Homemade Jam

Organizational changes....

I'm decided to move my personal blog to my livejournal page, for a few reasons, a major one being that on livejournal I can decide which posts to leave public/private, friends-only, etc. I still have to get comfortable with livejournal, but I'll be blogging again, over there, soon. I will definitely post some stories from my India trip.

I'm going to continue this site as a food blog, where I hope to talk about my adventures in fermenting, root-cellaring, cooking and baking, and nutrition/social issues around food. Hopefully that will be soon! I've had three (count 'em! Three!) successful fermentation ventures soon and am anxious to talk about them.

I'm off!

I'll be back June 10th with, hopefully, tales of adventure and acclaim. Until then....

Spring

I've decided that dogwoods are my favorite flower, at least for the time being. I don't remember ever particularly noticing them before, but this year I see them everywhere, blooming all over Portland, with their beautifully mottled pink and white petals. So incredible.

I cleaned our bedroom today. Among piles of clothing, I found two, count 'em two, towels, and I filled the whole canister of our Dyson vacuum with dust and cat hair from the carpet. Yuck. There's something to be said for spring cleaning, or maybe just cleaning more often than we do. Now I'm lying in bed, actually enjoying rather than loathing this room, and the smell of  new leaf shoots and blooming cherry trees and damp April soil is coming in through the window I opened to air everything out, once and for all. It really is a hopeful season, deliciously and subtly so, the way that fall is deliciously and subtly melancholy.

Where have all the towels gone? Long time passing....

"I wish we had towels," Austin told me forlornly as he was about to get into the bath this morning.

I concurred. It's been in a while since we had any towels; both our bathrobes are now in the wash, so we've really been sent upriver, as far as bathing is concerned. I've been drying off cursorily in front of the space heaters, and getting in my clothes (pajamas lately, due to illness) still damp. I'm not sure what Austin has been doing. Whatever it is, neither way is as good as towelling off.

I'm not sure what happened to the towels. We had a lot, at first; nice towels that we inherited from my uncle a couple of years ago, and some older, thinner ones that we'd dragged with us from our respective natal homes to college and beyond. After a while, there were fewer. Then, there was one, a mid-grade white one that we passed back and forth between us from bath to bath and shower to shower. I'm pretty sure I know where that one is, actually. But it's not clean, or suitable for drying off in any way. And how can I justify a whole load of laundry for just one sad white towel?

This is my life; a life into which towels can disappear. Linens, among other things, are not easy for me, the way I suspect they are for most other people. Well, at least I've still got some magic, right? Maybe someday, I'll find that time warp that sucks all the towels out of my life, and have an incredible adventure.

In any case, the upshot is, we ordered some new towels (and hand towels and washcloths, which we never had very many of in the first place.) Big, thick, soft, luxurious, on-sale organic cotton towels, to be exact. I bet there are some people out there who would scoff at me for ordering organic towels, because I clearly think I'm so sustainable, but didn't I think about all the packaging and gas that it will take to get my dyed-with-eco-friendly-dye (teal and moss green!) towels to me. Well, to those people I say ha, because apparently they didn't think about all the packaging and gas it takes to deliver regular cotton towels to Bed Bath and Beyond, and the gas it would take me to get there. Also, Gaiam gives you the option of paying for a tree to be planted as part of your order, to offset the impact of your shipping materials. Which option I took. So there, strawman!

I am excited to dry off with a towel after a bath again. It really is the simple things.

Rainy Day Women (and Men)

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time.

Well, it's raining here. It's cold. I don't like it, and I even have a high tolerance for cold, rainy Portland weather. But I switched to wearing my sandals a couple of weeks ago, and I don't want to switch back. Switching back would be heartbreaking! I'm ready for spring, for warmishness. The winter just seemed so, so long. I still can't quite believe the leaves on the trees, and the howling winds aren't making it easy.

For the past week I have been very, very sick with a high fever (on the mend now) and Austin seems to have caught a lesser version of my bug, so we went out for Thai food and ate deliciously spicy, sour Tom Yum soup, and I feel inducted into the land of the living once again. Unfortunately, while I was in the land of the barely functional, a lot of things went unthought of and undone. I'm now scrambling to complete plans for India. Ugh. It makes me anxious even to think of it. And then begins a Horrible Cycle. Okay, next subject.

I got all the shading on my tattoo done, and it looks awesome. Now all I have to do is go in for color (subtle, not bright and crazy) and it will be done. Unfortunately I don't have pictures right now, because our camera ran out of power, and we have been too sick to think of getting new batteries. But soon.

I also got bangs. Austin likes them. Sometimes I think I like them, sometimes I'm not so sure.

The cats are still snuggly.

It's the Ides of March!

And Tia is three years old today!

She's so cute.

Later, over kitty dinner, we will sing her the Happy Birthday song. 

I have typhoid fever!

Not really. Sort of, in the technical sense, I do. The vaccine I took is a live vaccine, which means there are really alive typhoid bacteria in there, which when it comes right down to it I have a very very mild, antibody-inducing case of typhoid fever.

I also got vaccinated for hepatitis A and polio today. The hep A arm feels mostly OK, but the polio arm is all swollen and sore. Hours of fun!

This trip starts to seem more real with each little preparation that I do. The visa sticker in my passport, filing my paperwork with NOLS, studying Hindi, going to the funky little travel office to get my immunizations and anti-malarial drugs, running and hiking to get myself in shape. It all adds up to: wow, I am really going to India in just under two months! I get more terrified and excited week by week. I have to admit that one of the things I am most looking forward to is being able to buy onion bhaji and vegetable samosas from street vendors. Intestinal parasites be damned! I have herbs and Bactrim!

The funky little travel office was very funky, a scruffy little place with floor tile much like the tile I remember lining the halls of my elementary school. The office staff were actually using typewriters--I didn't see a computer in the place. But the doctor with the--I think, since he asked about my "Ukrainian name"--Ukrainian accent definitely knew his stuff, and had a funny, gruffly sweet bedside manner. I was the only woman, and the only American, in the waiting room. Everyone else who was there seemed to be getting immigration paperwork in order. I kind of enjoyed hanging out there, in this little tiny corner of my city, catching a small glimpse of a world I don't usually see.

At this point I'm a little confused about whether I need more vaccines or not. I have to check my records to see the last time I got a DPT; if it was more than 10 years ago, I need to do the booster. And while the doctor didn't seem to think I needed a shot for Japanese encephalitis or rabies, I've seen them strongly recommended elsewhere. Time to do more research.   

OK, seriously, TGIF.

Our household took a beating from the Universe this week. In the grand scheme of things, as far as Universe-given beatings go, it was a small one, but still. Mostly it was a money-related beating. If the Universe is trying to send me a message, OK! I've got it! And have responded by retooling our budget (read: actually creating one beyond my brain) and borrowing this book from Suzanne. I shall start reading it tonight; I think it will be right up my alley. Also, when I went to Safeway tonight, I did not buy a People magazine like I wanted to. That's $3.99! Baby steps! Baby steps!

So, what all happened this week. Let's see. Well, first, our car got broken into while we were blissfully eating Indian food. When we returned to our car in the Smart Park building, I was like, "Hey! There's a fire extinguisher by our car!" And then, "Hey! There's some broken glass by our car!" Then I got closer, and I thought, "Hey, my window's down! I don't remember rolling down my window. Why would I have left it--ohhhhhhh." Yeah, I got it. Finally.

They only took our iPod, which is one of two we have, and was the old, crappy one that was going to poop out soon anyway. So I'm sure they couldn't sell it, and the joke was on them. Sort of, because the $150 bill to replace the window was on us. Motherfuckers. I know people steal things and break into cars all the time, but seriously, who does something like that? I just hope it was some desperate homeless person, and not just an opportunistic asshole. Or something.

Then, this woman whose car Austin hit in a parking lot over four months ago e-mailed him out of the blue with the repair shop estimate. Okay, yes, of course he's going to pay, but how is waiting four months an okay thing to do? He tried to get this straightened out then, but she was all unresponsive and stuff. Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on these things? Like a store return policy or something? She must have cosmically sensed that we were strapped for cash this month and decided to get proactive all of a sudden.

The next one is really embarrassing, but if you can't write in your blog about your embarrassing moments, what good is a blog anyway? So: because of, ahem, a billing/payment snafu with the gas company, our heat got shut off on Wednesday. Oops! Well, oh well. It's getting straightened out. In the meantime, it's kind of like camping. Except inside our house. With TV. And space heaters.

Then, that afternoon, Tia started peeing on stuff. Like, stuff not inside the litterbox. This has historically been par for the course for her, except that this time she was peeing on really weird stuff, stuff I won't say here because, even though everything has been thoroughly and properly disinfected according to the standard protocol, I worry that if I say, no one who reads it will want to come to our house anymore. After the fourth totally weird peeing in an inappropriate place, I realized that something really must be wrong, and I packed her up and took her to the vet. I felt bad, because she hates going to the vet, but I love it, because I love our vet. Seriously, if you are looking for a vet in southwest Portland, go to Janelle Walker, because she is awesome and everyone who works there is wonderful.

So Tia had to spend one night there, because they needed a urinalysis and she wasn't peeing. Finally, this afternoon, Ta da! Crystals in the urine! This is a fairly common cat ailment, and requires little more than plenty of water, prescription wet food, and an abundance of clean litterboxes (yeah, we need to work on that last one.) Vet bill: $104. Prescription food: I don't even know how much, yet. Cat that doesn't pee all over your house, soiling your every towel: priceless. Fucking priceless!

When you have four cats, trying to feed one of them a special diet is a big fat hassle. Hopefully we'll get into the groove soon. This means they can't have dry food sitting out anymore, since Tia can't have it; the poor things seem so deeply confused by the fact that their little bowl isn't sitting there next to their water fountain anymore. Tia only ate a small bit of her special food tonight, but I consider this a victory, because she is a picky eater. She doesn't even like fish. We'll see how it goes in the morning.

Anyway, things started looking up after that. Suzanne and I knitted together in the coffee room at Powell's, and had a wonderful deep conversation, as usual. We discussed spiritual matters (she said, in important tones.) I want to post about spiritual matters sometime, but it's hard for me to do without feeling like I sound like I think have some sort of Inside Scoop or something. Sometime I'll give it a try.

Austin is visiting his sick grandfather in Denver right now, so I'm on my own tonight. I'm going to have some chocolate. Staying alone in the house at night always makes me nervous. Here's hoping I don't get serial killed! Good night!

New Photos

Just wanted to post that I uploaded a bunch of new photos, from our Christmas trip and from my tattoo session. They're on my Flickr site (link on the right.)

Hippie Muffins

Fresh from the oven, with almond butter

Every now and then, I get the urge to make muffins. I always try to make them healthy, because if I'm going to be baking something sweet and cakey with lots of white flour, why not just make a cake? Tonight I finally hit on a recipe I think is worth repeating.

I was stirring the wet ingredients into the dry and it came to my mind that someday I will be one of those moms--the kind that sends bran muffins and homemade granola to school in reusable lunch bags, the kind that cheerfully suggests fruit! or carrot sticks! or how about some nuts! As a response to a request for a snack, the kind that thinks even juice is mostly junk food (with some wiggle room for fresh-squeezed, or calcium-fortified OJ.) But, also the kind who will serve tooth-achingly sweet cakes piled high with creamy frosting on birthdays, or indulge in the occasional dinner of nachos smothered in salsa and guacamole, or buy that freakishly yellow popcorn at the movies once in a while.

And I will be the kind who bakes, because there really is something special about baking, and those associations between a hot sweet baked good right out of the oven and comfort and love are just never lost.

These muffins are full of crazy hippie ingredients almost to a one, and somehow turned out just so awesome. Very slightly sweet, with a little crunch, and an earthy flavor from the molasses and maple syrup. Most measurements are approximate, so if you decide to make these, play with them all you want--as long as you've got your leaveners and approximately the right amount of dry and wet ingredients, you'll be fine. Feel free to use wheat flours instead of spelt. Add nuts or change out the blueberries for another fruit. Use oat bran or a combination of oat bran and wheat bran instead of the seven grain cereal. Use applesauce instead of mashed banana. Whatever! The batter should be thick and gloppy, much thicker than your average muffin batter, but not so thick that it would be shapeable, like dough.

Hippie Muffins (makes 12)

Dry mix:

¾ cup white spelt flour

¾ cup whole spelt flour

1 and ½ cups seven grain cereal (I used Arrowhead Mills wheat-free)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Wet mix:

2 bananas, mashed

2 tablespoons flaxseeds, ground, mixed with

½ cup boiling water and allowed to stand 5 minutes

2 tablespoons canola or coconut oil

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

½ to ¾ cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk, and I just poured from the carton when the muffin mix looked too dry at the end, so try to just use your own judgment)

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 bag frozen blueberries, thawed for a little while

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with liners, or grease the tin well.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients together.

3. In a smaller bowl, mix wet ingredients until well-combined.

4. Make a well in the dry mix and pour in the wet mix. Mix until just combined.

5. Fold in blueberries.

6. Bake 20 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Let cool 5 minutes or so before removing from tin. Enjoy! If you have leftovers, store in an airtight container.