Less is More

Things are looking good on the strike front, which is awesome since I could use a break.  I mean, my kid is awesome, but he becomes more awesome when I am am rested.  We have been enjoying playing and hanging out.  And we've been building.

Last Saturday, I took the day and cleared out Ellis' room.  I took about two-thirds of his toys and clutter away and fully organized everything else.

The bed is a vintage find from Pittsburgh years ago.  The quilt was an amazing Christmas gift from Ellis' Aunt Nancy, who does amazing work.  She somehow knew just how to match Elly's room without knowing what it looked like!  The name banner is older and inspired by Soulemama.  The garland above that is a dinosaur garland I made for Elly's 3rd birthday.  I cut out pictures of dinosaurs from books and sewed them into a garland on my sewing machine.

His dresser is usually a wasteland of "treasures".  I cleared it off to make room to focus on his bug and worm collection, his special picture of Sarah with our old dog Winnie at Starved Rock, and his name train.  The picture hanging was designed by Ellis himself for Sarah when she was sick.  We've pinned snapshots around it.

I am looking for a better bookshelf to occupy this space.  This one is awesome but too small.  I'm keeping my eyes peeled.  It is filled with only the best toys:  Dinosaurs, cars, "guys", quiet time books (that Ellis can look at on his own), and his treasure boxes.  And of course, the best treasure of all: Cranky.  Cranky was a generous gift from Elly's friend Jack, who gave Cranky to Ellis for Christmas from his own train collection.  So special.

His closet was formerly filled to the brim with toys.  We cut back:

(Note that Ellis has a walk-in cedar closet that he in no way needs.  My own closet is tiny and unsuited to my needs.  Isn't that always the way?)

We also have a few bins of things under the bed and a box of night-time books next to his bed.  And in my own back craft room, I'm housing other toys to be rotated in and out.  Meanwhile, our dining room is filled with toys to be donated or handed down.

Since the clearing, Ellis has played way more with all of his toys, has played better on his own, and I have spent way less time cleaning up.  Win on all fronts.  It's so interesting to me that less really is more where possessions are concerned.  With fewer things, he's able to focus more intently on the items in front of him.  He has fewer distractions.  He truly engages more in his play.  Simplicity.  It's what all the cool kids are doing these days.

Life Goes On

As it happens, the Unfortunate Wine Spill was a result of late night peach jam canning, with wine.  You know how that can get sort of dicey.  Even though I basically blew my entire shopping budget for the rest of my life on a computer I already owned, I was excited to get some peach jam out of the deal.

Sadly, the jam is runny.  It's just insult to injury around here.

What does one do with runny jam, you ask?  You make crock pot yogurt to stir it into, oh yes you do.

And if you still have extra time after you make runny peach jam and crock pot yogurt to stir it into, you buy 50 pounds of tomatoes at the farmers market.  And that's pretty much your week.

Or at least, that's what I do.  What I don't do, apparently, is take pictures.  We'll pencil that in for tomorrow!

And The Moral of the Story Is. . .

Don't spill wine on your laptop.  Not even just a little bit.  I was lucky that it only affected the keyboard, trackpad, and casing.  Not so lucky that it didn't cost  an arm and a leg to replace, but at least it was replaceable.  I've been on my old computer since Friday, which is so slow it can't even blog.  I'm glad to be back. I'm looking into having some sort of liquid-proximity alarm installed on the fixed laptop.

The other big news is, of course, that the Chicago Teachers Union is on strike.   This is generally not an overtly political blog, except to the extent that the personal is political.  And of course, my personal is more political than average, you know, 'cause of the gay stuff.  In any case, I've been torn over how much to discuss the strike here in this space that's generally about art and cooking.  That's what my Facebook page is for, right?  Of course, this blog is also about parenting, and I can't just pretend that it's business as usual around here.

I guess what I'll say is that my family supports the Chicago Public School teachers specifically and unions broadly.  We believe the more protection workers have, the better.  We believe being protected makes for happy people and happy people are better at their jobs.  We believe in the power of lots of individuals coming together.  We'll be supporting the teachers in every way we can and hoping for a fast and positive resolution to this.

(We'll return to regular programming tomorrow, wherein we'll address the 50 lbs. of tomatoes in the trunk of my car.)

Poetry and Cole Slaw

I do not know which to prefer.  Before the cole slaw is made:

Or just after.

Jen's Tarragon Cole Slaw Recipe

1 TSP salt, or to taste
1/2 TSP mustard seeds
1/3 cup white vinegar (Heinz or better, or white wine vinegar)
1/4 TSP ground pepper
1/2 TSP celery seed
1 TBL dried tarragon or 1 TSP fresh tarragon
2-3 TBL Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 cups cole slaw, chopped as thinly as possible
1 carrot, shredded

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except cabbage and carrot.  Mix well.  Add cabbage and carrot and mix well.  Add additional salt if needed.  Let sit one hour or more for maximum deliciousness.

Can-Can

It's hot and sweaty up in this kitchen, oh yes it is!  I've been on a cooking and canning marathon, which I hope explains the blog silence.

We've put up whole tomatoes (using the Ball Book Whole Tomatoes in their own juice recipe).

And Peach Bourbon BBQ Sauce.  A special thanks to my friend Suzy for supplying the bourbon.  Seriously, I don't really like bourbon and I liked this.

And ketchup.  Behold the carnage.  We used our food mill and the end result resembled a murder scene as much as it did a canning session.

We tried to cook down the ketchup in our crock pot, but after 15 hours, we gave up and put it on the stove top, where it cooked down quickly and just fine.

I pressure canned chick peas and pinto beans.

And Veggie Stock and Chicken Stock, although I don't have photo evidence of that handy.  But I'm proud to say I can now pressure can on my own.  Oh, the possibilities!

And, finally, Plum Lime Jam (using the Pomona low-sugar pectin recipe).

It's been hard work for sure, but totally worth it.  Sometimes I just go and look at my jars, imagining these yummy flavors deep into winter.  I am a dork that way.

We are still hopelessly below our whole tomato goal and haven't really done any salsa.  There is a tentative plan to head to a U-Pick this week-end to score some cheap and plentiful tomatoes.  Unfortunately for Sarah, I am now allergic to tomato foliage.  Guess who's picking 120 lbs. of tomatoes!

And as you know, I've been having sadness over the lack of cheap local peaches in these parts this year.  However, this morning at the farmers market, the peach guy made my day by giving me a bag of bruise-y peaches for FREE!  I see peach jam on the horizon.  Who knew I was the kind of girl whose day could be made by spoiled produce?

Canning Update, Mid-Summer

Canning season is in full swing around here.  Did you see my new canning tally list over there to your right?  I'm tracking our canning progress from here on out.  I have spotty records for broth and pickles so far, hence the vague terms.  But I'll be on top of it all things going forward.

We had a busy weekend.  We canned 7 quarts of Whole Tomatoes in their own juice (Ball Book recipe) and 5.5 pints Balsamic Tomato and Onion Conserve. For the record, the conserve was a-freaking-mazing.  And I'm proud to say the tomatoes were from our garden.

I also made (and will freeze, sans goat cheese) 4 quarts of Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Eggplant Soup.  And you know what's awesome (not)?  When your landlord drops by unannounced in the middle of tomato canning and cooking.  I'm not sure if I've ever felt more like poor white trash than I did at that moment.  My child was not even wearing pants.  Ah, good times.

Today is Farmer's Market Day in my neighborhood.  I still have yet to can tomato paste, ketchup, roasted balsamic tomato sauce, and 30 more quarts of whole tomatoes, so it's safe to say that it's going to be a bulk tomato day.  I'm also waiting on red peppers and beets.  It's gonna get all crazy up in here, I tell you.

I'm feeling generally good about my canning progress so far this year.  In fact, I'm about to venture into pressure canning territory this week, canning vegetable broth, chicken broth and beans.  The one canning bleak spot this year is that I haven't done nearly enough jam.  We have our standard quantities of strawberry and blueberry jam.  And we'll be doing a big cranberry jam burst in November, but peaches (our best, cheapest jam, ususally) were a bust around here this year.

Peaches have been tricky business around here.  You may recall that in March, it was 80 in Illinois.  The peach trees thought, "Sweet.  Let's bloom."  Then you may also recall the subsequent hard frosts that killed those optimistic peach blossoms and tender fruit.  In a usual year, low-spray peaches at my farmers market are $9 for 25 lbs.  This year, it's $5 a quart or more.  Ouch.  That's a pricey pint for sure.  Even though it's sad and disappointing, it's a good lesson in local eating.  Despite what the American Supermarket has to say, you can't have everything all of the time.

If you're a detail person, you'll have noticed the Canning Tally shows 21 pints of Tomato Sauce, all unblogged.  Keep your eyes on this space for the full story.

Kid-Broidery

I've written about embroidery with kids before.  This week we had some friends over and embroidered en masse with ages ranging from 2 to 9.

Ellis documented the finished products.  I was pretty impressed with his stitching and his photography.

The kids first drew pictures onto the cloth and then used embroidery floss and regular needles to stitch.  Veida and McKenna stitched along the lines they'd drawn.

Quintana and Julia stitched a new drawing on top of their pencil lines for a layered look.

I'm a strong advocate of kids using real supplies in their art instead of kid-i-fied versions.  They can handle almost as much as we give them, although I did thread all of the needles in advance.