358: barn bluff at noon

Ryan surprised us all with a tennis ball in his jacket pocket; the dogs loved chasing it along the wooded trail. I loved taking photographs of them flopping around in the air. I had a strawberry shake afterwards, then took a nap, and now--grading. I put it off until Sunday evening, which is depressing, but one lovely trade-off is that I will only be on campus this Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week, I plan to chip away at the house, cleaning, reading, knitting, cooking.

357: three-oh

For my thirtieth birthday, we filled a string of tables with a dozen of my good friends and family. It was exactly how I wanted to spend the evening.


I had chocolate cake. Kelly took a photo of me blowing out the candles. Angie requested I post the picture. Sigh.


We went to the Happy Gnome after, which has the largest tap selection I've ever seen. Tasting Crispin was tempting, but I opted out, realizing just how my stomach would reject any more than a taste of alcohol.


At the Happy Gnome, Colleen C asked me what my top five goals for my thirties were. On the spot, here they are:

1. To get a book published. (I asked: "Is this allowed? Is that a goal I can have?" and everyone nodded and smiled at the silly girl.)
2. To have "chitlins," as I put it. Kids, you know. Family expansion.
3. To go to Ireland. (It was where we almost-honeymooned. Alaska was a good replacement.)
4. To knit a sweater. (This one elicited some giggles, but I see a great cabled sweater as the holy grail of knitting. I also bought the super-expensive imported yarn for this sweater a half dozen years ago and, of course, need some warm-up sweaters, but am definitely looking forward to gifting it to a certain non-boyfriend-cursed man of mine.)
5. When we are ready for a bigger house, because, you know, those chitlins will need space too, I hope for acreage (originally called "a big yard," I was reminded by my apartment-dwelling friends that my yard is big--I suppose it's all relative)--lots of space for the dogs and kids to run around, lots of trees, neighbors at a distance, and slopey roofs on the second floor. Maybe some chickens. For the eggs.

356: honeybees, and other good things

Tomorrow I turn the big three-oh, which I think is supposed to leave me panicked or flummoxed, or both, but instead, I feel fairly indifferent. To the number, anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to the day. Some good things:

- I'll be eating my birthday dinner at Cafe Brenda, which is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant in the Twin Cities. Fourteen of my close friends and family will be keeping me company.

- A slide show featuring White House Honey. I love that the Obamas now have a kitchen garden and unprocessed honey on their south lawn, and I love the way this slide show is executed--like listening to NPR but with stunning accompanying photographs, making me wish I could keep bees too.

- This weekend, I decided to teach myself to felt. I think I'm already going about it wrong, using too tight a stitch, but I've also decided this: it's about the process. That's what brings me the most pleasure. I haven't yet kept anything I've knit or quilted or crocheted, and I think this is why. Its time with me is in the making.

- Though my new medicine is twisting my stomach into even worse knots, I'm looking at it as a part of the journey, and that's a good thing. I'm on my way to wellness, making good choices, and feeling good about those choices.

- Speaking of choices, I'm joining my dear friend Angie in No Impact Week, which is just a week away. We'll see how I do.

- More signs point toward me returning to my vegetarian roots, just as soon as the meat is used up in the soups and freezer (that my husband won't eat). Read this article in The New Yorker about Jonathan Safran Foer's newest book, Eating Animals.

Have a lovely weekend. And to those I will see tomorrow: I look forward. xo

355: yoga

Tonight, first night at yoga, which will occupy my time as the sun sets on Thursdays. I felt humbled, being a beginner amongst regulars, but this is how a small town yoga studio works--those sessions roll over into one another, little tumbling blocks. My body cooperated on most levels, which pleased me, despite my tender ankle and clumsy ways. And I left breathing much slower, wanting to raise my arms slowly over my head at each inhale, lowering them slowly at each exhale. And even though my muscles ached a little, my body mostly felt softer, more liquid afterward.

Today was beautiful, with clear blue skies, a bright and warming sun, the dogs burying their noses in the boulevard brush.

My body is changing, I know, as I make my way into more peaceful practice. It's feeling better as I consume more vegetables, as I breathe more deeply, as I get more fresh air, as I move and move and move. I may have gotten to the other side of stress; this doesn't mean anything stress-related is over or resolved, but just that I'm finding ways to do things that perhaps aren't fraught with consequences or criticisms or serious results. Instead, I knit little objects for holiday presents. I experiment with felting. I try a new recipe. I take walks, take photos, take field notes. I try yoga. Broadening, yes. But not in the bad way, of course.

354: new recipe wednesday

I'm headed in a food direction my husband frowns upon, but mostly in a teasing way. I was vegetarian for something like seven years, and the last three or so I have been eating meat again. It was a bit of a relief for family and friends--they didn't have to factor my meatless appetite into dinner plans. Ryan was glad to use one pan for cooking together. But it appears my mind and my body want to go back, and there's no denying it. Already, I've reduced myself to just fish and poultry; and I know I'll only miss the Osso Bucco at Staghead (so good) and corned beef and cabbage. I know, when I go back to being vegetarian, I'll miss clam chowder the most.

So, for now, as Ryan requested, I am trying a chicken curry recipe for our dinner.

Chicken Curry Indian Style

Ingredients:
- 3 1/2 pounds chicken
- 6 tbsp. natural yogurt
- 2 med. onions, grated
- 1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tsp. tumeric powder
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
- 2 1/2 tsp. salt to taste
- 2 med. potatoes, peeled and halved


Steps:

1. Take off skin of chicken and cut into pieces. Wash pieces. Now, in a glass bowl, mix chicken with yogurt, onions, ginger, tumeric, cayenne pepper, and oil. Marinate for at least half an hour.

2. Heat oil in saucepan. Fry potatoes until they are golden brown. Set aside. Fry cumin seed in same oil for a minute or so. Pour chicken with marinade into pan. Fry for three to four minutes.

3. Pour contents of saucepan into casserole dish. Place potatoes over the meat, cover it and put into a preheated 300-degree oven and cook for 50-60 minutes. Check for tenderness.

Note: You can omit the potatoes and just cook the chicken. Just add one cup of water and cook over medium heat until tender.


I had mine with a spinach salad with carrots and mushrooms. The curry turned out fine--nothing thrilling and not terrible either. Just an alarming mustard color.

I think I'm going to attempt a new recipe on Wednesdays; it's my day "off," and it's good for me as another one of those finding peace measures--a calming experience working with raw ingredients, getting my hands dirty, trying to work with new things. Curry is tricky, I fully admit. I'd like to work with new vegetables and whatnot on Wednesdays too--things completely new to me. I think this will help remind me of how important it is to make wise decisions for the body, to take care of it as best I can.

If anyone wishes to join me in new recipe Wednesday, I welcome it! Tell me what's new in your kitchen. xo


I'll start a little Flickr set right here.

353: a collector in the field

Top: Flickr Favorites, 1. white clover, 2. found, 3. seagull soup, 4. Untitled
Bottom: my image, from two springs ago

I like to bring things home with me when I go for walks, little bits I collect on the ground--pine branches, birch, small and perfectly formed pine cones, put them on ledges and gaze, remembering that walk, that moment of being calm and outside.

These days, I feel a bit tilted. This is usually what happens when one runs into this time of the semester--two months, full-steam, or nearly-full, edging out at the end of month two--and I hit some kind of blank, invisible wall, something that confuses all the balls I have in the air, and I feel a desperate need to right myself. Or hide. One of the two.

I've been reading a biography on Emily Dickinson and I love that she had two collections in her life: the first, of course, are her prolific poems, but the second is a pressed wildflower collection, complete with identification cards and labels.

What a wrong time of year for me to start to fantasize about pressing wildflowers.

But a lovely time for me to go to the library, perhaps on my day "off", this Wednesday, and pour over those guides, immerse myself in springtime, give myself some green and light when the days seem to be folding in on themselves and hibernation approaches.

352: BJ + Lynn got married

Rehearsal dinner at Water Street Brewery.

I had to keep my hands busy. As a person who no longer drinks alcohol or smokes or any of those other deliciously naughty things, I had to keep my hands busy somehow, and there's only so much water one can drink before bursting like a balloon. Plus, I wanted to show off my beautiful Uniform Studio scarf!

There were two cakes: banana with chocolate and mine, which I loved, marble with raspberry filling. Yum.

The couple before what Wisconsinites call "The Grand March," which comes just after dinner and leads the wedding party to the dance floor. We did a grand entrance at our wedding, which led us to our dinner table, which our non-dancing friends were probably a bit glad for. Why are their mouths like that? Because they have plastic fangs in there. :)

This is the Luxemburg-Casco crew (see the L-C they are supposedly making with their hands)--all friends from high school. There's something about friends who date back to those years, the ways in which you can change and grow (and regress, in some cases) and still adore one another because you have those layers of memory to support it all. It's nice to know you have someone on your side no matter what. This, by the way, is Ryan's high school crew. In a strange twist of serendipity, one of my high school crew also happens to be friends with the couple (her husband was room mates with BJ), so I had a little of that high school nostalgia too.

There was a dance-off to see who would win funniest contest. After Jeff did some break-dancing, he won.


We had the cake top as part of brunch; the bakery is making the couple a new cake for their one year anniversary.

And those are just a few glimpses at the Halloween wedding we attended near Milwaukee this past weekend. I can say that Ryan and I seem to be getting pathetically old--we were some of the first to leave of our friends, and we fell asleep watching a haunted gingerbread house competition on the food network.