ahh, those summer nigh-ights...

missing milton

still a whole month to go before lessons start again and someone is already really missing milton.

last lesson 'til august

last lesson of the season

today was the last riding lesson of the season. and although the day was beautiful, it was a little bit of a letdown. the teacher was late and the saddle room was locked, so we couldn't saddle up 'til after 9, which was when it was supposed to start. then, ten minutes into the 40-minute lesson, the teacher mounts an irish cob, saddled with one of those bareback "saddles," which is really just a fuzzy pad without stirrups. they set off through the barnyard and tinka, the irish cobb, shied and dumped the big ole teacher right off on the ground. she was wearing a helmet, but managed to totally over-dramatize her fall and refuse to move, crying back injury, sending her half-hysterical daughter running for the owner and a big crowd gathering, all while three little inexperienced lesson girls looked on in horror. 

so, instead of riding out on a little tour, they went back to the arena where the shaken daughter had them trot around a bit. they didn't even get to canter, which was quite disappointing to sabin who is getting pretty good at it. she only got about 20 minutes of her 40-minute lesson and was really quite disappointed in the end. 

oh, and just as we had suspected, the teacher was completely fine. she was just a drama queen. which i think was a pretty bad example for the kids. 

lessons start again aug. 1 and we're already looking forward to that.

fried hyldeblomst (elderflower)

fried hyldeblomst

3/4 C flour

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C milk

3 eggs

a dash of vanilla

mix together into a pancake-like batter

pluck hyldeblomst (elderflowers--i wonder if these aren't what we called chokecherries when i was a kid), shake off all bugs and any loose bits (but don't rinse, that wrecks them). heat up about an inch of oil a frying pan. when it's hot enough, hold the stem and dip the flower head in the batter. fry them in the oil 'til golden brown.  dust with powdered sugar and enjoy. we ate the flowery bits and left the stem, it makes a good handle for eating the flowery bits tho'. and it tastes of pure summer.

oh wow gazpacho

i invented a mean gazpacho last evening with bits & pieces we had around here. and it's the best thing for hot weather. you'll have to make everyone in your vicinity eat it too, because it's really garlicky, but worth it.

gazpacho

5-6 largish-tomatoes - peeled and cut into quarters

1 cucumber - peeled and cut into chunks

1 fat clove of garlic

whiz it all up in the blender with a good glug of white wine (yes, i put white wine in everything).

add:

2 TB of soy sauce (i have a great one from the Philippines that has lime in it too--Toyomansi it's called)

1 TB pomegranate sirup

3 TB good olive oil

you could include a red pepper and an onion if you'd like, but i didn't in this batch and it's really good. put it in a jar in the fridge to chill, tho' you could throw some ice cubes in when you blitz and if your tomatoes and cuke were cold,  you'd be good to go eating it right away. totally refreshing and delicious.

twice a week

today was sabin's first lesson in the 40-minute batch on sundays. it's a different teacher with a totally different style, far more focused on getting the kids ready to go to a horse show--there's one at the stables at the end of the month and sabin seems interested in entering a class where you they've laid out poles on the ground, jump-style and you have to follow the numbers in the correct order and ride through it at the trot. they practiced this today with quite a complex pattern and i think sabin just might be interested in giving it a whirl at the end of the month. i guess we'll need a hunt coat!

milton's tongue is hanging out

they've changed milton's saddle since we last rode and i do think it's a youth size, tho' i had no measuring instruments with me.  here's a shot of sabin holding it, if that helps a bit (she wasn't holding very still and my ISO was set too low, so it's a bit blurry).

sabin's doing very well. this group seems to be well-suited to her, tho' they've been riding for longer than she has. she just seems to be a natural. yesterday, when far asked about whether she could come another day, the teacher (same as today's teacher because sabin's regular one was sick) said she could come on sunday morning for 40 minutes or for 30, but she recommended 40, because she was too good for the 30-minute sessions. that made sabin do her little shy smile and that little snort she does when she's proud, but slightly embarrassed.

other kids are all scared and whining and falling off left and right and she just sits up straight and gives milton a kick and gets him out on the rail. she did manage to leave her gloves in the car yesterday and far is gone with the car, so she didn't have them today and missed them a lot. it's a bit hard on your hands holding the reins.

i am a failure...as a 1930s housewife

8 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

i wonder how grandma kate would have scored...

note to the cat

please do not bring a mouse into the house.

especially not if they are only stunned and/or pretending to be dead.

and then please refrain from giving the mouse a little encouragement with your paw, which causes it to run off behind a box where no one can get to it and then run outside yourself due to the high-pitched screams of the child. because that's not good and it takes far a long time to get home.

drifts of hail

climate change is definitely upon us. it's been windy and cloudy and blustery and rainy for two days after a glorious weekend last weekend, but this morning we awoke to this:

the terrace was covered in hail! i've never seen more than a couple of wussy little hailstones in this country, but this we could have shoveled.

it didn't seem to have damaged the garden tho', and the greenhouse is intact. so that's good.

this is a great rhubarb cake

made this a couple of weeks ago (we've got rhubarb coming out of our ears after acquiring a second plant from our neighbor) and have been meaning to post it for your eating pleasure.

rhubarb cake

1/2 C butter

1-1/2 C sugar (would advise 2C if you're using organic sugar)

2 eggs

1 C buttermilk* 

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2-1/2 C flour

3 C rhubarb, diced

mix together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add baking powder & salt to the flour, mix in, alternating with buttermilk. pour into a cake pan (9x13 is good).

here's where it get really good:

TOPPING: 

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C chopped walnuts or pecans

i left the nuts out of the topping b/c sabin doesn't like them--which mean we put just brown sugar on--it sinks into the dough a little ways and comes out fabulous!

go, make this cake NOW, NOW, NOW!

*i actually used sour buttermilk because that's the kind of thing i find lurking in my refrigerator--it was great!

what's for dinner

far's away and so we're eating things for dinner that far might not like all that much. things like carpaccio and a soft boiled egg with steamed asparagus spears dipped in it. and a little salad on the side, made of zucchini made into thin strips with a peeler and then stirred together with a bit of garlic golden rapeseed oil and a dash of balsamic and some garlic pepper, with just a few shavings of parmesan to match the parmesan on the carpaccio. it was the perfect light early summer meal.

i guess i've only got pictures of the asparagus and egg part. yummy.

Unfinished Projects, I Will Defeat You!

Disgusted with my inability to complete tasks that require multiple steps, I recently embarked on a quest to finish some projects. Shortly after turning my attention to these things, I got distracted by some phone calls I needed to make, a few meal preparations, several baseball games and some music that I needed to download. Then, I finally picked up this project I started late last year. Now keep in mind, I'm only half finished. This is going to be the inside and unexposed layer of a double-layer hat. And though I should be some sort of knitting expert by now, the hat looks like it was dragged to another continent in the bottom of a suitcase and wound up and tangled hopelessly in its own ball of yarn. Oh wait, it was.


I feel a sense of victory on this one, because it's the first time I've used two colors. The black yarn is a lucious undyed baby alpaca, almost too soft to work with. And this method of decreasing (or making the round part of the hat that closes up the top) is one I've never done before. I found it quite confusing, but am confident that the other side of this hat will look better. I'm going to knit in the same pattern, with the colors inversed. Now, if I need to figure out how to pick up the live stitches from my provisional cast-on.

When I'm finished, the edge won't curl up like a women's hat. And it'll be too big for Owen.

our latest riding lesson

where sabin canters all by herself, with just a little encouragement (for milton) from her new pink riding crop. she's really making progress! it won't be long 'til she's moved up to the hour-long lessons.

today's lesson

i wasn't so keen on milton. i don't like how he carries his tail. it's probably the half-arab thing. and he was a bit more of a spoiled lesson horse, at least on the saddling (pawing in a rather menacing way when the saddle came near) and mounting (he tried to bite me while she got on), but he was a bit zippier and more fun for sabin to actually ride and that's what matters.

so that was lesson 7.

our half-chaps were brilliant.

fresh strawberry lemonade

fresh strawberry lemonade

1 package of strawberries, hulled (i used 35-30 berries)

the juice of 2 lemons

the best part of a tray of ice cubes

1/2-1 C of sugar (depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

blitz it all up together in a blender.

pour into a pitcher.

add to it half a large bottle of sparkling water.

serve immediately. make more.

would make a mean margarita with tequila or a daiquiri with rum.

riding in the sunshine

today, sabin rode dizzy, a different horse than usual. she was a bit more spunky and less of a follower than our old trusted steed silver star. i'm really impressed with the lesson horses at this riding school. they're good, dependable, sweet, even-tempered horses that are well taken care of. but today, for the first time, someone started talking about having their own horse...we're on the slippery slope.

would someone please...

...get this child a modeling contract? it helps that the sunset light of spring is totally amazing...

beautiful day at møn's klint

sabin and i went to møn's klint today. it was sunny and just perfect (except for all the other people). it's better to go there on a nice day in january when no one else is there. but we still found plenty of stones to carry up all those stairs and home. and we even took a few down with us, just to take their picture (as irrelevant as that may seem). it did make us happy, so that's what matters, irrelevant or not...

here are some highlights:

the pooka with the D60 around her neck.

she's quite the budding photographer.

this is a little lizard that sabin made at school.

we thought he'd like to spend some time at the beach.

here are some of the stones we took down with us.

and these are the fossils from a previous trip

to møn's klint.

i sent them to canada

where they got these clothes made for them.

what a long trip they've been on.

* * *

we did more fun things that i'll share tomorrow.

gin & tonic sorbet

i was asked recently to express myself as a flavor of ice cream. i said that i would be a gin & tonic sorbet--grown-up, sophisticated, relaxing, refreshing and with a bit of sass. something you'd like to spend time with every day. plus, it's spring and in spring one's thoughts turn to cool drinks sipped in the sunshine.

gin & tonic sorbet

first, make a sugar syrup by bringing 3C water and 1C sugar to a boil.

allow the syrup to cool.

then stir together the following in small, flat dish that will fit in your freezer. i used a flat 1.5 inch tall by A4-sized tupperware container with a lid:

1 C of the sugar syrup

1 half liter bottle of schweppes indian tonic (do not be cheap about your tonic, only schweppes will do)

the juice of 2 limes

1/2 C of gin (i used g'vine, a posh french small batch gin)

i let mine freeze overnight, but it likely would have been ready sooner--the gin keeps it from freezing into ice cube-like consistency. then, you take a fork and rake it across until it's a lovely slushy consistency, put it in a glass with a slice of lime and serve in the sun.

it's heavenly. i promise.

berry trifle dessert

this was a big hit here this evening

1/2 liter of whipping cream
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 package frozen mixed berries (a small one is ok)
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 package meringue cookies

whip the cream until it's almost as you'd like it for whipped cream (but not too stiff), then add most of the can of sweetened condensed milk and whip it some more. i didn't add quite all of it. it whipped into soft, creamy peaks.

mix the berries together with the sugar and let them thaw (tho' they don't have to be totally thawed before you put it together).

crumble 3 small meringue cookies in the bottom of a tall glass (i used our latte glasses from ikea). add a large dollop of the cream mixture, then spoon in the berry mixture, followed by three more crumbled cookies and another dollop of cream. save a few berries for on top or use fresh berries.

would be great with any fruit...fresh strawberries, fresh peaches, blueberries. i used frozen berries b/c it was what we had on hand. they were still a bit frozen when we ate it and that was actually really yummy.

lesson 6 and we've movin' on up

sabin was invited to move to the next level at riding lessons today!  so next time, we'll go half an hour earlier and ride with those who've been riding a bit longer. she was really proud of herself, it was so sweet!

so this was her last lesson on silver star. next time she'll ride a zippy little arab called "milton"

another all-star performance...

at the dentist today...

she's a natural!

will someone please give us a normal child?

we went to the dentist today. and because we do entirely too much of this:

we needed two fillings. and one more on monday. oh, and the back baby molar on the upper right has to be pulled because it never actually came in the whole way and it's being blocked by the tooth in front and will never get loose and fall out on its own like it should. and once we got in to the two teeth that needed a filling, they decided the child needed a root canal while they were at it.  all of this took over an hour. (thank goodness this is all free 'til she's 18!)

and you know what the child said through her novocaine when we left?

"mom, that was fun. they're really nice."

can you believe it?

happy birthday to mom!

Happy thirty-fortieth birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear mom/grandma,

Happy birthday to you!!

games we play

1. 'member that one time?
2. 'member that one time we didn't...
3. what's the dumbest thing you've ever heard?
4. i see 4 things that are yellow...
5. a cow says quack quack...

man, regina totally gets us...

a horse is a horse of course of course

seen this morning in copenhagen

scene from the 2nd riding lesson

in motion at the second riding lesson

 still happy at the 3rd lesson

following directions

we tightened up our helmet right after this

form goes all to hell when chewing gum

had to saddle up ourselves at lesson 4

and then we rode out in the open for the first time

sabin and silver star

somebody got a haircut!

tired of battling rat's nests and small pesky creatures, sabin got a haircut last evening. we hope it helps. i did it and cut off a bit more than i had intended, but her hair is so thick and gorgeous, it really looks cute:

it seems to have lightened it up so much that it's curlier now than before we cut it.

working on a story

we're working on a story called the tree that had a human head. husband will make it up, i will write it down and illustrate it. tree with the human head played by sabin:

what are you working on these days?

green goddess

when i was warming up my leftover omelette today for lunch, i got a hankering for one of those delicious avocado shakes you can get in the philippines and singapore, so i decided to try to create one. and i succeeded beyond belief. this is one yummy way to intake avocado.

avocado shake

1 medium-large, ripe avocado (or 2 small ones) (i used two today because mine seemed small)

1 glug of plain yogurt (maybe a half a cup?)

1 cup of milk

3 tablespoons of sugar (i know it may sound wrong, but it's how they do it in the philippines)

8-10 ice cubes

put it in all in the blender and whiz it up into gorgeous green goodness. fill a tall glass and drink it. the above filled the glass you see in the photo 1 and a half times. it could have actually been lunch all by itself, but i drank it with my omelette, since it was kinda both breakfast and lunch.

highly recommended. and don't be afraid of the sugar, it doesn't really make it sweet, but it must wake up the flavors a bit. i know the one i had in singapore didn't have any yogurt, so you can also just use the milk and maybe add a few more ice cubes. i wanted mine more smoothie-like, so i used yogurt.