O Tannenbaum

I played around with caloriecounter.about.com to put in ingredients to my morning smoothie that I’ve been sharing with Grace. This morning I put in 1/2 cup of parsley as well and after looking at its nutrient profile I’ll be adding it all the time.

It has a lot of calories, but 70% daily calcium and 56% daily iron, not to mention A, C, etc. I don't worry about the sugars as except for the bit from the molasses they are all from fruit.  It is a good start to the day :-) And it leaves me feeling energized.

1/2 banana, 1/2 cup blueberries, 3 cup spinach, 1/2 cup parsley, etc.

I also spent some time on the internet looking at fabrics… I brought in the carpet from the camper and lined it up with the chairs that are also from the camper.  I found one that I really, really liked, but on closer inspection it was dry clean only, and spot clean with some solvent. WTF! So, back to the drawing board. This is supposed to be fun right – I’ve got to remember that there is no deadline.

Oh dear – closer inspection of the trees in the grove at the front of the house revealed that at least 1/2 of the spruce trees have either broken in half or are so far bent to the ground that they will surely break as well. Some of them just had side branches ripped out. My stomach just felt sick looking at them. They were mature trees, over 20 years old. Some of them were over 25 feet. Hopefully new growth will come out of the broken stumps – I wonder what we can do to help them?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are your branches!
In beauty green will always grow
Through summer sun and winter snow.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are your branches!
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
You are the tree most loved!
How often you give us delight
In brightly shining Christmas light!
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
You are the tree most loved!
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
Your beauty green will teach me
That hope and love will ever be
The way to joy and peace for me.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,
Your beauty green will teach me.

Songwriters: TRADITIONAL/SCHWARTZ

Kids in the Hood

Happy Tails!

Signs of Spring

I'm a little late getting yesterday's post out, we were out all day and then had company for supper.

Two sure signs of spring - we made some campground reservations on Thursday, and yesterday we went to the Spring RV show. JUST TO LOOK! We were hoping to find some carpets on sale (the kind for outside on the grass), but only found some step covers, which we needed as well. We poked and peered through several units, none of which held a candle to ours (except for that Big Horn, but it was huge). I did run into an old friend from work. Nicole retired 8 years ago and no one had heard from her since. I guess retirement was a lot of fun for her! It was fun to catchup :-)

After we were sick of RVs we drove up to T&T, the Asian grocery store. It is a giant mecca of Asian delights. They have a good meat department where we were able to get pork neck bones and these other beef bones for the dogs. The produce department had lovely bok choy, snow peas, red peppers, ginger, basil, mint, etc. After our trip to Costco where we got brussels sprouts, green beans, mushrooms, spinach, salad, broccoli, and goodness knows what I've forgotten, our fridge is FULL of produce and I'd better get cooking. I think I let myself get a bit carried away. And I didn't mention all the fruit!

What am I going to make with all this abundance? An Asian soup with bok choy, mushrooms, snow peas, ginger, basil & mint - with some rice noodles. I'll stir fry the snow peas with ginger, garlic, mushrooms and red peppers. The green beans will be roasted and tossed with a tahini lemon sauce. Brussels sprouts will be roasted and served with roasted sweet potato and white kidney beans. Spinach in my smoothie, salad with mushroooms and chick peas for lunches. Broccoli will be for Grace & the dogs. That about covers it - I think it is manageable, but we won't need a trip to the grocery store for several days!

I knew we were going out for the day so had to plan a meal for Friday night that could be somewhat made ahead. I got out my favorite Moroccan cook book and got cracking on Thursday night. All the ingredients for a Moroccan couscous (except the couscous) were assembled into the crockpot and stuck in the fridge. Next up, Moroccan bread. This was an experiment for me - I made the bread, kneaded it, shaped it, put it on a baking sheet, made sure it was covered with olive oil, then covered it and stuck it in the garage, which was hovering at around 1C (freezing). I picked out two salads that would be easy to make when we got home from the RV show and that was that. The stew turned out great, the bread baked perfectly, the salads were weird but good (carrot orange salad with cinnamon, and a cucumber salad with orange blossom water and black olives). Carm really helped with the salads so we actually had everything ready when the guests got here (Trudie & Leo, just back from their trip south ; Vashek and Marie, just leaving for their trip south). It was a congenial evening.

This morning so far all we've done is do more dishes and tidy up. And drink coffee.

I am going to notice the lights of the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, the lights of our candles as we march, the lights with which spring teases us, the light that is already present.

Anne Lamott