Church Website

After a long haul, Claremont UCC has now set loose our newly revamped website onto the internet. What a great improvement! Visit it here.

Chicken in Mole Sauce

I have just arrived home from my first day of teaching general music for the school year. It went very well, but, when you are not used to being "on stage" for 2 hours, it's a little tiring! Thankfully, I know what is for dinner tonight - leftovers!

These leftovers are particularly yummy. Our friends, Jack and Susan, bid on and won a trip to the Homegirl Cafe at last year's Fiesta de la Luna to learn how to make food. At least I know that they made mole. I mentioned to Jack that it would be oh, so lovely for him to share some of that mole, and though I was kidding, Jack decided that we did need some of his stock, so he brought over a container that will probably make about three meals worth of sauce.

I took chicken thighs and browned them in butter, covered them in the mole and put them in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. It was not only delicious, but enough for several meals.

I think when I have some time, I would like to learn how to make this, although I know it is very labor-intensive. Perhaps an easy version would be pretty good, too.

Saturday Night in Claremont

When it cooled down a bit last night, we made a quick decision to take a walk through the colleges. The sky was beautiful (even if my little camera couldn't capture all of the subtleties). 

As we wandered through the various parties on CMC's campus we heard the sounds of football, so we headed over to the stadium and watched some of the CMS v Lewis and Clark game. After sitting in the stands with screaming college students and then walking home via various other loud parties, we decided that we would not want to have to go back to college....

End of the Summer Garden

While listening to the garden sprinkler go off this morning, I thought that we were at the end of the summer growing season. We've gotten very little produce lately, so, in order to save water, I thought "we"(and by "we" I mean "H") should pull what was left and we will plant fall veggies in a week or two when the temps cool a bit more. We now have a small pile of green onions, a handful of tomatoes and one butternut squash. I think we actually had about 4 squash this year, and they have been delicious. I will miss the tomatoes, especially, though. Time to get them from the Farmer's Market.

The garden at rest

Random Friday Photo

My toes are ready for the school year to begin!

The Warmth of Other Suns

It's been awhile since I posted about a book, but I have been reading. This one, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson is pretty thick. By that, I mean that there are many pages - over 500. It is not dense to read, though.

Wilkerson follows the stories of three black Americans who move from the South to 1) Los Angeles 2) Chicago 3) NY during the 20th C. She interweaves their stories with general information about this mass migration which has changed the face of the nation.

By telling the story this way, Wilkerson puts faces on the kinds of stories that statistics never can. Although this book is full of detail, I did not find myself skimming along, as I do in *ahem* some books. The life stories are compelling, full of rich detail, sad as many of them are. Even though the stories start before I was born, they are still continuing either because the people in them are still alive, or because their family members are still shaped by the decisions these people made to leave their homes in the South.

As I finished up this book and looked over the books I've read so far in 2012, I put a little star by it, meaning that it is one of my favorite books of the year. I usually have about 3-5 stars a year. I kept putting it off because of its heft, but with the slowdown of book clubs in the summer, I was ready to tackle it.

How to Fold a Fitted Sheet

As my friend, Kim, was preparing to send her daughter off to college last week, she remarked on Facebook that Lily was ready to go since she had learned how to fold a fitted sheet. If you are like me and saw the title of this blog post, you would have said, "Fold a fitted sheet? You mean, how to wad one up?" Of course, Kim's remark created a flurry of replies, which prompted me to look this video on youtube (there are many). Today I gave it a whirl, and though this does not look perfect, it is WAY better than my usual efforts, and I know with time, it will get better.

Gray Bell

Two years ago, HMC physics professor Gray Bell passed on. This morning, he reached his final resting place in Oak Park Cemetery in south Claremont. I am under the impression that he had donated his body for scientific research, and now it was time to retire permanently to his spot underneath an old live oak tree. As this was the first day of classes at HMC, the gathered group was small in number, but large in spirit as we reflected upon Gray's wonderful life, his kind and gentle spirit, and his great contributions to HMC as well as his wider community of church, friends, and family.

Labor Day

Twenty seven years ago, I was in labor. How fitting. Happy birthday to my firstborn, L! Since we were unable to help her celebrate in Oregon this year (having recently celebrated her marriage there), we decided to celebrate her here at home. This is what we did.

After getting breakfast burritos at Alberto's and coffee, we took off down the 57 towards Costa Mesa with bikes on the rack. See how light the traffic was on this holiday morning?

Knowing a bit about where we had biked last June, we could make better plans for our trip. First we parked in a little park near Estancia High School and rode our bikes over to the Santa Ana River toward the ocean and Huntington Beach. The good thing about this plan is that the parking is free. The other good thing about this plan (and this is the really good thing) is that the first part of the ride is against the ocean breezes, and the return trip is with the breeze.  Again, we rode 22 miles, and this way was much better.

We stopped for a bit and watched the waves, the surfers and the beautiful blue sky.

Here are two kites that look like parasailers.

Part of the bike ride involved trying to find this park that has a big cement dome made to look moon-like. We could not get to the park on bikes because I was way too tired at that point, and my little tushy was complaining. However, we did manage to find the park with the GPS after we got back to the car so that I could see the wonder of the moon. Here it is, in all its glory. It's something, huh?

All in all, it was a great way to celebrate the day I first became a mom.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

When it's too hot to turn on the oven and you want to make a dessert to take to someone's house, you can make Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles. You can read the recipe and description here, at my daughter's baking blog. I used the natural kind of peanut butter, and I'll have to say that it was rather difficult to keep it frozen. After sitting in the freezer overnight, I took out the little balls to roll in the melted chocolate (so, no oven, but you do have to turn on a stove burner), and they were squishy within a few minutes. Also, the pretzels I used did not have salt on the outside, just sesame seeds. 

I also doubled the recipe. ...

So next time, I will try Jif or some other kind of pb, salty pretzels, and perhaps some dark chocolate chips. That being said, we had no trouble consuming them all. I would still double the recipe.