Happy Gardening Surprises and Too Much Time in the Car

Nick is getting better about eating finger foods. His Grandma bought him this nice bib with a pocket to catch all of the food that he drops. That has made feeding him less messy, although I'm sure waitresses curse us after we leave. It sure wastes less food, because we can just dump the pocket back onto the table when he's done, and there are his seconds. I believe here he was eating mushrooms, carrots, dumplings, hamburger, and french fries. His favorites were the mushrooms and fries.

This is how poor Nick spent most of his weekend; I believe it was something like 16 hours in the car from Friday through to tonight. We were in Gleason, Wisconsin, for Greg's Grandma's 95th Birthday. I'll talk more about my trip later this week. All I can say now is that it feels wonderful to be out of the car! Nick thinks so too. When we got home, he played happily (and gratefully) in the baby cage. I'm afraid he's going to flip out tomorrow when we put him back in the car seat.

I was surprised this week at what my garden actually managed to produce. Despite all of the Japanese beetles and the lack of attention I gave my garden, I still reaped at least a few rewards. I've got baby yellow squashies!

I think they're very cute, and I want to slice them up with olive oil and garlic later this week. I have to make sure I catch them before they get too big. It sure took long enough for them to start producing.

I was also impressed with the size of this monster zucchini. I needed something to use for scale, and, well, my foot was already there.

I am hoping that I can spend more time next year gardening. I want to double the size of my raised bed garden, and keep better track of the weeds.

I killed about twenty Japanese Beetles today; I hate those little suckers. They decimated my raspberry bush. I guess I'll have to add another task to my evening rituals: killing bugs.

Teeny Weeny Zucchini and a Huge Bag of Babyproofing Supplies

Now that Nick is crawling, my life has become one long series of "No honey," "Not in your mouth," and simply "Arghh!" My baby has found freedom, and he is using this freedom to wreak havoc and destroy everything in sight. Yesterday he found our one remaining downstairs bookshelf and decided that the books would be better off on the floor, ripped. Thus the reason that our other bookshelves have been emptied of books and filled with toys. We will have to do the same with this shelf, it seems.




Because of all of the baby movement going on, Greg and I decided to do some additional babyproofing this weekend. Cabinet locks, bi-fold door locks, toilet locks, door handles: we needed everything. Most of all, we needed gates for the top and bottom of our stairs. I was lucky enough to have two of those 20% off on one item coupons for Buy Buy Baby, so off we went.

As our cart started to fill up and my wallet started to empty, Nicholas rejoiced in flirting with every baby girl who passed us in the aisles. The little girls seemed charmed by his wicked grin. Nick's little onesie says "Little Rascal," and he is, especially with that little tuft of hair sticking up.

Well over $200 later, we decided to head up to Yorktown. Greg was looking for some incense, and I was looking for baby clothing deals. I didn't find any deals, but Greg bought a ton of incense. He's really nice about only burning one stick per evening, though, because I'm mildly allergic to it. That or it irritates my asthma. One or the other. But Yorktown has a pretty fountain that Nick thought was awesome.

Nick and his daddy sat by the fountain while I scoured the clearance racks at Gymboree, The Children's Place, and Baby Gap. The clerks there must know that I am one of "those" people, because I walk in and go directly to the back of the store.

Unless I have a really good coupon or a gift card, I only go to one place. I quickly scan the final clearance rack, and if there's nothing good, I leave. I know how much things cost on ebay, so unless a store is going to beat that, I don't even bother.

Well, my squash and zucchini are finally up to something. It is probably too cold and too late in the season to get any nice-sized veggies, but my plant is making a cute little yellow squash. I think these are delicious, so it'll be okay even if it doesn't get too big.

It was in the 60s and cloudy all weekend. I think it's way too early for fall weather, but what I think doesn't matter.

The zucchini is slightly bigger, but we'll see what happens with the 40 degree temperatures that are due tonight. One thing I have to remember next year is to give my zucchini more room. I put too many plants in my little square foot garden. Notice how the strawberry plants were overwhelmed by the zucchini. These are the ever bearing ones that do two fruits in a year, but I'm pretty sure they won't this year; the zucchini are covering them all up. I might make one big bed of strawberries and then do a whole big vegetable garden next to it. Nick can help with the digging.

Nick's First Wedding and the Hegemony of the Zucchini

We had a very busy weekend, so I think I'm going to talk about it in two posts. Basically we were gone the whole weekend. We had a great time, but boy, were we busy.

On Saturday, Greg and I took Nick to his first wedding. It was for my co-worker Patty (and her husband Byron, of course). The wedding was really beautiful, and it was in this pretty neighborhood in Clarendon Hills.

During the ceremony, Nick was pretty quiet, although he kept pulling on my hair and attempting to rip my earrings out of my ears. He liked the music, and he was remarkably well-behaved. It was a lovely wedding, and I think Nick liked all of the colors and lights and sounds.

During the reception, Nick loved getting to taste test all of the different foods. Since his two teeth came in last week, he's been eating a lot more solid food. Pretty much he'll eat whatever I stick in his mouth. I think his favorite was the turkey, which was very tender. Nick is actually trying to chew now, which is great. He even ate my pea soup, and liked it. (It was pretty good.)

There were these cool bells on the table, and Nick went crazy for them. We tried really hard to keep them out of his mouth, with only moderate success. He took one in each hand and made lots of noise.

During the introductions of the bridal party, I was trying to teach Nick to clap. He is learning, but he doesn't do it by himself. At least I can get him to open his hands when he claps. He used to keep them in fists, but now when we show him he gets it, and he opens his hands and gets excited.

Onward to the hegemony. . . Hegemony is one of the vocabulary words I was working on with my SAT prep student. It comes from Greek, and it refers to the dominance of one city-state over another. If you will look at my zucchini leaves, I think you'll see why I chose that word to describe the plant relationships. The zucchini have taken over and are dominating the strawberries and the peppers. No actual zucchini, though, just some promising looking flowers that I'm hoping will turn to nice vegetables. We'll see.

I'm rather proud of myself, though. Despite an extremely full schedule this weekend, I still managed to work out at the Y on Saturday morning and do another Pilates DVD on Sunday. This morning I could barely stand, but I still went to the Y anyway and did my elliptical trainer routine. I end up doing 35 minutes with my heart rate above 130. Yes, the irony does strike me as I'm running very quickly to nowhere. But I do it anyway. Running on concrete gives me shin splints.

A Delicious Summer Stew

Yesterday I made this wonderful stew that I first found out about from our teaching assistant at school. She brought it in one day and I absolutely had to make it. I've cooked it up a few times, now, and I think I finally have tweaked it the way I like it. I think it's originally from "Cooking Light" Magazine, but it has been altered quite a bit. Thanks to Lucy for the original recipe. It is healthy and yummy, and there are a ton of leftovers. It totally filled my biggest pot.

Chicken Garbanzo Bean Stew with Zucchini, Spinach, and Rosemary


About 12 servings, 1 cup each plus about 1T of parmesan cheese

-2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-1 large Vidalia Onion
-2 t. fresh rosemary, minced
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-4 cups zucchini, cut into small chunks
-1 t. black pepper
-1/2 t. sea salt
-1 lb. of ground chicken
-5 cups of low sodium chicken broth
-1/3 c. dry white wine
-5 T. tomato paste
-1 cup (or more) of spinach leaves, ripped into tiny pieces (no stems)
-1/2 t. red pepper (You can vary this depending on your need for heat.)
-3 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
-1 can of diced tomatoes, rinsed and drained
-1 can of diced tomatoes, not rinsed or drained
-parmesan cheese to taste

Use your biggest pot for this one. Saute the onion, rosemary, and garlic in heated olive oil for about 3 minutes. Add in the zucchini, pepper, salt, and the chicken. You'll need to break the chicken down into small pieces (I just used a spoon) and stir it around in the mixture. Cook until the chicken is browned. Then add everything except the parmesan cheese and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. Taste it after about 20 minutes. Depending on what it needs, you can add more wine (everything is better with more wine!), water (if it's too spicy for you), or chicken broth (depending on if you want more of a stew or a soup). I guess that's my best cooking advice. Taste everything frequently! Serve very hot and dump some parmesan cheese on top. I tried really hard to write down just what I put into the stew, but it won't be perfect because I'm not an exact measurer. I just keep dumping stuff in until it tastes right.

I served this soup with some butter and wheat bread that I made in my new breadmaker. I am loving having fresh bread every two or three days. It works great with this stew. I do believe I'm going to have it again for dinner, since Greg is working late.