Not our imagination

Seattle under the murk?

We knew Tuesday was dreary and according to KOMO News, it was three times darker than a solar eclipse.  The UW Atmospheric Sciences Department said Tuesday had the lowest solar output since December 2015, measuring only 0.61 Mega joules. On a summer day, Seattle nets over 30 Mega joules.  No wonder I didn't leave the house all day.  It never got light.

Hunkered over the hearth, cooking bone broth.

But yesterday was a different story. It stopped raining for a bit and we even had a few sun breaks. The West Seattle Nursery delivered the Christmas tree I picked out last week. When you buy one of their expensive (but very nice) trees, they will deliver for free.  John trimmed the bottom and left it outside in a bucket until I get around to decorating. We need to pull all the boxes down from the attic crawl space.

I went to the Apple Store at Southcenter Mall for a class I've been going to on and off for several years.  It started out as Aperture training (long gone) then morphed into something called "Open Studio," focusing on Pages.  People bring in their creative projects, but you can ask questions about any current Apple dilemma or angst.  I love the instructor and the same group of ladies show up almost every week.  I'm working a cute collage of Maya and Nova photos to send with the Christmas cards. 

So brief, dark November comes to a close.  Bring on the holidays.

Everything but the gobble

Going from this...

To this...

Takes all morning on the stove. And I'll spare you the in-between picture, when the turkey carcass cooks down into a slimy grey mess. It looks even worse than one of those 1950's jello salads!  But after straining you're left with a delicious healthy broth, a base for many kinds of soup. 

The "Private Selection" frugal turkey finally comes to a frugal end. Our ancestors would be proud--we ate everything but the gobble.

Bone broth is in fashion because it has all sorts of heath benefits. The long simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds and minerals, including glucosamine and our old friend, gelatin, formed by the breakdown of collagen.  That's why a good chilled turkey broth is all thick and jiggly.

The weather was so miserable yesterday. I was lucky I could just stay home, cooking and puttering around the house. It was a long day, but not particularly boring.  We grew up in a different time, when being bored was a simple fact of childhood.

Most kids nowadays are kept so busy they don't have the chance to experience boredom, which is a shame, because I think it builds character. But that's just a cranky senior citizen talking. Kids today also have experiences we never dreamed of, and I don't begrudge them that.

Here's a little poem on the subject from the Writer's Almanac:

To Boredom

I’m the child of rainy Sundays.
I watched time crawl
Like an injured fly
Over the wet windowpane.
Or waited for a branch
On a tree to stop shaking,
While Grandmother knitted
Making a ball of yarn
Roll over like a kitten at her feet.
I knew every clock in the house
Had stopped ticking
And that this day will last forever.

Charles Simic

 

Slow news day

Oh my.  The Internet rabbit holes you can stumble down, on a dark and dull November morning. 

Mount Fuji Crab Salad

Canned Tuna Mold

"Meat" Mold

Mmmm...

Everything-but-the-kitchen sink mold

No words

My buddy

  Good dog

I like all horses and dogs in theory, but only a few have ever really stolen my heart like Roger. He was my best buddy while the kids were busy with their cousins this weekend.  He was either hanging out sweetly underfoot in the kitchen, or wedged in his favorite safe spot between the coffee table and sofa.  Roger is an intelligent, sensitive listener and understands English, some of his favorite words being: "walkies, squirrel, Amanda and turkey."

Speaking of turkey, I think everyone got their fill. I certainly got my fill of looking at it.  I stuffed the bones, skin and leftover gravy in a freezer bag and when I can face it, I'll simmer the mess down for Mexican style tortilla soup. We had chili last night, and tonight split pea soup-- taking a break from poultry this week.

So, Black Friday was a success for retailers and now Cyber Monday.  They're projecting people will spend 6 billion dollars online.  Doesn't sound like a very productive day at work.  Shopping is fun, but what do we need to be happy, really?  The blessings of decent health, friends and family to spend time with, and a  warm and cozy November home.

Speaking of blessings, Amanda, Tom and the girls left yesterday and are safely back home in Twisp.

Onward to Christmas...

Out and about

Maya, Amanda, Tom and Nova

Burke Museum

Hanging out

Transfixed

Nova and Maya, after they kicked us out of bed this morning. At home they watch DVDs, but no live television, so PBS cartoons are somewhat of a treat. This makes Nana and Grandpa popular. Maya kept asking John to "pause the show" for later.  Very cute. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday, with tons of good food.  As a bonus, it was a beautiful, sunny, record warm afternoon in Seattle.  No one can remember a Thanksgiving like that in Seattle.

This morning we are skipping Black Friday shopping and going to the Burke Natural History Museum on the University of Washington campus.  That is, if we can pull them away from the TV.

A tropical Thanksgiving

Go figure. The day after I complain about the "nasty chill" of November, Seattle breaks the record high with 62 degrees at 10 am.  It was downright balmy outside yesterday, thanks to a strong Pineapple Express up from the tropics.  Yes, it's raining, but at least it's a warm rain.

 Wow.  Look at that plume of hot tropical air.

But no time to dilly-dally on the blog this morning.  I have a big turkey to get in the oven, and a hundred other kitchen tasks before everyone starts arriving mid-morning.  Despite the grumbling, it's the cook's favorite holiday!

John keeping an eye on the pumpkin cheesecake last night...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, dear friends and family.

Am I blue?

Hoagland Howard Carmichael was born on this day in 1899.  Hoagy got his nickname from a circus performer. He grew up poor, but his mom started him early on the piano and encouraged his music. Before long he was working in a speakeasy, smuggling champagne on the side to make enough money to put himself through law school, but he never really used his law degree. He formed a band, wrote soundtracks and appeared in many movies.

His hit "Stardust" became a standard, recorded over 500 times.  It was originally an instrumental, but lyrics were added in 1929 by Mitchell Parish.

The song has been described as "all the good things gone, all wrapped up in a melody.”

La Nina

It's official. According to NOAA, we're entering a La Nina weather pattern. Oh goody, a wet and cold winter for the Northwest.

My new Christmas candle has a nifty light sensor, and it came on yesterday afternoon at 1:30. (Note the little monk, raising the bottle.)

November is passing quickly.  Other than Thanksgiving to look forward to, it's my least favorite month. After daylight savings time ends, the darkness closes in and the air has a sharp dampness that is so peculiar to the Pacific Northwest.  You would be amazed how cold 45 degrees can feel here. The relative humidity hangs at about 80%, so the sky is usually murky with fog and mist.  Depressed yet?

We should be used to it but the sudden darkness makes many people feel anxious and tired.  Daytime light helps maintain our circadian rhythms. That is a scientific fact.

Scientists measure solar radiation in units called "Joules." In Seattle during June and July, some days had nearly 30 Mega Joules reaching the surface. Even cloudy summer days have about 15. This month, we've had days with only 3-4, leading to afternoon naps on the sofa. Wine time followed by dinner becomes the highlight of the day.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes the food we eat affects the body's balance of yin and yang. During different seasons, we should eat certain cooling or warming foods to combat the changing weather.  

I bought a box of papadums at a grocery store in West Seattle-- they're kind of hard to find.  Basically, these are dried, paper thin wafers made of lentil flour, eaten as a snack or appetizer with chutney and Indian relishes.  

There's microwave method on the package but I doubt it works. You really have to fry them in hot oil for a couple of seconds and they instantly turn brown and puff up. A bit of trouble, but worth it.  Despite being fried, not greasy at all.

Spicy pork curry made with some leftover pork tenderloin I stashed in the freezer.
A hot food to warm the yang.

Wise advice

On the evening of the 2016 presidential election, Michele Obama didn't stay up late, glued to the television, wringing her hands in fear or disbelief.  At that point, there wasn't a thing she could do about the outcome, so she went to bed and heard the results in the morning.  I like that story. 

Last week, Michelle spoke at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. For Americans stressed about the future of the country and the current political climate, she had this positive advice:

1. Focus on what you can control

2. Be a good person every day

3. Vote

4. Read

5. Treat one another kindly

6. Follow the law

7. Don’t tweet "nasty stuff"

Company coming?

Thrifty shopping, 1948

On the Menu:

Carrot curls

Celery, date and nut salad

Fruit cake with vanilla sauce

Glazed onions

Dinner rolls with margarine

Scalloped potatoes with "meat"

Speaking of thrifty meat, time to buy a frozen turkey. I can get a free one at Safeway if I spend $100. Spending $20 at Krogers gives you the option to purchase their "Private Selection" bird for a mere 47 cents a pound.

We like turkey, but we're not really connoisseurs so I just buy a big cheap one. Turkey sandwiches, turkey curry, turkey enchiladas, turkey nachos, turkey soup.

Good turkey is all about the roasting technique and I guess you can ruin a $100 one as easily as a cheapo. My convection oven does a dandy job browning the skin, and leaves a wonderful dark glaze in the roasting pan for making gravy. All cooks have a love-hate relationship with gravy. I feel like I've made a thousand turkey dinners in my lifetime, but of course that isn't possible.

The cost of Thanksgiving dinner is the cheapest in five years. The Farm Bureau tracks a shopping list of 12 stables, including stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, green peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie mix and pie shells, whipped cream, milk and miscellaneous items.  The average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $49.12, a 75-cent decrease compared with last year.  What a country, huh?

Amanda, Tom and the kids are coming, so this year a gluten-free feast:

Roast turkey
Mashed potatoes

Gravy (thickened with cornstarch)

Some kinda green vegetable 

Trader Joe bread stuffing (gluten free)

Baked yams glazed with maple syrup

Roasted brussels sprout salad (sorry, John and Dave)

Cranberries

Pumpkin cheesecake
Wine

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blowing in the wind

This is visualization uses data from NASA satellites combined with physics and meteorology to track three aerosols in the atmosphere: dust, smoke and sea salt.  The salt is picked up by winds passing over the ocean. As tropical storms form, the salt particles are concentrated into the spiraling shape of hurricanes. You can also clearly see heavy smoke covering the Pacific Northwest last summer. Mesmerizing!

The last da Vinci

On Wednesday night, someone will get the opportunity to own this painting when it goes up for auction through Christie’s in New York City. It’s guaranteed to sell for at least $100 million, meaning the auction house will make up the difference if it doesn't. This is one of only 16 known surviving paintings (including the “Mona Lisa”) by da Vinci.  The others are scattered around the world’s museums.

It was once thought to be a copy, and dropped off the grid for centuries before resurfacing in Louisiana in 2005. New York-based art collector Robert Simon and art dealer Alexander Parish purchased it there for $10,000. The piece was thick with overpaint, meaning artists had added paint to the existing image as a means of either modernizing or improving it.

In 2007, a professor of paintings conservation at New York University set about carefully restoring the portrait, which they still believed to be a copy.  She chipped away at the varnish and paint obscuring the original, and after intense scrutiny, the art community reached the consensus this was a bona fide da Vinci, an unimaginable discovery.

Speaking of da Vinci, here's a less serious visual subject from his notebook:

 The wonderful translation:

"The proportions of the Dachshund figure seem mathematically implausible, with an incongruously long torso region and very short arms and legs. Surprisingly fine-boned and even graceful shins while the haunch is rounded and even meaty (seen more in some specimens than others). 

A fifth appendage, the "tail" often moves of its own accord. Travel on all four legs is preferred mode of locomotion as subject has a tendency to topple whilst walking upright. In males parts seem perilously low for travel up stairs and other inclines, esp. in aforementioned portly specimens. 

The elongated face of the Dachshund ends in a wet, leathery snout, which is often engaged in inquisitive activity, while the tongue is companionably close at hand - also wet, but not as leathery. Eyes are deeply expressive and effective at communication, which is fortunate as assorted yaps, barks and whines would otherwise indicate rather primitive language skills."  

Marji and Dad, sound familiar?

Batten down the hatches

Western Washington was hit with a fierce windstorm yesterday, causing a lot of damage and power outages. The wind was howling around the house in that nerve-wracking way.  Out on Puget Sound, the Keystone Ferry off Whidbey Island was hit with 60 mph winds, driving it sideways and almost up on the beach. I couldn't find the video on YouTube, but Click HERE for the KOMO News weather blog link. 

We have a bit of a lull now, but the next round of rain and wind hits later this morning.  Drenching rain in the lowlands, snow piling up in the mountains all week. In case there was any doubt in your mind, it's mid-November.

 

As usual, the leaves fell off the fig tree all at once and blew everywhere. Now the bare branches are covered with hundreds of green (rotting) figs. Sometimes the starlings eat them, but it's basically a worthless tree, despite it's vigor.  

People baby fig trees, but you could cut this one to the ground and the branches would spring right back.  Only a few plants are still alive from 1980, when we first moved in. The indestructible laurel hedge (of course) the holly tree, and the fig. You get attached to the old-timers. And for everything else, I only have myself to blame. 

Meatballs and stuff

Wow! Those meatballs look like tennis balls. 

 

On Saturday, we had red sauce with homemade meatballs AND Italian sausage. That's a special treat in this house. Until I married a Sicilian-Italian-American, I'd never heard of such an indulgence. "Spaghetti sauce" was hamburger, chopped onion, canned tomato sauce and a mix from an envelope.

That's the brown pasta from the ubiquitous blue box.  The Barilla brand isn't very good-- I don't think their Italian hearts are into high fiber pasta. If you want that sort of quasi-healthy thing, Trader Joe's whole wheat rotini tastes better.

Just plain old comfort food for a rainy, dark Saturday night, with plenty left over for Sunday lunch.

Friday was surprisingly sunny and mild, so I got out the ladder and put holiday lights on the back arbor. It's early, but why wait for miserable weather.  I also wrapped a metal garden trellis and hung it up. Nothing fancy, but it looks cheery from the kitchen and sidewalk. It was so windy last night, I hope it hasn't blown away.  I love lights, but we have only one outdoor electrical outlet so that keeps me under control. 

We are so progressive that Seattle City Light now uses "bill shaming" to encourage people to conserve electricity.  The monthly bill shows your usage in comparison to your neighbors, and John likes to point out that ours is always in the high percentile.  I don't think that's really fair, because there's lots of people who work 70 hours a week and eat in restaurants all the time.  Our report card might look better in December, because the neighborhood goes crazy with holiday lights.

Happy Birthday, Martin

 1483-1586

Today is Martin Luther's birthday, the German theologian who set in motion the Protestant Reformation.  Among other things, he translated the Latin Bible into the vernacular, and out of the ensuing chaos the Lutheran Church was eventually born. Martin Luther loved music as Lutherans do to this day. And no skipping verses, either.

Here's some interesting tidbits, courtesy of Garrison Keillor this morning on The Writer's Almanac:

Luther was an intense young monk, devoted to self-punishment, and would often lie in the snow through the night during the worst of winter until he was in such a state that he needed to be carried back inside.

It has been said that Luther was inspired to begin the Protestant Reformation while on his chamber pot, though this can’t be confirmed. However, in 2004, archaeologists did discover that Luther’s privy area was quite modern, featuring a heated floor and even a primitive drain.

Martin Luther never accepted any wages for his work. He had six children with his wife, Katharina, a former nun who had escaped her convent by hiding in a pickle barrel. To make a living, he installed a lathe and learned woodworking and also became a master gardener, growing lettuces, beans, melons, and cucumbers. 

When a young man wrote to him, anxious that he might be going to hell, Martin Luther advised him to drink heavily, since that was what he did in times of despair. 

He purportedly once said, “Beer is made by men, wine by God.”

National Christmas Card Day

The world's first Christmas card, 1843

November 9th is Christmas Card Day. The first commercial Christmas card was made by Sir Henry Cole, one of those famous people no one knows.  Cole was a 19th century British civil servant and inventor, responsible for innovations in commerce and education.

Caricatured as "King Cole" in Vanity Fair, 1871

Not that long ago, sending Christmas cards through the mail was a must. Maybe the tradition is coming back, because this week I saw boxes of beautiful, expensive cards for sale at Barnes and Noble and our local Northwest Art and Frame store. I always buy mine on sale after Christmas and forget what they look like, so pulling them again in December is a fun little surprise. 

Been shopping lately? Christmas is here. At Marshall's, the store aisles were so crammed with stuff (and customers) I could hardly push one of their teeny carts around. After a few minutes, I couldn't imagine what possessed me to go in there.  But right next door at Target (where they have gargantuan carts) it felt like a ghost town.

Some of the big stores like Macy's are in trouble, and no wonder.  No one has time for recreational shopping and you can buy almost anything online, with free shipping to boot.  Just stay home and wait for the UPS guy to fling your stuff on the front porch. He sure knows the way to this house.

Home, sweet on a dark winter afternoon...

Politics and assorted news

 Seattle Mayor Bertha Landes

1926-28

After 91 years, Seattle has finally elected its second female mayor, Democrat Jenny Durkan:

Heaven help her, with our homeless crisis, skyrocketing cost of living, out-of-control development and traffic nightmares. 

Oh look!  Some nice person left a Lime Bike for the Fremont Troll! At least we have plenty of bicycles laying around.

I see on the news this morning that the Democrats won in other key elections, which gives a glimmer of hope after the most dreadful year of politics I can remember.  And I've been around for a while. Well, maybe 1968 was worse, but we won't go there.

We're slowly working our way through Ken Burn's "Vietnam" PBS series on these long dark evenings.  John recorded all 17 hours of it-- epic even by Ken Burns standards. Watching history is both disheartening (things never change) and encouraging (this too shall pass.)  Politics grinds on with all its deception and corruption, just change the names.

But what makes this program so interesting are the interviews with ordinary people who opposed the war and fought in it, including the Vietnamese combatants from both the North and South.  The battles scenes and suffering is difficult to watch, but this is must see TV.

Oh angels, protect us

"Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us!" 

Hamlet, Act I, Scene IV.