Grammie's 91st Birthday Party

All of our small family gathered together to celebrate Grammie's 91st Birthday. We posed for a family portrait, Chris gave a toast, we chatted over a brunch of poached salmon, orzo salad and pineapple, and Grammie blew out her candles. Here's a Smile Box slide show of this special celebration:


Grammie's 91st Birthday Party

California State Fair 2012

I went to the California State Fair for the first time this year. When I was little and in Minnesota, I went to the fair because my cousins raised animals to show at the fairs. San Mateo has a great fair, but not too many farm animals. I loved San Mateo's floral areas and looking at the art by local artisans and often went when I was younger. Eli, not quite three, has been to the CA State Fair three times and milked a cow and a goat...He's way ahead of me in this experience!! Below is a slideshow of our day.

Digital slideshow made with Smilebox

Easter 2012

This Easter we had brunch at Scottie's new house...a one hundred year old home that has a yard full of heritage plants and some of the features of long ago. The camellias, roses, weeping cherry tree and Japanese maples are just as I remembered being popular when I was a child. Now they have very big trunks but the roses and camellias are the same. Scottie will be updating the house as he lives there but plans to leave some of the distinctive features of a century ago. Since there were no little children, we just had brunch and a good visit. Below is a slide show of the day that I just learned to make...

This free digital slideshow made with Smilebox

November 2011: Eli Explores More Food

At two years of age, Eli has already become a gourmet, trying new foods whenever the opportunity is there. He especially likes to try what the big people are eating and drinking...He's a hands-on type of guy who savors every bite. I hear that he is fond of quesadillas and pho, and I have seen his mouth open wide for lasagna and pureed sweet potatoes. One November night, he ate before everyone else but shared an after-dinner drink with Uncle Scottie.

Crab Louie

While growing up,we all loved seafood from clams to mussels to abalone to smelt that we would gather ourselves, but it was crab, dungeness crab fresh from the nearby ocean, we loved best. Whenever we went to a seafood restaurant during crab season, Poppa would order the Crab Louie. At the opening of the crab season, around Thanksgiving, we would prepare our own version at home. Since it is a time-consuming chore to clean the crab, it became a family activity reserved for special occasions. This year we made Crab Louie for Christmas Eve. Jim spent the afternoon cleaning crab and Carol put together the salad. Sourdough bread is our preferred side to this scrumptious meal, but it has become increasingly difficult to locate the real thing, a San Francisco specialty.

Our "recipe" for the Louie is to slice up and layer the following ingredients: ice-berg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, hard-boiled eggs, red peppers, celery and pickled beets from the can. The eggs often are still warm from just being boiled and the beets are chilled in the can in the refrigerator. We then place a heaping serving of crab meat on top of it all and drizzle the dressing on top. My recipe for the dressing is done "by taste". It includes: mayonnaise, ketchup, fresh lemon juice, a tiny bit of sugar and horseradish. All together this is what makes the traditional Feige Family Crab Louie.