Cucumbers of days past

One of my toes is covered with dried blood today, swelled twice its size. It isn't pretty. The reason for my disfigurement? Half classic klutz, half defective product, but all embarrassment: the handle of a 40-lb box of cat litter ripped off as I was carrying it this morning. At 6 a.m. While unloading it from our car on the street, wearing pajamas. (Of course.)

So I'm limping around today, kind of a straight-legged shuffle, which I am not very good at doing with any measure of grace. I'm normally a fast walker, weaving in and out of people to get where I'm trying to go as efficiently as possible. Not today. On my way back from lunch this afternoon (as I'm being passed by people in wheelchairs and tourists dragging suitcases), I had a vision that made me burst out laughing right on the sidewalk. (Ailing and crazy? That's me.) Suddenly I saw my late grandmother, smiling away and bringing up the rear with her cane or walker. "Here I come, Maggie," she liked to say. "Grandma Hippety-Hop."

Granddaughter Hippety-Hop was thinking of home a lot this weekend. We had pork tenderloin on the grill - a hometown fave - and a big pile of squash and zucchini from the market to cook. With North Carolina on the brain, I instinctively reached for the cast iron pan instead of my All-Clad, used butter instead of olive oil. It's the details that matter with hometown cooking.

I asked my mom for the family "recipe" for classic apple cider cucumbers, which are so simple that you can barely use the word recipe at all. Crisp and acidic and eaten hundreds of times with family, these cukes. My grandma and my mom would peel their cucumbers, but I left mine unskinned. I have so many memories featuring a bowl of these on the table, often ridged with a fork (as kids we thought the resulting "designs" were so cool) and usually kept cool with ice cubes. Cucumbers like these have heard all sorts of tales around tables over the years, don't you think?

Southern-Style Apple Cider Cucumbers

 

- Keep the skin on or take it off - your choice. Slice your cucumbers thin. 

- Fill with ice water and salt and let them soak.

- Just before eating, empty our your cukes, rinse with fresh water and pour in apple cider vinegar until they're just covered.

- Grind in some pepper and throw in some ice cubes, and you're done!

 

If you're not eating this for nostalgic family purposes, I'd mix up your vinegars and add in fresh herbs. Rice wine vinegar + dill! White wine vinegar + oregano! And so on. Heck, throw in feta, onion, and tomato while you're at it and make it a meal. I think my grandma might even like that dish.

Landscaping our hearts out (thanks Mom!)

Thanks so much, everyone, for sending such warm thoughts about my grandfather. I thought a nice way to honor him here might be to share the love that his daughter - my amazing mom - puts into everything she does and everyone she loves. We've been so lucky to benefit from her green thumb and zeal for gardening here in DC, something for which we have my grandfather to thank.

A refresher, then. When we moved in two years ago, our yard was... a dud. And six months later, it was still a dud. We had the space to do something, but weren't at all sure what to do. And since our efforts were focused on some major projects indoors anyway, we were happy to let it be.

A year and a half ago:

Late last summer, we hosted my parents for a weekend of brainstorming and space-planning. We talked about how to salvage (or not) the ugly yew hedges that border our side yard, how to make our side yard more inviting, and how to maximize the space without making it too linear. They came back in October for a H-U-G-E planting weekend, all under the eye of our visionary commander-in-chief, my mom. We decided to rip out two of the worst yews to create more breathing room in the border, to weed our butts off and mulch the hell out of the side yard (I think we put down 30 bags that weekend), to define true planting beds for the first time, to plant some large, pretty things that would be dormant until spring (lots of peonies and hydrangeas), and add some great fall color, too.

My parents came back in late April to implement Phase 2 of our plan. Thankfully, everything we put in the ground in October lasted through the winter beautifully, and we were starting to see some real growth with the warmer temperatures. This time they pulled up in the BusyBee (nickname for my mom's car - long story) with a few more large plants, spring and summer color, and lots more classic "Mom" yard touches. Our big goals were to refine our space-planning now that our little plants were big plants, define edges, switch out cold-weather color for warm-weather color, and develop a path for the side yard. About a month after their visit, I'm pretty thrilled with our results. And to know that the color out there will just continue to intensify (the peonies are just beginning! the hydrangeas are coming!)... we are giddy.

Our front yard today:

(Hi E!)

Aaand... color! (Only two of our five peony bushes have bloomed so far... I cannot WAIT to see them all!)

(apologies for the ADT photobomb)

 

 

Here's our fantastic side yard. Keep in mind that most of these large plants haven't yet bloomed,  so as it gets warmer we'll have color there, too. Because our side yard is so shady we chose hydrangeas - blue, white, pink, green, and ivory lacecaps, too. The stepping stones are sandstone, and we've dotted the pathway with white star creepers, a groundcover that will slowly spread and turn our entire pathway green. As you look at these photos imagine a swath of green cutting through the mulch in between the stones - that'll be our path before too much time has passed!

(looking back to the front of the house)

And that's that! I'll be back with peony and hydrangea updates soon, so stay tuned. My Instagram feed is pretty much going to become a flowerfest for a while, so prepare yourself!

And I really do have to give another HUGE thanks for my parents for being the vision, the brains, and half the muscle. We could NOT have done it without you!

Goodbye, Grandpa

A few years ago I wrote about my grandfather after he took part in the Triangle Flight for Honor with other North Carolina World War II veterans. It was a great day for him, and he had many more after that.

Last night my grandfather never made it home from his usual after-dinner stroll. We never saw it coming and neither did he, which is probably for the best. He lived such an active life that in a lot of ways, it's a fitting end. Just this Sunday, he was laughing up a storm with my dad's mom and two of his eight great-grandchildren. I'm so happy that my sister captured this wonderful moment.

I have a mercifully light workweek that allows me to head home tomorrow to spend the rest of the week with family. As goes with these things, I'm sure I'll come back a lot heavier from down-home food but a lot lighter from the laughter of everyone being together. One thing is certain: my family can always eat and always laugh.

I hope my grandparents are laughing together right now, rocking in side-by-side chairs and telling tales. Maybe they're even square-dancing again. They deserve it.

Champagne and Diarrhea, Take II

More of my people from the best-named family portrait session ever. My mom just purchased a large canvas print for each of us, and I think I'm selecting the champagne photo for my print. It's just too good, and makes me grin every time I see it. But really... there are so many other great ones, too! Which would you choose?

(You're welcome for including the diaper explosion here. That photo is just plain awesome.)

Photos by Genie Leigh Photography.

Real words next week, promise. We're off for a quick night in New York with T's family and back on Saturday to work on a fun project. Happy, happy weekending!

My people.

I love this crew. Here's an outtake from our family photo session with Genie Leigh Photography, the same one my dad termed "Champagne and Diarrhea." It makes me smile, big.

(click for bigger version)

Evidence of champagne: obvious. Evidence of diarrhea explosion taking place on my mom's lap, unbeknownst to her: less obvious. Roll with the punches and keep laughing: it's what we do.

I can hardly wait to get my CD chock full of images. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of more. And I can't say this enough: if you're in the Wilmington, NC area and looking for a photographer, look no further than Genie Leigh.

Home, full of love.

Remember this North Carolina, my home state of kindness and acceptance and love? That's the North Carolina I visited this weekend. I love my Outer Banks family, the way we laugh and cry together, the way we join forces for celebrations and for sorrow. This weekend, we celebrated. My Aunt Penny and her partner Allison - who fell in love as teenagers and reconnected twenty years later - had a commitment ceremony in their Outer Banks church, alongside their children. I was proud to be there, and prouder yet to call this family my own. But mostly I was thrilled to see my aunt with such a big smile on her face.

Have I mentioned that my dad is quietly the best toastmaster of all time? He is. I should write about his haiku at our wedding; it's legendary. And there was his Forrest Gump toast at my sister's wedding, and his bridge metaphor at my brother's. In honor of my Aunt Penny, he began with farm tales and ended up with my late Aunt Jill, and how her life and her loss shows us how important it is to be happy while we're here. Somehow this was tied together by my Aunt Penny's childhood schemes for ice cream. My dad's toasts should not work, but they do, every time.

I've been missing my Aunt Jill so much lately. I know she's in each one of us, every single day, but some days the loss is still too tender to bear. T and I stayed at her house with my cousins over the weekend, and I found a book I loaned her when she was sick, my note to her still inside as a bookmark. We were both bookworms, both writers, both full of infertility issues, too - but that's a story for another day. She would've loved Penny's ceremony, whose "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" flash mob equaled her own church band rockin' out at her funeral in every possible way. Music unites those sisters, still. Speaking of sisters, my late aunt's daughters amaze me at every turn. (They also crack me up, as demonstrated below.)

I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking how hard family can be sometimes. It's also wonderful and worth it, but family can be tough. In those tough times, I want to do nothing more than to sit in a room with them all and just be. I think that's a good thing.

In our happy moments? I like to give hugs. Liam likes to give high fives. Take your pick.

Photos by Melissa Habit - isn't she awesome?

Happy snippets, busy July

Rather than an annoying post of OMGsobusy, let's look at the happy moments in between the stress instead, why don't we? I hope your Julys are moving along at a carefree pace. Who's on Team August Will Be Awesome with me?

Drinks and oysters at Senart's with my pal Brian

(Him: moscow mule. Me: Hendrick's martini with a twist.)

Beer Stein Night at the Nats game

My new bike! I'm geeky-happy about her.

Neighborhood love

Biergarten Haus with my dad and T

My dad's first authentic ramen! We love you, Toki.



Family Fourth, beach-style

Despite US Air's best efforts, we made it to Holden Beach last week to meet my nephew Max and enjoy the fam for the 4th. I didn't even bring my work Blackberry. I did, however, bring my puffy, bruised, needle-poked body - the ideal time to wear swimwear, really. But enough of that! A great book, an urgent desire to float in the pool and bop around in waves, and my favorite people all in one place. On to the photos!

Such a sweet guy, this new nephew of mine!

Fourth of July festivities (my family still has approximately 10,000 pieces of our wedding props on hand)

My dad representing the 'hood

My sister-in-law, aka the best-looking "just gave birth nine days ago" woman of all time

HEART EXPLOSIONS.

Pretty.

Game of Thrones set made of sand?

My sis found this enormous dead beetle on the beach, which my nephew Liam named "Shakin' Bacon 48,000," or just "Bacon," if you prefer. He was gorgeous, really. My sis is framing him.

And one more time for those heartstrings.

We had a family portrait session while we were there with the fabulous (and amazingly sweet) Megan of Genie Leigh Photography (see her fab work from my brother's wedding here). Fingers crossed we get some good ones... we can be a motley crew sometimes, after all. And also, there was a diarrhea explosion involved. Gotta love it!