Beautiful Food – February 2016

So many good things to eat – even in the winter time. We have it so much easier than people did 100 years ago!

I enjoyed stir fry slaw this month. It was a quick meal-in-a-bowl for a winter lunch. I simply stir fried apply, broccoli and frozen cranberries in a skillet…added a heap of savoy cabbage and some sliced smoked turkey…added a bit of General Tso’s Sauce at the end. The red of the cranberries and apple skins adds just the right spark of color.

Hearty soups are also a favorite for winter lunches – another meal-in-a-bowl. This month I made mushroom soup. It is easy to make and beautiful too!

• Cut up fresh mushrooms, sautéed in a little olive oil.
• Put in beef bouillon and water…dried onions…ground up dry roasted soy beans (I just processed them in my small food processor)…soba noodles.
• After it cooks about 4 minutes add almond milk.
• After the soba noodles are cooked (it usually takes a total of 5 minutes, but read the package) – pour into a bowl…drizzled pumpkin seed oil…and scatter some pumpkin seeds.

This is a high protein soup with mushrooms, dry roasted soy beans, and soba noodles.  The drizzle of pumpkin seed oil – dark and rich – and the seeds on top add to its appeal.

Now for a snack: blue corn ships with hummus. I like the color contrast. It is very easy to eat too many so I always prepare the number that I want to eat on a plate – and don’t go back for more!

Egg casseroles are becoming my favorite beautiful food to make, enjoy for one meal…and then several more. I usually make the 4 serving size and include whatever is handy in my refrigerator. The baking dish I use is the perfect size and has a lid so I can easily store the left overs in the refrigerator. Note: I am lactose intolerant so am using non-dairy products, egg casseroles can obviously be made with milk and cheese.

The general recipe for this one:

• Whisk together 4 eggs and a scant cup of almond milk.
• Add broccoli (processed in a food processor), dried parsley, dried onion (and any other seasonings desired). Whisk.
• Cover bottom of baking dish with non-dairy cheese substitute. Pour egg and vegetable mixture over the cheese.
• Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top.
• Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F and then for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

The green and yellow/gold colors are cheerful on a winter’s day – even if it is very gray outdoors!

I really am enjoying the cook that I’ve become... or maybe what I truly enjoy is evolving the way I prepare food to appeal to the taste buds and the eyes! The other requirement is that it be good nutritionally too.

February Sunset

I haven’t caught a good sunrise yet this month; the mornings seem to all be full of this clouds or so clear that then sunrise is uninteresting. But there was a colorful sent set last week. The back of my house faces west and the winter sunsets can be seen through the bare branches of the forest trees. I can catch the sunset from the deck but the view is better a story above the deck through my office window. That was my vantage point for these pictures (another advantage of the office is that I don’t have to bundle up against the February outdoor temperature!).

The color goes in opposite order to the sunrise ---- blazing oranges

Fading to pinks and then reds as the day fades into dusk.

Pretty soon the trees will begin to get leaves and the view from my house of sunrise and sunset will not be as spectacular. I have another month or so to catch the color.

Different in 2016

Now that we are more than a month in to 2016 – I am getting serious about what habits I want to tweak this year. They are a little different than a ‘resolution’ or a goal because of the way I am thinking about them as habits. Habits are the things I do almost without thinking and there are strategies for changing them that apply.

The most significant one I am changing (not the optimism) is to stop drinking soft drinks entirely. Late last year I stopped using artificial sweeteners (and didn’t start using sugars) except for those in the Diet Pepsi. It’s time to stop the soft drink habit both because there is no nutritional benefit (and may harm), they are some of the heaviest items in my grocery bags, and the plastic bottles are a significant contributor to the recycle ‘trash’ bulk. I tried the strategy of just stopping suddenly and that didn’t work very well. I fell off the wagon after a few weeks. Now I am color coding the days on my calendar: red if I have a soft drink, green if I don’t. We’ll see if that works. Concurrently – I am developing drinks (water with a little black cherry juice is my current favorite) that I can have in lieu of a soft drink. So I am applying habit changing strategies:

• Make is conscious rather than automatic by calling attention to it (color coding my calendar)
• Develop a substitute habit (another drink choice)

Another habit that I am changing is when I wear my glasses. I have worn glasses or contact lenses virtually all my waking hours since I was in third grade. In the past few years, I have noticed that I am very comfortable reading on my tablet without my glasses. Just recently, I’ve discovered that quite a lot of what I do on my computer can be done without my classes. I tried it because I noticed that I was holding my head at an angle (to look through the part of the lenses for the best computer distance vision) that lead to quiet an ache in my neck and shoulders by the end of the day. The neck and shoulder problem is totally resolved by not wearing my glasses as much when I am at my computer so – we’ll see if I continue to like using the computer without glasses…. or whether I get some glasses specifically made for use at the computer.

Giving up soft drinks and not wearing my glasses as often are going to be challenging…just as breaking any long duration habit always is. I don’t think I could tackle 10 things like this…but 2 – I should be able to focus enough to change these habits.

A Walk in our Snowy Neighborhood

Earlier this week, we had a few inches of snow on the ground. We knew the temperature was warming enough that it would melt on its own the next day so didn’t bother to shoveling the driveway. We took a walk through the neighborhood instead.

I thought this tree with snow and cut branch took in the look of a pig face! When I looked at the picture on my monitor I noticed that the branch – that had only been cut last summer – had already dried out and darkened. The reddish layer already had cracks too.

The fire hydrant was clearly visible but I thought the uneven layering of the snow on the top made it look different than the actual shape of the metal underneath.

The water retention pond was not all snow covered. The ice from the earlier – very cold – days was beginning to melt.

My favorite picture of the day was the crape myrtle pod full of snowflakes…crystals still intact.

3 Free eBooks – February 2016

There are so many excellent resources out there. My biggest sources of eBooks are Internet Archive and Hathi Trust.

One theme for this month was vintage wallpaper. The Internet Archive has a lot of old catalogs. One of my favorites is:

Roche, David. House of Decoration. Halifax, Nova Scotia: David Roche. 192? Available here. I liked the texture (all the better to hide any imperfections in the wall underneath) and the colors of the designs. There were other wallpapers in the same book that looked like crewel embroidery.

Another theme was flowers and birds:

Smith, C. E. and Janet Harvey Kelman. Flowers: Shown to the children. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. 1910. It is available from Hathi Trust here. I liked the books because of the labeling of the images. This book could still work well since the common names of flowers have stayed consistent while more detailed classifications may have changed over the years.

Another theme was pictures of places – snapshots in time.

D’Auvergne, Edmund Basil. Switzerland in sunshine and snow. London: T.W. Laurie. 1912. It is available from Internet Archive here. I read this book on a particularly cold day this month – that was sunny. It seemed to fit the day so well that I selected it for this post. I am attracted to the drawings and paintings rather than photographs of the period. Sometimes that approach works of art – and they often smooth over imperfections of lighting and landscape that mar photographs of the period.

Tucson Souvenirs

Earrings! They are my favorite souvenirs – not too expensive and small enough to be easily packed for the trek home.

The most unusual earrings I purchased this time were the ones that used cholla cactus stems as a large ‘bead’ (upper left). I noticed the cholla cactus around Tucson because they seemed to be more colorful than just about anything else.

I bought the hummingbird earrings since we did see quite a few hummingbirds during our walks…. again, the earrings are a good reminder of one of our trip highlights.

The bear earrings were a serendipity. I bought them as a reminder of the excellent black bear lecture I attended just before our trip….and I liked the symbolic representation. When I saw the arrow inside the bear symbol I thought of the 20,000 calories a day the bear needs to eat in the fall (does the arrow represent the digestive tract?)!

Mourning Doves in our Back Yard

I am interrupting my planned posts about our Tucson experience to share some photos from our backyard this week. The weather was warm enough that the snow was melting…and the birds were very active. I was busy photographing some blue jays through my office window when I noticed a mourning dove on the deck railing. We almost always have a pair around our house. Another dove joined the first almost immediately.

Their feathers were fluffed

And they continued to preen themselves.

Then they preened each other.

The courtship continues with a beak lock ‘kiss.’

The finale of mating follows quickly and is over in a few seconds.

The male spreads his tail feathers briefly (so fast that my photo only caught them slightly spread).

And so the cycle of doves around our house will continue in 2016. I hope they don’t build their nest in one of our gutters like they did one year – only to be flooded out at the next rain.

Digging Out

Schools are closed again today although our immediate neighborhood is probably clear enough to support the children getting to school. The school system has to make the decision for the whole county and there probably are some areas that are still problematic. We did the heavy digging out on Sunday. The backyard didn’t matter – but it does show that we got a lot of snow. There is a bench and several pots under the snow on the deck….all covered over by snow!

But we got our drive way shoveled (or rather we shoveled about a third of it and a neighbor with a snow blower did the rest).

The temperature did not get above freezing but the sun caused some melting and icicles began to form.

We walked through the neighborhood noting the benches overlooking the water retention pond with snow covering their seats

The raggedy cattails around the frozen pond,

The fire hydrants that were visible (did someone do a little shoveling?),

And the sidewalks neatly cleared by one of the many snow blower guys in the neighborhood.

By Tuesday – there has been some additional freezing and thawing. There were some larger icicles but most had fallen by the end of the day…water could be heard trickling normally in the downspouts

And the heated bird bath managed to melt the crusty snow that had made a high rim around it for days.

We got out to pick up a pizza. Our neighborhood street was in pretty good shape but not everyone had cleared the area around their mailbox and we noticed a few mailboxes that had been knocked over. Fortunately, ours survived the snow plow and we got is cleared enough for mail delivery.

A two lane road near us was clear but the snow was still up to the lower rail of the split rail fence. We noticed that people in townhouses and apartment buildings were digging out and some of the sidewalks in the area had not been touched – hard to image the how the children could walk to their bus stop.

By Wednesday morning the melt was more noticeable. The temperature had stayed above freezing all night and the bench reappeared on the deck and the railing was totally clear.

Last night it froze again – so maybe it’s wise that there is no school again today. I’m going my normal Thursday grocery shopping.

Snowy Weekend in Maryland

Friday afternoon: It started to snow at mid-afternoon – just as the forecast has predicted. I had made my trek to the grocery store on Thursday so we were well prepared to just stay home for the duration of the snow storm. The birds seemed to be chowing down. There were a few at the feeder but they all could eat more rapidly at the bowl we had filled on the deck

Even as the bowl started to fill with snow.

Saturday before dawn: The front porch light cast some light across the snow on the porch and the front yard. It was about a foot deep.

The light in the back showed evidence of drifting. The snow extended well over the gutter from the roof of our covered deck. The large pot on the deck near where the bowl of bird seed was yesterday was a mound. The bowl is under the snow – buried too deep for the birds today. The screens of the covered deck are flocked with snow that the wind has blown around. There were already deer tracks in the backyard!

Saturday 8 AM: The cardinal was back. He didn’t stay long. The seed bowl is buried in snow and the feeder only works for smaller birds.

There are hummocks on the deck (snow heaped over pots and drifted by the wind) and more snow is sticking on the outside of the windows when it is picked up and swirled from the roofs by the wind.

The juncos are still frequent visitors to the feeder.

Evidently they are heavy enough that only one can feed at a time so take turns.

Saturday 11 AM: I measured the depth of the snow at the driveway as 17 inches

And 24 inches on the deck. The wind is creating drifts so there is significant variability.

I made snow ice cream! I used a non-dairy creamer then added vanilla, coconut flavoring, and red food coloring. My husband thought the creamer was not quite thick enough but I thought it was just right.

Saturday 1 PM: Another bird that was too big for the feeder stopped by. Maybe a cowbird?

All the hummocks on the deck are filling in with the snow falling and the wind smoothing out all the curves. The deer tracks from this morning are mostly gone and the one lane that was plowed this morning is half full of snow already.

Sunday morning: The sky is clear. The sunrise was boring with no clouds on the horizon. The neighborhood was very quiet before 7 AM; everyone was still snuggled indoors.

The deer had already made fresh tracks across the backyard and the juncos were visiting the feeder.

The snow on the driveway measured just under 22 inches – a bit less than my husband’s last measurement late Saturday. The wind had worked a little in our favor.

The shoveling of the driveway will take us hours – and probably not all at once. We’ll take breaks for warming up since the temps started out in the teens today and will only get into the 20s. There was already some melting from the gutters that were getting sunshine.

It looks like one lane has been plowed in the street. The mailbox is blocked by snow that fell and the snow pushed up by the plow. It needs to be cleared today so that the mail can be delivered on Monday.

January Sunrise

January is an excellent month for photographing the sunrise from our front porch: the days are still short so sunrise happens well after my normal time to get up and there are no leaves on the tress to block the view. A little over a week ago – I was lucky enough to catch a sunrise with the moon and Venus visible!

A little later on the same morning I focused on using the sunrise color behind some of our trees. This is the oak. The buds look large for January. They may have started swelling with the warm weather we had in December and early January.

The crepe myrtle has a lot of dried pods that make it look ‘decorated’ all winter long. It makes a good morning silhouette.

My Hawaiian Souvenirs

I enjoyed collecting earrings in Hawaii. There were made of koa wood, shell, and obsidian....island materials. The shell necklace was a lei from the resort where we spent the first night.

I bought 2 T-shirts: one a tropical weight long sleeved T shirt with botanical motifs and the other covered with Hawaiian petroglyph patterns and a heavier fabric.

I bought a lightweight robe with a flowery motif.

Mauna Kea is a good place for warm socks (I’ve already tried them out on a recent cold day here in Maryland) and a stuff bag that is easy to carry and expand as I need to carry more things.

On our last day in Hawaii before we headed off to our last hikes in the national park, we visited 2400 Fahrenheit – the studio of glass artists Michael and Misato Mortara. We bought two pieces. One reminds us of tidal pools and the other of volcanoes.

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike
• Halema’uma’u Crater
• Mauna Ulu and Sulphur Banks Trail
• Resorts in Hawaii
• Getting Home from Hawaii – An Adventure

Getting Home from Hawaii - An Adventure

It was always going to be a long flight from Hawaii back home to Maryland. Our plan was to begin in the evening and try to sleep through as much of it as possible.

But the plan fell apart almost immediately. Our fight from Kona was delayed from 10:15 PM on a Sunday to Monday at 6:30 AM. We stood in a long slow line to get out larger bags checked and a voucher for a hotel room and transportation to/from the airportt – even though it would only be for a few hours. The Kona airport is open air and the wooden benches in the waiting areas have unmovable armrests (i.e. very few places to actually lay down and try to sleep in the damp and cool night). The Royal Kona Resort voucher gave us the ability to shower and change clothes which helped us feel a little better; we only got about90 minutes of sleep!

When we got back to the airport early the next morning, we discovered that the art glass we had purchased (nicely wrapped in bubble wrap in my husband’s carry on) had to be hand inspected by TSA. It was good that there was not much of a line. They managed to preserve most of the bubble wrap and re-taped the package. As we got to the waiting area, we discovered that about half the passengers from our flight had spent the night in the airport; evidently there was some confusion by the airline personnel re vouchers. Aargh! I felt very sorry for the rumpled and sleep deprived people.

The airline brought in donuts and granola bars for breakfast….and then we waited for the plane to be ready to board. We got off later than planned so that everyone missed their connecting flights in Los Angeles – including us. That made the second time the planned trek home had to be modified. The airline had rescheduled us onto another airline’s flight into Dulles – and our car was in the parking garage at BWI. After a little haggling – we were provided a voucher for transportation from Dulles to BWI. We had time for a regular meal in the Los Angeles Airport before catching our cross-country flight.

The biggest miracle of the trek home: our luggage that had originally been checked to go to BWI arrived at Dulles with us in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. By that point our biological clocks were totally confused having gotten no solid sleep for over 40 hours. We got home and slept a few hours then go up to ratchet ourselves back toward Eastern Standard Time. It took us several days to recover!

Previous Hawaii Posts:

• Getting to Hawaii
• Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki Trail
• Chain of Craters Road
• Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
• Lava Tree State Park
• Maunakea
• Akaka Falls State Park
• Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve
• Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, South Point, and Green Sand Beach
• Helicopter over Hawaii
• Maunaiki Trail – Ka’u Desert Hike
• Halema’uma’u Crater
• Mauna Ulu and Sulphur Banks Trail
• Resorts in Hawaii

Zentangle® – December 2015

It’s now been a full year of Zentangle®-a-day. It’s become an easy habit to maintain. Did I draw more spirals and fiddleheads in December with Hawaiian vegetation as my inspiration – maybe. I also continued to name my Zentangles. Can you find the one I titled ‘female cyclops’?

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Happy New Year 2016

Another beginning…a new year with lots of potential….places to go…friend and family to enjoy…experiences.

I did my traditional picture of the 1^st sunrise of the year. It isn’t a hard thing to do this time of year since happens around 7:30 AM where I live and all I have to do is step out my front door. It always seems like an excellent way to celebrate the start of the new year – better than staying up until midnight and messing up my normal sleep cycle! Unfortunately the clouds were too thick this year. It is a gray day. So I photographed a robin that seemed to be watching for the sunrise with me.

The beginning of a new year is a good time to think about changes we’d like to make. I am focusing on my soft drink habit as one I would like to change (i.e. stop). I started afew days before the New Year so now I just need to continue the focused willpower and behavior change strategies that are working (so far).