Vegetable Lasagna in Parmesan Cream Sauce

Isn't it funny how quickly the internet has changed, and how quickly it has changed us? When John and I first married, he had a folder where he kept recipes he printed from online. I kept craft ideas in three ring binder. Today we have pinterest. :)

John's vegetable lasagna recipe is outstanding. I grew up with a meaty lasagna, so his - with broccoli and carrots - seemed unlikely. But apparently, smothering anything in cheese guarantees tasty. And this recipe includes ricotta, a parmesan sauce, and a healthy dose of mozarella. I made it again this week - substituting the broccoli and carrots for vegetables included in our CSA basket: zuchinni, tomatoes, squash, fresh basil and swiss chard (plus a yellow bell pepper from the store). It was excellent!

I've never made a lasagna that slices perfectly with all the pretty layers. Fortunately, that hasn't affected the taste.

I had to do some digging, but I found John's recipe online. The url was on the recipe he printed, but that website was defunct. Google came to the rescue though, and I found it elsewhere. Bookmark it, pin it or print it - this one's a keeper!

Let's Draw Funny Faces: a little book

If you sat next to me in high school, or college, at the dmv or anytime when I was on the phone - you probably know I like to doodle silly faces.

They were like legos for me. I'd start with eyes, and then figure out where a nose would fit. Then you'd begin to see a personality, so I'd draw a mouth to match. The features would define the facial structure, so building the cheeks and chin around them was a natural next step. This was a lot of fun for me, addictive and endless. I never knew what the faces would look like when I started, and there were never two alike. 

I've been wanting to make a little book like this for a long time, ever since I woke up in the middle of the night with the memory of that funny cartoon book from the 80's with different eyes, noses and hairstyles, that you trace to make a million different characters? Remember that? I forgot the title. 

Anyway, after making L's drawing book, I was on a roll. I made this book in an afternoon. It's by no means exhaustive, but a handy little reference, let's say. It's not necessarily meant for kids like the last one, it has more words and more complex shapes. Mostly, this was just fun to make, and I hope it will be fun to draw from!

Like the other drawing book, it only includes minimal space for drawing, so it's best if paired with a blank book. Download your copy here, available until July 25th. The book is available in the shop. See my tips for making books in the previous post.

What do you doodle?

Make a book

Since I make several printable coloring books, and hope to do more, I thought I'd show you how I put them together. It's super easy.

First, you need to print the pages front and back. This is easy/hard depending on how familiar you are with your printer, or how awesome your library is. I've got connections at the library, so no big.

You have several options for assembling the books:

1. Our library has a long arm stapler which I use to put two staples along the center fold - make sure the spiky points are on the inside of the book.

2. A regular stapler won't reach the center fold. (Is there a size between regular and long arm? I don't know.)  You can fold the book closed, and put two staples along the folded edge, very close to the edge. I don't like this as much because you lose space on the inside, and it just doesn't fold as nicely. But if you crease your fold nicely after stapling, it works out okay.

3. My favorite method is to sew the spine. I use regular sewing thread, set my stitch length to 5 and just sew straight down the fold. Okay, sometimes I sew a little wiggly - but I'm not a perfectionist, people. I don't back stitch on the ends because that puts too many holes in the paper.

Trim the threads and add a dab of elmer's glue on each end to keep the thread from unraveling. Ta da! You can only do this through 5 or 6 sheets of paper, much more will break your needle so use a stapler!

I make blank books this way often to throw in my bag for the kids or to use when I'm out of sketchbooks. I use a different color thread for each kid - which helps tell them apart, but also just makes them seem a little more exciting.

I originally learned the sewing method here, where she makes really lovely journals using fancy papers.

Let's Draw!: a book for kids

I like to draw. I doodle all the time. I just jump in and do it.

But when L wants to draw, she's afraid to try. "I'll mess it up! It won't look right."

I worry this is my fault. Because she sees how quickly and easily I draw something and it looks like the thing (not to say it's an amazing drawing, just, you know - a horse with four legs and a head). I don't want her to be so afraid that it won't look right that she doesn't try.

Because honestly, drawings that don't look right, can still be full of so many good things that are so easily lost when you are pursuing a correct drawing.

Top: Mommy and Daddy 
kissing at their wedding
Bottom: Untitled

Because art is about so much more that representation. It's about play and process, looking and seeing and interacting, taking risks, moving things with your hands. It's a way of learning and engaging the world.

So what can you do?

I don't know if this is the right way to approach this only-sort-of-important-(but-really-maybe-very-important) matter of creativity to my kids. I was an art major, but I skipped all the art for children classes, so seriously - I don't know how to teach. But here's what I'm doing:

I made L a little art book with few words, and step by step pictures of how to draw basic things: a house, a dog, a bird, a girl, a giraffe, etc. I tried to keep the drawings simple and not at all fancy. I am hoping she'll see that simple shapes go together to make pictures, and that if she can draw these simple shapes (and she can), she can draw anything.

Of course, I also don't want her to think this is the "right way to draw a dog" and just copy it over and over. But I hope - hope - instead it will give her the confidence to put shapes together and make up her own pictures.

The book is more of a reference than a coloring book, so I also made her a blank book to go with it. I showed her how to follow the steps first, but then she did most of these drawings by herself while I chased her sister around the room. She added stairs to her house (so you can get from the door to the window), and connected the sidewalk to the road. She really took it as a prompt, and then didn't worry that it looked a little different from the book, which made me really proud (relieved). So far, I'd say it's going pretty well.

So tell me, (seriously, tell me!) are your kids afraid to draw?
How do you encourage pressure-free creativity?
Check out my book Let's Draw, and tell me if your kids like it.
(It'll be here until July 25th before moving to the shop, so get it now!)
You can find this book in the shop.
Stay tuned for a post on how I assemble my books. I appreciate your comments!

I've started sketching a few more drawing books to come over the next few weeks. Some animals, dinosaurs, and silly faces. Let me know if you have any requests!

Pink Dog, Wild Animals and Three

If your'e following along with our family's pink dog saga, you may remember that J's favorite toy is Blue Dog. Blue Dog is Pink Dog's counterpart, and the way I remember it Blue Dog became J's favorite because Pink Dog was L's favorite and that's how sisters are. 

Still, as J has gotten older, she has clearly chosen pink as her favorite color. One night, as I was tucking her in bed with Blue Dog, she asked me, "Mommy, where is my pink dog?" I understood the philosophical ponderings of my two year old, because clearly her beloved dog should have been pink. Ah, the misfortunes of life. 

For this birthday we welcomed a new little pink dog into the family. She hasn't gotten an official name yet - I'll keep you posted. We also got another excellent game from Eeboo. I like this one a lot, and it was a good fit for J who isn't big on following rules.

We also had some wild animals to prepare us for our zoo trip, which we've all been jazzed about. The cake (brownie) wasn't too fancy, but I liked that each person got to choose which animals was on their slice. 

Summer Time

In other summery updates: 

Movie Night: This photo is awful, but with a little decorating, popcorn in bags and other junk food - we let the kids stay up late one night to watch Ramona and Beezus. It was an awesome movie and fun silly times. The decorating made up for the lack of movie projector (which L was expecting for some reason).

We've done a little painting this summer. You can tell J's a lefty because all her pictures end up in the bottom left hand corner. I was proud of her first representational painting: Snakes.

L is on a rainbow kick. You might also find a dog in a tornado, and a nest full of rainbow eggs.

And how have I not updated you on the house before now? Here's the foundation going in.

The framing went up a few weeks ago. 

And the other details coming in, bit by bit. 

I'm excited. Oh, yes.

Braided

I saw this lovely Braided Spinach Feta Bread over at Artisan Bread in Five (did you buy the book yet?) and wanted to make something so pretty. Mine didn't turn out quite as lovely as his, which is funny because he says his isn't as pretty as Zoe's. Nevertheless, they're all pretty.  :)

I think I've made it three times now, each time stuffed with different things. Once for dinner with friends to be kinda fancy. Later, when we were out for the day, it made an easy cold picnic lunch. And a third time to use up leftovers. It's easier than it looks, and basically any meat/veggie/cheese/sauce/herb combination would work as a filler. 

I used the Challah dough for the first two, and maybe the basic dough for the third. I forget. Quick, tasty, and pretty every time! 

Father's Day

If you haven't made a Father's Day card yet, Brooke at Inchmark has a lovely idea and template for dad. Help kids draw a picture and write some of their thoughts about dad.

CSA and Greens

This is our first year to participate in a CSA with Rose Creek Village. I love buying local, and even more I love buying food from a family who grew food with their own hands. It's been a really exciting experience so far. They send us an email each week, telling us what we'll be getting and with some recipe ideas, and keeping us up to date on how the crops are doing.

My biggest worry was whether we'd be able to eat all the produce each week - especially with all the greens. We like salad, but John and I both tend to be wary of cooked greens. I have to admit, despite all the kale love floating around in recent years, I still hadn't tried it. I eat spinach - isn't that enough? Nevertheless, we found some recipes, and I'm totally digging both kale and swiss chard.

Swiss Chard with Garbanzo beans and fresh tomatoes

I'm loving comparing tomatoes and trying new things. In our third week, we've already tried about 6 new recipes. It would be a safe guess that I'll have lots of veggie recipes this summer. 

Non-photographers, such as myself, should really avoid taking pictures of certain types of foods - it's not doing anyone any good. So use your imagination for this one: this White Bean Soup with Kale (and bratwurst from our CSA) has been my favorite new recipe thus far.

Celebrating Five

I love my kids' birthdays.  I try really hard to make it a whole day of celebration. I don't want the day to be lost in the presents you got, the ones you didn't get, or the struggle to share new toys. I don't want birthdays to be about the stuff they're going to get, but to be a celebration of who they are, what they mean to our family. As a parent, it is an opportunity to find deeper ways of showing them how loved they are. Here are some ways we emphasize celebration over gifts:

Decorations! We hang streamers or bunting, pick flowers, and use table cloths and set up games, so when the girls first wake up, they know today is special. I don't necessarily buy decorations, we mostly use our special occasion linens and buntings, but we do like to pick up a few fun party favors. I usually lay out special clothes for the kids, too, because they still love dress up.

Memories. We talk a bit in the morning about growing up and all of our old memories. This year I was glad to be able to pull out our family albums and show them pictures from each of their past birthdays, and we talked about the ways they have changed - getting taller, longer hair, learning new words, writing, etc.

Food! Of course there's the birthday cake, made in a silly shape. But, I also try to make a whole meal (or two meals) of special foods the girls like, or things we don't have often. This year, Lou requested sausage balls like we have at Christmas.

A meal. We had a little tea party this year, so the entire meal felt like a special event. We ate finger foods, and had chocolate milk in our teapot and tea cups. John and I drank our coffee in little child size tea cups, too - which added another layer of fun. We also used our best (silliest) polite voices and everyone helped everyone get their food (rather than me fixing their plates). We eat together most days, so it is important to make this meal feel different than our usual family dinner.

Games! Kids love to play games, but more importantly, they love to play with us! So we spent the day playing together. I made a hopscotch game on the floor using painter's tape. John and I had to google the rules, and we had an awesome time learning and teaching it to the kids. This has become one of my favorite parts of birthdays - a whole day that I give them my attention and play with them without being distracted by all of the other things I need to do.

Presents. Of course, there still are a few presents. Not very many, but we spent much of the day playing with the presents with the kids. The joy wasn't so much about the thrill of opening too many packages but enjoying learning new games, playing pretend, and reading new books together. (Here the girls and I played with eeboo's awesome Tell Me a Story card game.)

L's one birthday present request was that mommy make her another dog.

Family. Our family lives far away, so its special to get to speak to so many of them on birthdays, to know that this is a day when people remember you and love you.

How do you celebrate little birthdays? How do you de-emphasize stuff and emphasize love?