My Reach Hath Exceeded My Grasp

After dragging myself away from a fevered nap, shivering into scarf and hat to go to the grocery store in 50-degree weather, and then sweating my way through them all the way down the aisles, I have come to the conclusion that just maybe if it hurts to lie down, hurts to walk, hurts to think, hurts to pee for goodness' sake--

it just might hurt too much to cook.

Or at least, cook much.

So I admit that Curried Lentils and Sweet Potatoes, while no doubt delicious and full of health-giving properties, may have been a tad too ambitious for today. But I'm wondering whether Mushroom Soup might not be something that I can manage. Even feeling as I do--which, if you're wondering, is utterly like death. Like crap.

Drinking to My Health

Because I am such a fan of the idea of food as medicine, and because I had an odd assortment of foods languishing in the fridge and needing to be used up, I just made myself the following little nutritional powerhouse:

Pumpkin-Apple Kefir Smoothie

1 cup kefir

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (which I had left over from making these dinner rolls)
1/2 cup apple butter (kindly given to me by one of my favorite patients ever)

Combine all ingredients in a blender till smooth.

Between the probiotics in the kefir, the beta carotene in the pumpkin, and the fact that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I should be feeling better in no time!

On the Home Front

Which is where it looks like I'll be staying today. I had signed up to do a "lunch coverage" shift at work from 11am-5pm, but one of the benefits/drawbacks of being a PRN nurse is that they can call you and tell you not to come if they don't need you. In this case, I'm looking at it as a benefit because I woke up this morning seriously debating calling in sick anyway. As you may recall, I had just gotten over a bad cold before I went to Iowa, and the combination of air travel and interrupted schedule and nonstop talking (really!) had worn me down into an unwitting Tallulah Bankhead (though Matt informed the that the husky voice was just perfect for those "I miss you and I'm thinking about you" calls). In such a state of lowered immunity I went to work yesterday and instead of laboring patients, took care of someone who had coughed so hard she broke a rib and somebody else with a severe enough upper-respiratory infection to warrant hospitalization. Not even frequent and paranoid handwashing is a match for that kind of exposure. Thus it was this morning that I found myself with an extremely raw throat and a body that felt like someone had tried to tear it apart in the night. I dragged myself out of bed and with massive doses of tea and honey had actually gotten myself feeling a little better, but when they called me and told me to stay home, I wasn't exactly going to argue with them. If more people stayed home when they felt like this, fewer people would end up feeling like this!

So. I've spent most of the morning handling bills and paperwork that amassed in my absence, as well as begging on bended knee the people who wrote my letter of rec for Georgetown to write one for Shenandoah University as well. The more I hear about that program, the more I like it; the more I travel in natural birth circles, the more I hear about their director--and the more inspiring she seems to me. If I haven't mentioned it before, SU's program is partially correspondence, and I'm hoping that would allow me to work my way through school and hopefully not incur any more debt. It would also mean driving out through the mountains once a week instead of playing the buses, trains, and automobiles game that it would take me to get out to Georgetown. Every. Day. We'll see.

And of course, a day spent at home wouldn't be complete without whipping up something good to eat. There are a few of the more esoteric ingredients (butternut squash, saffron, pancetta) on the menu this month that I was unable to procure at Aldi, and so I'm thinking about running out to get them so that I can possibly tackle one of the more time-consuming items (risotto or curry?) since I have the time to do it. And Netflix informs me that Eve's Bayou and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone should be here in time for us to watch them tonight. Sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

Food, Food, and More Food

Matt and I celebrated my return last night by going out for dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill, using a gift certificate I got during law school. I showed uncharacteristic restraint by just getting a bowl of soup, but was glad that I did since by the time I finished with the bread and oil I was stuffed. Matt got pasta in vodka sauce, which was very good. For those who have never been to one, the Macaroni Grill is essentially an incarnation of the Olive Garden--and one that's conveniently located less than a mile away.

Today, we celebrated further by embarking on the monthly grocery shop--which was major, since we were out of a lot of things and plus the menu this month (much to our excitement) includes a number of new recipes-- several from cookbooks we received for Christmas. The menu is as follows:

1) Corn chipotle chowder

2) Pizza

3) Pizza

4) Pizza

5) Stir-fry

6) Stir-fry

7) Noodles with Lime-Peanut Sauce

8) Potato Soup

9) Vegetable soup

10) Lentil soup

11) Red curry with winter vegetables and cashews (p. 97 Thai)

12) Garlicky mushroom turnovers (p. 27)

13) Mushroom risotto

14) 44-clove Garlic Soup

15) Cauliflower soup

16) Curried Lentils & Sweet Potatoes

17) Puerco pibil

18) Tamales

19) Mushroom Fettucine

20) Carrot Ginger Soup

21) Broccoli cheese soup

22) Onion soup

23) Butternut squash risotto

24) Macaroni and cheese

25) Grilled cheese

26) Baked spaghetti

27) Gnocchi with olive oil and herbs

Obviously that's not the order in which we plan to make them (three nights in a row of pizza might be a little much, even for us). And obviously, we're on a real soup kick! A number of the recipes are off the Internet; I'll include links and opinions when we make them.

Today, we cheated and used up a "dinner" by making corn chowder today for lunch; tonight, Matt made gnocchi (easier than we thought, and lots of fun) while I made soup to float them in. I loosely based the soup on this recipe. We didn't have zucchini and we substituted the gnocchi for the beans--and it turned out great! (I've gotten addicted to chopping onions in the Cuisinart--the eye-burning factor is so much lower, and they turn out perfectly uniform, almost feathery, which is perfect in a soup.)

Matt working the flour into the potatoes for gnocchi

The soup--we also stirred in some spinach right at the end

I also made a batch of our favorite pizza crust recipe, rolled it out, and sprinkled it with olive oil and rosemary for a quick accompaniment. That recipe is as follows:

Our New Favorite Pizza Crust/Flatbread Recipe

3/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees Fahrenheit; too hot and you'll kill the yeast, too cool and it won't react)

2 tsp yeast

1/4 tsp sugar

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Any herbs or spices you'd like to incorporate

Combine the first three ingredients and let sit until yeast is bubbly. Add in the other ingredients and either knead for two minutes, or let a KitchenAid/Cuisinart/bread machine do the work. Stretch or roll out onto a floured pan or pizza stone, gently poke some holes, and brush with olive oil if desired. (If using as a pizza, place toppings.) Bake at 400 degrees for 8-12 minutes.

In addition, we now have a pile of leftover gnocchi that we're planning to have for dinner tomorrow with olive oil and herbs!

To the Iowa Girls

While I am definitely loving being back, I also wanted to say how wonderful it was to see everybody in Iowa. I so appreciate all the people who braved cold and sleeplessness and long drives to come break bread (or waffles or tortilla chips) with me. It was such a refreshing time and made me feel so thankful to have such close and wonderful friends--even if you are so far away. I feel so, so lucky to have spent my first year and a half as a nurse in such a stimulating and challenging environment, surrounded by such incredible people. I have so many intense memories of that time--busy times, happy times, crazy times--and they're some I will never forget. Getting back together with everybody made me glad to know that we still have so much in common.

I love you guys, and I really hope we'll continue to stay in touch.

Here I Am

I got into Iowa yesterday with a minimum of difficulty. While missing Matt terribly, we keep in (exceptionally) close contact by phone, and it's been nice to catch up with some old friends--and there's plenty more of that on the way!

Rising Done, Shining Questionable

We've tried to develop as many habits as we can to making getting up at 5:30 a not-entirely-disagreeable process. We pack our lunches right as we put away dinner, we generally try to leave the kitchen clean, and we pre-prepare as much of breakfast (water and oatmeal in a pan on the stove, water on for coffee, grounds in the French press) as we can. We scuttle off to bed pretty consistently between 9 and 10, and we even maintain our early rising on the weekends. Which is all to say that it's 6am and I'm feeling pretty good.

On the other hand, today is my first day off orientation at work and I think we've all been there. I'm sure it will be fine. Having been through this process twice before now, I do feel more or less ready--not to be done with learning, but to continue it at my own pace, and with only myself (and my patients) as witnesses. As probably any nurse will attest, the actual care and safety of the patients is the easy part; it's the entirely non-intuitive reams of paperwork, the doctors' endless idiosyncrasies, the answers to "where is the..." and "how do we..." that are a lot harder to learn.

Wish me luck.

Satisfaction

It's been a good evening.

It actually started in the afternoon, because Matt got sent home sick from work and I got off at 3:30. So we were able to make a midday run to rent a movie, and got home with plenty of time to get a jump on a little cookery. While the cupboards are getting a little bare as it's approaching the end of the month, we were still able to put together a delicious batch of brownies (which we ate while we waited for dinner to cook), a pot of chili, and a batch of cornbread. We didn't have any frozen bags of corn, but we did have a few stray ears of sweet corn we'd frozen over the summer (yes, and dutifully moved from DC), so we thawed those and scraped them into the chili using one of the more mysterious sides of the cheese grater. It was--great!

However, the real sleeper hit of the evening was the movie Cashback. Lured by its provocative cover, we were surprised what a funny, thoughtful, and well-directed movie it was. It was British (which seems to be the unwitting theme lately) but boy, did it blow Shaun of the Dead out of the water. It's hard to describe, but I just felt like there wasn't a bad moment in it. Definitely worth checking out! (Though, consider yourselves warned that the British ARE NOT SHY about nudity.)

On a related note, we've squeezed about all the juice we can out of free Redbox rentals and our introductory half-price month of rentals at Hollywood Video is about to expire, so we've decided to just bite the bullet and pay for Netflix--at least that way we have an excellent selection and no late fees to worry about, as opposed to the somewhat tepid offerings we have here in Reston.

Movies!

Since it seems like I have unfortunately passed on my cold to Matt, we've spent most of the weekend catching up on movies. (OK, so that's kind of how we spend most weekends, regardless.) Anyway, yesterday we went out to see Juno. It's always good to see Jason Bateman and Michael Cera (both from Arrested Development), and we loved Ellen Page as the title character, a pregnant high-school junior. What can I say, I'm a sucker for smart-mouthed pregnant girls who dress ultra-casually. (Speaking of which, it warmed my heart yesterday when we were out running errands and Matt remarked, "It's good to see so many women out running errands in sweatpants." One of the many great reasons I married this man.) Anyway, while there were a few faltering moments in the script, overall the writing and the acting were really enjoyable. I thought they struck an excellent balance between avoiding predictability with a few twists and turns, while still managing a pretty happy ending. We'd definitely recommend seeing it.

Shaun of the Dead, on the other hand...I don't know. I've come to appreciate British cinema lots more than I used to (see Children of Men for a stunning example), but I can't say that I thought this was an especially good specimen. I can appreciate an extended wind-up in an action or drama, but when it comes to a spoof, it seems like it should actually take off at some point. There were bits of humor throughout, but I thought that they were incidental--if the main thrust of the movie had been something more substantial it would have been one thing, but I didn't think it was funny enough to really stand alone as a comedy. However, I think Matt liked it more than I did, and 72,000 IMDB members gave it an average of 8 stars out of 10, so who knows. Maybe I missed something.

This weekend we also watched Sin City, which I'd seen before but Matt hadn't. While it's pretty gory and freaky in its own right, and there are moments of wooden-sounding dialogue that probably result from its being adapted from a comic book, it's fast-paced and entertaining. Interestingly enough, I would have to point to Alexis Bledel, whom I adore in Gilmore Girls, as the weakest piece of acting in the whole movie. Surprising, but probably the only major disappointment. If you haven't seen it yet, I would recommend it.

Lastly, Children of Men is one we watched about a week ago, and it was wonderful. I was especially impressed that, since it's a British movie, the person attending the last pregnant woman on Earth is a midwife. Unfortunately, I can't imagine the US trusting one with the responsibility (or much at all). The movie is full of really dark, disturbing images, mostly background; I love how much attention they've paid to creating an atmosphere, as opposed to focusing their efforts on a bunch of flashy explosions. In the special features, they go into great detail about the time and technology dedicated to orchestrating the computer- generated vaginal birth scene (as opposed to just smearing a 3-month-old with cream cheese and holding it up between a woman's knees, like you see so often in other movies) and various other behind-the-scenes techniques that make it a rich, if upsetting, experience. Definitely see this one!

A Cure for the Common Canker

Lately both of us have been plagued by recurrent canker sores, Matt especially. And so, because I read that the foaming ingredient in most commercial toothpastes, sodium lauryl sulfate, can be a culprit in irritating them, one-half of the Household Which Has More Toothpaste Than Any Other Household (thanks to frequent CVS deals which make them free or more than free) has switched to brushing his teeth with plain baking soda. And it seems to have worked. We keep it in a little covered Pyrex dish next to the sink and he dips in a wet toothbrush and he's off to the races. Last night, when I noticed it was getting low, I refilled it and then added a couple of drops of peppermint extract--just to be fancy. What can I say, wives do those kinds of things sometimes. Now he doesn't have to choose between being canker-free and minty-fresh. And I just have to figure out who's going to use up the next 10 tubes of canker-causing toothpaste!

Speaking of harmless white powder--Northern Virginia is expecting UP TO AN INCH OF SNOW TODAY, meaning that we are under a "winter weather watch" and many of the schools are closed. No comment...

Home (Sick) Girl

A cold is one thing, but last night by the time we went to bed, I was in the throes of body aches, chills, and an absolutely splitting headache. All I could do was lie there and feel really sorry for myself...and really grateful to have married somebody who's such a good nurse.

So today I'm home sick, lamenting like I have since I was in elementary school that the days when you get to stay home, with all the time in the world to read book after book, are the days when your head hurts too much and your eyes are too red and bleary to enjoy it. Not that I haven't been trying anyway.

I can never remember whether it's "feed a fever, starve a cold" or the other way around (not that it would ever occur to us to starve anything around here, even a cold) but I have noticed that anytime I have (or suspect I have) a fever, I do get inordinately hungry. Before Matt went to work this morning, we embarked on the maiden voyage of the kefir smoothie--and, it was really very good. A little bit tangier than sweetened yogurt, but better and somehow "smoother" than commercial plain yogurt. And cheaper. With no added sugar. I think it's here to stay!

After that I went back to sleep and woke up with a hardcore yen for some chocolate. We don't keep a lot of it around, but after some scrounging in the cupboards I came up with a sample of Betty Crocker's Mini Warm Delights, which hit the spot. As opposed to trying to figure out what to feed and what to starve, it seems like it's easier and more intuitive just to listen to one's body, whether sick or not. In this case, mine is mostly telling me to lay low and drink a lot of hot tea with honey and ginger (affectionately referred to in our house as "Hot Ham Water" in deference to a favorite episode of Arrested Development), which seems on track, so I figure a craving involving the occasional microwaved plastic bowl of chocolatey goodness shouldn't automatically be denied.

And while the leftover chicken enchiladas did make a tasty lunch, for dinner, I think I'm heading back to the more-familiar territory of Split Pea Soup.

Carseats, Fake Meats: All Related?

I came across today this interesting blog post today, which discusses the current trend toward carrying babies everywhere in their carseats--which I have noticed and commented on, and which, to my (granted, uninitiated) mind, seems like it would be much heavier and more cumbersome than just carrying the baby. (As the author points out, carseats in cars save babies' lives; out in the rest of the world, they may just result in a disconnected, fussy baby.) By the time they're too big to carry, they're probably close to getting big enough for--not strollers, which also seem to be overused, but how about walking? (I think my parents must have understood this, since from the time I could walk they actually got comments about the definition in my calves. Seriously. They are bizarrely overdeveloped calves.)

It's interesting because I think some of this probably starts in the hospital. In every maternity ward I've ever worked in (grand total now=4), nobody (not parents, nurses, anybody) is ever allowed to carry the babies in the hallway. We tell the parents that this serves the twofold purpose of a) keeping them from dropping the baby and b) helping us distinguish the parents from abductors. I think what it more likely does is serve the twofold purpose of alerting the parents that a) we don't trust you, the parents, to carry your baby safely--and if you can't do it here, with hallways wide and clear enough to drive a truck through per the fire code, how will you ever do it at home where there are stairs and toys and pets and other children underfoot? and b) you can't trust us, the hospital, to be a safe place for a baby. Think about that. The end result is that the first few days of the baby's life, the parents get set in a pattern of thinking that the baby is "safe" in a crib/carseat/carrier, and after that point, the habit has been formed and it might not even occur to them to do anything differently.

I think it's sad because it's part of a whole cultural shift it seems like we've made toward thinking that we can replace natural processes with "better" ones. Birth with Cesarean. Spontaneous labor with induced. Carrying a baby in our arms to carrying him in a plastic "bucket." Typically, it seems like when these interventions are applied across the board as opposed to strictly when needed, later research comes out against it.

Matt and I have especially noticed the trend with food, hence our fascination with foods like kefir, which we can make ourselves and which actually cultivates rather than eradicates a host of organisms and bacteria. It's one reason that, though we eat a primarily vegetarian diet, we really don't eat meat substitutes. When I was younger (middle and high school) and not much of a cook, I consumed my share of Chik Nuggets (a soy substitute for Chicken Mc) because I felt like they were healthier and more ethical than the alternative. Being that these were my main rationales for vegetarianism at the time, my goal was probably achieved. Now, Matt and I both have more of an interest in eating foods that are close to their natural form, with a minimum of additives and processing. To that end, we'd probably consider raising and killing chickens someday before we'd get in the habit of spending money on fake nuggets or soy sausages again. To that end, we also eat a decent amount of butter and I've swapped back to sugar rather than the expensive, who-knows-what's-in-it-but-we-can-eat-all-we-want-because-it's-calorie-free Splenda. We enjoy the foods in our diet for what they are, not for what they aren't. Similarly, if someone we love cooks us meat, we generally eat it happily, appreciative of the meal and the cook.

Please don't think that we think that we have all the answers. We certainly don't--not even close. But we are committed to thinking about the questions.

Kefir Madness

I know you're all dying to hear how the great kefir experiment is faring. So far: pretty well. I put the kefir grains (see above) into a jar of milk this morning and set it out on the counter. By dinnertime I had what looked like a few cottage cheese curds forming, and I'm assuming by morning we'll have more. Whether what we have will be edible still remains to be seen.

In other kitchen news, bread won out over bagels because, well, it was easier. When you're cooking sick, sometimes you have to take the path of least resistance. (Which I also did by making dumplings instead of noodles--because dropping the dough into the soup and calling it done is so much easier than rolling it out and cutting it up and drying it.) This bread is the only recipe I've ever used which gave me great, predictable results with 100% whole-wheat flour. I'm guessing it's probably because of the gluten. Whatever it is, it has successfully brought to a close my frustrations with wheat loaves that were too dense, too dry, too bitter, too wet, etc. It's just very simple bread with very basic ingredients, and I really love it.

Once the bread was made, it was onto meatier things. Literally. Making chicken soup today, I was struck with the feeling I always get when we break down and decide to cook with meat: it's a lot of work. Both the cooking and the cleanup just feel more time-consuming to me, and this is from somebody who started with a cooked rotisserie chicken. The nice thing about cooking with mainly vegetables and grains is that there are few potential hazards to undercooking them (a definite bonus if you're as impatient as I am; a few minutes under the broiler to melt the cheese is my idea of fully cooked) and there's no elaborate voodoo to the hygiene of preparation and cleanup. We use the same cutting board for carrots and potatoes and bread and...it doesn't matter what was raw or not, or whether there are a few shreds of vegetable clinging to the Cuisinart blade when we put it away. (Not that there would be, mind you.) If we seem ambitious in the kitchen, maybe it's only because we gravitate toward foods that make it easy on us.

That said, the soup and dumplings (an easy, cheap, and delicious way to make soup into a stick-to-your-ribs supper, if I do say so myself) were very good. I just don't think they were better than a pot of vegetable soup with dumplings would have been, and it would have been for at least half the cost and effort. Well, now we know. Again. But, our brief foray into poultry isn't quite over; before I made the chicken into soup I shredded most of the breast meat to put into chicken enchiladas, which we'll probably have tomorrow or the next day.

After that, though, I think it's back to lentils and kefir and beans (oh, my!).

The Cold Continues

I have the rest of today to launch a full-frontal attack on it before embarking on 12-hour shifts the next two days. In the battle plan: garlicky pasta for lunch, chicken (yes, chicken) soup for dinner, several cups of tea, another round or two with the Neti pot, and possibly a nap in between all that. I also made a loaf of banana bread, not for any purported health benefits but because it looked like the black bananas on the counter were about to sprout legs and crawl away on their own. Next, I'm considering making noodles for the soup and debating whether the better (and easier) accompaniment to the soup would be a loaf of wheat bread or homemade bagels.

Just call me Typhoid Mary.

This is Why They Call It "Leisure Time"

Yesterday we ran errands most of the day, then whipped up a Tollhouse Pie to take along on our dinner invitation (accompanied a tub of vanilla gelato from Trader Joe's). We felt it struck the appropriate balance, being a step up from something basic like a batch of cookies, but not so esoteric as to be unlikely as a crowd-pleaser. Our hosts seemed to agree. We were also pleased to find it was quick to make (though it does bake for an hour), and was even excellent for breakfast the next morning!

We also made a quick visit to CVS, scoring 5 12-packs of pop (3 of Dr Pepper and 2 of Diet Pepsi), 2 bottles of Nature's Bounty vitamins, and a Soy Joy bar; which, through coupons and Extra Bucks, cost us $2.27 out of pocket and netted us $14 in Extra Bucks. (I think it should have been $17, but I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth.) We should be set on pop and vitamins for awhile!

Incidentally, yesterday was the first day of the new year (and only the third in the past couple of months) that we got by without a walk, which was kind of disappointing. We did run a lot of errands, but didn't manage to fit in our 30 minutes of dedicated exercise time. Bummer. Today we had ambitiously planned to go for a hike, but after staying up until midnight last night and reading possible rain in the forecast for today, we've dialed down our expectations to staying in and watching movies (though we are planning to make it out for the walk at some point). On the short list: Mona Lisa Smile, The Caveman's Valentine, Angels in America, and Eve's Bayou. Depending on what Hollywood Video has in stock, we'll see what we end up with.

Lastly, we've recently become interested in the idea of making our own kefir. An Internet search turned up a gentleman in nearby Sterling, Virginia, who is willing to share his kefir grains (or starter) with us for free, so I think we'll be taking a drive out there at some point. Details on that to follow.

The Kinky Thing Matt Talked Me Into Doing...

The Neti Pot.

I feel like I'm fighting the sniffles, and everybody at work has a terrible cold.

So leave it to the hippie husband to suggest pouring salt water into one nostril and letting it run out the other. Well, it has been around for a long time, and it's so crazy it just might work.

Not Much to Report

We got up this morning and made waffles; later we're going to make a CVS run to stock up on pop (Pepsi and Dr. Pepper 12-packs are $6/20 this week, so with some creative couponing, we should be able to get them for around $1 a pack).

Otherwise, I have some exceptionally brown bananas I'm planning to use up, I want to make another loaf of bread and maybe even some bagels, and then we need to make some kind of dessert because we've actually been invited over to someone's house for dinner.

So more or less, it should be a pretty typical Saturday for us...in the kitchen!

What I Did Yesterday

This:
(Excellent; moist; I used 2/3 whole-wheat flour to 1/3 white and it turned out great.)

And this:
For $12 out of pocket with $25 back in ECB. (Out of pocket should have been $7 but I forgot a $5 coupon!) That's 12 Soy Joy bars, 5 bottles of dish soap, 2 tubes of toothpaste, a conditioner, and a "shine milk."

I also (with the help of my savvy banker sister-in-law) realized that Citibank was overcharging me on student loans by $1000. I attempted to get to the bottom of it with them, but because my T-Mobile phone is pretty much the devil, I gave up after explaining it to (and being cut off from) the 3rd customer service representative I talked to. I guess I'll deal with that another day. Anyway, not a bad profit for a day's (non) work!

Patches, on the other hand, did this.

Soup-er Supper

After tramping around Reston enjoying the 55-degree weather, we were still excited to come home and make this split pea soup. We didn't need to add any extra water, as many commenters did (though it did require frequent stirring not to stick to the bottom of the pot), but we at least tripled the spices. All in all, it was very filling, very cheap, very healthy, and very good. I'm taking the leftovers to work tomorrow.

Because the new year has shifted us back into hardcore frugality mode, but there were a couple of things we'd had our eye on for awhile, we felt lucky that we had a couple of gift certificates to burn. One was for a nearby mall; Matt got a pair of Smartwool socks and I got a bike light and a Sigg water bottle, which we talked down to half price because it was a little dented. The bike light is because when I tried to ride my bike to work on Friday morning, I realized I had overlooked the facts that a) it's still dark outside at 6am and b) Reston doesn't have any streetlights. Not a one. Not able to see where I was going, I hit a curb at full speed and flew off my bike, just in time for Matt to come around the corner in the car and catch the whole thing. He was very charitable about it, but called out that he thought it might be a good idea to get a bike light over the weekend. I agreed, and so we did.

We Liked Them a Latke

Neither Matt nor I had ever made latkes before, but when we saw them on this irresistible website (his name is Matt, and he's obsessed with food/drink/travel/photography...I think we must all be related somehow) at 6:30 this morning (the body clock training continues, even on the weekends), we thought it was too good to pass up.

We used the Cuisinart to reduce two potatoes to uniform shreds of latke-making goodness in about three seconds. (Alas, you still have to peel them yourself.) The step about the potato starch is apparently crucial, and for us it was, at the very least, interesting: after submerging the grated potatoes in a bowl of water for a few minutes, then removing the potatoes and letting the water sit for a bit, when you pour off the water you are left with a firm, gluey mass of what is apparently potato starch. Who knew? We scraped that onto our potatoes, added a chopped onion and a couple of beaten eggs (we neither had nor missed scallions), and proceeded to fry them up in about a half-inch of vegetable oil in a cast-iron skillet.

They came out great. They're basically glorified hash browns, and we're all for that. I don't know that they're such a significant improvement over fresh homemade hash browns that we'd make them very often, but, they were very good.

In addition to eating several plain, we also crammed a few into the bottoms of a muffin tin, cracked an egg over the top, and baked them at 375 for 15 minutes in response to this particularly drool-inducing post. We minced up and sauted a few mushrooms to top it with, and...it was fabulous.
We've lapsed into the habit of generally only eating two meals a day on the weekends. We get up and make coffee to tide us over while we make a filling and relatively time-intensive breakfast (see above). Once our bellies are no longer sagging under the weight of that--generally around 3pm or so--we start in on something slightly more complex than what we usually make for weeknight dinner. Tonight, we're talking about split pea soup. Eating slightly earlier, but more, generally holds us past bedtime. While I'm usually a proponent of smaller and more frequent meals, which are better for my small (quick to fill and quick to empty again) stomach and supposedly better for your health, we've found that this is a way to find time for the recipes we might not get to during the week, and as an added bonus, lops off 8 meals a month from the menu, which ultimately saves money, planning, and prep time. Handy!

*Image is from Smitten Kitchen, which I love because their camera and photography skills--along with their culinary knowledge--are so much better than (yet so inspiring to) mine.

Show Me the Movies

If you haven't noticed, for people who don't watch television, Matt and I do watch a lot of movies. Christmas break afforded us the opportunity to do even more of that, and in so doing I was struck by just how much the average blockbuster has gone downhill. Series like Alien provide a prime opportunity for observing the evolution (or devolution) of filmmaking within the framework of a similar plot context.

First--starting with the original Alien, I was amazed by how slowly its rising action takes off. The film essentially opens with silence. Since we're in space, there's very little visual stimulus either. A slow pan around the universe and people sleeping in little pods. While the movie is remembered and beloved for its horrific chest-bursting death scenes, those don't actually come up until probably 2/3 of the way through the movie. Up until then, we're forced to consider things like the characters and the plot. If you've watched an action movie released in the last 5-10 years (including but not limited to Alien vs Predator), they almost always start off with a bang, either of the explosive type or that featuring a comely young woman. Which leads me to my second point.

I fully believe that if they were shooting the original Alien series today, Sigourney Weaver wouldn't have made it past the first round of auditions. Her intelligence and confidence border on abrasiveness, and her angular features and somewhat awkward voice would be considered no match for the lithe, silky charms of today's Jessica Albas, Katherine Heigls, or Scarlett Johanssons. Her closest parallel that I can think of is probably Hilary Swank, whom I adore, but one can argue that--PS I Love You aside--her movies haven't exactly been mainstream. (Other risk-takers include America Ferrerra and Felicity Huffman, though the latter does star in a television show that I absolutely cannot stand.) Hilary is also definitely the exception rather than the rule, and furthermore, she's got Sigourney knocked cold in the bust-waist-hip ratio department. I think that at the very least, Sigourney would have been physically or digitally enhanced as opposed to showing her in all of her flat-chested, droopy-butted glory like they do in Aliens. Don't get me wrong--I think it's great, and I wish we saw it more often. Instead, it seems like everybody from leading ladies to extras has been mass-produced for perfect skin, long straight hair, ample cleavage, and a tight belly. Any sense of personality or difference between them has more or less been ironed out. While it may be visually pleasing to look at, it gets boring after awhile. Perhaps sensing this, every so often moviemakers may cast a hot actress to play ugly for awhile, but it's not quite the same thing as appreciating a diverse range of face and body types. Alas, with men ranging from Anthony Hopkins to the aforementioned Michael Cera to Steve Carrell all finding steady and well-acclaimed work, the casting of male actors does not seem to have been similarly plagued.

Third, it seems like plots have gotten more and more inane, like the movie equivalent of fast food. You can consume it quickly and you don't have to think about it, but after a certain point I think most people start to crave some sort of substance. While I'm all for the extremism of movies like Borat and Superbad, it seems like when it comes to the much-hyped summer or Christmas blockbusters, all we have left are some kind of combination of action/gross-out/"teen sex comedy" (I hesitate to call them romantic comedies, because they're not--and since that's a pretty apt description of the age range usually depicted, I find that this categorization of my father's is pretty accurate). The action has passed the point of being believable or original, and maybe it was never supposed to be (Die Hard, I'm talking to you); there's very little territory left uncharted on the gross-out front, now that we've seen back waxes and transvaginal ultrasounds in mainstream settings; and how many more times can we really sit through two hours of two people refusing to admit until the end how much they really love each other?

I'm not saying that they don't make good movies anymore. We've talked about Black Snake Moan, for example; as mentioned above, I love pretty much anything Hilary Swank has ever done. Juno is a movie that looks like it might be promising (though it appears that it will cement my conviction that Michael Cera is not acting, just being himself in front of a camera). I think they are becoming less common, and less appreciated when they do show up. What we really need are more movies like those, and more like the two below, which I enjoyed for the first time over Christmas vacation.

Fried Green Tomatoes. Yes, I know I'm coming to this one a little late, and ditto for the movie below. Also notable is that these are two of the most quintessential women's movies (I refuse to call them by that other name) and I was introduced to both of them by Matt--who genuinely respects and appreciates women far more than most, well, women I know. Anyway, while FGT has some sillier moments in it, for the most part it's a well-done and very original story with some of film's more excellent and unconventional-looking actresses: Jessica Tandy, Mary-Louise Parker, and Kathy Bates. Stories about actual friendships between women--as opposed to ones which merely use them as vehicles to meet and sleep with men--seem to have fallen out of favor.


Boys on the Side. Once again, it has its sillier moments, and I don't know why Drew Barrymore always has to play the same character (a free spirit who is underappreciated by those around her--see also Riding in Cars With Boys, Home Fries, Never Been Kissed, Mad Love, Ever After, and The Wedding Singer, just to name a few), but aside from that--the story of a black lesbian and a woman with HIV and said free spirit (pregnant, and having killed her abusive baby daddy in self defense) navigating the waters of unusual friendship is one that's original and, yes, even heartwarming. My above comments about movies featuring women's genuine friendship once again apply here, and once again, Mary-Louise Parker is once again strangely addictive to watch. Plus, the soundtrack is just phenomenal.

CVS Haul

I spent most of today running errands, one of my favorites being a CVS run. I'll cut to the chase and tell you what I got, and also how I could have done better:

-Coke Zero (2), on sale for 3/$10 (though I didn't know that because there was no price marked; we just like it and I know that between the long days and the early mornings, I'll be needing it!)= $6.67

-Crest ProHealth Toothpaste, 3.99 but I had a free coupon from a deal awhile back, so=
$0

-Colgate Total (2), $2.99 apiece - $1.50 CVS coupon x 2 - $1 manufacturer coupon x 2=
$0.98

-Soy Joy Bars (7), which I love, on sale 4/$4 with $4 Extra Care Buck (like a CVS gift certificate, with certain restrictions), -$1/4 printable coupon. So potentially free, plus what's known in the coupon world as "overage"! But here's where I went wrong: I thought I had grabbed 8, but I only had 7--so it wouldn't take my second $1 off coupon, and I only ended up with $4 ECB at the end instead of $8. By the time I realized my mistake it was too late, but it was still a pretty sweet deal. I tried to go back and buy one more, but the cashier didn't scan my ExtraCare card that time and so it didn't register with my account. I then asked her if she could void the sale and do it over again, but she said she really couldn't. I think if I were still to buy one more before Saturday, I should get the other $4 ECB.
$6.00

Nature's Bounty Herbals/Vitamins: I had planned to take advantage of the Buy One/Get One Free, plus $3 ECB deal that we snagged earlier in the week, but unfortunately they were out. So instead I got a raincheck and also took advantage of the fact that all CVS brand products are buy one, get one 50% off this week...so I subbed in the CVS brand for the Nature's Bounty. 180 capsules were $17.49, and the second was $8.74, so I got 360 capsules for=
$26.23

So far the total=$39.88, which is not that great. But, because CVS totals up and THEN takes coupons/discounts, my total was actually about $50. So I was able to use almost all of these coupons to knock it down by another $20. (If you want to know and understand all things CVS, including how to most strategically combine the deals and where to get printable coupons, Moneysaving Mom needs to become your new best friend.) I then used $3.50 and $6.00 Extra Care Bucks to drop the total down to about $13.00. Add in the $4 ECB (which should have been $8, but I'm trying not to get greedy) and I paid out about $9 for $50 worth of stuff. Even with a couple of substitutions and blunders, it was still pretty satisfying--especially when I first went up to check out and the clerk looked at me and said, "It's not going to take all those coupons." I said nicely "Is it OK if we try?" So we did, and at the end she just stared at me and said "You saved over $50." Yep, I know.

One thing to be aware of, though, is that there are some stores that won't allow you to stack the CVS $x/x coupons on top of each other, and there are Internet rumblings that this might be becoming nationwide. So far, I've been very lucky!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Matt's back at work today, and I start back tomorrow. After the past two weeks, I think we've confirmed that being home together all day does not have the effect of a) making us need our space from each other or b) getting boring. On the contrary. While we didn't do anything especially outstanding by anybody else's standards, we loved seeing our families and then thoroughly enjoyed each other's company (our longest break together since our honeymoon!) and had all kinds of fun just living our lives. We took lots of walks, did plenty of cooking (including making pesto with our much-beloved new Cuisinart hand blender, and experimenting with a wonderful new pizza crust recipe), watched several movies (more on that later), and ran errands. It was a blast, and now I miss him!

Tomorrow I work 6:45 am to 7:15pm. Matt and I have had our body clocks in training this week (what a guy, since his job doesn't start until 9am!), trying to compensate for losing an hour when we came back from the midwest and also dialing back our bedtimes and wake-up times to 10pm and 6am, respectively. I'm actually surprised at how well it's going--while the few moments after the alarm clock goes off are somewhat miserable, we've enjoyed the increased productivity of early rising and I think we have been sleeping better at night. (That is, except for the cement-footed neighbor who has most unfortunately just moved in upstairs and seems to literally walk laps around his apartment all night, every night...more on that later, I'm sure.)

Otherwise, I walked Matt to work and then back this morning, which made for a solid 60 minutes of exercise today. Goal accomplished, and then some! My other ally in the quest to firm up a little bit is The Daily Plate. It's a great (free--don't bother with the Gold membership) way to track your eating and exercise habits, and you can set weight loss goals based on how much you'd like to lose and how fast. You can search for just about any food (including restaurant foods) and get nutrition information, which is really handy. One caveat is that some of it is user-submitted so you can end up with wide variations in calorie counts for the same food. It helps to know, for example, how many calories per slice are in the bread you use, and then you can just choose a comparable one from the list. You can also compile meals you eat frequently (in my case, things like smoothies, Mexican casserole, and coffee with cream and sugar) so you don't have to enter separate ingredients every time. The thing I've found most helpful about it is to plug in what I know I'm going to eat that day (say, our usual breakfast of smoothies or eggs, and then what we have planned for dinner) which gives me a good idea of how much leeway I have for lunch and for snacks that day. If you wait until the end of the day to total it up, you're more likely to find out that you've already gone over, or that you've gotten so close that it's inevitable.

My only other real news is that I am officially coming to Iowa at the end of the month! It all started because I've been itching to see The Business of Being Born for a long time, but for whatever reason couldn't find a screening within 100 miles of here. While back in Iowa City, Matt and I saw a flier for one--at what's known as the Conscious Birth Summit, an apparently annual event there. Upon closer inspection we realized it was being co-hosted by chiropractor Ron Robinson, whom we absolutely fell in love with while in Iowa City. I had enough AirTran Rewards for a one-way ticket from Dulles to Moline, and since it only cost $97 for the other way, we figured it was too good to pass up. I'm sad that Matt won't be joining me, but hope to see plenty of family and friends from January 23rd-26th. Give me a call if you'd like to get together!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hello All,

First of all, I have to give a shout out to my wonderful wife on all the excellent work she has been doing on the blog in recent months. I, as you may have noticed, have not been posting much so the work of family blogging has been falling on her. She has been doing an excellent job lately experimenting with different formats and working on HTML, and boy is the blog looking spiffy these days.

Last night we had a fabulous time with our private New Year's party. It may be hard to call it a New Year's party since we did not stay up past 10:30, but hey, its our damn party. Anyway, we made our special pesto recipe, some bruschetta, and ate some brie cheese that we got from Trader Joe's. We have found them to be cheaper than the other yuppy grocery stores around with all their free samples and extra help to unload your cart, load up your car, and probably wipe your bottom if you want. Anyway, put all these good foods together, and this is what you get.

We also did our best to mull some cheap wine, also from Trader Joe's. To do this, you just heat some fruity red wine (you can also throw in white wine, brandy, draft cider or gasoline, depending on how exciting you want to get) along with allspice berries, whole cloves, and cinnamon sticks. You don't want to boil the wine, but just simmer it on low for about 20 minutes. We also sliced an orange and threw it in after it was done, and this really made the whole think golden.

When you add in the Simpsons movie, go to bed early, and you have one heck of a good time for Matt and Katie.

So today, being the start of the new year, Katie and I are going to solidify our personal New Year's goals. I know we already posted some of them, and I am not sure if we are going to post the rest. I am personally leaning toward no just in case some of the personal ones do not have the follow through that we were hoping.

Another thing that we are planning on for today is to further one of our mutual goals, one I will share, of regular exercise in the form of at least 30 minutes of walking every day. Today, we are going to hike the Billy Goat Trail, a circuit hike along the shores of the Potomac River in Maryland. Neither of us have ever been there, but it should be fun and since it is supposed to be in the upper 40's today, pretty comfortable by my standards.

Since we have lots of things to do, I will leave you with best wishes for the New Year and one of my favorite quotes. If you know where it is from, leave a note.

"Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'"