I am a coin collector, of sorts.

No, not the kind who has binders of neatly categorized coins from all over the world and all through time, but rather the kind who sees a dime on the ground, and everything stops until I get that coin in my possession.
And any coins that I find around the house (wallet, washing maching, etc.) are immediately pooled together with a satisfying clink that only money on money makes.

When I was little, I had one of those tootsie roll banks that I saved my money in. I didn’t save much (if you ask my mom) but I did manage to build a tiny nest egg with my allowance. And on Saturdays, when the allowance payment came through, I (displaying my virgoan tendencies) would dump all the change out, line them up like little soldiers, and one-by-one, count them all up again.

And all this from someone who can’t do math to save her life.

I haven’t done the counting part in a long time (and you’ll be pleased to know that I no longer line the coins up before counting them) and what with the new year and all, I decided it’s time. A new tradition is born! I will start each new year with a wealth of spare change!

So I spent some time on Saturday, painstakingly counting out change by two’s. By the way, it’s hard to stop counting in two’s once you do it for an hour or so.

I expected about $50 and would have been happy with $20.

I counted over $100 and nearly pooped my pants.

Not really. It’s just a figure of speach.

So exciting! And convenient, since someone I know has a birthday coming up.

That’s how I’m feeling right now. Date night is good for the soul, I tell ya. We had a really good meal, good wine, ran into all kinds of old friends, and totally managed to avoid talking about Dash. I think the only time he came up was when other people asked about him. (Don’t worry little guy, it’s not like we forgot about you. Just having some much needed adult time/conversation.)

And it’s this good feeling that I’ve been holding on to and has kept me from getting totally pissed off at the 47 neighbors who have been out with leaf blowers all weekend long. Seriously people. How lazy are you? Unless you’re very old or physically cannot rake you do not need a leaf blower.* You need a rake. That’s all.

*unless of course you, my lovely readers, have a leaf blower. in that case, i applaud your efficiency.

Just one more week of our CSA veggies to go but I already have a pantry full of tomatoes, parsnips, carrots, beets, onion, garlic, and squash. It’s hard to keep up, I tell ya. We share a share, and still the sheer amount of veggies is a bit overwelming, especially with a baby on hand. He doesn’t seem to care that I’m charged with feeding the family in addition to playing with him. Pounds of tomatoes to deal with? Hello, I want to play peek-a-boo again.

Maybe it’s that I’m a sucker for peek-a-boo, but I’ve let a few weeks of veggies pile up and am feeling the pressure to use it or lose it. That’s right. I’m gettin’ all tough on the veggies now. I’m bad.

So the plan? This weekend I’ll be making a double batch of chicken soup (carrots, onions, parsnips) to freeze for colder days, and then salsa (tomatoes, onions, garlic) to be canned and put in the basement, and then ultimately I might just blanch and freeze whatever is leftover that we won’t be able to eat in time. That’s right, parsnips. I’m talking to you. And of course, whatever can be pureed for Dash will be pureed for Dash. I wonder if he’ll be sick of squash by December.

While we’re talking about food, let’s talk dinner. It’s only 11:36 and I’ve already planned what we’re having. You have to, you know. If I don’t, we end up with take out and that’s not always budget friendly. It’s tasty, but not budget friendly.

Tonight’s dinner will come from the October edition of Everyday Food. I made this a couple of weeks ago and we both loved it so why not make it again? Tonya “pick a recipe and run it into the ground” Sattin strikes again. But seriously, this is delicious and I recommend you try it. Here is the recipe with our edits:

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes

1/4 cup all-purpose organic flour
4-6 organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 T organic olive oil
1 medium organic onion, diced
1 piece, 2 inches, fresh ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick
1 carton or more organic chicken broth [or homemade if you have it]
2 medium sweet potatoes or yams peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
[or substitute with a can of chick peas or half s. potatoes/half chick peas]
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 cup organic couscous [or organic brown rice]

Place flour in a shallow bowl. Season chicken with s & p; dredge in flour, shaking off excess. In a heavy pot or dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high. Add chicken, and cook until browned, 4 to 6 minutes per side; transfer to a plate.

If using rice in place of couscous, make it now.

Add onion, ginger, and cinnamon to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Return chicken to pot. Add broth and sweet potatoes (or chick peas). Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and sweet potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard ginger and cinnamon, stir in lemon juice, and season stew with salt and pepper.

While stew is simmering, prepare couscous. Serve stew over couscous and enjoy, preferably on a cool, windy, even rainy, day.

Yum!

It’s that time of the year again. The air is cool, the wind a little crisp. This morning at six, it was still dark out.

This time of the year is always tinged with a bit of sadness. No more summer. No more heat. No more picnics at Two Lights. Bummer.

But as we get closer to Halloween and the first days of wearing sweaters, I start to perk up a bit. It’s apple season! Time to pile in the car and take Dash out for his first orchard excursion. That in itself would have been an easy task, though we wanted to find an organic orchard that was within an hour of Portland. I was surprised at how difficult that turned out to be. There are only two.

Two.

Out of about twenty-one.

That means nineteen orchards within an hour of us are spraying their apples with pesticides. That sucks. But that is not the point of this so I’ll let it go. For now.

We (Neil, Dash, me, and my parents, aka Meme and Bum) drove over to Raven Hill Orchard in East Waterboro on Sunday. (They don’t have a website yet, so no link! But see here for further information about how to find them.)

They’re in their first year of production and it’s a beautiful little spot. Go go go if you’re thinking about going. And if you’re not thinking about going, what’s your problem?
Go! You don’t even have to pick apples. You could just hang out in their coffee shop and laugh at your lame apple picking friends. You know, there’s something for everyone.

Anyway, as it turned out, Dash didn’t really want to pick apples. Go figure. What he elected to do was sleep. Through the entire two hours we were there. But the rest of us had a great time picking a few common varieties and lots of tasty heirloom apples.

Hudson’s Golden Gem, anyone?

Holiday gift spoiler alert!!

This is going to make some mighty fine apple butter for someone’s Christmas toast.

We pullled it off! We hosted our first ever house concert last night, though you wouldn’t know it today—aside from having all our furniture in new and exciting places, and what with the exhaustion we’re all feeling. As in, can’t drag butt off the couch, can barely reheat leftover Indian food for lunch, kind of exhaustion.

Our friends Peter and Sally are on a national tour promoting Sally’s album and we managed to convince them to play that hot Portland nightspot known as “Tonya and Neil’s Living Room.” Amazingly, they were happy to do it, which meant, shit, we have a ton of work to do! Invites went out, a menu was planned, and when they pulled in town on Wednesday with their dog, Sampson, we were ready to go.

I let Neil rearrange my (my!) living room and dining room to accommodate his vision for the show, and though I disagreed then, I’m willing to admit publically that he was right. His vision involved a lot of furniture moving but it ended up creating the ultimate salon setting for the show. A setting that will not show well in my photos below. Somewhat because we had a small house filled with people and therefore could not move into the proper photo-taking positions, but mostly because I’m a bad photographer. There, I said it.

So the scene was set, food and drink was put out (including some generous donations by Maple’s Organics and Zarra’s Monumental Coffee House—Thank You!), and the house filled with people. Friends, I’m so impressed! Thank you for coming and making for one truly lovely evening of music and laughter. Also impressive? I think your combined donations to the band amounted to more than some of their gigs have paid. For real. You are very generous and I (and they) thank you!

Here are some rather bad pictures from the evening. Some funky setting on my camera takes these fuzzy shots which I kind of like and mostly don’t.

Sally and Peter play on our poorly lit stage.
The sound was incredible which had a whole lot to do with their amazing talent and a just a teeny bit to do with the acoustics in our house. I’m thinking about hiring them on as our house band. Actually, I’m thinking of hiring them to be our kitchen help, too. Aside from their musical abilities, they cook and clean like dream houseguests. Love that!

One side of the living room and a glimpse of the dining room. I swear it was more crowded than this makes it look.

And just one more photo from last night, which I like to call, “Sweet Potatoes Is Good.”