Chicken Soup for the Soul

Beautifully painted electrical boxes brighten the intersections of San Diego. This one may give one pause before dining on pies of poultry. These beautiful roosters are located outside San Diego's Chicken Pie Shop on El Cajon boulevard under the landmark water tower.


Editorial: The Chicken Myth By Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President of PCRM

The Good Good Pig

This was my favorite book read this summer, "The Good Good Pig" by Sy Montgomery. She lives in southern New Hampshire and adopted a runt of the litter. He was named after the conductor "Christopher Hogwood" and lived 13 1/2 years longer than most pigs. Most pigs don't make it through the winter and rather get a one-way trip to the slaughter house. This was a sweet sweet story of how "Chris" started out the size of a cat and was nursed to survive and entertain for 14 years. Neighbors and local restaurants would save their "slops" and Christopher would develop a true foodies palate, rooting out his favorite morsels first, savoring every taste out on "pig plateau." Christopher was not the biggest pig that ever lived, but he grew to estimates of over 700 pounds. "As Christopher's girth increased, so did our doubts about who was in charge at our house. Not only was Chris destined to vastly outweigh us, but we faced a growing realization that our pig was dangerously, possibly diabolically, brilliant."

Just when you think . . .

Just when you think they can't get any more adorable, there they are! Percy will tollerate Cappuccino within a paw-swatting distance, but only if he is oblivious to it.

Reba send me an email of a 1955 Good Housekeeping article. It spoke of very unliberating tasks for the wife to make the husband's home more of a castle. Have the meals ready, get a fire going on chilly nights, don't bother him with your troubles, make you home a place of peace and tranquility. Put that article in the context of four companion boy cats, and it doesn't seem so outrageous. Unconditional love coming and going, as long as certain conditions are met.

Berubes visit San Diego

Smile! We hooked up with David and Ellen on Friday near the end of their vacation. They still hadn't seen the ocean, so we took them to Ocean Beach and Point Loma. Ellen walked in the chilly ocean at Dog Beach and I rinsed off some pup-kiss (dog slobber). I always have to question the wisdom of walking on Dog Beach barefoot, but I do it every time anyway.

We then drove over to Sunset Cliffs where this picture was taken. It was overcast, so no sunset at these cliffs tonight. It's always fun to see family. Even though we couldn't quite remember the last time we saw each other (at least 10 years ago?), it felt like yesterday. Thanks for the wonderful visit!

Stonewall Peak in Cuyamaca

Last Wednesday, Joy and I enjoyed an afternoon hike up to Stonewall Peak in the Cuyamaca State Park. Surprisingly, there will still several varieties of wildflowers blooming in late June. In one spot, there were dandelions gone to seed. The fluffy heads were ginormous, as wide as three-fingers!

We brought along plenty of water and snacks for a picnic in a field on the way down. After the Cedar Fires of 2003, many of the trees are still charred, but showing signs of coming back. It still has more of a ghost town feel than forest.

Coming from the Northeast, I still have to warm to the Southern California landscape. Lovely to look at, but walking the dusty eroded trail stirred up a lot of dust that found its way into my walking shoes. It's Teva sandals for next time!

From the California Parks website:

Paso Picacho, 5 miles north, sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The most popular hikes start from this camp, including the 2 mile hike up Stonewall Peak (elevation 5,700 feet), and the 3.5 mile hike up Cuyamaca Peak (elevation 6,512 feet), both which offer breathtaking views of the deserts to the east, the coast to the west, and Lake Cuyamaca at the bottom.

Balloons for Cappuccino

Our neighbor, Alison, just graduated from UCSD and had a party in the courtyard. This was the first time that Cappuccino has seen balloons and he didn't quite know what to make of them. He hopped up on the chair here and gave a start. He bobbed and weaved, ducked and peeked at the blue and gold orbs.

Just another day of fun and joy shared with companion animals!

Draining the French Press

We three were discussing what we were doing this coming weekend.

"You going running on Sunday?"

"Yup", says Dustine. "Are you?"

Well, I can't run with my ankles, my bike barely fits in the car, all I can do is walk on the beach.

"Well that's something," says Marisa.

"But I wish Larry would get up early to join me in that walk. He takes his time getting up, sitting with his coffee."

Then I get home and see this delicate balancing act on the kitchen counter. Yup, Larry needs his coffee.

Scorpion Bay Hot Sauce

Our friend Rob (see link below for Around and About San Diego) has created three new hot sauces under the name Scorpion Bay. I whipped up a big batch of black beans to try them out. First we tried the HotAcado sauce. It's a complex sauce in that your taste buds are doing a lot of work recognizing all the flavors like yes, some lime or citrus. If there was a thermometer on the bottle, I would guess it would hover somewhere between mild and medium. This is a great sauce.

Today Larry opened the red sauce, De Arbol, to dress up the black beans. I-chi-hua-hua! Yes, indeed, it is a hot sauce. "Diablo" was probably already taken. While it is a hot fiery sauce, it has a rich tomato and tomatillo base. It's definitely thicker than some salsas as condiments at Mexican restaurants.

I'm saving the best for last. We haven't opened it yet. The Chocopotle hot sauce with a hint of chocolate. This sauce starts with a base of tomatoes and three different types of chilies and peppers. As recommended on the bottle, I may have to pick up a pint of Soy Delicious vanilla to try this flavor out! . . .

This is/will be the secret ingredient in my black beans. Stir in just a teaspoonful for every cup of black beans, perfect. As for ice cream topping, add the Chocopotle to chocolate syrup "just enough to taste the heat" and then top the frozen dessert.

Happy Mothers' Day

Four generations of Brown, Rau and Brigham women were alive in my early days. Sorry, great-gramma Brown, I would need some past life regression or hypnotism to remember times with you. I do have lots of memories of my gramma Rau who passed away when I was eleven years old. And my mom and I will be making memories for years to come.

When I was offered some iced coffee recently, I was reminded of how gramma Rau enjoyed hers with some half-and-half in a tall glass with a sprig of mint on top. And she probably had a Kool cigarette in the other hand, sitting on a chaise lounge in the backyard. Completely unrelated, she made the best stuffed animals. They made some amazing fake fur back in the 70's. She found a brown-grey-black-white checkerboard pattern to make a family of raccoons. They had to be stuffed a certain way, not too firm, not too soft, but just enough to feel like it was giving you a hug back.

I smiled for my mom today. I began walking in the early morning again. I pulled out the talking pedometer that she got me for my birthday. I brought the manual with me in case there was an equipment malfunction. It's a talking and also a music-playing pedometer. It would be fun to walk down the street and have people think that the ice cream truck was coming, but not at 7:00am. But if I do find that ice cream truck tune, music will be set to "on". And what goes better with ice cream than cake!! I was titling family slides that I scanned recently. Of course the camera comes out on occasions such as Christmas and birthdays. I love the look on my mom's face as she presents us with our birthday cake. Our smile is wide and our eyes are bright with anticipation of that sugary treat. Thank you mom, I feel the love.

Happy Mothers' Day!

A great dog party!

Happy Birthday to Annabelle who turned 1 human years old on Sunday. Down the street from us is Original Paw Pleasers in North Park. My neighbor picked up a doggie cake for the dogs in the complex to share. Her mommy said the frosting was very tasty and gauging the tongue action, so does baby Belle.