A Monday Grab Bag Of Good Things

Good things from our kitchen~

Last week Alex baked six apple pies, a tray of wrapped apples, a small batch of apple crisp, canned the apple and pear butter, made peach jam and apple jelly, which totalled thirty-three cups of preserves. We shared some with our neighbors who cat-sit for us and some pies went into the freezer and we have a long list of friends and family who are hoping Alex bakes pies for them soon, too.






Sipping the first glass of blackberry wine while making dinner- so, so good.

Relying on this nutritious and easy to make frittata for dinner at the end of busy days.





Basic frittata recipe:

Heat oven to 450F. Butter a 11" x 17" pan.

Layer frozen or fresh (or combination) of veggies and other on-hand ingredients-this comes out a bit differently each time, depending on what's in the fridge or pantry:
chopped onion
shredded or thin-sliced potato
leftover brown rice
roasted red peppers
spinach, chard or kale
grated carrot
squash
olives
grated cheeses, more is better (I used 8 ounces of grated feta and about 16 ounces of sharp cheddar for my last frittata.)

lots of black pepper
some salt

Put all ingredients into pan.
Beat 9-12 (farm fresh, local) eggs and pour over the other ingredients. Use a spoon to gently toss or stir together all the ingredients. Put into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Having unschoolers around our table, learning together~

the Intro to the Holocaust course



Inspiration everywhere~

Discussing diets, or not, at The Rotund.

Discussing bullying at Spilt Milk and Underbellie.

I think I've found the color, Clay .04, for our living room paint project (for either November or January) after reading over at Amanda's.

• Alex and I are reading Radical Homemakers and identifying with it strongly.


• And I must blow a virtual kiss to Lisa, who I consider a friend and who sends me the most confidence-boosting, kind emails and whose blog is a constant source of inspiration. I am ever grateful.

Saturday and day-tripping with the kids~

Lunch out at the Dogfish Cafe in Portland, where the kids had killer grilled cheese and Alex and I had our second beef burger each in twenty years (the kids think maybe next time they'll split a burger--fyi, this is in part because we wish to truly eat close to our plates and support our local food culture).




Olivia had a late invitation to another unschooler's birthday party, so we hit the road for Cornish. While she was at the party, Alex and I kicked around with Adam, enjoying the autumn colors in the pretty small town on the river.











Sunday afternoon, fall chores and autumn in our garden~

May you have many good things in your week!