The Table

Anastasia and I were given money to go get a dining room table. We bought the table below. It was a great deal: on clearance, with both leaves in you could fit 10 people around it, without the leaves six. Anastasia liked the oak....


Then we got home and started measuring again. I had measured a day or two before we left and thought- that will be easy to remember. We realized that our not that large dining room now was going to have a huge oak slab dominating it and that walking sideways would soon become a matter of instinct. We called the furniture store back and they were nice enough to cancel the order for us since we had just placed it and nothing had been done to the table yet. We then started looking through digital pictures of the other tables we had seen and decided to go with this rather different one:

It seats 4-6 people and it actually fits quite nicely in our dining room- 6 inches narrower and three feet shorter. The lessons are- if you make a mistake, admit it right away and don't assume you will remember what seems easy to remember at the time.

Yellow cake--not as successful

This is what happens when you skip the step of lining your pans with parchment paper (I've heard b/w newsprint works too). I had even greased and floured them, to no avail. Maybe if I'd let them cool longer?

Anyway, this is the recipe I was making--the yellow cake recipe out of Pam Anderson's book The Perfect Recipes for Entertaining (I would highly recommend this book--available at your local library). I was drawn it by its promise of ease and versatility: fill it with raspberry and top with cream cheese frosting or fill with marmalade and glaze with chocolate, or simply top with fruit topping.

The first attempt, as shown above, resulted in a bunch of tasty crumbs and tidbits, so I whipped up some chocolate frosting and used my Pampered Chef decorator to put rosettes on them and everyone thought I did it on purpose. The second time I made it went much better, and I topped it with applesauce (see last week's post) and ice cream. I put the other layer in the freezer, and I'll be trying the raspberry version for Mom's birthday this weekend. I think it broke in transit to the freezer, but it will still taste good!

So the jury's still out on this recipe--it's relatively easy, but I still get hung up on exactly how long to beat at various steps in the recipe, and it's quite dense, but definitely buttery and tasty. I don't think it will be the only cake I will make for the rest of my life.

The one I really have my sights set on is this one, but just reading the recipe tires me out!

Red Velvet Birthday Cake

Recently a friend of mine celebrated a birthday, and I took the occasion as a chance to try out one of the many fabulous celebration cakes smitten kitchen has posted on her blog. (If you're wondering where I am when not posting on my blog, there's a good chance I'm reading hers.)

I chose to try my hand at Red Velvet Cake, as it seemed to have the best balance between being fun and birthday-like, while still being classy. The bottom line on this recipe: it was somewhat time-consuming, but a huge hit and it made my friend feel very special, so it was a good choice.

Now for the blow-by-blow. The recipe is a 3-layer cake, so I borrowed my mom's cake pans and was glad I did, because they have this little thing you run around the rim of the pan to get the layers out. I also lined the pans with parchment, per directions. (Post to follow where I did not follow these directions.) Getting ingredients was also interesting--cake flour was hard to find at Fareway, but the butcher was able to find it for me. I ended up going to Hyvee for the red food coloring, because it called for 3 oz (one of the largish bottles is 1 oz), and all you get at Fareway were those multipacks. I figured I'd have to buy like 20 multipacks to get enough. I did cut it down to 2 oz, and was satisfied with the result.

To explain the pictures, from top left, clockwise: The frosting is cream cheese frosting, and I made a double batch so as to be able to do a crumb coat, as seen here and explained here (you need to read this post if you want to do layer cakes!)--especially important with white frosting and red crumbs. The final coat was not perfect, but pretty close, as you can see in the third picture. The 2nd--well, my fingers got really red, as did pretty much everything in the kitchen. I was thankful for bleach for my towels, and I used paper towels to immediately wipe up the counter.

Decorating: I put a cookie cutter in the middle and sprinkled red sprinkles in the middle, spreading it around with a pastry brush. Then I tinted a bit of frosting and put dots all around the edge. Dots and circles are all the rage these days, for reasons I don't entirely understand.

The last two pictures are just to show how messy my counter got, and how I cleaned it all up in a matter of minutes thanks to my fabulous dishwasher. I love my new kitchen and its appliances!

Preserving fall's bounty

As we continue to live through the seasons' change, I continue to try to live out principles I was motivated by from reading Animal Vegetable Miracle this spring. I did some preserving of berries, zucchinni, tomatoes, and green beans this summer.

This fall I decided to concentrate on butternut squash and apples. When we were in MI for a cousin's wedding, we ran across some beautiful butternut squash for 18 cents a pound. Crazy, eh? I got 11 pounds for $2. That's about as cheap as food gets, and this food is good!

Easy squash recipe: Wash it. Prick it. Put it in a slow cooker whole (as seen in picture) with 1/2 inch of water. Cook on low until soft when pierced (4-7 hours). Remove; quarter lengthwise to cool. Scoop out flesh. Mash--add butter, ginger, salt, pepper, whatever--eat and then freeze the rest in freezer bags.

The applesauce is a little more time-consuming, but this is the easiest way I've found. Peel, core, and quarter the apples (I like to use my Pampered Chef cook's corer). Put in slow cooker. Shake cinnamon and sugar over them (I just guess on this, sorry!). Pour 1 cup or so apple juice or water over them. Cook on high until they're soft, about 2 hours. Mash, add sugar if needed.

I had visions of freezing a whole lot of applesauce too, but so far we've mostly fed it to guests. It goes great with ice cream (see picture) and/or yellow cake. I guess if we are using seasonal bounty to feed our guests that's a good thing too--it doesn't all have to be about preserving!

Purchasing notes: Fareway has 1/2 peck white tote bags of cooking and eating apples from Deals Orchard in Jefferson for 89 cents a pound, so that's a great convenient way to eat local and in-season! We've enjoyed the Fujis (may be done now), Red Delicious, and Jonathans.

New Auditorium!!

ps--for those of you who are curious about Cornerstone's recent building addition, click here (you'll also get a couple of cute kid pictures). Then come visit on Saturday afternoon for the Harvest Festival/Open House! (Details here.)

goodreads

We took a blogger vacation for about a week because we thought it had a virus--not entirely sure if it's cleared up, but we're giving it a shot.

I wanted to point out a new feature on our blog. If you look on the right hand side, underneath the list of recent posts, you should see some small book cover pictures. These are books I've read recently, most of them young adult books, and if you click on a book, you should be linked to my rating and whatever review I have posted of it.

Hopefully this will be a way for you readers to keep up with my reading if you're curious--and I've really been enjoying using goodreads as a way to organize books I've read, am reading, and want to read. I love being able to see the covers!

predicting the future

One definition of stupid is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Normally the way we predict what is going to happen in the future is by looking at the past. And it works pretty well. If I had to guess, the American League will win the All-Star game next year too, just like they have won the last dozen or so in a row. Were I into gambling and someone gave me that bet straight up, I would take it despite being a National League guy. But the thing is streaks eventually end. I remember a long time ago hearing about how the United States had won the "America's Cup" yahting race for alike a 100+ years in a row. And then some guys in New Zealand built some crazy boat that Dennis Conner still thinks was illegal and they win. I just looked it up and the US has not won the last four times.

I have been thinking about this as I have been listening to statistics like "inflation has averaged such and such over the last 20 years" or "The Stock Market has averaged such and such over the last 70 years." On the one hand, past track records are about the best thing we have to go on for predicting the future, but on the other streaks end. I like to think of someone in Augustine's day saying "The Roman Empire will not fall apart. People have been saying that it will happen for centuries and it never does." But of course it did. Or like assuming that the world will always go on like it has been going on for thousands of years. The reality is that there are unique events (the beginning of the universe for example). Empires rise and fall. We need to have the humility remember that all of our preditions are only predictions, not guarantees, and that the only solid guarantee is that eventually the streak will end.

too many stars

I have lots of theories. One of my theories about movies is that too many big name stars in the same movie is often a recipe for a disappointing movie. Big stars don't normally like bit parts and so you end up with movies where they try to gives serious time to 6-12 characters and you end up not really very connected with any of the characters. It is the same problem we still have when we put our olympic basketball teams together. Guys normally become big stars because they are good at scoring, but there is only one basketball to go around. The team needs to play (and even start) some guys who are really ok with not scoring a lot of points but who can play defense, rebound, and knock down an open shot if the person gaurding him tries to double team Lebron James. Three cheers for role players.

updates

Well, we've been away from the blog for a while. We've been clearing brush and pulling invasive plants out of our new backyard, organizing our new house, etc. etc. I've also been reading a lot of YA books (posting reviews on goodreads.com under username atuckness--I'd love to be your friend there!) and reading a few cooking blogs and trying out their recipes. I'll post some links to them in the next little while.

Here's a few pictures of things I've been making. I can't figure out how to get blogger to insert the pictures after the text, so sorry this is kind of out of order. Feel free to ask for specific instructions for any recipe you're curious about!

At the top is a photo of my efforts to preserve summer tomato loveliness. I used a friend's dehydrator and followed a recipe from the web; I was inspired by Animal Vegetable Miracle to try this. I used cute little plum tomatoes; it took forever to seed them (which I did so they'd dry faster)--if I do it next year I won't seed them. I froze them; later I'll throw them in olive oil and herbs and they should be just like the ones you buy in jars.

Next is a photo of a dinner that looks better than it tasted. I tried a seasoning mix for the rice and it was too salty; the fish was tough for some reason as well. The salad was great, and the sauce on the fish was okay.

We do enjoy a little bacon sometimes, as the next photo shows. I buy a package, split it into 4 bags, and freeze it so we just eat a little at a time. It adds nice flavor to bean recipes and is of course great with fried eggs and fried potatoes. A word to the wise--yukon golds make better fried potatoes than russets!

And last is a blueberry brie quesadilla from August--the original recipe was much more complicated, but it's delicious just as is--blueberries, brie, and a flour tortilla toasted on the stove.

Happy fall!

Summer's Bounty

Even though we've been really busy with the house, I've taken a bit of time out to enjoy summer's bounty. While my mom was on vacation, I took care of her garden, and that basket was one day's harvest (including 8 summer squash!).

Reading Animal Vegetable Miracle inspired me to try a new recipe: Disappearing Zuchinni Orzo. It was tasty, cheap, and pretty simple, although it did require shredding zuchinni, sauteing it, and boiling pasta so it made a lot of dishes. It looks pretty next to the cherries, which are in season but not local (to use criteria from the book).

The book also inspired me to "put up" some vegetables for the winter months. I'm not yet up for canning, so I shredded and froze 14 cups of zuchinni/summer squash to use in soups, quesadillas, casseroles, quick bread, even cake and cookies. Or maybe it was 28 cups (14 2-cup packets), now that I think of it.

The next week I went to the Farmers Market and an older gentleman farmer was selling beautiful green beans at bulk discounts. I got over 6 pounds for $7, and spent a couple hours snapping and blanching them. (Alex helped with the snapping.)

I'm excited to have local veggies in our freezer this year!

Work and Play at the New House

A few shots of our new home (more to come later I promise!): We spent lots and lots of time painting the main floor--all white trim, plus a blue/green/gray color and chocolate brown color most of the rest of the main floor. Alex has also spent lots of time doing various handyman activities like assembling bar stools.

We both much prefer cooking in our new kitchen. The griddle plate in our stove allows Alex to shine as Pancake Master, and the dishwasher and deep sink make cleanup a snap for us. We both love the bar--eating at it, prepping food, talking, checking email on the laptop....

Things are shaping up pretty well around here!

praising to the end

We visited my family in Missouri this weekend. On Friday we went to visit my grandparents. They have led more people to Christ in a year than I will likely ever lead in my life. I asked my grandfather last year how many people he thought God had allowed him to lead to Christ and he said "I don't know, I don't keep count. I have records so I could go back and try to figure it out. I know it picked up when I turned 80 to about one a week." He is trying to stay retired right now at the age of 85 (I think) so that he can care for my grandmother who has Alzheimer's. She has been a wonderful woman of God for many years. It is hard now when she is often confused, she can never remember my name, or even recognize numbers, and she needs constant supervision, but it is also a joy that some elements of her personality are still there. She is still loving and thankful, and God has spared the part of her mind that learned all the hymns she has sung for the last 50 years. At church Sunday morning it was great to watch her singing the hymns without needing to look at the words. She can still praise. Both of them, to the very end, are oriented toward the kingdom of God. That is what I hope Anastasia and I can be if God gives us long lives on this earth. Anastasia has wonderful grandparents too. We are unusually blessed in the spiritual heritage we have.

eating

Anastasia often blogs about her cooking experiences on this blog, so I thought I should say a little bit about my eating experiences. Last week Anastasia made a cheesecake. It was great. It was the best looking one she has made yet. Part of what made it fun to eat is knowing that making desserts is not really Anastasia's favorite thing. Contrary to gender stereotypes, she would rather have potato chips and I would rather have chocolate. Anastasia does a good job of putting thought into making sure most of what we eat is healthy and then sometimes making things that have no other purpose in life but to taste really good. I have a good gig going.

everyday dinners

Sometimes people ask me if I cook from scratch all the time. The basic answer is no, because we do eat some processed food, and we eat leftovers quite often as well (that's why I especially love food that freezes).

Often we end up eating food like the meals pictured above: it comes together quickly but is made of primarily fresh ingredients. So even though they aren't elaborate meals, they have the benefits of from-scratch.

The details, starting top left and going clockwise:

1. Baked tilapia (topped with a little mayo, herbs, breadcrumbs, and parmesan), baked potato, fresh raspberries and salad.

2. Super tuna salad on cocktail rye--mayo, celery, olives, dill

3. From scratch pancakes and syrup, lightly scrambled eggs

4. Egg frittata with roasted peppers, olives, and feta cheese; toast with homemade rhubarb jam

5. Baked tilapia marinated in teriyaki sauce (Alex's favorite), baked potato, stirfry veggies

6. Overeasy eggs, fried potatoes and onions, frozen green beans

7. Baked chicken, noodles baked with water and a chicken bouillon mix I found in a magazine, fresh peas from Mom's garden

8. DiGiorno pizza, roasted asparagus from the farmer's market (my favorite juxtaposition!)

9. Sausage and greens soup (greens from Mom's garden), vegetable oven pancake with broccolli from the farmer's market, strawberries from the farmer's market. (This was the most time-consuming meal, but we had the soup the day before as well, and it was all so delicious!)

Share your favorite everyday dinner!

know what you are bad at

One of my mottoes since back when I was in college is that a big part of life is knowing what you are bad at. In my cases it is a little easier because I tend toward extremes and tend to be either good or bad at things and rarely average. I let my sisters have a veto over my wardrobe back then (my wife has one too now- she has recently relented and let me occasionally wear the infamous Hawaiian shirt since the cruise). We sometimes talk about how we need to improve on our weaknesses, but I think there is a distinction. Sometimes by a "weakness" we mean a "character flaw" by which we should mean "sin." Using "that is just how I am" as an excuse to be lazy or selfish or careless (just to choose some not so random hypotheticals) is wrong. I am talking more about what our skills and talents are. As we have been moving and getting our house ready I have been forced into a world where I am consistently below average in my abilities (painting, moving dishwashers, etc.). One of the great blessings has been how many people have helped. They haven't just saved us time, they have done things better than they would have been done if I had tried to do them. Truly a blessing.

A trip to the Gardens

Alex and I took a trip to Reiman Gardens a couple weeks ago. I took advantage of digital pictures being free and took 65 pictures in 50 minutes--probably a record for me.

Here are some of the best ones. We enjoyed the roses, the dinosaurs, and the butterflies. I have the shot with all the red roses as my wallpaper and it's lovely! I'm quite proud of the photo. I also tried using the macro settings with single flowers and butterflies, with mixed results. The single rose next to the picture of me really is meant to be gray. The picture I could not get to turn out was of a butterfly with a fluorescent green stripe--no matter what settings I tried, the color wasn't true. I guess you need an expensive camera for some things!

Diamonds

I have a list of movies that are in the category "won't be particularly pleasant to watch, but would probably be good for me." Last weekend I decided to watch one of the movies on the list- Blood Diamond. It came out a few years ago and presents a very violent depiction of African civil war and the way diamond smuggling makes it worse. The real issue isn't actually diamonds- it is greed. The same horrors of civil war: villages burned, people killed and maimed, children being forced to become soldiers, masses of people living in refugee camps in terrible conditions... all of these also happen in places where there are few resources as well. I think one thing I took away from it was a needed reminder about how much injustice there is in the world and how often I insulate myself from thinking about it.

It also made me think about wedding rings. I actually anguished for a while about whether to buy anastasia a diamond engagement ring. Partly because of the shady side of the diamond industry but mostly because of questions about money. What if we both just got gold bands and used the rest to help people in Africa get clean drinking water? I decided to go the traditional route. I didn't want my wife to have to engage in social commentary everytime everyone asked about the ring for the rest of her life. I decided rather than flouting social conventions in that way, the real issue is how we use the money that God brings our way over the course of a lifetime. Put another way, I realized that generosity toward the world doesn't always have to come at the expense of generosity toward my wife.

Political Hamburger Helper

The idea of hamburger helper is that something valuable (meat) is in short supply (at least for the price) and so you can cook up a meal to stretch the meat you have farther. That is basically the theory behind most of our political and economic system. General concern for the public good is in short supply, but self-interest is plentiful. So lets set up a political system where politicians pursuing their self-interested desire for reelection will have to make us happy to maintain power. Let's set up an economic system where everyone can just look out for their own family and the magic invisible hands of supply and demand will take care of the rest.

That's the theory. The problem is it can't work for ever. Selfishness is a vice. The thing about both virtues and vices is that they are not constant. Exercising a virtue tends to cause you to become more virtuous not less, and indulging a vice makes you more likely to act from the same vice in the future. Do you really think we all have 1000 self-control units to use however we wish each month? People who practice self-control find it easier to be self-controlled the next time and people who indulge their desires find it harder. So if you set up systems that encourage people to be selfish, then eventually ....

Food from the cruise

top row: Grand Marnier infused sponge cake; meringue with strawberries; shrimp cocktail

middle row: brie tart with arugala; chicken marsala; lamb shank

bottom row: jumbo prawns; tiramisu; lobster tail and shrimp

These were the best-looking food items our group had during the week of our cruise. The visual feast was almost as good as the gustatory feast!

Confession

Ok here is is. Anastasia and I like watching movies and TV. You work really hard to cultivate an image of people who just read books all the time, you only have a 13 inch TV in the basement, and then you sit down and ask yourself what your wife likes to do to relax and how you have been spending date nights and the moment of self-realization hits. In my case it is not exactly a new revelation. Put me in a room with a TV and I will tend to look at it. I watched a LOT of TV growing up, and still have a good recall of sitcom plots from the 1980's and the world of sports from about 1984-1999. 1999 would be when I moved to Ames and decided to ditch the TV to break the addiction. I think that over the past 10 years God has helped "heal the relationship" so to speak so that I can watch it some without it being what I think about or orient my life around. I really should count myself blessed that my wife's way of relaxing is something that comes naturally to me as well.

Oh, so that's why I'm so full!

A couple weeks ago we had a burger grillout at our place. I stopped at the Fareway meat counter after aerobics to pick up the meat so it would be as fresh as possible. (At that point I was NOT as fresh as possible!)

My decision-making process went like this:

Fact 1: Neither Alex nor I is confident or excited about shaping patties, so I should get pre-formed ones.

Fact 2: Ones from the meat counter should be better than frozen, bagged ones.

Fact 3: Alex likes us to have more than one burger per person, so the men in particular can feel well-fed.

Fact 4: I don't mind leftovers.

Therefore, I asked the meat woman (yes, they do have one woman employee back there) for 16 patties (12 people were expected). The price seemed a bit excessive, but I don't like questioning things and sometimes better meat costs more, so I went on my way. The package was huge--I rested it on my forearm like one might do with a newborn, garnering comments from fellow shoppers.

Alex fired up the grill, and they took a while to cook. Then we each ate one--they were really good, but no one went for seconds. I was a little confused, but we did have some side dishes.

It was only an hour later, when I was still really really full, that I started calculating in my head the relationship between the price per pound of the meat, the number of patties we had, and the total price I had paid.

Turns out we served everyone 1/2 pound burgers.

I'm a little mortified, as one who claims to be a meat minimizer.

And I can't believe I ate the whole thing! :)

Random?

We packed up most of our books to get our house ready to put on the market, and the ones left over ended up arranged primarily by height. One day I was looking at the book shelf and noticed this particular shelf at eye level. Some are borrowed (you can ask for your book back if you are reading this), some are blue. And some we bought, but it gives a pretty good sense of the things we read, excluding what we read for work. I particularly like the old book of Letterman top ten lists next to a collection of writings by Jonathan Edwards, who likely would not have found it very funny himself. I also like the harmony of Simon and Garfunkel next to a harmony of the Gospels. It would be far less amusing if we had planned it.

The night of seven desserts

One way that Anastasia and I break with gender stereotypes is that she is far more into chips and fries and I am far more into dessert. I learned in logic class that strictly speaking if someone says "pie or cake" the word "both" is one of the possible correct responses. Rarely does anyone say "pie XOR cake" or "pie exclusive or cake." I take advantage of this. On the cruise, it is all you can eat, and on the last day it was about 4:30 and I decided I wanted an ice cream cone. So began what became known as the night of the seven desserts. At dinner a couple of hours later, I ordered a dessert that was actually a combination of three different desserts (pictured above). And then I also ordered a second dessert. I figured I had not ordered more than one of each type item at dinner all week so I could splurge a little. Our friends had also told the staff that it was our anniversary and they brought us a chocolate berry cake just before the dessert I had ordered. Then Anastasia couldn't finish her own dessert so I ate most of that. Hence the night of the seven desserts. That also doesn't count the cake I had at 10 in the morning that they were passing out after a cooking demonstration (left). That night I actually got a little shaky as we were saying goodbye to everyone from the sugar overload, indicating that I have now officially figured out my limit. Seven is enough.

Supper series

I'm going to start a new series of posts where I show you what we had for dinner and a general description of it. In my opinion, recipes are all fine and dandy, but there are many times I go into the kitchen and just rummage for a meal. I'm always curious to know what other people do in these situations, so maybe someone else will find this interesting, too.

The meal pictured above was intended to be Chicken Peanut Stirfry Noodles. I bought tofu instead of chicken, because it lasts longer in the fridge. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to pan fry it without leaving all the crunchy brown bits (i.e. the best bits) in the pan!

The veggies were a small container of the fresh stirfry veggies available at Fareway. Unfortunately, half of them were rotten by the time I opened the pack, and almost all the rest were potatoes. Stirfry? Potatoes? I sliced them really thin and they came out great--crispy--I'll do them again. The rest of the veggies were okay--the asparagus was great.

I bought a bottle of sauce at Wheatsfield. I love peanut sauce, but don't care to make it. I ended up buying a Ginger Peanut sauce--it's good, but it's mostly ginger.

And then I threw in some cooked bacon we had leftover from super spuds. And that was our meal. Alex liked it okay, but I don't think that particular combination of ingredients will ever show up in our fridge again, nor will I try to make it happen!

three more years

All of the yard signs, radio commercials, and ringing doorbells paid off this weekend as I was voted back on to the council of elders at Cornerstone this weekend. Actually one of the things I really like about Cornerstone is how unlike the normal policial process our leadership selection is. There are some churches where "name recognition" is actually one of the best predictors of who will end up serving in leadership. At Cornerstone people are asked to serve as elders based on evidence of fruitful and faithful service in other capacities in the church and in meeting the Biblical qualifications for being an elder. In politics you get more responsibility by relentless self-promotion. In the church, it ought to come from humble service. Whenever I think about that I end up feeling challenged. Academia is a lot like politics in terms of the culture of self-promotion and I think pride is one of the sins I struggle with most. When I think about how Jesus, king of the universe, washed feet and spent his time with tax collectors and fisherman I realize how far I have to go to have the same kind of humble, servant love that Jesus had.

First pictures of the cruise

Here are a few pictures from our recent cruise. They're the best ones that actually have us in them, which I've noticed is really what other people want to see when they're looking at vacation pictures. Therefore, I will not likely post the 12 pictures of mayan temples, 24 pictures of faraway animals on our river trip, or 20 pictures of sunsets. The next post will probably be 12 pictures of beautiful food, though! :)

Pictures of moving chaos

The above pix are after we painted our basement. Blogger isn't cooperating, so I apologize for the order and sideways-ness.

Here's a picture of our basement before we painted it.

More chaos here. In the top picture you can see our cat enjoying a sunbeam amidst the chaos. At that stage we were getting ready for our "garage giveaway", which you can see in the bottom left picture. We got rid of a lot of stuff just by setting it in our driveway and posting a Free sign. I also advertised on Freecycle.

On the bottom right, you can see Alex reading in our kitchen. We got the carpets cleaned, so everything (except beds) had to be moved into the kitchen and upstairs bathroom. What a pain that was, but the carpets look great.

That, along with packing and cleaning, has been our life for the last month!

Moving Time

So as Anastasia mentioned in a previous post, we are moving to a new location in Ames. The whole bit about "location, location, location" is actually true for us, despite the fact that you can get to the middle of town from anywhere in Ames in about 10 minutes. Out new location on clark will mean that Anastasia can walk to work in about 15 minutes and I can walk there in about 30, which was about how long it took to ride the bus sometimes from where we live now.

Of course the complication is that we have to actually get our house ready to sell, and this does not exactly play to our strengths. I dislike home improvement projects because I tend to mess things up or at least think I am about to even when I don't, meaning the process itself is not very enjoyable. I like to think I learned this attitude from my father, who although being better at fixing things than I am dislikes doing it at least as much as I do. Both of us are also by nature packrats, saving things if we think someday it is possible we mightly possibly need something. I think I am starting to turn a corner though and getting excited about decumulating. My research at ISU, which I have been enjoying anyway lately, becomes even more interesting when there are home projects to work on.

Delicious!

So, this is not the most attractive food picture I've ever taken (nor is it the healthiest food we've ever eaten), but it was very tasty.

It's Nacho Spuds from Rachael Ray's website, and it combines two of my very favorite foods--potatoes and nachos.

If you're curious to know which other web-based recipes I've tried and have bookmarked to try at a future date, check out my delicious account.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site--users can save their bookmarks on their computer, and then they are accessible to anyone from any computer (you can also choose to "hide" some bookmarks you don't care to share). One of the main advantages is that you can "tag" (label) bookmarks to help you find them back, without having to put them in a hierarchy of folders.

For example, if you look at my top ten tags on the right side of my account, you can start browsing by clicking "recipe", then "main", then "meat" if you want to find the above recipe. Or if you simply want to see all the dessert recipes, you can start by clicking "dessert."

I also look at other things on the web--you'll find cleaning hints, book reviews, and other sites of interest. If you only see the "Top Ten Tags" when you first click over there, you need to click on the little triangle next to "All Tags" to open up the list of over 50 tags that I use.

Enjoy the browsing--I'd love to hear what your favorite sites are--let me know if you sign up for delicious!

And hopefully it will give you some recipes to browse for a while, as we are going to basically do a cooking ban here in a couple weeks once we start showing the house. We'll see how that goes.

Signs of Spring in Iowa

That's right, the beautiful, and the not-so-beautiful--they all show up here around the same time. It takes until mid-to-late March for the crocuses to show up here, and this year that was also the time all the snow was finally gone. Leaving us to ponder all the trash (mostly plastic grocery bags) that was buried under the snow all year!

A big shout-out to all those who participated in Stash the Trash this year (the day after these pictures were taken). Thank you!!

In other news, we've purchased a house! It's in the downtown area, closer to where both of us work, go to the gym, get groceries, etc. We're very excited. Shoot us an email if you want to know more! Our blogging may be more erratic for a while as we try hard to get our current house packed up and ready to sell, so forgive us.

What I Saw and Year of Wonders

These books really have nothing in common except that I read them at the same time. For conventional reviews with plot summaries, click here for What I Saw and here for Year of Wonders. I don't do much summary in my reviews because personally I like to know very little of the plot when I start reading. Most of the time it serves me well. With Jellicoe Road, not so much. I should've made a character map with that one.

What I Saw is a period piece; it's set in Florida post WWII. The setting is vivid, as are the characters. Most of the action takes place in a short piece of the book, but it's a good read if you like girl-coming-of-age in an interesting situation, and the building up and working out of the climactic scenes are well done. Subject matter appropriate for teens who can deal with mature themes--nothing is explicit, but much is implied.

Year of Wonders is a truly great book. Brooks is a great author, with many interesting titles to her name. This one is pure historical fiction set in a small village England in 1666, one of the worst years of the Plague. The main character is strong and interesting, observing everything that happens around her (and a lot happens) and considering what these events say about God, religion, science, and all of human nature. I highly recommend this book. It was my pick for book group this year, and I am pleased with how it went.

(For previous book review entries, click "book review" on the list of topics to the right.)

am I a parent? am I a library?

The obvious answer to these questions is, "no." No, I have no children sleeping under my roof for whom I am directly responsible. No, I am not a large brick building full of books and DVDs and rambunctious children.

However, in a very real sense I have come to accept that I am both a parent and a library.

This question first presented itself almost 10 years ago, when I was working at VBS as a recent college grad. A child said something about me being a parent, and when I protested, she said, "Yes you are. There are only two kinds of people in the world, children and parents, and you're a parent."

News to me, let me tell you!

More recently part of my job at the library has involved me doing monthly visits to area daycares and preschools. I bring library materials and do a storytime. Many of the children I see on these visits call me, "Library," as in, "Library, I really liked that book. Can you bring it again next time? Library, when are you going to bring your big blue dog again?"

It's puzzling and gratifying at the same time to be equated with the entirety of what the word "library" entails. (Then again, maybe they just can't say my name. :-) ) Really, I think what happens is their teacher says, "The library's coming today! ... The library's here! Pick up your toys and get ready for her!" So, it makes sense to me, and I'm getting used to it.

Parent, though, is harder to figure out. This week at D6 it came up again. Our small group of kindergarteners was chatting about handstands and cartwheels. I commented that I can't do a cartwheel, and one young girl said calmly and matter-of-factly, "That's because you're a parent." This time I didn't argue, merely said, "Well, even when I was a kid the best I could manage was a tripod" and the conversation moved on.

What I've learned is that, for a certain number of children, I function as a (very) part-time parent. Although society doesn't usually talk in those terms, these children made it very clear that they consider any adults that care for them to be a type of parent.

And for many more children, I am the main (or only) face of the library.

Even more sobering, to many people of this world, I am the face of Christ. Are we living up to all that we represent every day?

Chocolate orange cheesecake

For previous thoughts on presentation of cheesecakes, see this post. It turned out great for my book group as well--they all loved it, and in fact a couple people thought it was from The Cafe!

Orange Chocolate Cheesecake
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
12 servings
45 min prep; 45 min bake; 1+4 hours chill

24 Oreo cookies
2 T melted butter
3 8-oz pkg. 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 c sugar
2 T flour
4 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 ½ t. finely grated orange peel
1 c miniature chocolate chips
1/3 c orange marmalade

1. Soften the cream cheese by setting it out and cutting each block into 10 cubes. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Crush the cookies with a rolling pin or in the food processor. Stir in the butter. Press up the sides and across the bottom of a 9” springform pan. Bake 10 minutes. Set aside to cool somewhat; turn oven up to 350.
3. In a large mixing bowl, using electric mixer, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds.
4. Add sugar and flour; beat well.
5. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in orange peel and chocolate chips.
6. Pour into crust. Place in a rimmed baking sheet. Bake 45-50 minutes until center 2” are nearly set.
7. Turn off oven and open door for about 30 minutes. Place cake on rack; loosen sides of pan.
8. After about 1 hour of cooling, cover and chill for at least 4 hours.
9. To serve, melt marmalade and drizzle over cheesecake. Tuck one square of chocolate into each slice. Optionally, drizzle chocolate sauce over cheesecake as well.

Turtle Cheesecake option

1. Instead of orange peel step: Melt 2 oz semi-sweet choc—stir into half the filling. Pour choc filling into springform pan. Carefully pour plain filling on top. Gently swirl w/spatula.
2. Place in shallow baking pan in oven at 375 for 45-50 min (9” pan). Center should appear nearly set when shaken.
3. Cool in pan on rack for 15 min. Loosen crust from sides using small spatula. Cool 30 minutes. Remove sides, cool 1 hour. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.
4. Decorate with chopped toasted pecans, stripes of chocolate and caramel, and mini chocolate chips.

Seeing the future

In our connection group we talked about Jesus' series of parables in Matthew 13 and noticed how time is crucial in each one of them. Before there are various seeds, after you see which ones produce fruit. Now you see the weeds and the wheat together, later they will be separated. Now you see a small mustard seed but later you will see a huge plant. Now you see a tiny bit of yeast, later there will be a huge amount of bread. First a man had a few things of little value, and then he traded then for a treasure (or pearl) of far greater value. In each parable wisdom consists in the ability to see something and then imagine what it will some day be. God can do this as a matter of course. Whenever God looks at anything he can see its entire future. Wisdom is learning to see the world the way God sees it and one of our biggest barriers is we don't see the future value of the treasure and the way a small seed can some day be something magnificent.

not me! Monday

I wanted to do another Not Me! Monday post. (To read hundreds of other Not Me! Mondays, head over to Mckmama at My Charming Kids, who created this blog carnival originally. Hers are hilarious and involve many more pictures of cute kids than mine do!)

But today is Staff Day at the library, and this is all I could come up with.

I did NOT eat hundreds of calories' worth of snacks today in an effort to stay focused while being seated for much much longer than my job normally requires.

My mind did NOT wander during the presentations.

Nope, that's NOT that exciting. So I thought I'd give you the rundown on last Friday.

I did NOT leave my warm home and sweet husband in the late afternoon just to go out to my step aerobics class.

It was NOT snowing harder than it had in a long time.

Before I left, I did NOT subtly suggest that perhaps someone could shovel the driveway and scrape the car. Alex did NOT promptly proceed to do these things.

While I was gone, he did NOT start dinner and do the laundry.

While I was driving in, I did NOT almost skid out in my car. I did NOT think, Why in the world am I doing this??

While at aerobics class, I did NOT fall over. It was NOT during the easiest move of the night--shuffle side to side.

After returning home and finishing up supper in the same pan I had previously made grilled cheese and toasted nuts (separately) in, I did NOT drop Alex's entire portion of eggs 'n' noodles on the floor.

He did NOT pick it up and eat it. (I did NOT wash the floor that morning.)

After dinner, I did NOT find a container of homemade Chex mix that's leftover from Christmas. Yuck.

I am NOT still postponing proofreading Alex's paper. Nope, not me! :-)

Cheesecake presentation

I made this cheesecake a couple of weeks ago--partly as a practice run for my upcoming book group, partly as the snack for our connection group. Here are some thoughts from the experience.

1. Presentation makes a difference. I had individual slices on plates when the guys in our group came in, and they got so excited--"Is that for us? Did you make it? Wow!" I got the idea for the candy pieces while standing in line at Coldstone once. The reason their ice cream cakes look so fetching is because they stick a small cookie or candy at the end of each piece. I can do that!
2. Don't worry about cracks. All (2) of the cheesecakes I've made have cracked, even though I've meticulously followed the cooling instructions. Honestly, these days people are more impressed with flawed baked goods b/c they know they're homemade.
3. A sauce covers a multitude of wrongs. I learned this from Jen DB--Alex has repeatedly said to me, for years now, "Jen makes great cheesecake--maybe you could learn from her!" Well, we never got around to it, but she gave me some tips and I started making them anyway because I realized it was important to Alex. Anyway, this sauce is just melted apricot preserves. I have also used caramel and chocolate sauces.
4. Jen's other tip--it's okay to mix and match recipes. I like an oreo crust, so that's what I use (crush 20 cookies in a food processor, add 1 T melted butter, press into pan). For the filling I use a standard recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, similar to this one except simpler, I think (I'll post it when I get it typed up). Then I pick a topping.
5. You do need to let it cool for quite a long time--start at least 12 hours before you want to eat it.
Enjoy!

Cheesy Potato Soup--edited

(A faithful reader pointed out to me that this post was incomplete. Since it is my favorite recipe, I thought I'd complete it and repost it. Hope you like it!)

I would pick this as my very favorite recipe—I usually have all the ingredients on hand, it's simple, cheap, tasty, and freezes well.

Cheesy Potato Carrot Soup

from Anastasia Tuckness

4 servings

1 cup chopped onion (usually one onion)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2-1 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Heat the oil over medium heat. Saute onions 5 min. Add potatoes, carrots, and broth--make sure there's enough liquid to cover the vegetables. Simmer at least 15-20 minutes, until all vegetables are very soft. Add cheese and milk. At this point, either a) blend with a special hand immersion blender or b) pour 1/3-1/2 of the soup into a blender and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Blend the soup in batches--it's important that the soup not be hot and that the blender be half full or less or the top of it will blow off. Add salt and pepper to taste at the table.

If you like your soup thick, reduce the amount of liquid. You can also add pureed squash at the end, or sliced parsnips with the vegetables at the beginning. This soup freezes well and is well-liked by almost everyone. If you like a more earthy flavor, leave the peels on the vegetables. I eat this soup both hot and cold.

Dirt

I have been working on getting stains out of our carpet and it reminded me of an experience a few years ago where I let a vacuum salesman come into our home because he said he could remove any stain and would do it for free. We have a pretty bad one at the top of our stairs that thus far has been invincible. So he did this demonstration showing us how much dirt our vacuum wasn't getting up and then wanted us to pay a very large sum of money that day to buy a new vacuum. I informed him that we don't spend that kind of money without taking time to think about it. He insisted this was our only chance to live a clean, dirt free life. When I kept saying no he then called his boss to report. The boss apparently told him to ask us if we realized how much dirt we would be living with. I then informed him that in much of the world living with dirt is a normal part of human life and that, yes, we were fine with dirt. At that point he informed his boss that we were ok with dirt and gave up. He didn't get the stain out, though I am not sure if it was because he couldn't or because he wanted to honor our preference for dirt.

Saving money on groceries

So, I've thought a lot about how to save money on groceries over the years, and particularly by following my mom's example. But I never got around to writing it out to share. Paige over at Team VanVoorst had a great post recently listing out the basics. I highly recommend checking it out, although I must admit I'm not as disciplined as she is--I just don't have the time right now. Let me know if you have other favorite tips.

Homemade toys

Here are a few of the homemade toys I showcased at my presentation a couple weeks ago. On the top left we have an oatmeal box covered in sparkly wrapping paper. They recommended contact paper, but this was sparklier. I suspect contact paper would be hardier. It can be used as a roll toy, a drum (with hands or wooden spoons), or you can cut a circle in the lid and drop clothespins in.

The top right is a roll toy made of an empty, dried out water bottle (you can also use 2-liter bottles). You can fill them with pretty much anything that looks or sounds interesting--pasta, beans, bells, foamie shapes, tissue paper squares. We have so much random stuff in the cupboards at the library that this one was a lot of fun with not much work and zero money. Secure the top with packing tape, duct tape, or super glue. You can also fill bottles with sand and little animals and whatsits for older kids to find--we call them I Spy bottles.

Bottom left are the vinyl clings. Cut a shape out of construction paper (use cookie cutters as stencils to make interesting animal shapes). Put all your shapes on a big piece of clear Contact Paper, leaving one inch between them. Cut them out so each has a 1/2" border of contact paper to seal them. When you get them wet, they will cling--for a long time. One stayed on the side of our sink overnight until I took it out the next day. I suspect they probably would stick to windows--let us know, Anna! They were presented originally as bathtub clings, and that would be great fun, but I think any sink or water play area would work well.

And the bottom right is a page from a Touch and Feel book I wrote. We used burlap, sandpaper, felt, tinfoil, and yarn to get all different textures.

These crafts are all taken from a manual I received at the BabyTalk conference training I went to last year in Decatur, Illinois. They teach a prenatal homemade toy class to expectant moms--it's just one of the many programs they have.

Enjoy the crafts!

Crafts for how many??

This past Saturday I did another presentation. This one was a stretch for me compared to other ones I've done, for several reasons. First, I was the only one presenting. Second, it was a two-hour presentation. And third, complicating matters on all kinds of levels, there were 73 daycare providers in the audience, some of whom hold an early childhood ed degree, some of whom have been in this field way longer than I. The number itself was intimidating, plus it was held in the MGMC auditorium, which holds 120 and is set up like a coliseum, with the speaker at the bottom of a steeply sloped array of rows of seats and tables. Which meant that I had to take an elevator to get from the back of my room to where I spoke, since I had so much stuff (books, toys, CDs, supplies) I had to take a rolling cart.



Once I was down there, I felt like I was at command central--I had to toggle back and forth between the DVD player to play my CDs, the computer to show my powerpoint, and the ELMO to show my handouts. All while looking up at the audience.



To fill up 30 minutes of my time, I brought crafts for them to make--a touch-and-feel book, and bathtub clings. (If anyone wants instructions or a picture, let me know.) That seemed like a good idea, but it did take hours of my and Alex's time to assemble their packets. The picture above is less than a third of them.



All in all, though, it was a rewarding experience. I enjoyed sharing about early literacy skills and how playing with babies is actually an educational experience for them. I shared a lot of action rhymes and songs with them, and that was the best part. They all brought dolls along (I'd asked them to), so they did the actions with me and sang along, which was great. Sam (my doll) got to float up in the air (instead of lying on the floor like he usually does in storytime) so he could be seen by all the women. I think he liked the experience, and so did I.

Food reviews

I wanted to share a few more supermarket items that I've found to be quite tasty. I share these because I find so much of the boxed/canned/frozen items to be unpleasant to taste, as well as nutritionally deficient. And yet their siren song calls to me--I'm easy! I'm quick! I will solve your dinner woes!









Well, these items won't completely solve your dinner woes, but they may handily fill a niche for you sometimes as they do for me.

These are the chicken strips made by Fareway's happy meat men. Have I mentioned how much I love shopping at Fareway? So efficient, so cheap, with such helpful people who bring your food right to your trunk....

Anyway, these are very tasty and I'm sure they have fewer preservatives and fillers than the ones you buy in the bags. They're available in the frozen food endcap, and you just heat them at 350 until they're warm (about 15 min, I think).

These are some of the new handy frozen veggie mixes that are available in bags and pouches that steam right in the microwave. I am a big fan of these--fewer dishes! Also, these are easier to find in my freezer than a balled-up tiny portion of a bag of peas that might not see the light of day for many moons. I've decided I'm willing to pay for these conveniences, and I also think that "brand name" veggies taste better than store brand. For example, I had given up buying the "carrots/peas/corn/beans" mix, but gave the Green Giant brand a try last week. It was quite nice. My last comment on frozen veggies (other than to say any of them are easier than fresh and often have more vitamins left in them) is to say these particular boxes shown are so hearty that they are almost a meal. The legumes in them add protein, so I will take these to work and eat up with a muffin, yogurt and fruit. Yum!

Sushi in Ames

A couple weeks ago we finally made sushi (california rolls, to be exact), with the results above. Alex had given me a "how to make sushi" book/DVD/bamboo mat kit at Christmas 07, and we didn't do anything with it until a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, I'm not going to post a recipe here b/c I wasn't crazy about the one we used (partly b/c ingredients were listed in grams, which are hard to translate to American measurements), but I will post a couple hints from our experience.

• It helps to watch a DVD (or short video on the web) of how to do the rolling part; seek one out.
• Contrary to our recipe, you do not need to make a whole bag of rice for two people.
• Cooling and vinegaring the rice takes quite a long time (especially with a bunch of rice).
• Next time, I'll spread the rice thinner so as to give the other ingredients a chance to shine.
• For presentation, it is nice to have both black and white sesame seeds. I also added some red roe (available in little jars at Fareway for somewhat reasonable prices).
• You can get decent California rolls in Ames, from at least four places (in descending order of quality): Fuji Steakhouse, Shogun, Super WalMart, and Hyvee.

I've become quite a lover of sushi over the past few years. I think it started when I was in a chicklit bookclub and all the heroines lived in Manhattan and got takeout sushi all the time. I guess I learned one good thing from those books! :)

not me! Monday

I've decided to try a "not-me Monday" post where I flagrantly lie about what I have done that I wished I didn't do, and didn't do, that I wished I did ... or something to that effect. (Sounds apostle-Paul like, doesn't it?) I got the idea from my friend Anna over at just to name a few; it was created by MckMama--head to her blog to see what she and many others are NOT doing on Monday! Without further ado ...

I do NOT have dead flowers hanging and sitting in pots all around my house attesting to the fact that I couldn't take the time to clean out the pots in the fall.

I do NOT have an overgrown rosemary bush that's 2/3rds dead, overtaking my office, and scattering needles everywhere.

I am NOT blogging instead of proofreading my dear husband's paper on John Locke that he worked so hard on.

I did NOT make him help package 75 craft bags for a presentation this weekend (more later).

I did NOT miss a dear friend's bridal shower yesterday because I have a nasty habit of piling up mail instead of reading it. (I have NOT missed at least 2 other showers in this same manner!)

I do NOT still let dirty dishes pile up, even though we now have a dishwasher.

I did NOT spend 15 minutes trying the links and picture on this post to work.

I did NOT just overbake my cheesecake. :(

You get the idea....

the reaction continues

One wrinkle I forgot to mention with me and clothing is that the absent minded professor stereotype is fairly accurate with me and I tend to lose things. At the time of my last post, the new earmuffs were already missing and on Thursday I took off my gloves in the department mail room and left them there all day and by the time I was ready to go home they apparently found new owners who would be more attentive. So when I get new clothing that doesn't stay on me at all times, I normally need to factor in replacement costs as well.

New Year's Resolution--Weight Loss

The title of today's post links to an informative article about 10 principles to consider when working toward weight loss or weight maintenance. I thought since we're still in the spirit of keeping resolutions, I'd offer some thoughts on the subject.

Over the years, I've gone through a few periods of weight gain, most notably the freshman 15 (as a result of eating french fries at every meal they offered them--which was most of them!) and twice during my life when illness has caused a long period of inactivity combined with medicine that made me gain weight.

After those times, the principles I used to get the weight off were as follows.

• Exercise. I put it on my schedule--I usually take scheduled aerobics classes (step is my favorite) so I feel obligated to go and don't have to decide whether or not to go. I also like working out with people and having someone tell me what to do.
• Calorie log. This is time-consuming but valuable. I learned a lot about what foods "cost" in terms of calories by looking them all up and totalling the day's amount. I've heard recently that just writing down "1 medium baked potato" or whatever you had to eat, even without the calorie amount, can be helpful.
• Being careful of what you eat. For one month, I gave myself a green star for each day I made good eating choices.
• And the new one this year: strength training. I'm including strength/toning exercises in my workouts twice a week (I do three total), and it's helping with weight and general slim-lookingness, which is a big part of the motivation, isn't it? ;)

Misc. Bible translations and software

I haven't discussed the King James in this series of blogs. I do use it sometimes, mainly for historical purposes. For my job I actually read a lot of 17th century English prose, which happens to be what the KJV is. So when I read works from that time that reference the Bible (and the generally did so a lot back then) the KJV is what they tend to quote. So oddly enough I use the KJV for work more often than for personal use. I can read that style of English fairly well, but it makes reading the Bible seem like work and the KJV is not based on the more recent manuscripts. Sometimes I use the Strong numbers that go with the KJV to look up a greek word using my Bible software.

The main Bible software program I have, Logos, I got probably 12 years ago for about $70 and it has been one of my best investments. I don't know if Logos is the best value for the money or not, but it gives me the NIV, the old American Standard, and the KJV indexed to the greek and hebrew originals. I can search words and phrases and it has some other tools that I occasionally use. I sometimes use e-sword which has the ESV available for free and some other nice free downloads.

If I had known where things were going with Bible software, I would not have invested in some of the books I own. I have a NT word study, a couple of greek new testaments, a parallel greek-english NT, and a greek lexicon (dictionary). All of this I could have on a CD if I were willing to pay for it. Eventually I will probably break down and upgrade, by I keep assuming that some next generation software will come out so I am waiting.

I also have some parallel Bibles. One is a NT only that has 8 translations side by side (4 per page on facing pages). It has the New King James, the ESV, the HCSB, the NIV, the TNIV, the NLT, the New Century, and The Message. If I could replace the New Century with the NASB it would be perfect. There is also a parallel bible that is NASB, NIV, KJV, and NLT that I like. I don't own it, but I have it checked out from Parks Library most of the time and it sits in my study room at the library. The big downside to it is how much it weighs, but I never have to carry it so that is not a problem. If you have an ISU card you can recall it if you would like to use it.

I think that is a good overview of the Bibles I use. Let me conclude this particular series by emphasizing something I said at the beginning, which is that what the translations have in common is far more important than the differences. With so many good translations around, the real question is how we respond to what we read.