Hockey, Ice Skating, Teach Dad?, Cashew Cream, Validation
So I was definitely rooting for USA to win that Hockey game yesterday, but I can’t deny it was an awesome game. And I definitely would’ve felt worse for Canada missing out on the gold.
The Pancake-Eating Son has suddenly become enamored of hockey. He so enjoyed the Winterhawks game I took him to that he told me hockey was now his favorite sport.
In fact, he told me he wasn’t really interested in baseball anymore (!) but would rather play hockey.
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I figured he should try ice skating first. So, I packed him into the car and drove out to Sherwood Ice Arena. (We can get there in about four traffic lights. I love taking the back roads).
Long story short, hockey has fallen out of favor somewhat, though the boy still wants to take in a few more Hawks games.
Now, if we lived in Alaska, I’d have had the boy skating at age three or so, so he’d be like his old man and not really remember learning to skate. And he’d absolutely be playing hockey. It’s just an awesome game to play, and no other sports accomplishment feels as good as scoring a goal (at least in my experience).
(Confession: I’ve never relished the idea of watching outdoor hockey like my dad did so many times.)
But back to the skating. We got there about an hour before the public skating session was over, so we got to pay a reduced price. And we got our skates on and stepped onto the ice. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. The skates were too dull. Or the ice was too slick (it had just been resurfaced).
Or perhaps it was just that it’d been, oh, eighteen years or so since I’d been skating. Of course, it didn’t take too long for me to get my feet under me and get a feel for how the blade goes on the ice. I even managed to flip around backward and cross-over and stuff. Sweet. And I remembered how to execute a good hockey stop (spraying the boy with ice shavings).
But once I got the boy out there, he couldn’t make the transition. And I’ve never taught an eight-year-old to skate. A forty-year-old, yes, but more on that later.
There were tears. And petitions that could we please go home? But I had paid a bit of money to get us in there, so I had the boy just watch his old dad skate awhile. Eventually he manned up and ventured out with me again, and we made one complete circuit of the ice together. There was even some grinning.
Still, I’m not sure if he wants to go again. But if we do, we’ll have to bring a photographer with us.
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As I mentioned above, Dad was the designated Hockey Parent back when I played. And in Anchorage, that means outdoor practice and outdoor midweek games. In short, it means dedication. The weekend games, played at Ben Boeke Ice Arena or UAA were a bit easier on a parent. But the outdoor ones made you think of “The Cremation of Sam McGee”.
One of the best parts of an outdoor game is that sometimes, Dad would take me out for donuts and cocoa after a game. Even if we lost. Which was most of the time.
The thing I really admire about my dad, looking back, is that he tried to learn the game so he could engage with me on it. To the point of taking to skates at age forty-and-then-some. I had already, with help of another friend, taught a third friend to skate (so we could play one-on-two hockey, which is awesome), so how hard could it be to teach Dad?
Hard. Especially on Dad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still sore from some of the bruises he got. Because ice, while being nice for skating, tends toward hard when you fall on it. And I’m not sure we outfitted him with proper pads or anything. Pretty much just skates. (BTW, Dad, do you still have those skates? I’d take them off your hands if you do, if they’d fit my big flippers.)
Looking back, it’s probably good we never tried to teach Dad to downhill ski. Because we weren’t very good teachers.
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Completely out of left field here, but we discovered that Cashew Cream really works. Rewinding a bit, recall that we’re a semi-veg family. We try to eat meatless fairly often. So we tend to give Vegetarian/Vegan cookbooks a look pretty often. Well, one of the magical veg ingredients I saw in one such volume was Cashew Cream. Basically, you make thick Nut Milk with raw cashews. And you use it in place of cream.
Well, we made some pretty terrific semi-veg Potato-Leek soup (we used Chicken Broth because that’s what was in the pantry, but it’d work with Imagine Foods’ No-Chicken Broth). The Cashew Cream worked beautifully and even looked like cream when I mixed it in.
So now I’ll have to look for other ways to use this magical ingredient.
Kind of a long post today. But I haven’t posted on Monday in a long time.
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And the long post continues. Mental Floss’s Morning Cup of Links had one I had to pass along, and through the magic of embedding, you can just stay right here and appreciate it. It’s a short film titled “Validation,” and I found it surprisingly touching. I guess I’m just a softie.
Split Pea Soup, Bookmarks
I like soup. It’s easy to make, pairs well with my favorite breads, and makes great leftovers. One of the first ones I learned to make was Split Pea with Ham. Since we had our Christmas ham on January 7th this year, I had leftover ham! So I make soup!
It’s basically the ham bone, a package of split peas, an onion, a couple of carrots and stalks of celery, and some spices. Oh, and garlic, of course. And water. And it’s seriously good.
Feel free to download the recipe.
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For my Bible Reading, I make myself bookmarks, so I can just check off the chapters as I read them. I’m sometimes asked for the bookmark files, so I turned them into PDFs and uploaded them.
You can either read my ideas about Bible Reading and then go grab the bookmarks, or you can just grab them here:
- New Testament
- Old Testament – Poetry
- Old Testament – Pentateuch and History (two-sided)
- Old Testament – Prophets (can be printed two-sided with Poetry)
And for the non-bookmarkish types, here’s a three-page set of boxes to check off:
MM: Carolers, Award, Recipes
Well, my first performance with Fireside Carolers went as well as I could’ve hoped. We did our free concert at the church that hosts our rehearsals, and I didn’t flub anything in a way that could’ve been noticed. The Fair Elaine snapped a picture of me singing, looking like I was maybe a wee bit tentative. Guilty. (She also posted some pictures from our Thanksgiving Weekend on her blog.)
Next weekend I get my first real Carolers experience, as I’ll be going out in an octet on Friday and Saturday. Today’s singing actually gave me a bit of a confidence boost.
Oh, and I think I looked pretty good in my tux. Is it weird that I have a tuxedo, but don’t own even so much as a sport jacket?
BTW, for anyone needing a budget tuxedo and living in or around Portland, head over to Mr. Formal Clearance Center on SE 7th in Portland.
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So, it’s weird enough having readers of my blog whom I don’t personally know. (Like the time the other Seth Heasley’s mom dropped by.)
It’s even stranger when they like my writing enough to lob an award at me. Yes, it’s true. My Orthodox reader, DebD (of Deb on the Run), has awarded me with the Superior Scribbler award.
It’s both an award and a meme. I don’t do much meme-ing, because I’ve just gotta be meme…heh. But I’ll do my best here. First, the rules:
- Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
- Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
- Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
- Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
- Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.
I’m fine with all these steps except for the first one. Because I simply don’t have that many Bloggy Friends that I don’t know personally. And I’d feel funny linking them, like there was a conflict of interest. So I feel that I should choose from people I’ve found online and started following.
But I haven’t done all that much of that. I’m more of a window shopper, and I know it’s wrong and all, but I click through to a lot of book review posts from Semicolon Blog’s Saturday Book Reviews, and I haven’t managed to look back at many of the authors’ non-book-review work. Except for DebD’s, and that’s because she’s posted interesting comments on my Theology Thursday ramblings.
In short, I know I must mend my ways and be a better blog commenter/follower.
But I’ll attempt to fulfill at least the spirit of the meme. I’m not planning on notifying all these folks, because a couple of them are already Big Time, so why would they care what I think?
JonV at Into the Darkness. I’ve known him since he was just a pup (Read: when he was twelve and not yet taller than me. And when he called me Mr. Heasley). Now he’s doing engineering work for the Mennonite Central Committee in Mozambique, and writing extremely verbose posts about his life there. I know I’m not really entitled to be proud of him, but I was the worship leader for the youth program way back then… (Yes, I know him personally, but he’s in Africa!!!)
Apostrophe Abuse. I’ve written quite a bit about the signs of the Apostrolypse on this here blog. But Apostrophe Abuse has pages and pages of evidence. It’s serious, folks.
Keith Law at Meadow Party. Baseball writer, food critic, book reviewer. Good work if you can get it (though I think he mostly gets paid for the baseball stuff). He inspires me to read more, and I already feel like I read a lot.
Amos at The Amateur Entymologist and Outside the Camp. His musings on English, as a non-native speaker, are always interesting. And while I don’t agree with his Calvinism, I still enjoy his theology thoughts on Outside the Camp. (BTW, I initially found him while searching “A While vs. Awhile”.)
Michael Brooks at Aetherwatch. I very much enjoyed his book, Thirteen Things that Don’t Make Sense last year. On his blog, he posts other such weirdities and his general musings.
Hey, I managed five awards! Whee!
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We had a great Thanksgiving feast, with actually a lot of vegetables. We had Marinated Vegetable Salad, which is a favorite of mine, and Roasted Carrots, Asparagus, and Brussels Sprouts.
Yes, Brussels Sprouts. Seriously. Actually, I’ve always liked them, but after reading about how much my niece and nephews enjoyed them, we had to try the recipe.
It’s a deep, dark, secret. Very complicated.
(Toss the veggies in olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Bake at 400-ish until done. Half-hour or so. Longer for the carrots, shorter for the asparagus.)
Yes, I used the word Recipes up in my title, so I should give a couple more away.
My sister made this killer Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole at Christmas last year, so we had to try it. (Layer sliced sweet potatoes with thinly sliced Granny Smith Apples, sprinkle some pecans over it, add some butter, orange juice, and brown sugar, and dust with cinnamon. Bake at 400-ish and take it out before it burns. Yes, it was a close call but still delicious.)
Well, we had leftovers of that dish, so I made Leftover Sweet Potato Casserole Pancakes!!!!
I threw the leftovers in the food processor (probably one and a half cups total after pureeing), then mixed in about a cup and a half of flour, a couple of eggs, a cup or so of soymilk, a tablespoon of baking powder, a dash of salt, and some orange zest, and threw it on the griddle.
Awesome! BTW, my opinions of apple desserts are well known and acknowledged by all as wrong. (Weirdly, they’re recorded in that post Other Seth’s mom commented on.)
But the Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole is seriously good, and the pancakes were, as My Son the Breakfast Appetite would say, “ridiclius.” Unfortunately, it only made eleven small pancakes, which is just not enough for five people including the Breakfast Appetite.
(BTW, I’ve been thinking I need a nickname for the Offspring, and I think I have it. The Breakfast Appetite just fits so perfectly. Or maybe The One Whose Spiritual Gift is Breakfast Eating. Or just the Breakfast Eater. Or Ethan the Breakfast Eater. Or maybe a Dances with Wolves-style name like Eats Many Pancakes. Votes? Suggestions?)
We also made from-the-hip Turkey Soup, using the leftover giblet stock and pan drippings that I didn’t turn into the world’s greatest gravy in the world. Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to be redundant when talking about gravy. Especially when you’re a semi-veg family.
(Oh, the Turkey Soup recipe. Some of the amounts are approximate.)
- Some Turkey, chopped.
- A few carrots, chopped.
- Some celery, chopped.
- Some potatoes, chopped.
- An onion, executed in a food processor until dead, then kept on bread and water for two weeks, then beaten roundly with sticks. Please, someone get my clumsy literary reference…
- Garlic, a truckload, to taste.
- Leftover green beans (yes, we had those, too), chopped
- Spices of various kinds. One or more of the bay/basil/marjoram/thyme category.
Sauté the veggies in olive oil until you stop. Then add liquids. Like stock. Or gravy. Or a partial box of Pacific Foods Chicken Broth. (Add leftover mashed potatoes if you somehow managed to run out of gravy before potatoes. It’ll thicken the soup nicely.)
Add fresh cracked pepper and consume with leftover Non-Hockey-Puck Rolls.
Monday Musings: Moustache, Ticket Refund, Pumpkin Recipes
Evidently, there are some people who would now characterize me as having a moustache. And it’s true, to some extent, as my current facial hair involves both a goatee and moustache, also known as the very arcane “moutee” (or Circle Beard). “Van Dyck” is another possible name for it.
(These days, most people just call it a goatee.)
My antipathy for the moustache alone can hardly be overstated. I agree with the statement I once read in the local fish-wrap that “a moustache is no less than a man’s admission to being unable to grow a full beard.”
By the way, for those in my family who may be wondering about the new facial foliage (perhaps seen over on The Fair Elaine’s blog), it was for my Halloween costume. (Dressing up as a coworker who shares my first name, whom we sometimes – affectionately? – call “Evil Seth.”)
I like having less beard to shave. And I’ll enjoy it for a while, then probably tire of the beard and let it go.
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I don’t believe I blogged about the speeding ticket I got on the way to go camping at Fort Stevens. A coworker advised me to mail the fine in along with a letter asking for leniency (or is that lenience?)
Well, it apparently worked, at least a little bit. Because I got a Ticket Refund (25% off, which doesn’t hurt).
However, I’d like to amuse myself, and perhaps some others, by reporting that my name, in full, was written on the citation itself. It was also written on the outside of the envelope in which I mailed the letter. It was further written on the letter itself, in TWO PLACES (business format, you know). So that’s a good four occurrences of my name.
So why, exactly, is my refund check made out to one Seth Morgon Hedsley? (Admittedly, I didn’t include my middle name, so I’ll give them a pass for that and be relieved it didn’t say “Moron.”
Evidently, typing instruction in Clatsop County is somewhat lacking.
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Since I referenced Pumpkin Carving, I figured I’d pass along a few Pumpkin Recipes.
If you’re just the carving type, you can at least roast the seeds:
Roasted Seeds
- Rinsed, dried seeds
- a bit of cooking oil (I used olive)
- seasoning, to taste (I used Mama Garlic – garlic salt)
Mix the seeds and seasoning in a bowl or zip-top bag, then spread out on a cookie sheet and bake for ~30 minutes at 300 degrees, until they begin to brown.
(check on them about halfway through and give them a stir/flip)
By the way, seeds from most varieties of squash can be done this way. Butternut Squash seeds are delicious, but there aren’t many of them in a typical one.
Roasting the actual pumpkin is reeeeeeeaaalllllly easy.
Roasted Pumpkin
(Best done with a pie pumpkin)
Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and orange gunk (roast the seeds!).
Place the pumpkin halves face down in a shallow pan (jelly roll pan) with about a quarter inch or so of water.
Bake at ~425-450 degrees until a fork goes in easily. (Figure about 40 minutes to an hour, depending on size.)
When cooled, the skin will peel off pretty easily. (Or you can scrape the pumpkin out with a spoon.) If you want to use it in recipes, puree it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Freeze it in small amounts (a cup or two) for use in other recipes.
(You can also just serve it with butter, without pureeing it. It’s got a nice, sweet flavor.)
My favorite way to use cooked pumpkin?
Pumpkin Pancakes
(substitute where desired)
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- ½ Tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups milk (or soy milk)
- 1 to 1 ½ cup pureed pumpkin
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup butter, melted
(The original recipe calls for 4 eggs, separated, and then whipping the whites and folding them in. Too much work, IMHO, and it works just fine with fewer eggs and no extra work.)
Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl.
Combine eggs, pumpkin, milk, and melted butter in a small bowl.
Add wet to dry and stir until just combined. Allow the baking powder to start working for a few minutes (also lets the flour hydrate a bit). Ladle onto a 350 degree skillet.
Serve with maple syrup (don’t even think about using the fake stuff or I’ll take the recipe back).
The Fair Elaine also makes a killer pumpkin bundt cake, but I’ll let her share the recipe if she so chooses.
MM: Swim Meet, Lochte, Magician, Rocket Balloons, Sorbet
Ethan had his final swim meet of the summer on Saturday. He won both his individual events and did his normal solid work in his two relays (covering the backstroke and freestyle in the 4x50yd Medley Relay and leg 2 of the 4x50yd Freestyle Relay). The video below shows how much work he had to do in the 25yd breaststroke to come out on top (due to his extreme divejumpfloppiness at the start):
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After the meet and some prep for Ethan’s eighth birthday party, we headed out to J.D. Pence (swim shop) in Cedar Hills for a chance to meet Ryan Lochte (Olympic and World Champion and world-record-holder in the 200m Individual Medley). Ethan was able to get a swim cap and a picture autographed by Ryan and I snapped a photo of them (I am not the family photographer, but I got them both in the picture):
By the way, Ryan stayed well after his posted 4pm quitting time so everyone in line could meet him. Seems like a good dude.
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We didn’t go with a total theme party for Ethan’s birthday, but we decided to employ a magician we’d met at the Farmers’ Market a while back. And Rudy Tinoco was perfect for the party. I watched, trying to figure out how he was pulling off his illusions, but I failed to spot any holes on tricks I didn’t already know the secrets of (and even some of those were tough to spot).
He did a great job with all the boys, and I highly recommend his services.
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When I was shopping for party stuff, I found something cool: Rocket Balloons. Basically they’re like the kind of balloons you’d use for making animals, but they don’t have a rolled lip on them you’d use for tying them off. Because they’re intended to be filled and released.
And boy do they ever fly. Maybe I’ll try to get a video of a high-flyer and post it here. We had several of them go really high. I even found a website where you can get them (I found them locally at Party Time at Tanasbourne).
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As it was Ethan’s birthday, I made my traditional (and world-famous at least in my house) Blackberry Sorbet. And here’s the from-the-hip recipe:
- A bunch of blackberries, picked no more than 100 yards from my house (I figure I used 8-12 cups for this huge batch. But we picked waaay more than that and I’m probably coming up short on my estimate. The leftover berries are now sitting in my kitchen in their new life as a pie.)
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- simple syrup (2:1 ratio sugar/water) to taste (I think I actually used 1:1 now that I think of it, and it was 2 cups or so.)
Rinse the berries. Blend them in a blender. Strain the seeds out in a sieve (pour the liquid in, then stir with a wooden spoon until there’s a nice seed-sludge left over) --- it will take several batches of straining unless your sieve is huge.
Refrigerate for at least several hours (I cool it in the actual ice-cream maker container, and usually overnight so I don’t have to do the prep the day of an event.) This step is important in order to get it to freeze not only faster but better.
Freeze it in your ice-cream machine, per your machine’s instructions.
That actually makes it look harder than it is. The stuff gets raves, and I don’t feel like it’s very difficult to do. I’ve tried other fruits, but nothing comes close to blackberry in my experience (though raspberry is pretty awesome, too).
MM: Canker Sores, Mental Floss, Recipes, Freezer Jam, Swim Meet
I get canker sores. A lot. Most of the time I have at least one, and many times I end up with a mouth full of them. And they're really no fun at all. I've got one right now that's almost healed, but it's right at the back of my throat and the size of a small aircraft. Okay, the size of a pencil eraser. And it has not been fun to live with. When drinking water hurts, that's a problem. When it makes it hard to read aloud to my son, that's a problem.
The trouble is, I can't point to any really reliable triggers. True, nuts seem to aid in their formation, but it's not a 100% correlation. I've read that stress is a factor, but I'm a relatively low-stress person.
What I'd really like is a reliable cure for them. Even cutting a day off their ferocity would be more than welcome. The one I have now caused all the glands in the right side of my face to swell up. My face actually hurt!
Anyone have a suggestion? I'd really welcome it.
(edit) Actually, I just found a product called Canker Cover that claims to heal a sore within 24 hours. I am so all over that. I'm going to pick some up today and give them a whirl. I'll post my review of them after an adequate study can be completed.
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Mental Floss has the tagline "Where knowledge junkies go to get their fix." And that's pretty much true. It's basically a panorama of trivia, and they've almost always got something interesting posted in their blog area. The Quiz area can eat up a lot of time if you let it, and I hereby challenge anyone reading this to take their "50 States in 5 minutes" quiz. Fun stuff, even if it sometimes makes a guy feel dumb.
One other thing Mental Floss does well is a 5-day Trivia Hunt they call How Did You Know?. Exercise your brain and maybe win a prize!
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I'm not a particularly gifted cook, but I can follow recipes pretty well. But for some things, I just shoot from the hip. For instance, my hummus recipe goes something like this:
Into the food processor go:
- 2 cans of chickpeas (or other beans), drained (but saving a bit of the liquid)
- several large soup spoons full of tahini (roasted or raw)
- a couple of cloves of garlic, minced (or a whole head of roasted garlic)
- some salt
- some cumin
- some other spices (Pepperman, perhaps?)
- the juice of one lemon
- some sesame oil
Add chickpea liquid if necessary. Woo!
As you might guess, sometimes I get the World's Greatest Hummus (that time I made it with Great Northern Beans, oh yeah), and sometimes it's just not quite there.
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Another hip-shooting recipe I used not long ago was for freezer jam. We're committed to making enough jam to last us the winter with summery fruits, and we've been successful so far. We've got plenty of Hood Strawberry jam and some Albion Strawberry and Raspberry, too. But the unexpected star thus far has been my Blueberry-Raspberry jam. It went like this:
- All the blueberries and raspberries I had
- 1.5 cups sugar
- juice and zest of one lemon
- one package freezer pectin
Berries and juice into food processor. Sugar and pectin mixed together in a bowl. Berry mix added to bowl, stirred for three minutes. Into jars and lids screwed on. Thirty minutes later, into the freezer.
(It was about two pints of blueberries and half a pint of raspberries. And it's AWESOME! It seriously will not last the winter unless I make more.)
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Elaine put up a post about Ethan's first swim meet, so rather than blather, I'll just send you to her.
MMM: Baseball, Birkenstocks, Bread, Book Sale, Reading, Despereaux
I ran out of B-words for the subject line, but I think four is more than sufficient to fill my alliteration-quotient for the week.
Well, our baseball team has officially had two games, and they're definitely easier than practices. Because we do the same thing every time. Yes, I have to figure out where to play the kids, and what order to bat them in, but that's really no biggie. The games have just been fun so far.
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As we can now expect to be seeing some sunnier weather on a more regular-ish basis, I got myself some new Birkenstocks from Birkenstockcentral.com. Once again I got Milanos, because I like the heel strap. The one thing I did change was the material. I went with Birko-Flor. It's a synthetic, "leather-like" material, and I'm actually diggin' it. I'm not doing it to spare a cow its hide, though. They were on sale, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try something new. I actually like how soft the underside of the straps are. Very comfy. And they're already starting to break-in so it's not so much like walking on manhole covers.
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I went bread-crazy this weekend. Well, Sunday anyway. We had a freezer full of bananas, so I made some banana bread. I made one "normal" Banana Walnut loaf, and one Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze. Yeah, it's every bit as good as it sounds. Incredible, actually. And I'm actually surprised it survived the night. But now I can inform you that it goes really well with Sleepy Monk Monastery Blend coffee.
I also made my own croutons for my normal entirely-too-large-salads I have for lunch. I went with Alton Brown's recipe from his "Hail Caesar Salad" show. I likes me some croutons.
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The Hillsboro Main Library (on Brookwood) is having their biannual Book Sale, and I got four really nice hardcovers. I found Timothy Zahn's Conqueror series (so, dad, you can keep that copy of Conqueror's Pride) and Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch, which I'll read if I ever get through with my current library backlog.
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And on the subject of that backlog, my reading has been coming along nicely lately. I'm actually doing something I normally don't: reading two books at a time. Oh, it's true, I've generally got four or five books I'm juggling, but there's nearly always just one that I'm really working on. The others just come into things when I misplace the One or when I'm reading to Ethan.
I should be finishing both books this week, I think. So look for the reviews next Monday Morning. The titles? I'll give you a hint (if you don't want to just look at My Reading Lists): electricity and geopolitics.
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It's really feast or famine on MMM lately. Nothing last week, and now more than four hundred words this week. Anyway, I did manage to finish a book. I read Ethan The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo, and he loved it. Never wanted to stop reading it. So now we'll have to pick up the movie and give it a look.
Too Funny Tuesdays: Flight of the Turkey
Seeing that it's close to Thanksgiving and all, I figured I should go with a Turkey-themed Funny. Turns out Jennie-O had just the recipe for me.
(video embedded)
MMM: Global Handwashing Day, Shoes, Football, Lentil Soup
Perhaps you'd expect to see this announcement over at the Handwasher Blog, but Mr. Handwasher and I agreed that if less is more, imagine how much more more could be! So, you may see this in two places. The announcement? October 15th. Save the date. It's Global Handwashing Day!!!
Now, I realize that the "holiday" is meant to bring awareness and improved cleansing of hands around the world, particularly in developing nations and places where infectious disease is more of a threat than here in the good-old-U.S. But I think it's a great time to encourage all the fake-hand-washers you know to make some sort of attempt at actual hygiene.
Don't think you know any fakers? You do. Just pick ten random men that you know. Eight or nine of them are fakers. I'm totally going to make a sign to post on the mirror in my work restroom. I'll post (er, I mean, Mr. Handwasher will post) a picture of it on the Handwasher Blog.
Oh...linkage. Check out the Global Handwashing Day website.
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Just a random thing about me...I don't like shoes. I feel they have extremely limited utility. I like my Birkenstocks, but mostly even then because I can easily kick them off while at my desk. I nearly always buy shoes with no laces so I can slip them off whenever I feel like it...which is most of the time.
However, I have a pair of Steve Maddens from Famous Footwear that I rarely take off even when I could. I actually like a pair of shoes!!!
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As much as I harp on football, I actually do enjoy football highlights. I just don't like that Sportscenter can always find a way to lead with football even when it's not football season. Yesterday, Ethan and I turned on Fox to watch the NLCS and caught the last few minutes of the Cowboys-Cardinals game. Ending it in overtime on a blocked punt touchdown was awesome. And the Cowboys lost, which always brings a smile to my face.
There were actually two blocked punts on Sunday. Cool. There was a cool double reverse pass thingy...nice. I'm a sucker for trick plays. Baseball's still better, but I can appreciate the good parts of football, even if the over-the-top celebrations for well-timed tackles bother me.
And I've realized that Ethan's sports education is a bit one-sided. He knows that you can take first base if the catcher drops strike three and first base is open, but he had no idea what a touchdown was. He thinks football is a game we play out in the greenspace, where I kick the ball, then let him get to it, pick him up, and shake him upside down until he drops it. At some point maybe I'll fill in some of the blanks for him. I don't want him to be one of those guys who's nervous to go to a Super Bowl party because he's afraid the other guys will find out he doesn't know anything about the game.
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While The Fair Elaine was out of town, I decided to cook. I made awesome Lentil Soup. Here's the recipe if you're interested. It's vegan and delicious. Oh, and it was an alteration of a recipe from the Veganomicon.
2 cups lentils (Any of the brown/green/black variety should work. Pink or yellow not so much)
8 cups vegetable broth (I used Imagine Foods' "No Chicken Broth")
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
1 small/medium onion
4 Yukon gold potatoes
4 cloves garlic (feel free to adjust to taste)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Finely dice the onion. Mince the garlic. Chop the carrots and celery into 1/4" slices. Cut potatoes into chunks of whatever size you wish.
In a large pot (I used cast iron), saute the veggies in the olive oil until the onions start to color. Maybe 5-10 minutes.
Add the spices, vegetable broth, and lentils. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer 45 minutes or until lentils are tender.
Serve with whole grain bread. Yum!
BTW, I also added some leeks because I had them. But I don't think they'd make or break the recipe. Oh, and Ethan loved the soup. He even ate leftovers the next day.