Happy New Year!

Hello. I was wondering when we plan to review the book, "White Noise"? I'm a little over half-way through it, and I'm enjoying it very much. Not so much the theme of the book, as the incredible writing. Anyway, what's the plan?
--Jennifer

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas everyone! Steve and I spent Christmas day in New York - breakfast and opening presents - and then flew to Arizona on the 26th. The weather is surprisingly cold here, but is supposed to warm up. Of course the warm weather is one of the big things we look forward to! We have been staying with Steve's parents as well as his brother and wife, Nick and Marina, and their two kids, Piper (4) and Noah (2). We don't have any good Christmas pics yet, but if anyone has some from the Tebay gift exchange or their own Chrismases, please post some! We will be back in NYC for a few days, then it's off to Chicago, then on the 16th we will be in Washington (staying until the 23rd)! Yeah! We hope to see everyone while we're home!
Again...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Melanie

Baby Boy!

On Friday Anthony and I went to get the 20 week Ultrasound done and guess what? We are having another boy! There is no doubt about it as you can see from the pictures. We are so excited!

Melanie & Steve's address

Here's our address-
-Melanie

Tebay Holiday

Hey everyone! Just a reminder that on Saturday, December 22, 2007 we will be having the Tebay family holiday get-together at Phil and Karen's house at 5:00 p.m. Bring your favorite hors d'oeuvre(s) to share and a $15 gift exchange item . It should be a lot of fun and we know there will be A LOT of tasty food!

Hope everyone can make it!

ps-It's hard to keep track of everyone right now- If you are reading this and your name is in the list below could you post your home or school address so everyone knows how to find you if they want to!

Melanie and Steve
Erin and Tyler
Sam (not old Sam, the YOUNG one :)
Lisa
Andrew

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Steve and I and Steve's cousin Dan, who lives in New Haven, all went to see some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and of course it was packed. After it was over we went to Central Park, which is beautiful right now. The trees still haven't lost their leaves and with the warm weather yesterday (63 degrees!) there were a lot of people out and about. I hope everyone had a good holiday. Love, Melanie

Exciting News!

Well I think most of you know but just in case you don't....I am pregnant! Anthony and I are expecting our second baby! We are so excited anticipating the arrival of Eric's brother or sister. As of today, I am 16 weeks along. My due date is April 23rd! Yeah!
-Kerri

October Fun!

We have had a very fun and exciting October. We went to the pumpkin patch at Country Merchantile. Eric loved the hay ride and pumpkins but his favorite part was the petting zoo. He really loved the duck. I think because it kept quacking at him and trying to nip his fingers. For Halloween he picked out his own costume - Elmo - he saw it at Walmart and really liked it. We went to Anthony's Aunt's house. She cooked us dinner and then we went trick-or-treating at a few houses. After the second house Eric knew he was going to get candy. He even said "tandy peas!"

-Kerri

P.S. Please sign your posts so we know who posted what! Thanks

Happy Halloween!

I also vote for White Noise, I guess, though it seems that that is the only suggestion.

Uncle Craig called to ask about a good salsa recipe, so I figured I'd put it on the blog space. I dug this out of the ol' arcive.

Roasted-Tomato Salsa
1 pound plum tomatos, cored
3/4 pound tomatillos
7 to 10 serrano chilies, stems removed
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup soy, corn, or vegetable oil (plus a little extra)
Salt
Sugar
1/4 white onion chopped
Handful of cilantro, stemmed and chopped

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Toss tomatoes, tomatillos, chilies, garlic, and sliced onion with a small amount of oil in a roasting pan, season with salt, and then roast till soft and wilted (about 30 to 45 minutes). If you want a bit of a char on the vegetables for added flavor roast the tomatoes, tomatillos and chilies in separate pans over high heat before placing in the oven.
3) Once the ingredients are roasted (they should be soft and somewhat wilted), let them cool a bit, then puree in a food processor, slowly adding the 1/2 cup of oil. This will help emulsify the salsa. Season to taste with salt and a pinch or two of sugar.
4) Mix in the chopped raw onion and cilantro
5) Serve with warm tortillas or good quality tortilla chips. And, of course, cold beer.
6) Eat.

I also vote for White Noise!
Aunt Jenny that eggplant recipe sounds delicious. I actually don't know if I like eggplant - I will have to try it!
I think the blog is great! Have a nice week everyone!
-Kerri

STUFFED EGGPLANT BUNDLES --- Larry " I've never eaten this" Tebay
1 firm eggplant ( about 1 1/4 pounds) , about 8 inches long
About 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt to taste
1/4 cup minced fresh mint or basil
2/3 cup chopped Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat a charcoal or gas grill or the broiler. Trim off the ends of
the eggplant, and stand the eggplant on end. With a sharp knife,
cut lengthwise inti 1/4-inch-thick slices. About 10 or 12 slices.

2. Grill or broil the eggplant slices until golden brown on both
sides, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove to a dish and let cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a baking dish. Lay the
eggplant slices on a work surface and brush each slice with 1/2
teaspoon olive oil. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Sprinkle the
mint or basil, tomatoes, and cheese evenly over the slices.
Starting from a narrow end, roll each slice up like a jelly roll, and place
the bundles seam side down in the baking dish. Drizzle a little olive
oil over the top, and sprinkle with pepper.

4. Cover the dish with foil. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until
the rolls are heated through. Serve immediately.

October 28, 2007 " white noise" -- Larry

White Noise sounds good ~ Erin ~

"White Noise" Dad/Craig

Book Club

After a lot of thought about a book club, I have two suggestions. If anyone has already read either book or has a preference, let me know. My first suggestion is White Noise by Don DeLillo, and my second is You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. I would love to read either one. It was really tough to pick two - there are so many books out there that I want to read. I like mysteries and am interested in reading some of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, but I didn't think that Swedish police procedurals would be good book club choices. Ha! I have also never read anything my Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, All The Pretty Horses), but would like to.
Also, thanks dad for the eggplant recipe. I would love to try some of yours also, Jennifer. They have some really great looking Japanese eggplants at the GreenMarket and I would like to try something with them. In other news: in the near future, Steve and I will be putting up a website for our percussion duo (the Proper Glue duo). We are working with a great web designer and I am really excited to see the final product up and running. I will keep everyone posted as to when it is done!
POST YOUR BOOK CLUB VOTE!
- Melanie

I vote for "White Noise" by Don DeLillo just because I haven't ready anything of his before. I have read a couple books by Cormac, and, of course, they are excellent. I also enjoy mysteries and have read many of the Henning/Wallander ones. Another good "literary" mystery writer is Josephine Tey. I see no reason why we could not include a good mystery in the book club, as long as we avoid lurid thrillers. There are plenty of very well written mysteries.

Eggplant Parmesan
Saute gently for 1 - 2 minutes: two or three cloves of minced garlic in a good olive oil, with 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1 tsp. each of dried oregano and basil. Add one cup of decent white wine, bring to a gentle boil for 10 - 12 minutes. Add one 28 oz. can of recipe ready diced tomatoes (I use the one with added Italian herbs). Again, GENTLY, cook for 20 minutes. You can thicken with a tablespoon of corn starch or flour mixed with a small amount of the sauce and then added back into the pan, if desired.
Cut eggplant into halves (if small) or into thick slices, brush with olive oil, and broil 5 minutes or so. Sometimes I put a thin slice of Swiss cheese on the eggplant and then broil.
Top with sauce and freshly grated Parmesan.

Hello. I just talked to my brothers, Craig and Larry, who were on their way home from fishing. And, Craig told me to check out the family blog. So here I am. Rick and I returned from our Maine/Boston/NYC trip on Friday night. It was a wonderful vacation, but now I'm digging myself out from under accumulated paperwork and laundry today. Tomorrow I hope to dig up my garden. I have endless projects to complete from necessary mundane chores, such as mowing the lawn (and, yes, we can still mow it because we're having beautiful weather this week!) to more fun things, such as planning our trip to Italy in April (Sam and I are going over a week or so before Rick, and then Rick is meeting us for the next two weeks, and then we're coming home via Boston and Lisa's graduation from Tuft's). Melanie, I grew small Japanese eggplant in my garden this year, and I collected a few recipes. Let me know if you're still interested. Tyler is staying with us, and in spite of being no fan of tomatoes, he loved the eggplant with tomato sauce that I fed him. Well, I need to get back to clearing off my desk. I'm looking forward to hearing Melanie's book recommendation. I just finished reading a book about Lincoln's cabinet, A Team of Rivals, which is a wonderful book but not book club material. It's more like a textbook. Another book that I recommend is Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks. It'll be interesting to find a book that appeals to all of us. I think Getting Mother's Body is a good book for a women's book club but I'm not sure about our family book club. Love to all. --Jennifer

Hello, Steve and Melanie and family. I dugup one eggplant receipe. It's a dip. "Eggplant Caviar" Ingredients.. 9 oz. of egg plant, 1 small clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 2-3 pinches of ground cumin, salt. Cooking... Bake eggplant at 500 degrees/45min/until black and wrinkled. Peel eggplant and place pulp in a bowl. ..Press garlic and add all ingredients and mix. Serve at room temperature.
Melanie! Why dont you get us started on the book club. You indicated a while back that you had one in mind.. You select and Post. I'll try to make sure that all of the family are tuned in to our blog. Dad/Craig
ps. I wanted to post a poem by Robert Frost called "October" , but its just to long for a keyboarder like me. I believe everyone will enjoy it.!!

Recipes

Those are beautiful pics of Campbell and Emmy; what a great way for them to remember their big brother. I didn't do anything nearly as meaningful this weekend - practicing and cooking! I've really been into eggplant lately, but am running out of ideas on what to do with it. Does anyone have a good recipe involving eggplant? -Melanie

Our Annual Trip

Hi everyone! Just thought we would share a few pictures from our annual trip to the Ronald McDonald House. October 10th marked 5 years that Coop has been gone. Every year on the 10th we make a trip to Seattle to visit the RM House and make a donation in his memory. It is a good way to spend the day. It feels productive and purposeful on a day we would otherwise have a hard time getting through. Campbell is really understanding all of what it is about now, so it has been very interesting to see him take it all in and ask questions. This year we bought some new TV's for rooms of kids who need to be isolated for immunity issues. After we make our donation we then go and do something fun with the kids. This year we went to the Pacific Science Center and the kids loved it. We always finish the day off by eating at the RAM in University Village, which was Cooper's all time favorite when we were there. Hot wings and ranch dip were his fave!!

Hope all is well with everyone and hope to see you soon!

Hi everyone! We did some fun stuff for Steve's 30th birthday this last week. We went to Gramercy Tavern for dinner (yum) and then over the weekend went out on the water! The weather was great (warm), but now I'm ready for some real fall weather - break out the sweaters.

Fishhook

Here is a fun picture of the kids at the Fishhook family campout!

Tebay Blog

Hi - We have created a blog to help stay in touch and to have a family book club. We welcome everyone to post book suggestions, recipes or exciting news!
Happy blogging!
Kerri and Craig