SouleMama

SoulePapa Blogs :: When there is NO PLAN B

Here's a post that happens when your daughter doesn't talk for cold microphones and you just can't possibly do justice to her words, that flow in bright colors and start and stop and tell only truth.   My groupings of text just sat there in black and white on the screen.  I stared at it for quite some time.  Nothing moved.  I erased it and started over.  I even chased her down and asked for more quotes.  She gave them willingly and went on her merry way.  Type Type Type...nothing.

This is her.

Plan B - I leave you some candy:

Calvin's fave - he gets on his bike immediately after viewing.  Every. Time. - Ryan Leech

Ezra's choice...go figure. - Hyperactive - Lasse Gjertsen

A friend gave me a copy of this Bob Dylan piece many years ago when I really needed it. - Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie (for those who'd rather listen : Bob Dylan)

Oh...and one from the Mama. - I'm Not Stupid

Adelaide likes Little Bear...Here's a favorite. - Duck Loses Her Quack

Have a nice weekend!!

Love,  SoulePapa

SoulePapa Interviews : Calvin

An interview with the eldest child:

Papa:  Let's get right down to brass tacks...what did you think of the Princess Bride?

Calvin:  I liked it. 

Papa:  Why did you have us turn it off and tell us to send it back when it got scary?

Calvin:  It wasn't scary!  I was tired.  I couldn't keep my eyes open.  I was up like three hours too late.
Well,  not really three hours but it felt like it.

Papa:  So, you'd try to watch it again?

Calvin:  Yeah.  I would.

Papa:  Who was your favorite character?

Calvin:  The Giant!  (giggles, giggles)  I like Andre the Giant.

Papa:  What else is happening in Calvin's world?

Calvin:  I'm playing baseball... and i have a dance performance on Sunday.

Papa:  It's going to be a busy weekend, huh?

Calvin:  Why?

Papa:  Because you got stuff going on, kid.  Do you get nervous performing in front of an audience?

Calvin:  Yes.  Well ... baseball I feel fine.  I'll probably be a little nervous for my dance.

Papa:  Are there going to be other people on stage with you?

Calvin:  Yep.  Three other kids...my age.

Papa:  What's your favorite position in baseball?

Calvin:  Shortstop.

Papa:  I thought it was catcher!

Calvin:  Oh yeah - catcher!

Papa:  Conformist.

Calvin:  What do you mean conformist?  What does that mean?

Papa:  I said catcher and you were like, "oh yeah, catcher".  Conforming to what i said might be your favorite postion.

Calvin:  I didn't know that catcher counted as a position.

Papa:  So you weren't conforming?

Calvin:  No.  I'm going to go get some bread.

Papa:  Be careful with the knife.

Calvin:  Dad.  How can I be careful with the knife I'm already done.

Dad:  OK.  Enough chit chat.  You've always been very focused on your passion of the moment.  For instance,  when you were into the Wizard of Oz,  you showed very little interest in any thing else.  From morning until night,  you dressed as the characters, read the books, drew pictures, went to plays and asked to watch scenes from the movie.  All Wizard.  All the time.  You've moved through SO. MANY.of these over the years like, birds, farming, trapping, bike riding and such. 

What has your interest right now?  What do you go to bed and wake up thinking about right now in your life?

Calvin:  Baseball.

Dad:  Anything else to say?

Calvin:  Can we be all done.  I wanna pitch to you.

SoulePapa Interviews : Ezra

Here's a hard hitting interview I did with Ezra recently:

Papa: So, Calvin, do you want to do an interview with me that I can put on Mama's blog?

Calvin: NO!  What's an interview?

Papa:  I ask you questions about stuff and you answer them.  It'll be cool.

Calvin:  Okaaaay.

Papa:  Alright, so, being a homeschooled kid,  how do you plan what you're going to do with your day.

Calvin:  ...I don't know. I don't want to do this right now. did you bring anything to eat?

Ezra:  I know how I plan MYYYY daaaaaay.

Papa:  Ok.  How do you plan your day Ez?

Ez:  Well, I get up and I just know that I. want. to.  .......play frisbee! (he never plays frisbee)

Papa:  This isn't a puff piece Ezra.  Tell me what you've been up to lately.  What are you learning about right now?

Ez:  We're driving in the car.

Papa:  Right,  well not this very instant but what are you doing around the house that you like.

Ez:  I've been writing my letters!

Papa:  Yeah.  What are you working on with your letters?

Ez:   My story books, like little house on the prairie and a letter to Gramp and a letter to Amelia (his penpal in Australia). 

Papa:  Are you typing your letters at the computer or writing by hand?

Ez:  I like to type them at the computer but Mama says I need to write them sometimes too.

Papa:  What else are you up to?  You've been playing a lot of music lately, huh?

Ez:  I like to make recipes!

Papa:  Oh yeah.  Tell me about how you decide what will go into an Ezra recipe.

Ez:  Well mostly I get ideas from watching movies.

Papa:  Are you kidding?  People are going to see this and think you hang out and watch movies all day and that's where you get your ideas from.

Ez:  Well I do.

Papa:  Moving along to your other influences for recipes.

Ez:  I just put in whatever I think will taste good unless you tell me it will be too wasteful and I won't want to eat it.

Papa:  Do you usually eat what you've made?

Ez:  Sometimes.

Papa:  So, you've been playing lots of music lately - like on your keyboard.  Do you think about your songs ahead of time or wait until you get at an instrument and just start playing?

Ez:  I just push all the keys and when I find the notes that I really REALLY like...  I keep them.

Papa:  Ezra.

Ez:  What?

Papa:  You're awesome.

Ez:  Heeeeeeeeeee.  Can we get ice cream?

right now

(This photo? It has nothing to do with anything, really. But how could I not have a photo? And do you know how many macro shots I have taken in the past 24 hours? So there you have it.)

Thanks for indulging me in a little silliness this week. I promise I have no intention of busting in on the lovely Ani D and stealing her beautiful couch, nor do I plan to really hide in Canada with my rented lens. I am, however, feeling a bit punchy. This week - last week - the week to come - well, they're just a bit on the nutty side. A deadline approaches on which all my final edits and photography for book 2 will be due. And no matter how much work I've been doing on it for months, or how prepared I thought I was, deadline time is...well, Deadline Time. Or as Betz' children so eloquently named it, "Dead Lion". Love that.

For now, a few photo shoots linger which I'm very excited about. Then there's a backlog of photo editing that needs to be done. You've probably noticed I'm not big on photo editing - I have such respect for the wizards of PhotoShop, but I struggle to find the patience. So me editing a lot photos looks something like being locked in my studio (from the outside), chained to the computer, with plenty of chocolate and coffee as self-bribery. But then I get all jacked up on caffeine and try to escape. It's not pretty.

So for right now, I need to step away from the blog for a bit while I focus on all of the above. I am so happy to report, though, that after the long weekend, SoulePapa has happily volunteered to step in with entertainment in my absence. I'm wondering if me telling you that is like when I tell the kids that Papa is making lunch? Because around here that means nachos. And nachos for lunch is always a fun treat.

See you in a week, friends!

i covet

If you've been around here for a bit, you might know of my couch saga. My search for the perfect, green, vintage, velvet, tufted, dark wood, and affordable couch. And if you know me in person, or happen to be married to me, you probably wish I'd shut up already about the dang couch. The couch I cross my fingers for and say a little wish for each and every single time I enter a thrift shop, antique store, or yard sale. Yup. That couch.

Well, imagine my surprise when I found said couch a few weeks ago. Yup, I found my couch right in the pages of this month's Mothering Magazine, and right in the home of - of all people - Ani Difranco. I mean, really now - Ani has it? I haven't contacted her yet to let her know that really, it's my couch, the one I'm supposed to find and bring home with me on that random lucky thrifting day. But I've been thinking, maybe we could work some kind of deal. You know, totalling up all the money I've spent since the early 90's on Ani tapes (cassette tapes! the loyalty!), DVD's and CD's (um, I have *all* of them. Do you have any idea how many albums that brilliant woman has made? 21, that's how many. That could buy a lot of couch.), not to mention tickets purchased and gas spent driving all over New England to her play, oh - many, many times....and do a little retroactive barter for getting my couch back where it belongs. Which would be in my house, of course.

But I guess that doesn't really make sense. And plus, look at how adorable Ms Ani and her cutie pie baby girl look on that couch? How could I ever take that away from them. Sigh. Okay, wait. I have another idea. How about if we move the couch - right with those two gals still on it, and put it in my house just like that? They could just hang out right here, and I could do all the baby sewing for them that their beautiful hearts desired. Some beach dresses, perhaps, little one?

Oh, nevermind. The search for its twin sister continues.

ten things

Ten things I'm loving right now:

1. The Nikon 105mm VR macro lens. Unfortunately, it's not mine, it's rented from ZipLens (highly recommended, from my experience thus far). Since it didn't exactly fit into my budget to own, I'm happy to rent it for a week while I shoot the final book photos. I'm kind of in love with it though. (Uh, yeah, kind of. I'm thinking about fleeing the country with it before my rental is up. Lots of places to hide up there in Canada, right?)

2. This necklace from Etsy seller LaWatha. Each time I wear it I get extra snuggles from all the bird lovers around here (albeit, sometimes in the form of trying to rip it off my neck). Still, sweet.

3. This post at Yarn Harlot, which has me all sniffly about kids and dress up and time passing and mothering. Go read.

4. Boy clothes inspiration in the form of another Japanese sewing book. So much cuteness. Ezra and I are scheming (and I'm practicing my deep breathing for the pattern-tracing part).

5. The newish Flickr group, Trash Pickins, started by elsie marley. Because, seriously, there's some good stuff needing to be rescued from the trash. (It's Big Trash Pickup in Portland, my friends!)

6. The enthusiasm from my little gardeners each time they plead to plant just one more thing.

7. A guest blogger in the works for next week! I'll tell you more tomorrow.

8. The weeping cherry tree in our front yard, in full bloom for just a few days longer, perhaps. (I really wanna keep that lens, I really wanna keep that lens.)

9. A movie night. The kids movie watching around here has been a little, shall we say, sheltered.  But recently Calvin's been asking to see something "for older kids - maybe a little scary - but really good and funny." (I guess I was a little niave to think Little Bear would last until the age of 10.) So tonight he has a date for us with Princess Bride. And it's kind of like when you introduce your significant other to a favorite band and you really want them love it as much as you do. Yeah, we're a little nervous.

10. This blanket made by my great grandmother and on temporary loan from my Mom for me to admire for a bit.

What are you loving today?

booties for babies

This is my newest nephew. And that would be me trying to inhale him. I tried to distract my sister and slowly back out of the door to bring him home with me. But I decided that wouldn't be a very sisterly thing to do, nor would I be so thrilled at 2am, the hour at which - these days - I am sleeping, thankfully. So I just inhale him when I can. And knit him things, because really, there's nothing better than knitting for babies. In my opinion, anyway.

The booties I made him are the fabulous and classic pattern in Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas - one of my first and still favorite knitting books. I usually knit them up in Koigu, but lately I've been using this lovely handspun and dyed yarn from Hands and Notions. I picked it up at Edith & Edna, but there's also an Etsy shop. I love the colorways it comes in.

This is one of those projects that I always have on the needles, in progress, somewhere. I was thinking about that the other day when I was looking for a finished pair for a friends new baby girl. I was realizing that these booties have become my go-to baby knit, the project always in progress, a little gift I most always give to the new babies in our lives.

A few weeks ago, I found myself wanting to start another new pair (so many babies this year!), but I couldn't for the life of me find the book with the pattern in it. I sat down and started knitting anyway, and realized quickly that I didn't need the pattern afterall. I knew it. I'm not sure I could have written it out, but as my hands were moving and the booties were growing, I knew what came next. It made me smile - thinking of my Meme and her knitted blankets - always one in a basket by her sofa for the latest cousin to be born; my Nana and her stash of baby sweaters - always a few in progress, always a few in a pile waiting for one baby or another; my mother with her crocheted baby blankets. Not all of these women heavy knitters or crocheters, but still - they had their baby 'thing' that they made, and gave, and knew by heart. My mind wandered to the massive imaginary pile of handknits - piles of love - made by all these women before me, and those I have yet to knit, and those that will be knit in years to come by little ones now. And all the love and hope that gets knit into each and every one. It kinda makes you think that a little bit of handmade could heal the world, you know?

And that's just the kind of silly, hopeful, optimistic, rose-colored glasses talk that inhaling baby will produce. Oh my, it's good stuff.

covering up the 80's (with the 60's)

A little project I wrapped up this weekend.

So we had this comforter. Right in between the down comforter of winter and the chenille of summer is where this blanket fits - it's just the right weight, size, and everything....except that it's hideous. I'm so not exaggerating. It's bad. It's been kicking around my family for a looong time - the 80's I'm guessing. And it's beige. A really really bad beige. I've wanted to replace it for years, but finding nothing wrong with it (besides the ugly factor), it just seemed a little wasteful for me to toss it.

Finally, this spring I could take it no longer and the comforter got a little face lift in the form of this cover. With fabric from my shelves, I pieced the top with yellows (lots of vintage bed sheet fabrics) and white swiss dots (loving the swiss dots this spring). The back is an extra king size sheet I had. And I used the snap press for snaps along the bottom edge for easy washing and such.

So far it's passed two really important tests around here for blankets:

1. It looks good crumpled up, which is how it's going to be about 60% of the time.

2. It withstands the bed-jumping, which is how it's going to be the other 40% of the time.

soaking the sun

Today, I'm feeling grateful for...

dough rising in the warm sun
finding the perfect rosemary focaccia recipe (in Apples For Jam)
porch sits at Gram's house
favorite summer skirts
blooming flowers (the lilacs are coming!)
summer shoes
summer kid legs (and the band-aids and calendula to heal them)
family whiffle ball
the sun

I'll be back here on Monday. Enjoy your day...and your weekend!

ready for summer

The clothes my babe has been wearing lately are very evident of her 'third child' hand-me-down-clothes status. Not that it really matters to her - or us - for the most part, but you know, once in a while it's nice to have something free of stains (says she who would love some herself); and something new is nice too, especially when you've got a Mama who sews. So last week, I issued myself a little challenge: one piece of summer apparel for her a night. Thanks to a little bit of chocolate and a lot of the new Portishead, the challenge was met.

The three tops are all made from the Girly Style Wardrobe book. Those patterns are such a bear for me to trace, that once I finally get one traced onto my own tracing paper, I can't help but make a slew of them to make it worth it. The dress in the middle is another from the Oliver + S bubble dress pattern (if you're an observant type - you'll notice that the shoulder flaps aren't as extended as they are in the original. Yeah, I, um, accidentally cut them off in a late night stupor. Oops.)

The rest - the skirts, bloomers, and smock and shorts are all patternless - either traced from existing clothes, or just kind of made up as I went along. As you can see, I found my ruffler, which I think I had intentionally hidden from myself because I tend to get carried away with it whenever I use it. I really love using the ruffler. But the ruffles themselves? Mnn...sometimes they can be a bit much. I think I stopped myself in time with these, though. I think.

This one might be my favorite. The adorable japanese fabric was a gift from Stefani, and Adelaide claimed it as hers immediately upon opening the package. I could totally picture her poking at her belly and pointing out all the animals, which is just what she does with this shirt. So sweet.

Phew! It feels very good to have a new pile of clothes at no 'cost' (all from the stash), but the time taken to make them, which was a pleasure, really. Just as I was putting these away though, Ezra has asked if he could be next. And so...back to the machine I go.

The Sale, this year

See these shelves? They've just had a spring cleaning, believe it or not. Five donated garbage bags of fabric have left the room, and it feels so good. Taking each piece of fabric off the shelf, I asked myself not if I liked it, but rather, did I think I was going to use it. Ah, a revolutionary (to me) way of purging. And then I refolded, sorted and organized, and put the 'yeses' back. So good.

With that cleaning fresh and feeling good, I was super hesitant about going to this year's annual Salvation Army Fabric Sale. Could I be trusted to not come home with as much as I just cleaned out (see my past years loot here, here and here as evidence of my poor restraint record). The one-dollar-a-pound temptation is pretty huge.

But I did okay. Moving slowly, applying some zen skills in the middle of the crazed quilters, ignoring the elbows around me (oh, it's viscious there, I tell you! Meg explains it best of all), I carefully thought about each piece of fabric, applying that same basic question. Am I going to USE this? This is what I said yes to:

I guess it's no surprise that there's a whole lot of yellow. And the top photo's fabric was all picked up with nightdresses in mind, and the second set of fabric with shirts for the boys. So I've said it outloud now: if you don't see each of these pieces of fabric made into something in the next six months okay, one year, I hereby give you the right to come and take it away from me.

Oh, and buttons! Because buttons come and go and there is always, always, always more room for vintage buttons, don't you think? And yes, this big bowl of buttons is indeed the centerpiece of my table at the moment. And no one, I tell you - no one, can resist pouring their hands through it. Buttons are good.

Week of Spring :: Mothers Day

a tiny moment: It's just before lunchtime. There's bread rising that I kneaded this morning at the breakfast table while the kids ate oatmeal and told me their hopes and plans for the day. I'm still wearing the apron I started the day with - my great grandmother's apron - over the clothes I pulled on upon crawling out of bed, only a slight variation from the ones I wore the day before. With cookbook, pen and paper in hand, I bring it all outside to plan the meals for the next few days. My oldest, with new cleats - or 'super fast running shoes' - on his feet, is doing laps around the house, with me as his time-keeper. "On your mark, get set, Go!" and I begin counting. Nineteen seconds later, and he returns, jubilant to have beat his previous record. "It's the shoes! I'm going for 18 now!" he declares. My middle child - a constant companion, an appendage if you will on this particular day, is at my feet laying in the grass, and digging through the newly arrived box of seeds for planting, touching all that his little hands can touch. "Mama," he asks, continuing an ongoing conversationg we've been having, "if we did live in a place where bananas grow, could we grow bananas and potatoes too?" and "how many days would it take to drive to a place we could grow bananas? What if we all rode on one bicycle? Like all five of us, wouldn't that be weird?", and a five-year old conversation about local foods, and the physics of bikes begins. As my meal planning list gets put aside - I realize I've distractedly written 'bananas' for dinner tomorrow night - my youngest is suddenly at my side. She's come running up from a spot at the far edge of the grass - the only spot which she has yet to clean out of dandelions. "Mama, these are for you!" she says in a sing song voice, with one hand behind her back, as she hands me a pile of dandelion heads and runs off in search of more.

My days - much like yours, I would guess - are full of tiny, simple, ordinary, even mundane moments like this one. Sometimes they have more tears, anger, attention, care, frustration, distraction, noise, or joy - the emotions and the circumstances run the full and entire spectrum. Sometimes I'm more present than other times. The moments of mothering, in my experience, aren't full of dynamic, extravagant and earth-shattering events. They're full of little moments like these. The world quietly turning, a heart steadily beating.

I wish all of you - wherever you're at in your mothering journey, be it yet to come, happening now, or in your memory of days' past - a Happy Mother's Day full of peace, love and joy in the tiny moments.

Week of Spring :: Friday

It's nearly planting time!

Week of Spring :: Thursday

Meals outside are surely one of my favorite things about Spring. And the kids, too, are in love with taking a break from the work and play of outdoors for some snacks. (The rule of 'no feet on the table' apparently need not apply.)

Week of Spring :: Wednesday

Art in the spring sun. I'm not sure that it gets much better than painting outside in the warm sun in your pajamas. Maybe we should all try that.

Week of Spring :: Tuesday

A sure sign of spring : baseball! We've just entered the world of Little League...

Week of Spring :: Monday

Well, that wasn't what I was expecting - I guess I forgot to consult the weather before I made all those grand plans for planting. There was none of that, only a lot of spring rain and spring fevers (literally). Instead though, it was a nice (minus the fevers), cozy, lazy, rainy spring weekend spent inside watching the outside turn green before our eyes.

A weekend full of scouring for the last bits of the year's wood supply, and then huddling by the wood stove; lots of reading, play dough, and knitting; a lot of Leonard Cohen (I can't help myself when it rains, thankfully my loves oblige); and day-long grazing on WHO Bread, tea, and rice pudding. Ah...a wonderful and momentary pause before the busy work of spring. On Sunday night, I was reminded of this beautiful poem by Mary Oliver. And on Monday morning, we saw what the rain had done. Oh, Spring. Imagine the long and wondrous journeys still to be ours.

Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,

what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again

in a new way
on the earth!
That's what it said
as it dropped,

smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches

and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing

under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,

and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment
at which moment

my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars

and the soft rain -
imagine! imagine!
the long and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

-Mary Oliver, from What Do We Know

week's end

{her outside "work"}

Well, my goodness, y'all do love a giveaway, don't you? There was just one winner yesterday (announced at the end of yesterday's post), but I have a few more giveaways planned in coming weeks. And of course, do check out that book - purchased, or from your library, or maybe just the podcasts (such great listening -food!). Good stuff in there, I tell you.

I get a lot of questions about CSA's, especially yesterday. Check out this site for finding farmers markets and CSA's near you. I know in many areas, the demand for local and organic produce is higher than the availability. I know it can be discouraging to find a CSA you're excited about, only to find out they're at capacity. But keep at it, get on a waiting list, visit your farmer's market instead, talk to people about sharing in their family garden's work and bounty, and perhaps - do some planting on your own.

I was recently at a talk about local food, and our friend Farmer John (I  can't help it - that's what my kids call him) said something so simple and beautiful that has stayed with me ever since. He said, "Never let a season go by without planting something." Such simple advice, isn't it? And yet, it's so easy to get bogged down by the logistics of gardening, space and growing and time and "black thumbs" and all of that. But plant something - sprout some seeds in a paper towel, grow basil in a pot in your kitchen, toss some carrot seeds in the ground and see what happens. Never let a season go by without the opportunity to get a little bit closer to your food, and have reason to dig your hands into the Earth.

On that note, we are hoping to do some planting next week. I took last summer off from vegetable gardening (that whole book-writing thing), and we're eager to get back at it this year. There is so much excitement right now - every day brings a new change in the landscape, it seems - things opening up, the promise of blooming soon. A new color added to the spring palette each day. Next week, I'll be doing a Week of Spring photographs here, with the hope of celebrating some of that magic. Feel free to play along if it speaks to you.

Until then, have a lovely weekend! And maybe, if you can, plant something!

The Splendid Table Cookbook Giveaway

I'm getting excited about food right now. I think there's a late winter point of despair (to put it in dramatic terms) when I am so sick of soups and the dregs of the 'root cellar' foods. I'm anxious for green and red and oh so much more. While it's still early, I can at least feel it coming. I think it has something to do with making the last installment in our CSA payment for the year, and the promise that fresh! local! yummy! produce will soon be ready for us each and every week. Ah...

Anyway, in anticipation of all that, I've been food-inspired lately. Opening favorite old cookbooks to find new things, and finding new cookbooks to put a spin on the old. One new arrival has been The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award Winning Food Show. Amy shared a great review of it a few weeks back, and everything she said is so very true. I love the stories woven into the recipes. And the recipes are delicious, and well, 'different' than so very many other cookbooks. It feels like a 'fresh' cookbook if that makes sense.

I've actually photographed a bunch of the things we've made from this book in the past month, but this is the only one that I don't fear will have the effect of turning you away from the book. A food photographer, I am not (Delicious photos in the book - I'll leave it to the experts). Above is the Supper Tart of Red Onions, Greens and Grapes. See what I mean? "Different" - we make SOOO much pizza around here, and this was a perfect fresh spin on it for us - on puff pastry (I know, it's a tart, not a pizza, but the kids thought it was pizza). It was so good that looking at this photo is totally motivating me to make it again (for the fourth time) tonight. Yum. Another favorite has been Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens over Bow Tie Pasta. Again, just the right spin of yummy and new. Oh gosh, and the Retro Garlic Bread! Really good too.

Of course, I wanted to listen to the radio show after falling in love with the cookbook. And thank goodness for the internet (it's not carried on my local radio station), because you can listen to podcasts of the show on their website. (They've also got a really interesting year-long project going on, following 15 people eating a regional diet, each blogging about the experience - Locavore Nation).

As a little treat for YOU, the publisher, Clarkson Potter, has generously agreed to do a giveaway of The Splendid Table's new cookbook. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post before 7am (my time) tomorrow - Friday - at which point I'll choose a random number to send one copy of the book to, and announce it here at the end of this post. Good luck!

****************

Comments Closed. We have a winner! The Random Number Generator led me to Momma Roar, who wrote:

I'd love some new recipe ideas!! We live in PA in Amish country...where a lot of the meals I make are meat and potatoe AND basic. I'd love to have some new ideas!!

What fun!

Posted by: Momma Roar | May 01, 2008 at 04:45 PM

 

Congratulations! And thanks to everyone for playing!

*****************