Favorite Things Books, Movie, TV

1. This year I purchased Barnes and Noble's ereader: The nook.  Great tech gadget for those who love to read.
2. It's Christmas time and these are the movies that I never get tired of watching year after year: Love Actually, The Family Stone, Elf and Bridget Jones Diary.
3. Favorite Netflix rental this year was: The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. A motorcycle adventure that kept me at the edge of my seat all the way round and down.
4.Shopping the Farmer's Markets. Talking to the vendors and learning about new foods.
5. Taking Amtrak to Berkeley and spending the day browsing the 4th Street shops and having dinner before hopping the train home is my new favorite daytrip to the bay area this year.
6. Nothing beats the Sunday edition of the New York Times when I was to treat myself to a lazy Sunday.
7. Baking from the Sweet Melissa Cookbook, Mark Bittman's weekly videos on the NY Times website, and Hungry Nation's Working Class Foodies turned me on to some great new recipes this year.
8. The Moth Podcast. Also, the Radiolab podcast. Listen and you'll understand why. Both are amazing podcasts and amazingly both are free on itunes.
9. The Bucolic Plague a memoir written by Josh Kilmer-Purcell tells the story about how they came to be Gentleman Farmers. This led to the TV show on Plant Green TV "The Fabulous Beekman Boys" which shows life on the Beekman Farm. It's great fun!
 10. Bored to Death...Jason Schwartzman, Zack Galifinakis and Ted Danson are brilliant together in this HBO series.
11. Gwyneth Paltrow's goop.com is still my favorite newsletter. Very hip and  very cool.
12. Eat Pray Love.  Armchair traveling all the way to Italy, India and Bali...delicious cuisine in Italy, sparing with Richard Jenkins at an Ashram in India and falling in love with Javier Bardem in Bali...what's not to love? Movie was great-the book was even better.

Crockpot Apple Butter

I came across a recipe last week for apple butter and it looked so easy so I had to try it. It turned out really delicious and the house smelled wonderful for the 24 hours that it simmered away in my crockpot.

Crockpot Apple Butter
7 cups applesauce (use a good quality commercial kind that is unsweetened) I used Tree Top Organic unsweetened from Costco.
2 cups apple cider (I used a bottle of Knudsen's Cider & Spice)
1 1/2 cups honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Mix all the ingredients in a crockpot, cover and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally for 15-16 hours or until the mixture is a deep brown and a thick consistency. Pack into 4 hot pint jars and process in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes counting the time after the jars have been immersed and the water comes to a rolling boil.
OR: Cool and pack into clean freezer friendly jars and freeze! When you are ready for another jar remove  from the freezer and defrost in the refridgerator. I used Ball canning jars that can go into the freezer! Of course I kept one out to enjoy right now! The recipe says it only makes 4 pints but I got 5  eight ounce jars from the recipe.

After 15 hours my apple butter was brown but not thick enough so I raised the temperature to high and kept a close watch on it - stirring occasionally until the apple butter was condensed enough to stay mounded on a spoon and the consistency that looked right to me! My apple butter took about 24 hours to cook in my crockpot. Crockpot temps might vary a little so yours could be ready in more or less time. Removing the lid during the final hours of cooking speeds up the condensing process considerably.

Falling in love with my nook

I loved the idea of having an ereader so I started researching  popular ereaders.  I went back and forth between Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Nobles Nook. I decided on the nook. I kind of think they are both pretty cool actually. I love my nook but  I imagine if I had the Kindle I would like that too.  Reading is easier with an ereader. Buying books, reading about books, sampling books, turning pages, looking up words, bookmarking...it's all so easy. I've also learned how to utilize some of the "extras" like adding my own screensavers and music. It took me a few weeks to really start reading and using it, but once I got into reading via my nook it quickly became second nature for reading. I'm reading more, I find that I enjoy the reading experience more as well.
Recent reads: The Heights by Peter Hedges, A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff, Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard, and Eat Pray Love by Liz Gilbert.
Next up: Juliet by Ann Fortier, and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and Ape House by Sara Gruen. Also in my nook library  are several books that I picked up on Free Fridays. Each Friday Barnes and Noble announces the free ebook for Nook users to download for that week!  And there are lots and lots of free books available on the site. Most of the classics are free or around $1.99 Currently I have about 26 books in my nook library. I can  "archive" books so they don't take up space on my nook, and if I want to read them again I can put them back in "my nook libray". Pretty cool, n'est pas?
I think I've only scratched the surface of things I can do with your nook. In my library is the book: Using Nook by Jim Cheshire. If someone wrote a book about Using nook this tells me there's more to my ereader that meets the eye. For the basics B&N has some video tutorials that are great to get one started on using their new nook.

Reading and Watching now

I recently finished reading The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell after it was recommended on Goop.com (Gwyneth Paltrow's weekly newsletter). I eally enjoyed the book. Josh's memoir about how he and his boyfriend Brent Ridge (two city slickers) became gentlemen farmers.  Josh keeps it real and because he writes honestly, we the readers can laugh and cry with him and Brent on this crazy ride they are on. They founded Beekman 1802, http://beekman1802.com/  the website is great. Josh and Brent  have a show on Planet Green TV called "The Fabulous Beekman Boys". I've watched the whole first season and loved every minute of it.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Tomatoes are in abundance this time of year and I've made salsa several times already for tacos and nachos! I roughly chop 8-10 tomatoes and toss them in a large bowl, then add 1 large chopped onion and chopped chillies with the seeds removed, and some chopped fresh cilantro. Add to the bowl: the juice of two limes and about a teaspoon of salt. I use Maldon, a sea salt that I like so much I rarely use anything else. I like my salsa medium hot so I add two milder chillies and usually one jabanero (a chili that is on the hotter side) If you like hotter - then you'll want to spice it up by adding more. Next I toss the ingredients together in the big bowl. I pulse the ingredients in my food processor until the mixture is blended and the consistency I like (still a little chunky). Just be careful not to over process or you'll end up with a spicy tomato juice. At this point I strain some of the liquid out as summer tomatoes are pretty juicy! Save the strained tomato juice! If you are making tacos you can add it to your ground meat instead of water when you're adding your taco seasoning! I freeze the rest of the strained juice in small freezer containers to have on hand for another day! It would also make some excellent Bloody Mary's I would think!

French Onion Soup

We made French Onion Soup last week. I am into making soup since we had lunch at Soop (on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley) a few weeks ago! You can eat there or take soup home for dinner. Soop even sells frozen stock and other soups frozen so you can stock up and thaw out when your ready. Awesome! I have several containers in my freezer right now! souptogo.com

Here's a basic recipe that I used to make French Onion Soup.

Peel and slice 4-6  large onions and then slice the slices in half to make then into crescents. Don't skimp on the onions!  Add 3 tablespoons olive oil  and 1 tablespoon butter to a large saute pan. Add onions and stir to coat. Let the onions cook 10-12 minutes over medium-high until they are softened and begin to brown. Add 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tsp fresh). Lower heat to medium and continue cooking 30 minutes more or until the onions are well browned, stirring frequently. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons flour in the pan and stir until well blended. Add 1/2 cup white wine and 8 cups chicken or beef broth, bring back to a boil then reduce heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Toast 6 slices of french bread that have been rubbed with a garlic clove on a baking sheet. Ladle soup into 6 oven proof bowls and float a piece of toast on top. Top with grated swiss cheese and broil about 3-4 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling! Serves 6.

What we all crave.

When I was out walking Bella the other morning I was thinking about what makes relationships last? The good ones. The happy ones. Expensive gifts don't make someone feel "special" unless you can really express it in your eyes, words and touch. By listening and responding, laughing and touching. Thoughtful little gifts often mean more because they tell the receiver I was thinking of you. I was thinking of you and want to express appreciation that your in my life.
Last week my daughters were over for dinner on different nights and I was thinking how proud they each make me. They are both beautiful, well-spoken, can tell a great story, have such a beautiful countenances that everyone who meets them likes them. They are also generous and caring. And yet I am so busy with my "momness" that that I neglect to communicate what I am really feeling. Instead of telling them "It was so great to see you tonight!" the last thing they here as they walk out the door is "Watch your step going down the stairs!"
They sometimes remind me how frustrating it is to be treated like a four year old. I cringe when I hear it because it's true. I don't mean to do it but I do. I want desperately to change that. The other night, I watched the movie "When Did You Last See Your Father?" Colin Firth played the part of a son who's father never really let him see how proud he really was of him and it caused the son great anguish and sadness in his life. It was a very sad movie but it touched me in a way that caused me a great deal of self refelction on my own parenting. I want my daughters to see that I actually see them as wonderful and capable adults and that I am very proud of them. I also impressed with what wonderful people they each are. I think they are both beyond fantastic! Of course they are human and they make mistakes and make them again just like I did when I was their age. You'd think that by the time I was 25 or 30 that I'd learned a thing or two, but no it was around that time that I'd only started to really learn life lessons in earnest. The biggest mistakes I've made in my life usually provided much needed wisdom I needed for the next step on my journey. And sometimes that next step or curve in the road led to something wonderful. So why do I expect that they should be any different? They are living their life walking in their own path just as I did and am doing mine.
My mother passed away just a week before I was 21. She was not the kind of overprotective mother I turned out to be because her mother, my grandmother was. (maybe it skips generations?) When my mom walked in the door from visiting across town my grandmother would call just to make sure she made it home OK. IT DROVE MY MOTHER CRAZY! If my mother had been around when I was a new mother I am quite sure she wouldn't have been worrying about my mothering skills with babies. But I am pretty certain that when I was worried about letting them ride their bikes up to the local Quik Stop three blocks away she would have said, "Let them go for heaven sake!"
Watching your kids bikes go around that corner where you can't see them. Not for the faint of heart. I did it, and not always with the greatest of ease or grace. If I could go back in time I would have said, "Have a great ride!" I want to learn to tell them to "Have a great ride on this journey of life" and that I can express to them that I believe them to be very capable adults that I am very pleased to know.

Required Reading for the Fashionista

I just finished reading: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Dana Thomas. I was fascinated from page one and devored every word. You'll read about the humble beginnings of Louis Vuitton to what luxury is today and how has it evolved over the decades. Meticulously written and researched, Thomas' weaves the history of luxury into a golden spun yarn, a delicious and lively read.

The Tower Cafe

On Tuesday I had lunch with a friend at the Tower Cafe after we watched a movie at the Tower Theater. The outdoor seating area is like an oasis-it is lush and green and a really nice place to enjoy your meal. The service is relaxed and friendly and the food is really good! I went a little early so I could sketch before my friend arrived. I knew the minute I saw it that I wanted to sketch and paint this fountain.

Rainy day cooking

It's raining here today and pretty quiet. I made Heather Van Vorous' "Rainy Day Lemon & Ginger Tea". I make it about twice a week - I drink a cup hot and chill the rest. It's the most refreshing drink cold and very comforting hot. Perfect for a rainy day! I also made Heather's "Roasted Cauliflower Soup" - but left out the caraway and cumin seeds and kept it simple on the seasonings using 1/2 t. thyme leaves and a bay leaf. I had some pizza dough that I rolled out and sprinked with a little olive oil and Sea salt with Mediterranean Seasonings (spices garlic, lavender, rosemary and basil oil). Just before serving I sprinked a little smoked paprika and a few drops of truffle oil on the soup. Yum! Good comfort food day!

Great Ball Jars of Strawberry Freezer Jam!

Last weekend I was in Whole Foods looking at some delicous looking strawberries when the woman standing next to me mentioned she had been coming every week to the store for these strawberries because they were so good. That did it! My indecision was over and I bought 3 baskets! I tasted a few when I got home and decided I'd make these babies last by making Strawberry Freezer jam.
Years ago I'd made it and remeber it being unbelievably fresh tasting. It truely elevated toast to some heavenly morning dessert. It would also be wonderfull as a filling in a Victorian sponge cake, or stirred into yogurt.
Checking the recipe I realized I didn't have any fruit pectin...why would I? I haven't canned or frozen anything in years-but I remebered this freezer jam was pretty easy. So off to the store to buy fruit pectin. I found the pectin, but there were several kinds. I noticed No Cook Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin made by Ball @ $1.99. No Cook? That got me thinking this could be easier than I had first anticipated. How often does that happen?
I just follwed the directions on the package...
I washed and hulled & crushed my strawberries till I had the required 4 cups. Next you mix the package of the no cook fruit pectin with 1 1/2 cups sugar, and then add the 4 cups crushed strawberries and stir for three minutes. Next, you ladle jam into Ball's 8 ounce plastic freezer jars (which I happen to already have). You could use other plactic jars but the Ball jars are so cute and I love how the lids twist on. You let it set for 30 minutes and freeze, or you can use it right away. Which I did promptly! (on toast) Did I mention this elevates the toast experience to a new level? Keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to a year. I guarantee that stuff will not be in my freezer for long. This was so easy that I may just have to go crazy and make more more more! You can also do this with other tender type fruits: apricots, cherries, berries, grapes, pears, plums). You can also watch a video demonstration at: www.freshpreserving.com

Superbowl Sunday

We're making Mark Bittman's Tri-Tip Steak with Tomato Romesco (aka "The Minimilist" on the NYTimes website) . I have made quite of few of the recipes Mark demonstrates each week with great results!

For a side I am making Marinated Chickpea and Arugula Salad from the book "Mediterranean Summer" by David Shalleck. "Just put a chef on a yacht on the Riviera and you have a book sized vacation...an escapist story that comes with recipes and practically generates its own sea breeze." -New York Times
I was completely engrossed in this book and the recipes he shares helped me re-create the feeling I got as I read about David's Mediterranean adventures.