Summer bucket list

I love my lists. They make me feel accomplished and validate that I was indeed productive. 

Summer is not complete unless I get through my summer bucket list. So as not to be disappointed that I 'did not get to do enough', I make sure to get started right away. In Alaska, anything over 40F qualified as summer. In the Lower 48, I may wait until it is a bit wamer, but not much....there is just too much to do!

So what are the things on my bucket list? Lightening bugs and Shakespeare in the Park.  Ice Cream Cones, homemade popsicles and S'mores made in the chiminea on a random Tuesday night after dinner. Sleeping outside is a favorite - sometimes it is in a tent, but usually it is on my Romeo and Juliet balcony. Once I get started sleeping outside I do not want to move back in. Fresh tomatoes and basil, and dinner as many nights as humanly possible on the deck. Red wine in the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn making small talk with the neighbors walking their dogs.

No summer is complete without just one margarita. Occasionally I will make a pitcher of Sangria when I invite friends over to sit on the deck with me. Another guilty pleasure is going to Starlight Theatre to watch off-Broadway productions under the stars. Once a summer is my goal, but going three times (or more is ideal). We capitalize on the half-price military seats and can get the whole family there for next to nothing.

Those are the easier parts of my list. The next part of my list requires a little travel. So once a summer we load the dog in the back of the rig and take a road trip. I must must must swim the Delaware River at least once a summer. Being 'Up-Camp' is a genetic mandate and one I am required to instill in my children. I am blessed to know my, second cousins twice removed or third cousins or something like that, since I have been a child. And it all because we have been swimming on the muddy bank of Oliver's every summer since we have been born.

Most ideal is to spend a few days on Cape Cod with my other cousins. Now that is a real vacation! The water is freezing cold and invigorating. In the evening we return to the cape house for a New England feast while we watch the sun melt into the bay. I am not sure if we will be able to make that happen this summer, but I really would like to try.

Summer officially arrived yesterday complete with 95F temperatures and the first heat warning of the season. I am far from a fan of excessive heat,  but our crop share started last week so I am happy and culinarily inspired. I love to cook and even though I live in suburbia now (sigh~)  I work hard to be a locavore. As a child we grew everything we ate, so it seems sort of amusing to me that there is a fancy work  for what it was we did simply out of necessity/poverty. 

Last night we had an outstanding dinner. It was simple and delicious. Coupled with a glass of red wine, my husband and I, along with our children, enjoyed dinner on the back deck. To me, that is summer! That is also family!

The simplicity and deliciousness of last nights meal had my brain twirling with the anticipation of all the luscious tastes of summer - fresh herbs and new potatoes with their soft, tender skins; fresh corn grilled with a squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of curry - a much welcomed deviation from the traditional butter and salt in our multi-ethnic home. Fresh berries. Abba pizza with asparagus from our front yard and tomatoes from the back. Tender kohlrabi sauteed in olive oil and salt. Yum!

Even though I should have my menu for the week completed on Sunday, I spent last night poring over recipes for Shabbat that would pay homage to the change of season and the new vegetable availing themselves to us. Immediately I found my tattered copy of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and got inspiration from her writing and family recipes. I tried to figure out how to incorporate Asian Vegetable Rolls, homemade mozzarella, zucchini orzo, and whether our family would prefer the Spring or Summer version of the potato salad. Making the final cut were the Spring potato salad and the zucchini orzo. We are still looking for guests, so stop by if you want a taste.

With those decisions made I realized Friday is also my little boy's 4-month birthday. Silly I know, especially since he doesn't even have teeth, but the rest of us like good food and any reason to celebrate. Then I realized Father's Day is coming up. Our family does not really 'do' Mother's Day or Father's Day, but it made me think about making something special for my husband. He has once weakness - that being cookies. I made these for him a few months ago and I believe he called them decadent. They take a little time, but it all seems worth it for the one you love.

So here you have my stream of consciousness. My thoughts and my writing wind all over the place - from it being summer to eating local to family recipes and I am here with a seemingly "Winter" recipe - Melting Lace Cookies and all the ingredients are purchased from the store - oh well. They are delicious. And they are a family favorite, made for me as a child by my cousin Joanie. So while my husbands not looking I hope to make a small batch of these for him. I will be sure that dinner includes fresh, seasonal produce from our crop share.

Yummy Melting Lace Cookies

1/2 Cup butter or margarine

1 Cup quick cooking oats (not instant)

1/2 Cup light brown sugar

1/3 Cup flour

2 Tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips - melted

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- In medium sauce pan melt butter/margarine

- Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients (except chocolate)

- Drop batter by level teaspoons, 2 inches apart, onto greased cookie sheets.

- Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until lightly browned.

- Remove from oven and let stand for one minute, then quickly remove to flat surface to cool.

- Melt chocolate (use microwave or over a pot of boiling water like a "double boiler")

- With a small knife or spatula spread the back of one cookie with chocolate and sandwich it with another cookie.

- Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. (They may also be frozen.)

Serve to the ones you love~

Summer Underway!

Returning back to a full time career with an infant has its challenges. But I love my little (okay not so little) family. We prevail and can pull through most anything. Our most recent accomplishment: our first road trip of the summer!

Each year my work has a national week long summit, but this year, due to funding not all of us were slatted to go. I was one of the ones who initially was not funded. I was elated (but I tried not to let it show)!!

Needless to say, they found money for us to get to the meeting, but by that time there were no rooms left in the hotel. I was told I only had to be at a four-hour mandatory meeting. Fine I thought - I will fly in at 6am and fly home at 9pm. I wouldn't need a hotel room. It will be a long day, but when isn't it? I will be home for the baby that night.

Another very short plan for when I got on the next teleconference I was told there would be another meeting, time and date still to be determined, that I would need to attend sometime during the week. My heart sank. I quickly looked at how to fly with baby Yair and find a day care service that could watch him during the day at a different hotel from the one where my meetings were being held. The logistics started to become overwhelming. I wanted just to stick my head in the sand. I came home from work that day nearly in tears.

As a strong woman, I can usually handle situations like this without it be the end of the world, but today was not one of those days. Then my dear husband, a true knight in shining armor, proclaimed that he would pack up the whole family and they would come with me - ROAD TRIP! Dallas here we come!

In no way did that eliminate the logistics, it simply changed them, but it seemed so much more doable since we were doing it together. The details all fell into place beautifully - we even got to share a most beautiful Shabbat with our dear friends from Alaska who now live in Austin. The kids were able to kick off the summer with a solid 4 hours of swimming in an outdoor pool (something not yet possible in Kansas City). We sampled every kosher restaurant in Dallas and even got to feed the giraffes at the Zoo.

So in the end, my week-long meeting was a blessing in disguise. We got to start our summer several weeks earlier than we would have. Next, I will project movies on the side of the house for our first "drive-in" of the summer.

...and maybe, just maybe, I will get some pictures posted.

It has been a rainy, cold Passover, but we have not let that stop us.

We had a fabulous Seder with our friends on the first night and got to meet another great (incidentally home-schooled) family also with five children. All the kids came with their question and insights. Several devarim were shared by the children. Not to kvell, but we definitely had a room full of "wise" children. The night was really just too short.

On the second night we opened our doors for the "Horesh Heymish Seder."

In typical fashion we had a rough head count for somewhere between 25-35 people. Like our Chupah, our home is opened on all sides, and my husband takes that seriously. Having the twinge of OCD that I do, I was worried we would be short on food or wine or chairs or even floor space, but we were not. The night ended with the fridge stacked with left overs, wine aplenty to spill on the pillows and floors, and neighbors who shared folding chairs with us at the last minute.

We have been enjoying Chol HaMoed immensely; today with a movie and Sunday with a visit to the Arabian Horse show. 

Tonight is lovely Shabbat. Another set of dear friends will join us. Hopefully the weather will accommodate for their walk home. If not, we always have guest beds.

May we all know freedom,
Dana 

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Would you like a little relish with that?

Passover is definitely in the air when you wake up as tired as I did this morning. Who knew extricating the chametz from your life could make one so exhausted? I set out to get rid of the wheat, oats, barley, spelt, and rye and suddenly find myself painting the family room walls and rearranging bunk beds. Spending the day in the office is a welcomed break…until I go home and do it all again.

Our house is almost clean….well, in theory. True deep cleaning always makes your house look worse before it actually looks better. I keep telling myself we are going in the right direction. I do know two large pick-ups of donations have already happened and we have our third and final pick-up scheduled to occur this Friday. There is nothing more cathartic than having ‘the stuff’ leave the property!

Meanwhile the fridge is bare! We have had a blast eating condiments on everything – no questions asked! You want relish on your spaghetti – go for it! Just finish the relish, please. Sadly the ketchup was the first condiment to be finished and so now the kids have had to get a bit more daring with their pallets.

Our little kehilla is certainly not the first to get the house flipped. I secretly admire those of you who have been cooking for a week, but we like to milk it out to the very end and be good and exhausted for the Seder just like we were in Egypt. On Monday night as we sit down to retell the story, I can rest assured the medicine cabinet is neatly labeled and organized and the garage is clean and can actually fit a vehicle in there. The clothes the children have outgrown have all gone to good homes and the board games all have their appropriate pieces. Phew, because that was weighing heavily on my mind! And with all the clutter cleaned from my closets and monkey chatter deleted from work, I will be able to focus on that which is truly important – my family and our freedom.

In case I do not find the time to blog again, Chag Pesach Kasher vi-Sameach!

Dana

P.S...hopefully pictures will follow. We will see.

Unessential

There is something that just hits you like a punch in the stomach when you get a form email from your employer that you are considered to be unessential. I always thought I was immune from this, having chosen to serve my country 24/7 for 20+ years, sacrificing time from my family, deployed over holidays. So just after midnight tonight  I may be furloughed. Without television or radio, I will not know. Thankfully the children will be tucked under their blankets and we will have just finished Shabbat dinner, which tonight for dessert will be a specially requested, very delicious tiramisu....yum!!! We have made the menu milchig solely to accommodate this luscious dessert.

The most beautiful part of last night was when my husband posted for all the facebook world to read, "My wife has been declared unessential. Boy are they WRONG!" He sure knows how to make a girl's heart melt. And that is when I realized, who cares if the machine on the hill thinks I am unessential because to my husband and the five little ones under this roof - I am essential! So tonight at the Shabbat table, with the candles flickering, I will remember how blessed I really am, and perhaps this little furlough will give me a few more days to spend with baby Yair to whom I am truly essential.

Shabbat Shalom!

The little y of our DIERY

Our newest precious babe was born 12 weeks ago. He is the little "y" of our DIERY - Yair. Waiting at home were big D- Divya, I-Ilan, E-EliNoam, and R-Raviv. It is hard to imagine our family before his arrival.