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travel, photos, food, life
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Photo Friday
Tenaya Lake
Last spring, I finally got up Tioga Pass in Yosemite and took a long meander around Tenaya Lake. The air was a little thin but very crisp at the 8,000' altitude. It's amazing how blue the skies are when the air possesses that kind of tangible clarity. I think this guy had the right idea though. I couldn't imagine a better day than relaxing in a chair with a book right in the middle of this scenery, wiggling your toes in the sandy bottom of the lake...ahh.
NaNoWriMo update: Plugging along at around 32,000 words. I am going to post an excerpt this weekend.
Out under the meteors
Joshua Tree National Park
Daybreak. I climbed from my warm, cozy sleeping bag burrito into the frigid morning. I'm using the word frigid appropriately for once. It was hovering around 35 or so degrees Farenheit. The desert freezes during these fall through winter months. I'm grateful for that. The day temperatures dip down into the sixties, and you can cross "dying from heat exhaustion" off your list. You should still have lots of water and be concerned about not getting lost, but you probably won't die of a heat stroke in the desert in November. Probably.
The Leonid meteor showers rained down on us last night. I wanted to see meteors in a very desperate way, and you just can't do that within the confines of Los Angeles. It doesn't really get dark here because of all the light pollution. The obvious choice of viewing for me was the desert. And I have been away from the desert for far too long anyway. I took off late last night. The peak viewing hours weren't going to start until 1am (in theory). I arrived at about 11pm. I drove into the nearest open campground. It was crowded. I wasn't the only one that had thought of this. Some people at the end of my loop had a gigantic telescope (even though meteors are perfectly visible with the naked eye). I took care of the most important thing first - a fire. I set a sauce pan full of water over the flames knowing that it would take forever to boil, but not caring. I set up the tent in a flailing fashion, and soon I sat beside the fire an warmed my hands. Eventually I had hot chocolate. And eventually, a meteor flew by. And then another one.
I don't think it was quite the 20-30/hour that I had read about on the all-knowing internet, but it wasn't a bad show. One meteor in particular, around 3am I think, was flaming. It was bright, brilliant, and though it wasn't very big, I was impressed. It was a good night - bundled up head to toe, sipping hot chocolate, and breathing in the desert air.
I tried to sleep in, but the sun beating down through a tent makes that difficult. At least for me. I played around the desert, drove through my favorite parts, tried my best to find an abandoned ranch that I had visited once with a photographer (not successful), stopped and had lunch in Twentynine Palms, and meandered back into the city.
I'll be back to the desert soon. Maybe this weekend or the next. Or actually, since I'll probably be furiously writing, maybe the first weekend of December is a more reasonable goal. I cannot wait.
Did any of you see meteors?
Also, quick NaNoWriMo update: I'm at 28,035 words
Dinner for six
Peeling celery isn't glamorous, but it sure is pretty!
It may be odd, but I really love cooking for big groups of people. It's much more fun that just cooking for two. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's about the challenge? Or maybe I have an inner Sicilian grandmother that is trying to feed the world. I get a hankering to host dinner parties about once a month. To save my budget though, I restrain myself to once every other month or so. Right about the time I was thinking about my next party, a fellow blogger (Christina)from A Thinking Stomach mentioned a book called Forking Fantastic. The book sounded like it was just my thing. The ladies that wrote the cookbook were my kind of irreverent, I could tell.
I ordered the book and devoured it when it showed up a few days later. I shared the same thoughts as them on dinner parties: 1) really, things don't need to match. People coming to eat your yummy food aren't going to care. 2) try new recipes. In fact this is usually the point of my having dinner parties, I have a stack of recipes I can't wait to try out. 3) Cloth napkins are nice. But they also don't need to match. 4) If you ruin a dish or there isn't enough food, you can always order some pizza. The point is to get people together, eat, drink, and be merry. It is so immensely satisfying to linger over a just finished meal and share talk and laughter. Also, I really appreciated that they cussed in a cookbook. They provided a stack of recipes and useful tips. You see, they host dinner parties for 20 people (?!) twice a month. My first thought was FUN, but how the heck do they afford it? Well, their parties are infamous. Attendees pay a reasonable amount, kind of a donation, to cover the food costs. Maybe one day!
I already had most of menu in place, so I just applied a lot of the tips I picked up from the book to my planning. Once I pinned my guests down to get a solid RSVP, I finished out the menu and made the massive grocery list. I made the desserts the night before and spent the day of the party pretty much only in the kitchen. After some failed and slightly botched dinner parties in the past, I have finally learned to clean up as I go and about making things in advance. I'm still working on getting everything warm at the same time, if anyone knows that magic trick, please share!
I prepared the following (I'll link recipes soon if anyone's interested):
- a quick and dirty jar of apple butter to serve with bread, cheese, and pears
- celery potato soup
- roasted pork loin rubbed with herbs and served with my fig jam
- handpies stuffed with vegetarian Italian sausage, green apples, and onions
- moroccan spiced spaghetti squash
- salad with butternut squash, mushrooms, and a vinaigrette whipped up by a friend
- maple walnut cookies
- mini pumpkin cheesecakes w/ caramel sauce
A friend came over early to help with last minute prep and setting the table. She brought dessert wine which we decided to drink before the meal. Another friend brought gorgeous flowers. The table looked pretty darn nice by the time we sat down. Here's to food and good times!
Yesterday I learned...
Diana, the huntress, as sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington
I learned a lot of new facts at the Huntington today. I liked hearing bits of the history. Honestly, I only knew very little about the Huntingtons and I usually just walk around in visual bliss stating, "Wow" and "that is so cool." I possess the gift of understatement. But today I learned, for example, my favorite sculpture at the Huntington (pictured above) was sculpted by Henry Huntington's step daughter-in-law. I don't know if it's the right phrase. She was the wife of Mr. Huntington's stepson. Who knew?
I'll have to hear the history and facts a few more times before it sinks into my brain. My brain is like a colander. I eyeballed a few of the history books in the book store/gift shop so I could help my brain soak up the information more quickly because I found it fascinating. I wanted more. I kindly offered to write down the ISBN numbers for T in case he needed Christmas present ideas, but I think he got the hint.
Have an orchid
Because I'm going to the Huntington Gardens today, here's a quick photo of an orchid taken there. The place is full of history and photo ops - every color and texture imaginable. As an added bonus, I'm going to take a tour of the place and meet a fellow blogger. Don't worry Karin, my mom is with me so I will be on my bestest behavior!
Green fig liqueur
Green figs and lots of sugar
Remember how I mentioned that I'm cursed with a fig tree? Well before fig jam was boiled and poured, I picked lots of green figs. You see, a friend of mine was inspired by David Lebovitz. He makes a liqueur with green walnuts. Reasoning that any thing short of my socks would be tasty if soaked in vodka and spices for two months, I figured I would try it. I was desperate to keep as many figs as I could off the ground. Also? We had a couple of bottles of vokda left from the pirate party.
So back on August 1st, I harvested a pile of green figs. My hands were covered in sticky fig milky syrup. I admit it. I was calling the figs very bad names by the end of it. It got worse when I took them inside and quartered them. We're not going to discuss how long it took to scrape fig gunk off my favorite knife. Then I realized I didn't really have a suitable jar to put them in. I made a trip to Ikea and that immediately made feel better in only the way that cheap Swedish furniture can.
I picked up passable jars and filled one up with a deep layer of sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Then came figs and a half bottle of vodka. I labeled the jar and sat it on the counter for two months. The instructiosn say to shake it every day, but that is harder to remember than one would think. I probably shook it up a few times a week. The magic liqueur was finally ready on October 1st. But then I forgot about it for another month. I can't even claim that it was out of sight, out of mind. It was sitting right by the coffee maker I worship every morning.
I remembered to strain the stuff last weekend. It is very sweet and incredibly cinnamon-y. It's like drinking a fruity red hot. You can feel it going the whole way down in a very cozy fashion. I will be adding it to tea and trying it with ice cream. Not sure if I will do it again next year; not all experiments are worth a repeat.
The recipe I followed can be found here. I just substituted green figs for green walnuts.
 
Freshly poured and then just a week or two later
That's limoncello next to the fig liqueur. If I would remember to make simple syrup for it, it would be ready in a few weeks.
A flower for you
California Poppy
Sometimes I do crazy things. Sometimes it's climbing rocks or going to the grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving. This month, I am all kinds of crazy. I am attempting to write a novel (50,000 words) in one month. I also decided it would be swell to have a dinner party last weekend (went swimmingly by the way, I have mad cooking skills from time to time), have my mom in town next weekend (actually wasn't my choice but hey), and travel for Thanksgiving weekend (also not really my choice). Oh and as such things go, it is a busy time at work. Okay, actually, it's almost always a busy time at work. I am trying to keep it to just nine-ten hour days in the office though.
The novel is not good. It's not the point of National Novel Writing Month to write the best book in the world. But good or utter crud, it takes a lot to write 1,667 words a day and maintain your sanity. And your online social life. And your sleep for that matter.
I will persist though! November shall be conquered and won. In the meantime, a flower for you all. I snapped this along the blossom trail in the Central Valley. I was afraid to pick it lest some mini Arnolds come out from behind the bushes to arrest me for picking the state flower. Is it illegal to pick California poppies? I'm not sure, but I have a hunch.
There will be a lot of photo posts in the upcoming days readers, I promise I will at least make sure the photos don't entirely suck!
On the sand...
I enjoy finding squidgy and squashy things on the beach. I won't lie, I usually prod the creatures, kelp, or tourists I find on the beach with a stick. I usually can't resist touching either (okay, not the tourists) because the textures are otherworldly and more than a little gross. While I'm still not a huge fan of actually setting foot in the ocean, I sure like the dredge it vomits up.
*This abbreviated post brought to you by the craziness that is National Novel Writing Month. I've written the 1,600 words toward my novel today, and unfortunately, you guys get the leftovers tonight.
Dia de Los Muertos
Marigolds and sugar skulls
Last weekend, T and I attended the Dia de Los Muertos festival at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I've been meaning to get to a Dia de Los Muertos celebration since I moved to Los Angeles (yeah, we don't so much have these in Ohio), but the fates have not been on my side. They almost weren't again this year. The original plan was to attend the Festival de la Gente downtown, but it was canceled at the last minute. Though I'm sure that would have been a more authentic cultural experience, the Hollywood Forever celebration was a wonderful education to myself.
Dia de Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is a Latino holiday. It focuses on gathering family and friends to pray for and remember family members who have passed. It takes place on November 1st and 2nd. The general idea started with the Aztecs about 3,000 years ago. Instead of two days, they spent four months of each year honoring their dead with ceremonies and rituals. Wow. Four months!! Well, when the friendly neighborhood conquistadors came along, they tried to erase these traditions and replace them with good old Catholic ones. The Aztecs kind of compromised and melded the ancient traditions with those of the church instead of losing them altogether.
Dia de Los Muertos Ofrenda (altar)
The traditions continue to evolve, but there are some constants. People build altars, they gather in cemeteries for picnics and snging, they make sugar skulls and pan de los muertos (sweet bread). They honor their loved ones and celebrate the lives of those lost. They are also kind of mocking death's power. Death can't take away love.
The altars are built to welcome returning souls. The Hollywood Forever celebration had an altar contest. Though that reeks of commercialism, I really didn't pick up any of those feelings as I walked through the altars and talked to those that built them. It seemed to me more that they would have done this anyway, and the opportunity to share the life of their loved one with the public was the sort of icing. Many were happy to talk about the personal touches on the altars, and though it is not the purpose of the holiday some were so sweet and moving they brought tears to my eyes. Good thing it was almost dark.
The ofrendas are stocked with food, drink, and things like soap so that the dead can recover from their long journey. I saw everything from insanely elaborate and intricate to simple and moving at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The colors were bright, and I've never seen more marigolds in one place. Many people wore calavera costumes. Aztec dancers performed at various times, a stage rotated with constant displays of music and dance, a dozen or so food stands lined the festival, vendors sold sugar skulls and a million other things, and indoors there were art displays and lectures. I'm not sure how authentic it was, but I know that I at least, learned a lot. While having a great time.
  
Zion National Park...
I'm going to be honest and just get this out of the way. Through no fault of its own, I didn't love Zion Please don't throw rocks at me.
I was skeptical going in. Because of the huge amount of people that visit and the small amount of parking available, they use a shuttle system only in the park. You can't drive your own car through unless you are veering off on the east road out of the park or staying at the lodge. I understand why, and I respect it. I think it is the best solution to get everyone in the park without causing ridiculous traffic jams. Also, it's good for the environment.
That said, it wasn't for me. Coming out of the relatively quiet Bryce Canyon, trying to find a place to park in Springdale, getting on two different shuttles to get in the park, then riding on a crowded bus with lots of loud people. Whew. After being away from people, you should ease back in, and this was a stronger whiplash back into society than I was prepared for. It was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so I should have known. But Bryce had just been so mellow. Also, it was hot. It was a 20 degree temperature difference over Bryce. I wasn't ready for that either. That's not Zion's fault though.
I am always a person who says, "It's easy to get off the beaten path." This was the first time I had difficulty with that. The shuttles stopped at the same places, so all the trails of reasonable length I had chosen were also the ones everyone else had chosen. At the end of the park, we decided to take one anyway. And it was just miserable. The scenery was gorgeous, absolutely so. The walls dripped with moss and hanging gardens, we saw some climbers going up the huge monoliths above the river, the water nearby was clear, and a breeze would occasionally rustle through. But part of the appeal of nature for me is the respectful quiet that usually comes with such places. Here though, the walk was tempered by the noises of hundreds of humans. The trail was so busy that it just felt like standing in line at Disneyland. We persisted to the end because I really wanted to see where the canyon narrowed, but it was painful.
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