The Zesty Season

Lemons abound!

Not only are they in my CSA basket, all over the farmer’s market, but friends are giving us lemons from their trees.

So, that means nightly lemon-honey tea (juice of one lemon, honey, and hot water), lemon squares (Mark Bittman’s recipe), candied lemon peel (recipe to be posted at a future date) and lots of  Couscous with Cilantro and Lemon Juice. I riffed off the recipe from epicurious.com here and used large couscous upon the suggestion of my sister-in-law. It turned out great – and used a surprisingly amount of cilantro, which I always seem to have lurking in the bottom in one of my veggie drawers. Bella liked it, and so did the wee Murdy. (Husband’s an easy sell – he likes everything I make, so…)

The flavors were bold. It went great with roasted chicken.

Couscous with Cilantro and Lemon

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 4 cloves or more)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (I used curry powder – a heaping tsp)
• 1 2/3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel (I used more – an entire lemon)
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups plain couscous (I used large pearl, the Israeli kind from TJs)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used way more – almost an entire bunch)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (again, MORE – a whole large lemon)

1. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic and turmeric; stir 1 minute.

2. Add 1 2/3 cups water, lemon peel, and 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt; bring to boil.

3. Stir in couscous. Cover and simmer according to box – about 15 minutes.

4. When all the water is absorbed, fluff with fork; mix in cilantro and lemon juice.

5. Season with pepper and additional coarse salt, if desired.

 

Three Halves

Three halves do not equal any wholes in my case – just three halves: the consequence of my crafting ADHD. I don’t recommend working on more than one or two pairs of socks at a time though, as I’m finding it hard to remember important particulars.

It IS useful to have a couple simultaneous projects of varying degrees of difficulty, for different situations. The middle sock (birthday gift for my friend Caryn) and the one to the right (for Christian) are much easier and faster than the striped one to the left. Worsted wool socks are fast and easy enough to knit while walking around following Christian at the park. Those striped pair require quiet and some concentration, and are perfect for when Christian falls asleep in the car and I’m sitting by myself for a spell.

 

Letter to Christian at 20 Months

Dear sweet Christian,

You are really giving me  run for my money these few months – maybe that’s why there hasn’t been a letter to you in a while – I hardly have a moment to sit in front of the computer. You’ve become a fast runner and capable stair-climber. You love the slide at the park, but you still refuse to swing.

You are charming, despotic, and still very, very communicative. According to Bella (Sister! you will shout at any mention of her – while making the sign for “sister” at the same time. Even funnier is when you yell up for her from the bottom of the stairs, like you’ve seen me do, BELLA! pause BELLA! and so on and so on…), her psych textbook says that babies go from one word, to two words, and then jump directly into complete sentences.

That’s what’s happening right now and it’s fascinating. You do have a large arsenal of two-word phrases at your disposal (openit! holdya? sitdown! downstairs!), but now you are starting to string words together to make meaning. The other night you saw a picture of your friend Anna sleeping and you said slowly, Anna… sleeping… too.

Of course this major developmental leap is wreaking havoc with your emotional and physical capabilities – the old “one step forward, two steps back” business. Suddenly, you’re stumbling and hitting the pavement on a regular basis – EVERY DAY you go to bed with a new lump on your forehead or a new skinned patch on your knees. I know this will pass, but it’s alarming to watch you tumble so often – I mean, it must be a boy thing, because I don’t remember Bella having goose eggs or black eyes – ever.

Emotionally too, you are more aware of what you want, and frustrated that we can’t understand all that you say. The sign language bridge only works to a certain extent – and honestly, I think that you have so many burgeoning emotions and desires that sometimes you don’t know what you want, so there’s nothing I can help you with, except to hold and comfort you until the storm has passed.

The pottying is going well. Last time we went to LA for the day, we used guess how many diapers?

ZERO! You were dry from the previous night, until we got back from LA – which means that you went pee in public bathrooms SEVEN times that day (and pooped in his potty before we had left the house). That was quite a day. Of course, we missed a bunch of pees when we got home. I’ve got to remember to offer you the potty more regularly. You don’t want to miss anything, not a second, so you don’t let me know about pees until after you’ve soaked your diaper sometimes. Although we seem to have more success when you run around without a diaper than with one. Yesterday you were diaper-free (not even training pants) and you took yourself to the potty three times. A fourth time you came back holding your potty, saying LOOKIT! POOPOO! Sure enough. You’d pooped a second time. I’m just glad you didn’t drop it.

Enough potty talk. You’re sleeping and I need to work on the taxes. I love you buddy. You bring smiles to my face all day long.

Love,

Mama

P.S. Both pictures of Christian taken by Sierra three days ago at the Huntington Gardens. New camera!

P.P. S. Mud stomping at the last week’s Waldorf in the Woods playgroup – shortly after this video footage was shot – you fell, the older boys kept stompin’ and splashing’, and you got COMPLETELY covered in mud and speedy action had to be taken to get the mud out of your mouth and ears.

 

Maximizing Gain from Book Weeding

Living on a tight budget really ratchets up a particular quality of mine, one that has to do with being obsessed with optimization.

Example: I want to get rid of a bunch of books. Is it best to

a) drop them off at the Friends of the Library? (Internal gain only)

b) save them until my next swap party? (May help out friends)

c) post them at paperbackswap.com? (Get one credit for every book requested)

d) bring them into the local used book store, The Paperback Trading Post,  for store credit? (Store credit!)

The answer is e) all of the above.

This is how it played out.

A few months ago, I was pretty much through with paperback swap, simply because when I want to get rid of books, that means I don’t want them sitting around in my closet indefinitely until somebody requests it from me. Also, I get most of my books from the library – those I can’t get (especially the Steiner Press ones), I generally have to bit the bullet and buy, because they aren’t available through paperback swap either.

Now, I do buy paperback fiction for my sister, Sue, because apparently that’s one thing not cheap or easy to come by in Bangkok. After enjoying the (guilty) heck out of the Sookie Stackhouse series, I determined to get Sue a set. I looked all over for a cheap used copy, but ended up buying her a brand new copy of the first book in the series.

Then I discovered an extremely useful feature on paperback swap: the waiting list.

I popped the rest of the Southern Vampire series on my waiting list – and lo! Within a week, the second book was automatically requested (by me) and shipped. Several months later, I had ALL NINE BOOKS ready to ship to Sue for Christmas.

That is COOL.

So, paperback swap is back in my good books.

But still, I don’t want to have so many books sitting in my closet waiting.

In the end, I brought ALL my books to the swap party last month. Then at the end of the party, I TOOK all the books remaining, which, all combined, was several boxes more than I’d brought.

I took those boxes to the used book store and turned in as many as she would take for store credit ($36 worth – but her books are expensive and many are not for trade – so I’ll use that credit as a last resort).

Then I weeded through what was left, and any I thought were not good candidates for paperbackswap, I sent with Chad to donate to The Friends of the Library.

The last 20 books I’ve posted  on paperbackswap, and a week later, I’ve already sent five of them out. I will use those credits to get some more fiction to bring to my sister in Thailand in May.

On my list to read and possibly get for Sue:

Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (reading now – won the Man Booker last year)

Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book (Highly recommended by two friends)

Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (recommended)

If you have other suggestions, please share!

 

Story-telling Techniques

I am busy practicing and memorizing the new puppet show for the first playgroup of the new cycle (late winter). I am trying to incorporate the techniques we learned during Devana’s storytelling workshop last month, which I’ll try and list at the bottom of this post.

We’ll be telling the simple tale, The Porridge Pot.

Here’s the version we’ll be using.

Once upon a time not very long ag o and not very far away, there was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother, and they no longer had anything to eat. So the mother sent the girl in to the forest to pick some berries to bring home.

There, she met an aged woman. Despite the little girl’s own hunger she shared what she had gathered with the woman, and told the woman how poor and hungry the people of her village were.

The woman, who was aware of the little girl’s sorrow, presented her with a little pot. She told the girl when she was hungry she must say, “Cook, little pot, cook.” And when she was finished eating she must say, “Stop, little pot, stop” and it would cease to cook.

The girl took the pot home to her mother, and they were freed from their poverty and hunger, and ate sweet porridge as often as they chose. One day the girl had to go out. She reminded her mother of the words she needed to use before leaving.

While the girl was gone the mother began to get hungry, so she said, “Cook, little pot, cook” and it did cook and she ate till she was satisfied. Then she wanted the pot to stop cooking, but could not remember the words to use.

So the little pot went on cooking and cooking until the porridge rose over the edge. Still it cooked on, until the kitchen and the whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world.

There was the greatest distress, but no one knew how to stop the little pot from cooking. At last, when only one single house remained, the girl came home and said, “Stop, little pot, stop” and it stopped and gave up cooking.

Whosoever wished to return to the town had to eat his way back.

And if things have not changed they are still the same today.

At the Waldorf Storytelling Workshop.

 

Dolly Sweater

I’ve had a request to post the directions for the sweater I knit up for Christian’s dolly, Sterling.

These are directions for knitting a standard rolled sleeve wool sweater for a 16″ doll on double-pointed needles (dpn).

I used the remaining bit of Cascade 220 wool that I’d used to knit my dad socks for Christmas. Size 3 needles gets me about 6 stitches to an inch, but my friend, Sierra, who’s a much tighter knitter gets the same gauge with size 5.

I wanted the bottom of the sweater to be about 11 1/2 inches around, so I cast on 70 stitches on size 3 dpn. Join the stitches in a round, taking care that the stitches are not twisted (First time you twist your stitches is a bummer – no way to fix a Mobius strip except to pull it all out.)

Knit in rounds for about 5 inches or up to the armpit of your doll. Remember, the first inch will roll up, since I didn’t use a ribbing to start.

Then put half the stitches (30) on a holder. To knit up the front chest with some decreases for an arm hole, I would decrease at the start and end of every row for 4 rows.* To do this, I would knit 1, knit 2 together (k2t), knit to the last three, knit 2 together through the back loop (k2ttbl), and knit the last stitch. Then, purl 1, purl 2 together, purl across to the last 3, purl 2 together, and purl the last stitch. Repeat once.

Next, I decreased only at the start of each row six times: k1, k2t, k across. p1, p2t, p across. Repeat three more times.

Now knit in stockinette for another inch. End with a purl row. At the start of your next knit row, put 6 stitches on a holder for the shoulder. You can cast off here and sew the seam later, but I just held the open stitches with a big safety pin and kitchener stitched them to the back half of the sweater at the end.

Put the center 18 stitches on another stitch holder or leave on dpn. Put last 6 stitches for left shoulder on a stitch holder too.

Repeat from * for the back of the sweater.

Kitchener stitch the shoulder seams together.

Pick up 36 neck stitches with the dpns and knit in the round for one more inch. Cast off.

Now you have something that looks like a turtleneck vest.

Sleeves: Use your dpns to pick up 25-30 stitches (depending on the chunkiness of your doll’s arms – you can use the body of the sweater wrapped around the arm to gauge how wide you want your sleeve) around the arm hole.

Knit in the round for 5 1/2 inches or slightly past the wrist of your doll arm. Remember, the rolled edge will curl up about 1/2 inch here. Cast off.

Repeat for second sleeve.

Tuck in your loose ends.

Done!

P.S. If you’re new to knitting with dpns, here are two youtube tutorials to get you started. (Thanks Sierra, for finding couple of decent ones.)

 

A friend of a friend…

The provenance of this story: Just got this email from my brother. He got it from a good friend Marc. Marc went to college with Pieter who wrote the emails below from the first-hand experience of working in Haiti last week.

My post last week, “Week 2 was a Draw,” was inadvertently deleted, but in it I explained that Chad and our family had donated some money to Doctors Without Borders. Pieter has more suggestions below. (I’ve deleted all email addresses, but retained the email format, so you can see the history.) I’ve checked the links (legit), but changed nothing else in the emails.

FYI:

From:
Date: January 20, 2010 9:11:06 PM CST
Cc:
Subject: FW: Haiti Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you have asked about my trip to Haiti this past week Jan 17-19.  I guess the email i sent from Haiti that first night made it through the email circulation like a mad computer virus (see below).

Through a small miracle performed by my colleague Dr. Carlos Lavernia, I boarded a flight, along with anesthesiologists and surgeons from all over the US flight, to Haiti in a private jet paid for by an owner who said he would indefinitely continue to fund urgent med-evacs and shuttle physicians and supplies as long as was needed.

The “hospital tents” on the UN barracks at the airport were sponsored by Medishare (Dr. Barth Green) and the University of Miami.  I thank them for giving me the opportunity.  There was no running water, sanitation, operating room, sterile equipment etc.  Alonzo Mourning was there mopping floors, placing splints, and later contributed $1 million towards the development of a new hospital tent.

The scene was gruesome.  The smell of decay, the cries of pain, and the look of fear on little kids’ and parents’ faces.  There were open tibia fractures in children and adults.  There were babies with spinal cord paralysis and flail chests.

I helped devise the first OR consisting of 2 picnic tables.  The team and I performed over 14 surgically necessary amputations for gangrenous limbs in those first 24 hours along with countless “minor” bedside procedures like casts, reductions.  Amputations are not a feel-good operation.  Had to take lots of breaks to clear the mind.  All procedures were done with the best anesthesia team one could ever ask for – with interscalene blocks for upper extremity surgery and fem/sciatic blocks for lower extremities.  We had turnover times that would make surgical centers jealous!  There were no anesthesia machines, oxygen, or other fancy things like tourniquets or power saws and sterilization solution.

Civil war medicine comes to mind.

But, considering how badly injured some of these patients are, the mortality rate at the UM facility was low (somewhere around 2%). In total, some 300+ patients have been treated at the UM field hospital.

I said I wouldn’t in my first email, but I’ve attached a pic of one of my patients.  He’s doing well.

After 48 hours, I had to leave.  I was met with an outpouring of emotions when I returned from people asking how they could help.

Consider donating.  God knows the Haitians need it.
_______________________________________
Medishare charity who helped fund my way there.

Also consider Operation Walk Haiti (Larry Dohr’s, Lavernia, Hommen) whose mission is to help those afflicted with orthopedic ailments like fractures, amputations, and spinal cord injuries.  The goal is to provide these infants, children and adults with continued orthopedic surgical care, physical therapy, crutches, braces, and limb prosthetics now and long after Haiti has been rebuilt.

Pieter Hommen

__________________________________________

From:
To:
Subject: Haiti update
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:09:30 -0500

i’m safe on a UN compound at airport port-au-prince.  Lots of security.

very rudimentary “hospitals” where the only thing you can do is wash a wound or change a dressing – however i changed that today with some of the first surgical procedures on cots in the dark.

Very very sad here

crush injuries are very difficult to treat

most have orthopedic problems (open fractures, dislocations, sepsis, gangrene)

lots of little kids

Trying to do my part but the devestation will leave an entire generation in shambles, with amputees, not fixed fractures, spinal cord injuries etc)

trying to keep a positive attitude and a smile for my patients

haitians are the nicest people living in hell on earth

keep in your prayers and be thankful for what we have

won’t and can’t send pictures

too sad

pieter

 

Enjoying the Rain

Despite the torrential rain, the Waldorf in the Woods met gleefully. Here's the road we had to cross... See the egret?

That's him, flying off a moment later. The water fowl had completely taken over the park. Picnic tables were submerged and geese were swimming on the tennis courts.

The kids did not experience the rain negatively...

A lost crawdad! We found him, all pumped up and ready to fight, in a flooded tree well by our picnic area.

The Dude and Yours Truly.