Garlic Lemon Sauce

When my friend Heather moved away, she gave me a fridge full of veggies she wouldn’t be able to finish.  I ended up with an entire crisper drawer full of beets and another full of carrots.  I like beets and carrots just fine … but there were just so many of them.  I probably eat beets once a year.

I roasted them in the oven, the beets and carrots together, as I love to do.  It really is the best most foolproof way to make veggies taste good.  While I was at it, I wrapped a head of garlic in some tin foil and threw it in.

When the veggies were done, I took the garlic and pureed it with the juice of one lemon and a good squirt of olive oil.  The result was even more than I had hoped for.  It’s the kind of sauce you can put on anything and it will make it taste heavenly.

Garlic Lemon Sauce:

Ingredients:

One head garlic

One lemon

¼ to ½ cup olive oil, your call

salt and pepper

Drizzle garlic head with olive oil, wrap in tin foil.  Roast for 60 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Cool garlic in the fridge or freezer until you can handle it.  Puree with the juice of the lemon and stream in the rest of the olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour over veggies or pasta of your choice.  Really divine on root vegetables.

Getting Some Help

The kiddo helped me clean the bathroom today.  Ok, "helped" as in: he stayed out of my way and quiet until I was finished.  But it was great anyway.  How did I do it?  I put a few trains in the bathtub and he was so tickled to play with them there.  Must remember this for the future ... the same toys in a new place sometimes are like a new toys altogether.

Review: Crayola Outdoor Colored Bubbles

It appears that I entered a contest on Facebook and won a bottle of new Crayola Outdoor Colored Bubbles. They arrived at my door yesterday.  Now, I'm not one to sneeze at free stuff for my kid, but I did find it hilarious that the box came with a set of instructions AND A LETTER that repeated the instructions, in case you were planning to skip reading one of them.  Just so you know, this product is for outdoor use only!!  It might stain stuff!!

Also, it's supposed to be used by children over 3, so this review will basically be off-label use.  My kid is not even 2.

My child loves bubbles.  Most kids think they are fascinating.  The best bubble purchase I ever made was a bottle of "unspillable" bubbles that I found on clearance at Target for less than fifty cents.  The kiddo can play with it and drop it and whatever, and usually only a tiny dribble gets on his hands.  Of course, once he shakes it up real well, the bubbles don't exactly work, but I don't care.  He's happy just trying to eat the bubble wand, you know? (Unspillable on the left, Crayola Colored Bubbles on the right:)

But with these colored bubbles, I made sure I was the one in control because the stuff is the color of grape juice.  It's the same consistancy, too; it's like playing with a bottle of grape juice.  The minute I opened it, I had a feeling of panic -- I just felt like I needed to do something about the giant, crazy stain risk I was taking as it dripped all over the back patio.  Maybe it won't really stain; per the instructions (both sets), it will wash out of most clothing, but you might have to pre-treat it and you probably don't want it on your light clothes.

I feel like the instructions should say something like "for bathtime only, when everyone in naked."  Because really, you're going to spill this stuff.  It's going to happen.  It's going to get one your shoes.  Here it is dripped all over the floor.

However, after a few minutes, it faded to nothing.

The bubbles, yes, came out purple as intended.  And ... I don't know, I was not that impressed.  They are still see-through bubbles, just with a purple tint to them.  They look like regular bubbles, just a tiny bit more purple and A LOT MORE MESSY.  You know how when you spill regular bubbles you don't care because it's basically soap?  This stuff is not going to make you happy.

My vote is still for the unspillable bubbles.

The Water Table ...

The water table became a jungle gym today, so after removing my child (and a few other children) from the edge of it for the fiftieth time, I took off the legs.

Now it is some kind of zany wading pool with a slide for all the matchbox cars.  I'm not sure if you can see that very well in the picture, but the kiddo sure crammed as many of them in there as he could.

The Benefits of Being Lazy. I mean Waiting.

The question of toys bothers me. My son is not in daycare/school/whatever you call it, and so the only educational or creative stimulation he gets is what I can give him. We play outside a lot, where I feel like learning will happen with or without fun toys, and we go to playgroups with other kids, but sometimes when I see something cool, I feel the "I want it" desire well up. Good toys teach all kinds of thing -- just think about blocks and musical instruments and sand boxes and water tables and, and, and, that's kind of the problem. There are only 8 bazillion really awesome toys in the world. And at times, I have wanted them all.

There is also the question of time and as a first time mom, this one really gets me. How long will toy X be fun and interesting and cool? Sometimes, it's only for a few months (tummy time mat, anyone?) And when your child finds an interest, you just can't always know if it will be something that lasts. Even when I can ask him, I doubt I'll ever get the right answer to the question of, say, whether or not we should get a piano. So, what do you do? Blow wads of cash on everything he finds exciting and craigslist all the duds?

Well, I am here to talk about the benefits of lazily waiting around. Don’t buy your kid everything.  The first rule of thumb is to only buy them stuff you know they will like.  Wait until you’ve seen them love it at someone else’s house two or three times; then figure out if you really need your own.  Case in point, this cart from Ikea.

Finn loves it and I am not bringing him his very own and he will be ok.  Personally, I am tired of having it rammed into my ankles.  The second rule of thumb – make friends with your neighbors.  And third, let everyone know you have an open door policy to accept anything they want to get rid of.

We don’t know everyone on our block; we don’t have time.  But just from the folks living right next to us we have scored countless freebies.  We always talk about having everyone over for a party or for dinner or something as a thank you, and it’s never happened; but we still get stuff from them.  Sometimes it’s plants for the garden, veggies that will go bad when someone leaves on vacation, that kind of thing.  And sometimes, gloriously, it’s toys.

Sandbox: it was old and gross and muddy and they were going to throw it away; we cleaned it up (hosed it down and left it out in the sun to dry) and bought some new sand.

Little Tykes car: they were tired of tripping over it, and they threw in some baseball bats, balls, and buckets.  OMG the buckets are a huge hit.  That one came out of left field, I was unaware of the wonder of buckets.

One of these things that was a death trap on our driveway.  I gave it to another friend.  You’ve got to spread the free stuff around.

And we have a small pile of crap that my son has picked out of their goodwill bag, which they keep in the carport and let him rummage through.

The sandbox and the car are two items I desperately wanted to buy for my kid about six months before they showed up in our yard for free. The sandbox, I figured, would be so educational, great for sensory play. The car, well, he just loved it every time we saw it at someone else’s house. I didn’t realize that these two items are everywhere. Everyone has one; no one is going to drive across town to buy one from you for five bucks off craigslist. Likewise, if you’ve ever caught yourself looking at a Bumbo chair in the store Stop Do Not Buy It.  Even if you don’t really know anyone with kids, there are so many of those things kicking around the world that you will be able to find one, probably for free.  They, like so many other things created for our kids, just hang around and hang around.

I'm pro-laziness.  Sometimes it pays off.

DIY Thyme Anti-Acne Facial Tonic

Have you heard of this study?  Thyme may be better at curing acne than prescription creams.  More specifically, a tincture made from thyme killed more of an acne-causing bacteria known as Propionibacterium.  It was better than benzoyl peroxide, the main ingredient in most acne creams.

Here's how you can make a tincture to try this for yourself.  You will need:

- fresh thyme
- vodka
- a strainer
- a small, clean glass jar
- two weeks

Wash the thyme and combine it with vodka.  I just stuffed a bunch of thyme sprigs from the garden into a small jar and covered them with the vodka.  Put in the fridge for two weeks and then carefully strain out the sprigs, leaving you with an alcohol-based thyme tincture.  Dab it onto a cotton ball and swipe over your face.

I'm trying it out right now and will report back how it works.

Handy Guide to Taking Bluebonnet Pictures

It's a tradition I knew nothing about until I had a baby.  In central Texas, in the spring, you're supposed to find a patch of wildflowers, of bluebonnets specifically, and take pictures of your adorable child sitting in the middle of them.  It was like the day I learned what brisket was or that you shouldn't pronounce the "e" on the end of Guadalupe Street, or that in July, you can scald yourself with the seat belt buckle if you aren't careful getting into a hot car.

Facebook is lousy with these bluebonnet pictures.  Seasoned parents know where to go.  And you might get some help if you ask around, but really, the best patches are secret.  Some of them are hard to get to, some of them aren't there every year, and if you procrastinate even a weekend or two, you will miss your chance for a whole year.  These pictures, especially for the parents of small children, are guerilla missions into the wild.  So, here are some tips:

1. Start a little before spring break.  Don't know when spring break is because you are blissfully unaware of the local school schedule?  It's probably sometime in March, so aim for finding your own special spot of flowers around the beginning of the month.  By April, sometimes the grass grows so tall that you can't see the bluebonnets anymore.

2. Wildflowers grow in sunny, untended areas.  You'll see them along the highway because they are left there on purpose instead of being mowed down, but do yourself a favor and DO NOT STOP on the shoulder, shuffle your kids onto an embankment during rush hour and try to get a few pictures.

Instead, as March rolls around, take the long way home a few times.  Drive on the street next to the highway, or on the far side of town.  The flowers will be mowed down in parks and yards and grassy hills next to commercial buildings.  You are looking for a flat space, maybe, where a new building might go sometime soon.  Look for the corners where people put up election signs or "Land for Lease" signs.  If you've ever thought to yourself, "Someone could drop a dead body out there and no one would ever find it," that's a pretty good place to start looking.

If all else fails, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin always has a spot specially created.  You have to pay admission, but it's always there.

3. Keep your camera in the car for a few weeks.  The time might hit you when you least expect it.

4. If you find a good spot, hit it early in the day before everyone has spilled all over their clothes.  Plus, it will be cooler and since you might have to take a walk to get to the right place, you'll be glad.

5. Wear shoes.  I've never run into a snake while snapping wildflower pictures, but I've seen lizards and snakes just seem inevitable.