Legacy

My grandmother recently moved into an adult family home, necessitating a downsize from her apartment. As the embroiderer and tea-lover in the family, I chose a few handmade linens and the Japanese teapot that my grandfather brought back from occupied Japan.
I also chose her recipe box.


It is everything that a recipe box should be--well used and well worn. Cards that are grease-spotted, wrinkled, both typed and hand written. Recipes copied from magazines and cookbooks and gifts from friends. Glimpses of the church and neighbor communities within the directions for upsizing for potlucks and notes on baby showers. A lifetime of friends and family sharing food, raising families and celebrating.


An appalling number of the recipes contain some variety of flavored gelatin. Some of them are clearly dated with their emphasis on canned or prepackaged ingredients and references to an obscure substance called spry (a brand of shortening that was sold in the 1930's to 1950's). A number of them reflect her Scandinavian background with names like Fattimunda, others simply reflect the times (Lemon Fluff, anyone?).


Her Danish Brown Sugar cookies have been a fixture in my holiday baking ever since I was able to make sense of a recipe that called for the ingredients in pounds. This year I may have to add Delia's zucchini bread and Minnie's (my great-grandmother) Spanish Cake.

I am well into creating my own lifetime recipe box even though I have moved the cards into a notebook for easier access. There are cards from friends and family, made-up recipes too good to let fall into oblivion and experimental recipes from online cookbooks--a truly contemporary twist on recipe-sharing. The things that I collect will change over time--from exotic treats to plain and frugal family meals to Fifty Ways to Use the Forty Pounds of Blueberries that we just picked.
I hope that I can also incorporate not only some of my grandmother's recipes into my cooking routine but also some of her love and dedication to serving those under her care.

Doing the Puyallup

Swallowtail

Lest it appear that I only take trips and visit friends, let me present my interpretation of one of the more popular patterns from Ravelry--the Swallowtail shawl. Knitting isn't as high on my list of interests as some other things, however, when I saw a book of lace shawl patterns, I decided that they were incredibly beautiful. And besides, I had to prove to myself that I could do something like that--especially after hearing how difficult lace knitting can be. As it turns out, it does have its challenges, but I was pretty happy with my first attempt.

The yarn was a 100% rayon weaving fiber from the Weaving Works. I picked it out initially because I loved the color. It didn't have the give to it that wool does, but it also didn't get fuzzy with repeated pulling in and out of my bag so I was able to more easily see the stitches and pattern definition.

This photo is the whole shawl pinned for blocking. This one was taken without a flash and gives a much better idea of the color. Yes, there is still an end or two to be worked in. I added several repeats of the center pattern in order to make it just a bit bigger. I wasn't sure how much it would stretch when blocked and wanted it to generously cover my shoulders.

A closeup of the tip pattern:

Along the side:

Canning

We took our nearly annual trip out to Bellevue to pick blueberries and picked up a 20 lb box of fresh peaches from the fruit stand there. We devoured some but I also wanted to have my first opportunity to can my own peaches.

Rinsing and peeling peaches. Note the stove full of pots in the background. How did the pioneer women do it?

My mom was mercifully there to help walk me through. Full concentration for the entire time is essential. My multitasking skills were actually a hindrance here.

The last batch in the canner:

Perfect seal rate! Yum!


Also yummy was the plain and spiced peach syrup that I made out of the leftover simple syrup. We had overestimated the amount needed for the peaches and there was enough left in the bowl to cook down and fill two more jars.

Outing

From the back of the ferry returning from Bremerton:

Honeymooning

We spent our third anniversary in Seaside, Oregon. It was beautiful and fun for me to take Jonathan to some of the places that I had vacationed as a child.
On the way there, we drove a long way through Fort Stevens Park to find a place to park that had a short walk to the beach for dinner.


It was a little chilly though...


We brought tools for building sand castles but ended up spending most of the time playing in the tide pools.

We found larvae, sand shrimp, juvenile fish, snails and burrowing beasties. Very different than what we see on our rocky coast.

There were hundreds of these little crustaceans. This was one of the larger specimens. We discovered later that they were, appropriately, simply called sand crabs. Some of the larger specimens had beautifully colored eggs underneath the carapace.

This sign was hanging in the restaurant we went to for our anniversary dinner.


The weather got nicer as the week progressed. We were able to see the Peter Iredale (sort of-the tide wasn't the best) and fly kites to our hearts' content. There was no inclination for more immersion that wading, however.


There were more candy (especially taffy) stores than just about anything else. This one had it all, including exotic flavored malted milk balls, vintage candy and variously flavored chocolate covered twinkies.

Happy anniversary, dearling!

First Day of

Work!
We are fortunate enough to live close to several bus routes to downtown. And even more fortunate that our schedules work out just right to commute together.