WOW! Good Movie!

I know most of you out there have probably seen this film already, it won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. I just stumbled upon it late tonight while matching socks. Never got around to matching the socks because this film had me glued to the screen every minute! (Not only because it had subtitles, but really because it was so intriguing!)

If I were Uma Thurman in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, this would get two very big thumbs up!

Little Bites-o-Bliss!

Here's a little teaser to get your taste buds tingling! Petite Lemon Cheesecakes drizzled with that Lemon Sauce I shared with y'all a few blogs ago. They're baked on a lemon shortbread crust to boot! Is your mouth watering yet? Lips puckerin' up a bit yet? These are just dandy with a light white wine on an early spring day. Yep, just thinkin' more about the weather around the corner. As soon as we get the above 32 degree days, we'll start collecting the maple sap out back - I'll share stories and photos as the sugar-bushing takes place this year. It all started with a renovation in our home and some scrap chimney pieces. Stay tuned.

Snow Rot of the Mind and Body

First let me say, I LOVE WINTER AND SNOW!!! Really, I do! This is our backyard today, isn't it winter beautiful?!

Yeah, I thought so too, about two months ago. However, around this time of year - every year - in the Midwest, we all get what I would call 'snow rot of the mind and body', which is then followed in late March by 'mud rot of the mind and body'. This ailment is so real that about half of the retirees in the Midwest head south to avoid being inflicted with this syndrome. But for the young, poor folk like us, we have to stay and keep the place running while they're gone so that it can still be here for them in May when they all start coming back home with their nicely tanned bodies, seafood indulged appetites, and relaxed states of mind.
Snow rot of the mind and body has many symptoms; pale, lefse looking skin; dried out dull hair; a glazed look in the eyes or sometimes a crazed look in the eyes in more severe cases; shortness of temper; perpetually cold toes and bones; a hatred of weather forecasts for winter storms; a strong craving for sweets of any kind; the instinctual need for a nap in a tanning bed or in front of any bright light; dry, calloused heels from over use of winter boots and wool socks; outer garments that are dirty and smelly and in great need of washing; sore noses from long, drawn out colds; cabin fever; and a true hatred of the pot roast dinner.
Many of the same symptoms can be found on the family vehicle this time of year, too! Of course, the family vehicle doesn't hate pot roast dinners, but it now smells like one that has sat out for a few days. That is caused in large part by the kids and dogs that get in the car with wet, muddy, stinky boots/feet that then melt into the upholstery of the van. Smells just like an old pot roast. You don't find that scent on those air fresheners hanging from the mirror!
We're in need of some GREEN around here, soon! For now, I just walk around my living room in a dazed, crazed state and take in the spring green of my houseplants - it's the closest I can get to fresh green without the purchase of a plane ticket or taking off on a very long car ride or breaking into the local greenhouse.

Yoga Schmoga

Well, another week of yoga and I'm feeling better already! Of course, my gluteus maximus muscles aren't cooperating with the new poses she put us in this week, but they'll adjust in time. I just hope these new poses don't make those muscles any bigger! (see previous blog about the Butt Sisters) The weather has finally warmed up here in Iowa, all the way up to 10 degrees! So balmy I decided I could finally get my dog out for a walk again. I've been inside for about two hours now and I think my cheeks are finally starting to have feeling again. Kids are home, gotta run!

Yoga Ain't for Sissies! So Why Am I Cryin'?

Today was my first day back to yoga class in two weeks, and for the last six days I haven't gotten my daily 4-mile hike in either because of that nasty head cold. All I can say is, OUCH!!!! All of my muscles were screaming in pain. Our instructor always says, "Now, relax your eyes, your throat, your tongue . . ." I'm thinking, 'how the heck are you supposed to accomplish that when your kidneys are twisted, your collar bones are stretched, your spine is lengthening, your thighs are screaming, your upper arms are turned out, and even your toes hurt?!' The pose shown above, I kid you not, is a new one we learned today and this is exactly how I felt as I tried to get into it. As soon as we got to this step, we then had to lift our arms straight out to our toes and hold it there, while at the same time trying to "pull our lower ribs down, push our upper ribs out, find our sitting bones, push with our heals, spread our toes, and of course . . . relax your eyes, your throat, your tongue" Yeah. Right. I felt like a Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down. Then it was on to our standing poses. God have mercy on us! Try bending over sideways, then lifting one leg at a 90 degree angle out from the other leg into the air so that you are now balancing on just one straight leg and the fingertips of one hand to hold you up with the other hand/arm pointing to the ceiling and the torso/head perpendicular to the standing leg - with a head full of gunk from a bad cold making your balance terrible in the first place! I swear half the women in the room today had the same head cold, there were bodies falling left and right. It humbles one quickly. Our instructor has been teaching/practicing yoga for over 25 years now and she is simply not human. She can manipulate her body into the most difficult poses, quickly, and talk to us calmly while doing them all! She's incredible, she's tiny, she's strong, she's a good friend of mine and truly a wonderful human being, but she challenges us to push ourselves, hard, and there are times I'd like to push her, hard, right out the door and into a snow drift! (I DO LOVE YOU MBG!!) We resemble the Grecian Urn ladies from the Music Man! But give us a few years, we'll be doing those hard poses someday! Until that day, we'll keep weeble wobblin'!

Another cold, snowy day and this is how I feel about it.

The temperatures are up to about 10 degrees now, a lot warmer than earlier this week! After the kids got on the bus for school, I popped in 4 cheesecakes (2 lemon, 1 New York, and 1 Chocolate Chip - all organic!) and then wanted to head back to bed to sleep off this stupid head cold, but no, the driveway was calling me, by name, "Hey, lazy sick mom, get out here and clear me off, NOW!" So, I took a couple of high strength cold meds and headed out to tackle the newly fallen 5-inches of snow. Tried to start the snowblower, wouldn't start. Tried again, no luck. Finally called hubby, my last resort. He forgot to tell me about the very little, teeny, tiny button on top that looks more like a screw cap than a starter button. Yup, it started right up! I let it run for a bit before engaging the auger, as hubby suggested. Then, clamped down on the auger handle and the drive handle. It self-propelled just fine and took me with it across the driveway at a speed I wasn't quite ready for, but with no auger action. So in effect, it just pushed a bunch of snow across the driveway but didn't "blow" it up, up and away like it is supposed to do. Turned it off again so that I could again call hubby and hear him on my cell phone. "Hey honey, the @$#@%#! auger won't turn when I engage the handle, what the @#@%$# is up with that?" "Well," he says, "someone must have put it away full of snow the last time it was used and it is now frozen around the blade. Just get a stick and knock it out of there." Uh-huh, a stick. We've got at least a foot and a half of hard snow on the ground and he wants me to find a stick. I rummage through the garage and find a piece of kindling in the bottom of a broken plastic tub. I start poking around the back blade and sure enough, there's a 1/2 inch little teeny piece of ice sitting against one of the blades. A quick tap and . . . it doesn't budge. Another quick knock with the stick . . . nothing. For God's sake, it's a 1/2 inch piece of ice, how hard could it be? Now I'm whacking at that thing with all I've got and it finally flies off, straight at my face. Luckily, it hit my sunglasses, no emergency room visit today. Went back to start it again, engaged the auger, FINALLY! It works! About halfway into snowplowing my long driveway, the cold meds decide to kick in. DO NOT OPERATE HEAVY EQUIPMENT came to mind. I started getting a bit clumsy and lightheaded at this point. It took me a long time to navigate my way around the drive, slipping on the ice a few times, and trying to remember to move the 'shoot' to blow the snow away from me and with the wind. Several times I basically blew the snow up into the air where the wind got a hold of it and showered it straight back down on top of me. By the time I came inside, there was as much snow on me as there was on the trees that line our drive. Word to the wise, strong cold meds and snow blowers do not mix well.

Slower than . . .

. . . molasses in January (or February as is the case today!) Well, remember yesterday's lemon sauce? I had a lot left over from the lemon cheesecake someone ordered for pick-up today, so what was I to do? Bake Gingerbread of course! As I type this blog entry it's in the oven, almost done, filling the air around me with the aroma of hot ginger and cinnamon. The view outside is of wind and cold and ice and below zero temps, but the house is around 72 from the wood stove and smells sooooooooo good! We'll be heading over to my brother's later for some games of 500 and to eat their veggie/seafood stew and top it off with this gingerbread smothered in the lemon sauce. What a great Sunday evening. I plan on being home by 8 though, Pride & Prejudice is on public television tonight! By the way, 'full flavor Brer Rabbit' is the best dark molasses I've found, so far, for my gingerbread - let me know if you have another favorite!


Gingerbread
grease and flour a 9x13, set oven to 325
Mix thoroughly, but do not beat;
1/2 cup Crisco
2 T sugar
1 large egg

Blend in:
1 cup dark molasses
1 cup boiling water

Sift then add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
1 t ginger
1 t cinnamon

Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until done in the center. Top with lemon sauce (below) or whipped cream. In a pinch, I made the lemon sauce with clemetines instead and it was devine!

LEMONY BLISS! Man the house smells good right now!

This is one of my favorite sweet treats in the whole wide world - Old Fashioned Lemon Sauce. Although simple in ingredients, it adds a decadent touch to any dessert whether it be gingerbread cake, New York cheesecake, or a freshly baked currant scone. Enjoy!

Old Fashioned Lemon Sauce
1/2 cup butter, salted
1 cup sugar
3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
zest of one lemon
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup water mixed with 1 T cornstarch

Mix all over heat in small saucepan. Slowly bring to low boil and cook until thickened. Pour through a strainer and let cool to room temperature. Serve warm over gingerbread cake or store in your refrigerator up to 1 week. I top my Lemon Cheesecake with a layer of this wonderfully splendid sauce and then drizzle each serving with just a little bit more. When served warm with gingerbread cake, the cake soaks up the warm sauce so that every bite of cake is saturated with lemony bliss .

Guys and Fire

Here are my boys on a recent day of deer hunting with their Dad. You can just see the testosterone billowing up around them, can't you? What could be better? They've got their camo-gear on, their rifles, a campfire started, out in the middle of the woods hunting for deer, squirrel, or whatever else moves. On this particular day, they had to settle for target shooting at cardboard across the valley, there wasn't a creature to be found. If these two and their Dad had their way, they'd live like this year round. This trio cannot go into the woods, anywhere, without eventually building a fire. They are all pyromaniacs, always have been.

Success! Blue Agave is a Keeper!

The Blue Agave Cheesecake turned out great! It's got a slightly looser texture than my usual cheesecakes, but still a smoothness to it. Just the right amount of sweetness, and a slightly deeper flavor and color. I actually love the darker color of the baked cheesecake, almost a light caramel, it's beautiful! This cheesecake includes locally raised free-range eggs, organic graham crust, organic cream cheese, and organic sour cream. It tastes FANTASTIC! (especially with this glossy, rich homemade fudge sauce drizzled over it!) I substituted 1 cup of Organic Raw Blue Agave for 1 cup of sugar. These cakes also took an additional 20 minutes at 200 degrees to finally set before the slow cool down period of 3 hours in the 'off' oven.


And here is a photo of the plain Blue Agave New York Cheesecake, also excellent in taste! You can see the deeper caramel color here. (Recipe follows.)


For one 7" cheesecake. Combine 1/2 cup organic grahams (crushed) and 3-4 T melted organic butter and press into the bottom of a 7" springform pan. Set aside.

For the filling: Cream 16 oz. organic cream cheese with 3/4 cup agave (both should be at room temp.) Slowly add 2 beaten eggs. Beat until smooth. Add 1/2 cup organic sour cream, 2 t. cornstarch, 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat all until very smooth.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, reduce to 200 degrees and bake for 30-40 minutes or until 'set'. Turn off the oven and let sit for three hours or until room temperature. Refrigerate until firm. Pop out of springform and serve with fresh organic berries or homemade fudge sauce of your choice. ENJOY!

Cheesecake Report!

Today was a baking day at the Cheesecake Maven's hangout. I'm experimenting with using some alternative, natural sweeteners and more organic ingredients. Ever heard of Organic Raw Blue Agave? Well, I've used it as a sweetener for coffee and tea before, but had never thought to try it in a cheesecake. Agave is a natural sweetener extracted from the heart of the Blue Agave plant. It's produced at low temperatures and has a very full, sweet flavor, with just a hint of a molasses flavor. It has a low glycemic index (GI) so it is slowly absorbed into the body, so you don't get those spikes in blood sugar. I substituted 1 cup of agave for 1 cup of sugar in the recipe and added one extra egg white to absorb the liquid from the agave. Well, the proof will be in the pudding, or should I say 'in the cheesecake'! I'll let you all know how it works.

I'm switching all of my cheesecake ingredients over to organic whenever possible. Of course, this will mean an increase in the cost per cake, but just think how much healthier you'll feel! You can now eat a piece of cheesecake without all that guilt about it! (Well, you can eliminate some of the guilt anyway!)

Stay tuned for the next Cheesecake Report when we find out - Does Blue Agave make the cut or should we leave it for the birds?

Peanut Chickpea Soup - Another Favorite!

This is one of my favorite soups to make during these winter months in Iowa. It goes well with freshly baked, black pepper cornbread.

Peanut Chickpea Soup
2-3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion - diced
1 sweet potato - diced
2 cloves garlic - minced

Brown the above until tender.
Add:
8 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. cumin
1 cup uncooked brown rice

Boil, cover and simmer until rice is cooked.
Add:
3 cups salsa or a 16 oz. jar of ready made salsa
3 cups chickpeas (2 cans)
1 diced zucchini

Cook until tender.
Add:
2/3 cup peanut butter

Serve with cornbread and a dollop of sour cream (opt).

You can spice this soup up with your favorite hot sauce or chipotle powder!

Hormones and Walking Tacos

I spent the entire day on Saturday down at the high school for the state speech contest.

Translation: I endured nine full hours with hundreds, if not thousands, of hormonal young thespians with lots of hair, make-up, costumes, teddy bears, good-luck pillows with strange pillow cases, Oh My God!, like, can you believe we got a II rating from that judge, where's my carpeted cube for the show, let's all go to the bathroom at the same time, walking-taco and brownie lunches followed by lots of high sugared sodas, doting parents with their own strange habits but just most of all tired from the drive over on the bus with their kids, berry-flavored lip gloss galore, and more skin-tight v-neck long thin layered shirts over push-up bras that render all the young co-eds drones of each other speech contest.

My job?
To man (woman? mom?) the admissions table for the first two hours of the competition.

Translation: Sit in the entryway of the high school on a hard, cold folding chair about 10 feet from the double set of double doors on a near zero degree snowy day that are constantly held open by arriving gaggles of the above mentioned high energy thespians escorted in by their coaches, their parents, their grandparents, and their siblings, and strange transients from the streets just curious to see 'what the heck is goin' on at the school today', and trying to figure out which ones have to pay the $3 entry free (spectators only) and hearing the complaints about having to pay to watch their little angels perform variations of "Barbie in Barbie's Dream House" or "Repunzel - Uncut".

True, I had grown men and women, moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas complaining of having to pay $3 to get into the competition to watch their loved ones. It's a FUNDRAISER PEOPLE! It's a simple concept. You pay so that we can afford to sponsor the show in which your little wonders are performing their hearts out. (If I ever have to sit through 20 hormonal speech students singing Amazing Grace in honor of our troops in the "Hero" sketch again while awkwardly jumping about on the stage in their superhero t-shirts, black pants, and socks again - just shoot me now.)

Now, this is not to say there wasn't some great talent to be found! Several of the groups were simply outstanding and VERY enjoyable to watch. I'm sure they'll do well in life from this experience.

Spending the day at speech contest also meant that my dining options were a bit limited. My choices included; pizza, brownies, nachos with cheese, pretzels with cheese, taco-in-a-bag also infamously referred to as the 'walking taco', scotcheroos, sodas, bad weak coffee with powdered creamer that has been in a box in the concession stand for decades, and grape slushies. Hmmmmm, such gastronomical delights from which to choose! I settled for a pretzel with cheese sauce, (cheese sauce is a very loosely used term here, I'm not sure exactly what is in that stuff but the shelf life is the same as the powdered creamer packets, millenniums.)

My volunteer post for the afternoon session was the "speech t-shirt sales" room.

Translation: Room #107 was the very room in which I learned how to type and write the proper business letter from Mr. P, who is still teaching in that same room! And the room hasn't changed all that much. There's still a myriad of track and football trophies lining the shelves near the top of the walls, photos of football players lined up along the top of the obsolete chalkboard on the side wall, and no other sign of intelligent life in the room to be found, bar the quickly scribbled assignment for the students in the small corner of the dry erase board at the front of the room, 'pgs 4-8, q 1-10'. Because I was working the afternoon shift, the pickings were slim for t-shirt sizes by that time. There were about 20 XL shirts in powder blue and about 8 XL shirts in gray/black remaining. The XL shirts simply do not lend themselves well to the "tight as a Ziploc sandwich bag on a full batch of playdough" look these kids are going for today. No, those XL jerseys were not tight enough for these kids. "You could just take the side seams in about 3 inches" I suggested. HORROR! Sheer HORROR! Sew? Are you kidding? Who sews anymore? Yes, I showed my true colors as the geeky volunteer mom at that point. Thank God my own son wasn't in the room at this moment of pure humiliation. Well, I could've suggested that if they just keep up with the soda and walking taco routine, they'll be just fine with that shirt in a few short months! But I didn't. I just sat and watched the drama unfold and thought . . . this show deserves an I-rating. You can't find higher drama than watching these groups of teens try to decide which shirt in which size would be best for them, the drama increased 10-fold if their own parents were involved in the t-shirt decision.

Needless to say, I consumed two bottles of wine with friends that night over a good game of 500 and laughter. Life is fine, the kids did well, and I won't have to eat another tub-o-cheese until the next captive school volunteer opportunity for all the sucker parents who can't say 'NO'.

Translation: Add another star to the crown!

The List of Fours Challenge

Four jobs I have had in my life
1. Fareway grocery cashier
2. Deli manager and soup/pastry cook
3. Iowa D.O.T. aggregate inspector (yup!)
4. Marketing director at UI Alumni Assoc.

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Steel Magnolia's
2. Love Actually, thanks MG!
3. The Prestige
4. The Matchmaker

Four places I have lived:
1. Decorah, Iowa
2. 'Mosquito Flats' in Iowa City, DURING the floods of '93
3. Auburn, Alabama
4. Birmingham, Alabama

Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. Myth Busters
2. various things on the History Channel
(sorry, that is about it, we just don't watch TV)

Four Places I have been:
1. St. Petersburg, Russia
2. Helsinki, Finland
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Oslo, Norway

Four of my favorite foods (only four?!):
1. sushi, high quality or not, you get desparate in small towns! (Can't wait to join you for sushi sometime MG!)
2. sour cream and onion Lays chips with 'tator topping'
3. sweet Indian carrots or Indian rice pudding
4. clementines

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. on a vacation, anywhere, with my family
2. in a movie theatre watching a great flick with a huge tub-o-corn!
3. visiting my friends in Alabama
4. out for a long, exhilarating walk with dog Lilly

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. losing the last 15 lbs!
2. all the new books I'll read
3. contentment (only after number 1 above)
4. making new friendships and nurturing the ones I've got

That was fun Melinda June, let's play again sometime!

GET THE STRAIGHTJACKET BACK OUT!

"Hello, AT&T? Just calling to let you know you can
KISS MY ASS!"




Check your phone bills very carefully every month. I've been fighting AT&T for over four years now, with many, many calls in the last two years. Without us EVER signing up for it, they are charging us $19.02 each month on our Qwest bill for long distance service! There are no federal regulations to stop them from doing this. I have even recieved a letter from AT&T stating that I have requested termination of the charges/services, have a cancellation confirmation order number, have many pages of notes with names, times, dates of my many phone conversations with them, and yet, the charge remains on my Qwest statements each month. I, of course, refuse to pay it and have not paid it for quite some time, but think about how many thousands of Americans are paying that portion of their monthly bill without even realizing it! CHECK YOUR BILLS!!! I have now been forced to get the Iowa Utilities Board involved on my behalf. The woman at that agency said they really don't have any jurisdiction over this, but she'll see what she can do if I send her a copy of all of the above and a cover letter. AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH! I'll be contacting the senate/house Federal Communications Commission committee members about this as well. CHECK YOUR BILLS! Yeah, it's been a fun morning.