My Latest Fabric Adventure Ala Rose Hughes

The photo in the book shows what it's going to look like. Size: 24x32 inches. The solid green is a velveteen and the other is a cotton batik. I've already made some of the felt flowers decorated with beads and embroidery that will go on the art quilt, which will be a wall hanging.

I could not find the velveteen in any greens so finally simply sent Rose Hughes an e-mail. Within the day she told me what brand it was. I went on line, found it and ordered it from a store with an interesting name: Sacred Moon Dance. It's in Chicago.

So today I cleaned off my sewing table and am ready to start. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll show you the finished product.

My Dad and Me Many Years Ago

He died in 1982 so this photo was taken before that. He was a tough man to love, but I still did. Not around much when we kids needed him, but he is our father. As you can tell, I got his hair.

An Oriole, A Loud Cat And Weight Watchers

An Oriole is huge compared to a humming bird but both like to drink from the same feeders. A couple of years ago I bought a special Oriole feeder that would accommodate his size (the males are the beauties) and where I could make the nectar he likes (different proportion of sugar to water than the hummers). He never got a chance to try it because the hummers drank his nectar first. By the time he and his drab-hued mate showed up only hummer food was left. So they balance precariously on the small feeders and slurp away. I also put out half an orange and some grape jelly, which they like. Again, the pair disappeared for a few days so the ants got there first. So the special feeders are in the garage and everyone eats the same stuff. I haven't heard any complaints.

Now onto the cat tale. Giorgio has been yowling right next to our bed at 2 or 3 in the morning. Very annoying. For such a skinny cat he is really loud. He wants access to the outside night world. No, no that's where wild things live; Giorgio would become a meal, all be it a Weight Watchers meal, but nonetheless, a meal. He would keep us awake with his yowling until he got tired and went back to sleep. This was not the way we like to sleep so had to come up with a plan.

We have now declared my sewing room way at the other end of the house as the animal dorm. Harleen sleeps in her crate, Nora sleeps in one little padded cubby and Giorgio sleeps in the other one. We close the door to the dorm; the cats still have access to water, food and their littler box. Access is denied to our bedroom. At first we had to catch the two cats to get them in there, but now they pretty much put themselves to bed when Harleen does, around 9:30. If Giorgio yowls in there, we can't hear him. It took two humans to outsmart a ten-pound cat.

More later on my new fabric pattern ala Rose Hughes. It involves pipe cleaners. Check back in a few days for samples of my new passion.

Teeny Tiny Quilts For Practice

This is what I've been doing lately. Each square is 6x6 inches. Fabric on top, then batting and then fabric for the backing. I've been practicing my free motion quilting, painting on fabric with different types of paint, beading and doing overlays.

I do whatever comes into my head; trying to free up the artist inside me. The photo should enlarge if you click on it so you can see the bead work.

I'm planning on making a small wall hanging out of it but need to put borders on each square before I can figure out the background fabric.
I also think I'll do three more whenever the muse visits me.

Rain 0 Heat 91

91 is the high predicted for today. The humidity is 49%, which doesn't mean a damn thing in
my book. It's still too hot; we haven't even hit the highs in the mid-100s.

So yesterday I went searching for all the fans that I had gleefully tucked away last fall. We have overhead fans in every room (none in the bathrooms). I use the smaller fans strategically. When I get out of the shower, I have one on the counter so I can get dry before I start to sweat again. That same fan goes on my side of the bed on the floor so I can get an additional breeze during the night. I have one in my sewing room that I can place in many spots where needed.

As I write this I realize that I am on the verge of crankiness. This calls for a fabric day. It's hard for me to be cranky when I'm touching fabric.

Yes, we have air conditioning but it's very expensive to run due to the size of our house. Our highest monthly bill came a couple of summers ago: $600. It doesn't come on until it inside temp hits 80.

Went to a party last night put on by the 911 Porsche Club that Kerry and I joined. Great food and nice people. Harleen stayed home alone for the first time without being in her crate. NOTHING WAS DESTROYED.

Today is the anniversary of a good friend's death. Fourteen years after having breast cancer, she found out it was back with a vengeance: liver, lungs and bones. She wanted people to hear this from her so she met with friends individually over wine and told them. We were planning a big party so she could say good bye. She never got to attend because she had a stroke and died a few days later. Her name was Nancy; she loved tap dancing and ceramics. She was very good at both. I think of her often.

My tomato plants and basil love the heat.

Strawberries

There are many strawberry farms in our area; they are tended by Asians who every year produce the most spectacularly sweet berries. We have a farm less than a mile from us. We took some to the Memorial Day camp out. Rave reviews. I bought some yesterday. The ones I bought were picked that day. The aroma in my car was so wonderful. Once home I cleaned and sliced the berries. Some went into a dehydrator so we can have fresh berries in the winter. The others went into freezer jam that is made with lots of Splenda.

Summer is such a spectacular season for everything. It is, however, hard to put up berries or other things when it's really warm. I set up fans in the kitchen today so I wouldn't sweat on the food.

I will probably do one more batch of dehydrated strawberries and another batch of freezer jam. It's also great on ice cream, plain yogurt and biscuits.

I love summer.

Tonight's dinner is barbecued brined pork chops and oven-roasted kohlrabi, green garlic and leeks with Parmesan cheese. Kerry's tummy is a little off so not sure how much he will eat. He goes to the doctor next Tuesday.

First CSA Box Of The Season

This is our third season of getting produce from The Natural Trading Company in Newcastle, CA. Isn't it a beautiful sight? Lots of greens this time of year; tomatoes are behind schedule due to our wet, cold spring. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture; it's one of the cornerstones of a being locavore. The other is our meat club. I pick up our meat order this afternoon.

The round yellow vegetable is a zucchini, the first of the year but many more will follow. To the right in front of the zucchini are spring onions; spring garlic is on the other side. The other greens are arugula, mizuna, collard, lettuce and pea shoots.

I just saw a recipe for radish crostini in the NY Times, so I'll try it out this week with some of our homemade bread. I've never oven roasted radishes, but the photo with the recipe looked delicious. Otherwise, we are not big radish fans.

The spring garlic is great because you can use the stems too. I oven-roasted the last of the asparagus and slivers of the spring garlic stems last night. The stems got really nice and crunchy. You can do the same with the spring onions.

Our friend Jean came for dinner last night. She was having a tough day so we thought a nice dinner fixed by someone else would help. Jean had never had water buffalo sirloin steak. Kerry BBQed it; delicious. I made a new batch of BBQ sauce to put on the steak. Jean liked it.

My tomato plants have flowers but just barely; they look like they are shivering. The sign at the organic blueberry farm down the road said "opening soon." I want to make a Dutch Baby with fresh blueberries and powdered sugar.

Driving For Doughnuts

The real reason we drove to Washington State can now be told; I wanted to go to Frost Doughnuts outside Seattle. Yes, I will travel far and wide for a good doughnut. I've been reading about Frost on Facebook since early this year. Last Friday we pulled into a parking place right in front of the store. I took that as a good omen. On Fridays they self 15 doughnuts for the price of 12. I had polled family members in Burlington as to their likes and dislikes. Here's what we bought: banana split fritter with sour cherries, custard-filled Bismarks, lemon-filled Bismarks, peanut butter-filled Bismarks, maple bars, maple bars with bits of real bacon on top, red velvet cake donuts and wedding cake donuts. The last two had tall swirls of white frosting on them. Web site: http://www.frostology.com

We stayed with Kerry's sister Joanne this time because his other sister Susan is remodeling here kitchen and having all the popcorn ceiling stuff removed. In other words, nobody was living at Susan and Gary's place. We are not used to sleeping in a full-sized bed; that's what Joanne had. Kerry fell out the first night and ended up with a huge black and blue mark on his back. I heard a thump, looked over on his side, and noticed the vacancy. He crawled up off the floor a bit shaken.

He didn't fall again, but I did. Yup, a nose plant on Joanne's hardwood floors. I caught my flip flop on an area rug and went down like a tree in the forest. Nothing broken but I have lots of black and blue marks plus I'm very sore. Luckily that didn't happen until after the wedding.

Wedding was beautiful. Kristen and Evan were married in Kristen's mom's backyard with snow-covered Mt. Baker looming in the distance. The reception was in a huge white tent that just needed a few trapezes and a couple of elephants to complete the feeling of a circus tent. Kristen is a recent vet school graduate; three of her bridesmaids were vets. The flower girl was Gracie, a golden retriever, and the ring bearer was Bennett, a border collie mix. Kristen's horses looked on from the pasture next to the ceremony. We also met Gracie's 10-week old puppy, Scooter. Gracie only had one puppy; go figure.

I did manage to get out on Monday to buy cheese from my favorite dairy in Bow, WA. Golden Glen Creamery produces lots of different kinds. We came home with a freezer chest full. One my favorite bloggers, Urbanhennery, was giving a presentation at the Mt. Vernon library (right next to Burlington) on Monday evening. She talked about raising chickens in her backyard. I was just too sore to make it. Sorry Laura.

We had so much wonderful seafood during our visit. They are so lucky to live close to the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound. I had pickled herring, Dungeness crab, oysters and King Salmon (twice). The night we got there we took Joanne out for dinner. The rest of the folks were at the rehearsal dinner. I had macaroni and cheese with Dungeness crab meat. It was so good. All the seafood was fresh.

We packed a lunch for the trip home that began on Tuesday morning: more fish, salmon mixed with mayo on whole wheat bread. Delicious. We got to Medford, Oregon the first night. The next morning we woke to rain, which followed us all the way home. It was really windy too, which is not great when you are driving a boxy car (Honda Element). Stopped at our favorite roadside taco stand in Williams, had lunch and brought more food home for dinner.

Very special dinner tomorrow night. Kerry and I are meeting a favorite blogger (Creamysilver AKA Jennifer) from Indiana and her husband, Bob. Bob is in Sacramento on business so Jennifer came along. We picked our favorite restaurant in Roseville, Paul Martin's American bistro. The restaurant serves locally grown foods and grass fed meats.

Tomorrow our CSA starts and I have to pick up meat from our meat club. Making bread dough today. Barbecued water buffalo top sirloin steak for dinner tonight.

I guess I still do write a lot about food.

My Oil Rig Experience

The explosion on the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico brought back memories of my own visit to an oil rig in that body of water. The one I was on did not blow up, but it still scared me silly.

I was working for Natomas Company at the time. It no longer exists having been bought and sold many times. My job at that time was to go out on the rig with my photographer to get shots for the annual report. This was in the late 1970s.

We flew to Houston and got a ride to Galveston with an oil worker. We were supposed to helicopter to the rig but it was too foggy so we went in the crew boat. Crews changed on this rig every seven days. You can see the helicopter pad on the left in the photo. Also note the cranes.

We stayed up with the skipper because a lot of the crew down below were hung over; the odor was not pleasant. I even got to drive the crew boat.

As we got closer to the rig, I asked the captain where the stairs were that we would climb to the deck of the rig. No stairs he replied and mentioned how dangerous it would be for the boat to bump up against the rig. Didn't want to rig to fall on our little boat.

That's when I noticed the cranes. With a growing sense of dread, I asked how were we going to get up there. The crane operator lowered a flotation collar, like the kind you would throw overboard if someone fell in the water, to the deck of the gently rocking boat. Ropes went from the collar up to the hook that was attached to the crane. I wore a life jacket and stood on the collar along with my photographer. He thought it was hilarious that I was so scared. In fact he took close-up photos of me as we ascended. I had my eyes closed the whole time. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest. And no, I'm not sharing those photos.

The crane operator gently lowered the flotation collar to the rig deck. As we stepped off I looked down at the grating that served as the deck. You could see all the way to the water. My panic continued as I discovered that there was grating everywhere except in the crew cabins, offices and mess. I labored up some stairs to the superintendent's office and did not leave there until I was lowered to the rocking crew boat below.

My photographer did a great job of getting pictures. I prayed the fog would lift so the helicopter could come for us. No such luck. Several hours later I approached the crane operator and told him I was sure he was a nice guy; he would get me back to the boat without any bodily harm. I also mentioned that I had a three-year-old son at home. He had that telltale lump on his face to the right of his lower teeth. Sure sign of a tobacco chewer. He smiled, then I knew for sure.

We climbed onto the flotation collar, were swung out over the water and then lowered to the crew boat ,which was rocking more than in the morning. I hope you get the picture. Little target rocking around in the ocean and crane operator many stories up aiming for the boat deck. I closed my eyes and a few minutes later we were on the deck taking off our life jackets. My adrenaline was flowing like crazy. I had done it; granted it wasn't my best work performance but I had survived.

We got a ride back to Houston with an oil rig worker driving a huge Cadillac convertible. He took the top down, bought two six packs of beer, which we all shared, and delivered us to the Guest Quarters Hotel in Houston. The adrenaline plus two bottles of beer made me a very happy drunk. The doorman was a bit surprised by our demeanor but a big tip turned that attitude around; he got us safely out of the car with all of our gear and up to our rooms. He even smiled.

So that's another one of my life adventures. More to come now that I'm not writing about food so much.

The Excitment Of A Fresh Real Chicken

My most recent lesson as a locavore has been about poultry. If you want chicken year round, go to the grocery store. If you want real chicken that has been allowed to live as chickens have for centuries, then find a local farmer that raises them the natural way. We have not had chicken since December. The farmers I asked about chicken all told me it wasn't in season. Who would have thought that chickens, just like asparagus, have a season. Chicken would be available again in April. So it's the end of April but where are they?

Yesterday I found out.

I stopped by Blue Goose Market in Loomis. sometimes they have some locally raised meat. What did I spy in the freezer but two chickens from Sinclair Farms. I get eggs and lamb from them too. The cashier in the store was a bit surprised by my delight in finding two chickens. But that's the beauty of being a locavore, you get excited by the simplest things. It's hard to take chicken for granted when you know it's not always there.

So tonight we are having roasted chicken. I have two choices for recipes. One is your basic herb and butter coated bird. You stuff it with lemons to keep it moist. The other is oven roasted with a pomegranate glaze. The glaze is pomegranate molasses, red wine vinegar and honey plus some pepper. You baste the chicken with this after about 30 minutes in the oven. You can also sprinkle pomegranate seeds on the finished bird. They are not in season right now so I'll settle for the glaze. I have to talk to Kerry about which one he prefers.

Two other courses: mashed potatoes with lots of garlic and butter and a red lettuce salad with fresh strawberries and feta cheese topped with a vinaigrette dressing.

This is an expensive bird. It weighs 4.25 pounds and cost $19. We will probably get four meals out of it and then I'll make chicken stock. Pretty good price for something this good.

A Perspective On Earth Day

I've never been a big fan of Earth Day. Probably because the corporations I worked for always made a big deal out of it and then went right back to doing business as usual.

Today I look at Earth Day differently; we have become a locavore household doing what's right for the planet and us. The cookbook pictured here is my gift to myself for Earth Day. Placer County where I live in Northern California, is a wonderful place to have access to farmers markets year round.

One of the authors of this cookbook, Joanne Neft, is the inventor of PlacerGrown (http://www.placergrown.org/). She started eating locally long before locavorism was popular. This cookbook is one more step on her road to preach the benefits of buying and eating local. She's also from Minnesota (my home state) so that's another reason to like her.

At the end of 2008 she sent out an e-mail to everyone she knew to invite them for dinner at her house each Monday night of the year. She could only seat 4-6 people so you had to get your reservations in early. Places at the table filled up fast.

On the Saturday before the Monday dinner, Joanne and Laura Kenny (the chef) went to the farmers market in Auburn, CA to choose the food for Monday night's dinner. If it wasn't available there, it wasn't served.

The cookbook is organized by month and date so you know what to expect at the farmers market at what time of year. If it's January, there will not be asparagus.

At the end of 52 weeks they had recipes that had been tested on local eaters. Then they began to put it together in a cookbook, which just arrived at local stores.

Here's an example of a dinner; this one is for April 20th, which is about as close as I could come to today.

+ Watercress salad with strawberries and sweet and sour vinaigrette
+ Baked halibut cheeks
+ Black quinoa with mushrooms and snow peas
+ Sauteed kale
+ Fresh strawberries with pistachio biscotti and sabayon Grand Marnier sauce.

A note about the halibut cheeks. We are lucky to have a local fishing company (http://www.wildlittlefish.com/) that has wonderful fresh, non-farmed fish every week at the Auburn farmers market and several others in the area. We even get wild salmon, which they bring down from Alaska. Farm-raised fish are not healthy for the environment or you.

So that's how I'm celebrating. What about you?

Some Thoughts On Retirement

It's been three years since I stopped working. Hard to believe it's been that long. Those three years have been some of the best years of my life.

My life is quiet; I love it that way. I don't need much money; I don't have that many material needs. Fabric and good, healthy, organic food are the two things on which I spend the most money. We rarely eat out because the restaurant food is not very healthy. The exceptions are Paul Martin's American Bistro in Roseville and Chipotle. Love their burrito bowl.

I gave away all of my expensive suits, blouses and shoes. Someone else can wear that armor now; not me. Jeans, shirts and fleece plus comfortable shoes are my outer expression. My panty hose are used to collect lint at the end of our dryer line under the house. That's a good place for them.

I'm healthier because I'm not always on airplanes.

I can't think of one negative thing about retirement.

We rarely get up earlier than 8:30; no alarms in our life unless we made the unfortunate decision to be somewhere early.

Our travels are mostly by car to spend time with family and friends. We haven't been to the Bay Area in several years and have no plans to go. That place is filled with noise, pollution and tension. Don't need any of those things. If someone wants to see us, they come here and enjoy the beauty and solitude of our five acres.

I've made new friends; discovered that I really want to express my creativity with fabric; learned that being in a large group is not for me anymore; discovered Michael Pollan and became a locavore; shopped at the farmer's markets and cooked what I found there; and learned a lot about organic farming from the farmers I follow on Twitter.

I also learned that I love to nap each day; luckily Kerry does too.

The days fly by; most of the time I can tell you what day of the week it is but not always the date.

One of the best parts of retirement was Mark finding Julia and getting married at the Grand Canyon.

My quilting went from buying and learning to use all the tools needed to create perfect quilts that would win prizes to tearing strips of fabric for my latest art quilt. This summer Kerry, Harleen and I are going to Sisters, Oregon so I can take a class in fabric painting from a teacher I really like. All of this started from a series of fiction books I read about Elm Creek Quilt Camp. Author is Jennifer Chiaverini.

And Harleen came into our lives as a tiny 11 pound golden lab puppy. Due to bad hips, she washed out of the Canine Companions for Independence program. So in a way she retired too and is now part of our life.

I've learned that you never know where life will lead you; just listen to your soul and follow your heart. It worked for me.

Deconstructing Quilt Blocks

I've had a lot of fun developing the idea for this quilt which is 36 x 44. The top picture is the entire quilt; the second picture shows a close up of a section where I've done some free motion quilting.

All the fabric, except the black background, was originally in another quilt which I had never finished. I never liked the quilt even though I liked a lot of the fabrics. It was sitting in my pile of UFOs (unfinished objects).

I finally decided to cut the quilt blocks into strips and weave them together. That gave me four boxes and a lot of leftover material. I put the four woven boxes on the black fabric using lightweight fusible. Rose Hughes' technique came into play but not in the usual way; I wasn't joining fabrics, I wanted to create arteries along which fabric could move. The couching is colorful yarn I had in my yarn stash.

Then I cut out lots of circles...and I mean lots of circles both big and small. The ones in the arteries are emerging from fabric circles like colorful coins coming out of a machine. The larger blank circles I quilted with a variety of two- or three-toned thread. You can see that in the second photo.

Finally, I sewed one or two beads on all of the small circles.

The solid block with strips of fabric emerging from it was just done for contrast.

Jamie Oliver In W. Virginia

The first two episodes of his new program, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, aired on ABC last Friday night. He's come to the unhealthiest town in America, Huntington, W. Va., to see what he can do to get them to eat healthier so they will lose that terrible title. They got the title because of the town's high death rate.

He is focusing on school lunch programs, which are ghastly and not just in Huntington. One of my favorite parts of the show are when he goes to talk to the cooks at an elementary school. Here's this guy with an English accent and hair looking like he used a submersion blender to comb it and he's hoping to convince these women to prepare healthier meals for the kids. It's a good thing there weren't any knives around; if looks could have killed he would have been dead.

The kids were getting pizza for breakfast. Yikes. Also the school was throwing away tremendous amounts of this junk food. The kids only got flavored milk. That sure didn't sound like my elementary school. Kids can't learn if they don't get good nutrition.

He convinces the ladies to cook one meal from scratch; pretty simple marinated chicken parts and a salad. Kids didn't like it. There are times in the program where he cries real tears of frustration. By the way, he did this same type of thing in Great Britain to help improve kid's nutrition there and was quite successful.

Next he goes into an elementary school classroom with some vegetables; the kids can't identify them (not even a tomato or potato). Then he convinces a family to have a health evaluation at a local doctor's office. The teenage boy is borderline diabetic; sort of a wake up call for the parents. Jamie helps them shop for healthy foods, gives them some simple recipes and comes back in a week to see how they are doing. Most of the healthy food is still in the refrigerator.

He opens up Jamie's Kitchen in a storefront in downtown Hungtington where kids and adults can come to learn about food. The grossest part of the show happened here. He showed the kids a whole, raw chicken. Then he chopped off all the meat; legs, thighs, wings, and breast. He chopped up the remaining carcass and put it in a Cuisinart which turned it to mush. He added a bit of flour to make it less sticky and then cut out a round piece that when fried looked like a Chicken McNugget. He asked the kids which they preferred the meat of the chicken or the chicken McNugget. They chose the McNugget.

I was surprised that a major network would air a program like this on Friday night during prime time. Food is a politically loaded subject right now with the large conglomerates like Monsanto, Cargil and ADM under fire for stifling competition and genetically modifying seeds for basic foods like corn.

Despite corporate efforts, the slow food movement, organic foods, locavores and grass fed meats, are making it onto the front page and into TV network shows. Some may say that what we locavores are doing is not having an impact; I personally think they are wrong. Revolutions start small but they don't stay that way.

So, hug a locavore, buy organic fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market when they are in season and stay out of the center part of your grocery store. That's where all the harmful food lurks.

Jamie Oliver will be on this Friday night on your local ABC affiliate. Don't miss it; he might save your life. And he's kinda cute in a boyish way.

Dark Days Challenge Final Week

I hope I got that right. Even went back and read all the information about the Challenge so I wouldn't stop short of the final date.

Tried fennel for the first time. Kerry found it at the farmer's market. We usually shop separately because he's more into fruit than I am. I looked at the fennel and thought, what am I going to do with that.

I posed that question at my quilting bee; Mary Jane said she had been thinking about cooking fennel and had found a recipe in one of Ina Garten's cookbooks.
Ina oven roasted it with potatoes and asparagus. No asparagus so I just cut up some potatoes, the fennel, some leeks and green garlic. Sprinkled it with olive oil and roasted the whole thing at 425 F. for 25 minutes. Very tasty with no taste of licorice. Maybe enough garlic trumps licorice.

Meanwhile Kerry BBQed two small filet mignon from Coffee Pot Ranch. Made for a delicious meal and all local except the salt. We are going to have fennel again soon.

Dark Days Local Challenge Week 18

This was a crock pot day. Those are the days I love; once everything is in the pot, you don't have to think about dinner until you eat it.

Ingredients today included: lamb shoulder (new for us but a lot like lamb shank), carrots, potatoes, leek, green garlic, white wine and dried strawberries and blueberries. The latter gave it a wonderful sweetness. We put a large dollop of sour cream on the dish. The bread shown in the photo is from the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." It really is that easy. I make 2-3 loaves a week.

But I really want to write about the health care package that passed the House of Representatives tonight. The vote gives me hope; something I have not had for a while. Yes, we can have compassion. That's the word for the year: compassion.

Go Obama!

Odds And Ends For A Thursday

Now that Harry is heading back to Reno, they have decided to be best buddies. That's Harry's head resting on Harleen. Just moments before, they were growling and chasing each other. Lia, Harry's puppy raiser, is brings her CCI breeding dog, Darlan, to Sacramento for x-rays to see how many pups she is going to have. The ultrasound showed ten. With eight nipples, that could be a challenge for Lia and Darlan. This also gives you an idea of what the new carpet in my sewing studio looks like. Lia will come by here and pick Harry up on her way back to Reno.

Harry was released from the CCI advanced training program because he didn't like to be groomed. He is such a sweet dog. So now he's a Change of Career dog just like Harleen. I wonder if any of the dogs in their litter will go on to be CCI service dogs.

***

We got our annual water bill from the irrigation district today. Last year we paid $98 for a miner's inch (11 gallons per minute 24 hours a day from April to October). This bill was for $734. We were a bit shocked so Kerry called. The poor customer service people are in for quite a day. They have a new billing system which figured all the bills much higher than they should be. Our bill will be $110. Sending new bills out tomorrow. This is not our drinking water. We just use it for irrigation and to keep our ponds full.

Made pizza last night using one of the bread recipes from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." It was delicious. Topped it with tomato sauce from last summer, organic spinach leaves (the green for St. Patrick's Day) from the farmers' market, mozzarella, Parmesan and salami. Having leftovers for dinner.

Now I just have to try making pasta. I have all the ingredients except courage. I know I can, I know I can....

Memories Of Ireland With Grandpa Coakley

When I lived in Europe, my grandfather was the only member of my family to visit me. He had never flown so my parents decided to put him on a flight that was non-stop to Frankfurt where I would meet him. My dad flew to Chicago with him and put him on a Lufthansa flight. What my father didn't realize is that the flight to Frankfurt was canceled; Grandpa opted for a British Airways flight to London and then another flight to Frankfurt. That meant he had to change planes at one of the busiest airports in the world.

When I arrived at the Frankfurt Airport, the folks at Lufthansa told me they weren't quite sure where he was. Now my grandfather, being of Irish descent, had the gift of the gab. About 8 hours after he was supposed to arrive he came through the doors of customs with a blonde woman on his arm. I could tell that the two of them had had a few drinks on the flight from London. He hugged me and said, "Is this Germany?"

A few days later we flew to Dublin so he could set foot on the land his family came from. The flight was really bumpy over the channel; he didn't seem to notice. I was white-knuckled the whole way.

Once there we rented a tiny Fiat that supposedly fit four. It was a stick shift and I was driving on the other side of the road. That meant shifting with my left hand. One way streets were a real challenge. I was honked at a lot. We finally headed for Cork. That's the port his father had left from.

Grandpa was very disappointed that there were so many Coakleys in the phone book. Sort of like Peterson in Minneapolis. I think he imagined some grand reunion with the family where they would all tell stories of his father's departure to Boston.

The first morning at our bed and breakfast grandpa asked the "wee lass," as he called her, if he could have a bit of whiskey. I wanted to crawl under the table; the wee lass did not blink an eye. She returned with a small glass filled to the brim. He smiled at me, raised his glass and said, here's looking at you my dear grandchild. Then he would loudly burp. That request, toast and burp were repeated every morning. He lived to be nearly 90 so I guess it didn't hurt him.

About the third or fourth day out of Dublin, grandpa slammed the car door on the seat belt; we were never able to open that door. So he road in the back seat and the luggage was piled on the front passenger seat.

About mid-morning each day he'd announce that he had a wee bit of a thirst. We would find a pub where we would stay until lunch. He had a bunch of JFK half dollar pieces which he would spread out on the bar. We drank for free as long as those prized mementos lasted.

In Galway, we saw the movie "Love Story." Like so many other people in the theater, I cried and even sobbed at times. Grandpa held my hand and assured me everything would be okay.

He refused to go to the North; that was back when things were still pretty bad between the two parts of Ireland. After ten days in Ireland, I put him on a non-stop flight to Chicago where my dad was to meet him. I stayed at the airport long enough to see the plane taxi and lift off. I wasn't taking any chance with grandpa.

Good memories for this St. Patrick's Day. We are breaking with tradition tonight and having homemade pizza. The green part will be fresh spinach.

Whoops; Dark Days Challenge Week 17

Yes, I thought the challenge ended with week 16. Urbanhennery graciously pointed out that it lasts until the end of March. So, to continue....

These are some of the ingredients for Week 17. A bag of pea shoots (can be eaten raw or cooked) plus green garlic, leeks and spinach (not pictured) went into a stir fry which had local olive oil. Kerry barbecued a tri-tip using a method he saw on a Julia Child/Jaques Pepen cooking show.

Kerry always has trouble with overcooking the tri-tip because it's so thick. The cooking show had them start the meat at a high temperature (BBQ) until it was crusty on the outside. Then they put it in a 200 F. degree oven to let the inside cook slowly. This was a big improvement.

All of the veggies were local as was the tri-tip.

New Kitchen Gadget

It's called a utensil pot clip; Julia and Mark had them. Instead of laying your spoon on the counter while you are cooking, just clip this little thing onto the pot and slide the spoon in the grips. They are rubberized so your spoon doesn't get hot.

The company that makes them is Home Presence. They have a web site. I don't remember how much I paid for it. I store mine right by the stove clipped to the vase that that holds my spoons. I love kitchen