Lester Family Music

the other day damian got a royalty check for music he recorded before he was 10-years-old. that’s the kind of income we like! the check got me thinking and i was inspired to dig out our old ‘lester family music’ cd’s and tapes.

listening to them again, i remembered what gems they are. damian’s rendition of ‘home on the range,’ sung with such passion coming out of those little three-year-old lungs, is still one of the greatest things i have ever heard in my life. that track is on the album titled “the incredible luminous universal musical family.” what an appropriate title.

the instructional cd’s are great too. they are so accessible. even very small children can learn a part and sing in harmony. i don’t think there is anything sweeter than a family singing in harmony together. christmas carols, rounds, and hymns are all broken down and sung by the lester family separately and together for quick learning.

then there’s the breastfeeding cd’s- funny, charming and soothing to little ones. my niece went through a phase where the only thing that would calm her down in the car was the song “don’t hit the baby.”

do i sound like an infomercial? i’m sorry. it’s just that i think this stuff is so great and you will be a happier person if you have it in your life! my intentions of getting you to buy these cd’s has nothing to do with the fact that we might see another $42 royalty check in 5 years, honest!
click here to listen to a sample of what i’m talking about. to buy cd’s and see cute photos, go to http://www.lesterfamilymusic.com

picnic in the park

i just got back from a blissful day at oak glen. i would tell you all about it but i have a test in the morning so i really should be studying. for now i just want to tell you that the picnic was awesome. we had forbidden rice salad, gluten free savory cottage cheese almond muffins, and green beans. the menu was rounded out by ample fudge samples and apples. i highly recommend you try both recipes asap. if it’s not too late for a fall picnic where you live, so much the better.

the best fall soup

in my bio-region daily highs are still in the 90’s (32+ celcius), but the nights have been cooling and the days are getting shorter. the apples are in season and the winter squash is starting to fill up our farmers market booths. that’s good enough for me. i say it’s soup season!

the winter squash we grow here in southern cali generally leaves a lot to be desired if you are used to squash grown in other climates. i think the cold nights make them sweeter, but i’m not sure. the happy exception to this sad squash scenario is the big, green, worty, kabocha. i love kabocha! you probably remember me singing the praises of this long-lasting winter squash a few posts back when i was talking about what great pie can be made of this beauty. my other favorite use for kabocha is this soup. it is so simple, so easy and so, so, so, good! the color is beautiful too- a bright golden color.

Kabocha Red Lentil Coconut Soup

1 kabocha squash, baked*

1 large onion, sliced

1 hot pepper of any kind (optional)

1 cup red lentils

dash of cinnamon and turmeric

1 16oz can coconut milk

2 cups water or chicken stock (probably more depending on how thick you like your soup)

saute the onion and optional pepper in a bit of oil or butter in a large pot. (caramelize the onion if you have the patience). add the lentils and spices along with some salt and stir for a moment. add the water or stock and cook for a bit. scoop out the flesh of the baked squash and add it to the pot. cook until the lentils are soft and have broken down. add more liquid if you need to. add the coconut milk and stir. taste and probably add salt.

*i cut my squash in half and bake seam side down on a baking dish at 350 for about 40 min. alternatively, you could peel and cube the whole beast and just add it straight to the pot without messing with the oven, but i wouldn’t attempt this without a very sharp knife, a really good peeler, and a healthy wrist!

easy as pie

the other day darlene asked me for a dough recipe that could be successfully rolled out and filled by a group little girls ranging in age from two to five years old. i instantly thought of my old stand-by pie crust that never failed me when i was just starting out in pie land. it’s from my old and stained, 13th edition of the fanny farmer cookbook (fun fact: this book was originally published in 1896 and is possibly the first ever published cook book in america).

the recipe header reads, “a good recipe for beginners. somewhat less flaky and tender than the basic pastry, it is still very acceptable.”

we did find it very acceptable indeed. especially when filled with lovingly prepared organic apple filling. if any of you readers are timid of pie crust, give this one a whirl.

hot-water pastry enough for one single crust pie shell. double recipe for a double crust pie.

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

put the butter in a bowl, add the boiling water and stir until it melts. add the flour, salt, baking powder and mix with a fork until blended. form the dough into a ball, then roll it out and ease it into your pie pan. easy peasy! at this point you can cover in plastic and refrigerate it until you are ready for it, or you can blind bake it (that’s cook talk for pre-baking your shell before you fill it. you do this with pumpkin pie), or fill it with anything and bake yourself a pie! if the filling is already cooked, bake it at 425 for about 20 min. until golden.

musicians in joshua tree

a trailer for a new documentary about musicians and joshua tree. i can’t really tell by the trailer, but it could be really good. looks like it’s been officially selected for a bunch of festivals. more info at: http://www.nowherenowthemovie.com/

do i count as famous if i have sold all these people snacks at the health food store?

fall

the last few days have been blustery and cool(er). i cannot tell you how excited i am about this change. i’ve been dreaming of rainy days with pots of tea and stew bubbling cozily in a house that smells like cinnamon and fresh bread. i dream of slippers and down comforters, pumpkin pie and scones. i love fall! living in the desert, i sometimes feel like the seasons are just a story i tell myself. take christmas for example. is it really christmas with sun blazing through the windows and you look out to see bunnies hopping around on dry brown sand? i guess that’s an obnoxious thing to say. i’m sorry, it’s just that i grew up associating december with short gray days and long cold nights. where i grew up fall meant sweaters and vibrant red leaves, cold rain and lots of apples. i miss it.

i may not get my wish of a full day of rain, but that doesn’t mean i can’t make pumpkin pie and scones! yesterday i made a phenomenal (if i do say so myself) “pumpkin” pie and today i’m making a hearty bean stew. tomorrow i’m planning to try a corn-syrup free pecan pie.

the pumpkin pie i made with kabocha squash, coconut milk and maple syrup. unconventional, perhaps, but i’m telling you, it was the best! just cut the squash in half and bake it at 350 until soft (about 45 min), blend 2 cups worth with 1 cup coconut milk (or heavy cream), 3/4 cups maple syrup, 3 eggs and the usual pumpkin pie spices. blind bake a crust, fill it and then bake at 325 until set.

the pecan pie will be sweetened with brown rice syrup and agave. i have high hopes.

getting the hang of this

six weeks into the semester, i thought i’d give you an update on the transition from unschooling-hippie to dean’s list-brainiac. brainiac is probably too strong a word, but i do have glasses now… speaking of glasses, wow. i really like being able to see clearly. it’s a beautiful world we live in. the glasses do actually make me smarter because i catch on faster when i can read what’s on the board/slides.

last semester at six weeks in, i felt like i was drowning. all i did was homework. this term i find myself reading martha stewart magazine and baking banana bread on the weekends. it’s not so bad. i attribute this manageable situation to several factors:

1. my teachers- none of them are crazy. i really like that. two of them are ‘easy’ in that they don’t assign much homework or give hard tests.
2. i have the prerequisites- i’m not jumping in to the world of algebra and college land after a 15 year hiatus. i know the ropes better.
3. i have seven hours a week where i am stuck on campus with no good option but to study. time flies when you are doing math.
4. over the summer i studied up on how to be a good student. i’ve been trying to implement the tips and techniques and i think it’s working.
5. i’m taking three classes instead of four.

what i’m working on now is tricks to retaining massive amounts of random information. spanish and anatomy both require a lot of memorization, which i think i’m doing ok with, but i’m not sure if the info is going to stay in my brain for good, which is what i’m going for. according to my current plan i’m going to be needing good knowledge in anatomy and spanish a lot, and i don’t want to have to relearn it all later. i don’t know if mnemonics cut it for deep learning.

another thing i’m working on is balancing our finances with this student lifestyle. it’s been a bit rough since i quit working at the health food store back in january, but now, finally, i think we have a good sense of what our income and expenses are and i think we can make this school thing work without any more student loans until we transfer away from our cheap community college. yay! i downloaded some excel worksheets and we are now tracking our net worth and obsessively sticking to our budget.  even though our budget is super tight, it feels really liberating to know we can live within our means and pay off our nasty credit card debt.

Welcome to the new blog

as you can see, i’ve moved over to wordpress. my hope is that this location will work better for you (no ads, easy searching and navigating) and for me (for reasons i’m not sure of yet). i’ve imported my entire livejournal archive, but not all the media made it properly. i’ve been trying to add it back in, but if want to see a video that’s referenced in an old post, you may need to view it from livejournal for now.

7 years strong

this weekend is our 7th wedding anniversary. i started writing a big post about marriage and divorce last week, but i seem to have lost it. maybe that’s for the best…
instead of getting dogmatic or political i’ll just tell you that marrying damian is the best decision i’ve made in my life (rising out of 8th grade is a close 2nd). i love being married. i still get a thrill when i get introduced as damian’s wife, or when i get to introduce my ‘husband.’ being married to damian so far has been a fantastic adventure that just seems to get better and better (of course we have our moments of horrible shittyness, we are only human). my perception that things are getting better all the time seems unbelievable in some ways, but when i think about it, it kinda makes sense. we are both maturing and evolving, growing up into better people. plus, we’ve been building trust and intimacy and sharing experience all this time, so why wouldn’t it get better?
damian wrote this song last month. it’s just a demo, but it goes along with my blog theme of the day so i wanted you to hear it.

and for what it’s worth, my (possibly useless to anyone but me) advice for marriage:
#1) be kind -that’s the most important. just be kind. it’s hard sometimes, but do your best and say sorry when you blow it.
#2) think of yourselves as one unit seeking to create the best situation for both of you together. not: i want this and you want that and we disagree, but: we both want both of us to get what we want, how can we work together to make it happen? this is also huge for damian and i. every fight we’ve ever had has had to do with one or both of us (usually both) forgetting that we both want the SAME thing. as soon as we remember we are on the same team, we can come up with a solution in no time.
#3) spend lots of time nurturing the relationship. lots. you have to schedule it. schedule several hours of uninterrupted relationship time every week. have ‘date night’ once a week. or have a sabbath for a whole day every week. turn off your phone. have a tantra date, have a book that you are reading together. clean the house together. talk. snuggle. laugh. be silly. have fun. lots.
#4) give each other lots of compliments and appreciation every day. -thanks for doing the dishes. thanks for watering that plant. you look great. those pants look hot on you. thanks for working to make money for us today. thanks for putting gas in the car. lots. every day. little things, big things, things you are tempted to take for granted.

i think that’s all. be kind, be a team, time, express appreciation.

sept 19th 2002.

what damian has been up to

damian has had a whirlwind of a week. as of early tomorrow morning he will have driven about 2,700 miles, played 8 shows in 7 days and slept in a different town every night. on monday they (tim easton & the joshua tree army) were in portland. here’s a video from that gig.