HOW TO: Cook & Camp

Hopping in the car and heading off into the woods with my Mr. and the furry children is one of our favorite pastimes.  This is what we lovingly refer to as "car camping"--load up all your stuff, go park the car somewhere, unload all your stuff, set it up, enjoy the outdoors for a couple days, then load it back in the car and head home.  Easy peasy.

When we go car camping, we take advantage of the fact that we're not hiking in with only what we can wear on our backs.  Translation:  we turn our campground in into the freakin' Ritz.  We bring the camp stove and the skillets and the french press and the lanterns and the hammock and the speakers for the iPod.  To steal a slogan from a super ritzy local ski resort, it's "not exactly roughing it".

I think one thing that intimidates a lot of people about camping is what will be on the menu once you're out in the middle of nowhere.  This is where car camping becomes especially perfect.  You can cook up a straight feast in the woods with nothing more than a campfire, a grate that goes over the fire (a regular staple at most campgrounds), and a skillet.  And to kick it up to the next notch, you can buy a relatively inexpensive camp stove (we have this one and it's perfect) and french press and have almost all of your kitchen conveniences right outside your tent.

Some of my favorite camping recipes include:

Campfire Potatoes:

This recipe is intended for the grill at home, but if you par-boil and prep at home, you'll have little foil-wrapped potato packages ready to be thrown directly into the campfire when you arrive at your site.  I've eaten these along side campfire-frilled steaks and veggie-kabobs roasted over an open fire.  Oh, and don't forget your favorite wine and the perfect little stainless steel wine glasses to drink from.  Perfect.  

Campfire Cakes:

Who says s'mores are the only way to go?  What happens when you put boxed cake mix into hollowed out oranges, wrap in foil, and throw into the campfire?  Heaven, I tell you.  Here are two recipes that will get you there.  I recommend using dark fudgy chocolate cake and adding chocolate chips.  The chocolate cake becomes infused with the orange that it's baking in and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

Campfire Pancakes:

I can't remember a time we've gone car camping and not woken up and made pancakes in the morning. Bring a good skillet and whip up a batch of your favorite pancakes (this one looks particularly yummy) in no time over the open fire or on your handy dandy camp stove.  Make sure to bring a kettle or pot to boil water for your freshly brewed french press coffee as well.  

Now get out and enjoy the outdoors!  

--MEL

 

Mother's Day

Usually Mother's Day is a pretty uneventful holiday for me.  Of course, it usually includes flowers or cards or calls to all of my favorites mothers.  But there's a feeling that accompanies a holiday that you only celebrate from "the outside looking in".  Like when you learn about the holidays celebrated in other cultures and religions and you go to parties and festivals to watch how they celebrate their own.  And sometimes you may eat a latke or run through plumes of chalky colors.  But you're still just observing--standing on the outside looking through the glass at the wonders of the many celebrations that are not your own.

I hadn't really thought much about this Mother's Day and how it relates to me until yesterday I received a card in the mail from a friend that said "Happy Mother's Day".  I had to pause for a minute to wonder if she sent it to the wrong person.  But then, as if she knew exactly what I was thinking, I felt a little squirm in my stomach and remembered that Motherhood is upon me.  Inside me.  Slowly peaking it's little light above the horizon.

So this year I feel slightly different about Mother's Day.  I feel like I've picked a new religion or been reborn in another country.  I feel like this year, I'm celebrating a whole new holiday:  one in which we honor the ones who carry life.  One measly little tiny second of eternity, nowhere near adequate enough, where we stop to say thanks to the person who birthed us, who carried us inside of her, who gave up wine and caffeine and wine and sky diving and wine and yoga inversions and wine for us.  The one who, at one time, had her own heart, and also yours, beating inside of her one body.

This year, as I feel this little one inside of me--another heart, another brain, another set of lungs, another pair of ears and eyes--growing and dancing and exploring, I am so very humbled and so extremely honored to be inducted into this new culture, the culture of mothers.

This Mother's Day, the most I can give to my own Mother and to the many mothers I love and admire, is my promise that I will spend every day of the rest of my life trying to live up to the amazing examples that you have set for me.  And continue to take at least a second of every day to stop and look around and remember what a mystery this all is, and how utterly miraculous that I, and everyone else wandering around here, came to be.

Have a wondrous weekend,
MEL

P.S. That's me today, about 26 weeks into the wild blue yonder.

DIY: Birthday

Recently, I've been on a little bit of a DIY kick.  Everything from decorating to parties to birthdays.  I like to say it's because I'm super creative and original.  However, I think the real reason is that the DIY options tend to be cheaper.  Either way, it's been fun, and at the end of the day, that's reason enough for me.

A couple weeks ago, I celebrated my Mr.'s 28th birthday.  This is one of the most holy of holidays in my mind because it is the day my partner was born.  Without getting too sappy, for those of you who know us, it's no secret that we are a team--best friends, lovers, co-conspirators, and soon-to-be parents.  YIKES!

Anyway, it was important to me to be able to do something extra special for his last birthday as a childless man, so I decided to go the DIY route.  

Here's what I did:

Craving: Fruit & Butter

My grandmother used to make the most sinfully delicious and easiest dessert of all time, dump cake.  Seriously, it was so easy, she would put my little brother and I in charge of making it.  When I was like 8.  And he was seriously 4.  Then, a few years ago, there was the sweetest lady at the church I played at who made her own version of a dump cake and would make it for me all the time.  Fast forward to just over a week ago, I find myself at a rehearsal dinner in the Texas hill country eating blackberry cobbler.  So, now I can't get it out of my mind.  

I need butter and fruit.  Stat.

Here are some particularly delicious looking recipes:

Blueberry Crunch Dump Cake

Stone Fruit Cobbler

Blackberry Pie Bars

XOXO

--MEL

      

Boy or girl??

Well, we've got big news over here!  After two agreeing ultrasounds and a few weeks of private jubilation, we're so very excited to announce that our little Lombardo baby is a GIRL!

I'll tell you that I was pretty shocked as I had myself pretty much convinced it was a boy.  But I think that made the revelation just that more exciting!  Our hearts are overflowing, we are completely over the moon, and we are so excited!

Let the shopping begin...

Clockwise from top left:  

blue moccasins / flower dress / socks / jumper / onesie / pink loafers / 

leggings / cloth diaper / leaf dress / deer shirt / fox flats 

Spring/Winter Wardrobe 101

According to the weathermen, Spring is here.  However, I live in CO and that means that Spring is in fact still Winter.  I mean, we got a foot of snow this weekend.  Highs are in the low 40's today.  Does that sound like Spring to you?  I don't think so.

So, that means that I have to push my winter wardrobe for at least a few more weeks of low temps and try and disregard all the adorable new spring clothing that is now in every store.  But I'm not very good at following the rules.  

Which brings me to today's lecture:  "How to combine Spring and Winter wardrobes"

Lesson 1: The Breezy Blouse--pair a new tissue thin pastel button-down with a wool jacket and booties to stay warm.  Top it off with sherbet-hued glasses for an extra spring in your step.

Sunglasses / Jacket / Booties / Shirt

*******

Lesson 2:  The Silky Shift--Pair a breezy dress with your staple opaque black tights and knee-high boots.  Top it all off with a cozy cashmere cardigan and you're good to go.

Dress / Cardigan / Tights / Boots 

*******

Lesson 3:  The Bright Brogue--Take off your clunky winter boots and throw on some bright kicks to liven up the day.  Pair with colorful jeans, your favorite chambray, and a thick wool jacket, and you're all set.

Jacket / Shirt / Shoes / Jeans

*******

And that concludes the class for today.  Any questions?  Good.  Now go and conquer the last few weeks of this stubborn winter.  

--MEL

Wallpaper

Hello my dear internet cosmos!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  We spent our snowy Saturday inside painting our and baby's bedrooms.  We've been trying to rectify the sheer terror of "builder's brown" that was plastered over every square inch of wall in this house before we bought it since we moved in.  Slowly but surely, we will win this war.

Anyway, as we continue to trudge through the never ending wall reformation, I am becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of wallpaper.  No, not the floral kind your mom had on her dining room walls in the 80's.  Wallpaper is back with a stylish vengeance and it's ready to take over.  I'm particularly into the super graphic prints that tend to be a bit more whimsical.  I think if you're going to put a print over an entire wall, or room, it needs to be fun and not too serious.

I'm starting small and we're covering just a tiny sliver of wall in the baby's room with this graphic whimsical print (UPDATE! According to the website, this wallpaper is no longer available.  I'm convincing myself this is just a major technical error and not the truth. Breathe in.  Breathe out.):

Kalahari Vignettes Wallpaper, Anthropologie

And if in fact the damn website is telling me the truth, here is a round up of some other amazing wallpapers that I also love:

Origami Wallpaper, Dottir & Sonur

Wallpaper Owls, Mini Empire

"Hand made", Paper Boy

And this is technically not a wallpaper, it's fabric--but how awesome would this big colorful graphic be on a wall:

"Zahara", Alexander Henry

Now, if we could all hold hands and pray to the Anthropologie gods for the return of my beloved wallpaper, that would be great.  I appreciate you in advance (did you listen to this amazing This American Life recently?  I am totally obsessed with that saying now).

--MEL