After a morning of playing in the rain...
there is nothing better than an afternoon of baking...
followed by an evening of cooking in the fire:
Sigh. I love this time of year.
(I think this post would be even more romantic if it were snow instead of rain but the rainy season is winter here in sunny California. This is all we get. No need to feel bad for me, I'm from Minnesota originally so I've already had my lifetime quota of snow.)
(actually a banana tree would be cool, huh) But, oranges! I've never had an orange tree. Or any tree that produces anything. It is a bit overwhelming to suddenly have hundreds of ripe oranges waiting for you in your yard. Inspiring too. Yet another fruit tree got planted this same afternoon. We're adding to our edible collection slowly but surely.
Our orange tree is bursting with orange balls of juicy goodness. It grows next to our lemon tree and they must have cross pollinated because our oranges taste like oranges crossed with sweet but tart lemons. Delicious.
The whole family went to work, filling up a canvas bag in no time. The wee one was excited to go inside and learn how to "make" orange juice.
It takes quite a few oranges to make a proper pitcher of juice. My arm got tired. We all took turns.
It was the best orange juice any of us had ever tasted. And I'm not just saying that because my arm is still sore.
The next day, the wee one asked for some juice. We didn't have any in the fridge. He simply said, "We can make some from the tree! I know how!" Hard to resist that request. You bet we'll stomp out to our tree all hours of the day for him to have a glass. The oranges won't last forever (phew) but his memories of eating off our own land will. Totally worth it, sore arms and all.
Yes, that is my placenta. Or, rather, it is my son's placenta. And yes, some people will slice and dice this thing and eat it. Raw. Perhaps in a smoothie. Perhaps sauteed in a stir-fry.
And here I thought I was all hippie-crunchy for just wanting to bury my oldest's placenta under a tree three years ago. Nope, apparently I've spent the last three years getting even weirder. This time around I wanted to eat it. And I did.
Or more accurately, I still am eating it...since I have some pills left. No, no raw placenta injesting for me. I just couldn't do it this way. I don't really even like rare steak. I'm a well-done meat eater only and don't like my meat to resemble meat. It must be from those years of being vegetarian. No way was I going to eat that thing as is.
So I had it freeze dried and encapsulated. A midwife picked up my fresh placenta (that we stored in the fridge for a few hours before she arrived) and then dropped off a bottle of placenta pills a couple days later along with that dried up umbilical cord that she shaped into a heart. I'm not sure if that heart umbilical cord is beautiful or just weird. I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Do I keep this? Is this baby book fodder? Perhaps I should bury it. All I know is that she said to make sure I keep it away from dogs or cats because they'll turn it into a chew toy.
Anyway, these pills (Mr Woodmouse calls them my "placenta helper pills") are supposed to ward off postpartum depression. Do I notice a difference? You bet I do. About a half hour after popping a few things seem less cloudy. Placebo? Maybe. But who cares. If it works, it works and I didn't even have to eat the darn thing raw.
(and I'm now giggling that I get to put this in the "food stuff & cooking" category)
A storm? Well, we moved less than two weeks ago. We have a 3 week old baby. And a 3 year old toddler. We are living among towers of boxes. It is chaos.
However, every once in a while there is a calm moment. A still moment where I can see what our days will be like. I get snippets of what it will mean to be living in our own home and suddenly the clouds part and I can see the sunshine after the storm. It will come, this chaos is only temporary.
Our priority was getting the kitchen put together and we're almost there. Enough "put together" that today I could find things like mixing bowls and baking pans There was a rare calm moment when baby was sleeping so the boy and I made brownies.
Brownies made...in our new stove (!) which just arrived. Isn't she a big beauty? She promises me that cake mishaps like this will never happen again with her convection goodness. Actually, this stove was a splurge for my husband who actually does most of the real cooking. You also get a sneak peek of our kitchen. I love that retro floor we put in. Our kitchen makes me so happy right now.
And so do warm brownies fresh from the oven! By the way, don't be fooled by my brownie making skills and think that I do this sort of thing all the time whilst taking care of a toddler and newborn and moving all at the same time. This is a rare occurrence. So rare and I feel so damn proud of my brownie accomplishment that I decided to blog about it!
Yes, blogs allow such an edited view of life...I hate how they often make mamas look like superwomen. Who can really take care of a newborn with a handful of other kids while baking fresh bread daily, looking fashionable, sewing baby clothes and doing crafty projects all day long? Bullshit. In reality, let me tell you that before today I didn't have time to shower for oh, quite a few days. Nothing crafty has been done in weeks and the brownies were from a box. And I'm wearing maternity sweat pants. I swear.
A long, meandering way to say that I've been thinking a lot about authenticity and in how people represent themselves online. This includes how I present myself. And how to be real. More later, baby crying!!!
We spent the weekend in Oak Glen, CA where we picked raspberries to our hearts content, hung out in apple orchards and sampled fresh cider and apples all afternoon at various farms. I was really hoping to go into labor while in an apple orchard. Something very romantic sounding about that. Alas, nothing happening here. I sure got lots of funny comments all day though.
Oak Glen was one of the areas recently threatened by all the Southern California wildfires. In fact, just across the road from this area is burnt to a blackened crisp. I'm so thankful the orchards were unharmed. Handmade signs dotted the roadsides everywhere expressing thanks.
You'd think that in having our own apple tree
now we wouldn't be silly enough to buy apples, right? Um, no. After hanging out around the apple tasting bar below we came
home with two huge boxes. I can't resist a gravenstein. Or a bushel
of them. Or two.
Obsessed with not letting them go to waste, I've spent most of the last 24 hours making apple pie filling to freeze
(raspberry pie filling too for that matter), apple molasses muffins and
apple almond butter cookies to freeze. Next up are apple gorgonzola
turnovers to freeze.
I've become obsessed with filling my freezer for the coming weeks. If anyone has any great post-partum freezer meal ideas for me I'm all ears. As it is now, all I've got are sweets! Which isn't a bad thing, I've been on a uber-healthy no sugar/no simple carbs pregnancy diet for nine months now. I can't wait to crack into my freezer stash. Oh yeah, and I'm excited to meet the baby too. But sugar! Here I come!
Simple, real, whole foods! One of our family goals this season (we write a seasonal family manifesto that I'll share more about later) was to finally join a CSA - aka "Community Supported Agriculture" group. We have talked about it for so long that it felt like we were already doing it. Except we weren't. Until this spring!
Ice Cream! Ice cream is one of my favorite things in the world. I also love pretty vintage things. It recently dawned on me to combine the enjoyment of the two.
I always bookmark and have every intention of using recipes that other bloggers recommend. I never get around to it. Until now! This Broccoli/corn soup recipe posted by my happy little life here sounded just too easy and I happened to have everything on hand already.
