The Vegan Lunch Box

So those of you who made it through my post below, know I'm in need of vegan expertise. This blogger, is someone I've read for a long time, mainly because her lunch boxes are SO amazing. I'm in total awe.
1. They look so damn nice
2. I never, ever seem to get my act together to bring my lunch everyday so end up paying too much for food I'm not that excited about anyway
3. These lunches are so healthy and they look delicious - even my meat eating, cheese craving self would be more than thrilled to eat these lunches everyday.
4. They are packed in cute a cute bento-like box - it could only be cuter if they were in an actual bento box.

I wonder if her kid really eats all of those lunches or trades them for a package of ding dongs everyday?

Sunday Dinner

Since the rest of the family was out watching Sunday football (not that football, the other kind) I decided that I would do something cooking, something that I rarely seem to do anymore. Partially because I have no time and partially because of the food complications now that there is three of us. I eat anything (Jason will say "not really", because I only want to eat certain things at certain times, but that's not the point here). Jason doesn't eat meat, which is fine because generally I don't like to cook meat but its gets tricky now, because Nora is allergic to dairy. Like systemically, throwing up and hives allergic. Bad allergic. Problematic, because dairy is sort of central to this vegetarian households diet. N's doctor says, no dairy in no form, including in baked goods. If you look a label of just about anything processed/pre-made there is some dairy in there: butter, cheese(whey), milk, etc. Oh and while we're at it, no nuts and no egg whites either because allergy in one area, usually means allergies in other ares. There is a very good chance (about 80%) that she will outgrow this by the time she's about three. But only if she stays away from it all until then, and even then it might not happen.

So, now I'm cooking more meat and more vegan dishes at the same time. Or cooking vegan and taking out some for N. and adding dairy to the rest. This is working well for now, but I'm sort of dreading it all in a couple of years, since all the two and three year- olds I know eat only the following: mac n cheese, grilled cheese, and chicken strips (that breading is usually made with buttermilk). Look at any children's menu at the restaurant and this will be confirmed. There's also peanut butter.

Sunday dinner turned out to be veggie soup, which when mashed up, went quite well down the little one and with the addition of Parmesan cheese, went quite well down us. But, I see me cooking more in the upcoming year, so send me your recipes! Maybe cutting down on all that dairy will be good for all of us.

Fish To Fry

It's Lent, and in case you didn't notice all those fillet o' fish billboards popping up everywhere, y'all are supposed to be eating fish. Well, actually the Catholic Church did say something about not having to do that, but old habits die hard and anyway its a good fund raiser for local churches. Not that I really care about supporting their causes (usually we disagree on several fronts, but I won't go into them here) but sometimes you just need a good fish fry. Last year, I got started late and we only ended up visiting one place (St. Stephen's Protomartyr) and while the fish was just okay they did have cheap beer. This year, I hope to get to a few more places and and find some really great fish. Having a vegetarian in the family means that they've also got to have some decent sides as well or at least a yummy dessert. Bonus points for Churches with great names ("slaughter of the holy innocents", use of the word "martyr", etc), old ladies who rule the flow of the line with an iron fist, and decent beer. If anyone has any suggestions bring them forth.

We Are All French Hooligans

Jason took this awhile back, and I have to say it is one of my favorite pieces of graffiti.


Found near SLU.

By popular demand....

PRETTY PINK PONY!!!!!
S/He (there is both a male and female voice) sings:

"I'm a pretty pony
Clippity-clop, Clippity-clop
Such a pretty pony
Clippity-clop, Clippity-clop
I like to have my coat brushed
Beneath the old oak tree
Let's run and jump and have lots of fun
Oh won't you play with me"


Over and Over again, until it bleeds over into your sleep. It is worse than Raffi. PPP also says "I like it when you brush my hair" and "Let's go for a ride" as well as snorts and neighs.

And yes, Nora is wearing her cowgirl bib and no, I don't know who put that bow on her head. Who would do such a thing?

Valentines

In spite all of the snow and ice and miserable drivers, there were some really nice things about yesterday as well. Most notably, my sweetie pie and Merbs. Merbs is the amazingly great candy store at the corner of my street. Technically, its across the street and there is no corner there because my street does not continue, but nevertheless, it is within walking distance, even on cold, miserable, icy days. Thankfully, my sweetie tolerates me even when I am grumpy and even works to cheer me up, like yesterday when he surprised me with chocolate covered strawberries from Merbs. They made me believe spring might one day come again. They are fabulous and no, I'm not sharing.

Underground

As some of you know, I do not like underground places. Especially if they are submerged in water. Which makes is sort of ironic that I work in an office that is one story underground and surrounded by a moat, but due to the absence of water and the presence of sunlight, I'm okay.

That being the said, I am nevertheless intrigued by this website that explores the Ozarks underground - and actually above ground too. Arkansans might want to check out the picture gallery of the now abandoned Dogpatch theme park, and you transplants to St. Louis might be surprised to know just how extensive our cave system really is. Time to start digging in your basement!

Sharing

I've decided to actually tell folks about this blog. I did a mini-release Friday, with Tree and Jason, and they were nice enough to comment, which has encouraged me to post more and to direct others here. Of course you may not stop by, but if you do and you are curious, the title for this comes from this old nursery rhyme for counting magpies:

One for Sorrow
Two For Joy
Three for a Letter
Four for a Boy
Five for Silver
Six for Gold
Seven for a Secret Never to Be Told

There are several other versions also:

One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth
Five for rich
Six for poor
Seven for a witch
I can tell you no more.

or


One for sorrow
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth,
Five for silver
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.

Eight for heaven
Nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.

Or more commonly:
One for sorrow, two for joy;

Three for a girl, four for a boy;

Five for silver, six for gold;

Seven for a secret, never to be told;

Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss;

Ten for a bird that's best to miss.

Too much HGTV

In my efforts to escape winter and do something about the dismal state of things indoors, I've been on a decorating campaign. Part of this was just dealing with the mess our bookshelves in the bedroom/office are in and then I found out about these fabulous things. While we probably could paint, I'm not inclined to right now and it's a bit difficult with a one year old and anyway, If I paint, I really should be painting the furniture in the bedroom that is about 4 different shades of green (and no they don't harmonize nicely). So when the fabulous bliks came, I put them up pronto. Amazingly it took me about a 1/2 an hour from cleaning the walls to finish. J. helped with the reaching the high places and Miss N. loves it all. See for yourself.





Yeah, I need to make the bed.


I got some for over the changing table too.

re: my previous post

So my boss is taking a week to go to Ireland later this month and I am so very jealous. We traveled there in early March '02 and Christmas '04. Both times, it mild and and green despite the winter months. In the above picture, while not very green, was taken somewhere between Dingle and Galway, and as you can see there were people out swimming (granted in wetsuits) in the surf. It was glorious and I wish we were there now. Heres some green pictures for you from the same trip.

Outside

It's been so cold lately, we're all pining for warmer weather and maybe a day at the zoo. It's just the beginning of February, and it looks like we've got weeks yet to go.

Miss Lucy

I've been looking at old rhymes and nursery stories lately and I ran across this website devoted to street games.

In the discussions I found this which brought back a lot of memories:

Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell, Miss Lucy went to heaven, and the steamboat went to
HELLO operator, give me number 9 and if you disconnect me I will chop off your behind
BEHIND the refridgerator, there was a piece of glass, Miss Lucy sat upon it and it went right up her...
ASK me no more questions, tell me no more lies, the boys are in the bathroom pulling down their flies
FLIES are in the meadow, the bees are in the park, the boys and girls are kissing in the
dark-dark-dark

They also had this version as well as multiple variations on both:

Miss Lucy had a baby.
She named it Tiny Tim.
She put it in the bathtub to see if it could swim.
It drank up all the water.
It ate up all the soap.
It tried to eat the bathtub but it wouldn't go down it's throat.
Miss Lucy called the doctor.
Miss Lucy called the nurse.
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.
Mumps! said the doctor.
Measles! said the nurse.
Chicken pox! said the lady with the alligator purse.
Get out you crazy doctor.
Get out you crazy nurse.
Get out you crazy lady with the alligator purse.

I knew only parts of these as a child, or at least I don't remember the whole thing or they get swirled together as a mix of rhymes. I don't know if it is my faulty memory or if we had some variation that combined bits and pieces of rhymes that were popular in other regions and other times.

I learned these from other girls in the neighborhood and at school, but from the postings, it's clear they had been around for several decades. Did other mothers teach them to thier children? Or older siblings? How were they passed down? Maybe I need to teach them to Nora.

Say, say, oh Playmate
Come out and play with me
And with my dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my pot of gold
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more, more, more-more-more