Stollen Moments

M's first-ever attempt at a Riker holiday tradition. It had cherries in it.

Thirty weeks

A leetle bigger

Twenty-nine weeks

Big

Four years since that day a cat named Jacques said "Meaow" in the middle of our vows

Mmmm

My God People

Is nothing sacred?

First Snow

New Pictures

Here

Make and you will not be sorry

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Note: It’s good to make the dough the night before you intend to bake these, if you can. (It needs to be chilled prior to baking at least 2 hours)

1 ½ cups plus 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp. freshly grated peeled ginger
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. boiling water
7 oz semi-sweet chocolate, cut into ¼-inch chunks
¼ cup granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and fresh ginger on medium speed until lightened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

4. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Set aside.

5. Beat half of the flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate chunks, turn onto plastic wrap. Pat out to a 1-inch thickness; seal with wrap. Refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or overnight.

6. Preheat oven to 325 F. Roll dough into 1 ½-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Chill 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until surfaces just begin to crack, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Cookies are best the same day they are made (ESPECIALLY WARM WHEN THE CHOCOLATE IS ALL MELTY!!!), but can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days.

M on a friend

Here

Second Planet Anyone?

See here.

This week - eighteen weeks (or nineteen?)

Fourteen weeks, rocking the ankle boots

Two and a half months (ish)

I'm back

I took a little vacation from the blog and almost everything else. As you probably know, I've been pretty sick the last few months. But feeling much better now. I also promise to post pics very soon. I just need new batteries for my camera. These little life chores have never been my strong suit, and now that I'm pregnant they seem to slide even further down the priorities pole than every before. But I'll hop to it.

In other news, Marty is in Dublin right now. Actually, right now he's sleeping in Dublin. So far, he's said it seems smaller than he expected. He had a very nice bowl of stew.

PS - I'm actually a month and a half pregnant in the pic below this post. So, see, I have posted pregnancy photos after all!

My mom sent me a dress in the mail

And it fit!

Spin

Interesting

Kitchen Update

Well we had the lady from New Prairie come out to give us an estimate. It was, um, a little high. Like nearly ten times what we wanted to spend high. So, yeah, on to DIY.

Our lovely neighbor, Pat, this weekend took us to her friend Sarah's house, to introduce us to Sarah and her husband who had done a lot of work on their old house themselves. Well, Sarah had. She's amazing. She made me feel like a total loser, actually. She's one of those people who knits, and has a rain barrel, and makes her own ice cream every week, and, oh, I don't know, put in her own dry-wall. So she gave me lots of ideas (and a bowl of apple crisp with homemade frozen yogurt). I'll let you know how we get on with improvements . . .

In other news: we're trying to be vegan. It was a decision based, in part, on M's cholesterol report. So, anyway, if you have any fantastic vegan recipes, send em my way! Thanks, Sara, for the vegan lasagna. I'm trying it soon. Tried vegan french toast this weekend. That one needs a little tweaking.

And speaking of kitchens and food . . . check out my insanely talented little brother here - the "Daring Danish" entry blows my mind. My brother made that! Once upon a time, he wouldn't eat food that touched other food on his plate!

Jim Wallis Criticizes James Dobson's Distortion of Barack Obama's Statements on Faith and Politics

Evangelical leader Jim Wallis, author of The Great Awakening and founder of Sojourners, the largest network of progressive Christians in the United States, today criticized James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, for distorting Barack Obama's statements on faith and politics at the annual Pentecost Conference in 2006 held by Sojourners.

Full Text of Jim Wallis' Statement:

James Dobson, of Focus on the Family Action, and his senior vice president of government and public policy, Tom Minnery, used their "CitizenLink" radio show today to criticize Barack Obama's understanding of Christian faith. In the show, they describe Obama as "deliberately distorting the Bible," "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," "willfully trying to confuse people," and having a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution."

Now that James Dobson is insinuating himself into this presidential campaign, his attacks against his fellow Christian, Barack Obama, should be seriously scrutinized. And because his basis for the attack on Obama is the speech the Senator from Illinois gave at our Call to Renewal/Sojourners event in 2006 (for the record, we also had Democrat Hillary Clinton, and Republicans Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback speak that year), I have decided to respond to Dobson's attacks. In most every case they are themselves clear distortions of what Obama said in that speech. I was there for the speech, Dobson was not.

You can read Obama's now two-year old speech, which was widely publicized at the time and will see that Dobson either didn't understand it or is deliberately distorting it. There are two major problems with Dobson's attack today on Barack Obama.

First, Dobson and Minnery's language is simply inappropriate for religious leaders to use in an already divisive political environment. We can agree or disagree on both biblical and political viewpoints, but our language should be respectful and civil, not attacking motives and beliefs.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, is the role of religion in politics. Dobson alleges that Obama is saying:

"I [Dobson] can't seek to pass legislation, for example, that bans partial-birth abortion because there are people in the culture who don't see that as a moral issue. And if I can't get everyone to agree with me, it is undemocratic to try to pass legislation that I find offensive to the Scripture. ... What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees; we have no right to fight for what we believe."

Contrary to Dobson's charge, Obama was very strong in defending the right and necessity of people of faith bringing their moral agenda to the public square, and was specifically critical of many on the left and in his own Democratic Party for being uncomfortable with religion in politics.

Obama said that religion is and has always been a fundamental and absolutely essential source of morality for the nation, but also said that "religion has no monopoly on morality," which is a point that I often make. The United States is not the Christian theocracy that people like James Dobson seem to think it should be. Political appeals, even if rooted in religious convictions, must be argued on moral grounds rather than as sectarian religious demands--so that the people (citizens), whether religious or not, may have the capacity to hear and respond. Religious convictions must be translated into moral arguments, which must win the political debate if they are to be implemented. Religious people don't get to win just because they are religious. They, like any other citizens, have to convince their fellow citizens that what they propose is best for the common good-- for all of us and not just for the religious.

Instead of saying that Christians must accept the "the lowest common denominator of morality," as Dobson accused Obama of suggesting, or that people of faith shouldn't advocate for the things their convictions suggest, Obama was saying the exact opposite--that Christians should offer their best moral compass to the nation but then have to engage in the kind of democratic dialogue that religious pluralism demands. Martin Luther King Jr. perhaps did this best of all with his Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other.

In making abortion the single life issue in politics and elections, leaders from the Religious Right like Dobson have violated the "consistent ethic of life" that we find, for example, in Catholic social teaching. Dobson has also fought unsuccessfully to keep the issue of the environment and climate change, which many also now regard as a "life issue," off the evangelical agenda. Older Religious Right leaders are now being passed by a new generation of young evangelicals who believe that poverty, "creation care" of the environment, human trafficking, human rights, pandemic diseases like HIV/AIDS, and the fundamental issues of war and peace are also "religious" and "moral" issues and now a part of a much wider and deeper agenda. That new evangelical agenda is a deep threat to James Dobson and the power wielded by the Religious Right for so long. Many evangelical votes are in play this election year, especially among a new generation, and are no longer captive to the Religious Right. Perhaps that is the real reason for James Dobson's attack today on Barack Obama.

Swerves

Saw the first fireflies of the year LAST NIGHT as M and I walked the hood having a jangly conversation. (Adj. 1. jangly - like the discordant ringing of nonmusical metallic objects striking together; "cowboys with jangling spurs.")

Also, yesterday, I was riding my bike home from work when a man on his bike, in front of me, in the bike lane, swerved suddenly as I was passing him on the left. I rang my bell and scared the shit out of him. Then, a few hours later, in the car, on my way to pick up M at the train station, I was driving up Iowa Street and saw the same guy, in his car, backing into a driveway in order to turn around and head down Iowa, and again he didn't see me coming, again I scared him. Both times we nearly collided. It was almost like the universe WANTED me to run into him.

If your appliances are avocado, they're not green

M and I are thinking about/hoping to redo our kitchen, which was probably renovated by a sweet but totally un-hip DIYer once in the 60s, once in the 70s, and once in the hideous-vinyl-flooring 80s. We don't have a ton to spend, of course. So. But we got the number of a local contractor-company-couple-thing and they're supposed to be really good (tho a little pricey). They're called New Prairie Construction. What I understand is they're a lesbian couple, they employ local artist-types, and they're green. So hooray.

Anyway, today I googled "Green Kitchens" and the first thing that popped up was a blog by a woman in CA who I wish was my next-door neighbor. Check her out here

And through her site, I found this

I like the recipes page a lot. It's like a little gathering of random recipes by ingredient. Some with pics. I want to make the basil and lemon pasta. My basil needs serious eating. Here's the recipe:

CAPELLINI WITH LEMON AND BASIL
The Savory Way, Deborah Madison

zest of 1 lemon, cut into narrow strips
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
8 fresh basil leaves, finely sliced
2 tsp. finely chopped parsley
3 oz. capellini
salt
freshly ground pepper
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (optional)

Put the lemon zest, juice, butter, oil and herbs in a bowl large enough
to hold the cooked pasta comfortably. Also have ready 2 heated pasta
bowls or plates.

Bring several quarts of water to a boil, salt to taste and add the
pasta, and cook until al dente. Lift out the noodles with a pasta scoop
and add them immediately to the large bowl. Repeatedly lift the noodles
with a pair of tongs, mixing them with the other ingredients as you do
so. Divide the pasta between the 2 bowls and add a little pepper.
Serve with cheese, if desired.

Anyway, I'll let you know how the kitchen thing goes. I've contacted New Prairie to get an estimate and some ideas. I'm thinking white cabinets and walls. Old school linoleum floor in green maybe. Some weird composite countertop in a warm brown. Hmm. I'll let you know.

Birds

Then he was in the yard this weekend.

Indigo Bunting

He was in the grass outside the kitchen window last night. Very busy and puffed.

Harper . . . or J'Lyn?

She looks a little like J-bird here!

favorite headline in today's news

"Miley's Lost Pooch? Bitch Please!"

Catch up

I was sitting at my computer (new!) and my desk (old!) and looked up out the window into the backyard. Here's what I saw: snow covering the ground, the white old rickety garage to my right, the white house behind our own white house, the four evergreens at the back of our yard (two juniper, two spruce) and three (three!) male cardinals chasing each other around over the snow and in and out of the trees. To say this was beautiful seems so stupid but this was beautiful. They are little flying ruby-creatures and chirping-machines and they're fighting, I think. Now they're gone and it's quiet. The sun is setting and the snow on the ground is doing that weird thing where it sort of glows blue at dusk.

So, to catch up:

My toes hurt pretty regularly. What's up with that? I do not know. Marty thinks it's frostbite. My toes will turn black and fall off or something.

Marty just kissed my ear and the cat is going: "Ra-ow, ra-ow, ra-ow."

I went to Kentucky. There was an ice storm.

Our basement flooded.

I have a piece coming out in Harper's "Reading" section in April.

The last episode of "Curb your Enthusiasm" was so right on.

I'm teaching an online class right now. It's s strange. The class is always happening. When I'm asleep: class is in session. When I'm scratching my butt: class is in session. At first it really tripped me up. Instead of teaching being this node of anxiety in the week it was this film layer of anxiety over everything. But so far so good. I'm sort of growing into it.

Gillian Anderson is officially creepy as the new "Masterpiece Theater Dude." We shall call her creepy Gillian, henceforth.

OK, I have to go make dinner right now. Huevos Rancheros. It's seriously good. Come visit, sweet friends, and I'll cook it up.

mmmmniece and mmmmnephew!