A Toast To 50 Years On The Air

Wrapping up the 50th Anniversary weekend, here are a few comments and a few reception/toast photos.

We came to work on Monday and spent lots of time talking about the anniversary broadcast of "KCET: 50 Years at the Forefront". I turned up twice in the show. Once talking about the late Huell Howser and the other was a comment during the summing up part of the show. I hope to see the show again, so I can actually figure out what I said. All I know for sure, is that I did not embarrass myself. Big sigh of relief. :-)

The show began with how we were a community asset, hyper local, with satellite studios in East LA and another in Watts. Talking to people who were part of the Chicano movement and people trying to rebuild after the Watts Riots. As I mentioned to Bohdan Zachary (the producer) those are the very things the CAB sends us money each year to make happen. Community engagement. The show then goes on in different eras and ends, similar to how it began. We are trying, utilizing New Media, to get back to that hyper local mindset and that is the future of KCETLink. Did I have problems with what was shown or not shown? Of course I did...but it told the story that they wanted told. More power to them.

The toast and the cake cutting happened at 4PM on Monday afternoon. President Al Jerome presided over the event, thanking the staff for all the help over the past 3.5 years, as we made the break from PBS and forged our own course. Here we are, still standing, when no one believed we could.

May we make that extra 50 years, broadcasting in Los Angeles in whatever way evolves.

On The Dunes

My Water Post For Today.

My last look at The San Diego area. The beach dunes looking toward Point Loma, to be exact.

I love dunes at a beach. Just a tiny bit of sand, is so naked. The plants that live on the dunes, bring interest to the beach area.

This particular one reminds me of New York's beaches...especially Fire Island.

I hope you enjoy.

Our Anniversary! KCET Goes On The Air

Today's the day!

We have been celebrating our 50th year broadcasting, via our own air and in publications and magazines and now this is it! The actual day we went on the air. A reminder for people on the West Coast. KCET will be airing "KCET 50 Years at the Forefront", tonight at 8PM.

I had the honor to work with the man who was in our Master Control the day we turned on our transmitter for the first time and began broadcasting to the Los Angeles community.

He was all of 21 at the time and the weight of the entire enterprise rested on his young shoulders. Though I am sure there were many others helping to make it happen, it all came down to him.

His name is Roy Stewart. If you read some of my other blog posts from many months ago, you may remember me mentioning that we had an editor nominated for an editing Emmy for the 13 part series, Cosmos. That editor was Roy.

I went out to lunch with him recently and asked him questions about what it was like at 1313 Vine Street, when we actually went on the air.

Roy remembers well that we went on the air around Noon that day, airing many children's programs for the schools in our Los Angeles area. I am not sure if they were called this, back in 1964 but we aired children's instructional programs from an organization called RETAC (Regional Educational Television Advisory Council). Those shows may have been from them, or were a precursor of them.

One show that definitely aired on KCET that day, was Julia Child's The French Chef. That to me, is so important. She was an icon for generations of viewers and her show was aired way back then.

As we are now days, there was no such thing as PBS in 1964 and so we did not belong. There was instead, a sort of system called NET (a piece of trivia, that is where WNET gets its call letters from). They would provide the National Productions which aired in our Prime Time schedule back then.

Roy was an incredible employee, a joy to work with and toward the end of his service to KCET, he was back in Master Control, leading the overnight shift for us. Many a day I would come in and there would be a phone call or message telling me of potential problems for later in the day. I always felt better knowing he was on duty, giving us his best.

He always cared for our station, the one he put onto the air 50 years ago today.

Our Anniversary Weekend - Celebrating With A Look Back At Hollywood Television Theater

Since tomorrow's the day, I thought I would post a little preview post here. KCET turns 50 tomorrow and yes, we are celebrating. Our program, KCET: 50 Years At The Forefront, airs tomorrow night. Here is a look back, at Hollywood Television Theater.

It started out as The Greater Los Angeles Television Theater, when the proposals were sent out to the Ford Foundation and CPB.
PBS did not even exist at that time.

Executive Producer Lewis Freedman went on a road trip around the Country, trying to find a Public TV Station that could work with him to make dramatic productions to air on NET (the precursor to PBS). Though living in small rented quarters, KCET had a willingness to do whatever it took, to make this production work at their station. The station has always been located in the heart of the creative community and it felt right to push for this. So Lewis Freedman and KCET sent in the proposal and amazingly, it was funded.

With 1.2 Million dollars, they were off. I am sure at that time it looked like a lot of money, but as they soon found out, everything had to be low balled. If a play they wanted was more than they had budgeted, it was turned down. If an actor wanted lots of money, they were told that the budget could not afford them. What they found out though, was that actors worked around the low paying gig with their regular work and were happy to get a chance to perform on an "experimental" platform, such as "Educational" Television. Remember, the big 3 Networks and their advertisers, had the final say on what aired. At that time, Public TV was given some leaway and that was appreciated by the writers, producers and the cast itself.

KCET was at 1313 Vine Street when the first production, "The Andersonville Trial", was ready to be produced. In order to make the production happen, they had to move the entire Development Department out of their office, in order to have room for dressing areas for the cast and they put the wardrobe department out in the adjacent hallway. It was that small. What this showed the station management, was that if they wanted to do this project over the long haul, they needed a bigger lot.

Thus began the search for bigger quarters. A property on the far east side of Hollywood, known as the old Monogram Studios was empty and KCET management decided to make an offer on it. We picked it up for a small amount of money and this was where we moved in 1971. The lot had two large soundstages that were used for making B movies in the early days of film.

In the meantime, production began in earnest the next year (1970) and a total of 4 plays, most over 2 hours, were produced. While all this new production was going on, KCET, the TV station was broadcasting, we were the West Coast Delay for the Network (there were no such thing as satellite interconnection at that time), and of course, we had our own local productions going on, while this national one (and other national ones) were being shot.

It was quite a busy time.

After the move over to our new lot in August of 1971, (4401 Sunset Blvd which was known as 4000 Sunset Drive in those days) Hollywood Television Theater began in earnest. Due to some extra money being given to us for a different production that didn't pan out, 10 - 60 minute plays were added to the schedule. So we actually produced a total of 13 different productions that year. Note that 3 were the normal full 2 hour length.

The following year (without the extra money) we were back to 4.

This went on for a total of 7 years, which is a huge amount of time for any totally taped production and we were quite proud of it.

Our production crew was top notch and as the years passed we went from editing via cutting the 2" videotape, to something called the Datatron and then finally a computer controlled CMX 300 Quad Editing bay, that was still around when I arrived in 1980.

We were extremely lucky to have transitioned to Color Broadcasting in 1969, so all of the productions were shot in color.

After the first few years, Lewis Freedman decided to step down and move on and Norman Lloyd took over for the remainder of the series production. There were some differences in style, but for the most part, the productions continued as they had.

What finally killed Hollywood Television Theater, was the combination of approximately 20% less funding from the Ford Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS. Over the years, PBS had taken over from NET and to fund shows, there was a system put in place called the SPC (Station Program Cooperative). It was a system where each PBS member station voted for what productions they wanted to fund for the next year and how much money. Unfortunately, when all sources were combined, HTT ended up under funded. Costs were rising and they were barely getting by with the money they had, so even less was not an option. In addition to less national funds, the KCET Board of Directors decided to no longer use local production funds to subsidize national productions. This was the final nail in its coffin and Hollywood Television Theater, was no more.

Over the 7 years that it was in production, 44 episodes were produced and aired on Public Television.

Here is the list of plays, with the season they originally aired.

The Andersonville Trial (1969-1970)

Big Fish, Little Fish (1970-1971)
Montserrat
Poet Game
U.S.A.

The Typists (1971-1972)
The Police
Lemonade
Birdbath
Beginning to End
Enemies
Neighbors
The Standwells: About Love
Young Marrieds at Play
The Picture
Two by Chekhov
The Scarecrow
Awake and Sing
Invitation to a March

Another Part of the Forest (1972-1973)
Shadow of a Gunman
Carola
Winesburg, Ohio
Steambath

Man of Destiny (1973-1974)
Me
Incident at Vichy
The Carpenters
Gondola
Double Solitaire
The Sty of the Blind Pig
Nourish the Beast

The Chinese Prime Minister (1974-1975)
The Lady's Not For Burning
For the Use of the Hall
Requiem for a Nun
The Ladies of the Corridor
Knuckle

The Ashes of Mrs. Reasoner (1975-1976)
The Hemingway Play

The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976-1977)
Six Characters in Search of an Author
The Fatal Weakness
Philemon

KCET took great pride in making these 44 plays and proving that we were capable of playing in the big leagues.

Visions, American Playhouse, and PBS Hollywood Presents were later productions that came our way, because of our reputation for producing excellent drama, with a top notch production and engineering crew who were baptized in fire, working on HTT.

A major part of our proud past.

Makenna Is So Bored

This picture posted up on Facebook. I put it here so that others, who are not on Facebook, can see it.

My baby usually spends some time in the evening, on the ottoman. Last Saturday night, just before the start of SNL, this is what she looked like.

Sleeping and yet even as she was sleeping, she had her paw draped over the end of the ottoman, showing how bored and ready for real bed, she was.

I thought it was hysterical.

The Dodgers Win The Pennant!

Actually, I am not sure what they won. Their Division, is the best I can come up with. Baseball was a different game, when the Dodgers and Giants played that historic game in 1951 and the Giants won the game.

It wasn't a shot heard round the world, but it was a nice end to a division race and to win it against the Giants, in Dodger Stadium, made it even sweeter.

It has been an awful year for the the fans of the Dodgers. About 90 percent have been unable to watch a single game in their home, due to Time Warner Cable Sportsnet LA having exclusive rights to the broadcast. You have to have Time Warner Cable to watch that channel. Even if you have cable, the other cable companies refuse to pay the high fee, to carry the channel. It is a huge, unending mess.

In a last desperate compromise, Time Warner allowed little Independent channel KDOC to air the last 5 or so games. The ratings for that little channel were in the 5 point area. Ken Burns didn't get those ratings in LA last week. :-)

So some of LA's residents are happy people. The Dodgers won, we got to see them do it...and so did the Angels, for that matter.

It's going to be a great post season for us this year.

Fallen Warriors Bridge

The last road they built in Santa Clarita, known as the Cross Valley Connector, has 2 bridges on it.

One crosses the railroad tracks and Soledad Canyon Road and the other, the Santa Clara River.

That second bridge, which crosses the river, was named the Fallen Warriors Bridge, back in 2011.

On Holidays it gets flags on it and when they renamed it a few years ago, they put a memorial plaque at the beginning of the bridge.

I will discuss the contents of the plaque another day, but for now I thought I would talk the bridge itself and the little pocket park they put by the bridge.

Our river has places where we allow bikes to cross under them, instead of through traffic.

When the river has water in it (not for the past few years) they shut the gates and the bikes can no longer use it, until the water level retreats.

So there is a bike path that curves up from the river and intersects with the bridge. They put a small park there with 3 benches and some lovely bushes that were blooming bright orange, when I came by.

It is a nice serene area, but it is almost impossible to get to, unless you go out of your way and walk in to the park. I had to illegally park by a water well and walk up a block to the park. There is no parking in the area at all.

A shame, in my humble, opinion, because I know some of the people named on the plaque and I would have liked to visit it earlier than 3 years after it had been put in place.

Better late than never.

Kateri Visits Her Church

I received an email on Saturday evening, urging all of us who are Iconographers, to bring their Icons to Church on Sunday.

I remembered at the last minute and I packed my St. Kateri into her cloth and off we went. I felt kind of silly and at the same time, kind of proud of her.

When I got there, there wasn't a person or a table, showing off Icons. So I figured it must be early and I took her into Church with me.

When Church was over, there was still nobody there and so I checked our hall, where they serve snacks and sometimes breakfast. No icons there, either.

So I decided to take some beauty shots with Kateri and then we headed home.

From what I can figure out (after reading the Bulletin), we will have a table to display the Icons next Sunday, for the ministries fair...but I could be wrong. :-)

No matter what, she had a nice outing and she did not have to travel by plane this time.

Life Guard Station, Coronado Beach

My Water Post For Today.

This is the Life Guard Station at Coronado Beach. Personally, I have not seen one quite so big and imposing.

It impressed the heck out of me.

Being it is right down the beach from The Hotel Del Coronado, might be the reason they spent so much money protecting the beach goers.

All I know is I felt safe there, by the water.

Maybe I will have time to visit it again, when I return in November (for a conference).

I hope you enjoy.

Sometimes It Looks Like God Is Around

I was waiting for traffic to clear one day and saw the sunrise peaking through the morning clouds. If you see photos of God, they usually have the sun doing just that and so since it reminded me a little bit like those photos, I decided to post it on a Sunday.

I personally like to think that he is around at times like that. When I am sitting in traffic and praying it clears up soon.

It eventually did...maybe he heard me. :-)

Ridge Lines And Santa Clarita

Shortly after we became a city, Santa Clarita went out of its way to make laws that protect our ridge lines.

We live in a very mountainous area of Los Angeles and ridge lines are a part of the view from my house.

What the city tries to do, is keep developers from cutting our mountains down, just to put up homes.

This photo is an interesting shot of the McBean Transfer Station, which is situated immediately adjacent to a housing development and golf course. What they did, is basically protect the small hill that backs up the golf course and reshaped the lower area and planted trees on the new hill.

So you have old "protected" oak trees (another thing we try to keep around the area) and then trees that got planted to replace oaks that got taken down, or just are needed to keep the man made hill from sliding during a rainy season (something we have not seen in years).

These are things I contemplate, while waiting for my bus in the morning.

EcoCar3 Kick-Off In Novi, Michigan

My son has been in Novi, Michigan at the EcoCar3 kick off event. I don't know much about how it is going, but the first thing to come from them is a sponsor video, which you can view HERE.

I am used to seeing minimal photos of my son and his team and yet, though this is a sponsor video, he and his team and the EcoCar2 are all over the place.

Minus the group photo from last year, my son and his friend turn up at :40 seconds in, members of the team at 1:05 in and immediately following the team, their car on the test course. This is truly the first time I have seen footage of his car being driven. The final photo of him is at 3:04 in to 3:08. Literally the final shot. Since the car is a different color, that was from year 2.

To say the least, his father and I are both happy to see him featured so prominently. Especially after the 9th place finish last year.

I guess things might be going a bit better this year...at least we can hope. :-)

A "Rainy" Day

I don't drive to work often, but you can bet money on the fact that I will be driving on a rainy day.

I had a doctor's appointment 2 Mondays ago and so I looked outside, just before leaving. Yep, rain coming down.

Actually, drizzle. I knew what that meant. Traffic was going to be a bitch.

I was so right. What should have taken a half hour at most, almost took an hour.

Thankfully, I made it to the facility a half hour early. My Doctor wasn't so lucky. She came in 15 minutes late. Conversing afterwards, I found out we live about a mile from each other. She just didn't know the way of LA and its drivers, I guess.

Me, I have been bogged down by stupid drivers who don't know (or remember) how to drive in the rain, so I knew to give myself lots of time.

The photo, by the way, is the Newhall Pass and it gives you a good view of the brand new car pool lanes that were just added.

They did a great job with that. Maybe it saved me 5 minutes on my commute. :-)

Link TV 15th

As if we do not have enough looking back going on at our station, we were informed that Link TV turns 15 this December.

So they have decided to have a Telethon on the day of their Anniversary and they created a T-shirt for the occasion.

This promo, featuring Kim Spencer the creator of Link TV, airs on KCET and they mention that KCET and Link TV are now together and are celebrating. He mentions some of the programs that KCET airs and if you like the programming that crosses over between the two stations, feel free to contribute to support them.

It is kind of bizarre...but I do like the T-shirt. :-)

In case you care, programs mentioned as crossing over from Link TV are:
Borgen
Arab Labor
Earth Focus
Democracy Now!

KCET shows that cross over are:
Artbound
City Walk
Live From Studio A

Rustic Apple Cake

I saw this recipe in a magazine that comes in our local paper, called Relish.com.

It looked interesting for apple season. So since I got 4 apples with my box of produce and I had brought home 2 apples from work, I was set to do this.

Rustic Apple Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar (I went half and half, white and brown)
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 cups coarsely chopped, peeled Granny Smith apples or any tart firm apple such as Fuji or Gala (about 4 apples)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a Bundt pan.
Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed until creamy. Add eggs one at a time and continue to blend. Slowly add flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon; mix well.
Add apples and mix with a spoon. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake about 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before removing from pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

*Add a quarter cup Baking Raisins (or regular raisins), if desired.
*Add 1 Teaspoon Vanilla if desired.

What did I think? It was just a little dry and it tended to want to break apart, because of the apples. I might put the apples in a food processor and get a course chop for them. I was also thinking of upping the goodness with a bit of applesauce.

All in all, it was very good and it got better after it was refrigerated.

The Beach By The Hotel del Coronado

My Water Post For Today.

San Diego's most famous hotel, is found just across the bay in the City of Coronado. It is the Hotel Del Coronado and it sits right next to the beach we were visiting.

I got a real kick out of "swimming" at the shore and seeing the hotel, in the distance.

It is so regal and it goes back to 1888, over a hundred years. Many people, including Presidents and Royalty, have spent time here.

I thought about that, as I took photos, grabbed kelp and waded in the water.

I love the area and I love the view.

I hope you enjoy.

My 3rd Order From Abundant Harvest Organics

Note: This Blog post is not trying to drum up business for AHO. This is just a record of what a person who decided to sign up for a produce box, is doing with it. Trying to figure out if it is worth the money and if her and her family are eating healthier than they were before. That said...

It's been 2 more weeks and my third box has arrived. It is always an exciting time, because I really don't know what is coming. You can read about why I signed up for this, HERE.

This order was different, in that it is the end of the summer growing season and I thought I would take advantage of tomatoes (I got a 4 lb box at 1.65 a lb), in order to make sauce) I also got oranges (10 lbs for 58 cents a lb). We thought it might be worth it, to add on these things this week. We shall see.

So, what came in this box?

2 Green Bell Peppers

Cardoon (I have no idea what this is. Actually they say it is related to the globe artichoke plant)

Yellow Cherry Tomatoes (small jewel box)

Chives (a fresh bunch)

1 Cucumber

4 Granny Smith Apples

Grapes (Autumn Royal)

Lettuce (Red Leaf, as usual)

Summer Savory (a bunch)

3 small Sweet Potatoes

4 Tomatoes

2 Yellow Onion

So far, I was thinking of a recipe to use some of the grapes. I saw a chicken thighs with grapes recipe and my Husband approves of the idea. I will let you know if it gets made.

There are several recipes for cooking the cardoon. I guess we will be doing that.

My next box will be coming on 9/26, the start of the fall.

Channel Sharing Is In Our Future

The big news to come out of the Board of Directors meeting this past Tuesday was the fact that we had signed an agreement with our sister station, KLCS, to Channel share, come 2015.

What does that mean? Well, to start, give a read HERE.

What is going on is that the FCC wants to grab the upper part of the broadcast spectrum from us and they intend to ask stations to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum. If they do not get enough volunteers, they are probably going to force broadcasters to do so.

Ahead of this auction, KLCS decided to test something called Channel Sharing. They partnered with station KJLA and earlier this year, showed that it was a viable thing that could be done. Each station will have to dump half of their bandwith, which means we might be down to 2 channels each, when all is said and done.

Right now, KCET has our main channel, 28.1, in HD. It takes up lots of bandwith 720P, to be exact. Not full power, but good HD. These next three are all Standard Definition, though we widescreen them out, so they look like HD. They are: KCETLink, on 28.2, which is a hybrid of Link TV and some of our shows. The third channel we have is on 28.3. It is Spanish Language V-Me and we just pass it through. On 28.4 we air a pass through of the NHK World Channel (Japan International Broadcasting).

Totally off our antenna, we send out Link TV to Direct TV and to Dish. This will not be affected by the sale of bandwith.

KLCS airs KLCS DT, PBS Kids, Create TV and MHz Worldview. From what I hear, all in Standard Definition. They have never been one for quality and as a matter of fact I remember sending them 3/4 cassettes and later Beta SP tapes. Not exactly up to date equipment. I hope they are doing better now days.

Am I happy about this? Not really, but I am just a worker bee and I have no say in anything. I just feel like we are slowly giving away everything. PBS Membership as the Flagship Station, Our Lot and now half of our Channel. We have no press at all now days, in other words, we are totally ignored by the Los Angeles Times (unless it is bad news).

Well, let's see how much money the auction gets us this time. Maybe we can keep it, for once.

Poor Little Bird

This was what I saw, as I walked into work on Wednesday.

A very dead bird.

It was so very small and with the stunning yellow breast (a personal favorite color of mine) I was upset.

I didn't want it laying around outside, so I reported it to building management.

Living in a 14 story building, I am sure this was not the first bird to fly into our blue windows and come crashing down to the concrete.

The way the manager got onto the 2 way radio, confirmed that fact to me. She knew just what needed to be done.

But it was sad, none the less.

Clouds, One More Time

I swear, my last cloud photo for a while.

These clouds were generated by Hurricane Norbert, which was spinning out over Baja the other day. We don't normally get those kind of clouds and the humidity it brings, but we did on Sunday and on Monday.

This photo is of a tall cypress tree (which seem to grow very well in Santa Clarita) and the clouds on Sunday morning.

It almost looks like a rocket taking off.

Enjoy.

Lazy Day, Sunday Afternoon

This is a photo of what my Husband and cat looked like on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I am usually busy doing something, since cooking is my Sunday job. So that was what I was up to.

Makenna, my cat, looked so cute lazing on the ottoman, that I decided to take a photo of her.

For once, I got most of the sunlight out of the photo.

I am always so glad to see her and my Husband getting along.

A Desert Angel

There is much statuary around the grounds of my Church.

Back in the day, I came in on the back side of the Church, since I was working audio with my son.

Now days, it is just me coming to Church like a common parishioner. That means I go in the other entrance. Mostly because I am getting there very late and the parking lot I used to use, fills up first. I couldn't be late, when I worked audio. :-)

Over time, the statuary has been added to that area of the grounds. We have a tunnel that gives churchgoers a safe way to get to the Church itself, without crossing in front of the cars trying to come in or go out. That is because there is quite an elevation change between the road and that part of the grounds.

So what they did, was put 2 angels at either side of the tunnel, to greet everyone.

They both hold a pot with desert plants in their hands.

Being the angel person I am, I got a kick out of them and took some photos. The other angel has all sorts of signs around it and so I decided that this one looks more photogenic.

I love the green next to the reddish wall.

I think it looks so nice.

Enjoy.

Kelp By The Shore

My Water Post For Today.

Today it is all about the kelp (AKA: Seaweed) at the shore.

California has huge kelp beds just off the coast and so lots of it washes up onto the shore.

Being I don't spend much time at the beach, I was playing around with it and photographing it.

I love the rich amber color of the leaves and the ball of air, that keeps the plant standing up in the water.

It harbors an amazing ecosystem of marine life and makes the California seashore, what it is.

I hope you enjoy.

Grandchildren, Or Lack Thereof

I recently read an article about Boomer's and grandchildren and I found myself sort of agreeing with the author. It's a good thing that I am in no rush (or any rush, for that matter) to have any grandchildren. As she states in the article, she is just fine never having any. Of course her daughter is only 21 and would probably ruin her life, if she had one at this time.

My son adds to the conversation by saying..."yeah, about that subject...". Of course my son is similar in age to the daughter of the author and has never dated, as far as I know...but I find that I am good with that.

I am sure if one turned up (many years in the future), I would love it and everything...but for now, I am content.

Photo:
My Brother-in-Laws girlfriend's
plate with her 6 grandchildren on it.
A present from her children.
I love it.

Travis Brass

This is the outside of our Performing Arts Center. It is at the College of the Canyons in Valencia.

I have viewed a few performances at the PAC before, including Rocky Horror, The Nutcracker and (most recently) The Air Force Band of the Golden West.

When we saw that the Travis Brass (which is part of The Air Force Band of the Golden West) were going to be performing a free concert, we decided to try to attend.

I left work a little early and we got to the venue in plenty of time.

There were only 5 members who make up the Travis Brass and what they told us during the concert, is that the main band breaks up into about 4 or 5 mini bands and so they can travel to more cities.

Sharing their mission and their message, is obviously big to them.

They played many Sousa tunes, some patriotic ones of course and the final medley was the service branch theme songs. My Husband loves standing up when the Army song is played. If you care, the Army and the Air Force were the two branches with the most service members in attendance.

The show went from 8P to 9:30P. Long enough to be interesting, but short enough to keep people from falling asleep.

A nice free evening...win once again.

Here is what they played:

National Anthem
Liberty Fanfare (Composed by John Williams for the 100th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty in 1986)
"America" (West Side Story)
National Emblem
Irish Tune from County Derry
"Amazing Grace"
Washington Post March (Sousa)

God Bless the USA
America The Beautiful
Battle Hymm
Armed Forces Medley
A Sousa Collection

Drying Spices

Here's what I learned about drying spices. (Mine are Savory on the left and Oregano on the right)

Leave them on the counter for a few hours, to get to room temperature and begin the process. According to what I saw, this step is critical.

Mine came to me in a rubber banded bunch, so if yours do too, take off the rubber band and lay them out on a metal cookie sheet, with separation between the different twigs of leaves.

Place tray into a 175 degree oven for an hour. (I think I could have used more time, because some of the leaves had not yet dried out).

Let them cool on the counter and then strip the leaves off the stems. Put them in a glass bottle and save.

Blueberry & Fig Crisp

So, here I am with another basket of mission figs and I still have fig jelly left over from 2 weeks ago. I also have some blueberries hanging around that were about to go bad and so I needed to get rid of them, pronto.

I put blueberry and fig recipes in the search engine and I came up with an excellent idea for a dessert, Blueberry and Fig Crisp.

Back in my growing up days, our school served Apple Crisp. It was the most excellent of desserts. I still miss it. :-)

This wonderful website called A Good Appetite has the recipe that I decided to make: Fig and Blueberry Crisp.

There are notes all over the webpage that forbid me from copying their recipe, so click the link above, if interested in making this.

The one thing I added was a quarter cup of oats, because that is what I remember a crisp having and since it's just for me, it had to be right.

It was major yum. The figs stand out on their own and the blueberries add texture and richness without overpowering the figs. When you view the photo you can see the lighter juice on the topping is the figs and the darker juice is the blueberries.

Major win!

My 2nd Order From Abundant Harvest Organics

Note: This Blog post is not trying to drum up business for AHO. This is just a record of what a person who decided to sign up for a produce box, is doing with it. Trying to figure out if it is worth the money and if her and her family are eating healthier than they were before. That said...

Here is what I got in my box, for my second order from Abundant Harvest Organics. I got my first box 2 weeks ago and you can check out what I got HERE. I set myself up to skip a week, so that I don't get overwhelmed by produce.

After living through that second week where I was using up lots of produce from the previous week, I think that this is a good idea, at least at the start.

Well, what came in the box?

Small Basket of Cherry Tomatoes
2 Small Eggplant
A Basket of Mission Figs
Grapes (Autumn Royal)
Honeydew Melon
Head of Red Leaf Lettuce
Bunch of Oregano
6 Radishes
2 Small Red Onions
3 Small Zucchini Squash
4 Tomatoes

No extras were at the delivery spot this time... oh well.

One of the main things I felt I had to do (right off the bat), is find out how to dry the fresh herbs, since my savory was now 2 weeks old. I did see something to help me and I will post the how to, another day.

I set up salad for work this week and got things together, for that. We had salad for dinner on Monday evening and though we are not a big salad family, my guys and I ate most of it. The remainder came with me to work, on Tuesday.

I made a vegetable cheese and bacon quiche and it used quite a bit of the produce and so I have yummy healthy breakfast for me and my son this week.

I have not figured out what to do with the eggplant yet, because we had a big tray of Eggplant Parmesan last week. Maybe I will make a stir fry with it.

The mission figs are being made (as I write this) into a wonderful Blueberry Fig Crisp. More on that, another day.

We made our normal big bowl of cut up fruit for the week. A standard in this house, during the summer months. Some of the fruit went there, of course, including the grapes we got. The grapes are Autumn Royal and I have personally never heard of them. They are darker in color and huge. The man who owns AHO grows them and he said that these were created back in the mid 90's in Fresno, CA. They taste good, though occasionally they have a smallish edible seed in the center. Obviously crossed with the seeded black grapes we used to find in the stores.

I am looking forward to the Fall produce, coming up in a few weeks.

My next box will be on September 13th.

Chicken Saltimbocca

I had 4 chicken breasts and I went looking for something good to make. Once again, My Year With Chris, to the Rescue. I found this recipe for Chicken Saltimbocca (as my Mom told me, Saltimbocca means "jump into your mouth" in Italian) With my Husband's approval, I went out and bought the prosciutto (which is an expensive Italian meat). It is vital to the dish, since it replaces the skin on the chicken, so I decided to cook it the authentic way and deal with the fact that I had to lay out extra money. The chicken was half price, so I figure I came out OK.

I only had red wine, left over from another recipe and so that is what I used. White is preferred.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Ingredients

1/3-cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
3 slices prosciutto (1/4-pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cups dry vermouth or white wine
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon table salt
Ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Trim away any ragged edges as necessary, and cut away the pointy tips trimming back 1 inch to form a rounded cutlet. Lay chicken flat on cutting board and put in freezer for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, put flour in a shallow dish or plate.

3. Lay your hand flat on top of chicken, and with knife flat (parallel to cutting board) slice each breast to form two thinner cutlets. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Cut each slice of prosciutto in half to form 6 pieces. I like to cut it at a bit of an angle to approximate the shape of the chicken cutlets.

4. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200°.

5. Heat 1 tablespoons olive oil in 12″ skillet (regular, not non-stick) over medium-high burner until begins to shimmer; about 4 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, work in batches of 3, pat cutlets dry with paper towels. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off any excess and lay cutlets flat with the flattest side upward. Lay a slice of prosciutto on top of each cutlet, pressing lightly to try to get it to adhere. (mine never adheres, but it’s okay)

7. Add 3 cutlets to skillet with the prosciutto-side down. Cook for 4 minutes until golden brown.

8. Flip and cook on other side until golden brown, about 6 minutes more. Ensure that the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 180 degrees

9. Transfer to wire rack set on rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in oven.

10. Repeat with another 1 tablespoons olive oil and remaining 3 cutlets, then put in oven to keep warm while preparing sauce.

11. Pour off any excess fat from skillet. Turn up heat to high and add vermouth/wine. Use metal spatula to scrape up any browned bits, and allow to reduced for 7 minutes to about 1/4 cup. Add lemon juice and whisk in butter, a tablespoon at a time.

12. Off heat, stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. Remove chicken from oven and place on platter. Spoon sauce over cutlets before serving.

This is Angel, back to say a few things.
Some things I have seen around the web, that you might find of use. You can add provolone cheese, at the end, just long enough to melt it. Sage leaves are recommended by many other recipes, as garnish and next time I might use them. My Husband thought it was a bit bland, so maybe some garlic in the olive oil, would bring a nice flavor to the chicken and the sauce. Who knows.

All I know is I liked it.

Coronado Beach, Early In The Day

My Water Post For Today.

I have not had the time to show off some of the photos that I took in San Diego, back in late June.

I intend to rectify that oversight starting right now, with a few photos I took at the beach. Enjoy a month by the shore, in San Diego.

This first photo is of the ocean waves on the Pacific Ocean side of Coronado. This photo was taken early in the day, before the marine layer had burned off and the beach became sunny and hot. If you know anything about the California Coast, we get marine layer weather, quite often.

The waves were nice and manageable and I was wading in them, when I took the photos.

Enjoy.