Food, Fresh, & More

I'm really incredibly tempted to just turn this into a food blog. Not that it'd be revolutionary or anything wonderful. Maybe a food diary is more accurate - recording recipes that we tried or what we're eating in the different seasons. What specifically brought this up was that while I blog about a lot of interesting stuff for my work blog, there are times when I make things or think things that are just not technically appropriate for my work blog.

Without more rambling, here are some things we have tried or discovered in the last week or so:

1. Panang Curry Paste - we found a packet at Asian Market a while back and just got around to cooking up a curry last night. Yum! While we were buying coconut milk at Thai Binh yesterday, we happened to wander around (it's just the way that store is...it sucks you in!), and discovered that they have large TUBS of red, green, yellow, panang, and masaman curry pastes for a very reasonable price. 1000 g (2 lbs) of curry paste for $3-4!! We love curry, but the jars of paste are always so expensive that we rarely buy it and then hoard it. So exciting to have a cheap source! 
2. Epic Rice Fail. Last week we bought some short grain sushi rice for risotto, since we thought we didn't have any more arborio rice. Then we found the canister of arborio rice. This week we bought a 5 lb. bag of long grain brown rice, because we thought we were out of long grain rice. (We usually use medium grain brown rice, unless we're short on time.) We got home only to find that we had a canister of long grain white rice hiding behind the other rice canister. Epic Fail. 
3. Whole Grain Pancakes. I had this recipe stashed away from my Bon Appetit Daily Calendar from 2008, and we finally got around to trying it. Since I've increasingly been on a whole grain kick, I thought this would be interesting. The recipe calls for whole wheat flour, corn meal, quick oats, and a little bit of AP flour. Oh yeah, and buttermilk. I think that was Steven's favorite part - the buttermilk. No sugar, except a little molasses. They were definitely tasty! They were more interesting and less sweet that regular pancakes. I liked the hint of cornmeal. The texture was really good too. Definitely a keeper in once-in-awhile breakfast food category. 
4. Broccoli Raab - yeah, tried this from the garden at work. Need to work on my harvesting technique for this one! 
5. Lemon Balm Pesto - made a pesto from lemon balm, parmesan cheese, and almonds this afternoon to use on chicken for dinner. Doesn't seem too exciting so far. 
6. Cheese Making Adventures - we made awesome mozzarella cheese from some raw Jersey milk two weeks ago, so we were trying to find cheaper milk to use to make cheese. We thought that we could use Hiland Dairy milk - it wasn't pasteurized at too high a temperature. Unfortunately - not so much. Goodbye cheese dreams!

Is Raising Beef Sustainable?

Here is a post written by a farmer about raising beef...specifically how much water it takes to produce a pound of beef. She cites an article (one of many out there) that state that it takes 1800+ gallons of water to produce each pound of beef. I've often wondered about statistics like that one, trying to figure out how they come up with that number and if it can really be right. Numbers like that have never made sense to me, but I never sat down to calculate out what a more accurate number might be.

She figured out that on their farm, it takes 17.5 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. Pretty sure that is comparable to the amount of water needed to grow a tomato plant in a location like Kansas, with a much more nutrient and calorie-dense end product. Hence, a more efficient source of food for humans. Not that tomatoes aren't healthy and all that or that they aren't nutritious, but you would need to eat a lot more tomatoes to sustain your life than beef. Well-balanced meals, people, is the goal.

The other thing that I always question, when I read articles or hear people talking about how cattle are bad for the environment, is the quality of the land they are talking about. Not all land is equal. Not all soils are equal. Certain land/soils should NEVER be tilled, or at least very rarely. Those particular areas are frequently well-adapted to pasturing animals. If there weren't animals being pastured on that land, then it would be completely unproductive, except perhaps for whatever wild game could be harvested off it in the proper season.

So if you want to go off on some sort of crusade about what is or is not killing the earth, at least do your best to know all the facts first.

No Blizzard for Us

In fact, hardly even any snow for us! I'm not sure if that makes me happy or not. In general, not. I'm very jealous of everyone that is getting large quantities of snow! Here, everyone is in a tizzy over a little bit of rain, some sleet/freezing rain, and a random flurry of snow here and there. To be fair, icy streets are really annoying and treacherous. Still, I would rather have snow. The downside to large amounts of snow here, is that it rarely stays cold enough for the snow to stick around more than a couple days, so no one learns/gets used to driving on streets that have a certain amount of snow on them. Ugh.

Pretty much my least favorite part about living here is driving to and from work when the roads are slick and the idiots are out and about driving on them. Although, I guess I can't complain too much, since I almost caused an accident myself this morning getting to work. A light turned yellow in front of me, and I didn't decide soon enough if I should brake or if I could make it through. Luckily, the person waiting at the light on the cross street saw that I wasn't going to be able to stop and didn't hit me. Thank God!

I was supposed to be going up to Manhattan and then Topeka tomorrow for a website meeting, then the Turf Conference. Yeah, it's funny, I know. Me, going to the Turf Conference. Anyway, between the weather and this nasty cough I've had for a week now, I'm going to skip out. Apparently they do actually have snow up towards Manhattan. Driving through blowing snow before dawn is not my idea of fun for work. Definitely not.

Now to figure out what to do with myself for the rest of the evening...cross-stitch, another sewing project, wrapping Christmas presents, washing dishes (or not!), find a book to read....

Around and About

Obviously I've been hanging around this blog a little bit recently...not that there is actually anyone still hanging out and reading this blog, since it has been almost 7 months since my last post. I have no idea what that means, if anything. I may actually get around to posting something once in a while over the winter. Of course, the issue usually is not that I lack for brilliant ideas of things to write about. The issue is that I either don't have the time to write when I think of a brilliant post or that by the time I do have time, the inclination has passed. Anyway, enough excuses!

Weed or Not a Weed, that is the Question

The craziness of spring classes is almost done, but the number of questions we get during the day will increase drastically. The questions that are the most frustrating are the weed id/random plant id ones. Now, common weeds and plants - not a problem. What is a challenge is when someone brings in a few leaves, usually mostly wilted, and wants to know what it is and what to do with it.

These occurrences can usually be categorized in two ways: Unknown Plants in the Lawn and Unknown Plants in the Flower Bed. Each has its own problems, pitfalls, and headaches. To be fair, 7 or 8 out of 10 samples are easy and straightforward to identify and deal with. I have a whole novel in my head about this. However, I don't feel that it is really a good idea to spew that all out onto the Internet, at least while I am still gainfully employed at my current job. Sometime in the future, do ask me about it, and I'd be happy to spew.

Adventures in Shade Gardening, Part 1

I toyed with titling this post, and potential series of posts, Adventures in Shade Vegetable Gardening. However, that is much too clunky and not nearly as romantic or exciting. In fact, it sounds downright pitiful, hopeless, and semi-delusional. The reason for that is that anyone who knows vegetable gardening knows that shade and vegetables don't mix.

The view from the sliding glass door in our apartment, over the patio. Living on a lake might seem romantic, but in this case it really isn't very much so.

Our apartment faces north, and is angled slightly toward the east. Right now our patio gets about 3 hours of afternoon sun. Here's our sad little container "garden" as it is right now.

Most of the containers are herbs, which will do okay, even in shade. The strawberry pot has thyme, one pot has basil, others have chives, parsley, cutting celery, oregano, etc. The two long tan pots are planted to lettuce mix and mesclun mix. The greens should also do fine in the shade, especially as the weather gets hot this summer. Steven's two sad spider plants have also been relegated to the patio, on the theory that they will get more sun and more water out there than in here. Maybe they will even look healthy by the time fall comes and they need to come in!

At this point you would be justified in wondering why I consider our attempt at shade vegetable gardening semi-delusional. That would be because of this:
Yes, those are tomato plants. The tall one is 'Chocolate Cherry,' and the short one is 'First Light.' Chocolate cherry is a brown/purple indeterminate vine cherry tomato. 'First Light' is a very new variety of red slicing tomato (also indeterminate) that is supposed to have excellent flavor. The recommendation is to harvest it when the bottom half of the fruit is red and the shoulders are still green. The two plants are in a 13 gallon pot, which is technically large enough to hold both of them. I'll probably prune them to keep them under control, but we'll see. The real challenge is the sunlight issue. Tomatoes need 6-8 hours of full sun. Presently we get maybe 3. I'm hopeful that by mid-June the sun will be far enough north in the sky that our poor patio will perhaps get 5-6 hours of sun. If not...well....we'll have really beautiful plants with no tomatoes!

The Easter Coconut Cake

This is the Coconut Cake I made for Easter. Pretty, isn't it? However, when I filed the recipe, I dubbed it the "Not Coconut Cake" because the only reason it is really coconut cake is because there is a handful of coconut in the batter and the frosting is covered with coconut. The cake and frosting are really more almond flavored. Tasty, just not coconut.

The Leaning Tower of Pita

Hi again. Long time, no post. Did you really expect anything different? No, I didn't think so. It's been pretty busy and work and so on, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel...sort of. At any rate, things should be slowing down somewhat for the summer.

I took Friday off, because 1) I have the time available, and 2) because I needed a nice long weekend. (Yes, I know Memorial Day is coming up, but that isn't a "lazy" weekend, what with family things.) So we got the apartment somewhat cleaned up, restacked everything in the second bedroom, went shopping for a few things, had a meeting with our insurance agent, and generally got to where we feel somewhat in control of the apartment for the moment. (If we didn't need to eat, it would be far easier to keep things clean!)

Saturday we ran around and went to the Farmers Market, grocery shopping, etc as is the norm for Saturday morning. I also checked on the "kids" in the Demo Garden. We planted tomatoes last week, and I was afraid that the ridiculous wind (80+ mph straight-line) from early Friday morning might have broken the stems or knocked the plants over.

Saturday night we didn't want a big dinner, but we'd been craving pita bread and hummus. So Steven went through The Bread Bible to find the pita bread recipe and looked through the Mediterranean cookbook to find an acceptable hummus recipe. (For the uninitiated, hummus is basically chickpea/garbanzo bean puree seasoned with other things.)

The pita bread was very simple. (We actually made the dough Friday night and refrigerated it. Not necessary, but handy.) Homemade pita bread is far tastier than what you can buy, and very cheap! The only moderately scary part of the process (other than the extremely sticky dough to start with) was slapping the discs of dough straight on the baking stone (you can use a cookie sheet if you lack a stone), closing the oven for 3 minutes, and opening it with the expectation that the bread is done! Surprise! It worked!Mmm...tasty looking pita bread in all shapes and sizes!

Steven did up the hummus, and then topped it off with paprika, pine nuts, and the Kangaroo Paw Lemon-Myrtle Infused Olive Oil. (Yes, it would have been cheaper to go to a local Mediterranean restaurant and get an order of hummus by the time it was all said and done. So?)We sliced up some tomatoes we got at the Farmers Market to finish off the meal. Yes, we got fresh, Kansas-grown tomatoes. We bought one from a grower who grows hydroponic tomatoes in a greenhouse, and the others from a grower that grows in a greenhouse, but uses bags of soil for growing the plants. We intended to do a taste test. The hydroponic tomatoes were larger, but the soil-grown tomatoes were much tastier. I wasn't extremely surprised by that outcome.

The leftover pita bread became the Leaning Tower of Pita.
Yes, this entire long post was written with the sole purpose of giving me a good reason to post the "Leaning Tower of Pita" picture, and thus to allow using the same as the title of this post.

WOOHOO!!!

The Thank You Notes are DONE!!!!

Well...they are all written. There are 5 for which I still need to find the appropriate addresses, and 1 which needs a couple other items to go with it. Otherwise, they are all written, addressed, stamped, and ready to go in the mailbox. FINALLY!

15 Questions for Heavy Readers

15 Questions For Heavy Readers

Go ahead, include up to 3 answers each if you like. If you’re religious, consider The Bible or other religious texts a gimme, particularly for question #15. I have to admit that I don't read near as much now as I did in pretty much any prior stage of my life, so this isn't quite as exciting as it might be. Someday soon I may need to write a post ranting about technology and its effect on modern society and specifically my life.

1. Most treasured childhood book(s)?
- Little House on the Prairie series
- Janette Oke animal books
- A Little Princess

2. Classic(s) you are embarrassed to admit you’ve never read?
- Classics? What are those? I have a modern public school education. We aren't supposed to read classics.
- Okay. Seriously? Anything by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky (except Crime & Punishment)
- Wuthering Heights

3. Classics you read, but hated?
- Out of Africa
- The Grapes of Wrath - oh wait...I didn't actually have to read it. We only watched the movie in 9th grade English.
- Of Mice and Men

4. Favorite genre(s)?
- Mystery
- Fantacy/sci fi
- Historical fiction

5. Favorite light reading?
- J.D. Robb
- Various mysteries - Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, etc.
- Cookbooks

6. Favorite heavy reading?
- Anything on modern agriculture/food system, etc.
- Religion/theology
- Jane Austen? Does that count as heavy reading?

7. Last book(s) you finished?
- The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

8. Last book(s) you bailed on?
- Hmm...bailed on? Not sure...I've been working on The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila for over a year now...I'm not bailing though! I'm not!

9. Three (only three!) books on your nightstand?
- The End of Food by Paul Roberts (I really recommend it, even though it is slightly apocalyptic.)
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Yeah...I'm probably not going to actually crack this one open before it's due back at the library...)

10. Book(s) you’ve read more than once?
- Little House on the Prairie
- Perry Mason, all of them
- David Eddings books

11. The book(s) that meant the most to you when you were younger (ie, college/young adult)?
- Umm....I think I still am young adult? Although the library defines that as teenagers...I'm confused.
- N.T. Wright books
- Lots of stuff John Woodward gave me to read.

12. Book(s) that changed the way you looked at life?
- N.T. Wright books
- The Catholic Passion by David Scott
- The Politics of the Cross by Craig A Carter

13. Favorite books
- The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
- Lots of others...

14. Favorite author(s)
- I think I've mentioned most of them already.

15. Desert Island Book
- I really have no clue how to answer this question.

BONUS!
Desert Island Book for Your Worst Enemy
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (I actually liked this book, but I know it drives most people crazy.)

Web Safari - The Short Version

I wasn't going to do a Web Safari this weekend, but these three links are good enough that I had to share them.

1. David Brooks shares his experiences and viewpoint on Afghanistan. It's one of the most hopeful editorials I've read in quite awhile.

2. A very...unique blog post about democracy.

3. The Barna Group releases a survey about differences in how liberals and conservatives view religion. What it doesn't delve into is the cause-effect relationship of the results, which I think would be the most interesting.

Web Safari

Some random, or not-so-random, links that you might enjoy.

Desmond Lachman has worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a number of years, and has seen numerous financial crises in "emerging markets." What is making him nervous, though, is how the U.S. is making the same mistakes they always counseled other countries to avoid.

The Anchoress points to a YouTube video from the U.K. Parliament. If only more people would say this and everyone would listen.

Here's an interesting editorial from the Wall Street Journal that starts out considering the sometimes fine line between witchcraft and religion in Africa, and ends up looking at the differences between a superstitious veiwpoint and a religious viewpoint.

Is it more important to eat "organic" foods or to eat "healthy" foods. I think this is something to consider, especially if you lean toward buying organic. As one line in this editorial states, "organic junk food is still junk food." One of my ag professors in college said that it is best to shop on the perimeters of the grocery store - both in terms of health and expense. I always try to buy the least amount of processed foods and ingredients possible. Everyone should eat more fruits and vegetables! Keep my job recession-proof!

An inspiring blog by a mother enjoying what short lifetime she knows her daughter will have.

If you like Mike Rowe and the show Dirty Jobs, you have to go watch this video of a talk he's giving to a group in the Silicon Valley. There's an awesome story about castrating sheep at the beginning, that turns into some good reflections on the value of work. (Okay. Get over the castrating sheep already and just go watch it!)

For some more of Mike Rowe, here's what he has to say about the AIG bonuses.

I've seen some people really up in arms about this bill (HR 1388) that has recently been passed. It is a bill largely requiring national service by anyone receiving educational grants from the federal government. No, I didn't read the entire text of the bill, and it does seem to be quite a jumble. However, I don't think it is going to be as big a deal as people make it out to be. The only thing that immediately pops to mind is that as someone who received a lot of federal grants to pay for college, I don't know when I would have found the time to fulfill the service requirements that are now going to be attached to those grants. I don't think the sentiment behind the bill is totally wrong-headed, but the execution may be.

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

So I have made it to my sole "free weekend" in the middle of the spring craziness. (To be fair, two weeks from now, Easter Weekend, I technically am free, but...it's Easter. Not quite the same as "totally free with nothing to do." Although, I guess using that definition this is not a "free weekend" because there's lots to do! Well - except that inactivity is being forced by the weather. But more on that later.) Anyway, next weekend is our Tree Festival/Vegetable Gardening Workshop/I'm speaking in the afternoon at the Harvey County Garden Show in Newon, KS. Then Easter, then April 18th I'm teaching a lawn care class for 3 hours in the morning. The next weekend I conned Steven into going to Topeka with me, since I'm speaking a vegetable workshop there. Then we have Herb Day, which is the day before my birthday. Then...I think...other than the Farmers' Market, my weekends may be gloriously free for...well...awhile anyway.

~~~2~~~

So speaking of the weather, we are currently in a Blizzard Warning. Sounds delightful, right? Well, this is the first "blizzard" I've been in that doesn't involve snow. Grr... Actually, it has been throwing freezing rain, or something like that I had to drive across town at noon for one of the local TV news shows, and after that I decided that I would rather take a half day of annual leave rather than drive back to the office and then back home in the evening. After I made that decision, the roads seem to improve a little bit. But I really need a break, so the 4 hours off is worth it! On the other hand, I'd really appreciate it if some of these other cities in Kansas would stop hogging all the snow. Some of them have 7, 10, or 15 inches of snow. We have none! Just nasty accumulating frozen pellets of gunk. The purple splotch on the radar just keeps staying on top of us.

~~~3~~~

During our trip to St. Louis a couple weeks ago, I read Rise to Rebellion, a novel by Jeff Shaara about the Revolutionary War. I have always loved reading about that period of history, both from a "daily life" standpoint and from the political/army standpoint. Now I'm working my way through The Glorious Cause, the sequel novel. So far, I think I like the first one better, just because it covers more of the politics and perspectives of events leading up to the war. What I think is the most amazing, that you often don't think about or realize, is how long the Revolutionary War was. We all know the dates from 1775, 1776....Lexington & Concord, the Declaration of Independence, etc... and Valley Forge (1777-8). Yorktown, 1781. The final treaty was signed in September 1783. 1776-1783. That's 7 years. 7 years of fighting back and forth, forming an army from whoever would volunteer, constantly retreating and reforming, trying merely to survive to fight another day toward independence.

~~~4~~~

Since I had some free time this afternoon, I took the opportunity to get the kitchen totally clean for the first time in...weeks, I think. And then I promptly turned around and started getting it dirty by starting some bread and then making dinner. But after dinner I mostly cleaned it up again. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it in better shape. Now for the rest of the apartment...

~~~5~~~

Other things on the to-do list for this weekend (just in case you actually care about all the tedious detials of my life): clean the apartment, grocery shopping, finish taxes (KS income, and Steven's), shopping at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and.....you know, I think there was more on this list, but I can't remember anything else. That doesn't actually seem like a terrible list. (At least it doesn't as long as you can't see the apartment!) Oh yeah. Buying and writing and mailing Thank You notes. We have a few left from the wedding, and then a whole bunch from last weekend in Wisconsin.

~~~6~~~

Maybe we will soak our shiitake mushroom block again this weekend to encourage it to put on its second flush of mushrooms! Did I ever post pictures of it the first time around? I don't think I did. Here's one from when the first mushrooms were just starting to develop.

~~~7~~~

And, if you're interested, here's a couple pictures from the display garden we did at the Wichita Garden Show.

Popping In...then Back Out...

Hi! Just checking in. Are you still reading this? Checking occasionally to see if I'm still alive? Ah, well. I really shouldn't abuse my readers like this, but life is just too busy.

I survived the Wichita Garden Show.

I survived the trip to St. Louis this weekend. (And got to see some pretty spiffy orchids at the Missouri Botanic Gardens too boot.)

I'm teaching 2 classes this week and directing the the Demo Garden crew tomorrow.

I'm also starting a new blog that is for work. If you are interested, check it out here: http://thedemogardenblog.wordpress.com/

Well, then...

Yeah, it's been ages since my last blog post. I know. I'm surprised you still read this. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that there will be any blog posting until after March 9th. (Who knows? We all know that when I say I'm going to be too busy to post, I invariably find time to post something of interest.)

Reasons for not posting recently and not posting in the near future(in no particular order):

1. Reading other blogs is more interesting that writing a blog post.

2. Watching TV while playing stupid computer games is more mindless than writing a blog post.

3. Writing thank you notes is more productive that writing a blog post.

4. Reading books is more interesting than writing a blog post. Recently I have been reading:
- Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
- Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge
- Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman
- Other books that I actually haven't gotten around to reading yet.

5. Day to day life and busy schedules and such.

6. The Wichita Garden Show is coming up. We start construction and loading up tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. I will be living at the Garden Show from now until some time on Monday, March 9th. After which point I will be sleeping. I'm sure I will have interesting stories to share, but it remains to be seen when/if I'll ever have the time/motivation to write and post them.

7. I voluntarily hooked myself on a video game called Kingdom Hearts. I am terrible at it, because I didn't grow up playing video games (which isn't a bad thing, really). But I'm to the point where I usually remember what most of the buttons and dealies on the controllers do. This game requires much less thinking than writing a blog post.

8. I can't think of any more lame excuses for my lack of posting. Really, I can't.

March will probably be as lacking in blog posts as February has been. One weekend at the Garden Show. One weekend in St. Louis for a friend's wedding. One weekend in Wisconsin for our belated wedding reception. One weekend at home doing nothing (hopefully!). Then comes Tree Festival/Vegetable Gardening Workshop weekend. Then another weekend free. Then a Saturday New Lawn-Owner Clinic. Then a Saturday in Topeka speaking for a Veg. Gardening workshop. Then Herb Day weekend. Then....I don't know! I hope my weekends remain blissfully free for most of the summer!

Web Safari

I've got two weeks worth of links collected, so happy reading! (It's a little heavy on politics/economy/stimulus package stuff, but what'd you expect?)

The College Board is cutting some AP programs...

Is it more important to have "Christian Art" or Christian artists creating "great art," in general?

Nancy Pelosi and her social engineering experiment?

Perhaps we really are "amusing ourselves to death."

Sometimes I have to wonder if this isn't true.

Same old, same old from the government.

A look at the Superbowl commercials. Were there any you liked? We thought most of them were sub-par.

Leaving Facebook? Some people are. Sometimes I'm tempted to, but I don't use it that frequently anyway.

Can You Tell the Difference Between a Church and a Utilitarian Structure? (The answers are posted now, so it's not quite as much fun to figure out.)

Charles Krauthammer has an interesting piece about everyone coming back down to earth after Obama's inauguration.

Peggy Noonan writes about how she sees Americans "bracing" for what's yet to come.

Apparently, the governor of Kansas is a candidate for the Health & Human Services cabinet position.

Jen at ConversionDiary.com has an insightful post about how her life before becoming a Christian was like living on death row.

Some thoughts from Scot McKnight about iGens, or Generation Me (18-35 year olds). Since I'm in that age group, of course I find it interesting! There's an interesting point near the end...is the most important thing in life really "being happy?"

You Grow Girl has a post about her bean seeds. I have to say that I love playing with new bean seeds as well!

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

I've had a couple of busy weeks at work, which is nice, and not wholly unexpected. Between meetings and teaching classes, I've had 2-3 nights taken up each week, as well as a couple of exhausting days. This last week I taught a class on Tuesday evening about "Growing a 'Fruitful' Landscape," discussing ways to incorporate fruiting plants in the home landscape. There were 99 people at that class, which was excellent attendance for a very specific topic of interest.

The next morning was my first gardening class in the Hispanic community. I had to go into work a little early, because I'd been too busy and hadn't had time to finish translating the presentation into Spanish. (I was teaching in English, but had handouts available in Spanish in order to facilitate both languages.) So I spent 2 hours translating, then rushed off to that class. Sadly, I only had 2 people in attendance, neither of whom needed the Spanish handouts.

This is pretty consistent with the ups and downs of Extension work. Some things go over well, others don't, and it's hard to predict which will be which. With all fairness to the program in the Hispanic community - it's a very new program, and I'm still making contacts and getting established. It can take years to develop something like that.

~~~2~~~

Steven's family gave us a Mushroom Patch for Christmas, and we are watching it grow mushrooms as we speak! It's a Shiitake patch, and it seems to be behaving itself admirably. Hopefully I'll get around to taking a picture or two and posting them, eventually. It has only been sitting out in the living room under it's humidity tent for 1 week, but already there are many baby mushrooms poking out!

~~~3~~~

Last night we ate Indian food for dinner, and it was tasty! Steven cooked up some Tandoori Chicken from the Joy of Cooking and I made some stir-fried cabbage. Sounds disgusting, right? Wrong! It was really tasty, and simple to make. We had half a head of purple cabbage left from making a bean soup last weekend, so I decided to try this recipe. To paraphrase the recipe, I heated 1/4 c. oil to the smoking point, threw in 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, then 1/2 tsp. turmeric, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. After a quick stir, in goes the cabbage, sliced thin. Stir to coat, then pop the lid on and let it steam for 5 minutes. Mmm...tasty!

~~~4~~~

We are finally getting mostly settled in the apartment. I got a lot of cleaning done yesterday, and I think the second bedroom is organized to a livable state. There is even some floor space! Unfortunately, we are still short on bookshelves. Even more unfortunately, I'm not sure where we'd put another bookshelf, even if we had one! Sadly, clutter seems to accumulate on the counters and floors no matter how hard I try to keep them clean.

~~~5~~~

We are quickly winding towards the Wichita Garden Show. I have to say, that I really wish that it was March 8th rather than February 8th today! I just want the whole thing to be done with! The show itself isn't so bad. It's the preparations that are a killer! Since I'm in charge of our display garden this year, I have to manage the construction and the herds of volunteers working on it. It is rather a daunting task, all things considered.

What Life Asks of Us and Objective Truth

A friend of mine linked to this editorial - "What Life Asks of Us" by David Brooks (NYT) - on Facebook. I'd recommend that you go read the article first. It'll help the discussion.

My friend made this comment:

Brooks explains the advantage of devotion to institutions (social functions) rather than personal happiness (psychic profits), e.g., "...a farmer’s relation to her land is not an individual choice that can be easily reversed when psychic losses exceed psychic profits. Her social function defines who she is..." I'm not sure what I think.

I replied with this comment:

I like the article. I think there is a balance to be found between the two ways of thinking. Sometimes the institutions need changes. But I think I agree that sometimes the basic foundations of those institutions should be left alone. I do agree that excessively individualistic thinking is one of the most destructive aspects of our culture right now.

Another friend from college responded with:

I'm not sure the article spoke to the balance Rebecca mentions as much as I'd like. I don't think there is any institutional practice that is beyond questioning. I think it is important to teach students to question the status quo. But it is also important to arm them with tools to help them discern things that should be changed from things that should not. One should always question, but with an open mind to the possibility that the way things are is best. The author seems to allude to a point that there are institutions that work so well or do so much good one should not question their practices, and I disagree.

To which I then replied:

I agree that education should provide the tools to question the status quo and then discern what should be changed and what should not. (I would also argue that the vast majority of modern educational institutions fail at this task gravely, but that is a different post.)

Then the question becomes how do we discern what is good and what is not? Is there some standard to use? What is that standard? Either social institutions are judged against a standard, or they aren't. If there is no standard, then the discernment is all subjective. It becomes on "me" or a selfish "us."

But if there is a standard, then maybe the standard is wrong and we should move the standard. The standard doesn't "feel right" to me, so it should change? It is too hard, so it should change? It's not "fun enough"? Where does that end? It ends the same way.

When you get down to it, either there is some kind of objective reality...objective truth, if you will, or there isn't.

If there isn't any sort of objective truth, then we can educate until we're blue in the face with little effect. If there is no objective reality, then we have nothing left other than self-centeredness. We will ultimately be most concerned about looking after our own interests, rather than the interests of others (the community). (Philippians 2:4) Everyone chooses their own moral code. Those that are loudest may get policy enacted to support them. Perhaps not.

Without that objective moral code in place throughout the social institutions and society as a whole, we ultimately decay into the situation we are in today. That code becomes so decayed that actions that would have once been nearly inconceivable become such common practice that a whole system collapses. In this case, the bankers and money managers became so concerned with their own interests, they forgot the larger role they played in society.

Does anyone else have comments or input on this subject?

So, How's Married Life?

Apparently this question is as ubiquitous after getting married as "What are your plans?" is when you near a school graduation. Our normal response is something along the line of a slight smile, a vague shrug, and "Oh, not too bad." or "It's good...pretty typical."

What we are really thinking when you ask this question goes something like this:

What does this question really mean? What do they want to know? Is there some topic I'm supposed to address? Something that is so blindingly different about being married that I want to talk about it with whoever I happen across? If I wasn't of the gushy-emotional type before the wedding, was that supposed to change after getting married? Somehow I don't think they are looking for a logical analysis of our first X weeks of married life. Maybe they want to know if we're considering murdering each other yet? What would they say if I said I was contemplating such an action? (I'm not...no worries...just an example...)

Okay, so we don't think all those things each and every time someone asks the question. But they do cross the mind at times. (And to be fair, I get a lot more of this question than Steven, probably because my work environment lends itself to that type of small talk more frequently.)

So, in case you were wondering: Married life is good. We are learning to live together, as everyone does. What else do you want to know?

Because if you want to know about our sex life, ask a direct question and who knows? We might give you a direct answer. Then again, we might not. (Sorry if I just scandalized anyone.)

Do you want to know if everything is unpacked and in its place? Ask. We'll happily tell you that if you think there is a remote chance of that, you are probably deranged and deluded.

Does Steven like your cooking? Well...he had enough chance to sample that before, and he still seems to be eating, so I'm not too concerned.

Is the snoring keeping you awake at night? Wait...one of us snores? What? It's not me!

Is he/she driving you nuts yet? Um...no more than usual?

When are you going to start having babies? Whoa there...let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Are you settling into a comfortable routine? Hmm...I think so. Still trying to figure out how to maximize the hot water in the mornings. I blame that on our finicky water heater though.

You seem to be blogging more. Are you ignoring Steven to while away the hours on the computer? Hmm...no, I don't think I'm ignoring him. I'm just not planning a wedding. Or trying to pack his stuff. Or getting ready for Christmas.

I am now out of any semi-relevant questions that you may come up with to ask that fit under the category of "How's Married Life?" Perhaps I've forgotten something, but you can save those for sometime when you have an actual conversation with one of us!

Snapshots

A number of people have asked for more details about the wedding, the honeymoon trip, etc. So this edition of Snapshots will give a little bit of that information.

~~~1~~~

The wedding went smoothly. Everything was beautiful, and more or less what we had in mind. The food at the reception was delicious, and you really missed out by not being there. Pictures will be available when they are available. We don't have them yet, but rest assured that we will share them when we have them. Um...yeah, we should be getting around to Thank You notes ASAP.

~~~2~~~

We went to Dallas, TX on our honeymoon. In general, the weather was nice, although it was cold (32) and drizzly on Monday. It was 85 and sunny by Friday. While in Dallas we went to: Dallas World Aquarium, Dealey Plaza, The Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Central Market, Dallas Arboretum, Fair Park, Dallas Heritage Village, and the Fort Worth Zoo. We also spent a couple hours in Grapevine, TX Saturday morning. We visited a glass-blowing studio and watched the artisans work for awhile. In retrospect, we would have spent less time in Dallas, more time in Fort Worth, and more time in some of the areas surrousding the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Maybe next time.

~~~3~~~

One of our favorite stops from the early part of the week was Central Market. Basically, it is a huge grocery store with a lot of gourmet ingredients. We tried hard not to go too crazy. We ended up with some fingerling potatoes, which we just finished eating tonight, some blue potato & chioggia beet "potato" chips, some tomatoes, two different types of pears, a McIntosh apple, and Kangaroo Paw Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Lemon Myrtle Oil. Since Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) plants are virtually impossible to come by here in the U.S., I jumped at this as our "splurge" item for the trip. We just opened it tonight, and it was awesome. We used it as part of the dressing for a purple potato salad. Mmm...

~~~4~~~

So, we are back in Wichita and trying to get settled in. We finally got the living room mostly clean and set up last night. We bought another bookshelf to house the stereo and DVDs, whcih cleared up a lot of space on the floor. Unfortunately, there is virtually no space left in the second bedroom. I think it will be better after we get some more unpacking and organization done. We also have a few boxes/tubs of stuff that is going to Goodwill or otherwise disappearing. That will clear out space too.

~~~5~~~

Both Steven and I have been in the habit of cooking two or three dishes on the weekend, and then eating the "leftovers" for meals all week. This was more efficient since Steven had evening classes and homework, and I was either busy with work or driving over to his place in the evenings. Since both of those situations are now cleared up (Steven is done with classes, and I live in the same apartment as him), we are going to try cooking throughout the week. I have to say that it is a little bit different for me...both in having dishes to be done more often and in juggling having meal prep to do during the week. Not that it's bad...just different. Cooking meals during the week allows us to reduce the foods we eat that have lots of carbs and increase the amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. At least that's the theory...we'll see how it works out.

~~~6~~~

This week I'm starting a new class at work. It's called the New Lawn-Owner Clinic. The first class is Thursday night. Hopefully there is a good group registered, although I don't mind having a smaller class for the guinea pig group. I'm also including some "hands-on" components that Master Gardeners are helping with. We'll see how all of that goes, too.

~~~7~~~
The other exciting thing from this weekend is that we bought a washer and dryer! In honor of MLK Day and Obama's inauguration, we decided to buy the "diversity" set. Our washer is black with chrome accents and the dryer is white. Unfortunately, the salesman wouldn't give us a discount on the black dryer just because it was black. Ah well. (In all honesty, the white washer was out of stock, and the black was the same price. So it made no difference to us what color it was.) We have the very first load of laundry in right now. Yes, I know the excitement will wear off sooner rather than later.