A look back at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day was beautiful! It started out a bit frosty out.....
Then slowly the sun warmed things up.....
to a nice November glow.
Preparations for Thanksgiving started the day before with pie making....
one apple two pumpkin.
If it were not for Dave's help, I would have been more exhausted than I was! He did a marathon of dishes all day!!
Caitlin made two appetizers, stuffed mushrooms with pecans, and a very yummy batch of humus.
Turkey is almost done....
Table is set....
food plated up...
Pierre's cousin, Marlene came to celebrate.
Time for pie!

A spirited conversation....
and a little bit of hamming it up.

I sure hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed their day with family or friends.

Be on the look out for Jamie Oliver's new show!

Did you know that Jamie Oliver is doing a new reality show in January? He is coming state side to reform some of the most unhealthy states to change their views on food. I loved the project that he embarked on with the UK school lunches. It should be very interesting to see how the U.S. takes this show, and him for that matter.

I'm a big fan ! He brings such energy to the food scene, and I think he has accomplished a lot in his young career.
The above photos are a revisit from our trip to Bath, England this summer, where we dined at one of his restaurants. While we would have loved to go to his restaurant in St. Ives, called "15," we had to settle for going to his Italian restaurant instead. 15 was booked solid :(
I love the concept of his "15" restaurants. Taking under privileged young adults, and training them in the restaurant biz, or as the Brits would say "catering biz" The first of the "15" restaurants began in London, and out of the original 15 people that started in the first go around, I think he said that only one or two didn't complete the course.

My most favorite is when he went into the schools in the UK and educated them on eating a better lunch,and eating better in general. It didn't surprise me that the kids would be resistant to the change, but the parents were quite shameful I think, especially when some of them tried to smuggle in fast food through the fence! I fully expect to see the same on this new show in January.
Tune in folks, I think it is going to be a good one!

10 days until Thanksgiving!

No, I didn't already cook my Thanksgiving turkey! This was from last year I think. I love everything about Thanksgiving, but mostly the yummy seasonal food to cook.
My husband and I were thinking about the most memorable Thanksgivings we have had since we were married. Two stick out, one good, and one not so good. First for the good. It was our second Thanksgiving of our young married lives, and I was newly pregnant with my first daughter. I had the worst morning sickness with her, and I really didn't think I would be able to survive hosting the day, but somehow, it came together. Everyone came up that year, my in-laws, my dad and his wife, and Dave's grandfather. We were living at the time in a very charming little cottage in Eureka Ca. at the time(top picture), and for me, that house was the best to celebrate holidays. We didn't have fancy plates and linens, but the food was great, and everyone, at the time, got along. You know how Thanksgiving can be an emotional roller coaster with family personalities coming out and feelings getting hurt etc. Not that Thanksgiving. There seem to be a special promise in the air of happy years ahead, and everyone enjoying each others company. For us, that was probably one of the best memories of our family coming together on my favorite holiday.

I don't have any cooking disaster stories, that could easily ruin the day, but instead my not so good memory is of being invited to Thanksgiving dinner where the cook decided to throw away tradition and cook Lamb instead. Has anyone out there had this happen to them before? Never until that year, which was fairly recent, have I ever had this happen. While the hostess did decide to cook some turkey breast meat, it just wasn't the same. The tension was in the air too, everyone seemed to have some hidden feelings and it made for a very tough day. Most of the people there that day, were there in my first happy memory above, 22 years ago. Like most families though, there are difficult relationships that enter when we all gather, and for me this was probably my not so good memory of my favorite holiday. The following Sunday after, I invited my daughter and her husband to our house to re-do Thanksgiving with all the fixings! While standing in line at the grocery store, I saw another lady buying a turkey, and I had to ask why. I wanted some company in my sadness of the loss of Thanksgiving dinner. She too had had a not so great experience and was also doing a re-do. I got to wondering how many people out there have had this happen to them?

This year we plan to have all the fixings and just our close little family of five here at my house. No hidden agendas, just fun and good food.

Let us all take some time this year to think about how lucky we are to have what we have, and to always be kind to one another. For me Thanksgiving seems to be a time of reflection, I know for some, it is New Years, or maybe another holiday, but for some reason, I tend to think about life more around this holiday. I like to think about the word GENEROUS, and how I can be more Generous of my time, my love, and my gifts that I bring to this planet.
In the coming days before the big turkey day, I hope everyone can take a breath and reflect on what Thanksgiving means to them. Oh, and for goodness sakes, don't stray away from tradition when it comes to the food!

Remember this?

Last year I was working on this, and hoping it would be done for Christmas time, but I didn't make it. This year, I'm on the home stretch! Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to do a wall hanging of it, and put it in the guest bathroom, or do a pillow. If I do a wall hanging, I want to find a frame that I can enhance with woodland type of twigs perhaps. I have a lot of holiday pillows already, so I'm not sure I want to make yet another. It depends I guess if I can get all the supplies for the frame.
I worked on this last month. They are little felt pockets for an Advent calendar. I got the tutorial from "Allsorts" blog. The rest of the project is to find some sort of ribbon or fabric to string them up on, then in between each one, you tie another ribbon so they stay separate. I need to go out and find some nice ribbon and string it up on December 1st.
Aside from these two embroidery projects, I'm currently sewing a top for myself. We will see how that turns out. After going to a bunch of stores and getting very annoyed with the lack of creativity and the price of things, I have decided to try once again, to sew something for myself. Sometimes this turns out well, and sometimes the item ends up folded and put away in shame, because, unlike the store, you have committed to making this thing, and you simply can't just go put it back on the rack. It is always a bit dicey to sew for yourself I think. I'm really trying to get past this though. My reference for how patterns look when they are done, is "Pattern Review." You can go on there and see how it turned out for others with similar body types and what it looks like in certain fabrics. I love this site, and it has helped me to choose wisely.

As the weather starts to turn here, I'm getting the urge to do more sewing, so hopefully there will be more to share.

Quincy update: We are starting to think that he may never like being outside of his cage. We have been working with him for several days, and he still is not happy with being out. When we had our beloved Frankie, he loved being out from day one, and this little guy has more fun in his own cage. Now I have to decide if I will get him a companion, or just enjoy him in his cage and let him be.
Anyone out there have a stubborn parakeet, that didn't want to come out?

Darn little Quincy!

Up date on Mr. Quincy: stubborn and frustrating me is the update! Sunday, I went into the store where I purchased little Quincy, and talked to the lady about finger training him. I have been patiently putting my hand in and trying to get him to get on my finger. All previous parakeets I have had, do this in about two weeks time from buying them. Not this little guy, he just keeps running away from me.
The lady at the store, told me to just let him out, and get him use to being out of the safety zone of the cage. We did, and he still ran , hopped and fled as far away from us as possible. That was day one of taking him out. I tried to settle him down by putting my finger on his tail feather, which worked for one second. Then blast off!! When I put him back in the cage, I had noticed that I was a bit too forceful with one of the tail feathers, and it fell out :( Well, shoot, I feel so terrible, and now I think he hates me even more! We have taken him out two more times since then
and just let him explore and roam. On the third day, Caitlin managed to get him on her finger. It took quite a bit though, but we felt like something was accomplished. I think He likes Caitlin better.....so, I think I will have her work with him on finger training, so he can forget the fact that I accidentally pulled out his feather!
Look at him! What a little devil :)

Been meaning to show you these

I mentioned that my husband gave me a gift that was too big, and had to be returned didn't I? Well, here it is! It is a pink tourmaline/silver ring. They really had to hunt it down, because they are a bit limited in supply. I love it, and it is my alternate birthstone, so that makes it nice too.
I took this picture while turning off my manual setting for the first time! The lighting is so, so, but not too bad for a first attempt.
Getting back to the jewelry; I purchased this key and chain with my birthday money. If you haven't already seen them go here. I had such a hard time deciding on which one to get, they were all so pretty. They sales lady was showing me how nice they look with multiple keys :) I did mention this to my husband, as a future gift possibility ;) They also have many chains to decide on as well, I chose a fairly long one, I think it is 24 inches. I loved how it was set lower with the key I chose.
I love the simplicity of Tiffany's jewelry and how it can go with anything and not over power what you are wearing, that is my kind of style.

On another note, If you haven't seen the movie "Bright Star," go now! It is the love story of John Keats and Fanny Brawn. Absolutely gorgeous film!! I can't stop thinking about it. Everything from the story to the beautiful eye candy it provided! We saw it this past Sunday at a really neat old theater in Berkeley. It was only playing there, but it ended up being so neat because of the coziness and old time feeling of the theater. Anyway.......go see this film, it is amazing!!

Happy Halloween

I had a Halloween/fall dinner party with the family and friends yesterday. As I type this, it is Halloween, and I hope everyone is having a wonderful time! Don't eat too much candy :) I made these devils food chocolate cupcakes with Swiss butter cream frosting for dessert. Of course I'm showing you dessert first! I used Martha's new cupcake book, and had lots of fun making the Swiss butter cream frosting. It is so buttery, but not too sweet. The recipe for the cupcakes was very good as well. With 4 eggs, and three sticks of butter, along with sour cream, it should! I used Valrohna cocoa too. That is a recipe that I will go back to again.

Dinner table set and ready for guests! If you click on the photo, you can see the lanterns and little candy boxes that I made out of October issue of MSL. They were very fun to make and turned out real cute. Now I have to figure out how to store them, as they took a while to make and I want to save them.
Our good friends Tim and Christine, along with their three adorable children came for dinner. Pictured from left to right; Christine, holding baby Eva, Daniel, Nicole.
Daniel finally got his cupcake after waiting patiently for the grown ups to finish the cheese course.
Pierre is hiding behind the cupcakes, then Cyrous, Caitlin, and Sophia, the oldest of Christine and Tim's children.
Here is a better picture of miss Sophia.

In all the rush, I didn't photograph the actual food! I made a braised chicken dish with prunes, olives, capers. The recipe comes from one of my favorite restaurant in Sonoma called, "The Girl and The Fig." I really wished I had taken a photo of it because it was so good. It was marinated all night then braised....I served mashed potatoes with it, and a simple mixed green salad.

It was a lot of fun having everyone over and a way for us to have little ones around during the Halloween holiday.

Happy Halloween!!

R.I.P. "Gourmet"

Where to begin, with the sadness of "Gourmet" shuttering its doors for good. My history with Gourmet goes back to 1982, I should say "our" history, since my husband and I loved to buy the magazine when we were in college, and wanted to cook dinners for our friends. All the pages seemed so inviting and some of them seemed out of our league. Yet, every time we used any of the recipes, they quickly became our favorites. Through out the years we saved most issues, and they survived many moves. Finally, I had way too many of them and started buying the compendium books of the year( as you see in the last photo). When I found out that Gourmet folded, I quickly went out and bought the last issue, which was the November one. When the checker scanned the skew, it came up as "Teen Vogue!" They already sold the ISBN#! This made me so sad.
The above book is their latest cook book, that Ruth Reichl was out promoting very recently in the Bay Area. She had no idea that she would be out of a job in a weeks time. I went to Costco to pick up a copy, and on the cover, as you can see if you click on the picture, there is a label that reads: Free one year subscription when purchasing this book. I guess that won't be happening :(
This is my collection of compendium books, I also have a few others that they put out, but these are my go to for many yummy recipes.
Like I said above, we subscribed to Gourmet since about 1982 up until 2000. I stopped my subscription the minute the magazine became inundated with perfume ads. A month or so later, I actually got a call from their subscription headquarters, asking me why. They were very nice, and listened to what I had to say about the perfume ads, and way to many adds in general. I told them that if they change it, I will come back. They kind of did, but I ended up just buying an issue here and there, and the books instead.
I'm glad that I have a treasure trove of their wonderful publications. I now look to "Fine Cooking" as my new favorite.
Any one else out there sad about this?

I've been cooking and baking.....

The soup pictured above is my favorite recipe for " Italian Wedding" soup. I got the recipe from an e-mail sent from Whole Foods. I really wanted to share it because it so good! Written on the recipe is this little note about what Italian wedding soup is. It reads: While the name indicates that the soup might be served at an Italian wedding, it is actually a mistranslation of minestra maritata, which refers to the "marriage" of greens and meat in the soup. I did know this, but it might be new info for someone else.

The recipe is as follows:

For the meatballs
1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1 egg

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley

pinch ground nutmeg

pinch paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper


For the soup:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

3/4 cup chopped white onion

3/4 cup chopped carrot

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 cups water

1 small can whole tomatoes, drained and halved

1 cup orzo

2 cups shredded kale

Combine ground beef, pork, egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, garlic, oregano, nutmeg, paprika, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Use a teaspoon to measure out the meat for even meatballs. With damp hands, shape them into balls. Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrot, salt and pepper and cook until translucent and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, water and tomatoes. Cover and cook 10 minutes over medium heat or until soup comes to a boil.

Add meatballs and orzo to the boiling soup and stir to make sure they are fully submerged. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes over medium heat. Stir in kale. Test meatball and a piece of orzo to ensure that they are fully cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately!!!
I made this Cardamom vanilla pound cake last weekend for dinner guests. This is what is left, all though, I took this picture on Monday, so now it is gone. Boy was it good.

Cardamom Vanilla pound cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the middle. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess.( used a bundt pan)

Whisk together flour cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and granulated sugar in mixer at medium speed, scraping side of bowl occasionally, until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape seeds from vanilla beans with tip of a paring knife into butter mixture, reserving pods for another use, and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in lemon juice until combined well. At low speed, add flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

spoon batter into pan, smoothing top. Gently rap pan on counter to eliminate air bubbles.

Bake until a wooded skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan 1 hour, then invert onto a rack and cool completely, about 1 hour more.

The recipe also calls for : 1 !/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 1/2 pure vanilla extract.

Beat cream with confectioners sugar and vanilla extract using whist attachment of mixer until it just holds stiff peaks. Serve cake with whipped vanilla cream.

This pound cake got better with each passing day, as the flavors intensified. Make sure all ingredients are at room temp, like the eggs, butter and milk. This will make for a very tender cake. Enjoy

Happy Friday!

What is eating poor Gilbert Grape. A while back Caitlin and I made this little grape
man after our lunch. We decided to let him decompose for a few days.........
He actually looks worse than this picture above, but I haven't had a chance to photograph him lately. He is pretty much a raisin. He looks very Halloweenish, so I though I'd share the demise of Gilbert Grape. Just a bit of nonsense since I have no projects to show, but they are coming.

On a different note, last night was a lot of fun at the symphony. Itzhak played the Bach concerto as you might expect...beautifully.....and then he conducted the last two pieces. I haven't been to a the symphony in quite some time, so it was a wonderful night.
Hope everyone has a fun weekend. The weather out here in California is beautiful, so it should be a great weekend for those doing outdoor activities, or just being out and about.
Happy weekend to all of you!

Can't wait to hear this man play

Tonight I get to go with my husband to see Itzhak Perlman play in San Francisco. I'm so excited. The music being played tonight is : Bach Violin concerto no. 2, Elgar introduction and Allegro for string quartet and orchestra, opus 47, and Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 6.
While I love my rocking out concerts, I do love classical music as well. Itzhak is a rock star of the classical world don't you think?! I'll fill you in on how the concert went.

Meet Quincy

Last January or February, I can't remember now, my other little birdie named Lucie, died. We decided not to get another little one since we were going on a long trip in the summer, and we just wanted a little time to pass in between getting another bird. Yesterday, on a beautiful sunny fall day, we hopped in the car and went to our favorite bird store and chose this little cutie.
The very knowledgeable owner told us it was a little boy bird. That means that you can train them to talk. The female parakeets can talk, but not very much. We are all excited to teach him all kinds of words and to become a part of the family. Today he is a little shy and getting use to his surroundings, but we can tell that he is going to be a fun pet. He seems to not be bothered or frightened easily, which is good for training.
I'll keep you all posted on his progress.

Happy Birthday to me!

The weather was crisp and fall like, and just perfect to celebrate my birthday. I was pleasantly surprised to see a very dear old friend from high school/college, Alice and Robert. She and her husband were in the area, and stopped by for a short visit in the morning. What a lovely gift in itself to spend some time catching up with old friends. Sipped a little tea and chatted for a bit, until they had to leave.

After a relaxing day wandering around town and shopping, we later headed into the city to have the rest of the celebration at "Boulevard." If you are ever in San Francisco, I highly recommend it. Great service and beautiful food.
This was my starter. Arugula salad with roasted squash, figs and hazelnuts. The squash is hiding under the wonderfully dressed Arugula. The dish was suppose to have cheese on it, but I had them leave it off. It was still wonderful.
All of us, but Pierre, had lobster. It sat on risotto, with Chantalle mushrooms and other yummy things. I was hopping it wasn't going to be too heavy, and it was perfect.
My dessert was a profiterole filled with homemade cinnamon swirled ice cream, caramel sauce. On the side was an apple terrine of sorts. Perfect fall dessert, and I think they did a nice job making it fancy for my birthday.
I got loads of wonderful things, that I would like to do on another post. Mainly because the gift my husband gave me, needed to be exchanged for another size, and won't be here for a week. It's pretty neat, so I'll share all of them at a later date. I was spoiled as usual, and it is always so fun to celebrate all together in a beautiful setting, such as San Francisco. Our view was of the Bay Bridge all lit up. So pretty.......

27/47

Before I tell my favorite birthday story. I want to share this lovely prize I won from Liz, over at "Love Those Cupcakes." Everything in the package was so lovely, and I can't wait to use some of the items and also eat some of the items, not pictured, but is at the bottom, is a nice bar of Green&Black organic chocolate. Thank You Liz for such a fun give away :)
The reason for the title of my post is that I would like to share my favorite birthday my husband gave me on my 27th birthday. 20 years ago already!!
First off, my husband is the best gift giver ever! Not only does he remember things you tell him, he will also surprise me with things I thought he would never get.
When I was 27, I was four months pregnant with my second daughter, and feeling a bit tired and bloated from the pregnancy. I knew he was taking me out to dinner, but I had no idea what else he was going to do. The dinner alone was a nice thing, as we were still a young couple with a 4 year old and it was always nice to get dressed up and go out. I got home from work at my usual time and when I walked into our bedroom, there lying on the bed, was this really beautiful black velvet maternity dress with a strand of faux pearls. He had picked this dress out all on his own, and it fit like it was made for me when I tried it on. I couldn't believe it, and I felt and looked so much better after I slipped it on. I no longer felt like a bloated pregnant lady.
The restaurant that we went to was amazing, and to this day remains one of the top restaurants in the Bay Area. The name if it is Masa's. It was a wonderful dinner out, and I'll never forget how he had saved up all summer for this dinner and my gifts, and the thought that went into all of it.
The picture above is the jewelery box that he gave me that evening. The box was special ordered from a store where we had gone to college. He told me that is was made of oak and redwood. The wood signified where where we both grew up and met.
There are other wonderful birthdays that he has done for me, but I have to say that this was my favorite one, where I truly felt special and loved that day.
Sunday we plan to go out to dinner with the whole family here.
If anyone would like to share their most special birthday....I would love to hear it.

Yay October!

I went to IKEA a couple of weeks ago, and found this really cool fabric. They had a table display with napkins and other things made from it, and it immediately caught my eye as Halloween looking, but not over the top. I bought a yard, and it made two 18x18 pillows. I'm actually making the second one today, if my tweaked shoulder doesn't act up! I love the birds on them and I think they will look cute for the holiday.
I really can't believe it is already October. My birthday is on Sunday, and I plan to spend it with my dear husband and kids. Tomorrow, I will be writing a post on my favorite birthday. One that my husband orchestrated, and to this day is my favorite to tell. Stay tuned.......