Questing for Peace

California Dreaming

2011-02-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

I am in a whimsical mood dreaming about getting away. It is about 28 degrees Fahrenheit today, which is up from a couple days ago, but it is still so darn cold. The Mamas and the Papas lyrics are very apt: "California Dreaming on such a winter's day." Since we took our big trip to Italy in 2009, we haven't been traveling much because it is not financially feasible. However, this summer we will be going to California to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and by that time, their baby girl. And, we will be visiting a friend in San Francisco too (we were roommates while living in Taiwan). I'm thinking of flying into Medford, OR, then traveling to Crater Lake, the redwood forest, and down through Napa Valley before hitting San Fransisco and heading down Highways 1 and 101 through Carmel, Monterey, and on to Los Angeles where my family lives. If you were going to California, where would you make sure to visit?

I wish I could just take the whole summer. Then I would visit this place in Utah to peruse the beautiful cottage gardens there.

Farewell my bleeding heart...

2010-09-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is an Outdoor Wednesday post to join in over at A Southern Daydreamer's blog.

In the spring, I bought a bleeding heart plant with no flowers on it. I planted it and diligently cared for it through the summer knowing that next year, the beauty would be unleashed. The plant was gorgeous, light green leaves, which bordered on almost yellow. It was the perfect foil during early summer to the purple clematis or the baby blue eyes (as shown below) growing nearby.

Yesterday morning, while letting my dog out, I noticed that it no longer existed. And although I nurtured it with hopes for next year's glory, it is naught to be. Some hungry bunny or deer has brought the plant's life cycle to an abrupt end, and left a divot in my garden. Look how lush it was. Can you imagine what next year was to hold?

So farewell. Farewell my bleeding heart.

Estate Finds and Roiling-boiling Clouds

2010-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I stopped by an estate sale in my neighborhood. I had seen signs for a "sale" but was unaware that it wasn't just a simple yard sale. By the time I arrived there was not much left, but I did find a few items for purchase. I spent $28 dollars as follows: $0.50 on some gingham fabric that will be made into cafe curtains in my kitchen; $1.00 on an oval enamelware basin with red trim; $1.50 on a vintage wool cardigan; and, $25 on a hutch for my dining room. I had been looking for something for the dining room for some time and finally decided that I was going to build a built-in to fit the space. I still hope to do that as the hutch is not my style; however, it adds storage space in the meantime. Here are the goods:

Please excuse my dust vac peaking out from around the base of the hutch (the plug is back there). I think $28 was a great price. I don't know why, but my favorite is unexpected - I just love that enamelware basin. I guess it reminds my of my grandmother's house. This mosaic of my finds was put together to join in the Mosaic Monday event held over at the Little Red House blog. I hadn't joined in for several months, so pulled together some photos to make a mosaic. These photos are to show my finds rather than to impress with their artistry. However, there are some amazingly wonderful mosaics over there - I'd suggest you pop over for a browse.

On Saturday, there was the most amazing cloud formation in the sky at around 8am. I just had to memorialize it in a photo:

Doesn't it just look like the sky is boiling?

Wildflower

2010-07-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

There is some sort of weed flowering outside of our house. It is pretty and kind of looks like a plant that would grow by the edge of water. I was trying to get a nice picture of it. I tried once but didn't get a good picture. So I tried a couple more times. A friendly creature inserted himself into the last photo.

Camera Rebirth - Part II

2010-07-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I wrote about pending (FREE) repairs to my Canon A75 camera in a blog post. I am happy to say, I received the camera back yesterday. As my camera died photos got progressively worse and worse. They went from clear and crisp to halfway clear, this picture shows how the problem started.

Then things got worse as shown here:

Then even worse:

Following this, the LCD Sensor finally died for good and there was only blackness. As I mentioned before, I loved the camera. So I was very excited to get it back. The following are a couple of pictures I took in my backyard today after the camera came back from Canon following repair.

What a difference, no? (I wish that were my yard, but it's not. It is a school yard. I took the picture because that darker clouded area to the right of the picture was giving off a lot of thunder but the sun was shining brightly where I was. I thought that Charlie Brown must be sitting somewhere under that cloud, melancholy as ever.)

Smoldering July

2010-07-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

What a hot week it's been in Michigan with temperatures in the 90s and humidity up there as well. From what I can gather, the whole country is feeling the heat.

My brother and sister-in-law are in from L.A. and rented a small cottage on Wamplers Lake in Brooklyn, Michigan. The cottage sleeps six, but the lake site was perfect for my siblings, their children, and our parents to visit during the day. I have some adorable shots of my nieces and nephews, but I will not share those without their parent's approval. So, in the stead of those photos, I will share some shots of the great outdoors as taken around the cottage. I am linking this to A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday event.

The view from shore.

The glory of the heavens.

Behind the Cottage.

An old abandoned dock also resided behind the cottage. In my opinion, this added visual interest.

Pasta Salad

2010-07-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

My brother and his wife will be renting a cottage in Michigan over the next week, and my parents, two sisters, their spouses and kids, and me and my husband will all be converging to spend time with them. It is on an all sports lake, so they've rented a jet ski and boat as well. I'm pretty excited and have been busy preparing food to take out there tomorrow. The grape leaves were the start a couple days ago, today I made a cream cheese, sour cream, habanero, and spring onion spread that will be put on tortillas, a pasta salad, a red velvet cake with blueberries on top. Next, I preparing a potato salad and a self-designed garbanzo/avacado/tomato salad. I'll leave a cucumber salad, hummus, and tzadziki for tomorrow.

In honor of Foodie Friday and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays, here's a picture of the pasta salad (the dressing is homemade). This time I put zucchini and summer squash in the salad, which is unusual, but I'm sure it will be good. One of the things I do that is a little different is that I like to put poppy seeds on my pasta salad because it seems to add visual interest.

Camera Rebirth

2010-07-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Years ago I got a Canon Powershot A75, and I LOVED it. It took most of the pictures I wanted it to take, even doing a halfway decent job at close-ups. But toward August of 2008, the display started to intermittently become problematic, showing lines across the digital display, eventually making things look like they were melting, and then not displaying anything (or taking pictures).

I called our local camera shop and found out that it would be more than $100 to fix. Since a new basic digital camera is hardly more than that price, I felt the best thing would be to buy a new camera, which we finally did last August. We purchased a Nikon CoolPix L20 to take on our honeymoon. It was great for that purpose and took lovely pictures of the scenery and of us. However, I've never been happy with it in my day to day life because I like to take pictures of animals, flora, fauna... With the Nikon I get a ton of blurry shots before I get a clear one.

I was bemoaning my situation the other day, and thought I would take another shot at figuring out whether the Canon was salvageable. While on the Canon website today, I found that there was a special notice with respect to the CCD image sensors in the Canon model I bought. Canon is replacing these sensors regardless of the warranty status of the camera, and is paying for shipping. This type of customer service is unheard of now-a-days. (Sometime let me tell you about my unsuccessful dialogue regarding a Sharp Microwave that quit working after one year. It runs, but won't heat anything probably because of a faulty magnetron , and I got no help from the folks at Sharp.) I will be giving Canon more of my business based on their courteous and responsible manner when faulty parts are involved. And, the ONE contact I had to make (not 5-6) to get resolution.

Grape Leaves

2010-06-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

We haven't had an opportunity to go grocery shopping on a big trip in quite some time, so I've been eking out meals from the random sundries in the pantry. I have beans, rice, flour, but I've run out of pasta and bread so you see, the cupboard is not entirely bare, but it's on the way. When thinking about what I might still be able to make, I realized we also have grapevines growing along our back fence, and some type of wild mint mingling with our bushes. (AKA ingredients for vegetarian grape leaves!) So, armed with this knowledge I went in search of recipes. I didn't find one that sounded right so I just added what I thought would make sense. First I harvested the goods from outside.

Can you see the mint hiding in the middle there?

Next I brought them in and cleaned the leaves off.

After washing the leaves and mint, I boiled some water, removed the pot from the heat and soaked the grape leaves in the hot water to soften. While the leaves soaked, I made some rice (about 2 c. cooked), and selected the healthy (unmolested by bugs or beasties) leaves from the stem and chopped them.

I pressed three cloves of garlic, added some olive oil, parsley, dill, vinegar, lemon juice, a small onion, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a dash of paprika to the rice.

And, I wound up with this:

I removed the grape leaves from the now fairly cool water using the stem, clipped each stem off and placed the leaf vein side up. I put a bit of the mixture onto each leaf and rolled it tight. I placed the finished grape leaves in a pan oiled with olive oil.

I added a little water, a little more olive oil, and squeezed a little more lemon over them. I cooked for about 1/2 hour at 300 degrees. I've packaged them away after drizzling them with a bit more olive oil for use within the next week.

I had enough of the rice mixture left over to eat for dinner. It was surprised by how delicious it was. It tasted buttery, but there was not a stitch of butter in it, and hardly any oil either since most of it was added to the pan and finished grape leaves. The mint, onion, garlic, dill, parsley sure did their jobs. And then, halfway through my meal, and even though I've used the mint in my lemonade before, and checked before, I freaked myself out and needed to make sure there was no poisonous mint that grows in Michigan. I couldn't find any reference to any mint being poisonous to humans, and I learned something. Did you know that mint stems are square?

Rednesday in Rimini

2010-06-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

For our honeymoon, my beloved and I visited Italy, the land of lovers. We chose to bide our time slowly, to relax, to appreciate, rather than to rush, rush, rush (which is our normal modus operandi). Thus we ventured to a resort town named Rimini which is off the traditional beaten path for a non-Italian tourist. It was a fun city, that's for sure. This town is but 20 or so kilometers from San Marino, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and is the birthplace of Fellini. We had a wonderful time at the beach, at the pubs, the clubs, at the sidewalk diners, and walking through the park that bisects the city. While in the park, not only did we see an arch from 27 a.d., built in honor of Agustus, but also a war memorial for Canada. Yep, Canada-we were surprised too. I'm posting this as a part of the It's a Very Cherry World's red themed event Rednesday.

How we wish we could return soon.

Outdoor Wednesday in the Boonies

2010-06-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

My youngest sister moved to a country town in southern Michigan several years ago. The place she lives is much like the village we grew up in; however, the village we grew up in has gotten much more suburban since those days. Her town still rotates around the high school football team, farming, and raising children. It can sometimes be a little close minded, but I wouldn't mind living there none-the-less. Here's a couple photos of the lovely view she can see from her home after a storm.

Quite a lot of green, wouldn't you say? Also, in addition to the "meadow" across the street from her home, there is a marshy area behind it. That leads to quite a few visitors including sandhill cranes, blue herons, and tons of red-winged blackbirds, among others. The same day as the post-storm photos above were taken, I caught this guy trying to cross the street to return to the marsh.

This post was inspired by A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday theme. Visit her page to see other inspiring outdoor photos.

Thunderstorms and trees

2010-06-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

We've all known the comfort that shade brings on a hot summer day. Personally I appreciate the large pines surrounding our property. They provide shade in the summer and protect from winter drafts during the coldest months. But, I'm always scared one of these will fall on our home during a storm. They are probably almost 40' tall of varying diameters. A tree from my property is shown below (middle right).

See other mosaics at The Little Red House.

Today there was quite a lightening storm and one strike seemed fairly close, although the blinds were drawn, I saw the flick of lightening, the cable went out momentarily and the thunder started immediately. About an hour later, when the storm was over, I let my pup out. I was quite suprised when I saw one of our neighbors trees had gone down. For all that it looks like, it seems that there was minimal damage.

Thank goodness nobody was hurt.

Of Red Yesterdays

2010-06-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

I grew up on property with a barn, and many of my neighbors had barns on their property as well. There is nothing quite so iconic to rural American life than a barn and a silo. I miss the days of fields and farms for miles on end. The town I grew up in is much different these days, as is much of the surrounding area. I am sharing this red barn in memory of days past as a part of Rednesday over at It's A Very Cherry World.

2010-06-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

This week, as part of my Mosaic Monday post, I chose to highlight the textural quality of the summertime. When the sun shines bright, the bark and leaves of trees are shown in their full glory. A pebbled path and a decrepit window frame are visually interesting as well. See beautiful mosaics over at the Little Red House blog.

Mosaic Monday: June 14, 2010

2010-06-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is a Mosaic Monday post (see more over at the Little Red House Blog).

I love house finches. They are very beautiful and illustrate the attentiveness of good parents. I was very excited when they returned to my porch this year to raise a batch of babies.

Their first nest was blown asunder when a big thunderstorm whipped through the area, but as they are diligent birds, they quickly rebuilt. The nest wasn't far from our front door, and at night we would often scare mama bird from her perch where she was keeping the eggs warm, which wasn't ideal by any means. We tried to do as little disturbing as possible.

After about a week, I stood on a chair and took pictures to understand how many eggs were in the nest. The pictures were too blurry to post here, but showed something I didn't like. To my dismay, I found five beautiful blue house finch eggs and one speckled brown egg. Evidently a brown headed cowbird played a dirty trick and did what has earned it categorization as a brood parasite - it laid an egg in the house finches' nest.

Through research, I found that the cowbird baby would most likely hatch first, then potentially kill the other birds by destroying their eggs prior to their hatching or by out begging the parent birds. However, there was information stating that a cowbird cannot exist on a house finch diet and would most likely die anyways, but that both species are protected enough that you are not suppose to mess with their nests. These were from forums and blogs, so I am not sure how reliable the information was. I will have to figure out what is allowed in Michigan for the next time I run into this problem.

Knowing that I wanted the house finches to live, but not wanting to kill the other bird, I decided in this case to let nature do what nature does. I snapped pictures after one bird hatched. I believe this was the cowbird. A couple days later, I found a broken blue egg on the ground. A day or two later, I found a baby bird corpse on the ground. I think this was the cowbird baby. I checked the nest and it was empty. The parent birds haven't been seen since.

I think the whole nest perished because I didn't make a choice which would have saved at least one bird. I was at a moral crossroads though because although it is not believed that cowbirds can survive on a diet of seeds only, it is not an absolute and I didn't feel good about either decision. So, I let nature take over. I don't like the results though.

What would you have done in this situation?

Common Mullein

2010-06-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Just found out the "lamb's ear" I've been letting grow is a Verbascum thapsus (Common Mullein) plant. Not really knowing what a lamb's ear was, I kept thinking I had one growing at the edge of my flower garden. And, literally, it was growing at the edge of my flower garden, essentially just inside the flower garden at the front of my house. And, since it wasn't hurting anything, I let it grow. I see the first hints of yellow, as it is preparing to bloom, and I'm excited.

When I was little, these plants would grow in and around the pastures where we kept our cows. The cows wouldn't touch them, and so they would grow tall and proud. When I found this one, I just thought back to those memories. My husband thinks it looks horrible. But then again, he thinks cottage gardens look messy and overgrown, and I think they look gorgeous. This may be a little out of place, but I'm kind of into letting things be if they aren't hurting anything. He grew up in the suburbs, and I grew up on a dirt road with wild phlox, tiger lilies, Queen Anne's lace and mayapple plants growing abundantly at the side of the road.

What I am most excited about, are the medicinal uses I've learned about since looking into this plant. The sites I've been looking at suggest it is a good for lung ailments, infections, and headaches among others. Next time I have a mild asthma attack, I think I might make myself a little tea, sit back and evaluate the outcome.

Mosaic Monday

2010-06-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Taking part in Mosaic Monday to highlight blooming beauties of summer. See other Mosaic Monday gems at the Little Red House Blog.

Sauce Recipes pulled fromTHE EASIEST WAY IN HOUSEKEEPING AND COOKING. Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes BY HELEN CAMPBELL

2010-05-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

So I was looking for some cleaning recipes from yesteryear, and thought I would head over to the Project Gutenberg website to see what I could dig up. (For those of you that haven't heard of that website, it is a collection of books that are in the public domain because the copyrights have expired; they have lots of great stuff over there and lots of not so great stuff but all is free and is allowed to be copied, distributed, etc.)

I didn't find any satisfactory recipes for cleaning, but did find some interesting recipes for soups, sauces, and desserts that will definitely be tested. I thought I would share the sauces as inspiration, although not all of them sound appetizing.

SAUCES AND SALADS.

The foundation for a large proportion of sauces is in what the French cook knows as a roux, and we as "drawn butter." As our drawn butter is often lumpy, or withthe taste of the raw flour, I give the French method as a security against such disaster.

TO MAKE A ROUX.
Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter the size of an egg, and add two even tablespoonfuls of sifted flour; one ounce of butter to two of flour being a safe rule. Stir till smooth, and pour in slowly one pint of milk, or milk and water, or water alone. With milk it is called cream roux, and is used for boiled fish and poultry. Where the butter and flour are allowed to brown, it is called a brown roux, and is thinned with the soup or stew which it is designed to thicken. Capers added to a white roux—which is the butter and flour, with water added—give caper sauce, for use with boiled mutton. Pickled nasturtiums are a good substitute for capers. Two hard-boiled eggs cut fine give egg sauce. Chopped parsley or pickle, and the variety of catchups and sauces, make an endless variety; the white roux being the basis for all of them.

BREAD SAUCE.
For this sauce boil one point of milk, with one onion cut in pieces. When it has boiled five minutes, take out the onion, and thicken the milk with half a pint of sifted bread-crumbs. Melt a teaspoonful of butter in a frying-pan; put in half a pint of coarser crumbs, stirring them till a light brown. Flavor the sauce with half a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and a grate of nutmeg; and serve with game, helping a spoonful of the sauce, and one of the browned crumbs. The boiled onion may be minced fine and added, and the browned crumbs omitted.

CELERY SAUCE.
Wash and boil a small head of celery, which has been cut up fine, in one pint of water, with half a teaspoonful of salt. Boil till tender, which will require about half an hour. Make a cream roux, using half a pint of milk, and adding quarter of a saltspoonful of white pepper. Stir into the celery; boil a moment, and serve. A teaspoonful of celery salt can be used, if celery is out of season, adding it to the full rule for cream roux. Cauliflower may be used in the same way as celery, cutting it very fine, and adding a large cupful to the sauce. Use either with boiled meats.

MINT SAUCE.
Look over and strip off the leaves, and cut them as fine as possible with a sharp knife. Use none of the stalk but the tender tips. To a cupful of chopped mint allow an equal quantity of sugar, and half a cup of good vinegar. It should stand an hour before using.

CRANBERRY SAUCE.
Wash one quart of cranberries in warm water, and pick them over carefully. Put them in a porcelain-lined kettle, with one pint of cold water and one pint of sugar, and cook without stirring for half an hour, turning then into molds. This is the simplest method. They can be strained through a sieve, and put in bowls, forming a marmalade, which can be cut in slices when cold; or the berries can be crushed with a spoon while boiling, but left unstrained.

APPLE SAUCE.
Pare, core, and quarter some apples (sour being best), and stew till tender in just enough water to cover them. Rub them through a sieve, allowing a teacupful of sugar to a quart of strained apple, or even less, where intended to eat with roast pork or goose. Where intended for lunch or tea, do not strain, but treat as follows: Make a sirup of one large cupful of sugar and one of water for every dozen good-sized apples. Add half a lemon, cut in very thin slices. Put in the apple; cover closely, and stew till tender, keeping the quarters as whole as possible. The lemon may be omitted.

PLAIN PUDDING SAUCE.
Make a white roux, with a pint of either water or milk; but water will be very good. Add to it a large cup of sugar, a teaspoonful of lemon or any essence liked, and a wine-glass of wine. Vinegar can be substituted. Grate in a little nutmeg, and serve hot.

MOLASSES SAUCE.
This sauce is intended especially for apple dumplings and puddings. One pint of molasses; one tablespoonful of butter; the juice of one lemon, or a large spoonful of vinegar. Boil twenty minutes. It may be thickened with a tablespoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a little cold water, but is good in either case.

FOAMING SAUCE.
Cream half a cup of butter till very light, and add a heaping cup of sugar, beating both till white. Set the bowl in which it was beaten into a pan of boiling water, and allow it to melt slowly. Just before serving but not before, pour into it slowly half a cup or four spoonfuls of boiling water, stirring to a thick foam. Grate in nutmeg, or use a teaspoonful of lemon essence, and if wine is liked, add a glass of sherry or a tablespoonful of brandy. For a pudding having a decided flavor of its own, a sauce without wine is preferable.

HARD SAUCE
Beat together the same proportions of butter and sugar as in the preceding receipt; add a tablespoonful of wine if desired; pile lightly on a pretty dish; grate nutmeg over the top, and set in a cold place till used.
FRUIT SAUCES.
The sirup of any nice canned fruit may be used cold as sauce for cold puddings and blancmanges, or heated and thickened for hot, allowing to a pint of juice a heaping teaspoonful of corn-starch dissolved in a little cold water, and boiling it five minutes. Strawberry or raspberry sirup is especially nice.

PLAIN SALAD DRESSING.
Three tablespoonfuls of best olive-oil; one tablespoonful of vinegar; one saltspoonful each of salt and pepper mixed together; and then, with three tablespoonfuls of best olive-oil, adding last the tablespoonful of vinegar. This is the simplest form of dressing. The lettuce, or other salad material, must be fresh and crisp, and should not be mixed till the moment of eating.

SPANISH TOMATO SAUCE.
One can of tomatoes or six large fresh ones; two minced onions fried brown in a large tablespoonful of butter. Add to the tomatoes with three sprigs of parsley and thyme, one teaspoonful of salt, and half a one of pepper; three cloves and two allspice, with a small blade of mace and a bit of lemon peel, and two lumps of sugar. Stew very slowly for two hours, then rub through a sieve, and return to the fire. Add two tablespoonfuls of flour, browned with a tablespoonful of butter, and boil up once. It should be smooth and thick. Keep on ice, and it will keep a week. Excellent.

MAYONNAISE SAUCE.
For this sauce use the yolks of three raw eggs; one even tablespoonful of mustard; one of sugar; one teaspoonful of salt; and a saltspoonful of cayenne.
Break the egg yolks into a bowl; beat a few strokes, and gradually add the mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper. Now take a pint bottle of best olive-oil, and stir in a few drops at a time. The sauce will thicken like a firm jelly. When the oil is half in, add the juice of one lemon by degrees with the remainder of the oil; and last, add quarter of a cup of good vinegar. This will keep for weeks, and can be used with either chicken, salmon, or vegetable salad.

A simpler form can be made with the yolk of one egg, half a pint of oil, and half the ingredients given above. It can be colored red with the juice of a boiled beet, or with the coral of a lobster, and is very nice as a dressing for raw tomatoes, cutting them in thick slices, and putting a little of it on each slice.
Mayonnaise may be varied in many ways, sauce tartare being a favorite one. This is simply two even tablespoonfuls of capers, half a small onion, and a tablespoonful of parsley, and two gherkins or a small cucumber, all minced fine and added to half a pint of mayonnaise. This keeps a long time, and is very nice for fried fish or plain boiled tongue.

DRESSING WITHOUT OIL.
Cream a small cup of butter, and stir into it the yolks of three eggs. Mix together one teaspoonful of mustard, one teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a saltspoonful of cayenne, and add to the butter and egg. Stir in slowly, instead of oil, one cup of cream, and add the juice of one lemon and half a cup of vinegar.

BOILED DRESSING FOR COLD SLAW.
This is good also for vegetable salads. One small cup of good vinegar; two tablespoonfuls of sugar; half a teaspoonful each of salt and mustard; a saltspoonful of pepper; a piece of butter the size of a walnut; and two beaten eggs. Put these all in a small saucepan over the fire, and stir till it becomes a smooth paste. Have a firm, white cabbage, very cold, and chopped fine; and mix the dressing well through it. It will keep several days in a cold place.

Stressed Out!

2010-04-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, my quest for peace has hit some bumps. I have been overwhelmingly busy at work. While I have been doing several people's jobs for going on a couple years now, we are finally hiring some folks. However, unfortunately for me, neither of those people will be sharing my workload. It is very frustrating. Ah well. I need an attitude adjustment for sure. Hopefully I shall soon resume a more successful quest for peace than has been the case recently.

Christmastime

2009-12-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

It is now nearly Christmastime and my Etsy addiction grows - although my purchases remain at one as of yet. But, I can spend hours dreaming. I also am still considering arranging a store to sell illustrations and maybe photos? In the meantime, I've asked for some really good acid-free paper for Christmas (cotton rather than wood pulp base). Good supplies always make the act of creation more desirable, and I haven't been so good at feeding my artistic side lately. Part of that artistic starvation comes with long hours at work and never ending housework. I'll tell you that sufficient storage would make ALL the difference (but that should come someday when we finish the build-out of the basement, get rid of a window in the kitchen so we have a place for the refrigerator and some cabinetry, and build-out the attic including a ton of under-eave built-ins.).

The photos I would place in an Etsy store would be varied, but honeymoon pictures would have to go in there. Some of those pictures from Italy are just gorgeous. I got about 10 of the photos printed off in the 8" X 10" size about a week ago and couldn't wait to get them framed. On Sunday, I bought two 11" X 14" picture frames with 8" X 10" mats. Once I put the pictures in them, I was shell-shocked by the look. They are extraordinarily beautiful. (On a side note, I don't think you can take a bad picture of Venice's canals.)

Anyway, above I mentioned that my Etsy addiction grows. I have found some new favorites in the illustration/prints genre. They include:

Amariah Rousch

John Clark
Rodistudio
OrangeWillow

National Novel Writing Month

2009-10-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is an event wherein people around the world are challanged to write 50,000 words of a novel within the month of November. The idea is that people write their individual novel while others out there are writing as well. Writers have a sense of community as they can commisserate with others out there who are doing the same thing. The neat thing about the challenge is that because of the word goal, the editing that normally inhibits a writer from finishing a project is limited.

Also, there is a greater purpose of the month, and that is education. There is also a program for young writers and educators, wherein money is raised to help provide classroom work to get students writing. I've signed up, and will try my best to reach my 50,000 words by the end of November. I am also trying to figure out how to donate some funds for this cause. If this sounds of interest to you, you can visit their website here.

2009-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

My grandmother was born in 1912 so she was "coming of age" at about the time of the great depression. Her first memories were of a ticker tape parade celebrating the end of World War I. As a youngster she was unsure of herself, had divorced parents, and was trying to do the best she could. Like many from her generation, she was incredibly frugal. But, unlike many, she grew up that way. She grew up learning about plants, experimented with religion, attended college (English and Chemistry), and met a young man at college who was to become my grandfather.

By the time I was born, my grandfather was no longer alive; My parents and I lived with my grandmother and her mother on 40 acres on a dirt road in a small southeast Michigan farm town. Because we lived together, we spent a lot of time together. She would take me into the woods to pick wild raspberries. We would harvest mint, swiss chard, and some other things that I don't know the name of from edges of the pasture, yard or forest. My family had a garden of about an acre, and a field that would alternate between corn, alfalfa, wheat, etc. I remember working as a whole family in the garden. I also remember my grandmother inferring the knowledge she had regarding ecosystems, recycling, limiting chemical usage, and being selective when making purchases. She subscribed to Mother Earth News and was constantly pursuing knowledge about composting, natural fertilizers and other earthy-crunchy, earth-friendly practices. In winters, our home was pretty cold, heated primarily by a wood stove. Each night, we would heat large stones on the wood stove. Later these stones would be placed into pillow cases and inserted under the covers to warm our beds. The stones would keep emitting heat for about an hour (or more). I believe this is similar to the way a modern-day radiant floor works - especially when the material is concrete or stone. In the summers, because the house was surrounded on three sides by forest/trees, the home stayed pretty cool.

I believe I was lucky to have grown up in a multi-generational household. My grandmother died in 2003, and I miss her incredibly much. However, she'll always be with me. Each week when I take my recycling to the curb, I remember her saving tinfoil for reuse and talking about how the Native Americans were the "original recyclers." I don't quite remember what it was in reference to - maybe string and leather - but I remember her imparting the importance of recycling. I remember her natural remedies - aloe as skincare/burncare, which in the 1970's was not all that commonly used, chamomile tea for sleepiness, and mint to settle a stomach. I remember her feeding us dandilion greens and swiss chard. And, I remember the neighbor kids thinking this was the grossest thing, since those things grew naturally and not in the garden. Now those same greens are sold for high prices in the grocery stores - sold as organic greens mix. She also had trees planted in her memory through donations to an environmental cause (I cannot remember whether it was The Nature Conservancy or the Arbor Day Foundation).

These simple things are what I'm trying to find in my life. I am looking for a way to consume less, to lessen my footprint, and to promote these practices to others. I believe there is climate change. I believe that it was unfortunate that climate change was initially called "global warming" because some people assume that if its cold in their region that the earth isn't warming - regardless of whether glaciers are breaking off, and shorelines are being lost. I am interested in learning more about the Natural Step, sustainable building, elimitating waste through selective purchasing, buying local, reforesting land, and generally enjoying nature. Today there will be many blogs dedicated to these issues, being as it is Blog Action Day and the topic is climate change. However, these issues are important to me each and every day, and many such ideas will continue to pepper my blog.

Mashed potatoes

2009-10-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

In our household, we love potatoes and have them as a side dish at least a couple times a week. Last week, I actually used a recipe for mashed potatoes -- I know, it seems kind of silly, but I thought I would give it a try because there were enough differences from how I normally make them. Usually, I just boil the potatoes, add a ton of butter and creamer, and call it a dish. The specific recipe I tried was published in Cook's Country magazine*, February/March 2009 issue under the name "Sour Cream and Onion Smashed Potatoes." I just can never seem to follow a recipe exactly as its written especially when it's for something so simple. And oftentimes, I don't have exactly the right ingredients. Here's how I modified the recipe:

Boil six medium to large redskin potatoes (I cut these to six pieces and leave the skins on) until cooked through. Drain. In the meantime, saute 1 small onion in 4 TBSP butter until the onions become translucent. To this add 1 cup sour cream, and 1/2 cup half-and-half. Add the potatoes and mash. Salt and pepper to taste. It was suprising what a different taste the sauteed onions added to the mix.

Tonight, I made a variation on the theme, but didn't have sour cream, was running low on half-and-half and wanted to use up some fresh basil. The modification turned out pretty well, but it would have been much better with the sour cream. I sauteed the onions, added five large leaves of basil cut into pieces with herb snips, then added about a quarter cup of half-and-half and some cream cheese. This would be delicious if it had been made with the sour cream. I also like the idea of using dill in the recipe.

Other ways we like potatoes are as garlic potatoes made on the grill or in the oven. They are incredibly easy. Cut up potatoes and place in an oven safe dish or if cooking on the grill, in a double layer of tin foil. Cut several dabs of butter and add to the potatoes. Squeeze a clove or two of garlic through a garlic press and add to the potatoes. You can also add cut up onions or herbs to this concoction. If cooking in the oven, cover with tinfoil (or a lid if you've got an oven safe one) and cook at about 350 for 15 or so minutes. If on the grill, make sure any seams are placed up rather than down - otherwise all of the butter will run out, and your potatoes will be really dry and will burn onto the foil. Check occasionally until the potatoes soften.

Some day, I will be making potato pasta (gnocchi) and potato pancakes. I will post the results then.

*Cooks Country is a publication of America's Test Kitchen. As you may know, America's Test Kitchen is often shown on public television. The show, the website, and the publication are wonderfully informative; although not as much as a celebrity machine as the Food Channel shows, the recipes are tested with many variations until the panel is satisfied for taste and texture. They will often provide variations. If you have the extra funds, I'd suggest purchasing a subscription (the magazine can be bought off the rack as well). The website provides a free recipe on the opening page. On the date of this post the free recipe is for Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili.

Etsy

2009-10-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to Etsy.com. I could spend hours surfing through the site. Actually, I am not kidding anybody; I HAVE spent whole weekends doing just that! I have multiple favorite sellers but have only made one purchase so far. For my recent wedding, the bridesmaids' gifts were bought from Rachael Sudlow Jewelry.

I only had two bridesmaids, and they were my darling sisters. During the winter of 2008/2009, I had stumbled across Rachael's "three peas in a pod" necklaces. I immediately knew that they would be a part of the gifts that my sisters got. (I decided it would be necessary to buy myself one as well.) Just because I found them adorable, didn't mean that my sisters would though... but, I was certainly hoping.

At the rehearsal dinner in August, I pulled out the gifts. (I also got them batik robes - each with a different color scheme and print.) They loved the necklaces and decided that they were going to wear them at the wedding... even though they didn't quite match. There is a special simplicity in the meaning that was not lost on anyone who noticed the necklaces.

One of our close friends fell in love with the necklace too because she and her significant other call their baby "sweet pea." Unbeknown to her, he is very interested in purchasing one of these necklaces for her as a special gift. What do you think of my necklace below - is it not just too cute?

I keep thinking that I need to get myself into gear and create enough items so that I can open a store. I think I would primarily do pencil drawings, but I have some other items up my sleeve as well.

Farmers' Market and Homemade Cheese

2009-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went to our local Farmers' Market, which I love to do. This week I went in search of pretty things for the home... flowers and greenery. I also bought some tomatoes and apples for good measure. The morning was cool, overcast and drizzly, which to me is a perfect enviroment - especially when beautifying the home for the snuggly winter months. I found some great items, but didn't spend much. I bought a bouquet for $5, some chives and oregano (which will be planted outdoors) for $3 each, a little whimsical hand made clay hanging pot with moss growing within for $8. Simple pleasures indeed - here they are:

I also found these cute little bottles/vases that stick to windows or mirrors and hold small groups of flowers. They are quite lovely I think!

Later that day, I went to the local health food store to get some TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein) so I could make a pot of vegetarian chili. While there, I found some vegetarian rennet for cheese making. I had looked for vegetarian rennet earlier this summer without luck, and just gave up cheese all together since the cheeses made that way tend to be incredibly expensive. While in Italy on our honeymoon, I had no kitchen to cook my own food in. And, without a kitchen, and with a language barrier, I gave up my cheese-free ways until we returned to the USA. With rennet in hand, I purchased a gallon of organic vitamin D milk, and went in search of citric acid so I would have all the ingredients to make mozzarella. I did not find citric acid so had to make due with lemon juice. I also hadn't realized my candy thermometer didn't go low enough for me to measure temperatures under 100 degrees accurately. So, I used the juice (not predictable pH-wise like citric acid is), and I guessed at the temperature. I thought that the cheese would be an absolute failure since there were so many things I was doing incorrectly - even though I was using modified recipes for a psuedo mozzarella (I compared about 6 different sets of online instructions to figure out how to proceed). Real mozzarella takes a couple hours longer. All in all, my cheese tasted right, but turned out a little spongy and was not smooth because of that. I will definately try cheesemaking again!

Presenting the cheese: