Monthly Archives: March 2009

>Sweet Walnut Bread +

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>The basic recipe is in my bread machine’s instruction booklet. I took a chance and added to it. That’s risky with bread because so much depends on the chemical reactions of the yeast and the other ingredients. An ingredient that deactivates the yeast in any way can make the result more suitable for a doorstop than a sandwich or toast. This time, though, it worked.

Sweet Walnut Bread with Banana

1 cup water
1 1/2 Tablespoons oil
2 1/4 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons dry milk
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Add all ingredients to bread machine as directed in your instruction booklet, of course. Do this part by the book.
At the beep, add 1/2 cup walnuts and 1 mashed banana. Daisy’s tip: place sliced walnuts (or any nuts) in a small zipper bag and crush them with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin.

When bread machine’s cycle is finished, remove loaf and set on cooling rack for an hour – or less, if your family is hungry. Slice, then serve.

I’m tempted to add raisins or dried cranberries to this bread. Maybe next time I don’t have a ripe banana handy, that’ll be the day we try a new bread!

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>Piece of (green) cake.

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>The email subject line at work said “It’s time to go green!”

What? I scoffed. I’m a green teacher; greener than most. Go green? Easy.

So I signed up for our wellness coordinator’s Green Planet Wellness program. I registered by email so as to save paper. Good start, I’d say. Starting on Earth Day, April 22, I’ll “…select from a list of 100+ reasonable, achievable green living activities segmented into 5 categories — Home, Work, Exercise, Nutrition, and Miscellaneous. Each activity is assigned a value of 1-4 green points, depending on its potential effect….There’s something for everyone — from simple steps like buying reusable grocery bags and trimming shrubbery manually, to more involved activities like installing low-flow shower heads and taking public transportation. Big or small, each step contributes to a healthier world and a healthier you.”

Ms. Wellness implies that we’ll learn new green habits that will help us live more “healthfully.” Is that a word?

Well, Ms. Wellness, I’ve been re-using copy paper for several years now. When the principal complained that “No one is making half sheet copies or copying on recycled paper!” the paraprofessionals in the copy room said, uh, wait a minute. Daisy has been doing both for a long time. I gather plastic shopping bags and pass them on for re-use. My white-board erasers are old socks, washed in Borax to remove as much of the color as possible. I’m using spelling activities copied two years ago and fitting my instruction to these, rather than making new copies to fit to my instruction. Penmanship? When the class finished using the copied pages, I began using manuscript paper from the supply room and writing the copy material on the chalkboard.

I’m faithful about turning off computers at night. I teach the kids to turn off the lights when we leave the room. Many of the materials I provide, from crayons to color pencils to correcting pens, are scavenged from years past when I prevented kids from throwing these away in June.

Green living? I enjoy learning new ways to act locally while thinking globally. But “go green?” Sorry, dear Ms. Wellness, I’m already green.

I’ll get a t-shirt for participating, and there are prizes along the way. Prizes or not, this looks like fun. I can feel successful at this program, even as I’m feeling less successful in teaching my challenging class.

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>Whether the weather…

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>It’s shovel ready. The economic benefits may be localized (okay, merely personal), but it fits the times. As soon as the weather cooperates, I’m on it.

You guessed it: Daisy’s small but wonderful backyard garden.

I’ve never formally defined it as a Kitchen Garden or a Recession Garden. It is what it is: a backyard garden of vegetables for the family, both human and rabbit residents of our fair home. The plot has grown a little each year we’ve planted it, and we’ve added simple environmentally-friendly tricks along the way. This year our goal is to use the space efficiently and get a better yield.

Here’s the to-do list.
Move walkway boards out of the dirt. These are re-used from an old fence. When it started to fall, we knocked it down the rest of the way and used the boards as stepping “stones” between the veggies.
Move trellises and tomato cages. I’m still doing the research to find better and taller supports for the tomatoes now that I’ve discovered some of the techniques for nurturing them well.
Spread the compost. It’s still in the bin, and I’m eager to get out the soil-ready batch and start anew.
Till. Husband does this. He now has his family’s old rototiller, so we don’t need to rent one any more.
Hook up rain barrel. It’s ready to use; we need to set it on its blocks and direct the downspout into it. Painting optional: I would like to paint it, though.
Buy the seedlings. I have the seeds; the tomato, pepper, and broccoli plants will come later.
Sketch the new layout. I know what I want; I just need to make sure I’m putting it all in the right place this year.
Plant!!

Ta-dah! list:
(That’s the “finished” or “outbox,” for new readers to Compost Happens.)
Make rain barrel! It filled with water during a rainstorm earlier this week; it’s “shovel-ready,” too!
Buy seeds!
Get excited and motivated! Okay, that’s always a given. I’ll never be a farmer, but I do enjoy my tiny plot in the backyard. Playing, er, working in the dirt feels good. Feels right.

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>Hermithood

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>I would make a good hermit, I like to think.
We had a half day of school, and I was invited out to lunch twice by difference coworkers. I begged off and came home instead, using La Petite as an excuse. “She’s home for spring break, and I want to spend time with her.” Did they know La Petite didn’t stand a chance of being awake when I got home?
Instead of a fish fry lunch at a nearby restaurant, I made leftover mac & cheese with a can of Diet Coke with lime. It was perfect.
Next I loaded the crockpot with thin-sliced potatoes, turned it to high, and added a few spices. It’ll be scalloped potatoes or a facsimile tonight.
After that, I gathered all the towels and cloth napkins in the house and started a load of laundry.
Then? I settled down on the couch with La Petite (she was awake by that time) and watched Wednesday’s American Idol, which we’d recorded for Amigo.

In the 80s, we called it Cocooning. Stay home, curl up in a blanket, read a book, not go out. Lately we’ve heard about Staycations, but that’s not the same thing. Cocooning is being cozy at home, not leaving the house. It’s kind of a twenty-first century hermithood. Is that a word?

It is now.

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>Family dinner conversation

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or…Siblings say the darnedest things when they’re old enough

La Petite: I was watching an episode of Bones. It’s all about these great nerdy anthropologists.
Me: I should have been a nerdy anthropologist. That would have been a great career for me.
Amigo: You already have the nerdy part down.
Me: Yes, and I do the nerdy part well, thank you very much.
La Petite: (laughter) Well, they used the word onomatopoeia. I was so happy: a television show that used the word onomatopoeia!
Amigo: I had a weird, nonsensical dream the other night.
La Petite: Nonsensical? Did you just use the word nonsensical in conversation?
Amigo: Yes.
Me: Back to the dream.
Amigo: Petite, I think you’ll like it. Mom might think it’s funny.
Me: Should I leave the room so you two can talk?
Amigo: No, it’s okay. I dreamed that our whole family was in jail, and I don’t know what for, but we were all in jail. And to get out of jail, one of us had to wrestle a giant wild mountain lion and throw it in the toilet and flush it down.
(La Petite mimics muscles, wrestling moves, then nearly collapses with hysterics at the mention of the toilet)
Amigo: So I volunteered to wrestle the mountain lion, and I threw it in the toilet and flushed it, and then we all got out of jail.
(La Petite has to look away and cover her mouth for fear of expelling food due to uncontrollable laughter)
(I try unsuccessfully several times to sip my diet coke, still fearful of squirting refreshing beverage out my nose)
La Petite (eventually, with less snorting): I guess if there’s family court, there can be family jail.
Me: Yes, kiddo, that was nonsensical all right!

Husband doesn’t know what he’s missing when he’s at his train club meetings and doesn’t get to eat supper with us. Wait – maybe he does.

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>Inbox, Outbox, and Pile of Things I Can’t Face

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The piles of paper grow. And grow, and grow, and grow. My goal: before spring break, which will arrive much too late for my taste this year, minimize the paper piles. Deal with them all, or organize them to a point that they don’t look quite so intimidating.


Yes, there are two coffee cups on the desk. One is empty, needing rinsing. The other is full of whatever blend I made that morning. I wasn’t drinking double that morning!

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>Pantry (and refrigerator) raids with eggs

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>A while ago we raided the chicken. This week, we raid her eggs. We’re fortunate to have an acquaintance who raises chickens on a small farm and sells the eggs inexpensively. Husband comes home with a dozen whenever we need one or whenever this coworker has too many. The fresh organic eggs are delicious; they really do have a stronger flavor than the store-bought variety. And fresh? Sometimes we buy eggs the same day she gathers them. Deep sigh of contentment: these eggs are good.

Over easy, scrambled, omelets, Dutch Babies, French Toast, deviled eggs and more, all are good egg dishes. Those are almost too easy; how does the pantry raid fit in? I thought you’d never ask.

Taco-eggs. Scramble eggs, mix in leftover taco meat. Amigo likes his with hot sauce. I like mine with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Coffee on the side, of course.

Hard-boiled eggs chopped and sprinkled over a salad. That’s for the humans, not for the rabbits in the family. I was tempted to hard boil a few of the farm eggs with green shells for Dr. Seuss Day at my school, but we’d used them for breakfast the day before. Now I can honestly say I’ve eaten green eggs and ham!

Fun with Omelets. Husband made omelets with thin-sliced andouille sausage, diced onions, green pepper, and grated cheddar for lunch on Saturday. I don’t know what else he added, though, because those were hot omelets! I’ve added leftover ham to an omelet, sandwich meat diced in small pieces, and all kinds of cheeses. They’re also good with chives, fried potatoes, and almost anything I can find in the fridge.

Then there are the options for adding an egg to an unrelated dish. Sometimes this adds to the taste, sometimes it stretches the meal to go a little farther. Meatloaf, superburgers, meatballs. Egg bread, biscuits, pancakes, pie crusts (whisk the egg white and spread it on top for a golden crust), dumplings; the list goes on and on.

Then there are the shells: compost them or crush and dry them to plant under the tomatoes to provide extra fertilizing power. You didn’t think I’d neglect that point, did you?

Add your ideas in the comments! I’d love to hear them.

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>Saving the rainwater, growing the veggies

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We’re not used to working together as a team. We’re more accustomed to splitting up the responsibilities, or as Husband put it, we “Divide and Conquer.” So when I signed us up for a rain barrel making workshop at a nearby environmental charter school, we stumbled through the process as an awkward team.

I got out the camera and then left it on the kitchen table, so we ended up without pictures, but that’s fine. Frankly, it wasn’t a very photogenic experience. Just imagine a big plastic barrel, the two of us drilling holes and fitting it with two tubes and a spigot, and there you have it. We covered the top with mesh to keep the bugs out, and now it’s done. We’ll hook it up to the downspout at the back of the garage near the garden, and it’ll be good to go. Er, ready to catch the next storm.

It looks rather blah out there now, so maybe I’ll try to convince La Petite to paint it. Maybe polka dots? It would match the deck chairs!

Here it is, not hooked up yet, with the garden area in the background. It was too cold to even start working outside today. Sigh. If March goes out like a lamb, maybe there’s hope.

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>Recession garden? Bring it on!

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>A few seasons back I waited too long to buy seeds. I didn’t get any pole beans, and my bush beans turned out to be both green and yellow. Surprise, Green Bay Packer colors! But seriously, I prefer stringless pole beans for ease of harvest and preparation.

Last summer compared my small backyard plot to the WWII era Victory gardens. Today’s news is full of a new term: Recession Gardens. Folks across the U.S.A. are figuring out what we backyard gardeners already knew: fresh home grown veggies are inexpensive and delicious, with less risk of contamination in the harvest or shipping process. But with the new found popularity of vegetable gardens comes a drawback: not a run on the bank as in the Great Depression, but a run on the seed companies!

I can’t get out to buy seeds right away. Despite the thick piles of snow still on the ground, I have Spring Conferences at school this week and next. I won’t have the time or energy to shop around. I could order online, but I’d really rather buy locally and stimulate my neighborhood economy. For what it’s worth, whenever I get it together, here comes the plan! Step one in any major shopping endeavour: make a list! So far, here’s what I own.


I think the beans are covered now: I have both pole and bush styles, green and yellow. Herbs are good: see the thyme, oregano, basil, dill, and more on the left. Only one package of spinach, and that’s about it. The black beans came from a plant I put in by mistake last year; I didn’t have my reading glasses on for the fine print. Oops! I like black beans in soups and chili, so I’m going to try them again. The painted rocks were a student gift a few years ago; I still love them.

Here’s the seed shopping list for now:
Peas, squash (zucchini, green), parsley, lettuces, a little more spinach.
Plants:
Tomatoes (cherry, Roma, and big juicy ones), peppers, broccoli.
Asparagus! I’ve done the research, and I think I’m ready.

The chives and green onions will come back, as will the rhubarb and the raspberries. It’s time to go back to the store and see if they still have a good supply next to the snow shovels, anti-freeze and ice melt!

Parent Bloggers Network is talking about green living this week. What can be greener than a backyard garden, complete with home-grown compost? They’re also featuring green cleaning supplies from the Nature’s Choice line by SC Johnson. Great idea, but I’d still rather play in the dirt, er, I’d rather weed the garden than clean my house.

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>Who or what writes these things?

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>I think my favorite local Chinese restaurant changed suppliers. Its cookie fortunes make sense less and less often. They are supposed to make some sort of sense or impart a certain wisdom, aren’t they? Last night Husband brought home supper (Dragon and Phoenix: Mmmm) and we had some “What the heck?” reactions to the fortunes.

Husband’s: “You have an unusual understanding of the problems of human relationships.” Really? He’s an engineer, people. He works with technology. Cameras. Television equipment. People, yes, but mostly tech.

But on the other hand…he’s the family spokesperson at IEP meetings. Since we realized that teachers tend to overreact when I, their colleague, bring up difficult points, he’s taken on the Speak Firmly and Carry a Big Folder of Evidence role. He does it well. Maybe there’s an angle to this fortune after all.

Mine: “Smile often, and see what happens.” Huh? This reminds me of the old t-shirt saying: “Smile! People will wonder what you’re up to.” Then there’s “When Irish Eyes are smiling, they’re up to mischief!” I’m not Irish, so that last one doesn’t apply.

But on the other hand…smiling, even when I don’t feel like it, can help raise the mood of my classroom. Kids relax a little, focus better, feel safer. A smile might go a long way during this long, long stretch toward a belated spring break.

La Petite’s: she’s home for a few days to rest and let her body begin recuperating from mononucleosis. We’re helping nurse her back to health by cooking and doing her laundry and taking care of her rabbits – and bringing her Chinese take-out that’s a bit better quality than what she gets near her campus apartment. Her fortune cookie announced: “The secret of success is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” She looked at it quizzically, read it aloud to us, and shrugged her shoulders. Maybe that philosophy will cure her acid reflux – or not.

But on the other hand…This is a young woman with a very positive body image and no eating disorders. She enjoys her food and doesn’t overeat – well, not often. She’s a pretty decent cook, too, for a university kid. So she’s supposed to let her food duke it out inside her digestive system? What on earth does that mean? This fortune got lost in translation.

Leftovers! Chinese food take-out almost always provides enough for leftovers. I had the Dragon and Phoenix again for lunch today. The cookie with my lunch leftovers proclaimed: “Be patient. Good things come to those who wait.”

This one is simply unoriginal. But on the other hand…I think I’ll sit down, read a book, blog, drink coffee, and wait for the laundry in the dryer to finish. Maybe I can claim the cookie’s advice told me to slow down and take a break.

Or something like that.

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