Friends – Stephanie Sicore

February 18, 2009February 18, 2009

February is for Friends, Fondue and Birfdays

Every February, as long as we are in California, Alis and I get together and celebrate our birthdays. Alis was born twelve days after I was, but she is four inches taller, has always backed me up in every corner and rarely ever got into any real trouble so I can’t help but think of her as my older sister. We met as hallmates on the first day of college our freshman year at RISD.

In northern California, winter is wet and cold, and on more than one occasion it’s seemed just right to have a fondue party, which is exactly what we did tonight in Mountain View at Grandpa Charlie’s house (Charlie is Alis’ dad).

Little Rosie, the granddaughter of Charlie’s wife Maddie, was there too, celebrating her third birthday. Happy Birthday, Rosie!

I was responsible for cheese fondue. I have an old book on fondue with a recipe that I adapted to suit my taste (I have really good taste!) Pay attention, because this is delicious:

Rub your fondue pot with one clove of halved garlic. Discard the garlic.
Shred 1 lb of gruyere cheese into the pot, along with
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup of Kirschwassen

Warm over a double-boiler (or over the Sterno) on medium heat until melted. Stir frequently, meanwhile cubing some fresh sourdough loaves or whatever else you might like to dip into the cheese: French bread, carrot slices, tomato wedges, potatoes, steamed broccoli or cauliflower…

Then enjoy. With lots and lots of wine.
.
.
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…and then maybe a little chocolate fondue, too!

February 4, 2009February 4, 2009

tenacity

I have a heavy heart for a mama who is moving and healing, both at the same time. She completely overshadows any of my manic self-deprecating pouts.

Tenacious minds and bodies inspire me, like Nie Nie.

Our dog, Seti, channels this kind of perserverence in the photo above, taken this weekend. He does not accept “no” to a good game of fetch. His ball, slid underneath the new garden beds I built with Damon, represents all the hope a soul can hold onto.

Keep pushing, brave mama.

April 7, 2008April 10, 2008

sous chef at chez alis

sous chef at chez alis, originally uploaded by young@art.

I took Chas up to Skyline so we could bother my friend Alis on a workday.

Under the hazy sun I sat in the lounge chair while Chas made lunch and Alis took a work call. He wasn’t just making lunch, he was his own Iron chef competition. More complicated than that, even, because it involved acrobatics and small Tonka trucks. After about 45 minutes, he was done, and only after he had told me so, not a minute before.

Nevermind the fact he was playing right beside an actual plot of bolting kale, cabbages and beet greens.

When I brazenly picked up the plant saucer full of broken sticks, he furiously demanded I take the saucer with the crumpled up dandelion greens that had been yanked out of the ground and plunged into the water trough with the drowned bees and rusting scrap metal. I mean, salad.

“NO!” He demanded, “That’s not yours! That’s Alis’.”

There are two particularly delicious sounds that make me happy.Â One is the low-pitch quiet sound of the barn in the afternoon, when the horses are chomping on grain and hay. I love this lulling sound. The other sound I adore is the high-pitched, little-mouth delicious sound of Chas, pretending he is eating sticks and twigs. So there we had pretend lunch ad afterwards, as he played, I sketched.