On our way to the new city

How is it that time can pass so quickly, and yet seem to take forever?

It hasn't even been a year since we first started exploring the possibility of a 'round-the-world move. It was in late July of last year when a friend/co-worker casually asked Tim (in my presence) if he'd ever considered working in Chiang Mai. Tim's answer was that he'd love to, but "Lisa would never do that." My (slightly offended) response: "You never ASKED me!"

So he asked me. I said I'd be willing to consider it, at least. And that was the beginning. He next contacted the supervisor of the Chiang Mai office, who said that they were really wanting to get a more stable presence there: preferably a married couple, ideally a family. And that the people who were there at that time would be returning to the U.S. at the end of the year (2011). Well then. The office pushed things into fast forward and in late October/early November gave us preliminary approval to go. The timing was the next biggest question. They really wanted us there ASAP, but we told them we had commitments that would keep us here until late April. That put us on target to arrive in Chiang Mai in early summer 2012. 

At that point, moving became a reality, albeit a distant one. We started slowly clearing things out, getting rid of stuff, thinking about how we were going to do this. But it was too early to really start doing much. After the first of the year we started preparing in earnest: online garage sale, trips to Goodwill, talking to family about what we should do with antiques and family "treasures." A trip to St. Louis and Detroit in February took the first load of stuff destined for storage in family basements. More clearing out, a real garage sale, more online sales, more donations, and a lot of good-byes found us with two fully loaded minivans headed northwest on May 10. 

There had been quite a few little bumps in the figurative road before we hit the literal one. Starting in the winter, it seemed like things just kept breaking. The first thing to break was actually a bit before that, I think in the fall: the inside passenge door handle in our minivan. No big deal, we had that fixed. Then a light fixture in our kitchen failed. About a month before our move date, the breakages started coming faster. The rear liftgate latch on the minivan snapped. Ordered the part for the minivan, called an electrician for the kitchen. Next it was the washing machine, which refused to agitate on one cycle. Back online to order a part for that. Electrician fixed the kitchen light easily (and inexpensively), new minivan latch arrived and Tim installed it. He then went out of town for two weeks and arrived home 10 days before our move date. 

The washing machine part arrived while he was away, so as soon as Tim got home he installed that. But it didn't work right. So he called and ordered yet another. In the meantime (now less than a week before moving), the lock on our front door broke. And our hand-vacuum that we used on the stairs. And the full-sized vacuum that we used for the rest of the house. 

Our neighbor (and the husband of our property manager) was able to fix our lock. The full-sized vacuum really only needed a belt. The hand vac had failed catastrophically and wasn't fixable. 

The second replacement part for the washer arrived two days before we were leaving. That morning, Bethany dropped a heavy object on her toe. X-rays showed a slight crack in the tip of the toe bone. Yes, another breakage. (Thankfully, within a couple of days she didn't have any more pain, though.) Tim installed the new washer part; it didn't work right either. No more time for repairs, we had to get a new washer pronto. We found a used one not too far away. On the way to go get it, I joked to Tim: "What else could possibly break?" When we arrived, the driver's side door latch snapped off in his hand. SERIOUSLY?!?!

The next day we invited friends to come and take anything that was left. We packed the leftovers in a box and Tim took it to Goodwill. Walking across the parking lot, the bottom burst out of the box and everything in it crashed to the pavement, including a whole lot of glasses. More breakage. 

The next day we drove away from our home for the past six years and headed for my sister's house in St. Louis. The first day of driving went slowly, with a much later start than planned and every stop taking 2-3 times as long as we expected. The second day began much better with a good, early start... only to be thwarted by a flat tire! All we could do was laugh.

We made it to my sister's with no other problems or breakages and had a nice weekend with them. Monday morning as we started getting ready to head to Michigan, Tim went out to the garage and blew a light bulb. On the drive, his left-turn indicator (on the rental car) stopped working. But then it spontaneously started working again. At last, something working in our favor!

As of this morning the car door handle is fixed. We really hope that will be the last repair we'll have to deal with! We will be here in Michigan for about three and a half weeks before flying out of Toronto on June 9. 

Kumquats

Here's another repost from my old blog. I'll mention that my kumquat tree has grown a lot in the past year; it's been repotted and is now around four feet tall, including the pot. It's a lot bushier than it was last year, too. It still puts out loads of humongous kumquats. I picked one the other day that was larger than a clementine, bordering on the size of a small orange. From what I've read that's just a characteristic of this variety of kumquat (Centennial). I love the way citrus can flower and fruit at the same time. Growing up in Michigan, where things flower in the spring and fruit in the summer or fall, this is still novel to me. Just a couple of weeks ago I had a big flush of blooms, just as the fruit was starting to ripen. It looked and smelled wonderful. I'm going to miss my little trees, and I really hope I'll be able to have some fruit trees of some sort once we're in our new home. (By the way, we leave Florida in less than a week, and will be on a plane to Thailand in just over a month!)

I made kumquat curd today, using the same recipe as I did last year. It turned out just as delicious as last time. 

Repost from March 3, 2011.

I love lemon curd. It wasn't something I ever had growing up. In fact, it was one of the foods that Tim's family introduced me to when we were dating. We used to show up at their place when the food in our college dorm was inedible, and Tim's wonderful parents always wanted to make sure we were well-fed. There was a usual litany of foods that we'd be offered (beans on toast? sardines? tinned fruit? Little Debbies?), and I actually don't remember lemon curd being among them. But at some point it was offered to me, probably on toast, and I was hooked. My favorite is to have it on a toasted English muffin... mmmmmmm.

I've recently gotten totally hooked on kumquats. I have an itty-bitty kumquat tree growing in a pot in my backyard. It's only about three feet tall, including the pot (!).

Itty-bitty tree

 But it put out a surprising number of kumquats. And they were HUGE:

Giant kumquat

I've eaten a few out-of-hand and pureed and froze some a few weeks ago. The last of the "crop" has been sitting on my counter for over a week now, and time was running out on them. It was time to try making them into something. A kumquat curd had been suggested to me at some point, so I decided to give it a go today.

Google found me plenty of references to kumquat curd, but no actual recipes. Most people mentioned using a lemon curd recipe, so that's what I did. The results were AMAZING. I can't wait for my tree to produce more kumquats so I can make more of it. I want to get some canning equipment so I can make it by the gallon and preserve it.

A note about the ingredients: of course, lemon curd is made from lemon juice. Kumquat puree is a lot thicker than juice. When I added it to the curd, it seemed too thick so I wanted to add something to thin it. I would have used lemon juice, but Bethany used the last of it to make lemonade this morning. So I used a little splash of lemonade, and it seems to have worked well. If you don't have lemonade, use a little lemon juice, orange juice or water. Oh, and don't use lemonade that's made from a powder or mix. That just wouldn't be right.

Kumquat Curd (adapted from Alton Brown's Lemon Curd recipe)

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup kumquat puree**
• about 1 T lemonade
• 1 stick butter (1/4 lb), cut into pats and chilled

Put about 1 inch of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium-sized metal (or heat-proof glass, like Pyrex) bowl and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the kumquat puree and just enough lemonade so that everything comes together into a smooth mixture. Once the water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place the bowl on top of the saucepan like a double-boiler (the bowl should be large enough to fit on top of the saucepan without touching the water). Whisk until thickened and smooth, about 8 minutes, or until mixture is a light creamy orange and coats the back of a spoon. Remove immediately from heat and stir in the butter one pat at a time, allowing each piece to melt before adding the next. Transfer to a clean container. Alton's recipe says to lay plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd, I assume so that it doesn't form a skin. I just covered the container and it's been fine. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks (as if it will last that long!).

**To make kumquat puree, wash kumquats well and remove any stems. Do not peel. Cut in half and remove the seeds, then puree in a blender or food processor until it's as smooth as you can get it (which won't be completely smooth). Puree can be frozen in zip-top baggies.