where my food comes from

At my old job at the food bank, I had a conversation with a coworker about how food was the cool thing to care about these days. Supporting local farmers, improving food deserts, buying organic- perhaps spurred by Michelle Obama’s work, food-related issues are on everyone’s mind right now. This coworker pointed out that social issues are cyclical in how much they engender public interest and action. The respective fights against AIDS and breast cancer have had their spotlights (and have not disappeared, of course; red ribbons and pink ribbons are everywhere). Still, it stands to reason that food will not always be this big- something else will suddenly step to the front of public consciousness (um, I vote global warming).

So, I’ll use this minute, this day, to share my feelings about where food comes from. For me, it can mean a lot of different things.

First and foremost, I don’t want a lot of human beings to have experienced suffering for my food to come to me.

Truthfully, the diet I eat is one of privilege and affluence that is better than most Americans and many citizens of other countries. I often feel guilty eating my organic, fancy products when I know what the money spent on them could mean to someone else. I try to take these drop-in-the-bucket steps to keep myself from being wracked with guilt about my purchases.

- I try to buy from local farms, making a weekly trip to the farmer’s market. This will come up again, but here’s an ethical reason it’s important to me- being a farm worker is AWFUL. Perhaps you have heard some of the awful news stories about pregnant women dying of dehydration in the fields because the food companies weren’t enforcing labor laws. DRAMATIC underpaying is rampant, which I learned when I read this thoroughly insightful book, The American Way of Eating, written by an undercover reporter who worked as a farm worker; Applebees chef, and Walmart employee. And, lest you think that buying organic improves conditions for the workers instead of the soil, that same book reports that a farm implement banned from conventional agricultural farms because of the damage it does to workers’ backs is still permitted on organic farms.

That looks backbreaking. Source here.

So, I meet the people who pick my food. (One of my favorite vendors at the farmer’s market sold me a sweet potato and then said, “Yeah, I cook one of those and keep it in my pocket while I’m out picking. It keeps me warm and then I get a snack on the field). I see pictures of the conditions on the farms. And yeah, farmer’s market food costs more in part because organic, small-scale farming is way way way more labor intensive. Large scale farming gives us agriculture that’s cheap (though we tend to see that more in the absurdly low priced junk food and soda because of the government subsidies for corn). Large scale agriculture also offers myriad points in their supply procurement pyramid for worker abuse. When possible, I buy small scale.
After saying all this, I’ll confessed that I am wracked with guilt at the thought of the fact that I eat bananas. Banana plantations are the WORST. I have no moral ground to stand on at all. Yes, bananas are healthy and filling and cheap, yes, I buy the ones in the reduced produce bags which otherwise might get thrown away. But I repeat: I have no moral ground to stand on with regards to bananas. I need to phase them out. Hold me to this, guys. Any advice welcome. (Sidebar: we had a family friend in my hometown who owned a house with a skylight that created an arboretum-like area. Where they kept- the banana plant! And harvested their own bananas. This is my dream.)

- I don’t shop at Walmart. I think all workers (even part-time ones; and many are stuck in part-time work in our current economy) should be paid a living wage and have benefits, including good health care. Obviously, Walmart is not the only employer who does not provide the full extent of those opportunities to their workers, but as one of the nation’s biggest corporations- and employers- they could cause a sea change if they improved their workers’ compensation and rights.
For a counterexample, a store I am proud to shop at is Costco. Their comprehensive benefits are considered the gold standard for the industry, and people recognize that, based on the massive and enthusiastic turnout for jobs at their first Washington D.C. store, in a neighborhood that could really use it. Their employees typically make at least $17 an hour. Stating the obvious, Costco is a successful company that makes profits. They simply do it in, as I see it, a more ethical manner.
A quote I read and loved was, “The Best Customer of American Industry is the Well-Paid Worker”. FDR said that!
A reality check: the grocery stores closest to me are Safeway and Giant, and I shop at both of them... because they’re the closest to me. Safeway’s benefits sound good, Giant’s do too, though they are a little vague, and I can’t tell whether they apply to part-time employees. Obviously, I don’t have perfect information. In another example, I am a big fan of Harris Teeter for the philanthropic work they do, which I saw firsthand at the food bank. They were VERY generous to our children’s feeding program. That being said, their stores are far from my house and cost a LOT more than the other ones nearby, so I don’t shop at their stores often.
I also do not want to come across as judging anyone who does shop at Walmart. Yes, they have low prices on some items and being able to vote with your dollar is a luxury for people with sufficient dollars. In addition, many neighborhoods offer few options other than Walmart, like where my sister goes to school.
The bottom line is that this is something I’ve spent some time thinking about and it’s a choice I’m able to make at this point.

My next consideration is that I don’t want my food choices to totally screw over the planet.

- I don’t eat a lot of meat. It’s healthier, and we all know by now the ABSURD mathematics of meat- pounds upon pounds of corn and soy feed to produce a single pound of meat. Eating less meat is healthier, cheaper, and kinder on the planet. Going back to the worker argument above, one of the most striking segments of Food, Inc., for me, was seeing the deal pork processing makes with the INS where they get a steady supply of illegal immigrant labor to exploit in exchange for regularly turning in their labor supply for not having papers. You’ve seen Food, Inc., right?!
When I do buy meat, I get it at the farmer’s market, or my beloved Lebanese Butcher. Lebanese Butcher sells halal meat, score (it’s the Muslim equivalent of kosher, basically). They also sell organic meat, score. Best of all, one time I asked, “Where is your meat from?” and the guy went, “… My farm”, as if it was the most obvious thing ever. And when I inquired where his farm was, said Warrenton, a town not forty minutes away.
I want to emphasize that part of the decision I made to only procure meat from those sources is that Food, Inc. scared me. There is almost no regulation of the meat industry in our country, and based on the fact that their response to frightening, antibiotic resistant bacteria in their beef was to create the now-infamous “pink slime”, I am not confident that they’ll police themselves.
So, I buy meat at my trustworthy places, and yeah it costs more. Fortunately, I eat meat maybe twice a week, and often even less because my Orthodox Christian religion has long periods of meatlessness built into the year, like during Lent and Advent. When I eat meat, I prefer it in dishes like ground beef stuffed cabbage (where the meat’s mixed with rice and stuffed into cabbage, served with tomato sauce) or ground bison meatloaf (where the meat’s mixed with mushrooms, eggs, and breadcrumbs). Cooking meat that way means a pound can last my family a week.

Source here.

- I try to buy organic dairy. I have whacked out hormones as it is and don’t need any more of them in my system from cows. I’m also in a microbiology course and am petrified of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Healthy cows don’t need antibiotics. I’m scared of all the antibiotics- and new germs who aren’t bothered by them in the slightest- we’re introducing into our biosphere. That being said, while organic milk and yogurt are easy to find (Trader Joes seems to only sell organic yogurt at this point, which delights me), they are, of course, more costly. And organic cheese definitely does NOT seem to’ve hit a tipping point where enough people want to buy it yet cause lord you can only find it at crazy expensive places. So cheese is my compromise where I don’t screen for organic-ness. If you know a cheese guy, holla at me. I’d love to know.

- Local farms. Smaller scale systems, crop rotation… less havoc on the environment.
Typically organic in practice if not in name (getting organic certification is $$$$!). That being said, I am not as much of a stickler on buying organic produce as I could (should?) be. Probably if I got pregnant I would (which I wont be ever so this is a moot point). I’ve also actually read some thoroughly disarming things in this well-researched Science Daily article about organic pesticides- the non-synthetic substances with which it’s legal to treat organic crops. So the jury is still out for me. Thoughts, friends?

- I try to eat sustainable seafood. I find it really difficult to find adequate information about seafood, and this is something I’m still working on. That being said, I cannot eat Chilean Sea Bass. I just can’t. How is it still allowed to be on menus?! If I’m buying seafood, I’m generally getting it at Whole Paycheck Foods and hoping their seafood ranking system is as honest as it appears to be. If I get cod, I want it to be from the Pacific. If I get salmon, I want it to be Alaskan- this Eating Well magazine article about fishing for wild salmon in Alaska was a delightful read.
When I go out to eat, this all becomes a lot more murky and confusing. So I go, “NO CHILEAN SEA BASS” and cross my fingers that I’m not exploiting the environment. If anyone has a handy tip sheet for restaurants (can you use that Monterey Bay Aquarium guide there? Is it too obnoxious and Portlandia-y to interrogate your server about whether your fish was farmed. And if it was, if it was decent farming, like I hear steelhead’s okay?
Also, I haven’t eaten shrimp in a long time except from Whole Paycheck Foods because man that situation in Thailand bums me out.

- I am exceedingly skeeved out by genetically modified food. On the one hand, science hasn’t proven it’s bad for us (yet). On the other hand, do we want to be guinea pigs so food and chemical corporations can make even MORE profit? On the other hand, if we start labeling genetically modified foods, does it mean that a class system will emerge where lower-income folks will have to eat all the genetically modified Frankenfood while the wealthier get the “pure” stuff? And can we feed the planet on the large scale we need without using it?
Here’s my current compromise: for the millionth time, local farmers don’t do things on an industrial scale and frequently offer heirloom and/or offbeat varieties of various vegetables. Love me some local farmers. Also, I buy organic tofu and edamame, because Food, Inc. gave me a particular hatred for Monsanto.
The thing that’s thoroughly irking me with this is oil. I’ve bought canola oil lately because it’s not soybean oil (see above hatred for Monsanto). But I’m learning more that canola oil is just as GMO’d out. So if I want a heart-healthy, neutrally flavored oil, what do I get? Suggestions welcome.

The final statement in my credo- I don’t reject hospitality

Icon from my religion: Abraham and Sarah inadvertently inviting angels in for dinner. Hospitality is sacred! Source here.

No one will ever change the food system by being rude to their friends and families. If I go to someone’s house and they are kind enough to offer me food, I will eat it. Period. My individual purchasing power is what I vote with, but I don’t condemn anyone else’s choices. I also think hospitality is one of the most sacred things we have as human beings, and am thrilled to receive it :)

Questions of the day:

- Do you follow some of these rules? Less? More? Am I doing anything wrong?

- Do you come from the dumpster-diving school of philosophy, where any food is okay as long as you eat it to prevent it from getting thrown away? (I say yes! Providing food safety standards are met).

- Are you a stickler about eating what’s put in front of you like I am, or do you occasionally (or often) take eating with friends as a chance to take a stand?

what I'm diggin'

Other bloggers do "Friday Favorites" posts, so here's my take at one. It is an amusing amalgamation of everything I've thought about this week, some totally unrelated to food.

1. I am a HUGE fan of Too Hottie for that Body- it is such a cute, inspired, positive blog. I'm not particularly preoccupied with weight loss right now, but the nice thing is that you can be on whatever health/fitness/nutrition journey you want and still enjoy her point of view. And get overwhelmed by the cuteness of her groundhog day cupcakes.

2. I made a kick-ass salad last night. The ingredients:

- arugula, lots

- carrots shaved into ribbons with a vegetable peeler

- goat cheese, crumbled

- whole flax seeds

- cinnamon

- olive oil

- apple cider vinegar

SO satisfying! I often find myself eating salads dutifully and grimly in the winter. This one tastes like winter and manages to stick to your ribs, despite consisting of non-starchy vegetables. Nom.

3. I always enjoy learning how other cultures do things. One of my favorite courses in college was the Anthropology of Child-Rearing (or, er, something like that). One of the books we perused for the course was a study on preschools in the upper-income US, lower-income US, China, and Japan. I learned a lot and it made me think about our priorities as a country (as well as some inherent differences in child rearing philosophy and practice based on socioeconomic background). Anyway, in the Washington Post this week, in a similar vein, I found and enjoyed this article on school lunches in Japan. Particularly this line: "Schools in Japan... give children the sort of food they’d get at home, not at a stadium". Also, the children in their little chef's outfits are super adorable.

4. Do you have bum ovaries? I do! Apparently PCOS, polycystic ovaries syndrome, will get a new name, since the current one has nothing to do with the diagnostic criteria. PCOS is one of those "lady problems" that gets almost no news coverage and no one bothers funding research for it. I ask you, how many medications are there for erectile dysfunction? Yet PCOS (or whatever it'll be called now) affects up to 1 in 10 women and no one cares. Baffling. Also, my sister hooked me up to a PCOS website which led me to this PCOS Workbook. I've started it and it's pretty good. I like how it includes emotional as well as physical health. HELLO. Human beings are complex. We have bodies and minds.

5. I found this Time magazine article about guns and a person's instinctual response when their body is under threat fascinating and thought-provoking. In general I am sad and heartsick at the state of political debate in our country. Is it all rooted in our country's adversarial legal system? Did both of the parties decide that their ultimate objective was to beat the other guys, not to actually pass laws?

Anyway, I'm a big believer in science and research and data, with my political science background that's now transitioning to hard science courses preparing to pursue an RD and MPH. It makes me sad when we have a country that seems so vehemently opposed to looking at cause and effect (I'm looking at you, Superstorm Sandy and drought and the hottest July on record and tornados and derechos and so on in 2012 alone).

The science on having a gun in your home is pretty well researched- this op-ed from this morning's Washington Post includes some of that research (yes, that op-ed has a particular political point of view, recognize that if you click on it).  However, the Time article (the original point of this, from which I have veered!) takes the "put more armed guards in schools" argument to its logical point of reference- how do people with weapons react in a crisis like an armed shooter trying to force their way into a school? I thought all of the opinions in it, including those from law enforcement, were interesting. As was the research. As is, as always, our body's fundamentally amazing systems for dealing with fight or flight.

6. This Ode to Joy flashmob made me cry. And that's called PMS, boys and girls.

7. This "cat people" and "dog people" video made me laugh so hard I almost cried (I presume you've already seen it but just to be sure).

8. This book, The Round House by Louise Erdrich made me unable to sleep at night for several days. Good. Intense. Suspenseful. Upsetting. Beautifully imagined and written. Arcadia, by Lauren Groff was another great one I read this month. Both were recommendations from my mom: she's in a book club and vets books for me! So convenient.

9. I have still flossed EVERY DAY IN 2013! Hurray hurray. Now that I have that in the evening routine, I have added taken a daily multivitamin to the morning routine. It's so nice to do something healthful for yourself, earning a pat on the back.

10. Locals, if you need a car guy and your car isn't American, I cannot say enough things about Eurasian Service Center, right by Tyson's. They are where my family has been going forever, so Eddie, the guy behind the counter has known me since I was 8. They'll tell you what you need and do it well and quickly and, perhaps more importantly, they'll tell you what you don't need and thus don't need to pay for. Also, they have comfy leather couches, a Keurig, and WiFi. I had to get my brakes replaced last September and brought my laptop along to study for the GRE. 7 hours later, I told them that they should rename themselves Eurasian Service and Test Prep Center. My scores were great!

Hope everyone is looking forward to a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Perhaps do a little dancing?

I will leave you with an amusing picture from my friend's wedding.

I'm Cousin Itt in the green dress. Dance like no one is watching, right?

Carolina and other good things

I would have entitled this post “Going to Carolina”, but to know me, to truly know me, is to know of my devout and eternal hatred of James Taylor. Truth.

Anyway, I used to go to summer camp at Duke- to be specific, summer WRITING camp, because I was a huge nerd. Though, all my teachers there were so encouraging, and it does make me wistful how little of it I do now. I guess this blog counts? Er…

Anyway, Duke is so gorgeous.

I’ll get to our main purpose for being in NC at the end of this post, but an added bonus to the trip is that my mom made a visit to someone she’s worked with who works at Duke, and we got a fabulous tour.

The gardens are stunnnnning.

  

Also took a peek at the academia side with a look at the Global Health department. But by far, by far the best part of that trip was:

 

LEMURS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Everything about Duke Lemur Center is amazing. The fact that not only is it a wonderful sanctuary for animals, it’s also where first-class research is taking place. When we were there, a graduate student was just finishing something that involved lemurs typing things on computers. I love our smart fellow primates.

They meditate and think deep thoughts…

… they keep an eye on their guests.

Apparently the cute innocent looking ones (these are brown lemurs) can be the most vicious.

   

MEGA inspiring, and I think excellent fodder for a children’s book: the (poorly photographed, sorry) lemur on the left is the mother of those triplets there with her. She was born with a disabled left arm (they think it may have been because her mother was on antibiotics before they knew she was pregnant). Initially it seemed to get in her way- rather than being able to leap from branch to branch,  she would climb one tree, climb down, climb up the next tree, climb down- but slowly, she seemed to get sick of that. One day, she just started jumping. Not only did she do great, the keepers at the center said that she jumped further and riskier jumps than any of the other lemurs would dare. Plus, she’s been a very successful mother, and is parent to more lemurs at the center than anyone else. SO inspiring.

 

As you can see, the lemurs have large and spacious enclosures on the inside…

 

But they can also go out whenever they want! (Can’t you picture that one saying, “C’mon guys!”?)

 

(Sidebar: the lemurs in that picture are also known as “dancing lemurs”. Their bodies are designed to spring from tree to tree, and they move like they’ve got pogo sticks in their feet. It’s so extraordinary, especially when they come over to investigate you, which they do a lot because they’re so INTELLIGENT and CURIOUS and AWESOME!)

    

So when I say outside, I mean outside. People who come to visit the lemurs literally have nothing between them and the animals. To me, it’s fantastic- here’s a chance for school groups and other visitors to come in and see how the animals behave.

Best of all, the animals get to go out into the Duke forest and do what lemurs do!

Funny story: There was a ditch separating the building and the surrounding forest. Initially the lemurs were suspicious and refused to go through the ditch. So the facility built a bridge. Then the beams would get too hot sitting in the sun. So they built a roof.

Which allows for hilarious tail pictures like this.

Also, don’t you wish your neck could do that?

Hilarious ring-tailed lemur story: two adolescent males were getting shunned by the rest of the lemur troupe (because, like sensible societies, the lemurs are female-dominated). One Saturday night (of course) they managed to hop the fence and escape the center. Everyone was distraught: there were predators like foxes in the woods who could get them, they could get hit by a car. Monday morning there was a sighting of them (someone was commuting to work and saw lemurs cross the road; could you imagine?!), but every time someone called, by the time the staff got there, the lemurs were gone.

But, at a Christian school a few miles away, the children had been on a field trip to the lemur center, so a child looked out the window and said “There’s a lemur on the playground!” The teacher hadn’t been on the field trip, so she needed some convincing, but after she saw the lemurs, the kids explained that they knew the staff at the center would play drums and music when they would feed the lemurs, and the lemurs would come. So the students made a path of food leading into the school’s library, and banged drums. The lemurs came in and the students were able to shut them in the library. When the staff from the center arrived, the students were taking their Spanish lesson with the lemurs.

Isn’t that a great story? It goes to show you, when you teach people to care about their fellow creatures and understand them, they’ll help look out for them.

 

That evening, my mom and I strolled to downtown Durham, where we enjoyed a meal al fresco. True story: MEG RYAN AND JOHN MELLANCAMP WALKED BY. Why?! Why on Earth would they be in Durham?! It was very exciting.

 

Chips and salsa: housed.

Delicious bucket o’ grease mushroom spinach quesadilla-ish thing: housed.

AWESOME: meeting up with my friend at summer camp at Francesca’s, the cafe where we’d enjoy gelato on summer nights all those years ago. SO great to see her, SO great to travel back in time and think about what crazy teenagers we were. A poem we wrote about our painfully attractive, painfully gay teacher comes to mind. Mon dieu.

 

Gelato was great on that hot summer night!

The next morning, we went back to another old haunt: The Mad Hatter, another great cafe.

 

Duh-licous latte.

APPALLINGLY huge, albeit beautiful and delicious plate of oatmeal. I mean really. It just results in an offensive amount of food being wasted, unless one is a linebacker.

 

Okay okay okay so here we go: on that last day in North Carolina, we reveal my true reason to be there: a visit to UNC. To be more specific, a visit to UNC Chapel Hill, to the department that runs the combined R.D./MPH program. To be more specific, the program I loved from afar and then adored in person, the program that I hope to lead me to my future awesome career, the program to which I will be applying next fall, the program for which I will be moving to North Carolina next summer.

I hope I hope I hope! There are some ifs in that equation (getting in? Passing organic chemistry by the time I apply? Finding something to do in NC for a year while I earn in-state status? Bringing this wonderful boy I love so much along?) but. The program is everything I’m passionate about in one building. I’ve built the past few months really trying to lay the foundation for the kind of adult life I want to have, and I feel SO good about this being the next step.

And yes, I quit my job! School, here I come.

new attitude

My life has brought a lot of (awesome) changes in the past few months. More a new attitude more than anything else, but wow do a new set of (rosier colored) glasses change everything about your life.

Last weekend found me happily frying falafel. That was great.

 

A few weekends before that- sitting in on a master’s level communications course at the MPH/RD combined program at UNC (for those of you not as well-versed in nonsensical acronyms, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a program that allows you to simultaneously earn a master’s in public health and complete the coursework and internships necessary to sit for the exam to become a registered dietitian. It’s BOSS.) I also ended up on a private tour of Duke Lemur Center (it’s a long, awesome story and was one of the best experiences of my life).

 

A few weekends before that- enjoying the beautiful sights of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia with my awesome boyfriend, who’s just been extra awesome lately. Our first day involved a great deal of torrential rain which was absolutely positively NO PROBLEM, because it allowed me to vegetate in the incredible claw-foot bathtub.

 

My end of summer days have also involved great times with families, a work situation that finally, finally, at moments, seems to be defusing, and other good things.

 

But really? Here’s what happened:

It all started with me feeling totally panicky at how I was looking and how much weight I was packing on due to being a big ball of stress. I think it was a pick-your-poison kind of thing- for me, when my head is a mess all of the symptoms will manifest themselves at my body. For other people, maybe they drink/yell/smoke/gamble/sleep/sleep around too much.

And fortunately, due to my own wherewithal (something for which I have given myself too little credit in the past), along with the help/love of the awesome people in my life, I dealt with it. And dealt with it meaning actually started looking at my emotions, and the patterns in my head, and my coping skills, and my support system, and all the stuff that actually matters (and uh, p.s., in a rational world where it’s supposed to be what’s on the inside that counts, how much you weight dooooooesnt matter!).

So I feel like a gazillion times better. Like, holy amazing, SO MUCH BETTER. So much kinder to myself, so much more pragmatic when dealing with other people who stress me out, so much less anxious in making decisions about the future, and so much more confident in my own intelligence/capability/compassion.

So hurray for that.

Also, my cells are kicking ass too- I will in fact be giving some of them to someone with leukemia. Next month! On October 6 (the day before my 24th birthday!) I’ll get my first injection of filgrastim, a drug that’ll make my body start making extra stem cells in my bone marrow and then, once my bones get too crowded, release them out into my veins. Five days of those injections, and on day five they’ll take out my blood, spin it through a centrifuge, and give it back to me sans stem cells (and a few platelets to keep them company on their journey to the recipient in EUROPE).

So many things about the process amaze me- the fact that I am one of the 1 in 540 that’s a match for an unrelated donor; the fact that that person is outside of the United States even though my totally mutt genes (7/16ths Greek, 1/16 Irish, 1/4 English, 1/4 South African) seem like something that only could’ve come together in the US. Thinking about my cells going into someone’s body, then (God willing- and it’s a scary and dangerous process and I pray for the recipient) going through their body and knowing to find their way to this woman’s bone marrow, then growing her a new immune system. If she and I have unrelated blood types, if my cells successfully transplant, her blood type will become my blood type. Crazy! So crazy!

I definitely have big plans for the not-too-distant future related to what my everyday life will look like. It could mean more blogging… or not.

But in the meantime, I am just enjoying life a lot more. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. My life is not perfect, nor will it ever be (and I am struggling to figure out what are realistic expectations for a career, since unfortunately my current “dream job” hasn’t necessarily panned out the way I would’ve envisioned). But life is really, really good.

As was this falafel!

 

Made it for some friends/families we had over for a get together last weekend. Just cause I’d always wanted to make it (and cause we had a mix! It incorporated both powdered chickpeas AND fava beans. Just delish!).

Appetizers began with homemade tortilla chips (tortillas sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkled with garlic salt, paprika and cumin; and baked til crispy) and hummus (that I made too lemony, agh!)

 

Then awesome Steve arrived with amazing cheese from Cheesetique, basically my favorite place in the world; and wine to match from a shop in Adams Morgan. Appetizers WON.

For the main course, along with the falafel was lamb (which I overcooked grrr. I was so delighted to find out that the lamb from Lebanese Butcher is not only halal and organic, it is also LOCAL, from Warrenton, Virginia, probably less than thirty miles away. AND I OVERCOOKED IT AGH.). The pink things are pickled turnips, which are divine.

 

Made my favorite summer squash recipe- Indian spiced grilled baby squash from Cooking Light- which I couldn’t actually grill due to the tornado warnings outside but was nonetheless delightful made under the broiler.

Annnnd my mom made  a great couscous salad.

 

Dessert was farmer’s market ice cream (strawberry shortcake and blackberry Cabernet from Sinplicity Ice Cream- so great!) and my mom’s homemade peach cobbler.

All were wonderful, all went unphotographed, but I’d say this is a rather long enough post, eh?

ends and beginnings

A celebration in style:

We begin with an ending- Steve is officially done with Americorps!

FYI, I spent my first year post-college providing afterschool enrichment at a program in south Arlington, a DC suburb chock-full of at-risk kiddos who need a good, safe, educational-type place to go afterschool. They also enjoyed having wholesome young do-gooder Americorps members upon which to heap ridicule at that program :) That’s where I met Steve, and we oh-so-subtly had our workplace romance (everyone knew). I felt burnt out at the end of one year, and left for the food bank, but Steve had another year in him. That was nice for me cause I could keep my connection to the program, and also got to meet Steve’s very cool new coworkers.

SO we had a big fat picnic. In the shadow of the Washington Monument! (The Lapiz, as our kids and parents called it).

Friends!

 

(Friends and their significant others. Including people with SPOUSES. HALF OF THE PEOPLE AT THIS PICNIC WERE MARRIED AGGGH WHY I AM SO OLD).

Being national parks, of course, the hallowed grounds of the monuments do not permit drinking.

Cough.

No one would ever suspect this innocent-looking cup contains alcohol.

What I really housed were these:

  

(Just in that corner is the nacho cheese. Mmm).

So Kyle. Kyle! Agh! Our friend Kyle came, who did the first Americorps year with me (we actually led the same team of kids, which naturally inspired tons of rumors about his love for me, and then later in the year his entirely fictional girlfriend they called Savannah. Hah man kids are so funny). Kyle is going to INDONESIA! His (actual) girlfriend got a Fulbright (!) and then he wanted to be with her (aw) and found himself a job, in the same town in Indonesia (hey hey!) and off he was going.

Crazy. Crazy. My friends are having such adventures! I think/hope I am due.

Anyway, Kyle brought an excellent salad that involved blueberries and walnuts and mint from his garden.

 

It was great.

Meanwhile, I made some stuff at home, because I was sick.. for days… Never took a whole sick day, and had so much comp time I didn’t even have to take official leave, but did a lot of leaving early. And I skipped the company picnic, which was pretty sweet.

So I had time to do some cookin’. We had some uh-mazing farmer’s market grape tomaotes, along with some oldish grapes. So I slow roasted them in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper. Mm.

   

I tossed those with various leftover rice things and herbs and… whatever. Kind of a rice salad. Or pilaf.

The main highlight was the cake! I love staying home from work and making cake. It’s wonderful.

Decorating was fun (that’s the- ridiculous, in my and many others’ opinion- Americorps motto!)

 

We spent the evening talking (a lot) eating (a lot) playing some sweet Frisbee, reminiscing… it was a good one! I forget how nice it is to really mark the end of something in a meaningful way. And night picnics are the best :)

  

John, Steve coworker MacNair’s husband, along with being really nice is a ridonkulously good photographer, and Chris, Steve’s coworker Erika’s incredibly annoying and rude husband has a really good camera. So we were playing with it, and various tricks you can do on the iPhone to make streamers of light in the background. I was in charge of the flash… that’s about all my camera is good for!

 

So that’s the end of something.

The here and now… is wiping me out.

This is the typical state of my desk.

 

I made it look like this. I was pleased.

For ten minutes or so. Anyway, long enough to drink that cup of tea.

And these kiddos come when their mom, who runs a food pantry, comes to the food bank, and make beautiful decorations for my office (along with that picture on the left, made by a high-schooler who’s one of our most devoted volunteers).

But… it’s wiping me out. We’ll see.

Now for a beginning.

For a wee little while, I’ll have the best health care in the history of health care.

No deductible! No co pay!

(You should register too!)