Froglets at the lake

It's that time of year again. Baby frogs and toads are hopping around Stanford's Lake Lagunita by the tens of thousands.  

There's very little water left, now. 


 
But the two amphibian species don't seem to mind.  Guess which are easier to catch: the frogs
 

 
or the toads? 
 

Alligator (lizard) sighting

In the last eight years, our family has occupied many a happy hour chasing, catching (and then releasing) lizards in the local foothills.  But in all that time, we'd not once seen a lizard in our College Terrace yard.  

That changed this weekend when an extremely long-tailed California Alligator Lizard took a leisurely stroll across our back patio.  

The children, of course, were ecstatic.  

2010 Maker Faire highlights

For our family, the Maker Faire this year was all about the soft stuff. 

Last year's highlight was the time the kids spent in the Survival Research Labs junk art-making area, which resulted in the creation of the Blinglish Word Wide Web, among other things.
 
This year, though, despite the obvious attractions of the rockets,
 

 
mutant bicycles,
 

 
and giant cupcakes,
 

 
what really got us engaged was sewing.  I'd post pictures of the creatures the children made at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art booth, but they have taken them to bed with them.
 

 
I missed the fabric arts pavilion last year and was very glad to catch it this time.  There were some great makers there.  Ada loved the plush sub-atomic particles from Julie Peasley's  Particle Zoo.  My favorites were the felted creatures made by Jackie Huang of woolbuddy.com.  
 

 

The other highlight for the kids was catching their Uncle Scott give a talk on the Center Stage about "Using the Body to Design the Body."  He shared some background to his recent work in creating beautiful, customized, and (amazingly) printed prostheses. He even, very sweetly, slipped a slide of him creating art with his nephew and niece into his presentation, which had them pretty chuffed.
 

Charity choosing

After the sale, where to send the money?  

Ada and Michael wanted to support wildlife affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as well as more general relief efforts for endangered species. And we'd raised $102.50 to split between the two.

But which charities to choose? Luckily, these days there are websites like Charity Navigator to help. There you can search for non-profits by name, by category, by 'hot' topics (like the Gulf spill), and get a quick snapshot of the finances of a particular organization -- seeing how much it spends on overhead, for example, its overall scale and scope of operations, or its sources of funds.  

A quick check showed that Oceana would be a good place to send money for the Gulf.  We felt that the CEO's $211,000 remuneration was a bit steep, but the non-profit is based in DC and manages a wide variety of programs. It seemed like a reasonable salary for a top-rate executive in a town with many similarly attractive jobs.

Then to help endangered species, we'd thought to go with the World Wildlife Fund. But then we saw that WWF CEO Carter Roberts receives a whopping $439,000 a year. That's more than the President receives (he gets $400,000).

While there aren't too many things more valuable than protecting the threatened fauna of our planet, it seemed to us that the person in charge of such a task might reasonably set a good example and devote, say, half that salary to the good works he is paid to oversee. That would leave him with $219,000 to live on -- plenty more than most Americans of great good character, devotion and industry will ever earn per year.

Luckily, Charity Navigator made it easy to find an alternative. We chose the Center For Biological Diversity. It has very similar interests and is as widely praised as the WWF for its work -- and it pays its CEO a positively frugal $104,000 a year.  

Two new family recipes

I made up two new recipes this week that were surprising hits with all the family. So they're both now added to the house repertoire.

Here are the directions if you'd like to try them -- no quantities, though, because (like Jamie Oliver) I think the secret to quick family meals is to use whatever you have to hand, or what looks about right. Pretty much all the ingredients, by the way, are from Trader Joe's:
 
1) Farfalle with grilled chicken and fresh vegetables
 
Ingredients: 
farfalle 
chicken pieces
olive oil
garlic
zucchini 
asparagus
fresh tomatoes
fresh basil
pepper 
parmesan
 
Directions:
Grill some chicken pieces, slice and put aside.
Cut asparagus into one inch pieces.  Steam briefly, put aside.
Boil some farfalle.
Mince the garlic.
While the pasta is cooking, saute garlic in olive oil.
Add sliced zucchini, cook a bit more.
Add sliced fresh tomatoes, cook a little more.
Add fresh basil, the chicken and asparagus, and cook one minute more.
Drain pasta.  Toss in a little olive oil.
Serve pasta with chicken/vegetable mix on top. 
(Remove chicken from plates of child vegetarians).
Add fresh grated parmesan and pepper to taste.
Serve.
 
2) Soba noodle soup, Harvard St style
 
Ingredients:
chicken pieces
fresh corn on the cob
soba noodles 
canola oil 
garlic 
vegetable broth
minced ginger 
grated carrots 
fresh miso mix 
baby bok choy 
scallions 
red pepper flakes 
nori, if so inclined 
 
Directions:
Grill the chicken, slice and put aside. 
Cut some fresh corn off the cob and put aside. 
Mince a few cloves of garlic, put aside. 
Boil a pot of water, cook noodles 3 mins.  Drain, rinse and put aside. 
In a large pot heat some oil and then briefly saute garlic. 
Add the vegetable broth, a bit of ginger and carrots, cook a minute or so. 
Add the corn, cook a bit more.  Turn off heat.
Put a dollop of miso in the bottom of each dish. 
Put crushed ginger in the adult dishes. 
Lay the chicken in the dishes of non-vegetarians.
Add uncooked bok choy to all the dishes.
Add warm, cooked noodles to all the dishes.
Ladle hot vegetable broth into each dish (this will cook the bok choy).
Top with scallions, red pepper and nori for those who like it. 
Serve.
 

A perfect afternoon in San Francisco -- without going north of 24th Street

We started at SCRAP in the wholesale district down the south end of Portrero. There to buy recycled construction materials. Ada said it was her favorite store ever.  We got two big bags of -- surprise -- scraps plus a lot of really long tubes.

Then a few blocks east to Flora Grub, where amidst endless succulents I found a pleasantly spiky eryngium and an arrestingly bloodshot abutilon. Jennifer got some air plants.

Next to El Tonayense on 24th St.. Mission burritos. Enough said.

Lastly down 24th St. two blocks and left on Harrison to Humphrey Slocombe, which I'd written about but never actually visited. The queue was out the door, but moved fast. 

I didn't go for the Breakfast Surprise (Cornflakes and Bourbon) or the Peanut Butter Curry (which had a real curry kick).  Instead I opted for Pepper+Mint Chocolate and Honey Thyme. Michael had Balsamic Caramel, which proved too much after half a scoop. He traded for my subtly spicy variation on the mint choc chip classic.

Then home -- full, happy, ready to plant and build.

English garden terracotta

The mossy jewels in the crown of the English walled kitchen garden are its terracotta pots. Whether for rhubarb,

or asparagus,

or just lying in an evocative sprawl,

they pretty much embody the practical-yet-elegant, seasonal-yet-timeless appeal of these places.  And for those of us living in climates where terracotta dries too fast for anything but succulents, these simple pots take on a paradoxical air of the exotic.