Laura and I work well together… however, when we are both in the kitchen it becomes a bit of a struggle… but making this wonderful dish brought us together for our anniversary… now 37 years married.
We married at the ripe old age of 20 and one of our favorite places to go was “Madame Wu’s” in Santa Monica. MW’s was a gourmet Chinese restaurant … a bit unique for the time but a wonderful experience. Making this particular ‘sweet & sour pork’ recipe brought those fond memories back.
The future is always uncertain, but I hope we have many more of these wonderful years and incomparable meals!
We can grow a lot of great things in our county and almost every variety of grape, except Concord I am told. So there lay the challenge! Some 20 plus years ago, I received a concord grape cutting from New York and planted it where I thought we would get the most wind chill. Our side of the world has a daily afternoon typhoon that will really bring the wind chill down at night… making for great bonfires and — of course — concord grapes. The dusting on the grapes is actually natural yeast, something that doesn’t usually happen in a vineyard until it is quite mature… things started to ferment right away when I pressed the grapes and for a moment I thought I might make wine instead…
Rather than just snack on our grapes this year, we endeavored to make some jam! There required a little more preparation than I intended, I went out and bought a‘food mill’ from Bed , Bath & Beyondto easily separate out the troublesome seeds. We have many wild blackberries and such in the area and for years we were surrounded by them (think Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and you get the idea!) So, this is the first time we actually needed anything like a food mill.
Concord has a lot of its own pectin so many recipes exclude adding any… and I wanted to use honey rather than any other sugar… so we did a bit of recipe tweaking.
I am looking forward to toast tomorrow at breakfast! BTW, my daughter drew me as ‘chef bear’ …a family moniker.
a house becomes a home when it reflects those who live there!
Before I moved into our present home ( now for 23 years), I never lived anywhere more than 3 years starting the day I was born. I am reminded that the second grade was particularly challenging in sitting in 5 different schools. This goes to say that our home was designed in what many fashionistas call “feng shui.” This was practical since my sales manager father was constantly being moved around.
Personally, I could make our home ‘feng shui correct’ if I opened the front and back doors and attached a wind tunnel machine on one end and let it rip! However, I wouldn’t like living in a house like that. When I walk into a home designed this way, it doesn’t speak to me, it tells me nothing about the people who live there … it feels empty.
By contrast, and although a bit over the top, the Weasley home in the Harry Potter series is much loved by the cast and crew who often eat their lunch there I am told. I really can’t blame them, the home seems so warm, comfortable and inviting, it practically says… “come in and stay a while.” Ben Franklin touched on this a bit in discussing many of the attributes associated with a comfortable home: “A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” He also felt that a home should be added to in much the same way as we gain new experiences in our life.
I think all homes need a little of the Weasley magic….. otherwise it’s just a house.
The Documentary Channel will be presenting “Indoctrinate U.” The Documentary Channel refers to I.U. as follows:
“A terrific must-see.” – National Review
“Excellent.” – Rocky Mountain News
A hard-hitting yet humorous expose of the breathtaking abuses of power in higher eduation. Evan Coyne Maloney’s doc shows what you won’t see in the glossy marketing brochures of American colleges and universities.
When unsuspecting students and professors run afoul of the campus thought police, the results would make for great comic farce — if real careers weren’t at stake.
The Documentary Channel will be showing Indoctrinate Useveral more times over the coming weeks.
Here’s the schedule (all times shown are Pacific U.S.):
Tuesday, September 1st at 2:00 PM
Tuesday, September 15th at 11:30 AM
Monday, September 28th at 8:30 PM
Wednesday, September 30th at 1:30 AM
Friday, October 2nd at 8:00 PM and again at 8:00 PM
oh yes, I am in the film! ... although a lot chubbier. 😉 -- It was the stress of the times.
If you miss these opportunities, you can buy the video directly from the Documentary Channel.
Here is Laura over the years, always beautiful, I wish I changed as little!
I have a picture of Laura when she was about 15 and although I am a little biased, I can’t see where she has changed all that much in the intervening years. We’ve dragged ourselves around the county including Houston and New York City, but in all that time we managed to raise three daughters and build a life for ourselves.
Laura and I were married in 1972 at the ripe old age of 20… but it seemed like a natural thing to do, once we figured out how to stay alive financially… and next month makes it 37 years. So, as one of your admirers, let me be the first to say:
