Marina's New Abode

Marina moved out yesterday. She and some college friends are renting a house in the five points area of Columbia. The house has five bedrooms, of which hers is the smallest - her choice. I think Marina must have the gift of peacemaking.

She begins her third year of college in a couple of weeks, having been accepted into the pharmacy program. She's happy to have found a house so close to campus, so she can ride her bike to and from classes. Marina's blogger name is HeyCordelia.

Our Barrel-Ponics Project

David spent a week working on the Hughey farm, learning about barrel-ponics and doing things like helping build fish ponds and washing out a zillion veggie oil barrels. In case you haven't heard about barrel-ponics - we hadn't until Colleen told us about it - it is aquaponics implemented with barrels, using fish and the nitrogen cycle to grow fruits and vegetables in a small space and with limited water. Travis Hughey invented barrel-ponics and is targeting it at third-world countries. For more information, see this explanation. When David left, Travis gave him some barrels and other parts to build a system at home, so Fred and David have a project now!

Julia's Five-Year Birthday

Julia is five-years old today.  We had a "Moon Landing" and celebrated with a family birthday party at our house.  Julia looks so much like her mother.

"Papa" really likes babies!  He's holding Silas here, who is 10-months old.

Princeton Country Dancers 30th Anniversary

We drove to Princeton, NJ, for the 30th PCD Anniversary. This is the day after Marina's birthday. She was born the Monday after the 10th PCD Anniversary celebration, at which, needless to say, I didn't do a lot of dancing. Ten years ago, we went to the 20th anniversary dance -- hope we'll make it to the 40th!

Some good meals, for a change

Well, the family had been complaining about always cooking the same old things for dinner, so I really tried to come up with some new things. Let's see if I can remember them:

• Dish #1: This started out as chili with mushrooms substituted for the ground beef, but the recipe took a turn somewhere and became something else. Sautee 2 8oz packages of baby bella mushrooms (sliced) with an onion (also sliced). Add a 16oz can of blackbeans, 16oz can of chopped tomatoes (seasoned?), and a cup or so of frozen corn. Season to taste with salt, ginger?, curry?, and whatever, and cook a bit so flavors mix. Serve over Uncle Ben's wild rice.
• Dish #2: Cut up a pkg (about 3/4 to 1 lb.) of chicken tenders into bite-size pieces and saute in canola oil with soy-sauce added for color and flavor. Set aside, and saute an 8oz package of snow peas together with a 3 oz package of sliced almonds. Add the chicken, and serve over cooked linguini or fettucini.
• Dish #3: Stir-fry some cut-up beef, and set aside. Sautee some sliced onions and muchrooms together with some Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, and thyme, and add to set-aside beef. Make a roux of butter and flour, stir in some beef stock to make a sauce. Add beef and mushroom mixture to sauce and cook a bit to mix flavors. Serve over cooked egg noodles or garlic toast
• Dish #4: Cut up a lb. of polish sausage into 1/4 inch slices, and saute in a little canola oil until nicely browned. Set aside, and fry up some sliced pototoes and onions. Add sausage to pototoes and onions, and season with salt, pepper, and cardamom. Serve with a salad made with fresh spinach, red and green pepper (sliced) , banana pepper (pickled and sliced), and bleu cheese (or feta).
  

Three Grandsons Visit

Colleen and Shelby went to Hendersonville, NC for a vacation. They took along Silas, Julia stayed with a friend, and the other three boys stayed with us. What a treat! Fred and I took the boys to the zoo and got totally tired out. Elias did, too. We parked at the botanical gardens and waited a long time, and then when the tram finally came, it was full, so we decided to walk to the zoo rather than wait for the next tram. Elias, recently turned two years old, was a good trooper and walked as far as he could before we had to carry him.

Culinary Capers

Did I mention that Eric has become quite the cook? David and Fred and I have been away from home at dinnertime altogether too often in the past couple of months and Eric's often had to "fend for himself" for dinner. He's decided that he really doesn't like meat very much, so recently he made Shrimp-Fried Rice and Fish Stew. In the process, he learned how to clean fresh shrimp and cook fish that's not been fileted. His culinary inspirations tend to come from You Tube videos, and he usually finds out he needs to alter the recipe because we don't have some of the ingredients on hand. The picture here is the birthday "cake" Eric made for me - we didn't have any cake mix left, so he improvised with chocolate-chip muffins!