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Here are the tastingspoons players. I’m in the middle (Carolyn). Daughter Sara on the right, and daughter-in-law Karen on the left. I started the blog in 2007, as a way to share recipes with my family. I’m still doing 99% of the blogging and holding out hope that these two lovely and excellent cooks will participate. They both lead very busy lives, so we’ll see.

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BOOK READING (from Carolyn):

Music of Bees, Eileen Garvin. Absolutely charming book about a woman in midlife, lonely, who raises bees, also makes unlikely friends. Heart-warming and very interesting about beekeeping.

A Postcard from Paris, Alex Brown. Really cute story. Dual time line, 1940s and present day about renovating an old apartment in Paris, things discovered.

Time of the Child, Niall Williams. Oh such a good book. Very small village in Ireland, 1960s. A baby is left on the doorstep. The town all whispers and helps. I listened to an interview of the author, which made me like him and his books even more.

Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy. If you like animals you’ll swoon. An old woman who really wants to die finds a tiny mouse in her house and befriends it and finds a reason to live. Utterly charming book.

The Forger’s Spell, Edward Dolnick. True story. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of Johannes Vermeer.

If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now, Christopher Ingraham. Could hardly put it down – about a journalist who takes on a challenge to move to small town in Minnesota and write about it. He expects to hate it and the people and place, but he doesn’t. Absolutely wonderful true story.

The River We Remember, William Kent Kreuger. 1950s, Minnesota. A murder and the aftermath. Could hardly put it down. Kreuger has such a vivid imagination and writing style.

How the Lights Gets In, Joyce Maynard. An older woman returns to New Hampshire to help care for her brain-injured son. Siblings and family, lots of angst and resentments.

The Filling Station, Vanessa Miller. Every American should read this book. A novelized retelling of the Tulsa massacre in 1921. Absolutely riveting.

The Story She Left Behind, Patti Callahan Henry. Love this author. Based on a true story. A famous author simply vanishes, leaving her husband and daughter behind. She had invented a mystical language no one could translate. Present day, someone thinks he’s solved the riddle, contacts the family. Really interesting read.

The Girl from Berlin, Ronald Balson. Love anything about Tuscany. An elderly woman is being evicted from a villa there, with odd deed provenance. Two young folks go there to help unravel the mystery. Loved it.

The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks, M.D. Nonfiction. The dr is intrigued by a remote Pacific island where most of the inhabitants are colorblind. He also unravels a mystery on Guam of people born with a strange neurological problem. Medical mysteries unveiled. Very interesting.

The Bookbinder, Pip Williams. Post 1914 London. Two sisters work at a bookbindery. They’re told to not read the books. One does and one doesn’t. One has visions beyond her narrow world; the other does not. Eventually the one gets into Oxford. Lovely story.

The Paris Express, Emma Donoghue. 1895 on a train to Paris, a disaster happens. You’ll delve into the lives of many people who survived and died in the crash.

A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Richard Grant. This is about Arizona. Author, wife and child move back to Arizona where they once lived. Part memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place.

The Scarlet Thread, Francine Rivers. A woman’s life turned upside down when she discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Kathryn McMurray, a young woman who was uprooted from her home only to endure harsh frontier conditions on the Oregon Trail.

A Place to Hide, Ronald Balson. 1939 Amsterdam, an ambassador has the ability to save the lives of many Jewish children. Heartwarming.

Homeseeking, Karissa Chen. Two young Chinese teens are deeply in love, but in China. Then their families are separated. Jump to current day and the two meet again in Los Angeles.

North River, Pete Hammill. He always writes such a good story. A doctor works diligently healing people from all walks of life. His wife and daughter left him years before. One day his 3-yr old grandson arrives on his doorstep.

A Very Typical Family, Sierra Godfrey. A very messed-up family. Three adult children are given a home in Santa Cruz, Calif, but only if the siblings meet up and live in the house together. A very untypical scenario but makes for lots of messes.

Three Days in June, Anne Tyler. The usual Anne Tyler grit. Family angst. This wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was entertaining and very short.

Saved, Benjamin Hall. Author is a veteran war reporter. Ukraine, 2022, he nearly loses his life to a Russian strike. Riveting story – he survives, barely.

Grey Wolf, Louise Penny. Another Inspector Gamache mystery in Quebec. She is such an incredible mystery writer.

All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each. Could hardly put it down.

Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Winner of 2024 Booker Prize. I don’t usually like those, but I heard the author interviewed and she hooked me. This is not a normal book with a beginning, a story and an end. It’s several chapters of the day in the life of various astronauts at the ISS (Int’l Space Station). All fictional. She’s been praised by several real astronauts for “getting it” about space station everyday life.

The Blue Hour, Paula Hawkins. An island off Scotland. Inaccessible except when the tide is out. Weird goings on. An artist. A present day mystery too.

Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger. A judge is murdered and a boy is missing. Riveting mystery.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Ricks Brunt. 1980s. A 14-yr old girl loses her beloved uncle. Yet a new friendship arises, someone she never knew about.

Four Treasures of the Sky, Jenny Zhang. 1880s, a young girl is kidnapped in China and brought to the United States. She survives with many hurdles in the path.

The Boy Who Fell out of the Sky, Ken Dornstein. Memoir, 1988. The author’s brother died in the PanAm flight that went down in Lockerbie, Scotland. A decade later he tries to solve “the riddle of his older brother’s life.”

Worse Care Scenario, T.J. Newman. Oh my. Interesting analysis of what could/might happen if a jet crashed into a nuclear plant. Un-put-downable.

Song of the Lark, Willa Cather. Complicated weave of a story about a young woman in about 1900, who has a gifted voice (singing) and about her journey to success, not without its ups and downs.

Crow Talk, Eileen Garvin. Charming story which takes place at a remote lake in Washington State, about a few people who inhabit it, the friendships made, but also revolving around the rescue of a baby crow.

The Story Collector, Evie Woods. Sweet story about some dark secrets from an area in Ireland, a bit magical, faerie life, but solving a mystery too.

A Sea of Unspoken Things, Adrienne Young. A woman investigates her twin brother’s mysterious death. She goes to a small town in California to figure it out, to figure HIM out.

The King’s Messenger, Susanna Kearsley. 1600s England, King James. About one of his trusted “messengers,” and his relationship with a young woman also of “the court.” Lots of intrigue.

In the Shadow of the Greenbrier, Emily Matchar. Interesting mystery in/around the area of the famous resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Isola, Allegra Goodman. Hard to describe, survival story on an island in the 1600s.

Save the Date, Allison Raskin. Rom-com, witty, LOL funny. Clever.

The Sirens, Emilia Hart. Numerous time-lines, Australia. Mysteries abound, nightmares, abandoned baby, weird allergies.

Red Clay, Charles Fancher. LOVED this book. Mostly post-Civil War story about the lives of slaves in Alabama during Reconstruction.

Stars in an Italian Sky, Jill Santopolo. Dual time line, 1946 and recent time. Love stories and a mystery.

Battle Mountain, C.J. Box. Another one of Box’s riveting mysteries. Love his descriptions of the land.

Something Beautiful Happened, Yvette Corporon. A memoir of sorts in Greece, tiny island of Erikousa, where the locals hid Jews during WWII. All elusive stories told by the author’s grandmother.

The Jackal’s Mistress, Chris Bohjalian. 1860s Virginia, about a woman who saves the life of a Union soldier. Really good story.

Song of the Magpie, Louise Mayberry. Really interesting story about Australia back in the days when it was mostly a penal colony. Gritty strength of a woman trying to thrive with her farm.

The Boomerang, Robert Bailey. A thriller that will have you gripping the book. About a lot of secrets surrounding the president (fictional novel, remember) and his chief of staff and about cancer. A cure. Such a good story.

Care and Feeding, Laurie Woolever. Really interesting memoir of a woman driven to succeed in the restaurant business. She worked for Mario Batali and then Anthony Bourdain. Gritty stories.

Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green. Maybe not a book for everyone. A real deep dive into the deadly tuberculosis infection, its history. I heard the author interviewed and found the book very interesting.

The Book Lovers Library, Madeline Martin. Fascinating read about Boots’ drug stores’ lending library. And the people who worked in them.

The Arrivals, Meg Mitchell Moore. LOL funny, about a middle-aged couple whose children (and their various family members) return to the family home and the chaos that ensues.

My Life as a Silent Movie, Jesse Lee Kercheval. About grief. A big move to Paris, finding herself a new life with a new set of real blood family.

Escape, Carolyn Jessop. Another memoir about a woman really in bondage in Utah, Mormon plural marriage.

 

Tasting Spoons

My blog's namesake - small, old and some very dented engraved silver plated tea spoons that belonged to my mother-in-law, and I use them to taste my food as I'm cooking.

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Posted in Uncategorized, on August 21st, 2008.

food word art from Wordle

It was written up on somebody else’s blog – this Wordle thing. I’m fascinated with fonts (comes from my background in the ad agency biz), colors, layouts. So this website, Wordle, is right up my alley. I just typed into a window a bunch of words relating to food. I had to upgrade to the latest version of Java to do this, however. Then you click GO and up came this beautiful image using my words. You can submit paragraphs of words from your blog, or something else for that matter, and it creates it for you. (So, you have a passion for fencing, for instance, create one using all the words about fencing. Cool.) Then you can tweak it – with different color schemes, or your own, and you can re-do the screen. I took a screen shot, converted it to a jpg format, then downsized it using Picnik, and uploaded it to here. What fun. You may see a few of these now and then when I don’t have a recipe to post.

Posted in Uncategorized, on August 16th, 2008.

chocolate-eating bug
Since I’m giving updates about things in general, I’ll fill you in on two fronts. If you’ve ever had small flea-sized bugs eating your chocolate stash, read on. And I’m finally writing an update to our 7-month saga of our backyard . . .
 
Bugs

I wrote up on my blog the other day that I’d discovered a LOT of little black bugs dining away on my chocolate in the pantry. Last week I cleaned out many pounds of chocolate (varying kinds from chips, squares, bars, large bars). [Never let it be said that I ran out of some kind of chocolate I needed when the inspiration hit me to bake something!]  It pained me to throw away all that stuff, but I surely wouldn’t eat any of it if these bugs (and a few tiny white worms) were even munching away on the other end of the bar. I know, we consume lots of bug fragments every day with food we eat, but I don’t ever do it intentionally. I made a trip to the Container Store the other day and bought some sealing-type plastic boxes (hopefully they seal well enough to keep these little critters OUT). So today I began cleaning out the shelf the chocolate bin had been living on. Well, let’s just say that my housekeeping skills have been lacking. It’s been 18 months since the kitchen remodel was done, and I hadn’t cleaned those shelves since. And it showed. But what was ON those shelves was not dust particularly, but bug bodies, live bugs (yes, more of them) and all kinds of detritus from said bugs and other bugs. The moths/bugs that thrive on wheat-based food/flours were in evidence too. Dave helped me, finally, when I’d just about exhausted my energy schlepping bottles, cans, boxes, bags of stuff from the pantry to the island. I smashed hundreds of the little black bugs. They’re not hard-shelled, so they squish fairly easily. But I’m quite certain I haven’t gotten them all.
  
Once Dave started helping me we discovered them – both the flying type and the little black pinheads in lots of places. I threw out nearly all of the remainder of my chocolate (including all the bars of Scharfen Berger chocolate I bought at the factory last year). These were the packages that were on the other side of the pantry that I THOUGHT weren’t affected. Uh, no way. The bugs were all over it. In crevices in the packaging. I’d open a package and they’d be in the folds inside, AND having a smorgasbord on the chocolate itself too. And leaving piles of their poop behind. Then I decided I’d better look into the grain bins I have (just big plastic unlidded boxes I use to house various types of beans and grains). I’d gone through all that stuff a few months ago when I discovered the flying critters in there. Well, they’d gotten desperate for wheat food, and had delved into the imported French lentils, for whatever reason. There were dozens of the flying ones inside a tightly sealed plastic box of polenta cornmeal (perhaps that’s where the critters came IN to my kitchen, since there were a couple hundred in one small container). They weren’t really eating the lentils or the cornmeal I found out, but they liked living in the bags or bin. Then we found them in most of the opened boxes of pasta. They weren’t eating the pasta either, but they’d made nests in the bottom of the boxes. I wasn’t enamored with trying to sift out the detritus, so all that went into the trash too. About the only good thing about this exercise was that I have a bit more room on my pantry shelves now.
 
The Backyard
I know . . . the back yard looks lovely, doesn’t it? That’s new brick coping around the pool and a new pebble-textured plastering job in the pool itself. But first, backtrack a bit. I think it was in January or February that I mentioned that we were having drainage problems around our house. We live on a hill, as you can see from the photo. If it weren’t for the cloud bank out in the distance you could see the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles out there. I could write several chapters of a book on the stages of drain repairs around here about that. We did get it fixed. We think. Then there is the pool (and separate spa) – we had a couple of run-ins with the county about permits, but eventually paid the piper to get them. All we did was re-plaster our pool and spa and the permits cost us upwards of $2000. In the process they were quick to inform us that if and when we replace a water heater, a permit is required. Or if we replace a single or multiple windows, a permit is required. Or replace a garbage disposal. I mean, a garbage disposal, for heavens’ sake? We were, to say the very least, astounded. [In case you hadn’t heard, our county and our state – California – are in serious financial difficulty . . . we’ve concluded the powers-that-be have decided  homeowners needs to bear a significant brunt of paying up . . . the legislators can’t get a tax increase passed, but they sure can raise fees.] Anyway, back in February we had a bunch of deep holes (shafts) dug around our yard – I think I posted pictures of one of them. We were trying to figure out where water was standing underground. We finally discovered where (just to the left of the pool in the picture above), although we only HOPE the drain repair has rectified it. We won’t know until next winter when the rains come.
So what exactly did we have to do to finish this job? The drains were repaired about 5 months ago. We didn’t have to have a permit to do that! But the pool – we had to install a second drain in the bottom of the pool (a safety code). We had to install a second self-closing gate on the other side of the house. We had to put a new lock on the fence gate at the bottom of our hill. And we had to pay for an inspector to come and look at the work three times (that alone was about $200 per pool – and spa – per visit, since we also get to pay his mileage and the time it takes for him to drive here). We didn’t have to re-fence our property, fortunately.
  
So about 5-6 weeks ago we thought we were “done” with the pool and spa. Then about a week after the last worker-bees left we noticed our spa was losing water. I won’t belabor it – somehow the skimmer had developed a crack (probably from all the jack hammering that had been done to remove brick coping and the plaster). That cost $1500 to replace. The next day the spa lost 4 inches of water. The worker-bees who had replaced the skimmer had jack hammered one of the Jacuzzi jets, so a hundred or so gallons of water (I guess) had drained into the soil around the spa. There were a number of expletives-deleted words said about then. That got repaired the next day at no charge. We thought THEN we were done. Wrong. Two weeks later we noticed the main pool was losing water. A lot of water. Dave went to the deep hole that’s closest to the main pool and sure enough, there was standing water in the bottom of the hole. We found out the skimmer in THAT pool had developed a crack too. We’ve now had the 2nd skimmer replaced (another $1500 for this one too). We hope, just hope and pray, that we’re now finished. And that we have no more leaks. It’s been nearly 7 months in the process. Meanwhile, our flagpole (the photo from my other post) is still leaning, and probably will continue to do so. We can’t fix that without removing all patio areas, re-grading, compacting and re-constructing. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars for that. We’ll live with a leaning flagpole, thank you. 

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Oh, one more thing – the person who was stealing by blog posts has ceased and desisted – her website no longer contains any content. It’s still there, but it’s empty. Thank goodness and good riddance.

Posted in Uncategorized, on July 31st, 2008.

main-pool.jpg
Our newly replastered pool, and the view to the west.

In case you hadn’t heard, we had a significant 5.4 magnitude earthquake here in Southern California on Tuesday. At 11:42 am. It lasted for about 15 seconds, although the most severe portion was only about 8 -10 seconds, then it gradually faded after that. If you’ve never been in an earthquake, it’s hard to describe. It is a very deep roaring-wrenching sound first – you hear it initially, in the half second before you feel the earth start to shift. I was near a major beam in the house, so I didn’t move. Light fixtures swayed, the water in both our pool and spa began sloshing around, although no water lapped over the edges. (Ten minutes later the pool water was still moving.)  The wrenching noise continues. It feels like forever. It’s frightening, yes. The fear, of course, is that maybe this is going to be the BIG one, the one that’s going to bring down the house. Sometimes I run to a doorway; other times, depending on the severity, I’m frozen, in suspense, listening for sounds that indicate major damage. glass breaking, pictures falling and shattering, or worse. Part of the wrenching sound is the house itself, the structure, the beams and wood screaming against the bolts and screws, leaning from the nails that hold a house together and to a cement slab foundation.

People who don’t live here wonder why we’d possibly live in earthquake country. Well, for me, this is paradise. We’re some miles away from the San Andreas (an-DRAY-us) Fault, the deep, underground schism that the experts tell us has been caused by thousands of years of shifting ground, where the greatest amount of movement comes. There are many other fault lines here in California too, but that’s the major one, the San Andreas. We, perhaps, delude ourselves, that since we’re so many miles away from the Fault, therefore we’ll be immune from significant damage.

In response, I ask – why do people live along the shores of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, in known hurricane country? Why do people live in the midwest in the land of tornados? There are negatives, I suppose, about lots of places to live. For us, it’s earthquakes.

Did we have damage? Yes and no. Yes, we had some damage, but no it wasn’t major as far as we know. During the hardest wrenching when the noise was near-deafening, we didn’t even hear the cans and bottles fly off the shelves in the pantry just 10 feet away (albeit behind a stained-glass door). They landed in piles, some shattered – jam, jelly, salsas, oozing out on the hardwood floor and glass shards flew in every direction. About 10 bottles made huge dents in the wood floor as they broke. Sardines in a tin were hit with something which made a hole in the metal, so the area smelled of fish for awhile. Sigh. Dave made a quick survey upstairs – nothing major. Later I did discover about 15 books had fallen off shelves in my office upstairs. Drawers throughout the house (except in the kitchen where they’re held by a magnet) were ajar. No windows broke. No pictures fell off walls. But we had aftershocks for hours. About 2 hours later I was sitting at my office computer. The screen has a partial reflection of the window across the room. Although I couldn’t feel it at first, suddenly the screen/reflection began shaking. Concentrating, yes, I could feel the movement. We had several of those.

Our biggest concern was our newly replastered pool and spa. Fortunately there appears to be no change there; no drop in water level. The picture above is of our main pool and the view toward the ocean. You can vaguely see the mound of fog way out there, that usually bothers us in June, not July, coming in from the sea. [And yes, I know, I need to write up a post about our back yard . . . I’ve had a couple of people email me privately asking about the status of our leaning flagpole and our hill/patio/leaks. I promise, I will do it soon . . . just when I think we’re “done” with our back yard, something else happens, and we’re not finished with our 6 months and counting problems.]

The epicenter was about 15 miles away as the crow flies, about due north, in an area called Chino Hills. There, there were broken water mains, some ceiling falls, a Macy’s had to close because of water damage, broken windows in businesses and homes. But I haven’t heard that anyone was injured. Thank goodness.

As a native Californian, I read, years and years ago, a fascinating book called The Last of the Late, Great State of California. It’s a novel, based on an earthquake aftermath when the western half of California sinks in the ocean after the BIG one. It addressed issues (some immediate, most long term) that one wouldn’t think about. Huge problems. Financial and political mostly. I thought the author was brilliant in analyzing how such a big one would affect those left behind.

We have earthquake insurance for 3 of our 4 houses (2 homes we live in and 1 rental home are covered; the rental condo isn’t covered) – a very expensive proposition, I’ll tell you! But if we did have a big one, once we paid the huge deductible, we’d be covered. Most people don’t have it. I understand why, because it’s so costly. Life has returned to normal here, however. For now. Until the next one, which we know is coming.

Posted in Uncategorized, on July 23rd, 2008.

I’ve had very few days since I started this blog when I didn’t have a recipe to post. Uh, that’s today. Having been away for the weekend, I enjoyed preparing a simple meal on Monday night. Yesterday I spent catching up on one thing or another. My 2nd book club met in the morning and we discussed A Kiss From Maddalena, a touching story which takes place in WWII Italy. It was my suggestion we read it, and we all enjoyed it. It’s not really a romance, although from the title you’d think so. Sure, there is a romance in it, but mostly it’s about the hell that happens to the village itself and all its inhabitants during and after the war. The book is a tad bit hard to find. I read about it in Bas Bleu, a book catalog that I so enjoy reading. Sure, I can buy books cheaper at Amazon, but I like to support the little guys too, so at least once a year I order books from their online store. The book is no longer available there, though. What I love about Bas Bleu is the write-ups about books. My other book club is reading another Bas Bleu recommendation for our meeting tonight, The Covenant by Naomi Ragen. Really interesting read about an abduction in a Palestinian neighborhood in Israel. I’m leading the review tonight, so have some homework to do about that. It’s deeply discounted at Amazon, and no longer available at Bas Bleu (just a guess – because the author has been sued or accused by two different people/publishers for possible plagiarism in writing two other books).

Last week I made another batch of the roasted balsamic strawberry ice cream from a couple of weeks ago. That ice cream is so darned addicting. In my first batch I used a product called Tulocay’s Made in Napa Valley Blackberry Balsamic Vinegar with Pear. Having made the ice cream a second time with more pedestrian balsamic, I’m now craving more of this pear balsamic. So far I’ve been unable to find it. I’ve phoned several sources listed on their website, but they don’t carry that particular product. Will have to widen my search, or pony up to have it shipped from the producer. I bought it last year in Healdsburg (wine country) near where it’s made.

A second batch of the Thin & Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies yielded a different cookie altogether. I made an alteration (know that it’s problematical anytime you make a change in a baked good) by using some Splenda instead of white sugar. I wanted my DH to be able to enjoy some of them. It totally changed the chemistry. Not a great cookie did it make. Although maybe it’s a good thing because I’m not craving them like I did the first, the virgin batch. I suspect, however, that I will make these again using the original recipe. They’re that good.

Last night my DH and I went to Laguna Beach. First it was dinner, at the Sundried Tomato Café, a fabulous restaurant (serendipity, since we didn’t have a plan about where to eat). I had a glass of Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc (one of the few white wines out there – other than champagne – that I truly enjoy, since I’m mostly a red wine drinker), an exceptional Caesar salad and a perfectly ripe avocado stuffed with a spicy-dressed Oregon bay shrimp salad (an appetizer, but was ample as an entrée). We ran into friends, Jackie & Don, as we were leaving. The restaurant is one of their favorites! Then we walked to the Laguna Playhouse to see The Marvelous Wonderettes. That may have been one of the best plays (actually this was a musical) I’ve ever seen there. We both just loved it. It’s all the music from our past – a step back in time to 1958 with four girls who are friends, who are asked to sing at their Senior Prom. In the first half they tell their stories (of love, school, teachers, growing up, etc.) using music of the era. In the second half they have returned for their 10-year reunion, and sing more of the 50’s and 60’s era songs. The costumes were just darling (I can’t believe we wore stuff like that, but sure enough, I did) and the four women had great voices. If you live in Southern California, I highly recommend you try to see this musical. It’s playing through August 31st. (And it’s opening in New York at the end of August.) Go have dinner (at about 5:45 pm, to give yourself ample time to walk back to the theater for the show at 7:30) at the Sundried Tomato over on Forest.

Posted in Uncategorized, on July 17th, 2008.

airplane-jet-engine.jpg

Can you hear the lyrics? I’m taking a short trip to San Francisco. My daughter who lives in Northern California is going to meet me there and we’re spending a weekend together. I’ve spent hours plotting nearly every minute of the 48 hours we’ll be together. I wish I’d realized the trip I was planning coincided with the BlogHer conference in San Francisco – I didn’t put two and two together in time to go a day early and attend that too. Maybe next year. Several of the food blogs I read are written by women I’d just be thrilled to meet and they’re going to it. Alas.

I’m not taking my laptop – there simply won’t be time to blog while I’m there, so I’ll post again on Monday, most likely. And at the moment I don’t have any recipes lurking around to be posted. So, Tasting Spoons will be silent for a few days . . .

Posted in Uncategorized, on July 2nd, 2008.

our-boat-and-bay.jpg

It’s been nearly a year (in just a few days) that my DH Dave and I went to San Diego (about 90 miles south of us) to spend a few days on our sailboat. And it was on July 3rd that I stepped off the boat, twisted my ankle and broke my foot. Until a few days ago, I hadn’t been back. My DH goes there all the time, usually stays for one night, sails one day, tinkers around on the boat another, before returning home.

 our-boat-view-down-the-dock.jpg

our-boat-a.jpg

I kinda made an issue with my DH. I wouldn’t go back to the boat until he bought a new step (read better, HIGHER) for me to get on and off (would you believe those little things cost about $150?). We had had one, but somebody stole it, and my DH replaced it with a 7-inch high step from Target. I’m very short, so getting on and off the boat using that very short step was nigh on impossible – my DH is very tall and has no problem, even with two artificial legs. You can see the new TALL step in the picture above (just behind the s in sailboat).

The boat is really mostly my hubby’s. He adores sailing. I get seasick. So when I go to the boat with him, we stay inside the harbor, or relax at the dock. We were only there for a couple of days this trip. The weather was absolutely plu-perfect. Couldn’t have asked for two nicer days of sunshine and cool nights. Next time I’ll take a pix of the tiny galley. I have a very hard time doing much cooking on board. Usually we go OUT.

Posted in Uncategorized, on May 27th, 2008.

morey’s wild caught alaska salmon
You won’t find very many recommendations on this blog for frozen foods. Especially fish. Although Trader Joe’s stocks a wide variety of frozen fish, I’m usually disappointed. The fish is usually watery and cooks up dry and not all that tasty. But I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this box of Morey’s Wild Caught Alaska Salmon (I think I bought it at Trader Joe’s, not Costco). I rarely buy farm raised salmon, or hardly any other farm-raised fish. After watching a documentary some years ago about how those poor creatures are raised in very confined beds, having to eat their own poop, I consciously decided not to buy the stuff. So, when I see a label that says wild caught, I home in.

In the photo above you can see the cooked product (larger photo). In the photo that I inset at the left you can see the exterior of the box and down below are two of the individually sealed  fillets. When you defrost it, it’s ready to cook, marinated and everything. There are six in a box. Remove the fillet from the plastic sack and place on a baking sheet (I lined it with foil), bake 15-22 minutes and you’re done. It was very nice. I overcooked it a little bit (18 minutes), but the flavor was delicious. I suggest you try it, if it’s available near you.
carvalho-tuna-pix.jpg

And now I’ll tell you about another product I buy via mail order. Albacore Tuna. For some years we’ve been warned about the mercury in tuna, so I started buying tuna from Carvalho Fisheries (Pacific Northwest) because they only catch small albacore tuna. These fish are still young, so haven’t ingested as much mercury. Carvalho’s tuna is deliciously tasty stuff. It’s what I use when I make Joanne Weir’s Sicilian Tuna Salad.

Yes, it’s expensive. Certainly more money than we pay at the grocery store for albacore (the albacore hold more mercury than other of the tuna species). But their tuna contains a fraction of the mercury as we’d get from the grocery store brands. I buy it by the case and it lasts me many months.  But then, I only make tuna salad sandwiches every couple of months. I also buy Carvalho’s smoked albacore. A special treat. I have fond memories of time with family friends years ago. He used to catch tuna and have it smoked. It was a frequent offering for appetizers – with small rings of red onion and Ritz crackers. Delish. (tuna photo from Carvalho website)

Posted in Uncategorized, on April 22nd, 2008.

plate collage b
There was a time when I was a younger woman, maybe still a teen and even a young adult, when I had no interest whatsoever in the few old antique type things my parents had in their home. Like the antique cabinet that I do have (but I’ll save that story for another day), or particularly all of the mix and match fancy plates my mother used now and then. Only on holidays were the plates removed from the cupboards in the dining room to grace the table for a holiday meal. My mother must have sold one group of plates – she didn’t even remember them from my recollection – so maybe they were a figment of my imagination. They were the only dinner sized plates my mother used for these sit-down-at-the-dining-room-table special occasions. They had cut work around the outside edge, and I recall having an occasional pea or something fall through the kind of lattice-like edge.

After my paternal grandparents died, my dad saved a few things from their house – likely my mother had something to do with the plates – like a big gnarled bed and dresser, a 5-foot high mirror on a stand, the music cabinet I now have, one painting that has an interesting story (another day also). Oh yes, there was also a rather ornate silver (plated) tea service, which I finally gave away some years ago because it was completely and solidly black from improper storage. I tried numerous times to clean it up, and never was able to make a dent (ha, so to speak) in the black tarnish. If I’d paid to have it dipped, am certain it would have lost all its plate. At the time I had no place to display it. Nor funds to have it re-plated. Never, likely, would have used it. I kind of wanted to make a lamp out of the cream pitcher – thought that would be a clever use of it. But the solid black tarnish kept me from pursuing that idea. I hope somebody else was able to do something with it.

plates collage a
But, let’s get back to the plates. My paternal grandmother, as I have mentioned here before, enjoyed baking and regularly entertained some of her lady friends on an afternoon, for some tea, coffee and a cake of some kind. I remember looking at her loose-leaf recipe book after she passed away. It contained only desserts, all clipped from magazines. Very elaborate affairs they were, layers of cake, meringues, frosting, fillings, etc. (a King or Queen would have approved, I’m sure.) There weren’t any recipes for salads, or meat dishes. Or vegetables. She died when I was still quite young, so I don’t have many memories of her. But, what did eventually get handed down to me were all of her dessert plates.

Sometime after I reached adulthood, I began to like dishes, plates, serving pieces. That kind of thing. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was nothing more than realizing I liked entertaining, and at the time I had nothing except my 1962 wedding dishes. It wasn’t until my parents moved into a retirement home that some of the dishes finally came to live with me. The furniture piece became mine a long time ago because it didn’t really fit with my parents’ style or décor. I never did want the huge bedroom set (a double bed . . . who sleeps in a double bed anymore? . . . we certainly don’t). The large mirror was mine for some years too, but without the stand. It got lost somewhere along the way. So it leaned onto a wall, but finally it didn’t fit with my décor either.

What brought this subject to mind was an article by Sarah B. Coffin in Martha Stewart Living magazine. It was a monthly feature called “Object Lesson,” and subtitled “dessert plates bedecked with blooms bring the fanciful forms and vibrant colors of spring right to the table.” A lovely sage-green painted wall in Martha’s house was decorated with a randomly placed group of about 18 plates. Every one different. Some color rimmed. Some medium sized, others larger. A real conglomeration of color and style. I studied the photo. None were even similar to my collection of dessert plates, but then, hers were mostly current designs by Vera Wang and Kate Spade. They’re not antiques at all. A second photo with a rosy pink background showed a similar collection of plates. All with pink in them. This looked much like my collection, which all contain some pink, various flowers. According to the article, in studying the history of dessert plates, in the late 18th century, an array of desserts was reserved for honored guests of monarchs, aristocrats, and later, wealthy merchants. Large dessert arrangements connoted power and wealth. Porcelain finally found its way to European tables (from China) in the 17th century, but was rare and costly. But revered because porcelain allowed the use of color and naturalistic decoration (flowers, leaves) and were considered appropriate for dessert.

According to the article, in 1742, Meissen, the German porcelain manufacturer, originated the idea of special dessert plates and produced small pierced plates. They were accompanied by compotes and other centerpieces and figurines. I have one small compote (see picture). Most of my plates are Haviland from France. In reading about this, I came across a really interesting online history of Haviland in Limoges. The Haviland family is American, and after years of trying to work with the French artisans, the family established their own factory in Limoges, France. It rocked the industry there, because Haviland had specific ideas about what would be manufactured and exported to America. Altogether new and different designs. Very interesting reading, if you happen to be intrigued by it. I have a new perspective and appreciation for my Haviland ware, made in Limoges.  Over the years they created nearly 60,000 patterns. Can you imagine?

Posted in Uncategorized, on April 1st, 2008.

My apologies to readers who have migrated over to my new site and found it not functioning quite right. There is so much code that runs websites, most of which I don’t understand. I’m learning, though.

Subscribing through an RSS feed (an option over on the right sidebar) is common for people who read lots of blogs. That wasn’t quite set up right, either. Hopefully it is now. I was able to subscribe to my own feed, so I assume it will work fine for everyone else.

I’m working on the type sizes – when my post is read in an RSS reader it comes through in huge type. In the rules of cyber-etiquette, that’s like “yelling,” and certainly not what I intended. So, I have more homework there too. I’m posting this message in smaller type. Hope it’s not too small to read! Stay tuned. I promise to post recipes really soon.

Posted in Uncategorized, on March 9th, 2008.

utensils collage
As I sat at the completion of our meal the other night (we were in deep conversation about politics with our son in law, who is visiting with us), I noticed that my fork and spoon (both used to slurp up all the good juices in the bottom of the pasta bowl) were arranged as you see in the left photo above. And I realized that the arrangement of my utensils was one of those visible messages used throughout Europe. 

When you visit in Europe, there’s a kind of utensil code – it’s etiquette, really – when you dine out. Most likely it’s the same when you dine in as well.

  • The etiquette message of the left bowl – the arrangement of the silverware indicates that I’m still eating. The fork and spoon are in the upright position, and set so I can grab them easily. The message – don’t touch my plate
  • The etiquette message of the right bowl – the two utensils are aligned together on the right side and turned upside down. Meaning I’m finished and you may take my plate or bowl.

For those of you who live in some parts of the world this is probably nothing new at all, it’s common sense, since you use these codes all the time. You learned it from a young age. But we here in No. America haven’t learned these codes. Why, I wonder? Maybe it harkens back to the early Pioneers – they had no time or patience with the fripperies of fancy manners. I like the custom and wish we’d use it more often. I have lurkers (lurkers are people who read my blog, but never comment) from all over the world. Won’t you chime in and tell me about your silverware or utensil etiquette? Is it the same as I’ve explained when we’ve visited in Europe. Or are yours different still?

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