Endings Lead to New Beginnings....

We've been doing a lot of reflecting the past few weeks.  This is a time of endings and new beginnings.  I harvested the last of our carrots from the garden in San Diego...and bought seed potatoes for our new garden in Fairmont.

Max & Larry giving Carolyn & Greg the last rent check

 

 

We got keys to our new place...Max does the honors!

We've been very happy in San Diego for the past 8 years, so it's really bitter sweet.  Our new place holds so much promise, that it makes our eminent departure a bit easier.

Yesterday Larry took Max's play structure apart and is taking it to the new house.  I think the more familiar things that Max has at our new house, the easier the transition will be for him.  The act of removing the structure has actually made things more real for some reason.

Max making a rainbow

I am so used to looking out the window and seeing this...now only the trampoline (far left outside the picture) is there.  Soon that too will come down and make its way to our new place.

The act of moving is overwhelming and exciting and cathartic.  I have been posting things in the FREE section of craigslist almost daily.  I love the win-win of getting rid of our excess stuff to someone that is genuinely thrilled to have it!  So far we have given away: a tent, outdoor furniture, wicker furniture, books, shipping pallets, a pallet of bricks, a gazebo, a weight bench with weights, gardening items, a weed whacker, and hundreds of shipping boxes....so far! 

We have had Am-Vets come to the house 5 times already and have given away so many clothes, dishes, books and toys!  The act of getting rid of things makes you feel lighter of heart. The other side of this is that we still have soooooo much stuff. 

So we're walking the thin line of excitement over our new place...making improvements and such...with the act of assessing, weeding out and boxing up our belongings for the move.

Stay tuned.....

Cheers~
Marti in San Diego

Making Pizza With Max

Who doesn't love pizza?  Max is a particular fan of all things pizza.  As a matter of fact, I believe that "pizza" was Max's first sight word.  We were out and about one day when Max was about 4 and he pointed at a Pizza place and said, "Pizza."  It wasn't our usual place and we had never been there before. 

Here is a pizza we made over the weekend.

I had just made the mother lode of spicy tomato sauce (adapted recipe from book in the photo) and it makes a great base for the pizza! 

I made up a batch of dough using my kitchen aid mixer.  It's super easy....flour, water, yeast, salt, olive oil.  Max is rolling out the dough.  This is generally his favorite part of the process.

Give it a taste...just to make sure it's not sugar cookie dough...haha!

Here we are shaping it to fit in the pan.

Here, mommy!  Ok...I wasn't ready.  You need to think quick on your feet when cooking with Max!

Let's put the dough in the parchment paper lined pan.  Makes clean up easier and the pizza comes out very easily!

We spread the tomato sauce on, topped with cheese, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, yellow squash, red pepper and a little salami. 

We then baked in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.  YUM!

Having your kids help you make a pizza is a great way to get them to eat veggies.  Max willingly ate spinach, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and mushrooms without any complaints.  He actually asked for more! 

Hope you enjoyed our pizza making....give it a try!

Cheers~

Marti

Canning Tomatoes

So the end of the growing season is both a happy and a sad time.  I love eating fresh foods that we have grown ourselves.  There really is nothing better tasting that a home grown tomato.  Put that on a BLT with a little avo and it's a slice of heaven on earth!  When the branches of the plants are brown and the harvest is dwindling, this is the time to preserve.  Although it's called "canning" it really is "jarring" your bounty.  Here is an account of my tomato sauce. 

Start with tomatoes, onions, garlic, seasonings. 

Dice onions and garlic, cut tomatoes in about 4" to 6" pieces.  Cherry tomatoes can go in whole.  Cook for several hours until falling apart.

Remove any large pieces of skin floating on top with tongs.  (Please ignore the tomato splattered stove)

Using a hand blender puree until smooth.  The recipe I used from the Ball Canning Book says to strain the mixture to get out the seeds and skin.  As there's lots of fibre in the skin and the seeds hold lots of nutrients, I left them in. 

Fill jars leaving 1/2" headroom.

Be sure to wipe off any drips and put on the lid.

Process in a boiling water bath for about 40 minutes with the lid on.

Voila!!!  You have fabulous tasting sauce for the Fall and Winter months!!

We had a little left over sauce, so I made up a dish for lunch.  I roasted some giant zucchini in the oven, added some salami, fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella.  Wonderful!

Canning (jarring...haha) really is easy.  You can only use the water method on high acid foods like pickles (later this week) or fruits.  Other veggies require a pressure cooker, which I do not own.  I hope you enjoyed my tomatoes as much as I did!

Cheers~

Marti

A Summer Milestone--Max's First San Diego Padre Game

Max was the biggest fundraiser (thanks family!) for his school's Jog-a thon and thus awarded free tickets to a San Diego Padre Game.  Every year we talk about taking Max to a game,and now here's the perfect opportunity! 

Max really liked the atmosphere of the game. He loves clapping and the music and was overall thrilled to be there!  As the vendors were walking the aisles, Max saw the cotton candy and remarked that they had "pillows"...lol!  Am I a terrible parent that my kid doesn't even know what cotton candy is? 

As an added bonus, it was Garden Gnome Night, so we are now the proud owners of several San Diego Padres Garden Gnomes!

As you can see,our seats were pretty good, but still too far away for Max to pay attention to the action on the field.  One of the Padre players was hit by a pitch, so of course the crowd BOOOOed!  This upset Max....he didn't like it and told me that it hurt his feelings.  Poor kid!

After we had a chance to take it all in and have a bite to eat (Max was thrilled....They even had pizza!) we decided to head for home.  The trolley was a lot less crowded n the way back.

This year was filled with milestones and firsts for Max....and the baseball game was definitely a highlight!

Cheers~
Marti

Cabrillo Elementary Library Receives $5,000 Grant!

Who knew it costs almost $100 to enlarge a regular bank check into a giant check?  This is how I found myself making a giant check on Tuesday morning.  All you need is a large chunk of cardboard, a computer and a little imagination!

Larry's first reaction was, "You're making a FAKE check?"  Sure, I told him.  He seemed very concerned about any possible criminal activity this might entail.  I assured him that no one would actually try to cash this check.  Could be in real trouble....did I forge Laura Bush's signature?  No, I just wrote her name on a gaint piece of cardboard!

Max started Kindergarten at Cabrillo Elementary this year.  I wanted to be involved, but traditional PTA isn't exactly my style.  So back in October of 2010 the school Library tech and I sat down and talked about ways to raise money for the library.  With the state of education budgets, new library books rank low on the list.  As I talked to the school administration, I learned that the school library was actually closed for five years, just reopening last year.  Can you imagine a school without a library?

The library at Cabrillo elementary is an amazing space.  It was built with California Prop monies, so there was only funding for the actual building, not staff or equipment.  It has high ceilings, lots of light, but not so many books.  Any new books were from the scholastic book fair, so soft cover...not meant to last or show on a shelf.

I researched available grants and found that money was tight in this arena as well.  I found two grants that I thought might be a good fit for our school.  With the help of Jose and the school administration, I wrote a grant for the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries.  It was a long shot....there are a lot of deserving schools out there.  We found out in May that Cabrillo was chosen from thousands of entries to receive one of 241 grants awarded!

So yesterday, I participated in a check presentation ceremony to present the $5,000 check from the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries to the Cabrillo Library!

This is our Principal, Nestor Suarez, our library tech Jose de la Luz and Area Superintendent Diana Carberry.  Principal Suarez is an amazingly positive person!  One of the first things he did when he came to Cabrillo was to reopen the library.  Now with this $5,000 we'll be able to round out the collection for our kids!

As the school year comes to a close we look back on what a great experience this has been for Max.  He has found friends, acceptance and learned a great deal.  Max loves the library so it was personally fulfilling for me to help with this grant.

Cheers~
Marti

Wednesday in OB (Ocean Beach)

The weather people in San Diego are ridiculous.  Amongst their favorite things to talk about are the "Microclimate Forecasts."  As much as I poke fun at them for their antics, we got a first hand dose of their microclimate today.

We picked up Max from school in Point Loma which is on the San Diego Bay where it was sunny and in the low 70's. My husband suggested we go to the beach.  As we're driving over the hill , we see the fog rolling in.  In less than a minute we went from sunny and 70 to heavy fog with temps in the low 60's.....hello microclimate!

This is Newport Avenue, the main street of Ocean Beach.  It is so foggy that you can't even see the Farmers Market set up on the next block.

Now Max wasn't going to let a little "micro-climate" fog (or 50 degree water temp) effect his ability to have a good time. 

Finally Max realized how cold the water was and decided to take time out to write in the sand.










Now we're back in Point Loma where it's sunny and in the 70's.  Gotta love the San Diego microclimates!

Cheers~
Marti

Growing Some Food in San Diego--Jumping Right into this Blogging Thing!

San Diego is an amazing place. We live on the West side of the San Diego Bay in the Point Loma neighborhood of La Playa and we get about 300 sunny days a year.  It really is paradise.  One of the best things is you can grow food and flowers pretty much year round.  Vegetables take much longer to mature in the winter and spring months, but getting fresh tomatoes in February is a real treat! 

Today I did some work in my front gardens.  I was thrilled to find our first sugar snap peas of the season...a whole 11 of them!   OK, so we ate a few.  They are so sweet and crunchy! 

This also made me realize that it was time to get to work on our main Spring-Summer garden.  We live on a hill, so due to water run off patterns, seedlings do much better than straight seeds.

So to get started on our big garden, I started some seeds that will be transferred into the main vegetable garden sometime next month.  In years past, the birds determined that we had the avian version of "Hometown Buffet" in our yard and I began to wonder why my starts weren't, well....starting.  After I figured out the birds were partially to blame, I came up with this cover to give my seeds a fighting chance.  The white containers are all tomatoes, the yellow are onions an pickling cukes.  The round guys have melons, squash, tomatillo, slicing cukes.

The white containers on the left are tomato seedlings I transplanted from the clamshell mini-greenhouses.  The remaining clamshell mini-greenhouses contain pepper starts and herb (basil, cilantro, thyme) starts.

I am a great fan of reusing and repurposing items, so the clamshells from my Trader Joe's blueberries make the perfect mini-greenhouses.  The tricky thing is to keep them moist enough to germinate and remember to transplant when the seedlings begin to brush the top of the clamshell.  The tomatoes are recent graduates!

This is the edge of one of our vegetable beds.  I love the flax and sweet pea flowers...they are so bright and cheery.  If you look closely, you can see some potato plants in there.  Potatoes and carrots are things we grow pretty much year round.  Generally, I tend to grow potatoes in containers because they're much easier to find.  I don't bother with seed potatoes.  If one of my spuds or a grocery store spud decides to grow eyes, I just cut them off and plant them in a pot.  They have such nice big leaves and when they die off....you have potatoes!


So my first blog post is done.  I hope you've enjoyed reading about my random adventures in San Diego!
Cheers~
Marti