French Tomato Coulis (Homemade Tomato Sauce from the Garden)

What a great summer we are having for tomatoes!! Oh, and I have found an interesting blog and I am going to try a French coulis recipe from the blog: a lightly cooked and easy to make tomato sauce. You can visit the blog and see the recipe here: http://www.easy-french-food.com/homemade-tomato-sauce-recipe.html

Raw Blackberry-Banana Cream Pie

I am going to make this recipe: http://www.veganchef.com/rawstraw.htm
Raw Strawberry-Banana Cream Pie, only I am going to make it into a Raw Blackberry-Banana Cream Pie. Blackberries are in season and they are such a treat it would be a shame not to use them in a dessert recipe! I'll post pictures and let you know how it turns out. I have some experience making raw foods and some of the desserts are incredible. INCREDIBLE.

Why We Need Public Healthcare: Simplified!

My favorite Baby Carrier: the Ergo

Above Left: babies on the front and back Above Right: hood for sleeping baby
pictures courtesy: http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/gallery/


Left: Heart to Heart Right: Infant Insert for the Ergo carrier
pictures courtesy: http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/gallery/

The Ergo baby carrier has been a staple of babydom in my house since my first child was almost six months old. At this point I was overjoyed to be able to put her on my back and give my shoulders and arms a rest. The Ergo holds baby right against your body and can be used as a front pack or a backpack. It is padded in just the right spots: shoulder straps and hips. One of my favorite features is the hood that you can pull up over sleeping baby's head and fasten to the shoulder straps to prevent baby's head and neck from flopping. When baby is on your front side, the hood can give you privacy while you nurse your baby (yes, I did this a lot as I had a baby that needed to move while she was nursing, and I was happy to get the exercise!!).

The Ergo also has several advantages over the frame baby backpack. The frame pack holds the baby up high and feels a bit unsteady when compared to the Ergo. The frame pack is also a lot heavier and bulkier. I often wear the Ergo backpack, while my kid runs around and I barely notice it is there. And I just found out while perusing Ergo's website, that they have an ATTACHABLE BACKPACK that converts the carrier into a day pack. I am very excited about this as you may have noticed that I had a bit of a backpack dilemma before my hiking trip at Mt. Baker.

But, perhaps most importantly, the Ergo baby carrier:

supports a natural sitting position for babies, eliminating compression of the spine and hips that can be caused by unsupported suspension. The baby carrier also balances the baby's weight to parents' hips and shoulders, and alleviates physical stress for the parent.
---- http://www.ergobabycarriers.com/babycarriers/category/carrier/

Visit Ergo's website: http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/

Brawny

Mt. Baker Summer Hiking in Pictures & Story

Day 1: We finally arrived at our rustic cabin in the woods. There was no Internet, phone, TV, cell coverage. Zip, Nada. I was not-so-secretly pleased to have my husband Luc all to myself this trip. Hee hee. No iPhone to browse on. No clients calling! No machinery to work on (or talk about, save for the van, which did get talked about). Double hee hee. We will be a family of just four. My parents and sisterand her family came up as well and occupied the neighboring cabin.

Day 2: Driving up the mountain back roads in our... van? Pictured above is the result of me putting my hand out the window and taking a pic while I precariously drive, which strangely, Luc did not complain about. It was, perhaps, one of the few things I did that he wasn't afraid of while I was driving. It might sound like I am not a good driver, but I am in fact a great driver. Luc just happens to be a bit of a squealer when it comes to driving up old mountain roads that have no side rail, just lots of feet in elevation. I was soon to discover that so am I, when he is driving the van on the way down the mountain. Hmm.

Some of the beautiful vegetation in the meadows on our hike "Skyline Divide".

Looked like a person to me! Above: roots in the trail

Marina holds Auntie Rachelle's hand on a hike. Also the lens of my camera happens to be foggy, I mean greasy, due to little dirty human paws.

The whole family, stopped to pose, Skyline Divide Trail. Photo taken by Vicky.

I worried for days before our trip about how to carry our hiking necessities (food, water, extra clothes) and the kids. One parent for each kid, but that does not leave us with much space for our other necessities. Nalgene water bags on Ergo packs to the rescue. The weather was so lovely and sunny that I did not bring any extra clothes, and Lucy the dog carried the kids little coats (plus some water). I really appreciated having a doggie backpack! It also slowed Lucy down, as she often runs ahead a bit.

Above: Luc carries Marina, food, water, and extra clothes. Woo hoo!

There were plenty of cool nature sights to photograph. I only wish I had a better camera. I am growing out of my point and shoot!!

The hiking entourage with me in the foreground (self-portrait). Stella is on my back. See that little flap happy fish hat? That is her. She is in the Ergo. Ergo backpack, how I love you with all my being... that is another blog entry though.

Marina found this cool rock at the top of the mountain on the hike "Skyline Divide". Good eyes she has for the interesting...

Auntie Rachelle swings a ballerina Marina

Taking in the view: Lucy, will I ever understand your lack of fear of high precarious cliffs? No, probably not. Is it that you have four feet, instead of my unsteady two? Perhaps. You have a backpack on too Lucy, for goodness sakes!

Marina's hiking wish come true: I want a hike with wild flowers!! This "wish" bordered on demand, and we all caved to her impending melt down. All of us.

Yes, I told her absolutely not to pick the wildflowers and then she (see below pic) ran away and picked more.

Day 3: Twin Lakes hike, or Flies, Flies, EVERYWHERE, biting, buzzing, beating their little wings. Terrorizing the kids. And me. Oh, and two pretty lakes with lots of snow and flowers.

Hiking & carrying Stella: hot & sweaty. The temps were in the 80-90s.

Above: Marina at Twin Lakes. The snow was wonderful and a nice respite from the scorching trail up to the lakes.

Above: view of one of the lakes that makes up Twin Lakes form my high vantage. I ran up the trail for a 1 1/2 mile very steep workout, while the rest of the hiking party ate lunch. It was finally high enough that there were no flies!

Day 4: Luc's Birthday Marina and Stella with Luc's flourless Chocolate Cake. What a lovely and peaceful place to celebrate!


The Crisp, Clean River: is a short 1/2 mile walk form our cabin, and the site of our relief from scorching 90 degree heat. It was so hot at night we had to cool off in the frigid river right before bed to handle the stuffy cabins.

Ahhh, sweet cool relief from the heat!

Above: we had to hike a mile to get to this spot on the river. It was worth it because we were able to jump off the rock (foreground) into the deep pool below. See following pics of me jumping in.

Above: the kiddy pool, closer to our cabin, and still deep enough for adults

Above: another shot of the kiddy pool

Above: holding baby Ida for my sister at the riverside.

Stella enjoyed the sand and mud and was happy to hang out playing quietly

river
jumping
swimming
floating
riding the current
sliding over rocks
swimming with my water dog
from rock to rock
grasping and flinging
my body with the current

cool
clean
clear
fresh
like filtered water
from the grocery store
it gets in my mouth
as I ride the current down
and it tastes good!

Island County Fair this Weekend

Running through the goat barn! This picture reminds me of Slumdog Millionaire poster

Marina had fun on the rides, as long as Ben went on them with her!

This is the first year Marina has been brave enough and big enough to go on the rides by herself!

Making Food Critters or Fruit and Vegetable Sculptures

A great kid or adult summertime craft . . .

Miss Flower Fairy seems to have a very distinct personality, wouldn't you say? A bit fun loving and zany. A touch of crazy too perhaps!
(scroll down for more pictures of the food sculptures, including the butterfly)

Some tips for Newbies to food sculpture art

1. The best way to learn is to just make one!

2. Have rounded toothpicks and super glue on hand. Really: you will definitely need the toothpicks.

3. You may need to cut the toothpicks to size depending on the size of the food you are pinning together.

4. Super glue is great for gluing petals on fairies or connecting other delicate (and light weight) materials together.

5. Have a very small knife on hand for carving. I used a small knife that folded out of a pocket knife. Especially important for small features like nose, eyes, ears, etc. Which brings us to:

6. Have the right tools on hand: if you will need to be cutting, have scissors. Pretty straight forward.

7. Have fun shopping & make a list: Come up with a plan of what you are making, bring a picture along and a list of what foods might work best for various parts of your sculpture. But be open to discovering an even better idea.

8. Keep it Fun! A "mistake" may be a stroke of genius in the end. Who knows? Things always happen for a reason. Trust the process!

9. If your kid(s) will be helping you, be sure to choose a project that is easy to accomplish with their help. There are lots of simple animals you can make, or ones that you can simplify to suit kids ages and skill levels. Marina (4) was able to make a butterfly will very little help. I cut all the pieces for her and she assembled them!

10. Pick fruits and vegetables that are odd shapes, if they suit your needs. We found a yam that looked just like a duck. I cut off its "bill" and added a carrot nose that made it look more like a horse. Then I shaved off its hind end and shaped it into a horse's bum.

11. If you need a part to be strong, choose a strong food for it. I know, duh. But really important: for the horses legs I need a strong vegetable. Which ruled out most fruits anyway. I chose carrots. Perfect!


Flower Fairy Rides a Unicorn Series:

notice Miss Flower Fairy's cabbage wings and the unicorn's fennel tail.

The unicorn has a cinnamon stick horn. Miss Flower Fairy has flower petals "picked" to her carrot feet.

Black eyed peas make great eyes, for many critters!

A mildly funny shaped carrot made a great "in motion" leg

Cabbage Butterfly
The wing decorations were made using cabbage and slices of lemon and yams, and the skin of grapefruit and lemon. The body of the butterfly is a zucchini. The antennas are fennel stems, which are very flexible and were easily pinned on with toothpicks.

The butterfly artist herself!