practice guitar outside of class time.  I finally came to the conclusion that outside of those three hours of class-time I don’t have the time to practice and  that there isn’t anything else on my resolution list or otherwise that I’d be willing to give up to make the time. So I left at the end of the class, never went back, and never had a regret.  I’ve been having too much fun working on my other resolutions.

St. Patrick's Day Pizza?

Shamrock Pizza

Happy belated St. Patty's Day.  This year for St. Patty's Day did we celebrate with green beer and corn beef and cabbage? Nope, we had shamrock pizza.  Let me explain.  We have a few family traditions that we celebrate on various holidays.  One of them is pancake breakfast for pretty much any holiday we can find and excuse to celebrate.  This past Valentine's Day, in addition to heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, we made heart-shaped pizza for our special Valentine's dinner.  This must have stuck in my son's mind because for St. Patty's Day he requested shamrock pizza for dinner.  Not the traditional Irish fare, but since I'm Italian with a small bit of Irish thrown in, I figured that shamrock pizza was a fitting way to celebrate.  I think we've just stumbled across a new family tradition...holiday pizza.

Real Grass Easter Baskets

Today I was at a gardening talk about planting edibles in small spaces and a friend was telling me about how she is growing oat grass for her kids' Easter baskets rather than using the plastic or paper grass.  I thought it was such a lovely idea! I'm going to use wheat grass and then we can harvest it after Easter. You can grow it yourself or just buy it already grown.  If you want to grow it yourself here's how you do it.

1. Buy 1-2 cups of sproutable wheat berries/grain at a health food store.
2. Place the wheat berries in a bowl, cover with water, and soak for 12 hours.
3. Drain and rinse.
4. Add 1-11/2 inches of wet potting soil in a well drained plastic tray, a pot, or directly into your basket.
5. Sprinkle the wheat berries over the soil..
6. Cover with wet paper towel and water.  Cover with a dishtowel and set in a dark plays for 2-3 days. Keep moist.
7. Uncover after 3 days and set in a warm place with indirect sunlight.  Keep moist.

Enjoy!

The Art of Sewing

About eight years ago my husband (then boyfriend) and I rented an old and exceedingly small house with no storage space to speak of, not even a linen closet (although ironically the place had a hot tub and big back yard for our dog, but I digress).  So we we made a deal...he would make us a set of window seats to store our camping gear and linens and I would sew some cushions and pillows to make the seats comfy.  He held up his end of the bargain and I, unfortunately, did not, which has become a running joke between us.  Now every time I mention sewing something he mumbles "yeah like those window seat cushions" and then starts laughing.

Needless to say, I have a sewing machine that until recently sat unused in the garage.  My not-so-good excuse is that I've never known how to set the machine up (in my unexpert opinion the hardest part) and that once I learn that step the sewing part should be pretty easy.  My other excuse is that I'm not very crafty.  Well no more excuses.  My mom came to visit recently and we dusted off the old Singer and she gave me a tutorial on how to set it up. I videotaped her instructions so I can refer to it when needed (which will be often).  Then I moved the sewing machine from the garage to our newly organized (but not finished) office/guestroom/playroom/craftroom.  I figure it's more likely to get some use if I don't have to go hunt for it in the garage.  My first project will be throw pillows for our living room, but it may be a month or two until I get to it since I'm still working on the office project.  Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it.

Winter Harvest and Spring Garden Planning

Kale and Sweet Lettuce Mix

Beets

This year we planted a winter garden for the first time.  Since we have a small garden area I planted high yield veggies (kale, yield chard, lettuce, and peas).   I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but the kale, beets, lettuce, and chard were a great success.  The peas did okay, but not as well as I had hoped.  

It is starting to warm up a bit here on the west coast so I'm planning the spring/summer garden (tomatoes, squash, cucumber, and beans, oh my). However, our winter garden is still doing well and since I LOVE my greens, I don't want to pull the winter plants out just to make room for the spring garden.  I'm slowly learning that many veggies can grow year round in our temperate climate.  Great for us, but there is only so much space in our little raised bed.   So, I've decided to work around the plants that are still doing well.  I am going to start the tomatoes, squash, cucumber, and beans from seed to buy me some time. I've also harvested half of the beets to make a bit of room.  I'll likely also pull out the pea plant this weekend since it's not really producing much anyway.  The cramped quarters in our raised bed is also forcing me to make good on my goal of incorporating edible plants into our landscaping.

Here is a website I have found useful in helping me decide what veggies to plant and to plan out my garden.  Happy planting!!