An Artistic Saturday Morning

Echo's sunflower

We had a great day yesterday and lots of time for art! After our weekly excursion to the farmer's market we came home and had some creative time as a family (sometimes my life is so delicious, I love our weekends!). We bought Echo a new sketchbook and I got one to match so we did some sketching together. Echo decided to draw a picture of a sunflower Eric had bought for her. It very exciting because this was her first time drawing from observation. She did an amazing job! Her artistic talent is really starting to blossom. 

Echo posing with her flower and her drawing. 

 I also spent some time encouraging Clover to draw with a variety of materials. She ended up producing her very first work on paper! Such a big day for both Echo and Clover artistically! Clover will still start to chew the art supplies eventually but she will draw for a little while first. In any case She is getting a good introduction to using art materials.

Clover's first work on paper.

 Echo and I have also been doing a lot of collaborative work. I often draw a fish and she will draw the background.

It's so exciting to see these girls develop their artistic talents and so much fun for me to get to make art with them!

May Photos

 May was a great month! I had a break from doctors offices, got to visit with old friends, make new friends, and spend time with immediate and extended family! I didn't get as many pictures as I'd like but here are the highlights.

On our way up to visit Logan we got to stop and see our long time friend Neil and her little boy Isaac. Unfortunately most of the pictures from that stop were terrible but here is a lovely one of Neil in her front lawn.

We went to a farmers market in Alexandria while we visited with Logan. Echo absolutely adored playing with him but i don't think I got any pictures of the two of them. I'll have to fix that when he comes to visit us in July.

 Pretty flowers and Clover tries Strawberries for the first time :-)

Lots of fountains to play in.

 Yay family!

 My Aunt, Uncle and Mom's cousin came for a surprise visit and we took them to the botanical gardens.

 They have a whole new section with a reflecting pool that we just loved!

We found a mommy duck sitting on some eggs.

 And Echo put on a show on the stage in the children's garden

We wore Clover out :-)

Annual Garden Photos

 Here is my little update on how my garden is panning out this year. As usually happens when I take garden pictures, the garden is actually much more lush now than when I snapped these photos. Oh well, I can't seem to keep up with these plants and the way they are shooting up like crazy :-)

Things have actually been growing really well in the garden over the past few weeks. After getting off to a slow start my plants have really been thriving on the combination of sunshine, heat and plentiful rain we have been having. So far my plan for growling low maintenance herbs and veggie has been coming along beautifully. In the top two photos we have my lemon grass on the left and cilantro (which is going to seed now that the weather is heating up) on the right

Here we have tomatillos on the left and cucumbers on the right.

And the ground cherry seeds that I saved from my plants last year actually sprouted and are doing well! I will have to try saving more seeds this year.

I'm growing a ton of poll beans this year. Previously I have just done bush beans but the poll beans are growing like crazy so maybe they are the way to go! Of course they haven't produced beans yet, just very large vines, so I will have to see how much they actually yield.

Echo's garden is actually doing the best of all! It is packed to the brim and producing lots of flowers, carrots, bush beans and catnip!

A Zinnia from Echo's garden, they are great for cutting and decorating our table.

The Rosemary that we planted by our mailbox a few years ago has exploded! We will never be short of Rosemary that's for sure.

A trellis box with poll beans and cucumbers, it is so much more overgrown now than when I took this photo just a week ago!

I also treated myself to a few new house plants this Spring (seriously, my house plant obsession is getting out of hand). I have a gorgeous Split Leaf Philodendron on the left and an African Violet on the right.

And last but not least a Gumby Jade Plant. I have been wanting one of these for a while.

My herbs didn't get pictured much but they are also coming along nicely and have been great for cooking with this Spring. It's fun to learn a little bit more about gardening and feel like I am being a bit more successful every year. I'm excited about the prospect of having larger yields this year (although it means having less variety). Hopefully I won't let everything die while I am recovering from surgery!

Best Vegetarian Chili Ever!

As I have mentioned on the blog before I have been slowly gravitating to a more vegetarian lifestyle. It's something I have been interested in for a long time and while I don't know that I will ever go 100% veg I am making an effort to eat less meat for ethical reasons. I recently discovered a wonderful meat substitute from Trader Joe's in the form of Soy Chorizo. Now I am not normally a fan of non meat items pretending to be meat but I love chorizo and when I heard about this soy version I knew I had to try it. Most of what I love about chorizo is the seasoning anyway so how bad could a soy version be?

Since I had a tiny bit of trepidation about using the soy chorizo for the first time I decided to use it in chili, you can't go wrong with chili. Well I have to say that the soy chorizo wildly surpassed my expectations and even though I totally invented this chili recipes Eric and I both agreed that it surpassed the meat chili we used to make. I quickly jotted down the ingredients as we ate so i wouldn't forget how to replicate this recipe. The soy crumbles in the chorizo replicate a finely ground beef which is how I like my chili meat and the spices were delicious. Plus the package of veggie chorizo from Trader Joe's is only $2! If you are looking for the perfect vegetarian chili recipe look no further!

Ingredients
1 package soy Chorizo
I onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
2 ears of corn cut off the cob or equivalent amount of frozen corn
3 cups of cooked beans, I did a mixture of black, kidney and pinto beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 cups water, you can fiddle with this depending on how thick you like your chili
2 vegetable bullion cubes
2 tbs chili powder
1 tbs cumin
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs smoked paprika
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tbs cayenne pepper

Remove the soy chorizo from it's casing and in a large Dutch Oven sauté with onions and garlic until the onions are tender. Add the corn and bell pepper and cook another few minutes to soften them up.
 Add the water and tomato paste and stir over medium heat. Add the bullion and other seasonings and stir in the cooked beans. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Served with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream.

Zipper Pouch

What with everything we've had going on I haven't sewn a thing all year. Seriously, I made it to May before sewing a single thing! So sad, I really want to get back in the sewing game. Anyway, I took advantage of Mother's day as a chance to sew something simple and pretty so I made this little zipper pouch as a the wrapping for the necklace I bought my mom. I figured it's nice to get a little something you can use again with your main present inside.

I followed a lovely little tutorial on This Heart of Mine and it made it really easy, especially since I had never put in a zipper before! I got a chance to use one of the zippers my sister in law gave me for Christmas and also got to use some fabric scraps I had on hand ( zipper pouches are a great way to use scraps!). It was so easy to make I want to make a whole bunch more to help me organize my life :-) It's hard finding time to sew with my two very active little ones but hopefully I will get to make more of these soon!

Preserved Lemons

I have a little break from doctor visits this month since I've finished my chemo and still have about a month until my surgery. This means I am feeling better and have a little bit of time to work on experimental kitchen projects. Preserved lemons are a big deal in Middle Eastern and Moroccan cuisine. I've always wanted to try making them but the last time I started a batch they totally failed because I used a container that wasn't totally air tight, oops...

This time around I have my act together a bit more and I'm hoping these will turn out to be delicious! They are still fermenting right now so I haven't actually gotten to try them yet but they sure look pretty and they couldn't be easier to make. First you have to sanitize the lemons and jars with boiling water. Next cut each lemon as if you are cutting them in to quarters but stop at the last second so they still stay attached. After that you pack each lemon with kosher salt and stuff them in the jar. Use a wooden spoon to much them around a bit and get the juices of the lemons flowing. If you have any extra lemons you can squeeze some extra juice on top too, the idea is to have the lemons completely covered in brine. Then all you have to do is wait 3 to 4 weeks and after that pop them in the fridge. When you are ready to use them just rinse them off and chop them up to add to salads, chicken or fish dishes. I'm really eager to try them out, I love Middle Eastern food so I have high hopes. I will try to post a recipe using them when the finish, yum!

The End of Chemo

In honor of my last chemo session ( I sincerely hope I NEVER have to do this again!) I am posting my bald photos. I realized the other day that I didn't have any photos of myself with no hair so yesterday morning while the kids were still asleep I took some shots in the early morning light from my upstairs window.

Honestly it's a little painful for me to look at them right now but I know that I want to remember this time and I feel like in the future, when all this is a distant memory, I will be really glad I have documentation of this time in my life. I also think my girls will want to see what I looked like with no hair when they are older :-)

Goodbye chemo! I'm not sorry to see you go! I have definitely leaned a lot and been humbled and I feel like I now know how strong i can be. Looking forward to the next phase and getting some hair back!