What Happened to July?

I started out the month in Crane Creek Regional Park - a favorite of mine

It's the first of August and I have no idea what happened to July. 31 days just flew by - I still feel like it should be the first week in July and not August. It's not like we were having fantastic adventures (that actually was the original plan, we were supposed to explore Australia, but alas! corona had other plans), and still time rushed by and I wonder where my summer is and how come that I will be back to work next week.

But then I look at my photos and see that it was a beautiful month! Just like in June I challenged myself to take at least one photo each day. For some outings I had my big camera with me (still my favorite tool to take pictures, even though the phone is so much easier), but the majority again was taken with my Pixel phone.

I continued my walks in the neighborhood, discovering more back alleys, seeing beautiful backyards and Little Libraries. Since the beginning of the pandemic the number of these fun little libraries have increased. I'm still wary of using them, but I do enjoy them. The Snoopy one is my favorite - after all, this is Snoopy's home!

We also continued our Happy Hour with the neighbors. Two families (including mine) have become the "hard core" and every week another family or two joins us. We have got to know each other pretty well by now and I do enjoy this kind of friendship.

It's fawn season right now and every time I am on a walk in the morning I see deer. Together with their moms the little ones inspect the gardens and see whether they offer something delicious for them. I'm happy that at least two of my hollyhocks in the front did not fall victim to their hunger!

Kaefer has decided to go to Munich (she declined the offer from London on the last day possible) to do her Masters in epidemiology and is now busy selling her possessions. She started an online yard sale and so far it has been going quite well. Some days are very quiet, whereas on others she sells quite a lot. She puts in a big amount of work, but I love to see how organised and creative she is. We have also put out two boxes with "free" in our driveway which constantly gives me the opportunity to stock it up with things I no longer need or want. It is so liberating. Almost all of my Halloween stuff went to the young family two houses down the street. 

More walks in the neighborhood and in the Rural Cemetery. One afternoon Kaefer and I discovered a family of turkeys walking along our street - the mom had six babies and they were busy exploring the neighborhood, probably looking for food just like the deer.

I've decided to have several different face masks, some that can be worn over the head (much better than over the ears) and some over the ears (much faster to put on and off). The fun fabric with the rainbow cats I first saw in a post by my friend in Tucson and she gave me the idea to look for a mask made out of this fabric on Etsy. Of course there are tons of them; this one also has a nose wire and soft knit elastic which is easier on the ears. The fit is perfect and I use this mask for quick trips to the store or when I'm shopping at the farmers market.

My friend Angie and I met for a masked walk in the laguna. This was actually the first time since March that I had met with someone for a walk. It was awkward at first, but we quickly fell back in our easiness with each other and had a wonderful time. I hadn't been to the laguna since our stay-at-home had begun. I was surprised that there weren't any crowds, we hardly saw anybody! It was a relaxing walk with good conversations - something I had missed way too long. 

German-American friends came over one evenng for a distanced dinner outside with the tables apart. They brought the appetizer and the wine, I had made the entree and provided the dessert. I so enjoy dinner with friends accompanied by good talks and lots of laughter. Later in the month we went to other friends' house (or rather backyard) where we had wine and lots of snacks, but we mainly went because we hadn't seen them for so many months and it wasn't enough anymore just to "talk" on WhatsApp. Friends are so important, exchanging thoughts, discussing the (sad) state of our country and laughing together. This is the stuff in life that keeps us going, that feeds our soul and makes us feel alive. I can do without many things, but I certainly can't be without friends for an extended time. 

The last week of July was already a bit "overshadowed" by the return to work next week. For the longest time we had no idea when and how our return to the high school would look like - instruction will be online for the first quarter, but it was unclear what would happen to the staff. We had a meeting yesterday morning which was good and answered many questions, but only a few hours later there already was a change of plan! Now I'm not going back in person on Monday but will join a four-hours long meeting and training online that will tell us everything we need to know about going back to work in person. Usually the beginning of the school year is very busy when I work a lot of extra hours, but this year will be so different with many unknowns.

Since it was the end of my free time I headed out to Crane Creek Regional Park for another nature hike - I pretty much ended the month where I started it. Kaefer and I went to the beach one morning. It was one of those foggy, cool days at the coast which meant that no one was there - ours was the third car in the parking lot! We were totally fine with it and enjoyed having the beach almost to ourselves. We watched the seals playing in the water, the brown pelicans flying elegantly over the ocean on the lookout for food and even found a seastar - the first time ever I found one on this beach. I hope it's a good sign for their recovery since their numbers have declined over the past years.

We're in the middle of summer with temperatures climbing again. August usually is a hot month here followed by an often even hotter September. I do love summer, but I also look forward to the nature "fireworks" of autumn.

How was your July? Tell us in the comments if you like.

Quarantine Kitchen

In my last food related post I promised that there will be a part 2 to the food that we ate during the shelter-in-place. This is more of a look back now since the county has re-opened and it seems that people are getting out more. Restaurants are open for dine-in - most of them using patio space and dining outside which here in Northern California is a no-brainer, really. But I do wonder whether is has been such a smart idea to open up while still being in the middle of a pandemic. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. No surprise that the number of newly infected cases is going up almost everywhere in the country.

But - back to food. Very often I cook without any recipe, like the dish in the photo on top. Seafood mix, red bell pepper, edamame and chow mein noodles all thrown in a wok with some good spices make a satisfying dinner. My secret ingredient for this is sesame oil, and apart from that any food you can find in your kitchen. Just use your imagination and experiment with different spices.

One of our favorite dishes from Italy is pesto. I don't make my own pesto since I found a wonderful pesto from Italy that always reminds me of Tuscany and the wonderful time we had there. Of course it's accompanied by a glass of California red wine.

When we had pesto we usually have some spaghetti left over that easily makes another meal. Again, I just use what I have - spinach and Bavarian bratwurst, broccoli and Bavarian bratwurst, eggplant and pancetta. There is no limit to your imagination.

Or you can make fritata with a salad on the side. Just make sure not to burn it like I did!

We do love that Bavarian bratwurst. I find this one at Trader Joe's, it comes right from Munich and is a true German bratwurst. We eat it with a broccoli-cauliflower gratin on the side and sometimes I eat it as a curry wurst just like in Germany.

Trader Joe's Instagram page also inspired me to try some of their ideas, like the "sweet balls of fire" - meatballs cooked in a sauce made from their sweet chili sauce and raspberry jam - so good! Even better with focaccia - this was my second try and it already was a big improvement from my first one.

I do love to cook seafood, so I made puff pastry shells with shrimp and a creamy sauce with cremini mushrooms, zucchini and red bell pepper (my own creation) as well as a lovely lemon baked cod (I found the recipe on Pinterest here). I'm always happy when I find a fish recipe that everybody likes and doesn't amount to a ton of work.

Have you heard of Shakshuka eggs? While it is a breakfast dish I made it for dinner once, first time I tried it because I wanted to bring a Middle Eastern dish to the table. While it wasn't a favorite, it was certainly very flavorful and delicious.

Let's not forget about desserts. While usually we just have a piece of chocolate to round out our dinner I sometimes make the effort to make a special dessert like Tiramisu which has been a favorite since I brought the recipe from Italy 25 years ago or so. Here is the recipe.

In our paper (or the New York Times, I can't remember) I found a recipe for a crumb cake that sounded easy enough. It doesn't look like much, but the taste was okay. I think I would like to add some fresh fruit on the side - strawberries or peaches - and some whipped cream.

And just to make this pandemic time a bit easier to endure, a good drink is never wasted - be it a maitai on a Sunday afternoon, white wine with the fish or a traditional German Erdbeerbowle.

Now go in the kitchen and make something beautiful!

Parks Are Open Again

A few weeks ago our parks were re-opened. First the parking lots remained closed and only people who live in the vicinity of a park could access it by foot or bike.

My favorite parks are not in walking distance from my home. While I could access the lake by bike, the ride there is no fun at all on busy roads with no bike lanes. Even riding along more quiet neighborhood streets can't avoid the busy intersections.

But the old rural cemetery is close to our neighborhood. It was also closed, but now finally we were able to access it again. Of course there were rules in place, all of which make perfect sense.

There was also another sign that was less comfortable...

We live in cougar country and they have been spotted in our neighborhood, so I was aware of my surroundings and avoided the most remote parts of the cemetery.

After the long closure of the parks and the complaining of the people about it I had expected that the cemetery was crowded because people were so eager to get outside and enjoy some nature. But to my surprise I was almost the only one wandering the trails.

A small section of the cemetery had been turned into a native plants garden years ago. It was a bit overgrown but there were still beautiful flowers to discover.

Calycanthus occidentalis (Spice Bush) 

Lepechinia clycina (California Pitcher Plant)

Of course Lathyrus latifolius, the perennial peavine, could be seen everywhere.

After walking for quite a while I found a bench where I sat down for a while, listening to the birds, breathing in the wonderful scent of the old trees, feeling the sun on my skin, hearing the whispering of the soft breeze in the leaves, watching busy little squirrels and just enjoying being in nature.

Only a week later the parking lots were opened as well while beaches at the ocean still remain closed (except for coastal residents). But I'm still weary of crowds and avoid the more popular parks. I find all the peace and calmness of nature in this old cemetery where time seems to stand still. This is enough for me right now.

Pandemic Food

Vegetable Radiatore with zucchini and German bratwurst

These past two months have been incredibly intense and challenging. I assume that many of you felt that as well. Shortly after our shelter-in-place order was set on March 18th the German School went in overdrive to figure out how to keep up our classes. The board of directors - of which I am one - met so many times via Zoom that I lost count. But we achieved our goal - via the educator platform of Zoom and the flexibility of all of the teachers we were able to continue our classes, albeit in a very different way. Then someone suggested that since we already have Zoom we could offer some classes over the summer - since no one was going anywhere anyway. The teachers who were up to it - including yours truly - sat down to design their classes, the board worked out how to organize it and finally we had a good offering of summer classes as well. Everybody worked really hard to get this off the ground, and I'm so proud of everyone in the team.

On top of that there were staff meetings with the high school and with the library technicians of the school district. Last week I was finally able to actually get onto campus and into the library to get at least a few things done. It felt very weird to be there all on my own when the school usually is so full of life.

No wonder that cooking became a great way to get me away from the computer and create something that was filling and satisfying (don't ask my ever expanding waist line, though).

Chicken legs with roasted potatoes and bell pepper

Chicken Shawarma

The first time I tried the Middle Eastern dish Chicken Shawarma was last summer and it has quickly become a favorite. We eat it with flatbread, lettuce, tomatoes and garlic yogurt with lots of cumin. The recipe asks for cooking it on the grill, but I opted to make it in the oven and it turned out delicious. If you like some spice in your food you will like this dish. You can find the recipe here.

The Southwest Skillet Chili Mac is another favorite and perfect for cooler days (we had some rather chilly days during those two months). I wrote about it here, and the recipe can be cooked as a vegetarian as well as a meat lover's dish.

Then our oven broke! Well, not the entire oven, but the heating coil. Of course all the stores were closed, so we had to get one online which took several days. Thankfully my wonderful friend Liz send me a few stove-top recipes. Some of them I tried out - oh, I will definitely make them again!

How about Balsamic Garlic Chicken?

Or Spicy Thai Noodles? This recipe asks for linguine which I couldn't get (pasta was pretty low in the two stores where I shop), but I still had some Udon which tasted great in this dish.

During this pandemic I usually do my big grocery shopping every other week, when I also shop for my elderly neighbors. I shop at Trader Joe's - have done so since 2001 and there are still the same employees! But we are lucky to also have a small but fine grocery store "around the corner" (10 minutes to walk) which is important if I want something really fresh or local products. I also enjoy going to the farmers market even though it is not much fun at the moment.

My cast iron skillet has been used a lot indeed!

 Lemon Chicken with Orzo

Tuscan Butter Salmon with lots of cherry tomatoes and spinach, plus some homemade focaccia

After the coil in the oven was replaced (thanks to the Geek) it was back to the oven - whole grain bread with pumpkin and sunflower seeds as well as my first try baking focaccia - it looks odd (I'm not a good dough shaper), but the taste was very nice. There certainly is room for improvement.

With the oven back in place I could also make other favorites - like the Broccoli Mac'n Cheese, a recipe I found 30 years ago in England and still love. I don't think that our family can live without it.

I think I need to stop here - there will be a second part to this blogpost with other delicious dishes and of course some desserts! And we don't forget the drinks either!

What have you been cooking?

Interesting Times

With all this shelter-in-place I had thought that I would have way more time to blog. I certainly have lots of photos that can make it in this space, and stories to tell. I saw myself typing along happily, cranking out one blogpost after another. The reality, however, looks different. This is my third attempt to write - it's not that I don't have time - I do. I'm not going anywhere either - who is these days? Still, I didn't get comfortable in front of my computer (I never get comfortable here anyway), at least not to compose enticing blogposts that my readers would breathlessly read, hungry for more.

Instead, I'm trying to make the best of a dire situation, finding my own routine to make my days meaningful. Some days this works better than others. None of these days found me writing those blogposts though...

When I venture outside for walks in the neighborhood I carry my phone with me, listening to audiobooks (currently "My Antonia" by Willa Cather) and keeping my distance from other people. Sometimes it's quite the dance happening on the sidewalks and the streets when we try to give each other a wide space. You probably all experience the same. We are reduced to the neighborhoods for walking now since all the parks, open spaces and beaches have been closed. At the first weekend of our "house arrest" thousands of people were crowding those places, not keeping a safe distance - the county didn't have a choice but to shut it all down. I miss my walks around the lake with my friend, hiking up the mountains or just driving out to the coast to spend a few hours at the ocean.

The flowers in my neighborhood like the California poppies in the photo above or the pink Arctotis below make bright and colorful spots.

Grocery shopping has become a time consuming chore. Yesterday I stood in line for 50 minutes - knowing that this might happen I had brought my Kindle and could at least spend the time with a good book (I'm reading "Broken for You" by Stephanie Kallos at the moment). At least the store - I shop at Trader Joe's - is always well stocked. I also shop for my elderly neighbors which gives me the feeling that I am at least a little bit helpful. I guess we all have similar stories to tell about shopping, standing in line, avoiding being exposed.

Thankfully the farmers market is still open. It has moved to a different location and has less booths than usual, but this is a great way to support our local farmers and get fresh produce. It's not too crowded and market management does a good job in avoiding crowds or telling groups that stand together chatting to leave the aisles. Every booth is taped off and usually there is one person who handles the produce and another who deals with the money. By now most people are wearing masks - many of us still have one or two N95 masks left over from the fires - and are careful in keeping a safe distance. However, I do miss the friendly conversations that are so typical for shopping at the farmers market. The only person I talked with for more than the usual "how are you" and "stay healthy" was the mushroom guy.

Kaefer came home for a few days during her spring break. All classes in her next - and last - quarter will be taught online, and we think there will be no commencement for the class of 2020. It's a little bit sad for all those graduates, but the important thing is THAT she graduates and everybody stays healthy. After four days she had to go back since her job with Student Services defines her as an essential employee and therefore she has to go to work. This is the only time when she actually sees her friends - again observing a safe distance - and I do believe that this is better for her than staying with her boring parents. While she was here, we were binge watching "Silent Witness" and playing Rummikub.

Fortunately there is always something to knit. Another birds hat was finished and sold two days after I had listed it in my Etsy shop. A box with lots of yarn goodness arrived that I will turn into more hats and socks. Leftover yarn is used to knit up cute little cats that can be used as ornaments, bookmarks, gift tags - whatever you can think of.

I'm also still making my own paper. I had ordered a few stencils and I'm quite excited to use them. This whole paper making can get pretty addictive and I'm still not sure what I will make out of it. The idea in the class was to make small journals and I'm still considering this. But I also think that they would make cool backgrounds for a photo or could be turned into cards. I guess I will just let them sit for a while and something will come up. It usually does.

The majority of my time, however, is being spent preparing my online German class and work for the German School. Using the educator platform of Zoom we are now able to offer our students online classes. Since I'm the head teacher of the local campus I'm also a board member, which means that I attend the board meetings and am involved in the decision making. Our last in-person meeting was when we decided to close the school because of the coronavirus. Since then we have met online to figure out how to go on and offer our students a continuous opportunity of learning German. It meant a lot of extra work for us teachers since teaching online requires way more preparation than in-class teaching. We also had to learn Zoom's education platform which thankfully is easy to navigate - even our least "techie" people learned it and know how to use it at least at a very basic level. I love the ability to screen-share, break up smaller groups in "breakout rooms" and just how easy it is. My high school is doing their distance learning via Zoom as well - I guess the company is doing really well right now.

It was lovely to see my students again, at least on the screen. While I think this is not the best way to learn a foreign language, it is the best we can do of the situation and we have a bit of our wonderful school community back. Our students are grateful and turn up at every lesson, eager to learn. Below you can see what online teaching with my class looks like - I have blurred out the faces of my students, though.

My heart is full with gratitude that I still have both my jobs, that I can teach from home, that my husband can work from home and that we're doing well. I feel for all the people who have lost their jobs during this crisis or who have to stay home without any pay, who have fallen ill or have lost a loved one to the disease. Unfortunately, I don't think that this will be over any time soon. We're in this for a longer run I'm afraid.

When my mood is sinking a bit - thankfully it doesn't happen too often - I snuggle up with the neighbors' cats who come by daily and spend a good amount of time in my garden.

How are you doing in these interesting times? What do you do to spend your time at home in a meaningful way? Please let us know in the comments.

Please stay healthy everyone.