Foods

Tonight I consulted my blog because I remembered writing about burning my hands on hot peppers years ago. Since then, I've been good about wearing gloves when I cut chilies, but tonight David used the knife I'd used on the jalapenos to cut tomatoes--and then apparently touched his temple near his eye, as suggested by the burning he noticed moments later. It turns out the blog post wasn't that helpful; I'd already had David smear sour cream on the spot, and I don't think he was too inclined to add more condiments!

We're back in the height of CSA season. Friends here in HR are farmers, and we got in on their first attempt at a CSA. Because they're new to it, they're calling it the "Black Market CSA" and it's limited to only a few people. It started a bit slow, but has been great fun--and the past few weeks, has provided a TON of veggies. New (or at least newish) to me discoveries this year have included collard greens, bok choy, fresh fennel, fava beans, and rainbow chard. We've been eating the greens in two primary forms: earlier in the spring, cooked in homemade peanut sauce and served over brown rice; and recently, whizzed into green drinks with fresh and frozen fruit. David is a good sport about the latter; I haven't really relished them yet but choke them down because they're good for me.

I do, however, relish meals like the ones I made Monday and Tuesday nights:

Monday: Salad with roasted beets, spicy candied pecans, sweet onions, and chevre; fava beans with caramelized onions and fennel; baba ganoush; and a whole roasted clove of garlic, served with French bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and kalamata olives. For dessert (not pictured), baklava! I'd never made baba ganoush, and wish I hadn't put in as much garlic; we got more eggplants yesterday, so I'll probably roast them and throw them in with the existing dip to tone it down a bit. I also screwed up the baklava by pouring the syrup over it before it had cooled; thankfully, 35 minutes in the oven the next day at 275° crisped it up.

Tuesday was more familiar territory: Zucchini and pattypan squash patties (with the aforementioned jalapenos), steamed string beans, and Greek salad. Patties like these (which I've mentioned here before) are one of my summer standbys, especially when we have a CSA. They're great for using up everything from squashes to sunchokes--I just grate/process the vegetables (squeezing out the excess liquid), and throw in a chopped onion, a binder of some sort (eggs, flax seed gel, and/or--as I had to last night--sour cream), something starchy (crumbs of crackers, bread, cereal, chips, etc.), cheese if I have it, and seasonings (including herbs). It's good fried or baked like a casserole.

I have more beets, heirloom tomatoes, and chilies to use. The first two will be easy; anyone have a good recipe for Anaheim peppers?

Bat

Alert Readers know I'm very blind: -7 at last count. Sometimes, I remove my contacts before locating my glasses,which I'm then (naturally) unable to find. If there's no one around to help me, I'll pop a contact or two back in to locate them. If I'm feeling especially tired or lazy, I just go with it and end up completing my last few pre-bed tasks with one eye closed and the other 4-6" from the object of interest--as I'm doing now. I'll put my contacts back in first thing in the morning and find my glasses then.

Alert Readers will notice that I forgot to post yesterday (my mom texted me this afternoon to make sure I was okay!). I am okay--just forgetful and, at the moment, blind.

Conciliatory

Undergrads love to begin their essays with dictionary definitions--if I'm lucky (read: never) they'll be from the OED or Merriam-Webster. Usually they're from dictionary.com. Sigh.

In any case, the word "conciliatory"--a word I used in last night's post, actually--has been in my head all day. I just looked it up, and in the spirit of the papers I've been grading already today (and still should be), here is Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of CONCILIATE*

transitive verb

1 : to gain (as goodwill) by pleasing acts

2 : to make compatible : reconcile

3 : appease

intransitive verb

: to become friendly or agreeable

The thing is, most of my friends are pretty liberal. The ones I've hung out with most over the past decade or so, the ones I met after college and in graduate school, tend to be really liberal. I get most of my news from NPR and Time Magazine, and consider it balanced not least because I do hear conservative opinions with which I disagree; my most liberal friends find those media outlets far too right-leaning.

In any case, because of the circles in which I move, I don't meet a lot of Romney supporters. Academics are a liberal bunch, and Minneapolis is a liberal city.*** Hood River is, too. Plus, I think I'm also still in a demographic young enough to favor Obama for his own relatively youthful persona and ideas. The few Romney supporters I do know tend to be friends from high school or even earlier.

There are a handful of them on Facebook, though: nine professed "like"rs of Romney/Ryan, and a few more who run Republican. I've been thinking a lot about them today, partly because, although FB has been surprisingly rather silent on topics political (after a brief outpouring of joy last night), I have seen a few posts of sadness, disappointment, and, yes, some bitterness. There were premature cries that Obama had lost the popular vote--and an identification with how Gore supporters must have felt in 2000.

In embarrassing truth, I didn't vote in that election; I was out of state and hadn't filed for an absentee ballot. I also bought into the sentiment around me that there wasn't even a substantive difference between the two candidates, though the subsequent debacle of the election, with the failure of our voting system on global display as a Floridian court handed W. the victory, appalled and horrified me.

I may have had this sticker on my car

But I do remember how it felt in 2004 to have Bush actually, legitimately, elected, by popular and electoral vote. I couldn't believe that after seeing the mess he'd made at home and abroad over the past four years (and listening to this This American Life episode!), Americans would vote to retain him. I believed then, as I do now, that there were nefarious things at play, not least the manipulation into a constant state of fear.

When he won, I was crushed. I was enraged. I was in a state of disbelief. No one had loved Kerry or anything, but we were ABBA voters--Anyone But Bush Again. Anyone. That election was to have been a referendum on Bush's failed policies, a chance to regain some face in the world--to begin to erase the embarrassment so eloquently summarized by "freedom fries."

I thought Bush was ruining our country. I still believe he did it a dire disservice, mostly by entering unnecessary and unaffordable wars--not just one (largely supported by the international community), but an ill-advised, if not illicit, unrelated attack premised on false evidence.

So I think I can identify a little bit with the friends who thought this election was their chance to oust a President they believed was leading the country down a path to ruin. By the end of his two terms, I think most people agreed that Bush had been an epic failure. It remains to be seen how people judge Obama at the end of his second. Obviously I think he's by far the better option to continue digging us out of the mess Bush left behind. But the truth takes its time to emerge, and whatever happens, right now a lot of the country is feeling sad and angry.

How, then, to conciliate? I began, and erased, many FB statuses last night. I wanted to celebrate, but I didn't want to gloat or provoke. I went on a "liking" spree of friends' euphoric posts, but couldn't bring myself to post my own, although I'd posted several politically-themed links over the past several weeks and wasn't exactly in the closet about supporting Obama. I settled on a quote from Jon Stewart's live coverage: "Perhaps the fever has broken." 

This morning I changed my profile picture from the "I Voted" sticker I'd had up since submitting my ballot by mail, replacing it with a picture of me grinning hugely as I hold my tiny new niece, whose eyes are wild and mouth agape as she seems to throw a miniature gang sign. I figured it was just absurd enough to pass my personal only-me-in-my-profile-pic rule, and might--as I think of it in light of the earlier definition--be a pleasing act to gain me some goodwill.

Because I've been feeling kind of like a bad guy! I haven't been nearly as strident as some of my friends, in fora virtual or otherwise. But I did (and, okay, do; I'm still working on that) think Romney supporters were making the wrong, wrong, wrong choice. I was terribly relieved that Obama was re-elected. I'm proud to be an American, and want to celebrate! But it hurts to be on the losing side, especially when you believe passionately, as it seems so many of us did.

So, friend who posted about the impending destruction of all small business (though he appears to have subsequently removed it), I'm sorry. Friend who requested time and space to "lick our wounds," I'm sorry. I know how it feels to believe the apocalypse is upon you.

I can only hope that the fever has broken. I hope that Washington will be able to actually get necessary work done. I hope that we can all still be friends. Really.

*Apparently "in the top 10% of lookups"** at their website
**Firefox's spellchecker doesn't accept "lookups" as a valid word
***The day after the Vice-Presidential debate, a little old lady struck up a conversation with me in line at the post office, in a thick accent criticizing the arrogant young Ryan and his rude behavior. When I asked where she was originally from, she told me she was from Poland--and as a young teenager had smuggled explosives across enemy lines during the Soviet occupation!

NaBloPo(One)Mo!

One.

That's how many clicks on "older entries" it currently takes to get from the front page of this blog to my last NaBloPoMo entry (2011). A full nine posts--briefly touching upon adventures including Mouse Wars (redux); foot surgery (hallux); and the acquisition of a tautology of felines (deluxe). Clearly, I've been a less-than-consistent poster.

But what's better for consistency than a challenge? That's right: it's NaBloPoMo again, and another chance to fail (or, you know, succeed!) at posting every day for a month. I'm grateful to Mari for reminding me, and hope that lots of you join in, too. (Or at very least comment; it's seriously the comments that keep me going.)

So, one mo' NaBloPoMo? Here goes.

Foot

This is my foot (along with my helpful assistant Pobbes,* who is perpetually intrigued with the camera's wrist strap). The divot you see just below and to the right of the center of the photograph is a scar from the time I dropped my bike on my foot and the chain ring bit out a chunk. It and a mark from another of the teeth are more visible when my foot tans and the scars remain white, but as I attempted to photograph it today, I realized how subtle it is.

Today is the last day that will be the most noticeable scar on my foot.

Remember the X-ray I posted a while ago, showing the apparent source for my toe woes? And how the cortisone injection I had in November (November?!) made it so much better? Well. That wore off, and my foot went back to hurting as much, if not more, than before. It felt worse, anyway, since I was virtually pain free while the cortisone lasted. So! I went back to the podiatrist, and we decided that after exhausting the conservative options, it was time to consider surgery.

He suggested a minimally invasive procedure called a cheilectomy, in which he will remove the osteophyte, clean up the joint, perhaps drill some to stimulate production of new collagen, rinse everything, and then sew me back up. This should take, in his estimate, about 20 minutes. Recovery (which will mostly take place over spring break, next week) will involve a surgical shoe, but no boot or crutches. I only have to wear the shoe while I'm on my feet, and while the stitches are in (10-14 days), and he thinks I can be back to running in three to six months.** (When we were initially discussing the surgery, I immediately did the math in my head, and determined that this would potentially allow me to train for the Twin Cities Marathon--though even I realize this is a bad idea.)

So. I have no illusions that this will be a magical fix, or that my young, healthy, athletic, non-smoking ways will make for a perfectly non-eventful surgery or recovery. But after so long living with this, and having been forced to stop running altogether (and even walking as much as I would like to!), I'm read to give this fix a try. I check in to the surgical center in just over an hour.

*Pobbes is one half of a Kitten Problem we acquired in late January to deal with our (then) Mouse Problem. He and his littermate Isis (Icy) have educated me on just how quickly such small animals can become such a huge source of love (and frustration!). Most of you who still read here are already my FB friends and have access to my "(Almost) Daily Kitten" album, but I'd also be happy to post more kitty pix here!

**My podiatrist is a runner--marathoner, Bostoner, and triathlete--and he is the one whose focus has consistently been on running, which I think is pretty fantastic.

Mice

Yes, mice.

Sigh.

So... quite awhile ago our neighbors spilled a bag of birdseed in the basement, and didn't get it cleaned up until recently. I had told them the extremely abbreviated version of the Mouse Wars horror stories, but I must not have been convincing enough, because the birdseed, and the mice whose tails I would see darting away from it when I went down there to do laundry, stuck around. I figured the first floor was a barrier between us and the vermin, and that the neighbors would get serious when they were invaded.

Apparently that happened sometime last week, and I feel both sad for them and a bit distraught that they were providing the mouse buffet for so long.

Anyway, yesterday, the invaders made it to our floor, apparently via the radiator pipes. David saw one, and went to the hardware store for steel wool and expanding foam. Although our current place is far better sealed than the last one, it is still a century old, and it looks like the mice were using those radiator pipes as their private heated highways, entering through the gap in the hardwood floor. (Also! I just remembered what David told me yesterday: that when our neighbor saw where the mice were entering the basement, he mixed up cement to seal up the hole. The mice tunneled through the wet cement. They are a surprisingly formidable enemy, for one so small, incompetent, and incontinent.)

So. David plugged up the holes. (The Small Dog was also very interested in the expanding foam; his sniffing around resulted in a little moustache that appears to be semi-permanent.)

But then, last night, I saw a fat little mouse running along the living room wall by the radiator. I shrieked, and may have continued shrieking each time the mouse moved, as David (drawn by the noise) and I stalked it as it ran to the other radiator before disappearing behind the fridge.

I ended up staying up really late as I prepared for today's first day of classes, and as I sat alone in the otherwise silent house, I could hear mouse-y scratchings behind me in the darkness. It finally appeared again, returning to the radiator and those newly-sealed pipes before running under a chair. I opened the front door, hoping to shoo it out, but it disappeared. I tried again when the mouse reemerged (all the while, maintaining what I considered an admirable silence!), but it disappeared into the office. Unable to find it, I--resignedly but determinedly--walked down to the basement and retrieved my store of mouse traps.

I set one with peanut butter, left it just outside the office, and headed to bed, leaving David a warning note. He reported this morning that the trap had its intended effect; the fact that I didn't have to witness it or bear away the results is just one more reason I love that man.

There have been no sightings today, and we're crossing our fingers that the one we saw was just a lone individual who had the misfortune of being on the wrong side (our side) of the new seals. Yeah. Fingers crossed.

On a happier note, it has been ridiculously warm here recently; today was sunny and nearly 50°! I ran errands on my bicycle this afternoon, and it was euphoric.

Also, this is Disaster Kitchen post #777--auspicious!

Christmas Cards

This year, as particularly Alert readers may have noticed, I didn't post my customary Christmas card notice. Then again, since I abruptly stopped posting anything three weeks into NaBloPoMo, it might not have been particularly surprising.

In any case, I did send out cards this year, but they went to people whose addresses I already had. I ended up having my cards professionally printed this year, and although I got a steal of a deal on them, I didn't think I could afford to expand my list much this year.* As it was, I had to have an extra one printed for me at Kinko's. Oh, but, yeah! I totally recommend Picaboo for card printing. Envelopes are even included, so with the deal I got, it was actually cheaper to have Picaboo print my cards than to do the photo-printing, card stock-buying, and envelope-procuring on my own (let alone much easier than the cutting and glue-sticking).

Ordinarily, of course, I show the previous year's card when I solicit this year's requests. Since I didn't get that done this year, though, I'll just show you last year's and tell you now that if you send me your address (disasterkitchen ((at)) gmail.com) now, I'll send you next year's:

As you may have noticed (with cards from 2009, 2008, and 2007 for reference), the cards have just gotten more elaborate and generally weirder. This year's is the weirdest yet, but I won't post it here until next year.

Meanwhile, several of you Alert Readers also sent fantastically creative cards this year! I do admit to loving the ones with adorable children/babies, and even the ones with cute couples, but quite possibly my favorite was Bog Lemming Superstar's. It took the non-traditional Christmas card to truly new heights, which I'll let her share if she so desires. Well done, I say.

So. I'm still sort of pretending it's the holidays--partly because about 3am yesterday I woke up with my every-two-to-three-years stomach bug** and spent nearly all day in bed, and have today been similarly low on productivity (and eating). The thought of gearing up for a semester that will include TA-ing (and teaching sections) for one class, teaching another two online, and, ideally, finishing my dissertation, is tiring even at full-strength. So, for at least one more day, happy holidays!

*See also: not blogging.
**Vegetarians are thankfully not very food poisoning prone

Failing

This morning I am feeling like a tiny bit of a failure. I think I'll blame it all on the snow that fell yesterday.

Snow yesterday afternoon

I failed to go to yoga this morning because I didn't feel like navigating the snowy roads. This is particularly embarrassing because only about two inches fell yesterday. It was apparently on top of freezing rain, though, rendering the streets a bit treacherous. I say apparently, however, because (failing!) I haven't even been outside since I got home from yoga yesterday morning. Anyway, I didn't feel like risking it for my non-favorite instructor this morning--though I'll almost certainly risk it for brunch with friends later.


I also failed at NaBloPoMo daily posting. I realized this morning that I had entirely forgotten to post yesterday, despite the fact that I had totally planned what I was going to do. Maybe it was because I'd thought about it so much that I forgot to actually do it? Maybe I'll blame the snow.

Here is a happier picture on which to end:
David carrying Bruno in the laundry basket

Finally. I may be failing to keep myself well, based on the sore throat I woke up with this morning. As it seems to be disappearing as I drink my tea, however, maybe it's just due to... breathing cold air all night?

SNOW, I SHAKE MY FIST AT YOU!

Dialogue

David: "It's 10:00. Have you started your blog yet?"

Ahh, November. You and your antics.

Minutes later...

David: "Hey, are you working on that blog?"
Me: "I just logged into Blogger. But I don't know what to say."
David: "That. 'I don't know what to say. Goodnight.'"

Apparently it's bedtime. Goodnight!

Meta

NaBloPoMo is bad for my sleeping habits.

Toe

Hey, remember my bum toe? Weirdly, I don't seem to have talked about it here all that much--probably because it's too depressing. That, and before NaBloPoMo I was hardly blogging at all.

Well. It was hurting a lot: when I ran, obviously (though I was hardly doing that any more, thanks to the pain), but also when I walked, when I stood, when I woke up in the morning, at the end of the day... It hurt all the time, and the joint was red and swollen.

I saw an orthopedic surgeon, who said the only solution for me was surgery. He also said that although he would do his best to preserve the joint, if he couldn't save it, fusion would be the only option. I had to be okay with waking up from surgery with that joint fused: he didn't want any tears. Ahem. Apparently this has been a problem with former patients? I can appreciate his honesty, but I didn't love the approach.

I was pretty bummed about the surgery thing, but was in so much pain, and so much more bummed about not being able to run (the surgeon did say he had fusion patients who had run their best marathons post-surgery) that I still thought I'd have to go for it.

Before I did, though, I decided, at my dad's urging, to see a podiatrist.

Not being able to run, and being in constant pain, was making me really depressed, so it took quite a while to set that appointment up, but I finally did it.

The podiatrist was much more personable, and he told me that my hallux rigidus* was in an early stage and would likely respond well to conservative treatment--no need for surgery, at this point.

That was super encouraging! I was excited to see how the inserts he made for me, and wearing my running shoes all the time, would make my feet feel.

They made them feel a little better--but not much. So I went back, and he adjusted the inserts again. Better yet, he prescribed physical therapy, which ended up being the most effective solution to date. In addition to having the toe stretched and adjusted, and learning new exercises and stretches, I received transdermal acetic acid via iontophoresis. Although it raised tiny blisters on my skin every time we did it, it significantly reduced the pain and swelling in the joint. I was so happy to have found something that worked!

My toe got so much better that after a few weeks my PT suggested we stop and see how things went on their own. As it happened, my toe went back to bad about a week after my last acetic acid treatment. And because I was back in pain, and super bummed, it took me a long time to make another appointment (see above).

But I did. I went back to the podiatrist on October 20 and told him that even though I was wearing comfy shoes with his inserts, and wasn't even running, my foot was still driving me crazy. So he suggested a cortisone shot, which is one more thing to try before considering surgery (surgeries that he described as far more minor than what the orthopod had mentioned!).

He gave me a shot of anaesthetic on top of my foot, and then stuck a thin needle right into the joint. It did hurt, but it was over quickly, and I was able to walk right out of the office afterward. The joint, full as it was of extra fluid, felt stiff for a while, but soon felt amazing. I didn't feel any pain at all! I actually laughed out loud at myself when I realized that was because the anaesthetic was still doing its work. When that wore off, my toe hurt, worse than before. I limped around for the rest of the day.  It still hurt on the 21st, but by the 22nd, it was feeling significantly better.

Since then, it has been great! I do still feel it sometimes, especially after yoga or after a spell in non-sensible shoes. Occasionally it will pop, too, but it rarely hurts significantly. In fact, it's almost like having a normal foot again! I can hardly express how wonderful this is, and what a relief it is to not have foot pain gnawing at the back of my mind all the time. I haven't tried running on it yet, but feel very optimistic about the possibility!

It's unclear how long the shot will be effective, and he said it's not the sort of thing he generally likes to repeat. However, I've talked to people whose cortisone shots have lasted them years. I'm hoping that's the case for me, too!

Wow. That got long.


*Have I mentioned that that's my diagnosis? Latin for stiff big toe.

Cake Pops

In response to my last post, Mari asked about my recipe for cake pops, so I thought I'd give a quick rundown.

Hastily decorated party cake pops

Bakerella's basic formula is super simple: bake a cake, crumble it up, mash in frosting, form into balls, insert sticks and dip into candy. I think this is her most detailed tutorial.

The first time I tried this, I made several mistakes:

1. I bought some Fancy Deluxe Super Moist cake mix that called for something like half a cup of oil; even though I didn't add that much, the cake was still kind of greasy--probably fine for regular eating, but not great for cake pops. The second time, I bought a cheap store brand cake. Much better!
2. I used Wilton's white candy melts, which had a dreadful, hypersweet cheap candy flavor. The second time around, I used their chocolate ones, which were far better; they tasted like candy I would actually want to eat.
3. I used homemade cream cheese frosting at nearly full strength sweetness. Paired with the white candy shell, that was way too sweet. The second time around, I whipped the frosting left over from my first attempt--maybe a cup?--with another block of Neufchatel and some more vanilla. That made for a less sweet frosting and a far tastier pop.
4.  I didn't let the balls chill sufficiently before dipping them, and this is probably the most important thing. If they're not nice and cold--the second time, mine were pretty much frozen--the candy coating won't stick well. I had mine in the freezer for probably at least an hour before dipping them, and I wouldn't go with any less than that.

The second time, thanks to the knowledge gained from my first failure, things went much better. The pops actually tasted good--rich, more like dense brownies or even truffles, but good--and were superfun to eat. I wish I'd had a bit more time to decorate them; as it was, after all that fussiness, I was really pressed for time, and ended up slapping on some extra cream cheese frosting piped from a Zip-lock bag. I think I did all 31 (I think that's the number I ended up with, unintentionally!) in about four minutes.

They were a fair amount of work, but a big hit--so festive! I'd love to give them another try sometime, and do fun decorations. There is lots more inspiration over at Bakerella; check it out!

Already...

...I'm starting to run out of things to say. Things, in any case, I feel inspired enough to "say" by tapping the screen on my TouchPad (I just mentioned my new technology AGAIN! Story on it coming soon). It makes blogging from bed much easier, but not enough easier that I'm willing to tap out that story now.

NABLOPOMO!

It's November again (what? already?), and so, as is my habit at this time of year, I'm once again attempting 30 posts in 30 days with National Blog Posting Month. I must admit I'm off to a less than stellar start, writing this post at 11pm after a long evening of teaching (though maybe I can get some credit for doing so on my new Touchpad, from bed?), but hopefully future posts will be a bit more thoughtful and substantive.

As usual, I invite all of you blogging Alert Readers (if I have any left!) to join me in this endeavor. AnGloPhOne (auto-corrected; 'can't figure out how to change it back) is much more fun with friends. Here's to an inspiring November!

Crema

A few weeks ago, David and a friend and I biked to a cafe about a mile and a half from our house, called Crema. We had brunch on their uber-charming patio, and then, because it was so irresistible, we had some homemade ice cream from their impressive display. Since then, David and I have been back there twice for frozen treats.

Tonight, we stopped in after dinner at the Minnow. We shared a triple scoop(!): strawberry basil sorbet, topped, at the scooper's recommendation, with banana ice cream and pineapple mango basil sorbet. It was amazing. I'm not a huge banana fan, but the ice cream tasted like banana bread batter smells--buttery and creamy and delicious. The pineapple mango chaser had just the right amount of fruity tang--plus the clean, herby hint of basil.

"This place is as good as the Patisserie!" I gushed.
"It's better," David said.
"Better?" I asked.
"It's not in Walla Walla!"

When I recovered from laughing, I said, "I would blog that--but half the people who read my blog live in Walla Walla!"

David didn't care, and here I've gone and blogged it. Walla Walla people, I love you! I love your patisserie! And when you come visit me here in Mpls, I'll take you to Crema and you can judge its wonders for yourself!

California

Well hello there, abandoned blog. I've lost track of all the things I've intended to post about here, but among them are:

• Trip to California last weekend
• My sister's visit the week before that
• Trip to Hawaii before that
• The garden! (/squirrel salad bar)
  
• M's wedding (on a BOAT)
• And even my new pillow shams

So. Here are a few of the California pictures!

Throwing pottery on the back porch

The brothers relaxing

Siblings in the back seat

El Burrito!

David & me at graduation

Becca at graduation

The siblings after graduation

Martin in his dashing ascot

The graduates

Becca and Hoosteen graduated from dental school, and it was very inspiring. Very inspiring to finish my own doctorate, that is, and to have my family come for a big party! It's time to get this dissertation done.

Entertaining Vegans

Last Friday night, we had the Wonders over for dinner, and I enjoyed planning an entirely vegan menu. Bradley, who is much better at blogging than am I, wrote about it here. The only thing he forgot was the steamed broccoli and carrots. The thing I forgot was the edamame that was to have been our appetizer. (David and I did eat edamame tonight, made extra special with my new Maldon salt*)!

Sunday morning, we had the downstairs neighbors up for a distinctly non-vegan brunch--red potato and caramelized onion quiche, Swedish fruit soup, and mini-croissants.

This coming weekend, we're having another couple of friends over for brunch--she a historical quasi-vegetarian, and he a devoted carnivore. Weekend before last, they had us, and another vegetarian-ish couple, over for brunch, and she made a really nice cheesy egg dish with green chilies that pleased even the carnivore. I will try to do as much (and welcome, as always, suggestions!).

The new table has been inspiring, apparently, for entertaining. I'm sorry it hasn't been more inspiring for blogging, so far; I really will try to do better.

*This is the most amazing, lightly crunchy, flaked sea salt. SaltWorks has the best price I've seen--and they're offering free shipping.

Chair

Things about which I should have blogged by now:

• Wedding On A Boat
• The Move
• Moving in
  
• Housewarming party

That should about cover the flybys, right?

For now, here's a chair, to match my new writing desk. I found it at Saver's with a $7.99 price tag, but it rang up at $4.31. Score! The cashier told me it would be .99 if I waited until the next day, but I figured the extra $3 was worth it to have it in my possession immediately.

I took off the seat, lightly sanded it, spray-painted with two light coats of semi-gloss black spray paint (enough so that the brown of the wood barely shows through), recovered the seat with upholstery fabric I found yesterday at my favorite fabric warehouse, and put it back together. David helped.

I got enough fabric to reupholster the seats of the dining set that we don't yet have, but which I am hoping to find--one cheap, but with potential! I saw a contender at the St. Vincent De Paul this weekend, and am sort of monitoring the situation.

Anyway, the chair is not a super-dramatic update, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'd been looking for a bolder, more geometric upholstery pattern, but fell in love with the tiny bubbles on this one. When I got it home, I realized it might be simultaneously too posh and too boring... but for the present I think it works fine.

1/11/11

Last Tuesday, when I noticed that it was the 4th of January and that I hadn't blogged since the 4th of December, I resolved to post something. Needless to say, I failed to do so.

But anyway, I'm back! I guess sometimes a date is enough of a motivation.

I was in the Northwest for about 10 days over the holidays and had a really excellent time. I flew into and out of Seattle, but in between also got to visit W2 and Portland. Among other things, I got to hang out with old friends and family, meet two brand-new babies, see my favorite mountains, and cook and consume lots and lots of delicious food.

Now I'm back, where it's all the predictable old things (cold, snowy, sunny when it's not snowing) and also delightful new ones (fleece sheets! hot yoga in the WINTER!). It's getting late now, but speaking of things I came back to, next time remind me to tell you the Tale of The Leaking ("It's a Natural Disaster!") Roof. Good times.

NaBluhhhh

It's the last day of NaBloPoMo, and I'm done for another year! I missed three days this time around, which I think is a dubious new record for me. I'm glad to have attempted it--and glad it's over.