This is Owen’s current favorite breakfast.
He came up with the idea a couple of months ago. We were in Providence, Rhode Island for an AAU basketball tournament. It was late afternoon and we were driving back to the hotel after a day of games in which he had really played his heart out. In the car we were all remarking together on the fact that there are so many Dunkin’ Donuts in New England (a conversation we have frequently when we’re in the car in New England). Braydon pulled off at a Dunkin’ drive-through to get coffee, and Owen was eyeing the drive-through menu from the back seat. Suddenly he was “desperately hungry” (what else is new?!), and asked if he could get what was listed as a “Wake-Up Wrap.” Braydon ordered it for him.
And then my Foodie Son did something that makes this Foodie Mom so proud!!! He immediately began a Foodie Stream of Consciousness Critique of the Dunnkin’ Wake-Up Wrap. It went something like this:
“Hmmm… this thing is actually not bad. Hmmm… actually, this thing is pretty good. Hmmm… I bet if Mom made this she could make it actually really good. You know what? Mom, if you made it with a real fried egg? And more than just one tiny slice of bacon? And made it real bacon? And made sure the tortilla was really soft? It would actually be totally good. What would make this awesome is guacamole. If it had guacamole on it, that would be really good. And why do they call this a wrap? This is a type of taco.”
I heard this running commentary and knew right then and there that I would work on perfecting this thing for him. It has now become a regular breakfast for Owen. The rest of us really like it too!
INGREDIENTS:
- Eggs
- Tortillas
- Guacamole (I have found that buying the “mini” single packs is well worth it for this, because you don’t need to use much guacamole if you’re only making a couple at a time)
- Cheese (Owen prefers this with white American; the rest of us prefer it with cheddar)
- Bacon
TO DO:
- Cook the bacon (you’ll want 2-3 slices per taco)
- Fry up the eggs (1 egg per taco)
- Place 1 tortilla on a plate, with cheese on one side (1 slice American; similar amount for cheddar). Microwave for 10-20 seconds just to heat cheese through and soften the tortilla
- Assemble: spread guacamole on the other half of the tortilla (the half that doesn’t have cheese), place fried egg on top of cheese, bacon on top of egg, then fold so that the guacamole side layers on top of the bacon
- There’s your “Owen’s Breakfast Taco!” Enjoy!
Thursday we took a day trip to Sullivan’s Island/Charleston.
Braydon and I lived for a year in Mt. Pleasant (we worked in downtown Charleston), and spent a lot of time exploring Sullivan’s and Isle of Palms. This area holds so much history — especially African-American history. Little did we know then that we’d be back doing many of the same explorations — all these 20 years later — with our African/Haitian-American kids. It is pretty profound, to say the least.
Sullivan’s Island was the point-of-entry for a huge number of the original slaves taken to the U.S.A. This makes it, in a way, the “Ellis Island” of Black America. K&O did a big section on immigration/Ellis Island this year in 4th Grade History. They even had a field trip to Ellis Island. It was stunning and eye-opening for them to make the realization that Sullivan’s Island is not in any of those history books or school curriculum.
There is nothing like learning African-American history in the epicenter of African-American history.
The primary reason for our trip, however, was to visit Fort Moultrie. Last year — for Kyle (our History Enthusiast) — we went to Fort Sumter, so this year it was Fort Moultrie. This is Kyle’s idea of a great way to spend a day.
But after a [pretty short] span of time of happy family togetherness and everything going smoothly (i.e., Owen and Meera being diligently cooperative for the sake of their brother’s history fanaticism), things fall apart quickly on these sorts of expeditions. We’ve got one kid who has an infinite attention span for these sorts of things, and two who have the attention span of a two-year-old for these sorts of things. Braydon and I always revert to our Divide-and-Conquer strategies in these scenarios; Braydon takes Kyle to do the deep dive, and I take the terrible-twosome to do whatever we can to skim along the surface without a major meltdown.
If you ask Kyle, he’ll say Fort Moultrie was, “awesome!” If you ask Owen and Meera, they’ll say Fort Moultrie was, “something they did for their brother.”
Next up was The Bench By the Road at Sullivan’s Island. If you don’t know about the Toni Morrison Society’s Bench By the Road Project, you really need to learn about it (click here for main webpage).
“There is no place you or I can go, to think about or not think about, to summon the presences of, or recollect the absences of slaves . . . There is no suitable memorial, or plaque, or wreath, or wall, or park, or skyscraper lobby. There’s no 300-foot tower, there’s no small bench by the road. There is not even a tree scored, an initial that I can visit or you can visit in Charleston or Savannah or New York or Providence or better still on the banks of the Mississippi.” ~Toni Morrison
Next, we headed into Charleston, for, of course, Sticky Fingers — our favorite bbq. It was good. Ribs, chicken, collards, corn, what could be bad??? And just to note: Owen eats a full slab of ribs on his own now.
Speaking of Owen… his favorite treat in the entire world is that decadent Southern delicacy, the pecan praline. And there’s only one perfect place to get them: Market Street Sweets in Charleston. He’d been waiting a year for this. We got him 1.5 pounds. They were gone within 24 hours.
Downtown Charleston is always just so drippingly gorgeous. I love to just walk the streets and luxuriate in it. It is so overwhelmingly gorgeous that it is almost too much to take in. Braydon and I are at such a loss as to how to capture it, that we don’t even try.
We made our way down to the fountains. These have always been beloved by our kids. This year Owen and Meera played in them…
…while Kyle chose a different spot. This guy has a lot on his mind these days, and we can see him changing from a fountain-playing little boy to a deeply-thinking young man. It is a scary, beautiful, true joy to witness.
We ended our day at Emanuel AME Church (I posted about that here), before heading back “home” to Harbor Island.
So, back in 2010 I posted about this “4th of July Trifle.” People, if you have not done this yet, do it. It is so good, so easy to make (I dare say, it is even FUN to make!), and the perfect 4th of July treat to share with a crowd — or, in the case of us, to share with your little family (because. Owen.). Seriously, do this! If not for this 4th, then sometime this summer! I’m telling you: YUMMO!!!!!!
Here’s the 2010 post: CLICK HERE (and — be still my beating heart! — check out the pics of then 6-year-old Owen and 2-year-old Meera!).
This is so easy!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 store-bought pound cake (people, I’m telling you, buy it! not worth making it! trust me!)
- 2 packages vanilla Jello Instant Pudding
- 4 cups cold milk
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- fresh blueberries
- fresh strawberries
TO DO:
Beat together the cream, vanilla, and sugar until thick (you’re making whipped cream here; make sure it is nice and thick and creamy, but not too stiff/turning-into-butter).
Next, follow the package instructions to make the pudding. If you buy the “Instant” kind, this should — literally — take you 2 minutes (you just mix it together with the cold milk).
Chop/slice and wash the strawberries, wash the blueberries, and get ready to assemble.
Layer into a big bowl (at home we have a nice clear glass trifle dish, but alas, we did not bring that with us to the beach house!) — pudding, whipped cream, berries, cake. Pudding, whipped cream, berries, cake. Repeat with as many layers as will fit into the bowl (we did 3 layers for this one). Gently press down on the pound cake layer, as you go, to flatten and press the layers together (you want it gently packed in, not a lot of air/space). Note: no need to even cut/dice the pound cake… just crumble it into big chunks right into the bowl as you’re layering it in. (Kyle really enjoyed this part! There’s something fun about crumbling up a whole cake! Zero perfectionism allowed with this trifle people!)
Have the most artistic person in your family do a nice 4th of July design on the top with the rest of the fruit! Meera got really into this — she opted to forgo a flag this year and make a “FIREWORK!” instead. It turned out great looking!
When it is done, stick it into the fridge for a few hours or — even better — overnight. To serve, scoop out nice big portions of this cool creamy goodness and enjoy! It will last a few days in the fridge and will get better as it sits!
HAPPY 4th OF JULY Y’ALL!
I hope we’ll always have this. Oh my goodness gracious, how I adore him.
We took a day trip to our favorite city yesterday — Charleston. We adore Charleston. For some backstory to our Charleston love affair, here is one (click), of many, posts I’ve done on Charleston in the past. It felt wrong to go to Charleston and not pay our respects to Emanual AME Church. So, at the end of our day, we went there.
The Charleston Shootings have been looming large for us in the past couple of weeks. I’ve posted about it a couple times here on the blog (here & here). We’ve been talking about it a lot in our family, and it has been weighing on our minds, especially being in South Carolina right now. Many flags are still at half mast here, and there is still — at least it seems to me — a thickness in the air around it. It is still raw here (here, in SC & here, in our family).
It was a really good experience for us to go there, and be there, see it, and feel it.
I’m so glad we went.
A couple of weeks ago I overheard K & O talking with a bunch of their friends about their favorite foods. They were each telling each other their “Top 3 Favorite Foods.” I was totally cracking up. Because like most 10-11 year old kids, most of the boys were listing pizza, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers. Owen and Kyle’s lists were quite different. I wasn’t surprised to hear Kyle say, “Joe’s Shanghai Soup Dumplings,” as his #1, and “Haitian Steak Frites” as his #2, but I was sort of shocked when he listed “Smoothies” as his #3. I knew he loved them, but I didn’t know he loved them that much!
I make smoothies for the boys almost every day during the summer. (And then, in the dead of winter, I make Mango Lassi for them, but that’s a whole other post for a whole other time.) Kyle’s absolute favorite smoothie is the classic Strawberry-Orange-Banana. Here’s the How To:
INGREDIENTS:
- Bananas*
- Frozen Strawberries (you can freeze fresh berries, which I often do; or you can just buy them frozen… which is often cheaper… check your store’s prices)
- Orange Juice (we drink the good stuff when we’re drinking OJ straight up, but I buy jugs of cheap OJ just for smoothie making)
- Plain Yogurt (I use Greek yogurt because I like to boost the protein content of the smoothies)
*About the bananas: You can use fresh or frozen bananas. It is Kyle’s opinion that the riper the banana, the better the smoothie. So, this is a great way to use up starting-to-turn bananas! When I have a banana (or a whole bunch) that is starting to get too ripe, I slice them all up and freeze them in freezer bags (I do 1-2 bananas per bag). This way, they’re ready to pop out of the freezer and into the blender at smoothie-making-time.
TO DO:
Throw it all in the blender and blend it! That’s all folks. The amounts of each ingredient are dependent on what you like and how much you’re making. When I make smoothies for K&O (just the two of them), I use 2 bananas, a couple handfuls of strawberries, about 1+ cup of yogurt, and about 2 cups of OJ. If you like it more strawberry-y, use more berries; if you like it more yogurt-y, use more yogurt, etc.! Slurp up and enjoy!
P.S. Why, yes, of course I bring my Vitamix to the Beach House! Who doesn’t?!?! ;0
P.P.S. In all seriousness, the Vitamix is uber expensive, but uber worth it if you can swing it. It is, truly, my most valued kitchen possession.
P.P.P.S. K & O have been loving smoothies for a long time. Check out this post (click!) I wrote in 2007 (when they were just 3!). That was then (ahhh! look at my babies! and look at how small their smoothie cups were!)~
This is now (yesterday)!
I hope they’ll always have this.
This summer I am going to be posting a series of food posts from the beach house in South Carolina. I’m doing this for a few reasons:
- I want to have one central, easily accessible, spot where I collect my Beach House food/recipe ideas for my own future use. Being in the Lowcountry always gets me creatively inspired. And I have to cook for my family. These two things collide for me in July and I tend to have a culinary explosion where I’m cooking like crazy, and much more creatively than usual. In the dead of winter, when I’m in a food funk, I want to be able to find my ideas easily.
- I want a record of our Beach House Food because it is becoming a “thing” for my bambinos. There are certain foods, dishes, and culinary experiences that they’ve come to crave in July. I want them to have a “recipe book” (so to speak) in case they ever want to pursue these things themselves in the future.
- Probably more than any other “ask,” I get requests from blog readers for me to please post more about FOOD. For a long time I had the “Food Friday” posts going (just type in “Food Friday” to the search line of our blog and you’ll see tons and tons of posts). There was a whole contingent of our readership who was following primarily for that aspect of our blog. In the past few years I’ve really let that drop a lot. I miss it, many readers miss it, and I somehow feel really invigorated to do it (plus, I have more time to do it) in July. For those of you foodie readers who are still hanging in there reading this hanging-on-by-a-thread blog— these Food from the Beach House posts will be, in large part, for you! Thanks for not giving up on me!
- Sharing is caring. No, seriously, it is. I get 99.9999% of my ideas in life from sources external to me. This little old blog is one way for me to give back and contribute to the communal pot. xoxoxoxo
Important Notes: we do not own this beach house (we rent it!), we are only here once a year (July!), and I am by no means a Master Chef (I just cook for my peeps!).
At the end of July I will index all these posts in one centralized spot. For now, I’ll just be posting as we go.
My first Food from the Beach House post is directly below. It’s a yummy one!
Cheers! ~Heather
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