Get the latest photos and ramblings from Corinne, Mike, and Anders living in the Columbia River Gorge.
It's school photo time again for Anders! Technically, he's still not in school, but "Uncle" Jeff was able to fit him in.
Despite this being Anders' third Halloween, I would venture to say that this was his first true Halloween celebration. He picked the jack-o-lantern designs, chose his own costume, and trick-or-treated through The Gorge. He is no baby anymore!
Brachiosaurus Jack-o-Lantern
I think every little boy has a fascination with dinosaurs, and Anders is no exception. So straight out of the blue one day he stated that he wanted a Brachiosaurus jack-o-lantern. We weren't talking about pumpkins or dinosaurs at the time, so it really was out of nowhere. It makes me wonder what else he has going on in that head of his!
For some strange reason, it was difficult to find a ready made jack-o-lantern stencil to meet the request. But with a little creativity on Corinne's part, she created a great pattern! (And since she was already doing one dinosaur, why not two? She chose one of its late Jurassic contemporaries, the Stegasaurus, as a companion piece.)
Anders has a set of those wooden tower blocks, as just about every child in America did. He can be pretty creative with them and often surprises us. One day he created this scene and then told us that it was the Space Needle.
This is definitely a sign of our times...
Anders had built something with his Tinkertoys. (Remember those?) When Corinne walked in, she asked him what it was that he had built.
Without missing a beat, Anders responded: "I don't know. Let's find out. Let's look it up. Where's my phone?"
He then proceeded to pull out his toy flip-phone, push some buttons, then say "Oh, it's a spinning wheel."
I can't imagine where he learned that.
- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket
Recently the three of us walked out to our garden to pick some flowers for a bouquet. Most of the flowers were still in full bloom, but Anders particularly liked how "fluffy" the zinnias were.
Thanks to a long summer, our garden was still producing prolifically into October. When it looked like the first frost was coming, we harvested whatever was left: tomatoes, tomatillos, boxes of squash, and piles of herbs. We spent most of a weekend cooking and canning: Zucchini Dill Pickles, Chile Verde Sauce, and a wonderful Tomato and Sage Sauce. All made from garden ingredients! (Thanks to Debbie for some of her garden plum tomatoes.)
The blender technique to this particular recipe was a bit unusual for a tomato sauce. But with so many different varieties and colors, the process was beautiful.
It's hard to believe, but Anders turned three years old today! Apparently three is when cheesy smiles and "mugging" for the camera begin.
Anders: "Where's Mom?"
Dad: "She disappeared."
Anders looks intently at Dad.
Anders: "She doesn't have a beard. You have a beard. Mom doesn't have a beard."
- Mike, Corinne, and Anders
Despite predictions to the contrary, it's been a pretty light winter in terms of snow accumulation. Here's a "time lapse" video of some driveway clearing work that we did after one of the late winter snowfalls.
One of the downsides of living outside of a city - and one of the things that we miss about Boston - is the lack of ethnic diversity. While there is great Mexican food in this area, you have to go to Portland for most other types. (For example: there aren't any Middle Eastern, Indian or South Asian restaurants anywhere in The Gorge. Period.)
That has never deterred us, though; we'll just do it ourselves, at home. But rather than go it alone in the wilderness, we have cultivated a cadre of similar-minded foodies and participate in ethnic food parties. Previous ethnic-themed dinners have covered Thai, Spanish, and German. For this one, we were inspired by our favorite restaurant: The Helmand, an Afghani restaurant in Cambridge, MA. (If you are ever in the Boston area, we highly recommend it.)
For our dinner party, we expanded the scope to include a few of the surrounding countries: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. We made two of our cookbooks available as inspiration: Afghan Food and Cookery and Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations. We invited a few dozen friends, made a few recipes ourselves, and just let the dishes roll in.
We encouraged people to bring beverages as well, with the stipulation that "all drinks must comply with the local customs in these countries" (aka "think twice before bringing beer or wine"). The resulting beverage list included two kinds of chai; Ouzo that was homemade by a friend of one of the participants (technically it isn't from one of the countries indicated, but how do you turn away a homemade liquor?); and Johnny Walker with water. That last one is apparently what all the Indian men drink in the backrooms. Yes, technically outside of the indicated countries, but it's a great visual, isn't it?
We love these parties. They give people an opportunity/excuse to expand their cooking experiences, but more importantly, we all get to help eat the results.
- Mike, Corinne, and Anders
Who doesn't have fond childhood memories of having pancakes? Anders, that's who. We have never made him pancakes. When we were first married, we tried several pancake recipes but were not impressed with any of the results. For us, waffles and french toast beat out pancakes any day. So pancakes were never on our breakfast menu.
But now that Anders is around, we have started to feel guilty. Have we been depriving him of a quintessential American adolescent experience? If it weren't for daycare, Anders wouldn't even know what a pancake was. So we came up with a plan. We were sure that some of our parent friends must make pancakes for their kids, and they can't all be as dull as ours, right? Time for another themed food party: Pancake Revival!
We invited some of our friends-with-young-children to brunch and asked them to bring a pancake recipe, either one of their favorites or a new one to try. We would cook up a batch of each different recipe and let everyone enjoy the variety, including the kids.
Kids are endlessly entertaining. Here is just a sampling of some of the things Anders has said.
Mike: You are an eating machine.
Anders: I'm eating a pea. I am not eating the washing machine. I'm just eating a pea.
Corinne: Are you excited that friends are visiting?
Anders: Yes
Mike: Are you excited to put on shoes?
Anders: Yes ... pause ... No! Exciting for friends! Not exciting for shoes!
Anders: I burped.
Corinne: Polite boys say, "Excuse Me".
Anders: I don't want to excuse me. Some boys say, "Excuse me." Some boys say, "I burped."
- Corinne, Mike and Anders
It's that time of year - time for the 2010 installment in the Favorite New Recipes series. In last year's installment, we had nothing to report. As a result, we vowed to do better in 2010, doing more menu planning and just generally enjoying our mealtimes again. We are happy to report that we were largely successful and have many new recipes to relate.
#5: Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
It looks like our reality show, Max: Extreme Hunter, is on hiatus.
Last year, Max was a super hunter. He caught more animals in a single year than the total of all previous years combined. But after his thyroid condition was discovered and successfully treated, his activities trailed off at the end of last year.
This year's results pale in comparison.
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | |
| Mice | 9 | 5 | 1 |
| Birds | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Gophers | 2 | 25 | 0 |
| Squirrels | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Lizards | 0 | 6 | 1 |
Two years ago we bought cross country skis, but haven't really used them yet. Corinne went once with Kris and Amy shortly after we bought our gear, but she didn't really know what she was doing. She survived unscathed but didn't leave with any more skills than she started. And I hadn't gone at all and had no idea what I was doing. So when we saw an announcement for a "beginner cross country ski clinic" organized by the Columbia Gorge Chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club (ONC), we figured that it would be a good place to start.
This particular clinic was being held while my parents were in town visiting, so they could watch Anders while we learned. To make things even more convenient for us, it turns out that the clinic was going to be held on Mt Adams (rather than Mt Hood)! A twenty minute drive north of our house and we were at the SnowKing Sno-Park on Mt Adams meeting the rest of the crew.
But the conditions on this particular day were less than ideal. Plenty of snow was still on the ground, but a recent rainy warm spell followed by cold weather again made for some very icy conditions. (In fact, while we were getting our gear together one of the members in our party fell while traversing the parking lot.) After a short survey of the conditions further down the trail, the leaders made a call to move down to a trail at the Trout Lake School. The terrain was relatively flat and the trail had been groomed that morning, so it wasn't particularly icy. (Thanks, Robert!)
