project 365 | 2011 | Week 4

A month!

That means... I'm, ah, one-twelfth of the way to completion. Phew. So far, the commitment to a daily photo hasn't been too strenuous. It's making me take more photos, which I needed to do. But, compared to my pre-blogging life, when I never EVER took photos (it was Toby's "job")... this is keeping me moving along in the right direction.

So far, my photos have been very day-in-the-life... domestic moments interspersed with glimpses of my "other life" downtown, etc. I have this voice inside myself that says "make it more artsy/edgy/interesting/etc" but so far I'm simply enjoying documenting our everyday life. Time with Jacky, for example, is accelerating so scarily fast that I just have this feeling I won't mind looking back later on snapshots of ordinary life. I think there's beauty there.

And, I think I'm going to ditch the mosaic for each week and just post the photos here with a quick description. Less complicated.

Without further ado... Week 4:

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01 22 11 :: Safety first.
When you're two, apparently, headgear and safety always have a place at the table.

01 23 11 :: Pizza insanity.
You will notice that I never posted a recipe for this one. Definitely not ready for prime-time.
Can I just say: red cabbage, potatoes, apples, bacon, walnuts... and so on?
Dude, not pregnant, just sometimes a little insane in the kitchen.

01 24 11 :: Jammies and books -- is there anything better?
The titles reflect important themes in our house these days:
"Sea Creatures" and "Everyone Poops."

01 25 11 :: Getting dinner on the table.
OK, so no, I didn't take this one. I was busy making a riff on our current favorite
stir-fry from Heidi. Being that it's not asparagus season (yet!),
we go with frozen green beans, and sub salmon for the tofu. So tasty and so quick.

01 26 11 :: Heading home
Bush Street, looking East. 5:30 pm.

01 27 11 :: The TRUCK BOOK!
Need I say more? He almost has the whole thing memorized.
He knows the names of trucks I've never, ever heard of. (And so it begins.)

01 28 11 :: We are granola powered.
At least during winter. We cannot be without granola, much less the greek yogurt to sprinkle it on.
I've been using the Smitten recipe, with some mods: oven reduced to 350˚,
extra virgin olive oil instead of veg oil, omit coconut, use super-dark maple syrup instead of honey,
and a generous pinch of Maldon as the salt. This week, our fruit is dried currants,
and I recently scored some "real" cinnamon which is pretty awesome on its own.
This is my must-have breakfast and my go-to snack.
Oh, and Deb's trick of storing your granola in the freezer is genius: totally works.

something about orange shoes

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Summer, 1986 :: Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego
My mom and her brothers threw a swanky celebration for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Fancy hall, nice food, beautiful setting, professional portraits of every family. The works.

During the meal, my mom exhibited a touching slide show (real slides in those days!) of photos showing my grandparents as young, tweedy, hat-wearing adults in New York City, later as parents in Southern California and Spokane, Washington... finally, as bronzed, retired grandparents in San Diego, basking in the sun, far away from snowy NY.

As the slide show clicked on and on, a theme emerged. In what seemed like every fourth photo, my grandma, who always had a matching purse, (and in the right decade, a matching hat), sported these cute orange pumps. Or maybe they were flats? Who knows. The only thing people noticed -- and these shoes became a bit of an on-going punchline at the anniversary celebration -- was the color. ORANGE.

Who wears orange shoes?

Well. Apparently, I do. And... these days, they are definitely the go-to dress-up item in this house.

Oh, and: Do not try to touch these shoes. I tried to wear them, you know, outside today. Tears, tears, tears.

Feelings for orange shoes run, apparently, very deep.

Project 365 | 2011 | Week 3

View each day individually:
01 15 11  |  01 16 11  |  01 17 11  |  01 18 11  |  01 19 11  |  01 20 11  |  01 21 11

fog-less friday at stow lake, gg park

the return of pizza | roasted delicata squash & red onion

Hooray for pizza! It's been such a long while since we've seen some pizza around these parts, huh? Mind you, we are always, always making pizza -- having some nuggets of dough in the freezer is my own type of financial/emotional security -- but it hasn't made its way onto these pages since... oh? Some other season, that's for sure.

Let's kick things off again with a really tasty, warming vegetarian version. This one takes a very tiny bit of advance planning. Hey, we have to remember to take dough out to thaw, so forethought isn't totally unheard of.

You just need to give yourself an extra 30 minutes or so to prepare these beauties:

roasted delicata squash, with garlic and sage

roasted red onion halves with thyme

Once you've gotten the two main stars prepped (which you can totally do well in advance), this pizza comes together in a snap.







Just remember to add your sage garnish before you start eating. Unlike me.

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Roasted Delicata Squash & Red Onion Pizza

Makes one pizza for sharing. Or not.

Advance prep: Oven to 400˚F. Cut one delicata squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Oil all over with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Place two cloves (skin-on) of garlic and two sage leaves under each half of squash and place (face-down) on a lined roasting pan. Cut two red onions in half (leave skins on), oil 'em up and season with S&P. Place face-up on pan and sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves. Roast for ~30 minutes, flipping onions over a couple of times. Squash will be done with it's soft all over and the skin is starting to brown (it's fully edible). Onions should look roasty and caramelized, obviously!

Make 6-10 half-inch slices of the roasted squash (depending on the size of yours). You'll have leftovers for another use. Remove the outer onion skins and slice each half once or more (so they're bite-size). The garlic should be soft; squeeze it in a small bowl and stir with ~1 T olive oil to make a paste. Reserve sage leaves for garnish.

Then, assemble pizza:

basic pizza recipe + spread with roasted garlic paste + top with a big handful of mozzarella cheese + squash pieces (lightly mash in place with a fork so they look interesting and will brown more) + onion pieces +  red chili flakes. Lightly olive-oil the crust area and sprinkle with salt. 

:::Bake according to basic pizza recipe:::

Garnish with freshly grated parmesan, chopped parsley and reserved sage leaves. Plus a lemon wedge. A drizzle of olive oil can't hurt either!

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moment with jacky

Sunday mornings = heaven

Project 365 | 2011 | Week 2

Portrait of a week. A week in which Jacky, with a subtle tap to the floor, fatally injured my trusty point-n-shoot. You may notice a heavy reliance on iPhone photos mid-week. Today, I'm proud but totally intimidated to say that I have gotten a real big-girl camera: Toby's "old" Canon 5D, complete with a couple of lenses (macro, thank goodness. I love me some macro.). Not too shabby of a hand-me-down. I just need to figure it all out. A husband-to-wife tutorial is on the horizon -- should be, ah, interesting.

01 08 11  |  01 09 11  |  01 10 11  |  01 11 11  |  01 12 11  |  01 13 11  |  01 14 11

holiday crafting: fair isle chicken family

May I introduce the Baby Chicks...

who would like you to meet their Mama, Ms Hen.

Most days, they hang out in their cozy nest and cuddle. You would too, if you were made of a sweater.

But if Mama Hen has a bunko date, sometimes Uncle Baby Doll comes by to babysit. No TV and no girls, Baby Doll.

Mostly, they just endure squeezing, squawking and the occasional kiss fest. All wings are intact so far.

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Chicken template (used for Mama Hen) from Martha. Baby chicks are scaled down to 60%, with combs and wattles omitted. 

Sweater material came from an enormous Fair Isle capelet that I adored, but just couldn't pull off. 

I like it much better as poultry pets! The nest was made from some twiggy, branchy stuff at Michael's, 

wound up in a circular pattern and secured with twig-looking wire ties.

Beautiful green baby blanket is from Kristen :)

Project 365 | 2011 | Week 1

So, it's a tad bit 2010-ish, but I cannot resist the temptation to publicly promise I'll take a photo every single day of 2011. Just check out some of my inspiration here and here.

Who else is in?

01 01 11 | 01 02 11 | 01 03 11 | 01 04 11 | 01 05 11 | 01 06 11 | 01 07 11

back to life. back to reality.

Wow. Holy radio silence. Even my husband knew better than I how long it's been. Sorry. But that's kind of cute right? I guess he's reading. (Hi!)

Anyway, welcome back. To you and to me. I feel like I've read so many posts in the last week or so that have started this same way... so, I'm in good company, perhaps?

Let me just say that many exciting things are in store for 2011. Excitement, that is, in my life I think... and perhaps it will make interesting blog fare. I think that's the way it works?

(Will 2011 be the year of question marks? Perhaps: answers to new questions.)

Anyway, since the holidays--which were lovely. both restful and busy but lovely--were such a blur, allow me to summarize pictorially. Ahem.

During this season of merriment, we:

...hung our stockings with care. Pretty much.

...dressed for fancy jammie parties

...baked. No cookies this year, just bread bread bread.

...and more bread

...snacked. Homemade bread + blood orange olive oil & balsamic. Kinda 90s, but always satisfying.

...snacked, sustainable edition. (BTW, this picture? what is he twelve now?! I melt.)

...started "reading" on our own. He may not be on my lap reading and snuggling, but I still find this so, so sweet.

...attempted a family photo. With a two year old? HA.

...had to settle for just the two of us. Mind you, the first decent photo of the two of us in a long while. OK, fine.

Well, there was much more than this: a visit from BOTH brothers, long-awaited closet re-orgs (scarily awesome), and the limoncello distribution. But, somehow those photos are missing. Always happens.

Onward. On the blog horizon: holiday crafting recap! my experiments in home chemistry! a serious, scary commitment to photography! Winter gardening woes! Spring garden 2011 preview! General life changes! Etcetera, etc.

See you back soon. Happy 2011.