Breakfast Eggs in a Raggedy Nest

My friend Rebecca taught me to shred up leftover baked potatoes and freeze them for instant hashbrown potatoes.

Inspired by Deanna Beth's post, I fried some up with a little onion and then made four little nests.  I put an egg in each one and a sprinkle of cheese over the top.  Clapped the lid on top until the whites were set (for my family) and the yolk was firm (for me). 

Same breakfast makings, just more fun.  Especially since my Great-Aunt Isabelle gave my children a copy of The Pigeon Lullaby and we are singing and talking a lot about birds and their nests right now.

Watercress

My mother spotted watercress in the creek near the cabin.
I snipped a big dishpan full. My family loves watercress, but I had only found it at market, not growing wild.

It tasted so good after all the hot dogs, bacon, Oreos, chips and soda.  Mom told me there is a spring on my dad's family farm where watercress grows; I want to get my dad to take me there.  I'm not obsessed with watercress - I just want to know these details about the family farm, about my dad.  Who knows what other stories a little jaunt like that could bring up?

The Cabin

We were at the cabin in the mountains this weekend, a needed break for city slickers.
 

All the windows have white ruffled curtains and golden paper shades which inspires my imagination so much.

So restful.

I amused myself with a little series while I was there. The cabin has a marvelous old woodburning cookstove, so I photographed a few vintage linen oven towels on it. Not at the same time that I fried the breakfast bacon on it, but while I listened to my mother tell stories of her mother baking on a similar cookstove.


The oven towels are in my etsy shop.



Birthday-O

Oh, the fox went out on a chilly night
and he prayed to the moon to give him light.
For he'd many miles to go that night
before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o
for he'd many miles to go that night
before he reached the town-o.

Genevieve turned five!  She appears to be addicted to the old song about the fox - she liked the book illustrated by Peter Spier and now she has the CD. I feel like a fuddy-duddy buying a CD, but it was simpler than trying to buy an ipod and all the business that went with it.  I mean, I have a CD player already.

We indulged her food requests for the birthday celebration.  First, she wanted pizza and french fries and I confess I freaked a little (it's like choosing purple and pink in combination! icky).  But I asked her the day before her birthday and she still wanted pizza, but instead of fries, she wanted miso soup.  THAT'S MY GIRL. 

So we had miso soup and sushi for lunch and pizza for dinner.  And she wanted a pumpkin cheesecake for her birthday cake, for the little family party we had. I used the Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake recipe in Simply in Season and was disappointed.  The flavors are not strong enough, in my opinion. 

They never ate such a meal in their life
and the little ones chewed on the bones-o, bones-o, bones-o. . . .

Tuscan Bean Soup

I adore soup.  It's creative, fancy or simple, handy for feeding lots of people, and so very comforting; quite often, soup can be thrifty too. I make soup whenever it's chilly or rainy - in fact, I get confused in hot weather because I don't have an equivalent (ice cream?  corn on the cob? hmmmm).
I have lots of favorite soups.  Tuscan Bean Soup is one of them.   I created it from a hodge podge of ideas and recipes and I doubt the people of Tuscany would claim it. 

Tuscan Bean Soup - a plan with guesstimates - the times are very sketchy, so make the soup in the afternoon and if it has to sit waiting on the back of the stove, no problem: turn the burner on again to warm it up for dinner

Put 1-2 cups white beans on to soak (overnight is best, but a shorter soaking just means longer cooking - fine for a dreary, cold day)

Cook them until they are very soft with a chopped onion or two.  Do not add anything salty or acidic or they will not get soft.  Add a pinch or two of dry red pepper flakes.  If you have it, add the heel or rind of parmesano reggiano - just a chunk to cook its buttery richness into the soup.

Add a bunch of greens, washed and chopped (kale, collards, spinach, or chard).  When they are mostly soft, add lots of minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste.  The beans should be mostly disintegrated now and the soup should be thick.  A few minutes later, check to be sure the garlic flavor is present.  It's ready to serve, but wait:  add the juice of a half lemon.  Taste it and maybe add a little more.  Perhaps a drizzle of olive oil.

Eat with hearty bread with a slice of cheese.  Or cornbread, as shown here.   Mmmmmm, soup.

A Blue Peignoir for Winter

Yes, I call it a "peignoir" but it has other names.   I made one for hot weather earlier this year and called it a dressing gown.

I feel ultra feminine and cozy when I wear this peignoir.  It's made from sky blue flannel - my first ever Black Friday purchase last year at 6am (and now I can't even remember how cheap it was, but I enjoyed myself and escaped most of the traffic with my mother in law and sis in law).

The whole look is very Tyrolean, and I need to put my hair up in Heidi braids when I wear it.  Which I don't.  I wear the peignoir in the morning when I get out of the shower, but still have breakfast to make and children to dress and potty, before I can put on my town clothes.

The Bear and the Ballerina

The bear and the ballerina played very nicely together, sometimes remembered to say "trick or treat" and "thank you," and went bang to sleep that night even after cotton candy and hot chocolate with the neighbors.

I made Genevieve's tutu and now it's in her dress up suitcase.  I stitched together handfuls of tulle (3 yards total) and then put it inside bias tape for a tie-on tutu.  It's not great workmanship, but it's sturdy and pretty and she loves it.

We were so wholly involved in the occasion, it was only later I realized how poor the pictures are.  Ah well.

You know, I'm not quite sure if I want to be doing something Halloween-ish, if this is the "Devil's Holiday."  I grew up going to church or a barn party on Halloween, with the house totally dark to discourage trick-or-treaters.  But now, as a mother, I have dressed my children in the cheap, easy costumes and trot them around to see the neighbors and the grandparents.  They consume about two pieces of candy before the rest of their bag mysteriously disappears.  We'll see how long this approach lasts.