And Now... (drum roll)

A baby in a watermelon eating a watermelon!

Thanks, boingboing! I needed that!

Eco-nundrum

The organic peppers (our preference) are imported from Israel. The pesticide pepps originated in Mexico. Is it better to buy organic with a much larger carbon footprint or consume the pepps that are "closer" to home?

I bought the organic. What do you think?

Happy Valentines Hernia

Last Thursday, my sweet, sweet husby was taken away from me. They took him away from me for hours and when he was returned to me, he'd been shaved and couldn't walk. That's right. He had hernia repair surgery.

I was really nervous when he was gone, and I was very agitated because the waiting room they sent me to was chock full of people who were all very loud and fat and not good at sharing public spaces.

I didn't realize how much I take J for granted until he wasn't able to bring me a drink or tuck me in; I had to do those things for J--and a lot of other things, too! But I didn't mind. Here's some of the things I did especially for him when he had a hole in his abdomen:

• waited on him hand and foot
• made him homemade applesauce though I'd never made it before
• went out in the snows for ice cream because he wanted hot applesauce and ice cream
• shoveled snow
• choreographed a plan to get his car out of the shop
• helped him maneuver around the house and off the couch and into bed and so on

I love my husby so much; I may have fussed a little after his procedure because I'm stressed about school and a variety of other things, but the truth is that I didn't mind. I kind of liked taking care of him and trying to make him feel better.

p.s. Please feel bad for J when you see his hand bruised from the IV. Poor baby.

What's Keeping Lisa Up At Night?

• school! My first classes will be a week from tomorrow. Yikes!
• a baby African Pygmy hedgehog. The babe may be reaching this dump as early as the end of this month!!
• my birthday party! Preliminary plans include Viva!, friends!, family!, Munchkin, popcorn, Apples to Apples, a delicious birthday cake, booze!
• a long-overdue trip to Philadelphia to see my sweet friend, Rachel!

This is all veeeeeery exciting!

The Whole Gang!

Jesse's parents came from Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and we had a really fun visit! Here we are, after a great dinner (free range, grass-fed turkey from a local farm!) and a rousing game of Apples to Apples, which is my favorite.

I love our family!

Overheard in the J and L House

Lisa to Jesse: Please don't step on my pizza because I love it.

For This, We Are Grateful

in no particular order: a strong, fun marriage * a smart, helpful, cute, supportive, funny husby who I looooooooooove * generous and loving family, near and far * Herb * great friends * decent, hassle-free (knock on wood) health insurance * new adventures * Mother Jones * chickens * Obama * The Stranger (they gave me this idea and I used and/or changed some of their thanks) * stable jobs (omg, I hope I haven't jinxed us!) * Purity's cinnamon ice cream * a warm (albeit dumpy and with an awful landlord), affordable, and probably safe apartment * access to fair trade and direct trade coffee * NPR * reliable transportation * Wegmans * access to local meats, eggs, cheeses, butter * Roku box and NetFlix * a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving with my family and Jesse's parents all in one room * my new super-cute and fast puter * Google * close proximity to Ithaca * Joel and Ethan Coen * our mostly good health and that of our family and friends * learning to make the best of things * 30 Rock * Apples to Apples * things that used to be disposable but now are compostable! * Cook's Illustrated * turbo-fast internet * kefir * extra, extra, extra sharp cheddar * kombucha * AVG * smoosh-faced dogs * too many other things to list

Overheard in the J and L House

Lisa, looking through the novelty catalog, Archie McPhee, to Jesse: I wish we knew someone who really loved pickles so I could gift them these Pickle Bandages or these Terrified Pickles.

image via Archie McPhee

Rainn Wilson Makes a Giant Halloween Mess!

I looove Rainn Wilson!



via HuffPo

Overheard in the J and L House

Scene: Lisa is standing over the stove, poking at what's in the skillet.

Lisa to Jesse: Goat meat is much fattier than I expected.

Re: Overheard in the J and L House: Thousand Islands Edition

This is the walking stick I spent a good portion of Saturday talking about consuming.

Overheard in the J and L House: Thousand Islands Edition

Scene: J and I are with my parents and Lauren at a cottage in Clayton, NY in the Thousand Islands for the weekend.

Lisa, referring to the walking stick hanging tightly to the screen door: Dad, what would you do if I ate this walking stick?

Dad: Well, given the minimal amount of protein and how bad it will probably taste, I wouldn't recommend it.

image via US Forest Service

Re: Dump, Sweet Dump: My Raised Bed Garden

Its been a couple of months since my uncle Richard and I planted my raised bed garden. I planted a variety of chili peppers, carrots, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, peas and spinach. Thus far, the garden has been largely unsuccessful-with two exceptions: the lettuce and the chili peppers.

We have a great crop of lettuce but it lacks character; its flimsy and mostly tasteless. The chili peppers are plentiful, as well, and I have a nice variety (red hot cherry, jalapeno, another unidentified sort). I have way more than we can use before they rot, so I'll be stringing them and hanging them in a sunny window (wait, does that exist in this dump?) to dry.

We may still end up with some beets and carrots. Out of two rows of pea seeds, only one germinated and came up. The same goes for the spinach. And the tomatoes.... Don't even get me started on the sad state of tomato affairs we're in. One word: blight.

I think it was a good first garden, though. And the season's not over yet!

Re: Rehoboth Beach

On the trip, I ate my first oyster and my first scrambled egg. I enjoyed neither.

Rehoboth Beach

J and I spent a few days in Rehoboth Beach, DE last week. It was our first time there; we went primarily to check out Dogfish Head Brewery and secondarily to meet up with Rachel@Philadelphia and her husby Eric. We stayed at a really beautiful and fancy place called the Canalside Inn, which was in walking distance to the boardwalk and beach. The weather was great, upper 80s and 90s the whole time.

We didn't do too much in terms of activities; we did alot of walking around town, we swam and laid around at the beach at Cape Henlopen (a Delaware state park that was much quieter and calmer than the public beach at Rehoboth), walked along the beach @ Rehoboth, toured Dogfish Head (damn, that place smelled fantastic), and spent some time with Rachel and Eric.

As far as I'm concerned, all the restaurants that we tried were extremely mediocre. Sure, Rehoboth is not known to be a culinary destination by any means, but still.... If you don't want to eat lousy boardwalk food or pay $35.00 for a piece of salmon (not that I eat Atlantic Salmon anymore anyways) at one of the wildly high-end restaurants, you're stuck with what's in between. And it mostly wasn't very good.

There were some food high-lights:

• Iguana Grill Restaurant and Cantina
• The Ice Cream Store. This place has 70 plus flavors, many homemade with milk from a local dairy farm. Some particularly interesting flavors: sweet corn, spinach, bacon, eggplant, pink mint chip.
• Greenman Bistro & Juice Bar. I'm sad we didn't try this place until our last morning when we ate there with Rachel and Eric. Greenman is delicious and just our style (organic, free range, fresh, local, biodegradable, fair trade, heaven)

The nice thing about this trip is that we were both able to relax quickly and stay relaxed for the duration of the vacation. We had a lot of fun together which is something that was infrequent when I was working overnights. I know I get all balled up about the stress and pressure of life and it was nice to be reminded how much fun J and I have together when we can forget about the day-to-day for a while. For that reason, the trip was really special and memorable.

Check out the photos.

Bribe

J bribed me to go to the laundromat with him on Sunday night. With what, you ask?

Joey's Italian Ice. I had a peach/black cherry combo and it was awesome. I wonder what else he could get me to do for Italian ice.....

I'm not ashamed to take a bribe.

Joey's Italian Ice

Joey's makes me very excited. It is delicious and cheap. It comes in all sorts of flavors and soothes my sore, puffy lip. Awesome!

Come for a visit; we'll eat some Italian ice.

Quinoa Gold

I did not enjoy this and you know I drink lots of stuff that does not taste good.

Dinner

Mise en Place

Tagliatelli with Caramelized Oranges and Almonds

I'll give you the recipe if you want but we didn't love it so I'm not linking to it. It does look kind of pretty, though.

Dirt and Worms

I am finally getting around to telling you about my brother's very special birthday dessert for his very special 25th birthday! As you can see, Eric requested Dirt and Worms! We bought our pot (an absurdly too big 5 quarts!) at a local garden center and we even found a plastic trowel that we used for serving this muddy treat!

It was fairly difficult to make dirt and worms fit into a 5 quart pot. The logistics of dealing with that much pudding was complicated, to say the least. Also, I, not surprisingly, continually had the urge to "fance it up (fancy it up)" with things like fresh whipped cream instead of cool whip and chocolate mousse instead of pudding. Since I wanted it to be as close to our childhood memories as possible, I resisted my fancy desires.

I'm happy to say, it was a real hit! Eric was really surprised (I think he may have made the request for this very special dessert and then forgotten about it) and it was fun and nostalgic.