California, I wish I could tie a string around your waist and pull you behind the plane. Just a little closer to your sunshine, my wonderful family, your vast coastline, and, of course Lily's Chinese food on Hopkins street.
For Christmas Tyler gave me the most fantastic gift; a ticket to fly down to Berkeley, to surprise my dad on his birthday. What a gift! I felt like a lizard on a clear afternoon-- pointing my nose to the sun; soaking in enough family and vitamin D to get me through the rest of winter.
Ice Plants in bloom; invasive species, but so beautiful I almost forgive them.
As if the weather gods got a little tipsy last night, and decided to stir things up, quite suddenly, with no rhyme or reason, we've been thrown a snow day. I'm sure they also prank called the pizza guy.
Something about this particular snowy January morning; I woke up at 4:30am to the sound of Violet reading a book to herself over the monitor. I went in her room, put her back to sleep, greeted Chowder in the hallway, then glanced out the window.
Snow. The purest morning snow I have ever seen. Gently resting over bakery wires, fallen branches, Violet's turtle sandbox.
Such a clean and crisp pillow slip, fresh and unfolding.
Forgiving.
For a good two hours I lay in bed just thinking about that perfect surface. As if life, this morning, was starting from scratch. And how funny that soon, very soon, all the little people would venture out of their houses, bundled in boots, and start stepping around, watching their own footprints in amazement, as if starting fresh in an untouched world.
How easily we make a trodden mess of such a given peace. How fast we all become kids again. Even you; You and you who don't like kids. You too, I saw you, run for your sled in jubilation, without a care in the world, up the hill with the rest of them.
Snow Cat
Chowder Cat
The journey to gasworks.
This red sled was broken and next to the trash. So we took it.
This is Chowder. He is an eleven-month Siamese mix rescue kitty, and he is ours! He was completely unexpected, and everything we hoped for; I can't believe how lucky we are.
When we started looking, I realized that I am very picky about my cats (almost in a lunatic way). Also, I realized that cat people are a bit crazy. We went to this one adoption event on Friday night, and it was an absolutely horrible experience. Tons of people packed into this tiny overheated pet store with that pet store smell and that pet store clutter of jingle toys and rodent wood chip blocks. It felt a bit like picking out a wedding gown in one of those stuffy posh stores (strange comparison, I know), but they wouldn't just let you browse the available cats-- they had to give us the once over, ask us a few questions about our household, and give Violet the stink eye a few times-- and then they brought out the only two cats (out of about 50) that we were supposed to love and apparently be idiots not to adopt because they fit our bill on paper.
Well, I do know that these rescue places have very very good reasons to be picky about who they adopt to. But really, I wasn't about to adopt a pet that way.
We were feeling a bit discouraged after looking a few places and not really connecting with any of the animals we met. BUT, then on Saturday we stopped by Kitty Harbor. It's this rescue place in West Seattle that hosts adoption events for various foster groups every so often. We weren't really expecting to find anything, but we needed to get the bad taste out of our mouths after our experience with the other place.
Here you can see the bite mark that has been treated on his face.
Before we even went inside, I saw through the gate this beautiful siamese cat wandering around inside their patio area. When we got in, there he was, just like another human visitor, walking around, looking at all the other cats in the cages. Greeting everyone. Very friendly. I immediately thought this must be the resident cat who lives here; not up for adoption. He was big. Not a teensy kitten like the others. And, although he was by far the most beautiful and friendly cat in the entire place, nobody was really paying much attention to him. Sadly, I think most people going to these events really just are looking to adopt a kitten and nothing more. And, honestly, if there had been a tiny little siamese kitten there, I too probably would have been.... distracted. Who, after all, can resist a kitten?! But as it was, he kept our attention. Demanded it, actually. And was not freaked out by Violet or the passing trains or the other cats whatsoever. He seemed like he was enjoying the party!
So, I started to ask the volunteers about him, and this is what I got:
He's not yet 1; still very much a kitten in heart, just not in size. He's BIG! He showed up at a garage sale; a stray with bad bites on his face. (We have found so many great things at garage sales over the years!) He loves everything and everyone. Soon, we came to the realization that our new cat had found us. So, we took him home.
It took him about 30 seconds to adjust to his new home. He absolutely adores Violet, and plays with her appropriately (meaning, very eagerly and energetically but gently; not in the frenetic attack style that many young kittens do). He loves attention, but I think won't be quite as needy as Moon always was, which I think is a good thing for this phase of life we're in now. He is quite silly. He loves to lie on the carpet with his legs stretched out behind him, just like a big dog.
And, he loves to hang out with me while I paint in my studio.
Life, my friends, continues in a lovely and warming way with our hearty Chowder in Seattle.
My mother spent the last year putting together a new Family Cookbook for all of us. It's kind of a family thing we do every 10 years or so. My extended family is flowered with many wonderful cooks, and having a book of everyones' favorite recipes is a true treasure.
Anyway, I have begun to cook from it, and I thought those of you in the larger interweb world might like to try a recipe or two or three from it once in a while.
Here is one that I tried last night. It's my mom's Mystery Lemon Cake. This "cake" is indeed very mysterious. First of all, I have no idea where my mother got this recipe (maybe she can chime in and solve that mystery)... secondly, the way that this "cake" actually becomes a cake is completely mysterious to me. You make this soupy lemon egg mixture, with very little flour, and fold in some egg whites, and somehow, through the chemistry and magic of baking, this dessert comes out of the oven that has cake on top and pudding on the bottom. Very mysterious. Even yet more mysterious is how easy this thing actually is to make, and yet it still turns out very very awesomely good (and impressive, I might add!)
Mystery abounds!
Here is a very mysterious song to get you in the mood for cooking this mysterious pudding-cake.
Lemon Mystery Cake
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 Tb grated lemon zest
2 egg yolks
2 stiffly beaten egg whites
Preheat oven to 350.
Blend flour, sugar, and salt. Stir in zest, juice, egg yolks, and milk.
Fold in egg whites.
Pour into 1 qt. baking dish or 6 custard cups, and set in a pan of hot water (1" deep). -- this step is very important, as this thing cooks like a custard.
Bake 40-50 minutes (until golden brown on top).
It should be cake on the top with lemon custard on the bottom.
For Christmas, Tyler made Violet a dollhouse. It is wooden and quite beautiful in its simplicity; 3 floors, a roof, and just enough walls to give the impression of house without too many corners and details to get in the way of little hands.
But, let me begin again---
Have you heard of this store The Land of Nod? They have lovely toys. Too lovely for our price range, normally. But man is their stuff nice. Flashing lights and plastic is edited out of most of their things;
an indie-yuppie mom could go bananas in that store.
Well, anyway, we had been thinking of a dollhouse type thing for Violet for a while, and of course I found the most perfect one at Land of Nod with the most perfect little wooden dolls and wooden dollhouse furniture. But the price of the house was just a little too high....
So, somewhere in between dissertation writing, teaching, preschooling, etc..... my crafty and coffee-fueled husband was able to find a moment or two to recreate this gorgeous little house for our daughter.... and then the grandparents organized buying various pieces of furniture and dolls so that the little dolly home could be complete.
In the past week, Violet's little dollhouse has had many visitors; a barrage of tiny rubber cats, little people, and lego safari animals can often be found occupying the main living area. She has a little Dora The Explorer doll who seems to have become the live-in waitress, serving tea to everyone night and noon. The daddy doll is almost always on the toilet, and the mommy (I am happy to say) is often sleeping in the top of the bunk bed, under a crisp pink blanket.
Usually Ernie and Burt can be found in the bath tub, and poor Violet is constantly having to switch all of the furniture around daily to make room for a party or, of course, a parade coming through. The little boy doll came with a back pack, and so he is usually going off to India or Paris, and the refrigerator is stocked full of dried split peas.
Heading steady through the first week of 2012.
Woke up this morning to a bit of a head cold, and a beautiful urban sunrise. Ok, January, I see you.
To give credit where it's due, no month feels quite like this one; with such a distinguishable personality; cool, quiet, clear-- reflective-- after the indulgence of December.
Back in Seattle from a most wonderful California Christmas. I was severely lazy with the camera this trip, but let me tell you, Tyler and Violet and I have had one party after another for the past couple of weeks--
a tamale-making party, a Hanukkah dinner, a Swedish Smorgasbord, a pea-soup party, an enormously full Christmas day with my four brothers and their multitude of kids, two Chico parties with friends and family, a party for the Cal bowl game, late night drinks with friends, two separate birthday parties, and a few more festivities thrown in between the cracks....
So much overwhelming love from family and friends who we miss every single day. We even got to meet some new fabulous friends-- Lark's Michael, and Emilia's Louie. Our roots hold strong and deep in the Bay. A dose of Berkeley, backed with the love from over 50 family members is like eating a cup of stew, or swallowing some earthy tea-- very rejuvenating-- just what we need to face January, February, March-- gray and dark and chilly and quiet in Seattle.
Here is something fun--
...All the Who girls and boys
Would wake up bright and early. They'd rush for their toys!
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
Thank you so much to everyone for making our Christmas so special-- Mom, Dad, Michael 1, Mary, Kenneth, Joseph, Daisy, Luke, Rose, John, David, April, Laura, Michael 2, Jessica, Pete, Jen, Vicki, Tim, Sammy, Kavita, Samir, Sanjay, Auntie Jean, Uncle Bob, Ruthie, Fred, Jenny, Kevin, Greta, Vera, Elizabeth, Linnea, Richard, Lark, Michael 3, Emilia, Louis, Jeremy, Erin, Andy, Lucenna, Pamela, Roy, Patty, Dick, Alison, Takashi, Airi, Diana, Alan, Sen, Elena, Hilary, Joey, Monroe, Carol, Andrea, Jason, Annalise, Vivian, Henry, Ben, Julie, Marshal, Brian, Chris, Dan, Aunt Mary, Uncle John, Ryan, Ariel, Steven, Nicole, and the list goes on....
California, I wish I could tie a string around your waist and pull you behind the plane. Just a little closer to your sunshine, my wonderful family, your vast coastline, and, of course Lily's Chinese food on Hopkins street.
