So. Many. Decisions.

I might eat my words someday but for now I’m saying never: I’m never building a house from scratch, renovating a room is challenging enough.  On the other hand it’s also very, very exciting and fun!

Last Thursday was all about the beam.

Tate built temporary supporting walls on either side of where the wall used to be and then these handymen put up a header beam to hold up the ceiling.

And now it’s open and beautiful and dry-walled!

Even though our old kitchen is still fully intact, cooking elaborate meals has taken a back burner to gardening and kitchen building.

Meal-making starts with a trip to the garden for greens, my garden is overflowing with them; lettuce, spinach, kale, radish, beet, arugula, and collards!  Often times our lunch is a green salad with some protein and grain.  By dinnertime I want something a little hardier and go for kale chips or a kale salad.

My latest favorite kale salad is savory, rich, and filling.  I love the addition of nutritional yeast because it adds protein and umami, both of which help me feel sated.

Meals are now eaten on the kitchen steps or al fresco, which is a perfectly fine by me on these gorgeous Spring evenings.

A few big decisions remain, including paint colors, back-splash, and cabinet handles…

Good thing, because I’d already eaten them.

They were tasty!

I sauteed them in coconut oil with chopped zucchini and used it to top pizza.

They have a mild garlic/onion flavor and the texture is reminiscent of asparagus.  I used the bud part too and it was a little tough, I had pickled scapes over the weekend that only used the stalky part so I probably should have omitted the bud.

Next time I think I would just throw them in the jar when making pickled ramps and/or radishes.

Have you cooked with scapes?

Some scenes from the weekend…

[Thank you Kath for the above images!]

My darling friend Frances made me a Faithified birthday cake; sprouted spelt flour sweetened with honey and full of coconut oil and avocado!  It was scrumptious!

It’s my favorite time of year: berry foraging season!  Black and white mulberries, mmmm.

Saturday birthdays are the best!  Especially when it coincides with a town-wide festival.  The Tom Tom Founders Festival supplied music and entertainment throughout the whole weekend.

Hope you had a delicious, friend-filled, and rejuvenating weekend!

Here are some virtual flowers for the mommas in my life.

First, and foremost, my mother Diana, who gave birth to me on a spring morning 31 years ago.  Momma, thank you.

And thank you to my grandmother, you are an inspiration and have taught me most of what I know about poise, etiquette, and grace.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother-in-law who helped my husband become the phenomenal man that he is today and to my step-mother who is a wonderful friend, source of support, and partner for my papa.

For my big sister, who had the courage and strength to become a mom to my amazing niece.

To the many women in my life who have taken on ‘mom roles’ for me at different points along the way.

To Kath, who is celebrating her first Mother’s Day (as a pregnant lady)!

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mommas out there.   You are incredible.

While I haven’t been publicly ruminating on this birthday like I was the last, it’s still been on my mind over the last several weeks.  In general, I love birthdays, especially other people’s birthdays.  It’s the one day of the year we each get to ourselves, to be celebrated and honored.  Birthdays also tend to be an introspective time, especially as an adult.

Last year I did a lot of preparation before embarking on my 30′s.  I vowed to interrupt less, to cut back on mindless munching, to take better care of my skin and improve my stress coping methods, to not overeat anymore, and to let go of negative body thoughts about my knobby knees and fat fingers.

Boy was I ambitious back in my 20′s.

This list was lofty but also realistic, reading back over my ‘goals’ I can see how I’ve been successful in all of these areas.  Maybe I still occasionally forget the sunscreen or toss food in my mouth without complete awareness but overall I was able to leave many of those “bad habits” back with my 20′s.

Speaking of being introspective around birthdays, I am pleased to report the I checked in with myself and where I am at in my life and decided that I am perfectly content and very happy.  I love my town, my friends, my home, my family, and my husband perhaps more than ever before.  Life is so good.

Back in October I tenderly shoved cloves into the ground and before long they started sprouting.

Originally I was going to write a post on garlic scapes, because although I’ve never actually eaten them before I’ve heard that they are one of those fleeting Spring treasures.   I was all excited to chop off the scapes and make all kinds of tasty treats when I realized, thru a little research, that I might have planted softneck garlic, not the hardneck variety that produces a scape.

Here’s the type I planted, no hardneck.  Or has it just been chopped off?

To add to my dismay, it appears that the shoots my garlic is putting off are a last resort at survival.

Help! Am I growing a softneck variety that is ready for harvest because it’s about to bolt or am I growing a hardneck, in which case I should let the scapes curl and then eat them up?

One thing I know for sure, I have greens galore!

Last night we were lucky enough to be invited over to a friend’s for dinner and I brought the salad.  The base was finely chopped Red Russian kale massaged with toasted sesame oil and smoked sea salt.  I also threw in some preserved lemons, thin slices of fresh red radish from the garden, chive blossoms, and a sprinkle of grated raw milk herb cheese from the farmer’s market.

It was an awesome combo and a big hit, I will definitely repeat and next time try to snap a photo!

This morning my dining room looked like this.

The art and trim was down already but still a functional room.

Right now the same view (from the old kitchen doorway) looks like this.

The new kitchen will be on the far side and the dining room will remain in the front room.

It’s going to be ridiculous.  This is my 8th home as an adult (or whatever) and this will be the first truly great kitchen I’ve ever had.  (It better be truly great at least!)

One, of many, decisions to be made is regarding lighting.

We are leaving the kitchen ceiling tall and open.

We’ll paint it white and maybe put wainscoting between the beams.   Any advice for lights? We are thinking some sort of track system but we’ve heard complaints that they get dirty really quick and burn out often.

Thank goodness our ‘old’ kitchen is still functioning!  Right now we have to go out the front door and through the yard to get to it but at least it’s still available.  Especially with all the garden goodies that are coming in right now, it would be very sad (and kind of gross) to be washing lettuce in the bathroom sink.

Have you ever done renovation on your house?  Was it a dream or a nightmare?  So far, so good here.  I get a little anxious because the house is in disarray but the light at the end of this tunnel is shining on me!

There are mountain peaks on several continents that I probably wouldn’t have seen the top of if it were not for him.   There was a marathon that I would have (sensibly) only run half of, had he not said ‘let’s just do the full’.  A few times I even got in a whitewater kayak and crashed down some class three rapids.  And there have been about a thousand incidents like this morning, where we walk the mile and a half to work instead of drive.

Yesterday he motivated me to run nearly 7 miles, or about 3 more than normal these days.

While I was running he was swimming 1.2 miles. And biking 56 miles.  And running 13.1 miles.

Just as Tate motivates me to move more, he might say that I remind him to take his time and build up to things.  For example, he told me a year or two ago that he wanted to complete an ironman by the time he turned 40.  I said ‘great, sure, sounds good, why don’t you start with some smaller triathalons, build up to a half ironman, and culminate with a full ironman’.   He skipped the Sprint and Olympic distances but at least he decided a half would be a good starting place.

Tate and our friend Will competed in the Monticello Man Half Ironman event.  They were smiling first thing but they were both little nervous!

I brought books and magazines to keep me occupied but the morning flew by and I had a great time watching all the competitors, seeing Tate come in and out of the transitions, and going for a few runs myself.

Tate made great time out of the water and in no time he was starting his 56 miles on the bike.

Sadly yet impressively, he got a flat around mile 20 and had to change it out.  He only had a wimpy little pump and rode the final 36 miles with very low pressure in his tire!

I started the run with him but honestly I could barely keep up!  I’d already covered about 3.5 miles on my own and he was going fast!  Still it was fun to catch up with him mid-event and hear how he was feeling.  After nearly two miles I headed back to the finish for a picnic lunch and eagerly anticipated seeing him round the last corner.

It didn’t take long!

Talk about a strong finish, his feet aren’t even touching the ground!

He was wiped last night but had no problem walking several blocks to go out to dinner and today he says his IT bands (legs and hips basically) are feeling a little overworked, otherwise he’s feeling good.

So proud.

So impressed.

So motivated to move.

Unlike National Salad Month, Herb Day is a grassroots, international movement with the intention of spreading knowledge and awareness of the amazing powers of herbs.

In celebration of Herb Day I want to share with you my favorite drink these days.

Lemongrass Tea

Our sweet neighbor gave us a large bag of dried lemongrass that he brought back with him from Haiti.  At first I was a little perplexed as to what to do with it all but once I started making this tea the bag is quickly diminishing and I’ll have to go find some more soon!

I’ve always loved the unique flavor of lemongrass but usually associate it with savory, spicy  Thai food.   I stuck with the Thai theme for this tea and brewed it up with ginger and finished it with lots of lime.

The tea will keep in the fridge for up to a week so I make big batches at a time.

In my biggest stock pot I throw in a few small handfuls of the dried lemongrass and lots of slivers of fresh ginger.  No need to peel the ginger, just give it a good wash.  Next I fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes.

I don’t add any sweetener but if you wanted to, now would be the time, while the tea is still hot enough to melt the honey or dissolve the stevia or sugar.

Once the pot of tea has cooled I use a funnel to fill my Ikea pop top jars and store in the fridge.

I usually go ahead and make another, weaker, pot of tea with the ginger and lemongrass but it can also just be tossed in the garbage or compost at this time.

This tea kept reminding me of something I’d had before and I just realized what it is; emoliente!  I drank emoliente from street vendors in Peru and once or twice bought packs of herbs and mixed it up in our little apartment in Miraflores.

I found a lovely little video tutorial on making tea, check it out if you are more of a visual learner.  This women has also convinced me that I need to grow lemongrass, especially since it acts as an insect repellent!

Other cool properties of lemongrass:

• high in antioxidants
• diuretic
• relieves gas and stomach discomfort
• antimicrobial and antifungal

Happy Herb Day!

May is a busy birth month! My day is the 12th and I know dozens of others coming up in the next several weeks.  Yay for Spring birthdays!

May is a busy month in general.

This weekend I am teaching a yoga class at our local Lululemon showroom.  The class is an all-levels Vinyasa and it’s FREE to attend!  If your in the area and want to get down with the chataranga I’ll see you at 10am this Saturday!  Did you know that Lululemon stores have free classes?  I used to take advantage of this regularly when I lived in Portland and even got to teach once or twice.  It’s a really fun community service!

The following Saturday, the 12th (does that day sound familiar? ), I am performing!  This is a very neat project; I am performing at South Street Brewery as part of the Tom Tom Founders Festival Locavore Expo.    Not only will I be dancing in the dining room but I will perform between chef demos!  I love taking dance out of the theater! Why dance as part of an expo celebrating local food?  I’m dancing about vegetables!

What are you looking forward to this month?