Friday, April 8, 2011

bits and pieces

(Thank you for all the birthday wishes the past few weeks, it means a lot to me!)

Phew! That was a week. But the best part was the finale ~ an all night barf-fest. Eli developed a fever on Wednesday and I decided that canceling his (and his brothers) party would be premature. He seemed to get better and was fever free on party day. Then Sunday night rolled around and all heck broke loose. The most amusing part of it all was the singing yesterday morning. You'd be surprised at how many silly songs the kids and I and Jonathan can make up about vomit! I guess that's called turning lemons into lemonade?

I'm breathing deeply and fully right now, feeling relieved that last week went so well considering all that had to be accomplished!

The weather has been a mixture of glorious sun and swirling snow. I read in the paper that the Sierra's haven't gotten this much snow in a very long time. Something like 50 years and the wildlife will benefit greatly from it. We've been having bear problems the last few years with the fires destroying their food and drought limiting their food sources in the mountains. They've been heading down into the valley and causing quite the stir. Good snow.

So, back to the warm weather. We've been getting out in the garden and really cleaning up the place. We've been cutting down the old growth in our flower gardens and we've finally moved our chicken fence and made it into a pea trellis. On Sunday, I put on shorts for the first time this season and was blinded by my white legs. We've also been enjoying backyard bonfires and marshmallows.


And the next morning, the same view looked something like this!


I'm a few weeks into a hand sewing class I'm co-teaching at the home school co-op and I get pretty excited about projects. Last week we made frog bean bags. But before we cut out a whole bog full of frogs I had to make sure the kids could make them. So, I made a few prototypes filled with popcorn kernels and button hearts. The best part about this class is that I co-teach it and I don't have to cut out all 15 of these patterns every week!



I also have to share with you a delicious recipe for lentils that a friend e-mailed me. (thank you Rachael!) Honestly, I love cooking and I love good, simple, hearty, fast, cheap and kid friendly meals. I have this fetish for lentils and we've actually made this twice in the past two weeks. I'm going to try and make this recipe with red lentils but I love the look of yellow.




The recipe originally came from Sunset Magazine but I changed it a bit.

Ingredients: 2TB ghee, 4 cloves garlic, 2 cups yellow or brown lentils, 5 cups vegetable broth, 1 TB grated fresh ginger, Grated peel to one lemon, 1/4 cup lemon juice, salt and pepper, cilantro and lemon wedges for garnish.

Melt butter in a 3 quart pan over medium heat, add garlic and cook until just beginning to brown (about 1 minute).

Add lentils and stir to coat with butter, then add the broth. Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes until lentils are tender.

Add ginger, lemon peel, juice, salt and pepper. Serve over brown rice with lemon wedge and cilantro garnish.

Please let me know if you try it! ♥

12 comments:

  1. We're on our own for dinner tonight, so I just might try the recipe...any particualr type of lentils? They are all mysterious and different-seeming to me:)

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  2. hi Erin, the yellow lentils are similar to red lentils. Definitely not green lentils. I haven't tried the recipe with red but I'll try them this week for lunch and let you know! Kyndale

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  3. glad you are on the healthy side again, you sound busy! and look at that snow. oh my.

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  4. mmmmm...those lentils sound so delish....hope you are all back to great health soon:) xoxo

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  5. Kyndale...Oh goodness, from shorts and campfires to snow! And from birthday parties to barferamas! Sounds like a whole lot of extremes going on. And extremely cute beanbag frogs:)
    xo Jules

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  6. I love the name lemony lentils! You must be needing lemons right now...turning lemons into lemonade and all! I am glad you have all recuperated...that birthday madness sounds like it was rough.

    :)Lisa

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  7. You can tell that Jon and I had a quality musical education. Glad he's passing it on.

    Happy birthday to Eli and Solomon!
    Ben & Shiz

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  8. I have a similar obsession with lentils ( red in particular!)
    I am going to try my hand at growing some this year- wish me luck

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  9. The same thing has been happening to us, outside enjoying warm spring weather, then suddenly back to cold and snow. I like your evening campfire pictures.
    We eat so many lentils around here...
    Hope everyone is feeling much better soon!

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  10. Thank you for posting the recipe! I hope everyone is feeling better and OMG the weather change there! More drastic than here. How is the co-op teaching going? I remember some time back you were overwhelmed with it all.
    Warmly, Nicola

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  11. Nicola, I'm enjoying this class much more than the pre-school class. There's no doubt it's hard being a teacher, especially if you're teaching little ones who don't want to sit still for very long...

    Hi Renee, thanks for coming by to leave a comment. These lentils are so amazing! I hope you can try them.

    cargillwitch, thanks for visiting. I'd love to hear about growing lentils!

    Thanks Ben and Shiz ♥

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  12. this sounds perfect....will make this weekend! can i link back to you from
    www.durangomom.com?

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