Tomatoes From My City Garden

Last week, I harvested like 6 lbs. of tomatoes from my garden. Well, it isn't actually a garden, but my mini haven here in the city. These beef tomatoes were planted in the pots. Because they are limited by space, the stems and the branches couldn't carry out the weights of the fruits. So they dry out and the main trunk of the vine gets to be weak. I pruned a lot of them and left only the stems that were healthier and strong enough to carry the weight. I also cut off a lot of leaves to enable a healthier growing process for the fruits so the nutrients can go directly to them and need not be distributed to a lot of foliage and stems. So far, I had to harvest the small ones, too,- the fruits. Last week, I found out that some birds come to my tomatoes and picked on them! They tend to choose the biggest and the ripest one among the group. Ayayay! They leave a large hole on the side. It is a nightmare. So far my first attempt to plant tomatoes last spring was worth it. Today and for the next few weeks, I still have some fruits and flowers, and likely, they would be more before the emergence of autumn.

Click photos to enlarge!

Strawberry & Blueberry For Dessert

We had this after lunch sometime last week. The blueberries are sour, as typical of them. But I served them without powder sugar. Arranging fruits with a sense of order makes it all appealing to the eyes and makes such a great astronomic delight.

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

Home-made Pesto

Fresh Sweet Basil Leaves

Romano Cheese

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups fresh basil leaves- cut the stems, use leaves only*
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts or ALMONDS*
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix all using the food processor. I made 2 lbs of pesto and didn't follow this measurement but rather I did my own style, by estimate. I added a whole bulb of garlic as I want it to be tasty and I put on a lot of olive oil and Romano cheese as I want my pesto to be floating in extra virgin olive oil. I used ROASTED ALMOND as an alternative to the nuts written above. I served this pesto with my home baked Italian rustic bread, PAGNATTO. It was a perfect ensemble!

The Painted Lady Of San Francisco

Text information was taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photo credits by *PIZZICATTO*

San Francisco Painted Lady is a term used for Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies - San Francisco's Resplendent Victorians. Since then the term has also been used to describe groups of colorful Victorian houses in other American cities, such as the Charles Village neighborhood in Baltimore City, Lafayette Square in St. Louis, the greater San Francisco and New Orleans areas, Columbia-Tusculum in Cincinnati and the city of Cape May, New Jersey. Some preservationists use the term polychrome for the style.

About 48,000 houses in the Victorian and Edwardian styles were built in San Francisco between 1849 and 1915 (with the change from Victorian to Edwardian occurring on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901), and many were painted in bright colors. As one newspaper critic noted in 1885, "...red, yellow, chocolate, orange, everything that is loud is in fashion...if the upper stories are not of red or blue... they are painted up into uncouth panels of yellow and brown... While many of the mansions of Nob Hill were destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, thousands of the mass-produced, more modest houses survived in the western and southern neighborhoods of the city.

Painted Ladies in the Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, CaliforniaDuring World War I and World War II, many of these houses were battleship gray with war-surplus Navy paint. Another sixteen thousand were demolished, and many others had the Victorian decor stripped off or covered with tarpaper, brick, stucco, or aluminum siding.

In 1963, San Francisco artist Butch Kardum began combining intense blues and greens on the exterior of his Italianate-style Victorian House. His house was criticized by some, but other neighbors began to copy the bright colors on their own houses. Kardum became a color designer, and he and other artists such as Tony Cataletich, Bob Buckter, and Jazon Wonders began to transform dozens of gray houses into Painted Ladies. By the 1970s, the colorist movement, as it was called, had changed entire streets and neighborhoods. This process continues as of 2007.

One of the best known groups of "Painted Lady" is the row of Victorian houses at 712–720 Steiner St., bordering Alamo Square park, in San Francisco. This block appears very frequently in media and mass-market photographs of the city and its tourist attractions. It is sometimes known as "Postcard Row." The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 by developer Matthew Kavanaugh, who lived next door in the 1892 mansion at 722 Steiner St. These houses also appear in the opening credits of the television series Full House.

Remy Narvaez: Montessori Memories

Remy on the left with the author

Last month, I googled my friend with whom I taught with in a Montessori School in the Philippines in the early '80s. This was in Maria Montessori Cooperative School in Williams St., Pasay- near the ADB (Asian Development Bank).With my telepathy guiding me, I decided to write her name in GOOGLE SEARCH. Surprisingly, GOOGLE led me to her latest home address and phone number in Virginia. Tee-ha! Excited, I called her up, left a voice message then realized that the time difference we have was 3 hours, ah- well. She is ahead by 3 hours. Never mind, all was done in the spirit of friendship! Anyhow, the next day she called back and true to my instinct, she was the person I was looking for! However, when I heard her voice greetings the day before, it sounded like her but I was kind of skeptical but took chances just the same. Et voila, it worked! Mid part last week, she sent me a short email regarding her forthcoming visit to Sta. Rosa, California. Wow, that triggered my adrenalin! Sta. Rosa is close by and it is 2 1/2 hours drive from San Francisco. She said she was arriving via Oakland International Airport. Hm, that was cool! When I heard all these things coming up to be so fast like a strike of lightning, I was sooooo thrilled!!!

At the airport in Virginia, she called several times and asked how I was, and what time do we meet. Moreover, she added that when she touches down in Northern CA, she'd call back again. And she did. And that call was enough to make me hyper active, mamamia!

What came next was the prep time. All at once, I was busy as a bee! I cooked, baked, cleaned, disinfected every nook in our flat and prepared for her arrival. Finally I was done but I was terribly, teribly exhausted, tired, wobbly, cranky, stressed, dying and was about ready to collapse infintely in my bed! But alas, I couldn't afford to do it as every minute counted! Despite my aching legs hammering me like bolts of torture, I tried to withstand it as I was due to run to the nearest butcher in Chinatown to purchase some pounds of pork! She said she wanted to eat "ADOBO." Ayayay! But a friend is a friend! She wants ADOBO!!! So I bought the pork and cooked ADOBO!

In the evening at around half past eight, husband and I heard their car engine roared as it entered our alley. Prior to this, she called and mentioned that they were in the area but got lost. Husband directed them on the phone. Soon enough, they were coming over. Right then and there, I advised husband to go downstairs and to escort them at our monthly parking space, two blocks from where we live. Parking is always a bummer in NORTH BEACH, we had them to park in our old parking space (we already advance the payment of parking for our guests). Then, off my friend went upstairs! Soon enough, in a breeze, she was with me! She was in front of me- so cute and petite, she in her flesh, face to face- ayayay!!! Years ago and months back this encounter was just unimaginable. But with the emergence of internet, all is possible! We had lost track when I moved to differnt countries, and she- when she sold her house and moved elsewhere. But God is good! We got re-connected for a good cause!

In our homeplace, we had snippets of our life encapsulated over a span of 26 years. We were rushing and fastforwarding from 1982 to 2008! We were chatting fast because we were catching up with time! While chatting, I learned from her right at that point that her spouse couldn't walk with ease and couldn't get by walking the flight of stairs we have here in the city. By improv, husband decided to take them at a nearby restaurant so he need not deal with stairs and they waited for us there.

Whereas on my part, I packed the food stuff I cooked and baked in ziploc bags per item and finally packed them together in a medium sized plastic canvas bag. Then, I handed it to her. We had a good laugh thinking about this resolution we had about how and where to eat! While doing so, she had a small feast of LUMPIA in the midst of me packing the food. She asked for a bottled water.

"NO, WE DON'T HAVE. WE DRINK FROM THE TAP."

She asked if we had soda?

"NO, WE DON'T DRINK SODA. WE DRINK WINE. WANNA HAVE SOME?"

She had a staccato laugh. She said she doesn't want any wine and was good enough to have the water from the tap. Great. She added that she was starved having just gone out of the airport then drove straight to our place in NORTH BEACH. Later, she had to go to the loo. Then after a while, off we walked downstairs where we headed to Union Street where TUKTUK THAI CAFE is. There, we met her better half, moi Little Boy Blue and my friend's niece in-law. Together, we had a Thai dinner. It was good. We had some photo shoots for a souvenir. True. We didn't get to eat a lot because we were talking most of the time. Nevertheless, we all realized that the company was more delicious than the Thai food we had!

Well, having been there at TUK TUK THAI CAFE for our party of five was the shortest way to have us all together as one. We couldn't afford to make her spouse suffer walking up and down the flight of stairs when he couldn't do it. He is weak and is going for a dialysis thrice a week. It was touching that he came by to meet her at the airport in person and told me later that he wanted to see me, too, she said.

I was one of the bridesmaids when they got married. Our last connection was in TAGAYTAY CITY, PHILIPPINES in 1982 and together with our friend ESSIE, we stayed in their house for a short breather before my friend migrated here in VIRGINIA and he followed later.

Our reunion was short and sweet.

REMY, thanks for the thought! Thanks for the bag. You didn't have to give me anything at all- but that was awesome. Salamat po!

"A Drive To San Francisco Via GO CAR"

Here we are!

Yesterday, September 1st- was Labor Day here in the USA. Since there was no work for husband, we planned the day before and reserved the GO CAR online. We made the drive in all parts of scenic San Francisco and rented the famous GO CAR. The cost was $165.00 plus tax (8.75%) and insurance. That's astronomical! Car rental for that amount is good enough for a week's use but the novelty is to drive around the city in this miniature car. It is actually operated by a motorcyle that is connected via the electric power in the main location of the company in Hyde Street, San Francisco.

GO CAR is a three-wheeler and you sit right on a seater that almost touches the ground! Your legs caress the inside of the wheel! It's so little, it could only accommodate a maximum weight of 500 lbs! But the good thing is- it has a talking GPS (global positioning system) and tracks you down on the right direction as you cruise along the city. You could also put on your backpack at the back compartment of this tiny thing!

During our drive, we saw many couples in GO CAR and like a fraternity, there was a strong connection among us. We met two sets of couples; had a nice chat with them while the others whom we saw on the street, gave us a wave or a honk on their horn! One runner even posed with our GO CAR! The rest, mostly onlookers took our photos, waved, smiled, and gave us that fun energy that said, "WOW- THAT'S AWESOME!"

One fellow gave us the dirty finger because we didn't drive that past in the most hilly part of San Francisco, OMG! This was revealed by the other couple who drove behind us from ALAMO PARK where the famous PAINTED LADY* is located.

(*It is a series of 6 Victorian Homes, depicted in postcards, placemats, posters in San Francisco).

Sutro Bath

For the most part of the drive, it was fun. However, on the comfort side, it was not that great. I had pain in my back and husband as well. While driving, we felt every bump on the road hitting through our spine because the shock absorber was not good. Each time we drive on a slightly rocky road or a road with just a minor crack, we just got shaken a lot by the impact of driving a tiny car!

Over all, it was a memorable 7-hour or so day drive. The aftermath is, I got a slight fever, cough, cold and tonsilitis due to too much sun exposure. Ayayay! I am still under the weather, mamamia!

Anyhow, enjoy the slide show and imagine you were driving on a GO CAR, too. Okay?

RIGHT: "OUTDOOR PHOTO OF THE SUTRO BATHS IN THE 1900s"

BTW, part of the drive we enjoyed was the visit to the famous SUTRO BATHS in San Francisco along Cliff House in Ocean Beach. This was a public bath built in the late 18th century and people enjoyed it up to the next next century. However, it burned down in the '60s and was never rebuilt. Cost of construction during the late 18th century was already a cool 1 million dollars!!!

"Painted Lady" Foreeground: Our rented GO CAR

The other highlight of our drive was our visit to ALAMO PARK where the famous six Victorian homes are located, known as "THE PAINTED LADY." I have no idea why they are called as such. I need to research some more!