Dixie Queen

Last Wednesday, the monkeys and I went to visit my niece/their cousin at East End. I pretty much grew up at East End. Before or after each skating session, I usually ate at Old Tyme Frozen Custard next door. When I was sixteen, I worked there. I flipped burgers, made shakes, and concocted new and exciting desserts. I got nostalgic for my frozen custard days, so I took the kids for a treat. It's Dixie Queen now, and not exactly the same, but the lime freeze is still on the menu. We used to make them look pretty with lime slices and cherries, maybe even some whipped cream? The flair is gone, but the taste is still the same.

Sushi for Kids

No cooking camp would be complete without a sushi lesson, right? I asked the talented and generous Marissa Baggett if she'd come to the school and do a demo. She happily agreed and even suggested we use vegetables from the school's garden. (Warren and I supplemented with a few things from our Whitton Farms CSA.)

Warren and I both went to watch and help out. It was so awesome to see the kids SO interested in what Marissa had to say. They were really excited about making sushi. Throughout the demo there were lots of questions, hands in the air, and clapping!

No one was more excited than Satchel.

When it was the kids' turn to make their own sushi, I was really impressed with how well they did. Even more impressive was watching them eat what they made!

Miss Emma supplemented the meal with some edamame and leftover fruit salad. Marissa brought green tea mochi ice cream for dessert--one of our favorites--but a new flavor/texture for many. It was great to see them discovering new things.

TCBY Talk

In the summertime, Team Oster develops a bit of a TCBY habit due to the store's proximity to the JCC pool. On a walk through the forest on Sunday morning, we were discussing our plan to take advantage of the free Father's Day cone when I mentioned that a TCBY was opening on Union soon near the "shoe store" (Outdoors, Inc.). Satchel seemed really excited to have one so close, but then he quickly re-decided that Union wasn't close enough. He said, "I want a TCBY..." As he tried to think of a close location, I suggested that he "build" one near his school. He thought about it for a second and then said, "My school is in a neighborhood! TCBY needs to be in a town with other stores."

Sorry, but that just made me happy. Then we agreed that Broad Avenue would be a good spot, and that a locally grown ice cream/frozen yogurt/popsicle shop would be best.

Speaking of the free yogurt, we pondered whether moms got free yogurt in May. (The pool isn't open on Mother's Day so we don't know.) Then Satchel asked when he and Jiro got free yogurt. I'm assuming he meant a "Kids eat free" day. Warren replied, "You and Jiro are free everyday."

Satchel did not pick up on the sarcasm. Instead he chose to tease that I would be the only person who had to pay for her frozen yogurt on Sunday.

Hula

So a few months ago, I read a frightening article called Stand up while you read this online at the New York Times site. The article basically says that if you sit at a desk for 8 hours a day you will be fat forever. It also says that if you work out everyday and then sit at a desk for 8 hours, you will still be fat forever. (I may be exaggerating a bit, but not much.)

I haven't figured out how to make my desk a stand up desk yet--anyone have any ideas?--but I did think that maybe by bringing the hula hoop that was gathering dust in my bedroom to the office, I might be motivated to stand up every once in awhile and get my blood moving.

My hula hoop is a special sport hoop that is weighted and molded to maximize weight loss. Supposedly the recommended hooping is ten minutes, twice a day.

Turns out I haven't done much hooping at the office either, but boy has it been fun watching my coworkers hula hoop. It's irresistible! Plus, I pretty much demand that anyone who visits my cube give it a try before they talk business with me.



And before you ask, no that precious baby doesn't actually work with me. Her grandmother does!

Want to guess how many of my co-workers own their own hoops now?

I Survived Rock-n-Romp 6-19

On Saturday we had a Rock-n-Romp at Mud Island. My day started out at 8:45am, when Warren and I went over to the Junkyard Camp to help The Junkman load up one of his sound sculptures. Mud Island needed us to load everything in before 10am!


Our early morning efforts were well worth it though as The Junkman led the crowd in three separate thirty minute "Junk Jams." Basically he kept the beat and whoever wanted to come bang around was welcome to.


Jiro sat next to me for a bit and taught me how to do the "Abraham Lincoln" beat he learned at camp. (Satchel did "George Washington.)


I think the sound sculpture was equally popular with the parents and kids!


About 45 minutes into the show, I noticed Scott Banbury "freeing up" some cardboard from our extra trash cans so that adults and kids could take to the giant bluff. Check out Scott and Aaron "Air" Shafer riding the grass! (Not surprisingly, many children were rumored to go home with strawberries on their knees and booties.)


I was concerned about keeping kids safe, although the previous picture may prove otherwise, so we had a handful of volunteers scanning the perimeter and watching the fountains. Rock-n-Romp board members were also given whistles should we need to get kids' attention. I only had to use mine once. Satchel, Jiro, and their two buddies escaped to check out the Wolf River harbor. The whistle worked like a charm!


Next up we had Al Kapone! He brought along Muck Sticky and Young AJ for an added bonus.


Here Scott shows Naomi the moves he's been honing at Wild Bill's. Al definitely had the crowd moving!


We also had a small army of volunteers to help us with check in, merch, serving beer and bbq. We totally couldn't have made it without them! Here Mary shows she can serve Q and drink a beer at the same time.


Mmmm...BBQ! Seriously, Central BBQ rocks for giving us the hook up this season!


I couldn't resist going over to chat with Muck Sticky. He is such a friendly, positive guy. Yes, he's a little over the top, but he won me over Saturday.


He even got Satchel to loosen up. (I was calling him "The Weird Kid" for most of the day b/c he refused to wear his swimsuit and play in the water like 99% of the other kids. He was wearing jeans! He did eventually slide down the bluffs and have a good time.)


Between activities, he kept going back for more BBQ. He's definitely going through a growth spurt!


Kids and parents continued to enjoy the "junk" throughout the day. I liked seeing everyone come and go, beat on this and bat on that. It was fun. What I always dreamed the banging wall could be.


The Magic Kids played next and entertained everyone--especially these two cute kids who danced and danced and danced. I got pulled away to chat with some folks who are thinking of starting a Rock-n-Romp in Nashville and missed most of their set, which was a bummer. Bennett, the lead singer, took the time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Shiloh, one of our OG board members, which was especially awesome.


When the show was over, I wasn't sure that we'd be able to get people to leave! Jiro was very busy filling up cups, running back and forth, and generally having a blast. I changed him into dry clothes and he was asleep before we ever got off of the island!


All in all it was a great afternoon. This show probably required more work than any other Rock-n-Romp we've had, so we were all pretty exhausted when it was over. The extreme heat didn't help!

A big thank you to everyone who helped us pull it off, everyone who came out to enjoy the show, and especially to everyone who took the time to say, "Thanks!" or "Good job!"

Chip's fancy pics are linked over at the Rock-n-Romp blog!

Junkyard Camp

The monkeys spent the week on Broad Avenue at the Junkyard Camp led by Donald Knaack, aka "Mr. Junkman." Over the course of five days they learned to keep a beat, play a series of percussion "songs," and help construct three unique sound structures. Yep beating on things, painting, using power tools=the world's most awesome camp ever. The kids had a blast. Everything was recycled and there was an overall environmental theme to the camp as well.

Today Warren and I got to go see them perform and we even got to play ourselves. I also went in the afternoon to see the older group perform...and play a little more myself!



The Junkman and one of his sound sculptures will be at the Rock-n-Romp tomorrow at Mud Island from 2-5pm, so come on out!

eaTABLE Supper Club, Take 2

On Sunday night we had our second meeting of the eaTABLE Supper Club, our version of an underground restaurant. Our chef & sommelier was Michael Hughes, who served as sous chef & sommelier at the first dinner. Justin Fox Burks, our first chef, really set the bar high at our inaugural dinner, but Michael did not shy away from the challenge. His super talented and laid back sous chefs, Max Maloney and Richard Lewis, totally helped him deliver an amazing five course meal inspired by his family.

Melissa & Caleb Sweazy were our fabulous hosts. They opened up their downtown loft and couldn't have been more gracious and inviting. Melissa even snapped some photos so this blog post would be extra pretty. Go ahead, enjoy them...










MIchael's menu was really inventive and delicious. The theme of the meal was heriTABLE since Michael reinterpreted some of his family's recipes. We decided that all eaTABLE meals will be vegetarian. Again we never missed the meat!

#1 "Oysters" Rockefeller paired with Hugues Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet 2008 Coteaux de Languedoc


#2 Saffron Arancini with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis paired with Domaine Houchart 2009 Cotes de Provence


#3 Tortilla Española with Romesco Sauce paired with Tenuta Sant'Antonio Scaia Rossa 2009 Veneto, Italy


#4 Salteñas with Grandma's Hot Sauce paired with Tenuta Sant'Antonio Scaia Rossa 2009 Veneto, Italy (not pictured)


#5 Blue Cheese Shortbread with Blackberry, Fig & Red Wine Preserves & Honeyed Yogurt paired with Tenuta Sant'Antonio Ripasso Monti Garbi 2007 Veneto, Italy

I'm going to be dreaming about that dessert for a long, long time! After dinner we went on the roof for a night cap and enjoyed the fabulous breeze off of the Mississippi. Everything went so smoothly and was so much fun, it just seemed too easy!

Our next dinner is in August. Right now we're doing every other month. Maybe by 2011, we'll do every month. We have a core group of diners/chefs who started this in April, but we plan to move around a have new hosts and new chefs and new diners. Because we do the dinners in people's homes and want to keep it smallish (16 people tops), there's limited opportunity to invite new people, but we do hope to bring in new people along the way. So we're a supper club in one sense, but a restaurant in another. It's complicated, and I guess intentionally and unintentionally exclusive at the same time. If you'd like to follow along on Facebook, we welcome you.

BIG

When we went to play Putt Putt a few weeks ago, I couldn't help thinking of our visit three years earlier. I went back and found the pictures. Look at what a difference three years makes!


On Friday we went to Peabody Park, aka "The Blue Playground," and I really got nostalgic. We used to go there every weekend, but since moving just a few blocks away three years ago, we switched playgrounds. Now we most often go to the "Red Playground" in Overton Park.

I had to go deep into the archives to find these pictures. Jiro always LOVED the sprayground. Apparently he still does!


And finally, my little monkey Satchel. I remember being so scared when he tried going up that curved ladder. I was convinced he'd seriously hurt himself because a little girl we know fell off and broke her leg. (You can see Warren spotting him in the background.)

Nowadays Satchel is so agile, I hardly ever give a second thought to him crawling all over everything.

Cooper Young Farmer's Market

The monkeys and I spent the entire morning at the Cooper Young Farmer's Market. I was working the MLGW booth and they were helping with the Evergreen Montessori booth. It's been a few weeks since I've been at the CYFM. It's really great to see how much its grown! And it was nice to see so many people I know.

We enjoyed a late breakfast of blueberry banana pancakes and tofu scramble from the O.C. Vegan booth, purchased some eggs, reserved a chicken from Downing Hollow Farms, and chatted with many of the other vendors.

The Evergreen booth featured plants, herbs, infused oils, and body scrubs. I love the presentation!






It was a really long morning though thanks to the heat. We cooled off under the misting tent, with blueberry limeade made by O.C. Vegan, lots of water, hanging out by the giant fan--anything and everything. At one point, Jiro even tried pouring gingerale over his head.

Cooking Camp

The kids are finishing up their first week of Cooking Camp at Evergreen. As far as I can tell, they've been having a wonderful time. They are learning useful skills like measuring, and they are getting practice with things like a can opener. Each day they make their own lunch and snack.


When possible, they use ingredients straight from the school's garden. The raspberry tarts were a huge hit!


Oh and there is tons of cutting and chopping with real knives, which they love. The menu has been pretty impressive. Monday they made pasta with crushed beans from the garden and feta cheese; Tuesday they made Apple Jack quesadillas from a Rachael Ray recipe--cheddar, Monterey Jack and apples; Wednesday was fish tacos; Thursday was pizza (they loved rolling out the dough!); and today was borscht.


Yes, borscht. Earlier in the week we got a copy of Bone Button Borscht through our affiliation with the PJ Library (think Dolly Parton Imagination Library but for Jewish kids). It's a Jewy version of the Stone Soup folktale in which everyone pitches in and makes soup. Satchel just loved the story, and since it had a recipe in the back, he asked if they could make it at Cooking Camp.


Because the director of the camp is so cool, she happily obliged Satchel's request. All of the kids signed up for an ingredient and today they made soup. Thankfully we got potatoes as our ingredient. We have tons of potatoes from our CSA! Judging from the picture of today's side dish, I'm guessing that Warren sent over our entire stash!


Next week the kids will be attending the first ever Junkyard Camp, then it's back to Evergreen for more cooking. I've been fiddling of course and have talked the fabulous Marisa Baggett into coming and making sushi with the kids one day.

Putt Putt Golf & Games

On Saturday, I took the monkeys to a birthday party at Putt Putt Golf & Games. It had been three years since our last Putt Putt party. Now that the boys are older, it was suddenly awesome.


Satchel did laser tag with the big kids, and Jiro and I played a round of mini golf. Jiro and I decided to play for fun rather than "versus" (where we'd keep score). It was actually super fun. Then we went inside and joined the party for some pizza & present opening, not to mention Muddy's cupcakes, before getting let loose in the arcade. It's crazy how violent and complicated video games are now, but I tried to just let the whole experience be fun and not think too much about the proliferation of guns, fast cars, and explosives. The monkeys and I actually ended up playing shuffleboard more than anything.

Putt Putt also has a ropes course, go karts, and who knows what else. They do have those games that give you tickets so you can buy a bunch of crap, but thankfully Satchel opted to save his tickets for our next visit so he could get something really good. (Turns out most of the prizes he could "afford" ended up in the birthday goodie bags anyway.)

Satchel has already decided he's having his next birthday there, but I have a feeling we'll be back for some Putt Putt before then. Maybe we'll even go to Doctor Toboggans Invitational Mini-Golf Tournament this Friday.

Ramen Love

No matter how many restaurants I take them to or how many awesome meals Warren makes, the kids' first love will always be Ramen Noodle.

On the Home Front

Longtime readers of this blog may remember my Calling all Winos post from THREE years ago. I had big plans to decorate the yard with wine bottles. That blog post resulted in several hundred wine bottles (and a visit from the health department.)



After breeding mosquitoes for months and months, the bottles eventually got moved to the garage. Then when Warren started turning the garage into his Man Cave, they got moved into the room above the garage.

It wasn't looking good for my wine bottle project. But then, out of nowhere, Warren decided to dig up the ugly ass bushes in the front and plant an herb garden...complete with a wine bottle trim!


I love it! And I can't wait for him to do the flower bed on the opposite side of the porch...and the one on the corner of our front yard!

If the new herb garden wasn't exciting enough, we also got our house painted. A friend of our neighbor's offered to paint it in exchange for Warren's old 4Runner. (It got totaled by a drunk driver, luckily while we were safe in bed and not in it, and had been sitting in front of the house ever since.)

In a bold move, and one that we both wholeheartedly agreed on, we went from boring tan:


to awesome, bold BLUE:


While things may not happen fast around here, they do eventually happen!

War of the Carrots

So I mentioned that we signed up for a half share of produce from Whitton Farms this year. (It's called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.) I've been chronicling what we get and some of the things that we make over at Chop Fayn, like I do, but I thought this story might do better over here.

Our CSA is ruining our marriage!

Ok, not really, but the pressure to eat a half share's worth of produce every week is insane! First off, I want to say that I think Keith Forrester thinks we have a full share, or he just really likes us, because it sure seems like we come home with more than our fair share. Second, keep in mind that we have no choice in what comes in the bag. We take what we get. That means weeks and weeks of the same things, and not always things we like to eat a lot of.

For the past few weeks I've been happily eating salads and eating all of the wonderful things that Warren makes. Sure I have been accused of not eating my share of greens and radishes, but I can only say that in my defense I have eaten more greens and radishes this summer than I have in my whole life!

Last Saturday when I was putting everything away, I decided to do an inventory of what was left. Surprisingly we were almost completely done with the lettuce and greens, but we had an alarming number of radishes and carrots. I innocently thought to myself, "I'll just cut the tops of the carrots off and make them more accessible to snacking." I knew that Warren wanted to do something with the tops, so I kept them off to the side. He came in from Kendo just as I was finishing up and was devastated. He was planning to roast the carrots with the tops on. He'd told me, but I'd spaced it.

There were a few left over so all wasn't lost, but there was the issue of the tops and us not wasting anything from the farm. Warren went to consult the internet and then came back into the kitchen and got out the juicer.


I'm not going to say it was the worst thing he ever made me try (that would be the bearded hedgehog), but I will say that I learned my lesson. The tops stay on!


And just so you know, the roasted carrots--and giant radishes and potatoes--were really, really good. Tonight Warren used the rest of the carrot tops as seasoning for a second round of roasted potatoes.


He also made a really amazing squash and corn chowder that was a big hit with the kids. We also had a really delicious banana smoothie made with raw milk and almond butter. So all in all, having the opportunity to shop fresh and local is expanding our horizons and making us appreciate our food more. But I am soooooo ready for tomato season! Bring it on!