Sunday, December 13, 2009

Chickity-Doo-Doo Laid to Rest


Snow has fallen on our neighborhood, and though it will probably melt tomorrow, I'm pretty sure we've gotten away with the Chickity-Doo-Doo on our lawn. This is unadulterated, organic, chicken manure fertilizer - and it smells AWFUL. We waited until late in November to spread it on the grass, but when I left for work the next morning, I noticed the smell all the way over to our next-door neighbor's yard. If we were lucky, no one saw us putting it on the lawn and no one will be able to figure out what the stench is from. When the snow fell this week, we rejoiced that the stuff would sink into the ground and disappear from the air. Will have to wait until next spring to see how it works!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

J.A. Jance in Person

Today I went to the library to hear J.A. Jance, the popular mystery series author, talk about her writing. After seeing her publicity photo on her website, I thought she would be nice and grandmotherly.

Wrong. For instance, she is very tall and is quite imposing standing behind a lectern on a stage. What was most surprising is that she sings at her appearances. She told how her parents and their 7 kids would drive from Arizona back to South Dakota for regular visits with the friends and family they had left behind when the father was advised to move for his health. Their mother liked to sing, so they entertained themselves on those long car trips by harmonizing on a considerable repertoire of songs. She demonstrated a hilariously gruesome country song about heartache, death, and coffins. Then after describing how terrible it was to be a smart 7th grade girl who happened to be 6 feet tall, she told how she eventually became unlikely friends with Janis Ian, who wrote At Seventeen. She closed by singing the entire song, unaccompanied. Brava!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving Days!

Thanksgiving brought in relatives from out of town again this year. That always means lots of Scrabble and a movie at a theater before they leave. Our family hostess arranged for 2 Scrabble games to accommodate 8 players after the turkey. I felt that my overloaded stomach was draining all the energy from my brain, so I had to walk around the block in order to clear my head for the game - which would require all my skill to look respectable against the 5 most ruthless players.

Each game was interesting, and each ended within minutes of the other, thank goodness. A certain college junior had almost back-to-back bingos in his game, yet barely won it in the face of fierce competition.

In my game, I sacrificed 2 turns to unsuccessful word challenges. The competition had unfairly memorized weird 2-letter words that I just couldn't believe would stand up. I was wrong both times. The brother of the 2-bingo winner went out with a bingo of his own and collected enough points from the other players to win our game and had enough points to be crowned grand champeen. The out-of-town relatives now have supreme bragging rights. Rats!

The Music Box Theatre was having a Sing-Along Sound of Music the next night, and all the ladies voted for it. (The guys said it was too "wimminy" for them, so they went to bars.) The high school senior allowed as how she had never seen SOM before - incredible! And she loved it.

As we filed in, someone was playing the old theater's big pipe organ as a prelude to the show. I noticed a big and lively crowd of all ages and degrees of hipness. The MC began by having everyone go through their individual props bag to learn how to use the stuff: cards with question marks, pictures of Maria, the word "flibbertygibbet," a ghost (will-o'-the-wisp); a small square of fabric, a very small fake edelweiss flower, an invitation to a ball, a "popper" (as in New Year's Eve accessory).

Anyone who had come in costume as one of the characters in the movie then was asked to come up on the stage so the audience could vote with their applause for the top 3. A "Maria," a "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and a "Baroness" were the winners, but I really wanted a guy who was wearing a red and black lumberjack shirt to win. He said that he came as the lumberjack who got cut from the final version of the movie, which I thought was a good enough reason to win - ha ha!

After we were instructed to boo for the Nazis, hiss for the Baroness, bark for Rolf (the love-interest of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"), and aawwww for Gretel, the movie began. Everyone cheered loudly when Maria appeared on the Alpine plain and whenever she made another big entrance. Lots of boos and hisses for the bad guys and gals. It made me think that this is what it must have been like to go to the theater in the old days in England when the audience made no secret of their reactions to a play. Lots more fun!

The words to all the songs (including the Latin verses for the nuns' choir in the beginning) appeared on the screen so everyone could sing with the actors. It was funny to hear kids down in front singing loudly and a little off-key! The biggest songs, as far as audience volume level, were "Climb Every Mountain," where everyone screeched the last high note at the top of their lungs, and the Yodeling Song (whatever the real name of it is) where you can sing, "oh-de-lay-hee," many times!

When the Baroness requests a ball at the Captain's home, everyone waves their invitation in time to the first waltz. One couple got up and quickly danced up and down the aisle. And even though we were all told not to pop our poppers until Maria and the Captain have their first kiss, disobedient kids were continuously pre-popping any time it looked like it might happen. But finally, at long last, they did it, and the room was filled with pops, streamers, cheers and laughing - yayyy!!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Roasted Beets - Perfect!

Last night we had a pre-Thanksgiving family dinner. For this I sacrificed the last of my home-grown beets, and they were beautifully rosy and delicious at room temp with splashes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and with rosemary and thyme strewn around.

I learned how to roast beets something like baked potatoes to avoid diluting their flavor in water and to concentrate the sugars. At first I would trim the beet greens to 2 inches, scrub the beets, dry them, and encase them individually in sealed foil packets. This worked very well. After the beets cooled, I could put on a pair of rubber gloves and just slip the beet skins off to reveal shiny smooth beets to use as dinner vegetables, slice into salads, etc. Later I felt guilty wasting so much foil, so I decided instead to rub them liberally with cooking oil, and put them in a covered casserole to bake. Even better - and greener, so to speak! Wish I had a picture, but you'll just have to imagine it.

Monday, November 9, 2009


Last night I watched Dances with Wolves again. I forgot how long it is - over 3 hours - but it was so interesting that I didn't notice the time at all. I'm working my way through the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Films. This is #75 on the first version of the list.

I remember when it first came out in 1990 (20 years ago - good heavens!). It must have been around Thanksgiving when the sister who is almost exactly 6 years younger came to town, as she has, off and on (mostly on) for T-Day all these years. A good movie has been part of our tradition, and that year we picked Dances with Wolves. I have a mental picture of her in the movie theater parking lot as we walked in the dark back to our car. We had run out of superlatives for what we had just seen and were continuing in silence when my sister let out a genuine blood-curdling war whoop! It was the perfect "review."

She's coming to town again this Thanksgiving and I'll be adding this memory to my list of things to be grateful for.

Friday, November 6, 2009

H1N1 Inches Closer

Last week I finally got a seasonal flu shot, but I've decided to forgo the H1N1 shot since I'm not in a high-risk category. But I found out on Tuesday that the young husband of one of my co-workers came home with H1N1. His wife has moved in with her parents and stops off at home once a day to leave food and check on him. She says he started with a "terrific" headache and then a high fever. Today he is cleaning things with Lysol and talking about going back to work.

I used to think that we public librarians were almost immune to communicable diseases - like teachers and young moms who get exposed to everything. But in library newsletters this week, there was the ominous news that a "healthy" manager of an Omaha public library died of this flu. There's nothing like taking a library card from a person who is hacking and sniffling at the reference desk. We now keep hand sanitizers and sanitizing wipes right on the desk, but I doubt they do any good against airborne viruses. I may decide to wear a mask!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Author Treats from the New York Public Library

I've heard that New York City has a wonderful library, so I guess their online version can't help but be good, too. I just found their link to Live from the NYPL with audio and/or video versions of important "conversations" - including one with Margaret Atwood, the author of a book I just started and am relishing! She spoke with another well-known author and historian, Thomas Cahill, there in December 2006.

Upcoming this week is a conversation with Barbara Kingsolver, another of my favorites. And past programs include ones with Queen Noor, Spike Lee, Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Eugenides, and on and on!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Wisconsin Travelers' Delights

Last weekend we drove through Wisconsin to get to Minneapolis. We were out of honey and made plans to stop near Janesville to pick up a new supply at Orlovsky Apiaries. When we called ahead to place our order, we were told that the bees had not had a good year, so we were going to be limited to 3 gallons. Rats.

I did some research on the Wisconsin Honey Producers Assn. site to see who was close to the Interstate AND had an e-mail address. The first one to get back to me was a guy in Tomah, home of the Warrens Cranberry Fest each September, who has hives in the cranberry bogs around there, so - cranberry honey! It's very thick and a little darker than other honeys. He told us it's as sweet as any other honey, but has a slight "tang" (I can't tell, so far). A third of our new supply is gone now, as we gave away some to relatives. My mother wants some, too, but she'll have to be content with a 2 oz sample that will pass airline security.

In Tomah, we got an additional 20 lbs. of the cranberry honey, 2 cheap bags of fresh cranberries, and a big pumpkin for Halloween carving. Lastly, we stopped at our all-time favorite Wisconsin eatery, Norske Nook, where the pies are huge and the crusts taste like homemade. We have been stopping there for years, and this time we got a banana cream (no refrigeration needed in October!) and a peach praline to go with a stuffed shells dinner with family in Coon Rapids that night. Excellent!

We always buy the pies in the metal pie pans which require a $7 deposit. With an accumulation of a stamp on their business card for each pie you buy, you get a freebie with 7 stamps. Two pie pans to return, plus the 7 stamps, means we got 2 more pies for practically nothing - yay!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

How to Peel a Banana

I have always peeled bananas by pulling off the "handle" at the stem end. Imagine my surprise when I found out there's a better way! I was idly browsing through Xtreme English when I came across the odd link, Hilarious, on her 10/20/09 post. I don't know what Xtreme English found that was hilarious there, but I did find a YouTube of the correct way to peel a banana (monkey style). When I checked back there today, I couldn't find it again, but it's easy to find stuff on YouTube, luckily.

I happened to have some bananas at home and found out that this actually works very well - IF the bananas are not too soft. After that, the end doesn't squish so readily. I did a quick survey of the people at work the next day and found out that hardly anyone knows how to do it this way. Who knew? Thanks, Xtreme English and Belgian Waffle!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

I Am Introduced to J.A. Jance

J.A. Jance, prolific mystery writer, is coming to my library in December. She's been writing mysteries for more than 20 years, but I haven't read any of them yet. Starting with a series about J.P. Beaumont, a recovering alcoholic and retired Seattle detective, she then went on to write another series about Joanna Brady, single mother and rural Arizona sheriff. My office partner is one of her fans and was excited to find out that Jance has combined these two series by putting Brady and Beaumont in the same book. And she has started a third series about Ali Reynolds, an over-the-hill tv newscaster with a marriage on the rocks who goes back to her small Arizona hometown to figure out what to do next, blogging all the way.

I've set myself a project to read at least the first book in each series before that author shows up here. Only the first book for the Ali Reynolds' series was available at the time, so I'm starting with that one. Now that I've spent a little time in urban Arizona, it will be fun to read about the rural part.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Julia Child on Film, in Books, at the Stove

I was a fan of the old Julia Child TV cooking series, so I couldn't wait to see the film, Julie & Julia, with Meryl Streep reincarnating Julia. I loved the movie, but agreed with the critics that too much time was given to Julie the blogger, and not enough to Julia.

I got my hands on Julia's account of her introduction to France and French cooking, My Life in France. which fills in the holes in the story: how Julia fell in love with French people (contrary to most Americans' view of the French as unfriendly snobs), how she became friends with the young maid who came with her first Parisian apartment - after seeing the maid burst into tears when Julia tried to sit her down to talk to her in mangled French about how to do things "right" (i.e., Julia's way), how she began to amass a huge collection of French cooking tools, etc.

As soon as I finish that book, my next project is to simplify Julie's project. I'm going to find the simplest and easiest recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has never gone out of print and went back on the NY Times bestseller list! After I find the recipe, I will cook it. I'm betting it will have something to do with eggs. Stay tuned.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

One Alpine Strawberry - At Last!

The tiny dot of ruby red at the bottom of this strawberry plant is the first of what I hope will be lots of Alpine strawberries. Unfortunately, it is September 17 today, so the odds are against it. At any rate, I am so happy to see that the plants, which were a gift from my dear aunt, are doing what they're supposed to. On to next season when I will stop ripping out all the runners they send out almost daily.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Charles Dickens: Love the Writer, not the Man

Just finished a very interesting new novel, Girl in a Blue Dress, based on the marriage of Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth. Afterwards, I had to go look up the "facts" about it. Here's an example.

I am one of the legion of fans of Dickens, the author, but after hearing about how he treated his wife, I find it hard to understand how he could be so empathetic to so many unfortunates in his novels and in real life - except in his own family. There seems to be a streak of hardness in his character that has forever changed the way I think of him. Sigh.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Squirrels Love to Waste Tomatoes

Here is the lineup of tomatoes I'm saving from the squirrels. As you can see, a few have been molested, but I'm trying to save them. The one under the plastic bowl is in intensive care, due to fruit flies attacking the bite marks. The one just beyond that also has bite marks, but they've closed over. These will be ok for cooking, if they can get ripe before they get rotten!

It so maddening to find a good tomato on the ground in my garden with just one bite taken! The squirrels have been terrible about that this year. For every two good tomatoes, the squirrels have had their way with one. I'm feeling murderous.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Gift of Reading

The other day at the library, I had just checked out two books that were begging me to take them home when it struck me (again) how happy I was to enjoy reading so much. It has been a continuing joy to be able to hear people's stories - from their experience and from their imagination.

The two books (which haven't made it on to my sidebar yet) are both novels about California, and they couldn't be more different! One is Donald Duk by Frank Chin - about a 12-yr.-old in a California Chinatown somewhere who hates his name and being Chinese. The other is The Nowhere City by Alison Lurie - about a young couple who move to LA because of the husband's job transfer. He loves the unpretentiousness and freshness of California, while she hates the lax standards for behavior there. It will be interesting to see if the ideas about California from a book written in 1966 still hold true now.

I hope I never stop feeling excited about getting a new book. Set me on an ice floe if I do.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Miscellaneous Interesting New Websites

Spreety.com lists all the sites for watching FREE online TV! This includes PBS and lots of other commercial stuff. Haven't tried it yet, but it *sounds* good. Librarians love good organizers like this. Somebody let me know what you think!

Wordle.net is pretty useful - and fun! Take the characteristics of someone you know and love, then create a poster/birthday card/?? using all the words arranged in a word cloud with artsy colors, etc. You have to go to the Website to see what I mean. Again, I didn't try it myself yet, but I saw one that my cubicle partner did - really nice!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Another Great Read


Just finished All Other Nights by Dara Horn (her 3rd book so far). What a wonderful story! I've told at least 4 people about it already because I want them to read it asap. As I said in my sidebar, this is about a young Jewish man living in New York at the time of the Civil War. He escapes an arranged marriage with a simpleton girl by joining the Union army. When it becomes known that he is related to a New Orleans man who is plotting against Pres. Lincoln, he is smuggled behind the lines to kill his uncle on Passover night.

That part was thrilling enough, but it was only the beginning. His next assignment is to marry one of four sisters in a Jewish family from Virginia to find out which of them is a Rebel spy ringleader.

It turns out that the author did research on the history of American Jews during the Civil War and came up with material for some utterly fantastic plot twists. A tragic thriller that's a very satisfying read.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Peas - Too Much Work


Yesterday I finally got the last plump pea pods from my garden. Time to rip out the plants.


I had been saving the pods until I got all of them or had enough to make a decent side dish for dinner - whichever came first.


Here are the measly results: about a cup and a half of various sizes of peas. That means you have to cook them in stages. The biggest ones cook first, then you add the mediums, then the teeny ones.


Next, the pods go into the food processor for compost material.


I like this picture with the steam rising from the just cooked peas! They're very good when you eat them, but IMHO it's very hard to tell them from frozen peas from the supermarket. This may be my last year for them. I could grow more plants next year, but they would use up too much garden space and only give me one crop. Off with their heads.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Addicted to this Map Quiz!

As I get ready to teach a class on Websites for maps and directions, I came across The Traveler IQ Challenge from TravelPod. I started trying it out myself (on North America, of course), and I was doing so well that I kept going on and on to the next level to see if I could keep it up. It was so much fun that I forgot about the time. Nothing like getting paid to enjoy yourself!

If you want to try it yourself, know that there are 13 different areas for the quiz and each one has several levels of difficulty. Be prepared to get sucked in!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Google Squared - I like it!


Have you seen the latest from Google? I just tried out Google Squared to get a handy list of vegetarian restaurants in Chicago - easy to read and compare addresses, features, etc. There's a handy Help Screen to explain it all. This might be useful for lots of stuff. Let's see.......

Sunday, June 28, 2009

TED does it again

TED brings us Clay Shirky talking about the history of communication - and why we bloggers are part of the latest major change. It takes about 18 minutes, but well worth your time. This is really fascinating.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Foiled by the Converter Box


Last winter, we dutifully sent in for 2 coupons for converter boxes. We got the coupons in time to buy 2 boxes and installed one on our main tv in the basement family room. Everything seemed to work perfectly, and we were all ready for the first changeover date in February 09. Now that the analog signals were finally cut off on Friday, I went to the basement to see what our tv reception is like this morning between loads of laundry. Imagine my surprise to find out that the only stations that come in are channels 32 and above. The regular network channels and the PBS channel are all snow! Back to the drawing board...................

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Really Interesting Book

Outliers: The Story of Success is one of the most interesting books that I've read in a long time. Here are some of the questions Gladwell asks:
  • Why are people born in the first 3 months of the year generally more successful in life than the rest of us? ("Successful" meaning able to accomplish more in a field of endeavor.)
  • Why are men from southern states less able to tolerate aggressive behavior from others than northern men?
  • Why was it really dangerous to fly on any Asian airline flight until only a few years ago?
His curious answers to these questions kept me glued to the book. It's too late to change some of the decisions I made for my children when they were little, but I definitely would have done some things differently had I read this then.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Polio and Our Family

As if WWII wasn't making life terrible enough, Americans also had to live through many scary years of polio epidemics. One of my uncles, who was in the early years of high school at the time, caught the disease. He suffered some serious effects, but with surgery and rehabilitation, he was able to recover well enough to finish high school. He graduated from college, married and had children, and had a good career in sales. Sadly, in later years, he has experienced disability due to post-polio syndrome.

Knowing all this, I was really interested in finding The Polio Crusade from PBS, which aired a program on the topic last February. I didn't see it then, but you can watch it with a link on the site. By 1950, the Salk vaccine was discovered and I got it as a vaccination shot, unlike the current form of liquid dose. (I'm one of the remaining few who also sport a scar on my upper arm from a smallpox vaccination.) Anyway, just seeing the photos from the PBS promotion is a sobering experience.

Here's to my uncle, who remains cheerful and upbeat despite all. Polio didn't get those good humor muscles!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Rescued Relic of the 60s


Toward the end of my last year of college in 1969, I happened to be in the biggest department store in town, Dayton's (long before it was swallowed by Hudson's, then disappeared forever, a la Marshall Field's, et al). In my impoverished state, my radar only picked up sale signs in the store as I browsed the floors. In the handbag department that day, I found one of my all-time best purchases, a black leather clutch, that, even on sale, cost more than I could really afford. Nevertheless, I became convinced that I had to have it. It is truly the only item in my wardrobe that has not only held up through the years, but that I still enjoy using on occasion.

Not long ago, I pulled it out of the back of my clothes closet and discovered that the curved leather strap that held the industrial-strength snap closure had cracked. The two halves were hanging by a thread. I almost thought I would have to throw it away. A last-ditch search of the Internet led me to Irv's Luggage in a nearby suburb. Their ad said that they specialized in luggage repair of all materials, including leather. I had to wait for a day off from work before I could drive out there to see what they could do. To my surprise, I was told that their "senior repair specialist" would be able to fix the break for $35. Three weeks later, I picked up my purse in fully-repaired condition! I don't know how he did it, but the man must be a genius. I can't see any break and I don't think he made a replacement strap because he would have had to destroy the purse lining to attach it. Whatever, I'm so happy to have it back!


In the second photo, I placed in the clutch the 3-inch high paper doll with extra blue dress that my 6-yr-old granddaughter created for me for my birthday. Two treasures. Now if I could figure out how to replace the stained mirror, the purse would be practically as good as new.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

WWII Heroics and Milky Way Candy Bars

After nearly 40 years of marriage, I thought I'd heard all my husband's stories, but it turns out he's been holding out on me! I heard this one after I came home from the grocery store with some Milky Way candy bars that I scored on a buy-one-get-one-free coupon.

Back during the war years when he was 11 or 12 years old, he faithfully listened to the kids adventure serial radio programs that came on every afternoon after school. One program announced a contest for listeners: dream up an escape method for an American Air Force pilot shot down and captured by Nazis near a famous French shipping port (clues given in the program), and name the port.

He said he knew the port was Marseilles, and came up with this idea, which he can never tell without laughing:
The pilot manages to scrounge up enough gunpowder to fill his mouth. Then he asks the Nazi guard for a light. The sadistic Nazi whips out a blowtorch, igniting the gunpowder, and shooting the pilot into the air and out of the prison camp!
After mailing in this entry, he heard nothing for weeks or months. Then a letter came, telling him that his creativity had won him a prize - a case of Milky Way candy bars. He actually felt a little disappointed, since Milky Ways were not his favorites. However, after eating all 30 candy bars over a period of time ("you mean you didn't give any to your friends?!"), he grew to like them so well that they have remained his favorite candy bar to this very day.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Farm Rescue and our Family Farm

My husband is a part owner of North Dakota farmland that was passed down to him from his grandparents who were homesteaders beginning in 1905. He gets a subscription to the Glen Ullin Times, the local newspaper out there, to keep track of what's happening. We were suprised to read in the latest weekly issue that the farmer who rents the land had been sidelined recently by emergency heart surgery, but that Farm Rescue had stepped in to plant his spring wheat. Here's an excerpt from their online log:
Week of May 4: Our volunteers are now in the fields, dodging rain showers, in one of the wettest springs on record!

But the crop is in the ground at Hebron, where Gene, Warren, Bill K., Lowell and Charles spent four days planting spring wheat. They put the last 100 acres in the ground on Tuesday afternoon. After a good home-cooked meal from the family they assisted (the husband had open heart surgery), the crew headed to Flasher.
This is a marvelous organization that has saved many a family farm. Read the stories of some of the farmers - you'll feel good!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Strawberries and Rhubarb - Oh, My!


A lovely sunny, but cool, spring day here - just perfect for planting my newly-arrived strawberry and rhubarb plants. Our yard has about a 3 inch layer of top soil here over a thick tough layer of old lakebed clay. Not what strawberry and rhubarb plants love. So my dear husband has dug holes into the clay to layer peat, cow manure, and topsoil for the new plants. Here they are lolling around in their new digs - get it?

The plants are part of a wonderful gift from someone who knows I love to garden. We are also both North Dakotans, originally, so we both know and love homegrown rhubarb sauce.

I was going to put some of the Chickity-doo that I bought at the local garden center on the new plants, but I figured it might be too much for them. In case you haven't heard of it before, Chickity-doo is an all organic animal manure fertilizer from - yes, chickens. It does smell terrible, however. Much worse than treated cow manure. I was told that we will NOT keep the bag in the garage - it has to go to the back storage shed. Wait until I try it for lawn care - ha ha! We might get voted off the neighborhood.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Honey Mustard Salmon, Part 2

Although I thought the recipe sounded simple enough, it turned out to be another case of not having all the basic ingredients. After I realized I didn't have any coarse mustard, I just couldn't bring myself to use the yellow hotdog stuff. A frantic call to my husband to see if he was on his way home and near a grocery store (I lucked out) saved the day.

We have a handy dandy George Foreman electric grill. It's the big daddy of the line and I really have come to love it. I pulled it out of the garage to the driveway, plugged it in and let it heat for 10 minutes. The salmon fillets, bathed in honey mustard sauce, cooked in just a few minutes - and were darn good! Wish I had had some fresh dill, but the dried version was ok. Next time, the works!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Another Recipe Find


Ok, this one from Pure Simple Cooking (see sidebar) has 4 ingredients and probably takes 15 minutes, but it qualifies in my book of quick and easy. Now to see if it's good, as well! (If anyone tries this before me, be sure to let me know the results.)

Honey Mustard Salmon

  1. 6 oz. salmon fillet
  2. 1/2 T coarse mustard
  3. 1/2 T honey
  4. 1/2 t fresh chopped dill
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. For each fillet, mix together the appropriate amount of mustard, honey, and dill. Place the fillets skin side down on an oiled rimmed baking sheet. Spoon the mix over the fillets and bake for 12 min. Ta-da!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Clothesline Time is Coming

Even though it will be great clothes drying weather - warm and windy - on Saturday, my laundry day, I have to work! So I will wait for the next opportunity to get out my clothesline and turn off my dryer. In this neck of the woods, I'm the only one who is hanging out my clothes in the back yard, but today I found this Website, Laundry List, for reinforcement. It's hard to believe that it's against the law in some neighborhoods to hang your laundry outside!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

FaceBook for me?

People in my family are divided as to the merits of FaceBook. I've been leery, but I don't really know a lot about it. Then I saw this article online. I'm one of those who thinks that joining FaceBook might open a can of worms that I won't be able to close. Let me know what you think about it!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Fargo Flood Page

Here's all the latest on the flooding in Fargo/Moorhead from NDSU. Read it and weep. Still haven't found out if any of the 3 homes our family had in Moorhead is affected.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Classic Westerns

I'm reading The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour, who was born in North Dakota and lived there as a young man - much during the same time as my mother-in-law. It turns out that L'Amour's real name was LaMoure. From what I know of pioneer North Dakotans, it surprises me that he would change his name to such a Frenchified version. Did a publisher or editor talk him into it? Doubtless it has lent him a certain cachet, but still...

It's kind of fun to read a classic Western where the men are strong, good and evil are in black and white, and it's all fairly predictable. I feel transported back to being 11 years old and finding my aunts' stash of girls books from the 20s and 30s. There's nothing like discovering Nancy Drew as a kid and whiling away whole summer days with her.



Another one of my favorites from those books was Nell Grayson's Ranching Days by May Hollis Barton, who was one of many pseudonyms for Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Harriet wrote many Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins books, and more! (Must look into this.) Nell is down in my basement bookshelf growing moldly along with the others, but I can't bear to part with her yet. Nell was a city girl from the East (dudette) who met her match in a strong young cowboy who took a liking to her. Nell had adventures with rattlesnakes, storms and "bad guys," but always was a match for them. Lovely simpler times.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Scary Book Yields a Promising Cleaning Tip

The first chapter of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Cleaning (see side bar) is not for the squeamish. The exhaustive and exhausting list of toxic chemicals in our cosmetics, cleaning products, carpets, furniture, paints, etc. is truly frightening. Nevertheless, I came across a very simple, but possibly valuable tip for cleaning oven spills - like when you thought you could get away with filling a casserole dish up to the top, or not putting anything under a loaded fruit pie. The secret is to pour a lot of salt - yeah, salt - on the spill when it is still hot. You are supposed to be able to just wipe the spill away later when the oven cools with no problem. I'm now awaiting an opportunity to try this out, but have had no energy to cook anything recently that needs more than a stovetop or microwave. Tune in later.....

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Saints


Speaking of theater, one of the top items on my someday to-do list is to join the Saints. I was reminded of them when I noticed that the two ushers at the play mentioned in my last post were wearing Saints name badges.

This is just such an excellent idea - my hat is off to the person that made it happen! For fifty bucks a year, you can sign up and get a training session to become a volunteer at performing arts events around Chicago. You look online to see what events, dates, and locations suit you, then sign up to do whatever they need - mainly ushering. Then you take a seat and enjoy the play, circus, concert, ballet, etc. you get back many times the amount you invested in your year's worth of volunteering!

The Saints say they may be the "first and only" organization serving the performing arts in a major city. Is this true? Hard to believe that no other city has any people wanting to find an easy way to enjoy the arts without having to pay much for it. Living in Chicago, one of the great theater cities of the world, means I have to take advantage of it!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Living Green

Last weekend, a group of us from around the city who have been meeting and talking about race relations went to see the last (and sold out) performance of "Living Green" by Gloria Bond Clunie.

The play was at the refurbished Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue, now the home of the Victory Gardens Theater. The Biograph is known to everyone in my family as the place where John Dillinger was killed in a police shootout in the alley. Over the years, my husband saw many movies there as it was a neighborhood theater. By the time I came along, it was reduced to sticky floors and regular midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now, it's really beautiful and a great venue for plays. Good seats everywhere!

I've read and seen many versions of the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, so seeing the "sequel" was really interesting. Our house is in a very safe neighborhood, but I've often wondered if I was doing the right thing by choosing to live there. This play asks the question: where should you live to do the most good for yourself and everyone else? No easy answers.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Using Blueberries from 1993


Last week we had major snow melting and rain. This means the cracks in our basement foundation reveal themselves. A particularly big one was discovered in the closet under the stairs where my aged mother-in-law and I have stored canning equipment for years. As we cleared out the jars and shelves, we found an undated jar of carrots and a jar of blueberries from 1993! The carrots were dumped, but we decided to see what we could do with the blueberries. The picture shows the resulting Blueberry Upsidedown Cake.

I wouldn't say it was terrifically good, but it was certainly edible - especially with the last of the Tom & Jerry's on it. The fruit filling was not very thick, so I decided not to turn it upside down, but it worked like a cobbler just as well.

Tomorrow, we will take some to my mother-in-law to give her a taste of berries she canned 16 years ago - amazing!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Lackluster Veteran??

Today I took a survey on my use of new Internet technology and found out I'm classified as a "Lackluster Veteran" - part of the group of older faithful Internet users who find themselves overwhelmed with new forms of communication and not so willing to try them all out. What a creepy label!

Try it yourself at the Pew Internet Project's Internet Typology Test and tell me what they call you!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mary is 109 today!


Today is a great day - Mary is 109 years old and she knows it! I congratulated her this morning on reaching 109 and told her that she will have visitors today. On anyone's birthday, she has always asked the person how they feel about being that old, so today I asked her. She said she doesn't know how she feels about being 109, then she thanked me for coming to see her.

Her spirit is still strong on her good days, and today is one of them. It is a blessing to know her.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Celebrating Lincoln's 200th Birthday


Last night we began the birthday festivities early by going to a Lincoln as Leader lecture at Loyola U by Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I'm leery of authors who have glitzy websites, but she turned out to be a down-to-earth and fascinating speaker - maybe just like Lincoln. She had all my attention for the 45 minutes she spoke - everyone else's in two auditoriums, too. (I was too late to get free tickets to the main hall where she spoke, but we were able to get in to the "satellite" auditorium where we saw her on videotron.)

Since I have been reading selected Lincoln biographies in chronological order, the early authors have all referred to Lincoln's "homespun" humor without ever giving anything but very tame examples. But Goodwin does not have to be as circumspect, so she told a hilarious example of bathroom humor that was attributed to Lincoln. To me, that was worth the talk by itself - to find out just what "homespun" really meant. Maybe Lyndon Johnson was closest to Lincoln in that respect - earthy humor from the President!

The evening's MC seemed delighted to announce the dignitaries in the audience, particularly "The governor of the State of Illinois, the Honorable Pat Quinn!"

All in all, a wonderful way to observe the occasion - especially with a post-game dinner at Bakers Square, where it turned out to be "Wild Wednesday" - free piece of pie with every order!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Alexander Technique


Everyone pretty much knows that I have severe scoliosis (untreated), and I've had my share of back problems - although not more or worse than most people who don't have scoliosis. In my attempts to stay away from the orthopedic surgeon, I faithfully exercise on weight machines, try to keep my weight down, and keep my eye out for good practices for back strength and safety.

I've been aware of the Alexander Technique for some time, but thought it was only something that actors and other performers used. Last week I watched an old video, The Alexander Technique: Solutions for Back Trouble, that I found at a library (natch!).

This has lots of excellent suggestions! I'll pass along just one: when you are standing at a sink - brushing your teeth or peeling potatoes - open the cabinet door under the sink so you can rest your foot on the bottom shelf. If you've got a low drawer nearby, you can use that, too - pull it out and put your foot on it. Raising one knee when you rest your foot on something low changes the position of your back for the better when you're standing. Great idea for everyone.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I Bite Barack Obama's Head Off


First there was the flap over Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia, the new TyGirlz dolls that are "not" modeled after the new first daughters. Then last night at the library, another librarian, who was leading a book discussion on the first dad's The Audacity of Hope, went off to the local chain grocery to get some Barack Obama cookies to serve for refreshments.

You know how they can make sheet cakes now with a computer-generated frosting photo on the top? Well, the cookies are made the same way. Here's the before and after shots after I sampled the one that I took home.



My husband pronounced the taste "awful" and let me have all the rest. It did taste faintly chemical, so I will not be buying or eating any others.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Beret - 50+ Years Later


On the right is the beret purchased around 1955 at "Sir Real" (get it?), a hip men's boutique in Chicago. My husband, the Francophile, was a student at DePaul University at the time. On the left is another beret purchased last week in Chicago at Hats Plus, a little store out in the neighborhoods of Chicago in a decidedly unfashionable area. Nevertheless, when we looked inside the new beret at the store - voila! - the same exact brand, Hoquy!

We were delighted to find that some good things in life are still available. The old beret is much faded, has lost the binding and never had the lovely lining that the new one has.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Horror Fiction - neh

So I read the Clive Barker book, Cabal, but I now know that I just don't get horror - at least, the Barker kind. Some additional short stories that followed the novel didn't change my mind either. In the end, I guess I don't thrill to devils, gross aliens, grisly sex/violence, etc. Apparently, Cabal was made into a forgettable movie, Nightbreed, in 1990.

I wonder if horror fiction tries to satisfy readers who want extreme levels of fear and loathing. I know teen readers often find horror fiction fascinating. They love risky business? Anyway, on to something else.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Spotted Dick - har har!


Last September, we celebrated my husband's birthday with two days of family events. At brunch on the 2nd day, one of our sons-in-law gave him a gift of a number of interesting food items, among which was a can of Heinz Spotted Dick. This immediately became the source of many bad jokes/puns which, luckily, were not understood by our 3 grandchildren.

This weekend the can was rediscovered in the back of our pantry, and, having nothing particular for dessert - or "pudding," if you're British - I decided we should try it. I had thought that Spotted Dick was some sort of rice pudding with raisins, but no! It turned out to be a sort of cake that you can warm up and douse with a sweet sauce of some type. It was ..... ok. I will assume that homemade Spotted Dick (now there's a source for a rich joke) is best.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Favorite Mystery Author: Donna Leon


Now that I've added the latest Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery to my reading list, I've already heard from another enthusiastic Donna Leon fan! And my sister who regularly spends time in Italy really enjoys the books, too.

Donna Leon is an American ex-pat living in Venice who writes mysteries set in that exotic city. The mysteries usually involve a crime set against a background of grim social ills, but they are always a fascinating mix of travelogue, commentary on contemporary Italian issues, and Venetian family life - complete with luscious descriptions of Brunetti family dinners.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Year's Resolutions

Someone asked me on New Year's Day if I had any resolutions, and I had to say that I hadn't really thought about it. But now, there are a number of ideas that have made themselves known:
  1. Turn my cell phone on every day, so people can reach me. I used to think that it was a blessing that I could be unreachable when I chose, but I'm beginning to rethink that. My son will be happy about this.
  2. Stop buying vitamins, and further reduce the number of pills I swallow each morning. I keep hearing that vitamins aren't necessary for people with a fairly healthy diet. Should I skip the fish oil, too?
  3. I ought to have a third one, just because two always seems unfinished, but nothing occurs to me yet, so my third resolution is to be satisfied with just two resolutions - ha ha!