Getting in touch with my inner German (South Dakotan)

Over the holiday break (yes I pretend I am in school too and take the time between Christmas and New Year's with the family), my mom brought Grandma Rose's recipes. So I decided to finally venture into the cooking of a few traditional Wageman recipes. This was also triggered by Corey making Kneppfla for the kids before heading south for the holiday - which they absolutely loved! I consider these recipes 'farm food'. I can imagine my grandmother and mother preparing this food for grandpa and their farm hands for the main meal of the day 'dinner' served at noon. High in carbs, this food would get them through a hard day on the farm. While at the same time being affordable to prepare - especially since much of the ingredients they had on hand, such as fresh milk from the cows, eggs from the chickens, you get it.

• Potato Turnover
• Cheese Tarts
• Kuchen (did you know this is the state dessert of South Dakota!)
• Cinnamon Rolls

While mom was here we team tagged the potato turnover and cheese tarts. Which is a good thing, since mom and grandma don't include quantities for such things like flour in their recipes, you do it by feel! The kids were on the fence about the potato turnover, but I have to say I have reunited with the recipe. Robert and Irene joined us for supper (yes, that's the evening meal to a South Dakotan), we trained them on the 'how to eat potato turnover'. Fork in right hand, pickle in left hand, take a bite of turnover, followed by a bite of a pickle - Bubby's makes the closest to our Tante Hilda's homemade pickles. Robert was a big fan of the potato turnover, so I will make this again.

Night two brought cheese tarts, these are very similar to cheese blintzs. The dough turned out good, even though I didn't add eggs to the dough, I was suppose to just know that an egg or two was necessary, I have now included eggs to the recipe card. The key ingredient is farmer's cheese, an unaged cheese, very similar to Ricotta. I found a local dairy that makes the Russian version (Russian or Polish is what you want to use). I had an 'aha' moment and used a pasta maker to roll-out the dough for the tarts. Chloe and Jonah liked helping with cranking the pasta maker and also with filling the tarts with the cheese mixture. The end result was a big hit with Chloe (Jonah was fasting and didn't try them). Wally thought the dough was too thick, so next time I will roll it out a little thinner.

Today I am making Kuchen, I will post later if this is successful or not!

Let me tell you about the Birds and the Butterflies...

Nothing like nature in your own yard. Chloe discovered these butterflies 'stuck together' as she put it. Her friend Simone stated they were making babies and wanted to wait until they were finished to see the babies (I love kids). That's all I am going to say about these, the photos and video speak for themselves!

The call that changed our lives...

Eight years ago today, I was sitting in my office at work, when I received a call from our social worker. In an oh so nonchalant manner she told me they had a sweet little girl, 4.5 months old, for us to meet. Being at work and in work mode, I said okay, wrote down the specifics on where to meet up, hung up the phone. Sat back in my chair - realized I had not taken a breath during the conversation and felt my life take a shift. After going through the home study and having our life peeled away like an onion - to insure to the State we would make a stable home for a little kabocha - you tend to forget what it's all about. Reflecting back I see how much energy and anxiousness we had tied up in becoming parents. In hindsight, I wish we were more relaxed, but hey first kid, your life is under a magnifying glass, you do what you got to do!

So now, you probably want to hear the rest of the story, when we met our little kabocha. We rendezvoused with our social worker at her foster family's home. The house was chaos, they had lots of kids and lots a love. We sat down amongst the toys and all the kid stuff, they brought out Chloe and put her in our arms. We were floored, love at first sight! We hung out for an hour or so, Wally gave her a bottle and she dozed in his arms and there my friends the first little tentacle was wrapped around daddy's heart!

At the wrap up of our visit, our social worker told us we needed to think about the 'placement' for 24-hours before notifying the Children Services. We tried to tell her it was a done deal, we were toast, we were in love, but she wouldn't hear it. We drove home with our jaws hanging open, mostly in silence, sprinkled with a few oh my, she's so beautiful, she's amazing. After a restless night and many walks into Chloe's future room, making little adjustments here and there, I called the social worker first thing! So worried we'd lose this chance at becoming this perfect little person's parents!

The 'placement' was made and the transition began, it would be a few days of back and forth before Chloe Rosebud was home for good at her forever home. I can't believe it was eight years ago, I wish we could slow it down a little.

Farewell Bob 'The Zucchini' Gorski

Several months ago a colleague of mine gave Chloe a giant zucchini, she immediately named him Bob and declared him adopted into our family. That was back in January. Since then, Bob has slept with Chloe, learned lots of tricks, joined us at the dinner table (thank goodness we don't eat zucchini in this family), went to school, was the star of show-and-tell.

Chloe loved Bob and soon we all loved Bob, Bob became family, Bob showed us that even vegetables can become part of a family. Our joy continued, and I admit, even I the farmerette that I am was lulled into thinking that Bob would be with us forever.

Then, tonight it happened, Bob and Jonah were playing on the rug. Jonah somewhat aggressively dog-piled Bob, and then we heard it, 'oh no, Bob's hurt'. We rushed to Bobs side and realized immediately there was no saving Bob. Jonah did suggest we fix Bob with tape, because he could'nt handle seeing his sister so upset.

Chloe, and of course the rest of us, was devastated. We decided to bury Bob at sunset. Chloe chose a lovely spot under the Fuji apple tree and made him a headstone. We shared stories of Bob and said our farewell.

Lame blogger...

Okay, so I am not the best blogger - when it comes to consistency. However, the past month has been action packed. As I begin to feel better, a lot more mobility with the back I am getting back into the groove of things.

We had a great time camping this weekend on the Sonoma Coast. I went belly boarding with Chloe, we had so much fun it's wonderful to be in the water. Chloe loves the ocean and riding waves, she gets a huge smile on her face when she's in the water. I am glad I finally got a wetsuit for Northern California water temperatures. It is strange to wear something so thick, after the 2 mil of our childhood (if even a wetsuit).

On the gardening front, my tomatoes are moving along really well, considering we've had a slow start. I need to spend some quality time in the garden this week, I have been neglecting everything. I also need to get some updated photos... coming soon. I need to figure out how to fight the leaf miner, it keeps taking out my spinach.

A fun weekend and a new project

We spent the past weekend at Stinson Beach - we lucked out and had great weather. Chloe got a new wetsuit and was out belly-boarding, having a blast. Right before she went out I saw a shark eating it's dinner - a little scary. I decided it was full and let her go out with her daddy, of course I didn't mention to Chloe what I saw. I don't want her to be paranoid in the ocean.

We stayed with our friends, who had rented a large house, there were over twenty people, with a pile of kids, the median age was 3.5 years old. Jonah had a great time with his buddies. He met a new friend, who had similar crazy energy. I stayed up late with the knit gals, Sage was cracking the whip and making Kiem finish a sock on the sock machine before she went to bed. I didn't last as long as they did... I did get a bunch done on my sweater. I had one minor mishap - I dropped my margarita into my knit basket. The challenges of knitting and drinking.

I came up to Portland today for work. I am hanging out at hotel Modera, a boutique hotel, taking a rest before I polish my presentation for tomorrow. I had to begin a new knit project, one that was smaller and easier to travel with, so I started a Barn Raising Quilt from the book 'Knitalong'. It's the perfect travel project because you knit it square by square. I am using some stashed yarn, beautiful Koigu in green, blue and brown variegated and a solid green and cream. It's a fun pattern. It will be a while before I finish the project, but I am okay with that...

One of my favorite things... a slow morning

Waking up to the 20 lb Maine Coon cat on my chest, not so much by the weight but the turbo engine, normally referred to as purring. Laying there, listening to the bird chatter in my Bottlebrush tree and watching the room come alive as the sun pours in. Add to that the final touch, listening to my children's sweet breathing as they sleep (a very good thing). After soaking in this honey-like morning, I mosey down to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. With coffee in hand I inspect the garden, to see if there are any snails I need to relocate to the street. As I walk around the lists begin. Mental lists of what needs to be down today in the garden. Being mother's day tomorrow I begin a second wish list (heavy lifting needed by the husband). As I sit here writing I am listening to the Acorn Woodpecker working away, a nice touch for a slow morning. The coffee is almost drained, time to get moving.

Silver Lining

Yesterday, my three year old threw himself on the sidewalk outside his daycare. I made the mistake of bending over and pulling him up. Which sounds pretty easy, except for the whole back surgery I had two weeks ago. I ended up tweaking my back and now I am back in bed with an ice pack. The silver lining? More time for knitting.

The photo here is the new project I am working on. My favorite part, the body is knit in one piece. I am knitting the small size, which with the gauge I have will give me a medium-large size. The angora is soft as butter! I have worked through 3 skeins already, fast knitting. I will post my progress on my ChloJoMama Ravelry site.

It's time for less talking and more knitting.

A New Project - Offset Raglan

Yesterday I calculated how many yards of yarn I have in my stash, it's around 25,000. I know pretty pathetic! I have been on a mission to try and knit down my stash for quite some time, with little success. Due to my other addiction which is collecting knitting books, everytime I get one I have to get that new yarn to knit that must have project, such as the Emma Peel dress I just finished for Chloe.

Well I am saying it here, I am back on the stash wagon. No more yarn purchases for me! So now I have to adapt an existing yarn with a project in one of my *new* books (I don't have that much will power). I recently bought 'SimpleSTYLE' by Ann Budd at my local yarn store (LYS), K2TOG in Albany, Ca. There are many fun projects, unfortunately the one I want the Offset Raglan the gauge is 5 st = 1 in and the yarn I have Elsebeth Lavold's Angora is 4 st = 1 in. I am going to attempt a conversion, it might end up in disaster, I am hoping with a little bit of book keeping it will work out. So here goes, I am off to cast-on!

The first blog...

Okay, so I read blogs, I have friends who blog, but I don't feel like I have the time to blog, but I am pulled towards blogging - so here I blog.

A little about me (in one horrifically long sentence), I am a mom (ages 8, 3), I knit, I work full-time, I grow 80% of the vegetables we consume as a family, I like to figure out ways to preserve my harvest (the latest was making cilantro-mint chutney and then freezing in ice cube trays to be used later) and occasionally when I find the peace of mind I illustrate.

I recently had back surgery, the upside I caught up on my knitting, the downside I am behind on my gardening.

On the knit-front I just finished a dress for my daughter Chloe, the Emma Peel, from "Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines". Since my daughter is very tall, I had to stretch the pattern out, but she's also skinny, so I didn't modify the width.

I hope to cast on a sweater for myself tonight using Elsebeth Lavold's Angora, I am making a sweater from "SimpleSTYLE". I will post on my progress.