Oh dear!

Well, I suck at blogging regularly! I logged into to look at last year's resolutions and saw I haven't posted a dang thing since April. Perhaps this New Year I'll resolve to blog more often? It's a thought.

So here is last year's list:

1) Become pregnant.
2) Tone up!
3) Knit and crochet passably by year-end.
4) Can more often, one project per month.

And here is my report:

1) HA.
2) I didn't do too badly here! I've gained some muscle and I can also run farther and faster than before, so score.
3) I can knit okay but had a lot of trouble learning to crochet. I have box of cute crocheted animal projects gathering dust. :(
4) I rocked at this and actually got 13 projects done instead of only 12. I've been so pleased that I started a different blog specifically for preserving and have a long-term project in mind to feature local agricultural talent (I am in the bountiful Midwest after all), but I'm currently on the fence about whether to launch it. I'm not sure if I'll have time and even if I do, I should have some semblance of personal time with Eric. I don't know if I should be putting any more irons in the fire, so I'll have to think on it.

With all that said, here is 2011's resolutions list (For now-- it's not the end of the year quite yet).

1) Blog more often (forcing me to be more aware), either here or potentially the preserving blog.
2) Spend more time outdoors.
3) Let myself be less busy.
4) Relinquish expectations.

So this is probably my last post for 2010! What will your resolutions be?

One missed call

This post is about a story submission I sent to the Anything Ghost podcast. I listen to my friend Wayne's podcast, Worlds of Wayne, and Wayne and I have similar tastes that run toward the supernatural so when he interviewed Lex Wahl of Anything Ghost, I was all over that like zombies on brains. You can hear that episode here if you care to take a gander.

So I went and had a listen at Anything Ghost. On Lex's podcast, he reads stories of supernatural and weird experiences that people have every day. He also composes the creepy music. Awesome. Anyone who is a listener can email him their own story, or better yet, record it and send it to him. He likes when people can tell the story in their own voice. I do not have that option, so I just emailed him. You can hear my weird experience here on episode #112. I recommend listening to the whole episode because it's cuh-reepy, but if you really want, you can skip to my story beginning at minute 23:15. He mistakenly calls me Gina but I guess that's better than Jenny. :)

I have a whole list of stories, so I'm sure I'll be posting about this again!

March Project: Charoses-inspired jam

I was all set to make Meyer lemon marmalade when this post over at Food in Jars piqued my interest. What's charoses? It's Passover right now? Why haven't I heard this word before? It sounded tasty, the pretty "cha" pronounced like "challah."

My co-worker and friend Beth confirmed that charoses is a staple of the traditional Seder meal, a savory sweet dish composed of walnuts, chopped apples, cinnamon, wine and honey. It's meant to remind the faithful of the mortar between the bricks that the Jews had to lay while they were enslaved in Egypt.

I followed the recipe at Food in Jars pretty much exactly, and was quite pleased with the outcome: a chunky mix of fruits and nuts, not very sweet but not un-sweet either. Good if you're not much for really sweet stuff in the mornings, si? It was a little hard to spread on a piece of toast, but I think it's a pretty decent morning mouthful. I gave a jar to Beth and await her verdict with matzo crackers next week. As for me, I think it's a success!

I'm going to be an auntie!

So this has been on the super downlow for awhile, but now Melissa's showing so it's pretty much pointless to try to deny it. Can you imagine how that conversation would go?


"Hey! I didn't know you were pregnant, congrats! When are you due?"
"I'm not pregnant. You dillhole."
"...but you have a baby bump. Like right there."
"THAT is my STOMACH, you JERK. What, are you calling me chubby? You think it's cool to assume? OW!"
*bump moves*
"What was that?"
"The ba....my lunch kic....I have gas."

Awwkwaarrd. So now that that's settled, Meliseester had an ultrasound this morning where the sex of the baby was revealed!

TA DA!

If you'll look carefully at the picture, you'll see IT'S A BOT! Just what I've always wanted!! I have lots of knitting to do...gotta keep those steely joints warm. :D

This is what I plan to do with my life.

Some material borrowed from Sara at Sara's Organized Chaos and Nicole at More is Better. I like them and they have good ideas and I have high aspirations. 

1) Go sailboating
2) Go sea kayaking - DONE
3) Visit every Central American country (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)
4) Write one book of short stories and one novel
5) Get over a fear of caves. Which means....go caving
6) Have two children, one sans epidural, one with
7) Adopt a third child from a poverty-stricken country
8) Make a quilt
9) Get naked on a nude beach
10) Drive the entire North American Pacific coast (Oregon)
11) Get a short play accepted to Shelterskelter and performed that season
12) Go on a summertime Alaskan cruise in and snuggle under the northern lights
13) Spend time on every continent
14) Get close to bison at Yellowstone National Park
15) Go snowshoeing
16) Spend the night in a real haunted house
17) Attend a religious service for at least four major religions (1. Catholic, 2. Unitarian- is that major?)
18) Own and live on a property in Central America near farms and beaches simultaneously
19) Hike though the rainforest to Macchu Picchu
20) Put at least my hand in ten of the world’s natural oceans or large bodies of water (1. Pacific Ocean, 2. Atlantic Ocean, 3. Gulf of Mexico, 4. South China Sea)
21) Learn to make pupusas from scratch
22) Enter a cooking contest
23) Bungee jump
24) Walk on a glacier
25) Buy something extravagant for our parents
26) Take a picture in the towns in which all four of my grandparents were born
27) Take a picture with a celebrity I genuinely care about. Lisa Loeb?!
28) Own and run a successful business
29) Take a train through beautiful countryside
30) Go to the Winter Olympics
31) See at least one World Cup game
32) Snorkel through the Great Barrier Reef
33) Teach a class or seminar
34) See SNL in person


More items may be added as I see fit. :)

What do mandarins and fish fries have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Aside from being a touch time-consuming to peel all those little oranges, canning clementines was a neat little project. Inspired by Marisa's recipe over here at Food in Jars, I bought a five-pound box of clems at HyVee and set to work with Tracy Bonham and Laura Veirs to accompany me. I adjusted the simple syrup to one cup of sugar to six cups of water and that was plenty sweet-- next time I'll try paring it down even further to 3/4 cup, like Marisa did. All things considered, I was quite pleased with the result.

Five beautiful jars crammed full of mandarins! I gave one to my mother-in-law for her birthday and she must have liked them, because I got the jar back only a few weeks later. I gave another to Jason and Rebecca and they promptly invented a slew of cocktails in which to drop the little slices.

Verdict? SUCCESS. Whatever shall I make for March?

On Friday, I FINALLY got to attend one of my most favorite series of events of the year, the Holy Name Fish Fry. (That is a Facebook page and may not show.) This amazingness puts you through the ringer with a long-ass line and this year's trademark cold-ass weather matched only by the coldness of the beer, but the end result of a happy, heady buzz and crisp-hot, juicy fish are soooo worth it.

We go again this Friday!

I have more blog material but little time and have to hit the books....or book....and later tonight it will be a Sookie Stackhouse book. BUT FIRST THE OTHER BOOK. QUIT TEMPTING ME, SOOKIE!

UNO's voice of George Crumb

He sounds remarkably like my sister....





That's me taking pictures up front. I always get the best seats. :)