Shea Butter and Aloe Extravaganza

Still going strong with the hair gel/body lotion/lip balm . . .

So I don't know why, but shea butter hair gel always turns out to be an early morning creation for me.  The kids were all (all--yes, Abigail is finally sleeping through the night!!!) still asleep, I woke up early, we were out of lotion/hair gel, and I decided that today was the day.  I can't find the original site with the recipe I used the first time, but apparently this isn't exactly a secret formula, because I found the same basic combo again easily on another site (and I don't follow their recipes anyway, I'm not a measuring kind of gal). 

You basically need shea butter, which I bought in an excessively large quantity from a somewhat dubious website that came through for me, aloe, and a drizzle of olive oil.

I dug out about a two cup solid chunk of the shea from my "bag o' shea" and put it in a small metal bowl (one that fits over my saucepan).  I filled the saucepan with about 2 inches of water and put the burner on high.  Then I set the metal bowl with the shea over top. 

I squeezed the juice out of three or four big aloe "leaves" from the plant in my kitchen.

Then I added a drizzle of olive oil and stirred briskly with a fork as the shea melted into a liquid.

I poured the blend into the jars you see above.  I use this as a lotion for myself and the kids.  I put it on Abigail if she gets diaper rash.  And Owen uses it as hair gel (it's great because it doesn't flake and build up like over the counter hair products).  My hair is too fine, so I don't usually use anything in my hair, though I've used a scant amount (left after applying to my hands) to smooth a ponytail on occasion.

I don't know if you've seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," one of the funniest movies of all time, but we use this lotion like her father in that movie uses Windex.

Mom Joke

Question:

How do you know when you took too many kids to your adult doctor appointment?

Answer:

When you have to explain to them at check-out that you don't have the sign-out paper because it fell in the toilet, and when they chase you out of the office to tell you that you forgot your crayons.

Moral:

Avoid my doctor until those people forget me.

Does it get any cuter?

OK, seriously, wow!  Is she a cutie or what?! 

(You're pretty cute, too, Owen.)

Hot, Hot, Hot!

We've been growing jalepenos, and I have no idea what to do with them because Jesse complains that food is to hot if I just add black pepper.  If he gets a speck of actual hot pepper he does a real performance: "Too hot, too hot!" (grabs at mouth wildly, mom and dad in the background shouting, "Drink water, drink water!").

So while I can't resist growing hot peppers, I haven't been able to figure out how to use them in anything.  So they have sat and withered on my counter.  On an inspiration, I put them one on the back of my stove while the oven was in use and left it there (it gets pretty hot on the back of the stovetop when I use the oven).  It dried out.  So I put a few more back there until they were all shriveled up and dried.  Tonight for pizza night I decided to test my dream: I thought I'd make some hot pepper flakes.  I put the shriveled dry peppers in the food processer and made flakes!  Look!

The container is borrowed, the flakes are mine.

Harvesting Limas in the City

So how many urbanites could report picking lima beans last weekend?  I mentioned it in a previous post, but felt that pictures were needed to capture such a cool event from our fall.  We didn't get too many (for some reason, heat? stinkbugs?) we didn't get any crop until October.  Here's the harvest and a picture of the boys in front of the overgrown lima bean teepee in our neighbors' backyard (they offered to let us extend our garden into their yard--we split the booty).  Fun times, I still can't believe it!  Do you know how much they charge for these in the farmer's market?  I figure we grew at least $10 worth, even with most of the season being a flop.  Urban gardening . . . gotta love it!

An Unusual Dinner Inspiration . . . to a Seasonal Feast

I forgot to take a picture of dinner . . . but it was really rather a local seasonal veggie feast, if anyone would care to try to replicate any of it without visual stimulation.  I realize no one cooks from recipes they can't see a picture of, but I'm going to describe it anyway, and just kick myself for taking no pictures.  I mean, really, when the three and five year-old are carrying the plates and glasses (full) and silverware to the dining room table, and I'm running into that scary too-late-the-kids-will-probably-wet-the-bed dinner hour, and Owen's getting in later than usual, and the three month-old is about 15 min. past ripe for a nap, I can't imagine how I forget to photograph our food before we eat it.

The Background . . .

So we actually grew some lima beans this year in my neighbor's yard (thank you, Jean and Scott).  They watched me frantically cultivating my 1/1000 of an acre (or so) of land and offered to let me use part of their garden (their yard is about four times larger than ours).  I said, "Hmm, how about lima beans?  We could split the crop."  And lima beans it was.  My mom started the vines from seed, and we planted about five plants at the base of big poles making a teepee.

The teepee soon became covered with leaves and vine, occasionally even flowers.  But by August, we had nary a bean.  It wasn't until September that we started seeing some, but they weren't big enough to pick.  But on Sunday we finally realized the beans were big enough to pick.  So the neighors banded together for a good ol' city-dwellers bean pickin'.  We got enough for about a small pot of beans each--and there may be about that many in two weeks again.  Anyway, these beans were in very different size categories, ranging from babies to big chokey pig food (as Owen described some of them).  Jesse and I separated them into two piles and combined them with some we had bought from the farmer's market.  I was left with a small pot of big hoggy limas that I knew I couldn't just boil (well, ok, I tried to anyway out of laziness and they were gross).

The Inspiration . . .

So the inspiration for the entire meal was basically chokey lima beans.  I realized that the "big ones" were probably tasting close to the rehydrated dried ones they put in baked lima beans, a dish they sell at the local grocery store in Lancaster.  So, unable to follow a recipe to save my life, after browsing through recipes of baked lima beans and not liking any of them, I made one up:

Baked Lima Beans

Boil fresh (or overnight-soaked dried) lima beans in salty water for about 20 minutes or until soft. 
While boiling, cut up leeks or scallions (I used leeks) into thin slices.
Strain and put beans into a small casserole dish.  Add leeks.
Pour tomato sauce (homemade or store bought will work) over beans.
Add a dollop of maple syrup and stir mixture.
Bake for at least an hour.

I don't measure, but I had a small pot of beans, and I added 2 leeks and about 15 oz. of sauce and a few tablespoons of syrup.

The Spaghetti Squash

Now it so happens that I bought a spaghetti squash about a month ago, and while it looked very fall-like sitting on my counter, I thought I might just want to go ahead and cook it with the beans.  So that I threw in the oven whole, with holes poked in it, with the beans.  I will say that next time I will revert to hacking it in half and removing the seeds first and baking faces down in an inch of water like I did last time, it took too long this way.  It's really easy to remove the strands of squash with a fork and it really does look like angel hair pasta.  Hmm, maybe they should call it angel hair squash.  I salted the squash and tossed it with butter, parmesan cheese, and chives.

The Roasted Potatoes

Not too profound.  I wanted a starch.  I cut up small red and yellow potatoes in small chunks, put them in a roasting pan (uncovered), tossed them with olive oil, salt, rosemary, and a few tablespoons of water, and roasted them next to the squash and the beans.

The Main Dish . . . 

Then I thought, oh dear, I'm running out of time and I need a main meal.  Luckily, I had meatballs in the freezer.  My friend Rachel had wowed me with a meatball in barbecue sauce kind of dish, so I thought I'd wing it and try for something similar.  The meatballs were made of ground beef and cornmeal and onion and egg, and they'd been in the freezer for a good long time since I'd made extra with spaghetti some months back.  I took them out of the freezer, and put them in a small glass baking dish.  I covered them with tomato sauce.  Then I sauteed red onion and green pepper in a saucepan and mixed that in with the sauce.  Finally I sweetened it with a little maple syrup.  I put it in the oven until it heated through.

We ate all this in the dining room, the height of fancy living at my house.  The kids call it eating at a restaurant when we do it.  Sad commentary on our kitchen-centered life perhaps.  :)  It was great!  I thought I'd share it in case anyone else wants to try something similar.

Pizza Night!

Seasonal pizza, here we go!  So, I've highlighted the seasonal pizza Fridays in the past as a really great way to eat local and with variety (I got my idea from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver).  With the birth of little Abigail, pizza night was abandoned.  It's returned now for the second week in a row.  Here's tonight's, play by play:

Step One:  Slice up tomatoes (while we've still got 'em) and spread over a raw pizza dough (this one is stone ground whole wheat from Trader Joe's, refrigerated section).

These were Mr. Stripey yellow tomatoes, two of the few that escaped the clutches of my squirrel arch-rival.

Step Two:  Fresh basil (still going strong in the garden)

Steps Three and Four:  Mozzarella cheese, torn and arranged; red peppers.

Step Five:  Red onions sliced as thinly as possible (sweet when baked).

Steps Six, Seven, and Eight:  Broccoli; Mushrooms.  Bake at 425 deg. for ~15 min.



Yum!  Serve!

Finally, Boys' Room is Complete!

So, finally, after much delay, we have completed the boys' bedroom.  Their room is now the beautiful sky-blue the boys wanted (thank you, Uncle Jack!), the alphabet letters are covered in contact paper and hanging on the clothesline I had envisioned (though it's cheaper, I see on the link, than when I purchased it), the boat and pictures are hanging, and their room FINALLY looks great.  It took a while for me to get the results posted, but with me, if it rains, it pours.  And since I've finally started posting again, I thought I'd put the pictures up.  Today was a good day to get pictures of it since it's actually sunny.  

 

How annoying.  Why are Micah's shoes on the dresser?  They would be there the one time I take a picture of it.

Go Phillies!

While I make no pretense of following the games, I know the Phillies are doing reasonably well this year.  And we have some team shirts over here and thought we'd post a good luck message:

Go Phillies!

Yucky, I mean beneficial, larvae on my compost . . .

OK, so we don't have a picture because I had Owen wash them all off the outside of the compost bin before we researched it, but it turns out the largish larvae on our compost bin are probably not leeches or anything scary.  We think they are the larvae of the black soldier fly, often bought to feed to pets or to help break down compost in bins.  Wow, and to think, we got them for free . . .

It's pretty gross being green sometimes, especially when the adults of this lovely larvae are really annoying and weird looking pests we get in our windows all the time.  But I will say, our compost is doing really well!

Some Late Summer Recipes

Here's a dish with the corresponding meal I served on a hot, late summer night:

Roasted Eggplant with Tomato, Parmesan, and Basil

(A fresher, lighter version of eggplant parmesan)

Grill eggplant slices on a grill or cast iron grill pan.  Arrange the slices on a plate and sprinkle with parmesan while still warm.  For the topping, slice fresh tomato pieces and put in a bowl with basil leaves.  Toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt.  Cover the eggplant slices with the tomato and basil.  Yum!

This is what I served with it: pork chops, noodles, lima beans, and yellow squash sauted in olive oil with chives.

A Summary of August and September

Due to general fatigue, blogging has been sadly sparse of late by certain green-stay-at-home-winter-veggie-storing moms.  This blogger wishes to apologize for her negligence.  I know each time one of you went hopefully to see what new insights, recipes, and quirky insights were posted here over the last few months, you were sorely disappointed.  So I thought a brief recap of the last few months were in order.

There was the beach, Avalon, NJ:

(and a birthday at the beach . . . well, four, actually . . . the boys and my parents)

There was homegrown goodness, eggplants did especially well.  The picture below shows veggies my enthusiastic young farmers harvested themselves when asked to look for tomatoes.  An interesting side note: Jesse has a hot pepper in that left hand.  The residue from that pepper when rubbed on his lips somehow burned the skin on and around his lips in an alarming fashion.  (Lesson learned: Warn children not to pick hot peppers.)

We got serious about biking.  OK, yes, those are training wheels and helmets, but you have to start somewhere.

Daddy and Grandpa snuck the boys off for ice cream.



And Abigail got even cuter.

Hilarious Testimony

Did everyone see Steven Colbert's testimony before congress today?

Watch testimony

Hotter than Ever?

This article suggests that the heat and cold of the last year could be a little alarming:

Tenacity of Summer's Heat Blister's the Record

Global warming, here we go . . .

Still Here . . .

So this whole three kids thing is great but a little crazy.  I'm trying to figure out how to get my dishes unloaded and laundry done and nurse and not completely neglect my older kids.  They play well together, so it's actually tempting to let them raise themselves for now since I am stretched thin trying to meet everyone's needs. 

The beach was fun, though Abigail celebrated with a big case of gas.  That meant she had a lot of trouble nursing (ie screamed while I tried to get her to eat, and only ate in weird bouncing/walking around positions) and woke up a bunch at night. 

Micah was a little fish, and spent most of the time in the water.  Jesse wouldn't go in the water until about our third day there, but then he was right in there with his brother.  Abigail, it turns out, is a real natural in the water for her age.

Just kidding.

We're getting adjusted to being home again, Owen's parents stayed and helped a few days after we got back since Owen was gone at a back to work retreat.  Now we're flying solo again and I'm just so thankful the gas is better (I'm avoiding dark green and cruciferous veggies, and we're doing great).  That's Abigail's gas, in case that was unclear.

Sorry for all the disappointed web address checkers lately, I'll get back in the saddle soon . . .

Photo session

Thank you, Cathy, for taking such great pictures of Abigail!  Very nice of you, and nice camera! 

Of course, she had to throw in a few shots of the big brothers . . .

Posing a several week old baby is no easy task.

A little girl, can you believe it?

And here's the best one of all!

A Nighttime Scare

So I had a lot of bleeding last night and ended up in the hospital.  Not hemorrhaging, but it felt a little too close for comfort.  Some issues with the uterus.  So I am asking for prayer that my body would heal correctly (especially because I had an allergic reaction to the medication they prescribed me in the hospital and can't take the second half of it) with blood clot issues resolving.  Thanks for your prayers in advance,

Val

Baby Abigail is Here!

Well, God is good!  Abigail was born to us on Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m.  Though I must say "born to us" sounds a little passive for natural childbirth.  But she's here and it's over.  I started the very first stages of labor on Monday night, labored at home on Tuesday (while cleaning the basement so the kids can use it again post-construction), made it until about 2:30 in the morning, and then got to the hospital at 3:00 a.m.  After what felt like an eternity but was really only 3 hours, we had our little girl.

I was in the hospital until Friday, and Abigail and I got plenty of time to bond.  We had some visitors, so that helped pass the time.  Daddy was there a good bit of the time.  He is very proud of our little girl, and a little relieved that we had a girl since we were all definitely rooting for one.  :)

The big brothers came to visit and held her.  They were happy to have her out at last (and happier once we were all home from the hospital), and very pleased with her choice of big brother gifts (airplane and helicopter). 

Micah says to write (as both brothers are looking over my shoulder while I write this), "I love my sister so much I want to give her a hug every day, and how about a kiss, too."

Jesse says, "I love you so much, baby, and I give you a hug every day, and this is Jesse, and you are the baby, and I want to give you a kiss."

Nursing has gone well, overall, with the exception of yesterday, when I guess she got alarmed when my milk came in.  The lactation consultant told me that Dolly Parton can be a little scary for a baby.  Anyway, she got back on track last night in time to save her Mommy's sanity (sanity is a fragile thing on 4 hours of sleep).

Thank you, Jesus!  We are so blessed.

Kids' Birthday Cake

I think I found my recipe for the kids' birthday cake. I'm making it in advance and freezing it (since I'm having the baby right before the birthday) so I'll get to taste this to make sure it's as good as I'm hoping, then I can pack it when we leave for the beach.

chocolate cake recipe

Revisiting a Breakfast Favorite

Today is hot, so hot.  I wanted to make something for breakfast, I had some zucchinis from the farmer's market to use up, and I did not want to use my oven for long.  So I dug up my zucchini bread recipe and adapted it as a muffin recipe (for a third of the baking time). 

Zucchini Muffins

Mix:
3 eggs
1 c applesauce
1/2 c brown sugar
2 c grated zucchini
2 t vanilla

Then add:
2 c ground flour of choice
1/4 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 t cinnamin
1/4 flaxmeal

Stir, then add:
1 c walnuts
1 c raisins

Bake in muffin tins at 350 degrees for 20 to 24 min.

I should mention that I somehow forgot to add the applesauce, but I was using pretty big eggs and I think it balanced out somehow.  But the cooking time might be slightly different with the applesauce.  (Alternatively, you could leave it out like I did.)