Hierloom Recipes

Food is traditional. Inherently it is passed down from one person to another, no matter how indirectly.

I wanted to make sure I preserved my families food traditions, so a few years ago, I contacted my grandmothers and mom to make sure I received the recipes they considered theirs and family tradition.

Maybe I should have known since I had to ask, but I didn't exactly recieve an avalanche of information. I got a couple cookie recipes.

So I've adopted recipes from my best friend, too many ex-boyfriends mothers and other random places of recipes I like.

I figure if you can make families in any way, you can make family recipes in any way too!

Gardenia Sweetness

My memories of my grandparents are inextricably linked to the wafting fragrance of flowers around their homes.

As they have all sold or are selling their homes and moving into retirement places, I try to keep those memories in other ways.

Here, in a photo of the last blooms at the back steps, I even love the imperfections of the bruised petals because that's how they really are.

Prickly Ornament

A liquid amber tree

Dutch Babies (aka German Pancake)

Mmmm, lemons from Grandpa's lemon tree. Does it get any better? Any tarter? Any sweeter?

What could I possibly do with those that warrant carrying them from San Diego to Spokane?

An old favorite for sure, Dutch Babies. Corrupted from the word 'deutsch,' they're really traditionally German pancakes. A really thick, eggy pancake.

A fairly neutral base, they're made of just egg, milk, flour and salt.

More importantly, they serve as the perfect conveyor of mouth puckering lemon and snowy powdered sugar to my mouth.

Perfect to share with my family after six months away, or to eat all by myself as they all go to work!

They'll raise in the oven to impressive (and sometimes scary) heights due to the steam created by the water in the butter. The moment they're taken out of the oven, they begin to fall, so serve immediately.

Dutch Babies Recipe:

3 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 - 3 Tbsp butter

Preheat 10 inch oven safe skillet or muffin tins at 450 while preparing batter. Beat eggs, flour, milk and salt in blender on high speed for one minute (can also be done by hand, but takes a little longer). Melt butter in skillet or tins (divide butter equally), tilting to cover bottom and sides. Pour in batter.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, the lower heat to 350 and bake another 10 minutes.

Serve with lemon juice and powdered sugar. Other options include applesauce and cinnamon, honey, jam or maple syrup.

Too Much Too Quickly

We've all heard about it, we've all complained about it. We've all thought to ourselves, 'well, I probably shouldn't.'

But somehow, just about all of us manage to accumulate incredible quantities of stuff. Some call it affluenza, others call it the American way.

And in the process of aquiring and maintaining, it can get in the way of living.

My grandparents are having difficulty paring down their posessions to move from their three bedroom home of 24 years into a two bedroom apartment in their retirement village.

I had to leave almost half of my things in Nicaragua after only two years because I didn't want to pay for more than one 50 pound suitcase. I had taken two suitcases there, but managed to accumulate as much as I used up.

With the recession, sales statistics clearly show that people aren't spending as much money, but have we, as a country, truly changed our ways to avoid repeating what brought us here in the first place?

It doesn't seem like it.

What do you think? And more importantly, what are you going to do (or not do) about it?

Persistance Doesn't Always Pay Off

Ok, I think this is the last of the family home videos and photos I'm going to torture you with, at least for a little while.

While Charlie is persistant, he doesn't always find what he is looking for!

Good for America

A house for the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority, built by HOPE VI funding and lots of volunteers!

The Edward Kennedy Serve America Act has been passed by the house and will be signed into law as soon as President Obama returns from the G20 summit!

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the new service bill will (among other things) increase the number of Americorps volunteers from 75,000 to 250,000 over the next eight years.

It also will increase support for social entrepreneurialism. For those of you with short attention spans like me, here is a link of the highlights.