Homemade Potstickers

I found a great recipe on SmittenKitchen for vegetarian potstickers. I made these for friends on Friday night, along with Thai green curry with veggies and brown rice and Tiramisu sundaes for dessert. Making these was easy once I got the hang of it.

The Boogedy made half-moon shapes using the biscuit cutter.

I forgot to photograph them cooked, but they were gorgeous and delicious and I will definitely make them again. I served them on a bed of  baby herb salad alongside sliced cucumber.

Also, here is how the Boogedy is styling his shoes these days. He calls them Times and Equals.

Perhaps you would also like some cat cuteness. This is Kirikou, the Catterfly, way up high.

I think you should also see the worst doggy haircut ever. Poor Chibberty got shaved on Sunday with worn out clippers. And we exposed all his old-man lumps; the indignity!

Whenever I take him outside, I feel really apologetic: to him and to passersby:

“I’m sorry.

My dog is really ok. He’s not so itchy now!

He just had a close shave with malfunctioning clippers.

He’s really very happy to be free of the winter coat…it’s 80 degrees out!

No, I don’t think he’s embarrassed.

I’m sorry, have you lost your appetite for potstickers?”

Parasailing Redux

This time with Dad and Uncle Kirk who was visiting from Utah!

I like this shot of Zach, as the sun came out from behind the clouds, just as they finished parasailing.

Someone should give this man a job as an adventure tour guide! Wait…somebody did. Did Zach tell you he’s going ziplining in Costa Rica next month? No? He would have…if you had been within a 50-ft radius. Don’t get him started on the volcano.

 

Lamingtons and December Fun

I swear that Lamingtons transcend the sum of their parts. Look, they’re just sponge cake, jam, chocolate, and coconut. But all together they’re amazing. I borrowed a cake pan from Kelly and Adam (super cool owners of Honest Works Island Pottery in Key West). So, when the Lamingtons were done, I took them some cakes and modeled them on one of their lovely turquoise plates.  Recipe Here.

On the way home I saw this big truck parked across the sidewalk and it made me laugh out loud. I can just picture my DVD remote control running out of juice and me calling these guys for some spare Triple A batteries, Pronto!

I strung the advent calendar up in the kitchen. Each day I try to think up some free or cheap activity. Last night was “go pick up dad from the airport and raid his suitcase for presents!”

Saturday’s advent activity was the Key West Holiday Parade. Here’s the haul. We threw most of this away, but kept enough to eat one piece every Monday for a few months. (That was the deal the kid came up with, after I said one piece each day was Too Much Candy.

Sunday’s activity was free locals day at the aquarium. This sweet pigeon ate from our hands!

They have a fish there that looks like a PUPPY. It’s called the dog-faced puffer fish. We couldn’t get a great shot, but I wanted to pet him, he looked just like a beagle.

Here are the finished sugar skulls from my sister-in-law Noemi in SLC! The Boogedy believes he won the contest, for Most Use of Frosting. Zach believes he won for best disco lips.

People Kites

Today we went parasailing for the first time ever! It. Was. AWESOME.

Look, I duct taped my magnetic sunglass attachment to my glasses. Dork-0.

This kid never even thought to be afraid of parasailing!

Launch

Feet. High, high above the water.

The view. OH, the water was so gorgeous!

Squish Squash.

The Boogedy, 2 minutes after coming ashore….”Now what can we do?”

Kite Day

I bought this peacock kite for Zach back in May when I was visiting my family in Salt Lake City. I just love World Market. Zach put it together today. It had dangly, gangly bamboo legs and long tail feathers and was made from painted silk. (Look at both my boys wearing handmade leather shoes I made for them!)

It had the prettiest face. We debated just hanging it from our ceiling for decoration, but ultimately decided on giving our kid the experience of flying a kite, which he had never done before.

Run, run…  But not too fast, it’s just silk and bamboo!

Ah! Flight! Joy!

Damn. Total flight time: 120 seconds.

I made a delicious braided bread braid filled with sweetened cream cheese and homemade lemon curd a few weeks back. I shared some with Paige because it was too pretty to keep to myself. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite websites for great food.

Here are the spotty orchids currently in bloom by my front door.

I took the kid and dog to the playground 3 or 4 nights ago and stood on a fire ant hill. Fire ant bites form pustules that sting and itch like mad; if you scratch them, they pop open and spread sticky gold fluid all over and they just itch more. Look how far the redness extends…you should see the toe with FOUR bites on it!! Fire ant stings peak at 48 hours for me, so 6 hours after this photo was taken, I was begging Zach to PLEASE find the anti-itch spray so I could get some sleep!

This is my Sunday view. Looking at the washing machines, and eating bread and butter from Sandy’s Cafe.

This rainy day photo was taken back at the beginning of the rainstorm that caused the flooding. We were tired of being cooped up inside, so we took our umbrellas for a walk to the pier.

Despite the rain, the water was crystal clear, and we could see Parrotfish down amongst the rocks! Hmm, he is hard to see in this picture. Click here for someone else’s better photo.

I pulled over on my bike to take a photo of this glorious passionflower vine in a pot.

The Boogedy went to the new office with dad to help run network cables after Goombay Festival. This activity was deemed more fun than the festival itself, so much so that he forgot his tummy ache, which he’d had for days, and which the funnel cake and hot dog did nothing to stop.

 

 

Flood Day

School was closed for the Boogedy this morning due to weather conditions throughout the islands. The temperature was about 81 degrees and only lightly raining after days of downpour and nights of lightning shows. So we hopped on our bikes and went across town to check out the flood.  Here are Zach and the Chibberty at the intersection of Frances and Eaton streets:

(Oh yeah, that is the swimsuit Zach was wearing when he got kicked out of the water park in Utah this summer).

Here we are in the middle of Simonton and Front streets:

The Chibberty enjoys a floating take-out meal.

Dog and boy agreed that this is the Best. Day. Ever.

 

Late July Adventures

I checked out this awesome book from the library,  because Zach is going through a ‘no-white-flour’ kick. It’s the first cookbook I’ve ever read that truly addressed the challenges of cooking with whole grains, and not just substituting 1/2  a cup of whole wheat flour but still making essentially fluffy white breads.

Thanks to this YouTube video, I now know how to make a 6-braid challah! I also know now that I don’t really care for poppy seeds on top of bread.

Here is the poor Chibberty in my shirt, which I had heard can calm a dog down in a thunderstorm. I don’t believe he was calmed by our laughter or this photoshoot.

In our little town, the moving of this house from its place by the cemetery, across the busiest intersection in town, and into the lot next door to the cupcake shop, was big news and a spectator event.

Hee Hee. A modification of the Fleming Street sign downtown where the road begins.

I bet my Walgreens is cooler than yours. Formerly the Strand Theater. The place where I spend buckets of money on athletic tape for my poor, injured footie.

As a reward for learning to swim, the Boogedy received Perplexus. Possibly the coolest toy ever invented. We are all addicted to this game. As Zach says “there’s no better reward for a physical workout than a toy that will put you on your butt for hours”.

Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

A few weeks ago I met a nice gentleman, George Fernandez of the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, at a business guild mixer. He invited our family to come visit the Conservatory as his guests. Yesterday looked like the perfect day to do that, so we hopped on the bikes and headed over. I can’t believe we’ve lived here 9 months and not yet visited. It was WONDERFUL!

The gift shop had all things butterfly and floral, and I thought of my Aunt Susie the whole time, and of how much money she would have to part with if she ever stepped foot inside!

The blurriness of this next photo bothered me, until I looked at each photo I took inside the conservatory and saw all the butterflies blurring past my lens.

Zach and the Boogedy waited patiently, but the Boogedy ended up being very upset that we couldn’t force one to land on him.

I received a lecture on how, contrary to what dad says, butterflies do not bite you with their fangs and drink your blood. Umm. yeah. Then I found this article.

A photo montage:

1. Zach in the Gazebo 2. Resident Finches were all different colors

3. The gardener who told us that the garden is in a constant state of upgrade, or else the caterpillars would destroy EveryThing.

4. Pond with fish. 5. Resident Quail 6. Butterfly Bridge under glass.

And just as we were leaving, we spotted the Atlas Moth, asleep on a plant.  We had seen an atlas caterpillar in the front room of the conservatory, a smallish, nondescript whitish thing. But the moth itself was stunning, big as my spread hand.

I got up close to see the orange antenna and noticed that the “white” spots were actually translucent, like a frosted shower curtain.

I keep hoping that all these amazing sights will prompt my friends to come visit!

Key West Pride Parade 2011

Sunday evening we went to see the pride parade down Duval street. From my vantage point on the curb, I noticed that the police horses were wearing pretty cool shoes.

I called them Vibram One-Finger shoes.

This super cool “headdress” is from Island Gym, and it is more than one lane wide.

I like this car with stamps painted on it, but I don’t know who owns it.

The cookie mobile gave us FIVE fresh chocolate chip cookies (the benefit of taking a kid to a parade).

I have to interject here that one of the great benefits of having a little kid, besides the cookies, is the ability to use a bathroom in stores that have “no public bathrooms”. I never let on that it’s not actually my kid who’s going to have an accident if we don’t get to use their restroom right now.

Here’s a float from the MCC, the only church I’ve set foot inside in years (for a Hand-and-Foot tournament). Our friend Scot sits on the corner closest to us. He taught us the game last winter…I think he was a bit surprised at how fast we caught on to that locally popular version of canasta.

The cuties from Bourbon Street Pub

In 2003 there was an 8-bar rainbow flag that stretched from one end of Duval street to the other. Now pieces of it travel the globe and we have a small section for our parade.

Although curious, I did not ask how this codpiece stays on.