Blogheendran

Xander KSW Test

2008-09-20T14:18:00.001-05:00

Xander KSW Test
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Xander testing for his blue stripe.

The Xander Show: Honey Ginger Chicken

2008-09-18T21:35:00.003-05:00

After guest starring on the Retta Show, Xander wanted to make his own show, so we put one together.

Guest star on the Retta Show

2008-09-06T21:17:00.003-05:00

Xander was a guest star on this week's Retta Show.

Retta was Xander's classmate in kindergarten and has been recording a cooking show called the Retta Show which has episodes on YouTube. Retta's family joined the same CSA we did and so they decided to make a show about butternut squash. It's very cute.

Pirates!

2008-09-02T18:57:00.001-05:00

Pirates!
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Clifford and Retta came over for a play date. We were invited to be guest stars on the Retta show!

First Day of School

2008-08-25T18:23:00.001-05:00

First Day of School
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Waiting for the gates to open up for Xander's first day of first grade. Duncan also started his first day of Pre-K.

Anju's Wedding and Rishi

2008-08-24T20:18:00.002-05:00

We went on yet another trip this summer. This time to Chicago for 2 reasons: 1) my sister Anju was getting married to Van, a guy she's known since high school; 2) Ranju and Rohit had their new baby boy, Rishi.

Anju and Van had their wedding at Amma and Appa's house and a beautiful reception at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Xander was SO infatuated with Anju: he would hang on her all the time. This picture is one of the wedding pictures, but we managed to convince the boys to stand aside so the photographer could get the shot.

There are some more pictures of Anju's wedding here.

Rishi is pretty cute. I can't quite tell who he looks like more, but he's soft and cuddly and fairly even tempered, even at three weeks old.

Duncan rides his 2-wheeler

2008-08-03T21:11:00.004-05:00

Here is a small video of Duncan riding his bicycle. We just took the training wheels off last week, but we were out of town for most of this, so this is effectively his third day of riding. Look at him go!

I apologize for the poor quality of this video, I took it with my phone.

Successful fishing trip

2008-08-03T20:52:00.004-05:00

We visited Grandma and Grandpa in Montana last week, where we did so many fun things: fishing, archery, go karting, minigolfing, playing at a water park, camping in the backyard, throwing rocks in the Yellowstone river, playing Wii, watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, and much more.

Here's the fishing story:

We went out to the private lake where Grandpa's cabin used to be in Nye, MT where Grandpa's friend Bob took us in his boat to catch some fish. We hooked a trout every five minutes and caught our limit (6) in 30 minutes! Xander caught 2 all by himself, from casting to pulling it into the boat. And of course the one that got away was "almost as big as the boat!"

Duncan on two wheels

2008-07-25T19:09:00.004-05:00

Duncan has mastered the balance of riding a Razor scooter, so we had removed one of his training wheels to help him get the feel of balancing on his bicycle. He was doing so well that he asked me to take off the other wheel. With a little push, he was off.

In other news, Xander is now a Yellow Belt in Kuk Sool Won.

T-Rex at Peter Pan Golf

2008-07-14T20:27:00.002-05:00

On my last day of sabbatical, I decided to take the boys miniature golfing at Peter Pan Golf. We ate lunch at P. Terry's (great hamburgers) down the street, and then golfed 18 holes. It was scorching hot, and we didn't keep score, but we still managed to have a great time. The boys look forward to going back!

The T-Rex is in guarding the second hole.

Bowling

2008-07-14T20:19:00.002-05:00

Last Monday, I took the boys bowling. Xander had bowled before, but Duncan has only played Wii bowling (which he rocks at).

Xander did well, but Duncan had trouble because the 6 pound ball is 1/5th his weight! Duncan much prefers the Wii version. ;)

I don't know whether to be mad or not

2008-07-12T21:00:00.002-05:00

We put the buys to bed at 8pm this evening, and here it is edging on 9pm and I hear one of their doors shut. I go to their rooms and I hear whispering and see the light on in Xander's room. I go in there and Duncan is in Xander's room and Xander is reading/showing him a book. I told Duncan to go back to his room and Xander that it was "light's out" time.

It was sweet to see them getting along, but frustrating that they hadn't gone to sleep.

Dinner July 6, 2008

2008-07-06T21:27:00.003-05:00

For dinner tonight, I made Sloppy Joes and The Lady and Sons Okra and Tomatoes. The boys didn't like the okra at first, but Xander eventually gave it a fair shake and liked it (after I pointed out that it had bacon in it). I made the Sloppy Joes with ground beef from the beef share we purchased from the CSA and onions from our garden. The okra, tomatoes, garlic, and onion in the okra dish came from the CSA.

Sloppy Joes
1 lb Ground Beef
2 small onions
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c yellow mustard
1/4 c ketchup

Brown the beef and onions together, then when they are done, add the brown sugar, mustard and ketchup until the sauce is thoroughly mixed. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve on toasted buns (keeps them from getting soggy).

Boys meet the Pacific

2008-06-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-06-22T22:37:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-17T19:45:00.003-05:00

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...

2008-06-08T20:11:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-05T08:38:00.005-05:00

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

Neko hiding

2008-05-14T15:57:00.001-05:00

Neko hiding
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

I took the cats to the vet for a checkup on Saturday and Neko has been hiding behind the couch ever since! He only comes out to eat. I have passed worried and now I'm pissed. I'm thinking about moving the couch or spraying him with water.

I wonder what he is going to do after we take them back to the vet on Monday to get their teeth cleaned.

Lemon tree, very pretty

2008-05-04T19:50:00.001-05:00

Lemon tree, very pretty
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

We just bought a potted lemon tree from the Natural Gardener. It's about 2 feet tall, but has about 10 fruit on it already!

We also bought 4 tomato plants and a couple watermelon vines to add to our garden. The onions we planted are getting ready to harvest, so we wanted another crop ready to go.

The CSA is working out well. We tend to eat the strawberries as soon as we get them, and the fresh eggs are really tasty. It's challenging finding ways to eat all the different greens we get. We're looking forward to some crock pot Cassoulet with the fresh leeks we received.

C-S-A! C-S-A!

2008-04-27T19:56:00.003-05:00

(Title is a corrupted Simpson's reference.)

We just got our first box of veggies from our new CSA subscription. Tina wanted a CSA subscription for her birthday, so I signed us up for a box of veggies plus a half-dozen eggs every week for 10 weeks from Johnson's Backyard Garden.

I'm excited about it because it will force us to explore new foods. In this week's box, we have (from left to right): rainbow chard, garlic, spring onions, kale, spinach, arugula, asparagus, tomatoes, eggs, and strawberries.

I cooked Roasted Kale for dinner to accompany roasted chicken thighs and roasted corn. It was strangely addictive. Duncan kept coming back asking for another "crispy one" even after dinner.

Meet Molly

2008-04-19T15:05:00.002-05:00

Meet Molly
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Our friend who lives in Singapore, David, sent her to me (with about 900 stamps). I do not think he wanted to let her go.

Xander in the news

2008-04-12T22:07:00.004-05:00

Xander's school had a kindergarten rodeo and there are pictures of a bunch of kids from Xander's class on the local paper's website.

Scroll to picture 14 to see our little cowboy!

Out of the mouth of Bunzers

2008-04-08T20:46:00.001-05:00

Out of the mouth of Bunzers
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Duncan was home sick on Monday. This is him playing legos in his club. Later that night he said "The TV lies" - we were talking about candy (Airheads) and how the stuff that happens in commercials does not happen in real life.

Check!

2008-04-07T14:26:00.002-05:00

Check
Originally uploaded by TinaRed

Xander and Bheeshmar playing chess with the Lego chess set Xander got from Grandma for his birthday.