It's Hotpot Season Again

When the temperatures drop and the air gets crisp and Uwajimaya has it's annual 15% off everything sale, we have hotpot. I've written about this before, but I thought it would be nice to do so again, since it is such an autumn tradition for us. We pull out the Danube (Japanese clay pot) and our table-top cook stove. We get meet cut very thin by the talented butchers at Uwa who do it specifically for this and for the related dish, Sukiyaki. We pull together veggies, usually Napa cabbage, chrysanthemum leaves (sweet and delich!), several varieties of mushrooms (especially shitaki, enoki, maitake and oyster) carrots, tofu and daikon. Adding rice noodles is a nice touch, especially loved by the girls. The broth is a simple 2 hour infusion with kombu, or sea kelp. The dried noodles soak for about an hour to soften them. Everything is put into the broth to quickly cook similar to a Swiss meat/veggie fondu. We prefer to make Japanese-style hotpots, which use broth and are a bit lighter than the Chinese version which uses oil in the cooking pot. Veggies, noodles and meat can be taken from the pot and put into each bowl and individuals can add as little or much garlic-chili paste and shredded daikon as desired. The girls add none, I add enough to get a medium heat, and daddy makes his pretty hot. It was delicious and fun as usual. As you can see from this photo, Devin gets pretty excited about this dish!!

Humbly back at the blog after a 2 year hiatus

Hello family and friends! I am inspired by my friend Brett's family blog, Where Straw Becomes Gold, to pick up where I left off two years ago. I don't have any specific reason for the hiatus. I guess once Devin started walking life got pretty busy. Posting pictures on flickr felt like a lot to do, so I let this slide. Now that Morrison is in school and I have Devin's 3 year old-somewhat independent-self for 2 days a week, it seems like a good time to start recording some of our days again. I won't bore you with details about the last 2 years, you know them, but I will start us off with a photo summery. 4 birthdays, 3 cats, buying a house, getting an electric car, 11 months with daddy injured, new friends, starting school, doubling my biz, I guess that about sums it up. Here's some of the highlights in photos:

Devin turns 1

Morrison turns 4 on Vancouver Island

Antioch girlfriend 11th reunion, West Virginia

Morrison starts preschool

We spend a lot of time at the zoo

We get to borrow the amazing paper mache monsters

Christmas 2009

Mama moves to her own space and puts out her "shingle"

Homemade pasta

Homemade pancetta

Homemade.....um.....well, you know

Mama goes to the Olympics (as a patron) in Vancouver

Disney for Morrison, Gma, Mama, Tess & Greer

Antioch girlfriend 12th reunion in Erie

Summertime body-painting, always a hit

Modo Rocket, Oliver & Elliott join our family

Devin turns 2

Morrison turns 5

New house, we finally bought

Trick-or-treating at Radha & Josh's house

Morrison finishes up pre-ballet, and graduates to the first ballet level, CompII

Christmas 2010

Homemade kimchee

Morrison "graduates" from preK

Mama starts a networking group for alternative medicine practioners who focus on women's health, fertility and pregnancy care

Morrison starts summer camp at her new elementary school, Maple

Antioch friend 13th reunion in Seattle

Devin turns 3

Morrison turns 6 with a pool party

New all-electric Nissan Leaf, yeae!

Morrison's first day of Kindergarten, celebrating with ice cream

How far they've come, ages 3 and 6

Mapping our Friends and Family

Things have been so busy lately. Between setting up my new practice space, including re-developing my business identity, and Morrison starting preschool, we haven't had much time for projects at home. I was feeling the need to do something together again, and came up with the idea of printing pictures of our friends and family and sticking them up on the map hanging on Morrison's wall. It was a lot of fun to map out where everyone is, and it helped Morrison to see who was close to each other, who was far. She thought it was cool that Tess now lives near Mateus, and suggested they might want to visit each other. What do you think guys?

Snorkling for Pennies in the Kiddie Pool

We bought Moby snorkle gear when we went to Hawaii nearly a year ago. We couldn't convince her to give them a try at the time, and really, who could blame her, she was barely 3. This weekend when we were playing in the pool Moby noticed the gear hanging in the garage and asked if she could try it. She was very brave and patient as she learned how to breathe through her mouth and put her face into the water. Eventually it turned into a game of diving for pennies in the pool. Good times......

103 Degrees in Seattle

Nuf said.

New Art Supplies

As most of you know, Moby is really into art. She is especially into painting. We have been feeling a little bored with our supplies lately, so today we went to the teacher-store and stocked up on new brushes (her first experience with different sizes), some more paint colors, watercolors, and a few other supplies. When we came home we had fun experimenting with the new stuff, but ultimately, painting won out in the end of course. She really enjoyed using the giant brush and feeling out the difference between the round brushes and the flat ones.

Panda Day

Yesterday morning when Moby climbed into bed with us, as she usually does, daddy called her "Baby Panda". She thought that was pretty funny so we started calling each other panda names, and before long we were online looking at pictures of pandas, getting dressed in black and white clothes and pulling bamboo out of the garden to pretend to eat it. These theme days are getting more and more common. Preschoolers are fun!!!