Kumquat Marmalade Making

The lovely Kumquat tree loaded and ready for harvesting




Ken picking (and eating) kumquats from tree




Josi with fresh harvested kumquats ready for processing




Fresh Picked kumquats just washed




Removing seeds from kumquats




Finely chopping fruit for marmalade




Sterilizing jars in boiling waterbath




Sterilized jars waiting to be filled




Cooking marmalade up to boiling temperature




Simple ingredients; pectin,(sure-gel), sugar, kumquats and water




Jars of marmalade done




The Final product

"Punna" May he rest in Peace 1995-2010

Punna was born in 1995 on the Yliniemi farm in the Ponsford Prairie of Minnesota. He was adopted at 4 months to the Ken Yliniemi home in Minneapolis, MN. He was the friendliest of all his litter mates, and loved to purr very loudly when petted. His favorite thing was to spend time with his owner. He loved to watch what was going on and got in the habit of laying on your neck and shoulders while doing housework, or working in the kitchen. He would even jump up to your shoulders when you were not expecting it, quite a surprise to many a guest! He also loved to sneak out, when not looking he would find his way out of one of the openings in the basement, to see him running around outside in the yard. However,soon he would be lonesome and come crying at the door to get back inside the house. Punna moved to Chicago, IL with his owner in 1998, and enjoyed his life there just as much, with less frequent trips out of doors. Punna was also very very fond of milk and dairy products in general, and would strong arm you for a "dip" of the paw into your milk glass. Punna moved once again with a cross country trip to Hollywood, California in 2000. Once he arrived he was very upset and disoriented, and escaped out the sliding glass door patio to be outside in the neighbors yard, for 2 months before he could caught to be brought back home. It was a challenging time, but Punna survived and was very happy to be back in the arms and home of his owner after this. He moved once more in 2003 to Long Beach, California, where his housemates, "Jaide" and "Sterling", gave him the welcome after an adjustment. He died after a brief illness at his home with his loving owners, Ken and Dale. He is preceded in death by all his litter mates. Cremation by the Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery in Huntington Beach, with his ashes to be at the home of his owners for remembrance.

Turkey Trot

The Long Beach Turkey Trot was on Thanksgiving Day in the morning. I ran the 10K that started at 7:30AM, and ran down the beach path from the Belmont Pool to Downtown Long Beach and back. It was a nice, cool and cloudy morning as we had rain the day before and the weather was still a bit unsettled, but nice to run in such great, cool conditions, but yet not too cold. This made for great running and halfway through, I got a pick me up and somehow felt like the last ½ of the run was like I was flying! It was great. I finished with a time of 46:00 at about the same time when all the kids were finishing with the kids run. It was like an obstacle course trying to avoid all the little tots as they were coming through the finish line! I met up with my friends Tigger and Ana after the race, they had run the 10K as well, and we chatted for a while before heading home to make our Thanksgiving Dinners! It was a great way to start out the Holiday!

El Capitan State Beach

I left work early on Friday for a lovely drive up the 101 to Santa Barbara, where I met my friends Michael and Andrew and we all went camping at El Capitan State Beach, about 17 miles west of Santa Barbara. We met up on the 101 on the way, and stopped in Santa Barbara for some groceries and some Starbucks. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day in the 80s, and clear weather. We set up camp, and I started to make my Beef Bourguignonne, in my dutch oven over the fire. It was Mike's birthday earlier that week, so we celebrated, and we all had such a great dinner with smores afterwards on the open fire. We spent all evening chatting and enjoying the stars and the moon overhead. The next morning after a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs we all went to the beach for a nice view before we left and headed back to Los Angeles and Long Beach.

UMAA

Dale and I went to our first event that was put on by my University of Minnesota Alumni Association, (UMAA) greater Los Angeles Chapter. I have wanted to go to some of their events before, but they usually are happy hours at a bar(s) in Santa Monica, and it is not very conducive to getting home in any timely manner, etc. on a workday. Not to mention that I usually don't drive to work but take the train. If anyone knows Los Angeles, there are no trains that go anywhere, even close to Santa Monica.

Any rate, I absolutely had to go to this event, as it was only a block from our house in Long Beach at the Wine Crush. http://www.thewinecrush.com/ It was a wine tasting event of 7 different Rhone wines. (French regional) There are 22 grape varietals allowed in the Rhone region of France, about half of them red. The primary red varietals of Rhone blends are Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre. The primary white varietals are Viognier, Roussanne, and Marsanne. We sampled a selection of Rhone blends from both California, Australia, and France. Rhone blends are some of the most complex yet subtle wines out there. We had about 3 California, 1 Australian, and the rest were all authentic French Rhone wines. 2 were white, and 5 were Red. It was a very interesting mix of all of them, however only a few were my favorite, including the Australian. ( I have an affinity for Australian and New Zealand Wines)

One of the best parts of the event was all the U of M Alumni. We were warmly greeted as soon as we arrived, we all had name tags and the lively conversations began. Somehow, and in someway, all the Minnesotans and friends of Minnesotans, seemed to have the best time together out of any group I have been to in So. Cal. We exchanged several e-mails, and names and phone numbers and we will be in touch and attend other future Alumni Association events for sure. I was amazed! In realizing what a small world it is I met one young lady who graduated from Frazee, MN high school who knew my family name and a number of relatives that have graduated from Frazee, HS with her. How cool is that, and certainly makes it seem like a small, world, when you can run into someone in So. Cal all the way from the small towns of Northern Minnesota!

Table Mountain

Dale, Max and I and our neighbors Greg and George all drove up to the Angeles National forest, near Wrightwood, California for an overnight camping trip to Table Mountain Campground. This is one of my favorite campgrounds with beautiful tall Coltier pines, and Douglas Fir, and some Blue Oak trees. It is up at about 6000 feet and on the north side of the mountain overlooking the Antelope Valley and the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster, and Victorville. The campsites are well placed apart, and at this time of the year there is no need for a reservation as all the sites did not fill up. It was also a very quiet and serene campground, unlike some other campgrounds near the city. As soon as we pulled in and found a campsite the campground manager was by very shortly, even before we set up, to collect our fees and give us our "occupied" receipt to put on the post. We brought plenty of firewood, as we really wanted to make some great fires while camping. The gnats were a little bad, and bothered Max the worst, but as soon as the fire was going and he figured out that by sitting close enough to the heat, the gnats didn't bother him so much.

We had arrived in Wrightwood around noon so we had a lovely lunch at one of the local Cafe's. It was just as delicious as can be and we all were delighted with it and the charm of the small mountain ski town. After setting up camp and starting fire, (Max loves to start campfires) I made a little appetizer of smoked salmon & cream cheese on pita crackers, It was just enough to satisfy. George and Greg made our dinner that evening of a delicious fresh Parmesan, pimento, salad with a fresh lemon/olive oil dressing, and garlic bread. We had chicken breast, with angel hair pasta/panchetta and mushrooms, and some delicious steamed sugar snap peas. We were all stuffed after a superb dinner. We sat around the fire the rest of the evening, and chatted, drank hot cocoa and I told stores about bears in Alaska and Minnesota, and how we were in bear territory in the mountains, and everyone should be aware. All our food was put in the bear bin at night to ensure no scavanging.

We all awakened in the middle of the night to a noise of something going through the garbage dumpster on the other side of camp, and hoped it was not a bear, that would soon be heading to our campsite. Needless to say, we found out the next morning it was a coyote that was in the dumpster and not a bear. Thank goodness!

We awoke at sunrise and after some great coffee, we had a delicious breakfast that Dale and I made of his specaial crepe recipe with fruit, fruit syrup, and whip cream, along with a side of scrambled cheese & eggs, sausage and bacon, and orange juice. It was delicious and all too soon it was time to head back to Long Beach. It was beautiful temperature in the mountain, but down in the basin when we descended it was very hot for our drive through the inland empire. (In addition the AC went out in the SUV) We were glad to be back home in cool Long Beach and unloaded the car and started our laundry. It was such a beautiful, and relaxing weekend, and we will surely be back to Table Mountain again sometime soon to have another great camping experience!

Progressive Dinner Party

We attended this dinner party put on by the "Progressives" at our neighbor's Gary and Dennis' across the street from us. The Progressives hold these dinner party/fundraisers about every other month to raise funds for worthy cause each time.
This party was for Long Beach Organic's Youth Program, called Youth Environmental Leaders (YEL) Dinner was courtesy of: Chef Joe Corso/Tapenade Catering and Chef Paul Buchanan/Primal Alchemy Catering (two Long Beach Organic chefs/gardeners!) The minimum donation requested was $35 per person. The meal was delicious, the backyard was simply packed with people and a lot of funds were raised for a worthy cause.

The YEL Team supports Long Beach Organic's mission through service-learning projects and hands-on training at the community gardens and at environmental project partnership events (i.e., tree plantings and native plant enhancement and restoration projects). In the last two years, YEL Team kids have contributed over 7,000 eco-service hours to the organic gardens, to three native plant gardens, and to restorations at Dunster Park, Sims Park, Marine Stadium and White’s Landing. YEL kids also coordinated and planted 12 community tree plantings at the LA River, five Long Beach neighborhoods, and two schools.


Pictures from previous Progressive Dinner Parties can be seen in the below link.

http://progressivedinnerparty.shutterfly.com/