Some food is just for FUN!

I frequently have conversations with my eldest daughter Peanut about what food is healthy and what is not. She already knows what is healthy and what she likes. I do frequently remind her that not all our food has to be healthy. Some food we eat just b/c it tastes good and we like it. But we don't do it everyday and we don't make pigs of ourselves doing it. That said, here are some photos of us making pineapple upside down cupcakes from Family Fun magazine. It really is a great magazine for recipes that kids can help with, among other great features. P&P truly enjoyed cutting the cherries and pineapple and of course the measuring and stirring. We also made chocolate covered strawberries this week. Unfortunately the strawberries did not come from our garden. Someone had one of those edible fruit baskets sent to work. Peanut became obsessed with chocolate covered strawberries when she heard about them. It does after all entail two of her favorite foods.

We will be replanting our strawberries soon, ours dried up when Viking Daddy misunderstood my directions on which pots to water while I was away. August gardening in AZ is akin to the rest of the country's January. We are getting some cucumbers and the basil is still producing but that is pretty much it. But we have three different tomatoes sprouting as well as some bell peppers. Our other seeds are awaiting cooler temperatures to be planted

Tonight we had sauteed baby spinach with golden raisins and almonds, basmati brown rice and salmon patties. I LOVE salmon patties because I always have the ingredients to make them on hand, they are quick and very nutritious. I have quite a bit of canned salmon stored up in case we have a supply chain melt down due to the H1N1 flu this winter. Even though my children always eat this way (i.e. not carnival food) I still marvel at it. I think because it is not the norm. Kids eat chicken nuggets and french fries because that is what they are served. Mine eat curry and cauliflower because that is what they are served.

Fruit over French Fries

On a recent trip to Chick-fil-a a mistake was made on our order and my children were given those tasty waffle fries instead of the mixed fruit we always order. No big deal I thought, I'll let them have it. The line was unusually long. Peanut looked at the fries and said "where's my fruit?" I told her a mistake was made. "I don't want those. I want my fruit." I took them back to the counter where they disposed of them and handed me two containers of fruit. They did look at me in disbelief when I told them my daughters would rather have fruit than fries. This is the norm for them. There are lots of thing we don't give our kids "choices" on -- wearing a bike helmet, washing hands. Is good nutrition any different? It undoubtedly affects health for the rest of ones life! I hope by making choices for them as a parent I have set them up for a lifetime of good nutrition. Though I do occasionally wonder if I go overboard and it could backfire one day. The truth is, like so many things, I can't control everything they do. But I have control over this, for now.

slow train & sandy watermelon

While in Oklahom we also took the Quartz Mountain Flyer. It is a local train that goes from the entrance to Quartz Mountain Park into the small town of Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. It was really quite fun. The train goes incredibly slow because the distance is so short, it almost rocked the adults to sleep! It goes around Lake Altus-Lugert which is special for my family b/c my maternal grandmother grew up in the town of Lugert, the ruins of which are at the bottom of the lake. Also, we have had countless family reunions there and spent many hours hiking, fishing, swimming and just generally having fun there. When we got to Lone Wolf there was fresh watermelon at the "depot." The depot was actually a little out building that they sell train related souvenirs out of. But best of all was the watermelon. Anyone who knows, knows that sand grows the best watermelon. And the best watermelon is so juicy you have to eat it leaning forward and it is as sweet as honey. It was delicious and I wish the town of Lone Wolf much success in this endeavor. I hope it continues for many years.

The narrarator on the train was fantastic! She told us a lot of interesting stories about the area. Some we knew but something we didn't was the versatility of mesquite trees. We always thought they were just a nuisance, thorny, compete with grasses for water, etc. In fact my Dad used to just shake his head that mesquite trees are purposefully planted here in AZ. But she talked about the pods and how they can be dried, pulverized and used as flour. Or the beans in the pods can be cooked to make a sweet syrup. I just thought this was fantastic to know. It's too late this year but next spring I will trek back to Oklahoma and harvest some mesquite pods. Oh, yeah, I planted two mesquite trees in my yard. I'll just use those! Anyway, I have a newfound respect for those mesquite trees.

How locavore are we?

We're back from Oklahoma and boy did we have fun! When we first arrived my Dad had expressed that he wanted to take P&P and their three cousins fishing. My negative side thought this would be an exercise in futility and that getting ready to go would take three times as long as the actual fishing. In the end, it didn't matter because they had so much fun. I think my girls are conflicted girly-girls like their mom. The love shoes and makeup but Pumpkin especially really loved holding the worms. We caught these fish Wednesday morning. Pop filleted them that afternoon, Nanna fried them and we ate them. That's being really close to your food.

I have to say though, that it wasn't a fair fight. This little farm pond was quite low and the fish were practically jumping on the shore. We caught 11 fish in about a 20 minute time frame. Now, I love catfish but these were a little "muddy" tasting, even for me. It did bring back soooo many memories of fish fries when I was a kid. A mess of catfish, some cornbread, beans and gallons of sweet tea. Does it get any better than that?

Fall garden

I got Pumpkin & Peanut's fall garden planted yesterday. They were too busy helping their Dad trim trees so I did most of the work myself. Plus it was crazy hot even at 0900 so I can't really say I blame them for staying in the shade. I amended the soil heavily with compost and planted pumpkins, small sugar and luminaries (white). I also planted corn since it is practically their favorite food. We will probably add some Marigolds and Nasturtiums soon to round out our Fall Garden. I didn't include a picture because, well it just looks like dirt right now. I did have to dig up their potatoes which was just painful to do but they don't grow well with pumpkins. I felt a little guilty since this is their garden (not mine). The potatoes grew out of a rotted potato they planted with their Gan-gan. We will definitely try potatoes again but probably sweet potatoes (more nutritious).

I did want to include a pic of P&P making strawberry jam. Unfortunately we only got five strawberries this year so these are some organic strawberries. I think we probably need to replant with an early variety. They had so much fun.

Feral lovebirds of AZ

Last Sunday morning I looked out the window and saw a tiny parrot feasting on our Sunflowers. I thought someone's pets must've escaped. To the Internet I went and discovered that there is a large population of feral lovebirds in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Apparently they have adapted quite well here as it is similar to the arid area of Africa they come from.

Well, we have been enjoying them all week and I was finally able to snap some pictures of them to share.

One always expects the added benefit of supporting the local bird population when raising sunflowers. Exotic birds was NOT something I expected but have greatly enjoyed.

Welcome to the jungle!

I made it home and took an early enough flight that I got to see my garden before it got too dark. Thanks, Dad & Viking Daddy for not just keeping it alive but for keeping it thriving!

We are still waiting to harvest our first cantaloupe but it won't be long. We've gotten our second cucumber and boy, are they delicious. So tender you don't have to do a thing to them but slice 'em up.

The bushy end there is cantaloupe, zucchini, squash and cukes. I guess my novice side is showing. Why else would I plant so many vines so close together?

As you can see we have the shade up now too. This is a great way to extend the growing season in AZ when otherwise everything would burn to a crisp! We are slowly harvesting our carrots and waiting for our watermelon to come up.

Working Vacay

As my facebook account indicates, I'm not at home. P&P are with Nanna & Pop and, I'm certain, being spoiled rotten -er. I'm missing them so much but they are keeping us quite busy here so I don't have too much time to think about it.
I'm probably going to miss our first cantaloupe. We had tiny green beans when I left Saturday, excited about that! The strawberries were a bust this year. I think we got five. The plant is beautiful though! We'll be planting two kinds of pumpkins when i get back next week.

Our late spring garden

P&P are so excited, our garden is growing strong. We put up a shade now b/c we had a few days over 100 degrees last week. It's looking good. We discarded what was left of the lettuce (too bitter) and planted watermelon in its place. I expect our 1st cantaloupe will be ready next week. This sunflower forest picture is about two weeks ago. It's even bigger now!!

Back in Town

I'm back home after being gone for almost three weeks. First, a trip to Oklahoma for my Mother's 60th birthday, then a family vacay to San Diego. Both were great. My girls are such fabulous travelers. Of course, they've been traveling since they were six weeks old. Feeding them well on the road was more of a struggle. My favorite airline had mostly processed snacks. No problem, we'd brought whole grain crackers and dried fruit. The girls were allowed to "splurge" on Dr. Pepper on the plane. They like to order it themselves.
The access to fresh vegetables and fruit in Oklahoma was abysmal. Most of the family didn't have their home gardens producing yet so we were out of luck.
We did better in California. We had a kitchen in our Resort so I made several meals for us but the food in the grocery store was surprisingly expensive. None of the restaurants we ate in were noteworthy for kids meals. The same old carnival fare you'd expect. This is the catch-22 of kids not wanting vegetables with their meals and kids meals not offering vegetables. Well, fortunately we don't dine out all that much.
Coming soon! Update on our Sunflower Forest.

Why we live here

I miss my family back home daily. But, after almost ten years, I've grown accustomed to this place. I think I'll always hate the feeling of the oven door being left open in the summer. But I haven't scraped ice off my window or slipped on ice in almost ten years. Becoming pumpkin & peanut's mom helped me more than anything. My home is whereever they and Viking Daddy are. Speaking of them... It's peanut's FOURTH birthday. She's so excited she's beside herself. She wants everything in the toy catalog. Her most surprising request was for a pearl necklace. I found her a cute set for $16 including shipping. Now it's hers and she can wear it where and when she wants without momma having a heart attack if it gets stuff on it.