A Daughter-in-law's memory

Sadly, Eric's father, Elias, passed away this past week and he certainly will be missed. I post this picture of Elias, because I think it is remarkable how much Eric takes after him. I believe this was taken in Cuba, for a school ID or something. At a time before he met his wife. At a time before his kids were born. His new life in the U.S. was ahead of him.


As a daughter-in-law, your memories are a bit different as you really aren't there from the get-go. You get to hear all the childhood stories involving Eric (or his sisters) and laugh at the memories from an outsider point-of-view. Elias has always been supportive of Eric and I and always had informative and useful psych advice for me. Of course, you hate to burden the psychologist at home, but he was always willing to lend an ear when I needed it.

Pepper also appreciated his Grandpa Elias because leftover tasty morsels of whatever-was-for-dinner would always get stuck in the beard. And Pepper was eager to help clean up that situation.

Certainly, this family will miss him in an unmeasurable form. But these are some terrific people. Elena is a strong woman and Eric's sisters, Emmy and Eileen, will be there to support her along the way. He raised three terrific kids.

Palestine & Israel

When we went to Orlando last weekend, it was the first meeting of the "cousins"... Eric and I's dog, Pepper, and Emmy's new kitty Boo Boo. Each was reluctant to give Alaskan kisses, but after about an hour of ducking and hiding, they came to terms across the room without hissing and growling.


What was remarkable, though, was they seemed to have more courage to meet each other when being held. In fact, Boo Boo made the first step of reaching her paw out and touching Pepper's paw. It was really cute - kinda odd - that these two animals wanted to hold hands, er paws!


Boo Boo is a very sweet girl, and she has a great Momma. Welcome to the family sweetheart!

The chickens... are big!

Here's an updated picture of "Angel", one of Maryanne's chicks. In fact, this is the same chick, I believe, that was in her hand in the earlier post.



Angel even let silly ol' me pet her. She was very sweet, but no surprise, she is well taken care of and fed. As are all of them.

Can't wait for the eggs!!

Shaun's GF for July

This month's menu was more vegetable-oriented, due to summer and what's seasonally available.


No matter, tho, because one of the best offerings so far in this GF menu is a pair of tempura figs. You know, a sweet, slightly mushy fig encased in a light (amazingly non-flour) crispy coating. Tender and breaks into a flake with a touch of a fork. I think this was an amazing dish. The stripe of sweet potato mash wasn't as integral as the tahini sauce.

And an ode to Eric's favorite: the steamed pork belly buns. He's in love with these guys.

Summer = Figs

We were surprised to find some fresh figs at Costco the other day.... and we used it to our advantage and grilled them up, sprinkled with fresh goat cheese, and drizzled a bit of a balsamic reduction. Simple. Three ingredients. But, man, was that a good dinner!