Family – Page 2 – Eat Well. Live Fully.

Thanksgiving, It’s all about the food….and the family…and friends…and……

Just back from a Thanksgiving trip to my brother’s in Nashville. Great city, great company. Love visiting them. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, my brother hit the jackpot when he met his wife, Gina. In fact I said exactly that last year, when I wrote about the Thanksgiving 2009 trip here. The confirmed bachelor is now married, and a father. Last year my nephew was a newborn, this year a new walker.

Adding to the enjoyment, Gina’s aunt is a great hostess – and from day one has welcomed us as extended family into her gatherings. For most of these gatherings, we are in charge of bringing the drinks – beer, wine, a bit of spirits. For the Thanksgiving feast, Jeff and Gina do prepare quite a bit of the food. Last year I did my part entertaining 2 week old Jack while his parents cooked, this year, kiddo had that duty….providing me an opportunity to help with the cooking.

Preparations began Wednesday evening and continued through Thursday morning with an eye on our 1 pm deadline. Thursday morning found four of us in the kitchen, and we quickly developed almost a dance…weaving between each other, passing ingredients, stirring while another measured, one manning the sink – washing the dishes. Lots of mumbling under our breaths, reading the recipe’s next steps, thinking about what we needed next.

I’d suggested to Gina that we do the Roasted Brussel Sprouts with pomegranate I’d seen on the Thanksgiving edition of Throwdown when Bobby Flay took on one of my favorite bloggers, Pioneer Woman. Gina put me in charge of making this dish. Highly recommend. Very highly recommend this dish. Even folks who think they don’t like brussel sprouts will love it. As delicious as it is beautiful.

Also on the menu was a homemade version of the classic green bean casserole. Created without a single can or bit of processed food. the best green bean casserole I’ve ever tasted, and tons of fun to make. From sauteeing the fresh mushrooms to creating my own onion straws. So good, so worth the effort.

Gina and Jeff (with the help of her young cousin) made a fabulous pumpkin cheesecake- which had all of us licking the bowl. The bourbon laced sauce really, uh, topped the cake.

When the cooking was done, it took two cars to load up all the goodies and head to Gina’s aunt’s house for our feast. (Yep, plenty of my fav, Blue Moon)

We started with appetizers of artisan cheeses, homemade pumpkin hummus and babaganoush, spinach artichoke dip and lots of crackers and veggies to dip them with.

Then quickly moved onto the main course which even my little nephew loved!

After dinner, in a slight food coma, we all retired to the family room. Some watched the football game. Though electronics also came into play – folks in the same room texting each other, “Angry birds” being played simultaneously on the iPad, an iPod and an iPhone. Even the little ones got in on the fun.

Through it all, I was very impressed with kiddo and how good he did with his cousin. Makes me proud to be his mom.

Boo……..Halloween fun

I’ve started to make a bit of a tradition out of Halloween pumpkin carving w/ kiddo. A review of last year’s Halloween post showed we had more pumpkins, and I took a more of a leading role in the carving. This year, kiddo did them all….I just cleaned out the insides and roasted the seeds.

We only had three carved ones this year. Kiddo did one “freestyle”, the others following a pattern. Must say he’s getting the hang of things. Only one type of pumpkins seeds this year – the more savory with a touch of garlic olive oil, garlic salt, hint of pepper. These came out quite well. My kitchen tho, did not fare as well. Apparently, I attacked the scraping out the insides with a fury. Bits of pumpkin flew everywhere. Must have needed to work out some aggression or something…dunno.

Admit to in addition to slacking a bit on the pumpkin carving, didn’t really go all out on the outdoor decor. Used all the fun motion sensitive stuff, the scary music, fog machine, new talking face in the tree, but no spider webs, not a bunch of lights. Few pieces out in the garden, under the watchful eye of Kutya the wonder dog. (which reminds me, I never put his costume on either…what was I thinking???)

This year we did stop by a party for a bit. Kiddo even got second in the costume contest for his “when the Brewers slaughter the Cardinals” costume. Found the food names a great touch – shredded rat sandwiches (pork), moldy fruit pizza, maggots (a great coconut and banana rice pudding), vampire bat wings (homemade tortillas shaped like pumpkins and bats. WOW), blood soaked deviled eggs, bat guano, mummy wraps, witches fingers.

Looking back at last year’s post, made me realize another Halloween weekend tradition….tackling the leaves. The job was somewhat helped by last week’s wind storm, moving a good part of the masses of leaves covering our lawn into the woods. The rest were piled around the driveway farm pots, my potting shed. Hubby and son pile the leaves onto a tarp, and drag them to our woods. Kutya supervises all outdoor activity. In the woods, Mt. Leaverest is about 4 feet high by 12 feet in diameter, and growing. Should have a good bit of leaf mold for the garden in a year or so.

While checking out the pile had a thought….maybe we could make a little bit of singletrack through the woods. Kiddo and I had been practicing riding over rocks and logs last week in the yard…. may have to add this to our yard skills area 😉

My kinda town…………

I started the summer with the intention to once again chronicle Chicago’s street planting. Knew I’d be in the city at least once a month. The plan started strong the first week of June, when I spent an enjoyable hour or two with MrBrownThumb wandering the Lurie Garden and the other public spaces between Michigan Avenue and Columbus drive. The salvia at the Lurie Garden was stunning, the annual/tropical beds along Michigan Avenue were recently planted as was the Art on the Farm potager garden.

I was back the first week of July. Took tons of pictures, but never got around to downloading the pictures from camera to computer. Back again the first weekend of August for the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. The annual/tropical beds wre now well developed, the Lurie Garden had shifted to coneflowers, and the Art on the Farm garden was ready for harvest. However, the weekend turned into an electronics nightmare. Started with dropping my phone in, uh, water at the race expo, then lost my camera not once but twice. Unfortunately, only recovered it once. Gone were the July and August planting updates (and sadly, shots of cool “destruction” along Wacker at the Transformers 3 film set). It did give me an excuse to get one of those cool new waterproof cameras, a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5, but that’s another story.

There was one more trip to end the summer. My favorite trip of them all…Labor Day weekend in the city with the boys (hubby and son). The weather was perfect for exploring the city. We rode down from Milwaukee via Amtrak; dropped our bags off at the hotel, and began our city adventure with a river and lake cruise using the Wendella line. Someday I’ll do the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, but first wanted to introduce kiddo to Wendella. I remember doing this tour with my Girl Scout troop – at about the same age. Sill a great tour.

Kiddo has come to love walking around the city and on this trip we also introduced him to using public transportation, the el, the subway, city buses.

He’d seen a story on Travel Channel about a place in Wicker Park called “I Cream”. This was his must see of the trip. Very cool concept – pick your own flavors, colors, add-ins and they add it to the ice cream or frozen yogurt base. The liquid, not to the already frozen ice cream. Then use liquid nitrogen to make your creation in front of your eyes. Loved it.

Had to introduce kiddo to Chicago at night. Both walking around the streets and hitting a performance by the Blue Man Group. A visit to the fire station at Illinois and Dearborn was a pleasant surprise, the friendly firefighters not only are great city ambassadors, but let kiddo climb in the trucks.

The clear skies made a trip up to the Willis Tower a must see. We weren’t the only ones with that idea. Nearly 90 minute wait. Strongly recommend pre-purchasing the City Pass if you plan on doing two or more museums plus either John Hancock or Willis Tower. Not only will you either break even or save $$$, you get a fastpass to the top. The new glass cubes that stick out of the observation deck are a bit freaky. But of course we had to try them.

A weekend in Chicago wouldn’t be complete without brunch at our favorite place – Yolk. We originally discovered the N. Wells St location on a trip for kiddo’s gymnastic meet at UI-C. On our half marathon weekend, we stumbled upon the S. Michigan Ave. Location. That was the one we hit this trip (love the orange bread french toast!). Also gave us a chance to visit the torsos across the street – where kiddo did a pretty good imitation of the sculpture..

Spent our last afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry. A childhood favorite of mine, and now my son’s. Spent quite a bit of time in the Smart House exhibit.

Hit the coal mine first to avoid the crowds – and ended up with a three person, personal tour, saw the Hubble movie at the Imax, found the Poop to Power exhibit amusing, the submarine tour well worth the extra charge, and the interactive screens are tons of fun.

All and all a great family weekend. Had a slight melancholy moment as we entered Union Station to take the Amtrak back to Milwaukee. My foursquare check-in said, “And with this summer comes to a close”.

Of course with every closed door, God opens a window……..so know we’ll have more adventures ahead.

Wordless Wednesday: Our next generation of gardener

What better place to spend Mother’s Day than Mom’s garden

One of my first blog posts was called Where it all begin. In it I talked about *my* first garden. But honestly, where my love of gardening and gardening experiences began were in the gardens of my Mom and my Grandma.

So it seems fitting that as I am re-connecting with my passion for gardening I spend Mother’s Day with my Mom – in her garden and visiting garden centers with her.

So much of this garden feels like home.

At the same time there’s bits and pieces of my influence- the corydalis lutea given to me by an on-line friend and shared with mom; the daylilies from an order I placed one winter as my life was about to change. I’d used Mom’s garden as a nursery bed during that time of upheaval in my life. Splits of these daylilies are spread around her yard, found homes in my subsequent garden but still have a home in this “temporary bed” by Mom’s vegetable garden 12 years later. Unfortunately, over time the plant tags for the daylilies have disappeared- hoping later this season I will recognize them – or at least be able to make notes of bloom time, height, and color, so I can divide and move pieces into my new garden.

On this trip I did dig up a few clumps of corydalis, and several of Mom’s ferns (including this one which had made it’s way out of the border), and was fascinated by the fiddleheads in the process.

I’ll take lessons from the side of the house where Mom says she doesn’t mess with – letting the plants spread as they may. Lesson one – I found the green white color scheme soothing, calming. It is one I will use in my own garden. Lesson two – skip the Snow in the Mountain, which is probably the influence behind the let the plants go attitude.

Left Mom’s with the car loaded to the brim with the spoils of our Mother’s Day adventures, two garden centers (Gurnee Garden Center and Jamaican Gardens), a stop by Wadsworth Feed and Saddlery for alfalfa pellets and cocoa hulls, a bucket of ferns in the back seat and Mom’s Corydalis tucked in the right corner.

When I arrived home, planted the ferns and potted up the smaller divisions. Made me smile this morning as I left for work to see these pieces of “home” waiting for their new spot in my current home.

Appreciating things close to home and heart…

From reading this blog, you’d think I lived in Chicago. There was a post about bike riding along their lakefront trail, a streetscape post, another streetscape post, and yet another streetscape post. Fact is I live in a suburb of Milwaukee – another city with a great lakefront along beautiful Lake Michigan. This weekend my son (one of the things closest to my heart) and I took advantage of a gorgeous spring day to ride along Milwaukee’s Oak Leaf Trail in the section from the Summerfest grounds, around Lakefront Park and north to Bradford Beach.

First stop was a cruise around Lakefront Park which brought us to the back-side of the now empty Henry Maier Festival Park, aka Summerfest grounds. So odd to see this empty – but the Harley stage and the Miller Lite stage brought a smile to my face – honoring these two icons of our proud city.

Moving onward, the smart (read, sneaky) Mom in me knew that in order to make *my* goal of riding 10 miles that we needed to take the occasional break. Which we did, first stopping at the park in front of Discovery World to play some tunes – on the bench and the pebble waterfall, a quick pause on the promenade by the art museum to watch a couple of spear fishers and finally a stop to check out the kite shop in Veteran’s Park.

McKinley Beach caused us to wonder, how crazy you have to be to be swimming in Lake Michigan in early April. While Bradford Beach brought another hint of summer, and that beach’s strong volleyball tradition.

We enjoyed our stop at what appears to be a new fitness area. I got a kick out of showing the guy you see struggling on the yellow apparatus how an assisted chin-up machine works – I did a couple of sets of squats, assisted chin-ups and back extensions, while my competitive gymnast son gave the p-bars a work-out.

After we left the fitness area, kiddo asked me if he’d ridden 1.5 miles yet. I fessed up and told him, he’d ridden almost five miles. Which led him to proclaim he was going to ride 10 miles this day. We made several laps around Lakefront Park in order to accomplish this goal. What fascinated me was how often he stood to ride, or assumed the bent over determine pose of acceleration. Made me realize the fun of riding as a child – and maybe understand a little the draw of single speeds. Not that I’m going *there* anytime soon – but I get how they might re-connect with the childhood joy of riding.

Once we accomplished the goal of 10 miles, we headed back to the car. With the kiddo telling me his next goal is 15 miles, and then 20. Meanwhile, I was reminded of what a great city I am privileged to live in! Not to mention I am blessed with one great kiddo!

Appreciating things close to home and heart…

Newborn, Natchez, Noshing, Nashville, November

Our family had a little something extra to be thankful for this year – my new nephew Jack Stephen. Jack is the first child of my brother. He’s named in memory of my Dad, Jack, and in honor of his maternal grandfather, Stephen. My brother was a confirmed bachelor who hit the jackpot in his mid-40’s when he met his wife, Gina. Smart, fun, beautiful with an incredible family to boot. Really none of us could have asked for more. So, this year for Thanksgiving, we loaded up the car, put the bikes on the rack and set out on the 10 hour drive to celebrate with Jeff and Gina’s family and new son down in Nashville. And celebrate we did.

Gina’s Aunt is a great hostess and great cook. As with many great cooks, they have friends who are equally good cooks adding to the fun. What a feast we had – a foodie’s heaven! Two turkeys, one oven roasted, one smoked, two kinds of stuffing – including Gina’s family recipe of an italian sausage and bread stuffing that was almost addicting.

More and more food kept appearing on the tables….a couple of different sweet potatoes, the most amazing layered jello salad, several versions of cranberries, I loved the cranberry ginger chutney. Wines of the day were Pine Ridge Chenin/Vognier, Edna Valley Chardonnay, and Ponzi Pinot Noir. Blue Moon Honey Moon was available for the beer lovers. A bottle of Woodford Reserve was around. (any guesses what hubby and I were responsible for bringing). I forgot to get a picture of the dessert table – but it was equally impressive – two kinds of pumpkin pie, pecan pies. All so yummy.

Thank goodness with all that eating, we’d brought the bikes. Got in several good rides. A couple around Nashville in the Oak Hill/Belmont areas. But the most memorable was a ride along the Natchez Trace. Beautiful and challenging with the continual rolling hills.

Discovered that I’m a bit of a wimp riding over this famous bridge over Hwy 96. Heading out I stayed a decent distance from the edge. Coming back, a crosswind had blown up, and I was scared to death. Rode at almost the center of the road. Even once we got across and I got off the bike to take these pictures I never was able to stand next to the rail. Just a bit too freaked out.

The nice weather also provided an opportunity for a walk around Radner Lake.

Ended the weekend with a celebration of Mom’s birthday. A great trip, wonderful meeting Jack and spending time with family. Enough to wear a guy out!

Reflections on Halloween 2009

First off an observation……This blogger in training needs to do a better job of documenting things from start to finish. Sad to realize I didn’t take any in-process photos yesterday…the counter covered in newspaper, 5 pumpkins in varying states of being carved, piles of raw seeds, the patterns, carving tools, carved out chunks of pumpkin, my son and I covered in pumpkin gunk. Good times. Instead just have the final outcome of Halloween 2009 at our house.

We ended up with 6 carved pumpkins, one carved the day before at day care, the rest carved on Halloween morning at home. Final tally, I’d only carved 2, son did rest. I was responsible for all the pumpkin cleaning, pulling out the slimy guts, separating the seeds from the fleshy, gooey threads that connect them to the actual fruit. And boy, did we have seeds.

Son mentioned at the day care, they’d roasted the seeds two ways, with salt and then with cinnamon sugar. Then voted on favorite, where he voted “BOTH”. I’ve only ever done salt – somewhat evolving that to a savory garlic and herb version. Ended up splitting the seeds to to pans – on the right is the normal salt version, left is with a small bit of butter, brown sugar and common pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger). Would have to agree and vote “both”!

Trick or Treat in our town was from 5-7:30. My 10yo son had a friend spending the night, both going as versions of Star Wars clones. This was going to be the first year he trick or treated without parents, so I was a little worried, but we’d laid out the ground rules, they knew which streets they couldn’t cross, where they could go. A bit after 5pm, armed with flashlights, glow sticks and candy bags they set off. The boys were back well before 7:30 – first to grab additional coats, and later cuz they were tired of walking.

I donned my Cruella costume and the dog put on his Robin costume. We had maybe 40 trick-or-treaters. Lots of comments about the pumpkins from the parents, a few little ones nervous by the talking decorations and spooky music, but overall a good time. No dalmatians tho’, which would have been kinda fun!

Today it’s more or less back to normal, Halloween decorations packed away, pumpkins remain, and now time to tackle the masses and masses of leaves in the yard!

Growing up in the Garden

In my grand mental list of possible Blog topics, I have “write about the Missouri Botanic Garden”, and “tell people about the great plant database MOBOT provides”. However, as I looked through pictures last evening, I realized that I had a photo essay of my son growing up within The Garden.

The Garden, with emphasis upon “the”, is how I always thought of the botanic garden. I was a member, frequently took classes, and made a point of trying to visit in all seasons each year for inspiration. A gem in the city center of St Louis, MO. The Missouri Botanic Garden or MOBOT, along with the zoo, Forest Park/The Muny, the City Museum and a few garden centers/nurseries are the things I miss about living in greater St. Louis. While I frequently say it is not a place I want to live again, these are places I will go back to visit again and again over the years.

However, the real beauty and value of MOBOT is the draw for the both the gardener and non-gardener alike, young or old. Visit any June weekend, and you will see bridal party after bridal party doing photo shoots around the grounds; families walking the grounds, photographers looking for the perfect shot, couples strolling arm in arm oblivious to their surroundings. A hodge podge of people there for a hodge podge of reasons.

We first visited when my son was not quite two, and moved to Milwaukee when he was 8. Over our many visits, he developed some favorite areas of the garden. The Kemper Center was a first favorite. This area with it’s test garden, urban gardens, expanse of perennials is the spot within The Garden to bring the grandeur and splendor of the whole botanic garden down to the scale of the typical home landscape. It provides a help desk for both the homeowner frustrated with lawn care or the avid gardener with tomato blight. But for a child it also provides some great interactive fountains to captivate the young ones and draw them into the garden.

The grouping of stone sheep became a favorite photo stop on our visits. Funny how in the first visit, he is on the small sheep, but on the New Years Day visit with his big sis, had progressed to the full size version.

As he grew, other areas of the garden began to draw my son. The Victorian maze was a must visit spot.

The koi in the Japanese garden with their giant mouths brought smiles to both of us. And a requirement that I came prepared with quarters for the fish food machine!

The advantage to me was I never had to beg him to visit the garden. If I needed a bit of inspiration, a dose of beauty, or just a calming walk through this familiar place, at any age, my son jumped at the chance to accompany me. And this was before they built the actual “children’s garden”. A little bit of icing on the cake.

Finding this photo journey of my son’s growth while we lived in St Louis has been great. Even better this reminder of him with his beloved “Papa”, my Dad, who died from prostate cancer in December 2006, 5 months to the day after this photo was taken. One of the last days together before we knew how sick he was. How appropriate the day was spent in one of our favorite places!