Catching Up

I just found these pictures from Jeremiah and Emily's trip here the first week of September and want to post them for posterity. We took a day trip down to Chicago to see the pirate ship exhibit at the Field Museum and Sam wanted to find Art. Above, the boys are hiding from a huge dinosaur that escaped from the Field...good thing he turned out to be a vegetarian.
Catching the last free night of the summer at the Art Institute.My darling Sam. Where has the time gone?

Jasper and I taken by one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings.
Jasper meets Jasper.

And an evening meal on one of the last gorgeous Summer nights that wasn't as blurry as the photos would have you believe.
I want to start writing again soon...something actually worth reading. But there is a lot going on right now, like Jasper beginning to crawl, which means there just isn't much time between sunup and sundown to put thought to paper, or fingers to keyboard or much of anything save the odd dip of spoon into the jar of homemade caramel sauce on the top shelf of the fridge when I desperately need a pick-me-up.

Fireflies and Firelight

My favorite thing all summer has been going for runs in the evening, with Sam riding beside me. We start when the sun is just beginning to set and by the time we get to the country roads, the fields beside us are dancing with a million little firefly lights, one of the most magical things I've experienced. With a full moon over head and your first boy beside you, it's lump-in-your-throat inducing and somehow melts all the stresses of the day. A few of these same evenings, we've built a fire in the backyard and stayed up late eating Cherry Heart Piettes and ice cream, or roasting marshmallows. The boys regale Ryan and I with tales of their days' adventures, their dreams for the future (always involving Legos!), and their new-found love of knock-knock jokes and riddles.
If I look exhausted, it's because I was. Plus, campfires have a way of being hypnotic.
Sam suggested we throw an end of Summer bash at our house, complete with Baughn fire. I think he's on to something...

I love how some of the best meals are the simplest. A few nights ago Sam, Felix, Jasper and I were keeping the home fires burning while Ryan and Oliver were out fixing an espresso machine together late. By the time dinner time rolled around I needed a second wind and some inspiration. I found the latter in the beautiful tomatoes sitting on the counter, freshly picked the night before from our garden. Luckily, I had some local Crave Brothers fresh mozzarella in the fridge. Sam rode his bike to the co-op by himself (kind of a big deal)to purchase a baguette and some local ham. When he got home, we set to work putting together ingredients. Sam sliced the tomatoes and baguette while I picked basil and found the last of the 2 yr. white cheddar. We assembled ham and cheese on buttered baguette, which reminded me so much of being in Paris, and of course the insalata, the ubiquitous first course at any restaurant in Italy. Eating leisurely outside, talking and watching the sunset - after 45 minutes of this, I realized we had gorged ourselves on two of the above salads. The tomatoes were amazing- I know they are literally a fruit, but I don't think I've ever tasted anything so sweet and flavorful in my life. I can't wait to get to work canning these - it'll be like preserving Summer for the rest of the year. When it's January and -17 degrees out, I'll pop open a jar of these glorious beauties and remember basking in the evening sun with my boys.

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

Cherries are finally in season and we've been buying pounds and pounds of them. Ryan bought me my new favorite seasonal kitchen gadget, this Oxo cherry pitter from Williams-Sonoma after I exhausted Target and our local groceries for one and came up empty-handed. It's well worth the $13 investment to pit cherries with ease, especially if you're eager to make your own pie filling. While browsing in the store, I saw a contraption that allowed you to make individual pie-ettes in either a star or heart shape. I couldn't stop thinking about how fun those desserts looked so when we came home, I decided to try it without any fancy gadgetry. Guess what? It's super easy and the kids loved helping almost as much as eating them. The best part is cutting out any shape that suits your fancy and personalizing your pie. Someone asked for one shaped like Darth Vader...maybe next time.

The Family That Eats Together

I don't go out very often these days. For one thing, going out with four boys is more than just a little bit of work, timing everything around naps and meals. For another thing, since the proliferation of legos in our house, there doesn't seem to be the need or desire to do anything but play legos. However, I had the opportunity to hit up a huge sale at bop in Madison and Mom was willing to watch the kids. It turned out to be a total waste of time, not that I didn't find some incredible deals, but after asking myself if I really needed any of said finds and realizing I didn't, I left (after waiting in line for 2 hours) and ended up with nothing but a parking ticket. This, of course, was very upsetting. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but we have paid the city of Madison at least $1,000 in parking tickets since we moved here 4 1/2 years ago. I think they recognize my car, think to themselves, "suckah" and hang around waiting for my meter to expire, knowing I won't make it out in time. Unnecessary expenses like parking tickets really upset me so suffice it to say I was in a bit of a foul mood the rest of the day, that is until dinner. The day before mom arrived, our chef friend Joel and his wife and kids came over for dinner, bringing some incredible local highland beef for sliders. Mom made the leftover meat from Fountain Prairie Farms into burgers, we had local feta and 2 year white cheddar from Hook's Cheese with all the usual condiments.
Ryan made hand cut homemade french fries with sea salt from mom's potatoes as well as a pound of fried cheese curds.

The grill was still hot after dinner so I cut peaches in half, sprinkled them with sugar and melted butter and grilled them for about 5 minutes, cut side down. We filled the middle with fresh whipped cream for a perfect dessert after such a heavy dinner.
At dinner, Ryan added up the cost of a meal like that eating out and it was well over the $20 parking ticket, so I suddenly felt much better about that. But more than the money was the pleasure of us all working together to make dinner- Mom putting together the condiment plate while Ryan fried the potatoes and curds. I prepped the peaches while the boys set the table. Talking and laughing all the while and then sitting down to enjoy the fruits of our collaborative effort. I hope that when the boys are grown up, making and eating food together is one of their strongest memories.