Happy Anniversary

Yesterday, Michael and I celebrated our Sixth Anniversary. We commemorated the occasion by going to Silverwood. Some friends of ours had a voucher for two free adult tickets to Silverwood that expired yesterday and they were unable to use it, so we took it off their hands and had a good time. This was the first time I'd been to Silverwood in nine years. The last time I went, I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. Two of my friends and I spent the day at Silverwood and hung out all night together shortly before I left for college. It's a bit of a different experience as an adult than as a teenager. Michael and I went mostly for the big rides, and only rode any of them once. Waiting in line for an hour for a ride you haven't ridden is one thing, but to do it over and over is something else altogether. It is a bigger park than it was the last time I was there, and there were tons of people there. We started out pretty tame with the log ride. Despite my memory of it being not terribly exciting, I have to admit feeling a bit of a lurch in my stomach when going down the one, fairly short drop that gets the water to splash you a bit. But, I'm glad we started with that one and worked our way up. We definitely worked our way up.

The next ride was the Panic Plunge, which pulls you straight up in the air (giving a nice view of the park and surrounding area), then drops you suddenly and with very little warning. The line for that wasn't terribly long, but we did watch it a couple times while we waited. It is exhilerating, to say the least. The way up is pretty slow, so it's actually fairly enjoyable, despite the fact that you know you're about to drop soon. There's a little click right before it releases, and allows your brain just enough time to think "Oh, here it...." and then you're falling. The fall doesn't last very long, and it slows down right before it gets to the bottom and lowers you gently back to earth.

After that we went for the Timber Terror. I'm not a huge rollercoaster girl, but I'll do the ones that don't go upside down. It's not the upside down aspect that I dislike about those roller coasters, it's the shoulder harness that straps you in. Roller coasters don't give what anyone would consider a smooth ride, and my head always ends up getting bounced back and forth like a high speed pin ball, and I end up with a massive headache. No thanks. But I will do the wooden ones at Silverwood. The Timber Terror goes pretty quickly, with several drops that pull you off your seat, even if adequately strapped in. At that point we stopped for lunch. I know, three rides and we need food already? But those three rides took somewhere around three hours to complete.

After lunch we went on Thunder Canyon. Every bit as fun and wet as I remember. After getting soaked through, I had the bright idea of going on the Super Roundup, which, in my estimation, would act a bit like the spin cycle of a washing machine and dry us out a bit more quickly. It worked somewhat. The fronts of my clothes were dryer, but my back was still pretty wet, as it was pushed against a solid pad. Michael wasn't a fan of that one, so we moved on. We went on the train next, which was relaxing, if unexciting.

After the train ride we were getting a bit hungry again and decided to get a snack. We ate, then went on Tremors. Tremors has a lot more up and down action than the Timber Terror, and goes underground multiple times. This makes the drops, which are already higher than Timber Terror, even longer, as they go under ground as well. It was fun, but once was definitely enough. After that we were pretty tired, so we went home. I know, not a lot of rides, but it took us seven hours to do all that. We didn't go to Boulder Beach, and we didn't do nearly as much as I did the last time I was there. I guess we are getting old. Oh well...we had a great time, and it was definitely a fun way to spend our anniversary.

Random Friday List

It's been an interesting several weeks since my last post (the date on which is not correct. It was April when I posted that, but I started a post in March, saved it as a draft and added to it. The date on that post is the date I started it, not the date I posted it, but I digress). So, here's a quick list of various updates and random thoughts:

1. Michael had his surgery last Monday. It was to correct a defect in the valve that closes off the stomach from the esophagus that was causing his acid reflux. Now he will not have to take acid reflux medication anymore. He had his post-op appointment this last Tuesday and was cleared to return to work. He's still pretty tired, largely because this is week three of a liquid diet. Today is the last day. Tomorrow morning he will inaugurate the next phase of his diet with baked eggs. This will be the first solid food in his diet in three weeks. He's excited.
2. My dietary changes are having a positive effect. This was made abundantly clear last week. I spent pretty much all day Monday at the Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls because of Michael's surgery. Breakfast was the only thing I ate at home. I did bring some snacks with me, but those certainly didn't last all day. So, I had fast food for lunch and dinner. On Tuesday my joints hurt and my fingers and feet were puffy. Not super puffy...I could still wear my rings and shoes, but certainly puffier than normal. So, the lesson to be learned from this is: Eating real food makes my joints happy. Eating processed food makes my joints unhappy. And they're not afraid to let me know.
3. We've signed up for the herd share program on the farm that we visited that I mentioned in my last post. The visit was fun. We toured the entire thing, including the chicken coups and the dairy barn. There was a calf in a pen in the barn that we got to spend time with. He was cute and funny to watch hop all around and try to get attention. He'd been by himself for a while and was lonely, so he was all about trying to get attention. Anyway, we joined their herd share program, which means we own two shares of their dairy herd. This entitles us to a gallon of milk per week (each share is 1/2 gallon). We pick up our milk on Fridays, so today was our fourth time getting milk. We can also get fresh eggs from their chickens, which are really good.
   
4. People's reactions to my dietary changes are interesting. Some are supportive, some less so. It seems like, because I decided to try this on my own, rather than being told to do it by my doctor, some people think it's silly. I don't entirely understand this point of view, as many people go on weight loss diets without their doctor telling them to go on that particular diet, and it's seen as valid and sensible. Even laudable. But mine's just weird. Maybe they think I'm being snobby by not eating processed foods? I don't know. That's not what it's about. I think we can all agree that forgoing processed foods is generally a healthy choice, no matter what the motivation. My motivation is not to hurt. I don't like hurting. It hurts. As I've already mentioned, this eating habit change is working for me. When I eat processed foods, I hurt. When I don't eat processed foods, I don't hurt. My skin is happier, my allergies are better, and my recurrent sinus infections seem to have gone away. Also, I'm losing weight eating this way, so that's a bonus, too.
   
5. I watched a trailer for the movie Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time today. It looks entertaining, and I think I would enjoy watching it. It seems to be a movie of the epic persuasion, which I generally enjoy. Something occurred to me while I watched the trailer. In epic movies, someone seems to always be trying to destroy the world. This seems silly to me, because if the bad guys destroy the world, then the bad guys don't have anywhere to live either. I mean, the world's been destroyed in their ideal scenario. Where does that leave them? It also made me think that true evil in real life is not about the destruction of the world. It's much more insidious than that. If "the world" enters into the equation at all, then it's about controlling the world, or subjugating the world. True evils tend to be about power and control. There's a certain amount of destruction inherent in that, but destruction of the world is pointless. If the world is destroyed there's no one to control or dominate or subjugate. It's the desire for power and control that's led to the holocausts, genocides, and totalitarian regimes that have plagued our world. This is the true face of evil. Not the desire for world destruction.
6. Les Schwab is a great tire place. I had a slow leak in one of my tires that we discovered this week. I took it to Les Schwab yesterday (where we had purchased the tires), and they fixed the leak free of charge. With all the medical bills coming in, it was really nice to not have to pay for that, especially when we fully expected to do so.
7. I really enjoy eating real food. Most people think of diets as systems of deprivation. There are lists of things that are off limits. I eat pretty much whatever I want. Most industrially processed foods can be made at home from non-processed ingredients. So, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. And a lot of the things that most weight loss plans eschew, I'm feasting on...whole milk, cheese, whole milk yogurt, butter and other traditional saturated fats, as well as the full gamut of fruits and vegetables. The only thing I'm limiting is my intake of grains. From the reading I've done, lower grain intake helps with inflammation issues. So, I eat grains at one meal a day most of the time. And, I'm not gaining weight. I'm losing weight. That's right...I've upped my intake of fats big time, and the weight is dropping without much effort on my part. I'm a big fan.
   

The Quest for Real Food

This quest began out of the realization that we spend too much money on food. In November Michael and I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and decided we needed to follow the advice of that book. So, we signed up for www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com and gained access to the budgeting tools. At that point we were eating fast food three to five times a week on average. This, as you may know, is expensive. It's also profoundly unhealthy, but when you're in that lifestyle it's easier to just ignore those facts. Anyway, we decided the amount of money we spent on food was unacceptable and that we would eat at home more. Beginning in December we started our first budget and dramatically reduced how much we ate out. I began preparing meals at home, and we began to feel better about both our financial and dietary choices.

In February we attended a nutrition seminar that highlighted the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet, and illustrated how shockingly low the average American diet is in these items. I already knew that we didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables, but it was certainly an eye-opening seminar. This led me to start looking for more recipes and a variety of different options for food.

The next development was the series on ABC, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. In this show, Jamie Oliver of Food Network fame, went to Huntington, WV to start a food revolution. His emphasis is on fresh, wholesome, nutritious, unprocessed food. He works with the school district to eliminate processed food from school breakfasts and lunches, opens a kitchen offering free cooking lessons to the city, and works with families to improve their health. He has a petition to send to the President to improve the food in public schools. Michael and I have both signed it, and you can too if you click on the link at the top of this post. His goal is one million signatures, so your signature counts. This led me to consider eliminating more of the processed foods from our diet. We haven't been eating out as much, but we have been purchasing processed foods from the store. So, I began doing more poking for ways of making snack foods that we like from whole food ingredients. This is less expensive and healthier than store bought crackers and granola bars. In the course of my searches I came across references to clean eating, which is the idea of eating whole foods, not processed, pre-packaged foods. When looking more into this, I came across references to the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Having never heard of this I googled it to find out more. I also went to the library to try to check it out. The library here does have it, but it was already checked out, so I couldn't get it. However, the online library catalogue generates recommendations of similar material, and the top recommendation was the book Real Food: What to eat and why by Nina Planck, so I checked it out.

I found this book quite fascinating. It describes real food as foods consumed by traditional, non-industrialized societies. This includes unpasteurized milk, grass fed beef, pastured chicken and pork, milk from grass fed cows, eggs from pastured chickens, and organic produce. The book briefly describes common practices on factory farms and why they make our foods less healthy. It also challenges the notion that vegetable fats are better for us and reduce our chances of heart disease. Most vegetable fats don't meet the author's description of real food as food eaten by non-industrialized societies. Olive oil is the only one that meets the criteria, and the only one the author recommends using. Other fats to be used include butter, lard, chicken fat, and beef fat. She also discusses the various health benefits of consuming natural fats and describes the way the human body uses these fats. It's written in an accessible manner, and doesn't delve too deeply into scientific/medical jargon that could make it more difficult to read. It does break down the way things work into understandable terms. As I said, it's a fascinating read. It has definitely changed the way I view food.

I found this book rather serendipitously right before I began having strange joint pain and swelling in my extremities. I went to the doctor on Monday, they drew blood, and the results came back with elevated levels of C-Reactive Protein. This is a marker of inflammation, which points to a rheumatoid-type situation. It's not bad enough for a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, and my doctor has taken a wait-and-see approach, which is fine with me. In the meantime, I did more research to dietary changes and supplements I could take to help reduce the inflammation and keep the problem at bay before it gets worse. This means I'm definitely not eating processed foods anytime soon. The information I've found recommends increasing intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, which I plan to do through fish oil supplements (I don't like fish), flax seeds, and eating grass fed beef, milk from grass fed cows, and eggs from pastured chickens (these animal products are naturally higher in Omega-3s than their factory farmed counterparts). I'm also reducing my intake of carbohydrates from grain sources, increasing my consumption of fruits and vegetables, and intending to get more excercise. I'd like to walk, but it's slightly more difficult when it's rainy and yucky. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative in the next few days. The good news is that the swelling in my hands and feet is significantly reduced (I was able to put on my rings this morning and wear normal shoes instead of my Crocs), and the joint pain is much less. They're still a bit tender, particularly in my wrists and hands, but are getting better daily. Hopefully with the dietary changes, this won't happen again.

On Friday we're touring a local small dairy farm to see about getting unpasteurized milk. I'll tell you all about it afterward.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Michael's birthday was Friday. We've been celebrating since last Monday. It all began with a birthday dinner with my parents. They left Thursday afternoon to go to Colorado, thus the early birthday dinner (Tuesdays and Wednesdays are too busy). From them Michael received a really nice Kenneth Cole watch and a $100 gift check. Friday, on the actual birthday, Michael and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Dockside. On Saturday afternoon we were in Spokane for a couple of things, so we decided to have dinner at P.F. Chang's. We like P.F. Chang's, but don't eat there often, so, since it was Michael's birthday weekend we had to take advantage of the opportunity! The final celebretory dinner was last night with Michael's parents at their house. We had steak, scallops, roasted veggies, and salad followed by an ice cream cake. That I made. Here it is in all its glory:


This cake is pretty simple to make. Here is the recipe. It's basically just layering. Not much in the way of cooking goes into this (unless you count melting chocolate and butter on the stove top...that's it. Really. And you could do that in the microwave if you wanted.) There are five layers to this cake from bottom to top: oreo cookie crust, chocolate, ice cream, caramel, and whipped cream with oreo cookie crumbs sprinkled on top. The only time consuming part is waiting for certain layers to set in the freezer, so if you plan to make it, be sure you start well in advance. (I did the first three layers Saturday night and finished it Sunday morning.) I modified the recipe slightly in that I halved it. I decided a 9x13 pan of this would be waaay too much for the four of us. And I'm glad I did. A little goes a long way in terms of flavor and satisfaction. We cut the 9x9 pan into 9 squares (which aren't huge) and my father-in-law was the only one that had more than one (and he only had and extra 1/2 piece). So, we still have half the pan left and it's in my freezer. It's really good, so I don't think it'll last long. I think this may become the new official birthday cake in Michael's family (I'll stick with my traditional chocolate buttermilk sheetcake...I love it too much to give it up). For Donna's birthday next month I might try to make it even smaller and use one of my mini loaf pans...no leftovers to tempt us then.

And I will leave you with a side view of my piece to show all the layers (sorry about the bad photo...iPhone camera isn't the greatest):

On Food

There seem to be three constants (in terms of activities) in my life at the moment: music, knitting, and food. Music in the form of practicing (almost) daily, teaching most days, and my weekly lessons in Spokane. Also, the occasional concert or gig. Things are going well on that front.

Knitting, I think, goes without saying. I'm actually teaching a beginning cable class this afternoon. (I use the term "class" loosely. I have one student.) I haven't been good about updating the knitting things lately. I finished a pair of socks a couple weeks ago and have worn them a couple times, but I haven't actually taken pictures of them. I meant to...it just hasn't happened. I'm also almost done with a second pair (one's done, the second is almost half done). That's my current "purse project." It lives in my purse, so that I can take it out and work on it whenever I have the time and inclination. As long as I have my purse, I have my knitting. I'm also working on a lace stole in alpaca lace yarn. It's soft and fine, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. I'm about halfway done at the moment. I'll be sure to take pictures of that one.

Food is a slightly more challenging issue. I'm pretty much responsible for all the food preparation in our house. Michael does help when he's home. He enjoys certain aspects (he likes stirring cookie dough, for example) and is willing to do things like chop vegetables. Every once in a while he is struck with inspiration, or a certain hankering for something. A couple weeks ago it was P.F. Chang's double pan fried noodles, or at least something very like them. Since the nearest P.F. Chang's is about 45 minutes away, and we're being good about sticking to our budget, he decided to search for recipes to see if we could come up with something of our own. This was the result:

We made spaghetti, then pan fried the cooked noodles in some olive oil. We chopped a bunch of veggies (zucchini, onion, green onion, mushrooms, and carrot), sauteed them, added some seasonings and soy sauce, added the noodles to the pan again to get heated through, and voila! Dinner was served.

While that was a yummy dinner that was Michael's brain child, those occasions are few and far between. The rest of the creativity rests with me. Sometimes I really enjoy it. I like the challenge of coming up with new things and having them turn out well. Sometimes I don't want to because I'm tired or frustrated and I'd like food to just *poof!* appear, delicious and fully cooked. Sadly, I lack a genie, or a Star Trek replicator, and so I must come up with things on my own. Last night I decided I wanted empanadas. For those of you familiar with the Taco Bell caramel apple empanada, let me just say that real empanadas are nothing like those. I'm not really a big fan of those. As far as deep fried apple filled fast food pastries are concerned, I'll take a MacDonald's apple pie any day over a Taco Bell caramel apple empanada. That said, empanadas are mearly the hispanic version of the ubiquitous filled pastry. The pastry is a vehicle to carry any filling you care to stuff it with. I was first introduced to them while in Santiago, Chile. There the traditional fillings were beef, onion, egg, and olive, cheese, or fruits for dessert. I'm sure there were other varieties, but those are what I remember the most. Empanadas can be fried, but the bigger ones used for meals are usually baked. So, last night, I set out to find a suitable dough for my empanadas. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to try it. For the filling I made my usual chicken burrito mixture, which is really basic and consists of chicken tenders cooked in a pan with a little water and liberally sprinkled with salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and red pepper, then shredded after cooking. The dough was okay, but not great. I probably won't make it again. It was difficult to work with, and kept bouncing back when I tried to roll it out. I had to fight it to get it to be thin enough. The dough also has a fair amount of sugar in it, which made it sort of odd for the savory filling I had in mind. Like I said, it was okay, but not great. I made four chicken and cheese empanadas, but had more dough than chicken filling. So, with the last of the dough I made two small apple empanadas (I cut up and peeled an apple, then placed the chunks on the rolled out dough and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar). The sweet dough seemed to work better with the apple filling than the chicken filling. Next time I'll try a different dough.

Hear That Sound?

That is the sound of January and February flying by. I'm not sure what happened, but two months have passed since my last post. So, I'll give a quick recap:

• Most of my knitting deadlines were met for Christmas. I only had to mail Justin's hat and Amy's socks. Everything else made it to its intended recipient in time.
  
• January passed without momentous news.
• In February we met with our friend and photographer Brady Campbell, and I'm now in the process of knitting him several baby cocoons as photography props. If you're in the market for having some photos taken, he's a great photographer and I highly recommend him. If you choose him, tell him I sent you. :-)
• In February we also started attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. We'd read one of his books, and then Justin and Amy gave us the kit to take the class as a Christmas present. The class is 13 weeks long, and we're going to week 5 this Wednesday.

That pretty much brings us up to speed. I've been cooking at home quite a lot, as we're on a budget now and eating at home costs far less than eating out. My culinary endeavors now include bread baking. I've baked bread before, but it was rather dense, which doesn't bother me too much, but Michael doesn't like dense bread. So, I had the urge to bake bread a week or so ago, but wanted a lighter whole wheat bread. I came across this recipe, which only uses whole wheat flour, but uses more liquid than other recipes I've found, which makes it less dry and dense. I used honey as the sweetener in the first loaf, but ran out and haven't had the chance to get more. So, I've been using brown sugar, as that's what I have on hand. The second loaf was a bit more crumbly than the first. I think it's because I didn't knead it for long enough. I was in a bit of a hurry that day. Loaf number 3 is in the oven right now.

I best sign off for now. We have to get up early in the morning. Michael is having a gastroscope done to dilate the scar tissue in his esophagus from his acid reflux, and also to see if there is the possibility of surgery to correct the acid reflux problem.

Is this how the elves feel?

I have a fast approaching deadline. Two, actually. The obvious one is December 25. Christmas Day. I'm knitting gifts for most of the people on my Christmas list. Most by request, a few that I decided to do on my own. The other deadline is Sunday. Yes, that's right, two days away, Sunday. My parents are going to Colorado to be with Justin, Amy, and the girls for Christmas. They leave Monday, so we're doing Christmas, Part 1 with them on Sunday evening. The gift for my mom is handknit. Also, the gifts for my brother and family are all handknits. These must all be done by Sunday, so Mom can open hers and so they can transport the gifts for the rest when they leave Monday. Here's where we stand:

1. Mom's present: blocked and ready to be sewn and finished
2. Slippers: one totally done, one needing to be put together
3. Turtles: two more legs to make, then stuffing the shells, and putting them together
4. Socks: one down, one to go
5. Hat: not started
6. Mittens: not started

The hat is for my brother, and he is aware that it won't be on his head by Christmas Day. The requested specifics were not clarified far enough in advance for this to be possible given the other items in the queue. The mittens don't have to be done until December 25, and I can knock them out in a couple days next week. I also have a hat and a pair of socks to make for Michael, but I don't think he's expecting them by Christmas. Perhaps there'll be time once the mittens are done. We shall see.