A Slice of My Life – Week 23

June 19, 2013

This was my view last Sunday.  I had spent the weekend in Vegas with some friends and our plane had a broken air conditioner so we were grounded while they tried to fix it.  Grounded in Vegas on a plane that only had one working air conditioner in 110 degree heat.  I spent a good 30 minutes talking myself down from panic while my friend dozed next to me.  They finally let us take off but it was the hottest flight of my life.  Drinks were free though.

I still think of produce in Seattle terms.  Meaning that almost every trip to the farmers’ market is a surprise and delight.  Eggplants have always been a late summer vegetable for me and here they were in June.

This was a day that I didn’t need anything at the market.

We are up to our eyeballs in salads these days.  I’ve always made a lot of salad but I feel like it’s all I’m making these days.  In other news make this one!

Last week of school frozen yogurt.

There are still so many places in the East Bay (meaning Oakland and Berkeley) that I have yet to try and Dopo was high on my list.  A friend and I shared a lovely dinner and I’m looking forward to going back.  The pizza was great and the side dishes were swoon-worthy.

The boys thought we should give their teachers my chocolate chip cookies to thank them for a good year.  I thought we should take it one further and paint them cookie jars at one of those paint your own pottery places.  I forced myself to quiet my design critic and not have any input on their creations so Spencer chose three shades of orange and green for his jar.  And a San Francisco Giants theme (his teacher is a big fan).

On the last day of school there was a picnic at the lake right near our house.  We are so fortunate to be a part of this amazing community.

The party was a potluck and I brought the Browned Butter Rice Krispie treats from Deb’s cookbook.  In the time it took me to get my phone out of my bag, they were gone.

Date night with the hipster.

On Saturday we headed out of town to visit some friends and stopped to pan for gold along the way.  Spencer got a few flakes and a lot of rocks.

Our friends, who live in El Dorado Hills, have an incredible backyard complete with this pool.  After catching the boys a few times at the bottom of the water slide, they were totally able to do it themselves.  And within an hour they were jumping off the diving board and swimming over to the side on their own.  This is going to be the summer of swimming.

Randy spent Father’s Day on the lake getting up on a wakeboard for the first time and hanging out with these two.  And me, of course.

This is a Bahn Mi Salad.  Tell me, why did it never occur to me to make this?  Coming to my dinner table tonight!

Limes.  From my lemon tree.  You know.  I guess the guy who rebuilt our house after the fire was an amateur aborist or botanist and grafted the limes onto the tree.  I am very grateful to him.

Many years ago, I started singing the Hippo Song.  It was what I would sing to rock Graham to sleep after he had a nightmare or if I just wanted to hold onto him a bit longer before putting him in his crib.  It goes like this:

I love hippos
Yes I do
I love hippos
How about you?
I’ve got a big big hippo
A little little hippo
And I have a baby hippo too.

As you might guess, this is Big Hippo and this week, Graham decided that he is too big for him.  They gave him a farewell breakfast (of Legos) and he is joining a new family today.  (sniff)

 

 



11 Comments »

  1. I’m sure you are just loving having so much produce so early in the season, very different from Seattle– I’ve learned not to expect too much from the farmer’s market here when it first opens in the spring. The few times that I’ve gotten to shop at a farmer’s market in Santa Barbara or LA I’ve been amazed! You must just love having the lemons and limes in your backyard. Will you add other citrus or maybe figs? I would just love picking sun-warmed figs from a tree in my own backyard, if I lived in CA I would definitely do that.

    Comment by Mary @ Fit and Fed — June 20, 2013 @ 5:44 am

  2. I wish I had a lemon tree! Or a lime tree! Or, you know. Both. :)

    Keep the salads coming, darling!

    Comment by Joanne — June 20, 2013 @ 3:45 pm

  3. Dana,
    Can you tell me about the cookies in the jar and how do you get those even edges? I miss your classes in Seattle when I’m visiting my son:)

    Comment by Bonnie — June 20, 2013 @ 6:23 pm

  4. Mary, we actually planted an orange tree this spring. My husband thought if we are living in California, we should have oranges. :) I actually have a hard time with figs so wouldn’t to that route, although there are plenty of trees growing around us. My neighbor even has an olive tree!

    Comment by dana — June 20, 2013 @ 6:25 pm

  5. Dana,
    I hope you will post the bahn mi salad that you make. What will you do instead of fish sauce? I keep wanting to make bahn mi but we don’t like fish sauce in our house. Happy summer of swimming. What a pool!
    Liesl

    Comment by Liesl — June 20, 2013 @ 7:37 pm

  6. I always look forward to your slice of life posts. They are a treat to read and brighten my day.

    Comment by carole — June 20, 2013 @ 9:00 pm

  7. Bahn mi salad recipe, please!

    Comment by Ann — June 20, 2013 @ 11:28 pm

  8. Dana,

    The hippo vignette was touching. You capture so many authentic moments of your parenting experience on this blog. Not many parents can describe both the awe and sorrow that accompanies their childrens’ development from dependent infants into willful little people. You do so eloquently. Thank you for sharing.

    Comment by Ali — June 21, 2013 @ 3:49 am

  9. Ann, it didn’t turn out like I planned. I am going to attempt it again next week and will post for sure if I like it!

    Comment by dana — June 21, 2013 @ 8:31 pm

  10. Liesl, I’m going to try again next week and will post it if it works out.

    Comment by dana — June 21, 2013 @ 8:31 pm

  11. Hi Bonnie! SO nice to hear from you. The recipe for those cookies is on my site. http://danatreat.com/2010/06/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies/
    I have been forming them into logs, refrigerating them, then slicing and baking. I think that is why the edges look so clean. It really is a perfect recipe.

    Comment by dana — June 21, 2013 @ 8:41 pm



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