Marmalade photo by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com, via Flickr/Creative Commons.
Interested in food preservation? Canning Connections is a group who meet monthly on North Beacon Hill to can and preserve different foods. (Most recently, they made cranberry mustard and cranberry conserve.) This year Canning Connections is offering holiday gift certificates for $15. Certificates can be used at the January 22 beginner/refresher session, covering required equipment and the latest techniques for safe canning. The January session is suitable for those who have never tried preserving, as well as those who just need a refresher.
All sessions are held at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave. S. Everything you need is supplied except your apron! For more information about sessions or certificates, contact Canning Connections at gaspari5@msn.com.
Christmas lights, by Brendan C via Creative Commons/Flickr.The second annual Las Posadas and Tree Lighting event will take place on Wednesday, December 12, sponsored by El Centro de la Raza and Beacon Hill Merchants. Everyone in the community is invited to this free holiday family celebration, with music, free food, dancing, and the annual lighting of the Christmas Tree. There will also be a visit from Santa Claus.
The event begins at 6 p.m. at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Ave. S.
Come early at 5 p.m. for piñatas at The Station coffee shop, across the street at 2533 16th Ave. S. The Station will also host this month’s Beacon Bards poetry reading at 7 p.m. that same evening, with poets Kary Wayson and Melanie Noel.
Opening band The Lentils features Jill Friedberg and Carlo Cennamo on accordion and saxophone playing a short set of Latin-flavored waltzes.
The Garden House opens for Beacon Bento (dinner delivered to your table from Inay’s Kitchen and Travelers Thali House) at 6 p.m., and the music starts around 7. Tickets are $7 at the door, free for kids under 12.
Upcoming Folk Club performers this winter include La Famille Leger and Peckin’ Out Dough on January 6, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifters and Stefanie Robbins on February 3, and Fasten With Pins and Jo Miller on March 3.
There is a chance to shop locally right here on Beacon Hill next weekend at the St. George School Holiday Bazaar on Sunday, December 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the school’s Gathering Hall, 5117 13th Ave. S.
The bazaar will feature 30 vendors, including A Clean Sweep, Choice Organic Tea, Cookie Lee, Cupcakery, D’s Organic Concepts, Italia Imports, It Works! Body Wraps, Magpie Design Shop, Miche Bags, Pampered Chef, PartyLite, Pearl in Oysters, Rosso Gardens fresh wreaths, Sam’s Club, Scentsy, St. George Parish Fil-Am Association, St. George Parish Seniors, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, and others.
All ages are welcome. Activities for children include a craft table and cookie decorating. Eighth grade students are hosting a Santa booth. Breakfast and lunch food will be served all day, including biscuits and gravy, pastries, Ivar’s clam chowder, spring rolls, Spam musubi, and more.
Performers will be on hand to entertain shoppers: Traci Hoveskeland at noon, and the St. George School Choir at 1 p.m.
“On Tuesday, Nov 20th around 1:30 a.m. I was driving home and on the corner of College and 21st Ave South I believe I saw a coyote. It was dark and I was able to take a picture. The next day I learned that my neighbor of four cats was missing one and found another half eaten.
“I want my fellow neighbors to be aware and thought this might be the best way in case others had pets that may be outside.”
Coyote sightings were also the subject of some discussion on the Beacon Hill mailing list this week, where neighbor Waldene wrote:
Around 9:30 pm Monday evening a coyote was on the SE corner of 12th and I believe Lee Street right across from PacMed. He acted like a scared, lost dog. I didn’t know what to do so I pulled up next to him/her and blew my horn. I was hoping to scare it back into Lewis Park but instead it ran across 12th. It looked confused.
Coyote sightings aren’t unusual on Beacon Hill. We also see raccoons and possums visiting our yards sometimes. Please keep your pets safe.
Vintage postcard image courtesy of Ewan Traveler via Flickr/Creative Commons.
Happy Thanksgiving (a day early) and thank you for reading the Beacon Hill Blog! I am thankful for our many wonderful readers.
As has become traditional here at the BHB, here is a recipe for a Thanksgiving treat: my grandma’s pumpkin pie recipe. I’ve used this recipe many times and it is very good. If you forgot to get evaporated milk, this recipe will save the day for you—–it doesn’t use it, and you won’t miss it.
Pumpkin Pie
Start with 1 recipe pie crust. Set the uncooked shell aside. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Put 2 cups pumpkin (or one small can) into mixing bowl.
add: 2 eggs beaten slightly (Egg Beaters work just fine if you want it to be lower-fat)
add:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
then add:
1 c. scalded milk (skim milk works fine if you wish to use it, and so does soy milk)
Mix all together. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350, bake 45 minutes. It’s done when you can stick a knife in the middle and it comes out clean.
Makes 1 pie. For two pies, use a large can of pumpkin and double everything else exactly.
Enjoy!
As always, I hope some of you will try this with a Seattle tradition: Emmett Watson’s famous Thompson Turkey, the recipe for which he used to publish every Thanksgiving in his Seattle Post-Intelligencer column (and later, in the Seattle Times). After reading it every Thanksgiving for years, I can never forget the final lines: “You do not have to be a carver to eat this turkey. Speak harshly to it and it will fall apart.”
(If you do try the Thompson Turkey, by all means let me know how it is!)
The Friends of Lewis Park invite the community to the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Ave. S.) on Tuesday, November 27 from 5:30 – 8 p.m. for a public meeting to discuss the design process for the park.
There will be food provided from 5 to 6:30 p.m. From 6 – 7 p.m., there will be a presentation of some preliminary design principles and information about the project as it stands now, and from 7 – 8 p.m., representatives from Hafs-Epstein Landscape Architecture will discuss the project and listen to community comments.
The Friends of Lewis Park event notice says “We are very pleased with the selection of this firm and just as excited to get started on the community-based collaborative process that will result in a design proposal for the park. We have a dynamic consultant, a committed steering committee and a great site on North Beacon Hill. This missing ingredient is you… the community; we need to know what you want in this park.”
The park improvement project is funded by a Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Grant.
Flowers glow in sunset light in Lewis Park. Photo by Wendi Dunlap.
Photo by Steven Depolo via Creative Commons/Flickr.
We know, it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas is coming soon, and El Centro de la Raza wants to supply your Christmas greenery. The tree sale will help raise funds to support El Centro’s services for low-income families.
If you pre-order your tree or wreath by today, you will receive a discount. (See the price list here.) You can then come to the tree lot and pick a tree on any day you choose to.
The lot is located on El Centro de la Raza’s south side, 2524 16th Ave. S. It will be open starting at noon on Friday, November 23 through Christmas Eve. Open hours will be 4-8 p.m. on weekdays and noon-8 p.m. on weekends.
To order by phone or for more information, call 206-957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.
News photographer Eric Jensen of KOMO (Beacon Hill Blog news partners) shot this footage of the effects of heavy rain around Swift Avenue South and South Graham Street this morning:
