Ar Wahan's home office water cooler

Some of you will cheer because of this. I am just sad.

This evening, I imported my LJ entries to Dreamwidth and hope to REMEMBER to post from here, and that I've correctly asked Dreamwidth to automatically crosspost. Will have to rebuild my icon collection . . . . (Apparently I have more than 15, so only the default icon imported.)

Spent all day today at the UU craft fair, because I was in charge of the used book table! Of course, I bought some, including an AWESOME find for my daughter (heeheehee), but given that I came in with two large bags of used books to donate, and only left with three books, I think I did well. :)

Between Thursday and Friday, I also made 5 dozen muffins for the "cafe" downstairs in the morning -- mostly pumpkin, but two dozen very yummy muffins made with my leftover cranberry-clementine savory relish from Thanksgiving! (Don't worry, I'd frozen it, it wasn't sitting in my refrigerator all week.)

I still have extra canned pumpkin left from the pumpkin batch. I will make pumpkin tea loaves tomorrow to freeze.

I am beat. Will make dinner and feed horses now . . .


So let's see if this short test post works!

We have been having VERY heavy rains and high winds the last two days, the result of Tropical Storm Nicole.

I just received the following (global) email from our UU office administrator:

The Connecticut River Source-to-Sea Clean-Up scheduled for Saturday, October 2nd has been postponed due to the high levels and potential flooding of the river.



(This is an annual event that many organizations, including my UU Society, turn out for.)

 I learned something new at yesterday's Sunday service.  Alison, our minister, talked to the children (and adults) about a movement that's been going on for a few years (she just learned of herself). She passed out cards and little bars of Fair Trade organic chocolate for the children to give to homeowners when they go trick-or-treating. It's an educational campaign to raise awareness of the fact that many farms that supply cocoa to major chocolate manufacturers use forced child labor. The cards encourage the people who'll give out candy to children Oct. 31 to buy Fair Trade Certified chocolate and cocoa products next Halloween (and year-round).

The web site is www. ReverseTrickOrTreating.org

The kits (cards and mini candy bars to distribute) have been sold out, but you can find the miniature bars AND (*pingsrowangolightly*) links to areas on www.globalexchangestore.org that have other types of chocolate products.

(One of the kids who sampled the candy bar Alison had given her said she didn't like it. Well, of course not -- it was the more bitter dark chocolate, more to the liking of an adult They do have milk chocolate, gift boxes with assorted chocolates, etc.) The web site also has many other Fair Trade products.

We rarely get trick-or-treaters at our door here -- most kids are driven by their parents to the center of town, where the houses are in reasonable walking distance of each other -- but I thought it was a great idea.

I can't claim credit for the name of the recipe I made for the homeless shelter guests yesterday. It was created by Catherine Yoder, of New Paris, Indiana, and published in Taste of Home Quick Cooking's magazine, and later in its 2009 Annual Recipes cookbook, which puts all the recipes of the year in one place. She wrote, "My kids and husband don't like some veggies, so I sneak them into this recipe."

I've been told the homeless guests (and the two UUs who took the pans over to them and served them) really liked it.

Prep time: 25 min. Bake time: 55 min + standing

Yields: 10-12 servings (I tripled this for the shelter guests, making one pan meatless)

2 pounds ground beef

1 package (16 oz) frozen California-blend vegetables  (Here Ar_wahan inserts a note. My store showed CA-blend as one combo, but the photo in the cookbook clearly showed carrots in the mix, which the CA-blend did not include. I used an Italian-blend which included broccoli, cauliflower and carrots sliced in long strips.  It worked just fine. I had tried a 1/2 batch of this recipe in February, just to make sure it worked.)

2 eggs

3 cups (24 oz) 2% cottage cheese

2 jars (26 oz. each) spaghetti sauce

12 no-cook lasagna noodles

2 cups (8 oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

In a Dutch oven, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink. Meanwhile, cook vegetables according to package directions; drain. Finely chop vegetables; place in bowl. Stir in eggs and cottage cheese; set aside.

Drain beef; stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread 2 cups meat mixture into a greased 13-in x 9-in x 2 in baking dish. Top with four noodles. Spread half of the vegetable mixture to edge of noodles.Layer with 2 cups meat mixture and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Top with four noodles, remaining vegetable mixture and 2 cups meat mixture. Layer with remaining noodles, meat mixture and mozzarella.

Cover and bake at 375 degrees F. for 50 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted. Let lasagna stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

I spent a considerable sum buying the "Q-towers" and clips so we could put a Yakima rack system on Samurai's Saturn. It was her Christmas present. The boxes have been sitting in the living room by her "spot" since then. I intended to install them today and use the 48" bars that had originally been on my Corolla (but which were too short for the wider Prius). The idea was that she could use the cargo box we bought in August to cart her goods to Suffolk (on my Prius) to cart things back and forth herself in the future, as well as carry her ski gear. AND, to be able to transport our two kayaks herself (especially when she and Mai are on the Cape with us this June) without hijacking my car. In theory, she'd just have to transfer the J-bars from my car to her rack system.

Hmmmph.

( Wherein I get annoyed with myself for not doing my homework )

Last night I made a recipe from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. I'd ordered two copies at the same time I'd ordered the small rice cooker for Samurai, had everything shipped to her to save on shipping charges('cuz I'm cheap that way), and asked her to bring the second copy home with her during spring break. There are some very interesting recipes in there! It includes "small meal" recipes, which means you aren't just cooking the rice, but vegetables and meat or other proteins at the same time. Kind of like a casserole or one-pot stovetop meal, only steamed instead of baked. And then there are other recipes for the use of the above-the-rice steamer basket.

Today was a lovely spring-like day. We could walk around without our coats, it being in the low 50s. (Of course, in a few months, we'll be thinking that is chilly!) Samurai and I went to the UU service, which was unusual -- "Jazz Theology: The Creative Pulse." Alison made some fascinating analogies between jazz and Unitarian Universalism, and all the music was jazz.

We went to the Route 9 Diner for a late breakfast, brainstormed places she might check out this week to see if she can get an application in for a summer job now (and came up with the same place at the same time, which she said meant we were reading the other's mind again; in this case, I think it's just because I know her interests). I shared starseeking 's comment about her not getting the RA position -- that something bigger and more suitable for her was waiting -- and she appreciated that. She is already planning to do some training with PFLAG in Boston to be someone schools or other places could call to get youth to come in and speak about their experiences, and was wondering if she could get a paid job doing filing or something for them this semester. She's also going to talk to a law professor who taught an undergrad course last semester who thought very highly of her, and who might have some connections.
 
After we came home, I basically sat around reading because my blood glucose had dropped and I felt shaky (was waiting for the treatment to kick in). She kindly did some "spring cleaning" on my laptop, removing a bunch of "temp" files and also doing something to prevent some never-used programs from loading when Windows XP starts up (such as Kodak Easyshare, which I never use). This thing would take forever to load, and now it springs into action! Arigato, Samurai!

It was just too nice to stay in, so once glucose was up, I went out and started picking up some of the smaller sticks that are littering our front yard from the December ice storm and subsequent winter winds and ice. It looks a little better now. (There is still some snow on the ground.) I don't know what we're going to do with all the larger branches. The main parts we can use for firewood, but not the parts with twigs. The tree guy who came twice after the storm to do work said he could come back to take down the dangerously damaged pine in the spring, and bring his chipper with him to get rid of everything. Or, I could get a brush burning permit and start burning some of it. I see several of our neighbors burning brush now.

It's been a low-key weekend here, which is good. I've been deligent with my physical therapy exercises, and can feel the difference. Spouse played the guitar a bit this afternoon (I could hear him playing inside the house when I was outside picking up sticks). He finally did the dishes (his job) and is now taking a little nap. I think I'll brown some ground beef for spaghetti, then take a quick shower before continuing the rest of dinner prep (I'm not doing the shower first because I don't want the cooking smell to get in my hair!).

That's about it. *pokes you if you've dozed off*

The UU newsletter edtiors listserv was just sent this clip of a video produced by the UUA on equal marriage.

Made me cry.

www.youtube.com/watch