On the farm.

Preserved lemon test.

Around here....

Around here, we've made a huge sticky mess. We've also had a chest x-ray, a busted air conditioner, and Fresca Margaritas.

Around here....

The summer is winding down (today is the first day of school) but our dreams will still be summery for a while....

Around here....

Around here, my chickens are cute but the neighbor's chicken is cuter. (Miniature AND feathered feet? No contest. She's like a ball of feathers that follows you around the yard.) Also, plum tart, Bay Bridge deconstruction and the messiest tastiest burger I've eaten in a long time (from Prather Ranch Meat Co. in the Ferry Building). I'm still thinking about it.

Around here....

Are your kids playing a lot of Asgardians versus Zombies?
Or is it just mine?

Around here....

Around here, I wake up every morning with a wildly exaggerated sense of what I will be able to accomplish during the day. And? Not every pie is a winner. Peach, yes. Chocolate, no.

Around here....

I got my firstborn monkey back from camp safe and sound, though on further inspection, it was discovered that he had neither showered nor changed his underwear nor brushed his teeth for a week. We soaked him and scrubbed him and put him in an autoclave for a little while. Good as new.
It's summer and something magical happens almost every day. Some days you have to look a little harder than others. Some days, a ride through the carwash counts as magic. Of course it does.

Around here....

Around here, everything is drying out, but there's homemade vanilla bean ice cream, and a newly yellow bathroom. I've been spending way too much time alone with this dude. We've begun to dress alike - that's right - quadruple the plaid!

Around here: cinnamon milk chocolate.

The cinnamon milk chocolate ice cream is a downright triumph. Plus, this is the first batch of ice cream I did not overchurn and I'm feeling downright triumphant about it. The recipe is a mix of this one and that one. If you're planning to make a batch, I'll send you the measurements and instructions....

Around here: fresh strawberry.

I did it again. I took another week off. It was not my intention and all I can say is this: My so-called elementary school life? Is killing me. And while I am prone to amplify - I sometimes think that elementary school might actually be the death of me.
Recipe for strawberry ice cream, which was quite good, very very good really - here.

Around here: honey vanilla.

 So - I accidentally took a week off here. It happens.

Around here, Memorial Day is the beginning of summer, sure. But what we really look forward to is: Summer Mom. This year she arrived on Memorial Day weekend, as she often does - and turned on her heel and left, disgusted that we still had three weeks of school left. We were called: No fun. And then it rained.
We tried to lure her back with tie-dye. (To no avail.) She wouldn't even give us a top ten list, but yelled over her shoulder something about twenty kinds of homemade ice cream and random acts of kindness.
Honey vanilla was a brilliant start in the homemade ice cream department - recipe here.

Around here....

Around here we have culled the basil. Not the hens. In case you're wondering, clipping one wing (recommended by the internets - on the grounds that it throws their balance off enough) will not stop a hen from flying over the fence.
And? Now, I have an aggressive hen who is pecking the bejabbers out of us - and who can blame her? She's off balance, she's about to lay an egg, and she's protecting the flock from the crazy non-farmer who learned how to clip one wing from a YouTube video.
Some of the internets are suggesting I cull her. Other internets are suggesting behavior modification. Which - seems equally ridiculous, but I'm going that way. You know. Because it's worked so well on my kids.
Chickens were SUCHAGOODIDEA!