boo!

it is not halloween yet, but autumn is in full swing around here. probably the most photogenic time of year. i made cosmo this witch hand puppet, and while it may look like the felted wool head was the hardest part, it was not. my first two attempts at the body (the part where the hand goes), failed miserably. i'd made it out of prefab craft-felt sheets, with some cute hand stitching. the first one was just too tiny for my hand, and cosmo couldn't get it to work either. so, i made another just like it, only bigger, and it was incredibly awkward (almost painful) to get it to move in a remotely life-like way. after looking around online for some images of puppets, i decided to scrap the felt-hand-stitched style altogether, and pattern the body off of my hand, in "puppet position." the shape is funny, but it works great. i think i want to replace the cape material with some black toule, but i didn't have any on hand. most importantly, cosmo enjoys visiting with her.



we took cosmo to this bizarre place on the edge of town called the haunted train. we didn't want to take him to a haunted house because his relationship to "scary" is quite unpredictable these days. but we'd driven by this place, and it looked like something we had to check out. turns out, it is a train museum, open year round, and they have a haunted house on weekend nights in october. so we just drove out there on a sunday afternoon, met the owner, and wondered around. one could imagine how terrifying this place would be at night, with a sound track and some black lights, but in broad day light, it was just strange.



it felt like being backstage at the magic show, with all the secrets revealed. cosmo would walk by a "zombie" in a coffin and he'd say "oh, that's SCARY, too" but was clearly not scared. and he'd ask questions like "why all those babies in that water? why that water's red?" reasonable questions, if you ask me.



our next door neighbors have a rope swing, made all the more fun with a pile of leaves to fall into:





lastly, i got the bright idea to make cosmo a mudhole to play in before it gets too cold. the morning i went out to dig it, he was so excited, he got into it in his pajamas!

poverty (blog action day)

today is blog action day. the topic is poverty. i was thinking about how the presidential candidates never talk about it. throughout this whole economic crisis, the media, the candidates, the analysts and the pundits speak only of wall street and main street; the fat cats and the middle class. there are only two classes in america: the super rich, and working families. i've hardly heard any coverage of how the housing foreclosures are effecting people who rent. while i consider our little family to be quite privileged (in so many ways), we don't own a home, or a small business, we aren't shareholder's, CEOs or even investors (other than some tiny 401K-type accounts). we are not poor, and yet i rarely even hear the realities of our lives represented in the media.

i've always been amazed at how most of us believe we are middle class, even if we are working class, upper class, very wealthy, or poor. americans have a sketchy understanding of class distinctions. we are made to feel that we're all middle class, or that we live in a classless society.

and, let's face it, the poor, the growing numbers of people actually living in poverty in america, are powerless. if you don't have money to contribute to a campaign, if you are too busy finding tonight's dinner to find out when the last day to register to vote is, or, if you don't have an address to register from, or, if you lost your id, and can't find transportation to the DMV to get a new one, or, your birth certificate got lost in the shuffle the last time you were evicted from your apartment--- you don't count-- you do not have a voice. if poor people mattered, post-katrina, lower 9th ward, new orleans would be a thriving community on the mend right now.

that's why it is so heartening to learn about geoffrey canada, and the harlem children's zone. If you have not already heard about it, it is a comprehensive program designed to lift a generation, in one community, out of poverty. the focus is on the children, from birth THROUGH college. i recently heard a piece about it on NPR, and then i heard a story on this american life, and i was so moved by the insight, determination, and seriousness of this man's work. when i went looking around online, i saw that he'd appeared on oprah, and that barak obama even talked about him in a speech (and yes, he did use the word poverty). there's a new book out about him, and he's getting a lot of attention.



one of the things he said in (i think) the NPR interview, is that he himself rose from poverty to the middle class, and was living in the suburbs raising kids. when he observed the kinds of things that middle class people did for and with their kids, he realized that the most important things really had very little to do with money. things like reading to your children, creating a language rich environment and encouraging your children instead of tearing them down verbally, and expecting them to fail.



he believed that he could change the lives of children in poor communities, by nurturing and educating parents, and providing families with what they need to raise healthy, smart, successful, happy children. in a way it sounds like "duh!" but at the same time, we recognize how impossible that goal really sounds.

i encourage you to check out some of the media that is out there on canada and his work, including this book:


it is a fascinating story, and it may inspire me to get off my ass and actually do something, instead of cowering in despair and hopelessness, as i have done for so much of my life.

shake shake...thud thud

the hoosier hotcakes (mentioned in the previous post) perform a number at the farmer's market called "way down yonder in the pawpaw patch." ever since we moved to indiana, we have wondered about pawpaws. maggie, who teaches cosmo's music class, told us they were yummy, and one of the first solid foods she offered to her baby. she recently hooked us up with a friend who knows where to find them. they are a native fruit, they mostly grow wild, and in clumps (or patches) of trees in the woods. after trying a few from a vendor at the farmer's market, we were intrigued, and wanted to gather some ourselves. we met andy at the park, and followed him out to lake monroe, where we met another family, and headed into the woods. when we came upon the first trees, andy shook their slender trunks, and we heard a couple of thuds. cosmo helped us find the yellowish-green, mango-shaped fruits scattered on the forest floor. they stood out like sore thumbs in all that brown, and remained, for the most part, intact. they fall easily off the tree when they are ripe, so this is typically how one harvests pawpaws.

we took home a sack-full, but were unsure about what to do with them. a pawpaw is very much like a tropical fruit. it is something between a mango and a banana, in both texture, and flavor, with a slightly astringent edge to it, especially near the peel. the seeds remind me most of loquats, and you'll find several of them in each fruit. carl loves them raw. i am a bit less enthused, because i suspect they give me a tummy ache. we made some cookies from a recipe we found online. the night we made them, i thought they were delicious, and ate way too many. my stomach hurt later that night, so maybe the key here is moderation. andy had made a bunch of fruit leather out of them. i tried it, and liked it a lot, but i don't have a dehydrator, and though i had some success with peach leather this summer, i think it would be easier if made in a proper dehydrator. i recently tried to dry some tomatoes in our shed, but it hasn't been hot enough lately, and most of them developed spots of mold before they dried thoroughly.

while the cookies were pretty good, they didn't keep well, and it seems to us that pawpaws are best if you use them uncooked. carl wanted to try ice cream, so we borrowed shawna's ice cream maker and used a recipe we found online. you basically make a regular ice cream custard, as if you were just making vanilla, then before you freeze it you add some cold cream and the pawpaw pulp (which is just the fruit run through the food mill--rather awkwardly since the seeds are so large) and pour it into the ice cream maker.

the results were fantastic.

now we know what to do with pawpaws.

carl has also been really excited about persimmons, which grow wild around here as well. they are nothing like the enormous, bright orange fuji ones that you can sometimes find in grocery stores. these are small, round and taste as though the spices have already been added. seriously, they smell and taste of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. but they do have a bitter bite to them, around the skin, especially if they are not quite ripe.

last year we just ate a few off the tree across the street, and cosmo would eat them whole--seeds and all. we attempted to make a pudding, but we didn't have a food mill at that time, and i think too much of the astringent peel got into the pulp, and it made my mouth pucker. this year, with the food mill, and plenty of fruit from the neighborhood, and malke's backyard, there's no end to what we can do with persimmons. especially since we found the book fading feast, which dedicates a chapter to the discussion of the town of gnaw bone, indiana, and the persimmon treats found there (we recently visited, and tried the cake-like pudding from the sorghum mill trading post). the book features several persimmon recipes, including an incredible tea cake that carl made last week. he is presently baking a second loaf, the aroma is wafting in from the kitchen.
gotta run, i hear the oven door opening.


indiana autumn delight: persimmon tea cake with pawpaw ice cream.

visititresistitadmititlistentoit

in answer to a call from MEP at not to brag, here is my post

visit it:
youtube. look at postings on youtube of vintage (1970's) sesame street segments. cosmo is really obsessed with marble mazes these days. he likes to make them out of household objects like tubes, spoons, old copper pipe fittings, cardboard, etc. and he recently spotted a new roller coaster type at a goodwill, which we've been setting up daily. he enjoys playing with them, and watching them on youtube.



we found videos of some really elaborate constructions, but usually they are not of the highest quality, filmicly, and can be difficult for a little one to follow. but those old counting pinball animations from sesame street not only fit the bill for exciting ball runs, they have a deliciously funky soundtrack, sure to please the adults too. i was thrilled to find "lady bug picnic" on there too.

resist it:
the toy museum in zionsville (indianapolis suburb). it sounds great (antique carousel, bumper cars etc.), but like so many privately owned and operated, small town museums, it's a rip-off. first of all, the website indicated that kids under 4 were admitted free. not so. they claim they've been trying to get that changed online, but still make you pay. after you pay your entrance fee, you are led downstairs, to the place with all the coin-op, ride-on toys--the kind you sometimes see in malls, used to find them outside of grocery stores. they have a large, windowless room filled with them, and they cost fifty cents per ride.



cosmo was excited about them, and we spent a couple of bucks riding them, but what's really strange is the environment. there's nobody else down there. so you feel like you are just playing around in someone's private collection, which is, of course, what you are doing. one ride on the bumper cars is included with the admission, so we tried them. but again, with no one else to bump into, what's the point? cosmo asked to get off after about 45 seconds. i cannot put my finger on why it felt almost creepy to be down there (with only the old guy who operates the bumper cars), putting coins into slots and watching cosmo go sort-of-up-and-down, sort-of-back-and-forth on a fiberglass dinosaur. it was sad, really. it felt like we were TRYING to have fun. trying too hard maybe? we took an elevator up two floors to a room with a carousel, and an arrangement of vitrines filled with antique toys. the toy collection was amazing. but who wants to look at a bunch of precious playthings that you can't play with? cosmo got frustrated when we came across some marbles and marble games. he didn't understand why he couldn't get them out.


the girl on the right, on the box looks as though she is threatening to harm herself if she can't have this toy mixer.

we did ride the merry-go-round (as they called it), which was pretty fun. i took a bunch of pictures. when i tried to climb on the pig, i was told there was a weight limit. oops. could've mentioned that before i made an ass of myself.


the guy that worked there was also annoying. he assumed cosmo's favorite things were disney characters. cosmo doesn't know anything about disney characters. they had this weird talking tree which spewed all kinds of nonsense, and was hooked up to an erratic motion sensor. cosmo was enchanted by it. i was mesmerized by this turn-of-the-century relic:



the only redeeming thing about the place was the ice cream parlor. they had a jukebox with miniature animatron figurines of jazz musicians playing at a night club. we both enjoyed that, and played it over and over (again, with the quarters!) somehow, eating ice cream all alone, and listening to fifties pop songs wasn't as disturbing as the rest of our experience at the toy museum.
take my advise, if you're in the area, skip it.




admit it:
i have a junk collecting addiction. i experience bouts of anxiety if i ride my bike past a pile of stuff someone has put out by the side of the road. i make a mental note to come back with the car, to sift through it (it's difficult to carry a wooden chair while riding a bike, but i have done it). sometimes i get distracted, and don't make it back before someone else has taken all the good stuff. i feel compelled to stop at yard sales, and i dislike going with carl. he has no patience for the kind of browsing i like to do, and might pass judgment on what i deem suitable to take home with us. in fact, i don't like to go with anyone. yard sale shopping puts me in a sort of trance-like state. it is a semi-systematic looking and touching of almost every item there.
i've found some great things too. in dumpsters, on the roadside, yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores. in fact, most of my favorite and most useful possessions came to me second hand. but i have begun to recognize that i am unreasonable, and a little out of control with it. perhaps i need to establish some rules. a couple of months ago, i asked carl to stop the car, and i hopped out and threw some boards in the trunk. he asked what i was going to use them for. i said, "i have some ideas, but in general, if you see solid wood by the side of the road, you should not pass it up. on the other hand, if you see particle board, or anything made from it, you should definitely not stop." i think that's a good rule to start with.


cold frame made almost exclusively from salvaged materials

listen to it:
oneida. i'm not talking about the flatware company, or the indian tribe. i won some tickets from the college radio station (WIUX) to go see this band at the bluebird. we had a great time, and became solid fans. i'm not sure if many readers of this blog would like it, and i am no good at describing sounds, or putting music into genres, so check it out for yourself.
we've also been listening to a lot of children's music. current favorites include hoosier hotcakes (who we see live every saturday at the market) and elizabeth mitchell. there's some lovely songs on her cd "you're my little bird."

visititresistitadmititlistentoit is not a meme, but i challenge my fellow bloggers to give it a try.

windy indy

the remnants of ike swept through here on sunday. the high winds knocked down a lot of trees, and big branches, resulting in hundreds of thousands of power outages throughout the state. ours went out at around 1pm sunday, and just now came back on (tuesday). our entire city was not flooded, or otherwise in utter chaos like galveston, or houston, where so many of our dearest friends live. we felt extremely lucky. shawna had some freezer space for our frozen summer harvest (her power was on), and that was really all i was worried about. otherwise, it was just a slight inconvenience.



we had some fun doing bedtime stories by candlelight, and outdoor shaving for carl (the bathroom was really dark). we spent a lot of time explaining to cosmo what it meant to have the power off. he'd ask to listen to a cd, or look at marble mazes on youtube, and we'd say, "no cosmo, the power is out, so those things don't work. anything that plugs-in doesn't work. try turning on the TV." he'd go press the button on the TV, and it wouldn't come on. then i suggested he try his piano, to see if it still worked. he ran over and plunked a few keys, and his face lit up with delight. later, he got out his marbles, and i heard him say "yep. the marbles still roll."



we saw the crews show up to deal with the downed line on our block, so we walked over to watch. i pointed out where all the lines went to the houses from the main line that was out. when we got to our house, cosmo traced our line, and our next door neighbor's. lessons in infrastructure.

best and worst

the best thing about making grape jelly (from concord grapes we picked from a fence row in our neighborhood), is actually the grape juice that was left over. unsweetened concord grape juice is really delicious. add a little fizzy water, and ya got grape soda!


the worst thing about making grape jelly is when a whole batch doesn't set. it was the low sugar batch, which was doubly disappointing. the full sugar batch was so sweet, it seemed to take away from the wonderful, fresh grape flavor. i'm not even a fan of jelly, generally. it just seemed the thing to do with a bunch of grapes. if i'd thought of it, we could have just made juice, and canned that. next year.



we followed the instruction on the pectin box precisely, so we have no idea what went wrong. i think sometimes it just doesn't work. there is a chance we may reprocess the batch that didn't quite set (though it looks better today than it did when we first made it). we have instructions for re-doing batches that don't set. if it were jam, i wouldn't care. blueberry sauce is great on waffles or ice cream. but runny, un-jelled jelly? what are you supposed to do with that? i think the answer is: re-process it.

cosmo sez...

cosmo: turn over your back, i give you a little backscratch.
mama: ok, thanks cosmo.
cosmo: (scratching my back) i'm a woman.
mama: why are you a woman?
cosmo: i like to be a woman. it's tuesday (it actually was tuesday).
---
this next one is a rather common request:

"i wanna lie down on your boob--i wanna lie down on your breast.
no, the other second breast!"
---
from a while ago:

"sometimes, i get bummed"

from a couple of days ago:

"C-O-S-M-O, cosmo. i wanna write my name!"
below is his attempt (i helped him with the "s" he did the rest on his own).




and then he made this drawing of himself and nani at the pool and the sun (this is a detail).

bringin' home the bronze

i didn't watch much of the olympics this time. i never do. but this year, i had an excuse. i was perfecting my salsa recipe. when we canned our first batch of salsa, i thought i might enter it in the annual salsa contest at the farmer's market (sponsored by our local co-op). just for fun. i'd never really made salsa before, other than a spontaneous pico de gallo now and then. so i had no idea how mine would compare. it was tasty, but nothing special. but i picked up a packet at the co-op anyway. when i read the instructions i discovered that home canning was not allowed. all salsas had to be prepared the day they were turned in for judging. so, i had to make a new batch. i was disappointed in our first effort, and the green salsa we made next, because no matter how many hot chiles we put in, the salsa still ranked a medium in terms of heat. our fingers were burning for days from handling chiles such as serranos and "the little worm," from our neighbor jack's garden, and cayennes from curtis at the farmer's market. the kitchen was filled with eye scorching steam, but the finished salsa was still medium.



i became determined to make a salsa with some serious heat this time. so, i got a pint basket of scotch bonnets, similar to habaneros, and two green ones from the chile woman's stall labeled "the hottest," plus a bunch of long yellow ones knows as "hot wax" and one "mr. purple" from our garden. i put them into the food processor, seeds and all, and chopped them finely. i added them towards the end of the cooking, along with the cilantro and fresh garlic. THIS salsa had some fire to it. it still had a nice flavor though--it didn't completely burn and numb the taste buds. i named it "bee in yr bonnet," due to the overwhelming number of scotch bonnet chiles, and the two squirts of honey. i transcribed the recipe, filled the provided containers, and took it down to bloomingfoods. the rest we canned later that night.



the salsa contest includes three categories: cooked, tomato based, raw, tomato based and specialty (non-tomato based). i was in the cooked, tomato based group. there were around 20 other entries. on the day of the contest, at the farmer's market, they had samples of all the entries for tasting, while supplies lasted. there were some yummy salsas. i couldn't really tell how mine ranked. it seemed rather simple compared to most, but one of the hottest. when they were announcing the winners, i was shocked to hear my name called for third place in the cooked salsas! i seriously did not expect to place, i did it for the fun of participating in a community, food related, event. carl was so proud of me and it really made my day. the prize was a gift bag of various items donated from local businesses, including a book called the farmer's market book, published last year, all about bloomington's beloved saturday market. it's a book i've wanted, but probably would not have shelled out the cash for. the perfect prize.

you can see my recipe, and the other winners here