nichole's auxiliary storage

Culinary Luminaries quilt

Culinary Luminaries quilt

I'm a winner! This is a great way to start the week.

Polar Plunge 2008

Today I did three things I'd never done before. One was drink V8. One was this:

I took the Polar Plunge and it was AWESOME. Thank you to the folks who pledged and came out to cheer! We couldn't have asked for a better day. Bright sun, little wind, and temps in the mid-20s felt downright balmy. Definitely going again next year. 

I had been a little worried about the whole thing because the pre-registration party at the Nitty Gritty was total chaos. (Maybe because I was one of the first people in line and they were still working out the kinks.) But on the big day, once we got on the shuttle from the Coliseum to the plunge site in Olin Park, everything went smoothly.

Off the bus, the mood was festive. My cheerers-on headed to a good viewing spot (JM took these pictures) while I found the women's changing tent. I got a perfect location next to one of the big ducts blowing warm air. Off with the outer clothes, on with the shoes and the official plunge blanket for the walk to the shore.

They don't let you stand in line long enough to get really cold. My biggest worry was taken care of when an official guy was on hand to hold my glasses. Then it was down the ramp, a little drama at the water's edge, a countdown, and in we went.

The water was maybe 6 feet deep. I remember clearly looking up through the brown swirly murk and bubbles at the sun shining and thinking, "I made it." That was a little premature. The ten feet to the ice-encrusted ladder back out of the lake was the longest ten feet I've ever swum, and I think I sort of yelped the whole way.

And ran all the way up the hill to the waiting hot tubs. Here, here's my hand and the tip of my nose.

The hot tubs weren't very hot, and were full of Lake Monona muck, but they did the trick. A few minutes later, I went back into the freezing air - this is when it started to feel cold - and dashed back into the changing tent. Off with the cold suit (a swimsuit was definitely the right choice - anything else would have been too much trouble) and on with warm, dry clothes, including boots and mittens cleverly pre-warmed with those little warming packs.

I found JM and friends back outside the concession tent where they'd been killing time with brats and cocoa. Then we caught the shuttle back to the parking lot, and headed to our house for board games. Fun all around.

Onion: Science Teacher Struggles To Justify Showing Total Recall

I apologize for the spate of childhood memory posts, but this happened to me and the Onion wrote about it:

Science Teacher Struggles To Justify Showing Total Recall

1990, 7th grade Life Science, John Muir Middle School, Milwaukee, WI. I can't remember the teacher's name (that's for the best) but I do remember he wore Cosby sweaters and had scads of big dangly skin tags on his neck. We watched this horrible, horrible movie in its entirety to help us think about what life would be like "if you had to pay for air. You already have to pay to use the air pump at gas stations." Actual quote.

indexed: Hi, I'm _____!

indexed (which you should read jeden tag) hits close to home today. I was just lamenting the fact that I can't participate in a linguistics study of Midwestern pronunciation that's going on at the UW because I spent some formative years in Texas being told I say mah ahr's funneh.

Im Test: the ideal cold weather drink

Brian over at Food608 posted a hot cocoa recipe. It called for an absolutely insane amount of chocolate and full-fat dairy products, so, naturally, I had to try it.

For one thing, I'm a recent convert to whole milk. Half a cup of it feels more real and filling than a whole tumbler of skim. For another, I always have good chocolate lying around - in this case, 80% cacao Omanhene bars, which I picked up purely because of the Milwaukee address on the wrapper, but which turned out to be really good stuff. And third - who am I kidding? What excuse do you need to drink hot chocolate?

The ratio of chocolate to milk made the recipe sound like more of a chocolate sauce than a beverage, but it proved very drinkable. It's a good idea to use a shallow cup, though, so you can lick it clean.

The results - this is about a shot glass' worth.

So, I admit I had to mod the recipe some. I didn't have heavy cream so I used half & half. I omitted the sugar. The salt-rimmed dish took his "sprinkle of fleur de sel or kosher salt on top" to a new level of nutsness, and I ended up not sipping through most of it. Finally, I thought a twist of the pepper mill would be fun - and in fact, provided a great finale when the last spoonful of not-quite-integrated cocoa solids included a zingy bit of peppercorn.

My condolences to readers in warmer climes who can't enjoy this drink in the weather to which it's best suited. Think of us in the tundra when you're sipping your lychee martinis, eh?

Winter scent

On Library Mall this morning they were cleaning up the decorative planters, which included running piles of evergreen boughs through a wood chipper. It made the whole block smell wonderful.

State of the food blog ecosystem

Kate at Accidental Hedonist recently wrote about missing the food blogging scene of 2005. Her touchstone was that the corporate site Epicurious won 2nd place in the 2007 Weblog Awards, which to her was a blow to individuality. Other things on her mind were the ballooning number of food blogs, the rise of PR flackism, and the loss of a sense of community.

I can see where she's coming from; the same has happened to many specialized blogging communities over the last few years. It's a recurrent pattern in any online community. In some ways it's unstoppable.

I like to find the good in it. What I've seen is an explosion of hyperlocal blogs, smaller but more engaged communities, and budding niche writers like Eating in Place, the folks at Underground Food Collective, and Wisconsin Fish Fry Reviews (just as a quick sample - there are more great ones out there). Admittedly I'm biased towards the locals because of my project, but I see nothing but room for growth in the food blog scene.

On the other hand, Kate may be right that the wider food blog world is oversaturated. It's tough to form a large community around food blogging, especially writing about cooking. At best it can inspire others to try their hand at recipes and share a meal in spirit. At worst it can be just as narcissistic as any average online diary.

This ultimately means that the winners of national blog polls will lack character, like Starbucks winning Chicago Magazine's "Best Coffee" vote, and Pedro's placing in the Mexican food category in Madison magazine (both recent true stories). The votes for "best food blog" will necessarily be split because the field is so specialized. But that's OK. Quality isn't measured in chicklets.

Hiatus

This week between jobs has been great. By Monday I should be ready for everything new. Some highlights:

• Sort of transferred Eating in Madison A to Z's domain name. My brilliant plan was to do it on Thanksgiving, naturally our slowest day, the day all the food people are eating. But true to form, the fomer registrar hung things up. That's why I'm up late tonight, can't really get to sleep while the TypePad domain info is propagating and visitors to madisonatoz.com get the GoDaddy parked page. (If anyone knows what I could have done to avoid this, tell me please! Argh.)*
• Finished painting the bathroom and doing the Xmas shopping
• Made borscht, had a great Thanksgiving dinner at relatives', and maybe an even better simple breakfast today
• Had my mocha dreams come true

*By the time I finished ranting, the thing resolved itself. Hooray!

Mocha dreams

Even before I read Remainder, I was an avid collector of coffee shop punch cards. Lately I've felt like a pest as I visit the same place near work every day trying to fill up my card before my tenure at this job is up. ('Nother story, off-blog.)

Anyway, I have a Cargo Coffee punch card. Recently I got an eighth punch with a small regular coffee. The barista, a guy in a hip black wool sweater, commented dryly while handing back my card:

"Just two more punches and all your mocha dreams will come true!"

...and did jazz hands.

Somehow this made me feel silly.

Crocheted Settlers of Catan blanket

Finally finished this, a Christmas (2006) present for a big Settlers fan:

Last CSA box of the season

We just picked up our last box of Vermont Valley veggies. This weekend I'm going to have a squash-roasting fest, probably freeze most of the little Cucurbitas and see if there are any seeds worth baking up. (I save the salt from pretzel bags for just this purpose.)

The daikon and beets will get pickled; the cabbage will attempt to become something like Jamerica's peppery stir-fry. Chard is easy, as are onions and garlic.

The potatoes I gave away because we still have 2 bags from previous weeks. That was a factor in my reluctant decision not to renew our CSA membership - I found I just can't keep up with the abundance, even with a half share. Plus, I missed shopping the farmers' markets. We often went without eggs and cheese because I can't stand the storebought stuff anymore (so spoiled) and yet felt that the CSA box was supposed to sub for marketing.

This was the first year I made it to any of the u-picks, which I am going to miss. Scenic drive in the country, picking tomatoes with friends, swapping sauce tips - so much fun.

Joyeux anniversaire

It's Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier's first anniversary on Atwood Avenue. You should go there immediately and have a mint truffle before they're done for the summer. Eat it in three bites. Hold it near your nose while you let the luxurious center melt in your mouth. You can taste the garden in the mint clearer than the air on the first day of fall.

"Walk score"

What better way to celebrate a temporary non-ambulatory state than checking my home's "Walk Score"? Via Danny S., Lisa Subeck, and Brenda Konkel.

We got 94/100. To which I can only say, it better be that high, because walkability was our #1 consideration when we chose the place. Too bad our commute is now 40 miles round trip.

Froot Loops Cereal Straws not as corny as they could be

I just finished the chapter on corn in Omnivore's Dilemma, which has as one thesis that hyperproductivity in America's farmland means marketers have to constantly create more added value to sell more corn-derived products. (The book mentions that bowling-ball-and-pin cereal never made it through the moms' focus groups. Schade.)

So when I read about cereal straws, the newest in "milk-sippin' fun" from Kellogg's on The Impulsive Buy (via Boing Boing), I was sure there'd at least be some HFCS in these tropical-fish-colored delights. There isn't, at least as described in the nutrition facts on the Kellogg's website - unless the fructose is HFCS. (Can they get away with that?) Some of the other ingredients (maltodextrin and glucose syrup, and maybe the natural flavors and tocopherols) are corn-derived.

For the record, simulating the flavor of leftover cereal milk is genius. It's why I love horchata, though soggy Cinnamon Toast Crunch postdates the rice-based beverage by more than a millenium.

How to make a Prius' scary check engine light come on

Drive an hour from home, get stopped in the street by a total stranger asking, "So, how you like your hybrid?", and tell them how much you love it. Our car takes this as a cue to freak out.

Otherwise, we suspect there's a secret timer that hollers at you when you are too slow to get an oil change. We've been seeing far too much of the little warning lights lately, and it's starting to make us paranoid...

...so much so that we're looking into a Communtiy Car membership, just as a backup, to take the edge off our anxieties when these things happen. If it weren't for our jobs, we'd be fine carless; groceries, libraries and good Mexican food are within a few minutes' walk.

"Healthy" junk food that tastes better than the regular version

1. Low fat Hostess cupcakes
   
   They don't leave a greasy film coating the inside of your mouth after you eat them. And everyone has a different way of eating them. I eat the cake from the bottom up, then eat around the white frosting swirl, then eat the swirl. The best method I ever heard of belongs to Judith, who takes off the frosting, eats the cake down to the creme filling, sets the creme filling aside, finishes the cake, then makes a frosting-and-creme-filling taco.



2. Baked Cheetos
   
   Must be the extra buttery artificial flavor in them. I have a fond spot for Cheetos. My great-grandmother, who lived into her nineties, ended every day with a small bowl of Cheetos and a juice glass full of Dr Pepper. (I don't attribute her longevity to her evening snack, I'm just saying it was cute.)

I can't think of a third. Others?

Domestic-arts magazine organizing tip

From a Wisconsin State Journal profile of a local food enthusiast:

"I also love Martha Stewart and have every magazine for the past 15 years," Hirchert said, explaining that she groups them by month so she can find issues and recipes appropriate for each season.

What an ingenious way to organize a seasonally-specific, but not necessarily time-sensitive, collection.

Twinkie sushi

...is more fun to make than eat, but is pretty tasty, in fact.

"Online editor shares tells of her favorite restaurants in the Eau Claire"

Despite the headline - classic UWEC Spectator - this Eau Claire restaurant review is a useful article for WAPL07.  (The first click is free, so read it all in one sitting.)

I'm eagerly anticipating a visit to Chicken Unlimited. Good lord, I hope it's still there. But now I may add Tacos Juanita and Pad Thai to my plans.

February 25, 1989-September 22, 2006

We finally had to say goodbye to Sheltie last week. What a good dog.

Locker cleanout

Jail library duty this morning went in record time. We got a pleasant surprise - staff had returned nearly a cart's worth of library books that had been found in inmates' lockers when they moved out of county. (Thankfully they put the books in plastic bags to save them from the chronically wet floor. If they do have to build a new jail I hope the library gets a room. And a chair.)

We found a lot of our most popular stuff had been squirreled away - new-ish Stephen King, Gwendolyn Brooks, Leonard Peltier's prison writing, etc. So we put it all on a new cart and circulated it back out again.

I stopped at the farmer's market on the way home, and then posted some new jail finds.

Slack

It's the Virgo month of leisure, did you know it? The Pope says working too hard is bad for you, too. Thoreau is, as ever, a good role model. And How to be Idle is the best book I've read all year.

Been quiet.

I went to Cleveland for a library thing.

Then I went to Boulder and lost my camera's USB cable.

Update: then I bought a new cable.

Perfect solstice

Look who's back!

It was a perfect day. The morning thunderstorms woke me up before the alarm clock, and the rain softened up the ground for weeding after work.

Before:

After:

The first berries of the year are right on time.

Admiration

The Hudson Star-Observer published a great article (for a login, go to bugmenot.com) on the occasion of my mother-in-law's retirement from 30 years of teaching. JM pointed out that she may be one of the first teachers to retire from a full career in special education, which was new when she got her degree.

This is why I love her. She's straightforward.

She answers bluntly when asked what attracted her to teaching.

“Money,” she says, explaining that the only women in the small Wisconsin village of Alma Center where she grew up that had careers were teachers.

She doesn't go for handwringing about whether her work makes a difference.

Asked whether students progressed under her instruction, Rasmus laughs and says, “Oh, yes, or I wouldn’t have my job.”

And she's funny.

She takes with her into retirement a wealth of cute kid memories — like the little girl who told her she had her gym trunks on inside-out because the other side was wet, and the pint-size second-grader who took his assignment, sighed and said, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

She's also kind of shy so I hope I haven't embarassed her. Happy retirement, mom!

Green

It's rained for a week straight. We finally gave in and mowed wet grass yesterday (of course, today it's sunny and windy).

This toadstool was big as a saucer.

The raspberries aren't looking too bad. I just planted (i.e. stuck in random bare patches of mud) strawberries and rhubarb.

Time to learn how to make pie crust.

How much is that

It's WAPL. I'm in Rapids. At this store downtown, there's a dog whose face followed me around until I realized it wasn't a prop.

The Wil-Kil Pest Control van

is not something you want to see pulling into your doctor's parking lot.

Eat that rabbit

The rabbits may have eaten most of my raspberry bushes last winter, but they bit them off high enough that there are still  some sending out new shoots:

So - should I still put up a screech owl nesting box?

Hail

That hail last night was something else, wasn't it? JM and I were in the basement when it started. It sounded like someone was trying to break in. Here's what we saw from our front door.

A sample:

Marginal Utility and 3rd and Longer have more photos, and Isthmus rounds up some more links on the great April hail of '06.

Last of it?

Report on organic agriculture

The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the UW has published their Organic Agriculture in Wisconsin: 2005 Status Report (pdf). Some highlights are a map showing the number of organic farms per county, some interesting facts about organic dairy farming and marketing, and photos of the friendly faces at Dane County Farmer's Market.

Cinnamon

My brother's birthday + my poor taste =

Thanks, petsinuniform.com - I think.

This is his Husky mutt, Cinnamon, the bane of my mom's existence (and her other dog's, too - Sheltie's still toddling around at nearly 17!) in a more natural state.

Nothing says "I love you" like...

Food Fight, a great Madison foodie blog, snapped a picture of the Artamos butcher shop's Valentine's Day ad. Those guys make me smile.

Unique FT job opening: education director at a community farm

Via the REAP mailing list, I heard that Troy Gardens is seeking an Education Program Director. Troy Gardens is a 26-acre project on Madison's north side that

combines an urban farm, community gardens, and prairie and woodland restoration with a mixed-income affordable housing complex.

Sneak preview

Over at John Kovalic's blog, there's some contagious excitement about (and an awesome box design for) Cineplexity:

... it looks like the game will be out in time for the summer conventions. Huzzah, huzzah!

Well said! Summer can't come soon enough.

Liveblogging the annual church meeting

OK, not really. But I am taking advantage of my church's new wireless connection to tag some books in LibraryThing while folks give their annual reports. (Some people are knitting, kids are playing; it's cool.)

The library's coming along well. All 941 books are in LibraryThing and shelved alpha by title. Since there's no computer in the library room, once each book has at least one tag I'll print book lists by tag and author for folks to browse.

For the honor-system circulation "desk," I bought a locked metal suggestion box (it even came with a shiny "Express Checkout" sticker) and will print checkout slips for people to fill out when they  borrow books. When they return the books, I'll dig out and discard their checkout slip and reshelve. (I hadn't thought about statistics yet...hm...)

Otherwise, there's just a bulletin board to hang, and a bit of PR to do, and the library should be open by Lent - a contemplative time that seemed fitting.

Pie from the Nook

One of JM and my habits is to stop at the Norske Nook in Osseo anytime we're in the vicinity, and get a refill for the pie tin ($6 deposit) that's taken up permanent residence in our cupboards. In 3 years we've tried 13 pies and have at least 16 to go.

1. Apple (reviewed at Marginal Utility)
2. Banana cream (a prizewinner but I swear it's got Cool Whip on it)
3. Blueberry
4. Chocolate cream
5. Coconut meringue (dad's favorite)
6. Dutch apple
7. Chocolate mint (a March special the same year I kicked the repulsive ritual of buying one Shamrock Shake per year)
8. Lemon meringue (see below)
9. Peach (was actually kind of fakey peach flavored)
10. Rhubarb
11. Sour cream apple blueberry
12. Sour cream raisin (mom's favorite)
13. Sour cream raspberry

We brought the lemon meringue back after Christmas. Behold.

Hopping mad

A few weeks back, I looked out the back window and saw something awful. Almost all the raspberry bushes were gone.

I thought at first the bitter cold and heavy snow might have snapped them off. Upon closer inspection, it looked like they had been snipped with pruners.

A little Googling later, I turned up a UW Extension horticulture "Vermin report":

...rabbits cut them off neatly at a 45 degree angle - almost as if it were pruned with a pruning shears.

The well-trod highway and piles of scat were also a bit of a tipoff.

JM's taken a philosophical approach: no berries, no infuriating swarms of Japanese beetles. The roots should still send up new primocanes, and if we put up a good fence we'll be back in business in 2007.

Friends have suggested bone meal and dried blood as good deterrents, too. Now that the snow's melted the bunnies seem to have stopped noshing. And maybe this little guy, one of our favorite Christmas gifts, can be trained to give us a hand...

Caption, anyone?

Seen on last week's grocery run (picture credit: JM).

My 20-minute layover at the Capitol just got significantly less boring

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the city's wifi network is up - sort of - and free - for now.

 

In other news, the city's IT manager, Metro manager, and Mayor's office have all ignored my "hey, isn't Google Transit Trip Planner cool! Whyn'cha sign us up?" email. I s'pose that's a typical response to a typically frothy message, about a non-problem they've already solved.

Don't

Pomegranates

Rochelle tells a story about patience and pomegranates.

Every fall, my mom would also buy us pomegranates, and I'd eat them a seed at a  time, just like Juniorina. I came to associate the fruit with the excitement of my autumn birthday and - more nerdily - the hopefulness of a new school year.  I loved the Persephone myth, too, and remember making a hideout for myself on the closet floor with a flashlight and Edith Hamilton's Mythology for company.

Not to put too fine a point on it

This office plant came with me to my new job. It was bequeathed to me by a mentor at the last job who said it hadn't grown a new leaf in years.

Happy Halloween

Be productive

So my new commute is about an hour on the bus. But it's not so bad - in one day I made this nifty, blaze-orange 3x5 card holder.

BBs

My HS English teacher used to say writing is better when it's more like BB pellets than marshmallows.

Vacation was both restful & productive.

New job is awesome.

Brother is home safe.

What to do with 15# of apples

from Eplegaarden:

Give away 3# at game night.

Save 5# of the best Galas to pack in lunches.

Bake 3# in apple crisp and watch them vanish.

Dig out the food dehydrator and turn 4# into a few ounces of rather tasty fruit leather. It helps to swish the slices in lemon juice and water first.

Then, use the dried apples in walnut cheddar apple muffins, modified from the Amish & Mennonite Apple Cookbook.

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Grease a muffin tin.
3. In bowl #1, beat 1/2 C butter and 1 C brown sugar together.
4. Beat in 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla.
5. In bowl #2, combine 2 C whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt.
6. Mix bowl #1 into bowl #2.
7. Add 1 C sour cream and 1/4 C milk.
8. Stir in 1 C shredded Cheddar cheese, 1 C diced dried apple, and 1/2 C chopped walnuts.
9. Spoon into muffin tin and bake 20-25 minutes.
10. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then cool on wire rack.

Almost makes me wish I'd picked 30#. Almost.

Chocolate shortage

Warning: dumb post. But I'm out of my favorite chocolate and no one in Madison has any. Reduced to eating Hershey's Dark, that lump of snuff-colored sugar. It provides an occasion to be thankful that this is the worst problem I face today.

Apple time

Sunday drive

Eric

Meet my aspidistra. He flew in from a nursery in Louisiana this week. I guess this means I've arrived.

He's in the same class as the Codex - something I've coveted for a long time, and eventually bought thanks to the web. Unlike the Codex, he wasn't stolen from a library. I hope.

Still here

Just that all my online time has been spent reading and digesting the hurricane news. Most of my offline time has been spent feeling sick.

What have I been doing to distract myself?

Why, reading a delightfully diverting book about pirates! The Laffite brothers, to be precise, who plied their trade in illegal slaves through New Orleans in the early 19th century. How pleasing.

Thinking about my music therapy professor. She lived in New Orleans in the early 80s and was a department head at Children's Hospital in addition to keeping a private practice. She is a veritable whirlwind of energy and resourcefulness. This is a woman who went without sleep for days - some said weeks - rather than neglect a single student or client. I wonder what she's doing, whether she's starting the school year in Eau Claire as usual or what. Sometimes I wish she were President. Or head of FEMA. I'm convinced she could do it all and still cure stroke victims in her free time.

Navigating the incredibly delicate waters between jobs. My high school English teacher once said the longer you leave a bandage on, the harder it will be to remove it - flesh grows into the fabric and you're left with a bloody, putrid mess. That's about where I'm at, for all sorts of unbloggable reasons. The good news is I do have a berth on a friendly vessel waiting for me.

Cleaning out the raspberry patch. Discovered 3 or 4 bushes with new fruit coming in. Not as sweet at July's, but still a blessing.

Also finding a real apple branch grafted to a crapabble tree in my in-law's yard. With two real apples, which Kayla and I ate before I thought to take a picture.

Travelling to St. Louis for a beautiful wedding.

Busfoon

n. (bs-fn) A city bus rider who wastes everyone's time by delaying the boarding of new passengers by elbowing a path out the front door, rather than exiting smoothly by the rear door. (Those who must use the ramp or "kneeling" service of the bus are, naturally, not busfoons.)

Shufflehack

Another use of the librarians' hallmark:

Once perfected, this approach will obviate my need to keep the shuffle in less decorous places. Perhaps I can grow enough hair to conceal the whole thing. And find a friend to take a better picture.

That wasn't cinnamon coffee,

it was the wad of gum I wasn't done chewing yesterday, that I put in my mug "for safekeeping." Ew.

Half way through

Emails from my brother have gotten shorter and more cryptic. A couple weeks ago he wrote that he was "half way through," which I hope m