It's looking a lot like Easter: 3 '20

Once  I  started decorating outside, it was hard to stop. 

Pretty soon I was hanging plastic eggs  in the  bottle brush

And sticking them in the hanging baskets

and flowerbeds.

 It didn't take long before eggs appeared on strands of Christmas tree lights
draped over the front door and

Lighting up the windows of our screened in porch.

Pretty soon I was putting up  eggs and Spring ducklings in the kitchen window,

 then I  began hanging  eggs 

and setting out bunnies on every table,

and making colored-egg trees  

for every nook and crannie. 

These pretty little things are all  small visual reminders that  we still have many things to be grateful... a home,  food, a job, and each other to lean on.  

Here come's Peter Cottontail: 3 '20

 The National news media has been relentless  in their coverage of  the devastation COVID 19  has been creating, and how it is  forcing everyone to lock themselves inside their homes, devastating the economy,  putting the entire population of the country at risk of death,  and devastating the economy.  After months of this kind of end of the world  news, Bruce and I decided we needed to do something  to remind ourselves, and our neighbors, that the sun is still shining, and flowers are still blooming, and that this  crisis too shall pass.  We decided to set out our Easter wood art earlier than usual.

We put this family of three front and forward closest to the street.

These two little guys with our initials on them were set closest to the house.

And this Little Bunny Butt went into the narrow flower bed  by the driveway.

Our neighbors have responded positively; many of them  have asked Bruce if he would make one for them to put up in their yard. 

Deck repair; 3 ' 20

The HOA is inspecting and repairing all of our newly refurbished upstairs decks.  

I  had posted ( 9/27/19)  about an earlier refurbishing the HOA  sponsored,  but did not  tell you that during  the first rain after the original refurbishing project  was completed our unit developed a leak inside the living room right  above our sliding glass door. I moaned and bitched about it to the HOA board until they forced the original refurbishing contractor to come back out  and " fix it".  

It turns out that the original contractor's crew had accidentally punched a large hole in the new water proof shielding they had installed. That hole allowed water to get through the shield, filter down between the walls and flow our out into the living room when it reached the sliding glass door. To fix the leak all that original contractor did was to push some caulking into the hole, so the next time it rained, the  caulking  floated out allowing the rain to leak through the same hole again, in the same location,  just on the opposite side of the sliding door.   There must have been others having problems with other decks  because our new Property Manager sent out a different contractor who is removing all the deck planks on all of the units, inspecting the waterproofing, and repairing any problems they encounter.  On our unit they  have put down what looks like a big shield of black flex tape 6" up the wall and 12 " out from the wall over the waterproofing all across the  north wall of the deck. 

Now we just need for a good strong storm to tell us if this repair stopped the leak. .

Copy-Cat Sweet Potato Curry Recipe

A few weeks ago, before everything and everyone got locked into self quarantine,  my husband  decided he had a craving for seafood, and whisked us  off to a seafood buffet restaurant he had seen advertised on the internet

As soon as we got there, he spotted a sign that said that the  Daily Special was  Prime Rib.  That apparently sounded even better to him than fish so he order a 12 oz plate of PM.  I,on the other hand was eyeing  their vegan curry special, which sounded a whole lot more appealing to me than any of their  fire roast flesh  entrees,  so I wound up ordering;   "Sweet potato and vegetable coconut-curry - topped with a roasted cauliflower 'steak 

It didn't take long for either of our entrees to arrive.  I could smell the warm rich  Indian spices in the curry before before I even set eyes on my meal.  It smelled like  what I would imagine Nirvana smells.  One mouthful and I was in heaven.  This was definitely a dish I had to try to make at home!  

The restaurant's menu had listed the major vegetables in the dish (sweet potatoes, eggplant, onions garlic, carrots, and broccoli leaves)  and I could tell from the taste and texture that those  vegetables had been simmered until fork tender in a  broth thickened with dal (brown lentils).  I cook a lot of  Indian dishes so I was pretty confident that I had the spices needed on hand. All that I needed to do was to figure out the cooking times for the different layers of vegetables within the dish.  

The order for everyone to practice to minimize travel came down shortly after we visited the restaurant.  While the stay home order  has caused me to cancel a lot of other activities that I had planned,  it has also given  me lots of extra time to cook to try  recreating this delightful meal.  Fortunately before going into self- isolation , I had time to make one last grocery run, and made sure to get any of the ingredients I thought I might need to make this curry.  The meal came out perfect on the first attempt, and as it turns out,  was no more complicated or time consuming to make than spaghetti with homemade meatballs in an marinara sauce made from scratch.

Below is the recipe for anyone who wants to try making it themselves:

CC's Copy-Cat Sweet Potato Curry Recipe ( Makes (Four) 1 cup Servings

Ingredients:

Fresh

• 1 small eggplant ( I used (1) ) 5 " long  x 3" thick Italian globe eggplant)
• 1 small Zucchini (mine was about 5" long)
• 1 carrot (mine was about 6" long)
• Outer green leaves of 12 Brussels sprouts  ( I purchased a 12 oz grab and steam bag, cut each sprout in half, removed the outer leaves  for use in this recipe, and put the tender hearts back in the bag in the bag to save for a future dish
• 1 medium brown onion
• 3 - 4 garlic cloves

Wet ingredients

• 2 cups of vegetable  broth  or coconut milk   (OR , if you are not a veterinarian you could use chicken or beef broth)  I used Vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons of  vegetable based oil  for sauteing the vegetables Or, if you are not a vegetarian you could use butter. (I used Chosen Blend Brand's  Avocado / coconut oil blend )
• Optional 2 tablespoons honey

Dry ingredients 

• 1/2 cup of dal ( Brown lentils)
• ( For the Seasonings)
• 2 tablespoon of  store bought Garam masala powder   or optionally make your own ( See below)
• 1/2 teaspoon Ginger 
• 1 teaspoon green or yellow dry curry
• salt and pepper

Directions

1) Peel the skins off from all the  fresh vegetables and chop the all the vegetable flesh  into 1/4 " cubes.

2) Put 1/2 cup of brown lentils in a crock pot along with 2 cups of you broth liquid of choice. Add 1 teaspoon of curry powder to the broth.  Put the ceramic crock pot into your microwave and heat on high for three to five minutes so that the liquid is preheated to  a simmer, the putting the ceramic pot back into the crock pot's  heating unit, cover it with a lid, and turn the crock pot element to high.  You can just stick the broth and lentils into the crock pot without the microwave  preheat,but this extra step will reduce the overall cooking time considerably.


3) Optionally if you are making your own garam masala  do so now as follows..
Garam Masala ingredients:  

• 1/2  tablespoon cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon cardamon pods 
• 2" cinnamon sick 
• 1/2 black teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves buds
• 1/4  teaspoon cayenne   or kashmiri pepper corns

Grind all the spices with a ninja  blender or a coffee mill  ( or if you are really adventurous you could use a mortar and pestle) then mix all ground spices together in a small bowl wi. Whether you use store bought garam masala or your own  home-made  blend, bump up the flavor and fragrance by lightly toasting the amount called for in a dry skillet, over a medium heat, stirring until fragrant and lively e.g. the amount to toast for this recipe would be 2 teaspoons.

5) After toasting the spice, scoop the toasted spice into a small clean jar with a tight fitting lid but do not clean the dust out the skillet. 

6 Add two tablespoons of oil to the  skillet and begin sauteing the 1/4 chopped onions and ( diced) garlic until they are soft.  Add  cooked onions and garlic to lentils and broth.

7 Add  sweet potatoes and carrots to skillet  sprinkle with ginger, salt,pepper, and pan roast over a medium high heat  while stirring for about 5 - 10 minutes ( until the cubes are a little tender and looking a slightly carmelized . Add cooked sweet potatoes and carrots to lentils and broth.

8 Repeat step 7 with the eggplant and zucchini but use 1/2  tsp curry powder instead of ginger.  Add cooked eggplant  and zucchini to lentils and broth.

9 Add 1 more tablespoon of the garam masala  to the lentils and broth. Leave  1 tablespoon for the spice in the skillet.  Set your crockpot's timer/temperature setting s to simmer cook for 4 hours.

10 at about 3 and a half hours into the cooking process it is time to taste test the  stew .  Are all the vegetables soft enough to pierce with a fork?  Good! That means the stew is nearly ready to eat.  But first a few final touches. Curry's  should always be adjusted to your individual taste preferences .   If it seems too thick add some water or coconut milk,  or  if would you like it sweeter, add a tablespoon of  honey ,  or add more salt or more spices etc

11 After you have the seasonings adjusted, stir in the  broccoli leaves pressing them down into the stew mix so that they are submerged and continue to cook for another half hour  until the leaves are dark green and soft.  Once the all the veggies are soft it is ready to be served.

Comments:

I cooked this dish using a skillet and a crockpot because those are the kitchen tools I am most familiar with using.  It could be equally well made with a skillet and a stew pan, on the stove top; you would just have to watch it more carefully so that the pot didn't burn.  Or, if you are familiar with cooking an Instapot (which I am not), you could probably adapt the recipe to cook the entire recipe in the Instapot.

If you are a vegetarian you can serve this over rice, or put a piece of  grilled garlic bread or toast with cashew butter on top of the stew.   If you are a carnivore, this would go well with a ground chicken, lamb, or beef burger. But fair warning it is really filling so don't let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.

The version of this dish I tried at the restaurant was VERY VERY Sweet, and I did not taste any coconut flavor in my meal. Bruce and I prefer savory curries, so I didn't add any honey to my recipe   It is not unusual for Indian food to vary considerably in the strength of individual ingredients even in the same classic dish , which is why I suggested you taste test your meal and  feel free to add  honey or coconut if  you like those flavors.

However you go about making it.  I guarantee this dish is worth the effort.

Extras will store well in the freezer in a zip-lock bag with all the air pressed out.

California Dreaming: March 9 - March 15

We started planning a trip to San Diego California  over a year ago to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on 3/12/20.   California is still home to both of us, and we were each looking forward to seeing friends, and family,that we had not seen in person for several years.  We also made a list of our favorite So. California places and foods that we wanted to see and sample why were were there

We also wanted to stay in a condo like unit  located as close as possible to as many of our friends as possible while enjoying the comforts of home.  So we decided to exchange our timeshare in San Clemente for one in the Welks' Resort in Escondido California.  Because  the demand for timeshare  exchanges in Southern California are always high we had to plan and book the exchange  a full year in advance.  

That of course was long before anyone in the USA had ever heard of COVID-19.  Cautionary warnings about travel in the USA only started being discussed a few days before our trip. (Age related warnings weren't emphasized until after we were already in California.) Once we finally became aware of the seriousness  of the virus's  potential impact, we had some long and serious discussions about whether we should cancel or continue the trip.   Ultimately we decided to go, but to limit the contact with the general public by avoiding public places  and strangers as much as possible. That decision narrowed our itinerary down to a visit with a couple of friends and our children. 

As always, driving in heavy traffic was the  most  disorienting experience  part of being in California.   Even in the middle of the night , seeing people traveling  at 70 mph on a 10 lane freeway (10 lanes in both directions) is  disconcerting. We used to be reasonable comfortable and confident about our driving skills in these conditions, and we would usually feel at ease on the road within a day or two of arrival.  No more, we have been living in the slow lane for too long now, and this time neither of   relaxed while we were on the road, even on the side streets.  Fortunately for us, Californians tend to treat rain as something of a natural disaster and many  avoid driving  in it unless they have to,  so the weather helped us out by raining all week*, which kept the freeway traffic to a minimum. 

*Note:  The rain also kept the hills green and brought out a lot of wildflowers. To me the rainy season is always the most beautiful time of year to visit California 

Also as I said, we  cancelled all plans for site seeing, and focused upon seeing family and close friends.

First on our list was Bruce's Step son Mary and his wife Samantha

Next  we dropped in in on Bruce's Life-long friends  Dennis and Nina Fox

(and their herding dogs and sheep.)

I also got some face- to face time with my daughter, Laura,

and our grand-sons Dylan and Ryan.

I even had a chance to do some catch up with my BFF from college, Rose.

It was a more subdued trip than we had originally planned, 

but I am still very glad we went

 It gave us the opportunity to see connect 

with family and friends we had not seen for five years,

and may not see  again for another five years or more.