theparkerfamily.org

Author: evancparker

  • “make it go faster, daddy!”

    []
    photo from the parking shuttle to the baltimore airport, for our flight to manchester, nh.

  • found: july

    []

    photo of the week // week forty-one
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    Camera Dump: July

  • the road to delaplane

    []
    sparklet’s sick, and has been since the day after mommy left for san francisco. little bit of fever, but nothing serious — until she started projectile vomiting on Friday.

    i will say, that there isn’t much sleep going around … and yesterday sparklet didn’t manage a nap over 20 minutes in length.

    the temperature being over 100 degrees for the last three days hasn’t help much either, as going for a walk is traditionally the easiest way to get an unhappy sparklet to take a nap.

    so today, we resorted to driving. for three hours. in no particular direction.

    by the time we ended up in delaplane — out Route 50 in Virginia, towards Shenandoah — sparklet had slept for an hour and she slept for another two on the way back.

    we’re all feeling better already.

    p.s. nine month pediatrician checkup was last friday, and she’s still growing like a weed. 99th percentile on height, 95th on weight, and the doctor is happy with the balance between the two. she’ll be talking by the next appointment, and we’re to start adding meat to the diet. exciting times.

  • alfredo w/ mushrooms, sour cream & dill

    []
    when i was in russia working on my honors thesis — reprinted here in full for those with six hours to kill — i fell in love with exactly one authentic Russian dish.

    and this isn’t it.

    the dish i loved was a side dish, some kind of mushrooms and peppers cooked in sour cream, Parmesan chesse and dill — and i’ve yet to figure out how to cook it properly.

    however, i’ve gotten basically the same taste by adding dill and sour cream to a relatively standard mushroom alfredo sauce.

    full recipe after the jump.

    (more…)

  • oh, ethyl — we hardly knew ye so well

    []
    i love going to the petting zoo, and — according to gowalla, and foursquare before that — we’ve been to the “kid’s farm” roughly two dozen times since early May.we go because i love that sparklet enjoys going to a “farm,” even if it is a fake farm with fru-fru animals like Miniature Mediterranean Donkeys and Anglo-Nubian Goats. that, and it’s only a couple blocks away so we go all the time.

    today, however, we noticed someone was missing — Ethyl, one of two Nigerian Dwarf Goats. (fwiw, the other is named Lucy … in a fit of “I Love Lucy” hilarity.)

    we asked one of the zoo keepers (who was really quite worked up about it) about what happened and she said Ethyl passed away earlier in the week after some time in the Zoo’s hospital.

    now, sparklet’s obviously too young to know any better … but before we lose any more Zoo friends, we decided to do a “guestbook” of those we see the most:

    ECPA20100719_4121 by [ecpark]
    Pat
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey    		 ECPA20100719_4115 by [ecpark]
    Giuseppe
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey
    ECPA20100719_4097 by [ecpark]
    George
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey    		 ECPA20100719_4085 by [ecpark]
    Flash
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey
    ECPA20100719_4092 by [ecpark]
    Tulip
    Holstein Cow    		 ECPA20100719_4091 by [ecpark]
    Rose
    Polled Hereford Cow
    ECPA20100719_4140 by [ecpark]
    Mortimer
    San Clemente Island Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4102 by [ecpark]
    Iris
    Anglo-Nubian Goat
    ECPA20100719_4104 by [ecpark]
    Lucky
    Anglo-Nubian Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4137 by [ecpark]
    Marla
    San Clemente Island Goat
    ECPA20100719_4138 by [ecpark]
    Lucy
    Nigerian Dwarf Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4150 by [ecpark]
    Cirrus
    Alpaca
    ECPA20100719_4090 by [ecpark]
    Orion
    Alpaca    		 ECPA20100719_4080 by [ecpark]
    Ziggy
    Alpaca
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    kids farm, national zoo, washington, dc

  • good night, mommy!

    hope you’re reading the blog from san francisco 🙂

  • out: national gallery of art

    []

  • go speed racer, go!

    []

    photo of the week // week forty

  • mushroom risotto

    well, i’m cooking again.

    it took a decade for me to finally remember by culinary heritage — my father was a chef for 30-odd years — but i’m starting to have fun in the kitchen again.

    i used to love it.

    my father and i would regularly cook thanksgiving dinner for 400+ and we’d have a ball (a slightly exhausting ball, but a ball none-the-less).

    i have no idea what happened in between, but it’s passed — and the lady sparkler is now too busy with a small child to tell me what i’m doing wrong (bonus!).

    tonight was a risotto with wild mushrooms, a recipe that i picked up from a office-retreat-slash-cooking-class with Chef Susan Holt at CulinAerie (great class, btw — highly recommend it).

    full recipe after the jump.

    (more…)

  • “a little to the right, daddy…”

    []