New Year's Party Food

What you see here is the beginning of luscious guacamole, which is what I will be bringing to the New Year's Eve party I'm attending. Isn't it beautiful already? If you, too, would like to eat some fresh, tasty guacamole to fight the winter doldrums (and you're not going to the same party I am), see this post for the recipe. Make sure you start with ripe avocadoes!

If you're looking for another good party food, I've listed a few other ideas below. I generally try for something with balance: familiar enough that people will eat it but with a little twist to keep things interesting, simple enough that it doesn't take forever but still looks (and tastes)interesting, and containing some nutritious ingredients but still tasting indulgent. I don't worry too much about cost in these cases, figuring it's hospitality. All of these recipes qualify.

Cranberry Orange Pinwheels--Tasty, fruity cream cheese in tortilla pinwheels

Cream Cheese Fruit Dip--Sweet and rich, accompanied by fresh fruit, always a hit, makes a ton.

Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Cream Cheese Dip--Amazing. I make a non-vegan variation.

Hope that gives you some ideas, and have a Happy New Year!

New Years Resolutions

So this year I have a new theory on new years resolutions. Anastasia and I were talking about them on Sunday as we were driving back from Missouri, and I decided a more productive strategy would be to come up with things I am resolved to get done by New Years Day. Normally people come up with grand ambitions that they don't follow through on, so instead why not pick a few things that need to get done, that you don't want to do, and that could realistically get done in the next few days. Say, hypothetically, reorganizing your books so that they are not strewn about the living room floor, cleaning out the "junk drawer" so that one could fit a phonebook or two inside of it, and getting the basement utility area clear so that one could actually walk around in it. We will know how this one turned out on January 2.

Perfect spherical pellets

Last Thursday night the weather here was really weird. When we left the library at 9, we were walking through a couple inches of little pellets of ice. I opened my trunk, and they all fell on my groceries and the books I had all over the place in there. I was able to capture the little sphere on camera as a result. They were all perfect spheres of varying sizes. I have never seen anything like it. Mom and Alex called it sleet, but I've never seen such attractive sleet--it reminded me of Dippin Dots, actually. Weather amazes me.

Product review--dinner rolls

This is my new favorite food product--multigrain rolls from Rhodes. You buy a bag in the freezer section, and then throw it in your freezer at home. Whenever you want some buns for sloppy joe, or just some rolls for your meal, you set a few out in the morning. By dinnertime, they've risen and you just pop them in the oven. Voila, fresh-baked rolls (that rose, no less) with almost no effort or dirty dishes. And while they have more ingredients than your home-baked roll, they do have whole grains and are way ahead of most refrigerated or frozen breads/rolls nutritionally speaking.

As for taste, everyone I've served them to has loved them and some even thought I made them myself.

So--taste, nutrition, convenience (including being able to prepare just a couple at a time) all come together in one package. I'm loving it!

Better-than-Panera Salad

Yesterday I shared about our special cheese dinner; today I'll show you what to do with the leftovers--make a salad prettier than anything Panera offers. I use bagged salad, for simplicity and because we can never eat a whole head of lettuce before it goes bad. Then I top it with toasted walnuts for good solid protein, some crumbled or cubed cheese, and finally ring it with slices of apple or pear. I don't use dressing on a salad like this because I think the cheese, nuts, and fruit add enough interest and moisture. (I will say, though, that I am searching for recipes for dressings to go with salads like these, so let me know if you have a good one!) With the leftover bread and a bit of chocolate for dessert, it's a nice light lunch.

Classic Waldorf Salad

I thought I'd better post a recipe here in the middle of Alex's musings on Bibles....

This is more of an ingredient list and reminder of how great simple food can be than a detailed recipe. Waldorf salad tastes especially good at this time of year, I think--fresh, crunchy, sweet. Basically, it consists of chopped apples, celery, and walnuts, with some raisins thrown in. I like to toast the walnuts because toasted nuts always taste better. (I do them in a dry skillet over med-hi until they smell toasty. You can also do them in the microwave or oven.)

The dressing is traditionally simply mayonnaise--enough to coat the salad and make it moist. You might add a bit of lemon juice if you're not going to eat it right away--it will slow down the oxidation (browning) of the apples. Lately though, I've been using plain yogurt and a bit of honey for the dressing--much healthier and quite tasty! In a future post, I'll tell you how to make your own yogurt. Stay tuned!

Wine and cheese at the Tucknesses

Periodically, as a special meal, I like to fix a cheese platter for me and Alex. Our favorite ingredients are: several kinds of cheeses, including both soft and hard (we always have Brie), fruit such as grapes and pears, baguette slices, and chocolate. We also sometimes include olives, roasted garlic, toasted walnuts (especially good with bleu cheese and pears) and of course, wine.

I had brought back a bottle of apple wine from a trip recently and was excited to try it. I wasn't sure if we had a corkscrew, so I took a walk downtown in search of one. Realizing that I had left my credit card in the car and I only had a couple dollars, I didn't go to Cooks', reasoning that I couldn't afford whatever option they would have. So I ended up in the coin collecting place, of all things--he now has a section of the store devoted to making your own wine and beer. For a quarter, I purchased the small black plastic object shown in the bottom right picture.

That evening, we examine our bottle-opening options. We start with the metal corkscrew we found at the back of a drawer. And soon afterward it comes apart.

Moving on, then, to the maroon-colored bottle opener--this doesn't get us anywhere.

Coming to the small black tool, we screw it down into the cork and pull. And pull. And pull. The shopkeeper had said something to the effect of, "That will take quite a bit of finger strength--we call it an emergency corkscrew." Alex's estimation--maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger could get it open this way. Remembering physics and the power of levers, he uses the wooden spoon--with the results also displayed above.

We then take a break and call several friends to see if we could borrow one, but to no avail.

Google finally came to our rescue. We typed in "open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew," and got this helpful video. Thus the handyman tools in the other picture (just need a screw, hammer, and screwdriver). It worked like a charm, and we highly recommend it if you find yourself in the same pickle we did.

Even without the wine, pairing the above foods together makes a great special date meal or easy company hors d'oeuvres!

Oh Christmas Tree

A view of our living room, now that we've successfully gotten the tree up and the new LED lights purchased. The top two show the two main sides of our tree, and how every year we try to balance the felt ornaments of our childhoods with the more contemporary angels and sparkles. The bottom two show the results of my playing around with my camera in an effort to capture how bright these lights really are!

Cleo update

Here's a little photo collage to show what our cat has been up to lately. He gets up late in the morning and then spends most of the day following the sunbeam around our living room. Lately his favorite place has been under the tree (artificial). I think he likes the soft tree skirt, the view outside, and being next to the furnace vent. Good thing we don't have presents under there yet!

Tree trimming

(Picasa has new collage options!)

Tree trimming in Michigan was supposed to be simple this year. Alex's itinerary for the day was 1. Grade some papers. 2. Carry the tree upstairs. 3. Grade more papers.

It was a little more complicated than that. Match the text to the above pictures.

1. Grade papers.

2. Carry tree upstairs.

3. Insert tree branches sorted by wife and her aunt.

4. Steady the tree while wife checks to see why it's crooked. (This was unsuccessful--the tree stayed crooked and then part of it fell on me.)

5. Grade more papers.

6. Visit other relatives.

7. Come back to discover Grandma had bought another tree!

8. Carry tree inside.

9. Unpack it, untie it, and shake it out. (It has lights attached, multicolored LED lights. The blue ones are so bright that Grandma replaced as many as she could with the spare red ones!)

10. Grade more papers.

11. Drive home the next day, and get tree up from basement.

12. Sort and insert branches.

13. Untangle lights, 75% of which no longer work. (How does this happen??)

14. Go to Walmart to purchase white LED lights.

15. Light tree. Wait a week for wife to finish putting ornaments and tree skirt on.

My husband, the Christmas tree hero!

(For the record, Alex did get all his grading done, too!)

Cookbooks are smart, but sometimes Grandmas are smarter!

(imagine a picture of mashed potatoes here--blogger is not cooperating)

For several years, I have made mashed potatoes only at the holidays. I like eating them a lot, but I don't particularly enjoy the multi-step process involved, so we usually have baked potatoes. I do eat them at my folks' house a couple times a month, though.

When I have made them, I've referred to my trusted Bittman cookbook, which has this to say on the subject of mashed potatoes (in part--he actually devotes two text-filled pages to the subject): "If you like yours lumpy, mash them with a fork; if you like them smooth, use a food mill or ricer. But whatever you do, keep them away from mixers, food processors, or blenders, because they will become gummy, and almost no one likes them that way."

Pretty strong words, eh? So over the years I dutifully hand-mashed pounds of potatoes, that ended up heavy and somewhat lumpy. This year I enlisted Alex to mash with a masher and beat with a spoon, and even with his force we were not satisfied with the results.

So on our recent trip to Michigan I had Grandma coach me through using the electric hand mixer to mash the potatoes. Guess what? It took less than two minutes and the results were pronounced fluffy by all, including Alex, who said they were similar to his late grandmother's (reputed to be the best of all by his family).

I am left to conclude that either Bittman's statement that mixers produce gummy potatoes is wrong, or that my entire family and Alex's entire family is in the select group of "almost no one" who "likes them that way." Either way I'll be using a mixer from now on.

And I'll be a bit more skeptical of dogmatic cookbook statements.

Thanksgiving recipe suggestions

My favorite recipes to make for Thanksgiving are a stuffing recipe and a sweet potato recipe from Cooking Light. I can make them at the same time the day before the meal, and then just pop them in the oven an hour before we eat (at the same temperature!)

The stuffing is particularly great--it starts with a Pepperidge Farm package so I don't have to chop up bread (for some reason I find the task particularly onerous), and then you add sauteed onions and celery for homemade flavor, some dried fruit for a sweet touch, and soak it all in chicken broth. Sweet, savory, and oh-so-tasty. I won't eat any other stuffing!

The sweet potatoes are a nice change from the marshmallow variety--they are a little sweet and a little spicy, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and a sprinkling of toasted pecans.

I'll be making these on Saturday--on Sunday we'll be co-hosting a dinner for a few internationals. My co-host is making the turkey and the desserts, and we each think we got the easy part. That's why we work well together! :)

If you're looking for an update or a new addition to your holiday repertoire, give one of these a try!

things I never knew...

One of my main responsibilities at the library is planning and presenting BabyTalk, our storytime for babies and their families. We do this program three times a week, and we really do get babies who are only five days old all the way through 1-yr-olds. (Then they graduate to Toddler Time, where they mostly run around and dance.) I love watching the babies of course, and it is also a joy to get to know the moms and dads--I'm impressed with their motivation to get to the program despite a crying baby, terrible weather, work schedules, etc.

These great parents (from all walks of life) share tips and tidbits with each other and me--how to make cloth diapers work, what's on sale at the consignment shop this week, when to start putting shoes on your baby.

But one tidbit last week stopped me in my tracks. Apparently they (nurses) are now telling new moms and dads not to kiss their babies on the mouth. Ever. The rationale is that bacteria from the parent's mouth transfers to the baby's mouth and causes tooth decay.

I tried to verify this, and found this blog post, which is a big long rant against kissing babies and kids on the mouth; at the end there's a quote and a link about dental issues but I couldn't find the quote on the page it linked to. Also found this commercial post urging parents to buy this product to rid their mouths of bacteria. So apparently it is a matter of some discussion.

Conclusion? Maybe it's another sign of our obsessed-with-germs culture, that may actually be weakening our immune systems in the process. Maybe if I had a baby, I might try to brush my teeth before kissing him or her. (Then again, I have no cavities.) In any case, I applaud you parents out there who are having to wade through all these well-meaning suggestions!

Cranberry Orange Pinwheels

I found a recipe for pinwheels in Midwest Living that looked pretty good, and then I ran into a Date-Orange breakfast spread in Cooking Light, so I decided to combine them and this is the result. Next time I would cut them more like 2” thick, rather than 1”, and I’ll look for a different color tortilla. I might try a cranberry-walnut version sometime. The amounts of fruit, spread, and tortilla are rough estimates. These were the favorite snack at a recent library event, and they are one of the few things I've made that taste way better than they look.


Orange Date Pinwheels
Cooking Light/Midwest Living adapt.
~45 min
~40 small bites

8 oz package cream cheese, softened
2 T finely grated orange rind
4 T freshly-squeezed orange juice
1 t cinnamon
¼ t salt
1 pkg flour tortillas
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup minced, sugared dates
Dusting of cinnamon

1. To make the spread, mix together the first 5 ingredients.
2. Spread the mixture generously on a tortilla all the way across.
3. Sprinkle cranberries and dates on half the tortilla.
4. Carefully roll the tortilla tightly into a spiral, starting with the edge with the fruit. Cut on the bias with a fairly sharp angle, trimming the ends. Secure with toothpicks if necessary.
5. Dust with cinnamon and orange zest, if desired.

Amazing oven fries

I have a love affair with the potato, and that's a fact. In junior year English, we were asked to write an essay describing which food we would like to be, and I chose the potato. So cheap! So versatile! Saved the Irish!

I try to sate my passion with baked potatoes (the Wendy's ones are great) and mashed potatoes rather than fast food French fries or Perkins hash browns (extra crispy) that I love. This oven fry recipe is a great middle ground.

My mom made oven fries for us often when we were growing up, usually as a side to our fish on Thursday night. Her version involved large wedges of russets tossed in vegetable oil. This is a somewhat refined version for the nights when we want something special.

Cut Yukon Gold potatoes in fries 1” long and ½” thick. Toss with a couple teaspoons olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a sprayed or lined baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes, or until golden, stirring halfway through. Toss with salt and serve.

If you choose to cut them bigger or use russets, the flavor and texture will change--russets are fluffier, these are more sturdy. Make sure to give yourself enough time for any potato to get golden on the outside and tender on the inside!

An afternoon at the library

About every three weeks, I have the pleasure of working Saturday and Sunday at the library, which means watching and guiding the antics of families who like to visit us on the weekends. Yesterday afternoon, a four-hour shift, was pretty typical, and this is some of what happened and some of the requests I received.

• "Do you have a kids' book about an unhappy triangle?" (Turns out it's called "The Greedy Triangle, and no, we don't have it, although it's cool--a triangle that visits a shape-shifter to become a square, etc.)
• "Do you have a kids' book about a girl who eats lima beans? I read it in third grade. No, I don't remember anything else." (After visiting our catalog, Amazon, and finally Google, we identified it as _A Bad Case of Stripes_ by David Shannon. We have multiple copies, and there are lima beans on the title page!)
• "So I lost my reading program sheet. (I hand her a new one.) Well, no, I guess I left it at home. Can I have another one? (So, you left it at home but you know where it is?) Yes. (No, it's one per person [the prize is pizza].)" This particular interchange happened several times.
• "Do you have any books about fall? Any books about pumpkins? Any books about apples? I know I should have come earlier ... " (Do they realize we send books to over 70 preschool classrooms, most of which want fall books? Not to mention everyone else who comes in asking? I do really wish we could accomodate them....)
• "What section is the books for kids aged 5-12? (Well, you could start with picture books, then go to early readers, then the chapter books, and some 12-yr-olds read young adult books.) So they're all mixed in, then?"
• "Can I sign up for the computer? ... Someone else is on the computer and it's my turn ... The computer headphones are broken....."
• No running in the library! (That's me. As a rule, we don't shush people, but we do make them stop running. With so many little ones and toys underfoot, it's just not safe.)
• A young boy at the self checkout says to me, "I can read all 13 of these movies by 1 AM! I'll just stop for some energy drinks on the way home!"
• Plus any number of book and movie requests that I was more easily able to fulfill, all topped off by myself and a coworker spending a frantic 1/2 hour picking up all the toys, books, puzzles, lego pieces, etc. strewn across every conceivable surface while listening to multiple kids screaming their heads off (while banging their double strollers against the metal radiator) that they did NOT want to leave the library!!

I never feel like it's a wasted afternoon, that's for sure! :)

Iowa Library conference, part two

Here are some pictures to go with yesterday's post. Top left--the nametag with flair. Top right--a slide from our presentation that I set up to show the progression of letter knowledge (one of the six early literacy skills) in kids. It starts with comparing cubes to spheres, then circles to squares, then identifying letters. Bottom left is the slide for narrative skills--retelling stories--it's a flannelboard set for Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We can take the portable flannelboard with us to storytime visits, or we can wear the flannel apron. The apron is great fun and super easy to deal with, although things get interesting when you let the kids slap the pieces onto the apron.... Bottom right--me in my suit while I was packing. If I get an action shot from the presentation day, I'll post that later.

Mary Kay Trainings vs. Library Conferences

(Pictures to come tomorrow!)


I recently returned from the Iowa Library Association conference where a coworker and I did a presentation about how Ames Public Library takes early literacy storytimes to daycares and preschools. While I was there, I pondered the similarities and differences between this conference and the trainings that I went to when I was a Mary Kay consultant. I found this fascinating; hopefully, you will at least find it mildly interesting.

(Disclaimer--I loved being a consultant and I love being a librarian, and I love my fellow-mostly-women in both professions, despite fun-poking that ensues below.)

1. Break time: consultants go to the bathroom to fix their makeup. Librarians don't even wear makeup (I am so serious about this--I wore some on my presentation day, but I was definitely in the minority), so at break time librarians go outside and find a place far away from all the noise and people. If you happen to walk by "their spot," you might get looked at with a librarian look.

2. Dress: consultants wear "uniforms"--black or red jacket, black skirt, closed toe shoes, hose, or director's suit. Librarians: a handful of us wore suits--some directors, my boss (she says she can't wear nice suits with short skirts for storytimes so this is her chance)--and I wore a pantsuit the day of my presentation. Most people were wearing business casual, and quite a number wore tennis shoes. Ever the practical ones.

3. Flair: This surprised me. At Mary Kay meetings, it's all about the flair: the pins and whatnot that show off how successful you've been, or at least how much product you've bought. Library conferences are not so different. When we got our nametags, we were given ribbons to stick on them based on various achievements--committee member, ILA member, ALA member, presenter, etc. Those who had given lots of money got special lanyards. Although I thought it was a bit silly, I admit to feeling proud of my "presenter" ribbon and a bit piqued that they didn't give me the ALA member ribbon I deserved. We all like recognition.

4. Evening entertainment: I found out how old I am the second night of the conference. I was sitting with a group of women who were older than I, waiting for the Storytellers Group to come tell us bedtime stories. Then the young, hip, twenty-something librarians swooped through, including my newest coworker, so I asked what they were doing. Board games in room 732! she cried! Come join us! And I realized that I would have lots and lots of fun playing board games in room 732, but I would never get to sleep after that. And since I'm old now, sleep trumps fun. :( Which is also why I quit going to weekly MK meetings--the bright lights, loud music, all the energy intended to motivate us--all conspired to ensure I never got a good night's sleep on MK nights. What do old MK consultants do? I don't think there's a Bedtime Storytellers' Group in MK.

5. Food: I opted for vegetarian meals at ILA, which was a great choice. I like meat in moderation, but at conferences they always give you a slab of meat that covers the whole plate. Not my style. This way I had room for dessert--cheesecake, tiramisu, apple pie.... I wasn't in MK long enough to get a feel for the food culture, although I went to a few meetings at Panera and a couple at mom and pop restaurants with lots of meat and cobblers.

So there it is, my decidedly unscientific ramblings about the Iowa Library Association conference and how it compared with my Mary Kay experience. Hope you were amused!

Favorite Parmesan cheese

If you're like me, you grew up shaking powder out of a can onto your weekly spaghetti. That was good and everything, but there is a whole world of Parmesan cheeses out there. I've been reading "foodie" magazines and books for years now, and every single one of them raves about "real Parmesan cheese from Parma Italy with Parmesan Reggiano stamped on the rind." I'm here to tell you, save your $20/pound. (Seriously.) I've bought it a couple times and it is just not that great, certainly not great enough to justify the price. I've also tried the lookalikes--American imitation wedges (only $5-10/a pound!)--also not good. The stuff that comes in a bag from Kraft is pretty good, but the best is what you see above.

The new product you see is a marvel of food and plastic engineering. I'm sure the wedge of cheese in the container is not from Italy (although the packaging is--how much sense does that make??), but when freshly grated onto soup or pasta, it tastes great. And so easy--just turn the green dial on the bottom. If you turn it the wrong way (as I inevitably do), no worries--just turn it the right way for a while and the cheese will move down the spike on which it sits.

It's great--no grater to wash, only the amount of cheese you want, and fresh cheese every time. It lasts 3 weeks in the fridge once you open the pack (longer than either a regular wedge or the bag). As for price, I think it was $3-4,

Drawbacks--I haven't seen it at Fareway, and you do have to throw away a rather large hunk of plastic. Nothing's perfect!

Late summer recipe

For anyone who still has zuchinni and eggplant around, this is my favorite way to cook them.

For the dish shown in the picture:
Slice zuchinni and onions thinly. Saute in olive oil. Add a couple pinches of dried oregano.

My grandma Walburg has made this for us for years.

My slight update:
Cut zuchinni and eggplant into small cubes. Slice onion thinly. Saute in olive oil--add eggplant first, then other vegetables. Add more olive oil to keep them from sticking. Add a couple pinches of dried oregano.

Timing will depend on the heat you use to cook it, the size of the veggies, and how many veggies you have, as well as whether you like them crisp or mushy!

Enjoy!!

A recipe for a cloudy day--Minestrone

Normally I think of minestrone as a recipe for August, when eggplant, tomatoes, and herbs are at their peak. However, this version makes use of mostly canned and dried ingredients, and still manages to capture a lot of that sunny garden feeling, making it perfect for rainy fall days like we've been having this week.

Don't you love the steam rising off the soup? Kudos to my new camera.

This recipe is very flexible, especially with the vegetables. My mom likes to add cabbage and potatoes to hers. What I like about this one is that the puree makes it quite thick, verging on vegetable stew. Although it looks long, it really doesn't take much time to put together. A lot of the cook time is simply simmering. Enjoy!

Minestrone
Moosewood Cookbook
6-8 servings
45-60 minutes

5 cloves crushed garlic
1 c chopped onion
3 T olive oil
2 t salt, divided
1 c minced celery
1 c cubed carrot
1 c cubed eggplant
1 t oregano
¼ t pepper
1 t basil
1 c chopped red pepper
3 c vegetable stock
1 lg can (20 oz?) tomato puree
14 oz can of kidney beans
3 T dry red wine
14 oz can chopped tomatoes
½ c small dry pasta such as shells
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a soup kettle, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.
2. Add 1 t salt, carrot, celery, and eggplant. Mix well. Add oregano, pepper, and basil. Cover and cook over low heat 5-8 minutes.
3. Add red pepper, stock, puree, beans, and wine. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes and remaining salt. At this point, you can simmer the soup as long as you like, or proceed to step 5.
5. Bring soup back to boil, add pasta, and boil gently until it is tender, about 7 minutes. Serve immediately, topped with copious amounts of Parmesan cheese.

You can substitute zucchini for the eggplant; just add it along with the red pepper (which can also be green pepper if you prefer). This soup freezes nicely—just don’t add the pasta to the portion of the soup you freeze. When you warm it up, you can add pasta or just eat it as is. If you put extra beans in, it will be plenty hardy. If you buy “real” Parmesan cheese and have a leftover rind, let it simmer in the soup. You can then gnaw on it at the table. Tasty!

Green cleaning

My adventures in green cleaning continue. I found another website with many great ideas of nontoxic substitutions for cleaners. My oven floor was a mess because of these great pizzas that we bake right on the rack--crispy crust, messy oven. I was pondering what to do--it's a self-cleaning oven, and all you do is set it up and it does the work, right? But then I remembered the last time Mom and I did this--it got so hot and smelly in the house I just couldn't stand it.

So I thought I'd try this. And turns out, it's even easier than the self-cleaning. All you do is remove the racks, sprinkle 1/2 inch of baking soda all over the bottom, spritz it with water, and go to bed. In the morning, scrape off the baking soda and junk with something like those great Pampered Chef scrapers and a sponge. No sweat, no smell! I'll never be afraid to clean my oven again.

Why I don't blog much

I haven't posted anything for months, and when I am in doubt about what to write I can always get introspective. I don't normally have a shortage of things to say, so why hasn't blogging really caught on with me? A few reasons:

1) I am proud and like to impress people when I write or speak, and I do both of these things a lot anyway between my job and work at church. Writing or speaking in public is not the easiest way for me to unwind.
2) I like targeting what I say to the specific audience. I don't enjoy offending people and when I post a blog I am always imagining the easiest-to-offend person out there reading it. Selective communication is also a way of presenting yourself differently to different groups of people, and not necessarily desirable.
3) I am long winded. Long blogs take a long time to write and people don't read them, and working to make things shorter feels like work and isn't fun.

So really all of it can be explained in terms of various character flaws. Of course I could probably sit down with an avid blogger and find other character flaws that lead them to blog. Score another one for total depravity.

My dishwasher

So this (and this) is what our kitchen looked like until just recently. Crowded and often full of dirty dishes. I was getting fed up and so we started looking into possibilities. We didn't really want to redo our whole kitchen since the floor and the appliances are new and the cabinets look pretty good. We checked on portable dishwashers--none available locally for purchase that would fit. Finally we found the Danby 18" portable online, and eventually found that we could have it shipped to Walmart. We don't normally shop there, but saving that much money on shipping, plus having some place we could bring it back to if necessary, was very attractive.

And now, so is our kitchen. See below.


We fit the dishwasher between the stove and the wall, where, not surprisingly, an old non-functioning portable dishwasher lived when Alex first moved in. I am mystified as to why we didn't replace it right away--I think I thought the baker's rack was more important. It is now across the room, next to the kitchen table (which is smaller than it was when we got married--no leaves now.) The move opened things up so much.



Here's the dishwasher. One reviewer called it "the easy bake oven" of dishwashers, and it is small, but we don't generate that many dishes. On average we run it every 2 days, unless I cook enchiladas. Then we ran it twice in one day! It gets the dishes way more sparkling clean than I ever could. But it does take almost 2 hours!


Here is Cleo's reaction--he was really freaked out the first night we ran it. He's used to it now.

All in all, a great early birthday present that will keep on giving. Thanks, Alex!

A simple fall recipe

One of the great delights of fall is squash. Personally, one of my strongest memories of squash is from the year our family went to Disneyland. We grew, then cooked and froze, then ate enough squash to save money to go to Disneyland. Or at least cover one of our tickets.

Anyway, this is my favorite way to do acorn squash.

Exact recipe--makes enough for 2 good-sized servings:
1. Take a small to medium-sized acorn squash.
2. Punch a hole in it.
3. Microwave it for 2 minutes.
4. Take it out and cut it in half.
5. Scoop out seeds.
6. In each half, put 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.
7. Put it back in the microwave for about 5 minutes (until soft).
8. Enjoy.

You can also do it in the oven. With ones shaped like this, I'm tempted to slice them into rings because they're so pretty, but this is just easy!

Easy coffee for one

(This one's for you, Anna!)

First, the history. I never used to drink caffeine at all because it has the potential to mess up the absorption rate of some medications I take. However, a couple years ago I was having great difficulty getting going in the morning, and my doctor said, well, I could prescribe a stimulant, or you could just drink a cup of coffee in the morning. Overjoyed, I chose the coffee--I've long loved decaf, and the flavor options are so much greater with caffeine.

But I hated how the coffee maker took up a good portion of my one work counter in the kitchen. Then my coffee-loving friend Jen DeBoest showed me the handy little contraption above. (She also gave me the mug.) You set the plastic thing on your mug, put in a regular filter (or a special-sized one if you like to spend money), and a large tablespoon of coffee grounds (I grind mine each week at the grocery store--perfect combination of freshness and convenience). Then you pour enough boiling water in to fill your cup (but not overflow it--that's really the only trick). We love it! ("We" because Alex actually makes the coffee--and the breakfast--every morning although he only drinks tea and coffee "socially.")

It's available locally at Cooks' Emporium for about $5. It comes from Holland, and if anyone is interested, I'm sure I could get more details on the name of it.

Uses for cooked chicken

If you've started making cooked chicken and stock on your own, you may have cooked chicken lying around (hopefully in your freezer). Here are some favorite uses:

1. Slather some bread with mayonaise and top with chicken; salt if you didn't use much salt when making the chicken, and make a great sandwich.

2. Chicken pot pie--I don't yet have a favorite recipe, being torn between ease of preparation and healthiness, but my sister-in-law gave me a super easy one that I'd share and Cooking Light has a great-looking healthy one.

3. Quesadillas--top tortillas with chicken, green chilies, and cheddar cheese, add another tortilla, and bake or toast in skillet.

4. Chicken soup--saute some chopped up carrots, celery, and onion, add the stock, add some noodles or rice and simmer until soft, add chicken, season as desired, and serve.

5. Chicken Tetrazinni--there are all kinds of versions of this that require baking, but I don't see the point. I boil some spaghetti, and meanwhile I make a white sauce with the stock (you can also use can of creamed chicken soup). Stir in some grated cheddar, a bit of dried parslely, a can of drained mushrooms, and some chicken. Use as sauce over the spaghetti.

I hope you all don't mind the lack of precision. These recipes are all quite forgiving, so figure out what works for you, and if you have a specfic question let me know!

The leaves that are green turn to brown

(A disclaimer--I copped this picture from the Internet b/c I wasn't sure I could actually catch leaves mid-fall using my camera.)

Every year, about this time, I sit in my recliner and watch the leaves fall to the ground, sometimes one by one, sometimes as a large group. And I always have the following thought: Each leaf will only fall once. For some reason, this surprises me every year. There seem to be so many coming down, but each one only makes one trip. Then I think about rain and snow and compare them, because I never think about the finitude of rain and snow (except when I'm comparing them to leaves). And really, each drop of rain and flake of snow only drops once, too, which then reminds me of how I also can't believe that each snowflake is unique.

I have always been fascinated by finitude, even from a very young age. In third grade, they showed us a filmstrip about how fossil fuels will run out someday. The urge to protect and preserve, for me, extends from fossil fuels, to teeth (I did finally throw away my baby teeth but I take meticulous care of the teeth in my mouth)!, to my hearing (I'm the one with flourescent orange earplugs at church), to clothes (I still wear a few things I bought in eighth grade), to food (I love batch cooking for freezing), to books. Recently I have started reminding myself that there will always be new books, magazines, recipes, etc., so I don't need to make sure I store enough now for the rest of my life!

There's got to be a balance between on the one hand, the grasshopper who scorns storing up for the winter, and on the other hand the rich man who builds bigger barns to store up for himself, only to be struck by God. What a challenge this is when I look around the house and think, "I need more bookcases, or organizers, or shelves for all this stuff..."

Lemon Proscuitto Pasta

I realized I've been posting mostly homey recipes, which are great, but I do make quite a few fancy recipes as well and thought I would share one today. I love the combination of flavors in this pasta dish. I think it could use a little fine-tuning in the amount and type of pasta and maybe the other ingredients, and serving size is subject to your taste, but overall it's a definite repeater. If you haven't ever used proscuitto, this is a great place to start. Have your butcher slice it really thin, then just slice it into strips. It tastes like fancy ham. So here's the recipe.

Lemon Prosciutto Pasta
from Midwest Living (they called it Tagliatelle ala Hudson)
4 servings
20 min

Lemon peel
2 T butter
12 oz fresh/dried noodles
1 cup whipping cream
¼ lb. thinly sliced prosciutto
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese—about 1 cup

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Soften the butter for 30 sec in the microwave in a small bowl.
3. Finely shred the lemon peel to get at least 1 T; combine it with the butter.
4. Cut the prosciutto into small strips.
5. Warm a large serving bowl with warm water.
6. Warm the whipping cream.
7. Boil the pasta at a rolling boil according to package directions.
8. You will probably have time to make a salad and set the table.
9. Drain pasta well when done; transfer to serving bowl.
10. Add lemon butter and cream; toss gently to coat. Add prosciutto.
11. Serve pasta sprinkled with about ¼ c freshly grated Parmesan per serving.


This is easy, tasty, and impressive. I think the cream would stick to the noodles better with fresh pasta. If you like meat, you may want to increase the amount of prosciutto.

A Funny One for all You Moms (and everyone who has a mom!)

Periodically Mark the Metropuritan (http://metropuritan.blogspot.com/) posts links to funny youtube videos and such. I can't remember if he posted this one or if someone just told Alex about it, but it's so hilarious I've been laughing about it for weeks. In this video, Anita Renfroe (a Christian comedien) takes everything a mom says in 24 hours, condenses it into less than 3 minutes, and sings it--to the William Tell overture. It's masterful. The link I've provided

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6P2w5GkXmU is the link to a version that has the lyrics printed as captions at the bottom of the screen, so you can catch every word. If that bugs you, there are many other versions available on youtube without the captions and they'll show up on the right side of your screen.



We watched a few of her other videos (just search Anita Renfroe--there's a Dad version of the song now too); they were pretty funny, too. Enjoy!

Salting the earth

(This post is an extension of the previous post.)

I should have known--if I have a question about most anything (especially historical, theological, and often scientific), I should ask my dad. I mentioned the salting the dirt thing to him, and he said, "Oh sure! That's what Rome did to Carthage in the Punic Wars!" Obviously. So, with that new information and detail, I was able to find the relevant wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth

It is interesting, though, that historians are unsure whether this particular incident really happened or not.

Also, my master gardener mother notes that if you put enough salt on your ground to kill weeds, you won't be able to grow anything else for a very long time, either. Dad noted that there must be some way to desalinate dirt because the Netherlands does it when they reclaim land from the sea, but we think this process may be beyond the reach of the average home gardener.

Random trivia--salt and snot

Lately I have been learning that there are many things I don't know yet. It's been surprising to learn things that everyone else thinks I know. One example is that salt, if poured in copious quantities on the ground, will kill weeds, their roots, and any other other plants. Apparently the Romans did this to the nations they conquered in order to render their fields unusable. My entire women's craft group was aware of this, as was my husband (no surprise there, really), but I had never heard of it. BTW, I haven't been able to externally verify this either.

Another quick fact--if your nose runs when you eat spicy food (mine does!), you experience gustatory rhinitis. Don't you love words?

Family Read-Alouds

A few favorite read-alouds for the whole family:

Ramona Quimby series and Ralph S. Mouse series by Beverly Cleary
Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pippi Longstocking and 2 sequels by Astrid Lindgren
Holes by Louis Sachar (for older kids)
Clementine and two sequels by Sara Pennypacker (shorter than most of these)
The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Please share your favorites!

If you're looking for more, I highly recommend _The Read-Aloud Handbook_ by Jim Trelease. There have been 6 or so editions; any one would be fine. He gives age recommendations, short descriptions of each book, and research on why reading aloud is so important. Your local library should have a copy. I'll also continue to post favorites as I think of them.

overheard at the library

I thought I'd occasionally share with you things I hear while working in the children's section in our public library.

Yesterday ...

"But Mom, it got all wet!"
"I know, but dear, we do not take our shirts off when we're in the library."

Trip to Benton Arboretum

My sister Kristin (yes, we both have sisters by that name) visited Ames from BC this summer. One fine summer's day, she, my mom, and I packed up the car and drove down to Adel. We spent a ton of time in a great little shop called The Atherton House. It was kind of a cross between The Octagon and Worldly Goods--basically they had art pieces for your home or gifts from all around the world. It's very well organized and the shopowners can tell you stories about all the artists and artisans who created the pieces. I definitely plan to go back for Christmas shopping--every piece is tasteful, interesting, and reasonably priced. Not cheap, but reasonable. Highly recommended.

We had lunch at Cafe in the Park, which required us to walk through the cemetary department and was housed in an old Parks and Rec building. The food was a cross between an Iowa church potluck (jello salad on the salad bar) and a women's club--we had croissants, quiche, and strawberry soup.

We also went to a great quilting shop (http://www.adelquilting.com/; cute little blog here http://www.adelquilting.blogspot.com/).

On the way home, we visited the Benton Arboretum and saw the sights above. Mom especially loved the Grant Wood-esque rolling hills. The statue is of St. Francis. And Kristin is examining what makes the tree so silver--its name plate was in Latin, so we don't know what it is. We hope to go back in the fall--I think it would be beautiful. There are driving and walking trails. (We decided to save Picket Fence Creamery and Prairieland Herbs for another day.) If you decide to go to the Arboretum, get a detailed map. Ours was not so detailed, but the lady in the post office was very helpful. We love small town Iowa!

A worthy successor to Ramona

Growing up, Beverly Cleary's books were the first chapter books I remember reading on my own. There must be over 20 of them, so I have many fond memories of heading into the school library and making a beeline for the C section, knowing I'd find a great read there. (This gives me some sympathy for my patrons who head straight for Magic Treehouse without deviating to anything else they might possibly like better--who wants to fool around with the unknown when the known suits you just fine?) Through the magic of Scholastic book orders, I eventually collected all the Ramona books (most in a great boxed set), and even now I reread them regularly, particularly when I get a nasty cold or flu. I believe that these books have influenced me profoundly--just a few weeks ago I read the part where Ramona is helping her aunt unwrap her wedding presents: when she gets to the amazingly fluffy towels, she thinks now these are towels worth marrying for. And now I know why I was determined to register for the softest, fluffiest towels!

Anyway, Beverly Cleary has stopped writing, so we've been watching for emerging, spunky young heroines. While Junie B. has her place, as a person she's not easy to like, and most people (including me) aren't crazy about her writing style either.

Enter Sara Pennypacker's Clementine. She has a little brother, a great mom and dad, and she lives in an apartment building in New York. Her books (three of them to date) are hilarious, and the comedy comes in large part from her unique perspective on the world. She can't figure out why the principal stares at the ceiling while Clementine tells her what's she's done to get in trouble--are there snakes up there? She writes notes to herself on her arm--reminders of things to do and not to do, both immediately and in the distant future (some pertain to the husband she is sure she will not have). She refuses to call her brother by his name, instead referring to him using various vegetable names (String bean! Spinach!). She figures since she got stuck with a fruit name, he should get stuck with a vegetable name. Many of her problems arise at school and with friends, and young readers should have no trouble identifying with her. It does have great drawings. Read them with your family, give them to your 2nd-3rd grader, read them yourself!

A well-loved cookbook

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman was the first cookbook I bought. I used a gift certificate I got for college graduation, went to Barnes and Noble, and picked it up. My copy is thus over 10 years old, so it doesn't have any of the stickers denoting the many awards it's won since its initial publication. I'm quite proud of the fact that I "discovered" it, and it has shaped my cooking immeasurably. You can see by the open book picture that I use it often, and I can't bring myself to buy a new one! There are still many many recipes I haven't made and many sections I haven't read yet--the long narrative introductions to each type of food are great and have expanded my food knowledge. Other great features: suggested menus for various occasions, an amazingly detailed index, and, for many recipes, a list of suggested alterations (like 8 different skillet pork chop recipes).

The bright green book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, is just as massive (They each have over 900 pages!). I received this one for Christmas, and I'm excitedly working through it. I would not have thought it possible to do a vegetarian book on this scale, but he covers all types of beans, rice, various grains, tofu and other soy products, and of course vegetables.

So, if you like lots of text, or playing around with a basic recipe, or just want to learn, I'd highly recommend these books. If you can only cook with pictures and want just one recipe per page, I'd recommend his The minimalist cooks at home, currently available in Anastasia's Picks at the public library.

The recipe book, so far

So, you may be wondering how the much-ballyhooed recipe book is coming along. I have succeeded in printing out main section tabs (see lower picture). I then discovered that some sections needed further subdivision if I was going to be able to find things, and so I bought these great Post-It tabs you see in the pictures. I wanted to be able to group like recipes together so when I go look for a pizza recipe, for example, I can look at all of them at one time. As you can see, the vegetarian/fish main dish section is a little out of control--or, to put it another way, under very tight control.

I spent much of my time watching the Olympics with scissors in hand, finally cutting recipes out of the dozens of Cooking Light magazines I've been hoarding for years. I had 9 May issues, all from different years (I only subscribed for 3; the rest were freebies at the library)! (Multiply that out by 12 months, and you can guess how many magazines were on my shelf. I have started to refer to them as my "little idols.") Hopefully I will get much more use out of them as a few recipes organized in a binder! And if you're living in Ames and want them, watch at the magazine exchange; I'm bringing them in bit by bit (or just let me know).