Elsa Belle Blue

We had our friends Ted and Bekah over for brunch yesterday as they'll be leaving town for a few weeks. We wanted a chance to visit with them and with their little one Elsa Belle Blue, and they seem to love breakfast food as much as I do. I made a frittata with mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, spinach and Swiss and made a fruit salad with cantaloupe, blueberries, mango, lime and ginger. They brought banana bread and doughnuts from the farmer's market. Yum!

Elsa is growing so fast. She enjoyed much of the solid food and made funny growling noises as she sat on Bekah's lap and when she felt like she wasn't getting her share of food. She also said "meow" immediately when she saw Kyma, says "moo" and "woof" and was pointing out all our "books." Very sweet.

Elsa loves Troy. She sat in his lap for a while and made monkey noises with him. He's a fun grown-up because he makes louder and more intense monkey noises than anyone else.

Look mom, I used the new place mats you got me for my birthday. Don't they look great with the Fiesta ware?
Troy and his new friend, looking serious despite all the monkeying around.

Garlic Harvest

We love garlic. And there is nothing like the fresh garlic you grow in your own garden. It has less of a bite and more of a flavor than the (old) stuff you typically find in the grocery store. I grew garlic when we lived in Eugene with great success. And now I am excited to say that I have grown it in Virginia. Not that I have any special skills--it seems that it's a pretty forgiving and resilient plant. I realized yesterday when I dug the bulbs up that the half of our garden in which the garlic is growing has become pure clay. I guess this is because the garden is on a slight hill and the good soil was washed by the rain to the other end (hopefully good news for my tomatoes). Despite being encrusted in tough clay the garlic survived. I had a hell of a time getting it out of the ground and broke a couple of cloves as I dug but finally ended up with a nice little crop. Here's a pic.

Magic Beans

All of a sudden the purple beans that I got from Southern Seed Exchange started thriving. Many were decimated early on by some unknown pest so I was surprised. I have never planted or eaten purple beans but they are beautiful and basically taste like green beans (which I love). Interestingly, they turn green when you cook them. I made a yummy dish for dinner last weekend with them, except that I used basil and garlic instead of parsley and capers (which I hate).

Purple beans with some green beans mixed in.

Paddling in MN

I love the peaceful motion of paddling a canoe. My dad started me and my sister camping pretty young and we even took a couple of trips to the Boundary Waters. For anyone who has never been, I would highly recommend it.

I didn't have time for much paddling when I was home but my dad rented an extra canoe for a day so that Troy, Laura, me and him could take a day trip through a series of rivers and lakes. It was just what we needed, really quiet and relaxing. Except for the few rapids and the low but fast-moving water which made it difficult to navigate around the rocks. We put a number of scrapes in that rented canoe and almost dumped over at one point! But it was fun. We stopped on an island to grill some brats, drink some beer and take a quick dip to beat the heat. It was really a perfect day.

Up at the Lake

Minnesotans love their lakes. With around 11,000 in the state there are many to choose from. I spent many hot summer days of my childhood "up at the lake." I still really love swimming and am bummed out at Virginia's lack of real lakes. I don't think any lakes in Virginia are natural and most are pretty warm, not too refreshing considering how hot it gets here.

My sister and I went up to my grandpa's lake house on the 5th with our friend Vanessa. My mom, grandpa, step-grandma were all there too as well as my aunt and uncle and their 3 kids. It was windy but the sun was warm so we enjoyed a picnic by the lake with beer and sangria courtesy of my aunt Barb. I stoked up the sauna and waited until it got good and hot because the water was really chilly. There's nothing better than taking a hot sauna and then "yumping in da lake!" I can't wait to try this out in Finland next month! I hear there is a sauna for every three people there. For those of you who may not know--I'll school you right now on pronunciation. It's sow-na, NOT saw-na!

Here are some fun pics from our day at the lake.

Here's the lake house.
And the crew hangin' on the dock.

Maddie, Val and Andy having fun in the water.

4th of July

I was really excited to be home in MN for the 4th of July this year. I grew up with a fun family tradition of going to McKinley, MN (a very small town that my mom grew up in) every year for the 4th. Despite hardly having a population anymore McKinley has continued an amazing tradition of having races each year to celebrate the holiday. Kids can win money if they do well in various races and then can go and buy candy with it. The races are hilarious to watch. There's the marshmallow throw for the little ones and other fun races like the egg toss, the 3-legged race and the egg and spoon race (holding a spoon in your mouth and balancing an egg on the end of it while running to the finish line). I was always good at the latter two but unfortunately missed entering them this year. Next time I should remember to bring running shoes instead of flip flops.

My mom's godmother still lives in McKinley and has graciously offered her garage for a noon-time feast on the 4th that has been going on as long as I can remember. There is typically a lot of fried chicken (soooo delicious this year, cooked by my mom!) as well as potato salad and all sorts other treats. I swear I ate 2 lbs of fried chicken this year because it had been so long since I had eaten it. Since Troy's appetite hasn't been very good I finished off what he couldn't eat because I hated to see it go to waste!

It was really fun to watch my little cousins have fun with the races. Here's Maddie watching the littler ones, Mahryn and Carina getting excited about the marshmallow toss.
The girls tossing their marshmallows.
Josh winding up...
Andy (in the middle/right) and a friend getting ready for the 3-legged race. Looking very serious about it.
Troy's family came to McKinley this year also, which was nice for us since it's hard to trying to negotiate time with everyone when you only get to see them once or twice a year. Here's a pic of us with Troy's brothers and sister-in-law Cassie.
The newcomers were impressed with this longstanding small town tradition. I think everyone really had a nice time. I was so happy to have made it home for this.

There were many other festivities going on over the 4th. We attended two street dances (or "street drunks" as many refer to them) and one big parade in Gilbert, MN that I wish I had pictures of. Gilbert was celebrating its centennial. Gilbert's mascot was the buccaneers and my aunt got me a hilarious beer cozy they were selling in celebration that says "Gilbert, MN 100 Buc-n years!" Love that Iron Range humor!

Belated Wedding Post

Our friends Mary and Jeff got married in the end of June on the grounds at Ash Lawn Highland, the former home of James Monroe.


We had a nice view of the ceremony. I used to think people who cried at weddings were sappy but now I count myself among them. This was a very sweet ceremony. Congratulations Jeff and Mary!

It was a really beautiful June wedding. Not too hot, and the food was good--as was the alcohol selection (Jeff got Knob Creek with Troy in mind)!

To be sure that nobody was driving home with too many free drinks in their system, 6 of us went in on a Wahooptie--an orange limo service. It speaks for itself. I stole this first pic from Shana's blog. Hope you don't mind Shana.