Gathering together for Serena and Scottie's Wedding

Gathering together to celebrate Serena and Scottie's Wedding

On a gorgeous Autumn day in November family and friends came together for Serena and Scottie's wedding at the Thatcher Winery in the foothills near Paso Robles. The setting was perfect for a barn wedding theme, and everyone had a great time.

Here's a Smilebox slideshow showing some of the happenings before the ceremony:

Gathering Together for Serena and Scottie's Wedding

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.

Eli's First Easter Egg Hunt 2011

On Easter 2011 Eli went on his first Easter egg hunt. No competition at this one...just Eli and his family, all adults that day. Although he could say something that sounded like "egg" and held on to his basket the whole time, he wasn't too sure about looking for eggs, especially since he had to go on the grass which was wet from the heavy mist that had fallen all morning. Also, there was no candy in the plastic eggs since he was way too young to start eating candy, even a little on Easter. The first egg he found had a coin in it and wasn't very exciting, even with cheers from the grown-ups. Grandpa Chris helped him in his hunt, and once Eli discovered dried strawberries in an egg, he was ready to search for more... All eggs were found and placed in his basket, so Eli was successful. Wait until next year after he has practiced a bit!

Want to see more photo's of Eli's First Easter Egg Hunt? You can find them by clicking here on The Feige's Family and Friends, my Shutterfly family share site. Once on the page, click on Pictures and Video and then on Easter 2011. There's a collage for Easter 2011, but Eli's First Easter Egg Hunt is included with the photos in Easter 2011. (Hint: If you're really interested in seeing lots of Eli photos plus others, you can explore several years' worth of my digital photos at this site.)

Christmas Ribbon Jello

Jello was often a part of family meals while I was growing up in the 50's and 60's. Also, it, with additions of fruit and cream, made the jello molds which were a staple at church pot-luck dinners. However, special, complex recipes were usually reserved for holidays. It seemed that everyone would try to outdo the other cooks with fancy recipes and interesting additions in their jello. At our Christmas and Easter family dinners, ribbon jello salad became a necessary part of the holiday dinner. Now it is "tradition."  Grammie always made it up until the past few years.  Now, using the popular recipe found in Joys of Jello, I, along with Bonnie, have become the keepers of the jello tradition. At Christmas the jello has layers of red, white and green, and at Easter the flavors change to get the colors of yellow, orange and white...or whatever combo the cook decides to use. The small packages of jello the recipe calls for are quite difficult to find nowadays, so the recipe automatically has to be doubled. No problem! Everyone likes this recipe, especially my nephew Scott who looks forward to this particular dish at holiday meals.

Christmas 2010 we served the jello right on the plate with the rest of the Christmas supper, but we often serve it on a desert plate, so it has it's own specical place at the table.

Here's the basic recipe I used, with slight modificatios, for Christmas 2010 and Easter 2011:

Christmas Ribbon Jello
Ingredients:
Step 1:

• 2 (3 oz) packages lime jello
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cups cold water

Step 2:

• 1 (3 oz) package lemon jello
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 cup pineapple juice (Use the juice drained from the pineapple.)
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
• 1 can (1 lb, 4 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (unsweetened), whipped
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Note 1: You can use low-fat versions of whipping cream, cream cheese and mayonnaise, but this jello salad won't have the same creamy taste of the original. My thought is that for all the time and mixing bowls this takes to make, it is worth it to use the real thing. Also, this is not an everyday recipe...

Step 3:

• 2 (3 oz) packages raspberry or strawberry jello
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cups cold water

Note: If you use the only one 3 oz. package of lime and raspberry jello as some versions of this recipe suggest for the bottom and top layers, the green and red layers will be a rather thin, so you may want to be sure to use the two packages of the small size or one of the larger size package of jello for the top and bottom layers. Everyone I know loves leftovers of this salad, so having a bit too much is no problem around our house.




Directions:
Step 1: Dissolve lime jello in 2 cups hot water, then add 2 cups cold water. Pour into a 14x10x2 glass casserole. Chill until partially set.

Step 2: Dissolve lemon jello in 1 cup hot water in a heavy pan. Add marshmallows and stir to melt.

Remove from heat and add cream cheese and pineapple juice. Beat until well blended. Stir in crushed pineapple. Let cool slightly. Whip the heavy cream, then fold into the mixture along with the mayonnaise. Chill until partially thickened, then pour over the lime jello layer. Chill until firm.

Step 3: Dissolve the raspberry or strawberry jello in 2 cups hot water. Add 2 cups cold water. Chill until syrupy, then pour over pineapple layer. Let chill until firm.

 Note 1: I speed up the process by putting bowls, pineapple, whipped cream, etc. in the refrigerator to chill until I need them. You can also put some ice water in instead of cold tap water after the jello has been melted.
Note 2: I always have to be really careful about the cooling of the jello to pour on partially set for layers, especially the last to go on top. If it gets too set/thick, the top will be lumpy...no way to get it clear and smooth. It tastes the same, but isn't as pretty and it is more difficult to serve.

Source: Joys of Jello via the Internet where dozens of this recipe were found on various sites. The many recipes I found had all of the same ingredients but some had slightly different proportions and different methods of mixing up the layers. I've just purchased a Joys of Jello soft-cover recipe booklet from a used book seller on the Internet, so I will be able to check out the "real" real recipe in a couple of weeks.

Eli loves lasagna!!!

Our Christmas dinner included family favorites. Since Eli had eaten, he was wandering around observing while the adults ate. When he decided to try some of the adult food, he climbed onto his Grandpa's lap and pointed out what he wanted to try...lasagna. Bonnie had used Great-grandma Allen's recipe for this dish. Eli needed to think a moment about whether he liked it or not, but we knew he loved it because of the way he opened up his mouth as wide as it would go for the next bite.

Being fed by Grandpa was just taking too long, so Eli grabbed a fork and started feeding himself. At one point he almost had the whole serving speared onto his fork...

Now we know that lasagna will remain a family favorite. Eli gave it his approval.

Grandma's Chicken Cacciatore

My grandmother was known as a great cook and had some delicious recipes that were passed down over the years. One recipe we didn't get was her chicken cacciatore. My dad loved that dish and wanted to make it a part of our repertoire of family recipes. Sadly, there was no cookbook or written recipe that we could find to match it since cacciatore is an Italian term for a baked dish, and everyone has their own take on it. Thus began a series of attempts to recreate that dish as my dad remembered it. Many interesting meals followed, but most were not what he yearned for. He ultimately decided that one Texas Barbeque Sauce recipe (I made a handwritten copy of it long ago, so you can e-mail me if you would like it.) that he found in one of Mom's cookbooks was the closest thing to it if he added some onion and celery and baked everything afterwards.

Here's what he did: He would make the sauce, a rather standard barbeque sauce found in similar forms in most cookbooks of the time. Then he would fry chicken pieces with the skin left on. He then transfered the chicken to a casserole dish, covered it first with a small yellow onion thinly sliced and then half a cup of diced celery, and he ended by pouring the whole batch of sauce over it. The dish baked about an hour at 375 F. It was delicious!!! The chicken came out juicy and had soaked up most of the flavors of the sauce. I especially loved it served over rice. My dad, the mashed potato king, always wanted to have it served over mashed potatoes to soak up the succulent sauce.

Well, many years ago I decided to make it, and the dish has been evolving since then. First, I elimated the two frying pans and a casserole in favor of what QVC calls a saucier (Sp?). Second I eliminated a few of the ingredients...cayenne pepper, Worchestershire sauce and tomato juice. Third, I added a lot more onion and celery plus added chopped green bell pepper. Even more recently, I end up the final sauce by balancing the vinegar and brown suger to get a sweet and sour flavor.

Here's my method:

• First , make the sauce in a big, double handled saucier on the stove.
• Second, put in boneless, skinless, most fat removed chicken thighs, some cut into large chunks.
• Third, bake it for about an hour at 375 F.
• Fourth, serve it over rice.

Although I add things to taste now and don't follow the recipe, here's an approximation of my recipe:

• 1 large yellow onion diced
• 4-5 ribs of celery sliced
• one large green or red bell pepper chopped into about 1" squares
• olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan for browning
• 1/2 cup catsup
• two cans chopped tomatoes, using all of the juice, preferably the kind with basil and garlic in it
• 1 cup water or chicken broth
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (ground, Spanish)
• 1 T dry mustard
• 2 T chili powder (I always used a brand called "Grandma's" but can no longer find it. It is NOT spicy.)
• one package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (All other parts are good, but come out a bit dry because of cutting off the skin and fat.)
• NOTE: I don't use any salt because there is plenty of flavor for me and the tomatoes and catsup have enough salt for the whole dish.

I carmelize the onions in olive oil, adding the celery and pepper part way through browning to begin cooking. Then I pour on the liquids and tomatoes, stir in the brown sugar and sprinkle the spices on top. After stirring to blend, I leave the whole mixture to simmer for 10 to 20 minutes on the stovetop while the oven preheats. I adjust the sweet and sour balance and lay the chicken pieces into the sauce and spoon the vegetable sauce to cover them. Leaving everything in the saucier, I put it in the oven to bake for about and hour at 375 F.

The cacciatore is served diretly from the saucier, eliminating one more dish to wash. I like to serve it over rice with a green salad side. The photo at the top of this post is my most recent cacciatore just after I took it out of the oven. It was delicious but slightly on the "sour" side after I added a bit too much cider vinegar.

Do you know where they still sell Grandma's chile powder? Please let me know if you find it!

Baptism Card

This is the card I made for Eli's baptism. I chose the blue and white of the Greek flag and a bright yellow gold metallic paper (looks a bit dark in the photo) to match all of the beautiful gold in the church.

I made this card to send to Eli's relatives around Father's Day. It's from a digital image that matched Eli's activities so much that I knew I had to make a card with it. He even has a similar hat!! Eli loves playing in the water and recently had spent time in the water in Florida and later Hawaii. By the way, that's real sand glued over the image.

More Photos of Eli's "Big Dunk"

This is nearly the end after a looong time and many traditional rituals...I believe that both Nina and Eli were exhausted, she from holding a sobbing and hefty baby for so long and he from sobbing and trying to get everyone to lighten up with his "pffting"!!

Three generations of the Pashalides family: Tom (grandpa), Tom (father) and Eli.

Eli sure was pooped out and glad to be in his father's arms again.

Julie's parents couldn't be prouder or happier grandparents. (Unless another grandbaby comes along!) They'll probably have to wait a while for more grandbabies since both of Eli's parents are just starting their medical residencies and have very long days and nights at the hospital.

Tom with Eli, Nina, Julie (my niece)

Julie's high school English teacher has been another good friend to Julie and her whole family. Here she was finishing a warm toast to the family.

My mom, Eli's great-grandmother, loves having a new baby in the family.

Wow! Getting the photos and the format to work is really complicated at this point!! I have a lot to learn!!! I'm probably going about this all wrong, so if any of you have any tips on how to move the photos from my Photoshop 6 organizer, please let me know. For today, I am copying from my organizer, pasting on the desktop, browsing to the photo and then opening it. It's way too late to be trying to do this, so I've just added a few more photos from the baptism celebration. Tomorrow, I'll try to set up a web page on Shutterfly with pages full of photos. I have a couple I did a couple years ago. It was fairly easy, but managing so many photos made it a bit cumbersome... Did I say that I believe in taking lots of photos to capture people's expressions, new angles, better light, etc. and that I have thousands that I need to organize? ...and I'm still learning something new about photography every time I set out to shoot a set of photos...I don't think the blog is the place to put them all, so I've just put a few in this post to show the event and then hope put the URL of a Shutterfly Web Page in a later post so you can see more if you'd like. Thanks for putting up with my ramblings and fumblings...soon I should have the hang of this blogging process and things will be more stream-lined.

Photos of Eli's Baptism

This is the baptismal font which was prepared with olive oil and a blessing over the water during the ceremony.

Starting Out and Eli's "Big Dunk"

Today is Blog Day One to start the blog that has been forming in my mind's eye for quite a while now. It's a good time to start since it's now summer vacation and there are some things to share. I'll be posting photos, card and craft creations, family events, recipes...

This June my niece's baby was baptised in a full Greek Orthodox Ceremony in a beautiful Greek Church with a few family members and close friends in attendance. Nina, Eli's godmother and a life-long friend of my niece, planned and prepared the whole event. As a life-long Lutheran, I was used to baptisms and much of the liturgy that was used, but the whole ceremony was truly more awesome than I expected, having many traditional rituals including dunking the baby three times. Since both my niece's husband and father-in-law are Greeks and were baptised in the same way, Eli's baptism continued the family traditions.

I'll let the photos show some of that special day...but first I have to figure out how to get the photos from my memory card, hopefully later today.