new life

spencer austin watkins

look how tiny he is in joe's lap!

congratulations, steve and wendy! we praise God with you for such a good delivery and perfectly adorable new monkey. "when he's out, he's out!" ;) and now he's out. we love you, watkins five.

sabbath table

new sabbath tablelinen

this was supposed to be cherry clafoutis, but i didn't have cherries. so, it ended up being strawberry blueberry clafoutis. "clafoutis" is french, meaning "to fill". doesn't this look so...real? it's totally boiled over and messy. :) it's God's goodness...our pot overflows.

found

so, while i was cooking dinner last night (see post below), joe was getting this loverly friend into our house.

we've always had a dilemma of design in our little living room - this one wall under the window is a great space, but for lack of better furniture, was continually cluttered with oddball chairs and lamp tables and whatnot. and we hate clutter! but, we also have another dilemma, which is how to furnish the new room that is now nearly completed. i though perhaps a small futon couch would fit in there, and would serve as a nice movie couch and then a guest bed if/when it was needed. so, yesterday, day of all days, i find this little guy for a steal. bring it home, and it literally takes up half the new little room, and we're not sure we're ready for that yet. (yes, we did measure, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but we thought it may have been satisfactory after all...). we were not disheartened, but rather put it to good use in our living room, taking care of that unsightly clutter and providing a good bit more seating for company. the black cover, though it does look rather handsome with our present decor, is a bit worn. so, if we so choose, we may go avail ourselves of the futon cover sale that bed bath and beyond is having this week! and i have lots of coupons. :)

wednesday dinner

a little chicken, a little proscuitto, a bit of fresh sage pesto, and a jaunt in the oven.

i also made a peach blueberry crisp for dessert and shared it with our landlady and her friends, but somehow i felt that posting even more food pictures would give my dads too much ammunition. :) but it was a beautiful dessert, and quite lovely. we still have homemade ice cream keeping nicely in the freezer from fourth of july, so we dabbed just a bit of that over it.

a little leaven

i made some more bread yesterday, and this recipe was WAY better...mostly because i actually followed the recipe (by julia child). :) well, i at least followed the ingredients properly. julia told me to construct the bread in the kitchen-aid with all kinds of careful fussiness. but, i did it jamie oliver's way (outlined in pictures below), and it worked beautifully! and let me tell you, it was SO easy. you're gonna get your hands dirty anyway, so might as well just jump in right from the start. this way, you only make one mess, and it's almost cleaned up for you by the time you've got your dough kneaded.

find a space on your counter, make a well of flour, sprinkle the yeast into the center

pour in the warm water, honey (or agave), and oil and start stirring with a fork. let the yeast wake up and get foamy for a minute, and then start working the flour into the center with the fork, slowly pulling from the sides around the circle.

when the liquid's all absorbed and dough looks like a stringy mess, you're right on track.

put down the fork, flour your hands and start kneading. knead for 10 minutes, lightly flouring your hands and board as needed. let it go through two raises till double, one in an oiled bowl, then one in it's pan after its been shaped. bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

joe and i ate, um, a number of pieces last night while it was still piping hot, with fresh butter and homemade strawberry jam. joe's eating a peanut butter n' jelly sandwhich even now as i'm writing this. :)

loch lomond

the day on which the families of freeman, koomas, mcelveny, and carlson played on the lake....

and joe and i sang that sad song as we boated across the waters, cause if you're on a lake called lomond, you have to sing: "oh, you take the high road and i'll take the low road, and i'll get to scotland a'fore ye. but me and my true love will never meet again on the bonny, bonny banks of loch lomond." sniff, sniff.

uncle sean and nick fishin'

these ducks have crazy mohawks on the back of their heads

do you see the "joe" carved in this stump?
this lake is 20 minutes from our house

just some guy i thought was boating rather picturesquely

my hubby's dainty feet

kris ate everything except food...dirt, sticks, charcoal

cutie patootie dirt brothers

a small regret and an enlgish roadhouse

on saturday, we took a little car trip down the coast a ways to monterey. mom and dad had been wanting to take us to a place called tarpy's for some delicious dinner. and of course, we obligingly came along. ;)

before we hit the restaurant, we took a quick walk down memory lane. during all our wedding planning in the hot summer of 2003, joe and i decided not to worry about taking a camera on our honeymoon (the biggest reason being that we didn't own one...but we also thought we didn't need pics since monterey was practically our backyard, and at that point we really didn't care - we just wanted to finally be married!). well, five years later, we now kinda care that we didn't get any pictures. so, as we were walking down cannery row, i realized i had a camera and that i could get pictures of our hotel! i know, it's almost pointless, but it's for posterity. and someday, if we ever move far, far away from this part of the west coast, we will be glad to have something to look at. and beyond that, when we're old and gray, we're gonna need those photos to jog our memories.

so, after making dad nervous that we'd miss our reservation because i was taking so long with all my sentimentality, we trucked down highway 68. we found there a restaurant in the middle of suburbia. if it had been on ocean avenue in carmel, it would have fit in perfectly with every other quaint and adorable edifice. but here, halfway between monterey and salinas, this place looked out of place. we had just passed a gas station and a row of chain stores, and then we turned into a driveway and discovered this small wonder - an old english stone farmhouse in a lush garden. this was tarpy's, a roadhouse restaurant, named in honor of mr. tarpy, a gentlemen who was hung on the premises for the murder of his neighbor lady (eleven bullets to the chest, and he tried to convince the jury that it was an accident). the waitress said when the structure was restored to a restaurant, they named one of the dining rooms for the poor neighbor, in hopes that her ghost would be flattered and leave happy. uh, yah.

so, the outside looks like jamie oliver's homestead, and the inside looks like frank lloyd wright's favorite place to eat. pretty awesome, actually. plaster walls, a unique fireplace in every room (there was an old fireplace made entirely of shells), arched doorways, wood-beamed ceilings, and statues of animals everwhere...dogs, cats, chickens, roosters, hogs, and the like. oh, and the food was amazing. it must have been all that california history. i think the thing we were most delighted with was that they served asparagus as the veg! most restaurants give you the basic pile of broccoli or assorted summer squashes. but this was our cup of tea!

the highlight of the evening for joe was receiving a glass of 40-year tawny port. this port was more expensive than the priciest steak dinner he's ever eaten, and it also had been sitting in a barrel for 15 years before joe was even born!

on the hotel plaza overlooking the bay



schooner's restaurant, below the plaza

right wing of the hotel

our room, on the left wing of the hotel. we were supposed to have a garden view room, but when we arrived, the hotel had upgraded us to an ocean view room. :)

the first place where we had our first breakfast as mr. and mrs.

this has nothing to do with our honeymoon, but this is for you kat and vince! this is on cannery row. ;)

i LOVE the stonework!

the view from my seat inside, through an old leaded-glass window

my dinner...underneath it all was a saffron risotto. mmmm.

joe tasting the port

st.louis cousins come for a visit

we got to have lunch with our cousins, matt and sara, and their little girls (our cousins once removed??) elizabeth and ruby. we praise the Lord that they arrived safe and healthy. grandma kindly hosted us all at her place, and we ate down in the lovely dining room. it was sweet to give them hugs and catch up on their lives, quick as it was. they are looking forward to a much needed respite while "home."

we love you, matt and sara! thank you for sharing your afternoon with us.

elizabeth riding grandma's dahla horse

matt juggling...proving to us that his talents lie in the medical field

beautiful!

ruby, wearing the Cat hat

sisters playing

"and their land is filled with idols"

it was an out-of-culture experience. we were two of 20,000 people...that's a conservative number. two adults (we sure felt like adults all of a sudden) in a mad sea of tweens and their mothers. we climbed into the stratoshpere and found our purposely-chosen aisle seats. it was already loud, and there were only a mere 1,000 people inside. we came prepared: joe brought Living the Sabbath and i brought Mary Poppins. we read as the masses outside emptied their wallets for t-shirts and 8 by 10 glossy photos and nachos.

then, pop tart man came out. literally. there was a loud emcee, and a guy in a pop tart suit. we're sorry now we didn't get a picture. he was friendly and fun, jumping around and waiving at all the tweens who eat him every morning as part of a complete breakfast. this whole concert series, from californai to florida, was sponsered by him, after all. the emcee charged the congregation to scream as loud as they could, as often as they could, and together they made a difference...it got louder. and he made them practice their screams, just to be sure they were ready.

then, darkness. then, a rumbling so great and terrible it shook the bones. the beat of the drum was mistaken for the beat of the heart. and then, lights shot and shimmered over a dark stage and uncontrollable anticipation was created. and the congregation screamed. well done.

chikezie sings three songs. the congregation screams. rameile and michael johns and carly smithson and kristy lee cook and brooke white. screams, screams, and more screams. the congregation peforms just as well. but these are yet just adolescent noises...the mature noise was waiting with bated breath.

after an intermission of "guitar hero" for everyone, the congregation settled into their seats, the room got heavier, the lights got flickerier, and the rumblings came back more ominous than before. everyone was tickled pink. but first, they had to get through jason castro and syesha.

then it was down to the davids. and the roof almost collapsed. the davids sang their heart out, but so did the congregation. this was their shining moment: they must scream like they've never scrummed before. it doesn't matter if you can't hear david singing anymore, that's not the point! no excuses now. do your duty.

the concert summed itself up in a heart-felt song about believing, and then the encore protocol began. we're sure that the davids sang a few smoky ballads and the congregation made its last effort of cultural obedience. but we don't know for sure, because we were already making the exodus to the car, with the other 1,000 people who thought it might be wise to beat masses. it was a wholly uplifting evening.

you'll see which idols we like best from the pictures. i wanted to get a shot of syesha, but she was so ill-clad that i couldn't, in my conscience, take a picture of her and let my husband look at it (not to mention all of you!). i will say that, aside from ramiele, they all could sing! i mean, we did manage to hear their high notes and belting voices, and some of them (mostly the ones we captured on digifilm) were awesome.

chikezie

michael johns

brooke - a breath of fresh air in all the idol mess

little david

the idol

his guitar

we do have video too. maybe i should post them on uTube with the 10,000 videos that were taken that night.

wierd fruit

my mommy and daddy needed a pick-me-up tonight, so we went over with this:


rhubarb is wierd...i mean, think about it. it is a fruit? it looks like pink celery. i can't say i feel entirely comfortable with it's form, but it's content has put me greatly (to my surprise) at ease.

i had never dared use rhubarb before, but i all of sudden got a hankering to make a strawberry-rhubarb something or other. i didn't want to make a full pie, so i decided upon a galette. i LOVE this rustic form of dessert.

i had to sort of fudge my way through it because i didn't know what i was doing. i ended up using the skeleton of a filling recipe from one book and joined it to the flesh of a dough recipe from another book. i was afraid it wasn't going to turn out because i couldn't tell for sure how much sugar to use. anyhoo, because i knew nothing about how rhubarb works its wonders, i couldn't be sure it wasn't going to come out too sour, or too sweet for that matter.

but, one's fears are put to rest (or are realized!)when one takes a bite. ;) joe was seriously delirious over it, my mom wanted a double portion, and my dad, though he didn't want any at first, said it was the best pastry-category dessert he's ever had.

thus, you all MUST have this in your reperatoire. i'm saying it's "my" recipe because i had to patchwork quilt the recipe together from different sources and then make some personal changes/additions. but it's super easy to make! just beware, the juice from the strawberries can bubble itself out and make a mess of your pan. and, if you make one big galette out of the dough (like i did here), kudos to you if you can figure out how to get it off the pan and onto the serving platter in one piece (maybe if you let it cool entirely...but then of course you have to make sure that your crust won't stick itself permanently to your pan by means of all that sugary berry juice). smaller ones handle just fine transferring from the pan to the serving dish or dessert plate.

strawberry rhubarb pie

by jen carlson

crust:

2 1/4 C. flour
1/4 C. sugar
pinch of salt
12 Tbl. butter
ice cold water

combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl of kitchenaid. cut in butter on medium-high speed till the butter is small pellets. with the motor running, add some of the cold water a bit at a time, enough to make the dough just start to come together. it's easy to add too much liquid, so stop pouring in the water and wait to see if the dough begins to gather itself together - at that point, you're good to go. dump dough out of the bowl and form into a general round. wrap and put in fridge for 30 mintues. meanwhile, do up the filling.

filling:

3 C. rhubarb, sliced into half-inch pieces (about four stalks)

2 C. strawberries, sliced lenghtwise in half

1 C. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 C. flour (you could up that a bit so there's not as much juice to ruin your pan)

add all ingredients to a big bowl, and stir to combine. let sit for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, to let the sugar set into the rhubarb.

when the dough is chilled, roll it out (not super thin) into a circle, about 15 inches or so across. move dough circle to baking sheet. pile in the filling, leaving room around the edge to fold the extra dough over. pinch extra dough up over the filling, brush dough with milk, and sprinkle with a little sugar. bake for 30 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.

happy birthday, mames!

guess what our calendar proudly dons for your birthday month? just had to pass it along. ;) you're in my heart today.

proof that we saw it on the big screen

stanford theater delivers again...

we're americans all right

in traditional fashion, we ate. and, in traditional fashion, i took pictures. i got some shots of people too. :) giggling was in order, and we had ourselves a jolly shindig, just the four of us.

makin' guac

armchair love

mom's new garden! she's not herself without living things about her.

oswald (last time you saw him, he was in the window sill wearing a christmas sweater)

grillin'

and...

homemade vanilla bean ice cream!

joe tasting his ice cream. those eyes mean he likes it.

pretty self-explanatory

train - dad won, and joe lost...bad

my swede-man

again, pretty american (i know, it's not apple, but i just couldn't do it when there were summer fruits to be had).

Lord, we strive to remember and be grateful for your goodness to us through this country. our allegiance is to You - we are sons and daugthers of Your Kingdom. but we work and play in america for Christ's glory, knowing you have given us huge measures of freedom and joy by means of armies and gardens and watermelons. help us not be "grumbling israelites".

independence pie

for kat: nectarine blackberry pie

the fruit was from tuesday's famer's market. oh, sweet and splendid fruit - a pie is their final glory!

traditional pic-with-the-pie. wonder how many of these i'll have by the time i'm old. bet each picture might show me a bit fatter...digital proof that i've tested the finished product. hmm. well, there's no glory in skin and bones. and at least my soul's fatter for it too. ;)