Chocolate Festival

The Squeeze was playing the 5th Annual Chocolate Festival down the street in Belmont Shores last weekend. Beth and I decided to check it out. More like conquer it with a vengeance. You can buy a book of 12 tickets for $10 and each chocolate masterpiece is alotted a different "ticket price". For instance, the enchiladas with Mole were 2 tickets (sooo yummy), but a piece of fudge with organic earl grey might be 1 ticket. There were TONS of people and eventually the chocolate ran out...people were giving away their tickets and only the hardy were left standing (no chocolate crepe left? that's fine, the homemade whipped cream with nutella and strawberries in a cup will be fine!) Oh yes, we learned a lot about a strategy for next year. Never again will we be left standing in line for 20 minutes for the best tasting, biggest freakin' velvet cupcake you've ever seen (even if it was in front of the headliner, my squeeze). I meant to photograph a lot more of the loot. But, um, well, we kind of ate it....

An Orange Poppy

Mom Harris' Stuffed Cabbage

Three things happened today:

1. The Squeeze was feeling under the weather.
2. A cabbage was ready for harvesting in the garden.
3. It was rainy.

So all things pointed to it being time to try to make his Mom's stuffed cabbage. It's one of his big childhood memory (seven kids diving into the cabbages, then just eating what was inside of them!). The Squeeze's sister-in-law Peggy was kind enough to send the recipe on. And his brother, Mike, was kind enough to track her down at the mall to answer my questions: did Mom Harris actually stuff these things with raw meat and onions? Um, yes. Well, too late for a two hour cooking session. I pre-cooked everything and just heated it up for an hour. I opted for the twist his Aunt Mary gave it, tomato sauce instead of tomato soup. While I resisted tweaking the whole thing in hopes it would be a comforting child memory, I did add some parsley and oregano from the garden.



Along with the harvest, I had to do some critter wrangling. A family of snails was living deep in my cabbage and I found a squirmy worm in the oregano and parsley. Again, apologies to Buddha, but the rest of the gardeners will be happy to know that at least five snails will not be feasting on their crops!


The (almost) final dish.... I also made two stuffed red peppers and the whole thing got smothered in the tomato sauce. He said it tasted like dear old Mom's, so while it wasn't something out of Julia Child's cookbook, it felt triumphant nonetheless!

Artwork by Emma

Needed a smile today.... So, I thought I'd post my favorite art piece. It currently hangs on one of the big beams in the loft. Right over an orange acoustic bass. Just makes me smile....

What if the mightiest word was love...

On this Amazing Inaugural Day:

There was joy....

There was hope...

There was bounty...


And there was poetry by Elizabeth Alexander who summed up a shift in paradigm, policy, philosophy:

What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Guardian Gnome

My neighbor's gnome which I've come to think of as my own garden's Guardian Gnome is feeling pretty "squashed" going into the New Year. The squash plant grew wide and huge and took over the garden. It had a lot of flowers, but almost no fruit. And what there was simply died on the vine. I fear it was too big for the small garden and as a result, not only is GG feeling the pinch, but so are the other veggies and flowers. I think they need more room if they are to fully bloom. So, tomorrow I will come to the rescue by chopping down the non-producing squash and give Guardian Gnome and the rest some breathing room. Then, hopefully, I can clear away some things of my own in order to gain some space for my own personal projects that are more likely to bear fruit as we head into 2009.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Bon Appetit!

Or not...

I promised The Squeeze that once I closed my office down for the year, I would dig into the storage unit and organize (okay, toss stuff). It's a generous sized storage unit given most lofts we looked at had no closets, never mind a storage unit right across the hall from our front door, but it's STUFFED. And, admittedly, most of it mine.

I've already cleared off one full shelf of old Bon Appetits, but have this pile to do today. I'm clipping the recipes I've used and ones I think look yummy. It's interesting how "out of date" some of the recipes feel (umm, I'm shocked? Look at the dates of those magazines!!). I don't look forward to Step Two which is organizing the clippings. But, I did have a thought for a new blog(!): Maybe I should make at least one of the clipped recipes a week to see if it is worth keeping....

Ironic: now that I have a six burner Viking stove, I have no room for the Bon Appetits!

When I get my i-phone

Pictures will be better than this!

What I love about Long Beach:

-- Today I shopped locally. Not only was a particular item for My Squeeze a better price than I found on the internet, it was 20% off and as a thank you for shopping locally I "won" a $5.00 gift card to Jamba Juice.
-- Other than that gift, I was able to get almost all handmade things, many made by local artisans, the rest fair trade and was always greeted by perky store clerks.
- There was no traffic holdup, even on the big main drag of 2nd Street in Belmont Shores. I LOVE no traffic.
-- A local bank sponsored all the parking meters to be free and I found a space in front of all three places I needed to go.
-- Really wonderful people I met at the organic community garden came by to pick up my baked goods for our garden bake sale at a local church. I never thought I'd ever say I had to make things for a bake sale in my city life.
-- And this: FLOATING CHRISTMAS TREES. I pulled off to the side of the road after The Squeeze's gig at a "Cheers"-like bar in Sunset Beach to take the picture. At BRIX, everyone knows each other, there was free food because the owner wanted to celebrate Christmas and people even had their kids there. How crazy is that?! Most importantly, I could pull over to take the picture because there was room on the side of the road, no permit parking, and just space. Space Space. So, I took pictures with my cell phone of the floating christmas trees while people walked their dogs, greeted each other and I realized that I live in a GREAT community.



And when I get my i-phone in April cell phone shots might actually be blog worthy!

Chrysalis...

This was the chrysalis I found clinging to my basil when I decided the season had passed for it. I found it too late, but put the leaf on the lantern above the other one. I didn't know if it needed the nutrients from the plant, but it seemed so close to coming out of its cocoon - the gorgeous gold bands running through it, the outline of its wings. I feared what the torrential rainfall would have done to it over the past week, but there it was, right where I placed it.

I worry, though, as it seems the Monarchs have been stretching their wings in the garden over the last two weeks or so, if this one is destined to make it to its beautiful butterfly stage. It was so close. It makes me sad and scared because sometimes I wonder if I'll ever make it to my butterfly stage, either.