Ernest has been whisked away to Goldendale and we have the week to prepare for our trip to the Southwest without the pitter pattering of little paws and lots of running out to check on what he's gotten into.

I have winnowed down his plastic bottle collection and removed his last trophy squash from his bed.

I do miss the little bugger.

christine ferber, you can kiss my ass

I spent today canning peaches and making peach butter. Nothing complicated and I know in January I will be happy. As much as I love hoity toity preserving, when push comes to shove, the Ball Blue book is the bible of canning (old testament) as is the Farm Journal Canning book (the new testament). There is no need for quince juice, apple puree or copper pots and honestly, if you are going to be faced with 25 lbs of peaches, fast and easy is the way to go.

Have you ever seen a basset hound bark at a canning jar? He was very afraid. Quite amusing.

nm

Thanks cupcake

for 15 years.

nm

fun with flickr

Check this out.

Flickr suduko using the innocent hamster.

Really.

fallen pleasures

Fig/Raspberry tart, August 2006.

While I sit and listen to Ernest the puppy sneeze thirteen times in a row (yoghurt up the nose?) I am hearing TH sigh happily as she finishes her piece of fig raspberry tart. My first exposure to such a beast was in June 1992 when I flew to Berkeley after TH's mother died. While I never had the honor of meeting her, that day began a seven year relationship with her father that started with a meal at Chez Panisse and continued on with love of food, bassets, landscape history, France and geography and his daughter to bind us.

I had only heard of Chez Panisse before that day and that meal upstairs was very good. I can't remember what my main course was, but the dessert was a fig tart with raspberries and lavender honey ice cream was memorable. I have made it for the last fourteen and change years. The recipe is simple and elegant and brings back memories of a more innocent time with a start of a great relationship.

Fig tart with Raspberries (adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts, 1984.)

One lb puff pastry (thawed - I use delaurenti's and one lb is the right amount). Pepperidge farm will do as well. One sheet.
3/4 pint fresh figs (mission, but if you have kadota, why not mix it up?)
1 cup fresh raspberries
3 T raspberry eau de vie or cointreau
2 T sugar
one egg yolk mixed with 1 T milk for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F

Rinse figs, cut off tops, cut into quarters, macerate in a mixture of eau de vie and sugar. Add raspberries.

Roll or fold out pastry, score the ends and sides and fold over so you have an edge. Place figs with cut sides up in rows (overlapping if you can) and sprinkle the raspberries on top. Wash the edges of the tart with egg wash.

Place in oven for 20-25 minutes or until puff pastry starts to brown and figs are softened but still hold their shape.

Serve with lavender honey ice cream, vanilla ice cream or on its own.

nm

Tiny dog in the gravel pit. September 2006.

God, can the week zip by please? I can use a vacation from my three day weekend.

nm

happy saturday

It is hot here. I am getting ready to hit the farmer's market and TJs (corporate shopping! on the smaller scale! non texas style!) and then head home to check on e.dd.

TH is doing a mr to BOS and back today. She just called to inform me that Alaska swapped planes and put the 737-800 on the flight which means her bulkhead is not a bulkhead and the person in front of her in First is reclining into her.

Fun! not!

Imagine if you had an exit row on the old 737-700 configuration and it has now been swapped for 25e! I would be livid. Maybe you would be too.

Did you notice that I'm using a lot of exclamation points this morning?

Anyways, if you really need that exit row or want a bulkhead, go to Seatguru to look at the configurations. Also check the aircraft the airline purports on their website to put you on and then call and double check, because things change as loads change.

At least her upgrade is secured for her return.

Off to the market to get peaches, peppers, flowers and cherry tomatoes for the boy.

nm

Map of the world, from the bottom up. Courtesy of Lamont-Doherty.

On Saturday morning, we opened the New York times to see that Marie Tharp had died. Marie Tharp was one of the first female cartographers to map the seafloor. Outside my office is the map of the world ocean floor complied by Marie and her co-investigator Bruce Heezen. Marie was an innovator, a female who definitely forged her own path and one that was not easy by any means. I ran across a oral history she did for WHOI when I was helping TH at the archives. She was an amazing woman. Mapping is so much easier now, satellites, multibeam, huge databases and cooperative work makes it easier to integrate data. Women,though still in the minority in the ocean and atmopheric sciences, are still breaking ground.

I can't say it better than the folks at Lamont-Doherty. Here is their remembrance.

some things are better done at work

I'm home today trying to get some documentation written and now that E. dd is conked out, its working better. However, a 15" laptop screen does not hold a candle to my two 21" monitors where I can compute and then document on different screens.

Then again, my laptop is running some intensive software with a removable hard drive, so things are really slow.

I guess I can load data and empty the dishwasher while its happening.

Sigh.

Things to look forward to this weekend.

Mom and Dad coming up from SD to see their son, daughter, her TH and granddog.

20 lbs of NM green chile coming up with mom and dad.

Mom spending a bit of time showing me how to make a few persian pickles.

Three blasted days off.

A chance to see my brother before he turns into an international superstar.

A chance to run to the dump.

Three mysteries to read.

Shopping (finally) with my mom.

Er, I can't think of anything else right now.

Geez, I totally spaced that this was ending soon.

Guess my trip to the library on Friday will also include a visit to HAG to see this before it disappears.

nm

thick skinned

I started moderating comments because someone told me to Fuck off. Good enough. Now people say my blog sucks. Really?

I ask you why?

I guess when you put your life out there, you shouldn't expect it all to be sunshine and lollipops and not everyone will agree with you.

However, if you think I suck. Please tell me why so I can tell you why you suck.

Smooches on a rainy (praise the gods) Tuesday morning.

nm

bring on fall

Well, at least fall weather. I am not liking warm days, neither is TH or E. dd.

Tonight we ate pasta caprese with tomatoes from the garden, basil from the garden and spinach fettucine from pasta and co. It was a quick meal that dealt with the glut of both basil and tomato and could be put together in ten minutes. These days, dinner is a 30 minute prep or it isn't happening. Things are just crazy here and I don't see it slowing down.

I'm not big on garlic, which sounds strange, but all fresh tomatoes, whole milk mozzarella and basil needs is a bit of salt and some decent extra virgin olive oil. I'm partial to Ratto's from Oakland, but any good oil will do. I let it sit for a bit and then toss with hot pasta.

Tomorrow, we're trying roast chicken with tarragon. Its use it up week leading into the preserving hell that is September.

nm

three days to hope

Our pals Ruth and Loretta start the 3 Day walk tomorrow. They have trained hard and I am going to be cheering them on when they hit Husky Stadium on Sunday.

Check out their website - there is still time to donate.

Ruth and Loretta's 3 day site.

nm

points and miles

My god, they are starting to add up. My double miles from the American Airline 25th anniversary are starting to post and if my tmobile sign up bonus posts soon, I'll be at 2 million miles before my December trip.

Wow.

Seems that now, it may be time to move over to another airline. I'm thinking United.

Why? Widebodies out of Seattle, a SFO-CDG flight, a club in San Diego that will work for the mess by the Alaska gates. In the last few months I have been accruing 1500 UA miles with every Hyatt stay, so I'm up to a whopping 15,000 miles without having flown in the last four years on UA.

I know others hate them, but they go to Hong Kong and Australia. Try that on American.

nm

romancing the night away

TH and I are roadtripping to NM in September. I just booked us in a romance package at the SLC Sheraton for 109 bucks a night, cheaper than their regular rate and gets us champagne, strawberries and breakfast in bed for three days.

Er, I think it should be fun checking in.

I'm now working on 10,000 waves and seeing what we can get there for NM. I wouldn't mind another mind numbing chain hotel experience, but the fact the rooms have courtyards and some no tvs has great appeal to me.

nm

reason 577 for not shopping at whole foods

Reason number 577: Cashier and bagger spend the time they should be interacting with custormer carrying on a dreary conversation about existentialism and basically blowing the customer off.

Reason number 578: No locally grown foods, bad move, doodes.

Reason number 579: Screaming children running amok. Contain thy child in a shopping pod.

Other than that, I think I love my new stereo with the Ipod adapter. Apparently the ipod cable is a scarce commodity in the US of A, so I could have sold mine for the price of my car stereo.

Yes, I went to Milwaukee where I should have drunk more and not eaten at Martini Mikes. You can catch up with JK and find out what went down last weekend.

Oh, and a big congrats to AM, whose book is hot on the amazon.com list and creeping up slowly. It was published this week and our parentals got a nice dedication.

Good work, bro.

nm

midnight at the lawn of good and evil

Too much vodka and not enough mallets.

wither the garden

While I have been lollygagging all weekend in Milwaukee and Chicago, TH has been busting her keester keeping the boy amused with kong, sticks and numerous celebrity death matches with buster the cat. Buster keeps on beating Ernest, so I don't know why he even tries. We have had numerous conversations about the garden, our water bill (higher than ever), our ppatch (pathetic this year), the weather too hot to do anything.

I feel bad for her, but I really can't do anything from 1601 miles away.

So, I listen sympathetically and on occasion am secretly glad to not be home.

The garden is really in bad shape this year. Most years, it takes care of itself if we have put a good amount of structure into it. Rain, work and Ernest all came at the same time and this year, we just don't have it together. We will not get the yields we usually do, but the saddest thing is that even going to do the smallest thing - watering and picking isn't even any fun right now.

What is more important right now? Getting a tiny puppy trained or growing basil? I think the pup comes first and the basil second. Next year, things will be different. We may build a small basset holding pen or just learn that it is okay for bassets to be left at home while their people mulch.

Right now, all we're able to do is triage. TH watered and picked some stuff, our tomatoes look terrible and thankfully, we don't depend on much to make it through the fall. Trying to balance a busy life with a garden, a puppy and travel this summer has been a experience that at times has challenging to say the least, but nothing can beat watching a small basset eat his first raspberry.

nm

really I must be going

However, this little gem has come my way and I must determine whether or not my cetaphil would qualify.

Please read along with us: TSA changes to personal lubricants.