Thanksgiving 2011

I have to catch up with so many blog posts. Thanksgiving 2011 was another gorgeous, shirtsleeves day for the weather, and once again we were lucky enough to share it with our cousins. Above is my cousin J, who brought half the food and also had the brilliant idea of floating cranberries in the kids' sparkling cider glasses.
As usual, all the action was at the kids' table.


R's little cousin N, the bon vivant, makes a spirited toast to the assembled family. We asked the kids to go around the table and say what they are grateful for, and this is a picture of him raising his glass and saying, "I am grateful for all of YOU!"

Charlie celebrated in the backyard with his traditional Thanksgiving visitor, Jake the gentle Bernese Mountain Dog. After dinner, we walked down the trail to play basketball.


Little C had just slid into a bloody knee and was handling it better than most grownups would. It still makes me laugh how she looks like an angry Gypsy.
Thank God for the blessing of family, a long sunny November day to enjoy each other, and a table filled with beautiful, healthy food. And little girl cousins, born one day apart, whose pictures we have been snapping together since they were newborns.

Happy New Year!

A mezze platter to take to our friends' house tonight. Hummus, olives and crudités with homemade baked pita chips. And raw dolmades, with grape leaves I canned from our vines this summer, and a diced parsnip (instead of rice), pine nut, red pepper, avocado, lemon juice and tomato filling.

I have been reading so many "good riddance 2011" articles, about what a terrible year it has been. I work at our parish food bank, and that is where you see it. The people working two and three jobs who still can't feed their families, the hard workers who are skilled and experienced in struggling industries, who used to make a great living, but just can't find work any more. My family has so many more pressures and barely-squeaking-by times than we ever used to have. We are skating very close to the margins every month. But it still bothers me to ring out the old year with contempt. It was a good year! We had so much fun. Right in the middle of it, R turned from a shy sweet funny seven year old to a shy even sweeter and funnier eight year old.

So from a very selfish perspective, I have loved this year. The garden and D and Charlie and R, a child who is busting out all over with so much new information and excitement about life that she talks out loud in her sleep. Last night she was reading Roald Dahl's Matilda under the covers with a flashlight, and she got to the part that lists the books that four year old Matilda reads. It is such a great list that I will have to put it here:

• Great Expectations
• Nicholas Nickleby
• Oliver Twist
• Jane Eyre
• Pride and Prejudice
• Tess of D'Urbervilles
• Gone to Earth
• Kim
• The Invisible Man
• The Old Man and the Sea
• The Sound and the Fury
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Good Companions
• Brighton Rock
• Animal Farm

And with each new title R would shout out to me, muffled from under her blankets, "What is that one about? Who wrote it?" and when I explained the authors and plots of the ones I knew (all of them but Gone to Earth? The Good Companions? Brighton Rock?), she would yell out, "Could you get that for me to read?" And she knows I will, I'll add it to her giant and growing bookshelf downstairs.

You could say that it has been a pretty universally awful year for--for, I don't know what to call it. For what I think is important in culture, social justice, general quality of life for humans. For some modicum of moral responsibility that would check or temper greed, or lacking that, legal restraints imposed by a wise and ethical and considered body. A friend made me laugh last month when she blurted out "There's one for our side!" about something in the news. That's why I love this Tennyson poem so much. Let the bad of the old year die. There was tiredness and falseness in it, but "ring out wild bells, and let him die."  There was so much goodness too. Call out the bad things and work to fix them. But ring out the wild bells, against the snow!

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true . . . 

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good . . .

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Grissini

Grissini, thick and thin and all ready for Thanksgiving. Whole wheat glazed with butter and honey; whole grain herb and garlic; seeded sourdough. 

8th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to our R!

Her kid party is in two weeks, but we had a family party on her actual birthday. She requested popcorn chicken, watermelon, Caesar salad, and sparkling grape juice.

First she had to finish her homework. Sad!

Lots of tulle hides how crooked the cake is. I was rushing to finish it before school pick-up.

Cookies & Cream ice cream!

Calico Critters for her dollhouse.


She fell in love with this stuffed raccoon from the grocery store. She begged us for it for a month.

Turning eight is momentous. She said, "I feel like a different person. I am in third grade and I am eight, all in the same week."

Pretty good motor control for a five year old

I drew on the cake with a toothpick and R filled it in. She wanted to crouch under the table to do it in case he came home from work early and ruined the surprise.




Many ways to say Happy Birthday Daddy, and many ways to spell it. The circles at the top are rings on the monkey bars on the playground. Daddy has looooong legs so he can lift her up to them.

Sign for the wall.

Sunday Brunch

Brunch to see some cousins visiting from San Francisco.

Only children are always so much more worried about crying than kids with siblings.

Wrangling the talent.

Success!

And this is the lemon tart I brought to the brunch. I am still trying to use up the box of Meyer lemons from Costco. I wanted more of a lemon curd, but I didn't start until 10 the night before and we didn't have enough butter and sugar. So I made a lemon chiffon filling. You could use oranges and regular lemons, but the Meyers are so subtle and perfumed.

Tangerine and Meyer Lemon Chiffon Tart

Ingredients

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Dash of salt
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed tangerine juice
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon grated Meyer lemon peel
1 teaspoon grated tangerine peel
4 egg whites
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

Mix gelatin, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt in saucepan. In separate bowl, beat together egg yolks, fruit juices and water. Stir into gelatin mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat just until mixture comes to boiling point. Remove from heat and stir in lemon peel. Chill for an hour or two, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. Do not allow it to harden.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, beating to stiff peaks. Gently fold in chilled gelatin mixture. Spoon into cooled pie shell. Chill until firm, several hours to overnight. Trim with candied lemon and tangerine slices.

The crust is Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Pastry Dough (or pate sablee.) The original recipe is below. I used all whole wheat pastry flour, added some wheat germ and flaxseed, and added 1 T of water to the egg yolks to compensate for the heavier flour and additions.

Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Crust

- makes enough for one 9-inch crust -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Procedure

1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

2. To roll or press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.

* If you want to roll the dough, chill it for about 2 hours before rolling (unless you've used frozen butter and the dough comes out of the processor firm and cold, in which case you can roll it immediately). I find it easiest to roll this dough out between two sheets of plastic film – make sure to peel away the film frequently, so it doesn't get rolled into the dough.
* If you want to use the press-in method, you can work with the dough as soon as it's processed. Just press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be too heavy-handed – press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but don't press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture.

3. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

4. To fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.

5. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil (or use nonstick foil) and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon (or prick it with the tip of a small knife). Bake the crust for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn't have a lot of flavor. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature.

Storing: The dough can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer – it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.