tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41375982010-04-11T01:34:40.489-07:00Discolor OnlineWeblog of the sweetest person you never want to piss off.Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.comBlogger1466125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-70645153874825288112010-04-11T01:32:00.000-07:002010-04-11T01:34:40.531-07:00One Month to AlaskaWe've passed the one month mark! On May 9th my mother, Kate, and I will be heading off on a class trip with her school. We're taking about 80 people (kids and chaperons) on an Alaskan cruise, organized through an outfit called <a href="http://www.educatorcruises.org/">Educator Cruises</a>. As I understand it, this is the first time Holland America has had one of these educational cruises and we're kind of a pilot program that could really blossom into something with them. <br /><br />Last week I met with Kate's teacher and went over the basic schedule and what kind of curriculum we're going to have for the kids. Since it's an educational cruise there will be lectures, reading, writing in journals. The field trips and outings are meant to be educational. In one stop our school will be hosted by the local 8th grade class who are intimately involved in the salmon hatchery and wildlife center, echoing some of the environmental curriculum (like hatching salmon eggs) that the ORCA students have done over the years. There's a lot we can cover in lessons and I feel really good about that aspect of the trip.<br /><br />Of course, we can't spend all seven days doing nothing but school work and field trips. There will be chances for the kids to go shopping and buy souvenirs when we're off the ship but there's a lot for the kids to do on the ship, too. Apparently teens on cruise ships are well taken care of. There will be a couple of receptions/parties for the group on the ship plus the teachers plan to have a fitness "club", a walking "club", swimming groups. The ship itself has a Teen Center with a teen's only arcade and a dance club. There's also a basketball court that I know some of our boys will be eager to visit. There will be two formal dinners where the kids will get to dress up and try foods they have probably never seen before. Can't wait to see that, heh.<br /><br />Anyway, the cruise isn't for another few weeks so in the meantime I've been puttering away at my to do list, knocking off minor things here and there as I have the opportunity. I put some spring flowers in the planters on the front porch, ordered some garden supplies and seedlings, replaced the cheap plastic handle on the powder room toilet with something in brushed nickel (which matches the toilet seat I replaced last year), put a medicine chest in the guest bathroom, bought a proper display shelf for some figurines I received as birthday gifts when I was a girl. Nothing important (except maybe the gardening order) but small things that let me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I have a few wish list items that I'm hoping to find, like a fire pit or a <a href="http://www.thebluerooster.com/">chiminea</a> to add to the patio, and a new fixture for the kitchen that has a pull out faucet.<br /><br />My parents are coming out for a visit at the end of May, when my brother graduates from medical school at OHSU. Kate and I will be back from the cruise for about two weeks before they come but I'm trying to get some cleaning, organizing, and rearranging done before the cruise so I don't feel too much pressure about the state of our affairs before they arrive.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-7064515387482528811?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-53025432476616610852010-04-03T00:04:00.001-07:002010-04-03T00:04:35.859-07:00When a night out turns into a night in...Today was a day that really did not go as planned. It started in the wee hours of the morning when I was unable to sleep and gave up after four hours of restless dozing. The wind howled and threw sheets of pelting rain against the house, punctuating the mess with rumbles of thunder. It kept up with this weather all day occasionally letting up so a momentary patch of sun or blue sky could peek through just long enough to be remarked upon... then back to the windy and spluttering.<br /><br />I was pretty crushed with fatigue before my day even started. I drove south this morning to drop Pramas at Norwescon for his panels then turned right around and went pick Kate up to take her to drop her off with her dad. Our usual selection of Zipcars were unavailable. I had to go out of my way to pick up the Zipcar and took a wrong turn, got lost, and wasted about 45 minutes with that whole mess. Even so, I was only about 30 minutes late arriving at the meeting spot but then Kate's dad let me know that there was a huge back-up at the border crossing. He arrived three hours later. I was very lucky to be able to extend the Zipcar rental as long as I needed it I ran up against another's reservation and couldn't have extended it any further.<br /><br />The weather made for difficult driving conditions, I could really feel the wind buffeting the car around on the wet freeway. I felt utterly drained when I got home and realized the day was gone. As I had plans to go out I got myself cleaned up and changed but with the rain and wind still beating down I touched base with my friend, who was of the same mind: it would be nice to see each other but the thought of venturing out again was, well, daunting. Being in agreement, we called it off and stayed in. Off came the "going out clothes" and on came the pajama pants. I had a little lie down and accidentally had a three hour nap. Leftovers for dinner and what remained of the day I spent with Netflix and my sweetie.<br /><br />Not exactly what I thought the day would be. I think tomorrow is going to be low key.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-5302543247661661085?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-72392145655000666522010-04-01T00:48:00.000-07:002010-04-01T01:02:02.074-07:00The Recipe ProjectIn the interest of saving space, I've embarked upon a project. The first step of this new project has been to sit down with years worth of cooking magazines and cut out individual pages of recipes that I like or still want to try. I currently have a four-inch pile of these pages and I've only gone through about half of the Cooking Light issues (with the issues of Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Eating Well, Vegetarian Times, or any of the other half dozen titles I've bought over the years).<br /><br />My next step is a little ways off yet but eventually I'll have to DO something with all these sheets or they'll be no use to me. Originally I thought I might just put the sheets in binders but I'm going to have inches and inches (feet?) of these recipes from magazines and I can't even begin to think of how to organize them all. One of the big problems with saving recipes out of magazines is that there are often recipes that run for more than one page, or recipes on opposite sides of the page that don't go together organizationally (main dish on one side, dessert on the other, frex). <br /><br />Now I'm reconsidering this plan I'm a bit at sea about what to do. I've been pondering several options for a re-design of Nikchick.com for a year or so. I could try to put all these recipes into a format where they could be saved and searched-for on my recipes page. My feeling is that would be a LOT of manual data entry but I'd probably be happy in the end. I could just put them into some sort of recipe organization program for use on my computer but not as part of my webpage. I have at least three of those programs (each with their own benefits and drawbacks). <br /><br />I still have a while to go on step one so I have a while to figure out step two. Pasting all these recipes to note cards like I did in high school is not among the options I'm considering.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-7239214565500066652?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-9032742019360286612010-03-28T23:04:00.001-07:002010-03-28T23:04:45.378-07:00Improving the homeI've always loved a good project. I like to credit my Grandpa Lindroos for that as he was always willing to have me hanging around in his workshop when I was a youngster. He was genius at figuring out ways to keep me busy, like the time he let me look through a pile of wood chips and shavings for pieces that looked like animals, then handed me glue, a board, and a black chisel-tip permanent marker and let me build a "farm scene", or the times he let me "help" him create No Hunting signs for his property (the "Please don't shoot the bunnies" signs went over well with the neighbors). In the same way<br /><br />For the longest time my projects had to be limited to things like putting together shelves. When we first moved into our house, I was thrilled to be able to do a few projects like putting in our garage door opener, staining the porch, hanging a pot rack, replacing our garbage disposal or putting our attic ladder in. I don't actually have a garage workshop but boy would I love one, with power tools.<br /><br />Last spring I hired a company to put in a patio for us and that was a GREAT idea. We got a grill, I found a fantastic table and chairs on Craigslist, I built some raised beds and had a successful summer of gardening. It was all quite invigorating.<br /><br />Of course, this just makes me want to do more. Now's not exactly the best time to be laying out for home improvements. We've already had some unfortunate expenses, like putting in the fix for the defecting heating system this winter and with Green Ronin as our sole income our means are decidedly more modest than when Chris was working in the computer game industry. Still, it's hard to tamp down on my brain and all the ideas that keep popping up.<br /><br />We've made incredible strides in clearing out the garage and my primary fantasy is to finish the garage. It's only a one-car garage but in my mind there's still enough space to put in a craft table for Chris, where he can work on minis; set it up with a drum set for Kate, so she can practice and play to her heart's content; and where I can organize my tools, my gardening equipment, perhaps even my own little crafting corner where I could set up a sewing machine. Insulate that mother, put in a ladder to the rafters where we could have our storage, add a heater, extra lights, put in a router with an old TiVo, our old Xbox, and a cheap TV and our "livable space" is suddenly SO much bigger. *sigh* Long term dream, we'll get there sometime.<br /><br />I'm also keen to pull out our ten-year-old carpet and replace it with flooring (which I've been told would be better for my allergies), finally paint a few rooms something other than the original "putty grey" the house came with, and put in some different window treatments instead of the rather ugly cheapo blinds that came with the house. These sorts of things are largely cosmetic. They'd make me feel happier about the house but it's not like my blinds aren't <b>functional</b>. Part of me feels a little queasy about wanting to make chances that aren't strictly necessary. I mean, it's not like I'm living in a mud hut and part of me feels I should just be happy that I have what I have. On the other hand, I work from home (and have for the last *mumble mumble* years) and my world is often distressingly small. Changing up my environment to feel more open, more creative, brighter... well, it's appealing. Very appealing.<br /><br />I do feel like I could make many of these changes on my own and even enjoy it. On the third tentacle, after my experience both with having the patio put in by professionals and having my heating system/water heater issue handled by professionals I'm finding myself really leaning toward getting someone in to do a lot of the work. <br /><br />Anyway, I've got a list of things that I'd like to accomplish eventually. I'd like to finish the landscaping in the back yard (tilling and planting the borders around the yard, put in about 400 sq. ft of new sod, put in stone cover in the side yard around the raised beds). I really need to re-paint/re-stain the porches before the HOA gets on my case. I want to do some painting, some window treatments, figure out some better options for storing our books and games. My next project is expanding the garden for this year but I should be done with that in the next few weeks. What's next is the question.<br /><br />I'm not sure what's next but it will be SOMETHING.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-903274201936028661?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-65761073228203036502010-03-26T02:17:00.001-07:002010-03-26T02:17:43.460-07:00Life Marches OnAlthough I've been up to a few things since my last update I find that I've been having a hard time putting my brain in gear to do any writing of substance. I've been popping off a few updates via Twitter or on Facebook but I've really got to make a change if I'm going to get back to any blogging of substance.<br /><br />Even though blog-wise things have been a bit dead, I have still been up to a few things. I've managed to reconnect with a few friends, get out of the house with my husband for a little adult-time, still trying to figure out what we're going to do with Kate for high school, preparing to chaperon Kate's class on their Alaskan cruise in May. Since I'm still procrastinating on diving back into "real" blogging, I thought I'd do a little recap. Here's what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks:<br /><br />WATCHING:<br />SOAP<br />Dirty Rotten Scoundrels<br />The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo<br />OK Go / Notre Dame marching band - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythlXAIY">This Too Shall Pass </a><br />The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes<br />Castle<br /><br /><br />COOKING:<br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1963969">Chickpeas with Broccoli Rabe and Bacon</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1963958">Szechuan-Style Tofu with Peanuts</a><br /><a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/03/tuna_noodle_casserole_with_leeks_and_fresh_dill">Tuna Noodle Casserole with Leeks and Fresh Dill</a><br /><a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/01/lamb_kofte_with_yogurt_sauce_and_muhammara">Lamb K�fte with Yogurt Sauce and Muhammara</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1963965">Pasta with Asparagus, Pancetta, and Pine Nuts</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1963985">Brown Soda Bread</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1963989">Beef and Guinness Stew</a><br /><a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turkey-Sloppy-Joes-on-Cheddar-Buttermilk-Biscuits-230464">Turkey Sloppy Joes on Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=336506">Overnight Blueberry Muffins</a><br /><a href="http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/12/crockpot-chicken-makhani-indian-butter.html">Crockpot Butter Chicken</a><br /><br /><br />READING:<br />A Morning for Flamingos<br />Escaping the Endless Adolescence<br />True Compass: A Memoir<br />Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking<br />The Enchantment of Lily Dahl<br />Summer Knight<br />Death Masks<br />The City & The City<br />Child 44<br /><br /><br />PONDERING:<br /><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/23/senate-unanimous-consent/">Protesting Health Reform, GOP Attempts To Bring Senate Hearings To A Standstill By Blocking All Proceedings</a> <br /><a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea-partiers-call-lewis-nr-frank-ft-at-capitol-hill-protest.php">Tea Partiers Call Lewis 'N****r', Frank 'F****t', At Capitol Hill Protest</a><br /><a href="http://rawstory.com/2010/03/protesters-mock-parkinsons-man/">Health bill protesters jeer at man with Parkinson�s disease</a><br /><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/entertainment/main6330976.shtml">Dennis Hopper dying of prostate cancer</a><br /><a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/alex-chilton-musician-dies/">Alex Chilton dead in New Orleans</a><br /><br /><br />DOING:<br />Planning my garden<br /><a href="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v228/1791/114/n671825499_3980.jpg">Haircut and color</a><br />Baking up electronic files<br />Planning another Freezer Cooking Party<br />Playing Dragon Age: Origins<br />Playing Dragon Age: Awakenings<br />Playing Mass Effect<br />Playing Mass Effect 2<br />Roasting coffee<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-6576107322820303650?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-57426166801141576542010-02-21T12:59:00.000-08:002010-02-21T21:41:47.368-08:00CHiPs 1, Nikchick 0Though I've been active on Twitter and doing a little linking at Facebook, I realized I haven't yet blogged about what's been going on in the last few weeks. Time to rectify this.<br /><br />At the beginning of February my grandmother was scheduled for a biopsy for a suspicious breast lump. This surgery had been put off last fall because of an infection in her leg and considering all of her other health problems we were a little anxious for her. It turns out that they've postponed the surgery yet again for reasons I'm not exactly clear on because by the time word came in I was already off and focused on my mom, who was scheduled for surgery herself.<br /><br />Mom's surgery had the potential to be fairly serious and was anticipated to need six weeks or more of recovery, which itself made me nervous just because of her home environment and support network (or lack thereof). Thankfully, everything went even better than we could have hoped and they had to do far less surgery than they'd thought. Mom was out of the hospital several days early and a week later was doing great. Very happy and greatly relieved by that!<br /><br />Because of the timing of DunDraCon and Kate's mid-winter break I was able to schedule the drive so I could be in Portland on my way down (in time for mom's surgery) and on the way back was able to stop in and check on her again. I'm so grateful that everything worked out so well in that regard.<br /><br />In fact, the entire trip was unbelievably excellent. I got to see my brother and spend time with my family, the convention was a great time to reconnect with fans, associates, and friends, and I got to spend time with my daughter in my off hours to boot. A couple of mom friends of mine met up with me and we toured the Berkeley campus with Kate and enjoyed decadent desserts and a gorgeous view from my friend Susanne's house that just stunned me. I wish we lived closer so these meet-ups didn't have to be every couple of years. Even the weather cooperated and gave us several beautiful, sunny days.<br /><br />The one downer of the whole trip is there in the subject of this post: I was stopped by the California Highway Patrol and earned a speeding ticket of unknown cost. I'll admit right off the bat that I was speeding along I-5, because EVERYONE was speeding. I'm not kidding, every single car on the freeway was clipping along 10 to 15 miles over the posted speed limit and I was driving along doing the same. We were 10 hours into our trip and we were laughing together and generally feeling pretty good, anticipating being close to our destination. Next thing I know the red lights are blinking behind me. I'll admit, I was confused at first because the lights were not the kind I'm used to seeing on police vehicles. I thought it might be an ambulance behind me. Despite my bad girl reputation I'm really kind of a goody two-shoes and I haven't had a traffic ticket since Kate was an infant. My first thought was "get out of the way! but since I was in the far left lane, it was dark, and there was traffic for three lanes to my right, I pulled off into the left median. It was quite wide and there was plenty of space. The red lights followed, so clearly it was no ambulance and yes, they were after me. I put the car in park, turned off the engine, and started to pull out my license like a good girl.<br /><br />Next thing I know a woman's voice is barking over a loud speaker: "MOVE TO THE RIGHT, NOW! NOW, GO, GO, MOVE!" Flustered, I fumbled to restart our rental car and get it back in gear. The officer is getting more agitated, "I SAID MOVE TO THE RIGHT. DO IT. MOVE!" I coax the car back into the freeway trying to get to the right, while the voice yells, "DON'T CUT ANYONE OFF! GET TO THE RIGHT!" Finally on the right hand side of the freeway, I'm beside myself, thinking what the hell did I do? The officer comes to the passenger window (substantially more dour and aggressive than those portrayals of <a href="http://www.classictvhits.com/showcards/chips/10039208.jpg">Ponch and Jon</a> from my youth) and orders me to get out of the car. By this point I'm seriously thinking I'm going to be told to get down on the ground. It was like an episode of COPS or something. "What did I do?" I asked. "You were speeding..."<br /><br />Holy crap, I've never been treated that way by the police in my life. The closest thing to this experience I can think of is the infamous incident I had with that out of control airline attendant on our way to GenCon SoCal many years ago. For a speeding ticket? On a freeway where literally every single car was speeding? After the cop let me go I did a little experiment and set my cruise control to exactly the speed limit for the remainder of the drive (40 minutes or so, I guess). Every single car on the freeway blew past us. Kate and I counted them: 112 cars, some overtaking me from very far behind. <br /><br />In my conspicuous red rental van, with its conspicuous out of state plates, I guess I was an easy target. My local friends believe that the budget in CA is so bad at the moment that hitting out of state speeders has been an easy way to get some cash in the coffers. The worst part is I don't even know how much the ticket will be but one friend sadly informed me that it could be up over $500 because they've jacked up the fines lately (see aforementioned budget crisis). This is very, very bad news. I even looked up to see if I could plead not guilty or extenuating circumstances or hardship or anything because a $500 would be dire and all I saw at the county traffic fine website was something about having to post BAIL if you plead not guilty or appeal your ticket, even by mail. I've never seen anything like this. Definitely the downer on an otherwise successful and pleasant trip.<br /><br />Back in Seattle, it seems we've brought the nice weather we had in Cali home with us. It's been 60s and sunshine. The mountain has been out every day and flowers are blooming. I know this is Seattle's tricky "fake spring" that happens every February but on the heels of an historically mild January any further wintery weather seems distant and my mood (but for the worry about the ticket) is remarkably cheery.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-5742616680114157654?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-75933645540483627252010-02-02T03:22:00.000-08:002010-02-02T03:23:41.630-08:00You Need Food to LiveWith the pantry reorganized and the Hunger Awareness Week behind me, I decided to go ahead and do an inventory of the freezers, then cleaned and restocked the fridge. After not shopping during the hunger challenge my produce was in a pretty sorry state and I also rid myself of a few things that had gotten lost in our cheese drawer round about last summer sometime (I need a bigger cheese drawer so things don't get buried or pushed into back corners!) but the waste from the fridge wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. My kitchen stores are in such a state that if Gordon Elliott were to pop round for an episode of <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/zany-doorknock-dinners/3303.html">Doorknock Dinners</a> he and his chefs would be fixing me quite the meal indeed. HA!<br /><br />One handy little habit I'm cultivating is to use a magnetic notepad on the fridge to write down pantry items as they get used up. No longer will I end up with three jars of cumin because I remembered that I used it but can't remember that I bought a replacement, or conversely forget time and time again that I've used the last of an ingredient but keep forgetting to buy a replacement. I've used the notepad technique on and off for a few years and encourage Chris and Kate to leave their requests on the list as well but under the current, reorganized pantry the notepad system seems to be working much more smoothly than in the past. <br /><br />I'm pleased to say that I've replicated my success with the <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/Old-Reliable-French-Bread-for-Kitchen-Aid-Mixers-52289">"Old Reliable" French Bread</a> recipe and have produced yet more edible bread for the family. This may become a regular routine, at least as long as the price of flour and yeast remains a fraction of the price of "artisan" breads at the grocery store. I started buying bakery bread when I was doing my research into high fructose corn syrup and discovered it was in <b>everything</b>, including our grocery store bread. <br /><br />I've tried three new recipes this week with good results. Two I pulled from my copy of the Cooking Light Annual 2010, one I pulled up from Southern Living, which is about as far from Cooking Light as you can get (and has the cup and a half of half-and-half, four large eggs and ten strips of bacon to prove it). All three are online through MyRecipes.com so I'll just go ahead and link to them there. I was able to make all of these with ingredients that I already had around the house, still cooking from the freezer and the pantry with what I have on hand.<br /><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=257960">Spinach and Bacon Quiche</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1918494">Penne with Sage and Mushrooms</a><br /><a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1924716">Singapore-Style Noodles</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-7593364554048362725?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-29871881425880772962010-01-27T15:59:00.001-08:002010-01-27T15:59:32.392-08:00French Bread<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4309415403/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4309415403_b32376d3aa_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4309415403/">French bread</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/nikchick/">Nikchick</a>. </span></div>This is <a href="http://www.uwkc.org/newsevents/events/haw/default.asp">Hunger Action Week</a> in King County. In 2007 I shared my thoughts on the Oregon governor's <a href="http://www.nikchick.com/2007/05/food-by-four.html">Food Stamp Challenge</a>. Everything I said then is true now. If anything I feel even more strongly , considering the way the country has changed in the last three years.<br /><br />In theory I'm up for this challenge but having felt plenty of food insecurity not only do I have no desire to relive the experience but keeping my pantry stocked "just in case" is, hmm, obsession is too strong but let's say it's a high priority. So instead of tracking my spending and trying to cook from only what I bought for the week I've been trying to honor the spirit of the challenge by using what I have on hand in my newly reorganized pantry and my freezer. In a case of handy timing, our "junk food" cupboard is bare so there are no chips, pretzels, sodas or other prepackaged snacks in the house at the moment. <br /><br />Despite all of my food-loving ways I've never had good luck with breads. I can whip up a quick bread, muffins, cakes, cookies, or bars with good results. Yeast breads, dinner rolls, even biscuits have been another story though. Even using a bread maker has been 50% disappointment. Seattle has many lovely local bakeries supplying the local markets with an array of fresh breads but at $3.00 to $4.50 per loaf (and with a daughter who loves bread just slightly less than potatoes and slightly more than rice in her largely white food diet) that can get spendy, especially when I know full well how inexpensive the base ingredients for bread are in comparison.<br /><br />With the Hunger Awareness Challenge in mind and bread in the house running low, I decided to try again yesterday. I decided to shy away from the bread machine and try going with the Kitchen Aid and my plain ol' oven. I couldn't find my Kitchen Aid recipe booklet I had to rely on the handy Internet. Google helpfully turned up an entry from someone else who didn't want to misplace their Kitchen Aid recipe again and so put it up on RecipeZaar under the name <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/Old-Reliable-French-Bread-for-Kitchen-Aid-Mixers-52289">"Old Reliable" French Bread (for Kitchen Aid Mixers)</a>. How could I resist a recipe called "Old Reliable"? I couldn't! <br /><br />What do you know, it worked, too. To my shock and my family's delight, I have successfully made two good loaves of French bread for about $1 in flour. Not quite as excellent as the $4.00 loaves from our local bakery but certainly at least as good as if not better than the $2.00 loaves from the grocery store. If not spurred on by the Hunger Awareness Challenge I wouldn't have made this breakthrough.<br clear="all" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-2987188142588077296?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-30588269133729089892010-01-11T03:33:00.000-08:002010-01-11T03:34:59.175-08:00More Small StepsI feel like I've been doing a reasonable job harnessing my enthusiasm to get things in order since Christmas. <br /><br />We had a productive family meeting last week where we divided up household chores and established something of a schedule, which makes me very happy. Of course, we haven't begun the schedule yet and we know that saying about plans and contact with the enemy, but just having something (a plan) where there used to be nothing (chaos) counts a progress. I'm also slowly crossing small, irregular jobs off my list. <br /><br />One thing that I did this weekend was a small chore that I've been meaning to take care of for years. Literally for years! It took less than five minutes. Home security experts advise homeowners to replace 1/2" screws in your deadbolt strike plates with screws 3" or longer so the strike plates are secured to the house's frame instead of the doorjamb. You can also replace the whole deadbolt, replace the wimpy two-screw plate with a four-screw style but even just changing out the screws in the existing hardware makes your deadbolt lock a ton more effective. I had some 3" wood screws left over from last year's planter box project. Zip, zip, DONE. Improved security.<br /><br />Lest I seem like I'm patting myself on the back excessively, I'm not expecting anyone to be thrilled to read that I've replaced some screws, remembered to clean the oven, changed some light bulbs. I'm just pleased to be checking off a number off little things that had been piling up. Even small forward progress is satisfying.<br /><br />I've also been trying out a bunch of new recipes since Christmas. I've had some decent luck with some recipes out of a slow cooker book I got for Christmas, from the author of the blog <a href="http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/">http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/</a> and the current issue of <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/">Bon Appetit</a> as well as my tried and true go-to <a href="http://www.cookinglight.com/ ">Cooking Light</a>. Here's what we've been eating around here: <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/01/spaghetti_and_meatballs_all_amatriciana">Spaghetti and meatballs all'Amatriciana</a>, <a href="http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-breakfast-risotto.html">Breakfast Risotto</a>, <a href="http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/crockpot-leg-of-lamb-recipe.html">Crockpot Lamb</a>, <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1634764">Morning Glory Muffins</a>, <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/01/spicy_spaghetti_with_fennel_and_herbs">Spaghetti with Fennel</a>, <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=549966">Ham and Lentil Soup</a>, Turkey Orzo Soup, Cooks Illustrated's <a href="http://www.foodreference.com/html/turkey-tetrazzini.html">Turkey Tetrazzini</a>, <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1734350">Three-Cheese Baked Penne</a>, <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/eating-well/red-pepper-amp-goat-cheese-frittata-recipe/index.html">Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Fritatta</a> from Eating Well, and Alton Brown's <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cheese-grits-recipe/index.html">Cheesy Grits</a>. Not a bad start to the new year!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-3058826913372908989?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-30245205789416645382010-01-07T00:55:00.001-08:002010-01-07T00:55:44.464-08:00Kitchen Re-org 2010<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4253596484/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2714/4253596484_4e9c6eaa93_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4253596484/">Kitchen Re-org 2010</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/nikchick/">Nikchick</a>. </span></div>I wasn't lying when I said I was thinking organization. Ha!<br /><br />I did the same thing in January 2009, but things had slowly grown out of hand again, so I decided to build on my successes and do another reorg. Putting the booze into its own cabinet freed up an entire shelf in the pantry, which inspired me to get another couple of organizational do-dads (like tiers for the canned goods). Half-used bags of rice or beans or other "bulk" items were combined (like with like) and put into new clear, air-tight containers. I'd previously bought a bunch of metal canisters but I could never tell what was in them or how much and often bought things I already had because I couldn't be bothered to dig to a back shelf and open canisters to check. The new set-up is definitely an improvement.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4252827445/" title="Kitchen Re-org 2010 by Nikchick, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2801/4252827445_056de718d4_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="Kitchen Re-org 2010" /></a><br /><br />I also put an additional rack in the laundry room (where I'd added two wire storage shelves last year) which nicely hold other dry goods. One of the problems I had with my previous storge "solution" was things in bags (like pasta or beans) were getting lost in the bin system that I'd tried to set up. I moved all the bagged beans and rices to clear jars or plastic storage containers and put bags and boxes of pasta as well as jars and bottles (maple syrup, pasta sauce, various nut butters) on the new laundry room rack. Eventually I expect that will become even more of a true dry goods area. <br /><br />I only uncovered a few things that had gone past their expiration dates due to being pushed back in the pantry (a couple of shelf-stable tofu boxes and some nuts) but I did uncover a surplus of cornmeal, grits, and dried beans. I'll be working to get those supplies down to a reasonable amount now that they've been rediscovered.<br clear="all" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-3024520578941664538?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-122927812288441462010-01-04T02:06:00.000-08:002010-01-04T02:07:55.827-08:00Nikchick's Thinking Organization...must be January.<br /><br />I'm not sure what it is about January that drives me into a re-org frenzy. Nothing to do with it being a new year or resolutions, I think it's more that the holiday season (my birthday, Thanksgiving, Kate's birthday, Christmas, the New Year) brings a bunch of new stuff into the house. Gifts come in, food and drink and other holiday entertaining essentials spring up, decorations are dragged out from the nooks and crannies where they've been stashed all year... and as I look at the new untidiness in the calm after the storm it's organization time.<br /><br />A major relief has been getting the plumber in to finish the work of closing off our heating system from our potable water system. Our super nice plumbers came in and replaced all the piping in the water closet with lovely copper pipes and fittings, stuck a heat exchanged and pressure gauge on the heating side and replaced our ten-year-old water heater with a nice new tankless system. When they pulled out the old expansion tank it was rusted inside and full of water, a sure sign of impending failure, and I was glad to have them take away the water heater while they were at it rather than keep the thing and have to revisit this whole issue again in another few months or a year. The heating system, now that it's closed off and held at a lower pressure, only holds about three gallons of water. In the future, should any leaks spring up they'll be easily discovered because of the pressure gauge and with only a few gallons of water in the system the risk of catastrophic damage is removed.<br /><br />A bonus to having the water heater out of the tiny water closet is that I have a tiny amount of extra storage! It's not much but it's enough to have a place for my brooms, mops, buckets and other small cleaning items, which were previously crowding my already crowded laundry room. (As I discovered when I had to replace my washing machine, the room is just barely big enough to hold a modern washer and dryer and still have room to open the door.)<br /><br />Anyway, despite our decluttering and organizing efforts in 2009, the bottom line is that we still just have too darn much stuff! I've also reached my limit on how much cleaning and organizing I can take on myself. I'm allergic to dust and shirk dusting duties, but that just means the dusting doesn't get done. I spend several months in 2009 nursing a shoulder injury that made things like even drying my hair with a towel, chopping vegetables, or scrubbing pots a painful experience. I got the thumbs up from my physical therapist to go back to normal routine at the end of the year but my first foray into vacuuming the house and scrubbing the bathtubs left me hurting. My loving family does what I ask (most of the time) but we have very few regular, assigned chores and absolutely no schedule. Instead of continuing to try to be supermom who either does it all myself or takes the blame when things don't get done, I've been looking over options for assigning chores and creating a schedule. I have a pile of organizing books and home upkeep books beside the bed. Now that Kate's back from her dad's a family meeting is in our future. I haven't decided exactly how the chores will be divided but we're going to build on the organizational successes of 2009. Here we go!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-12292781228844146?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-71593865800526155402009-12-19T18:37:00.000-08:002009-12-19T18:38:17.699-08:00Christmas Baking 2009, Round 1<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4198330969/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2595/4198330969_216b466bc5_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/4198330969/">Christmas Baking 2009, Round 1</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/nikchick/">Nikchick</a>. </span></div>I did my first round of Christmas baking today. <br /><br />Today's dishes: ginger-wasabi popcorn, fudge sauce, barbecue spice rub, sugarplums, chocolate-filled croissants, apricot rugelach, and chocolate gingerbread bundt cake.<br /><br />Only one of my planned recipes met with disaster, because my oven was running a little hot. Two cookie sheets of mixed spiced nuts ended up burning. They weren't uniformly burned, just enough so that they tasted gross. After sampling I decided to toss them.<br /><br />Oh, I also made some cheddar and chive scones today. Don't like the recipe I used as much as the Cooking Light and America's Test Kitchen recipes for scones I've used in the past but they were satisfying enough with a couple of cups of coffee.<br /><br />I've got cranberries marinating in a simple syrup for tomorrow's two-fer recipe: sugared cranberries, with the bonus of leftover cranberry-infused simple syrup! Must mix up some cocktails with that this holiday.<br clear="all" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-7159386580052615540?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-51545789610082997502009-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:002009-12-14T11:41:52.271-08:00Sweet Dreams and Flying MachinesTomorrow may just be the day when I finally get the plumber into the house to install the heat exchanger and pressure gauge for our defective heating system. We got our settlement in October and have been talking with this plumber for weeks trying to schedule him to come in. I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if we'd actually had to go with the full-on "rip out all the walls and pipes" plan at this point, with the cold weather upon us and scheduling conflicts abounding. Fingers crossed for good news and an effective solution this week!<br /><br />Kate celebrated her 14th birthday this weekend, with a girly sleepover on Friday that dragged well into Saturday afternoon. Red velvet cake was made. I used <a href="http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/10/red-velvet-cake-recipe/">Pinch My Salt's recipe</a> and dirtied about every bowl in the house in the process but managed not to ruin anything in the kitchen with red food coloring. The girls were gleefully using the Domino's online pizza creation tool to create concoctions but Chris talked them into getting their actual pizzas from <a href="http://www.stellarpizza.com/menu.html">Stellar Pizza </a>so they'd be, you know, edible. One Beanie and one Fidalgo Four Cheese later and the girls settled down to watch Star Trek together. One of the girls couldn't stay the night so I drove her home a little after midnight and, aside from having to put a stop to some rough-housing at 1am, the whole thing went off well and Kate was happy. <br /><br />It was poignant for me because I'm all too aware of the changes looming in the future for these girls. Not bad changes at all, just that they're on the road to becoming lovely young adults. The girl who left early had to do so because she needed to spend the weekend working on her high school applications! Some of these girls have known each other since kindergarten but with Seattle's new school boundaries they're all most likely going to different schools by next year. Some are applying to private schools or magnet schools or out-of-district schools because the choices we're presented are difficult or dubious.<br /><br />Kate's got three options under the new school plan. One is a small alternative school that had historically been good but last year was merged into a building with another orphaned program and an existing middle school. Parents complained that the new building didn't have proper science labs for high school science requirements, the building has several million in needed building upgrades that haven't been addressed because of the Seattle budget crisis, etc. There's not even a Nova school webpage anymore, so I don't know what to expect from that program, though it is a natural transition for kids from a school like Orca (250 or so kids, alternative education curriculum).<br /><br />The second option is a new math and science magnet school. This is currently a regular high school in a recently upgraded building. It's the closest HS to our house and currently one of the worst programs in the city (lowest WASL scores... frex, less than 7% of students passing<br />the state's science requirement, highest dropout rate, highest suspension rate, lowest SATs). The new superintendent has decided to remake this school into a <a href="http://www.seattleschools.org/area/stem/index.dxml">School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)</a>. The school will have accelerated math and science "academies" and an extra-long school day to add an additional full period. High focus on math and science with few to no options for electives and extra-curriculars and a school population of 1600 students. Kate is good at math and science and is currently on track to be able to enter HS having completed freshman math but that's all a huge switch from her educational experience up to this point. No idea if it would be a welcome change or a complete disaster for her.<br /><br />The last option is the default high school: a failing high school with about 1500 students where 1/4 of freshman fail to earn the 5 credits necessary to advance, where only 28% meet standard in math and 18% meet standard in science. And, of course, there's also the issue of <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008800988_gangsandschools02m.html">gang problems</a> in the big Seattle high schools. Not exactly high on my list of places to send my child.<br /><br />Of course all of this is what I see through my mom glasses. The kids are only vaguely aware of what lies ahead for them, nervous but excited about high school's opportunities. Four years of high school seems like a long way off and long time to get through when you're 14. When you're 40 and looking back at how fast those 14 years have flown by, being one high school career away from adulthood is more akin to a race car hurtling into the final lap, checkered flag in sight.<br /><br />Speaking of mothers, my mom called Kate for her birthday and then talked to me for a while. She shared the results of some of her recent medical tests and will be needing more surgery in 2010, this time it'll be removing a section of her colon and will be a much bigger deal than the relatively minor sinus surgery. She hasn't talked to the surgeon yet so I don't know what the timeline is. She seems to think that she can put it off until the summer but I told her to let me know what the surgeon actually says. I suppose there's a chance that this will spoil the cruise we're supposed to take with Kate's class in May and, of course, if our experience with her sinus surgery is any indication she's going to need a lot of outside help with her recovery whenever this surgery takes place. I'm steeling myself, as I will inevitably be called up for duty. <br /><br />Nothing to be done about it now, so I'm setting my sights on Christmas and chugging ahead towards the new year. Must decide on a holiday menu since it will be just the three of us for the first time in years.<br /><br /><br type="_moz" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-5154578961008299750?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-64393251580180605872009-12-03T23:32:00.000-08:002009-12-03T23:33:35.136-08:00November Food RecapIt all started around my birthday. I got a great response to my call for birthday recipes and my head was swimming with the possibilities. Chris threw me a delightful brunch with a dozen friends, rich with food and cocktails. In fact, it was Serafina's first day with their new seasonal menu and everything but two Serafina standards was new to me. <br /><br />A few days into my 41st year, I was assaulted by yet another food extravaganza! I choose the word assaulted on purpose because I've never had an experience quite like it. Ray and I went out to <a href="http://www.elementalatgasworks.com/about.html">Elemental @Gasworks</a> which I hadn't even heard of before let alone been to (I'm a bit out of the loop on the hot new high end places these days) but Ray had and thought I would enjoy. I'm glad Ray had been to the restaurant before and warned me a bit about it because it apparently has a bit of a negative reputation with some foodies and I could easily have been put off by the experience if I hadn't been warned in advance. Here's the deal: if you're going to go to Elemental, you'd best be prepared to have the experience wash over you and be willing to go with it. Host and owner Phred Westfall said approximately five sentences to us through the entire multi-course dinner. He offered us a table, asked us if we were ready for a cocktail, asked if we had any food allergies, and um, pretty much nothing else. There was no pretense, no gushing over how the greens were locally sourced or this vintage of wine came from the Yakima region. Nothing. No explanation whatsoever. When a small poultry dish of some sort was set in front of us I actually tried to ask Phred if it was quail or something else... but he dropped the plate and was off again without a word of acknowledgement. Another time I had fallen behind on the wine pairings, to the point that I hadn't even tasted the glass in front of me when he was ready to serve the next course... and there went the wine glass, bye-bye, I don't even get to taste it because it no longer goes with the food in front of me. the lighting was also very dark, so honestly it was hard to see what we were eating! I can really see how this would rub some food-lovers the wrong way!<br /><br />That said, I had a fabulous dinner. The food was EXQUISITE. Yes, many times I was forced to stick my finger in a sauce and say "I think it's mustard... and hazelnut..." or "Yes, there's some sort of fish with this salad... I'm not sure what it is... it's GOOD though." I had the best lamb chops I've ever had in my life, that had me unashamedly gnawing the bones to get every scrap of meat right in a public restaurant. Each course was served with a generous pour of a paired wine and wow, by the time we finished dinner I was a little woozy. I wish I could even remember (or knew to begin with) what I'd eaten! It was lovely and they're clearly very talented, kind of the anti-Herbfarm (where they give you a little menu of what you've eaten as a keepsake). <br /><br />The following week I took advantage of another birthday gift, this one from John and Jenny, who gave me a gift certificate to <a href="http://www.theochocolate.com/">Theo Chocolate</a>. Wednesday night I attended one of their Chocolate University classes, "Chocolate: Exotic and Erotic" where I learned how to make simple chocolate scrubs, lotions, and lip balms in the first half and then listened to a lecturer from <a href="http://www.babeland.com/">Babeland (NSFW)</a> who delved into the erotic and sensual (chocolate lotion, chocolate candles, chocolate body paint, and ahem, more) and was a great presenter, lots of humor. I passed on picking up a "better then chocolate vibrator" but did gluttonously spend the rest of my gift certificate plus some picking up assortments of chocolates (including their collection of scotch-infused chocolates, using great single malts like Oban and Talisker!) and several seasonal varieties plus a couple of body scrubs and lotions from our earlier presenter, whose products I was familiar with already.<br /><br />Rounding out November was Thanksgiving. We spent this Thanksgiving with John and Jenny and their extended family, which was a great deal more fun than staying home just the three of us let me tell you! We participated in the potluck dinner by contributing Kate's favorite <a href="http://www.nikchick.com/2007/11/kates-perfect-pie.html">Pumpkin Pie</a> (which she made herself) plus some <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673004">Wild Rice Stuffing</a>, a cranberry-pear-ginger cobbler (recipe I'll post later) and a <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/11/cranberry_and_vanilla_bean_sorbet">cranberry-vanilla bean sorbet</a> that didn't set up properly in the ice cream maker but was really yummy anyway. We ate SO MUCH, sampling everything we brought, plus turkey, gravy, bread stuffing, brussels sprouts, grean beans, and more. So good, a really nice night.<br /><br />I've bene doing a little more cooking again after a bit of a hiatus where Dragon Age consumed me and pizza, beer, and xbox sounded like the best thing in the world. I'm better now. A couple of the recipes I've been particularly pleased with include <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1940995">Ancho Pork and Hominy Stew</a> and this <a href="http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1906383">Corn, Clam and Mussel Chowder</a>, without the mussels.<br /><br />I've been tinkering again with my website, hoping to find a better way of displaying my recipes for people who want to browse or print them but I'm still unhappy with the way things are so I'll keep limping along with the current format for now, I suppose.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-6439325158018060587?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-7105570288184169652009-11-23T20:58:00.001-08:002009-11-23T20:58:41.412-08:00The weeks roll onFirst off, thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday so great! Getting all the messages with recipes of all stripes from so many of you was like opening up dozens of little birthday presents. I was positively inundated and it was a delight. I'm still deciding exactly how I want to put the birthday book together, so if you still want to send something to me but were afraid it was too late, please do. I'll finalize the book after Christmas sometime, I think.<br /><br />We're still in limbo on the heating issue. I have been exchanging e-mail with a plumber who I hope will come and install a pressure gage and a heat exchanger so we can keep an eye on the system and reduce the chances of anything truly catastrophic happening while we limp through this winter (and try to figure out how to get the additional tens of thousands of dollars a full "rip out all the walls" replacement of the existing system). <br /><br />I swear everything in the house is choosing this time to break down! Not only am I dealing with the heating system BS and coaxing the clothes dryer to limp along for just a while longer but the dishwasher is not getting the dishes clean <em>and</em> it seems to be intermittently leaking. Then his morning when I went to the refrigerator (the refurb fridge I bought a couple years ago when our came-with-the-house fridge died) and the inside was HOT. Not just warm, not "oh, the door didn't get shut all the way" room temp, but hot enough to melt the butter I had on the top shelf. Why? Apparently something broke somewhere and the inside lights were on ALL NIGHT even though the door was closed. The bulbs got so hot they melted the cover of the fixture (which fell off into the fridge) and proceeded to heat up everything else within 10-12 inches. I had to unscrew the bulbs to shut the lights off and they were so blisteringly hot that even working with an oven mitt and (eventually) a leather glove, I still managed to slip and burn a blister on my finger. Lovely way to star the day. Ha.<br /><br />My mother came up for an unexpected visit after my birthday and it was fun to see her. She sat in the kitchen with me, reading over my recipe books and cooking magazines while I turned the last of the summer tomatoes into marinara sauce and whipped up a dinner from The Herbfarm Cookbook (pork tenderloin so good that Kate had seconds, took it in her lunch, and begged me to make it again within the week). She's driving down to Arizona at the end of this week to be around for my grandmother, who is having yet another medical issue (this time multiple lumps in her breast) on top of her heart problems and failing kidneys from the last two near death episodes. Mom wanted me to drive down with her but I just don't have it in me. I hope I don't regret not going. Grandma wrote to tell me she fully expects "another miracle" but every time something new comes up I can't help worrying that this will be the one. Mom promises to keep me informed.<br /><br />Meanwhile Pramas and I have been tag-teaming the several hours a day to research the ins and outs and every minute aspect of Dragon Age: Origins now that it's available for the Xbox. When Chris was working on Box Set 1 for the tabletop game he had access to documents with much of this information in spreadsheet or table form but seeing it all put together and working with the visuals and the game play is a different beast and very inspirational. I'm LOVING the game, it's exactly the sort of game I want. The depth of characters, the richness of the world, the ability to do more than just roam from room to room killing things... I'm a sucker for the writing, the voice acting, the development of the NPCs. I adore the refinements to the relationship system with each Bioware release. I'm finishing up my second run through and already plotting my third. In short, Bioware owns me. Good thing we'll soon have the tabletop game out (it's been out for approvals for a while now and I'm biting my nails to nubs hoping we can get it approved and out to stores before the end of the year!) because I'm smitten with the world and want to explore more. Speaking of, I think my shift is starting any minute now. <a href="http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Ferelden">Fereldon</a> here I come.<br type="_moz" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-710557028818416965?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-41592052554053395042009-11-03T13:23:00.000-08:002009-11-03T14:03:21.522-08:00A Birthday RequestIt's November and that means my annual cycle of introspection has begun. I turn 40 in less than a week and looking around there's a lot of change in the air. I'd hoped to go to Belize, see the Mayan ruins and dive or snorkel on the reefs, take a floating tour through jungle cave complexes. Maybe I'll do that for 45 instead. This year is a close to home year. We put in a patio, bought a grill and some furniture to put on it, built those raised beds I've wanted for years. It was a good substitute. I enjoyed the heck out of that patio this summer.<br /><br />It's also been a strange time for my social group. The couple who were the bedrock of our "chosen family" since Kate was small broke up this year and without them as a central touch point, other peripheral relationships have fallen away. Friends have continued to spin off in other directions, taking jobs in new cities or countries, skipping conventions or other "gamer socials" in favor of time with family. I understand it, I support their decisions... they're the right ones. I still miss them. It's been a year of establishing strange, new equilibriums. <br /><br />One thing that hasn't changed, though I haven't been blogging about it as much this year, is the joy I get from food and cooking. My heart is full of food memories, my head is full of inspirations to make and (high on my success in the new garden beds) grow. I may not have any family jewels to pass on to Kate but I have a treasure trove of tastes and smells and memories in food form, sweet and spicy, simple and decadent, special. <br /><br />So, here we are. My birthday request: for my birthday I'd like a recipe from you. Yes, you. You may not ever comment, may never have admitted that you even read this blog. You and I may not agree on much of anything, may not have spoken in years, may not ever have met outside of the internet... that doesn't matter. In fact, it's precisely the POINT of my request: I may have specific memories of Stan!'s deviled eggs or Linda's crockpot lasagna, the year Catherine and I made that glorious mustard-pickle (the recipe for which I've since lost (SOB)) or the time Christine introduces me to my first bagna cauda but I want to make sure I have a memory of YOU, too. <br /><br />On Sunday I'm having a birthday brunch. Several friends will be there to celebrate with me. Many more, if not most, of the other people I know, interact with, and enjoy will not be there. You game industry friends, far-flung relatives, former co-workers, and people who lurk, hit this blog looking for recipes, send me feedback, or tell me at conventions or parties how much they like something they've found on my blog and made for themselves...you won't be there and that makes my world seem so much smaller than it really is. <br /><br />Please send me a recipe. You can send me an e-mail at nikchick@aol.com, or message me through Livejournal, or Facebook, or Nikchick.com. Maybe it's a recipe that makes you think of me. Maybe it's a recipe that will make me think of you. Something simple, something complex, something you love! I'm going to compile my birthday recipes and get them bound into a book for myself, a keepsake of my time with food and people to this point, something I can use over the next 40 years. That's what I want for my birthday!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-4159205255405339504?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-5182824349609598112009-10-23T14:07:00.001-07:002009-10-23T14:07:57.100-07:00Heating a HouseWhen Pramas and I bought this house we were thrilled to be able to get a newly constructed home in the city and on the transit lines. We're still pretty thrilled with our house, though we have expanded to fill it and sometimes wish for things like a basement for dedicated game space and a spare bedroom that would give us room for guests.<br /><br />The house came with several nifty features such as cable jacks and outlets in every room (not quite as nifty as Tim's full-wired house with the media closet and embedded surround-sound speaker system, but good enough to get cable and internet in any/all rooms of our choosing), a porch and fenced yard, and a "state of the art" and energy efficient <a href="http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12590">hydronic radiant heating system</a>. And, I have to admit that in general our house is easy to heat so I guess it was doing its job.<br /><br />Unfortunately, problems with the hot water system popped up here and there around the development. The SHA's rental properties were among the first to be discovered. There was a bit of a minor scandal when it was discovered that the SHA not only knew about the defective piping used in the building of all our houses but had been fixing those failed systems without bothering to inform the Homeowner's Association or the other property owners. We even got <a href="http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_010308WAB_newholly_water_lead_TP.899e668.html">a little press coverage</a> when the SHA finally disclosed what they knew to the homeowners and we found out that information included knowledge that they'd "found unacceptable levels of lead in drinking water pipes." After much brouhaha and water testing around the development the lead thing was ruled to be an isolated issue (corrected a year before the homeowners even learned of it) but a lawsuit erupted over the defective pipes and the SHA's mishandling of the HOA when they had control.<br /><br />That lawsuit has finally settled and to our initial relief, it seemed that we were going to receive a settlement check to cover the necessary repairs> In fact, we have indeed received a check. Unfortunately for me, after looking at the two operations that are offering "discounted" quotes (basically, a group rate for the 165 or so homes involved) to replace the system, it's clear that this settlement will only barely cover the basics of the work (the actual replacing of the pipes and water heater) and none of the "additional costs" (ripping up the walls, floors, or ceilings to get to the pipes; drywalling; re-flooring if necessary, repainting) not to mention that we would have to vacate our house for about a week. <br /><br />So, I've been looking at other options. Until I hear back from the plumbers, I don't even know if the affected pipes were for heating only or if they're all the same pipes that bring water to the taps throughout the house. If the latter, we're kinda screwed. If we have some leeway, it might be possible to just cap off the "heating" pipes and leave them alone, replace the water heater, and then substitute electric heaters in the walls where the electric blowers for the hydronic system already exist. We don't have any ducts built into the house so central heating (or central air) aren't viable options. I've researched <a href="http://www.washingtonenergy.com/heat-pumps?gclid=CNqH-KOH1J0CFSWlagodHWffqw">heat pumps</a> and <a href="http://www.residential.carrier.com/products/ductfree/index.shtml">ductfree split system air conditioning</a>. Even considered a gas or electric fireplace (though we'd have to seriously reduce the number of bookshelves taking up the walls in the house to do that).<br /><br />We don't typically have to turn on the heat in our house until sometime in November but there's a ticking time bomb in the walls and I don't want to have to face it failing in the middle of January, or during any crazy Snowpocalypse action. If we have to go with replacing the hydronic system with a similar one, the "group pricing" offer we've got in hand from the two plumbers the HOA recruited isn't going to last forever. <br /><br />So. Decisions have to be made. Soon. If anyone knows any good plumbers, HVAC experts, or reasonable and reliable general contractors in our area, I'm taking references and actively investigating my options! Or, if you can think of any other heating options that I haven't mentioned here (as Evan did when he noted that I didn't necessarily have to go with another hydronic system at all) I'd love to hear from you.<br /><br />PS: UGH<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-518282434960959811?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-50706588946772394882009-10-18T10:13:00.000-07:002009-10-18T10:14:44.551-07:00Prortland, the GR Summit, and yet more travelI started to write about my visit to Portland but it turned out to be a little more emotionally taxing than I thought it was going to be. Took me a while to get back to it.<br /><br />Being back in my mom's house is always hard for me. I love my mom but I can't understand her life. I don't understand her relationship with her husband and it is only with the most strenuous effort that I can tolerate him. While my mom was in surgery, he was in the bar. While my mom was propped up with ice packs and pain pills and trying to recover, he was chain smoking 3 feet away. I drove her to and from the hospital, I filled her prescriptions, I brought her soup and ice packs and pain pills. He went out for a morning bender, staggered in so drunk he could hardly stand at noon and started bellowing. My mother actually believed she was going to get up and fix him lunch! Over my dead body, I said. He passed out for a while until his grandson called him up a couple hours later to invite him out for more drinks... so he staggered out for another "toddy". I'm stretched taut by the stress of being around this stuff for an hour, let alone several days. <br /><br />Thankfully I had a couple of breaks in the action and I they really did save my sanity. On third day of the stay, my friend Greg (who used to live just down the street while we were growing up) came by and the two of us went to and end of summer celebration hosted by another childhood friend. There were a dozen or so Canby High alums in attendance, few I'd been close to in school but all of whom were great fun now that we're adults. I had a lovely time, shared good food and drink, and both bitched about (and then forgot about) the situation at my mom's house. <br /><br />My brother returned from a month of doing some doctor-stuff out in New York in the midst of my mom's recovery so he came down to check in on her and the two of us went out for dinner together, meeting up with his awesome girlfriend and her brother for some sushi in Portland proper. Afterward, Chad and Megan and I hung out for a while at her place, talked about their residency applications and their time in Haiti. It was SO nice and how I'd REALLY rather spend my "family time". <br /><br />Not long after recovering from my Portland excursion, we hosted Green Ronin's annual summit out here in Seattle again. This year I felt somewhat subdued, no doubt from the emotional hangover I feel whenever I spend time at my mom's house and around her husband and his spawn. We stuck pretty close to home for our dining breaks: breads and pastries from Columbia City Bakery, pizza and ice cream at Flying Squirrel Pizza, brunch at Verve Wine Bar, lunch at Calamity Jane's and Georgetown Liquor Company. Our meetings were efficient, productive, and on task. Before I knew it, the summit was over, the boys had returned home and I was prepping for the Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore five days later.<br /><br />Normally we let Hal handle the Baltimore summit himself since he's virtually local, being in Alexandria and all. This year I thought we'd have made a long-anticipated announcement and we'd need the extra staff but through a comedy of errors and miscommunication announcements have not been made, demos we thought were not scheduled were scheduled (and then weren't done after all) and the "easy" trip that was supposed to involve me staying on the cheap with my business partner ended up being additionally complicated by Hal's house being without running water (hello hotel!). <br /><br />Those folks who <a href="http://twitter.com/Nikchick">follow me on Twitter</a> were able to follow the travails of my return trip in real time as I shared my frustrations 140 characters at a time. 4:20am pick-up from Shuttle Express, aboard my plane at 6-something, sitting on the tarmac for some hazy time period where I was falling in and out of a doze and wishing the plane would take off already so I could recline my oh-so-"comfy" middle seat. Returning to the gate area around 8am to remove a passenger who claimed to be too ill to travel (though I saw her gathering her things and walking off the plane and she didn't seem to be sick at all) and finally taking off. Arriving for my connection in San Francisco 40 minutes too late to make my connection and finding out that the next (and only) flight to Seattle was 9 hours later. Deciding to take the BART to the city to kill time and have lunch, sitting on the BART while a "police incident" closed the station we were trying to reach. Finally boarding the plane and getting my first class upgrade (yay!) but having to sit next to a douche bag. Luckily, a couple of free beers and a complimentary fruit and cheese plate made up for it. Finally arriving in Seattle, standing at baggage claim for an hour and confirming that my bag was not on the plane with me but had been sent to Las Vegas earlier in the day. Deciding that with the day's luck in mind, I just wasn't up to risking taking the last light rail/bus connection to my house and paying out for the $35 cab ride home. Woo, it's been quite a while since I've had a travel day quite like that.<br /><br />Now I'm home and plan to be here for a while. I can't quite shake this feeling of utter exhaustion. I'm sleeping too much, tired within an hour or two of waking up, nodding off at my computer, falling asleep on the couch at night while trying to watch tv with Chris or Kate. No rest for the weary, however! In addition to catching up on Green Ronin work, I also have to coordinate the repairs to our heating system in the house, hopefully before the actual cold weather comes. The New Holly homeowners finally received a settlement in the lawsuit over the defective pipes used in the heating systems in our homes. We were thrilled at this news because we've been living with the inevitable complete system failure hanging over our heads for years while this lawsuit played out. Unfortunately, it didn't take us long to figure out that the settlement wasn't actually going to be enough to cover the system replacement. Or, rather, that the settlement *could* cover the system replacement, just not all the "incidental" repairs that we'd need to make. See, the pipes and the water heater and so on are covered in the repair estimates but taking out and replacing the walls to get to the pipes (which, with the hydronic heating system, run through all the walls in the house), repainting, re-flooring (if they have to tear up the floors, too) and so on. We're going to have to come up with several thousand dollars in additional funds in order to put our house back together once they're done and the clock is ticking. Nothing like a little extra stress to keep the heart pumping.<br /><br />Three weeks out from my 40th birthday and I'm feeling about 100 years old.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-5070658894677239488?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-35457838417018506922009-09-28T01:20:00.000-07:002009-09-28T01:21:03.560-07:00Summer RecapThe last couple of months have been pretty active for me and I haven't really written about anything overly personal in months. Figure it's about time to mend that.<br /><br />June was Pramas's 40th birthday. I threw him a party, saw a bunch of old friends and had a really nice time. The following week I went to Portland and camped out at an RV park in my mother's RV so Kate could attend <a href="http://www.girlsrockcamp.org/main/">Rock Band Camp for Girls</a>. I videoed Kate's performance from the side of the stage but when I pulled it off the FLIP there was no sound (though there is sound if viewed on the camera) so I've got to figure out what's up with that so I can post the video of her band rockin' out. But I haven't yet. <br /><br />In July I hosted a friend's 13-year-old son for a week. He's a total gamer and within minutes of his arrival he and Kate were talking Star Trek (or was it Star Wars?) and Xbox. We visited the EMP and the Sci-Fi Museum (which had a bonus Jim Henson exhibit going on), visited Starbucks (the kid likes mochas), stopped at Golden Age Collectibles, introduced him to sushi, and culminated with a visit to the Microsoft Game Studio. I tried to organize a visit to Wizards of the Coast but despite a bunch of advanced notice and call-outs to multiple people there we just weren't able to make that happen, but my friends at Microsoft more than made up for it with the tour they gave the kids of the Game Studio. Kate then went on a week-long trip to Hawaii with her dad and Pramas and I hunkered down to get some work done before GenCon.<br /><br />My brother returned from his stint doing <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/3596093680/">medical work in Haiti </a>and suggested that we try to go up to Minnesota together to visit my grandpa (who turned 92 this year) with our dad. I was able to book my GenCon flight through Minneapolis to make this happen and it was a really lovely time. The weather was good, the rest of the family golfed (or followed along in a cart) and I got lots of walking in on the golf courses and great face time with the family. It also took my mind off the fact that <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markosaari/sets/72157621796169759/">Ropecon 2009</a> was going on. Instead I rolled into GenCon feeling as relaxed and happy as I've been in years. Where my brother and I really did not get along as children and I moved in with my dad in 10th grade while he continued to live with my mom, we've grown up and grown into a much happier relationship and I'm really enjoying knowing him as an adult after being either at odds or separated from each other for so many years. Valuable stuff.<br /><br />August gave way to September and PAX here in Seattle. I attended again this year and reconnected with many good friends from the game industry that I don't get to see nearly enough of. I saw good friends who have moved away for computer jobs and pen-and-paper designers who otherwise don't have reason to visit Seattle. My most popular friends were hard or impossible to track down or only able to speak to us in passing and I left wishing the event had been a couple of days longer so I could have seen more but for me this year was totally about the people and largely not about the content of the event. Sadly, I was also one of the <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/9/7/feeling-sick/">hundreds of people who caught the "PAXflu"</a> and lost more than a week to laying around the house coughing, sniffling, and napping feverishly. I got over the worst of it just in time to head down to Portland to help my mom out as she underwent and recovered from nasal surgery. Even now I still have a very slight cough that pops up and it's been three weeks since the onset of my symptoms. Tomorrow I'll write up that trip in more detail.<br /><br />That brings us to the beginning of Fall. Kate started back to school for her eighth grade year while I was down with the flu, her last year at Orca. Pramas and I will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary in a couple of days, the bronze anniversary Google tells me. This weekend is the annual Green Ronin summit and the bulk of the boys will be arriving over the course of the day Thursday. The following weekend is the Diamond/Alliance open house in Baltimore which I'll be traveling to this year and by the time I finish that we'll be well into October and less than a month out from my 40th birthday. This is the year that FIVE of the Green Ronins turned 40 with me closing out the pack as the last of the year. It's also a year that has me feeling like a stone skipping across a pond, spinning along with an external momentum and only briefly coming into contact with the real "surface" of my life.<br /><br />More later, for now I must sleep.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-3545783841701850692?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-76662590755316698602009-09-07T21:19:00.001-07:002009-09-07T21:19:48.305-07:00Favorite PAX MomentI tried to deplague-ify myself through diligent hand washing, applications of sanitizer, and I didn't share my controllers or lick any banisters but I still managed to come home with some sort of PAX plague that has settled into my chest over the course of today. So, my PAX report is going to take the form of sharing my single favorite PAX moment by way of Youtube.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/38-E1dAJ9vo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/38-E1dAJ9vo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Kate and I were at this show (stayed through all three Coulton encores) and saw this thing go down live. Knowing what a sincerely nice guy he is, we were both absolutely thrilled to have the chance to watch this unfold. Kate stood right beside me through the whole show, clapping and singing along, and SQUEEEED with genuine 13-year-old girly delight to see her friend, Wil Wheaton, being treated to something as cool as being serenaded by Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, and Molly. As you can see in the video, Wil felt the same way.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-7666259075531669860?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-11595501105437201572009-08-27T10:57:00.000-07:002009-08-27T10:58:08.679-07:00Table for 15<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/3861949823/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3861949823_aeacb37122_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikchick/3861949823/">Table for 15</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/nikchick/">Nikchick</a>. </span></div>Last night we had the pleasure of dinner with some friends of Chris's from high school. Elizabeth and Geoff live in Seattle with their blended family (her son and daughter plus his three sons). Elizabeth's sister was in visiting from Boston and another Boston to Seattle transplant plus the Lindroos-Pramas-Freins brought the party up to six adults and nine kids (mostly boys). <br /><br />Dinner was a gigantic feast of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_crab">Dungeness crab</a>, cooked in perhaps the biggest pot I've ever seen in a home kitchen, plus corn, cornbread, a summer salad packed with seasonal vegetables, slabs of watermelon, and plum tarts with ice cream. <br /><br />Very few of the kids had eaten crab before and Geoff was enthusiastic about introducing them to a real crab feast. Kate, a burgeoning near-vegetarian, was a little queasy about the crab but gamely tried it and then filled up on corn bread and watermelon (which is what I would have predicted). She's trying to expand her food horizons and challenge her palate but she has a hard time with fish and "sea bugs". <br /><br />As the night crept on and the adults lingered first over wine and then over dessert and coffee, the youngest children started to drop in place, curling up with pillows and under chairs to stay close to the action until they just couldn't keep their eyes open any longer. Meanwhile, several of the boys (including at times both dads) stepped over to an adjoining room that was packed with musical instruments and began jamming. They were FANTASTIC. I tried to get some video of the moment but my phone video was too dark and really couldn't capture the energy and skill of the group. At one point Geoff and his step-daughter were swing dancing while the boys jammed but I was too slow to capture the moment with my phoen (and didn't have my real cameras with me). Kate, an only child, the oldest child there and a girl out-numbered, played a card game with some of the younger kids and then stuck close to the adults as has always been her way. <br /><br />It was glorious chaos and good for the soul. I had a marvelous time.<br clear="all" /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-1159550110543720157?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-4731112117216466752009-08-26T00:56:00.000-07:002009-08-26T00:58:24.158-07:00RIP Ted KennedyI am so terribly sad about Ted Kennedy's death from brain cancer. <br /><br />I have a friend who can't forgive Ted for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident">Chappaquiddick</a>.<br /><br />To me, Chappaquiddick is something that happened before I was born. Ted Kennedy, who had two brothers ASSASSINATED, developed an alcohol problem and had a tragic car accident because of it? Color me shocked... shocked, I tell you.<br /><br />Believe me, if Kate was killed in a stupid, tragic alcohol/drug-related car accident, I'd be upset. I'd be REALLY upset. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the guy involved in the accident was "devil incarnate" or an "irredeemable bastard." My position is that Ted Kennedy has done enough for the United States of America to redeem himself on that. He cleaned up, eventually, and frankly, until you or I have TWO brothers BRUTALLY MURDERED, I refuse to pretend to pass judgment. <br /><br />Ted Kennedy reflected and supported my values in Congress. We needed him and he took up that burden for us. I know "conservatives" hate him, I know there are people who can't get over his liberal politics or his privilege or his flaws. I'm unconcerned by those issues where he is concerned. To me, he will always be "The Lion of the Senate." I can say without any cynicism or sarcasm, I appreciate the role he played in passing important legislation such as the <a href="http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm">COBRA</a> Act, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Anti-Apartheid_Act">Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act</a>, the <a href="http://www.ada.gov/">Americans with Disabilities Act</a>, the <a href="http://hab.hrsa.gov/">Ryan White AIDS Care Act</a>, the <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/cra91.html">Civil Rights Act of 1991</a>, the <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/">Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act</a>, the <a href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/healthinsreformforconsume/04_thementalhealthparityact.asp">Mental Health Parity Act</a> in 1996 and 2008, the <a href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/chip.asp">State Children's Health Insurance Program</a>.<br /><br />Rest, Ted. So sorry to hear that your life has been cut short, because despite your long career I do believe that you had much more to give and many more crazy Republican crap to defend us from. I hope someone will give us their all the way you did, I long to find some progressive who was raised to believe in the obligation we all have to service. But as far as I'm concerned, you've paid your debt through public service. I intend no disrespect to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jo_Kopechne">Mary Jo Kopechne</a> by this. <br /><br />Thank you, Ted.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-473111211721646675?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-25206321845038530702009-07-14T13:24:00.000-07:002009-07-14T13:25:22.420-07:00I used to be a bloggerThere was a time when I happily blogged about things and shared rants, recipes and random trivia with people through the internet. After taking a long break and trying to get back to it, I'm not having much luck. <br /><br />There was a time when I would have written up a passionate rant trying to convince people to join me in this or that fight against injustice. Today I'm keeping that kind of thing more to myself, I guess. However, Colin McComb's recent link to a Bill Moyers interview with Wendall Potter (a former health insurance exec at Cigna) did manage to get the ol' blood pumping again enough to at least post a link here as well. Americans, read this and demand change! Non-Americans, read this and fight tooth and nail to keep it from happening where you live. Don't just excerpt, go slog through the full transcript. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/transcript2.html">WENDELL POTTER: The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you're heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-2520632184503853070?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-55687756980280428962009-06-16T17:06:00.000-07:002009-06-16T17:07:37.124-07:00Cooking for the Pramas PartyUnbeknownst to Pramas, I was plotting his birthday party for a couple of months before it happened. It all started with me beguiling him into agreeing to put our Belize money into a patio. I wasted no time in getting that started because my secret plan was to have it done in time for a birthday barbecue. Fortune favored me on that and I was able to get a company to come out and do the patio in pavers for what it would have cost me for a concrete pour (taking advantage of a company that had just the right number of pavers left over from a bigger job). Then, I got a great deal on a grill during a Memorial Day sale and was able to do a lot of landscaping improvements while Chris was away at Enfilade and Book Expo.<br /><br />Luckily for me, Chris is used to my compulsion to make sure all guests are well fed and while he did think I was going a little overboard for a barbecue with half a dozen people, he put up very little resistence, even getting the extra chairs out of the attic "just to be safe". <br /><br />Even though I was expecting up to a dozen more people to show up, we had plenty of guests, including friends from San Francisco and Vancouver, BC who made it over. The surprise kept rolling as people kept arriving over the first three hours of the party. <br /><br />I didn't get as far into the last minute cooking as I'd wanted because I misplaced my big pasta bowl which was the only bowl that would fit the pesto pasta dish I'd made and left me running around with things half completed when people started arriving in numbers. I managed to get out some chips, Pramas's famous hummus, fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, cherries, strawberries... I still have a pineapple left, which I might try grilling up for game night), <a href="http://www.maria-brazil.org/brazilian_heartsofpalm_salad.htm">Salada de palmito</a>, where I substituted fig-balsamic vinegar instead of using red wine vinegar, <a href="http://nikchick.com/recipes/pesto_pasta.htm">pesto pasta</a>, a full spread of cheese and salumi salami with some of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/dining/041mrex-web.html?_r=1&ref=dining">Mark Bittman's Parmesan cream crackers</a> and <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/crisp-rosemary-flatbread/">Smitten Kitchen's rosemary flatbread</a>, a couple of different types of tofu on skewers for our vegetarian guests, <a href="http://www.nikchick.com/recipes/pulled_pork.html">North Carolina-style Pulled Pork</a>, hamburgers and sausages from Columbia City's own Bob's Quality Meats on buns from Columbia City Bakery. (I also couldn't resist a loaf of their whiskey cake with espresso glaze, which we never even got around to slicing.) I also baked two <a href="http://www.nikchick.com/recipes/Guinness_Cake.html">Guinness Chocolate Cakes</a>. Believe it or not, I had originally intended to have another salad (Avocado and Belgian endive), fresh salsa (Salsa Criolla), and chicken satays with homemade peanut sauce and some homemade ice cream but I flat ran out of time on those. Game night should certainly benefit from remainders this week!<br /><br />It's taken me a couple of days to feel recovered after the last push on getting the house, yard, and food set up to my liking for the party but I'm definitely feeling in the swing of cooking again if nothing else.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-5568775698028042896?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4137598.post-39715329600023839872009-06-10T21:56:00.001-07:002009-06-10T21:56:53.325-07:00Cooking and eatingI've been getting back in the swing of cooking around here again but not back in the swing of blogging about it. During my recent silent period I did a bunch of work in the back yard of the house, including finally putting in those raised beds that I've been talking about installing in the side yard for years now. I've got tomatoes, peppers, winter squash, basil (sweet and Thai), and several other herbs, doing really well. The strawberries are unhappy, the onions were looking pretty sad even before I got them in the ground. Jury is still out on the beans and peas. I'm still hoping to see some sunflowers and wildflowers from the seeds I spread. <br /><br />The other night I cooked up a couple of halibut cheeks wrapped in prosciutto (inspired by Cook Local's <a href="http://www.cooklocal.com/?p=986">Prosciutto wrapped halibut with asparagus sauce</a> and then grilled, along with scallops with basil (from the garden!) also wrapped in prosciutto that came out pretty well. I've been keeping a steady stream of asparagus in the house from the farmer's market and just loving it. The farmer's market has been a great source of inspiration lately, full of strawberries, rhubarb, great bunches of mint, spring onions, amazing tomatoes, Columbia City Bakery's baked goods, and lovely rarities like <a href="http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-use-kohlrabi.html">kohlrabi</a> and <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-sunchoke.htm">sunchokes</a>. I also baked <a href="http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/2009/06/raspberry-rhubarb-pie-with-chai-oatmeal.html">Blondie and Brownie's fabulous raspberry-rhubarb pie</a> though I used about half as much of the chai-oatmeal crumble topping as called for and might cut it back even further in the future, I've been on the Cooking Light minimalist-style of pie baking for too long, I guess. <br /><br />Speaking of Cooking Light, it remains my go to for excellent, good-for-you recipes but I have been branching out a bit. After many years of almost but not quite getting a grill, I finally have one and the weather's been cooperating so I've been going through Steven Raichlen's books for recipes and techniques, or doing a little more experimenting via new-to-me food blogs. I also have a bit of a food crush going on for <a href="http://www.eatingwell.com">Eating Well</a> magazine right now. Picked it up on a whim and was pleased to note their nutrition and health advisory board includes people like <a href="http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Marion_Nestle">Marion Nestle</a> (author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520224655?tag=steinhardt-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0520224655&adid=1Y3A1M9X9BWRMAKEJ5D6&">Food Politics</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520232925?tag=steinhardt-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0520232925&adid=1K4FS15P574Z27BMWYPC&">Safe Food</a>) and <a href="http://aem.cornell.edu/faculty_content/wansink.htm">Brian Wansink</a> (currently the Executive Director at the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mindless-Eating-More-Than-Think/dp/0553384481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244695426&sr=1-1">Mindless Eating</a>). The rest of their advisory board members are similarly prominent nutrition scientists, professors, and researchers but Nestle and Wansink jumped out at me in particular because I just finished reading Michael Pollan's <a href="http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php">In Defense of Food</a> which quotes both Nestle and Wansink; I read Wansink's book last year myself.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm interested in the sorts of things that are appearing in Eating Well at the moment and it's a fresh take on food and nutrition that I really appreciate. My current favorite recipe is their Huevos Rancheros Verdes, which I've been making for a couple of weeks now. Dead easy and everyone in the family likes it! I'll post it below. Give it a try, if you like it you might like the rest of Eating Well Magazine, too.<br /><br />Heuvos Rancheros Verdes<br />Eating Well Magazine May/June 2009<br /><br />1 1/2 cups very thinly sliced romaine lettuce<br />1 scallion, sliced<br />2 tablespoons fresh cilantro<br />3 teaspoons canola oil<br />2 teaspoons lime juice<br />1/4 teaspoon salt<br />1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper<br />1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed<br />1/2 cup salsa verde<br />8 6-inch corn tortillas<br />3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese<br />4 large eggs<br /><br />Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.<br /><br />Combine lettuce, scallion, cilantro, 1 tsp. oil, lime juice, 1/8 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper in a bowl. Set aside. Combine beans and salsa in another bowl. <br /><br />Coat both sides of each tortilla with cooking spray. Place tortillas on a large backing sheet in four sets of overlapping pairs. Each pair should overlap by about 3 inches. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the bean mixture over each pair of tortillas and sprinkle with 3 tbsp. cheese each. Bake until the beans are hot and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. <br /><br />Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Crack each egg into a small bowl and slip them one at a time into the pan, taking care not to break the yolks. Season the eggs with remaining 1/8 tsp. salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook undisturbed 5 to 7 minutes for soft-set yolks. For hard-set yolks, cover the pan after 5 minutes and continue cooking until yolks are cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes more.<br /><br />To assemble, place an egg on top of each pair of tortillas and top with a generous 1/4 cup of the lettuce mixture.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4137598-3971532960002383987?l=www.nikchick.com' alt='' /></div>Nikchickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04499596141296630392noreply@blogger.com0