Category: November 2024

I’ve never particularly liked pecan pies; they seem to heavy and sweet. I prefer a tart fruit pie, especially a smooth, strong lemon. But I was determined to learn how to make a good pecan pie, because John likes them. Every so often I’d try another recipe, and every time I’d strike out. John was polite, but I could detect a certain glumness. Those pies just weren’t that good.

Have you ever tried to learn how to make something that you don’t actually like? I found it hard because I didn’t have a vision in my mind to guide me. All I had was John’s cautious comments. It needed to be more “caramelized”, he said. Caramelized? As in onions?

After a few half-hearted attempts over the years, I finally decided this was the year to figure this mystery out. I looked at dozens of recipes, until I understood the main ways in which they differed. I learned why corn syrup is often used – aside from being cheaper than maple syrup, it also thickens better. I thought about what John tends to like and not like. (Bourbon? No.) And I realized that the caramel flavor he was talking about is browned butter. Not just lightly browned, but decidedly browned, just shy of almost burnt.

To get that caramelization, I was going to need to use one of the recipes that included cooking some of the ingredients in a pan on the stove prior to putting them into the pie shell. What a nuisance! Although to be fair, my favorite lemon pie also involves a lot of stirring in a saucepan prior to putting it into the pie shell. You can’t always just dump some raw chopped fruit and sugar into a pie crust and call it good! This lemon pie is an older picture from a couple of Christmases ago. Mmmm, now I want to make a lemon pie.

I ended up writing my own pecan pie recipe, borrowing ideas from multiple other recipes. And hallelujah, it worked! I made two 7″ tarts and they were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately I didn’t take a close-up of the amazing pecan tarts, but you can see one of them hiding behind the turkey next to the sweet potatoes.

This year we bought a lot of our meal already prepared from Whole Foods. I really liked not having to deal with a raw bird. But we tended to prefer our own side dishes. Maybe next year I can look into getting just the roasted turkey and doing the rest of it myself.

Here’s Biska, lying down in “begging” mode. I can’t blame her for wanting some of all that!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Maple Pecan Pie

For two 7” tarts or one 10” pie

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

• ⅓ cup butter
• ¼  cup maple syrup 
• ¼ cup dark corn syrup
• ½  cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ¼  cup pecans

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

10” crust (or two 7” crusts)

• 1 ½ cup flour
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup cold water

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Pre-cook the butter and syrup: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook until the foam subsides and the butter solids turn brown. Add the maple syrup to the pan and continue to cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is somewhat reduced. Remove from heat, and let cool for at least 10 minutes. 
• Crust: to make the pie crust, cut the shortening into the flour and salt with a pastry blender. Add cold water until it is just wet enough to form a ball.
• Roll crust out on a floured board, and wrapping the crust partially around the rolling pin, gently lift and lower the crust into the tart pans or pie pan. Flute the edges.
• Pre-cook the pie crusts with something set on top of them so they don’t puff up while cooking ( I set cookie cutters on the crust; anything fairly light that can handle the oven heat will work). Pre-cook crusts until set but not yet browning, about 15 minutes.
• Make rest of the filling: Whisk eggs, add vanilla, salt, dark corn syrup and brown sugar.
• Add the whisked eggs mixture to the cooled syrup mixture and stir. 
• Assembly: Layer the pecans on top of the pre-cooked crust(s). Carefully pour the filling mixture on top of the pecans. 
• Bake at 350º for 40 minutes for 2 tarts, 50 minutes for a full sized pie, or until the top is brown and the filling doesn’t jiggle.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Originally we were going to go backpacking in early October. When our trip was delayed until early November, we decided to go camping instead. It was cold at night and I wanted my camper van!

We stayed at Sunny Flats campground, which is only a short distance from the trail I had chosen for backpacking; the South Fork trail in the eastern Chiricahuas, near the border of Arizona and New Mexico. It was a beautiful campground.

Pro tip: If you’re coming from the west, do not follow Google maps and do not take the Hwy 10 exit to Portal. Both Google maps and the freeway signs direct you onto an interminably long, gravel road towards Portal that is heavily washboarded and absolutely bone rattling and miserable. It’s completely unnecessary. Just go a few miles farther east on the freeway, cross the New Mexico border and then exit going south on Hwy 80 towards Rodeo. Then take Portal Hwy west to Portal. It’s faster, and paved all the way!

We figured that out last time we went, and I can’t believe I forgot and made the same mistake twice. My old mind is letting me down. I won’t forget again. Even though I’m going to Portal, don’t take the Portal exit!!!

Instead of backpacking the South Fork trail, we went for a day hike. The weather was perfect and the fall color was beautiful.

We brought our lunch and a couple decks of cards on our hike. We found a nice stopping point about an hour in, and enjoyed the afternoon playing an epic game of canasta.

We were eating lunch and playing canasta within sight of the trail, and when people went by they would peer at us. What are those people doing sitting over there? LOL. Playing cards in the woods, why not? Luckily there were only a few other people on the trail.

The nights did get cold, but Callan was fine in the tent. Callan doesn’t get cold very easily and had plenty of gear. Biska and I were toasty warm in the van.

Here’s a funny story. Biska’s dog food contains two different sizes and colors of kibble. It’s mostly regular light brown kibbles, but there are also small round kibbles that are almost dark green in color. She tends to pick around the little dark green round ones, so we jokingly call them spinach balls.

Shortly before our hike, I spilled some of her dog food on the cement. I picked most of it up, but I didn’t bother with every little bit. I figured the squirrels would clean it up. Well, when we got back from the hike, sure enough, the squirrels had eaten all the spilled dog food – except they left the little spinach balls! Apparently even squirrels don’t like them.

One final funny thing from Callan’s trip. You don’t have to know anything about the game of canasta to see that this was one darn close game. The hands varied wildly, but the final score was so close it could have been a counting error.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

The only part of Halloween that I like is the trick-or-treaters coming to the door. I didn’t used to even like that part, back in the days when there were tons of kids and I was always so busy and so tired. But nowadays I rarely see kids, so it is fun to see them all dressed up and excitedly traipsing from door to door. I also feel more a part of this neighborhood than I have with other neighborhoods in the past.

We get just the right amount of kids trick-or-treating. Enough to be fun, but not overwhelming. In addition to putting up decorations, I also answer the door in costume. And I hand out the good stuff – chocolates of course!

For Día de Muertos this year I put up an ofrenda, which I’ve never done before. An ofrenda is an offering for our ancestors. It’s a way to honor our loved ones who have died. The story is that the dead can come back and visit earth once a year on Día de Muertos if their photo is on an ofrenda. Also placed on ofrendas are flowers (especially marigolds), favorite foods and other things meant to be enticing.

Here is a picture of an ofrenda at the botanical garden:

This is not a tradition in my family or in John’s family, but it is very common here in the southwest, where John and I have lived for most of our adult lives. And it is a tradition that seems more meaningful that our “scary halloween” tradition, which just seems silly to me. In my opinion, our culture has a very poor attitude towards death. Mostly we ignore it, but when we do deal with it, it is with a lot of fear. Ignoring it is meant to make it easier, but I think it just makes it harder. We will all die. The people we love will all die. No, it’s not fun to think about it, but I believe we will be more prepared for the inevitable if our culture handles it more directly.

I have several people to honor, most notably John’s dad, Tom, as well as all our grandparents. I don’t have pictures all my grandparents yet. I’m hoping my mom can send me scans of the rest of them before next year.

I also included the photos of a few close friends who are no longer alive, including my ex-boyfriend Jack, whom some of you may remember. He proposed to me on a tiny sailboat in Glacier Bay in Alaska, but I didn’t end up marrying him. I gave him the ring back after I got home. I’ll have to tell you that story someday. I recently found a log of that Alaska trip all those years ago, and I have a few photos as well. It was quite an adventure and it’ll make a good story.

Jack passed away this summer, from a rare, degenerative neurological illness that he had for most of his adult life. Initially he wasn’t expected to live as long as he did. So although it’s sad, it is also good that he lived into his 60’s. It seems like he had a good life, sailing with his long-term partner Debbie, in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands.

Photos are, from left to right: Jack; my grandma Opal; John’s dad Tom; and my friend, coach and mentor Phil, who died in April 2020 of cancer. The treats are: chocolate, apricot jam because Grandma loved apricots, and limes, chilies and cinnamon to represent all the yummy spices in life.

You can put anything on the ofrenda table, not only food but also other things that represent hobbies, etc. All the goodness of life. I should get a little toy sailboat for next year, because both Jack and Phil loved to sail. I also have a signed copy of a life coaching book that Phil wrote, but I’m not sure how enticing that would be. Do we miss our work in the afterlife? Maybe not.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Looks like I’m gearing up again for my once-a-month spurt of blogging. I would like to get more regular with this blog. The culprit is me over-scheduling myself. I am apparently not yet used to not having a job, and being healthy: two blessings I’m very grateful for – which have led me to think that I can do all the things, all the time. I have to learn to moderate. Otherwise, I won’t have the sense of expansiveness around time that I would like to have.

But there are so many things I am not doing at all, that I still want to add into my schedule! One thing I really would like to add to my schedule is art. I have a lot of art supplies and ideas, but I’m just not getting sat down to do it.

Eventually, I am going to cut back a little bit on the social activities. Group gatherings are very stressful for me. So why am I doing so many of them? They are a means to an end. My goal is to make a few close friends in Tucson. I’m attending group events in order to meet potential new friends. Once I have a few close friends (and I’m making good progress with that), I will go to less events. Maybe then I’ll have time to do some art?

I’ve made some very good friends while volunteering at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Here is a picture of me working on a recent morning. It’s been in the 70’s or even low 80’s during the middle of the day, but quite cool in the mornings.

We are putting up lights for Christmas. It’s a huge task, an incredible number of lights, and takes a couple of months. My volunteer group only does a very small part of it. Most of the work is done by garden staff, and the tree lights are done by professional arborists.

Here we are setting out luminarias along a wall near the café.

My volunteer group is a small group of 6-8 of us, and we really enjoy each other. It’s also a very beautiful way to start the week.

In addition to all the social activities I keep scheduling, I’m also trying (again) to get a handle on all our physical stuff. Too many things! John and I are drowning in household goods. I seem to always think I need new and better things. And as I’m getting older, I’m failing to remember anymore where everything is. I’m really trying to reduce the volume of stuff and get it all organized and labeled and put in logical places.

I don’t enjoy the task. To put it mildly! Everyone sees all my carefully labeled items in my closets and they think I’m an exceptionally organized person and must love organizing. But it’s really the opposite. My natural state is complete disarray, but along with disarray comes vast amounts of frustration because I can’t find anything.

Also the visual impact of disarray is confusing and overwhelming for me – like the chaotic sound of an orchestra warming up. If my brain can’t make easy sense of what it hears and sees, my brain fries. If things are where they belong, then my brain doesn’t have to continually figure out what it’s looking at. Clutter everywhere can be a visual onslaught for me.

I’m ok with decorative items sitting out, and frequently used items sitting out on the kitchen counter, because they stay in the same place all the time. My brain gets used to them and expects to see them, so it’s not confusing. I don’t actually have to have a minimalistic house. I just need a place for everything and everything in its place. And I need to buy less, and give away more. Easier said than done, though.

I just want a simple, quiet life and a few good friends. But between trying to reduce chaos in my house, and trying to get out and make friends, I am keeping very busy!

Here are two of my new friends, a married couple, Dana and Chris.

Dana is a retired engineer and does a lot of environmental volunteering, and Chris is a retired nurse and is now a textile artist. I met Dana while volunteering at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, and now we go to the gym together. I think I’ve mentioned Dana before.

Typically I would not be interested in exercising at a gym. It’s too loud and confusing! Too many people! But I just follow Dana and she keeps me on track, which allows me to block out everything else.

Also it’s a good gym, where they strongly discourage clanging the weights and grunting and other types of startling noises. How do they do that? With cute little sayings on the wall, like, “If you’re grunting, you better be in labor.” It sets the expectations and helps keep the sudden loud noises to a minimum. Still, it’s crowded and loud and challenging for me. I always lose count of my sets, but Dana counts with me – and continually reminds me to breathe, lol. It’s like having a personal trainer but for free. I’m very grateful for that, because without her, I would not go to the gym.

If you’re wondering why I like music events when I’m so noise sensitive, it’s the same principle of an orderly house vs. a chaotic house. Music is (generally) an orderly form of noise, so my brain can track it and not be overwhelmed by it. And if a concert is too loud, I can just wear earplugs. I’ve thought about bringing earplugs to the gym, but it won’t help the fact that the noise is chaotic rather than predicable. Plus, I need to be able to hear Dana.

The other thing that’s great about this gym is that it’s so close to where I live that I can easily ride my bike there, even in the heat of the summer. And it’s very affordable at the basic plan, which is just the machines and weights (not the classes or the pool). Chris takes the classes, including the aqua aerobics. She has invited me to go to the classes with her, but I don’t like following along in classes, and I don’t like public pools (I’m so grateful to have my own). So I just lift weights with Dana.

I am really enjoying biking places when I can. I don’t like to bike in traffic, but I live quite near the bike loop. We did that intentionally – proximity to the loop was one of our top criteria when house hunting. Near the loop and with a pool!

My bike is very old and I would really like a new one. John has been diligently keeping it running for me, but it’s time to replace it. That’s yet another thing I haven’t found the time to do – sit down and research what type of bike to get. And we need to decide which bikes to get rid of, because we can’t just keep collecting stuff! We have several bikes, all of which are very old. We really need to get rid of all the cruddy bikes. Right John? Lol, we are both challenged when it comes to getting rid of stuff. The stuff he’s willing to get rid of, I’m not, and the stuff I’m willing to get rid of, he’s not. Of course.

Yesterday I saw this pair of fancy bikes on the back of an expensive Sprinter van, and I thought yeah, that whole package, yep, that would work for me.

Thus we muddle along. Hopefully in the next week or two I can try again to get caught up with this blog and put up pictures of our recent camping trips, among other things.

But first I really want to get the backpacking equipment back into bins – it’s currently exploded all over my screened porch. And the guest bedding is also in piles everywhere. I’m trying to get it organized better. And my Halloween and Dia de Muertos decorations are still up. I put up an ofrenda this year. I’m hoping to post about that too, among other things.

And then of course, there was the election. I do care about that and there are things I could say about it. But I feel like you already have plenty to read on that topic. So I will just stick to stories that are strictly my own. I did not volunteer at the polls or door knock, but I have friends who did, so that might come up in my blog. Or not. We’ll see!

Another thing I haven’t mentioned is physics. I’ve been trying to read physics books for several months now. Not textbooks, but books written for educated adults about all the new science in the past few decades. I’m interested in reading about physics because as I get older, I’ve been more curious about reality and our place in the universe.

I’m not finding the answers in religion, which is based on a very outdated scientific understanding of our world. I don’t know of a serious religion that has evolved to incorporate our increasing understanding of reality, although there have been a few flaky attempts made at times. So I’m just going straight to the science books to try to understand what science can tell me about who we are and how is it that we’re here. I’m not finding the answers in science either. But it’s fascinating and amazing how much we’ve learned about the universe in the past few decades since I was a kid. It’s also amazing and discouraging how very little of it I seem to be able to understand. It’s completely counterintuitive.

I had hoped to be able to write a blog post summarizing what I’ve learned and recommending a book list. But I’m really not there yet. Not sure I’m ever going to get there, but I’m continuing to try. So far all I can say is this: reality isn’t what we think it is. And there’s a lot more about our universe that we don’t understand than we do understand. Maybe eventually I’ll have something more intelligent to say than that.

So lots going on, lots to tell you about, and not enough time to do it all! I’m also, ironically, reading a self help book that suggests we stop over scheduling ourselves (rather than continually trying to optimize our productivity). Which is apropos because apparently retiring doesn’t automatically cure the tendency to stay overly busy. We do that to ourselves.

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.