News Trend Live A Little |Actual

Do not calculate the calories per bowl. Just eat it and smile.

I'll be honest. As the dog days of summer sprawl out into a glorious feast of August sunshine, my interest in cooking always dwindles.

By Labor Day, we are typically surviving on big salads, quick sandwiches, and whatever can be thrown on the grill in a hot minute.

But once the crisp days of autumn kick in, when the sun's angle slants toward the horizon and the first fallen leaves chatter across the patio, I'm ready to cook.

This year was no exception. I've been experimenting with new recipes. The heartier, the better. I'm a fool for rich soups and hearty stews and creamy sauces draped over pasta.

Because after a lifetime of low fat, vegetarian, carb-free penance, I'm done with food rules. I eat healthy, balanced meals and sensible portions. And I'm surprised how well that works out.

Take this soup for instance.

Shrimp

Bacon

Red potatoes

Heavy cream.

So decadent. My previous self would not have touched it with a ten-foot spoon.

But what I have learned is that one bowl of this deliciousness plus some pear slices and - if I'm feeling really crazy - a chunk of sourdough on the side, makes for a shockingly satisfying meal.

A small portion goes a long way when I eat the food that my body craves.

So that's my fall food philosophy. I'm ready to live a little

* * * * *

Shrimp 'n Bacon Chowder

Adapted from Delish

Ingredients:

8 slices bacon, chopped

1 onion, diced

2 T flour

3 C chicken stock

3 red potatoes

salt and pepper

1 lb large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half

2 C half and half

3 green onions, chopped

Directions:

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the bacon until crisp. Transfer to a plate and reserve some of the fat in pan.

2. Add onions to pan and cook until soft, about six minutes. Add flour and stir about one minute.

3. Whisk in chicken stock, then add potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer on medium-low until potatoes are tender, about ten minutes.

4. Stir in the cooked bacon. Add shrimp and simmer until pink, about three minutes.

5. Just before serving, reduce heat to low and add the half and half. Stir until just warmed through, about three minutes.

6. Serve with green onions as garnish. Eat it up.

PS Two days later, just to keep things interesting, I served the leftover soup over rice for dinner. So good.

News Trend A Cupboard That I Can't Explain|Actual

In my living room stands a black walnut cupboard.

Someone in my husband's family built it generations ago.

I love it.

Years ago, I filled it up with coconut bowls from Vietnam and a collection of driftwood from Kalaloch Beach.

I know. The bowls are fine but the driftwood's a little weird.

What can I say. I'm crazy for these bits and bobs of once-towering trees, broken and tossed and polished smooth by the most powerful ocean on the planet, then tossed up on my beloved beach..

I love them.

So far, so good.

Still, this presentation has been lacking a little something. A plant was the obvious answer; a splash of green to ignite the natural tones of brown.

I searched for a long time for my dream pot and the perfect plant.

Then I got bored with searching and just forgot about it for awhile.

Sometimes that is the best way to find a solution. Stop looking and let the solution find you.

Last weekend at Molbaks, this white-footed planter found me.

I dig the hand-thrown vibes, the wobbly lines, the groovy pedestal. It reads very 1970 to me and I love the tension it creates with the straight, somber style of the antique cupboard.

And the ivy was a Christmas gift from my fourth-born. She gave me the plant last winter, and said that we could pick out a perfect pot later on. Truer words were never spoken.

What can I say. I know that this whole configuration is a little wonky. Why I stuffed a family heirloom full of beach debris and coconut art, I can't explain. And why I feel so satisfied with this out of tune planter mystifies me.

But I don't care.

I love everything just the way it is.

And Gracie apparently loves it too.

News Trend What An Angel|Actual

Christmas Tree-Hunting Blues

2015 - Tree Hunting

She roams the wet wilderness as her humans seek the perfect Christmas tree, wagging as she walks  and occasionally stopping to stare at a fellow canine assigned to the same task.

Quite the regal lady, she walks with aristocratic bearing and just a hint of street swagger, her nose to the ground, ever in pursuit of delicious scents. Now and then, she accidentally wraps her leash about a stubby little fir, but cleverly follows her human's prompts for corrective action. She stops, as her family does, to evaluate this tree and that, and while her mind may wander during these sessions, her little red rump stays firmly seated on the ground.

"Alright, folks, that tree is properly loaded. Now someone please

open up the back door and let me get out of this mud."

She's come a long way, my lassie has, in proper holiday field etiquette, and though she still behaves like an ape at times, today at the Christmas tree farm, Gracie was simply an angel.

* * * * *

Not every trip to the Christmas tree farm is quite so lovely.

Get all the gory details in my reports of our annual adventures:

2018 | Christmas Absurdities

2017 | Red-Headed Soul Mates

2016 | Christmas Tree-Hunting Blues

2015 - Tree Hunting

2014 | Hunting the Perfect Christmas Tree

2013 | A Vegan Murder

2012 | The Christmas Tree Farm Revisited

News Trend Excited|Actual

Maybe, someday, the day will come when I will dread plane trips. I may drag my heels through the concourse, grind my teeth as I stand in line to check my bags, and resent every step of the security checks. Possibly I will find myself bored as I wait at my gate,  or annoyed at the thought of being squeezed into a human sardine can for the next few hours.

I may someday come to dislike the process of flying.

But, my friends, that day is not today.

I am at the airport today, traveling with my second-born to visit my third-born daughter who lives and teaches English in Seoul, South Korea.

And I could not be any more excited.

News Trend Car Keys|Actual

"The thrill of coming home has never changed." -Guy Pearce

The last day of a road trip is always a different kind of day.

After day upon day of glorious sights to see and places to explore, the last day is spent mostly in the car.

Long stretches of driving through huge states with lots of space between the people.

Tedious and empty hours pass by uneventfully.

We swing up through the southwestern side of Idaho, and across the northeast corner of Oregon, and then up into eastern Washington.

Dull and dreary, wide and brown.

And there is that subtle taste of bittersweet sadness, knowing that my vacation is almost over. Days, weeks of living with my car keys in my hand every morning, wondering what I will find along the way that day, are soon to come to an end, and the predictable pace of ordinary days will soon become my reality.

Then, as we always do, we come across Interstate 90 and begin the long, slow grind up the last great mountain pass that leads us into Seattle.

Clouds build as we race up the eastern flank of the Cascade Mountains.

The air fills with moody, translucent mists that hover and drift above evergreen treetops.

Approaching Snoqualmie Pass, granite boulders, snowy peaks and towering trees fill the vistas.

Now I know I am home again.

Safe in the arms of the Pacific Northwest.

Where a lush, green, rugged merk of adventure is waiting around every corner, and I need not travel for days on end to find and enjoy it.

And while I am always excited to roam the world and explore every place I find, I'm never disappointed to come home to this remarkable corner of the planet, my beloved Pacific Northwest.

Contentedly, I put my car keys down.

* * * * *

Road Trip 2019: read all about it.

Leaving

Resting

Glacier National Park

Dakota Sunshine

Mackinac Bridge

My Newfound Brother

Fox Trilogy

Cleveland Rocks

Vermilion Legacy

At The Conservatory

Riding To Rifle

Arches National Park: Balanced Rock

Arches National Park: Double Arch

Arches National Park: Devil's Garden Trail

Arches National Park: Park Avenue

Dead Horse Point

Waiting For Breakfast

Canyonlands National Park

Cheeseburgers

Car Keys

News Trend My New Red Pot|Actual

In what world do I live that allows me to purchase a wildly expensive, high end European cook pot and call it within the bounds of my self-imposed shopping ban?

Well, I'll tell you.

This flaming red Le Creuset Dutch panggang has been on my wish list for a long, long time.

For a long, long time, I've been making do with a 25-year-old cast iron contoh to cook dinner for the troops here several times a week. My old soldier was never meant for regular KP: I bought it in 1993 to use on camping trips and ended up cooking with it year round. Somewhere around 1997, I told myself that I was within my rights to upgrade to a more conventional, kitchen-friendly Dutch panggang. I read a zillion reviews and decided that despite its steep price, the Le Creuset pot holds the best value and suit my purposes perfectly. I decided to buy one.

But I never got around to making that happen.

Fast forward to November 2019. Somewhere between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I was scrolling around the Crate and Barrel website, picking up a few Christmas gifts for my homemaking daughters, and thought to myself, Say now, I wonder how the prices are looking on the Dutch oven of my dreams.

There she was, gleaming scarlet, generously larger than my cast iron model, in all ways perfect. And her usual $325 price tag had been temporarily slashed to $199.

So you know what I did?

Yep. At long last, I pulled the trigger.

Two weeks ago, the new girl moved in, and I put her straight to work.

Among other things, she has served us up this delish sausage and white bean soup, a first-time recipe for me that won the family over.

And this weekend, I whipped up a pot of my homemade beef stew. I'm mot ashamed to tell you that we fought over the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

So my new Dutch panggang has been officially enthroned as the queen of the kitchen. She rules from a semi-permanent position atop the range, because my injured shoulder does not allow me to heft her up and down from the pot cupboard.

Besides, I still need to rearrange the other pots to make space for her. Because my old cast iron Dutch panggang will not be leaving me any time soon. He'll still be joining us for camping trips every summer and occasional overflow duties. He's earned his reward..

* * * * *

So what aboutmy year-long shopping ban? Technically, my rules require me to just say no to new housewares. But, after twenty plus years of consideration and a 39% discount, I decided that this was no impulsive, emotionally-driven consumption-crazed purchase, and I gave myself permission to buy a new red pot.

And I have absolutely zero regrets.

News Trend A Moveable Feast|Actual

"Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever

happen to one again." -Willa Cather

This year's model is a scrappy girl, with an oddly rectangular shape and some rather large gaps between the tiers of branches. But I love her for her straight spine and lovely airiness.

More than the first day of the year, or my birthday, or even Christmas morning, my heart best measures the passing of time according to the day each year that our Christmas tree goes up.

Over the past few years, we've finally managed to tame the once-hectic process - no one cries anymore, no one needs a nap or a diaper change or a time out to calm their teenage temper. In the course of a few hours, we can now go from wrestling the tree into its stand to putting the star up on top, and even getting the boxes back into the garage in a calm, orderly manner. We have indeed become a rational, efficient Christmas tree machine.

But oh, how my heart fills with the memories of years gone past.

As my thoughts skim back over the decades, I ride the waves of emotion that carry me from my own childhood into my daughters' lives, the years of my young adulthood and early married days - sights and sounds bring my whole life forward in my mind.

And while the memories are overwhelmingly positive, there is a bittersweet edge to my heart songs.

This is my life.

I can feel the weight of it in my hands, I can smell it in the pine branches and see it in the lights.

This is what my life looks like.

It has taken shape.

And no matter what the future holds for me, these years, these memories of putting up Christmas trees, year after year after year, will always be mine.

So, one more time, let's sweep up the last two thousand pine needles and comfortably crash onto the couches to admire our handiwork. Once again, the Streicher Family Christmas tree is up and I am ready to celebrate another year's success!