Food Storage, Tests, and Academic Conferences

We learned how to can this weekend. Can. As in, put food into big tin cans and then seal the cans shut so that you have to use a can-opener to get the food out again.

It was fun.

Scott did most of the real work: lifting the food to the car, lifting it out at the cannery, lifting the bags to pour the food into the cans, lifting the boxes filled with full cans to the car, lifting these boxes to our house. I did the fun little things: labeling the cans, placing a little oxygen absorber into the top of all the cans but the sugar ones, using the canning machine to seal the lids in place.

I like how simple it was, minus all the lifting for Scott, of course. I used to think there was some complex and dangerous way to get that lid to stay put, but it's just a pressure. You put the can on this platform, raise the platform with a lever, then press another lever to the edge of the can as it spins around a few times. Ta da! The can has a lid on it and the food inside will stay good for a long time. (Though Scott has his suspicions about the possible side effects of eating food that was stored in metal.)

From the Archives: Scott's 24th Birthday (a blue and green party)

Next project: get the boxes to a more permanent storage space that's not in the middle of the front room. Or, more lifting for Mr. Jones.

This weekend Scott spent a major amount of time working on a take-home test. I'd love your insight cause it seems like many take-home tests are secret plots from teachers so that you end up spending WAY too much time on a test because they don't have to actually be there while you take it. That's the type of test this was. He's such a trooper though, and with more than 13 pages, he's pretty nearly done!

On Friday and Saturday, I got in several hours for work by helping out at the local American Studies conference. To be more exact, it was the conference for the Middle Atlantic American Studies Association. I liked getting to hear the various papers that were presented and I really liked getting to eat some tasty food. The keynote speaker at dinner on Friday is an expert on the Amish people and cataloged some of their clashes with the government both state and local. Very interesting stuff. I love how their focus as a people is to PRACTICE and LIVE their religion more than to articulate it. I'm afraid that sometimes my specialty is articulating my religion rather than living it. Just something to think about.

Meanwhile, it's exactly 3 months from my due date! People say I actually look pregnant now. That's nice. I definitely feel pregnant!

Art for Baby Jones

I've been finding really lovely things that I think would be fun for our baby's room. Most of them can be found on etsy.com. Such prettiness, don't you think?

This first one is called Little Sparrows. It is by Yumiyumi. You can see the artists other work here. It so fresh and simple but keeps with that birdy/flowery thing I can't get enough of.


This one, from nelladesigns, is so sweet! It totally fits with the color scheme I've got going for her room, too.

And this other one from the same artist uses a Dr. Suess quote. I can't really decide which I like better. This one is sold out, but I'm hoping the artist could be convinced to do another one!


And this one is so cool. Design Mom featured these a while back, and I am really glad someone is doing such meaningful and interesting prints. I think there is one in pinks and one in blues, too, but the happy colors of this one are just too fun. Ah! So much cool art in the world!


Oh! And I just found this lovely photo. I tell ya, anything with that turquoise in it appeals to me so much. Especially if it's coupled with blossoms! I think the blossoms thing will also have to be a theme, cause she can't have just a blue and green room.


So, who needs diapers, right? Let's just go all out on art for Baby Jones!

It's a Brother Thing

Have I mentioned how fun it was to see my brother recently? He is so fun to be around and so sweet. His quick wit is amazing, too. I'm so excited for him to serve his mission! He'll be fabulous.

Here are a few pictures we took while the G-man was showing us his latest tunes. You can see more here at my photo blog.

Mr. Tortilla

Scott was a super sweetie and made over 40 tortillas the other day. We eat beans and tortillas a lot, but these Pennsylvanians don't. What this means for us: tortillas are expensive and sold in tiny quantities. But there are recipes all over the internet for tortillas. We have made these ones a few times, and here is Scott poundin' em out like a real tortilla man.

Phew!

We made it through our crazy week!

To celebrate, we had a fantastic dinner last night: Steak and onion sandwiches, dijon potato salad, green salad, and perfect chocolate chip cookies.


I know it seems like I talk about food a lot, but I have several reasons for doing so, in my defense. For one, I'm really hungry all the time. Like every hour and a half to two hours I get hungry. If I wait three hours, I feel starving!

And, I've been thinking about our need for food on a deeper level too. Taking care of our bodies is a huge part of being mortal humans. We really do need nourishment to keep our hearts pumping and our brains active and our bodies moving. When we are little babies, we are totally dependent on our parents for food and nutrients. We mark a child's progress with such milestones as solid food, the ability to hold a spoon, and eventually to feed themselves. One of the important things you have to learn when you are out on your own (in college or something) is how to cook for yourself. We have oodles of books, magazines, blogs, websites, even spam mail concerned with figuring out that same old question: "what should we eat tonight?"

There is a whole economy of food. Some people grow food. Some people process food. People who can cook well are praised and valued. People who critique what people cook are the standards by which those professional cooks judge themselves. Then we have our Martha Stewarts and our Rachel Rays who make a living teaching us how to make food we've never heard of or how to make all our food faster and tastier. We want to reduce the amount of time we spend on food, but we also want to enjoy it more. We spend a lot of our time shopping, cleaning, preparing, cooking, eating, and cleaning up after all this food!

So, in my defense, food is really important! And if you'd like the recipes from our end-of-the-week fabulous dinner, you can find them here and here. I need to type up the cookie recipe still, so I guess that gives you a reason to visit again. :)

Long Ole Week

This one will be a doozy. Two papers due Monday, one due Wednesday. Oh, and I'm presenting at a little symposium on this Friday. Such craziness.

Meanwhile, the weather was GORGEOUS yesterday! I went on a walk with some pals. We walked through an old cemetery. So many people have died here. These cemeteries are just full of gravestones.

Tonight is Scott's first Court of Honor! Wish him luck as the emcee of this fabulous event. He is doing such a nice job as scoutmaster. Those scouts are lucky to have him.

Some pictures from Williamsburg:

So Easy Bein' Green

Not Irish. Not Catholic. Just a fan of wearing green. What are you wearing today?

Spring Break

This past week was my spring break. Scott was also on spring break, though you wouldn't know it cause he still went up to school every day to work in the lab.

We did have some fun adventures though. On Tuesday, we went to nearby Mount Joy, PA to pick up our bulk order of 50 pounds of wheat and 25 pounds of pinto beans from this place called The Country Store. We made one quick detour on our way out to stop in Elizabethtown, PA. This is the closest location where we could get some Little Caesar's Pizza. I LOVED it! We enjoyed the tasty pizza treat and had a fun time looking around at the wide variety of flours offered at the Country Store place.

Wednesday Scott hosted a Rain-gutter Regatta. He wishes he had renamed it the Trash-gutter Regatta, though, because the main materials the youth could use were on their way to the trash or recycle bins. I got to go with him because I didn't have class till 9pm. He works so hard for these activities, and the young men and young women really had a good time. A few pictures.



On Thursday, we started our big adventure. We drove down to Williamsburg, Virginia to meet up with my mom and my brother for the day. Though we arrived after 9pm, we still had a royal blast that night and the next day. We swam (or at least got wet) in the hotel's indoor pool, listened to Gordon's beautiful guitar skills, and giggled way too much before going to bed.

The next day we set out to see some of the historic colonial Williamsburg, but there was a lot of freezing cold rain all day. We saw what we could, including a lovely old church where George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are supposed to have attended at some point, and enjoyed a nice little lunch together. Then we were off in our opposite directions by 3 ish. Short, but so sweet. I'm really glad I got to see and hug Gordon before he goes away for 2 years! He's going to be a great missionary.

Our drive home was fraught with rain, traffic, and shopping for maternity clothes. The last part was my favorite. :) We got home late but happy. My mom had sent us on our way with a few adorable baby clothes, some canned wheat, and a cute little bird-bath statue thing.

Scott got up bright and early the next morning for a hike with the Scouts. Ten miles and several hours later, he got to come home.


After the hike, we ate pie on pi day (3-14-09)! This was a lovely coincidence as we were helping our friend celebrate his completion of his doctoral dissertation. We don't mind helping when homemade pie is part of the requirements. Yummy yummy. The rest of Saturday was spent in needed laziness. I did try a new recipe or two that I'll have to share.

If you got through this crazy long post, good for you. If you skimmed, that's just fine. I'll have to post some Williamsburg pictures when I get them from my mom.

Happy back to school week!

Weekend of Free Dinner

This weekend was all about eating good food with good people for a good price ($0).

Friday: International cuisine at a shindig for Scott's graduate school. Very tasty stuff: pasta, burritos, teriyaki chicken, hummus and pita chips, cannoli, and baklava. My one disappointment: the sushi was the quickest to go, and the "raw fish free" stuff was hard to find. No sushi for me.

Saturday: Ward Progressive Dinner. I planned this one and had quite the time putting all the groups together. It was so fun, though! Yummy nachos, fresh fajitas, and gooyey chewy chocolate chip coconut oatmeal coookies with ice cream and homemade fudge. I remarked to one of the guests how delicious the water tasted. She asked, "Are you five months pregnant?" I said, "Yup." She said, "I thought so. At five months pregnant, EVERYTHING tastes good." Maybe that's why I'm obsessed with telling you about all this food. Everything does sound good!

Sunday: A get-together with the other LDS kids in my American Studies program. Nice to talk shop with folks in your same shop. We had two kinds of chili, a huge salad, homemade rolls, and the best darn chocolate cake ever. I need to get and share that recipe.

Another food memory: May 2007 at the Creamery on Ninth with Scott's family.

So now it's back to cooking for ourselves. Sigh. I asked Scott last night if we could possibly get someone to go to the grocery store for us and buy the pork that was on sale, some eggs, shortening, and ice cream. He said it would be too weird, so we just went ourselves. Still fun, but we forgot the eggs!

I like spring break. Even if it has to be all cloudy and moody outside.

Somebody Must Have Listened

It's warmer today! Hooray!

From the May 2007 Archive: Scott and I cooking the chicken at Aunt Carolyn's house in Salt Lake.

Scott and I had another marathon watching Hell's Kitchen last night. It's a good thing there were a limited number of episodes available for this season or we would have gone to bed much much later. Have you seen any of these? They are quite entertaining and get us riled up a bit, even.

Kimberly's French bread is so good. I made some yesterday, and we've already eaten probably a whole loaf. The recipe can be found here at the recipe blog I sometimes contribute to. Make some and enjoy it!

Random random stuff, this post is made of. Oh well.

This coming week is our spring break. It's the first one we've had in a while (BYU has no spring break), and I'm excited about it! Though Scott has no classes, he does have to tend to his growing cell cultures 'n stuff in the lab, so not as breakish as it could be, but it's something. I will probably do a few hours of work to make up/get ahead of the hours I need to have for the semester. Other than that, I need to write a paper, start a few others, video some interviews for my group project documentary about American Girl dolls, take some pictures of some new babies, organize MY baby's room, and generally get stuff done. The most fun thing about the week will be seeing my brother Gordon!!! Right now he's visiting with Mom in North Carolina. We'll meet them halfway to shmooze for a day and take some pictures and stuff like that. Anyone know good things to do or see in Richmond, Virginia?

Happy Spring! Happy changing of the clocks! Happy week of no school!

Snow Snow, Go Away

I'm ready. Are you ready? For spring?


I had a long conversation with a few students and a professor on Monday about how everyone remembers these winters when the snow was "up to there" (like really high) and how now it seems like there really isn't that much snow. Of course, this contrasts quite a bit from my memories of the thrill when, every 5-6 years, it would snow in Las Vegas and then, thankfully, melt as it hit the ground. My weather nostalgia revolves more around the warm hair-dryer feel when you walk outside at 9 or 10 at night in the middle of summer. I miss that.

This cold business is just getting on my nerves. To make things sillier, my warmest waterproof coat is starting to not fit me. I can just barely get it zipped up at the bottom, it tightly curves around my belly, and then I unzip the double zipper at the bottom to a comfortable middle spot. To other people this probably looks ridiculous or like the zipper is broken. Oh well. Just another reason it should stop being 17 degrees outside.

Sorry that took so long

Scott birthday party was a super success. Thanks to all who came and all who wished they could have been here. We enjoyed gobs of orange nacho cheese, tasty fresh guacamole, orange sherbet and squirt floats, and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. People actually wore orange and we had so much fun just relaxing and chatting with our neighborhood friends.


The cake was fashioned speedily to resemble one of Scott's favorite toys. Can you guess what it was supposed to be?


Mr. Jones looks good in orange, don't you think?


I made a banner from some leftover fabric (like the one found here but with triangles only and I added ribbon streamers), and we had a craft that the little kids enjoyed. They used sharpies on big squares of the same fabric. Scott and I will sew these together into a "take anywhere" type quilt. We had fun finishing off the quilt squares that people didn't color on. Scott got especially creative and started drawing fruits on the squares. Very cool. He told me before we started this project, "We'll have to actually make the quilt, though." Almost as a warning to me, like, for reals, we're going to DO this and not just wish we had. I think he knows my track record with quilt finishing is pretty sorry. I'm excellent at starting things. :)


He got some super nice cards from friends and family, some stinkin' cool gray converse shoes and a new wallet from me, and my mom sent him an orange crank flash light and an orange rubber spatula.



And that's the story. Sorry you had to wait a whole week for it!