Bats

There are bats in my parking garage. I saw one last Friday hanging from the metal grid that encloses the staircase. Initially, I was thrilled. I'm always excited to see urban wildlife (that is wildlife that is not rats) and the parking garage is new, so I was enthused that they were already warming up to it. And bats are especially great with their appetites for bugs and mosquitoes. But Monday morning as I walked down, I saw that the bat had died. It had fallen to the ground right below where it had been hanging. When I got into the office a co-worker suggested that I call the health department, so I did call the Animal Control division and they assured me that they would come out and check it out for rabies or west nile. Now I'm sort of freaked out. I had resisted moving to the parking garage since I hate them anyway, and I already was taking the stairs since I'm not so thrilled with the claustrophobic elevators. Now I've somewhat convinced myself that there is a coven of rabid bats haunting the garage waiting for me in the stairwell. This has seriously upset the only exercise I really was doing (walking down from the 9th or 10th floor and walking up a couple of floors before catching the elevator). Then again, maybe they aren't in the stairwell, but amassed in the elevator, waiting for me to close the doors before they swoop down. Probably it hasn't helped that I'm watching Trueblood, with it's creepy bat montage in the open sequence. So help me get over my irrational bat fear, folks so I can get back to the stairs.

Apple Butter Time

This weekend we made apple butter out at Ted and Linda's. We haven't done this in about 9 years, but it was so much fun, hopefully it won't be another 9 years before we do it again. Here's the process:

You start out with apples, these are Johnathans, and yes the type of apple does matter. You want something that's tart and that makes a good pie, so forget those Golden or Red Delicious that you have in your crisper. We used about 2 bushels, which I found out is about 84 lbs for this small batch of apple butter.

Check out that peeler - it's about 100 years old but it can still outrun those newfangled ones as we found out 9 years ago when we pitted them head to head.

The night before is spent washing apples, peeling apples, quartering apples, coring apples and washing apples again. The peels are kept to make the butter that pretty brown color.

Bring your sharp paring knife - you're going to need it!

Washing the apples again in the big enamel basin.
Down to the final batch - Ted told us all to savor the moment.

After all of those apples are prepared you cover up them up in the big basins (I don't know if you can buy those things anymore) with dishtowels, clean up the mess and go watch the dabate.

Ken gives the apples a stir while the rest of us look on.

The next morning the apples, sugar and spices go into the big copper kettle. There aren't any pictures of that process because we were still home asleep, the lazybones that we are. We showed up in time to eat yummy pastries and watch the butter cook up.

Nora is part of the fire brigade

When it is deemed time (there is tasting and the stirrers can feel it thickening up) then the harried process of getting it canned up begins.
Luckily Grammy is there to set things up. The long table is pulled out and we get into our stations: dipping, filling, wiping, sealing (adding the lid and adding the ring) then the jars go into the basin and onto the other long table in the garage to wait for their lids to ping and set up overnight. No Touching the Jars!

In the heat of butter!

The last of the apple butter!

clean up outside and inside

Now it's time to relax, roast some hotdogs for lunch, and...
gather acorns for winter?????

Final Days Of Summer

It's fall already, and it's felt like fall for awhile, given the lack of oppressive heat that summer usually brings us and all the back to school business. But these last few days of summer have brought out the inner squirrel in me. Last weekend, I decided I needed to do something to mark the end of the season so Mom and I put up a bunch of pints of Jason's mom's pepper sauce. This may or may not be the fabled sauce of Miss Dixie, Jason's childhood neighbor, I suspect it is, since it has more of her hallmarks than Kathy's, in any case, it is a delicious sauce. This isn't something I do every year, but I really love the taste of it on beans (black eyed peas, pintos, butter beans, and the like), and the recipe is easy (well, I have to use gloves for the hot peppers, but other than that it's easy) and putting up a dozen pints really doesn't take that much time, especially when Mom is is there to lead my through it.

I had plenty of tomatoes left over (since I lost my battle with the evil squirrels, I had to buy a peck at the farmer's market and we only used half for the pepper sauce). And I was desperately in need of another can of olive oil, so the logical thing was to pick some at Viviano's along with some buffalo mozzarella and make a big sloppy caprice salad. I love so many things about Viviano's. The price of olive oil is astronomical (I can remember when it was about $12-$15 for a 3L can not that long ago), I was
dithering between a new can that they had predominately displayed for about 5$ less than my normal Celio brand. In the checkout I point to the new brand and ask "Am I going to be happy with this?" The two people behind the counter (one has been working there for more years than I've been coming to the store) say without hesitation, in unison and with a tone that is definitive: "no", I scoot out and exchange it for the Celio and the long standing employee looks at me with approval and tells me that's what she always uses. I exit Viviano's looking forward to my salad and the hunk of Marconi's bakery bread. We are not a white bread family. I mean that literally. We don't eat white bread usually - lots of rye and whole wheat and I'm constantly guilt tripping myself over the fact that we eat too much of the processed sandwich bread that has all that corn syrup in it. But, occasionally, I like a crusty Italian style loaf and Marconi's is always perfect. We scarfed it down with the salad and then the next morning I ate it with the last of the gooseberry preserves from Sunflower Savannah a vendor at the Tower Grove Farmer's Market. I had bought this earlier this summer and I'm completely enthralled with it. We had gooseberry bushes when I was a kid and while I remember there being lots of gooseberry pie (I wasn't fond of it, but my grandparent's generation was), I have no memories of jam that tasted like this! And the color is really pretty too. Here's a picture:
I'm sorry I haven't done as much canning as I would have liked this year. It's hard to do with Nora in the house, unless there's a team looking after her, and really I always think it's going to be more labor intensive than it is.

This weekend I also got around to testing the alternative to rice crispy treats in Vegan Lunchbox. While Nora has no problems eating marshmallows and I can make them with Earth Balance instead of butter, there are a couple of people in our orbit who don't eat them due to the gelatin in marshmallows, including Jason. So I thought I'd give these a try since they use corn syrup & peanut butter (I subbed soynut butter) instead. I make the jumped up version with chocolate chips. Once I got over that these were not rice crispy treats, I actually liked them and Jason and Nora gave them two thumbs up too. Nora has taken to calling these "Snack". They are way sweet (they are after all listed in the dessert section) and they tasted quite a bit like store bought quaker granola bars as well as a treat Mom made for us when we were kids - Special K bars. The soynut butter/chocolate combo is a real winner and I like the crispiness of the rice crispies. I think I will make them again and add oats as well and try to find the brown puffed rice that the recipe originally suggested.

Finally here are the lunchboxes from this week so far:This is my lunch from Monday, Jason had a similar one, but I didn't get a photo: blackeyed peas with tomatoes and spinach (Sunday's leftovers), turkey sausage (Jason had the last of the cornbread muffins instead), a pluot, and we both had a side of Snack. I also sampled one of Nora's Vanilla Silk pouches and it was actually good (I'm not a huge fan of the regular Silk, but I find the Chocolate quite tolerable as well). Here's Nora's lunch from today:
Macaroni and meat sauce, carrot sticks and zuchini stars and hearts with hummus dip, a pack of raisins, and Vanilla Silk pouch. I'm suffering from some guilt because I forgot to include my usually notes in her lunch.

That's all for today, but I did want to remind folks about the Strange Folk Festival this weekend. Go check it out!

Friday Lunch Roundup

I actually made most of our lunches the night before for the first time. This enabled us to get out the door on time! I love going to Nora's pre-school. Today I met one of her classmates, Luke. Nora wasn't thrilled about him, but he seemed like a nice boy. They are doing cooking experiments today, so I wonder if she'll be willing to do some at home this weekend. I've been meaning to test-drive Vegan Lunch Box's recipe for vegan rice crispy treats. Since this will make a very small dent in the 3 bottles of Karo syrup I've somehow amassed, it's high on the priority list. Let's hope its a favorite.

Here's the lunches for today:


Nora has leftovers from dinner the other night - 1/2 a bean and chicken burrito cut into pinwheels (this alligns with the other kids lunch menu - bean and cheese burritos), a pear cup, carrot sticks and a dip made from soy sour cream and salsa. I froze some o.j. in a reusable juice box to keep it all cold.

I've got a turkey and cheese sandwich, grapes, and a salad made from edaname, corn, & dried cranberries with a walnut oil/basalmic vinegar/apple cidar dressing.
Jason has cheese and rye crackers, tomato soup, grapes and some of the edaname salad. Here is his all tied up. I didn't get an elastic strap for his bento (it's on the way, along with a neutral looking lunch bag) so I tie his up using a rather girly napkin a'la the japanese furoshiki. The government of Japan has put out a handy guide on how to tie these wraps, but I haven't studied it in detail, so mine are a bit more free form:
I am quite happy on how I managed to get that spoon tied in there too.

Bento Box

I got a bento box! So now you get to see one of my lunches. Jason got one too, but his is plain green (he didn't get a matching bag and chopsticks - poor Jason).

I didn't have time to take pictures of his, but what we're having for lunch is: veggie sushi leftovers (these are spinach, carrot and avocado), a rice ball molded into a shape (mine is a star, Jason got a mouse shape) with additional avocado pieces, some pickled ginger and wasabi, and I got grapes and Jason got a fruit bar.

Jason also got a little sauce container of soy sauce, but I had some at work so I didn't bother with mine. If I had been more together on this, I would have molded the avocado into the rice so that it wouldn't brown so much. I love my new bento set! Unfortunately, I can't get a good shot of the top, but on the top of the container and on the chop stick container is the following saying - "Happy fruits is very delicious. I will eat this and will become fortunate all together!" This is the "putifresh" line and the manufacturer is "Lube Sheep" which Jason thinks is hysterical. Okay, I do too. Anyway, they come in cherries, pears and oranges and I got them here. The cupcake cups are from Target's dollar spot this week - they have sets of 10 silicone cupcake liners for $1 - I got one in each color - red, blue and yellow. They are great for lunchboxes. And thanks to Suzy-Q who wrote me to let me know that juice boxes are freezable and that she likes my lunches.

Nora is eating at my parents today, but yesterday's lunch was leftover veggie dumplings, a rice mold (she got a heart) with avocado, some fruit gellies and some bunny grahms. I've got a picture somewhere of hers that I'll try to add later.

****UPDATE***

Here's Nora's lunch:

Old Home Weekend

Our first trip without Nora was really quite fabulous. Although leaving was difficult. I tried really hard not to cry, and failed miserably. But I cheered up on the drive down. The weather was lovely, although it was much more humid in AR in in STL. We made it in good time even though we stopped at the Dixie Cafe for our obligatory sides of veggies and giant glasses of diet coke.

in front of the Dixie Cafe

When we arrived, Jason and I felt like visiting dignitaries at Hendrix. They put us up in the visiting professors apartment (Thanks Sarah!), he got an honorarium, free meals in the cafeteria (possibly the only place on Hendrix that is still recognizable from our era), and there was a lovely reception after the reading of the play and Q&A with Bob and Jason.

Posters!
The orange post-it is a parental advisory for adult content and language warning

The reading of the play was really fun. Thrillingly, I got to sit between the director and the playwright and while there was at least one point when we were the only ones laughing our heads off, for the most part, the rest of the audience seemed to think it was funny too. It was really something to hear the actors reading the words Jason wrote although sort of disconcerting too. Many of you are familiar with aspects of this play - Jason had been thinking about it since we were at Hendrix, and while it changed and improved over time, there are still elements that are recognizable from conversations we've had. But seeing it up there, with people who traveled miles and put a lot of time into making it happen, made it a really amazing experience. When I read it all the way through for the first time last week, I really liked it, but I wasn't sure if I liked it because I love Jason and I know Jason, and while I know people think he's funny, I hoped that the other parts of the play would come through too. I think that they did ultimately and while I know Jason wants to make some changes, I don't think that much really needs to be changed because it works. When the audience is laughing so hard that they are missing the next joke, that's a good thing right? Crowning it all was the Q& A with Jason and Bob fielding questions about the play from the audience. I could tell Jason was having the time of his life and that it was made even sweeter by Bob's and Sarah's participation in project.

Bob and Jason in Q & A

Cast, Director and Playwright

center. After sleeping in the next morning we checked out the campus. I think the thing that surprised me the most, was that despite that there is a new building every 20 feet, it still feels like home. I'll try to post pictures of how things have changed, but for those of you who haven't kept up, there is of course the new library, constructed just after we graduated, but also there are 2 new science buildings (Buhler and Reynolds still exist, the new ones are behind Reynolds and the other has taken the place of the former library), a new recreation center, including new sports fields and a pool with a retractable roof ( this is across the street from Couch in the East Hall/Mabee Center/Track area), several new dorms/residential housing (in the former soccer field behind Couch), the new Murphy Building (where Sarah works and where we were housed - it sits between Hulan/Campus Center and Reynolds - now called Axiom), and a new student and technology center is being built as in the former location of Grove. They were breaking ground on the Hendrix Village across the street, which will be retail and apartments serving both the community and the campus. Oh and they spruced up the Campus Center several years ago, but I think it and the cafeteria will soon be relocated into the new Student and Technology building. With the exception of East Hall/Mabee Center and the old Library, all of the other building are still standing and in use. Surprisingly some of them look much more attractive now - Buhler has been covered in vines and is actually quite fetching. There has also been a great deal of landscaping done with new gardens and a labyrinth out behind Trieschmann (I think there was a sculpture garden there before). Also missing is the WWI memorial, and as far as I can tell it hasn't been relocated.

Beautified Buhler

You would think all of this construction would render the campus unrecognizable and incredibly busy, but it really doesn't - you sort of are surprised when a building pops up where it wasn't before, but they fit in with the other buildings (despite being very large ones) and it doesn't really feel that crowded. We ate breakfast on campus, which gave us more surprises. While the cafeteria looks almost exactly the same (they have added some strange faux foliage and nice vinyl tablecloths), there have been some changes for the better.

same but different - odd addition of plastic foliage

There are now clearly marked, multiple, vegetarian and vegan(!) options. For breakfast there were eggs, bacon, sausage, veggie bacon, vegan sausage, 3 make your own omelet stations, a waffle station, gravy, vegan gravy, biscuits, vegan biscuits, grits, oatmeal, and lots of fruit, toast, bagels, and other breakfast breads.

blueberry waffle - note the new tablecloths

At lunch & dinner, I am told there is always an express meal bar with burgers (including veggie burgers)/other fast food sort of stuff, a build your own sandwich/panini bar as well as the regular lunch fare which includes meat, vegetarian, and vegan items. You can see weekly menus here. Oh and they have a frozen yogurt machine, which unfortunately couldn't be transported to Mills/Cabe for the reception, but was fabulous to see, nevertheless. I admit that I don't think I ever made it to breakfast while I was at Hendrix, so I can't really compare, but the vegan gravy rocked.

The rest of our visit included visiting with Jess and Sam and Eli at the Oyster Bar in Little Rock (I'm happy to say that the Oyster Bar is still as glorious as it always was - as was our company). We did a fast tour of the Clinton Museum, which I found interesting from a museum design perspective, the content probably would have been more interesting to me on another day, but I lived through all of that, and wasn't really in the mood to do it all over again. The museum is high on detail, which I liked, and found at times overwhelming and at other times, charming - I especially enjoyed the menus from several state dinners and the binders with all of Bill's daily schedules throughout his presidency. But unless you are a HUGE fan of Bill, I really cannot recommend paying the additional 3$ for the audio tour, which is just him talking on and on.

in front of the Clinton Library

On the way back to Conway we dodged the numerous mini-tornadoes spilling out from Ike to the southeast and northwest of us and fortunately made it back a Hendrix that still had power. After dinner with Bob, Sarah and Zelda and a nice visit and cookie making/eating, Jason and I returned to our apartment around 10:00, just in time for Hendrix to begin their evening festivities - Ike or no Ike. Despite our close proximity to the campus center dance and the high winds and rain, Jason and I slept through the night easily - I think it was the best sleep I've had since I was pregnant with Nora. While the campus looked a little wind blown the next morning (more fabulous vegan gravy for breakfast) and there were many downed limbs there didn't appear to be too much damage. Miraculously, the rain and winds went directly north and not north-east so we had a clear drive home on Sunday. It was a fun trip, but I was so ready to see Nora who was , of course, just fine without us all weekend and barely said hello when we came and got her.

Here we are in our matching Hendrix Media Center tees. Thanks Bob!

And We're Off!

So the press blitz has begun. Jason had an interview yesterday with the Conway Log Cabin Democrat and this morning he made the Arkansas Democrat Gazette about the reading of his play, Yum, Yum, Yogurt, Ulysses! tomorrow night at Hendrix. Fortunately, the Demozette used the press release from Hendrix which was A. more coherent than his interview and B. included the mention of Jason and Todd's essay in Star Trek and Philosophy, which made the paper too! Both articles quote Bob as well, since he's directing. Hooray for the Hendrix publicity department! Jason is a little distressed with the Log Cabin interview, it sort of rambled all over and the reporter mentioned that Nietzsche was a great influence (he's not) and his offhand remark about absurd sexual fantasies of one of the characters got in, making the play sound a little more scandalous than it is. Nevertheless, don't bring your kids - Kevin Smith definitely was an influence.

We leave tomorrow for Conway and we're looking forward to seeing Bob, Sarah and Zelda as well as anyone else who might be at Hendrix these days. The reading will begin at 7:30 pm tomorrow night if anyone else wants to come see it. Jason's already gotten word that a couple of high school friends plan on attending. I admit I'm starting to get excited about the trip, but I'm a little worried to about leaving Nora so long. I know she'll have a great time with my parents, but this is the first time we are leaving her and I'm a little nervous about how she'll do.

Exercise

Nora has been channeling the 80's lately with her head bands. Here she is working on her cardio with the jump rope.



She's also been hooking the jump rope over the chair to create her very own Nordic Track type machine (well the arm part at least). I'm glad that she isn't following the poor example her father and I set when it comes to exercise.

Lunches

Here are Nora's lunches from Friday and today. Friday's was veggie soup that my mom had made with mini corn muffins (with Jam and soybutter), a soy dream box, and mandarin oranges. Unfortuantely, Nora slept through lunch so she didn't get to eat this, the only upside being that I forgot her little notes, so she didn't know that. I just got back the empty containers, so I'm really hoping that they didn't toss the oranges and soy dream since they are in fine until opened & don't need to be refigerated.

Here's today's, it was unexciting and I was in a hurry, so here it is packed: A salami and cream cheese sandwich cut into little squares, apples tossed on oj to keep from browning, and two pumpkin mini muffins which Nora helped me make Saturday night along with a juice box and ice pack. Does anyone know if I can freeze the juice box? It would be so much easier than sending an ice pack every day, but I'm worried about them exploding in the freezer. I guess I could give it a try, but I'd rather not clean up the mess if there is going to be one.

Weekend Update

This past weekend, Matt came to visit. He and Nora hit it off. And Karl picked up his Matt-worship right where he left off when Matt moved back to DC several years ago. This caused some jealousy on Nora AND Karl's part when Matt gave some attention to the other (as far as I can tell, Matt was not jealous of Nora's adoration of Karl, but maybe I was wrong). You can see, sitting next to Matt is a much valued position.
Often Nora would attempt to get up between Karl and Matt, but climbing on top of Matt was even better:

Matt's visit got us out of the house, much to Nora's delight. We went to the Farmers Market where I bought a cute purse from the St. Louis Craft Mafia booth.
I admit that I initially thought Nora needed this purse, but then I decided to appropriate it. It's a little too big for her, but just right for my wallet, keys, and sunglasses. I wish it had a little pocket inside though. There's an apple on the back as well. I feel very "first day of school" when carrying it. We also picked up one of Companion Bread's Mystery Boxes. These are a big box of pastry goods for $15. It was delicious, but really we needed more people than the three of us to get it eaten. Inside we had a chocolate croissant, several plain croissants, several danishes, muffins and scones. About 8-10 items all together. Very, very yummy.

After the Farmers Market we headed to O'Connell's, a favorite haunt of Matt's (and ours). We feasted on roast beef, burgers and fried yummy things and a pitcher of beer - O'Fallon Weach (possibly one of the best deals at O'Connell's).
Nora was very good throughout the long wait, and we kept the tiger nearby to remind her that next we were going to the ZOO!!!!!

Unbelievably, Matt never visited the zoo throughout his time here and as everyone knows it's one of our favorite places to go. It was a really hot day, which should not have been surprising for August, but we had been really spoiled with mild weather all month long. After hitting the the Rivers Edge (sorry we forgot photos) and seeing the Rhino and the Cheetas up close (all four of them where right up front) and glimpses of the Jade the baby elephant, we headed off to see if our luck would hold and if the baby tigers were out. Disappointingly, they were not, although Jason and Nora and I had gotten a great view of them on our earlier visit. We did check out sea lions, the bird house, the big cat country and then meandered back through the snake house, which I haven't seen in a while. The American alligator was giving us a wicked grin when we decided we really had had enough of the heat and that we needed to head home.

That night, Jason and Matt brought us carryout from Cherrokee Street, and it too was terriffic. Nora and I went to bed and the boys stayed up to late talking, which no doubt they regretted when they got up at the crack of dawn and took Nora to see Tottenham vs Chelsea at the Tigin. I stayed at home and read a book.

Before Matt took off back home we tried to visit some of his old haunts, but it's hard to find things open in STL on a Sunday morning. We had lunch at the Schafly Brewhouse and then took Matt to the airport. Since he left, Nora's been asking about him everyday, so we'd better not wait so long to see him again - it's hard to believe it's been nearly 6 years!

On Monday we hit the Japanese Festival and ate noodles. It was wonderful, but I'm really happy we went early, since by noon it was sweltering and very, very crowded. We forgot the camera, so no pictures of the festival but here's Nora's lunch from Tuesday: Mac and Peas, oranges, cookies and juice.


Unfortunately, Nora is reaching the stage where mixed up things are no longer acceptable. While she loves Mac and soy cheese and loves peas, they now need to be in separate dishes. I'm sad, they looked so nice together.

Nora Gardens

Here's more of Nora watering the tomato plants.