Endless gifts

I've been reading One Thousand Gifts, by Ann VosKamp this weekend.  What a beautiful book this is.  I can't stop pondering her words.  The book is about embracing everyday blessings and writing them down.  I have practiced writing down the endless gifts in my life before, and I've also used photography as a way to document them.  This practice has always been rewarding, yet in the busyness of life, the habit tends to fade away after a few weeks.  It seems like today is as good as any, to start once again.  The act of writing down the gifts helps me to be more intentional about looking for them- and there are so many.  I'll keep a notebook for this purpose, but to get me started today, I thought I'd share a few here:  a mountain that comes out with the sun Saturday preparations for a Sunday brunchsummertime food at the farmer's marketa private retreatcharming neighborhoods to explore with friendsfreckle faced cutieingredients from nature, perfect as isbut also very good in a crisp....That crisp was delicious...too good not to share.  Here's the recipe, from this month's Country Living magazine:

  Mixed Berry Crumble

1 pint blackberries

1/2 pint raspberries

1/2 pint strawberries

   (or just use whatever berries are available)

1/4 cup honey

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.  In a large bowl, mix berries.  Drizzle with honey.  Sprinkle with 4TBS flour and toss.  Transfer fruit to an 8x8 baking dish

2.  In a large bowl, mix remaining flour, oats, brown sugar, and butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until mixture forms large, crumbly lumps.  Sprinkle over berries.  Bake until golden brown, 45-50 minutes.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Cooking Classes

click on image for creditI taught my first cooking class today.  Waldorf salad was the first lesson.  It went reasonably well.  I started making a cookbook too, which will be a work in progress, as we cook together each week.  I just took a three ring binder and filled it with plastic page protectors, so that we could slip in the recipes we've tried. I printed off the image above, from one of my favorite illustrators, to decorate the front cover.  The plan is for me to bring everything needed for a simple meal to this lady's home each week, where we'll work together to cook, doubling everything, so that I can take a meal home to my family, and leave one with her. 

A little more than one year ago, the lady I'm now teaching was living in her car, eating chips for every meal.  A private organization that I work with helped her get into her own home.  I volunteered as her "companion", and was asked to teach her some basic cooking skills.  That was seven months ago.  We've been meeting once a week since that time, but today was the first time that we made it into the kitchen.  It was an exciting day, because this meant so much than just a cooking lesson.  Cooking lessons were not possible for all these prior months because there were so many other, more immediate needs that needed tended to in the time I had to offer each week.  I won't go into those details, but suffice it to say, her life has taken a dramatic turn for the better- skills are being learned, and greater independence is becoming possible. 

I am learning so much from this experience, such as the importance of withholding judgement, and never assuming anything about another person.  I'm so thankful to have met this dear lady.  And now, I'm so happy that I get to share something that I love with her....cooking! 

An example of how I'm learning to never assume anything, from our cooking lesson today....this lady is twenty something years of age, but today was her first experience using a knife to cut up an apple.  She was scared to try.  And the chicken...she couldn't even look at it until I had pulled it off the bone and cut it up.  She is used to seeing everything already processed.  I just smiled and told her it was a good thing that I brought an already cooked Rotisserie chicken instead of a raw one!  So we're starting at the very beginning.  But I was there once too.  I didn't cook any kind of chicken, but the boneless, skinless variety until I was probably twenty five, so I understand.  Next week she wants to make a casserole.  Here's the recipe for the Waldorf salad we made today, from Cheap, Fast, Good.  It's a family favorite at my house.

Children's Art Collage

I started playing around with the scanner and some of the boy's artwork today, using Picnik. Fun!  The artist that inspired me (photo below) can turn your child's art into a beautiful framed collage.  For more information about that, click on the image. click on image for credit

The Lawn Mower Goats

Oh, how I wanted to take one of these cuties home, as a pet.  I think my dog might get jealous though.  She's a bit of a diva.  These are the lawn mowing rent-a-goats.  They were cleaning up an area just down the street from my house the other day.  They will even eat the blackberry bushes that tend to get out of control around here.  As a bonus, they fertilize the grass too. :)I'm sad to say that they're already gone.  They did their job quickly and moved on, somewhere else.  I'm glad that I had a chance to take some photos.   This isn't something you see everyday in the city. 

Giveaway- Ruche

Here's a chance to win a $100 gift card to Ruche.  Go and take a peak at their look book.  I love their clothes.  For a chance to win,  post a link to the look book on your own blog and leave a comment on this post at the Ruche blog, with a link back to your post. click on image for credit