Food and Body Politics

We watched the movie Dirt! in my food & body politics class. You should, too.

Here's their website:

http://www.dirtthemovie.org/

And you can watch it online here: 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/191666/dirt-the-movie

I highly recommend it. Especially if you are someone who consumes food, drinks water, and breathes air.

Ignore the goofy animations and drop the assumption that environmentalists are wackos. Really listen to what they're saying, think about it. It does make sense.

Gluten Free Bread

Is the bane of my existence.

Okay. Not really. But it frustrates me so much! 

Whether I follow the instructions perfectly or make modifications, it never turns out right. 

And there's no way I'm buying GF bread in the store - way too expensive.

My latest bread adventure comes from Hodgson Mill. It was a simple recipe, easy, straightforward. The unique stipulation on the box was that everything had to be room temperature, even the eggs! I had to put them in warm water. And the milk had to be warm and the butter melted. Fine. No prob. 

Now, I decided to make a little adjustment, out of curiosity, and I added some loose mango black tea to the milk as I warmed it and dumped it all into the mixture. The mango tea brewed has a bit of sweetness and I wanted to see if the mango flavor would come through at all. 

Okay, so I mix up my bread. The box - as every box of gf bread says - said to beat the ingredients for three minutes. This is impossible. Impossible. I dare you to try it and if you can do it, I will give up coffee. The dough, as it thickens, plasters itself to the sides of the bowl then crawls up the beaters to get stuck on the top part of the mixer. There is no way to continue mixing the dough so I must stop the beaters and scrape it down to free up the beaters. After a minute the dough becomes too thick to continue beating without stopping every 10 seconds.

I do what I can to mix it for three minutes, but it really is impossible. So then I plop it in my pan, and let it rise for the amount of time the box tells me. This time the dough actually rose - Hallelujah! I thought, surely this bread will turn out and I can have nice slices of bread to toast on my George Foreman grill. 

I put the bread in the oven (I even used my temperature gauge to make sure my oven was the right temp!)  until I needed to cover it to stop it from "over-browning." It said I need to put two layers of foil on, sealing the edges. Okay. TELL ME HOW IN THE WORLD I'M SUPPOSED TO WRAP TWO LAYERS OF TINFOIL AROUND A HOT PAN WITHOUT BURNING MYSELF OR SQUISHING THE BREAD? I tried, I really did, and my bread didn't over-brown, but my foil was not tight.

So I took my bread out after 60 minutes of baking (according to the box) and did the tap-test. Lo and behold my bread did not sound hollow, so I put it back in the oven. I repeated this every 5 minutes for 15 minutes. Still... my bread sank. WTF? 

It sounded hollow-ish on the last tap-test so I took it out to cool. After I watched Obama give the State of the Union speech I took the bread out of the pan and couldn't resist cutting it in half to see what had happened. It sank a considerable amount, much to my chagrin.

Well, there was a hollow space beneath the surface, like a big bubble, and the bottom of the loaf was dense and not airy like bread should be. Gah. So then I ate some. A lot. And it was gooood. The tea was a marvelous idea; it's not strong at all, in fact you can hardly taste it. But the taste that is there needs to be stronger. 

Flavor-wise this is a good bread. But, I cannot cut my loaf into slices. And the stupid thing sank. And there was a cave beneath the surface. And the bottom is dense.

The last loaf of bread I made I threw out because it formed a shelf, was rock hard on the outside and nearly uncooked on the inside, despite following all directions very carefully.

The loaf before that had a bad flavor.

The loaf before that tasted awesome but kind of fell apart in your hands and was very slightly undercooked I think. Joe and I ate that when we went camping.

Am I so inept at bread-making? Or is this the nature of gf bread? Or do these boxes suck? Or is my oven sabotaging me? Or do I have to scrape my bowl every five seconds to mix my bread for a total of three minutes? I know gf bread can be really frickin good. I don't know what's going wrong! 

Maybe I just shouldn't be making gf bread. Maybe bread is why I am gluten intolerant in the first place. Maybe I will just never bake or eat bread again. Screw you bread! Screw you body!

Now, a happy thing I see every day I go to school:

Foggy December

Nurturing My Creative Side ;)

Bird prints on my balcony.

I don't make New Years resolutions because there's not usually stuff I need to make resolutions about, but this year I decided I would because I think I need to. One of them is to give into creative urges (sounds lame yeah?). There are other important ones that address big issues but this one is important to me too. I love creating things. I love art and crafting and all that.

I bought a canvas drop cloth for a few dollars because I was intent on making window coverings. I thought I bought a certain size, but it turns out I bought a much larger size. Sweet! Extra stuff to make stuff with! So I began testing ways to make window coverings and found that I didn't like the way it hung, or looked; and because of my oddly constructed windows, anything I would have made would hang awkwardly lower than it should. I've decided to postpone the window coverings; however, that still leaves me with quite a bit of leftover canvas.

I began making things. I made two, hand-painted tote bags one day, two wine bottle totes another day, a hobo style purse with a re-purposed t-shirt, and a cosmetics bag. You can see all that by going here.

Then, while perusing some DIY posts I came across a dip-dye technique that they used on a lampshade. It looked so pretty! Thus, yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby to use the gift card Joe's parents got me. Nearly everything was half-off. I got two dyes (blue and green duh!), two 18x24 canvases, some multipurpose paper, and a frame for the painting I made Joe.

Now, the lampshade that became subject to creative inclinations was given to me by my grandmother. It was on a lamp-side-table combo made by Ethan Allen which I picked up on the side of the road in Wisconsin and immediately spruced up and rewired. Free Ethan Allen table people! They were throwing it away! Anyway, back to the lampshade... It was pleated, perhaps a 90s style. I don't know. But, it didn't really go well in my apartment. So... with all my extra canvas I cut and sewed a new lampshade. Then I dyed it. And it looks awesome. Here's the process:

Rip off the old lampshade. This is satisfying when you're in a bad mood. Admire the naked lampshade, I had no idea it was curved! Cut a new lampshade by rolling the skeleton and tracing with a pencil.

Mix up your dyes, adding more for darker color to create gradation. Hang to dry. I got impatient and blowdried it.

Iron. It's wrinkly. Pull it over the lampshade skeleton.

Sew edges. Devote way too much time to this process. As in several hours. Admire lampshade.

Admire lampshade on Ethan Allen lamp-table.

 And that is my new and appropriately colored lampshade.
Now off to research some companies for prospective jobs.

Christmas Part 3: Governor's Inaugural Ball and The Ville

Monday the 3rd was punctuated with a trip to Madison in our best attire for the inaugural ball for the new governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. The evening was full of excitement, joy, laughter and music, as it has been 8 years since a republican has been governor of Wisconsin. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t know anyone, and the possibility of finding some people we knew was slim because of the number of people spread throughout a number of rooms. We made our way to the large exhibit hall in the basement of the building to hear Scott Walker give a short address. It seems as though he will be good for Wisconsin; he has high hopes of creating jobs and has started actions to make that happen.

On Tuesday, the 4th I got to see my best friend, Amanda. We got coffee and went shopping like we normally do. Is there really any better way to spend an afternoon with your best friend? I fail to think of something new each time we get to hang out, which is rare.

Now, I am barreling towards my last semester in college. I am terrified of being unable to find a job. I don’t mind ending school; I’ve had enough. I admit though, I will be very sad if I have to leave friends behind, and I know this is more likely than not. It may be early, but I am already applying for jobs. I want something lined up before I graduate. 

I recently shrink-wrapped the windows in my bedroom. Although they are new and very nice windows, their installation is rather sub-par. Because of the window space they are in and the angle of the wall, the space between window and wall cannot be framed. And the small amount of insulation in that space wasn't doing much to stem the cold airflow. Thus, if I closed my door, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Already I can tell the shrink wrap is helping. I can't feel cold air near the windows anymore! And in the mornings, when I sleep the whole night with my heat off (it really does cut down on cost), my room is the same temperature as the rest of my apartment. My only problem- my windows were almost too big for the shrink wrap I bought! It works, though!

So that wraps up my Christmas break experience, though I forgot to mention we saw Joe Satriani at some point before my surgery. We went to Chicago to see him, and it was intense. He's one of the best guitar players currently in existence; most of his music is spacey/futuristic/alien-like, I guess. He was fantastic, here's some of his music.

Ok. I'm done. For now. I'll ramble on about nonsense in a few days, I suppose.

Christmas Part 2: Surgery and a Surprise

Tuesday the 21^st, my poor mother’s birthday, was spent in a hospital. I had my tonsils extricated from my throat because they were a problem. I wasn't feeling very well for several days - slept for 3 days straight - and wandered around in a fog for another few days. Apparently, liquid Percocet affects short term memory. Also, although anesthetic often makes people say ridiculous and inappropriate things, when the nurse asked if I needed anything, I said "If you could fly Joe from Ohio to here, that'd be great." Alas, she could not.

Christmas occurred with my complete inability to make witty and charming comments, but it was a beautiful and happy Christmas. This is the first time I’ve seen my brothers since Thanksgiving and the time before was the Fourth of July. We have a good time together; most of the time we are incoherent.

 There is no good explanation for this.

One of the most prevalent things in my life – my family and our adventures – is wonderful inspiration for creative writing, so I gave this as a gift for Christmas. I’m told to pursue this, but I’m not sure if I want to try to craft a living out of a creative writing lifestyle. I want horses, man!

A week after my surgery I was feeling fine, decreasing my pain meds by leaps and bounds, and eager to Skype with Joe, since it would be about 5 weeks of separation this time around.

I turned Skype on in my bedroom and watched as Joe’s little face popped up, framed by my parent’s leather couch and the garland adorning the soffit in our family room. I immediately thought, Joe doesn’t have coffered ceilings in his house, nor garland, nor a leather couch, nor anything that resembles my family room.

“What the hell are you doing?” seemed an appropriate response to this. I hung up on him and sat down trying to come up with some horrible scheme they could be playing on me. Nothing made sense and I went downstairs to see that he was indeed sitting in my family room.

I hate surprises. Even fantastic ones. I don’t jump around or shriek or cry or anything; I just soak it in.

After dragging him away from my smirking family, I found out this little excursion had been planned since DECEMBER 2^ND. And every one of my family members knew, including my cousins whom I had just talked to days before. Ridiculous.

Well Joe spent almost 5 whole days here and it was awesome. We spent a long time walking around Oconomowoc because it was 50 degrees, visited the horses when it was 15 degrees and windy, drove past multimillion dollar homes, photographed the foggy lake, and took turns destroying each other in various games.

I'll put more of these photos in a separate post.

New Years Eve was spent playing games and laughing with my parents, my brothers were elsewhere. But one of my best friends, Kayla, stopped by for a really nice visit. We toasted with nasty champagne and crashed shortly thereafter.

Joe flew home on Sunday. It sucked. But, it was the best few days we’ve had in a while, and certainly the longest time we’ve spent together since summer. It’s strange when you get used to spending a lot of time with someone, as in every single day, and then suddenly having each visit reduced to a couple days. You forget what it’s like to be together for longer than a couple days. Thankfully, it still felt normal.

Up next: Christmas Part 3: Governor's Inaugural Ball and The Ville.

Christmas Part 1: Joe at the Ballet

I like a wide variety of things. I like to be outside playing in the grass or riding horses and I also like to go to art museums and ballets. I’ve had an interest in ballet for many years, even taking a year or two of dance around the age of 5. Looking back, I’m kind of disappointed I quit, but then again if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have gotten so involved in horses. Horses vs. ballet … horses please.

Mixing my interest with ballet and my twisted sense of humor, I decided to pester Joe one day and ask if we could pretty please go to a ballet. Naturally he resisted and said the soonest we’d ever go to one was around Christmas and it had to be the Nutcracker (ironic?). This was stated sometime in early summer. I was surprised he said Christmas, because that seemed soon to me. But, I didn’t worry about it and continued to annoy him every now and then by whining about going to a ballet.

I didn’t think much of it when Christmastime rolled around, but when I opened the nice, vintage leather bag he got me for Christmas, there were two tickets to the Nutcracker at the Kentucky Center on the 11^th. I was very surprised, impressed, and pleased.

I think we both look kind of silly in this picture, but hey, we were dressed nice at least. And my Christmas decorations can be described as resourceful. I cut and painted leftover foam core board.

It was rainy on the 11^th, but that didn’t matter because we had a marvelous dinner at Proof on Main, and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It was beautifully done and fascinating. I don’t know how those dancers can go en pointe.

One of the coolest things about the ballet was Mother Gigogne, whose many children hide under her skirts. Mother Gigogne’s skirt had a carousel motif on it and her children were dressed as jockeys, complete with silks, hats and crops. Their dance involved them lining up diagonally across the stage and simulating a horse race by jogging forward at different speeds to alternate being in the lead. Perfect for Louisville!

We had a lazy Sunday; Joe left midday, and I began preparing for the last of my finals. They were brutal and I don’t want to talk about them.

Up next: Christmas Part 2: Surgery and a surprise!