At her request, I made pies today with my mom at her house. We made four. She seems to really like them. Great-Grandma Hansen also requested apricots for her apricot jam. So between family and neighbors, we are getting good mileage out of the apricot tree this year.
In the evening we went to a baby shower for my cousin Chanel at Gardner Village. It was fun, with good food and good presents (I brought books, my mom brought a super-cute blanket and musical stuffed toy).
Oh, and Happy Birthday to Thack!
July 30th, 2008
Yesterday my mom asked me to bring her a bag of apricots so she could make freezer jam. For some reason that didn’t sound too appetizing to me. Since freezer jam isn’t cooked, I was picturing weird chunks of peel in it. Apricot peels aren’t bad, but I don’t want peely jam. Then my mom reminded me that my Grandma Hansen has been making apricot freezer jam forever. This brought back memories of visiting my Grandma when I was a kid, and her making me a hot breakfast, whatever I requested (usually either pancakes or french toast). So yummy. There was never syrup, just butter and three kinds of freezer jam - light red (strawberry), dark red (raspberry) and orange (apparently this was apricot). She always used berries from Grandpa’s farm or from Bear Lake to make jam.
So anyway, I took the apricots to my mom, and she explained that you blend the apricots to make them smooth. This makes much more sense. Today I made a batch and it is tasty - not peely at all.
July 29th, 2008
Two summers ago, our apricot tree was completely overloaded with fruit, and I had no idea what to do with it all. Maryanne (Bryan’s mom, who is an excellent pie maker) offered to help me make as many pies as we could. We made a deal - she would do the actual pie making (crust, rolling, etc), Bryan would pick the fruit, and I would prepare the filling and try to learn by watching her. For her efforts, she would keep half of the pies. Apricots come on at the hottest part of the summer (mid-late July), and we had a swamp cooler that was not cooling very well. And I was about seven months pregnant. It was hot. I don’t know how many pies we made, but it was close to two dozen. We baked them up four at a time, then when they cooled, we vacuum-sealed (Maryanne has a little trick) them into freezer bags and put them in the freezer. We’ve been enjoying them ever since. When you want to eat one, you just throw it in the oven for an hour and it comes out like fresh-baked.
Our apricot tree is very old and large. It’s the biggest apricot tree I’ve seen. We had it pruned the summer we moved in, and they took off about the top third of the tree. It has definitely rebounded, and because we haven’t had it pruned again, it has gone into bi-annual fruit production. This means that it mostly produces fruit every other year - a little one year, a ton the next. We have to pick up the mess every day or our lawn is completely covered. The raccoons make a big mess, throwing pits everywhere. It’s a big job.
Maryanne is busy right now, so Bryan and I have been making pies. Today we made eight. He does the picking and filling and I do the crust. I am getting pretty good. My recipe is a little different from Maryanne’s, but Bryan still seems to approve. Apricot is fast becoming one of my favorite pies. I like it warm with vanilla ice cream (gotta have the ice cream because it’s a little tart). My favorites pies are still Maryanne’s Fresh Strawberry Pie and my own pumpkin pie.
Oh, and if you’ve never seen Pushing Daisies, you should watch it.
July 26th, 2008
Today was Rees’ last soccer game. He did great. He really wanted to play and was disappointed when Coach Dad gave him his turns on the bench. Very cute. He got a little MVP trophy that he loves and is carrying around with him everywhere. Bryan was a great coach and all the kids loved him.
We came home to find the Gregory family helping themselves to our apricots. This is perfectly acceptable, since we have way too many to manage by ourselves. Thayne, Jakson, and Kassidy were daredevils, climbing the tree and onto the roof of the garage to get the ripest ones. Camillia was content to watch.
The boys had a sleepover tonight with the Gregorys. We took them over at about 7 and then went up to Market Street Broiler for dinner. We ordered artichoke dip with spinach and crab to start, then shared a dinner of filet mignon and a lobster tail. Yummy. We lucked out - a table on the patio opened up right when we arrived. Very nice dinner.
Then we went to Sandy to see The Dark Knight on IMAX. Unfortunately, I read the theatre map upside down when ordering tickets, so we were on the front row rather than the back! My horror was offset by all the people around us who also did the same thing. We were all able to laugh about it. The couple next to us purchased the very first tickets of the show - on the front row. Honestly, the first three of four rows of that theatre should not even exist. I was having serious flashbacks about my major hotel reservation error on our recent trip to San Diego (always save your original Expedia itinerary if you’re coming back later to buy, friends!).
I was able to mostly forget about that, which is a testament to the movie. It’s been said a million times, but Heath Ledger is off the charts - which is good, since he’s probably in it more than Batman/Bruce Wayne is. I have always liked him. He was excellent in Brokeback Mountain (I practically dragged Bryan to see it, and I think he may have ended up liking it even more than I did). My favorite quote, however, was from Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman):
Let me get this straight: You think that your employer, one of the richest men in the world, is spending his nights running around the city beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? And your plan is to blackmail him?
Good luck.
July 19th, 2008
Bryan hauled me out into the yard early this morning to show me what he was doing last night while I was at work. The pergola is done! It looks great, too. Next we will make the pergola floor from flagstone. Woo-hoo!
July 15th, 2008
This morning Bryan got up early and picked up the rest of the wood he needs to finish the pergola. He also bought a new hammock. Our old hammock made of recycled t-shirts (purchased in Tijuana) finally bit the dust after too much abuse from the neighborhood rugrats.
Afterward we all went swimming at Murray Pool. It was nice to be there with another adult. The two kids have much different swimming preferences. Rees likes to go down the slide a lot and jump into the deep pool, which requires someone to catch him (he wears a life jacket but doesn’t swim yet). Jamie, on the other hand, prefers to stay in the very shallow water where he can just splash around. He gets cranky being held too much in deep water.
Bryan worked on the pergola the rest of the day and hung his new hammock. He teased me about the fact that I could now take naps in the hammock all afternoon (because that’s what he thinks I do while he’s at work - sleep). I then promptly fell asleep in the hammock and he made dinner for everyone. Ha-ha.
July 11th, 2008
We had a low-key holiday. I spent most of the day outside in the yard planting. I finished planting the shady bed under the apricot tree in the back, and got started planting in the bed on the north side of the backyard. While I was planting in the shade, I noticed four baby birds in Diane’s back yard - it looked like they’d fallen out of their nest. Three were still alive and chirping, but much too small to survive (eyes still closed). I looked up some instructions on the internet and ended up putting some dry grass clippings in the bottom of a plastic milk jug (top cut off). I put the birds in the “nest” and attached it to the fence, near where I found them, with zip ties. They were still chirping, so I hope the mother will hear them and come take care of them. I wish I had taken pictures.
Bryan repaired the automatic door lock on the Mazda today (the driver’s side auto lock broke while I was in Arizona earlier this year). After being quoted $225 and $150 by two mechanics, Bryan decided to install the $70 part himself. He did a great job and was done in about an hour. He says it only took him that long because he spent about 20 minutes trying to put it in backward. 
July 4th, 2008
I spent all afternoon working in the backyard today. I don’t know why it makes me so happy, but it just does.
Our next-door neighbor Diane is having her yard completely re-landscaped. New sprinklers, flowerbeds, grass, paths, etc. There has been a crew here for nearly a week putting it all together, and I think it will look very nice. The amount of dust they are generating is amazing. We won’t be washing cars until they’re done.
July 1st, 2008