12.3

Today's Christmas Tree of the Day wasn't as easy to find as I thought it would be. I went to my closest park, but no decorated trees. I thought surely there must be a tree in Target. But I was denied there, too. Maybe the theatre? Nope. Well, I knew there'd be a few at SF Centre across the street, so I ended up there. These were at Nordstrom. The bonus is I walked almost 2 miles to get this snapshot.

I put the ornaments on our tree this evening. It's been up since Sunday, but naked till tonight.

I'm still obsessed with listen to music. Ed Sheeran and Hozier are my current obsessions.

"Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran is a beautiful ballad about the timelessness of love.


"Take Me To Church" by Hozier is not lighthearted. It's very metaphorical, comparing love and religion, sexuality and humanity. His voice is aching and hauntingly soulful.
Warning: the video is hard to watch. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen this already (36 million already have): there isn't a happy ending.

12.1 Daily December

It's that time of the year again! The busiest time, but the time when we should try to remember what the season is all about.

You might recall that the Daily December idea was started several years ago by Ali Edwards as a way to document and remember the little details that happen during this month. I've done this on my blog for several years, though I didn't really follow through last year. I'm hoping to do a bit better this year. Admittedly, starting off is easy this time around because my 1st Christmas party was tonight.
I got together with my crafty friends. Every December we go out to dinner and exchange presents.

The tree and gingerbread house were at the Palace Hotel. I walk by the hotel almost every day. As I walked by today, I looked into the hotel and saw they had a stunning tree in the garden courtyard so I stepped in to enjoy the tree and take a few snapshots.

A fun start to the month!

Day 3-5 Gratitude

I totally flaked out of posting my daily gratitudes here, so for continuity, I'll quickly update them...

Thankful Day 3:

1. Reconnecting with old friends. Staying in touch with family and friends here and on instagram. Love seeing all the reunion pics. (my high school had a multi-year reunion in September. I wasn't able to go, but I enjoyed seeing all my high school friends photos).
2. Being able to enjoy a city life and a rural mountain life.
3. Having a good amount of creative energy. I always have something creative going on.


Thankful day 4:
1. eye contact.
2. laughter and giggles.
3. forearms. um...did i just say that outloud? (ok, so one of my bff's and I have a recurring inside joke about forearms, but my husband will attest to my love of his forearms.)


Thankful day 5:

1. multiple farmers markets within walking distance.
2. griffins, unicorns, elves and imagination.
3. holding hands every now and then, even after 29 years.

Day 2 Gratitude

-More than ever, I'm grateful for the power of music. It has surprised me how much learning an instrument seriously broadens your music awareness. I never listened to blues or jazz before, but it's become a part of my training and I love it. I listen to all different kinds of music all day. And I cannot have silence while I'm at my desk, I must have some kind of tune playing in the background.

A soundtrack can make or break a movie or tv show. Jimmy and I are watching the HBO show Treme and it might be the best show I've watched all year. It's about New Orleans right after Katrina hit. And music is a huge part of it. Just thinking about one of the songs nearly brings me to tears. But most of it has both of us tapping our toes...you can't keep still while watching it. Music is a powerful thing.

-Like all of us, I love water. I'm glad that we have clean drinking water, water to take a refreshing shower, water to wash our clothes and dishes. I love the Pacific Ocean, feeling the cool water beneath my feet and waves hitting my knees. I love being a the lake in the summer, swimming, boating, laughing, being with friends and family. I love the rain. The sound of it, the smell of it. Hopefully this fall and winter will bring a lot more of it.

-Fresh linens. Another favorite for everyone - a fresh fluffy (but not tooo fluffy) towel...and in the wintertime, if you happen to get one right out of the dryer as you're getting out of the shower...heaven! And slipping into clean sheets at bedtime when you're tired and ready for dreamland...sigh!

Thankful meme

There's a meme going around on Facebook to list 3 things you're thankful for for the next 5 days.

My bbf of 30+ years nominated me, who of course, I am so thankful she's been a huge part of my life all these years. We're lucky if we see each other every other year (I haven't seen her since 2012), but we text at least 3-4x a week, just to say hi and that we're thinking of each other.

I love listing things I'm grateful for. I've done the november daily challenge several years. it's easy for me to find things to be thankful for. and it's always a great reminder when things are just not going the way you want them to go. it's nice to review those things when life is a little shakey. I would much rather remember the wonderful things and forget the yucky things.

I wanted to share my 3 daily 'thankfuls' here, too, mostly because I'll add photos here, where I won't on facebook. Photos help me visualize the gratitude. I need them to go hand and hand, so my lists on facebook feel incomplete without them.

1. lots of nieces and nephews and friend's kids, who are like family. Their parents are pretty awesome, too.

2. cling free peaches. Don't you just love when you cut a peach in half and it easily pulls away from the pit? One of my favorite simple pleasures.

3. finding whole sand dollars at the beach. They're so fragile that 99% of the ones you see are broken. So it feels like you've found a real piece of treasure when you find a whole one.

3.14 - no pie for me

Today is π day which has given everyone free reign to eat pie. Not that anyone needs an excuse to eat pie. Jimmy and I both prefer pie, but I doubt I'd ever turn down a slice of cake either. But today, neither of us ate pie. {sadface}. Do you prefer pie or cake?

misc. photos from my day.

12.19: Scurrying

Lots of errands and appointments today. Spent a lot of time in the car driving from here to there and back again. But I checked a lot off my list and scored my last Christmas gift for the oldest nephew at REI who we will actually get to see on Christmas Day.

12.2: Gettin' Cozy

It's feeling like winter at the hideaway...made coffee cake for brunch and Jimmy put the snowplow on the Rhino in preparation for the winter snow. We're pretty luck in that our neighbor uses it whenever he needs to, and whenever we come up, the driveway is cleared for us to drive up. Jimmy doesn't have to do this anymore:

11.22 - Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving...
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada.
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.
In the United States in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

Well, I'm grateful that Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday because it's one of my favorite holidays. I love when the whole family gets together for the day, chatting, laughing, eating, joking around, sometimes playing football, helping out in the kitchen...it's loud and crazy but it's great.

This Thanksgiving was a lot quieter than ones in the past. There were just 5 of us, but we still enjoyed the traditional Thanksgiving feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes and 3, yes 3 kinds of pie.

Missed the rest of the family, but it was still a wonderful day.

11.21 - Playdoh Playtime

Had a lot more fun than I expected playing with playdoh with my princess niece and her brother ninja nephew. It would seem like playing with a clay like substance would be right up my alley...making stuff, right? But the OCD part of me doesn't like when the colors get all mixed up and how it gets everywhere and how quickly it dries up, flakes and gets stuck in every little crease and crevice. But seeing how much they love playing with the stuff trumps the annoyance of it.

11.20 - Disappearing Act

I posted a couple of the caramel photos onto facebook yesterday and was surprised at how many comments I got. I packaged them up all pretty to give to some of them. If I had known how quickly 64 caramels would disappeared, I would have made a double batch! So grateful for the interaction with my friends. It's encouraging getting positive feedback and motivates me to make some more.

11.19 - Sugar Coma

I'm not entirely sure a sugar coma is something to be grateful for...but I do enjoy the process of making stuff. With an added bonus of a couple of tastes and nibbles along the way, too.

Last month I took a workshop on making artisan caramels. During the workshop, we watched the teacher/baker how to make them, but didn't actually get any hands on experience aside from the final step of wrapping the caramels in parchment. So with the holidays right around the corner, I decided to put what I learned into actual use.
I'm not sure what makes them artisan because the ingredients are basic. Maybe it's because of the Maldon salt and ghirardelli chocolate. But sugar? butter? corn syrup? heavy cream? nothing 'artisan' about that.

The 1st thing to do is get the cream to a boil over medium high heat.

add the chocolate. Wait a minute before stirring...

then stir till completely melted. Voila! You have ganache! Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring the sugar, corn syrup, water and table salt to a boil. Stirring till sugar is dissolved.

When syrup turns clear, keep at a rolling boil at medium high heat, but stop stirring. You can gently swirl the pan around occasionally.

In about 10 minutes, the syrup will become a deep golden color. In this photo, it's not quite there yet. Almost though.

Then carefully pour in the chocolate ganache mixture. Watch out! It'll bubble and steam. Continue to boil over moderate heat. Now stir stir stir. Don't stop stirring. Unless you need a break to take a photo every now and then.

Ok, you can stop stirring to get a temperature reading every few minutes. But you need to keep stirring till the temperature reaches 255*F. A thermometer is critical in candy making. If it gets hotter than 255*, your caramel will be a little chewier and harder. If it's lower than 255*, then it won't be as chewy and could be a little floppy. But as long as you keep it within 5 degrees in either direction, you should still be ok. It takes a good 15 minutes or more to get the caramel up to 255*.

After it's reached temperature, add the butter and sea salt and mix till everything is combined. Or you could wait to sprinkle the sea salt on top of the caramel after you've poured it into the prepared pan.
Line an 8"x8" pan w/ 2 sheets of crisscrossed parchment. Carefully pour the caramel into pan. This is when you can sprinkle the sea salt on top if you didn't mix it with the butter in the previous step.

Let it cool completely before cutting, at least 2 hours.

Using a ruler and a sharp knife sprayed with vegetable or canola oil to prevent sticking, cut caramel into 1" squares.

Wrap each caramel in a 4"x5" piece of parchment.

You'll have 64 pieces of caramel and extra to nibble on from evening out the edges.

Put a few into cellophane bags tied closed with pretty ribbon and share with your closest friends.

Salted Chocolate Caramels

Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
10 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate (65-75%) chopped fine or in chip form
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into tablespoon pieces
2 teaspoons flaky sea salt such as maldon

Vegetable oil for greasing
special equipment: parchment paper, candy thermometer, 8" square pan

Directions:
1. line bottom and sides of an 8" pan with 2 sheets of crisscrossed parchment or foil sprayed with veg oil.

2. make ganache:
-bring cream just to a boil in a big saucepan over moderately high heat,
-reduce heat to low
-add chocolate
-let stand for 1 minute then stir till chocolate is completely melted
-remove from heat and set aside

3. bring sugar, corn syrup, water and salt to boil in a heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil without stirring but gently swirling pan occasionally, until sugar is deep golden, about 10 minutes. Tilt pan and carefully pour in chocolate mixture (mixture will bubble and steam). Continue to boil over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until mixture registers 255*F on thermometer, about 15 minutes. add butter, stirring until completely melted, then immediately pour into lined baking pan. (Sprinkle evenly with sea salt optional, or just mix into caramel). Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours.

4. Invert caramel onto a clean cutting board sprayed with oil to prevent sticking. peel off parchment. turn caramel salt side up. cut into 1" squares. makes 64 pieces.

Tips for success:
-make sure you're using a decent thermometer and it's calibrated.
-oil the foil otherwise the caramels wont come off
-dont walk away from your caramels once they're cooking (they'll burn!).
-use a ruler to measure the caramels so they look nice and neat
-use a good pot (le cruset)
-remove from heat @ 252*
-can freeze
- air is the enemy
-use a wooden spoon to stir
-cut parchment into 5x4" to wrap caramels after cut

11.17 - A Princess

When you see magic through the eyes of a child looking up at her favorite princess, it gives you a lot to be thankful for.

11.16 - Umbrella Weather

I'm so glad I had an umbrella!

11.14 and 11.15 Tough

Yesterday I spent way too many hours in a place I didn't want to be. Came home feeling as broken down as this building. So it was tough finding anything to be gracious about and unfortunately the lingering effects lasted through today. But in the end, I'm grateful that I have my health, I have a loving husband, amazing family and friends, a wonderful home, and never a worry about where my next meal will come from.

11.13 Sunny Walk and Fresh Veggies

The office I volunteer at was closed today so I took advantage of the sunny day and enjoyed a long walk around San Francisco's tourist district.

Since I'm not usually out and about on Tuesdays, I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the Ferry Building and stumbled on their Farmer's Market.

When I got home, my box of veggies was waiting for me: 3 fuji apples, 2 anjou pears, 1 container fresh cranberries, pound broccoli, mixed herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage), butter lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, celery and a butternut squash.

I still had a pumpkin left from my last box, so I used my free day to make some pumpkin soup with it. It was pretty good, but could use a little more flavor. Bonus pumpkin seeds to snack on later!

I got the recipe from Farm Fresh To You's website. I substituted brown sugar for the maple syrup, omitted the nutmeg and added a little thyme.

Sugar Pie Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
• 1 sugar pie pumpkin, 4-5 lbs
• 1/2 cup shallots, minced
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Tbs maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup cream

Instructions
Directions:
1. Wash the pumpkin and cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and stringy parts. Line
a cookie sheet with tinfoil and put the pumpkin cut side down on the foil. Bake in the
oven for about 1 hour at 375 degrees, until the pumpkin is soft. Let cool. Scrape the
cold pumpkin out of the pumpkin skin. Mash it with a potato masher or put it through a food mill so its smooth.
2. Peel and mince the shallots. Heat butter in a large heavy saucepan and cook the shallots over very low heat until they're soft. Add the broth and turn up the heat to medium. Heat until it just starts to simmer. Add the salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and maple syrup and stir. Add the pumpkin a little bit at a time, stirring. (You may make the recipe ahead of time up to this point and store for up to 48 hours. Reheat and continue.) When everything is mixed together and heated through, turn off the heat and stir in the cream. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve at once.

-grateful for the sunshine
-grateful for the good food
-thankful for the extra time today to do everything I did.

11.12 - Veterans Day

Yesterday was actually Veterans Day, but it's celebrated today, too. Some people have the day off of work or school.

I've posted this photo before. It's a copy of my dads honorable discharge papers from the army in the mid 1940s. It was the middle of WWII when he enlisted. He was proud to be in this country so he became a citizen and was ready to serve. But after serving just a few months, he was honorably discharged because of his age.

I am thankful beyond words to all of our Veterans for selflessly serving our country, even if just for a few months or for an entire lifetime.

11.11 - Jump Start

Thankful for a quiet day with Jimmy, watching a movie about Leaving Barstow, a desert town near where we grew up, and getting a jump start on making my Christmas cards.

11.10 - Let the Sun Shine In

Grateful that our windows are south facing. In the fall and winter, even if it's cold outside, as long as it's sunny, our home stays pretty warm and cozy because the sun shines right in.

11.9 Gratitude: Longevity and Loyalty

Doris and I have been friends since 1996 or 1997. Crafting brought us together. In 1998, Doris introduced me to June. I'm grateful that these ladies have been an influence on my life for all these years and that they are still a part of it.