Sunday Happy

August for real. What happened to the year? This summer is just flying by and even though it has been so freaking dumb hot for like ever, It feels like it just begun. I bet it's because of the heat, that my brain is not functioning right and that I have lost all concept of time. But you know what August means.. August means soon to be fall. And that is just fine by me because I really am craving some apples and I miss my sweaters. Oh how I miss them so. 

Last week started off at Bread and Puppet which was awesome per usual. Lots of big puppets, lot of people in white, people sprawled all over the grass. Politically charged, funny and beautiful. I am always so entranced when we go to the circus. If you are anywhere near Glover VT on a Sunday this summer, go, check it out, it's freaking awesome. And right down the road from the puppet field is Jes's farm where ee tried out her new Hipcamp site. The spot was great, the views were awesome, and the mr was right near a stream so he was a happy fisher. I on the other hand was just excited to be away from town. Read for a while and crawled int the tent as soon as the sun went down (kind of similar to my bedtime routine at hime too)  And sure there was a tick (the mr), a leech,(also the mr) and a lot of peeing on ones foot while squatting (me) but other then that, it was fantastic and just what we needed.

Then we returned and did life. Had dinner with my mom and the littles, placed Coco in a planter, made Miley and Judah gigantic ice cream cones, and watched Barb make all the best faces a happy, peppy 18 year old girl can make. Wednesday Nicks sister Emma came over for dinner and shot the shit with us for a while then Thursday came around which entailed  lots of mid summer running around, fixing this, doing that, farm share (so many tomatoes) and getting ready to leave the coming day.

Friday Shannon, Megan, the mr, and I hopped into the car and drove down to Rhode Island for the afternoon to spend some time with our Uncle Seth. The mr drove the whole way there while Megan squeaked and squealed in the back set and us girls counted and organized the amount of times and where we moved to growing up (I was at 19 times by 16.. I guess we were a family of gypsies). Had a good lunch with David, checked out a grave yard and a giant glass circle, then made our way over to Seths loft for a visit. We were all in need of a good Seth visit. Just to hear him laugh or see him smile was such a great gift. And after our visit   we went to Whole Foods to buy Whole Foods, and jumped back into the car, the mr driving the whole time, Megan squeaking and squealing in the back set, until we made it home.....Very late. I feel asleep for a few hours, woke up, went to work, loaded and unload some kilns, came home, cleaned the house, then pass the fuck out. It was a long week. 

The mr and I are doing Sunday like we did last week. We both have a few things to do this morning but then we are going to meet at home for lunch and head out. Where to, not exactly sure, but we aren't coming back until tomorrow morning. The camping stuff is still out, the weather is suppose to be hot and humid but sunny, so there really isn't any reason to no run away up a mountain or into the woods.  And I think I deserve a good long day of not talking to anyone. Camp coffee, a good book, and a soft place to set my head. It will be good. 

Internet reading from the week. 

-WHen anyone complains about any anything, the first thing I ask is if they have had any water lately... Most people, especially littles, say no. Off Your Mental Game? You Could Be Mildly Dehydrated

-Which Vision Of Farming Is Better For The Planet?.

-Kind of in love with these Improvised Wall Tapestries Crafted with Vibrant Thread Combinations. I want rub my face into them.

-These animals spend their whole lives waiting to have sex, and then they die. So there is that. 

-When Your Name Doesn’t Feel Like You. I can totally see show this could be a thing that some people have to deal with. I like my name, and I think it totally fits me.  But I have known (take my uncle Seth for example) people that have hanged their names. I mean, it's something you have to deal with for your entire life so you know, own it or change it I guess. 

-I would barf if I lived here, but it's cool. A Colorful, Geometric Wonderland That Might Feel Like You’ve Jumped Inside a Kaleidoscope

-Why Does It Seem Like Everyone Is Getting Sick from Salad? This is one good reason (of many) to eat as locally as you can and know exactly where your food comes from. 

-How Explorers Sleep in Extreme Spots. Whoa.

-I have definitely rented a book because of its pretty flower cover (I just picked up My Absolute Darling) How Publishing’s Floral-Print Trend Came to Rule the World’s Bookshelves. I really appreciate a good cover. For some reason pictures of people on overs bother me. 

-For More Flavorful Desserts, Forget This Ingredient. IT would probably benefit more then just flavor too. 

Pictures from the week... and Barb eating pizza. Ha

Happy Sunday

-C

Sunday Happy

Well good news, the mr did not break his wrist, or so that is what we are thinking so we are good here. (Although he is now thinking he might have like fractured a rib... It's always something right? ) 

It really has been a hot summer, and this past week was no exception. And it has really effected my ability to function, but function I do when I need too because it is what it is. So yeah, the usually stuff of the week, some work, some play. The mr spent some time helping me fix up my little basement studio space. We built a platform for my wheel (the floor was way unleveled and I had way too many shims everywhere) and resurfaced my wedge table.  Tuesday was a run away to a  river  day. OR more like a hot as fuck and I can't deal day. We were both feeling all sad and stuff because it was two years ago that Washer died so we were just not up to having anything.  When we came home I found a baby watermelons growing on the watermelon vine which ended up making me kind of happy because everything else outside of the garden was dying. Happy for the little things, you know. 

Wednesday was again still all hot and humid. People were talking of rain, but we still hadn't gotten any here in  WInooski. I Was starting to get pissed which was extinguished when we had dinner with the little. Those kids, they are some funny little people. We convinced Miley and Judah that they should be twins because they are starting to look, act, and sound exactly alike, all the  while coco ate everything and ran around screaming at the Buzz and Woody toys like they deserved it. And they might have, who knows.

 And we got some ran! Thank goodness. I was starting to think it was never going to happen and I was going to to burn up too. 

Thursday I worked at the studio, changed the elements in the kiln for the first time which was awesome and also killed my hips (bent over for a few hours). After that I meandered over to the farm for my veggies. SO many tomatoes! And not so many greens, which I was ok with became I have a buttload growing in the garden (or so I thought)

Saturday after I got home from work, I shaved the mr's neck out by the garden where I witness garden destruction.. FUCK! There is a groundhog living close by that is eating all of my food! I am pretty pissed. The little shit ate alllll of my  lettuce that was suppose to get me through the next few weeks, and all the tops of my carrots, and a shit ton of kale. And you would think that a big fat orange cat would be somewhat of a deterrent to animals in the yard, but no. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if Only told the groundhog to go ahead and help himself to the garden because that seems like something he would do to me. HE can be a prick sometimes.  And I guess I would have shared some of my greens if the ground hog had asked, but he did not, so we are going have trap and bring mr groundhog someplace else so he stops eating all of my food. And now I am super low on greens... What am I going to do?  I guess it's to the grocery store... 

Which brings us to today. I am really excited for today. I am going to quick run to the gym and return library books in town and then the mr and I are heading up to the North East Kingdom for a Bread and Puppet show and some well deserved camping in the woods. I am bringing nothing (beside food and a tent) but a book, a sketchbook, some water colors and pencils. No internet, probably no cell reception, no people, just trees, quite and peace. We need it for real. 

Internet fun fun.

-I guess all we need to do to be successful is play in cat shit? If You Want To Start Businesses, Will This Cat Poop Parasite Help?

-National Geographic Photo Week Series. I Love the shot of the skater girls. 

-I have had this thought before... How talking and singing are differentiated in the brain. I guess someone smart studies it and answered the question How The Brain Helps You Sing Or Say What You Mean

-5 Things to Know About Freezer Burn because it happens to all of us. 

-Can Lavender Oil Make Me Less of a Basket Case? I sure do think so.

-I think I might make this bench or something like it. DIY BENCH WITH PILED VELVET & WOOD

-Thought of the mr cause he like tiny cars, then thought of Steve Urkle cause he drove this car. Ha. An Eight Foot Micro Vehicle Will Soon Make its Way onto European Streets

-14,000-Year-Old Piece Of Bread Rewrites The History Of Baking And Farming. So if you are on the paleo diet, does this mean you should now eat bread? 

-No soda, but my dad would buy cases of these shit. Peach was my favorite. So bad. How Snapple Conquered the ’90s

-SO many people do not know this. Two-by-fours are not actually 2-by-4—here’s why

Pictures from the week. 

Happy Sunday!

-C

Sunday Happy

Forecasters are calling for a stormy week, supposedly starting today. And you know what, I really hope that we get it, and get it all. Everything is so dry and crunchy and we just need rain. I need rain. Too many sunny days in a row actually start to have an opposite effect on me. I get cranky. I need some overcast and gloom. It helps my brain. That might sound crazy, but I know I am not the only one. (right?) Anyway, we need the rain so it better freaking rain. 

Just another mid summer week.  The mr was all week work work working, I did some work, but was not overly busy, I kind of was feeling like shit, especially the beginning of the week. Super hot Monday followed by hot and humid Tuesday just felt like a slap in the face. I am, and I think that we are all, officially over the hot humid shit. It is just too much. I feed Megans evil cat all week which was annoying since that cat basically tries to kill me everytime I look at him (he really is a mean little fucker). Barb and I had a mid week meet up at the farm for green bean and flower picking, Now I have so so so many beans because  I have been doing a lot of picking of all sorts of tasty things, including beans, at home in the garden (so many raspberries, not to mention all of the kale (Happy dance me))  Pretty soon it's going to be an onset of so much food. I am getting ready. The chest freezer is plugged in, got some more  canning jars and freezer bags. Bring it on I say. I'l take it, I'll take it all. Which bring me to Thursday Farm share. Got the first tomatoes of the season (whoop whoop)  and had to stop myself from shoveling them all down my throat. I decided to try and be proactive this year and not overdue the tomatoes and give myself hella shitty reflux. We will see how I do. 

Friday we had plans for a tree house picnic with the littles but it ended up turning into a front porch picnic. To many people to fit way up high in that tree. It's all about safety first. We had (not me, I ate lettuce zucchini bowl) cucumbers, green beans, peaches, and fluffernutters. Miley and Judah  were not so impressed because they get to eat that shit whenever, but Barb. Oh was she excited for the fluff, just shoving it down like a champ. Haha. And Coco, that little dude can eat. He picked himself a giant cucumber from the garden and managed to eat just about all of it, this is after he ate like a quart of berries and a bunch of green beans. That little, he knows the way to my heart. 

And then somehow while we were taking our after dinner stroll around the block, the mr fell off of Miley's scooter and like maybe broke his wrist....For real, his wrist yersterday was like a ballon and he can barely move it.  I went to work at the studio (loaded a glaze kiln... I am so good at loading glaze kilns) and came back to bags of half frozen corn and peas leaking juice all over and the most miserable mr I have seen in a long time. HIs wrist was hurting him way bad.  SO two things, the littles are to NEVER ride a scooter without the proper head gear and maybe some wrist pads again and maybe not at my house for a while and  the mr is just straight up NEVER to ride a scooter EVER again. Broken wrist or not. He doesn't have a helmet. And I can't deal with a miserable mr. 

Today depends on how the mr is when he wakes up. If his wrist is still really swollen and he is miserable, I am going to run away...HA, no , I am going to drag his ass to the X-ray place and get his wrist looked at. If he is feeling better, well then I am going   bike into town to the gym, hit up the old library, hope for rain, but that it doesn't start til I get home from said library ( but really I will be ok, my back pack is waterproof so I can handle a little rain) do a few errands with the mr and then veg out for the rest of the asfternoon. I am really hoping for the latter of the two.

Internet from the week.

-Heat Making You Lethargic? Research Shows It Can Slow Your Brain, Too.  Finally some science to explain why I am garbage when I am hot.

-FDA Outlook on Plant-Based 'Milk' Is Bleak: "An Almond Doesn’t Lactate". Hahaha. No almonds do not... And not sure I care what they call plant based "milks".. maybe I should? And think of the possibilities of a new name... Almond hey yeah!

-In love. Vintage Summer: A Seventies-Style Shoppable Airbnb in Montauk

-Are We Really as Awful as We Act Online? Oh shit, some of the things people say. I don't know, sometime I think people are even worse...

-I think we are going to buy this tent. I would have already but I am trying to find it for cheaper (I have found it for 299.. still want it to be cheaper though), maybe wait for a sale? I don't know, but it is the tent that we want. 

-The Lawless Energy of Teen-Age Girls. I don't know why, but I really connected with these photos. Maybe it's because I was a teenage girl at one point, and I am pretty sure I did karate in a field too. 

-Buffy was the best, like seriously kick ass cool. A 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Reboot Is Reportedly In The Works

-What's the Difference Between Persian & English Cucumbers? I guess size matters. 

-I want so very much to see one of these performances. I mean, a ballet at a farm, pretty fantastic. Maybe I'll surprise the mr and bring him or...Maybe he will surprise me.  Farm to Ballet Project. 

-Inside a mostly faded culture on Norway’s border with Sweden. Magical farmers. Take me there. 

Pictures from the week 

Happy Sunday!

-C

Ginger Garlic Blistered Green Beans with Almonds

I sometime struggle with certain veggies, not like in a eating way (I have no snuggle eating any veggie) but in a making something with that certain veggie kind of way, like I don't make anything out of them, I just eat them raw as they are. (That was terribly long winded and does it even make sense?) I don't find this to be a problem most of the time, but sometime I think I need to be less lazy about eating and maybe prepare a dish for a meal rather then just eating raw beans out of the garden for lunch.....I mean, I am not going to stop doing that but I am going to start being a little more creative and planning meals with a little more substance. Adding nuts is more substance right?

These beans were freaking fantastic.  Blistered and charred, and not soggy and soft. They were perfect. (I like my veggies either raw or burnt) I made them late morning and was going to save them for dinner but the mr, Barb, and I ate them all just on snacking on them.  Just a really good, A+ veggies situation here. Highly recommended, hot or cold. Almost beats a bean lunch in the garden. Almost. 

The stuff. Green beans, almonds, garlic, ginger, soy, and a little oil. 

Quick fast, rough chop the almonds and give them a toast in a dry skillet (you can skip this part if you have already toasted almonds) 

And here would be the time to trim the beans if you are a person that does that. I am however, not a bean trimmer. But you must wash them, so give them a good rinse , and keep them a little wet. The moisture will help them cook. 

Just washed beans go into a medium high hot skillet (add in a tablespoon of oil) and get a nice little cover to start the cooking process.  Leave them alone for a few minutes, then remove lid and toss them around. Do that ever few minutes. 

While the beans start cooking, mince the garlic and the ginger and add to the soy sauce.

Smells so good!

Beans have cooked for about 10 minutes here and are all nice and blistered and just about done so now add in the ginger garlic soy mixture and toss around. Keep cooking for a minute or two.

And now don't forget those almonds, mix those in too. Then it's into a bowl they go. 

Green beans so good. Can't go wrong with these.

Have a marvelous weekend, maybe go pick some green beans!

-C

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Ginger Garlic Blistered Green Beans With Almonds

• About a pound of green beans (trimmed if you want to trim them)
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger 
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 3 teaspoons soy sauce
• tablespoon oil

Rough chop almonds into small pieces and place in a dry skillet (meaning no oil). Turn heat on to medium high heat to toast for about 5 minutes or until you can start to smell the almonds and they are slightly browning. (you can skip the tasting  part if your almonds are already toasted, jus chop them into small pieces)

Dump the almonds into bowl and set aside. Keep skillet on heat and add in the oil. Rinse beans off, keeping them damp, and very carefully, dump the damp beans into the hot skillet. Place a lid on beans and let cook about 4-5 minutes. In the meantime, mince garlic and ginger and combine with the soy sauce. After a few minutes, remove the lid from beans and toss the bean around. Keep doing this for another 8-10 minutes or until the beans are cooked though and blistered in places. Once the beans are cooked,  dump the garlic ginger soy mixture into pan. Toss around and leave in pan for another minutes then stir the toasted almonds in. Transfer the whole bit of it into a big bowl or plate. 

Eat right away or.. They taste freaking fanatic cold too. 

Sunday Happy

Mid summer days. Hard to believe that the year is more then half way over. My oh my, how fast time seems to be ticking by. I better get on that, and that being everything I better get on. 

The week went as usual. This and that, running around, blah blah blah.I cleaned that car, spent far to long on the phone with gas company, and managed not to mow the lawns once this week (probably should so that really soon) The mr is that same, work all day, come home and work in the tree at night. The tree house is almost done soon so that will be good. I have been tending to the garden, everything is coming in oh so nicely and all of a sudden there is more kale and rhubarb that I know what to do with (thats a damn lie, I know how to deal with it all.. MY FACE). And not only is my garden bountiful, farm shares have been mega and I am just a happy camper chopping and bagging it all to shove into the deep freezer for those cold winter nights.

Only and I made a visit to the vets where he got poked and prodded. 100% awesome, even though he is now considered a geriatric cat.  Our vet is in love with him (she loved Washer too) because our pets just sit and take the abuse. The more I poke at them, the happier they are. Weirdos. We also did a mid week littles sleep over. We played in the yard, picked  berries, made Coco scream, and ate all of my berries.  After dinner Miley somehow conned the mr into buy ice cream AND a giant KitKAT bar. So they ate a lot of sugar while we watched Billy Madison and laughed our asses off. I mean, if you were a little, wouldn't that be the perfect night? The next morning, we  skipped camp, made rainbow pancakes and I let them watch Nailed it while they ate.( they want me to teach them how to cook so they can be on a food completion. Its now my goal in life) Then Barb came over to hang and pancake and pick all the berries, kale, and beans in garden, you know to test for quality control. And then we wondered around the neighborhood, hit up the thrift store (FREE BOOKS FOR MILEY!!!) and were just the coolest kids around.  Then I had it, needed to get some shit down so wee dropped them off at home after a trip to the transfer station to get rid of the recycling. We found pogo stick there. That was fun. 

Friday my mom came over for  this cherry upside-down cake. She said it was the best cake ever so maybe you should make one too. How can you pass up the best cake ever? 

Yesterday I worked all morning at the studio, loaded a kiln, mixed some glazes then came home to an empty house. And clean did I clean. A week of in and out and littles and spilled this and so much fine wood chips. The house felt sticky and gross so I spent the rest of my Saturday scrubbing and vacuuming and raining terror down on the mr for using a cup and leaving it on the counter. Word of the wise, stay the fuck out of my way when I am cleaning. 

Today I am going to bike into town, do the  gym, return overdue library books, and then veg. The mr and I have been carving a few spoons this week so I will probably do some of that, and provably  throw some pots to go with those spoons in the basement. It's  suppose to get hot again toady so the basement might just be where it is at. I should probably do some laundry while I am down there too... 

Interneting from the internet

-Can a Laugh Be Inherited? How Genes Define Who We Are. I hope no one gets my laugh, everyone picks on my laugh (assholes)

-Hum, what is it that I Am tasting. IT's Umami.  Umami: The 5th Taste, Explained

-Do You Like Jokes and Crafts? This Punny Video Of Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman Is Sew Good. I have watched more then once... It just makes me smile. 

-I feel like you have to see this because I had to see this and cannot unsee it. MAN WITH WORLD'S LONGEST FINGERNAILS CUTS THEM OFF AFTER 66 YEARS, SELLS THEM TO MUSEUM

-It's all my brains fault. Ha. Why Your Brain Tricks You Into Doing Less Important Tasks

-Holy Shit, not good. An 11 million-ton iceberg is threatening a tiny village in Greenland

-Vintage Travel Trailer Paint Jobs You Won't Ever Forget. We need to get on fixing our....... 

-What a strange way to grow ups without a shit tin of siblings. And to be stuck near the middle is good fun. The Extinction of the Middle Child

-The thing people can create.  New Miniature Lace Scenes by Ágnes Herczeg Capture Quiet Domestic Moments

- The moment Trump baby blimp lifts off

Pictures from the week. 

Be happy

-C