Boys meet the Pacific

Boys meet the Pacific
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

We just arrived in San Diego and had to take a walk to the beach. The boys have never been to the ocean before, so this is a nice first for them. Coronado Beach is really quite beautiful.

Jumpoline!

This Friday evening, we went to a reunion of former interns at Applied Research Labs. It was really nice seeing these old friends, some of which we hadn't seen in almost 10 years!

In this picture, from left to right: Sheilagh (her trampoline), Tina, Daniel, Duncan, Xander, Andrew, Lael, Kennedy, Tracy, and Meredith.

All the adults in this picture worked as interns at ARL, and now look at all of those kids!

In Daddy's cube

Saturday was the Open House at Bheeshmar's work, which has a beautiful new campus, so we loaded up the family and checked out the new facility, which is normally inaccessible due to security. Xander said, "I'm totally working here" after he saw all the computer hardware in the lab. :)

There were lots of fun activities for families. There were several bounce houses, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, barbeque. Xander and Duncan especially enjoyed playing Rock Band!

And yes, Bheeshmar is on sabbatical!

What's cooking...

Since we joined the CSA, we've had to be creative about what we cook, because we don't really know what veggies we are going to have until we get them on Saturday afternoon. So I've decided to document what we're doing with them.

For a while there, we were drowning in spinach and chard, but we would have sauteed greens with many meals, and Tina even made a Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing that was really delicious. Then, most recently, the summer squashes came into season, so we've been trying to figure out what to do with zucchini, crookneck squash, and pattypan squash. Fresh in-season squash is really delicious just sauteed with some onion in a bit of olive oil (especially the pattypan).

This week we got some nice white potatoes and some okra from the farm. We've also got some Dream Dinners in our freezer for easy dinners, so I took the Steak with Garlic and Herb Butter Dream Dinner as an entree (grilled on the Egg, of course), and paired it with some roasted potatoes and fried okra.

The meal was a big hit with the whole family. Xander kept asking for more okra!

Roasted Potatoes:
2 lbs potatoes cut into 1" cubes (CSA)
3 whole cloves garlic (CSA)
1 T fresh oregano leaves (from our garden)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (from our garden)
1-2 T EVOO
salt and pepper to taste

I just tossed everything together and stuck it in the toaster oven at 400F for 30 minutes. It turned out delicious!

Fried Okra (and squash)
1 lb okra, cut into 1/2" slices (CSA)
1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2" slices (CSA)
1 small yellow squash, cut into 1/2" slices (CSA)
cornmeal (I used white cornmeal)
salt and pepper

Generously salt the okra and cover with cold water and refrigerate for at least one hour. I did the squashes in a separate bowl, but gave them the same treatment. Mix cornmeal with salt and pepper (be sure to have enough salt). Drain the veggies well, roll them in the cornmeal to coat, and fry them in 1/2" of oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Xander is promoted to yellow stripe

Xander has been studying Kuk Sool Won for a few months now and just got his first promotion!