The Day After

Today is the day after my girls beach weekend.  Its an annual gathering I've been attending with five other women.  We go to the beach, stay in a house large enough for us all to be comfortable, eat great food, drink fun drinks, play games and generally belly laugh our way through to the wee hours of the morning.  We then get up the next day and press replay.  So much goodness for my soul to spend completely comfortable, relaxed time with lovely, diverse women.

Today is the day after my girls beach weekend.  I feel one hundred and eleventy years old today

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Something I never had

You can miss something you never had.  I know, because I've been VERY nostalgic and sentimental about EVERYTHING this week.

I saw an old email from a former friend.  Yes, a former friend.  Life just works that way ... a reason, a season or a lifetime.  I've found there's just no way that formula doesn't transpire.  For me, realizing it and being ok with it took some time.  I found that it doesn't have to be a sad thing for friends to come and go from my life.  I do my best to focus on the good time we had together and think that maybe one day, it will come around again.  I digress.... So,  I wanted to email this former friend because I missed her.  I then promptly remembered why we parted ways and let that urge go.  I also miss my nieces and my brother and I miss that fact that I didn't have a grandma.  The perfect grandma.  I can create the perfect grandma in my mind, well because I didn't have an actual one.  She would have had a sunny kitchen and a red and white checked apron and would have cooked and taught me to cook and bake and always would have been the epitome of patience.  She would have smelled like vanilla and pie crust and had fused together hard candy from 1923 in a bowl on her coffee table.

That' just where I am this week.
Ciao!

025 - Panna Cotta

Well, food photog I am not.  The important thing is that I tried.  Right?  Feel free to back me up on this.

My sister in law loves panna cotta.  She often orders it for dessert when we are out to dinner.  It always seemed like such a daunting endeavor.  I have been meaning to make it at home for her for years.  I've always found an excuse not to.  I decided to bite the bullet and just do it.  Now, we've not eaten it as of the time of this post.  But I did taste what remained in the pot after pouring it into the individual dessert cups and it was mighty tasty.  After refrigeration, it has just ever so slightly stratified, so I know I didn't get it exactly right.  Either that or almond milk isn't the best option.

My rambling point is it was a super easy, I mean super easy recipe to make.  It just takes ingredients that I normally don't have around the house, ie whipping cream.  And Mister and I don't really do dairy ... I do on occasion, but Mister doesn't stray from that rule.  So, there are many reasons I may never make this again. If in the future someone asked me to make it, I wouldn't find an excuse not to.

Panna Cotta

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 pkt (1 Tbsp) unflavored gelatin
• 3 cups whipping cream
• 4 T sugar
• 3 T honey
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise

Place milk in heavy saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over milk and let stand for 5 minutes to soften.  Turn on heat to medium and stir until gelatin dissolves, about 5 minutes. Make sure not to boil the milk.

Scrape the insides of the vanilla bean and put into milk mixture together with the vanilla bean pod.  Add cream, 3 Tbsp sugar, honey and salt.  Stir until sugar dissolves, about 2 - 5 minutes.  I whisked lightly until the vanilla seeds were dispersed evenly.

Remove from heat.  Let cool slightly then pour into 1/2 - 1 cup dessert cups.

Refrigerate until set, at least 5 hours.

Serve with fruit topping, or other topping, or no topping of your choice.  I plan to serve it with fig compote (as seen above) and strawberry compote (which will really just be my homemade strawberry freezer jam thawed) letting each person decide which flavor topping they desire.

Buono Appetito!!

024 - Another Angle

Seeing things from a different angle isn't always my forte.  Something of which I endeavor to be more cognizant.  I take many morning photos from the deck outside my office.  I rarely take the 27+/- steps to the other end of the building, turn around and face West.  When I do, the world is transformed.

Happy Friday.
Ciao

023 - Beyond Reality

I snapped this photo of, well, I'll not say just yet.

When I saw what I saw, my mind went other places than where I actually was.  I "saw" not what was before me, but, an image of something completely out of the realm of possibility.  Surely this is what Rorschach had in mind when the tests were invented, contrived.  One thing is perceived as actual reality while at the same time, it is perceived completely differently, and as actual reality, by the person standing next to you.

When I looked at this, thing, I saw a sea creature.  An octopus maybe.  Something from the depths of the ocean.  Something soft and flowing and alive.  I had to capture it immediately.  So immediately, that I picked up the cell phone sitting on the counter (not mine) and figured out how to get past the security code (really, I got past someone's security code and took a photo and edited it - what is that all about) and snapped the photo.  Fortunately, it was a friend's phone and she didn't say she minded.  I'm going with that.

So, its my friend's purse, in the event you haven't figured it out yet.

No point.  Just my photo for the day.

Ciao.

PS - On deck for the coming weekend:  Fennel soup:  I had this made for me recently and lordy, may be the best soup I've ever eaten.  I procured the recipe and it will be the base of family dinner this weekend.  I will also be making, for the first time ever, panna cotta with fig.  Let's hope I remember to pull out the old camera and take some shots for you.  Oh, and possibly recipes too.

022 - Elevating the Ordinary

Well, honestly, in my book there's nothing ordinary about roasted garlic.

This garlic was destined to be turned into garlic bread for Mister.  It was worth the house smelling like garlic for 24 hours.

Vulnerable

I have a BFF.  She and I have known each other for something like 25 years.  Needless to say, we've been through a lot together over those years.  We like to say that one of the many reasons we've stayed so close for this many years is that we both have embraced the need to grow as individuals while understanding that everyone grows at their own rate, each allowing the other to stretch our binding tether and each never letting go.  I believe our tether is mutual respect and love.  We have each outgrown the other at different times.  Sometimes she is more advanced than I.  Sometimes its the other way around.  The best description of our enduring friendship I can think of is this:  There have been times in our lives when we would spend at least an hour on the phone each and every day.  I would get on my elliptical trainer and she would get on her stationary bicycle, each with our phones connected to headsets.  We could easily chat for 90 minutes.  It was great to have someone to not only work out with, but someone close enough to my heart to help me feel less alone, less lonely, less orphaned and more heard.  In addition to all that, having someone to chat with while working out makes the workout seem like only a few minutes.  Did I mention she and I live in different states?  But, I digress...

Anyway, we were exchanging email of late and as I wrote to her, the words really sank into me.  Even though I was the one writing them, they seemed profound and real and tangible.  Like I really do own these words.  They aren't just a goal I'm striving toward.  They are my life.  I may not always succeed and I will always have more personal 'work' to slog through.  I wanted to memorialize these thoughts here, in My little space in the universe.  I do this on occasion so I will have a place to return for reflection during those times when I don't feel like I own it.

So, here's the excerpt from the email exchange.  Out of context a bit for the random reader, but for me, it makes much sense.

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate your positive reinforcement and feedback.  I sometimes feel like I'm wandering in the wilderness and sometimes like I'm right on track.  It hasn't been easy to come to terms with my life being My Life.  I'm responsible for it.  I'm in charge of it.  I control it.  I get to choose.  In fact, I have to choose.  Even though its been a hard road (you know, you've been there with me for nearly all of it) all the hard choices have made my life pretty darned rewarding.  Do I wish I gave back more ... I do.  Am I trying to figure out ways to do just that ... I am. I only have so much time here ... in THIS place ... in THIS time ... I want to make the most and best of what I have left."

I'll leave you (me) with that thought to ponder, to mull, to masticate.

Its me, out there, vulnerable.  Even if I'm only vulnerable with myself, its a necessary beginning.

Ciao.

021 - Seeing

I sometimes don't know where my focus lies.  Is it on this plane, or is it on that plane.  I often have trouble remembering that all the planes are there, all at the same time.

Does that make sense?

I am suddenly quite contemplative.

By way of catching up ...

So much for coming back here regularly ..  I've picked up and put down my camera several times in the last couple months.  I've just not been inspired or I've been busy with other projects.  Not sure exactly which, but this morning I realized, if I just start coming here and posting then maybe I'll be inspired to create before coming here and posting.... blah blah blah.


Baked:  Root Beer Cake.  Turned out delicious.  I have no photos.  I didn't use root beer extract, so it didn't taste root beer-ish, but it was moist and was devoured.

Cooked:  Pho Ga:  Vietnamese Chicken Soup.  One of our favorite choices when dining out.  The recipe is from Steamy Kitchen.  Easily Googled.

On my list:  Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls.  Mister has a birthday coming up and these will be on the menu.

For now, that is all.

Ciao!

016 - Tower

The hub of most of what we do, electricity.

015 -

007 -

006 - Through the Blinds

We've had a lot of fog it seems this winter.
Makes photography interesting.

005 - Daily Walk

004 - Water Under the Bridge

Yellow.

I like Yellow.

003 - Mornings, I can't get enough of them

A fine example of how photography, at least my photography, can't come close to capturing reality.  I'll keep at it though.

002 - Brilliant Morning

I have spent the last couple years working on my mad photography skills.  They are mad for me, not necessarily for someone like Art Wolf, but, I'm ok with that.

I can tell you that the above photo isn't this or isn't that.  I have a long list of the problems with it, trust me.   I can also tell you that I am pretty proud of this photo.  There is very little different from what you see and what came out of my camera.  My long winded point being that this photo has very few edits. I decided to focus on the positive aspects and ignore those nasty little things I see where I could have done better.  The vibrance and the light, those were camera skills, not Photoshop skills.  

On I ramble... Have a wonderful day of whatever you are undertaking.  Assert your personal mad skills and don't compare yours with others.

Be pleased with your own efforts.

It seems to me like a good way to get through each and every day.

Ciao!!

001 - Foggy Mornings ... Oh How I Adore Thee

Fog, what an amazing weather event.  This must be what it feels like to live in the clouds (literally - well, sort of).  I mean, if people actually lived in the clouds.  Which some people probably do, you know, those who live on tall mountains and those who live where there is fog often.

For whatever reason, I log me some fog, unless I'm driving and its dark and /or I'm on the freeway and its heavy fog and traffic and  Wow ..... I have a lot of reasons to really not like the fog.

I still do.   I'm mercurial and I'm ok with it.

Ciao!