Saturday Lunch: pizza edition

Sorry I'm running so behind on blogging right now. I wish I had a good excuse, but other than lazing about and staying up too late chatting with friends, I really have no excuses. But onward to Saturday Lunch!

Finn accompanied me to the farmer's market bright and early on Saturday morning and we found so many goodies that would be delicious on a pizza that we decided to make that our Saturday Lunch plan. From the crusts which were made with locally milled organic flour to the sauce made from locally grown heirloom tomatoes, we did a great job of keeping our pizza as local as possible.

We found some colorful purple and red peppers and sweet onions to top one of our pizzas.

Local heirloom garlic was gently sauteed whole to finely dice for another pizza.

The sauce recipe was loosely based on this one, but doubled with no fennel seed or parmesan and green pepper from our garden instead of celery. I also used about 4 lbs of fresh tomatoes in place of the canned.

Ultimately, we had one sauteed garlic and fresh heirloom tomato pizza topped with raw mild cheddar cheese.

Another pizza topped with lightly sauteed peppers and onions and sprinkled with mozzerella.

And lastly we enjoyed a raw cashew pesto pizza using some basil from our back deck.

The final total was probably 85-90% local so not entirely a farmer's market meal. But pretty close!

{this moment} - fifth grade

{this moment} - 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. See Soulemama to play along.

for the birds

Finn and I decided recently that we'd like to get to know our backyard birdies a little bit better. We schemed and planned how we might get a little closer to our neighborhood birds. A bird feeder near the back of our property is emptied almost as quickly as it is filled as the trees, shrubs and blackberry brambles in that part of the yard are constantly filled with our avian friends.

In order to hopefully bring them a little closer into sight, we hung a second (finch) feeder in the tree nearest to our living room/library windows, although we frequently have birds that visit us on the deck as well. I wonder if a deck feeder would encourage them to hang out there more often or if it would be too close for comfort for them?

We thought that an identification book might help us figure out exactly which birds are visiting our yard. We cut a small stack of computer paper in half then cut out a piece of cereal box the same size to form our book.

With a sewing machine stitched line down the middle to hold our pages in place, we began searching for bird pictures to put into our identification book.

Finn is very adamantly attached to scissors and tape lately so he happily cut out the bird photos and taped one to each page which I helped him label.

As we see more birds in our backyard, we'll try to identify them and put more photos in our book to help us remember what we've seen and learn the birds' names.

Finn has already located his book to a spot that's handy for whipping out when a backyard bird pays a call.

Come on, little birdie! Just a bit closer, and bring your friends now too!

Yarn Along

Well, we're freshly back from camp so I haven't had much time for reading or knitting (with all the mountains of laundry) but I have knit a few stitches on this Turn A Square hat with a very-soft-but-of-undetermined-origin alpaca. Of course, I also received Amanda's new book, which I pre-ordered back in January, and I haven't been able to stop flipping through it, although I've only truly read a few of the articles. I can't wait to dive into a few of the projects, but I'm trying to limit myself by the month so I can enjoy it longer.

And I have to include a closer shot of this yarn so you can see the color texture of, what looks like from a distance, to be a plain gray. Isn't that marvelous?!

You can find more Yarn Alongs over at Ginny's place.

experimenting with soaked grains

Because I'm not obsessive enough about the way we eat, I followed a few recipes on Passionate Homemaking and discovered a whole new world of soaking grains. I tried not to become instantly consumed with reading about soaking grains, but with the information I learned last year in the bread-making class I took at the Steiner Institute, I'm more and more convinced that the way the human body is best able to digest grains (especially gluten-containing grains) is in a fermented form. Needless to say, soaking grains in a cultured liquid makes sense within this theory.

So...shortly before I left for camp, I made pancakes with spelt that had been soaked in coconut milk and raw apple cider vinegar which turned out wonderfully delicious. (Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the process or the end result so I have nothing to share from that original test.) However, yesterday after arriving home from camp, I was eager to try more soaked grain recipes and since we had plenty of spotted bananas on the counter, I settled on trying soaked spelt banana bread and blender pancakes (that sounds fun, right?!)

Both mixtures looked bubbles and frothy and smelled, um...interesting so it seemed like a great result was a sure thing. The pancakes, which were blended oats and buttermilk, were absolutely delicious, and the kids and I cleaned out a pile of 22 pancakes for breakfast. Woot!

I'm feeling good about this whole soaking grains thing (as long as I can start better planning my meals at least a day in advance) and so I start mixing the banana bread batter. It seems a little soupy, but I've followed the halved recipe exactly except using buttermilk instead of yogurt/kefir so it should be fine, right?

Doh! Flat, goopy banana bread that was very brown on the outside and nearly uncooked on the inside.

And concave, gooey muffins.

Which my kids were actually very excited about the muffins and devoured them immediately.

I'm not sure I'll try that recipe again, but if I do I'll definitely decrease the liquid amount. It's hard to argue with those smiling faces though!

What about you? Have you tried soaking grains? Have any surefire recipes for me? It's a fun experiment, for sure!

at camp

It's a different experience, to be sure, to attend camp with the kids this year rather than just send them off to camp. Instead of just being proud of the experiences they are embracing and the ways they are stretching their comfort zones while learning new skills, working hard on jobs like preparing bread and sweeping the dining hall, and gaining greater appreciation for the natural world, I get to watch in awe as I catch glimpses of these accomplishments. I only see each of the kids for a few minutes each day, either in the dining hall or in group activities, but knowing what they are participating in, and seeing the exuberance on their faces as they triumph over various challenges makes being here with them a joyful quest.

And as for my own challenges, well, I get to do things like attempt to teach 25 girls at once, how to wet felt a rock. Despite my limitations in helping 25 girls, they each caught onto the task quickly, and amazingly, we had 25 beautiful rocks in various colors felted to perfection.

{this moment} - hug a fish

{this moment} - 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. See Soulemama to play along.