Vegetable Evangelism

I've become a vegetable evangelist.

If you are feeling snarky, you're probably wondering, "Oh, really, SpSq?  What was your first clue?  That not only do you feed everyone brussels sprouts, you blog about how much you love them?  That you go through 13 heads of cauliflower in a few weeks?  That you anonymously send people vegetable cookbooks?"

Well, actually, I didn't come up with this phrase on my own.  I didn't know I was a vegetable evangelist until someone told me I was.  We had friends in town, and as I was roasting brussels sprouts, turnips, sweet potatoes, and beets while discussing the apple fennel slaw I apparently made last time they were in town and mentioning best things to do with parsnips and rutabagas*, the phrase magically appeared.  And I love it.  "Vegetable Evangelist" makes me feel much cooler than "woman who inflicts root crops on unsuspecting guests."

I'm a vegetable evangelist and apparently I am becoming a poor writer.  Or rather I am becoming the writer I have always been: one who cannot quickly articulate the bits that are cleverly connected in her head. And because some of what I am wanting to write is time sensitive, I guess I will go ahead and list my points and (probably never) return to rewrite in a clever and witty fashion.

Intended Points of Post:

1. I am a vegetable evangelist and proud of it.
2. I want to discuss Thanksgiving side dishes. 
3. The Mister and the boys made little "hoop houses" (or very low "poly-tunnels") over our winter garden on Saturday and it made me ridiculously happy.
4. There was a "holiday" farmer's market in town on Saturday, at which we purchased fresh tomatoes (peppers, sweet potatoes, new potatoes, eggs, honey, pickles and turnips).  I harvested my basil before it froze (for the first time) on Saturday night, so we had pasta with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella last night, as is typical of late November in Oklahoma (or maybe not).
5.  I want to teach people how to cook (and to not be afraid of vegetables).  I want suggestions for how to do this.
6. I am excited to offer my readers an opportunity to help refugees by helping them grow food through a fund-raising project vetted by a friend I trust (I have lots and lots to say about this, but for now, a link to Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is),

 And, see, in my mind this all makes sense together-- love vegetables: here are some examples -- excited to be growing food: look at the picture of cute boys and hoop house -- thankful for friends and family and Thanksgiving (but no green bean casserole for me) -- let's help others grow vegetables -- thank you for being my friend -- now let's talk about food some more.

Please comment about side dishes and suggestions for spreading the good word o' veggies.

*Parsips: parsnips and carrots.  Rutabagas: rutabagas and apples, perhaps with some red cabbage.

'Tis the Season

It's that time of year again.

Time for:
Cautious students.  You may not know it, but I have some of the most cautious students in the world.  If it might snow or the rain might freeze, you can bet they would not risk harming anyone by driving to class.  As it happens, is did snow and the rain did freeze on Sunday, which had great implications for class attendance on Friday and Monday.
Sickness.  I was about to write that I can't remember the last time I had a sinus infection-cough-general sick malaise that dragged on for this long, but I can, vividly.  It was this time of year, two years ago.
Fall Photos. Hey look! The kids did dress up for Halloween.  Dianthus was a firefighter.  Aster was a bucket-head with an alligator on his shoulder (I may be his mom, but sometimes even I can only manage literal interpretations).  Hey look!  Fall happened in Colorado and Oklahoma and was gorgeous both places.  Hey look!  The Mister and I became muddy in the mud run!
Holiday Indecision and Stress  Ten days ago, back on Nov. 16, one of my Facebook friends posted a photo of her just-decorated Christmas tree because she just couldn't wait to start the season.  The next story in my news feed was a friend who is going to boycott the "Christmas Industrial Complex" entirely this year.  At the time, both positions felt a bit silly (although I will let you know, that my snowflakes are up. Maybe in 2014 I'll take them down.)-- Christmas can wait until after Thanksgiving and Christmas is lovely.  But then I start to get caught up in it.  And it is stressful.  And I want to start now.  And I want to hole up entirely.  I do care that we have good homemade pie and whipped cream that was whipped (not sprayed out of a can) on Thanksgiving. I do want to light the advent wreath.  I want my sons to have memories of baking gingerbread men with their mother.  I even want them to have memories of waking up in their own house and looking at what Santa brought on Christmas morning, but I am too timid or complacent to actually bring up that conversation.  I want to sing carols.  I love fruitcake and eggnog lattes and clam chowder on Christmas Eve and basically I love tradition.  I'm also appalled that downtown in my town is piping in loud praise music, already.  Lots of exterior decorations just strike me as obscene wastes of energy, although I've gained new appreciation of viewing lights as cranky toddler darkness time filler.
I really thought I had a point to this when I sat down to write it.  I'm struggling to find it.  Let me know what you love about the season and that I'm not alone in making my own stress (e.g. it wouldn't be nearly as stressful if I bought cookies for the cookie exchange-- but  then what would be the point of the exchange.  I could buy everyone gift cards, but I can't . . ) and on to the other things that it is time for.
Finals Ambivalence  Can't wait 'til they get her, can't believe how much we have left to do . . .
Next Year Procrastination  I assume this affects people who aren't on semesters as well, but there is a common problem among academics-- survive until finals, survive the holidays, then worry about next semester.  Except those lab orders need to be in, that grant needs to be submitted and the new class needs a new syllabus (but surely I'll do it in Colorado or Kansas).
Lighting Candles  Hanukkah starts tonight.
Being Thankful Whiny as this may list may be, I am taking time to express gratitude.  I am oh so thankful for my life of abundance, both in material things, spiritual joy, and the wonderful people who are in my life.  Thank you, beloved friends and family.

Thankful

In keeping with the theme of the year-- which random thing can go wrong this week?-- I am thankful that Dianthus is over the cradle cap that led to long locks falling out with chunks of scalp, I am thankful, that, much to everyone's surprise, I don't have strep* and I'm thankful that the Mister doesn't need to program or grade so he can rest his aching wrist for a few days.
It makes me sad that gratitude can so quickly turn into boasting or maudlin sentimentality, but I'll risk it and point out that I am grateful for my family, my full life of plenty, and you, my friends.


*A lingering cold turned into a throat so-sore-I-can't-eat-soup, sinus-too-painful-to-think misery on Tuesday. I went to the famed Convenient Care Clinic. Upon looking at my throat, the nurse and the lab tech both thought it was strep, and even the doctor, with negative results in hand, was surprised at how red my throat was. I was given antibiotics for a sinus infection, and feel much better-- I'm back at lingering cold level, which is still annoying but a vast improvement.
All of these photos were taken in Oklahoma, by the way, which can have lovely autumn trees and weather.
And, no, I don't know why Dianthus started crawling into the cat carrier, but he has done it several times now.

That's How Lucky I Am

I'm sweating sitting in my stuffy office frantically milling through piles of paperwork trying to efficiently locate a receipt to turn in for our medical savings account and worrying about all the moving details that are not yet begun. I took a break to see if there were any new quotes from moving companies and realized that I had not posted in over a week.

It's a great time to remind myself that I lead a charmed life. A few quickly chosen examples:

• I have friends who think of me when they read about luck [ evidence that lucky people share personality traits (thanks Irene!) (more details here)], and noodles [flying spaghetti monster iphone accessories, (thanks Supplement Scriber!)].


• While we were in Kansas, my son pulled over one of Sal Sis's shelves, destroying several fragile items. She just wrote me a nice message telling me how much fun he is (thanks Sal Sis, he thinks you and your menagerie are lots of fun too!).


• Marieke, my blogosphere friend who lives, reads, writes and gardens in Western Scotland, sent me a pasta card with rodent stamps. A woman I "met" the one time I tried a random search feature on blogger turns out to be a kindred spirit and happy with her inner pasta. How lucky is that?


• My future house has a sundae parlour.

Winter Gratitude

I love snow. I'm grateful that, unlike most of the world's population, I live in a place where it snows most winters.

It has snowed a lot here this winter. Far more than average. I'm grateful for the extreme quantity of winter weather because it made me joyfully giddy when spring weather arrived Friday.

And I'm particularly grateful for the sunshine today. Because it is sunny, I have a chance to avenge yesterday's tennis loss to the Mister in the opening set of the season. By the end of the day, we'll surely be tied.

Noodles from the friends I'm lucky to have

When I opted for noodles over gratitude for the year's resolution, I intended to add an intense focus on gratitude during Lent and spend part of every day being publicly grateful (i.e. posting about gratitude). Then late February happened. Snow delays, labs cancelled, midterms. all school cancelled, two trips out of state in the same week (involving 10 plane flights, three of them taking off at 6 am), four different talks as a guest lecturer, and adorable baby needing attention. The result: I haven't yet written about gratitude. But there is so much to be thankful for.

My friends are high on the list.

I live near very few of them.

I've become a poor correspondent.

And still, they remain fabulous.

In many many ways.
Among the many ways: within two days of posting my noodle resolve, I received photos of noodle vendors in Haiti and "beef satay chow fun for lunch".

I'm grateful for such great friends.