Opening Day Cake

You shouldn't ask a question you don't want to hear the answer to. And that's why I don't ask Dave if he loves me more than baseball.

Dave has been counting down the days until tomorrow, MLB's opening day. As a kid, he pretended to be sick on Mariners' day games so he could watch them on t.v. with his Papa. What a little slugger. Now he's a teacher with summers off, and he gets some good baseball watchin' in during peak season. Dare I suggest he picked his profession to enable his baseball-philia? I"ll let the reader decide.

A few years ago I bought some plastic baseball figurines, not knowing how I'd use them but thought they'd come in handy. Well they've been sitting in a drawer, ready to play ball, and I decided to make Dave an Opening Day Cake. Such is the life of a part-time stay at home mom. It's a rainy Wednesday in March, what else are Edie and I going to do?

I found some images of baseball diamond cakes and picked a recipe from my constant culinary companion, the Joy of Cooking (Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake; it pains me to even write that because mayonnaise grosses me out, but it turned out amazing). I'm melting the chocolate and folding in this, whisking that, and I remember that I don't have any green dye, which is made of gnarly chemicals anyway. A Google search leads me to boiling and pureeing spinach to emulate green food coloring, which I then blended with whipped cream cheese frosting. I'm Better Crocker of the Pacific Northwest.

The dirt is made of crushed graham crackers and the bases are cut up marshmallows. Since we only have a rectangular cake pan, there's a substantial right field and no left field. Compared to our team players, the infield is rather small. And the groundskeeper would not approve of my frosting job. It isn't exactly what I envisioned, but who cares, it's a delicious Opening Day Cake!

I was pretty excited to surprise Dave when he got home from work, and he liked it. We dug in.

Fore!

Spring is here. At least it is this week, and I'm gonna get it while it's good. Here's a drawing I did for Dave. Little known fact: I played on my high school girls' golf team. I wasn't really good, but now I know the rules of the game.

The Magical Job Cauldron

As many of you know, Dave and I are planning to move back to the Northeast within the next few months. That's our goal, but we are reluctant to move without jobs (or one job) lined up. We are both hitting the hunt hard, networking our tails off from across the country, and I've redesigned my web site and developed some promotional material to shop around.

The last time I looked for a job was 2006, when the market was a bit more robust. It took me six months. Granted, I was trying to get into urban planning, a field that I had no experience in, and again, from across the country. I hustled my little butt off until I found one company that thought I had some chops and promise, and I've worked for them, happily, ever since.

I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but today's job market is fierce. I might even say it blows. By one report, at least five equally qualified candidates apply for every job listed. So my strategy is to proactively pursue like-minded companies, regardless of open positions advertised, in the hopes that they'll remember me when a job pops up. Crafting sincere and informed cover letters, tweaking my resume, and researching each firm takes a decent amount of time. And waiting for a response (or no response) can be agonizing.

So to counter the time consuming, dogged process, I've immersed myself in the fantasy world of Harry Potter! Yes, I know I'm about 12 years late to the party, but I finally decided to jump on the Hogwarts Express. I've flown through the first two books and am onto the third.

In my fantasy my job hunt is magical. Potential employers hang up on me when I call to follow up? Let me tap my wand and make them burp ladybugs. Professional contacts dump my qualifications in the recycle bin? Let me add some unicorn fur to my cauldron and turn the contents of that bin into slimy sludge. Actually for every three people who don't respond there is someone who answers their phone or pushes my resume through. And for them I am forever grateful. I'll let them borrow my invisibility cloak or time travel cloak, whichever they prefer.

Sometimes you feel like a nut

Ah sweet, sweet Saturday. I've got an Americano in hand (lukewarm now, but it was good), I worked out, and we've got some fun plans with friends on the docket. I think Saturday morning is my favorite time of the week.

We had a major breakthrough recently on the whole Edie-eczema-food allergy front. After Christmas I did an ellimination diet where I cut out wheat, dairy, soy, and corn for two weeks. If you've looked at the label of anything packaged there's a 90% chance it includes one or more of those ingredients. So I basically cut out all processed food and went back to nature to try to pinpoint why Edie's skin was so irritated, especially after she ate.

At this point she was on a primarily milk diet; whatever I eat is passed on to her. I wasn't feeding her anything packaged. The horror! I considered her my junk-food-ometer. If I ate crap, she was going to pay the price, so I stuck to fruits, veggies, meat, and nuts. Lots of nuts....

Fast forward to late February, and her skin is still red and itchy, she's uncomfortable despite my non-wheat and dairy diet, and I'm also uncomfortable due to my lack of yogurt, cheese, and English Muffins. We know it's something in addition to- or other than- wheat and dairy, but we are overwhelmed with all the potential aggrevators ("Maybe it's dog hair....or non-dairy sorbet, or the stuffing in our couch!").

So Dave makes an appointment with an allergist. One allergy test and an hour later, and we have a new culprit- peanuts! And maybe other tree nuts! Whoa. This is, in a way, good news. It's way easier to cut out nuts. They're not so ubiquitous. Edie's daycare is already nut-free (which is crazy to me, don't kids eat PB and Js like it's going out of style?) And yes, I WAS snacking on nuts and cooking with almond milk since I thought dairy was off limits. Sorry, girl.

Her skin is a lot better now; not perfect but leaps and bounds better, and she even seems happier now that I'm not loading up on nut-products.

My Smart & Motivated Friends Part II: Recycling Round Up

We met Casey and Joseph through our good friends Julie and Chris. Casey and Joseph used to divide their time between their West Seattle home and properties in Winthrop, WA. When we met, they worked all week in the city, then trekked over the Cascades on the weekends, where their dog Meg (aka "Nutmeg") roamed free and they played frisbee golf on the 18 hole course that they designed and built. After one weekend throwin the 'bee and cooking 'dogs on the grill, we were fast friends.

Last year the boys sold their Seattle home and relocated to Winthrop, where their hearts were set. Winthrop is a scenic destination in Methow Valley, rich with cross-country skiing trails, fishing spots, and other outdoorsy activities. The hotbed of industry it is not. In order to justify the move, they had to figure out how to pay the bills. It just so happened they also wanted to contribute something valuable to the community.
Like other small Western towns, the region is served by a processing center where citizens can bring their own recycling. Since many residents live there by choice, the community has historically cared for their environment. If your favorite thing to do is fish in the river, you have a vested interest in keeping that river healthy. So the people were driving their cans, bottles, and newspapers weekly to Methow Recycles.

Enter Casey and Joseph, who identified a need for more comprehensive recycling services for residents, businesses, and visitors. Established in 2010, Recycling Roundup picks up curb-side, helps distribute the center's commodities (i.e. recycling bins), and provides the center with a predictable revenue stream. Casey claims Methow Recycles is a dream to work with. They don't run on tax dollars, but rather are sustained by good business sense and a passionate community.
Although the center runs a model rural program, they still haven't wrangled the management of organic waste (get it- Wrangle? Roundup? Yeah.) Together with Joseph's alma mater Seattle University, and other community stakeholders, Recycling Roundup is developing a program that taps into the collective knowledge of MBA students and undergrads to successfully reuse agricultural bi-products, forest waste and food waste.

Not bad for a couple of city mice who wanted to make it in the country. If you don't live in Winthrop, and can't support Recycling Roundup firsthand, do us a favor and throw some old magazines or beer bottles in your recycling bin, and be happy it's that easy. You can also like them on Facebook by clicking here.

Wish you were here

One day when I've got Seattle in our rearview mirror, I will not think of my time here as lonely. But the truth is, some days are. Seattle's not to blame; there's been moments or stretches of loneliness in every city, at every age. There's something about cold winter days, being stuck inside, living on a budget, that makes days seem a little long. All I want to do is drink coffee and watch movies, but Edie does not think that's a good way to spend our day.

Loneliness can lead to productivity, or it can lead to wasting time on the internet, or to cleaning house, or cooking, or writing that email I've been meaning to write. Some days I wish I lived near my mom or sister or Michelle. Most of my friends I make plans with ahead of time. I don't just swing by their house and watch t.v. We plan events. With my family ladies, I could drop by unannounced with my baby, sit at the kitchen table talking and drinking coffee, chopping carrots to make chicken pot pie for dinner. That is what I want to do today.

This afternoon Edie and I sat at our front window, watching people walk by and crows pick around our yard. Edie talked to the birds and made confetti out of Kleenex. Dave will be home soon, and I might convince him to treat me to a lamb burger and glass of red wine at Eva. And I rented Stand by Me. Sounds like a suitable, wintery Saturday night date.

My Smart and Motivated Friends Part I: Clean Livin'

One morning this winter I was washing dishes or sweeping the floor, immersed in some passive activity, thinking of how proud I am to have friends who are organic farmers, recycling-business owners, and environmentalists. I have friends who do honorable things with their time and energy, and want to shed light on their endeavors.


Let me introduce you to Rachel. Like me, she's an East Coast transplant who settled here with her husband and 3-year old daughter. I met Rachel through a former colleague of my sister. Years back when I was moving cross-country, he passed on Rachel's number and told me to look her up. We hit it off after a few hip-hop classes with a teacher named Dax, and the rest is history.

Always a green gal, Rachel began volunteering for the Washington Toxics Coalition to satisfy her interest in toxics such as pesticides and mold. To be honest, I've always been annoyed when asked to take my shoes off in my friends' homes. They're part of my outfit, okay? Well, there's a ton of chemicals on our streets and sidewalks, and those chemicals swell whenever it rains and carries runoff. You wear shoes in your house, you track all that junk inside. If you have kids who play on the floor, you expose them to lead and other surprises from our periodic table. So now I get it. We take off our shoes.
"Come in! And take off your shoes, fools".

Rachel has applied her knowledge of green living to create a consulting company, Healthy Home Focus. She also got certified by the American Lung Association to assess families' homes and advise on improving air quality (think asthma due to mold spores).

Tonight I was dealing with a slow tub train, and reached for the Drano. While reading the directions, the label essentially said if you hold this product too long it'll make your eyeballs bleed and burn your skin off. I couldn't bring myself to use it, so I turned to Healthy Home Resources to see what Rachel would do. Here's the green prescription: 1/2 cup of baking soda, followed by 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Cover, let sit for 5 minutes, then flush with a pot of boiling water.

I did the whole thing twice- and it worked! And now we're not going to die with Xs over our eyes from poisonous gases. Hooray for Healthy Home Resources! And stay tuned for Part II of this series...