A day in the mandarin orchards

Wintertime in our region means bountiful citrus in the form of a delicious little superfruit called the mandarin orange. I'll eat three in a row without hesitation every day in December. No joke. Last year, Andrew and I checked out the Mountain Mandarin Festival for the first time, and this weekend, we toured a few farms during Orchard Days. Mandarin farmers in five towns open up their storefronts, barns, homes and fields to the public, to offer fresh fruit by the pound and other mandarin goodies like mandarin-enhanced honey, chocolate sauce, barbecue sauce, olive oil, you name it...

View the grower map HERE, and read on to see our adventure...

First summer storm

We had our first storm of the summer yesterday. It poured up in Grass Valley when I was home and then again down here in Sacramento around dinner time. 

Our patio flooded, the cats stared out the back door in awe...and then the sun came out...that amazing orange-gold glow that can only happen after a good rainstorm. I ran to get my camera in the bedroom because the natural lighting was too good to pass up. 

When I came out to the backyard again and looked up at the sky, a huge rainbow had appeared. Don't you just love nature?

Fall Recipes: Pumpkin bread

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so it's only fitting that all of my posts have been about food this week, right? :)

I like to think of certain foods as a bit magical. Some are more magical than others. Why? Because they can disappear quickly, into thin air, leaving only tiny crumbs strewn across the kitchen counter. This pumpkin bread is one of those magical foods. Plus, it employs a "two-bowl method" as I like to call it (meaning, the recipe only requires two mixing bowls  -- one for dry ingredients and one for wet ingredients). Done and done.

Pumpkin bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the wet ingredients, you'll need:
- One 28 oz can of pure pumpkin
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs

For the dry ingredients, you'll need:
- 3 1/3 cup of flour (or 3 cups white flour plus 1/3 wheat)
- 2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar, one cup white)
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix both in their respective bowls, then add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until smooth, and spread evenly into 2 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean from loaf.

You can totally leave the recipe at that. But I got a little fancy and put on my baker's thinking cap. I chopped and caramelized some walnuts by sautéing them with smidgen of butter and a generous handful of brown sugar (Paula Deen would be so proud) until they were coated in sweetness. Walnuts never tasted so good!

Then, I mixed up some frosting with a cup of confectioners sugar, combined with a splash of milk and another splash of vanilla extract, and drizzled the icing on each loaf after they cooled from the oven. On top, I sprinkled the candied walnuts. 

And there you have it! I brought one of the loaves to work with me last week, and it was happily devoured. Thanks to my mom for this original recipe. :)

Fall Recipes: Butternut squash soup

Last weekend, I went a little crazy in the kitchen. Something about that crisp chill of fall and that early hint of winter in the air makes me want to bustle around from mixing bowl to oven all day. So that's just what I did. I took out my old handwritten recipe book and whipped up some creamy butternut squash soup and some dense pumpkin bread. Our apartment sure smelled like fall all day! Because it's our first full rainy weekend in the area, I'm sharing my soup recipe to start. Get ready to chow down and warm up...

Butternut Squash Soup

This soup recipe is good for three reasons. It's cheap, it's simple and it's soul-warming. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe that the soup had magical powers. But who's to say it doesn't? First, you'll want to gather some veggies and a plump butternut squash (which happens to be one of the cheapest items at the grocery store/farmers market this time of year).

- Slice the squash into four sections, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place face-up in a roasting pan. Turn the oven to broil and let it heat up.

- In the meantime, finely chop up the following: half of an onion, 2 ribs of celery, 1 large carrot, and 1 pear (or apple, depending on your preference or what happens to be in your fridge at the time). Sauté these with 1 tbsp. of butter in a large saucepan until the onions are clear and the veggies are soft.

- Stick the squash in the oven to broil until it's roasted on the edges and until you can easily poke a fork through it (about 10-15 minutes). Ah, look how lovely it looks...

- Set the squash aside to let it cool slightly. In the meantime, add 3 cups of chicken broth to the sautéed veggie mix (I used 3 chicken bouillon cubes, dissolved into 2 cups of water + 1 cup of milk to make the soup a tad more creamy) and bring everything to a boil.

- While the squash is still warm, take a paring knife and peel off its skin. Cut the squash into chunks and add it to soup mix. Boil until soft. 

- Then (here comes the messy part), purée the soup using a blender, hand blender or food processor until smooth--but not too smooth. Add salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg to taste. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Autumn pomegranate

Ahhhh......that's me sighing the ceremonial "end of deadline week" sigh of relief. This new issue of Sactown is going to be so cool. Literally. ;) Looking forward to a relaxing, rainy weekend and next week's holiday festivities. 

If you're wondering what the photo is about...my mom and dad saved me this huge (like, the-size-of-my-hand huge) pomegranate from the tree in our front yard and it's almost too pretty to eat. So, of course, I photographed it and its lovely crown.

P.S. Speaking of which, have you ever heard this quote by Frederick the Great? 

P.S.S. How to eat a pomegranate. I'll be using these instructions soon...

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

Echoes: lost and laughing

Actually, as my woods-treckin' mama has taught me, you should stay put if you're lost in the woods. ;) Nonetheless, Ellen's words are worth a Wednesday chuckle. This quote is from her 2009 commencement speech at Tulane University...what a lucky class!

P.s. A birthday shout-out my bff Kimmy K - the girl who always follows her own path, marches to the beat of her own saxophone, and takes time for nature walks... :) 

*Photo from the Tahoe wilderness

All the color

Last weekend, Andrew and I gathered with thousands of other locals and visitors to watch the 33rd annual Sikh parade as it came strolling down the street in our neighborhood in Yuba City. I was completely mesmerized by all the color, especially of the women's beautiful saris. (And I kept thinking how comfortable they look!) I snapped these photos while we stood on the sidewalk, and The Appeal-Democrat, where Andrew works, was there capturing the event. Check out a slideshow of their photos here.

Our engagement photos

I'm thrilled to (finally!) post me and Andrew's engagement photos, captured beautifully by the talented Hannah Nicholson, who I went to high school with and who just happens to be my good friend Heather's little sis (follow that?). We ventured out to Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley, with its beautiful stone house and gardens, and had a blast setting up shots around the grounds there in the beautiful late-summer afternoon light. Hannah snapped away, Andrew and I tried not to pose awkwardly and Heather helped us pick out good spots and faithfully carried around purses/water bottles/extra lenses. 

I must say, it was so much fun doing this kind of outdoor photo session with friends. All the pressure of a formal, stuffy engagement shoot went out the window and we could just relax, be ourselves and make it our own. Lots of laughter was involved that day. And the photos we'll cherish forever...We call this first one below our "album cover." ;)

Hannah also brought her film camera (yes, film!) I'm so glad some people still believe in this "old fashioned" photography method, because the results are truly phenomenal. As Hannah would agree, the grain, depth and captured light in film can't be beat. Below are some images she shot in film. LOVE the ring and daisy one. 

"Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." -Rumi

THANKS, HANNAH & HEATHER! You can view more of our engagement photos on our wedding website here!

Echoes: make your path

Thursday night inspiration...I can see Friday on the horizon!

*My photo from an endless eastern Wyoming wheat field 

The space shuttle visits Sacramento

When I was a kid, I stood on the side of a road at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California with my mom and brother, watching the space shuttle return from a mission and land on the runway. Years later, I watched the space shuttle retire...

It was definitely unlike any Friday morning at the office. We climbed up the narrow staircase to the roof of our building and stood waiting, scanning the skyline.

On September 21, the space shuttle Endeavor made its final flight through California. I was one of the thousands of people across the state who watched in awe and reverence as it flew overhead on the back of a modified 747. And I mean RIGHT overhead. It was incredible. But my favorite part of the morning was seeing through my zoom lens all the others who gathered on the rooftops and parking structures with their cell phones and binoculars or just their coffee cups in hand to watch as well. Sacramento truly stood still that day. I knew instantly I wanted to collage the images. So, here they are...

Here it comes...

And there it goes....right over the Capitol!

Alphabet photography

With more of my friends joining the “Mrs.” circuit, finding wedding presents that are personal and more heartfelt than the usual bath towel or casserole dish registry picks can be a challenge. But anything handmade has always been my idea of a great gift.

So when my friend Nicola married Mark earlier this year, I went back to my photography roots and put together an alphabet frame with their last name, Faires, which fit perfectly into a six-opening photo frame I found on Amazon. Most last names with four, five or six letters will fit into a collage frame for either 4x6 or 5x7 photos, but longer names like Sheldon (now the last name of my friend Emily, who married Jeff back in July) required individual frames.  

Finding the letters was the fun part! I went outside and explored. Anything that looked loopy or curvy or interesting, I captured. A piece of rope became an "R", the legs of an old wooden chair became an "F", like a little scavenger hunt! I printed the photos at CVS (alas, I no longer have access to a darkroom to print film the old fashioned way) and wrote a personalized note on the back of each frame to the couple.

Hopefully, they can be hung up somewhere and serve as a loving reminder of their foundation and new lives together. :)

You can find frames similar to the ones I used HERE and HERE. 

Echoes: photography

Dorothea Lange, the photojournalist pioneer most famous for her "Migrant Mother" portrait, once said:

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

I like that. If you've never explored her haunting photographs from the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, you can view more here. This one is my favorite--so beautifully haunting. 

Olympic snapshots

In the spirit of the Olympics’ closing weekend, here are some great shots from The Atlantic’s photography blog “In Focus.”

All the emotion, sweat, tears, laughs, splashes, leaps and finish lines are captured in the photos, but this one distinctive image (using a tilt-shift lens during the Dressage Grand Prix) caught my attention right away. It makes Greenwich Park and the little horse and rider look like they’re right out of a miniature toy set! I may have to experiment with this photography style one day…

Here are some more great moments:

You can view all the photos here:

*Grand Prix photo by Alex Livesey for Getty Images

Just day dreaming...

...of traveling and far away lands. 

I wrote this poem in 2008 about ferrying around the world:

He took me as far as Baton Rouge
She drove me as far as Ghent

He took me as far as Lima

The furthest the river went

I told her I’d get off in Tulsa

That Third Street was close enough

I asked him to sing me a love song

His voice Venetian and rough

They brought me to Ambergate station

Came home for Christmastime

They took me 'cross Frisco bay

On a ferry when I was nine

A wayfarer, a crate, a stowaway

That’s how I made it through

A raft upon the Amazon,

Ask that man, it’s true

For all these traveler’s angels

I pray thanks for such fine deeds

And know upon this earth

Wherever we follow they lead

*Photo of Akaroa, New Zealand

Emily and Jeff's big day

Everyone is talking about Emily and Jef (with one "f") lately. But, alas, this post is not about The Bachelorette. It's about my friend Emily and her college sweetheart Jeff, who were married July 14 in a wonderful outdoor ceremony at The Roth Estate in Nevada City! We laughed, cried, danced to “Shout,” and stuffed our faces with cake (it was funfetti flavor…how unique is that for a wedding cake?!)

Before the wedding, Emily invited me to take photos of her and her bridesmaids as they got ready for the day. So, my friend Rachel and I hung out with them and had a wonderful time at the salon in Grass Valley as they got their hair done and perfected their makeup. 

One of my favorite moments from the day was when Emily’s cousin Brittany and her sister (and maid of honor) Elizabeth helped the bride put on her dress... :)

It was honor to be part of Emily and Jeff’s big day and it made me even more excited for me and Andrew's marriage. I wish them all the best for their future together! 

You can view more of the photos I took on my photography website HERE.