Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

The girls and I took advantage of the cooler, less humid weather on Thursday (as well as the discount tickets available through my work) and went to the city to visit the Zoo.  Bob the Gnome was unable to attend, but Ben came along to enjoy the day.

We walked and walked and walked (Ben generally rode in a pocket) until we were pooped.

As always, we finished off our trip with a stop at Rita's for Italian Ice.  So ends another great day in the Big City.

Taco Time

We have developed a routine of eating tacos just about every Wednesday evening over the past 10 years or so.  JP's family had a history of making tacos weekly or bi-weekly while he was growing up, and he had a hard time giving it up, so Taco Night continued on after we were married.  I posted a blog long ago about making the tortillas, you can read it here. 

Lately, we have made a real point of trying to eat healthier, and to consume less red meat.  That makes it a bit tricky to make tacos, which while the fresh veggies and homemade corn tortillas are uber healthy, the hamburger is not so much.  We had some really delicious fish tacos while on vacation at the beach, so we are trying to alternate our traditional tacos (using ground turkey) with fish tacos.  The first attempt, using Tilapia, was ok, but not great.  I tried again today using shrimp.

We just received our August/September issue of Cook's Country magazine last week, which included a recipe for California Fish Tacos.  I did a little bit of internet searching as well, and ended up combining several recipes, but these Shrimp Tacos turned out to be DELICIOUS!  There are several steps to making the various veggie condiments, but several of them could be made ahead to save time.

Here is the recipe for the pickled onions and slaw, that came from Cook's Country:

Pickled Onions

1 small red onion, halved & sliced thin
2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed & sliced into thin rings
1 c white wine vinegar
2 T lime juice
1 T sugar
1 t salt

Combine onion and jalapenos in a medium bowl.  Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan.   Pour over the onion mixture.  Let set for at least 30 minutes.  (I would recommend draining them before serving, we ended up with really drippy tacos!)  *This can be made & refrigerated up to 2 days in advance.*

Cabbage

3 cups shredded green cabbage
1/4 cup pickling liquid from onions
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. *Do this step right before serving tacos so cabbage doesn't get soft.*

White Sauce (we adapted the Cook's Country recipe by seasoning it up)

1/2 c mayo
1/2 c sour cream
2 T lime juice
2 T milk
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 t ground cumin
black pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients.  *This can be made and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance.*

Shrimp

2 lbs shrimp
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
2 t garlic powder
2 T lime juice
2 T canola oil
hot sauce
salt
pepper

Place shrimp in a flat container and sprinkle remaining ingredients over them.  Toss well to mix, and allow to marinate for 20-30 minutes.  Grill over med-hi heat for 5 minutes until pink.

Build tacos with warm tortillas, shrimp, onions, cabbage, and chopped tomatoes (avocado chunks would be nice too), and top with white sauce and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

So there you have it:  healthy and flavorful shrimp tacos 8 hours in-land from the beach!

Weekend Excitement

It has been another full weekend, and it is not over yet.  I am in the thick of canning beans.  I picked over 30 lbs of green and wax beans from the garden in the past week.  I have 27 pints finished, and have about 7 quarts to go.  There is also zucchini bread in the oven - also from our garden harvest.

The jars on the left are Dilly Beans, the ones on
the right are just canned beans

Yesterday morning, while folding laundry during a rainstorm, I suddenly heard an enormous BOOM, and at the same time, felt the house shake and saw a column of orange and red fire in my parents' yard.  Lightening struck a walnut tree about 150 yards from their house.  It threw bits of bark all the way up to their driveway!  Surprisingly, it did not look burnt, but simply as if  someone had carefully stripped a line of bark off for 30 feet of length.

After the rain, I took a few photos of the garden, which looks lush and gorgeous.



Two varieties of Winter Squash

We will soon have corn on the cob to eat!




Broccoli



 

J is growing this lovely cantaloupe



Onions

 

I never got around to finishing the Murphy bed that my dad built using wood from the oak that fell in our woods 2 winters ago.  He finally stained and varnished it last week so that he could get it out of his woodshop.  It looks absolutely gorgeous!  Once the thunderstorm passed, and the rain eased off, JP, my dad and I loaded the bed onto a trailer, and steadied it while JP pulled it down to the front french doors with his lawn tractor.  We managed to ease it into the house, and get it placed in the guest bedroom.  It is still not functional, as it needs to be anchored into the wall first.

Now my dad plans to start work on shelving units that attach on either side of the bed.  This will enable us to move the dresser out of the guest room as well, and move our exercise equipment in at some point.  For now, if you come to visit overnight, you will have to bunk up with the girls on the twin trundle beds in their play room.

This weekend, we also had to say "goodbye" to another family of our dear friends.  It is heartbreaking and maddening, and the whole situation is so unjust, that it is hard to know how to feel or respond.  I've found that I do best staying REALLY busy, and I've managed to do just that all weekend.

That about covers all of the excitement for the weekend.  We are rapidly moving into a new week, which I'm sure will be filled with excitement of its own. 

Rough Nights

We had friends over Saturday evening for dinner. They stayed late to watch a movie with us, and spent the night. The older 4 children wanted to sleep in the tree house, but we are having typical summer weather lately: hot and HUMID! Although it cooled off after the sun went down, and we opened up the windows of the tree house - with 4 kids just BREATHING in there, it was hotter than Hades inside. One child made it until about 10:45, and then he came in to recover in the air conditioning. L made it until 2 AM, when she wandered in with her tiny flashlight, and the 2 oldest lasted until 6:30 or so...it made for some grumpy kids on Sunday afternoon - at least in our house!

We discovered on Sunday morning, that the pullets had an even worse night in the Egg Cart'n. One of the white pullets was attacked by something that tore the skin and feathers off his neck. No predator could possibly get into their enclosure except for a weasel, so we are assuming that it was something larger (cat, raccoon, possum?) that reached in through the wire. He seems perfectly fine now. He eats, drinks, and acts like a normal chicken, but looks awful. I sprayed him with my magic Vetricyn spray last night. I'm hoping he heals up well like the hens did, and doesn't end up with some kind of nasty infection!

This picture makes it easy to see why we are
convinced that the injured pullet is our
tiny rooster.

I must go back though, to our Saturday evening get together, and mention something amazing. JP and I were running behind on Saturday - JP was having trouble with the mower, and it took me longer to get everything done than I had planned. In any case, we were making great headway in the kitchen, although dinner wasn't quite ready at the intended time. Our friends showed up and we were still unshowered, and in our dirty clothes - sweaty and nasty. The girls' bedroom was a mess, as I had stripped their beds, but hadn't remade them. Bless them, our friends are beautiful people, and didn't mind, but this is BIG TIME for me.

It used to be that I would have to clean the house before we would have any company. Everything would be done beforehand, and despite the stress and nerves ahead of time, when visitors arrived, I would be clean and pressed and everything would be in order. I started discovering, especially after having kids, that it wasn't necessary, and sometimes not even reasonable to do this EVERY time before having people over. I started letting things slide. It has finally gotten to the point that if things are somewhat orderly before my friends arrive, and the food is pretty close to being taken care of, I'm good. Sometimes I haven't managed to brush my teeth or put on make-up, but I have NEVER been so dirty while entertaining before!

You know what? It did not lessen in any way the enjoyment we had spending time with our dear friends this weekend. It also gives you an idea of how wonderful our group of friends is, and how painful it is to see them leave our little town.

I'm pretty proud of myself that I could entertain without feeling completely guilty and inadequate about the state of my home or my personal hygiene (or lack thereof!) I've come a long way...my therapist would be amazed!

Bob & Ben Go to The Big City

The girls attended their first day of the Library Summer Program yesterday.  As always, they had a great time.  They came home with hollowed out potato-faces with radishes planted for hair, a worm farm, and little gnomes, who are meant to accompany them on adventures this summer.  Our family's gnome is named Ben, our friend C named her gnome Bob.

Bob and Ben travelled with us to the Big City today to visit the Natural History Museum.  This was a first not only for the gnomes, but for C as well.



First, Bob & Ben discovered the Dinos



Bob & Ben met a Grizzly Bear!




The gnomes found some mushrooms that
they thought might be nice to live in.

 

They rode in a boat, and were the only
ones who didn't get seasick.

Bob & Ben discovered a playground just their size.
The girls were sad that they couldn't play there!

They cooled off in a fountain.

The gnomes had a chat with some parakeets.




Finally, Bob & Ben ate some ice cream
before heading home.


 I think that everyone, gnomes included, had a fun day in the City!

Surprises

My garden grew by leaps and bounds in the week that we were on vacation.  I returned to find all of this lovely broccoli ready to harvest.  That is a first...no broccoli to speak of in years past!

On Sunday, J brought in this itty bitty egg, just a tad larger than a robin egg.  (And no, it's not from the pullets yet!)

Speaking of the pullets, they are almost completely feathered out at this point.  Not surprisingly, they are all different looking!  3 of them look exactly like our Barred Rock hens.  Two of them are completely black - legs, beaks, eyes and all.  I guess that there is a Black Wyandotte variety that looks similar, so we'll have to wait and see if they develop the rose comb of a Wyandotte. 





Of the two white chicks, one is already obviously a cockerel, and the other has a single black feather on its back.



There is no end to the interesting things we find around here!

Vacation

We've been away for the past week.  We drove many hours to Cape May Point, NJ for a vacation with JP's sister and brother-in-law.  Between rain and riptides, we were unable to get in the water for the first 2 days.  After that, we managed bike rides or beach trips in between rain showers.  One rainy day, we visited the nearby Air Museum.  JP's sister offered to take the girls to the zoo one morning so that JP and I could have a morning to ourselves.  We decided to go out to watch "Superman", while it poured into the open windows of our van.  Our wi-fi went out on the first day, so despite my intentions, I was unable to blog from the beach house.  Because of traffic, the 7-8 hour drive home actually took us 11 hours.

Overall, it was a nice time away.  We had fun, even though it was a bit different than we had planned.  We returned to knee high grass in the yard and 6 loads of laundry.  We also brought home about 35 lbs of sweet cherries, that are now cooling in 21 quart jars on the kitchen counter.  The dogs, cats and chickens all did well in our absence.  Tomorrow we must return with a jolt to reality.  Sigh...how can the time fly by so quickly?

J & L at the Air Museum

We watched fireworks from Sunset Beach after the
sun went down.

The whole fam-damily at Cape May Point