Shoo-Fly Pie

Growing up, this was my absolute favorite dessert. I remember, during the summer, going to the peach orchard on the way back from the swimming pool and picking bushels of peaches. Some we'd eat raw, but the majority my mom would can so that we could enjoy their summery goodness throughout the fall, winter, and spring. During the winter, especially, I remember peach shoo-fly pie (as my dad says, a pie so good you have to shoo the flies away so you can eat it--a bit gross, but that's a Southern allegory for you). My dad and mom would also make blackberry shoo-fly pie or cherry shoo-fly pie, but my favorite has always been peach shoo-fly pie. In all its sugary, gooey goodness, it is comfort food at its grandest. My kids, especially Ronan, have fallen in love with my childhood favorite. I've got the recipe below--with illustrations--so you can try it. Enjoy it, but don't you DARE call it cobbler.

First, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put half a stick of butter in a casserole dish and stick that in the oven so that the butter can melt. While it's melting in the oven, prepare the other ingredients.

Mix 1/2 cup of self-rising flout, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of milk in a bowl (I usually double this because I love the breading).

Pour a can of peaches (or blueberries, blackberries, cherries, etc) in a pan and add 1/2 cup of sugar. Cook it over medium heat.

Once the butter is melted in the casserole dish, take it out of the stove and pour the batter in the dish.

Pour the fruit in next--you might want to drain some of the liquid (you don't want the batter, etc swimming in too much)

Stick the dish back in the oven for 20 minutes.

When 20 minutes is up, you'll have a dessert that looks like this. Let it cool for a few minutes.

Serve it up in small bowls (it's so sugary, a little goes a loooong way) with some milk or coffee on the side. Ronan approves and so will you!

Inauguration

Yesterday at Berkeley they turned Sproul Plaza into a huge movie theatre, broadcasting the inauguration on a massive screen in front of Sproul Hall. It was packed and it was nearly impossible to navigate through the crowd. The Chancellor was there as were, it seemed, most students, staff, and faculty on the Berkeley campus. At International and Area Studies we had an innauguration party, complete with a breakfast spread and an innauguration showing. I chose to go out to Sproul for the innaugural speech because I wanted to feel the energy of the crowd. It was amazing. On the Berkeley website, they've created a very moving slide slow of the event. At one point, they interview a school kid who was there on campus to see Chinese acrobats at CAL Performances--Dahin was there, too, for the same thing, but her class came after the innauguration since her school hosted an innauguration showing, too. The link to the Berkeley slide show is here:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/01/inaugural/20_inauguration.shtml

Ode to Chinese SF Chinese Food

(sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music)
Piping hot rice with beef chowfun noodles
Barbecue duck served with crunchy rice noodles
Hot wonton soup filled with such flavor you sing
These are a few of my favorite things!

Creamy seafood porridge with abalone and scallions
Sweet walnut prawns tossed with mayo and lettuce
Broccoli beef with thinly-sliced ginger rings
These are a few of my favorite things!

When my stomach growls, when I'm hungry, when just any food won't do
I simply remember Shan Dong or New Sun
And then I don't feel so famished!

Chinatown

People were trying their luck at the California Lottery. We had decided a while ago that the lotto was the way to secure a great future, until we discovered that's what everyone else was thinking, too. Ah well. It's fun to play every once in a while, but I usually just limit myself to buying one lotto ticket a month, if that. I think some people go overboard. In this place, the floor was littered with scratched out quick pick tickets and older men and women were furiously scratching out cards and picking numbers.

The boys in Nirvana--nothing like the candy and cookie possibilities in the Chinatown markets.

This is, hands down, my favorite building in San Francisco. I love the mural on the building. It's caught my eye since the first time I saw it. On this day, you could see the laundry hanging off of balconies and outside of windows. It epitomizes the diversity that is San Francisco. On the side facing Chinatown, the mural describes a bit of local Chinese culture, and on the east-facing side you can see the jazz artists and bits of Italian culture that make the neighborhood of North Beach so awesome. You can see, to the right of the building in the background, a bit of the National Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi, the heart of Little Italy. Another reason to like the building: It houses the Chinese restaurant I love the best in Chinatown. You can see the New Sun Hong Kong Restaurant at street level.

Apa and Ronan

The kids, Jack, and I are getting our fill of San Francisco before we leave these parts. We feel like we're tourists now and visit the city every chance we get. Ronan and Jack were having a good time walking through the streets of North Beach on our way to eat some (surprise!) Chinese food in Chinatown.

My New Year's Resolutions

1) No more procrastinating. I will make a list of 'to do's' daily and set clear priorities every day
2) I will meet deadlines
3) I will not mindlessly watch tv just because I am tired
4) I will knit a sweater
5) I will not raise my voice at my kids
6) I will remain calm when my kids are driving me nuts and will put myself in a 'time out' if necessary
7) I will stick to what I say, including when I tell the kids 'if you do that one more time we will leave...'
8) I will continue to play the violin regularly and perform
9) I will fix my poor dulcimer so that I can play it
10) I will run in at least one 10k this year
11) I will run at least 3 times a week (no excuses)
12) I will not keep balances on my cards and stay up-to-date financially

Have you had your Ddeok-guk?

On New Year's Day, we make it a priority to eat ddeok-guk, rice cake soup. I let Jack handle the cooking of the soup and he always makes a tasty concoction with rice cakes, eggs, and green onions. It's a food that is traditionally eaten on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but we cover all bases and make sure we have some on the first day of the solar calendar, too. I grew up eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. My dad is a New Year's baby so he's always had the peas for his birthday dinner. Last year, I created a great big bunch of black-eye peas with ham and turnip greens and 10-day rolls. This year, I failed miserably. I did cook the dang things, but they were never eaten. I was so tired from the night before that I left them on the stove too long and, always paranoid about bacteria, threw them out. I'm hoping that the fact we had ddeok-guk cancels out the need for black-eyed peas. And, hey, the actual cooking of the beans signaled an attempt at aligning with my Southern ancestry.

Bye-Bye 2008

Our friends Tim and Mia hosted a fabulous New Year's Eve party at their house. Every year, the managers at Jack's dealership and their families get together on New Year's Eve. Ideally, we rotate houses for hosting, but Tim and Mia's house is ideal because they have two levels and tons of stuff for the kids to do (from Wii to Karaoke). There's enough space for the adults and kids to do their own thing, which is nice. All attendees contribute so that the burden is not on the hosts. The party begins around 7 pm and ends a little after midnight. It is so much fun! We started the night with apple martinis and a wonderful assortment of barbecue and seafood, and the night just took off from there.

Jack and his good friend Andy. They work together at HanLees and have become very close.The kids divided themselves up into two teams. One team was the older kids, led by Tim and Mia's oldest daughter, and the other team was the younger kids, let by their youngest. It was a little "Lord of the Flies," but worked. The kids had a blast!Dahin has inherited her karaoke obsession from me. Both she and Oliver really took to singing. Dahin needed just a little coaxing, but Oliver did not. He even sang when there was no music.

This is Ronan with his favorite samchun, Andy. And, of course, Andy has no qualms about letting us know that Jun-Jun is his favorite, too.

Jack believes he was always meant to be a star....Karaoke was definitely the highlight of the evening. Below, Dahin sings with her big girl 'idol,' Tiffany.

Dick Clark's countdown, poppers, champagne and sparkling cider, and hugs brought in the new year. It was so fun, we hated to go. After some raman noodles to fill us up, we all left believing that 2009 will be a wonderful year after the many trials and tribulations of 2008. With the economy the way it is, we know it won't be easy, but we're bracing ourselves. I know that in what can appear to be the worst of times, we get stronger and really find the strength to make our lives fulfilling. Here's to 2009--may it be the best year we've seen yet!