A New Thread....

Tradition, Tradition!

2010-12-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

Although I stand here up to my elbows in Christmas cookie dough, I am fiercely determined to get this post out before the end of 2010.

I long for the day when I actually have a moment to think about anything, anything other than boxes of one sort or another, but until that day comes I will have to resign myself to the moments between the timer alerting me to the relative doneness of the cookies in the oven, the laundry in the washer and the packages still waiting to be wrapped.

Things were just starting to wrap up for us (pun intended), but we seem destined to be sent hurtling from one life changing experience just in time to jump right in to another.

I couldn't let 2010 go by, though, without pulling together this post that has been one whole year in the making: The recipe for the tourtière.

The tourtière has a long and varied history, including a debate about how it got it's name. Some say it was named after the container in which the pie was baked. Others say it was named after what used to be the key ingredient: the passenger pigeon, known as the tourtre in France or tourte in New France.

And like everything else in this day and age, the pie even has it's own Facebook page.

Every self-respecting family of French-Canadian descent has their own version of the tourtière, the meat pie that is traditional during the Christmas/New Year Holidays, and ours is no different (even Alex Trebek has a version; but this one is probably closest to Mémère's.)

Every year we just assumed that the pies would be part of the Christmas festivities, and we were never disappointed. Then, my little corner of the family moved to California.

For the first few years in California we got by without the pies. Then, in what I guess was a craving for some kind of tradition, I decided to try my hand at making my own tourtière. I used Mémère's recipe, but with such vague measurements and instructions, I never could get it right.

One of the frustrations that I faced in translating this recipe is Mémère's use of Québécois French, a variety of french particular to Quebec. The difference between Québécois French and Metropolitan French is apparently somewhat akin to the differences between American English and British English. This difference made Google translate go into some sort of cyber-spasm, and the result was practically unintelligible.

There was also some idiom involvement, which would make the recipe easy to understand if you were Mémère's next-door neighbor, but a little more difficult for someone with 2 years of high school french.

A year ago, Mom hosted a "Tourtière Tutorial" for the interested to learn the history behind the tradition of the tourtière in the Hebert/Fortin families. At the end of this post is the video created that day.

The second video was created this year when I went back for a "Remedial Tourtière Tutorial", where I cornered Mom into coughing up more detailed instruction on how to create this enigma. The information I gleaned from this lesson is in brackets. In quotes is the exact transcription from Mémère's recipe. In parenthesis is the somewhat convoluted translation.

That being said, here we go:

"2 lbs. hamburg pork"

(2 lbs. ground pork)

[The fresher, the better- you may need less water if the pork is really fresh. Also, Mom does mention that Mémère always used her cast iron pan. I don't think it would make a difference taste-wise, but I do believe that in general cast iron and ceramic coated cast iron like Le Creuset would cook more evenly.]

"1 oinions assez gros."

(1 onion, big enough.)

[5.5 ozs. chopped onion, chopped
small-ish so they cook faster]

"3 patates"

(3 potatoes)

[1 lb. 2 ozs.- any kind]

"Cuit ta viande met de l'eau pas trop car sa fait
pamale de juice pour apeu pres 1 hr, lentement."

(O.K., here's where it gets tricky: Cook your
meat slowly for about an hour. Add water but not too much because it will make quite a bit of liquid.)

[Here Mémère may have forgotten to mention
that the onions should be cooked with the meat.

Use 1 1/2 c. water added as the meat starts to cook, then 1/2 c. added after 5mins, then another 1/2 c. added about 5 mins later- you just have to watch that the water doesn't cook out of the meat. After the meat is cooked you may end up taking about 1 1/2 c. of liquid out of the mixture.

The meat was cooked just under high heat, but you have to watch it so it doesn't brown. It's supposed to cook slowly, but ended up only taking about 15 mins. on Mom's stove.]

"Cuit tes patates."

(Cook your potatoes.)

"Ecrase les biens."

(Crush them well.)

"Melange les avec ta viande."

(Mix them with the meat.)

[At this point you may want to add 3 1/2 pinches

of salt and 3 pinches of pepper. FYI: a pinch is 1/16 t.]

"Mets du clove en poudre..."

(Add ground cloves...)

[about 1/2 t.]

"...et cinnamon aux gout."

(...and cinnamon to taste.)

[about 1/2 t. plus a pinch more- 9/16 t. to be exact]

"Je n'ai pas de recette. Je fait cela aux gout.
Melange bien le tout. Je crois que tu aura deux tarte."

(I don't have a recipe. I do this to taste.
Mix it all well. I think you will have two pies.)

"Bonne chance."
[Well said.]

Tourtiere Tutorial Part One from Susan Miller on Vimeo.

Tourtiere Tutorial Part Two from Steve Miller on Vimeo.

This Magic Moment

2010-01-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment...

-Henry David Thoreau

Why is it that as we get older we start to dread birthdays? Certain milestone birthdays are especially intimidating....40, 50, 60. I put some of the blame on greeting card companies and their ilk. The "Over the Hill" birthday cards, fun grim reaper party balloons, and these

It doesn't help when I stop to consider that there are so many people who, at my age accomplished far more than myself.

While I still don't own anything purple and I'm not yelling at kids to get off my lawn (yet), there are days when I definitely feel my age. I do find consolation in the fact that I'm not as old as Barbie and the Edsel.

There are times I relish the idea that I'm getting to the point that I'm old enough to say exactly what's on my mind and not care (much) what anyone else thinks. The last thing I want to do is become a cliche, though, and I feel I'm dangerously close to that precipice. This book is now on my wish list and I keep this website close for what our culture likes to call "senior moments". And it's nice to know that the NYTimes has my back.

There are blogs out there that take ownership of the subject of aging: How Not to Act Old and Crabby Old Fart. And Margaret and Helen are my new heroines.

I think we dread birthdays as we age because of past regrets and anxiety about the future. One way to change this is to start living in the now. Be mindful of the moment you're in, and stop focusing on the thoughts, negative or otherwise, that come and go. Easier said than done.

There is a term that Buddhists use to describe the constant hum that goes on in your head. It is, and I'm not making this up, "monkey mind". I can't think of a better way to describe what is going on in my brain at any given moment.

Psychology Today had a great article a couple of years ago called "The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment" which is sort of a beginner's guide to mindfulness.

The six steps are, in a nutshell

Unselfconsciousness- getting out of your own head and being part of what's going on around you
Savoring- appreciating the moment...stop flitting around between past and future
Breathe- something you can do anywhere, anytime to bring you back to being present in the moment
Flow- focusing your attention on a task so as to not even notice the passage of time
Acceptance- a non-judgmental way of looking at emotions
Engagement- not assuming you know everything about the moment you're presently in

So, this is my resolution for my new year...to be more mindful about the present, and to try and tame my monkey mind.

Now, where did I put my...um, what do you call them? Oh, yeah, car keys.

(thanks again, John and Ann!)

I'll Be Looking at the Moon, But I'll Be Seeing You

2010-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.

I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.

The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.

I will not shut out the lessons they teach.

-Ebeneezer Scrooge

Because of several unfortunate incidents, including, but not limited to: the sunburn incident, the shingles incident, and the great thumb incident of aught-nine, and because Christmas waits for no (wo)man, something had to give this year.

So was it the cookies that got the boot? The Raspberry Shortbread Cookies, Dulce de Leche Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies or the Lemon Meringue Filled Ginger Snap cookies? Inconceivable! (They were awesome!)

Was it the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread Cake or Meyer Lemon-Cranberry Bundt Cake? Not a chance.

The tourtiere? Nope (more on that later.)

It was Christmas cards that took the hit this year. No cheerful notecard with photos depicting our wondrous life in the Bay Area. No newsy newsletter. Not even the random talking squirrel Ecard (there was the occasional dancing elf card, but that's another story.)

I'm not sure I've ever missed a year of sending at least some cards...even when I had the perfectly legitimate excuse of two small children, or the Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006 that caused a power outage lasting over a week in below freezing temperatures, when I had to write cards with numb fingers by candlelight.

I fear my omission of the annual card writing only succeeded in offending the Ghost of Christmas Past.

I then had the audacity to provoke the Ghost of Christmas Present by making a short unexpected trip to the east coast two weeks before Christmas. I nearly lost three toes and a finger in the sub-zero weather, and I lost all my gelt in a rousing game of dreidel...so much fun-akkah!

So, to avoid triggering the three-strike rule by goading the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, I offer this appeasement: "Ode to the Christmas Ornament".

The history of the Christmas tree and ornament is actually pretty interesting. The first ornaments were fruits and nuts. Way back when, German families hung shaped gingerbread cookies on their tree as ornaments. I used to do that, too, until the year we were awoken in the middle of the night by mice jumping into the tree to eat the cookies. I don't do that any more.

I started collecting gold-covered brass ornaments- the kind you can buy at tacky souvenir shops- about 13 years ago when we drove from Boston to San Francisco. And believe you me, there are plenty of tacky gift shops between here and there. Because I don't live at 30 Rockefeller Plaza I can't display all of these ornaments on our tree, so for now I stick to the more conventional ornaments.

Other than that, our tree is pretty traditional. Except I don't use tinsel...I find tinsel distracting :)

So, without further ado I give you my peace offering to the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Here they are, in no particular order:

The year we got engaged

1982: Our first Christmas together

Yosemite

Washington:
Hurricane Ridge ornament,
Space Needle ornament,
Ornament made with the ash of Mount St. Helens,
Ornament from the Stanley Family Reunion 1990

Tijuana

Taiwan

Skiing

No Christmas tree is complete without a Simpsons ornament...
...ours has two!

San Leandro

Poky Little Puppy (complete with diamond earrings)

Oakham and Barre

New Orleans

New England:
Wellfleet,
Faneuil Hall in Boston,
Longfellow's Wayside Inn and Grist Mill,
Kennebunkport, ME
Gold dipped leaves from Walden Pond

Victoria, BC ornament,
Ornament made of olive wood from Bethlehem (Walnut Bowl Factory Store in Lebanon, MO)
Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero, CA
San Diego golf ball,
Two ornaments from Leavenworth, WA

Issaquah, WA

Handmade by me

Handmade by someone else

From the kids

Disneyland 2000, 2001, 2002

Curious George in NYC, 2001

Ornaments of accomplishment:
Emerson
UC Berkeley

Bodega Bay, Monterey, Placerville

Officially the Oldest Ornament on the Tree, circa 1976
(from somewhere in Southern California)

Berkeley 2000
Lawrence Hall of Science

And finally, the quirkiest ornament on our tree:
Liberace from Las Vegas

Hope your Yule Log is burning bright tonight!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost!

2009-10-31T13:12:00.001-07:00

I have always loved all things Halloween. I think it may be my favorite Holiday.

I love the candy, obviously. I also love the corniness of bobbing for apples, doughnut races, and scary ghost stories (when I was a kid I read every book my library had by Hans Holzer.)

The Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite rides at Disneyland, and this is great.

I love scary movies, but no one will go with me, and I'm too scared to go alone. I was probably around 7 years old when I first saw The Blob, and it scared me to death (years later of course I wondered what could possible be frightening about gelatinous ooze from which one could literally stroll out of the way.)

I love all the new paranormal reality shows on TV now, much to the dismay of other members of the family....hey, they're Roto-Rooter Plumbers by day, ghost hunters by night! What's not to love?!!)

Dark Shadows was my favorite TV show when I was a kid- when I could sneak over to a friend's house to watch it, that is. Now I watch these episodes and they're so schlocky (this one is terrifying though, especially at 5 minutes and 8 seconds into the video. Schtick around until the end...you'll be glad you did!)

I am especially fond of pumpkin carving (if it's scary pumpkin carving, all the better.) I didn't think I'd be doing a pumpkin this year, what with my developing pathological fear of knives (if I had only known, I would have started doing this), but apparently people depend on me for these kind of things.

Pumpkins I Have Known:

Circa 1965: Arizonan Primitive Pumpkin

1999: Our "Party Like It's 1999" Berkeley Pumpkin
(quirky but lovable)

2000: Ooh, Our Scaaary Millenium San Leandro Pumpkin

2001: Our "If We Don't Have a Pumpkin the Terrorist Win" Patriotic Pumpkin

2002: Another San Leandro Pumpkin
(I think this subconsciously signified the
beginning of our interest in the culinary arts)

2003: What happened in 2003? We may never know...oooh, spooky!

2004: San Leandro again

2005: Issaquah Pumpkin
(surprised the pumpkins stayed lit with all the rain)

2006: More Issaquah, More Rain

2007: San Mateo: Great Pumpkins- Crappy Photos

2008: San Mateo again

2009: Ho Hum

It's obviously time to either move or perk up our pumpkin projects. Maybe next year I'll try something more challenging, like this, or this.

Here are some amazing pumpkins for your perusal.

If you've got a young 'un, or if you're feeling particularly agressive, you can take a hammer and nail (if you dare) to your pumpkin.

If you're wondering what to do with all your leftover pumpkins, there's always this.

Happy Halloween!

Can't Touch This

2009-10-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

The surgery to repair the tendon on my left hand went well; stitches came out last Tuesday. The pain is mostly gone now, and I'm in a splint for 6 weeks. PT won't start until week three; until then my thumb is completely immobilized, trussed-up like a Thanksgiving turducken.

A sort of ennui has settled over the house.

All the stuff I love to do is taunting me from their dusty corners. My sewing machine sits dejected- all those promises of pulling it out and getting started early this Holiday season tossed out like so many pattern pieces along the dusty trail of life (sigh).

My knitting needles mock me, aiming their pointy tips accusingly in my direction..so many unfinished objects.

My Cuisenart and rolling pin, Kitchenaid mixer- well, I can't even make eye contact with them, especially after seeing this. It's all just so, well, sad.

All the while the knives lay menacingly in wait in their new little Kapoosh-y home, all safe and dry, while I sit in this cursed splint, unable to perform even the most simple domestic tasks (If I had one of these, I would be awesome.)

Okay, I've got my Hammer-pants on; break it down!

The awesome pasta maker I found in a Wellfleet thrift store for $4?

Can't touch this

(but everyone else can:)

Pasta Making from Steve Miller on Vimeo.

All the free tulle I scored (thanks, Mom!) that's just begging to be sewn into produce bags?

Can't touch this!

I had such high hopes for this fabric from Paul and Mark, but...

Can't touch this!
Yo, I told you! Can't touch this!

I found this vintage fabric children's book at the same thrift store in Wellfleet; I imagined upcycling it into quilt squares

Can't touch this!

Steve's vest I've been trying to finish for a year. I was just about to separate the fronts and back when

Why you standin' there, man? Can't touch this!

Front View

Side View

Back View

Stop! Hammer time!

But that's just stinkin-thinkin'...I guess all is not lost. There are some things that apparently can be done with one hand tied behind your back: like this, or this, and it would be so cool right now to have one of these. A big "thumbs up" to this guy!

Thumbthing in the Way She Moves

2009-09-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished Julia Child's My Life in France which I enjoyed immensely, and I've been spending some time trying to put into words exactly why.

Partly it was the pure joy that she imbued throughout the process of learning to cook, and as the book progresses you can see how her love of French food expands to all things French.

Even more endearing is her enthusiasm for putting these recipes down on paper, her commitment to getting every step of the recipe precisely correct, her thoroughness, attention to detail and pure delight in every aspect of the process, right down to the all the foibles and flub-ups. Just after beginning her work Mastering the Art of French Cooking she writes, "Now that I had started writing, I found cookbookery such fulfilling work that I intended to keep at it for years and years."

But mostly what I think I loved was the gradual process of her finding her true passion in life, her raison d'etre, if you will. Julia writes of her time at Smith College that she was "[...]only operating with half my burners turned on." Even at at the age of thirty-seven she was "[...]still discovering who I was." This gives me hope.

The one important message I took from this book: Don't be afraid of tackling the hard stuff or the unknown. The result doesn't have to be perfect; what's important is that you tried, and hopefully learning from your mistakes. "[...]it's all theory until you see for yourself whether or not something works."

Here is today's lesson: always take your time when you're putting your sharp knives away.

As Julia would say, Ouf!

We all make mistakes. Especially crafty people, with all those exacto knives and all. But as a wise person told me recently, cautious people may not end up in the emergency room, but they rarely create anything exciting, either.

So I bought one of these...

The jury is still out however. Reviews are mixed on this product, but it circumvents the surprisingly dangerous task of slipping the knife back into the cover that's supposed to protect you from cutting yourself on a dangerously sharp knife...you gotta love the irony.

Another good thing: it's dishwasher safe! But it can't hold knives that are more than 8" long (I would never store a knife as shown in this photo. Never. Ever.)

This is next on my list.

Burning questions remain, however:

Will I ever thumb-wrestle again? (I coulda' been a contenda')
Or do whatever the hell it is they're doing here?
I do fear that my pencil spinning career has been cut short, so to speak.
Even knitting is taunting me!

Big thumbs up to Steve for taking time away from Photoshopping gophers into wedding photos to help me promote my new line of "Thumbstrong" bracelets. Thanks, Steve!

All the Shingles Ladies

2009-08-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Have you heard? Thanks to the recession, Victory Gardens are making a comeback.

As is knitting. Apparently, "worried women knit". Maybe that explains my attraction to it.

Meanwhile, there are those things that are that are going the way of the dinosaur. Am I the only one concerned about the fact that our kids are growing up without knowing about carbon paper? They may go their entire lives without knowing how to dial a rotary phone! I don't want to be an alarmist or anything, but I feel we've really dropped the ball on this one.

Then there are the styles that should never, ever come back: shoulder pads, mullets, and acid wash jeans.

Lots of things from your childhood can come back to haunt you later in life: orthodontic braces, incontinence and acne, for example. I myself have actually suffered a recurrence of two of these childhood maladies. I'm not going to tell you which two ;)

For me, however, the chickens have come home to roost.... for lurking inside each and every person who has ever had chickenpox, a case of shingles lies in wait.....muwahaha!

Yes, it's been the "Itchy and Scratchy Show" at our house lately. What an uncomfortable little disease this is! I had much higher hopes for my second childhood. But, my inner child came out to play and ended up wreaking havoc, just like Thing 1 and Thing 2.

It started with a very puffy, painful, swollen, painful, red (did I mention painful?) eye. Luckily it was caught pretty early, and my cornea was not affected. But it's going on 4 weeks now and though there is no rash, it is still quite itchy and, yes, painful. David Letterman had shingles in his eye also. Here's his "Top Ten List" when he returned after being away from his show for 30 days. Once again, David Letterman has crystallized my thoughts exactly.

All this research of chickenpox has made me hungry

(KFC: My secret guilty pleasure)

Now that my confession is out of the way...over the last couple years, we have made a concerted effort to live more environmentally conscious lives. We've always tried to be responsible: recycling wherever we could, re-using when it was appropriate, trying to eat local when possible. But we always knew we could be doing much more.

When we moved back to California, we tried to stay very focused on what was important to us, and strove to live within walking/biking distance of the stuff we knew we needed to do and all the stuff we wanted to do. It has worked pretty well for us, and reinforces in us the commitment to try to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel. We are far from perfect in reaching this goal, but we're trying.

One of the great perks of living close to the stuff you need is having more time to do the stuff you want. Over the past few years we have become more and more interested in cooking and baking, especially in the perfection of these hobbies. One of the problems/advantages with striving for perfection is that you start to find that a product you used to happily buy off the shelf of the grocery store- such as bread- starts to leave you wanting. Lately we have branched out and tried to start baking our own bread (all sorts), with very mixed results. But when it's good, it's really, really good! But that's a post for another day.

Anyone that has eaten with us knows that we can spend literally hours critiquing our technique and/or taking pictures of our creations. I don't know why we get such a kick out of it- we just do. Interestingly enough, we find we have less of a desire to eat out at restaurants now, because we often decide, "Meh, we could do better." Slowly but surely we have become part of the "slow food" movement.

We are fortunate to be able to live so close to so many Farmer's Markets: Jack London Square in Oakland on Sunday mornings, The Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Francisco on Saturday mornings, San Mateo Farmer's Market on Wednesday and a Whole Foods Market right nearby (Edited 8/13/09: I'll be shopping elsewhere for a while after reading this today.) And it's becoming more and more rare for us to buy something from a grocery that doesn't live by Michael Pollan's rules (from In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) quoted here from the NYTimes:

Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
Avoid those food products that come bearing health claims.
Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than 5 in number-- or that contain high fructose corn syrup.
Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
Pay more, eat less.
Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
Eat like an omnivore.

With that in mind,we decided to plant our own little garden (the operative word here being "little"). We don't have what you would call a traditional backyard...if you were to walk too far into our backyard you would be in for a surprise (you and the ducks, that is.) But, we do have a deck, so we decided to start a little container garden there, which we now refer to as "the lower forty".

As soon as I started feeling a little better, we planted three basil plants, parsley, thyme and oregano (I know what you're going to ask, and the answer would be we really don't use that much sage, and the rosemary is in the front yard.)

My first basil harvest

Our first meal with our first basil
Summer Vegetable Gratin

summer squash, zucchini with oil, pepper and thyme mixture

with caramelized onions

tomatoes

breadcrumbs and fresh basil

Dinner!

This meal was fussy, but it got an A+ in our critique (100% of our tasters agree.)

“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.”

The More You Know!

Throwing Caution To The Wind

2009-07-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

The other day we went on a bike ride.

I bought a bike a while ago because it was pretty.

Apparently, according to my sources, you shouldn't buy a bike because it's pretty. Just because it seems all comfy and upright doesn't mean it is comfy, and upright isn't necessarily the best position to ride (isn't any of this stuff written down somewhere?)

It was a beautiful day, and I was feeling more confident on my new bike, getting the kinks worked out on the fit, etc. It was supposed to be a little over four miles one way, and because we had done 10.26 miles the week before, I felt up for the challenge.

About five minutes into the ride, I realized I hadn't put on any sunscreen. I debated for a minute going back to the car to get sunscreen, but I figured it was only supposed to be a short ride, and I'd probably be O.K.

It was a little more than 7 miles one way when we reached the Hayward Interpretive Center with the wind at our backs (a 20mph westish wind according to the Oakland International Airport.) Coming back, fighting a really strong wind, took much longer. My arms and shoulders were killing me, I think from trying to hold myself upright on the bike in the wind. What was supposed to be a short ride ended up being 3 hours long, 15.35 miles, but it felt more like 30.

I am a walking billboard of a cautionary tale....

The moral of the story: always go back for the sunscreen!

I should have plush safety barricades surrounding me...or nice, soft, wooly safety cones!

This Ain't No Party! This Ain't No Disco! This Ain't No Fooling Around!

2009-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

I am in a very bad mood.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

It's official. California is falling into the Pacific, but it's not because of an earthquake. Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency because of the legislature's inability to fix the budget 24.3 billion dollar deficit.

As of today, California will begin issuing IOU's to pay it's debts (except to the legislators, of course), mostly to the most neediest of the community.

Unemployment in California is at an all time high of 11.5%.

And, did you think you might want to save some money and go camping in one of California's 278 beautiful state parks? Think again!

If you're at all curious about where the troubles began, you can start here.

To top it off, California is in it's second year of a drought.

And don't even get me started on the cost of our new Anthem Lumenos Health Insurance plan (no really, you don't want to know...)

When life gives you lemons....

...make lemon bars.

I'm On Craigslist!

2009-06-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing this lousy economy has done for me it's that it has encouraged me to get back to my roots.

I think back to when I first fell in love with "thrifting", way, way back to when I was probably 8 or 9 years old. Where some might inherit their father's love of sailing or music, I inherited my father's love for thrifting. For as long as I can remember, my Dad has been a thrift shopper/bargain hunter/junk finder. I remember fondly walking up and down the alley on trash day, looking for good stuff that was being thrown out.

I think of him every time I walk into one store or another and see something I know he would love. Even now he has his favorite haunts, and I am prepared to share my new favorite thrift stores with him when he comes to visit.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Here's some blueberry pancakes for you!
(sorry they're so digital)

In the 1990's, my heroine was Amy Dacyczyn and her Tightwad Gazette, which I subscribed to for so many years. Back then, I was frugal out of necessity. Most people who know me know that I would rarely pay full price for anything- it was a point of pride for me. I would never hesitate to ask a store manager to reduce the price of something because "it has this little rip here" or "it has a little smudge there."

During the last few years, though, I lost my way; clipping coupons became more of a nuisance, and thrift stores couldn't seem to hold my attention; they no longer had what I was looking for.

I was a huge fan of yard/garage sales back in the day. Some of my best memories are the yard sales and rummage sales that were so fulfilling, where I found just the right thing. Lately though, good yard sales have gone the way of MySpace and Trivial Pursuit. There's no there there anymore.

Recently, since I've discovered yarn recycling, I've begun a new-found romance with thrift stores; now I wonder why we ever split up. I realized how much I've been missing the thrill of the hunt...finding that object that you've been searching for, or maybe something totally unexpected, and getting it for cheap!

I'm renewing my vows to live frugally, and I believe that even though the economy is in the toilet, if you are careful you can still have whatever you like

I was reinvigorated when I read this newsclip the other day, and found this cool web site to help search for local thrift stores.

I decided to go on a little reconnaissance mission through my own neighborhood thrift stores.

What I have to show is actually pretty pathetic. I'm obviously not very proficient in the art of kinnearing; it's a real word- go look it up...I'll wait... Technically, it may not be "kinnearing" if you're only taking pictures of things and not people, but I digress. I considered bringing along a hidden camera, but then I decided I'd look pretty silly carrying around a copy of a hollowed out Nancy Drew Mystery and pointing it at things- this might actually call more attention to myself. So, I hid my camera in my purse.

The books at Pick of the Litter....

Goodwill housewares....

Pick of the Litter miscellaneous....

Goodwill small appliances....

Pick of the Litter small appliances....

Here are some of my recent purchases...none of it cost more than a couple of dollars except for the sweaters, which cost $5.49 each:

I bought this Syracuse China at Pick of the Litter

Prep bowls from Goodwill....

Glass apples from Pick of the Litter....

Woven shawl from Pick of the Litter

Alpaca wool sweater from Goodwill....

Another alpaca wool sweater from Goodwill....

...both of which I've already unraveled....

Pretty platter from Pick of the Litter....

Hand painted Japanese serving pieces from Pick of the Litter....

Of course there's all kinds of bargain hunting to be had. I'm a huge fan of Craigslist. We've bought bikes and sewing machines, sold bikes and lamps, and given away everything from drapes to rocks.

Here's the bike we sold on Craigslist....

Here's the bike we bought on Craigslist

I'm on Craigslist! Maybe you are too!

Looks Like We Made It

2009-06-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

President Barack Obama
Inaugural Address January 20, 2009

Well, seeing as the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors made it official, we felt we should do our part and attend this year's Maker Faire. The first ever Maker Faire was held April 22-23, 2006, and this year has grown to approximately 80,000 attendees.

Being the frugal Faire attendees, and trying to lessen our carbon footprint, we decide to ride our bikes to the Faire. We were able to get a $10 discount for bicycling, plus free bike valet, and we got in about a half hour earlier than the rest of the driving crowd (although I think that had more to do with the general confusion of the volunteers in charge of the bike entrance.) (the blue arrow is pointing at our bikes amongst a sea of bikes)

Wandering around the grounds I could just feel the creative vibes all around me....it made me want to run home and knit something, or sew something, or weld something (oh, how I wish I could weld!) You got the sense the place was just pulsating with ideas.

We were quickly overwhelmed by everything there was to see; we took some pictures, but they hardly do the Faire justice. Here's a short video clip of a few of the really cool things there were to see

Maker Faire 2009 from Steve Miller on Vimeo.

Let's see if I can help explain some of the things in that video:

To start, the moss covered creature was a Swamp Kirin from Seabat Studios

Swamp Kirin from Sarah K. Moore on Vimeo.

The Obama Robotic Solar Electric Chariot with another video here.

A Lego Train Town and Village by Bay Area Lego Users Group

R2-D2 Astromech Droids by Artoo-Detoo Dot Net

Robot Band by moonmilk

Lev the thereminbot plays "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley

Make your own shrinky dinks

The Rope Squirter from the Exploratorium

Monkey Bike Light from Monkey Electric

Soda Bottle Wave Installation by Reuben Margolin

Rotating Light Sculpture by Applied Kinetic Arts

Holiday House 2009 from Light Up Xmas

Muffin Cars from Acme Art

Radio Controlled Robot Tanks by Bay Area Tankers

And here are a few of our pictures...
The Solar Human Hybrid Vehicle

The Bumble Bee Ride by Cyclecide

Tesla Electric Car

My "Birth-Make-Death" bag that I silk screened at the Provo Craft Booth using the Yudu Screen printing system

Lego Jeep

My next car (or dessert!) by Acme Art

My finished Shrinky Dink for Pinky

Shark Truck

Red Wagon Hot Rod Art Car

The Bazaar Bizarre was amazing... so much talent....Recover Your Thoughts , Chicks & Frogs , Piperoids to name just a few...

I wish I had done more research before, because I would have loved to participate in Swap-O-Rama-Rama . "Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which a community explores creative reuse through the recycling of used clothing." You can see some of the results of their efforts here.

Gerard's Paella caught the attention of some of us...

...and some of us were taken by Handknit Heroes

There were also representatives from Etsy, Craftzine, Make Magazine, Crafsters and Instructables.

One of the more intruguing sections of the Faire was the one devoted to Steampunks, Steampunk Magazine and Neverwas Haul built by the Academy of Unnatural Sciences for Burning Man in 2006.

We were in absolute awe of the creativity and inspiration of the Maker Faire. There truly are some creative geniuses among us, and they've expanded my interpretation of the word "craft".

Now, I'm off to try to figure out how to insert blinking LED's into the vest I'm knitting for Steve.....

A Word that Means the World to Me

2009-05-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

This year for Mother's Day I participated in Code Pink's A Radical Act of Knitting in Honor of Mother's Day. Code Pink was asking for knitters and crocheters everywhere to contribute squares knit in pink and green to help create a "cozy" for the fence in front of the White House. Green letters on a pink background would spell out the phrase

“We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child” inspired by the words of Julia Ward Howe who wrote Mother's Day Proclamation

I knit a 4" x 4" square for my two kids and all the Moms in my life....

I attached a tag to each square (the Code Pink Organization hopes to be able to tell people where their squares will end up on the quilt....I'll update this post as new information comes in.)
Edit: here are some pictures...and this

Happy Mother's Day to Moms everywhere!

You Made Me Love You

2009-05-07T17:01:00.001-07:00

O.K., I'll try not to bore you with the details....

I did not intend to like these cookies.

I was perfectly happy with the old cookie recipe. I found the "Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe and was committed to it. It was good enough. I never looked back.

But, I saw the "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe and I took the bait. I accepted the challenge to bake a "perfect" chocolate chip cookie, as daunting (read: fussy) as this recipe appeared.

Firstly, you needed to brown the butter...not all the butter, but five-sevenths of the butter

then the remainder gets stirred in to the now browned butter.

Here it is all melted and stuff.

Then, you mix in the eggs and sugars for precisely 30 seconds

then, let it rest for 3 minutes. That's right... you let the mix rest...apparently, it needs a little quiet time because it's just so worn out from all it's hard work. And you do this not once, but three times!
(here it is, catching it's breath)

The rest proceeds pretty much as usual...chocolate chips (but, oh no, not your typical chocolate chips, but Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips...lah de dah)

But then came the taste test. I brought in a perfectly impartial test subject to try each cookie.
First, my everyday cookie....the "Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe
then, Little Miss "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie".
The "Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" was described as "firm" with "complex flavors" but "salty" with a "not overwhelming chocolate" flavor, and "dry", whereas the "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" was described as "moister", "not as hard" with "caramel overtones" and "toasted butter".

Both cookies are good, and better in different ways. They both make great cookies.

The "Thick and Chewy" cookie recipe is great for it's user friendliness that results in a really good cookie.

The "Perfect" cookie is really fussy to make but makes a really good cookie. Depending on the day (and how desperate I am for a chocolate chip cookie), either one could be the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I would call them the same, but different.

Hard to define, but here are some other examples that might help explain my take on it....

Same same but different.

Apparently, Disney animators also practiced this concept...
See more funny videos and Entertainment Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Margaret Roach writes about "same-but-different realities" of "sister experiences" in The Sister Project. Warning: You could get lost here for hours...

I found this cool composite photos taken by the Danish photojournalist Peter Funch. After taking photos on the same street corner for two weeks, he Photoshops the images together to produce a photo that is the same but different. I am so envious of his Photoshop skills...

Lastly, there's this. Same great search without all the calories.

Taxes?! Isn't This The Line For Metallica?

2009-04-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

(Sorry. This isn't a real post...the ones I've been working on have really been taxing me. I apologize for the delinquency. I just wanted to file a post before you all forgot about me! Didn't want you to think I was evading the issue. I assure you I am not withholding information. I've been really busy lately, but don't worry; I'm not ready to rollover just yet. I won't bore you by itemizing each and every detail suffice it to say I will return. )

"C" is for Cookie

2009-04-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

“Marge, it's 3 AM. Shouldn't you be baking?”
-Homer Simpson

Ahh, nothing like a good Simpson quote to start off a post.

Today's subject: cookies...chocolate chip cookies, to be exact. Cook's Illustrated magazine has no less than 4 chocolate chip cookie recipes, all promising to be better than the last. The particular recipe that I have been using was, I thought, as good as it could get.

Since this particular batch was made however, the May/June 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated arrived in my mailbox containing yet another recipe, this time touting the be all and end all Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies. Cook's Illustrated has thrown down the gauntlet. The game is afoot!

First, my go-to recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies.
(Stay tuned for Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Rematch)

Mix the butter and sugars...

...eggs and vanilla...

...flour...

...chocolate chips....

...measure 1/4 cup...

....and roll into a ball. Sometimes here I roll all
the dough into balls and put them all into the
refrigerator. Then after dinner I'll bake 3 or 4 for
dessert.

When you're ready to bake you take one ball of dough...

...break it in half...

...rotate each piece 90 degrees with jagged sides up....

...then set it on a cookie sheet with the rough sides up

Ready to bake

That's good enough for me!
Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, do your best!

Let's think of other things that starts with "C"

Across the street from our house is a trail that runs along the bay. There's biking/jogging/walking trails, a playground, a dog park, a golf course, art sculptures and some really incredible views. Here's some stuff we've seen...

Caution Signs

Cats on the Water

I love the idea of being a "Cat Socializer". It makes me think I should bring tea and crumpets down to the water and have conversations that start with "Have you seen the latest edition of Lolcats?"

California Poppy

Chloe, Danny and Jocelyn's Puppy

("Who's a cute puppy-wuppy? Are you a cute puppy-wuppy! Yes you are! Oh, yes, you are!")

and then there's...
Cake!

I made this Lemon Lover's Cake on Sunday. A yellow cake with buttercream frosting (my first try with real vanilla beans), topped with lemon curd and garnished with sugared lemons and white chocolate curls.

And finally, there's Code Pink. If you have any knitting or crochet abilities, I encourage you to go check it out.

I'll Take "What is Green" for $100.00, Alex

2009-03-17T21:56:00.001-07:00

Green Produce bags made out of tulle...

It seemed odd to me to lug all my canvas bags into the grocery store only to fill up plastic bags with produce, so I made these bags from netting bought at the fabric store. I've gained enormous street cred with the cashiers at Whole Foods, and that is one group that is not easily impressed, I'll tell you what...

I'm hoping to put up a tutorial on this soon, so stay tuned!

Then there's

Fiesta Dinnerware teapot in Juniper

with another Kureyon Kozy in Noro Kureyon Color Number 233

Also, there's
Steve's vest which is coming along very slowly. I'd be much further along if it hadn't been for a mistake I made nearly at the beginning and had to rip most of it out (if you look closely you'll see the white lifeline I 've been putting in periodically so I don't have to rip the whole thing out when the next inevitable mistake happens...damn you cursed moss stitch!)

And finally

Irish Soda Bread and

Irish Stew...not exactly green, but isn't everything green on St. Patrick's Day (or something like that)?

I Own No Monkeys

2009-02-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

(haven't you always wanted a monkey?)

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Felonious Monkeys

But seriously, folks...
Today, I bring you Part III of my continuing series
Better Know a Breakfast Bread: Scones

Bagels and English Muffins were only the beginning....

Today we bring you scones!!

Today's Fun Fact to Know and Tell Your Friends: there is a raging debate about the pronunciation of the word "scone"; seriously, go google it...I'll wait.....as you can see, some pronounce it "scone" (rhymes with "gone") and others say "scon" (as in "bun")...who knew?

First, toast the oats

Mix the butter with the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt...

...like so

Then mix the flour/butter mixture with milk, cream, egg and toasted oats

Move the dough to a work surface

Shape into a circle about 7" in diameter

There was some math involved, but I bravely soldiered on and cut the circle into 8 pieces

Brush on a little of the egg/milk mixture and sprinkle on some sugar. I found reusable parchment at Sur La Table in the Ferry Building in San Francisco

Baked

Now, if only I liked tea...

I'm A Little Teapot

2009-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

short and stout.

Here is my handle...

...here is my spout.

When I get all steamed up...well, you know the rest.

Kureyon Kozy
2 balls of Noro 100% wool Color 209 Lot A

Inside the cozy, there's a pocket...

...into which you can insert a sachet. The warm teapot heats up the sachet, and theoretically should make the room smell good (and in keeping with the teacup/wool theme, there's this.)

Franciscan Dinnerware, Coronado Line, circa 1939

One of Rachel and Emily's early tea parties, circa 1989.

Happy 23rd Birthday, Rachel!

Vested Interest

2009-02-13T09:12:00.001-08:00

We've decided that this will be the vest for Steve. This is the Zipped Vest

from Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery

We're using
Cascade 220 Superwash in color #865

It's the same yarn we used to make Danny's sweater

We cast on 260 stitches; compare to this:

Moss Stitch Swatch

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do You Know the Muffin, Man?

2009-02-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

Now, in Part II of Better Know a Breakfast Bread, I give you:

English Muffins!

Mixin' the Bloomin' Dough!

We fancied a recipe for our favorite store-bought English Muffins (Bay's English Muffins). We found a recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.

The Resulting Dough

It's very stretchy and sticky...blimey!

Set the dough aside to rise for 90 minutes, and....

...there ya' 'ave it!

Doubled in size. Jolly good show old bean!

We Used Egg Rings to Shape the Dough

The bee's knees, innit?

And Bob's Your Uncle!

Cheers!

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E, Find Out What It Means to Me

2009-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

So, I've been reading a lot lately about recycling sweaters for the yarn, so I decided to give it a try.

Ann Taylor Silk Vest I Bought for $1.75

I bought this vest at a thrift store. I figured it was a small enough project to start out with, and it was cheap enough so that if I really screwed things up it wouldn't break the bank.

Deconstruction

I dove right in to separating the shoulder and side seams.

Unraveling on to the Swift

I'm holding the scrunched up vest piece in my left hand and spinning the swift with my right. The swift winds up the yarn....

All Unraveled

...until it's all wound up.
This was the swift I hinted broadly about to Steve before Christmas.

All Tied-Up

Then you tie the yarn up to keep it from getting tangled when you wash it.

Washing

Then you soak the hanks over night (in anything other than Woolite...who knew?)

Drying

You leave the hanks to dry, with a little extra weight to help straighten the kinks.

Winding On to the Ball Winder

So, you put the hank back on the swift, take one end of the yarn and thread it on to the ball winder. As you crank the handle on the ball winder, it pulls the yarn off the swift and winds it in to a ball (ahem, hence the name.)

Weigh In

177 grams
6 1/4 ozs.

Finished Product

Pretty cool, eh?

So cool, I decided to try it again.

Pink Cashmere Sweater $5.49

This is where I learn one of the rules of recycling yarn: if you've got a cardigan, you have to be careful about how the front opening is made. Sometimes the opening has been steeked where it's actually knit in one piece then cut up the middle for the opening, making the right and left front unravelerable™.

So now I have a right and left front of a sweater,

but I also have this (194 grams, 6 7/8 ozs.)

White Cashmere $8.99

And this....

...became this......(236 grams, 8 1/4 ozs.)

Impossibly Twisted Cream Colored Wool- Priceless

Don't even get me started on this; I don't know what was going on with this sweater. No matter what point I tried to unravel it from, it simply Would. Not. Unravel.

Hmmm, you live and learn, I guess.

Christmas Knifts

2009-01-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of the knitting gifts Danny and Rachel got me for Christmas

Rachel's Pincushion
Rosebud Pincushion- Reclaimed Wool by Heidi Leugers
http://www.reclaimedwool.com

Dan's Circular Needle Holder
Circular Chicks in a Row
Made from vintage fabric
Handmade in Oakland, CA
http://www.OffhandDesigns.com

Bagel Blogging

2009-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

So, this was my first attempt at bagels. They came out pretty good- I used John McChesney-Young's (tip o' the hat to John) recipe. The only thing I would have done differently is rotate the sheets on which the bagels were rising (I think one was a little warmer than the other, and therefore rose a little more.)

We toasted them and had them with ham and eggs for dinner...Steve had cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers; I had cream cheese, cherry tomatoes and scallions...mmmmmmm.

Baby Bagels

Boiling Bagels

Blotting Bagels

Bestrewn Bagels

Bare Bagels

Baked Bagels

Breathtaking Bagels

It's Been a Long Time Coming

2009-01-20T01:58:00.000-08:00

Celebrate With a Happy Dance!
(If you get a chance, watch the Hi Def version on YouTube...just click on the movie after it starts and it'll take you to YouTube- click on the blue link right under the movie that says "watch in high quality")

Don't Let The Screen Door Hit You On Your Way Out.....

2009-01-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

How many people woke up this morning thinking that thought? Going to bed on Monday night I felt just like a little kid on Christmas Eve, so excited that I couldn't sleep (O.K., so maybe it was that afternoon latte thankyouverymuch, Starbucks!)

I can't help hoping that, like Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette, we're just going to wake up Tuesday morning and the last eight years will have been a dream- a really bad one at that.

Well, we're awake now, and as soon as we've had our coffee and pop-tarts it'll be time to get to work, which, I guess is why I've started this blog. I was going to just add a new chapter to the blog that Rachel and I started on our trip across country (see "A Long Strange Trip"), but then I decided that I had a real desire to start something entirely new, my monument to change, if you will. Well, there you have it.

I'm hoping that this will be a place to record the highs and lows of my "January 20, 2009 Resolutions". The title "A New Thread" is a play on words hopefully evoking a feeling of change and/or knitting, with maybe a little cooking, photography (mostly pictures of my knitting and cooking), and, ahem, exercise thrown in. It was only fitting that I launch my new blog on this most auspicious occasion, where everything looks doable.

I'll try to post often; feel free to email me with feedback (especially you young whippersnappers...if you have any helpful blogging techniques, let me know...) There may be a slight lag occasionally between posts; my Wii yoga instructor gets very testy when I don't show up at least every other day- (those Wii instructors can get very snarky.)

And so, in the words of Bob Newhart, "You really should wear more sweaters." Words to live by.

P.S. You can get updates on all new posts by clicking that little link at the bottom of the post that says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" or click on the link at the top of the page on the right where it says "Posts"....(go on, click it, you know you want to.) It's really easy, especially if you have a gmail account. All the really cool kids have gmail accounts :)