This pokey old iBook that I’m working on now (see Water Incident in this post for explanation) doesn’t have iPhoto–or any other photo program for that matter–so I can’t get the many photos off my camera to share with you. Or if there is a way to do it, I don’t know how. It’s gonna be dull, pictureless posts around here for a while, because we can’t afford to replace the dead Powerbook just yet. (The photos that I posted in the previous two posts were already in my gmail before the Water Incident.)
The photos you aren’t seeing:
1. Thumper’s fourth birthday party. 18 kids and 16 adults. In our house. Yeah. We’d planned to spill out into the backyard, and then there would have been plenty of room. So of course it rained. Yay Portland. Let’s hear it for the spring that never was. (We skipped spring but now we’ve got nice summer weather so all is forgiven.) Housebound though we were, the party was great. The kids had fun. The adults had fun. It felt crowded, but not unpleasantly so. Festive crowded. We covered a wall in the hallway with paper and let the kids go at it with markers and crayons and glue-on googley eyes and now we’ve got a fantastic mural that you can’t see until I can get the photos off the stupid camera.
I was afraid we were nuts to have invited his whole class plus a few non-school friends once I realized that almost all the parents planned to bring siblings as well as the invited kids. We invited something like 11 kids and got 18. But there were enough cupcakes for everyone and I don’t remember anyone crying or bleeding, so let’s call it a success.
2. The garden. We have way too many snow peas and snap peas. Way too many. We’re seriously sick of them, which I didn’t think would be possible. We’re giving them away to all the neighbors and we’ll still have too many. Anyone know if they freeze well?
Finally. FINALLY. After three years of attempting to grow spinach, we got a glorious spinach crop this spring. I’m sure I’ve got the stupidly wet and cool weather to thank for that. Now that the warm weather is here, it was threatening to bolt. I pulled all of it and now I’ve got a HUGE bunch of spinach that needs to be used up fast. Tonight, pea and saffron risotto with a spinach salad. Tomorrow, spinach fritatta. Sunday, sauteed spinach. With snow peas.
3. The kids. Ladybug is growing like crazy, in the way that babies do. Thumper is a big, gorgeous four-year-old who desperately needs a haircut.
And…speaking of kids… gotta go. Have a great weekend. I think we’re going strawberry picking tomorrow, so there are some more photos you won’t see for a while. It’s gonna be FUN around here.
Yeah, snap peas and snow peas freeze well– at least, my mom always froze them, but she also cooks all vegetables into mush, since that’s how my dad will eat vegetables, so it’s kind of hard to tell the foodie-grade quality.
They both freeze amazingly well (not a lot of moisture to make them mushy when defrosted). I usually use the frozen ones in a quick veggie stir fry – yummy!! They’re not quite as delectable as fresh ones, but in the middle of winter it’s like a taste of spring. We won’t have any to freeze because my kids keep eating them off of the vine.
this is unrelated to peas (which both freeze well; you just blanch them, drain and freeze), but related to a long ago post that had a picture of your lovey duds wrap in it…
Do you have the bamboo wrap? If so, does it pack small? Is it breathable or do you sweat like nobody’s business? Is it overly stretchy? (My moby wrap, which I LOVE, is a little bulkier than i can cram into the diaper bag and I sweat like no tomorrow now that the sun is out in stumptown. I tried a gypsy mama water wrap, but it’s way too stretchy)
(apologies for the comment hijack.)
I hate snow peas frozen. They turn to tasteless mush, even in a stir-fry, in my opinion. But regular peas freeze really well.
Yay for growing spinach and growing kids!
Any birthday party with no bleeding and no crying is a resounding success!
Even at an all adult party, no crying = success! We’ve had great luck bastardizing pesto – spinach, feta, walnuts, etc and it freezes well so you might want to experiment with that.
Yes, definitely freeze the peas! Blanch in salted boiling water and then shock them in ice water. Dry them well and if you have the space, spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer. Once they are frozen you can scrape them into a big ziploc bag. Otherwise you’ll have a solid mass of peas in a bag.
Hope your picture problem is solved soon!
this made me laugh a little. we had a similar experience with ben’s fourth. invited his whole class expecting only some would come. not only did they all come, but siblings came, too. a lesson learned. we had 24 kids or something insane like that. but it was great and memorable, just as it sounds your boy’s was, too. that mural sounds amazing.
What a great update – it sounds like it’s all about bountiful over there. Kids, crops, all of it.
Have fun, y’all! (Sounds like you are)
xoxo
I may have a fix for your picture problem. Search the applications folder for something called “image capture.” It’s an uploading tool, as always no drivers needed on macs. I’m fairly sure it’s been a standard issue program since OSX’s inception.