lunch at whole foods, columbus circle

the girls finally had a long overdue dental visit this morning at 10 am. afterwards, we stopped at whole foods in columbus circle for a snack before korrina went off to do research at the performing arts library for her costume design class. we had delicious, fresh coconut water from a new coconut water company. (coconut water is very popular lately. there are quite a few brands including "zico" and "vita.")

we found potato gnocchi at whole foods and i bought basil leaves to make a pesto sauce. we also made spinach salad with a little lemon juice and sea salt for dressing.

the children's garden

our weather has finally turned cool . . in the 60's, and we've donned sweaters and socks. i thought i should take a picture of the children's garden before all the flowers begin to fade in the autumn air. our wildflowers didn't grow very tall. either they didn't get enough sun or the packet we spread out wasn't as healthy as we would have liked. the few that have grown tall look very weed-like and several were picked by other residents who, we are guessing, didn't like the look of them.

i'm hoping this little weedy lovely makes it to open it's petals . . it looks like a tall dandelion, but the leaves aren't as long as a dandelion's.

the impatiens thrived, as it wasn't a plot that was too sunny.

no, i'm not sure . . if you know what this flower is, please let me know.

for dinner we had pasta primavera. i roasted the vegetables in the oven with herbes de provence, and then made a cream sauce. it was wonderfully easy and tasty.

medieval faire

it was a day filled with art classes, nutcracker rehearsals, and the medieval faire. somehow everyone got to their proper places smoothly and had a good time. the costumes came out nicely, also. there were a few safety pins here and there, filling in for needle and thread, but it was not noticeable!

we had an easy pesto dinner together in the evening (i made the pesto in the morning),

. . and then morgana and chanda and deychen played a final round of authors before walking deychen home. we were all very tired.

NO to GMO

my friend carol asked if i would join her in marching for gmo labeling of food products today. the group right2know began with speeches and songs at grand army plaza in brooklyn. at about 2 pm they began walking from grand army plaza to the brooklyn bridge, over the bridge into manhattan and up centre street to lafayette and astor place. i joined them at eighth street and third avenue. we marched up first avenue to the united nations and ended with a final chant and lots of pictures which i hope they put up on their website. a group of them are continuing to washington dc. i was a bit surprised at how small the march was. carol and i find it a bit disconcerting that the majority of americans don't care about the quality of the food that goes into their bodies. germany had a wonderfully big march in 2007 or 2009 with genfrei gehen.

of course, we shouldn't even have gmo food!

at moomah

while chanda was in ballet class, i hung out at moomah cafe.

i've been reading a wonderful book about venice titled, venice revealed, by paolo barbaro. he writes about many of the changes taking place in his city, such as people communicating via their cell phones and computers and not leaning out their windows and shouting to their neighbors out in the street or across the way. he misses these voices. he also misses the old red paint that they used to use when retouching the buildings. they now use white, and he writes about how it creates a very different type of feeling when reflected in the sun and the water. not bad, but different . . and something to grow accustomed to.

michaelmas

we were inspired to make a harvest loaf by eva's michaelmas preparations that she did with her children last year. the story is found in the book all year round. to make the harvest loaf, one sets out all the ingredients on the table and then tells the story. in the bowls above are whole spelt flour, a little white sugar mixed with sea salt, raisins, an egg yolk and sunflower seeds mixed with sesame seeds.

the dragon comes to a very happy village of hardworking people and wrecks havoc by lashing his tail, destroying homes and scaring everyone. the plants cannot grow and snow and ice replace the green growth of the fields. the people are frozen in a land of ice.

st. michael looks down from heaven and has compassion on the village. he stretches forth his right hand and grabs stars from the firmament (the raisins or currants). he flings them down onto the village. he stretches forth his left hand and plucks the golden sun rays and flings them down also (the egg yolk). the stars become lumps of iron on the earth and settle deep into the ground. the sungold warms the earth and the people so that the blood flows in their limbs once again and they can work. they plow and sow seeds (the sunflower and sesame seeds). st. michael encourages the people to harvest the grain that grows and grind it into flour . .

knead it . .

and make it into a loaf of bread that can be set in the middle of the table and shared with friends. this is the harvest loaf.

we also brought out our papers with our aspirations for personal growth this school year and contemplated at how we were doing with them.

it's a reminder that every day is a new beginning . .

hmmm . . !

later on in the afternoon, chanda and i had an interesting visitor . .

korrina returned from her costume sale with a $20 bag stuffed with . . costumes! one of them was this amazing jedi robe. the label on it says "metropolitan opera!"

red hair?

tassels.

and later in the day chanda worked on her skirt. since it was rosh hashanah, she didn't have chorus at her music school.

this is the material we picked up from the fabric store for the bodice of her costume. we went uptown in-between harvest loaf risings!

a quiet tea . .

ancient grain cereal and medieval dresses

i combined several grains this morning for a breakfast cereal we like to have in the fall and winter . . not that the air is feeling particularly autumnal lately! it's been 78 to 80 degrees everyday with 97% humidity! stores and restaurants and dance schools still have their air conditioning going . . however, it being the end of september seemed to compel me to make ancient grain breakfast cereal from cynthia lair's feeding the whole family.

while i worked on the cereal in the morning, chanda read the time for kids magazine that greg periodically brings home from work. i usually like to read these also . . i can read it quickly and have a nice idea about what's going on in the world!

in the kitchen, i combined brown rice, red quinoa, almonds, wheatberries, sesame seeds, amaranthe and millet. i rinsed them off and then toasted them in the oven until a nutty aroma ensued.

while the cereal mix was toasting, morgana and chanda were measuring and then cutting out chanda's skirt for the medieval faire.

morgana made up the pattern based on a character in a movie . . lucy in the narnia series. the dress she chose to copy is from the prince caspian movie, and is called the red narnia outfit (according to a fan-produced website called the wardrobe door).

chanda is very pleased with the result! still to be done are the sleeves and bodice.

by this time of the day, the cereal had finished toasting and been stored in a jar; ready for tomorrow morning?

bread and crackers

chanda and i baked bread today, and talked about how yeast is a fungi like mushrooms. it feeds upon the sugars in the dough, breaking them down and turning them into carbon dioxide; the same gas we exhale, the same gas the trees take in and turn into oxygen through photosynthesis. and like the mushrooms it feeds from a living substance and transforms it.

the recipe we used was an old one from the girls' playgroup in brooklyn. basically, a tablespoon of yeast is sprinkled over one cup of warm water or milk mixed with a spoonful of honey.

after it bubbled, we added olive oil and sea salt and spelt flour . .

mixing until a ball was formed and it was firm enough to knead on the counter.

then we oiled a bowl, covered it, and let it rise for an hour.

then chanda punched it down and formed it into a loaf.

she rubbed the top with egg and milk.

we baked it at 375 degrees for about forty minutes. it was so good that i almost didn't get a picture of it . .

in the afternoon, before running off to ballet class, morgana made almond pulp crackers, from elana's pantry. she had made almond milk in the morning, and wanted to use the leftover pulp.

she added flax meal (i had ground flax seeds in our electric coffee grinder a few weeks ago, and kept it fresh in the refrigerator), fresh thyme . .

olive oil . .

and sea salt.

elana's directions say to dehydrate at 135 degrees, but my oven only begins at 170 degrees, so i kept it in for about 10 hours. they turned out very good!