Sophie!!!

I've been terribly remiss in posting new Sophie pictures, so here are a few for you. Enjoy! Here is Sophie's famous Rainbow Unicorn! Don't you wish you could ride one???

Upside down at the Sacramento Zoo!

Here is Sophia on the Capitol Mall in Sacramento. If you like trees, go to this park!

Here she is playing Joe's clarinet. The squawking was oh-so-hip. Benny Goodman would be proud!

Vegetable Love/Vegetable Guilt

So we picked up our second box of farm-fresh, CSA veggies this week. Three kinds of tomatoes, carrots, beautiful zucchini, green and burgundy beans, red potatoes, corn on the cob, white nectarines, and a dainty English cuke. Delicious! We find ourselves scouring cookbooks looking for new and lively ways to use this abundance. This weekend I made fresh tomato sauce, blanched and froze about 3 quarts of green beans and corn, and made a terrific tomato, potato, and olive gratin for dinner. (See Deborah Madison's great book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.) The flavors in tonight's dinner were so amazingly complex that Joe and I a hard time not eating more and more of it. (Sophie had a hard time starting with it. The capers kind of threw her off her game.) Thyme, fennel, lemon, two sauteed red onions, kalamata olives, and those capers created this complex sweet/savory combo that was hard to beat.

We were thinking about how lucky we are to be able to spend our days planning and carrying out and enjoying great meals. We can get great produce easily and inexpensively, and we can enjoy preparing and freezing things like beans and tomato sauce safe in the knowledge that this is not our only avenue for the winter. What luxury! In some communities, even here in the verdant Central Valley, there are communities where people can buy liquor or a quart of milk, but not fresh fruit or veggies. The poorer people are, the less access they have to healthy food and the more likely they are to suffer from obesity and its host of companion illnesses. And I get to spend my weekend playing with food like a hobby. Weird and sad. Our world has come a long way since people grew their own food for sustenance. Maybe that is not such a good thing in some ways.

Anyway, I'll put the soapbox away now. Hope your weekend is happy, and if you want the recipe mentioned above, just say the word.

Two Movies

I don't often feel like booing a movie at the end. Even the sappiest movies make me cry. However, last night Joe and I watched The Holiday with Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, and Jude Law. Don't waste your time! The movie was uneven and most poorly acted. Diaz had these weird movie trailer flashes into her own life that were completely out of step with the rest of the movie. Also, she isn't really a good actress. Although she has amazing hair that never looks messy. Jack Black was tamped down and tamed into a rather simpering and dull love interest. I love Jack Black, but he has to be over-the-top for him to really hit the chords he plays best. (Remember the end of Hi-Fidelity?) It was just sad to see him forced into submission. On a positive note, Kate Winslet was really good -- vulnerable and frumpy and cute at the same time. (A lot like me! Hahaha. Only kidding. I can only claim the frumpy. -sigh-) Her scenes with Eli Wallach were the best parts of the movie. And Jude Law was nice to look at. And the movie was very predictible which made for a nice parlor game for Joe and I and lent a certain comfort to the evening. See?? I ended on a postive note.

Now brace yourself...here's more positivity for you. The other night we watched, also on DVD because we don't get out that often, Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It is an odd thing to watch a movie about an aging pop star and then realize that he is your age! Argh! The star, Hugh Grant, now finds himself playing at class reunions and being lusted over by women who graduated in 1987! (I graduated in 1986.) The movie starts and ends with terrific send-ups of early videos by groups like Duran Duran and Wham! Hahaha. Talk about nostalgia. The movie is really sweet and who can't swoon a little over Hugh. Drew Barrymore was her usual cute and winsome self. Brad Garret and that chick from Third Rock from the Sun were in the movie too, but the one who stole the show for both Joe and I was Drew's character's brother-in-law. He just seemed like such a nice guy, and very real. We wanted to have dinner with him. Anyway, we recommend Music and Lyrics for the laughs, particularly to those of you, who like us, remember the 80's all too well.

The Eiffel Tower in Modesto

Alas, the other day Sophie and I missed the handoff with our trusty camera and it bumped to the floor, landing not-very-squarely on its lens. The poor thing seems to be broken beyond repair. Needless to say, I won't be able to post any photos for the next little while. We'll have to rely on the written word.

Right now I am relying on silence. Sophie is asleep for about another 1/2 hour or so. She is so much fun to be around today, but she chatters nonstop. I love to hear what is going on in her head which is lucky, because I pretty much get a play-by-play account. And it is interesting what she remembers and comments on: Daniela's scrape from last summer, the parakeets she recently fed in Colorado, the London Eye, the fact that I told her when she was two that she could have an M&M if she went potty and why can't she have one now when she just went. Wow. She has also recently learned what the Eiffel Tower looks like, and it is amazing how many images of the Eiffel Tower exist in our everyday world here in Modesto. I know this because I have every one pointed out to me as we go along. "Look, Mommy!" You know how it goes. Why is the Eiffel Tower painted on the window of that mattress store? I don't know, but I wouldn't trade knowing it is there for all the croissants in Paris!

More soon and peace to you.

Cycling Champion!

This morning we took Sophie and her pink bike down to the bike path in Dry Creek Park, where Joe rides nearly every day and where Sophie and I sometimes join him. Usually, Sophie rides in the bike trailer, but today she hopped on her bike and rode along with us. Boy, did those training wheels spin!!! Part of the way, Sophie sang a loud song about ringing bike bells, and swayed back and forth dangerously. (I, riding behind, was sure she would tip right over.) We think Sophie rode about 2 miles there and back, all with a minimum of complaining and that mostly at the very end when she said she was "sooooo tiiiiirred." What a girl!

Vegetables and Ballet Slippers

Hello, loyal readers. Sophie started ballet class this week. I must tell you, if you are feeling low/blue/in the dumps/clinically depressed/etc. please seek out and watch a beginning ballet class. It is one of the funniest things I have ever, ever seen. These kids are 4-6 years old and have yet to tell their rights from their lefts (me too...), they follow each other more than they follow the teacher, and since none of them know what they are doing, this results in some pretty funny movements. All that said, Sophie loves it. She dances around quite happily and is a good listener.

Also this week, we received our first installment of our Community Supported Agriculture. It was a huge box containing three varieties of tomatoes, Peruvian purple potatoes, green and purple beans, nopales (!), a small watermelon, basil, and two kinds of zucchini (lots of zucchini!). The food tastes great and is making me try new recipes in order to deal with the bounty. Our own tomatoe crop is also doing great. Sophie and I were up at about 7 this morning harvesting today's pick. We've got some green beans too, but I only find them when they are huge and stringy, not that good to eat.

My book recommendation this week is for Ron Carlson's Five Skies, a terrific novel about three men working in the mountains. There are extended descriptions of the construction project they are working on and even though I didn't understand most of that, the characters were so well-developed and compelling, that I kept reading. The ending was...well, of course, I won't tell you, but I recommend it whole-heartedly. We also saw the movie Sicko this week. I know that Michael Moore is maniupulating me the entire time, and usually I am resistant to that (yes, even by liberal types I already agree with), but this movie was a strong indictment of our healthy care system -- it made Canada, England, France, and even Cuba seem more compassionate than our own US. Health care reform is something we can all get behind, since we all need health care, right?

Okey-doke, so Sophie is outside attempting to swim in a the wadiing pool and I said I'd go out with her as soon as I finished this, so finish I will. Until soon...hope all's well and wonderful with you.

And another week...

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a week. Here's what's been happening...

I finished the book Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver and I REALLY recommend it to those of you who care where your food is coming from and what you can do to make your food more organic, more local, and more your own. It is nonfiction and a great read. BK is one of my favorite authors anyway, but this book was both compelling and inspiring. In fact, when I finished I immediately announced to Joe that we were going vegetarian, pulling up our grass to have more garden, and getting a goat. Joe shook his head and sighed. Those of you who know me know my enthusiasms are intense and, sadly, much in conflict with reality. (Do any of you remember the time I was going to write to Bush weekly for a year. To my credit, I did write 18 letters and received exactly one response of no consequence.) At any rate, I am relaxing and am determined now simply to plant more veggies and learn how to make my own cheese. (Seriously! I'll let you know how it turns out.) But Joe is resting easier since I said I didn't really want a goat. Afterall, don't they eat tin cans? Why do I think that?

And in other news...Joe and Sophie have returned from a successful visit to Colorado Springs to see Oma (visiting from Holland), Uncle Larry, Aunt Ginger, and Gina, and of course, the dogs! Sophie had a great time -- fed giraffes, played with the dogs, met a fellow four-year old named Marcie, and had a great time with Oma and Gina. I think she was taller when she got home.

It was weird to be on my own for those couple of day. I had two poetry meetings and dinner out with the girls, but mostly I stayed at home and tried to write, mostly unsuccessfully. -sigh- Right now writing feels like trying to swim in jello -- you think you are getting somewhere, but you aren't at all. --double sigh--

FILM RECOMMENDATION -- Today we saw Ratatooie (sp?), a very funny animated flick. We took the intrepid Sophia, but it isn't really a kids' movie. It is a good movie for grown-ups who take joy in food and are not rataphobic. Delightful! I give it a two-thumbs up and so does Joe, but Sophie says, 'what?!" whenever we mention it. She seems to have liked the cheese grating scenes.

So that's all for now. Here are a couple of photos from the CO trip. Tata for now. ~ gw