We Brothers Rolling In Dough

A decade and two weeks passed since our inaugural brothers reunion held in Springfield, Ohio in the year 2000 at the home of Paul and Kay.  This July we came full circle back to Springfield to their welcoming home for another gathering with great fun and food along with time for some of the deeper stuff.  We want to recognize that Kay was instrumental in bringing about the first reunion, an important milestone, and graciously thank her for this invitation into their home again.  We were also very thankful that you had central AC on this particular weekend of blistering heat!

Here is a compilation of photos taken by various brothers as bread, cinnamon rolls (Mom's recipe) and yes, pasta was made.

 The yeast is good.

 Bruce made sure that no mistakes were made.

Frank possibly indicating that one loaf wouldn't be enough.

Okay... so instead of one oven busting loaf Paul made three.

Warm, aromatic and lightly toasted with cereal and fresh fruit.  A great way to start the day...




.........




...along with a dozen eggs and a pound each of bacon and sausage.  We are growing boys.

If you want a perfectly browned sausage Bruce would be the go-to guy.

Cinnamon Rolls

What is as sweet as the first day of Spring?  That would be Mom's cinnamon roll recipe rendered to perfection by brother Evan.  All it took was one of the brothers saying, "how about some cinnamon rolls?" to get the ball rolling.  Evan remembered that he'd posted the recipe on this very blog at an earlier date  (blogs do come in handy now and again) Paul had a freezer full of an assortment of flours and the rest is history.

The evening before.

Putting the goodies on the dough (a portion was raisin-less so Bruce wouldn't have to remove the pesky things).

The first two of four plates.

A close up of the goo before baking thanks to the miracle of macro photography.

YUM!

And Then There Was Pasta

I got a free hand-crank pasta machine many years ago and never used it although I'd threatened to on several occasions.  Over the July 4th weekend friends of ours, Emily and Tony Presti, came out to the house and I talked Emily into helping me make pasta.  She said the last time she'd helped she was 12 years old.  That was when her mother discovered there was pre-made pasta in the grocery store and never made it again.  It went okay so I figured we brothers could do it just to know the process and have a greater appreciation for the boxed stuff.  Anyway it felt like 100 degrees outside and we had a whole day to clean the kitchen should things go horribly awry.

Experienced flour-men, Bruce and Paul looking on bemused as Mark gets mired in "sticky finger syndrome".   They saw it coming.

Paul to the rescue, note my fingers but hey, my shirt is clean!

The process is going well.  Each two passes through the machine we went to a thinner setting then finally ran the sheets through the cutter side opting for a linguini shape. 

 Next time we'll make the dough even drier so separation by hand won't be required as much.  The new L.L. Bean mallet came in very handy.

Evan produced a lovely fresh tomato sauce and all was well.  I hope someone has a photo of the pile of steaks that Bruce and Frank grilled on the deck (mine a perfect medium rare as requested).  Local steamed corn,  cucumber from the garden and fresh mint tea made for a great dinner, with sparkling conversation of course!

NOAA at Work in Our Backyard

I told Mom about this.  She thought it interesting enough to post so here goes.  Last Saturday morning Amy and I went to fill the larder for guests arriving early afternoon.  When we got back a little after 10:30 AM there was a parachute hanging upside down in the star magnolia tree.  It crossed my mind that we'd been under rocket attack from the kids and the dads next door as they're always having some new kind of fun (often ending up in our backyard).  They're all nice folks.   We get along well and things will stay that way as long as they continue to let Tony and myself massacre them in backyard boccie.  Tony and Emily finally arrived and we sat under the tree sipping our summers coolers with olives, cheese etc.  After some time Tony said, "ah, Mark, what is that?"  Time to find out.   I wrapped the heavy string around my arms and had to use body weight to bring it down,  wrapping more string, pulling until it ripped loose from the tree and a box fell at our feet.  Here are the photos.  If you look closely you can see the wire on the left of one shot.  I think it sends info back to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration base as it's aloft and they like it returned for reuse. It goes in the mail this morning.

A Delayed Postcard from St Maurice

With apologies to "We Five Brothers", this entry is of more interest for "We Five Aeschlimans".

One wouldn't expect to see animals on a cute street like this. The street is Rue de Paris, in Charenton, the suburb right next to St. Maurice, and each year there is an agriculture show on the street. (Sorry, no goats...) But there were two cattle, and we (Hyrthal and Anna descendants of Stuckey/Lugbulls) may be related to these cattle. Well, not related by blood. Anabaptists from Switzerland were key in bringing their breed of cattle to France in the 1700's. An article that I have from the Centre's library credits a Pierre Lugbull for careful breeding of these cattle from Switzerland to produce the "Montbeliarde" breed, now one of the best and well known in France. It appears that this is the breed of cattle that was featured at the street fair. It is possible that the Pierre Lugbull who is pictured in the 1880's photo in the article is the uncle of our Great Grandma Stuckey. Or I could be totally wrong since there could have been several Pierre Lugbulls in that area of the Alsace at that time. In any case, it was people including our ancestors who were the highly acclaimed farmers in the Alsace from the 1700's until the mid 1800's by which time the majority (but not Pierre) had immigrated to North America. Our great grandmother Anna came to America in 1872.

The next two photos of food booths at the fair mention "terroir" in their signage. No need to be terrorized though; it refers to the land. The French are very aware and proud that each area of the country produces its unique regional products. This is especially true for cheeses.
And the inevitable display of bread! Unfortunately, this fair occurred at the end of our stay in Paris, so we could not stock up on any goodies.

Dunbar in Bloom 2010

For years, Janice has been going on the annual tour of Dunbar gardens to see what other amateurs are doing with their yards and gardens. One year, she came home and quietly mused, "I wonder if I can ever get my garden included?" Not many months later, she was invited to participate but, for perhaps four years, has not been able to do so because of work, being away, or just not feeling she was quite ready.

This year she took the plunge, and her glorious garden was visited by 51 other avid gardeners. Each participating garden is marked by a red and yellow flag, and a sheet of addresses was available for $3. People were allowed to come from 10-12 and 2-4:30 today (May 2nd, Sunday), so we had to stay home from church (shucks) to host the guests (and to keep an eye on things). I should add that Kay was an important part of the big push to get things ready, carefully weeding this and that. Believe it or not, Janice ran out of things for Kay to do in the garden. Things never looked so good.

After watching how things were progressing,
Paul and I decided to contribute to the effort by getting out of the way, so we headed downtown to a favourite used book store.
Our plan worked marvelously, Kay and Janice were hard at work, enjoying their individual solitudes.

Paul and Kay returned to Seattle soon after breakfast on Sunday helping with the breakfast dishes, and Janice started preparations for the tour. She put out a small table offering her business card (blog address) and free plants, which proved popular.
Then she roped off part of the lower patio because the uneven flagstones were too slippery in the light rain.
When everything was ready, she put out the special flag which signaled to gardeners that her garden was officially open (you may have to click on the picture to see the flag).
Here are closeups of a few posies:
Judy (my former secretary) was the first visitor, soon followed by others.
Even one of the organizers came to visit and seemed to be very pleased to finally meet Janice.
Janice is already assuming she will enter again next year, but will have to coordinate schedules with Kay if the place is to look this special.

Yuri Lyle Kreider Sunderland

Kay and I arrived in Seattle April 8 to spend time before Yuri's arrival with Alyssa and Bill and to squeeze in a short visit with Evan and Janice in Vancouver during that interval. In Seattle we did a little pruning and weeding of landscaping as well as some planting, and in Vancouver Kay enjoyed walks and some garden tasks with Janice while I spent time with Evan exploring our common music interests and doing some cooking. We also enjoyed a pleasant evening looking around English Bay and driving around the UBC campus, where I hope to spend some time on future visits at the library.

Alyssa's labor entered its home stretch phase Saturday night, and by about 6:30 am Sunday morning they arrived at the hospital where Kay and I caught up to them in the birthing room after a quick breakfast while Alyssa was getting admitted. Before leaving the house, Kay and I helped put on Alyssa's shoes--something I fondly recalled used to be my routine morning task until the time she was about 4 or 5 years old. It was special for us to be with Alyssa and Bill and their friends Heidi and Sally for that time and then to share our happiness with calls to our families right after.