{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

my girl loves to come up with new recipes. she has made this before and it is yummy.

we don't have measurements right now but here are the ingredients.

ground cinnamon

cayenne pepper

salt and black pepper

honey

and water.

she mixed it up and we put it on green beans. she likes to cut up the bread and serve it that way, i must say that i prefer it on the green veggies.

here are some fun discoveries that i made yesterday when i was emptying boxes that have been packed for three years. can't wait to see what's in the rest of the boxes.

i especially love those little girl hands and the photo that my cousin took of my husband and me right before my girl was born.

tonight my sister-in-law took me to a fundraiser and there were many local artist there. here are a few that i really enjoyed.

vicki hartman clay - i met vicki for the first time tonight. funny i see her in town all the time but have never met her. she makes really beautiful pieces and it was nice to finally meet her.

shanna murray - is an artist, print maker great photographer and co-founder of second storie indie market

pine tree designs - she creates embroidered paper art.

sara silvio jewelry - beautiful gold jewelry.

a great day in the woods.

my sweet little girl has been making these little paper bunnies using her new wooden egg laying bunny as a pattern.

we don't have a real pond in our backyard but it's hard to believe that in the spring. my thought that maybe the regrading had taken care of this issue is still up for discovery but we do have quite a bit of water out there.

aren't they a cute couple.

thursday night we took the kids to dinner and belly dancing

friday night we had my aunt over for homemade pizza friday and played some high stakes euchre check out the sweet breast cancer playing cards by bicycle.

the 1st day of spring was so wonderful.

we had beautiful weather here which was so excited especially since rain was predicted.

my daughter and her friend were out most of the day playing harry potter making potions and casting spells.

later they went to an egg hunt to celebrate the spring equinox, that is going to have its own post.

i was trilled to work in the yard. after the construction here last year we did not have much chance to work in the yard. we had some grass seed sprayed, but as you can see we are going to need more seed this year. we did have the whole back yard regraded last summer and a french drain installed so we don't have our typical lake in the back yet.

i'm on a search for good non-gmo popcorn. i found this amish grown red and blue popcorn. i thought it was really tasty a bit firmer popped (which i really like) and fewer hulls to get stuck in your teeth and throat. the yellow is the jarred non-gmo that you can find at the grocery store.

this is a shot of saturday evening a new egg laying bunny, guiness and harry potter 7.

here's my girl coloring and listening to harry potter while keeping warm on the floor vent, it was cooler here today. let's just say most of sunday was devoted to harry potter 7...we're so close to the end, in the last 100 pages.

{this moment}

a photo~an extraordinary moment~no words~pause~savor~remember...

another beautiful day here. outdoor play in the sunshine...what could be better? handing off the tax return!!! something to celebrate.

another new soup, i can't wait to have these last two soups in the height of the summer with all the wonderful fresh local green veggies. i am hoping to start eating in season beginning this summer. i've been reading barbara kingsolver's book animal, vegetable miracle again. i started it about 3 years ago when we moved i lost the book. i took the book on cd out of the library last month and i just love it, her family is so inspiring. i think this book should be required reading for anyone who eats!

this recipe is adapted from multi-bean medley created by the american institute for cancer research they have some nice recipes there. i have changed this recipe a bit, it only called for 1 cup of broth but i wanted it to be more like a soup so i added about 5 cups of broth and modified a few other things.

multi-bean medley soup

1/2 pound of any type of green beans, trimmed and halved crosswise

1 pound bag frozen shelled edamame

2 tsp olive oil

5 green onions, sliced thin you can take it pretty far into the green

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

fresh rosemary sprigs to taste (i would have loved this but my love does not love rosemary)

1 can of small white beans, rinsed and drained

1 carrot, diced

1 celery rib, diced

5 cups of veggie or chicken broth (we were thinking this might be good with miso broth)

freshly ground pepper to taste

fresh parsley to garnish

we also added some sriracha sauce because we seem to put that in all of our brothy soups.

~bring 2 medium pots of salted water to a boil. add the green beans to one and edamame to the other. cook until they are just tender. drain and drop in an ice bath until they are cool then drain again. set aside.

~in your favorite soup pot, heat olive oil, add onions, garlic, bay leaf and rosemary. cook over low heat stirring until the onion is soft about 5 minutes.

~add white beans, carrots, celery and stock. bring to a simmer and cook, covered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

~add green beans and edamame and simmer uncovered until heated through.

~season to taste with pepper, discard bay leaf and rosemary sprigs. finish with parsley.

honest pretzels by mollie katzen we have been wanting to make these for a while and today was the day!

this has many steps and takes a while. as with all recipes it takes me 3 times as long as the recipe calls for. i did have some trouble with the dough it seemed very sticky. i tried to knead it and it just stuck to my hands so i tossed it back into the kitchen aid and just added a little more flour and let it run for a few minutes. i did not get the full zen experience of kneading by hand nor did i get the anxiety of the dough sticking to my hands and not getting to where i needed it to be.

here is a little a note to those who have not made homemade dough before.

i had an a-ha! moment the other day when i was listening to animal, vegetable, miracle they were talking about making bread in the kitchen aid. i am just starting to learn to make bread at home and all the recipes say to mix the ingredients in a food processor, my food processor groans when i do this. so of course the power house kitchen aid with the dough beater (a-ha!) that must be what that dough beater is for! well this is great but i am sure that most have already figured this out.

well the pretzels were pretty tasty. i think that we had a little too much water in the pot and it did not stay hot enough. next time we'll use a little less water and our widest soup pot.

my daughter told me "they were pretty good for a first try" i guess they were since she had three and probably would have had 6 if we did not stop her.

we tried a few rolled out in cinnamon and sugar instead of flour and then topped with cinnamon and sugar...pretty tasty.

we tried one with fresh shredded parmesan cheese...we were sorry that we only had one of those.

we served them with local mustard and yummy local honey.

as with most of mollie katzen's recipes...another success.

how exciting to have sun tonight at dinner, i love daylight savings in the evening. even more exciting since our kitchen has southwestern exposure and lots of windows now! please forgive this photo, you will get the idea though.

it looks like it might be sunny the next few days and incredibly i do believe that the regrading that was done when we did the addition may keep what is usually lake branch out of our back yard this spring. we may even get some more grass seed down this week.

i found a few new soup recipes to try. my sweets really prefer broth based soups. tonight's was surprisingly a huge hit. the recipe is modified from the american medical association diabetes cookbook

red lentil soup

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 shallot minced

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

5 cups chicken or veggie broth

3/4 cup dry red lentils

bunch of escarole chopped (any hearty bitter green will do)

non-fat plain yogurt to finish

chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

cayenne and black pepper to taste

-heat oil, add garlic and onion, cook gently until soft. add curry powder and cardamom, stir and cover for about 1 minute.

-add broth and lentils. bring to a boil. lower heat and simmer uncovered until lentils are soft. about 20 minutes.

-add escarole, stir and cook until greens are tender. serve with a dollop of yogurt and fresh cilantro. finish with a little cayenne pepper and black pepper.

enjoy!

ocean beach, san francisco 2005 - balancing with the rhythm of the ocean

i've been trying to get settled with myself for quite some time now. days go by and i am losing track.

it is funny how life moves different than your expected. this is by no means a complaint. i love my life and my amazing husband and spunky daughter bring more joy to my days than i ever could have imagined. i love being in my hometown and being close to our family. but i cannot grasp how fast time is going. it sounds really cliche but seriously...way too fast. i feel like it is slipping away. so frightening.

i have several ideas that i have been trying to work through but timing is always a challenge for me. i was thinking about the structure of my day and how i am having trouble getting in a rhythm. i have been getting into bed early lately and getting to the gym before my sweets awake. so i feel like i am getting a good foundation going now but the rest has not fallen into place yet still having many non-starter days.

my dear friend and teacher marisa from creative thursday had a great post last week about time as a state of mind and life as yours to design. this is a great video that she created i hope that you check it out. it really resonated with me. i feel busy all the time but doing what exactly? marisa really helped me find some clarity, i am working on some reprogramming. i am choosing to "design my life" so that i make time to create what i want. thank you my friend! powerful insight again!

then yesterday sarah jane tweeted about simplicity hoping this will remind me to stay in the present.

lastly this morning i found a post from heather at shivaya naturals about serenity this was a really powerful post that spoke to me about embracing all of who you are and finding the finding the balance within without trying to mask or deny your challenges.

so i am starting a new week NOW!

designing my life

simply while remaining present

embracing who i am and finding the balance and serenity.

thank you for your inspiration today marisa, sarah jane and heather. it is so wonderful to find all of this insight just when you need it. be well. monday is a great day to start fresh!

sunshine and happiness.