Something Clever

Box week

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:39:37 GMT

Ok, several weeks. Sorry, it's been busy. In no particular order - I got a call from my former program asking if I would be the Program Administrator on a temporary basis for awhile. Since it pays better than unemployment, there's a chance it will become permanent and I wasn't doing anything better, I said yes. So all of a sudden I'm working 40 hours a week again and things like updating my journal have gotten waylaid.

I also managed to take a nasty spill on a broken sidewalk, jammed a nice chunk of sidewalk into my shin right at my knee. At first I'd thought I'd just skinned it, so I hobbled back into the office bathroom thinking to clean myself up, bemoan my shredded pants knee and get on with my life. Not the case. I saw the nasty triangular wound and hobbled back to a co-worker to stategize some immediate care. Ironically enough, even though I work within hobbling distance of three hospitals I didn't end up going to any of them. The ER would have laughed at something this minor, and i wasn't sure if any of the clinics did walk ins. So she drove me to an immediate care center, they put 6 stitches in me and sent me on my way. Stitches were supposed to stay in 10 days, but I went in for a re-check and it got upped to 12. Yeehaw. They are out now, and I'm babying that leg so that I don't rip it back open. This is by far the ugliest injury I've ever done to myself. I'm betting that it's going to leave this huge Frankenstein scar. We shall see.

i have still been doing the CSA drop. Oddly enough out of all the volunteers who showed up at the start of the season I'm the only one who is still here after the 13 weeks mark. I'm hoping they find someone else, but as it stands, it's just me and the guy who drives the truck - who I have to say has been a total sweetheart about the fact that I can't get in and out of the truck. I'll check off the list and hand over boxes and such, but any heavy lifting or scrambling is way beyond me for another week or so.

So, this week was a protein week. So another dozen eggs and another half pound of cheese. 4 oz of aged cheddar and a whomping chunk of asiago. I also scored some goat cheese from the Thursday market that's right next to work. A gorgeous round of slightly aged goat cheese, which is wrapped in chestnut leaves that have been soaked in bourbon. Since husbeast is convinced he dislikes goat cheese this is mine all mine. I suspect it will turn into a Saturday lunch with some fresh fruit and crackers. He can have cheddar, which isn't such a hardship.

So, in the box this week - cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers (like mini bells, very cute), potatoes, okra, tomatoes, and basil. For fruit we have both green and Asian pears. I'm excited. I love Asian pears but hardly ever buy them since the supermarket ones are expensive and tasteless. I have quite a bit leftover from previous weeks too. Since standing makes my legs swell I haven't been cooking very much lately.

The okra is the experiment for me. So far I have detested it in every form I've tried. But one of the gentlemen who picks up from my drop point is an accomplished Indian cook. He convinced me that the Indian version - stir fried with spices and served over rice with a yogurt side, is fantastic, crisp and crunchy and not slimy at all. So I will try it and see what happens. I make no promise to like it.

Last night was a simple meal - tomato soup and quesadillas. I used the aged cheddar, some fresh tomatoes and the corn relish. I am so addicted to that corn relish, it's amazing. Slightly sweet, slightly hot, tangy and crunchy. It's simply fantastic. Although in the next batch I'm going to up the hot peppers. It's not nearly hot enough for me.

I've got the Thursday market today, there's been one farmer with boxes and boxes of Italian prune plums. I found a recipe for a vaguely Asian plum chutney - uses 5 spice powder and garlic and such. I think I'm going to have to try it if he'll cut me a deal on 6 pounds worth of fruit. ;)

Menu thoughts -
Indian okra with rice and raita
summer squash fritatta with the asiago
simple pasta - fresh tomatoes and basil, olive oil
spicy hash browns, scrambled eggs and veggie bacon

Oh, and for one of the weekend breakfasts I'm going to have to make french toast with a fantastic cinnamon loaf that comes from the Thursday market. And then top it with either the apricot or blueberry syrup I put up. Nom!

So, other than needing a paycheck to actually clear, I'm doing really well.

GLOMP

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:29:05 GMT

Ok, most of you won't get this, but it amused me.

foodz!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:50:18 GMT

Here's the latest on the fridge front.

Since last Tuesday saw my city trying to avoid drowning (including a good 4-6" of water in my own basement) the CSA was rescheduled to Thursday. It was a pretty sad box actually, a lot of stuff suffered from having to wait extra time, or from extra water in the fields. But still, we managed to get some stuff: potatoes, garlic, peaches, green bell peppers, green beans, and hot peppers. There was also some blue spire basil which was one of the few things I've ended up tossing actually, even some time in a glass of water didn't perk it up enough to be usable, it was too far gone.

Really the best part was the cheese. We got a chipotle colby and something called "Kentucky Rose". I ended up talking to someone from the place that is providing the cheese at another market on Saturday and found out what Kentucky Rose is all about. It's an unpierced blue cheese. That means it has the same mold as a blue cheese, but only on the outside of the wheel. After the ripening period the cheese is washed, so there's a little bit of a rind, but not much. The gentleman describing it to me noted that it was a good "compromise" cheese between blue lovers and blue despisers, since it has some of the tang of a blue, but not nearly as strongly. I'm excited to check it out. And at that Saturday market I bought some herbed Havarti from them. Delicious. It has disappeared already into general nomming.

This week was much more promising. More new potatoes, some green bell peppers and wonderful ripe red tomatoes, some mysterious hot peppers. More corn, which is good. Since we haven't been eating it I decided to try something new this week and make some corn relish. I found a recipe for chili corn relish, and I'm thinking I might throw in some of the last thing we got - lime basil. This stuff is fantastic, I've never smelled or tasted anything like it. There is a little basil hit to it, but mostly it is lime flavored. Real, intense lime. I'm thinking throwing that in with some chili powder and the corn to make a relish should make a delicious side salsa sort of condiment.

I'm also excited since I opened a jar of the cucumber relish I made awhile ago and it has mellowed immensely. This is the one where I added enough brine for 9 cups of veggies to 7 cups of veggies. Whoops. I opened the test jar, stirred in a little more sugar and then sealed it up again to wait in the back of the fridge for a few weeks. It worked!

So now I have hopes for the corn relish. I certainly don't seem to eat much corn any other way. All the green peppers I got from this week and last will be going in there, along with the red peppers I took as my payment for helping load the truck at the other market today. Since I had so much food I didn't take much this week. A bunch of red peppers for the relish, two yellow peppers for general nomming. Some green beans that were the end of the bushel. And the trash tomatoes (anything that had a black spot on it, or had split, but was still otherwise good). I'll can those too.

So, this week's menu has a lot of veggies in it, since I have a lot to use.

Seitan 'pork' tenderloin with sweet n sour cabbage
veggie burgers with green beans and either boiled new potatoes or home fries
Caramelized onion fritatta with the kentucky rose cheese
some sort of thai noodles with the rest of that lime basil. It's cool enough to carry a dish, so the rest will be simple
some version of chiliquiles with that chipotle colby.

On canning news, Meijer's had plums for .99/lb. I found a flat of some from the week before which smelled fantastic, very ripe, somewhat soft. Perfect. I got a great yield off them too, about 4 lbs of plums yielding about 8 cups of puree. The recipe calls for 6 cups, but I had no clue at the time what to do with the extra, so I left it in the pot, added the pectin and the sugar and got 12 jelly jars of very soft set jam. It's thicker than syrup, it will stay on an english muffin, but it's not semi-solid like most jam. I like it a lot actually. Since then I realized I should have saved that 2 cups, and cooked it down into one or two special jars of plum butter. Ah well, live and learn. Which is sort of the lesson of plum jam. How come I had no clue how good this stuff is?? I'm not sure I've had plum jam before, but it is astonishing. Softly clear pink out of the jar, it is sweet and smells like the perfume of perfectly ripe plums. It takes like plum juice. I had no clue I would love this stuff as much as I do.

I also took all the trash tomatoes from the Saturday market and did another seven pints of crushed tomatoes. As an experiment I did not peel these before I chopped and cooked them. I'll take the time to do the skinning before the cooking now. Yes, I fished most of the skins out while the tomatoes were cooking. But talk about a sucky way to spend my time. I'll take the extra 20 minutes to skin the tomatoes, it's actually easier.

I think I'm going to have to clear out another cabinet to store the canned goods. They are multiplying. But I love the feeling of comfort and security that I get from the neat lines of glass jars. Along with my stash of dried legumes they form a critical part of my pantry. Oddly enough these are two things that make me feel safe from starvation. The fact that I have about six sources of food within walking distance from my home means nothing to my subconcious mind. Knowing that I can crack open a jar of homemade jam or spend all day boiling up some chickpeas? That does it for me. Add in that canning allows me to play with so many flavors and textures (well, as I get more brave with my attempts!) and it's rapidly becoming one of my favorite ways to spend my time. Although it is hard, hot work, and rather exhausting. It somehow seems worth it when I have my breakfast toast with plum jam. :D

mental note

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:30:13 GMT

I want to make this: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/strawberry_balsamic_black_pepper_jam.php

Yes. Strawberry. Balsamic vinegar. And black pepper. Jam. I am intensely curious.

Weekly harvest

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:45:17 GMT

Ok - so here's what I's got!

Potatoes, basil, red cabbage (size of a volleyball!), Green Bell Peppers, yellow squash, green beans, more beets aaaaand.....Sweet Corn!

I know, hard to believe there's corn already. I'm stoked. Cheese was a colby and a gouda. Mmmm..... and the standard dozen eggs of happiness.

Extras from working the market - red tomatoes, a white tomato, an asian melon (smells like honeydew), and lots of peaches.

And I got an armful of sunflowers. Literally a dozen stems I think. They were destined for the garbage, since many were losing petals and are generally a little "rougher" than can be sold. So they are in a vase prettying up the place. Pictures tomorrow when there's sunlight.

So what have I eaten this week? Shalimar mattar paneer and Thai Smile green curry. *sigh* Tomorrow, must cook.

Anyone have any good recipes for red cabbage? :D

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:41:17 GMT

Nice day at the Farmer's Market yesterday. I know you are all anxiously awaiting my report, so here you go!

It was a nice heavy box this time - more new potatoes, three huge yellow onions, a few green tomatoes, one really huge deeply curved asian cucumber (yes, we made pervy jokes about that one), nice deep red round beets with greens attached, another hunk of basil, and some mustard greens from the cool refugee agricultural project. But the real score was peaches. I got five or six perfectly ripe, wonderfully fragrant peaches. I will have one on my cereal this morning for breakfast. Mmmhmmm. From my extra work I got several gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and a bunch of pickling cucumbers. I want to make myself some relish. Also grabbed a little baggie of fresh chives and some Italian roasting peppers. Oh, and one skinny little deep purple eggplant.

Last week the cheese share was a gorgeous smooth Havarti and some seriously pungent blue cheese. I like the blue, although husbeast does not. :) I've been working it in little bits into things. A bit sprinkled on my scrambled eggs, a little tossed into my share of the pasta for dinner. Yum. Havarti is all gone. It did not last long at all. Delicious.

So, I still have a dozen eggs, and the blue cheese that himself does not want to eat. Lots of summer squash in various forms. I'm still pondering what to do as menu items this week. I have some thoughts, but still not sure, I'm open to suggestions! The beets will likely be a lunch for me one day.

Mustard/beet greens and potatoes and cornbread.
Purple stir fry - I'm debating this one. I have red cabbage from last week and the eggplant from this week, so I'm thinking they'd look cool together in something. And I have lots of summer squash still that can go into a stir fry.
BLTs and tomato soup
inevitable zuchinni fritatta w/ cucumber/tomato salad
hot pepper & fresh tomato pizza
???

What else sounds good with these ingredients?

This week in food

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:51:26 GMT

Ok, sorry, I skipped a week. Sorry about that. My AC went out Thursday night and we slogged through one of the hottest weekends this year without modern infrastructure to survive it. So I did not feel like cooking. Heck, I didn't feel like eating. I slept, showered, lounged under a fan, slept, showered, went outside to praise the setting of the sun, and slept some more. So much of what I got in last week's box is still in the fridge. :)

This week's box contained: A sizable bag of tiny little new potatoes. I think they're red, but mostly they're muddy. No surprise there, it's been very rainy lately. Some great looking flat leaf parsley. More new carrots. I love these, so intensely orange and they smell like carrots should smell. More mustard greens, these flat and darker green than usual. One monster sweet onion. Another head of garlic. MOAR green tomatoes. And one sizable cucumber. So far the cucumbers I've gotten have been pretty bitter, so cross your finger. There's another little box of blueberries and the surprise of the box - apples! Apples?! Yes! Apparently there is a June apple which grows here. They're tarter than my sarcastic comments and about as hard as my head. I think I might try my hand at fried apples with them, or maybe make fresh applesauce. From my extra work at the farmer's market I took home a bag full of early peaches and red tomatoes as well as several baggies of basil. I still have chives, mint, mixed salad greens, summer squash, pickling cucumbers, fresh onions, radishes, eggs and Parmesan (I ate the baby swiss) from previous weeks.

So here's my sketch of a menu for the week. Especially now that the AC is fixed, the heat has broken (we're down to comfortable mid-70's now, instead of mid-90's!) and I can stand being in my kitchen again.

Fried green tomato salad, with parsley potatoes on the side
Sauteed mustard greens on roasted garlic polenta
Curried summer squash on rice, with pappad if I can figure out how to cook the ones I picked up at Patel Bros.
Frittata or quiche, depending on the heat. I've been craving real quiche, pie crust and all, but if it gets hot again I'm not turning on the oven.

Since it's a holiday weekend I know we'll have a few meals out, so I don't need as many dinners as I normally would.

As far as preserving - I took most of the chives, put them in the food processor with enough olive oil to make a paste, put the paste on wax paper on a cookie sheet and froze it solid. I tried to be all fancy and spread it out, pre-score into squares and then break apart the squares for long term storage. Dumb. Next time I will just plop spoonfuls onto the wax paper and leave well enough alone. This was a success as far as usable product though, it's delicious. The little chive bits stayed nicely green and fragrant, and should be easy enough to pop into eggs, soups, whatever. I took the last of the peppermint and the spearmint from last week, washed and stripped the leaves off and they are in the dehydrator now for tea. The glaceed fruit was a success. Even husbeast eats the apricots and he hates dried fruit. The blueberries are tasty, but honestly not worth the work the way the apricots are. I like them dried without any other treatments, or frozen. Since the process takes four freaking days, the end product better be stellar. The apricots pass this test. And I do have several little jars of syrup in my cabinet now, which I'm looking forward to. But I think if I want blueberry syrup I'll just can blueberries in syrup. Much less fuss and still delicious.

Still to do - I want to turn the little cucumbers into pickles. But husbeast only eats dill pickles and I have no dill. So I'm thinking about turning these into relish for myself and then finding another batch of little cucumbers for pickling when the dill is in. Soon the summer squash will be monsterous and I'll shred it and freeze it. I'm also debating a green tomato chutney recipe, since I have so many.

Oh, and lunch today - open face BLTs. Toasted English muffin, mayo, veggie bacon, Parmesan, basil and thick slices of tomato. Yum.

Know thyself....

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:53:56 GMT

So, a bit back rohmie mused that I was likely a fellow NT on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Turns out he was right. :)

I had an MBTI assessment done at the career center recently and got the interpretation today. I am apparently an ENTJ. And I have had some amount of my faith in the test restored. I lost a lot of it while taking the test because of the format. I know you're supposed to turn off the analytical brain and just react. But really? I really loathe duality based assumptions which were ALL through this test. One of the questions stuck out in my mind for the two minute rant it raised in me. Which would I rather be - competant or caring? Umm, both please? Without competance what good is my caring? Without caring how the heck am I supposed to get anything accomplished competantly? I know it is quite possible to be one without the other, but my version of ideal humanity requires both to be realized. I needed a (non-existant) "both" button for most of the test.

So I was glad to see that this wasn't a forced pigeonholing. And this is also my reminder lesson in the importance of using all data available to draw the right conclusion. Although the test did need eventually to make an answer and spit out a nice pigeon hole for me, it at least has the means to tell me how certain it was about that decision. Not quite a p-value, but close enough. So the preference clarity index is my favorite part of the report. This has a scale from 0-30 showing how, well, clear, your preferences are. 30/30 in one area means you are really, resolutely (obstinantely?) that thing. A 30/30 Extrovert is probably going to avoid introspection like an STD. I was an 18/30. Definite preference, but still seems to be to leave room for a healthy balance. Intuition was 22/30, which makes me think I probably need to spend more time in the here and now, just sensing and being. Again, makes sense, and probably one of the reasons I miss yoga so much. I lack that balance in my life at the moment, but I know how to fix it.

But the clarity for my scores between Thinking and Feeling and Judging and Perceiving are not very convincing. As in only slight preference (5/30) toward T over F and a minuscule preference (1/30) for J over P. This makes me feel like a much better balanced person. And gives me some confidence that I am using the majority of tools available to me to deal with my life. Some things are better approached with logic, others really should give more weight to the people and/or values involved. And I certainly need to have a balance between structure and flexibility when divying up my time. Too much structure and I feel like I'm missing all sorts of great opportunities. Too little and I never get anything accomplished.

So, kinda cool. Especially since this was part of a career exploration it helped me sort out a little bit about why certain parts of certain jobs make me grumpy. Although no matter what any test tells me I might be good at, I refuse to go into sales. Sorry universe, I have other plans for those talents. :D

I'll also put up a post about what I got in my CSA box and what I've been doing with it all. Here's your teaser - home made blueberry and apricot syrups. Yeah. It's been that good.

yum

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:18:53 GMT

Ok, since there's no news on the job front (yet another rejection email! Yippe! See how hard it is to get excited about that?) I thought I'd talk about what has been cool. Food. When my life gets out of control I tend to start cooking.

I picked up a volunteer gig with my new CSA this season (www.grashoppersdistribution.com). Yes, I've been sampling CSAs like restaurants although it's a much slower process since each one represents a growing season and a bad CSA is not necessarily the farmer's fault. That being said I'm becoming quite the connoisseur actually. I can tell weather difficulties from organizational difficulties now, and I'm recognizable in most of the farmer's markets in my area of town. This is a good thing, it usually means better veggies. :D

This CSA is the first one who gave me a rebate with my dinner though, so I'm fond of them so far. The volunteering is going to knock a hefty percentage off my total costs by the end of the season in exchange for 2 hours a week passing out shares. Always a happy thing. And being a distributer they have a broader selection of products. In addition to the weekly box of veggies I get a pound of cheese and a dozen eggs every other week. Yum. So far the cheese has been stellar.

So, I had the bright idea of recording some of what I do with all this produce here. One of the fun things about this process for me is having someone else do my grocery shopping. I get a share of whatever was harvested this week, so I have a sense of what I'm going to get (do not look for pumpkins in June, you will be very sad. But not as sad as wishing for asparagus in October) but the exact details are a mystery until I get the box. This makes menu planning an adventure. So put on your khaki pants and let's see what was in the box:

Kale, collard greens, mixed salad greens, scapes, zuchinni, cucumber, carrots and strawberries.
Dirt cheap at the grocery store: california apricots and georgia peaches.

Fruit is kinda hard to come by in this state, so I supplement with less-than-local fruits. Especially when the apricots are .99/lb and I have a crave on for apricot jam. 10 8-oz jelly jars are now packed up and sealed away for the rest of the year. They turned out perfectly, thick and smooth and tasting like concentrated apricot. That was monday's work.

Tuesday is pickup day. After pickup day I'm usually wiped from 2 hours on blacktop pavement and heavy lifting, so it's simple food only. That usually means fritatta. Hard to get any easier if there are frozen veggies at hand. I also throw in anything that's starting to look a little tired to help clear out the refrigerator for the new produce. Served with a huge salad it's a good dinner and a nice lunch the next day. And since the oven was on I made a quick and dirty peach cobbler - just chopped peaches tossed with a tiny amount of cornstarch and sugar and topped with some butter/oats/sugar/spices topping. The leftover heat from the broiler was just enough to warm everything up and crisp the oatmeal. Delicious.

But tonight I wanted something a little more - presentation friendly. And I've been reading my new Italian vegetarian cook book. And read several crepe recipes. Hmm... Ok. Out of my twisted brain came Lemon Kale and Feta Crepes. Served with a homemade apricot vinagrette. Assembly was somewhat involved but the preps were simple:

Sautee onion and garlic in a little olive oil over med/high heat until soft and barely starting to brown. Add washed rough chopped kale to the pan, cover and let steam until wilted. If you have to do this in batches feel free. Once it's all wilted down add salt, pepper and the juice from a lemon. Take off the heat and set aside.

While stuff is cooking make the crepes - beat two eggs, stir in a cup of milk and a tablespoon of melted butter. In another bowl stir together 3/4 C of flour with a pinch of salt. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry with a whisk, work over until all the lumps are gone. I do this in stages so there isn't too much gluten development from beating. And I tend to let the batter sit for 10 min or so before I start making crepes, again, just to give the flour time to chill out a little. Once that's ready to go butter a small heavy non-stick skillet and practice making crepes. I still kinda suck at it, even if they look funny they will taste fantastic, don't worry about it.

Once you're ready to assemble everything, it goes quick. Mix feta into the greens, stir well. Drop some greens into one quadrant of the crepe, fold in half then half again to make a pretty package of tastiness. Four crepes per person is a generous serving, three is more reasonable, depends on how big your crepes ended up.

I served this with a simple green salad, just red leaf lettuce with croutons and a quick vinagrette - I eyeballed some dijon mustard and a good slug of apricot jam into a small plastic cup, added roughly 3:1 oil and lemon juice, sealed the cup and shook the life out of it until emulsified. Then I minced an apricot and mixed it in, poured over the salad and served.

Everything turned out delicious, and the crepes made me feel like a Real Chef. Next time I might even remember to take pictures!

Tue, 26 May 2009 07:13:25 GMT

Just a random post to let you know I'm alive. I seem to be back on the insomnia kick, or maybe it's just my preferred sleep schedule reasserting itself now that the alarm clock is optional. As in, yes, it is 3 am and my body shows no signs of being ready for sleep. I did the same thing last night/morning, and slept until about 11:30am today. I need to not do this, since it will make it that much harder when the alarm clock re-establishes itself as cruel master.

No job yet, but I have been told in no uncertain terms that recent graduates have three months before they become unemployed. I'll accept the transition time with gratitude and grace. I am looking, I have a fair number of apps out, and about three versions of a semi-targeted resume that can be tweaked as needed for specific jobs. If nothing pans out soon I'll pick up some temp work or something just to keep the house running. Data entry may not be the most intellectually engaging activity, but it does pay the bills and gives me time to scheme on other things.

D and I both got terrible colds, mine knocked me on my butt for almost a week. Which might also explain the lack of sleepiness now. I slept for about three days non-stop in the middle there. Some of it is also likely the stir crazy which comes from being in the house so much. I did go out to be social on Friday and Saturday, which were both good. But still, I miss you. Sorry I haven't been talkative lately, some of it is defensive. I can't piss anyone off if I don't talk. I can't hurt anyone's feelings by being quiet. Since those I love know I love them, the lack of news merely implies no change. Which is pretty accurate really. :)

Ta-da!

Sat, 09 May 2009 16:51:34 GMT

I'm officially all graduated.

You are looking at one of three holders of a Master's degree in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from UofL , first graduating class.

How's that for strange?

ETA: You know, I think I know the next thing I want to work on, school-wise. Not immediately, mind you, but eventually I want to get certified in mediation/negotiation as well. I think that fits in well with my interests in clinical ethics consulting and project management.

Freedom??

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:40:42 GMT

Done! Done! Done! Done! Final paper is winging it's way through email and everything. Now I sit and wait for grades and graduation. And hope there's no rewriting to be done.

I am seriously thinking about taking myself out for dinner.

Ok

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:47:06 GMT

I never really liked this brand of spinning wheel. Yes, they are cheap, durable and highly functional. But it's made from PVC ::whine whine whine::

Obviously I was blind. Some steampunked her wheel: http://www.flickr.com/photos/syrenmuse/365830035/in/set-72157594493753938

Now I want one, because I can see soooooo many possibilities.

Hmm.....

fuzzy warm meme sheep

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:36:35 GMT

I love you.

I did stuff

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:41:56 GMT

I know, I know, you don't believe me. But I did.

I learned how to dye bamboo fiber for spinning:

and

The first was for a swap. The second was a solution to a problem although I didn't know that when i was doing the dyeing. See, I have this silk

which is going to end up as a beaded scarf for Jess' wedding. I started off with one bobbin because I thought I was going to chain ply the fiber. But lace is better knitted with a two ply yarn. It's hard to make a two ply yarn from a single bobbin. But, it's very easy to make a two ply yarn from two different bobbins. And if the second bobbin has a lovely shiny bamboo, in just the right shade of purple to coordinate with the outfit?

Yeah. That should work. Now I just have to finish spinning the silk from hell first. I've also been designing a moebius neck warmer for a spring fiber club from natrlobsessions and refining my Easter Egg shawl pattern for the same purpose. Yes, two of my patterns are being used for a fiber club. This, my friends, is cool.

I'm continuing test knitting. I finished Beware - The Kraken! and he is adorable beyond all words. I need to get some finished pics of him. And I'm working on a lace tank top. I also need to get pics of it. Other projects such as Grandma's blanket and my Adamas lace shawl are languishing in the land of no deadlines. Time is finite and I really do like sleeping.

Which brings us to school. This is the coolest, busiest semester I've had yet. I'm doing an independent study with the Palliative Care team and the Ethics Committee. My project for the semester is revising the Do Not Attempt Resuscitation and Care of the Dying Patient policies. My updates will be reviewed by the committee on Wednesday. I'm pretty excited to see what they have to say. I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of miss the project management. Keep your fingers crossed for me that a particularly interesting job opportunity pans out as well.

Other classes this semester are boring, but only in comparison to following around the Palliative Care team every week. Sitting and discussing the multiple influences on health insurance risk management just doesn't thrill me as much as seeing their chaplain explain to someone that her husband is dying, or listening to their psychologist discuss the comparison between surgery wound and phantom limb pain with a patient. I know they both are "real" but only one is concrete. I'm always drawn to the sensual, and while this isn't always pretty (nor does it usually smell all that good, alas) I'm really enjoying this. If I can just keep focused this semester I'll think I'll come through, and I'll have really accomplished something.

Shame that knitting and spinning are also so wonderful, and oh so very shiny. ;)

Today

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:42:01 GMT

Just some fun images from my drive home today. When I got off the expressway and turned down the first street of my path towards home there was a guy carrying four balloons, two black and two red, with a weight wrapped in foil at the bottom of the ribbons. Plain rubber balloons, oblong, nothing fancy. But he was walking along like it was the happiest day of his life, swinging the weight beside himself in time with his steps. I noticed his hat bill tipping back occasionally, so he must have been looking at the sky. His movements were so carefree and relaxed, what we would call childlike, unrestrained.

I got to the corner where I turn right and there was another man standing there, a printed banner with "Happy Valentine's Day" in his hands. He stared at the people in the cars directly, almost challengingly. Have a great Valentine's day, I DARE YOU! There was a dissonance between his face and his message, and even though I smiled at him, he never made eye contact with me, even when I was the first car at the red light, waiting for my turn. I was thinking about blowing him a kiss or some other acknowledgment, but he started walking down the line of paused traffic instead. As I turned I wondered what his motive was. If it was love, why stand there after it was obviously no fun anymore? There was no affiliation markings that I saw on him or on the sign, so why do it other than love? I wondered what had just happened to him, how long he was standing there, what motivated him to print a sign wishing everyone more love in their life - or if Valentine's day means something totally different to him.

I've decided this is one of the reasons memory fails - too much information. I've only glancingly recorded what I noticed, there was so much more to say. Details of dress, posture, expression, the angle of light, the temperature outside, the time of day. But even the fact that today I passed a man holding a sign wishing me a happy Valentine's day will be lost and forgotten, only brought to mind if something relevant sparks the memory. There's too much information for my brain to hold on to it all, so I forget. I suspect that as I layer day after day of experience onto my life it will get progressively worse. And yet I don't know how or if I should stop it. Of course I can journal more, which is a selective form of memory. I could photodocument everything, but that gets in the way of experiencing. So for now I think I can accept that this is the best solution - enjoy and forget to make room for new enjoyable experiences.

Reading

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:06:24 GMT

One of the things I love most about reading is how the author's voice shapes my own. Right now I'm reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. So I find myself thinking in lush imagery, staccato sentences, walking through my house as if there is an invisible narrator slinking along behind me.

It's most amusing when the style collides with reality - when I do something I can't ever picture a Gibson character doing. I've never run into a single one who enjoys cooking the way I do, for example. None of his characters seem the type who gets lost in the smell of simmering lentils, or roasting butternut squash. Who delights when sticky grapefruit juice runs over her fingers, and licks each one clean. For all his depth of image, he still works within a very sterile dystopian field - his people, his world, seem to lack a sensuality that is all pervasive in mine.

But then I just hear the narrator adjust, describing me in contrast to the cold, sterile a-sensual world that I would inhabit. It would probably be a form of escapism, losing myself in the smell of sauteeing garlic so that I didn't have to think for a time about the mechanization of my soul. It amuses me.

So what should I read next? What should influence reality's voice?

Imbolc

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:11:11 GMT

I love Imbolc. In the darkest depths of winter, it is a holiday to remind us that there are lights other than the sun. For me it means human fires - small fires that light the darkness. At the risk of being overlooked on your friends page, here's my contribution to the light.

I wonder if Ring Tribe is still doing their Imbolc celebration. It is by far one of the best parties I've ever attended. Everyone crammed into one huge lodge hall, massive fireplace at one end, sleeping bags and cots and blankets ringing the walls, endless pot luck food in the kitchen. The center is clear for the performances. Everyone in the tribe is required to perform some artistic endeavor, guests are welcome to participate but not required. The first year I attended I sang "Winds Four Quarters" from the Mercedes Lackey books. I still get shivers when I think of that song. The scenario is touching, first. The lone survivor of a village stands among her dead and invokes the four corners as the four ages of the goddess as she armors herself for revenge. It touches me because it is not a usual story for women in my culture - we are not the ones who go to war, to seek revenge. More often we are the ones who rebuild. But she was the last of her tribe, so there was no rebuilding, only revenge. The wild warrior in me appreciates the story of a woman who decided, no, I'm not letting them get away with this - they will be punished. Add into that the power of performing the song for a willing, energetic audience, and the fact that it is an invocation, and my memory of this song includes the feeling of standing in a gateway - the goddess pushing through behind me, filling the room, filling me, the wind suddenly present inside as well as out. I'm not sure I've ever sung so well.

The second year meant expectations. ;) People were wondering what I would do. So I told them that last year I had used words, but this time I wanted them to hear a different language - so I danced. Plenty of Ring Tribe could drum, so I told them to have fun with it. Any rhythm they liked, and I would dance to it. We carried on a conversation, the drummers and I, through movement and gesture. It was a much more internal art for me, still a performance but less focused on bringing everyone with me, or bringing something in through me. Still fun though. ;)

This year, I have no idea. I won't say that art is missing from my life, far from it. I spin, I knit, I design. I write papers. I manage my household, and try to observe myself with compassion and grace. These are all arts. One of the defining aspects of art, for me anyway, is the intensity of the process. It's leaving space for the unexpected, welcoming it when it comes. And I'm trying to allow that into my life in unexpected ways.

I know Brighid loves poetry, so for her sake I'll try,
but the only poem I know is my breathing
my stretching
my moving.

I know Brighid loves singing, so for her sake I'll try,
but the only song I know is my feelings
my loving
my cries.

I know Brighid loves flickering flames, so for her sake I'll try,
but the only light I have is my words
my thoughts
my deeds.

I know Brighid calls for us to be heroes, so for her sake I'll try.

Wind's Four Quarters

Chorus:
Wind's four quarters, air and fire
Earth and water, hear my desire,
Grant my plea who stands alone,
Maiden, Warrior, Mother and Crone

Eastern Wind, blow clear blow clean
Cleanse my body of its pain
Cleanse my mind of what I've seen
Cleanse my honor of its stain
Maid whose love has never ceased
Bring me healing from the east

Southern wind, blow hot blow hard
Fan my courage to a flame
Southern wind be guide and guard
Add your bravery to my name
Let my will and yours be twinned
Warrior of the southern wind

Western wind blow stark, blow strong
Grant me arm and mind of steel
On a road both hard and long
Mother, hear me where I kneel
Let no weakness on my quest
Hinder me, wind of the west

Northern wind, blow cruel blow cold
Sheathe my aching heart in ice
Armor round my soul enfold
Crone, I need not call you twice
To my foes bring the cold of death
Chill me north wind's frozen breath!

I'm baaack

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:42:42 GMT

and so is the power.

Supposedly we made it. I'm still waiting for the house to warm up before I really believe it. Lots to say, but more to do. Clean up is going to be a spectacular task, although we had some help. Two guys from the neighborhood were looking for work with their chainsaw. They made quick work of the fallen and falling limbs. I'm all good with that.

Oh

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:12:15 GMT

And since I'm watching the BBC coverage, I have to wonder what everyone else in the world things of all the singing, cat calling and general rowdiness that Americans display when there's a TV camera. We're, ummm, boisterous? :D

inaugural liveblogging

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:03:26 GMT

I'm glad I'm watching this at home alone. Yes, the web streams have been a little sucky. And I discovered a minor household emergency exactly at noon when Obama was taking the oath. ::sigh:: So all told I have a very scattered and disjointed impression of this event. I did get to hear the poem, which is honestly my favorite part of this ritual. I love that occasionally we trot out the "American Poet" and pretend we have deep thoughts. It makes me happy.

But even the little pieces I saw moved me to tears. I really want to believe. Obama is finally cracking through my political apathy. In general I find every person interested in pursuing politics as suspicious. I really do feel like running the world is one of those jobs that should never be done by someone who wants the job. If you want the job I don't trust you with it. But we have the system we have, and I'm generally good with working within existing structures. So I'll give him a chance.

Ironically enough, I have to lead a class discussion tomorrow talking about why the US does not have basic healthcare coverage for all citizens. The author I'm working with feels that the American narrative of autonomy in political and economic matters is fundamentally to blame. Basically the argument goes something like this - in America everyone has the same opportunities to take care of thier needs. So if you are not taking care of your own needs you are somehow a failure - usually a moral failure (since laziness is a vice in our culture). If you are a failure then I do not need to help you. Oh, and welfare breeds dependancy, so if I want to really help you, I can't help you. Yes, I'm phrasing this in a way that makes the problems with this belief pattern really clear. But it's also an eerily accurate version of an argument I've had with many people in my life. They use nicer words, but the argument tends to come back to the same basis. We don't have health care for everyone in this country because if you don't have health insurance it's your own damm fault. Get a job.

The only thing I can think about for class tomorrow is one question - is this still true? Can Obama really change scripts that have been running in this country since the Revolution? Lucky for him, he doesn't actually have to shoulder that burden. All he has to do is help us codify the changes we've already made in our own scripts. And not break anything to the point where we can't adjust in the future.

Oh, and Obama, when you say that you're going to use technology to make healthcare more accessible and more affordable, I get squicky. Technology is not a solution, it is a tool. Often an expensive tool. Project managment 101 says don't put the solution before the problem statement. Just saying.

ETA: Did a little digging (thanks revsphynx ) and I bet this is what he meant: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/59/invest-in-electronic-health-information-systems/
I'm less cheesed now.

Now I need to tear myself away from the news coverage and actually write this class discussion paper.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:09:33 GMT

but calories are so delightful...

It's crazy cold out there, and my body knows it. Would anyone mind if I got really, ridiculously fat? 'Cause if I keep eating like this while staying in my nice cozy house that's what is going to happen. Case in point - I went grocery shopping on Wednesday. Just a strategic strike really. And I have a pretty long standing rule - the days I shop I keep dinner simple. Like mac and cheese level of simple. I'm usually shopping right after work or school, so I'm pretty tired even before I hit the grocery store madness.

So Wednesday was canned ravioli. But I was still hungry. So I a bagel with cream cheese. A few hours later, seriously hungry again, so I had cheese and crackers. Noticing a trend here? I tried to improve the nutritional profile a little with some fruit, but I couldn't stand the thought of eating just veggies (my normal go to still hungry snack). Then Thursday night I made scalloped potatoes. Four servings used four potatoes, several carrots, onions and celery stalks, fresh parsley. A little dried dill and basil, a touch of salt and a lot of pepper. So far so good. Then a cup of sour cream, a cup and a half of shredded cheese. And then four slices of veggie bacon, cooked extra crispy, crumbled on top. Delicious, and more fat than I probably need in a week. Yes, I use real sour cream, the low fat stuff tastes, well, weird.

I'm still craving tuna noodle casserole. I'm just not sure how to veggiefy it. Nothing really replaces tuna. I could work in some seaweed somehow for a bit of fishy taste but somehow that seems very out of place in what is supposed to be a very simple casserole. So I'm thinking I'll pare back to the basics and see what I have - pasta noodles, cream of mushroom soup, peas. Some sort of crushed cracker crust on top. I'll up the veggies a lot - add onions, carrots, celery, bell peppers. Just the basic flavoring mix, nothing like brocolli that has its own assertive character. I want creamy and hot and well, not exactly bland, but certainly not my normal level of aggressive spicing.

And I've made sure to put a bean soup on the menu lately. With cornbread usually. The kind of meals you can eat and then sleep for days...

Is it spring yet?

I feel clever

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:39:18 GMT

Since only a few of you here are on Rav as well, I thought I'd share my latest knitting accomplishment. It's a swatch for a larger stole, but I saw a great idea for doing the swatch big enough to be a project in it's own right. So, I present to you my Adamas head swatch:

I think it turned out pretty well!

Calendar Meme

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:44:06 GMT

Simple - Take the first sentence from the first entry day of each month and post it.

January - Silence
Feburary - Silence
March - Call or drop me a line if you would enjoy celebrating my birthday with dinner tonight and I somehow otherwise forgot to tell you about it.
April - Silence
May - Silence
June - I got nudged again, so I thought I'd refresh this.
July - Mom and I used to always joke that we'd open an Asian fusion restaurant and call it "Happy Tummy."
August - The campus fountain is back on.
September - Of all the possible paths, one of us will walk each one.
October - Ok, I like this meme:
November - Since it amuses me. DragCave had a special halloween drop:
December - Tell me it will be ok?

Mine isn't nearly as cool as dubeach's, but that's ok. Although it amuses me how many months I spend in silence. Should I go to my blog and see if there are entries there for that month?

Cookie 3

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:19:15 GMT

Today I finished up all but the last batch of cookies I had prepped. I may throw the dough and filling for the orange pistachio crescents into the freezer to make some other time. I have plenty of cookies and the idea of rolling, cutting and shaping just doesn't thrill me. So today I finished:

Grasshopper bars - did the white chocolate peppermint ganache and the dark chocolate ganache, in the fridge hardening.
Fig swirls
Citrus biscotti
Trios - jam thumbprint cookies, but done as three small balls which bake together, filled with three different flavors of homemade jam - peach, strawberry and black&blue
Meringue stars - which failed. I think I had the required temps reversed. I chilled the egg whites and bowl, and they refused to whip up. Some research revealed that all is supposed to be room temperature instead (it's cream that does better cold). Doh! So I pitched these. I was mostly making them to use up egg whites from other recipes which used only yolks, so no big loss.

I'll make some no-bake cookies for husbeast to take to work on Wednesday closer to when they are needed.

Now I just need to get the ones that are being shipped packed up and ready to go out tomorrow, and the cookie extravaganza will be complete. I'm way more exhausted than I expected from all this. But it is really nice to have a plate of different cookies to have with my Silk Nog. ;)

Hope everyone is staying warm, it's crazy cold out there now!