Holiday ramblings...

So now that we are on the fourth day of Christmas,  (and those 4 calling birds woke me up early this morning),  I thought I'd take a minute and catch you all up on what's been happening 'round here.

I had a hard time getting into the Christmas mood this year.  Not sure why really, but I just didn't have my normal giddy elfishness going on.  Perhaps it had to do with moving down here to Salisbury and not being in my own house for the holidays.   It might also be that with homeschooling, we didn't have all the usual school/parish activities leading up to the big day.  This was the first year in a long time I didn't have a Christmas pageant to attend, or Breakfast with Santa, nor any of the craft fairs and other events that we usually volunteered for at St. Pius X.  And sadly, we said goodbye to a really wonderful lady right before Christmas.  Miss Neva, David's grandmother, passed away suddenly at her home in Ayden, NC.  I am grateful to have met her and spent time with her, as she was truly the embodiment of grace and charm.  The world is a bit less lovely without her in it.

We did attend the Christmas Ceili in Baltimore...always a good time.  (Shameless plug here:  if you are ever in Baltimore on the first Saturday of the month Oct-May, the Emerald Isle Club hosts a ceili at  the Parkville American Legion on Putty Hill Ave.  7 pm -11 pm.  It's a blast!)  Our good friends, the Reddings were there with the adorable Meagan, and dancing and laughs were the order of the night.

                                                
But, when you have a darling 10 year old daughter, the show must go on...and it did!  Cookies were baked (thank you to Ron and Joanne for allowing me to commandeer their kitchen for an ENTIRE day!), songs were sung (thanks to Dave and his guitar), presents were wrapped (on Christmas Eve!) , and a delightful time was had by all.  Our dear friends Tina and Kurt invited the 3 O'Neill girls to join them for a Christmas Eve potluck dinner, and we contributed our dad's famous fondue, Monica's Delmahvelous Meatballs, and witty banter.  Then on Christmas morning:  the main event....unwrapping gifts!

As you can see by this picture, Santa knew exactly how to make a little girl happy!

Aunt Monica hit the nail on the head as well

Hope your Holidays are filled with love and peace.

Seriously!

This wasn't my original topic for today, but I had to write about it.  
I was conducting my daily job search online this morning and came across a posting seeking a "Professional Nanny/Sitter".  I have no great desire to raise anyone's child but my own; but I went ahead and read the listing.  To summarize, this person is looking for a Nanny to care for her 18 month old, approximately 13-15 hrs/day, five days a week.  The pay?  $150/wk.  WOW!  That averages out to about $2/hr.  You read that right....$2 per hour to take care of an 18 month old.  I charged more as a teenage babysitter in 1984.

I completely understand the difficulty of being a single mom (I am one!) and trying to work and support yourself.  And I know how hard it is to find good childcare.  But who do you think is going to take a $2/hr job????   Other civilized countries have state run child care that runs 24/7, and pays the caregivers living wages while remaining affordable for parents.  Why can't we have these same options available?  I'm lucky, I have family willing to help care for my daughter.  So I can work my wine industry job, which involves night hours, and know that she is safe and well loved.  Not everyone is so blessed.

I know we have a plethora of issues in this country right now, but maybe we need to step back for a minute and take a look at what's really important.  Much lip service is paid to the importance of family, education, and keeping our kids safe and healthy.  Funny how we don't seem to do much to actually back up those ideas.

I don't get it...

Hmm, yesterday I received an email from Google, informing me that my AdSense account has been disabled.  Weird.  I tried to find out why, but evidently it is the policy of the great Google to NOT tell a blogger why the account was disabled.  All I've been able to find out is that 'invalid click activity' was detected.  So now I've sent in the appeal form, which according to the information in the follow up email, does not guarantee a reinstatement of my account.  Not that  I planned on being able to retire in luxury, thanks to my AdSense revenue, but still, every little bit helps.  Sheesh.



* update*  Google has decided that I may not be a part of AdSense, because I pose a "significant risk" to their advertisers.   who knew me and my whopping 3 followers were so dangerous?

I'll admit it

I'm a yogurt fancier.  I love good yogurt, and have been eating it most of my life.  The day I discovered Greek yogurt was one of the best days EVER!   So naturally, I have decided to start making my own yogurt.  It plays into my fantasy of living on a small farm and leading a low stress 'back to nature' lifestyle.  I'll spare you all my whimsical plans for keeping chickens and tending a big organic garden,  and get to my first attempt at making yogurt.
Firstly, it's not hard.  And you don't need a fancy electric yogurt maker appliance. You also don't have to buy freeze dried gourmet yogurt starter.  I just used the yogurt I had in the fridge. I used my biggest stock pot as a sterilizer and bottom half of a jury rigged double boiler.  I used my second biggest pot to hold the milk.  
So here's how I did it....


Filled my big pot with water and brought it to the boil.  Then I dropped in my metal spoon and jars and lids.  I let them stay in there about five minutes, and pulled them out with tongs.  


Filled the smaller pot with whole organic milk ( I used about a half gallon), and placed into the makeshift water bath.  Heated the milk to 180 degrees fahrenheit and then cooled to 110.  This kills off any bacteria that might compete with the yogurt starter bacteria.  Once the milk had cooled down, stirred in about a half cup  of organic commercial yogurt--plain.   Then I covered the pot with plastic wrap and placed it on a heating pad set to medium.  Covered the whole thing with a towel and left it alone for 8 hours.  And voila!  I had yogurt!


After that I poured the yogurt into glass canning jars and popped them into the fridge.  


 I like my yogurt fairly thick, and this is a bit runny for me, so I'm draining some of it to have a consistency more like Greek yogurt.  The taste is great, not too sour, but very rich and creamy.  

Considering the cost of commercial yogurt, and the waste of the non recyclable containers- at least where I live- I think yogurt making will be a part of our weekly routine.  We'll be saving money and making less impact on the environment.  Hmm, maybe I'll have to add a cow or two into my farm fantasy plans.....

Pumpkin....

I love it!  As far back as I can remember (which these days sometimes doesn't reach back to breakfast!), I have loved, adored, and craved the delicious taste of pumpkin.  It started with pumpkin pie, then moved to pumpkin ice cream, followed by pumpkin bread, pancakes, beer, chili, and soup.  I'm sure there's even more delightful things to do with pumpkin, but the following recipe is one I came up with the other night...still tweaking it so I haven't included any amounts. If you decide to try it, just wing it and then adjust accordingly.

Pumpkin Bisque

pureed pumpkin (fresh roasted or canned)
onion  diced
garlic  chopped
curry powder
garam masala
paprika
black pepper
all spice
ground cloves
ground mace
salt
vegetable stock
coconut milk
apple cider

saute the onion, garlic, and spices in olive oil or butter (or coconut oil),  until soft and fragrant.  Add in the pumpkin and cook until pumpkin is richly colored.  Add in stock, cider and coconut milk....stir well.  Bring to high simmer and then lower heat.  Allow to gently simmer for about 30 minutes.  Using an immersion blender (or food processor) blend to a smooth consistency.  Serve garnished with any of the following:  grated sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, creme fraiche, toasted pumpkin seeds, toasted shredded coconut.

It's even better the second day...and I plan on adapting the soup to use as a pasta sauce.  I'm envisioning it over cheese torteloni or lobster ravioli.  mmmmm.

Wish I had thought to snap a picture of it at dinner the other night...but alas.

Instead here's a picture of super daughter carving her jack-o-lantern

The eleventh month...

November always has a hurried feel to it for me.  It seems as if the clock starts speeding up as the year dwindles down.  What about all those things I planned to accomplish during '09?  Can I get all my 'to do's' checked off before NYE?  The hopeful answer is YES! The more realistic one is;  some of them yes, others not so much.

At the moment, due to some unplanned strife, I'm focused on getting projects in my house finished up.  This month will see me fixing floors in the kitchen and bathroom, painting, getting rid of yet more clutter and doing a major reorganization of space.  I'll also be tying up loose ends in the legal realm, and hopefully finally have all my financial issues on track to being resolved.  You know how they say it takes money to make money?  They weren't kidding.


On the positive side, thanks to a wonderful friend, I now have a working punch list of things that MUST get done.  That alone helps enormously.   Also, I finally have a part time job working for St.  Michaels Winery as a wine tasting rep.  I will be working my first gig for them this coming Friday!  So if you are in the neighborhood of Angels Market in Pasadena Md, come on out and let me pour you a sample or two.

In the neutral column, I'm not currently dancing with Belly Dance Delight.  I love my troupies, but I just couldn't give the schedule the energy it deserved.  I'm still dancing though, just not as much.  Hopefully I'll finally be able to put together some paid gigs in Salisbury and continue to take workshops and the occasional private lesson.

On the subject of Belly Dance, I had a super fun photo shoot on the beach in North Carolina at the end of October.  I was visiting and 'just happened' to have a lovely pink costume in the car.  You never know when a shimmy emergency will occur, and a good dancer is always prepared!   Of course we took over 300 photos and I actually like about 10, but that's how the baklava crumbles.  I'm hoping to get a few more photo shoots done in the next couple of months.  I have a few ideas for a Christmas themed one, as well as an Autumn theme.  

I should be posting more soon about the upcoming Maryland Irish Festival in Timonium, as well as reporting back on my Wine Rep experiences.  In the mean time, enjoy these photos from Scary Perry and the beach photo shoot.

Little did I know, but just down the road a bit in our nation's capital, the Solar Decathlon was going on.  What is that, you ask?  Yeah me too....
Turns out the SD is a yearly competition for Architecture and Engineering students, who are tasked with creating an 800 square foot house that runs on solar power, but is in concert with today's lifestyle.  The resulting entries were amazing!  

We took Lani to see the houses and tour through them, and we were delighted to discover how innovative and appealing the designs were.  Even though they were 'cozy' compared to our cape cod, they all had a wonderful feeling of spaciousness.  The use of space, light, and flow was really topnotch.  Most gave me the feeling of being on a large boat--everything was pared down, and very organized but still comfy and livable. 

The kitchen pictured here is from the Louisiana entry...it's quite a bit larger than mine and very functional.

Though we only got to tour 4 of the houses entered in the competition, we took the opportunity to gather information from all the houses.   I'm determined to incorporate as many of the systems and ideas we saw as possible in my current house, and hopefully in the near future succeed at my goal of living off the grid.

Oktoberfest! Maryland style...

Or at least MD Ren Faire style!   We may not have a Burgermeister, but we sure try our best to give Munich a run for the money in the festing department.

Saturday found Lani and I on our way down to Crownsville,  to get our fill of Oompah music, Oktoberfest bier and merriment.   Any day at Faire is always a good day, but somehow Oktoberfest weekend just seems happier.  Maybe it's the men in lederhosen and the ladies in Dirndl.  Or it could be the crisper weather and those glorious blue skies.   Whatever it is, the crowds (which were plentiful) seemed a bit less stressful than a usual Saturday, and laughter rang out among the trees.

As usual, we spent the majority of the day wandering about, saying hello to friends, catching a few shows, eating drinking and people watching.  It's amusing to watch the Mall mentality take over so many patrons...that is, they fall into the shopping mode and miss the joy of just BEING there.  But I would imagine the vendors don't share my opinion!

Saturday night we switched gears and went to an Irish Ceili.  Our usual first Saturday activity is to attend the Emerald Isle Ceili in Parkville.  This month was the first time back since last May, and seeing old friends was terrific.

Sunday, we attended the newly reorganized All Seasons Hafla, now held at Kitchen of India just on the edge of Parkville.   I was worried the attendance would be light because of the change in venue, new management and the break in scheduling.  I could not have been more wrong!  We nearly got turned away at the door!!!!   Seems EVERYONE was there for the start of the new season.  Congratulations to Tydirah for a job well done organizing this event.

After such an international weekend, today we kept it low-key.  Just some housekeeping chores, a dance lesson and that's about it.  D.  arrives on Wednesday for a visit, so I'm sure we'll have lots to keep us busy.

October's Bright Blue Skies

Mmmm, I can smell the wood-smoke in the air!  October is without a doubt, my favorite month.  It's the month of wine festivals, and Oktoberfest; the first crisp nights and those gloriously bright and clear days.  I love the way it sounds and smells and looks.  But most of all I love the flavors of October.  The summer squash are disappearing and the first winter squashes are arriving in the farmer's markets.   Apples are being pressed into cider, made into pies, and cooked into sauces.  Pears are here, and pomegranates too!  And it's cool enough to start making delicious, hearty soups and stews for dinner;  foods that pair well with the season's heavier beers and bigger wines.

Of course it is also the month that our Irish dancing season really kicks off...and that means Saturday nights spent with good friends kicking up our heels and having a bit of good craic.  Summers in Baltimore are too hot and humid to enjoy the frenzy of movement that is a ceili.  We'd all be dead from the heat!  But Fall and Winter are perfect.  Nothing like a cold evening spent dancing to traditional Irish Music, raising a pint (or 2 or 6) and catching up on all the news from everyone.

This weekend will find me and Lani up in Baltimore attending the Emerald Isle Club ceili, and hopefully the Oktoberfest celebration at MDRF.  Then Sunday will be all about Middle Eastern dance as we go to the NEW All Season's Hafla at Kitchen of India.  Whew, we'll need a week to recover!  Should get some great pictures to post though...stay tuned!

back to the big city

Today I'll be heading back up to my place in Baltimore.  I've been down here in Salisbury for the last few days and haven't gotten nearly as much accomplished as I had hoped I would.  Originally I had planned to  finish clearing out two rooms upstairs and get them both painted.  Well, that didn't happen.  Not even a little bit.  It seems whenever I'm here, I'm pulled in 50 different directions at once and feel guilty if I can't accommodate everyone.  So instead of sticking to my plan, I end up changing it and doing what family wants.  I wonder why that is?

On the good side, I've had time to start reading a great book given me by D.  I suspect he knew it would be the tipping point in my making some important decisions.  Sneaky Sneaky.

I'm looking forward to dance class this evening.  I have been struggling lately with a lot of dance related turmoil, and feel that things will settle out soon.  Keep your fingers crossed!

changes afoot

So things they are a-changin' round these parts.  And I figured all the new stuff in my life deserved a new blog.  I still have my old one, which admittedly I hardly ever posted to, but I'm keeping that one food centered and will hopefully revive it with new and interesting recipes and musings as the Autumn rolls onward.  But this one, this blog, will be for my random writings about stuff.  About all those nouns and verbs I'm experiencing right now.  I'll try to punch it up with some exciting adjectives, the  occasional adverb and a few well chosen pronouns.  Of course, I'm still me, so get used to the dreaded comma splice.

To start this adventure, I'll tell you that today I am taking my darling daughter to a four hour tribal bellydance workshop.  She will spend the afternoon learning about the history of ATS, costuming, music, and vocabulary of movements.  Plus she'll get to meet a bunch of fun girls in her age group and (hopefully) make some new friends.  This past year has been kind of tough for her, but she's trouper and has rolled with the punches pretty darn well.

Our journey into home-schooling is quite exciting, and today's dance workshop is actually part of Lani's learning plan.   We are taking an open child centered learning approach, and since she has such a great interest in performing arts she has chosen to "attend school" on a Saturday for 4 hours.  How many 10 year olds do that?

I have so far gotten quite a bit of static from various fronts, concerning my decision to home-school.  The general worry seems to be that Lani won't get an adequate educational experience if she isn't sitting in a classroom 8 hours a day.   What I've seen in the past month though seems to point in the opposite direction.  We aren't confined by bells and schedules and dates.  Generally we accomplish much more in a shorter period of time than any normal class could ever hope to.  And our learning isn't limited to "school hours".   I'm sure we'll have moments of struggle with our new endeavor, but so far it's been smooth sailing and we're enjoying it immensely.