Spring Is Here! Spring is Here!

Life is Skittles and life is beer! Tom Lehrer anyone?



Ahem, anyway. Remember my escapade from yesterday? Today has already made up for it, and it isn't even noon yet!

Some of you may already know that I'm planning to start a vegetable and herb garden this year. We just moved into a house with a great yard (if you didn't already know that, don't worry. It was under wraps until recently for some very complicated reasons) so I have tons of space to plant and plant and plant some more! I'm really excited, and a teeny bit scared as I've never really grown anything apart from a Chia Pet when I was 10. I'm really hoping I inherited my father's green thumb...

So why is today so very very awesome? My seeds came!

Top, from L-R: Crisp Mint, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschluss, Susan's Red Bibb, Amish Deer Tongue, Red Velvet, Cinnamon Basil; Bottom, L-R: Greek Oregano, English Lavender, German Chamomile, Giant From Italy Parsley, Cilantro, Genovese Basil.

And that's not including the tomato and pepper plants I bought, which will be shipped to me after the danger of frost has officially passed. I'm getting Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple and Brandywine tomatoes, as well as Ancho Gigantea, Traveler's Jalapeno, and Sweet Chocolate peppers! I purchased all my seeds and plants from Seed Savers Exchange. They sell heirloom varieties and certified organic seeds, both of which I prefer. I think heirlooms are just plain awesome and I'm all about doing what I can to preserve biodiversity.

So I know the first day of Spring isn't until Monday, but this totally means Spring for me! Time to get dirty!

Go With the Flow: It's Not Worth It

Today was supposed to be a "good day".

Supposed to be.

I didn't wake up in a bad mood because my child was babbling and fussing away next to me at 7 o'clock in the morning. He still fussed, but I didn't let it bother me.

I had a Guinness cupcake with Bailey's frosting for breakfast.

I made up a menu for the coming week and put together a grocery list.

I emptied the trash can in the bathroom (that thing fills up fast!)

I took a shower! (*gasp*)

So why, with the deck seemingly stacked in my favor, did today fail to be a "good day"?

Because I am a big, big baby.

Everything was fine at first. We went to Target to get some things we've been needing but hadn't gotten around to purchasing yet, like a mail tray for the entryway table and a boot tray for our shoes. Dominic napped in my Mei Tai Baby while we shopped. We headed to Panera for lunch, since it's basically the only place in town with truly meatless menu options. And then...it happened.

I slammed my finger in the car door. Hard.

Those who know me know that I am extremely accident prone, especially when it comes to my fingers and toes. I've stubbed my left pinky toe three times, tearing the ligament each time and resulting in about a month of hobbling around pitifully. People must think I'm some kind of drama queen when I tell them, "I stubbed my toe." Except for me, "I stubbed my toe" really means, "I internally maimed my toe." I digress.

I had just put Dom in my ring sling (I tend to use the ring sling when we go out to eat because he invariably wants to get out and it's so much easier to pop him in and out of a ring sling.) When I went to close the door I must've forgotten to move my hand because there was my ring finger, crushed helplessly in the jaws of our Dodge Stratus. It was so wedged in there that I had to actually open the door again to free it. And BOY did it hurt!

Remember in my birth story where I said I'm a wuss? Here's proof.

I cried. A lot. I mostly cried because it hurt, and because I was mad at myself for being so clumsy. In retrospect I actually think I was upset more because it basically ruined the rest of my day. I wanted to go home immediately and nurse my wound (See? Totally a wuss.) which meant that my brilliant plans for the remainder of our outing would have to be scrapped. So we went home, after pilfering the towel filled with ice lent to us by the nice Panera people. And I sulked on the couch while Nick went back to Panera to get us lunch, because we still had no food.

So what did I learn from all this? I am a big baby. I'm realizing this about myself more and more. I have trouble making the best out of a bad situation. If things don't go the way I plan, I pitch a fit. "It's not FAIR!" is a favorite saying of mine in times of trial. I talk the talk about redemptive suffering, but I certainly don't walk the walk. And that needs to change.

I need to be more flexible. I need to roll with the punches. Otherwise, I will break like a dry twig. It's not worth the impact on my physical and spiritual well-being to be always swimming against the current. And it's not a good example I'm setting for Dominic.

From this day forward "It's not fair" will be stricken from my vocabulary (as will "I hate my life"...because I really don't, I'm just being a baby again). Because being angry about it does no good. And honestly, it's not worth it.

Muffin VS. Cupcake

What's the difference between a muffin and a cupcake for breakfast?

The cupcake is just wearing a hat.

Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! In honor of this most festive occasion, I offer you:





Thanks to Dirt and Diapers for this idea.

The rest of the year, I'm just about 25% Irish. But today, I bleed green! So I'm gonna grab me a pint of Guinness (no green beer here) and celebrate appropriately. Thank goodness this feast doesn't fall on a Friday.

Sláinte mhaith!

The Resurrection of the Starter

This is Wilson.

Wilson was my beloved sourdough starter before I got pregnant.

Yes, I said was, for Wilson has since passed on. He was hidden in the back of the fridge during my first trimester and neglected for so long that he eventually turned grey and went into extreme hibernation. When we moved from our apartment, I wasn't in the mood to try and revive a clearly troubled starter so I let him go to Sourdough Heaven. Besides, he was starting to smell like potato chips (not a good smell for a starter).

Why am I telling you about Wilson? Because I am going to reincarnate Wilson! Yay Wilson!

I'm following the "recipe" for a wild yeast starter here. I'm using Hodgson Mill whole grain rye flour and R.W. Knudsen organic pineapple juice.

Why pineapple juice, you ask?

Mixing just flour and water creates an environment that is almost neutral pH, but the yeastie beasties we want prefer an acidic pH. The neutral environment is good for other organisms in the flour that produce acids as a by-product, thus lowering the pH to a level where the yeast can grow. But this takes longer and can be very frustrating because the starter will look like it's doing awesome around day 3 and then appear to "die" on you. This is because gas-producing bacteria cause the starter to grow and then die out when the environment is no longer to their liking. It's only after these bacteria die out that the yeast is allowed to grow. By using pineapple juice, we bypass that initial phase and go directly to an acidic pH favorable to the yeast. The yeast get a foothold right away and don't have to do battle with the gassy bacteria.

Make sense? If not, don't worry. You don't have to know why something works for it to work (thank goodness!)

So last night I mixed 2 tablespoons rye flour with 2 tablespoons pineapple juice in a mason jar.

I will continue adding 2 tablespoons each flour and juice for the next two days until it starts bubbling and then I will start discarding and feeding (if I didn't discard some of it every time I fed it, Wilson would take over my kitchen in about a week! First stop kitchen, next stop...WORLD).

Stay tuned!