A Day to Celebrate My Sister!

This is me and my sister last Christmas.

I'm the goofy one, she's the one who puts up with me. ;-)

She's the best sport really. She always goes along with my crazy ideas.

Like when I made everyone bring their build-a-bear on our cruise, with formal wear? She brought hers to dinner.

I made her stick her face in a bunch of goo to make Mt. Zentmore. She's the one who painted it to make it look right.

When I thought we needed a Christmas project and we did a chins version of "The 12 Days of Christmas"? She did the "narration" part. Even though she was "not going to sing".





We've been a lot of cool places together - she's a great travelling companion.

About a year ago, we set up here, at the Cancer Survivor's Park to take a picture to celebrate the end of her cancer treatments!

And today we celebrate ONE YEAR CANCER FREE!!

I can't tell you how happy we all are to celebrate this day.  (I've told her that she isn't to put us through a scare like this again )  Hooray for My Sis!!


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Tuesday Garden Party - Updates

I've been so excited about the features in our yard this summer (our fabulous finch organ, on which we saw more than 60 finches at a time over the weekend, and our tranquil pond) that I've not been telling you about what's coming out of our garden.


So this week we've got...

plum jelly (OK, so we didn't technically grow the plum jelly, but you get the idea)

a few tomatoes

one lemon (with probably 50 more coming in about three weeks)

some random strawberries (we never had more than a few at a time this season)

beautifully ripened poblanos

the first of the Chilean sweet peppers ready to ripen

the start of a sunflower (we think)

our first beefmaster... with the hope of many more IF we can figure out what is eating them (I looked for worms, but couldn't find any... any ideas?)

and (hopefully) super-hot hanaberos!

Who knows what we'll find next week - check back to find out! In the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

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Taking Pictures... It's in the Blood

My great-grandfather (folks called him Hromy) was a professional photographer in Los Angeles in the 1920s through the 1950s.  He had some cool opportunities to shoot some still photographs in Hollywood, including some for Errol Flynn's "Robin Hood" movie.  And while that is pretty cool, we also have tons of family pictures through the years.  Pictures that would probably not have been taken if Hromy weren't a photographer.

My cousin spent some time as a professional photographer too.  She did family shots and weddings (she was our wedding photographer, poor girl... I wasn't bridezilla, but I had VERY strong ideas about how things were going to go...) and she was fabulous.

I've always liked photography.  I think it must run in the family.  I took a course when I was maybe 15 and learned a few things, but never really progressed from snapshots until we got our DSLR for Christmas several years ago.

Now that we had better equipment, I started thinking more about what was happening in each shot.  I learned about light and its importance.  The Mr is much better with the settings than I am, and I use this as a crutch often (as in... "Oooh, this is great light - can you make the settings right so that I can capture the gold in the trees?").  I know.  Pathetic.  I'm good with that for now.

I think I (we) have really come a long way in the last couple of years.  And recently I have been rejuvenated by reading, commenting and receiving comments from a couple of bloggers.

• Abe Lincoln
• Olivier
• Bergson
• Rob
• Mitch
• Ashley Sisk
• Megan
• Jhen Stark 

I have been learning from these folks too.  They've never offered advice though.

• Pioneer Woman
• Rita @ CoffeeShop

I think the best lesson I  have learned lately is to take lots of pictures, try new things, learn from other people's work and don't be afraid to ask questions.  There are great people out there who will answer!






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Sunday Snapshot - Sunday Dinner

Sunday is our day for family dinner.  My in-laws come to dinner every Sunday, and we all sit down at the table and have dinner.

Dinner and conversation.  Which can be problematic some of the time.. a  subject for a different blog though.

I like to make dinner entertaining, and to that end have been having "theme dinners" for several years now.

Theme Dinners have a theme (go figure) usually relating to something that happened in history on that day or something that is happening in current events.

One of our first theme dinners was on a Veteran's Day.  We wanted to teach The Children about what veterans were, so our menu was war themed.  We had "Redcoats in a Blanket" for the Revolutionary War, "M*A*S*H'ed Potatoes" for the Korean War, "Kaiser Rolls" for WWI... you get the idea.  Then we got the opportunity to talk about each war at dinner.

For the 2004 summer Olympics, we had a Greek dinner, with authentic Greek food.  We bought special plates (at the dollar store) and at the end of the meal we all threw our plates into the fireplace!  The Boy, who was 3 at the time, had eyes as big as the plates when he yelled "Oplah!"  Cute.  Later The Mr and I took the shards of the plates and made this mosaic to remember the Olympics and our dinner (can you see the Olympic rings in it?).

We made Mount Zentmore for President's Day one year when my sister was visiting.  This was a great project where we got to stick our faces in goo that sets up into a form that you can pour plaster into.  Worth the effort I think... you might ask my sister if she thinks so too as one of those is her face.

Sometimes we do crafts - this is one our "Christmas Cards for Santa" dinners where we all wrote (painted actually) a card to Santa on a ceramic tile.

We turned our house into the M.S. Zentdam when we had a cruise ship themed dinner (and yes, we had a lifeboat drill - mandatory attendance).

Tonight our theme was International Pasta.  We found some great pastas at the Farmer's Market the other day.  We bought some curry angel hair pasta and some habanero radiatore.  We had a lot of great produce to use, so I tried to put it all together.

We had Italian sauce, with whole wheat penne, Caribbean jerk chicken with mango sauce over the habanero rotini and Indian cilantro cream sauce over the curry angel hair.

And of course, fresh baked French bread....

All of them were tasty.  The habanero pasta was crazy spicy.  We made The Children each have some of all of the pastas.  They actually did a great job, given the spiciness of the habanero... and actually the spiciness of the Italian pasta too (my favorite sauce is pretty hot).

The Boy drank a lot of water...

The Girl does not like her picture being taken...

So for dessert, after a crazy meal, what do we serve?  This:

Fruit and ice cream.  Avocado and mint ice cream (the brownish green rectangle thing at the bottom of the pile of fruit).  I know.  Very weird.  We didn't tell anyone what the "secret ingredient" was, and no one could guess.  Imagine that.

The odd thing was, everyone liked it!  And, it calmed down the heat in our mouths.

All in all, a great success of a meal.  No one (insert "The Children" here) yelled at each other, and we all enjoyed the food.  Makes the work worth every minute.
















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Nighttime Skies

Venus, Mars, Saturn and the moon.  All visible in this night sky.

Gorgeous.

For those photographers out there... any idea what that extra thing (that looks like a reverse moon) is? And how I might get rid of it?

The thing right there in the blue circle.  Is it a reflection of the moon in my lens maybe?  How can I prevent it?

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Bobby Flay's 16 Spice Chicken with Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Sauce and Smoked Red Pepper Sauce

Remember when I told you I would show you what I made with all of these spices?

We are huge fans of Bobby Flay. We had dinner at Mesa Grill in Las Vegas when we visited for The Mr's birthday... and the food was fabulous!

My sister got me the cookbook and I've been working on some of the recipes since then.

Sunday I decided to try the 16 Spice Chicken with Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Sauce and Smoked Red Pepper Sauce.

The recipe was fairly easy.   Basically, make the two sauces, make the spice rub, rub the chicken heavily with the spices and grill it. 

Put a little of each sauce on a plate.

OK. All of the plates. If I have to share.

Take the chicken off the grill. It will be dark because of the spices. Don't worry.

Then put a piece of chicken on each plate, drizzle with more of each sauce and sprinkle with spumkin seeds.

The verdict?  This was amazing!  The time it took to track down the spices (some of them were hard to find) was totally worth it.  The recipe makes more spice rub than is needed - the extra will go to good use in other meals.

Even with the spiciness of the sauce, The Children really enjoyed this.  I think it was more flavorful spice than hot spice.  The Boy (who believes that he hates anything that is "hot" spicy) loved the red pepper sauce, which actually has a bit of heat to it due to the chipotles.  I could have eaten the green sauce (I substittuted parsley for cilantro as I don't like cilantro) by itself as my entire dinner.  Yum.  Except that the chicken smelled so good with the spices.



Here's the recipe:

16 Spice Chicken with Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Sauce and Smoked Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients:
Cilantro-pumpkin seed sauce (recipe follows)
Snoked red pepper sauce (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon chile de arbol
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 (8-ounce) boneless chicken breasts, skin on
1/4 cup canola oil

Directions

Make the cilantro-pumpkin seed sauce and red pepper sauce and refrigerate while the chicken is cooked.

Heat your grill to high.

Stir together the ancho powder, pasilla powder, cumin, coriander, ginger, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, chile de arbol, 2 tablespoons salt, black pepper and cayenne in a small bowl.

Brush both sides of the breasts with the oil and season with salt. Rub the top side of each breast with a few tablespoons of the rub and place on the grill, rub side down. Grill until golden brown and slightly charred, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the breasts over and continue grilling until just cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes longer.

Remove the chicken from the grill and tent loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve the over cilantro-pumpkin seed sauce and smoked red pepper sauce.



Cilantro-Pumpkin Seed Sauce
Ingredients:
1/2 C. Packed Fresh Cilantro
1/8 Cup Pumpkin Seeds, toasted
1/4 Small Shallot
1/2 Garlic Clove
1 T. Red Wine Vinegar (this is not considered Paleo, so use lemon or lime juice if you'd like)
1/2 C. Fresh Spinach Leaves
3 T. EVOO
1 tsp. Raw Honey
Sea Salt and Pepper, to taste

Combine cilantro, pumpkin seeds, shallot, garlic, vinegar, spinach, and 1/8 C. of water in a blender and blend until smooth.

With the motor running, slowly add the oil and blend until emulsified.

Add honey, salt, and pepper. The mixture should be a slightly loose sauce consistency. Store in the refrigerator, for up to one week.



Smoked Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients:
4 roasted, peeled, seeded red bell peppers (roast over a gas flame, on the BBQ, or in a 425F oven), chopped
½ small red onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves roasted garlic, peeled
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chipotle puree
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup canola oil

Combine peppers, onion, garlic, vinegar, honey, mustard, chipotle and salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth.

With the motor running, slowly add the oil and blend until emulsified. Strain sauce into a bowl.



(recipes can also be found on foodnetwork.com)


For more great recipes, check out The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap! If you have a recipe to share, please join in the fun!




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Before and After

This is a photo of The Boy. I love this one.  A rare moment that I captured the combination of sitting still (!) and paying attention (!!)...

Unfortunately, I didn't capture his clear blue eyes. I have seen that people (people who aren't me) can fix that in Photoshop, so I made some attempts. None of which worked. Any pointers or websites where I could learn more about that?

Anyway, I decided to go in a different direction.  Or several different directions.

I actually like all four of them.  Any favorites?  Ideas on what I could do differently?
If you like my shots, you need to visit Pixel Perfect for more before and after fun! And if you want to play along all you have to do is show us your SOOC (straight out of camera) shot and then the edited version. Link back to Pixel Perfect and link up your post below! Feel free to share with us your editing program and camera gear too!

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Home

This image reminds me of home.

My mom had these bowls growing up.  I can't think of how many cakes we made in those bowls, how often they sat on the table at dinner, with vegetables or potatoes... 

My parents live in the frozen tundra and I live in San Diego.  We talk a lot on the phone, and get to see each other several times a year.  I love having them stay with us and eating at my own table with them.

But nothing is quite like home.  And it is funny what little things bring back those warm memories.  Things like a piece of Pyrex.

What reminds you of home?

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