Thanksgiving Delights

Here's a glimpse of our Thanksgiving feast.
And the leftovers.

Black Friday

Just how far do we have to come as a society that people are trampled to death by mobs in pursuit of STUFF on sale for Christmas? Just more stuff to fill the voids in our lives and any extra space in our storage units. That's right, spaces we actually pay for to hold all the stuff we've bought, but don't need. Our unique relationship to the stuff that fills our lives is ironic enough that it can be comical, but when our obsession for material goods actually results in the horrific death of a store employee, we've gone WAY beyond crossing a line. Is that really what the holidays are all about?

An exerpt from the NY Times article:
"Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said they were shocked. One of them, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said the crowd had acted like “savages.” Shoppers behaved badly even as the store was being cleared, she recalled.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.” "

The beauty of the whole situation is that nobody has to take responsibility for that man from Long Island's death. Everyone can point to the person behind him or the person behind HIM or the frenzy created by a mob of emotionally charged individuals. The Midwesterners can point their fingers and decry those crazed New Yorkers, the New Yorkers can say "it wasn't MY fault." But it was their fault. It is all of our fault. Our fault for letting consumerism replace rational thinking and a sound perspective on what we TRULY need to be happy and fulfilled.

America, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Sadness, remorse, sympathies and prayers for the spirit and family of Jdimytai Damour who was trampled to death yesterday in honor of Black Friday. Black, indeed.

The numbers are in..

And after my first 25 loaves, countless trips to the grocery store, hours and hours of baking, and a few minutes spent scraping dog crap off my show, I have made.....

..................................

$4.00.

Bakers, take your mark.. Get set...

A turn of events has set me back to square one as far as my job search goes. Since I decided to start teaching piano lessons, I've planned on piecing together several different part-time jobs. I added accompanying an elementary school choir downtown and teaching a parent & tot music class at a local church to the mix, but still I wasn't making enough to cover my living expenses.

By luck, circumstance, entrepreneurial creativity or sheer insanity, I decided to get myself through the holiday season by selling holiday breads to my family, friends, and former coworkers. I took samples of my different breads to my former workplace along with flyers and sent out an email to everyone else. Friends passed around the flyers and forwarded the email, and orders trickled in one by one. Before I knew what was happening, I suddenly had orders for 40+ loaves of bread!

I am a person blessed with lots of ideas, but usually I think about them until they go away. I jumped into this endeavor, however, with both feet and figured I would figure things out as I went. I took the weekend to collect myself and make a plan. 25 of the 40 loaves were for Thanksgiving, so I had agreed to have them ready for delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since we were out of town all weekend, that left Monday for grocery shopping and baking.

Monday came, 3 grocery stores, and our heads spinning from converting weight measurements to volume (just how many cups are in a 5 lb bag of flour?), I was on my way to home to let the baking begin. I had planned to start as soon as I got home and bake all night if I had to. Halfway to Chicago I got a text message from one of my roommates inviting me to eat dinner with her and her boyfriend in our apartment. It was at that moment that I realized my plan didn't take into account the fact that I share my kitchen with two other people. Thankfully we found resolution, though I sense (both intrinsically and because they told me) that they are less than thrilled with my complete take-over of the kitchen.

At the apartment I had so many heavy groceries (15 lbs of flour, 10 lbs sugar, a can of pumpkin the size of a bowling ball, etc.) that I had to make 4 trips up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. On the third trip I stepped in dog poo.

Finally at the top, the woman who had agreed to cover my music class so I could bake, called saying she was sick. So I put the groceries away and headed off to sing with the babies. When I got back, there were two loaf pans in my mailbox left by a caring friend! Unfortunately they were 9 x 5, and the only boxes I was able to find after days of searching measured 9 x 4.5. I plowed ahead anyway.

The 7 loaves of pumpkin bread went off without any major hitches. On to the 7 loaves of apple... For some reason I decided to fiddle with the baking rack to get the loaves good and in the center. Bad idea. An hour later I had to pry them out of the baking pans, and the bottoms were scorched. Not good when you're on a schedule and bought for just the right amount of ingredients. I set them aside and moved on.

By the time I was done grating carrots and cooking and mashing sweet potatoes it was closing in on 2 in the morning. I decided to bake just 1 loaf of each carrot and sweet potato to get me through Tuesday. At 3:30 AM I turned off the oven and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, got more loaves in the oven and then started wrapping and packaging the cooked loaves. The 9 x 5 loaves are tight in the boxes, but I shoved them in anyway. No more Miss Nice Girl. Then I ran out of ribbon. Who knew a 9 ft spool would only wrap 2 boxes?! Anarchy.

At 12:30 my first customer dropped by to pick up her breads. I met her at the curb with her boxed and adorned breads, we exchanged pleasantries, she payed me, and it was done! And then I realized that I'd forgotten to bring down my keys, and I was locked out of the apartment.

!!!

The Alchemist says that when one goes in search of their personal legend, all the universe consipires to help them. I'm wondering if all the universe also conspires to let one know they've gone astray.

Ok, Universe! I get it already!

I've got another 11 to deliver tomorrow, and then I think I'll take Thanksgiving to reevaluate and see if I'll break even. Perhaps baking isn't my destiny. Good luck to me.

ELINORE!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELINORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Readings

I thought I'd post a Christmas list - some good books to read:
1. Radical Evolution - Joel Garreau - $10.85 Amazon
2. The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil - $13.60 Amazon
3. Leadership and the New Science - Margaret Wheatley - $14.25 Amazon
4. Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins - $5.06 Amazon
5. Earth: The Sequel - Fred Krup - $16.47 Amazon

The general theme is one of future change due to convergence of environmental issues and influence of information technology on human evolution. This ought to really scramble my brain.

First Snow

I just wanted to announce it!

List

It's that time of year, here's my list:

Long underwear shirt
a new wallet
Pure beech sateen sheets--gold
field coat
cardigan sweater
waffle maker
hypoallergenic earrings--I've recently developed a copper allergy and all my earrings are making my ears swell and bleed
-mainly studs for the earrings
My amazon wishlist
you have to type my name to search for it, mine is the one with the mention of horses
a good book


that's all for now but tune in for possible additions...

Bean Soup Dilemma

The air is crisp.  The sky is clear.  The few leaves that still cling to the trees have turned.  The ground is frosty in the morning.  We are waist-deep in fall and last night visions of bean soup danced in my head. 

I soaked the beans overnight and made a trip to the grocery this morning to pick up the requisite carrot, celery, and bell pepper.  I got back and got busy chopping, dicing, and mincing and one by one added ingredients to the crock pot.  The pot got fuller and fuller, and with each ingredient the concern that it wouldn't all fit became a little more realistic.  But I held onto hope. 

After I added the tomatoes, however, I couldn't pretend any longer.  I still had to add 5 more cups of broth, and my soup was already at the tippy-top.  I don't know if I'm just forgetful or in denial, but this happens to me every time I use my miniature crock pot.  So, I resigned myself to cooking in my stock pot.  I transferred the soup ladle-full by ladle-full, made a mess, and then added my last 5 cups of broth.

While washing the crock pot and restoring it to the pantry, I tried to devise my stock pot plan.  It was only 11 AM.  I couldn't leave the soup simmering all day because I'll be out from 3-5.  I couldn't put the whole thing in the fridge until later because it was too heavy.  I had lunch while I thought some more.

Then I realized that since I threw everything in raw rather than sauteeing the celery, onions, garlic, etc first, I would HAVE to cook it in the crock pot.  Ladle-full by ladle-full I transferred the soup back into the clean crock pot and put the rest in a tupper in the fridge.  And made a mess.

The outcome?  Half a pot of delicious bean soup that will be ready at dinner time, another quarter pot of raw soup in the fridge, a quarter pot splashed all over the kitchen, and more dirty pots and pans than I know what to do with.

Global Crisis

On Monday this past week, I made my special muffins---Morning Glory Muffins--I made these on my last day in August and everyone has been on my case to make them again since I've been back. So I finally made them and I sent an email to let everyone in Business Operations know that they were on the back table. About 10 mins later I got an email from someone named Jerry Lapour--he's an MDM or manager for a particular region of the country--saying thanks for including me in the email. Not too long after that someone from Marketing upstairs came down and took 4 muffins. I was pretty confused until my boss emailed me and said "I think you meant OB_CS2_ALL" or something along those lines "OB_ALL is the entire company." I then received an email from an IT guy who works from home saying thanks for the muffins. So I sent the email, not just to the entire Oak Brook branch of Elkay, but to the ENTIRE COUNTRY. Jerry Lapour is not from IL. Embarrassing to say the least.


Here's the recipe for the muffins:

Morning Glory Muffins

2 C flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 C shredded carrots
2 large apples cored and shredded
3/4 C coconut
1/2 C raisins
3/4 C oil
3 eggs

Preheat oven 375
Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. Shred carrots and apples and combine with coconut, raisins and dry ingredients. Mix well. Add vanilla, eggs and oil and stir just till combined. Line a muffin tin with papers and fill with batter 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 mins. Makes ~2 dozen

Dia de los Muertos

I made a Day of the Dead shrine this year in honor of my favorite Spanish professor, Dr. Sonia Riquelme, who passed away a few weeks ago from pancreatic cancer. You are supposed to put food and drink that the person liked in the shrine, but all I had were almonds and limes. I'm sure she liked almonds and limes. Who doesn't like almonds and limes, right? I know she would be tickled to think that someone made a dia de los muertos shrine for her. She would laugh.

You can also see my poor shriveled pumpkin on the lower left. Pretty spooky, eh?

Our pumpkin

Elinore wanted a witch after she say Grandpa's. Thanks, Dad. Here it is, and I must say that Kevin is very proud of it.

Naperville in the Fall

Here are some photos from when we were in Naperville a couple weekends ago.
Elinore getting lots of help painting her pumpkin at the arboretum. What a gorgeous day.
Caitlyn decided to try wearing Tobin on our walk along the Naperville riverwalk. I felt eerily naked without my boy in my arms, but it gave me a little break.

After our walk we took the tour up the bell carillon. We learned a lot of things about bells and how they work. Some of them are really massive. It was really interesting (and freezing with an icy wind blowing).

We had a lot of fun, and felt like we were able to do a lot over the weekend. Plus, we can't thank Mom and Dad enough for the amazing dinner they sent us to as a late anniversary gift. The food was divine, and we are still talking about it. Maybe you should send us there every year...