Full Hook Ups

Jinx!

2012-01-16T12:22:00.000-05:00

I think I may have made it snow. I posted yesterday about being down on winter (cold and snow) and we woke up this morning to heavy gray skies and giant wet snow flakes drifting down out of the sky! Ah well, embrace the moment. We really have not had that much snow this season so far so it actually does look pretty out there. We took Rudy for our usual morning walk and we all got absolutely soaked. It's 36 degrees out so it's not even all that cold. All in all... not too bad. Maybe I will take back some of my attitude from yesterday. I probably should not have taken the camera out on the walk because of how wet it got.... but I did.

Our front gate which leads out to Canyon Rd

The English Garden

Snowy Trail Blazer

Sleeping Trees

Snow Beard

Trying to love the snow

Tiny World

Big Bill McLane

See Ya...

Rudy loves to catch snow balls. Unfortunately and curiously it usually ends up making him puke. I know, I know. It's too confusing to think about for long and it does not stop him from wanting to do it so....

Wet Head

We are holed up again inside now. Billy and I go to bootcamp at noon and then I hope we can build a fire and curl up for the next 24 hours. Happy MLK Day.... hope you are having a good one.

Cooped Up

2012-01-15T18:43:00.000-05:00

Winter. I will never say that I enjoy any aspect of it. Cold can kiss my ass.... snow looks great out the window but I'll take a pass on going out in it much. Dark at 4:30? While it is beneficial for my current sleep/work schedule it sucks eggs. I want to be able to have the doors and windows open... I want to see green on the trees... I want to go barefoot. Remind me again why we moved back to the mainland from Hawaii? That was really, really dumb. Sigh.

This winter so far has not been too harsh. It has been so mild in fact that I am currently suffering from my juniper allergy. In January. This is about the only reason why I could be moved to cheer for a deep cold spell to fall upon us and linger. Rudy is also suffering from seasonal affective disorder. He lays around in a piss poor mood and all he wants to do otherwise is eat. See?

Go ahead and look at the larger version of this by clicking on it and take a gander at the dirty look on his face. He is a hater. The dude is hard up. He even has a dried sweet potato treat wedged back there by his bum but he could care less. I think I may buy him a bottle of bourbon just to help him through until we get to the end of February. Everyone likes to pretend come March that Spring Is Here! So I will let Rudy ride that shenanigan train too. Until then... bottoms up Rudy. Just don't puke on the rug.

The apartment feels like a nest at times. We have too much stuff, it's warm in here and the thick adobe walls can sometimes make you feel as though you were twenty stories underground in a tomb. The thick draperies and blankets we have covering the windows aren't doing us any favors in that department either. I have grown to depend on them though... to block out the car headlights that race through our bedroom every 5 minutes for hours right around the time we go to bed.

I did notice that our orchid on the high window ledge in the bathroom is getting ready to bloom. I can't even remember what color the flowers are... purple? So that will be cool to watch them open up.

My favorite tea tin has been getting a real work out. We drink about 40 gallons of hot tea per day. I'm hooked on genmaicha. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good chai? I am thinking of blending my own as I can never quite find a store bought variety that does the trick for me.

My cookie cutters above the fridge are looking sort of lonely.... I need to find the time to bake up a mess of rockets and hippos to deliver to friends with kids. I have not even used most of them yet. I have a monkey and a bison and a bunch of other random shapes. It's just a question of when will a Martha Stewart mood strike?

Our mantle is such a glom of nick nacks. One of my favorites is the little green wooden guy. He is super old, hand carved and hand painted. He's meant to walk/waddle down a plank board with his big feet. Billy bought me the groovy purple crystal a few years back. We saw it in a gem & mineral store and I was taken with all it's little facets and sparkles. It is supposed to be straight up, pure magic (of the fairy variety.) So far nothing big has come of it but I love it anyway.

The photo on the right is my Grandmother's family (on my Mom's side) on their cotton plantation in Arkansas when my Gram was a young teenager. The pic to the left of it is her parents. I love both of these photos dearly even though I never met my great grandparents and I only know (knew) 3 out of the ten people in the group shot. The photos make me feel grounded somehow. Knowing that these sort of folks are my roots makes me feel like part of an old oak tree even if I am still somewhat of a bitter little acorn.

Billy is painting. Every day. Some things (barely ever if not) never change. He is working on a self portrait which I will post an image of when it's been completed. It's been years since he did one... and I think this one will be really cool.

I'm off to start a new book. Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. Anyone else reading it or planning to?

The Weight of a Tooth

2012-01-08T18:09:00.000-05:00

Try to imagine what your life would be like if your teeth looked like this. It would really make an impact I think.... right? Rudy carries the weight effortlessly. Such a strong man.

Late Saturday Afternoon

2012-01-07T19:20:00.002-05:00

I finished up the work week today and now have three days off. Yessssssss. This is a very good thing. It puts my head in a good place and I almost immediately feel my creative juices flowing. It's winter. It's kinda slow around these parts.... but I have a list a mile long of stuff I want to do. One of the top things on that list is to get back to shooting photos if not daily at least three times a week or so. I'm tired this afternoon and SORE (thanks FRANK!) so I did not wander far but thankfully I don't have to. Our homestead here is about as inspirational as anything you could hope for. I went out and wandered around the property and caught the moon rising over the mountains and there was gorgeous light everywhere.

Hope you are having a cozy and inspiring weekend.

Our front door, a tapestry I found at the thrift this summer

Down the hall by Adam's.

The Old Bike

La Luna

Beautiful Moon

Winter Tunnel

Good Night Little Fatty!

These are my favorite winter birds here. They are so common and plain jane but adorable all the same.

How many calories are in that marshmallow?

2012-01-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

One new development in our lives over the past few months is that Young William and I enrolled in a fitness boot camp. Holy crap, right? Yeah.... that's what I originally said. Holy CRRAAAAP!!! The place we are going to is Boot Camp Santa Fe and we totally love it. I have maybe never been more surprised at myself in my whole life. We were initially prodded to join by Jeff and Kari (friends and owners of the place where I work) because they wanted to join up and start getting in better shape. So we did it... we are now about ten weeks in to a 3 day a week schedule getting our asses whooped. Whipped? Whooped. Definitely WHOOPED. For the initial 8 weeks (the beginner class) we went and never missed a class. I was sore every day for 8 weeks solid. For reals.

For anyone out there curious about joining a boot camp here is a bit about our particular class..... it's 50 minutes long, you have about a 5 to 8 minute warm up period of stretching and getting your heart rate up a bit and then the next 40 minutes consists of squats, sit ups, push ups, holding the plank pose, mountain climbers, jumping rope, more squats, more sits ups and so on and so forth. You never stop moving and there are a million variations on the theme. I never knew there were so many ways to do sit ups. You will feel like you are going to straight up die for sure at least two or three times during the class. Then there is a quick cool down stretching session right at the end. The thing I have grown to love about the class is that it pushes you to work harder than you ever would alone. Well, for most people anyway. I am sure there are some fitness buffs out there that can go ape shit all by themselves but I am not one of them. After finishing the 8 week beginner class and then doing two of FRANK'S classes over the holiday break time (you must say the name FRANK with some authority and volume because FRANK means business) I feel stronger than I have in perhaps my entire life. Billy is feeling it too although he used to be a muscle head back in the day unlike me so his body has gone down this road before... whereas mine has most certainly not. Allow me to mention that I achieved a moment toward the end of one of FRANK'S classes where I was actually gagging. My body was trying to make me barf.... but I did not let it. Sheer will power people. Sheeeeer will power at work there.

So yeah! We are now enrolled in the nest session of camp and classes started again this week. We plan to keep going three days a week for the next 16 weeks to carry us through til Spring when we will drop one day of class so we can go hiking in the mountains on that day instead. I also just signed up for this thing called Gym Pact which is a free application for iPhones or iPads (nothing on the market yet for droids etc.) where you pledge how many days a week you are planning to go to the gym and a dollar amount you must pay in if you miss a day (I pledged ten bucks.) You check in when you get to the gym and the GPS registers whether or not you are really there.... if you don't check in then you pay ten bucks. If you DO check in and never miss a scheduled day at the gym then you actually MAKE money. The money comes from the lazy slobs who did not go when they said they would... and the funds go straight into a paypal account. Cool, right? I have no idea what the earnings will be.... a pretty insignificant amount I am sure, but what the Hell, it's another motivating factor to get us there.

Other than that news it's pretty much business as usual around here. Rudy is crabby because it's winter. He is usually stationed by the door that looks out on to the entry way to our compound in his cozy bed garumphing and mumbling at the passers by....

Yesterday I made some from scratch marshmallows. We have been trying really hard to not eat sweets but listen up Yo, it ain't easy. These gigantic marshmallows only have about 30 calories per.... so they are a great way to shut your brain up when it goes scratching around bitching and moaning that it needs sugar. I made mine with orange zest, cardamom spice and organic orange extract. Here is the recipe I used.... you can modify it any old way you please which is awesome. You do need a candy thermometer and a stand mixer with a whisk attachment so go out and buy those things pronto if you don't have them on hand already. I also doubled the recipe and just put it in a 9 x 13 inch pan with no problems.

If you have never had a real marshmallow before they really do beat the pants right off of the store bought variety. There is no comparison. Especially for putting in hot chocolate.

2012 and an attempt to blog again....

2012-01-01T20:06:00.003-05:00

Our front gate at El Zaguan, Christmas Eve farolito walk on Canyon Rd, 2011

I think I made about 5 or 6 posts here total in 2011. Not so chatty this past year I suppose. It's not for lack of a lot of stuff happening though.... we moved back across the country from Nantucket to Santa Fe, landed an artist residency on Canyon Rd, made tons of fabulous new friends, Billy had a very successful solo show at the gallery here where we live and was featuring in an article about artists in Airstream Life magazine. We helped friends Jeff and Kari open their new, from scratch donut shop (where I still work now) and life marches on with all it's tricky curve balls and moments of beauty intertwined. We all have another year under our belts, albeit a tough one for a lot of us.

I used to post long stories here and loads of photos. For now I hope to pop in a few times a week and just share what's up... even if it's just every day simple stuff. No sense in back peddling and trying to fill in the gap from now going back to my last post which was over 6 months ago.... I am just gonna stick with here and now. Cool? Kosher? You dig?

Happy New Year everyone.... let's do everything we can to make it a good one.

Time Off Flies By

2011-06-19T22:39:00.007-04:00

So I had the last 6 days off work (going back in tomorrow.... boo hoo) and it really flew by. We pretty much stayed around the compound the whole week. I listed a few things in my etsy vintage shop and Billy painted as usual. Tonight I am so tired my brain feels like the sludge at the bottom of a pond. Don't expect great things out of this post. In fact, you should probably just stop reading it right about now because yeah, I can't even understand why I am trying to post right now. Wha?

The best way to handle a tired post is usually pictures. Lots of them. So here goes... this past week wrapped up in a random assortment of photos.

The garden is looking pretty gorgeous in spite of the drought we are in....

Rudy is looking pretty gorgeous in spite of the drought we are in....

Billy with his game face on at Friday night's art opening here... he sold one painting so apparently the game face works.

Max with his "get this crazy bitch off me" look on his face...

No need to resort to violence Max.

Billy and Max peeking in people's windows all over town. Perverts.

The Santa Fe National Forest is on fire big time... New Mexico is basically one big bundle of kindling right now.

Chelle brought Wyatt over on Saturday for a garden visit... the kid is getting big!

Ridiculous cuteness....

Our dear friend Gordon (aka Cappy) came out for a super quick weekend visit from Cali... it was great to see him and we will soon be hiring a hit man to kill his ass totally dead if he does not just hurry up and move to Santa Fe. That's him dead center (hear that Cap? DEAD center!) waving at you all....

What else? uhhhhh.... I dunno. This took everything my wee muddy brain had tonight! Hope you all had a fine Father's Day out there in the world. Neck ties, goofy greeting cards and mixed nuts for everyone! Yeah! But seriously... I am lucky enough to have a boat load of great Dad juju in my life... and am grateful as heck for it. Cheers to all the great Dads of the world! Especially Billy who is of course the world's best Dad to Rudy. (Dumb!)

The Living Room

2011-06-12T23:52:00.007-04:00

This past Friday night we had our first art opening of the season here at El Zaguan which is why I have not posted in a while. Between the show and work I have been a busy bee. It was a group show featuring work by all the current artist's in residence including Billy and I, Brenda Roper, Max Carlos Martinez, Greg Tweed and Adam Eisman. I had three photo prints in the show and Billy hung 8 paintings. We had a great turn out and a really fun evening. The show hangs for another week or so if you are in Santa Fe stop over to say HI and see the work.

This is a piece by Brenda Roper.... she is a really thoughtful and interesting person to know and her work is beautiful. This pic has a bit of a glare but gives you a good feel for her art.

Annnnd this is Max. He lives right next door to us and I love him to pieces. If you move back to New York Max I will burn the city to the ground.

I don't know who this wretched geek is but someone should have thrown her out into the street...

Here's a long shot view of Billy's wall... I will post a few close ups further down.

Brenda and I after a few preliminary sips of prosecco.

And here are a few of Billy's pieces... up close.

The last one is a dude all cozied up to a fire in an arroyo.... I love the feel of it. Night time paintings!

We are still dry as a heap of shredded wheat here and all smoked up from the fires that continue in AZ. It makes for some beautiful skies in the evening but I have had my fill of the smell and the sore throat, etc. stemming from it.

I have several days off this coming week and a visit from a VIP friend this next weekend so we should have tons of pics and stories to share coming up.

Cheers!

Waiting

2011-06-03T11:12:00.002-04:00

Still waiting for even a drop of rain to fall on Santa Fe. The cloudscapes are beautiful but they are still holdin' out on us. I have never felt so dusty is all my life.

Reptilian Canine

2011-05-31T00:00:00.004-04:00

This little dog loves the desert. Rudy could not be happier to be back in NM and hanging back in the old hood.

Tired, tired, tired from work this weekend.... a sleepy photo of the hall at night and I am off to dreamland.

Number 3

2011-05-25T17:42:00.003-04:00

Where have we been for the past 6 months? Touring with a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band. No? Can we pretend that is where we have been? Let's do. That way I can just skip right to telling you where we are now. That's all that really matters anyway. Here's a nutshell version.... we left Nantucket in the end of March, spent a month on the road visiting family, bake saling for dollars and trying to live in an Airstream with no running water or electricity that has major parts being held on by duct tape. We managed to travel all the way back to New Mexico in this way and have now settled in to apartment 3 at El Zaguan on Canyon Rd. It's an artist's residency space in an historic building owned by The Historic Santa Fe Foundation. It's a pretty remarkable situation. We have fabulous neighbors, access to real food again (I'm thumbing my nose at YOU Nantucket) and are really glad to be back home in Santa Fe.

This is the street view of El Zag looking down Canyon....

And the view from our garage roof tops out back....

The view from our bedroom door on the zaguan (a long outdoor hallway that runs the length of the building) at dusk.

This place is pure magic.

Here is an (lengthy but interesting) article The New Mexican published on the building and it's history for anyone curious.

We (the current artist's in residence) will be writing a blog sharing work, photos, writing and event dates such as shows etc. which I will post about here as soon as it is up and running.

Thanks for hanging with me.... it was a long, tough winter and I had no motivation to write! The tide has most definitely turned!

The Winter Situation

2010-11-29T20:57:00.010-05:00

Ahhhhh winter. How I hate your stinkin' rottin' frozen guts! As many times as we have sworn to do anything to avoid cold weather it seems like we always end up getting caught in it time and again. This is mainly due to the other thing I hate dealing with which is a thing called Money. Lack of Money equals living in cold weather. Simple as that. If we were bank rolled right now we would be living it up in the Airstream somewhere warm. Warmer than here anyway. Dang it!

Winter on Nantucket is a force to be reckoned with. It does not get down to 30 below or anything.... but it does blow with wet, gray, gale force wind frequently and you do feel as though the rest of the world may be partying it up in Tahiti without you. It gets to feeling melancholy, isolated and other worldly out here come February. So let's hope I discover a trunk of gold doubloons washed up on the beach in January! For now have Christmas to keep us distracted. This is one area where the island does not skimp. They pull out all the stops. Downtown is decked out like you want it to be. Old school with lights, bows and baubles. There are dozens of trees lit and the windows of all the shops are tricked out with decorations, lights and $800 cashmere sweaters. Deeelicious. I snapped a couple of shots late this afternoon on Main St when they had first turned the trees on.

Before we hit town we took Rudy to run his booty off at Tupancy Links which is the equivalent to a dog park on conservation lands here on ACK. It was a beautiful albeit freezing cold afternoon. The ocean was just amazingly icy blue.

I loooove the atmosphere in this black and white shot... look at the light reflecting just below the horizon line on the water. So beautiful!

Rudy had a blast at the park although he did get busted for not listening to orders and running crazy far away to get at a dog named Dinah on the other side of the field. I mean... take a gander at Dinah and you will see why but still.... rule breaker! Click through on these to see the doggie details.

End result of long distance disobedience? The leash! The worst possible dog park punishment.

Here he is watching so hard. Soooo hard. See how his butt is not even touching the ground? Agony. There were two greyhounds peeling the F*ck out all over the field and it was nearly killing him to watch it. Livin' ain't easy Rudy.

Hope you all survived the weekend shopping mania over there on the mainland. Nobody got smashed up at Target!? Yikes!

Your Weekly Dose of Cynicism and Frosting

2010-11-23T14:46:00.006-05:00

Gosh I just realized I have been layin' down on the bloggin' job again. Oops! This month has ripped past like a .... like aaaaaah, like something fast as all heck. I can't think of a good comparison right now. Quick like a bunny. There ya go. November of 2010 will go down in history as a money sucking black hole. Our truck broke down and we battled the doofis service department at the Ford dealership here on the island for over a week... I'm not sure they could fix a hot wheels car with a busted wheel. While the truck was in "in for service" (ha! funny concept Ford!) we rode our bikes to work each day. Let me tell you... I guess I am not much of a bike rider any more. It felt so dramatic each time. Painful and dramatic. It was the usual sore butt bones thing that you get when your patootie is not used to sitting on a bike seat but it was also my freakin' legs. Holy crap. I was getting charlie horses and all manner of random shooting pains. And hills? HA! Put me on the lowest gear possible and it'll take me about an hour to go two blocks up a slight grade.... say .35%. Not 35% but POINT 35%. Got it? I just need to call it and get myself a weasel scooter. One of the motorized chairs. What are they called again? I always remember it as weasel and I know that's not correct. Whatever. Mine would be a weasel.

I paid big bucks to have my Nikon lens repaired (after I dropped it) and much like the Ford dealership.... I was dealing with poor customer service. It took this place (Precision Camera in CT) over three weeks to repair my lens and turn it around to ship back when they claim 3 to 4 days turn around time for repairs on their website. Also... no one answers the phone there. Ever. Don't send your camera stuff to this place. They stink.

There was also an incident involving pharmaceuticals that cost way too much and then turned out to be the wrong pills (for me.) I spent the entire month feeling dizzy and like I was about to throw up and it was because of a "generic equivalent" pill for one of my prescriptions. Neat! Some equivalent! But hey guess what? I just had to buy new pills and eat the cost on the old ones because that is how the cookie crumbles folks.

We are considering heading back to the west and living out of a mine shaft, panning for gold, eating opossum and squirrel, and drinking whiskey til we go blind or die from injuries incurred from this life style. It could be the stuff of legend. And way cheaper than trying to live like real people. Being real people seems to kind of suck. It's way over rated anyway.

So yeah... Whatever. Life goes on. Baking goes on. With no transportation and no camera lens I don't have too much in the way of photos to share. The old 50 mm just does not cut it for everyday shooting. Want to see more stuff I baked? Sure. Why not?

More whoopie pies... man are they popular. People are way into the whoopie. They are pretty fun to make so I guess I am into them too.

I had to make this super funny birthday cake.... a friends kid is in Peter Pan (the play) out here on island this month and his birthday happened to fall on opening night. She asked me if I could make a cake that looked like the "Poison Cake" in the play so here it is folks.... A green funky poison cake (no actual poison involved... it's just visually poisonous.)

Billy said it reminded him of a poison tree frog...

And just because they were super huge and ridiculous here are some gluten free cakes I made. I called them Cake Bombs because, well, look at them. They were about the size of a grapefruit and filled with two flavors of rich butter cream. Cake Bombs.

Ok! Off to work! Tonight is the Thanksgiving baking throw down. Everything goes out tomorrow because we are closed on the holiday so the eggs, sugar and flour will be flyin' tonight. Have a great holiday peeps and I'll be back for the weekend!

Winter!

2010-11-07T21:39:00.005-05:00

God Gawd it descended upon us just today. 40 mph wind, 42 degrees outside, rain and it's generally miserable as all Hell. What. Ev. Er. What can be done? You must bake things. That's what can be done. I direct you to Smitten Kitchen (as I have done so many times in the past) and I have probably even linked to this very cake recipe before. So that should really be telling you something. Make the stinkin' cake already.

My Mom sent us a boat load of canned stuff this fall.... Thanks Mom! And in the mix were peaches canned in honey with cloves. We busted in to them to eat with the cake tonight. Sick! I tell ya! Sick!

Other than cake news... we are still getting settled in. Today we managed to clear out most of the random boxes that were loitering around the living room and kitchen. Rudy is still pouting. He always hates it for the first few weeks when we move. At least he has finally started to emerge from the depths of his cave bed. For the past two days you could not even see him he was so deep in there.

We are down to 4 days a week at the bakery so it leaves us with plenty of time to get projects done... Billy will be painting of course and I have a bunch of stuff I want to accomplish this winter. Art projects, recipe testing and plotting for the future. The biggest project of all will be not gaining 30 pounds over the course of the Nantucket winter. Not sure yet how I will tackle THAT one. So far I am not exactly headed in the right direction (glancing sideways at the giant cake on the kitchen counter.)

Still Moving....

2010-11-02T21:42:00.003-04:00

Well, kinda. We are moved in and the old place is cleaned out but it's that whole thing where we are sitting here all sore and tired in a pile of boxes wondering where the Hell to put stuff now. Words of advice.... if you can help it, don't move from one upstairs apartment to another upstairs apartment. Toooo many staaaairs y'all. I was trying to be all bad ass yesterday carrying heavy boxes and bins up to the new place. Billy kept saying... "That's too heavy! Let me get it!" and I was all "HA! I can carry this with my pinkie finger!" Right up until the moment that my knees lit up like someone had poured gasoline on them and then flicked a Zippo open mid shin. Busted. Up. Knees. This my fine friends is one of those "I'm getting OLD" moments. I CAN still carry the heavy shit upstairs.... but I SHOULDN'T carry it upstairs (apparently, according to my stupid knees.) So yeah, I'm still dealing with that, pain.

Otherwise the new digs are great. Clean. Warm. Big. Real Bed. Bath tub. Big Improvement. We are like straight up George and Louise Jefferson up in here.

I have no photos for you. Well, I do.... they are irrelevant to this post about moving. They are of Billy's croissants. I'm postin' them. Because they matter and I want to. FYI Billy is mastering from scratch real croissants people. Who does that, right? Billy does. And he knocks that shit right out the park. Check it....

Can you smell the butter? Because you actually may be able to. Take a deep sniff and let your mind get all doped out on the idea of the perfect flaky, crisp croissant. Yes! Look out Pierre Hermes! Billy's hot on your French pastry tail!

Cheers all.... catch you in a day or so once we get more settled.

Sugar Rush

2010-10-28T02:01:00.006-04:00

Howdy Doodies. It's late and it's rainin' and I am looking to curl up in bed with my book BUT I thought I would share a great recipe with ya before I hit the hay tonight. I have been making pumpkin whoopie pies for the bakery and man are they good. If you are headed to a Halloween party this coming weekend bring a mess of these and people will be lovin' you for real.

They are moist, loaded with spices and filled with a maple cream cheese frosting. Get back! It's delicious bitches! I have even had people that hate pumpkin say that these are damn fine eatin'.

Without further ado.... here's the recipe. It's from none other than Martha Freakin' Stewart y'all.

FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cloves

2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Martha uses a straight up cream cheese frosting filling but I prefer to add to the warm fuzziness of these treats by filling 'em with a maple cream cheese...

For the maple cream cheese filling:
3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the cookies....

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop* with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.

* I use a medium sized scoop.... I like my cookies a bit larger.

For the filling....

To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful not to over beat the filling or it will lose structure.

I keep these in the fridge after I put them together... they should keep pretty well for two or three days (Ha!)

We are really cranking stuff out at the bakery trying to get stocked up for the coming weekend. I made some great gluten free chocolate cupcakes tonight that I am pretty stoked about. Yup, they are the ones you see on the new header. I also made gluten free chocolate chip cookies and then sandwiched them together with vanilla butter cream. Woo Hoo!

Who has a great Halloween costume planned? Anybody? I am trying for one. I have a thing I am trying to do. Could be good... or it could end up being super stupid. We shall see come Sunday. We went to a pumpkin carving party just the other night... here are the faces we created. Please note Billy's creepy pumpkin off to the far left with the beady little eyes. Yuck Billy. Mine is the one on the top right. I always go for the classic, wicked jack-o-lantern face myself.

We will be moving into our new apartment sometime in the next week so forgive me if I go MIA for a minute. Have a great Halloween weekend!

More Troops Have Arrived

2010-10-25T23:26:00.002-04:00

And Rudy is still fearless in the face of the seal invasion....

This last one is the "Do you guys SEE this shit?" face.

Little Dog Stories

2010-10-21T02:37:00.002-04:00

Sock Puppet Wars

2010-10-17T13:35:00.003-04:00

Coming soon on Animal Planet....

The Seal Whisperer or.... The Seal Prediction of 2010

2010-10-16T01:17:00.006-04:00

So. The results are in. Rudy is not crazy ( at least not in a new even crazier way than we already knew about ) and he apparently has some Aquaman type skills that are straight up ACUTE!

We went down to the beach late this afternoon... same spot the incident occurred yesterday. And here is what we were met with......

Yeah. It's a seal invasion. A possible seal take over? There's way too many of them out there for it to be a casual get together. They are clearly up to no good. We stood gawking at them for a good ten minutes and they showed no signs of moving on or being the least bit concerned by our presence. In fact I think I saw a few of them sticking their tongues out and laughing at us. Let me tell you also.... this was not an isolated group. It was like this the length of the beach. There must have been a hundred seals out there.

How did Rudy know? And what other mysteries of the universe is he solving even now? Incredible.

Other than the gang of aggressive blood thirsty seals it was a lovely (if not quite windy and cold) afternoon.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but I dropped our 18- 135 lens for the Nikon and I F'ing broke it. So we are shooting every lovin' thing with our 50 mm. It was a huge loss out there today to only have this tight little lens to shoot with. The sky was epic. I tried to capture it the best I could.

Another epic event today that should be listed is the Whoopie Pie baking I peeled off at work tonight. I have been wanting to make these for awhile I finally had the chance tonight. Let me tell ya people.... I am a natural born killah in the whoopie pie department.

I want to make whoopie pies for the whole world. It could really be the thing that stops the madness, ya know? If every single person got one at the same time? Cosmic. It would be like the reverse of a black hole.... it would be like Shangri-Whoopie- La!

Ok. I have to go to bed. Have a grand weekend!

Rudy Sees a Seal Ghost? Senses a Great White?

2010-10-14T13:52:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was a gorgeous, fabulous day. The sort of day that makes you feel like spinning around Julie Andrews "The Sound of Music" style, shouting out about how grand life is and laughing gleefully like you have not got a care in the world. Yeah... it was that nice. SO we decided to hop on down to the beach here in Sconset to hang out, soak up some sun and let Rudy peel out for awhile. Rudy loves to spend the afternoon on the beach. If there aren't any other people around we can just let him wander around to his hearts content sniffing, digging and lavishing his fur with pungent odors in the patented stink roll as seen here...

He can usually keep himself occupied for hours. Every now and then he will come back to us and dig a bunker next to one of our chairs and crawl in to watch for birds to ambush. No worries for the birds. They always get away. As an aside let me just tell you that last week we were walking him off leash down the beach and he spied a seagull up ahead and took off after it. I watched in horror as I realized that the gull could not fly or even run away for that matter because it was injured. It was sort of washing back and forth in the surf at the waters edge. I started screaming at Rudy to "Leave It!" (this is what we say if we need him to drop some gnarly crap he is snacking on found on the ground, etc.) but he rushed right up to the thing and my mind was swirling with images of him ripping the thing up while it jabbed at his eyeballs with it's pointy seagull beak. So he ran up to it and then stopped a foot or so away and just stood there looking at it. He followed it as it washed up and down in the surf and sort of just puzzled at it. Billy made it to them first and he gently led Rudy away telling him what a "good boy" he was for leaving the seagull be. Every day since then of course Billy has scoffed at Rudy saying things like "You think you're a tough guy? You can't even kill a sick seagull!" This is their relationship. Billy and Rudy try to one up each other and make the other one look bad all the time. Like brothers. Like boys. Anyway... back to the original story.

We were sitting on the beach reading and sort of gazing out at the water watching a couple of fishing boats that were tooling around way out by the sandbar (there were no other people on the beach for at least a quarter of a mile on either side of us) and Rudy was laying in his bunker next to my chair facing the ocean. All the sudden he exploded up out of his hole barking and snarling. All the hair was up on his back and he was really, really on the defense. We both whirled around to see what was coming or who was around and.... nothing. There was nothing. Rudy continued to slowly advance toward the water barking like he was getting ready to fight for his life or defend ours. It was nuts how freaked out he was. And there was NOTHING out there. We tried to distract him and bring him back to our seats but he was in full blown attack mode. This went on for a good 3 to 4 minutes until Billy finally dragged him away and made him sit facing away from the water. Rudy still tried to turn his head to look back and was whining and crying in worry. Eventually we calmed him down and went back to reading for a couple minutes when he suddenly went off again. This time we ended up having to leave because he would not cool his jets. Ok. Sooooo WTF, right? Either we have a delusional, neurotic terrier or there was an 18 foot great white trolling for seals twenty feet off the beach? Or perhaps Moby Dick's evil cousin was communicating telepathically with Rudy from the briny deep? It really makes ya wonder. It was a sunny, calm day with nothing going on. Either this dog has a wicked imagination and is a great play actor or some creepy shit was slinkin' around in the water not too far off. We will never know. It's not the first time The Rudester has faced off against the mighty Atlantic with a bit of an attitude. When hurricane Earl was peelin' through he was downright surly about it. Please do click through on this photo to see the look on his face.

What a majestic beast, right? I'll let ya know if we end up having to get him set up on anti psychotic drugs. Or if Sconset gets wiped out by a giant sea monster.

OMG

2010-10-11T21:50:00.009-04:00

I can't even believe I am here. On this blog. I can't believe they let me in. "They" meaning the password gremlins that live inside the Internets caves and deep, dark hollows. I mean... I completely abandoned ship like 3 months ago, right? And I am totally talking to myself right now, right? Because I know that nobody else is out there pickin' up what I am puttin' down. Well, I'm doin' it anyway. I may as well hold a conversation with me, myself and I for awhile and see if anyone comes back around.

How can I sum up the three months I have been absent in writing here? How about this... It sucked worse than anything has ever sucked before (for me personally) but somehow I survived it. It's not worth droning on about.... I had a job, it was not nice. We had an apartment which was also.... not nice. I worked 6 days a week in the dead of night and struggled to sleep for 4 hours a day through the heat and loud noise of a summer spent living above The 'Sconset Market. And now it's October. Let's pick up right here and now shall we?

For anyone who lost track... we are living out on Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts. The Airstream is in storage back in Illinois. Rudy is alive and well. Billy is Billy as always. I am a hot mess similar to a spilled pot of spaghetti on a white dining room rug. So nothing there has changed. We had planned to come out to Nantucket for the summer and then peel out for parts unknown again come September but that plan has changed. This is mostly due to lack of funding for random acts of traveling. These are seriously hard times for a couple of bums like us with a bug up their ass to move every 6 months. The other reasons for staying here are butter, flour and sugar. I continue to bake and surprisingly enough Billy is baking now too. We managed to pin down jobs at a brand new bakery right downtown which is cute as heck. It's called The Petticoat Row Bakery and is open year round which is not typical for Nantucket. Most everything shuts down in the off season here. The bakery was opened by the Re-Main Foundation which is striving to revitalize downtown Nantucket for the year round community. There are around 10,000 islanders in the winter here and in the summer the population shoots up to around 50,000. Quite a difference, no? Re-Main thinks that these 10,000 souls left to languish out here during the long cold months of a New England winter should still at least be able to get a fresh baguette or a cupcake with a coconut butter cream frosting or a gluten free brownie for pete's sake! So Billy and I are among the folks workin' to keep the dream alive. So far so good. Here are some images from our nights spent in the Petticoat kitchen.

Starry Little Blueberry Pies....

What I am now calling King Kong Cookies... they started as Thomas Keller's version of Nutter Butters and have transitioned into cookies monstrosities filled with peanut butter cream, chocolate butter cream and fresh banana butter cream. They should really be illegal.

This is the bakery.....

Billy's gorgeous and delicious baguettes...

A chocolate linzer tart....

Billy's hand painted cupcakes....

Kinda makes you slobber a little bit and wish you had a cookie to cram in your face right now right? Yah, me too.

We are still living above the market out in the village but will be moving in closer to town near the end of this month. Our winter rental has an art studio ( a full on real one) for Billy to work in so he will no longer be crammed in to a creepy corner or painting in the middle of the living room as he has had to do in the past. I can't say what this winter will hold for us.... the bakery is brand new and they really have no idea what to anticipate for the dead of winter. We have not spent a winter out her in almost ten years. It's an experience. I am going to do my best to photograph the island and some of our friends here to share on the blog.

Today we took a long walk out at Sanford Farm. Rudy loooooves it out there. So do I actually. Here are some images from the walk.

I imposed a sort of a vintage-y feeling to all these images because that was the way I was seeing things today. I guess it is the colors of fall that lead my mind in that direction.

When we made it up to the old barn and Ram's Pasture, Billy grabbed an old school jump shot of Rudy and I because the time and place were just right for one....

I am just glad I still have the jump in me. One of these times I'll probably throw out my back or break my hip or some shit trying to do it. And it will all be recorded on the camera.... so we have that to look forward to.

We Are Still Alive

2010-07-15T19:56:00.003-04:00

Terrier Levitation

Spooky Foggy Water

Dead Dogs

Crazy Legs

Billy Upsidedown

4th Sunset on the Harbor

Ferry Boats

Slaving Away in the Kitchen

Finally Summer!

Absolute Tranquility (about to be shattered)

2010-05-25T17:58:00.002-04:00

This weekend loads of summer folk will arrive on Nantucket. Our time of quiet is just about done. It has been fabulous to have Sconset and it's gorgeous scenery all to ourselves for the past couple weeks. Memorial Day weekend is a big one out here... there's The Figawi Race for one thing. This results in hundreds (perhaps thousands) of drunk sailors storming the island for two days. I'll be glad to be out here on the far end of the island away from that action.

Wine and Cheese (and Miracle Whip)

2010-05-23T09:11:00.005-04:00

Today is the last day of the Nantucket Wine Festival which has kept us busy the past few days. I don't have pics because we were working as volunteers. Today we get to go as guests... so it's a day of sashaying about with the upper crusties for us.

This coming week is the opening of the cafe and market I am baking for. Thursday is the big day. I just have to survive memorial day weekend and then things should settle down for a few weeks til the busy season hits us like a ton of cobblestones and soft shell crab sandwiches on July 4th weekend. I'll have Billy come down and shoot some images of the kitchen and my giant mixing bowl this week. It's this bowl that is going to give me big guns like Popeye before the summer is over.

Until then... a few more random ACK shots. I have to get get fancied up for our day at The White Elephant.

Rudy and I loitering in the front yard of some mansion on the bluffs at dusk.... I am wearing my thrifted Narciso Rodriguez cashmere coat. It's probably my best thrift score of this past year.

And here is Billy getting his Nantucket groove on.

We had dinner with a dear friend who is visiting the island from right next door on Martha's Vineyard last night whom we have not seen in a long while. Jaime can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear as my Gram always says and we had a lovely little date with she and her boyfriend Paul at their wee little cottage which is about twenty paces from our own door here in Sconset. She had nothing to work with but a cutting board the size of an emery board in a thimble sized kitchen yet she dashed off a gorgeous meal. We had a great time and Jaime... I did not detect a trace of soap on those olives. ;) But maybe it was just the tang of The Miracle Whip coating my tongue? (inside joke y'all)

Secret Way

2010-05-21T15:39:00.002-04:00

This way is actually not too much of a secret. It's a pretty well trodden path here in Sconset.... but this little section always feels like a wee bit of magic is workin' on ya.

Roughage

2010-05-20T09:14:00.004-04:00

Lots of hour glass sand effects coming from Rudy's hind end again these days. His diet consists of 70% dog food/30% beach. Because to dig a hole like this apparently involves eating a few cups of sand each time.

A Pic a Day Kind of a Thang

2010-05-18T20:13:00.003-04:00

I have so many photos. If I can't get a wordy post up I may as well slap up a pic. It's the least I can do after so many months of negligence.

Just us kids... my Mom snapped this one of us on Billy's recent birthday. He turned 35. What a whippersnapper.

Ridiculous

2010-05-17T18:58:00.000-04:00

I bet if I were to look back I probably have one or two past posts titled "Ridiculous." It is a word that is quite often appropriate and relevant in our daily lives. In this case it is appropriate because it accurately described the amount of information I need to relay in this post to get you caught up with what we have been doing. In a nut shell (one the size of Texas) we packed up and peeled out from Santa Fe, drove across the middle west to Illinois, our truck and trailer were both loaded to the gills with stupid amounts of stuff, we stayed a week with my family, stored the trailer and left my parents house with windows bulging under the stress of cookbooks, canvases and dog toys to head east to Massachusetts. We drove in a storm the whole way across, landed on the coast to visit with Billy's family for three days then drove on to the ferry for the 2 hour ride out to the island. Which island? THIS one. Nantucket. The scene of the original crime. This is where Billy and I met almost ten years ago. We are here for the summer to bake, paint and burn our bums on the beach as much as possible. It's one of our favorite places in the whole wide world and I am so stoked to be here again.

But! I'm going to take a few steps back to slap up a couple of shots from the visit in Illinois....

Being that we would only be in town for a few days we decided to host a brunch at my Mom's and invited just a few close friends over. People we wanted to be sure to spend a day hanging out with because we luuuuuurve them so much. One of my best friend's (Beth) came over with her two kids Oscar and Sully. Oscar made buddies with Rudy and they tore it up out in my Mom's enormous back yard.

Beth's youngest is Sully. And people.... let me tell you something about this baby. He is no normal baby. He is a V.I.P. Just take a gander and I think it comes across quite obviously.

We were handing him around like an action figure so that everyone could get in on the chubby baby lovin'.

Don't worry.... contrary to what it looks like no injuries were incurred during these proceedings.

It was such a joy to get to see both of these kids. They are some of my favorite people in the whole world. Also in that category is our long time friend Gordon (aka Cappy.) He cruised down from Milwaukee on his motorbike. And then he cruised all over the mid west on it after he left our party. He's cool like dat. The man packs Teddy Grahams and Glenlivet in his saddle bags. Who else do you know that does it? No one. Just our Cappy.

Our friends Art and Andrea and their kids Max and Gianna came as well but somehow I spaced getting a photo of them. I worked with Andrea when I was about 20 years old at a little Victorian revival jewelry shop in Illinois. We laughed at all the customers behind their backs and sometimes maybe even right in their face. Good times.

We had some beautiful weather while we were in IL and a nice spring full moon filled the sky with light. Until I snatched it down and made off with it.

I spent a full day hanging out with my Gram at her apartment. We chewed the fat and laughed and looked at old photos. She tells us constantly that she is our biggest fan and well, I have to say that it goes both ways as we are her biggest fans too. She is the one that gave me my start as a baker.... so there is that too.

I don't have any other family pics... we got lazy with the camera this time I guess. We did have a great time cooking our asses off with my Mom (and my Dad when he was off work) and ate good food every single night. One night my Dad and Billy ate four pounds of mussels and a whole loaf of bread between them which was getting a little bit gross I thought... but they seemed to be having a blast. My Mom stayed home with Rudy so we could head out dog free a few times. It was a great visit and we came away feeling happy as heck that we got to hang out for the week.

Thanks to Patty for my hair spa day and to Ralph and Susie for taking us out for a grand dinner and a night of belly laughs.

I'll post some pics from our stay at Gail's (Billy's Mom) next time along with tons of island pics.
I am about to be fed a big plate of some sort of fabulous dinner so I am going to leave you here for now. Well, I'll post a couple of Nantucket pics just to get the ball rolling for next time. The town harbor and Brant Point Lighthouse and a shot of our beach where we live out in Sconset.

First Days of Spring

2010-04-13T18:06:00.004-04:00

One small dog in the street sassing off with a serious attitude.

Yesterday we had our first spring rain and even though it was crazy windy it was a gorgeous day. We went out walking and hoofed it up to Fort Marcy Park for sunset.

Time Flies When you're Nuttier than a Snickers Bar

2010-04-07T22:37:00.004-04:00

Howdy y'all! It's me! Remember me? I know there are a few of ya out there feeling mighty sour toward me and my flimsy old neglected blog and you have every right to. I suck. I have sucked for almost a year... but guess why? Because I have been working and life has been repetitious and (kinda) boring. It was winter (BOOOO!) we did not travel (DOUBLE BOOOO!) and Rudy did not sustain any major injuries... sooooo, not much to talk about ya know? I got out of the habit of writing and was feeling uninspired for a good long while. But the times they are a-changin'.

I can report that Michelle had her baby... a little more than a month early. The little bugger gave her a real run for her money too.... she had a pretty rough go of it but she finally delivered a healthy boy after several days of crazy labor. Wyatt Hogan Mickelson is now the star of the show here in Santa Fe. Pretty damned cute.....

Other than that big news.... I have my own big announcement to make.... NOOooooo I'm not pregnant. It's a different sort of big news. We are leaving Santa Fe in a little less than a month which I am a little sad about, I love it here and would have liked to have stayed around for a few more years to watch Wyatt grow... BUT! I have been hired for the coming summer season as a baker for a cafe and market in 'Sconset on the island of Nantucket. We have wanted to go back to ACK (call letters for Nantucket airport and common nickname for the island) for a long time but have been unable to get a foothold out there since we left about 7 years ago. It's a short tourist season on the island so my job will run from late May til the end of September. It's gonna be intense... 6 days a week with suuuper early hours in the height of the season... 4 a.m. til noon. True bakers hours for sure! It will hurt getting up that early but the most gorgeous beaches on the east coast lay waiting for us when I finish my shift each day so you'll find me napping under an umbrella on the sandy shoreline by 2 p.m. daily thank you very much. We are excited to see all of our old friends and since Nantucket is where Billy and I met it is a little like going home for us.

This last month in Santa Fe is flying by... we have to get packed to move and let me tell ya it's a-m-a-z-i-n-g how much crap we have accumulated in the 9 months we have been here. We have to fit everything back in the truck and trailer and head to Illinois where we will store everything we don't need for the summer. We will return to Chicago in October... and I will reveal the plan for the rest of the winter sometime soon.

And for those of you hankerin' for an ugly little dog fix....

Geez.... can you imagine that I allow that thing to lay in bed with me each morning? Whew.

I will do my best to keep more up to date now that I will have a bit more time on my hands for the next two months... and will be on the road a bit and doing more fun stuff. Check in on the comments and let me know who all is still around will ya?

Cheers!

Three!

2010-02-15T10:01:00.005-05:00

Well howdy folks.... hope you are all enjoying this three day weekend which is only a two day weekend for me. I'm gettin' ready to head in to work here in a few. Since when does President's Day fall the day after Valentine's? I'm confused by that one.

So this was Rudy's birthday weekend. He turned 3. In years past we have had more of "a party" for him but this year we kept it more low key. We just took him out to a local dog boutique where you can buy cashmere sweaters for your mini-she-poo-shizzle-wizzle (new designer breed) or a $250 dog bed made of pure organic cotton candy and satin. We let Rudy loose in this wonderland of silliness and waited to see what he would go for.... "pick out" if you will. After a few minutes of frenzied sniffing and confusion it was clear we had a winner....

It's a platypus. What a fabulous choice right? I mean... it would have been between the platypus and the armadillo for me personally so I support his decision whole heartedly. We also let him pick out a dessert treat from the case full of weirdly real yet fake looking baked goods. Cakes for dogs. Why not?

The green cupcake was devoured after dinner and the platypus got it's ass kicked all night long. So all in all I think he had a fine birthday.

I decided to bake a brown butter raspberry tart for the VD holiday.... it sure was pretty but I can't say it is a recipe I would make again. I pulled it from an old Bon Appetit magazine. It was simple to make but turned out kind of bleh. I would have rather eaten those gorgeous berries straight outta the package.

Looks good huh? It's such a fake out. Maybe it will be better once it has had a chance to think about who it wants to be in this world over night. It needs to pull itself up by the boots straps and get a better attitude. Yeaaahhhhhh...... Who am I kiddin'? We will eat it even if it starts bad mouthing it's grandma and throwing rotten eggs at nuns. Even lack luster baked goods get fair treatment in this household. Sad but true.

OK. Gotta go polish up my chocolate stirring muscle and curl my eyelashes for work. Cheers all!

Boots and Babies

2010-01-31T18:35:00.006-05:00

Happy weekend! I still have one more day off ahead of me so neener neener! I love three day weekends (DUH, WHO DOESN'T?) What's new around here? Well... yesterday I scored some vintage silver cowboy boots. A seen in both pics here. Now I'm like a rhinestone cowboy or some shit like that.... some people call me a space cowboy..... whatever.

Also... I have bangs now. And so does Rudy. We both have new hair-dos. He looks great don't you think? I look like a twelve year old with wrinkles. Which is just weird. But I'm trying to roll with it.

Today I shot pics of my best friend Michelle who is baking a baby which is due to arrive in April. It's a hard thing for the two of us to pull off.... serious, artsy pregnant pictures, mostly because we die laughing every time we try to act serious about it. The baby is probably laughing too... or crying. Crying because it's doomed to hang out with a couple of dorks like us.

I can barely stand it waiting around to get a load of this kid. It's a little more than two months away now.... until the person who I will corrupt with candy, baked goods and dirty secrets about their Mom's past will be born. Baby and I have a lot of work to do.

I Know.... I KNOW!

2010-01-26T22:36:00.003-05:00

I'm just as sick of the damned Christmas Elf picture as you are. Here I am finally doin' something about it. Just don't get too excited because I don't have a whole heck of a lot to report. It's still winter. I just ate a piece of toast at 8:30 p.m. that I really did not need to eat. Billy's watching a video on a guy getting attacked by a shark on youtube and the next big thing on the schedule tonight is pajamas and bed. Hot!

Sooooooo.... yeah. We are plodding along through winter and making plans for the near future. If the plan we have on the table right now goes through it will be big news for real so stay tuned. Minds should be made up in the next week or so. It would involve some radical big changes up in here! Exciting! Maybe..... !?

We did take a quick trip up to Taos with a visit from family last week so here are a couple of random nice shots from the day... We visited The Fechin Museum, the gorge bridge (which forever reminds me of the movie Natural Born Killers) and just poked around town....

Gorgeous leather work on an antique chair at Fechin...

Carved wood vigas in the museum house...

The Rio Grande as seen from the gorge bridge...

Bridge shadow and mountains...

A little jumpin' action on the bridge....

This has been the sorriest 6 months ever for this poor blog. Trust me when I tell ya that I wish I had the oomph to get her up and rollin again.... maybe when Spring hits and our new plan takes hold I will blow her right outta the water. We shall see! Until then keep the ice of yer bum and hold tight!

Post Christmas

2009-12-30T23:52:00.005-05:00

Christmas Eve at work... dressed as elves and throwin' down with some X-mas cacao for the people.

Howdy Y'all! Hope everyone had a great holiday. Ours was pretty low key. We stayed home, opened presents, made lasagna, ate cookies, nursed our colds (yup, we both got sick right in Christmas) and spent the better part of the day on the phone with family. The rest of the weekend is not worth talkin' about unless you are interested in stories of coughing til you nearly puke in the night or what sort of cough drop is most effective when invisible needles are stabbing the most tender part of the back of your throat.

On Christmas Eve we did make a very cold run up and down Canyon Rd to see the farolito lights. It was super pretty.... but Lordie was it coooold. I snapped a few pics and then we hoofed it right back home.

We are still snowy and cold here. Rudy hates it. I hate it. But we get by....

Snow dog!

Doing my best scary Hillbilly face(s)....

Rudy practicing his Wolf Man look for the Blue Moon on New Years Eve...

Happy New Years Peeps!

Buried Alive

2009-12-20T20:17:00.006-05:00

I'm not sure how to start this post.... "I'm sorry" seems appropriate as does "Time flies when your ass is stuck working too many hours to the point of exhaustion." I guess a combo will do... I'm sorry for disappearing for a few weeks from writing while I got my ass carved like a turkey at work. Yeah! That about sums it up. I wish I had more eloquent ways of saying it but reality dictates that I just lay it out there clean and simple. So the holiday season for a chocolatier turns out to be not so much fun! The people of the world need sea salt caramels and toffee almond bark. They demand it.

Not much has been going on around here for the past few weeks worth reporting on... it's been cold outside, snowy. We are just kinda plodding along waiting for the quiet season to descend upon us to allow for more fun and photo taking like back in the day. "Back in the day" referring to the time before I started workin' for the man. That's right Jeff Keenan I am talkin' about you.

We are staying put in Santa Fe for Christmas. I am actually pretty excited to finally be here for the big Canyon Rd Christmas Eve celebration. We have never spent Christmas here and it is a really gorgeous place to be for the holidays. I will be sure to take and post loads of photos from the Canyon Rd walk (supposedly thousands of people show up for it to go caroling, drink hot cider and dip in and out of the galleries for goodies and cheer.... and all this will be going on two blocks down the road from our apartment.) The whole road is already lit up with ga-zillions of lights. My favorite display is this one.... Hooray for these people. They are doin' it right!

That is all in one yard. Hot tamale! I love it. I get so excited when I drive by that house at night that I usually end up punching my window. That may make no sense to you at all.... but just know it is a good thing... coming out of a place of pure happiness. It's the purest window punching happiness there is. Also know that I basically stole like a thieve in the night through the gate of this place to creep around the yard to take these pictures. I'm cool like that.

Last night was our holiday party for The Chocolatesmith. I can tell you that I have felt mildly nauseous all day because of it. Why? Two glasses of wine and three of champagne that's why. It's the most alcohol I have consumed in years. We hooked up at The Rio Chama Steakhouse downtown and ate til we were stuffed and then crashed the party of our work neighbors (The Axis Salon) who happened to be having their own soiree in the wine cellar of the restaurant. This was where things got a little rough around the edges (but in a fun way.)

Here I am drunk as a skunk and loving up on Victor who does hair at the salon and is a gem of a fun person. Please note the aura of cruise ship romance in this photo. Funny no?

Here's the boss lady and I laughing ourselves sick over back waxing stories and Victor's wacky dance moves.

And the whole group... making asses of ourselves after dinner. It was of course my big idea to make everybody do the hands face. What do you call that hands face thing? Does it have a name?

Four more days of crazy at work and then we get a little respite until Valentines Day rolls in like a Mac Truck full of ass whippin'. How many times have I referred to asses being kicked, whipped or carved up in this post? So telling.

I have been baking cookies all day today.... I took a break to sit down and bust out this post. Our tiny kitchen is overflowing with baked goods and I still have about 4 more things I want to make. I am baking with fresh local eggs I bought from the farmer's market on Saturday.... and oodles of supplies came in a huge box from my Mom. She sent me just about everything you need to bake yourself in to a coma. The first cookies in and out of the oven were molasses crinkles.

Billy and Rudy are doin' just fine for those of you who keep tabs. Especially now that the house is full of cookies. Word.

Have a great holiday week peeps! Cheers!

Holiday Lights in Santa Fe

2009-11-25T00:10:00.005-05:00

Just a quick photo post. I am crazy at work this week and I am feeling like dookie. Not a great combo... Anyway, on to the farolito lights! And a few other random shots....

I guess this last one threw you for a loop eh? Rudy and his creepy rhino friend. This is one of the many fringe benefits of living on Canyon Rd. You share your space with some seriously odd stuff.

I will try to post again on Thursday. Hope everyone is ready for the holiday rush... it is here!

Technical Difficulty

2009-11-15T22:49:00.010-05:00

Where to begin? Our internet service has been working like a hot pig on a Sunday afternoon after eating two tons of slop. In other words.... it has not been working at all. Due to this situation I have ground my teeth down to itty bitty nubs and am on a soft food diet. Since the sow seems to be feeling perky tonight I decided to try to whip off a post with some much over due photos. As I said oh like a week or so ago Billy's Mom came to see us with her best friend Linda in tow. They stayed for almost a week and we saw the sights and bought approximately 400 pounds of turquoise jewelry. It was good times!

One of the first stops we made was at Tent Rock south of Santa Fe. It is a really rewarding short hike to the top of a mesa with a fabulous view. One of the coolest aspects of the place is that you get to hike through a slot canyon. Last time I checked they don't have any slot canyons in New England where the girls are from so we thought it would be a fun choice....

Gail... always one for high adventure, insisted on showing off her rock climbing skills....

This is Linda up top on the mesa.... all smiles for having made it up for the beautiful view under that gorgeous blue sky.

A bunch of dorks on our lunch break. Blow it up for the full effect. Everybody looks like a dope.

Gail and I waving triumphantly from the top.... Yo!

We also made a trip up to Taos to see the Rio Grande Gorge bridge and shop for jewelry at the Taos Pueblo. It was another seriously gorgeous day. We lucked out big time with the weather. It was near 70 every day.... and now a week later we have snow. I am so glad they came when they did!

The pueblo is one of my favorite places to visit in Northern NM and hopefully you can see why from looking at these few photos here. It is in such a serene beautiful setting... Taos really is magical.

And just to sort of sum up the general mood and attitude of our outings...

Yeah Gail.... I know. You want to kill me for posting that photo. But guess what. You can't. And besides.... I look just as much an idiot as you do. And I put my photo first so suck it up mamma!

We are so glad we got to take the week to hang out and show you guys around Santa Fe. It was a blast. Thanks for coming all the way out here to see us!

Hmmm what else? It's snowing. Did I mention it snowed? It's cold. It snowed. So anyway. We are gearing up for the big holiday season at The Chocolatesmith and planning our Thanksgiving dinner with friends Chris and Jana (and Chico and Mugsy.) The month of November is leaving burn out marks on my face it is going by so fast.

Hope you all are ready for the coming season of craziness.... I will try to get back to normal posting instead of being the lame ass I have been of late. Ciao!

Time Flies!

2009-11-09T22:19:00.004-05:00

Hey! Sorry I have once again pulled a solid disappearing act here. The past week or two has been crazy busy. Billy's Mom made a very exciting and unexpected guest appearance here in New Mexico! She and her friend Linda came out for a week and we had a blast. It was Gail's first time in Santa Fe and I think it's safe to say she had a really good time. I took lots of photos (of course) and I will try to get a story or two plus pics up in the next day or so.

For now I will leave ya with this... a shot of us on top of the mesa at Tent Rock. Check out the color of that New Mexican sky!

A Very Cold Camping Weekend

2009-10-26T10:41:00.007-04:00

We took a few days to drag the Airstream out of it's lonely existence at the storage facility and tow it up to Taos. I feel like our lives are becoming pretty banal these past few months in the apartment. I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. Billy paints and paints and paints... which is great but he is kinda trapped under a two ton paint brush of commitment. Blah. Unacceptable! But unfortunately necessary until we recover more fully from the economic meltdown of the past year and a half. We are at an equivalent moment to the part in the story in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea when he has not caught a fish in 84 days. We are now just waiting for our big fish to arrive. Any time now fishy.... annnnny time.

Back to the current cold camping conditions. Taos! Beautiful! I freaking LOVE Taos. We came up on Saturday and set up in a campground just south of town. We came ready to watch the local hot air balloon festival, go hiking and explore a few new areas we have not been to previously. We ended up doing a load of standing around in the cold predawn air waiting for balloons to take off that never did (poor conditions), driving through a foggy sleet storm and getting whapped in the face by winter at every turn. Not. Ready. For. That. I mean... don't get me wrong, we still had a great weekend it was just not quite as we pictured heading into it. We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on everything outside. EEK!

The one thing I can solidly report is that I miss living in the Airstream. If we could hitch up and peel outta here for a good three or four months of travelin' I would go in a split second. I don't even care where. Well, I guess I DO care where.... anywhere as long as it stays above 45 degrees and cold places are DENIED! Death Valley? Sure. Let's go.

On to the parade of photos. I have lots. We did get to see 4 or 5 balloons take off Sunday morning. They did not go far, maybe a mile or so away from the field they started out of. I think there were a few pilots who just wanted to please the crowd and so they did a gratuitous flight for Ooooooing and Ahhhhhing's sake. Here are my best shots from the morning...

That was the first balloon of the morning and here are a few others that I was able to get pretty shots of....

This next shot is the inside top of the balloon shot from the basket looking up while it's being inflated.

Those dark gray clouds are exactly the reason why we did not get to see a full on mass ascension. It started to rain soon after. It was still a cool thing to see up close. And the crowd was perfectly crazy New Mexican.....

Balloon McGyver.... rigging stuff up while wearing 80's tribal themed bandannas.

And my favorite fashion statement of the day.... the Eagle Versus Cobra hoodie guy. I die a little bit every time I revisit this photo. I want that hoodie. In electric blue.

Here he is again. Patiently waiting for the action to unfold... when all the while he was probably the most exciting thing flyin' that morning...

We are packing up to head back to Santa Fe so I will post the rest of the photos when I get back. We grabbed some amazing shots at dusk last night so be sure to check back!

Appreciate the Little Things....

2009-10-23T01:18:00.003-04:00

and the big, messy, chaotic things....

There's beauty in both.

Have a beauty of a weekend!

Rubber Eyeballs, Wrestling and Uhhh, Cake?

2009-10-20T10:28:00.007-04:00

Howdy all. Well, the fall days are just a rollin' on by aren't they? Some folks have already been snowed on and I have a feeling we are not too far down on that waiting list here in Santa Fe. Yeeeeeeesh. It makes my toes curl up just thinking about it. I am trying to keep my pinkie finger firmly pressed on the slow motion button these last few weeks of October. After Halloween comes and goes all bets are off as far as the weather goes. We have experienced winters here in NM where we could sit outside in short sleeves in January...aaannnd we have experienced winters where your eyeball cracks in two and falls out of your head upon meeting with the frigid outside air. Time will tell what Ma Nature is dishing out for us this year... but oh man are we hoping for the sunny warm option. And by warm I mean like 50 degrees. I don't want to fake anyone out into thinking we can kick it with 70 degree days in teh winter here because we can't. We don't. Unfortunately.

Weekend report... I worked on Saturday. Plllllbbbbbbth. That's all I will say about that. Sunday Michelle came over with her pregnant little self and we sat around in the living room chewing the fat (conversational fat not baby fat... yuck!) and crocheting like a couple-a old hens. Billy was an old hen right along with us while painting. Later that night we cruised over to friends Chris and Jana's house for dinner. They had worked all day prepping oodles of pizza making ingredients including killer sauce. We set up an assembly line of sorts in the kitchen and just made pizza after pizza. Rudy came with us and he ran amok with his buddy Chico while us humans carried on with mushrooms and mozzarella. Chris and Jana had bought 15 pounds of tomatoes at the farmer's market on Saturday so we ate a load of toms.

I brought a fudge cake with fresh raspberries for dessert. Along with the fact that Billy had requested to borrow a cast of a human skull from Chris it made for an interesting visual on the table. It's very "cake or death?" a la Eddie Izzard don't you think?

The night carried on with rubber eyeballs and dog wrestling until we were all pretty much falling asleep at the table and so we decided to head home.

In other news.... we are towing the Airstream up to Taos this coming weekend. We are going to hang out in town a bit and then do the loop through Eagle Nest and Red River. I. Can't. Wait. It will be a really quick trip but still.... it's been too long since we had the peanut out on an adventure. I am apprehensive about our campground choices in and around Taos. I will let you know how it turns out. They all look pretty heavy on the crappy scale to me from what I am gleaning off campground review sites. We shall seeeeeee!

I am off to work to churn the chocolate and dip the caramels. Have a lovely Monday peeps! Cheers!

Autumn Magic

2009-10-14T23:53:00.006-04:00

Well... I just had to pop back on here and post a few more pics of Santa Fe in full fall color. It is so pretty right now and the weather is just amazing. It has been in the 70's during the day and then hitting the mid 40's at night. Heck yeah people! I can live with that!

We live about a block off of the Santa Fe River.... it is dry as a bone now but that just converts it into a great walking path to get in and out of town on for us. Right now the whole thing is lined with aspens and other bright yellow foliage. It's gorgeous.

We walked downtown this afternoon to hit the plaza for some people watching, grabbed a hot chocolate and then meandered back home. Rudy loves going downtown. He also loves people watching. He's a pro.

It's late as I write this but I just took an apple spice cake out of the oven. It's a recipe out of an old Food and Wine magazine. HERE is the recipe for anyone interested. It's a mean good cake. I would post a picture except for the fact that about a third of my cake stayed stuck to the inside of my bundt pan when I tried to flip it out. Bastard! I hate when that happens. So yeah... we are about to pig out on cake with almost a full pound of butter in it at 10:30 at night. It's always nice to go to bed feeling like you have a lead brick in your stomach.

Hope y'all are enjoying the fall weather wherever you are. Winter will be here all too soon so get out there are soak it up while you still can!

Nothing Much

2009-10-12T21:33:00.008-04:00

Well... I just came from having three days in a row off and what do I have to show for it? Nuthin'. I still have a messy house and the inside of the fridge is like something out of a Tim Burton movie. We have been doing that thing that you do when you get lazy about cooking and you go to the store and buy three stupid things... only enough to make one half assed meal and then the next time you are hungry it's like "We were JUST at the store why don't we have any food?" And then you eat a pickle and mayonaise sandwich on questionably stale bread. I am almost tempted to take a photo inventory of some of the refrdgerated oddities we are housing right now. ALMOST tempted. But I will save you the horror.

So October is almost have gone and we have yet to take the Airstream out on a fall adventure. In a few more weeks it will be too late. Or maybe it already is too late? I dunno. I still want to do it. I want to go north to a lake and take the kayak out in freezing cold water under the electric blue NM sky for the day.

I did finally get a few new vintage listings up in my Etsy shop. The star of the show is a 1950's era Alfred Shaheen Hawaiian shirt. It's legit. Totally a collector's piece. It's a fabulous pattern in dark chocolate browns and terra cotta pinks.

The other favorite is a really sweet homemade cotton dress sewn out of the coolest woodland print fabric. It features lions, foxes, rabbits, quail and peacocks on a silver and black backdrop of leaves and foliage. Vibrant red flowers are peppered throughout for contrast. SO cute!

Today was my day at home alone while Billy went to cook up a few batches of toffee and caramel for the shop. I tried to get some more vintage photographed but instead I ended up just experimenting with the camera and photoshop... mostly because the lighting was awful and the pics were just not coming out the way I needed them to for my shop listings.

Here are a few random results.

What? Doesn't everybody spend a Monday doing this all alone in their apartment every so often? Rudy was here with me. He took the photos. He is an excellent photographer.

About the New Header

2009-10-05T23:50:00.003-04:00

The alternate foot note on the new header was "Takin' it to the streets." It was a hard choice but I went with takin' care of business instead. It felt right.

So pretty much all there is to say about this is that Billy and I have a habit of bringing home chairs... office chairs to be exact, that other people have left out on the curb as garbage. Why? Because we like them. Again... Why? I can't say. It's free? It's a free office chair? There is no good reason for this behavior. All I can tell you is that finding free office chairs is somehow exhilarating for both of us. And if it's wrong to feel that way I don't want to be right.

We found this one a block or so down the road from our house and Woo Hoo! We brought it home. Billy is sitting in it now to paint. The last chair we took from a curb was in this very same neighborhood a few years back and it was lovingly referred to as "the captain's chair." We sadly parted ways with it at a garage sale when we left to travel in the Airstream.

Anyway I think you can see the genuine excitement on Billy's face here about his new seat. We now have a random assortment of chairs in our living room that is really quite ridiculous. And now you know one of our dirty little secrets. We take garbage chairs. We can't help ourselves.

And if you never hear from me again it's because Billy killed me when he discovered this post.

Also...I'd like to say thanks to the good folks in the east side neighborhood for throwing out perfectly good office furniture.

Aspen Vista

2009-10-05T13:45:00.006-04:00

I have been in a panic the past week or so to get up in to the mountains so as not to miss the aspens in full color. It does not last long once it gets rolling... it's just a short window of time for peak color. It is one of my absolute favorite landscape visuals anywhere in America. I love it. Let me show you why...

Sigghhhhhhh. Purty ain't it? Yesterday we packed Rudy into the truck and drove his most dreaded car ride up into the ski basin area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that back Santa Fe. It's a twisty turny road and as most of you may know... he gets wicked car sick. We made it up there puke free to the Big Tesuque trailhead that meets up with the Aspen Vista trail. We spent a few hours wandering through the woods along the edge of the creek and let the gorgeous trees and electric blue sky sooth our souls.

It was a gorgeous day. Rudy had a blast and since I have been cooped up indoors 4 or 5 days a week at the chocolate shop for the past three months (still not used to that) I felt like I was dreaming.

I found a perfectly shaped aspen to take a little break in the sun on ....

Until Rudy jumped right up on my gut and stuck his wet nose in my ear.

There are already so many leaves on the ground... the color will be gone in another week or two. Hopefully we will get back out to see it one more time before winter in the higher elevations starts to settle in.

Brief Interlude with a Snake

2009-09-27T01:59:00.002-04:00

Crazy !

2009-09-21T21:32:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was just nuts. I am still working away at the chocolate shop trying to get caught up (people sure do seem to need a lot of chocolate these days) and Billy was consumed with visiting the big art expo which was going on at the new Santa Fe convention center. They had art supplies at wholesale pricing and a lot of demos and workshops. Right up his alley. The expo was also featuring an opportunity to audition for a PBS program called Passport and Palette about master artists traveling the world painting on location (in obviously fabulous locations.) Billy auditioned and did really well. The producer really seems to like his art and was excited about our story having traveled the past three years in the Airstream painting all over the USA. After his interview on Friday the producer asked Billy to bring me by on Sunday and also wanted to see the Airstream.

So on Sunday morning we hitched the old girl up and towed her down to the convention center. Crazy! We parked in the loading dock area and the producer, Theodore... who is a really cool guy, filmed us in and around the trailer. Super, super fun stuff people. Apparently the footage will be up for review with the other producers and decision makers involved in the show back in New York. Tons of folks have auditioned... but I think we have a good shot at making guest artist on the program. Hopefully final word will come down within the month. So cross your fingers, toes and eyes for us! We are basically stunned by the idea of the opportunity... and would just about die to have the whole thing pull through. Hear that Theodore? Are you out there? We are dying. We are almost dead. You are the only one who can save us now. I'm listening for my phone to ring........................ ! Huh. Nothin' yet. I am ready for my close up Mr. Johnson.

Ahhhhhhhhhh. So there you have it. This weeks big, crazy news. Which could end up not being as crazy as it feels right now if nothing ever comes of it. (Psssssst! Theodore!)

In other painting news... here's Billy latest, totally fabulous little water color painting of a beach in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard.

Good stuff eh? I love his watercolors. I think he should do more of them.

Tomorrow at the shop I hope to pull off the grand finale on The Chocolate Turtle Construction Event of 2009. I have 85 left to create. Whew. Never saw that one comin' back a few months ago when we were still wandering around in the fog up in Mendocino. Suddenly there are 225 caramel pecan turtles blocking my way on the road of life. Rascals.

Well, peeps I am as tired as a gal can be tonight. Time for jammies and tea. Good night y'all!

The Addictive Nature of Baking

2009-09-16T21:20:00.007-04:00

I think I just plain have baking in my blood. I can't help myself. Growing up I saw my Gram bake something pretty much every single day... it may have been anything from a grape pie to dinner rolls to sugar cookies. Most all of these things she did not even need a recipe for she just knew how to do it. Rock solid. My Mom is (of course) a mean baker too.... whipping out cheesecakes, German chocolate cakes, molasses cookies (the best ones you ever had) and too many items at Christmas time to even start to try to list. Ask anyone who is a recipient of one of the famed Christmas Cookie Trays and they will tell you, it's an easy 5 pound weight gain situation no matter what. There is no escape. But it's worth every pound. You can work it off after New Years.

There is just something so indulgent about the actual experience of baking... it's all about the smells and textures and watching the ingredients melt together. Sweet cream butter, sugar and Madagascar bourbon vanilla in a bowl? Pure heaven! Having your house filled with the scent of a Nectarine Golden Cake (which is what happens to be in my oven right now) is totally soul soothing.

The only problem I run into here is that there are only two of us to eat whatever we bake. Well, three if you want to count the small, furry scavenger who is addicted to pie crust bones. This is dangerous ground to tread on unless you really want to look like a muffin top in your jeans. Sigh. I guess I just have to look to the fact that my Gram is well into her 80's and spent her life eating fresh baked goodies.... she lived to tell and hopefully so will we.

So again with this month's issue of Gourmet magazine. I'm tellin' ya it's a humdinger loaded with great recipes. Tonight I made the Nectarine Golden Cake which was exceedingly easy to make. Nectarines are at their peak for flavor right now... the ones from California are just fabulously sweet and perfect. Grab some and whip out one of these beautiful little cakes!

Of course you have to make fresh whipped cream to go on top. It's the law.

In other news... Rudy is still a pain in my butt. His new thing is to stand around growling at me and tapping his empty food bowl with his toenails. This has been going on for hours tonight. At first I kept giving him more food and he kept on eating it... but now all bets are off. I'm done. He has got to be kidding me, right? He just did it again! What a weenie.

Billy is painting away as always. He spends his days pouring over cookbooks in between painting sessions and then when I get home from work there is always a beautiful table of food waiting for me. Here is his latest... this is a scene from the Scarborough Marsh area just south of Portland, Maine. We really love this place... I can't wait until we can make it back up there in the Airstream in the early summer time.

Tomorrow I head back to work for a three day stretch that is guaranteed to kick my ass. I'll try to catch up again with y'all come Sunday.

I May Have to Change the Blog Name to....

2009-09-14T22:37:00.008-04:00

Full Stomachs. For real. It seems like every single time I sit down to write a new post it is about what we have been eating and not much else. And here I am again about to do it again.

So what HAVE we been eating? Some good shit people.... some gooood shit. Last night we had three things made from the September issue of Gourmet magazine. Billy made the Italian parsley and beet salad with fresh ricotta while I made the cold cucumber and cubanelle soup with cashews and chives. They both turned out to be fabulous recipes and I would make both of them again for sure. We lucked out and had a great wine to drink with the meal... 2008 Fetzer Gewurtztraminer. It could not have been a more perfect match up. And it is an inexpensive bottle of wine which makes it even better.

Our third recipe form the Gourmet mag was the indulgent one... the apple pie with cheddar crust. I can't find the exact recipe online to link up to. Anyway, Billy made the crust and I made the filling.... then I assembled the pie. Due to the influence of the Gewurtztraminer and the fact that I was listening to my George Michael/Michael Jackson station on Pandora I neglected to add the 3 tablespoons of flour to the apple filling which resulted in a pretty watery pie in the end. It is still incredibly delicious but I was pissed at myself for flaking out and messing it up. Oh well, it will not stop us from eating it! And allow me to say this... do not be skeptical of adding a half a pound of sharp cheddar to your pie crust. People, it is waaaaayyy better than you can imagine.

What have we been doing other than cooking up a storm and eating? Well... working, that's what. My work at the chocolate shop is insane busy right now. I can't even keep up. The owners are out of town for a few weeks and the whole sale orders just keep rollin' in along with the fact that the walk in traffic is three times as much as what would be traditional for this time of the year. All this adds up to mean one thing... my co-worker Marie and I are getting our butts kicked.

Billy snapped a few shots of what I was working on today. Here I am dipping Spats which are caramel (made by Billy) topped off with tamari roasted pinon nuts and dipped in dark chocolate. I am doin' the dipping here....

And here is a close up to really get your mouth watering...

I am also knee deep in a special order for a couple of hundred turtles. Normally we do a caramel with toasted pecans dipped in chocolate called a Don Juan Pecan but these are amped up a notch to look like an actual turtle. You get more pecans... which is always a good thing.

So there you have it! Food seems to be the dominant theme in our lives of late. I have been missing the Airstream these past few weeks so we are hoping to take a long weekend in October and head up into Northern New Mexico to a lakefront campground with the trailer and kayak and get one more go at it before the real cold weather sets in.

Drop me a quick comment and say HI readers! How is everyone doin'? And thanks for staying with me through these slow posting times... Cheers!

And the Pot Pie Saga Continues....

2009-09-06T23:05:00.004-04:00

So I think I mentioned in the last post that we were on a pot pie brain storming bender right? Well today we knocked out pie number two. And it was a home run...

This time we made chipotle cheddar mashed potatoes for the base (kind of like shepard's pie) and then put in a layer of black beans cooked in maple syrup and cinnamon, next came our fave fake chicken (Quorn brand) cooked with heirloom tomatoes, onions, Hatch green chili, cilantro and garlic. We sprinkled some more cheddar on and laid the top crust dough on and popped that baby in the oven for 1/2 on hour. Soooo good! I have a feeling that this is the first of many more experiments to come. Perfect cool weather food comin' down the pike.

I love that Fall is sorta, kinda in the air... I found this antique basket at the thrift the other day and doesn't it look perfect with apples in it?

The farmer's market reaped some seriously good rewards again this weekend as well. We brought Chelle down there with us to brave the crowds and we all three left so loaded with produce that it was a ridiculous and painful walk back to the truck. I got these enormous, fabulous peppermint dahlias for our table...

They are seriously the size of a salad plate. Huge!

Ok. Sorry to be so short and stupid tonight but Billy is waiting on me to watch a movie. I just did not want to let the weekend pass without saying YO. So YO. See you again in a few days.

Five Pounds (mostly butter fat.)

2009-08-30T21:25:00.013-04:00

Is how much weight I probably gained this weekend. Good Lord. We have been doing some professional eating up in here. We started off Friday night after work heading over to The Railyard for a send off party for one of my co-workers Shayna and her husband Jack who left today to move to Austin, Texas. Most all of the peeps I work with were there (we were missing Beth and Kate.) I ate mushroom gnocchi with truffle oil (ummm and some onion rings.) Very filling and pretty good.

Here's a shot (albeit a bad shot) of the group at the table....

I had a table mate named Quinn... he is the owner's (Jeff and Kari) little guy. We got along just fine. I cheered him on while he was concocting crayon cocktails. And he helped me demolish the onion ring appetizer.

I'll miss Shayna... she was such a great help training me as a chocolatier. Bon Voyage sister! Good luck in Texas!

Saturday is of course the farmer's market and so we went and loaded up on good stuff again. And we have been cooking our asses off and fattening our asses up ever since. Yesterday we made a tomato and corn pie. What could be more perfect this time of the year? The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen's blog. It was fun to make and turned out really delicious. I would totally make it again.

After we pigged out on that pie I made a cold dessert soup from this month's Vegetarian Times magazine that is a coconut milk base with tapioca and fresh honeydew melon. Dudes. It was mighty fine... and again, really pretty food.

Sheesh. We went to bed full last night. Billy claimed to still be full when he woke up this morning (not me, I am apparently a pig.)

So we polished off the rest of that tomato pie today with a nice simple salad of peppery arugula from the market. Yes, we ate a whole pie between the two of us in exactly 24 hours. Sick. And here's where it gets really good... Billy bought these sweet little tiny pears at the market Saturday with the plan of baking them in a tart. People... what a tart it turned out to be. Allow me to demonstrate...

See how cute those little pears are nestled in to their tart pan?

Little pears... meet your new friends shortbread crust and almond cream filling.

After baking for an hour...

To make matters even worse he poured on a honey-pear glaze...

Digging in...

Uhhhh, yeah.

So there you have it. The five pounds. Billy was making the argument tonight that Julia Child lived to be in her 90's eating this sort of shit her whole life long. She was also like 12 feet tall and a giant of a kick ass woman. I'm 5'2 and kind of a dweeby, sickly kid. I haven't got a chance. Billy has been wielding a stick of butter a day ever since he got hooked on French cooking. Wish me luck.

Ok... so in closing here are a few more random pics from the past few days hanging out at home. Have a great week y'all!

This one goes out to Karen... Rudy in his sexiest pose....

This is a shot from a moment when cheddar cheese was being shredded for the tomato pie.

Market flowers.

Rudy at his usual post... growling at the world at large. Too bad we are on the second floor and no one out in the world cares.

After Bath Beard Fluff

2009-08-26T10:41:00.003-04:00

This look does not last long. One day later the beard is full of crusty old gravy.
Sorry if that just made you a little bit sick.

Sunday in the Park

2009-08-23T22:42:00.006-04:00

Yes, it's true. TWO posts in ONE weekend. Some kind of planets must be aligned somewhere or somethin'. Soak it up! It could be months before I appear again. Or it could be tomorrow. I like to keep you in suspense.

So this morning we met our new friends Christopher and Jana in the park behind our house. They have two dogs Chico and Mugsy so they and Rudy have their own little social party while we humans sit around in the grass and chew the fat.

Mugsy pretty much lays low... he's an old dude. Rudy and Chico switch it up between chasing each other, attempting to hump one another and making drive by passes looking for people food. As Jana had brought homemade banana bread the dogs spent more time make google eyes at us than playing chase. Those dogs are a bunch of weenies.

It's great to have the park right here to go hang out in. There are always other dogs and the real live grass is quite a novelty in Santa Fe. We don't have much of it here. This next picture is so stupid I can barely stand it.

After the park we pretty much laid low and lazy at home, had a visit with Michelle and then went for a late afternoon walk in the rain.

We decided it might be a good evening to hit the Dale Ball trail head up the road to see what the view of the sky over the mountains was like since storm clouds were rolling in.

We did not get to walk long because it started to really pour... but it was worth the effort to see the clouds coming in. I love that we have such quick easy access to the mountains here where we live.

Back to work tomorrow. I am going to bring our camera and see if I can grab some shots of what our work day is like on Monday's when Billy comes in to make chocolate with me.

Hope y'all had a good weekend. Peace!

Fresh!

2009-08-22T21:44:00.005-04:00

Hiya folks! Holy crap can you even believe that August is almost over? I can't stand it. I have truly let this blog dwindle down to a trickle that makes the Santa Fe River look like a raging beast. I never saw it comin' but I just don't seem to have the time or energy to write much on here these past weeks. I am so unused to being a workin' stiff. It's taking me a loooong while to get acclimated to it. Or maybe I will never get acclimated to it? Yes... that is more likely. I strive to one day be an unemployed trailer gypsy once again. Cross your fingers and your toes for me peeps. For real.

Anyway... today we had some good times. We hit the farmers market early and found that this week seems to mark the peak of the season here. There was a good variety of produce and things like tomatoes, corn, peaches etc. were truly, fully ripe and looking beautiful. We bought a ton of stuff and came home to dive into veggie tamales and I made fresh salsa with local tomatoes and fire roasted Hatch green chiles.

Thai eggplant

Shishito peppers

Oyster mushrooms... soooo good!

We bought some of those purple concord grapes from these folks and they are really yummy.

Punkins!

There is no shortage of ass whippin' peppers to be had here.

After the market we went downtown on the plaza to check out the Indian Market with our new neighbors Keenan, Nicole and Atalaya. They just moved in a week or so ago and we are glad to have them in the building with us. Atalaya is their newborn little baby girl (4 weeks old.) As you can see from these two photos she really gave us Hell all afternoon. Such a trouble maker.

On our way home we stopped off to the Tea House for agave wine margaritas. They are super tasty but on an empty stomach the thing really knocked me for a loop. Yikes. I have been loping around in a haze ever since.

On our nightly walk with Rudy we met a local who has lived in a cabin up on the side of the mountain that backs our neighborhood for almost 30 years. His name is Dandy and he has a dog that likes to tree bears named Butterball. We stood around chatting and learning some local history about the neighborhood all the way back to the time when the Spanish had laid claim to these parts. He is a cool guy and one of the types that makes Santa Fe such a great place to live.

Thanks so anyone who is still taking the time to check in here and sorry have been such a pisser about getting new posts up. Hang with me! I am going to try to start posting more regularly again. Cheers!

Surprise!

2009-08-11T21:53:00.004-04:00

It's ME! Yeah... I know right? Where the HELL have I been? I have been in the land void of internet that's where. It sucks. It's scary and it gives me a wicked tummy ache. We are still waiting to get Qwest out to the new apartment to get online. Word on the street is we should have it in the bag sometime in the next six days. But don't hold your breath on that one.

Our new apartment is great... we are sloooowly, ever so slooowly gathering furniture and getting settled in. I have been working at the chocolate shop and spending my days off trying to get caught up with everything else. The blog will continue to languish for another week or so til I can get on the net at home. I am currently hooked in at the Ecco gelato shop downtown. If ever you find yourself in Santa Fe this is not to be missed. It's on Marcy St and the gelato really kicks ass.

I celebrated my 37th birthday about a week ago. We went out to eat to Pasqual's and had a great day of chilling out... shooting pics with my new 50mm lens (thanks Mom & Dad!) and enjoying our new pad.

Since Billy and Rudy are sitting here with me waiting for me to finish up so we can walk around downtown I am going to keep this short. I will throw a few pics on... anyone who is friends with me on facebook has seen these already but... that's the way the cookie crumbles people.

Billy and Rudy playing dungeons and dragons.

Some shots from my B-Day...

So please bear with me... I will be back to writing regularly as soon as we get online at home..... Hope everyone is still having a great summer. Cheers!

Summer Storms in NM

2009-07-27T00:06:00.006-04:00

All these pics were taken tonight.... it was such a mind blowing, beautiful sky. We had a blast wandering around shooting pics and watching the show. I am so glad to be back in Santa Fe.

Getting Settled

2009-07-19T17:20:00.006-04:00

Whew! It has been a wild change of pace for us over the past few weeks since we left Mendocino. Up there we were sort of floating around in a slow paced fog wearing layers of long sleeves and woolen sweaters and suddenly now we are stinking hot in the Santa Fe sun in 90 + degree temps, zipping back and forth across town in traffic and working on a real live schedule (something that we have not done in years.) I have been a little overwhelmed and a lot exhausted since we got here. But! Things are starting to shape up and settle down now.

My new job is great and I am so thrilled to have scored such a cool gig. I start my chocolatier training tomorrow. Up until now I have been learning the general ropes of the shop and just getting acclimated to the whole scene there. One bit of interesting news is that Billy is actually going to be helping out working one or two days a week cooking at the shop. He will be making the caramel, toffee and the pate (6 flavors of ganache style chocolate enrobed in wax for easy traveling and longevity.) He starts tomorrow training with Keith (one of the owners) on how to cook all these goodies up in a huge copper kettle. It will be funny to have him there at work with me. Rudy will benefit from this in that he gets to go spend the days we work together at the doggie day care which is right next door. The place is called Santa Fe Tails. It's a new business and they seem to be doing a great job so far. One of the best things about the place is that they have web cams set up so you can check in on your dog while they are there playing for the day. They also take each dog out for a walk at the railyard park across the street. Rudy had a blast the last time we dropped him off for the day although the dudes working there did mention that Rudy was a pistol and they could hardly even believe his energy levels. Yo. Tell me about it.

My biggest news to report is that as of August 1st we will be taking a break from the Airstream. Probably a long break other than occasional weekend trips. We just rented a little place right on Canyon Rd and will be moving in the first of next month. We are doing this because the RV parks in and around Santa Fe are just not aesthetically pleasing to me, they are almost as expensive as a casita rental and in the winter here we would freeze our ass off in the trailer. So we will be putting the old girl in storage for awhile. I guess I am ready for a change of living quarters since we have been in the AS for a solid year straight and on and off for almost three years now. Our new place is really sweet... it's not very big but it will suit our purposes quite well. And the location is as good as it gets. We can walk down Canyon Rd and into town in a matter of minutes. I can't wait to move in. Even though we have no furniture! It will be heaven to have a real live big bathroom (and tub) again.... and a full kitchen with counter space! I love our Airstream but variety is the spice of life baby. I am ready to live without wheels under my bed for a minute here.

So with all that said... on to the fun stuff. Yesterday we drove out to Abiquiu, one of my favorite places in the whole of the USA. We had the intention of spending the afternoon and early evening out on the lake in our kayak waiting to shoot photos at dusk. The weather had other plans for us unfortunately. We had only been in the lake for about 5 minutes when the storm clouds starting rolling in and the lightening started dancing across the horizon. Lightening in northern NM is nothing to fool around about.... especially out in the middle of a big assed flat lake. We paddled around a bit, pulled of to have a late lunch and then high tailed it back to the launch site before we got zapped. Also the wind was making paddling around a stupidly huge effort so it was best to give it up for the day. After we got the kayak secured back on the truck we cruised over to Ghost Ranch to shoot some pics.

Rudy was pissed that we did not let him out of the truck at Ghost Ranch but in light of the fact that the bubonic plague is on the loose in the flea population of the area we felt it best that his hairy little ass stayed put inside. The last thing we need is him sticking his snout in some rodent hole and bringing home a host of black plague party animals to roost in our bed sheets.

The next two weeks will entail a lot of cleaning, organizing and prep for moving along with training at work so bear with me if posting is light. I'll do my best to jump on and post some pics and a few stories as the days roll by.

Another Quickie Post

2009-07-17T00:05:00.004-04:00

I am just gonna throw a photo post up here to appease anyone who drifts through for another day or two. I have really sucked this past two weeks about getting new stuff up on here. Sorry for that! Things are going great and we are still just so busy.

Here are a random string of pics from Santa Fe over the time since we arrived.....

My fave fireworks shot I grabbed out back of the RV park on the 4th....

Rudy and I on our sunset walk in the arroyo....

Billy and Rudy people watchin' downtown.....

Chelle on our lunch date at The Aztec Cafe...

A cool shot Billy grabbed per my request the other night while the sky was full of intense clouds...

Smiling Billy....

Swingin'....

Nice shot of the train down in the railyard station area....

I think we are headed out to Abiquiu this Saturday to kayak the lake and hang out. Should be fun and I love shooting pics out there. I promise to do a "getting caught up"post by Sunday.

Have a good Friday peeps....

Don't Give Up On Me...

2009-07-10T22:18:00.002-04:00

I am still alive out here. Sorry posting has come to screeching halt. I have been consumed by business. Busy. Busy. Business-y, business. Get it? Got it? Good. I started a new job and we have been trying to get settled in here in Santa Fe.

What's my new job? Yo HO! Well, let me just TELL ya! I have been hired to be a chocolatier at The Chocolate Smith, Santa Fe. Anyone who knows me will immediately realize that yes, this is the right job for me. Now it would appear that in this lifetime not only will I be eating lots of chocolate ... but now I will also be making lots of it too. And let me tell this is totally legit chocolate. Check it OUT.

I am going to keep this post short because I am dog tired. I will post pics and more news tomorrow. I just wanted to throw it out there that I have not abandoned the blog!

Big Change of Scenery, Temperature and Altitude!

2009-07-02T20:42:00.007-04:00

HEY! Sorry I straight up disappeared on y'all for a loooong stretch there. Things have been pretty much whacked for us for a few weeks. In a nut shell.... we made the tough decision to leave California and come back to New Mexico. California was not working for us at this moment in our lives.... and obviously we are not alone in saying that. California is not working for barely anyone who is inside the state lines at this point in time. California is a hot mess. The art scene in Carmel that Billy was striving to become a part of has pretty much tanked over the past year and the once interesting galleries are now one inch shy of selling paint by numbers of baby horses. It's not the time to be workin' that scene. Unless of course you are a paint by numbers pro who specializes in cute baby animals or ugly Tuscan landscape scenes overflowing with red flowers and water fountains. Yikes.

Besides the big move we just made I have been seriously ill with my thyroid situation. I am starting to get a handle on it again but it is going to be a slow process getting my body back on track. I will write more about that later in a separate post.

We left Mendocino and took the route through Sonoma and Napa. We stopped off at Bouchon for a farewell lunch and to grab one last box of macarons from their bakery. I am tellin' ya people.... the food there is stellar. It blows my brains out every time. Check out this cucumber salad....

I'm talking 'bout a smoked paprika infused creme fraiche with marcona almonds, green olives and juicy little sweet blanched tomatoes all piled up with the cucumber slices. It was fabulous. Billy had the mussels again and I had the gnocchi (again) but both were prepared differently than we had them before. The giant cone of salty fries that come with the mussels were the same though....

Those fries are dangerous. You can't stop eating them and they give you a TON of them.

From Napa Valley we booked it straight to our friend's ranch in Paradise Valley to stop off and say goodbye and then moved on over to Clarksburg to see Bill's family. We only stayed one night each place and then hit the road south and made it all the way to Needles on our first day. It was like a 12 hour day of travel and it suuuuuucked. Needles had kicked a high temp of 119 degrees that day and it still felt like the inside of an oven when we got there. Thankfully our campsite was on the Colorado River so we all went down for a twilight swim.

In that last shot I am The Colorado River Monster. Clearly. And yet somehow Billy is unfazed and Rudy is utterly distracted. Also... check my luxurious Mendocino Fog Tan. White as snow baby... white as snoooow.

The next day we got hung up in Flagstaff for 5 or 6 hours at the Camping World getting some repair work done on the trailer. We had a new vent fan dropped in to the space above our bed where the old vent cover had blown off... finally getting rid of the garbage bag and duct tape we had be gazing up at for over a month. We also had a new electrical plug installed because we were having problems with our connection and kept blowing our breaker. I love Flagstaff so it was kind of nice to spend the afternoon downtown while the trailer was getting fixed up.

We made Santa Fe the next day and boy are we STILL pooped from the drive. I am struggling with really bad altitude induced headaches.... yuck. So we have pretty much been laying low waiting to get acclimated. I am glad to be back home in Santa Fe... the drive in was spectacular as always. We passed through this storm coming up from Albuquerque.

The New Mexican sky never let's ya down. So there you have it... for now. I will try to get some more posting in this weekend once I can sit at the laptop for a bit longer without feeling like there is an angry gnome hammering away at my head with a pick ax. Ahhhhhhhhhh.......

Medical Journal (this one is dedicated to Raven.)

2009-06-22T15:11:00.003-04:00

One word.... Hypochondriac. Anyone who can count themselves in the ranks of individuals who can claim that word as an appropriate descriptive term for themselves understands the weight of the insanity it can generate. Allow me to elaborate. I am a hypochondriac. Tried and true... since I was 9 years old and saw a made for TV movie that featured a young boy dying of leukemia. After watching the movie and before going to bed that night I wrote in my diary something to this effect... "Goodbye cruel world! This is probably the last time you will ever hear from me. I die. I dieeeeeeeeee." Except that the next day (in spite of a lot of begging and pleading with my Mom that I was too sick) I did get up and go to school and somehow all these years later I am STILL ALIVE! It's a miracle really. A medical mystery. There have been many a medical mystery over the years since. Most all of them created and solved by me, myself and I. There have been a few that were legit... like the time I ended up in the ER after getting both a flu and a pneumonia shot. I was allergic to one or the other but they don't know which because a brilliant nurse had administered both shots into my right arm. That was an "I wish I was dead... please just let me die" sort of experience. My right arm literally became the essence of pain.... the ground zero of agony. And the 103 degree fever was the icing on the cake. There was also the 99.9% incident. I really don't do well with prescription meds and seem to have a really high sensitivity to them.... in this particular case I had to fast for three days and then go in for some x-rays where they run some sort of dye through your guts so they can see what is going on in there. Because I have a lot of allergies and drug sensitivities they used a special dye on me that they assured me 99.9% of people are fine with. Yeah. As I laid on the x-ray table under a heavy blanket I started to get itchy. I told the attending nurse... "I feel really itchy!" and she said "Yes, those blankets are kind of rough." and I said "No! I feel like I am going to freak out! I am REALLY ITCHY!" and I guess it was the tone in my voice that made her stop what she was doing and walk over to me. She flipped the blanket back and I was covered over my entire body with enormous hives. They proceeded to give me the equivalent of three Benadryl (on my three days fast empty stomach) and hand me back to my Mother. I was like a monkey with brain damage for the next two days. Anyway.... you see where I am going with this? I am not a good patient. I get weird things wrong with me. A lot of times no one can solve the problem. A lot of times what the doctors do to me just makes me feel worse. Also... I obsess. Like these past few days....

I have had a weird, tight, hot sore throat for about a week now. Yesterday it took an odd turn and manifested as a rock hard lump way down in my throat that felt like it was crushing my wind pipe. Also the glands under my tongue were sore. Weird. And gross. And a mystery to be solved. This my friends is where Google and Web MD come in. If you want to live dangerously Google your symptoms. See if you are man enough to take the results. I DARE you to look at the Google images files on say... swollen salivary glands and not break out in to a cold sweat. So this is what I do. I spend hours online researching my symptoms and the end result is me flung out across the bed crying because I am sure I am going to die any minute. (Imagine Billy through all of this.) For REAL though, yo.... at three in the morning when you are laying there with a big painful lump in your throat, can't sleep and have a pounding headache (from all the crying) it's hard not to sort of loose your shit and just become a big, hot mess.

I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. so I could get up and call first thing to the clinic up in Fort Bragg and get an appointment for today.... which I did. Then I went back to bed and slept until almost 11 (the appointment is not until late afternoon.) And guess what? When I woke up at 11 the lump in my throat was gone. Of course. So now what? Do I go to the clinic? I can tell you right now that if I cancel the appointment then at exactly 5 pm this afternoon the lump will return with a steely vengeance. The lump BTW according to Web MD is the beginning of my grapefruit sized goiter. Billy's theory is that we are breathing poison Hemlock pollen (because the plant is growing prolifically all around our camp area) and we are being slowly poisoned to death by it. All these years with me has inflicted Billy with a touch of the drama as well apparently.

Anyway... I do have (clinically diagnosed, not made up my me) hypothyroidism and it IS possible that all this crap is stemming from that. So as archaic as it may sound a goiter is really not out of the question for me. See if you can find one other person in your life that says THAT to you today.

We are supposed to be hitting the road tomorrow. This is not news that I have shared here yet. I am not going to go into full details right now but we are leaving Mendocino earlier than we had planned. We may not make it out tomorrow, it may be Wednesday instead seeing as how it's 1 p.m. and we are both laying around in here like slugs doing nothing. Hitching up to tow the trailer after you have been stationary for awhile can sometimes seem overwhelmingly daunting. Sometimes it is great fun and you can't wait to go... for a variety of reasons this is not one of those times. Mostly it is that I want to feel better before heading out and because we can't yet figure out the puzzle of how the Hell all our stuff ever fit in the back of the truck in the first place. I may end up holding our Coleman gas grill in my lap when we leave.

I'll try to keep you updated on what develops. It's going to be a nutty week.

It's an Apricot Granola Tart Thing!

2009-06-19T20:55:00.003-04:00

Yeah. You can't leave me at home alone all day (Billy worked at the park today while I stayed home sick) and not have me hit the kitchen out of boredom at some point. My sore throat did not stop me from sitting here eyeballing a big bowl of fresh apricots that needed to get used up and quick before they all went to mush. Pretty soon the apricots were lookin' back at me like "You gonna do somethin' or WHAT?" So I pulled out my two tart pans and mixed up a batch of granola-esque dough stuff (how do you like that for technical terminology?) and mixed up the apricots with fresh blueberries and a bunch of spices like cardamom, cinnamon and ginger and stuck the whole mess in the oven.

The base for this thing is a cup of mixed almonds, walnuts and pecans
1 cup of 5 grain cereal
1 cup of wheat flour
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 cup of ginger syrup
a pinch of sea salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger

I ground the nuts and the 5 grain cereal up in my food processor until it was a chunky meal consistency. Then I added the other stuff in and mixed it until it was fully combined and spread it in the tart pans. Easy. The apricots are in a base of about three tablespoons of apricot preserves, a tablespoon of ginger syrup, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg. I baked at 350 for about 25 minutes (but my oven is whacked... everything takes longer than it should in a normal oven.) The end result is a very breakfast-y type item. It would be great served with a dollop of yogurt on top. Or vanilla ice cream. Or ginger ice cream... or cardamom ice cream... or any damned ice cream really. You get the picture...

Now we shall see if Billy is brave enough to eat my germy, sickie tart. If he chickens out then I get the whole lot to myself. Just what I need.

Garlic and Plums

2009-06-19T14:13:00.003-04:00

This is not a post about some fabulous dinner we made... or are going to be making. It's me immersed in natural remedies for sore throats. I am kickin' a fierce one right now... one of those where it feels like someone has wedged a couple of hot coals coated in broken glass at the back of your throat. Awesome. So last night I began my bizarre rituals in battle against the sick monster.

1. Chop up 4 cloves of raw garlic into a jar, cover it with honey and let it sit overnight. Take the honey with a teaspoon in the a.m. The garlic has anti-bacterial properties and the honey is soothing.

2. Gargle with very warm water infused with cayenne pepper. The pepper has anaesthetic properties and brings relief from the pain.

3. Slowly eat an umeboshi plum. These are Japanese pickled plums and they are highly regarded as having a wealth of health benefits including being antibacterial. Be warned... they are the saltiest little buggers on the planet.

4. Drink Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat Tea til your are blind.

5. Also drink a hot tea made from water, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, honey and a dash of cayenne pepper til you really can't even believe it anymore.

6. Try to restrain the feeling of impending doom over the fear that you may have the same thing you had last winter in Santa Fe that nearly killed you.

Today I have big plans to lay down. For hours. Yesterday was spent cleaning the inside of the Airstream so it actually feels pretty decent in here right now. We even cleaned out Rudy's Den of Iniquity under the table... much to his confusion and dismay.

So everyone please say a little voodoo juju for my hell fire and brimstone throat condition.... and hopefully I will be back in the saddle again in no time. Have a groovy weekend y'all.

Smokin' Hot

2009-06-16T21:26:00.007-04:00

Every now and then we get a hankerin' for some wickedly hot, spicy food. Today was one of those days. I scored three old issues of Vegetarian Times at the thrift today for free and it just so happened that one of them had a recipe for Chipotle-Bean Burgers with Cilantro Sauce in it. We whipped them up for dinner tonight along with some fresh salsa and served them on corn tortillas. They were kind of a pain in the ass to make in the trailer because it is one of those meals that requires little bowls of prep stuff to be made in small batches and set aside and stuff has to chill in the fridge, etc. so it got kind of ridiculous in here for about an hour. But in the end it was worth it. They were SO GOOD! And they were also SO FLIPPING HOT! It was the hottest food I have eaten since leaving New Mexico a year ago. HERE is the recipe from the Veg Times website. I modified the cilantro sauce a bit by using a jalapeno cheddar bread and a red pepper in mine. So my sauce was orangey red instead of green. We had a hunk of smoked sharp cheddar that was a perfect compliment to the chipotle flavor in the burgers.

Billy cooked the burgers out on the grill....

I supervised... (but don't tell Billy I said so) whoever is wearing the apron is the boss in my book.

The only thing I would say to someone making these is make sure you cook the burger mixture down til it's good and dry and then don't skimp on the time in the fridge to set the patties. They are tough to flip on the grill if they are too wet or not chilled well enough.

I don't know if we ran in to a particularly rare and fierce batch of chipotle but holy hell it was hot.
It's a good thing we had bought a bottle of Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum to make Pina Colada's with otherwise dinner could have been tragic. Instead it was deeeelicious.

I am now impatiently waiting for a new tray of ice cubes to freeze so I can have another pina colada. Dammit. It's gonna take a lot longer than I am happy to wait.

For anyone following the Rudy Foxy Foot Saga (outside of the blog) he is doing OK. I neglected to post that there indeed WAS and possibly still IS a foxtail in his paw. The day after the initial vet visit everything went downhill and his foot developed a big blister on top of it so back to the vet we went. It was an awful experience... Rudy got "probed" and I nearly passed out as a result. They found nothing and put him on an antibiotic and sent us home to watch and wait. A few days later his foot seems to be getting a bit better. We have no idea if the intruding grass seed has come out or if it is still in there. I spoke to the vet and she agreed to wait a few days to see what developed before we bring him back in for a check up. Meanwhile we have to soak his paw in Epsom salts and he hates it. I wish I could soak my damn paws in Epsom salts. The little dude just needs to realize he is getting a sort of spa treatment and then maybe his attitude could change. I guess a gaping, sore, open wound may not feel as neat in salty water as what I am talking about though. Hmm. Anyway... we took his little ass to the dog park today and he caroused with three other dogs there for awhile without a problem so I would say he is on the mend for sure. Thanks to all who have sent him get well soon wishes.

Now... to go check on those ice cubes.

Foxy Foot

2009-06-12T14:39:00.005-04:00

The canine saga continues. Although this time it is Mother Nature who sucks and not Rudy. I can honestly say that Rudy has been a champ this past week with his manners and his attitude has improved greatly since his precious tennis ball was removed from the premises. So... why does Mother Nature suck? Foxtails. That's why. California also sucks for having like 90 zillion of them covering it's landscape. We have reached the time of the year when these prolific grasses have dried out and have gone to seed so the ground is literally covered with them. For those of you east of the Mississippi who don't know what a foxtail is....

It's a type of barley grass that has a seed pod that can seriously F-Up your dog. The seed pods are barbed and if they hook in to your pets coat in worst case scenarios they can work their way all the way in to the lungs, heart, cause blood infections... well, you get the idea. It's bad news. Rudy had a foxtail incident once before in Utah after we left him for the weekend at a doggie dude ranch so we could go hiking in Zion National Park (no dogs allowed on park trails.) His paw got really infected and the foxtail which had entered through the bottom of his paw ended up coming out the top. It was a seriously ouchy mess. So the other night when we noticed that Roodles was paying insane amounts of attention to his back left paw licking it and actually cramming his entire foot in his mouth and sort of chewing on it we knew what was up right away. We pinned him down and found a tiny little nasty spot in a swollen area between his paw pads where it looked like a foxtail had crept under the skin. CRAP!

Yesterday morning I called a vet up in Fort Bragg and got an appointment to bring him in to get the thing out of his paw. Meanwhile Rudy was doing the three legged dog act hopping around and not putting any weight on that back paw. To tighten up the end of this story... in a nutshell.... we went to the vet and we got his piggy little ass upon the examing table and as we all leaned in to check the paw we found nothing. No swelling, no funky business.... nada. A miraculous healing had taken place apparently on the car ride in to town. Great news! But a stupid sort of moment for us as we stood there like idiots with our perfectly fit and trim dog on the table. So yeah... we found out Rudy weighs 20 pounds and got confirmation on the fact that "he is really a cute little dog" as we paid our bill at the front desk. Ahhhh well. Better safe than sorry.

On the way home we stopped off at Jug Handle and let old foxy foot have some fun for being a good boy at the vet. And we let our brains shut off for an hour and just soaked in the beauty of the rocky beach. It was a really pretty day yesterday. Here are some shots I took while out there...

Rudy in exploration mode... he's a brave little bugger.

This is my absolute favorite shot from yesterday. The dichotomy of it is so cool. It looks like a surreal painting to me somehow. Rudy is caught in the corner in dark shadow on the craggy rocks with turbulent waters surrounding him while Billy is laying back completely at ease out on a big sun soaked boulder...it's a yin and yang sort of thing... see what I mean? You will probably have to click through on the pic to be able to spot Billy in the distance.

Billy and his Magical Seaweed Lasso.....

Close up of the magical seaweed lasso stuff.....

We call this "The Stink Roll."

Chasing sea birds along the shoreline...

And as always.... the boys share a deep philosophical moment on the edge of the vast Pacific Ocean.

Canine Boot Camp Featuring Snake Dentists

2009-06-08T19:18:00.004-04:00

Ahhhhh. Dog people of the world unite! Do you have a dog? Does your dog produce any of the following side effects? Headaches, itching, nausea, abrupt fits of cussing, the tender feelings of the beginnings of mental break down? Or do you have one of those dogs? Meaning a dog that is not really a dog at all but a bizarre, rarely seen entity known loosely on the streets as "a good dog?"

At our house as you all know we have Rudy. Good dog? Rarely (a funny dog is different than a good dog.) Especially lately. We are working against our surroundings here in this camp ground to keep him trained and tolerable. After three months in this location he has learned to bark at every single noise he hears outside (never used to do that and I am not going to go in to why he has developed that behavior because my brains will leak out my left ear if I try to talk about it) and the lack of contact with a wide variety of other dogs seems to create such hard core tension in him that he is like a tightly wound spring ready to snap every time we take him out for a spin around town or on a trail. He cries constantly the whole time he rides in the truck (also, never used to do that) in anticipation of wherever we are headed. He has also arrived at a moment in his life when he has developed attachments to certain toys that are causing him to act like a depressed, rabid lunatic. Last night we finally had to take "the precious" away from him once and for all. I am now almost certain that Tolkien must have had a terrier who had a tennis ball who caused the inspiration for the character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Anyway.... what I am trying to say here is that it has become a full time job trying to keep this dawg in line of late.

We took the tennis ball away because Rudy was getting overly protective of it and he would literally hole up in his crate with it for hours like a troll. At night he would bring it on our bed and circle around us like a wolf growling and taunting us with it (like we want it... dudes, the thing smells like toe cheese.) So last night we orchestrated a fake out move and snatched it while he was not looking and Billy put it in a container out in our little storage shed. We have a hidden back stock of goofy dog toys that we rotate through in times of need. Last night we called upon Mr. Snake to come to the rescue. It was a brilliant success.

A pleasant introduction was made... both parties were in fine spirits and ready to have a good time.

Little did we know Mr. Snake is also a highly skilled dentist... so we allowed him to do an oral exam. Lucky for Rudy he had no cavities. Although I did see a look cross Mr. Snake's face that read "Wow, dude.... baaaaad breath, yo!"

After an hour or so of rough housing Rudy and Mr. Snake were the best of friends posing for this portrait as proof.

So our daily doggie boot camp will continue. We went to the beach this morning and Rudy had an unfortunate incident with a 6 month old puppy that was three times his size. Puppies don't really get it yet and can be a bit too nutty when they engage with another dog in play. This one was slamming Rudy around and Rudy freaked and they ended up in a weird sort of fight where the bigger dog was pinning Rudy on his back and snapping at his face and Rudy was trying to be in full blown "I may be little but I am gonna whoop your ass!" mode but could not even get up or out from under the other dog. It was really awful to witness on a human level but not really a dangerous moment in the dog's reality I don't think. The other dog owner then called Rudy "an instigator." I am going to go ahead right here and say that I think at least 75% of dog owners we meet are idiots about dogs. And being that I have an uncontrollable hillbilly temper I of course told him very loudly that nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of Rudy's life (and really, honestly it hasn't) therefore implying that it was his dog's fault. It was not really anybodies fault. It was just dogs. Sigh.

All Quiet on the Western Bundt

2009-06-07T19:50:00.004-04:00

Another early summer weekend is just about past. It was mighty quiet here in Mendo... unusually so. We worked yesterday at the visitor's center from noon til 4 and it was deader than a doornail. I wonder if this is an accurate forecast for the coming season in general? Is it going to be really slow and quiet? Suits me... but I am sure the screw is really turning for all the local business owners. I feel for all of them. I know the B & B's are struggling to fill their rooms. I am sure that part of that is that we have a crapload of them here and so somebody has to be the low man on the totem pole and suffer through these rough times.

Today marked our first of 5 days off in a row from the Ford House. I cooked a big breakfast of eggs with fresh market veggies cooked in a sauce of white wine, mustard and fresh herbs and we gobbled that up with a sourdough baguette. Then I embarked upon a cake I have been wanting to try my hand it. Somehow the baking of this cake devoured my entire afternoon. I fell into some kind of bundt pan black hole. There is a hole in the center of a bundt pan... so in theory... it is possible that it houses another dimension. And I went there. Today. But now I am back and we have this cake that I baked. It's all a little like Martha Stewart meets Star Trek. Cool.

The cake is a Double Ginger Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Ginger Infused Strawberries out of the April issue of Bon Appetit (click through for the recipe.) It turned out great except I am pretty sure the food stylists at the magazine photo shoot sprinkled the top of their cake with more raw sugar for their picture. When mine came out of the bundt pan the raw sugar was gone...presumably melted into the cake batter. I so wanted my cake to be all crunchy and sparkly looking like theirs! Dammit! I could have made an effort to pack some sugar on the thing for looks but I figure it already has about a zillion calories so more sugar would really have been overkill in that department. This thing is made with chopped up candied ginger in the batter so you really need to love ginger to love the cake.

I have to gloat that I grabbed my fabulous new bundt pan from a thrift store up in Fort Bragg for 5 bucks. I would never have one in my possession otherwise (they usually run around $35 for this particular one.) We have room for a big heavy metal bundt pan in here like we have room for a donkey in our shower but HEY. Whatever. The more the merrier.

Now it's time to let my brain go on auto pilot for a few hours. Maybe walk the canine over to the beach... see what kind of a sunset Mendo can conjure this evening. Have a good night y'all.

Avoiding Scurvy and Toting Poo

2009-06-02T21:14:00.009-04:00

Every time I start feeling like I might try to gouge my eyes out with a teaspoon due to lack of sunshine I have to get my shoes on and make it out on to the headlands and dazzle my brains with the flowers. They fix me up. They fill the empty spot in me that wants summer to come so desperately. They say to me "Hey man.... this IS SUMMER. Get right with it or go home and gouge your eyes out with a teaspoon, yo."

I am hoping they last it out for at least another month or so. I need them. I'm like a sailor lost at sea who is comin' down with scurvy. The flowers are my last hope. Once they are gone I am sure to develop a goiter or something. It'll all go down hill fast I am sure of it. It's a good thing I am just finishing up reading Deep Survival. Maybe I will write a novel about a girl who barely survives three horrific months through a summer of endless fog and temperatures that never breach 60 degrees. Or maybe I should just shut the Hell up and appreciate the fact that I get to look at this every day....

Obviously, things could be much, much worse. One of the best things about walking this section of the headlands is the natural soundtrack that goes along with it. There are a few massive rocks just off shore that are absolutely covered with sea birds all the time. They are all cackling and carrying on and the sound sort of resembles a laugh track.... it sounds like a bunch of people cracking up constantly. Here's a shot from quite a way back from the rocks... you can more so see the spectacular amount of bird poop on the sheer face of the rock wall than the birds themselves, but this is where they hang out anyway. All those wee little black dots are birds.

Rudy of course loves to walk out there. There's lots of stuff to sniff and pee on. He can make believe that he is really on a major adventure... and inevitably he poops as far away from a trash bin as possible so that I get to carry a sack of poo with me for the remainder of the walk. Really lovely.

Again... reminding myself.... the flowers, the flowers! Who needs the sun?! By the way... I am fully aware that scurvy is not from lack of sunshine. I just like the feel of slingin' that old timey ailment around right now.

We have visitors from Illinois coming by tomorrow as they pass through on a road trip vacation. Then a few days in a row of work at the Ford House so I may miss a day or two of posting but I will try to get something up before the weekend. Cheers all!

Random Dumb Stuff

2009-05-31T16:41:00.008-04:00

So. There are a few things I have been meaning to share that are utterly random and sort of pointless. I figure I may as well go ahead and lump them all in to one post and just get it over with. The first one is this....

I thought that this lady deserved some exposure and credit for her efforts. She wins the outfit of the day award from me hands down. Or stripes down. Or something.

The next item up for discussion is my keyboard. The very keyboard I type on right now. My laptop is about 4 months old. Let me repeat that FOUR MONTHS old. Not 4 years.... MONTHS. And this is the state of my keyboard...

My letters are turning in to black blob dots. Why? Tell me why Hewlett Packard? It's not like I am greasing my fingers up with a mixture of turpentine and lard before I type. My "E" key is straight up a goner. The reality for me is this... I am not a professional typist. I don't know the keys without looking a bit. So as this progresses I am going to have a harder and harder time saying what I am trying to say without some serious guess work on the old keyboard. I suppose I could just take a Sharpie and scratch on the letter off to the side of the blobs on the keys.... but I really should not have to.... know what I mean? Shame on people for making stuff that costs thousands of dollars and is built for shit. I know I am shouting in to the great void in an utterly pointless way by saying that but still... I say it.

The last topic is Rudy related. Those of you who have pets know the quirky little things that become a part of your everyday life with your dog (or cat or ferret, whatever.) Rudy has three toys that have been favorites for awhile and as I sat gazing at one of them on the foot of our bed the other night it struck me how dumb and funny they are. The first one is no great shakes, it's just a squeaky tennis ball. But to Rudy it is like an intoxicating, addictive habit that he pursues with a maniacal nature. We call it "his precious." The second is "the bunny." The bunny is one of those AKC stuffy toys meant to satiate a canines need to kill and destroy all things cute, fuzzy, small and helpless. In the old days bunny would have lasted all of about 4 minutes before it was ripped to Holy Hell Shreds of Destruction. Nowadays characters like bunny actually make it a few months before they are retired. This bunny was purchased in February and it may be a new record for a small fuzzy in our home. Bunny is seen here with "the precious."

Bunny would be a great candidate for the new surgical procedure of having a face transplant, since his has been sucked and chewed off.

Finally we have Lion. Lion was a gift from friends Dale (human) and Pablo (dog) in Santa Fe. Lion's main role in life is to be humped by Rudy after he eats his supper every night. It's really pretty sad. Lion gets completely ignored at all times except for like ten minutes each evening when Rudy attacks him and really gives it to him good. Lion is missing both of his eyes and has a few serious facial wounds.... other than that he is hangin' tough.

This morning I dropped an almond on the floor and before I could reach down to get it someone had snatched it up. This single, stupid almond became the focus of ridiculous amounts of activity for the next TWO HOURS. Here we see the almond casually tossed in front Rudy's lair... and the look on his face through the screen conveys the message... "Don't touch my almond bitch."

See that? The totally cool posture of the legs hanging casually out the entry... the "go ahead, make my day" look on his face? Nice. Moments later the almond was assaulted on the sofa and eventually devoured.

We are having a totally relaxed day today. Billy made his famous zucchini pancakes for breakfast and is making potato leek soup (remember it is in the 50's here for day time temperature) for dinner later. The soup will include these...

Those are big, fat curly garlic greens from the farmer's market. Aren't they fabulous looking?

Have a great Sunday peeps. Soak up some sun for me out there in the real world that does not live under a constant blanket of fog!

Chocolate Waffles, Fog, Flowers, Farmers and Hidden Junk

2009-05-30T20:45:00.013-04:00

Yesterday was a fun day. We went for breakfast at a local B & B called Alegria. They invited the docents from the Ford House to come so we could see what their place is like and how fabulous the breakfast is they offer to the folks who stay at their inn. Eric and Elaine are the owners and they welcomed us in to the little breakfast nook which has the most gorgeous view out over their gardens and down to Big River Beach. We were served local Thanksgiving Day Coffee, fresh pressed apple juice (also from local growers) seasonal fruit salad with edible flowers, handmade chocolate waffles and vegetarian breakfast sausage. For non veggies they have a locally made chicken apple sausage. It was mighty good eatin'. After we stuffed ourselves Eric took us on a tour of the rooms that were unoccupied at the moment so we could see what the accommodations are like. My favorite was the Driftwood which is actually a little a-frame cabin. It has a queen bed up in a loft, a full kitchenette which is sunken down below the platform bedroom, a sitting area and the coolest thing was the Japanese soaking tub in the bathroom. Ooohhhhh man it is so freakin' cool! I wanted to shove everyone out the door, lock it and jump in that tub! So anyway... if you are coming to Mendo any time soon and want really a really gorgeous place to stay look up Alegria and tell Eric and Elaine that I sent ya. They will take super good care of you for sure!

After we left Alegria we walked Portuguese Beach off the headlands with Rudy. It was a particularly low tide so we scanned the shoreline looking for beach glass. I wish I had a photo of what I look like while "scanning the shoreline" because what I tend to do is crouch down and sort of crab waddle along. It always results in sore leg muscles the next day. But it is the best method, tried and true. Especially on a foggy day like yesterday. When the sun is shining you can spot beach glass pretty easily but fog makes it tougher to see. This photo is from about 10:30 in the morning and you can see how flippin' dark it is because of the fog!

Don't come to Mendocino if you want to work on your tan. Come if you like your skin lily white, cold and clammy. After Portuguese Beach we walked over to Big River. The walk down the trail to the beach is really pretty. I love the perspective in this shot... is Billy really tiny or are the trees really enormous?

Rudy got impatient waiting for us as we crept the tide line looking for treasures. He planted himself on the sand and just sat there. I think he was pissed that he was not star of the show.

The farmer's market is at noon on Friday in Mendo so we hung out on the beach until it was time to go up and shop. On the way up the trail I nabbed this shot of a flower of which I have no idea what it is. Looks kinda like a poppy... but I am sure it's something entirely different. It's a huge blossom growing on a sort of bush.

The market was already hoppin' when we got up there. It's a small one but there is more and more to choose from every week we get further in to summer.

The Rise Up Farm has a great sign... it's a fist clutching a carrot punching up out of the soil and the sun is a lion on the horizon. The peeps running the stand are super cool. We bought beautiful mixed salad greens laced with edible flowers yesterday. I made my fake chicken salad today and we ate the greens with it topped with sunflower spouts from another local grower.

We bought a bunch of starter plants, mostly herbs and planted them in pots for our deck. I also bought two tomato plants which I have little hope for. If the sun were to ever decide to make an appearance the toms are planted where they would get a good dose of it in our little yard... but seeing as how that happens less and less as we get into summer these little plants may be doomed. Also since they are planted in the ground and not in pots they are subject to DOG. Half and hour after I planted them yesterday I looked up and Ranger (the neighbor dog) was standing on one of them. So yeah... say a little prayer for my tomatoes. They may not last long! If they DO make it one of the varieties I planted is a pineapple tomato which supposedly produces toms that weight up to two pounds a piece! So it's all or nuthin'. I will keep you updated on The Tomato Attempt of 2009.

Today was cleaning day. It was long overdue. I spent all day doing it. Want to see the end result? This is as good as it gets in here.... as organized as we can manage.

If you really take your time in looking around this shot you will discover stupid things like a huge skillet on top of Rudy's house under the table....because that is where we keep it. It's too big to fit in a cupboard. And my Stetson lives on the towel hook because I can't figure out any place else to keep it. If you had x-ray vision and could see in to the cabinets your head would explode. Guaranteed.

Tomorrow I hope to get some work done for my Etsy shop. What are you people up to this weekend out in the world? Anything fun?

SNARK! Beware the Jabberwock.

2009-05-28T20:52:00.004-04:00

Much in the same fashion that The Walrus was Paul, I am currently the Jabberwocky. What does that mean? Perhaps a visual will assist....

Go ahead and imagine the little prince with the sword there as all of humanity. But in my version of the nonsense poem the kid does not slice off my head. In my version I wreak havoc on the world at large and then come home and take a long, well deserved nap. And eat ice cream when I wake up.

What's the problem? Ahhhh.... I dunno. It's cold here... it's no longer quiet and quaint because tourist season has sprung up over night, I need to do laundry (my claws just grew three extra inches there) and I am generally unaccepting of my fate for the next three months. What's my fate? Cold weather (in the summer.) And honk-loads of tourists. As many years as I have under my belt now of living in a place where tourism blasts off like a nuclear rocket pretty much over night I am still quite capable of going through a seriously crabby spell over it. It's stupid too because it basically boils down to me being pissed because I have to wait in line at the coffee shop. Or I have to look for a parking spot. The outrage! (Sarcasm.) Everywhere I go there are.... LOTS OF PEOPLE THERE ALREADY! (More sarcasm.)

In other news... we are waiting to see what the fate of California State Parks are per Ahhhnold's latest shenanigans. In case you have not heard he wants to shut down 80% of ALL the state parks in Cali. He is taking his title of "The Terminator" to a whole new level. I mean... Hello everyone... the guys brain is like the barrel of a freshly loaded shot gun. Why did he ever get in to office in the first place? His budget does not get passed so he goes all Godzilla on us and starts smashing everything in sight. Hey! That kinda sounds like me! Oops!

Clearly the only answer right now is for me to go cook up a big batch of tapioca pudding.

Rudy is down on the floor next to me fighting ferociously against one of these....

It was his prize for having won the wrapables.com pet story contest. He was super pissed off at Larry the Lobster from the minute he clapped eyes on him. It has been constant fighting since Larry's arrival yesterday.

Lastly... say a little prayer for Billy's tooth. He has a zinger in there right now tryin' to take him down. We are using Back Woods meets Japanese Secret style natural medicine on him right now in lieu of going to the dentist. I will let you know if I am a true natural healer or if he ends up giving in to taking a course of antibiotics. Place your bets now....