dinner and stories

we have dinner together in the evenings followed by tea with the chocolate mint cookies i made. today was a rainy day and everyone came in quite wet. morgan spends the days helping victoria sort through boxes of journals, photos, films, travel momentoes, books, and many other things. much has been given to friends, much has been donated to westbeth's secondhand store (they pick it up tomorrow). the little that is left will be shipped to paris.

this evening victoria and morgana compared their travel stories from thailand and cambodia. victoria has worked for the united nations and any place that we mention we've been, she's been there too . . and many more besides.

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p.s. chanda's visit to the ear, nose and throat doctor was uneventful. he found nothing worse, which is good, and confirmed that it could be viral or bacterial and it was hard to tell. she's continuing with the medication and her throat is not as sore. she just has a lot of congestion now.

cats and cookies and the first sunday of advent

 

greg and i were out early to help kendall unload her car as she was returning from upstate. i stayed then and helped her unpack a little, and read a few books with aurélien. beforehand, greg and i visited the fancy starbucks reserve coffee shop on seventh avenue. i had a hazelnut bianco latte which is described on the menu as "reserve espresso with steamed house-made hazelnut praline-infused milk." it was so good!

while i was walking along bank to meet greg at the coffee shop i heard a loud bang on greenwich avenue which i saw to be an ambulance that had crashed into a parked car. greg thinks that maybe the car was pulling out as the ambulance was passing . . so strange. it didn't seem like anyone was hurt and i think the ambulance was empty.

it looks like zuzu is getting ready to attack cricket . . (i decided to call fern zuzu . . i don't think i've mentioned it yet . . zuzu is a name from the movie it's a wonderful life, with jimmy stewart and donna reed).

making chocolate mint cookies with chocolate chips . .

from a mollie katzen cookbook while listening to christmas carols.

 

the first light of advent is the light of stones,

light that shines in seashells

in crystals and in bones.

happy advent . .

a second thanksgiving meal

 

morning shenanigans while making the bed . . i was out early for the green market to take the compost and to get apples and eggs . . however, the apple farm and the egg people were not there! i forgot that they were taking the weekend off. i was able to drop off the compost though . . thank goodness as it was a lot of compost. i also visited the butcher for leftover turkey parts for our second thanksgiving meal this evening.

 

i stopped by to see chanda as she had to work today. she's already missed two weekends and couldn't miss anymore. her throat has been very sore and she has had a recurring fever that is now being kept down with ibuprofen. she's visited an urgent care clinic in her neighborhood that takes our insurance and is on medication for strep, even though both tests they took have been negative. she has an appointment with an ear, nose and throat doctor on monday.

back at home i began working on tonight's feast . .
 

cricket thinks he's one of the ingredients.

fresh pasture raised turkey . . i bought a whole leg and a chicken breast from our local butcher. we had it with leftover mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples and raisins, cranberries and collard greens.

there was leftover pumpkin pie for dessert . .

the cats look like one long lumpy pillow in the kitchen while greg does some dishes . .

the day after thanksgiving

greg worked from home today and i took a walk to the pet store for cat food and then later in the afternoon morgan went with harley to newark airport for harley's 5:45 pm flight home. the days have been very grey with maybe a little bit of blue sky in the early evening.

 beautiful tulips from harley . . 

interesting bumper cars at the standard hotel that i passed on my way back from the beasty feast pet store . . 

i don't know . . i think it looks fun . . !

thanksgiving day

 

chanda has been very sick and this morning greg and i decided to drive out to brooklyn to bring her back for thanksgiving day. just by chance we drove by the above church while looking for a parking spot and i was so intrigued that i did a little research and came across this twenty-four minute movie about churches in brooklyn and st. barbara's in particular:

 

 

 i like how the speaker talks about the neighborhood too, besides just describing the history of the church.  my second cousin amy lived in this area for many years in the 1930's and 40's before she moved next door to the ridgewood neighborhood of queens which borders bushwick (i was also excited to learn that jackie gleason grew up in this area - i grew up watching his tv show with my mom and dad).

 

back at home, morgan and harley got busy making the nutloaf while korrina sliced the baguette to have with cheese hors d'oeuvres.

 

the beautiful table morgan set for us . .
 

chanda sat in bed, well away from everyone as she was still recovering from covid, though she has been testing negative.

 

the nutloaf made with lentils, cashews, walnuts, carrots, celery and some flax seeds.

bringing out the apple pie to celebrate korrina's and chanda's birthdays . . 

(korrina is wearing a pair of lovely blue pom pom earrings she made . . along with many others . . )

korrina and josh left around 5 pm to visit his family and greg drove chanda home while i finished some cleaning up that still needed to be done. when he returned we sat and talked with victoria (i think he was also keeping tabs on a college football game).

holiday preparations

 i prepared for thanksgiving by boiling sweet potatoes today and making two apple pies which victoria helped me with. we had a lot of apples to peel! and it was really nice to talk with her while we worked. i also made a vegan pumpkin pie this year, using coconut cream instead of milk and cream cheese. harley cleaned the brussel sprouts for me (and peeled the sweet potatoes) and tomorrow we'll boil the russet potatoes and steam the apples and raisins . . also morgan and harley will make a nut loaf (instead of a turkey this year . . though last year we didn't have a turkey either - i made lasagna). the two of them went to a dance concert this evening at the joyce - complexions dance company is in residence for two weeks. they both loved the program and couldn't say enough about how wonderful the pieces were and how intense and committed the dancers. maybe i'll try to see program b with morgan this weekend.

it's late and the cats have been running around like wild things while i cleaned up from cooking and wrapped a gift for korrina (a lovely olive wood cutting board that can be used also as a cheese plate-recommended by morgana. chanda's gift was half the bicycle she bought a few months ago, along with new tires for it). we'll celebrate their birthdays tomorrow . and now i'm really tired and should go to sleep . .

yesterday and today

yesterday, greg and morgan put up a curtain line we had brought back from austria (an ikea set manu had in her storage room that she said she wouldn't use and so we could have).

the plan was to be able to curtain off part of the room when guests are visiting, but the kittens have too much fun playing with the panels and so usually slide the pieces open . . not that we're surprised . . 

this morning harley made a delicious english breakfast for us with beans, tomotoes, mushrooms and sausage.

i had been out beforehand to pick up vitamin c from a local health food store as the sudden cold weather has all of us feeling like we might catch colds . . and harley has had a bad cough. this morning it was 29 degrees when i went out, and this sunday the weather report says that it might go up to 59.

 

korrina celebrated her birthday today with josh at a small restaurant on eighth street that used to be persian cafe nadery, and is now amélie cafe. she said the food was wonderful and it was a quiet place and not crowded.

they had baked camembert, brussel sprouts with apple and bacon . .

mushroom flatbread, steak tartare . . 

and apple tart tatin (meaning, caramelized and baked in the manner of an upside-down cake) with salted caramel ice cream. i'm getting hungry just writing about it . . (chanda said everything sounded good except the steak tartare, and i had to agree but i think morgan is another raw steak fan and would disagree). i'd like to visit the cafe just for the dessert . .

cats and coffeehouse chronicles

more green market fare . .

that was of great interest to the kittens . . 

("where are our goodies?")

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i had a ticket today to la mama's coffeehouse chronicles celebrating fifty-five years of the rod rodgers dance company. ellen, the girls' dance/choreography teacher, spoke on the panel along with other several other early members of the company and several current members. interspersed with the discussion was a video interview with rod rodgers along with excerpts from three dances. 

in the 1960's ellen regularly attended a dance class taught by mary anthony at mary's studio on broadway at waverly, which is where she met rod. she was a part of his company for the beginning years, traveling with them overseas one year for a tour and also accompanying them to several prisons where a specific dance piece titled box 71 was performed. (here's a link to a photo of her with rod rodgers and company member barbara roan.) rod rodgers grew up in detroit in a family of professional dancers and performers and came to new york city in 1963. you can read about his life and career on encyclopedia dot com here. he was dedicated to bringing dance to children in underrepresented neighborhoods, a commitment the company still maintains with their strong youth program at its fourth street location. the panelists spoke about how rod always took care of his dancers, paying them well for home performances and while touring. he also recognized the importance of having a space that the company could call home, and acquired the building on fourth street around the late 60's, early 70's. i would often rent studio space there so the girls could practice the dances they were working on for ellen's class. it was wonderful to be present for this event.

in the studio with ellen, marina (ellen's student during the time she held her classes in the company's building) and rod's son jason. (here we are in the same studio for a rehearsal in 2011, and here in 2017.)

afterwards, i walked three blocks to see korrina at her new work place . . 

i'll have to go back to try the food one day.