Monthly Archives: April 2010

>In praise of Sue Sylvester

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>She’s the evil character: the one the audience loves to hate.
She’s the one determined to force the others to fail.
She is so self-centered that even her thoughts and journals reflect her nastiness.

She’s played brilliantly by Jane Lynch on the Fox show Glee.

Yes, I’m a Gleek. I watch Glee, record it to enjoy again later, and tweet/ plurk/ share my reactions with other Gleeks online and in person. I watched the Glee cast on Oprah, enjoying their personal take on the characters they play. All are wonderful, talented musicians and actors. But as I’m cheering on the New Directions (the show choir/ glee club featured in the show’s name), I’m laughing uncontrollably at their nemesis, the cheerleading coach.

Glee is a classic situation of jocks vs. artists. The football team welcomes a gay student because he can kick; he teaches them to dance. The cheerleaders (Cheerios!) in the choir are caught in a loyalty tug-of-war because their coach (the aforementioned Sue Sylvester) hates their glee club director so badly she’s determined to cause the ensemble’s failure. The principal is caught in a bind; he supports the Glee Club, but evil Sue blackmails him (unbelievably and hysterically) into keeping her on staff despite her transgressions and favoring her Cheerios’ budget.

So how can she be funny? Pay attention when Sue speaks. In fact, turn on the closed captioning. Her lines contain such surprising, creative, and outrageous statements, you’ll want to hear them twice. Complaining to the Cheerios that their performance was substandard, she cries through the bullhorn, “You think that was hard? I just passed a gallstone! Now that was hard!”

Wait until she confides in Kurt and Mercedes about her hair hang-ups and throws “napalm” into the conversation without a blink.

I can’t wait to see more. But Ms. Sylvester, don’t count out the musicians. Still waters run deep, especially in artists. They may be geeks and nerds, but their talents are strong and motivation stronger. Together with Spanish teacher & Glee Club director Will Schuester, the New Directions will pull through.

While hilarity and great tunes ensue, of course.

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>Earth Week in retrospective

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>You can tell it’s spring by the signs of Earth Week in my classroom. Worked into the collection between the other books are many Earthy titles. Science Verse is there because it’s one of my favorites and April is also Poetry Month.


Look to the right, and you’ll see why there are so many on the shelf; the Seasonal bucket wasn’t big enough for all the books on an environmental theme.

My desk is often a repository of evidence of whatever we’re studying. Cluttered, perhaps; but look closely. Here, in the corner by the keyboard.


It’s one of our Earth Week specialty plans: the Circle of Earth Cookie. One of my colleagues at the environmental charter shared this plan. The cookie is a circle, like Earth. The M&Ms represent soil (brown), plants (green), animals (orange), sky/ air (blue), and last but not least, yellow for the sun. The frosting is there to hold it all together.

The students loved the cookies and the simple plan. They really knew what each piece represented.


I had a hard time keeping Paddington, Snoopy, Fluffy and pals from eating mine!
This post is going up a week after the official Earth Week celebration. However, it’s important to keep inserting eco-conscious habits into our lives every day.

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>New Growth for a new year

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Do you see what I see? It’s small. There’s not much of it (yet) — maybe only four stalks.

Look more closely — really closely. In front of the shell.


Yes, it’s asparagus! It’s growing!

No, we can’t pick it this year. We need to wait one more year – perhaps two – to allow it to strengthen and establish itself. Delayed gratification can be tough; for now, I’ll buy our asparagus at the farmers’ market. But I can still be excited!

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>Chicken Soup with Melba Snack Crackers

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>You know me. You know I don’t teach by the script in the book, and I don’t make recipes precisely by the instructions – well, not often. When MomCentral sent me two boxes of Melba Snack Crackers to review, I looked up a few recipes and made one – in my own way.

It was a dark and stormy Saturday, the kind that encourages sleeping late and staying indoors. It was the perfect day for chicken soup in the crockpot. I used chicken stock from the freezer combined with water and stock mix from a nearby corner market, and then added two carrots, two stalks of celery, and a little onion from the freezer. A small frozen jar of chopped leeks fell into the soup, too. Okay, it wasn’t an accident. I thought leeks would enhance the flavor of the soup.

The melba recipe had specific spices listed; 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. I added these and a little lemon pepper. When summer arrives, I’m sure I’ll use fresh thyme. Mmmm.
The vegetables and stock simmered all day. Mid-afternoon I added diced chicken, chicken breasts I’d thawed and partially cooked over the dying coals from the grill the night before. The original recipe called for okra; with none in the pantry, I left it out. Southern friends, please try it and let me know if okra makes a difference in the flavor.
To serve, I followed the instructions (really, truly) and served the soup over Melba Crisp Crackers, the Spicy 3 Pepper flavor. Results: delicious. The Melba Crisps were a little like croutons; more flavorful than saltine crackers, a little more fun with the soup.

While I waited for the soup to simmer, I sampled the Sea Salt flavor with cheese and summer sausage. It was delicious. Chuck tried the Spicy 3 Pepper for snacking. True to form, I thought the flavor was just right, and he thought it was a bit bland but good.

In their mission to encourage healthy eating and exercise, the people at Old London Melba Toast are also sponsoring a dance contest. “Dance Your Way to Hollywood” will send one lucky winner and a guest to Tinseltown for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, including private dance lessons and tickets to watch the taping of a highly popular television show. The four-day, three-night, all-expenses-paid experience includes air travel and accommodations at a popular Hollywood hotel. Sweepstakes entries will be accepted March 17 through June 30, 2010.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Old London Melba Toast and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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>Ah, Saturday morning.

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Bubbleboo often addresses the Small Talk Six on Saturdays. I haven’t tried yet, but this one looked like fun. Here goes: my first Saturday Small Talk Six.
The First Six Things You Do When You Open Your Eyes In The Morning
1. Squint at the clock.
2. Stretch.
3. Turn off alarm. I often wake just before it goes off.
4. Visit the bathroom.
5. Consider how this will be more difficult when the remodeling project starts and we have no bathroom on the second floor.
6. Stagger downstairs to feed the rabbit, shower, and prepare for another school day.
The weekend version is similar.
1. Squint at the clock.
2. Wonder why I wake up at 5:30 on weekends.
3. Use the bathroom, consider the upcoming demolition and remodeling and the accompanying challenges.
4. Give up on going back to sleep, stagger downstairs.
5. Feed rabbit, start coffee.
6. Read morning newspaper.
You might wonder why I didn’t mention coffee in the weekday set. Simple: I set it the night before. It’s primed and ready to start dripping while I’m showering and getting dressed. Be Prepared is the Girl Scout motto, after all. It works for me!

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>Spring has Sprung!

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>Spring means chores. Somehow, I don’t mind the extra work that comes with the melting of the snow and the warming of the temperatures. One of the first: I need to cut back or pull out the dead mint surrounding the tulips and other pretty spring blooms. Put simply, it’s time to get rid of the brown and make room for the green.

In the garden, the green onions are coming back. The parsley is returning; I didn’t even know parsley was a perennial. Is it? Maybe it reseeded itself. The chives are poking their slim green head above the ground, too. But the asparagus, the new plants I put in last year? Gone. No sign of them. Sigh. Maybe they didn’t have enough sun; maybe I bought a bad batch. I’ll try again in a new location and see what happens. It’s a bit discouraging when asparagus takes 2-3 years to develop. Losing a year in the process – well, there’s always the Farmers’ Market!

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>Red beans and rice

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INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cooked rice (see #3)
2 cups small red beans, dry (or 1 16 oz can of red beans)
2 Tablespoons chili powder or Creole Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder or chopped garlic
1 small white onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce, if desired
Optional: smoked sausage, cooked chicken, added in last 30 minutes of cooking.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse.
2. In 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, layer all ingredients in order listed.
3. Cover; cook on Low setting 6 to 8 hours.
4. Meanwhile, cook rice in water as directed on package. Serve bean mixture over rice. (Optional: Serve with pepper sauce or hot sauce)

Isn’t that easy? Next year, this could be a lenten special for those of you who like a meatless Friday. For now, I might send the link to my friends at the Green Phone Booth for their Meatless Monday specials.

Next time, remind me to photograph the rice on a different color plate. Really, there is a bed of rice under the bean dish.

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>Branching out with new seed sources

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>The growing season is short in my Wisconsin climate zone. I don’t dare put in tomato or pepper plants until late May, usually Memorial Day. At the end of the growing season, when die-hard locavore gardeners are canning their salsa and preserving their heirloom seeds, I’m starting a new school year. I’ve used that timeline as an excuse to plant only mass-produced garden center seedlings for years. This year, I’m branching out.

Thanks to gifts from Hometown Seeds and City Slipper (@CitySlipper on Twitter, blogging at Small Kitchen Garden), I’m starting a few heirloom varieties from scratch.

Read the whole post at Green Spot-On!

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