SEASONALITY: A Common Sense Approach To Living The Good Life

MY FRIEND LINDA: A WOMAN WITH STORIES TO TELL

2012-01-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

I know you are tired of hearing me say "every woman has a story to tell", but if ever there was such a woman, it would be my friend Linda. Linda and I met in 8th grade, when we were both put into an orchestra class by mistake. She ended up sticking with it, but I was itching to learn to cook and sew, so I switched to Home Economics. It took them a week or so to get our schedules sorted out, and by the end of that time we'd become fast friends.

High School Yearbook Staff
(that's me, seated, second from right - Linda is the dark-haired beauty directly across from me)

I must admit, I'm afraid, that one reason I was drawn to her was my insatiable curiosity -- nosiness, some people might call it. You see, Linda was a bit different from anyone I had ever met. A bit exotic, even. If you recall, I was a child of the fifties, and grew up in a very W.A.S.P.-ish neighborhood. I'd never even been to a Chinese restaurant, so imagine how fascinating it was to have a friend whose parents actually came from China! Linda was pretty quiet and reserved back then, and didn't talk much about her family history, but I got little snippets here and there. The first big revelation was when her dad picked us up from a football game one time. On the way home we got to stop by their family's noodle factory, where I discovered that my friend Linda could crack eggs one-handed, and at lightening speed. I was so impressed!

I'm sure I drove Linda crazy with my incessant questions. Eventually, I must have worn her down, for she began to open up, bit by bit. Finally I got to hear about her intrepid grandfather, the first to come here. Unfortunately, his wife refused to accompany him, so he got himself an American wife. (Did he ever divorce the first one? Who knows?) Later I heard about her parents who, if I remember correctly, didn't even meet until just before their wedding, and who left for America shortly thereafter. Then there was Linda's older brother who, when fresh out of high school, was sent to Hong Kong to meet the relatives, and, courtesy of Grandma, came back with a wife of his own! I saw firsthand Linda's long struggle to be allowed to marry her beloved George, a perfectly nice young Chinese man from Hong Kong, but whom her parents resisted because "her family didn't know his family." Nothing topped the shock of Linda's audacious younger sister falling in love with an anglo, and insisting on marrying him regardless of how her parents felt about it. It was kind of like seeing Fiddler on the Roof come to life, where each successive child grew further and further away from "tradition." There was tragedy -- a horrible accident involving Linda's father and a wicked piece of machinery -- as well as triumph, when he finally overcame his debilitating injuries and was able to return to work.

Yep, if anyone has a doozy of a story to tell, it would be my friend Linda. So imagine my glee when, at the age of 58, she finally started talking about getting some of this stuff down on paper! If only she knew where to start? Upon hearing that, I flashed back to my own self, sitting at the computer in our Houston townhouse, about four years ago. I had just stumbled across the blog of one of my favorite writers, Susan Wittig Albert, author of the China Bayles mystery series that is set here in the Texas Hill Country. I discovered that she had once taught English at nearby Texas State University, and left a comment on her blog, asking if she could recommend any good writing classes for someone interested in getting her personal stories down on paper. Within minutes she replied, "I'll do even better. I'll tell you about an organization I started, Story Circle Network, for women just like you, and invite you to attend our bi-annual conference with workshops, to be held in Austin in just a few months."

I decided to "pay it forward", and shared that same information with my friend Linda. So, guess who's going to be my roomie for three, fun-filled days at the SCN conference this April? Woohoo! How fun is that? Maybe, at long last, I will finally get an answer to the one question that I never got a satisfactory reply to: How do two parents manage to work fulltime running their own business, take care of elderly relatives, and raise three kids who, without their ever raising their voices at them, grounding them, or punishing them in any manner whatsoever, as far as I ever saw, all ended up being extremely polite, well-behaved, brilliant students, and who always seemed perfectly happy to spend all their free time working in the family business? Go figure!

MUSHROOM HARVEST TIME!

2012-01-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I finally harvested my first batch of oyster mushrooms from the kit I received for Christmas. The instructions implied that you should just harvest the whole lot of them as soon as the largest ones were an inch to an inch and a half across, before they start to curl up. However, when I realized there were lots of tiny ones hidden behind them, that had never had a chance to grow, I took only the largest ones.

That was a mistake. The rest of them just shriveled up within a couple of days. I cut them off and tossed them into the compost. Now I've opened up the other side of the box, removed the bag, and put it in a bucket of water to soak overnight, after which I should be able to grow a whole new crop.

Originally I was just going to saute' this batch in some butter, but then I remembered that episode of the Jamie At Home TV series, where he and his friend Genaro went out hunting for mushrooms, then cooked them up over a campfire and served them over garlic-rubbed toasts. I started with that recipe, then went a bit crazy with it.

Ultimate Mushroom Bruschetta

from Jamie At Home, by Jamie Oliver

(2 extremely generous servings)

Note from Jamie: Whether you're using farmed or wild mushrooms, or a combination of both, do your best to get hold of a nice interesting mixture. When it comes to frying them, make sure your pan is a large one so the moisture that comes out of them can evaporate easily. Otherwise they'll begin to boil in their own juices. Mushrooms cooked properly are so versatile -- you can stir them into a risotto, sprinkle them onto a pizza or serve them with a grilled steak or atop some roasted fowl.

extra virgin olive oil

11 oz. mixed mushrooms, wiped clean (I didn't have near that many, so I quartered the recipe)

2 cloves of garlic, 1 peeled and finely chopped, the other halved

a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked

a few sprigs of fresh parsley, leaves picked

optional: a sprig of summer savory, leaves picked

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 dried red chili, crumbled

a small knob of butter

1 lemon (on the show, Jamie threw in a bit of wine with the lemon. I replaced both with balsamic vinegar)

2 slices of sourdough bread

Put a large heavy frying pan, big enough to hold all the mushrooms in one layer, on the heat and add a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Depending on the size of your mushrooms, leave any small ones whole but tear, break or slice the larger ones up. Add them all to the pan and give it a shake to toss the mushrooms in the oil. Add the chopped garlic and fresh herbs and shake the pan again. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and the crumbled chili and leave to fry gently for a few minutes. If the mixture becomes dry, pour in a little more oil.

Once the mushrooms have got some color going on, after about 3 to 4 minutes, add the butter and a squeeze of lemon juice (or balsamic or wine) to give a nice twang -- don't go overboard here, you don't need much -- and toss again. To finish this off and make it into a lovely creamy sauce, spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of water into the pan. Simmer for a little longer, until you have a lovely simple sauce that just loosely coats the mushrooms. Now toast your bread, if you are going to serve this as bruschetta, which I did not.

When toasted, rub the bread with the cut side of the remaining clove of garlic. Place each slice on a serving plate, pile the mushrooms and the creamy juices from the pan on top and tuck in.

But, like I said, I didn't do this. I just happened to have a chunk of leftover grilled ribeye, medium rare, that I had stashed in the freezer last week and wanted to use up. I sliced it very thinly, then tossed it in the pan with the mushrooms during the final stage of cooking. Instead of serving it over toast, I served it alongside some oven-roasted potatoes. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

WHY HISTORY IS BETTER TAUGHT BY WOMEN

2012-01-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

History was always one of my least favorite subjects in school. Mostly is was all about the games men play, to prove who's got the biggest whangle-dangle. We would read about endless battles and maneuvers, regurgitate the names and dates back up onto our exam papers, then forget all about them as soon as we walked out the door.

Image from audioeditions.com

It was only by reading memoir and historical fiction -- stories written from a woman's point of view -- that I finally started to learn something. I may have known of the Civil War, but I understood nothing until I read Gone With The Wind. We may have been taught something about Viet Nam in school, but I didn't finally get it until a few months ago, when a friend loaned me The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli. I had class after class in which I was taught about Hitler and WWII, but I would never have had a clue were it not for The Diary of Anne Frank.

I suppose men write about what motivates them -- about how we ended up in these situations in the first place. It's the women, though, who teach us about what it cost -- about the price we would all pay, those on both sides, for generations to come. For instance, I knew a couple in Indonesia who had met each other in New York, where they were both members of a support group, not for Holocaust survivors, but for the children of Holocaust survivors. I never would have understood just how critical such a support group might be, had I not finally, after months of putting it off, got brave enough to open the book Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, then stayed up all night to finish it.

I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that our libraries are chock full of history by, for, and about men. But, when it comes to stories by, for, and about women? Precious few, my friends. Precious few. I believe that every woman has a story to tell. You may think your life is anything but epic, and that may be true, but even the small bits are important. Without these details to provide the background for their stories, how would any of those epic tales I mentioned above have come to life? How will your kids and grandkids ever know what your life was like "back in the olden days", or what you thought, felt, or dreamed when you were their age, or anything about the traits or features you may have passed down to them? Write it down my friends. Write it all down. You have no idea just how important it might be, to those who will come after.

Need help getting started? Check out the Story Circle Network, one of the most amazing "support groups" ever created, for women with stories to tell!

THAT IRRITATING KID IN THE THEATER

2012-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Majestic Theater, Dallas
image from eclairefare.wordpress.com

My parents had the habit of taking the whole lot of us (we were a family of six) to the movies at least once or twice a month -- usually to one of the big, gorgeous downtown theaters in Dallas, where I grew up, like The Tower, The Palace, or my personal favorite, The Majestic, pictured above. Often it was on a Sunday evening, when we probably should have been a few blocks away attending choir practice and evening service at First Methodist Church. But, Sunday evening was "Sneak Preview" night, when you got to see two movies for the price of one, and Dad couldn't resist a bargain like that!

Now, we four kids were spread out over a span of twelve years, so I would imagine it was pretty difficult to find movies that would interest, and be appropriate for, the entire family. Plus, I don't think they even had a rating system back then. Unfortunately for my parents, they were saddled with a kid who had the terrible habit (at least as far as they were concerned) of always asking questions when there was something she didn't understand. Of course, I knew you weren't supposed to talk during movies, so I made sure I always "WHISPERED" these questions!

My dad's favorites were war movies and westerns. I hated both, especially the war movies, where I usually spent most of the movie trying to cover my eyes and ears at the same time. Not easy! These movies made no sense whatsoever to me, and I remember saying, "Psssst! Mom! Why do men fight wars?" "They have to Sweetie. It's their duty." "But why do they even have wars. They're so stupid!" "Well, it's usually because someone got greedy and decided to take something that didn't belong to them." "And that's why they make all the men go kill each other?" "Pretty much." "Well men are stupid! They could never make me do that. I'd just go hide where they couldn't find me. I'm sure glad girls don't make wars."

We also went to see each new James Bond movie as soon as it came out, which I didn't mind so much. I remember one in particular, which had a lady in it named Pussy Galore. "Pssssst! Mom! What's so funny about her name? Why does everyone laugh whenever they say Pussy?" Of course, as soon as I asked that, everyone near us started snickering. "See? Like that!" Her only response this time was a fierce glare and a "Shush! We'll talk about it at home!" In retrospect, I'm thinking she was probably just stalling for time, so as to come up with some plausible way to skirt the truth. I think she made up something ridiculous about it being a nickname for women with big bazongas, which I really wasn't buying, but even I was smart enough not to accuse my parents of fibbing!

I bet they were both just tickled to death when I was blessed with, not one but, two younguns, who questioned absolutely everything. I was pretty tickled myself.

TIME TO TACKLE UNFINISHED PROJECTS

2012-01-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

We have owned this house for seven years now. (Is that possible?) I have been living in it fulltime for four, and my hubby for one. We have pared down our belongings, unpacked all our boxes, paved the driveway, installed the water catchment system, put on a new roof, built the Cantina Garden, added a terrace patio, added on a dining room, remodeled the master bath, and replaced the flooring in the kitchen and bath. The only things we still haven't got around to are: 1) rescuing our rather luxurious garage utility room (it even has a shower, a toilet, and a large utility sink in it) from being a junk stash, and transforming it into something fun like a laundry/craft/garden room, and 2) finally completing that blankity-blank half-painted cinder block wall!

This is just the painted half. The part closest to the house -- the really tall part that requires ladders -- is still raw cinderblock.

I've pretty much decided that the only way this #%*@ wall will ever get finished is if I turn it into a party. If I can figure out a good time when it's dry enough (you don't want water seeping through while you paint, from the soil behind the wall), but before it gets too hot, I'm going to go out and buy a mess of paints and supplies, fix up a mess of good food (with plenty of my Mexican Chocolate Streusel Brownies), fill my coolers with icy beverages, then call all my friends and tell them to come grab a brush. I think I will just let them have their way with it, and see what happens. Hopefully, we will end up with something unique and wonderful, like one of those below. After all, this is the town whose motto is "Keep Wimberley Weirder!" Well, then again, maybe not too unique. I do have that dang home-owners association to deal with, and I sure as heck don't want them to come back and tell me the whole thing needs to be RE-painted!

Image from forums2.gardenweb.com

Image from tulapink.com

Image from kimhunter.ca

Image from nunkprotunk.com

Image from flickrhivemind.net

Image from ranchoreubidoux.wordpress.com

MY COLOR-MAD HIPPY HACIENDA KITCHEN

2012-01-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

We recently got a call from that talented designer, Ms. Alexis Lane, over at Lane Design Studio (a.k.a. Dear Daughter). She had stumbled across a piece of fabric that she thought might go well in our kitchen shutters. Replacing that black and white toile will be the final step in the kitchen/bathroom redo that we started way last summer. Anyhoo, she wanted to know if we trusted her enough to let her go ahead and buy it for us. We do, so she did.

Did she do good, or what? Can you imagine any fabric that could have gone better with these...

or these...

or these?

No, I thought not.

And so, at last, we are done. The original black and white tiled kitchen was quite lovely, but it was never my kitchen. This one most definitely is. It's a Hippy Hacienda kitchen!

WHOA NELLIE! MUSHROOMS: DAY 7

2012-01-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

It won't be long now until I can harvest my first mushrooms, so I've been going over some of the suggested recipes on the Back to the Roots website, trying to make up my mind just how I want to use them. Should I make a stroganoff? What about clam-free "chowdah", or moos-coos (mushroom couscous) There are lots of pasta options, like fettucini with mushrooms and spring herbs, garlic sesame soba noodles, or yummy mushroom pasta. But then there's that delish-sounding risotto, or that wilted spinach salad. So many choices! I plan to try them all, sooner or later. But, the more I think about it, the more I am certain that, the very first time I cook with them, I should keep it as simple as possible. Maybe just a quick saute' with a bit of real butter and fleur de sel, so that there is nothing to distract me from their just-picked yumminess. Ah, yes. That's the ticket!

'TIS THE SEASON: BABY BRUSSELS SPROUTS

2012-01-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

The Bountiful Sprout had a listing for "Baby Brussels Sprouts" this week, and since those were one of the few veggies available this time of year, and since I now know just how yummy they can be, if cooked correctly, I ordered them. When they described them as "baby", they weren't just a whistlin' Dixie! Are these precious, or what?

Baby-oh-Baby!

Last night I had some leftover pork tenderloin that I decided to make Cuban-style sandwiches out of, with mustard and dill pickle. At first I couldn't think of what to serve with them, but then I remembered these babies. I tossed them with a little olive oil and sea salt, spread them out on a cookie sheet, then roasted them at 400 F. until they started to caramelize and get those nice crispy brown splotches on them. Man-oh-man, were they ever tasty. We ate them with our fingers, like popcorn or chips!

MUSHROOMS: DAY 5

2012-01-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! Signs of life!

MY OWN ROAD

2012-01-18T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have a very liberal-minded, outspoken friend who lives in an extremely conservative community in east Texas. She has to bite her tongue a lot. One day, when she was cutting across one of their fields with her young granddaughter, she asked the little girl to "Come over here Sweetheart. It will be much easier to walk if we follow the road that Grandpa made with his tractor." "No!", the child replied. "I want to go this way. I want to make my own road!" Needless to say, my friend was so very proud of this little rebel-in-the-making, she came straight home and posted about it on facebook! It got me to thinkin'.

Miss Becky, between her two better-behaved sisters.

I guess I was a lot like that little girl growing up. Hard-headed, my parents called it. My life would have been sooooo much smoother, if only I could have kept my mouth shut. If only I had never questioned or disagreed. If only I had always done as I was told, without insisting that there be a good and logical reason behind it, instead of the usual "Because I said so, that's why!"

This is actually my high school graduation, not college. There aren't any pics of my college graduation. I headed off to get married as soon as classes let out, and left for Indonesia the next day. I suggested they just mail the diploma to my folks!

Things would have been so much easier if only I had used that Home Economics degree to find a nice, cooperative husband who would have brought me straight back to Dallas, so that I could follow the path they had laid out for me, being the devoted daughter and mother who never strayed from their sides, instead of falling for a guy who took me gadding about all over the world, flitting from one godforsaken place to another.

Easier? Smoother? Most likely. But could it possibly have been any more wonderful? I think not. Nope, sometimes, a girl's just gotta make her own road.

TIME IS TOO SHORT, FOR THOSE THAT LAUGH

2012-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

This year I...

finally got a full-time housemate -- one who came with an awful lot of baggage;

got a second blog, Miss Becky Goes Abroad, and started writing down the stories of our time overseas, at long last;

reconnected with a good friend from the olden days, who also found her dream home in Wimberley, and is about to become my neighbor;

went on a T.A.I.R. with my two sisters (Thomas Annual Inspirational Retreat) to Salado;

finally got that uber fun screening procedure done -- the one I've been putting off for seven or eight years;

got to help three Muses...

and one best friend, celebrate their big Six-Ohs;

got to take two fabulous trips with the love of my life;

and was able to assist The Bountiful Sprout in reaching their long-dreamed-of goal of opening a branch in Austin.

Best of all, I got to watch both of my kiddos settle into happy, healthy relationships, and flourish in careers they are passionate about. What more could a girl ask for?
It was a very good year.

A YEAR IN REVIEW PHOTO COLLAGE?

2012-01-17T07:20:00.000-08:00

I just happened to scroll back through this years photos, looking for something in particular, and it made me realize what an amazing year this has been. Can you believe that it has already been a whole year since the moving van loaded with all the stuff from our Houston townhouse showed up on our doorstep here, and my hubby became my fulltime housemate at long last? Anyhoo, it got me to thinkin' that it would be really cool if I could do one of those photo collages here -- the ones that show snippets from all the important things that occurred over the last 12 months. Only, I don't know how you do that. Can anyone give me any hints? Is there a gadget for this?

SIMPLE HAPPY: LESS IS MORE

2012-01-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

My hubby has a new project -- reworking the bed beside our fire pit. Between the deer, drought, distance from the house, and solid rock it sits on, nothing much we have planted so far has thrived, other than the surrounding grasses and weeds that keep trying to creep in. Since I am not fond of digging holes with pick-axes or dragging hundred-foot-hoses around, I've been doing my best to ignore this bed. Fortunately, my hubby doesn't seem to mind either. Nor does he mind wrestling with huge, heavy plants with dagger-like barbs. Therefore, he's the perfect man to design and install agave/yucca beds, which is what he is doing here. They are fairly deer resistant, and once established, they shouldn't need much water at all.

Yesterday he woke up wanting to drive out to The Natural Gardener -- probably the largest, best-stocked nursery in Austin -- to look for a few more plants. I decided to tag along, even though it was a frosty 30 degrees out at the time. We expected the place to be deserted. I mean, who buys plants in January, right? Boy, were we surprised to find there wasn't a single parking spot left in their lot at 10:00 a.m.! A fellow in a bright orange vest leaned in our window to tell us that they were hosting some kind of fruit tree lecture that everyone and his dog had shown up for, and he directed us to the street that runs along the back edge of their ginormous property. We drove along the entire length of it without finding any spaces, then another day-glo-vested fellow waved us towards a church parking lot up on a hill across another busy road. That's when John said something along the lines of "Forget This!"

As luck would have it, we got a bit turned around trying to find our way back out to the main road (this nursery is very remote), and ended up taking "the scenic route" out via Barton Creek. That's how we ended up stumbling upon lovely little Barton Springs Nursery, a place we had visited once years ago, then sort of forgot about.

Image from bartonspringsnursery.net

We were able to park right at the front entrance, pretty much had the place to ourselves, and John found plenty to spend his money on, including this...

Yucca gloriosa variegated -- interesting, twisty blades with beautiful coral streaks

and this...

Bronze Dykia -- a cute curly one with a lovely lavender tinge.

and this.

A nice evergreen ground cover, Dwarf Pink Myoporum, that should fill in around the larger, sculptural plants and help to keep the invading grasses at bay.

Oh happy day! So you see, it's true -- bigger is not always better!

COLOR MAD MODEL HOMES II

2012-01-14T06:57:00.000-08:00

Oh my, my. I can't believe I never got around to sharing these pictures from the second model home that Lexi and I toured on our little outing last month. Guess it was all those "distractions" that popped up right around Christmas!

This one was kind of strange. It looks like a two-story doesn't it? Well, it's not, unless Lex and I somehow missed the stairs altogether (we went around twice, just to be sure). In fact, it had just two bedrooms, and one living area, with no office or study -- kind of odd for such an upscale house. What it did have going for it were the two wonderful porches outside...

gorgeous colors and lush fabrics inside...

Love the antique door used as a headboard

More of the rich earth tones that I love so much.

and a couple of pieces of furniture that I would give my eye teeth for -- the funky chair below, and the matching credenza-like thingy pictured in the first photo above.

It sits low to the ground, like my comfy adirondacks.

Not only did they both make me a wee bit color mad, I just can't stop thinking of different ways in which I could use them. For instance, the cabinet thingy could be a potting bench of sorts, on the little porch in front of my someday utility room/potting shed. Or, I could put the chair there instead, as a comfy place to relax with a cool beverage between chores. Or, I could put them both on my balcony porch, to use as a buffet and extra seating when we dine out there. Or, what about on the porch down by the Cantina Garden! Or...oh my. I do so love a versatile piece of furniture!

'TIS THE SEASON: GARDEN WORK & WONDERING

2012-01-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

We had some gorgeous, sunny days in the 70's this week, which prompted me to get out in the garden and do a little winter housekeeping. It was an excellent opportunity to see which plants looked best in winter, and which ones had really grown a lot this past year. For instance, those red yuccas in the big pots started out as small centerpieces which I surrounded with lots of other plants, but now they pretty much fill the pots all on their own. All they need is some sort of trailing plant to spill down the sides of the pots -- if only I could find one that deer didn't love! Since repetitive chores like trimming back clump after clump of ornamental grasses, inland sea oats, flopping asparagus fronds and mushy succulents is just the kind of activity that always causes my brain to switch over to its right-side, contemplative, creative mode, I soon found myself receiving spurts of inspiration, picturing which new plants would be perfect for a particular spot, or which plants could be moved closer to certain others, so that their colors and textures could play off of one another.

Since deer love most of my usual winter-color plants, like pansies and such, I instead added several ornamental cabbages and kales to my lettuce and herb beds this year, for extra pops of color.

Last year I was inspired to plant redbor kale next to my red-veined sorrel. Loved it, so of course, added more this year. Recently I brought several new plants home to test, favorites of the Arnosky's out at their flower farm. They're a dianthus called Amazon. None have bloomed yet, but the stems have taken on a beautiful magenta color.

Unfortunately, I planted them on the opposite side of the garden from these beautiful magenta cabbages. I'm not sure what color the dianthus blooms will be, but if they are in the pinky-purple-burgundy (or maybe even peachy-coral?) family, and if they don't prove to be too much of a deer magnet (deer aren't supposed to like dianthus much, but you never know) then there will definitely be a lot more of them in the garden next year, mixed in amongst these cabbages and kales! Also, if these gorgeous yarrows and lambs' ears manage to survive our fetid summer ok, there will be a lot of them mixed in those beds as well. They've added a lot of lush texture to the winter beds this year, and their lovely greys and greens would be a perfect backdrop for those electric pops of fuchsia, don't you think?

The next morning when I went out to snap these pictures, I found someone there, surveying my work.

She looked straight at me, then nodded her head several times, before turning to walk away. She might have been saying "Good job, Beck! It looks much neater now." But, most likely, it was more along the lines of "Mmmmmmm. Yummy!"

MY PEEPS AND THEIR CELEBRATIONS

2012-01-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

The Muses celebrated another birthday this week, and you know what that means -- good food and good galleries! It started with an awesome exhibition at the Blanton called El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa...

ended with a Will Klemm exhibition at a neat little gallery down on 6th Street...

Wow, those mannequins look so lifelike!

and in between, we took a trip back in time at Nau's Enfield Drug.

Cherry-Limeade For Me

Root-Beer Floats For Them

My peeps? They know how to celebrate!

A MUSHROOM MAVEN WANNA-BE

2012-01-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Guess what I got for Christmas? A farm! A mushroom farm!! An oyster mushroom mushroom farm, to be precise (my very favorite kind) albeit, a somewhat compact one. Wanna see it?

Taa-Daa!

According to the package, I should be able to grow up to 1 1/2 lbs. of tasty oyster mushrooms right from this box. All I have to do is remove that little perforated section of cardboard, cut a "+" in the soil bag (actually, they use recycled coffee grounds for soil), mist it with water a couple of times a day, et Voila! In about 10 days or so, we'll be savoring delicious oyster mushrooms sauteed in butter, garlic and a splash of vino for supper. At least, I hope we will.

When I've harvested all from that first crop, I should be able to flip the box around, punch out the panel on the other side, and do it all over again for another crop! How fun is that? Of course, the sweet friend who gave this to me probably paid more for the kit than it would cost to buy an equivalent amount of mushrooms at the farmers' market, but, hey! You can not put a price tag on this kind of giddiness, now, can you?

WHAT'S UP WITH HUBBY?

2012-01-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Frustration! Lots and lots of frustration. Though all the tests at the hospital, and all the doctors and therapists who conducted them, agreed that my hubby had lost no strength in any of his muscles as a result of his stroke, and that his eyesight had not been affected in any way, we were still rather shocked when they didn't think he needed any physical therapy. The truth is, he's still suffering from some numbness in his face, hand and foot, and it looked like nobody was going to do a thing about it! Numbness which makes it just a wee bit harder to tell exactly where things are, which in turn makes it just a wee bit easier to trip on a rug, a threshold, or one's words, and just a bit easier to let something slip from your hand, because you only thought you had a good grip on it. Of course, each time it happened, it pissed him off royally! And, as if that isn't enough, his senses of taste and smell are a bit out of whack as well, so nothing tastes right. As you can well imagine, the first few days home from the hospital were filled with colorful language.

Then we went to see John's own cardiologist, and the first words out of his mouth were "How's the therapy going?" When we told him it wasn't going, at all, he was incensed. "That's ridiculous! You've got to start it as soon after the event as possible -- you can't delay! It has to be an aggressive attack!" I almost wept from relief. John had his first session yesterday, primarily for evaluation purposes. They are working on his hand coordination this week, and sent him home with some homework exercises and a big wad of silly putty. Next week they will work on his balance. They asked him to come in twice a week for a month, and then they will reevaluate. Keep your fingers crossed!

PINTEREST, AND THE WONDROUS WAYS IT CAN WORK FOR YOU

2012-01-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Have any of you stumbled across Pinterest yet? I tried to ignore it for several months (as I have been ignoring Twitter for several years now) but when I realized that it was bringing people to my blog, even though I had never once been to the website, and didn't have a clue how it worked, well, I had to go check it out, didn't I? Imagine how flabbergasted I was to discover that Pinterest had been custom-created just for me!

You see, I am a very visual person. When I cook, I want recipes with mouthwatering photos attached. Each time we got transferred, I'd spend weeks pouring through magazines first, tearing out anything that tickled my fancy, until I had assembled an inspiration notebook with a theme, a color scheme, and lots of fun ideas for our next house. When I worked as a garden designer and a visual merchandiser, I always had an inspiration board hanging on the wall above my desk or drawing table. When I was brainstorming ideas for my Cantina Garden, I assembled the collage you see above. I left my mind completely open, and just started pulling images together. When I was done, I knew that the garden had to be fun and funky, with lots of lurid color, striking plants, delicious things to eat, and one-of-a-kind creations.

Unfortunately, in addition to being a very visual person, I am also a very forgetful person. The "internets" are a veritable wonderland of inspiring images and ideas -- everything from books to read and movies to see, to recipes to save and things to make -- but the problem for me has always been keeping track of the ones I might want to use later, or even finding my way back to one I spotted just moments ago! But, what if you had a special button on your computer, and every time you stumbled across a great recipe or plant or decorating idea, all you had to do was click that magic button, and whatever it was that you wanted to remember would automatically get pinned up on one of your special inspiration boards -- the ones that cover the walls in your special inspiration room! That would be awesome, no? Well, with Pinterest, you can make it so!

Know what I've got in my inspiration room over at Pinterest? Color! Lots and lots of color! And a special bulletin board for each of the things I am passionate about. There are boards for Hill Country Style, for the Cantina Garden, for Bohemian-Hippy-Cowgirl Fashion, for Eats & Treats, for Crafty Things and Creative Reuse, for Books & Movies, for things that drive me Color-Mad, for...well, there's no limit to what I may pin, for I can keep adding new boards whenever I am inspired to! And, you know what? If this was all that Pinterest did -- if it was merely a simple way to save and keep track of things you've seen on-line, it would be downright wonderful. But it's soooo much more than that.

Remember, I started off by saying that Pinterest brought people to my blog before I even knew what it was? How was that possible? It's possible because Pinterest combines this image-saving magic with social-networking capabilities. I got new blog visitors because someone out there saw one of my funny little To-Do lists, liked it, and decided to pin it to one of her bulletin boards. Since all images grabbed by this magic "Pin It" button come with a link back to the place they were found, everyone who sees it on her board can follow it back to its source, and that's the thing. Over at Pinterest, you don't just sit there admiring your own boards and pins (although, I am seriously fond of doing that), you also get to see what lots of others are pinning too, and they get to see yours. You can even re-pin stuff from their boards to yours, or "like" their pins, or leave comments. Best of all, if you discover people who like a lot of the same kinds of things as you, you can follow some or all of their boards, and vice-versa!

Now, I'm still a total greenhorn when it comes to all of this, but even I can see that there are ways to "work it", especially if you have something to promote -- say, design or photography skills, a small craft business or etsy shop, or perhaps, maybe even a blog? For example, on my Cantina Garden board, I don't just post pictures of things I might want to add some day. I've also posted some pictures of how it came into being (such as the collage above), and a few pictures of plants and things that are already there -- pictures from my blog. Yesterday afternoon I "pinned" this photo of pink Muhly grass to my Cantina Garden board -- a photo which was posted on my blog a year or two ago. Within an hour or two I had received several email notices from Pinterest reporting that 15 or 20 people had already re-pinned that image to their own boards. Furthermore, when I checked my blog stats later that evening, I found that Pinterest had brought more people to my blog that day (probably through following this little photo back to its source) than either google or facebook! Amazing, no?

THE FACE OF AN ANCIENT

2012-01-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

I came across some wonderful lines in a book I've been reading this week. The novel is about Paris in the 1930's, as seen through the eyes of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. The lines refer to Binh's first meeting with Gertrude Stein, and they immediately brought to mind this photo of my daughter and myself. See if you agree.

"A woman with the face of an owl emerges and positions herself inside of a wedge of light. The woman, I think, has the face of an "Ancient." This is not to say that her face is wrinkled or dulled. Ancients, according to Bao, my bunkmate on board the Niobe, wear faces that have not changed for centuries. To look at them, he said, is to look at a series of paintings of their ancestors and their descendants, as when two mirrors endlessly reflect each other's images. Bao said that Ancients possess features so strong and forceful that they can withstand generation after generation of new and insurgent bloodlines. Women, who are accused of adultery because the faces of their children refuse to resemble those of their husbands, are often Ancients. In a firefly moment of introspection, Bao said that these women are feared because they make a mockery out of the marriage union, that their children's preordained faces proclaim too loudly that the man is irrelevant, that maybe he is not needed at all." from The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong

Funny, no? And yes, I look just like my mother (though I did get my father's hair-color).

THE LARDER GAME: WHAT IF?

2012-01-06T07:28:00.000-08:00

One thing that seemed to be a major turning point in my confidence as a cook was realizing that, even though I no longer do weekly menu planning and mega shopping trips, I can still go several days without having to make a grocery run, calling for pizza delivery, or eating PB&J for dinner. Three times in the past week we have had truly yummy meals that I pulled together from what was at hand, and my hubby was none the wiser. It got me to thinkin', that this is a really good talent to have -- especially if you live someplace where you could easily get flooded or iced in for a few days, as I do, or even if your car was in the shop for a few days, or if you were putting in extra long hours at work and didn't have time to go to the store.

I started to call this post "Pantry Food", and to just tell you some of my favorite go-to recipes. Then I got to thinking that maybe I should call it Larder Food instead. Larder is an old term that's coming back into use again, as more and more people realize that it's not those mixes and convenience items you buy and stack on your pantry shelves that really matter, it's more what you keep in your fridge, your freezer, your spice cabinet, and your garden! Now I'm thinking that, instead of just giving you my favorite recipes, maybe we could help each other out, so I decided to play a little game with you. I'm going to give you a list of a few things that I always have in my "larder". I want you to think about those ingredients for a while, and what you would do if you couldn't get to the store, then come back and tell us something yummy you could make, using just these items. I'll give you the recipe for the one pictured above, just to get you started, and will share several more with you in the coming week. Bon Appetit!

Ah, almost forgot, the list!

From the fridge:
Cheese -- cheddar or mj, fontina or mozzarella, parmesan, feta or goat
Dijon mustard, mayo, or any other condiments you usually keep around
Roasted peppers or pimentos, sundried tomatoes, capers
Olives, such as Kalamata or Nicoise
Eggs, butter, milk or cream
Salsa
Fresh peppers, both hot and sweet
Leftover veggies

In the freezer:
Nuts, such as pine nuts, almonds, pecans and walnuts, and some of the spiced pecans I make
prosciutto, pepperoni, leftover uncooked bacon
a big bag of chicken tenders
frozen ravioli or gnocchi
leftover meats, such as roasted chicken, grilled steak, ham, etc.
leftover artisanal bread, sliced, so I can pull out just what I need for a sandwich or toast
small personal pizza crusts
tortillas
leftover soups and stews

In the pantry:
olive oil
an assortment of good vinegars
onions, garlic, shallots
canned tomatoes, whole and diced
canned beans - chick peas (garbanzo), white beans (cannellini), black beans
stocks - beef, chicken, veggie
crackers
spices, kosher or sea salt, peppercorns for the grinder
pizza and pasta sauce
potatoes (I like the little bags of baby dutch yellow)
canned tuna and boneless salmon
rice and pastas
flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, extracts, etc.
condiments such as Worcestershire and Soy Sauce (which I refrigerate after opening)

From the garden:
various herbs, such as chives, Italian parsley, sage and rosemary
lettuce, arugula, and any other greens you like to grow

CHICKPEA RAGOUT

2 T. olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup chopped green onions (if I don't have any on hand, I add more yellow onion, or shallots)
1 (16 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 T. coarsely chopped garlic
1 (16 oz.) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
1/2 cup chicken stock, canned, low-sodium
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 T. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a saucepan over high heat and add the onion and green onion. Saute for 2 - 3 minutes to soften the vegetables, then add the remaining ingredients, except the parsley. Return to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and boil gently for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and boil a few minutes longer to reduce the liquid. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with parsley. (4 side servings or two main dish) We just eat it with a slice of crusty bread, but you could serve it with some sliced sausage or cold cuts if you wished.

SIMPLE HAPPY: BOTTLE TREES

2012-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

This morning, it was almost as if someone was looking directly down on my bottle tree.

I think he likes it!

ORDINARY DAYS

2012-01-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Know what I love most about my journaling and blogging habit? I love the way it opens my eyes to the wonder of ordinary days. There was a time when it seemed like most of my days went by in a blur. I always found myself wondering where the time had gone, and why I didn't have more to show for it.

Now I've discovered that if I start my days by just dumping all the clutter from my brain out onto the pages of a journal, and downloading all the new photos from my camera, when I take the time to sift through it all, I always find that those ordinary days weren't so ordinary after all. In fact, they were studded with precious gems -- gems that fill me with gratitude. Don't believe me? Here is a typical journal entry, from an ordinary day in early December. Notice how my attitude changes from the time I picked up my pen, until I laid it down again.

"It's been a busy couple of days! Can't really remember accomplishing much, just know that it whizzed by in a flash. Let's see, I do remember John and I meeting Lex in Austin on Tuesday, to have lunch and to see Hugo (what a great movie!). Oh yeah, Monday I had to go back to the periodontist for a check up. Wednesday and Thursday are kind of a blur, other than going to Zumba and getting my giant box of Christmas gifts for the Lane women mailed off to Ohio. Oh, and making that quiche and baked tomatoes with goat cheese and bread crumbs for dinner (Yum!). Oh, wait! I just remembered something else about Monday! After my doctors appointment I went to Wal-mart and filled a shopping cart with all kinds of toys that I could donate. That was fun! I also treated myself to a new Christmas book at Hastings, and lunch at Wingstop. That was a very good day! Yesterday I finally cleared all our projects and crap off the dining room table, and finally pulled the gorgeous jacquard tablecloth I brought back from Provence out of the closet. It's not a Christmas cloth per se, but should look fabulous with my Indo-market Christmas dishes. Other than getting the icicle lights and garland out on the porch, I guess I'm done decorating. Woohoo! Last night I helped represent The Bountiful Sprout at the Slow Money event over in Austin, which was fairly awesome. Always good to see dedicated people trying to make a difference, to help counter-balance all the crap you see on the news. Today we will be celebrating Outdoor Woman's big six-oh! We were supposed to be climbing Enchanted Rock, but with this rain, we may have to come up with plan B. Wow! I guess the week wasn't a waste after all. In fact, it was pretty darn wonderful!"

Want to discover the gems buried in your days and weeks? All you have to do is pick up a pen!

Fun new journals that Santa left in my stocking.

TREASURE FOUND

2012-01-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

One thing my hubby really, really loves is feeding birds. There's just one problem -- keeping his birdseed away from all the other critters that seem to enjoy it as much or more than the birds do! He's tried every imaginable sturdy plastic or galvanized trash can-like container with a snap-lock lid, and still we come out to find seed scattered hither and yon. Squirrels, raccoons, deer -- they've all had a go at it. Since our garage is open-air, his only solution was to start stacking it all in my utility room, a solution I'm none too crazy about.

Now, I almost never go to our monthly flea market here in Wimberley, but back in the fall, when my sister and niece were here, they talked me into accompanying them. Guess what I found while there? The perfect birthday gift for my hubby!

We found it at a booth run by an older gentleman and his sister. Apparently, he likes to go scavenging around on old farmsteads and country places to see what interesting pieces he can find, then he brings them to his sister and lets her "decorate" them.

He called this piece a "critter-proof feed-storer". I'm guessing it was probably meant for chicken feed, and that the lip around the base might have been meant to hold a little water, to keep the ants out. Or maybe it was just for balance, to keep them from knocking it over.

All I know is that it is extremely heavy, and because you have to lift and twist all at once, to get the lid off, it can be a mite tricky even for us humans. Here's hoping it stymies those other critters altogether, for this is one cute container -- one which I won't mind him leaving out on the porch the least little bit!

A COLOR MAD USE FOR KITCHEN TOWELS

2012-01-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Do you recall, back in September, the wonderful little market basket that I gave away to honor my blog's 4th anniversary? If you read the comments after I announced the winner, you might have noticed that my sister-in-law Priscilla was really, really hoping to win that basket. Well, to tell you the truth, she did. However, since I happened to know that she was getting this very thing for Christmas, I put her name back in the hat, and drew another one. Sorry, Pris!

Actually, that's what all the adult females in my family got this year, though each was a different color and design. Also, instead of the Boggy Creek cookbook, I gave them all Serving Up the Harvest, by Andrea Chesman, and instead of the little cowgirl coin purse, they each got one of the beautiful jacquard dish towels that I brought back from Provence, which just happened to be in their favorite colors. I assumed they would use them to dry dishes, but my niece Jessica had other ideas. She and Geoff had just moved into a new home, and she said the colors in the towel were so perfect for her new kitchen, she just couldn't bear to relegate it to a drawer. Instead she bought a set of fabric stretchers from the hobby shop, et voila! The brilliant art masterpiece you see above was created -- another shining example of divergent thinking, and creative reuse!

MY NOT-SO-BAD CHRISTMAS

2012-01-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

I knew a fellow once, in my late 20's, who just couldn't wrap his head around an adult like myself, who still got so giddy over Christmas. "Obviously," he told me, "you've never experienced a truly bad Christmas." Well, a lot of years and a lot of Christmases have gone by since then. I had my first miscarriage right before Christmas, and though it didn't dampen my spirits too terribly much, it made some of my loved ones, who had bought baby-related things for our gifts and who realized that my green and white tree skirt was actually the baby quilt I'd been working on for so long, rather uncomfortable.

Then we lost my mother right before Christmas, just two years ago. And, of course, there was this year -- spending most of Christmas in the hospital, with all of us wondering just how many more Christmases we'd have with my dear hubby.

Still, I guess I must not have experienced a truly bad one yet, because, to tell you the truth, the only thing that ever makes me really sad at Christmas is this -- packing it all up, and having to wait nine or ten excruciating months, before I can start getting giddy all over again!

ONE SPECIAL DAY: MODEL HOME LUST

2011-12-31T06:24:00.000-08:00

Oooh! I almost forgot to tell you! Way last Thursday, when Lex first came over for the holidays, before things sort of fell apart on us, we spent a really fun day together, doing some of our very favorite things. One of those things was to check out a couple of new Trendmaker model homes that just popped up out on RR12, right next to Wimberley Glass Works.

Now, I really wasn't the least bit envious of the houses themselves, and their location butt-atop a busy highway left a lot to be desired. But the colors, fabrics and textures inside? Oh my my, those caused me some serious pangs of lust!

This entire house was done in shades of apple green and rich chocolate brown -- a new take on the rich earth-tones I have always favored.

The walls in every room were a combination of white beaded board wainscoting and green horizontal paneling that gave it a bit of a rustic, cabin-like feel.

You'd have to be careful with that apple green though, or it could be way too cutsey! Using a soft, muted shade of it, and then adding all the fabulous, rich textures of the woodgrains, cork, bamboo and textiles, is what saves it from irritating perkiness.

As is customary with model homes, everything was decorated and landscaped to the hilt, and I'm sure almost everything was considered an "upgrade" or additional cost on top of the list price.

We didn't even ask what the list price was, or how large the lots were. I suspect that these pavilions and water tanks were just fluff, to add atmosphere, and that once they start building out the neighborhood, you will be sitting on your back porch, looking out on a bunch more houses rather than this lovely scene. Again, we didn't even ask. All we really wanted to know was, where did you get all these luscious fabrics and furnishings. Of course, that's the one question the salespeople couldn't answer!

I'm pretty sure this headboard was made out of cork.

COLOR-MAD SYNCHRONICITY

2011-12-29T06:04:00.000-08:00

John was getting very upset with me earlier this week, for, though I had made sure the kids opened all their Christmas gifts, I still hadn't opened any of mine. I kept thinking he'd be released, and we could open all of ours together, at home. Finally I caved to the pressure, gathered up all but our biggest ones, and hauled them to the hospital. It just so happened that I was wearing this newish, cedar-green top that day.

Well, guess what was in the very first package I opened that morning? Do you remember my telling you about the lady who came on board our riverboat in France, to talk to us about the silk-screen industry in Lyon? I really wanted to buy one of her gorgeous scarves, but before I had a chance, they announced that all wishing to accompany the chef on a tour of the indoor market needed to leave immediately! So I did -- but my hubby did not. And this is what I got:

It contains the very same cedar-green color as my blouse and its matching fringed jacket, so I immediately tucked it beneath the collar of the jacket and let it hang down on each side in front. Gorgeous!

The next gift I opened was from my sister-in-law Priscilla, a crafter extraordinaire! She started out working with miniatures, then segued into polymer clays. What I hadn't realized, though, was that she was now dabbling in wire and beads. Check this out:

You can't really tell it from these photos, but the scarf contains all the same colors as my new bracelet and earrings, so of course, I put those on too. Outrageous! Suddenly I was wearing a fabulous Bohemian-Hippy-Gypsy-Cowgirl ensemble -- my favorite kind -- and I didn't have to lift a finger to pull it together! Don't you just love it when something like that happens?

WHAT WE LEARNED

2011-12-28T10:39:00.000-08:00

Basically, what it boils down to, is that we just missed out on Christmas and spent five days and a bazillion dollars in the hospital for...well, for nothing. John received no treatments of any kind while he was there, no therapy, and no medications other than the ones he was already taking, and, after undergoing a half-dozen outrageously expensive tests (CAT, MRI, EKG, TEE, Carotid Artery Sonograms, etc.), the only thing they came up with was "He had a stroke." Well, I hate to tell you this guys, but we knew that much before we ever walked through your doors!

I suppose it's good to know that his carotids showed no signs of plaque build-up, and they saw no abnormalities in his heart that could have caused the stroke, and that he recovered so well that he has no restrictions on his activities. Still, if they can't tell me exactly what caused this one, how on earth do we keep him from having another one? One that might not be nearly so kind?

There is one good thing that came out of this though. I think John is a lot more afraid of ending up like his dad than he is of keeling over from a heart attack, so even though by-pass surgery wasn't enough to make him change his ways for long, maybe this will be. If not, it appears that I now have two strong compadres who have stepped up to the plate, to relieve me of some of my nagging duties. When we got home from the hospital, we discovered that the kids had taken it upon themselves to rearrange the furniture down in the Man Cave. His leather recliner has been relegated to the corner, and his exercise bike has taken its place in front of the TV, but that wasn't all. Lex bought a program and installed it on his computer, which will cause the screen to go black whenever he's been sitting there for more than an hour, and Austin gifted us with two of his favorite "Clean Eating" cookbooks! While my hubby would have been majorly pissed had I taken it upon myself to do any of this, he thinks it's kinda funny and sweet that they cared enough to go to all this trouble. I shoulda put them in charge of nagging years ago!

Now, this is not to say I wouldn't rush right back to the hospital if he showed any signs that he was having another one. In fact, this time I wouldn't wait around for his cardiologist to call us back, and I wouldn't bother driving him all the way to Austin myself. I'd dial 911 right off the bat and have an ambulance get him there as fast as they possibly could, for you see, the one thing we did learn was that, when it comes to strokes, time is of the essence. There is a special medication that they can administer, to help minimize the damage, but only if they get to you within three hours of the incident. After that it's too late. So let me pass on to you what at least 4 or 5 people in the ER tried to press home with me: When it comes to any kind of one-side-weakness, slurred speech, or any other symptoms that might lead you to suspect a stroke, you are NEVER over-reacting if you call 911!

JOHN'S SUPER-DOOPER SECRET SURPRISE

2011-12-28T06:50:00.000-08:00

I did it! I finally did it! I actually blew my hubby away with a wonderful Christmas present that he had no clue about! And I didn't just shock and amaze him. I made him Boo Hoo! What was this splendiferous gift you ask? Well, first you need some background.

If you recall, in the post called My Sentimental Soulmate, I told you that John hangs onto every memento, and I don't save much of anything. I just can't see the point in having all that clutter spilling out from every available space in our small house. I write stories and take pictures instead. Last summer however, while at a party at High-School-Debbie's house, I happened to notice that my hubby was mesmerized by something of hers -- something which I had admired myself. I called her a short time later and got the low-down on it, then Lexie and I went to work.

OK, somebody really needs to give me a lesson on how to photograph stuff that's behind glass with my little point and shoot camera!

Lex came over one day and we went on a little treasure hunt down in the Man Cave. We dug through every one of my hubby's little hidey holes, pulling out a photo and a set of dog tags here...

a turquoise bracelet and a couple of glamorous cigarette holders there, then we loaded up our booty and took it over to our new artisan friend in San Marcos, to let her work her magic. Here is what we ended up with:

All those little gee gaws have morphed from mere dust-catchers to works of art -- art which I am proud to have on display, and which brings a tear to my hubby's eye each time he sees it. Best of all, it's art that tells a story. It reminds my kids that their grandparents were so much more than the sick, feeble, somewhat grumpy people they remember, and someday it will tell our grandkids a bit about who and where they came from.

Though John didn't get to open them on Christmas, they did make a pretty dang wonderful Welcome-Home-From-The-Hospital gift. There's just one problem. How will I ever top, or even come close to, this gift in years to come?

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

2011-12-27T03:57:00.000-08:00

As fun as it is to sit and watch my three nerds play with their various gizmos for hours on end, and as much as I've been enjoying the not-so-gourmet meals that the hospital has been cranking out in those trailers on the back lot, while their kitchen and cafeteria undergo a complete overhaul, yesterday at lunch I finally decided that I was ready for a brief change of scenery. Since the kids and I were craving us some fajitas, we decided to head over to the old, original Chuy's -- just up 1st Street from the hospital, on Barton Springs Rd.

This place is Color-Mad!

Did you know that Chuy's has a secret salsa, one that you have to ask for? It's that creamy jalapeno sauce hiding beneath Lexie's wrist, and it's uber yummy on both chips and fajitas!

The Elvis shrine in their entryway.

Love, love, love those gazing balls embedded in the wall, and those old drive-in-movie speakers mounted along the railing!

Could there be a better place to put a smile on all our faces?

Well, guess it's time to step away from the computer and head back down to the hospital. They are doing another kind of echocardiogram on John this morning -- a TEE, or Transesophageal Echo. Same type of ultrasound picture, but this one is taken from inside the chest, rather than out. Anyhoo, I sure don't want to miss out on hearing what the doctors have to say about it, so guess I'd better skeedaddle!

A BIT OF A SETBACK

2011-12-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

I never thought I'd say this but, thank God for geeky gifts! Turns out they are just the thing to help cheer up a nerdy guy who's had some rather disappointing news.

If you are a fan of the TV show Big Bang Theory, as we are, perhaps you will recognize "Soft Kitty", given to Lex by her dear brother. It actually sings Sheldon's favorite lullaby!

You see, one of the partners from our cardiologist's group did finally take a look at John's echo but, unfortunately, he thought he saw something around one of John's valves. Keep in mind that the following message came to me second-hand, via someone who was trying to convince me, and himself, that he should be allowed to check out of the hospital for a few days and come back later. "He said chances are it didn't have anything to do with causing the stroke, but he won't know for sure until he does another test. Trouble is, they can't get it scheduled before Tuesday at the earliest. He said it's up to me if I want to check out and go home until then." I stared at him for a minute, until he finally went on, saying "Well, he did say he would prefer it if I stayed in the hospital, since we lived so far away. That way if anything did happen, I'd already be here." We opted to stay. Now the kids and I just have to figure out how to keep him entertained today, so that he doesn't pull out what little hair he has left. If only he liked playing cards!

It looked like an ordinary blue stress ball at first, except that it was encased in black netting. When you squeeze it, big green puss-like globules bulge out through the netting, then return when you release. So very disturbing!

The "Trouble with Tribbles" is that, once they get to vibrating and making all their Tribble noises, they can launch themselves right outta your lap, and when you're laughing so hard you can barely breathe, it's very difficult to catch those critters and find their cut-off switch!

A MOST MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS

2011-12-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it certainly wasn't the Christmas we had planned...

but it turned out too be a pretty darn good one, nonetheless. Thursday evening daughter Lex and I were both rubbing our hands together in glee, saying this was going to be the best Christmas ever -- she because of the very special someone she'd be sharing it with, and I because of the fabulous surprise gifts I came up with for my hubby. The very next morning hubby woke up with numbness down the entire right side of his body. Well, we all knew what that meant, and it's pretty much our worst nightmare, considering how his poor dad spent his final years. We rushed him straight to the hospital over in Austin.

They did CAT scans, sonograms of carotid arteries, and finally, an MRI, which verified that he had indeed had a mild stroke. The good news was that he was still completely lucid, could talk, and could walk around on his own. The neurologist said there wasn't anything he could do for him, so he gave orders for a physical therapist to come evaluate him. We sat around the hospital all day yesterday waiting for that, chomping at the bit to be home with the three kids and grand dog who were now there. No one ever showed up though, and my hubby was one sad puppy when I left the hospital last night.

This morning we decided that, if he couldn't come home for Christmas, we'd just have to take Christmas to him -- at least the stocking part, which he loves most of all!

John scurries around, adding to the various stockings all the extra stuff that he picked up after we agreed that they each had enough, and we were done shopping!

Nothing makes that man happier than watching his loved ones open their prezzies!

Guess who showed up while we were there? The therapist! She made him walk all around the hallways unassisted and climb some stairs, tested the strength in his hands, arms and legs, asked him a million questions, then pronounced that he needed no therapy and had a clean bill as far as she was concerned. Woohoo! The doctor at the hospital ordered an "echo", to make sure none of this has affected his heart. The only problem now is getting someone in to "read" the test. They weren't wanting to do that until tomorrow, but John's doctor is doing his best to find someone who will go ahead and do it today, so they can let that boy come home and open those super-duper presents that are still waiting for him here. Keep your fingers crossed!

ARE YOU READY?

2011-12-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

Our first kiddo arrives today, and apart from a bit of baking, which she will gladly help me do...

(Remember my super-duper ideas for presents that will finally manage to blow my hubby away, for the first time in 40 years? They are hiding under this quilt, in the back of my little car! Shhh, don't tell!)

well, I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be. Up, up, and away!

HOLIDAY FOOD

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Lex, making Burgundy Beef for us last Christmas -- she was a wee bit nervous about setting it aflame!

I woke up in a bit of a panic yesterday morning. It must have suddenly come to me in the middle of the night that, though I usually just have my kids and any Christmas house-guests here for three or four days at most, this year is going to be a little bit different. Lex is coming over early, possibly tomorrow or Thursday, while Austin is coming in at the last minute, but will probably stay through New Years. Plus, we may have one or both of their special friends here for part of that time, and maybe our friends the Sanfords. Anywho, the thought that jolted me awake that morning was, what can I feed them for all that time, without having to be in the kitchen, all day, every day?

We have a beautiful beef tenderloin that will be our main Christmas dinner, and it's so big that I should be able to slice several steaks off of it before roasting it, with which I can make John's favorite Steak au Poivre another night. I don't mind cooking. In fact, I'm quite fond of it. I'm not, however, quite as fond of cleaning up one big mess after another, and I'd rather spend more of my time enjoying these friends and family, and not so much by myself in the kitchen (my kitchen only has room for one or two people at a time). So, here's what I'm wondering. What are your very favorite things to cook for a crowd -- easy things that you can prepare in advance, or which freeze well, so you can pull them out again later on and have a ready-made meal, or things from which you can use the leftovers to make something totally different, so it won't seem like you are eating the very same thing two nights in a row? My sister-in-law Priscilla is a pro at this, I know, for when she still worked full-time, she said she only cooked from scratch a couple of nights per week, but they managed to eat quite well off of it all week long. I'm hoping she will be the first to contribute some good recipes! What about the rest of you?

COLOR MAD MONDAY: A GUEST BLOGGER!

2011-12-19T06:25:00.000-08:00

I happen to know a very talented young designer, Alexis Lane of Lane Design Studio. She made an exciting discovery recently, which she wished to share with you:

Growing up I heard more than once that I look just like my mother. My favorite story to tell is about a woman who stopped the two of us at a shopping center and said “Well don’t you two just look like Pete and Repeat!” I more than just look like my mother, though. We share quite a few personality quirks, one of which is that I get a little Color Mad myself.

As a kid my favorite activities always involved paint, markers, or anything else bright and shiny I could get my hands on. When trying to figure out what career path to take without becoming a starving artist, it was Mom who steered me in the right direction with “Uh, Lex, did you consider Interior Design?” So, yes, I have a bit of a thing for color.

I hope you understand, then, when I say that I got a little misty eyed when I discovered the website Design Seeds. This website by Jessica Colaluca creates beautiful color palates inspired by photographs taken from nature and other fun images. The results are breathtaking. I have a feeling a few of these might work their way into some of my designs very soon!

ONE THING I LOVE: WRAPPING UP THE WRAPPING!

2011-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm almost there, but not quite. As soon as Mr. Santa heads off to do some Santa-y things for a few hours, I should be able to finish up, and then I can get this...

and this...

outta my bedroom!

A WINTER WALK IN WIMBERLEY

2011-12-17T06:05:00.000-08:00

I found a couple of startling new additions when I went to walk the Wimberley hike & bike trail this week, for the first time in a couple of months. What were they? The sight, and sound, of rushing water!

There were new little streams and waterfalls all over the place! I also spotted quite a few of these things...

little piles of stones, obviously arranged by human hands. I seem to remember learning something about them -- I believe they were called cairns -- as a wee Girl Scout. I think we even constructed a few ourselves, and they were meant to be landmarks or to convey some message to hikers or travelers who came after us. So. What do you suppose these cairns were trying to tell me?

THE MUSES CELEBRATE OUTSIDE THE BOX

2011-12-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

As I've told you in my Christmas posts every year since we bought this place, we are ever adjusting our attitude as to how we decorate for and celebrate Christmas. We continue to shed those notions that have been imposed upon us by the media and others, as to how things "should" be done, and try to figure out what really works best for us. Apparently, we aren't the only ones who have been thinking outside the box this year. Let me show you what a couple of the Muses have been up to.

Both of them were loathe to give up space in their houses to the ginormous trees they usually put up, and, like me, they were unwilling to spend the time it takes to decorate one, with no kids around to help. My solution was to switch to a modest, yet traditional, tabletop tree, where I could still display my favorite ornaments.

Outdoor Woman came up with this idea:

Don't you just love it?

Buffalo Woman stepped even further outside the box, and moved her tree out to the front yard.

She happens to be an amazing photographer as well, whose pictures have been in several shows around the Hill Country.

As for our Fiber Woman, well, she celebrates Christmas waaaaay outside the box, and if I can nab some pictures from her or her hubby, of where they will be for the next couple of weeks, I will tell you all about it.

Is it any wonder that I call these women my muses?

THE LAKEWOOD CONNECTION

2011-12-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

Image from cinematreasures.org

I can certainly understand why at least half the people here in Wimberley seem to have come from Houston. After all, it's such an easy trip due west on I-10, very little traffic, maybe three hours tops. The perfect weekend get-away to the Hill Country. What I don't get is all the weird connections that keep popping up between Wimberley and the old central Dallas neighborhood where I grew up -- a neighborhood called Lakewood.

For one thing, getting here from Dallas on a Friday evening is anything but easy. It's almost twice as far as the trip from Houston, you get to travel down I-35 with hoards of other people, and then you get stuck in gridlock from Georgetown south through Austin. There are lots of other weekend getaways that would be much easier for Dallasites to reach. Still, there must be some magnetic attraction that draws them here to this tiny hippie hideaway -- and not just from Dallas in general, but from Lakewood in particular. Let me give you a few examples.

I should start off by telling you that when we bought this place, we didn't know a soul who lived here -- from Dallas or anywhere else -- so that had nothing to do with why we chose to retire here. However, one day when I was working out at my gym in Houston, I heard the woman next to me talking about her house in Wimberley. "You have a house in Wimberley? We just bought one there ourselves!" Her name was Betty Brents, and we became friends. It wasn't until later that I discovered her husband Dan grew up on the same street in Lakewood that I was born on -- Alexander -- and went to my same high school, though he was several years ahead of me. Some years later, after he spent time in the military, married Betty and had two sons, they moved back to Lakewood, lived one street over from my sister Carolyn, and had many friends in common with her.

Sibby with my sister Carolyn.

Sibby assists my son Austin, while Carolyn and I look on.

Then there's my friend Sibby Barrett, who runs a fabulous cooking retreat, Onion Creek Kitchens at Juniper Hills Farm, where my whole family loves to take classes. Turns out she used to live in Lakewood too, and owned a bakery there that my sister Carolyn loved so much, I once called and ordered a gift certificate from there for her. But wait, there's more! Last time we all took a class there, Sibby's younger sister was there visiting. We got to chatting and I discovered that, back before their mystery-writing-father Neal Barrett moved them all to San Miguel de Allende, the girls went to Lakewood Elementary for a few years, and Sibby's sister was not only in my fourth grade class, but also my Girl Scout Troop!

Another time Dan and Betty, whom I mentioned earlier, invited us to a party at their beautiful log cabin home here. Betty was introducing me to a few of the women when I heard my hubby calling to me. "Uh, Beck? You need to come over here!" Apparently, as soon as he had walked up to the guys surrounding the beer coolers, a total stranger had turned to him and said "Now I suppose you are going to tell us you went to Woodrow Wilson too, huh?" "Um, no. That would be my wife." Turns out half the people there had gone to my high school, though most were a good bit older than me. I did know one guy though. Or at least, he knew my family. He grew up just down the block from us on Bob-o-Link, and went to our same church downtown, where our grandmothers were friends. I think I was even named after his step-mother Becky. His name was Harold Vanburgh back then, but after he ditched his law career and took up acting, he switched it to Hawk Storm.

Speaking of high school, do you recall my mentioning Debbie-from-high-school? That's her on the right, above. The thing is, we didn't actually know each other in high school. However, we did share a mutual friend. That would be Sarah, there on the left. Sarah and her hubby live in New Jersey, but when she found me on facebook a while back, and realized that both Debbie and I were now living in Wimberley, and were both Mother-Earth-types who probably had a lot in common, she hooked us up. Turns out we had been running into each other at Mimas about once a week for ages, with nary a clue that we were both from Lakewood! Oh yeah, and did I mention that Sarah and her hubby happen to own a home here in Wimberley too, where they plan to retire some day?

Oh, and we mustn't forget Jean, the pretty blonde there on the left. We met during a weaving workshop out at Old Oaks Ranch. We got to talkin' and, yes, she too used to live in Lakewood -- just a couple of doors down from my sister! In fact, I think maybe she taught at Lakewood elementary, and my niece used to babysit her kids.

Here's the biggest shocker of all -- one I just discovered this week. You know Robin and Mac, the couple that owns Wimberley Cafe, the place where I go for my weekly fix of Migas? I assumed they had lived in Wimberley forever, but no. Guess where they lived in the 90's, and where their kids went to school? Yep, Lakewood! It is a strange, wee little world, is it not?

BOOKS THAT ASK QUESTIONS

2011-12-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

image from emusic.com

I discovered another great author recently, thanks to the internets and my book-loving facebook friends. Ever read anything by Ann Patchett? If not, why on earth not? She writes my very favorite kind of books -- novels that grab hold of you right from the start, pulling you in and carrying you along with their gripping story line, but which also educate you and make you think. Novels like The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, which question your beliefs, your ethics, and everything you have been taught. I finished this one, State of Wonder, over a week ago, and it's still got me thinking, asking, wondering.

First of all, it has me questioning my own courage. Sure, I went off to live in some exotic places as a newlywed, but they were places where others had always gone before me, paving and easing the way. Could I have been one of those people? The ones who went first, and had to figure out how to communicate and bargain with the indigenous people, get the supplies they needed, train workers to carve out a space in the jungle and fill it with our kind of structures and facilities, teach them our way of doing things. No, probably not. Did we even have the right to do any of this? For fuel? For medicine? For water? For diamonds?

What if I were to wake up and find myself stranded in a jungle village somewhere? Could I ever let go of all my western notions, let go of my deep-seated fear of things that sting, bite, gnaw and strangle? Could I ever adapt to their way of doing things, go native, so to speak, or would I just go stark raving mad?

In this story a botanist has stumbled upon an Amazonian tribe whose women continue giving birth their entire lives. Now a pharmaceutical company has set up a research lab in their village, with the intention of developing a drug that will allow women in first world countries, for a hefty price, to silence their ever-ticking biological clocks. But what if that price is more than monetary? More than they ever imagined? Should we be fooling with Mother Nature in this way? Do pharmaceutical companies have the right to cater to the wealthy few, while ignoring less lucrative drugs that could cure millions of penniless people? So many questions! So much to ponder.

SEASONAL PARTNERS

2011-12-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how so many fruits and vegetables that come into season together just naturally seem to go together? Like peppers with tomatoes, strawberries with rhubarb, green beans with new potatoes, and avocados with citrus? Yes, I said avocados with citrus! Perhaps you didn't know about that combo. I know I didn't. However, just the other day, right after I told you about the big basket of citrus and avocados we were gifted with, I started flipping through some of my favorite cookbooks to see if I could find some good ways to use either the grapefruits or the avocados. Know what I found? Several recipes that used both, together! Recipes like this one, which was quite delicious:

AVOCADO AND GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

from Barefoot in Paris, by Ina Garten

Serves Four

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil
3 ripe Hass avocados
3 large red grapefruits

Place the mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified.

Before serving, cut the avocados in half, remove the seeds, and carefully peel off the skin. Dip each avocado half in the vinaigrette to prevent it from turning brown. Use a large, sharp knife to slice the peel off the grapefruits (be sure to remove all the white pith), then cut between the membranes to release the grapefruit segments.

Arrange the segments on 4 small plates. Cut the avocados in wedges and arrange them with the grapefruit. Spoon a little vinaigrette on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

CHRISTMAS IN THE 50's

2011-12-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

Miss Becky, in '55 or '56, at Mimi and Grandad's house.

Older sisters Poo (Carolyn) and Gus (Kathy). Our mom probably made all those felt circle skirts herself.

Our Tree (circa 1959)

Another year, another skirt.

Poo and Gus model evening gowns they received for Christmas. Mimi made those.

Circa 1957. This is what happens when both of your parents are a bit too creative.

1958, the year Wee Willy joined the party. No, I did not try to remove him from this picture out of jealousy. I adored my little brother. I thought he was the best toy ever!

OK. Sometimes their "creativity" just plain ran amok. They used "The Cone" a couple of years in a row. The other time it had angels floating on clouds, with twinkle light stars. Notice how the cone theme carried over to our stockings that year. This one is actually from the early 60's, which could explain a lot.

SLOW MONEY

2011-12-11T06:31:00.001-08:00

Have any of you met my pal Heather? If you live anywhere around Austin/Wimberley/New Braunfels, you have surely heard of her. I stumbled across her when I started reading her Green Guru column in the Wimberley News and Views magazine. Or, maybe you've seen her amazing sculpture exhibit, Lifeboats, as it made its way around the Hill Country. She's the wife of Dr. Marc Gitterle, mother of nine-year-old Aiden and four-year-old Gable, and, when she was pregnant with young Gabe -- because, you know, she just didn't have enough on her plate at the time -- she helped to create the amazing Bountiful Sprout (perhaps you've heard me mention it once or twice?).

Anyhoo, we've been working together on the TBS board now for about four years, and it's been quite a ride. Heather is our president, idea person, and schmoozer extaordinaire. I just do ordinary stuff like taking minutes and keeping track of all the producer permits, but every so often I tag along to help out at various events, and it's always such a treat to see Heather in action!

Friday before last I got to go with her to this awesome event at the beautiful Barr Mansion in Austin. I know you have surely heard of the Slow Food movement by now, but do you know anything about Slow Money? Slow Money Austin exists to support and enrich a sustainable regional food system. They're working to increase capital opportunities for food entrepreneurs, producers, innovators and local organizations that are leading the way toward sustainable, financially beneficial growth in Central Texas -- organizations like TBS. Events like this one at Barr Mansion help raise awareness, make connections, attract investment and align resources amongst all the people with a stake in sustainability here in our community. Plus, they're just a whole lotta fun!

The room was surrounded with tables like ours, and before we'd even finished setting up, people were stopping by to chat with us. They wanted to know what our purpose was, how we got started, how our business "worked", and what our plans for the future were. They all had a bit of trouble believing that we weren't in it for profit -- that we wanted as much money as possible to stay with the farmers and producers themselves.

While we were doing our "thing", local chefs were back in the kitchen preparing an awesome feast, using ingredients contributed by all of the participants.

Our contribution was the beautiful soy candles that went on all the tables, and the liquid hand soap that went in the bathrooms, from two of our vendors.

Before the evening was over, we had acquired new members, had a new producer who wanted to sell his fabulous hummus through us (which had been served here as the appetizer) and had managed to spread the word to a lot of Austinites that we had just opened a new branch there in Austin that very week. Wow. It just never ceases to amaze me, what all can be accomplished when you combine an idea person, a few worker bees, and some good old fashioned networking.

MY WINTER TO-DO LIST

2011-12-10T07:07:00.001-08:00

Click Image To Enlarge

HOUSTON, DAY TWO

2011-12-09T10:53:00.001-08:00

The tree at my favorite "open air" shopping center, Town & Country.

The coziest place to kill time, while waiting for the bookstore to open? La Madeleine!

They make a darn good cup of hot chocolate there.

Whoever does the container gardens and seasonal color at this shopping center does a fantastic job. I should know. That's what I did for a living when we lived in Dallas!

This is where I met my boys for lunch. Hmm, we seem to have a "French" theme going on here today, don't we?

The French have this cozy thing down!

Ooh la la! My son's French Onion Soup was to die for! I've got the onions. Has anyone got a great recipe?

Bistro Provence is where my hubby used to take me for romantic celebrations, when we lived nearby.

Last stop of the day was Cornelius Nursery. Not as cool as Buchanans, where I used to work, but a fun place to browse. Too bad they'd already sold out on most of their Christmas decor - by the first week in December!!!

'TIS THE SEASON: CITRUS

2011-12-09T06:17:00.001-08:00

If you live anywhere in southernmost Texas or the south-coastal U.S., now is the time when fresh citrus abounds. We don't, but we happen to have a really nice contractor that we've enjoyed working with on several remodel/repair projects. He showed up on our porch out of the blue the other day, with a bushel basket in his arms. Guess what was in it? This!

Lemons and oranges and limes, oh my! Not to mention all the grapefruit, and three avocados (one of which was served as "avocado vinaigrette" with our dinner last night). With just the two of us here, I'm not so sure we can eat our way through all of this before it starts to go bad. So I was wondering, anybody got some great recipes or ideas for using any of this, other than the following one?

HE WORE BELLS THAT JINGLE-JANGLE-JINGLED

2011-12-08T06:00:00.001-08:00

The first day I was in Houston, I dropped my hubby off at work, spent an hour or so at my favorite bagel joint, then headed for Memorial City Mall. Why would I spend most of the day at a mall, when I don't even like to shop? Because I love, love, looooove to people watch. And take pictures. Not long after I got there, I paused to gaze at a window display (I'm an ex-merchandiser, if you recall) when suddenly I heard a jingling noise approaching. I spun around just in time to see this guy go by. Instead of spurs on his heels, he had bells! I decided to follow him.

I followed him past the most magical indoor playground I've seen in any mall...

past the little choo-choo train, whose overall-clad engineer had just hung a "be right back" sign on it and snuck out the door, before I could nab a picture of him...

and past the most inviting fireplace I've ever seen.

I got distracted for a bit, watching some skaters practice their leaps and spins. I thought I had lost him! But, then, I saw this:

So, what would induce parents to take time off from work, just to stand in a line still so long that some of those toddlers were sure to suffer meltdown long before reaching their destination? This:

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The most beautiful, authentic Claus ever! No padding, nor wig, nor beard did he don.

The whole experience reminded me of one of the things I am so very grateful for these days: the gift of freedom -- the freedom to avoid the chaotic craziness of weekend shopping, and to visit a mall mid-week instead...when all is calm...all is bright!

A LUCKY FLUKE

2011-12-07T11:21:00.001-08:00

I should have been hiking up Enchanted Rock with the Muses last Saturday, to celebrate Outdoor Woman’s Big-Six-Oh. Thankfully, um, I mean regretfully, we got rained out and had to postpone it. Since we couldn’t let the day go uncelebrated, we had to come up with Plan B on the fly. A volley of emails and phone calls bounced back, forth and diagonally across the Wimberley valley, with everyone tossing out suggestions, until finally O.W. said “I hope this isn’t too much to ask, but to tell you the truth, my favorite place to dine is Chez Becky. Would you consider making some more of those Havarti-Pecan Quesadillas for us, and letting us just hang at your place?”

Well, to be perfectly honest, my first impulse was to say, “Are you nuts? With no advance warning and only two or three hours to get ready? Not only no, but hell no!” You see, all those great housekeeping routines that I was learning from Fly Lady, around this same time last year, sorta went by the wayside when hubby moved up here full-time. He’s just so darn good at being spontaneous, and suggesting activities that sound so much more enticing than mopping or dusting (which more than makes up for him being not so good at putting things away when he’s done with them). Then, however, I remembered! Just the day before I had decided “Enough with the clutter!”, and finally got around to clearing the dining table of our various projects and detritus, packed up the Christmas wrap crate and hid it in a corner of our bedroom, and pulled out the beautiful red and sage green jacquard tablecloth that I treated myself to in Provence. I’d even cleared off the kitchen counters!

Better yet, I actually had 3/4 of a bacon and arugula quiche in my fridge, leftover from our dinner, and just enough of my homegrown tomatoes to make some more of the baked tomatoes and goat cheese with the crunchy, garlicky breadcrumb topping that I had served with it. Why, I even had some vanilla bean ice cream in the freezer, and bottles of Cassis and Kahlua that we could drizzle over it. A little voice started whispering “Becky, you can do this!”, and before I could change my mind, I shot off an email to them all which read “You’re on! 12:00! My house!”

I got dressed and went to Mima’s, where I enjoyed a yummy breakfast taco and a crossword puzzle, and picked up a dozen of their fluffy, handmade tortillas to take home with me. Next stop was the grocery store, where I nabbed some more Havarti and a bottle of O.W.’s favorite wine. Last stop was the Sugar Shack, where I picked up a little mini version of their fabulous chocolate-espresso cake -- the same one they make for The Leaning Pear Cafe.

Once home, all I had to do was pop the quiche and tomatoes into the oven, pull out the wonderful winter dishes I stumbled across in an Indonesian market about 20 years ago (the irony of that still puts a smile on my face each time I use them) and grate the cheese. When the girls arrived, I sipped wine and supervised while they assembled and sauteed their own quesadillas, and I came off looking like Martha-Freakin’-Stewart. My Momma woulda been so dang proud!

LOVE THE RAIN, BUT...

2011-12-04T18:09:00.001-08:00

Believe me, I'm not about to complain about all the rain we've had lately, but there is one teeny tiny downside. It has a bad habit of knocking out my internet connection! I wrote a nice long blog post for you this morning, but before I could push the publish button, I lost my connection. Kept hoping it would come back before we headed off to Houston, but it never did. (I decided to tag along with my hubby to do a couple of days of Christmas shopping while he does a couple of days of work.) Guess the blog post will have to wait until I get back. See ya soon!

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

2011-12-03T05:34:00.001-08:00

I pulled out a fresh sheet of drawing paper this morning, to start work on a new winter "to do" list. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I should flip back through my notebook-full of these lists, to make sure I'm not repeating myself too much. I had so much fun browsing through the old ones, I thought maybe you would enjoy them too. (You should be able to click on the images to enlarge)

'TIS THE SEASON: FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS

2011-12-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

I apologize for these sad pictures - it's a very cloudy, drizzly day, and one needs some natural light to get good photos!

If someone were to tell me I could only put up one decoration this year, it would probably be this one - the Raku nativity set my husband presented me with several years ago, when I had been pouting and he was feeling a bit guilty. I have set it up in a different location each year but, this year, finally settled on the perfect one. It has knocked my son's collection of nutcrackers out of first place to earn the premier spot over our fireplace.

There are sooooo many reasons why I love this nativity set and its new location -- not the least of which is the way the light over the picture just happens to shine directly over the baby Jesus and on the angel's face.

I love, love, love the way the colors of the set just happen to echo all the colors of the picture above and those of the vases and candlesticks that were already on the mantel.

I am tickled to death that my set is the only one I've ever seen that came not only with sheep, ass and cow, but also a reindeer!

I'm thinking perhaps it just happened to be sitting near the nativity display, and some young clerk grabbed it up thinking it was part of the set. Whatever the reason, it makes me smile whenever I see it. He looks quite happy to be there, don't you think?

However, the thing I love most of all about this set and its new location is what it reminds me of every single time I sit down in my living room. Not only does it remind me of the reason for the season, it also reminds me of why it came into this house in the first place. You see, the reason I was pouting that day was that, once again, John had hauled the giant tree in from the garage, set it up, then disappeared, and I was left to do all the decorating by myself.

Though we had started out our marriage with the tiniest of trees, and practically no other decorations - and had a perfectly lovely Christmas with those few trappings -- we had added more and more to the collection each year until it pretty much filled our attic, and there was Martha Stewart on TV, telling me that if I really wanted my family to have a good Christmas, not only did my house need to look like those pictures in the magazines, I also needed to bake all these fancy cookies, give fabulous parties, make handmade ornaments and gifts for all my friends, and set a perfect table, and...and then I found myself having to do everything by myself, and feeling like no one even appreciated it. So I decided, well heck! If no one appreciated it, or wanted to assist in all the "fun", why was I even bothering?

A couple of years ago I happened to read a book called On Strike For Christmas, about all the wives in one little town who went on strike and left it up to their husbands to make Christmas happen that year. I picked it up because I was in the mood for a little male-bashing, but that isn't exactly what I got. You see, it made me realize that this was just as much my fault as it was John's. I was spending way too much time trying to make everything "perfect", and not enough time just enjoying my family's company.

Maybe I went a little to the other extreme, what with not putting up a tree at all last year, but it certainly got my family's attention! This year, I think we've found the perfect compromise, and both hubby and I are feeling pretty jolly. I've got a scaled down tree, I've got my stockings, I've got plenty of time to spend with my family, and, best of all, if I find myself slipping back into old habits, I've got this nativity set to remind me -- Keep it simple, and focus on what really matters!

CHIKIN 'N WAFFLES

2011-12-01T06:14:00.001-08:00

We've got a new cafe in town called Goodnight Diner. It went into the place at Poco Rio where Hillsedge Grill used to be, which replaced a seafood place, which replaced...you get the idea. It's one of those jinxed locations where nothing seems to last. In my opinion, it's because they were all charging way too much for mediocre food -- which you can get away with if you have an endless supply of tourists, but this spot is just a little too out of the way for that, so they really need to attract the locals. I have a feeling this new place just might do it.

It's a tiny little place, with a tiny little menu. They limit themselves to what they do best -- southern comfort food -- and charge reasonable prices. Don't go here if you are looking for "lite" or anything else. We tried it first during their soft opening, before they even had their sign up. John tried the burger and I ordered the chicken fried steak. Instead of serving a monster slab of gristly meat that no one could or should consume in one sitting, my cfs was a smaller portion of better meat, served atop mounds of bacon-cooked greens and real mashed potatoes, and drizzled over with better than average gravy. I found it to be quite tasty, and even with it's moderate size, I could easily have shared it with someone and been quite satisfied.

We decided to give the place another try last night, now that it's had time to get its opening kinks ironed out. John tried their frito-chili pie, which he loved since it was made with a Wick Fowler style of chili, his favorite kind. He ordered a side of cornbread, and thought it was pretty good too. I tried something I've been hearing about for years, but never quite had the nerve to try - Chicken and Waffles. I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't want it first thing in the morning, but for dinner? Well, wow! I worried when I saw that the chicken was marinated in an Asian chili sauce, but it was really quite mild -- barely discernible. I don't know why the combination works, but it does. Maybe it's the way the different flavors and textures play off of one another. All I know is, you really ought to try it sometime. Trust me.

MY SENTIMENTAL SOULMATE

2011-11-30T05:51:00.001-08:00

Image from 123rf.com

My kids are both in committed relationships now, and it has got me to thinking a good bit about what makes a lasting match. A lot of people assume that, in order to find their "soulmate", they have to find someone who is just like them -- someone who agrees with them on everything, enjoys doing all the same things, and wants to be with them all the time. I see it more as being two pieces from the same jig-saw puzzle, and I ask you, what good would it do you to have two identical pieces? Sure, you need to be from the same box -- have the same central theme and core of values, share a similar vision as to the picture you wish to be a part of -- but to be a good match you also need to fill in each other's gaps, so that the two of you together create something bigger and better than each of you did when alone.

If you have been reading this blog for long, you are bound to have noticed that my hubby and I are polar opposites on many, many things. But that's okay, as long as we are in sync on the important things -- the deal breakers like morality and integrity, religion, anger management, parenting and money. For instance, when it comes to hanging on to mementos, John is a total sap, and I am pretty heart-hearted. To me, unless it's something useful, or which drives me color-mad, it's just "stuff", and if we don't really have room for it and it's getting in my way, then it is clutter, and needs to be got rid of. My hubby? I think he'd hang on to a booger, if it had belonged to someone he loved. But that's okay. If not for him, my kids would end up without a single thing of historical or sentimental value. If not for me, you might be seeing him on an upcoming episode of Hoarders. Instead, we meet somewhere in the middle, and are both better for it. We fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

FAREWELL, SWEET JULIET!

2011-11-29T06:03:00.001-08:00

Well, I guess that's it for my tomato season.

There's been a good coating of frost on my little truck the last two mornings, so I'm sure I'll have lots of pruning and yanking to do as soon as it's warm enough to get back out in the garden.

My favorite tomato plant for this area is turning out to be a little paste variety called 'Juliet'. What a prolific workhorse she has been, both this year and last. Last spring's plant produced an abundant supply of roma-sized fruit until it just got too hot for the blooms to set. This year's plant got thwarted by triple-digit temps before it had a chance to do anything at all, but then took off just when I was about to give up and pull it out. Her first tomatoes were really small, more like a grape tomato than a roma, but the concentrated flavor made them quite tasty when I marinated them in vinegar and oil, then served them as a salad.

Juliet was covered in dozens of green tomatoes when our first brief dips below freezing were predicted, so I went out each evening and snuggled her in with a wrap of frost cloth. Those tomatoes I picked last week were larger, but not near as big as last year's. I roasted them in olive oil, thyme and sea salt, with a dash of sugar, packed them into a jar covered in their roasting oil, and kept them chilled until it was time to serve them drizzled over goat-cheese-smeared crostini at our Thanksgiving feast.

Yesterday I roasted another batch and, as soon as they were cool enough to handle, I slipped their skins off, tossed them into a pasta bowl along with some minced garlic, chopped fresh herbs, and some of their roasting oil, added some hot pasta and just a splash of the pasta water, then topped everything with a healthy grating of Parmigiano. It was a very good dinner!

I still have a colander full of ripe ones, plus all those I picked when I heard that we were due for a hard frost a couple of nights in a row. I took any that even had a blush of color on them, but left behind quite a few more that were still completely green. Now, if only I knew what to do with the rest!

Is it weird that I went a wee bit color-mad, when I realized my tomato harvest echoed all of the colors in my wonderful Bakelite bouquet? Ahhh, Juliet! Parting is such sweet sorrow.

TREE ADAPTATION: BACK TO THE FUTURE

2011-11-28T11:30:00.001-08:00

Or, should I say "ahead to the past"? You see, in addition to the many adjustments we have made to how our family convenes and celebrates holidays, there have been many, many adaptations on how we decorate. In recent years we have focused on gradually reducing the amount of decorations to match the diminishing size of our house. The latest, and possibly final, adjustment was to the size of our tree. There just was no room in the living area for our full-sized tree, without removing some furniture. Even worse, nowhere to put the banished furniture other than out in our "open-air" garage. Sooooo, hubby decided to go on one of his secret shopping missions!

Did he do good, or what? It fits perfectly on the narrow table behind our sofa, and gives the impression of a full-sized tree being there -- just partially hidden. It reminds me a lot of the very first tree we ever bought together, back in Indonesia. I love that it stores in this wee little box, easily carried in one hand...

and that, when it's dark, its twinkle lights are reflected in every window and mirror. I love that there is plenty of room for all my favorite ornaments...

but, when it's time to pack them away, they all fit nicely into one little crate.

But, know what I like bestest of all? I love it that, when I sat in my nest on the dining porch early this morning, I could enjoy my twinkle lights and watch the sun rise, all at the same time!

SUNDAY'S SIMPLE HAPPY...

2011-11-27T13:11:00.001-08:00

A Well-Made Cup of Hot Chocolate!

THE NEED TO ADAPT

2011-11-26T06:04:00.001-08:00

We swore it would never happen to us. My siblings and I were just way too tight with each other, to ever let ourselves drift apart the way our aunts, uncles and parents did, once all the grandparents had passed away. And we haven't...yet. But it is getting a bit harder, forcing us to be a bit more creative and flexible. Once my own kids get married, start having babies, and want to stay put for the holidays, it will become more difficult still. But, knowing my family, we'll figure something out!

When I was a kid, almost all of my relatives lived right there in Dallas, which made it so much easier than it is now, with families spread out around the globe. Everybody on my father's side of the family came to our house for Christmas Eve, and everyone on my mother's side showed up at Mimi and Granddad's house on Christmas Day. Easy Peasy, no? Unfortunately, once all the grandparents were gone, my parents and their siblings hardly ever saw each other, though they did check in by telephone on a regular basis.

I was the first one to leave Dallas, spending three years overseas, but I think what shocked my mom even more was when I came back -- and announced that we would spend either Thanksgiving or Christmas with them in Dallas, the other holiday in Odessa with John's folks, and then flip the holidays the following year. Though they were obviously disappointed, they had to give me credit for being equitable. They, in turn, earned tons of brownie points from me, when we moved to Midland and had our second child. Since the only other grandkids were grown by then, my entire family loaded up their cars and began coming to us each Christmas, so that we could celebrate Christmas at home with our wee tots, and establish some traditions of our own. Of course, we were all much younger then, and more of us were willing to sleep on sofa beds or in sleeping bags. It was like a giant, three day slumber party! Fun times.

Then we went back overseas, taking our kids with us -- the cruelest thing we had ever done, as far as my parents were concerned. It was tough on us too, especially that first Christmas, just three or four months after our arrival in Indonesia. Soon, however, we experienced the same magic that we had as newlyweds living overseas. Our friends became our family, and would go to any length to make the holidays festive. Fun times indeed, and some of our most memorable!

Later, we were all living in the Dallas area again, but things had changed. It was our own parents who were going into decline, requiring the rest of us to become more and more flexible as they became less and less so. It would have been a very sad time, if not for the arrival of Little Miss Merrit, our niece -- the first new baby to come along in thirteen years. There's nothing like a new baby to add life to a family get-together!

Now our parents are all gone, Miss Merrit is thirteen years old, one sister's kids are both married and have in-laws they need to spend time with, another sister spends every other Christmas in W. Virginia, my kids are both in relationships, and my sister-in-law has a standing date in Dallas with her sister on Black Friday. When we moved to the Hill Country, I had such dreams of the great family holidays we would be hosting here, but, in addition to the near impossibility of trying to sync all our schedules and obligations, there's one other major problem. This is a two-bedroom-one-man-cave-house. My siblings and I? Well, we are no longer quite as willing to abandon our king-sized Tempurpedics to sleep on a double bed or a sofa, just so we can all be together at one house on Christmas morning. So what's a family to do? We adapt.

This year we tried something new. We had a Thanksgiving-Tree-Trimming party! We met at my sister's house in Dallas, and had a traditional turkey dinner. After the main course, the girls helped my sister deck the halls with a bit of cheer (not the full-blown version, since they'd be in W.V. this Christmas) while the guys watched football or played video games or something. Afterwards we came back together for my brother's famous chocolate lava cakes, and to open our first prezzie of the season. Another innovation from a few years back, when the madness just got to be too much? We now draw names, and have all year to concentrate on finding, or making, one special gift, instead of scrambling around at the last minute to find two dozen "it'll do" gifts. This year Miss Merrit decided to do her own Christmas shopping, choosing a special present for every single person. Good job Merrit!

It may not be the perfect Christmas of our childhoods, and I'm sure we will miss each other a lot come Christmas Eve, but it was good. It was very, very good.

P.S. I hope they all know, and my hubby's family too, that any who care to have a Hill Country Christmas will be more than welcome here!

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

2011-11-25T13:04:00.001-08:00

I'm not much for mall-shopping, and you would never catch me out at any of the stores on "Black Friday". In fact, the ads alone were enough to make me want to kick the TV screen in. However, I will admit to enjoying a walk through the mall in the early morning hours, before the crowds and craziness hit. Especially if it happens to be North Park shopping center in Dallas -- the mall of my youth. Hard to believe this mall is around 50 years old. It's so timeless and classy, and well maintained!

Lexi's favorite store, LUSH.

A different kind of gift wrap.

One of the first animated window displays I've seen in years! The turkey wobbled!

My favorite store, from a merchandiser's point of view, Anthropologie.

Though very few of the original stores remain, some things never change. For as long as this mall has been open, there have been little kids running up the sides of these planters, for the sheer joy of sliding back down again!

TOMATO TIME AT LAST!

2011-11-22T06:00:00.001-08:00

I finally managed to harvest a few tomatoes - enough to share, even! I roasted them all in olive oil, sea salt and thyme, and plan to serve them with crostini and goat cheese this Thursday. Wishing you all a safe and happy Turkey Day!

THINGS COULD BE WORSE

2011-11-21T05:35:00.001-08:00

Well, my mouth is finally starting to recover. It's still a bit difficult to eat anything other than soft stuff, but the only time I need the pain meds is at night. Apparently, lying down makes things throb. Know what's really ridiculous? The thing that has bothered me most was neither the site of the big molar extraction/bone graft nor the spot where they peeled back my gums to check how far a mysterious groove on the back of one tooth traveled up the root (it doesn't, which is good). No, what drove me absolutely nuts was a stupid ulcer on the inside of my lower lip. It would seem it either got pinched by some instrument, or somebody accidentally chomped down on it when it was so dead she couldn't feel it. I hate those mouth blister thingies! Oh, and I'm not too crazy about the big wad of silly putty stuck to my gums right in front, protecting the sutures. It doesn't hurt at all, but it's sure to be showing up in several Thanksgiving photos, since there's no way on earth I can keep from laughing when I'm around my siblings and kiddos!

On the other hand, I got to spend a couple of days curled up on the sofa, and was told "no strenuous exercise, lifting or bending over for a couple of days!" I had good books to keep me company.

My hubby cooked pasta for me, and fetched the Christmas gift wrap box for me as soon as I said "Sweetie, would you mind...?", instead of asking if I had a broken leg or something.

Favorite snow globes, gifted to me by one sister in years past.

New additions to my pine cone collection, brought by the other sister last time she visited.

Best of all, I got to watch my first sappy Christmas movie of the season, and enjoy the little touches of holiday sparkle that are beginning to pop up here and there around the house. Yep, on the whole, things could be a whole lot worse, don't you think?

NURSE NELLIE KNOWS

2011-11-19T05:33:00.001-08:00

If I had to choose my two favorite books from the last five years or so, it would probably be The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, and The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. I chose those off the top of my head, because they were the only ones I remembered not being able to put down until I had finished them. Funny, then, that they should have so much in common, both being set in the deep south during the race riots, both centering around a young white female's search for her voice and place in the world, and both about the strong black women who helped them find it.

A couple of years ago, Sue Monk Kidd co-wrote another book -- a memoir -- along with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. It's called Traveling with Pomegranates. I came close to buying it several times, but always ended up putting it back on the shelf after reminding myself that I only made it half-way through Kidd's second novel, The Mermaid's Chair. Not long ago, however, my friend Nellie brought me a big box full of books she wanted to pass on. I guess Nellie isn't much into fiction, since most all the books were of the self-help/inspirational variety. Poo. But then she grabbed one out of the box, asking "Have you read Traveling with Pomegranates yet? You are just gonna love, love, love it! And you're gonna love me for bringing it to you!"

I wasn't sure I agreed with her at first. It's definitely not the page-turner that Secret Life of Bees was, but, with each page I've turned, I've loved it even more. Actually, it's two sides of the same story -- the story of what led up to Kidd writing the book she was meant to write, which, though she had been a writer most her life, was her very first novel, and not written until she was in her 50's. It's also the story of her daughter's struggle with depression and finding the work she was meant to do -- about being able to step out from under her mother's shadow, and overcoming her fear of failure. It's about learning to parent an adult child, and it's about the two of them traveling through Greece and France, learning about and from the strongest women of history, religion and mythology. It's about following our passions, and about finding the place that speaks to your heart, feeds your passion, and pulls forth your creativity.

I guess it's pretty much about all the same things I sit here musing about every morning, and sometimes talk about on this blog, only they do it in a much deeper, more insightful way! I will definitely be passing this one on to Miss Alexis when I am finished. Could there be a more perfect book for mothers and daughters to share? And, oh yeah, thank you Nellie! I do indeed love you for sharing this with Lex and me!

SIMPLE HAPPY: A SPUR OF THE MOMENT PARTY

2011-11-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting in the living room, reading, when the phone rings. It's my hubby calling, from outside! "If you want to enjoy this fire, you'd better get out here fast." Fire? What fire?

Turns out, after that little rain we got on Tuesday, they decided to lift the burn ban temporarily, give people a chance to burn their brush piles. Hubby came straight home, lit up a cigar, and then the fire pit. The first thing I thought when I joined him was "Aw, if only we had the makings for s'mores." But then, "Hey, wait a minute...", and I ran back into the house.

Sure, the marshmallows were about a year old, but would it really matter once they were toasted?

And yeah, this was probably going to spoil our dinner, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

A cigar in one hand, and a s'more in the other? That was one happy boy! Too bad the party had to end so soon.

What is it about fires that makes them so mesmerizing?

PAYBACK TIME

2011-11-17T05:46:00.001-08:00

This photo here? This is the kind of thing that tends to happen when I'm a bit bored, and Hubby is just way too absorbed in one electronic screen or another. If he had glanced up at any point in my knot-tying, or even twitched a muscle, I would have stopped what I was doing. I would have known that he was, in fact, aware of another presence in the room. Alas, he did not move a muscle until he heard the click of my camera.

It's a good thing he's not a morning person. He's usually still in bed when I finish my sunrise reverie, head back into the bedroom to begin writing, and get sucked into my own personal oblivion. Even if he does wake up before I finish, it's at least another hour before he climbs out of his fog. That is my saving grace -- the only thing that has kept me from suffering serious retribution. Thanks to that, I get by with nothing more than his sneaking up from behind once in a blue moon, to bounce me up and down on the balance ball I use as a desk chair. At least...I think it's once in a blue moon. To tell you the truth, I probably don't even notice half the time.

One of these days, he's going to grab my camera and flush it down the commode.

STRONGER THAN SHE LOOKS

2011-11-16T12:48:00.001-08:00

Well, our Fiber Woman wasn't joking when she said she enjoyed a challenge. Everyone at my little get-together today took a gander at my kitchen shutters, but after five minutes or so of fiddling with the difficult ones, we all decided we'd rather go chow down on a few of my fall favorites: roasted hazelnuts with thyme and sea salt; orzo salad with spicy pecans, feta, and dried apricots; beautiful fall pears with orange dipping sauce; and havarti-pecan quesadillas with pear preserves.

All except Miss Cheryl, that is. She cut away fabric to get a better view, used a wooden skewer to feel around with, tugged and pulled, and finally, she did it! Now, whether we will be able to get those rods back in again is another matter altogether, but she met her challenge, and won a raspberry-colored market basket for her efforts.

Outdoor Woman said "Well, if I'd known it was actually a good prize, I would have worked a bit harder at it!"

I gave them all caramel apples as consolation prizes -- the old fashioned, made from scratch, unwrap a hundred individual caramels kind. They were happy.

A PARTY WITH A PURPOSE

2011-11-15T05:45:00.001-08:00

The problem with not "finding my voice" until after I turned 50 was that I had so much stuff stored up that I wanted to talk about. Which is why I have written around 1,350 posts on this blog alone, and a good number on my other one as well. And, the problem with having so many posts under my belt is that, every now and then, I have trouble remembering whether I have actually told you about something here on the blog, or whether that was a conversation that's just been going on in my head for a while. Take these shutters for instance:

I don't think I've told you about the party they've inspired, but I couldn't swear to it, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to dig back through a bunch of old posts this morning, so I'm just gonna chance it. Forgive me if I'm wrong.

You see, these shutters and their fabric have become a big pain in my buh-donka-donk. The toile fabric that was in them when we bought the house went just fine with that black and white checkerboard floor, but it does absolutely nothing for the hacienda-like tile and flooring of our recent remodeling project. Change it out you say? Easier said than done. John, Lex and I have all spent a good amount of time trying to get the rods out of the shutters, to no avail.

The inside of the shutters.

So, I decided to assemble my think-tank and set them to work on the problem. I've invited a few friends over for lunch tomorrow, and while I'm at the stove preparing their Pecan-Havarti Quesadillas with Pear Preserves, they can be studying the shutters to see if they can figure out how to remove this heavy galvanized steel rod -- the one with no break in the middle, no springs, and no way to bend.

I've even offered a prize -- a really good one, I might add -- to the first person who figures it out. Which makes it especially funny that, while I was trying to take the photos for this post a little while ago, one of the rods just slipped right out in my hand! Can you believe it?

Thinking I now had it figured out, I went back to work on the original toughie, but no, it's still not budging. Since it won't do me any good to change out the fabric in just one of the shutters, I have adjusted the prize-winning-requirements to read "the first one to get the rods out of the most stubborn shutter, without breaking said shutter"!

AN INDO-MOB MEET-UP

2011-11-14T13:04:00.001-08:00

Miss Peggy with the Jones family.

Several families whom we knew back in Sumatra happened to be in the Hill Country this weekend, so we decided to have an impromptu Indo-Mob meet-up. What better place than The Salt Lick?

Young Travis had to go fetch his latest trophy from his truck, to share with us all.

His brother-in-law Colby was impressed!

Mr. Dan kept everyone down at the manly end of the table entertained.

These folks are all characters in the stories I've been telling over on my other blog, Miss Becky Goes Abroad, and those stories triggered lots more story-swapping and sharing over the dinner table. I have to say, it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Seriously. Just ask Alexis. Those Indonesian monkeys could be downright scary!

SIMPLE HAPPY: ANCIENT OAKS

2011-11-13T05:21:00.001-08:00

Writing about the TreeHouse store yesterday reminded me of my favorite tree -- the one in my neighborhood that I pass several times a day.

I love this tree. I loved it when it stood in a rushing creek, creating a shady green bower with leaf-covered, chandelier-hung limbs that touched the ground, and I love it now, stark and almost bare.

A tree as old as this one forces you to slow down and think -- about all the people who may have sat under it, or in it, over the last century or two. It makes you look at the bigger picture, to see how silly some of the things we waste time fretting about are, and how important other things might be, if we continue to ignore them. Things like wasting water.

This tree makes me sooooo happy. I wish I had a house in this tree!

SATURDAY SPLORIN': TREEHOUSE

2011-11-12T05:32:00.001-08:00

We've been hearing a lot of ads on the radio lately, for a new store in Austin called TreeHouse. From what I could gather, they were an oh-so-Austin version of your standard home improvement store -- one where all the greenest, healthiest, most sustainable versions of all those items you need for your various household maintenance and home improvement projects, have been gathered together in one convenient location. Since it happens to be located in West Gate shopping center, which has several other stores we love to visit, we decided it was time to do some 'splorin!

Here's some of the cool stuff we nabbed while there. I'm especially excited about the strainers to put in the top of all our gutter downspouts. I've been freaking out ever since Julie's friend told me about the rodent that ended up in their water catchment system's eliminator after a rainstorm. They also had a very cool kitchen section, with all kinds of beautiful bamboo stuff and some great food storage options, to replace all that plastic. The garden section had everything you would need for raised veggie bed building, composting and water barrel installation -- including a neat little solar powered pump to make it easier to get the water from the barrel to go where you need it.

Next stop was Genghis Grill, for a spot of lunch. If you've never had Mongolian barbecue (you walk down a buffet filled with stir fry ingredients, spices and sauces, pile what you want in your bowl, then they cook it up for you on a big round griddle), it's a fun place to try -- but not nearly as fun as the first place we tried it back before we were married, Genghis Khan, down on lower Greenville in Dallas. That's the place where, when asked if he served "authentic" Mongolian barbecue, the owner replied, "As authentic as you can get without the health department shutting you down." By the way, you are allowed to go through the line as many times as you wish, trying a different combination of ingredients each time, but I've never made it past the first bowl.

After that we headed to the West Gate theater, where we had hoped to see Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson, the king of gonzo journalism, in The Rum Diary. I guess it was not a big hit though, for it had ended its brief run the day before. No worries. We still had plenty of fun places to explore. From there we went to Whole Earth Provision Co., and in addition to several Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers, you'll never guess what I found, in just my size, on the half-price table. These! Way better than smooth-bottomed Zumba shoes or backless, slip-on Skechers, for hiking to the top of Enchanted Rock, don't you think?

Last but not least was Central Market. I just love browsing around CM and the Whole Foods flagship store pre-Christmas. I don't usually buy much, I just love looking at all the eye-candy, and the festive atmosphere. John picked up a bottle of wine, and I got two precious baggies filled with my favorite loose-leaf teas from Republic of Tea.

Oh yeah, and we saw some of the strangest fruit we've ever seen, outside of Indonesia.

How on earth would you peel/eat this sea-creature-like thing, which had a thick, citrus-style rind?

Have you ever seen an apple that's bright pink inside?

All in all, a most satisfying day. The only spot we didn't make it to was Amy's Ice Cream, my hubby's favorite, but if he tries to tell you it's because I wouldn't let him have any, he's lyin'. It's only because he was just too full after that Mongolian barbecue! Also, 'though I certainly miss all the Borders bookstores that shut down (the only ones that were on our side of Austin), I have to admit that a very cool home improvement store took the place of the one at West Gate, and I sure hope it takes off like gangbusters! It would do my heart good to know that it gave up its life for something worthwhile.

'TIS THE SEASON...

2011-11-11T14:15:00.001-08:00

for sunlight through rippling grasses.

OUR SIDEWALK CAFE "FAIL"

2011-11-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Hubby and Toad on the patio at Mima's

More and more U.S. restaurants are finally climbing aboard the sidewalk cafe bandwagon, and have added nice outdoor seating areas. Unfortunately, no matter how nice the area is, it is never as much fun for me as sitting in the French sidewalk cafes was. I kept asking myself "Why?"

Several of our cafes here in Wimberley have beautiful stone terraces, some with nice covers overhead, in case of rain, and with heaters and fans to keep you at the right temperature. Some even overlook the creek, or sit beneath a beautiful shade tree. Still, there is something missing, and I just couldn't put my finger on it for the longest time.

Then, just a few days ago, I decided to go to my new favorite Tex-Mex place over in Kyle, across the parking lot from our big HEB. I was planning to go get a few groceries after I ate, so I parked close to HEB and walked across the parking lot back to the cafe, which has a lovely covered eating area outside, facing the parking lot. That's when it hit me -- it faces a dang parking lot! They all do. Either that, or a street full of honking, smog-belching traffic. Oh, a few special ones might face some greenery or a creek, but none of them faces this...

or this...

What's so special about these locations, you ask? Well, it's not that they are in France. It's that they each face onto a pedestrian-friendly street or plaza -- streets and plazas full of life, in motion! Places where I could sit and enjoy the ever-changing display the live-long day, without ever getting bored. And that, my friends, is why I keep finding myself sitting in one of our U.S. cafes, dreaming of being here:

SAVING SUCCULENTS

2011-11-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I got lots of great suggestions on how to improvise mini-greenhouses for wintering over some of my favorite succulents, but in the end, I took the easy way out.

I grouped the larger ones together in this rectangular container, and plopped it in the center of my dining room table.

A bunch of smaller ones are in a nearby chair. Our dining porch has windows on three sides, and gets plenty of good morning sun. Hopefully, that will be enough. If not, we'll try something different next year. Keep your fingers crossed!

A STEALTH MISSION

2011-11-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

Here's Elmer, on a late night mission with his flashlight (It's scary dark out there! All the light you see came from my camera flash). He's trying to nab that dastardly digger, 'Dillo Dan. Too bad we didn't grab him when we first spotted him as a tiny youngster, who wasn't the least bit afraid of us. He is rumored to have quadrupled in size, and to run like greased lightning! Sure hope Elmer doesn't disturb something way more dangerous than a 'dillo.

Anybody know where I can get one of those red and black checkered caps, with ear flaps?

ONE THING I LOVE: MY CLOSET CHRISTMAS ELF

2011-11-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

My hubby went to Breed & Co. (so much more than a hardware store!) over in Austin the other day, to pick up some switch plate covers he had ordered. Of course, he came home with a few extra surprises. As usual, he tried to blame them all on me. He claimed I needed a little something new to launch the season with.

It's a little game we play, to help keep his true identity under wraps. Little did I know, when I first introduced him to "The Thomas Way" of doing Christmas, that he would grab hold of those reins and zoom right past me, just as I was trying to pull on the brakes and simplify. Ah well, I must admit, he did pick two things that I will use daily (the container holds my kosher salt by the stove), rather than more gee gaws, and that cavorting reindeer does put a smile on my face, each time I see it. Oh My Gosh. I'm Santa's "Beard"!

FUN ON THE FARM

2011-11-06T05:52:00.000-08:00

David and Melody, the farm managers at Montesino Ranch

When you work as hard as these kids do, seven days a week, twelve months a year, well, sometimes, you just gotta cut loose!

Singer Chris Jamison and friend started off the entertainment

How d'ya like them sinks?

Whiskey Shivers stepped up to the mike next, around 8:00, and another group, Sour Bridges, came on after them. I'm afraid we didn't last long enough to see them, though.

Yep, these youngsters sure know how to have a good time, and I'm ever so grateful that they are generous enough to invite the whole community to join in, whenever they do. It does my heart good to be reminded of the ever-increasing number of young people out there who have figured out what it means -- to be living the good life!

A BARN DANCE, AND A NEW BREED

2011-11-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

Guess where we're goin' tonight? I've been hearing about these dances for a while now, and keep saying we're gonna go check them out. I think tonight is the night. For one thing, my curiosity is killing me. Not just about the dances, but about Montesino Ranch and Farm, and all the people involved in the running of it.

You see, I've been thinking about farming and ranching a lot lately, and about who on earth, other than someone who was born to it and who had inherited their own property, would be crazy/brave enough to sink everything they had into buying a farm or ranch these days, knowing what a crapshoot it would be to make a decent living, what with the ever more bizarre vagaries of nature they'd be up against? I've been thinking about this new breed of young farmer I keep reading and hearing about -- all the young, college-educated people who are chucking the fast-track career paths their parents had mapped out for them, and going off to take unpaid internships on organic farms, to learn the trade "from the ground up", so to speak.

Knowing how my mind works, you probably won't be surprised to learn that it hopped from mulling over this form of mentorship, all the way back to the Renaissance period -- to all the artists who had wealthy patrons of the arts supporting them. It got me to thinkin' that, maybe, what we need now is some patrons of the art of farming. What if there were some nice, comfortably off, retired people who owned good, arable pieces of land (not solid rock hillsides like ours) who didn't really need to make a living from this land, but who could really use that agricultural tax exemption, and who would appreciate a steady supply of fresh, organic food, without having to do all the back-breaking work themselves? And what if you could match them up with some young people who were just dying to live the farming/ranching life, who had learned all they possibly could by interning with experts "in the field", but who just can't figure out a way to get any land of their own? Could be a match made in heaven, no?

Which brings us back to Montesino and my cat-killing curiosity. You see, when I first started seeing young David and Melody at the farmers markets around these parts, selling their gorgeous produce and flowers, I couldn't help but wonder how on earth they did it. They were so young to be doing so well, outshining the older, more experienced farmers, weathering the droughts, the freezes, the pests, and continuing to expand and improve their operation. Building barns, pavilions and guest houses. Having other interns working for them. Hosting events and giving tours. How on earth did they manage?

Then I discovered that "their farm" was just the front nine acres, on a gently sloping plane of deep soil, of a 172 acre ranch owned by another, older couple, and the light bulb went off. Perhaps there are some patrons of the art of farming already out there! But I'm still curious, and want to see it all for myself.

'TIS THE SEASON: FIRETHORN!

2011-11-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

Several properties along our main road have massive old Firethorn, or pyracantha, shrubs growing out by their entries, and come this time each year, they put on a mighty fine show.

One of those shrubs came with our first house in Houston, and Dear Hubby just hated that sucker to pieces. To pieces, I say! The problem was, it had been espaliered on the side of our house, just a foot or two from our driveway, so he had to trim on it constantly, to keep it from scratching our cars each time we drove by. They don't call it "firethorn" fer nothin'. It left him a bloody mess every time he went near it. However, the first time he saw these Hill Country specimens in all their blazing glory, and realized how magnificent they could be if given plenty of space and just left alone to do their thing, he had a sudden change of heart.

I think he went right out that very same weekend and bought a couple of small ones to plant on either side of our driveway entry. Unfortunately, we were still just coming here every other weekend back then, and either the deer, the choking weeds, a lack of consistent moisture, or possibly a combination of all three, did them in before they had a chance to take off. Each time I drive past that one pictured above, I find myself thinking maybe we need to give it another try.

Maybe this time, though, we should plant them further up the driveway, near our fire pit. It would still be clearly visible to passersby, but at least our hoses could reach it there.

Hmmm...better yet...maybe we should just plant the dang thing IN our fire pit, since, thanks to our incessant heat, drought, and burn bans, I can count on one hand the number of times we've actually been able to light a fire in the silly thing over the past five years. That way, each fall we could make our S'mores indoors, then just bring them out to the fire pit, gather 'round it, and "Ooh!" and "Aah!" over the berries!

MY PITIFUL PALATE

2011-11-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

It pains me to say this, but I will never be a great cook. I just don't have the palate for it. Unlike my favorite chefs and food writers pictured above -- people like Ruth Reichl, M.F.K. Fisher, Judith Jones, and most especially, Alice Waters -- I cannot fully appreciate the subtleties of seasoning, nor can I taste a dish that someone else has prepared, then recreate it at home with the help of my trusty tongue and palate, which have analyzed and identified all the different flavors in the dish for me. No, just about the only thing my tongue ever says to me is "Needs more salt!" When it comes to drinking wine, my only criteria is "Well, it didn't curl my toes with its bitter aftertaste, so, two thumbs up!" With cheeses, I can tell you whether it's too bland or too stinky, but that's about it. Good thing I'm not French, huh?

On the other hand, if I had been born French, maybe I wouldn't have this problem. I have always wondered why, when it comes to food, the French are so obsessed with quality, while we Americans are more concerned with quantity. Reading those books above gave me a pretty good idea as to how our paths diverged, especially that one called The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey Into Terroir, by Amy B. Trubek. It wasn't near as pleasurable a read as the other books pictured (it reads a bit like a doctoral dissertation), but it did have some fascinating information in it. One thing that really stuck in my head was the author telling of the time she attended a wine expo in France, and ended up sitting in on an "aroma tasting", for children!

At the time, she said, you would never find such an event in the U.S. because, beyond our notion that kids love sweets, we didn't really consider children capable of discerning taste. The French, however, believe that when you eat or drink, it needs to be a shared experience that incorporates sensory analysis as well as sensory pleasure. Since the ability to discern tastes is more or less a cultural imperative to them, they believe in training from an early age. In fact, they even host an annual Semaine du Gout, a week of taste -- an initiative that began in 1990 to help French children learn how to discover tastes and flavor.

All this got me to thinkin', and here's what I'm wondering. Do you suppose it's possible to teach an old tongue new tricks?

OVER-WINTERING SUCCULENTS: HELP PLEASE!

2011-11-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Succulents are about my favorite plants these days. Not only do I love the funk-factor that they add to my garden, I also love their sturdiness, their drought tolerance, and the fact that all these pesky critters mostly leave them alone. What I don't love is their lack of cold tolerance, and how expensive it is to replace them all from scratch every year, especially if you want some with any size on them.

Sooooo, this year I am determined to carry some of mine through the winter. I've made it as far as taking a bunch of cuttings and separating some pups from the bases of my larger plants, and I'm letting them air dry for a couple of days, so the wounds can scab over. But it's the next step that stymies me. When I googled "how to overwinter succulents" I discovered that there are just about as many opinions on this as there are varieties! So, I'm hoping you can help me make up my mind what to do next. Has anyone out there ever managed to do this, with any success? If so, won't you share the details with us? Before it dips down below freezing? Pretty Please?!!!

HAPPY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS Y'ALL

2011-10-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Guess Who?

THIS MAKES ME HAPPY

2011-10-31T07:10:00.000-07:00

Eating something I grew from scratch? Even if it's just one, teeny tiny tomato? Even if that tiny tomato took me eight months to grow?

This, my friends, makes me so very happy!

WHERE TO LIVE?

2011-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

Remember Nate, Lexi's beau? His folks were here visiting this week, and we met up for lunch yesterday at The Leaning Pear. They get an enthusiastic four thumbs up from John and me.

They do, however, have a dilemma that needs solving. They have a daughter, son-in-law and two grand babies who live in Minnesota, and who never plan to leave it. Then they have Nate, who lives in Austin, and never plans to leave it. They happen to live in Tennessee, and 'though they like it a lot, what with all the road miles they are clocking up, trying to spend equal time with both kids, and trying to be there for all the important occasions with the grand kids, they think they may have to leave it.

Their solution is to live close-ish to one of the kids, so that there's only one they must travel to see. Nate's dad says there's no way he's ever going to do those Minnesota winters again, so they decided to come give Texas a closer look. Texas looks mighty appealing this time of year, especially to folks who are sick of snow and ice, and with the enthusiasm they showed when our waiter described the upcoming Barn Dance at Montesino Ranch, I'd say they were a perfect match for the Hill Country. Just to be fair, though, we felt compelled to warn them about our summers, and about our water issues.

But, it got me to thinkin'. What if one had a permanent residence down here, and somewhere to escape to that's an outdoorsman's paradise in summer...somewhere like, say, a wee little cabin in Minnesota? Well, I ask you, what could be better than a set-up like that?

TOMATO TANTRUM

2011-10-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

Remember the three tomato plants I planted way last spring? The ones I've been boring you to death about for eight solid months now? The ones the deer chomped in half as soon as I planted them, but which then came back to life just when I was ready to yank them out? The ones that started fruiting just in time for it all to get stunted and shriveled by our record streak of triple digit temps, and then started fruiting again?

My Black Prince...

my Yellow Plum...

and my Juliet?

Juliet is the one I left sitting in its pot for-ev-er, not even sure if it was worth the trouble to plant it. It was a straggly, half-dead mess when I finally got around to putting it in the ground. Now it's huge and lush and absolutely loaded with fruit that is just coming ripe. I picked my first piece yesterday, and was hoping to have enough to roast by the end of the week.

Of course, we did have a cool front come through this week, and they predicted our temps dipping down into the low 40's. perhaps, but that's not enough to get yer knickers in a twist over, right? So, imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, only to discover our handy-dandy electronic thermometer reading thirty-frickin-four-degrees!

They still look ok to me, so I guess my question is, how long will it be before I know whether to pitch a hissy fit or not?

'TIS THE SEASON: HOLIDAY FRAGRANCE

2011-10-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Since I have always viewed my birthday as the official start of the holiday season (even if the rest of the world doesn't see it that way), how fortuitous was it that a serious cool front just happened to whisk through here last night, blowing away the last of those ninety degree temps (we hope!); we just happened to need our downy duvet filler for the first time last night; I just happened to feel the need to switch from AC to heat for the first time today; and, my hubby just happened to buy a candle for some reason today, brought it home and lit it up, and it just happened to be in my veeeerrry favorite holiday fragrance? Let the festivities begin!