500 fans on Facebook! I feel like we should do something to celebrate... any ideas?

I know I need to scan some paint! But meanwhile, here's a snapshot of Angela's lunch: a caterpillar made from Brussels sprouts with peas for eyes and carrots for antennae. He's about to jump into a bed of spinach leaves. Also tucked in there but kind of hard to see are cucumber slices, carrot sticks, and sugar snap peas (tucked in the side to help keep things from sliding around). I am SO glad that 1) my kids get creative with lunch and let me help and 2) they love vegetables. (Not pictured: Sophie's apple rabbits.)

....where all the Valentines are homemade. WHY? Because over the years, my kids have absorbed my mantra about using your talents, showing love by time and effort and creativity and so on... But OH how I wish sometimes we could just go the get-a-big-pack-from-Target-and-be-done-with-it route. At least they all said they had fun making them, and they were rather proud of their efforts. As they should be!

Below: Sophie's colorful owls, which later had small holes punched at the bottom so they were each holding a lollipop. Angela and Peter made spritz cookies (with minimal help from me, I did the actual pressing to save time but they've done it before) which then got wrapped and are now resting safely in the freezer 'till tomorrow.

This is Sophie assuming her usual ice-cream eating position: shoulders hunched way up, and sometimes giving a little shudder when the ice cream is too cold but she can't help eating another bite. This is a girl who really enjoys her ice cream. :)

This day was completely off-the-wall bananas. I painted anyway.

Some handy tips to keep in mind:

Have the proper attitude. You'll need to not be afraid to get really silly, to be a big enough fan that you enjoy messing around with all the minutiae, and to know when enough is enough and you're getting obsessive and it's time to stop.

Read the books. Especially if you've only seen the movies. You might even want to read a bit of it while everyone is arriving, or needs a little downtime. The books are so rich in detail and humor, and when you read them together as a family, it really adds to the fun.

Plan, plan, plan. Our day involved the guests getting sent an acceptance letter to Hogwarts on the school letterhead, and when they arrived, they were handed a notebook with the day's schedule and some activities to do until everyone was present. We made many, many, many things in advance: workbooks (Google "Harry Potter coloring pages" or "Harry Potter activities" to find loads of free resources), capes made out of trash bags for the kids to decorate and wear, pretend Potions supplies that we gleefully labeled - (like "powdered lacewings" that was really the contents of a jello packet), their wands, and the homemade packages of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans that Sophie chose the flavors for from this list. Fonts were from The Daily Prophet (Harry P and Lumos) and were printed on big Avery labels and cut out with fun scissors.

Have a schedule. The students were greeted by Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, got sorted into their houses with the sorting hat, chose their wands, decorated their capes, and went to Potions class (messy things in the kitchen), Transfiguration class (Shrinky Dinks; we pointed our wands and yelled "Reducto!" at the toaster oven while they were cooking), and Divination class (we pretended to read their palms and predict funny things). As they completed each class, they got a sticker to put next to the subject in their workbook. At the end we had a graduation celebration with Butterbeer (root beer) and cauldron cakes (cupcakes). All of this took about an hour and a half but could have been longer if we'd wanted. The awesome thing is that we're doing it again this weekend for Peter's birthday!

HAVE FUN! I suspect a few of the parents thought we were nuts. We didn't care.

My son loves food, my daughters love amigurumi, and we all love to eat. What started out as a doodle turned into a coloring page. I can honestly say that not all kids eat all of these foods, but I would say they eat all but 3 (different for each kid... Peter's not fond of beets, Sophie doesn't do tomatoes, Angela won't touch mushrooms). And of course, all of them work well with (or in) dip in one form or another!

There is a precedent for faces on fruit at our house.... remember this?



That pear still cracks me up.

Allow me to present Sophie's lunch! This proved to be such a hit at school yesterday that she has requested the same lunch for the next two days as well. Some of the girls at her table didn't want her to eat it because it was too cute! I forgot to show her little bottle of water... My goal is for her to have healthy lunches, but if we can get in an extra helping of cute then so much the better. It's amazing what a few strokes of pencil or a fun shape of food can do to make lunches more appealing. :)

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's birthday and also Read Across America day. These are the cookies I made for Peter's class - unfortunately, they looked much more egg-like before they went into the oven than when they came out.

What's your favorite Dr. Seuss poem or book? I have a soft spot for "Too Many Daves."

Check out this awesomeness. This is going on my fridge.

Then check out the newest from Mark Bittman, who is just so great. Very quick ones that caught my eye:

44. Autumn Rolls: Shred sweet potatoes or carrots and brussels sprouts or cabbage. Roll them up with fresh sage or mint and some sprouts in rice paper. (Add sliced shrimp if you like.) Make a dipping sauce of soy, garlic, grated or minced ginger and honey.

also 47.... has eggplant in it. :)

61. Cook a lot of chopped fennel in a skillet with butter until pretty much tender. Transfer to a baking pan and add milk, half-and-half or cream to about halfway up the fennel. Sprinkle with thyme and shaved pecorino, then bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until bubbly and thickened.

81. Tomato Pinwheels: Soak 1 cup dried tomatoes in hot water, drain and pulse in a food processor with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (add water or oil if necessary). Combine 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda with 4 tablespoons cold butter (use food processor or fingers). Stir in 3/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk and gather the dough into a ball. Roll into a large rectangle on a floured surface, spread the tomatoes all over the dough and roll it up lengthwise. Cut the log crosswise into 1-inch slices, put them on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until puffed and golden, 7 to 10 minutes.

89. Vegetable Crackers: Slice beets, sweet potatoes, plantains or parsnips or all of the above into 1/8-inch disks (a mandoline is helpful) and toss lightly in olive oil. Spread the slices on baking sheets, sprinkle with salt, pepper and, if you like, other seasonings and bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. When browned, flip the chips over and bake for another 10 minutes or so.

Now I'm hungry...

Sophie's very excited about having LUNCH at school now that she's in the first grade. We are going bento to have as little waste as possible. No plastic baggies, no paper, and apart from this special lunch, she'll be eating leftovers from (planned ahead of time) dinner. The cuteness factor is a big plus too, of course.

I'm excited too - it's a chance to get creative in the kitchen and make sure they're eating healthy at school. Besides, it's fun!



Sophie's lunch, clockwise:
Watermelon balls
Purple cabbage salad
Little container of soy sauce
Veggie sushi rolls with carrots, cabbage, cucumber, and avocado
Annie's bunny grahams
Not pictured: Her water bottle and chopsticks (she wants to bring them!)

Angela is bringing her own container of sushi rolls for a snack (again, she wants chopsticks too, but she's actually pretty expert with them)

Peter wants pretzels and goldfish crackers today. Tomorrow they've all requested roasted chickpeas for snacks and Sophie's having an apple and cheese sandwich.

Anyone want to swap recipes? :)

Ultra-inspiring links to get you started:
Vegan Lunchbox: You don't have to be vegan or a have a fancy lunchbox, but this mom shows some excellent twists on old favorites. Sophie's first-day-of-school lunch was inspired from this site.

Lunch In A Box: Great site with lots of recipes and tips for making lunches fun and to get you up and out of the kitchen fast.

Bento accessories and supplies: This link's on Amazon, or go on eBay and drool over all the fun stuff they have. I think we might get a set of teeny sauce containers. You do not need any of these things, by the way. They're just, again, cute.

Cooking with Dog: We love love LOVE Cooking with Dog. It's a Japanese cooking show you can subscribe to on YouTube, that is hosted and narrated by Francis, the poodle. This link is for bento - look, an apple rabbit! Just awesome. We are fascinated by the dishes they make, though I have not attempted any of the recipes... although I did try to make veggie sausages into octopi and they just didn't work (maybe not enough fat?) Anyway, these are just so fun to watch.

Bento Boxes Win Lunch Fans: How timely that this was in the NYT this morning. :)

Note: if you want a crumbly base, use just cookies. If you want it to stick together, mix the cookies with some melted butter and then place in the bottom of the pan. Enjoy! And if you make one, let me know!

(Happy fruit, on my toaster oven, between cookies and art projects.)

I can't believe it's been a MONTH since I last posted. Life has been very, very full. Exciting, emotional, ecstatic, exhausting. I have lots of things I want to write about, and lots of things I promised to write about. There will be paintings up soon, though, lots of them. Because....

I'm doing Every Day In May this year. And so are you. Details to come.

Thank you so much, everybody who's written to check on me. I have several posts, not to mention paintings, in me that no doubt you'll be seeing something one of these days. I have so many things going on right now, but I'm truly doing okay, and in fact have felt pure love surrounding me. I swear God is holding my hand. It feels really good.

In the meantime, there's a luscious new cake to try out with new illustrations by me in Craft Magazine! (And I'm working on the next new illo right now.) Click here to view it and try it out for yourself.

UPDATE: Sadly, this issue of Craft will be the last one in print. WAH! I loved illustrating for them! But the good news is that the website will still be going strong. Go show them some love.

Words of wisdom (and warning) from Sophie.

For the third year in a row... This one's for sharing: print this out and bring it to your table Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Guess what's on newsstands now? :) See the full recipe here.

We are so totally loving the produce from our garden, scanty though it is. I'm rejoicing in every ripe tomato. (This one fell off when we were painting the side of the house.) I refuse to eat tomatoes in winter, because that's NOT a tomato.

The other morning I took a work break to grab a bowl of granola while the kids were eating breakfast, and I was singing the song that had been playing on the Beatles station, "Three Cool Cats*." As I was adding the strawberries, I sang,

Well up popped that first cool cat,
He said: "Man look at that.
Man, do you see what I see?
Well I want that middle chick."
"I want that little chick."
"Hey man, save once chick for me!"

And so on, about the three cool cats and the three cool chicks. So of course, the kids want to know why cats and chickens are eating potato chips.

"No," Paul explains, "It's slang. The cool cats are three guys and they're calling the three girls chicks, but you shouldn't do that, it's not that nice."

"I don't know," I said. "There are worse things to be called, like a tomato. Unless someone calls you and a friend a pair of gorgeous tomatoes, that would probably be okay. And in England back in the day if someone liked a girl, they would say they fancied that bird."

The kids by this time are completely confused, because honestly, they could picture actual cats and chicks walking down the street eating potato chips, that would be just fine with them, but now we've muddied it all up with people being called animal and vegetable names. They shrug it off and go back to their granola, because Mama dancing into the room singing, getting something, and dancing out is a regular occurrence and really not a reason to stop chewing. I'm just waiting to see the pictures they're going to draw based on this.

*George sings lead, and Pete Best, who got canned on my birthday, drums. I have a cassette from high school fished out of the discount bin at Sears that honest to God, says "The Silver Beatles" on it, and until the Anthology stuff came out, nobody else I met had any idea what I was talking about. As best I can figure out, it's a selection of songs from the New Year's Decca recordings. I like it better than the versions on the Anthology set which seem too subdued. My other fave would have to be their cheeky yet delightfully smarmy rendition of "Bésame Mucho" (cha-cha-boom!)

This painting is an exercise I did a while ago, messing around with the watercolour colored pencils. I think it's interesting that I tend to go through waves with my painting - at least once a year I get really loose, and then a few months later, get almost crazily detail-heavy. I guess it's the times in between where I hit a balance. I like the loose, I like the tight, and I really, really, really like citrus fruit.