Holidays 2019 – Amaryllis, Truffles, and Microgreens

Less than a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holiday season was over in a flash. Still in the moving mode, we didn’t decorate for the holidays and didn’t even enjoy our usual month of Christmas music. No Tree. No Music (very little, that is). No Wonder we never got into the spirit of Christmas this past year. In spite of that, we did have several memorable experiences. For starters, Maria spent the equivalent of a month with us beginning in November through the first of the year. Ruben spent that same time period working shipyard on the fishing boat he and Maria work on during the year with the balance of the time spent in Mexico on a hunting trip and later at a family reunion. Maria and I spent our time working on quilting projects at the cabin. A few of the projects were started years ago (commonly known as UFOs to quilters) and all but forgotten. I quilted one of Maria’s tops she had absolutely no recollection of making. It now hangs on a wall in her bedroom to enjoy every morning (half of the year, anyway) when she wakes up. We did get sidetracked on a new project called a Leaf Topper. It’s so cute and so much fun to make that we set aside the UFOs and made a couple of dozen of the toppers. What fun!

We started a new holiday tradition this year. For years I’ve admired our friend’s Amaryllis (a large flowering bulb that is dormant throughout the year until it blooms in the fall to late winter). Cece buys the bulb each year from the local nursery or as she did this past year, Walmart, and starts it so that it flowers over the holidays. We visited her mid-November and hers was close to blooming. Our first stop after leaving Cece was to buy three Amaryllis bulbs at Walmart, one for us and each of the girls. For over a month the girls and I shared not just our daily cat stories, but also the wonderment of our Amaryllis bulbs. Once the bulb was watered and started growing, it literally grew an inch a day. Jana’s hearty plant, pictured below, was the first to flower. It grew so fast and became so top-heavy that before it’s second flower could fully open it tipped over and broke. Sad. Ours bloomed shortly before Christmas providing us with a beautiful centerpiece for much of December and Lauren’s, stunted from a mishap on our Thanksgiving trip to visit her, is just now blooming. It didn’t grow leaves but put all its energy into a single flower.

Jandy's Amaryllis

We spent Christmas Eve Eve entertaining special guests, our young friend Ted and his wife. Yes, wife! We have known Ted for about twenty years now. I first met him when he gave Jana a ride home from school when the battery died in her car. I was fixing dinner when they arrived and invited him to eat with us. I remember two things about 18 year old Ted…he was not bashful and he had a hearty appetite. Shortly after that Ted started working for us doing all sorts of odd jobs and he continued to work for us until he graduated from college and found less taxing employment. Unfortunately, that was in SoCal and our time together became limited. We still enjoy the occasional visit when Ted returns to Amador County to see family and I’ve stayed in touch with him on Instagram for several years now. I began to see the occasional picture of Flor a few years ago with more and more photos of Ted’s beautiful friend and soulmate posted this past summer. So, it was not a surprise when Ted announced last Fall their plans to marry. It was a delight to spend an evening with Ted and get to know Flor.

Ted and Flor with their dogs, Piper and Olive

The following evening, Christmas Eve, was spent in Sacramento with Lauren, who had arrived the previous weekend, Maria who was departing for Seattle and then Mexico the following morning, and Jana and Andy (Jandy), who arrived that evening and met us for dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, our long favorite restaurant in town. Not only is the food and service outstanding (our server went above and beyond and taught us how to fold napkins Ruth’s Chris style), but the building was designed with consideration to acoustics. Important to those of us who are hearing impaired. It was a perfect Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Eve at Ruth's Chris

Thanks to Lauren and me, the designated drivers, we got home safely and took our turns at placing our gifts in the stockings that were already hanging by the chimney with care. A few years ago, we decided to downplay gift giving at Christmas time by requiring the gift fit in a stocking. That was about the time our more decorative-than-useful stockings were replaced with oversized stretchy hand knit ones. It’s amazing how much they hold. As usual, any empty space in the stocking is filled with mandarins, a tradition from my childhood (tangerines and nuts).

Christmas day was probably the most relaxing I’ve had since becoming an adult, when all responsibility for the special dinner fell on my shoulders. A big thank you to Jana and Andy for a wonderful meal beginning with white truffles (known as the diamond of the kitchen) shaved and served on a delicious toasted whole grain bread they brought from the Grand Central Market and soft cooked eggs. It was my first experience with truffles and one I won’t forget. Two days before their trip North, Jandy attended Truffle Day in Los Angeles to buy the fresh wild truffles, harvested in Northwestern Italy and overnight flown to LA for the event. Interestingly, truffles grow underground near specific trees and are harvested between September and December with the help of female pigs, or more recently truffle dogs, to identify their location. About the size of a walnut, irregular shaped and warty, they are one of the most prized and expensive food in the world. It was an amazing Christmas experience. These incredible appetizers were followed with homemade fresh pasta topped with a delicious sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes. I’d heard a lot about San Marzano tomatoes having taken cooking classes at Home Chef twenty years ago as well as several online cooking classes from great chefs like Thomas Keller. I’ve never found them locally, so we’ve stuck to the next best thing, Roma’s from Davis Ranch that are tossed with balsamic vinegar and roasted until caramelized. Not bad. I understand now why Jandy’s go-to dinner when entertaining is homemade pasta with this delicious red sauce. It is impressive and delicious. It was so good we had it again on the following day. Kudos to our two young home chefs.

Andy processing the balls of pasta dough
using the KitchenAid spaghetti attachment

Lauren making a childhood favorite dessert

I met the challenge of gifts that must fit in a Christmas stocking with a genius idea. To test just how “genius” it was to be, I ordered it for myself back in October. A microgreen kit. I’ve been so anxious to write about it, but of course I couldn’t without spoiling the girls’ surprise. I often say I hate cookies…not the edible kind, but the kind on the computer that accumulate data about a person’s likes and dislikes based on search history. It really is an invasion of privacy, but every now and then it yields very good results. Both girls have a bit of my green thumb and enjoy plants. What can be better than the edible kind of plant? I must have previously searched on things like edible gardening, hydroponics, and the like, because one day in October up popped a website called Hamama, offering their indoor microgreen system using “seed quilts” (patent pending) and water. It’s a grow your own nutritious (several times more than the fully adult version of the veggie) microgreens on a window ledge. Possibly a perfect gift for the girls. To be sure, I had to test it. I ordered one, planted my seed quilt the day it arrived, and ten days later we were eating zesty mixed microgreens. It was definitely a winner. The perfect gift that keeps on giving throughout the year. It’s mid-January as I’m writing this and I can assure you both girls are growing and eating their microgreens. I ask daily...Have you had your microgreens today? And Verne and I are still growing and eating ours. A healthy and satisfying start to a new year.

Speaking of a new year, we drove Lauren home after Christmas and spent over a week with her acclimating to Oregon. It’s taken a while, but the last few days of our visit Verne was actually successful navigating the Beaverton area without relying on our Nav system. It’s been a challenge as the streets all go at odd angles and they change names regularly. In a matter of a few miles, one of the streets near Lauren’s home changed names three times. Yikes! Anyway, by the time we were ready to drive home (to Volcano), we were beginning to feel like we were already home (in Portland). That’s a good sign as we are determined to make the move in 2020.

Lunch at Andre's...the Best sandwich made with the
Best Dutch Crunch rolls with a side of the Best potato salad ever

Hiding the unsightly media cords

Big job, small hands required

Ruben and Verne wearing matching sweaters from Norway

Verne (still wearing his most favorite sweater)
sitting in Starbucks entertaining himself with his iPad
(I like how our reflections are superimposed over him...
ALWAYS WATCHING!

A November to Remember

OMSI Exquisite Creatures Exhibit

November was a month filled with all the things I love: quilting (mostly sewing…there is a difference), cooking, and a trip to Portland. It’s been over a year since I’ve spent serious time in the cabin (aka the Studio) and it’s been much longer than that since I’ve shared that space with Maria or anyone else for that matter. A sharp contrast to the days when we had our quarterly Stix retreats there and I would spend countless hours beforehand preparing for them. Sadly, the cabin has come to feel abandoned, as well as all the projects left half-finished. Having two weeks of uninterrupted time with Maria to work on various UFOs (a quilter’s term for unfinished projects) was inspiring. It brought back so many fond memories. When we weren’t in the Studio, we were in the kitchen canning cranberry sauce, making holiday breads, and testing Thanksgiving recipes.  It was a fun couple of weeks and I'm feeling renewed and motivated! 

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Portland. Our stay was longer than normal due in part to snowy, icy weather conditions that closed the I-5 for a couple of days and kept us from leaving on our usual Monday following a visit. All was good though as it gave us more time to acclimate to Lauren’s new home and the Beaverton area, in general. In fact, we used that Monday when she returned to work to meet her around lunch time and tour the Nike World Headquarters Campus. We’ve talked about it since she joined Nike about four years ago, but never fit it into our schedule. It was quite the experience and one we’ll do again on some future visit. “Campus” is a fitting description of the over 75 buildings on almost 300 acres. Our tour with Lauren was limited to about an hour walk around Lake Nike (manmade), a walk through Prefontaine Hall (home to the famous waffle iron used to create the sole of the first Nike Waffle Trainer) and the Volkswagon van used to sell some of the early Nike tennies, and a visit to the Nike N7 building that includes displays of shoes created in partnership with Pendleton using Native American designs and Pendleton woolens. Pendleton Woolen Mills have always held a special interest to me due in part to the influence of my first 16 years growing up in Arizona and secondly, my interest in textiles. Years ago we visited the original mill in Pendleton, Oregon (opened in 1895) as part of our family vacation. More recently we toured the mill in Washougal, Washington. Verne has carried a Pendleton man bag since before manbags became cool and I have several Pendleton blankets I’ve collected over the past 25 years. Growing up with so much Pendleton has apparently inspired the girls to start their own collections. Pendleton is functional art at its best.

Early days for Nike

I’ve digressed from our visit to the Nike Campus, but all this talk about Pendleton brings to mind a funny story from our recent trip. It begins years ago when Verne and I first started our lives together. It was during the early ‘80s when personal color charts were the rage. I’d had mine done and found what I intuitively knew to be true…I was not a Spring or Summer, but a Winter. I’d grown up often wearing hand-me-downs from my older sister who has very different coloring than me. With her brown hair and blue eyes she always looked great in Spring/Summer colors. On the other hand, I had black hair, green eyes, and very pale skin and looked best in blacks, whites, and primary colors. Verne came to me with a wardrobe of beiges, browns, and other disgusting colors. To make what could be a very long story short, he had his color chart done and was found to also be a Winter. That made it easy for me to shop for him and even easier to donate just about everything in his wardrobe. However, there was one piece of clothing he refused to retire…a Pendleton sweater that he still owns and wears today. It’s no ordinary sweater, though as it happens to be the very collectible sweater that Jeff Bridges wore when he portrayed “the Dude” in The Big Lebowski, one of Verne’s all-time favorite movies. And, of course, one of the girls’ favorites. On Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) we went to one of our favorite Portland restaurants, Thai Peacock, for the girls’ birthdays. Jana and Andy were late because of a “quick” stop by the Pendleton store in downtown Portland. She arrived wearing the Dude sweater! Because of its popularity, Pendleton has remade the sweater and now offers a female version identical to the 1980s sweater that Verne owns. It was too funny for words…so unexpected and such a contrast from her normal upscale, dressy attire!

 

Jana in her Dude sweater

It only took one Black Friday experience a few years ago to be reminded of how much I dislike the commercialism of the season. Black Friday shopping is one ritual I cannot embrace. I love a bargain, but I’m not willing to join the frenzied crowds at the malls on the busiest shopping day of the year just to save a buck. That said, a little Amazon shopping is always a good thing. No lines and no strangers in my personal space. Or, a little tea tasting/shopping at Stash Tea is good. A few more shoppers than normal, but rather than feeling crowded, it’s more like hanging with kindred spirits. Speaking of tea, we spent Friday afternoon touring the Smith Teamaker manufacturing facility and headquarters. We were first introduced to Smith Tea a few years back when it was served at Thai Peacock. I’m not sure whether it was the Smith tea or the fact that it was properly brewed (since then we’ve learned how to properly brew tea), but Jana and I flipped over it. We shared a pot and couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the evening. Not long after that Lauren decided she needed to find “an adult drink”…she didn’t like coffee, tea, or alcohol. Of the three, tea seemed to be the best choice so we went to the Smith tasting room and shared a flight of different teas. She settled on a Jasmine Pearl and has expanded from there. Since that first tea tasting experience she has read a half dozen books on tea, done numerous tea tastings, and has become the family expert on the subject. Steven Smith, who started Smith Teamaker, started out as the owner/teamaker at Tazo Tea (later acquired by Starbucks) and Stash Tea (sold when he retired). He came out of retirement to start Smith Teamaker, which focuses on high-end teas with an emphasis on black teas from the Darjeeling area. They are by far the most excellent teas we drink. A trip to Portland is never complete without a tea tasting at Smith and it’s even more special now that we’ve toured the entire facility and learned more about the company's operations and philosophy.

Our first visit to Smith Teamaker in 2016

Lauren has been a volunteer giving submarine tours at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) for five years now. We love the museum and have attended just about every special exhibit they’ve had over the past five years she’s volunteered. With one exception, they’ve all been outstanding with this most recent exhibit topping the list. It is called Exquisite Creatures and is a stunning exhibit of art using nature (animals, minerals, and plants). All of the art in the exhibit is three dimensional and presented in glass shadow boxes ranging from very small (under 6 inches) to large multi-paneled installations covering an entire wall. Most of the smaller organisms are presented in a geometric composition resembling a mosaic, with many using tiles so small they are difficult to identify without a magnifying glass. At first glance, they look like shimmering beads slightly larger than the head of a pin, rather than tiny, iridescent colored beetles or other insects. My least favorite were the compositions using snakes, although according to the artist, they are “less threatening when focusing on their physical design elements.” Maybe I didn’t focus hard enough. 

OMSI Exquisite Creatures Exhibit

Family at OMSI special exhibit

We enjoyed another intersection of art and science on Saturday when we visited the Beckham Estate Vineyard in the Willamette Valley. Little did we know when we set out to wine taste on Black Friday that several of the wineries in that area were holding an open house, one of them being Beckham where Jandy had a particular interest as wine club members. The vineyard is located in the Chehalem Mountains, an area known for its Pinot Noir. What makes the Beckham Estate Vineyard unique is that Andrew Beckham is a potter as well as a winemaker. Andrew bought the property about 15 years ago to build a pottery studio. He encouraged his wife to grow grapes and they now have 14 acres planted to varietals of Pinot Noir. At some point he began making huge (100- to 220-gallon) vessels, called amphorae, in which he ferments and ages his wine. If you know anything about wine making, you know the majority of wine is aged in French oak barrels. Using clay pots is uncommon in wine making, although it dates back centuries and has several advantages, including wines that are finished in about half the time and with greater clarity than wines aged in oak barrels. After touring his winery and tasting his wines, Andrew invited us to see his pottery studio. Being an old potter myself (I took a ceramics class in college and watched the movie Ghost several times, each time imagining I was Demi Moore), I was particularly interested in seeing his studio. His pottery wheel is a standard size, although he throws pots that weigh as much as 650 pounds. Once they are shaped, he adds a beautiful decorative design along with a signature and number. The pot is then moved using an overhead crane to a shelving unit where it dries until it’s ready to be fired in an oversized kiln. Meeting Andrew Beckham and touring his winery and studio was an experience to be remembered! The wine was good, too.

Wine aging in clay amphorae

Clay vessel on potter's wheel ready to move to drying racks

A few more pics...

The Cat Lady with her Cat, Chole

Lauren learning to use her Mini-InstantPot

A loving grandmother, Gloria and Josh

The perfect birthday gift that wasn't to be 

Hugs

Evening view from OMSI, submarine and Marquam Bridge

Sibling affection

OMSI Equisite Creatures Exhibit - Butterflies

OMSI Equisite Creatures Exhibit - Butterflies and Beatles (look closely)

OMSI Equisite Creatures Exhibit - Beatles

Feliz Navidad!

Babysitting Izzy while Jana and Andy spent Christmas in Peru

It’s mid-January and I’m already neglecting my New Year’s Resolutions – one of them being more frequent journal updates (blog posts). Typically, I’ve got lots to say the first of January and several photos to share. This past Christmas was not typical, though. We’d celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving followed by our trip to Oaxaca. Christmas was just the two of us and Lauren made it three. It was our first in over thirty years that both girls were not with us, as Jana and Andy spent the holiday in Peru.

Jandy at Machu Picchu

Change is good, I guess. It was a little sad to wake up Christmas morning and not hear the girls giggling in bed together downstairs. And then there were the empty stockings hung by the chimney with care…actually, they weren’t completely empty as each had a box of Dark Chocolate Peppermint Covered Joe-Joes. Lauren discovered these little delights this year and I can assure you, they will now be a regular Christmas treat. If you are interested, they are sold at Trader Joes and apparently are only available for a few weeks each December and once stocked they don’t last through the weekend, we’re told.

Lauren and I came home from Mexico inspired to cook and try our hand at a few of the recipes we’d learned to make during our recent trip. She was home for ten days, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to experiment. We decided on a menu for Christmas dinner that included a tortilla soup, tamales with mole sauce, beef enchiladas with a chipotle sauce, Mexican rice, and flan for dessert. Leading up to our two days of cooking, we gathered my Mexican cookbooks, including two by Rick Bayless and another by Diana Kennedy, both authorities on regional Mexican cuisine, and scoured them for recipes and general techniques and tips. With exception of a few ingredients, we had or at least were familiar with everything required to make our meal. A few things new to our kitchen included:

·      Lard – if you are not familiar with lard, it’s pig fat. There’s a wealth of information on the internet about the good and bad of it. According to one article, lard “is back in the larder”. In other words, it’s making a comeback. I’ve made tamales before and always substituted shortening. My bad! From now on its pig fat for me! The masa in our tamales was more flavorful and fluffier than any we’ve made in the past.

·      Epazote – this essential Mexican cooking herb is not widely grown or available in the U.S. Obviously, I couldn’t find it in our local market and would probably have to drive an hour to find a Mexican market that carries it. The name was familiar to me and after searching my well-stocked drawer of Penzey’s spices, I pulled out a small jar of dried epazote! Our cookbooks warned against substituting dried for the fresh herb, but we were desperate and took our chances.

·      Banana leaves – we used fresh banana leaves for the tamales in our class. In the past I’ve always used cornhusks and have fond memories of sitting around the dining room table with the girls making tamales and then cornhusk dolls with the leftover husks. What fun! Lauren and I agreed we prefer tamales made with cornhusks as the banana leaves impart a sweet flavor. However, for future reference I did discover they are available frozen at most markets.

·      White corn tortillas – I generally purchase white or yellow corn tortillas, whichever is fresher. However, after reading Diana’s description of “those dirty-yellow, bitter-smelling ones” (she’s referred to the yellow corn tortillas), I’ll be sticking to the white corn tortillas in the future.

·      Chile peppers – I’ve always liked both fresh and dried chile peppers of all kinds. When Verne and I started making and canning our own salsas, we found an excellent recipe that uses two different kinds of dried chiles and Verne learned a dry-heat method of rehydrating peppers. His approach has been refined a bit since taking our class and then reading our Mexican cookbooks and we now very quickly heat them in a small amount of oil until the color changes and then let them cool to use as a garnish or they go from the saute pan to a bowl of water until they are rehydrated and then pureed to be used in soups or sauces. Easy peasy and so delicious.

·      Mole – this traditional Mexican sauce is not particularly difficult to make, but it does take a bit of time and patience. It involves toasting, browning, blending, straining, searing and simmering the twenty plus ingredients, which include dried chiles, raisins and chocolate. A concentrated mole paste can be purchased at some Mexican markets. I’ve seen it sold at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles next to where Jana and Andy live. However, making a delicious mole is very satisfying and something we’ll do again as we work our way through all seven Oaxacan moles. It doesn't end there as each of the seven regions of Mexico have their own versions of mole.

Lauren making mole

To begin our Christmas Mexican feasting, we spent Christmas Eve in Ione with Maria, Ruben and Ruben's son, Edward. Ruben made one of his favorite soups he enjoyed eating as a child. Akin to my own Vegetable or Hamburger Soup (the name changes based on whether you're talking to my boys or my girls), this was a hearty vegetable soup with whole veggies and pork slow cooked in broth. Through our Oaxacan cooking class and our reading we had learned that many Mexican dishes are served somewhat deconstructed to the table and eaters are then encouraged to add optional ingredients table-side. Ruben served his soup in this fashion, providing us each with a simple bowl of soup and then a wide array of garnishes including serrano chiles, green salsa, a simple Mexican rice, a fresh squeeze of lime, and tortillas for dipping. By the time we finished fully garnishing our soups, we had each created an incredibly filling and delicious dish unique to each person. And this is to say nothing of the chips, salsa and guacamole Ruben made as a starter snack! I completed the nights meal with an apple crisp dessert served over vanilla ice cream. And by the time we left, Maria and Ruben were forced to roll us to the door. 

The following day the same group gathered for Christmas dinner in Volcano. I suspect Ruben and his son had their doubts about our (a couple of gringos donning brightly colored Oaxacan aprons) attempt to prepare a Mexican feast for Mexicans, albeit Ruben is from Northern Mexico and our menu was based on recipes from Southern Mexico. All concerns were diminished after our first course, a tortilla soup with ancho chile (and a slew of condiments including queso fresco, crumbled dried chiles, avocado, thinly sliced radishes), followed by red chile pork tamales with a classic mole sauce. If there was any concern on the part of our guests, it related more towards the small portions than the quality and authenticity of our meal. And we ended the meal with a final course of chipotle enchiladas and Mexican rice. Maria made our delicious dessert, chocolate flan cake. It was one of those mystery desserts that starts out with the flan on the bottom and ends up on top after it’s baked. Very pretty and very tasty. This was a perfect meal and one that left everyone comfortably satisfied, while wanting more, as well as wanting the recipes. Our success has further inspired us to read more, learn more, and cook more Mexican food. Our latest book is “The Food and Life of Oaxaca” by Zarela Martinez. 

Annual trip to Apple Hill

Belated SoCal holiday dinner with family (Lara, Rick, Logan, Matthew)

Logan and Rick checking out the view from Jandy's new home

Dinner at Maccheroni Republic (Jandy and Raelin)