Vegetarian Epicure

Tonight I was looking for a new book to start, most preferably a novel to read for five minutes or so before I fall asleep, when I came across the old copy of The Vegetarian Epicure Book 2 that my mom brought up to me a couple months ago. I just want to start cooking my way through this book. It was written for a generation of people who were entering a new era of cooking and eating. It very obviously shirks any notion of cooking "healthy" in the sense that real butter, a variety of cheeses, and other delicious but not low-fat ingredients are often included. But the concept is healthy in another, much more subtle way: that being healthy involves preparing foods with real ingredients. Including lots of vegetables, beans, eggs, herbs and other delicious and flavorful items.
The freshly made corn tortillas, refried beans, and enchiladas have all caught my eye, as my family loves Mexican food. The desserts look decadent and delicious, such as dessert crèpes, cherry & amaretto soufflé, and castilian hot chocolate. The salads and vegetables all seem so simple and tasty I want to try them all!
Unfortunately, this cookbook I've selected for my bed time reading has done little to tire me out tonight. I'm making grocery lists instead of drifting off. And it has become even more imperative that I get up early and do something active so I can delight in a few of these recipes without worry ;) Maybe I'll have some results to post later in the week. A promise of near-future blogging? Perhaps....

Longing to pick up the needles again

I'm just trying to settle on a project. Something quick and gratifying and using a yarn from the stash. I have lots of unfinished projects I could finish. But I just need a quick fix. No time for anything big and involved, even if it is part way done. Sigh. I know what I'm looking for. I will prevail!

Salsa Fresca, Valentines and More

We made halibut tacos the other night and topped it with the most delicious salsa fresca, I had to share.  Plus, I just love pictures of beautiful, colorful produce.  And when my kids are included, even better!  The salsa recipe was given to me by my friend Paul, who learned it in an Allen & Peterson cooking class.  The bell peppers were an excellent addition, and Teagan LOVED the stuff.  She just ate it off a spoon and asked me to make it the next night.  See below for the recipe.  Here she is with some of the vegetables and sampling the halibut.

Salsa Fresca

2-3 tomatoes, diced

1/4 each yellow & green bell peppers, finely chopped

1 jalapeno seeded & finely diced

1/4 of a large onion, finely chopped

2 T. cilantro, chopped

2 T. lime juice

1 T. olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

For the halibut, I just made a dry rub out of chili powder, cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, and pepper, coated the halibut in olive oil and a little lime juice, coated it with the rub, and cooked in my cast iron skillet at high heat till done.  Served on warm corn tortillas with salsa fresca and sliced avocado.  Yum!

For Valentine's Day, Teagan made hearts with pencils for "arrows" since they weren't supposed to bring candy.  Although lots of the kids did bring candy.  I guess it probably would have been worse if they hadn't told people not to bring candy.  Here she is after completing all of the valentines and laying them out to dry.  And here is Aidan with THREE suckers in his mouth after the party at his daycare.  He is a glutton for sweets!  Plus some photos of Teagan after her hair cut the other day, and making a bracelet with some beads she got for Christmas. She loves to make stuff.

Staple crazy lady!

Here is a quote from someone related to me.  Kooky, no?  I just couldn't help it, this was so funny!

I am really excited to use a complete box of staples.  I know this is very strange, but I have this funny excited feeling when I finish a strip of staples in my stapler and then put in the new strip from the box.  It gives me this little high to know that I will use an entire box all by myself.  I think it is because I always felt like staples were one of those things that you bought, but NEVER would use all that you bought.  That you would lose the box before you ever finished it, and then buy another, and then find the first one.  And you would have enough staples to last a lifetime in your house.  But I guess it is different at work.  Still, I only have 7 strips left in my box.  1,470 left to go, I've used 3,530 (which includes the strip I just put in my stapler).

I have lots of good posts brewing in my head, I just don't have the energy to get them down on "paper."  If this cough would just go away, I might feel a little better.  I'm stalling bedtime, too, and I need to get the kids to sleep.  They don't do anything I want them to unless I ride them all the time. Sigh. Good night and Happy Valentine's Day this weekend!

Semicolons are a beautiful thing; please do not abuse their usage!

I love grammar.  I'm not very good at naming all of the various components, like there's a split infinitive, or that's a dangling participle, but I have a natural grasp of it.  I just love love love technical writing.  I try to avoid being technical on this blog, because I can stand some improvement in the creative writing arena.  However, I have been working on some documents written by a coworker who "adores" semicolons.  I don't have a problem with this; I, too, love the semicolon.  I do have a problem with his constant improper use of the semicolon.  How can you express adoration for a punctuation mark that you are completely unable to properly use?  I recently provided the following guidance to him, and I'm hoping to see a reduction in frighteningly inaccurate semicolon use:

The key to proper semicolon use in a sentence (as opposed to its use in a list of items) is that it should only be used to split two complete sentences; if you read the portion before the semicolon separately from the portion following the semicolon, they will form two independent, complete sentences. If either side of the semicolon does not form a complete sentence, do not use a semicolon in that location. Check out http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/04/ or http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/semicolons.aspx. As long as they are properly used, go forth and pepper your text with semicolons!! ~T

Another of my tech editing pet peeves is unnecessarily complicated technical writing.  Keep it simple and straightforward and I guarantee you will be much more effective at conveying your idea.  Believe me, complicated sentences do not make a person seem any smarter...quite the contrary!  There is nothing more satisfying to me in technical writing than creating a well-read, rational, easy to follow bit of text without a lot of complicated sentences or jargon.

Stepping down from the soap box for now.  Until next time....

Go Holly!

I just want to say that I am so excited for Holly Brooks, who will be skiing for the US Olympic Team!  She worked with me at Weston Solutions a few years ago, and I was always impressed with her drive and dedication as a skiier.  She acted as our Weston Wellness coordinator, and, as you might expect, she did a fantastic job.  I will be glued to the tv as she races her way to Olympic glory.  I've added a link to her blog in my favorites on the right side bar, so go wish her well if you have a chance!  Alaska has also contributed skiiers Kikkan Randall and James Southam (who is married to an old co-worker of mine) to the US Ski Team.  Good luck to all of the Alaska competitors in this year's Olympics!

I is for seeking Improvement

I sort of suck at Scrabble, but I want to be better!  I want to kick my friend Kelley's butt!!  Therefore, I am seeking improvement.  I am studying two letter words, like aa and mo, and words without vowels, like hmm and shh (or hm and sh), and q words without u, like qat and qi.  The Scrabble dictionary is a mysterious thing, really, quite unlike any normal dictionary I've ever seen.  Don't expect to find all of the normal words in it, and you can be certain there are a lot of really odd words that you would never use in day-to-day life.  I was particularly disappointed to discover that "fart" is not in the Scrabble dictionary.  Really?  Fart isn't a Scrabble word???  "Bitchen" is, however, in the Scrabble dictionary, I was delighted to learn on Sunday evening as Kelley and I battled out our second game of the night.   

I also just finished reading the book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.  I loved it.  I love the writing style and the mix of pop culture/history/fiction.  I loved all of the new words I had to look up.  I probably won't remember many of them this time, but if there's one thing I've figured out as I've gotten wiser (read: older), there is nothing like a lot of books under your belt to help build a vocabulary (which goes hand-in-hand with adding years under the belt as well).  Happy Scrabble to you, my friend(s).

H is for what the Hell?

Why would I think F comes after G?  Oh well.  My debut back into the blogging world can't be perfect!

F! F is for re-Finding my Blog

How did I get back here? I'm not really sure, but it was such a joy to look at my last post and remember my alphabet blogging and all of the other things I posted about before disappearing for more than a year.

Why did I disappear in the first place? Hmmm. I think this new world of Facebook and Twitter has displaced my blog to some extent. After all, I'm a busy mom and I don't have a lot of time to devote to this sort of thing. Facebook is instant gratification defined. Pop on, check out everyone's goings-on, new photos, etc., post a one-sentence status, and leave. (Although sometimes it's the "leaving" part that I have trouble with.)

Maybe I'll come back to blogging. I miss it. I miss knitting, too. It can be a dual come back (I never finished Versatility because, alas, I ran out of yarn and by the time I got more, I'd lost the momentum).

Because I hate to post without pictures, here's a beautiful photo of the Sagavanirktok River on the North Slope of Alaska.

g, g, g what begins with G? Goodies from the Garden, g, g, g!

On Saturday we had friends over for dinner. I made seafood chowder and salad with pears, blue cheese, candied walnuts & grapes. Today my mother in law arrived at our house and we had poached salmon, oven roasted potatoes, and broccoli & cheese. Good stuff. I'm always excited when we harvest potatoes from the garden. I love to dig them up, it's like digging for treasure. And they're so fresh and firm and beautiful. This year we grew Yukon gold and a purple variety. Can you believe how beautiful these purple potatoes are?

Seared silver salmon and Yukon gold potatoes before they went into the seafood chowder. We ate a lot of salmon & potatoes this weekend, but it was all tasty.

Rich started a batch of wine, a Zinfandel I think, and a batch of mead this weekend.

More potato pictures because they were just so pretty. This was right before I roasted them in the oven.

The sun came out this afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful fall day. We had to get some of those pre-winter season chores taken care of. We split the bleeding heart that should have been split about four years ago. Raked a few leaves. Cut back some perennials. Scooped some dog poop. Went for a short walk. Short because Teagan's stomach started hurting and she actually threw up in the middle of the road. It was really strange, and not even a full-blown barf fest (not like the time she threw up into my cupped hands in the grocery store, anyway). She doesn't seem sick, so hopefully it was just some random weird thing.... (On another, less revolting note, don't you love my pink fence? It's one of the remnants from our little pink house. You'd think we'd have painted it when we painted the house, but no.)

In response to the comment and questions about versatility: first of all, how fun that we're knitting the same color versatility! I'm finding the dimensions to be really strange as well. I'm knitting mine on size 11 needles, and it still seems fewer than 19 inches wide, but easily stretches to that and beyond, so I'm not too worried about it. What's bothering me more is that I started on my third skein two rows before I reached the halfway point! The whole thing is only supposed to take three skeins!! At this rate, I'll have to start a fifth skein to finish it according to the pattern! If I'm consistent, I'll be four rows short of making it with four skeins, so I'm considering shortening it a little. I REALLY don't want to go buy another ball, though it would be fun to knit some matching gloves or a hat or something with the leftover yarn.

Happy knitting!

F is for Forks (or lack thereof), Flips, and (halfway) Finished objects

Lots of good F stuff today! Aidan is practicing with dishes and silverware. As you can see, the fork isn't getting much use. But the spaghetti was good enough to slurp right out of the bowl. This was a meal we followed immediately with bathtime!


Teagan just learned to do a real cartwheel. I didn't get the best shots ever, but here she is showing off her moves. She's such an active kid!



Finally, I thought I'd proudly show off my progress on Versatility. Exactly one-half is complete. Here's Teagan modeling the first half for me. It looks sort of afghan-ish in this picture, hopefully just because Teagan's wearing it like a blanket.


So do any of my devoted readers (ha ha) watch Project Runway? Is Kenley just about as annoying as can be? I like her designs, but she's driving me so crazy!! She's always so smug. And what was that crap about her getting the "pretty" girl for the last challenge? Ugh. I'm ready for her to go. I wish Blaine was back, though, I loved him and his tanorexia. He made me think of my friend Slade. Anyway, I had to dish a little about the show. I just love it; even Heidi is growing on me.

Sayonara!

Ah, fall must be here

Because the knitting bug has bit!! The turning leaves, chilly days, and lengthening nights always make me crave knitting or other crafty goodness. They also make me excited for the new fall lineup, primarily Grey's Anatomy, but I can save my television obsessions for later. This post is about my current knitting obsession. This post is for Rhiannon. She called me the other night to look at the new Knitty patterns; one pattern in particular, called Versatility. She loves it. She caused me to love it. And now I am knitting it. I'm so excited about it for so many reasons:

1. I haven't done anything crafty in SO long!
2. I love knitting, or at least thinking about knitting, accessories, such as leg warmers, hats, gloves, scarves, arm bands, etc., and this is sort of an accessory, but more!!
3. I have never knitted a lace pattern, bobbles, or cables, and this has all of them. I can't believe how long I've avoided cables; they are SO easy! And the pattern is really fun to knit.
4. The yarn I'm using is called cafe au lait. Yummy. It is the most beautiful variegated brown ever. More than anything, I'm a freak for yummy fiber (not the edible variety).
5. I love to tease Rhiannon that I'm knitting it because she wants to knit it but wants to finish her other projects first. Finish a project? What's the big deal? I rarely finish anything, as Rhiannon and my husband have been pointing out to me all weekend. But I do hope to finish this, as I really want to wear it.

Ciao for now...I have some knitting to do (oh yeah, and Teagan to put to bed, and laundry, and, well, knitting...).

E is for Exhausted

Why am I still up? This is why I don't get on the computer at home. I'm not getting enough sleep right now because everyone in my house has been sick over the past week, and Aidan's teething is driving him, and subsequently me, to distraction. He's been needy and cranky during the day and waking up a lot at night. Sigh. That's just life with kids.

So I love this little sequence. I would put it in a collage like Rhiannon if I only knew how. One day I will learn.They were so cute I wanted a picture of them together, but Aidan was having none of it.

He just wanted me to hold him, which is par for the course these days. So is this face.

But how cute is my big kindergartener? She is so big I am amazed whenever I look at her. School suits her well, and she is doing great in the Japanese immersion program. It is an amazing program; she has already learned so much! (I've been so out of touch on this blog I don't think I've mentioned any of this. But there it is: Teagan just started kindergarten in a Japanese immersion program!)

Well, sayonara for now!

D is for...Don't know what

What the heck is wrong with me. I've been thinking about D for a week and couldn't come up with anything. I'm D-challenged. Or maybe I just wasn't really looking for a great D word. Hmmm. I just decided (there's a d) to move on. So here's a picture of Aidan and Teagan playing with the alphabet in the tub. It's sort of related, right?



Aidan's 1st birthday was Thursday. He's such a sweet baby. He was 21.5 pounds and nearly 30 inches long. He hasn't walked yet but he's close. He says mama and dada and that's about it. But he can throw a ball like no 1 year old should. And he's a fast crawler. He crawls like a bulldog with his elbows poking out and he slaps his hands on the wood floor as loudly as possible. He loves to eat. I can't believe a year ago I'd just barely kicked this latest (and last) resident out of my womb.

Aidan eating a birthday "cupcake" (ie, muffin)

This picture was taken in our camper on a camping trip a few weeks ago. I just liked it.

C is for CAKE...birthday cake, that is

Teagan's birthday was June 30. Five years old! She's made this transition from toddler to child in the past year, and sometimes I just can't believe it when I look at her. She starts school in just a few weeks, and I am both so scared and so excited for her I can barely stand to think about it for too long. She is a beautiful, smart, sassy girl who gets her feelings hurt easily. I know she'll be great in school, but I worry that all the other kids will be more savvy than she is. Isn't that silly? She spent the night away at a friend's house the other night and I could barely sleep for worry that she might wake up scared in the middle of the night.

How hard, this parenting thing. We have to instill confidence and independence in our babies but when they run off on their own we just wish we could carry them so they don't fall and skin their knees.

Well the birthday party was fun. We had it at Valley of the Moon park, and although the turnout was low, the kids had a blast! We also had pinatas, which was so fun!

Race ya!!!


Teagan and big brother Austin