we are off to visit family, extend our winter, and soak in the rain

ceej and i are leaving early, early, early tomorrow morning

to drive up to washington to visit my brother and his family.

can't wait!

we love poulsbo.

(see our photos from last year's visit here)

cj and my brother will be skiing the volcano once more.

i think you'd really enjoy seeing the photos from last year when ceej summitted.

amazing!!

i'll be hanging out with my sister-in-law and all the cute kiddies. i'm sure we'll look for faeries, collect leaves, write stories, tell silly stories, and choreograph a few dances. oh yes, and we'll eat lots of glorious food i'm sure.

have a fantastic memorial day weekend!

i'll be back next wednesday.

in the ongoing battle between simplicity and complexity, simplicity won out yesterday in my kitchen...

lemon & bing cherry (vegan, gluten-free) cupcakes vs. fruit smoothie.

i think you can guess which concoction was the winner.

so i'll just tell you.

the smoothie won, with flying colors.

the cupcakes were fantastic until i baked them,

and made the "frosting"...

smoothie ingredients:

pear nectar, almond milk (homemade!), blueberries, strawberries.

simple. easy. delicious.

the cupcakes. from this complicated cookbook.
now, i must say that everything i've ever made that is vegan

has been absolutely delicious...if not better than the non-vegan versions.

so i was quite disappointed.

however, i didn't quite follow directions either...

the recipe calls for

garbanzo-fava bean flour, brown rice flour, potato starch, arrowroot, and xantham gum

among other unusual ingredients.

my co-op had none of the above flours...

so i decided i would just use regular white wheat flour

(thinking my cupcakes would still be vegan, but it was okay they weren't gluten-free).

i thought that white flour would really make them delicious.

nope.

i zested and juiced,

sliced and pitted all afternoon.

the batter was absolutely amazing!!!

but, alas, the baked version was rubbery...

thinking of using them for a power-bar of sorts.

they're edible.

just not for dessert.

i had big plans to make an asparagus pesto dish for dinner...

but after this little failure i decided for simplicity:

i went to the store and bought pesto that was made in san francisco,

sliced up some yummy tomatoes from the farmer's market,

on top of spinach spaghetti

and sprinkled it all with pine nuts.

simple and perfect.

hooray for simplicity!

"of all smells, bread"

made some focaccia herb bread yesterday afternoon while it rained so wonderfully.

will be posting the recipe later today...in a rush to finish some knitting before class!

and now for the recipe (from this book):

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/4 cups warm water

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, plus extra whole leaves for garnish (i added some thyme as well)

3 cups all purpose flour, or 1 1/2 cups each all-purpose and whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

olive oil for brushing

coarse salt for garnish

combine the yeast and warm water in a large bowl. stir in the olive oil, chopped rosemary, and flour, and knead to form a soft dough. if the dough is sticky, work ina little flour, 1 Tbsp at a time. turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 to 6 minutes, until smooth. pour a little olive oil in the original bowl, add the kneaded dough, and turn a few times to coat the dough with oil. cover with a clean dish towel and let rise 1 hour, or until a hole poked into the side of the risen dough fills up slowly.

punch down the dough, return it to the floured surface, and knead a few times. then, using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a large circle about 1 1/2 inches thick. transfer the dough to a lightly greased cookie sheet. poke several holes into the dough with a fork, sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary leaves, and brush with a little oil. cover again with dish towel and let rise for 20 minutes.

while the dough is rising for the second time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the bread is lightly browned and firm. remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

enjoy!!

oh yes...the olive spread. i got it from the farmers market. here's the ingredients: green and black olives, garlic, fire roasted red pepper, parsley, olive oil, canola oil, lemon juice, capers and spices.

mmmmmmm.

what is necessary when visiting new york city?

my sister is going to new york city next week.

i've tried to tell her all that i love about the city

so she can try it out for herself.

any suggestions from all of you would be very helpful indeed.

what should sister not miss when she visits?

my very first visit to the city was with a dear friend

when we were just 21...seven years ago.

best spring break ever!!!

i was very giddy for this trip...the night before we left on our little adventure

was the night that i first kissed ceej.

my head was certainly in the clouds!!!

back in those days, we didn't have any cell phones

so there wasn't any convenient way to call him

to hear his voice or tell him how happy i was.

i just kept looking at his then website to get a glimpse of his face.

we went to museums. shopped. and ate yummy, yummy things.

..................................................................................................................

fast forward four years...ceej and i are married...and we went back to the city together.

shopping no longer makes the list as i think eating, walking, and museum-going are much more fun.

i really do love the cloisters.

love how they are away from everything else.

it's so pretty and quiet there.

a lovely respite from the noise.

i'm working on getting more of our photos from this trip more available.

there is some conversion to digital that needs doing.

all of these photos have made for a reminiscent morning...

love the city, love ceej.

so, what should sister do while there?

please tell!

manifesto monday : write

"i must write it all out, at any cost. writing is thinking. it is more than living, for it is being concious of living." -anne morrow lindbergh

"writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. that thing you had to force yourself to do--the actual act of writing--turns out to be the best part. it's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony." -anne lamott

"we should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. we should write because writing is good for the soul. we should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in." -julia cameron

"so long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters." -virginia woolf

this i believe.

it's monday...and i'm singing

have a lovely weekend!

sundays are made for picnics.

they just are.

i love sunday afternoons spent with ceej, eating good food,

and sitting by the river.

last night we started to look over our calendar for the summer...

it's going to be the busiest yet:

i'll be in north carolina,

ceej will travel often overseas for 2-3 weeks at a time,

family gatherings happening it seems just about every other weekend,

weddings,

cabins,

road trips...

so i am soaking in this idle time we have.

it's so good to not be busy.

hopefully we'll get a lot done this summer

so that come fall we'll be ready to

rest.

by the way, i can't stop eating good bread w/olive spread, avocados, and fresh tomatoes.

and lately i've had a crazy obsession/craving for black&white cookies. every day.

i get giddy about them.

i can't wait for that cakey-frosting vanilla+chocolate goodness to reach my tongue.

it's making it hard to be vegan...not to mention those cheese danishes i love at the farmers market so very much.

happy weekend!

do you remember going to the pool when you were growing up, and loving the feeling of lying on the hot cement while dripping wet and sipping soda?

my younger brother and i used to walk to the neighborhood pool

almost every day of summer while we were growing up.

we'd spend hours there...at least it seemed like hours to us.

we'd giggle at each other as we jumped off the diving board,

pretended to be goofy super-heroes wearing goggles,

jumped straight out of the pool with sopping wet bodies to lie down on the hot cement,

and sipped welch's grape soda.

we'd often wander off into the neighboring park which had a mini forest

where we would play hide 'n' seek

{hiding once in a wasps nest, making all of us run screaming for our lives, and receiving a few battle wounds}.

ceej and i have very tame and relaxing days by the pool.

we bring books,

and dip ourselves into the pool when we get sleepy or too warm.

the pool isn't heated,

which makes it a bit too cold in the early summer,

but perfect when the incredible heat of midsummer encroaches.

cj braved the chill, and dove straight in.

i very slowly and cautiously lowered myself in.

can't wait for our next pool day.

this morning i forgave my yesterday self

i usually hide behind photos, not wanting to expose my words so bare.

but today marks a new day of love and courage.

as many of you know, i can give myself a good beating, languishing in mistakes and shortcomings.

however, i am on the approach of trust and determination, releasing analytical judgments.

part of my heart has melted away...the part that was false and full of lies,

leaving my age-old heart to beat deliberately, full of wisdom and pure joy.

i see both heartache and rejoicing ahead,

and i am willing.

more than ever to try.

because i may.

thou mayest*.

i have a song, an ancient choir of voices, strings, and booming drums,

pulsing through my being.

it began in the space around me here on this earth,

and it first pricked the hairs of my skin when my mother

labored my existence,

and it has been sinking slowly, but deeply,

through my pores, into my blood, into my cells,

into my soul

where i dance with beauty

and i dance with terror.

this morning i forgave my yesterday self,

and welcomed possibilities

both challenging and perfect.

i opened up the doors, the windows, the entire roof

to all that dreams can do.

*a reference to steinbeck's east of eden : "I feel that a man [or woman] is a very important thing--maybe more important than a star. This is not theology. I have no bent towards gods. But I have new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed--because 'Thou mayest.'"

i really should have made this week here "an ode to food and how much we love to fill our bellies with delicious victuals."

i admit it.

our lives revolve around food,

and finding any excuse to lie on the grass and gaze up at the trees and sky.

i often meet cj downtown for a picnic at a park.

we eat our lunch, talk about our mornings, and life in general,

then we take a nap.

however, lately there has been no napping for me,

as i've started a serious study of thousands of vocab words

in preparation for the g.r.e...

yes, i'm already thinking about more school before i even begin more school.

hoping your day is picnic perfect!

dinner in the "garden" requires party lights and a serenade

ceej and i had dinner in our "garden" the other night.

this is one of my favorite things about warmer weather...eating outside after the sun

has set, and watching the sky darken as the stars appear.

magical.

we picked up a few things from the co-op so we wouldn't have to cook:

fresh bread, local cheese (a rare indulgence!), olives, fig jam, hummus, olive oil, balsamic vinegar,

tomatoes, avocados, etc.

heaven for the tastebuds.

and carrot juice. my favorite treat. it's perfect for afternoons when i get tempted to nap away.

it's essential, when eating in the garden on a summer's eve,

to have music like this playing in the background.

mmm. mmm. mmm.

reminds me of this party from this movie.

i think we should all meet down at the river,

bring your guitars, dancing shoes, twirling skirts, and boats.

see you there!