Applesauce

About 2 weeks ago, I bought a bunch of honeycrisp apples, made some applesauce, and two days later, it was gone!  I was a little astounded, because I had always been indifferent to applesauce before, but this, this was amazing!  So I thought I'd pass on the love...

You'll need a large pot (the bigger the better), a food mill of some sort  and about 5-6 pounds of apples.  It will make approximately 5 cups of applesauce. Cut the apples in half, and then quarter the halves.  You don't need to remove any seeds or stems.  They'll be caught by the food mill.

I've only made applesauce with honeycrisp or fuji apples, and they're quite different.  If you're using honeycrisp, add 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup honey and a tablespoon of lemon juice. For fuji apples, add everything except the water-they're incredibly juicy on their own! 

Put everything in your pot, turn the stove onto high, and bring to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat way down so that it's just simmering.  Cover the pot with a lid. Simmer for half an hour, or until all the apples are soft and mushy.  Make sure that you stir the apples so that they all get cooked, and also so they don't burn.

Once everything is good and cooked, find a large bowl that works with the food mill, and ladle the apples into the mill.  Turn the crank, and you've got applesauce!  I added a very small amount of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon to my applesauce.  No more than a half teaspoon of each, because you don't want to overshadow the apple flavor.  Enjoy!

CD of the Month-November

 

As my mom said, it's a little weird.  At least that was my first reaction.  Even now, after listening to the set of five cds, I can see where she's coming from.  But I think I like this music.  Sufjan Stevens sings like he means it.  When he says "you" in a song, it takes a second to realize that he's not talking to me. The home recording may play apart in that reaction, but from reading the liner notes, it seems like Sufjan Stevens has a deep desire to be sincere and transparent.  I really like that, even if I may have my doubts about some of his music.

Favorite song for lyrics: Once in Royal David's City (Disc 5)

I didn't realize that this song had lyrics in the first place, and now that I listen to them, they're well thought out and reflective.

Most questionable song: Come Thou Font of Every Blessing (Disc 2)

Still not sure what I think about this one.  It almost sounds like the instrumentals are in a minor key, while the vocals are in a major key.  Not the most beautiful rendition, although very creative.

Song I want to listen right now: O Come O Come Emmanuel (Disc 5)

It makes me think of paint by numbers, where you're not quite sure what's going on, but suddenly the colors start to make sense and you can see the big picture.

CD of the Month-October

I was so eager for this CD to come in the mail!

Reason I bought it: One of the teenagers at the church played the last track (Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme) for offertory sometime in September. It's so rich and complex. If you ever get the chance to listen to this song, close your eyes and imagine God leading the planets in a dance where they spiral around him and interweave with each other. It has that feeling of graciousness and majesty each time I hear it.

Favorite thing: I've listened to this CD more than 10 times since it arrived on the 30th of October. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. The music is too complex for me to understand in one hearing, and so enjoyable that I simply keep listening to it!

Cd of the Month-September

My CD of the month (a club I made for myself using ebay, amazon and Cdbaby) finally arrived today! So far, I really like it. I haven't listened much to Elvis before, and I'm impressed by the depth of his voice. It goes from mumbley on Jailhouse Rock to close to operatic, or least pretty good on several other tracks. It's a great cd of songs that are catchy, playful, all that. I can see why he became famous!

Favorite Track: All Shook Up
Who can resist the close proximity of the words "volcano" and "buttercup"?

Least Favorite Track: Wooden Heart
Why did Elvis think that a polka song about not being a puppet would be better by adding German?

Summertime

If last winter crawled by like a glacier, than this summer has evaporated like dew on a 105 degree day. (A little labored, I know, but it'll do.) After the struggles of settling in and getting used to living at home again, the summer-full of friends and family-has been a huge blessing.

Peter (my brother) got married on August 15, and I had the honor of being his "best man." At least that's what I called it. Others termed it "best woman," "best friend," or the one that I wish we had thought of earlier "best sister." The day went smoothly, with a ceremony with only one hitch and one knot, and a reception full of great food and great people. I hadn't seen some of my family in a few years, so it was a blessing to sit down and connect, even if it was only a couple minutes.

After the wedding, my parents headed off for a three week vacation in eastern Washington/northern Idaho, and I started preparing for out of town guests. My house, as per usual, was creatively chaotic. My mom would say that it was a disaster area. Everything was ready in time for them to arrive and have some restful days here before they headed out again.

It was so good to see friends from Next Wave again, and even better to spend a lot of time with them. Brit and his friend Beau were traveling across the country on their way to LA, and Autumn and her mom Anita were in town for a wedding. I don't think I could have had better house guests for my first time hosting. The only problem is that I miss them now.

Seeing them again reminded me of the joys of living in community and having people around all the time. I wish I understand the difference between living with a group of people approximately my age, and living with my family, but I don't. In theory they're all people, and I should therefore enjoy spending time equally with either set, but I don't. Perhaps it's a different sort of enjoyment. With community living, it's an enjoyment of excitement, and with family living, it's an enjoyment of comfort perhaps.

Anyways, I'm anticipating a good autumn, with warm sweaters, pumpkins, colorful leaves and more friends and family. I'm hoping too that autumn will bring a change in my work. I've been at Corina Bakery for almost a year. I feel stagnate and dull, and that's not something that I want. I'm hoping to find a job that will allow me to learn while I work, and also to get my student loans paid off within the next year. I really long to be back on the missions field, overseas. I know it will split my heart to leave here, but I think it may be a matter of multiplication than division. One can hope.

The strangest noise

What is that sound?

A. The annoying next door neighbor playing a kazoo
B. A baby crying loudly
C. Nothing, it's all in your imagination
D. A rooster

If you picked letter D, you're correct. That is one of (three) roosters, all learning how to crow. They're not very good, and they practice throughout the day. I'm sure my neighbors love me! But hey, we put up with the garage band, they put up with our roosters...it works.

Those beautiful swallows

In case you don't know, swallows are the bird equivalent of a vintage Alpha Romeo- fast, free and elegant. I just came across a photo that I took of some nesting materials that my local swallows had dropped. They worked very hard for several weeks, collecting tiny pieces of straw, downy feathers and other fragile odds and ends.

The swallows' favorite collecting ground was where the chicken coop used to be. The Violet-Green swallows would make a couple trial runs, land, and start collecting a mouthful of straw or feathers (though they only choose the white ones) before flying off. The Barn swallows, larger and stronger fliers, didn't even bother landing. They simply snatched their materials as they flew by.

The most entertaining part of swallow watching was the aerial tussles. One swallow would finally secure what they wanted and three others would chase after it. Occasionally, a feather or piece of straw would be dropped, and each swallow in the vicinity would gracefully try to be the first one to retrieve it before it reached the ground. Each victor would then rocket towards the home nest, trying to evade all the others.

There aren't very many swallows out today. I'm guessing that the nests are all built, eggs laid, and the mothers are all incubating the eggs. Soon, there will be more gaping mouths to feed, and the swallows will (hopefully) be here again.

A Shameless Promotion

There's so much advertising that goes on these days that I'm hesitant to do any of my own. However...this is something that I'm excited about and have been dreaming about for a long time. I just opened a shop on Etsy. It's been a long time coming. The first listing (and only item for this moment) is a tiny little notebook, reminiscent of days on the beach. I hope you take a look!

Wedding Travels

In the past month, I've had the privilege of attending the weddings of a couple close friends. Luckily for me, they were in Edmonton, Alberta and in London, England, so I just had to travel. I love traveling. It's good for my soul-a time of rest and reflection, and of possibilities.

My friends Bob and Sarah got married in Edmonton at the end of April. I flew in the week before the wedding so that I could spend time with Sarah, and help out as much as I could. It was well worth it because I got to meet so many of Sarah's friends and family, and Bob's family too. It's one of the strange things about living on a boat with people (as I had with Bob and Sarah) is that you get to know them extremely well in a short period of time. Yet they are somewhat out of context-you know all about people's family and friends, but haven't met them. That was certainly remedied the week before Bob and Sarah's wedding.
I had a week before I flew out for the next wedding in England. Bexi and Jarod, also friends from the Next Wave, got married near London on 9 May. Which also happens to be my birthday. There were loads of other people that I knew from the boat at this wedding, so it was a matter of frantically scrambling to try and catch up with friends in one day. I still wish that the day had been just a little bit longer. While seeing friends at a wedding is a cause for celebration, it was still a bit melancholy, knowing that I would have to head home and leave the people that I love on a different continet. Luckily, I still had one more stop before home.
When searching for tickets to London, I managed to find some inexpensive ones that let me fly through Florida. Some more friends from my Youth with a Mission days live there, and I got to spend a couple nights with them. My time with them was full. Precisely what I need to be ready to go home. We went kayaking and sailing and did everything that we could think of for me to get acquainted with Florida. Perfect.
What wasn't quite so perfect was the end of my trip. I was supposed to fly from Tampa through Houston and to Seattle, but it ended up that I got stuck in Houston for a night, due to bad weather. I really didn't like that, but it worked out in the end. I arrived home in Seattle the next afternoon, had a good night's sleep and was back to work the next day!

Garden Friends

On Saturday morning, I finally decided to embrace the inevitable. Back when I was young and foolish (sixteen or seventeen), I decided to plant ivy in my garden. It was pretty, and looked very nice twining around some posts. But now, due to neglect and ivy's natural inclination, it had taken over about 15 square feet of garden space. It really had to go. So I got out the shovel, the pitchfork, clippers and gloves and went to work. An hour and two garbage bags full later, I had removed all that I could find. Some of the roots were three feet long and three quarters of an inch thick! If you're thinking about planting ivy, please, please reconsider! But it's gone, and I've got a lot of empty area. I'm not sure what I'm going to put there. I'd like to find some perennials that will not require too much care, but will still let me see the tulips and crocus that are still there. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Also, I found two welcome additions to my garden-a salamander and a toad! I hadn't seen a salamander in years, and if it's in my garden, it makes me happy to think that such a fragile creature could live there. I was happy to see the toad too, because he'll eat slugs for me! (Not that I normally eat them myself.)

They grew! or so I thought

This afternoon when I got home from work, I had the joy of being greeted by a plethora of leggy, growing seedlings. I thought that my hard work (mixing soil, putting in boxes, shoving seeds in the ground and adding water) had been rewarded! But as I looked a bit closer, I realized that none of the seedlings were where I had planted seeds. I'm guessing that this is the unfortunate result of using compost in my soil mix. But there was one tiny, verdant seedling bravely making its way in a world of strangers-it looks like we have a leek! (Hopefully)

The Beginnings of a beginning

I finally got around to starting some of my seeds. It's been two weeks since I first planned on starting them, but somehow (always somehow) I managed not to do what I wanted to. So, I have the beginnings of a vegetable garden-onions, leeks and tomatoes. I'm not doing as much variety as I want to this year, just trying to keep things basic. However, I cannot buy boring (normal) varieties, especially when there's so many interesting ones to choose from. So I've planted Paul Robeson tomatoes, Cipollini Onions and Bleu de Solaize Leeks. In many ways, I'd much rather have planted purple tomatoes, and red onions, and all sorts of exotic varieties, but I'm not sure that anyone else would eat them!

While I was planting the seeds, I started dreaming about later this year, when I can start saving seeds. I'm learning more and more about how to select and save seeds-for suitability to my climate, robustness, fruitfulness and so many other qualities. I've been reading this book called Botany for Gardeners, which is an amazing book, and I absolutely love it. It starts at the basics-cell structure, plant structure, growth and all that, and then moves on to reproduction and adaptation. The next chapter that I haven't read yet is called Strategies for Inheritance. It should be a good help in understanding how to be the manipulator in my own little microcosm of natural selection.

Oh, and I also started some Echinacea, because life's really not complete without flowers!

Bare Branches

I love the way the smell and feel of outdoors lingers even after you've been inside for awhile. It seems to pervade the entire house with its presence, wrapping green tendrils around lamps and couches, covering the carpet with loam. Somehow, it makes everything happier and lighter. I'm realizing more and more how much I love plants and all things that grow.

I pruned out all the dead canes of raspberries today, and now the rows stand tall and erect-like a garden should be. I love chaos and disorder, but a garden should be a place where nature has a little bit of help, at least a vegetable garden! Flower gardens are another matter. They should run wild and rampant and the plants should tumble over each other with joy. I've already seen the first tips of green pushing through the soil, and very soon, (but never soon enough) the gardens here at the house will start to bloom with the first crocuses and daffodils. I heard ducks back at the pond today, so spring is coming! I can't wait for it get here.

A note about links

Places to go and things to do. We all have them. Mine are conveniently located to the right side of this screen. I would recommend taking a look at them, especially the Free Rice site. It's a vocab-building, hunger reducing sort of site.

Notcot is a design/ideas/interesting things site, where I can easily waste a lot of time looking at beautiful things, and some very weird things. Relevant Magazine is a Christian publication geared toward idealistic young people who want to make a difference in the world, and enjoy life along the way. Flaming Waters is the blog of my cousin Ryan who is currently working in Malawi, along with his family.

Marine Reach is the site of organization that I worked for while I was on the boat. Stop the Traffik is the site of an organization aiming to do just that-stop human traffiking. Narnia Web follows the news of the making of the Narnia movies, and has a thriving community of Narnia and CS Lewis fans. Save the Words is just plain interesting-thanks to Teal for that link! and Manchester Community Church need I say more? Well, the guy opening the door in the photograph is my dad! :D

Three Amusing Old Men

This is the story of three people I saw today that made me laugh. I know one of them, the other two are strangers. This first guy-Darrell is an old man who has some sort of dementia, lives in Tacoma, and comes into the bakery every morning. He has no social perception (he will interrupt intimate conversations all the time) and is a very evangelical Christian. While he is sweet some of the time, he is also frustrating. This morning, he amused me by hurriedly buying a peanut butter cookie, running outside, and feeding the peanut butter cookie to the crows. It was rather shocking, because he has very little money. I'm still not quite sure I understand.

The next old guy that made me laugh was someone who got on the bus in Gig Harbor-he was wearing bright yellow track pants, a bright yellow jacket, and a very purple watch cap. If that wasn't enough to make me smile, he was listening to 1980's motivational music (like "Eye of the Tiger") very loudly on repeat. Yet again, I don't understand! Who was he, and what was he trying to psych himself up for?

Lastly, I went for a walk when I got home from work. There's one road nearby my house that goes up a hill and has no outlet, so it's quiet, and I like to walk it. It's the type of road that people wave to each other on. But evidently, one guy thought it was too much effort to wave while driving his car, so I got an index finger raise instead. Maybe he could give the queen some lessons on not overexerting oneself!

Step 2 in Journeys

I've begun a project called "Journeys: A portrait of our community of faith" that I'm doing within the church. No matter what I may tell you, my real motivation to do this was to have an excuse to sit and talk to people because I was feeling lonely one week. I'm also hoping that it builds up the community. The premise behind this project is getting people to talk about life, God and the journey that he takes us on.

So far, I've interviewed two couples, John and Wahnyce Beck and David and Carol Eddy. Both interviews have been encouraging and fascinating. I don't know if you're allowed to call it a trend or a theme yet when you've only interviewed two sets of people, but I noticed that God's steadfast love and reading scripture keeps coming up. Not too surprising, coming from Christians.

It will be interesting to see how patterns develop, and I'm curious to see if there's going to be a difference between how younger and older people answer. I wonder too, if there is something that ties all of the people at Manchester Community Church together that makes our community unique. What does each person bring to this puzzle we call church?