Christmas List 2009

Owen's Christmas List:

Frog Umbrella for kids (so that it's his size, not grown-up sized)

Pink Socks

Pointy Rocket Ship

Though we had the discussion that Santa brings toys to good children and not naughty children, He got very upset, and pleaded why not the naughty children? They should get toys too! Sometimes the "Good" v. "Naughty" discussion doesn't really seem to sink in.

got to make the morning last

Sometimes the days feel to be slipping by so quickly; where I don't feel like I have enough time to get my work done, to clean up properly around the house, to get my Christmas shopping done, Christmas cards, to get something actually organized for Os birthday this year, to plan fun quality time with the kiddos... something more than running errands, with Brian, with self. I don't want to miss a moment, but moments just keep passing by. What gets me about this feeling is that instead of pulling self up by bootstraps, I just get irritable. I see myself rushing around, trying to get stuff done, and see everyone around me working against me. I need to remind myself to just keep swimming, things will get done, can't stop time, can only appreciate it. There, reminder noted. Now go fold that pile of laundry.

pie

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving with the inlaws. I busted out the nice China, maybe the third time in our marriage. Also, managed to make the-best-apple-pie-ever. I've had my fair share of sub-par pies lately, after once being great at all pies, it has been disappointing. What makes it a great pie? Both crusts done, flaky, light. Apples were not too juicy, not dry at all, not too sweet, plenty of cinnamon. Anyhow, thought I'd write down tips implemented to make this work. I have only a sorry picture of the very last piece of pie eaten last night.

Made it with two crusts, butter, done in the food processor, I think this kept the dough cool enough. Three types of apples: Spitzenbergs, a small green, maybe pippin, can't remember, we also had two that were probably goldens that Charlie and Renee brought on their trip but didn't eat. Anyhow, I think the mix was great. Finally, Cook until it bubbles in the middle. Otherwise I just used Mom's recipe for the filling and the dough from Bistro cooking. Oh, and used splenda, I've never used splenda before, but if everything turns out this good will reconsider.

Brian also did a perfect turkey. He put herbed oil under the skin, started it upside down and flipped it at some point. really perfect. I've been living off of the huge vat of turkey jook I made afterwards. mmmmmmmmm. If I could only find some chinese donuts.

must send these

I made a handful of linen tea-towels a while ago. I think they were half-yard lenghts cut in half to make two towels out of each type. Anyhow, hemmed'em, put a little loop on one corner and a button on the other. The intention was to make them apron substitutes, but they are too small for me and too big for Owen. Got the nice idea from weekend sewing. The light ones (below) are lousy for drying dishes, but otherwise nice looking. I am hoping that with time they soften up enough to become absorbant. I haven't tried the dark two that I am sending to my brother.... really, one day soon! I am just going to close my eyes and hope they work well. I washed them a few times to pre-soften them for him.

bitty booties

I made some of these a while ago... I'll have to dig up the pics one of these days. Anyhow, I had been sitting on this awesome fabric that Cascade gave me for, uh, like two or three years. These are patterned from Heather Bailey's Bitty Bootie pattern... pretty easy, though sewing up the heel with the machine was a little tight. Anyhow, the fabric is super soft and fuzzy on the inside and pretty chinese style silk on the outside. Even better... they actually fit (well, with a little growing room).

Just squeezing in a little bit of crafting on the days I'm home with just Grace... and when she can bear sleeping on her own rather than on my chest.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

My first shot at making a costume for Grace, or either of my kids for that matter...(update a lot later when I realized that folks are interested in looking for just such a costume)  This was very easy to make!  There are two greens from the fabric store, not quite batik, I can't remember what it was but a little bit of texture on them.  Anyhow I just sewed strips of cloth together (right sides facing) using elastic thread in the bobbin. This was the first time I tried this and it worked perfectly.  Hand wind the bobbin, don't pull tension on the elastic, it will do that as you sew.  The top was just about 4 rows separated by maybe a quarter inch... maybe less.  Just some small ribbons at the top to keep it up.  The hat was an existing baby hat we had with felt eyes and antennae sewn on.  I hand sewed them so it would be easy to take back out afterwards.

I love how it turned out, and perfect for an infant, except for its incompatibility with the bijorn. Brian made and wore the leaf and apple!

It's Dia de los Muertos... and between hitting a little too close to the heart this year and being a little bit busy (though the latter isn't much of an excuse) we didn't do our offrenda again this year, but I do just want to list the beloved ones that I want to fondly remember today: Uncle Dudley, Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Jean, Gou mou, Tai Gung, Tai pa.

I haven't mentioned it, but Grace's birthday, 22 Sept is the same day that we lost Grandma Jean. I appreciate that Grandpa Em finds life and love on such a painful day.

fun with squares

Okay, maybe its nesting, I don't know but I've been on quite a quilty bender... mostly I wanted to try these pillows and get two kiddie blankets done before, well, baby girl comes along. The pillows were from a tutorial on Posie gets Cozy: ( http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2009/05/pretty-patches.html )... super fast and easy, I backed them in some off-white corduroy with a basic envelope back. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I sure do like them! I also finished Diane's baby boy's quilt... I got the fat quarter packet from the menonite shop when visiting the in-laws... Diane has always loved vintage winnie the pooh, so I went with it for the blanket... Also backed in corduroy (actually the same one). It turned out pretty well, not the manliest blanket, and I didn't get a very good photo of it... it was fun, and hey... its a baby! I need to photograph the last baby blanket, for my cousin's baby boy, but I'm deciding if I"m really done. Here's my stack-o-quiltiness so far this summer... fun.
Otherwise I'm loving Dahlia season, I get to bring home a couple of bunches when we can make it to the farmer's market. Our garden is doing pretty well, we have a few sugar pumpkins getting all orange on the vine, we had a handful of nice zucchini, but our plant is taking a break and beefing up its leaves. Cherry tomatoes out front are awesome, and we have a few other volunteer squash, I"m still not certain if they're decorative or edible. Totally loving our blueberry haul and our alpine strawberries... we have two white'uns and three or four red'uns... totally delish and doing really well, though we have a few beetles and slugs that find them every now and again. Most exciting perhaps for Owen was digging for potatoes in our wine barrel out front... got two pretty good meals out it! I think next time we plant them much deeper and maybe will get more.

One more good project thus far... I was going to paint the whole room, but talked with a designer at the paint store, and she suggested we paint just the fireplace... as soon as she said it I thought... perfect! In reality I'd like the whole shebang gone, but its too much work right now.
Before (dated, homemade job of a hearth)
After... blends in much better, much less busy, heck even makes our carpet look better!

Thanks Dad! Looks great!

Okay, enough with the fruit already

Pshew, I may officially be over picking... well at least for a week or two :)
We hit TWO farms this weekend... Grossen's peach farm, which we will have to watch closely next year, they only have a few days they are open, and their peaches are totally worth it ... so yummy. So yummy in fact that we came home with about 30lbs... no wait, it had to be more than that, what's $32 / .80 per lb... okay 40lbs of peaches. Spent the afternoon (from 3-10) making jam and canning peaches, we only put one batch in the freezer because of space issues. One of these days we will get a second freezer. It's not really fair to say that that whole time was processing peaches, because I had three batches of marionberry jam from two buckets that we picked at Rowell brothers, you know, since the peaches went so quickly (we did get there at 8:30 am). I wanted some more fresh blueberries, and had hopes of getting into the blackberries... probably my best jam last year... seedless, loads more work, but totally satisifying. Anyhow, Blackberries were already done and we had to do some serious hunting for enough Marionberries, but did pretty well in the end... whatever about two buckets worth comes to... maybe 6 lbs? Jam recipes, we just used the suggestions from the Pomona Pectin box(es... took two for the day, and we were perhaps a tad short in the end) with full sugar (2c sugar per 4 c fruit) and for preserved peaches used the Ball Blue Book, just canned 'em in a light syrup.

I'll have to check at home for the official tally but:

40lbs peaches =
a lot left to eat
1 pie
1 frozen pie filling
5 quarts of peaches
5 pints of peaches
5 Pints Peach Jam
5 half Pints Peach Jam

2 buckets of Marionberries=
2 Pints of Jam
7 half-pints of Jam

We didn't seed these (a la Microwave+ sieve + pestal technique from Jar-man Jim last year... though it did make some pretty impressive Jam)

We had about 2/3 of a batch of wild (called sweet-sour) plums from our farm basket so topped the batch off with peaches and ended up with two pints and one half-pint of Wild-plum and peach Jam.

PSHEW.... I was pretty achey by the end of the day.... and jammed out. So happy about all of the happy fruit waiting for me this winter.

Now for tomatoes.

colorful quilt for our little girl

Well, I finished it! Thanks to Renee's gift certificate to Fabric Depot, Mom suggesting an actual pattern, Brian's patience as this took up several evenings (though mostly while he was out of town), and Owen's enthuiasm for his little sister's quilt! It's perhaps a little bright. I took the advice of a salesperson at the fabric store, and found one fabric with colors I liked and matched others to it. I really do love the fabrics, so much fun. I also must credit Montevilla for finding the gouged "hook" on my sewing machine that was making me curse for breaking my thread every three feet and suggesting a walking foot purchase... Both of which totally saved my sanity.... I like my machine again :)
The pattern was called Fantastic-O Fat Fun from Afternoon Delights. At first I wasn't sure the pattern was worth the 9 bucks... looked pretty strait foreward, but they show you how to cut the fat quarters up in stacks to make the stripes, and they all fit together perfectly, so much easier than agonizing about sizes and seam allowances etc... totally worth it. Took the equivalent of 20 fat quarters (I used 10 half yards) for the top. The only other alteration I made was to round off the corners with a big plate... awesome! No corners, had to cut the binding on the bias, but it worked out so nicely, smooth round corners, no funky mitered corners (I can typically get most of them, but there is always one of the four that looks weird.... yay curved corners and how about that cute mermaid fabric.... love it.

The pattern is so efficient that it took almost all of my left-over fabric to make a little blankie to match... totally different pattern, sort of a log-cabin thing, and I was out of the floral flannel and the binding fabric, so it's just a turn and topstich sort of blankie, but cute still!
Owen has taken to this blanket and is thrilled to roll up in "little sister's blanket"; I keep folding it up, and he keeps "getting cuddly" inside.Okay, two more kiddie quilts, they will be much smaller, but I have to think about them still... and get them done before Bambina arrives.

Name game: So far we have Madeline, Gwen(da), Eliza, Grace, Marina, Mei, Mary... I still like Jade and Celia, but think those have been nixed by B.

19.25lbs of blueberries

(about four buckets filled)
= 10 bags of double-blueberry muffin batches (2 pts each)+ 9 blueberry - lime popsicles
+ 2 quarts frozen just for fun (for smoothies, snacking, whatever...)
+ 2 pints for the neighbors
+ one big big bowl of fresh'uns for eatin... good thing too since the young'uns (ours and the Lamberts, oh and misc. visitors, and me :)

deeply missed

An excellent Uncle, full of love, generous spirit... he loved life, lived it fully... with gusto, and is gone too soon, too early. He traveled the world, tasted, appreciated, felt each moment with intelligence and enthuiasm. Uncle Dudley always knew what was the best way to prepare something, where to find the best restaurant, and eager to share his loves. Uncle Dudley was also an inherent teacher. I implicate him in many of what have become my own favorites, and received an education with nearly every visit:

How to be a suprub host
Laver with bamboo salt
garlic noodles
Ribs!
It's nice to have a handful of blueberries from your own yard for breakfast
discerning chinese tea
and wines... wonderful wines: williams seylem, the best places in Napa to taste and learn
source for chinese wisdom, translations, etc...

I had a dream last night, when he passed away. I saw him, looking as I remember, healthy, in a lovely well-lit room, though in a hospital bed. I said good-bye and gave him a kiss, and he smiled... the rest of the dream was a little weird, but the basic feeling of gratitude and love remained. It didn't feel as sad as I feel today.

Visiting their house, I can still hear Uncle Dudley's voice... his laugh either a chuckle or a guffaw. I see the way he sits back in his chair at the dinner table and crosses his arms when he is going to tell a good story or leans in when he is telling something new, some insider secret. He was so expressive with hands and the way he says "oh no" by wiping his hand over his face. When we came to visit he would always find a special bottle of wine and we are expected to know or learn some new subtley of flavor or variety... so many things he would share with us would have a great story, a history, or something facinating about it. Uncle Dudley lived to do what he loved, to share, to eat, to play. He taught us to have a true interest, curiosity, and enthuiasm ... and to share with others, smile laugh, be a good person and to love.

here is his obituary

Dudley Cheu Dudley Cheu, Assistant Professor at UOP's Dugoni School of Dentistry and dedicated son, husband, father, and grandfather, died July 3rd, 2009. He was 68. Dudley was born on March 25, 1941 in Canton, China before moving to the United States in 1951. He did his undergraduate work at Pacific Union College, UC Berkeley and USC in Sociology and Biology and received his DDS from Northwestern University in 1970. He earned his MBA from University of Pacific in 1999. After leading a successful private dental practice for over 25 years, Dudley taught dentistry at UOP for 15 years. During his term at the dental school, he was recognized several times by faculty and students in recognition of teaching excellence. He was an active member of the ADA and CDA, volunteering at countless events and programs, serving on many committees, and helping with local arrangements at scientific sessions. His passion for food was unparalleled as travel itineraries were prioritized against proximity to the best local restaurants. If you knew Dudley, most likely you would have shared a meal and engaged in good conversion, excellent food, fine wine, and memorable laughs. His contribution to UOP, dental societies and even his recent trip to Cambodia teaching local dental students was a fine example of his life work and interest; his love for his wife, his boys, grandchildren and his faithfulness to his Mom all sum up such a rich and fulfilled life. He is survived by his mother, Phyllis; beloved wife Genevieve; his two sons, Jason and Derek; and grandchildren, Kaylee, Kellen and Clark. A celebration of Dudley's life will be held at the Marin Art & Garden Center on Sunday July 12, 2009 at 2pm. (30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, San Anselmo, CA 94960) In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in his memory be made to support medical research at UCSF. Donations may be made to the UCSF Foundation/ Dr. Lawrence Way's Research Fund (B1289) in memory of Dr. Dudley Cheu, c/o Sarah Krumholz, 220 Montgomery Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/10/MNCHEUDUDL4.DTL#ixzz0WWNQNKO

razzleberry jam

After a big weekend picking berries like crazy (we got four pints from Sauvie Island ... cohos I think and then some Willamettes from Rowell brothers... about 8 lbs I think, though we ate a lot and Val probably brought over another 5 lbs. Val came over and we made about five batches of Jam... raspberry jam! One of my favorites (heck, I think they're all favorites in turn :).
For most of them we used the recipe on the pomona pectin box. We got, hmmm lets see 19 half pints (sent 10 homewith Val) and four pints of jam out of five batches... the first four with the pectin, the last with just a load of sugar (mostly made the pints).

summer bliss

Raspberries from the prolific bush down the street. A little uber-creamy vanilla yogurt (though maybe a custard one day when we are up to it). Whipped Cream. Crushed Amaretti cookies. Bittersweet chocolate shavings.

Cape Disappointment

Last parliament

Of owls that is... I should say mysteriously... for now!
I have arbitrarily decided that a good parliament of owls is a group of 6, with two tufted owls in the bunch. This group also had button eyes and were looking quite wise indeed.

Seeing Red..

It's that time of year! We hit Kruger's farm stand and picked a flat of strawberries... after pondering for about 30 seconds ended up purchasing two extra flats to bring on home for jam. ho boy do we have a bit of Strawberry Jam! With about half of our berry haul (a flat and a half), we ended up caning 18 half pints and 9 pints of Strawberry Jam! Honestly, I just got tired, and ran out of pectin... in fact our last batch may remain a little bit soft, but still yummy. I basically used the recipe in the Pomona Pectin package, with the full 2c sugar per 4c berries. Our actual favorite way to enjoy strawberries through the year is on strawberry shortcakes! Fresh of course is best, but we also have also frozen several batches (we're in the process right now, so I can't say how many). We've been putting in one quart of berries plus about a quarter cup of sugar, to get them all juicy. I've got to go and make sure that we're saving enough to enjoy fresh... we've been known to get a little too carried away putting up fruit, that sometimes we don't save enough for us now!!!