I’ve spent a chunk of time compiling the links that I regularly check for Miami food and restaurant news.   So please check it out at the “Links” tab on the top of the main page or by clicking here.

My very first American Thanksgiving was with a group of misfits, far from our families, getting together around a potluck.   We were in a bare, bachelor’s apartment and I was in charge of mashed potatoes that I decided to spice up with wasabi, ending up with a visually unappealing green monster that left everyone bewildered. Those were the days before understanding that Thanksgiving food needs to be traditional and comforting.
We ate the food, I had my first cranberry relish, watched a game I still don’t understand and went home.

Last night, I was a long way from that virgin experience, instead sitting around a table laden with chandeliers, golden silverware, embroidered tablecloth, elaborate napkin arrangement and centerpiece – you get my gist. Martha would have been proud.

No, it’s not a Martha bashing post – I admire the woman and I even subscribe to her magazine (yes, really) because her cookie recipes are the best and the cleaning tips always work – but last night I was wondering whether we have taken striving to perfection inside our own homes a bit too far. And if we have, Martha is definitely to blame.

Who hasn’t secretly coveted perfectly decorated rooms, manicured gardens and a basket of eggs straight from our own chicken coops (which is a wonderful idea but my neighbours do have chickens and that coop stinks!)? Or who hasn’t woken up on a snowy morning (well, not me, but you folks on the east coast) cherishing the thought of shoving your driveway while your kids were making a snowman?

Our hostess last night cooked for three days straight and this morning was getting up early to go to work. The food was lovely, the house beautiful and welcoming and the little party favor a touching thought. But was it all worth it? Is all this perfection fulfilling a need to impress our guests or ourselves? Or maybe trying to match a reality that doesn’t exist?

And I am certainly not immune. Recently I threw a large party and, even though the food was catered by the Restaurant where I work, I was stressed  for a week prior to the event. At the end of day, it’s just friends who will forgive the less than perfect vegetable dish and the fur ball tucked away behind the tv.
I love my house but I love it for the way it makes me feel when I come home at night, for the evenings by myself in front of the fireplace, for the dog’s paws’ prints on the kitchen floor that remind me of my furry companions.

I still go to bed with all the dishes washed and   the pillows on the couch perfectly straightened , but I decided a while ago to let go of the perfection that was stealing time from what matters. Well, at least as much as my o.c.d. will allow me….

Well, here I am again, yet another blog. This time, however, I’d like to keep the music seperate from everything else, it’s very much its own thing and deserves to be presented as such. Anyway, here’s where you’ll see anything new I squeeze out of my cacophony-creating collective crapheap I’d call my studio if only it resembled one. That’s me done for now, stay tuned, I just reorganised and I have an entire collection of unfinished titbits and works in progress, and this is where they’ll eventually end up.

Oh, and in the meantime, don’t hesitate to check out my featured artists over on the right of this y’ere page, you might find something you like.

So long folks, ’til next time.

After the great feast and many friends and families you are ready to jump into the shopping season. Plan ahead this year with AT HOME GIFT WRAPPING

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I am sure most of us woke up at 3am and left out of the house ready to hit those stores. You have shopped and spent. A huge thought just might be….Where and when will I have the time to get these  gifts wrapped and tagged?  Most stay up late trying to get a little at a time done each day.

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Hello, Upper East Siders…

Okay. So I’m not Gossip Girl. I’m not even close. Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But I’m not her. Nor am I going to try to be her. Since the admin of Gossip Girl’s website is already doing that. I do love that show though. But you can find out more about that later.

Basically, there’s nothing normal about me, but there’s not anything particularly special about me, either. I am crazy, and even though no doctors have confirmed it, I’m ADD and OCD and probably several other things neither of us want to know about. Alright? Not that it’s important, since you don’t personally know me and none of those things really affect blog posts. Or do they…? By the way, if I do know you personally, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. My girls are as bad as I am. Which might be something the rest of you want to take note of.

Speaking of my crazy girls, Death of Something Or Other the anime freak managed to make a ridiculously long first entry. Her hands hurt afterwards. Love you, deary. Too bad I don’t remember your username. This is why anime is the one thing I don’t do. Please don’t take that wrong.

Oh, that reminds me. I should probably just say this now. If you get really offended by language or other suggestive content, this probably isn’t the right blog for you to be reading. I’m not going to say that it’s for mature readers only, because it’s not. Let’s put it this way: If you get disgusted by The Office, you’ll probably have an issue or two with a few of the things that come up here. But those are few and far between. This is basically a disclaimer, saying that it could happen. While I’m not planning on it happening in the near future or any time, for that matter, I know myself too well to not post any sort of warning.

Now that nobody is left to read this because all of the sane and conservative people are gone, leaving the creepy pervs I don’t want reading my blog and my insane friends who have better things to do with their lives…

I was kidding. Honestly, I was kidding. Please don’t be offended. I am such a moron.

XOXO

I am currently at the house I grew up in for the Thanksgiving holiday (or as I like to call it, Carb-icide 2009).  The house is in dire need of a clean out before Oprah features it on her next hoarders-themed episode.  Much is destined for trash or Goodwill.  I am not home often, so I’ve taken some time to fill one or two boxes with all of the childhood mementos, books, and stuffed animals I want saved.   After coming across shoebox after shoebox of old photos, I realized much of the contents might not be worth holding on to.  At the bottom of a box, I found all of the letters from my long-time high school boyfriend.

Inspired by the blog Shmitten Kitten, I’d like to highlight some of my own “bonerkillers,” made only too painfully obvious from opening these boxes and shoving aside my Amy Grant and Debbie Gibson cassette tape cases.

Bad spelling and confused homonyms: How could I have ever thought I “belonged” with someone who spelled “until”  “untill”?   Or used the word “passionately”—let alone spelled it “passionetly”?  Definietely? Getcha?  Thang?  Nuthing? Tuff?    Oh long-ago ex-boyfriend, how could you think I would ever be “just chillin’ doin’ [my] thang”?  My “thang” is to be annoyed by learning you didn’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”  How my precious adolescence could have been different if I realized sooner that you “had gots to go.”

Corny professions of affection are far worse.  They are sweet, endearing and funny when used occasionally, because you know it will make me laugh.  Bust a smile if not a gut.  But scratched on college-rule notepaper and stuffed in an envelope addressed to “Luscious Lisa”?   I’m hiding in my room, years between these letters and me, right now, door closed and face flushed red with embarrassment, because I must now face that I was once the kind of person who not only dated someone who did this, but I think I actually enjoyed it.

Echoing what I hear many of my female friends say, I do not like to be placed on a pedestal.  It’s awkward.  It doesn’t make me feel good, it makes me feel weird.    Seriously, long-time-ago-ex-boyfriend, did “the anticipation of [my] presence give you chills sometimes?”  Really? “Every moment with [me] is beyond incredible?”  “Something deep inside of [you] is fueled by [my] love?”  Yuck.

Only a year or so ago, I found these letters but did not attempt to read them. I called a friend, asking if she thought I should save them or trash them.  She recommended I save them, and while they go in the trash today, I am so glad I did save them. Thank you Eliza!  I never would have believed this trip down my own memory lane without proof.  It proved to be a discovery of great entertainment, despite the shame reliving the past made me feel.

1.

I am seriously considering hiring a home help. I’d really like a live in fairy who is unobtrusive, doesn’t notice when I shout at the kids and can handle me being grumpy from time to time, but we are not really in a position to have someone live with us, and can’t afford to pay them. SO, I’m considering employing someone for 2-4 hours a week to pop in and help with whatever needs to be done. Duties will include babysitting so I can pop out, or general household duties. I’d also like them to do an occasional activity with the children or come with us on an outing as an extra pair of hands. She will be kind of like a nanny, but hopefully will become an extended family member. As we have no family here at all, our kids could really do with an aunty (I’m so excited about this….I have someone in mind. Just have to see if it works out)

2.

I’m currently on an emotional roller coaster. Pregnancy is fun isn’t it? I cry a lot lately. It’s getting boring.

3.

We are going on a summer holiday!! Yipee!  I can’t wait. Some lovely friends of our live in the Coromandel and are going away overseas to visit family over Christmas. They have offered us use of their house in this beautiful beautiful part of New Zealand. What a treat. I’m so excited about getting away from the city and resting up before our baby is born.

4.

E7 is doing her end of year Ballet performance this weekend. She’s in two shows. They are doing scenes from The Little Mermaid, and dancing to my favourite song, Under the Sea. So cute. They will be dressed in little blue flowy things and are making up the sea itself with their movements while Ariel and some other mermaids dance with them.

5.

R2 is starting to toilet train himself. I didn’t really think I’d bother until summer really sets in and was going to wait until baby was here, but he’s gone ahead and ditched nappies during the day. We’ve had surprisingly few accidents and it seems to be going along quite well except for the fact that he keeps taking off his pants and peeing outside on the deck, or on the grass. Just like a little puppy he is in more ways than one. Adorable but a lot of work.

6.

I have made myself an awesome budget. I’m so proud of myself and it’s going to be so helpful because I never know where I’m at with spending and whether there is going to be money there when we need it. I have taken my weekly housekeeping budget and divided it up into common expenses (e.g food, clothes, gifts, home ware, entertainment etc.) and projected an amount for each for the year. I’ve also set it up so that if I under spend this week, the surplus is divided across the year as extra money per week. This is very motivating. Conversely, if I over spend for the week, the rest of the weeks for the whole year will reflect that. It’s a great challenge to stay under budget because just small savings per week add up to quite a bit by the end of the year. It is easy to adapt to anyone’s needs so if anyone want a copy let me know…I should be able to upload it for you to download.

7.

The sun is shining. It’s a beautiful blue skied day and not too hot. Off to see the midwife, taking the kiddies with me. Lord give me grace.

7 Quick Takes hosted by Conversion Diary.

]]> http://eirenikon.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/its-been-awhile/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:48:58 +0000 Irenaeus http://eirenikon.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/its-been-awhile/

… since I last updated my blogroll. Any interesting blogs I should be linking to?

[Update: It seems that my blogroll's disappeared somehow. Hmm.]

[Update: Ah, it's back!]

If you don’t know much about Isabella Beeton, besides that she put together a rather weighty niche book, what image leaps to mind when you try to guess what she was like in real life?

a)  A bosomly matron

b) A sweet old dear

c) A bossy housewife who thought she knew it all

d) All of the above

As you probably guessed from the oh-so-cleverly leading examples, none of the above. 

Household Management flickered into volume-by-volume existence in 1861 – although Isabella wrote excerpts for the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine from 1857, when she was no more than 21.  Already by that point she was a wife, running a home and working as a journalist.  When I was 21, my time was invested in obsessing over some guy I was desperate to marry and squeeze 5 kids out of (What was his name again?).  I hadn’t much of a clue about budgeting or housework.  Certainly, anything beyond Vegetable Pasties and (frequently-burnt) biscuits would have had me reaching for a bottle of wine.

Yet by 25, Isabella’s book had been published (after a 4-year slog, amongst everything else the poor girl had on her plate) and she was well on her way to becoming – literally – a household name.

Despite her age, her life experiences seeped into her book in one way or another.  So, if I’m going to spend 365 days in her shoes, I figure I should have more than just a superficial knowledge of what made her tick.

One experience already connects us:  she finished her schooling in a historic town not so far from where I currently live – Heidelberg.

Isabella would probably be completely at home there, even today.  Heidelberg Castle remains mostly an enigmatic, majestic ruin.  A toppled gunpowdered tower here, brick-maker’s stamps  in the moat wall there, the bakeries, the main street, the vineyard-packed hills and market square all retain their familiarity and centrality to the town’s pulse.

It was probably here that she picked up her recipe for Dampfnudeln (a literal translation is ’steamed noodles’, but in actual fact it’s a steamed bun with a crispy little bottom).

One of my colleagues, with glistening eyes and a dreamy smile transporting him back to his Oma’s kitchen as he spoke, told me that they’re not as easy to make as her recipe in theory implies.  His grandmother’s mouthwateringly enticing Dampfnudeln were produced in a special pan and required a certain knack to get them right.

On Saturday I plan to recreate Isabella’s recipe and compare it to the Dampfnudeln available in 21st century Germany.  She may have adulterated it for the middle-class Victorian kitchen.  Or perhaps she just decided to simply let them have it with the original.  I’ll soon find out.

The ginger beer should be ready by Saturday too.  When I checked on it yesterday, the yeast froth that she says to skim off wasn’t visible.  I’m slightly worried about how it will turn out.

However, I hope that my boyfriend will be the proverbial canary in the mine when the time comes to test them…

Added inspiration for this project: A wonderful compilation by dizwiz fromYouTube. He calls this “A European collage of people to Jack Johnson’s song ‘People Watching’”. Thank you, dizwiz.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Rest and be grateful today.

I can’t believe I’ve been home for a little over six months now… It truly feels like it’s been a LOT longer. I think that somehow small children have so much energy because they have the ability to drain energy from any adults nearby. They feed off us. That probably explains why it feels like it’s been so long.

Despite the energy sucking children running around my house, I have made a few accomplishments in this time. There is no laundry mountain anymore. The floors are regularly cleaned and swept. I’ve become a better cook. I take better care of myself and go to the gym a couple times a week. We don’t have to run so many errands on the weekends and have more time to do family things and not feel bad we didn’t get to housework. And the kids have gotten super close to each other.

Of course, there are lots of things I’m not so thrilled with. My days are completely unorganized. We’re tighter with money than ever. The kids watch too much TV. And I’m completely out of touch with my own interests and professional goals.

Overall, I think I’m doing ok, but not great. I get to keep my job.

Oh, and the marigolds never bloomed. I didn’t water them.

For those of us that have to unload and load dishwashers on a daily basis, wanted to discuss how to minimize the time taken to do so. It takes me a maximum of 10 minutes on a daily basis to unload/load the dishwasher. Here are my tips:

Use implements that make organizing of utensils easier:

• Mug/cup stand (for example, Amazon.com: Pomerantz Oak Mug Tree: Home & Garden)
• Utensil jar for spatulas etc.. (for example Amazon.com: BIA Cordon Bleu 64-Ounce Utensil Crock, White: Home & Garden)
• Organizer for spoons, kinves and forks (for example,Amazon.com: BAMBOO cutlery SILVERWARE sectioned utensil TRAY kitchen drawer organizer: Home & Garden)
• Shelving unit for plates (for example, Amazon.com: 2 Shelf Cabinet Organizer (White) (8 1/2″H x 17 1/4″L x 8 1/2″W): Home & Garden)
• Pot lid organizer ( for example, http://www.amazon.com/Grayline-Cabinet-Dorr-Lid-Rack/dp/B002HRJPC8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1256523890&sr=1-2)

When loading the dishwasher, arrange utensils in the dishwasher so that similar ones are closer to each other. For example, keep the cups closer to each other, saucers close each other.

When unloading, pick out similar objects that that go in the same region in the kitchen so in each unload step you are tackling multiples of similar objects.

I had posted this earlier on a forum and figured that I should also add it to my blog.

Basic assumption here is that you have the bare minimum on the kitchen counter (less than 10 items on all the countertop sections in the kitchen):

1. Remove post-cooking debris

Use half a paper towel or cloth to clean the countertop of any food, peels that are the byproducts of a cooking session or a day of use.

2. Scrub

Put a couple of drops of dishwashing soap on a scrubber and dampen it. Scrub the countertop.

3. Wipe

Use the papertowel/s to wipe the countertop clean.

How do you like the Thanksgiving-themed page? Puts one in the mood for pumpkin pie with a big glob of whipped cream on top. I wonder if the Pilgrims had whipped cream …

We’ll look for our Fellows to post off and on throughout the day (hint). There’s an option, at the bottom of the right column, to get notified by email whenever a new post is published. Also, on the About page (lower right column, again) are the poster guidelines we’ve been able to think up until now.

Now for a tip: besides the search feature and tags to help one find content, clicking on a Fellow’s name in a post will call forth all his posts in one convenient collection.

Sally forth on this Wednesday and ask the Lord, as Mike Riley prayed over on @unitedprayer , “Lord, may we help someone in need so they too can be thankful, in Jesus’ name.” Amen!

Hi folks,

I’m really excited to show off the new S.C.S. Project site at WordPress. I think it’s going to open up a lot more creative options for us, and allow us to broaden the audience that the blog is able to touch.

Please enjoy the new look, and the old content. You will find us posting here from now on.

http://soldiercitizensapien.wordpress.com

Please update your readers and feeders with the RSS link at the top right.

We are looking forward to continuing to provide solid content on a regular basis. You can also expect some new features to appear in the very near future.

• Biographical information of S.C.S. Project contributors
• Feedback page
• Links to websites, news and blogs that have information similar to S.C.S. Project posts or have parallel goals and efforts.

It’s been wonderful sharing with you readers at Blogger, but we look forward to the opportunities we will have with you here at the new site.

-Justin

Originally posted by Matt on Monday, November 2, 2009.

Currently, the beginning of several essays are scrawled on the pages of my spiral bound notebook. I had the fortune to visit Justin and his family a few weeks ago. It was a chance to renew old friendships and reminisce. I was blessed with the opportunity to serve in the military with a group of exceptional individuals(Justin being one of them.)

I have been grasping for an outlet to the jumble of thoughts and inner dialogue for sometime now. Justin has offered the opportunity to contribute to this project as a co-contributor. I am excited to see where this goes. I mostly look forward to the interaction and development of ideas this forum can facilitate. I anticipate a rocky start as my voice here develops. I hope to contribute as regularly as school, work, and family allow.

Having fulfilled my commitment as a soldier, with multiple overseas tours of duty, I now approach a new life as a civilian. My point of view is tinted with the lessons and experiences of a military veteran. Concepts such as duty, self-sacrifice, and service take on deeper meaning after actual application. I believe in the ideas expressed by the Soldier-Citizen-Sapien ethic.

-Matt

Originally posted by Justin on Thursday, October 29, 2009.

Up until now this blog has been a personal project for me to put my thoughts into words and provoke your response. I even used to call it a diary, even though it was very much public. I have been pleased with the feedback I get on the site and in syndicated media.

For quite some time now I had considered expanding the project, introducing collaborators who supported what I now call the Soldier-Citizen-Sapien ideal or ethic. With their help I could make an even more attractive forum for thought and discussion. That expansion is happening now.

You will notice some changes the next time you visit this site. The look has changed and some of the language has changed. I am introducing at least one new collaborator, a superb friend of mine and true believer of the broad S.C.S ethic. I am certain that more will follow to enhance the volume and quality of content on this site.

If you’ve been here with me at soldiercitizensapien.blogspot.com for a while, I look forward to your continued attention to what this project is becoming. If you’re just noticing us, I encourage you to give us a good look. I can only anticipate that the content will become richer and more regular. I doubt you will find yourself regretful you decided to join us here.

I will continue to post on Fridays. My collaborators will introduce themselves in short time. I’m looking forward to seeing how far this project can go.

-Justin

Originally posted by Justin on Friday, October 23, 2009.

[First of all, I'd like to introduce a terrific friend of mine who has joined me here as a collaborator and contributor. Matt is not only a good man, but he was indeed my best man five years ago and we've had a friendship that has lasted many years. He has joined me in order to add to this project and contribute to the annunciation of the Soldier-Citizen-Sapien ethic. I would also like to offer an enthusiastic greetings to Matt's family and friends who are reading this (and me) for the first time. I look forward to any part of the discussion you care to add.]

Now on with it…

There has been quite a bit of debate, well, just about everywhere on the resolution of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession. In the U.S. there has been debate at least as early as the 2008 presidential campaign about how to deal with the recession, and get back on track towards growth.

Now sitting from my perch of stable employment, it was easy for this question to come to me, although it might not be altogether fair of me to do so:

Why is everybody so eager to rush back into growth?

The big financial bubble had just collapsed. Why were we in such a hurry to charge that imaginary capital back up and create a new one? The only debate that was going on was how to get back on a track towards growth, but nobody I saw was really debating why getting back on track was desirable in the first place.

Is it just assumed that growth is what we want to be doing? Need to be doing?

So I did what any self-respecting concerned citizen would do. I went to my local library and Googled it. Turns out that if you Google anything with the word “rush” in it, all you get is a lot of news and blog pages about Rush Limbaugh with not a single sponsored link.

So I went back home and ripped a page out of my old market-capitalism 101 book. Here’s what I found out…

It turns out that the whole point of capitalism is to use capital (like cash, factories, raw materials, etc.) and make more capital out of it. We do this by making and selling stuff for profit, and then turning the profit into capital. Simple. Turn capital into more capital. Turn stuff into more stuff. More and more and more stuff (Here’s a little story about stuff).

But the simplest and most versatile type of capital is still cash. Capital is cash, and capitalism is about stacking up cash and using it to make more cash.

Cash. It’s a financial asset.

Wait a tick. Didn’t we just have a financial bubble? Like…a cash bubble?

Okay, let me catch you up on what happened in two sentences for those who aren’t tracking the financial bubble yet. Bankers (and pseudo-bankers, and not-bankers) used good capitalist goals to create more cash (just capital) out of cash…but it was imaginary cash. But then somebody told everybody else that the cash was imaginary, and everybody started freaking out.

But it was just good capitalism right? Right???

Here’s the thing about capitalism. It’s awesome. There is not an economist around who can tell you about a faster way to create a whole ton of goods and wealth to go around. Capitalism works so good.

Market-capitalism is awesome too. Any economist will tell you that a market is the most efficient way to trade and allocate goods among people. Costs are low (sometimes lower than they ought to be but…not now) and anybody can participate in a free market. Being able to participate in a free market makes everybody more free. Because if they couldn’t participate in a free market freely, that would be the definition of being less free. See how definitions are rad like that?

But if there is one thing I learned at the library on all those Rush sites is that bubbles suck, and imaginary capital sucks. I’m also smart enough to know that all you can do with imaginary capital is make more imaginary capital or imaginary stuff. And America can’t feed the kids with imaginary stuff. And we have to feed the kids.

So now we want to get back to growth, right? We want to get back on track and make more stuff, right? Do we want more imaginary stuff? It is theorized that this has happened before. Turn a tech bubble in 2001 into a housing bubble in the middle bush years and a housing bubble into a financial bubble in 2008.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

So we want to make real stuff, not imaginary stuff.

I suppose we could do that, but a thought just crept into my head (no it didn’t, this question hit me at the library).

Why do we want to to begin making more real stuff? Haven’t we got enough stuff?

I’m going to work on this question another time. This has gotten a touch lengthier than I wanted it to be. But you can anticipate I’ll be back with “bubble back II” soon.

-Justin

Man, I’ve been really dull the past few days…

Today I did house-holdy stuff like dishes and laundry and balancing my checkbook.

I need to get back to being creative/spectacular.

I have some craft shows coming up and need some more fresh items to take.  I want to particularly focus on making more necklaces and handmade cards, but have been kind of unmotivated lately.  My craft area is finally clearner than before, but I guess I’m at a loss for what to do first.

In one respect, I’d like to finish my handmade Christmas gifts so that they are done and out of the way.

On the other hand, my craft shows are earlier than that, so I need to make sure there’s variety in my display.  Though I do have enough stuff right now to just set up a booth, if I had to do it today.

On the third hand, if people are going to be shopping a lot this weekend after Thanksgiving, maybe I should try and make things to post in my Etsy shop.  ( I don’t sell cards on there, because I do a free shipping promotion.)

But I kind of feel like making cards and playing with paper right now.

I guess I have time to do all these things, so should just get started on something.

I’ll keep you posted.