a {very} happy anniversary!

{via le love}

happy anniversary, andrew! i wouldn’t want to share this roller-coaster of life with anyone but you!

i carry your heart by e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

life is rad…

 

when you hang out at a playground at the beach…and get to watch the waves while you swing. ..and listen to free music by a cool stray cats-like band by the pier. we love summer.

fight kitchen illiteracy!

food and literacy…two of my favorite things!

two great articles about knowing your food:

kerry trueman’s at civil eats and tom laskawy’s at grist.org. most interesting to me was laskawy’s discussion of a recent study (albeit small) that convenience foods (i.e. processed) really only saved a family about 10 minutes. interesting, no?

via bitten.

and i can’t wait to see this…

things that delight me.

 

a week before the 4th of july moroccan party. love it! via nonchalant mom.

 

 

the surf lodge in montauk, new york. i soooo want to go there. (featured in coastal living)

peach sangria, also featured in coastal living.

these gorgeous weekend bags by rising tide fair trade, spotted in o magazine. beautiful, but best of all, good for “people and the planet”!

surfer house.

 

once featured in cottage living (r.i.p.), michael lee’s malibu bungalow was once again topic of discussion, this time in the june issue of coastal living. i love the laid back vibe of this house. don’t you?

all pics via unpretentious style (love that name!)

weaning.

{zucchini walnut muffins}

when i did my stay-at-home mom stint last year, j was all over my homemade, healthy muffins. then, when i went back to work, and convenience became a factor, we tried these out

suffice it to say, despite its lofty claims to health, they are most definitely not the healthiest muffins. the first ingredient is, yup, sugar. it wasn’t easy at first (and required me tricking j by putting my muffins in their package), but we are back on track. this recipe is adapted from a great cookbook i have called the petit appetit cookbook for babies and toddlers.

mini banana apple bran blueberry muffins

1 cup organic whole wheat flour

1/2 cup organic oat bran

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cup organic applesauce

1 mashed banana (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 organic eggs

1 cup blueberries

preheat oven to 375 F. grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 regular muffin cups.

with a fork, combine flour, bran, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl. melt butter in a saucepan over low heat or in a microwave for 25 seconds on high. in a large bowl, combine melted butter, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar, and eggs. mix together. add flour mixture to applesauce mixture and stir until just blended. batter will be lumpy ad very moist. fold in blueberries.

spoon batter into muffin cups. bake for 12 minutes (15-18 minutes for regular muffins). cool muffins for 5 minutes before turning out.

and if you are looking for recipes for your HUGE zucchini (like me), you can make zucchini muffins using this recipe, too. just substitute the banana and blueberries with a 1/2 cup grated zucchini. i also like to add 1/2 t. of nutmeg and 1/2 cup of walnuts.

menu.

so i totally flaked out on a couple recipes last week, so i’m trying them out this week. last thursday…i have no idea…i think i just got lazy, and on friday i had a mini freak-out session regarding our next court date (more on that later).

this week’s menu:

monday- grilled salmon and asparagus with balsamic butter, stuffed bell peppers (recipe to come later…i made it up)

(since i am posting this after this dinner, i have to tell you that this was the easiest and tastiest recipe, however, j was not a fan of any of it)

tuesday-frittata with peppers and potatoes, salad with goat cheese and vinaigrette

wednesday-grilled veggie wraps

thursday-homemade pizza

friday-anniversary dinner!

in my quest to expose j to various foods, here are some things he tried last week:

• he totally loved the spinach fettucini, but hated the veggies on it
• to my surprise he loved the stir-fried veggies (mostly the broccoli) and egg fried rice i made last week; he also loved the edamame i steamed for an appetizer

my pride and joy last week was the dessert i made up: vanilla bean ice cream with caramelized pineapples and bananas, topped with mango puree. that’s a mouthful to say, but it was soooo good.

caramelized pineapples and bananas

2 bananas

1 cup sliced pineapple

2 T. butter

2 T. muscovado sugar (this is an organic sugar my father brought back from the Phillipines, but you can use turbinado sugar, or just regular sugar if you like)

melt butter in a pan over medium heat. sprinkle some of the sugar evenly over the butter. add  fruit and cook over high heat until the sugar has caramelized and the bottom side is glazed. sprinkle with remaining sugar and turn over. cook until the second side is caramelized.

mango puree (from vegetarian cooking for everyone)

2 large ripe mangoes

1/2 cup fresh lime juice or orange juice

freshly grated nutmeg

peel the mangoes and slice off as much flesh from the seed as possible. puree it with the juice. add a little nutmeg to taste.

bits from our weekend.

scenes from our long weekend…

my favorite every time:

 

(j likes to stunt like his mom used to.) : )

 

all in all it was extremely relaxing and very fun. hope yours was wonderful too!

 

happy 4th!

 

my only claim to any celebrity was that for three years i was a parade announcer for the huntington beach 4th of july parade. ha! after three years i was so over it, so i happily relinquished my position to andrew, who loved it of course (being a middle child who lives on that kind of attention). : ) this year he lost his job, due to the economy. (no one gets paid, but there is the cost of set up). boo.

we are still attending, however, and are looking more forward to it than ever because this will be the first 4th we celebrate with j.

hope your 4th is fabulous!

i love a good buy.

i love fashion, but can i afford the “good stuff”? not really. i’m a teacher, remember? so let’s just say that i am not a snob when it comes to shopping. if i like it, and it’s affordable, and if i’ll use it, wear it, or eat it, i’ll buy it. yes, i have been curbing my spending, and trying very hard not to buy non-essentials, but it is sure hard to resist a good deal.

my go-to outfit in the summer is a dress. it’s light, non-restricting, and easy. when i headed into k*mart yesterday for detergent, i saw these:

 the dress was $9.99, and the jacket rang up for $5.40. could you walk away? i think not. now i have been trying very hard to incorporate some color into a largely black and neutral wardrobe, and this fit the bill. but i did buy the dress in black, too. i know, i know. i have been trying to buy more quality things that last longer, but i will wear the heck out of these this summer. believe me.

so i wore it to lunch today.

and i don’t regret it.

perfect summer dress for miami, no? wait, miami you ask? yes, today while lunching here (on some very good, very unhealthy food), they were filming dexter. but…no dexter morgan sightings, darn it. just a bunch of trucks.