Get Well Soon!

. . . sent to Ma, who wasn't feeling well yesterday and is now on antibiotics.

Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: Season 2

So, should I call it "Return of the CSA?" or "The CSA Strikes Back?"

Mama just suggested "Spawn of CSA."

You get the picture: I just sent in our application for Year 2 of our CSA experiment. We loved (I loved) our farm, from which we received full-share boxes of produce for about 25 weeks, or June through mid-November. We had kale, chard, dandelion greens, collard greens, turnip greens, Asian mixed greens, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, hakurei turnips, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, leeks, carrots, sweet potatoes, bok choi, scallions, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash, corn, garlic, onions, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers (from purple through the red-orange rainbow to green), Brussel sprouts, escarole, broccoli rabe, beets, cauliflower, lots of herbs, spinach, and eggs, (plus access to lots of fruit and even our Thanksgiving turkey!) so many of which were new to us, and not in a small way daunting. But we learned a lot (and more) and are back for more, this time with more experience cooking different vegetables, more recipes (thanks for all the veggie cookbooks for Christmas, Mama!), more ways to put up the excess produce.

The timing is perfect because I've just finished reading Michael Pollan's superb and memorable Food Rules, a compendium of cultural suggestions for eating food, mostly plants, not too much, and am starting Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which very introduction calls for a food culture in the U.S. to guide our eating habits. Pollan's rules, culled from research and reader responses, include many snappy axioms, like "eat food grown on a plant, not made in a plant" or "treat treats like treats" (or the corollary, "S" rule--snacks, sweets, and seconds only on days that start with S). Sure, it sounds like the phrases from a Weight Watchers meeting (such as my least favorite "nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." Ugh. And b.s.), but that's not all bad if it helps. And Kingsolver's book will be a positive motivation to eat locally and seasonally, maybe even expand our own garden efforts, without, hopefully, all the depressing scariness of other Pollan books like Food Inc. (which I have not read entirely).

I think I'm ready for spring: ready to ditch my coat, ready to open the windows, ready to put some seeds in the ground, ready to have a variety of seasonal produce (we're trying to eat seasonally which means it's been a long time since we've had much more than beans, root veggies, certain greens, and apples).

And I'm definitely ready for my first CSA box!

Tired

It's been a long day, with the delivery of Gommie to the train station this morning, followed quickly by taking the kids to school (which went better than expected), my running of errands for the new baby meals I'm making this week (there were two new playgroup babies born this week! Mommy Goose's little girl and Miss R's early but healthy new little boy), and then a trip to the doctor's to confirm that Sis's finger would be okay despite the purple bruise under the nail (thankfully, it didn't need to be "drilled").

The title of this post, however, refers to what happened during all that: at some point I ran over a nail tied to a big piece of plastic which then sounded like I'd blown a tire (and Pop will tell you that I have a lot of experience with that--I blew 3 tires in less than a year on my great-grandmother's old car. And he came and changed them all! Finally, on the third flat, we just changed the fourth tire too). Fortunately, I didn't lose control and pulled into a parking lot (coincidentally, that of the doctor's office, whose staff watched me check my car!)--there was a twisted nail embedded in my front right tire. Luckily it was stuck fast and no air was leaking out, so I was able to finish my morning, meet Mama, and buy (gulp!) four new tires for the van (yep, when we put a penny in the treads, you could still see all of Lincoln. After 4.5 years, I guess it was time). The kids had a blast playing amid the tire towers (really, it's one of the safest stores they can run around in, because they can't hurt any of the merchandise--and at their size are unlikely to be able to topple any of the tires on themselves, though I was watching very closely--and apparently kids do it all the time), winding their ways into little spaces, pretending they were in a forest or a house or a cave. I almost had a mind to keep our old tires for playing in the backyard but decided against it. It took about 1 1/2 hours, during which we all went for lunch and then ran errands to get ready for our Babysitter's 18th-birthday celebration tomorrow.

What a day!

Ready, Steady, Go-y

The doors to the train closed shut.

"Bye-bye! See you tomorrow!" called Bud. "See you at Christmas!"

Waving in tandem with her brother, Sis repeated, "See you at Christmas!"

They didn't really no what to say as Gommie left this morning. Truth is, we'll see her in June sometime when we go there, not sure when she'll foray north again, probably Thanksgiving or before. This year, not Christmas.

It capped a whirlwind 24 hours of activity, from church to lunch at the Japanese restaurant yesterday (not herbachi!), where Gommie enjoyed California rolls and seaweed salad and the kids tucked into shumai, gyoza, and yaki udon again. Once at home, they went tricycle riding in the newly snow-free landscape. Then rest time (and Bud fell asleep on Gommie) and lots of playing--dinosaur museum, dinosaur world, camp out, car races (hence this post title, which is what they were shouting at each race's start), I don't even recall what all. Dinner only interrupted the play a bit and then they continued, the most happily engaged and energetic independent play of the whole visit as the adults watched on.

Bedtime, which was late, was a bit of a slog, with lots of tired participants and some inelegant parenting. We were trying to get the room cleaned up from the camp out, while getting them through their ritual, all while ignoring that this was the last bedtime of this visit, and there was lots of grumping from kids who didn't want to go to bed but were too tired not to. "Why can't I do things in the order I want to?" Sis pleaded at one point, as Mama tried to marshall them out of the room to brush teeth so she could clear up the sleeping bags. Ugh. Then things were just about settled, when Sis lost her balance while closing her drawer and slammed her finger in it. Hard. The swelling, the tenderness, the pain. We all know it hurt and Tylenol didn't do much, but she wouldn't let us go near it with ice. (We're going to the doctor this morning to see the extent of the damage, mainly if they need to puncture the nail to drain the blood or have an x-ray. Sound like the end of another visit? When there are kids, there are accidents).

This morning found us trying to balance getting ready for school and getting Gommie ready to travel, with the last of the play time. The kids did remarkably well at ignoring her imminent departure, replacing dinosaur world with a forest in the basement. Gommie was in charge of finding forest animals (a "buffa-yo" is not a forest animal, Gommie!). When it was time to go, everyone got up, got dressed, got their stuff, and headed out the door.

At the train station, instead of letting Gommie out and watching her board the train from the car, we headed into the coffee shop where Gommie got tea and the kids got candy and a bag of chips. What was that article about grandparents making kids fat? (For the record, that was grandparents who are daytime caregivers for kids with working parents in Britain. Not your average spoiling grandparent during visits). But the distraction worked and no one cried because their faces were too stuffed and they were too excited about treats for breakfast as they hugged Gommie and then waved goodbye as she boarded the train. There were even smiles all the way to school as they ate their food. Not a bad way to say goodbye.

Things that Make You Go "Llllll"

"Loom, Mom," he said, "not a 'yoom'."

And so Bud hit another milestone and a little bit more of his young childhood faded away: he is beginning to pronounce "ls."

We were at the "dinosaur museum" yesterday, showing Gommie the Silk Road exhibition, with its silk loom, that we had so enjoyed a month ago with Ma, Gong, and Goo (and, between two viewings, with kids, I think I've seen almost the whole show now!). The kids loved pulling Gommie from the camels to the worms to the musical instruments to the market to the videos to the astrolabe to the water clock. "Gom," Sis would implore, "come here!" Yep, "Gom." Just like I am often now "Mom." But whereas I don't mind at all, Gommie doesn't particularly like the shortening of her name. And sometimes adds the "mie" to the end herself.

Anyway, Gommie didn't enjoy the exhibition as much as she could have on her own, with all the leisure time to look and read and reflect, I think. It's hard to be the grandma sometimes. But she was a sport about wandering around the whole place, seeing dinosaurs and dioramas and the Discovery Room. That was a big thing this trip: Sis loved playing "I Spy" with the baobab tree replica (looking for hidden animals and evidence of animals like honey and dung), while Bud both excavated dinosaur fossils and pieced together a dinosaur model. One part I enjoyed was standing in the turret overlooking snow-covered Central Park and beyond to the midtown skyline. It reminded me of the view of Central Park from the 5th Avenue office where I worked, which was one of my favorite parts of that job.

We didn't stay to close the museum as we had on our last trip, being more tired this time and with no performance in the middle that required restful and rejuvenating sitting in the dark for a long time. But we did get a few treats in the shop--a new T-Rex for Bud and a bag of pink rocks for Sis--and fruit cups in the cafe before heading home.

But the journey wasn't over, for Sis and Bud played caravan in their beds long after bedtime, with their critters backing their things and heading from Baghdad to Xi'an. Though, I don't think there were any camels . . . .

Snow Fun

It took us about 20 minutes to get dressed in snow clothes this morning, which meant I wanted us to spend at least that long outside. No worries today; we were all outside for about 2 hours, in both blowing snow and empty (though not clear) skies. We trekked across the yard, threw snowballs, made snow angels, slid down the snow-covered slide and then filled it up again with snow for another run, shoveled the driveway, made "snow boulders" that we then converted into a wonderful, cheerful snowman. And, actually, I think it is my first real, complete, three-sphere snowman ever. Maybe Gommie's too! And of course, exhausted after a nature walk and playing in the "polar bear cave" bush, we went inside with our bowls of snow for--you guessed it--snow cream.

Shapin' Up

Gommie and the kids spent most of the post-snow playtime on the floor of the living room playing with tanagrams, or little colored shapes that can be fitted together to make pictures. It's a toy she gave them a long time ago, after a visit to Sturbridge Village with it's own tanagram/quilt children's activity, but they hadn't ever gotten the hang of it at home. But we pulled it out this morning, after playing in the snow, while I got the soup on. First, Sis and Bud followed the pattern pictures included with the set, but they were soon making their own, much more complicated and abstract pictures, like flowers, snowflakes, and the like. Symmetry and pattern seemed to be of utmost importance as they fought over shapes from the common pile (and now they know the word hexagon and trapezoid!). Every now and then they called me in from the kitchen to look at a particular design before breaking it down and starting over. Sis took a break in the middle, to help me with the soup--she likes to wash the veggies and then drop them in the pot once I've cut them. Gommie took her own break on the floor next to Bud, doing yoga poses to stretch herself out after two nights on an inflatable bed.

Feeling Warm Inside

We just had lunch--an incredible vegetable soup, if I do say so myself. And Sis helped!--and the kids are resting upstairs happily with Gommie. I'm sitting in my clean, warm, quiet kitchen, drinking tea and watching the world via the web, with brightness from the heavily-falling snow lighting the room. A friend has been delivered of a new baby girl this morning, which is happy news indeed. And within minutes of my sending out the request for meal volunteers, several playgroup moms had already signed up; such is the care and support in my group of friends. And that is more beautiful than snow and warms me more than soup.

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Today's Vegetable Soup

(bearing in mind, it's never the same twice)

1 onion

1-2 teaspoons minced garlic

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

appx. 20 baby carrots, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 yukon gold potatoes, cubed

1 turnip, cubed

1-2 cups cooked curly kale

6-8 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 yellow squash, sliced

1 zucchini, sliced

2-3 stalks celery, sliced

2 1/2 boxes of stock (about 10-12 cups stock)

2 teaspoons salt (give or take)

a few shakes of Penzey's seasoned salt

several grinds black pepper

1/2 box rotini pasta

ABSOLUTELY NO TOMATOES OR BEANS OR VISIBLE SEASONINGS LIKE HERBS

Saute onion in olive oil; add garlic and saute until fragrant. Combine remaining ingredients, except pasta, and cook until desired tenderness. Cook pasta separately and allow kids to add their own (this way the pasta doesn't get mushy). I like mine with a bit of grated cheese.

It's a New Baby

Welcome, new baby girl! And congratulations to Mommy Goose and family. We can't wait to meet the new baby. Bud and Sis have already peppered me with questions, like "What does a new baby do?" and "So, now when they come over, we'll have to put up the baby gate?" Well, not quite yet . . . . but we'll be glad to have you over as soon as you're getting out.

No Knead: An Update

Okay, full confession: that bread was absolutely the worst thing I think I've ever made. I couldn't even swallow it. And so we had to throw away two whole loaves because I didn't think the squirrels should even eat it. I can't imagine what went wrong. Too much yeast? Too little kneading? I know that Rev. M makes a wonderful bread with that recipe. Ours rose just fine but then didn't do anything in the oven except get hard, not even expanding to fill the pan. And the taste was bitter and yeasty. But I had just bought new yeast at the store yesterday. A great disappointment.

But also a cause for much laughter and love as we all just couldn't fathom what had happened but were all being supportive and encouraging. Sis even said to Gommie, when she had remarked that it wasn't my best, that Gommie shouldn't say things like that! Of course, that was after Sis gave her own educated guess at what went wrong, "overproofing!"

The evening was easily salvaged by chicken pot pie and Babysitter, who came, much to the merriment of the kids who liked the fresh troops, so that Gommie, Mama, and I could go out for a delicious dinner at our Indian food place. Nothing like a good meal--mmmmm, malai kofta, dal makhani, chicken tikka masala (I loved Gommie's sauce on my rice), peshwari naan, mango lassi, rasmalai--to erase the day's failures.

Snow Day!

It's a belated Christmas present for Gommie: SNOW!

It started coming down sometime after 2 a.m., I think, and is now really starting to pick up with wind and heavier snowfall. Gommie just keeps looking out the window, exclaiming at the beauty, at the size of the flakes, at the constancy of it. But she doesn't really want to go out. When the kids ventured out onto the porch and into the snow in their pjs and tennis shoes to put out our snow cream bowls, Gommie wouldn't even step onto the porch. I'm not sure she's actually going to enjoy, say, making snow angels! The kids, on the other hand, are rearing to go. They don't care that the snow is now blowing horizontally. So, I'm going to hold back one group and coax the other.

But we have all day to do our usual snow activities--snow cream, hot chocolate, popcorn balls, snowballs, snow angels, shoveling (for fun)--because school has been canceled across the state. So, enjoy your snow day, Connecticut!

And Gommie!

Unkind Words

I've been thinking recently that there are certain words in the English language that can't generally be used without causing grief for the listener. Consider "yet" or "still," as in

• "Are you looking for a job yet?"
• "Are you still working on your dissertation?"
• "Does she still have a lovey?"
  
• "Is he walking yet?"
• "Are you still living at home?"
• "Are you pregnant yet?"
• "Are you still on a diet?"

The list of unbearable (and unfortunately, very familiar) examples could go on and on. Of course, "should" and "never" could probably be added to my word list. But there's something about the feigned interest mixed with brazen judgment of "yet" and "still" that really gaul. At least users of "should" and "never" are very clear in their intent.

No Knead: I Get it Now

It's such a rainy, drizzly day that comfort foods such as oatmeal and apples, chicken pot pie, and homemade bread are a must. And so I decided to make my friend Rev. M's Oatmeal and Molasses bread.

Mercy, I get now why "no knead" and bread machines are so popular: kneading that bread for 15+ minutes was a workout. And I'm not convinced we did it right or enough. It was so stiff and hard to work with, never really becoming "elastic" or "soft" (I should note, for the record, I know it is me and not the recipe because I've had this wonderful bread several times). See, I should admit, that "Little Mommy Hungry Homemaker" though I try to be, I don't every actually bake bread from scratch. I've used my bread machine a lot to do the whole thing, or at least for the dough cycle. Or I make yeast-free quick breads. I have only made a bread that required kneading once before by hand, years and years ago, and it didn't turn out well. So, after a few years of loving homemade by bread machine baked goods, I thought it was time to try doing it all by hand. And isn't that a great thing to do with the kids and their grandma? Well, we'll see, I guess. But I'm not hopeful.

Though, on such a day, almost anything warm, when slathered with butter and honey or jam, will be good.

The Heart of the Matter

So, Cheney (read "evil Republican mastermind") can have a heart attack and live?

But many laid off men aren't so lucky . . . .

Gommie is Here!

Gommie arrived around 3 p.m. and it's been happy chaos every since. I think the kids have eaten more candy than on Halloween and played with at least half their toys, all in just a few hours. Everyone is happy and content (well, except maybe the cats who have noted both the increase in noise and the strange new smells) as we try to settle down enough for bedtime. Well, official bedtime, for I expect that they will chat about Gommie for an hour or two. Which means, I'm sure, that Gommie will be asleep before the kids. It's hard to be a grandmother sometimes!

Milestone Celebration

Today, I passed a particular weight loss milestone that has haunted me for awhile--I finally got out of a particular "decade!" Add to that, I'm just a bit away from having lost 5% of my body weight. And I am so excited! So, I promised myself that I would buy a few books as a reward if I got where I am. Of course, ironically, I'm sure I'll be buying cookbooks!

Let the Countdown Begin

By my best estimations, we have less than 4 hours before Gommie arrives, which is way too long for the kids to bear. When I picked them up from school an hour or so ago, despite the excitement of picture day, the teachers all told me--all four of them!--how Sis especially was just about to burst for the fact that Gommie is coming today. So, trying to use up time before Gommie's arrival, I took the kids to lunch at the "crunchy chip" restaurant . . . where we drew a chart tracking Gommie's progress to Connecticut and talked nonstop about Gommie. And now we're home, trying to pass time. We've talked about making a welcome sign, drawing on the chalkboard, and baking her some goodies, but I doubt we'll settle enough for any of those. Too bad it's raining nonstop or we could go outside and run around. So, a long time to wait but a good thing, really.

Meanwhile, I've got some clothes to fold and the last few steps in dinner prep to do. I changed my mind about dinner--not the main part of baked chicken, rice, gravy, and a vegetable (probably cauliflower instead of the family tradition, peas)--but my part, which will be Soupe du Barry. The recipe--which calls for a full bottle of red wine, which Mama just happened to find in the cabinet last night--is from my Twelve Months of Monastery Soups cookbook, which has become one of my current favorites (the author, Brother Victor-Antoine, is at a monastery in upstate NY. But I can just picture my cousin, the monk in France, eating similar foods). There are 4 or 5 other soups in it that I hope to make really soon, having especially liked the chickpea soup I made a few days ago. So, better get to work . . .

-=-=-=-=-=-

Soupe du Barry

1/2 cup olive oil

3 onions, chopped

3 cups precooked red beans or the equivalent in canned beans

1 bottle red wine

4 cups water or stock

1 ham bone (I'll leave this out, use some pork bouillon, or a teensy bit of either bacon salt or liquid smoke)

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Pour the olive oil into the soup pot and add the onions. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the red beans, wine, water, ham bone, and bay leaf. Bring the soup to a boil. Then lower the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and let the soup simmer for 1 hour.

Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir well and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the soup rest for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and ham bone and serve the soup hot.

Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups

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Gommie's Baked Chicken

3-4 lb. fryer chicken

salt and pepper

1 cup water

Preheat oven to 500°F. Salt and pepper chicken. Sear uncovered in oven for 10-15 minutes. Add 1 cup water, cover, and reduce heat to 350°F. Bake for 1 ½ hours.

Make gravy and serve with rice and peas.

Gommie Hungry

Movie Buff

I'm not so much of a movie lover. I see about one a year in the theater, maybe three at home on video. These days, all either Harry Potter or something set in the 19th century. I go through phases--there was the Chinese foreign language film phase, the old historical/biblical dramas phase. It's more the story than the cinematography. So I don't pay too much attention to movie critics. But this article on Rogert Ebert really touched me. Not because it's the story of a movie critic but the story of a man and his journey through a life-altering battle with cancer. I wonder if he'd think it'd make a good movie?

Science Experiment

I think I'm living in some kind of perverse science experiment over here: how many hours can kids knock off their nighttime sleep total and still function?

Right now, they're at 3 hours less, if "functioning" means only crying or breaking down once every few hours, which I guess it does, but it's hell all the same.

We put them to bed at 7:15 p.m. last night. They stopped talking after 9:00 something. They were up again at 5:30 a.m., instead of closer to 7:00 p.m. That's -3 hours in my book. (I figure they should be getting about 11 hours--my goal is 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.). The night before it had been about -2 hours. Right now, they are in an enforced early rest time, probably one of two today, because they're going to kill each other.

And this has been going on about 2 weeks. I even talked to the doctor about it last week, though she had no real suggestions. I moved dinner earlier, had them outside more, you name it, but nothing is working. They've been so exhausted that they've fallen asleep DURING rest time, which is unheard of, as well as in the car. Which just throws them off more, even if they obviously needed the nap. We've tried putting them to bed early, heading upstairs at 6:30. Maybe we'll have to move it back some more tonight, say upstairs at 6.

But I know they'll talk, probably at least 2 hours, despite numerous interventions (and separating them isn't an option; we don't have another sleepable room). Because tomorrow is super exciting--Gommie arrives.

I just hope they get enough sleep to enjoy her.

Climate Change

Well, apparently it's too warm to snow here in CT and the forecast of 8" of snow on Thursday was vastly exaggerated--it's going to be 4+" of rain!

But, apparently, it is snowing in Texas . . . .

Now, is that bassackwards or what?