Christmas Day Party 2011 Part 2 Food at the Party!

 Food Arrives to the 12 foot Kitchen Island

As the guests arrived we had a magnificent array of food on the island. The Food Arrives to the 12 foot Island We had appetizers that included marinated asparagus, my personal specialty, French cheeses, including a baked brie, and a firm white cheeze, sweet pickled peppers (say that 5 times quickly), rolled pretzels dipped in white peppermint, a new recipe that I downloaded,refrigerated cauliflower pickles, black olives, several kinds of crackers and salmon dip, and samosas from Reza's mom. I know I have forgotten a few members on the appetizer spread so please forgive me. As always you could pretty much live off the first course. This is a family that loves to cook and bring so we celebrate that too on this day! The dinner menu included corned beef and cabbage, white sauce enchiladas, mac and cheese with tomatoes, and ham by the master ham maker, Robert. Kelly had a couple of requests for her red oriented jello, and mom brought the green salad. Mikie brought a delightful fruit salad and someone brought some beautiful roasted purple potatoes and broccoli. A wonderful chicken and rice casserole showed up on the counter as well as many special Iranian dishes. We had quite a spread. If you couldn't find some that you could eat on that spread, then you just were not into eating that day.

We all found spaces at the tables and we had great conversations. Suzy had a chance to get out her little Christmas dessert plates and people had a chance to visit the food table and the people next to them for a nice period of time.

The Lovely Lemon Throw Down Begins

The cry went out for the lemon throw down competition to begin. The table was cleared and Linzi summoned the four neighbor judges. Each entry was given a number and four portions each of the eight entries were lined up on the table. There was super lemon cake, and lemon ginger cookie sandwiches. There also was lemon bars, and lemon bunt cakes. We had lemon cupcakes with penuche frosting and lemon cornmeal cookies. Someone brought lemon rosemary cookies and lemon marsh mellow whipped cream wedges. The judges had some tough decisions. We watched them as they poured over the entries. They seemed to delight in their task... but it was difficult. One judge asked if the batters had to be homemade. Comments were made on the judging cards and the judges were able and happy to scoop up their portions and take them with them back to their Christmas celebrations next door.
 A bit of panic spread among the contestants. Some of them had forgotten the number that was assigned to their masterpieces. A quick run down with the judges provided content to the numbers that they were judging,

Wanda Brown Wins!

A The winner of the contest was my mom. She won with her lemon bar recipe that used Meyer's lemons and was both delicate and textural in its lemon interpretation. Some people were a little disappointed because they were sure that theirs would win. In the end we all won as there was plenty of lemon dessert for Christmas dinner. Some were made in a team effort. Some were a solo concept piece. All of the contestants which represented all of the major families,  had a new conversational piece. How was yours made? Compliments were handed out to people that do not usually do any baking in their family but rose to the occasion with an entry.
Kelly felt her entry was vindicated even though it didn't win, because Suzy spent 10 minutes attacking her cake with a spoon and loving every bite. Overall the contest was a great successs!

At the end of the contest there was rumblings about what the contest would be next year. Would it be chocolate or maybe coconut? Or will it change to a general category like side dishes? Some people in our family have nut allergies so that should be figured into planning next year. I really think that there is a next year with this idea.

Love and Peace to your all! : ) Pat

Christmas Party December 25th 2011 Part One

Chair and Table Placement for the Event

My sister thinks that this tale should be told in about three entries. Optimistically I start with the first.
We remodeled our home a few years ago. We added a new kitchen and this allow for a breakout area with an island between the dinning room area and the kitchen. For most of the year this area is under used. The island itself has a drop down shelf that allows for two chairs to set and eat facing each other. A third chair may be added in the pass through area so that a third person could sit with us and have dinner. Originally it was thought that it would serve as a spot that Sue could sit and help prep veggies for dinner and not have to stand up through the process. It is covered as is all the kitchen counter surfaces with porcelain tile. Hot plates may be set anywhere on the counter with heat immunity.

Site Prep

The first order of business besides planning this event was to clear off the island and put the items that were piled on the island to there natural.
Suzy my wife started out by decorating the dining room table from one end to the other with red plaid table cloths and candles run by tiny batteries. Our new kitten, Oliver, thought that was great fun to rumple up the table cloth and skid from one end to the other, leaving in his wake a wave of place cards and silverware!.
We also started counting the number of spots that would be occupied by the family. The count turned to 15.

Lindsay, the youngest daughter, suggested that we should work to the idea that everyone should have a seat at the table. Last year, she and her husband ate their Christmas dinner on the kitchen couch because there were not enough spots at the table for them. So to remedy that, I bought in the long table that was being used for canning in the summer. It had spent the summer and the fall getting dirty in the backyard. I scrubbed and cleaned off all of the black mold that had accumulated and a dust and dirt that had blown on to the table.

Sue had anticipated using the table so a matching plaid tablecloth was available for its use. We resolved that issue as to whether the table would be positioned at the T formation of parallel. The T formation with complete sides was agreed upon and decorated accordingly. We needed to use the head spot on the table to accommodate our numbers but we did not need them parallel as it would lead to difficulty in accessing the island as a buffet surface.

Invitations were sent to each family. I had some watercolor based cards that I could quickly make a Christmas tree with my watercolors. We figured the time schedule, knowing that it would be adapted for the company that was to come. Our listed target time was 11:30 on Christmas day.  Breakfast materials and brunchy stuff would be out there for those arriving early. At noon we were to have enough of the starters so that people could nosh until the main courses could be heated and ready to hit the table at 1-1:30. Then we would start the special interest groups. As it worked out we were only a half an hour behind schedule. Good work family. Most of the participants had to travel 2 hours or more to get to our house.

Our family has a unique gathering activity post dinner. In the past we have tried a number of things. The family is pretty artistic and small craft projects have often been utilized. We have made Santa beards one Christmas. We have made tiny acrylic painting to set on tiny easels in another year. We have played games that were designed by some very creative game masters.

The Lovely Lemon Throw Down

This year we added a new wrinkle to the activities that interacted with the meal. After seeing some of the Bobby Flay throw downs on TV, I though that we should should see if we could put one together for all of the great cooks and bakers in our family.

In the TV throw downs, Bobby Flay goes out to a restaurant and challenges the cook to a contest to see if he could make an item as good or better than the one that the restaurant had built a reputation. Ours would have a different set of parameters. The group would be challenged if they decided to participate, in making one lemon dessert that would be judged against lemon desserts that other people would bring. The main idea was that it had to be a lemon dessert and it had to be made by the participant.

I put up a 50 dollar gift certificate to a fancy cooking store in the Bay Area as the winner's prize.
This year there was great participation. There were 8 diverse entries into this contest. A lot of buzz was generated in the family about "secret" entries. Some people were not keen about sharing their plans until the day of the contest, after the dinner was completed. I had asked one of the neighbors to come over and judge the contest. Lindsay thought that it would be great to have a few more than one judge. She knocked on the other neighbor's house and rounded up three more people to judge the contest. There were a total of 4 judges for this contest.

The judges were asked to put in order the top three entries. Three of the judges left copious notes as to what they were tasting and what they liked.

A winner was determined by the ranking of the top three. The winner did not win by unanimous decision but the winner was easily determined by the relative strength of the rankings. To find out who won..  check in with part two. 


   : ) Pat

Copper Spray on Dormant Peaches

Here are the directions for Liqui Cop, a Copper Based spray to prevent leaf curl in Peaches and Apricots
MIXING AND SPRAYING DIRECTIONS
Fill spray tank half full of water. Add recommended amount of LIQUI-COP. Add balance of water.
Using either a hose-end or pressurized hand sprayer, apply at the rate of one gallon mixed
spray solution to 200 sq. ft. of garden area or up to two gallons mixed spray solution to a
large tree. Thoroughly wet foliage to the point of runoff, taking care to cover all plant surfaces.
Agitate the container of mixed spray solution regularly during application to maintain an
adequate suspension.
3-4 Tablespoons per gallon. 

In the past I have been negligent in getting the peaches sprayed. It is kind of disheartening to arrive in the Spring when the leaves should come out and many of the leaves are severely distorted and buckled and then they dry out and are useless to the tree.

So.. this year they are getting the copper!
An old nurseryman said that your should spray to prevent leaf curl at every holiday.. it spaces it out about 2 weeks apart and enough spray gets on.  I have already missed the Thanksgiving spray.  This bottle says 2 sprays should be enough.. We will see.

: ) Pat

Going to Colorado for Christmas

One year we left the cheery confines of Northern California to venture East to experience Colorado Christmas in Palisade.
Gandma and Grandpa owned and lived on a 40 acre peach orchard farm. Formed from rocky sandy soil of a bench plateau from flooded ancient years of the Colorado River, this farm despite its rocks, was perfect soil for raising peaches.
In the winter the peaches slept in somber hibernated states. Gathering up the required hours of cold to allow for a perfect bloom season.
After school was out in California, our parents gathered us up. The us was a 4 year old sister and myself a post kindergarten 7 year old.
My sister screamed and cried when the giant passenger train released its breaks to slide into position in Oakland.
We had taken the ferry across the bay to board the California Zepher. it was known for its "vista dome." A huge upstairs addition to the cars, allowed the passengers the ability to"sight see" with its huge window and broad chairs. A version of it may be seen as part of the California Adventure entryway in Anaheim.
As a 7 year old this was as close to nirvana as it gets. There were steep steps to climb, there as a slight chance of some unsupervised freedom. There was a water dispenser with paper cone cups and a chance to see the landscape as the train moved along. These seats did not belong to any given passenger, They were"extra" seats.
Mom and dad were mostly staying in the home base seats on the ground level. My sister and I were amazed at the African American porters that serviced the rail cars. They cleaned and tidied up the living area. A conductor had a a little table in the back that he managed the ticket part of the journey. People would get off and on at various stops along the way. He marshaled the almighty hand punch that verified that the ticket was indeed used. He also made sure where the people that had stops along the way were seated. In the commission of job he had time to stop and converse with the passengers. Other passengers in a much more relaxed era than now could also converse with each other. Some people brought bags of snacks on the train.
Dinner reservations were obtained from the porters. A reservation was made for dinning car spots. They were all "make a table" arrangements which meant that you never knew whom you would be sitting with. The reservations for the earlier times, also came with menu choices that were less expensive. A favorite of mine was salsbury steak.
Salsbury steak is a thick hamburger/meatloaf entree that is covered with gravy and served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable.
The dinning car, which was usually in the middle of the train had seats that faced each other in a both arrangement. To get there, all passengers had to move from train car to train car through the noisy transition covers. These were particularly scary to a 7 year old. The transitional plates slid back and forth as you made your way from car to car. I was sure that my legs would be sliced off if I missed the plate as we stepped from car to car in this exciting transition. In the mean time the train was always sliding back and forth and the sound of the train being pulled down the track form the outside was imminently engaging.
The Western Pacific was the train route. It moved through the valley to Sacramento and then headed up the feather river route to cross the Sierras in a pass that was mainly for the train and not a heavily used car route. The Western Pacific railroad would take us all the way to Salt Lake City. At that point the Rio Grande railroad would hitch its locomotives to the Zephyr and head it East through Utah and into Colorado.
I remember the route as being full of pine trees. I was up in the vista dome when somewhere in the foothills we made a huge circle around and could see both ends of the train at once.
We rolled out of the Sierras at Pyramid lake. It is an ancient desolate lake. It connected us with the outskirts of Sparks Nevada where it was clearly dark and we were headed through the dessert into our middle of the night arrival in icy Salt Lake City.
Snow was on the ground most of the way from Sparks to Salt Lake City. Snow is not a regular visitor in South San Francico.. so this was an amazing thing to see for me.
More on the trip to Colorado in later installments:  Pat

Dungeness Cab

Growing up this was a family tradition,

When Grandma and Grandpa came out to spend Christmas with us they arrived about this time in December. They had packed their belongings and a steamer trunk full of apples and scooted on the California Zephyr. The trip took them out of down town Grand Junction in the rail yard. It was often snowy and icy most of the way to California.

They traveled by train because it was considerably less expensive than air travel. Just 24 hours later and a ton of snow upon the tracks they arrived at Jack London Square in Oakland ready to make the journey across the bay by ferry to the station at 4th and Townsend. This is a foggy unpredictable time in Northern California. It is not, however snowy. Which is another reason that the Grandparents would arrive to spend at least two weeks with us.

We were always excited to pick them up because it meant that school as out and our family events could occur. One of these events included a gigantic crab feed. We would go down to fisherman's wharf and Dad and Grandpa Bayard, known to his compatriots as BW, would pick out about 3 of the juiciest crabs they could find. If it wasn't busy, we would ask the man in charge of the pots to crack them up for us. A couple of fast cracks with a little wooden mallet and a quick wrap in butcher paper would have is headed back to the dinner. Mom would have a big pot of minestrone soup warming up on the stove and San Francisco sourdough french bread would be broken and consumed along with the picking through of the meat from the crabs and the steaming soup.

It was winter in the city and it was pretty nice. I think that one of my sister's didn't think that eating crab was proper. Mom and Dad had the perfect answer for this... all the more for the rest of us. The crab from the bay area when it is freshly cooked and right out of the cooking pots is very hard to beat. There as some in my family that prefer it to lobster... nope.. I won't tell you who.

Another memorable crab feed happened one time when we were visiting Kelly, my younger sister. She was living in Sebastopol. Every year the local grocery store has a knock down the doors special on fresh crab that comes from just over the hill in the sea based towns surrounding Jenner by the Sea. As a family we were gathered to support Heather as she was attending Santa Rosa JC nearbay. The call had come out from the grocery store adds that that weekend was the indeed the special dungeness crab special. Kelly got down there and nosed out a couple of people to bring back 4 wonderful crabs. We spread some newspaper on her dinning room table and we went to it. There was crab and crab shell all over everywhere until the last claw was investigated for remaining meat and we had completely had our fill of dungeness crab.

So tonight I bought a couple of fresh crabs (not frozen)from Costo.  I was thinking of these events as I was smashing claws and ferreting out joint meat on two specimens. Happy dungeness crab days.. its still a family tradition!
: ) Pat 

Kindle Fire

Sometimes you just have to make a move.

It should be consistent with who you are and what you like.

This household is a book reading outfit.

Linzi, our daughter, has been encouraging mom to get a kindle to do some of her book reading.
For me it is an extension of the tech stuff. So it didn't make sense to buy a Kindle that was out of date with the current technology. We have Wi Fi at home and didn't really want a bunch of advertisements to compete with the "reader" usefulness. I surprised Sue with a Kindle Fire.

General comments about it

1) The color is great on this device

2) Its a little heavier than you would expect for something like this.. but is significantly less cumbersome than a hard cover book or a large paperback book with pages falling out of their binding. It should and must compete in this arena to be of value to the "reader".

3) Its another Facebook reader..it will tap right into your existing account if you have a wifi set up at home with your dsl.

4) It cannot do two things at once.. like Iphones and Ipads. It cannot download 2 magazines in the background while you merrily read your book.

5) It has snappy performance when hooked up to its base wi fi network. If not, its a nice reader for travel. Do not expect it to "Facebook" or do other functions while traveling down the road.

6)It takes a lot more charging than the ordinary kindle.. but significantly less than an IPhone.

7) It will download your subscribed magazines using your subscription codes on the cover of your delivered magazines. We have subscriptions to both Time and People. People with its picture rich content will take about 30 minutes to download to your kindle.. but there it is .. in full color. Its pretty cool. I love the Time app. A subscriber may download as many as 5 previous issues for convenience of reading them anywhere in the house without trying to hunt down the physical magazine. Expect 20 minutes to download it to the Kindle Fire.

8) Amazon seems to always have a good deal in promo books to download to your Kindle. These are done fairly easily with one click on your computer. Then they show up magically on your Kindle ready for you to read.

9) I think that when I read in an article about the Kindle that it took 209 dollars for it to be made and that they were selling it for 199, it seemed like a great buy. We could decide where and when to get new books and products and have them effortlessly downloaded. Its sort of like the old Polaroid business model. Get them to buy the camera for cost or a little less than cost.. then make the money on the media. I have no problem with that since I can choose the media.. books.  It was also a great place to add value to our current subscriptions. It is a great place to see photos that we have in Flickr.. like new paintings.
____________
History

I have read one book on it so far.  "Little Blog on the Prairie" and it has worked out will for me. Sue is using it for Facebook and Huffington post especially when her Iphone is out of power. I think that she will warm up to the literary possibilities down the road.

I bought it early because I noticed that Best buy and the other chains were starting to run through their supplies for Christmas. They are all being sold for the same price.. so I bought it from Amazon and it arrived within 3 days without any extra shipping surcharges. Linzi happened to be here when it arrived. She was a little baffled with it because it was so different in form from her kindle. 

Overall its been a great "shared" Christmas present. Of course she is headed for a few other surprises from me for Christmas.

Tomato Mac n Cheese

The family gatherings are often about creating taste memories that can be relied upon through the years.

A modern throw back to an earlier year has us scrambling for plebeian food that started off as customary table mates on weeknights.

Growing up we often had mashed potatoes on the table to accompany the vegetable side dish to the meat entree. Often it was from a box, as it was "just easier."

And who could ever forget the ubiquitous blue box with the red stripe that mean Kraft brand mac and cheese?

Well, it ain't your mom's convenience food tastes that are powering the revival of such notables as the cup cake rebellion or the return to a home made version of mashed potatoes and mac n cheese on the celebratory tables around the country.

Here is the recepie from the "Best Country Recipes" (a subdivision of the America's Test Kitchen) that was very successful at the family Thanksgiving. By the way, don't expect to taste a large amount of tomato flavor in this. My daughters thought that I had thrown in red pepper instead of tomatoes. The heat comes from a very tiny amount of cayenne pepper.. and its not overpowering.

1tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of salt
1 pound of elbow macaronni
1 28 oz or 2 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
4 Cups half and half
1 Cup low sodium chicken stock
4 Cups of mild cheddar cheese (I used Costco's sharp)
2 Cups of shredded sharp cheese (I used a half of a block of Dubliners Irish Cheddar)
1 teaspoon of pepper

(My addition, on the advice of Uncle Bob) 1/2 package of Progresso Panko

1) Adjust the oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large Dutch oven  over high heat. Stir in one tablespoon of salt and cook until just al dente.. about 6 minutes. (I think that it might be good to cook it a little less than serving style al dente). Drain pasta and return to the pot. Pour diced tomatoes and their canned juices over the pasta and stir to cook. Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally and until most of the liquid is absorbed in the pasta.
2) Meanwhile, melt butter in a at least a 3 quart sauce pan over medium heat. Heat until frothy. Stir in flour and cayenne and cook until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in half and half and broth until smooth . Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the cheeses, one teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper until the cheeses melt. Pour sauce over macaroni mixture and stir to combine.
3)Scrape mixture into a 13x9 inch baking sheet. (Sprinkle the top with the panko) and bake until top begins to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let sit 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

The last time I made this I added the cayenne to the half and half. This may have allowed to it to survive the cooking over the heat process a little more. I think that it worked out well.
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As you can see it is not a 25 minutes and we will have a quick dinner sort of recipe. But it will make a large dish.. the recipe says will feed 8-10. For cooking for 2 this may mean mac and cheese for the rest of your life...::::Laughing:::::.

Closing the Ring- Movie

My Netflix delivered a great romantic movie last week.

The movie is Closing the Ring. It stars Shirley McLaine and Christopher Plummer. It was produced in 2007. Its a Richard Attenborough movie.  Setting splits its time between 15 years ago modern Dublin and Michigan, and pre World War II.

There is love shared by three guys and their girl. Only one gets to marry her. He dies with a promise from the others that will marry her if something should happen to the one that married her. The girl had only one true love and it was the one that was killed even though she married long after the first one's death, the friend.

Shirley McLaine puts on a great performance as the non grieving widow that has to face the discovery of the ring that is discovered by a young boy in war torn modern day Belfast.

The cinematography is great. Despite my description of it above, its pretty easy to follow.

I know that I am such a sucker for a good romantic movie. The recent crop of movies are pretty shallow compared to this one.  There are some pieces of this movie that are not well developed and come across as somewhat ironic pieces instead of adding much to the matrix of the movie.
If you have a chance to see this one, it is a pretty good movie.

New Painting Suzy at the Botanical Gardens

When we visited Hilo on Halloween this year, Sue, my wife and I took the ship excursion to the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens. You may be able to get a little more on this trip by backing this blog up to the Hilo day on the Hawaiian trip.

We took a group of photos that show a nice representation of the gardens.

My sister thought that photo that I took would make an interesting watercolor. The photo has Suzy lifting her arm above her head to get a photo. This is a common move with the small digital cameras that many people take on vacation. Suzy is wearing a big brown sun hat and is shooting from her wheelchair.
I started this painting in earnest about a week ago. Its a vertical which in many landscape circles is less preferred. I am doing it on a watercolor canvas instead of a piece of paper which is also less standard.

This subject is a good solid member of a series that I am making in watercolor canvases of people using their digital cameras to capture the photo. What adds to the interest is that the viewer of the painting also sees what the photographer is shooting.

My first one in the series was a painting I call the Puerto Vallarta Photographer. The painting captures a balding man photographing his wife/girl friend between two Mexican Dancers on the Malacon of Puerto Vallarta. Its a high tone number and just like this one, it has lots of elements to paint and to integrate.

Some of the issues that this painting entails include, is the painting about the photographer or the plants? The reference photo had her shooting a picture of a banana tree. We have banana trees in Merced. So the facts and the background around this photo and a painting coming from the photo would have made this subject not so interesting. I decided to change the subject that she was painting to a group of plants that looked like red spiders.

My art instructor thought that the Puerto Vallarta one would have been stronger if the images over lapped. They are in this one!

Another issue with this painting was the simplification issue. Watercolors by their design simplify the image and allow the viewer to participate in the collection of the "washes" into a more emotional charged design that captures the feeling rather than the detail that a photgraph allows.

Values and contrast manipulate the viewers eyes to move through the watercolor. This is easier to do in watercolors since the elements have been simplified by the artist first.The movement of values and contrasts has specific trends. An "s " shape movement is common as is a cross. High, medium and low horizons need to be considered. Since Suzy's arm rolls the eye up in an "S" shape, as long as the contrasts with the backgroud are appropriate, the eye will roll through the figure to the spider plants. The spider plants being red and contrasting to the green and grey background cements the eyes on to the background. So the painting will be more about the plants than the figure.

If you check out my flickr acount on the left you can see where I am in making this painting,  I still have more areas to consider. Sue needs a dress top. I also need to define the wheelchair a little more so that the wheelchair does not look like the bottom part of her dress. More toning needs to be done with the spider plants and a darker green needs to be introduced to give the plants a little more room for contrast and definition.

So far this painting has been fun to do do. In the large scheme of things that what it is all about!
: ) Pat