Over on the reading journal, I’m not actually saying that much about Coraline:
Coraline

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Over on the reading journal, I put down Moorcock in favor of Gaiman:
From One Darkness to Another

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I’ve had this internal debate raging over this for a few days (read: I’ve thought about it for a few minutes here and there), and I think it’s time to call it. Draft 1 of “Tynan Meets World” (working title subject to change without notice) is done.

Tuesday, I had a fever. Wednesday, I was all weak and blah-y. Today, I have a perpetual stream of sinus drainage trying to choke me to death. Somewhere inside me, my inner wannabe writer is doing a happysnoopydance, but the rest of me doesn’t have the energy to be half as excited as I feel I ought to be.

I suppose part of that is also because I don’t feel like I’ve got a huge lot of closure. It’s at a stopping point. I’m not certain whether this is the stopping point it needs to be at, or whether it needs to go on a little more. What I know is that it can possibly stop here, and at this point I need to put it away for a bit. If I decide it needs more ending later, I can add more later. This is only a first draft.

Of course, that assumes that there will be edits. At the moment, I have no idea whether I’m going to continue to pursue this or just drop it as a successful exercise in completing a draft and move on to something else. I suspect I will eventually come back to it, because I can never let well enough alone and this hasn’t even reached the “well enough” level yet. Frankly, it’s a first draft. It has its good points, I think, but overall? It’s not exactly the next great fantasy novel. You know? I know I can improve it, and in some ways that makes me itch to do so. On the other hand, it’s also a project I’m only attached to by virtue of the sheer amount of words I’ve pumped into it. (Which is 82,838 according to Google Docs.) I don’t feel a great obligation to pursue it. We’ll see what happens in a few months, I suppose.

What next?

Duh. NaNoWriMo 2009. I gave some thought to having another go at my Big Project ™, but I suspect that’s going to require more pre-work than I can get done in the next five months. (Just figuring out where to cut it is surely going to take an awfully long time, and there’s some research I’d like to do, and maybe try to fill in some of the gaps in the outline…) So I’ll probably go for another practice-project and do what I did for this one: Gather some random plot elements and make a story out of it.

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…And I’m not even done yet. But here’s what I’ve got for now.

For Mother’s Day, we went out to McCormick’s Creek State Park with Natalie, Mom and Dad, and Tim’s mom. Near the Nature Center, there’s a playground built on Natalie-scale, not to mention the “big kid” playground that also has some elements to delight the younger child. (Not the least of these was a little mini log cabin, just the right size for her to play house in.) I saw a perfect opportunity for getting some good photos, so I brought the camera along. While I got some good shots in, I think I need to work on the task of coherently documenting an event; most of my shots wound up being of Natalie. And while she’s adorable and all, she wasn’t all there was to the event.

After the playground, we went over to the Canyon Inn for dinner. I left the camera in the car, and as usual, wished I hadn’t. The place is gorgeous, and I kept thinking, “Hey, I could get a good shot of that… if I’d brought my camera.” I snapped a couple of pics with my cameraphone, but they really didn’t come out very well. If I wind up back at the park for photography at some point, I’ll definitely make a point of stopping at the Inn for a few shots.

Private Gallery: Mothers Day 2009
Public Gallery: Mothers Day 2009
Added to Natalie’s Public Gallery: Playing House, Climbing

Speaking of the cameraphone, I also uploaded a few new Natalie-photos from it. The theme here is flowers. (Well, mostly flowers.) I love this time of year, when the clover is blooming. I love the smell of it, I love the pretty little white flowers, I love the way the clover makes our lawn almost look green without looking overgrown, and I love making clover chains. I don’t even remember when I started doing this; sometime in elementary school, I’m sure. And now I have the perfect excuse to do so, in the form of a little girl who may or may not pick up on the habit herself but sure looks pretty in a clover crown.

There are also a few shots from the Farmers Market. Natalie and I went on Saturday, and for the first time ever, I let her walk around rather than riding in her stroller. I did put her on a “leash” attached to a cute little backpack, to make sure that she didn’t wander off, but really she did very well anyway. We had one incident in which she pulled a petunia off of a starter plant before I could stop her, but she let herself be distracted fairly easily. Everyone agreed that she was so cute and getting so big and etc. etc. I saw a stand selling big pink peonies for $1 each, and she seemed to be eyeing them, so… Since she’d been such a good girl, I bought her one. She mostly pulled it apart, but I’d understood that possibility and accepted it when I bought the flower.

Private Gallery: Peony and Clover
Added to Natalie’s Public Gallery: Clover Crown 2.1, Peony

And then there’s just one more random photo: The Egg That Ate Tokyo

Later in the week, I’ll be posting photos from Monroe County Civic Theatre‘s fourteenth annual Directors’ Symposium, A Night of Lewis Carroll. I’ve gotten the photos as far as the computer, but still need to process them before posting.

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(I didn’t get a good photo, but this definitely merits a blog entry, as promised. Short story: Rousing success.)

Last weekend, I was scrambling myself an egg for breakfast. I poured the egg into the skillet, and just for the hell of it swirled the pan around so that I got a thin coating of egg all across the bottom. Then I just let it cook until done. As I slid the result out onto a plate, I thought, Huh. I bet that’s pretty much exactly how you make crepes, isn’t it? That’s not so hard. And then I twittered that thought, because I’m a geek that way.

It was quite the revelation for me. I’m familiar with the concept of crepes, which are essentially really really thin pancakes that often get wrapped around various fillings or served folded with sauce and occasionally set on fire, but my one dimly remembered experience with instruction about making them is Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode. As I’ve said before, Good Eats is really good at explaining the science of food, but sometimes Alton gets so wrapped up in the science that he makes cooking sound harder than it needs to. Such was the case here. I’d been intimidated by Alton’s talk of finding just the right pan, cooking at just the right temperature, how fussy crepes were, etc. Turns out I’ve been avoiding them unnecessarily. They’re labor-intensive, yes, but making them is not at all difficult.

Joy of Cooking provided a recipe for the batter (below, with instructions slightly modified) and filled in the blanks concerning the method for me. I was worried when I first got started, because I hadn’t read closely enough and hadn’t seen until too late that the batter needed to rest before cooking (which I didn’t have time for). Also, I had a heck of a time getting the lumps out at first because I’d missed that you could do this in a blender (which helped immensely). Not a very good start–but once I actually got started cooking, things really went pretty well. It took a crepe or two to get the hang of flipping them, but mistakes are just as tasty as non-mistakes, you know. I think I must’ve been making them thinner than Joy intended, or possibly in a smaller pan, because the recipe says it makes 12 but I got 10 out before I ran out of time and still had probably half the batter left. I like them the size and thickness they came out, though.

I stuffed mine with leftover pork, cut up very small, and sauteed mushrooms from the CSA. (Natalie wound up with pork and cheese; she didn’t care for the filling, but loved the crepe itself.) It was pretty good, but maybe a little on the dry side. I think it needs a tiny bit of sauce. I packed leftovers for lunch today, and put some of my cilantro vinaigrette in for that purpose. The crepes reheated wonderfully, but I think I need a little more sauce next time, or possibly just to apply it after cooking; the microwave dried out the vinaigrette somewhat. At any rate, these things are versatile. You could really stuff them with whatever you wanted; fruit, veg, meat, cheese, whatever. Or serve them just folded into quarters with your favorite sauce drizzled over them. Or whatever.

PS–These aren’t the most healthy thing in the world, but they’re not awful for you either. I figure the way I was making them (approximately 20/batch), they work out to 60 calories and 3.4 grams of fat each. Practically no fiber, though. I wonder how they’d work with whole wheat flour…

Savory Crepes*

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 large eggs
(you could probably add a small amount of herbs or spices complementing your chosen stuffing/sauce, too, for some extra flavor)

Mix everything together; the easiest way is to use a blender. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 30 minutes. (You can also make this up to 2 days ahead and store it in the refrigerator, which is what I’ll do next time!) When the batter’s ready to go, heat a medium nonstick skillet (mine is 10″) over medium heat. You’re at temperature when you drop a few drops of water on the surface and they sizzle and dance around.

Take the pan off the heat. Wipe one end of a stick of butter around the bottom of the pan, then wipe away any excess with a paper towel so that you just have a thin coating. Using a ladle, drop a small amount (maybe 1/4-1/3 cup?) of batter in the middle of the pan. Pick the pan up and rotate it until you’ve got a thin (like, partly transluscent) layer of batter over the bottom; if you’ve put too much in, just pour it back into the blender/bowl with the rest of the uncooked batter. Return the pan to the heat and cook for about a minute, until it starts to bubble and brown on the bottom. Using a spatula or your fingers (be careful!), carefully turn the crepe over. (You may not get it all turned in one go; that’s fine, as long as it winds up flat in the end.) Cook for about another minute, until starting to brown on the second side. Then slide it out of the pan onto a plate covered in wax paper. Repeat until you run out of batter. (If the crepes start getting too brown too fast, turn the heat down slightly, but be aware that you shouldn’t need to adjust it by very much.)

* = There is a sweet variation, which adds sugar and cuts the salt down, but I don’t have the amounts in front of me. I would note, however, that I also tried one of these “savory” crepes wrapped around strawberries, and it was pretty tasty even though it wasn’t the “sweet” variety.

Joy also gives instructions for stuffed crepes. Once you’ve got them all made, butter a 9×13 glass dish. Wrap each crepe around your choice of filling and put it in the pan seam side down. Brush melted butter over the tops, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. (The parmesan is suggested for sweet as well as savory crepes.) Bake 20 minutes at 400 F or until lightly browned. I unfortunately ran out of time and didn’t get to do this, but I did sprinkle the stuffed crepes with parmesan and stick them in the microwave for about a minute on high. It would’ve been better in the oven, but this way wasn’t bad either.

(Will I eventually try making blintzes? Oh hell yes. Just give me time.)

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Synchronicity prevails! Not long after I posted my bit on the CSA and not knowing what to do with the kale, Jenny pointed me to a recipe for kale chips which had been posted around the same time by Phyllis. I could repeat it here, or I could just direct you to click on her name and spare myself the typing.

I admit it, I was a little skeptical. They’d be so thin, I thought, and they’d still be mostly cooked kale, which I’m a little meh about. But I went ahead and tried them anyway. As far as I can tell, the only real difference between my preparation and Phyllis’s is that she used curly kale and mine was flat-leafed. Oiled, salted, in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.

I’m sorry I doubted! They were actually really delicious. I think next time I need to scale back both the oil and the salt–I tend to get a little heavy-handed with things like that when quantities aren’t specified. Maybe I’ll just put oil on my hands and rub it onto the leaves that way, rather than trying to “drizzle” it over the leaves first. But the basic theory? Totally workable. They were a lot like potato chips in some ways, except thinner and with a little bit different taste. But it wasn’t completely a cooked-kale taste, so they didn’t lose me there. (They did leave a tiny cooked-kale aftertaste, after I was done eating them, but not enough to turn me away from them for good or anything.)

Before I got Jenny’s message, I also did some looking around on my own. I found several ideas, one of which was a kale sauce made from 1 Tbsp each tahini (sesame paste) and sesame oil, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce, a clove of chopped garlic, and about 1″ of fresh ginger minced. (Directions: whisk it all together.) I had to make a couple of substitutions; I didn’t have any balsamic, so I used red wine vinegar, and I didn’t have fresh ginger so I used ground. And of course I used CSA wild garlic instead of regular old garlic. Then I drizzled this over torn-up raw kale. And, actually, liked it sufficiently well enough to eat it again. I think there’s something about cooking the stuff that doesn’t appeal to me, maybe.

I don’t know that I’ll necessarily be able to use all our kale in these ways before it starts to get all yellowy and wilted, but at least I’ve found something to do with it. And I have several other ideas to try, too!

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Today I’m blogging over at SparkPeople, talking about long-term goals and where to go once weight loss is achieved:
Long-Term Goals

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Saturday was the first day of CSA pickup at Core Farms this year. I’m thrilled to have farm-fresh produce every week again, and disappointed in myself for not getting pictures of the first basket of the season! My goal this time is to either use or freeze everything we get each week. The haul this time included:

• Two gigantic sprigs of fresh rosemary
• One fairly good-sized bag of cilantro
• Same, of watercress
• Same, of red kale
• One bunch of wild garlic
• About half a pound of oyster mushrooms

And of course we’ve got an egg share, too, so there are a dozen eggs. I know what we’re doing with everything but the kale. Which I plan on figuring out today. The rosemary I’ve already thrown in with my eggs Sunday morning and also with the beans I’m slow-cooking today, and it will be used to flavor various things as well. Anything left at the end of the week will probably get dried and stored for later.

The cilantro I used to make a vinaigrette, which I’ll eat on the cress. This recipe was printed on our CSA sheet, and says it comes from “Today’s Herbal Kitchen” and is fantastic as a dressing on fresh or steamed greens or as a dipping sauce:

Lime Cilantro Vinaigrette

3 Tbsp lime juice (juice of 3-4 limes)
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)
small handful of fresh cilantro, chopped (maybe about 1/3 cup?)
1 Tbsp ground ginger
lots of chopped garlic (I used about a tablespoon, I’d say)
1/3 cup veggie oil
salt and pepper to taste

Basically you just need to whisk it all together. I haven’t had it on the cress yet, but tasting it solo, it was pretty yummy. As long as you’re not one of those people (as is Tim) to whom cilantro tastes like soap. I used the wild garlic in this, too; it smelled very strong for such a small bulb. The rest of the cilantro is probably going to go into pesto, which I’ll either use on pasta right away or freeze. (I had originally planned on roasting potatoes with it tonight, but I think I’ll use the rosemary instead.)

The big project this week, though, is crepes. Sunday I was making breakfast, including scrambling myself an egg. I dumped it in the pan, swirled the pan to coat the bottom in a thin layer, and then just let it cook like that. As it was cooking, I realized that I had just completely by accident stumbled on the basic method for crepes, and suddenly found myself significantly less intimidated by the idea of trying to make them. My trusty Joy of Cooking provided a recipe for the batter–and a method for stuffing and baking them. My plan is to add a little rosemary to the batter itself, and then to stuff them with sauteed oyster mushrooms and some leftover pork we’ve got in the fridge. (Natalie gets something else instead of mushrooms, because she doesn’t seem to like mushrooms. Haven’t quite decided what yet. Before you say “kale”, she doesn’t seem to like leafy greens either.) I think if these come out well I’ll be pretty proud of myself, and pictures and a post will be warranted.

As for the eggs, some of them go in the crepes, some of them are egg salad, and the rest are breakfast! My basic formula for breakfast right now is high-fiber grain + boiled egg + milk + fruit, which is generally high enough in fiber and protein to get me going for the day and keep me from feeling snacky for a lot of the morning.

I’m off to find something to do with the kale besides just fixing it up on its own (or with just garlic, or ginger, or etc.; I prefer it as one note among many in a dish, not as a dish in and of itself). I can’t wait to see what we get next week!

For more happy-day-ness, hop on over to the reading blog:
O Happy Day, Reading Edition

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(That’s today, for those who might not have heard.)

I’ve written this post about half a dozen times and started all over again. It’s a difficult, controversial subject, and I think made all the moreso by the fact that both sides of the issue feel like there shouldn’t be any question of a National Day of Prayer at all. Obviously prayer is a good thing, and why wouldn’t anyone want a day to recognize and encourage it? Or, obviously this is an attempt by the government to direct the religious practice of its citizens (and indeed their religious affiliation, given that the implication is that everyone should be part of a faith that prays), and why would anyone think it was OK to impose on private citizens that way?

I always struggle with the issue of this day, myself. On the one hand, I generally feel like prayer is a pretty benign thing to be encouraging people to do. No, the government is not supposed to entangle itself in religion, and I feel very strongly that it shouldn’t, but I’ve long since come to grips with the fact that it will anyway. That doesn’t mean I have to just sit here and accept it, but as such issues go, a National Day of Prayer seems sort of minor. If I want to try to change how religion affects national policy, this is not where I’m going to start. I’m not sure exactly where to start, but an issue that has zero practical impact on my life or, as far as I can tell, anyone else’s doesn’t seem like it. It’s like trying to fight alcoholism by pouring your best friend’s bottle of rum down the sink; it’s not completely ineffective, but it fails to address the problem.

On the other hand, that very strong feeling that the government should keep its nose out of my religious life causes my hackles to go right up when I start reading last year’s National Day of Prayer proclamation. It gives a token nod to the idea that this is an interfaith event, but then the whole thing is wrapped up in very strongly conservative Christian language and theology. It outlines beliefs and ideas that I rather think some non-Christians might not agree with as though they’re universal truths. Not all religions involving prayer, for instance, think of it in terms of God’s grace being poured out in response to human requests. Not all religions advocate surrendering your life to your deity/ies. And even many Christians are of the “God helps those who help themselves” school of thought, whereas this proclamation is all about putting ourselves in God’s hands.

And that’s where it stops being a vague call to an optional activity that many people will engage in even if they disagree on the specifics of it and even if some people refrain from it, and starts being the government openly and officially endorsing a specific religion. And the token nod to the idea that there are multiple religions doesn’t change the clear implications of the rest of it.

This was last year’s, though, and the product of a Presidency that apparently thought inviting Protestants, Catholics and Jews constituted an “interfaith” ceremony. (It’s a good start, but you’re really still kind of keeping it all in the family there.) Bush was very conservative and did not seem that interested in recognizing the diversity of our nation. I can’t seem to find a copy of this year’s proclamation online; it appears to perhaps not have been released as of this writing (odd, as it’s past noon White House time). I can only hope it was a little more inclusive.

Inclusive or not, though, I think ultimately I can’t support this occasion in its present form. It’s not that I think prayer is a bad thing, or that people shouldn’t be encouraged to practice their religion, or that America isn’t worth praying for. I think in some respects a national day of prayer is a great idea. I just don’t think this should come from the government. If a day of prayer is desired, I think that needs to be organized on a religious front, not a civic one. It’s still kind of a minor issue in comparison to some other church/state issues out there, so it’s not something I’m going to get too worked up about just yet… But neither can I support it as it stands.

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Over on the reading blog, I’m summing up Ring and pondering where to go next… and not coming up with many answers.
Bored Now

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