Wrapping Up Summer

In Washington, this has not been a bountiful summer. Or maybe I am just not skilled enough to garden well in overcast weather for two straight months. Now that we are at the end of August, we've had a few more days of sun, so some of the garden is taking off. The kids and I searched for vegetable growth today.

Looks like we might get a few green beans. Maybe enough for one meal? Let's hope. They are a Lewis family favorite.

The onions are doing fine. A few of the Walla Walla Sweets flowered, so I had to use them early. They were sweet, although small. The red onions are also small, but the whites are huge!

The squashes are doing fine. I think zucchini seed should be on every Apocalypse believers' survival list. It grows in all conditions. Carrots and beets have also done fine, again not getting very big. A benefit of the cooler weather has been the long life of lettuce. We have had less planting and as much lettuce all season.

Now, tomatoes are another story. I'm asking for some tomato prayers from all of you in blog-ville. I think some of my tomatoes will ripen on the vine if the sun can last for the next 4 weeks for 8 or more hours a day. How about it? Up for some praying for the impossible?

Inspired by the garden walk about, I harvested and made salad for dinner. To encourage lots of eating, I placed all veggies in separate bowls and had everyone build their own salad. Robby wondered with a slight whine, "Is this another only salad dinner?" As though this was a regular occurrence in the Lewis household. Just to be clear, it was not a vegetarian meal. Not with my dear Arnie around. There was a bowl of ham and a bowl of tuna for protein. We also had crescent rolls. The meal was a successful adventure. Everyone ate more than a plateful and seemed to enjoy it. No one asked for ketchup. At the end of dinner, Katie declared, "Wow. I haven't felt this healthy in forever."

The last few days of summer feel bittersweet. I will miss "free" time. I will miss random cleaning frenzies. I will miss television. I will miss soccer in the front yard, or having my nails done in the bedroom spa. However, I am ready to get back to the school year. Just maybe, though, I will wait to clean up the garden until October.

4 Days at Fort Flagler

For one last summer trip, the kids and I went to Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island in Admiralty Inlet. I love Flagler. The campground is green. The water is so close you can smell the salt. The playground is new. A big field lies near the beach for flying kites and playing soccer. The forest provides several peaceful hiking trails. The fort is still there. You can run around in the bunkers and play soldier. Or rock band because the echo is incredible. The best thing about Flagler for the Lewis family, though, is that it is very close to Port Towsend. So north we went for four days.

We spent the first night setting up camp. Robby arranged the chairs around the fire. Katie arranged the mats and bags in the tent. I set up the table and equipment. While I built our fire and made hotdogs for dinner, the kids scootered around the loop to investigate. Our site was on the cliff side of Mystery Bay and had a landscape view of the bay, the inlet, and across the water, Port Townsend. As the wind picked up, we had the added aroma of the paper mill, it's stacks steaming away full bore.

The next day, we headed to PT to see Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Rochelle. We visited for a while and then offered to help Grandma clear her back deck of old flower pots. In her healthy heyday, Sandy's back deck was an array of color all year long. Her pot garden was extensive, colorful, and fun to admire. When she and Bruce fell ill, though, the amount of plants outside were not to be worried about and were left to their own devices for a while. Our job while there was to rid the area of pots that were now empty or full of debris. We cleared off their deck and emptied a lot of pots. As she feels better, Sandy can begin gardening again with lots of empty pots to fill! That night we went out to dinner with Auntie Rochelle at a cute little hamburger joint called "Nifty Fifties". We sat on their deck overlooking Admiralty Inlet and had lots of silly conversation which ended with us dubbing Robby "Dark and Tempting". That is a whole other story.

On our way back to Flagler that night, we stopped by the store for a couple of items. Creative Katie checked out recipe cards while we were in the produce section and found one for Grilled Banana S'mores. Hmmm. In the spirit of eating adventurously, we took the card back to the campsite. We set all our ingredients out: Graham Crackers (We like Honey Maid because they don't seem to break apart), Marshmallows, Chocolate (Hershey's, of course), and long slices of one banana. I grilled the bananas on the propane camp stove. Mine has a grill on one side. The kids toasted marshmallows. The bananas certainly smelled great while caramelizing on the grill. On the s'more they were interesting. What I liked was that they weren't sweet, which made eating the s'more a little easier for me. I might make them again for myself but I don't think anyone else liked them enough!

The campsite proved to be a fun place to run around the next day. Grandma gave the kids kites which were really fun once we got them up in the air. Robby even laid on the ground for a while flying his. The wind is constant down by the water and makes kite flying a breeze. Katie's favorite activities are beach combing and getting wet. Perfect for this park! We found fish and crabs and crab molts and some things we couldn't identify. We saw a seal and lots of Blue Heron and Guillemot Pigeons. The kids ran around the bunkers and tried rock star howls in the caverns. Wow! A very full day. We made tacos for dinner with rice with corn in them.

My favorite part of each day were the sunsets. One night the sky over the water was hues of purples and pinks. Two nights they were yellows and oranges and deep reds. The whole experience of our visit makes me sigh with comfort and relaxation.

Fixing Up Our Fixer Upper

13 years after buying our fixer-upper, we are finally fixing it up! In order to get beautiful rooms like this, we had to change our lifestyle a bit.

First, we had to fill the other rooms in our house with stuff from the room being fixed up. The first room was the bathroom. I found myself fishing around in a basket in the kitchen every night for my toothbrush and floss. When we worked on the master bedroom, my underwear ended up in a suitcase in the kitchen. We've decided that "remodeled" should be looked upon as a character building time. Arnie has learned more about bathrooms than he ever wanted to know. His time and energy was worthwhile, I tell you. The bathroom is beautiful. No more powder blue fixtures. Now, everything is modern. And looks fantastic. Arnie is a talented character.

Next, we had to put the room back together. This is the only real work the kids and I did in the bathroom fix was holding panels for gluing and wood during sawing. We did shop for new towels and the shower curtain. We are excellent decorators. A new character trait for both kids. Robby chose neutral colors and Katie chose squares for our shower curtain.

We did get our chance to work in the bedroom, though. Robby, Katie and I prepared the room and painted a lot of the walls. They each got to use the electric screwdriver which was very exciting. Very character building. Then, I put each of them in a closet to paint. Since we rarely get our closet doors closed, we thought paint would make our room look neater. Hopefully if you come over, we will get the doors closed so that it looks like we live well, but I doubt it. Arnie and I had to touch up the closets after the kids went to bed. My new argument for updating the house is that the kids need to practice their painting skills. We'll see if it works. Arnie is pretty burned out on all this updating. It certainly pays off in beautiful rooms, but leaves him exhausted and not very nutritionally satisfied!

Things to Do on a Hot August Sunday

Eat strawberries while sitting on a fence post, like Chester.

Or, like Katie, clean out your swimming pool and then swim.

Water the plants with the yucky pool water, first. Lounge on the chairs with the umbrella for shade after you touch up the paint on the house and winterize the gutters, like Arnie.

Be smart. Sleep on a kitchen chair for hours, like Padme. Or like Anakin, sleep for hours under the bed in Katie's room. Quieter and cooler.

Whack at the bushes in the "back forty" to clear the area of sticker bushes. If you are like Robby, those sticker bushes are a pain when your ball ends up down the hill.

Finally, like Maureen, think about summer vegetables as you clean the house and do the laundry. Make Rachael Ray's Ratatouille Riggies (Everyday With Rachael Ray, September 2010) for dinner. Enjoy.

Lemonade, Anyone?

Did you do this as a kid? Dorrie, Jennifer, and I picked the hottest day in the summer to have another garage sale - I am not kidding when I say I loved the heat. We held it at our house. Arnie and I have a huge carport style tent that we put up for the sale to keep everything cool. With such a hot day, Katie decided to sell pink lemonade. She smiled at everyone and offered cold drinks to whoever had a quarter. The mail person even bought one from her. So cute. She made twelve dollars! Quite fabulous. We had a successful garage sale, as well.

Fair 2010

We lived near Puyallup when I was growing up, so we went to the Puyallup Fair every year. We loved the rides and the animals. I remember walking up and down the barns, peeking in at bunnies and roosters. The Puyallup Fair had this great big roller coaster. I remember screaming from the top of it many times. My mother loved the fair scones. We would bring home bags of them with raspberry jam on them. In Port Townsend, Arnie and his family spent a week every year at the Jefferson County Fair. His parents cooked and sold corn.


I think our fair memories have encouraged us to get our kids to the Grays Harbor Fair every year. We have even helped them enter projects a couple of times. So we headed off to the fair today with the best weather we've had in weeks. The sun was so bright, I had to move around the Ferris wheel to get a shot without the glare! Yes!


Robby and Katie each had a free ticket from the library summer reading program so we went in a rather small window of time that we had today.most? The kids didn't seem to mind our short visit to the fair, though. We packed a lot in. The kids wanted to start with the rides. I think they would have been happy to ride the Ferris wheel the whole day. Isn't it funny that they love that one the most? Katie said she screamed really loud every time they heat the top, just for me. They were bummed that they were the last on and the first off. However, from up on the Ferris wheel, they picked out the games they wanted to play, so the rides were cut short in favor of the games.


They started with the strong man game - you know, where you hit the lever with the hammer and send the little deely-bob toward the bell? We walked away with two enormous blow-up hammers from that one. Then they raced each other with the water shooters. Katie won that one and got a stuffed animal. Then they tried the basketball shots next, but neither won anything on that one. I heard my mom's voice coming from me. "They are always harder than they look." They threw darts at balloons next and both one a stuffed animal. Robby also tried a ball toss, but to no avail. In the car on the way home, he said, "You know, Mom, you are right. Those games are harder than they look."


Three stuffed animals and two giant hammers later, we headed for the food lane. After walking up and down, the kids decided on hamburgers and A & W root beer floats. I needed to try something new. There were fried pickles and Slavic rolls. I really thought about that fried pickle. Seems like something I need to try, but I do see them at various venues. A Slavic roll, though, I didn't even know what that was. Would I ever see that again? I decided on the Slavic roll. First, of course, I had to find out what it was.


A friendly woman with a heavy accent (a good sign I thought) called it a Slavic pastry, gesturing at dough wrapped around a large wooden rolling pin turning slowly above a grill. Turns out, this roll is a very pretty tubular pastry, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. There were several sweet things to spread inside the roll. I chose chunky peanut butter and Bavarian cream. The outside of the roll was covered in cinnamon sugar. An unusual appearance, but a familiar taste.

For dessert we had a fruit kabob from the Shishkaberries stand. We had to order the Dingleberry Kabob. Please tell me that we are not the only family who tells dingleberry jokes. We are so inappropriate. This Dingleberry Kabob was indeed delicious fresh strawberries dipped in milk chocolate.

One fair event that will likely get animal rights activists all over me is the elephant ride. The kids rode a camel at the zoo this summer, so they were excited to see the elephant at the fair. Here they are, riding a pachyderm at the fair! Afterward Katie kept calling it a dinosaur, laughing, then saying, "I mean elephant."

All in all, a great day at the Grays Harbor Fair. Our little community.

Caught in the Act

Padme was on alert this morning. Bleating like a sheep at the back window at Chester. I grabbed the camera. Without time to open the door to get a clear shot, I snapped this one. Try not to be critical of the photo. We already know my photography skills are limited. Chester was running around on the railing as though he was looking for something. Scampered across our brick patio and into the pot. He was in there for a few seconds. When he went in to the tomato pot, he had half a strawberry in his hand...Hmmm. Little rascal. Look at him. Pausing for dramatic effect. He looks very satisfied with himself. He's thinking what a great job he has done of hiding his food. I wonder if it will grow if I just leave it in there.

Undaunted and Fiscally Savvy

In my ongoing relationship with whole chickens (I've posted before about roasting whole chickens), I bought more on sale. They have been such good deals lately. How can a person resist? I know I can't. I've also been having canning withdrawals. By this time of the summer I should be freezing and canning like crazy. Yet, tuna and jams have been it. So I thought, chicken stock. I should try chicken stock. What will I give as gifts as presents without being able to can something else this summer? Not to mention I spend money on chicken stock at the grocery store every month.

So, out came the Ball Blue Book. I realized as I read the directions that I would have to cut up the raw chicken. Hmmm. I struggle cutting up a roasted chicken. My super supportive husband cheered me on. "You can do it," he said. "Sharpen a knife really well. It doesn't have to be pretty, right?"

I sharpened several knives in preparation. But, if you know me, I must meet a daunting task head on. Yes, the chicken had to be pretty. Obviously, I had something to learn about cutting up a chicken. I could not go on until I dared to challenge myself. Hungry for information, where did I turn? The Internet! Hooray for millions of people who post everything they know. I found lots of help to cut up a chicken. Here's my favorite from Gourmet Sleuth. This morning after a couple cups of coffee, I set to task. All my nervousness was for nothing! The raw chicken was soooo easy to cut up. Dare I say I had fun? Makes me feel competent.

The first time I can something it takes way longer than it should! The chicken stock took all day. I had to make a trip to the store for bay leaves. I had to stop to see how the ball had landed on Padme in the living room and she didn't move. I had to see the many poodle skirt examples that Katie found on line for her Halloween costume. Katie decided to help me take pictures, so I had about 30 pictures to choose from. I definitely had to stop to comfort my daredevil X-game bicyclist who crashed trying a new jump in the woods. That's okay, though. Chicken stock has to boil for a long time. And cool for a longer time so that the fat can be skimmed off.

When I finally got around to the canning process, Arnie had brought home a pretty rainbow trout and was cooking it up with Italian pickled garlic. The whole kitchen was smoky. Arnie cut himself with one of my super sharp knives. Craziness.

The chicken stock is so pretty. I canned 8 pints of it. Arnie made barbecued chicken sandwiches with the cooked chicken tonight and we have enough for chicken salad sandwiches tomorrow. What a bargain! I will definitely can some more broth.

Sharing With Friends

Dorrie and I have been friends for 8 or more years. We have an interesting history that definitely should make the blog sometime. We've shared a lot over the years, including feeding our kids. During our summer tuna canning, Dorrie would sometimes make this recipe using Deluxe Kraft Mac 'n Cheese in a tuna noodle casserole which I mistakenly called tuna mac' cheese in an earlier blog. Milk, margarine, cream of celery soup, Deluxe Mac 'n cheese, tuna (we use our own, of course!), frozen peas, and bread make up the ingredients.

Like lots of moms, Dorrie is happy when she finds a recipe that her son, Tanner, will eat. Tanner is 10 - right between Robby and Katie. He is sometimes a picky eater, although sometimes he eats ravenously. She discovered this tuna noodle casserole recipe in the Kraft Make It Simple Recipe Collection. Tanner loves it and eats this ravenously. It has peas, lovely crouton topping, and creamy noodles and tuna. After blogging about tuna recipes, I asked Dorrie if she would make it for us so that I could write about it. We decided to make it a party!

It has taken me a while to share my writing - with friends or with anyone! I still have insecurities about writing, even though I've been writing since I was young. I haven't really shared my words. I wrote poetry when I was really little, but the only people I ever shared my little rhymes with were my mother and father. During my most formative years, of course, teachers were my audience. In my truly grown up life, however, I've kept my writing in my notebooks and electronic files until recently. Now, since I've been writing my blog, I've shared my writing with more and more friends. Dorrie's casserole was another way to share. Jennifer, Judy and Austin were there. And of course, Robby and Katie, Dorrie and Tanner.

One thing I definitely want to model for my kids is having friends. I remember the days that we hung out with my mom's friends and their families. Mostly I remember the Dempseys. They had four kids just like us. Really similar ages to us. I remember my mom and Mrs. Dempsey laughing and having a ball. The Dempseys lived on a lake, so we liked to visit in the summer to swim and lay around the dock. I hope that my kids have memories like this when they grow up. I know we will still be friends with Dorrie and Tanner. Robby, Katie and Tanner will tell stories..."Remember the time we made tuna noodle casserole for Mom's blog?"

I added to our casserole night by bringing a bottle of Desert Wind Ruah to the party. It is a red cabernet from Washington's Desert Wind winery that I found in the wine section by accident. I was so excited when I found it, I about did cartwheels in the aisle. Need some background? Judy asked me a couple of years ago to play piano for a church choir. I hesitantly agreed. I peck at the piano. I took lessons when I was a kid but really didn't keep it up. But, the church was in need and Judy is incredibly supportive (and persuasive), so I have persevered. Our choir is called "Ruah", which is an ancient word (which language, I don't know, but maybe Judy can help here), that means "breath of God". I was so excited to find the wine with the same name, I bought it for Judy. She poured it into Dorrie's eclectic wine glass collection for us to enjoy.

The casserole is a pretty compact recipe. My favorite part of the preparations was watching Dorrie's fancy noodle pot. Her lid is the colander. Fancy and smart. The casserole baked for a while filling the room with that homey noodle and cheese fragrance. Then we gathered around the table.

Look at the beautiful casserole. Tanner couldn't even get through Grace before he was picking the croutons off the top! He had at least two plate-fulls of it. We had a great night. We laughed a lot and shared a lot. The boys played a lot of Wii. They entertained us by throwing grapes up and trying to catch them in their mouths. A great idea that came from the night and hopefully our next childhood food memory blog - Judy's waffles.

More to Say About Port Townsend

If I were smarted, I wouldn't sound off about this beautiful town on the inside of the Olympic Peninsula. Tourists already throng there. Do I really want to bring more crowds to this quiet seaside town? If you haven't been, though, you are missing out. During this visit, we stayed at a hotel down by the water. Our room overlooked the marina and Admiralty Inlet. Our second day in Port Townsend, we checked out of the hotel and found a parking place downtown. The main street is comprised of mostly historic buildings with excellent artsy and hippie shops, a variety of restaurants, and interesting people.

We wandered for a few minutes and then stopped for breakfast at a restaurant called Salal. I highly recommend it. We all found breakfast that satisfied. I ate a chorizo breakfast burrito. It came with a side of medium spicy homemade salsa. It was huge, but I did my best to eat the whole thing. Katie wanted to try their homemade raspberry jam, so she ordered a huge plate of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. She said the jam was yummy. Her pancakes were covered with it. Very sticky. Robby ordered an Italian Scram which had lots of sausage and cheese - a Robby favorite. Arnie had the Ham Scram. Think you can figure that one out? Yup. Ham and cheese. A very fun aside at the Salal Cafe was that the waitress and I shared a name. Truly I have not in my lifetime met more than half a dozen Maureen's. It sparked a fun conversation.

We were pretty stuffed, but a Lewis family trip to Port Townsend is not complete without a trip to the Elevated Ice Cream Company. We love this little candy store. It has great history. It started out as an ice cream "booth" inside and old elevator that still sits, all by itself, across the street. Yes. An elevator without a building. Then, the company opened a store front and expanded their business. They always have interesting candy. This trip I bought green tea caramels. Aren't they pretty? They were sweet and slightly salty with that calming green tea flavor. Wow. Katie loves the Lego bricks and gummy bears.

Robby. Robby chose sour pop rocks. They made him dance and make funny faces they were so sour. Arnie kept the sour theme going with Zotz. I don't know if either kid finished their zotz, they were so sour. They were more sour than the pop rocks, apparently, because Robby could do nothing for about 30 seconds after he put the Zotz in his mouth. Not even open his eyes! Hmmm, doesn't Mom want to try a Zotz? Not today, thank you. Maybe when I lose my mind.

A Visit to Grandma and Grandpa

This week we trekked up to Port Townsend to visit Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Rochelle. The kids were so excited. We don't get up to PT enough! We packed them into the truck, threw the scooters in the back, and began our journey. Port Townsend is a place of adventure. Of staying at a hotel. Of riding scooters on streets that are built in squares – they have discovered that they can follow Grandma’s street in either direction counting the blocks as they go, turn right, go a few blocks, turn right, count the blocks again, turn right, and voila! Grandma’s house. What a concept for a couple of country bumpkins!

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's at lunchtime. We haven’t seen Arnie’s parents in a while, so we chatted. Grandma made us hot dogs on sandwich rolls and we ate Aunt Rochelle’s chocolate chip cookies. Even though she wasn’t there yet. We love Aunt Rochelle’s cookies. We love anything Aunt Rochelle bakes us. She is good. After lunch, we wandered around in the back yard, looking at what needed to be done.

Arnie brought his chain saw because a couple of trees and branches have come down in Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard. He and his dad started in on those and planned to take a third down as well. I was hoping that Grandma had a task for me to work on too. Their backyard is like an English style garden. The plants are native and grow beautifully without too much upkeep. Grandma gets a little frustrated, though, because she hasn’t been able to get out to do too much with the plants, so a couple have taken over. One of the plants that reigns in the yard right now is ivy. It has covered a lot of objects and other plants. As Grandma and Katie and I explore the yard, Grandma pointed to an ivy covered spot and said, “This used to be a pathway beside the deck. Maybe we can uncover the path.”

We worked at for a couple of hours. Sandy and I worked at the pathway diligently. The kids each came to help for a while, but the ability to scooter far and wide won out in the end. But we uncovered that path, freed a couple of other plants, and filled many huge bags. Arnie and Bruce got the fallen trees out of the way and brought down a third that had died. Whew!Everyone worked up an appetite, so when Aunt Rochelle got through with work,

we headed out for a hearty dinner at The Bayview. Not only did we have a great view, but we had great conversation with Auntie Rochelle. She is fun and creative. Her latest adventure was making cake balls with cake left after she cut it into a shape. She didn't want to throw out the extra cake, so she made them into small chocolate dipped pieces. They sound and look like truffles. Yum. I hope we get to try some soon.

We laughed and chatted and watched a tern fish. We laughed at how big Katie's burger was. It covered her face! She ate most of it. I had a delicious salmon salad with ranch dressing. A very nice dinner.

Our next big Lewis family escapade will be huge. Amazing. Wonderful. September 2010 be Bruce and Sandy's FIFTIETH anniversary. Hurray for love. They are steadfast, aren't they?