Halloween 2008

I know this is a really late post. I started the post a couple weeks ago, and somehow it was lingering in "draft" stage. So I'm finally getting it up here. Enjoy!

Thora was an adorable penguin this year for Halloween. Here are the highlights:

What Magic Exists in Your World, Thora?

So today, Thora and I have been playing this game where she pretends that any sound she hears from our living room is a goat or an owl. In her mind today, these animals are the two most likely suspects for the noises coming from our upstairs neighbors, the car horns or truck engines outside, our dog lying down with a thump underneath the computer table, etc. In her mind, we now live in a barn, occupied solely by goats and owls.

Later this morning, as we were getting ready to leave the house, she repeatedly said something that I couldn't figure out but sounded like "apple pie?" I said to her, "Are you saying 'apple pie?'" "Yeah," she says. "But you don't even know what apple pie is?" We never really got to the bottom of this, because many little distractions happened, who knows what, and the topic was dropped.

Then, today, while I was feeding her lunch, we heard a car beep its horn outside. "What was that noise?" I ask. "Was it a car?" But she says, "No. Goat. Mahhhh... mahhhh." "It was a goat?" I ask, and she says, "No. Ow-ell, ow-ell. Oooh oooh." "It was an owl?" And she says, "No. Booo booo." "It was a cow?" I ask... It goes on like this for another 3 or 4 dozen animals, until the last one when I say, "Was that a kitty cat?" and she says, "No. Apple Pie." "Apple Pie? That noise that sounded just like a car horn was an apple pie?" "Yeah," she said, without any hesitation. What magical entity might "apple pie" be in Thora's imagination? I feel like it could be all Willy Wonka in there or Dr. Suess. If only we could know what's going on between those ears of hers.

Thora Takes Care of her Babies

Here's a little narrative snapshot of my (at times) angel baby.

Thora has LOVED her mini-stroller since we got it, several months ago. For the longest time, up until, say a few weeks ago, the stoller was just for pushing. Nothing could ride in there. Nothing. It didn't matter if Mommy was carrying a bag and pushing the big stroller and dealing with a discarded coat and now the sippy cup is falling out of the bag because the bag is so full, can't we just set this little sippy cup right here in the empty stroller? No. The answer to that is, and will always be, an emphatic No. Don't make me tell you again. That's how life was for a long time.

Then, one day when Thora and I were walking back from the dog park, each of us pushing a stroller (I get to push the big stroller and deal with a pulling, ground-sniffing, squirrel-lunging dog while keeping the toddler from running out into the road or stomping through someone's landscaping or from peering down into a window well, so this is always a really fun outing for me--come to think of it, why do I ever do that?), when Thora noticed a folded blanket in the bottom basket under the big stroller. She wanted it out. She wanted to hold it. She wanted to, was determined to figure out a way to hold the blanket in her arms (NOT over her forearm like a waiter, which was Mommy's idea), and push her mini-stroller at the same time. This did not work. What with the mittens. And her somewhat lacking fine motor skills. So I suggested that we roll the blanket up, in the general shape and size of a baby and put it in her stroller to push. And she went for it. The funniest part of the hour-long journey home (we're traveling something like 10 blocks, a trip that takes me 8 minutes to walk) was when Thora managed to tip over the stroller. "Oh No. Oh No. Baby. Baby!" she said, pointed at the blanket that was laying on the cold sidewalk. "It's okay," I said. "We'll just pick the baby up and put her back in." I did that. And Thora proceeds to say, "Okay, Baby. Okay," while patting the rolled up blanket. She was saying, "it's okay Baby, it's okay." That just about broke my heart and made everything wonderful and blissful... for about a second, because then she refused to hold my hand while crossing the street and dropped to the sidewalk to roll around and throw a tantrum. Then everything was back to normal.

So for a few weeks, we've been transporting blanket babies around the neighborhood, most recently, a set of fraternal blanket baby twins, a green blanket and a pink blanket. And I thought it adorable, but also a bit sad, when I would see her pass a pile of folded laundry in the hallway, spot a folded towel (oh, yeah, one day the blanket baby was really an old towel) and say to it, "okay Baby. Okay," while patting it lovingly. Do I need to get her a real baby doll? Is she really living this life without any knowledge of how pitiful it is?

Then yesterday, she wanted to push her monkey in her stroller, which she alternates calling "monkey" and "ooh ahh ahh," (Thora was taught that a monkey says "ooh ooh ahh ahh" while scratching it's armpits). Earlier in the day, we'd passed a pinwheel in someone's front yard, spinning madly in the wind. She loved this pinwheel. It was one of the last things she said before taking her nap, and I swear, it was the first thing she said when she woke up. "Noun and noun?!? Noun and Noun? Outside?!? Outside?!?" So after getting the piddliest of post-nap snacks in her, our mission was to go see the pinwheel. And surprisingly, this was a sight that she very much wanted the monkey to see as well. And so the monkey, the first object representing something animated, sat in the stroller and we headed out to see the pinwheel (like two and half blocks away, but given all that she is curious about, two and a half blocks can take us 25 minutes).

And sure enough, we didn't get but a half a block when Thora saw an airplane, a shiny silver arrow in the clear, blue sky. "Air-pane. Air-pane," she said. And I said yes, that I saw it too. And then she leaned over so that her face was inches from her monkey's face and said, "Air-pane. Air-pane," and pointed up. "Does he see it? Should we help him see it?" I asked and I picked up the monkey and held him up like I would hold a baby, facing the direction of the disappearing airplane. Then I put him back in the stroller. I thought that might do it. That we could continue on to see the pinwheel and then hopefully make it to the park before nightfall at 4:45pm. (It was 4:05.) No. Thora really wanted to be the one giving her monkey this experience. She picked up the monkey by the head, like you might pick up an apple, and she held the monkey up in the direction of the airplane, now long gone. Her fingers were covering the monkey's plastic eyes, his body hanging limp in a surprisingly sad way. And I was flooded with emotion.

By far, the strongest emotion was pride, that she could understand the beginning lessons of empathy, that she has the desire to help others, that she is nurturing to her little monkey and blanket babies, that she wants them to be "just right" in their stroller. Later, after we'd seen the pinwheel, had actually made it to the park for twenty minutes or so, and were now walking back in the dark, at one point she spent about five minutes adjusting her monkey in the stroller, trying to get his legs just right, and periodically taking him out to softly pat the fur on the back of his head. "This is my beautiful baby!" I thought as I watched her. This is the product of all the time I spend with her, the hours of adult conversation I've forgone over the last year and a half, the repetition of lessons, like "NO STREET" and "NO MOUTH" (meaning "get that rock/crayon/chalk out of your mouth"). This is the product of all the loving caresses, my at times forced patience, my desire to show her the world. Of course, there's a fraction of me that watches her scream just inches from her monkey's face, "Air-pane! Air-pane!" and I wonder, how much of this "nurturing" is her imitation of my nurturing to her. Yikes.

On a related note, at some point I will post about "How to Stifle the Impulsive, Impatient, Coercive Side to Yourself and Find the 'Zen Parent' Within." Seriously. I'm thinking about "the motionless stones that help to move the flowing river" a lot lately, on our 45-60 minute walks to the park. Actually, I don't know if this is part of Zen teaching. I'll need to read up. But seriously. I'm learning to take deep breaths a lot. You should hear me. Really, you should hear the way Thora goes around the house, imitating my long sighing breaths, except she does them with the faintest high-pitched screech. Here's something I don't need to read up on: It's important to keep a sense of humor about things.

A Long Winter Ahead

Today marks the first Monday without a Farmer's Market. No fresh produce from local farms. No fresh baked goods from local bakeries. (Sure, I can get baked goods, but Thora and I had gotten quite used to Hi-Rise Bakery's molasses cookies!) Last week, I stocked up, loading up Thora's stroller with butternut squash, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, and apples. And so, tonight, in celebration of the great eating we've done all season, of the farmer's who have provided our family with fresh, safe, environmentally sound foods, I'm going to try a new recipe for Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash soup, the main ingredients for which I'm flush. My in-laws sent me the recipe from the New York Times. Here's the link if you want to try it too.

A Little Thora Milestone

A little thing happened today that I want to share.

*(Before I start, I want to remind you of a sound that Thora makes. It's the sound she makes for "tweet." Her tongue goes to the roof of her mouth, as if she's about to say "king" but she doesn't take the tongue off of the roof of her mouth, so it comes out "kng" way in the back of her throat.)

So...

On the way out of the grocery store this morning, one of the cashiers gave Thora two bright orange stickers. Thora wanted me to have one and so on the walk out to the car, we each had one on our coat sleeves. Then, upon loading Thora into the car, I offered it back to her, so she had two again. While I was concentrating on getting out of store's parking lot (insanely crowded even for a Wednesday mid-morning) I hear Thora talking, saying what sounds like "Mon kng... mon kng." I'm focusing on getting out of the spot and maneuvering around some other cars, when it dawns on me: She also uses the "kng" sound to say "two." She was counting!!! She was saying "one two... one two..." counting the two stickers that were on each coat sleeve.

Like I said, this is a little thing, but in the lifespan and development of Thora, this is a big step. I've been trying to teach her to count to 5 by playing this *exhausting* game where she says the
number and I throw her up in the air that many times. (1=1 throw, 2=2 throws, etc.) She's pushing 35 lbs., so you can imagine why I'm only trying to teach her to count to five this way! Anyway, she really loves this game and is always asking/commanding me, "Up Down! Fee [three]!" or "Up Down! Figh [five]!" She knows that she only gets this game once a day but she doesn't let a day go by without playing it. However, despite her love for this game and her connection that this is a game of counting, it's still kind of a chore to get her to say the numbers. She gets that "one" comes first. But then after that, it's kind of random. Often "three" comes after "one". Occasionally, she'll refuse to say a number and merely command, "Up!" Sometimes, she'll even throw a "nine" in there.

So with that as our baseline, to see her count to two today, totally unprompted, was pretty awesome to behold. Through misty eyes, I asked her, "Are you counting? One Two?" and she said "Yeah," and then a few minutes later did it again, and again it was unprompted. I applauded and congratulated her, as much as I could while keeping us on the road. Of course I called Sean and told him right away. And he was ever the proud father. It's moments like these that make me feel truly blessed that I am such an constant spectator to Thora growing up. There are many moments when I would trade places with my working (over-worked) spouse in a heartbeat. Many moments when the struggles and frustrations of interacting with such an impatient and demanding person seem to be the price I must pay for not having a career. I know it's fucked-up logic, but at times it does feel like I'm being punished for not being an "earner." But those are the thoughts generated in those moments of breaking spirits and battling wills, when surely my view of the big picture are not in focus. But today, watching her count for the first time, was a "big picture" moment. She's napping, things are calm, and my soul feels like a massive inflated balloon: big and high and boundless.

Kicking the Single-Use Petroleum-Based Plastic Bags Habit

I've become aware that available to the average consumer are totally biodegradable corn-based plastic bags. This plastic was originally created for farmers and used as crop cover, that would decompose into the land. So someone, who will surely going to eco-heaven, has started marketing products using this innovation to regular consumers needing plastics for their homes. Surely an executive somewhere realized that there is money to be made in this area of the market, so it's not a totally altruistic deed, meriting eco-sainthood. Still, reducing the petroleum-based bags that are produced (harmful part 1) and then litter our planet, both on top, like clogging shorelines and waterways, as well as sitting for hundreds of years underground in landfills (harmful part 2 and 3), I applaud and support the effort! These bags from Biobag can decompose between 10 and 45 days, leaving behind no residue. While a bit pricey, I think there is an easy, and long-term cost-effective way to incorporate these into our home.

We re-use plastic grocery and produce bags in a variety of ways before ultimately taking the bags to the recycling bin at the Whole Foods. However, some plastic bags in our house are used only once or at most a few times and those are used to:
* line the 13-gallon kitchen garbage can
* line an identical 13-gallon bin for recycling
* line the wet cloth diaper pail
* carry with us on our dog walks

These are my next steps in order to try to eliminate our household reliance on the single-use petroleum-based plastic bag, by replacing those old bags with either these corn-based, compostable plastic bags or with washable liners:

Step 1) Purchase kitchen bags ($4.75 for a box of 12) and doggie waste bags ($4.29 for a bundle of 50) from BuyGreen.com. Use these kitchen bags for the kitchen waste only, to which we accumuluate 1 bag per week. So a box of 12 would last us 3 months. (Not too bad for less than $5.) We will stop using the plastic grocery bags and produce bags for dog waste and instead use these Biobags exclusively. The plastic grocery bags can still be re-used for produce at the store and for other purposes, but will ultimately end up in the plastic bag recycling bin.

Step 2) Purchase 4 stuff sacks (2 small ones--$6.95 each--for the diaper pail and 2 large ones--$17.95 each--for the kitchen recycling bin), like these found at TinyTush.com, the diapering website where I purchased Thora's cloth diapers. Line the wet cloth diaper pail and wash it along with the diapers when needed. Since I will have two, I'll always have a clean diaper pail liner to use. The same method will apply for the recycling bin, which I was lining before to keep from cleaning up the inevitable leaks of rinsed-out-but-not-totally-dry bottles of beer, wine, juice, milk, random gunk, etc. This way, we'll dump the recycling and wash the liner when needed, replacing it with the spare, clean liner.

While there is the unavoidable upfront cost of the washable stuff sacks, I think they will pay for themselves relatively quickly, since we'll have reduced our home's need of a plastic bin liner by over 50%. And even if they don't quite pay for themselves that quickly in terms that are apparent in our monthly budget (what would be quick enough?), I'm not sure that I care all that much. If the financial burden for me is slightly more so that the environmental burden on the planet and my fellow human beings can be slightly less, well, it's a no-brainer.

Highlights from our trip to Chicago

I can't believe I didn't post once during the month of October. Granted, Thora and I were away for a week, and then we hosted the in-laws for a week, and then there was Halloween, and a slew of other moments from our daily life that dragged me up or down. Anyway, I'm glad to be back. To catch up, first I want to post some of the highlights from Thora's and my trip back home to visit friends and family in Chicago last month.

Thora loved this ramp at the Elawa Farm Forest Preserve.

Thora enjoying the fruits of the Apple Holler apple orchard and pumpkin patch

Thora doing her impression of an elephant at Chicago's Field Museum

Thora on her first carousel ride

In the sheep and goat pen at Lamb's Farm












Thora and NuNu at Apple Holler












Thora and Grandpa Bob







Thora and Aunt Natalie at the Rainforest Cafe
















Thora getting her first haircut from Grandma Jane











Thora and Great-Grandma Trish










and with Great-Grandpa Jim Pat

Farmer's Market Bounty: Roasted Red Peppers

This past week has been all about preserving (for days/weeks but not months) the fresh produce from the weekly Farmer's Market. In addition to making oven-dried tomatoes, I wanted to preserve the large, red peppers that I picked up this week. I've been thinking about red peppers, marinated in herbs, oil, and vinegar, and what a wonderful accompaniment they would make to salads and on pita bread with goat cheese. (Now that I've got the cheesemaking bug, I think goat cheese is my next accomplishment.) Anyway, I found this great resource for roasting peppers and keeping them. (While there are a ka-gillion recipes that call for roasted red peppers, if they don't require you to open a jar, then you are expected to use them all up as part of a larger recipe.) I wanted information on how to dress up roasted red peppers that would keep in the fridge to be added to snacks and meals over the course of a few weeks. And I found here, in a New York Times Health piece.

I started by grilling the peppers directly on the burner. I actually woudn't recommend doing two front to back like this, since I would occasionally "warm" my forearm while reaching over the front pepper to check and turn the back pepper. I moved the back pepper to the left front burner and that was a much safer way to roast two at a time. It took about 5 minutes or so to roast each pepper.

Here is a pepper almost completely roasted. Its skin is almost completely blackened.

Then, once I'd charred each pepper as well as I could, I put them each in a bowl and covered tightly with cling wrap. They stay in there, steaming a bit, until they cool. Once they're cooled down, after about ten minutes, I peeled off the blackened skin, which comes off very easily. It breaks apart and sticks to your hands, so I found it helpful to rinse my hands repeatedly. (I remember vaguely reading somewhere that you want to resist just putting the peppers under running water--although that is a super easy way to get the skin off--since it washes away a lot of the roasted flavor. I don't remember where I read or heard this--or maybe I've invented this. Anyway, because of this half-memory of something that might not even be true, I resisted putting them under the faucet, and instead, put my hands under the faucet.

Once they were peeled, I followed the suggestions in the recipe. I a) sliced in half over a bowl (you want to keep all the juice that is caught inside the pepper); b)seeded and cored the pepper; c) sliced the halves into strips and put those in a separate bowl with the strained juices; d) added dried basil (would've used fresh, of course, but had none on hand), sea salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, about 3 garlic cloves minced, and 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar; e) I mixed it all up to evenly distribute all the flavors and then put them into jars for the fridge--well, one pickle jar and one plastic take-out container.

After tasting a few this morning, I might add a bit more vinegar and perhaps more dried seasonings. But they're fresh and bright-tasting. The first thing I thought of when biting into one was how good they would taste on a pizza.

Farmer's Market Bounty: Oven-Dried Cherry Tomatoes

Last night was full of culinary victory in my house. In addition to successfully making homemade mozzarella cheese, I successfully, and tastily, preserved some beautiful cherry tomatoes by oven-drying--a variation on sun-dried tomatoes.

It has become more and more important to me to gather up as much of the fresh, in-season produce from local farms. But to have it sustain us beyond it's limited window of edibility is always a challenge. Either the produce sits in the fridge too long, or on the counter. Life happens. My intention for veggie-heavy meals get lost in shuffle, when nights get late before we've even started cooking, and we often forego the second side of veggies for some other leftover. (Or we fill up on tomatoes on herbed and olive-oiled baguette slices, which is becoming more and more a pre-dinner treat that we love.) Or instead of finding their way into fresh smoothies, peaches grow soft on the counter as I spend what seems like every waking minute prying non-food items from Thora's jaws, or keeping her this side of melt-down, from a log-rolling tantrum. Needless to say, all my Monday-Morning-Farmer's-Market hopes for healthy, responsible, globally-sustainable eating sometimes goes by the wayside, or specifically into the the compost bin. But because I hate that sense of failure as I drop the wilted greens or squishy fruit in with the compost that not every bite got eaten, I've been eye-ing the produce at the Farmer's Market with specific thoughts of semi-preserving. (I'm not canning, so the preserving I'm doing here extends the lifespans of the produce by several weeks in the fridge, rather than months on the shelf.)

So last night's success was oven-dried tomatoes. I cut in half about 1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes, scooped out their seeds with a grapefruit spoon, and laid them cut-side up on a foil-lined baking sheet.

(Could these look more like candy?!?)


I put them in a 200 degree oven (the lowest setting on ours) at roughly 10:30pm for what I was thinking might be over night. But at around 12:30am, when I was still up (!), I took a look at them, and they were already shriveled and some quite leathery. So I took them out and put them in a heat-safe bowl. (I will soon be pouring boiling liquid on them, so the bowl needs to be tough.)

Then I referred to the recipe in Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, called "Antipasto Tomatoes," which can be found at their website here. I brought about a cup of plain white vinegar to a boil (just what we had on hand and a quantity that I eyeballed and assumed to be enough to cover my small amount of tomatoes). After it came to a boil, I poured it into the bowl over the dried tomatoes, tossed in a few whole cloves of garlic, and let the tomatoes and garlic steep for 10 minutes. Then, I scooped out the tomatoes and garlic from the vinegar and, by pressing them, drained as much of the vinegar off as I could. (I reserved the vinegar that is all carmel-colored and tomato- and garlic-infused now and sure to be good in some new incarnation.) Once drained, I tossed the tomatoes and garlic with dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. (I used dried since I didn't have fresh herbs on hand, but would surely use fresh if given the option.) I put them into a jar and poured olive oil over them to cover (see top photo).

I tried some this morning, and they're quite yummy. There's still a subtle vinegar hit to the taste, which I'm not sure I want there or not. The vinegar bath helps raise the acidity so as to help prevent the bacteria that causes botulism, so it's necessary. But perhaps I could've pressed harder when draining and gotten more of the vinegar out before they went into the jar. But I think they will be nice on salads, on crusty bread, or tossed with pasta. I plan to get some plum tomatoes on Monday and do this again, for one reason, that I'd like to try again and see what happens with a meatier tomato--one that has more substance to it after it's been seeded--but ultimately, I have a feeling these won't last long.

Next up: Roasted Red Peppers

Cheese! (after 3 tries and finding the right milk)

So tonight didn't end in despair and culinary disappointment. I successfully made my own mozzarella cheese! I can't tell you the elation I felt as the gloppy goop started to turn into stringy goop right before my eyes. The sense of pride as I stretched it between my hands twelve inches, then 18 inches! It was fun and in retrospect, quite easy. Once I landed on the right milk, that is. And for you in Massachusetts, that milk seems to be Garelick brand all-natural milk. (Of course raw milk straight from a farm, your own cow or goat, for example, would be best. But for those of us who don't have ready access to farm milk, so far the store-bought brand that works for me is Garelick.)

The first two times I tried to make cheese, I was using Trader Joe's organic milk*. And despite not being labeled "ultra-pasteurized," it wouldn't result in a curd that ultimately clung together. Perhaps they heat their milk when pasteurizing to a higher temperature than milk that doesn't need to travel as far and be stored as long. Garelick is a Massachusetts company, and so their milk is transported relatively short distances. (For home cheese-making, you must use only non-"ultra pasteurized" milk [or raw milk that you pasteurize yourself] since the curds won't set.)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making my first entree into cheese-making via the supplies and instruction from the folks at The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company at www.cheesemaking.com. Their instructional booklet and dvd are so informative and inspiring. And after having trouble the first time, I emailed them with my problem and they wrote back the very next morning with helpful tips.

Anyway, here's my success:

Here it is, a kind of clingy mass, having separated from the whey.


Then it spends about 2 minutes in the microwave. This is just before it goes in for its first minute.


Here I am pressing it into a single piece (although, it pretty much was a single piece prior to this step) and expressing more whey before going back in the microwave for another 30 seconds.



Working the cheese



Stretching the cheese

And the final product. Viola!

I look forward to working a bit more on final presentation next time. It begins to harden up and take shape before I really knew what was happening, so I was stuck with a less than perfect globe of shiny, white mozzarella. It tastes great. I look forward to it with baguette toasts and heirloom tomatoes tomorrow!


* While my experience seems to suggest that Trader Joe's milk doesn't work for home cheese-making, we are happy with both their organic and regular brands for daily drinking for both us and Thora.