some things about the critter

NOTE: i started writing this back in january. it's now april, and i am just getting around to finishing it. this is an indication of a) how quickly the time passes, and b) how little time i have to blog these days. whew! however, i still love this information, so i am still posting. prepare for a long one...



the critter, he's getting so big, and there are so many things about him i want to remember. three and a half turns out to be a tough age. he's getting independent, but still needs us. he's developing opinions, but still can't really make his own choices. he's talking more and more and better and better, but still can't always make himself understood. he's got too much energy to nap, but not enough to get through the day. all in all, it makes for an almost bi-polar child who's either elated or completely frustrated. he throws tantrums you would not believe. but he's also a delight. it's all one big roller coaster these days. here are some things i want to remember, in no real order.

• he picks me a flower every morning at daycare when we arrive. we can't go in until he finds one. he hands it to me and says, "mama, here's a flower for your work! you can put it in water if you like!"
• he has 3 imaginary dogs called hardware, take-out, and jack. hardware is the biggest and the oldest and is very lazy. take-out is a blue heeler and the smartest. jack is little and sometimes bites. the stories about these dogs are endless. they are all boys. they have imaginary leashes and toys. they go for walks, just like our real dog.
• he still rides his little fisher price fire truck, for which he is WAY too big. that said, he's a daredevil on that thing and can make it spin out and slide to a stop in a very dramatic manner. he comes flying into the kitchen on it, screms it to a sliding stop half an inch from my foot, looks up at me and says, " stop it--you know you love it!" (WHERE does he get these things???)
• he's super fast on his scooter as well. he has pinwheels he puts on the handles of it so that they stick out on each side, one yellow and one blue. they spin as he rides, and he tells me that they are cooling fans. he puts his toy pliers over the rear axel "to make it go faster." the child is three, and he already believes in after-market mods on his vehicles.
• he tells me he's more of a cat person than a dog person because cats are calmer.
• every night we snuggle a minute in his bed before he goes to sleep. he tells me about his day, and then we have a set routine of hugs and kisses we have to go through. it started as 3 hugs and 3 kisses, but now it's those, plus higs and kisses for the following: firetrucks, fire engines (yes, they're different), bill ( his friend at school's alter-ego name), ribbon (HIS alter-ego name), caitlin (another friend), and one for the road. we repeat this same sequence at daycare drop-off.
• he has chosen a name for his t-rex alter ego: ribbon. mr. ribbon the nice t-rex, to be exact. he will argue sometimes that this is actually his real name, and not kieran. we still call him critter, too. it's all very confusing.
• ribbon's friend's name is harry (not to be confused with our actual real friend harry), and he's a parasaurolophus who makes noise with the bony crest on his year. the fact that he can say parasaurolophus blows me away, especially when he still has trouble with leading s's.
• the kid is obsessed with the mars rover. it is both a ROBOT and a SPACESHIP, and this is awesome. we got him a bunch of space themed bedding for his room, and his main observation was that there was no mars rover represented. because i am a sucker, i went online, downloaded a super high res image of one, and had it made into a pillowcase for him. he's beyond delighted, and carries it all over the house. win.

a few months ago at daycare, he was "friend of the week," which means he was kind of the focus in his class for a few minutes every day. every week, it's a different kid, and that kid gets to bring something in to share with the class every day as well as share his favorite books, snacks, toys, etc. you can do as much or as little as you want to enhance this for your child, and i'd say we're kind of middle of the road. k and i discussed it at length, and he decided he wanted to bring in a book to share every day, and then we decided we would alternate between snacks and toys so that he could give something he likes to his class every day. it's so cute how excited he is to share with them! we also had to do a questionnaire together, which was great fun for both of us. i went through, asked him the questions, and wrote down his answers. i tried hard not to lead him, and just let him answer for himself. some of the answers surprised me. i took pictures of the questionnaire so we could look back at his answers in a few years for comparison--click here if you want to see his crazy answers.

we also went on our first big trip together, just me and the critter, in january. we took the train to washington DC to visit our dear friend, meredith, and spend the weekend sightseeing, critter-style. he was awesome and brave, and had a TON of fun. we went to the natural history museum and the air and space museum, and it's an utter tossup which one he loved more. between the t-rex and the mars rover, i think his head about exploded! he's still talking about all he saw and did, aunt meredith's apartment, the food (especially the cupcakes), and the trains, both amtrak and subway, that we took. he LOVED the taxi ride. all in all, it made me want to travel more. he wants to fly somewhere next. so awesome.

the boy is into food. i LOVE this of course, and i really hope it's something we keep in common between us as he grows older. he loves to help me in the kitchen, and he has food jealousy that may actually be worse than mine. he likes to go to the farmers market with me and talk about what we will cook from the foods we buy there. he has to try everything, even totally unfamiliar foods. when i was out of town a couple of weeks ago, he gave his dad a long lecture on the importance of eating healthy and playing outside and getting enough exercise. i'm just going to go ahead and call that a parenting win. :)

he's my little man. he tells me he loves me to the sun and back. i love him to the sun and back...twice.

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dark days of winter meal 7: chicken and dumplings

i guess i missed a couple of weeks there--i am doing a LOT of local cooking, but the blogging part is often hard for me to keep up with. especially true when there have been some family illnesses to deal with on top of all the normal life madness. not making excuses...just explaining where the heck i've been. to me, the point of this challenge is to make me aware of where everything we eat originates and to make as much of an effort as i can to keep things as local as possible.

on the menu

• chicken and dumplings with kohlrabi and baby carrots
  

(WORST. PICTURE. EVER. --sorry!)

local ingredients

• whole stewing hen from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
  
• cutting celery from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
  
• kohlrabi from coon rock farm (hillsborough, nc, 35 miles)*
  
• mixed baby carrots from coon rock farm (hillsborough, nc, 35 miles)*
  
• thyme from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
  
• whole wheat pastry flour from singing turtle farm (dunn, nc, 54 miles)*
• rendered lard from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
  
• butter from maple view farm (hillsborough, nc 35 miles)
  
• buttermilk from maple view farm (hillsborough, nc 35 miles)
  
  

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• onion
  
• pepper
  
• salt
  
• baking powder
  
• sugar
  

easy: this is a meal i planned for while walking through the farmers market, so it was very easy to get all the ingredients on the spot. some things i already had on hand.

challenging: oddly, nothing to report here. i have accepted the salt, pepper, baking powder, and sugar limitations, so there were no issues there. i just use those things as sparingly as i can, and keep the focus more on the local things i CAN get.

recipes

chicken stock

ingredients:
1 whole stewing hen, about 3 lbs.
1/2 large yellow onion
4-5 stalks of cutting celery
a bunch of thyme
salt and pepper to taste

directions: this one's easy. place all ingredients in a large stock pot. add water until everything is well covered with maybe 1.5 inches to spare. bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. cook until the meat is starting to separate from the bone, about 4 hours. remove chicken and strain the broth into a clean soup pot. add salt and pepper to taste.
note: you now have awesome broth--you could make anything! :)

chicken and dumplings with carrots and kohlrabi

ingredients:
1.5 - 2lbs young fresh carrots
~1 lb kohlrabi, about 2 bulbs
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp lard
3/4 cup buttermilk

directions:
trim carrot stems to about 1/2 an inch, then peel carrots. trim away thinnest part of root if necessary. peel and dice kohlrabi to about 1/2 inch chunks. return the broth to a slow boil, and meanwhile, make the dumplings. in large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. cut in butter and lard with a pastry knife or work in with fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. aff buttermilk all at once and make a sticky dough. turn onto floured surface and lightly knead (more like patting) until dough gets just a little springy. roll out to about 3/8 inch thickness, and cut out dumplings (i used a 1-inch round cutter, but you can use whatever you like.) when the broth is boiling, add the veggies and let them cook for about 5 minutes befor eyou add the dumplings. add them slowly, one at a time, till they are all in. note that if your pot is furiously boiling, it will break the dumplings apart. go slow, and cook at a soft boil. everything should be done by the time the veggies are tender, about 10 more minutes.

note: the dumplings are adapted from the biscuit recipe in bill neal's souther cooking cookbook, and they definitely need a little tweaking to get just right. when i made this, i think i added too much buttermilk, so i cut the amount here back a little to 3/4 of a cup. my dumplings fell apart more than i would have liked, although they tasted great. next time i will put in 3/4 cup buttermilk, and maybe up the other fats just a little while dropping 1/2 a tsp of baking powder. the kitchen, as y'all well know, is a lab.

family ruling
AWESOME! will absolutely be making this again.

further thoughts
there are few foods on the earth more divine than fresh baby carrots. so. delicious.

kohlrabi is turning out to be a new favorite of mine. it's like a cross between jicama, broccoli, and a potato. it's good julienned and added raw to salads, it's good in stirfry and sautes for pasta, and it's delicious in stews and soups. it brings a lot to the table, and there's nothing hard to prepare about it. i was kind of intimidated by it at first, but now i want more, and i can't wait to try making slaw out of it, too. it seems like you could use it with or in place of many other things. i wonder if i could make it mashed with some cheese? steamed? in strips with hummus in my lunch box? it seems remarkably useful, healthy, and versatile. let's hear it for cool new (to me) veggies!

one last note on lard: this was my first time working with it, and man--it's pretty awesome. it's the texture--it's smooth as silk, and so easy to work into the flour. i think i might have to try making some tortillas. i am almost sorry i liked it as much as i did--it's not exactly the healthiest fat. but i just wanted to check it out. i felt so old school! i'd be interested to know if you've every cooked with it, and what you thought. my mother always swore it made her biscuits. i wonder if it would mine, too...

dark days of winter, meal 6: one pot meal challenge

the dark days of winter challenge is starting to have some theme and challenge weeks here and there. this week's theme is soups and one pot meals. i decided to challenge myself to see if i could make this from what i already had in the kitchen with zero shopping or planning. sometimes i think i do better when there are limitations that force me to become creative.

on the menu

• hearty winter stew with chicken and cabbage
  
• rosemary beer bread
  

local ingredients

• whole chicken from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
  
• wheat berries from singing turtle farm (dunn, nc, 54 miles)*
  
• cabbage from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
  
• homemade chicken stock from my freezer
  
• sweet josie brown ale from lonerider brewery
  
• bay leaves from east wake apiary (wake county, nc, exact mileage unknown) *
  
• whole wheat bread flour from singing turtle farm (dunn, nc, 54 miles)*
  
• rosemary from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
  

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• salt
  
• pepper
  
• garlic
  
• onion
  
• butter
  
• baking powder
  

easy: honestly i thought this would be harder. i turn out to have a really well stocked fridge and pantry. lol.

challenging: the challenge here was staying local. there were some things in my fridge that needed to be used and were not local--i couldn't see the value of seeking out the local counterpart to something i already had if it meant wasting something. so--i used the half an onion in my crisper rather than try to find a local onion. for all i know, it WAS a local onion--either way--it went in the stew.

recipes

hearty winter stew with chicken and cabbage
this one's 100% made up.
ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 cup wheat berries
1/2 large yellow onion
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup water
2 cloves garlic
2-3 bay leaves
1 small to medium head of green cabbage
1 cup dark beer
salt and pepper to taste

directions: about 6 hours before eating, cut chicken into 8 pieces, and place into a slow cooker. roughly chop onion, then add it, along with the wheat berries, to the pot. add chicken stock, water, garlic cloves, and bay leaves. cook on high for about 4 hours. while this is cooking, go ahead and roughly chop the cabbage. set aside for later. after 4 hours of cooking time, remove chicken, pull the meat from the bones. discard skin and bones, then return meat to the pot. add cabbage and beer. continue to cook from about 2 more hours until wheat berries are just starting to split.

beer bread with rosemary
this is based on the beer bread recipe on the food network's website. i changed the type of flour, added rosemary, and cut the butter in half, but the original concept is still theirs. :)
ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
~1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
12 ounces dark beer
1/4 cup melted butter

directions:
preheat oven to 375 degrees. butter a 9x5 baking pan. sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. (note: when i sifted my locally milled flour, the sifter wanted to keep much of the wheat berry hulls and other bits of the rough flour. i did sift, but i also dumped those back in. my point was to aerate the flour more than to "strain" it, so to speak. if you wanted fluffier bread, you could leave those things out, but i wanted all the nutrition that comes with the WHOLE wheat berry being included.) whick 1/2 the rosemary into the dry ingredients. add beer, and stir just until mixed. pour into greased loaf pan. pour melted butter over mixture. bake about 1 hour until golden brown and crusty. cool in pan for 5 minutes, then move to wire rack. let sit for at least 10 minutes more before slicing.

family ruling
i knot that picture up there isn't the most stunning, but trust me, people. this. was. awesome. we had friends over for dinner, and the vote for awesomeness was unanimous. it was warm and comforting and delicious, as well as ridiculously healthy. the 8-year-old at the table ate two big bowls, and i think all the grown-ups did as well. this is one made up recipe i'll be hanging onto! the bread as well was a pleasant surprise. i had heard good things about the beer bread recipe, but i was a little reluctant to try it with the dark flour and beer--it was fantastic and went really well with the stew. also--it's worth noting that all of this held up very well--the leftovers i ate for lunch a few days after this was made were probably even better than the freshly made stuff. YUM!

further thoughts
a note on beer and broth. this is something i have never done--add beer to broth. i've read countless recipes for stews and soups that use beer, but for reasons i can't even begin to think, it never occured to me to actually make one before. but i was about to add the cabbage to the stew, and i kept tasting it, and thinking it was missing something...something to give it a little more kick and add to the heartiness of the dish...something a little bitter to balance the sweet cabbage i was about to add. BEER! it was right there in front of me, so i tried it--totally the right thing.

also a first for me: wheat berries. sharon, the farmer at my market who is growing wheat and milling flour had some of these for sale, and i was like, wha??? she assured me that they were delicious, and that you could add them to hot, long cooking cereals like steel cut oats, or to soups where you would normally use barley or brown rice or something like that. i admit, i was a little nervous about them. rice in stews can get mushy, and barley can make them too thick. but. i had them, i wanted something different, and i needed a starchy something in the stew for body. OMG, they are fantastic! they turned out like rice, but chewier, a tiny bit crunchy, and not mushy at all. after 6 hours on high, they were just starting to split and release a little thickening wheat germ into the stew. all of us really liked both the texture and the slightly sweet flavor they brought to the table. so. good. one of those foods i now wonder where it's been all my life. if you can get your hand on some, i can't recommend them enough.

so yeah. success.

dark days of winter, meal 5: gettin' experimental

i seem to be skipping a week here and there. again, my meal# isn't matching up to the actual week the dark days of winter challenge is on, but i swear i am doing the best i can! :)

this week, the meat was super basic, but i got a little experimental with the veggies. i had some turnips left from my fall CSA (those things last forever!), and a couple of big bunches of kale. the hippie is always talking about trying some green smoothies, so i get extra greens for him. however, it takes us a while to start following through on intentions like that, so i sometimes end up with the extra greens lying in the fridge begging for mercy! suffice it to say, we've had a lot of turnips and kale this year. time to try something new with them!

on the menu

• grilled smoked pork loin chips
  
• creamed turnips with bleu cheese
  
• kale chips with french grey sea salt
  

local ingredients

• smoked pork chops from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
• thyme from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
• salad turnips from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• carolina bleu cheese from the hillsborough cheese company (hillsborough, nc, 34 miles)*
  
• kale from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• salt
• white pepper
  
• cream(organic, but not local)
  
• olive oil
  
• garlic
  
• cloves
  
• french grey sea salt

easy: this week's meal was thrown together pretty quickly from things i already had in the house--no real planning till i was ready to start to cook. i LOVE when that happens.

challenging: i was a little disappointed that i failed to buy local cream and butter for this week. i've been trying to favor those, but a) i can't get them at the farmers market, and b) not all grocery stores have them either. if i don't make it to the places that do, which are a little out of my way, then i can't get local. i always get organic, but it would sure be nice if local were as easy to find.

recipes

grilled smoked pork chops
recipe is a strong word for this--we don't do a thing to fickle creek's smoked pork chops other than heat them on the grill. i unwrap them and hand them to the hippie, and he grills them about 3 minutes per side on high heat. let them rest a few minutes, and eat them up!

creamed turnips with bleu cheese
ingredients:
~2 lbs salad turnips (these are small white turnips with a milder flavor than the big purple kind)
2 whole cloves
2 cloves of garlic
~1 tsp fresh thyme
1 oz good quality bleu cheese
1/4 tsp white pepper
heavy cream to texture
salt to taste

directions: peel and chop turnips to about 3/4-inch cubes. place in saucepan with both whole cloves and garlic cloves, cover with water, and bring to a boil. reduce heat slightly and continue to boil just until turnips are tender, about 15 minutes. drain well and remove cloves (leave garlic in!). mash turnips slightly with a potato masher and drain again. i discovered that turnips contain a LOT of liquid--drain them a lot so they don't become soupy. add thyme, bleu cheese, white pepper, salt, and a tiny bit of cream, and whip. add cream in increments and by tiny amounts--you don't need much.

kale chips
(recipe from use real butter, one of my absolute favorite food blogs)
ingredients:
a bunch of kale
olive oil
sea salt

directions:
preheat oven to 350. wash and dry kale thoroughly. remove the hard center stems, and roughly tear or chop it into manageable sized pieces. toss with a small amount of olive oil. line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and lay the kale out in a single layer. sprinkle with sea salt. bake for about 12-15 minutes until crispy.

family ruling
this whole meal was YUM city, ESPECIALLY the kale chips! those were just fantastic. i've wanted to try them for a long time after having so many friends rave to me about how good they are. i was skeptical, but delighted in the end. i can't recommend it enough. (note: our 3-year-old was NOT as impressed. he was game and tried them, but HATED them--so much that i gave him a cookie to make up for the level of horror he experienced. it's rare for us to have such a mega-fail with him, but there you go--this was right up next to cauliflower on his PLEASE-MAMA-NOT-THAT list, which is saying something. his statement? "mama, i don't really like kale chips." lol)

now. the turnips. turns out they have about 12x the amount of liquid in them as potatoes. so, while the creamed turnips TASTED awesome, they were far more soupy than i intended. i should have done a better job of draining them before i added the cream, so i adjusted the directions accordingly. that said--this was a delicious amalgam about about 15 different recipes i read. i will definitely do this again--i will just know next time to drain better and use less cream.

further thoughts
i forget how much i like playing in the kitchen. this, and the one-pot meal i made for next week's challenge are the first couple of truly creative things i've done in the kitchen in a while. i miss it! for some reason in winter, i seem to stick more to the tried and true than i do in the summer. i think this has something to do with the variety of available produce for sure, but i have also realized that i tend to feel pressed for time when it gets dark so early, too. i need to shake that feeling off and continue to get creative on the winter veggies.

dark days of winter, meal 4: keepin' it simple

i skipped a week of the dark days of winter challenge because of the holidays and ensuing chaos. that said, i made a LOT of local food over the holidays, including the main showcase of the christmas eve feast i cooked for friends: a pair of lovely london broils from smith angus farms in snow camp, nc. so very delicious!

anyway--onto what is my meal #4, although i have lost count of what the actual week is...

for this week's meal, and after all the madness of the holiday eating, i decided to keep things very simple. again, we ended up with friends spontaneously over for dinner. it seems we do that a lot. and as usual, the number and quality of my photographs drops in direct proportion to how many people are in the house when i am cooking. this post is the lightest one yet for pictures--sorry!

on the menu

• simple roasted chicken
  
• baked sweet potatoes
  
• grilled fennel
  
• a big salad

local ingredients

• whole chicken from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
• thyme from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
• oregano from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
• rosemary from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
• sweet potatoes from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• butter from homeland creamery (julian, nc, 57 miles)
  
• fennel from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• lettuces from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
• cucumber from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
• tomatoes from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
• watermelon radishes from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• salt
• pepper
  
• olive oil
  
• cinnamon
• yellow pepper (organic, but not local)
• celery (organic, but not local)
• salad dressings
  

easy: really, just about everything here was easy. this is how i cook all the time, and i've gotten used to buying as much locally as i possibly can. in the light of the busyness of this time of year, i think i also accepted the limitations better this go around.

challenging: as usual, the exceptions are spices, oils, and the things that aren't frown in my local greenhouses. also, it was a little harder over the holidays, since some of my farmers also took actual vacations to see their own families. how crazy is that??

recipes

simple roasted chicken (adapted from recipes from home, one of my favorite cookbooks):
ingredients:
3-4 lb chicken
6-10 sprigs of fresh herbs (i used thyme, oregano, and rosemary since that's what i had on hand)
salt and pepper

directions:
preheat oven to 450F. rinse the bird and pat dry. salt and pepper inside and out. add herbs to cavity of chicken, and tie legs with twine or linen. place chicken on roasting rack in pan, and roast for ~40 minutes. turn oven temperature down to 350 and continue to roast for 30 more minutes or until juices run clear when the joint between the leg and thigh is pierced. (note: the actual recipe calls for 10 basil leaves, 3-4 sprigs each of thyme and rosemary. it also specifies half a lemon, cut in half, with which you rub the insure of the bird's cavity. this does bring something to the table, but i find that the chicken is still delicious without it. as long as you have a good quality, free-range, non-fatty or water heavy bird, this is fool-proof!)

baked sweet potatoes ("recipe" is a strong word for this!)
ingredients:
sweet potatoes

directions:wash and dry the sweet potatoes, and, as long as they are fairly petite, just throw them into the oven with the chicken. when you turn the oven down to 350, pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork. these were small enough that they were perfectly cooked by the time the chicken was done. if they were larger, i would have started them in the 450-degree oven about 15 minutes before i put the chicken in, and i think they still would have been fine. we're all about efficiency around here. we served them with cinnamon and butter.

grilled fennel (again, not really a recipe)
ingredients:
3 bulbs of fennel
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

directions:
remove stems from fennel bulbs. slice vertically into 1/8 - 1/4-inch slices. toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. grill for about 3 minutes a side or until desired texture.

salad
this one contained:
2 small heads of red oak leaf lettuce
1 head green bibb lettuce
1 large watermelon radish
2 stalks celery
1/2 large english cucumber
1 very large heirloom red tomato
1 yellow pepper

directions: chop everything into bite sized pieces. toss. apply favorite salad dressing, and eat as much as you want--salad is awesome!

family ruling
the chicken was awesome, as it always is, and everyone at our house loves sweet potatoes and salad. the fennel was the dud of the meal. disclaimer: i HATE fennel and didn't even eat it, although i DID force myself to try it just to check to see if i had changed my mind about it. (i hadn't.) but even for the other folks who love it, it was just kind of lacking something--i think i should have maybe grilled it with some other veggies--maybe an onion or a pepper or something. people ate it, but no one relished it. i won't do it again on it's own...

further thoughts
i am so grateful for fresh lettuce in the winter. the new greenhouse guy at my farmers market has been a godsend with his cucumbers and lettuce and peppers and LOVELY tomatoes. i read something recently about the incredibly high carbon footprint of shipping greens, and i am so very glad i can still get them, virtually guilt free, even in the dead of winter. i didn't realize how addicted to salads we had become until we started trying to eat closer to home.

in addition to the greens, i am still in love with the way my farmers market is always showing me something new--the watermelon radishes in this particular salad were a delight. since my farmers market started, i have also tried lemon cucumbers, english cucumbers, french breakfast radishes, black spanish radishes, kohlrabi, poona kheera cucumbers, baby ginger, kale (many kinds), mizuna, tatsoi, savoy cabbage, fresh elephant garlic, and so many other things i never knew i was going to love. the variety in what we eat is ever-increasing, which is an incredible gift from the local farmers to us. so thankful...

dark days of winter, meal 3: Southern Q

this week's post is horrifyingly low on decent pictures, due to distractions in the form of friends showing up to meet the new dawg and staying for dinner. in lieu of a plate shot, i give you ginger, our new puppy:


now, on to business.

this week's meal is all southern, and very old school, with the exception of the fact that i used my crock pot to make BBQ instead of digging a hole in my back yard to smoke it.

on the menu

• pulled pork BBQ
  
• old school braised greens with indian dumplings
  
• honey glazed roasted carrots
• sweet josie brown ale from lonerider brewery
  (there's a keg of this local brew in my garage--i thought i'd feature it along with the food.)
  

local ingredients

• fresh boston butt from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
• carrots from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• butter from homeland creamery (julian, nc, 57 miles)
  
• honey from our family's bees (20 miles)
  
• rainbow swiss chard from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• collard greens from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles) (CSA)*
• red pepper flakes from my friend rich's garden (durham, nc, ~15 miles)
  
• cornmeal from muddy dog roasting company (morrisville nc, 10 miles)*

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• salt
• red pepper rib rub made by my friend karen
• apple cider vinegar
• liquid hickory smoke (real, not chemical--cause, ew)
  

semi-local ingredients

• bone-suckin' sauce - made in north carolina, but i have zero clue from whence the ingredients come. it's as local as i can get BBQ sauce without making my own, which is a challenge in the winter.
  
• bacon fat - from holland brothers bacon, not local to us, but local to the grandparents who live in PA. bacon from this place is a yearly gift from our family, and it's awesome.
  

easy: as always, meat and produce are the no-brainers.

challenging: the semi-local ingredients here are my compromise. things like apple cider vinegar, liquid smoke, and salt i KNOW i can't get locally, but the other things? well--i guess i am just trying to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible on things like that. it doesn't make sense to me to buy bacon that's local to me, when i already have bacon that was a gift from someone for whom that bacon IS local. does that make sense?

recipes


pulled pork, crock pot style (made up on the fly):
ingredients:
boston butt or pork shoulder roast
your favorite rib rub
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
20 or so drops of real liquid smoke
BBQ sauce

directions:
cover pork roast liberally with spice rub, and put into your crock pot. add apple cider vinegar. cook on low for 8 hours. remove pork and pull from bone with 2 forks or tongs. drain off most of liquid (reserve for soup stock or beans--trust me--keep that stuff). (note: if you are going to make the greens below, reserve a couple of ounces of meat at this stage.) return the pork to the crock pot. add a little of the cooking liquid, maybe 1/4 a cup. add the liquid smoke, and about 1/3 a cup of BBQ sauce. mix well, and cook another hour on low to mix flavors and caramelize the meat. serve with more sauce or on buns or you know--however you like to eat BBQ.


honey glazed roasted carrots (made up on the fly)
ingredients:
carrots
~2 tablespoons butter
~2 tablespoons honey

directions: preheat oven to 425 degrees (F). peel carrots and cut into sticks. put into a baking dish with some butter. roast for 8 minutes, then stir. roast for 8 more minutes. add honey and stir in. roast for 16 more minutes, stirring one more time half way through. carrots should be starting to caramelize when they are done. best use of fresh carrots in the world!


braised greens with indian dumplings (adapted from bill neal's southern cooking)
ingredients:
2.5 to 3 lbs cooking greens (collards, kale, chard, etc.)
8 cups water
~4 tablespoons bacon fat
1 teaspoon salt
2 oz pork meat or a small ham hock
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup cornmeal
1.5 tablespoons butter or bacon fat or lard

directions:
in a large stockpot or braising pot, add water, bacon fat, salt, finely chopped pork, and red pepper flakes. bring to a boil, then boil on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes. add the greens, cover tightly. return to a boil, stir down the greens, and then simmer, covered, for about 50 minutes if you are going to add indian dumplings, or an hour if you're not.

for the dumplings, place cornmeal into a small mixing bowl. steal 1/2 cup of boiling liquid from the greens, and slowly work it into the cornmeal with the back of a wooden spoon. work fat in with your fingers while the cornmeal mix is still warm. shape into small biscuit-like disks, about an inch wide and 1/2 an inch thick--it should make 16-18 of these. when the greens have been cooking for about 50 minutes, give them a final stir, then lay the dumplings on top to cook. let them cook for about 10 minutes, and voila, you have delicious little dumplings in your greens.

note: indian dumplings are like a cross between hushpuppies and gnocci. this was the first time i'd made them, but they were surprisingly easy and fast--i will most certainly make them again. i can imagine they would be delightful with soups and stews as well as in greens.

note the second: after you serve the greens, you will have quite a bit of liquid left. if you combine it with the reserved liquid from the pork, you have an EXCELLENT soup base on your hands. i generally throw this in the fridge overnight, so i can skim the fat off easily in the morning. then i put it in the freezer to use whenever. i recommend this as a base for my white bean and kale soup.


family ruling
everyone at our house loves all this, and the friends we spontaneously had over for dinner last night agree. the 11-year old had 2 helpings of the greens, so--win.

further thoughts
southern cooking is my kitchen comfort zone, as it turns out. i feel more free with recipes and restrictions in this area than any other, and since i live in the south, it makes sense that these are the ingredients that are easiest for me to get locally. i am guessing you will see more southern food from me before this is challenge is done. meal #3 i am calling a resounding success. yay for BBQ!

dark days of winter, meal 2: dinner with a friend

this week, i ended up cooking a last minute dinner for a good friend who came into town unexpectedly. this means i had less time to think about what to make, and had to rely on what i already had in the house. as a result, this week's meal has more non-local ingredients than last week's, but i am happy with how much of it IS local, with very little effort!



on the menu

• chicken and 40 cloves
  
• whipped sweet potatoes with ginger
  
• salad
• rosemary olive oil bread
  
  

local ingredients

• whole chicken from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
• thyme from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
• butter from homeland creamery (julian, nc, 57 miles)
• honey from our family's bees (20 miles)
  
• sweet potatoes from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles)*
• fresh ginger from redbud farm (burlington, nc, 62 miles)*
• milk from maple view farm (hillsborough, nc, 34 miles)
• french breakfast radishes from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles)*
• lettuces from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
• cucumber from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
  

* purchased at western wake farmers market


non-local ingredients

• salt
• pepper
• olive oil (organic)
  
• celery (organic)
  
• grape tomatoes (organic)
  
• garlic
• red bell pepper (organic)
  
• cinnamon
• rosemary olive oil bread (not pictured) (baked locally, but sourced from ???)
  

easy:
as always, the meat and produce is mostly easy for me to get locally. everything you see here i already had in my house with no planning at all.

challenging:
this week i was traveling and very busy, so there was not as much time to plan my meal. as a result, this one is mostly local--all the spotlight parts are local. but it still feels a little cheater-y to me. this is especially true for the non-local salad produce, the bread we had with dinner, which was a last minute purchase, and the salad dressing, which was whatever we had in the fridge. i didn't even think about dressing until dinner was made and on the table.

recipes

chicken and 40 cloves:
this is a tried and true recipe from alton brown. it's posted on the food network website, so i think posting it again here might be a copyright violation. you guys know how to click a link though, right? go make this right now! it's awesome!

whipped sweet potatoes with ginger (made up on the fly)
ingredients:
9-10 small sweet potatoes
~2 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons honey
~1.5 tablespoons chopped gresh ginger
(note, i used uncured, super-fresh ginger from a local supplier, and NOT the ginger from the grocery store, which is much stronger. if you use that, i'd recommend cutting this amount in half.)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
milk to texture (added gradually while whipping)

directions:
preheat oven to 450. bake sweet potatoes for ~40 minutes until soft, piercing with a fork after 20 minutes. remove skins and place in a large bowl. add butter, honey, ginger, cinnamon, and about 1/4 cup of milk, and mash with a potato masher until well mixed. then, using a hand mixer, beat until fluffy. add milk if necessary to obtain the right texture/moisture.

salad
um--i can't say i have a recipe for a salad. i just put everything i can find in the fridge that looks like it would be good in a salad. this one contained mixed lettuces, celery, radishes, red pepper, grape tomatoes, and cucumber.



family ruling
everything was awesome, especially the sweet potatoes. my friend who was visiting seemed stunned that this is what i ended up with when i just threw something together, so that's a good ruling as well--he ate everything with gusto.

further thoughts
cooking on weeknights is a challenge for me. i work full time and have two small (hungry) children in daycare. i have to leave work, get them, drive home in a boatload of traffic, and THEN address dinner. i get around this most of the time by planning ahead and cooking and prepping as much as i can ahead of time. some weeks it's great--others, it falls apart on me. this past week, i had the added travel stress on the table, and then my friend showed up out of nowhere--this was literally the best i could pull off. i am not as proud of this as i was of my sunday brunch last week, but then i didn't have the time for the same level of planning and thought as i did for that meal. i will say this, however: i am very proud of my pantry and my freezer for getting me this close to an all local meal absolutely on the fly.

dark days of winter - meal 1: sunday brunch

this is the first official week of the dark days of winter local cooking challenge, so i decided to start with the first real meal of the week: sunday brunch.



on the menu

• blueberry buckwheat pancakes
• spinach and cheese frittata
• sausage patties

local ingredients

• whole wheat pastry flour from singing turtle farm (dunn, nc, 54 miles)*
  
• buckwheat flour from the old guilford mill (greensboro, nc, 70 miles)
  
• eggs from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*
  
• butter from homeland creamery (julian, nc, 57 miles)
  
• buttermilk from homeland creamery (julian, nc, 57 miles)
• blueberries from smith's nursery (benson, nc, 38 miles)*
  
• honey from our family's bees (20 miles)
  
• spinach from ben's produce (clayton, nc, 33 miles)*
  
• mozzarella cheese from the hillsborough cheese company (hillsborough, nc, 34 miles)*
  
• milk from maple view farm (hillsborough, nc, 34 miles)
• ancho peppers from screech owl greenhouse (moncure, nc, 19 miles)*
  
• oregano from our yard (apex, nc, 15 feet)
  
• sausage from fickle creek farm (efland, nc, 44 miles)*

* purchased at western wake farmers market

non-local ingredients

• salt
• pepper
• baking powder

easy: meat, eggs, and produce are no problem for me to get, given the awesome nature of my farmers market. in addition, the market vets its vendors carefully, and while not every farm and food producer there is certified organic, all of them are local to us and follow extremely ethical farming practices, often going beyond the requirements of organic certification. the animals are all free range, and none are given any unnecessary antibiotics or growth hormones. most of the farms are very small operations and family farms, and we have gotten to know these vendors over the past couple of years. we are extremely fortunate to have this place, which is open all year, available to us.

challenging: what do you do about things like salt, baking powder/soda, vanilla, and other pantry-type things you use in your cooking without thinking about it? i am trying hard to keep these things to a minimum, but i admit, i forgot all about baking powder when i was thinking about making pancakes. i guess i am trying to look at this from the point of view of a pioneer person--in days of old, you would have traded for these items, right? this is stuff that has almost never been available locally, anywhere. some small carbon footprint is, i suppose, not avoidable in everyday cooking.

recipes

blueberry buckwheat pancakes (adapted from here):
ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature
5-6 teaspoons of honey
2.5 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled
1 cup blueberries, fresh, or thawed from frozen

directions:
in a small bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt. set aside. in a larger bowl, beat the two eggs until frothy, about 2 minutes. add honey, butter, and then buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. gradually stir in flour mixture until smooth. gently stir in blueberries. note: batter will be very thick. let sit for a few minutes. cook on a lightly buttered griddle or in a flat pan over medium-high heat, about 1/3 cup of batter at a time. after 2-4 minutes, when edges are set and blueberries are starting to crack, flip over and cook on other side, about 2-3 more minutes. makes 10-12 pancakes. serve with honey.

spinach and cheese frittata (made up on the fly)
ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
2 cups spinach, cleaned, de-stemmed, and roughly chopped (packed tight!)
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1/2 fresh ancho chile pepper, chopped fine
2/3 cup shredded fresh mozzarella
10 eggs
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

directions: preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). grease a 9x9-in pan with 1/2 tablespoon of butter. melt the other tablespoon in a skillet. saute the spinach just until wilted. immediately remove from heat and allow to cool. in pan, layer herbs, chopped peppers, and cheese. evenly distribute cooled spinach over this. in a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until very well mixed. i usually add salt and pepper in this step. pour egg mixture over the other ingredients. taking care to distribute evenly. bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until the center is set. let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

sausage patties
no real recipe here. i bought a pound of local sausage, made it into small patties, and fried it up in a pan over medium heat until it was well browned and delicious!


family ruling
absolutely delicious--i would make every bit of this again, and eat it happily. children and man agree.

further thoughts
i am very grateful that we thought to buy a lot of extra local blueberries this summer and freeze them. our children eat them straight out of the freezer, but they are also mightily awesome to have around for this sort of application and for the random pie craving. if you decide to do this, don't wash them--just throw them straight into freezer bags. wash them when you are ready to use. also, if you use them for pancakes, make sure you thaw them completely first. if you don't you will have nasty, gooey globs of uncooked pancake batter surrounding every blueberry--GROSS!

there's been a lot of discussion in the group about local flours on the east coast and how difficult they are to obtain. i've been discussing this a lot with local millers and bakers to see where people source their wheat. most people are sourcing from the midwest, which is no real surprise. however, i was delighted that sharon funderburke from singing turtle farm in dunn, nc is growing her own wheat. she's growing both hard and soft red winter wheat, and she has just in the last month started grinding her own flour. she sells wheat berries for both varieties as well as bread flour and pastry flour. she also sells chicken feed made from the wheat and from her oats, as well as a small amount of baked goods. her crops are 100% organic, and her practices are beyond sustainable. she is a second of third generation farmer, looking for ways to improve her family's farm. she's been a joy to learn/buy from the past couple of seasons.

first meal of this challenge went well, i think. i'm pretty proud of the fact that everything is local but the stuff i really can't get locally, plus i am happy that it was all delightful--i didn't feel like i was cutting corners anywhere. in fact, the local butter especially felt like an indulgence--talk about GOOD! now onto thinking about my next meal...

dark days of winter

i talk about food a lot, i know. but get ready, people--i am going to start talking about it even more. as you know, our family has, over the past few years, become more and more interested in healthy eating, local eating, sustainable farming, and reducing our carbon footprint as much as we can. we've been faithful visitors to our local farmers market, which we all adore. we are trying to teach the children by example to love food in the right way, and to be aware of what they put in their bodies. we are working hard to eat well, to cook at home, to get the right nutritional balances to (hopefully) avoid some of the health problems that may be headed our way as we age. anyway--you see my point. good food is good.

i have decided to participate in the dark days of winter local eating challenge from (not so) urban hennery because it represents everything we're trying to accomplish. the goal is simple: cook (at least) one meal a week featuring local, sustainable, organic, ethically grown ingredients and write a post about it. i think i can handle that, and i think it will be a good way to record some of what we eat locally during the winter months. i kind of can't wait to get started!

squeaker

chubby and giggly, finn is an absolute delight. he hugs and kisses us all the time, and he demands attention with stubborn, single-minded, howling ferocity. he laughs at his brother, at the television, at our neighbor who buzzes loudly when finn touches the tip of his finger to the neighbor's nose. he prefers veggies to fruit, though he's getting better about that. he eats and eats and eats, and then when he's done, he hurls everything left away from himself with great force. he loves frozen peas, pasta, scrambled eggs, yogurt, cheerios and BANANAS! he's starting to enjoy books more, and he loves stacking stuff before knocking it back down again. he's a huge fan of both milk jugs and mason jars--he puts the lids on, then takes them off, then hurls them, fetches them, etc. endless fun. his favorite thing to do at the park is swing, even though it makes him sleepy. and man, does the boy want to MOVE. he wants to be down and walking whenever possible. he adores water and anything to do with water--splashing in it, washing his hands, making a mess with it, swimming--sprinklers, sinks, oceans, and pools, he loves it all as much as his brother hates it. he also loves music and shaking his little booty to anything with rhythm. he wiggles and claps his hands and hums right along. he adores being chased, and is learning to hide, although he's still really bad at it. so hilarious. he likes to wear hats, which is a blessing with the changing weather. his favorite people are his daddy, his big brother, and our neighbor angelo. he'll see angelo through the window and cry to get outside to him--so very cute. he's a lover of electronics in a way that kieran never was--push a button--noise comes out. i loves the hippie's iPad. he's going to talk earlier than kieran did, though he walked later. and of course, i wonder if this is all due to him somehow reacting to being in daycare instead of with a nanny like k was at his age. this age with finn, it's the troubleshooting age. he's cutting teeth, coughing, has a runny nose, is recovering from an ear infection--those 4 things are constant and interchangeable. we are ALWAYS looking for trouble, and feeding him ibuprofen like candy. it's a fun age--he's absorbing EVERYTHING. it's a hard age, too, filled with worry. but lord, he's cute. and fun. i am just trying to enjoy every moment with him as much as i can--his babyhood is evaporating before my eyes, so i am grasping onto it with everything i've got while it lasts. i love his biscuit feet, his imperious little pointing finger, his obsession with his belly button, and the way he hugs with his whole self. i love to rock him at night before bed so i get the sweet snuggles, and i love how he almost always wakes up happy and babbling in the morning. he is the only morning person in our family. he is perhaps the smiliest (is that a word?) baby in creation, with what may be the best giggle. when i am stressed and trying to do too many things at once, finn reminds me to slow down and just sit on the floor and play a minute. and oh, how i love him for that.

(and just to seal the awwwww, the last picture below is finn walking down the street with his paw-paw, who he adores. so cute.)

quiche, revisited

since i posted the recipe for spinach and mushroom quiche and the recipe for whole wheat pie crust separately and without pictures, i thought i'd come back and add some. here are links to the original posts:

spinach and mushroom quiche
whole wheat crust

the process:

1. prep, 2. whole wheat crust, 3. saute, 4. cheese, 5. herbs, 6. peppers and onions, 7. spinach and mushrooms, 8. milk and eggs, 9. baked

dinnertime!

three and a half

i listen to kieran playing, and i am stunned. he's enacting a play of his own devising in the living room floor. trucks are involved. dinosaurs, too. a recycling truck is central to the drama, as is a flatbed truck, many race cars, and a monster truck or two. apparently it's crucial that all the monster trucks be lined up all the way across the living room floor because there is to be a parade later. there are many voices and names that come up in the course of his play. my baby is totally gone, and there is, in his place, a rambunctious and vivacious little boy with many very strong opinions. his name, he tells me, is NOT kieran, but rather, ribbon. he's a nice t-rex. also a firefighter. sometimes. he hugs me with impulsive ferocity. he lashes out with a willfulness that i almost can't believe--i have to remind myself not to be hurt by it as i throw him in into yet another time out. then he turns around and makes me laugh so hard! he pretends to eat the whole town as we drive through, but assures me he's just teasing. he's constantly on the move, and prefers to be either outside running as hard as he can or inside playing with all his stuff. he's not all that into drawing or group participation--he prefers imaginative play and reading books and watching british television and dinosaur train. he knows the names of many dinosaurs along with what they eat and all their physical characteristics. he tells me they lived on the earth many years ago, but that they are now extinct. he has real friends at school, and other kids he likes less. he hates playing in the water, and is grateful that summer is over so no one is trying to make him do it. he is as stubborn as a rock. he loves one-on-one attention from either me or the hippie. he tries to take care of his little brother, while simultaneously keeping finn off his stuff and out of his games. he's learning to share. he has  favorite colors, favorite foods, and favorite toys. he loves his cats. he prefers vanilla to chocolate. where he goes, his hippo goes as well. he likes cuddles at night, no matter how his day has gone. he's a little bit afraid of shadows. in the end, he's a whole little complete person, and i love him so much i can't breathe when i look at him.

rant, general

maybe i am just feeling edgy tonight, but i have a few things to say. things i don't usually say for fear of stirring up the muck too much and causing conversations i don't feel like having about topics often seem pointless to discuss with other people, like banging your head against a brick wall. but here are some things anyway. i just want to get them off my chest.

1.  i wish i had the balls to go comment on every glaring grammatical error i see on the internet, even my own. i would especially like to ding every your/you're, their/they're/there, to/too, its/it's, effect/affect errors. not one of those words is interchangeable for the others. also, i hate it when people use the word THAT to refer to people, who are WHOs, not THATs. and, while i am on this grammatical tirade, i would like to point out that the words which and that are NOT the same, and that you have to separate a clause led by which from the rest of your sentence with a COMMA, which is, by the way, one of the most under-used pieces of punctuation in existence.
    
2. a person's rights should in no way be dependent on religion, gender, race, or sexuality. further, i don't think any group of people has the right to push their belief system on any other group. if everyone would stop worrying about what everyone else believes, and just treat everyone with respect and kindness, then we would be a lot better off as a people and a culture. if you are islamic, hindu, jewish, christian, black, white, mulatto, hispanic, asian, american indian, gay, straight, male, female, hermaphroditic, well--i don't care. i don't care what kind of sex you have or who you have it with as long as no one is getting hurt (who doesn't want to be) and no one is being forced to do anything against their will and no one is a child. this extends to any and all of the aforementioned being allowed to marry whomever they choose, however they choose. i have yet to hear a single non-religious argument against same sex marriage, and last time i checked, we had freedom to practice whatever religion we choose in this country.
    
3. speaking of religion...if you are going to embrace the bible and take it at its word and quote it at me, then a) you better know what you are quoting because i have read it a few times, even if you have not, b) you better not come at me with things taken utterly out of context, and c) you will never convince me of your opinion by quoting this or that restriction/behavioral statute from deep within the old testament without first showing me that you are also willing to embrace all the other restrictions around it. for example, if you tell me it is wrong to be gay because of the words you find in leviticus, then you must also be kosher, not eating seafood, willing to marry your sister/brother-in-law in the event of your sibling's death, etc. i do not believe you can cherry pick which parts of this you are going to follow--it's all, or it's not. in fact, that there's a pretty significant restriction later in the bible about taking things out of context to further your personal agenda. so you know, stop it.
    
4.  i hate news and politics. and yet, here i am with my opinions. i think my government wastes a shitload of time worrying about things that should be none of its concern and a shitload of money pushing its agenda onto other countries in the name of aid. and i think they don't spend nearly enough time worrying about what matters--taking care of its own people, preserving and enhancing its own culture, and producing things. somewhere along the way in the last 250 years, we have lost sight of what it meant to be free, and of what it was to be able to build yourself up from nothing. our class divisions grow, while our culture slowly dies. what do we produce here anymore? what is here that's worth having? don't get me wrong--i love this country, and i fully realize how lucky i am to have been born here where i feel safe and have the freedom to write a blog post like this without getting arrested. but damn, america! we need to get back to the making of things. when we made things, people HAD jobs, and the economy held its own because we had something to sell. we grew our own food and we made cloth, and we made clothing and home furnishings from that cloth, and people built cars and houses, and all manner of thing. now--now, we push money around. money with nothing to back it up on paper that's virtually worthless. we are in debt to our eyeballs to countries who would love to watch us crumble, and we buy all manner of crap from those same countries to fill the holes where we once had well-made products manufactured down the road from where we live. we need to take a step back and look at things more critically.
   
   4a. corporations suck. gigantic financial institutions suck. it's like having an entity that's chaotic evil running things to let them control what happens in this country. they are NOT people, yet are treated as such under many of our laws, which gives them license to just seriously screw things up in the name of the bottom line for this quarter, right now. there is zero forethought for next quarter, or next year, or 10 years from now, as long as the CEO and CFO and CTO continue to rake in the bucks and someone somewhere continues to invest. there's no interest in the greater good, or the future of anything. it fills me with impotent fury. 

ok, i'm done for now. there's more to rant about, but i am too damned tired to do it right this minute. besides, my teething baby is waking up, so there's some rocking and hugging to be done. rocking a sweet baby is way more fun tan thinking about all this mess anyway. 'night, y'all.