Squash-a-palooza

December 22nd, 2006

For a Halloween party, I bought squash for decoration, they began to go bad, I roasted them, and then had to cook them. I then bought another bunch of squash as decoration for Thanksgiving. Lather, rinse, repeat and I had three batches of roast squashes to deal with.

The pumpkin was obvious. I made Impossible Pumpkin Pie. Even though I accidentally baked it at the roasting temp (400F) instead of the called-for temp (350F), it showed again that pumpkin pie made with real pumpkin is as good or better than that from canned. The higher temp made the top bubbled and a little overbrown, but the good thing about baking is that mistakes often just make the item uglier, not less tasty.

With four cups of Hubbard squash puree, I made a simple squash lasagna from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food.

Finally, with about 2 cups of Red Kabocha puree, I made up a recipe for squash croquettes. I had good results, and will continue to fiddle with the recipe.

Brown Rice and Winter Squash Croquettes with Horseradish-Dill sauce

1 small bunch beets
1 cup roasted squash
2 cups cooked brown rice (try Lundberg Wehani for stronger flavor)
1/4 bread crumbs, more as needed
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme

1 Tbl. butter
1 tsp. brown rice vinegar

1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. prepared horseradish

Preheat oven to 400. Trim and wash beet greens. Roast beets with skin on in foil packet for about an hour, or till very soft. Cool. Remove skin and cut into 1/2″ cubes.

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine beets, squash, brown rice, bread crumbs and herbs. Mix lightly until combined. Add breadcrumbs if mixture is too wet to form patties. Form eight small or four large patties. Place on baking sheet and bake until warmed through and golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine yogurt and herbs in small bowl for sauce. Saute beet greens in butter until wilted, then drizzle with brown rice vinegar. Divide among four plates. Place croquette(s) on greens, and drizzle 1 Tbl. sauce over each.

Added later: this recipe keeps evolving in my head. I think apple or cranberry chutney would go nicely with this.

When Developmental Stages Clash

December 21st, 2006

3yo Drake and 10mo Guppy are at two important developmental stages. Unfortunately, these stages are not complementary. About three times a day, I have to decide between unsupervised baby in high chair, or unsupervised three year old in bathroom on different floor.

Guppy is learning to feed himself small pieces of solid food. He needs constant supervision in case of choking.

Drake is learning to use the toilet, but we don’t have a bath on the main floor, so he has to go upstairs. Not only does he insist he needs help, he actually does, to keep things in their proper place and to ensure he washes his hands and doesn’t run the water for fifteen minutes. Also, I don’t like to refuse him help when he asks, to encourage both his communication and his bathroom use.

Unsurprisingly, I mostly stick with Guppy: choking trumps bathroom disaster almost every time.

Buyer’s Remorse

December 21st, 2006

I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am that I bought Merry Christmas from the Chipmunks last year. I had a fit of nostalgia, and wanted to share something from my childhood with Drake. He ignored it. Until this year, when he plays it over and over again.

The Chipmunks do not get funnier, or less annoying, with repeated listenings. Mommy madness, indeed.

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens

December 20th, 2006

#65 in my book challenge for the year was this Dickens collection of Christmas stories. I find it interesting how thoroughly the tale has pervaded our lives that it was completely familiar to me though I’d never read it before. I found it well worth reading. The main points of the story are well known, but I was glad to experience the writing and the details. And though I generally avoid them, I found the introduction by the late Frederick Busch–a writer I admire a great deal–to be insightful and helpful. Marley’s ghost starts scary, then becomes sympathetic. A scene from Christmas yet to come echoes Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth. On the surface, it’s more about the culture of the holiday than its religion. Yet there is a steady tension throughout between the joy of children and the inevitability of death that mirrors the bittersweet note in the joy of Christmas, that the death of Good Friday is not far off.

Jeans: The Eternal Dilemma

December 19th, 2006

A friend commented after we returned from a recent get-together, “Wow, there was a lot of inappropriate back fat.” It was a statement, not a judgment. Not only did I agree, but I was also a likely exhibitor. Full-time caring for small children means a lot of bending, squatting and other contortions. And while the current cut of pants may be more flattering than those of the past, it’s not at all forgiving in the coverage arena. Plumber’s butt isn’t so much a risk as a certainty to be minimized by strategically placing one’s back out of sight.

The current trend in jeans is low rise and straight leg or boot cut. A wider cut at the bottom, instead of a tapered one, is almost universally flattering. The low rise gives, but the low rise also takes away. The low rise provides less of a surface area for the bum, so it gives the illusion that the bum is smaller. In the front, it makes the pelvic area look normally sized, rather than something that goes halfway up one’s torso. But what gets added in flattering illusion gets paid for with practical problems. Since the jeans sit below the waist, they fall down more easily since they’re starting at a wider point. Also, they start lower, so there’s less room to fall.

Annoyed by this conundrum, I delved into my closet last night and unearthed the several pairs of Levi’s 560s for juniors that I have been meaning to sell on Ebay for ages. They’re no longer made, because they’re high waisted and tapered leg–anathema to the current fashion vernacular. But I tried them on, and not only do they fit, they give great coverage. The leg isn’t aggressively tapered. They lack spandex, so they don’t give like most jeans these days so, but that also means they don’t cling to every lump of cellulite.

So for now I’m giving these old jeans a try. I’ll see if the freedom from worry about flashing back fat trumps my insecurity about looking large-bummed with tiny ankles.

Christmas Carols vs. Holiday Songs

December 17th, 2006

To me, a Christmas carol is something from a hymnal. This is in contrast to a holiday song, like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Jingle Bells”. My husband G. Grod wonders if those might be carols, though, because they’re sung by carolers. He suggests that “Santa Baby” is a holiday song, but “Silver Bells” is a carol. I still think that a proper carol is religious, and about the birth of Jesus. I think it’s interesting whenever I see interviews asking people what their favorite holiday music is. Few name carols; most name songs.

I think my favorite Christmas carol is “Gabriel’s Message“. I also like “The Coventry Carol“, (coincidence only that both are covered on A Very Special Christmas) and the alternate tunes for “Away in a Manger” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

My favorite Christmas song, though, is a guilty pleasure that reminds me of the big hair and bad fashion of the 80s–”Do They Know It’s Christmas”. I bought the LP for my sister as a gift that year.

Drake is enamored of our library copy of Tomie DePaola’s Book of Christmas Carols, which I was sad to learn was out of print. It has many carols, lovely illustrations, and music as well. Drake’s favorites, thus far, are the first two in the book, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “The First Noel”. He has been delighting relatives by singing these over the phone.

Today’s Impulse Buy

December 15th, 2006

How thrilled was I to find this at my grocery coop today? It’s local; it’s delicious. And now it’s easy to buy. I have thus far managed not to eat it straight, with a spoon. I don’t think I’ll be able to resist much longer.

Geek Love

December 14th, 2006

Why am I so tired today? Because I have a cold, and have been caring for my two sons who also have colds? Because baby Guppy woke before 4 a.m., wanting to be fed?

No, it’s because yesterday was new-comic day, and my husband G. Grod and I stayed up late reading comic books in bed.

No wonder we can’t get Drake to turn out the lights and stop reading. It’s his birthright.

Well, That Backfired

December 13th, 2006

My husband and I have done such a good job of imparting a love of books to our 3yo Drake, we have trouble getting him to put them down. This becomes a problem when he needs to go to sleep. G. Grod and I will turn out the light and leave the room. When we get downstairs, we’ll hear the sound of turning pages, so ten to fifteen minutes later one of us will go up, turn off the light and tell him to get in bed, and we’ll repeat till it works. Kinda like letting him cry it out, but with books. During one of our many recent viruses, though, I decided to lock his book closet again to encourage him to get rest. The books were away, but unfortunately, the Aquaphor was not. I found Drake in his room with petroleum jelly product in his hair, on his chair, and on his bed. He was asleep in his chair, with his hands clutched around the jar of Aquaphor. Since then, the tub of Aquaphor is out of reach, and the books are always available. I’d like to say that if he chooses not to nap, that’s his problem, but of course it’s not. His irritability and meltdowns become all our problems. But I think I’d rather deal with those than with petroleum jelly smeared hither and yon.

Sage Advice

December 12th, 2006

As my third cold in three months progresses from bad to worse during this jam-packed holiday season, I am mindful of the advice I’m getting from friends as well as those helping me with my post-partum depression:

1. Rest
2. Make and take time for myself
3. Go easier on myself
4. Ask for help

Why is it the simplest stuff is so often the hardest to do?

Justin Roberts, Cedar Cultural Center 12/02/06

December 11th, 2006

Children’s singer Justin Roberts was in town on a recent weekend, and I took my 3yo son, Drake. We knew some of Justin’s songs, but I thought that would be enough to engage Drake. It was, sort of. Drake listened, and enjoyed, but he also insisted on wandering to the lobby, and dancing by himself out there. Justin and his band are energetic performers. They gave suggested hand, finger or body motions for many of the refrains of his songs. I knew that enthusiastically doing the motions was a good example not just for my kid, but also for others. It does signal a kind of death of dignity, though. Any vestige of my teenaged self who was snotty and above all that just packed up and left for good. Drake didn’t feel compelled to follow the body motions, so I felt extra goofy doing them on my own. What he did feel a strong draw to, though, was the green room. He kept sneaking, running, or otherwise sidling back to it and trying to get in. At first, I wondered if it might be an omen that he’d be in a band. Then I realized it was behavior more characteristic of a groupie.

Thankfully, Drake has continued to sing the songs after the show, so the groupie thing wasn’t my final impression. Drake named his toy whale Willy today. And I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of the refrain of “No” from “Doctor Doctor”, attempting to dispel tension when Drake is being “oppositional”.

Battlestar Blues

December 10th, 2006

I don’t like Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, either. I’m bored. I’m annoyed. I’m not seeing anything new or interesting. I am waiting to see if it gets better, or if I’m done with it. I am strugging to recall anything from the last episode that advanced the storyline on the Galactica. All I saw was a hackneyed plot, repeats of characterizations that have been done better before, and a seemingly random killing off of a minor character. As for the Cylons: the Cylon three-way? Ick. The piano music is enough to drive me away on its own. And what about the baby?!

The Honeymoon is Over

December 10th, 2006

Baby Guppy is ten months now. He is crawling and pulling himself up. He has teeth and loves to eat. Additionally, like any growing child, he’s decided that the toys I think are best for him are too babyish, so he’s ignoring them and pursuing 3yo Drake’s toys, which are chock-full of chokable bits. He is also fascinated by the top of the stairs, and can get there very quickly. He also isn’t fooled a bit by the “pretty little house” we got to keep him contained and safe from the attention of his older brother. He screams if we put him in it. Even if he didn’t, Drake either climbs in and shows affection in the way that causes G. Grod and me much anxiety. Or Drake opens the door and lets Guppy out. Guppy then crawls to some of Drake’s toys, Drake starts to cry, and takes defensive action, then Guppy cries and needs to be picked up.

I miss my cute, toothless baby who stayed where I put him, and played with the toys I put in front of him. That stage was awesome. Don’t get me wrong; this stage is fun. But it’s a great deal more work for my tired, virus-ridden self.

Wondering

December 7th, 2006

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.

I am fond of a little treat with breakfast. Are Organic Toaster Pastries

a) an oxymoron
b) plain silly
c) just another form of rationalization?
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

Discuss.

DVD recommendations

December 6th, 2006

For fans of The Office (US), check out Undeclared. By Judd Apatow, who did Freaks and Geeks and The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, it’s a sitcom about a group of kids in their first year of college. The first few episodes have guest spots by Jenna Fisher and Amy Poehler. It’s funny in the same cringe-inducing, mouth agape way that The Office is. And Loudon Wainwright III is hilarious as Steven’s dad.

Feeling stressed or blue? Feeling like Hugh Laurie on House is just too mean? Then check out Jeeves and Wooster on DVD. The episodes are funny without being cruel, and are good restoratives for the soul. I found both the DVDs and short stories by Wodehouse recommended at Mental Multivitamin, and they’ve been happy additions to my life.

Casino Royale

December 5th, 2006

# 51 in my movie challenge for the year. Yet another date night, and we managed to do both dinner and a movie, because the pizza at the newest Punch is ridiculously quick, and decent to boot. My husband G. Grod’s and my second date was Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan’s debut as Bond. It wasn’t great, but we’ve gone on these eleven years to have a pretty decent relationship in spite of merely OK movies on our first and second dates. (The first was Get Shorty.) But Casino Royale was something I wasn’t expecting: a very good Bond movie. It was fun to watch, it didn’t rely overmuch on gadgets, it had a nice homage to a classic Aston Martin, and it gave Judi Dench a good number of scenes in which to chew up the screen. Daniel Craig makes a very good Bond. He’s fit, he’s handsome, he’s a good actor. My only complaint is that he’s yet a bit long in the tooth to be playing the early-career Bond from this story. But I think it’s a problem inherent in the character. By the time an actor has enough panache to play the worldly Bond, they’re old enough that the three year gap between movies means for a quick obsolescence.

Oh, ouch. Craig is almost the exact same age as I am, even a few days younger. Then again, I’m just a midwestern American mother of two; I have no plans to appear as an action hero anytime soon.

Pretty Food

December 4th, 2006

The trouble with buying food as decoration is that eventually it must be used or tossed. I am strangely and strongly opposed to throwing food away, so this usually means coming up with a wacky recipe on the fly to use up as much food as quickly as possible, or cooking several things in a row. For Thanksgiving, I bought organic and mostly local produce: apples, pomegranates, a Fuyu persimmon, a Meyer lemon, a blue hubbard squash, and a red kabocha squash. Yesterday it was clear that the apples, persimmon, and pomegranate couldn’t go one more moment. I cut and steamed the apples, then pureed them in the food mill, forgetting to save a few slices to freeze as teething treats for baby Guppy. The persimmon was so ripe that I simply cut it in half and put it through the food mill. It made a brilliant orange puree. The pomegranate was a giant pain, but I did finally extract all the ruby seeds. This morning I drizzled the persimmon over a bowl of sheep milk yogurt, then sprinkled the pomegranate seeds on top. It was gorgeous, and delicious. It reminded me of food I made for baby Guppy recently. I pureed asparagus, which was a rich, bright green, alongside a Liberty apple with deep red skin that produced a brilliant pink applesauce. Yes, it’s more of a pain to make food from scratch, but the look of of these foods enhances the flavors even further.

Zorro by Isabel Allende

December 4th, 2006

#64 in my book challenge for the year was Isabel Allende’s Zorro. A kind friend had an extra ticket to see Allende last month, so I moved Zorro to the top of my reading list. Allende was intelligent, political, and funny in person, so I’m glad I went. But not only could I not finish the book in time for the event, but it took me nearly three weeks to read. I’m not sure if it took so long because of life circumstances (holiday, family visit, nearly constant family viruses) or because I didn’t love the book. Reviews say it’s a page turner with great characterization. I didn’t find it to be either. It’s clear that Allende did a lot of research into the history of the Zorro legend and the time period. While I found the historical details interesting, especially about Spain and the Spanish treatment of the native Americans, I never felt very engaged with the characters. Is it history or coincidence that the clever girl in the story is named Isabel? Additionally, what struck me at the end was how much the character of Batman owes to the legend of Zorro.

New Picture Books: Two Hits

December 2nd, 2006

The new favorite picture book in our house is AlphaOops! by Alethea Kontis, illustrated by Bob Kolar. (If you follow the link to amazon, be sure to check out the reviews by Alethea’s father and grandmother. They endeared this book even more to me.) It is the kind of book that editors talk about at writing conferences when they say they would never take an alphabet book, unless it were by an established author (like Betsy Cronin’s Click, Clack, Quackity, Quack) or were something fresh and different. This is a great example of taking a completely saturated type (alphabet book) and turning it on its head. The subtitle is “The Day Z Went First” but the book doesn’t simply go backward. The letters have differently personalities and get in fights that are remarkably similar to those of toddlers, especially re: turns and fairness. There is a band along the bottom keeping track of which letters went in the revised order, and many of the example props take an active role in the visual storytelling. The art is clear and engaging, but also so detailed that it compels one to go slowly to read all the visual jokes. This book is funny and clever, and the text and art are a joy to read. For more AlphaOops!, go to the author’s website.

Chowder, by Peter Brown, is another recent favorite. Chowder is an iconoclastic bulldog, who acts more like a person than a dog. When he tries to befriend the animals in a petting zoo, he fails initially but goes on to save the day. Brown’s art is distinctive and well executed, and the typesetting is varied and skillfully done. It’s a good story about finding friends and making family.

This Is Just Wrong

December 1st, 2006

Helen Oxenbury’s Tom and Pippo books are out of print! As a lifelong fan of children’s books, I know I should be accustomed to the out-of-print thing, One of my family’s favorite holiday tales, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, has long been out of print even though it was turned into a quite decent holiday special by Jim Hensen. Even so I haven’t become sufficiently inured to learning that a book I want isn’t easy to buy.

The Tom and Pippo books were recommended by a reader, who said that she had an entire collection. Lucky reader! The copies at our library are quite ragged, but they’ll have to suffice for now. I can hope that they come back into print, as sometimes happens with popular authors and illustrators. The simple text coupled with the charming drawings, and the sweet relationship between the boy and his toy monkey should have a wider audience than those of us that comb library shelves and used-book stores.