Suburban Homestead

Gluten-free Blackberry Muffins

At the risk of sounding like a hipster-poser, I've been doing the gluten-free thing for almost a month now. I wasn't 100% right out the gate - that proved hard at the cabin when friends were arriving with things like homemade pies and the like, but I was pretty good. I'm operating at 100% gluten-free these days and it's no longer a struggle...although I plan to jump off the wagon this weekend with the excuse of *girly celebration*.  It started when I read Wheat Belly. Packaged up as the key to excess weight loss, this book served me better as a real eye-opener to the negative side effects of wheat. I don't suffer from celiac, but for a whole host of reasons I'll just say, it seemed a great idea to me to eliminate wheat whenever possible.

That said, I've been playing around with gluten-free baking and trying to get my bearings down with the new vocabulary. I found this recipe from Dr. Oz and modified it to serve my fruit and portion needs (our neighbors blackberry bushes are dripping into our yard!). These were so easy to throw together quickly and I thought they turned out great, but even better - so did my kids!

Gluten-Free Blackberry Scones

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

4 large eggs, beaten until frothy
2 cups almond flour
2/3 cup bulk sugar substitute (I used unrefined coconut sugar)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blackberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease a muffin tin.

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, except for the blackberries, and mix well to create a batter.

Gently fold the blackberries into the batter and scoop batter evenly into muffin pan (about 2 heaping tablespoons each). 

Bake for about 15 minutes until muffins begin to lightly brown.  Let cool for 10 minutes before removing. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

A Week of Dinners

I haven't done one of these in a while and because it's late, I won't go into too much detail. Here are all my dinners for the past week:

monday - filet mignon with a rosemary + sage butter, salad with beets, pistachios, avocado and feta

tuesday - I can't remember what I fed the kids but Daddy and I ate tuna tartar on rice crackers with salad

wednesday - date night at farm shop

thursday - an old friend for dinner, grilled flank steak and vegetables

friday - my mom is our guest, pork and asparagus with mustard sauce

saturday - guests for dinner (no photo), grilled shrimp with mango chutney, grilled vegetables, fiesta salad with avocado, tomatoes and black beans

sunday - Marinitas where I ordered the vegetable platter

Windrush Farm Summer Camp

Last week, the eight-year-old struck it lucky when he got to attend a day camp at Windrush Farm with three of his friends. It's opportunities like this that make me wish I had my kids summer schedules. I found out about Windrush accidentally really, I was on Facebook and just followed a trail of seeds - "David Z. likes Windrush Farm -> "I like farms. Let me check it out." -> Gorgeous pictures, summer camp offered -> Call friend, coordinate -> Drop one week into cart and check-out.

The trek out to West Marin was a lot for us - an hour each way, two times a day. But I split it with my friend and the scenes at drop-off and pick-up just made it all bearable. This place was so picture-perfect...bucolic. The Windrush family were all smiles and welcoming. My friend and I went to the first drop-off together and found ourselves lingering about (doop de doop) while the kids did their morning chores - shucking wheat for pizza dough, brushing the dogs and watering plants.

What those kids did the rest of the day, I may never know. It's like pulling teeth for me to get details out of my kids, but I'm going to assume it was all magic and farm love until they tell me anything different. I know what it was like for me and that was *a little slice of heaven*. My girl and I did not want to leave that first morning. We too wanted the opportunity to be farmers for a week...or maybe even a little longer. ;)

Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Summer Fruit

Nana is in the house cabin this weekend and Nana LOOOVES fruit desserts. Upon her arrival she was already talking about, and excited to make, a new recipe she'd just spotted in the latest addition of Sunset Magazine - Campfire-Glazed Peaches + Figs with Olive Oil Cake. Unable to find figs, a cast-iron skillet or a logical reason to build a campfire in 100 degree heat, she opted to macerate peaches and strawberries on stove-top instead.

This creation was incredible and so perfect for a hot summer night. The cake was similar to angel's food cake, but with a thicker and sweeter outer crust that offered just the right about of crunch to each bite.



This one is absolutely getting filed under *Favorites* -  right after I eat a piece for breakfast.

Here is how she did it:

 

Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Summer Fruit

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 cup mild extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon lightly packed lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• Macerated fruit
• Sweetened whipped cream

Cake Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Butter a 10-in. round and 2-in.-deep cake pan. Set a piece of parchment paper, cut to fit, inside, then butter parchment and dust pan with flour. Set aside.
2. Beat eggs in a large bowl with a mixer, using the whisk attachment, until frothy. Gradually add sugar and beat on high speed until mixture is pale and leaves a ribbon when you lift whisk, 6 to 8 minutes; scrape bowl halfway through.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Whisk milk, oil, and lemon zest and juice together in a large measuring cup.
4. Add one-third of dry ingredients, then half of wet ingredients to egg mixture, beating after each addition until smooth; continue until all are added and stop a couple of times to scrape inside of bowl.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and set in oven. Immediately turn down heat to 350°. Bake until cake pulls away from pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes.
6. Cool on a rack 15 minutes, then loosen cake from pan with a knife. Turn out onto a plate, remove parchment, and carefully flip cake back onto rack. Let cool completely.
7. Make ahead: Up to 2 days, wrapped airtight.

            Note: Total time includes 1 hour to cool.

Fruit Preparation

Adapted from this recipe, Nana macerated 3-1/2 pounds of peach and strawberry with butter and sugar on the stovetop. It could NOT have worked better! Serve warm fruit on top of a slice of cake and with a giant dollop of freshly whipped cream.

Now what are you waiting for?!?

"Nature Deficit Disorder"

 

"Nature Deficit Disorder" -- not on this river or my watch!

Happy 4th of July!

In Anticipation of The 4th

We jumped on the patriotic food bandwagon a little early this summer. With a full house this past weekend (seven kids and seven adults) I couldn't help but go to all the trouble of making Ina Garten's Flag (Ginormous) Flag Cake. When you have that many guests at the table, it's always fun to bring out the big guns.  This cake is nothing short of insanity, and I love making it every summer. It helps to make a Costco run before as it uses lots of cream cheese, butter and fresh (organic!) berries.

And on a slightly less organic note, I threw these red, white and blue nachos together one night with veggie taco leftovers. I picked up the chips at Cost Plus for a holiday treat and have to admit, they were pretty fun in this instance...despite the neon food coloring. ;)

We've also been cooking up lots of the usual summer fare - bbq ribs, cheese burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches with pesto, and tacos. One vegetarian visitor cooked up the most incredible polenta-based veggie lasagna that had us all running for seconds. I hope you too are enjoying good food, great friends and hot summer heat this week!

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

1.) Applegate makes the best *Sunday Bacon*  2.) Pig + peaches for breakfast  3.) Animal-loving Auntie helps maintains the kid's terrarium  4.) The 3-1/2 year-old caught this little guy - "all by mineself!"

Sentimental Gifts from Friends + Family

When visitors come up to the cabin, they often bring with them something special to contribute to our time together: a horseshoe game, a couple loafs of banana bread, some jars of canned treats from their garden back home. All of them mean something special to us, but I wanted to share my absolute favorites to date - some photos of the landscape, as well as a sweet poem.

The images here were taken over the weekend by our good friend (and former neighbor), Peter G. He loves photography as much as I do but has a much better grasp of the technical side. These images of the river and super moon were taken using a technique called HDR - High Dynamic Range. It's basically when you take one exact shot at varying exposures, then merge them all together so that the best lighting attributes from all images come together into one very intense image. You can see more of Peter's work here.

And then there is this sweet poem from *Vince*, a very special sort of Thank You after a long, Thanksgiving weekend last year:

Heavy traffic and a few winding twisting roads,

Deliver us to a place far away, yet so very close


Warm knotty pine ceilings and cool granite tops,

Sounds of the river flowing and an occasional champagne bottle "pop"


Warm turkey wrapped with bacon and mashed potatoes galore,

Corn bread with mushrooms... who could ask for anything more?


Mornings with strong coffee and cool cloudless skies,

Finding interesting curly bugs and studying a chopper that doesn't fly


Lively discussions and games without personal attacks,

Debates about politics, presidents, and voting democrats


A holiday weekend with family but without the ringing phone,

Far away from work and cities, but certainly not alone


We watched the bouncing kids and few happy wagging tails...

Had some driveway walks and explored where there are no people trails


For me, a rare holiday, that ended too fast and was gone way too soon...

We can't express enough thanks for the family, the food, and the warm wonderful room!

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

It's usually hot, hot, hot here in the mountains during the summer, but it actually rained yesterday (and the day before) which felt so strange. We had some friends arrive Monday who we'd promised hot-summer-fun-in-the-sun to. What we ended up giving them - late winter weather. We still had a great time, just in a different kind of way...a Thanksgiving kind of way. During a break in the weather we took the kids down to the river and played on the new zip-line. The river's water was unusually dark and moody, and its plantlife brilliant and bright. Weeeeeee!!!

Super Moon Celebration

Well, it's not exactly like we set out to celebrate the Super Moon... we were actually already having a rather grand time with friends at the cabin when we remembered that it was on its way to rising all crazy big and bright. By the time we thought to pull out the telescope and set-up cameras on tripods, we'd already exhausted ourselves with river time, hiking, chalk art, imaginary play, board games, dinner and dance. Our tummies were stuffed with bunless burgers and salad, and we'd savoured the flavor of cake on the occasion of one child's half-birthday. The summer moon's glow seemed nothing unusual really, especially in comparison to the light of nine happy kids blissed-out on summertime fun.

Snapshots of Father's Day

Well, I'm pretty pooped after a great day filled with lots of food and exercise so I'll keep this short. The kids and I performed well today, I'm thinking. We don't always, but I had remembered a comment in passing from Daddy last fall when he mentioned he wanted a cruiser. He doesn't ask for much, so when something like this comes along, I grab it and tuck it away into a special place... a place I can hopefully find my way back to at a later date. He got his cruiser this morning and so we took a ride down to the *agrarian-chic* Marin Country Mart for a shared lunch at Belcampo with my pops. The food was incredible, the center full of families, there was live music and a long line out the door of Three Twins Ice Cream. Bliss.

Fabulous Friday + The Last Day of School

I love the last day of school... and I hate it, all at the same time.

I love it, hate it.

Love, hate, love, hate.

I love it because it marks the beginning of what will be a magical time in every child's mind - summertime! I love it because it gives way to camps offering new and unique adventures, heightened by warm weather, late nights and lazy mornings. I hate it because the last day of school has become a logistical nightmare with off-campus class parties in different zip codes and too many heart-felt *goodbyes*.  As we powered up yesterday morning for a an intense day of tag-team parenting, I wondered if it wouldn't be a better idea to just skip the last day of school all together and go to the beach. ;)

We started a tradition on the last day of school many years ago, when the big kid was still the only one in school. Even though it was just pre-school, we celebrated the end of his year with a special dinner out - just the three of us, along with a gift of some quasi-educational books to keep him busy during summer. Eventually his sister got in on the action after her first year of pre-school, and this year, Mr. Noodle joined the fun for his first time.

Last night was the third year in a row where we've celebrated at Umami, in the city. The kids love the food and always ask to go back.

After ordering food and drinks, we gave each of the kids their packages...

...and then the food arrived! Pot stickers, Ahi tacos, beef sliders, edimame hummus and flat bread, and veggie fritters.

The real reason we keep coming back to Umami - the dessert roll made of vanilla ice cream wrapped in chocolate chip cookie dough, drizzled in chocolate and served alongside wasabi whipped cream and ginger candies!

Hello summer!

Fabulous Friday

We tried something very different this Friday - Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies made with chickpeas and honey instead of flour and sugar. Super exciting stuff I should say, as I experiment with a wheat-free diet. They were...pretty good! Delicious for what they actually are - flour-free and all. The kids loved them, I loved them and all of us took seconds.





This guy ran around post-cookie with a chocolate beard for hours and I didn't have the heart to wipe it off.











After dinner we had a ladybug release party. I do this once a year with the kids and they love it, of course. We wait until the sun is down, spray the vegetable garden with water to make it damp and desirable, and then we let 500 bugs slowly crawl out on to our beets, chard, lettuce and beans. I typically find them for days after all around the garden. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Fabulous Friday

Tell me you don't love Fridays.

See - you can't do it! Fridays are THE BEST. And with summer upon us, and one. more. week. down., I had to pee my pants when I read this post about the marathon that is the end-of-the-school-year-shuffle.

I'm feeling a little bit more pressure these days than normal, but to be truthful, Jen Hatmaker's description of the end of the year is kind of how I feel all year long. I'm always feeling like the worst mom. My paperwork is always late, I'm always forgetting volunteer shifts (despite checking my calendar upon waking), I've yet to muster up the strength to volunteer for a *board position*, and our pediatrician just called to say she hasn't seen either of our boys in over two years. We haven't all five enjoyed a *similar looking dinner* in over two weeks and I really need to make an OBGYN appointment - cos it's been 3.5 years (as in, since I last gave birth).

But I'm pretty sure I did something right today when Mr. Noodle asked me if we could make a dinosaur garden outside his window and I said "YES!" My enthusiasm to oblige was completely selfish though. See, that sweet kid pretty much has the worst view in the house - all cinder blocks and ivy out his window. Every time I take in that view I silently fear I am crippling his creativity with my lack of motivation to make it more interesting.

But that was Thursday, and today is Friday...

After the big kids left for school, and after Mr. Noodle and I scrambled to get to the kindergarten concert, we went to our favorite nursery and stocked up on all sorts of wonderful succulents fit for a dinosaur habitat.

"Hey look at this one, Mama!" he'd say. "This one looks super dinosaur-y to me!"

And so we selected, purchase, planned and planted our garden. The final touches came in the forms of little plastic dinosaurs that now call these high-gloss orange pots their home. Overall, the finished pots didn't add quite the punch I'd hoped they would there on the wall, but they are pretty cute up close, and Mr. Noodle is in no way critical of our work .

All that said, we didn't have much time to do our usual Friday morning dessert making. But I figure it doesn't have to be homemade every single week. (Right? That's OK to do that, right?) So this afternoon we picked up one of everybody's favorite at Miette Bakery. Each one of these desserts (I'll admit I sampled three) tasted *perfect*. They honestly tasted just as pure and perfect as they looked. Nothing unusual or unexpected, just pure goodness. I'm glad we cheated this week, in the name of the dinosaur garden.

Orla Kiely Cupcakes

This is a story about two of my absolute favorite things - cupcakes and Orla Kiely - and how one very sweet woman made sure the two were combined into one giant *thank you* for my family and me.

Last August, we hosted my second cousin, his wife and family for two nights while on their cross-country move from Alaska to Louisiana.

They came down and their little family took us all by storm. (I mean this in the best way possible, of course.) At the time, I had only spent a few hours with my cousin Kody over the past 30 years, and I hadn't yet met his wife Rachel, or their two boys. After getting them quickly settled and giving them a caffeine-fueled tour of the best our town has to offer, including a trip to Kara's Cupcakes to pick up the evening's desserts, we had a little mini-family reunion at our house. My sisters were there, all their kids, my mom and dad. It was simple and effortless, and so we just sat around in a big circle on patio chairs talking, just like our shared family members back in South Dakota might have done, middle of the last century.

Could I not have remembered to take some pictures?!

Anyway, I can't remember what I ended-up serving for dinner, beyond trying to keep it all local and fabulous for our Guam->AK->LA guests, of course. I do, however, remember what I did NOT serve - and that was a promised Orla Kiely inspired cake for Rachel, a woman who deserves to have someone bake her a cake for once.

Let me explain. Rachel is the incredibly talented cake designer/maker, and face of Fondant Flinger.  Our entire California contingency had been following her work on Facebook for some time, despite having never actually met her. One day, she commented on this Facebook post of mine:

Now I realize you can't even see all my bags in this modified shot, but trust me - the whole ensemble was thoughtless and I couldn't help but laugh at myself. The point is Rachel loved my bags and because I knew she was coming, I told her I was going to make her a cake inspired by my Orla Kiely bag. I made a big, big promise.

(Thump)

If only I could stick to my word. If only I could have delivered. If only I could sign-up for *just enough* and not *too much*.

So by the time their family arrived on that warm, Monday night last August, my tail was shoved sufficiently between my legs as I leaned my body weight against the entryway closet, hiding all the last bits I'd just picked up off the floor. There would be no spectacular cake for Rachel, her husband or their to-die-for little boys. All I had to show for my idea was a raindrop cookie cutter that I had purchased thinking it could double as an Orla Kiely leaf. "Look! Wouldn't this have worked great?!"

(Cue the trumpet)

And yet, she could not have cared less. She got it. She understood. She knew I was crazy to have made that promise. She knows what it's like to play with fondant. Little did I know, she was plotting something even more spectacular.

So despite all the gifts they gave to use on their departure - Salmonberry jelly, deer jerky, fresh smoked Alaskan salmon, as well as toys for the kids, she still, for some crazy reason I will never understand, thought that she needed to craft cupcake toppers that pay homage to one of my favorite designers, coordinate their debut on top of everyone's favorite cupcakes (Kara's), and have them delievered to our house on cold, rainy, fall night.

Love that girl!

I actually saved one of the twelve cupcakes and am letting it dry out right now. I plan to shellac it and frame it in a shadow box on our picture wall!

Summer Vacation Wrap-up

If everything had gone along as *planned*, I would have broken up our adventures at our friend's Northern California cabin into subjects such as The Food We Ate, The Wildlife We Saw, Spoosy's Magical Garden, etc. But I did not plan well, not at all. I did not post for almost two weeks and now instead, I'm just going to post one big collection of photos as colorful and scrambled as the thoughts that run through my mind this time of year. Here is to the end of summer and to the beginning of my favorite season!

We found this big guy hopping around Spoosy's squash blossoms. Nothing says wonderful childhood moment better than a little man's dirty hands wrapped around a giant toad.

Did someone say squash?! One day's harvest from Spoosy Moose's incredible vegetable garden. We made pesto gnocchi for lunch, and then stuffed the leftovers into blossoms which we fried for dinner that night. I also fried up zucchini and corn cakes with cheddar cheese. We ate fresh kale chips every day.

Spoosy contemplates her garden in the early morning while a young man enjoys reading one of his birthday gifts.

Like I said, Spoosy is just about as four-wheel drive as a grandmother can be. After she caught this salamander for the kids, she swam a half-mile up river where we met her (in the boat). There she taught the kids how to look for salmon underwater.

Spoosy's Garden

We are having an apple kind of day today. For breakfast we enjoyed rolled oats topped with the last of 2011's apple butter, and today I'm making a 2012 batch while preparing for friends to come over tonight to can apple sauce. It seems like the right time to pick up where we left off and post about Spoosy Moose's fruits and vegetables at her summer cabin.

It's been two weeks now since we returned home from our two week RV trip. The kids are back in school, twelve loads of laundry have brought us back to a state of *normal*, and I'm slowly chipping away at getting the house organized since our move in May.

But I want to step back a few and wrap up the last four days of our summer vacation, spent at Spoosy's homestead way up north. It all just seems like a dream at this point.

Here is a shot I snapped from the cabin porch looking at the big kid stringing his line before going out to catch his mama a salmon in the river. (Little Miss daydreams on a swing, beneath a walnut tree.)

Mr. Noodle dons some Davy Crockett attire before heading out into the orchard.

Fallen walnuts rest on top of the kitchen's half door.

Center stage in the bear-proof orchard of mixed summer fruit is a fallen apple tree that still puts out a hug production.

Spoosy told us to help ourselves to all the (organic) fruit we wanted and so we loaded up a box for home. Then we all chipped in and helped her clean the orchard of fallen fruit that could not be used.

The raspberry patch in the upper garden where more vegetables used to be grown for the endless friends and family that visited the homestead through the decades.

I LOVED this feature of the lower garden. The large space was fenced, and around it a wide path was maintained by cutting back the endless blackberry bushes and creating a sort of *wall o' berries* that make harvesting easy and painless!

For as long as I have been hearing about Spoosy's cabin, I have been making pies that never quite live up to DH's memories of hers. This summer I finally got to enjoy the legend first hand - and it did not disappoint!

A Friend's Rustic Family Cabin

For as long as Daddy and I have been an item, I have been hearing stories about time spent at his best friend's family cabin. This week, I finally (FINALLY!) got to see it for myself. Driving for six hours to get there, I was beginning to think nothing could be worth this brutality, but as soon as we turned off the main road and began making our way down the five mile long driveway to its remote location, my tune changed and I turned to Daddy and said "I take it back. If this driveway is all I ever know about the cabin, the drive was worth it!"

That long stretch of driveway took us in and out of woods dense with Redwoods and Alders. Ferns came down the hill to the roadside and met with wild foxglove. Blackberry bushes dominated and clearly served as shrines to black bears, who left their big piles of "blessings" all along the gravel road. I was in heaven!

And then we arrived at the rustic two bedroom cabin on the river - one family's tradition for three generations and counting.

We quickly learned that the cabin accepted electricity only two years ago, but still doesn't have a landline. Even still, there is only one outlet that I could see, one working bulb in the kitchen and the rest of the time it's preferred that everyone operate by candlelight and in a electronics-free environment.  If music is to be enjoyed, it must be played by the guests.

We were welcomed by said best friend's mother, a sort of second mom to Daddy and a self-proclaimed "extra grandma" to our kids. She has got to be the world's No.1 Four-Wheel-Drive Grandma - swimming upstream several times a day just because, playing with small kids until the cows come home, baking fruit pies all day long for her spawnings to enjoy. She's just amazing and we love her for all these reasons and more. In intimate circles, she is known affectionately as the Spoosy Moose.

Spoosy's cabin is an honest to goodness homestead of Little House on the Prairie proportions. There was an enormous garden (HUGE!), an orchard bursting with pears, walnuts, apples, peaches, figs and persimmons, not to mention a river full of trout, steelhead, and salmon.

The house is lovingly filled with decades of family memories and collections of objects that told stories of days gone by.

Our time at Spoosy's second home was all I had been promised it would be. In fact we stretched our planned three nights and two days to four nights and four days - it was that special! So much more to come on this magical place, just as soon as I get control over all this dirty laundry.

Confusion Hill, CA

Our drive up Hwy 101, with a stop at Confusion Hill, actually took place about five days ago. In fact, we are actually back home today after four days days at our friends magical family cabin in Northern California. So much to share about those incredible days. Until then, I'll share these pictures of our drive up, which I love - bright colors and kitch nestled in the Redwood Trees - summertime, summertime, summertime!

Striking Gold in California

We said "goodbye" to three incredible days in the Yosemite Valley on Tuesday, after taking in lunch on the outside patio of the Ahwahnee Hotel (a real treat!). Heading out of the park, and up North through the Gold Country, we made a quick stop to cool off at an old-fashioned sweet shop in Jamestown.  I have such great memories of antiquing in Jamestown through the years with my grandma when she was still alive. I had hoped to run through my long-standing favorite shop, The Emporium, but we arrived two minutes after they closed and so I just steamed up the front window instead.

We spent Tuesday night at our first honest-to-goodness RV park. Angels Camp RV and Camping Resort was clean and simple with some highlights that included fruiting grape vines, fig trees and even a pet emu! It certainly wasn't Yosemite, but we didn't mind too much because for the first time in three days, we had full hook-ups! Some RVs seemed to call this place *home*.

We had all of Wednesday to make our way up to Sly Park Resort where we were meeting family for our annual summer campout. We got off to a late start but decided to visit a cute town we knew of - Murphys. That's our beast parked along the adorable tree lined main street.

We stuffed ourselves silly at Alchemy where we indulged on fish tacos, burgers, garlic bread and gourmet bubble gum soda.

She's never really done well in restaurants. ;)

After lunch, Daddy stayed back to trouble-shoot some *issues* with the RV while the kids and I walked the dreamy main strip, admiring waterways, window shopping and looking for something sweet to eat.

Rubber chicken themed goods at Twisted Oak.

Oh yes we did!!!

We were SO lucky to discover Lila & Sage - winner of The Cupcake Wars! Here Little Miss stands in front of the case with her new rubber chicken.

Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry Shortcake and Vanilla with Raspberry - all award winning!

Our last stop of the day was California Caverns - which we loved! We were able to escape the 100+ degree weather for an hour by heading underground into the limestone cavern where the temperature is always a consistant 53.

Yosemite Glamping

Did someone say *glamping*? 

Welcome to our third Yosemite summer vacation! We decided to really take the fun up a notch this year and splurge on an RV. *Someone* was *supposed to be* potty trained and so it seemed like a great idea. (Refrigerated food and the occasional hot shower was nothing to throw rocks at either.)

Yosemite was great, as always. Every year it's all very predictable - the perfect weather, the tolerable crowds, the selection of activities. This year though, water levels were very, very low due to low rains this past winter. Yosemite Falls was completely dry (although it usually runs out in late August anyway), and all the rivers down to a trickle. Mirror Lake, our favorite spot, was more like a desert this time. :(  If we don't get more rain this winter, we will likely take a break from Yosemite next summer as those water activities are always the highlights of the trip.

I didn't do the best job capturing the magic of the valley I'm now realizing, as I look back on three days of photos, but these are some little highlights of our time:

I have to laugh at all the fuss I made over the suggested list of items the RV rental company provided. 'Pizza stones', 'butcher knives' and 'curling irons' were some of the items I scoffed at, but the iGrill?! Oh yeah, we definitely need that out in the wild!

Here was a typical breakfast for us: English muffins toasted on the skillet, buttered and jammed (blackberries just canned this week!), peaches and blueberries. We would then wash it all down with a long family bike ride through "Nature's Great Cathedral".

Little Miss on her new DeeLITE bike with her new helmet. The whole get-up cracks me up.

Mr. Noodle refuses to acknowledge the potty but was a superstar on his balance bike. The kid is going to graduate to peddles before he's even out of diapers.

I've always been a die-hard romantic for stories of The Mother Road - so I had to try this stuff.

Little Miss trying to get close to a deer.

I'd say she nailed it.

Our view of Half Dome from a little shady spot along the river where we swam and snacked.

OK - I'm probably going to go to hell for this next shot, or at least have to face interrogation by CPS, but let's be fair here - this is not nearly as bad as smearing your child's head with honey so that you can get a cute shot with a bear, now is it?

I know, I KNOW! Don't feed the animals!!! But really, these animals were so brazen, something tells me they've had a life of tourists feeding them long before we ever rolled our 26-foot mobile home into the valley. I wasn't going to kill her dream of a tea party with woodland animals.

OK - another naughty parenting moment - camping with iPads. But really - who's parent would not have used one of these in our day had we been more wired in the 70's. No more guilt here because while they were doing this at 8 o'clock...

...we were outside doing this. :)

A big thanks goes out to Galen Clark, Abraham Lincoln and John Muir for making this family vacation possible. As Daddy said, "We owe so much to those men. Without them this valley would look like Las Vegas."

The Yosemite Valley

Every time we come to Yosemite I end up in tears. Last year, it happened on our last day, when at the base of Half Dome I watched my naked babies splash about in Mirror Lake. As my heart exploded, the tears erupted.

It happened again this morning, but admittedly on a slightly smaller scale. After taking our morning coffee, faces kissed by the morning sun rising over Half Dome, I took a walk to the end of our campground to visit the stables. I knew that soft, golden light, shining down on those horses, would be absolutely breathtaking.

And it was. So I took pause, let it all seep in, and let the tears well up.

It was just another summer morning in the Yosemite Valley. But even still, it seems impossible to me to be in those moments and to not feel that there is something greater than all of us at work.

iGrill, therefore iAm

Daddy got a new gadget at the iPhone store.

It’s called the iGrill and it comes with a tiny iProbe that meatsits your dinner while you go off and enjoy your friends and family. When your meal has come to temp, the iProbe tells the iGrill, which tells your iPhone to tell you to come back to the heat and take all the credit for a job well done.

And we thought we had it made with an electrical thermometer fork!! We tried it out last night with friends and it worked great. More importantly, they brought their Boston over and we forced a doggie playdate on the girls. (Although, now that I think of it, there may have been a little teeth gnashing involved.)

Ruby was so flippin' sweet and so INCREDIBLY cute, I wanted to take her for our own.

Here's where we ate our iMeat after we fed the kiddos their iFish:

Our Neighbor's Blackberry Forest

I live for mornings like these...

Our neighbor's blackberry forest is finding it's way into our yard. This morning I got myself out of bed a little earlier than normal and picked fresh berries for scones. Happy day, happy day! Now I just need to walk up to their door, introduce myself and ask them if I can have access to their forest. Mama's got her heart set on pie and jam!

Lazy Mom's Flag Cake

If you've been on Pinterest this week, you most certainly saw this cake pinned.

Again. And again. And again.

My friend Jill and I tried to make something similar, but with a lot less effort involved.

Don't assume us unpatriotic. We just prefer to spend our summer days floating in the river, chatting.

Discovering Gold

Not far from our cabin, you can visit the town where gold was discovered in 1849.

Fishing for Minnows

This morning...

...there was a deer outside our cabin door with whom I shared a cup of coffee...

...while cousins fished for minnows in the river.

We will be here all week, enjoying summertime in the mountians with a revolving door of friends and family. Now it's off to Pinterest to pick an epic dessert for the 4th!

Pictures of a Father's Day

11 Things I Love About Our New House

It's been a while, I know.

What's been keeping me from blogging has actually not been the move or the end of school activities, but a couple work projects that have got me very excited...and maybe traveling a bit too.

The dust is beginning to settle though, and I'm looking forward to soaking in everything about this new house of ours this summer. Here are my favorite things about it:

1. The Front Doors. When we first went into contract on this home, we were actually on our road trip to Palm Springs. Over the moon and looking forward for what was in store, I found a lot of inspiration on that trip that I naturally projected onto my visions of remodeling. We needed to do a couple quick fixes before we moved, like replace some windows and add some ceiling lights to the kid's rooms. The interior had been given a fresh coat of paint but I couldn't help but paint the front doors. The best part is that I pained over the perfect shades of yellow and finally narrowed it down to two - Benjamin Moore's "Baby Chick" and "Yolk". Now if that wasn't just meant to be! (I ended up going with Yolk.)

2. It’s a Typical Ranch.  Architecturally speaking, the California Ranch home has got to be my favorite – simple, modern, one story living!

3. It’s In The Flats.  I haven’t lived in the flats for almost 15 years when I shared a five-bedroom house with four other girls in San Francisco’s Sunset district. I haven’t lived in the flats where it was actually safe to ride my bike anywhere since college. In our new life, we bike to school, to lunch, to the grocery store, and out on date night.  It’s been a welcome change.

4. It Needs Work.  There are few things I love more in this world than family, friends and a good project. While we purchased it move-in-ready, and can easily live here for years as-is, it screams “BLANK CANVAS!” to us. We intend to live it for a while, get a feel for what works and what doesn’t (the furnace, dishwasher and toilets come to mind) and then we'll go from there.

5. Room For A Garden. It was tough leaving the original Suburban Homestead with it’s ideal growing conditions, but I’ve been watching the sun and how it moves over the new property and am excited to make this place work too. I think I’ve finally spotted the best space for the veggie garden. Right now it’s just a rocky slope out back, covered in ivy with patches of poison oak, but this time next year, I plan to have it in full operation.

Blackberries from our neighbors yard creep into ours. :)

6. It Has a Mini Orchard.  Two apple trees, an almond and a pear count, right?. I can’t wait to get canning this fall and planting more fruit trees. I will not be a complete woman until I have a fig, quince, pomegranate and persimmon tree here with us.

 

7. The Dark-Bottom Pool. I’ve not been much of a pool person since I turned about eleven, or so. But I have always been a fan of the dark-bottom pool. Who knew a swimming pool could bring so much to a family. Our kids are in it all day long!

8. It’s All White. The previous owners of the house lived here for almost forty years and had not done any work since 1983. There is a lot of Formica, vinyl tile and maybe even one or two original pastel-tile, 50’s bathrooms. But for the most part it’s white, and I can live with 80’s décor as long as it’s all white.

9. The Old-Growth Oaks. ‘nough said.

10. The Hallway.  I know, right? The hallway?!? But yes, the dramatically long hallway, measuring close to sixty feet long, and ending with a picture window looking out onto the pool, is one of my favorite features of the house. I’ve already begun to fill the walls with family photos. More on this feature coming up!

11. The Gazebo. This old school gazebo was adorable just sitting empty, but after a friend suggested re-hanging the (not so lovely) chandelier from the entry in the gazebo, it's cute factor jumped up a few more notches. We've already had some great family dinners out here.