A coworker offers up some home picked peaches
It's all smiles and sunlight as we break into the first round of nature's bounty.
Baby Juju gets the first taste of this perfect beverage.
All part of a complete breakfast. Box of organic granola on sale = $2.
This fruit was posilootly bursting with juice!
The kids toast to the day ahead.
If you can't eat like a rock star..... eat WITH one! Our friend Ray Collins of the Mothers of Invention ( Frank Zappa, Ray Collins, the 60's.... you remember ) shares and shares alike.
In the late morning, we made our way into the village on foot. We had plans for some corporate freebies and some tree exploration. Just as we entered the village, we bumped into our friend Ray. He was enjoying a gorgeous hunk of watermelon in his car parked under the shade of a tree. He had just been to the farmer's market. He asked if we liked watermelon since he had received a free watermelon with the purchase of a new variety. There was no way he was going to finish it all....... that's a humongous piece of fruit! He then mentioned that the watermelon was....................... yellow. Ok. Alright. Ok, so it's yellow. That could be edible. We are always up for an adventure so we accepted his offer. He found a water source, washed up the melon and cut great big slices with his pocket knife. We all stood on the street corner on the hottest day of the summer, sucking down juicy yellow melon and catching up with each other. Now that was an unexpected freebie and a great visit with a cool guy. (we would see him later in the day with another unexpected freebie...). Thanks Ray.
Next destination was Jamba Juice to redeem a free breakfast smoothie with a coupon we were given. Before Jamba we wanted to stop by next door at Le Pain Quotidien for one of their outrageous organic macaroons. It's was only a $1.10 and well within budget. The restaurant was taking a survey that day and offering a FREE baguette, and a FREE jute bag to every patron who completed a survey. We're noticing a lot more PQ bags around town.
Here we have an expired coupon for a free yogurt smoothie. Would they take it?.....
Julian couldn't wait to crack into that Le Pain Quotidien baguette. He seizes the day as the rest of us are distracted at the Jamba Juice counter with negotiating old promotionals.
Success! It's hard to say no to a troop of cute thirsty kids! Houston we have lift off.
What's more, they had a bunch of full sized baked goods that needed to go out as samples. Woohoo! Free smoothies, cookies and sweet loafs! Yummmm!
The kids take their pick.
Mmmmmm, we love smoothies! So good on a hot day, especially if you've just walked a couple miles in the noon day sun.
In the evening, we drove to James brother Shawn's house for dinner. We had a delicious dinner of turkey burritos, complete with beans, CHEESE!, rice, grilled eggplant and tasty roasted peppers grown from their garden. We enjoyed their hospitality and visited with Shawn, our sister in law (Elyse), niece (Lauren), nephew (Zach) and James sister ( "JJ" ). The food was delicious! The kids were thrilled to have a wide array of beverages offered. We enjoyed even more great big chunks of watermelon for dessert. We love this fruit! Thanks guys!
After dinner Aleli sat in the studio while Shawn took video and photos using his light polarizer and the rest of the gang hung out watching recordings of the Olympic opening ceremonies. Shawn has invented this amazing light polarizer and needed a subject to photograph for a demo to put on his new website. So what better way to eat for free than to barter. (for some of the evenings pictures and to check out his revolutionary invention visit http://motionlightdesign.com/Images.html )
Palm -o- Granite
We found out later that this pomegranate should be harvested later in the year. They should be red and almost bursting out of their skins before picking.
on to oranges......
and acrobats
and Olympics!
Julian takes his pickin' and runs....
and keeps running......
Move over oranges, make some room for baby....
Kai volunteers to carry the basket. With a big grunt, he estimated the weight at 20 pounds!
Such a treat to see this undisturbed nest. We left this orange for the birds. This was a great opportunity to teach the kids about respecting nature and honoring balance.
Amongst the living again, Aleli brews up....... what else?..... oatmeal for breakfast! She basks in the morning sun and breathes deep the healing steam that swirled from our daily gruel.
Julian signs the word "more" for his morning porridge refill. Smart baby! A "please sir, may I have some more" moment if ever we saw one!
Beans and rice dinner by candlelight.............. not exactly romantic, but very economical and tasty!
We started the day with international flair. We brewed some left over, organic, fair-trade, bird friendly Cuban coffee that we brought back to the US from our vacation to Vancouver, BC Canada a couple of months ago. We prefer to use our french press for single servings to save on grains and make a really solid cup of java.
PAIN PERDU
Here we have some day old brioche that makes the most amazing French toast.
These were acquired from Le Pain Quotidien.
sliced brioche, dipped in egg and milk batter with a dash of cinnamon, griddled to perfection!
Banana pancakes made on the fly, the brioche were gone in 60 seconds!
Apples. Good for humans..............
......and many others!
Friends dropped in to share "THE best donuts in the world!" with us. There was actual crispness to the bite in these peaches. They really were good!
All the makings of our $2.50 dinner.
We kicked it up a notch by doctoring our inexpensive store bought sauce with some home grown goodness. Onion, tomatoes, garlic...............BAM!
