Follow By Email

Several days ago I connected with a violinist I know but hadn't seen in a few years.  I told her about my music blog (after reading hers) and she wanted to know if she could subscribe to it.  I have my whole list of blogs I follow with a reading list, so I know just when the sites are updated. I didn't really know how she could do that.

But then, of course, I googled "subscribe to blogger" and found the simple instructions of how to add a "follow by email" to my blog.  I doubt if anyone would want to get a daily email from lifeinclaremont since I post most days, but my posts to the music blog are somewhat erratic.

Just in case anyone is interested, though, one can now subscribe to either this blog or motifs in music.

Occupy Claremont

On my way to yoga this morning, we parked in front of City Hall and saw these tents - Claremont's own Occupy movement.  Fortunately for these people, the weather is lovely today, even if overcast.  I found an article from the Contra Costa Times about this gathering as well as the blog about this local effort.

Lab Corp

Every year after I have my annual physical, my doctor sends me to have routine blood work done.  Since he wants me to have it before I eat breakfast, I have to get up very early and hope that the line isn't too long.  This year my doctor told me that I can make an appointment online - just like the DMV.  So I did it, and I was amazed.  My time was set for 8:30 (a little late for me since I am usually hungry way before that).  I arrived at 8:20 and was in the chair by 8:30 and out by 8:40.  I hope that I remember to do that again next year!

Haircut

My recent blog posts have been about food, which is fitting since it's been Thanksgiving week with a birthday thrown in.  I see that food has overtaken book as my number one label/tag this week.  Partly that is because I am 300 pages in to 1Q84 by Murakami with 650 pages left.  I've been reading, but it will be awhile before I report on a finished book.  This novel is in three sections, though, and I could possibly write a post after each section.  We'll see.

Today I thought I'd write about something that I have been doing about once a month for nearly 31 years now.  When I met H in college, when we were all living on a shoestring, he handed me his black-handled desk scissors and asked me to trim his bangs.  Slightly shocked that someone would trust me with this endeavor, I decided to go for it.

Soon I was cutting all around his head, and when I got better at it, my mom bought me a pair of haircutting shears, and then I started coifing a few other male friends' heads, and then I started charging $2 a pop.  Slowly I transformed H's bowl cut into the regular guy cut that he sports today.

With a little back-of-the-envelope calculating, I figure I've done this over 370 times, and if I figure that the average cost of a cut would run $20-25 over the long haul, we have saved over $7,000 in barber costs.

My mom has been cutting my dad's hair for over 50 years, so their savings is even greater.

Of course, I've probably spent more than that on my own head in the same amount of time.

Birthday Celebration

Tide Pools at Crystal Cove State Park

Black Friday? Not for us.  To honor H's birthday, we did not get up at any ungodly hour to wait in line.  Instead, we slept in, ate breakfast burritos from Alberto's then headed for the ocean.  With six of us now, we can no longer all fit in our Camry, so we borrowed our friends' Suburban.

It had been a while since we had taken the Balboa Island Ferry (prices have certainly gone up recently - it used to be around a quarter for each passenger, but now it is $1 a head, plus $1 per car), so we enjoyed that little ride and took the chance to look at the breakers at the end of the peninsula there.

The breakfast burritos were still holding us, so we headed for Crystal Cove State Park to walk the tidepools, breathe in the fresh ocean breezes, and renew our attachment to the Pacific.  After a cool week before, we enjoyed the warm, sunny weather.

No trip to OC is complete without a stop at 85C, but this time we only waited in line for the iced sea salt coffees.  The pastry line was too long.

We topped off the evening with great Thanksgiving leftovers, and the delicious homemade cherry pie by C in honor of her dad's birthday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A delicious and fun Thanksgiving at our house!  We figured out that it has been 6 years since we've had both daughters at home for this holiday.  We started out with a lovely appetizer spread while watching the Packers / Lions game, and Gaby came over for a chat.

L set the table and used the nametags she had made many years ago.  We even got out the good china which we should do more often.

 We had a table full of really delicious food.

The zweibach came out just great after baking an additional 10 minutes today, and I opened up a jar of plum chutney that I made this summer.  It went very well on the turkey.

After finishing off dinner, we took a stroll through the colleges until it got chilly, and then we came home for pumpkin pie which was devoured before I could take a photo.

Thanksgiving Week - Day 3: Fruits and Roots

Today while we wait for L and C to arrive from Oregon (yay for Jet Blue!), we were busy in the kitchen with potatoes and cranberries.  Because just about no one here likes candied yams, I have taken to making Chipotle Sweet Potatoes.  Pretty easy.  Just boil and mash sweet potatoes or yams, add butter and one chipotle pepper with some of the adobo sauce, and a little salt and pepper.  Tomorrow we will bake it, but you could just make it and serve immediately.

Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Here are our family favorite Company Potatoes, also called Gourmet Potatoes (or, more appropriately, lots of dairy with some potatoes).  This recipe is my mom's.  

 As for the fruits, here's a made-up on-the-spot cranberry relish.  It's refrigerating right now, so we'll see how the flavors blend tomorrow.

C and B are also making at their place today - pumpkin pie, vegetable stock (for the stuffing) and Chex Mix (the best vegetable!).

Thanksgiving Week - Day 2: Baking

dough before rising

dough after rising

Today's culinary adventure involved lots of flour.  C made up three pie crusts which are in the fridge ready to roll out and fill.  Then we made zwiebach.

This Mennonite sweet bread (not sweet like cinnamon rolls, though) have not only different versions, but different ways to pronounce and spell these rolls.  My family says zwee-bach.  Not zwei (like two in German).  I always thought they were snowmen, and I love to pop off the top and spread the butter on the parts that had been attached.

Today we baked them for half the time and will pop them back in the oven for final baking just before the Thanksgiving meal.  Today we had a short phone chat with my mom (hi, Mom!) about scalding the milk, and I think that it worked out just the way it was supposed to.

Try googling Mennonite and zwiebach and see what blogs pop up and the varieties of these yummy rolls.  Definitely comfort food for me.

ready for second rising

after baking half-way

Thanksgiving Week - Day 1: Shopping

The stores weren't too crazy today - yet.  Stater Bros., then Sprouts, and finally Trader Joe's.  Tomorrow we start baking!

First Thanksgiving of the Week

One of my favorite Sundays in church is Thanksgiving Sunday.  Of course the dinner in the refectory (basement) is always delicious and full of great conversation, but I also enjoy the cornucopia on the alter in the sanctuary.  This time we had new members join, so it was great to have them enjoy our community meal after the service.  It would be great if we could have a meal after every class of new members..... 

Best Fundraiser Yet!

Readers of this blog know how much I like the Kogi BBQ truck, so it will come as no surprise that I was going to make it a point to attend the Food Truck Mania fundraiser at Claremont High School this afternoon.  Your $5 admission gave you access to about 10 different food trucks - from the Lime Truck (winner of the Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network) to Suite 106 Cupcakes.  In the parking lot I happened to run into Denise and Joe, so I spent the next 90 minutes scoping out all the trucks with them.  They had to try just about everything, so I had small samples of theirs, but for myself I bought a sweet and spicy steak taco from the Lime Truck (and it was fabulous!) as well as a peanut butter cup cupcake from Suite 106.

The CHS orchestra and band played, many of the sports teams had booths, and it seemed like many, many folks from Claremont showed up to this well-planned and delicious fundraiser.  I hope they do it again sometime, and I hope they do it on a warmer day.....

How to Choose a Book

Our book club will be discussing Nectar by Lily Prior for our next meeting.  I'm not sure what the consensus will be, but one friend has already told me that she hated it.  H said, after finishing it that "some books don't need to be written."  I found the book rather dull, actually.  Nonetheless, since the book takes place in Italy, perhaps we'll have a great potluck with Italian food.

So, how does one go about choosing a good book?  Of course, the best way, I think, is to ask a friend with similar tastes to yours.  Or if a favorite author comes out with a new book, that's a good hint.  But sometimes those wells are dry.  I thought to myself this morning that there should be a website that is set up like Netflix where you can rate a variety of books and then it can predict for you what books you might like.

I found one such site, although I have yet to try it out.  It's called yournextread.com.  Type in the title of a book that you like, and it suggests other books it thinks are similar.

I'll put that site to use after I finish the next two books on my stack.  I'm hoping to really enjoy the newest Murakami book, IQ84, and Lev Grossman's The Magicians (supposedly a Harry Potter book for grown-ups).

Daryl Evans at Vista

This morning the Vista kids were herded out to the roller hockey rink in Wheeler Park (next to the school) to listen to LA Kings announcer and former left wing, Daryl Evans.  He was there to give an inspirational message to the students about working hard on their dreams so that they can live the life they want.

For the rest of the day, each grade level has a time on the rink with Evans and some other reps from the Kings to learn a little about hockey.

Turkey in the Straw

This morning I looked at my lesson plans for 2nd grade, and saw Turkey in the Straw dance.  I had no idea what the dance was, but I knew I had the music for it, so I looked for a dance on youtube.  I thought I could get some ideas, but then I found this video and it was perfect (it was even the version of the song that I had a recording of).

So, I worked hard with both 2nd grade classes on do-si-do and peel the banana, and we all had lots and lots of fun.  After Thanksgiving I will have to dust off the Jingle Bells dance....

Pumpkin Curry

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe, so here is the Pumpkin Curry I made tonight.  A friend posted this link on Facebook and told me that her husband had made it with tofu instead of shrimp.  I decided that sounded like a good idea, and then I also substituted sweet potatoes for the butternut squash (since I already had the sweet potatoes).  Next time I will add much more curry since it was not at all spicy.  I will probably also use light coconut milk, too, but this thick version made the dish very smooth and delicious.

A Letter to ESPN

Dear ESPN,

I would like to watch your channel sometimes.  I do not have cable.  I do NOT want to buy cable because I want to have a life and not get sucked into too much tv-viewing.  But I like football.  I like baseball.  I like softball.  I cannot watch Monday Night Football from the airwaves.  I could not watch some of the MLB playoff games.

So, I would subscribe to your channel on the internet, if you offered that option.  It would be most cool if I could buy it by the day/week/month, too.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Think about it.

Sincerely,
Sports Fan

Sunday Comfort

Tom ka gai soup

Pad Thai

I got to spend a good portion of this day involved in comfort food with daughter C.

First we got together to do stage 2 of 3 in the annual peppernut-making tradition.  We rolled the dough into snakes and put them in the freezer.  Next weekend we will cut the snakes into bite-sized cookies and bake them so that when daughter L arrives for Thanksgiving with fiance C we can send them back to Oregon with peppernuts.

C had a stuffy nose, so we decided that tom ka gai (coconut soup) at Mix Bowl was just what she needed to help clear out her sinuses.  And since we rarely order pad thai, we ordered that, too, and enjoyed it greatly.

Just My Type

When I was a teenager, my family spent a year and half living in Berkeley while my dad was on sabbatical.  California was such a strange and interesting place for me, having spent my early years in the midwest.  I wanted to make a scrapbook of my time in the Bay Area, so I collected photos, ticket stubs, programs, etc. of the things we did and pasted them on the pages.

Here is the geeky part - I had a catalog of fonts (I'm not sure how one bought fonts back in the 1970s, but maybe it was for rubbing them off of a page?).  I scoured the catalog and found what I felt were the right fonts for each caption and title in the scrapbook.

I went looking for this scrapbook yesterday, so I could scan a page or two to post, but I couldn't find it.  Maybe I got rid of it, or it is in a super good hiding place.

All this is just to say, that I finished reading a book about fonts and typeface called Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield.  When I tell friends what I've been reading I get two responses.  One is a blank stare and perhaps the comment, "Are you hard up for reading material?"  The other is, "Oh! That sounds interesting!"  Well, if you fall into the second group, you may like this book as well as the movie Helvetica.

Pilgrim Festival - 2011

It's been a number of years since I went to the Pilgrim Festival at Pilgrim Place, but I decided it was time to return and see the community all turned out for great fun.  I ran into about 15 different friends in various places and enjoyed seeing all the kids with their faces painted and cotton candy.

Happy people riding the Massasoit Train 

Group singing and drumming 

Riding the Mayflower - a boat on wheels

The Pilgrim Pickers ready to perform

My favorite part - the Used Book Sale

A Pilgrim

Some of the homemade wares

Glue-In projects - kids can make creations from miscellaneous items

Velvet Aroma

When in Palm Springs last weekend I spoke with a HMC trustee spouse who has launched this website - Velvet Aroma - which is for cooks who want to organize all the food blogs they follow and recipes into one convenient place.

Now, I'm sure that I am not the only person who finds a recipe on the internet and carries the laptop to the kitchen to use as the cookbook.  I can look through bookmarks of recipes, but often I just look for new recipes.  Or I go through my own blog at all the posts tagged "food" in order to find a recipe I liked in the past.

Velvet Aroma will allow you to import recipes from the web (as well as enter your own family recipes) and organize them in a way that is helpful to you.

You can also follow Velvet Aroma's own food blog - flipcookbook.

Hail on Sunday Night

Palm Springs Air Museum

One of the entertainment choices for the weekend was a trip and guided tour through the Palm Springs Air Museum.  Years ago HMC had an aeronautics program run by Iris Critchell, a backstroker who swam in the 1936 Olympics.  She taught a number of HMC students how to fly and several of her former students are trustees of the college.  Of course it was fitting to take a field trip to this little gem of a museum which features airplanes from WWII.  Although air museums do not usually excite me, our tour guide had enough stories from his days of flying in the war and the particulars about each kind of plane to make the tour quite interesting.

Our tour guide, a WWII pilot

Smoke Tree Ranch - Palm Springs

As we change our calendars over to November every year, the HMC trustees have a retreat in Palm Springs at Smoke Tree Ranch.  Many years H has gone, and often I accompany him.  This was one such weekend.  The Ranch consists of private homes as well as guest cottages, situated on a beautiful desert botanical garden. We gather in the Ranch House for meals, and the meetings take place in the Walt Disney Hall.  The Ranch was a favorite hang-out for Walt Disney back in the day.

This year we drove out Friday afternoon through a winter rainstorm and woke on Saturday to see a little snow on the mountain.  Saturday was clear and sunny, but chilly, and driving home today we came through some more rain (and our house was 59 degrees upon arrival).

View from the dining room

Outside the Ranch House

Lawn Bowling Green

Pool