Falcon Frenzy Returns

 Baby falcon chicks are an annual harbinger of spring in Berkeley and here they are! Three out of four eggs hatched on April 18th atop the UC Berkeley campanile where Annie and Grinnell have raised their chicks since 2017. Last year they were on the big screen outside the Berkeley Art Museum, but this year I love watching Mama and her baby chicks live at any time of day or night on the webcam.

                              Webcam  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ghtsndkf4

Love in the Time of Corona Virus*

photo from a Kaiser Permanente email——"Enhance your mood with exercise"

*adaptation of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, a classic I never finished

Passover Seder at a Distance, or, The Geppetto Project

The Swedish  Labryrintspel game with one of two tilt knobs

                                       
It started with a call from my sister-in-law Ricki. While she had extra time for organizing during the shelter in place order, she unearthed a Swedish game that she and Dean played when they were children. When she realized that the wooden frame was broken, she called brother Dean to see if he could fix it. She began calling him Geppetto, the kindly old woodcarver and creator of Pinocchio.

This label is affixed to two sides of the game

The object of the game is to get the ball past all 60 holes by tilting the board using the two knobs 

Things being complicated these days, we chose a meeting place halfway between Ricki's house in San Francisco and ours in Berkeley. The Rustic Bakery in Larkspur across from the Larkspur/San Francisco Ferry terminal was agreeable to both parties, and we preordered sandwiches to eat during the trade-off.

The liaison went successfully and we agreed to meet again in Marin the following Friday when Geppetto had completed his repairs to the "labyrintspel." Ordinarily we could have returned the game during our annual Seder at Ricki's, but sadly there would be no family gathering this year.

Last year's festive Seder celebration at Ricki's

At some point I realized that if there would be no Seder, there would be no matzo ball soup, my favorite part of the Passover meal. As the Pollycoves say: "Such a tragedy!" Then I got the bright idea to ask Ricki to make her incredibly delicious version and hand it off at our next meeting in Larkspur. We could trade Ricki's soup for the repaired Labyrintspel - a family affair. I was hesitant to ask her because I knew the hours she puts in boiling chickens for broth and preparing her feather-light matzo balls from matzo meal, a technique she learned from her mother Rosalyn. But when I did ask, she happily agreed to do her matzo ball magic.

Ricki in her mask at the soup handoff  at The Rustic Bakery

During this exchange we enjoyed more chicken salad sandwiches and chardonnay on a beautiful sunny day in Marin County.  Sadly, this would be our last meeting before Passover.

Our simple but satisfying Seder meal

                       An abbreviated home ceremony and a bowl of Ricki's superb matzo ball soup

                                                                HAPPY PESACH 

Popovers

Cooped up at home during California's Shelter in Place order, I've returned to one of my favorite activities - BAKING.  I was further encouraged by  Margaux Laskey's article in today's New York Times Food section:  "Amid the uncertainty,  head to the kitchen and bake."

     Last week I tried scones because I missed my weekly ration from Babette café in the Berkeley Art Museum. Babette's makes the best scones ever and I indulge about two mornings a week.  Now they're  closed along with the museum and I'm on my own. Patrick the owner had told me that they used Julia Child's recipe but I never thought of baking them myself. Now I decided to try my hand at both Julia's and Marion Cunningham's recipes, and a third called Mrs. McNab's scones from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads. All three were dismal flops and I can't wait for Babette to reopen.

     Next I decided to try popovers. Long ago my mother baked them in glass custard cups and they were delicious. More recently we enjoyed the superb complementary starters at Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco's financial district. In fact, both the popovers and the scrumptious fried chicken make this Dean's choice for his birthday dinners in June.

You only get one

   
I was vaguely aware that there was an unopened Chicago Metallic popover pan in my baking cupboard. I remembered buying it at Sur la Table when I worked there at least twenty years ago. This forced vacation seemed the perfect time to unwrap it and put it to use. The pan was pristine and the recipe on the back looked foolproof, but I was wary after my failures with the scones.

My popovers rose and popped like gangbusters but Dean suggested that they bake slightly longer and that they would profit from a bit of sugar. This weekend I'll try them again.

My almost perfect popovers

                                                            Here's the recipe

POPOVERS   

1            Chicago Metallic 6 cup Popover Pan            

1 1/4      cup flour            

1/4         teaspoon salt            

3            large eggs            

1 1/4      cup milk            

2            tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 even pieces            

1            tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Oil or spray (with nonstick vegetable oil spray) popover pan.

Preheat oven to 400' and set rack in middle of oven.

Preheat popover pan in oven about 2 minutes.

Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until mixture is the consistency of heavy cream, about 1 to 2 minutes. This can be mixed in a food processor, blender, electric mixer, or with a hand mixer.

The batter can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

Batter should be used at room temperature.

(Note from Chris:  The way I learned to make Yorkshire pudding in England, was never to over mix the batter.  It's okay to be a little lumpy - otherwise it will be too heavy and not light and crispy. Also to let the batter sit in the fridge several hours before cooking.)

Place 1 small piece of butter in each cup and place back in preheated oven until butter is bubbly, about 1 minute.

Fill each cup half full with Batter and bake 20 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 300' and continue baking 20 minutes.

Makes 6 popovers

Popovers are best right from the oven.

Serve with butter, jams, or other sweet or savory spreads.

                      We had no trouble polishing off all six popovers with jam and butter

Wilder

                        To quote my sister Lucia, "Getting depressed and worried. Time to order plants."
       

Illustration by Leah Goren in Wilder, issue VII Summer/Fall 2013

Yoga Poses around the world

Elbow Balance in Ubud, Bali, 2001

Headstands with Dean at a yoga retreat in Maya Tulum in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula  

Early morning warm up at a  Kalani Honua yoga retreat on the Big Island (1999)

Honolulu Airport head stand

Tree pose in Kona in the shadows

   
      Unfortunately, I have no photos of yoga retreats with Barbara Voinar in Paris and Gubbio, Italy

But on the Paris trip we stayed in the Butte-aux-Cailles, a quaint, hilly section of Paris that we had never heard of before. What a marvelous discovery!

Refill that Bird Feeder, Bojack Horseman

Season Six of Bojack Horseman

           "Who does a bird have to blow to get some food around here"

goldfinches on the bird socks outside our window

                At our house too, the birds are much more demanding in winter