Raisin' 'em Right

At dinner tonight someone said the word "margarine." The following exchange ensued.

Evan (11 years old): "What's margarine?"

Me: "Fake butter."

Evan: "Oh, gro-o-o-ss!"

I guess we did pretty well, protecting him from this knowledge for almost 12 years. :-)

The Family that Eats Together

Someone shared this article on Facebook yesterday. It's about the importance of having supper together as a family--sitting around the table at a designated time, eating together, and talking. Especially talking. I couldn't agree more.

I didn't grow up with this experience. I am the youngest of my siblings, and there are seven years between me and the next-youngest. I have a few memories of people being around at mealtimes, but I have more memories of being the only child in the house, and more often than not, eating supper on a TV tray while watching television in the living room. A few times a year one of my aunts would visit, and I cherished those times because when Aunt Lou came we ate around the table. Not only that, Aunt Lou made sure we prayed before we ate.

My husband and I have always had supper together, first without kids, then with kids. I don't remember our making a conscious decision to do so. It's just something we did. Then some years ago one of our pastors taught us how to do an even better job of making mealtime a family event. I wrote about that in a past blog post, but here's a summary:

1) The meal is to begin and end with prayer. Prayer is led by the Table Master (see #2) unless the Table Master assigns someone else to do so.

2) Father is the Table Master. If Father is not present, Mother is the Table Master. If the Table Master desires, he or she can designate someone else as Table Master for the meal.

3) Once the meal has begun, no one leaves the table without requesting and receiving permission from the Table Master.

4) The Table Master designates one of those dining to be the Server. The Server has permission to come and go from the table as needed to meet the needs of those dining.

5) No one leaves the table until all have eaten, the closing prayer has been said, and the Table Master has dismissed the table.

Over the years we have become a little more relaxed with the table rules, especially with the college kids. We don't explicitly appoint a Server. We don't require the adult children to ask permission to get up from the table if they need to get something during the meal. But the general principles remain: the meal begins and ends with prayer. No one leaves the table until the closing prayer is said. Our kids know this and respect it, and even our adult children ask to be excused if they need to leave the table early. (There have been a few times when they were younger that we were eating at someone else's house and our kids kept sitting, and sitting, and sitting, until I realized they were waiting for the closing prayer and dismissal.)

Also over the years, my husband has added another element to our meals: sharing time. There are some meals that are more hurried, so we don't always have sharing time, but we often do. Before the closing prayer, Dad goes around the table asking each person in turn: "Do you have anything to share?" Of course, there has been sharing up to that point. But maybe someone has something to share that he didn't get the opportunity to share earlier. This is his chance to do so while everyone is still present and listening.

There are times now when the college kids are away and Dad's schedule doesn't allow him to come home for supper that it's just me, Evan, and Grandma. Sometimes Evan and I eat at different times from Grandma, and especially when that happens we tend not to take as much time with the meal. I guess that's okay, since Evan and I still spend the majority of every day together, so there is plenty of time for sharing. We still always begin and end with prayer. But I need to make sure that as he grows up, we continue to cherish the family mealtime as we always have. I think the article is spot on. There are immeasurable benefits, not only to the family, but to the individuals in it, in making mealtime a focus of the family's life together. If it is not something you are doing in your own family, it's not too late to start. 

Random

Sometimes my daughter and her friend like to be "random." Seeing as how I still seem to be experiencing major blogger's block, I've decided to take a page out of their playbook and post some random life stuff.

It has been a rather disjointed week for us as a family. My husband spent it at Kitsap Naval Base in Washington (state), leading the music (again) for a Doxology retreat. This one, as well as one at Shaw Air Force Base in North Carolina the week before, was especially for Lutheran chaplains. One of the highlights of the week for this naval officer's son was touring the USS John C. Stennis. Phillip is on the right in the burnt orange shirt.

He was also given an official Navy compass and coin as keepsakes. I am so glad he was able to be a part of this week.

While Phillip was in Washington, the children and I also headed west, although not quite so far! After a wonderful spring break with Trevor home, it was time for him to get back to the books. This time I took Caitlin and Evan with me and we spent an extra day visiting friends: two long 12-hour days of driving (thank goodness for cruise control, satellite radio, and mp3/DVD players!), but it was worth it. The drive there was especially challenging as I had terrible insomnia the night before (I seem to be experiencing another one of my periodic insomnia phases these days). I managed to keep myself going with extra coffee and, when things really got rough, a shot of Five Hour Energy. It is a vitamin/amino acid/caffeine drink that promises "no crash" (the fine print guarantees "no sugar crash" but says nothing about caffeine crashes). One shot has the equivalent of only one cup of coffee, but I suppose the caffeine hits your system much faster than with a cup of coffee since the drink can be downed in several swallows. The bottle says a "niacin rush" is normal due to increased blood flow near the skin. The only thing I noticed was a a little pressure in my ears, but who knows, maybe that was allergies or a cold coming on. Otherwise, I tolerated it well and had no jitters (but I have a pretty high caffeine tolerance) and no trouble getting to sleep that night. I was exhausted!

Unfortunately, I did return from the trip with a nasty cold and spent a couple of days in bed. Haven't been that sick in quite a while. I am feeling better now but wishing I could get those two lost days back! On the other hand, it was a good excuse to watch a couple of movies with Caitlin: Pirates of the Caribbean (first time ever) and Stranger Than Fiction (two completely different viewing experiences, both recommended, the second one particularly if you are a writer or avid reader).

In a couple of weeks I will be playing in the pit orchestra for a school production of Bye, Bye, Birdie. I have done a cursory read through the score but need to get to seriously practicing on it. It is technically not that hard but some of the numbers are in some tricky keys. Also need to file the personal taxes (at least the corporate ones are done--must have something to do with that March 15 deadline!). Yikes!

After several years of going without a lawn service, we have decided to enlist one this year. Our do-it-yourself approach is not eliciting the desired result. The construction project that tore up half of our back yard did not help matters. I expect this will be a "rebuilding" year where our lawn is concerned. I am also hoping to revisit a number of house projects this spring. Since making some major dining room progress a few months back, I have stalled where the house is concerned. Next up: finishing painting the kitchen. Wish me luck.

Nothing in the garden yet except for the chives that come back no matter what we do. :-) I am amazed by my friends who plant early enough that they are already harvesting by this time. We do well to get one round of growing done a year.

School has been hit-and-miss for the last few months. I guess Caitlin's studies have not suffered too much--she attends a homeschool geometry class and has regularly scheduled times for piano, voice, choir, and Tae Kwon Do. And her dad stays on top of the French instruction. She is also quite self-directed and is making her way through Apologia Physical Science. But her history/literature teacher (who shall remain nameless) has been AWOL for the past month. Meanwhile, Evan has been unschooled by default this winter. There has been some reading aloud and geography (via Highlights' Top Secret Adventures) and the occasional math or handwriting page, but it's all been rather intermittent, including the piano instruction (the piano teacher seems to have disappeared about the same time as that aforementioned literature teacher--no doubt, they are off somewhere together, probably up to no good).

Speaking of Tae Kwon Do, Caitlin passed her most recent test! Here she is breaking her board:

Test for High Brown Belt from Cheryl on Vimeo.

I finally finished The Hobbit! Yay, reading success! Now I have moved on to The Hunger Games. It is going much faster than Tolkien. Maybe I am learning to concentrate again or maybe it's just a much easier read. Or maybe both.

I mentioned in my last post my newly discovered passion for sushi. In recent weeks I have had some "cadillac" sushi and some mediocre sushi. The former is some of the best eating I have ever done in my life. Tomorrow we are going to take Caitlin and Evan here after Palm Sunday worship. I think Caitlin will love it--she has a very sophisticated palate. Evan, probably not so much (we did make sure they have a children's menu). Who knows, maybe sushi on Palm Sunday will become a new family tradition! :-)

I am feeling rather resigned about this election year. Not that I am resigned to losing. But whereas I did lots of blogging about the 2008 election, I have not felt motivated to do much this time around. Maybe that will change. But maybe not. I figure most of my readers already know what they think and probably don't need to hear my sophomoric political ramblings. And I am just also feeling rather fatalistic--as if what's going to happen is going to happen and my worrying and thinking and obsessing about it is not going to make any difference. Ora et labora.

This type of blog post doesn't need a conclusion, right?

A New Beginning

Have you ever had the experience of being really ill, so ill that you didn't realize how bad off you were until you finally started feeling normal? Then because "normal" felt so darned good, you started thinking you were Superman (or woman), able to immediately return to full strength, scaling this mountain, traversing that plain, and plumbing the depths of the sea?

You may have then realized that no, you weren't back to "normal" yet--you were just emerging from the ruins, and it might have been wise to take a little time to finish climbing out before you started trying to rebuild.

This is kind of how I have been feeling of late. For some reason Revelation 7:14 comes to mind.

As I think back over the last couple of years I have to shake my head in disbelief. I would prefer not to rehash all that has transpired, much of it being rather personal in nature, but it has been an epic installment in our family chronicle, a conflation of many diffuse squalls into a perfect hurricane of a storm, and I think we are all a bit scarred from the experience. But I also have the sense that maybe, just maybe, the storm is finally abating. Shall we aphorize? Yes, let's. It's time to turn over a new leaf, find an open window, look for the rainbow after the storm, get a new lease (NOT leash!) on life, take stock, and plant some seeds.

So that is what I have been trying to do the last few weeks. I recently concluded a one-year contract working as a part-time staff accompanist at a local high school. On an almost daily basis for this last academic year, I have started my days by driving a half hour to school, working several hours, and driving a half hour back. What this meant, of course, was that the things I used to do in those 3-4 morning hours now had to get done by someone else, or at some other time, or perhaps not at all. Certain things, like laundry and dishes, give no quarter and will always get done, if not in the morning (which was my wont), well then, at some other time. Other things are easier to push aside (a fact which reflects not at all on the importance of those things but rather on the sinner's capacity for abrogating that which should be most valued). And one of the easiest things to push aside is personal care, both of the body and of the mind. So sleep suffers, diet suffers, exercise suffers, the pursuit of thing intellectual and artistic suffers, and personal devotion and prayer suffers. Relationships also suffer, because the exhausted (drained, used up, depleted, emptied) person is not effective at either listening or communicating and, himself in survival mode, has less to give to others.

I'm tired of merely surviving, of getting through the day in one piece. I want to thrive again.

Maybe it's too much to hope for. Shall we deliver another aphorism? Why not? Life this side of heaven is no bed of roses. But a rose here and there can go a long way toward making a lumpy bed more tolerable.

So the girl who couldn't bear to think of New Year's resolutions in January is ready to make some summer resolutions now. I have my mornings back, and here's what I plan to do with them:

1) Pray. First thing.
2) Read the Bible.
3) Read something else for my own edification--in a book, NOT online. (That is not to say that I'm swearing off online reading. But my written word consumption has been out of balance for too long, and I need to address that, for my own sake.)
3) Exercise.
4) Do some intentional rather than path-of-least-resistance meal planning (I'm talking with cookbooks and everything!).
5) Do at least one thing (besides the usual cleaning and maintenance) that contributes to the beauty and comfort of the home.
6) Work on my piano technique (i.e., play some scales).

That's it. I'm keeping it simple. But these are some areas of my life that I feel I have sorely neglected this past year (and beyond), and if I can succeed in putting them back into perspective I think a lot of other things will follow.

Here's to good health!

There's just something . . .

. . . about a man with a shovel.

Especially when he's as handsome as this one.

Memo to the Nanny State

So, a California lawmaker wants to ban the inclusion of toys in fast food kids' meals. He says the toys are an enticement to children to eat unhealthy food.

Never mind that it's not the kids buying the meals but their parents. When was the last time you saw a six-year-old drive his trike through McDonald's?

Clearly this is yet another instance of government attempting to usurp individual freedom and in this case the authority of the parent. Expect more of this sort of thing with Obamacare because after all, if the government is paying for everyone's health care, it has the duty to tell us how to eat.

I saw the lawmaker in question on Fox News this morning, and when he was asked, "Isn't it the parent's job to decide what his child should or should not eat?" his response was, "Yes, but we just think parents could use a little help."

I'm reminded of the wisdom of Ronald Reagan, who once stated, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Who does this guy think he is? The sheer, brazen audacity--to look me in the face and tell me that I can't successfully rear a child without his high-falutin' help.

Well, I have news for him.

IT'S NOT THE TOY, MAN.

It's the French fries, as any parent well knows.

As long as there are French fries in Happy Meals, kids wll want Happy Meals. Wonder how long it will be before they figure that out and Happy Meals are outlawed?

Will No One Rid Me of This Troublesome Cake?*

I have a major sweet tooth. It is very hard for me to pass up a dessert. And I am blessed with a fairly high metabolism. So I can get away with a cookie here and a piece of cake there. But this has been the Month of Cake in our house. We had three birthdays in October, and last weekend my 6-year-old and I won a cake in the cakewalk at church (we had an All Saints/Reformation "This Is Your Grandfather's Church" party). Evan picked it out for the way it looked on the outside, but then decided he didn't like the inside (it's a lemon-flavored cake). I, on the other hand, like it very much. And I have slowly been making it disappear.

This is not good. Saturday Evan will get together with some of his friends for a belated birthday party (he was sick on his actual birthday last week, but we still had a family cake). So that means yet another cake is coming--the fifth to come through our front door in a month. Thanksgiving and Christmas are only weeks away, as is the likelihood not only of holiday meals and parties but of multiple edible gifts from the wonderful people that my husband and I work with in church and community music ensembles. I don't have the money to go out and buy all new clothes. There are already a number of things in my closet that I am avoiding these days because I dread trying to squeeze into them. Thank goodness for stretchy jeans (I never, ever thought I would say that). But I have got to quit eating.

And yet . . . dark chocolate truffles from Trader Joe's, chocolate covered raisins from the Girl Scouts, French Silk pie from Market Day, homemade pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving (which no one in the house eats but me), egg nog, Bailey's Irish cream, Christmas cookies . . . they're all coming. Sigh. What is a dyed in the wool sweet tooth with no self-control to do?

*Name that allusion.

Supper Last Night . . .

. . . was cavatappi with creamy pesto sauce. It was so easy! I used basil leaves and cherry tomatoes grown in our garden. Here's the recipe:

2 cups of basil leaves

2-oz. bag of pine nuts

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic

cherry tomatoes (however many you like, cut in half)

cavatappi (or whatever kind of pasta you want)

Chop all ingredients finely (I use a small electric chopper) and mix with 1/2 cup olive oil. Add approximately 1 cup of ricotta cheese (I used whole, not lowfat). Mix sauce with hot pasta and add tomatoes. Salt & pepper to taste.

We had Caesar salad on the side. While I was cooking, Mr. Round Unvarnished made us pina coladas with real coconut milk! (Jewel had a sale on pre-scored coconuts and I couldn't resist). The thing is, I forgot that we don't have a blender right now, so the pina (I keep typing piano and having to fix it!) coladas were on the rocks. We used this recipe found online:

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup rum

4 tablespoons sugar

Instead of blending with ice, we just poured it over ice cubes. Yum!

Quick and Healthy Breakfast

Not long ago, my Lutheran homeschooling email list spent some time discussing breakfast. One of the list members asked for easy breakfast ideas and received such suggestions as bagels with cream cheese, toast with fruit spread, yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and boiled eggs. I have another suggestion to add to the list:

Dark chocolate covered raisins.

You think I'm kidding.

I'm not kidding. I had them for breakfast today. Just think about it: by eating dark chocolate covered raisins, you get to enjoy all the health benefits of both dark chocolate and raisins. And if you have them with coffee while you're reading email and blogs, I can guarantee you will start the day off with the right attitude.

Go ahead. Try it sometime, with my blessing. (Just don't tell my 5-year-old, okay?)

Supper Last Night

It was one of those throw-together things. I hadn't thawed anything and was short on time so had to come up with something to eat out of what was on hand in the refrigerator. So I cracked and beat six eggs, added a package of frozen spinach (I thawed and drained it first) and about half a bag of frozen hash browns (also thawed and drained), seasoned with salt and pepper and baked in a casserole dish (I think at 350) for about 20-25 minutes. Then I covered the top with grated Swiss cheese and baked another 15 or so minutes (until cheese was thoroughly melted). It came out great and we ate it garnished with sour cream and tomatoes. Yum!

We decided to call it SPEC (for spinach, potatoes, eggs and cheese). But maybe I stumbled on something that has a real name. Anybody out there know? A frittata, maybe? Or something else? Help me out, cooks!

Stress Eating

Speaking of food, I have been consuming too much of it lately. And it's not just the result of friends cooking for us the last few days--this has been going on for weeks. I am attributing my growing appetite (and waistline) to stress, but this is a shift for me. In recent years my tendency when stressed is to stop eating. I look at food and it just turns my stomach--the appetite is not there. But lately the opposite has been happening. I want to eat all the time, everything in sight (the sweeter and doughier the better).

As much as I don't like the result (5 or 6 pounds at last check), I think my eating frenzy is a good sign. It's the result of stress, but not depression (which, as I have entered middle age and premenopause, has come knocking forcefully on my door the last few years). It would appear that when I'm depressed, I stop eating; when I'm merely stressed, I eat more.

I'm glad that in the midst of all that life has wrought of late I have not succumbed to a depressive episode. But as I search my closet each day for something I can squeeze my flesh into, I realize I have to stop this free eating. I can't afford to buy all new clothes! Especially not with the hyper-inflation that is just around the corner!

Hmmm--maybe that's part of what's fueling my eating frenzy. I'm instinctively fattening myself up for the coming economic (not emotional) Depression!

Thanksgiving Find

Don't say I never told you anything useful, okay?

Here's my find of the year: Felix Lingonberries. I discovered them at Jewel while shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. In keeping with our minimal-corn-syrup policy (I can't say no-corn-syrup policy because I haven't succeeded in cutting it out entirely--we are still buying corn-syrup based catsup--but we no longer get it in our pancake syrup, peanut butter, bread, and a host of other things) I went looking for an alternative to the usual canned cranberry sauce (which because I read the label this year I discovered was full of corn syrup). I couldn't find any cranberries or cranberry sauce on the shelf that didn't have it, and I didn't have time to check other retailers, such as Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, that might have more options. And please, don't ask "why didn't you make your own?" I would wager $100 that at least one of my readers, but probably more, does just that. But I am a cook of modest talents, and again, there wasn't time to go to another store, much less for me to find a recipe and successfully execute it.

But then . . . then I happened upon this beautiful sight:

At $4.99 a bit more costly than the $2 can of Ocean Spray, but just look at the ingredients: wild lingonberries, sugar, and pectin. Period.

Into my cart it went. The day after Thanksgiving the entire jar was gone. I bought another one today (we still have lots of turkey and dressing in the refrigerator). This stuff is amazing! Much better than any cranberry sauce I have ever had. And I know, Melody--I didn't like the lingonberries in the Ikea cafe--but that didn't even begin to compare with this taste experience. The Ikea lingonberries had a bitterness I didn't care for; these were delectably sweet.

Here's a link with everything you might want to know about Felix lingonberries.

Cecilia

As promised, there are a few more Grenada posts waiting in the wings. Today's is on a subject near and dear to many of your hearts:

FOOD!

About halfway through our stay at Lance aux Epines, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have an authentic Grenadian meal prepared for us right in our own cottage. We settled on a date with Cecilia, our housekeeper, so that she could do some shopping, and when the day came we headed off for a morning hike in the rainforest while she set up shop in our kitchen. Little did we imagine what would be waiting for us on our return.

Barracuda (purchased fresh at the fish market) with onions and gravy

Callaloo Soup

(L to R) Rice with Pigeon Peas and Breadfruit au gratin

(L to R) Bluggoe and Pumpkin

(L to R) Pumpkin (again) and Mixed Vegetables (Carrots, Green Beans, and Christophene)

The Table Set for Dinner

Phil's Plate

I don't think he's looking forward to this at all.

Cecilia

Not surprisingly, Cecilia's was one of the best meals we had while in Grenada. Actually, make that two of the best meals, because that's how much eating we got out of this spread, and then some. And the total cost, including the groceries as well as Cecilia's fee for shopping & cooking, was a little under $70. Try feeding a family of five two restaurant meals of that quality for that price anywhere in the U.S.!

By the way, Cecilia told me that callaloo and pumpkin are the two main staples of a Grenadian toddler's diet.

Cecilia's sister Elsa was our housekeeper on our first visit to Grenada. How we came to appreciate both of them on our visits, not only for their care while we were away from home, but also for their cheerful ways and friendly willingness to share insights about their country. When we left Grenada the first time, we wondered if we would ever return and see Elsa again. The answer turned out to be yes! We pray that in the same way we will some day return to see Cecilia and maybe--just maybe--eat another one of her home-cooked meals.

One can dream, right?

Grenadian Cuisine - Bluggoe

Earlier this week, on the same night that we had callaloo soup, we also enjoyed some bluggoe. I haven't been able to find a great deal online about bluggoe, but it is a variety of plantains. It is apparently such a staple in Grenada that it is often referred to as "provision." The photo below shows a basket of fruit (those are grapefruit and oranges, not limes), some figs to the left, and bluggoe to the right. (We obviously weren't paying attention at the grocery store and thought we were buying bananas, not figs; our maid Cecilia told us the figs would not ripen sufficiently during our stay to allow us to eat them raw and offered to make us a fig pie; but knowing that several of my children would probably not help me eat the pie I decided to eschew the calories and suggested she take the figs home for herself).


Once again I am indebted to Cecilia for helping me out with Grenadian cooking. She told me the bluggoe would be delicious simply fried in butter with a little salt and pepper. She also demonstrated how to peel and cut one. Her facility with doing so--she peeled and neatly sliced one of the bluggoe in a few seconds, making it look so very easy--made me feel like a clumsy first-time cook when I tried to copy her actions a little later. Bluggoe may look like bananas, but they don't handle like them! Nevertheless, I finally managed to come up with this:

Here's the finished dish. It was delicious--everyone, even the pickiest among us--liked it. It tasted a little like fried potatoes and would be a good potato substitute for any meal.

Tomorrow Cecilia is going to cook a full meal for us right here in our cottage. You can bet I'll have pictures of that for you! If only I could also send some tastes through the world wide web!

Grenadian Cuisine - Callaloo Soup

One of the benefits of staying in a cottage is the ability to do some cooking rather than eating out all the time. And believe me, we will be doing a lot of cooking while we're here. Two weeks of restaurants for a family of five? I think not.

So the night before last I tried my hand at a staple dish of the Grenadian people: callaloo soup. On our first trip to Grenada my husband and I enjoyed various versions of this dish in several of the restaurants we visited, so I had some idea of how it should turn out. I used a recipe provided in the guest guide here at Lance aux Epines. The main ingredient is any of a variety of leafy greens--we used Taro (although it was labelled as "callaloo" in the store, there is actually no such thing as a callaloo plant). The other main ingredients are coconut milk, garlic, thyme, chives, onions and sweet peppers.

Here are the Tao leaves with stems on, before washing:

Washed and de-stemmed:

The instructions called for chopping the leaves. I couldn't find a chopping board in the kitchen (I did later on), so I just hand-shredded the leaves. The first step was to boil leaves only in water for about 5-10 minutes. Then the other ingredients were added and all was simmered for approximately 20 minutes. The recipe I had was very general--no amounts given--so I did it all by intuition. Here's the final result:

My family seemed to approve. But the next morning when our maid dropped in (I just love the sound of that . . . the words just tumble out so easily . . . I think I'll say them again . . . "our maid") and I shared with her my cooking experiment she suggested running the soup through the blender to get a smoother consistency. Then she kindly took care of doing just that. Here's the blended version:

The cost for the ingredients for this soup was about $20 EC (Eastern Caribbean dollar), which correlates to about $8 U.S. A good portion of that was spices that I will not have to buy again. Leaves, milk, onion and pepper for another round of soup will add up to about $10-$12 EC or $4-5 U.S. I think we'll be having this again!

Vegetables

My friend Susan recently wrote about vegetables, citing a source that states that most Americans limit themselves to only about twelve different kinds. She and her daughter made a game of coming up with a list of what those might be as well as of all the options too many people neglect. So I decided to follow suit and take stock of our vegetable intake. Which ones do we eat and not eat? Of those we don't eat, what might I try to include in our diet more often?


What we eat a lot or fairly often

Green beans
Spinach
Collard greens
Peas
Carrots
Lettuce - iceberg, romaine, red-leaf
Peppers
Tomatoes (I know they're not technically vegetables, but I'm including them anyway)
Onions
Cabbage
Asparagus
Sugar snap peas

What we eat sometimes or rarely

Sweet potatoes
Zucchini squash
Corn (only the kids and I--my husband can't digest it)
Lima beans (husband loves them but the rest of us don't share his enthusiasm)
White potatoes (Husband is a low-carb eater, so I don't make them very much)
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cucumber (only my daughter and I like them)
Butternut squash
Beets
Snow peas
Mushrooms (are these considered to be vegetables?)

What we don't eat but should

Okra--I am a Southern-born girl who grew up eating okra. I'm not sure why I don't ever cook it because I do like it!

What we don't eat but ought to try

Turnips
Eggplant

What we don't eat and probably never will

Yellow squash--I just like zucchini so much more
Brussel sprouts--I don't have a clear memory of ever eating them, but for some reason I have a very bad feeling about them

What I have gleaned from this exercise is that there are certain things I don't make very often because a few people in the family don't like or eat them, and that ends up limiting the scope of our diet. I think I really need to start making some of those less popular items in smaller quantities. Just because a few people don't like them doesn't mean the others shouldn't enjoy them! It does mean a bit more work and dishes to clean. But I think the result would be worth it.

Friendship Bread Failure

My husband, children and I spent the Fourth of July weekend with several other homeschooling Lutheran families. It was a great, relaxing and fun time and I so appreciate our hosts' hospitality in opening their home to us. When we left at weekend's end, the lady of the house gave me and the other mom in attendance a bag of starter for Amish Friendship Bread (she had been given several bags by a friend at church). Neophyte that I am, I enthusiastically returned home for my first Friendship Bread baking experience.

In case you are unfamiliar with Amish Friendship Bread (you can read more at the link above), it involves a 10-day fermenting process from the day that the starter is received. On Days 1-5 the recipient is simply supposed to "mush the bag"; on Day 6, flour, sugar and milk are added; Days 7-9 require more mushing; and Day 10 calls for separating out new starter to save and/or share before adding the final round of ingredients and baking. I received my starter on Day 6 after the mid-point ingredients had already been added, so all that was left for me was some waiting and mushing and then baking on Day 10.

Well, I am here to state for the record that I am now an official Amish Friendship Bread Failure. Day 10 came and went; then Day 11; then Day 12, and still no bread baked. This morning as I gazed upon my lonely, little neglected bag of starter and pondered the week before me (a week that includes Vacation Bible School, a chess tournament, housecleaning, and mad preparations for an upcoming two-week road trip), I had to come to grips with the reality that Amish Friendship Bread and I were never meant to be--at least not at this time in my life--and it was time to say good-bye. So down the drain it went with--I am sad to say--very little ceremony or fanfare. My only consolation is that I am not the only Starter Killer walking around. (I guess we can just add this to that growing list of things we have in common, Elephant's Child. By the way, I think it's time for you to put that poetic bent to work and write an "Ode to Friendship Bread Starter." Let me know when you're finished and I'll provide free editing. It's the least we can do, don't you think? We'll give the finished product to Melody to make up for our shameful handling of her good faith gift.)

Banana Bread

Our Garden

Several of my friends have blogged recently about their gardens, so I thought I would, too. This is only our second year to plant a small garden in our back yard. Last year we grew tomatoes, basil, chives, and sage. In spite of our inexperience, everything did remarkably well, and we had very little trouble with pests or critters. So this year we decided to add several more herbs (parsley, thyme, and rosemary) and three varieties of peppers. Here's a photo of our modest little agrarian experiment:





Here's a close-up of a banana pepper plant, already sporting some tiny little peppers!

Next year, I think we'll add even more--maybe some cucumbers, squash, and lettuce. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to some homemade pesto and fresh tabouli salad!

Coffee

When it comes to coffee, I love dark roasts--the darker the better. My local coffeehouse of choice generally starts the day with three choices of brew--dark, light, and decaf--but as morning wears into afternoon they cut back to only two--regular & decaf. Sometimes the regular blend is dark, but sometimes it is not.

Over the weekend I was in Mequon, Wisconsin with my son for a chess tournament (details forthcoming!) and lo and behold found myself only blocks away from a Caribou franchise. So at the appointed time (usually about 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon) I left the tournament site and braved the rain and snow to get my afternoon "fix." But wouldn't you know it--the brew on tap was a light, not dark roast. Sensing my disappointment, the barrista suggested I add an espresso shot for depth or try an "Americano"--a dark brew made with espresso and hot water.

I went for the Americano and was not disappointed. It was delicious! It wasn't until my next stop into Caribou several days later that I discovered why I may have enjoyed that medium Americano as much as I did. It's made with three--count them, three--shots of espresso! A medium cup of regular coffee at Caribou boasts 190 milligrams of caffeine; I often order a "half-caf," cutting those 190 milligrams down to 95. A medium Americano, however, has 270 milligrams of caffeine. The fact that I tolerated it so well has once again started me thinking about my caffeine consumption. When my husband and I make coffee at home in the morning, we usually make "half-caf," so my two 8-ounce morning mugs are the equivalent of one medium at the coffeehouse. I usually end up having the equivalent of another 8-ounce cup sometime in the afternoon. So a typical day finds me consuming at least 270 milligrams of caffeine, but sometimes more. When I had the Americano, I was probably over the 500 mark that day, and I didn't notice any particular physiological effect (other than that it tasted really good!).

I can't quite pin down when my coffee consumption got so heavy. When I first started drinking it in college, I had maybe one cup a day. In time that grew to two. In the last 5-10 years I have started drinking coffee almost daily in the afternoon. I love my coffee break. What I don't love is how I feel if I don't have it, and that has me thinking it's time to cut back. But when one typically wakes up between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. and doesn't go to bed until 11:00 p.m., that's easier said than done. By lunchtime I am usually already dragging, and that afternoon cup of coffee, enjoyed after my post-lunch 20-minute catnap, energizes me for the many hours still to come. And because I have to stop whatever I am doing to make the coffee, the mere act of drinking it is like a pause button for my life, forcing me to take a little time for myself and symbolically proclaiming that "I am worth it" (HT: Meredith Baxter Birney). I would really miss that afternoon treat if I had to give it up altogether, and I'm sorry, but decaf is just not the same.

So I'd be interested in hearing from my fellow coffee addicts out there: compared to yours, is my caffeine consumption light, moderate, or extreme? Do you think I need to cut down? Is caffeine addiction really all that bad? If I'm drinking too much, how much should I cut back? And more importantly, HOW do you suggest I do so without feeling totally deprived and sorry for myself (not to mention exhausted)?