Memorial Day Weekend, Part I

My mission of doing something new each weekend was fulfilled to the brim this weekend.

We planned to spend the long holiday weekend with friends in Bakersfield, a city in the valley, north of Los Angeles.

We had been there once before, but for a short one night stay, so really, we had never been there before to explore what it had to offer.

On the way there, we made one stop, and it was a cool one.

Mission San Miguel.

I love missions. I love the simplicity, the architecture, the hidden inner beauty. I have been to a few of them in California, and each one has its own charm. Mission San Miguel is just off of Hwy 101, but it's a rather humble site with few visitors.

We walked around the grounds, just enough to stretch our legs before heading to our destination: Bakersfield.

Six and a half

Our annual tradition.

Hap__ Birth__ to ___.

Hap__ Birth__ to ___.

Hap__ Birth__ dear___ and____.

Hap__ Birth__ to ___!

Half Birthday. Half song. Half cake.

We enjoyed the half celebration with a wholesome meal. Thanks, Amy, for introducing this to us three years ago!

Olive Oil-Rosemary-Lemon Cake

Here we go again.

Inspired by a recipe, but can't for the life of me follow the recipe.

In my defense, the recipe asked for spelt flour. And no offense to anyone, but whoever keeps spelt flour around the pantry, good on you! Not a chance over in this household, that's for sure, at least not yet. We have palm sugar, and condensed milk, but no spelt flour.

I had everything else the recipe asked for...and I almost did it. I followed the recipe despite the spelt flour (I just used unbleached flour for the whole thing). While I chopped up rosemary sprigs as the last ingredient, I glanced over at the fruit basket, and saw lemons. Fresh, organic, yellow lemons that were screaming to be grated and included in the cake. I succombed to their plea. And failed at following a recipe to its entirety yet again. Oh well...

It's rainy over here today, so the warmth of the oven, and the aroma of the baking cake, are most welcomed. Who knows, maybe we have a new favorite "recipe" on hand!

Summer thoughts

Summer is around the corner.

And for us, it's going to be another one on the road...at least for 3 weeks. And by road, I mean, I looooooog road from California, to Ohio!

We will be resting and swimming at lakes like these. Looking forward to seeing the country as a family! And I will blog as we go, that is, if I have access to the internet from the wilderness.

A New Outing

This marks the third weekend in my "need to do something new" mission before we leave California in one month.

The first thing we have to do was to think south instead of north (it's been our tendency to go north for beaches, state parks and the like).

It was not hard to find a place we had never ventured to in that direction. Just beyond Watsonville, arguably the agriculture capital of California, the coastline is also dotted with numerous state beaches. We settled on Zmudowski State Beach. Perhaps because of its name?

The day was sunny, but on the chilly side. We followed signs, driving by fields and fields of strawberries and artichokes (most of which end up all over the country, and beyond). Jim and I simultaneously remarked on how we felt like we were back in New Zealand, heading to a remote beach, a place we knew little about.

The road ends at Zmudowski State Beach with sand dunes blocking the views of the Pacific Ocean.

Just beyond the dunes, however, we were met with the ample deserted beautiful beach. It was windy, too, or should I say fresh (as the Kiwi would have described the day). Lots of treasures from the sea came home with us. It was a fun new experience: mission accomplished, for the weekend.

Tassajara Bread

I seem to be on a baking roll. An altering-baking-recipe roll. You see, one does not have to stick to a recipe, and the proof is in the pudding!

The other day, we ran out of bread in the house. We like our starch around here, so when we don't have rice, or bread, I go on a bit of a panic mode.

But why panic when we can make bread (not rice, unfortunately)?!

With most of our things still neatly packed in boxes that just went on a 4.5 month-cruise, I don't have any of my cookbooks. Most importantly, I did not have my Tassajara bread cookbook handy. But there is always Google!

Of course there was not just one simple bread recipe. I narrowed my search down to the basic 'Tassajara Bread' recipe, which again resulted in thousands of hits. I cross-checked and found the most trust-worthy one to settle with.

I looked at the recipe, and noted that I had everything except for whole-wheat flour. Was that a problem for me? NO! Not this altering-recipe kind of girl. I went ahead and used unbleached white flour...and added some rolled oats to it. The result...not bad. Not bad at all.

The recipe makes two loaves. The family happily ate those up in two days, which gave me plenty of time to go out and get some whole-wheat flour so that I could make the proper bread according to the recipe.

I still altered it a bit, using half unbleached white bread flour, half whole-wheat flour. And oh, we never have milk powder around here, so forget that ingredient (of course you should try to make it with, if you happen to have it around). This time, I had little hands to help me shape up some fun loaves. They were thrilled to eat their own loaves for lunch with all kinds of options for the topping.

Tassajara Bread (my version)

3 cups lukewarm water

2 packets active dry yeast

1/4 cup honey

3 cups unbleached bread flour

1/3 cup olive oil

4 teaspoons salt

3 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl combine yeast, honey and water. Let stand until the yeast has bubbled about 5-10 minutes. Add 3 cups of bread flour. Mix until well blended into thick batter. Rest under wet cloth for at least 45 minutes.

To the batter, add the rest of the ingredients, gently combining as you add the whole wheat flour. Once the dough is firm, take it out of the bowl and knead on a clean flat surface for about 10 minutes.

Rest the dough back in the bowl for at least another 45 minutes. Punch the dough and shape into two loaves. Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the oven is ready, put the bread in to bake for about 40 minutes until brown and crusty.

Best eaten right away, but great for the next 2 days, especially lightly toasted.

Choco-Oatmeal Cookies

I am not a great recipe follower. Actually, I am a really bad one, you can ask my husband. But when it comes to baking, one should (or needs) to follow a recipe down to science. Or so I was told.

Along the way, I got a recipe for Chocolate chip cookies from my mother-in-law. I asked her if she had a 'half' recipe for these cookies since the usual ones you find will make so many cookies that more of them go into my own tummy than anybody else's (and that's never good). Plus, everybody would agree that cookies are best fresh out of the oven. So the more cookies made in the same batch, the less fresh the uneaten-right-away ones are.

Cut to the chase. I have been using this 'half' recipe for a while now and trying to follow everything as best I can. Today, of course, my usual non-recipe self said I should substitute a little oatmeal for the 2 extra Tablespoon of flour asked for.

It satisfies my creative-baker self, and I think it still tastes great. Here is the revised recipe, if you are interested. And if you would rather use the original recipe, just substitute the 2 Tablespoons flour instead of the oatmeal... And if I remember right, there is something about 1 Tablespoon water, too...But I have never really used that. See what I mean?

Choco-Oatmeal Cookies

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 lb unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Set oven at 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk wet ingredients together until smooth. In another bowl, combine dry ingredients together before adding it to the wet ingredients until all blended. Spoon small balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet.

Bake about 9-11 minutes until light brown. Longer if you like your cookies crisper. I usually like mine on the chewy side. Eat warm with a cup of tea or coffee...or a cold glass of milk for your children (or your Mid-western husband).

The Afternoon

How we started our afternoon journey

To find this a few miles away

"Grandma"

With a few weeks left in Santa Cruz (yet again...have we not been here before about 3 times?), I made a commitment to doing one new thing that we have not done before during the weekends.

Today, it was to try a new beach that we had not been to before: Gazos Creek was the pick of choice. We drive by it all the time, to get our favorite that is Bean Hollow. And each time we pass by Gazos Creek, I would ask the kids if we could try this one out. "NO!" would be the answer. Everytime.

Well, not today. I had a mission that needed to be accomplished.

We left sunny Santa Cruz, to a cold and foggy coastline. The cold wind blew, making the wind-surfers particularly happy. But us? On a new windy beach? Not too happy. We lasted 30 minutes before calling it quits.

There were strawberries to be picked!

And some sun to be had!

So much for trying to do something new. But you know, we would not have known: to never go to a beach where the wind-surfers thrive. Now I have to think about what the new thing will be for next weekend...

Before I go, can I just tell you what a cool group of pickers we had at Swanton Farm? It was possibly one of the most diverse group of pickers in Santa Cruz county. There were Asian families and Indian families... The grandma in the picture above was my favorite. She was picking, eating, all the while collecting strawberries in her sari. She was also conversing with her family members in fast, fluent (I am assuming) Hindi. It was awesome to watch. Claire kept asking me why I was so interested. "This scene makes me happy... I can't really tell you why, but I am digging the grandma!"

Reporter

Claire and I had the morning together. She wanted to write a report on something (because that is a budding reporter does, right?). We decided on Alan Chadwick garden since it is near by, and there is always something interestingly fun there.

We learned from some farm apprentices we met there that there is a red shoulder hawk in residence at the garden. And that the other day, the hawk had a snake in its mouth with two crows trying to get it away. That's news!

We also learned that the garden has some issues with gophers (most gardeners here have the same problem, unfortunately). And that they have a nifty device to catch these little pests.

We noted that the apple and plum blossoms were gone, only to be replaced by baby apples and plums. And that the citruses were in full bloom. One of our favorite fragrances ever!

That is the report for today, from Claire Yoon MacDonald.

Little things

An old typewriter, a thrift store find

Mung Bean plants sprouted from seeds

Lamp by our artist named Momo

A little corner of our daughter's

Roses from a friend's garden

This desk, its color and history, makes me happy

"Tim", the Venus Fly Trap

Sometimes it's the little things that make us happy. When life gets big and confusing, and the world at large seems violent and out of control (witness Thailand), I try to focus on the little things in my life, in my little family, that put a smile on my face.

Around our house, these are the treasures that make me happy:

An old typewriter found at a thrift store. It makes me happy to show the children how important this apparatus used to be. Especially in my life, the tap-tap sound of typewriters brings back memories of Sunday afternoons visiting my father at his work; the hubbub of the newsroom and the smell of ink in the air. Claire claims that she wants to be a reporter...how ironic would that be? And that old school desk! I had to get it when I 'found' it on craigslist. It just goes perfectly with the typewriter! Not to mention it will be the perfect spot for homework and things. Now I just need to find one more...

The Mung bean plants that the kids and I grew together from the mung beans. Again, it was a rather selfish project. Every Thai child (well at least when I was growing up) had to grow mung beans during their school years. Some were grown in the dark, some in the sunlight, some became beansprouts to eat. Another wonderful childhood memory that I need to instill in my own children.

Roses from a friend. If you have been reading this blog long enough, you will know that I have a special fondness for flowers. Especially flowers freely given and found. I love them.

Tim, our Venus Fly Trap. After visiting La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, we adopted Tim, and he has been a pretty happy camper catching flies around the house. A carnivorous plant that needs to eat 3-4 insects a year. How can one not like that?

Lamps made by the children's artistic talents. Thanks to friends who gave us the idea and to yard sales and thrift stores for providing materials, we made these awesome lamps the other day that are both useful and fun. Brightness equals happiness.

Wherever you are, I hope you can find little things that bring a smile to your face today.

Memories with the Pie Plant

I sometimes wonder what I like more: the rhubarb itself, or the idea of the rhubarb, or the memories I have that come with the rhubarb.

I did not grow up with rhubarb, not at all. Thailand is too warm and humid for this seasonal plant. I am not sure when I was introduced to it exactly. I know it was sometime during my life in New England.

I remember visiting Jim in Maine (where I later lived) at an old farm house where a huge rhubarb plant thrived in the dark, nutrient rich soil. We would make rhubarb crisps out of it. I was hooked.

While studying Chinese herbs, it was introduced to me that rhubarb root is a very important Chinese herb, Da Huang, it's called in Chinese. It's a potent purgative, used for many ailments from serious constipation to serious febrile diseases. Every time we learned about Da Huang, though, my mind would go back to the farm house in Maine, and the delicious Spring time rhubarb crisps, and other Maine memories.

Then there was Blue Heron Organic farm, my friend Ellery's farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts. We spent a huge amount of time on the farm during our sojourn in the Boston area. One of the first things that came up in the Spring on the farm was the rhubarb plants, with its rather ugly-looking buds poking from the ground. Once the stalks were big enough, I would help Ellery harvest and bundle them for the farm-stand. I remember coming home one day with one of the bunches ourselves. I had moved beyond the crisps by that point. Strawberry-Rhubarb pies became our family new favorite dessert.

Most recently, while living in New Zealand, the house we rented had its own rhubarb plants! I was delighted to have an easy access to this coveted (at least for me) ingredient.

For several reasons, those New Zealand rhubarb stalks did not turn into pies or crisps (too cold? too English?). Instead, I turned them into rhubarb compote, simply by chopping them up, adding sugar to the heated pot and watching it soften and transform into the sweet and sour stew.

I loved eating the compote with some creamy Greek yogurt (NZ did that well). In fact, I would have it everyday at about 10am. It became part of my routine.

So, you see, the Pie Plant is full of memories for me. It brings me back to different times of my life: Maine, Massachusetts, and New Zealand. When the lady at the market asked me the other day what I was planning to do with a big bunch of rhubarb, I could not really give her a good answer. It was like saying hi to an old friend, really. But I was not going to tell her that... Luckily, it's a tasty kind of friend.