Happy Holidays

American Lung Association - Clean Air Tips

A few months ago our home was used to shoot indoor air quality tips for the American Lung Association. If you have a moment, watch the video for a few of the Clean Air Tips (more to come) brought to you by Carrier of Colorado and Channel 7 KMGH-TV. 

Visit ALA of Colorado for details about how you can support the American Lung Association & for information on the 2011 Fight for Air Climb!

Here are a few of the American Lung Association tips to help keep pollution out of your home:

- Use a damp cloth while dusting to help trap allergens.

- Use you stove vent when cooking to minimize exposure to pollutants.

- Change your air filters on a quarterly basis to maximize air quality.

- Make you home smoke free.

- Protect against radon, a leading cause of lung cancer.

- Never idle your car in an attached garage.

For more information and tips visit www.lungusa.org/healthy-air/

The Perry House is on the Market

Yes we are leaving Colorado that is once we sell our lovely house. Not positive of our destination as we have a few options on the table at this time. The one thing we do know is although we hate to leave our wonderful home, neighborhood and friends life is taking us down a new path and we are excited to venture down it!

 Click here for more details on the house.

85% Chance it's a GIRL!!!

Profile..can't wait to meet you.

   Baby is rubbing her eyes!

 












Late last week we had our 20 week ultrasound and learned that there is an 85% chance that this baby is a girl. We both had our suspicions and now are convinced that we are having a baby girl. More than likely we will have a second ultra sound early sometime in the next week or so to complete the exam; we have another baby that was not cooperating. Surprise! Surprise! Hopefully we will get a confirmed sex and a clean bill of health.

Some quick baby stats: Her heart beat was 140 bpm on Thursday and about 150 bpm last Friday. She is growing perfectly for her age, she has very long legs, and was estimated to be in the 60th percentile for weight.

Possible names: Viana, Charlotte, Josephine, Thalia

Big hugs to you all ~ The Perry's

Monroe Organic Farms CSA - Week Five

Anaka is usually off playing in the pool or digging in the dirt somewhere while I’m unloading our CSA bag. However today she decided that it looked like fun. She took her time and examined all of the items I pulled from the bag; smelling, touching and even tasting them all. A few items I am sure she found unsatisfying, but the fresh beans hit a spot. I had to repeatedly ask her to stop eating the green beans. Not something most parents do, but I think after eating around 10 unwashed beans from the bag that she had had enough.


This week we received: New Red Potatoes, Red Beets, Turnips, Onions, Garlic, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Cauliflower, and Yellow & Green Beans. I plan on making pasta with the beet greens, beets, garlic and onions for dinner tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it turns out. If it is worthy I will share the recipe. I am also going to try my hand at pickles again, last year they turned out ok, but this year I am shooting for amazing. Hope I can do it!


Last week we didn’t do much cooking, it was way too hot. Yet amazingly most of the veggies did get eaten. Today is the first day in over a week that I have been able to bake without turning my house in to an oven. I made Zucchini & Carrot Muffins. I must admit that they turned out pretty tasty. Anaka, Matthew and Jerry (our CSA farmer) all seemed to enjoy them. I think that tonight I am going to whip up a cream cheese frosting for them. Here is the recipe; the only bummer is you have to check on them often, I don’t have the cook time down perfectly yet. I am going to try and reduce the oil and replace it with applesauce as well as try agave nectar in place of 1 cup sugar. I’ll let you know the results, or give it a try your self.

• 2 large Zucchini, finely shredded
• 4 medium Carrots, finely shredded
• 3 cups Flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon clove
• 3 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions: Preheat oven 325. Shred carrots and Zucchini and let them drain until needed. Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs until incorporated.  Add all spices and lemon juice. Next add flour baking powder & baking soda. The mix will be very thick, add the carrots and zucchini to the mix, making sure that all is incorporated. Pour into muffin pan and cook for about 30 min. adding more time as needed until a tooth pick comes out clean. My last batch was close to an hour and my first was about 45 min.

Monroe Organic Farms CSA - Week Four

Here we are at week four of our CSA with Monroe Organic Farms. This week in our bag we received lettuce, yellow onions, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, garlic and broccoli. In addition we received 2 dozen eggs and a bag of beautiful apricots.

I must admit that in the past it has been hard for us to consume all of our veggies, but this year we are going to do it! We vowed to eat all the items that arrived in our bag. Last week Matthew ate a few sautéed summer squash and this week I’ll have to learn to love broccoli. I am going to do my best to find recipes that will allow us to enjoy the food we are eating and put and end to our veggie. This week I am going to carrot and zucchini muffins. Maybe I can disguise the zucchini enough so Matthew will think that they are delightful. I might even try zucchini bread, however I am finding it difficult to locate a recipe that is right for us. I’ll just keep on searching.

Now when it comes to fruit, this family has no problems with consumption. The apricots are delicious! I am sure that they will disappear quickly; I wish that the fruit was more abundant. Last week I made a berry pie with cherries, strawberries, blueberries, apricots and raspberries. Matthew who hates pie was a fan. I wish I would have written down the ingredients so I could share it with you. Looks like I might have to make it again this week, I am sure that everyone will be bummed.

Monroe Organic Farms CSA - Week Three

Being a member of a Community Supported Agriculture program also known as a CSA is a big part of our lifestyle. It is so much fun to open our bag each week. Just knowing that we are eating local organic food from a source we can trust makes it even more alluring. In the past we have even purchased organic meat (beef, lamb & pork) from our farm and let me tell you nothing compares!

This is our third year as members of the Monroe Organic Farms CSA and this year we decided to become a distribution center for our northwest Denver neighbors. We have thirty CSA members picking up their local organic produce, fruit and eggs from our garage every Tuesday afternoon. Matthew and I are enjoying being a distribution center, we have had the opportunity to meet some new neighbors and in the process support our CSA.

We thought that it would be fun to share with you what arrives in our bag every week. So with our membership we will receive the following throughout the summer: a half share of organic produce, a full share of organic fruit and a dozen organic free-range farm fresh eggs. I plan on taking photos of all our bounty to share with you as well as write a brief blog about the week and potentially a recipe that will use some of our items.

This is our third week and we received more garlic, red onions, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce and Colorado red potatoes. The eggs are large this week; they are going to make a yummy fried egg sandwich for lunch today. Our fruit share started this week with a huge bag of cherries. My favorite! I think that I am going to make my cherry reduction for Matthew this week. Here is the recipe; it works great with blueberries and raspberries as well. I also like to substitute the lemon juice for orange juice when I make this with peaches and apricots.

Cherry Reduction

3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 lb fresh cherries, pitted
Vanilla ice cream

Mix the sugar and lemon juice in until mixture resembles wet sand in a heavy skillet (I used my cast iron skillet) over moderately high heat. Stir slowly until sugar is melted about 5 minutes. Stir in butter until well incorporated, add cherries stir to coat and bring to a boil. Cook cherries until the caramel dissolves. Remove cherries and reduce liquid for approximately 5 minutes depending on the amount of juice from the cherries. Re-add the cooked cherries and serve with vanilla ice cream.

ENJOY!

New arrival expected January 10!!!!

After weeks of waiting it is now time to share the news. Matthew and I are expecting the a new addition to our family. The official due date is January 10, 2011.

Although we had a difficult start being diagnosed with a Subchorionic Hematoma some wonderful events have happened earlier as a result. We have had multiple ultrasounds allowing us to keep a close eye on our baby’s growth. At the end of our 7th week, while having an ultrasound we were surprised to hear a familiar sound. At first unsure, but then relieved to learn that in fact we had just heard our babies heart beat for the first time. Still nothing like it!

Since then we have had two additional opportunities to see the little one. During the June 11th ultrasound we learned that the new baby was growing perfectly as expected and the heart beat was about 179bpm. Our most recent ultrasound on June 25th exposed a very mobile little one, maybe it was thanks to the Mexican food we had for lunch. Unfortunately for the tech, the baby was not cooperating and they were unable to get the results required. However we were delighted to see such activity. The heart beat at 164bpm was strong and growth is right on track! We will get another peek at the little one during our in a follow up appointment on the 8th.

The best news is that things are going great! Most of the restrictions have been lifted and we are almost out of the first trimester. Life preparing for our new arrival has begun!!! We are going to do our best to keep this blog up to date for all of our friends and family. I plan on posting images sometime next week.
Big Hugs to all!!