A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Sweet Paul’s Summer Issue

After we put the kids to bed tonight (good and worn out from swimming and softball), I dove into the latest Sweet Paul magazine. The online summer issue has 144 pages loaded with food and recipe ideas (including homemade dog snacks), clever and do-able craft projects, and gorgeous photos of peonies. Eye candy and inspiration galore.

So many delicious-looking recipes are featured (we’re talking cinnamon and espresso soda, gazpacho with grilled shrimp and corn, and blueberry tart with caramel sauce), but the one I really have to try is the lemon and feta dip.  I’ve been a huge fan of lemons ever since I was pregnant with Andrew. Don’t know why, but I go with it. Here’s the recipe, and be sure to check out the rest of the magazine when you have a minute.

Lemon and feta dip
Serves 4

8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, chopped
6 tablespoons olive oil+ extra for serving
fresh thyme

Place feta, lemon zest and juice, garlic, and olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth.
Spoon into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with thyme.
Serve with grilled tomatoes and grilled pita bread drizzled with olive oil, salt, and thyme.
Photo by Frances Janisch

Peonies

I need Andrew to play a little drumroll here…these are the first peonies ever to bloom on Taylor property. Peonies are my favorite flower in the world. I first loved them because they bloom every year for my birthday. In fact, when I was young my mom and grandma made it seem as though they bloomed because it was my birthday. But then I loved them because they are so generous with their beauty and fragrance. Just look at them; they’re not holding anything back. And when I found out peonies are the unofficial national flower of China, well, that was the icing on the flowery cake.

The peonies of my childhood came from bushes that had belonged to my great-grandfather, Melvin Lathrop. Grandma Marilyn has offered a plant or two of her father’s as soon as I clear a spot for them. I love the idea of generations of a family enjoying blooms planted by an ancestor. Maybe that’s one of the reasons peonies are so popular in China; they have such reverence for ancestors there.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I’d like to share a little poem/song called “The Peony Bush” with you. Do you remember Danny Kaye? He was a singer and actor that you might know from the holiday classic White Christmas. I first saw him when he sang “Inchworm” with the Muppets when I was little. Kaye recorded “The Peony Bush” by Meredith Willson (of The Music Man fame) back in the 1950s. It’s a sweet and silly tribute to the peony. Kaye sings in that over-the-top style (I think it’s called bravura) so popular back then. A singing style that my Grandpa Tony can still nail to this day. Ask him to sing something for you the next time you see him and you’ll see what I mean.

How about you? Is there a flower or plant that’s especially meaningful for you?

The Peony Bush

(by Meredith Willson, as recorded by Danny Kaye)

‘Twas the peony bush there in my garden
That made you turn around and smile at me.
Not the zinnias or gardenias with their fragrant perfume,
Forget-me-nots in fancy pots or orchids in-a bloom;
But the peony bush there in my garden
It did the trick as quick as one-two-three.
Please decorate my garden gate forever
And never will there be any bush.
But the peony bush for me.

Every rose, every tree, every bird and bee
Seem to rate a rondolet or two.
So a slight poetic push for my favorite bush
Would seem to be long overdue.

‘Twas the peony bush there in my garden
That made you turn around and smile at me.
Not the zinnias or gardenias with their fragrant perfume,
Forget-me-nots in fancy pots or orchids in-a bloom;
But the peony bush there in my garden
It did the trick as quick as one-two-three.
Please decorate my garden gate forever
And never will there be any bush,
But the peony bush for me.

Christina’s Turtle Candies

When my friend Christina isn’t starring in shows like I Do! I Do! or baking her to-die-for bread, you might find her making these deliciously decadent little turtle candies. My Grandpa Tony loves turtles, so I make him a batch of these every Christmas. Well, this year a little bird (Grandma Tutu) told me that Grandpa said my/Christina’s turtles were his favorites out of all the turtles he’s had. And he’s had a lot. That kind of loyalty deserves a reward, so I made him some more for Father’s Day.

Isn’t it nice having friends who make us look good? Thanks for sharing the recipe with us, Christina!

I’m going to attempt a photo tutorial, but I’m no Pioneer Woman. And it wasn’t until after I started that it occurred to me I could have used a nicer pan. But the greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect one. So here goes.

Here’s what you need:

Hershey caramels (I’ve never been able to find these; I use Kraft or Brachs [aka whatever’s available])
sweet German baking chocolate
white German baking chocolate
pecan halves

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Take four pecans and arrange them in turtle feet position. Place an unwrapped caramel on top of each set of turtle feet and bake for about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and really stick the pecans into the softening caramel.

Melt the chocolate according to the package directions. Spoon a dollop of dark chocolate over the caramel.

Then drizzle some white chocolate artistically over the dark chocolate. I let Will do this part; he used a butter knife, which worked just fine. The turtles will harden as they cool. I usually put them in the refrigerator to harden quickly because I’m usually making them at the last minute. If you cool them down this way, be extra careful when you remove the turtles from the pan so you don’t break their feet. Although this isn’t always a bad thing because then you have to eat the broken ones.

Happy Father’s Day

I love this photo of Grandpa Ed and my dad. They look so happy just to be together, don’t they? Edward Valentine is no longer with us, but I’ll always remember what a gentleman he was. A father of eight, he knew how to entertain a crowd. I loved his stories, and he always had a good joke to share. The thing I loved most of all about him was how much love and respect he had for my Grandma Charlotte. They were a wonderful team for more than 50 years, and Tim and I want to be just like them.

This is Great-Grandpa Tony holding Lexie when she was about 9 months old. Grandpa Tony is the hardest-working and most disciplined man I know. At 86 years old, he still rides his bike 10 miles a day! He is a talented woodworker and builder, and we were so lucky to have his help when we built our house. I love looking around my home and seeing his beautiful handiwork. Grandpa’s faith and his devotion to his family and friends are an inspiration and blessing.

This is my dad and me when I was just over a year old. We were living in Oklahoma at the time, where my dad was stationed during the Vietnam War. My mind boggles when I think of how young he was (just 21). My dad and I have always shared a love of architecture and one of my favorite memories is of the drafting table he built for me when I was about 12 years old. He would buy me copies of the real estate magazine Unique Homes so I could design floor plans of the mansions and estates that were featured. You can imagine how happy I was to be able to design our house and then have my dad build it. It was enough to make me forgive him for getting me an erector set for Christmas instead of a Barbie Dream Townhome when I was a little girl.

And last but not least, this is Papaw (as they say in West Virginia, where’s he from) with the kids on our last visit to D.C. We don’t get to see him as often as we’d like, but we manage a few visits a year. He usually comes to see us and gamely reads to kids, gets taken on nature walks by his son, and helps with odd jobs like putting up Christmas lights. When Tim and I were dating, I remember driving through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia in the back of Ron’s truck as he took us to visit elderly aunts and uncles on farms scattered throughout the countryside. He is dedicated to preserving the history and memories of his family; part of that mission includes planning a family reunion every summer at Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, Virginia. These reunions are happy times, with crawdad huntin’, ice-creaming makin’, and banjo-pickin’.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in our lives, and especially to Tim, who may still be surprised to find himself a father of four.

Fort Snelling

Yesterday, we visited historic Fort Snelling in St. Paul. Built in 1819 to protect the fur trade, the fort’s creation marked the end of the Native American way of life and introduced the influx of settlers from the East who would rapidly change the face of Minnesota. Fort Snelling is also significant as the home of Dred and Harriet Scott, slaves to the fort doctor, who made history by fighting for their freedom in the Supreme Court, which resulted in a decision that helped push the country toward the Civil War.

One of the highlights of our day was watching soldiers practice their drills on the parade ground. The soldiers fired off three rounds with their flintlock muskets (loud!), then let us march in formation with them. Some of us had a hard time keeping a straight face, but luckily we weren’t put in the fort jail.

The commanding officer’s quarters is the oldest standing home in Minnesota. Costumed guides demonstrated hearth-cooking and showed us what table manners were like in the early 19th century. We took a stroll out to the backyard to admire the kitchen garden and the beautiful stone wall.

Fort Snelling contains the first of many things in Minnesota: the first schoolhouse, library, and hospital. We had a fascinating conversation with the fort “doctor” about what surgery was like before anesthesia. Lexie played an interactive game that allowed her to choose different options for cures for various ailments and injuries in the early 1800s. Let’s just say that some of the options weren’t very pleasant.

The blacksmith’s shop was a favorite stop. The kids especially enjoyed watching the blacksmith use the enormous bellows to fan the fire.

Our visit to Fort Snelling was an afternoon well spent. The dozens of costumed guides provided a great interactive experience and encouraged the kids to participate and ask lots of questions. This was a good start to the weekly educational field trips I’m hoping to do this summer.