Tumbleweed Friends

Two of my most favorite people from the windy state of Wyoming tumbled over to the Peninsula for a short visit.

woodin'

A few weeks ago, Justin and I discovered that downtown Port Angeles (consisting of about 2 blocks) has more antique stores than you can shake a stick at. It sort reminds me of that stand-up routine about some guy coming out of a Starbucks to find another Starbucks directly across the street from him. I know this is a different situation; each antique store had a distinct feel and focus based on its owner's fancies. One had lots of beautiful old cigar boxes, one had marbles, one had Nazi military paraphernalia, and each had a sweet person behind all the "junk".

We were on search for a table for our new computer set-up. The rainy day adventure was fun, but we came home empty handed. I'm quite glad we did.

My awesome husband built a table using some gorgeous forest-scented logs that have been hanging in our yard for some months--mostly cedar, I think. Not only did he design and construct the table with limited sketching and planning, he did all of the woodwork WITH A CHAINSAW. Sure, the neighbors may not have been too delighted with his tool of choice, but I am really amazed at that evenness and accuracy that he achieved. Take a look.

A love affair with winter squash...

So, each year, I experience a love affair with winter squash--all shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and flavors. I challenge you to come up with a piece of produce that has such cartoon-like appearances and names: sweet meat, sugar pie, Cinderella, gold nugget, Hubbard, butternut, carnival, spaghetti, dandy, delicata!

I digress...a love affair. It starts out oh, so exciting! In fact, I can get a bit obsessive; ask Justin about the many afternoons that I would come home from Nash's or the Johnston's with armloads of the giant, awkward, weighty, orbs with a huge grin on my face. I had visions of pies, casseroles, smoothies, sweet treats, savory delights dancing through my head, and, heck, if I didn't use them all right away, they would decorate our kitchen with the essence of fall.

Well, as the newness of my squash love affair begins to wear off by December, I become a bit exhausted and overwhelmed by the presence, copious presence, of it in my kitchen and life. Some of the colorful piles begin to sag and, dare I say, rot. I sheepishly run a few moldy ones to my compost pile--not even trying to salvage parts of it.

However, this week, I realized that the bounty of winter squash is nearing its end. I will have to wait until next fall to munch on roasted seeds and fill our kitchen with their sweet aromas. So, once again, for a meal or two, I cherish the essence of winter squash.

I can easily say, that Delicata is my FAVORITE variety. It looks like a chubby albino cucumber and, most excitingly, can be cooked and eaten with its skin on! No near misses with knives; just chop it up and roast it or add it to a veggie saute--skin and all. So, below, is a dish that features the Delicata as the main event. Enjoy.

NUT-STUFFED DELICATA
(From Vegetarian Times)

3 TBS butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
1 TBS. chopped fresh sage
1/3 c. each of walnuts, almonds, pine nuts
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. shredded cheese
2 delicata squash, halved and seeded

1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a skillet and saute onions, garlic, and salt until onions are clear. Add sage and nuts, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, eggs, and cheese. Stir in nut mixture.
3. Divide stuffing between squash halves and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake until tender and browned on top--about 45 minutes.

What's your personal mission statement?

its a grilled cheese kind of day.

Be a can opener in the supermarket of life.
- mission statement of Tom Robbins

Yesterday, I started a 5-week nature illustration class through Peninsula College. I will be learning to use colored pencils to draw "all things nature". I had the expectation that it would be focused on botanical illustration. Yesterday we drew ducks. Next week, the theme is pets. That said, I learned a lot about color in the first 2 hours and the instructor is also into botanical illustration, so we'll see where the next 5 weeks take us. If you receive a drawing of a duck, cat, deer, or chicken, don't be too surprised.

After the class, I was really excited to have started exercising the artistic side of my brain again. I called home to Illinois to express this glee. My mom remarked about all of the art projects of mine that still reside in a corner of the basement and how much I had always loved being creative. Its not that I have stopped using the artistic side of my brain, but in the last few years, I have really focused on learning the "science" behind the natural world. Naturally, that side of my brain has been more involved in interpreting the world around me. Recently, I've starting writing (okay, blogging) and drawing again. I feel like a part of me is waking up.

Today, I remembered that when I finished my first year at EarthCorps, I had an exit interview with my supervisors (now friends), Bob and Tokya. During the meeting, I unveiled--with such clarity--my personal mission statement. I saw it as something that would help guide me through my endeavors of life; something that I could look to when I needed a reminder of where I wanted to put my energy:

Connect people to one another and to the earth through food.

Those words still resonate within me. They don't paint a picture of a specific career or lifestyle, but they do serve as a general guide.
Hearing strangers connect to one another over a shared love of regional favorites (casseroles!), seeing people laugh and connect at a potluck or while cooking up a big meal, sharing family recipes and traditions with new friends, seeing people so grateful for the bounty that the land offers up year round, learning the ripening schedule and flavors that all of the native (and super invasive) berries have to offer, cautiously collecting stinging nettles with friends with visions of pestos and teas, seeing people deeply appreciate the farms and restaurants that work with the seasons...

What connects us to the earth more directly than the food that comes from it?
What nourishes our connection to one another and our own family histories like coming together to eat?

What is your personal mission statement?

Oh, my Yummy

Is it soup season or what? I think so. Its also the season of root vegetables, lots of them. They're great roasted, mashed, grated in slaws and hash, and, of course, in soup. This soup has just a few ingredients and is a whiz to make. I made some last night before yoga class in 20 minutes. When I got home, Justin had made rice and sauteed greens to go with it. A fine winter feast!

Carrot Ginger Bliss

7-10 Carrots
1 piece of ginger (about the size your thumb)
1 leek
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 can of coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil and add carrots and peeled ginger. Let them boil until veggies are tender, not mushy (al dente). Reserve cooking water.
2. While veggies are boiling, saute chopped leek and garlic in butter.
3. When carrots and ginger are tender, place in a food processor with sauteed veggies with some of the cooking water. Puree.
4. Add 3/4 can of coconut milk and some of the cooking water to get soup to the consistency that you desire.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Garnish with cilantro.

Ponderings.

Hanging out and contemplating life with "Energy" the cat at Pacific Crest Farm on Vashon.

So, as the heart of winter and my limited work schedule leave me a bit of time to explore the wrinkles of my brain, I keep going back to questions like:

"What drives me?"
"How do I express that in my professional life?"
How do I express that in my personal life?"
"Why is a bun a bun?"

You know...simple questions--the kind that we like to let slip back into to the brain wrinkles from which they emerged. Being the reason-oriented thinker that I am, I decided to do some Internet-based research to address such questions. Turns out, lots of us are asking those questions--in varying words (duh, Jill).
Turns out, in the last few years, as the economy has changed and as lifestyles have changed with shifts in technology, globalization, and general passage of time, some folks are starting to refer to a phenomenon called, "The Quarter-Life Crisis".
Just like brown is the new black--or something like that-- the quarter-life crisis is the new mid-life crisis.
It even made its way onto wikipedia!

Well, I've determined that the Internet doesn't necessarily have the answers to my own questions (surprising, i know); it was interesting to find that a certain twenty-thirtysomething generation may be experiencing varying degrees of these same brain wrinkle questions. Actually, I question whether or not it is really a generational experience or if its just a human experience that portions my age-group have more time to explore, because many of us don't have kids, jobs, and such to fill up most of our brain wrinkle space.
Regardless, I'm pretty lucky to have a great community of family, friends, and things that grow in the soil to support me in these moments of reflection. I'll keep you updated on any universal answers that I find and you, invisible Internet folks, do the same!

Mad About Kraut

Justin and I found an awesome ceramic crock at our local everything store, Swains, so, I got a little overzealous with kraut making this year. We ended up with 3 GALLONS of magenta-colored sauerkraut (I mixed green and purple cabbage). I made it the traditional way: lots of pounding, adding salt, and letting it ferment and scent our kitchen in the heat of late summer. Instead using traditional caraway seeds, I added fennel seeds to aid digestion of the potent delight. It turned out great, but in far too copious a quantity for our bellies. I've given a lot away, but now we're starting to run low and ration it.

Anyway, my co-worker at Nash's, Ellen, set me up with a great recipe. This is a casserole (!) for sauerkraut lovers and non-lovers alike.

Escalloped Apples au Gratin
from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen

Preheat oven to 375F

1 2# can sauerkraut
6 heaping cups peeled, sliced tart apples (about 6-8 large apples'-worth)
2 Tbsp. Flour
½ tsp. Cinnamon
a dash of: cloves, nutmeg & salt
2 Tbsp. Honey
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 cup chopped onions
½ tsp. Dry mustard
½ # mild cheddar cheese, grated
¾ c. fine breadcrumbs
¾ c. finely-chopped walnuts or almonds

1. Place the sauerkraut in a colander or strainer, and rinse it well under cold tap water. Squeeze dry.
2. Toss together the apple slices, flour, and spices. Drizzle in the honey, and mix well.
3. Saute` the onions in the butter until clear and soft (5-8 minutes). Add the dry mustard and the sauerkraut, and cook another few minutes over medium heat. Remove from heat.
4. Take half the grated cheese, and combine it with the breadcrumbs and chopped nuts. Leave the other half of the grated cheese to stand alone.
5. Now for the fun part: in your buttered deep-dish casserole, make the following pattern of layers: 1st , a layer consisting of half the apple mixture; next, half the onion-sauerkraut mixture; 3rd, the plain, grated cheese; 4th the remaining apples, followed by the remaining onion/sauerkraut mix; and FINALLY, the nut-crumb-cheese topping! Cover, and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover, and 20 minutes more.

...With Great Resolve

I don't know about you (yes, you, invisible folks out there in the intra-web), but when I hear the phrase "new years resolution", I have two, quite polar, reactions in my brain.
1. bah humbug! Resolutions are too finite, too easy to feel like you've failed, too cheesy for me! No, sir, not for me.
2. Hmmm. Well, it is the dead of winter. What better time to stop, reflect, and think about how I want the coming year to be or how I want to be in the coming year. Yeah, lets do it....I'll make a list of 73 resolutions!

This year, while grappling with this internal brain battle, I decided to pick some Focus Points for 2010. 5 to be exact--I like odd numbers. Along with these focus points, I created "action items" to go along with my focus points. (Can you tell I'm a virgo?)

What are your thoughts on resolutions? What do you want to focus on in the coming year?

My Focus Points
1. Be more aware of the meaningfulness in each day (moment).
2. Stay in better touch with my loved ones.
3. Get my budget in line.
4. Continue to pursue personal growth/challenges.
5. Take time/energy to play and grow with Justin.

Happy New Year

So, when new years eve falls on not just a full moon, but a BLUE moon (2 full moons in a month) with a lunar eclipse to boot, I sense this coming year is going to be a wild ride. In preparation to ride this wave of "twenty-ten", justin and I celebrated news years eve on Vashon Island with our friends, Jen and Bob. Jen is managing Pacific Crest Farm on the island. So, the trip was a great opportunity to explore this gorgeous farm with some sweet humans. The farm was originally owned by a man named Pete for some 40 years or so. He planted orchards of apples, asian pears, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and kiwi(!). So, we got to reap the benefits of Pete's (and now Jen's) hard work. For our new years dinner, we whipped up a fantastic meal.
- Chestnut Soup
- Roasted Brussel Sprouts with hazelnuts
- Kiwi Pie

I have to say that the soup was the hightlight.....then again, maybe it was the pie. Anyway, here's the soup recipe. Chestnuts are so sweet and creamy after they've been roasted that cream would be overkill.

Simple Chestnut Soup

10-20 roasted chestnuts
3-4 TBS. butter
1 onion
1 leek
3-4 cloves of roasted garlic
4 c. veggie stock
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and leek in butter in a soup pot. When clear, add chestnuts, garlic, and stock. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Puree in small batches. Season to taste. Serve with bread, parsley, and a fine microbrew.

Although, it was an overcast evening, the warm breeze blew the clouds around enough to give us a peep at the full moon. We attempted to check out the eclipse at 11:13pm, but it turned out to be quite challenging because a) Jen and I were having trouble staying awake and b) apparently the eclipse was really only visible in parts of Africa and India. Oh well, the peep at the moon was well worth it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WINTER VACATION

We live about a 20 minute drive from Hurricane Ridge -- part of Olympic National Park. During the winter time, the Ridge is open for winter wonderland-esque activities. On a particularly cloudy day in Port Angeles last week, we drove above the clouds to the sun and snow. We snowshoed out to Klahanie Ridge with our snowboards on our backs--sounds hardcore, i know. Actually, it was too hardcore for me, so I took some sweet photos of Justin "shredding".

Pretty Paper

In my mind, Christmas truly began when we received a little brown package in the mail on December 23rd. I saw that is was a CD and started exclaiming, "Please be Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper, Please be Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper!" It was. To date, I would guess that we have listened to the album 20-30 times--probably 15 on Christmas day alone.

Christmas day was relaxing and lovely. We spent a leisurely few hours opening all of the gifts from our family and from one another, ate a hearty breakfast, and attempted to go snowshoeing. Turns out we didn't reach snow until about 3500 ft. in elevation, but we found some SNOW to make it feel like Christmas. We finished the evening with dinner out at the local Pho Restaurant--a throwback to my family's tradition of Chinese on Christmas Eve.
A few choice photos from the day:

THE CAT



HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO FAMILY


JUSTIN GOT ME NEW RAINGEAR



...AND AN AWESOME TEAPOT



THEN WE WENT OUT TO PLAY