joe and jen's place

2009: the highlights

2010-01-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

january: joe got macdaddy

february: kat visited (last one to visit our old apt)

valentines day

march: our first house!

april: hofmans and family reunion TX!

may: joe's bday

june: peterson summer train ride

house warming!

july: our first garden

summer feast

the atwoods visit

august: our 6th anniversary

september: Coffee Cat farmer's market debut

we discover figs and brussel sprouts (put together!)

october: reformation feast

joe gets in the paper

november: first thanksgiving at our house

december: last shot of the year

what a year!! and what an amazing one. Lord, thank you.

incidentally, i just realized that my first post of 2010 was my 300th. fun!

on happy new year and boxes of metal

2009-12-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

it's 12:05 am, and joe's been alseep since 9pm. i've made my bed on the couch. year 2010 for us begins with the stomach flu: seperate sleeping quarters, two highly disinfected toilets, and a pot of chicken broth. it's been quite a sicky holiday for us this year (3 stomach virae for joe and a mean bronchial thing for me), but we have seen the Lord's lovingkindness to us throughout, and we rely on His healing hand on us as we enter the new year.

between washing and re-washing bedsheets and administering ice chips, we have managed to celebrate the Lord's advent and birth in great joy. we are so grateful for the majestic, brilliant, paradoxical, weighty story that Christ has written for us and this world - He has created, loved, and saved us. we are His, only. thank you, Lord Christ. we love you.

tonight, as i was tending to my weary husband, i was all of a sudden incredibly grateful for our home - namely, the machines in it. i had to do several loads of laundry tonight. a year ago, i was trudging up a hill through the rain to launder our clothes in a set of metal boxes that weren't mine. this evening, i stepped into my hallway to be greeted by two bright merry maids winking at me. they are efficient, indeed. they're quiet. they're big. but, the best part of all, they sing. it's a seriously well-written melodic line too! upon finishing their work, it comes dancing down the hallway, soudning all chipper that it just did your laundry for you. i wish i had that attitude whenever i wash stuff. joe and i've subconsciously committed the jingle to memory already...we found ourselves whistling it polyphonically in the car the other night.

the other machine i am thankful for is my dishwasher. i had so many dirty dishes tonight, many of them nasty. and there i was, stuffing nastiness into a box and closing the door. and miraculously, when i open the door again, i will have loveliness.

and then i stuffed a pot into the oven, a panini onto the grill, and a DVD into a blu-ray player - all metal boxes doing crazy amazing stuff. i mean, what in the world?? after a few trialsome weeks for the Carlson household, i was overcome. i leant, in tears, over our dinner (well, broth for joe) and thanked our gracious Father for these new, eager machines. sometimes, i have felt overhelmed with the hedonism of our culture, and i worry that our home is an extention of it. but tonight, i was grateful. and then i remembered that's why the Lord delights to give - because we delight in Him.

on that thought, happy new year, everyone!

the joy of the Lord is our strength: a Merry Christmas

2009-12-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

in our new house for Christmas, with a prime rib dinner from our awesome oven.

i surprised mom with framing her baby pics, and joe suprised me with grandma.

argileness

spiffy boys

my nephews!

Christmas at mom and dad's - thank you for such a lovely time!

rare family pic!

daisy and dad. this looks like something that will become a tradition. dog and red suspenders.

Christmas night (joe's fighting a persistent stomach flu here and doesn't realize it, poor guy)

getting ready

2009-12-23T11:54:00.001-08:00

(that's my toothbrush, if anyone wonders)

platoon

2009-12-17T13:18:00.001-08:00

great aunt cici

2009-12-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

cici was cheerful and spry. we brought presents. she had fun.

love this one. cici's eye are closed, mine are closed, and mom's (whose normally are closed) managed to stay open. go figure.

3 generations

new stove!

2009-12-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

five burners. convection. dishwasher-friendly grates. stainless steel. temp-controlled warmer. cool-to-the-touch weighted door. oh yes.

oh, and can i just say that the knobs weigh, like, a pound each? this is a good stove, folks.

compliments of mil and fil. they heard that the oven guy recommended we bury the old one. and then they saw how adventurous it was making thanksgiving dinner. so, on black friday, they bought us this pretty thing. we had to make a celebratory batch of cookies.

mil and fil: merci, encore! we are so grateful.

thanksgiving

2009-12-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

we rejoice with gratitude in our Father who gives with open hands. we love Him for saving us from ourselves, for His life abundant which we have in Christ, for His tender lovingcare for us every day, for His delight in us.

"because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life..." isaiah 43:4

how thankful we are for a God who has given Himself so entirely!

i have recently committed isaish 43:1-7 to memory. i am so glad i have. it has been feeding my soul in huge ways, and lately, in light of thanksgiving and Christmas, i have been meditating on one thing in particular. in 43:4, God was telling the israelites why He would build their nation keep a covenant with them: because He loved them.

and, looking at this text with eyes of a 21st-centurian, what a fulfillment of prophecy! the Lord has given a Man in return for us, a Lamb, a Shepherd, a Priest, a King in exchange for our life. why? because we are precious in His eyes, and honored, and He loves us. this is huge. He is a strong tower, mighty to save; He is a tender Father, full of compassion. to me, this is such a fitting thought (and one that i love) for this Advent season we've just begun. the Israelites longed for His coming, for the birth of their King; we long for a second Advent, the installation of the King and a recreation of the world. we rejoice in that expectation, and that's Christmas; we live in that yearning, and that's life in Christ.

we are, not to forget, very thankful for our new home, in which we celebrated our first thanksgiving as home-owners. it was a juggling act finding room for all the food, and the biscuits did end up on the floor, but that's part of the fun, right?

mom and dad made their best turkey yet!

so grateful that grandma could be with us!

reading runs in the family. :) if you see a book, you pick it up and start reading.

gluten free/grain free cran orange bread

reformation feast, second annual

2009-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

joe and i, having cooked our way through the four seasons of last year, have come full-circle and begun a new year of church-wide feasts. last year, our inaugural feast was in honor of the Reformation, and we had a whopping 60 guests.

this year, we had 106. after i got over the shock, the only logical explanation i could come up with for this is that the word had gotten out the fact that it was free.

i don't, however, have any logical explanation for why joe and i think this is fun stuff...cooking for a hundred people and all that. i really can't say that it's a sane endeavor. but, it tickles us, blesses others, and honors the Lord to feast in His name and enjoy His bounty. and that's all the "why" we need to tie the apron strings and get cooking.

the Reformation was really all Martin Luther's fault, so in honor of the stinker, we decided on German fare. those who asked to help were invitied to bring a German or autumn-ish dessert, and i was overjoyed at the spread! some concerned soul suggested we had too much dessert. never! said we, and after the grazings ended, hardly a morsel was left. this was also the case with the salad, the bread, the potatoes, the brussels and figs, the bratwurst, the sauerkraut and the soup. the only reason why we didn't run out of sauerbraten was because we bought 6 briskets instead of four (and the rest was quickly finished off at the sunday potluck).

le menu:

grandma bunny's sauerbraten (she was german, she should know)
smoked bratwurst (from corralitos meat market)
local apple fennel sauerkraut
local jalepeno sauerkraut
roasted rosemary red potatoes
roasted brussels sprouts with figs
gingered pumpkin soup with cinnamon croutons
kale salad with apple and pomegranate
calvados apple sauce
german rye bread
maple-glazed lady apples
apple pies

we cooked all week, smelling all this loveliness, so that by the time the dinner bell rang, the only thing i was particularly hungry for was the bratwurst. but it was no matter. folks were happy and tummies, Lord-willing, were full.

the centerpieces (flowers AND pumpkins) were courtesy of kathy swanson, whose garden is divine. she let me come do the picking. the candles were courtesy of the bunneys (thank you!).

even after all these chairs, there were, unfortunately, some folks eating bratwurst on foot.

amy, my awsome lady sous chef (and joe is my man-chef)

one has to label, label, label, as well as plan, plan, plan. or else - chaos!

my MIL, who kindly provided the ambiatic lighting, the lemons, and a dish-washing hand. thank you! FIL saved us with an emergency coffee run (Cat coffee, of course).

i really have no idea who brought what dessert, but how gorgeous!

dear friends who drove from loomis to be there - love you guys!

the line wraps around the table

getting seated

please disregard whatever is going on with my hair here. but notice the helping hands in this picture, who made the evening possible. joe emceed the affair beautifully, and we were delighted to sing martin luther's original version of A Mighty Fortress with our friends the Cummings. we jumped right in to four part harmony nearly without a hitch. it was a treat to sing again.

AH - see here, a peek at the meat!

my heart and soul here with me. i would not dream of doing this without him. he's such a joy. and his sweater is much more appropriate for the autumnal event than my screaming purple shirt. i don't know what i was thinking.

and, finally, a HUGE thank you to all the ladies who lent such a willing hand to dish detail! that was such a blessing, and i cannot thank you enough. i know it was not an easy task.

we eat when we get together

2009-11-02T13:54:00.000-08:00

birthdays, of course, are just one more no-brainer reason to sit around the table. here we are at Buca di Beppo for my sisters' and bro-in-law's birthdays! a rare pic of our fam together. super fun, and such a good place for family-style food. love you guys!

nephews nik and kris think the cupcakes are for them and proceed to down them

hanging out

2009-11-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

we have discovered that our condo complex is just a place for big (i'm talking the size of a golf ball) brown spiders to make a living. this one had strung a long lead from the top of the pine tree outside our living room window, across the sidwalk, to an eye-level bush of sorts that provided him with a proper audience. he then builds a gargantuan meal-catcher and dares joe not to find it with his unsuspecting face on the way to the mailbox. joe managed to avoid the collision and got pictures instead. spidey was gone the next day.

storm on the harbor

2009-10-16T17:20:00.001-07:00

from the window of johnny's harborside restaurant, we watched the storm (which was rather short-lived, by the way) come in. i had the best fish tacos. joe dug the fish n' chips.

autumn, and how lovely it is, too!

2009-10-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

we're expecting a storm any hour now. should be a real doozy. i'm excited. i guess there's a typhoon warning for the california coast. this has always been my favorite season. and, we feel completely spoiled by the Lord this year with a fireplace to cozy up to!! i'm seriously in love with our fireplace.

my hydrangeas have about had it for the year - way to truck through the summer, ladies! i love these flowers when their at their ripest mid-summer, but honestly my favorite look is when they're on their way out. they have some of the most beautiful autumn greens and berry colors.

sabbath dinner: butternut squash soup with coconut and apple liquer, kale almond salad, warren pears with manchego and proscuitto. loved every bite!!

apple crisp with local almond vanilla sorbet

tell me this is not a scrumptious view!

love this guy!

2009-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

the City with friends

2009-10-06T16:03:00.001-07:00

we took a jaunt to san fran with our friends the watkins. joe and i are quite familiar with the City, but this was a day to do things we (or they) had never done (some pretty basic stuff, at that!). it was full of delights and belly laughs. and what a treat it was to go on a monday when there were no tourists!

bluebottle coffee for caffine
japanese tea gardens, bonsai watching, mini-bridge climbing, mochi cake eating
legion of honor museum (outside only)
marina headlands (grand view of the golden gate)
Lombard street (gotta do it!)
Walgreens for socks
starbucks Via challege
cablecar to Union square
Scala's Bistro for dinner (duck bolognese, sage pancetta raviolis, clam papardelle, steak frites)
post-dinner walk around the Square
random ride in a wrong elevator at St. Francis hotel
top of the Hyatt for nightviews of the city and dessert

they showed us the japanese tea gardens. we had tea. the guys weren't so fond of mochi cakes. they chuckled over a particularly pink one.

the bridge, of course. they showed us this hill, and it was a new view for us. quite breathtaking.

the wind was unmerciful, but a simply gorgeous day.

pretty amazing cliff, if you think about it.

view from the bottom. filmed in Vertigo.

waves that lick the bridge

starbucks dared us to blind-taste their instant coffee. the challenge: could we decipher which was the instant and which the fresh-brewed? the boys took the challenge, and won. they rightly labeled the coffees. how? the instant tasted better than the regular! and the employees weren't very happy. i guess one isn't supposed to be able to taste the difference. but starbucks gave them coupons for Via anyway. joe gave his to an Aussie standing in line for the cablecar.

steve's got his finger on the instant one

my very first ride on the City's cable car. we were on our way to Union Square for dinner. and, hours later, we caught the very last one back for the night. the drivers were a bit punchy (and mouthy), and evidently very ready to get home. needless to say, our ride was faster than typical. :)

joe hung on the outside as we clanked and screached our way up and down the hills.

because i didn't like the way it was...

2009-09-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

i rearranged, redecorated, and removed the bed frame. i didn't spend a dime. but, the venture was a bit risky. a kingsize bed jutting out from the corner can be disfunctional, not to mention disturbing. but, in this case, it works. the room now has some pizazz, some swagger. our bed is shorter without its props, and that took some getting used to (especially for us). but our room feels bigger. and it's inviting. and, it's clean and tidy - just how i like it. :)

sixth anniversary

2009-09-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

yep, august saw our sixth year of marriage come and go, and now we enter our seventh. amen.

mom made us beouf bourginon!

we did meals on the cheap...well, cheap for carmel. this was the Red House Cafe, in pacific grove.

of course we had to see julie and julia. we highly recommend it.

some aussies took this for us, and we took one for them.

we have made it tradition to stop at book haven in monterey. joe was looking for julia child's french cooking. didn't find it.

our hotel in pacific grove

we splurged at patisserie boisiere. worth every penny (and, it wasn't that expensive btw).

view from Mission Ranch, carmel

lone beach across from mission ranch

my handsome

it was a breathtaking walk along the coastal hills

a tisket, a tasket

2009-08-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

from the farmers' market this morning:

there's a fresh chicken in there! got it from greenhearts family farm.

manthri gave me the "wife's discount" this morning. ;)

pork sausage (sweet italian) from "el Salchichero - Hand Crafted Charcuterie" from Marin County. i also got organic grass-fed beef from here.

just because melodee whined...

2009-08-05T22:12:00.001-07:00

:) year one

heaven, bach, and food

2009-08-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

among the many things that excite me about being with the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth, there are two that are of no importance compared to Christ, but which Christ Himself desires to be present. there will be food, and there will be Bach (himself).

if you were to define joe and jen by simple nouns, they might be heaven, bach, and food... in that order. :)

so, we spent the clams and bought two tickets to the Bach festival again this year, for our anniversary. oh, it is SO worth every penny! we (again) sat in the front row, in order to see all the faces, expressions, instruments, hands, and fingers doing amazing things.

going to this concert always makes me long for heaven, where we will live and move and have our being with the Flesh and Blood. music will be there, because joy is there...Christ is there.

before we hit the seats, we had dinner at our favorite spot, cantinetta luca. i can't begin to say how good the food is there! if you are in carmel, make reservations there, and make sure to request the wine cellar section, under the brick roof.

this was just a preview of our anniversary. we meant to put the dinner and concert together with a few nights in pacific grove, but because i didn't have my head screwed on tightly, i made a scheduling fauxpas. so, we're going next weekend for our getaway, to celebrate six years.

love this man! he cracked me up all night.

we have a pic of this sort, from our first anniversary. we've changed a bit. :)

cantinetta luca's exceptional beef bolognaise. even jamie oliver's recipe doesn't compare.

joe was ecstatic about this dessert: blue cheese and honey. pretty simple delight, really - just dip and eat. he savored that for quite some time. everything couldn't have been more perfectly delicious.

didn't realize the lense was so filthy!

one of my favorite violists. we've come to remember a lot of the musicians from years past, as they seem to be regulars to the festival every year. it makes it so fun.

my favorite violinist. we don't have names because you have to purchase the program, and they're not cheap. so, we named him mario batali. he's crazy, and crazy talented. he's in love with what he does, though you wouldn't think to look at him that he was a musician, let alone a performing violinist. we think he's from scotland.

had to check out the cellos as much as i could, but it was hard with mario batali in the violin section stealing all the attention.

to market, to market

2009-08-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

okay you guys, this is hilarious, but you have no idea how thrilled to pieces i am that our town, scotts valley, has its very own farmers market now! it's a year-round, weekly market. oh, i can hardly even contain myself! :)

i am most excited about the organic pasture-raised chicken, the organic grass-fed beef, and the fresh beef, lamb, and pork stocks. for those things, i thank the Lord. joe and i have been doing a lot of research about food production lately, and have discovered that the place to get healthy, fresh meat is farmer's markets! and, here it is, right in our backyard (almost literally! i can walk there in three minutes from my front door!).

there are, as any good market will have, fresh seasonal fruits and veggies, delicious ethnic fare cooked right there, fish and oysters, and live music. but, there are two suprise vendors setting up shop in our new market - a sorbet stand selling flavors made that morning, and my own sweet hubby's world - coffee cat. one of the shops he runs, coffee cat, got a weekly spot there, and it was so fun to see them there. it seemed that the town was grateful for their presence, and i saw not a few folks balancing their produce wares in one hand with a Cat cup in the other. so, so fun. joe was quite tickled to be there (right up his alley, really) and he got to see so many of his regulars come out for it.

we used to have a corgi, so my mom and i naturally spotted him right away.

love their label! these are the folks that sell their beef and many stocks (yeast, gluten, sugar, and preservative-free). on the table, they had a picture album of their farm and animals, which is right on the coast and looked beautiful.

my man, hob-nobbing with regulars

the owner of coffee cat/lulu carpenters - such a fun guy!

mom was just as stoked as i was. :)

the pizzas looked great, but the dahlias were what caught my eye!

under the Cat tent, with one of joe's employees, brian

friendly neighbrohood spider

2009-08-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

i almost accidentally destroyed this guy's palace with my head the other day (joe would've definitely received the webworks square in the face!). spidey must've caught something though, 'cause three days later the web was a only shadow of its former glory and he had moved on. hopefully not into my house.

stuffed peppers

2009-08-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

summer feast

2009-07-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

perhaps this is obvious, but there are always a host of adventures to be had when one cooks for 80 people. joe and i capped off a year of feasts with this last summer event. it was THE perfect evening for an american barbeque, and it was the inauguration of our church's new patio. we dotted the patio with red and yellow umbrellas, red gingham tablecloths, and sunflowers. there were grills going with burgers and dogs, jars of three homemade lemonades, icy buckets full of cold root beer, and a whole pantheon of fresh baked desserts from all our lovely ladies. it was all quite festive, really.

when the evening is balmy, it usually means the day was not. and so it was on this day - hot. the air conditioning decided it had had enough for the day and petered out just as it was beginning to warm up outside. thus, with double ovens going in the kitchen and the AC out of commission, i began to roast. and, as it is with me on feast days, i forget to eat and drink. normally, this poses no real threat...i have adrenaline to keep me going. but, on a day like this particular friday, the heat combined with my lack of a good night's sleep, made for quite a grind toward the end. getting everything (burgers, dogs, accoutrements, baked beans, oven fries, mac n' cheese, coleslaw, salad) out on the table on time stretches one's gray matter to the max.

in addition, my jolly optimistic husband had it on his "essentials" list that we make homemade ice cream for the whole crew. i thought it a fun idea, and assented. then, after a few nights' cognitive energy, i panicked and vocalized to joe that it might not be the most doable idea he's ever had. ice cream for 80 people...um, yah. but, he insisted that it must be done. "think of it," he said. "what's fresh baked strawberry rhubarb pie without equally fresh vanilla cold stuff to go with it? people will revolt." so, it was decided, and we set out looking to beg, borrow, or steal rock salt ice cream makers. though i had a few nightmares over the whole thing (mostly consisting of huge vats of vanilla custard with no ice cream machines to put them in) it all worked out in the end. thank the Lord, it all got out there, and we feasted and rejoiced, and it was good.

a huge thanks to the folks who helped assemble umbrellas, juice lemons, grate cheese, taste-test ice cream, congregate grills, cook burgers, divvy desserts, tear down tables, and wash dishes! (i'm thinking specifically of you - amy, josh, steve, donovan, tana, and kathy!). couldn't have done it without you all!

peach pie

morning...before i melted

super fun man...such a kick to do this with him!

bearing fruit

2009-07-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

anyone have ideas on what to do with lemon cucumber? i planted one, just to see if it would grow. um, it has...and i have no idea what to do with it. :)