POTPOURRI

I've never been much of a potpourri type of gal. It's the kind of thing I pass in the aisles of many markets on a regular basis with no thought at all. Of course this is what I ended up with at the company white elephant party this year. 

Imagine my surprise when I bring it home and my new minted husband nods and packs it away - somewhere. We went out and about yesterday - checked out the new light rail in downtown Phoenix (another story for another day), visited his mother, checked out the indian pow wow at the Heard and generally froze our butts off waiting for the next train. Eventually we got home and there was the most amazing smell in the house. Turns out he had taken the potpourri, put it in a small stockpot with water and left it on to permeate the interior of our home. 

My husband, who is not one's immediate image of a homemaker in any sense, knows how to brew a potpourri. Gleefully - with such zest. I just have to laugh. Giggle. Roar out loud and pound a few walls. Just short of tears, I'm still in a state of amusement and shaking my head. 

I just love this man. 

BUSY AS A BEE - SICK AS A DOG

I have been as busy as a bee for the past three weeks with workshops back to back and prepping for the next one in between since the week before Thanksgiving. Busy as a bee and no time for play. Finally get out all the deliverables - three the week before Christmas and WHAM. I get sick. Sick as a dog. 

I looked that saying up actually - or tried to. There is no clear derivation of the saying though the common consensus is that you are not sick as a dog unless you're throwing up. So, despite feeling that my sinuses can hold the contents of whichever lake you care to name, I am not sick as a dog. Just your common everyday head cold. Scratchy, itchy and achey all over. I have tried the various remedies from homeopathic to medicinal but finally just stopped and let the ole snoz just go.

Several boxes of tissues later, with the accompanying tender spots on either side of my nose and a nap - I feel slightly better. Mornings are the worst however. Regardless of how early I go to bed or what decongestant I choose, my head feels like it's going to explode the second I raise my head in a vertical position.  Really makes Christmas just an opportunity to sleep in. Thankfully my shopping is done and all I have to worry about is a Christmas eve party and cooking dinner itself on Christmas. Our first Christmas.

Going for tradition of course. Despite not spending it with my family, I am still making the homemade ravioli I have made for the past fifteen odd years since learning from my Grandmother. Scaling it way down and making the whole meal is different than what I usually do - I'm not used to also making the gravy (yes, it's gravy in our family, not sauce) and the antipasto. I should have made the pickled peppers this weekend but it slipped my mind - I'll make roasted peppers instead.  I'm sort of looking forward to it yet I know I'll miss my family. It will be different to say the least. 

If only I can get rid of this darn cold. Gasundheit or since I'm actually more italian than german, Salute.

A HOLIDAY STORY

Cooking for a holiday.

It has its ups and downs:

Wednesday evening - Took on making pie, rolls and stuffing to help mom along. I actually finished the stuffing and was cleaning up and then managed to clog the sink. This happened around 8ish when I was also working on a small dinner (pizza and a salad still qualifies as dinner right?). The clog really stopped my process. I had gone to the store for some missed ingredients and realized I still needed to buy the frozen peaches. So my ever dutiful and very handy husband was attacking the pipes and let me run off to get the peaches. It was raining quite hard on Wednesday evening by the way. Well he needed the hose in the house to try a 'force the food down the drain with this gizmo he had from Homer's place' and I got to man the hosebibb - in the rain. Did I mention that it was raining? And of course, you know that hoses prevent doors from closing. We managed to prevent our cat Anubis from exploring the great outdoors but Kahn is a bit more intrepid and probably felt the cool breeze and was out like a shot when we weren't looking. Ended up under the wood pile (I mentioned it was raining right?) sniffing away, me trying to coax him out far enough that I could grab him. Whatever has been pissing on the wood was pretty interesting because I spent 10 minutes in the rain but finally managed to haul him back in with not too much damage to clothing. I still needed to get some stuff done so while my husband continued  working on the pipes - still bravely wearing a dress shirt and jeans but now covered in an apron (very cute) - I started on my pie dough. Got that done and in the refrigerator but cleanup was done in the laundry room sink or the hall bar sink. The clog was then declared beyond our current tool abilities and could wait until we could get a snake. We opened the bar, watched two episodes of the latest Battlestar Gallactica (Netflix is great) and went to bed 1:30ish.

Thursday - Slept in of course instead of getting up early to finish things up. Still no sink. The floor is a disaster. Managed to ignore both realities. Rolled the pie shell out, fixed up the peaches, put it together (not one of my better crusts by the way - to crumbly ) and got it in the oven. Do you recall the peaches were frozen? Remember that fact in a moment. When I put the pie in the oven there must have been something at the bottom of the oven because it immediately set the smoke detector off. Got all the fans on, opened the doors and windows, got it all handled and finally off. Goodness, I can still hear it ringing in my head. Then I got the rolls going, yeast dissolved, ingredients measured, got it all gooey and then on the same board I rolled the pie crusts out on - flour everywhere - was kneading away. I'd forgotten to add the butter and prepare the pans. No sink apparently turns my brain to mush or maybe it was the alarm. Anyway, so I added the butter on the outside and kneaded again, more flour (they came out okay, but less flour would have been better I think), got the buzzer for the pie - wow, lot of syrup in the pie - should have added tapioca powder or flour to the fruit, but didn't think of it. Smelled good though. Maybe more time in the oven to kind of thicken the juice? Yah, go for it. Back to the rolls - prepped the pans (turns out I need 2 12x9 pans to do Turkey day - closer inspection of recipes would have helped here I think). Popped the rolls into the pans to rise, covered and started on clean up. Took stuff to the various places, got all the easy things cleanish except the rolling board. My husband popped out of the shower looking remarkably refreshed and queried the alarm. Said he would finish cleaning while I showered. I turned the oven off and went into the shower. We are now running around an hour late. I got out looking as good as I could in 15 minutes and my husband, ever in a cleaning mode, said he was going to clean the oven. But we made sure everything was off, doors locked, pets happy, etc. Thought to put a tarp down in case food ranneth over on the auto carpet, and off we drove. About a quarter of a mile away, we pulled off to see if the food had moved and I mentioned that we had forgotten a piece of tupperware that was mom's. Well we're late already so why not? Turned around and moments later got a phone call - our smoke alarm was going and they had dispatched the fire department. We were in the driveway and we knew it was the oven. In we ran to a very smoke filled house since we hadn't turned on the exhaust fan (it's pretty useless anyway) So all the windows needed opening, alarm people calling every five minutes since by now the house fire alarm is on, doors open, them putting us on hold, hanging up since we're busy running around opening windows too, them calling back again, us explaining again, trying to cancel fire dispatch, me telling him don't bother they're in the carport already (is there a qualification in firemen to make them all cute?) they're smiling when I note were only trying to clean the oven, etc. my husband of course then telling them about the pie and end up promising them one apparently, me still trying to open doors and bar them from cats, etc. Boris, our dog, running in and out. Finally got all the alarms off and find that even though it felt like forever it was only twenty minutes and we'd better leave the windows open to clear the smoke which was stinky. So - off to Mom's with a great story on why we were late. Much better than me sleeping in anyway......

Friday - My husband braved holiday shoppers for a 25' snake. He's calling it 'my' snake. After much grinding and noise, which I very ablely ignored and slept through as far as he knows, he managed to not get it unplugged. The plumber just left. He's from Heber, AZ and only works 4 days a week. Semi-retired. A very large man with the infamous low ride jeans. He's the president of his local union and had just fed 200 people yesterday. Pleasant man. Said he had gotten his first call 10 minutes down the mountain and the day was shaping up well. The machine worked very efficiently despite it's beaten appearance. He actually hummed while he worked.

MISSING FALL

There it was sitting on the ground. I was in Santa Fe for more back to back workshops and saw it lying there on a brisk Wednesday morning this past week and it suddenly occurred to me that I had once again missed the leaves changing. 

In fact, looking around the campus of buildings, I was viewing the last gasp of most of the deciduous trees present. I had missed fall too! That is not unusual either as Phoenix generally does miss this season. And indeed, back in Phoenix there was/is a heat wave of temperatures in the high 80's. The pecan tree and mulberry trees in our yard have yet to even turn yellow as it is just not cold enough. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and it is barely even hinting at winter outside. I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that I miss the cold - indeed I am fully acclimated to this warm climate and get cold the moment it drops below 75. This is the reason we have foulies on the boat - only had to use them once so far but at least we won't be cold. 

It would be fun however to perhaps spend some time in Santa Fe this winter if it can be arranged at the back end of a business trip. We have managed several meals close to the center of town and looks to be a festive place to browse, shop and otherwise while away some hours. The town has begun to decorate for the holiday though the main basilica is covered in white netting for some kind of refurbishment/cleaning. Looking at that reminded me of every visit I have made to Europe in the past although they use green netting in Italy and Spain. 

All said though - I am glad to be home sleeping in my own bed and making my own meals. Travel is only fun when it's purpose is fun.  

STUFF EVERYWHERE

An endless weekend of selling our stuff. Not the good stuff of course, just the duplicate stuff we had or didn't want. It reminds me of George Carlin's riff on stuff. People took/bought my old stuff and it's now their stuff. Not that I have more room in our house for new stuff. Just fewer boxes. Less of what my husband calls 'Early American Bekins Moving Van' decorating. There is still plenty of stuff of course and we'll need to find someone who still wants it or more accurately, is willing to take it. But we did pretty well in reducing the number of boxes. It was a pretty weekend here in Phoenix though - and all I did was sit on a chair and worked while people browsed, queried, bought our stuff. Not the best way to make $170 bucks - that amount is just over what my office charges for one hour of my time and I gave up two days to get it.

Seems silly. 

NOT SAILING

We live in Arizona and therefore are only able to visit the boat on long weekends and vacations. We recently visited the boat and did some sailing in October. Regardless of what the locals say, we always find the wind in September and October to be - awesome. This year we stuck to the bay and the dock. We dined on our favorite fish tacos at the Brig and used up our quarterly allowance at the club. Boat duties this trip included only a minor addition to the bilge - we added another motor to ensure it would always have at least one pump moving the water outside the boat. In theory anyway. 

It was a good break away from work which kicked up immediately upon our return. We had a great time and took off a little early to visit the old mission in San Diego on the way home, Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala. I had visited this location as a young teen with my parents on my father's quest to visit and photograph each California mission. I'm not sure we actually accomplished this during our annual summer travels, but feel we probably came close. Anyway, it was a nice short side trip, lengthened when, 20 minutes down the road I realized I had left my phone in the restroom and back we went. And it was there. So nice. 

SOME HISTORY

.there is a boat on the water in san diego

.a hunter 31 suitable for coastal cruising

.it leaves its dock upon occasion allowing its owners to flee civilization

.vacations are too short

.the dinghy was sold this past spring due to size limitations

.i am currently a dinghy captain with no boat