Plant Kingdom

By Abbie Rose.

Her favorite bench for sitting.

Love the perspective...

Toes!!

Can you see me?

A good way to spend an hour. Not my favorite greenhouse to visit and we only came home with a few things, but we had a nice time anyway :)

Kyle's breakfast

Shortcake with strawberries and L.F. dry ice ice cream. I was going to post some about the awesome weather we have been having, but I loaded hay with Zara for the goatgirls. Then we went to town to get some new summer clothes (darn weedy kids!) So I didn't take any good pictures of outdoor fun or pretty flowers. Supposed to be nice tomorrow too, so we will see then.......

14 cents

And a toll bridge token, Liam says. They boys thought it would be fun to prospect at the playground at the grade school. Evidently this is not a very lucrative place, but it is defiantly a place to wear you shoes!

You can't tell from them, but it was an awesome and warm night! Rose and I had on shorts and t-shirts. First stop when we got home was the freezer for a Popsicle :)

That's cool

Ever wanted to make ice cream in a hurry? I saw a video on Martha Stewart months ago where a guest chef made ice cream with dry ice! I thought that would be a perfect last project to do in Rose's class. I decided we would have to do a 'dry' run at home first. It is pretty simple, you make the custard (milk, eggs, sugar and flavor) put it in the stand mixer, smash up about 2 cups of dry ice as fine as you can and start mixing it into the custard. It will bubble and fizz while freezing in about 5 minutes!

Oh, yes and it looks like the mixer is on fire! These shots don't show when it is really subliming, but the kiddos were suitably impressed.

I did some simple experiments too, putting a chunk in a bowl of water so the vapor boils out all around, making smoking bubbles with dish soap and water, and blowing up a balloon (it was over the mouth of a bottle).

All finished! It was a little strange and carbonated at first but now it just tastes like fluffy vanilla ice cream. Another reason to make the ice cream the kids are going to eat is to make SURE there are no more chunks of dry ice hanging around.

Frosty!

Chena lakes

Today I went with Rose's grade to Chena Lakes to release the salmon they have been studying for most of this school year. It was an absolutely beautiful day...the first really warm day of spring and it was green-up! We spent most of the morning there, myself and the autism aide had six girls to be in charge of while we rotated through playing at the playground, walking on the bike path, exploring the beach, doing a scavenger hunt, and listening to a presentation about the salmon.


It was so nice, we stayed after the classes left for about an hour so AR could play with another friend and enjoy the day!

Spring

Our first outdoor pizza bash of the season!

Just a few more

When I looked for more great photos to put up here, I mostly found more food!

Whoosh

Thanks for the lovely complements on the new blog look! Kyle set the old one and as I am the one usually posting, I figured it was time for a change.



I was going to make another long post about the big birthday bash, but I have a cold. And I was busy all day. And I want to drink cocoa instead :) So, just a teaser for you, Not sure he will like this one, but I do! More another day......

Kyle's Birthday Bash (the food post)

Kyle picked for his Birthday dinner duck roasted in the big oven. Because we fired the outside oven we had to have some flat breads for a snack first thing out. Then the brined ducks went in to bake along with some ciabatta style bread. By then all the fam came over with more good things to eat...on the final menu: duck, bread, salad, veggies, Italian bean and pasta, roasted cauliflower, pasta salad and pickled beets and green beans. All very good!!! I quartered the duck and trimmed it well, so it was not too greasy. Just crisp and juicy!

Duck prep...

EVOO Romano cheese and pepper bread to stave off death.

The full-on spread!
He also chose a giant lemon layer cake (from Cooks Illustrated) for dessert. It was very good, I think I didn't use as much lemon curd between the layers as was called for. But I am thinking that was OK, otherwise it might have been too tart. The cake part was very good and might become my go-to plain cake (it might be one for you too, Amy. Not quite a white cake, too much butter! But it is tender with a very nice crumb.....now if I could just get over how much butter was involved.)

Love that seven minute frosting so pretty and soft! Not the perfect slice but I couldn't resist showing you the inside :)

May 2007

Risse

Besides Kyle's birthday, I went with Rose class on a field trip. We went to Risse's Greenhouse. A great place to go in the spring! The kids (and us grownups) got a tour of all the houses, a look at the dirt making operation, and a chance to plant some seeds in the food bank garden.

Totally distracted by her classmate.

A tiny garden in the seed starting house.

Fun sunflower faces in the kids garden.

My favorite flower!
The day was partly cloudy and breezy but still spring-ish...the next morning we woke up to a dusting of snow! Unfortunately Rose has also caught a bad cold/flu that has been going around her school. She is mostly flat out today, her cough seems better tonight though so maybe she will be on the mend tomorrow. I also managed to chop my finger last night. I very stupidly stuck it in the blender to move around some bread crumbs while making Kyle's birthday dinner. DUH! I don't know what I was thinking....at least it is only cut and bruised and not a bloody stump!

Happy Birthday to Kyle

Birthday dinner of chicken parmigiana before going to work (with a blueberry crumb cake to share)!

Fruity

The fruit tray I made to take to Kyle's coworkers retirement dinner at site. The tofu pie we make frequently makes a really good fruit dip if you use softer tofu. A hit!