Greetings From Oregon

My local library has a display set up as you enter about Oregon. Books about Oregon, books by Oregon Authors, gorgeous photo books about Oregon - you get the picture. Hard to miss as you walk up to the check-out area.

This book caught my eye; GREETINGS FROM OREGON.
Co-written by  Gideon Bosker and Jonathan Nicholas, it's filled with vintage picture postcards depicting the glory that is Oregon.
It actually leapt into my arms because of the name of Jonathan Nicholas. Originally from Wales, he somehow immigrated to Oregon where he was a semi-famous columnist for the Oregonian.
He was one of the reasons we subscribed to the Oregonian. >>Why are all the newspapers deleting their columnists?
If they go, ....

A quick search on-line found this book as low as $2.16. Hardcover!
Greetings From Oregon is a modest 1/2" thick coffee table book with a very nostalgic feel.

I went with Powell's Books because they had two. One for me and the second for my Mom (& dad). I think she would get a kick out of all the old vintage postcards detailing sights around Oregon. Mom is an inveterate letter writer - I think  a better word might be PROLIFIC.

Now - I just have to go pick them up. Too late for Media Mail (bump city at the PO) and too cheap for Priority Mail.

Santa and His Airplane

Here in Canbyland, we believe that Santa delivers all the goodies from his airplane. Tossing appropriate presents over the side of his open cockpit biplane, the toys, book & games all find their way down the chimney with Santa's patented  Magic Dust©  and arrange themselves under the tree. The tree, of course, is decorated with our favorite airplane ornaments.

Christmas tree farms abound around us and while the cityfolk come out to Merrywood for ponyrides and $75 Nobles, we drive about 1 mile to the next street over and get ours for two bucks a foot. Always amazing, our 10 - 12 foot Grand or Noble ends up costing us $12 - every year.

A few years back at a neighborhood Christmas party, a few of my neighbors were hotly debating the 'environmental greenness' of getting a fake tree next year instead of the huge hoary impact of cutting down and throwing away a perfectly good Doug Fir or a Noble or a Grand Fir.

Just the day before the sound of a helicoptor was overhead for hours, ferrying trees to the baler and the semi. Seasonal workers scurry faster than I work trying to keep up with cutting, trimming, baling and loading the truck. These seasonal workers depend on the income these tree farms produce and just so you know -- THE TREES ARE GROWN AS A CONSUMER CROP which employs many OREGON WORKERS.



Of course the FAKE tree sheds no needles. It gives off a clearly neutral scent of old tinsel.  For those of us subject to environmental ethics and allergies, this plastic product is made in China, employing workers at less than I spend per hour on chocolate and has a few extra heavy metals encased in the needle manufacture as a bonus.

How is one to pick?

Inspiration

One of the blogs that seriously inspires me is running a contest to nominate someone you know who uses their crafting talents to help people in need.

I nominate Joan Vardenega. She is teaching 4-H sewing as well as cooking to a fantastic group of girls in Columbia County, Oregon (Warren/Scappoose).

She doesn’t have a web site or a blog (yet) but inspires me through phone calls and e-mail. The challenge to create has been raised through her thoughtful interest in not only what her local fabric store in St. Helen’s is promoting, what her girls inspire her to teach, and her knowledgeable feedback to what I am currently creating.

She loves to teach and is always ready to take on a challenge.

She recently completed theater curtains for a backyard theater.

With her 4-H girls, they recently embellished t-shirts with Bleaching, bleach pens, tie-dye and dip-dye.
With me, she recently came over to Canbyland to help me with organizing all my sewing crap into one dedicated sewing room.
She has recently completed teaching a series of garment sewing classes to quilters from her local fabric store, Fibers & Stitches.

Joanie raises the bar.

Thank you.

 

This is Pencil Girl's Tie-Dye T-shirt. Twisting Spirals.

This is the Towel bag Sewing challenge for the 4-H Girls. They were given the sample and the materials and had to figure out how to make the Towel Bag.

Many ripped out seams later, they figured out they needed to make the pocket first.
--After figuring out the measurements.
--Don't forget to attach the straps.

Here is the full-size towel with bag attached. All folds up into the bag and the bag has room for other beach or swimming pool necessities.

Secret Cool place

I was reading Angry Chicken today and looking around her site and I found this gem at the right.
You have got to try communicating!
Totally efficient.

It's been incredibly cold here in the Willamette Valley.
Ten degrees for days on end at 5am. Almost warming up to 32' at noon.
At least, there is no moisture - so none of the usual Willamette Valley problems of ice, freezing rain, cars sliding...
Today, I crossed over  the Pudding River in two different spots. The Pudding is a very slow moving serpentine river that feeds eventually into the Molalla River.  Because it moves so slow, there is ice forming alongside its banks.

The first spot is where the ducks like to bask in the sun near Aurora, just past the bridge.
The ducks had flapped the water back where the ice was forming and I wish I had a camera - oh right - I'm on a highway here - not the best spot to stop either. But the sunlight hitting this bend, the ice flung up, the ducks keeping to the middle now where the current keeps the water free. It was a picture perfect moment.
The second spot is a horseshoe bend  by the paintball/racetrack place where the water doubles back on itself and catches large trees along the outer part of the horseshoe, again with the sunlight and the ice forming crystaline structures to make another gorgeous photo op.

Cool Airplane Photographer

I was following up on ordering this airplane calendar and he e-mailed me that he picked up the calendars from the printer today.  I followed the guys' link to his web page.
tres cool.   Just in time for Christmas for us Northwest Airplane junkies.

Wintery Fresh

I made my wreath today.
Filled with Douglas Fir and a bumper crop of Pinecones, Blue Spruce, Nandina, Holly from my Mom & Dad's and Viburnum Spring Bouquet - I like my wreaths in the natural state. Everything smells so wintery fresh.

Most of the fir blew down in a recent gale-force windstorm. The Blue spruce  has needle-sharp needles. The 'trick'? Let the blue spruce wallow for a week and it becomes soft enough to handle.

flash

The air is smokey today at ground level. Neighbors on both sides of me are trying to cope with our 22' cold snap by smoking me out with their wood stoves. This morning when I left for work it was 10' so the day has warmed a bit - must be the wood stoves at work.

My friend, Pencil Girl, is due to come over on Sunday. However, the long-range forecasts are troubling with threats of freezing rain and snow. I'm afraid to make her a wreath. If I make her one, then she won't be able to come over. If I don't - you can see where superstition takes you. Down the road to 'crazy'.
I usually make one for my neighbor Vicki and even Betty. I have plenty of material. And I found a dozen wreath hoops at an estate sale this summer. Actually, this is the second wreath I have made. The first was shipped Monday to Minnesota to my sister.

If I ship my sister a wreath, then she won't bug me for an Oregon Christmas Tree to be shipped to her.

This is what I spied Monday coming home for my mid-day break. 
My neighbors have the cutest alpine A-Frame house.

I think if I had gotten a ride in the buggy, I'd make them a wreath.

Dairy-free Cream of Broccoli Soup

Or, was it?

I read about five recipes on-line for Cream of Broccoli Soup and came up with something that is very definitely green but tastes very good.

I took zero photos because the soup was GREEN. I don't think my kids would eat a green soup  if I paid them, but one on-line mom swore her kid loved cream of broccoli soup. Even Gluten-free Girl swears her daughter loves broccoli puree. I don't think you should believe everything you read on-line.

I started off with sautéing some dried minced onions in butter with a dash or two of garlic powder. Then I added 3 cups of homemade turkey stock along with the broccoli, chopped up small.

After seven minutes, I threw in the last cup of broth, realizing I had a lot of broccoli in the pot.
I added some sea salt  (~Tbsp?) and pepper and pinch of Turmeric at this point.

The broccoli took just over ten minutes to get somewhat soft. Tasting it here, I added a dash of hot sauce because we all know hot sauce fixes everything.
I pureed the soup in three batches in my blender and put it back in the cookpot.
Then I added 2 cups of Hazelnut milk (Dairy-free). I had about 2 Tbsp's of whipping cream left in the fridge and threw that in.

The soup was still not quite what I was after. A little too much texture. Not enough creaminess.

I added another cup of Hazelnut milk to get the right consistency and put two batches back through the blender ( not all of the soup - I wanted to keep some of the texture).
That little whipping air into the milk gave it a more velvety texture.

This was a fast-to-make soup, but, unfortunately, is for an intermediate cook who kinda has an idea in her peabrain about what this soup should be like; taste-wise and texture-wise and how to get there.

Here's my recipe - with room for thought:

Dairy-Free Cream of Broccoli Soup

1/4 cup finely chopped onions or 2 Tbsp. Dried Minced Onions
Butter ~ 2 Tbsp ( you could use olive oil here)
Garlic Powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
2 big florets of Broccoli, chopped up
4 cups stock (mine was from the Thanksgiving Turkey)

3 cups of dairy-free milk (Hazelnut)
Dash of real cream?

Definite Dash of Hot Sauce

Sauté the onion and garlic in butter. A minute or two.
Add stock and broccoli. Cook until almost tender ~ 10 minutes.
Puree in batches in blender. Return to cookpot.
Add dairy-free milk
Puree two batches in blender (not all of soup).

Reheat.

This was enough for two tonight with just enough for tomorrow.