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

Change

Home alone. That’s something I don’t experience much any more since Verne retired a few years ago. I spent a decade as a weekend-wife with Verne working weekdays in SoCal and then later in Carson City and returning home Friday nights for the weekend. It was our “normal” and a lifestyle that seemed to suit us both. I was more than a little concerned about the retirement years and spending 24/7 together, but I have to say it has been an easy adjustment. Of course, it helps having my own 750 square foot studio/retreat separate from the house and I’m sure Verne would agree that his barn/workshop has saved his sanity more than once.

Today, as I sit here alone, I’m feeling a sense of loss. After spending the last three days with us, Jana left this morning for LA. We’ve had a wonderful time together with the highlight being a trip to Napa yesterday for a picnic lunch and wine-tasting tour of the Chappellet Winery in the Prichard Hill area.  Verne and I joined the Chappellet Wine Club a few years ago and have enjoyed taking family and friends there on several occasions. The Chappellet family has set aside two beautiful private picnic areas on their 640 acre estate for club members to use. One of those spots is set amongst the oaks and boulders on a hillside surrounded by grape vines. The other is located in a beautiful meadow, also surrounded by grapevines, and overlooking Lake Hennessey. They receive little use during the week, so we had the meadow to ourselves. It was perfect! We concluded our trip to Napa with a box of macaroons from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery. Pure decadence!

As I mentioned, Jana left to drive home this morning, but not without adding to my loss by taking Izzy, her beautiful Short-Hair Exotic (Persian) cat that I’ve been cat-sitting for the past nine months. It’s not that she’s left me without cats – I still have three. In all honesty, three more than Verne would like and when I consider the expense, damage, and work involved in having purebred, indoor cats, I whole-heartedly agree.  But, Izzy is perfect by all standards and now she’s gone and I’m left with the others – precious, but not without challenges. There is Julie, Izzy’s mother (a weird little 7 pound cat with stomach issues and a personality disorder), Izzy’s father, Ernie (the most normal of the bunch, except for the strange snorting sounds he makes), and Olive, Izzy’s sister (I can’t do her justice in a side-note, so read on). Izzy and Olive are like Arnold Shwarzrnegger and Danny DeVito in the movie The Twins…Izzy got all of the good genetic material and Olive, the runt, got what was left. In nature, Olive would not have lived, but I took it upon myself to teach her such rudimentary things as eating and drinking (otherwise she’d still be nursing at 2-1/2 years old) and using the litter box (that last effort was not completely successful). You get the picture. In spite of her flaws, Jana loves Olive and it took the past three days to convince her that Olive is a “stressor” that she doesn’t need right now (or ever) and that she should take only Izzy. We have agreed that I’ll give Olive until August 31^st to reform (learn to consistently use the litter box) or else.  “Or else” has yet to be defined. Below is a picture of Izzy.

I’m experiencing yet an additional loss today. We live on a one-mile stretch of road that services six full-time families. All are property owners (10-acre minimum) with the newest family having lived here for ten years. I find comfort in living in an established and stable community. Verne and I would call any one of these neighbors if we needed help and they would do the same with us and have on many occasions over the years. In the last month two of these families have sold their homes and both are moving today. The Lairds, our immediate neighbors, are leaving their home of 35 years – twenty of which we have shared memories. I am sad to see them go, but appreciate the dichotomy between large acreage and aging owners (they are in their 80’s). The two are mutually exclusive. The amount of work required to maintain a private road and 40 acres, in our case, is never ending and, unfortunately, as we (that would be Verne) gets older, his work days become shorter and shorter and the workload mounts. It will soon be our turn to sell our beautiful property and move to something more manageable just as our neighbors are doing today. Sad.

On a positive note, I was told that one of our new neighbors has an interest in learning to make jam…that’s a happy thought as I am quite the authority on the subject and love nothing more than to spend a day in the kitchen making a batch of slow-cook peach marmalade or strawberry balsamic and black pepper jam. My list of favorites is extensive, so I’ll save it for another blog post. I’m already feeling better about the change and looking forward to meeting our new neighbors!

Wine Tasting Amador

This weekend was spent entertaining Vera's best friend, Jason, from Half Moon Bay. If we lived in Half Moon Bay, I doubt we'd leave to spend a weekend with Amador County hill people...but Jason did and we all enjoyed his visit. For one thing, it provided an opportunity to wine taste in the Shenandoah Valley outside Plymouth. However, before we started our wine tasting, we enjoyed lunch at the Sutter Hill Transit Center. We've admired the Amador Transit building for several years and had no idea it offered a beautiful spot for picnics amongst the oak trees and overlooking the Allen Ranch until Vera suggested we eat there. The spot held special significance for her as it was originally part of her family's ranch and she spent time there as a child. Lunch was simple, but tasty, and a good start to the next several hours spent tasting wines at five of Amador's best (that's probably debatable, but their walls were covered with several first-place ribbons).

We started our tour at the C. G. Di Arie Vineyard & Winery where we bought six bottles of their 200 Primitivo. They gave us our purchase in a case box so the next few hours was spent buying wine at each of our subsequent stops with the goal to fill it. You'll be happy to know we were successful! The winemaker and owner of Di Arie has an impressive background in food science and is spending his golden years developing world class wines here in Amador. Lucky us! We'll be going back to enjoy more of his creations. From there we went to Cooper Vineyards, a family owned winery established about ten years ago. Our third stop and one Verne and I were anxious to make was Sobon Estate. At the recommendation of a stranger we met at the Safeway wine aisle last year, we started drinking Sobon 2010 Fiddletown Zin. We loved it! The newest selection on the tasting menu was their 2011 Fiddletown Zin and it was equal to the prior year. We left with a bottle along with a Zinfandel Port. We next went to Vera's favorite, Charles Spinetta Winery and Wildlife Art Gallery. Vera and I tried every sweet wine on their tasting list and then walked the art gallery upstairs. It's a beautiful winery and worth a trip just to see the wildlife art used for their labels. 

Our final stop was a sister winery to Sobon, Shenandoah Vineyards. We lucked out as they were having a textile show... right up my alley. We walked the two rooms of art quilts and clothing, tasted a couple of their reserve wines, and walked out with a bottle of ReZerve Tannat, thus reaching our goal to fill our 12-bottle case.

Verne and I left Vera and Jason in Sutter Creek to explore and we went home to prepare for dinner (and nap). What did we have planned for our special guest? A pizza party!!! Years ago when all the kids were young (his, mine, and ours) we came up with a couple of kid-friendly meals that had something for everyone. One of them was individual pizzas and the other taco potatoes. I'll cover taco potatoes in another post. Our original recipe for individual pizzas came from Bon Appetit. We would make the pizza dough ahead, mise en place all the toppings, gather the family around our kitchen island, and each make our own personal pizza. We could always count on Jeff piling the toppings high! Over the years our dough changed with new recipes we'd read and try with our most recent favorite being a no-knead dough that uses very little yeast and rests on the counter at room temperature for 18 hours. It's so easy and the taste and texture is excellent. We make it ahead and freeze it for those evenings we have a hankering for pizza (actually, we most often just drive to Pine Grove Pizza and enjoy the best pizza in Amador County). Our toppings include a few of the old favorites (pepperoni, sausage, and green bell pepper) as well as a few new and slightly more gourmet toppings. One of my favorite combinations is garlic-olive oil, fontina cheese, prosciutto, and parsley.

We finished our meal last night with individual lemon meringue pies, also to be covered in a later post. Verne calls them "pies of the hand"(it has some obscure reference to the movie Witness). They were delicious and a sweet way to end a great day with friends! 

Picnic in Napa

We got up early yesterday and headed for Napa to meet Vera and her boyfriend, Sean, for a wine tour/tasting at Chappellet and picnic lunch in their beautiful meadow overlooking a small vineyard and Lake Hennessey. I'm including this picture Vera took (and may have tweaked a wee bit with a photo app on her phone) just to set the mood...

We fortunately had scheduled our tour for 11 a.m., because the high was expected to reach almost 100 degrees. Our first half hour was spent in the cellar, where the temp is maintained at approximately 65 degrees. We then braved a walk through the vineyards moving from one shady spot to the next and anxious to get back to the cellar with it's refreshing climate-controlled environment.

Our last half hour was spent eating breadsticks and enjoying a taste of their best Cab, Prichard Hill, which according to our guide consistently receives marks of 95+ and is considered one of the best Cabs in the Napa Valley. I believe it. It's incredible!

After half a dozen tastings (double on some) we were feeling no pain and drove to the picnic area on the property. I'm not sure what we expected, but whatever those visions might have been were far surpassed by the beautiful, grassy meadow, hillside vineyard, and expansive view of the lake that greeted us. There was one other group of about twenty people just finishing their picnic. The group's hostess and daughter of the senior Chappellet's welcomed us and offered an invitation to "Movie in the Meadow," where they show pre-released Indie movies on a large inflatable screen while about 100 lucky visitors picnic on blankets and enjoy their meals and, I'm sure, Chappellet wine. Sounds like fun! We'd brought two bottles of wine from home to have with our lunch. Fortunately, one of them (and the one we'd opened and were drinking and was in plain view to our Chappellet guest) was a Chappellet Napa Valley Cab. The other was an "economy" wine (cheap) from Livermore. A step above Firefly Ridge at $5.50/bottle (very cheap), but probably not by much.

We had a great time. What can be better than Good Eats (cheese from Bravo Farms with hand-made crackers from Schatt's Bakery, tasty sandwiches on caibatta rolls, Verne's version of Andre's potato salad, and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie (complements of the Chappellet's...they were leftover from the other picnic party); a bottle of fine wine; and convo* with our faux** family. Our DD (designated driver) got behind the wheel and drove us back to Frog's Leap, where we'd left Sean's truck. I might mention, Verne was our DD...we decided his driving after several glasses of wine was no worse than normal and none of the rest of us were up to it.

* Convo is a new word I've come across recently and I love it. I'm using it every chance I get, whether or not appropriate. Am I out of touch or what? Another new word (to me) is Solopreneur. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I'm working on it.

** I have Vera to thank for the term "faux" family. She recently introduced me as her faux aunt. I've always referred to her as one of my adopted children (Ted being the other), but I think I like this better. Thanks, Vera...

Wine Tasting in Napa

We've just returned from a 24-hour excursion with Jeff and Trish wine tasting in Napa Valley. What fun...another memorable experience! We met around 11 a.m. at the Embassy Suites in Napa. Jeff had planned our day and made reservations for a wine tour at the Chappallett Winery in St. Helena. It was a bit off the beaten path with tastings and tours by appointment only (we all had our doubts as we drove the 30 minutes off the main drag, up into the mountains (2,000+ elevation) to our turn-off, and then another mile, single-lane driveway to the winery), unlike the larger more commercial wineries with more formal grounds and gifts shops that cater to visitors. Our tour was about two hours including a walk through the factory, where people were busy bottling last year's wine (a moderately priced bottle called Cervantes) and then outdoors (where it was about 70 degrees and beautiful...a nice contrast to the 55 degrees of the factory) and into the vineyards to have a lesson in organic and sustainable farming; the differences between Chenin Blanc and Cabernet vines; and a bit of history on the Chappallett family. It was all fascinating and made even more so by the tastings we enjoyed beginning upon our arrival and throughout the lecture. Well, we were so taken with the experience that we joined their wine club, which is about the only way to get their product as it isn't sold in stores. Our membership includes tastings and tours at no charge for up to six people and use of their private picnic area...so plan to join us for a trip to Napa (just a nice drive from Volcano).

There was more wine tasting (a delicious port at V. Satui Winery) along with tastings of cheese, olive oils, and mustards, which served as appetizers to our delicious dinner at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Surrounded by vineyards, the building is one of the prettiest in Napa Valley. It was built in the 1800's for the Christian Brothers religious order. To earn money to fund their school, they produced and sold brandy until the late 1980's, when they sold the brand name and relocated. The CIA now has their school and restaurant in the building. Our meal, made and served by both professionals and students, was outstanding. The highlight, according to Verne and Trish, was the first course of mussels in a chorizo sauce. Verne left with the four-page recipe, which will need to be scaled down some, but is the kind of challenge he enjoys...not sure where we'll find the mussels, as their's were from Prince Edward Island.

I've come to believe there's no better way to spend a day than with people you love, eating and drinking great food and wine. It's made all the better by a beautiful setting, such as the foothill vineyards found in Napa Valley and Amador County. So, on your next visit, let's plan to wine taste...you don't have to love wine to have an inspiring experience. Besides, I find that after a few tastings it's all good and I. DO. LOVE. WINE!