I spend more time thinking about the future and what life will be like after my parents are gone. I may complain about my life as a caregiver. But once they are gone, what will I do. It scares me a bit because I will really be on my own.
I hope I will have the ambition to keep up doing things creative and looking for things that are beautiful.
Every morning, I wonder what my parents will be like today. My biggest challenge is having enough patience to care for my parents. Life as a caregiver is the hardest job I have ever had.
Mom and Dad make leis with pakalana blossoms from our yard.
I hope your holidays were festive and fun. I did start off trying to post this before Christmas. But I got stuck and decided to stop. I started a new post about what I made and thought I could combine this post and my made post. Well, it didn’t happen. I’m back at it again. I wanted to share what I made.
I had a late start with my Christmas baking and spent a few days catching up. I initially thought I was going down the cookie route, but I turned to a few old favorites to share this year.
I used my favorite quiche recipe, Caramelized Onions and Zucchini Quiche. It was always a hit at my office parties. I had all the ingredients (well, almost) and had enough to make two. I used this quiche recipe from One Perfect Bite as my base. I tend to make it cheesier than the recipe calls for, and I ran out of milk, so I added heavy cream (how could that hurt it, haha).
I was going through old posts and realized I’ve been making this tart every year since we received a gift of Harry and David pears for the holidays. These were the last of the pears of this year’s gift. I kept them till they were very ripe and juicy. I found this recipe on the Chowhound forum years ago, but the link doesn’t take you to the recipe. I decided to add the recipe below the pictures. The tart is a combination of tart/cake. The juiciness of the pears creates a custard-like quality with the batter. Perfectly sweet.
The recipe was originally found on the Chowhound forum from Gallery Girl
Ingredients:
4 or so ripe, juicy pears, peeled, cored, and cut into sixths or eighths
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray an 8-inch (important) spring form pan with Pam.
In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Incorporate it into the wet mixture.
Spread the batter into the pan. Now, in a pinwheel pattern, press the slices of pear, peeled side up, into the batter. Cram in as many as you can; since the batter rises and covers the pears, there are no points for style here. The more pears, the moister the cake will be.
Bake until a skewer comes out clean, about an hour. If you have any doubts, UNDERBAKE. This is a whole different animal if it dries out. Then it’s just a cake. Correctly done, you’ll love it. It’s just one of those recipes that is greater than the sum of its parts. really.
Moving back home and becoming a caregiver for my parents made me want to make food that they loved, and I’m slowly learning to love, too. A lot of these foods are what I had as a kid. Probably, my taste palette wasn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate their deliciousness. Or what tell everyone, I didn’t like them before, I thought they were old lady food. But now that I’m an old lady, I love them. haha.
One of these foods that I now love is manju. Manju is a Japanese confection. It’s like a filled mochi or biscuit. Unlike mochi, the dough is made with wheat flour instead of rice. The filling is a sweetened paste made out of beans or sweet potato. I found this recipe for sweet potato manju from Keeping It Relle. And have kept it on the side waiting for the right moment to make it.
In my utter craze of holiday baking, I forgot to document one of the bakes (Sweet Potato Haupia pie) that led me to finally make this Manju recipe. I made too much potato and needed to do something with it. Ta Dah! I wish I could say what it tastes like, but my two roommates ate the last three pieces. But everyone I received it said it was good. The key to this recipe is to measure the filling and dough before you start. Both the dough and filling are very sticky. And it helps keep the manju clean and tidy.
I started a post the other day about my holiday baking. I couldn’t finish it. I was not feeling it. I decided to dump that post and start a new one about what I made in 2023.
I like doing these wrap-ups at the end of the year. It’s a great way to look back at what I accomplished. It does surprise me how much I got done.
Being a full-time caregiver sometimes feels like I’m a waitress or maid to my parents. This is the reason for my projects. It gives me purpose and keeps my sanity from the stress of caring for loved ones with dementia.
Here’s my rundown of all of my mades.
I picked up stitching in 2022 as a way to quiet my brain. It really works. I do it in the morning with my cup of coffee.
Left to right: coaster made with machine and hand quilting, scrappy trivet, scrappy bowl
My beautiful pakalana plants were so fruitful in their second year. I made my ten girlfriends each a (at least three strands) pakalana lei for their birthday. Pakalana is seasonal, so the birthday leis were always a surprise as most of them arrived long after their birthday.
Many stages of leimaking
I took on a commission in 2022 to create a quilt with the fabric provided. I could do any pattern, but it needed to be as big as possible. I got stuck for several months after finishing the quilt top. I made no move moment on this quilt. I decided to rework my workroom, which was the key to getting me going again. Now I’m on quilt #7. I got the bug.
All my scrappy quilts. One was commission piece plus seven for donation or gifts.
My knitting has been the back seat to my quilting; I have only finished a few items this year.
Left to right, top to bottom: Grandma Nancy’s shawl; Blocking Boneyard and Grandma Nancy’s Shawls in the sun; mitts for a friend; Orange loves to help; Zabutons to throw pillows; Zig zag pillow; February hat; Zick zack scarf
These are the partially finished projects that were gifted to me that I finished up this year. On Instagram, there’s a group called Loose Ends, that finishes up projects for the loved one. I guess this is my own Loose Ends project. I tried to return the finished project to the giver, or I gifted the project to someone special.
Left to right: This Hawaiian quilt pillow only needed quilting one little corner. I turned it into a pillow by adding an envelope back and binding it in some gifted fabric (in the perfect prints and color), then I made a pillow insert to finish off; I got three embroidered panels she made while recuperating from broken ankles. I turned one of the panels into Komebukuro (rice bag in Japanese) to hold her next project.
I’m stopping here or at this rate, I’ll never publish this before the end of 2024. I hope I have another productive crafty year. Happy New Year!
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
My playtime isn’t a daily event. It happens when I can fit it in with caregiving duties. But when I can, I try and get a hike in.
This New Year’s Day, I planned it well and went on my annual hike with my cousin, E, to Maili Pillbox. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a hike.
The feral goats were out. Someone brought up a Christmas tree and decorated, too. The blue of the ocean and sky was amazing. I love starting my year with a hike, and Maili Pillbox is always great. It makes waiting for “playtime ” worth it.
Princess Hot Flash 