Milwaukee Museums

One of the first places we visited in Milwaukee was the Milwaukee Public Museum. Here the kids enjoyed learning about Africa, Asia, Europe, the Arctic, South and Middle America, and the Costa Rican rainforest. There was even an exhibit which showcased the turn-of-the-century streets of old Milwaukee.

The kids favorite part of this museum was the Puelicher Butterfly Wing, where you can stroll among many species of free-flying butterflies. One of the museum's downfalls is that there's not a lot of natural light making it very dark inside, so it's difficult to take good pictures.

DISCOVERY WORLD

A giant clock stands at the entry way to a room full of gears at the Discovery Museum

Our second museum visit was to Discovery World located on Milwaukee's lakefront. This museum features interactive exhibits, laboratories and areas to explore energy and water. There are lots of high-tech resources and virtual simulations.

The kids and I enjoyed the HIVE, which stands for Human Interactive Virtual education. The experience is what you might expect to feel like if you were inside a video game. Our virtual trip felt like we were being flown through a solar system. Also fascinating to look at was the expanding sphere that was situated between two staircases. The sphere would continuously open and close, while being lit up by colored lights.

The museum also hosts marine and fresh water aquariums that mimic Wisconsin environments and is home to the S/V Denis Sullivan, a three-masted schooner.
Some of the highlights for the kids were laying on a bed of 3000 nails and the flight simulator, where Ethan perfectly landed a huge military aircraft.

It was very difficult to get the kids out of this museum. They would have easily gone back for a second day if we had the time.

Kings of the Enchanted Forest

King Ethanmenar is the king of the dragons. He set off into the forest with his bow and arrow that he made from branches and jute, to fight off the evil trolls who keep stealing the forest's magic.


King Macdanabar is the king of The Forest Wizards -- good wizards, the benevolent kind. He is in charge forest restoration. He seeks to enhance and protect natural habitats for all creatures. He uses his magical walking stick made with daylilies and garden flowers to help King Ethanmenar fight off the evil trolls.

Ethan's Garden Fresh Salsa

This morning Ethan decided that he wanted to try making salsa with ingredients from our garden. He surveyed the garden to see what he could use, and came back with two ripe tomatoes, a banana pepper, a small jalapeno pepper, some cilantro and parsley. After I gave him a few pointers on how to safely chop and dice the produce, he ended up with a very tasty salsa.

Here are the ingredients that Ethan used for his homemade salsa. Almost everything came from the garden.

1 very large tomato, chopped

1 small cucumber, chopped

1 banana pepper, chopped

1 very small onion

4 sprigs of cilantro, chopped

2 sprigs of parsley, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

jalapeno pepper, about 1 tsp chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil

salt and pepper

Cantharellus Cibarius

For a few short weeks in July, you can find these little gems, "Cantharellus Cibarius" otherwise known as Chanterelle mushrooms. Cantharellus Cibarius is the scentific classification, Cantharellus being the genus and Cibarius the species (I'm trying to impress the family biologist here). Chanterelles are edible wild mushrooms which are harvested from local forests. They have been available for the last couple of weeks through our farmer's market and CSA.


Every year I look forward to these distinctively flavored, golden mushrooms that are well worth the wait and price. Not only are they golden in color but also golden priced. My favorite way to prepare these are to simply saute them in olive oil, with garlic and parsley and serve over rice or pasta.
In this recipe, I sauteed the the chanterelles as described above, but added shrimp and a light cream sauce. For the cream sauce, I reduced about 6 ounces of white wine and then added 1 cup of chicken stocked and reduced it further. I then added about 4 ounces of heavy cream, and a roux made with 2 tbs butter and 2 tbs flour. I let the sauce cook and thicken for a little longer and then tossed all the ingredients together with pasta. Simply delicious!

Saturday Farmer's Market

We are truly blessed to live in this city, and one of my all time favorite things about Bloomington is the Saturday Farmer's Market. Our farmer's market runs April through October during which time you can find a variety of locally grown produce, plants, flowers, even fresh baked breads. You will also find several local dairies that sell cheeses and yogurts, local farms selling grass-fed, free-range chicken and beef, and fair trade coffee that is roasted locally.

When you enter the market you can't help but feel a sense of community. It is a social occasion for many and the one day of the week where you can meet up with your friends, shop for local foods, enjoy listening to local musicians, and even get a free chair massage. There is something for everyone including the kids. Mine especially like playing in the fountain, visiting with the Humane Society dogs that are up for adoption, and eating the freshly popped kettle corn.
Pretty sunflowers are one among many different varieties of flowers sold at the market.

Fair trade coffee that has been locally roasted.

This is the line for the most popular vendor of the market. No matter what time you go you will find a line for this corn vendor, unless you go too late and they're sold out. There are many vendors that sell corn at the market but this one definitely has the best variety and is the best tasting, as you can tell by the line.These are the empty crates showing how much corn has already sold this morning, and it's only 10 am.

Need to relax, try a free chair massage.

The goat cheese from this vendor is out of this world!

This is the infamous fountain that acts as a child magnet. Although you can't see from the picture, it channels around like a snake. If you lose track of your kids this is the place you're sure to find them, especially on a hot day.

Apple Cakes with Caramel Glaze

Yet another week of Lodi apples from the CSA. These apples have such a short shelf life that if you don't find something to do with them fast, you'll end up throwing them out. They start to crack and go rotten quickly and a few of mine went into the compost.

I thought about making another pie with this batch but then decided that I would try a cake instead. This recipe was actually for a layered spice cake before I made a few changes. I decided to cook the apples into a sauce and use it in the cake. I caramelized my sugar and then added the peeled, cored and chopped apples. I coated them in the caramel and cooked them until they became soft and saucy.

I used a basic cake batter and added nutmeg, cinnamon, baking spice, and ginger. The home-made apple sauce made the batter very moist . I made sure there weren't any apple chunks in batter for fear that if there were, the eldest child would not eat it. Instead of making a layer cake, I used my mini bundt cake pans, one that I've had for a very long time and the other that I inherited from a friend. I still had to bake the cakes in two batches, though as my batter yielded 16 cakes.

Although I thought these cakes were very yummy on their own, I wanted to do some type of glaze to make them look prettier. So in a sauce pan I combined, brown sugar, heavy cream and butter, and cooked it until the sugar dissolved. What I ended up with was a caramel type sauce, that I poured over the tops of the cakes. These little cakes go perfectly with a cup a tea.

Apricot Jam Session

On a recent working trip to California, I had promised a friend that I would bring back some apricots. Since I was staying in Irvine, my old stomping grounds, I knew the area well and was able to walk to a nearby natural foods market. However, when I asked the produce guy why there weren't any apricots he told me that although it was apricot season he just didn't have any. So I made my way to a local grocery store which was about another mile and a half away. It was a beautiful southern California day and I had the company of another crew member so the walk was enjoyable as well as productive.


My apricot mission was a success and I ended up bringing back a little over three pounds of apricots which to my surprise made it home with only a few bruises. My friend and I decided that we would combine our efforts and make apricot jam. We thought that this would be the best way to prolong our apricot bounty.


I love having apricot jam on hand as it works perfectly for coating cake layers and tarts. The nice thing about making apricot jam is that there is very little prep work. Removing the pits and crushing the fruit is they only thing you need to do before cooking it.

I used five cups of crushed apricots combined with 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Add one box of pectin and bring to a boil. When fruit comes to a rolling boil, add 7 cups of sugar all at once and bring to a boil again. Boil for one minute and remove from heat and place in hot sterilized jars. Be sure to check your pectin recipe insert because the recipes vary depending on the brand of pectin that you use.

Cooking the apricots and pectin.

One of the best tips for making sure your jars seal, is to be sure you wipe down the rims before placing the lid and rings on. There's nothing more satisfying then hearing the popping of the lids as they begin to seal.

We had so much fun making the apricot jam that we decided to make peach and blackberry jam the next day. We used fresh peaches from our local farmer's market and some blackberries from my CSA.

The end result - a cupboard full of jam!