community – Peaceful Reader

Just do it!

I’m happy to share that I’ve made it to a yoga class the first Saturdays of January. State Street Yoga has a new teacher, Corinne, on Saturdays at 10:30, which is a very good time for me, because I can’t roll myself out of bed too early on a day off. Corinne is slightly unconventional, with a very soothing voice, good energy, and I’ve learned some new poses from her. New learning is always good. So I’m happy to have started again and found someone interesting in that process.

I’m reading several books right now, trying to read more than watch, which is a struggle especially because Groovy Girl introduced me to Grey’s Anatomy. I didn’t pay attention when the show aired originally but now I’m genuinely interested in the characters and what’s going on. It’s a bit like watching General Hospital while I was in college.

Books I’m reading:

The Library by Susan Orlean – so beautifully written, would not have thought I’d enjoy a nonfiction book about a library fire.

Endling by Katherine Applegate – I am just about 6 chapters in and curious about where the story is going. This morning I had the book in my arm at church and a precocious 10-year-old reader told me she thought the story was great. That recommendation alone should keep me going…

Code Girls: the untold story of the American women code breakers of WWII by Liza Mundy – This is for book club and I’ve cracked the cover twice and read a total of one page. I’m not encouraged to read this whole (572 pages) book. I’m a fiction girl at heart and struggle with titles like this. I’ll take a fiction book about this topic any day. If you loved this title, let me know…

My hands (and the house) smell all spicy from chopping onions, garlic, and ginger for a big batch of chicken korma. Friends are coming over for a beer tasting first and a bite to eat after. I’d already planned the korma dinner for family; I just had to double the batch. It smells delicious.

Namaste…

Dinner w/ Friends

Last night I made dinner for two friends who’ve recently moved into our neighborhood. It’s been my resolution even before New Year’s Eve that I would host more dinners with friends. It sounds easy enough…invite people over and cook them good food. But where it gets tricky is cleaning of the house space and coordinating calendars can be complicated as well at least in our house.

I like a clean house but I’m not great at keeping it up because, well, I like to read more. And watch Gilmore Girls with Groovy Girl more. And play Ruzzle or WWF on my Kindle more. But all that aside it is a goal for the new year to entertain more, cleaning is optional.

I actually found this recipe when I sampled Jamie Oliver’s app on my phone. I haven’t paid to get the app and I’m not actually sure I will (anyone else have it and like it?) This recipe caught my attention easily and then I thought of this couple, Kathleen and Evan, and knew they would like this dish as well.

{Jaime Oliver’s; mine looked quite similar though}

Tarka Daal

(Tarka Daal is lentil heaven-garlicky with a little bit of a kick, eat it with your favorite naan bread or along with lots of little sides) Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils
1 cup yellow split peas
2 red onions
6 cloves of garlic
2 ripe tomatoes
2 fresh red chilies
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 pinch of Spanish smoked paprika
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
sea salt

1. Peel and thinly slice the onions and the garlic. Halve, seed, and finely chop the chilies and roughly chop the tomatoes.

2. Pick the cilantro leaves and put aside, then finely chop the stems.
3. To a large saucepan, add the onions, chilies, tomatoes, cilantro stems, the lentils, split peas and one third of the garlic.

4. Place the pan on a high heat, pour in 6 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.

5. With a metal (I use wood) spoon scoop away any froth from the top, then add the chili powder, smoked paprika, tumeric and a pinch of salt.

6. Reduce the heat a little and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes, or until the legumes are cooked and the sauce has thickened, stirring regularly. Meanwhile…

7. Make your table look respectable-get the flatware, salt, pepper, and drinks laid out nicely. (This step made me smile and made me prepared, which is good).

8. Roughly 5 minutes before the daal is ready, place a small frying pan on a medium heat.

9. Add the vegetable oil, followed by the cumin and the remaining garlic and fry gently for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is golden.

10. Swirl the cumin and garlic through the daal, tear over the reserved cilantro leaves and seve with your favorite flat bread.

It was quite good and I’m excited for today’s lunch of leftovers. When I make it next time I will put more heat in it. I didn’t add the fresh chilies as I was afraid it would be too hot for Groovy Girl. She didn’t eat it anyway so I’m going all out next time and kicking it up a few notches but the flavor was splendiforous! We had naan and chapattis to dig in with and I served it with brown rice. I did bring extra spice to the table so anyone could spice it up more. Only Evan shook some chili powder onto his 2nd portion. They brought a lovely spinach salad which was a perfect companion to the daal.

Usually with friends we might sit around and talk or play a board game but on this particular night we had tickets to the university’s women’s BB game so we picked up quickly and headed off to the game.

My goal has been successful for the first month and I didn’t die because the house was not immaculate!

What an amazing day.

I spent two hours at a local church surrounded by volunteers, kids, and parents all wanting to do something to celebrate Dr. King’s memory. Groovy Girl wanted to spend the day playing with a friend and I wanted to check out the service day event so we compromised peacefully. We picked her friend up and attended the event together. They tied fleece blankets for a local women’t shelter, they frosted cookies for another organization, and they wrote letters, and drew pictures for the military. It was a joint effort between the Extension office, a volunteer group, and the church.

I heard many kids and adults ask if this event would happen again next year and the answer was yes although looking to the closer future the director for the voluteer group said she would like to do a few activities over the summer. Groovy Girl was not too happy to leave the house for the event as it is FREEZING here but she had fun with her friend and she ran into several other kids she knew. She is the soical butterfly of our family and easily moves from activity to activity with out a worry as to where I am.

There were more kids there than they expected so the activities went faster than they had planned. The girls thought they would be actually making cookies not just frosting them and think that making cookies at home would be just the perfect way to end their playdate. I love that Groovy Girl considers cookie baking a fun activity and is a bit snooty about the store bought variety; not that she’d turn either down but she appreciates a good homemade version. For now though they are happily upstairs surrounded by American Girl doll clothes having a peaceful day indeed.

Watch Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech hear and read this interesting Wikepedia article about the struggle to make his birthday into a national holiday. I know that I carry out King’s dream every day at school as I work to help students through education as well as a personal relationship with students that need a little (or a lot) extra kindness in their day. Let freedom ring…

I haven’t even focused on the inaugaration of President Obama today and I will later when my writing time is over. Maybe we can watch the event as we make cookies.

And how have you spent your day…?

A snowy yet green Christmas

(image)

I find it difficult to balance holiday cheer while staying true to my earthy self. There is mass frenzy to get so much done in such a short amount of time. I am always behind because I’m trying to do so much at school, at home, and at church. Here’s a rundown of my recent compromises that cause me small but real anguish.

Why does it bother me? I think it is just who I am.

At school:

All last week Janice and I made cut out Christmas cookies for each student and staff member at Highland. It is a huge project but so worth it when the classes line up at the end of their library time and see a tray full of cookies ready for them. They each get to pick one from the tray and carry it back to their classroom to eat. Too me this is one way to celebrate the wonder of the holiday as kids get to pick up a homemade cookie to enjoy. For me I balance the joy I feel at giving out the cookies with the huge process of cutting out, frosting each cookie with the fact that each cookie I just made has shortening, white sugar, powdered sugar, and dye in it. I understand it is just one cookie and my own kids have certainly enjoyed holiday treats like this but I cringe at the yucky ingredients that go into such a “treat”. I can’t justify the expense of doing an all-organic cookie though and their little taste buds would not care. I am happy it is a homemade cookie with out anything in it that we can’t pronounce!

Another family and I through school has an adopt-a-family to buy gifts for and I finished wrapping my gifts on Wednesday and loaded them into the car, unloaded them at my house (so they would not freeze) and reloaded them back into the car yesterday to drop them off for the family. Luckily my extremely handsome husband drove me there and back because driving in snowstorm-like weather is not on my favorite to-do list. My hope is always to get the gifts to the family while the children are still at school-it takes a little of the magic away if you watch a young man unload the gifts from the back of an SUV-but since it was a snow day everyone was home and happy to see the gift boxes come rolling in. We tried to balance fun things for the family with four small children with practical things like shampoo and diapers. It truly is the thought that counts and we did our best and hope they are happy. My unbalance here came from the fact that I had to walk through the doors of a local Wal-Mart to buy a uniform item for the family. I haven’t been inside a WM store for about 10 years or so. I felt a little dirty but I made it through.

At home:

I’m trying to finish gift purchasing and every year balance my Target shopping with downtown small store shopping. I feel much better about the gifts I purchase from local retailers than tapping my toe in the long Target line. I purchased only three gifts this year using mega-Amazon market place-only gifts that needed to head cross country were purchased through them. I wish I could be so organized that I’d purchased special gifts all year long and had them boxed up and ready to go by December 1st. I wonder how my stepmother, mother, and mother-in-law get all this accomplished as all their gifts are already under our tree. Amazing.

Our meal for Christmas dinner will at least be farm fresh and healthy. We have a local chicken thawing, cranberries to simmer, sweet potatoes from our local co-op, salad grown locally, and a strawberry-rhubarb pie made in Southern Minnesota by a small local group.

At church:

I am on a committee that will serve breakfast this Sunday, which I love taking part in this community activity. The unbalance comes from the hot dish “we’ve” chosen to make for this breakfast. It uses boxed hash brown patties-which are just disgusting to me. I am a real potato kind of woman and would prefer to buy a bag of potatoes, shred them, and add them to the egg dish but then each one would not be just like the other. At least I’m not asked to dump any processed sausage material into the egg dish. People loved this dish last year and it is difficult to speak up for change for two reasons; I am the youngest on the committee of more formidable church ladies. It is one of those things I’m willing to let go for the trauma it would cause. No one else is going to want to put that much effort into creating a dish that many will eat in a short amount of time. Just me. We do at least serve a cornucopia of fresh fruit at the breakfast. Not seasonal but at least fresh.

The list goes on and on and it is so often difficult to justify my moral ideas of what I want to feed and gift my family compared to the masses. I don’t belong with the masses but often in trying to hold up my own moral high ground I add more work to my list when I should be relaxing with my family. It’s the circle of life with a picture of me yapping at my own tail as I go merrily around and around!

What kinds of compromises do you make to share the joy of Christmas?

Happy Holidays!

Weekend Cooking Love

I live a rich life although I am far from wealthy and I’ve recently realized how much joy I get from participating in Weekend Cooking, the one meme I participate in all week. Sometimes on busy weeks it is the ONLY post I make. Like this week. I’ve had many inspirations for posts but no spare time.

I love the community of Weekend Cooking~I love trying out their recipes, I love reading their cookbook recommendations, their inspirations and menu plans. I’ve learned a lot about cooking and baking and I’ve had fun experimenting with recipes I might not have tried otherwise. It’s like going to church for me. I can find God everywhere in my life but the community of people I have a church is support network for me. I feel that way about weekend cooking and blogging in general because it makes my life richer. I like being part of a community of readers and eaters.

We had a church Christmas bazaar today and I made 6 loaves of bread and 12 peppermint whoopie pies. Yum. I’ve made the bread many times but the whoopie pies was a new attempt. I know, risky, right to try something new for an event but seriously I can’t have 12 whoopie pies sitting around my house-I would eat them. This way I got to share one with my family-yes, we split it three ways (Groovy Girl was at a sleep over and thus was excluded from the tasting). I got the recipe from So Sweet! a cookbook from Sur La Table I discovered from a Bermuda Onion’s Weekend Cooking post. Of course. I bought the cookbook as a Christmas present for Groovy Girl. It’s been tucked away for a few weeks and luckily she was at that sleepover so she didn’t notice me using it last night. This compact cookbook is adorable with delectable pies, doughnuts, cookies, and cupcakes.

Here’s the recipe.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
makes about 20 pies (It only made 12 for me; maybe I made the cookie part two big.)

Cake Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 425* F and position an oven rack in the center. Lay 1 nonstick silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment each baking sheet.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
3. Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl. (Or leave it in the measuring cup like I did)
4. Cream the butter with the shortening in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on low speed until completely mixed. Scrape the sides of the bowl well with a rubber spatula. Add the brown sugar and continue mixing on high speed for about 3 minutes until mixture is light brown and fluffy. Add the egg and mix. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
5. Turn the mixer on low and begin adding the flour mixture and buttermilk in two alternating batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
6. Scoop the batter into tablespoon-sized balls using a spring-loaded cookie scoop or a spoon and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared pan. Bake the cakes one sheet at a time for 8 minutes, until cakes are puffed. Transfer to a cooking rack and let cool completely.

Peppermint Filling

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup marshmallow creme
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 T. peppermint schnapps
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies

1. Place the butter and vegetable shortening in a medium mixing bowl of a stand mixer, and beat on low speed with a paddle attachment. Add the marshmallow cream and increase the speed to medium. Beat for 3 minutes.
2. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating on medium speed for an additional 3 minutes.
3. Add the peppermint schnapps, beating on low speed for 1 minute. Pipe the filling between two cakes as directed.
4. Place the crushed peppermint candies on a plate. After assembling the pies, gently roll the edges along the crushed candies to coat. Store as directed.

The array of whoopie pie flavors is spectacular. Key lime, bananas foster, Kahlua and cream, black forest…Wow. I would like to play with the filling to leave out the shortening which is a fake almost plastic flavor for me and I could taste it. I think if I added more butter and marshmallow cream it could even it out.

Thank you to Candace at Beth Fish Reads for linking together all our food-related posts.

In other cooking news I have an 11 pound locally raised turkey soaking in brine in my grandmother’s extra large crock. We are celebrating T.giving tomorrow as a family. I’ve also spent the week trying to go gluten-free. It makes me stop and read the labels even more than I used to and I’m becoming educated on gluten and wheat. I’m gaining empathy for people who really have to avoid these two ingredients.

Midnight Weekend Cooking

Tonight we had friends over for a casual dinner. It’s interesting how you often make friends through your children…our children are all in the same third grade class and have been together in school since kindergarten. Even though it was casual I did clean my house. I made fresh biscuits and two pans of lasagna. And went to a two-hour 4-H meeting with G.G.

The lasagna recipe I’ve shared before (from The Grit)except this time I did make the tomato sauce but the biscuits were a new thing. The day passed so quickly I didn’t even take any photos which would have been sweet as Groovy Girl took cutting out the biscuits and dipping them in butter under her proverbial 8-year-old wing. There was flour everywhere!! I would make these biscuits again. It made a lot and according to the recipe the dough can be stored in the ice box for 3 weeks, which means you could break out a chunk of dough and make a coupla of them each night for dinner.

That recipe came from a book fair cookbook-on sale for FIVE dollars; Super Suppers Cookbook 2; More Everyday Family Recipes by Judi Byrd. I bought it because I was impressed that it had a vegetarian section and more than a few of the recipes had whole grains and beans. It also includes fun menu plans like for parties or well, um, casual dinners. Just like what we had tonight except tonight our friends brought the side dishes and I just took care of the main course. I did also make biscuits, endamame (our appetizer), green beans (kid-friendly veg.) and a spring mix salad. I have “become” my grandmother who never wanted anyone to leave her home the slightest bit hungry! We had plenty! One couple brought a rice pilaf dish with cranberries and the other couple brought cheesecake with fresh blueberries nestled on top a lovely layer of whipped cream. Yum!

Angel Biscuits

Makes 16 biscuits (I think more)

nonstick cooking spray
5 cups of flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4-oz package yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups buttermilk
Flour for rolling
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

One: Preheat oven to 375 degrees (okay, really you don’t need to do this until you are rolling out the biscuits, but that’s just me). Coat a 13x 9-in pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Two: in a large bowl combine the 5 cups of flour, the baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Use a pastry blender or two forks to cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Three: In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water, add buttermilk. (buttermilk can easily be made with a quick pour of vinegar added to reg. milk). Using a fork, stir until just moistened.

Four: Pat or lightly roll dough to 1/2-in. thick. Cut dough with a floured 2 1/4-in. biscuit cutter, rerolling scraps as necessary and dipping cutter into flour between cuts. Dip each biscuit in melted butter and place in prepared baking dish. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden. Remove biscuits from baking dish and serve warm.

Plan Ahead: Prepare recipe through Step Three but don’t preheat oven or coat dish. Cover and refrigerate up to 3 weeks. (Bake when ready.)

Easy. I used a mix of whole wheat flour and unbleached white (KAF). I was a bit mortified by the dunking in butter so I tried one pan without dunking and they were fine but not quite as delicious/light and fluffy as the dipped. Duh.

Hope everyone’s having a marvelous weekend. Now for the rest of the weekend I plan on resting and finishing the two books I am reading; She Looks Just Like You by Amie Klempnauer Miller and Bright Young Things by Ana Godberson.

Yoga Community

The yoga studio where I have participated in several events and taken classes had their one-year anniversary tonight and I was asked to be there as a yoga student and as a blogger-and it was so much fun. I took my little Groovy Girl (as she is a little yogi) and we set up my laptop, a few yoga books and my cards. We drank tea and visited with lots of current, former, and future yoga students. I ran into a ton of people I hadn’t seen in ages and met some new and interesting people. I also met another local fellow blogger-Mariah, who writes about food at Green Swamp Soup. We had a great time chatting about mutual interests in local foods, co-ops, and our meat-eating sons. Groovy Girl and I were able to participate in an hour long yoga class, stretching and sharing a mat together as the studio was filled to the brim with happy do-ers. It took me back to when she was just a wee thing, watching me do yoga at home and would climb on to my mat with me and bend in tandem. Oh, my they grow so fast!

I feel refreshed, renewed and ready to start yoga classes again next week. I have a New Year’s resolution to go for ten weeks. I have another NY’s resolution, which was to get to sleep closer to the 10:00 pm hour so I can wake up early, stretch and be prepared for my day. Hmmm. Here it is, 11:10-oops!

**** Another confesion…that is not me doing that amazing yoga pose above. I know, you’re shocked.

Bloggiesta complete

The Finish Line

Here is what I accomplished:

1. Finish post for Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony (check) 2 hours
2. Finish reading The Greengage Summer and review started (check-started not posted) 2.5 hours
3. I still do not have my post done for the Dalai Lama-I am overwhelmed by this task obviously.

In trade though I did accomplish two other ideas-

4. I closed out one email account, transferring my friends and
family to my gmail account. Simplifing my life, just a bit. I then plan to open a seperate gmail
account just for blogging. I have half this project completed. (check) 2 hours

5. I applied for an indiebound account and now will be able to link directly through them and earn tons of extra dough (??!!!) selling books through my reviews! My true master plan is revealed!! 1 hour

6. I spent another 4 hours reading other posts and commenting on my regular blogs.

11.5 hours spent Bloggiesta-ing! Fantastico!

I loved the community of participation. I would have loved to do more exploring but I failed to figure in the 2 hours spent chatting with friend and the library and the 5 hour drive to Chicago for stepdaughter’s H.S. graduation. The five hour trip did give me new post ideas and a chance to read the second book in Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. Peaceful girl and I are reading the first Harry Potter and what a joy it is to reread this, relishing in how well-written it is. Such a true gem, J.K.!

That’s it folks! My first foray into Maw Book’s Bloggiesta!! Thanks Natasha for hosting such a fun event!