>Hush Puppies and Collard Greens

Posted on by
4

>Eating the Opponent met a challenge this week: the Packers faced the Detroit Lions. We knew nothing about Detroit, so we had to do a little research.

Internet searches showed us the chili dog and/or the Coney Dog; La Petite doesn’t like hot dogs, so she wouldn’t like that.
Another Internet search found many different dishes that featured onions – sausages slathered in onions, onion rings, anything onion. We hypothesized that too many years of losing teams had led Detroit fans to hide their tears behind the cutting of an onion.
We asked my stepfather, a Detroit area resident for many years: he suggested hush puppies and collard greens. The research began again. Traditional hush puppies are deep fried. We don’t own a deep fryer and don’t plan to buy one. I did, however, find a simple recipe for baked hush puppies, so we pulled out the cornmeal and got to work. Here it is, Packers fans and blog readers: our game day meal vs. Detroit.
Baked Hush Puppies
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 450. Lightly grease (or spray with nonstick spray) a 24- mini muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt & pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix together the onion, milk, eggs, and butter. Fold the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture until just moistened.
Spoon one Tablespoon of mixture into each mini-muffin cup. Bake for ten minutes, or until the hush puppies are firm to the touch and golden brown around the edges.
I resisted adding cheese. Maybe next time.
Whatever will we cook when the Packers play the Minnesota Vikings? I’m sorry, but lutefisk is out of the question.

·

·

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Walk to School

Posted on by
1

>

It’s a typical fall morning. Leaves cover the ground, there’s a crisp breeze, a little overnight condensation remains, and the school buses criss-cross the city streets.

In some neighborhoods, there are fewer buses. These are the places where walking to school is the norm, not the exception. I’m lucky to live and teach in neighborhoods like these. Walking to school brings people together; parents, children, friends, families. When I’m arriving at school in the morning, I see my former students shouldering their backpacks and climbing on their bikes or gathering together to walk to the nearby middle school. An hour later, I’ll see the sidewalks crowded again with groups of kids and adults headed to the elementary school where I teach.

Clorox Green Works is a sponsor of this month’s Walk to School Challenge. They have a Facebook group devoted to the cause, and they’re offering $5000 grants to schools with the highest participation in the Challenge. Walking to school helps connect people, build community, and fights sedentary lifestyles. Wow, all that with a short walk! Biking counts, too, as does riding a skateboard or scooter. Getting up and active energizes bodies and brains for a full day of learning.

I love looking out my classroom window just before the bell rings and seeing all the families gathering, saying good bye to their children for the day, and then walking on home again. I wish more schools could be as lucky as ours; situated in a neighborhood suitable for easy walking. If your school would like to participate in Clorox Green Works Walk to School Challenge, you can sign up and recruit others from your school to log miles – and win grant money in the process!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Clorox Green Works and received a thank-you gift certificate for my time.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>No Stomach for Cancer

Posted on by
1

>

UPDATE: the resolution has passed the Senate. There is no need to contact your senators – unless you want to thank them for their support.

Sometimes a national issue is personal. Sometimes a personal issue becomes national. This issue is really both.

You may remember Tyler, La Petite’s friend, the young man who passed away from stomach cancer. This young man, college student, an athlete in his prime, was diagnosed in a late stage of cancer — too late to treat successfully. Thanks to his friends and family, he passed peacefully, surrounded by an ocean of caring.
Tyler’s mother would like to spread the word about stomach cancer through an initiative sponsored by Wisconsin’s Senator Russ Feingold. Senator Feingold would like to declare November, 2010 Stomach Cancer Awareness Month. A public awareness campaign will educate people about this aggressive and sometimes hereditary cancer, highlighting the need for early diagnosis and treatment.
November is an ideal month for this awareness campaign because of Thanksgiving Day, a holiday that emphasizes family and food. Family health histories are important – no, essential. The U.S. Surgeon General would like to declare Thanksgiving Day National Family History Day to emphasize the need for this knowledge. Thanksgiving, with its emphasis on harvest, food, and nourishment, can be very difficult for stomach cancer patients. Spreading awareness of this illness will help build compassion while increasing knowledge.
Russ Feingold, co-sponsor of Stomach Cancer Awareness Month, is a senator from my fair state of Wisconsin. I’m proud that he introduced this resolution and helped it pass.
Awareness is only the beginning, but it is a strong beginning. Please help spread the word – in Tyler’s memory, and to prevent others from suffering. Let’s make sure our nation has No Stomach for Cancer.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Random Dental Thoughts

Posted on by
1

>

If you’ve been following my plurks or tweets lately, you know I’ve spent several weeks in pain from an unexplained ankle problem. I realized the ankle pain was serious when I was in the dentist’s chair getting work done. Yes, the dentist.
I’m a wimpy dental patient – the kind who wants every kind of painkiller and relaxant available. Our dentist is kind and understanding. He doesn’t call me a wimp; he says “We want you to be comfortable. Would you like some tylenol before we start, too?” And then the assistant hooks up the nitrous oxide and I take a deep breath.
Back to the ankle. I was breathing in the nitrous and relaxing, finding a focal point on the ceiling (Lamaze style), and realized with a Woodstock-style tone “Wow, my ankle doesn’t hurt. For the first time in a week, my ankle feels good.” This thought was followed by my logical self saying “Wow, that’s not good. Self, call the doctor when you get home.”
Two weeks later: The ankle still hurts, but the teeth are doing great. No pain, easy cleaning, and the final crowns go on in next month. The dental assistants are really good at giving practical advice, too. They show me how to brush better, how to floss, and how to make sure the temporary crowns stay in place until the final pieces go in. Somehow, they’re polite and professional and non-judgmental the whole time.

When is dental floss not a floss? When it’s a Bryton pick. It’s small, reusable (wash it after each use, it’s quick), and easy to handle. Bryton sent me two samples, and I tried them out during a busy season: sweet corn on the cob season. The little pick worked for me: less waste than traditional floss, tiny and easy to store, and effective in getting rid of the residue from the delicious farmers’ market corn.

Now if only I could get rid of this ankle/foot pain as easily….

BrytonPick sent me a sample product in order to do this review. Yes, it honestly came in late August when we were buying and cooking and eating sweet corn every week. Perfect timing, as far as I’m concerned. I was not otherwise compensated for this review.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>When the going gets tough…

Posted on by
1

>

School gets tougher and tougher. When I’m faced with my own failures, I come home and work on tasks that I can accomplish successfully. And… I blog. I write, I read, I comment, I create. And I borrow.

I read Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Non-Conformity. I get his updates by email because I don’t want to miss a single one. His latest had a comment that struck me as appropriate for my situation and perhaps even beyond. He stated:
When faced with a choice between hope and fear, choose hope.

I searched for an appropriate picture to illustrate the statement and found this one. It’s a photo taken during an Australian dust storm, of kookaburras calmly waiting for the storm to settle.

I hope I can continue to choose hope while I wait for my own dust to settle.

Photo by Plurk friend Grumba in Adelaide, Australia

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Where do you keep your foods in jars?

Posted on by
6

>Food In Jars, a canning blog, is one of my regular reads and go-to sources for information. A month ago (was it really almost a month ago?) blogger Marisa put up a post asking readers where they stored their goodies after canning them.

I’m a beginning canner, so there aren’t many cans on the shelf yet. The cupboard, like almost everything in our home, has a history.

This gray cabinet resides in our basement along an inside wall. It has glass fronts on the main lower shelving, and solid doors on two smaller sections on top. When we found these in the basement, we presumed they had been part of the original kitchen or dining room, probably lining the walls. The previous homeowners, most likely practical and frugal sorts, had moved them downstairs rather than throw them in a dumpster.
Last summer a young couple knocked at our door. Somewhat sheepishly, the woman told us she had lived here as a child and as long as she was in town, could she see the house again? Of course we invited them in. She described many changes beyond those we’d made, and told us that the gray cabinets had indeed sat in the small dining room, but they had lined up at a 90 degree angle from the wall at the bathroom door, making a sort of short hallway.
Well, now they’re in our basement, serving a good purpose. My canning supplies and the resulting jars are sitting behind the glass doors, looking delicious. I expect to fill the shelves a little more each year as I learn new skills and get more adventurous with the canner and food in jars.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Raspberry Applesauce

Posted on by
Reply

>This is a real recipe, not a pantry raid, not a garbage recipe. I’d picked up apples at the Farmers’ Market – Macs to cook & Honeycrisp for my workday lunches – and we had 2 pints of raspberries, the last of the season. The raspberries were heading past their prime, and we needed to use them up.

It’s a great problem to face, to have fresh fruit that must be used up ASAP! I turned to my stash of cookbooks and found this raspberry applesauce in Food to Live By: the Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook.

Ingredients
4 medium sized sweet-tart apples (I used MacIntosh), peeled and diced
1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (mine were fresh and getting softer by the minute)
1/2 cup sugar or more to taste (we found 1/2 cup to be just right)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
…and (you guessed it, I never perform exactly by the script) I added 1 teaspoon frozen orange zest just because I still had some in the freezer.
Directions
1. Place the apples and 1 1/2 cup water in a large, non-reactive saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes.
2. Add the raspberries and sugar (and orange zest, if you live in my kitchen) and cook, stirring frequently, until the apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Break up any remaining chunks of apple with the back of a wooden spoon. The applesauce should be thick.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool slightly. Add the lemon juice. Taste the applesauce and add more sugar if necessary. If you are not planning to serve it immediately, transfer to a clean container and cover it. Serve warm, room temperature, or cool.
I realize there are a few potentially confusing redundancies in the directions. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to a simmer? I brought the apples to a light boil and then immediately turned the heat down to a simmer.
We also have the “simmer until apples are soft” followed by a second “cook…until the apples are soft.” Use your own judgement, of course. I considered the first step done when I could pull out the peelings, the second when the chunks were almost gone.
I did not peel my apples immediately, either; I cored and quartered them before cooking, then pulled out the peelings with a fork. (Hint, hint family, a food mill is on my wish list for Christmas or birthday! It would make chores like this easier. I might even share the resulting goodies.)
This sauce is delicious. Even with end-of-season raspberries, it beats the heck out of any store-bought flavored applesauce. I predict this applesauce will become a regular on our table every August and September.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Investing my blood, sweat, and tears in teaching

Posted on by
3

>”I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” — Winston Churchill

Well, Mr. Churchill – may I call you Winston? – I have all that and more to offer my students and my coworkers. I have fifteen years of experience in public schools, more in private preschools and as a substitute teacher. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees. I have knowledge gained from myriad sources: classes, training sessions, professional institutes taught by experts in their fields. I have colleagues who help me apply that knowledge in useful and practical ways.
And I have my own blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Sweat:
Have you ever been in an classroom in a 60-year-old brick building, with no air conditioning, with only two windows that open? Add 24 sweaty bodies after recess and you’ll know sweat.
Have you ever followed a child across a playground in muggy heat, a child who knows how to keep one step ahead, a child who has emotional issues so extreme you worry about getting too close lest he run out into the street or into the nearby wooded area known to be a repository of broken bottles and sometimes syringes with needles? Even without the hot weather, it was a sweaty situation.
Tears:
Student throws tantrum, shoves staff member.
Student throws another tantrum, kicks aide.
Student gets suspended for aggressive behavior.
Student returns from suspension. Teacher monitors mood, tension, calls on all de-escalation training and years of experience to keep him calm – alone. Because no one, but no one, stops in to check on student when he returns to school after his suspensions.
Feeling totally unsupported leads to tension, high blood pressure, and yes, tears.
Toil:
This I can do. If hard work could solve the problems of all my students, life would be easy. I’m working on grant letters and looking up books to fit the needs of my hardest working, most struggling readers.
I’m also doing the research in advance on procedure for removing a dangerous student from class, even as I sincerely hope it won’t be needed. Toil, perhaps unnecessary, but still toil.
Blood:
Does swelling count? Physical pain? I’ve been teaching on an unexplained and undiagnosed swollen ankle for two weeks. My doctor must understand teachers. She didn’t recommend I take several days off to heal; she suggested I teach sitting down whenever possible. I keep teaching through the pain, not calling a substitute, because that’s what we do.
Winston, I know you made this statement in a time of a great world war. My battles are different. Instead of an enemy with bombs and troops, I fight poverty, apathy, budget cuts, and misinformation. In those battles I offer my knowledge, my experience, my continued professional connections, along with my blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Anecdotal Evidence that School has Started

Posted on by
Reply

>There is more laundry than usual.

During breaks, especially summer, I spread out the laundry loads and don’t have to depend on weekends to do it all. Not any more!
There are books all over.
Yes, that’s a normal state of affairs in this house. However, the table next to my rocker now holds Lucy Calkins’ A Guide to the Reading Workshop and two books I’m previewing for my classroom library. There’s a pleasure book sitting on my bedside table; that’s a must.

I’m exhausted. The beginning of a new school year always brings extra tasks, extra stress. This usually subsides with time and then picks up again around parent-teacher conferences and progress report seasons. This year, with the additional challenges in reading instruction, I’m working every spare minute to plan effective lessons and find appropriate materials and books.
I’m running out of coffee. Yikes! I’m making my own and bringing a thermos to school, determined to be both frugal and green by avoiding the drive-through expresso place. But I need to pick some up soon, or this refreshing beverage will be out of stock at home.

Oh, by the way, if you were wondering what the family is eating for our NFL Regular Season challenge of “Eating the Opponents” – we chose Chicago style deep dish pizza. This is Monday night game, and Da Bears are 2-0 just like the Packers, so we might repeat this fine entree on Monday night. I think it’ll be worth the sacrifice to eat the same meal twice. Really.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares