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I can’t believe we’re halfway through Summer. My in-laws were in town this last week and we’ve had fun spending time with them. Trips to Thriftys for rainbow sherbet, definitely a highlight for the smaller Moore in the house (and the big ones, too.)
We spent a full day in Griffith park, there is so much to do there. We had never done the carousel so that was a must. It’s quite old and there is the most incredible organ. We had a ball. Grandma rode the horses in the equestrian park and the boys spent some quality time in travel town (I’m quite certain Henry has inherited his love of trains from his Grandpa) and then it was off to the observatory:

They just recently opened up the observatory after being closed for a few years for a $100 million+ renovation.

We went to the beach on Saturday and I stopped by this fruit stand (which are everywhere here in LA) for some fruit to take with us. It’s a wonderful combination of jicima, watermelon, mango, cucumber and cantalope, They squeeze fresh lime juice on the fruit along with the optional sprinkle of salt and cayenne (I think) pepper. The salty paired with the sweet and a little spicy is so delicious. It’s a very generous serving of fruit for $5. You can’t beat it. The corner of National & Sepulveda, it’s where you’ll find me on Saturdays.

Here’s a great “Summer Is” flickr group. Hope you are enjoying your Summer!

xoxo

Enter: Henry
Me: Shock and awe
Chris (totally hurt)  “I can’t believe that you think his outfit is so funny that it’s actually laughable. What is so wrong with his outfit???”
Me: “I don’t even know where to start…how about the socks. What is he 70 and living in Miami??”

2 months old today. Sometimes I can recall nearly every moment, other times it feels like it’s flown by. We are settling in. I’m not as terrified to take them both out as I thought I would be. We’ve been lucky to have house-guest’s on and off for the last two months so it’s given us a lot to look forward to and the opportunity to mix-up our daily routines a little. Actually, don’t be fooled, we have no routines. Aside from eating and sleeping and the occasional bath it’s pretty much chaos. Henry loves her and is pretty much borderline smothering:

“I think she’s crying because she’s so happy!” he says.  It’s no surprise that I’ve struggled with her name from day one when Chris took advantage of a still drugged-up post-partum woman and co-hearsed her into signing birth documents (he doesn’t read this blog). About a week after she was born, I said to Chris, “I don’t think I can live with the name Margot.” And I kept remembering all you bloggers posting stories of people you’d known who changed their babies names. I didn’t have to live with it for the rest of my life if I didn’t like it. However, there were (2) very distinct moments where I realized we were absolutely not keeping the name Margot. A woman by the name of Margot, who lives in England, posted a comment on the blog:

“Hi, i am a Margot (now 36) and i have to admit this name has been a
real hassle. In high school I went by Margaux and i really wish i’d had
the spelling legally changed then. I’m not crazy about the sound of
Mar-go no matter how you spell it, but more people are felled by that
silent T than you can imagine. There are some people i’ve know for
years who still call me “Mar-goat.”
I’ve seen elsewhere people saying it can also be turned into “maggot.”
I only got a slight bit of that but it’s still not too nice!
My only advice is tweak the name to Margaux!! or change it.”

It was great to hear perspective from a real-life Margot (I personally never knew any Margot’s.) In her few short weeks of life we had already run into mis-pronunciations, mis-spellings, yaddy ya.

Secondly, there was a gal from church named Margot Martin and from the pulpit, she was mistakenly referred to as MANGO MARTEEN. I. almost. died. Mango? Are you serious?? I looked at Chris, “Did you just hear that????” Margot was officially out.

But what were our alternatives? We couldn’t agree on anything. I was so sick of looking at our baby name list. I decided to toss it and start completely over. The weeks wore on and I just hated not having a name for her. People would ask- we looked like totally lame parents. “Ugh- we don’t know…” I called the State to find out what the process was to get a name changed. “Why do you want to change it?” they asked. “First, what’s it to you and second, I don’t want my child to be called Mango for the rest of her life. Ya heard?” So  it’s $20 and I have to fill out a form. Easy peasy. Oh and a pesky court order. Whatever that means.

“Chris, what do you think about the name Kate?”
“I could do Kate” he says.
“Let’s do Kate”
“Kate it is”

Kate Ryan Moore

Henry calls her “Kate Margot Maggie” and that works, too. I’d never known any Kate’s growing up until just recently, and now I know 2 and they are pretty cool cats.  Kate’s kind of a peppy name, totally not turn of the century like we  were gunning for, but I think it goes okay with Henry and gosh, she’s completely grown into the name. Art Garfunkel hair and all.

and not in a way that is going to profit me oodles of money from television sales. Sometimes, okay a lot of the time, I just don’t know when to stop. Today, the trifle was the latest victim. All along I had planned on making a chocolate brownie trifle. Super delicious, basically layers of brownie, whipped cream and cherry/raspberry pie filling. That’s what I was aiming for. Chris went out last night and I asked if he could stop at the store on the way home to pick up some whipping cream and pie filling for the trifle. “Sure, sure I’ll call you.” He never called. Why hasn’t he called? He doesn’t know what I need. Then he comes walking in the door around 12:30 a.m. “Why didn’t you answer the phone, I called you like 14 times?” he says. “Huh? The phone never rang.” Further investigation showed that the phone did in fact ring. It was behind closed doors where the babe’s were sleeping.  And now, I have a bag of fruit. Fruit? Blueberries, raspberries…completely wrong for the choco-trifle. He tried, I can’t blame him for that. “Last thing I heard you say was trifle” he says. Famous last words. So now what do I do? I already made up a pan of brownies (in the best brownie pan evah.) There wasn’t time to make a pound cake or angel food cake for a fruit trifle.  So I do the unthinkable. And it goes a little somethin’ like this:
Whip up the cream and spread 1/3 of it on the bottom of your trifle pan. Throw some brownies on top.
Next, spread 1/2 package worth of chocolate instant pudding on top. Place sliced banana’s around edge.
Then, place strawberries around the edge, spread next 1/3 of whipped cream on and then add strawberry jam (this s where I fear things may have gone disastrously wrong.)
Next, the rest of the pudding on that and brownies on top.
On top of that, place strawberries along the outside, banana’s in the middle, some blueberries, raspberries and because all of that isn’t enough…chocolate shavings on top.  
You lost me, no I lost me, at blueberries and strawberry jam. How horribly wrong is that paired with CHOCOLATE? Banana’s? Sure. Raspberries? Sure. Strawberries? Sure. Everything else? Not so sure. I may as well have thrown in a ham hock while I was at it.

I’ll be entering the party through the back door. If anyone see’s me, I’ll blame Chris.

p.s Did you hear that Ina Garten has a new cookbook coming out? October 28, 2008. Huh-rah! Pre-order from Amazon. Isn’t she such a cutie pie. I just love her.

So about 4 months ago I was on the hunt for some patio chairs. Rarely do I find something in a thrift shop that I am looking for (which is kind of the thrill, right? Never knowing what treasures you might find.)  My only criteria was that I was looking for something made of iron and I wanted 4. I hit up one of my favorite shops in Marina Del Rey and found these guys. They were asking $48/set of 4. Hmmm… $12 each. I’m thinking $48 is kind of a lot and then I think ‘don’t be an idiot. Where else are you going to find chairs for $12 each?’ So after about 5 minutes of deliberation, I decided to go for it. I’m not super crazy about the design, I mean they aren’t anything to write home about but they were iron, there were 4 and they are super comfy to sit in.We loaded them up and they sat on our back patio for about 2 months. It was one of those things on my ‘to-do before baby arrives’ list but that just never happened. The cushions needed to be recovered and the iron needed to be painted.
While my Mom was here (after the arrival of aforementioned baby) she asked if there was anything I could use her help with. Hells-Bells-Yes! So we headed downtown and searched for fabric. I wasn’t crazy about any of the upholstery fabric that was for outdoor use, so I picked out 4 quilting fabrics and went with those instead. She was so generous to offer to take them home with her and sew them up for me (I swear, they probably wouldn’t have happened until 2009 if it were up to me.) She sewed them up and I had the unfortunate task of pulling all the staples out of the old cushion covers (only took me 2 days) and then the very easy task of putting the covers on and stapling them down.

Not to bad, eh? The corner of the green cushion is driving me bonkers. I need to go and tighten the corner and staple it so it’s not so bunchy. I’m only one woman, you know. Anyway, now the chairs just need to be painted. Oy vei. I’m thinking of a pale turquoise or the green on the second cushion. So many options, really.

Anyway, the fabrics are all Amy Butler, except the blue is FreeSpirit (I think). 

Happy weekend!

xoxo

Chris: “Hey Morgs, you know what I want to buy the next time we have like a ton of extra cash?”
Morgan: “No, what?”
Chris: “Strawberry Jam”
Morgan: “I have strawberries in the fridge, why don’t I just make you some and save us the oodles of cash that a jar of jam would cost.”

It took 10x longer to track down some pectin than it did to actually make the jam. “Pecta…what?” was the response from 3 separate grocery stores followed by the ever so popular “Yeah, if it’s not on the shelf, we don’t have it.” I’ve never made jam before. I was debating making it a few weeks ago when we went strawberry picking but never got around to it (okay it wasn’t such a fruitful pick- try picking strawberries while nursing a newborn…we were more of the pick and eat variety.)

 I had some strawberries left over from the 4th of July cake and so I decided to have a go at it. I do aim to make dreams come true, you know. It was so beyond simple. I just grabbed the smallest package of pectin available which happened to be a ‘no cook’  one. If you can cut up strawberries, mush them, add contents of package and sugar and stir for 3 minutes, you can do this. The recipe I used was on the back of the package (4 cups mushed fruit + 1 1/2 cups sugar.) If you want to see a demo, go here. The jam was DELISH and only had to sit for 30 minutes. I feel a bit like a jam cheater, you know? It’s nothing like the canning experiences I recall witnessing as a child. No steamy, 100 degree kitchen. No rubber gloves (there were rubber gloves, no?) No big canning pot thingamajigg. I mean can I add “Jam Maker” to my kitchen repertoire? I feel so sheepish even suggesting it. 

So one of my favorite childhood treats were frozen grapes. Ever tried them? They are good. They really are a treat now especially because grapes purchased ‘on sale’ are $2.50 a lb. (and while I’m complaining about the price of things- I would like it noted that I paid $97.20 to fill up the car this week. Cripes.) Anyway, just wash and let dry and put in the freezer. I’m remembering now that we used to pull them off the stem and throw them in a ziploc bag before freezing, but either way will work. Hope you are all enjoying your Summer!

xoxo

It cannot be denied. I love the 4th of July. It’s just one of my most favorite holidays. Jill called yesterday and we talked about all those 4th of July’s that we spent together back when we all lived in Boston. Boston is a great place to celebrate the 4th. One year we went to the 33rd floor of the John Hancock tower (thanks, Dave!) and had the most brilliant view of the fireworks being shot off over the Charles River. They were at eye level and the Hatch Shell was jam-packed with people listening to the Boston Pops. A couple of years we spent the 4th in Maine. One of those years, we went with a ton of friends and rented two cabins in The Forks, ME and went river rafting down the Kennebec River (“Come on river, take your skirt off!!”) We’ve been talking about taking a trip back to Boston this Fall and Chris & I keep having dreams of being there (me sobbing, not wanting to come home.) ….”when Johnny comes marching home again, hoorah, hoorah!…”
 This year our 4th festivities got started a little early. On Wednesday night we packed up our little family and headed to the Hollywood Bowl. It was the first of three nights where they were shooting off fireworks and it was a night all about celebrating baseball. Celebrating the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to LA 50 years ago. Our little Henry has become increasingly interested in baseball so it was perfect. The LA Phil played baseball music (ala the theme song from “The Natural” which is just one of the best baseball movies ever)  and we all sang “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” If you click on the photo, you can see the “Hollywood” sign in the background. We actually went to the Bowl last Saturday as well for a “Beatles Tribute” which was a ton of fun. Billy Corigan of The Smashing Pumpkins was a special guest as well as the lead singer from the band Gomez (which I had never heard of, but who had the most brilliant voice.) The only unfortunate part of it all was that it performed by….Cheap Trick. I’ll spare you the details about them coming out in sailor attire. Cripes.
We are headed off to a BBQ with lots of friends and hoping to catch some more fireworks tonight in Marina Del Rey. Hope you are making lots of wonderful 4th of July memories. I love living in America. 

xoxo

p.s- are the pics on the blog showing up ginormous? Typepad changed its formatting and everything is all screwy now….

Kidding. Just wanted to quickly pop in to say that I was sponsoring a little give-away over at the Apronista Blog– so hop on over and throw your name in the hat. Crazy here all week- but will be back next week. Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

My Brother has been here all week (which has been so nice and so helpful) and Wednesday we headed over to our Grammies house for a little visit. We made out with so much fruit. These here are tangerines and apricots. I think I've mentioned it before on the blog, but we had an apricot tree growing up and the smell and taste of those sweet apricots brings back such good memories. I never buy them, they are expensive here, so it really is such a special treat. I was down in Whittier a few weeks ago (where I grew up) and drove past our old house on Friends Avenue. I was so sad to see that they have chopped down the big avocado tree from the front lawn. I really need to take a picture sometime and post it here. It was such a lovely house and a wonderful place to live and grow up in.

Anyway, I think we picked about 15 lbs of tangerines. They are soo good. The skins are really thick, not like anything you'd buy at your local market. Now, I'm trying to think of what I can make to use up all this fruit. I'm thinking of maybe doing a little tangerine/apricot jam. I just realized I've got some ginger root in the fridge, that might be good in there, too.

My Grammie is growing some pretty delicious stuff in her backyard. I can't wait until the day we have our own place. I want a vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees (kumquats, for sure!) As a matter of fact my most favorite house in our neighborhood just went up for sale. It's so totally, utterly adorable:

Cute as a button. It's on the market for…ahem…$1.95 million dollars. Apparently it's bigger than it looks. It's 4 bedrooms. I guess if 2 bedroom homes in our neighborhood go for a million, 2 million makes sense. Pocket change, really.

We had a girls night out last Thursday. We all made jewelry which was so fun. And I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I hadn't left the house in, um, 4 days.

I met Katie & Jenna in the jewelry district downtown a few weeks ago and scored some really great beads. I've kind of been in this turquoise/pink/brown jewelry kick lately. Anyway, it was fun to be with the gals and eat scrumptious treats, and you know, have girl talk. I seriously don't get out much. I stayed past midnight. I can't believe they didnt kick me out.

So Friday is 'Field-trip Friday". I haven't been keeping you up-to-date on all the fun stuff we've been doing. I missed the first week, but the second week we went strawberry/raspberry picking at the Underwood Family Farms:

And incase you were wondering, good times were had by all:

The next week was the train and pony rides in Griffith Park (you know there was no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks we were missing that one) 

We had a little extra time, so we headed over to "Travel Town" which is also in Griffith Park. They have all these old cars and trains and this thing:

How cool is that? I'm totally framing it and hanging it in Henrys room, which by the way, we are making slow and steady progress on. Anyway, we are going to the Science Museum on Friday which will be a ton of fun. Friday night= Dodgers game and Saturday my Sister is coming into town. It's so nice having my peeps around. I just love them so!

Happy weekend to all of you!

are in the shop.

Will be back later today.

xoxo