Christmas in Volcano

We drove home from our family get together in SoCal to continue our holiday celebration in Volcano. There’s nothing like being at home for Christmas (or anytime for that matter). Familiar decorations (my favorite glass nativity scene, our oversized knit stockings hung by the chimney with care, and our pole-pine tree covered with ornaments), the familiar sound of quiet (our enjoyment of this aspect of home was heightened by our having just returned from Los Angeles), the familiar smell of a fire in our wood stove, the familiar tastes of our own home-cooked food, and sleeping in our own bed. There was a time early in our lives together when we were constantly in transit and moving from house to house every few years (Buena Park, Santa Ana, Anaheim Hills, Campbell, Sutter Creek and finally to Volcano, first to our one-room cabin and then, finally, our house). We have lived in Volcano for twenty years now and no place has ever felt more like home than living in this beautiful cedar house nestled amongst the pines and cedars in the foothills of the Sierras. My appreciation of our lifestyle is always rekindled after a vacation or road trip, in particular, one to SoCal. This is not meant to be negative, so I’ll just say that I appreciate SoCal’s charm, but the traffic drives me crazy!!!

Back to our family time at home these past few days...

With both girls busy lawyering (Jana in LA and Lauren in Portland), they rarely get to NorCal and when they do our time together is intensified by the short nature of their visits. So much to do and so little time! Christmas day was very typical with a lot of eating, drinking, gift-opening, story-telling, and movie-watching. Santa was good to us and Verne (I) awoke to find an Excalibur dehydrator under the tree. Let the dehydrating begin! The girls each had a few surprise gifts beneath the tree, but in recent years our focus has been on small gifts that fit in our oversized knit stockings that I mentioned above. I made the first stocking several years ago for Verne. We were on a trip to Seattle to visit Scott and wandering the streets near his work when I first saw the stocking in a window of a yarn store. I bought the $50 kit in order to get the pattern and went on to make several. It turned out the kit was not overpriced at $50 as I’ve spent that on each, but the real cost is filling one of these over-sized (20-24 inches in length) stockings each year. Our Christmas shopping is now year-round as we’re always on the lookout for stocking-stuffers.

There was a fifth stocking hung this year and it was one that Lauren made for Vera, our live-in of sorts. I never know quite what to call Vera or how to describe our relationship. We sort of adopted her back when she and Jana were friends in junior high and she currently lives with us full time. I bring this up not because she now hangs her Christmas stocking next to ours, but to share the unique gift she made for Lauren. I scoffed at her idea when she first described it (I’ve got to stop doing this…remember when she taught us to peel a mushroom? I first thought that idea was silly, but now I don’t eat a mushroom without first peeling it and I’m a YouTube sensation – check out my video when you have a chance.) She came to me and said that she wanted to make Lauren a fairy door for Christmas. Does that not sound ridiculous? Not the “fairy” part, as Lauren believes in fairies, but the “door” part of it. It didn’t take long and she had me convinced it was a genius idea. All she needed to make the project were a few parts (a doll house door, hinges, handle, and door knocker), which she ordered online, some paint, and help from the “unwilling fairy carpenter” (her reference to Verne). Verne set aside plans for his projects and helped Vera with hers. It was a big success…all I want for Christmas next year is my own fairy door! Thanks, Vera, for always being so patient with us when we mock your ideas.

Now, on to Verne’s projects...apparently Verne has missed our Christmas gift exchange (read all about it in the previous blog post), because a few days before Christmas he decided to make each of the girls a gift. Just like old times: wait until the last minute when the barn (workshop) is a frigid 40 degrees and there’s no time to recover should he make a mistake. Well, he did it (almost). One of the scroll-sawed baby dragons was finished, wrapped, and under the tree Christmas Eve. The other was not quite that far along (I’m really not sure if he’d started it) and he ended up spending several hours Christmas Day finishing it. Actually, in fairness to Verne, he did get coerced into helping Vera with her project. It’s always surprising how much time these “simple” projects take. 

We spent most of Friday in Sacramento watching the final Hobbit film at the Imax theatre in 3D (we loved the movie and had a blast taking pictures while we waited for it to start)...

...shopping, and having a second Spaghetti Factory holiday dinner. Jana had missed the SoCal dinner the previous weekend and her Christmas holiday was not going to be complete without it. We willingly made the sacrifice and had a second Spaghetti Factory dinner in less than a week. We have thoroughly celebrated the season with Good Eats and Good Times and lots of love.

A Holiday Tradition

It has been a long tradition in our family that we all (his, mine, and ours) get together during the Christmas holiday. For ten consecutive years it was a weekend event full of fun and laughter, culminating in a gift exchange…not an ordinary gift exchange, though. Each gift had to be handmade by the giver for a specific family member whose name was drawn the prior year. The crafters in the family loved the holiday gift exchange; it was just another opportunity to get creative. But, not all members of our family are keen on crafting and for them the annual gift exchange was a yearlong source of anxiety and dread. Often (always) they would wait until the last minute to make their gift taking time out to call me with their complaints (because it was my idea - and in a fit of honesty, I will admit that Verne and the girls could often be counted among that number). By the big event, however, everyone agreed that it was all worthwhile. Even Scott, the biggest of the procrastinators, said that our Christmas exchange party was worth the 364 days of agonizing over the "damn gift."

Gifts ranged from simple to extraordinary…one of my all-time-favorites was Lauren’s gift to Scott: she spent the summer learning to use a scroll saw, practicing by making Christmas ornaments. Once she’d mastered the use of the saw, she cut a map of the United States with the states individually cut out, placed it on a wood background, used a drill press to cut shallow holes the size of a quarter along the borders as well as on or near each state (depending on the state’s size), bought a set of the new state quarters and placed them in the respective holes, and then framed the entire piece. It was unbelievably beautiful. Mega kudos, Lauren, for the most extraordinary gift of the decade. Actually, that particular project just came to mind, but there were so many wonderful, creative projects: quilts and other fiber arts, paintings, woodworking and metal, scrapbooking, mosaics, and more. I think ultimately everyone enjoyed the opportunity to set aside the daily routine and craft. Sometimes we need a little push to leave our comfort zone and do something new.

Life brings change and our families are now spread across the country with Scott in Seattle, Jeff in Connecticut, Lauren in Portland, and the other three daughters in Southern California. Three of the kids have their own children making it difficult to travel and be away from their homes for the holidays. Our annual gift exchange came to an end a few years ago and now it’s just our memories and stories that keep it alive. However, we do still attempt to get together in December, typically in SoCal since half of the kids reside there. This year Jeff and his family were in town and Lauren flew down from Portland, so the group was almost complete.

This past Sunday evening we enjoyed our 2014 holiday dinner with the family at the Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton. We have been going to the Spaghetti Factory for thirty years now. It all started when I planned the first holiday party for McKenzie & Company. It was 1984 and I had a new business and a new baby, so I needed an affordable venue and one that was kid-friendly. Spaghetti Factory fit the bill and we’ve been going there ever since. The food and setting is familiar (they attempted to change the menu once in the last three decades and it was met with an uprising) and service is excellent. Over the years it has become the place of choice for most of our large-party celebrations (birthdays and the like). And, as a bonus, Portland (where we visit Lauren at least quarterly) is home of the first of the chain with the restaurant located south of downtown on the Willamette River and is by far the most beautiful of all we’ve seen, including the charming Spaghetti Factory in Victoria. Yes, they are even found in Canada, but beware: the food is shockingly different!

I won’t go into too much detail about our three-hour family event this past weekend, but to say it was perfect! It’s always so heartwarming to see our children as parents. Even as responsible adults, though, I can still see the child in each of them as they get silly and laugh together uncontrollably. Example: Jeff and his family and Lauren taking a selfie (one of about fifty)…

Here are a few more random pictures taken that night that will help memorialize the most recent of a Moser family tradition…

Thanksgiving and More

My last blog post was before Thanksgiving and here it’s almost Christmas. Where has the time gone? Actually, it’s really not a lack of time that’s kept me from writing, but lack of inspiration. For the past several months we’ve been faced with one life challenge after another...not the kind of stuff that I particularly want to write about or share with others and certainly not in keeping with the “good eats or good times” suggested by the title of this blog. But then I was recently reminded how very fortunate we are as my sister-in-law gave me an update on her 14-year old grandson with Spinal Bifida. He just underwent his 17^th surgery and undoubtedly is facing that many more in his lifetime. The story of this brave young boy and his parents certainly put our family’s “challenges” into perspective…they are just that: challenges. We will each rise to the occasion and be a stronger, better person (and family) for it. So, here are the highlights of the past month…

Thanksgiving can be summed up in a single paragraph. We stayed home this year after spending the holiday in Portland the last three years. Both girls managed to get away from work and spend Thursday and Friday with us in Volcano. Our dear friend Cece drove over from Nevada and also spent the holiday with us. Our dinner was very traditional, just the way Cece and I like it! No pear basted turkey or pear dressing or pear gravy like we had the year I had a meltdown…I don’t remember that last part, but that’s their (Verne and the girls) story and they are sticking to it. We enjoyed a good old- fashioned meal the way my mother used to make it. She wasn’t a great cook, but I do remember her Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey dinners to be worth the wait. Anyway, why shouldn’t it be all about me and what I like? Jana is a vegetarian (no turkey or meat of any kind for her), Lauren doesn’t like turkey (so we also served Honey Baked Ham), and Verne will eat one piece of turkey to humor me, but he really doesn’t enjoy it (with or without pears). Bottom line, we had a simple, but delicious meal and a relaxing and loving day together.

(Black) Friday night we celebrated the girls’ birthday. We’d discussed dinner plans for at least a month and during that time had reservations first at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, then Biba’s (both in Sacramento), then they were changed to Taste in Plymouth. A few days before our celebration we all decided to keep it close and not waste time driving to Plymouth, so we changed our reservation to the Union Hotel (five minutes from home). At the last minute, Jana decided she really wanted Pine Grove Pizza (after all, she is the oldest by two years so should have first choice – “it’s my birthday” is a constant refrain). I called to order and found they were closed for the holiday. Dang! It was back to the Union. Dinner and service were perfect. We talked and laughed and cried over stories that have been told and retold for the last 25+ years. They just keep getting better.

Last week we were again together with the girls in So Cal and we enjoyed a belated celebration of Verne’s birthday. We started the day by walking across the street from Jana's home in Culver City to Bar 9, a trendy breakfast/lunch restaurant in an old warehouse. 

Jana’s gift to her Daddy was dinner at a new Italian restaurant in Culver City, Bucato. Wow! What an experience! They make their own bread, which was absolutely delicious, and their own pasta, which was equally amazing. If I had to choose just one item from the menu to order, it would be the Fried Cauliflower ‘Sicilian style’…or maybe the Squash Blossoms with goat cheese and mint…or the Crispy Polenta with wild mushrooms topped with a sunny side egg and Parmigiano Reggiano. Okay, I can’t choose just one item and I didn’t. I had all of the above and a taste of the other entrees, which were equally delicious. We finished the meal with a persimmon sticky pudding, chocolate torte, and fried fritters, which we ordered for Lauren, but sadly had to eat because they were filled with a crème anglaise. Once again Lauren’s food allergies were at play and forced the rest of us (primarily, me) to over indulge. We definitely have a new favorite restaurant!

During the holiday we were notified that our good friend, Neil McElroy, died from cancer. He celebrated his 90^th birthday in August and probably beat most statistics for Stage 4 Melanoma, which was diagnosed about seven years ago. He had a good life and we have a decade of shared memories of him, including several years of the “Grub Club” (our dinner group with four or five other couples), his childhood stories that he so vividly remembered (and shared), his love of old Western movies (that he also shared…sometimes to excess), dinners at Pine Grove Pizza, and his willingness to always watch the critters when we traveled. That reminds me…when we would return home from a trip, we’d find an elaborate spreadsheet on the counter that listed by day the number of eggs he’d collected sorted by color and size (small to extra large). It makes me smile to think about it…only Neil would do something like that. Sweet Neil…we’ll miss you!

    

Jam Ramblings

Having come full circle from learning to properly and safely make jams and jellies this past spring to having just taught a class to new MFP trainees on the subject, this seems like a good time to reflect on my canning (and other) experiences this year.

First of all, even after my 10-week training to become a master food preserver I was unclear about pectin, the primary thickening agent in jams and jellies. There are at most four basic ingredients in jams: fruit, sugar, acid and pectin. The first three are pretty obvious, so in preparation for my first teaching experience, I concentrated my effort on the last. After hours researching the subject, I’m certainly more informed, but still far from being an expert.

I began my study with a strong bias towards Pomona Pectin, which is used by most of today’s artisan jam makers. This low-sugar pectin has been around for about 30 years and to this day the company is family-owned and operated. It’s economical by comparison to some of the other pectins on the market and is about as natural as you can get short of making your own pectin from organic apples. This brings up a good point…during my first year of jam making, I was told time and again that pectin is a natural product. It turns out that statement is only partially true. Pectin, found in fruits and some vegetables, is natural. By the time it is processed into a fine powder and sold for jams, jellies, and a wide range of other products, it’s no longer quite so “natural”. Without a doubt, it contains pesticides and many brands contain other additives, including preservatives.

After all of my reading, I have a decent understanding of the science of pectin and why it is critical to follow the recipes that come with each product. Also, I’m now clear on the difference between high-sugar and low-sugar pectins. With that understanding has come a better appreciation for the part sugar plays in jam making. Initially, I was told that sugar was necessary for its preserving qualities. This turns out to be another partially true statement. It is actually the water bath processing that preserves the jam and makes it shelf-stable, not the sugar. If it were the sugar then low- and no-sugar jams would not be shelf-stable. However, as I’ve discovered first hand, sugar does play a big role once the jam is opened. Once opened full-sugar jam lasts for years in the refrigerator. At least, that’s been my personal experience. Not so with low- or no-sugar jam…the lower the sugar content, the shorter the life once opened. I had a opened jar of jam mold in less than a month.

Another half-truth I heard more than once: the quantity of sugar required by the recipe should never be altered. It turns out that this is true when working with high methoxyl (high-sugar) pectins, which require sugar to gel. However, it is not true for their sister low methoxyl pectins. Low-sugar pectin requires calcium to gel rather than sugar allowing the jam maker to reduce the amount of sugar to a range from below 50% to zero.

Sugar preserves color. This is an absolute! The strawberry jams I made for the class were made using different pectin brands. I ended up with about eight different products I took to the class for a tasting. Up to that point, I had not opened or tasted any of the jams. I lined up the jams from the highest sugar to the no-sugar product that contained Splenda. The contrast between jams was shocking. The full-sugar product was a beautiful glossy red as compared to the red-brown (almost a mauve) color of the low-sugar jams as compared to a very artificial looking pink-red color of the Splenda jam. A couple of people in the class took one look at the jam and declared the low-sugar products unappetizing…I had to agree! As for the taste, I believe the consensus was the fruity low-sugar product, despite the color, was the best. Since returning home with eight opened jars of jam, we have been eating them each morning in a race to beat the mold. Seen individually, the low-sugar jams are a very pretty pale (with brown tinges) color and have a very fruit-forward taste. I will avoid serving them along side a full-sugar jam, but then that’s not really a problem, because I refuse to make the latter. This photo shows the amount of sugar required for a classic or full-sugar jam (7/8 of a cup).

I can’t say that I’ve reached a definitive conclusion on which brand or type of pectin is best and the one and only I’ll be using in the future. I still have a half dozen unopened boxes of Pomona, so I’m not giving up on it. I am giving up and giving away my unused boxes of full sugar pectin. Surprisingly, I’ve found a Ball product to be very equivalent to the Pomona. It’s packaged in a jar that makes 22 half-pint jars of jam, it’s slightly more economical than Pomona, may be made in small batches from 2-10 jars at a time, and offers a great website with a flexible-batch calculator and plenty of recipes. Next year my jamming will include both Ball and Pomona and I’ll choose my favorite after I’ve made another couple hundred jars of jam.

As for other things I’ve learned during my 2014 jam journey…I love jelly! I love its clear, semi-transparency. I love how it shimmers and jiggles. And, most of all I love its intense taste. Next year will include jellies of every fruit and if I get that top-of-the-line dehydrator that’s on my Christmas list, there will be fruit leathers made from the pulp from all of my jellies. My technical savvy has also been expanded this year and I’ve learned to make a slide presentation using PowerPoint and been forced to go a bit beyond the basics with Word. All good skills. I’m sure this brings a smile to my truly technical savvy readers as my skills are still remedial, but I may get through 2015 without having to call on them for help.

One last thing I’ve learned…if I’m ever to get back to quilting, I’ll need to learn to say no. My involvement as an MFP this past six months has consumed my time. That combined with the disaster we’ve experienced in the cabin (my quilting studio) this past fall has kept me out of fabric stores (that’s probably a good thing), kept me from ordering must-have quilting books (also good), and kept me from finishing about a dozen projects that were promised by yearend (not so good). This week it’s back to the studio and my studio cat, Ernie. I still have a few weeks before the year ends and maybe I’ll be able to get one of those quilts in the queue completed and have something to report in the first StixChix blog post in months.