Recent Sewing Projects

I know it's July but I just made this apron because the Christmas fabric was cute and marked down and at the front of the store. I used one of Simplicity's retro-style patterns:




And remember the Vintage Pattern Lending Library purchases from awhile back? I finished the 1930's frock you see here in a pink cotton print. It is the girliest dress I've ever had on and feels deliciously frilly. I consider it a house dress and not a town dress. The pattern dates from 1930 and so was very loose and unfitted at the waist. I wanted more definition so put darts in the bodice and added a couple of stitched-down pleats to the skirt. The pattern was very simple--just four pieces not counting the basically appliqued-on collar.

Daisy Up Close

Sweet Rolls

Today being a day to putter in the kitchen, I baked four loaves of bread, two pans of cherry buns (see above), made a pot of chicken broth, and lastly, tackled the refrigerator freezer which has been a wasteland for months. In the summer I have to keep almost all my grains and flours in the freezer because of pantry moths, and lately every time I opened the door a ziplock bag of cornmeal would come slithering out.

Oh, but now! Cornmeal, whole wheat flour, pecans, almonds, ginger, oats, barley, and bran are all in newly-purchased and labelled *freezer boxes*!! Black bananas have been thrown away. Chicken carcasses have been stewed. Things look good.

*Schoolhouse Sweet Rolls*

So easy: use any made or purchased yeast dough. For a two-loaf size batch of dough, divide into halves. Roll out into 9 x 12 rectangle. Brush with melted butter or canola oil. Sprinkle generously with sugar, cinnamon, and either raisins, dried cherries, chopped dried apricots, or orange peel, and nuts if desired. Roll up and slice into 12 slices. Set slices in greased 13 x 9 pan. If you want, before putting rolls in, drizzle lots of butter and brown sugar or corn syrup in the pan (you'll have Sticky Buns). Let rise til soft and puffy, then bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Clear Air

Elegance for Girls

"The more simply a little girl is dressed--sweaters and skirts in the winter, Empire-style cotton dresses in the summer--the more chic she is. . . In the summer she would be charming in high-waisted cotton dresses of flowered Liberty prints, and of white eyelet embroidery for party dresses. For the beach she would need a white pique sun-bonnet, one-piece bathing suit, white sandals, and always a wool cardigan within hand's reach in the same colour as the bathing suit."

--Genevieve Antoine Dariaux in A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions.

With this wise advice from 1964 in mind, I am helping Clara pack for camp. Simple cotton dresses, yes. Solid color knit shirts in pastels, and cute capri pants, yes. I don't think she's going to take the sun-bonnet though.

Despite the fact that she's leaving in a week, she has begun a new sewing project: her first independently-sewn garment. It's a charming loose-woven linen in cream and peach stripes and tiny flowers, and she is doing marvellously well. The pattern calls for facing around the neckline, but she has decided to line the bodice due to the sheer nature of the fabric. She cut it out yesterday and has the (pleated) skirt constructed, the bodice constructed and lined, and one sleeve set in perfectly! One more sleeve, the zipper, and the hem, and she is done. Her precise and thorough nature stand her in good stead when it comes to sewing, so that she is perfectly willing to hand-baste all the tricky parts, carefully finish all the seams, and the foundation of the project, the cutting out, is done very, very carefully. It's so much fun to watch her take off on her own!

July 22, 1989

That's a very happy girl, who's only gotten happier the last seventeen years!

A Week of Summer Menus

Summer menus should get you through the week without turning the oven on, except for Sunday's biscuits; take advantage of all the goodies at Farmer's Market; and still fill all the hollow legs in the house. But far be it from me to be dogmatic! We're having:

Grilled salmon; butter lettuce salad; fried okra; corn on the cob.

Lettuce wraps filled with stir-fried pork, julienned carrots and cucumbers, and a ginger dipping sauce; brown rice; sauteed yellow squash, fruit cups with strawberries and raspberries.

Cold angel-hair pasta with shredded chicken breasts, carrots, and an orange-vinaigrette dressing; sauteed broccolini; watermelon.

Salade Nicoise (giant platters of salad with tuna, steamed new potatoes, steamed green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, olives); corn on the cob; French bread.

Stir-fried Japanese noodles with pork and Napa cabbage; fried okra (I know: we're Southern and it's okra season!); romaine salad.

Grilled bratwurst; grilled mixed vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, and more); crusty bread; green salad; sliced peaches.

Pot roast; mashed potatoes; stir-fried asparagus; green salad; raspberry jello with raspberries; biscuits.

Geranium Watercolor Collage

(detail of painting)

My cousin Sally asked me *months* ago to do a painting for her and I am ashamed to say that I didn't finish until today!

I started working in watercolor about ten years ago, with no art experience whatsoever, and became enchanted with it. What I found I liked the most was taking a painting and cutting the best parts out and reconstructing them in a collage. So that's what I have here, and I will be packing and shipping it in a day or two, Sally!

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook

I have never been very interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder's adult life, since The First Four Years is so profoundly painful to read. But Clara picked up The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook at the library last week (see it here), and I am so relieved to know that Laura and Almanzo had a long and truly *happy* life together once they settled in Mansfield, Missouri. This book is a delightful compendium of the recipes Laura cooked with as an adult, quotes from her non-Little House writing, and biographical information. And best of all, the book is loaded with pictures of her kitchen which is fascinating not because Laura was a famous writer, but because it is a shining, perfectly-preserved study of a classic 30's kitchen. Now I must go to Mansfield!

Peach Pie

This morning's baking project was a peach pie, made with some of the *many* peaches we buy at Farmer's Market every week. It has a bottom crust, then a thin layer of cream, fat peach quarters, streusel, and a little more cream and cream cheese dabbed on. I always use my grandmother's pie crust recipe because it is reliable and good, and lately I have made it even easier by simply patting my disc of crust into the pan and skipping the rolling-out completely.

*Schoolhouse Pie Crust*

Lightly blend:

3 c. flour
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 T. sugar

Cut in 1 1/4 c. shortening with a pastry blender.

In a small bowl, stir well with a fork:

1 egg
1 T. vinegar
5 T. water

Pour over flour mixture and lightly toss together with fork until it starts to come together in a clump. Gather with fingers and very lightly knead until it forms a cohesive ball of pastry, handling as sparingly as possible. Cut in half and flatten each half into a round disc. Use immediately or wrap nicely in wax paper and pop into Ziploc bag to store in fridge or freezer.

Makes 2 *generous* crusts. Plenty left over for little girls to make play pies with.

Earth-Moving

It was a big day for the back yard. The huge pile of cement rubble by the pool fence, the one I quit noticing a few years ago, has gone to live in the country. Well, this is the country. A different part of the country.

And the same earth-moving contractor, with his fantastic alliterative country name, brought in several loads of gravel for the driveway and grated it until it begged for mercy.

My thanks to the Composer for footing the bill. I am content.

Fruit Cups with Dinner

I don't know if I enjoy eating the fruit more or looking at it . . .

Bella Making Music

Daisy's Cupcake

A Day at the Lake

In celebration of Daisy's birthday and enjoyment of summer in general, we headed for the lake today. The Composer was out of town, so we met up with my friend Carol and picked up some more children (for a total of thirteen!). A basket of egg salad sandwiches, a jug of lemonade, and a bunch of wacky noodles did for provisions.

Incredibly we had the lake to ourselves all morning and early afternoon and it was so beautiful. It's a little gem, on a tiny mountain, spring-fed, and adorned with CCC creations like stone pavilions and diving platforms.

We drove home in the afternoon heat and the children spent the rest of the day reading and playing Clue. We have my ten-year old nephew McKinley for the week, so the board game dynamics are new and exciting. McKinley has done nothing but swim and lose teeth since he arrived on Sunday. Two teeth fell out his first day, and tonight he looked down and said accusingly that there was a tooth in his salad. I sent him to the mirror to see if he was missing one and sure enough it was his (*I* was not surprised as I knew I had *not* put any teeth in the salad).

We ended a lovely day with tiny chocolate cupcakes in Daisy's honor (full-size cake to follow tomorrow with presents, pending the Composer's arrival home). She showed us how useful it is to be two, because when you're two, you can put the whole cupcake in your mouth at once.

"The Primary Duty"

". . . the primary duty of a woman in a home is to see that her family is well-fed. . ."

-- Grace Livingston Hill, The Honor Girl

Children and Music Lessons

Here is what I have learned about children and music lessons. I'm sure other mothers can handle them in different ways, but this is what works for me and my children.

1. Music should not be a source of bad feeling (for any length of time longer than a few minutes). In our family, no one is going to take lessons or practice against their will. Generally. There are times when a child, though committed to her instrument in general, is not quite in the mood to practice. We generally push on through this, reschedule our practice, or resort to bribery! However, if this disinclination is recurrent or entrenched, we quit lessons. There's enough in life to fight over without fighting over music!

2. Sometimes practice is frustrating. When it is, I make a point of sitting beside the child and either offering advice or keeping quiet, as needed. Encouragement is good. Shiny pennies offered as incentives for good tries are good. High fives are good.

3. Plan on learning along with your child. With my cellist, who started lessons at five, I attended every lesson for at least four years. And paid attention. My attention was invaluable in getting Clara through a practice session when she was a very beginner and simply could not remember what she had been told. Same with Bella on the guitar. I will say that they have both far surpassed me in knowledge by now!!

4. Have the teacher write down a complete practice list each week. This eliminates any "confusion" about what is supposed to be practiced, should your child "forget".

5. Most important of all, plan to sit with your child for every practice session. I mean it. Every day. Until they don't want or need you anymore. If music is important enough for your child's time, it is important enough for yours. Make it a special time to pay attention to your child and what she is learning. Be excited. Bring the nursing baby or some handwork, but give her your attention. In my experience, this is the dealmaker on raising a musical child. And don't worry, the day will eventually come when she won't need your seat in that chair. But until then, enjoy!

Birthday Season

The season of birthdays has descended--Clara's was yesterday, and Daisy's is Thursday. Clara had a lovely party for four friends--swimming, pizza, and ice cream cake (of course).



I am blessed in my daughters.

Crazy Good Times

Daisy on the carousel.

We made it back this afternoon from a fun-packed couple of days sponsored by the Composer's ever-generous father. Although he will be seventy this fall we were left gasping in his wake as we blazed through an amusement park, a water park, a variety show, and careened around the lake in peddle-boats. Whew!

It is good to be home, with Sunday ahead of us.

"The Goodness of Thy House"

"How blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and bring near to Thee,
To dwell in Thy courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house,
Thy holy temple."

--Psalm 65:4

Big Batch Maple Ice Cream

Tonight we had a big Fourth of July party here at the house with a potluck dinner, swimming, bocce ball, and fantastic fireworks contributed by a pyromaniacal friend. Along with a chicken pasta salad, I made this new ice cream:

*Big Batch Maple Ice Cream*

In a medium saucepan, heat:

2 c. real maple syrup

Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in:

2 c. milk
2 c. half and half
4 c. whipping cream
1/2 t. salt
1 t. maple extract

Freeze as usual in freezer. When almost done, you can add as many broken pecan or walnut pieces as you wish. I made this this afternoon with pecans. Of course, I spent the first twenty minutes turning the ice cream freezer handle the wrong way so that *nothing was happening*. Fortunately, Clara came along and pointed out my error, then did the cranking for another twenty minutes, and it came out delicious.

Floral Oasis: How and Why

In a better world, all flowers would fall gracefully into jam jars and display themselves with effortless perfection. Alas, I have found that some of my favorite (read: cheap and plentiful) flowers don't make things so easy. Take marigolds, the only thing blooming in my vegetable garden now. I have never quite figured out how to bring them into the house--the stems are only a couple of inches long, and they have so many lateral branches that stuffing them down in a vase or jar truly does not look good.

Enter floral oasis. It's a lightweight, strangely dissolving green brick thing in the floral/wedding section of the discount store, and it costs about a dollar. For this morning's marigolds (see above), I took a kitchen knife and cut off a big cube of it, dropped it in my bowl and ran some water over it, then took literally thirty seconds to stick the ends of the marigold stems in, where they are held both gracefully *and* in water. So nice.

Oasis is wonderful for flowers that have some bushiness in the leaves to provide cover, and for flowers that otherwise would unyieldingly stand stiffly upright in a jar. I may never learn to use the mysterious nonsticky green florist's tape or the fiddly wires, but I will happily depend on oasis.

Sultry Saturday Pleasures

• A swim with all my children this morning.
• Clara home from a week-long orchestra camp and visit with grandmother.
• Hanging Clara's pink and yellow dresses on the clothesline.
• Lime soda floats in the middle of the afternoon for no reason!

Duck's Egg Blue Walls

Felix's obsession with ducks, leading to a larger and genuine interest in ornithology (it took time; be patient, young moms!) made me choose this shade of paint for his walls, Duck's Egg Blue.

Treasure Hunt: Day Seven

My dollar a piece roses from the grocery store displayed in one of the old drinking glasses I had put away with the vases when the set got too small.
Then, just for fun, the same flowers displayed in front of one of the throw pillows on my bed made from a vintage dresser scarf printed with--you guessed it--red roses. I just took the scarf, folded it wrong sides together in half to make a square, stitched up the two matching sides, slid in the pillow form, then pinned the fourth side together to hold it while I sewed on three mis-matched vintage buttons. I didn't use buttonholes, just sewed through both layers to hold the pillow closed. I love the punch of bright red against the cool lavendar.

Treasure Hunt: Day Six

Today I went in the pantry and excavated a can of coconut milk, which changed my boring dinner plans (which had been baked chicken pieces, steamed cauliflower, etc.). Instead I put together a big pot of chicken curry, with browned chicken pieces, broth, lemon grass (treasure from the freezer!), curry powder, and coconut milk, with cauliflower stirred in at the last, all served over rice.

It warmed my heart to see Daisy shovel it in, after several days of depressed appetite due to a cold.

Raspberries

Giles and Felix went out in the woods this morning and brought back these jewels--I've already made one beautiful batch of jam, and more is coming down the pike tomorrow.

*Rules for Jam-Making*

•Wear a full-length apron because the jam will jump out of the pot at you.
•Keep a damp washcloth and wipe up spills immediately before they dry to the consistency and stickiness of used Jolly Ranchers.
•Ignore the instructions in the pectin box when it comes to cooking your jam. One minute is not enough! Your jam is ready when it begins to pour off the spoon in a sheet, rather than a single drip.
•Be sure and display the jars of finished jam on the counter for at least a day, for purposes of admiration.

Treasure Hunt: Day Five

I spent much of today driving through little forgotten towns and bright green farmland, under a large turquoise sky, and returned home exhausted. But after a quick nap while nursing Daisy in her special chair, I revived enough to rummage around in my linen cabinet and find FIVE lavendar sachets at the back, begging to be brought out and used in my shelves of undergarments and pajamas, so I did, and that is today's treasure hunt!

Treasure Hunt: Days Three and Four

Yesterday was our big Sunday dinner and I usually get out the fancy china anyway, but we had a big crowd--eleven--so my mother pulled some of the Richelieu china out of the cabinet--beautiful white plates with fancy gold edges, my grandmother's china. Very nice.

Today I went the other direction and remembered some fun paper napkins in the cupboard--we only use paper for birthday parties!--and used one to set my iced tea on in the kitchen, instead of leaving wet rings everywhere.

* * * *

I'm off to the city now, that's now as in nine p.m., which is an awfully late hour for me and driving, as we do better in the daylight. But I have court in the morning four hours away and need a head start, so I'm spending the night at my mother's, now that Daisy is down for the night. Oh boy.

Another Kind of Treasure Hunting . . .

I did my rounds in town this morning and found this bowl, perfect for decanting laundry detergent into now that my Sam's Tide comes in a package so convenient and so heavy I can barely lift it . . .



And of course we stopped at Farmer's Market . . .



Before the obligatory stop at the fabric store for a spool of thread (oh but look, the fabrics were half off!)

Treasure Hunt: Day Two

I had prepared a big bowl of cut-up strawberries and raspberries for a dinner side-dish and went to my china cabinet to find something I didn't even remember I had: eight pink Depression-glass sherbet cups! I really don't hoard and collect and lose track of my dishes, but there was a large influx all at one time a few years ago, when my mother significantly and stressfully down-sized and I acquired many lovely treasures that I have not fully assimilated into everyday life, so I'm sure these glasses were happy to get out of the cabinet.

The treasure: pink sherbet cups
Where they had been: china cabinet
Where they are now: drying rack by the sink

Little Cake Plate

Treasure Hunt: Day One

I am challenging myself to a week of pulling out the beautiful and beloved treasures I have in various cupboards and shelves and using them in the ordinary course of things. I find that I get in a rut and certain goodies fall out of circulation. This is their week to shine!

Tonight I took the leftover dairy-free lemon bars we carried home from dinner at grandmother's *off* the paper plate covered with foil, and displayed them on the counter under a tiny-sized (that's what makes it so charming) crystal cake dome, on a glass plate. Much better!

The treasure: Tiny cake dome
Where it had been: China cabinet
Where it is now: Kitchen island

Felix's Birthday Evening

Today was Felix's 13th birthday and we had his birthday cake out on the deck tonight right before dark (that was a chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream filling, frosted in chocolate--oh baby!). It was unusually cool after a rain, and all the children were happy. Daisy was covered with chocolate and she and Giles were entertaining the five stray kitties that are wayfaring in our barn but somehow invited themselves up for the party; Clara and Felix had their matching blonde heads together over Felix's new balsa wood flyer; and Bella streamed back and forth across the yard enjoying her flipflops sliding across the grass.

I do not know how many more years I will have all my children home and happy and all calling me mommy--I'm the mother of two teenagers now--but I plan to enjoy them all as much as possible.

Afternoon Light on the Cello

I never get tired of seeing the different way light comes into my house. Here's late afternoon light on Clara's cello. Such beautiful serenity.

Beany Malone

My best cousin Sally reminded me of this publishing company , which has allowed me to become the proud owner of the entire Beany Malone series by Lenora Mattingly Weber-- books I came to later in life but now love with a passion unspeakable.

The books follow the heroine, Beany, from junior high on up through married life, chronicling her adventures in cooking, decorating the Malone's somewhat shabby home, and well-meaning but ill-advised attempts to meddle in the lives of friends and family.

The early part of the series, set during WWII, has an especially wonderful home-front feeling, and features lots of doughnuts and poached eggs, so that's good.

View of Bossy

Bossy has established himself (apparently long-term) just behind the couch, where he knows the sidelighting from the windows will do him justice.

Zinnias in the Kitchen

"The One Festive Touch"

"They always had flowers of some kind on the dinner table . . . it gave the one little festive touch now that showed a woman had been at work trying to make things beautiful."

--Grace Livingston Hill, The Honor Girl

I Love My Daisy . . .

. . head. . . .



to toe . . .

Cucumbers in Rice Vinegar

I have stumbled on one of those dishes that is far more than the sum of its parts, and takes thirty seconds to throw together:

Slice cucumbers.
Add salt (maybe 1/2 t. to every three medium-sized cukes).
Add rice vinegar (must be rice vinegar; find it in the Asian foods aisle) not to cover, but maybe a third of the way up.

Refrigerate all day or, preferably, overnight, and maybe toss them once in the morning. These are perfect--not too sour, not too sweet, they don't taste like vinegar, and they're better than any fussy fridge pickle recipe. Trust me!

Vintage Finds: Ladies Dress Patterns

Where do I begin on my list of the many reasons I love this dress? The square neckline, the portrait collar, the inset band around the skirt hem? It's even my size. Definitely next on my list of things to sew, and I will be doing it with the sleeves, thanks for asking. . .



This beauty will be perfect for cooler weather, after I size it up a couple of inches in my first attempt at such a thing. Good thing I'll be at *Denver Fabrics*(!!!!!!) in six weeks!!!



With many thanks to lanetzliving for their wonderful online vintage pattern store.

Pink and Blue Hydrangeas

Beautiful against the red of the house . . .

Small Appliances: The Yogurt Maker

I eat yogurt every day for breakfast. Plain, lowfat, organic, spooned over shredded wheat and sweetened with brown sugar. I buy two or three tubs of it at the store every week, so it seems like I should be making it myself with my yogurt maker, but I don't.

1. The process calls for careful temperature watching, gauging, and springing into action--granted, only for the first hour or so, but not the type of thing which can be left to its own devices for a while without disaster when Daisy has caused an emergency or I can't get off the phone with a distraught client and then forget what I'm doing.

2. The results are iffy. Sometimes the yogurt is great, sometimes it's thin and runny.

3. If I start it in the morning, I have to remember to refrigerate it at night. If I start it at night, it's quite warm in the morning, and gross to eat.

4. It's more expensive to make than buy, even the premium organic stuff.

5. The tiny pots, the lids that crack.

This appliance is gathering dust.

"From Bungalow Aprons to Bathing Suits"

Wardrobe advice from 1922:

"Always select or make designs that enhance your daintiness, your femininity, your exquisite delicacy and tenderness. Do this with every stitch of clothing you have, from bungalow aprons to bathing suits, from sport costumes to ball gowns. Endeavor to provide yourself with an entire wardrobe of dainty and cuddlesome garments, each piece as bewitching as the wearer herself."

--Fascinating Womanhood, St. Louis: Psychology Press.

More on Making Ice Cream

*Basic Vanilla for the Electric Maker*

In a blender, whizz:
1 c. whole milk
3/4 c. sugar

Gently stir in:
2 c. cream
2 t. vanilla

Freeze as usual.

This is a fantastic base which will support the addition of pureed or coarsely mashed strawberries, peaches, or raspberries (use those straight out of the freezer if necessary).

Moving on to the big ice cream maker, usually pulled out for larger festive occasions such as Labor Day, Memorial Day, or Fourth of July; but first a side note on custard-based ice cream: I don't like it. I don't like finding bits of egg in my ice cream, it's harder and more complicated to make, it takes longer, and I don't think it tastes as fresh. There, I have that off my chest.

*Big Batch Raspberry Ice Cream*
(makes 4 quarts)

Scald:
2 c. milk.

Stir in:
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
until dissolved.

Add:
2 c. half and half
1 T. vanilla
4. c. cream
1 pkg. frozen raspberries.

Freeze in crank freezer.

*Big Batch Chocolate Ice Cream*
(makes 4 quarts)

Heat:
2 c. milk
6 sq. semisweet chocolate
over low heat, stirring until melted.

Remove from heat and stir in:
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
until dissolved.

Stir in:
2 c. half and half
1 T. vanilla
4 c. cream

Make sure it's thoroughly chilled before cranking in freezer. Prepare to hand out copies of recipe.

Fruit Plates

Clara prepared a fruit plate for each of us at dinner tonight--gorgeous strawberries, cherries, raspberries, and local blueberries, on pink depression glass.

Small Appliances: Ice Cream Maker

Another one-trick pony, unless you count ice cream and sorbet as separate tricks. . .

I have a little electric Cuisinart with an insert that lives in the freezer. I can pull it out, pour in my ingredients when I'm finishing cooking dinner, and serve soft-serve ice cream for dessert--very impressive! Further, words cannot express how much the Composer loves soft-serve. So.

Divinely clever use of the ice cream maker: A day before making a birthday cake (all our birthdays are summer birthdays), I make a batch of ice cream up. I line my cake pan--the one I will be making the cake in--with Saran wrap or wax paper. When the ice cream has reached its soft serve state, I take it out and pack it in the cake pan. And freeze it. The next day I pop it out and put it between the cooled layers of my birthday cake--and it is a perfect fit, which is very nice if you're trying to make an ice cream cake. I cover everything with chocolate buttercream frosting, and freeze the whole ensemble. So tidy, and so good.

*Schoolhouse Chocolate Ice Cream*

In the blender, whizz together:
1 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. cocoa

Gently stir in:
2 c. cream
1 t. vanilla

Freeze as usual in electric ice cream maker. Makes one chubby 9-inch round, or about six servings for after dinner. Depends on how much the Composer eats.

Small Appliances: The Rice Cooker

For a distracted person, cooking rice is a process which is fraught with pitfalls. There are at least three times in the (admittedly straightforward) process when I am likely to forget what I am doing:

1. When I have put my water on to boil.
2. When I have put my rice in the boiling water and am waiting for it to come back to a boil so I can turn down the heat.
3. When the rice is done.

The beauty of the rice cooker is that you put everything in, and walk away. The rice will wait for *you*, instead of you waiting for it. My cooker holds rice warm and edible for up to 12 hours, so conceivably I could put my rice, water, and salt in after lunch to use for dinner. I have also found that it makes wonderful rice pilaf if I start it on the stove and then transfer it to the cooker.

Verdict: a one-trick pony that performs so admirably, it's worth the cupboard space. Mine was $30, made by Oster. I've tried cheaper but they tend to die young.

A Vegetable Platter

Giles and Felix prepared this luscious platter of crunchy vegetables as part of dinner. Daisy loves cucumber and insisted at the table that she also loves radishes--but she doesn't.

"A Standard of Every Day Living"

". . . the [housekeeping] standards that operated in the past were grounded in practical reality. They balanced mental and physical comfort with the amount of effort required to achieve it, and they existed in a social world that assumed that life would include leisure and domestic enjoyment. They provided something crucial that the contemporary household lacks, which is a sense of entitlement to a recognizable standard of every day living."

--Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts

The Float Trip

We spent a beautiful but exhausting weekend in the mountains on our annual camping and floating-down-the-river trip.


Daisy enjoyed feeding the ants.


We camped under tall pines. At night, half a silver moon hovered in the treetops.


Camp cooking.


Giles throwing handfuls of algae. Why wouldn't he?


Clara floating.


You never really leave home.

Lunch with Nanny

My grandmother has been on my mind the last few days: I've been thinking about her immaculate housekeeping, the crocheted dining-room tablecloth my uncle bought her when he was stationed in Korea, her quilts stretched for quilting in a frame beside the east window, the set of walnut furniture in her guest bedroom, the oil painting of hydrangeas on her wall.

Daisy and I had a free morning today so picked her up from her retirement apartment for errands and lunch. She was so delightful--she bought a sparkly flowered t-shirt at Penney's which I had thought was twenty years too young for me (guess I was wrong), and started talking about getting a giant hamburger at 10:30, which, in a leap into senior daytiming, we did! And ate it all, too, even Daisy!

With her 92nd birthday coming up in August, we treasure every hamburger with her.

Back Porch

My back porch has lived a sadly unloved life. Totally protected from the cleaning properties of both rain and sun, it suffers from a build-up of dust and mold, and in fact is usually ignored except as a nice sheltered place to sit during a gentle rain. But: I have decided to reclaim it and make it a nice place to be.

To that end, Giles and the Composer humored me and took down the useless and ugly single rail that ran the length of the porch, and installed a new rail that has an opening in the porch center, and supporting verticals. They nailed down some loose boards as well, and I am embarassed to say, the Composer jacked a sagging corner up. Such is life in an organic (read "decomposing") older wooden house.



A brisk sweeping (a scrub is in the near future), a new pair of potted ferns, a vintage cloth thrown over my little castoff wicker table, and I am liking what I see!

Spicebush Swallowtails

Daisy inspects the spicebush for spicebush swallowtail caterpillars. Apparently spicebush, a small tree with spicy-smelling (imagine!) leaves is the only larval food for the grand, black and blue, velvety spicebush swallowtail butterfly. Hunting for the caterpillars is fun and satisfying for babies, because each caterpillar chooses a leaf to hide on, folds it over, and keeps it shut with a little flexible webbing. Once you spot a folded-up leaf, your mother gently pries it open, and there is the spicebush caterpillar, bright green with his big fake eyespots, looking up at you.

Minted Water

An entry in the So-Good and So-Obvious category: I picked a big bunch of spearmint this morning from the backyard, rinsed it, and stuffed it in a pitcher of water with a few ice cubes. It was so good! The mint infused the water with not so much an obvious spearmint taste, which I find kind of numbing anyway, at least in quantity, but more of a flavor both sweet and herbaceous. My big handful of sprigs stayed fresh all day, and flavored several fill-ups of the pitcher.

This is one I want to remember, and if I succeed at that, maybe try with a couple of slices of cucumber. Or basil leaves.

Memorial Day Cookout

•Grilled Bratwurst with Spicy Mustard
•Broiled Chicken with Tamari, Honey, and Chili-Garlic Sauce
•Warm German Potato Salad with Bacon, Pickles, and Celery
•Crusty bread
•Green salad

•Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream

•Big brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew
•Swimming pool

French Blue Hydrangeas

Sunny Saturday Pleasures

•Breakfast at the downtown diner.
•Opening morning of farmer's market: tiny turnips, fresh honey, baby bok choy and joi choy, yellow squash, and cucumbers.
•A swim by myself and a swim with Daisy.
•Felix and Clara *hard* at work learning lines for the children's musical.
•Watching the Composer finish building the new gate for the pool fence.
•Watering my hydrangeas.
•Cooking dinner--stewed chicken with garden new potatoes and turnips, sauteed bok choy, fried squash, biscuits, and strawberries (pleasure somewhat diminished when Nameless Child dumped entire bowl of squash on floor before dinner).
•Mark O'Connor's Elysian Fields playing in the kitchen.

Cooking from the Mitford Cookbook

We love the Mitford books here at the Schoolhouse! Clara gets the books on tape over and over at the library, and we even included a trip to Jan Karon's real-life town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, on a camping trip several years ago. One of the best things about the series are the frequent mention of food and what's cooking--and The Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader distills all of the best parts for the greedy reader (yes,that's me).

Now, this food is very, very Southern food. Lots of shortening, lots of butter. Lots of self-rising white flour, so you might not want to make these recipes everyday occurences. But oh, they are good!

Clara has adopted one has her own, and frequently makes us Cynthia's Heavenly Tea. I won't give the whole recipe away, in the interests of preserving Cynthia's secret recipe, but I will say that it calls for black tea, fresh mint, sugar, lemonade concentrate, apricot nectar, and almond extract. Even those who don't like sweetened tea (that's me too) will pronounce it heavenly (as long as they learn from my mistake and do not allow vanilla to be substituted for almond extract--yuck). Properly made, this tea will take you to heaven.

Toplighting

Toplighting can make anything look beautiful--even a mop bucket on the kitchen floor looks lovely under the skylight.

"Neat and Dainty as a Flower"

"[Her] house was just as neat and dainty as a flower, and that without half the effort [that her aunt made], and no servant at all at present."

--Grave Livingston Hill in Where Two Ways Meet