Tuesday, June 30, 2009

sweet strawberry day

I knew in my heart that it was today, or maybe not until next year.
The Wisconsin Strawberry season is oh so brief - and with the heat wave we had recently, it was particularly short (only a bit over 2 weeks, we are at the end already!!!)
So, the cool "chance of showers in the afternoon" forecast on a pick your own day at JehEhr farm (the only organic strawberry u-pick in "150 miles" said the gal at the farm) combined with the fact that I don't work until 2 on Tuesdays multiplied by the availability of Meg and her sweet babe = one perfect morning of strawberry stained goodness.


Tenzarelli waxed poetic about his berry finds "Oh! I found a berry family! A big mother and father strawberry just next to two babies!" and he thought he saw little Sal (from Robert McCrosky's Blueberries for Sal) a few rows over...


Jampaloo was in berry heaven, covered himself head to toe in the sweet red juice quite happily. We had to work hard to keep him out of the flat ("now, little Sal, you run along and pick your own berries.." doesn't work on him just yet!)


And Meg stood by with the babe, see his little head peeking out from under her jacket?



Now, I am eating some of them with some Vanilla ice cream and soaking our red splotched clothes from the day. Heaven.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A Pie for the Pala's Day


Pala Dhondup loves him some lemon desserts. When we first came to America, he didn't really like dessert in general all that much. A pregnant mama hooked on frozen custard slowly shifted him to the dark side...
His favorites are still lighter, lemony treats, so when I saw this pie on Zoe Bakes, I thought it would be perfect for Father's Day...
I felt very professional piling that mile high meringue on top of the pie.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

All the new...

There is hardly a moment to take a breath, we are so full of NEW around here...
We've moved on to Dousman... living in an apartment while we wait for our new home to be built. Tenzarelli has already made enough friends to feel like he's always lived here (there are 5 year old boys knocking on our door at 8 am every morning now) but it still feels real new to me, every bit of it. The boxes are only half unpacked because I've been... distracted.
One of the big ones - preventing the Jampaloo from choking to death, as illustrated here:


"Open your mouth! No, don't eat that!" Legos are quarantined indefinitely.

The best new thing, of course, is Meg's sweet babe. I was privileged to be witness to the special day he came into the world, in the very same birth tub that my babe was born in just 9 1/2 months ago. It's been a thrill to be a small part of this tender sweet time with her.

So now, we're beginning to settle in to the summer, striving for some rhythm and form, getting some projects ready and (lacking a yard for the summer) diving into the farmers' markets whole heartedly.