Cooking together

Little Miss A and I are cooking together. Several things happened today to make this possible:

1. I have two heads of cabbage from our CSA that have been in the veggie bin since last week
2. I listened to a podcast of Kitchen Wisdom from NPR and they featured a risotto recipe with cabbage

Bada-bing, bada-boom, we are in business. This risotto recipe is made in the microwave, so it is pretty fast. While we are waiting for the boys to get home, we are whipping up this dish.

Eat Local Challenge

September 2007 is Eat Local Month, according to Locavores (and many other foodie sites), and the idea is simple. For one month, try to eat what is local in your area. The challenge can take on many aspects, I guess it depends on how intense you want to get, but I liked the first two suggestions of Katherine Gray at Dish To Dirt, namely:

1. Eat local whenever possible
2. If I cannot eat local, buy from a local company

In addition, I pledge to:

3. Preserve as much as I can
4. Limit driving, and work on integrating transportation alternatives into our lives
5. Start caring where things are made and see if I can find manufactured items 1) locally, 2) in California, 3) in the Western US, and/or 4) in the US, before going overseas.
6. Try to not sound holier-than-thou when talking about eating local

One week into the challenge, this is where I stand
-- On Monday, I spent 4 hours in the stupifying heat, canning local tomatoes for winter soups and stews. Not as hard as it sounds, although I occasionally feel as though I am channeling my grandmother, or the author of Little Heathens.

- On Tuesday, the kids and I rode our bikes to school. Fortunately, we live around the corner, so the ride is not that tedious. Thank goodness the challenge is in September and not January, I find myself to be a fair weather cyclist.

- On Wednesday, I went to Whole Foods for 5 items. It took me nearly 30 minutes to shop because I was reading the labels so thoroughly. Fortunately, the chicken was local, from Petaluma. So was the goat cheese, from the coast. But the organic peas had a confusing pedigree and I had to buy soy butter from Illinois for lunches, since peanuts are not allowed at my kids' school. And I needed nonfat milk - the local stuff was twice as expensive as the house brand, but hey, at least it comes in a shwanky, retro glass bottle. That should justify the additional $4 a gallon.

- On Thursday, I took a break. All this sourcing has me exhausted and fortunately, we had enough leftovers for dinner!

- thank goodness for Friday - we get most of our veggies through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Two Small Farms, from Watsonville and Hollister. If I buy nothing else, I can feel very confident that at least today I am doing something right!

So, at the end of our first week of participation, I would say that our results are mixed. Thank goodness the kids are in school (for a good three hours), otherwise I am not sure where I would find the time to source our local food. Join me on the challenge, I would love to hear other folk's stories!

Romantic Wine Tasting: A family outing in San Luis Obispo

My husband and I both enjoy wine, and before the kids came along, we used to spend many a relaxing afternoon at wineries in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains, picnicking and sipping class California wines. Along came the kids, and somehow this did not see practical anymore. We had new afternoon plans, which mostly involved naps, scheduled feedings and lots of play time. Wine tasting seemed like it was to go the way of our golf games....

Then, last summer, we realized we could bring it back, albeit with a slightly different twist. Driving north from Santa Barbara, lunch time hit us just as we were nearing Templeton, a wine-rich enclave south of Paso Robles. We knew from past research that Turley Wines, a long-time favorite which we often see at auction fundraisers, was located in Templeton and a quick call to the winery confirmed that they have a picnic area. A stop at the Trader Joes in Atascadero and we arrived at the winery ready to eat, figuring we could picnic with the kids while tasting wine on the side. And it turned out just that way - we nabbed a table outside and the women behind the wine counter were incredibly accommodating, allowing us to come in to get the next taste. The kids were accommodating too, eating lunch, playing around the picnic area and generally behaving themselves. Success!

While planning our southern California road trip this summer, we decided to spend a night in San Luis Obispo and taste wine in the nearby Edna Valley. Based on the success of last year's experiment, we decided to try for 3 wineries, with a lunch stop in the middle. After consulting the San Luis Obispo Vintners, we decided to stop at Claiborne & Churchill, Tangent Winery, and Tolosa Winery. We knew that Tangent had a picnic site, so we planned to eat lunch there. We began our day at Claiborne & Churchill and set our kids up on a table outside. To occupy the kids, we had brought a couple craft kits, which they jumped into, allowing us to taste the first of 5 wines they were pouring that morning. So far, so good, although the wind had picked up, making it a little hard to work on the craft projects and as a result, the kids were a little restless.

After leaving C&C, we stopped at the nearby Old Edna Townsite to load up on lunch items at the Fialas Deli, where they kindly made an off-menu PB&J for our kids and the husband and I selected from several of their pre-made sandwiches. It was a big weekend for the Townsite, as they were hosting a local honey tasting, as well as an animal rescue fair. The kids loved that, checking out the cats and dogs ready for adoption. We two parents had to be strong, otherwise, we were going to be coming home with a new fur-child!

Onto Tangent Winery, our planned lunch stop. The outdoor eating area was great, the kids were hungry and dived into lunch, while we began our wine tasting program. At the next table, two past-the-age-of-small-children couples unpacked a gorgeous picnic with local cheeses, breads, and fruit. In between bites of my sandwich, I looked longingly over to their organized, calm table. About half way into lunch (on about our second of five wines) the kids decided they were done with lunch and got up to run around. I tried to encourage them to come back and finish lunch, but they were ready to burn off their excess energy. While the husband and I tried to hurry through the wine tasting, I tried to come up with some games to keep the kids occupied (and ideally quiet!). Nothing was working and I was finding myself using my loud mommy voice, something that can be embarrassing in public and even more so at a winery. Sensing that this was not going to get any better, I encouraged the husband to finish the wines, and perhaps procure something in a bottle to-go for later. We packed up our picnic and our kids and got the heck out of dodge.

Sensing that another winery was not going to be appreciated by the kids, the husband and I regrouped and decided to abandon the next stop (sadly, as perhaps we had saved the best for last!). We high-tailed it to a park in downtown San Luis Obispo where the kids spent the next two hours sliding, swinging and climbing.

Strategy for next time: Leave the kids at home, or maybe just one winery and present it as a picnic opportunity to the kids!

Gilmore Girls: The perfect mother/daughter relationship?

Last night, we finished watching the last episodes of the seventh and final season of Gilmore Girls, including the season finale from May 14. Yes, we are a little behind. We always are, as we Tivo everything. But we like doing that, as it allows us to watch the shows in the way we would enjoy the most, and sometimes that means waiting and watching a whole chunk of episodes at once.

I loved the ending of GG - by the end, when Lorelei and Luke kissed, I felt as though I had actually been living in Stars Hollow for the last 7 years, watching their lives unfold. When Rory graduated from Yale, I felt as though we had been there with her the whole time, watching as she went through a private high school, struggling with the relationship with her grandparents and mostly absent father, getting into Yale and the excitement and challenges that faced her there, and the drama created by her relationships with her peers, including Paris and Logan. I liked how Paris became her best friend and her quirkiness at the end of the show was really refreshing. I loved how she decided to ditch Logan in the end, to find out what her life was going to be about. And my husband and I both got a chuckle from all the Palo Alto references, explained by Logan as he tried to sell Rory on the idea of marrying him and moving to the Bay Area. Who actually has an avocado tree in their back yard?

The aspect that I loved most about this show was Lorelei's relationship with Rory. While many of Lorelei's relationships on the show sucked, the one with her daughter made me forget that it was TV and hope that their bond could be an example for my daughter and me. How I would love it if Alice and I were such great friends when she hits her teen years. Shopping together, Friday movie nights, big orders of take out and fried food. Will Alice be the kind of daughter who calls me from college everyday, just to check in? Is it possible that a relationship between mother and daughter could actually exist like theirs, or is it total TV fantasy?

One thing I did notice was that Lorelei was very present in Rory's life, she was not a bystander and even managed to find a career that allowed her to spend time with her daughter on her daughter's schedule (although, any job that allows you to check in with your head chef, grab a bit from the kitchen, and then be absent for the better part of the day has got to be only on TV fantasy land!). It was clear that Rory was her first priority, with other parts of her life in distinct second place. I don't think Lorelei had any hobbies and it did seem like most nights she was at home by 8pm. Occasional Town Meetings were her way to connect to the city, but I don't recall any additional volunteer work. Can you imagine living a life like that in Silicon Valley, where everyone seems to be graded on their impact in their communities. It would feel like stepping back and allowing my kids to become the center of my world. Oh wait, that is the way it should be, right?

Treasure Hunting in Lahaina, Hawaii

For my birthday this year, I received a Garmin eTrex Legend personal navigator, better known as a GPS device. I asked this for this little wonder, so our family could engage in something called GeoCaching. After a few test runs around our neighborhood, we were ready to take it on vacation, and what better place than the beautiful island of Maui!

Our family loves to travel, but with two kids age 5 and 7, spending long days looking at tourist spots is not going to cut it. And in Maui, too much time on the beach turns us all into lobsters. A mid-day treasure hunt would allow us to learn more about a locale, at the same time providing my kids an outlet for their boundless energy.

Consulting Geocaching.com, an online repository for hidden caches, I downloaded a plan to find a cache in downtown Lahaina. This was not far from where we were staying in Kaanapali, and a quick ride on the West Maui Shopping shuttle put us right behind the movie theater on Front Street, a good starting point for our search.

I already knew from reading the other reports about the cache, that it was hidden close to the Banyan Tree on Front Street. That tree alone is worth a trip to Lahaina - the tree was planted in 1873 and is currently 60 feet high and takes up about 2/3 of a acre at Banyan Tree Park. After snapping the required photo of kids next to one of the huge trunks, we moved away from under the tree (the signal was not able to make it through the canopy) and got a line on our treasure.

We were after a virtual cache, which meant there was no hidden treasure to find, but there was a plaque for us to locate with some significant historical information. We were to find the plaque and email the answer to the question to the cache owner. From Front Street, we headed towards the water, around the side of Banyan Park. On the way, we went past local musicians playing ukuleles, and many island crafters with their wares set up on blankets in the park. As we got closer to the water, we could see the cruise ships out at sea. Our GPS device was telling us we were very close, so we started to look for a plaque. The only one we could find nearby was in front of the lighthouse. And reading the plaque indicated we had found the right place! Our job was to find out how much the Hawaiian caretaker was paid - $20 a year! In addition, we learned that the Lahaina Lighthouse was constructed in 1840 to help navigate the tricky waters through the narrow coral reef. At this point, my kids lost interest and spent the rest of the time climbing on the posts around the lighthouse. However, we decided that all in all, the adventure was pretty successful. The husband and I learned more about our destination and our family had a fun puzzle to solve. As soon as we found it, the kids were asking what our next cache was going to be!

Can you have a beach vacation without the beach?

Even before we had kids, my husband and I agreed that water and sun vacations were our preference. Both of us are swimmers, he was a college water polo player, and we love spending time at the beach and in the water. Therefore, when our son (also our firstborn) was old enough to let us know that he hated the water, we were shocked. What was this going to do to our beach vacations?

The first time we took our kids to Maui in 2004, it was almost a disaster - we spent the first 2/3 of our vacation alternating our time between short visits to the pool and longer excursions to the Maui Ocean Center, as our son would not even go near the real ocean or beach. On the second-to-last-day, we finally coaxed him to the sand area by Black Rock Point on Kaanapali Beach, with promises of ice cream treats and special afternoon videos. And by the last day of our vacation, we got him to sit on the edge of the beach and let the water hit his feet. Progress!

This summer's trip to Maui turned out much better, for two reasons - we had been working hard on swim lessons and water comfort over the last several years, and, our youngest child is a water baby. Since our son is so competitive with his sister, we used that to our advantage!

Our trip this time had a completely different feel and each day was a fun new water adventure for the kids. My daughter led the way with jumping and playing in the ocean; my son soon followed. Next up was learning to snorkel and when my daughter saw a turtle on our first trip out, my son had to one-up her by snorkeling all the way around Black Rock in Kaanapali. And when the kids decided they wanted to learn to boogie board, I was elated. I even promised my son that next time we come to Maui, he can take surf lessons. Hey, maybe we will learn together!

Family activities in Lahaina, Hawaii

Even though Maui is paradise, our family sometimes needs a break from all the sun and sand (and occasional rain!). On our trip this summer, we found some fun things to do in downtown Lahaina:

Spend the afternoon at the movies - Lahaina has two great movie theaters offering current blockbusters, all on Front Street - Front Street Theater and Wharf Theater

Shave Ice on Front Street (don't say shaved ice, or worse yet, snow cones. The term is shave ice!)

Playing at Banyan Tree Park (channel your inner monkey)

Lunch at Bubba Gumps (there is more on the menu than shrimp, but why? My kids love the paddles used to call the server to your table)

Ice Cream at Lappert's Hawaii (wonderful ice cream, including Kona Coffee, Macadamia Nut, Kauai Pie, all served with plenty of Aloha)

Nearby to Lahaina, we also like these child friendly activities:

Maui Ocean Center

'Iao Valley State Park