cooking our way through the alphabet

I was aware for some time that we would visit the grocery store each week, buy the same vegetables as I had the week before, and bypass those that I either had decided I didn't like, or those that seemed too intimidating.  I was happy to live in ignorance of Endive, Jerusalem Artichokes and Hubbard Squash.  But then, as often happens to me, the light turned on in my head - and I couldn't extinguish it.  It grew brighter and brighter until I felt ashamed to enter the produce aisle.  I was certain the bok choy was laughing at me!  I was being taunted by the wakame!

As my children balked and groaned, I told them of my plan.   We would cook and eat our way through the alphabet!  Oh, how they cried, and their tears only fueled my intent that this was something we needed, we must do!  They can't live on potatoes alone!

So we invite you to follow along with us as we prepare each week a new to us veggie.  We may love some, we will probably hate a few, but be certain we will have fun doing it!  Unlike most blogs, I am going to update this entry each week, so that our entire project stays together, and you don't get lost, wandering around aimlessly between the Ahipa and the Escarole. 

February 6th     Artichokes

We have eaten artichokes, but I have never cooked globe artichokes.  They look so complicated!  I choose to make an artichoke dip from a recipe I found the recipe at the foodie blog, Cooking With My Kid.  It's the first time I had visited this blog, and I really enjoyed it!  I'm not going to reprint their recipe, so go check it out at   http://www.cookingwithmykid.com/appetizers/savory-sitter-super-bowl-healthy-artichoke-dip/

The recipe calls for canned artichoke, and while one of my "guidelines" is to use only fresh vegetables, I thought that since I have never used canned, I could get away with it this once!  We didn't make the pita chips, substituting store bought pita chips instead.  I followed the recipe to the letter, and I think it's really good!  The kids ate it, but didn't love it.  That's okay, at least they ate it!

Tomato seeds

I am at heart a gardening traditionalist.  I believe that the harder you work your soil, the better tasting the results.  But I also can't resist some of the gardening gimmicks that come along, especially the ones that look fun for the kiddos.  So I have owned numerous Topsy Turveys over the years, for tomatoes and peppers and strawberries.  Mostly I found that they put the fruit at the exact right height for our dog to walk up and take a bite.  When I tried raising them, they became a salad bar for our neighborhood squirrels, who were safely out of the dog's reach! 

We found this Jiffy Professional Greenhouse at our local megastore.  I turned my kids loose with it, a couple of packets of tomato seeds, and my camera.  The instructions are easy, add 5 and 1/4 cups of warm water, to loosen the peat pellets.

 Then just pull back the netting and place 2-3 seeds in each expanded pellet, and cover with the peat.  We planted tomatoes, which will be replanted in our home and community garden, and maybe a couple of our topsy turveys - the squirrels have gotta eat, too.   

Once they are all covered, cover with the clear dome and place in a warm location away from direct sunlight.  When seeds sprout, remove the cover and relocate to a sunny spot!  Does it work?  I'll update with pictures as they grow, but I believe that anything that gets my kids excited about getting their hands dirty has already worked!

The Snow Goose and Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

It is so thrilling for me when my children and I read books together that I loved as a child.  It's even more exciting when I see that the story has captured them in the same magic weave that I felt at their age.  One such story is The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, written in 1940.  It is the story of a deformed artist living alone in England, a young girl and a lost and injured snow goose that brings them together.  The sad ending of the story impacted me so that I can still remember my mother reading it to me, late one night on a family camping trip in Freeport, while my father was out fishing for flounder.

I had been wanting to visit Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in Sherman, and this was an excellent opportunity, since about 30,000 wild snow geese make it their winter home each year, from November to the end of February.  The massive waters of Lake Texoma attract the birds, and the refuge annually plants agricultural crops, such as wheat, as a food source for the birds.  As we arrived, we immediately saw a small flock flying low above us! I frantically took pictures as quickly as I could, fearing that this would be our only opportunity.  We drove on to the visitor center, and just this side of the iron gate sat about seven wild geese, posing for pictures!  We then looked in front of us, and saw thousands of white geese fillng the skies and pastures down toward the shores of the lake!  We were able to pull along side the road, amidst other cars and watch the birds from a very short distance.  They are simply amazing!   We did make time to drive around the numerous roads around the refuge, tour the visitor center and hike along the trails, but my heart was back watching the geese! 

Visit the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge website for more information on this fascinating place, and to see all that they offer, including interactive children's classes each month.  http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html

Paul Gallico is the author of The Snow Goose, and other books, including The Poseidon Adventure.  For more information on his books; http://www.paulgallico.info/notitle.html

A Texas Connection - The Snow Goose won the O. Henry award in 1941.  This short story award is named for the American writer, William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the pen name, O. Henry.  Early in his career, Porter worked in Austin for the Texas General Land Office, and maps he drew, bearing his signature, are on display at the state capital.  Hmmm.... an idea for another road trip?

Caddoan Mounds State Historical Site

I wonder if any of the Texas Paranormal Groups have ever visited the Caddoan Mounds State Historical Site?  Because even a hard core disbeliever such as myself will tell you that there are ghost here.  You feel them as you drive along the El Camino Real de los Tejas, the oldest road in Texas; they call out from the pine trees that line the road.  You can feel them as you walk along the trail to the mounds themselves.  These ghost are not going to say boo, pose for any pictures, or slam any doors.  But you feel that they are there just the same.  Those of children playing in the woods and along the stream that runs just beyond the mounds.  Ghost of the women who made baskets from the long grasses that grow there, and from the men that farmed the fertile earth.  This was there home.

The Historical Site offers an interpretive museum of the Caddoan culture, with some artifacts that have been recovered from mounds.  From the El Camino Real, the mounds aren't very impressive, time and erosion has taken much away, but it's a nice walk around the two mounds along the 0.7 mile trail.  We went on a lovely, partly sunny day and our children ran and played in the grass and among the trees leading to the stream.  It was fun to imagine life at this spot, so long ago. 

I recommend that you read over their website before going, the Caddoan culture was such a vast and complex one, and you need a little foundation. For all the historical information, as well as current prices, times and upcoming events, please visit their website; http://www.visitcaddomounds.com/index.aspx?page=2

For more information regarding the El Camino Real de los Tejas;  http://www.elcaminorealtx.com/

Just down the El Camino Real is Mission Tejas State Park, for information on the park; http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/mission_tejas/

paint by numbers

When I was a little girl, I loved the paint by number sets sold at our local craft store.  It was such a huge treat when my mom would surprise me with one!  I would immediately run outside and sit under the huge oak tree in our backyard, and paint until dinner!  I remember always trying to be very careful, and occassionally painting the wrong the space, and getting angry with myself, because I wanted it to be as perfect as the picture on the box, which was usually my favorite thing in the whole world... a horse! 

Yesterday, I decided to surprise my daughter with a paint by numbers kit, also of a horse.  I had given her one a few years before, but she didn't have the patience to complete it.  Under the barren limbs of our Bradford Pear, she and I painted for about an hour and a half, until it was time to come in and for me to fix dinner.  For a little while, I was a young girl again, painting with a friend.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, and a quality project for us.  I want to frame it for her, not because it's great art, but to remind us of our time together.

washing dishes with God

I recently read The Shack, by William P. Young, which was loaned to me by a friend.  I really enjoyed the book, and one of the images that really stood out to me was that of Mac and God (Papa in the story), standing in the kitchen, hand washing and drying the dishes after dinner.  The rich conversation that ensued, and the quiet, easy, open and casual way which doing something as mundane as dishes allowed them to "speak" was a reccuring thought, days after I had laid the book down. 

I have always had a dishwasher, and only seldom ever hand washed dishes when there were too many to fit, or if we were camping, etc..  While my chidren now load and unload the dishwasher, I would do my pans, etc. by myself, and usually alone.  Craving those moments of closeness that God and His child shared in the book, I made the very unpopular decision that the week of Thanksgiving Break we would hand wash and dry our dishes.  As expected, I met alot of opposition at first, and in the middle, and especially after Thanksgiving Dinner, when every dish in the house was piled in the sink and along the counters, waiting to be cleaned!  But we did it, after each meal that week we gathered in the kitchen, instead of in front of the television, or going off to their own rooms, and we washed and dried and talked, and listened to each other.  My three year old even begged to be included, and was put in charge of drying and putting away the silverware.  There were no mouths overfilled with food, or sibling arguments that usually define our nightly dinners.  We just spoke and occasionally laughed with one another, and even after the dishes were finally finished on Thanksgiving, they each said how good it felt to have completed what seemed an impossible job.  By mommy standards, it was a good experiment, and true to my word, we will again resume use of our dishwasher......... unless it should "accidentally" break. 

For more information on The Shack by William P. Young;  http://theshackbook.com/

Fossil Rim in November, Glen Rose

Before we basted the Thanksgiving bird, I wanted to take my kids to see some wild turkeys.  I think it's important that they understand where our food comes from, in it's native, wild state.  Not the ones at the petting zoo.   

We went with some friends to Fossil Rim in Glen Rose, because the turkeys are friendly there, just as you would expect Texas Turkeys to be! The fact that no one hunts them, and every car just stops to feed them has nothing to do with it!

Plus, we all wanted to see the baby giraffe, born just a couple of months ago!

The sky was gray and cloudy, and the air was chilly.  I was afraid the animals would be too cold to want to come eat. Yeah, right!

They have all sorts of wild hoofstock from Africa and Asia, roaming around the Texas brush.  It's really beautiful.  The hometown whitetail deer aren't stupid, either.  They are all over the place, eating right along side the antelope and fallow deer. 

We saw about 5 little jackrabbits, well, by rabbit standards they aren't little, they are BIG!  They were so cute, running and chasing each other everywhere!  The cool weather had them excited!

We kept looking for some turkeys.  As we entered a big pasture, an emu came running towards our car!  My little 3 year old points and says, a turkey!!  Now that would be some drumstick!!

Once back in a treed area, we found six turkeys sitting on a log!  They were just out of range for my crummy little camera, but we sat and watched them for some time, while they did..... nothing.  But it was great to find them!

And we found the baby giraffe!! It was precious!

To plan your own visit to Fossil Rim, check out their website. They have lots of really great family camps and workshops!    http://www.fossilrim.org/index.php