Burning off the sugar

Granddad's cottage faces Sherwood Lawn and the piano studio, all of which we take for our own personal front yard!! There is a ton of grassy space, enough for us to run around with the frisbees and ball to get out all of our sillies before heading in to watch some more Star Wars!!!

CAKE

As soon as we arrived in Chautauqua, I went to work to make a cake for Potter's birthday. There was lots of frosting, both on the top and in the middle! There were a lot of people who were on a sugar high the rest of the night.........

Boys

Some of the boys in my life.

Opening presents at Granddad's house

Regular readers of the blog will remember that Granddad gave all the kids new electric train last Christmas. To add onto the fun, Granddad gave Potter a bunch of new tracks, new switches, and a new car to expand the track we already have. Potter opening all the new parts and then the last picture is back at home, the new pieces all in place!!

Arriving at Granddad's house

Potter eating some frosting after we arrive and the kids in the basement playing with the new remote control car.

Playmobil from Wendy

Wendy sent Potter a HUGE package for his birthday and what was inside? PLAYMOBIL!! There is a new line of Playmobil out that is pyramids, mummies, etc... and they found this earlier this year in the catalog. Potter (Stewart - note the mailing label on the box) is now the proud owner of a really cool Playmobil pyramid that has so many secret compartments and pieces that Potter doesn't even know about all of them yet! The other amazing thing is that Potter put this whole thing together by himself. If you have ever put any Playmobil together as an adult, you know that this is no small feat!!!

Birthday morning at home

Potter received a lot of cool stuff, Star Wars playing cards from Molly, a big red ball that Caleb picked out, a new flashlight to replace one that got broken, 'The End' in Lemony Snicket, Sorry (the game), a very cool remote control car (that has already gone through 2 sets of batteries!), and a few other things. He really raked it in!!

Potter turns 9!

On Friday August 21st, Potter turned 9!! Hard to believe that this much time has gone by since we first became parents. We were headed out of town on Friday to go over to Chautauqua for a long weekend. Potter opened up some presents before we left, and the first one that he opened (actually the night before - shhhhhhh) was the Star Wars trilogy from Grandma and Grandpa, so we watched the first one that night before. How much fun to watch a movie that came out when Dave and I were kids, now watching it with OUR kids. Does that make us old? Anyway, it was fun, and now we have watched the first two movies in their entirety and have made it halfway through 'Return of the Jedi.' I can tell that this is a threesome that we will watch over and over and over. Molly was mostly into the part where Luke Skywalker gets his hand cut off by Darth Vader and Caleb is interested in the 'shooters' that all of the bad guys (ie: Storm Troopers) carry around. Potter, at his wise age of 9, actually appreciates the stories!!

My next Julia recipe

My first venture into mtaofc was on Sunday with the brussel sprouts. The same grocery trip that I made to purchase those I also purchased whole artichokes, which I had never done and have never prepared. This evening, I decided to delve into cooking these as an appetizer for me and Dave. The actual name of what I made was Artichauts au naturel. Basically, you trim the top of the artichoke and the clip the end of the leaves and boil them in salted water for 35-45 minutes. Ours were ready in the 35 minutes. You'll notice in the picture that there is no lid on the pot. Julia calls for putting a cheesecloth over the tops so that they don't dry out. Having no cheesecloth (and Dave suggested that putting a paper towel on top would be, in a word, icky) I had to stand there and baste them with the water every 2 minutes or so to keep them moist and edible. While those were boiling, I made another recipe of beurre au citron, which is lemon infused butter with a bit of salt and pepper. Mine didn't thicken up as indicated should happen in the recipe, but it was very very lemony nonetheless and yummy. Once the artichokes are ready, you drain them and then can eat them either warm or put them in the fridge and eat them cold. We opted for immediate gratification! It was a nice treat to have, especially when we got to the actual artichoke heart (which is one delectable bite!), but we decided given the time and effort into watching over the pots, it isn't something we'll make all the time and will die for. I'm happy to have made these two recipes and have tried something new. I imagine there are other choices for using fresh, whole artichokes. I'll discover those another day.

My own Julie/Julia project

Ok, so this is really just becoming very cliche. Everyone has seen (or is going to see) the movie Julie and Julia. I did just see it myself last week while on vacation and totally enjoyed it. BUT, I want credit for being one of the people who read the book 'Julie and Julia' when it first came out and wasn't mainstream. In fact, today I went back and looked at my reading log (I keep a log of every book I read, the author and when I finish reading it) and found that I finished reading this book in October of 2005, long before most people who are now all into the Julie Powell - Julia Child frenzy that seems to have people racing to cooking stores and book stores.

Dave bought me a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (mtaofc for short) a couple of years ago for my birthday and it has since been sitting, collecting dust on the bookshelf in the kitchen. Being encouraged, once again, after seeing the movie, I decided that I needed to try some of the recipes from this cookbook, as Julia made them seem like dishes that any person interested in cooking could, well, master. The kids have, for many reasons, been intrigued by the existence of brussel sprouts which I have hated my whole life. I think my aversion as been the strongest reason for them to be curious about them. Over the weekend while at the grocery store, I decided to get a few of the offending veggies and find some recipe in mtaofc that I could prepare using them. I made a quite simple dish of braised brussel sprouts for the kids to have with dinner and to my amazement (and Dave's) the kids thought these were just about the BEST thing they had ever eaten. Dave, who had never in his 40 years consumed one of these tidbits, also declared them delicious and we all decided that this must be in our regular repetoire of staple vegetables, at least prepared like this. My mother (sorry mom) never made brussel sprouts that were this tender, tasty and buttery. You can't go wrong!! There are other versions of brussel sprouts in mtaofc, many with cheese and sauces (how can that be bad, eh?) so I see myself now becoming a regular in the produce section buying bulk quantities of these.

I have no photo, as there wasn't really anything to document. However, as I continue to try to make various dishes from mtaofc, I will include any pictures that I think would be interesting to my blog-following public. Bon appetit!

Dave's new ride

Yes, we got a new car to replace Dave's old 4Runner (see previous posts in July where we said goodbye to the Green Monster) and yes, it is a Lexus. But you must realize that this car is 16 years old!!! Dave is starting to get used to driving it around, but the drive thru at Starbucks is very high above his head now! I'm not sure they recognized him the first time he went through with the new car. I don't think Dave will ever quite get over losing his old friend, but the Lexus is a fun car to drive! Aside from needing to replace the radio at some point, the car is in really great shape. There is a long story to this car's history, but suffice to say that it sat idle and undriven for several years, so the mileage is quite low and it is in remarkable shape for a car this age. The kids love to ride in it, because you can be going 30 mph and to them it feels like a roller coaster! Sadly, we cannot fit all three kids in the backseat (there is no middle seat, just a hump for an arm rest) so this car isn't family friendly. The trunk is way too small for all the stuff we lug around on trips, so it won't be making any vacation trips with us either. In a couple of years, we'll be getting Dave a brand new something (truck?) and selling this car, but for now, it is wheels to get around and we feel sporty and cool!!!

My new stove!!!!

Here is the whole where my old stove used to be. The man who installed it had to cut some of the counter to get the new stove to fit in. There is my new stove on top of the box and then the last picture is of my new stove. I might have to take more pictues. IT ROCKS!!!!!!

My old cruddy stove

On Monday, we said goodbye to my old crappy stove where really only one burner worked reliably and then another worked most of the time. We did have the Supermatic burner, which used to (I am sure when it was new) be controllable, but while we lived here, it had one speed which was super scortch!! Seriously, you could boil the kettle of water in about 60 seconds. So I was sad to see that burner go, but not anything else. It was hard to clean those stupid coils out and was always looking dirty, as something that is 47 years old I guess will do. I'll have to be careful what I say when Dave turns 47 about looking dirty all the time!!!

Visiting Jesscherry in Albany

Jesscherry, how we miss you!!! We did stop in Albany to visit Jess, as she started law school this week. I had to see where she was living, so when I think of her or chat with her online, I know exactly where she is in her apartment. Met her parents and just love, love them!! Would really love to have a gin and tonic with Terry!!! So we took a few candid shots of ourselves with Jess and I know we will be back to see her and torment her again. Oh, the last shot is of Albany Law School which I took (obviously) from the car, and Dave managed to put his hand up right when I was shooting, so now it looks like he is holding the law school lawn in his hand. Oh well, it is very close to her apartment and should be easy for her to get to without having to give up her parking space!!!

Crab time!!

Found almost 75 crabs or so, then we let them all go in a mad dash to get back into the ocean.