Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Tale of Two Loaves

One of the things I've been meaning to perfect is my breadmaking. So, last week when I made my weekly loaves, I tried two different methods when rolling the loaves out and shaping them into the loaf pans. Alas, I think I figured out how to make my loaf rise! So, we had one perfect and one flat. But, they both tasted delicious. These loaves were a mixture of Bob's Red Mill white and wheat.




 I couldn't just write a post about bread, so here are a few pictures of the kitties and wee little Forest.

Mr. Chai Guy 

Miss Kona Mocha 


Wee little Forest in a play silk. 

Happy breadmaking!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Thrifting, Lately

In our town, we have a small community center that offers books to the community. The books are all donated. While it's not exactly a thrift store, the prices are pretty thrifty. 

$0.50 

$0.50 

$3.00 

$2.00 

$2.00

Not pictured is a book I found about the founding of our town and local history for $3.00

At the thrift store one town over, we found one of Sienna's favorite movies we discovered awhile back on Netflix. It's a good thing we found it, because it's not on Netflix anymore. Sienna loves Whoopi Goldberg as the Chesire cat.  

$0.50 

At one of our local thrift stores, I found a few very special baskets that I used to organize our school supplies. We also found a few books, too.

$1.50 

$0.25 

$0.75 

$1.50 

We are saving this last basket to gather eggs on our someday homestead.

$1.50

Happy thrifting!

Saturday, August 10, 2013

On the Menu: Homegrown & Local

Tonight, we had one of the most delicious dinners in a very long time! To add to it's yumminess all of the ingredients were either homegrown or local. (minus the roll, which was baked in the Haggen bakery.) 

Garlic Fries
Potatoes from our pea patch. Garlic from Arlington Farmer's Market. 

Summer Salad
Carrots from our pea patch. Cucumbers from Farmer John in Marysville. Heirloom tomato from Arlington Farmer's Market.  

B.L.T. 
Kale from our garden. Heirloom tomato from Arlington Farmer's Market. Applewood bacon from Hempler's. Onion roll from Haggen. 

So good! I think we'll definitely be adding this meal to our weekly summer menu. 

Friday, August 9, 2013

this moment :: 33

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Favorite

One of my all-time favorite things to eat for breakfast (or anytime) happens to be warm, just out-of-the-oven blueberry muffins smothered with butter. 

So, after our blueberry picking adventure, I knew what I'd be baking with some of our fresh, organic blueberries. Why, blueberry muffins, of course!

This time I chose a simple recipe. In the past, I've made Buttermilk Blueberry muffins and Crumb Blueberry muffins, but this time I was craving simple, old-fashioned blueberry muffins.  

Sienna was my little blueberry muffin baker and Forest was my little blueberry muffin taster. He's not so sure about them yet.  




 In time, I'm sure he'll love them just as much as the rest of our little family does.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Summer Days

One of the things that I love about living in Washington is really getting to know your seasons and feeling them. Growing up in California, I never really experienced this before, because it was like summer all year round there. 

One word I could use to describe our summer so far would be: full. Full of road trips, full of our own fresh veggies and flowers growing in the pea patch, full of music, full of fairs and full of being in the moment of each day. 

My favorite flower growing in our pea patch.


From David's pea patch.

From David's pea patch.

Music! 

Mama & Forest listening to Knut Bell and the blue collars!

 Knut Bell and the blue collars!

Sienna wants a piglet!  

The one man band! 

She also wants a pony! (She loved her first pony ride!) 

Sewing for the first time! 

Proud of her fruit and veggie creation at the fair! She made her new kitty.

Her first ribbon from the fair! 

Blueberry picking at Cascadian Farm.  

Lovin' the blueberries! 

We picked 12 lbs. of blueberry goodness! 

Me and my sweet babes. 

Nursing in the blueberries! 

Nana and Sienna! Nana picked 15 lbs. of blueberries!  

Little ones running to each other. 

Sienna's sweet new kitty, Kona. We adopted her last week from the animal shelter.

Our little family is loving our summer together and looking forward to more music festivals, fishing, day-long road trips and hopefully a camping trip or two! We are trying to soak in all of the sunshine we can this summer!