http://youtu.be/ZTFJocQBLyE

On behalf of women everywhere: Katie, honey, we are so happy for you! ;)

love,

wm

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Honey is not vegan, fyi.

I saved this article from Thee O last summer. I like how writer Grant Butler has been covering veganism. He’s uncovered and shared some good recipes, including these. We made the sauce and quesadillas last week — they turned out great. I skipped the brownies recipe, cuz I made Mexican Wedding Cakes (with miniature chocolate chips stirred in) for a thing at school. (You can make those vegan, by the way, by subbing margarine for the butter.)

OK, where was I? Fresh corn isn’t available yet, so I subbed frozen. It was fine. We left out the sweetener, too. After the quesadillas were served up, we topped with avocado slices and sour cream. Also I used Monterey Jack cheese, not fake cheese. So technically, they weren’t vegan.

Vegan Policeman #2: [whips out notepad.] 12:47 on February 1st: You knowingly ingested gelato.
Todd Ingram: Gelato isn’t vegan?
Vegan Policeman #1: It’s milk and eggs, bitch.
Vegan Policeman #2: [still reading.] On April 4th, 7:30 pm, you partook of a plate of chicken parmesan.
[Envy gasps, then glares at Todd.]
Todd Ingram: [feeble.] Chicken isn’t vegan?

— from “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”

But they did come pretty close to tasting like our favorite sincronizadas from El Palenque and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm indeed.

With the leftover filling, I made enchiladas. Super good, especially with the chili paste I made awhile back and kept in the freezer. (Recipe: My girlfriend sent home a big bag of dried red chiles with us last time we were in L.A. Here’s what I did with them: Remove stems and seeds; put in a big bowl and top with boiling water. Let steep 20 minutes or so? Then puree in blender or food processor, with as much water as you need. Freeze. To make sauce, blend up a can of whole tomatoes or a bowl full of fresh tomatoes. Add as much chili paste as you would like; blend again. I might have put a little cumin, salt, pepper and sugar in, too. Voila!)

(Here’s my enchilada recipe, but good luck finding it.)

Summer Succotash Quesadillas With Nacho Mmmm Sauce

Makes 4 to 6 servings. Dunk, dip or drizzle. Just don’t forget about the sauce.

Ingredients
Filling

1 sweet onion, sliced
1 ear fresh corn, kernels cut from cob
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup or agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sauce:
2/3 cup salsa, store-bought or homemade
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried cilantro or 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
8 whole-grain tortillas
1 cup shredded nondairy cheese (such as Daiya pepper-jack)

Instructions

To make filling: Place a large skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray or lightly coated with oil over medium high heat. Add onion and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, until softened and starting to brown.

Add corn, bell pepper and zucchini to the pan with the onion, along with garlic, water, lemon juice, maple or agave syrup and cumin. Cook the succotash down for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To make sauce: In a food processor or blender combine salsa, water, almonds, garbanzo beans, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, garlic, salt, chili powder, cumin and cilantro. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate until serving.

Place another large skillet sprayed with cooking spray or lightly coated with oil over medium high heat and add one tortilla. Top with 2 tablespoons cheese. Add about 1/3 cup of succotash filling. Top with another 2 tablespoons of cheese and another tortilla.

Cook for several minutes on both sides, until tortilla is crisp and cheese is melty.

Repeat with remaining tortillas, cheese and filling. Serve with Nacho Mmmm Sauce.

PER SERVING (based on 6): calories: 363 (28% from fat); protein: 19.4 grams; total fat: 11.1 grams; saturated fat: 1.8 grams; cholesterol: 0; sodium: 900 mg; carbohydrate: 51.6 grams; dietary fiber: 7.1 grams

From Sarah Matheny

ps Here’s Sarah’s blog.

“I like people too much or not at all. I’ve got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.” — Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

This is from last year (June 20th, 2011) and oh yeah that’s right, we’re going for it again this summer!

— wm

i’m copying everyone else, cuz they’re coming up with such good ideas. I’ll cross them off as we do them.

* celebrate last day of school with dinner out, ice cream, a trip to Powell’s and staying up all night (grown-ups will sleep)

* eat fudgsicles

* swim!

* swim

* did I mention swimming?

* trip to Denver to see grandma ??? (maybe she will visit us here instead)

* trip to Iowa Central Oregon to see grandpa and grandma

* house party!

* eat the first fresh strawberry from the garden

* go for walks in the neighborhood and look for deer, hawks, snakes, frogs and… ???

* picnics at the park

* read on the chaise lounge

* drink iced tea and lemonade and iced tea with lemonade

* go to the drive-in

* farmers market!

* go see live theater outdoors. somewhere. where???

* visit the zoo

* go camping

* go to the beach

* finish proofreading my novel finish writing new novel I started (Young Adult)

* get it published

* start next book (cookbook) then start writing another book!

* celebrate my daughter’s birthday, my birthday and our wedding anniversary

yay to summer.

— wm

ps the comments are from last year. hi girls! i can’t figure out how to allow comments on this post again, so sorry.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

I’ve come across some really fun and educational books lately. (No, that’s not a contradiction.)

“Larf” (written and illustrated by Ashley Spires, Kids Can Press, 2012, unpaged, $16.95) is one wild and furry guy. He is a Sasquatch, and he lives with his bunny, Eric. If I had to choose two imaginary friends, and those two were the only friends I could have, they would be Larf, and Schmidt from the show “New Girl.” Larf is living a pretty peaceful and solitary life, but that may be about to change…

The illustrations and story are hilarious; Larf is a vegetarian, which delighted the 10-year-old vegetarian at my house; and we just really enjoyed his story. This book is perfect for the 10-and-younger set.

Just in time for summer, we have Jane Drake and Ann Love’s book, “Get Outside: The Kids Guide to Fun in the Great Outdoors.” Illustrations were created by Heather Collins. (Kids Can Press, 2012, 176 pages, $16.95.) Yes, I know. People are still yammering on and on about how kids never have recess at school anymore. They never go outside. They’re glued to their video and television screens and on and on. I can speak to what I see around me, and what we saw in our old neighborhood: People riding bikes, skateboards and scooters. Kids running back and forth to each other’s houses. Practices, practices, practices, for soccer, basketball, swim meets, concerts and dance. Kids throwing balls and frisbees and hitting things with sticks. We’re all on the computer too much. In fact, I’m sitting in front of a computer right now. Earlier today, I sent a few text messages. I watched part of a movie. But I also gardened and hung out the laundry on the line outside. We could be doing better, as world citizens, but we could also be doing a lot worse.

That being said, it is a little frustrating as a parent when you tell your kids to go outside and play, and they are literally the only kids out there because everyone else is inside. (We’ve taken to texting our friends, Going to playground, meet us there ;)

I think this book will come in handy for us. Want help learning how to garden? Making a scarecrow? Playing Stone Toss games? It’s in there. How about bird feeding, kite flying, or marathon card games? The book is divided into the four seasons (Summer: Make A Night Sky Dome, Pebbles in the Sand; Fall: Wildlife Blind, Worm Farm, for example.) and is straightforward — easy for the kids to leaf through, and perfect for those days when you can’t come up with any new ideas.

And there’s no one outside to play with.

Another new release is “Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More: The Eco-Journal of Corry Lapont” (Kids Can Press, 2012, 64 pages, $18.95). This was not written by Corry Lapont, though — she apparently is an imaginary, architecture-crazy young girl, with the stereotypical pesky younger brother. This one is named Riley, aka “The Question Box,” aka “The Factoid Finder.” And yes, that is the first and last time you will see the word “factoid” written on these pages, because “factoid” is not a word. The book was written by Etta Kaner and illustrated by Stephen MacEachern. OK, I’m kind of a stickler for calling a book a “journal” or “the almost-true story of,” etc. but hello, Dear America and My Name is America series. Yeah.

Am I too fussy? Probably.

Moving right along… This is an amazing book. Skyscrapers, dams, domes; various kinds of bridges; building green; job descriptions for architects, urban planners, structural engineers and other builder-type people; and yes, Portland’s own Hawthorne Bridge gets a little picture and a shout-out. (Thanks, y’all.) It’s a very cool book. My son would probably call it “one of those books that grown-ups love and kids don’t” but you know what? I think both of my kids are going to be into this one. You can answer a whole lot of those “how did they build that?” questions with this as a guidebook. There is a glossary in the back, and lots of good art and fact boxes sprinkled throughout.

Enjoy, and here’s to summer reading.

— WM

This is one of the ducklings, two weeks older.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Nan wrote a Thursday Thirteen about all the things buzzing around in her head, so I will, too. (I didn’t know Thursday Thirteen was still around :) Happy about this!)

If you write one, too, leave me a note so I can go visit. This one is kind of serious, sorry. It just came out that way.

love,

wm

1) My husband took that picture. He takes all of the incredible pictures you see on my blog. I just write. Ha!

2) Looking forward to a four-day weekend! The schools here (Washington Co., Oregon) dealt with budget issues by declaring “furlough days.” Next school year, we’re looking at massive teacher lay-offs. Bad, bad, bad. But we live in a country that likes to spend money on bombs and fighter jets instead of kids, food and health care. We also live in a state where people don’t think they should have to pay property taxes, so there you go. I personally would opt for the kids, food and medical, but what do I know? I’m just a woman who doesn’t believe in war and hunger. Anyway, the district figured out the schedule very nicely. Since we have Monday off for Memorial Day, they gave us Friday off, too.

3) Whenever I start writing anything nowadays, I always tell myself, Keep it cheerful. Fact is, that’s difficult most days. This is the world we live in — where people who speak out against war are seen as freaks; where drug/alcohol abuse are the norm; where it’s OK that kids can’t afford to go to college, and are terrified to take out loans to pay for it. What is wrong with this picture?

4) OK. I planted a bunch of flowers in the yard — they look nice. We had some gorgeous, sunny weather, then a lot of rain, so the new plantings are soaking it all up and thriving.

5) Every day at around this time, I can hear the hawks shrieking as they fly overhead. It is a gift. Thanks, Mother Nature. My son was telling me on the way home from the library, Look at all we have out here! Bunnies, snakes, frogs, coyotes, hawks, ducks… wow!

6) My kids see every day as a gift. This is a good way of looking at life.

7) We checked out a ton of movies and a couple of books from the library: Hepburn & Tracy, “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Ides of March.” I finally re-started reading “Life of Pi,” by Yann Martel. It’s awfully good. Next up: more Dickens.

8) Recipes? OK. Here is an oldie but goodie. Crepes… mmmmmm… crepes…

9) The windows are open — I can hear the neighbor kids hollering. It’s almost summer… summer break… my birthday (48, damn! Two years from 50, woo-hoo ;)… our garden is already flourishing — herbs, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries all coming on, along with the peas that we planted too late but are doing wonderfully, in spite of our negligence. Radishes… green onions… and tomato and pepper starts waiting to be planted. I love the Pacific Northwest for a lot of reasons, and gardening is always at the top of the list.

10) My daughter just finished up her spring session of art classes. She made some beautiful work this semester. She, like her Dad, is quite the photographer. Our house has turned into a showcase for their work.

11) My novel is trucking along. I’m hoping we wrap up my Grandma’s cookbook/memoir soon, and a friend is going to put together some illustrations for the children’s book I wrote. All good.

12) I am psyched for all the TV season/series finales that have been on. (No spoilers! I promise.) I have never watched so much TV in my life, not even when I was a kid. “Desperate Housewives” is over and done. Not everyone liked the series finale, but I thought it worked, especially the last ten minutes. “Revenge” had a great run — looking forward to seeing where they go with it next season. “American Idol” and the Stanley Cup hockey play-offs are both stressing me out in different ways. It’s only a game! (Music and sports having more than a few similarites.) (So why am I on the couch, holding my breath?)

13) If you’d like to read any of the other Thursday Thirteens I’ve written, head over to the sidebar — they have their own category, and apparently this is the 89th entry! Whoa.

Happy Thursday, everyone!