Cook with your kids

 Morning is my favorite time of day. Everyone is in the kitchen and has a job to do. The kids unload the dishwasher and help make breakfast. Today they wanted to make french toast and I said they could as long as they did it themselves. They were such a great team. Jetta made the french toast and Pilot made a delicious sugar free blueberry sauce to go over it. They did a great job and I only had to help them a few times. Mostly with getting things that they needed that were out of their reach. But from getting out their ingredients, to cooking, to plating, and cleaning up, they did it on their own. And they had a great time in the process. So I hope that everyone will not let a little mess scare you away from getting your kids into the kitchen. Kitchens can be cleaned (another great job for kids), and the joy that you and your children can share will never be forgotten. Plus, they make some pretty tasty meals that you can just sit back and enjoy.

You've got to pick a blossom or two

We got home from our trip yesterday to find our garden had exploded while we were away. The pumpkins are taking over and there were tones of squash, cucumbers, lettuce, chard and arugula to be picked. The kids saw all the blossoms and wanted to pick them because last year we made some yummy fried blossoms , but I told them we had to wait until morning when the blossoms opened up. We'll if you have kids, you know that they do not forget anything you say, and at 6am they looked outside and saw all the blossoms open and called me out to help pick so we could eat them for breakfast. While we picked Jetta said "I am having so much fun! I feel like we are REAL farmers." I totally agree with her. I feel like we have transformed our little duplex yard into a working farm that is giving me all the joy, beauty and bounty that my heart was longing for. After they picked a basket full of blossoms, we took them inside to cook.  

Jetta cooked them all by herself with me taking pictures.

She washed  and dried them and pulled out the stamen.

Then stuffed each one with cheese,

dipped them in egg and a little gluten-free flour,

and fried them in grass-fed butter.

You have to eat them while their hot to get the gooey goodness.

****I would love to know if anyone gets the song reference I made in this blog title. 

This Moment: Mister Popularity

This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.

Bird friends

This evening will be our last bird watch in FL. We take a drive in the golf cart around looking at all the birds who live in the community every evening. I think this is one of our favorite parts about FL, it's amazing big and beautiful birds. It is We really take the time to stop and watch and connect with each one..... becoming friends. This summer we have had the opportunity to watch the baby sand hill cranes grow up.  So, sadly, we will have to say "Goodbye birds, we will see you next time."

fishing fun

While we are in FL, we always take the kids out fishing. We don't really know what we are doing but we sure have a good time. We use John's grandfathers fishing poles and some shrimp. It is so fun to see how excited the kids get when they catch a fish. Actually John and I get pretty excited ourselves. We only caught tiny little fish so we through them all back, but everyone caught at least one fish and had a great time, so I think it was a success. 

Making Mung Dosas

After hearing about all the wonderful qualities of Mung beans, I have started to add them into our family dinners. Last week I made Dosas with Mung beans and rice. We sprouted and fermented the mung beans first. They are actually delicious just like that. The kids loved them. We ate them for breakfast with a little drizzle of honey and then for dinner I added a little Indian spice and served them with pot roast, salad and eggplants. Delicious. Even my 4 year old loved them. You can add all sorts of veggies to your dosas if you like. You can even make them without the rice, which is what I am going to try next time.  Jetta's job was to set the table. I love how she always includes an artistic touch to her jobs.

Garden babysitters

Since we have been on our FL vacation my mother along with mother in law, aunt and friends  have been so kind to take care of our newly planted garden and our 2 kitty cats. We tried to harvest and take as much produce with us on our trip which we ate up pretty quick. We are working toward become more self sufficient in our home. Making more, buying less. Spending less time in stores and more time working with our hand and with each other doing things that bring us joy and fulfillment. Look for a post to follow with some of our plans.

I took these pictures of the garden before we left. It will be fun to see the changes in the garden when we return. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family.

French beans:

Speckled Lettuce (yummy):

 Pumpkins and peas and zucchini in the background: 

 Tomatoes and cucumbers happily climbing up the new trellises John made:

Black beauty squash/ zucchini:

Apples:

3 types of chard and kale:

John bringing is arugula from the garden and ribs from the bar-b-q: