overlooking the Rose Garden:

in the Butterfly Garden:

enjoying the Children’s Garden:

I’ve been to Zilker Botanical Garden lots of times before, but what struck me most on this visit were (a) how accessible the bathrooms are. When you take preschoolers for a morning romp through a big garden, bet that you’ll be making frequent trips back to the bathroom, and know where the quickest paths are; and (b) all the Texas native plants growing in part shade to shade at Zilker: Texas mountain laurel, Texas redbud, even bluebonnets blooming happily in the shade. Very inspiring for this gardener who works in a shady backyard.

Still on our Spring Break bucket list, made in collaboration with the kids over breakfast this morning: gardening, baking chocolate chip cookies, baking pretzels, swim lessons, park playdates with friends, going to the library, watching our cat, watching our dog, washing our car and washing our hair.

While Nathan attended a zafu-sewing get together this morning, the kids and I ventured out to Boggy Creek Farm in SE Austin.  The air was cool and comfortable, the sun was gentle and we had a wonderful time.  Ben and Maddie carried baskets around the market tables.  They each chose sweet potatoes, and Maddie chose a green cabbage.  They split a freshly baked croissant while we waited in line to pay for our veggies.

After veggie shopping we watched chickens, and Ben and Maddie picked blades of grass to feed them through the wire cage.  We saw veggies growing and leaves composting, and we ran races alongside a row of fennel and lettuce.  Sweet, nourishing times.  Those sweet potatoes are in the oven now.

The train ride at the zoo, with its psychedelic mushroom people peeking out of the ashe juniper trees, the satellite dish UFO and aliens, never fails to crack me up, no matter how many times I’ve been on it before.

Roasted Chickpeas

• 2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 C olive oil
• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 Tbs)
• salt and pepper to taste
• space

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  After draining and rinsing, pat chickpeas dry with a paper or clean kitchen towel.  Toss chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl until chickpeas are coated in oil.  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast 40 minutes, or until chickpeas are crunchy, stirring occasionally while roasting.  Cool 5 minutes, then serve immediately.

Fair warning: If left out on the table, these chickpeas may attract small, somewhat feral-looking children:

Red Lentil Hummus

Serve this dip with fresh bread or raw veggies, or serve as a sandwich spread with fresh tomato, spinach, carrot and thinly sliced red onion.  Adapted from a recipe in La Dolce Vegan:

• 1 C red lentils
• 1 1/2 C water
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 Tbs flax oil
• juice of 1 small lemon (about 1/4 C)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp salt
• space

In a medium pot bring lentils and water to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.  In a food processor blend the cooked lentils, oils, lemon juice, garlic, cumin and salt until smooth.  Makes around 2 cups.

This embarrassingly easy soup is vegan and gluten-free, but it somehow manages to taste like chicken.  Ben ate it, and that’s no easy seal of approval for a legume soup to earn.  Without further ado, the ingredients:

• 2 small onions (or 1 large onion), chopped
• 4 medium carrots, chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 6 C veggie broth
• 1 C long grain or basmati brown rice
• 1 C yellow split peas
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp salt
• space

In a medium soup pot on medium heat, saute onions, carrot and celery in olive oil until the onions are translucent.  Add broth, rice, split peas and basil and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the rice and peas are cooked.  Add salt toward the end of cooking time.

Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to blend the chowder until smooth, or until you get the texture you want.  I left some pieces of carrot, rice and peas in ours tonight. It was delicious with a garden salad on the side. I’m guessing this recipe could very easily be adapted for a slow cooker.

Prickly pear

Some kind of sotol? or yucca?

Deer track in our campsite

Great Blue Heron, on the lake near Devil’s Waterhole

Camp kitchen

Cooking pouches of camp fire apples on New Year’s Eve!

Playing “sink or float?” in small pools of water in the gneiss rock

After dinner

Pencil cactus

White-tailed deer

Playing in our campsite while Nathan and I broke camp New Year’s Day

Happy New Year, friends and family.  Here’s to continuing the adventure in 2012.

Here’s Ben’s finished creation:

And here are some of his friends’ gingerbread people.

I don’t remember who made this one:

Or this one:

But here’s Beck with his decorated gingerbread:

Here’s Margot with hers:

And here’s Kate’s:

What?  Ahem.

It was a great party; we were happy to attend and to celebrate the whimsy and imagination of the winter holidays with our preschool friends.  Hope you’re all enjoying holiday parties that warm and inspire you, too.