Easter in Alton

Another fine Easter in Alton.

First trail-a-bike ride

Off they went! One mile to Green Lake, 3 miles around, and 1 mile back. And yes, I did chase them down the street neurotically yelling, "Watch for cars backing up! Look out! Be super careful!" Neighbors up and down the block were out and lined up to cheer them on as they pedaled by.

Hatching

On a recent Mommy and Tristen day, we made paper mache eggs to share with Ruby and Luca. After they dried, we painted them. And after the paint dried, I filled them with feathers, glitter glue, other art supplies, marbles, and small toys. The kids pretended they were chickens and hatched them.

Easy like Sunday morning

Amy and Tristen enjoying a good paper read, bellies full of pancakes.

Chickpard

Another Eric and Fred recipe. They first made this for us on our Oregon Coast trip -- and now it's a staple in our house. I even cook chickpeas in large batches and freeze them in mason jars, just so I always have some on hand.

Sometimes we make this recipe with kale instead. Chickale.

• 1 can chickpeas (or one mason jar thawed frozen chickpeas, if you make and freeze them in batches like I do)
• 1 bunch chard (or kale)
• one-half onion, chopped
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• handful of raisins (or craisins!)
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Combine chickpeas, onion, 4 to 6 cloves of crushed garlic, bay leaves, and olive oil in a small baking dish or roasting pan. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring a few times. Some of the chickpeas will be a little crispy. Others will just be tender.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the chard: Wash and shake dry the chard. Trim stems off. Dice stems and set aside.Chop chard leaves.
4. Saute another couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil, then add the diced up chard stems and cook until tender (about 2 minutes). Add the rest of chard and cook until wilted. 
5. Set aside the wilted chard until the chickpeas are roasted. Then mix it all up, toss in the raisins, red pepper flakes, and salt. 
6. Eat it while it's hot!

Kale!

A couple of our favorite kale recipes...

Roasted kale, or kale chips

• 1 bunch kale
• olive oil
• salt or garlic salt

1. Prepare kale: wash, dry or shake out, de-vein, chop.
2. Place kale in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt or garlic salt. Toss.
3. Roast in oven around 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

Most of the kale should be crispy when it's done -- or at least the edges of most leaves should be crispy.
Serve immediately. Eat with fingers.


Massaged kale salad

Chris calls this "happy, relaxed kale." The recipe comes from PCC (http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/pcc/recipes/massaged-kale-and-currant-salad), but we only started making it when Kathy and Miles, then Eric, raved about it so much. Everyone seems to love this salad. I really didn't like raw kale before I tried it. Now I'm a fanatic.

• 1 bunch of kale, deveined and chopped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (If you double the recipe, do NOT double the salt.)
• 1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup diced red onion (Or any onion. Or chives.)
• 1/3 cup dried currants (I've used dried cherries, raisins, and craisins.)
• 3/4 cup diced apple (I've substituted carrot.)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (Or aged cheddar, smoked cheddar, or feta. I've also made this vegan by using nutritional yeast or just omitting the cheese.)

Put the kale in a bowl. Add the salt. Massage for two minutes. The kale gets dark and limp, as if it were cooked.

Dice the onion and apple in a food processor (or your Swiss Chop Chop!). I think the fine dice of a food processor makes this salad yummier.

Add the other ingredients.

If I'm lacking a full bunch of kale or if I'm using the wimpier kale from my garden, I sometimes bulk the salad up by adding arugula or lettuce at the end.

Toss.

So GREAT!

Sandy Eggo

Tristen, on seeing the beach: "This must be why they call it Sandy Eggo!"

What a fabulous weekend. We didn't even rent a car -- just got a hotel on the boardwalk and went back and forth between the beach and pool. We also rented bikes a couple of days and rode the two miles of ocean front trail to Belmont Park for the arcade and rides. Total heaven.

Slideshow below. I am 20 weeks pregnant. Some of the pix are of Tristen and others on tsunami watch due to the earthquake in Japan.