Monkeyporkbun

Gettin' saucy

Whew! I opened up my WIP box and found unfinished birdbrains, toothpillows, peacepals, and happypants. So I went straight to work on those. Right after I made sure I had enough business cards/price tags for the craft fair. Then I cut three more skirts, two more sets of pillowcases, and about eight blankets. And then I started in on my happy tapes. And tonight, I organized it all while J was out celebrating the success of SDFF and now that I'm finished doing that, I have allowed myself to blog. Oh, and I also had to do a taste test. What does it taste like on macadamia nuts? On itty bitty chocolate chip cookies? On blini? On a spoon? Wonderful beyond description, it's Caramel Sauce to Die For. And I'm sure I lost a pound. Someone suggested I should sell this. And so I will at our Fourth Annual Craft Fair in Sebastopol, California. Friends, food, fun, and a fundraiser too.

 

 

Fat Friday

I had a list of things to do today and they're finished! It's barely noon. Okay, I could stand to clear off some surfaces that have collected things that were intended to be put away before Mommybrain took over. Still, my mail is in the post, my calendaring is finished, my credit card statement reviewed, my finances for the month planned, my brisket is in the crock and we have guests coming btwn 4 and 5. And that candy that I ate, that wasn't even on my to do list and it got done anyway! And I'm knocking out a post too. That serves Nabolopomo. Am I crazy for signing up for this?

Yesterday morning, I escaped to the evil empire for a cuppa with my trusty ole laptop at about 5:30. And I began writing this:

My Intentions for the month of November:

Post at least once a day. Even a pic.

Call Nicole at MGF to see what they’re up to for the holiday season.

Attend one of her regular classes, or many, in order to get ahead of the season.

Stock five items per week (gotta get crackin’) in the store.

Finish Sonya's quilt  because she won the Halika Dito contest and get it in the mail.

Make holiday cards

Make gift tags

Wild Swans for Emma, Veronica, Alexa, Leia, and Kat. - DONE!

Decide what else to put in the post with those books above. - DONE! Cute stationery sets.

Write a card to Jennifer Hagen.

Write a card to Stephanie Paige.

Write a card to Sandra Whitson.

Write three thank yous every Thursday. - DONE for this week.

See who’s having a birthday this month.

Ask Jason how many gift “packages” we should create for the folks at work - DONE!

Decide what to bake for the holidays - Have started browsing and thinking.

Create a timeline for teacher’s end of year gift - EEK! Let's not get behind on this one!

Create a baking schedule - Yesterday I baked Kale crisps, Parmesan crisps, and tofu to top soba noodles! But this really doesn't count now, does it?

Create a playdate schedule - Every Friday, Fat Friday for sure, we'll have brisket, invite folks over to potluck and play Old Witch, What Time Is It? out on the lawn.

Make holiday reservations - San Diego, LA, Tahoe? Nutcracker in SF with a hotel stayover for B and a coupla girlfriends?

Exercise a minimum of twice weekly - Does it count that I vacuum four times a day and chase a baby all day?

Figure out Lisa and Joseph time - This is huge. My best friend is going back to school and I fear I shall never see her again.

Book reservations for Nutcracker - see above. Am I a nag? Even to myself.

Book an overnight in SF - ditto.

Wrap up my mother's watch for my amazing and talented sister who is finishing her teaching credentials very shortly. She's really smart, seriously. Her nickname when we used to work together was "rocket scientist." I know that is usually reserved for ditzes, but this was real. Steph had one of the highest GPAs in her senior class.

List of intentions for November. Done. Recently our house has been having serious discussions, well funny serious, but serious enough to have discussions, about leading lives of intention. And so there you have it. It's in writing now so it'd better happen.

Squeaking in before August

Whee! This month flew by so quickly it almost went undetected. We have been busy with

a. details and fact checking for an article that will be published sometime in the fall at Redbook (I guess I should start talking about it. I never really talked about it because I think I felt weird that people might read it. And maybe I wasn't taking it seriously. Or maybe I was just seriously stressed, either way for a long time I just pretended it wasn't happening.)
b. is for birthdays (Mine, Maria's, both of my grandmothers, Carole's, Tina's, Lisa's, Anne-Marie's, Claudia's - eesh! and this is just the women or at least the ones I can remember!)
c. is for children, socializing the girls - they both have playgroups
d. is for designing
e. weddings
f. is for film - the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (the first one ever. Jason is on the project, but if there are films to be watched, well there are two of us then aren't there?)is for fun and being so busy I often forget to eat
g. is for good times with friends, playing softball, bocce, pulling pork, hosting surprise birthday gatherings, and girlfriends, and let us not forget gakkai activities.
h. hip hip hooray, Happy Birthday to me, for soon I will not a youngster be
i. is for I am recognizing this post as somewhat of a laundry list of things past and will quit now because it feels like an excuse for not posting great pictures of my recent work, soon soon I will have pictures to post.

Soup is Good Food

In the kitchen, I love to multitask. That doesn’t mean that I’m on the phone or that my laptop is on the counter so I can easily respond to email while my sauce is simmering. No, more the old school sort of multitasking. For instance, I like to think of how many meals I can make with common ingredients. Heck, chopping and then cleaning up is a chore. So we might as well do it for the whole week. Sounds good, doesn't it?

So, yesterday (now awhile ago actually, but I really liked this post), when I made Bolognese from this wonderful book, I chopped extra onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Those things are the base of most soups, and soup is good food. Though I have to admit, after cooking for more than thirty years now, I mostly wing it after trying a recipe for the first time. Recipes are like the test drive for me. After the test drive, I typically remember the ingredients and about how much and from there begin to tweek things here, add things here, and make the recipe mine after awhile. For example, the recipe for Bolognese calls for way less of the finely chopped veggies than I like to add. Sue me, I like a chunky sauce and my family doesn’t know the difference. Now that would be funny. Can you imagine my six year old harking, “you’ve added more than 2T of finely chopped carrots this time, haven’t you Mom?” That will undoubtedly someday occur. She is a Virgo indeed. Somehow I’m mostly able to keep an active archive up in the ole noggin of where I first learnt the recipe.

 

So the following day’s soup was something like this:

 

2 tetra-brics of Trader Joe’s Organic Free Range Chicken Broth

1 Organic Free Range chicken breast halved, skinless and boneless

1  28 oz. can Organic diced tomatoes in juice

Generous amounts of finely or coarsely chopped onion (like 2 sweet yellow onions worth)

1 whole organic celery stalk

7 small organic carrots peeled, ends snipped off, and sliced about ¼” thick

4 or 5 cloves of organic garlic, peeled and chopped coarsely

salt

pepper

dry basil

parmigiano reggiano with rind

 

Boil chicken breast in broth until cooked through. In the meantime, chop onions, celery stalk with leaves, carrots and garlic. Saute vegetables in olive oil, adding ½ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper,  in a  wide skillet until slightly soft, about 6 minutes on medium.

Grate parmigiano reggiano and set aside. Remove rind and set aside. Remove chicken breasts from broth. Add sauteed vegetables to broth. Using a ladle or measuring cup, put broth in skillet to deglaze it. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any bits that might have stuck to the skillet. Pour skillet's contents into broth. Add cheese rind to broth. Chop chicken into 1” chunks. Turn pot to simmer. After 1 hour, remove rind.

Ladle into bowls. Drizzle with your best olive oil and add a few pinches of the grated cheese. Enjoy with panini and a big green salad, or even alone!

 

mise en place

Once upon a time I enrolled in an epicurean class in the Laurel Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. During this class I learned mise en place, and amazingly nearly fifteen years later, this organizational effort in the preparation of food, lovely food is still intact. It also really helps when my mind is mise en place first thing in the morning too. So one of the things I've cleared from the counters and cupboards of my mind is coffee. It's a tough thing to let go, something so large in a small and sometimes to-go or take away container. The smell of coffee makes my knees weak. The lavishing ritual of "having coffee" on the weekends, the sweet accompaniment with dessert after a late dinner, iced over a business discussion in the afternoon, all of it sparks memories of days past before parenthood. Anyway, I digress. So, out with the coffee and in with being able to accomplish more (like having patience)in the mornings with small children. Coffee actually is a great installer of cobwebs on my brain and creates a certain craziness.

 
This is what happened in my kitchen this morning. Bolognese. It's what's for dinner with modest helpings of Parmigiano Reggiano and this pictured below, which I found at Trader Joe's for $1.59 per canister! I couldn't buy just one. I began my love affair with DeCecco also about fifteen years ago, when I worked at Cafe for All Seasons in the West Portal neighborhood of San Francisco. DeCecco and 6 in 1. Geez, I remember living at  West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Streets and my rent then was a meager $200, the total rent being $400. Times change.

And later, this too . . fruit from the farmer's market.

Mmmm, certified organic strawberries, peaches and blueberries.
Now if I could just train myself to write a little more mise en place. Buon appetito!

Eight years and counting

Tomorrow Jason and I are spending the day in Berkeley. Sans les enfants. I've been excited about this day since I set it up the date with Rosemary, Jason's lovely and amazing Mom. This morning after gongyo I remembered that I needed to make milk. So while I pumped and wondered how my prolactin levels are because I'm not producing enough milk, I realized it's time for me to do less. I started to think that it would be better if I gave up my table at the craft fair so that my milk production would continue to exist. I was a little bit sad and started to think of my Mom. What would my mother do? I miss her. And just when the thought began to pass, Maki, my black cat with one white whisker, hopped up and began loving me. It was so unusual. Tears started. And then the milk bottle was half full. And that was everything. I can relax. My baby will have the milk she needs just as her big sister did. I may have to let my table go and the housekeeping and some socializing and just be Mom. It's amazing how that seems like a no brainer and a simple thing to do, right? It's a bit more of an ego adjustment than I had expected. I don't remember going through this with the first.
Anyway, back to Berkeley. This will be the first longer trip without kids. Eight hours maybe.Note to self: Wear a dress I'm unable to nurse in because I can. The plan is to leave Forestville around 1:30 - 2:00 and leave Berkeley for home again around 9. What will we do with all that time in between? See a film. Go to bookstores. Lounge in cafes. Browse fabric stores. See friends.  Eat at Chez Panisse Cafe. Or maybe Bette's Oceanview Diner. Walk. Smell the roses at Berkeley Rose Garden. Be alone. Hold hands. And maybe even kiss. Because it is our anniversary and this will be our day.