Tag Archives: family

Traditions Made New

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A couple of years ago we started having people for New Year’s Day brunch, which was I guess some sort of weird indication that we were becoming grown ups or whatever. It was the year after we bought a house, so maybe that had something to do with it. The first couple of years we spent the entire day totally hungover, but the hangover has slowly become less and less. 

This year instead of a brunch I prepared a four course dinner for a few close friends, and we just ate and drank and ate some more, and then we watched Bridesmaids. It was one of my favorite NYEs ever, and I’ve had some pretty amazing ones.

The next day was the birthday of my Aunt, so I made a cake for her and took it to a large family gathering at my Dad’s instead of the brunch. The timing was perfect to have the burden be on someone else to host a big New Year’s Day event, because of how busy we’ve been this month.



We spent the afternoon in the sun: a very welcome change for the start of the year. One that I hope will be a good sign of things to come. It’s been a dark December.

One thing this means we missed out on was the annual NYD tradition that started that first year, one we like to call “Eat the Year.” It is pretty much what it sounds like. We make an edible “20**” and then we consume it as a group. There has also almost always been some sort of skype/gchat thing happening, the most notable being a bi-coastal dance party. Over gchat. Moving on.

Original Eat the Year. We were a little egg crazy: new chickens, and someone brought duck eggs

Well this year we did “Eat the Year” over gchat with some of the original creators and it was great. We had to eat all of it ourselves, since we were the only ones here, but it was good just to see the smiles on those friends faces as we just said hi for a minute and talked about what they year might bring (building more shelves, obviously). 

Good bye, 2011. You rocked.

For me, this simple tradition is just a way for us to mark the start of the year with the people that really matter to us. We feed our bodies with the food, we feed our heads with the idea of a fresh thing, and we feed our hearts and souls with a meal made with hope and love and joy in mind when it is made. It’s nourishing all around. 


I hope the start of your year was as joyful and full of love as mine. Maybe this year you will start a new tradition, or find a way to keep up an old one that maybe needs some of the dust brushed off of it. And however you spent the time ringing in 2012, I hope it is the best year yet.




The Family

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I want to tell you a little bit about our household, before we get too far in our relationship. You might just decide this blog will be a little too wacky for you, but I think you will find us to be wacky in an endearing sort of way. I hope you do anyway.

Here is a list of the people/animals who live at our house:

First there’s me: Venessa. I am a pastry chef by trade but mostly just a person with a passion for creating. I grew up in the Great Pacific Northwest and I am so so glad I still get to live here. My parents are both artists so I grew up with a bedroom full of paints and dress-up. It pretty much hasn’t changed, except that I added passions for cooking and urban farming on top of that. 
Next up is Joe: He’s my amazing husband, and this blog was really his idea. He planted the seed in my head while I was out planting seeds in the dirt. He’s an avid cyclist; he loves my cooking; and he makes me laugh everyday, even when I don’t want to be in a good mood. I could go on and on about him, but I’ll save that for later. He’s also the reason we keep Kosher. 




Tagging along with Joe are his two sons, my super funny and bright step-sons: Isaac and Aaron. They’re 8 now, but when I met them they were just 2 1/2 and cute as buttons. They’re witty and energetic and they keep me on my toes. They also dearly adore the next member of our little clan…




Our littlest farmhand: Lilli! She’s 8 1/2 months old now, and is my treasure. She always has a smile for you, especially if you happen to be a member of the animal kingdom. She’s just started crawling, and the world better watch out because she is going to do big things someday. She was born at home (someday maybe I’ll tell you about it, if you’re curious) and she is the inspiration for a lot of the projects I have found myself in the middle of lately. 

We also are fortunate to have a whole circus of animals who live with us:

Scourge, the cat. She’s a little bit on the silly side and we love her for it. She puts up with our antics pretty well, and as a reward she gets to eat challah with us on Fridays.

Our veteran laying hens: Mambo, Andromeda and Effie. These girls are going on their 3rd summer and they are still laying like champs for now. They love love love our new house, because there is a much bigger yard for them to rule. Also, who knew that chickens could climb stairs?















And our newest members of the flock: Shadowfax, Harriet, Minnie, Hot Dog and Reepicheep. We brought these gals home in March, and they are almost full grown now. All the names have a story, but it’s a long one to tell  so I’ll spare you for now.






Recently we added a colony of bees. We’re keeping them at the house of a friend who has a much bigger yard than us, and also fruit trees to benefit from the pollinating goodness of a couple of beehives on the property. They don’t have names really, but they sure are fun!



We also have a plethora of fish, who I can’t leave out because Isaac and Aaron are very proud of them. Diz, the goldfish, is at least 20 years old. There are the cloudfish, who all have names but I can’t remember any of them. And then there is Bloody Mary–she was adopted when the boys were going through a scary stories phase. 

All in all, it’s a pretty full house. But, I don’t think it would be our house if it wasn’t for all the friends we live with.