Oh my goodness. As if we didn’t have enough to deal with right now, we’ve discovered we have a water leak below the slab of our 2 1/2 story home. Found out when we got our most recent water bill. Our trusty plumber put a pressure gauge on the main line and sure enough, we’re leaking 70-75 gallons a day. The very next day they started working on re-plumbing the house. Fortunately the leak is below the cement foundation, not in it or above, or we’d have water damage. Houses of the age of this one (38 years) have these kinds of problems. Much of home construction in the 70’s used methods and materials now considered inferior, so it’s no wonder. Much of California home construction even today is done with a foundation rather than crawl space.

Re-plumbing means tracing the existing copper pipe coming up through the foundation, opening those areas up (they’ve had a very hard time finding some of the pipe) so they can cap those off. Some exterior walls must also be opened, and our patio must accommodate a new pipe to a hose bib. The other two outside hose bibs won’t be too difficult. Then they are deciding how to re-lay new copper pipe in ceilings and walls throughout. We have two hot water heaters (one tankless, one not) and they must install pipe for both. It’s been 2+ weeks, and our house is nothing but a mess. They saw, pound, swear, saw, pound and swear many hours a day. Making a mess everywhere. They clean up as best they can at the end of every day. But it’s never enough! My kitchen island, no matter how frequently I clean it off, gets another fine layer of dry wall dust in a matter of an hour or two. Mostly I’ve given up. Even though they’ve installed plastic sheeting plenty of places, that fine dry wall dust gets through somehow.

These are photos of just SOME of the areas in our house where they’ve opened up ceilings or walls to lay in the copper pipe. They’ve put down paper on the floors to protect the travertine tile and carpeting. We’re looking at at least another week, if not two, until completion. Today they’re turning off the water for the entire day. I just hope they finish that part today, but based on what we’ve been through so far, I’d say they won’t. It’ll probably include tomorrow as well. I want my house back!

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The last couple of years I’ve done a recap, in early January, of the best recipes I posted during the last year. Here’s the 2010 group:

Chocolate Chip Cookies Adapted from Silver Moon Bakery – if I were to put this list in a rank order, I suppose this would have to be first – only because I’ve made these cookies about 6-8 times in the last year. They’re taller than most chocolate chip cookies. They’re crunchy and crisp, just the way I like them. I changed the recipe just a smidgen.

Meyer Lemon Grains Salad with Asparagus & Almonds – I probably made this salad 3 or 4 times last  year. Ever so good. So tasty with the lemon juice. But then, I love lemon juice and lemon flavoring in just about anything.

Mixed Berry Meringue Parfaits – this are very similar to a dish called Eton Mess (from Eton in England). This one is SO easy – as long as you have some ice cream, some meringue cookies (from Trader Joe’s), some whipped cream and fresh berries, you can make this treat anytime. This is also a very nice company dessert. So easy to make (at the last minute, though). Idea when fresh berries are in season.

Salmon Steaks with Soy and Maple Glaze – Oh so very delicious. An easy entrée, and full of flavor too. Surely I must have made this 3 or 4 times last year, even for guests. You know when you read a recipe and think because it’s just so easy , it might not be “fancy” enough for guests? Not so with this recipe. It’s very colorful with the maple glaze (gets nice and crunchy) and the pile of freshly chopped green onions.

Brussels Sprouts with Brandy, Orange and Dried Cranberries – if you ever thought you didn’t like Brussels Sprouts, this might change your mind. They’re easy and SO good.

Country Captain Chicken – I was never a big fan of Country Captain until I made it this way. As I recall it’s a Cook’s Illustrated, or an America’s Test Kitchen recipe. Even good for guests. It’s not all that different than other Country Captain recipes, but there’s a definite flavor punch.

Marinated Tomatoes – who would think that letting tomatoes veg out in a marinade would make such a difference. These are just wonderful – in the summer – when you can buy really good tasty tomatoes. Make ahead, great for guests. Easy too. It uses a whole bunch of fresh herbs (mostly I have them in my summer herb garden) which just pushes the flavor off the charts. Looks pretty too.

Maida Heatter’s 86-Proof Chocolate Cake – oh my gracious goodness is this ever wonderful. Definitely an adult (beverage) cake since it has bourbon in it – a lot, actually. Worth every single calorie. Hard to figure out exactly what’s in there unless someone tells you. You know it’s alcohol, though. I think I served it with a mound of whipped cream flavored with a bit more bourbon, too.

Saffron Basmati Rice – I fell in love with this when I made this rice. It has relatively simple ingredients (including canned coconut milk, which I had in my pantry). Fortunately, the only time I’ve made this,I made a big batch and froze several packets of it for later. We’ve enjoyed every single leftover there was. A huge favorite for me. I made this recently so haven’t had a chance to make it a second time. Yet.

Aarti’s Indian Rice Pudding – do you watch Aarti’s show on the Food Network? Very fun. Have enjoyed every one of her recipes I’ve tried, this one included. Love the coconut milk, and the great basmati flavor. It’s made with whole milk, which I don’t keep on hand, but it was worth the trip to the market.

Irish Soda Bread with Orange Zest and Currants – over the years I’ve made plenty of soda bread. And they were always “okay,” but never off the charts. Until this one. It’s an Ina Garten recipe, and is so good I could almost make a meal of it, warm from the oven with a bowl of butter alongside. It is best served the day you make it, but was still good the next day too. I made it for Easter dinner and have made it a couple of times since.

Vegetable Coconut Curry – As I look at that picture, I’m craving this curry. Meatless. Just chock full of good things for you, and so tasty you don’t even miss the protein. It has everything but the kitchen sink in the mixture, all healthy for you kind of ingredients. Even grapes.

Orzo, Dried Cherries and Almonds – if you ever wanted to serve a different kind of pasta side dish, this would be one of those! Really tasty. Great with pork, chicken or fish. It has a sweet tinge from the dried cherries, so it wouldn’t go with anything except a relatively plain protein. Like grilled pork tenderloin, or a grilled chicken. Don’t serve it with an entree that has a sauce. It would take away from the flavor of the side dish.

Welsh Cakes (like flattened scones) – oh my goodness are these ever good. I tried several recipes, then one of my readers, Toni-Anne, from England, told me about her recipe, which she kindly shared with me. She grew up in Wales, and had a recipe from the 1980s that was just like what I remembered when we tried these, in Wales, last summer. I was on a mission – big time – to find just the right combination. This is it.

Tomato and Butter Sauce for Pasta – this may not look like much, and if you don’t add the full amount of butter to this, it probably wouldn’t taste like much either. As our friend Bud says: Fat is the sled on which flavor rides. Yup. A meatless dish, very satisfying. Butter, butter and butter.

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My friend Cherrie has this cute Santa sitting on her kitchen counter, so I snapped a photo of him. I’m not doing much cooking today as we’re going to the home of relatives. All I have to take is a gluten-free dessert (which I made yesterday, and is mostly for my cousin Gary) – an apple crisp. If it’s blog-worthy, I’ll share it next week sometime. Meanwhile, cherish your family and friends, and celebrate the birth of Christ.

And in case you haven’t seen this cute video, just about the cutest ever, watch this youtube video showing a techie person’s explanation of the birth of Jesus. It’s very clever.

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Back a couple of years ago I wrote up a post about this pepper stuff. And I’ve made it numerous times in the interim, always enjoying it very much. This time I made it with red onions and with dark raisins (rather than golden). I also used Splenda so my DH wouldn’t need to be concerned about how much of it he ate. And I forgot to add the tomatoes. Oh well. Not important since, as usual, it was so SO good. This relish really goes with just about any kind of meat. Originally the recipe was an Escoffier one, but it’s simple to make. It would make a great relish to go on sandwiches too – I’d just chop it up a bit before putting it on bread. This time I served it with leftover Italian sausage and leftover grilled chicken. And I took a new picture of it. My previous one is kind of bland looking. The dark raisins add a counterbalance to the photo. Do try it on any kind of meat sandwiches – not just as a side scoop on some baked or grilled meat.

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Just a short update for all of you who regularly read my blog. My husband (my DH, dear husband) came home from the hospital yesterday (Tuesday) after his double heart bypass surgery. It boggles my mind that he had open heart surgery on Friday afternoon and on Tuesday he came home! I won’t say it’s been exactly easy taking care of him – he’s not able to do much yet – but he’s recovering well. Sleeping a LOT (good thing) and in a moderate amount of pain (managed with meds). Getting up and down from a regular height chair is probably the most difficult and painful thing he has to do. As a double amputee he must use his arms more than able-bodied people and with the incision and sternum cracking they had to do, everything is tight and painful in or near his chest. He IS grateful to be alive right now (and so am I, obviously), but I won’t give you a photo at the moment – he’s not exactly a happy camper yet and there aren’t any smiles suitable for broadcasting! Maybe in a few days.

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Allow me to set the stage. We flew home from New Zealand last Tuesday (4 days ago), arriving via dateline change on Tuesday morning at LAX. A friend picked us up and we drove to our home about an hour away. I carried in the carry-on bags and Dave unloaded the big suitcases we took on this trip. I mean, 28 days away from home, you need more clothes! Each suitcase was 50 pounds including Dave’s 2nd set of prosthetic legs and 2 bottles of wine in each bag (they made it fine).

Dave felt some chest pain and just thought he was overexerting himself. (He didn’t tell me that it lasted for an HOUR for criminy sakes.) I threw all my dirty clothes on the laundry room floor, took a shower and Dave said he wanted to go grocery shopping. I asked him how he was feeling. All right, I think he said. He went, then unloaded his suitcase. I fixed us some lunch eventually and I even got far enough to post a blog piece. Then Dave called his cardiologist’s office (my DH had a heart attack in 1997 and has 2 stents) but they told him to go to the E.R. So we did. They weren’t sure. Dave had had one little, short bout of chest pain when we were in Australia, but it went away immediately. He gave it little thought.

Anyway, to cut to the chase (this story could take 3 more paragraphs if I let myself) on Wednesday they did an angiogram and in the recovery room he had a heart attack. A fairly major one. They’d found 2 blockages and some calcification. Yesterday Dave got a double bypass, and he came through it with flying colors, I must say. As I write this on Saturday night at 7:30, it’s a few more than 24 hours since he HAD the bypass surgery and he walked a couple hundred feet down the hallway and back. He’s having typical symptoms of cardiac post-op they say (weakness, dizziness). He got one unit of blood today because he’s anemic. And he was beginning to kid and joke with the nurses, so I know he’s on the right road to recovery. So, that’s why I haven’t blogged. That’s why I haven’t even looked at a single one of our trip pictures except the one at top taken in Queenstown, New Zealand with Dave wearing his Aussie leather hat. That’s why I haven’t cooked a single meal. (I’ve eaten cold cereal each morning – that’s it.)  That’s why I haven’t even gone through our 28 days of held mail. Now it’s about 32 days of mail. That’s why I hardly know what day it is. It’s why we still have piles of laundry here and there. It’s why I haven’t even turned on the heat here in the house yet (why bother? I’m at the hospital nearly all day). It’s why my suitcase is still resting on the guest room bed. Not unpacked yet. All of our kids have been here – supporting their dad and propping me up. Amazingly, jet lag hasn’t bothered me too much. Am sure natural adrenaline has something to do with that.

I’ll be back to posting just as soon as I have time. Our plans for Thanksgiving have been changed. You think? He may still be in the hospital. Don’t know at this point. He might be coming home that day too. In every thing I do, though, I know God had a hand in this. Otherwise Dave wouldn’t have had this heart attack 2 hours after we got home.

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As this is posting on my blog we will have already arrived in Australia for a 4-week tour including New Zealand. After a 16-hour flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, we have a layover for awhile, then get on yet another plane to fly to Hobart, Tasmania where we start our tour. Hopefully I’ll have wi-fi in some of the places we’ll stay so I can post a few pictures. We’ve never been to Australia or New Zealand, even though we’re relatively seasoned travelers.  There’s a 16-18 hour time difference from California, so we’ll be in serious jet lag, no doubt. More as soon as I can . . .

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This is a repeat . . . of one of my favorite recipes. Since I made this for a big family birthday party recently, I took some new photos of it. This particular batch I used fire roasted tomatoes that were in tomato sauce. Usually it’s just tomatoes, drained. So this time using all of the sauce, it stuck to the pasta, which maybe is a good thing. And although this is a cold or room temp dish, you could serve it anytime of the year, really. But somehow I associate it with summer. I’m sure in Italy they probably used fresh tomatoes, but this recipe calls for canned. Sometimes I add in some halved cherry tomatoes. Here’s another shot:

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Can I just tell you, you need to make this salad? It’s so darned good. I’ve posted it before, long time ago (it’s a Phillis Carey recipe), but didn’t have a photo of it, so I made it the other night. I thought my DH was going to lick the plate. It does have some sweetness to it (maple syrup in the dressing) and it does kind of need to be made at the last minute (unless you keep the julienned apples soaking in Sprite so they don’t turn brown). It’s an easy salad – I made the dressing several hours ahead, toasted the walnuts ahead too, measured out the dried cherries and the salad was ready to eat.

Here’s the post I wrote about it long ago. And then, here’s the PDF in case you believe me and will just go for it and print it out.

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When I look back on trips and places we’ve stayed, I often remember the B&B, or inn, where we’ve stayed, rather than the town itself. Our visit to South Wales was certainly the case. The owners of Lower House sent us a very detailed map of how to find their home as it’s down a 1+ mile dead end, narrow road. We got to know it well each time we wended our way out and about, then returned to the comfort of the place in the afternoons and again at night.

The B&B is a patchwork quilt of rooms, in a typically English cottage style. Low beams, low door beams too, old wooden floors, little push-out windows to provide ventilation. But the bathroom in our room was very modern. Very clean and charming. All the amenities are there, a flat-screen (small) TV, a tea tray, bottled water, a big bed with a duvet. And a delicious cooked breakfast. That’s what they call them here – a cooked breakfast.

The B&B has a lovely, big sitting room where we spent some time. It was still summer there, but July is usually the month of warmer weather – meaning sunshine and heat – not August. So, we had rain. And rain. And rain.

Hay-on-Wye was one of my included destinations on this trip because it’s composed of mostly used and antiquarian book stores. 32 of them, supposedly. We visited about four of them, I think before we got weary of ducking in and out of the rain. Besides, there is no way I could buy even one book to take home. But they were interesting to browse. Some specialized in gardening and horticulture. Others had lots of history books. I did go into one that had a big cookbook collection in their window. But I didn’t buy. It took will power, but I have no room in my suitcase for books. Especially since the airlines weigh bags these days. I suppose if I had to I could fit one book in an outside pocket of my suitcase, but I didn’t really see anything I wanted.

Actually, I went into a cookware store in Hay and DID buy two little herb crocks. One for thyme and one for oregano, the two herbs that always sit out on my kitchen counter. The “Original Suffolk Canister” crocks, pictured here, are made locally, and the they advertise that they’re suitable for home and on safari. They have rubber seals to keep the herbs fresh, you see. They were expensive (5.50 pounds or about $7.75 each). But I’ll enjoy them, reminding me of this trip. Dave bought knickers (underwear) and I bought herb crocks.

I’ll include some photos I took in and around the B&B. I’d come back here and stay anytime. The owners, Peter and Nicky Daw, are lovely hosts and the B&B is inviting, to say the least.

The sitting room in the B&B (pictured below) was just charming. Since it rained nearly the entire two days we were visiting Hay, we spent some quiet time there reading. Here’s a photo of Nicky. She was telling me all about a cookbook written by a friend of hers. She wrote out the lengthy title for me and as soon as I got home, I went online. Luckily, there was one copy here in the U.S. (used, but “new,” it said) which is on its way to me. Once I get it I’ll write up a post about it.

That was our visit to Hay-on-Wye, and it was quite lovely, even with the rain. The B&B is well known in gardening circles (a Philadelphia garden club went to Hay just to see the gardens at the Daw’s home). Nicky works a lot in her garden – I didn’t get many good photos because of the rain. But in any case, if you ever go to South Wales, do stop by to see Nicky and Peter and tell them hello for us, too.

Lower House

Cusop Dingle, Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR3 5R2

(0)777 9480783

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