Ancora Imparo (I am still learning)

Ancora Imparo is a quote from Michelangelo when he was 87! I think it is important to remember to keep learning. It is said that "The truly educated never graduate." (anon) We all come across new information every day, some information is acquired on purpose, some by accident. For example, I read the paper every day. (Rant for a future posting - the decline of newspapers). I do this to learn about the world and local situations. I also do this to wake my brain up. I am not a morning person, which makes it all the more distressing that the older I get, the earlier I wake up, regardless of when I went to sleep! Paul and Nick ARE morning people. They SING! There is also cheery whistling. Nate and I try to ignore it.

Anyway, in the search for useful info, I also come across information that is less useful but still interesting. This week I learned that large, hairy gay men are called "Bears". And some of them go to the movies every Tuesday. (This is the sort of info that Paul says clogs up his brain and that he didn't need to know.)

In a comic strip, a character refers to the employees who take grocery carts back into the store as "Cartherds"! I love that! The image of carts as sheep being herded back into the store tickles me. However, when I read this to the morning people, they thought I said "Car turds" and did not see the imagery. They did laugh at the word turds, though. I am sometimes tired of being the only girl in this place.

My friend Brian mentioned in his Facebook posting that he was going to see Devotchka. Who is this, I wonder? So I asked the internet, and was given their website. This is the musical group responsible for most of the music in the movie, "Little Miss Sunshine". This music is described as "gypsy punk". It features a theremin (an instrument that only makes spooky noises), a sousaphone (tuba), fiddles and more. I've never heard anything like it, but I did like it!

The video at the top is of a big black scorpion who came to visit our preschool classroom this week. We base our curriculum on a monthly "theme". This month we are learning about insects and spiders. One of our parents paid for a local group, CRPets, to come to class to show us their bugs and bug eaters. They had a tarantula, the scorpion, 3 geckos and a hedgehog. We were able to pet the bug eaters, but not the bugs. (Thank God). Anyway, the big black scorpion glows aqua under ultraviolet light! Who knew? I find that fascinating. It is a pigment in the exoskeleton and even fossil scorpions will glow. Why? Is there some evolutionary advantage to this? I need to know more.

The hedgehog (Ike) was adorable. I have recently read a book (non-fiction) about hedgehogs, "The Hedgehog's Dilemma" by Hugh (sorry, forgot his last name, but the book is at the library). It was very interesting, even though we have no native hedgehogs in the U.S. The european population is declining, by the way.

It is this type of info gathering (ooh, no, I'm collecting intel, like a spy) that makes me fear turning into the Cliff Claven of Ramsey. I can't help it, it's all so interesting! At least I'm never bored.

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Dorothy Parker

My Ose is back!

This is a picture of Paul in Prague! He was on business in Germany and zipped over to Prague for the day. I'd be more jealous if he hadn't brought me a really great present - an amber necklace! I love amber. He was gone for 10 days, I just picked him up from the airport last night at midnight. We're all happy to have him back, and I'm extra glad because now I'll sleep better.

I finally just gave up on sleeping yesterday morning after my third nightmare. Now both Paul and I have dreamed that our car has gone into the water. That's a scary one! I'm hoping that it is just a dream metaphor (drowning in work? driving to distraction?) and not a prophetic dream. Paul had a dream several years ago that we were fishing and Nick fell into a fast-running river and was swept away. He woke up in a cold sweat. Soon after, we went fishing on such a river. Thinking we'd rather be silly than sorry, he tied himself to Nick with rope. Sure enough, Nick fell in! (This is more likely than you'd think, Nick has fallen into just about every body of water in Minnesota and several in Wisconsin.) We just reeled him in with the rope and he was fine. Maybe we'd better keep life jackets and scuba gear in the truck just in case.

Update on my mom: The doctor is pleased with her x-rays and she is now allowed to walk on both feet. Yay, it's almost dancing time!

Update on my much longed for library book: It came, I read it far too quickly, and now I want the author to WRITE FASTER! (It was really good!)

Here is a nice German recipe in honor of Paul's trip. This comes from the book "Tender at the Bone" by Ruth Reichl. She is a food writer (and Editor of Gourmet). She has written a number of books about her life that include recipes. I love books that include recipes!

Sauerbraten

4lb chuck or rump roast 5 whole cloves
1 1/2 Tbls salt 1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
2 onions, chopped 1 cup red wine
10 black peppercorns, crushed 2 whole allspice
2 bay leaves

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbls flour , divided 1/4 cup oil
2 Tbls brown sugar 1/2 cup crushed ginger snaps

Place meat in glass bowl. Mix salt, onions, pepper, allspice, bay leaves, cloves, vinegar and red wine. Pour over meat. Let stand in refrigerator 3 to 4 days, turning meat twice a day
Remove from marinade, reserving marinade. Dry meat and roll in 1/4 cup flour. Heat oil in heavy frying pan and brown on all sides. Put meat in heavy casserole, add marinade, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 2 1/2 hours. Remove meat from liquid and set aside. skim off the fat and drain the drippings. Add water to make 3 1/2 cups.
Mix brown sugar with 2 Tbls flour. Whisk in 1/4 cup water and blend well. Add little by little to cooking liquid, stirring constantly until smooth. Add gingersnaps, stir again, and put roast into gravy to simmer 15 more minutes. Slice meat and serve with sauce. Serves 6-8

This recipe is also good with venison, but don't cook it as long, venison is so lean that it dries out quicker.

Saltiness

I heard some salty language from one of my preschoolers yesterday. The sweetest little girl asked her equally sweet friend if the bunny she was painting had a vagina and a hairy butt crack or did it have a penis and balls?!! After the usual potty talk lecture, the teachers conferred. Both sets of parents had to be told of the incident, obviously, except dads were the picker uppers. My boss is the nicest of ladies, refined and ladylike at all times, how was she going to describe this incident if she had to say "hairy butt crack" to these nice daddies? It just wasn't going to happen. Writing the words seemed too prissy, using euphemisms did not convey the outrageousness of the child's comment. She settled for calling the mommies on the phone. This is of course only one day after conferences in which we assured the parents that their child could not be doing better in any way!

Don't kids just love to make fools of us? Nate's teacher (3rd grade?) had to show us at a conference a lovely drawing Nate had made on the back of a math paper of "dinosaurs mating".It was very, um, lifelike. We were watching every dinosaur special on TV in those days, and this image had stuck in his head.We apologized to the teacher, who was not upset, just amazed, and had a little talk with Nate.

I have a salty joke. Joke telling is not my best thing, I always forget them. Here goes:Did you hear about the "octomom" special at Denny's? 14 eggs, no sausage and the guy in the next booth pays for it. Sorry. Sorry, I know that was in very poor taste.

Paul is out of town so I'm eating ramen and sour cream for dinner. This is delightfully salty!

Nick and Nate have some buddies over tonight for a video game showdown. Or throwdown. Or something. Anyway, the testosterone fumes are making me gag. I'm going to have to open a window.

This is a good recipe using lots of salt. Surprisingly, it does not taste all that salty. This comes from the Strib. I did not make exactly their way, it seemed like a lot of work. Marinate the venison in your favorite marinade if you wish, but omit the salt. Herbs are not necessary in the salt crust. Fresh herbs and grape leaves being scarce in Minnesota three out of 4 seasons (and spendy, too) I just used green onions to go between the meat and the crust. I didn't make the cranberry sauce either, we opened a can of jellied cranberries and called it good.

SALT-CRUSTED VENISON WITH FRESH JUNIPER AND WILD CRANBERRY REDUCTION

Serves 4.

Note: Juniper berries can be found in the spice section of some grocery stores, at Penzeys (three locations), and at some kitchen specialty stores. Do not use berries from your own shrubs because some types are not safe to eat. For the piece of juniper, use only if you have the Common Juniper variety (it grows wild over the northern part of the state). It's for extra flavoring and isn't critical to the success of the recipe (it provides aroma). As for the grape leaves, use these only if you have them on the vine, or stick with the herbs.

• 1 1/2 lb. venison loin

• 1 tbsp. olive oil

• 2 tbsp. maple syrup, divided

• 12 crushed juniper berries, divided (see Note)

• 2 c. apple cider

• 8 oz. cranberries, preferably wild high-bush cranberries

• 1 (4-in.) frond of fresh juniper, optional

• 10 twists cracked black pepper

• 1 tbsp. butter

• 3 2/3 c. kosher salt

• 1 1/2 c. flour

• 1/2 c. lightly packed snipped fresh juniper, optional

• 6 egg whites (3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. )

• 2 to 4 tsp. water

• 1 c. of mixed leafy herbs, such as sage, oregano or flat leaf parsley, or 2 fresh grape leaves (see Note)

Directions

Marinate the venison loin with the olive oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and half of the crushed juniper berries. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Combine the apple cider and cranberries and bring to a simmer. Cook until the liquid reduces enough to be level with the cranberries, about 30 minutes. Add the juniper piece and let steep.

Drain through a fine mesh sieve without pushing down on the cranberries, reserving the reduced juice. Discard cranberries and juniper, add the pepper and remaining 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and whisk the butter into the sauce and reserve.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together the salt, flour, snipped fresh juniper and remaining crushed juniper berries. Whip the egg whites until frothy and add to the salt mixture. Mix well and dribble in water until the dough begins to hold together, just as for pie crust.

Lay down a thin layer of salt dough on a sheet tray. Enclose the meat in the grape leaf (or in the leafy herbs), lay it on the salt dough and pat the rest of the dough around the meat, closing all holes. Poke a meat thermometer into the meat and remove, leaving a hole.

Bake until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees, about 25 minutes. (Go by temperature rather than baking time.) The meat will be between medium-rare and medium. (Pull it at 125 degrees if you want it fully medium-rare.) Crack the crust, remove the loin and rest for 10 minutes before slicing thinly and serving with the sauce.

Nutrition information per serving:

Calories 335 Fat 8 g Sodium 310 mg

Carbohydrates 25 g Saturated fat 4 g Calcium 33 mg

Protein 39 g Cholesterol 150 mg Dietary fiber 3 g

Diabetic exchanges per serving: 1 1/2 fruit, 5 1/2 lean meat.

Think green thoughts

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is not my cat, Merle cannot Riverdance. What Merlin does best is keep me company while I read, and keep the dog from going stir crazy. He also occasionally deigns to catch a mouse. This is what I pay him for. (For the record, I realize that last sentence ended in a preposition.) Anyway, Merle earned his kibble this week by catching a mouse. At 3a.m. He was so proud, he brought it to me to admire. Unfortunately, I was peeing at the time! I had to choose between screaming and jumping on top of the toilet or waiting until I was done peeing to jump on the toilet. Option 3 was continue peeing while trying to get my feet as high in the air as possible. This is not as easy (or attractive) as it sounds.Luckily the screaming (the mousie was not QUITE dead) scared him out of the bathroom.

Then Paul and I (he can't sleep through someone yelling, "ACKK! Mouse!". Go figure.) had to locate, chase and divest the cat of his prize. He hates this. We cannot, however let him keep the mouse because he is a messy eater and it is almost impossible to get dismembered mouse out of the carpet.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in preschool, too. The kids made hats and learned about leprechauns. When they went to wash their hands before snack, I stayed in the classroom and put down little green footprints and made a mess of the place. "Oh, no, a leprechaun has been here causing mischief!" After we all clean up, I confess that it was me because leprechauns are not real. They are shocked, SHOCKED, that I would do such a thing. "Mrs. Ose, dat is not funny," said one of my little friends. A couple of years ago we put on some Irish music to listen to while playing. I looked over to find a 3 year old doing a full-on Irish jig. A real one! Turns out she and her family all take Irish dance classes and perform in public.

Today is my brother Chris's birthday. Our mom used to make him green food all day, orange juice, pancakes, etc. Sadly, Chris thought food coloring had a bad taste and only pretended to eat it. My birthday is on Memorial Day. When people would comment on us both having holiday birthdays, my dad would tell them, "Well, we had to drown 5 of them to get 2 with special birthdays." My dad has an um, UNUSUAL sense of humor. So, Happy Birthday, Bro! You turned out amazingly well!

Here is a recipe for "Irish Cream". Don't bother using nice whiskey in this, it won't matter. You can tell it's an older recipe because it uses real eggs, not worrying about Salmonella. I think the whiskey would kill it anyway.

Irish Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk (regular size, not small)
1 pint whipping cream
3 Tbls chocolate syrup
1/2 Tbls vanilla extract
5 Tbls water
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups whiskey

Throw this all in the blender (amazing how many of my recipes say that), mix and chill. Shake before serving. I'd store this in the refrigerator, too, and don't save it too long, cream and eggs won't last forever, even with whiskey. Slainte!

Busy Saturday

This Saturday my sister and I took her two kids to see our mom. This is Sarah and her oldest son, Sam.


This is Sarah's youngest son, Ben. Ben is showing off his magic marker (permanent,alas) artwork.
I love 3year-olds. Especially those belonging to other people!

Here is my mom, Marie. Doesn't she look good? She is tired of waiting for her broken hip to heal. She wants to get out and go dancin'! Sadly, it's going to be a while longer for that.

Saturday night I watched "Redneck Wedding" on TV. This is a show hosted by Tom Arnold in which people who think differently than I allow a camera crew to film their wedding. Nearly all have at least one member of the wedding party wearing camouflage clothing. Saturday's episode had the bride making table decorations out of horse poop. She and her mother stuck a chunk of horse poop on a dowel and painted the horse poop red. It was meant to resemble a rose. I think it might have looked more like roses if they painted the stems green and added fake leaves, but I'm no Martha Stewart. More horse poop was used to fill water balloons for the festivities after the ceremony. People love that. The wedding cake was shaped like an armadillo. I am not making this up! The bride specified that the insides be nice and red and gooey, to look like blood. She cut a hole in it's side before the wedding to make sure. Everyone was very pleased with how much this hole looked like a bullet hole. For some reason she bought a red dress at goodwill, (it being far too small she held it together with duct tape) and took it off at the door of the stable where the ceremony was held. I have no idea why. The outfit she had on underneath was not any better. The groom wore camo bibs.

My book is still not in at the library. I would just go buy it, but I'm too cheap to pay $25 for a book I'll read so quickly. Plus, as soon as I buy it, it'll come in of course!

Bloodlust

Today is Dollar Day at County Market. As you can see, the carts are full and the lines are long. The deals can't be beat, though. My receipt says I saved $101. I take this with a grain of salt, as it also says I saved $12 on red peppers alone (I bought 4 at a buck each). This would mean that the normal price for these is $4 each! This is a lie, they can be pretty expensive but not that bad, who would buy them? I bought a lot of meat. Most of it was a dollar a pound, which is bloody fabulous!
People were pretty nice today, too. Sometimes it gets a little ugly, especially around supper time.

The Bloodmobile was up at our church on Monday. I always try to give a pint, because I have rare blood. I am AB positive. Only 3.2 % of the population has this type. The only thing rarer is AB negative. (Look, another random thing about me! Counting the pagan thing, I think I'm up to #8.)

I also make lotsa platelets, so sometimes I go and they extract those from my blood and then put the rest of the blood back in. If you have trouble passing the hemoglobin test at the bloodmobile it seems to help if your fingers are nice and warm before they poke them. This may be the worst photo EVER taken of me. I think I'll hang it on the refrigerator. As a horrible warning.

I am still waiting for the next Kim Harrison book, "White witch, Black Curse". I am number 1 on the list and I'm checking that a couple times a day. Seriously, whoever has it, read faster or I'll come to your house. You can't beat a nice bloodthirsty vampire book. I tried to read "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle", but gave up because I was too worried about Edgar's (entirely FICTIONAL) doggies! I don't like to be between books, it makes me cranky.

Shameless Sweeps Stunts

It's Spring break here this week. We didn't go anywhere except to the gym and out for coffee. I'm catching up on some scrapbooking and the endless job of cutting things out of construction paper for preschool. I am one of those people who often have the TV on for background noise. Morning TV is an interesting slice of life. Is it sweeps month or are talk shows always this odd?

Tyra Banks had a pregnant hooker on yesterday's show! She works at the Bunny Ranch in Vegas or something. I couldn't stand to watch the whole thing, but apparently it is difficult to be a pregnant hooker, you get tired easily. EWWW! Today she has "sugar babies" which differ from goldiggers in that sugar babies will only take money from nice smelling old men. Often entirely on-line. Who knew?

Martha Stewart has had rappers help with crafting this week. I learned a lot about Mr. "Q-Tip". Martha had him make a stained glass Q-tip container. I am not making this up. Martha is going to great lengths to convince us she is up-to-date, hence the rappers. She also exclaims how expensive everything is every two or three minutes. While potting orchids and eating paella. I'm convinced! Martha is just like me!

Dr.Phil had the "Octomom" on his show so he could publicly ridicule her. She must be nuts if she couldn't see that coming. I was not able to watch this, as I cannot stand either Dr. Phil or octomom.

American Idol is giving me whiplash. Is it on every night? The contestants are gone, they're back, they're gone again, unless they act really crazy, then they might return at some future date when ratings sag.

I think that I will need to turn the TV off before my brain leaks out my ears. I will go to the gym, listen to classical music and read a book. Speaking of that, those of you ahead of me on the library waiting list for "White witch, black curse" READ FASTER!

Tuttle says, "It is Spring!"

It doesn't look like it outside, what with all the new snow, but it must be spring. Our box turtle, Tuttle, woke up from his semi-hibernation, climbed on top of the turtle garage and sunned himself. He then threw himself off, but I'm sure he wasn't TRYING to end it all. He's very hungry now, so we stocked up on crickets, worms and strawberries. He also likes carrots and expensive lettuce.

Another sign of spring? The dog is shedding so much I could knit a puppy from the fur I comb off her.


We went up north for the weekend. We stayed at the cabin which belongs to Paul's relatives. This cabin is very rustic and has no electricity or water. It is heated by a wood stove. We really like to go there. Unfortunately, it was really cold this weekend. We put every quilt in the place on the beds.
We do have a generator, so we brought up the DVD player. We are watching the "John Adams" series that HBO did a while ago. It is very interesting, we're all learning a lot.


Here are Paul and Nick, wrapped up, watching the movie. Yeah, Paul's napping.












Here is the wood stove.Yes, those are antlers on the rafters.
Remember the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast"? Gaston, the anti-hero, sings "I use antlers in all of my decorating....."
Trust me, it works at this place.














On Sunday we went skiing. Okay, the guys went skiing. Since I lost the ACL in my right knee, I don't ski much.Without the big ugly brace (which I forgot) I don't ski at all. So, sadly, I had to stay in the nice warm chalet, drink tea and read a book.



I read "Lavinia" by Ursula K. LeGuin. It is a retelling of the Aenid from the point of view of Aeneus' 2nd wife Lavinia. Pretty interesting and full of history from the pre-roman days.








Here are 2 handsome skiers prepared to tackle the slopes. They tried all the ski-lifts and all the intermediate hills. They slept really well that night. Despite my getting up twice to stoke the fire, it was 30 degrees INSIDE when we woke up on Monday. (Don't worry about Lucy-dog, I let her sleep in the bed with me.) We decided we'd had enough fun and went back to the land of gas furnaces and hot showers.





In honor of (my internal, mental) Spring, and Grandma Elly's birthday, I will give you her best recipe. Rhubarb is a spring item, it will come up as soon as all this stupid snow melts.

Rhubarb Pie

Pastry for 1 or 2 crust pie
rhubarb to fill crust (cut up)
Strawberries (optional)
1 cup sugar
2 rounded Tbls flour
1/2 cup cream (or half and half)
cinnamon

Fill pie shell with rhubarb.Mix sugar, flour and cream and pour over rhubarb. Elly always made this an open face pie, but I like to add cut-up strawberries and a top crust that is latticed. Sprinkle with cinnamon, bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Put this on a foil lined cookie sheet in case it bubbles over. You can use frozen rhubarb, but it takes much longer to cook.