Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the merriment continues throughout 2009!

(this is our attempt at a family Christmas picture in front of the tree.)

From our family to yours...

Meeting Vayda Marie

I got to meet little Miss Vayda, my new five week old niece this week. She's so beautiful, tiny and precious.

Here she is with Oma.

I love them both.

Rita's Birthday

Rita's birthday was packed this year! It started with the imminent birth of niece Veyda whose delivery date was the 13th of November. While waiting for the news of her birth,
Rita and I took the road to the beach on a glorious sunny day that had more a semblance of a late-Summer than mid-Autumn. We drove across the bay bridge onto the Eastern shore where we stumbled upon a regiment of antique shops all well supplied with assorted ornaments and equipped with lines of heavy furniture built to withstand the the worse termite attack.









After much, much driving, we arrived at Bethany Beach. We parked in a dead-end street and rushed up the ramp leading to the Ocean. How did the Atlantic look like? How did it compare to the beaches in California? Eager to find out, Rita rushed onto the warm sand and took in as much sea breeze as her lungs could take in. The effect of the neptunian minerals and the volatile salts on Rita's blood made her vulnerable to my romantic advances. She finally conceded and held my hand as we walked down the sea shore. Our souls were so elated that onlookers mistook us for graceful birds.




































Our promenade lasted until twilight when we were reminded that time is short and the road home was long. We had dinner (some yummy clams) and hit the road back.
















Although that was the end of our beach day, that was no the end of Rita's birthday celebration.

The next day (Sunday, November 2nd), Rachel and I decided to make an apple pie from scratch...

I mean even picking-up-the-apples-from-the-orchard from scratch. We drove into Montgomery's county agricultural reserve and stopped at so and so farm (I am not advertising for any farm, plus I don't recall the name..ask Rita). The apples were waiting for us on the merchandise tables, so we skipped the picking up portion of the trip and went instead pumpkin shopping. I did not take pictures of that but you can check some out at Rachel's blog. We drove back home and work fervently on the apple pie which was to die for...

Do not worry! Nobody was hurt. Actually, everything went according to plan; after one hour of incubation in a 385 degree oven, the apple pie came out of hibernation and with a soft, warm breathy voice summoned Rita, Rachel and I around the table not only to celebrate Rita's birthday, but also Veyda's birth that came 10 days earlier than what the doctors expected.

Happy birthday Rita! Happy birth Veyda!

Turtle and an update

A lot of people I know have expressed a feeling of frustration with where they are in their lives right now. It's as though everyone envisioned that they would be someplace else, doing something else, more settled, more appreciated... But the more I hear it the more I think it's the time we live in and something about our ages, at least that's what I hope.

I heard this great poem today that I send out to all of you who feel like your life is a bit like a turtle's. http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/083.html

P.S. We're back online! We'll be blogging soon from our new abode with pictures and all!

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal

I know it was a while ago, but I just wanted to post some pictures from our FUN, spontaneous trip up to Montreal over Fourth of July weekend (for which we were told that we were unpatriotic at the border.)

In truth, we heard very little music, in the sitting/standing at a concert and hearing a full set, sort of way. We just had a really awesome time with great background music all most all the time.
Entering Montreal

Old friends, and new ones

Juan and Amine are so happy to see each other they can't even hold still long enough for me to take a picture!

Tourist Attractions, they must be good if they attract people!

A nice hike with Caramelo up Mount Royal

l’Oratoire Saint-Joseph

Parc Olympique


Check back for some amazing shots of the delicious food we ate, your mouth will water.

Too Much Sarah Palin

I was debating all the way home about what to title this post:

1. Sarah Palin, dreams, poems, bumper stickers and bus conversations (too long), or

2. Sarah Palin, get out of my dreams and into my... (didn't quite work)

Anyway, I about fell over laughing today when I read Kim's blog with her Sarah Palin poems. Then I was really shocked that she had dreamt about Palin too. Pretty funny.

I dreamt that I was riding a motorcycle up a dessert mountain to a small town where we were going to a party and offered her a ride. But, I only told her when I got to the top that I hadn't ever ridden a motorcycle before and she asked if I was trying to kill her. In my dream she did strike me as being pretty friendly too.

Then it all made sense. Just as I sat down to write this I came across this article about a new study showing the affects of smell on dreams. It must be their new campaign tactic; I mean I never dreamt about Obama while listening to either of his books even though he was reading them himself.


My friend Molly made this great bumper sticker! The statement comes from an interview with someone from Sojourners.


And... here's what I overheard on the bus today. "Tina Fey does a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin does."

Road Trip: Destination City...sort of

the end

Road Trip - Day 5: Bye, Bye Chicago

It's been a year since we took this trip! I can't believe it. And, it was our inspiration for setting up with blog. Well, you all know how successful we've been at that...

Anyway, here are some pictures from our fifth day on the road.


The kitties (Bollito and Cookie) were champs. The trip started out a little rough for them, but by this point they were no longer peeing in their cages and were checking out each hotel room when we stopped for the night.

Caramelo road up front with us. He's a great travelor.

Here's Juan, and the plants. Some of them ended up better than others. Let's not talk about the kumquat.

Leaving Chicago.
Into Indiana.

We saw A LOT of corn on our trip.

Oops, just missed the Pennsylvania sign.

Our last night in a hotel, someplace in PA. (I can't remember where, it's been a year).

Test Kitchen - Day 1

Just the other day I was telling Juan that if I ever became a baker I would want to work in a test kitchen rather than a bakery. This is pretty funny of course because I don't have serious plans to become a professional baker but a girl can dream, right? But today, I decided to try my hand at turning my humble kitchen (I should take a picture of it sometime) into a test kitchen. Maybe someday I'll also have a warehouse like this one.

This all started a few months ago when Christy posted a blog about some cookies that she ordered on etsy. I have to admit that even though I only saw a picture of the cookies I have been obsessing over them ever since. They were berry filled shortbread cookies. I love shortbread cookies, but to add berries to them just seemed divine. On top of that they looked like scoops of ice cream. Remembering these cookies last week I decided to do a search online for a recipe and only came up with shortbread cookies that had jam in the center, not a bad cookie, but not what I was looking for. Then I found that the etsy shop had closed!

Who should I turn to? King Arthur. First off, they wrote my all time favorite cookbook, Whole Grain Baking. And, have you seen their blog? It's beautiful, really. They have wonderful recipes, great stories and beautiful pictures showing each step. (OK, the truth is, if I ever become a professional baker I want to work in the King Arthur test kitchen. )

So, I thought I'd ask them what I should try and they answered me in less then a day!

So, here's what I came up with with the help of the baking gods:

Start with the Scottish Shortbread recipe on page 332 in King Arthur Whole Grain Baking

Cut down the amount of butter by half, in this case 1/2 c. Cream the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla.

Then, add 1/2 c of pureed strawberries. Cream together.

Procede with the rest of the recipe as directed (my picture for this step didn't come out).

The recipe says to bake them in the bottom of a cake pan and then cut into 12ths. I decided to do this with half and the second half I decided to try in little balls, like I remembered.

I have to say, both came out really good. Next time I may try replacing more of the butter with berries and I definitely will try this with raspberries and maybe even blueberries.

A special thanks to MaryJane @ The Baker’s Hotline for answering my question!

Next mission, to find the recipe for Superior's pink cookies, because they really are superior.

cut

Yes, I cut my hair!

Before - you've seen it.

During

After

So much lighter.