Mystery Greens

We got our second CSA box this evening. It contained red scallions, peas, arugula, strawberries, broccoli rabe, radishes, beets, red leaf lettuce, and.... these mystery greens. Who can help?!? Might one of them be mustard greens? That was listed in the newsletter as a possibility for the box this week.

I'm Home!

It's so good to be home! I got back late yesterday afternoon. It took Carter a little while to warm up to me, but he seems happy to have me back now. I quickly got to work with our CSA food. Thanks for all your ideas and interpretations. As we get mystery foods, I'll certainly be posting for more help! Thomas appreciated all the ideas, but did not attempt to do anything with the food (not even the strawberries or peas!). Which was just fine with me because after a full week of airport, hotel and conference food, I was in the mood to cook!

First, for a snack, I taught Carter how to properly eat strawberries. I got a small bowl of powdered sugar and taught him to dip the strawberry in. At first (unsurprisingly), he just dipped, licked, dipped, licked, without actually eating the strawberry. Eventually, I got distracted with my own strawberry-eating, and when I looked up, I discovered that Carter had eaten the entire strawberry - stem and all. He seemed to be enjoying it and was unwilling to open up and let me get the stem out. More nutrition, I suppose...

Then for dinner I made a roasted beet and goat cheese salad with lettuce, arugula (not dandelion greens) and the beet tops - and I used some of the scallions in the dressing. It was tasty. For the main dish, I made this turkey meat loaf. It's a really good recipe, and I was able to use a full cup of my home-grown parsley and some of my chives.

It's so nice to be home and back in my kitchen!

The Last Hotel

This is my last night away, and its the first day I haven't flown or moved into a new hotel. We definitely picked the right hotel for a two-night stay. This is such a nice hotel! It's a bit sad to be enjoying it alone.

The view from my bed into the bathroom. Yes, that's the water pouring from the ceiling (on purpose).

And from the tub, you can watch tv. Heaven!

My meetings wrapped up this afternoon, so now I'm just waiting for an early morning flight. I decided to do something nice for myself, and I got a massage this evening (aren't you proud, mom?!). I'm very much looking forward to being home tomorrow afternoon!

C! S! A! C! S! A!

Well, the time has finally arrived for our long awaited first box of CSA locally organically grown vegetables to arrive so the healthy living can commence... just as soon as Elizabeth gets back from her whirlwind tour of the country (Hi, Honey!). So I thought, hey, I can cook vegetables too, lets get that box and enjoy the fresh, non-chemical, non-engineered taste of...whatever happens to be in the box this week.

The anticipation

The revelation

The explanation

So, from left to right: Green leafy stuff, scallions! (with some red stuff), green leafy stuff, radishes?, green leafy stuff, strawberries!, green leafy stuff, and (whirled) peas!

So, without a little guide book or multiple choice or really any useful food knowledge, my ability to prepare exciting healthy meals on the fly without any idea what foods I am looking at is underwhelming. So we had pork. and rice. But I do see peas in my near future. and probably fresh strawberries. Beyond that, we just have to play it by ear. (Now if there had been corn in there, we'd be talking).

Come home soon, baby, the food needs you!

2 of 4

This is my marathon work week. I'll be hitting 4 different cities this week, and right now I'm in my second. Last night, I flew to NYC, where I had a meeting today. This evening I'm in Chicago for a meeting tomorrow and then it's off to Houston and then Seattle before heading home Friday afternoon. Needless to say, you won't be seeing much blogging from me. So, bug Thomas to post something for you. Sure, he's busy holding down the fort while I'm away, but he definitely owes you a post about his spring training trip...

Update: I got up early this morning and took a run through millennium park, which I'd never seen before (my last trip to Chicago was November 2004). It was really nice, and I'm feeling so nostalgic for Chicago! This is such a great town. I'm very much looking forward to getting to actually spend more time here in May when I come back for a girls weekend.

Festival Season

It's finally festival season again, and yesterday was a perfect day for it. We hit the festival twice, in the afternoon, Carter, Thomas and I joined Park, Ashley, Anna and Bronwyn. In the evening, Bronwyn babysat both kids (thanks Grandma B!) so we could head back to the festival and dance to our heart's content.

The weather was perfect for lawn-sitting.

Carter was mystified by this caterpillar at first, but then he warmed up and required close supervision as he wanted to play with it a little more roughly than the caterpillar probably could have withstood.

Anna snoozed for most of the afternoon.

Carter had his first corn dog. And then immediately had his second. Looks like he's destined to love them as much as I do. (Also - I never really thought a basic corn dog could be improved upon, until I discovered the jalapeno corn dog yesterday. Pure greasy heaven.)

Family Dinner

Brinkley had a great idea to get all the local family together since Bronwyn is in town. We had a great time at dinner Friday night!

Carter made fast friends with cousin Jep!

My Middle-of-the-Night

I'm in DC to give a presentation today. Here's how my middle-of-the-night has gone so far:

1:50am: Wake to blaring alarm in my hotel room; contemplate calling front desk to demand that they turn the noise off

1:51am: Open door to realize that the sound isn't isolated to my room (also note that breakfast order hasn't been picked up); decide to wait in room for some sort of announcement

1:52am: Realize that, as ears are nearly bleeding, I should leave the room

1:53am: After stumbling into clothes, walk out into hallway, join a few others heading down the stairs (regret choosing a room on the top floor)

1:55am: Sit on concrete outside building; thank god that the weather is nice; wonder whether this is a good omen for my presentation in the morning

1:58am: Alarm goes off

2:00am: Alarm goes back on

2:02am: Cameraman enters building

2:03am: Cameraman thrown out by expletive-shouting hotel employee

2:10am: Alarm goes back off

2:22am: Three fire trucks arrive with their sirens wailing

2:25am: Head back into the building

2:26am: Look at front desk line and congratulate myself for remembering my room key

2:27am: Climb the stairs back to my room (again regret choosing a room on the top floor)

I will say that I have a new found understanding of why fire exits have to be so clearly marked. At 2am, about the best I could do was blindly follow the person in front of me out of the building. Now, I'm just hoping that I can get back to sleep. And that they'll pick up my room service order.

Farm Tour

One of the first things I did when we moved here was to find a CSA. We got on the wait list in the winter and have been eagerly awaiting the first delivery (which should begin in a few weeks). In the meantime, we got to visit our farm this weekend (less than a half hour away!) to see where our veggies will come from. The farmer gave us a tour of the farm, so we got to see first hand the food that will be coming to our dinner table soon (including the thousands of baby tomato plants that will be going in the ground in a few weeks). We had a potluck and met some of the other CSA members. Carter mostly enjoyed the farm equipment. Sadly, I forgot my camera, so here's a couple camera phone pics.

One of the dishes we had at the potluck was a radish-cucumber-buttermilk cold soup. It was (shockingly) seriously good. I hardly got any because Carter wanted it all. Apparently we'll be getting a lot of radishes in our CSA deliveries and will be needing such creative ways to use them!

Fender Bender

When we first moved to Atlanta, I very nearly blogged about how soon I expected to be in a car accident. Suddenly being thrust back into driving regularly after being car-less for four years was a shock to my system. I realized how out of practice I was and how incredibly dangerous parking lots are (especially given my history of hitting inanimate objects at slow speeds). I was just sure that I'd be having an accident within the first month. I wisely didn't blog on it because I didn't want to jinx myself. I'm happy report that I've now been a car owner for over six months, accident free. Until today.

I had a little fender bender this evening (well, actually, a side swipe). I'm pleased to announce that it wasn't my fault. Of course, given that I'll still have to arrange taking the car to the shop, talking to the insurance company, etc., it's not exactly a cause for celebration.

As I always say, car ownership is a losing proposition. You lay out money for a car and all it does is punish you with bills, gas, maintenance and the occasional accident or ticket. Of course, as Thomas often points out (depending on how the train ran on a particular day), the public transportation system in Atlanta can do a pretty good job of making your life miserable too.

Lonely Week

Okay, so it's really not that lonely. Thomas is in tech for the biggest (and last) show of his season and Carter and I have had a busy week, too.

But, I just downloaded the pics below and they got got me missing the other Fowlkes family (they are out of town). Carter had an excellent time at the park playing with Ashley a couple of weeks ago (and I had a most enjoyable time holding Anna and snapping pics)!

Being Almost Two

This video is a bit mundane, but it shows a pretty good portrait of an almost-two-year-old: silly - independent - helpful - silly. (The video is missing one major trait - moody - but in the scheme of things, Carter is pretty laid back.)

Spring!

I don't know if I've been living under a rock or something (or more likely, a whole bunch of very well architected rocks), but I don't remember ever experiencing a spring so fully. The pink! The purple! The chartreuse! The fragrance! The pollen! I'm loving it all! (Even the pollen. it's kind of pretty how it dusts everything and I don't seem to be having any allergies).

We are (okay, I am) having a lot of fun doing a little light gardening and seeing what comes up in our yard this year!

Carter "helps" with the gardening.

The dogwoods in our yard are beautiful.

The hostas are on their way up.

The azaelas are in full bloom.

Window boxes have been filled.

And my herbs are growing!

Halfway

Early '08 has been pretty busy for me at work, which has meant quite a bit of travel on top of my regular NYC trips. Including a couple of personal trips, I will have completed 26 flights from January-May. This morning's flight to Seattle marks the halfway point.

Look out for news on my whirlwind 4-day business trip to NYC-Chicago-Houston-Seattle later in the month. 4 days, 4 cities, 4 hour meetings in each city.

I'm looking forward to a more relaxing summer!

Growing Up

There have always been things about myself that I assumed I would outgrow, and for many things, this has proven to be true. I now eat brussel sprouts; I rarely run late; I enjoy reading non-fiction. But, as I contemplate turning 30 this summer, I'm starting to realize that there are some things about myself that I might not outgrow.

• I will probably never remember to return a movie or pick up my dry cleaning on time. (Case in point, I am currently in NYC, and today I received a FedEx from Thomas containing the dry cleaning I forgot to pick up this weekend, which I need to get through this week if I wasn't going to go to work naked.)
• I don't start the laundry until someone is out of socks or underwear.
• I will likely never remember to wash my face every night, and I don't think will ever want to shower everyday.
• I don't unpack my bag fewer than 5 days after returning from a trip (Last week, Thomas and I both, separately, looked at the full suitcases in the floor of our closet and thought, "Thank goodness he/she is just as lazy as me!")
• I do not enjoy getting up in the morning (The definition of "early" has changed over the last couple of years, but the misery of getting out of bed is the same, regardless of the time, and regardless of the cuteness that is rousing you from sleep).
• I do not like raisins in my food (yuck), and I only like mushrooms if they are prepared by a very good chef.
• I will never put my clothes back in a drawer or closet when I get undressed. I will always prefer a bed, bench, coat rack or the floor.

Those of you who know me know that I'm really quite responsible (they didn't call me "grandma" in college for nothing), but there are some areas of my life where I'm just a little sloppy, forgetful and dirty. I don't think I'm going to outgrow it.