AWAY

I’m off to visit my mother in Texas.  Leave tomorrow – back Monday night.  It’s hot there!  Phooey.

ODDS AND ENDS…

I went to Calico Corners on Saturday to see if I could come up with some fabric for more pillows for the bed.   When I arrived, I found out it was the last day of a sale – which I appreciated.  A very nice woman helped me a lot and we came up with fabric and trim for 3 pillows.  The 2 larger ones will be a sort of tone on tone stipe in what I call a butterscotch with a little fringe trim that has all the colors in the Amalie pillow and then a smaller rectangle one that has all the colors in a small plaid with a solid braid in the deep rose, red.  I took photos, but the butterscotch fabric had to be ordered so you can’t see that.  I can’t decide if I will try to make them or not.  I used to sew, and certainly can do, just not sure I want to.  I want them to look good, not “loving hands at home.”  We’ll see.  Here’s a photo of the fabrics and trim…

The color of the larger pillows, the butterscotch, is nice and rich – I hope they look as good finished as I think they will.

If I make them myself, I’ll have to get my sewing machine back from J.  Maybe I can find someone to make them for considerably less than the $75 each that CC wanted!  The labor involved in making the 3 pillows would cost more than the fabric and pillow inserts.  Pillows aren’t rocket science.  Well, that sounds like famous last words, now, doesn’t it?

 

Oh, and here’s a picture of the new light switch – the flash washed out the color of the wall, but I really like the way the switch looks.  

 Today, I went to Whole Foods to get juniper berries and curry masala (whatever that is) for a vegetable tangine I made.  I didn’t find the curry stuff so got garam masala instead and just added that and curry to the mix.  It looks good and has an interesting flavor – will serve it with rice and a salad for dinner. It made a ton – the recipe was off someone’s blog and not exactly detailed – said it served 4 – more like 8.  I started it off in my 3qt saucier and had to dump it into a stock pot before adding the last ingredients.  Sure hope it’s good ’cause there’s a lot of it!

On the way home from WF, I passed a Pottery Sale sign.  I’ve been to these sales before – it’s a private home built on a hillside and they have a huge deck that they fill with the items.  It’s always interesting and the prices are very reasonable.  I bought a bowl I fell in love with and have no place to put, another piece with handles that’s very versatile and 4 egg bakers.  The egg bakers were just too great to pass up – see?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too bad tomorrow is Monday or I’d try out the egg bakers.  We can have breakfast for dinner this week, tho.  Well, there’s a guy coming to fix the TV on Tues, so I need to go and wedge myself behind it and dust!  Otherwise he might get eaten by what are surely enormous dust bunnies living back there!

AND, Happy Birthday to my first born!  I hope the coming years will give her what she wants and deserves.

WELL SAID………..

http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege

I just want to say that if my head doesn’t explode between now and 11/04, I’ll be damned grateful.  Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s Sarah Palin, and well, to quote a client of ours, “I just don’t even know what to think about that.”  Except I do know what I think.  And a few days ago, I found myself screaming over the phone at my 83 yr old mother over this whole political boondoggle.  Barack Obama is not a muslim sent to take over the country.  Dear God.  If the US elects the McCain/Palin ticket, then they deserve what they get.  I’ll just need to find a new place to live.

LUCKY

I got a call from J & S yesterday afternoon, letting me know that they are expecting the arrival of their baby on or about April 22, 2009!  To say I am happy is an understatement of cosmic proportions.  My funny and smart son and his beautiful and sweet wife will be awesome parents.  They should name the baby, regardless of sex, Lucky.  Because that baby is.  So.  Lucky.  As are we all who love them both so very much.

I LEFT MY HEART……

In Davies Symphony Hall, Row W, seat 6.  We saw Tony Benett there last Sunday night.  You know, he’s amazing.  When we came in and sat down, I immediately thought, “Where’s the bar stool?”  Because, you know, he’s 82 and he’ll need to sit a bit.  Wrong.  He was on his feet and moving around and doing cute little dances for over an hour.  He didn’t even have a bottle of water on stage.  I love the standards and he sang them beautifully.  He got several standing ovations, the longest one (aside from the end) was after I Left My Heart in San Francisco.  San Francisco loves Tony Bennett and it’s clear that he loves San Francisco.  He looks great and sounds amazing for 82.  We had a good time – it was romantic to sit and hold hands and listen to love songs sung by the best.

I said a few years ago that if he ever came to the City again, I didn’t want to miss him.  So, he came and we saw him and it was great.

Husband got us a night at a nearby hotel – it’s not that fun to drive home late from SF to SJ.

Note to Gavin Newsom:  The homeless in the City are really aggressive and the sidewalks need scrubbing.  We were accosted by 2 guys who literally told us they wanted/needed more money than we gave them! I want to love the City but that’s only possible in parts of it.  Van Ness and Geary isn’t one of those parts.  I’ll stick to the Ferry Bldg, Union Square and the Wharf from now on.  And the museums.

ROCKS KILLED THE DINOSAURS – VERSION 2

While driving to San Francisco early Sunday afternoon, we were listening to NPR.  What else?  City Arts & Lectures, one of my very favorite programs was on.

The person being interviewed was Ryan White who wrote “Death by Black Hole.”  Neil De Grasse Tyson, who wrote  “Merlin’s Tour of the Universe” was interviewing him.  Just wait – it gets better.

White had a really grand time telling us about Apophis, an asteroid the size of the Rose Bowl that is headed our way, ETA 04/13/2029.  Now, the orbits of these big fat space rocks are not entirely predictable and so there is a “keyhole” through which Apophis must pass if it is to be counted on to actually collide with the earth.  If it passes on either side of the keyhole, it will miss us when it comes by again 7 years later, which is the time when it will hit about 5 miles off the coast of Malibu in the Pacific Ocean.  Or not.  If it does hit, it will create a hole in the ocean about 3 miles deep and 3 miles wide which will cause one hell of a tsunami.  Acutally, it will cause about 40 or 50 tsunamis as the water goes out and back in this gigantic hole.  The first wave will come about 1/4 mile on shore and take everything with it back into the ocean, mix it up really good and then slam it back again, this time with a mixture of what it took up the first time.  Essentially, it will scour whatever was left right off the coast.  Like a giant Magic Eraser.  Estimates are that there will be about 40 or 50 of these sandpaper waves over about an hour’s time.

I’m beginning to re-think my plan to live to be 120.

Lest you despair, we are informed and believe that there are scientists working at this very minute on ways to avoid this catastrophe.  You might think the most obvious way to avoid this particular disaster would be to blow up the asteroid before it reaches Earth.  And, this was a scenario discussed by Mr. White.  He opined that Americans are really into blowing things up but not so much into considering where the various and certainly numerous large pieces might go……certainly causing disasters of their own.  The most likely way to avoid this cosmic trouble is to send a spacecraft up to meet and greet Apophis and sort of nudge it away by using subtle firing of little rockets.  Elegant, yes?

Here’s a link if you didn’t pee your pants already…..NASA.  Well, I think my work here is done.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS………

The painting is finally finished.  The shutters are installed.  The little chandelier is hung.  The furniture (for the most part) is moved back in.  As it turns out, I should have spent more time actually PLANNING what to do with this room.  When we first moved the computer back here, we didn’t have wireless and so we were consigned to the corner where the phone line came in.  That was a few years ago and we’ve moved (somewhat) into the 21st century, acquired an Apple and wireless, and can have the computer anywhere in the house we want!  Except I bought this corner computer armoire and, well, this is the only corner in the room where it will fit without sticking out over the window.  So.  As it turns out, if you actually want to OPEN the shutters so as to open the window or gasp! dust them, you can’t have a bed in front of them.  At least not this bed.  I thought I might move the desk to the opposite wall but that was just a really bad idea and moved it back.  Because of the best invention EVER, I was able to do this all by myself.  The invention is a little white disk that looks like a small frisbee on one side, except it’s convex, and on the other side there’s a very dense kind of foam.  You put the slick side down and the furniture corner on the foam side – use as many disks as corners – and you can move the heaviest piece of furniture ANYWHERE YOU WANT!  I’d tell you the name of this wonder but the paper came out of the package.  They look like this.

So, the room is not quite what I thought it would be, but pretty OK.  I know that there is a little bedroom chair under the ironing pile (although I haven’t seen it in years and years), so I’m thinking that it will have to be unearthed and recovered for the corner of the room across from the bed.  

I needed a 24″ x 24″ pillow insert.  I looked online and found one for about $5.  Except the shipping was $17.95.  For a pillow.  I don’t even know what to think about that.  I went to a fabric store and found one for $22 – about the same and in my hand.  At the check out, the woman asked me with not a little trepidation in her voice, “Um…are you over 55?”  Well, I guess that’s what you get for having your hair bleached a mixture of White Lady and Ivory Lady the day before and cropped short.  ”Well, yes, yes, I am.  Why?”  She smiled and said, “Well, you get a 10% discount and I just thought, you know, you might like that.”  Sure. Getting a 10% discount on a $22 item makes being 60 perfectly OK.  Not.  

Once home, I realized I need more pillows but, of course, Pottery Barn has discontinued the design I bought only last year.  The only piece of the line still available is the rug.  Pooh.  Now I have to find other pillows and that means actual shopping with a piece of fabric and I don’t have time for that.

Just before I was at the fabric store, I was at Home Depot trying to find tiny little staples to put the security system wire right down on the baseboard again.  I didn’t have any luck, but did buy a rug pad and a tack hammer for when I do find the tiny little staples.  I should have saved them when I ripped the wire loose so the guy could re-texture the closet and room.  Who knew?  The big old guys at HD said to try Radio Shack because they are used by telephone guys and they have telephone stuff there.  Sure.  I’ll go right over.

Before HD, I was at Target buying one of those long storage boxes to store some prom dresses A wants to keep.  Also, a new ironing board cover, small trash can to fit inside the computer armoire and a lint roller replacement.  But, of course, the one box I picked up had no bar code sticker.  Long line behind me.  I go to get one while the clerk takes other customers and get seriously dirty looks when I come back and just go to the head of the line.  Shut up.  I was here first.  Awhile ago.  

So, here we are with an almost finished room.  And an adorable little table that no longer works in it.  And that now needs a chair.  And tiny little staples.

Here’s a kind of chronicle of the room:

You can see the refinished floor, the new baseboard and the new texturing on the wall.  Lovely, yes?  I do love the floor, tho, and it was worth the cost.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, shutters…………..

Here, crown molding, the bottom of the cute chandelier that you can’t photograph because the lights glare – I’ll try again. The curtains are the closet doors.  See, builders don’t make closet doors this tall now – they all use those bi-fold shuttered things and I wanted to replace the old sliding doors with those but the don’t make them as tall as I needed.  Although David says they could probably be special ordered………but this is much less expensive.  Not that the drapes were inexpensive, but less than special order closet doors.  So, fine.  Here’s the computer armoir and it’s in the corner where it just has to be.

 

And, here’s the bed………..that totally needs more pillows.  And the rug that’s part of the series that Pottery Barn called Amalie. And, apparently, decided to ditch after less than a year.  And, no there aren’t any available on EBay.  I looked.  

Now, I’m left to find some coordinating fabric for the chair that’s buried and recover it – cute little bedroom chair with no arms, etc.  Should be easy (OMG, did I just say that?).  And pillows.  Well, now for the walls (I have a wonderful plan – you’ll see) and, oh, those tiny little staples!

SURVEY SAYS……….

There is an article in the Chronicle today about a survey conducted of long-term marriages. One sentence caught my attention, “Couples that can’t soothe each other don’t do well over the long run…”

My parents were married over 50 years before my dad died. I can’t say that I ever saw my dad in need of any soothing, but he spent a literal lifetime soothing my mom. And he did a great job. Since he’s been gone, she’s managed much better than I ever thought she would. In fact, I thought that I would most likely be an orphan before the first anniversary of my dad’s death. But it’s been almost 6 years now, and my mom has navigated some pretty rough waters on her own. She’s had both knees replaced, has mild heart failure and developed COPD that necessitates 24 hr oxygen and leaves her without much strength. She’s fallen several times, and the last one in May tore her rotator cuff, pulled tendons loose and tore her bicep, although it took until just last week to get an accurate diagnosis. That’s a subject for a rant someday – if you are 83, you are invisible and some doctors hope you’ll just die before they have to actually stir themselves to do anything.

When choosing a mate, I don’t think anyone consciously considers whether their candidate is able to soothe them. Maybe you feel safe or content with that person but it takes hard times to reveal the true nature of your partner. It’s pretty easy to get along when things are going well. Eleanor Roosevelt said something about women being like tea bags – you find out how strong they are when they are in hot water. Same goes for men. And, I think it’s no accident that the words, “each other,” are included in the above statement. Has to work both ways.

I am pretty adept at working myself into something of a frenzy. Husband has a magic wand in that department for me – he makes it all better. Although, sometimes he has to hit me square in the head with it. And, to be fair, I do the same for him. Maybe that’s why we are still crazy (about each other) after 27.5 years. That, and Husband makes me laugh out loud at least once a day.

NEW YEAR’S JAM

In September?  I’m not sure why Christine Ferber calls it this, but maybe it’s the cinnamon and orange that reminds her of the winter holidays.  At any rate, this one calls for fresh figs, dried figs, orange and lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and star anise (which I could not find at Whole Foods and wasn’t willing to search out an Asian grocery store).  I’m not a fan of dried figs – they taste musty and, well, old.  But, I wanted to try another fig jam recipe at least once and the Fig with Vanilla seemed too sweet.  So.  It takes a long damn time to cut 1 lb 2 oz of dried figs into little “sticks.”  And, they are sticky.  And have a distinct alcohol fragrance.  Ingredients:

That mysterious black glob in the right top corner of the photos is a little over a pound of dried figs.  The cardamom is in the little round container in the forefront.  I’ll give a little plug here to Spice Hound.  They come to the various farmer’s markets around and have speciality salts, as well as a wide variety of spices.  You can taste and the people who are in the booth are very knowledgeable about their product.  Plus, I love the little tins!

The figs were quite ripe and slicing them was a visual feast in itself………

 

The flash washes out some of the color.  Food photography is an art and since we eat with our eyes first, an important part of the food experience.  If I weren’t so lazy and hate to be in a large crowd, I would love to have spent the weekend in the City at the various Slow Food venues.  And, I needed to get the crown molding and get it painted – which I did.  And painted the windowsill. 

But I digress…….this recipe looks just like the other fig jam in the cooking……

 

Again, the color in person is deeper.  In the second cooking today, the spices and lemon and orange zest made a big difference in the taste.  The figs are brightened up by the orange and lemon, but particularly the orange.  The spices are scant amounts and are hints of flavor.  I quite like it – it’s a lighter version of the one I’ve been making for several years. That one is heavier in the spice department with cinnamon and allspice.  As this batch is missing the star anise, I wonder how it would have changed the flavor.  I’m not a big fan of anise but also not so curious as to find the stuff and make another batch to see!  

 

I now have an inventory of 34 jars, 3 of which are green apple jelly for use in the winter with the winter section (the book is divided by seasons) when the fruit doesn’t have enough natural pectin.  There is a recipe for Christmas Jam that has 20 ingredients.  There is a picture, too, and it’s stunning but I’m not independently wealthy and have no source for quince.  I am looking forward to the orange recipes and there’s one called Praline Milk Jam that is made with milk, hazelnut powder and almonds that sounds like something only the angels get to eat! There’s also mango and orange jelly with pinot noir and spices.  I am definitely going to make that one!  Now, what do you think about pumpkin with wine and spices?  I think yes.  I just hate that part about splitting the pumpkin in half and cutting into 8 wedges and cutting the flesh into a small dice. Ugh.  Still, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg and gewurztraminer with pumpkin – sounds like pumpkin pie in a jar.  In the words of the Barefoot Contessa, “How bad could that be?”

SUNDAY DINNER AGAIN

Husband was channel surfing on Saturday and I asked him to stop on a cooking show………surprise!  Some guy was being magically transported from NYC to Spain and back while interviewing and cooking on both sides of the Atlantic.  I want that job!  In Spain, he was watching a woman make an empanada, making the dough, prepping the veggies and finishing up.  In NYC, he made a simplified version using purchased puff pastry.  Lots of sliced onions, garlic, red and green peppers and finally tomatoes all caramelized to a beautiful color.  I jotted down the ingredients and after a stop at the Los Gatos farmer’s market yesterday, I stopped by Whole Paycheck and paid more than $10 for 2 pieces of puff pastry………..I know, but I’m dough challenged. And lazy.  At the farmer’s market I picked up a couple of baskets of figs and at WP, a pound or so of dried figs for a new attempt at jam called New Year’s Jam.  You can’t make this in the winter unless you live in the southern hemisphere so I’ll just save it!.

Here’s the story board for the empanada……

It takes a good while to cook the veggies so they are nicely gooey and brown.  The house fills with a wonderful sweet and savory fragrance and it’s hard to wait.  The Spanish guy put left over shredded chicken in his – you won’t see any in this one. Rolling out the dough is easy – it’s very elastic.  The Spanish guy said to bake it for 30 minutes or so in a 350 oven on the back side of a cookie sheet.  He also showed you a technique to roll the edge that had something to do with a finger placed just so and then flip the dough?  I thought I got it until I tried to duplicate it.  So my edge is just folded over and not nearly so artistic. 

 

You brush the bottom edge of dough with egg yolks to seal the edge so the inside doesn’t leak and then brush the top so it will brown nicely.

As it turned out, my oven needed about 40-45 minutes to really brown the empanada.  Pretty much anything tastes great wrapped in puff pastry but the cost of the prepared dough discourages me.  Vegetarians aren’t used to paying over $10 for the ingredients of a meal.  It would be a good company meal, though, with a nice salad as I think it would easily serve 4.  It’s very rich, olive oil and all the butter that goes into the pastry, and I was surprised I couldn’t finish 2 squares.  Of course, I’d made a big fruit salad earlier and had to taste every ingredient (several times) to be sure it was good enough to be included, so that may account for that.  Husband was glad to finish my portion.  Here’s the finished product……….

The thing to remember is to let it cool – it’s really quite good!

I’ll do a separate post about the New Years Jam – will finish it up today and jar it.