it's not always wise...

to bake when the inside temperature of your home is already at 85 degrees, but hey, we were out of cookies. so we did it anyway. i'm sweating, but my sweet tooth is satisfied. an okay combo, i guess.



our go-to recipe is an adaptation of alton brown's "the chewy," which itself happens to be an adaptation of the original nestle toll house cookie recipe. i happen to think it's pretty perfect. try it for yourself and see!

yield: 12 extra-large cookies

ingredients (we use all organic ingredients, with the exception of baking soda and salt):

1 cup melted butter
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup-1 cup rolled oats
1 large egg + 1 large egg white
3 tblsp whole milk
1 1/2 tblsp vanilla extract
12 ounces chocolate chips

using a stand mixer, cream together melted butter and sugars. beat for 2 minutes, while you sift together flour, salt and baking soda into a separate bowl. whisk together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and milk. add mixture to the butter & sugar. add the sifted dry ingredients. add the oats. when everything is combined, add the chocolate chips. mix until just incorporated.

refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, or freeze for 40 minutes. using an standard ice cream scoop, drop dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. because the dough is chilled, cookies will hold their shape without spreading. 12 cookies will fit to a sheet. unless you are (like us) dough nibblers. if this is the case, you might only have 11 cookies. but i digress.

bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until cookies are beginning to brown on the edges. transfer to a wire rack to cool. enjoy!

hudson is seven months!!!

recent talents include:

~ drooling. tooth #2 is well on its way and i, for one one couldn't be more ready for it to pop through. is sleep in my future? we'll see.
~ crawling. only a few inches at a time, but he's figuring it out. i even managed to capture it on camera:

~ pulling up to stand. as if crawling weren't giving me enough of a heart attack...
~ killing time in the sandbox. favorite place to be besides mama's arms, hands down.
~ sporting a "faux-hawk." does it get any cuter?
~ loving on lucy. true friends, this little pair. hair-pulling is an unfortunate side effect.
~ snarfing down practically everything. blueberries and dirt are his current favorites. yum!

our little hudson bear. he's generally adorable--even at 2 a.m. cheers!

made...

with the help of a good friend, i finally got around to making my own laundry soap. this was a super simple project (tackled while taking care of four kids!). we used the soulemama recipe, which calls for dr. bronner's bar soap, baking soda, borax and washing soda. all were available at my grocery store. math is not my forte, but i can tell you with 100% certainty that making your own laundry powder is far cheaper than buying it at the store. less packaging, too.

does it work as well? eh, i don't know. stains are stains, and my eco-friendly detergent isn't that tough on them either. we practice pre-treating and sunning instead. the soap smells good and the clothes and towels are, for the most part, very clean. and that's good enough for me!

quick & thrifty...

we're finally getting our fair share of hot weather here in the california bay area. temperatures rose into the high eighties and nineties for the first time in what seems like forever. with the hot summer sun came a hot summer house. which found me pawing through hudson's packed pajama drawer in search of some warm-weather jammies. no dice. oops.

normally i'd have headed off to the consignment store to pick up a couple of pairs, but seriously?! this kid has at about 20 pairs of pajamas in his current size (most are hand-me-downs) and it seemed ridiculous to spend a single dime on a new pair. so i set about making some very quick alterations on two of my least favorites. i chose my least favorites in case, you know, in case i messed up or something.

technically, since these jammies are cotton knit, i only had to hack off the sleeves and legs (knit doesn't fray). but i wanted them to look at least a little bit nice, so i serged the raw edges, and, in addition, put a cuff on the sleeves using leftover fabric. the whole project took under 10 minutes for both pairs. which is good, because that's all the time that i had!

he's happy. i'm happy. we're all happy. and hopefully that's the ticket for a good night's rest...

a week of farmer's markets: tuesday.

yesterday's farmer's market visit took us to the brand-new-to-us (and very exciting) tuesday market in berkeley. i was expecting a rinky-dink afternoon market with not a lot of action. and i was (pleasantly) so, so wrong. the place was bustling at 5:45 in the evening when we arrived. the market is situated next to a big, grassy field, and people were playing soccer and ultimate frisbee. lucy was 100% intrigued and would have been just fine sitting on the curb studying the action. but i talked her into coming along with me. ;)

the market was average in size--about 30 booths, plus food vendors. produce, meat, dairy. ice cream. (i forgot my camera. but lucy and the ice cream samples??? too cute). anyway, i'd estimate that at least 90% of the vendors were certified organic. not having to ask about pesticide/herbicide use on the part of the farmer is always a plus. of course, as a result, prices are generally a bit higher.

distance from home: 14 miles.

what we bought: a bunch of organic carrots ($2)
1 pound of organic cherries ($6.50)
4 organic apriums ($1.50)
1 quart of non-certified "organic in practice" blueberries ($12)
a pint of locally produced organic ice cream (milk from local, pastured cows) $6
4 locally produced tamales made from organic corn ($8--these favorites cost us $9.50 at the grocery store, so a tiny bit of cost savings when buying directly from the market)

we jammed home (it was late!) and set about fixing some quick dinner. sliced up the sausage from sunday's market, sauteed a few chopped carrots in the pork fat, and served it up with some leftover kamut & feta salad. viola! dinner at the valleygirl home, thanks mostly to the local farmer's markets.

some sweet (secondhand) things...

yesterday morning was spent garage sale-ing with my mom, lucy and hudson. a small town a few miles down the road was having a community-wide garage sale with over 100 houses participating. the nice thing about sales like these is that it's easy on the kids--getting in and out of a carseat repeatedly in order to drive from sale to sale is not a whole lot of fun. yesterday we were able to walk from house to house, browsing at our leisure. here are a few little gems of the many that we picked up along the way:

pint-sized table and chairs. lucy's already declared this a good place to eat her after-nap snack. i can see hudson joining her someday soon! had for the excellent price of $5. needs a sanding and a new layer of (chalkboard?) paint on top.
a pair of "someday" boots for hudson. at $10, this was one of the more expensive purchases i made yesterday (a $20 dresser takes top prize for cash forked out). but being that they are brand name, real leather cowboy boots in perfect condition (that retail just short of $100), i couldn't resist. they're stashed away in his closet now, waiting for his little feet to fit an 8 1/2. don't grow too fast, little man. mama likes you just the way you are.
this little clock. i didn't need it. it doesn't work. i just found it charming. and at $5, it was right below my flinch point. so, as you see, i had to have it.
i have big plans for this $2 mailbox. stay tuned to find out what!
a little enamelware pasta pot. $3. too cute, and it will allow me to get rid of a not-nearly-as-charming-but-similarly-sized stainless steel pot that didn't make me even 1/10th as happy when i used it. as lucy would say, "dat's a good trade."

we also waked away with about 10 new puzzles--some vintage, some like-new melissa & doug. all had for about a dollar apiece. lucy loves puzzles. i just have to remember to switch them out on occasion, so she doesn't get bored with them and take to entertaining herself by stuffing all the pieces down her pants. true story.

yay for garage sale season! if my luck continues, i just might have to buy myself a bigger house!

a week of farmer's markets: sunday.

here in the san francsico bay area, we're lucky to have lots of options for farmer's market-ing. more often than not, there are multiple markets taking place on any given day--we decide which ones to hit based on what we need and which direction we happen to be headed on the freeway. we have our favorites (and no-so-favorites), and there are many markets that we've never visited at all. this week i'll be checking out a bunch of different markets in the area--you know, the whole compare/contrast thing. see what's out there, what we've been missing. the good, the bad. the ugly.

today we hit the marin sunday market. this is my go-to favorite at time being. it's a big market by any standard--nearly 200 booths. we arrived around 11 (way late--our goal was 9!). distance from home: 18 miles.

do any of these people look familiar? yeah, me neither. but check out all of the plastic bags! gah!

we bought:

small container of organic strawberries ($4)
a pound of over-ripe/cosmetically-challenged organic peaches (on discount--$2)
1 lb sausage from humanely-raised pork ($7)
pint of wannabe organic (practiced, but not certified) blueberries ($8)

happenings:

the petting zoo was there. sounds cool, right? um, not so much when it costs $3 to go in and the petting zoo consists of 6 chickens and a bunny. no joke.

there were pony rides ($5). lucy is an animal lover, but wouldn't climb up on a pony if you paid her in cookies. no dice on the pony, mom. sorry.
hudson tasted his very first plum (thumbs up).


after the market--what we made:

well, most of the blueberries got eaten on the car ride home (guilty as charged), but there were still enough to attempt this blueberry cake recipe i've been longing to try. so, from farmer's market to cake plate--here's how it went down:


when the market gives you berries (first-of-season!)...

get yourself a helper (and a stick of butter)...do some measuring (keeping ingredients in the bowl is not entirely necessary)... do some mixing...
throw a bit of flour around (it's good for the berries).
bonus points if your helper can prepare the pan without assistance... stand around and wait for awhile...


and soon, you may have cake. which looks (and tastes) like a really big muffin. (trust me--this is a good thing).

weekend find...

i'd been looking for a new (old) casserole dish. vintage pyrex, specifically. with lid. they're often pricey at antique shops--i've been holding out for a good deal. this bright & cheery little piece caught my eye while i whizzed past a garage sale yesterday on my way to a birthday party. u-turn! i hopped out with the only cash that i had--$2--hoping that it was enough. and it was. lucy's comment as i jumped back into the car, giggling over my new prize? "mama, you silly."

yes, lucy. now you know where you get it from. :)

worse than peter rabbit...

i set this little guy down in one of our raised beds yesterday, and turned my back to pull some weeds. it wasn't long until he was in full-on attack mode. the spinach and arugula stood no chance against his curious hands!

a troublemaker, maybe, but way, way cute. who could get mad at this (dirty) face?