Bye-bye '09!

Yes, it's that time of year for reflections.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2009:

1. Pay of my student loan

2. Start a Green Group

Done and done. Wow. I can't tell you how good that made me feel just to write that! This year I focused on making my resolutions discrete and measurable. I read somewhere if you made your resolution very specific, you were more likely to succeed in fulfilling them. Contrast "Read more" with "Read 12 books." When I got my new job, within three paychecks, I'd written a check to the DOE. And then towards the fall, I talked with some of my friends about starting a Green Group. We've met about three times now, and while it doesn't seem as "getting things done" as the book club, it is very helpful to have a group of people to talk about local environmental issues. And of course, since they're friends, it's always a fun time!

Here are some other things from 2009:

1. Lost a job. Gained a job.

2. Lost a dachshund. Gained a dachshund.
3. Gained a nephew!

4. Made ravioli by hand for the first time!

5. Started sewing

6. Finished Drake's baby book

7. Learned how to can applesauce, tomato sauce, and jam.

8. Went on *five* camping trips, a trip to Yosemite, a ski trip, and a trip back east to see family.

9. Made 2,000 basil seed starts for Earth Day, using reused materials.

10. Joined the PTA and Slow Food, USA.
11. We (um, Ross) continue to expand our mini-orchard in the backyard. We even got to harvest some apples and tangerines! And our orange/lemon tree is flourishing. The question is: with what? Oranges? Lemons? It's a mystery to us.

Goals for 2010:

1. Start composting - I really want to reduce the about of waste that we produce. Plus, this is great for gardening. It's one of those Eco-Nut 101 things that I've just never gotten around to. Risk: lots of rotting produce in the backyard. Rats (er, more than the usual).
2. Take sewing lessons - At the 11th hour this holiday season, I got a sewing machine because I decided I wanted to make something for the kids for Christmas. I managed to fumble my way through that, but I really want to learn how to use my new machine. Risk: 47 half-finished projects scattered about the house. Swearing (er, more than the usual).
3. Eat more seasonally - What, apples aren't in season in May? I really can't believe how little I know about agriculture. In order to reduce the amount of energy needed to produce our food, I will be striving to feed the family in a more seasonal (and therefore, probably local) manner. I'd like to note that we don't exactly live in Wyoming. Southern California, with it's four-season growing ability, would be a locavore's dream. Still.... Risk: I go insane with the planning aspect of this particular endeavor.
4. Oh, and exercise. Um, at least.... once a month (Don't want to overdo it or anything!). Risk: Well, at that interval, I guess the biggest risk is injuring myself.

Regardless of the risks, may 2010 be filled with happiness, peace, and love.

Insanity

How did this happen to me?? It started off innocently enough: I wanted to make the kids something for Christmas. Fine. I blogged about the little house pouches I made for them, which turned out super cute.

But then I went crazy.

I was so inspired, I got all crazy-innovative and came up with this:

Finger puppets! Fairy Friends on the left, Sea Creatures on the right.

Somehow I got to reading about egg cartons and ways to reuse/upcycle them, and my brain started working. I came up with this idea to sew puppets and use the egg carton for storage.

But it couldn't be a plain old egg carton. No. I had to decorate it. Ideally, I'd like to use fabric that reflects the puppets inside: marine fabric for the Sea Creatures and foresty fabric for the Fairy Friends. But the owl motif is what I could manage on the short time frame.

For days (DAYS!), I've been trying to reverse engineer the whole thing. It's one thing to make a little pouch (with a pattern). It's a whole 'nother thing to figure out how to cover an egg carton. All those little holes! And the pointy things in the middle! So, I've been cutting up carton after carton and designing a pattern (using scrap paper, of course). I took an old t-shirt and started cutting it with the pattern. I'm sure I've violated about 174 sewing rules so far.

Bundled up, ready to go to a restaurant, or on a plane.

But I got it done. It's only one egg carton, so they'll have to share for right now. But I hope they like their puppets.

24 More Shopping Sewing Days until Christmas!

Inspired by Crunchy Chicken's Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge, I decided to make gifts for the kids this year. I came across this adorable House Pouch and am already on my second one. And what better occupants for a House Pouch, than some cute little clothespin dolls? Did you make these as a kid? I didn't. But they're quick and easy to make. And I've been having so much fun!

Currently, Ms. Ballerina is the only occupant. She's feeling lonely.

And then I realized that that it was almost December. December! Ack! So I called in the big guns and ordered a sewing machine.

I'm not sure what I'm expecting here. I haven't used a sewing machine since I was in the 7th grade. I don't even remember how to thread one! But oh, this machine. It hasn't even arrived yet, and already I'm in love. Mostly with the reviews on Amazon, but still. The reverse stitching! The automatic threading capability! I'm sure my love will diminish somewhat when it actually arrives and I'm wading through the voluminous manual.

Will it be faster - or s l o w e r - than my hand sewing? The jury is out.

Happy GIS Day!

OK, really it's tomorrow. But I'm celebrating today! I got to do a presentation at my daughter's kindergarten class. What a hoot. Seeing their eager little faces was definitely the highlight of my day. Thanks to ESRI's easy-to-download and follow instructions, I put together a killer talk about "What is Geography" and they learned the words "classify," "atlas" and "cartography." Fortunately, they'd been working on sorting for math, so that tied in very nicely. Then each child made a map hat, where they had to classify different items into where that item was found. Then the strips were stapled together to make a funky little hat. The kids loved them.

Gracie with her map hat. She also wanted to talk about an actual map, which she did - very quietly.

And of course, you can't have 24 five-year-olds without some surprising moments. From reading with my daughter, I'm used to working through letter-recognition and then sounding out different parts of a word. So I used the same techniques with the class:

Me: "OK, what letter is this?"

Class: "A!"

Me: "And this?"
Class: "T! L! A! S!"

Me: "Great! Let's sound it out together. Aaaatttttlaasss..."

And from the back of the room: "Atlas of the World!"

So there is a wide range of learners in her class.

Food Binge

Wow - two great food-related shows on PBS last night. First up, we watched "Food" on KPBS, which they've been hyping advertising for weeks. I was excited that a show about how our food is grown, produced, and then delivered to us would be accessible to so many. As someone who's watched "Supersize Me," "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," "The Future of Food," and most recently, "Food Inc."; I feel like I'm pretty informed about CAFOs, fish farms, and CSAs. So, really, there wasn't a lot of new material in "Food" for me. BUT! I did get my first visual of what a fish farm looks like. Wow. Ginormous. And freaky. It's like a big tent in the ocean, filled with fish.

Also, I was excited to see that a local chicken farmer was interviewed for the show and talk about his organic, free-range chickens that sell for about $20/bird. Right now, I'm buying Rosie's organic, free-range chickens from Henry's for about $13/bird. At first, this was a bit of a shocker. But with the way I'm cooking now, I get two, sometimes three, meat meals out of one bird, plus about four quarts of stock, which allows me to make two big batches of soup. So really, it's not too bad. Now, the big question: am I ready to pay an additional $7 for a local, organic, free-range chicken?

As we were getting ready for bed, we saw that "King Corn" was coming on. It's about two friends from Boston who move to Iowa to grow a single acre of corn, in order to see what happens to their crop in the industrial food system. Filled with stop-action filming and hysterical antics like trying to brew their own batch of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), it was quite entertaining - and informative! I'd been wanting to see this for a while, and so we were up for another two hours. So it was a late night for us...

Did you happen to watch last night? If "Food" whetted your appetite on finding more about our food system, here's a list of some movies that you might enjoy. I give it double props for listing some uplifting movies. Stories that have, if not a happy ending, at least a hopeful ending. 'Cause even though the whole thing can be a downer, I'm an optimist at heart. I look forward to checking them out.

Butternut Squash Frozen Yogurt

I am a recipe follower. I am not an innovator. I don't create new recipes, mostly because I feel like I'm still learning to cook and don't yet have the confidence to go out on my own. Normally, I'm not afraid to try new things and fail, because I don't feel like there's a lot to lose. New haircut? Why not! It'll grow back!

But I'll often try new recipes when company is coming over, just because I like to experiment. My thinking is, "Hey, it made it into this book. Somebody had to have tried it and liked it!" Note that this has not always been the case, apparently (I'm talking to you, Joy of Cooking).

But what if I try to make something up on my own and fail? The result is a bunch of wasted food, and I hate that idea.

We were at Fiji Yogurt for a school fundraiser last week, and I tried some Pumpkin Yogurt. I thought it was quite tasty (along with the other three flavors that made their way into my bowl), but didn't give it another thought. Until I noticed that I still had some Squash Puree, in my unending effort to get the kids to eat more veggies. It's so creamy and flavorful; I could have sworn they'd eaten this before. But instead, I'd been taking it for lunches this week, and was, sigh, kind of tired of it. I wondered aloud yesterday morning to my husband if I could make Butternut Squash Frozen Yogurt. He didn't say No, but I could feel it hanging in the air: "Pumpkin yogurt? Bleh..."

So yesterday afternoon, when my friend and I were emailing about that night's dinner menu for our weekly Family Night get together, I offered to bring Gingerbread for desert. It was on the Weekly Menu, so I had all the ingredients. Yay for no last-minute rushed trip to Trader Joe's for a packaged desert! She responded with a request for vanilla ice cream or whipped cream - which got me to thinking (again) about Butternut Squash Frozen Yogurt.

I quickly Googled "pumpkin yogurt" and "how to make frozen yogurt." My biggest issue: no ice cream maker. But apparently, if you use a hand mixer at 30 - 45 minute intervals, it'll be just as creamy.

I had made the puree with sweet spices, rather than savory, my usual choice, in an effort to entice the kids. So it was all prepped and ready to mix with my handmade yogurt. For the yogurt, most links recommended using Greek-style yogurt, which is thicker and results in a creamier frozen yogurt. I strain a lot of the whey out of my yogurt, which gives it the same consistency.

Since we didn't have enough time for it to freeze all the way, it was more of a custard consistency, which was quite nice over the Gingerbread. Overnight, it had a chance to freeze nicely, and the result was delicious. Even the kids liked it!

Butternut Squash Frozen Yogurt

2 c. whole milk yogurt, Greek style
2 c. roasted butternut squash puree (spiced with cinnamon, allspice)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. vodka or Bourbon vanilla

1. In a glass bowl with a lid, mix all ingredients with a rubber spatula.
2. Cover and place in freezer.
3. In 30 - 40 minutes, take out and mix with a hand mixer. Put back in freezer.
4. Repeat Step 3 every 45 minutes, until you have the consistency and hardness you want. You'll probably need about 3 - 4 hours.

Those tricky advertisers

This morning, as I was walking my 5-year-old daughter to school, she was busy trying to earn a point by being good to the Earth, i.e. picking up trash. Oh, and listening to her Winnie the Pooh music player. And fiddling with her belt - on her shorts - with no belt loops (can you spot the problem here?). And trying to walk the dog. Finally, she relinquished the leash to me, so she could focus on her other three tasks.

We've been working on some behavior modification, using a point system. If she yells, is disrespectful, doesn't listen, or behaves inappropriately, she can lose a privilege. These can include no playing with friends, no TV, taking a nap on the weekend, or going to bed early. She can choose the privilege lost, and then puts it on the wall.

The Wall of Shame, as we've been calling it
(not when she can hear). This can get sadly full...

This, admittedly, complex system allows all of us to keep track of what's going on, and gives us some consistency, something we were sorely lacking. In addition, she can earn privileges back or earn points toward a Special Privilege. She can do this by being a Super Helper, getting ready for school without a fuss, being a Cleaner, getting ready for bed without a fuss, earning a card for good behavior at school - or helping the Earth. Right now, her board is clean (no privileges taken away - Yay!), and she's working toward the Special Privilege of "Going to a movie with Mama and Daddy." She's got three points and needs two more.

But this wall can hold so much promise...

In case you were wondering what a "Pajama Walk" looked like.
Not pictured: me or Ross - for good reason.

So she decided to help the Earth on the way to school and look for trash to pick up. What with Halloween and all, we have a few more candy wrappers floating around our neighborhood than normal, and she spotted one. I could see her eying it wistfully. If only there was candy in the wrapper... I somehow restrained my automatic admonition that "We don't eat food off the ground." Because I'm easygoing like that. Ha!

After looking at it for a minute, she declared it "Healthy." Somewhat aghast, since I saw that it was a pack of Lemonheads, I asked why she thought that. "Because it has apples, oranges, and lemons in it! Which are all healthy!" she replied, sunnily. So I explained to her that those are only chemical flavors that taste like that. It killed me to see her little innocent face fall, confused. "But that sounds like they're trying to be tricky."

Which was not the word I was expecting her to use. I expected her to use the word Lying. Because my husband and I are always being accused of Lying, with a Capital L. If she gets engrossed in a TV show, when we'd promised her she could watch a movie, but then there was no more time before bed? "You're a Liar!" I feel like I'm in a joint session of Congress, trapped with a vociferous Joe Wilson.

But apparently, advertising agencies get a reprieve, and are only called tricky. "Why are they trying to be tricky?" A perfect question from a 5-year-old. Why, oh why, would someone try to be tricky? So I launch into an explanation of the inner workings of capitalism and a free market economy. Just joking! There's no way I could explain that. Instead, I just say that they want her to spend her money on something they created, even if it's not good for her.

And mercifully, we were at school. End of conversation. I would have hated to have to explain to her that big companies don't really care about a 5-year-old little girl or her health. Even thinking about it makes me want to cry. That would be a real downer before school started.

But I know that this is just the beginning of a long discussion.

How do you talk to your kids about making healthy choices?

A Green Halloween

I wrote earlier about how ecstatic I was to be able to buy a used costume for Drake as part of my Buy Nothing (New) Month for October. That left me with two costumes to make: a Nature Fairy (Gracie) and a black widow spider (me).

Since I could only purchase used items, I went to a thrift store and bought a green dress, a piece of brown felt, a small wreath of twigs, a black shirt, and several pairs of black pantyhose. I used the felt to make a loose poncho and sewed several leaves onto it. I also sewed leaves onto the fairy wings, which she already had. I used the wreath to make a crown and attached pine cones and sycamore gumballs. Unfortunately, the crown was deemed too "poky" and wasn't worn for trick-or-treating. I have to say: out of all the costume choices, Nature Fairy was probably one of the most conducive to a Buy Nothing (New) month.

Robin and the Nature Fairy ready for a night of
trick-or-treating. My little cherubs...

On the day of Halloween, our friends came over with their daughter and we all worked on the remaining Halloween costumes, while a nice big pot of chili simmered on the stove all day. The kids' costumes were done; we just needed to work on the adults' costumes. For my spider costume, I cut the waist part off the pantyhose and stuffed them, to make legs (I already had the stuffing). The legs were then tied together with black yarn, which I already had. I sewed the top of the waist together to make a little beanie hat and glued squiggly eyes onto it. And then I sewed a red piece of foam onto the shirt for the identifying mark of a black widow. (Disclaimer: My friend provided the squiggly eyes and red foam. So even though I didn't buy it, it was still "bought," and I therefore count it against my "Buy Nothing (New) Month.")

Two creepy-crawly *poisonous* spiders. Bleh.
I did like all my extra arms though!

Meanwhile, the guys were working on their
costumes: Abe Drinkin' and John Wilkes
Vermouth. We crack ourselves up...

Even our dachshund got into the spirit with a
costume that we had from previous years. The
funniest part, aside from the devil eyes (the one
time I actually appreciate the red eyes!), was that
he was *rooted* to the spot after we put this
costume on him! It was as if we'd draped a lead
curtain over him!

Weekly Meal Plan

10/29/09 - 11/5/09

Dinners:
1. Dinner Beans
2. Chili, Cornbread, & salad
3. Curried Chicken with Apricots
4. Tomato Vegetable Soup with french bread

Lunches:
1. Pear & cheese tortilla, Sweet Potato Fries, fruit
2. Fried egg sandwich, frozen peas, applesauce
3. Additional snacks for Gracie's lunch: roasted pumpkin seeds, mint savory pancake with yogurt, fruit

Breakfast:
1. Soaked oatmeal
2. 5 Grain Porridge (soaked)

Extras/Deserts:
1. Applesauce cookies
2. Gingerbread
3. Yogurt
4. Halloween treats (Nooooooo!)

At $5 for 60 lollipops, this actually wasn't too bad a deal. And they're organic & made with real fruit juice, no HFCS. And very tasty!

Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, so we've invited friends of ours to go trick-or-treating with us. They're going to come over Saturday morning, and we're going to spend the day assembling our costumes and carving pumpkins. And hopefully, roasting (not burning, ahem) pumpkin seeds. If I don't forget. The whole tedious idea was Gracie's. And, since we've recently had a cold snap (40s at night!), I thought it would be nice to have chili before going out with the kids that night.

Notice only four dinners. This is more in line with our usual week. We tend to have leftovers on two of the remaining days and the other night is our weekly get together with friends.

Cost of groceries: $126
Beer & wine: $12
Trick-or-treat candy: $20
Total: $158

This is $38 dollars over budget. Obviously, the candy is not a normal purchase. Without that, it would have been much closer. This is somewhat amazing to me, given that my dairy and egg purchases were at Whole Foods.

I've been reading more about the benefits of raw milk, and so I thought I might give it a try for the family. Ross grew up on raw milk, but the kids only had it when they were nursing - from me (ha, ha, ha!). Actually, a lot of what I've been reading about raw milk dovetails with what I read about the benefits of nursing, which makes sense in a way. Namely, the importance of milk as a "living" substance, and all the benefits that entails. I got most of my information from Nourishing Traditions, and you can read about it here.

I've also been reading about the benefits of pasture raised beef & poultry, and how the result is higher omega-3 fatty acids. If you haven't read about the omega-6 vs. omega-3 debate, here's a very accessible document on that. Basically, the thinking is that one of the major factors in our obesity epidemic is the fact that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in our diet has gone from being rather low to extremely high, due to cooking with seed oils.

Since I couldn't possibly afford to buy all raw milk, I also purchased a half gallon of organic milk from grass-fed cows. Because it's from grass-fed cows, it will also be higher in omega-3s. Did you know that milk from conventionally raised cows is lower in omega-3s because their diet is grain and soy? The pasteurized milk will be used for making yogurt, where it's not important to start with "living" milk, since you essentially pasteurize it in the yogurt-making process.

So after mulling over all of this information, I decided to bite the bullet and get myself to Whole Foods. After gasping at the $40 bill, I recovered a bit when I realized that $10 of it was from candy, not exactly a recurring expense. Here's the break-down:

Half gallon Organic whole milk - pasteurized: $3.69
Half gallon Organic whole milk - raw: $9.99 (gasp!)
Organic heavy whipping cream (pastured-fed): $3.69
Organic butter (pasture-fed): $2.99
Organic free range eggs: $3.39 (times 3 for 3 dozen)
Total: about $30, or 1/4 of my budget

This does not seem an unreasonable percentage to me. What do you think? I also get quite a bit of my produce organic. So to be able to be close to $120 for the week is rather impressive to me. I know that I realize a huge savings by not getting very much processed food. And, as usual, not a single coupon was used. I don't find that they offer coupons for whole foods, and I don't tend to purchase the items that they offer coupons for.

What factors control your food-purchasing decisions?

Weekly Meal Plan

10/22/09 - 10/29/09

Dinners:
1. Lentil Soup
2. Sweet Potato & Peanut Butter Stew (from freezer) over rice
3. Curry Chicken (from freezer) with green onions, raisins, peanuts, apples, & pineapple
4. Butternut Squash Ravioli
5. Pesto Vegetable Lasagna
6. Dinner at favorite restaurant for Anniversary #9 (Woohoo!)

Lunches:
1. Butternut Ravioli, sliced egg, fruit, pumpkin muffin
2. Bean & spinach burrito, fruit, pumpkin muffin
Snacks for Gracie's lunch: Curry roasted chickpeas, veggie chips, fruit

Breakfasts: Soaked Oatmeal, Left-over oatmeal fried with egg & sausage, Five Grain Porridge (soaked)
Snacks: Banana bread, yogurt, granola

There are two meals this week in which my freezer will be my sou chef. I'd noticed that I've been good about stocking away food into the freezer. Not so much about eating from the freezer. Kind of like money going into the savings account, but never coming out for that trip to the Caribbean. And what could be more relaxing after a hard day's work, than taking out a meal that you had already prepared? Other than a tropical cruise, of course.

So I made concerted effort to use something from the freezer. Which also means I need to have more meals planned, since the amounts stored are less than what I usually cook. The curry is just the sauce, which I will then combine with the chicken that I've already cooked. It's from a book called "Nourishing Traditions," which deserves a blog entry all to itself, it's so revolutionary. It was like when I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

The Sweet Potato & Peanut Stew is one of those dishes that people crinkle their nose at. "Peanut butter? Sweet potatoes? Really?" But my husband loves this meal. Really. It's one of his favorites. It's out of the "Joy of Cooking."

I will attempt, once again, to make Ravioli. Apparently, this is my Mt. Everest of cooking. Wish me luck! Also making an appearance for the first time: Five Grain Porridge (which my fingers want to spell "pooridge," somewhat double entendre-y) and Pesto Vegetable Lasagna. The Five Grain Porridge is another recipe from "Nourishing Traditions." We've loved the soaked oatmeal, but I have yet to try and foist "pooridge" on my family. One word: millet. Well, plus four other grains, but still. I fear that they will rise up one day against my anti-cereal dictum and go out and buy Frosted Flakes, like normal people. I'll let you know how that one flies.

The menu looks a little more daunting than usual, with regard to the number of items on it. I'll let you know how it goes!

Green shipping ROI: Return(s) on investment

When I received my Ball canning jars today, I heard an ominous tinkling sound. Immediately, I thought of the scene in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, when Jim Carrey dresses up as a delivery man to deliver a fake package so that he can kidnap an abused furry little dog. One of my (many) favorite scenes in the movie is when he first does a handstand on the package and then kicks it down the hallway, if he's going for a goal.

"Hmm, that can't be good be a good sound."

Sure enough, one of the jars had shattered. It's no wonder, given the crappy packaging the company did. They only put filler on the top. Since when do packages only get battered from the top?

Anyway my next thought, of course, was what to do about this. I grimaced at the idea of shipping the whole entire box back to the company, just for one jar. All that fuel! What a waste of energy! What if I just sent the one broken jar back? Well, that seemed ludicrous - and somewhat dangerous. Ross suggested taking a picture of the broken glass and emailing it to them. So I finally called them. Their solution? We'll just credit you the amount. Let's see 12 jars for roughly $12, plus a wee bit for shipping (suggested by my helpful cheap-ass self) comes to... $1.15!

Wow, what a waste of my time...

Update: Now Ralph's supermarket sells Ball jars and supplies! I'm so happy! I can now pick up a dozen here and there, rather than try to estimate all of my canning needs!

"Growing a Social Movement to Change the Food System"

Last night I went to a lecture on changing the food system at the San Diego Natural History Museum. All of us from my Green Group went - our first field trip! It was given by Erika Lesser, the Executive Director of Slow Food USA. It's part of a series called "Sustainable Planet: Food." I'd heard of Slow Food USA and was interested in learning more about the organization, so I was excited. I was especially interested to hear about the "Time for Lunch" program, which seeks to reform the school lunch program. They also have started several farm to school programs. Apparently, I was impressed enough to break my Buy Nothing (New) Challenge and buy a new membership. Sigh...

Afterward, one of the questions from the audience was from a French woman addressing the issue of spending quality time around the table. I thought this was a great question, and Ms. Lesser answered by saying that one of Slow Food USA's core values is taking time to cook, which seems pretty self-evident from it's name. Still, she talked about how cooking has to compete with work, driving, and family time. She indicated that the key to this is building and maintaining food traditions within the family.

What are some food traditions that you have in your house?

Buy Nothing (New) Challenge: Halloween

I admit it: I'm one of those moms who kind of likes making her kids costumes. Not that I'm a "seamstress" or even "a passable sewer." I really don't know what comes over me. Any normal person would 1) Ask the child what he/she wants to be for Halloween and 2) Buy it. End of story.

But not me. In years past, I have 1) Seen a clever "easy-to-make" or "no-sew" costume idea in a magazine, 2) Somehow convinced my child that that is what she wants to be (optional), 3) Driven to two or three stores to buy the items needed to make the costume, 4) Puzzled over the directions ("Easy, my ass!") and 5) Stayed up hours to make the costume. The result is something vaguely resembling the picture in the magazine and twice as expensive as what a costume at Target would have cost. But it's handmade. Right.

Halloween 2007: Drake was a pirate, Gracie was the Little Mermaid, and I, because I wanted to be obtuse, was pirated software. That's a hardware key around my neck and a picture of the software pinned to my jeans. I thought I was just so clever...

Both kids have adored this donkey costume. In fact, Drake calls all sweaters & jackets "donkeys" because of this costume.

So here we are: another Halloween. On top of everything, I had this brilliant idea not to buy anything new. Apparently, I just love making my life more difficult. I can't even buy the makings for a costume. But hallelujah! I'm saved! Drake's daycare is having a fundraiser where people donate old costumes and then you get a credit towards buying one. Or, in our case, since we didn't donate a costume, you can just buy one outright. Which is what we did.

One morning, I was dropping him off. He saw the costumes. I found his size. He picked one out. I paid for it. DONE. Even better, it was handmade! Some sort of super hero. I think it's Robin. It made my entire day. Now I just need to work on two costumes: a Nature Fairy (Gracie) and a Black Widow Spider (me).

How about you? Are you "Buy" or "Make" when it comes to costumes? What do your kids prefer?

Babies as consumers?

The other day I was reading this article complaining about Elmo being on the back of Pampers, while other Muppets are on the front. Apparently, this sufficiently confused the author, such that, in the dark of night, he didn't know at first, what was front and what was back. He argued that the back should be plain, for a "stylish, uncluttered diaper."

My response? "Pah!" Seriously? While I can sympathize with people that just don't want to do the work involved with cloth diapers, I really can't see anything stylish about disposables. Due to completely ineffective elastic, they don't even fit a baby's heiny right! Even though style is not one of my requirements for diapers, of all things, I have to admit to going all cutesy, wutesy with the printed ones. Flowers! Cars! A cow (which particularly struck a chord when he was still a nursling)!Now this is stylish - and commercial-free.

However, I did identify with the author's lament about the sheer advertising of it all. (These guys are bothered too.) Why do diapers need Elmo & his friends, Winnie the Pooh, or Mickey Mouse (the three signature characters of the Big Three diaper manufacturers)? The truth is, they don't. It's just another form of marketing. Evidently, not even the pre-potty set is immune to cross-platform advertising.

But now, for my confession. Little Man is now potty training, and guess what underpants I've strategically bought for him? (Or "panties" as I invariably call them half the time, leftover from potty training my daughter three years ago. Hopefully, my little boy does not grow up referring to his "panties.") Yep. Elmo! And a package of assorted Disney characters, whom he doesn't even know, because he hasn't seen 'Toy Story' or 'Cars.' And Thomas the Tank Engine! But we also have some with dinosaurs (his favorite) and generic cars and trucks.

And how's it going? Well, I'm (almost) sad to say: they're working. He really does not like to pee in his underpants. He had an accident a few weeks ago, and he hobbled over to me, legs spread wide, "I pee. On. Thomas!" He was so upset. But really, I think he would have had the same reaction regardless of what, or who, he'd peed on.

Do you buy character-based items? Do you see a difference between those and non-character items?

New endeavors

Today's cooking extravaganza yielded:

• vegetable quiche (with homemade crust)
• cucumber and tomato salad with gorgonzola and a dab of Annie's Goddess Dressing
• peach jam (my first canning effort - ever! If you don't hear from me, blame it on botulism...)




A Hard Day's Work: Ross was busy today too. He fabricated this rack for his motorcycle.

• bean burritos from scratch. From "scratch" you say? How can that be? Those pintos were soaked, cooked, then refried (using chicken fat from cooking a whole chicken, along with diced onion, garlic, and salt). I also tucked some delicious heirloom tomatoes in there, along with some avocado slices)
• a roasted butternut squash, to be used later in a bread
• brownies (um, I cut corners a bit and used the "No Pudge" mix from Trader Joe's... But! I did use my homemade yogurt.)
• And that reminds me... yogurt (It takes so little effort that I often forget I made it.)
• Mint cherry tabouli
• Falafel

Wow. So it might seem like a lot. But believe it or not, it's not like I was in the kitchen the WHOLE ENTIRE day. Of course, there's the usual kid watching. There was also part of a movie. We even went to a friend's birthday party.

Can I just say how *excited* I am about the jam? I grew up with my grandmother making the most delicious strawberry jam. Seriously, every year I think she made it. I don't even recall store-bought jam being in the house. And then, when we were cruising, my mom canned all of our meat. But do you think that I paid attention to either of these efforts? No. My concentration was, um, on the eating part of the effort.

But I've been thinking that I want to start canning. Something. Anything. The whole idea of "putting up" some food for the future. To be able to look in my pantry and see those lovely canning jars filling the shelves. Doesn't it just give you goosebumps of anticipation? Ok, maybe that's just me.

So last year Ross got me the Ball Blue Book of Canning (which I inevitably call "The Blue Ball Book of Canning." Seriously, couldn't they see that coming?). It was one of those gifts that you give someone in the hope that they'll start a hobby. "Here, darling. Some knitting needles!" "Oh honey, you shouldn't have! Really."

But there I was, conferring with my beloved Blue Ball Book (ahem), on how to can applesauce. Because this just happens to tie in with my Green Group Challenge of a Buy Nothing (New) Month, which I'm planning on for next month. And it occurred to me that, here sat something that I made, this lovely peach jam. Something that could be, I don't know, given as a gift. Because a certain sister's birthday is in the month of October. Hopefully, with all of the super secret code I've used, she'll still be surprised. If not, Jen, can you just act surprised? Love ya!

(PS: I promise not to send you any tabouli.)

What new hobby do you want to start? What's keeping you from it?

Dinner: It's what's for dinner

This afternoon I was feeling a bit panicky with regard to dinner tonight. Even though I'd planned out the week in advance as usual, I realized that, of my two remaining meals for the week: one was a crockpot (or, as my sister calls it, "crotchpot") meal, and the other required chicken. The chicken which we already ate. Granted, this was a chicken and shrimp dish, so I suppose it could have been just a shrimp dish. And it's not like I can skip it altogether, since I have some fresh mushrooms that I bought for the recipe, that are marching towards their expiration date. And I hate throwing out food.

So... what's for dinner? Isn't this the question we moms are confronted with every night? Actually, now that I think about it, it's more my husband that asks this, since the kids don't really care that much yet. In fact, wee lass has only recently started asking about dinner. Invariably, her response to my chirpy answer, in the naive hope that that will convince her that it's a new and wonderful dish, is a crinkled up nose and a "Bleh!" Or more recently, now that she's started kindergarten: "That's disgusting!" I try to shrug it off and not take it too personally. Anybody who is close to me is probably laughing their ass off at the mere idea of me not taking something, anything personally. Suffice it to say: I'm often described as "sensitive" (with "overly" tacked on for good measure, those meany meanies).

No, usually it's my dh who is doing the asking. And when my replies range from Quinoa Sundaes! to Sweet Potato Turkey Stew!, who can blame him for his non-committal "Oh," or "Huh." Fortunately, I have been blessed with an adventurous eater for a husband, who at least tries the recipes I've dug up from many varied sources. He is also not one of those men who declares it not to be a meal, unless there's a chunk of meat on the plate in some shape or form. Not surprising, since he used to be a vegetarian. But even still, he sure appreciates meat when it is on the plate.

Back to dinner tonight. What am I going to do? I could, of course, do one of the standby meals: leftovers or pasta. But we had leftovers last night. Now, I'm not adverse to eating leftovers two nights in a row, but we actually don't have any leftovers, um left.... over. So, pasta it is. Sigh. The sheer boredom of even writing that is surely a sign that I am not going to make pasta. I'd probably be too bored to even eat it. Hmm, well, maybe not that bored. But still.

What can I make from what I already have in the pantry? My mind goes *completely* blank. My whole approach to cooking in the past few years has revolved around buying food to make specific dishes. My pantry only contained what I needed to make the meals that I'd planned for that week. Other people are more creative in their cooking. They buy what looks good in the store and figure out how to fit it together into the completed puzzle of dinner. The few times I've used this approach, when I looked into the fridge, I just saw a jumble of pieces. Do they even fit together? Or will there be a huge hole in the panorama that could only have been filled by, I don't know, potatoes?

Even buying an extra vegetable, because it's on sale of course, is enough to throw me off. Right now, a bunch of asparagus is mocking me, "Ha, ha! I'm going to rot away in your fridge, because you don't have the creativity to add me to a recipe." I'm very "by the book."

But an interesting thing happened over the past couple of years: I developed a well-stocked pantry. I learned that there are things that I use often enough to warrant having them on hand at all times. By the same token, I'd learned that there are some things that I have a hard time using up before they expire.

And so, when I came across this recipe for Mock Risotto, I was astounded. I had all of the ingredients! Well, almost all. A few things I would need to substitute (plain yogurt for cream cheese). And I even get to use the asparagus! Ha - take that! I am victorious!

What staples to you keep on hand in your pantry for nights when you don't want to expend a lot of energy on dinner?