Real Pesto Recipe

We eat a lot of pesto in this house.  Winona loves it on just about everything.  If she doesn't really seem to want to eat it, just add some pesto.  I love it on a juicy tomato sandwich.  And there is nothing tastier than homemade pesto.

Even better than homemade pesto is hand-chopped pesto.  Honestly, there isn't a better way to do it.  There is a great deal of flavor that is lost in all the ingredients when you put in in a food processor and pulverize the cuss out of it.  

Making pesto (and then eating it directly afterwards) is one of the things I look forward to most about Summer.  Here is how we do it.  It's really easy, just make sure you have a very sharp chopping knife.

Also I know everyone thinks pine nuts are outrageous.  We have had the same small jar for over a year.  It has gone a long way and to us its worth it.  We really like the flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
• 3 medium cloves of garlic
• 1 small handful of raw pine nuts
• roughly 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and FRESHLY GRATED
• A few tablespoons of extra-virgin Olive oil

You want to chop some of the basil, add some of the pine nuts, add some of the garlic and chop, chop, chop.  Add some more basil, some more pine nuts, some more garlic and so on.  It is really important for the knife to be very sharp or you risk just bruising the basil.  Then its just slimy and ugly.

We like to keep a big block of Parmesan cheese on hand for all of our "Italian" cooking needs.  =)

Once you get everything chopped, form a nice little pesto cake.

Put it in your container and pour a few tablespoons of olive oil on top.  This wasn't supposed to be mixed for photo purposed but Jake got excited.  

It will keep in your fridge for a few days, but is best when eaten immediately.  It makes the perfect pasta sauce.  Just stir it all up and TADA.  Delish.  

If you don't know, now you know

Why would starving Hatian farmers burn the hundreds of tons of seeds that Monsanto sent them? 

Educate yourself.

GMO Film Project Sizzler from Compeller Pictures on Vimeo.

It's pretty simple.  Eat as organic as possible.  Cut out processed foods.  Grow your own food from heirloom seeds.  (Incredibly easy.)  Save your seeds and reuse them.

Rockabye Baby

We are deep into day six of what we are just referring to as "sleep training."  It's hard.  Forgive me for my lack of description but I am exhausted and a little on edge.  

First, let me preface all of this by letting you know that we co-sleep.  Winona has slept in our bed every night since the day she was born.  Her crib was more for aesthetic "nursery" appearance.  Now she has a toddler bed and I guess I've just been kind of lazy about trying to get her in it.  She sleeps better and longer in our bed.  We like having her next to us.  

I also still breastfeed and Winona nurses throughout the night.  It has always worked well for us.  Having a family bed and breastfeeding meant that I could just roll over and take care of my crying baby with little effort or sleep loss.  Until recently.  I'm just on the end of my quickly fraying rope of sanity with night time feeding.  I praise all the mommies who can keep going.  However, for me I have made this decision as a way of taking care of myself.  

I can't be the best Mama when I am frustrated and exhausted.  

I have to keep reminding myself of this as the guilt starts to creep into my mind.  The guilt that I am not giving all that I can give.  There is the feeling that as a Mother it is my duty to squeeze every last drop of giving I have in me, like a lemon.  And then once all the lemon juice is squeezed I should probably zest the hell out of it!!  I don't want to be a juice less, zest less lemon.  I need to be somewhat intact.  

There is another big reason that helped push me to this decision.  A big ugly reason.  Baby Tooth Decay.  GASP!!!  Yikes.  I don't want my sweet girl to get yucky rotten teeth.  Not to mention that baby tooth decay affects adult teeth as well.  

We are loosely following a schedule of night time weaning that looks a little like this.  For three nights (we chose to do six), when she woke up, I nurse her for a little bit and then remove her from the breast and then cuddle/hug and reassure her that everything is okay.  She has to fall asleep without nursing.  She is pissed!!  Tonight starts the hard part.  No breast.  Just hugs and reassurance.  I'm scared.  

I have felt like giving up many times and I know Jake has as well, but I know we are making the right decision for our family.  I also know that all this hard work will pay off.  I'll try to update on how this journey is going.

Have you had similar experiences to this or tough mountains to climb to get to the top?  

Dear Winona

Yesterday we went to the park and it hit me, exactly how big you are getting.  You no longer needed me and Papa the same as you used to.  You were able to play more independently than ever before.  You even went down the slide by yourself.  You are growing so fast.  

Since the minute you were born, I have tried to soak in every second of who you are in the moment,  knowing that it is all so fleeting and who you were yesterday is not who you are today.  Every day of your life you will need me less and less... and as much as it stings sometimes, it is what I am raising you to do.  

I am astounded at how beautiful you are.  You have always been beautiful to me, but every day I think you have grown more so.  I have stared at you for a year and a half and I haven't gotten tired of it yet.  I could watch you sleep all night.  And I think I love you more every day.  If that is even possible.  I'd never known love like ours before you came.  There is no love greater than the love a mother has for her child.  I don't think my heart is big enough to contain it and it might explode.  

You are so smart.  Lately, it seems you pick up a new word every few days.  And even without words, you are wonderful at communicating what you want and need.  You mimic everything we do and you are Mama And Papa's little helper.  

You are also so sweet and loving.  You like to cuddle and give lots of kisses.  You like to give our dog, Maya, kisses and hugs.  You have started saying "I love you."  It's not very clearly "I love you," but Papa and I know what your saying.  

Your also so very funny.  Papa and I am constantly laughing with you.  You have a fake laugh that you do when everyone in a room starts laughing and you don't know why.  You dance around the room and twirl in circles until you fall down.  Your quite silly.  It is one of my favorite things about you and I hope you never stop being silly.

I love you more today than I did yesterday.

Love, Your Mama

Fashion Friday

Has it been hot where you live?  It has been SO hot here for about two weeks.  So hot that Winnie hasn't really worn many clothes.  So instead of posting five pictures of a naked baby and calling that Fashion, I'll share some beautiful clothes that I wish we owned for her wardrobe.

I love this vintage blue baby dress.  I think it would also be really cute as a top, paired with some jeans.  

This French vintage blouse is perfect for Fall.  I am already thinking of Winona's cold weather wardrobe.  Dreaming of the cool, brisk air is nice when it's almost 100 degrees outside.  

I think this piece speaks for itself.  Beautiful.

This dress is so cute.  I love the mushroom applique on the front and the puff sleeves.  

Can I get this plaid romper in my size too??

These saltwater sandals are all the rage.  I am in love with their classic look.  They are also safe to wear in the water.  It's a little too late in the season to invest in a pair for this summer but we are definately planning to get some next year.  

Baby Toms?  Enough said.

Wednesday Morning Jam Session

Felt Strawberry Tutorial

In case you haven't heard, we are making a play kitchen for Winona's Christmas this year.  Along with a kitchen is needed food.  So I am attempting to make all of her felt foods to go in the pantry and fridge.  

I am so excited.  She is going to want to eat these!!  

What you need:

• Red felt
• Green felt
• coordinating thread
• yellow embroidery thread
• a needle
• stuffing of some sort

First make your circles.  I like to go ahead and trace all mine out.  Just a little FYI, a CD makes a great size strawberry.  However, I like to make different sized ones and did three different sizes.  (I'm committed to making thirty... Lets see if that really happens!)  Maybe ten?  Haha.

Once you have cut out all of your circles, cut them in half.  

Sew up the straight side making a little cone.  I prefer to use the sewing machine on this part, but if you don't have a sewing machine you can hand sew it.  Then sew on all those blasted seeds.  I hated this part.  It took about an hour which seemed like five hours.  ACK!

After you've sewed on all the seeds and taken your much needed break, make a gather stitch around the top of the strawberry.  I should have used a different color thread so you could see it.  

Pull the gather a little and stuff it with as much stuffing as you can fit.  Then pull it tight and knot it off.  It doesn't have to be pretty because it will be covered up.

Cut out a small X to go on top.  I just freehanded this as I like them to all be different.

Stitch that baby on there and voila!  Felt strawberry.  Perfect.  Delicious!  

Week with IG

So I have been the biggest slacker in blogging... and sadly, this is me getting my act together.  It's all I have to offer.  I would do a weekend adventures blog...but honestly we didn't have much adventuring this past weekend.  

Bawk I like you "middle school" toe nails Hanging with the hens

Good morning! Cherrios!  All over the couch Clean Baby

Coloring with Papa Too punk rawk for this bath time business Air it out gurl!

Is it nap time yet? Little Diva She is mad because I won't put on the tv.  Dora, I hate you.

My bffer just got this done for my sweet babe.  Love it! I can't stop laughing. Bubble!

We took a trip to see the Blair Witch. Babies!!! Staying Cool.

Me-1, Apple pie-0 Delish Finally swewed up and reoaured this.  Yay

Catching up on my blogs and emails... Sisters

Christmas in July

Okay, not really.  But I am thinking about Christmas already and I'm so very excited.  I wanted to make sure we weren't stressed at the beginning of December, wondering how we were going to get all the things we wanted for Winona.  So I've thought long and hard about what I wanted to do.
We play Santa Clause.  Don't judge.  It works for our family and I love the tradition.  I loved Santa Clause as a child and was so disappointed to find out he wasn't real.  But I wasn't angry at my parents for filling me with delusions... only disappointed.  Now that I knew he wasn't real, I could no longer believe the wonderful delusion that a jolly man snuck into my house year after year leaving behind gifts especially for me.
However, Santa brings Winnie three presents.  Three good presents.  The three presents represent the three gifts from the wise men to Jesus.  It's also a good way for us to never get ahead of ourselves and leave Winz disappointed the next year when it isn't as good as before.  So here is a little list of her three future gifts, and some of my inspiration.
1.  Radio Flyer Tricycle, the classic style.  I can't remember what style tricycle I had as a child, but in my head, this is it.

This is the one.  Jake found this tricycle at a flee market last weekend.  TWENTY dollars.  It has a little rust, but other than that, its perfect.  We are going to clean it up and make it like new.  It's refreshing to get a recycled nice toy.  I can't wait to see how it cleans up.  I also can't wait to see Winona ride it around the drive way and neighborhood.  EEEEEEEH!  I'm like a kid when it comes to Christmas and having a child has made it so much better.

2. A play kitchen.  I've known since before last Christmas that on Winona's second Christmas she would get a nice play kitchen.  Since then I have searched far and wide for the perfect kitchen.  The perfect ones are expensive.  A little too expensive.  I just can't justify spending that kind of money on a gift for a toddler.  And the fact of the matter is that the best kitchens I found were homemade out of old crappy furniture.  Here are some of my inspirations.

This one is made out of an old night stand.

Can you believe these were all handmade?  All DIY play kitchens!  For much less of the price than you pay for some prefab piece of junk.  No offense.   And here is the mother of all play kitchens.  The most inspirational and beautiful that I've found.  You can also go to the mommy's blog that made the kitchen here.

Swoon.

So I've wondered, where can I get this perfect piece of furniture?  We have been looking at yard sales, flea markets, and craigslist and then... we stumbled upon a gem in our own storage shed.

Looks like a real gem right?  Haha.  Wrong.  It looks awful, but its the shape that is key.  Nothing a little sanding and paint can't fix.  It's perfect.  Even has a pantry/fridge.  Don't mind all the junk that's piled on it.  It's in the storage shed so give me a break.  I will keep you posted on the progress of this beautiful piece of furniture.

Ikea sells some pretty amazing and affordable play kitchen accessories.  

And if you don't know about felt food... go on over to Etsy  and check it out.  They are beautiful.  Also I found a list of tutorials for making felt food.  

3.  By Christmas I plan on moving Winona's rocking chair out of her room.  She is getting bigger and bigger every day and I think she would really appreciate a toddler size chair where she can read books.  She loves books.  I haven't found the perfect chair but here are some of my options.  

Are you thinking about Christmas already?  What are some of your gift ideas?