Category Archives: family

all packed up


all packed up, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

Yesterday the kids and I packed up our Christmas decor. I took a pic so you could see how we keep the holiday simple at our house. CatGirl is sitting next to the one box of decorations (wreath, tree skirt, a few xmas figurines, 4 stockings, a snow globe musicbox, tree ornaments, and two creches). Behind her is the box that our tree goes in. And that’s it. It all fits tidily on top of the storage shelving in our closet.

TobyJoy is sneaking around in the background of the pic, because she’s never far from her girl.

no recipe necessary


Red apple, originally uploaded by venkane.

As I was making broccoli soup (CatGirl’s fav) for dinner tonite, I noticed a few tired apples in the produce basket. I decided I should whip up something to use them up, but what to do?…

I ended up peeling and slicing/dicing them and put them in a saucepan to simmer, just to see what would happen. Would they soften? They were mostly fuji and gala apples–not exactly typical cooking apples. I added a dollop of unsalted butter, thinking that that might help them not to burn to my fav little flame-colored le creuset saucepan…

Then I added a shake of cinnamon so they would smell good as they cooked even if they didn’t turn into anything edible. Oh, and just a small squirt (like a tsp) of agave nectar for sweetening. And put the lid on.

As I cooked the soup I stirred it occasionally and noticed some softening of apples.

By the time the soup was done, the applestuff was a bit mushy. A quick zip with the immersion blender finished the job. Voila–the easiest-ever homemade applesauce! I served it in petite bowls with chopped locally-grown walnuts (hand-shelled by my brilliant bambinos) sprinkled on top. So sweet and tasty!

Next time I might add just a few drops of lemon juice to prevent browning. But this batch was eaten so quickly that it didn’t even have time to turn, so maybe that’s not even necessary….
🙂

Tanuki


Tanuki., originally uploaded by mind on fire.

The furry sweetie who lives at grandmaR’s house and kept us cozy over the holiday weekend!

I should add that this kitty is half-siamese and half-mystery (his pure-bred mother got out and wandered the neighborhood and came home pregnant). He is so soft and beautiful and lovey-cuddly.

I’m cookin’ now…

Today I flirted with the cult of domesticity. After filling a huge bag of dented and squishy organic persimmons (50 cents/lb, my friends) at the Farmer’s Market, I brought them home and commenced to figuring out some persimmon recipes. I know I could probably just chunk and freeze them for shakes (yum), but I thought I’d scout around for a few good recipes instead. What I ended up making: Persimmon scone cookies and Persimmon Freezer Jam. Both turned out so outstandingly that I have to share my recipes with you…

Persimmon Scone Cookies
* 1.5 cup pureed ripe persimmons (about 1/4 lb)
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 egg
* 1 cup white flour
* 1 cup wheat flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup chopped pecans (note: taste just fine w/o nuts or with walnuts, too)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease or line one baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
3. Cream the butter with the sugar. Beat in egg and persimmon puree. Add flour mixture and mix until combined, stir in the chopped nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Baking notes: Pureeing your persimmons is a breeze with one of these! You’ll have soupy sweet orange goo in about 5 seconds flat.

These are very cakelike cookies. I couldn’t decide if they were more like cookies, scones or flat muffins. If you try making them, let me know what you think!

Oh, and if your walnuts are the ones on the shell that you bought at the Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago and then realized that you couldn’t open because you have no nutcracker, have your kids open them with a hammer. And make your youngest wear your glasses from junior high to protect her eyes from flying walnut shell shards. And try not to giggle when you realize that she looks an awful lot like Sally Jessy Raphael in those hideous glasses.

Persimmon Freezer Jam
* 2.5 cups pureed persimmons
* 1.5 cups sugar
* 1/8 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
* 1 pinch ground nutmeg

In saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients. Boil for 30 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Stir constantly.

Cooking Notes: Do make sure that you keep up with the stirring part–when I left the pot unattended for about 30 seconds to wash some dishes, mine started burning on the bottom. Older kids make good stirrers–esp if you tell them that they can lick the jam pot after they’re done.

This jam tastes a lot like marmalade. It’s sweet, but the lemony bits cut the sweetness just enough to make the flavor a bit complex and interesting. You’ll love it. Seriously.

happy hannukah…

A vid from last year of duet with GameBoy and his cello teacher. The sound on this clip was compressed a bit funnily so it doesn’t exactly match the cello playing. But it’s a lovely piece of music anyways, I think. You can also get a little view into what Christmas looked like in our 650 sq ft apartment. 🙂

Ready to roll


Ready to roll., originally uploaded by mind on fire.

Our CatGirl on her bike on a day that’s (surpisingly) cool enough for a fleece jacket. Biking is our main form of transportation around here and her old garage-sale-BMX bike will be replaced soon, I suspect. But I love that it still gets her where she’s going. 🙂

fall


abandon, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

The leaves here don’t really change colors like in the colder areas of the country. Rather, they just turn brown and die during the Santa Ana winds.

But they still make for a fun photo opportunity. I love how GameBoy’s arms look super long and strong as he throws up his bundle of leaves.

TV-Free

I’m going to start this post off with a lie. The lie is that we don’t have a TV.*

We are often asked why our kids are so amazing and smart. Though some of it is probably due to good genes, it is quite possible that much of their intelligence, curiosity, and good behavior is the result of our not having a TV.

When John and I married, we decided that we wouldn’t own a TV. We felt that TV was just a waste of time. We’ve stuck to that resolve except for a short 6 month period when I was pregnant with CatGirl and my grandma insisted on giving us a large spankin’-new television set. In our brief TV era we enjoyed a lot of PBS programming, including such classics as Bill Nye and The Big Comfy Couch. But after the baby was born we sold the TV to the neighbor and quickly settled back into our sans-TV lifestyle.

Yet we haven’t completely deprived ourselves of TV programming. Over the years we’ve occasionally rented TV shows from the library or from netflicks. For awhile we watched movies via a VCR hooked up to our computer. Now we watch via DVD. I think my kids have seen every episode of The Magic SchoolBus and WishBone. I can’t think of any other series that they’ve watched in its entirety.

There have been a few times that our TV-free life has been socially awkward. But now with youtube we can watch all the funny bits of most shows (and with no commercials!). And I’ve experienced many shows vicariously through re-tellings from friends (e.g. I feel I’ve watched every episode of Seinfeld simply through various watercooler-talk references and not through actual watching of the show).

I’m sure that there are plenty of brilliant TV-watching kids out there. And I’m sure that a TV-less lifestyle has probably hindered our kids socially a bit. But there’s something completely satisfying about the fact that my kids have wanted very few toys or cereals or any such thing simply because they’ve never seen or heard of them. We’ve filtered much of their media exposure and they are the better for it. I suspect that when they leave home they may go through a kind of TV orgy period. Indulging in such entertainment 24/7. And I’ll roll my eyes and tell them that I thought they’d learned better than that. But secretly, inside, I’ll be smiling at their mini-rebellion. And I suspect after the novelty wears off, that their homes will be TV-free, too (if there even is such a thing as TV in their futures).

*Full disclosure: We actually do have a TV–given to us by one of John’s coworkers. We use it for playing Taiko DrumMaster and Dance Dance Revolution. We’ve never used it to watch any kind of TV programming. In fact, I wouldn’t even know how to hook the thing up to receive cable although we get it for free where we live.

all dressed up…


Here’s how John and I ended up looking at JourneyGal’s Halloween bash last night. I never found any vampire teeth so I went as a goth gypsy. 🙂 And I should, of course, mention that this is one of the very few times you’ll see me in make-up. I typically only wear it for Halloween and I only dress up every few years. It’s always such a surprise to see myself with dark smudges at my eyes and with red-stained lips.

John, a priest, won the costume contest along with a friend who dressed as a pregnant nun. Very cute photo op with the two of them together! GameBoy dressed as a ninja and CatGirl was a cat (no surprise there!).

Sam took this pic–his awesome camera made me green with envy even under all that makeup….

hot & cold


Hey!, originally uploaded by mind on fire.

Today it was ghastly hot. Santa Ana winds with the smell of ash & smoke on the air. Nearly 90 degrees. We went to the library after the beach and a woman there got a citation from the police for leaving her dog outside–it was so hot that the dog’s health was endangered.

Unbelievable for nearly-November! And the predictions are that it will near 100 degrees by mid-week. Oh my!

But despite the heat outside, the Pacific waters were cold on my toes! In this photo John captured my grimace as the water came up to my calf and it was a kind of delicious pain. 🙂