Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Jesus' love of Kansas's prairies is inspiring

A legal issue that affects* us all. (not really).

*yes that is an edit.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Away

Travelling tomorrow. I will be absent from Kansas until next week and visiting my dear loved ones in Oregon. I hopefully will get to visit my trees and say hello to them and give kisses to the baby. I'll be certain to whisper your name in forest so that he will remember you. I'll let the little family I'm visiting know that you miss them too.

Monday, October 16, 2006

If I knew you were coming I'd have bought a cake

I figured out that cooking makes me feel like I'm heading toward an inevitable Lucy Ricardo moment. I tried to cook a simple soup recipe this Sunday for myself because I actually felt like cooking a meal. I got home with the ingredients I needed and realized that I didn't read the recipe all the way and that I actually needed 3 zucchini instead of 1. So I tried to compensate by using less of everything which worked out fine.

Then I got out the blender because the recipe required that everything be pureed. As I was pulling the blender down from the cabinet, I remembered my last cooking experience where I became a 30 minute episode heading for a climax in fiasco. I had used my blender to make hummus (remember the tahini quest? The tahini is at the health food store) and it quit working with about half of the chick peas properly mashed and so I had to use a spatula and mash the rest as best as I could. I thought about eating it without the benefit of puree, but it didn't really seem right (not that I would "know" right from wrong with regard to a cooking project, it was just a gut instinct).

I drove to Target and realized that my head was pounding and that I felt nauseated. Yep, I hadn't eaten breakfast and it was almost 2 pm. So I bought a new blender and resisted the urge to stop at Taco Bell on the way home. I pureed. The soup was ok. Rather anti-climactic for the time I invested and wooziness.

At the end of this meal I realized I had a storage problem. Where do I put the soup? I had to puree in about 3 batches and I had no tupperware that size. Everyday Food said it should be stored in an airtight container (don't question the recipe--obey), but I only found one old frozen blueberries plastic tub and for some reason I didn't have any more containers (I suspect that I have given some food away recently in my other tubs).

Frustrated, I went to Walgreens (it's closer than Target-- about 7 blocks from my house) and looked for new containers. I was unhappy with their selection and remembered a pitcher I had purchased this summer with a twist top (one of those summery looking things that makes you want to make sun tea). I thought, "that would be great!" So I went back home empty handed and searched for my summer pitcher, but could not locate the silly thing. (If anyone remembers what happened to it let me know. The last thing I remember it holding was sangria).

What was left sits airtightish in my fridge in the blender pitcher it was pureed in. Anyway, if you would like a helping of zucchini curry soup or whatever it is stop by. I cannot possibly eat that much soup on my own.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

99 red balloons-- ok one pink balloon

I walked downtown this morning to marketfest, a newish festival intended to bring people downtown though the activities sort of offset whatever benefit the downtown merchants hoped to receive. The wind is at about 30 mph today and steady so the outdoor activities were difficult and sometimes littering was out of your hands. I walked back home after meeting up with family and eating bierocks (they weren't nearly as good as the one's I had a whimmydiddle in Scott City last weekend, but oh well. I think I may have eaten bierocks 3 weekends in a row because the weekend before that was Oktoberfest. 1st goes to Scott City's NW KS cook 2nd to the Knights of Columbus and 3rd to the GC Mennonites). I took a pink balloon and walked back home. I had been wondering about the joy the helium-filled balloons seemed to give to the kids. By the time I got home I had remembered a little bit about what is so fun about them. It's like a little companion that stays with you as long as you hold on tight and that wants to run away to play at the same time. Pinky danced in the wind the whole walk home and gave me cheery tug after the mean dog barked at me. Hope everyone is enjoying fall, I am.