Sushi Night

We do "Sushi Night" at home on weekends from time to time.  The kids aren't fans of fish, although Niall will eat some sliced fish cakes. They do like rice/nori (seaweed), cucumbers, and (yuck) Spam (N). 

They had fun contributing to meal prep this Sunday.

Spam musubi press

I used high-grade Ahi tuna (from the Asian market) to make homemade poke with Sriracha mayo, along with crispy salmon/salmon skin.

It was a feast!  And I even forgot to put out the edamame. 

(I even had some poke left over for lunch for me and for my medical assistant).

A California Winter's Day

 We woke up to this: 

Seeing snow falling at sea level was a first for these kids as we missed the coastal snowmageddon two weeks ago. These were BIG flakes (but they didn't stick here).

Snowing at Clam Beach

Late morning: 

Afternoon HAIL! 

Late afternoon bike ride:

Next morning (crazy hail!)

The "most clear road in NorCal" which miraculously got us home two weeks ago is now closed just east of us!

One Night of Queen!

 

We were able to get tickets (and a babysitter) to attend another Center Arts show on Friday night-- One Night of Queen (performed by Gary Mullen & The Works, a tribute band). The UK-based group travels around the world performing songs by the famous British rock band Queen, and they put on an incredible show!

I am not a "rock concert" kind of gal, in general and can count the handful of pop/rock concerts I've attended in the past fifteen years or so (Billy Joel, Greenday, Daughtry, Lady Gaga, and Sara Bareilles recently in October). I'm a pretty inhibited and "serious" person by nature (Kelvin sometimes calls me a fun-STOPPER) but do certainly enjoy listening to music of all kinds (even if I don't jump around and sway! Not that I stop others from doing so, though!). Apparently my boring old-lady vibe in the theater even led an usher to offer me (but not Kelvin!) ear plugs before the performance even started! 

 

The recent film "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018) in which Rami Malek took home the Best Actor Oscar was a really good musical drama about the group (which started performing in the seventies) and particularly its (very flamboyant but troubled) frontman, Freddie Mercury. The lead singer of the tribute group (Gary Mullen) was incredibly vivacious and engaging as Mercury, and was very successful in getting people to stand up for the (~two-hour) show.   The musicians on drums and guitar were also incredibly talented.

Yes, he, sweaty and breathless, even became shirtless at one point! 

There were a whole lot of audience members dancing in the aisles, singing (/shouting) along, and swaying to the line up of popular Queen hits, including "Somebody to Love,"  "Under Pressure," "We Will Rock You," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and, as a second encore, "We are the Champions." I stood up a couple of times to keep Kelvin company but was content, after a full and tiring day's work seeing patients all day in primary care, to sit and enjoy the greatest hits from my padded seat (I could definitely hear well enough to enjoy the show without a direct visual!).

(and I didn't even use the earplugs-- Such a crazy fun-HAVER I am!)

Cooking Mojo

In recent years, particularly since having kids (especially those that are very opinionated about food likes/dislikes), I have struggled with my "cooking mojo."  Many working parents (including myself) struggle with time (to plan/shop/cook) as well as the mental space to relax enough to do anything above and beyond just surviving. I think most kids are picky but mine are picky about different things and I, as I'm sure many parents do, struggle with cooking things that everyone likes or at least will treat.  My kids love to tell me that whatever I have planned for dinner is "disgusting," which is incredibly offensive and triggering for me, someone who doesn't really enjoy cooking all that much (but I do it. Because my spouse definitely doesn't. And I like to eat). 

I have really been enjoying the Didn't I Just Feed You podcast, with meal recommendations and other cooking tips (they recently re-broadcast an old episode all about air fryers which I enjoyed). They did a recent episode on "getting your cooking mojo back," and that's what I've been proactively trying to do this year (as I often do at a year's start. Trying to make it more than an early-year phenomenon). The kids are old enough now that they can both help in the kitchen (Niall especially likes mixing things, but Iver will as well), although I do most of the dinner prep and cooking midday when they're not around, and that I feel more "sane" as a parent (drowning less than in past years!). During the pandemic, we were doing a lot of Blue Apron delivery, which reduced my meal planning and shopping time, but which, to me, was starting to get a bit repetitive (as well as costly) and bothered me in terms of the plastic bags/waste.  I'm also trying to involve the kids (somewhat) in meal planning so that they're less likely to reject the food, but Iver would eat burgers every day [Niall hates meat patties] and Niall would probably eat some variation of pasta or cheese if he was in charge of all meals. 

I just quit our subscription to Blue Apron and have been cooking from scratch for the last two weeks, trying to find healthy and tasty recipes that most of us will enjoy (but, on occasion, just cooking what Kelvin and I will like and not getting so stressed out about the kids. They can eat toast). I was really proud of my January Greek Feast and, on a weekend, will try it again as it involved a considerable amount of prep. I also made a ceviche recipe recently for the first time in many years that was delicious (as expected, the kids didn't touch it) and which is posted below. We're having friends over for dinner this weekend and I plan to make instant pot ramen bowls (with a dry noodle bowl option if kids prefer), as recent soup meals (tortilla soup and IP pho) turned out well, even though the kids didn't appreciate the former.

I'm an "old-school" paper person in general and have struggled in this digital age to have a good system for collecting and organizing recipes-- I tend to print internet-researched recipes and now collect them in a a recipe binder (anyone remember the days of index cards?!). I do also own many cookbooks, and do sometimes fall into the trap that I may be one excellent cookbook away from being an excellent cook; however, I'm finding that I'm not really utilizing the cookbooks very well. I may just need to deep-dive and tab/mark some more recipes to try.  I'm still not one to just cook from scratch or ad-lib as I'm not a very confident chef. I do love my instant pot, am using the air fryer more, and am a big fan of expanding cooking techniques and tips (especially hacks). 

I'm always interested in new family-tested recipes (ideally kid-palatable and with a short ingredient list. I do NOT like crazy long/multi-step recipes or having to have a bunch of rarely used/esoteric ingredients on hand, even though I've really expanded my spice repertoire recently). Maybe I need to start watch cooking shows (or listening to some-- podcast suggestions are welcome!) for more inspiration.  HELP and thank you!

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Ceviche recipe

1 lb fresh ocean-caught fish (I used mahi-mahi; halibut, sea bass, tilapia or even shrimp would also work)

1/2 of a red onion

3/4 cup fresh lime juice (4-6), freshly squeezed

1 fresh serrano or jalapeno chile, seeded/finely chopped

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup diced cucumber

1/2 c fresh cilantro

1-2 garlic cloves, minced/pressed

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or more to taste)

1 Tbsp olive oil

Tostadas, tortilla chips

1. Slice red onion, toss in bowl with 1 tsp salt and lime juice

2. Add fish, garlic, chiles, mix

3. Add tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, olive oil, stir, and marinate for 1 hour (at least 30 min) prior to serving

4. Add more salt/chiles as needed

Amadeus Wonder

Iver's been good about playing his ~15 minutes of weekday piano with me lately. He's made significant progress and can play two-handed pieces pretty well, picking them up far more quickly than previously!  He even has "memorized" this "Air" by Mozart and tried to play in the airport during our recent trip. It turns out that once he's mastered a piece "by memory," he wants to then challenge himself by playing it blindly, not looking at the keys. Here, channeling his inner Stevie Wonder, is the result.  We are trying to be very gentle and NON-tiger-parent-like about music at home, which seems to be a better approach (at least with our strong-willed and very opinionated child) to not make him resentful and oppositional about it. 

 

Love & Loss

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

- In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

I was caught off guard a couple of times in the past few weeks by losses.

Niall's best friend Dylan, in seemingly hasty fashion (although the family had been considering it for a while) just moved to Redding (2.5 hours east of us). Monday, sadly, was his last day at preK. Niall doesn't seem too broken up about it (five-year-olds are so resilient and he's not the one moving!), and got a wonderful birthday party and sleep-over this past weekend. We're not sure how well we'll stay in touch with his parents but hope to stay connected. He already wants us to invite Dylan to his sixth birthday party in a year.

Despite a freak fire accident which took the life of my Great-Uncle Duane in 2014, I haven't experienced many close, unexpected losses. Of course, over the years, I’ve lost many patients in my medical practice, which have always struck me deeply (especially when unexpected and when I really had formed a bond with the person. COVID took a few). Our neighbor's husband, who was paraplegic, died on New Year's Eve this past year, which we learned when we returned from our out-of-town trip. My beloved Grandfather died when I was in high school but my Grandmother lived until her mid-nineties (the last many years with dementia), passing in 2018.

I learned last month of the passing of Eric, a wonderful guy I knew while I was in med school in MN (but with whom I'd lost touch), and who was an outstanding photographer and outdoor enthusiast as detailed in his obituary. It somehow seems more shocking when a young person dies (he was 43 and I believed had cancer).

With Eric on a chilly 2006 Chicago day

This week, I learned of the passing after a short but aggressive bout of metastatic cancer of Lee, my former language arts & social studies teacher of mine from my middle-school days in Kathmandu, Nepal in the nineties. Soon after being COVID-vaccinated, we had reconnected in 2021 in Bend, OR after many decades. He and his wife, Lynn, led incredible interesting, active lives (skiing into his 70s) and, unfortunately, he was not feeling well enough to see him in January when we were in his neck of the woods and died in the last couple of weeks, just shy of his seventy-fifth birthday.

Rest in Peace

~1994

We thought that our dearest dog Pepper was on the brink of death last October (we even bought an urn for her and I pre-wrote a blog obituary!), but she has since recovered.  We also faced twenty-four hours of Iver thinking that his froggies (Leafy and Rocky) had escaped/died/were lost forever from their tank but, in fact, they are alive and well (and just really good hiders! He actually handled their potential demises or escape quite well). Proximity to death and loss really makes one more aware of the mortality of yourself and your loved ones-- here's hoping that my parents, now both septuagenarians, as well as my even-older Godparents, my parents-in-law (and the various animals in our house) have many more years of (good) life left!

Leno in the House!

Kelvin and I hardly ever "go out" to concerts, shows, or more, locally, in part because finding childcare seems to be a bit of a hassle but also because my working mom guilt makes me feel terrible about leaving the kids during nights and weekends during our "family time" (Kelvin doesn't have the same reservations about us escaping for date nights and thinks we should do it more!).

However, post-pandemic, we have been trying to do more "couple-y" things, and have also been inspired by our friends Shannon and Brian who, despite being wonderful, attentive parents, also get out plenty without their kids and have adult fun!

We double-dated on Sunday afternoon to a Jay Leno show that was held at Eureka's Arkley Center and super well advertised many months ago. I remember watching clips of the Tonight Show (and my favorite segment "Jaywalking") when back in medical school, but haven't watched any of him since. While I do enjoy comedians (especially "clean" ones), Kelvin adores watching comedy shows-- he loves to track down Netflix stand-up specials as well as live events (like on the cruise ship!). Kelvin found it remarkable that an entertainer of his quality came to the North Coast as part of the Cal Poly (formerly HSU) Center Arts series, for which we get brochures. We're glad that the show didn't get canceled by our recent crazy NorCal weather (with more mountain snow, many roads are, once again, closed)! 

The show did not disappoint!  Jay, at 72 and despite some recent health scares (a burn and another motorcycle accident), is sharp as a tack and truly hilarious. His hour-and-a-half-or-so set included musings on his own aging and health issues, his family (Scottish mom and Italian dad), longstanding successful marriage, and interactions with other celebrities, but notably avoided anything really touchy or political. Kelvin was roaring in his seat and I was even laughing out loud at his stories and jokes. He is a true talent and it's incredible that he's still motivated and healthy enough to perform stand-up.  

We followed the matinee show with a delicious dinner at Kelvin's favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Arcata, and the kids (Iver, Hudson, and Niall) were in good hands with preschool teacher/babysitter Lisa at our house.  It truly was a win-win afternoon-eve, and I can see us going out more in the future to events like these!