Kimberly Juniors
Basically, an organization where it trains high school gals to be sorority girls who end up being the ladies who lunch or do the country club/ charity ball circuit.
Kimberly Juniors were Redlands' equivalent to debutant balls and the Junior League.
Honestly, I think would have rather spent Saturday mornings not learning about manners and parlimentary procedure.
And funny how there was nary a gal of color in that organization during my high school years. I bet it's the same now as it was back when it was established in 1913- all nice and lily white.
That is it for the Angry Asian Girl Rap for tonight. *puts on her Hello Kitty face and sticks up her middle finger for effect*
This one day, in band camp...
I will have to admit one of the highlights of my high school years at Redlands High School was being a member of the Redlands Terrier Marching Band. Yes, I was a band geek. I don't count piano as being my first musical instrument I learned because you can't tote a piano around city streets or a football field. From the day that my second grade teacher Mrs. Winters snuck our class to the bandroom to see her husband conduct the band through a practice, my friend Amy and I vowed that we would be in marching band too. It was also the year that the marching band was going to Japan to compete.
So I first learned flute in fourth grade but my teeth were pretty crooked where it would be hard for me to continue. I continued with clarinet and kept playing it, even through the two years of Catholic school where at first there was NO music program. If there wasn't a music program, that would be so the death of me. Even if I had to play elementary clarinet tunes for two years, at least I still kept that up. I could even remember the first time I donned on the marching band uniform, white shoes, and black shako. Being a band geek was my identity for the years I was in high school. I wasn't ashamed of it. I was kind of glad that a few people from band were in my honors classes. And my band friends totally honored my geeky side and didn't make snide remarks about me hitting the books on the bus during long rides to competitions. I almost took that to the college level and almost enrolled in USC so that I could be part of the famous marching band but remember, at that time, being a doctor was a priority. So the clarinet was packed up.
One fun thing about marching band was band camp. OK, I know some of you folks will start quoting that one line from "American Pie" which happens to be the title of this post. I didn't do anything as gross like the character that quipped that line. But band camp was a fun time. I will admit that my favorite part of band camp was, yes, running laps. Call that the jock in me. Where you first start off marching in formation, then going faster and faster and soon you are jogging to the beat.
As I am getting more and more into myspace (is there a 12 step program for myspace addicts?), I'm becoming connected to friends I knew from high school, friends that were in marching band with me. When I was heading towards a meeting this evening, I was pondering in my head on the bus ride over, "What would my band camp look like?"
Or better yet, can my life and ideas that I have developed in blue San Francisco County (because San Francisco is BOTH a city AND a county in California) could cross over into red San Bernardino County and vice versa? You be the judge of that as I toss out these ideas:
1) Have some of my guy friends that I know are really good at flag twirling in circut parties and such come up with cool dance routines for tall flags?
2) Actually have guys on the color guard unit? I mean there are guys in cheerleading and yes some drum and bugle corps do have all male colorguard units and I bet you they are some members of those all male units that like fish... (think about it people!)
3) OK, if I mentioned the name to Heather Ross to some of my friends and especially those who were fellow band geeks at Redlands High School during my time, all of a sudden, you guys think about "Lolita" or the lines from that one from The Police, "Don't Stand So Close To Me." (Young teacher...the subject...of school girl fantasy...) which ultimately led to the explusion of the band director a few years later. Now, think about it: would the consequences be the same if the band director were a female and the student was male (you know like that one sixth grade teacher fucking her former student and having two of his children)? Or what if the band director and student were of the same sex (male and male, female and female)?
4) Instead of serving Gatorade during band camp, I'll serve them GU2O recovery drink. I mean it's industrial strength Gatorade. Face it, kids do lose a lot of fluids and electrolytes...
5) If I taped the warm-up exerciese of the drumline, put them on an iPod and listen to them on my runs?
6) How about taking competition shows and actually using them for music for a spin class?
7) Keeping a stash of condoms in the Quartermaster room? (Hey. It's a room. Kids get ideas in there. At least make sure they are safe and disease free...)
8) Get some of my fashion savy friends to spiff up the band uniforms? (Hmmm...band uniforms by Prada?)
9) Rig up the speaker system on the bus where when you get close to your destination, the automated voice goes "band attention." (said in drum major voice and have that little ding ding at the end when you pull the cord to signal the driver your stop...OK, get your ass on public transportation one of these days and you'll get it...best done on a bus in an urban city like New York, San Francisco...Los Angeles doesn't count because they have gross buses and nobody takes the bus in Southern Cali...)
10) Just check where that flute or drum stick might have been...
I guess I can cross off band director off the list of possible careers...
NOTE: Former Redlands High School Marching Band members will get most of this. The rest of you will have to get a one day seminar of marchingbandese.
Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie
OK, I know you are really scratching your head over this one. I know that prime apple season is coming to an end. Even though on a few of my posts I have bitched about wanting spring fruits and veggies to come in, I still had to make this one apple pie before the apple season comes to an end. Surely there are some apples that keep well into the summer months but the sugar content and texture might give way to a mushy pie filling. Ken Haedrich has this book called Apple Pie Perfect which has, I kid you not, over 100 different apple pie recipies. I call that the Bubba Gump of apple pies. You know, Bubba, the guy from the movie Forest Gump where Forest's army pal Bubba would obsess over shrimp and different ways to prepare it. Well, Haedrich does that with apple pie- coming up with different combinations.What got me to try out this recipie is a friend of mine. Jeanne has been one of my wonderful woman friends and confidants for the last few years. We met on AIDS/ LifeCycle 2. We decided to spend Fourth of July together in the City (she lives in San Mateo) watching the San Francisco Mime Troop over at Dolores Park on their latest skit poking fun at our current administration. We then headed over to World Sausage to munch on some hot dogs and beer (however, we got imported beer rather than piss water Bud or Coors or Miller Genuine Draft) and got some apple pie from Safeway to finish it off. While we were in Safeway, I asked Jeanne if she liked whipped cream or ice cream on her apple pie. She asked me if I had some real good sharp cheddar cheese to top it off. Sadly, I did not. But I have heard of people that put cheddar cheese on apple pie. So in honor of Jeanne, I made this pie for her. Like every pie I have made so far, here are my notes and thoughts-crust: I used Haedrich's recipie for cheddar cheese crust which calls for adding cheddar cheese to a predominately butter based crust. The cheddar cheese and butter I got from Spring Hill Farm dairy out in Petaluma. As I was rushing to my usual stops at the market before closing today, I stopped by the Spring Hill booth and asked the woman if she had any sharp cheddar cheese on hand. Luckily she did and this cheese had some kick. I also got some butter that was made yesterday (I kid you not). There was a little bit of lard in the crust which I replaced for the shortening called for the recipie (because I'm all about good old lard from the carneceria). If there was fresh lard over at Pig Farm over in the East Bay, I totally would have gone there with a bucket and peddaled back with it. I am now really comfortable with using ice water and refrigerating the crust for at least an hour to let it relax and let the flour gluetens set. filling: apples came from my usual vendor at Hidden Star Orchards. I used pink ladies even though the recipie calls for granny smiths. I just like pink lady apples the best. To vent the crust, I made some decorative cut outs. I shaped out several hearts. baking: I tried something new in where I would bake the pie for 40 to 45 minutes at 375 degrees with aluminum foil on the baking sheet. I'm not sure what that does but hopefully the pie comes out great!Now my biggest beef is sealing the crust. Before I would not roll the dough large enough where I could seal the edges properly. Now that I am confident in how big to roll the crust, it's sealing the pie that's the pain. When I did decorative edges, the edges seem to fall off when I insulated the edges with foil. But I did have some great crust strips in honor of my brother Ed who just loves pie crust. They are wondeful and cheesy, much better than Cheese-Its crackers. Nothing against Cheese-Its but they are kind of vile once you had real cheese. But still, I love Cheese-Its, especially they are good cycling snacks (salts and carbs and calcium; there is real cheese in Cheese-Its- I saw how they were made on the Food Network). This totally counteracted my lemon pie fiasco. I have yet to write about my foray into the world of icebox pies that I made a week ago when I was in Southern Cali for the Los Angeles Marathon. That will be another entry at another time.
I Heart The City
As I was schelping home my load of produce from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market this afternoon, I was thinking about how wonderful it is for me to live in the City. Yeah, me, the thirty something year old single City gal. I got to think of my closest friends on my long bus ride home on the 38 Geary. We all are living lives that break the conventional go to college, get a job, make over 60K a year, have a spouse, the 2.5 kids, the white picket fence on the suburban house. Those friends that have stuck to that mold are no longer my friends or people I don't really associate with. Granted I may have one or two friends who are married but taking their time with having children and living either in the City or some pretty cool suburbs. OK, this is coming from me, gal is who has major allergic reactions to the burbs but Cin would rather visit me in the City any old day to get out of her digs in Menlo Park. However, she is not even the bored suburban housewife. At least she has a jumpstart career and a good marriage to a great guy.There are things that make me want to roll my eyes and wonder why the hell I live here. The cost of living for one. Getting around town since I live in the far end of the City further away from downtown and the quickest way I can get there is the 38 Geary. Sure there is the 1 California and 31 Balboa and even the 5 Fulton but they are not as quick or frequent as the 38 Geary. And there are times when I have to transfer buses like when I go to Sunday Mass at Most Holy Redeemer in the Castro. Even getting to City College's main campus is a long assed 45 minute adventure not to mention getting to my old neighborhood in the Mission. Yeah I used to bitch about lack of places that are open late at night for that midnight burrito fix and a good place to get a burrito (Gordo Taqueria just doesn't cut it for me). I loathe getting on public transit (both the underground and the bus) between the hours of 7:30am and 9:00am and again 3:00pm to 5:00pm on weekdays during the school year when the City kids would be going to and from school and being all loud and stuff. I sometimes hate having to wake up earlier than usual to get to one end of town to the other. I don't like mini vans and SUVs plowing through the neighborood thinking they own the road (more of the SUV driver than the mini van drivers). Sometimes I wished there was a Target in the City. There are moments when I do want a car. Sometimes I wish I wasn't in such an isolated bubble in this 49 square mile place I call home. I really think the San Francisco Giants are overrated and it's all about Dodger blue. However, the pros totally outwiegh the cons of living here. I have my close friends for one who live in different areas of the City. I have my little communities in the places I go and frequent- the Farmer's Market, work, my running club (which I have yet to renew my dues but as soon as I determine my next step, I will have to wait), the people I go to Mass with at Most Holy Redeemer, the young adults I hang out with at St. Dominic's, my old friends who would come and visit and I would show them my favorite gems in the City (both the touristy and non touristy areas), the community markets. The fact that 15 minutes goes by fast when you walk from one place to another because each block presents something different- a park, a cool house with bright primary colors, a commerical strip of stores, a very interesting panhandler with a creative way of begging for change, a woman with a jogger stroller, two guys hand in hand with lattes and the New York Times. It is the variety that I live for and did not get in the burbs.I now know that I won't leave the City anytime soon. And if I do by chance leave the City by the Bay, I will most likely want to be in an urban area. I have not yet reached the point in my life that I want to trade in City life. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't.
More Food Thoughts
Yeah, I'm on a food one-track mindset right now. Maybe it's because I haven't eaten in the last few hours and I want something more than just a Luna bar in my stomach which was what I snacked on at work.
Just the other day, I headed over to the Heart of the City Farmer's Market down in Civic Center to get some spring veggies and fruits. Well, one of the vendors had asparagus (but I think he charges waaaaayyy too much) so I got some. I wanted strawberries but the folks at Yereina Farms have yet to make an entrance. According to Chris the market manager, she says they will come in April around the first week. Feh! I have to wait. :p
But I went to Whole Foods later on that day and got a pint. I would rather have Farmer's Market strawberries.
I did get some firehouse Jack cheese and some freshly made butter from Spring Hill Dairy out in Petaluma. I tried the butter in making oatmeal cookies with bittersweet chocolate covered raisins from Alfarei Farms. The cookies turned out excellent!!! I'm bringing some to tommorow's ALC orientation day volunteer captain's meeting. All about site walk throughs...
The other night, I made a meatless stoganoff using Morningstar Farms veggie steak cubes. They are pretty tasty! I'm actually thinking of slowly going on a more veggie diet starting next month. I'm also going to start cycling more and getting a little more active about my health than I have the last few months. Anyways, Spring is here!!! Time to bust out the bikes!!!
Now if only this rain and cold weather will go away...BOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Food Politics
A few weeks ago on the front page of the
San Francisco Examiner (yes, I read the
Examiner because it's free and I know that their slant is a little towards right on the political spectrum) about Cala and Bell Markets closing in the City.
OK, so you might roll your eyes and wonder what is the big deal about supermarkets closing in San Francsico. Plenty. Cala and Bell Markets, subsidaries of the Ralph's supermarket chain in Southern California, are only in a few neighborhoods in the City, including mine. In some places, it's the only supermarket around. The article highlighted that neighborhoods that would have the most impact if Cala and Bell Markets closed were the Excelsior, Noe Valley and the Haight. With the closing of those markets, people would have to walk a little more than half a mile to get affordable groceries and selection of foods.
I'm somewhat fortunate that I have another grocery store to head down to...the Albertsons on 32nd Avenue and Clement, a good 6 block walk which was the distance I walked to go to Safeway on Church and Market when I lived in the Mission. However, some people do not have the leg power or the patience or the income to go find other alternatives to grocery shopping. I know that during the huge grocery strike where UFCW workers in the Bay Area walked the picket line in solidarity for their fellow UFCW workers in Southern California in Ralph's, Albertsons and Safeway/ Vons stores who were fighting for higher wages and affordable health care, I had to find other alternative places to shop for food because of my strong beliefs of not crossing a picket line. I know my parents thought I was wierd for staying in the car when they went into Albertsons and shopped for groceries but my cousin Darlene totally got it when I ran some grocery errands for her and she told me which stores weren't participating in the strike. It also gave me a chance to look at smaller mom and pop stores and food markets in the neighborhood and even gave me a better reason to go shopping at the Farmer's Market.
Yet, as I was walking home and pondering, the closure of a major grocery chain in the City is a big blow. There are only about three Albertsons supermarkets, a good number of Safeway markets and then the sprinking of Cala and Bell Markets. Then there are a few small independent chains like Cal Mart and Molly Stone's and Trader Joe's and Whole Foods but those are far and few in between and not in the neighborhoods with working class families and seniors. It made me think that even some neighborhoods in urban areas, it is easier and cheaper to buy an arterty clogging hamburger than a pound of fresh delicious apples that are not spoiled. I applaud the City of Oakland for putting in a Farmer's Market in the west side of the City where as it is slowly becoming gentrified, there are still working class African American families there. I mean everyone deserves the right to fresh vegetables and fruit.
No, fruit roll ups and potato chips don't really count.
And maybe if there was equal access to quality fresh produce and food, maybe certain diseases and cancers might not be linked to race and class anymore?
Ah, yes, my ideal world.
Ride Like The Wind
Tonight, Logo television aired their first episode of "The Ride: A Seven Day Journey To End AIDS". And a lucky gaggle of us got to see the first two episodes of this seven part series at the Castro Theater tonight.Shelly got a group of us to meet at the Sausage Factory for dinner. I met up with Ellen and Kathy and Zion at the theater. It was great seeing all of us together. Charles joined me for dinner and it was great to see him. I hope one of these days he will have the vacation and time off to do the ride. Dinner was great fun and laughs. We got to honor Jon who was one of the folks who is being featured in the documentary. And a wonderful surprise was that his boyfriend Craig flew in from Ohio. It literally brought tears to Jon's eyes and it was a wonderful sight. I got to meet Craig a few weeks ago when we had one of our Tuesday Raspberry Rides to Paradise Cafe in Tiburon where we had corn dogs and pretzles galore. It was also great to see old friends and new ones too. Some have even stopped by to say hellos but did not join us for dinner.The showing inspired Zion to sign up as a roadie. I'm really happy that he is making a great start to his life after a rough few years. He has shown me that it is never too late for growth. Alan was nice enough to give me a ride home in this rain. Ellen commented that this was a family reunion of sorts for me since I was going around being social and saying hello and squealing hugs and kisses from all. I am happy and every so blessed. This year I will be on the Sweep Team patrolling the road and making sure the cyclists are safe. I cannot ask for anything more.
Shake Your Bon Bon Lemon Pie, Part 2
Well, pie was out of the oven and literally I think a good portion of the filling spilled over. I have yet to assess the damage of what would make the filling spill. I thought the carved out heart would ventilate a lot of the juices and the steam from the pie.
I figured that I would have a plan B to provide for desert for Ellen and Kathy's dinner. I actually tried one of the lemon slices sticking out of the the pie from the heart. It tasted rather vile. I mean, you really do have to slice the lemons really thin.
OK, just waiting for the cookies to cool and put into the tin for tommorrow. I'll bring the pie as well just in case.
The Shake Your Bon Bon Lemon Pie
Yes, I am still on my Ricky Martin one track mind.
I was wondering when was the last time I made a pie. Egads! Back in January with the sweet potato pie!
February was kind of a wacky month. OK, I will count the low cal chocolate pudding brownie pie as a pie but I really didn't comment on that one. Maybe because it's not one of those things I consider pie. But anyways...
This pie took a long time to make. One of the things that I had to do with making it was to slice the lemons paper thin. That required me to get my trusty Cutco knife sharpened by Bob Katzenberg, a knife sharpener that sets up shop at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's market on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
My original intent was to make this pie for the premier of
The Ride: A Seven Day Journey to End AIDS premiering on Logo this coming Monday, March 13. Shelly was planning to have a get together at her apartment to honor Jon, our friend and cool assed training ride leader and featured on the documentary. Jon and Shelly hail from Ohio. I found a Shaker Lemon Pie recipie where the whole lemon is used and sliced paper thin and marinated in sugar for a good 24 hours at most. Then Shelly changed the plans for the party once we found out that the SF AIDS/ LifeCycle office secured the Castro Theater to show the premier. However, my good friend Ellen and her partner Kathy are in the process of moving. Ellen invited me to have dinner at their place tommorrow a few weeks ago. I said yes and agreed to make a pie.
I have pondered a few versions of the Shaker Lemon Pie recipie and settled on one from Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s book
The Complete Book of Pastry Sweet and Savory. This book is a general book on pastry but he puts out suggestions on what kinds of crust would be great. I decided to go with the layered crust which contains both butter and lard. However, it is very time consuming because you have to get the lard and the butter at both room temperature to cream it together and put it back in the fridge for about 30 minutes to solidify (not easy when both the butter and the lard have been in the freezer). Then after the fats solidify, you add your flour and put the fats into the flour and salt mixture and baking powder (nicely sifted of course). The fats are cut up into chunks and tossed in flour mixture. I went back to cutting the fats into the flour until it resembled crumbs. Then added water (about six tablespoons) and lemon juice (ice cold). The crust fit together but it was still a little crumbly. I hesitated to put one more tablespoon of water since I have already exceeded the number of tablespoons. So the dough goes and rest for about a good two hours at least. Then rolling the dough several times and folding it like a letter and even more rest. This time when I rolled it out, there was a good number of cumbs coming out of the dough. I ended up glazing the crust with a bit of water a few times. Therefore there were no more crumbs coming out. The second resting of the dough was at least four hours.
The dough was nice and solid to work with. Took me a bit of work to roll it out but it was nicely done. The lemons were nice and sugary and put it with some eggs and made a wonderful filling. At first, I took out a few teaspoons of the juice so that I could brush it over the pie crust. I carved out a heart so that the pie could vent nicely and make some slits around the heart. The heart was in the center of the topcrust. So topcrust done and pinched. I realized some juice was leaking out so I smeared that on top of the pie, thinking that the egg would give it a nice glow. I also added the juice I took out before adding the eggs to the lemon mixture. Foil around the edges and here I go into the oven.
So as I was taking the foil out of the edges after having it for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, I saw smoke coming out of the oven. The pie leaked!!! Shit! And I burned myself trying to get out the foil from the edges after I lowered the heat. Pie filling is really hot. No wonder they put warnings on the McDonald box of apple pie. The last I checked, the filling was all over the oven floor and leaking onto the kitchen floor. Not good.
Enough crying over spilt pie filling. Hopefully this pie ends up pretty good.
Ricky Martin...Yum, Yum, YUM!
OK, I hear you all snickering in the background. My flavor of the month is Ricky Martin. Yes, the same guy that told everyone that he is
Living La Vida Loca and told everyone to
Shake Your Bon Bon.
Before I headed off to a church retreat last weekend, I picked up some books that I had on hold at the library. I browsed in the CD shelf and I happened to stumble upon Ricky Martin's last CD
Sound Loaded. This one happened to have the famous or infamous song
She Bangs. I only heard a small clip of it during a "Sex and the City" episode where Miranda is training for the New York Marathon and she was doing her treadmill running at Crunch while listening to the song. I say infamous because some of you might have watched the unfortunate episode of
American Idol where a few years ago, Cal Berkeley engineering student William Hung did his own interpretation of the song which got the ire of Simon Caldwell. However, instead of buckling to Simon's catty remarks, William had a snazzy comeback that he did his best and that's all that counts. I did run into William Hung at Oakland International Airport last year.
Ricky Martin does have that nice beat on
She Bangs. It was so fun that the first time around I had to get up and dance around the room. This is something I rarely do. I probably might end up singing it while running the marathon in a few weeks to the ire or amusement of Alain.
Looking at the CD cover, I can see why my friend Roberto would love to have Ricky Martin as his dream husband to play house with the house he inherited from his father. I would have to say that Ricky Martin has matured and gotten cuter from his Menudo days. OK, those that were kids of the 80s know who Menudo is.
Now I wonder does Ricky like fish or meat?
Take a moment to figure out my last line...it isn't that hard.
