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Photo from the State Library of New South Wales collection (http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/)

When Gabriel was about 18 months old, I got together with a group of my friends from college. Several of us had children within a few months of each other, so there was a lot of talk that weekend about how life had changed and what we had to look forward to as our children grew. One friend who had older brothers told us about a recent birthday party she’d attended that involved pony rides, a cowboy, and goodie bags that cost roughly $20 a pop. We all howled about how ridiculous that was and about how we’d never, ever, ever do that.

The kids’ first few birthday parties held true to my proclamation. But that’s easy in Boulder County, where dressing up often meant pulling on the new Icebreaker or Mountain Hardware hoody and putting on the dressy jeans that weren’t frayed at the bottom from wearing them with flip-flops. Birthday parties there usually involved playing out in the back yard and oodles of home-made whole-wheat cupcakes, with a few gluten/dairy/soy/corn/nut free ones for the children with food sensitivities. Favors I offered in the past included little pots filled with dirt and basil seeds, home-made play dough, and little bouquets of natural dye-free lollipops.

Fast-forward to 2011. We live in a flat in downtown Helsinki. The weather is too damp and dreary for a park birthday party. Having all 20 children from Gabriel’s class to our house would not only be a tight fit, but likely a complete disaster involving gray hairs, glass breakage, and shouting (not just from the children). And so we’re two hours away from the birthday party I said I’d never have, at a local indoor play place, complete with Pirate-themed goody-bags (thankfully less than $20 a piece!). There are no pony rides or hired clowns/cowboys in the plans, but the event is still going to cost roughly a month’s car payment and certainly more than any of the adult parties we’ve thrown (although Matt & I are now conspiring to have one, just to see what we can do with that sort of budget!).

I think the party will be a blast–two of Gabriel’s friends had their birthday party there last month and everyone had a really good time, came home exhausted, and talked about it at school all the next week. Gabriel is so excited about turning seven this year, and has to deal with so much since his last backyard birthday party in Colorado this time last year, that we’re thrilled to celebrate it with him in style. As one last hold-out to my vow years ago, I still made chocolate cupcakes for the party.

But when I weigh the cost of today’s party against the amount of scraping I had to do to get the ground-in chocolate crumbs that even the dog was too stuffed to hoover up off my wood floors in Colorado last year, or against the excitement Gabriel felt as his friends talked up the party during school this week, I think it was well worth it.

And so, having a high-end birthday party gets added to the long list of things I swore I’d never do. You know, like I’d never leave Lyons, I’d never miss a social gathering because it conflicted with a child’s nap/bed-time, I’d never move my kids every two years, and I’d never be on the board of the PTO. There’s a reason they say never say never…

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Considering what a huge role travel has played in my life, it was with a surprising amount of trepidation that I booked our Winter Break tickets to Paris. Trying to live in a foreign country with a four- and a six-year-old somehow felt less daunting to me than trying to enjoy a vacation in a foreign city, especially when that city is one that holds so much meaning for Matt & I.

We were pleasantly surprised, however, and have some tips to share with regards to visiting Paris with children in tow.Let me say up-front that Disney played no part in this trip. We didn’t even tell the children that there was a Disneyland Paris. We wanted them to experience the art, architecture, and food in our favorite city. I’m not saying we’ll never go to Disney, but we were able to have a fun and educational trip without it!

My first bit of advice concerns lodging. The Paris Metro is extremely convenient in terms of the location of stops and how you can basically get anywhere in town in two changes or less. That said, it is very crowded, not the safest place to be in Paris, and a little difficult to navigate with two children who are ogling everything from the buskers to the homeless people to the decorations/advertising. So I would suggest resisting the temptation to stay in a cheaper hotel that is outside city-center.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Paris Republique and were able to find a sweet off-season deal that made it fairly reasonable. The rooms are small and a bit dated, but clean, and the concierge service is amazing. The restaurants on site are good, if expensive, and it’s literally on Place de la Republique, giving you good access to Le Marais, a quick hop down to Ile de la Cité via Hôtel de Ville. This is by no means the only choice of hotels in the area–there are many to choose from, especially in the Rive Gauche/Le Marais area that would be less expensive and just as convenient, but we ended up happy with our choice.

Because we wanted to see so much of the city in our five days in Paris, we bought Paris Visite travel cards that allowed us unlimited use of the Metro and bus system. We never ended up taking the bus because we are more familiar with the Metro, but I definitely think the passes were worth the price. Knowing that we could hop the Metro back to the hotel at any time, and that we could duck down underground if the weather turned bad or if the children were tired of walking, allowed us to venture farther than we might have otherwise. The passes are available in 1, 2, 3 or 5 days, and work on the regional train system (RER) as well as the Metro/bus.

Our best find, however, was definitely the Paris Museum Pass. Available in 2, 4, or 6 day increments, this pass gets you in to just about every museum in Paris. The best part is that you can avoid the enormous lines at the Louvre & Musée d’Orsay and walk right in the doors for the groups & pre-booked tickets. The day we were at the Musée d’Orsay, it was raining hard and the line was at least an hour long, so if we hadn’t had the passes, we probably would have had to skip the museum.

We were able to buy the travel cards & museum cards together at a discount and have them delivered directly to our hotel, but you can also have them mailed to you, or can even buy them in Paris, depending on how far in advance you’re booking.

Eating in Paris is an amazing experience, but it’s not cheap. Just a simple breakfast of tartine (baguette with butter & jam), juice, and hot chocolate/coffee was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-9 Euros per person, and if you want eggs (my kids always want eggs), it’s 8-12 Euros. Lunches on the cheap will still be in the 10-12 Euro per person range and that’s assuming a sandwich, no dessert, and no wine. Let’s face it, it’s Paris, you want the dessert, and the wine, so budget a bit more and enjoy! The best way we’ve found to save money is to each out for lunch and eat simple for dinner. This is a tradition we started on an amazing trip to Southern France with my sisters 10 years ago and we continued it on this trip.

Dinners were usually composed of whatever we picked up at the corner market/boulangerie/cheese shop: a couple of small aged goat cheeses, a baguette, a bottle of wine, and some fruit. We split a couple of pastries for dessert, and we were set. One night we did eat out at Pizza Pino, which was literally 150m down from our hotel and has delicious and reasonably-priced pizza & salads. I will admit that we’ve lucked out with this approach because both of our children are adventure cheese eaters and will eat cheese that is blue/stinky/aged without batting an eye. If your children are pickier, make sure you get some milder cheese for them, or pick up a brie baguette from one of the many street-side venders early in the day and save it for dinner.

I was really impressed with how much we fit in during our 5 days, but have to shame-facedly admit that we skipped the Louvre. Matt & I have been there numerous times, and although we set aside the whole day Monday to tour the Louvre, when we woke up Monday it was brilliantly sunny and warm, so we decided to wander around outside instead. I’m glad we did, and promise we will take the children another time. Here’s our itinerary, with notes on things that were particularly interesting to our children:

Day 1
We arrived mid-day, so we checked in to the hotel and jumped on the Metro to Hôtel de Ville. The square in front of Hôtel de Ville had ice-skating and a carousel going while we were there, so it was a visual feast and a great place for the kids to form their first impressions of Paris. From there, we walked across the bridge to Ile de la Cité. The first site of Notre Dame, even from the back side, was really special. The kids were in awe, and we hadn’t even begun to show them around. We headed to Ile St. Louis for crepes and also picked up bread, cheese, fruit, and wine for dinner.

We ended up just window shopping and letting the kids play at the small playground on the south side of Notre Dame, but you could easily add a visit to the interior of Notre Dame and/or St. Chapelle here if the children aren’t too antsy.

Day 2

We visited Musée Cluny to see La Dame et la Licorne (the lady & the unicorn tapestries), the Roman baths, and some statuary that had been recovered during various renovations of buildings throughout the city. Both smaller and less crowded than some of the other museums, this was a great place to start with the children. They loved the tapestries, the statues, and also the jewels & ornamentation on all the religious reliquaries that are housed here.

Next we visited Musée d’Orsay. The statue garden on the main floor is really wonderful for children and our museum pass kept us out of the long line to get in. After the museum, we went to see the Eiffel Tower. It was probably the only thing Gabriel could identify as Parisian before our trip and both children were excited to see it, although they quickly took up puddle stomping once we got to the park at the base of the tower and were more entertained by that than anything else.

Day 3

A trip to Versailles will almost definitely be worth the price of the Museum Pass–man, have ticket prices gone up since I was last in Paris 10 years ago! We took the RER out to Versailles and spent the day there (Note that the travel card won’t get you all the way to Versailles, but I think our round-trip RER tickets were 15 Euros for all four of us). They have added golf carts and small trains to help you get around the gardens, but be sure to bring your driver’s license if you want to rent the golf carts. We didn’t have either of ours, so we ended up on the little train, which wasn’t bad. The kids loved running through the hedge gardens and seeing the fountains, but were also surprisingly interested in the ornate furniture and decorations in the Chateau.

Day 4
OK, this is the day we would have gone to the Louvre, but wandered around instead. We walked up the canal, playing on the numerous playgrounds that line the promenade, took the metro down to St. Michel on the Rive Gauche for lunch, wandered some more, and ended up in Notre Dame. The stained glass was really stunning due to the sun, so I was glad we stopped. We wrapped up the day by taking a tour on the Batobus up and down the Seine because the kids were tired of walking. It is a really neat way to see the city, especially with little ones that can’t walk all day long without getting over-tired.

Day 5
Our final day in Paris was probably the kids’ favorite, but definitely not ours. We visited the Musée de l’Armée in the morning. The kids loved the cannons, machine guns, military costumes, and old videos, but it was a sobering experience for Matt & I, because each gallery basically walks you through a year of each of the two World Wars. You can also see Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides, which is part of the Musée de l’Armée complex, and that is definitely worth seeing. After lunch, we visited the Musée des Arts Decoratifs to see a special exhibit on toys that the children really enjoyed. It was a museum I’d never visited, so I was happy to get to see it even if looking at vintage Pokemon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn’t my favorite cultural experience of the week.

All in all, we saw more of Paris than I thought we would, and enjoyed more good French food than I thought we’d be able to. It wasn’t exactly a budget trip, but it was the best vacation I’ve ever taken with the kids, and that’s saying something.

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Country Mouse headed to the big city...

Growing Up – Definitely Country Mouse

I grew up in strip mall hell the suburbs of Indianapolis. It is by far the biggest city I’ve ever lived in, and (apologies to all my Hoosier friends & relations) my least favorite out of the places I’ve lived. Part of that is undoubtedly reflective of a young person’s desire to get the hell out of Dodge after graduation, but part of it is definitely that Indy is just not my style. For a big city, it has miserable public transportation, and many of the urban renewal initiatives that have, thankfully, taken place occurred long after I left. And despite being in the city most of the time, most of my happiest childhood memories took place on a farm a few hours outside the city, where we spent many weekends when I was growing up.

My first true metropolitan experience came when I ventured to Strasbourg, France, for a semester abroad. At just under half a million people in the greater metro area, Strasbourg is tiny, but as the seat of the European Parliament, and straddling, as it does geographically & culturally, both France & Germany, it was my first introduction to city life. I could walk nearly everywhere I needed to go for day-to-day living, and could hop a tram or bus to venture further in the city, or a train to make the ever-more-frequent trips to Nancy that became part of my life in France. I got to know the local drunks who lived in the bus shelter outside my apartment, and who got me out of a scrape or two in my time there. I learned to shop in increments that were easy to carry on foot and up the four flights of stairs to my apartment. I got used to having options beyond seeing a movie on the weekend as dance, opera, theater and other cultural events were added to my repertoire.

But then it was back to small-town Indiana to finish up college and off to another university town for my then-fiances’ graduate school. Again, small town life suited me. And again, when it was time to move to Colorado, we chose locations (first Superior, then Lafayette) that were smaller, off the beaten path. We moved to Windsor, England, and found the perfect balance of a small town (~30,000 people) that was close enough to have us in downtown London in half an hour by train. In addition to rekindling our love of art, culture, and the culinary delights that a city like London provides, our desire to travel, to easily jump to Paris or Venice or somewhere new entirely, cemented in our psyches.

However, it was also in England that I really discovered my love of gardening, so when we returned to the US and started looking for a bigger house than our little bungalow in Lafayette, we took what some considered a drastic step in moving to Lyons, a town of about 2,000 people. A place where I could raise children in an intimate community. A place where I could garden to my heart’s content in a big new yard and an easily-accessible community garden plot. A place with its own culture–the culture of bluegrass, the great outdoors, the river, the mountains.

And I loved life in Lyons. I loved running into people I knew every time I went to the local coffee shop, went to the park, or went for a run. I loved that we could walk across town in 20 minutes or so, and that we could walk to open space in 5 minutes. The tight-knit community meant that everyone was in everyone else’s business, but in a good way–a way in which this extroverted country mouse thrived.

And then we got restless…

But then last year, Matt & I both felt a little malaise. An amazing trip to Seoul in February stirred up my wanderlust, and two years of job insecurity, layoffs, and uncertainty tainted our feelings about our nice new house and the nice big mortgage that came with it. So now this country mouse finds herself in an actual city for the first time ever. It’s small for a capital city, just over half a million in Helsinki itself and just over a million in the metropolitan area created by Helsinki, Espoo, & Vantaa, and the downtown area is definitely smaller than Boulder, just with twice as many people.

First impressions of life in the city

As with all things, there are positives and negatives. The population density instantly drops the carbon footprint of our family (although admittedly our numerous flights to and from the US have probably killed a baby seal or two). The municipal compost & avid recycling program helps that effort, as does not having a car and relying on walking, cycling, tram, bus, and Metro. And living green is important to us.

Living simply has also increased in importance to us recently, and downsizing our house, yard, and cars plays into that effort. We estimate that we offloaded close to 30% of our stuff when we moved. Moving away from the land of Target & Wal-Mart and to the land of the dreaded 23% Value-Added Tax (VAT) will hopefully help us remember to think carefully about our purchases and avoid the accumulation of stuff that we don’t need or love.

And don’t get me started on the cultural offerings. As if moving into a very international community (our flat is in the embassy district and Gabriel’s school boasts more than 30 nationalities) wasn’t enough, Helsinki is close enough for a weekend trip to several other countries (Sweden, Estonia, & Russia being the most easily accessible). We know relatively little about Finland too, which makes it that much more foreign and mysterious to us.

But carrying groceries in howling winds and sub-zero temperatures is indisputably a drag. Missing the bus and really having no way to make-up the time, therefore coming late to school pickup or drop-off is equally annoying. Tiny washing machines, tiny antique elevators (have I ever mentioned that I’m mildly claustrophobic), being unable to navigate by the sun/mountains/water due to all the freaking tall buildings (some of you have witnessed first-hand my inability to navigate without these natural signs), and dogs that piss endlessly in the snow piles that I have to walk by every single day all make the list of annoyances.

I’d forgotten, since my time in England, the gorgeous shop windows at the holidays. And the beauty of the symmetrical Christmas lights adorning city center. The joy of watching the streets slip by on the tram without having to pay attention to traffic had slipped my mind. So I guess I’m a hybrid, or a chameleon, or something, because I think I can thrive in this new life in the city. And exposing the children to all of this, so that they can, in some far-off distant future decide if they’d like to be country mice or city mice…I suspect that’s the real reward.

Continue reading »]]> This weekend, my son celebrated his fifth birthday (sniff, sniff) and each of his friends went home with a little bag of play dough as a party favor. The play dough was a much bigger hit than the clay pots and basil seeds I send kids home with last year, and it was even easier and cheaper to make.

My mom gave me this recipe and this is the play dough I grew up with. I still remember the lovely cinnamon and clove scent of Mom’s play dough and am happy to report that my children love it just as much as I do!

Note: Although everything in this play dough is edible, it is very salty and contains cream of tartar, which I have read is toxic in large doses. So a little nibble won’t hurt, but don’t let your children eat their whole play dough dinner! Of course, this doesn’t even approach the toxicity of commercial Play Doh, which has a fairly scary list of ingredients.

1 c flour
1/2 c salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 c water
1 T oil
1 T cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or ginger
food coloring or a couple of packets of sugar-free Kool Aid

Mix all ingredients together and cook over low heat until thickened. Cool slightly and knead until smooth and elastic. It’s easy to overcook this play dough, so err on the side of under cooking–it will be runnier than regular play dough when you pull it off the stove. The flour will soak up more of the moisture and the dough will continue to cook after you pull it away from the heat.

The batch I made at Christmas is still going strong 9 months later! The more diligent you are about putting back into its container when the kids are done with it, the longer it will last. And you can compost it if it does dry out.

This was the first time I’d tried Kool Aid to color the dough and I have to admit, I prefer food coloring (you can read more about my experiments with Kool Aid here). The Kool Aid gives the dough a fruity scent and I really prefer the cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg/clove flavors, plus I wonder if the Kool Aid will make it mold or dry out faster. Oh well. It did make a nicer purple than regular food coloring!

I made three double batches so that each child could go home with a plum-sized lump of three different colors of dough. That was plenty for 12 children, with tons left over for my kids. I put the dough into wax paper bags and taped them shut and although I didn’t do this, it would be pretty easy to decorate the bag with each child’s name and/or slip it into a larger goody bag. A great, earth-friendly, inexpensive present or party favor that is quick and easy to make–enjoy!

Continue reading »]]> This weekend, I attended a talk by Kip Nash, a Boulder man who has turned many of the front yards in his neighborhood into farm plots as part of the Boulder Community Roots project. If the endless gorgeous seed catalogs, warm weather, and the kohlrabi, sorrel, kale, garlic, onions, garlic chives, and strawberries sprouting in my garden didn’t do it already, spring garden fever set in with a vengeance after his inspiring talk.

At one point, he referenced Richard Heinberg–a peak oil guy–and a pamphlet he’s published based on a lecture in which he called for America to train 50 million farmers to deal with the food shortages and rising food prices that will come as our petroleum demand outstrips supply. This article by Heinberg, although not mentioning the 50 million farmers, gives you a great overview of why he thinks there’s going to be a global food shortage.

I know this is hard to even fathom when for most of this winter gas has been at about 1.79 a gallon, but if global consumption continues at current levels (and the growth in India, China, Russia and Brazil almost guarantees that it will), we are going to run out of petroleum. And when we run out of petroleum, things like Kiwis brought in from the Southern Hemisphere and grapes from South Africa, not to mention all the other food products that come from places like China, are going to either get really, really expensive, or are going to completely disappear.

My whole life, being a child of the 70s, there has been talk about the loss of family farmers, the number of farmers that are leaving home for jobs in the city, Farm Aid, the Farm Bill, etc., etc. So it’s scary to think that, in a time when we as a society are losing our connection with the earth and with our agrarian heritage (my family comes from good farm stock, doesn’t yours?), we might suddenly find ourselves responsible in a real, tangible way, for producing food for our families. So how are we going to get 50 million people trained up and equipped to grow food on a local level so that we don’t experience massive first-world starvation when this happens?

We’re still in the midst of our year of eating local, and it’s going well despite a certain longing that all members of the family have for fresh fruit right now (yes, we’ve been eating US-grown citrus all winter, but even that gets old after a while!). But it still may seem premature to issue ourselves a brand-new food challenge. And yet, I will: We’re going to see how much of our food we can grow ourselves in 2009. We started in January with a little window-sill herb garden and lots of perusing of those beautiful seed catalogs I mentioned.

We continued last month by placing a huge seed order with some friends, turning and adding compost to our vegetable beds out back, and by securing a 50×50 foot plot across the highway where we can grow some more veggies. And today, we <em>finally</em> (emphasis from Gabriel, who has been begging/harassing me for weeks now) planted peas, spinach, and leaf lettuce. It’s only March 8, so I think this may be the earliest I have ever actually gotten my behind in gear for planting, and there’s more planned for this week.

Another neighbor who shares my love of veggie gardening is coming over this week to help me clean pots and flats so that we can get our tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and leeks started under the lights. Despite fears that people would think I was trying to grow a slightly more lucrative and less legal plant in the basement, I have purchased a roll of mylar (think shiny silver balloon material) and will be encasing the seed-starting rack Matt built me last year on three sides with mylar and on the front side with clear plastic to help hold in heat and moisture and reflect back light to increase the efficiency of my seed-starting this season.

What I hope to do is see how much of a dent we can put in our $250-300 weekly Farmer’s Market bill this summer. With all the preserving we do (yes, we’re planning, as I expected, to just keep on eating local when our official year is up in September 2009, although I’m guessing bananas and avocados, which have already made occasional appearances in our kitchen, will return to staple foods), it is hard to imagine that we won’t buy some items at market. I’m not, for example, growing broccoli, and doubt that the 20 cauliflower I have on the plan will be sufficient for my cauliflower-obsessed family. And even with a 50×50 plot shared between two families and the 500 square feet of garden space we have here at home, we’ll never produce enough melon and watermelon to keep my kids satisfied. Grains will also still have to come from the market or the local co-op–I just don’t have room to produce the quantity of grain my family consumes. But I do know a few local grain farmers, so perhaps I can get them to trade me grain for veggies. Hmmm….

Another challenge will be to see how much season-extending I can do this year (a la Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Harvest), which is something that didn’t go so well for me last year. I planted in August and again in September, but still didn’t get a harvest of anything (although a lot of the stuff is coming up now, so it wasn’t a complete waste!). Having frozen veggies in the freezer is wonderful, but having crisp greens, carrots, and other root vegetables is going to make the menu next winter even more delicious than it was this winter!

So what about you? Do you have aspirations to become one of Heinberg’s 50 million farmers? I know I do (and I have the dirt under my fingernails to prove it, starting today!).

Continue reading »]]> In the run up to the Super Bowl, I have to admit to spending more time thinking about the ads (or, more specifically, how anyone can afford the exorbitant Super Bowl ad pricing in this economy!) than about the game itself. So I was delighted to see this ad on both Salon and Huffington Post today.

Yes, it’s true, PETA, in a take off of the “Vegetarians Taste Better” bumper sticker that has been around since I first got my license 1,000 years ago, tried to get an ad portraying women in lingerie getting intimate with vegetables on air for the Super Bowl claiming that vegetarians have more/better sex. NBC declined to air the ad, calling it “sexually explicit,” but at the same time also guaranteed that more people will watch the ad than if they’d aired in on Sunday.

I’m not a fan of PETA, I don’t agree with what they do, and I occasionally eat meat & wear leather (putting me on their hit list to be sure), so I say this without any sort of religious fervor: Those guys at PETA did something smart for once! They had to know this ad wouldn’t be aired, the wrath of the puritans being what it is in this country. But they also had to know that the best way to get one of their ads on every blog and news outlet in America was to try.

It’s not even a very high-quality ad, but you can bet they’ll see a bump in their web traffic, in web advertising, etc. and all because NBC–and the puritan masses that still make the rules in this country despite Obama’s ascendancy–is more offended by a half-naked woman ridiculously/provocatively licking a pumpkin on Prime Time than it is with her participating in a wet t-shirt contest, a lewd round of car-washing in a bikini, or selling beer/cars/trends.

To see the comments on the ad (which you must read if for no other reason than to reassure yourself that you’re smarter than most of the rest of the people on this planet), you’d think these women were actually penetrating themselves with a zucchini. Personally, if my daughter were going to be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, I’d take the veggie love over the other trashy ads that will inevitably air. But then again, I’m no puritan

Continue reading »]]> I’ve had a hard couple of weeks. Lots to do. Not enough time. Not feeling adequate. When I get in one of these “I suck” frames of mind, it’s sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So I’m constantly surprised at the ability of music to snap me out of my bad mood. Last week, when I was literally almost in tears after a particularly challenging shopping experience with the children (which, by the way, as with everything, was totally my fault for going at a totally bad time when the kids were both tired and hungry), I got in the car, turned on the radio, and got this:

Now maybe I’m dating myself with this, but this particular song reminds me of a particularly wild, hormonal, exciting time in my life (and no, I don’t mean pregnancy). I can see faces of old friends when I hear this song and it snapped me out of my bad mood instantly.

When it was followed up by this one, I knew that someone was out there trying to cheer me up:

So all week, as I’ve neglected ChezArtz and several other projects, I’ve been thinking about this experience and turning on the radio in anxious anticipation of more songs from what I now refer to as the soundtrack of my life. Like Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical character in Almost Famous, I dig music.

And there are just certain songs that will bring a smile to my lips regardless of what is going on in that particular moment. Need some more examples? How about this one, that always makes me think of a shaggy-haired rogue who stole my heart when I was 20:

Or this one, that will forever remind me of cruising in a Chrysler Lebaron with my best friend with the top down just before Freshman year of college:

These songs, although not all from the same era musically, all evoke a time in my life–that crazy era from senior year of high school up until I met Matt junior year–when I was trying, and often failing, to figure out who I was. Now that I have the benefit of emotional and spatial distance, this seems like just about the best time in my life. Unfettered by responsibility, accountable to no one (including my future self, who would like to take this opportunity to scold my former self for endangering our life, disrespecting our sacred body, and neglecting our studies oh so many times!), this person comes alive, if only for 5 minutes, each time I hear one of these songs.

For those of you who know me, I know you’re screaming, “surely she’s not going to end this post without the Grateful Dead.” I’d never disappoint:

Can I take this moment of self-reflection to share a story about my father, who passed away two years ago? He hated everything about the Grateful Dead. He actually went as far as to cover the words Grateful Dead on my back windshield with duct tape when he drove my car (he neglected the Lorax & Cat in the Hat stickers, and the acid bears dancing across my windshield, but we’ll forgive that omission). And he asked me one time, “Why would anyone be grateful to be dead?” I hear you now, Dad. But I still love Jerry and his band…

This era was 1993-1995 for me. And the songs, I’ve already mentioned. What is the soundtrack of your life? What does it mean to you?

Continue reading »]]> We get a gallon of raw milk each week from Windsor Dairy and this week, due to our camping trip, we had a little extra. So last night, I made a little over a half-gallon of milk into ricotta cheese. I keep trying to make mozzarella, and just wasn’t up to it because of the 10 pounds of green beans we needed to blanch & freeze from our co-op adventures last week. But ricotta is so easy!

1. Pour a gallon of milk into a non-cast iron/non-aluminum pot, add 1 tsp salt (I have cheese salt, but I’ve read that any non-iodized salt–like pickling salt or sea salt–will work), and 1 tsp of citric acid. An interesting note for those of you who have been trying to make cheese like I have: I read that fresh farm milk needs more citric acid!! So if you’re using raw milk or other farm-fresh milk rather than something from the grocery store, you may want to double the citric acid.
2. Heat the milk slowly to 195 degrees, stirring just often enough to prevent burning the milk. As it gets closer to 195, you will see the curd separate from the whey.
3. At 195, remove from heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. At this point, you can do one of two things:
   • For a very dry ricotta, spoon the curds off into a cheese cloth to drain.
   • If you want more ricotta, or don’t mind it a bit more wet, you can spoon the curds off, drain, and then pour the rest through cheese cloth to get the last little bit of curd.
4. That’s it! Put the ricotta into an airtight container and refrigerate if you can keep yourself from eating it with a spoon. Oh, and don’t forget to use the whey to feed your tomato plants or to make some yummy buttermilk pancakes (use whey instead of buttermilk!).

The following recipe, adapted slightly from the River Cafe‘s Green cookbook, is a bit time-consuming once you’ve podded & cooked the peas, made the ricotta, and heated the stock, but if you’re entertaining and looking for something delicious to serve that is both local and very home-made, this recipe is for you. I usually only make this once or twice a year, and it’s memorable every time.

Recipe: Pea, Ricotta & Lemon Zest Risotto

3lb fresh peas (1.5 pounds podded) (I’m going to try this with a mix of peas and broad beans, which will take a bit more cooking in the boiling water than what the peas will!)

250 g ricotta cheese, lightly beaten

finely grated rind of 2 lemons

6 c. chicken stock

3 cloves of garlic

200g unsalted butter

500g spring onions

400g arborio or carnaroli rice

2 T fresh basil

150ml white wine

50g Parmesan

salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat the chicken stock to boiling and check for salt & pepper.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to boil, add 2 t salt, the peas, and a clove of garlic. Simmer for 3-4 minutes & drain, reserving 150ml of water.
3. Melt 150g of the butter in a large saucepan, and add onions to soften.
4. Add the remaining garlic, then the rice, stirring to coat each grain of rice in the butter, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the wine and stir until the rice is almost dry, 1-2 minutes.
6. Add a ladle of hot stock and stir, adding another when the rice has absorbed most of the liquid.
7. Continue stirring and adding stock for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is not quite soft.
8. Add half the peas and stir.
9. Mash the other half with the garlic and liquid in a food processor and add to the risotto.
10. Stir in the basil, 2 T of ricotta, and the remaining butter and cook until the basil is wilted and the butter melted.
11. Serve garnished with the remaining ricotta, lemon zest, salt, pepper & Parmesan.

Continue reading »]]> In the past week here in Colorado, the birds of summer have arrived and Matt, the kids, & I have been glued to our picture window just waiting for the next new bird to visit our newly-added feeders. I have already blogged about the migration of juncos, who vacate Front Range gardens each spring, but the summer showing thus far more than makes up for their absence.

Matt has a running tally of the interesting birds we’ve sighted, but I want to talk more about how to attract birds to your garden so that you, too, can enjoy their presence.

There are lots of things you can do to attract birds to your garden, and, as with so many other things, there is a continuum based on the time, effort, and money you want to commit to creating a bird habitat in your yard.

Choosing a Feeder
The type of birds that come to your garden and the types of seed you’re putting out should influence your choice in feeder as much as aesthetics. If squirrels are a problem, one of the many squirrel-free feeders might be a good idea, although providing squirrels with abundant food elsewhere in the garden might be a better deterrent. If you want woodpeckers and flickers, which abound in the Front Range, mature trees and suet feeders will provide the best food and shelter.

The opening of seed feeders should be of an appropriate size for the feed you put in it. If you want thistle to attract American Goldfinches (one of my favorites), make sure you put the feed in a thistle feeder so it doesn’t just slowly spill out of the feeder onto the ground. Feeders should also have a platform if you hope to attract some of the larger backyard birds–they might not perch on the side of a typical feeder.

Hummingbird feeders should be easy to fill and clean, and, if you live in an area of high winds, should be hung far enough from solid objects like fences, buildings, and trees to prevent them from breaking in strong winds.

Whatever feeder(s) you choose, be sure to clean them periodically with hot water and a mild soap or white vinegar.

Choosing Bird Food
Nobody wants excess seed to sprout in their mulch and plantings. Selecting feed based on the types of birds that actually visit your yard can help avoid this problem. Talk to your local wild bird center about the type of bird food that is right for you, but the following is a general guideline:

• Finches, especially American Goldfinches, like thistle seed, also called Niger.
• Woodpeckers, nuthatches, and flickers will flock to suet feeders.
• Hulled sunflower seeds will not sprout in the garden and yet provide food for multiple types of birds.

And don’t bother buying the expensive hummingbird nectar. Instead, make your own by adding 1 part sugar to 4 parts boiling water. Cool before adding the home-made nectar to the feeder and do not add food coloring–either your feeder or the plantings around it should be red; food coloring is harmful to the hummers! We’ve had the added surprise of watching bright yellow Bullock’s Orioles drinking nectar from our hummingbird feeders. According to our bird book, they’ve adapted to drink from hummingbird feeders until later in the season when other foods are more readily available to them. Now that’s a smart bird!

Bird Attracting Plants
Plants not only provide food for birds, but shelter in which to roost and raise young. When adding trees or shrubs to your landscape, keep birds in mind and plant a mix of fruit & seed bearing deciduous trees and shrubs for food and evergreens, thorny plants, or dense, twiggy shrubs for shelter.

Trees and shrubs are not the only plants of interest to birds. Hummingbirds feed on tubular flowers in shades of red and orange. Some hummingbird-attracting plants that do well in the Front Range include honeysuckle, members of the Agastache family, Asclepias, butterfly bush, Bee Balm, pentstemons, salvia, agava, yucca, and columbine.

Native plants provide the best low-maintenance landscape for attracting birds because the birds are already adapted to and know how to use native plants. One of Colorado’s most problematic non-native plants, the Russian Olive, has endangered many native bird populations. Its wood is much harder than the other native trees it has out-competed, threatening birds that nest only in trees with softer wood.

Other Considerations
According to the National Wildlife Federation (http://www.nwf.org), a 1992 study conducted by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology found that window strikes caused 51 percent of bird deaths. Predators, primarily household cats, caused 36 percent of bird deaths. Disease caused only 11% of bird deaths. They recommend placing feeders within 5-12 feet of low shrubs and trees to provide cover for the birds as they feed.

Backyard bird watching provides an easy way to connect with your children and with Nature. So consider putting out a feeder and watching the birds that come to visit; they’ll enjoy the food you provide, and you’ll enjoy the (*almost*) free entertainment.

Continue reading »]]> I’ve been blogging a lot lately about the true cost of certain things (conventionally-produced food, daycare, cars, etc.), and all the crazy hubbub of the Oscars got me thinking (with a little help from Suzanne) about makeup. Her post about the absurd amount we spend on make-up and other beauty products is a great read if you’re interested in this topic.

Sure, I love makeup. We had a rare date night to celebrate DH’s birthday last week and I spent a good 20 minutes painting my face for the occasion. As we were walking up the sidewalk to dinner, Matt commented that I looked fantastic, but he was glad that I didn’t wear makeup every day. I, too, like that makeup is not a daily part of my routine, not only because it takes forever to apply, but because when I do put it on, I see my daughter eying me very closely and I want her to grow up feeling like her natural, unpainted face is the most gorgeous thing on Earth instead of her feeling like she has to cover it up to be beautiful.

When you add the expense of good makeup, the environmental impact of the sometimes scary ingredients in makeup, and the impact it has on how we as women feel about ourselves, I feel pretty fortunate that Burt’s Bees lip gloss & moisturizer (with sun-screen) are the only daily part of my fashion routine.

What beauty product(s) can you not live without?