Lucky's bakehouse

There's this super sweet brand new bakery called Lucky's Bakehouse in Boulder that we've got quite a sweet spot for.

We've popped over a few times now and each time they seem to have more+more lovely treats.
And delicious ones too. They also offer GF goodies- including some really yummy cupcakes& cookies, they have Gelato, and marshmallows, and coffee.

The decor is simple but pretty, and Little Berry loves their colorful chairs. They have outdoor seating for the warmer days, and operate in what appears to be a converted garage, complete with garage door that opens into the store making it an indoor/outdoor space when the weather is nice. If you're over that way definitely check them out!
We recommend: the salted caramel brownie pie, the Chocolate Mint Pudding (made with fresh mint), GF lemon bars, handmade marshmallows (nom) and the hand spun cotton candy (which they won't sell you but happily serve you a sample of)- and from the Gelato case, the Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk is divine.

Next door to Lucky's Bakehouse is the equally quaint Lucky's Market, where you can get your groceries, food from the deli, as well as buy local goodies if you are inclined. Both are very cute establishments and I promise you'll find yourself coming back again and again just because it's so pretty, the treats are tasty, and the groceries are convenient!

Lucky's Bakehouse is holding a fun Valentines Cookie Decorating Open House on February 10th from 2pm-4pm. The cost is $5/child for which they will receive 4 cookies (with option of Gluten Free) and can chose from available decorations to pretty up their 
cookies!

You can follow Lucky's Bakehouse on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Wordless Wednesday: "Pappa wear me!"

Waste not....

I wouldn't really call us frugal. We make lots of careful choices with our money but we also spend a lot on things we value. But we're not wasteful.
Last night at dinner I piled a plate full of lettuce and baby tomatoes, carrot slivers and broccoli for Little Berry and myself. She enjoys dipping her veggies in cream cheese and so I reached for the container to give her a separate dish of it for dipping.
I turned around to find her shaking the rest of the bag of lettuce into the garbage. She looked so proud of herself, like she was helping me. I think in her mind she was being genuinely useful. But it got me wondering:

How do we teach children about not being wasteful?

-Give them age-appropriate tasks they can complete. When we're leaving rooms or the apartment I will pull a chair up to the light switch and ask Little Berry to turn the lights off for me. She enjoys it and it gets her practicing the habit of noticing such things. Make it fun or a game and they will remember it.
In the case of food, I will start involving her more. Perhaps from now on she can be in charge of putting the lettuce into a Tupperware container or picking just as much as we need to eat at a time from our container garden of lettuce.
- Volunteer with them doing something like picking up trash in the park or cleaning out their toy box to take items to a local thrift store. This way they get to see their efforts pay off and see an alternative to simply throwing things away.
-Use less myself and model appropriate behavior. I am guilty of some times pouring a glass of water down the sink if I am finished. We can use that water on our plants or start leaving a bowl of water outside our apartment building for smaller creatures in this summer heat. The fact is- everything we do means something to our children.
-Be wary of what I am modeling as "trash" to my daughter. Recycling is something kids can get involved in and teaching about waste isn't just for the environment. It's ideal for the health of your family as well because your choices will lead to a healthier childhood for your little ones and a better parenthood for you.
-Talk about it, read about it, make up your own stories about it. This one is a given and probably easiest of them all. But just talking about it means nothing if you don't also model the behavior.
-Relax. Sometimes kids are wasteful. They don't comprehend that splashing in the sink is wasteful- to them it's pure bliss to have chilly streams of water everywhere. Sometimes you need to let go of the rules and just enjoy the moment.

What are your tips? How would you approach wastefulness with your child/ren?

Summer is....

The pool.
Is there really anything better than dipping your feet or plunging yourself into the pool in the summer? I think not. Little Berry thinks not too. Where's your favorite place to go swimming?

Sunshine.
Just make sure you put on sunscreen. Pappa Starbucks never wears sunscreen and so I finally showed him research stating that African Americans can also get skin cancer. Little Berry is always needing a re-coating because she sweats it off so much. What's your favorite sunscreen?

Fresh Foods.
Tomatoes. Zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers! Cherries, watermelon, pineapple, mangoes, raw garlic, basil! I love summer foods and we go through them so so quickly. What's your favorite summer food?

The smell of summer.
Grass growing, freshly cut grass, the smell of water. The neighbor's grill, even sunscreen has a distinct smell that I can't really get enough of in the summertime.
What are your favorite summertime smells?

My city garden

We live in the city. In a cramped two-bedroom apartment with no yard. I wish it were bigger, but it's not, and that's not stopping me. I have- garlic, two tomatoes, a yellow squash, a spearmint, four strawberry plants and a cantelope, rhubarb, a pot of wildflowers, ten basil plants started from seed) and a few soapnut sprouts. I don't have fancy pots and I may have *pilfered* my soil- but I've got what I can.
I also have a clothesline for my clothdiapers and a kiddie pool for little berry all in the same space. Because some things, I cannot compromise for. As a side note- if I'd planned better, I would have completely planted all of these in a deeper kiddie pool. They're $15 (the biggest ones, which is twice as deep as ours) and perfect for the plants I have.

Things I'd like to have but don't, and can make do without- cucumber, bell peppers, and watermelon.
What do you just have to have no matter what? What are you willing to be cramped to hold on to, or to give up other things for?

16 months of joy

Today my Little Berry is 16 months old. She's so big, and such a baby all at once.
She is still not much of a morning person (see above photo for proof) but I'm in love with this age, this stage of development, with all of its words and even its frustrations. This morning she got angry ANGRY because she wanted so desperately to dress herself and isn't capable of doing it all at once, she just doesn't have nthe motor skills for it, but you should have seen her try. She was intense, desperate, breathing heavily, picking up her foot with both hands and trying to poke them into her pants. In the end she settled on letting me put the pants on her that she picked out because any other pair? Elicited shrieks.
And she tries to read, pointing at the words on the page, making up garble about them. Everything has a name whether she gets it right or not, but boy oh boy does she try! A few weeks ago she started saying "airplane!" and now everything in the sky- from the moon, sun, birds, clouds, to airplanes themselves are pointed and called out as such.
If we're in the kitchen, she drags over her high chair and waits to be fed, grinning, and making messes with it whenever it's placed in front of her. She's very sensory oriented and specifically, loves feeling, touching things to see what they do.
She rolls her eyes when she doesn't like what we're telling her. She's been doing this for about three weeks and it's simultaneously hysterical and absurd.
I bought a vintage quilt recently at the Goodwill and she has spent so much time while we nurse stroking it, pointing at different images, licking it and right this very moment she has her whole face plastered against my computer screen watching the letters be typed and saying NnnnnOSE!
My girl, she is a joy.

Thanksgiving

Right now little berry is hard asleep on my lap
in a way she hasn't done since we were in Europe.
I am watching barefoot contessa thanksgiving episodes
and salivating at all the yummy food. The truth is,
I love food. It has given me lots of pleasure over
time but my tastes have changed quite
A bit through time too. When I was littler, I could eat
ham sandwiches with banana slices on them all
day long. Or tomato sandwiches with American
cheese slices. Pappa Starbucks is vegetarian
though, and since we began living together we
both began eating healthier. We go through the vegetables
in this house although they're rarely eaten raw. I used
to eat lots of easy foods and he ate lots of "vegetarian junkfood"
so it's nice to come to enjoy eating healthier
together. On our thanksgiving menu this year is:
roasted carrots
Stuffed mushrooms with vegetarian sausage 
Quorn vegetarian turkey
mashed potatoes of course....
bread
cranberry sauce by pappa starbucks
mmmmmmm! Happy thanksgiving!! 

Tofu schmofu

I have finally begun cooking with Tofu. I've only been living with a vegetarian for three years now so it's not like I am late to the game. Anyway, there is a delicious Asian tofu at  that he and I both love and I wanted to make something like it. I came up with the following recipe, which hits the spot so well that I don't have any photos of it finished!
For best results, press your tofu first: to press the water out of the tofu, drain it from the package, place on a plate, place a second plate on top of the tofu, place a heavy weight on top of the second plate. Press it for 1 - 2 hours, or overnight in the frig. Drain the water and proceed with recipe.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, cube your block of tofu into small bite-sized pieces. Lightly oil a baking sheet (olive oil works well)and place cubes of tofu onto this, place in oven for 30 minutes until tofu has lost much of its moisture (If you pressed the tofu first, you can reduce this to about 15 minutes).

While this is in the oven, add 1 Cup of Teriyaki sauce, 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic to a bowl. Remove tofu, let it cool and then place in Teryaki/ garlic mixture. Best if eaten immediately, optionally add 1/2 cup of fresh, thinly sliced carrots and sesame seeds. ....mmmmmm!

Exercise Nine

In the summer, the house grows hot, so hot
With steaming, stewing pressurized tomatoes
Deep sea green cucumbers in their baths
slowly turning to pickles in the winter.
Okra waiting patiently in a basket for
a turn at the sink,
Green beans sitting on the porch being plucked
away at until their boiling is due.
Once it's July, the whole kitchen floods
with mason jars, clear jars
quarts, half cups, pints all stacked in boxes
My mother assigns me with millions of them
and a single sharp brillo pad in the yard
Plunging my small hands into the jars
I scrub and scrub eager to hand them off to
my mother for approval. This is the task
hated most, readying the old glass banks
for prizes I would choose to never open.
Sometimes, I sneak away and bring back feathers
or plunge my toes instead into the cold hose water.

What's the deal with hauling things around and putting
them in the same spot when you move? Tradition
around here dictates a refrigerator box: it's filled with magnets, photos, cards we got on birthdays past, receipts for appliances, even magnets for restaurants and hotels and doctors offices, delivery menus and emergency numbers that are long since far away.
My favorite forever has been a copy of a recipe for banana bread that I craved intensely when I was pregnant and would make about three loaves of it each week. It is my SIL's recipe and I swear by it.
This time when we moved, I couldn't find it. It was no where, just gone. I've asked her for the recipe probably twice now and I KNOW I have it somewhere...but it isn't where it always was...and now I am banana breadless.

So, do you have a good banana bread recipe? Perhaps it's time to try a new one...

Thoughts on this scholarship-

My first plane flight (and Little Berry's too!) ever was yesterday. We were in bed super late last night and up at the wee hours of morning heading to Atlanta on a two something hour drive in the dark, cool dewy summer light.
We flew from Atlanta to DC, and from DC to NYC. Little Berry and I struggled to keep up much of the time, but overall this was onelarge rush of adrenaline. From NYC, we flew nonstop to London. I stayed awake the entire flight, holding my daughter and watching Pappa Starbucks sleep in front of me. We were blessed with a light plane and plenty of room, and as I watched the light change across the world and the sky became unfamiliar, I realized I was on the cusp of a huge moment for myself.
The babe and I were both quite overwhelmed and I am clearly under-packed (not one single long-sleeve shirt in my bag!!) but right now, I am finally no longer STARVING, I've had a nice shower, Little Berry and Pappa Starbucks both are sleeping and I am fighting a losing battle with a new routine, as well as jetlag.
The trains (right outside our window) are loud, everything seems to be covered in graffiti, but so far everyone has been extremely helpful- twice yesterday I was helped with the stroller up a flight of (huge) stairs (what's with all the stairs here, anyway?) by a complete stranger, and our hotel clerk let us in our room 3 hours early because of just how dagum tired we were.
AND fed us breakfast for free.

Tomorrow begins our first day of exploring and we will see just how lost we manage to get exploring Europe with a baby in tow. For now I will be happy if we manage to not hurt ourselves or stick out like crazy tourists.