The inevitable zucchini monster

So I admit that I've let the garden grow quite wild this summer. Between the rain and removing trees for more sun and chasing after my little Buttercup and building the beds in the first place, I just haven't made any more time for garden pursuits. Even with all my excuses, the garden still managed to give us some veggies.

Now, usually I end up with one squash or zucchini that hides under a leaf until it's so large it could grab a tambourine and dance the tarantella. This year, with no one watching them, I have one huge zucchini and two summer squash that are hefty in their own right. If only I'd believed in this year's garden, I could have picked these when they were still small and tasty and I'd probably have ended up with quite a few more for my trouble. Gardening is all about faith.

These are too big to steam up and serve with pepper and butter, but they'll make lovely bread and pie. Next on the garden agenda is to get seeds in for fall and overwintered crops and finally, the weather looks like it will cooperate. I will take from my monster vegetables renewed hope that though the days are getting shorter and the nights cooler, planting for fall will be worth the effort.

Recycling made fun

R-Eco is a card game where players try to recycle junk in it's proper facility but they have to be careful! Too much junk overloads the garbage trucks and cause players to illegally dump their trash.

This game is super simple to learn and is fun for a wide age range. At it's core, R-Eco is about matching and counting but there is some strategy involved as well. Whenever trash is sorted and properly disposed of, players gain victory point chips. The interesting twist is that the value of these chips changes with each load of recyclables. Players must find a delicate balance between taking trash and forcing opponents to take lower or negative point chips.

This is a definite beer and pretzels game. It's perfect for nights when you feel like playing something light but not completely random and goofy. It's also an excellent filler game for those occasions when your have just enough time to play something, but not enough time to dig out one of the bigger games.

R-Eco Rundown

Number of Players: 2-5
Time To Play: 30 minutes
Age Range: 8+
Theme: Recycling Yard
Style: Economic with some resource management
Interesting mechanics: Card Drafting
Expansions: None
Price tag: $15
Luck Factor: Moderate
Learning Curve: Easy

Useful Links: Z-Man, Boardgame Geek

Deadlines are my friend

The birthday madness has come and gone and yet, my LED booties are not yet complete. I need to finish the electrical part and put in the liners. I'd say they are 1/2 done. They look cute so far though, right?

Without the looming deadline of "need it for the birthday", I find that I'm less inclined to work on them in the evening. My mind has already started to wander toward thoughts of Halloween costumes and Christmas presents and "what's my little toddler into now?"

The instructions for this project are good but now that I've done this much, I have some thoughts on alterations and clarifications.

It is totally worth the time to make paper mock-ups of these shoes before you cut out fabric and start sewing. I am the sort of crafter that eyeballs measurements, estimates yardage and never ever knits the gauge swatches before starting the sweater. That said, if I hadn't taken the time to stitch together the paper pattern, I'd have had to make two pair of shoes. The pattern is designed for very little babies, not a monster like I have.

I had to enlarge the pattern quite a bit to get the shoes to fit, but this caused them to be loose around the top. I know the instructions call for an elastic strap to help keep them on the foot. Instead of this, I ran a ribbon through the yellow top (my Mom is wicked clever!). Now, I can cinch the booties around Buttercup's ankle. This won't keep her from pulling them off, but it does make them fit better for the short time she allows her feet to be covered.

I'm still trying to work out how the stitchable LEDs work. I can tell you that merely sewing them in place with the conductive thread doesn't seem to do the trick, unless I'm just doing it wrong. In the meantime, I used regular ol' 5mm yellow LEDs and bent the legs. These LEDs use 3 volt batteries and what I didn't realize at the time was that 3 volts come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The directions don't tell you this. I used Energizer 2016s for this project because they were the flattest of the 3 volts (important since Buttercup will be walking on them). They are also quite large which gives me plenty of area to stitch the conductive thread to without making that area so big that the positive and negatives come in contact. As the directions point out, it's very bad when you cross the streams. It creates a short in the circuit and then things don't work properly.

Conductive thread is a bit of a pain to work with. I used the 4 ply thread and am glad I did because the cheaper 2 ply supposedly unravels like crazy (check out the user comments on the 2 ply page). The 4 ply unravels quite a bit too, so I can't imagine how frustrating the 2 ply would be to work with. My stitching is just not good enough to hide all the conductive threads on the bottom, so I've given up trying. What I will do is add a non-slip pad to the bottoms of the shoes when I'm done. It will cover up all the stitches and will make it easier for Buttercup to motor around my tile and wood floors.

I have not sewn the liner in yet and to be honest, I would recommend doing that last after all the other stitching is done. It's hard enough to sew in little shoes, let alone try to do that sewing with a liner in the way.

Anyway, I'll be sure to post when they are finished. I can't wait too long, or they won't fit her anymore and I'll have to start all over again.

Harvesting and Soil Testing

So, the vegetable garden has taken some serious hits this year. Wet weather, slugs, and cool temperatures have reduced what should have been a bounty of vegetables to a couple of good meals.

The peppers didn't enjoy two months of rain and will probably not produce anything edible. The green beans on the other hand, did well. From one small planting, we got a couple meals worth of green beans.

The garlic did alright and is currently drying. There are more carrots out there than just this little one, although I'm not anticipating the beautiful roots I got a few years ago. I'm not sure what happened with the cukes. They looked great a week ago and then they all started curling and getting big at one end.

I have hopes that I'll get tomatoes. No, really. There are some little green ones doing their thing out on the vines. May the blight fairy overlook my house.

It's also time to start thinking about planting seeds for fall and winter harvests. Kale and lamb's lettuce did really well for me last year and I'm going to put in more scallions and broccoli.

Now is a good time to think about getting your soil tested. Your local extension service can tell you where to write to get a sample kit. In Maine, you can hop onto the Maine Soil Lab website and order a test kit right online. Each sample costs $12 for the basic test and will let you get a start on adjusting the composition of your soil for next spring.

As a former Dirt Lab troll*, I offer a couple of tips to make sure your sample is handled with love and care. Take the time to follow the "How to take a sample" directions on the back page of the paperwork that comes with the test. Wait until the weather has been dry for a bit so that your soil isn't soaking wet. Nothing makes the lab trolls less happy than boxes of wet dirt that have melted the cardboard sample boxes.

The amount of soil needed for the basic tests is about a cup. Go ahead and fill your box to the top, but you don't need to pack it in. The soil lab doesn't test rocks and they'll just add weight to your package, so make sure you take out the stones. Fill out both the paperwork and the sample box and make sure the information matches. Bonus points if you use a waterproof marker. Your sample goes to be dried and sifted in one room and your paperwork goes to another room to be processed. If there's some mixup with the boxes, it helps if they are clearly marked and match your paperwork.

Finally, when you mail in your sample, don't put tape on the sample box, don't use the sample box as the mailing container and don't use so many packing peanuts that you could hide the cat. In fact, avoid packing peanuts altogether. They are horrible things and should be banned.

The Analytical Lab folks will do a good job with your samples whether you heed my suggestions or not, but why not make their job a little easier by helping them out? Perhaps the good karma will come back and help you.

*It has been 15 or so years since I worked at the soil lab and while I'm sure there are some things that have changed in that time, the fact that the forms and the boxes are still the same leads me to believe that most of the process is the same too. Please remember that I am not currently employed by the University of Maine system or the Maine Soil Testing Service and cannot speak for them in any capacity. This is my own opinion of how samples should be sent in based purely on how I liked my samples back when I had to process them. Your mileage may vary.

Vegas Showdown - A Pleasant Surprise

I entirely misjudged this game and it had everything to do with the cover. Look at it. It's just... bleh. I was convinced that I would hate this game. It just looks like it would have too much math to be fun.

I was so very, very wrong.

Vegas Showdown is a slick game by Henry Stern and Avalon Hill. The object of the game is to earn fame points by building the ultimate Vegas entertainment complex. Players bid on different features (like slot machine rooms, restaurants or lounges) to add to their complex. These features increase your revenue to enable you to buy bigger additions for your hotel, boost the number of people visiting your attractions or increase your fame. Play it once to learn the rules. Play it twice to get hooked. This is my new Preferred Game.

I always like the games where building is involved. I enjoy trying to figure out what combination of pieces work best for winning the game. There's enough luck involved that the game isn't bogged down in analyzing every move to make sure it's the best one but it's not a free-for-all either. We tried this one with my folks and found that by being strict with the turn sequence, the game played fast and smooth. The production value of the pieces isn't quite as nice as some of the German games and I think the game needs a quick reference sheet for each player. I'd also like to see the hotel floor plans printed on something heavier than just paper. With the amount of play I plan to give this game, it can use something a little more durable.

This game came out in 2005 and may or may not still be in print. If you run across one, I encourage you to pick it up and give it a try.

Vegas Showdown Rundown

Number of Players: 3-5
Time To Play: 1-2 hours once you know how
Age Range: 12+
Theme: Modern Hotel/Casino
Style: Economic with some resource management
Interesting mechanics: Bidding, Tile Placement
Expansions: None
Price tag: $45
Luck Factor: Moderate
Learning Curve: Easy - rulebook is longer than a couple pages, but the steps are easy to pick up

Useful Links: Avalon Hill, Boardgame Geek, Play Vegas Showdown Online

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day for August

It's the 15th of the month, and I actually have things blooming in the garden. The flower gardens are in need of some design work as all the flowers seem to blossom in mid spring or late summer. I end up with whole swaths of the year with no blooms at all. I have my eye on some plants to fill in those times. Right now though, I have lovely day lilies in bloom.

There are still no yellow day lilies in my yard, a fact that disappoints me greatly. I have tons of orange and dark red ones, and the peach colored one is always a delight to see in bloom, but I'm not sure how I've managed to live in this house for two years and not have planted some Stella Dora or Summer Dragons.

I have no idea what these are, but they bloom every August and are quite pretty. Everyone who sees them in a picture always says "Those are baby's breath" and then they see them in person and realize that they aren't. The blooms are just a little too large. If anyone knows what these are, I'd surely like to know. I'm pretty sure they come up every year from seed, but I've had no luck in getting them to bloom elsewhere in the garden. Now, the vetch (seen in more than one of my photos) grows everywhere whether I want it to or not.

While my vegetable garden has suffered great injustices this year with all the rain and cool weather, there are a few things in very late bloom right now, like my pumpkins (ignore the clover and grass. DO NOT look at the clover and grass. These aren't the weeds you're looking for).

I planted this variety of pumpkin at my folks house and they have one gorgeous specimen working its way from green to orange. I have blooms and the very start of a pumpkin, but if I get any decent-sized pumpkins this year, I'll be quite surprised. I am tempted to take some of the unopened blossoms and turn them into a stuffed and fried delight.

That's what's blooming here. Check out May Dreams Garden Blogger's Bloom Day to see more flowery goodness.

Roasted Garlic Hummus

Although the garlic out in the garden is not quite yet ready for picking, I roasted up some store-bought cloves today to use in a couple of recipes. Garlic is an easy thing to roast and the cloves go from being hard and spicy to soft and mellow in almost no time.

I preheat the oven to 400 and take the outer papery skin off a whole head of garlic, leaving the cloves all attached. I slice off just the top part of the bulb to expose the individual cloves. The head of garlic then goes onto a doubled over piece of tin foil and olive oil gets drizzled over the top. I fold up the tinfoil to seal in the garlic and place it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Half of the soft toasted cloves that I did this morning will become the base for an experimental Florentine pizza. The other half went into hummus.

Husband is quite allergic to sesame, but I've been dying for a good hummus/feta/sprout sandwich lately. I also think that Buttercup would like hummus on crackers. As chickpeas are a good source for protein and fiber, it's a snack that I feel positive about - or at least less guilty for giving her chocolate milk. I find that I don't miss the tahini in this recipe and anything that won't kill Husband when he eats it is always a plus.

Roasted Garlic Hummus (Without the Sesame)

• 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 1/2 head of roasted garlic (about 4 or 5 cloves)
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tsp cumin
• salt, pepper & chili sauce to taste
• approximately 1/4 c of olive oil

In a food processor, puree the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and cumin until smooth. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in just enough olive oil to make it creamy and give it that hummus texture. Add salt, pepper and chili sauce to taste. You can serve this immediately, but it tastes better the next day.

Birthday Party Aftermath

We survived the first birthday and have declared it a raging success. For having a modest budget (most of which went into food), I think it looked great.

Our theme - renamed "Things That Float" - was easy to work with. We rented a helium tank from iParty for $25 (and a $75 security deposit). The small tank is supposed to blow up 40 12-inch balloons. I bought two 25-count bags of 9-inch balloons and blew them all up. We still have some helium leftover this morning for day 2 balloons and that makes my little Buttercup most pleased.

We were fortunate enough to borrow a screen house to make some shaded seating, but we also used a blue tarp and some clothes pins to turn the clothes line into a makeshift umbrella, complete with comfy chairs and blankets for the crawlers.

Decorations were pretty simple. Balloons were tied everywhere. I bought a tinsel garland that had little 1s and stars and that got tied to the frame of the screen house. Even Muttley got a balloon, which lasted much longer than I thought it would. I'm still not sure how he managed to pop it.

Instead of paper party hats, I bought some long balloons and twisted them into fun party hats. I didn't do anything too elaborate this year since I didn't make time to practice my balloon arts. There is a great book called The Inflatable Crown Balloon Hat Kit which is a great source of balloon twisting information. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in giving balloon hats a go.

Our party favors were all picked up on sale. I picked up a bunch of inexpensive pony beads and some string so the kids could make their own necklaces. Each kid also got a bag filled with bubbles, candy, glow sticks and dinosaur stickers. I used brown paper bags decorated with sharpies, holiday ribbon and old scrapbooking stickers.

The day was gorgeous, so we had a lot of swimmers. Buttercup had plenty of help opening her gifts and we planned the barbecue just right so that everyone got fed, but there weren't a ton of leftovers.

There were 37 people total - 12 kids from 3 months to 8 years and 25 adults, including Husband and me. If I were planning food again, I would stick with the 24 hamburgers since there were only 2 left over. One package of dogs was plenty as hotdogs never seem to be as popular as the burgers. I would have made a single batch of the Sweet and Spicy chicken wings to go with the full tenderloin of barbecue pork. I have leftovers of both the pork and the wings, but not so much that they will go bad before we eat them.

The caprese salad was a big hit and so easy to make this time of year. I should have made more of this because it was gone before I got to have any. As it was, I used a pound-and-a-half of fresh mozzerella, a half-dozen tomatoes and 1 bunch of basil. I could have doubled this amount. Mom made potato salad for 20 and there was some left over, but again, nothing ridiculous. She could have made it for only 15 and we would have been fine but with no leftovers. I have quite a bit of fruit salad left over and I'll need to turn that into tarts or something before it goes bad. Unfortunately, cut up fruit doesn't have much of a shelf life. Perhaps I'll whaz it up with some icecubes and yogurt for mixed fruit smoothies.

I think she was a little bewildered at all the people singing Happy Birthday to her, but as you can see, she really enjoyed her cupcake. The homemade ice cream was a huge hit, although some of the other moms thought that I had gone round the bend. The top flavor was the mint chocolate chunk followed closely by toasted coconut.

The play garden has received good reviews from Buttercup, but I'm uncertain if it's the flowers she likes or the fact that she can use the dirt as a stepping stool to reach stuff. I haven't had a chance to finish the firefly slippers, but hopefully, I can tell you all about them next Friday.

At the end of the day, we had a tired but happy one-year-old and some great memories of her first birthday to treasure forever.

The one year party is for the grown-ups as much (or more) as it is for the birthday girl or boy. After this experience, I'd recommend all new parents mark the occasion with some sort of out-of-the-ordinary celebration. You don't have to break the bank or even invite all that many people, but do enjoy the one year anniversary of the birth of your child. Take lots of pictures. Eat ice cream and cake. Blow out candles. It's worth the effort.

Birthday Week - Food Part 2

Buttercup's favorite food is, without question, ice cream. Ever since that first bite, her little face lights up with glee when we make the weekly pilgrimage to Beals. She knows exactly what kind of container Ben & Jerry's comes in and starts licking her lips in anticipation of her own spoonful. I know how she feels. Ice cream is one of my favorites too.

To celebrate this love of frozen goodness, I've made a couple batches of ice cream for the party. Ok. When I'm done, I'll have 8 flavors. Maybe 10. I've gone a little crazy.

I'm really pleased with all the batches thus far. A lot of the credit goes to David Lebovitz and his book The Perfect Scoop. I've used his recipes for peach, toasted coconut, and peanut butter (with milk chocolate chunks) and they have been delicious. His chocolate recipe is perfect. Exactly what I want my chocolate ice cream to taste like. I can't recommend this book enough.

There have been a few other flavors that are my own creation and I'm quite proud of them. I had some beautiful black cherries that started this whole ice cream making madness. They became part of the Grand Marnier Black Cherry ice cream. In finding the perfect birthday cake, the frosting recipe that I tried was less than successful. It never set up properly. I hated to waste all that sour cream and chocolate, so I turned it into mocha cheesecake ice cream. It is scrumptious.

I have a few more flavors to create - pumpkin, and mint chocolate chip and maybe maple if I have enough time. There always seems to be one more flavor that I want to make for the party. I guess I'll just have to continue with the flavors until the summer is over.

Grand Marnier Cherry Ice Cream

• 2 c heavy cream
• 1 c milk
• 1/2 c sugar
• 3/4 lb black cherries, pitted and chopped
• 3 tbs Grand Marnier or orange liquor

Place cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan and stir occasionally over low heat, until the sugar has melted and the mixture starts to simmer. Do not let mixture boil. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Add cherries and liquor. Refrigerate mixture overnight and freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.


Mocha Cheesecake Ice Cream with Chocolate & Graham Cracker Swirl

• 1 c heavy cream
• 3/4 c sugar
• 3 tbs your favorite ground coffee (I used Green Mountain Caramel Vanilla Cream)
• 11 oz chocolate, chopped (I use milk chocolate, but semisweet would pair better with stronger flavors of coffee)
• 1 c sour cream
• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3 tbs Kahlua or coffee liquor
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (chocolate cookie crumbs would be good too)
• chocolate syrup
  

Heat cream & sugar in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to steam and the sugar has melted. Place ground coffee into a coffee filter and tie into a bundle with a piece of kitchen twine. You could also use a tea ball for this. Steep coffee in the cream & sugar mixture until it reaches your desired strength. I recommend at least 30 minutes. When you taste the mixture to test its flavor, remember that flavors dull when frozen, so a little stronger than perfect is what you're looking for.

Melt chocolate in double boiler or by microwaving for 30 second intervals. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Whip together sour cream & cream cheese until fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate, the cream mixture and the Kahlua and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate overnight and freeze according to ice cream maker directions.

When the ice cream is done, put a layer of ice cream in its freezer container then add half the graham crackers and chocolate syrup. Use your own judgment on how much. Then continue layering with more ice cream, the rest of the graham crackers, more syrup and top with the rest of the ice cream.

Birthday Week - Food Part I

There will be a lot of food talk this week, what with the party and all. We've settled on a menu that should appeal to both the kiddles and the adults; hamburgs and hot dogs for the young ones, sweet and spicy chicken wings and my secret-recipe barbecue pork tenderloin for the older palates plus fruit salad, potato salad (made by my Mom) and caprese salad. This is a birthday party though, and all anyone really cares about is the cake and ice cream.

I have been searching for the perfect cake recipe for years and while my search continues for a chocolate cake that I love, the hunt has come to an end for a yellow cake that has great flavor and perfect moisture.

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, who calls it Best Birthday Cake. Now, there are others that make this same claim, but Deb has actually earned the title. I love her post about discovering that she's pregnant and panicking, not about how she's going to afford a child but about how she doesn't have the perfect birthday cake recipe. I can relate. As a relatively new mom, I have the same concern. I want all the moist goodness of the box cake mix but without the modified food starches, artificial colors and fakie flavors. The kind of birthday cake that makes people close their eyes in delight.

This is that cake.

The recipe uses buttermilk and cake flour, not generally staples of my pantry but not hard to get either. Deb's directions are clear and accurate - especially the part about the mixture looking curdled after adding the buttermilk.

Since we're doing cupcakes for the party, I test drove the recipe by making 6 giant cupcakes and 12 regular sized cupcakes. The cups were definitely full. In fact, there was quite a bit of overflow that made it tricky to get the cupcakes out of the pan. It will easily make 24 regular cupcakes and might even make more than that.

My taste testers all agreed that the cake is not only moist but it's also got the perfect amount of sweetness. The thing that closed the deal on this cake however was what I call the "Time Test". I left cupcakes out uncovered overnight. The next day, not only were the cupcakes still moist but the flavor was even better. I couldn't be more delighted.

I didn't have much luck with her frosting. Mine never firmed up enough to spread over the cupcakes. I have a ganache frosting that I like so I'll go back to that. Interestingly enough, the failed frosting didn't go to waste. It has been turned into mocha cheesecake ice cream, but more on that tomorrow.

Birthday Week - Getting The Stage Ready

My little Buttercup turns one this week, so I'll ask you to bear with me while I freak out organize my thoughts about her party.

We aren't going wild and spending thousands of dollars on a birthday party she'll never remember. That said, a first birthday is kind of a big deal to us and we want to make it an impressive event that doesn't break the bank.

At almost one, Buttercup doesn't have a lot of personal preferences yet. She likes ice cream and balloons and we have a pool, so that has become our theme. Since the weather forecast is for sun, we're focusing on the outdoor activities. There is a problem however. Can you see it?

Yup, the pool is still green. Husband has been fighting with it for weeks now and the algae is winning the battle. He's been to the pool shop four times now and they swear if we add just a little more algaecide, we'll see results in 12 hours. I just want it to be swimable by Saturday. Fingers crossed!

Arkham Horror and the Joys of Cooperation

Lately, we've been playing a lot of Arkham Horror. It's a boardgame from Richard Launius and Fantasy Flight with a bazillion pieces (even before you add expansions). It uses the works of classic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft as the setting for a battle between monsters and ordinary-people-turned-unwilling-heros. The thing I like best is that it's a cooperative game, meaning that all the players try to beat the board. There aren't a lot of cooperative games out there and even fewer that do it well.

One of the pitfalls of cooperative games is that they tend to devolve into everyone giving their resources to one player who gets to do all of the cool stuff. Fun for that one person, pretty boring for everyone else. Arkham Horror needs all the players to be actively involved or the group doesn't stand a chance at winning.

In addition to the many expansions that keep the game fresh, we've had great fun with the Strange Eons custom content generator. We've made characters of ourselves and have started talking about making our own boards based on the local area.

If all that wasn't enough, Fantasy Flight put out scenarios for a league. Each week, our tough fight has been made harder by additional conditions and modifiers to the equipment and monsters on the board. I really like the scenarios because they shake up the base game and encourage us to use the expansions in a practical fashion. Using all the expansions at once is Not Practical. We don't even have table space to do it. Our weekly league is down to it's last four scenarios. Who knows how long it will take us to actually complete it though since we instilled the rule that we have to play scenario that we lose until victorious. We've only had to do that twice, but these last four games are really tough.

This is a game worth the $60 price tag. You read that right. $60 for a boardgame and you'll get every penny of that back in fun. It's definitely easier to learn to play by getting someone to teach you what all the pieces do rather than trying to figure it out from the rulebook alone. It's #17 on Boardgame Geek's The Hotness and you'll find a bunch of useful player-made additions for each of the expansions on their site.


Arkham Horror Rundown

Number of Players: 1-8
Time To Play: 2-4 hours once you know how
Age Range: 12+
Theme: Horror
Style: Strategy
Interesting mechanics: Cooperative Play
Expansions: Dunwich Horror, Kingsport Horror, Innsmouth Horror, The Dark Pharaoh, The King In Yellow, The Black Goat of the Woods
Pricetag: Base Game $60, Town Expansions $50, Smaller Expansions $25
Learning Curve: Steep - get someone to teach you
Base Game Needed To Play: Yes

Useful Links: Fantasy Flight, Official Support, Boardgame Geek