Family Obligations Suck

My husband woke me up this morning to ask me if I had anything I had to do today because my mom needs me to babysit my niece and nephew since she has some medical stuff to take care of (a shot of Prokrit). My dad has to drive her so he won't be home either. Blah....

I like my five year-old niece. She is funny, smart, and creative. My 7 year-old nephew has a rather shrill voice and is demanding and gets on my nerves. It is a beautiful day and I don't want to spend it downstairs at my parents being annoyed by my brother's kid. It sounds mean, I know, but I really don't enjoy other people's kids that much, even when they are my own family. If it was just Abigail I could give her crayons and markers and soap bubbles and she could amuse herself forever. Ethan needs other people to amuse him. He is quickly bored by most activities with the exception of shitty cartoons. I like cartoons, don't get me wrong, it is just his taste in them is abysmal and lacking any discretion whatsoever. Yeah, I know, he's a seven-year old boy, but puh-leeze!

I asked Ivy if she would do it if they paid her and she said, "Maybe". My parents offered $10 bucks. Not much for last-minute change of plans so she can sit from 2-4:30 (and it could likely be longer). I offered to throw in another $10 just so I wouldn't have to do it. We are probably both going to hang out down there being miserable unless Ivy decides to take a bus to Providence to hang out with her friend Zoe.

I'm irritated because they know I don't enjoy babysitting for my brother's kids but they waited until the last minute to ask me. It is not as if my mom didn't know she had to get this shot.

Well...they wanted me for 2:00 and it is 1:54 now. I haven't even had my coffee for the day. I'm going to have to bring my coffee-making stuff downstairs 'cuz my dad's sucks.

Ech..

I am a lousy blogger...

I wish I could develop a habit for journaling of some sort. It drives me crazy that I let so many days go by without recording at least one or two of thoughts that fleet past me on any given day.
Yesterday was my baby's 17th birthday. It turned out to be an extra-special day because her big sister received her first college acceptance letter and it was for her first choice school, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. First she hollered in excitement and then she showed me the letter and burst into tears. It was a very stressful process for her as last year she was feeling very ambivilent about attending college this year so she only applied to one school, RISD.
In the process of applying she got rather excited about the prospect of attending but then she got put on the waiting list. Very few prospects on the waiting list got in and she was in the last group. It turned out to be a good thing because Chicago has been her first choice since her junior year of high school and meantime she got a lot done with Big Nazo this year. She has yet to hear from Mass College of Art or Parsons. Her friend Michael is currently attending his first year at Parsons but he isn't happy there and is planning to transfer. He is considering Chicago. Personally, my husband and I would have liked if she was more interested in MassArt. Primarily, because it is so close, and secondarily, because she as a regional student she would have a reduced tuition rate. Check out her portfolio for the Parson's application on flickr. Her Chicago portfolio was pretty much the same with the addition of a few more personal pieces.

Ivy was very pleased the acceptance letter came on her birthday. She is generous in that way. She didn't mind sharing her special day with Meg. For the most part, Ivy had a very nice birthday. Her friend Zoe baked her a vegan cake which her other friend Katrina helped decorate. It was surprisingly tasty. I baked vegan cookies using a recipe from a pacakge of Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer. They were very tasty.

Today was incredibly mild and sunny. Later on in the afternoon it got a bit gloomy but as the sun sets the skies have cleared a bit. Ivy was in a mood when she woke up. I had hoped dance class would help but it didn't. It had to do with her feeling like she was nagged into agreeing to attend an event tonight that she had no interest in. She dreaded having to call and tell her friend she really didn't want to go. Eventually, her friend called, they had some words, but it seemed to work out reasonably amicably. She is curled up on the couch next to me, enjoying a doze. It is a dozy sort of day. I spent the afternoon reading in the front office of Providence Ballet. I forgot that rehearsals for the Youth company started today so I was subject to an hour-and-a-half of listening to mostly pre-teen girls gossip and giggle while I waited for my daughter's class to be over. It was strange because I have been seeing these young girls since they were 5 and 6 years old. It is strange to hear them discussing boys, MTV, and entering high school next year. They are all older than Ivy was when she started at Providence Ballet. It was very difficult to concentrate on my book. I'm re-reading Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series. They are like comfort food for me.

Last night we goofed off fooling around with this web toy. I laughed harder than I've laughed since hearing that guy on the Science Channel try to say "the Universities of McGill and Michican". It's very addictive. The picture above is me in the style of Alfonse Mucha.

I managed to get a pit of cleaning done yesterday, although not near as much as is needed. I would have liked to have done more today. It was the perfect day for it but I felt tired out by the afternoon spent at Providence Ballet.

For lunch I made what is fast becoming a favorite of my kids', lentils and rice. It sounds boring but I make it very savory. Here's the recipe as best as I can describe it since it is something I concocted. It varies so I'll just describe how I made it today.

Sauteed in olive oil:
3 shallots, roughly chopped
2-3 large garlic cloves chopped
2 stalks celery diced (I like to include the leaves if there are any)
2 large carrots peeled and diced
salt and pepper to taste
a teaspoon of dry rubbed sage (I have also used rosemary and thyme but I had neither on hand today).

Meanwhile, I cook 1 cup of dry lentils in about 3 cups of water with a bay leaf. Cook just until tender.

When the vegetables are becoming golden and tender, I add about a tbs more olive oil and 1 cup dry long grain white rice, and cook just enough to toast the rice a bit. I also added a small handful of sundried tomatoes cut into thin slivers, and the few pine nuts I had left in my pantry.

By now, the lentils are done and I drain them over the rice so as to use the cooking water to cook the rice. I leave the lentils in their cooking pot for the time being.

I allow the rice to simmer gently, checking occasionally to see if more liquid is needed (generally, it is). Today, when I saw that the liquid had evaporated to quickly, I covered the pan (I use a large cast iron skillet) with foil. The cooking time is about the same as it is for steamed rice, more or less. When the rice is done I add the lentils and give it a quick stir and taste for seasoning.

Yesterday when I made this I added it to cooked bow-tie pasta. My daughter expressed a desire to have it next time without the pasta so I omitted it today. She ate hers with tortilla chips from the natural foods section of Stop & Shop.

Tonight for the kids' dinner I created a vegan recipe. I had been thinking about using brewer's yeast as a cheese substitute. The result was a hearty bean and rice casserole that had a bit of a curry taste, oddly enough.

Here is the recipe, more or less. I don't actually measure so I had to guess but I'm pretty accurate.

First, cook some rice in the normal way (1 cup rice/2 cups water--bring to boil--reduce to simmer) EXCEPT don't cook for the usual 20 minutes since the rice will continue cooking in the casserole later. I reduced the cooking time to 15 minutes. I used Basmati white because it is what I had but brown rice would be nice. Of course, it takes longer to cook brown rice so keep that in mind.

While the rice is cooking prepare the sauce.

Chop two large shallots or one small onion and one large clove of garlic. In a medium
saucepan sautee the garlic in onions in a tablespoon of oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil) until golden and translucent. I accidently browned mine but that is not the aim.:D

Meanwhile in a 1 quart jar with lid (I used a recycled spaghetti sauce jar) mix:
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup flour (I used white all-purpose but if you prefer whole wheat that would probably be fine---basically, it is just a thickening agent)
1 tsp dry mustard (I'm sure a teaspoon of prepared would work fine as well)
1/8 tsp nutmeg (I like freshly grated but you can use what you have)
1 tsp paprika
2 cups plain soy milk
dash Tabasco
dash Worcestershire
1/2 tsp salt

Shake the jar well until there are no lumps. I actually had a few so I strained the liquid through a seive. You can also whisk everything in a bowl. Ordinarily, I make a roux for a sauce like this but I didn't trust the yeast to mix properly in a roux. I wouldn't risk it.

Add this mixture to the onions and garlic and cook over medium heat stirring with a whisk until the sauce is thickened. If it looks too thick, add some more soy milk and stir some more. This was actually the case for me. I think I probably added closer to 1/3 cup flour than 1/4 cup. It isn't a big deal anyway since this isn't a particularly delicate sauce.

Add the rice to the sauce along with a can of beans (or an equal amount of home cooked dry beans). I used cannellini but kidney beans would work as well. I just poured the different elements into a large rectangular Pyrex baking dish and mixed in that. Finally I added some broccoli (a bit past it's prime and in need of using up) which I chopped pretty small. I felt it needed a bit more to fill the dish so I added the remainder of a bag of frozen peas and carrots mix. My 'fridge and cupboards are pretty bare :D.

I baked the whole concoction in a 350º oven for 30 minutes.

Out of my three kids, ages 16, 18, and 19, my two younger kids enjoyed it (son proclaimed it "delicious") and my oldest wasn't quite sure. At first I thought it was a bit strange but I kept going back for another bite and I wound up eating two good sized servings. My husband tried it and thought it was tasty and was happy to eat it as a side-dish with a couple of eggs and a corn pancake I made from the last bit of this afternoon's batter. He has been trying to eat healthier at work and cut his portions down so he was pretty hungry.

My youngest daughter added raisins to her second serving. It definitely had a curry taste and raisins seemed appropriate. She tells me it was really good with raisins. I think chick peas would probably be a good addition.

The nice thing is it was a very low-fat recipe high in protein and fiber as well as iron and lots of other good stuff from the brewer's yeast. Also, it looked pretty. I don't know what the nutritional break-down is but I didn't worry to much about it. I did check to make sure the 1/2 cup of brewer's yeast wasn't harmful. It turned out I probably could have added more since a serving size is two tablespoons which breaks down to less than a whole serving per person when feeding five people.

Extras

It's been another fairly nice, sunny day and I've spent it doing very little. I washed some dishes (in the dishwasher) and I've made biscotti. Now I'm watching Extras on HBO OnDemand. The biscotti I made is revised from a recipe in How to Cook Everything. I changed it by substituting anise extract for the recommended vanilla or almond. Also, I added about a teaspoon of ginger and cinnamon. They came out very nice. Previously, I've made it from a recipe from one of those little Betty Crocker magazines they sell at the check-out in the grocery. That is a good recipe too.

I'm also drinking cheap wine from my parents house. Bad. I'm trying to cut out alchohol from my diet. I really would like to lose some weight. I was looking for a small enamel stock-pot that I thought I may have left downstairs and I found a stache of booze. :D Vintnor's Choice jug wine in burgundy flavor is what I'm drinking. Blah.....

Now, I'm watching an OnDemand special about the stars that have been on Extras. I've just remembered I was supposed to call some tax assessors to come re-evaluate the house. David Bowie is talking about being on Extras. He is such a sweet, regular guy. Weird. He's been famous for most of his life. If you see him on a talk show, like Late Night With Conan O'Brien, he actually comes off as kind of geeky.

I'm checking out the Pay-Per-View selection. I'm bored, I tell you. I actually watched something pretty good via Pay-Per-View the other day but now I can't think what it was. I just selected Friends With Money, mostly because it has Catherine Keener. Joan Cusack is in it also. And Alan Cumming. It's supposed to be pretty good.

Well, gotta go. I meant to upload some pictures and a recipe of a the veggie chili I made last night. I'll try to get to it ASAP.

Hello...

Okay, so I am going to try a new blog. I've had this blogger account since February 2005, apparently and totally forgot about it. I deleted the original blog Twirlie mostly because all the photo links were dead. The posts all had to do with art stuff I had done recently, primarily rubber stamping. I haven't done any of that in a over a year, sadly. I get on kicks and then my attention wanders.

It is a nice sunny day today. It has finally felt like winter for the past week or so. We actually got some snow the night before last. Just enough to be pleasant but not enough to inconvenience. Not really enough to play in though.

I'm listening to my iTunes library and Sufjan Stevens is playing. His stuff feels very appropriate for the height of winter. Melancholic.

Listen

Sufjan Stevens--John Wayne Gacey Jr.

I should be doing anything but sitting here on the computer. As usual, there is plenty of cleaning to do. I never catch up. Lately, I feel like my control over important things in my life are slipping from my already tenuous grasp at an alarming rate.

I was listening to On Point this morning. The show was about the American transcendentalists. I am very much in the state of mind to be influenced by writers like Thoreau. I tried to read Thoreau last year but the edition I checked out of the library was filled with very distracting annotations. I should just find a cheap paperback edition. I really didn't listen that carefully since I was in the car at first and then tried to finish listening to the streaming broadcast on the computer. I had missed a bit by then. But I did feel inspired to give some of those folks a read, or re-read in the case of Little Women and The Scarlett Letter. Truthfully, I really disliked the latter when I read it in high school. I think I may have also read it in junior high or even elementary school. I had seen the PBS movie in the 70's (with Meg Foster) and had been fascinated by the story. I was only about 11 at the time.

Now Tilly and the Wall is playing. I discovered them through a mix CD club I joined through NPR. They were part of a mix that started off really promising and then turned bad---almost as if a different person had finished it. My turn is in March and I have been putting a lot of thought into what I will include. So far, everyone has included at least one (and usually a lot more) non-English songs and as much as I would love to include Caetano Veloso or Os Mutantes, I want to break that chain. I also want to avoid creating a mix that tries to hard to prove how obscure my tastes are. I do want to represent, so I will likely include some local stuff. My husband pointed out that I could include Caetano Veloso by using London, London or his cover of Hendrix' Wait Until Tomorrow.


Listen
Tilly and the Wall---Nights of the Living Dead
Tilly and the Wall-- You and I Misbehaving

I think the overall anxiety I'm feeling about my life at the moment stems mostly from my mom
jobs. One daughter is about 10 days away from her first trip on an airplane. It is also her first time traveling alone and she will be gone 10 days---the longest she has been away from home. My son has surgery in March. It is to remove a cyst which is almost certainly benign...but still. My other daughter is in the process of applying to art school and I am supposed to be photographing her portfolio. Thus far, I've only photographed four things. Part of the problem is she is still working on it and she isn't sure what she wants to include. She applied to RISD last year and was put in the last group of the waiting list. That was the only school she applied to last year and it was kind of done last minute. That is sort of what is happening now. This time it is Parsons she is racing the clock for. If she had simply gone to RIC for this year she could have transferred to RISD. They as much as said they would except her as a transfer, no problem. She was only luke-warm on the prospect of RISD but now she says she is reconsidering it. It isn't as if she has been wasting her time this year. She has been working quite a bit with Big Nazo and she has had a few commissioned pieces she has made for some film and theater people. She is now a paid member of Nazo which, while it isn't steady, it does make for satisfying work.