Cast Iron Kitchen

Shutting down...

2011-06-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to be posting here anymore. My darling husband, T, has gotten my my own server space and my own domain name. I will now be posting my life story at Bikes, The Universe and Everything:

If the link doesn't work, cut and paste this:

http://bikestheuniverseandeverything.com/

Thanks for stopping by.

Erin

Wedding bands

2011-06-06T21:27:00.001-05:00

My wedding band and T's have gone into the safety deposit box for the summer. I didn't trust Toddler girls not to eat/flush/hide it. T's been worried about his since he started taking the engine apart on the tractor. So they both went someplace safe.

Interesting, my hands are enough smaller than his that our wedding rings nest:

There is something kind of ... romantic about that.

The down side of Gardening

2011-06-06T10:28:00.001-05:00

I am building muscle mass lifting all those pavers and shoveling all that dirt. It has caused a huge problem for me. You see, I am bulking up in my hands. My wedding ring no longer fits!

Since I got married my wedding band has come off when I wash my hands or bake bread, but only ever for a few minutes. I had it off for a week before Toddler girl was born. I didn't want to, but I bowed to peer pressure. Everyone told me my hands would swell either with late pregnancy or labour and I would need it cut off. So I wore it on a chain around my neck. I wanted to put it back on right after she was born, but the nurses talked me out of it. It tried it on, it still fit, but I didn't go back to wearing it until 24 hours after she was born.

It has been feeling snug for a few days, but last night it was starting to hurt. I had to soak in cold water and use soap to get it off.

Then, afterwards when I was massaging my hand I noticed this:

That isn't just my skin bunching, that's my finger muscles bulging.

I think it's good that I am getting more muscle mass.... I just wish it would have been somewhere that wouldn't interfere with my wedding band. I feel even worse about this because I was as fond of my engagement ring. Then a couple of weeks before Christmas, the Aquamarine (we couldn't afford a diamond) fell out of the setting. Due to excessive home repairs (and, let's be fair, my new bicycle habit) taking all our extra money, I haven't gotten it replaced.

It wasn't a priority. I still had my wedding band. I had always felt nervous about wearing my engagement ring to work. It was pretty, but had lots of places for bacteria to grow. Working in a lab, you become more aware of that.

Now.... it just feels wrong to have a naked hand. I don't know why this bothers me so much but it does. I'm blogging at my kitchen table with Madeline playing in the background and tears in my eyes.

If I had $1,000,00.00

2011-06-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

If I had unlimited budget to build a custom bike, I would want one that fit like Claire. I would have my builder start with her as a blueprint and then make her more pretty. A more graceful looped top tube or a swan frame. Prettier lugs.

Then I would steam punk that baby out. Cooper plate on the tubes, brass coated lugs. An reproduction antique front light that was secretly powered by a dynamo hub and LEDs. Brass plated fenders and chain guard with an ornate pattern cut out. Leather saddle and handle bar grips. I would want to find a way to put cream Fat Franks on it. I would want wicker panniers. I would have a bike that was beautiful to look at, but still had that wonderful ride quality that is so Claire.

And I would be afraid to ride it anywhere in case it got stolen.

But all that stuff is just appearances. I have no complaints about how Claire fits or rides or handles. At some point I may have to have her dismantled and sent away for professional powder coating, since the paint isn't as hardy. But that isn't going to change how she handles.

I really enjoy riding that bike and she is perfectly matched for riding with T.

The Nishiki on the other hand..... is fine. I only use about three of the speeds when it is just me, but when I have the toddler trailer or the panniers loaded, I need the extra ones. I just don't know enough about road bikes to know if I could do better. Or to use it to its full potential. None the less it fits comfortably and I feel like I can go fast on it.

Either way, I have bicycle contentment.

AB's fried chicken

2011-06-03T09:39:00.001-05:00

Just go check out the recipe. It isn't everyday food (because you won't want to have to wash THAT many dishes everyday) but it is a good special treat.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/fried-chicken-recipe/index.html

It's could use a little less salt, but don't go crazy it still needs more than half what is listed. And you CAN NOT use regular salt, it has to be kosher or things just go bad....

They list the Total Time as 40 minutes, but they forgot the 30 minutes of two people frantically washing dishes at the end...

One of those days

2011-06-02T17:22:00.000-05:00

This morning my laptop battery failed. It had been going for sometime, but this morning (after charging all night) my battery charge didn't even last long enough for me to check my email. It's blustery and gross out so I drove T to work. Toddler girl stayed home with my mom who is visiting.

On my way to the campus computer store to buy a replacement battery, I saw this:

That's the Raleigh I had before I married T and he bought me the ill fated Giant. It made me feel sad. The chain is off, the saddle is torn and the fender reflector I had personally custom built for it is bent. I also learned that it was a Colt. So really the bike I have now is a better fit, but it made me a little sad that she isn't being treated as well I she was when I had her. On the other hand, she is locked up with two locks. I'm not sure what to think.

I may go back tomorrow (yes, I'm a bike stalker) and see if she is still there.

When I came home, I got Ellie and we went grocery shopping. To Costco. I hate that store. Don't get me wrong, it helps our budget to be able to buy in bulk, but the crowds make me ... grumpy.

When I came home I found the basement toilet had overflowed a bit. A quick go with the plunger solved the problem but it was still a really yucky clean up. And trying to keep Toddlers from helping is such a problem.

We had eggs and temper tantrums for lunch.

Then I broke down and we watched TV for an hour just to calm down.

After that I unloaded and started to place the 100 lbs each pavers. T bought another seven from a different store since the one we had been shopping at is sold out. They look a little different, which doesn't matter, but they are also half an inch shorter on each side. That matters.

On the long sides of the rows of pavers, I can sort of fake it and it looks OK. On the short side, it leaves a one inch gap that is a tripping hazard. To solve this problem I had to pull up four of the pavers I had already laid and replace them with the smaller ones. Those seven 100 lbs pavers was actually moving eleven 100lbs pavers.

I am exhausted. Here is an updated garden shot.

Garden Update

2011-05-30T17:46:00.000-05:00

Well, that's one done and three to go! The eventual plan is four of these planters in a square with concrete pavers running between them. I'm laying the pavers so that the short side is always against the garden bed so that all the pathways between them will be 30 inches instead of 24 inches.

While the electrician was here, I got another 3 pavers (at 100 lbs each) down and moved 1/2 yard of dirt from the front to the garden bed. Then I moved the garden bed that was temporarily holding the dirt to the back so it can be stained.

T is out getting me another 1/2 yard of sand. I kind of hope we can rush to unload it and run to get some more pavers before everything closes tonight. I got a lot done in Toddler girl's two hour nap. I could get more done tomorrow too.

I'm not sure if I will need another 1/2 yard of sand after this one, but I know that I will need about 50 pavers before I am done. After moving 5000 lbs of concrete, I hope to be buff. That's not why I'm doing this, but there have to be some benefits to being so stiff and tired I can hardly move.

It's funny how the days you can least afford to go out to a restaurant are the days you most need someone else to cook dinner. I don't know what 2 hours of electrician time runs these days, but I would bet it's a lot. Fortunately, my extended family is taking are of us. Blog commentator and Auntie extraordinaire, Lorene, is going to feed us tonight. I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate that!

A Funny thing happened

2011-05-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

I was planning on posting about biking by consent today. I had the whole post planned out in my mind. Then a funny thing happened and I find myself blogging about the joys of living in an older home.

I love my older home. The floor plan is well thought out in a way I haven't seen in newer places. I love that it was built in a time where we didn't care about harvesting old growth forests and the 2x4 construction (which is ACTUALLY 2x4 not the new 2x4s that are now about 1 3/4 x 3 3/4) is so solid that you have to pre drill your nails holes when going into a stud. Really, I can't even use my drill, we have to break out T's uber drill.

I love the older trees in the neighbourhood, even if we only have one old giant cedar in our yard. The rest of our trees have died since we moved in 2003. The birch in the front got a disease. The two pine trees had wind damage and were threatening the house and the weird shelter belt someone had planted in the backyard was just... wrong. Since the big cull, we have planted a bunch of fruit trees. They are still seedlings, but we have three dwarf sour cherry and two dwarf apple.

There are lots of parks, schools and amenities within walking distance. It is a really nice house in a nice neighbourhood. I would encourage anyone to buy and older home and stop urban sprawl.

However, it has some quirks. The big one is that at some point some one had done some home brew wiring. We have had most of the house redone. Except the storage part of the basement. Now the out door outlets are not working and neither is the back porch light. They have been fine since we moved in and none of the breakers in our newly updated breaker box have tripped.

Time to call an electrician.

We have one we like. We have had one we didn't like before we found this one.

It just seems like we are being hit with home repairs we shouldn't have to worry about lately.

Ah, the joys of home ownership.

More Garden

2011-05-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

I am stiff. I unloaded the trees at the brush dump then bought and unloaded a half yard of sand today. I also planted five bags of bulbs and laid about 700lbs of concrete pavers. Then I went to work.

More garden pictures when the sun comes up....

The plan for tomorrow is to place the first raised bed and fill it with soil, then stain the next raised bed. I also have five more pavers to lay. OK, I have 30 more to lay, but I have 5 ready to go. I will have to be strategic about how I place them since I can't buy anymore until Monday and I want to get as much as possible done tomorrow.

At some point I am going to have to move a rhubarb plant and some irises and excavate some more. Plus it looks like I will need another half yard of sand.

Our lilacs still haven't bloomed. I will let you know as soon as they do.

My seedlings are looking sad. They are ready to move out of the cramped pots and into the garden. I am definitely on a deadline here.

Garden

2011-05-27T10:01:00.001-05:00

I have run out of Flickr space on my free account, so you will have to just be aware that some of the pictures on this blog may start to break. At some point, when I have the bikes paid off and the home repairs paid for and when I own more than 2 pairs of pants, I plan to buy a pro account. But that won't be for a while.

Now that the explanation is over, let's talk gardening.

I like gardening. The food I grow tastes better and costs less than anything I could buy in a store. My garden is in the front yard because that is the south side of the house. This year we are trying to spruce it up a little and make it more T accessible. We are building four raised garden beds so that he can sit in a chair to help, if he wants too. There will be those large concrete pavers between the beds.

For now we have dirt. Here is a picture of our dirt:

The first thing I needed to do was move the existing topsoil out of the way. To keep this project from getting out of hand, I built the raised beds and I'm storing the soil in them:

Then I need to rototill the space where the garden will be and rake it flat:

Then bring in two loads of sand and rake that flat to be the base the pavers will sit on. So far I have the first load unloaded, but not raked flat.

Since that was all I could do yesterday, I decided to prune our cedar. You can see it in the top picture. Once I started shaping it, I found it was infested with ants. I googled ants in cedar and found that my ants look just like carpenter ants.

The cedar is right next to our neighbours rotting carport and next to our old wooden fence that is touching our wood siding. Eep.

So I aggressively pruned the cedar and also the Mountain ash that had ants too.

Here is a picture of what is left:

For now gardening is on hold. T has to haul away the tree and pick up another load of sand. I'm working today, tomorrow and Sunday, so no blogging or gardening until Monday or Tuesday.

I need to rush this project though, otherwise I will miss the narrow grow season we have.

The thing I like about biking

2011-05-26T09:03:00.001-05:00

The thing I like about biking is that when I am biking I am thinking about biking. I am keeping track of traffic and Toddler girl. I am concentrating on shifting, especially on the Nishiki where I'm not that comfortable with all 21 gears yet. I am watching for hazards and animals and people getting out of cars or running across the street.

I get a nice buzz from the exercise, but I also like biking because it gives me something to think about instead of having anxiety about how I'm going to pay the bills and how much that unexpected furnace repair is going to cost. (It was $84, if you are interested).

I get to really concentrate on the now.

Since we are getting to the end of the month, let's do a big bike sum up:

Amount spent on bikes this month : about $360 which includes the Nishiki, a new saddle, some odds and ends to make it and Claire go and a new basket so I can carry stuff while I'm getting there. This doesn't include the wacky break even trading done to swap Victoria for Claire because it was wacky but more importantly, break even.

Amount saved on gas this month: about $67. This is hard to calculate. Every month I buy $200 in Gas cards on pay day before the money gets spend on other things. Sometimes (rarely) we have a little left over at the end of the month. Mostly, I run out of gas money before I run out of month. This month, despite record high gas prices, I have $67 dollars left on the card and my car has a full gas tank.

It is going to take a long time to break even. Especially since Claire really needs new tires and rims that will actually let her stop. She came with the original chrome steel rims that are notorious for making it hard to break. I have stuff on order at the Bike Doctor, but.... That's going to easily be another $200. For now, the Nishiki and the parts are riding around on my credit card. When the new tires come in, they might have to join the "living on credit party."

I hate doing that. At the rate of gas savings, I won't break even before the snow falls. I know that as a long term thing, this will be good. I know that biking is good for my health. I feel stronger already. Forgive me for whining a bit, but I am so frustrated with always dancing on the edge of bankruptcy. We don't have a lot of debt, other than the mortgage. We also don't have a plan to be able to pay off debt if we acquire any.

I am picking up some database work in the evenings to try to help pay for the home repairs we need. With any luck, I should be able to make enough to pay for painting and windows. I am working extra shifts this summer. That will help.

And, everyday, I go ride my bike and just don't think about it for a little while.

Tuesday Nights

2011-05-25T00:28:00.001-05:00

I used to like going to the movies. Let me rephrase that: I like going to the movies and I used to actually go. Before T, I went almost weekly. Then T and I went at least monthly. Then we bought the house and we went once in a while. Then Toddler girl was born and ... well, I go less than once a year now. Life changes. Priorities change. That is no longer where I think my money should go.

Currently, I don't even know what is playing. We don't have TV and the lack of trailers means I'm out of the loop.

Fortunately, I have a Tuesday night game instead. It's free. It's fun. Sometime there are snacks. Sometimes I bring the snacks. Game night is at L's house which is about 8kms away. This time, I rode my bike. I took the Nishiki.

There were a lot of firsts on this ride. My first time over railway tracks. It was a little scary. And my first time biking through open fields (on a path) in the dark. I have bike lights, front and back. I didn't have my camera. There was wild life. It was... creepy.

I don't know if it is a girl thing or what but, yes it was creepy. There was a good stretch there where there aren't any houses. There is a busy road but still....

I'm going to have to think about it before I do that again. I can have populated areas all the way but it doubles the distance. At 9:30 at night, I just wanted to get home. This is stuff no one talks about when they play up living car light. Mind you, a lot of the people who are having these discussions seem to be men, or in bigger centers with better transit options or more people around.

As an aside, after several days of biking everywhere, my leg muscles are so sore! This has to be a good thing, right? At least I can change it up a bit and switch to riding Claire for a while. It amazes me how those two bikes seem to work completely different areas on my legs.

On the other hand 8 kms in 20 minutes works out to be about 14 miles an hour. I feel proud of that speed. Now I just have to work to be able to sustain it. I was tired when I got home.

I don't talk about it....

2011-05-24T17:26:00.000-05:00

I don't talk about work. I don't want to blog about work. There are lots of reasons for that. If you are internet savvy enough to have found this blog, I'm sure you know what those reasons are.

However, I am going to say that due to some equipment upgrades at work, I am working twice as many days this pay cheque as I normally do. It isn't much, but it means extra child care and extra complications. And hopefully a little extra money. Most of which will go to the on going home repairs, but I am going to splash out a little on a new saddle and a basket for my bikes. I am very excited! I have picked out a basket like the one that Snarkypup over at rideblog has. It will go on Claire to get rid of the awkward panniers that don't work with the child seat.

She purchased hers from Amazon.com, but they don't ship that item here. So, I found the cheapest place to order from that ships internationally is in the UK.... and they have a sale on Brooks saddles right now. Less than half the local price.

I hate to do that. I really do. I will pay a little more to support a local business, but.... it would be a long time before I could afford a saddle at full local price and I can't get the basket locally no matter what I do. I am consoling myself with the fact that I have tracked don't a local Soma dealer and have put them on the case of getting those replacement pedals I want for the Nishiki.

Shopping for bike parts, nice bike parts, locally is really hard or impossible. If I just order the Soma stuff off the web, there won't be a local Soma dealer for long. I guess that is the nice thing about long term projects. If I start asking for parts now and it takes a year to get them, mostly it doesn't matter.

Interesting Internet stuff

2011-05-21T20:35:00.001-05:00

Two very interesting things happened in my internet world yesterday. First I was contacted by M, who lives in BC and reads my blog, after she had a bad experience shopping for a trike. She wanted a pep-talk and shopping advice. I haven't seen M in years since I lived out in her town in 2001. She is a really nice lady and was a very kind to me when I moved there.

After a few emails back and forth, M agreed to let me post her story here and (with a few identifier changing details) on the Bikeforums. I give the Bikeforums in general a bit of flack. I really do think they could be MUCH better moderated. Except for the Clydesdale/Athena section. There is actually a area in the bike forums for cyclist who are 200lbs+. And they have zero tolerance for rudeness. Zero.

I don't really think about my size much. I worry more about what I can and can't do. Which makes it odd to me that two different sets of people in the last month have referred to me as the "token skinny friend" or the "not so bitchy skinny bitch in the room." If you really pushed me, I would not describe myself as skinny. Average at best. But that is besides the point. I think it's a little freaky that more than one person would describe me that way in such a short time, one of whom needed immediate bike advice and one who had previously asked about it.

I like biking. I think there is a lot you can do to make a chain driven bicycle-like device that will accommodate all different sizes, shapes and abilities. I have previously mentioned that we get T a modified trike so that he could bike with Cerebral Palsy. I don't think I have talked about what we did to get it to work for him.

T started with a Norco Parklane because that was the only available adult trike we could find at the time. Then we completely regeared it. When I say we, I mean the fine gentlemen at Bike Doctor. The front gear was replaced with a bigger one with more teeth so he could go faster and the rear gears were redone so that he as one really bike cog that is about 1 - 1 gear ratio. That means one turn of the pedals is one turn of the wheel. This is a really, really easy gear. He uses it for going up the steep bridges we have in town. The other four rear cogs get him through the usual settings.

Only having rear gears is nice for non racers because it is like driving a car. You start at one and as you speed up, you shift up to a higher gear. The trick is remembering to shift back to first gear before you stop pedaling at a stop.

I have been completely spoiled in that until the Nishiki, all the bikes in my adult life have been internally gear hubs. The advantage of that is you don't have a derailler, so you chain never falls off and you can instantly change the tension in the gear box. If you are stopped and you forgot to shift down, you click the shifter and the tension changes and you are instantly in the lower gear. I really believe once you try one, you will never go back to a derailler for commute or city style biking.

Since we bought T's trike, that internal gear system has become available for trikes too, it's even now available with a coaster brake 3 speed combination. Coaster brakes let you stop by pedaling back, like on kids bikes. They take a little while to break (ha!) in, but once they do, they work in rain or snow. They don't experience the problems that caliper brakes are prone to.

Other things that have changed in trike construction since we were shopping for T are the electric assist kits are now more available. This is a tiny engine that rides on your trike to help compensate for the extra weight of a trike compared to a bike. In fact there is even one triker I see around town a lot who uses his electric assist most of the time to turn his trike into electric wheel chair that is easier on his pride. When he can pedal, he does. When he can't pedal, he doesn't have to worry about being stranded.

And where T's trike is a front half and a back half bolted together, (which is fine) there are now industrial trikes out there with a single welded frame. This means less maintenance making sure the bolts are tight and also lets the trike carry more cargo.

So cycling is low impact and you can get trikes that are traditional upright or recumbent or half way in between, They come in all sizes and colors. If you need one modified for mobility requirements and are a registered person of disability with Revenue Canada, you even get a nice tax deduction if your doctor thinks it could be helpful. Plus there is a really great support system out there for any Athena sized gals who might be thinking of taking up the sport. Why wouldn't you give it a try?

Here it comes - the nasty side of real life. M contacted me because her local bike shop is staffed by insensitive jerks. Yes, I understand that no bike shop can stock all models, but the one she went to was just nasty to make her go away when she was asking intelligent questions about trikes for cuddly ladies. There are people out there who I will only describe as door knobs because my daughters read this and I don't want to go on record for using the kind of language that is going through my head right now.

I just ... it breaks my heart and I don't understand. In 20 minutes of internet research (and I'm not THAT good at it) I found a few trikes that would be perfect for M. If the shop had just said they would look into it for her and let her know. They could have ordered something in with a mark up and had a guaranteed sale.

And bikes aren't cheap. A good bike in any category (road bike, city bike, mountain bike or trike) start at $1000 and go up depending on features. Very cheap compared to cars, but very expensive compared to groceries. How many bike bells would they have to sell to match the income from M coming in and saying basically "here's what I want, take my money please"?

Never mind that I am average, so are you, and you, and you and certainly M. There are lots of women out there in every size. The shop COULD have ordered two and used good word of mouth to become a plus sized bicycle shop. M is no shrinking violet, she would have been such good press for them. Heck, the first thing she said after hearing the term Athena (and realizing that is a real category) was how much she wanted to organize a Athena ride in her city. She has the contacts to do it, too.

So M is getting trike, although she is not sure which one. Last I heard she was favouring this model, because it comes in a selection of colours. She likes the lavender and is thinking of a custom silver flame paint job (sorry honey, that is just TOO girlie for me). More power to her!

Cycling is not just for skinny bitches and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

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In other news. T bought me my own domain, set it up on his server and installed Wordpress. I don't have it up and running yet and it isn't Cast Iron Kitchen. All will be revealed. Just be patient. I'm so excited!

Long day Friday

2011-05-21T09:48:00.000-05:00

My day might not seem that interesting. The whole family got up early because all three of us had optometrist appointments at 8:30am. It went well. Even being among the first appointments of the day, they were already 20 minutes behind. The last time I went Toddler girl's appointment was at 3pm and we didn't make it home for supper at 6pm. That's a long wait when you are 18 months old.

I knew I was going to need new glasses. My last pair got broken during .... I don't even remember what I was doing, but there was a small person involved. I have been wearing a old pair from 2003 for the last month. After our appointment, T went to work. Toddler girl and I went to a couple of Eyeglasses stores and I picked out some frames. She was very patient. She read Beatrix Potter (or at least looked at the pictures) on my Kindle.

After that we went to the park to go on the swings as a reward for her being so patient. Swings is just about her favourite thing in the world. There was a whole daycare there. All of the kids were bigger than she is. No real surprise since everyone is bigger than she is. It made her a little uncomfortable. I once again had to realize that the kids 6 to 8 months younger than she is are as big or bigger than her. It was be really awkward having somebody that is taller than you and beefier than you wobbling toward you, drooling everywhere, who can't talk but could knock you down and crush you if you take a hit. There is a huge development difference between a potty trained articulate two and a half year old and a 16 - 18 month old. Even if the 18 month old is bigger.

She still was very well behaved, even after the gaffer tried to give her a hug she didn't want. She did cry for her Mum-mum, but she didn't push back. I understand the feeling, once you've been manhandled by some staggering behemoth it's time to go home. She got some swing time and I got a nice discussion with the daycare staff. It was nice to have someone else be impressed at how articulate she is for her age.

On a side note, I expect C to out grow that Colt. At the rate she is going, I don't think Toddler girl will.

Toddler girl was even fairly good through dropping off our paperwork at the insurance company, despite her getting tired and hungry at that point. We stopped to have lunch at the University. They have a melon cup that is a favourite. Neither of us were going to make it all the way home without food.

We had a nice lunch and a good trip to the public bathroom, that was slightly unnerving for her but still productive. She was clean and dry all day. She fell asleep on the way home.

When we got home at 2pm, we had a second lunch and washed some laundry. It was a normal day.

Where we did NOT use a car. Yes, those car free people out there are scoffing at me. But to be able to bike that far AND have Toddler girl put up for me pedaling her around! For us, that is a huge change. 16.59 km (according to Google maps) with a Toddler on the back of a 1972 Raleigh Superbe! With some fairly good hills in that route! And I can still walk this morning!

I can't take a Panda shot with Toddler in the bike and since I had to carry her sleeping form into the house, I didn't get any pictures of the trip. But I did it! I am proud of myself and I am proud of her.

Good bye Victoria! Hello Claire!

2011-05-19T21:07:00.001-05:00

Meet Claire. Born 1972 in Nottingham England and given the most popular name in that county that year (according to the internet). Poor thing has been put straight to work and I don't have any pre baby seat pictures to show. I hate to say this, but the baby seat and the cheapo panniers have really uglified the poor girl. But this too shall pass. It won't be long before Toddler girl is on a tow behind half bike.

She is a dream to ride, when Toddler girl holds still and lets me drive. When she is looking to see where we are going, the bike serves like I was DUI. We are working on it.

I have also purchased the Nishiki. I'm not sure I can convert it, but anyway now I have a road bike and that one would hurt less to sell if I can't upgrade later. It is also a dream to ride. Which means that since I started this blog with one bike that didn't fit and two part bikes, I now have two working bikes and a different part bike to restore with C.

I have come to the conclusion that one bike won't do it all for me. Claire is amazing to ride with Toddler and T. She keeps pace with his trike perfectly. The Nishiki.... doesn't. He goes was to fast to ride with T on his trike, but Nishiki also will tow Toddler girl's trailer and carry two panniers full of groceries with out much trouble.

Life is good. Especially now that work has bike racks. I'm going to need them since I have to work some extra shifts to pay for my bike habit.

People say it's cheaper than gas, but so far it hasn't been. Nevermind that I would really love a Onderwater family tandem or a Fr8. Sigh.

Fussy Banana bread

2011-05-18T20:15:00.001-05:00

Whip up 1 1/2 recipe of Alton Brown's Bananas Foster, here's the expanded version:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon banana liqueur
3 ripe bananas, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir until sugar dissolves. Add banana liqueur and bring sauce to simmer. Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side, carefully spooning sauce over bananas as they are cooking. Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish. Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum. If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own. If not, using stick flame, carefully ignite and continue cooking until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Add orange zest and stir to combine

(OK Let's be honest here, what you REALLY want to do is make 6 banana's worth and eat three Fostered Bananas with ice cream)

Puree the bananas and sauce together and allow to cool, then add to this modified banana bread recipe:

3 bananas foster, pureed with sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cup flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

It looks like banana bread. It looked like banana bread before we ate it all. Sorry, this one was too good for pictures. But trust me, the extra steps were worth it.

Now, if you really want to go crazy, try banana bread french toast sometime....

Pictures

2011-05-17T16:23:00.001-05:00

It's a grey overcast day and Toddler girl has taken to her bed. That's such a Victorian phrase, but it exactly sums up what is going on. She is in bed, in pajamas, with her 1st gen iPod touch and won't come out. It is such a dorky iPod. The screen is broken, it doesn't have speakers or a good battery or much storage, but it plays movies though the kiddy headphones and she loves it.

Here is a picture, courtesy of Lorene, of Ellie and I and the Mother's day camera:

After working all weekend and a busy Monday, I'm glad for a quiet day in.

In other news, C is going to help fix up the Raleigh Colt I bought at auction a couple of months ago. I paid $38 for it. It has all original parts except (maybe) the saddle. I was planning of passing it along to a gal who is 5' tall and was really wanting a vintage 3 speed. But... she didn't want the work. I thought it would be a good bike fix up. I still think that. Now C says she is going to do it She took it for a test ride and had the stupid grin on her face the whole time. You know the one. The grin that says I love this bike. All it really needs is a new saddle, new brake pads and a really good clean.

And a new portrait.

The down side of living in the middle of no where is I can NOT get the kool-stop salmon brake pads I need locally. I need to spend some time searching for a Canadian supplier who also has an online shop.

Fondue

2011-05-16T22:49:00.001-05:00

For supper tonight I made Alton Brown's cheese fondue recipe. It was.... OK. It took longer to make than I thought. I wonder if I did something wrong because it finally got really creamy AFTER we were done eating and friend/blog commentator Lorene had left. I wonder if this would have worked better if I had just thrown it in a crock pot and let it sit for an hour or two before serving.

Overall the flavour was good, it was just .... sort of clumpy. I tried adding extra lemon juice as the recipe suggested. It didn't help. Then after everyone had left and T turned the fondue back on to eat up the left overs, it was perfect and smooth. I started adding cheese at 5:45pm. The fondue was amazing at 8pm. Maybe it was too much cider for the cheese. I followed the directions on the website very carefully.

The comments suggest it needs more cheese or extra starch. I didn't try that. Maybe next time. It was worth a next time.

In other news, the problem with having people over is that by the time Toddler girl gets used to the idea of them being here it's time for them to go. She was all over good bye hugs and even wanted to call and make sure everyone got home OK. While they were here she was so shy she could hardly come out of her room. I don't know what to do about that....

The other bike

2011-05-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

I'm looking at this bike:

It's a approximately 1983 Nishiki International. It is in theory a touring bike. It has bazons for fenders, and a rack and a water bottle cage. That's the little attached nuts that look like this:

This bike fits me really well, except I like fenders on my bikes. Here's my problem:

No fenders.... not even space for fenders. Why put attachment points for fenders on a bike where the wheels are too big to use them?

The thing is, I have heard of something called a 650B conversion, where you take the 700 sized tires (like this bike has) off and put on a slightly smaller size to make room for fenders. In theory, I should be able to go to the bike forum and post my pictures and ask the question.

However, they aren't always nice on the bike forums. In fact, just recently they have been so vile to the author of one of the blogs I read that I have pretty much stopped going to the site all together. Yes, the internet turns people into trolls, but forums are supposed to have moderators to keep that thing to a minimum. T's tractor forum has "friendly" in their tag line and they whole group enforces good manners. This forum.... it almost seems like they egg each other on into ruder and ruder behavior.

OK, let's be honest, the only way I can afford this bike is on credit and that way disaster lies. But it bothers me that there is a great resorce out there that I'm not going to use due to rude people. Do they even think about how their being rude to one person discourages everyone else who doesn't want to be bullied from participating? Is that the point?

I can see this bike all fixed up with deco fenders from Velo Orange and Soma bullet lights and copper pedals and a copper bottle cage with a Kleen Kanteen. I can dream about how to fix this bike up. I can't afford to fix this bike up, but really... I have know idea if it is even possible.

House Paint

2011-05-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

OK. Here is it, my first run of pictures with my Mother's day camera. I used it to do "before" pictures of our current house paint.

You can see it's peeling....

More peeling.....

Still peeling..... (but with new window)

And here is an over all look at the house. You can see T and his tiny tractor with the lawn mower hooked up, getting ready for the first mow of the season. The garden bed isn't staying there, it's just hanging out until I get the rest of the garden space organized.

I was planning on posting earlier, but there were technical difficulties...

It will likely be a month or more before I get after pictures. I'm not in a rush, since we are still saving for the work to be done. None the less, you can see in that top picture that there is already some water damage..... So, it's time to get it done.

I become a bike Troll

2011-05-11T19:33:00.000-05:00

Warning: I am about to say unflattering, snobbish things. I could even become down right rude. We shall see.

Have you ever read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen? It's a comedy about the end of the world. If not, go buy it immediately. I'll wait.

OK. So there is a part in there where they talk about Newt's car. It's called the Wasabi. It is described thusly:

It would be a very accurate historian indeed who could pinpoint the precise day when the Japanese changed from being fiendish automatons who copied everything from the West, to becoming skilled and cunning engineers who would leave the West standing. But the Wasabi had been designed on that one confused day, and combined the traditional bad point of most Western cars with a host of innovative disasters the avoidance of which had made firms like Honda and Toyota what they were today...In vain did [Newt] point out its 823cc engine, its three-speed gearbox, its incredible safety devices like the balloons which inflated on dangerous occasions such as when you were doing 45 mph on a straight dry road but were about to crash because a huge safety balloon had just obscured the view. He'd also wax slightly lyrically about the Korean-made radio, which picked up Radio Pyongyang incredible well, and the simulated electronic voice which warned you about not wearing a seatbelt even when you were; it had been programmed by someone who not only didn't understand English, but didn't understand Japanese either. It was state of the art, he said. The art in this case was probably pottery.

With that in mind, I give you the Trek Wasabi:
First the glamour shot from the Trek Archive:

Then via my old camera:

Someone tried to make this bike pretty. It has pink rims. It has flower decals. It has pretty coordinating seat and fenders. Now let's pause for a moment and look at the construction:

Those are some of the ugliest welds I've seen on a bike!

Now, to be fair. The bike store I saw this at actually sold one between my visit yesterday and today, so maybe most of this bike's target demographic doesn't care about things like that. It is also only a little bit over $500. Not a high end bike. So part of where they save money is on construction

Let's compare to a Soma Buena Vista (images courtesy Lovely Bicycle):

Fully built up the Soma would cost twice as much as the above Trek. But there is better quality through out. However, that isn't the part that gets me. Here is the joinery on a Vintage bike that can be found locally for well under $200:

And here are the glamour shots (again, thanks to Lovely Bicycle).

When I had $500 for a bike, I followed this advice and built up Victoria. And I am happy how she turned out, once I finally got all the squeaks oiled and had T tighten all the bolts for me. I started with no bike knowledge, the internet and a $5 garage sale bike. Victoria is a solidly build frame. I love the new components. I had planned on getting her powder coated in the future, but it looks like she is going to a new home soon. I would feel better spending the money they way I did than just buying something new. Especially since it works out to be about the same amount of money anyway.

Compared to the Wasabi, Victoria has a better saddle, better rims, better tires, the same coaster brake hub and that $500 even got me lighting which this bike doesn't include at all. That's just the widely accepted ones. In my opinion she also has better frame and better handle bars. All the Wasabi has is better paint. If I had kept Victoria an extra year, you wouldn't be even able to say that.

I think someone at Trek must be on to the reference, because this year it's call the "Cruiseliner" instead. Still, I still can't help wondering, if the original build team was asked to build something girlie and someone rebelled in choosing the name. I can't be the only person who thinks it looks.... bad.

Mind you, who am I to talk? I spend time on bike forums and blogs reading about bikes I'll never be able to afford and seeing people talk smack about bikes that are nicer than anything I could ever hope to own.

If I had unlimited funds to bikes, my dream stable is a cute upright bike, like a Gazelle Popular 3 ($2000), a zippy road or touring bike like the Sam Hillborne ($3000) and a nice cargo bike like the Onderwater family tandem with the optional cargo basket ($3000). And maybe while I'm dreaming impossible dreams, a Brompton or Origami bike would be nice too.

If I start saving now, I might just about be able to buy an Origami for Toddler girl at some point. If I was buying kids bikes again, anyone 4 feet and up would get an Origami with a different seat tube to adjust the seat down. It would have saved two sets of bikes for the big girls and they would still have an interesting bike at the end that will last them all through university, even if they have to hide it in their dorm room over the winter.

Wow...

2011-05-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have that surreal moment when you look at your life and wonder how you got here? Surely this isn't just me.

I don't mean that as a bad thing. I just have somehow ended up living a completely different life than I planned.

I never expected to get married. I had (have) a terrible relationship with my dad. I couldn't imagine why any thinking woman would saddle herself with a husband if they were like that. T and I worked hard to fix each other the first few years of our relationship. Or rather we worked hard to help each other let go of our past baggage. He taught me that men don't turn in to completely useless, clueless control freaks when you get them into a long term relationship. The they do help out around the house, not just trash it when your back is turned. That you can be shown love and respect by a husband.    I always thought of "wife" as a bad word.

I am so lucky to have him. I know it. I try very hard not to take him for granted.

I would like to think I taught him that he doesn't deserve and shouldn't expect emotional abuse. That his disability does not make him undesirable. That there are geeky Mac girls out there that read and play computer games and debate current events. That I think he is important enough, that his feelings and memories and interests are important enough to drive hours out of town to spend money we don't have on a tractor we don't need because it makes him very, very happy to have that tractor that reminds him of his grandfather.

I thought I might end up as a single mom by choice, but I never thought I would be a stepmom. I never thought I would have responsibility for teenagers who were mostly sane and actually talk to me about stuff and put up with my occasional impromptu lectures on STDs and offering to find birth control for them and their friends with no questions asked. (I work in health care, they put up with me)

I hoped to own a house, but not one this big. My house is 1000 square feet. For my hypothetical life, it is too big. For my real life.... it's OK. I could easily go smaller if I found one with a more customized living space design, but I don't think the rest of the family could. I still read tiny house blogs in my spare time.

I never expected to live in the prairies or in a city this big. I wanted small mountain town. I had even come with in six months of leaving for New Zealand when things changed and I realized I needed to stay with Tyson. It was in my two year plan when I met him.   I had been working toward that goal for a few years before that.

I thought I would have a more established garden by now. I didn't expect to have a partner who would encourage me to try a new garden set up each year until I get it right. I think I have gotten it right this year.

I hadn't really ever considered that, not only would my in laws be amazing, but that I would end up "adopting"extra grandparents and aunts for my kids. That I would have such good friends that it blurs the line between friends and family. That my toddler would call for aunts that she has no blood relation to at all, but not care a wit because they are so close to her and loved by her that she will be shocked when she finds out how other people get aunts.

That really is the biggest unexpected, Toddler Girl. When I made up my mind to stay with T long term, I thought I was giving up biological children. V & C are so amazing, I .... well, OK, I wish I had more time with them. I wish they were mine. At that point they were only here 25% of the time. V is now here 50% and I wish C was here that much too. I understand that I have to share them, but I would take them full time in a blink. I love them fiercely with every fibre in me. I was expecting to spend 75% of my life missing them. At least with V here more, I get to watch her growing up to be such an incredibly interesting person.

T had the big snip in his first marriage. I thought that was it. But he looked into reconstruction. It has a poor success rate. I hoped it would work, but with a less than 50% chance, I wasn't expecting it to. I love kids. I would have another five if we could afford it. If I wasn't getting too old. I certainly wasn't expecting the big girls to adore Toddler girl the way they do. She just worships them.

Daily I look at Toddler girl with amazement that she is mine. How did I end up with a baby (who isn't a baby any more) that tells jokes and stretches her tiny vocabulary to the max? Today she pointed to a sparrow and told me it was a chicken, yum! yum! I know she knows the difference. But she was carefully chased it pretending to catch it for me because I mentioned I was getting hungry. She also pointed out "chicken taste es delicious!"

I love my whole family so much. How did I ever get so lucky as to end up here?

So, yes. Sometimes I whine about work and money (or lack there of), but I know how lucky I am.   I know I am loved. I hope my family knows that I love them back.

Tomato chicken bake

2011-05-09T16:27:00.002-05:00

9 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half*
1/8 cup capers
1/8 cup kalamata olives sliced
20 fresh basil leaves coarsely chopped
1 cup mozzarella shredded
2 Tablespoons olive oil

- Preheat oven to 350F
- Unravel the chicken thighs and lay flat in a 9x13 inch pan
- toss everything else in a bowl and pour as evenly as possible over the chicken.
- cover tightly with tin foil
- bake for 40 minutes, then remove foil
- bake another 10 -15 minutes until chicken is done and cheese is bubbly

Serve with linguine:
- boil water in your biggest pot (4 cups for every 100g (4 oz) of pasta)
- add 2 tablespoons of salt so the water tastes like saline
- cook for just under 10 minutes
- trust me on using a lot of water

and veggies and dip or salad.

I have started putting out a plate of cut veg when I start cooking for Toddler girl to snack on while I cook. She won't EAT veg, but if she is stealing them when I'm busy.... that's different.

*if you garden, I high recommend Sweet million tomato plants. The tiny tomatoes are so good and you really seem to get millions. You can freeze them on a cookie sheet then transfer them to freezer bags. They work really well added to soups or this.

More bike gossip.

2011-05-09T14:05:00.006-05:00

I'm trying to organize a weird bicycle shell game whereby I would sell Victoria to the gal who has been after me to sell for months and use the money to buy a 1970's Raleigh Superbe and a baby bike seat that would clip to the frame.

Here's the thing: Victoria has all new parts on an old frame. This would be an all old parts on an old frame that still could not pull the trailer, but could hold a baby seat. What that means in practical terms is that I would at some point need to replace the rims and tires. It has a 3 speed hub in the back and a dynamo hub in the front that would need to be laced into new alloy rims so the brakes work better. The paint is in OK shape, there are some minor rust spots on the chrome. It is a better bike to start with than Victoria was. I am breaking even on the sale of Victoria (which I never thought I would) but would have to use the difference between the sale price of Victoria and the Raleigh to buy the baby bike seat. I would end up with a bike that.... has different features.

For example, with steel rims the Raleigh would not be safe in the rain, Victoria was. On the other hand, if Toddler girl is in an open air baby seat, we won't be biking in the rain anyway. However, with the baby seat blocking the rack, I won't be able to go for groceries on the bike. On Victoria, Toddler girl would go in the trailer and the groceries would go in the wald baskets. Victoria really struggled to pull the trailer, but we could do it. The Raleigh can't use the trailer at all and the baby seat will partially cover where the panniers would go.

But in a few years, Toddler girl will be in a trail-a-bike and the Raleigh can be fixed up at that point. In the mean time, it would be fine for going to the park and library and the sort of stuff we do everyday. I would just have to organize grocery shopping for in the evening when T can stay at home with Toddler girl. That's kind of a pain because I like spending time with T in the evenings, but we could make it work.

Yes, it would be nice to have a cargo bike of some description, but since that isn't going to happen.....

In the mean time, we have cut our car use by two thirds. Which is nice because gas prices are way up and if we didn't have a plan in place I would be completely stranded. Many days the car just stays parked. I wish I could say that cutting the car use has saved so much money I can afford spiffy bikes, but.... it hasn't worked that way, yet.

I still need to decide what to do with that Raleigh Colt I ended up getting stuck with. Do I keep it for Toddler girl on the off chance that she might want to ride if for a couple of years when she is older? That feels like hoarding. She likely will end up too tall for it to be a forever bike for her. It should go to someone who is petite who could use it.

What I really need to do is clean it up and take a bunch of pictures with my new camera. There just never seems to be the time.

Thank you!

2011-05-08T14:23:00.000-05:00

For Mother's day, Darling Husband got me a new (to me) DSLR camera with a story involved. L had done a bunch of research and found a really nice DSLR and bought the recommended attachments for it. Then found she was using her mid-sized camera more anyway and it was languishing. (OK, so it was really being carefully and lovingly stored, but languishing sounds more dramatic)

It sounds like she started to feel a bit guilty about having the fabulous camera and not using it (or maybe she just felt bad for me because my affordable point and shoot wasn't cutting the mustard in terms of pictures. Anyway she sold it to Darling Husband as such a subsidized price that it really is a gift from her family and Darling Husband.

Seriously, it is such a nice set up, I can't imagine why she would part with it. I think I would have fallen prone to camera hoarding and not let it go even if it was just sitting there. Mind you, I also can't imagine not using it. Once I learn how.

I am so excited!

I am kind of intimidated.

I need to read the manual.

But hopefully, there will be pictures on the blog shortly. I have dug out my old Crumpler Camera bag from long ago and set it up.

Way back before T and I were married, I had wanted to get into photography. I started doing research. I started saving up for a good camera. Then we got engaged and the camera money went towards our rings. Then I got pregnant and the camera money when to maternity clothes. Then I lost my job and couldn't save. Then I found a job and Toddler girl had so many health problems that I couldn't even think about cameras. Then I quit my job to stay home with her and I gave up on photography as a hobby we would never be able to afford.

So really, this is such a nice gift that I am tearing up as I write this post.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T09:37:00.001-05:00

For Mother's Day this year, Darling Husband, Toddler girl and I are going for Dim Sum with our friends L & L and one of their moms. Dim Sum amazes me! The food is so good. You eat until you are turkey dinner full and some how the bill per person is always less than a drink, fries, burger and dessert are terrible drive-thru place. Of course on Sundays, it almost a shot gun start to get a table, but having to decide between sleeping in and Dim Sum, I choose Dim Sum.

Before Toddler Girl we would go every month. These days it's such a treat I really look forward to it.

Speaking of which, the other thing I'm getting for Mother's day is debt. OK, so that's a little harsh. I'm not upset about it. Well, a little, but...... The house needs repairs. So we have decided to borrow some money to replace the last three window and repaint before we take more water damage.

When we were deciding which windows to replace with out tax return, we replaced the two that were obviously leaking over the winter. What I didn't notice is that one of the non-opening windows was leaking too. About two weeks ago now, I found where the wooden frame has started to rot. It's an older house, I shouldn't really be that surprised that things need doing, but..... I wasn't expecting that.

Since we don't have $4000 for new windows or $2600 for new paint. We are going into debt. I'm a little worried about that.... I know we have to get this fixed before winter. We are going to wait for the end of season sale our favourite home place has every August. I am happy to have it just done.....

But, I don't like the idea of debt. We had to work really hard to get the mortgage reworked when it became apparent that Toddler girl was too sick for me to go back to work on more than a casual basis. I'm trying really hard not to resent the tractor at this point, even if it is going to plow my garden for me this year. I even know that the tractor money wouldn't have covered either the windows or the paint, but the extra few hundred dollars would help.

Darling husband had been hinting he is getting me a nice present for Mother's day. I wonder if this is how he feels about the tractor? I know we can't afford to do it. I know it is going to add to the debt load. At the same time, we don't do treats very often and it is nice to know your partner thinks you are worth spending money on.

I know there are people out there drowning in debt. I know we aren't that bad yet. We pinch our pennies and get by. Some how we manage to break even every month. I just wonder.... We don't have cable any more. We cut our phone bill to the minimum to save there. We turned down the thermostat all winter and I line dry diapers to save the cost of the drier. (The trick is a short fluff cycle before they hit the line otherwise they dry stiff like cardboard.) Where is the debt repayments going to come from?

OK time to stop moping. Time to get out of bed and go let Darling hubby make me a coffee.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy Mother's day!

Now that I have some coffee and a piece of toast in me, I'm feeling less blue. Toddler girl will be in school full time in only four years and I'll be back to work. The debt will get paid off. We will be fine. In the mean time, I can spend time with my daughter. We go to the park and she loves my bicycle. Mostly I couldn't drive anyway since as soon as she sees it she asks "go bike, Mum-mum?"

Right now the garden is in the awful, dirty hard work stage, but in only a month plants will be starting to come up and a few weeks after that, we'll be eating radishes! They are always the first crop of the spring. I have a really good plan this year and I'm so looking forward to getting started.

I disagree - update

2011-05-07T08:50:00.003-05:00

Some how.... and I'm not sure how.... I ended up reading Life from Scratch on the kindle I got for Christmas/birthday this winter. It isn't the kind of book I usually read. I was struck by one part in the book when the main character talks about wanting people to read your journal, that's why you post it on the internet.

OK.

I have to disagree with that one a little bit.

I think there are people out there that blog and think the internet is so big that no one will ever find them. That isn't me, but I have met them. They were really upset that I would go and read their blog after they told me where it was and what it was called. (yeah... I don't get it, but when I tell that story other people have had the same experience) Then there are people like me that don't think my life is interesting enough to hold readers.

I have to say that until I needed help finding home for bunny I didn't really care that I had readers. I know a few of you personally and the rest were just.... random fluctuation in the stats counter.

My issues aside, I think there are lots of reasons to have a blog other than necessarily wanting people to read your journal. The big few that immediately come to mind is my bad handwriting, that the computer is easier to just jot something down quick without having to work so hard from keeping Toddler girl from colouring in my book and the indexing system. I also like the spell check. I can review and rewrite easier than on paper.

Maybe this is a sign of increase digital sprawl, but I can type faster than I write. Which explains my many of my blog posts are pretty much transcription of whatever is going through my head at the moment. I wonder if people used to journal on typewriter like that back in the day? NOTE TO SELF: internet research topic.

This is kind of sad, but a lot of the time I am blogging in a small window on my screen with toddler girl in my lap watching They Might be Giants videos in another window. That kid can watch the Days of the Week video several times in a row. It's a really fun video, but I would go nuts if I didn't have something else to do. Blogging gives me that other focus, but we still get the nice snuggles in.

I have very mixed feeling about that song. I am glad I stay home with Toddler girl, but... it often feels like I'm always at work, from 11:00pm when she had night mares and want snacks and cuddles for two hours before she goes back to bed right through 6am when she woke up for the day, straight on keep working until 8pm when she goes to bed. It isn't "no, no, I never go to work" it's "no, no, I'm always at work."

And ultimately, maybe Toddler girl will want to read this someday. The same could be said for that lovely paper journal I started. So really, journalling in real life means that others can read it too. Even if you hide it under your mattress.

In which case.... I love you so much baby girl! Midnight snuggles are nice, even when we are both exhausted. When I have nightmare, hubby puts up with me and gives me snuggles too.

Thank you!

2011-05-06T19:12:00.001-05:00

Wow! I can't believe it, but I actually had people contact me offering financial help for guest bunny! I'm not posting the comments or the email because I'm not accepting. I really appreciate the offers to help! Internet social rocks!

The reason I'm not taking you up on it is guest bunny has found a forever home. He is going to live with a vet and her family who will also arrange the surgery. The "good with kids and other pets" was a big selling factor. He will be an inside bunny, which makes me so happy.

I am so glad this has come to a happy conclusion. I am too familiar with stories of bunnies who "set free" and came to no good.

Thank you all for you suggestions and support!

Bunny Update

2011-05-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Slipper lives in our laundry room behind a baby gate when we aren't home. The rest of the time he has free range of the house. We know he will go back to the laundry room to use the litter pan.

This morning, while I was out dropping T off at work, he jumped two baby gates (one in his doorway and one in the hallway) to go snuggle with the guest bunny. We know he was a Kaninhop contender, but this is the most we have see in action.

We had pretty much resigned ourselves to giving the new bunny up for adoption, but this is making it harder.

House Guest

2011-05-06T09:21:00.000-05:00

In the morning, some thoughts about the unnamed bunny. He is about the right size to have been an Easter pet who "accidentally" got out when the kids went back to school and stopped taking care of him. He is so far, really good with Toddler girl. He doesn't know how to drink out of a water bottle and was very dehydrated when I caught him. I suspect if we hadn't had so much rain in the last couple of days, he wouldn't have made it this long.

He is already litter trained.

Last night he and Slipper spent some time cuddling through the cage bars.

We didn't want a bunny right now. We weren't looking for one. He is good with animals and kids and there for more adoptable. If we could afford to get him fixed I would keep him and this would be a good home.

But the bottom line is.... we don't have the money to get that done.

I can't say we a poor. We are "falling through the cracks" lower middle class. If you take our combined income and subtract the child support then divide it over the number of people who live here including averaging out the part time kids (50% for V and 25% for C - our household is 3.75 people), yes, we are pretty close to the poverty line.

But it isn't calculated like that.

And no one gets pet subsidies anyway.

Asking for help

2011-05-05T23:09:00.001-05:00

V forgot her rubber boots here on the weekend. Today she was at her mom's house and tomorrow at 4am she is going on a student exchange to Quebec. I thought she wouldn't need them, so I put them in the garage so we wouldn't trip on them by the back stairs.

It turns out that she needed them after all. She came by while we were out to pick them up, but didn't know I had moved them. So it was that at 9pm I had to drive them over to her mom's house and drop them off. There had been a bunny, a house bunny, that someone "set free" in the neighbourhood hanging out with the neighbours cat.

This is where I have to translate a little for you. I have a house bunny. I have had house bunnies for the last 24 years. A well cared for bunny lives 8 - 10 years. They are social and require social grooming from their people. They litter train very easily and (with a little more effort) can be kept from eating your electrical cords. They are very loving pets that can be leash trained and also trained to do simple tricks. For more fun than you would expect, search for "Rabbit Show Jumping" on YouTube. In that 24 years I have had Silky (who died of old age at age 10), Pixel (who had to be put down when her teeth failled, age 8), Emmy and Mr Vimes who were SPCA Bunnies. We had them both at the same time and I don't know how old Emmy was. Mr Vimes was born blind and had a chronic pastuerella infection. He died at age 3 of kidney failure. After he died, Emmy became very depressed and a year after he died, she stopped eating.

Three sets of bunnies, averaging an 8 year commitment each.

People aren't prepared for that. Male bunnies make EXCELLENT pets, once you get them fixed. Before that they go at it like... well, like bunnies. With your laundry, slippers, books, toys, vacuum, everything really.

We currently have a mini rex called Slipper. He is very new. He was named by Toddler girl. We think he is about a year old. He was fully grown when we got him, so it is kind of hard to tell. We got him fixed and she is very polite and snuggley.

I know bunnies. I also know that house bunnies are from southern climes and universally freeze to death in our climate. If they aren't hit by a cat or mauled to death by a cat or dog first. Setting a house bunny free is sentencing it to a horrible painful death. People would be much kinder to put a free ad in the paper or take them to the SPCA. This one had survived for 3 days because the neighbour's cat was protecting it. The other neighbour's cat had already been stalking it.

This one wasn't that hard to catch. It would have been even easier if the friendly cat hadn't intervened a few times. I have brought it home. It is in a cage. Slipper was male, this one still is. That isn't a good mix.

The two bunnies are close enough in size to be a good pair of bunny friends. They are so far grooming each other through the cage. The unnamed bunny snuggled right into my as soon as I picked him up and nudged me for scratches.

We can't afford to get this bunny fixed. We can't keep the bunny without getting it fixed. Bunnies aren't subsided and a bunny neuter costs $160 at the one place in town that we know does it.

The SPCA here is really good, but intact males are not easy to adopt. C and V are assuming we will keep him. So I am going to do the thing I really hate to do. I am asking for help. It amazes me, but I apparently have 300 regular readers out there. If you would be interested in throwing a buck or two towards a bunny surgery, let me know.

We have overspent on windows this month and we are committed to paint next month.

On the other hand, if you are local and would be willing to take on a bunny.... let me know that too. He is very sweet.

Post election

2011-05-03T08:43:00.000-05:00

I think Girls and bicycles summed it up best with:

"I am disappointed.

The internet is alive with talk about this now so I'll keep it simple. Let's just say that Canada is known to be expansive in land and rich in natural resources. You would think that our country, of all countries, would be setting an example for the preservation of these precious resources.

Maybe you don't know, but Canada is basically a laughing stock of the environmental world :(

I find it pretty embarrassing.

Despite my country's majority government, I am going to keep on riding."

I don't have anything else to add, really

Oh Sh!t - the Bicycle Edition - Part 2

2011-05-01T15:35:00.001-05:00

Today the whole family was invited to L & L's house for brunch. They make the best bacon I have ever had. Teenage girl V and I decided to bike. She took the ten speed to try and I took Victoria. We only biked to the U (about half way) then T gave us a ride the rest of the way. On the way back, we briefly switched bikes.

Briefly.

V is about 5'2 these days, but if you blink, I'm sure she will be taller. Victoria was too big for her. The 10 speed was smallish for her. She had the seat raised about 3". Even when I raised the seat further so that I could get good leg extension, it is to small for me. I shelved my fear and just tried to assume the correct posture. We were in a nice flat place with no gravel and the pavement in good repair. In good racing posture with my body tucked in tight to the frame, the handle bars are about even with my sternum.

Too small.

On the other hand, V LOVES that bike. She has named it after some anime character who's name I'm not even going to try to spell and is currently biking down to the local bike shop to buy some upgrades for her. A bell, a quick release seat post, waterbottle holder. She is tricking that bike out.

Sigh.

Oh well. At least it fits somebody. I would be really disappointed if no one got to ride it.

Oh Sh!t - the Bicycle Edition

2011-04-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

Last summer the whole family spent a couple of weekends helping our friend, A, build a shed. There was a house up the block who had a garage sale one of those weekends and there was a nice lady selling this 10 speed. I have never ridden a 10 speed or any road bike before but I was inspired by Velouria of Lovely Bicycle who a few years ago started road biking on a Sam Hillborne.

I can't afford a Sam Hillborne, and while I know there is a big difference between a touring frame and a racing frame all diamond frame bikes look almost the same to me. I can tell if the top bar is more or less angled or straight across but that's about it. On a bike like Victoria (a mixte or a step through bike) I have gotten pretty good at judging seat post angle and I can tell if it is one that will fit me or not. It seems like the magic angle on an upright bike (for me) is about 70ish degrees. Once the bike gets to 74+ degrees (so far) they haven't fit as well.

Going from a very upright cycling posture to a very aggressive racing posture was going to be challenging and I knew it. A cheap bike would be the way to go, right? OK. I'll go for full disclosure here: this bike has hearts lugged onto the underside of the bike. That really contributed to my even asking about the price. In retrospect, maybe a bike where the top bar isn't so straight across might have been a better bike to start with.

She said make me an offer. I said $5. She said $3 and she threw in what ever thingy T wanted. It was not ride-able. So I spend the winter taking it apart and cleaning it and putting it back together with new tires, cables, handle bar tape and a bargain bin seat from the local bike store. All in, it is now a $70ish bike.

Today I took it for a ride.

This bike scares the poop out of me! It feels so different. It feels too fast and out of control. And the thing is I know that isn't the bike. It's me not being sure how to even hold on to the handle bars on the bike. I feel just ... different.

I am putting the bike (who I haven't named) back into the garage until after the streets are cleaned. The gravel added a whole extra layer of scary to the ride that I wasn't prepared to handle. In my very VERY short ride (about 5 blocks) I don't think I got a fair impression of what the bike would be like to really ride. I am not going to just give up on it. I suspect it would be a better bike to take to the pool in the morning.

I realize this is going to sound ridiculous but even the little 5 minute toodle around the neighbourhood was so far out of my comfort range that I am very proud that I even did that. Next time I will go a little farther. It will get better.

However, that is another nail in the coffin of my hopes to triathlon this spring. I can't take Victoria to the race and I have no idea how long it will take me to get used to the Unnamed bike.

How to explain seasonal variation to a 2 year old

2011-04-28T08:04:00.000-05:00

OK. So sometimes I forget that people actually read this. I don't find my life interesting enough that I expect anyone to be interested other than my friends and family who would have to listen to all this rambling anyway.

For those of you who are just here for the food.... I'm sorry but this is another "I can't believe my 2 year old did this" post. You've been warned.

My location is northern enough that our day length varies significantly with the season. Today the dawn was at 4:14 am. I checked. Toddler girl woke up at 5:52. The sun was shining. The house was completely quiet. She was soaking wet and so was her bed, AND (from her point of view) she had overslept and everyone had left for the day.

Total freak out ensued.

It took almost half an hour to get her to calm down and stop screaming and by then EVERYONE was up.

I have got to make that kid some black-out blinds.

Once she was calmed down I tried to explain to her that sun-up does NOT mean it is time to get up. She flat out refused to believe me. I've been really lucky about not being told "NO" by toddler girl. Mostly because I think that is the rudest thing and we have let it be known that screaming "No" at your parents isn't acceptable behaviour. This time however, she KNEW I was wrong and tried to articulate it beyond just no.

"Mummum, look!" Pointing to window, "Light outside! Wake up time!"

"In the summer the sun gets up before it's time for people to get up sweetie."

"no. Up time!"

She still snuck the "no" in there. I guess she felt it needed to be said. Fair enough.

Back to the topic of today's post.... How do you explain seasonal variation to a two year old? It's only going to get worse...

The dilemma - ramblings

2011-04-27T22:59:00.003-05:00

I have had a very nice lady make what appears to be a very sincere offer to buy Victoria for a fair price given the parts and effort I put into her. If I was ever going to sell Victoria, this would be a really good opportunity. My problem is.... that fair and reasonable offer would not be enough to buy myself a new bike. No big surprise there really.
If I sold her, I would be well on my way to a Gazelle basic, but I would also be without a bike this summer while I saved up the rest of the money. If I keep her, it will be a few years before I can afford a Gazelle but I would have a reasonable (if somewhat rickety) bike in the meantime.

I have been really enjoying being car free. I've gotten some really good rides in. I have lost 5lbs in the last couple of weeks. I really feel healthier. I sleep better. It has been really good. I don't want to give that up.

On the other hand, I don't have enough faith in my bike rebuilding skills to believe that I would be able to sell her for this much later. This is really the right bike for a specific collector. In a garage sale or classified ad I wouldn't even make my parts cost back.

It's a case of short term or long term benefits and I'm not sure which is which. If I sell, would I be able to stay active and save up? Or would the money end up going to the never ending home repairs and I would have nothing?

By the way, if you know where I can legally get $3000 to get my house exterior painted before I end up with more water damage? But I digress.

Victoria isn't really my DREAM bike. That's the part of this whole thing that makes me sad. Victoria is this woman's dream bike. In terms of looks and parts and features my dream bike would be the Superba I can't afford. Which is a whole different problem because the bike (that I also can't afford) that would best suit my needs at the moment is likely the Radish by Xtracycle.

I think it is about the ugliest looking bike I have ever even considered owning. It's $1000 USD. And I have to pay in full to have the Xtracycle dealer in town bring it in. No test rides are possible. Pay first, try later. Yeah, that makes me squirm too.

It could carry Toddler girl and groceries for five. Every blog I follow that talks about their Xtracycle as a family bike loves it. I follow a few bike blogs where they use an Xtracycle instead of a minivan. See Here and Here and Here.

The Madsen is prettier (to me) with it's swan frame:

but I've been burned by that hybrid seat angle before. To further confirm this is a problem for me, yesterday Victoria and I went for a couple of rides totaling over 2 hours with Toddler in the Chariot. No problems. Today I took V's bike (the same frame style that was causing me pain last year) to the LBS for a minor brake job. It was less than a 30 minute round trip with a long stop in the middle and by the time I got home my knees and hips were just killing me.

Maybe I'm imagining it, but the Radish looks like a better seat angle.

I wonder if I could write a really nice letter to Miss Sarah at Girls and Bicycles to talk her into letting me test drive her Madsen. Then I would just need to make the 5 hour trip there to give it a spin. Mind you, in today's post she is also complaining about pain. She thinks it's the saddle. I hope she is right. That was the first thing I tried changing to fix my hip pain on my former hybrid bike. It didn't help. The problem wasn't the seat.

Either way, would I keep using a bike like that in a couple of years when Toddler girl is big enough for a trail-a-long bike? For groceries? Maybe. Pre-toddler I could buy groceries for four just by strategic pannier packing, but the teens were smaller too.

So, for now, Victoria and I are sticking together and towing Toddler girl in the chariot. It's not an ideal situation, but it works. I just wish there was a better way for me to manage. That didn't cost more than I can afford. It would be really nice to be able to do both a me bike and a practical bike. I just can't even imagine spending that much on stuff for me. Not when there is so much else that needs attention around here. Despite what you make think from the recent tractor purchase, we don't have frivolous money.

Small town vs City life

2011-04-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

Simply Bike recently wrote a post recently where she lamented the smallish college town she is living in and tries to come to terms with being there. She wishes for a bigger city. The irony is that her small college town likely isn't that much smaller than the "city" I live in.

I have to confess I know how she feels. Don't get me wrong. I have no desire to move to Edmonton or Vancouver. I am not a big city girl. No. I wish I was in a smaller town. With more trees. At the same time, because I'm big enough to admit the contradiction in my tastes, I also long to be closer to a big city. I don't want to live in one, but it would be nice to have one about 2 - 3 hours away. Five hours to Edmonton is just too far for a nice weekend visit. Especially with toddler girl. She can just about manage two and a half hours to Regina, but there is no way we could drive to Edmonton without having a shrieking kidlet in the back seat for the last couple hours of that drive.

Saskatoon gives me that odd mix where by it is too small to have great shopping while at the same time being too big to bike across easily. Or easily for me anyway. The bike trails are too broken up. The grocery stores are too.... megamart for me. There aren't enough trees and there isn't enough green. The river valley is nice, but the trails aren't a short jaunt away. I have to cross two major six lane intersections to get to them.

The bottom line is that I would not have chosen to live here. I wasn't here before I met T and the girls. I thought I was moving to town for a couple of years to go to school. I wasn't planning on staying. I'm here because family is what makes this place home. Beyond the amenities, the shopping, the restaurants, the trees and terrain, I am here because my family is here. And I couldn't have found a better family if I had been looking for one.

At the same time I miss Pemberton. Not really the wacky political stuff that was happening in the health region at the time, but the people, the setting and the community. I wasn't there for long, but somehow it still feels the most like home to me. I know you can never go back. I just sometime wonder why I left. The only way to answer that is that if I hadn't left I never would have met T and toddler girl would never have happened.

Start your Turkeys NOW!

2011-04-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

Since I wasn't that organized for Easter this year, I just found out my parents are coming up from the south of the province for Easter dinner.   I wasn't organized enough to get a nice ham from the local supplier and (after letting them spoil me) I can't imagine paying more for a worse tasting store brand one.

I flat out admidt this post is total plagiarism from Alton Brown. If they send me a take down notice, I will. There isn't really anything I could do to make this any better. Really.   BEST. TURKEY. EVER. Try it. You will never go back.

The original recipe says to start brining the night before. I always buy a fresh turkey from Costco, and I figure that if I'm going to have turkey sitting in my fridge, it might as well be marinading in flavour.

15 lb turkey, fresh or thawed
1 cup kosher salt
½ cup brown sugar
8 cups vegetable stock
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 ½ teaspoons whole allspice
2 teaspoons candied ginger, chopped
1 apple, sliced
½ onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
½ cup canola oil
sprinkle paprika

1. Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve sugar and salt.   Bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate, in large bucket with turkey, breast side down

WARNING: This is a two stage roasting recipe. If your mom, like my mom, always put the turkey in as soon as you got home from mass, this may seem like you are waiting too long to start. Trust the recipe. The first time I tried this we ended up with the bird done at 4pm because I couldn't imagine not starting supper until 2:30. So I started cooking at 1pm and the bird was done before I had even started anything else.

2. 3 1/2 hours before you are ready to eat: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F, allow at least 30 minute to come up to temperature. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

3. Place the bird on roasting rack inside a roaster and pat dry with towel. (Original recipe says half sheet, but it is too juicy and will overflow and start an oven fire)

4. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil. Sprinkle with paprika

5. Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Triathlon update

2011-04-18T10:24:00.000-05:00

I honestly can't see how I'm going to be able to participate in a triathlon this spring. Even a short one. Bike training is going great. I'm training with the trailer and on race day without it will be so much easier! Running is.... going. I'm getting better. I'm not really a jogger yet, but I can see progress.

Swimming is completely stalled. I am so much better than I was when I started. In fact, I am as good of a swimmer as I ever have been. That's the problem. I have never been a swimmer. I am not completely exhausted after swimming. I am getting stronger that way. But I still flounder and drown too much to participate in a race. What I need is professional help in the form of stroke improvement classes or adult swimming lessons or something.

Except there aren't any that I could take and finish and still have time to practice before the race. I have to admit, I am really disappointed in myself.

I really wanted to do this.

I knew the swimming was going to be a problem, but I thought I would keep getting better. I didn't expect to keep getting better as fast as I did in the beginning, but ... I didn't expect to still be this bad. I even added extra swim days to the training plan to help make up for my lack of skill.

I know it's not about the weight, which is a good thing because I haven't lost any. I think my muscles are starting to show. I feel better. All in all, it has been a really good experience. And still.... I am disappointed in myself.

Bike hoarding

2011-04-17T14:54:00.001-05:00

I acquired this mini Raleigh for not much money (out of my pocket but less than half my grocery budget for the week) for a nice lady I met on the internet who lives near Edmonton. Now she has stopped returning my emails. Amazingly, I'm not too stressed about that. I found out via the other nice people on the internet that is is a Raleigh Colt. It was purpose built for tweens and people between 4'5 and about 5'. As near as I can tell based on serial number placement this one is an early 1970's model. The big girls are likely already too big for this bike, but Toddler girl isn't. Having a few years to really clean it up and make it sparkle will be fun. It seems to be a really well build bike and runs nicer than my CCM. Aside from my knees coming up over the handle bars as I pedal.

If she doesn't want it when she grows to that size, I can sell it then. If she does want one and I sell it now, they are only going to get harder to find. I could sell it right now, since I have already have someone who wants it for parts. I just hate turning a functioning bike into a non-functioning bike. To me, I would always rather have that equation work in reverse. Especially since the only problem I can is some minor surface rust on the fenders and chain guard. I really believe that a little clean would be all it takes to fix that. The chrome is perfect.

On one hand, I would NOT have bought this for myself. On the other, now that I have it.... It is growing on me. Let me know when I become a bike hoarder, OK?

Snow! Again!

2011-04-15T09:15:00.004-05:00

I don't know why this bothers me. As a single person I used to bike or walk in the snow all the time. I think it's the snow suit. Not my snowsuit, toddler girl's snowsuit. You know the one. You try to get the kid to pee. She swears she doesn't have to. You put on the snow pants, the mittens, the coat, hat and scarf. You stuff on her boats. Then after five minutes outside, she has to pee RIGHT NOW! Sometimes if you run (and are lucky) you can get all those clothes off in time to get to the potty. If you don't quite make it in time.... you spend the rest of the day doing laundry and you aren't going anywhere.

It becomes easier to just take the car. There is a lot less outerwear involved in a car trip.

I don't really like taking the car more than I have to. This is why we spend most of the winter in the house getting cabin fever.

Before toddler girl, I would have considered just getting a Pugsley. However, I have found that once you adds kids to the mix, all those "go bike, go!" tips fall apart. This winter I went to a winter cycling workshop. It talked about staying warm, being visible, traveling with a cell phone and cab fare in case of sudden snow storm. When I asked about winter biking with kids, the presenters started responding as if I had said "teenagers." When I clarified that I meant toddlers, there was an uncomfortable silence before everyone on the panel slowly admitted they had no ideas.

In a room full of people who had drunk the bike everywhere cool aid, no one wanted to say you can't bike in the snow with tiny people. Or at least that's what it felt like. No one said it isn't safe. The people in the audience said, watch out for your trailer tipping. Don't let the kid go to sleep in case they get hypothermia. (How do you keep a kid in a trailer from falling asleep? Toddler girls naps every time.) They said stop every few minutes to check the kid for cold spots. The list of safety things to keep in mind made it unrealistic to bike for transport with a toddler in the winter.

Once they are on their own bike or even a tow behind half bike, you can do it. But for littles in the snow...... take the bus.

Ha! Ever tried minding a toddler and enough groceries for a family of five on the bus? I know there are people who do it, but it is REALLY hard. Especially when you have to walk several blocks from the bus stop and the toddler wants to be carried and you are already at load capacity for the bags of groceries. Plus people don't always shovel and if I slipped while carrying her I could crush her.

I think I may have to go change my goals to account for snow.

The snow didn't last, but I stayed inside and painted the bathroom anyway. Two coats of paint and three loads of laundry made for a full day. I wish Peg Bracken was available on the Kindle....

Doh!

2011-04-14T14:05:00.001-05:00

I think I have picked a very bad day indeed to start trying to be car free.

My main bathroom has some drywall damage that has finally gotten repaired and is ready to paint. I need to get some primer. I think I will just use the left over paint from C's room. It's a nice juicy green colour that will co-ordinate with the unfortunately mushroom coloured bathroom suite. Plus the bathroom is only about 8 x 6 so it won't take very much paint to cover.

I really need to prime first. When we bought the house, the last owners had painted just before we got it. They went from oil to latex without priming. About a week after we moved in the paint started peeling off the walls.

Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, my house has mange. I have sanded and primed and repainted the hallway previously. It's a tiny hallway and it still took me a whole week of hard work. The living room, kitchen and dining room have most of the problem areas behind the furniture. The bathroom was pretty bad but we had to open the walls in there to fix plumbing problems and I wasn't in a rush to deal with it.

We've been in the house since 2003. We have replaced the furnace, gutted the basement, added a basement suite, replaced half the windows and replaced all the appliances. Last year, Tyson's parents bought us new shingles. Previously we had to dig up both lawns because the house came with tumbleweeds growing in the lawn. It has been a non stop reno since we are doing the work as money becomes available. We bought the worst house on the best block we could afford and have been slowly making it better.

We are the po white trash on the block. Or at least the social climbers. It isn't even all that fancy of a block. It's mostly small starter homes from the 1960's and most of the people in them are eldery types who never managed to get beyond the starter home. I expect we won't be any different. The house is around a 1000 sq feet, three bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths up and we have added legal bedroom #4 and a full bath in the basement. The girls live upstairs, we live down. I am very proud of all the work we have done with very little debt being accrued.

Sorry? What was I talking about?

Oh yes. So today I had to buy a gallon of paint on my bike. And I did it, with Ellie in tow.

I really want to get the bathroom finished being painted before the exchange students come on Sunday. Saturday is the big Easter Tea I want to be able to attend, so painting has to happen NOW.

I am procrastinating by blogging about it.

Biking goals

2011-04-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

I have withdrawn my application from the Lovely Bicycle contest. I didn't really think it was fair to be applying for a bike contest for women in need when I just voluntarily spent almost a Belle Ciao on my husband. I had meant to do that as soon as I got home, but E came home from gramma's house with a tummy bug, and I have spent the day running loads of laundry.

Based on my new "work with what I have" philosophy I have decided to set some bicycle goals. Yeah, cheesy huh?

1. Try to work two extra shifts at the clinic so I can afford a Velo Orange saddle. Yes, a Brooks saddle would be nice, but that's almost a week of extra shifts and it isn't realistic to think I could get that much child care organized for free. Or that there would be that many shifts available. And, yes, I also know this isn't strictly speaking "working with what I have" but a new seat is a lot less than a new bike

2. I want to learn a more graceful dismount technique. I have to get the new saddle first because when I tried it with my current cracked and falling apart synthetic saddle I just slid off and fell over. (Interesting, my current saddle is a Brooks. It's just a Brooks for the times of troubles when Brooks was making bad vinyl saddles)

3. I want to learn to start my bike the way Dottie does over at Let's go Ride a Bike.

4. I want to organize my life so that I only use the car one day week. I'm going to choose Tuesdays, since that's game night and also discount day at the local grocery store. I want to stick to this transportation plan until snow at least.

5. I want to find out what other good biking techniques I have somehow missed learning and learn them.

6. I want to either trade in the Chariot on a toddler seat or have a garage sale or something to fund one. The chariot can be towed by anyone in the family for recreation rides, but it is really hard to park at the grocery store. Plus, someone suggested that it might be causing the problems I've been having with the CCM (aka Victoria) and a little comparative testing has so far indicated I don't have problems with the old girl when toddler girl isn't in tow. Since a child seat would attach to my rear rack and prevent me from using rear baskets, I would also need a front basket and front wheel stabilizer to be able to bring groceries home or carry a toddler survival pack or whatever. I'm not even really sure Victoria can even carry a toddler seat, but I'm going to look into it.

7. I want to go out there and have T tighten up everything on Victoria so she stops rattling so badly.

Not strictly bicycle related but up and coming in my life, I need to start planning the garden. I always grow one to supplement our groceries in the summer. This year I want to try square foot gardening. Whatever configuration I plant in, I need to get some seeds started.

Last year, I biked home from the farmers market with E in the trailer and 10 kg of peaches strapped to my back rack on more than one occasion. We are almost out of peach preserves and I will miss them when they are gone. It really makes me glad that I have some old fashioned skills. Those skills will get us through times of old bikes better than new bikes would get us through times of having to pay for ready made food.

Surprising

2011-04-13T09:03:00.005-05:00

I was quite amazed to view my stats page and learn that I have readers from around the world. Personally, I suspect this is due to Google misdirects since I don't find my blog all that interesting.

With this in mind, however, I decided not to post about our trip until we got back.

I know that I whine (a lot) about the sad state of my bike. I also know that this story make cause you to doubt the sincerity of my desire to upgrade or repair my sad vintage Victoria. I can assure you, that is NOT the case.

I had just about saved up to be able to buy a Gazelle Basic. It took over a year. Now I have gone and spent that money on my husband. It isn't that I don't desperately want a new bicycle, it just that I love my husband more. I saved up once. I can do it again.

T's grandfather was a John Deere dealer. When T was little he and his granpa would work on a 1960's JD garden tractor together. Granpa would take him for rides on it. They would fix it up together. It is one of T's happiest memories of his granpa, who I suspect wasn't every sure what to do with a grandson who couldn't walk before his surgery at age 7 and can't walk well even after. Men born in 1910 just were never taught skills to interact with a diverse population. T and I call it the "able bodied male syndrome." The whole "never complain, never explain" and certainly never admit you can't do anything mentality.

T's granpa died when T was in high school and T's dad inherited the little tractor. It was parked in the backyard. That was over 20 years ago. It has sat there rusting to pieces ever since.

For the last ten or so years that T and I have been together we have tried to get T's dad to let us restore it, or at least move it into shelter to keep it from getting worse. Dad keeps saying he'll get to it.

The thing is, it wasn't HIS granpa's tractor. Dad has no emotion attachment to it. Taking care of it is not a priority for Dad. And in the mean time it is crumbling to dust. When we first started talking about fixing it up, there was still a chance that we could. Now..... there is barely anything left to save.

T is heartbroken.

I have been watching the classified ads daily for a vintage bike since shortly after E was born and about a couple of weeks ago I saw an ad for the same model of tractor for sale. These tractors occasionally come up for sale in the US where there were lots of them, but there were not that many in Canada. In the over a year (almost two) that I had been watching ads and saving my pennies this was the first one I saw that wasn't all tricked out and being sold as a museum piece for $5000+ . It runs. It needs work. It costs more than a Gazelle Basic and by the time you factor in driving to go get it and a hotel because it is a 10 hour drive away, it is almost as much as a Gazelle Toer Populair. But it may be our one chance to get one of these tractors and if we miss it, I don't think we will get another.

I couldn't even do a gift of the magi for him and just spend my bike money on it, I didn't have enough.

In a completely fool hardy move, we spent my bike money and his tax refund and just got the darn tractor. It took a two day trip. We took Dad's truck. We are both exhausted. He is so happy it make my heart swell to see it.

It will like be another couple of years to save up for the Gazelle, but I am going to stop whining about my grungy of bicycle now. I made my choice. I will live with it. Gazelles will still be there to purchase in another two years. The chance to buy a JD 110 garden tractor wouldn't have been.

I just really hope we don't have cause to regret it. In the mean time, we have parked the car. T is biking to work. I am biking for everything. We are saving the gas money for other things. like a better bike and the never ending project of replacing the windows on our house.

That's the thing that has me worried. Money in a bank account that could eventually become a bike could also become windows if we had problems. Money in a tractor (or a bike for that matter) is a lot harder to get at if something comes up. We never buy frivolous things, certainly nothing this big. We never go on vacation. It feels weird to finally have something like that. Especially since we still are pinching our pennies everywhere else.

Bike vs car

2011-04-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

Ellie and I just took the bike to the grocery store. On our way back we were involved in a hit and run.

Fortunately no damage, but still.... it's the principle of the thing. The guy swerved in front of me and made a high speed right turn while I was in it's turning radius and clipped my front tire. Then while I was picking myself up out of the gravel, the guy yelled "learn how to drive" at me.

Yeah.

Right back at you bub.

Didn't get his plate. Didn't have my cell to call the cops. Note to self: no biking without cell phone from now on.

The ride home was ... even more clonky than before. I think it's just that the chain guard just came loose again when I bailed.

Cowboy style baked beans

2011-04-08T19:09:00.001-05:00

I have adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com. It was very good as written. I like the extra smokey flavor and zip that the Bull's Eye sauce gives. Plus my local grocery store sells white beans in a 907g bag, which conveniently is about 4 cups. If you need extra protein slicing in a couple of BBQ bratwursts is a nice addition.

An informal facebook poll suggested serving with corn bread and greens. Personally, if I'm stressing everyone's GI tract with beans, adding a dark green and leafy seems awfully risky when there are more people than toilets in this house. Buns or bannock and fresh fruit like muskmelon work well.

Ingredients

4 cups white (navy) beans
1 pound bacon
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup (or slightly more) table molasses
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 oz Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups water

Directions

Soak beans overnight
Chop bacon into 2 inch long pieces, pan fry in a No. 6 cast iron frying pan. Remove with tongs to plate covered with a paper towel to soak up some of the bacon fat
Drain most of the grease but leave a little to saute the onion
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Drain and rinse beans.
Add the beans, onion and bacon in a 5 quart glazed dutch oven
In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, spices, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ suace and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer and drizzle over beans.
Put dutch oven on the burner on Medium and bring to a simmer.
Cover with a lid, place in preheated oven
Bake for 5 or 6 hours, until beans are done. Soft not crunchy and the sauce is a rich thick brown. Stir halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent drying out.

Bike rebuilding

2011-04-07T23:01:00.002-05:00

So.... I have removed the rear wheel and re- installed it with the best chain tension I could manage. I re-installed the cable for the IGH and tensioned it properly to shift correctly. I tightened the screws the hold the chain guard in place.

That took care of the rattle and the shifting and the losing power. I still had the clonk from the BB. I have had to face up to the fact that this is the bike I have and I will just have to live with the clonk. The mechanic says it is fine to ride, it just clonks because it is old and a little worn.

Then I got to bike today. It was glorious. I had to stop several times to retighten the screws on the chain guard and the rear nuts on the axel? Spindle? Thingy. I'm not too proud to admit I need to get T to use those manly muscles to tighten everything more than I can.

I biked to the library for story time (3 kms each direction), then had lunch and biked to the post office and back (2kms each direction) to pick up my package. Since the sweater didn't fit, I biked back to the post office to send it back. Then I biked to the grocery story to buy buns for dinner. Total bike distance for today: approximately 16km. Not far compared to people who are race training, but I towed a baby trailer and was riding a heavy vintage steel bicycle.

So far my muscle aren't sore, but I think I have saddle sores. Lovely Bicycle had done a few article on bike saddles lately. I think I have to start saving. I'm not sure what to think of the idea that my saddle could be worth more that the whole rest of my bicycle.

Toddler girl took this all in stride. She is turning into a potty rock star. She even took herself to the full sized toilet when I nodded off during afternoon movie between the first and second trip to the post office. I woke up to a half naked kidlet carrying her pants and a well used unflushed toilet.

I can't even begin to tell you how proud and glad I am that she made it. I would not have wanted to clean that out of a cloth diaper. You know you are potty training when you travel with a chamber pot in your bike basket. (Pictured right next to my purse. It's blue.)

As I uploaded the picture, I noticed you can still see the last of the snow in the background.

Training.... no, the other kind.

2011-04-07T09:47:00.001-05:00

Tuesday night toddler girl didn't sleep. This is NOT usual for her, usually, she tucks in between 7 and 8pm and sleeps a good 12 hours. Tuesday she fussed in her room until 11pm and did not go to sleep. Then she woke up wet and crabby at 12:30am. It took a little while for me to get her settled again. Then she was up just after 4 am and T sat up with her for 2 hours before she went back to sleep. Just in time for everyone else to have to get up to get ready for work and school. All told, the whole lot of us got around 4 hours of sleep that night.

T went to work, V went to school and I got toddler girl up for the day at about 9am. It was tempting to let her sleep, but then we would just further mess up her sleep patterns. She cried from 9am until 11am when we had early lunch and I let her have a nap from noon until 2. When I got her up she screamed like a banshee for an hour and a half. I was sure the neighbors were going to report me.

Here's the thing. Despite being more crabby than I can recall seeing her ever be before, she still only had two little dribble accidents and managed to get eleven pees on the potty! Including a puddle jumping trip to the park where everything got wet except her undies!

I think we are getting trained! Yay!

Last night she slept really well.

I missed putting her to bed since some really generous and understanding friends took me out for dinner and drinks after Day of the Screaming Toddler. That's like Night of the Living Dead, but with more potties and fewer decapitations. Mind you, Barbie may never be the same.

So a great big THANK YOU to Toddler girl's Aunts for helping me regain some sanity, and introducing me to Better Off Ted. Which, amazingly, is available on Canadian Netflix. And also a big THANK YOU to T for taking over the "parent in charge" role as soon as he got home. My nerves were just shot.

Waffles

2011-04-05T15:12:00.004-05:00

I have to confess, waffles are one of those "I have miscalculated my food budget, how to I stretch to the end of the month without buying anything expensive" foods. I am embarrassed to admit that this happens every once in a while when unexpected expenses come up and I have to "borrow" the money from somewhere. Fortunately I found this great recipe from Average Betty and my family hasn't noticed I'm feeding them on the cheap. In fact, they ask for waffles as a special "breakfast at dinner" treat.

I can't take credit for this recipe. The only thing I have changed is the cream of tarter which works its magic to make fluffy, yet crisp waffles that are the sought after texture around here.

There is a lot of cooking gear that I have inherited from my Gran, but the copper bowl I use here was found at Sally Ann for $0.99. Best Sally Ann purchase I have ever made. It also works great as a double boiler for lemon curd.

Waffles
1 ¾ cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cups milk
2 egg
½ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter

1. 1. Separate egg whites from yolks
2. In the copper bowl, using the small mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tarter until stiff peaks. Set aside until step 7
3. In a large mixer bowl combine milk, egg yolks, canola oil and vanilla.
4. Slowly add flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Remember speed kills
5. Mix gently, just until combined. Batter will be lumpy.
6. Plug in waffle iron and pre heat to level 3 until green light goes off.
7. Using a spoon, fold stiffened egg whites into mixture. Batter will be really lumpy.
8. Pour batter into preheated waffle iron. Bake 5 minutes

Goals

2011-04-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

Since things feel like they have come off the rails, I think it's time to restate my goals. Or at least state my goals, since I'm not really sure I have done that here.

When I started this blog I wanted a place to post the recipes I use in a search-able archive that my girls could access. And since I was publishing about food, I wanted to post some entries about my belief that "good" and "bad" being irrelevant terms when it comes to food. Food is just food. Like anything else, it's all about moderation.

C, who is diabetic has (I think) a fairly good grasp of this. She can eat anything as long as she watches her portions, balances her exercise and is careful with her activity level. Eating out of balance (or disordered eating) as it is sometimes called has IMMEDIATE repercussions for her. The rest of us can justify eating a six pack of donuts because, we don't do it everyday and we will make up for it later. Then we don't. She knows that kind of binge eating will make her feel awful right now, so she doesn't do it.

V, well.... some times I worry about you darling. You talk about food using morality terms, chocolate bunnies as bad. Well, OK, so eating an entire one as part of your regular diet might be a problem, but it isn't the bunny's fault. I worry when you come out with statements like "I HATE butter." I worry that you hide food in your room to be able to eating things that Candice would have to be careful with. I'm glad you aren't eating an entire bag of peach candy in front of her, but I worry that the food choices available to you are so unappealing that you would choose to eat an entire bag of peach candy.

And I have no idea how to talk to you about food without making you even more neurotic. I have the usual food issues that North American women pick up along the way. I am hoping that by providing a good example and healthy foods for you to choose from that you will find your way. Or at least be able to counter balance the mixed messages out there.

Then I wanted to find away to be more active. The CCM might be a right off, but I got into the swimming pool for the first time in two weeks. It was.... good to be back. I'm not any worse than I was the last time I was there. I wish I was better. I may have to see about saving up for some stroke improvement lessons or something.

I have to keep in mind that the bike as a car alternative was the means not the end. If I can walk and focus on keeping Toddler girl active during the day, I can juggle cars and run errands in the evenings after T gets home. Yes, having a practical city bike would help alot, but.... let's just wait and see on that one. Maybe I'll win the Superba, maybe I'll find something at a garage sale this summer.

In the mean time, I'll just keep doing what I do.

Waffle recipe to follow.

Now what?

2011-04-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

Did I mention I'm stubborn much? At this point I wish I had just left the darn CCM in the junk heap it came from. I wish I hadn't spent the money for parts thinking I could fix it. I wish the frame wasn't so comfortable. I wish I had put the parts money into a saving account for a new bike.

I still wouldn't have a bike, but I would be closer to being able to buy one. I got sucked in by the idea of a fixed up vintage bike. Of saving a bike from the land fill. Of getting a comfortable bike on the cheap. All those months of the back ordered parts was just the universe trying to give me a hint that it wasn't meant to be.

All the enjoyment I got out of playing bike repair person is completely ruined by learning I will never be able to ride the bike I put all that work into. That the two fabulous trips I got out of it were the most expensive bike rides I will ever take. It was really comfortable.

Now what?

More stubborn. More at home repairs. More frustration. More trying to solve my bike's problems while Toddler Girl doesn't nap.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I should give up on fixing the CCM for a while and just .... But that's just it.... just what?

The library is a 5 minute drive away, or 15 minutes by bike, or 30 - 40 minutes on foot. Or (and this is a kicker) 75 minutes and three transfers by bus. No. I am not making that up. The return trip by bus is faster. It's only 55 minutes and two transfers. Toddler girl can't walk that far. I could put her in the carrier or stroller, but an hour long hike to attend a 30 minute toddler program is .... impractical? It would be the only thing we could do all morning. She would sleep in the stroller and be all hyper when we got home.

Neither one of us is keen to spend time on the bus or in the car. Not after being trapped inside all winter. And, as previously mentioned, the car isn't a practical option most days.

There is a park that is only a 5 minute walk from home. I hope snow melts and the mud dries up soon so we can go play there without getting cold and wet.

I don't mind cold, but I can't handle cold and wet. Muddy washes. That's the least of my worries. Kids are made to get muddy, sticky and covered in grime. It's part of life. Cleaning them up is what moms (and dads) are for. Mud made of ice crystals is a special kind of nasty though. It's hypothermia that sneaks up on you.

Trapped

2011-04-04T12:20:00.005-05:00

I don't have the car today. I don't really feel safe taking the bike for a ride when darling husband is at work and can't come rescue me if I run into problems. I know I'm not any more trapped at home than I usually am, but it feels worse since it is spring out there and I had been getting some biking in before the failure yesterday. In the mean time.... what do I do?

If I risk taking the bike, I have to face the chance that I will be miles from home with a broken bike and have to push it and the baby trailer all the way home with an unhappy kidlet in the back. Again. It might be fine. I think I fixed the problem. If I'm wrong... the negatives out weigh the positives of getting out of the house.

Gosh, I hope I win the bike from Lovely Bicycle. Yes, I could get a x-mart special for about $150. It's just that after all the problems I had with the last bargain bike causing me hip pain, I'm not in a rush to get another mountain bike type and try to use it for something that frame wasn't designed for. The CCM may be a junker, but she was build to be a city bike. I can tell the difference. It doesn't hurt to ride. It is just frustrating when the old girl shows her age.

If it were just me, I would go. I would be OK with the prospect of having to do road side repairs. With a toddler along, I have to plan my ride based on never being more that 5 minutes from a public toilet (we are potty learning right now). Add to that the possibility of having to spend 20 minutes doing emergency repairs and it just isn't feasible right now. I need to wait until someone can stay with toddler girl and I can go for a test drive.

I was going to pop over to Car Free Family and ask how they deal with potty learning and biking, but I chickened out. How do you ask total strangers about potty learning without sounding like some internet creep?

UPDATE: Took the CCM out for a test ride while Hubby stayed in with toddler girl. It is still non-functional. I couldn't even make it to the property line. The only way I can afford to take it for repairs is if I raid the home repairs account. That money is committed to replacing the windows I already ordered. Bike vs windows that don't leak. It's an obvious choice. I can't put my need for convenient transportation ahead of my family's need for housing. I just wish I had other options.

Argh!

2011-04-03T12:47:00.004-05:00

http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/If happiness is taking your bike for a ride with your daughter on a beautiful spring morning, then sadness is having the bike become non-functional at the furthest point in your ride. I think I just need to re-tension my IGH cable, but the walk home pushing the bike and the trailer while toddler girl begged me to bike was very demoralizing.

UPDATE: I have tightened the cable, but I haven't had a chance to test drive it yet. I was hoping to post about how I was trying a pedaling technique I read about on Lovely Bicycle where you kind of push back against the saddle as you peddle uphill. It worked great! Until my bike failed.

I can't find the post I read it in any more. It was while I was reading the back episodes that I found a quick two line throw away tip. I made a mental note to try that, but now I can't even go back and post a thank you since I have no idea where it was.

I really like that blog and others with biking tips written by women. Now I just need to find a good beginner swimming blog. I'm missing my pool time tomorrow to take the car in for maintenance at 8am tomorrow and I will miss lane swim completely. I hope tomorrow is one of the last car days of the summer.

Baked potato and bacon soup

2011-04-02T14:09:00.004-05:00

4 large Baker Potato , Baked, peeled
1 pound low sodium Bacon, chopped, fried, drained
3 stalk Celery, chopped
1 medium Sweet Onion, chopped
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups milk
2 cups sour cream and onion dip
1 cup cheddar cheese, shreeded

(to bake potatoes, wash, rub with olive oil, prick with fork at bake on cookie sheet at 350F for about 2 hours)

1. In 6 quart Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp.
2. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain and pour the bacon drippings into a cup. Put 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings back into the pan along with the butter, chopped onion, and celery. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender.
3. Stir in the flour until blended. Stir in chicken broth; cover and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thickened and vegetables are very tender.
4. Stir in milk, scooped out potato, salt, pepper, and cheese. Continue cooking until cheese is melted.
5. Blend about half of the soup in batches until smooth. Add the blended soup back to the pot and add sour cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until soup is hot. Serve the soup garnished with bacon.

Back in the game

2011-04-01T23:54:00.000-05:00

It was +8C today! The sun was shining! Despite having a cold AND working out of the home, I still got in a really nice walk.

The guys on the bike forums tell me my bike is betamaxing. Apparently the bad bottom bracket is a big deal. I'm going to fiddle with it tomorrow and see if I can't make it a little better anyway.

Spring makes everything seem better!

Falling off the wagon

2011-03-31T08:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't been training in a week now. Toddler girl was really crabby the last few days. Keeping her from screaming until I wanted to join in became the only thing I could accomplish in a day. The family lived on batch cooked meals out of the fridge. It was .... one of the more challenging aspects of motherhood that somethimes come up.

Now I know what was going on with her. I think she was sick. And now I have it. I am nauseous and cranky and I can't sleep. And as a completely random symptom, I also have leg cramps.

I am taking a couple of days off and I may need a kick in the pants to get going again next week.

Feeling blue - graditude post.

2011-03-29T11:52:00.008-05:00

It's -8C outside. It's snowing. I think my bike is breaking again. The BRAKES are fine. It turns out coaster brakes work much better when you aren't on sheer ice. Who knew?

The part that has me worried is the bottom bracket, again. It is clonking as I pedal. It is very discouraging.

In the mean time, I entered a bike give away. Lovely Bicycle is giving away my dream bike. If I had $1500 dollars.... OK, Let's be fair, if I had $1500, I have windows that need replacing. But let's pretend my house was all fixed up and I had some money to spend, THIS is the bike I would get.

However the contest has gone viral and I've never won much more than a free coffee. So, not much real hope there. I am not well off, but there are lots of people that are worse off than me.

My house is very small, but we can pay our mortgages. Lots of people can't. My kids aren't healthy, but no one has anything fatal. I think we manage C's diabetes fairly well when she is here with us. E gets a lot of colds, but they don't usually last too long. We only have one car but it can comfortably hold the whole family and isn't too big that we can't afford to put gas in it. My husband loves me and lets me know it. AND he does the dishes.

I have wonderful supportive parents and parents-in-law. I have wonderful friends that keep me company and organize a game night every week, so I'm not completely socially deprived. Toddler girl E gives the nicest hugs and says "luv vu mum mum" and is so sweet and cute it brings tears to my eyes.

I will be ok without a bike, if it turns out that this one completely fails. I just really hope it doesn't.

UPDATE: I posted my tale of woe to bike forums and have been told not to ride my bike as is. Victoria is benched until I can take her to the Doctor. In the mean time, the very nice lady (and I mean that in the true sense of the word, not in the condescending way that irritates feminists) at Lovely Bicycle has sent me a "Thank you for your entry" email. The winner is being announced in May, but it was really nice to hear my letter at least made it past her spam filter. I hope this all works out some how.

Weather dependant

2011-03-25T09:15:00.001-05:00

We have had more snow. Lots of snow and very cold temperatures. Spring seems so far away when it is -25C outside this morning.

Last week I got a bike ride in. On the snow. On my fixed up bike...... The coaster brakes scare the pants off me, especially on ice. Yes, I started blogging about food, then went off about triathlon, now you have to read bout bikes? Yup.

So.... I had a bike that I LOVED. SO. MUCH. My husband bought it for me sort of as a wedding present. I adored that bike. I rode it to work everyday. Then I dislocated my knee cap at work. I didn't bike much that summer. Then I got pregnant and had hip complications. I didn't bike much that summer. Then baby was too little to ride in a bike trailer without getting shaken baby syndrome. So, I didn't ride much that summer either.

Last summer, for the first time in three years, I got to ride my bike. It was uncomfortable right from the start. I thought I was horribly out of shape and I persisted. It didn't get better, it got worse. By the end of the summer it hurt to even climb onto the saddle. After doing extensive research, I discovered that this is a problem some people have with that type of frame. Ironically, the "comfort" bike is the most uncomfortable frame for some people. What with one thing and another, I had become one of those people.

Some people might not care that their bike had become unridable. After three years of being benched, you might wonder why I care. I care because up until that fateful knee injury, I rode my bike all summer. The car would pretty much sit and collect dust. I'm not even joking about that part, I would have to dust the dashboard before I could drive it in the winter.

So, last fall I found a couple of really old bike frames in garage sales and what not and bought them for $3 - $5. Then I spend the winter cleaning and rebuilding them. The 10 speed.... well, it hasn't been out yet. I know it is too icey for those narrow tyres.

The other one is a CCM mixte. I have.... reservations about that bike. It was the more expensive one to fix up. It needed new everything. $400 of new everything. In the end I have a bike that is an absolute joy to ride. But it only has a rear coaster brake. To be fair, the one I would buy (if I could afford it) has a rear coaster brake, but it has front brakes too. That would help the skidding to one side when you try to stop.

That really is the problem. It is so much fun to ride. It's just the stopping that is a problem, and the rust, and the hard time getting parts, and the lack of cargo options on the CCM (I've named her Victoria). She is almost a good bike. Ok, no, she is a grungy bike that happens to have the right frame geometry to cradle my bones without causing me pain. After last year, I don't want to give that up.

Expectations

2011-03-22T18:12:00.000-05:00

It looked like it was going to be spring for the last week or so. It was so close. Snow was melting, the sun was shining. Sure, the sidewalk was so icey that it was completely ridiculous to think you run on it and the streets were not good for biking, but you could see that it was close.

Now we've had another 5 cm of snow.

I feel completely bummed.

Part of it is my project bike. I have been dreaming about getting it fixed up and taking it for a ride for months. I am almost there. I just need to find a rear rack that fits it and holds my wald baskets. But I have spent so much time clean and fussing with the darn thing, I'm just sick of it. It is really frustrating, but I know that even with all the work I've put into it, it still will only be an OK bike. Not a great bike. And in the mean time, it HAS been a lot of work and I haven't been able to ride it anywhere yet.

I have the "winter is too long" blues

Oh the horror!

2011-03-21T09:22:00.002-05:00

Ok. So it wasn't that bad, but shopping for swimsuits is on of the trials of womanhood. Nevermind the tiny change rooms, or the bad lighting or the bizarre sizing or the problems of needing a one piece when your tops and bottom are different sizes. The swimsuit industry has tried really hard to correct that if your are looking for a, well, let's call it a beach suit.

However, if you are planning on being in the pool 2-3 times a week and your don't want a "wardrobe malfunction" when you try to do an in pool turn (fail, btw)... It's a whole different matter.

I consider myself a fairly average North American Mom. I'm about 20 pounds over my high school weight, but some of that is post baby belly and I didn't really get boobs until college. The rest is a gentle, all over coating with a couple of extra layers on my hips. At 5'4", I am sort of on the line between normal clothing and petit, but I usually take a petit through the torso.

They don't offer petit sizes in "competitive" swimwear in my city. I tried. I went to every sporting goods store I could think of and several department stores that have swimwear sections. Which meant my choices are to buy one that fits in the bum and have the crotch hangs about an inch or so too long. Not socially acceptable. Or I buy on that is too tight, get the sausage effect around the back strap and the waist and have the lack of coverage drag the crotch up to an acceptable level.

I don't really like either option.

But neither does anything to address the the problem of... the shelf bra! Oh man, the shelf bra. I don't know about you, but for me there should be horror music playing as I type that. The Shelf Bra (da da DA!)

What were they thinking when they build the shelf bra? Yes, I understand the idea the well endowed women could use it for cleavage support. But really, chesty women are not going to get enough support from a stupid little piece of elastic. They have their own horrors of the swimsuit store. Personally, I always wonder why the hell it always, ALWAYS, hits me right below the ribcage. I've breast feed a baby for two years and my boobs still aren't that low. Never mind that even if they hung down that far, that they certainly wouldn't be getting any support from an elastic way down there.

I've always understood that the bottom of your bra strap, in a properly fit bra should be about half way between your elbow and your shoulder. So why do swimsuits put the shelf bra even with my elbow?

But if you look for a swimsuit that is fully lined with out a shelf bra, you get a choice of... two. The black one or the other black one.

I chose the black one. It's OK. It doesn't fit all that well. I will avoid looking in the mirror while I wear it. But it is the least uncomfortable of the 50+ suits I tried on Saturday.

Nothing is more demoralizing than shopping for swimsuits. Seriously, having a herd of six interns check out my peritoneum after my daughter was born and one of them saying I was so bruised I looked like I have been kicked wasn't nearly as bad. Even when they all poked at my stitches.

Crazy much?

2011-03-18T06:11:00.018-05:00

I can't believe I am saying this, but I am really looking forward to swimming this morning. It is icey and gross outside for biking and running, but swimming is warm and toddler free. Even if I have to get up at crack of pre dawn.

I'm even anticipating finding out if today is better than last week. I hope so. I have been working hard, despite missing a few workouts this week. I know the weather will be nicer in a few weeks but right now I occasionally think about just dropping the triathlon and just going with swimming.

I mean really, what I am I doing? Triathlon at my age with small kids?

Then the stubborn kicks in and I remember that all the reasons I signed up for this thing are still there and more pool time isn't going to solve anything. With any luck, I'll be able to post a after swim update, but that all depends on if the toddler is up yet when I get home.

St Paddy's day

2011-03-17T22:05:00.002-05:00

In honour of St Patrick's day, I managed to prove I am not Irish by making Irish stew from a recipe I found on the internet. I will post the recipe, but first I'll just send you to All Recipes UK:

Irish Stew with Parsnips

Fortunately the stew turned out really well. I started in my 5 quart Kitchen aid dutch oven, but it quickly became apparent that it just wasn't big enough. So I switched to the monster that was too big. At some point I hope to have an in between size, but for now the beast works just fine.

I did change a few things, I tripled the veg, used baby potatoes and ended up adding some cornstarch to thicken it at the end. And because I hate leaving the stove on with a free range toddler in the house, I baked it in the oven at 300F. So here is my version, in case I want to remember what I did later on.

Irish stew -
Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1000g lamb shoulder, bone out

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 large onion, quartered

1 lb baby carrots from a bag

3 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks

4 cups water

25 baby potatoes, halved

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (optional)

1 leek, green part only, rinsed and coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon cornstarch in a little cold water to avoid lumps

		Preheat oven to 300F Heat oil over medium heat in a large stockpot or casserole pot. Add lamb pieces and cook, stirring gently, until evenly browned. Season with salt and pepper.

		Add the onion, carrots and parsnips and cook gently alongside the meat for a few minutes. Stir in the water. Cover and bring to a boil before turning the heat down to low. Simmer in oven for 2 hours.

		Stir in potatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes before adding leeks and rosemary. Continue to simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender but still whole. Remove from oven and add cornstarch. Simmer on stove top to thicken.

Not quite yet.

2011-03-16T12:36:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a scheduled day off on the training plan. Sunday was my Gramma's 98th birthday. It was a three hour drive each way to get to her party. Monday was a scheduled swim day, but lane swim is only really available to me at 6:30am. I was too tired from the trip and I slept right through the alarm. Tuesday was a scheduled day off.

So, it's been four days off since my last workout. It feels like I have completely fallen off the wagon. today is a 35 minute bike ride day. In theory, that is my favourite workout day. And the weather is so nice out, it's melting. These last couple of days have been the first nice days of the season. I should be itching to get out and enjoy it.

In real life, the first few days of spring thaw just make the streets and sidewalks so icey that it is hard to even walk, let alone jog or bike.

I don't really want to go out. I really don't want to give up either. I guess that as much as I have been waiting for spring, I am going to have to wait for T to get home from work and stay with the toddler. I'll have to have a go at the stationary bike. Again.

I'm itching for spring. It looks like spring. I just have to come to terms with the fact that it really isn't spring yet.

She was right

2011-03-11T11:01:00.000-06:00

Last week at my first training day in the pool, I talked to a nice lady who said that swimming got easier fairly quickly.

She was right.

Let's be honest here, I am NOT instantly a GOOD swimmer. I am still just barely a non-drowner. But today I am a noticeably better (to me) at not drowning. Although, I'm not sure the lifeguard would notice the difference. My first time in the pool I could not swim from one end to the other without stopping. I could flail my way across the pool and cough and sputter to the other side, but it was only swimming in the most vague sense of the word.

The difference it that today I had an easier time managing my breathing an was able to actually give some thought to my stroke. The nose plugs helped a little but not as much as I had hoped. I am used to exhaling through my nose as I swim and the first pull when I tried that I was so shocked that it didn't work that I lost track of what I was doing and gulped water and crashed. Fortunately, I was in the shallow end and just stood up coughing and sputtering and spraying water all over the place.

Yeah. I'm THAT kind of graceful.

On the up side, the part that IS better is that I can get all the way across the pool to the other side with our putting my feet down. The first day I couldn't. AND when I get there I just need a minute to get my self sorted out into the next lane for the return trip. Monday, I had to stop at the far end to pant. Now I can make it to the far end and back (one lap) before I have to stop and pant. I am still the worst swimmer in the pool by a long shot, but I am better than I was.

I still wonder what the heck I'm doing in there.

I'm still too stubborn to give up.

I know swimming is going to be my weakness on race day. I know I'm not going to place in the top 97%, my goal is just to finish. What scares me is that if I can't swim the distance, I can't just stop for a breather.

The worst part is I already have swimming baggage from lessions as a kid. For those of you familiar with the Red Cross swim program of the early 1980's, I made it to level Red and worked my butt off to pass so I wouldn't be in the same class as my little sister. I did pass the first try, but the instructor said I may have passed but I "wasn't ready" to advance to the next level. I've never been sure what that meant to her. Occationally, I wonder if there was a height requirement or something since I was the shortest in my class. What it meant to me was that when I tried to talk my mom into letting me move on to the next class, I was repeatedly told I wasn't good enough yet. How do you argue with that when you are 10? All my (taller) friends were at least at the next level or even two or three ahead of me. I felt like I would never catch up, so I just quit trying. I took level Red two more times until my little sister passed and was allowed to move up, but by then I was two to four years older than anyone else in the class and really didn't want to be there.

I know that I will say small thoughtless things to my girls that will be their baggage for life. I'm not sure you can avoid that no matter how carefully you parent. I just hope that when they try to talk to me about it, I can actually listen to what they are saying. Part of what motivates me now is that absolute hatred and despair that all forms of gym class caused me a child. I don't want to be the victim of bad physical education anymore. I don't want the label of "small weak kid" to be stuck in my head anymore. I want to be able to do these things to be able to support my girls if they want to do them.

Pot roast and biking

2011-03-10T11:26:00.005-06:00

It is getting easier, but some of that might be that I haven't had another swimming day yet. Biking today went so well, I accidentally went twice as far as I had scheduled. I am still very frustrated by the way my bike fits.... or doesn't fit. But it is too icey out for me to try the newly spiffed up 10 speed. I think I HATE "comfort" bikes. It was fine when I bought it; I loved it. But at the time I was just recreationally biking and I wasn't towing a bike trailer or going up step freeway overpasses.

I have to find a different general purpose bike.

I am craving protien like never before. Or at least like never since I stopped breast feeding.

EDIT: March 22, 2011 After some discussion with friends about slow cooker safety, I have considered pulling this recipe. However, since this blog is primary for ME to keep track of cooking tricks that have worked, I am leaving it here with some added discussion. My low on my slow cooker heats to 75 to 80 C. Bacteria in milk is traditionally Pasteurized at this 71C. (New ultra high heat Pasteurization is hotter, but that isn't where I'm going with this. ) The theory behind what makes this roast so good is that at this temperature the connective tissue gelatinizes and THAT is what makes the roast so yummy. It comes out completely cooked with no pink and a safe internal temperature.

However, before you trying this, you really have to know how hot your slow cooker is. A little research has taught me that "low" is not as low as it used to be. It can now be as high as 93C. At that temp your roast is done in about 12 - 18 hours depending on the size. And it isn't as tender. I suspect this is to avoid lawsuits or something from people trying to cook on low and giving up too soon then eating under cooked food. I don't want to get sued either, so if you try this, you accept responsibility for making sure you are safe.

Now a word about the sauce. The other thing that makes this roast so nice is that you are basically cooking it in rehydration fluid. The apple juice provide the sweet and the hoisin and montreal steak spice provide the salt. The trick is to get the sauce to the salty-ness of saline. This allows the meat to uptake the sauce better, I suspect via osmosis, but I can't prove it.

The goal from all of this is to get a roast that tastes like Granny has been stewing it since yesterday, but on a slow cooker since leaving a stove on that long, especially with at toddler at home, is not advised. Incidentally, have you ever noticed that slow cookers come with the warning to not leave them unattended? I thought leaving them unattended was the whole point of a slow cooker.

So, I give you my "Good things come to those who wait" Pot roast:

3 lbs. beef roast
½ cup hoisin sauce
1 cup apple juice
1 spinkle montreal steak spice

1. 36 hours before dinner
2. - brown outside of roast
3. - mix together sauce, juice and spices
4. - place roast into slow cooker and drizzle with sauce mixture
5. - set slow cooker to low and LEAVE it!
6. - after 24 hours the smell with be nearly irresistible, but if you wait you will be rewarded. You should peek and turn the roast
7. - 20 minute before you are ready to serve, check the temperature with a meat thermometer Make sure you have an minimum internal temperature of 71C before eating beef, cut the power and just let it rest.

Whine, whine....wine?

2011-03-07T08:50:00.000-06:00

I wish I could write about how excited I am to be training. But I'm not.

Today's plan included 20 minutes of swimming and 20 minutes of run/walking. The only time I could get the swim in was 6am. The weather was -34C. My garage door is broken so the car had been parked out all night and my hands froze to the steering wheel. The pool was busy and I managed to get a complete sinus rinse during my second lap.

The whole thing felt like a prolonged drowning rather than a swim.

However, I did do better than I did on Friday.

I hope the nose plug I ordered with my swim cap will help.

I really need a nap, but my 2 year old isn't going to let me have one.

It will get better.

I just wish I could afford better gear. I found a great deal on a triathlon bike for $200. I don't have $200. So, I'm off to the basement to spend some time fixing up the $5 special I have almost ready to go in my basement. I miss being a two income house.

As for the wine, that will have to wait until after I work the evening shift tonight.

When it's not about the weight

2011-03-05T12:25:00.000-06:00

I am 5'4. I weigh between 140 and 145 lbs depending on the day. I wear a size 6 Levi's and a 32D bra. I wish I was a little smaller, but only in the way that north americian culture has messed with women's heads in such a way that we all want to be smaller. I am not dissatisfied with my shape enough that I have ever actually wanted to put in the effort to change my life style.

But some time lifestyle has to change and body shape gets dragged along for the ride. There has been lots written about how poverty = weight gain. How cheap food is often calorie dense nutritionally vacant. I don't even pay much attention to nutritional information in the media and even I am aware of these things. I have reached the point where my lifestyle has to change do to financial circumstance and it is going to change my body.

We can no longer afford to be a two car family. Since my husband will need the car to go to work, I will be the main car free person. Staying at home, really at home, not going anywhere with a toddler is not an option I can live with, but I will either have to stay at home or walk/bike everywhere. Either option will change my shape whether I want it to or not.

I like biking. We have a trailer for my toddler. My bike isn't really great but I have a old fixer upper 10 speed that I hope to be able to use in the summer.

The problem is.... I can't bike very far. I am not the fit, well toned person I was five years ago before I dislocated my knee cap. I need to exercise not to lose weight but to adapt to my new car light existence.

My friend N has been involved with a program to help women go from sedentary to sprint length triathlon for a number of years. I like biking; I like swimming; I used to run with my rowing team. I'm not currently any good at any of those things. I thought it would be great, I could sign up and work out with her and a bunch of ladies who are in the same fitness boat as I am.

But.... I can't afford the entrance fee and (while I don't work very much) some of the training days conflict with my work schedule. So I found a free online training plan. I have a city pool pass that is still good for a few months. The local bike store is taking pity on me and helping fix up my $3 garage sale 1970's era road bike for a very reasonable amount. There is a sprint length triathlon in June that they sponsor.

I'm going to try to do it on my own.

I am scared.

I am stubborn.

I am going to follow the training plan and see what happens.

I hope to be able to participate in the triathlon. Right now that seems impossible.

So far, I have had one swimming session for 30 minutes. I could not swim the whole time. It was a combination of swimming and water walking, but I put in the time and gave it my best effort and was tired and out of breathe at the end. This morning my muscles are.... not exactly sore, but I can tell I used them last night. The gal in the lane next to me says it gets easier everytime you go.

I am digging in my heels. I am going to do this.

Hogfather Pie

2011-03-03T13:28:00.003-06:00

My family first saw the Hogfather movie years after I had read and enjoyed the book. The girls liked it and we wanted to incorporate some of the hogfather traditions into our December. I had never made or eaten a pork pie before my middle girls asked me to make one. So we went to the internet and discovered three things:
1. no one in the family likes cold pork pies with jellied bit in them
2. I need to try a lot of different recipes before I find one that everyone likes and in the mean time the family eats a lot of pie
3. sometimes it's ok to randomly copy ingredients from 8 or 9 different recipes to get something you like.

Hogfather pie
1 lb. lean ground pork
⅔ cup oatmeal
2 tablespoons McCormick mixed spice (contains ginger, allspice, cinnamon, coriander, mustard, bayleaf, cloves and black pepper)
1 each egg
2 tablespoons anchovy paste
1 medium onion, shreaded
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 pie crust, top and bottom crust

1. - preheat oven to 350F
2. - over medium heat saute grated onion in oil until clear
3. - add ground pork and cook quickly for 5 minutes, stirring continuously
4. - remove from heat, pour into large mixing bowl and allow to cool
5. - when meat is at room temperature, add egg, oatmeal, anchovy paste, spices and mix thoroughly
6. - place raw pie crust into a pie plan
7. - add meat mixture to raw pie crust
8. - top with raw crust and cut vents into top
9. - seal edges of crust with either a fork or your fingers
10. - bake for about an hour or until meat thermometer reads as done (170F)

Things I have learned this week

2011-02-28T07:50:00.000-06:00

- my little point and shoot just really isn't up to food photography

- food stylists must not use real mashed potatoes

- you can make crepes in a non-stick pan works but they don't get that wonderful slightly crisp texture they do from cast iron

- if you are making crepes for people you are having over, you really need two pans to keep up

- if you don't have two pans, start cooking an hour before everyone gets there

- talking about food is more fun when you aren't working the late shift in health care. Or really any late shift, I would bet...

- my toddler thinks whipped cream is "cake"

- when feeding toddlers, it is better to cut the food on their plate in the kitchen so they don't object to seeing you messing with their food in the dining room. Since I have a kitchen diner, I am just screwed.

Less Mess Shepard's pie.

2011-02-22T17:18:00.002-06:00

One of the nice things about cast iron is how nicely it doubles as a both a stove top pan and a oven ready casserole. I love using my Lodge signature pan for just this reason.

Now the recipe:

Shepard's pie

Implements:

Dutch oven

Large Lodge Casserole

wooden spatula

paring knife
Chef's knife
cutting board

potato masher
measuring spoons and cups

Meat filling
1 tbsp. Cooking oil
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1 cup onion, chopped
1 ½ lbs extra lean ground beef
1 tbsp. flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
⅓ cup milk
1 tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. prepared horseradish
2 cup mixed vegetables, frozen

Topping:
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
boiling salted water
1 tbsp. butter
3-4 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. butter, melted
½ tsp. garlic
paprika

1. Peel potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender, about 20 minutes
2. While potatoes are boiling, heat cooking oil in frying pan. Add garlic and onion. Saute until onions are clear. Add beef. Saute until beef is lightly browned.
3. Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper. Mix well. Stir in first amount of milk until mixture boils.
4. Add ketchup, Worcestershire, horseradish, frozen mixed veg. Pack into greased 8x8 inch pan or casserole.
5. Drain and mash potatoes. Add first amount of butter, second amount of milk, and garlic. Mash together. Spread over beef mixture.
6. Sprinkle with paprika. Make wave pattern with fork in potato. Bake, uncovered, near top of 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes until hot and lightly browned. Serves 4 to 6.

A couple of days off

2011-02-19T08:57:00.002-06:00

Just a quick warning. I have been lucky enough to invited for dinner ato friends and family members homes for all suppers this weekend. So new posts for a little while. I'll see you on Tuesday. In the mean time, a brief pause for cast iron love.

My father in law makes the most amazing crepes. I would LOVE to get my hands on two of these so I could make them too:

And here is the recipe to go with them:

Crepes
6 eggs
4 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cup flour
½ cup canola oil
2 ½ cups milk

1. Cream together eggs and sugar until you reach the ribbon stage (about 2-3 minutes)
2. slowly pour in canola oil and milk mix well, add salt
3. slowly add the flour one spoonful at a time, allow each spoonful to mix in before adding the next, remember speed kills AND makes lumpy crepes.
4. cook by the ladle full on hot pans over medium heat, stir the mixture between each crepe because it tends to settle and the bottoms ones will be tough if you don't

Now is it just me, or is it weird that a crepe spatula is more money than the crepe pans? Anyway, one of these is nice to have for making crepes too. It isn't strictly necessary. Really the oxo spatula works fine too; you just need a little more care not to tear the crepes while flipping them.

Complicated

2011-02-16T16:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight for supper I am making homemade perogies, garlic sausage and assorted fresh veg. And that's where retro style cooking gets complicated. My Gramma would make this kind of dinner on a some what regular basis and she likely wouldn't include the veg. There would be canned fruit for dessert, maybe. So based on the theory that we should be eating non-processed foods that way our forefathers did, how does this fit in?

It was a good high fat, high carb, high protien meal when you were working a farm without tractors. My husband has a desk job, my kids only have gym a couple of times a week. As much work as it is chasing a toddler, it doesn't compare to driving cattle or chopping wood.

But this is the cooking I learned on my Gramma's knee. I still make my perogies, by hand, to her recipe. I just don't serve them everyday. And I include fresh vegetables, which are not authentic to this part of the world at this time of year a hundred years ago.

I always grit my teeth a little when people say things like "if your granny wouldn't recognize it, you shouldn't be eating." My granny wouldn't know a kiwi if it bit her. She learned about blueberries from my mom. That theory that your gramma ate better than people today only applies if she lived someplace warm all year. And even then, only maybe.

So as much as this is likely the most old fashioned meal I make, I am not under any illusions that this is will meet the full nutritional requirements for my kids as everyday food in modern world. I also don't believe that food is "good" or "bad." Food is just food, it's up to people to find a way to balance their diet with a variety of choices.

Sloppies

2011-02-15T16:45:00.004-06:00

This recipe is adapted from one by the fabulous menu planner Sandi Richard. I don't like ketchup as much as she does, but one of my girls does and always adds more. Through a series of interesting events, we discovered my family likes more Worcestershire sauce then the original recipe calls for. So... Here is my version:

Sloppies
1 lbs. Extra lean ground beef
1 tablespoon Onion flakes
½ cup Ketchup
2 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
½ cup Water
2 teaspoons Thai Garlic Chili sauce
2 tablespoons mustard
1 cup Grated cheddar cheese
Approximately 8 Dinner buns

Brown Meat in large cast iron casserole at med high until no longer pink.

Add onion flakes to pan and cook until meat starts to brown.

Add ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, water and chili sauce and bring to light boil.

Stir, then turn off stove and cover. The residual heat will allow this to simmer lightly for 10 minutes which with rehydrate the onion flakes.

Serve with buns and grated cheese.

Feeds 2 adults, 2 teenagers and a toddler with a little leftover for someone to take for lunch the next day. Once again, I have to say thank you to the 5 minute bread people for the buns. Really if you haven't tried this method of baking, hop over to the I Have tab and check out this book.

Approximate Nutritional Info, not including the buns:

I found some lovely carrots at the farmers market this weekend, so I am serving this
with carrots and dip and green kiwi for dessert.

Why Cast Iron?

2011-02-15T13:00:00.000-06:00

The easy answer is iron. I have been anemic all my life. Not always in the "stage three, passing out" kind of anemia that people think of, but in the "my ferritin is so low I am almost" there kind of way. Plus those three kids I mentioned earlier are all girls and my lovely husband and I are regular blood donors. The extra iron is good for us.

This isn't true for everyone. Hemochromatosis is real. It just isn't in our family. Everyone has their own health challenges. We deal with type 1 diabetes, cerebral palsy and asthma. When I start offering recipes, I will include the nutritional information as best as I can because there are lots of people out there that need it for what ever reason.

Plus cast iron in as non stick as my teflon pans. It heats evenly and holds the heat evenly. If I take the pot to the table and then need to spend 15 - 20 minutes getting my toddler ready to eat, the food is still hot. Cooking in cast iron means that in the summer I can use the same recipes and use my BBQ as an outdoor stove or oven without worrying about a flare up cracking my Pyrex or scorching my stainless steal. I have found that stainless steel, isn't as stainless as it claims, and in case of emergency, you can always put plain cast iron through a clean cycle in your self cleaning oven and have it back to perfectly sanitized.

Yes, it takes a little more work to make sure it is seasoned properly and you can't leave it soaking over night. I think it is worth it. This is real life. If I leave a pan soaking overnight, I'm not going to have time at breakfast to wash it.

Quick but Not Dirty Tomato Clam Soup

2011-02-14T15:37:00.005-06:00

In my Kitchen Aid dutch oven I have:
Saute in 1 tbsp of canola oil until translucent:
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 clove of garlic
Add:
1 can gold seal baby clams (I like gold seal because they aren't gritty)

You can pulse for about a minute in your food processor if you need to feed toddlers who might not like the chunky clams, then return to dutch oven (or if you have a stick blender, mix right in the pot) and add:

1 can spicy chopped tomatoes
1 - 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (to taste)
1 quart low sodium chicken broth

Simmer on low for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally while helping with homework. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Here is the approximate nutritional information:

Serve with fresh buns. I hope to have more pictures in the future, but for now just use your imagination.

I am not a foodie

2011-02-14T13:36:00.001-06:00

I am a stay at home mom trying to feed a blended family of five on a grocery budget that occasionally approaches zero. This month, for example, it was $80 and what ever I had in my pantry and freezer to get us through to payday. I love reading food blogs. I can't afford fancy ingredients, even if I could find them in my local market. I want a "work with what you've got" food blog that doesn't morph into a restaurant tour blog (Sorry Average Betty, I love what you did, but lately you haven't been much help). That doesn't need special tools. Or lots of time. Or lots of dishes. Or lots of experience.

I am not a good cook. I didn't learn on my momma's knee. I love my mom, but I don't cook the way she does and my kids likely won't cook the way I do. And that's OK. I am learning as I go and I promise to publish my failures. Where are the blogs for those of us that are learning? Following ones where everything turns out ALL THE TIME, just makes me feel worse when my supper doesn't go according to plan. I really miss Ctrl Alt Chicken for that keep going even if it doesn't work attitude.