today’s worry

Happy Sam

Originally uploaded by marymompics

We are so glad to be home. It was fun in Marco but the weather was cold and windy and we missed our kids and grandkids. On Friday, we went to see Ryan and Jon and Nathan and Sam to celebrate Jon’s birthday. Ryan made a flourless chocolate cake which was so delicious. Look how cute Sam is! No wonder we missed them so much.

Nathan’s haircut

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Here’s a picture of Nathan with his new short haircut. Unfortunately like many kids he caught a case of head lice. We miss his curls but they’ll be back soon enough. He’s sitting at the counter having some “spread” – that’s Jonathan’s liver mousse. I was going to say it’s amazing that he likes it but it is so tasty that it’s not amazing at all. He drew some great pictures of the family in chalk on the sidewalk. The arms and legs come right out of the heads! He made the pictures of Zayde and Daddy have really long legs.

Sarah’s new look

Originally uploaded by marymompics

On Sunday Sarah and I went over to Burlingame to get our hair cut and colored. Sarah has been toying with the idea of coloring her hair something other than blond. After watching Shear Genius with us last night, she decided she didn’t want to be a “blondorexic” and decided to take the plunge. This is a picture of Gretchen cutting Sarah’s hair. The color is a warm brown with red tones. Having seen her as a blond, in mid-process as a redhead and now with her new color, I think she can probably wear almost any color.

Marco Island sunset

Originally uploaded by marymompics

And as the sun sets on another vacation in Marco Island, these weary travelers are ready to head home. Given that these last six weeks were probably the coldest in history here, we’ve still managed to have a good time. We played a lot of tennis (at least until I sprained my elbow) and had some good family visiting time.

But we are so ready to go home even though I know in another three weeks I’ll be ready to go somewhere else. I miss Nathan and Sam with whom we’ve Skype-d, but it’s not the same as being there. And of course I miss Sarah and Jon and Ryan. And my bed. And my own kitchen. And clothes that keep me warm enough in cold temperatures. And grocery stores full of wonderful produce. And California in general. And our friends. See you soon.

Micromen

Originally uploaded by marymompics

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Let’s see, the weather warmed up, the pool started to warm up, the pool motor broke, the pool cooled off, then, the weather cooled off. No swimming this year. So we played tennis instead. A lot. Then there was a trip to the emergency room and my elbow was sprained and there was no more tennis. Then my sister, Peg, and her husband,Ted, arrived and my sister, Phyllis, visited . Family harmony ensued. During this visit, Roger Federer won the Australian Open. (yay!) And then the microwave broke. So the narrative about our trip is all caught up since this is the picture of Ted and John trying to install the new microwave before the Superbowl starts today because there are snacks to be microwaved. Go, some team!

It’s finally warm!

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Look at that thermometer! It’s 70 degrees! It’s the first time we’ve seen 70 in about two weeks. My sister, Peggy, told me that when they are in Marco they never get up until it is a least 60. They would have spent a lot of time in bed these past two weeks.

Mary and John on the lanai

Originally uploaded by marymompics

As a celebration, today we ate lunch on the back deck. Unfortunately, as you can see in the background, the pool is still covered and way too cold to go into. We will need at least a week’s worth of sunshine for it to heat up. We played tennnis today and it would have been so nice to jump in. Oh well, we shouldn’t be greedy. Maybe tomorrow there will be sitting on lounge chairs. We are taking baby steps away from the cold.

Yummy scallops

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Another picture of food – you know what that means. It is still so, so cold here in Marco Island. Although we are hardy Californians and did play tennis last night (brr) and tennis this morning (double brr), it’s hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm for being outside.

Today in addition to playing women’s doubles from 8AM to 10 AM when it was reeeeaalllyyyy cold, we also stopped at the Marco Island Farmer’s Market. I was the only one there in tennis togs. Everyone else there had on parkas. We bought some Brussels sprouts, half-sour pickles, corn, mushrooms, beets, and pretzel rolls. Oh, yum. pretzel rolls. When we are at home I get them at Esther’s German Bakery in the San Antonio Shopping Center in either Palo Alto or Mountain View. I am sorry to say they were not as good here in Marco Island. They had some off aftertaste.

Earlier we had stopped for scallops at Paradise Seafood Market. Then when we saw the corn we thought, seared scallops with corn, mushrooms and shallots. It was all quite wonderful. John cooked the scallops perfectly, seared nicely and just cooked through inside. The corn mixture was quite delicious and the green beans were lovely. Another great dinner!

Truthfully though, I’d rather be sitting by the pool and paddling about after a vigorous game ot tennis. Cooking is fun but good weather would be pretty fun too.

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Happy birthday to Sam who turns one year old today! It is just amazing how much he has learned in this first year – how to roll over, sit up, stand, walk, use his hands, feed himself and understand language. That’s enormous! And he hasn’t even tapped into the internet yet.

Ryan, Jonathan and Nathan have been very good parents and sibling to Sam. It must be why he’s always smiling.

I am sad that we are not in San Jose to celebrate with them but later today we will have a Skype video call so we can sing Happy Birthday and blow out a candle.

Freezing flamingo

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Rather than post another picture of what we ate last night (beef stew made in our new highsided saute pan. It turned out really well.), I thought I’d show a decorative item at our house here. My sister, Peggy, who spends more time here than we do has added many Florida inspired decorations. We have lots of shell-, fish- and bird- themed items. Peg especially likes flamingos. We have flamingo statues, pictures and this wall hanging by the pool.

First, the weather got cold. Then it got cold and windy. And now, today, in the final coup de grace, the weather is cold, windy and rainy! I needed our flamingo sign to truly represent how bad the weather is!

Arctic flamingo

Originally uploaded by marymompics

After posting the first bit, I thought I’d do a little more work on the flamingo!

Tom Yum Goong Man

Originally uploaded by marymompics

We are getting tired of the cold. The houses in Florida, or at least this one, are really not built with temperatures in 30’s and 40’s in mind. The windows are single pane. There’s not a lot of insulation. To warm up, we have started cooking hearty, comfort food.

Granted, neither John nor I grew up with tom yum goong as a staple in our households. John’s mother cooked all the food for the week on Sunday and then reheated all week. By the end of the week there was a mishmash of all sorts of ghastly Judeo-American dishes on the table. My mom was pretty much a straight-forward American cook. Her problem was that she didn’t like to eat so boil some meat and some potatoes, cook some green beans. Voila, dinner.

Tom Yum Goong

Originally uploaded by marymompics

John pulled a recipe for this spicy Thai shrimp soup from the internet. We went to store to buy Kafir lime leaves, lemongrass and other exotic ingredients. Apparently the good folks of Marco Island are not adventurous eaters. So we ended up with limes, lemons and soy sauce. Nonetheless, John did a great job and the soup was really delicious.

Chicken Roulade

Originally uploaded by marymompics

So what do you do in a tropical paradise when the high and low for the day are 57 and 39, respectively? Besides playing tennis in insane conditions and watching television, we cook. A couple of days a go we were watching America’s Test Kitchen and they had on a segment showing how to make “Four Star Stuffed Chicken Breast.” I am always looking for new ways to prepare chicken so we thought we’d give it a go. Although on the program it always looks so easy, this was somewhat more complex than we thought it would be. Also we don’t have our usual cooking utensils, pans or stove. Making it without a proper meat pounder in a really inferior pan on an electric stove was difficult.

But as you can see, it came out fairly presentable. John did a good job on the rolling up and a great job on the sauce. My interior filling was fine except for a little dry and lemony. The yellow rice came out pretty well considering I made it in the microwave. I’ve given up trying to cook rice on the stovetop. The cyclical nature of an electric element means undercooking or burning. The Brussels sprouts came out their usual yummy.

Would we make it again? Probably not. The chicken was a bit dry and the whole thing was a lot of work for a minimal result. What we really need here is for the weather to warm up so we can do what we came here to do, have fun!

DSC03435

Originally uploaded by marymompics

John and I are wishing you a happy new year from Marco Island! We flew to Miami on the 29th and are now doing the things that we love here in Marco – playing tennis, jumping in the pool, going to the fish store, watching TV in the comfy chairs (known as Chandler and Joey), and having John be cabana boy serving me drinks by the pool.

The weather here has been great so far. The daytime temperatures are in the 70’s with lots of sun. And although the pool thermometer assures us that the pool is 82, when we jumped in, wow, was it cold. As it turns out, after using our thermapen to test the water, it was only 76.

Our New Year’s Eve celebration consisted of margaritas, fresh shrimp cocktail, Chilean sea bass in a mushroom coating, chipotle sweet potatoes and spinach souffle. John was the fish and margarita man and I did the vegetables. We didn’t make it to midnight, though, we fell asleep in our chairs watching The Thin Man.

Happy New Year!

Sam and Ryan

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Ah, Christmas morning, a time to open presents and eat bagels and lox with cream cheese, capers and onions. Seriously, at our house if you told us that there was a new holiday invented tomorrow we’d find some food that would fit perfectly for the occasion.

Sarah stayed over so we opened presents and ate bagels in a leisurely fashion in the morning. In the afternoon, we headed over to Jon’s for Christmas dinner. Nathan and Sam were both revved for Christmas. Really Nathan more than Sam who was just overwhelmed with the number of people who wanted to pick him up. (He’s so adorable.) Nathan couldn’t decide what to play first or what sweet delicacy to eat first. He was in kid heaven.

Jonathan made braciole with pasta and sauce with a side of Sarah green beans. Ryan and her mom had made pumpkin and cranberry-walnut pies. There were hors d’oeuvres. And wine. It was all good.

What a merry Christmas we had.

Raggedy Ann and Santa

Originally uploaded by marymompics

On Christmas Eve Sarah came over and made a million cookies. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, there might have been only 100,000. Every surface of the kitchen was covered with some kind of cookie. It was surprisingly orderly but still a lot of cookies.

Jon came over as well to play tennis with John. After tennis playing they all dug into the bags of leftovers from Pilat Eve. Then somehow I managed to find some tiny corner of the kitchen to make a lasagna. When Jonathan was ten or so and Sarah was seven or eight, I gave up on trying to fix something fancy for Christmas dinner. I said, “what would you like to eat on Christmas?” And they shouted back, “lasagna!” So a tradition was born.

Jon stayed around for some lasagna. Sarah finally finished her cookies. John and I fell asleep on the couch. And Raggedy Ann continued to grope Santa at the piano. Happy Christmas Eve!

Sam and Dad

Originally uploaded by marymompics

Somehow not being content with all the birthday celebrations, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve and Christmas in December, Sarah came up with a new holiday called Pilat Eve. The main event of Pilat Eve is, of course, eating but also singing, opening some presents and playing Rock Band.

Sarah made or bought dip, cookies, hummus, veggies, pub cheese and various cheeses, Jonathan and Ryan brought chopped liver and a pie and I made antipasti skewers and bagel chips with lox spread. There were also pretzels and potato chips and dip. No one starved.

We exchanged some presents with Jon and Ryan and the kids. Sam was intrigued by a piece of plastic. Nathan liked his new MegaBlock construction equipment. Jon got two copies of the same golf book. And Ryan will be the most glamorous cook on the block having received cookbooks and mascara.

Unfortunately Rock Band had a malfunction so we couldn’t play this year but we did sing Christmas carols. Nathan had thoughtfully supplied us with songs about snowplows and other heavy equipment to the tunes of well-known Christmas songs.

Yay for Pilat Eve!

Festival of Lights

Originally uploaded by marymompics

At our house we are equal opportunity celebrators. We especially like holidays that revolve around food. And what could be better than a holiday that revolves around fried food!?

So the story goes that the Jews only had enough oil to light their lamp for one day. But, in a miracle, the oil lasted for eight days. Nowadays Jewish kids receive a present each of the eight nights. And you eat foods fried in oil.

We never did do the presents but we have always been all over the eating of fried foods, specifically potato latkes. John is an excellent latke maker. I would tell you the recipe but I don’t know exactly what he does. Frying, though, has always been a mess. Grease everywhere and smoke and smell. But this year John’s got a sweet setup in the garage with an electric wok for the oil and a whole frying station. Our whole garage smells like latkes. There’s grease on our windshields. We laugh everytime we go out to the garage.