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36 hours in palm springs

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

What I like about Palm Springs is how it makes me feel like home.
I grew up in the desert. Mostly in rentals and trailer parks. Rocks, dirt, and tumbleweeds were my backyard. I never saw the beauty of it, instead I hated it, and got out as fast as I could by moving to it’s polar opposite: Santa Barbara.

There were memories wrapped up in the sights and smells of the desert that I was okay with forgetting.

For the past ten years I have lived in the neat and clean of the Orange, with its little boxes of suburbia, its close quarters and big intersections, its cool and temperate weather, and its perfectly coiffed landscaping. Sometimes over the last few years I have felt stifled, and claustrophobic, and like I don’t belong here. The expectation of perfection hovers over this place as much as the marine layer. The edge of the shore meeting the sand feels too final to me, instead of endless. Sometimes I need more room – not just physically – but wide open space for my head to breathe in.

And thus has begun our escapes into the desert. Just the two of us. Neither of us expected to love it so much.

I was always fascinated by the windmills as we passed through, traveling to Arizona or beyond. My dad hauled cars cross country, and at a very young age, I would sometimes go with him. Truck stops and open road and diesel fuel. Staring out the window, the huge fans just mesmerized me. They still do. They make me cry.

I think I have probably wanted to get out of the car and play under them my entire life. I finally did on this trip.

When Jeff and I were newly pregnant with Mckenna and living with his mom, he found a job as a process server, and his locations were Palm Springs and the surrounding cities. We had one car, a Honda Prelude, which we called The Blue Lude. It had a broken air conditioner. In the middle of summer, he would drive up there to work, and once or twice I went with him. The temps would hit upwards of 120 degrees, and being newly pregnant, I was barfy and miserable. I would walk into office buildings with him instead of waiting in the car, just to feel the relief of cold air. And then beg him for just a few more minutes of cool down before heading back out into the stifling heat of the car.

That’s how I felt this weekend.

Palm Springs was that relief of cold air you feel, after a day of sticking to your seats on the hottest day of the summer.

-Tara

Posted in Life, Orange County Photographer

by Tara Whitney

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35 and two weeks

Monday, November 7, 2011

Here, a collage of iPhone (mostly) self portraits taken throughout my last year on earth.

I turned 35 two weeks ago.

I am totally okay with that.

I have hated my birthday since the big THREE OH. Ever since turning 30, I have struggled every birthday.

This year, I was not sad and I didn’t hate my birthday. This year, I realized why.

In the past, I have chosen to live in the past. Every new birthday meant another year gone. All I saw was everything I was losing. Time, babies, lost moments, regrets. I couldn’t stand to see the passage of time in my own face. I wanted to go BACK. I wanted to DO OVER. I wanted to experience AGAIN. My babies were gone. My 20′s were gone. Didn’t that mean my life was gone?

And so, with each new birthday that came after the age of 30, I was sad. I was regretful. I was focusing on all that was.

Over my last year on earth, I have changed. I have finally been able to come to grips with the regrets of my past, and let them go. I knew 35 was coming. And yet, I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t looking backwards. Instead, I was looking at my life and the limited amount of time I have to be here. I was realizing how lucky I am to still be alive, when our lives are so fragile, when we have no control over when we will go for good. I was feeling grateful to have the chance to turn 35, and to EXPERIENCE another year. Yes, the signs of time are even more present upon my face. Yes, I have lost another year and I can’t go back and live it again. And yes, my children are even bigger.

The difference was this – I started living more in the moment. I stopped focusing so much on what was behind me, or what was coming up in my future. I was just taking every moment as it came. This is the life I have. This moment. This second. This body. This family. There is nothing else. And it turns out, when you are truly living moment to moment, you don’t miss the moments as much when they have passed, because you are able to fully experience them.

That is a concept I have always kind of known, we all know it, it is almost cliche. However, I have never experienced it in order to understand. This time I really understood.

This time I wanted to live in the moment of my birthday. I wanted to celebrate my life and the chance I had to live another year.

So, I took my birthday back. I thought long and hard about what I would want to do, all for myself.

I planned a trip to Palm Springs with Jeff. It would include: sleeping, drinking poolside, thrifting, reading, and more sleeping. And it did.

I am truly excited to see what comes up this year, and I know: no matter what, I am going to be okay.

My mantra for 35: I can do this.

-Tara

 

Posted in Life

by Tara Whitney

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lazy susan: november

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

I was working a snack bar shift during one of my son’s water polo games when I got a text from Amy and a phone call from Shannon at the same time. I answered and got totally ambushed by them all at once on speaker. They were driving around Temecula chewing on an idea Amy had about starting a virtual food fest with friends, based on the format of a blog project Shannon was a part of. They told me they wanted to get a bunch of bloggers together to post recipes on the first of every month, and then link to each other, forming a kind of blog link circle love fest.

I said, “Oh my god you guys, it’s like a Lazy Susan! We can call it Lazy Susan!” And they loved me for that and said I could join.

We decided to start November 1, with the theme of Thanksgiving.

A bunch of other people were invited, and here we are. If you follow along the links at the bottom of all of our posts, you will be taken to the next Thanksgiving recipe and the next blogger. At the end you will have clicked through a full course meal.

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THANKSGIVING STUFFING

This stuffing recipe has been handed down through at least four generations of women in my family, with some tweaks to the recipe being made in the name of modern convenience. Last year was the first year I made my own turkey dinner, so I called my mom to get the recipe. I was totally shocked at what she told me. “It’s the recipe on the Mrs. Cubbison’s Dressing box, and I just throw in some sausage, onion, green apple, and pecans.” Measurements? I asked. “Not really,” she said, “You just add stuff until it looks right.”

Typical.

But I did what she said, and it turned out juuuuuust right.

Yesterday I called her to ask about the history of this stuffing. She told me that stuffing was always the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal for her family. She remembers her grandma, and then her mom, using a legit meat grinder that was attached to their kitchen counter, and the old fashioned sausage that came in links. Once she was old enough, it became her job to pass the sausage through the grinder. She was taught to put everything else through it as well – pecans, apples, onion, sage, celery…everything had the same texture. And they ALWAYS used the Mrs. Cubbison’s dressing box.

We obviously do not have old timey sausage links or permanent meat grinders. So, once she grew up and started cooking the meal on her own, she made a few adjustments.

And now I know them. And I am going to teach you.

To make this recipe you will need these ingredients, plus some good music playing.

I chose the Grateful Dead.

INGREDIENTSES: (You have to watch RHONJ to get that one. On the video at the very end. And hilarious.)

1 box of Mrs. Cubbison’s Class Seasoned Dressing (Two 6 oz bags)
1 lb SAGE Sausage
2 green apples
1 cup celery
1 cup yellow onion
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup butter
1 cup pecans

You follow the recipe on the back of the box, with the addition of some of the items.

First, you chop everything up. I don’t like big chunks, so I chop everything pretty finely. I also like to chop while sitting at my kitchen table, so I bring everything over and get comfortable.


Peel and core the apples before you chop!

Then, you saute the sausage with the onions until they are brown and golden, respectively.

While the sausage and onions are cooking, you melt your butter in a large bowl, and then add the stuffing to the butter. Stir and coat.

Then, you add in everything else you just chopped – pecans, apples, celery – and give it a good stir. ( I just crush my pecans up in the bag with the butt of a knife )
Next, you add in 1 cup chicken broth, and stir that up as well, coating everything.

Once the sausage and onion are finished, you drain them and then add them to the bowl, giving another stir.

**Now, on Thanksgiving, I shove as much of this deliciousness into the rump of my bird. And it is awkward, but worth it.

For the purpose of this blog post, I simply cooked it in a casserole dish, following the directions on the box. It tastes better from the bird, but still good from the dish.

And I ate it, and I was happy, and it was delicious.

Hope you like it. The smell is HOME to me. And MOM. And FULL TUMMIES. And SPARKLING APPLE CIDER.

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Join us on the first of each month as this diverse group of food lovers share their favorite recipes, tips and tricks inspired by the seasons.

To keep moving along our Lazy Susan, click here to be taken to Chenin Boutwell’s blog for another version of stuffing!

Posted in lazy susan, Life, Orange County Photographer

by Tara Whitney

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