2010 was a pivotal year in a lot of ways. I was pregnant for more than half of the year, became a mother, learned that my family would be staying in California for three more years, became a “PR Friendly” blogger, and exclusively breastfed my daughter (after breast reduction surgery). Some months, I blogged a lot, and other months, I hardly got anything posted. Sometimes photos were fantastic, and other times, well, an iPhone shot or two was the best I could do.

Here are the highlights… a few links to posts, and a photo from each month (that may or may not have been blogged at the time).

January

After many attempts, I finally figured out how to make homemade french fries. Crispy, delicious, soft in the middle, seasoned french fries. My husband and I were about to go to dinner, but I couldn’t resist experimenting. I remember sitting on the counter, eating them out of the paper bag with him.

(Zora sweetly cuddling her one and only surviving soft toy.)

February

I was nannying for a family here, and their lemon tree was fruiting like crazy. They gave me about 5 dozen lemons to take home, and I set about finding creative ways to use them. This Raw Lemon Cashew Cookies recipe was really good – tangy, zingy little bits of lemoniness. And after a long time of only having the energy to post iPhone photos, I was very proud of the photography in this one.

(These sweet legs belong to the boy I was taking care of.)

March

The baby’s room started materializing. Not so much in that it was for Anneliese yet, but I had begun to pack up my childcare things and clear a space for her. This was the beginning of the room I would remember as her first, where I spent the first weeks with her, nursing and cosleeping on her floor bed, changing all of her diapers, so my husband could wake up early and fly without being impaired by sleepiness.

(The start of our garden…)

April

Crazy Pregnancy Dreams began. I had a bunch of them. I could really feel Anneliese moving around in there (like tumbling, not just butterfly flutters), and it was more than a little weird. I think I felt like I was almost finished with pregnancy, but I had no idea I would be pregnant for 10 months!

(My darling husband giving Zora a much-needed trim.)

May

I officially started my cloth diapering journey, when my gDiapers, prefolds, and wet bags arrived. Very exciting!

(The two sweet sweet children I was taking care of, being so precious to each other.)

June

I was sprucing up the house, not exactly nesting because I still felt exhausted, but I had ideas and wanted them carried out. I made a new dog bed for Zora and redecorated the living room.

(Probably one of my favorite family photos – and it was totally accidental. Look at Zora’s face and stance!)

July

I finished Anneliese’s first bedroom, invented these grain free cookies of awesomeness (which I would later eat MANY of in the early days of nursing and not being able to scrounge up real food), went into labor at 40.5 weeks, continued to labor for two weeks (fielding induction questions). On July 27th, I got to meet my baby girl, and my husband and I became parents.

(The hardest, and most rewarding, day of my life. By far.)

August

Anneliese’s birth story finally hit the blog, along with reflections on the first month of parenting: breastfeeding, stopping time, snuggling, loneliness, sleep, and more.’

(my curious girl)

September

I started my gWhiz gDiapers 101 series, which I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback about (and several “you converted me!” emails). I also did my first official product review and giveaway (which also introduced me to the world of babywearing, since the sleepy wrap I already had wasn’t working out for us yet).

(This is what my husband was looking forward to from day 1 of the pregnancy… “flying” the baby)

October

I wrote about all the visits we had gotten from family members. My mother, my sister, T’s dad, and my dad. It was pretty neat watching them with Anneliese for the first time. I also wrote a babywearing celebration post for international babywearing week. That was a fun (though time consuming) one – as I linked to many other babywearing posts, DIY how-tos, videos, books, and more.

(sweet snuggly nap with papa)

November

Babywearing had become a daily event in my life, and I’d made a couple ring slings for myself and Anneliese to use. My old blog layout was outdated and no longer truly compatible with wordpress, so I made a new one, which I really like so far. As the holidays approached, I started wondering about what holiday traditions would develop for my little family.

(babywearing shadow)

December

Somehow, Anneliese inspired a poem. I don’t write poetry, but there it is. Anneliese turned 5 months old, too.

(meeting her Gamma for the first time)

The red ones were turned into sauce already – which we ate over some chicken breasts with mozzarella cheese melted on top (like a non-breaded Chicken Parmesan). It was delicious and SO fresh-tasting. There was only a bit leftover, which I froze as part of the post-baby meal stash.

Aren’t the little yellow pear tomatoes SO cute? I haven’t used them yet, but I think I might put them in a cold green bean salad with bacon. Sound good?

Tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis.

The pepper plants look healthy overall but the leaves are sort of all curled like this. Does that mean something? They get enough water, I’m sure! I mean – did you see the juicy tomatoes? They’re in the same soil in the same box getting the same water. So what’s the deal, peppers?

Zucchinis are still coming, too.

Perfect! Also, we accidentally overlooked one until it was HUGE. I swear it’s bigger than my entire forearm. No picture of that one though.

My basil and green onions. I usually grow a different kind of basil with huge leaves. This is good too but next year I’ll make sure to get the big-leafed one again. I just like it!

Squash, more tomatoes, our sad un-ambitious cucumber plant, the cantaloupe (the one climbing so high!), watermelon, strawberries, and another pepper plant with curled-up leaves.

And look who else has a bun in the oven! SO cute! Not much in the world of home gardening is cuter than a baby watermelon.

The artichoke plant is also doing very well. Though, like I said before, I think it won’t produce any artichokes until next year or the year after.

The roses are finally in bloom again! You might remember they were COVERED with gorgeous flowers before… well, right after I posted that blog entry, my husband decided to “prune” the plants… but he hacked them to tiny little flowerless balls of plant… I actually cried. A lot. Now I forgive him.

And the roses outside of our bedroom window – so pretty!

Every day I sit outside and just soak it in. I love how green it is!

SO pretty… it’s a wonderful place to relax!

… except for those little spots.

Are those from *gulp* dog pee? Does dog pee hurt grass? What can you do about it?

We’ve fertilized but the grass doesn’t seem to be responding in those spots.

Our house here doesn’t have a pantry – something that’s a little strange, and might have been a bigger issue if we were still eating “pantry foods” including canned soups, pasta, rice, crackers, etc. Rather, we have a couple baskets on shelves for things like extra nuts, maybe a bag of pork rinds, a summer sausage, extra coconut and almond flours, honey and maple syrup…and that’s about it. We also have one drawer for canned and jarred items – usually just a couple jars of tomato sauce, some cans of tomatoes and tomato paste, artichoke hearts, olives, coconut milk, and maybe a can or two of chicken (which I honestly can’t remember the last time I used).

So how should we set up an emergency kit?

I’ve been experimenting with our food dehydrator a bit – and it just makes everything look so beautiful, like food potpourri. I know there are entire recipes that can be made with dehydrated/reconstituted foods, but it’s difficult to find them – most recipes include many “fresh” ingredients along with the dehydrated ones. But I’m hoping to be able to figure out some good soup recipes I can put together with only dehydrated items… I’m not sure what else though, honestly.

Do any of you have good all-dehydrated recipes that I could make and package to store for an emergency? If the power were out, we’d be able to put a pot on our gas grill and cook that way.

Of course it’s easy to dehydrate vegetables – and while you CAN eat them in their dried states, it’s kind of odd…

Fruits are also easy, and delicious dried – think banana chips; dried blueberries, cherries, and strawberries; and various fruit leathers. Mmm…

For protein – I haven’t made jerky yet, but it’s on my list. If you have a suggestion of a yummy marinade or seasoning mix for jerky (one that doesn’t include sugars if possible – including honey or syrup), please share it!

I had thought about learning to can this summer, but I’m not sure if that’s a super idea because we’re likely to move in the fall, and jars are heavy and fragile – it would be much easier to move dehydrated foods! I definitely do want to learn the “art” of canning, but right now might not be the best time.

As far as store-bought canned and jarred foods go – I suppose our emergency kit could include canned/jarred tomato products, cans/pouches of chicken/tuna/salmon, summer sausage, cans and jars of fruit in their own juices (not in “syrup”), and boxes of broth or stock. As far as canned vegetables go, I hate that they’re all mushy and pretty much nutritionally useless – green beans are the only ones I can think of that I might eat, but they’re so soft, flavorless, and cooked to death! Canned pumpkin and beets are good… Nuts and dried fruits, cans of coconut milk, olives, and…

What else? I guess all of that would be fine in an emergency and would keep us alive, but it would be tough to actually put together meals from those things.

So, basically this has been a rambly post… just kind of spilling my thoughts about emergency stores of food when eating the primal/paleo way… any ideas or suggestions are really very welcomed!!! Especially if you’ve got experience with dehydrating for that purpose!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos of my pretty dehydrated veggies!

Three gold stars go to the person who can identify all four of the dried veggies! Can you figure out what they all are?

Why would anyone buy a beet seedling for like 2 bucks, just to grow ONE beet? (other than curiosity like I did) Seems like it would be something you’d grow from seed or not at all. Like cauliflower – if it’s not going to keep regenerating more heads of cauliflower, what good does it do to pay for a seedling (vs. a pack of seeds) just for ONE veggie?

Anyway, we pulled up the beet. It’s really big and yummy-looking. When I asked my husband to hold it up for a picture he said, “Why do I always have to be the face of this farm? I don’t even love beets – they’re just okay!”

He handed me the beet and took the camera. Can you tell I’m crazy about beets and super-excited to eat this one?

We also harvested some squash, zucchinis, peppers, and strawberries. We immediately washed and ate the berries – so juicy and good, though they’re not very sweet. I wonder what it is that makes berries sweet… is it genetic? Or environmental?

THEN we saw this disgusting bugger. Fricking snails keep nibbling my zucchini but I had only seen one before… till now. So much for the “snails can’t crawl on crushed egg shells because they’re too sharp” theory that floats around the internet. Yeah, we’ve put crushed shells from DOZENS of eggs around the plant… and there’s the snail acting like they’re no big deal.

So while I shouted hysterically, “You have to kill it! Kill it DEAD!” my husband smashed it with the back of the shovel. Gross.

We still have some wonderful creatures though! Hello sweet little ladybug. I also saw another preying mantis baby but didn’t have my camera out at the time.

We have dozens upon dozens of green tomatoes… I keep wondering when they’re going to all of a sudden turn red, but they keep staying green. They’re making me drool!

Doesn’t look too bad, does it? Besides the munched-on zucchini and the not-growing-very-much peppers…

The basil is doing well, and the green onions look cute.

And here’s the other bed – the squash is pretty happy overall, the more green tomatoes, strawberries are growing, etc.

The cucumbers are really confusing though. I guess maybe I bought the “wrong kind”? I’ve NEVER had a cucumber that didn’t want to climb, but these have put out NO tendrils to pull up with… I keep propping them up on the net/trellis, but they are just not motivated to stay there or to grow in an upward fashion. Are there non-climbing cucumbers? They’re not like a bush either – they’re vines that just want to drape down to the ground. So strange to me.

The artichoke plant is pretty happy too.

Angered by the snail, and fueled with a fierce territorialism, we set out 2 pie plates full of bud light (bought specifically for snails since the internet says they like that kind). The theory was that the snails will go in to drink the beer, get stuck and drown.

The reality? This morning my husband went out to check the traps… no snails in the traps. TEN snails on the zucchini. He plucked them off and put them into one of the pie tins, thinking they’d drown and die happy and drunk. After a few minutes he checked on them again, and they had escaped the trap and were crawling toward the zucchini again! WHAT?? Our snails are impervious to the internet’s wisdom! Anyway, he killed them. And hopefully that’s the end of it – but we’ll keep a watchful eye…

Also, incidentally, I had a dream last night that I had to eat 12 raw snails (all different varieties/species of snail) for an allergy test. I ate 11 before vomiting – and because of the snails’ textures, my vomit was just this thick mucous. It was so nasty. Had to share. Not only are they in my garden, but they’re in my dreams too? Annoying little buggers!

Also, it’s getting warmer. I know this because Zora has moved from wanting to lay in the sunny spots in the grass to preferring the shade. She’s still enjoying herself though, rather than begging to be let back in immediately.

Jealous yet?

• 3 squashes, one of which is hilariously bumpy
• 1 zucchini
• 1 cucumber, which was a total surprise to me
• A few stalks of broccoli
• A small banana pepper
• A small jalapeno pepper (figured I’d pick these peppers so the tiny plants can put more energy into GROWING a bit more first)
• Some basil
• 2 strawberries

Other garden news…

1. Something is still munching on my jalapeno plant and my banana pepper plant. The chomping on my zucchini seems to have mostly abated though, so that’s good.
2. I saw a baby preying mantis. They freak me the heck out but I know they’re good for gardens, so that’s exciting.
3. I still have several ladybugs - yay!
4. The broccoli is still producing but I know it’s a cool-weather crop, so it shouldn’t have too much longer… which is good because aphids are attacking some of the leaves! I don’t want to battle them too much (insecticidal soap, diatomaceous earth, etc) because I don’t want to risk harming the ladybugs and mantises. So I’ll let them keep munching for a bit longer (as long as they stay on the broccoli plant and not migrate to other plants – then it’s WAR) and then I’ll just pull up the whole plant and get rid of it when it’s a bit warmer more consistently.

The pepper plants are all still very small, but some of them have peppers on them! Here are a couple green bell peppers. The jalapeno plant also has one tiny pepper, as does the banana pepper plant.

The zucchini is overall doing well. We’ve had some issues with “chomping”… I can’t figure out the culprit though. We suspected snails or slugs (and I did see one snail on it once) but I have put out beer and haven’t caught any. Someone else thought maybe a caterpillar, but I haven’t even seen one caterpillar… and someone on twitter told me caterpillars “like to stick around” so I’d probably see it if that was the case. Weird. Anyway, I haven’t seen any major bites taken out of my zucchinis lately, so I’m guessing the pest moved on. Or hoping.

The other issue is slight blossom-end rot. We had this last year and learned that the cause is calcium deficiency (or too much nitrogen which inhibits calcium uptake). Believe it or not, last year we fought it off with calcium supplement pills from GNC, which I ground (grinded?) up and added to the soil around the plants.

So we’re doing that again, plus saving egg shells and putting them around too… supposedly egg shells can also help with slugs and snails.

Tomatoes! We’re starting to get several little green tomatoes!

Check out these lumpy gnarly ones. It’s gonna be so cool to have big ugly delicious tomatoes from our garden!

So here’s the whole garden bed on the right. Zucchini on the right, tomatoes in the back, peppers in the front.

The basil is getting puffier! We’ve actually used it a couple times in cooking. Very delicious. It’s going to get huge; I just know it. The other herbs? Well… what other herbs? We may have to get seedlings… the seeds didn’t seem to be live. I think I got dud seed packets.

Here’s the left garden bed. Kind of random stuff in here. Squash on the left, a tomato in the back, and also hiding in the back are what is supposedly cucumber plants (they’re not acting like any other cucumber plant I’ve grown before, so I’m just taking a wait-and-see attitude with it – maybe it was mislabeled and it’ll be a mystery surprise), a cantaloupe, and a watermelon. In the front is a pepper plant, broccoli, and strawberries.

Here’s the little cantaloupe plant and our new baby watermelon. The cantaloupe actually has some flowers on it already.

Strawberries… starting to get more berries – exciting!

And there are tons and tons of baby squashes hiding under the leaves. TONS of them. I’ve had to throw out a few due to blossom-end rot but I’m sure the calcium pill powder will help these too… the plant is looking really happy in general and I keep having to cut off leaves that are shading the other plants too much.

I love the way squash and zucchini fruits have “fur” on them as they grow. I think it makes them look super-cute, almost like little animals.

And I don’t think I’ve introduced you to my artichoke plant. We got him because we love artichokes, but neither of us had any clue about growing them… he was in the garden box until we learned these plants get HUGE … like 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. So we put him into the sandy soil. Which evidently artichoke plants don’t mind at all. At first we thought he’d die, but now he’s grown a bunch and is doing great. I doubt we’ll get any artichokes from him this year, and since we’re not staying in this house when our lease is up, he’ll either be a gift to the homeowner or (if we’re staying in California) we might dig him up and take him with us. Sweet little artichoke plant.

Hey, about the broccoli, it sounds like you have the sprouting broccoli type rather than the calabrese? The calabrese is the one that forms one big head. The sprouting has become more fashionable over here recently, you just take several stalks to make up your dish

I think she’s exactly right. Mystery solved! And whaddaya know? Shortly after that, we had enough little stalks/florets to make a nice addition to our lunch!

There weren’t a lot of them so I didn’t want to do anything too complicated – I wanted to enjoy them for what they were, so I blanched them and just put them on a salad (I know I know, REAL foodies don’t eat lame iceberg lettuce… it’s really good for wrapping burgers though and this was what was left in the fridge after the burgers, and I actually really do like the crispiness of it, so there!)

I drizzled mine with EVOO, lemon juice, and a sprinkle of garlic salt. My husband’s was topped with EVOO and balsamic vinegar with sea salt.

I love how bright-green broccoli gets when you blanch it!

We both decided we really like this kind of broccoli. The fact that the stalks are skinny means they stay tender and are delicious to eat, so it’s not JUST florets. It’s almost like broccolini.

I think we might get another seedling and see what happens… but doesn’t broccoli stop growing when it gets consistently hot? Or will it keep growing if I keep it happy? Who knows?

Look how much everything has puffed up!

The first plant I “visited” was my sweet baby zucchini plant. Because I love zucchinis and I’m very excited for the first ones of the season to be ready. Well, I didn’t catch a photo of it but there was a SNAIL on one of the leaves. I was so angry I grabbed it and threw it far away, without stopping to think. But this means WAR. I’ve asked my husband to bring home some beer from his “Navy trip” (because I was pretty sure they had beer lying around). I’m going to set it out in little dishes or bowls or something and drown those suckers. BWAH HAH HAH.

Because these are MY zucchinis. Ain’t no one taking that from me. I can’t get over how many of them there are, this early in the season! I’m so excited.

This is my banana pepper plant I think… and something has been EATING it. But what? What kind of bug or pest makes holes like these? Is it the snails or something else, ya think? I need to wage war on whatever that is too, because I want peppers!

Poor little pepper plant…

The (green) bell pepper plant is looking really happy and there are little pepper “nubs” starting already. I think it takes about 2 months for them to mature (is that right?), so it’s going to be a while, but I can be patient. They’re coming!

And my basil is starting to take off too. I know I should probably thin it, but I never do, and it always turns out ok. Eventually the bigger stronger ones will shade the littler weaker ones and kill them off by natural selection, and then they’ll turn into a huge puffball of basil I can’t keep up with. Except that this year I have a dehydrator! You can bet I’m going to be drying some for future use!

Here’s the other garden bed – not too shabby either, is it?

After the flowering broccoli fiasco, I’ve kept up with trimming the tiny florets as they start to open, and that has resulted in multiple “branches” with florets growing on them… but they never get very big, and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be doing something differently or what. Any experienced broccoli farmers out there want to weigh in? I would love some home-grown broccoli, but the little “heads” are so teeny and they start opening before they get big at all… how do I make them make bigger “heads”?

The little cantaloupe seedling we rescued from Lowe’s has hung in there, and it’s even grown a little bit. It’s so tiny compared to everything else, but hopefully it’ll catch up. For goodness’ sake, it’s only April! We have plenty of time, right?

The squash plants have a few baby squashes on them too, which I’m thrilled about. I like squash almost as much as I like zucchini, and that’s saying a lot.

And in non-vegetable news, the rose bush has exploded with flowers. I’m not sure what to do about trimming for shape… it kind of has a Jabba the Hut thing going on right now, looking like a pile of clippings someone threw on the side of the road, that just happens to be flowering. But it sure is a pretty lump of bushiness!

And I’ve been enjoying roses in vases in the house too… so lovely!

Isn’t nature amazing? Look at those perfectly swirling petals.

And they smell amazing too… even though I’m trying not to sniff them too much right now due to allergies, but… they really do smell amazing. It’s hard to resist.

I wonder if I can count part of my cell phone service (the data part I mean, not the phone part) as a tax deduction. I use it quite often for blog business, between the photos, WordPress, and twitter. Hmm…

Anyway, everything is looking much more fluffy than just a week and a half ago or so, the last time I posted. The tomatoes and some of the peppers have tiny little flowers and buds on them. The zucchini here (on the right) also has lots of little buds, and some of them look like they’re female, while others look male, so I think in a couple weeks we should have some actual fruits developing there! That’s reeeeeally exciting to me because my love for zucchini is never-ending.

Over here we have the squash (left) which has also fluffed up a lot. It has some suspicious-looking bits that worry me a little… but I’m wondering if it’s because I sort of let them get slightly wilted and then watered them with a lot of water at one time – so maybe they sort of “split” due to the massive influx of moisture? I don’t know… the plants as a whole look healthy though, so I’ll keep my hopes up and watch out for pests.
Edited to add: It looks almost exactly like this, but not as dry. So it looks like the uneven watering / wind may have caused it, but that they will probably be fine. Good to know!

I think I need to get rid of the cauliflower, because I’m pretty sure it’s a one-shot deal. I don’t think they regenerate new heads of cauliflower after you pick the first one… but my husband said he noticed a couple new little broccolis forming on our broccoli plant! So that’s exciting.

You can’t see it in this picture, but we have a tiny little cantaloupe seedling in the back row. It’s hanging on but hasn’t grown very much. I really hope it does well – I’ve been eating lots of melon lately.

Zora likes when I check on the gardens, because somehow some of our crazy-overgrown-unharvested beans must’ve made their way into our compost and soil last year. So now, most of our “weeds” in the garden beds are actually bean sprouts. And Zora likes munching on them when I discard them. Isn’t she so cute, the way she holds things in her paws?

I probably got more excited than any normal person would have this morning… because I saw a LADYBUG! On one of my pepper plants! I hope it has lots and lots of babies. Ladybugs rock for the health of gardens, helping control pests. Plus they’re freaking adorable.

…Speaking of adorable. Check out my little happy basil seedlings. I’m not quite making pesto yet, but I’m sure they’ll get bigger and “explode” in no time. I’m not sure why they’re all growing in clumps though – I honestly did scatter the seeds! It doesn’t really matter though. In a month or two it’ll just be a huge bushy pile of basil and no one will be the wiser.

And some little green onions are sprouting too! I don’t know anything about growing them, but I figured I could throw some seeds in a pot and see what happens. Why not, right? Still no activity in the parsley or oregano pots though.

Our strawberry plants have been slowly producing little berries…

And on Friday I picked a few. The four smaller ones were from our potted strawberry plant. I think the soil quality will affect those berries – they were definitely a bit tart and firm, even though I had left them on the plant for a while to try to allow them to ripen more. The bigger one on the left was from one of our plants in the garden box – with good soil, compost, and manure. It was juicy and sweet. Hopefully those plants get bigger and perform well. We both love berries!

So that’s the garden update for this week. Say thank you to my iPhone for making this post possible!

These little guys poking up are the first of the basil. Grow, little green friends! I have plans for you!

And one of our strawberry plants already has a few greenish berries.

Do any of you know if there’s a trick to getting the whole strawberry plant to grow so it can make LOTS of berries? Or will it just stay small and make a few berries at a time? Do I just need to be patient?

The two rose bushes in our backyard have exploded with tons of foliage, and there are even some blooms on them.

But although everything is doing quite well, it doesn’t mean I know squat about gardening. For instance, I didn’t realize that the first broccoli “head” would be very small and that I would have to cut it off in order to allow more to grow. I just thought it would get bigger if I gave it time. Instead, it turned into a beautiful bouquet of yellow flowers, which this little buzzy guy enjoyed thoroughly.

I also didn’t know that I had to wrap the cauliflower’s leaves around the veggie and clip them with a clothespin to keep the florets white and tight. Instead, it sort of opened up a bit and didn’t look very appetizing.

So I cut off the broccoli bouquet… and hopefully more broccoli will grow.

I also snipped off the cauliflower and tossed it aside. Zora was very happy to get her teeth on it… she loves getting veggie scraps while I’m cooking, and she knew exactly what the cauliflower was and how delicious it is. I know this photo makes it look like she’s snarling, but she was just excitedly chewing, I promise. Nothing vicious here.

Do cauliflower plants regenerate and make new “heads” of cauliflower? Or is it a one-shot deal for them? I know it’s kind of late in the cauliflower season anyway…

The broccoli looks lovely on my dining room table though!