Healthy, Delicious and Low-fat Homemade Yogurt!

Oh My God! My husband has been experimenting. And the result is the most delicious, low-fat, inexpensive yogurt you can imagine. This is one of the many things I love about my husband...he's so clever and creative! Here's his recipe...take a gallon of 1% milk and pour it all into a Crock-Pot that has a high, low, and warm setting. Bring it up to 170 degrees (we use our dual probe meat thermometer to monitor the temp!). When the milk reaches 170 degrees, turn off the Crock-Pot. Let it cool until it is 115 degrees. At 115 degrees, take a cup and 1/2 of warm milk out. Combine this with 5-6 Tablespoons of yogurt and mix it with a fork. Then put that milk/yogurt mixture back into your warm milk in the Crock-Pot. This time he used some yogurt from a previous homemade batch, some non-fat greek yogurt, and Stonyfield plain organic, fat-free yogurt. This was clearly his best batch yet! Now, put the Crock-Pot on "warm" . Keep the mixture between 110 and 120 degrees (our thermometer has an alarm that goes off if the mixture gets too hot) for 12 hours (manage the temp by moving the lid around). Voila! For around $2 you have 3 quarts of DELICIOUS and tangy, healthy and smooth homemade yogurt. Put honey in it to sweeten. Add fruit to make it even better. I use a cup of this fabo yogurt every morning in my smoothie. Love it! And, we have found his yogurt, eaten daily, keeps us "regular"! Voila, again!

Ken says, "My next culinary adventure is 'cutting the cheese' under sista outlaw Marj's guidance :P" Looking forward to that!

Grilled Peaches!

Ken and I swept and polished and cleaned and planted, visited both Home Depot and Target and pretty much ran around like crazy people all day. We were even interviewed by a freelance reporter with the Union Leader. We are on the upcoming Kittery Kitchen Tour on May 1 (a benefit for the Portsmouth Music Hall) and our kitchen will be featured in the paper which is why we had to mop and shine and straighten up every inch of our house. Come dinner time, Ken grilled for the first time this season without having to wear his winter coat. Love it. Here my wonderful husband is getting ready to put the heat to pears halves....he briefly grilled each sweet and luscious piece of fruit and then we drizzled the warm pears with a creamy vanilla honey sauce! Work hard and then enjoy a wonderful, healthy, home cooked meal. That's a good day :) Oh, and the fact that we have our flowers on the deck...woohoo...time to enjoy the outdoors again!

Tub Time

Ok, how cute are my two little granddaughters? Last time my daughter-in-law cut, colored, and highlighted my hair the whole family came over...and we all ended up in the bathroom! These little angels splashed in the tub while I ws styled and beautified. Life. The good things are so simple!

Do You Make Up Your God?

One day some 10 years or so ago, Jed, a young student of mine, told me as we were sharing lunch together that he was a Catholic and then he asked if I was. "No, " I told him. "Well, are you Jewish?" he followed up. "No," I told him again. "You know the only difference between Christians and Jews is that God is coming for the Jews and God has already come for the Christians." Jed informed me. "Interesting," was my comment. "Do you believe in God?" Jed went on. Hmmm, I found myself thinking. Here I am sitting in a public school discussing religion with this vulnerable student. A student who I eat lunch with once a week. A student who comes from a cerebral family and seems to struggle with peer relationships. "Well, I think I do but I don't go to church," I finally told Jed. "Oh, you just make up your God?" he innocently asked me. What do you say to that? I am spiritual. I do think there is a God but I don't call myself religious. "Well, not exactly," I answered his question with as much seriousness as I could gather. In the bubble over my head I was laughing and marveling at how this smart little boy was trying to understand my beliefs. Later that evening as I lay in bed, I thought about our conversation. Do I believe in God? More and more the older I get, I do, I thought. Do I make my God up? I don't think so, and I hope not, but then again maybe we all do.

Coffee Cake for Breakfast

A week or so ago I asked a lunch lady what she thought about Jamie Oliver's school lunch initiative. She didn't speak too positively of him. That was after I had spent my morning duty overseeing kids eating coffee cake and sugar-ladened chocolate milk for breakfast in our school cafeteria. I have been a fan of Jamie Oliver since the Naked Chef days... Several years ago he started a restaurant, Fifteen, in London, which "employs" young people trying to make a difference in their lives. Some time later, I watched a show chronicling how he was trying to transform the London school lunch program. What a brave soul...but he was successful. Now, he is in Huntington, West Virginia (supposedly the fattest city in the fattest state in the fattest country), revolutionizing the school lunch program. You have to give him credit for his enormous and contagious passion and concern about the health of children. It's not all passion, he is certainly trying to make money (check out his website where he sells kitchen and bathroom items) but I fully support his agenda in the schools... and bless him for trying to make a change....so many fight him even though you know they know he's right....

Jaimie Oliver's website

The Hoof Boot and More

OK, am I just getting old or are these 10-inch babies downright hideous? I think Alexander McQueen (God rest his soul) was designing for the wrong species. I mean, really....

Yoga Weekend

picture from gobblegreen.com

I had a very interesting, inspiring, thoughtful, and exhausting weekend. It started with a yoga meeting with my yoga mentor on Thursday night and ended with a yoga for kids workshop, yesterday, Sunday, at 5:30. The best part of the weekend was meeting up with a bunch of people, some I knew, some I didn't, and instantly feeling comfortable with them, no New England sarcasm or critical eye (well, mostly not!). One of the few places, other than home for me, where I don't have to play a role or be ready for somebody to react in some crazy way to something I've said or done. I also love the depth of my 500-level yoga training (my Friday night event) which I don't see so much with kids yoga. The kids yoga that was presented is mostly fun and relaxing. The adult yoga is spiritual, soulful, ageless. In my kids yoga classes I try to bring some of that traditional, peaceful yoga and the kids seem to love it. It's so great to step out of my life for a few days, be around new people, and learn new things...ommmmmmm.

Our Fun Family Easter

Dan getting ready to blow some giant bubbles....Tinkerbell and Brisla looking on....

OK...now, THOSE are bubbles!

Bethany and her dad.

Bethany and her mother-in-law...can I be THAT old????

Guys and their beer...

Lazy dogs..

And dogs obsessed with tennis balls...

And dogs just happy to be free! Fiona is finally recovered from her broken back :(

Father and son and the littlest of the Markleys.

The old people :P

Enjoying Easter...ah...Tink, get out of the photo!

Brisla certainly enjoyed Easter!

Gabe, you're such a dad now...nice happy face salad.
It was even tastier when Bethany ground up all the fruit and added rum!

Bethany expressing her feelings :)

Dan with a smile.

And the beautiful Markley girls...this is what Easter is all about!

We hope you enjoyed your Easter :)

Miss Kinetic Energy to Ommmmm

Suzie kicked off her tennis shoes the moment she entered the yoga room. With a quick flick of her two little feet, a dis joined pair of pink Nike Freedom Lites flew through the air, landing smack in the center of our yoga space. Moments later Suzie, who I have always knows to be a pretty mellow, academically gifted student, started leaping around, singing to her self. She paid no mind to the group of young yogis sitting and talking quietly on their yoga mats and they paid no attention to her. Once finally seated on the floor, she struggled to get her mat out of its plastic wrap, appealing to me for help. One of her yogamates, a sometimes nervous little girl with special education challenges who has been a yoga student for a while, came over to help her. "How interesting," I thought to myself, "the special education student calmly helping the brightest girl in the room who is acting completely helpless and not a little as though she is jumping out of her skin."

Her little blue mat finally flat on the floor, Suzie commenced rolling around, even rolling up in her mat as though it were a blanket all the while making funny little noises. I decided to not say a word to her. The school teacher in me wanted to make her pay attention and stop moving around but the much wiser yoga instructor in me let her be. As Suzie was busily filling the room with wild kinetic energy, her classmates sat peaceably on their little mats. With an eye fixed on Suzie just to make sure she didn't flop on top of another student or dance out of the room, I opened class. For the next 30 minutes we practiced different yoga partner poses. "Friendly warrior," I instructed my young yogis, "is a pose of both strength and friendship." Once into the posing, Suzie seemed more engaged with those around her but only because she had to be.

Towards the end of class we took a guided meditation to Fairy Land. Afterwards we talked about what we experienced. "I just drifted away on a cloud," one of the students shared as we talked about our meditations. "I loved the toadstool table and chairs!" Suzie quietly told the group. To my surprise, we were all whispering in the quiet calm of the yoga room and it was at this very point that Suzie seemed to finally slow down. She had gone from 100 miles an hour to 1. And I could tell by the look in her eye, that this amazed her. As she left I asked her what part of the class she enjoyed. Without hesitation she told me, "The meditation." Her mom later told me that Suzie did not want to come to yoga and only tried it because she knew me and because her mom insisted. Days later when I asked Suzie what she thought about yoga and if she would be returning she simply smiled.

I know, had my yoga class been more hyper Suzie would have orbited! Somehow by letting her be and changing the energy in the room, she was able to calm herself down. What a lot for a little girl to learn :)

Welcome Spring

Last night we had a wonderful, healthy dinner. We savored home-smoked salmon, spicy beans and rice and a delicious walnut/apple/feta cheese salad. After dinner, the beautiful and talented daughter of one of my best buddies and dinner guest/cook stopped by.......with boxes of pastry! She had been at a pastry competition earlier in the day (I'm sure she won!) and we were the lucky ones to eat all her leftover sample pastries. Healthy dinner.....5,000 calorie dessert. Good thing I went to spin class this morning!

The Work I Love

Despite all the reams of redundant paperwork, endless and sometimes difficult meetings, boring and nonstop data entry, tedious and tiring secretarial work and recess duty where I often feel like a prison guard, I love my work. After a recent illness (nasty and annoying case of Fifth Disease) I went on vacation and spent a lot of time (still sick) thinking about what I do for a living. After long and thoughtful hours of thinking, journaling, and just wondering, I have finally made peace. I love my work with children. I'm born to do it and I am, thankfully, pretty good at it. But the other half of my job (never used to take up so much time but now it does) I like not so much. Not sure what has happened to my job description and not sure what the answer is as I swim around in paperwork, but for me, I need to remember, every moment I sit in a never ending meeting or pound away on the keyboard, how much I genuinely love my work with kids. And in that, I find peace.

New England Pot Hole

I called my husband around noon. He is happy as he answers the phone in a van full of family. "Bye. Love you." I hear from everybody in the van. My father-in-law and Jo are on their way home and my sister-in-law and husband are driving them down to the airport in a borrowed van. "Great to see them, love family, good luck on the trip home," I'm thinking. 3 hours later I call my husband again just to see how things went. This time he's not so happy. He's at a tire dealership somewhere in Massachusetts. Two tires on the van, he tells me, blew up when the van and a pot hole met on the ramp just this side of Boston Logan airport. "What?" I ask him for details. Apparently, a giant pot hole wrecked havoc and blew out tires from several cars on their way to the airport. My husband called 911. The Boston police quickly escorted a city truck to the pot hole to fill it up and then.......drove away, leaving my husband, his sister, father, and Jo, to sit like naked ducks in the middle (and I mean middle as there was no place to pull over) of Boston traffic...for 2 hours! A tow truck came and helped the car ahead of them, with similarly blown tires. And then drove away! All the while the rain came down fiendishly, sideways. Of course, Ken's father missed his flight and it cost over $300 to replace the tires but let's look on the bright side. The borrowed van now has two shiny new tires!

We All Belong to Something or Someone!

Here you have the mother of the Navy graduate (Ensign Rooke!), the uncle (and owner of Easterly Surveying) and Grandpa of the graduate...with his Navy sweatshirt on (which he loves..and thanks Cam for!).

Father and daughter (great photo).

Father and son :) Another great photo.



These shirts I have NEVER seen before....here we are....
crazy family members of the guy who owns Easterly Surveying :)
We all belong to someone :)