Food Friday: Lemon Curd

Spring Break gives me the luxury of some unscheduled time.  I used some of mine to make things, including homemade lemon curd.

I followed this Simply Recipes version, altering mine to use just a tablespoon of lemon zest, which I left in the finished curd.  I’ve made lemon curb before and know that I should never stop whisking, but a strainer is a good idea if this is your first time.  I poured the finished lemon curd into small preserve jars.  

The recipe makes a cup and a half, enough to give one jar away and still have some of your own to enjoy.  We ate it with homemade scones and a cup of tea.  It looked and tasted like Spring.  That's happy!

Pretty Packages

 T celebrates a birthday this week and at Sassafras House, birthdays mean presents.

That’s happy!

Amaryllis Tuesday: March 27

Just in time for Spring's sunshine and light, the amaryllis has bloomed with a splendid and showy flower.

It’s the first thing I see when I come downstairs in the morning and it’s a reminder that Spring is at hand.

So very lovely and such a treat each day.  Spring, you charm me.

The Impatient Month

I have a memory from when I was in the fourth grade and a reporter for the local weekly newspaper was on the campus of my elementary school.  He encouraged a group of girls to make a pile from the leaves which had fallen from the trees that surrounded the playground field.  We made piles and threw the leaves; the reporter made our picture and it was printed in the newspaper.

It is my first memory of seasonal change as a thing of beauty.  That’s not to say that I missed the loveliness around me growing up in California, just that I mostly assumed it would always be there.  In California, weather was rarely an inconvenience  and I took that ease for granted.  My first year of four distinct seasons came when I moved to Tennessee.  There, I learned that rainstorms could last for more than a couple of hours and I needed an actual Winter coat.  I vividly remember the splendor of both the autumn leaves in the woods that first Fall and a few months later, the beauty of yellow daffodils in that first southern Spring.  In the five years that I lived in Nashville, I became a convert to the splendor of seasons.  I learned that Spring is that much sweeter when it follows Winter.

I’ve been thinking of that this month especially.  March in New Jersey has a tendency to try my patience.  I see the stark beauty of Winter and enjoy the first month or two of cold weather.  But there comes a point, usually toward the end of February, when I grow weary of the struggle that is the Winter season.  In Winter’s cold, there’s no popping outside without a plan.  Some mornings, wrangling a coat, gloves, scarf, and hat is just tiresome.  It makes me feel burdened and weary.  When that happens, I long for the ease of warmer days.

In this, March taunts me.  I am ready for sunlight and warmth.  The lengthening days are a tease; I want daffodils-a-plenty. Over the weekend, T and I went on a Saturday adventure.  There were subtle signs of Spring everywhere, or at least the sunlight made it seem that this was the case.  At home, I wait for the last of the snow to melt, sure that daffodil, tulip, and hosta bulbs lie waiting to bloom underneath the snow.  

I know my patience will be rewarded and that Spring will soon show itself in this flower bed.  In the meantime, I wait for the beauty to arrive.  That’s happy!  

Real Life Conversations with KO: Free Trade edition

The backstory:   I haven’t been a regular shopper at Cost Plus World Market since I lived in California more than 30 years ago (and the store was still called Cost Plus).  When one opened in my corner of New Jersey, I was very excited about it and went on opening weekend.  I texted my sister about my excitement.

Me: Cost Plus opens today.  I am v. excited.  Show mama the cheaply produced imported goods!

KO:  Enjoy them now before the trade war starts.

Oh, the comforts of the dismal science.  

Nor’easter, Round 4

With the regularity of a Netflix series dropping a new episode every week or so, we have had 4 Nor’easter storms in the last 4 weeks.  Today’s storm had the nerve to roll in just as the Spring Equinox arrived and while we are on Spring Break.  We’ve not yet finished the clean up from Nor’easter number 3, so it’s safe to say that I am not amused.  Additionally, I have decided that it’s time for Spring clothes, a decision that Mother Nature thinks I should regret.  

JT and I enjoyed all our favorite snow day routines: late morning luxurious breakfast (crepes with bananas, strawberries, and nutella), an afternoon movie, homemade supper (and tonite he tried an adult beverage…..he’s not much of a fan, it turns out).  Shoveling is saved for tomorrow, because tonight there are books to read and movies to watch.  And tomorrow promises temperatures north of 40 degrees.  These days, we’re happy to let Mother Nature do at least some of the work for us.  Begrudgingly, we acknowledge that the snow is lovely to behold.

But at this point in March, daffodils would be a more welcome sight.  We'll know to appreciate them when they arrive.

Amaryllis Tuesday: March 20

On Sunday afternoon, as the sunlight poured in the southern window, the amaryllis flower began to open.

With each day since, a little more of the flower emerged.

It’s not quite complete, though I should have a flower in the next few days.  That’s good news because the weather forecast  for tomorrow calls for a fourth Nor-easter and another 8-12 inches of snow.  I am weary of Winter, especially today, the first day of Spring.  Time may be on my side, but it doesn’t quite feel that way in today’s chill.  The amaryllis will help me to hold on to the warm prospects coming our way.  

Hillbilly Prep

Saturday and Sunday we had two days of sunshine in a row and the entire town shot outdoors to cope with the mess in our yards.  Loads of tree branches had come down in the snowstorm 10 days prior and had lingered there while we waited for the foot of snow to melt.  

Most of the snow had melted by Saturday and the time was nigh.

There is no love lost between me and the wife half of the family to my immediate west.  They moved here from New York in 2011, replacing a neighbor whom I loved, and they’ve never matched up to the former owner.  I like the kids, I exchange pleasantries with the husband, I am charmed by their chickens, and I don’t mind their aggressive barking dog.  But the housewife with the ever-changing hair color is never friendly (and once called the town inspector on me), so I am an icy cold polite.  On Saturday, her husband was in the backyard with a gutter cleaning crew while I was collecting branches and moving tree limbs out of the yard and into the driveway.  We exchanged pleasantries over the fence and spoke about the storm and weather, as neighbors do.  We compared notes on tree damage and basement sump pumps.  Then he mentioned that the family intended to sell their house and move to Tennessee.  I mentioned that I had lived there some years ago and had always loved the place;  I wished them good luck.

Once inside my house, I shared the news with T, who knows how I feel about the wife.  We made some jokes about New Yorkers in Tennessee and then let the matter drop.  The next day, my neighbor was once again in the yard, this time lighting a fire in his fire pit in order to burn branches and dry leaves.  This is both distinctly illegal and unwise, given the close proximity of the fire to both my house and his, but there is no accounting for common sense.  As the smoke poured into my yard and he pushed leaves to the fire with his leaf blower, T and I shook our heads.

Then, with the quiet sarcasm that I love so damned much, T offered, “He’s going to make a fine hillbilly.”  

Internet, she’s mine.

Focus on the Not Normal

It’s nearly impossible to keep pace with the insane political developments  coming out of the Trump White House.  It’s tempting to shout about all of it; all of it is horrifying.  I’ve certainly been guilty of that.  It’s tempting to throw up your hands and laugh hysterically about some of it, and I certainly have been guilty of that as well.  But I’ve come to believe that we need to separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on the Trump actions and developments that are not normal.  

For one thing, some of these developments are a real and genuine threat to our republic and our national interest.  For another, these not normal events are becoming more frequent and to the degree that we do not intervene or criticize them, we are at risk for a republic that will collapse.  

The not normal list is long and getting longer:

- The lies, even about matters on which there is clear evidence.  Not normal.

- A president refusing to release his tax returns. Not normal.

- A president treating the office as a chance to line the pockets of his business interests.  Not normal.

- Presidential family members who have neither been vetted nor received security clearance serving in vital positions, with access to secure information. Not normal.

- Foreign interference in our elections, elections which are the cornerstone of a representative democracy, and a party in control of the White House and Congress absolutely refusing to take action. Not normal.

- A president who makes broad policy pronouncements without consultation with experts or even his advisors or Cabinet members, idiots though some of them are  —— most recently, protectionist tariffs on steel and aluminum announced via an all-caps press release and a series of tweets celebrating the ease of winning a trade war.  Not normal.

- The persistent name-calling as a political tool.  Not normal.

- It’s one thing to disagree with the free press but Trump is actively working to create distrust of the press.  Fake news, alternative facts…..call it what you will.   This behavior is a threat to the republic.  Not normal.

- On the same note, Trump’s persistent efforts to discredit American institutions without any facts to support his claims of bias or ineptitude….the Courts, the FBI, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Not normal.

Democrats understand the threats this president has created but they cannot stop Trump on their own.  The future of the republic demands leadership against Trump from a few principled Republicans.  Working together, Democrats and Republicans can place our nation back on firm footing.  But the clock is ticking and though I am typically a political optimist, I fear we are close to the point of permanent and lasting damage to our republic.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Good Thing I am Amused edition

The backstory:  JT has embraced the Spring of his Senior year with a vengeance and is increasingly annoyed when there is schoolwork to be done, as if this is a gravely unreasonable expectation.  He announced an assignment in his European History course and then asked for my help with the project for the time period he and his partner had selected.  Naturally, all of this exchange occurred by text message.

JT:  Time period for Euro project is 1850-1894.  Age of Nationalism and Realism and Age of Progress.  I’ll e-mail you the instructions.

Me:  Great time period.  I look forward to the details.

A few hours passed during which I received and read the assignment, dealt with my son's suggestion that I wouldn't be able to help (note: I majored in History in college and have taught it for more than 20 years) and then I had an idea.

Me:  I think you should do a project on the unification of Italy and Germany.

JT:  Took the words right out of my mouth.

Careful readers know this is exactly the kind of sass I deserve.