Dinner for One?

Quick and delicious.  Well, for one of us, as it turns out.  But, the one of us was me -- so maybe for you, too?  It's not unusual for us to have several versions of dinner at the table.  So, I'm keeping this one in the rotation!  Now to fill those other three bowls...

artichoke & pine nut pesto
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts
1/8 cup raw pine nuts
1 small clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch coarse salt
A few grinds of black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh tarragon leaves, thinly sliced
2-3 teaspoons pasta water, to thin

Pulse the first 6 ingredients together in the food processor.  Stir in the tarragon and season to taste with more salt and pepper if needed.  When you're serving it, it's good to loosen the mixture with a little pasta cooking water.

Due to a little gardening mishap, I didn't add in the tarragon.  I thought it was great without.  This would also be really great as a spread on toasted rustic bread -- a great party hors d'oeuvre for all those holiday parties you'll be attending?

From Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter

A Sad Day

In Memoriam

Rapunzel Arugula

With sadness we say good-bye to our

first and beloved pet

Happiness is

...a warm puppy.  Sharing his "polka-dot cookie."



"Stained Glass"

 The Charles Schultz Museum generously offered a Homeschool Day last week.  We've been wanting to go for years, and this year we finally did!  It was a great day trip.  They had art projects, a photo scavenger hunt, artists to talk with, an interesting visiting exhibit, so many interesting pieces about Charles Schultz and the Peanuts.  One artist was there painting a mural.  Signs said, "Do Not Disturb Artist," and they posted what he was drawing and painting.  It was incredible to watch.  There was ice skating and my kids loved the large Peanuts statues.

Peanuts cartoons were everywhere, and Sela couldn't get enough.  And what's not to love?  It combines three of her favorite things: reading, drawing, and silliness.  She picked as her souvenir from Snoopy's Gallery & Gift Shop her first book of comic strips.  The first of many, I think.  It's so exciting to watch kids discover something new and drink it up!

See you next year, Charlie Brown!

Apple, Apples, Apples! (and Apples)

Which apple is your favorite?
We chose a few varieties and rated their texture and flavor.
What would you rate?
Sela suggested we add these scores together for an "overall" score.
We used a 1 - 5 rating system.
Looks like we have room to pick up a couple more varieties.

Some books about apples that we like:
Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Smucker and Kemly
Apples by Gibbons
Apples, Apples, Apples by Wallace
Apple Fractions by Pallotta
The Ziegler's and Their Apple Orchard by Flanagan

No graph paper on hand?  You can find lots of sites with free downloadable graph paper.

With Lunch Today

Heat up some cider on the stove and drink in fall!

Our Nature Table's bounty

I Wonder... (Or, Homeschooling Means Using What's Handy!)

Lately, we've been using the little chalkboard in our kitchen to collect data, analyze stuff, ...wonder about things.  Hmmm...

We made tea from the mint in our garden.  Here's the taste-test data.

First, the comments.

Then a "bar graph" of which sweetener each of us preferred.  The results interpreted: 1 person said Honey, 1 person said Agave, 1 person said Plain (unsweetened). Hee hee.

The data from our homemade butter experiment.

We tasted the butter (B) and the buttermilk (BM).  The buttermilk was gone by the time it got to me : )

This was a question Sela asked after noticing how the sunlight came through the window during breakfast.  Now, we're talking about it, wondering about it, experimenting with it...



Boot Weather

Don't you just love how kids know it's boot weather the minute they wake up?

 And, how mamas know it's sitting-on-the-porch-in-your-jammies-eating-breakfast weather?