Autumn came a few days early

The rain came yesterday in Portland, which leaves me a bit conflicted and confused about the seasons.

This has been a strange summer by my measures. It began pregnant, on bedrest, and with countless hours spent wondering what to do with my time before my baby girl arrived.


Two days into the summer, she came to us.


I hardly recognize that girl now.


Now, after buying a house, packing, moving and unpacking, doing some finishing house projects and cleaning up the messy backyard that came with the house, heading back to work, caring for 2 kids and a husband, and all the day-to-day routines that comprise my days (and nights too!), I seem to to have missed the summer days that August and September brought my way.

In my mind, it has been autumn for the past three weeks. I was shocked every time I wandered out of the house in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt to find it was 85 or 90 degrees.

Even though I missed berry picking, camping, tanning, swimming in a lake, and many other summer adventures this year, I guess I've been a little bit ready for the season to change and I didn't even know it.

So I was pretty excited when Addison asked to get out his umbrella out of the closet and wanted to wear his new boots to go for a little walk in the rain.







Autumn, here we come!

saving beauty

I noticed that my neighbors trimmed the flowers from their dill plant when I saw them in our shared yard debris container. Seemed like a good idea, so I followed suit with my own plant, hoping to encourage it to keep producing its tasty leaves.

But it seemed a waste to toss those pretty flowers out, so I brought them in and put them in a vase on my dining table, which now smells a bit like dill pickles. It only makes sense really. Wouldn't you rather smell fresh herbs while you eat than perfumey lilies or roses?

trip to Anthropologie

I've been trying hard to beat the heat here in Portland, as we are experiencing multiple days in 100+ degree weather. The house is pretty miserable, and we've been living in the basement all together at night. During the day, Drew and I head out anywhere where we can stay entertained and cool. In some ways, its kind of nice because it has given me an excuse to do some of the window shopping I love, but am usually to busy to get to.

Yesterday, we took a little trip to Anthropologie, which is a fun place to take pictures. I didn't even look at the clothes. Why torture myself when I am still trying to get my waist back? But that's ok, there was plenty to look at over in the housewares.



I would love to have a kitchen comprised of dishes purchased here. I mean, aren't these just the most gorgeous drinking glasses you've ever seen?



Sadly, I cannot afford the steep price of $12 apiece.





Most of all, I've been wanting one of these botanical coffee table books for a long time. I keep scanning thrift stores in the hopes tht someday I'd get lucky and find one used, but I think that might just be too much to ask of the thrifting gods...
Maybe for Christmas this year? (ahem....hint, hint to my family readers!)

Summer garden into Sunday dinner

I'm trying to keep up with this blog, I really am.

The weekend was a good lesson in how wonderful and difficult it can be juggling two children. Saturday was a total mess of a day, filled with toddler tantrums, baby crying followed by ungodly amounts of spit-up (how is it possible that ALL THAT came out of her?!?), and parental meltdowns. It was not pretty.

Sunday fully redeemed itself with long naps, quality time with each of my little munchkins, alone time, and a fantastic dinner straight from our garden in its' prime.






First I chopped all of these delicious items (walla walla sweet onion, sungold cherry tomatoes, and lemon cucumber) and tossed them in a bowl with feta. This has quickly turned into my favorite summer salad.



Next, I browned sweet Italian sausage from Trader Joe's, added more walla wallas, yellow pattypan squash,

red bell peppers (not from our garden) and fresh basil and simmered it all and served it on top of some cute stripey bowtie pasta my mother-in-law brought us from her trip to Italy.


Sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan on top and it was divine!

I could eat like this every day. I love meals with lots and lots of fresh vegetables, and a little protein on top of some type of pasta, grain or bread. A bottle of Viognier made the perfect finish, and this mama was feeling happy and satisfied!

Sweet children make life nice too....

garden morning

I woke up really early this morning...one of the curses and luxuries of being 8 months pregnant, I suppose. I took the opportunity to photograph our growing garden in the morning sunlight.



Remember how we started from this?


Here's our garden box in the flesh. We made a few minor adjustments, though its essentially the same.


Everything is growing quite nicely, with a few peapods on the vine, tomato and pepper blossoms popping out,

tiny strawberries ripening, and carrot, beet, chard, and few unknown veggies sprouting (I think they're cucumbers that sprouted from the compost we mixed in).

We've also got potatoes,

shallots, onions, yellow patti-pan squash, lemon cucumbers,

and lots of herbs. Yum... I can't wait.

They're pretty too.


Other highlights outside include Addison's numbers drawn neatly from 1 - 20 (directly on the house, but hey, this is one of those battles that has not been chosen),


and our one sunflower that sporuted and survived the transplant from indoor seeding.


Its going to be a fun summer close to home!

I'm back!

I had a wonderful time, but I am in need of a little time to re-acclimate to my daily life. Until I've collected myself and feel a bit more centered, I will leave you with a couple of snippets from my lovely, lovely trip to far away.





Anyone have any tips for re-entry into life after vacation? I'm feeling a little overwhelmed...

Margherita Pizza

Cooking Light is one of my absolute favorite places to look for foolproof recipes. (and no, they didn't pay me to say that). I think the magazine is fantastic, with great pictures, recipes, party menus, and quick dinner ideas. I got this recipe from my Cooking Light Complete Cookbook, and like all the other things I've tried, it turned out really yummy. You can see the recipe here, but here's a synopsis:

I used a pre-kneaded, but fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods, brushed it with olive oil, garlic and herbs from my garden, then baked it at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.







Then I topped it with my garden tomatoes (purple cherokee) and fresh buffalo mozzarella (bufala, as they say in italy. I'm still reading Under the Tuscan Sun)



Back in the oven it went for another 12 minutes



I topped it with more fresh basil, salt and pepper, and a tiny splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It smelled divine, and tasted even better.





We finished off the meal with some watermelon from the farmer's market.



Oh summer, won't you stay just a little longer?