A Mexico Wedding

A couple of weekends ago, Conservative Hubby and I said sayonara to the ridiculously hot temperatures in Illinois for a little getaway in Mexico.

 No, really, August in Mexico was cooler than Illinois. I kid you not.

We spent a long weekend at a little boutique all-inclusive resort called The Beloved Hotel to celebrate a very special event: the marriage one of my best friends to her honey.

The customer service at the resort was terrible. They greeted us with champagne the moment we walked in the door. A cerveza materialized in Conservative Hubby's hands as if by magic whenever he needed one. Every employee greeted us with a smile and a hello.

The setting was questionable, to say the least. Views of the ocean, multiple pools, and palm trees galore? Ridiculous.

And our room was a real dump, as you can see from the photos. I mean, seriously. Who did they think they were fooling with the giant multi-head shower, the mini bar that wasn't so mini, and the jacuzzi tub overlooking the resort?

Oh yeah, that's right. Me. And Conservative Hubby. And probably every other guest staying there.

 

The location was fabulous. The time spent with friends by the pool and at the beach was fun. The food was delicious.

 And the wedding? Beautiful.

Hooray to the happy couple!

P.S. I survived the long weekend away from the little man. Can you believe it? It was hard, but I knew he was in good hands with all of his grandparents ... in fact, perhaps in too good of hands. We came home to discover he'd gained a whole pound and figured out how to sleep through the night ... finally!

88 Southern Illinois Peaches

If you give a family 88 Southern Illinois peaches, they are going to want to eat most of them fresh from the counter, sliced, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, too.

Some they will not even bother slicing; instead, they will eat them standing directly over the sink, letting the juice run down their hands.

They will cut up some of these peaches into small pieces, so the littlest member of the family can nibble on them, too.

If you give a family 88 Southern Illinois peaches, they are going to want to puree many of them, so the littlest member of the family can enjoy them for meal after meal, plain or mixed into oatmeal or paired with plums or other fruits that are almost (but not quite) as tasty as the fresh peaches.

They will blanch and slice these peaches, then toss them with lemon juice and a light sugar syrup so they can freeze bag after bag of them for use when peach season is but a hazy memory. Some of these bags of frozen peaches they will share with friends, because it's no fun keeping all the juiciness to yourself.

If you give a family 88 Southern Illinois peaches, they will have roasted pork chops and peaches as a main dish and a wonderful peach cobbler for dessert.

(Although technically the peach cobbler will not be made from the 88 peaches, as it will come from Not-So-Conservative Grandmom. So technically, the family will consume more than 88 Southern Illinois peaches before all is said and done.)

They will re-create the peach and prosciutto pizza from The Harvest Cafe in Delavan, and then wish they had time to re-create it again.

Then because they are going on vacation and there are still peaches on the counter, they will again blanch and slice the peaches, toss these with lemon juice and light sugar syrup, and begin counting down the days until they have an excuse to take a bag of frozen sweetness from the freezer to puree or baked into a pie or whatever else they might choose to do with what remains of those 88 Southern Illinois peaches.

Little Man's First Hair Cut

Last weekend, Little Man took a trip downtown with me for a big event: His first hair cut.

His locks weren't ridiculously unruly or overtaking his head, because he happens to be (cursed? blessed? I'm not sure) with very fine hair like mine. But his hair was getting long enough to hang over his ears and look a little ragged in the back, so we decided it was time for a bit of a trim.

Fortunately, Conservative Mom (who I almost called Conservative Grandmom just now because I've gotten so used to referring to her as Grandmom the last 8 months) was there to help keep little wiggle worm in place so I could snap some photos (that's her arm you keep seeing).

As you can see, Little Man thought the hair cut was a lot of fun, though he was a bit puzzled by what was going on behind his head and kept trying to look.

He handled getting shots and getting his hair cut so well, I can only hope he handles future procedures—like his first dentist appointment or whatever else may come up—as well.

Fennel

Fennel is something I've had before in meals but haven't ever really cooked with. So at first, when I brought home a couple of fennel bulbs from my weekly CSA pickup, I was a bit puzzled as to what to do.

Fortunately, our CSA cookbook included a super easy suggestion: Roast slices of the fennel with potatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Uh, OK. I can handle that.

The fennel added a nice touch of flavor—something a bit different from the usual roasted potatoes. I'd make it again.

(Because I so often say a recipe is worth having again or end my posts with some really eloquent comment like "yummy," you may be wondering if I ever don't like what I make, The answer is a resounding yes. I just don't post the failures too often. Maybe it's because I don't have time. Or maybe it's because I know they're failures before I even eat them, so I don't even bother snapping photos. Trust me, there are lots of duds or so-so recipes. Just ask Conservative Hubby.)

Amaranth

In today's edition of "What Did Julie Make?", our guest is amaranth.

I very likely have eaten amaranth before in salads or dishes I've had at restaurants, but I can't say I've ever purchased or made anything with it myself.

So at first, I simply tossed some of the leaves in our salad (which means, yes, Conservative Hubby, you too have now had amaranth).

The rest I sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and zucchini and had it for lunch when Conservative Hubby wasn't around.

It was nice and green and delicious. I actually regretted that I only made one serving's worth before I ran out of zucchini and amaranth.

CSA Fixings

I am woefully behind on posting about food, which I'm sure has you all in a lather.

Just calm down already.

Here is the first of a few snapshots of what I've made with some of my weekly CSA loot. This ought to satisfy you for a while, right?

This is beet barley salad with feta.

I've never known what to do with beets, except hand them off to a Lithuanian woman in our office who takes them home to make a creamy, cold beet soup.

I intended to use the beets this year to make baby food, but I have something I can't bear to keep to myself anymore. So I'll fess up: So far, beets are the one food I have skipped exposing the little man to.

For one very important reason.

I do not want to clean up beet stains from our carpet, our couch, our clothes. And if you feed The Spit-Up King beets, you will be cleaning up beet stains. Lots of them.

So instead I decided to try out the beet barley salad with feta. And it was a pretty darn tasty combination.


I would've made it again, except I ran out of time and ended up handing off the rest of my beets to my coworker again. Someone needs to enjoy them if I don't have time to use them!

Boating with Baby

The little man took his first boat ride while we were in Georgia for the 4th of July holiday. His Mimi and Papa hooked him up with a perfectly sized life jacket, so he was ready to set sail for a slow cruise on the pontoon boat.

He was teething at the time so hadn't been in the best humor most of the day, but boating was such a different experience he forgot to fuss and sat quietly, taking in the wind and the water and looking a bit confused about what the heck was going on.

We stopped at the Waterside Cafe at My Parent's golf club for shrimp and oysters on the patio, then headed home just before dark. And guess who fell asleep on the ride home?

A Low-Country Boil

We celebrated the 4th of July in Georgia in true southern style: with a low-country boil at P-Diddy and Lovely Miss L's house on the lake.

Lovely Miss L's niece and her husband and daughter were visiting from Savannah, and her niece's husband took the lead on cooking one fabulous shrimp boil.

It was hot, hot, hot when it came time to cook, but since the chef had just gotten out of the water, he managed to survive. (Note Conservative Hubby closely observing his technique, in case he has the opportunity to create a Northern version of the boil some day in the future.)

Once the ingredients were ready, they were served up outside in a big tub, along with plates, plenty of paper towels, and not much else. I guess this type of thing is often served by dumping all the ingredients out on the table, but this time we were nice and civilized and kept everything in the tub for easy serving.

Along with the shrimp, we had two kinds of sausage (one spicy and seriously delicious), potatoes, onions, and corn.

It was hot and flavorful and the perfect summer holiday meal. I may or may not have gone back for seconds. And thirds. And then a few extra pieces of shrimp and sausage. Shhh. Don't tell.

Lake Baby

Hey, guys. Collin here, checking in for my first official blog post.

I think you all need to come down and join me at the lake. It's fabulous down here. I've been spending lots of time in the swimming pool, pulling myself up to standing (in the bath tub!), mastering downward dog, and eating tons of fresh Georgia peaches.

So, you know, it's busy busy busy. But I've also made some time to relax in my lounge chair and entertain all of my grandparents with stories. They love my stories. If you come down and play with me, I'm sure you'll love my stories, too.

Paddle Boarding

Shortly after My Parents moved to Georgia, the girls in his life purchased My Dad an inflatable paddle board as a gift. It's a pretty darn cool contraption, because not only does it work as a paddle board, it also has seats that can be attached to it so it can be used as a kayak.

It gets plenty of use in both configurations on the lake. When I spent some time at the lake in January, I took the kayak out for a brief spin, but the weather wasn't really the best for spending much time out on the water.

So this trip, I'm excited to report that I finally paddle boarded for the first time.

It was only a quick spin to the end of the cove and back. But now that I have the feel of the board under me, I'm ready to go every day. I need to practice up so I can impress My Sister with my mad paddle boarding skills when she gets here in a few days.

I'm also looking forward to getting Conservative Hubby out on it, as I think he'll really enjoy it, too.

Kohlrabi

Last year was the first time I ever tried kohlrabi. I had no idea what to do with it, but was fortunate that the week it first appeared in my CSA delivery, My Sister was visiting. She, of course, was familiar with the curious cabbage cultivar.

So we sliced it up and ate it raw. It was a nice addition to salads, too.

This year, however, I decided to try something else with my weekly kohlrabi delivery. So I sliced it up, tossed it with a few cloves of freshly minced garlic, a nice drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. I roasted it until soft and served it sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

I intended to eat half of it and save the rest for a future meal. I ended up eating it all, standing over the pan, fork in hand.

And then I repeated the same scenario the next week.

Roasted kohlrabi is really, really good. With the garlic, it has a great flavor, but it's a very mild veggie. I think it's a great substitute for potatoes, actually, at any meal.

Please try it. I think you'll like it.

(This message was not paid for by the Friends of Kohlrabi Committee. I doubt such a committee exists, but just in case it does, please know they did not compensate me, in cash or cabbage cultivars.)

Strawberries

The patch of strawberries I planted a few years ago hasn't ever yielded much of a harvest for me. This year, early on, when others were talking about how many strawberries they had, my little patch was doing a whole lot of nothing aside from sending out new shoots and leaves.

But then in the last couple of weeks, the strawberries started to appear.

Almost every night, I'd pick a handful (albeit a small handful) of strawberries.

Many I enjoyed fresh, standing over the sink munching on them. Others made their way into my morning bowl of oatmeal.

Any produce fresh from the garden is hard to beat, but strawberries may be up there near the top of the list.

Though let's be honest. Nothing will ever beat the wonder that is a fresh-picked tomato.

A Backyard Swing

If you can't find me, I suggest you check the backyard.

If the dishes are done and the baby food is made and the laundry is folded and there aren't any chores that require immediate attention, I'm probably right here.

Then again, even if there are chores to be done, I might be here.

Garlic Scapes

Getting our CSA delivery every week is a bit of an adventure. There's the usual variety of produce you'd expect to get this time of year in central Illinois, of course.

But there's often an item or two that I've never tried before—and, as was the case with the husk cherries from last year, sometimes that I've never even heard of before.

A few weeks ago, our weekly allotment included garlic scapes. Sure, I've used and am a big fan of garlic. But garlic scapes? That was a new one for me.

The scape is the curling top of the garlic plant that shoots up from the ground while the garlic is busy growing below. Cutting the scape off helps the garlic keep growing—and it just so happens that it's edible, too.

I've learned you can do all sorts of things with the shoots. Saute them, for instance. Or chop them up and add them to just about any savory dish you're making.

I tried making garlic scape pesto with mine. It has a nice, light garlic flavor. Not as yummy as my old favorite basil pesto, but it's pretty darn good nonetheless.

The Nursery

I realized the other day that although I gave you glimpses of the animals, the mobile, the handmade artwork, the growth chart, and a few other details of Collin's bedroom, I never actually showed you how the whole thing came together.

This is the reading, nursing, rocking corner. It's one of my favorite places to spend time with the little guy.

Here's the growth chart again, along with the adorable little lion chair Collin's Mimi and Papa gave him.

We kept a full-size bed in the room since we had the space. It's home to a menagerie of stuffed animals and a lovely handmade quilt from our across-the-street neighbor. It came in particularly handy early on, when Collin was sleeping in his bassinet and waking up so frequently I had the pleasure of sleeping in the nursery, too.

The changing table was a steal—$50 from a friend of a friend on Facebook, then I added new hardware. And the lamp on the table? It's a handy one that dims low enough to serve as Collin's night light, and best of all it actually came from Conservative Hubby's nursery when he was a baby!

Then of course there's the crib and the mobile, which Collin has only recently decided is fascinating to watch.

My Mom and I were talking the other day about how if we ever moved to a new house, we'd have to re-create this room (yellow paint and all) because it's such a happy, peaceful place to be.