Year In Pictures

We've been watching "Year In Review" on tv today, and I chose a few of my memories from this year to make a 2010 collage.

Cultural Exchange

Yesterday my Canadian cousin's husband learned a few things about life in America. First, he had never seen a garbage disposal before and was intrigued to learn about its function. Then he went to the grocery store and was a little stumped by the question "paper or plastic". He wondered if it meant something about the type of card used to make a payment. When he asked and found out that it meant the type of bag, he asked if he had to pay for the bags. In Canada, when they ask about bags, that means you have to pay something like 5 cents a bag, and usually for cheapo plastic ones. He was so excited to find out that he could have paper bags for free, he opted right in. Now he has an American souvenir to take back with him!

39 Books - Year in Review

Last year I read 41 books; this year I managed 39. My very favorites:

• The Help by Katheryn Stockett
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
• The Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy
• The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
• The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I look forward to reading:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
• The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
• The next installment of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, whatever it is

Leftover Turkey

What to do with Christmas dinner leftovers? Here's a recipe for Turkey Pasta Casserole which not only makes great use of the turkey, but also the stuffing. Not having any asparagus in the house, I substituted frozen peas, and instead of just the bread crumbs, I put the homemade stuffing on top.

I think tomorrow I am going to make turkey vegetable soup with more of the turkey. It will be raining tonight and tomorrow, so it will be a great day for soup.

Hotel VR

As my daughters headed back to their lives, my cousin and her family have arrived from Ontario, Canada to enjoy our post-Christmas weather. Their kids are waiting to use their Santa present which will be a day at Disneyland tomorrow. Today they are off to downtown LA and Hollywood to see what it is all about. (Aboot, actually, with the Canadian accent!)

Yesterday we wandered the colleges to see as many fountains as we could, which is always a favorite activity of ours when people come to Claremont for the first time. It's very quiet there with all the students and staff on holiday.

And To All A Good Night

Christmas 2010

• Took a group photo on Christmas Eve, adding Bryan to our celebration
• Only managed one game of Settlers of Catan
• Everyone helped make a great Christmas Eve dinner (turkey, homemade stuffing from homemade bread stuffed into acorn squash, sweet potatoes and apples dish, couscous salad, homemade cherry pie)
• 5:00 Christmas Eve service
• Opening gifts on Christmas Eve, opening stockings on Christmas morning
• Enjoyed the beautiful sunshine on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day after about 10-12" of rain the week before
• Learned that it helps to write lists like these so we can remember what happened from year to year

LA Adventures

The original plan was to go to the beach on Wednesday. Rain interfered with that idea, so we postponed it until Thursday. While it wasn't raining yesterday, we gave up on the beach idea and drove to Griffith Park instead with Liesl and Chris. The clouds were pretty for a little while, making for some nice photos of the Observatory. Liesl is pretty sure she saw Alan Tudyk there, but none of the rest of us saw him.

While browsing the gift shop at the observatory, I looked at an LA guide book and found the page on Griffith Park and saw that we could get to something called Bronson Caves where some tv shows and movies had been filmed, including the original Batman series with Adam West.
The nice gentlemen directing traffic in the parking lot gave us directions, which was good since there is NO signage to these caves (really just one cave/tunnel with a variety of openings). Last night I found a great youtube video showing not only how to get to the cave, but some shots from tv shows and movies using the cave.

We capped off the day with a trip to the Kogi truck - introducing Bryan, Liesl and Chris to the wonders of Korean/Mexican food fusion.

Stockings

Last Christmas, Liesl brought Chris home for the holidays. We had four stockings, so, of course, we needed one more. In order for them all to be similar, I decided to go to the 99 Cent Store to get five. While standing in the store, I had the thought that perhaps Claire might fall in love one of these days, so I should be forward thinking and get six stockings.

It's a good thing I did (and I will take credit for Claire meeting Bryan this summer). Here are our six stockings, hung by the chimney with care.

The reason that the stockings are already bulging is because yesterday was our traditional trip to the 99 Cent Store where we all find something a little crazy for every other person's stocking. Don't let the blue sky in the picture fool you, though. It's been raining like crazy, and we managed to get out during a short dry period in the middle of the day. Look at the wet parking lot in front of the store.

Christmas Mid-Week Update

• Claire and Bryan home on Monday - flights slightly delayed
• Liesl and Chris home on Tuesday - flight slightly delayed
• Rousing game of Apples to Apples last night
• Today is 6th day of rain - we are very, very soggy
• We are going to watch The Dinner Game which will come on Netflix today

Journey to Bethlehem

Sunday brought our annual Christmas pagent, the Journey to Bethlehem, at church. Every year the newest baby gets to be Jesus, along with his or her parents as Mary and Joseph. (We get creative when there are twins...)

What was special about this year was that the Holy Couple are two who grew up in our church, fell in love and got married a few years ago. Three of their four parents played the Magi. It was very sweet for those of us who have known them for 25 years. Baby Benji was a perfect sleeping baby throughout the whole ordeal.

Cole's French Dip - Downtown LA

Before our opera matinee on Saturday, we decided to try out Cole's, the French Dip rival of Philippe's. We have been to Philippe's a few times, but heard about Cole's which also claims to be the originator of the French Dip Sandwich. While I don't particularly care who is the originator of the sandwich, I was ready to make a decision about which is the BEST French Dip.

Both establishments are different enough - Philippe's has sawdust on the floor and you line up to place your order at the counter. Cole's is an old bar/saloon and is dark, but has waiter service. So, both places have their own charm.

We each ordered a Skinny Dip - a half sandwich with one side. Hal chose pastrami, I beef. Hal chose the spicy sweet potato fries and I the bacon potato salad. Sandwich comes with an atomic pickle. My take: I like the crustier bread at Philippe's, but the sweet potato fries were really, really good. My potato salad was pretty good, and the atomic pickle was so spicy for me that I could only eat one bit. Hal enjoyed his and the rest of mine.

A Little Culture

Yesterday was too full of fun with no time to blog. The cultural event of the day was a trip to the LA Opera to see Rigoletto.

Here is a picture of the set which was inspired by the surreal paintings by di Chirico.

The production was very good, and I think I would have enjoyed it even more if we hadn't sat in the very last row of the back balcony. The sound is very good back there, but I think some of the acting is lost as it traverses so far back.

After we got home in the rain and slow traffic, we turned right around and went out to a holiday party at the home of some friends from book club. The season of celebrating has really started!

Let the Holidays Begin!

The Vista Winter Sing always signals for me the real beginning of celebration. After the concert is over, then my teaching takes a two-week break and I can return to thinking about my family and my house.

This year I tried something different with the string players. I had them play together on Jingle Bells where I arranged a two-part piece for them. I have 8 second-year students and 9 beginners, and they are all, without exception, doing very well on their violins and violas. Alas, no cellos this year. For Carol of the Bells, the beginners played metallophones, glockenspiels, recorders and triangle while the second years played strings.

The recorder students were especially good on Who Has Seen the Wind and Sleigh BAG.

The singing by various grade levels was great, too, and the very best, I think was Christmas Jubilation by the 4th and 5th graders.

Vista on NPR!

A few weeks ago, I heard that one of Vista's teachers and a student were interviewed by Lynn Neary of NPR about the 39 Clues books. I kept asking in the office when we would hear the story on the radio, and I was assured that they would let me know. Well, yesterday morning as I was groggily starting to wake up to Morning Edition, I heard something about the 39 Clues and I was instantly awake and poking Hal to listen. Here is a link to the story which you can hear in full.

Mr. Yeager, our principal, played the significant part to us over the intercom so the whole school could hear and share in our school's moment of fame. All names were pronounced correctly.

Now I kind of want to read one of those books and follow the clues in the cards and online....

World's Columbian Exposition

While on sabbatical in Chicago several years ago, we visited Hyde Park and found a lovely Japanese Garden beside the Museum of Science and Industry that I had never before seen. Looking it up on the internet, I found out that it had been built by Olmstead for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Now, a few years later, I have just finished reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson about that Exposition. This book kept me riveted about the architects (I skimmed over the really gruesome parts about the serial killer whose story is interspersed throughout the book) and the whole account of trying to pull off this gigantic endeavor. Not only is the story (really many stories) fascinating, but it all happened just blocks from where I lived as a child.

I remember walking across the large grassy areas of the midway as a little girl, but I only now found out that during the fair it had the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, belly-dancing Egyptian girls and a plethora of international spectacles.

More Sentimental Christmas Tradition

My maternal grandfather was a woodworker. He made his living as a Mennonite minister throughout the midwest (Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska), but he loved to work with wood. He made many of these nativity sets throughout his life, and now I wish I had a few more for my children and grandchildren (if ever and whenever I have any, that is).

When I opened the box on Sunday, I was sad to discover that the manger that the baby lies on was not there. Perhaps it is buried somewhere in the rest of the decorations, so I will look through them all over winter break.

Christmas Decorations

This weekend we put up the tree, hung lights and stockings. Our tree, for many years, has featured the snowflakes and angel topper that my peppernut gramma made for us.

Post-Concert Indian Food

It has been our tradition to go out to eat sometime during a concert weekend. You can read about the Claremont Concert Orchestra concert on my music blog. This post is about a new place for Indian food.

I was hankering for some Indian food, so checked on yelp and found good reviews for a brand new place in Upland called the Delhi Bazaar. It has been open for 8 weeks. It is a grocery store and you order at the counter. You can eat at one of the tables or take out. We chose to take out.

When we walked in, two gentlemen greeted us warmly and happily told us all about their food selection and even talked us into Mango Lissi - a yogurt/mango smoothie. While one man was making up some special curry that I requested, the other started talking to us and Hal said that he has made Dal. That got them talking and pretty soon we had added a few pounds of dry lentils and a package of spices to our order.

We had samosas with chutney, gobi cauliflower, the yellow curry with cheese chunks, and matar paneer (curried peas and cheese), and everything was very, very good. They gave us a small amount of a sauce they call "the silent killer" and it was way too hot, even for Hal, the kimchi lover.

We will definitely go back.

On Power Outages

In days of old, maybe over a decade ago, when the power went off in the middle of the night, I would sleep through it all and perhaps not wake up in time because the clock would have the wrong time.

Nowadays, things are different. At 12:30 a.m. today I woke up to some beeping. Disoriented, I wondered what it was until Hal told me that it was the power surge protector we have the computer plugged into. It goes off to warn us to turn off the computer. So, I stumbled into my study in the next room and turned off my computer and then tried to figure out how to turn off the power surge protector which was still beeping. By the time I figured it out (with the flashlight I did manage to find), the power came back on. That meant that not only did things start humming again, but the overhead bedroom light came on, blinding us. Huh?

At least the clock has an internal battery and maintained its time. But, it's Saturday, and it doesn't matter what time I wake up.

Fuddy Duddy

Today I was chatting with my beginning string students. I mentioned one of our new teachers whom they may not know. Turns out some of them do know who she is and they said, "Oh, she's the one who looks like Katy Perry." Thinking that Katy might be a student at Vista, I asked who she was. They were incredulous that I didn't know who Katy Perry was. I asked if I could find out if I googled her, and they said I would definitely find out who she is. Well, here's her picture, and our teacher does look a little like her, but mostly for the color of the hair. I am getting old....

Sweet Potato Quest

By googling sweet potato main dish, I ran across this vegetarian website with lots of recipes. About 1/3 of the way down the page, I clicked on this recipe for Kale, Sweet Potato and Chick Peas. It says it feeds 12, so I just made half of the recipe and it filled up my dutch oven most of the way. It's filling, but I think it needs more flavoring. If I make it again, I will use curry powder instead of, or in addition to the other spices. (My daughter would approve that I didn't put in the raisins....) Maybe I could use chipotle chilis....

Fall

Our fruit cocktail tree (nectarine, apricot, and two kinds of peaches), has shed almost all of its leaves.

December Book Club

This month our book club will be discussing Hygiene and the Assassin by Amelie Nothomb (translated from the French by Alison Anderson). Bill, who chose this title, likes books to be under 200 pages, but not necessarily easy. While I found that the reading was easy, the understanding is not so much. I did understand the plot - a bald, obese, reclusive old man who has won the Nobel Prize in literature is about to die, and he has granted several journalists interviews with him. The first four get nowhere with the curmudgeon, but the fifth, a woman, stands her own against him and eventually earns his respect by revealing how much she knows about him and his work. As usual, I will be interesting in hearing what others have to say about this book.

More about Peppernuts

All this blogging about peppernuts has started some conversations. Here is a photo of my great grandmother making the spice cookies. My paternal grandmother created her own recipe by combining two recipes, and I always thought they were The Original kind. When I saw the bigger ones covered in powdered sugar in the store, I just couldn't believe they stuck the name pfeffernusse on them.

Anyway, Gramma would always send us about a gallon of them at Christmas (along with her knit "booties" (slippers) which we loved). That was always a special package. There must have been Christmas gifts, as well, but I don't recall as many of those. Her homemade presents were the best. (One year we got crocheted ponchos!)

Here is the official Gramma peppernuts recipe. This is for a single batch, but I always make two.

2 C sugar

1 C dark Karo syrup

1 C butter

1 C sour cream (some in my family use soured cream)

3 eggs, beaten

7 C flour

1 t salt

1 t cardamom

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t cloves

1/2 t ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1 t lemon extract

1/4-1/2 t anise oil (not extract - you must buy this at a pharmacy)

Heat the syrup. Add the butter and sugar. When warm, pour into large mixing bowl. Add remaining dry ingredients which have been sifted together. (I add them a few cups at a time, and about halfway through the dry ingredients I add the next wet step, otherwise I would never get it mixed together.) Combine lemon extract and anise oil to cream and eggs.

Knead till well blended. (This takes some arm strength! Or a Kitchenaid mixer works, too.) Chill dough overnight or lonter in tightly covered container. Roll dough into thin ropes. (This is where I put them in the freezer, covered by wax paper.) Slice into pieces about the size of a hazelnut.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes (longer for mine - closer to 12-14). Makes about 1 1/2 gallons.

Sculptures at Pomona College

Holiday Promenade

Every year Claremont has a Holiday Promenade in the Village. Santa comes to City Hall, the big tree in front of the Train Depot is lit, carolers roam the streets, merchants are open, people wander. Have I ever been before this year? No. I don't know why.

This year I was invited to play with the Village Pipers, a recorder group associated with the Claremont Community School of Music. We played on front porch of Sonja Stump Photography, and we were grateful it was warmer than last week. Sonja and her husband, Bob, had cookies and cider inside for those who came by to listen.

After we finished playing, we wandered through the bustling streets and even saw the mini "ice" skating rink for kids on Indian Hill and 2nd St. It was some sort of thick plastic on the ground, and you could rent skates and use the rink for $5 for 20 minutes.

Peppernuts - Final Stage 2010

Three hours in the kitchen this afternoon yielded over 1,000 peppernuts. I always make a double batch which Gramma said would make 3 gallons. Last week I rolled the dough into snakes and put them in the freezer.

Today I took out the snakes, two-by-two, and cut them into little buttons.
I put about 90-100 peppernuts onto a cookie sheet and baked for 12-14 minutes. The first batches take longer than the following ones. I only put one cookie sheet at a time into the oven. That somehow works better for me.
Here's a sheet full of peppernuts just out of the oven. In order for all the spices and flavors to completely blend, the little cookies must age for at least a few days, if not longer. That's why I start this process in November. I have also discovered, though, that if you find peppernuts a year later, they have gone waaaay beyond a good aging.

I don't know how many batches Gramma made each year, but my dad remembers helping her bake them. For awhile my uncle made these to sell on the internet, and the year we lived in Chicago I ordered some from him.

A Passion for Reading

Here is one of our third graders during his lunch break yesterday. Nothing could distract him from his book. He was near the end of it and it must have been exciting!