thishomemadelife | 2011 May | thishomemadelife

Summer Lists

May 30, 2011

Are you having a good Memorial Day weekend? Our weather has been less than ideal for all the festivities, but we’ve managed some fun anyway. Between rain showers our days have been filled with making box forts in the front yard, a soccer tournament, working in the garden and some good time with Nana. Now that the boys are out of school we are in full summer mode. A couple of weeks ago, we made our summer lists. At that point school wasn’t out yet, but our minds were already on vacation. A few years ago, in an effort to make the most of our summer breaks, we started making summer lists. It started as just one big list, but as the boys have gotten older they have chosen to make their own. Each list contains 10 things…places to go, people to see, new foods to try. We’ve had some fun adventures thanks to these lists. I’m excited to see what this summer will bring…. Ben’s list and mine… Samuel’s… and Henry’s… What summer adventures do you have planned? Any favorites we should add to our lists? Happy Memorial Day! Alison

Homemade Chocolate Sauce

May 27, 2011

A Postcard from Germany

May 25, 2011

About a month ago I interviewed Ben for his 10th birthday. One of my readers, Johanna, that hails from Germany, commented on my son’s love for one of Germany’s soccer teams, Bayern Munchen. She kindly offered to send him a postcard, maybe even one featuring his favorite sport. I emailed her our address telling her I understood if she became busy and couldn’t send it. I appreciated her thoughtfulness and kind offer. Well, guess what showed up in our mailbox this past Saturday. Yep…a postcard from Germany. This wasn’t any ordinary postcard, it was from a set featuring quotes of famous German soccer players from the World Cup, hosted by Germany in 2006. Johanna even provided us with translation of the quote and the player it came from. The entire time Ben read it he was grinning from ear to ear. Since getting it on Saturday I’ve caught him reading it several times, the same big smile on his face. Thank you Johanna, for your kindness. Thank you for sending a little piece of Germany (and soccer!), across the ocean, to a 10 year old boy. We will treasure this postcard and the kindness of the person behind it…always. Alison

Homemade Fruit Leather

May 24, 2011

Farmer’s Market

May 23, 2011

Some of my favorite things about Saturdays right now…pancakes (of course), baseball games and the Farmer’s Market. This past Saturday morning I took Ben and we left bright and early to head downtown to the Farmer’s Market. I love any opportunity to go downtown, but especially during market season. As we walked the couple blocks to the market we laid out our plan of attack…what vendors to find, what veggies we should be looking for and how much money we brought to spend. Our first stop was Squeaky Green Organics. They had a beautiful display of heirloom produce that Ben and I could not resist. We tried samples of their carrots, lettuces and beets. The growers shared with us their organic practices and told us some great ways to prepare each vegetable, to bring out their best flavors. We walked away with some gorgeous purple carrots and ‘Crisp Mint’ romaine. We then stopped at Shadow Brook Farm’s stand to get our weekly bag of mixed greens, admiring their beautiful flowers while our bag was weighed. Their stand is always bustling with activity, so once paid we moved on. Having checked carrots, romaine and mixed greens off our wish list the only things left to find were green onions, pea shoots and if we were lucky…strawberries. I guess luck was on our side, because we found them all. As we walked back to the car Ben and I talked about all we had seen and heard in the bustle of the market that morning… …an LA movie director telling a farmer about the next film he was making while buying tomato plants …the french farmer that told [...]