Archive for July, 2008

15 Jul

Sweets for the sweet

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family, In the kitchen.

While we were visiting Mom, I told her that I was in the mood to bake something. She simply pointed me toward the cherry tree outside.

This is truly baking from scratch…as long as you don’t count the crust!

My mom, who picks and freezes quarts and quarts of cherries each summer, has a handy little pitting tool. Still, this chore took about three times as long as the picking.

I followed a recipe for fresh cherry pie from a vintage Better Homes and Gardens cookbook–remember the one with the picnic-plaid cover? It simply called for three cups of cherries, a cup and a half of sugar and a quarter cup of flower. I added a bit of salt and vanilla.

Lattice tops are my favorite, usually because it makes rolling the top crust less stressful as there’s no need for a perfectly smooth round. Recent time crunches have pushed me to turn to Pillsbury, but I still love a pretty lattice.

Eighteen hours of pitting and picking later, here’s the finished product!

It was totally worth it.

15 Jul

Olivia’s tree

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family, Olivia.

I’m running about a week and a half behind on the blog, and I’m starting to get my posts out of order. Please know that I’m not chronologically challenged, just poorly organized.

With that, step back in time with me to the Fourth of July weekend for just a bit.

When Ava was born, Mom and Dave planted a tree that would bloom around her birthday. Three years later, it’s taller than she is:

While we were visiting, they planted Olivia’s tree, a variety of hibiscus called Rose of Sharon.

Of course, they had some help.

15 Jul

Down on the farm

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family, Olivia, Outdoor life.

We stopped by my grandpa’s farm last weekend while we were in Nebraska. It was a gorgeous day, and I was reminded how much I loved this place as a child.

This sweet pea is visible from Grandpa’s living room, and Grandma always loved it. It grows along the pasture fence, though, and the calves seem to love it, too. Grandpa rigged up a fence from old window screens along the ground below to protect it.

I recall playing under this incredible old pine tree when we were little. It was always shady and cool among the Lily of the Valley and periwinkle flowers.

Bryan spotted this nest of robins in a low branch.

Rose and Olivia:

Grandpa, Rose, Olivia, Rebecca and a suddenly shy Ava Kate:

14 Jul

Little Leo turns two

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family, Olivia.

We traveled to Nebraska again this weekend, this time for my nephew Leo’s second birthday party. It was a whirlwind trip, but we wouldn’t have missed helping this sweet boy celebrate.



13 Jul

Ava Fix

Posted by Rebecca in Ava.

13 Jul

Saturday morning reward

Posted by Rebecca in Wild weather.

Olivia and I encountered a lovely sky on our walk Saturday morning.

11 Jul

A familiar recipe and a first bite

Posted by Rebecca in In the kitchen, Olivia.

Last week, Ava helped me make a batch of pesto (five batches, actually) from the basil we have growing in the garden. We followed this recipe from Epicurious. Usually, I make pesto in my Cuisinart, but the recipe suggested using a blender. It worked very well!

I packaged the pesto into half-cup containers and shared it with our friends and coworkers. We froze a few here, too.

I tossed it with pasta for dinner, and pureed a bit for Olivia to try. I won’t say that she loved it, but maybe she’ll come around by the time summer’s out. I hope so…we have a lot of basil.

10 Jul

Weekend weather

Posted by Rebecca in Wild weather.

I took these photos of a quick storm that passed just south of the reservoir this weekend.


That same weekend, an overnight storm in a neighboring county brought warnings for heat bursts. From Wikipedia:

A heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point. Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms.

While this phenomenon is not fully understood, it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air more dense than its surroundings. The parcel descends rapidly, warming due to compression, overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface, similar to a downburst.

Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 90 °F, sometimes rising by 20 °F or more within only a few minutes. More extreme events have also been documented, where temperatures have been reported to exceed 130 °F, although such extreme events have never been officially verified.

Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong, even damaging, winds.

9 Jul

Teaching and learning

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Olivia.

9 Jul

Addition has never been my forte

Posted by Rebecca in Rebecca.

Our family doctor, who is built a lot like I am, has recently dropped about 35 pounds. I know this because I manage to see her about once every two weeks. (If I don’t drop at least $60 a month in office visit co-pays, I just don’t know what to do with myself.)

Anyway, I finally asked her what she was doing. As a health care professional, I assumed she’d have keen insight into something that’s always been a challenge for me. Her response? “I stopped eating.” I laughed, and she said, “No, I’m serious.”

So much for that.

When I saw her again recently, I asked exactly what “not eating” entails. She said she’s keeping her caloric intake to around 1400 calories. I said, I can do that–I mean, I get to add about 500-600 on top of that because I’m nursing, right? She responded that nursing only burns about 200-300 calories a day, which–by the way–is not what they tell you when they’re trying to talk you into nursing in the first place. Still, though, 1700 calories seems like a lot. Totally manageable, right?

Despite my five (okay, seven) year affair with Weight Watchers, I’ve really fallen out of the habit of counting calories. I know roughly how many points are in various things, but I couldn’t tell you how many points I should be consuming a day. Now that I have a target, certainly that will help, right?

I started the day like I usually do, a bowl of cereal, a piece of fruit and coffee. I’m thinking that’s about 200 calories.

Except that it’s Kashi, and not the kind that suspiciously resembles hamster food. This actually has almonds. And honey. And 200 calories a cup.

And the milk? Normally I buy 1 percent for Ava, and sometimes even skim for myself. Apparently, though, I picked up whole milk yesterday. Do you have any idea how many grams of fat are in a cup of whole milk? Eight! That’s a huge difference. Plus, there’s almost double the calories, so it comes in at 150. And that banana I sliced over the top? 125. So before I downed the iced coffee (with a bit of cream, and alright, some sugar, too), I’m near 500. For breakfast! And a relatively healthy breakfast at that.

At this rate, I’m really going to have to reign in my brownie consumption.

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