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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Myrtle Blueberry and Wild Raspberry Cake

This cake took at least eight hours to make. Here's how it came about.


First things first. I firmly believe that everyone is strange once you get to know them. But, there may be something extra quirky about my family. For instance, here's a picture of the matriarch and patriarch of my mom's side with glowsticks in their glasses. Is this the type of thing that all people in their eighties who have been married for sixty plus years do? Or is there something extra quirky and endearing about these two? I suspect the latter.



Michael and I recently got to spend over a week with my immediate family in Colorado. Toward the beginning of our time in Colorado, we were four wheeling when my mom spotted raspberries. She yelled, my dad hit the brakes and pulled over, and we all stuffed our faces.



"Stuffed our faces" isn't quite accurate. The berries were tiny and it took some work to get a small handful. I really have no idea how bears get so chubby eating mostly this kind of stuff.





Shortly thereafter, the gathering continued when we spent a day in the mountains with my glowstick-in-the-glasses grandparents. Turns out my grandpa has been a mushroomer for the past few years, a fact that made Michael happy given the little shroom farm he once grew. 

We picked quite a few pounds of mushrooms and Grandpa decided he wasn't certain enough that they were safe (we weren't going to eat them anyway) so we threw them away. A few days later, we found out that they were safe and a man the family knows sells them for over $20 per pound at farmers' markets. Woops!



Then, we went backpacking for a few days and my mom found minuscule purple and red berries which she started eating and swore were safe. I didn't believe her at first, but then caved and ate a bunch. No one got sick.

Someone got the crazy idea of making a cake using only these berries (which we later found out are called Myrtle Blueberries). So, we picked and picked and picked.



Dad on all fours:



Andrea prowling through the trees:



These berries were so tiny and difficult to pick, they became a precious commodity. Here's Michael's reaction to losing one:






The fruit of two man hours of berry picking:



Ultimately, we got a decent amount of Myrtle Blueberries, supplemented them with more wild raspberries we found while driving home, and baked this cake.

Before baking:


After baking:



So, are we quirky? Are we strange? Yes. But, I love it!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Another Little Photo Shoot

My friend, Kayse, saw the pictures I took of our other friends' one year old and asked me to take some shots of her family. I said, "Yes!" Here are the results:


Cheesy kid smiles make my day.


I love how both their hands are folded!



Now my friends are encouraging me to start a little portrait photography business on the side, something I definitively said I wouldn't do at the end of this post earlier this summer, but that I am now considering. To be continued...

Friday, August 3, 2012

Cross-Town Move


We are packing, packing, packing and moving on Saturday. My in-laws just retired and moved to a city north of San Diego on Wednesday, so we're moving into their house on Saturday. That's right, house. We don't even have close to enough stuff to fill it up, nor are we going to buy stuff to fill it up since we're still in that "we could be living anywhere in the next few years" stage of life and we like to keep our possessions trimmed down.


Here's the state of our apartment.


Closets crammed full of boxes. At least they aren't stacked in the middle of the family room!



Items that have never been neighbors in our apartment now find themselves roommates in the same box. Exhibit A: flour and hangers



Boxes.



Boxes.



Boxes.


Every surface has a pile of sundry items.


Ripping up the garden. But, that means that we'll be making green tomato cake once we're settled in!




Pictures of the new place will be coming in the next couple of weeks!

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