You're All The Good

This summer I held my first "Living Room Session." I invited all the friends that would fit in our humble living room, borrowed an amp and a mic, made some homemade jamoca-almond fudge ice cream and called it a party. I shared 7 songs along with the stories and inspiration behind each of them. This is one of the songs I shared. If you wanna hear it, just click on the play button at the top of the page. If you want to hear the whole story behind it, I suppose we'd need to chat over a good cup of coffee for an hour or so. (which I am willing to do most any day...)

I'm gonna stop pretending
to be somebody I wish I was
and I'm gonna start believing
You're all the good in me that ever does any good.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

A Bushel and a Peck

Well....actually just a peck--but we picked 'em! We ventured off to Apple Hill this past weekend, together with our dear friends, Megan and Steve, (who happen to be our neighbors!) along with their baby boy whom Charli adores. There are several farms and fruit stands to visit and much apple-picking and apple-eating fun to be had.

These are a few of my Favorite Things

U-Pick Fruit and Berry Farm



Hand-stitched felt hair clips with vintage buttons
(super-cute in Charli's curls...if only she'd leave them in for longer than 30 seconds)

Visits with my Grandma

(gotta love my squinty-eye face and Charli's peach-juiced shirt--but seriously, would you believe my Grandma is 81?)

Charli 's First Birthday

A Birthday Song for my Daughter

If I don't tell you, no one might tell you
If I don't show you, you might never see
That there's more to life
Than what this world will sell you
There's more to love
than to just be happy

So Charli, be brave
Charli, be strong
Love what's good
And run from wrong
Charli, be tender
Charli, be kind
Girl, don't settle for just any love you find

I know for sure they'll tempt you
and they'll put questions in your head
They'll tell you God's not good enough
and put a fake in His stead.

So keep this Word close to your heart
and bind this truth around your mind
And don't let up, you stand your ground
and pray, dear daughter, pray....

Charli, be brave
Charli, be strong
Love what's good
And run from wrong
Charli, be tender
Charli, be kind
Girl, don't settle for just any love you find

I can't explain everything
or give you all the world will sell
But I know Jesus love you, dear,
And I know the Story ends well...
Yes. I know the Story ends well.

4th of July with Grandma Cindy

Father's Day 2010

Charli: 8-11 months in Short Review

When Charli turned 8 months old, our fussy, fussy baby turned bubbly and cheerful.
She knows no strangers. The good Lord knew her momma needed daily practice in engaging people even when she doesn't feel like it, and sure enough--Charli nearly always feels like it.
We meet new friends every day, usually because she has initiated "conversation."


At 9 months old, Charli crawled out of her highchair (with the tray table locked!) and broke her femur. She had a bright pink, full-leg cast on for 3 weeks. It did not slow her down one bit. In fact, she would knock her cast leg against the crib when she woke up from her nap so we would come get her. We think she thought it quite useful.






At 10th months, she fell in love with berries of all kinds and still eats them 2-3 times a day. We buy a flat of srtawberries per week!


At 11 months, she has spent every possible waking moment practicing crawling and pulling up on every piece of furniture or box within reach. Strollers, trees, and wheelchairs and walkers of the people we visit in the nursing home are not excluded from this endeavor.

We'll celebrate her 1st birthday next month on July 6th, and of course, there will be cake and ice cream and....berries!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

It's been raining off and on here all week---you'd think we lived in Kansas. Something about the rain always inspires me to try something new, usually in the kitchen. So this week I made homemade meatballs, courtesy of my increasingly popular food diva, Alice Waters. They are delicious with homemade tomato sauce and freshly grated parmesan.

Italian Meatballs

Season:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork shoulder
with:
Salt
Fresh-ground black pepper

In a small bowl, combine:
1 cup torn-up pieces of day-old country style bread, crusted removed
1/2 cup milk

Set aside to soften. grate, using the large-holed side of a box grater:
1 small yellow onion, peeled

Squeeze most of the milk out of the bread and put the bread in a large mixing bowl with the seasoned meat and the grated onion. add:
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled)
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
A pinch of Cayenne pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Fresh-ground pepper

Combine ingredients with your hands, gently but thoroughly. Overworking the mixture will make the meatballs tough.Fry a little meatball in a small skillet and taste.(This was the fun part--my mom says "you're not cooking unless your tasting as you go!"). Adjust seasonings as needed. Gently form the mixture into meatballs, either by hand or with a small ice-cream scoop. Bake the meatballs on a rimmed baking sheet in a 450 degree oven until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Or fry them in a little oil in a cast-iron pan, turning them occasionally for even browning.
I tried each method of cooking the meatballs, and by far I preferred the frying in a cast-iron skillet method.

Songs And Their Stories

As work in process, Nathan just added the first recording of one of my songs, Edge of the Earth, (Psalm 61) on the side bar. I hope to share more songs in the future. But for now, have a listen, and keep in mind that this recording, and all subsequent recordings are very "raw" and are single-track recordings with absolutely no touch-ups...hopefully you can still enjoy.

Papa's Letters, No. 1: Planting Seeds

Springtime always makes me think of my Papa. The fresh air and sunshine give me a sense that all is right with the world, and that's how my Papa made me feel. He's been at Home with Jesus for a few years now, but there are so many wholesome things that reminds me of him: like baking bread and planting seeds.

I was looking through a box of old letters that my Papa had written me my first year of college. That first year was certainly a struggle for me and he wrote me, even once a week for awhile, and his letters always made my day. They made my roommate's day too--I read them aloud to her because that's the only way I could make out his handwriting! His letters span the course of a couple years, and there are treasures to me still today. He always had a way of winning my friends' hearts, from the time I was a little girl, to the last of my college years.

In one of the letters, he tells me about all the vegetables and fruits he's planting for the season:

"...I got my garden all planted yesterday, I think 20 tomato plants set out, 3 pepper plants, crookneck squash, watermelon, cucumbers, and of course zucchini." (I never knew what he did with all that crookneck squash, I suppose he gave them away.)

This spring, I'm attempting to grow some flowers and vegetables from seeds-- the way my Papa taught me. I remember him showing me, a little girl, how to poke a hole in the dirt with a pencil tip, his rough hands patiently guiding mine, as we dropped a couple seeds into each hole. Then we would take the top portion of the seed packet(the strip with the seed name on it) and stick it in the dirt next to the seeds, so we could remember what we planted. Gently, we would water each seed and leave them in the greenhouse to grow in the warmth of the sunlight.

As I planted my seeds this year, (cucumbers, watermelon, tomatoes, basil, and nasturtiums,) I had Charli by my side, eating the cardboard packaging and feeling the dirt. I explained to her how to poke the wholes and drop in the seeds, although I doubt she understood much. It was special though, to think of passing on such a sweet memory to her. Someday, I'll tell her stories about her Papa-Great. I would have loved for him to have met her.

Roasted Califlower: Unexpectedly Delicious

I will admit, I've never been a big fan of cauliflower. Among its vibrantly colored counterparts on the holiday veggie tray, it always seems a bit unexciting and bitter. Anything I have to cover in ranch dressing in order to swallow isn't worth the calories. But last week, cauliflower was on sale for 97 cents, so I brought one home as a challenge.
Good ol' Alice, she never fails me when it comes to vegetables. I tried her Roasted Sliced Cauliflower recipe. The result? Simple. Easy. Delicious. The way cooked vegetables should be. My mouth was salivating as I pulled the pan out of the oven. Roasting transforms the cauliflower slices into sweet and almost nutty, morsels. Nathan and I ate the whole head of cauliflower in one meal--it's that good!

Roasted Sliced Cauliflower
from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, pg. 299

Trim and wash cauliflower and cut across the whole head into 1/4-inch thick slices. Roast some of the undamaged leaves as well--they are quite tasty. Lay out the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet, brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. (I'm a big fan of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.)
Roast in a 400 degree oven until tender and starting to brown, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the slices with chopped fresh herbs or crushed whole spices, for variety.

5 -Year- Old Artisan Bread

Our five(and a half)-year old friend came over to play with Charli this past Thursday. We pulled out the Artisan bread dough from the refrigerator and I let her shape her loaf, "dust and slash"(see recipe), and we baked up a beautiful loaf for her to take home. Her parents told me later that she and her 3 year old brother ate the whole thing on the way home. Upon breaking the bread in half she said to her brother, "Here, buddy, let's remember Jesus!" Wouldn't it be great to just eat the whole loaf of bread when we take communion? So here's the recipe for all of you who have been asking. Bake it, break it, and remember Jesus.

I highly recommend just buying the book from there website artisanbreadinfive.com, but if you can't wait until it arrives, this will get you started! Click on this post title to go directly to the link:

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/artisan-bread/boule.html

Sweet, Sweet Charli Mae

Our friend, Justin, came over last Saturday and took some pictures for us. The greenbelt is right outside our back door with lots of beautiful walking paths and parks. Isn't our Charli sweet?!

Enjoying the Process

As I wrote earlier, Nathan had given me Alice Water's cookbook, "The Art of Simple Food" as an early Valentine gift. If you're not familiar with Alice's style or are reading my blog for the first time, you need to know that she is a champion of the "local, organic, slow" food movement out in this part of the country.
So Sunday evening, I decided to prepare Nathan a meal solely from her recipes. The Menu was as follows:

Hearts of Romaine with Creamy Dressing and Homemade Croutons
Onion Soup in Bread Boules with Guryere Cheese
Rustic Apple Tart (I call it "rustic" because the edge burned)

I purchased as many ingredients as I could from the Farmer's Market Saturday morning, baked the bread bowls from scratch, and bought the gruyere from the specialty cheese section at Nugget Market.
I must say, this was one of the most enjoyable and delightful meals I have ever prepared! I savored every fragrance and marveled at the way God designed it all so harmoniously---the way the onions virtually melt into sweet candy after simmering in olive oil over low heat for half an hour, and the way the fresh thyme sprigs intertwine with it all to add interest and dimension to the broth, or the way the perfume of granny smith apples,(fresh from the tree,) escaped from the bag as I opened it, and the way that good wine paired so beautifully with it all.
I enjoyed the process, tasting all the way; the cheese, the creamy dressing, the caramelized onions, the apple slices....
Even the part where the butter from the tart melted and dripped onto the bottom of the oven which created much smoke that billowed out of the door, at which point Nathan and I had to go around the house opening up windows and doors to air the place out. What's an experience with some unexpected elements?
Recipes to follow...

Flowers In Our Living Room

Nathan and Charli and I went to Farmer's Market this morning, and before returning home, Nathan purchased these peach blossoms for me for a Valentine treat! These branches are green with brown speckling and bright pink flowers with creamy yellow centers. This picture hardly does them justice, for these blooms are absolutely lovely, and smell delightful. I sat near the sunny window and enjoyed them for a good half hour while sipping some Orange Spice tea, working on some lyrics to a new song.

Zoo Day!

Last Saturday was Free Museum Day in Sacramento, which included the Sacramento Zoo! It was Charli's first zoo experience--the talking parrots were her favorite. I never cease to be absolutely delighted by the creativity and infinite intelligence of our Creator as I admire all the beautiful, odd, and majestic animals.

Conversation and Chocolate-Cherry-Almond Clusters

Last night, Nathan and I sat on the couch and enjoyed a good long conversation together along with a couple of these no- guilt, semi-addictive, after-dinner treats. (Other than the sweetened cherries, there is no sugar in these babies!)
Of course, the chocolate clusters didn't last but through the first few sentences of the conversation...actually now that I think of it, I think I said something like, "Wait. I'll finish my thought in a minute. Just let me enjoy this first." They are melt-in-your-mouth-yummy. But maybe that's just because I'm on a chocolate kick....which is apparently lasting a lifetime....

Anyway, we sat there for a long time, discussing things about life and death, and heaven and hell, and it occurred to us that neither of spend enough time really thinking about these things. And that if we did really think about these things more often, we would probably live life somewhat differently, and at the least, view ourselves and people in general differently. In the mean time, we want to live in such a way that Jesus is enjoyed and savored in all of life. Even in chocolate clusters. So here's the recipe. It's quick and super-easy. Make 'em. Enjoy 'em. Thank God for chocolate. And if you love Jesus, savor His goodness and mercy as you take a bite.

Chocolate-Cherry-Almond Clusters
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Ellie Krieger

1 cup whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)

In a medium bowl, toss together the chopped almonds and chopped dried cherries.
In another medium, microwavable bowl, put the bittersweet chocolate chips. Melt in the microwave, stopping every 20-30 seconds to stir until chocolate pieces are just about melted. Continue to stir the chocolate pieces until completely melted.

Combine the almonds and cherries with the melted chocolate and stir until completely coated. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
Chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before serving.

The Recipe: Caramel-Filled Brownies

For those of you who are boycotting my blog until I post the brownie recipe, (just kidding,) here it is. I've tweaked it a bit, but it's from a recipe in Rebecca Rather's "Pastry Queen" cookbook(with Alison Oresman, Ten Speed Press)--a delicious collection of desserts and cafe treats that won't disappoint. (www.rathersweet.com) And, if you're every in Fredericksberg, Texas, you should really stop in and have lunch at her cafe. It's delightful. On your way, you can make at stop at Willie Nelson's "famous" hangout spot, Luchenbach, Texas which is just up the road a piece.

Caramel-Filled Brownies

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped and toasted
1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter
12 ounces Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate pieces
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 ounces caramel candies, unwrapped
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving several inches of overhang on the short sides. Grease the foil really well, (especially the sides of the pan, or the caramel filling will stick!)
Combine butter and bittersweet chocolate in a medium saucepan set over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth. (you can also do this step in the microwave, using a microwave-safe bowl instead of the saucepan, stopping every 20-30 seconds to stir and check that the chocolate is not burning. microwave until butter is melted, then just stir and stir and stir until the hot butter melts the chocolate pieces.)
Transfer chocolate mixture to a large bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla mixing with a wire whisk until thick and glossy. (about 2 minutes.)
Whisk in the flour and salt.

Transfer half the batter to the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. let the brownies cool for 20 minutes.

Stir the caramels and cream in a heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth (i wouldn't try this one in the microwave.)
Remove from heat and stir in half the pecans. Immediately spread the caramel mixture over the brownies, otherwise it will get too hard to spread.
Pour remaining brownie batter over caramel mixture and spread gently to cover. (do not pour in a clump or it will be too difficult to spread and mix the layers up.)
Sprinkle semisweet chocolate chips and remaining pecans on top of the brownie layer. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool the brownies completely in the freezer before cutting. Grab the foil edges to lift the brownies out and cut into squares.

Once-a-Week Roasted Chicken

At the Nugget where I do my grocery shopping(which by the way is the sweetest grocery store I've experienced--honestly, I like it better than Trader Joe's,) a whole, free-range chicken is less expensive than two pre-packaged chicken breasts. Which is part of the reason why I have been making this roasted chicken recipe. Who wouldn't want a couple wings, legs and thighs thrown in too?
Anyway, I try to prepare it once a week (actually, last week I made it twice for some friends who just had babies,) and I use the leftover chicken for making chicken salad for lunch and then I use the carcass to make about 6 cups of chicken broth. If you're willing to get your hands dirty, this is well worth the effort, I think.
I made it tonight for supper, and I timed myself : from start to finish the prep for this recipe took me approximately 12 minutes, which includes stopping to wash my hands three times of chicken yuck in between picking up Charli's spatula for her that she dropped.
Add a loaf of 5 minutes-a-day Artisan Bread (see previous post) and some leafy greens tossed with:
1 part balsamic vinegar to 2 parts extra-virgin olive oil
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

--and you've got a fairly quick, simple, yet healthy and delicious meal.

Roasted Chicken
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil, leaving a large overhand on the short ends.

Rinse with cold water one boiler/fryer chicken, 5-6 pounder, after removing gibblet bag and neck bone.
Rub the outside surface of chicken with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Rub the inside of chicken with kosher salt.
Stuff the chicken with the following: (I mix them all up in a bowl and then stuff'em in)
6 whole garlic cloves
6 lemon wedges
half of a small onion cut into 6 wedges
3 tablespoons salted butter cut into small pieces.

Bake uncovered for 1 -1 1/2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. The skin should be a nice, golden brown color. After one hour, if the chick still needs to roast longer, lightly place a sheet of foil over the bird to keep the skin from getting too crisp for the remainder of the cooking time.
(Good luck carving the gunner, I still haven't figured that part out yet...)


How to make Chicken broth from Roasted Chicken

After removing all of the chicken meat from the carcass, put the bone remains, along with the "stuffing" (i.e. garlic and onions...remove the lemons) in a large stock pot.
Add 6 cups water and one bay leaf. You can throw in some chopped carrots if you have 'em.
Simmer, covered, for 2 1/2 hours.
Remove carcass and strain broth.

Transfer broth to freezer bags and allow to cool before freezing for future use in soups.

(My Own) Chicken Salad
Combine in a large bowl:
Left over roasted chicken meat (1 1/2-2 cups), chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 granny smith apple, chopped
2 Tablespoons onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup pecans or almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup canned pineapple, drained and chopped
Equal parts of real mayonnaise and Miracle Whip (depending on how firm you like your chicken salad...I start with a 1/4 cup of each and go from there.)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve on croissants or with crusty bread.

The Ants Go Marching....

It's raining today. Again. For the second week in a row.
But I'm not complaining. We need the rain, and I don't necessarily mind getting wet, unless of course I just washed and dried my hair and straightened it with the flat iron--but, wait, I'm writing about ants...

Apparently ants don't like to be wet. I should know this, I mean, my mom used to sing me the song every night at bedtime,
'The ants go marching one by one, hurrah! hurrah!
the ants go marching one by one, hurrah! hurrah!
the ants go marching one by one,
the little one stops to suck his thumb
and they all go marching down,
into the ground,
to get out of the rain, boom, boom, boom.
She'd sing a verse all the way to "10 by 10, hurra! hurrah!", but by that time, I was already asleep.

So ants don't like rain, but apparently, ants do like bananas.
I had some laundry sitting by the front door waiting to get taken out to the garage where the washer and dryer are located. In that bunch of laundry were some of Charli's bibs with leftover banana puree on them.
Enter trail of an ant colony. Gross. What do you do with damp, ant-infested, banana laundry?? Well, I took them outside, gave'em a good rinse down with the spigot in the yard, and just threw those banana ants into the washing machine. I'm guessing they didn't like being washed any more than they liked being in the rain.
Usually, I am a fairly compassionate person, but when it comes to bugs inside the house, there's no mercy. If the poor things would have just stayed in the rain....

A few Pics from Christmas in Kansas

Charli loves spatulas!

Grandma helping Charli open her Christmas stocking.

Our attempt at an informal family "portrait."

Don't Waste Your Life

Every Sunday evening, around 6:30 p.m. friends scrunch together in our living room for our church's version of small group Bible study--we call them "Community groups." Anyway, Nathan and I started this particular group about 2 years ago, and in that short time it's seen a lot of people come and go. Right now we have around 15-20 people that come, some consistently, some very sporadically.
Justin comes early and usually finds something on the table or in the refrigerator to eat for "dinner." Tyler shows up after him to chat and make the lemonade.
Then there's Rick and Beth, who are getting ready to have a baby girl; Kelli, who cuts my hair and is super-amazing at it, her sister Chelsea and sometimes she brings her 1 1/2 year old son; and there's Kevin and Angeline who help co-lead with us. Kevin is the resident expert on where to get a good meal...anywhere. One time, Nathan and I were in downtown Sacramento around 10 p.m. We called Kevin and said, "Kevin, we're on Q street. Where can we get some take-out pizza?" He promptly directed us down a block to Uncle Vito's. You name the city in California and he's gotcha covered. I can't leave out Brett and Ashlee, Mike and Brandee, and Mike and Alex, Justin and Ivona and there two boys, who were our first ever California friends, and who always absent-mindedly leave behind something at our house,( but we don't give them a hard time anymore because we have a baby now and we understand)...and I'm sure I've left someone out, but I won't think of it until after I publish this, of course.
We've come from all over and I feel like we're living out a Charles Dickens novel where all the characters get introduced in the beginning and you just can't see how they could possible relate to one another, and then by the end of the story their lives are intimately intertwined in one grand story of redemption.

We have just started a 10-week study of John Piper's book, "Don't Waste Your Life." It's timely that we are reading this book now. It has been really healthy for Nathan and I to sit and ask each other questions about what we thought we'd be doing at this stage in life, where we felt God calling us when we got married, and how that lines up (or doesn't line up) with where we're at now. Years ago, a dear woman who mentored me challenged me to write out a "Life Purpose Statement." I review it every year, and it's been good to look at it through the context of what we are reading.
There is a song that has been my anthem for the past few months, and it is truly what we want our lives, our marriage, our family to be about.
It's by Charli Hall, and it's called, "Center." The refrain says:

Oh, Christ, be the Center of our lives.
Be the place we fix our eyes.
Be the center of our lives.
You hold everything together.
You hold everything together.

Praise Jesus, he holds it all together, because I'm learning for the 2,596th time that I sure can't.

Caramel-Filled Brownies

O.k., o.k. I have an addendum to my New Year's Resolution Revolution. Just to clarify, I will continue to bake with some processed sugar. I'm just not willing to give up all my joys of baking sweets and fresh-baked goodies "the way mom makes" for the sake of a honey or agave nectar substitution. And honesty, I feel like I'd somehow be forsaking my mother's teaching. After all, she's the one who taught me how to bake and enjoy tasting it along the way.
Charli and I just made Caramel-Filled Brownies for Nathan's ARE presentation tomorrow. (Well, mostly, Charli just chewed on her apron, but it kept her busy.) These are by far my absolute favorite brownies. I remember I made them for Nathan once before we started "dating." I was sure they would win him over!
Seriously, one of the most delightful, simple pleasures of baking is licking the spatula when the batter is done. (Sorry, Charli, this is a task for mommy.) I mean, is there anything more delectable than chocolate and butter? My mother would say not. I would agree.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

This cookbook by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois is amazing! Actually, it's the Master Recipe for making all kinds of bread that is so amazing. The dough for this bread can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. When you want some fresh bread, you reach in, cut a piece of the dough off, let it rest, and then bake it. In twenty minutes you have a beautifully rustic bread loaf warm from the oven. Need I mention, delicious? But not only can you use this dough to make simple rustic loaves, I have used it to make pizza, focaccia, bierocks, and even cinnamon rolls! And get this--the best part is, you don't even touch the dough. You just mix the ingredients together and put it in your fridge to rise. For a new mommy who wants to feed her family healthfully, this book has been so helpful.

Once Upon a Time...

I'm discovering a new avenue in songwriting--Children's songs. Here's a song I wrote for Charli that I sing to her for fun. It's surprising to see how my Music Education experience comes out as a mother. This type of song is called a "song-story." The melody stays the same for each verse. However, each verse retains some of the same elements while "adding" to the story to make it more complex. I'm still trying to figure out how to publish the actual recordings to my blog. Until then....

Once upon a time in a land far away
There lived a little girl and her name was Charli Mae
She was cute, she was pretty,
She was smart and she was witty,
And she sprinkled love on everyone wherever she would go!

One day Charli Mae was skipping by a pond
She saw a lonely duckie and she thought him very fond.
He was cute, and he was silly,
He was sitting on a lily,
So she asked the lonely duckie if he'd like to come along.

Charli and the duckie were underneath a tree,
They looked up in the air and they saw a little bee,
He was cute, and he was funny,
And he had a lot of honey,
So they asked him for a taste and if he'd like to come along.

Charli, duckie, bee, were dancing in the grass,
When out popped! a bunny who was hopping very fast,
She was cute and she was furry,
And she wasn't in a hurry,
So they asked the little bunny if she'd like to come along.

Charli, duckie, bunny, bee were sitting on a log,
When out crawled a turtle and a bright green frog,
They were cute, and they were happy,
Cuz they just had had their nappy,
So they asked the frog and turtle if they'd like to come along.

Charli and her friends were thankful as could be,
The animals weren't lonely, and Charli nor was she,
In the country, in the city they would do their little ditty,
Yes, they'd sprinkle love on everyone wherever they would go,
Yes, they'd sprinkle love on everyone wherever they would go!

Our Slow Food Revolution Resolution

Nathan just bought me Alice Water's cookbook, "the Art of Simple Food" and I am so excited to read it cover to cover! I've committed to making some purposeful choices in what I choose to cook this year and he is helping me along with some inspiration.
Not that I wasn't selective before, but there are a few more practices I would like to add to my daily cooking experience.
1. buy our meat locally from the UC Davis Meat Lab.
2. cook without processed foods.
3. bake my own bread.

It's January 14th, and so far so good...but there's 11 1/2 months ahead and a lot of unknowns! How's that for a New Year's resolution? Alice's cookbook has been an inspiration for simple, yet wholesome meals, and her list of staples for "Cooking from the pantry" includes items most of which I already make a practice of having on hand. Living in California, I have loved embracing the culture of seasonal foods and growing my own garden.
When my mom and Aunt Shelley came to visit last spring, they took Nathan and I to Berkley to dine at Alice Water's cafe, Chez Panisse. It was delightful! Since then, her ideas have given me much inspiration in the kitchen, and I look forward to exploring her recipes.
My favorite find so far: Avacado, Grapefruit, and Orange Salad.