Those were rich months.
· 13 August 2008
Way too long. Well the past month has been exciting. I went to Oregon. It was fantastic. Drank a lot of wine, sat by the ocean, ate amazing seafood and most importantly relaxed.
Came back home and have been working my ass off. It’s good though, I like being busy. I just kind of wish I had a little tiny bit more time to enjoy the weather, but all in all I can’t complain.
Another big thing I’ve been diving into over the past month is altering my diet a bit. It all kind of started with the whole grocery experiment in April. Slowly since then I’ve been really reading labels, trying to buy more local produce, working on supporting local businesses instead of just going online and buying from bigger superstore types of places.
Last year I did my big olive curing project. I bought those olives from a farm in California. They had kind of a bummer year this year and have posted on their website that they only have about 15% of what they had last year. They lost a lot of fruit to a late freeze. Boo! I’ve been looking forward to this since last year. So I started looking around and found an Italian grocery here in Chicago that carries uncured olives. They have a couple different varieties which is great and we don’t have to buy 10 pounds. We’re going to go out there this weekend and get a couple pounds. We’re going to try out oil curing. Not my favorite but the hubby likes them. I’m excited about that. It’ll be a little easier to experiment with some different flavors and methods on a smaller scale.
The other thing I’m kind of jazzed up about today is finding out that the Wood Street Urban Farm has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Why am I just learning about this now?
If you’re not familiar with CSA’s it’s a program where you pay a fee for a season or a set time period and you receive fresh produce from the farm. The money you pay helps the farm cover expenses. The double bonus for the Growing Home’s CSA program is that they aren’t just a farm, they provide job training and assistance to homeless and low-income men and women in Chicago. So you help the farm, you help some people and you get to eat food grown on a farm in Chicago. I’d heard about the Urban Farm before but I didn’t know much about it.
Summer Spaghetti
· 1 July 2008
We eat this a couple times a month in the summer.
5 large ripe tomatoes diced
1-2 cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped
5 or 6 fresh basil leaves coarsely chopped
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4-6 ounces of fresh mozzarella cut into small pieces
1 pound of spaghetti
Salt & Pepper
In a medium bowl combine tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt & pepper. Add enough olive oil to cover the mixture. Marinate at room temperature for at about an hour (sometimes I’m patient and just let it sit for 30 minutes and it turns out fine. But if you can wait do it). Put the mozzarella into a large serving bowl that’ll be large enough for the pasta and tomatoes too. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain and immediately put the hot pasta in the bowl with the mozzarella. Toss to melt the cheese a little. Then add the tomato mixture and toss again.
Less is much much more..
· 28 June 2008
Over the past week I’ve been thinking a lot about possessions and why I feel this urge to keep acquiring things.
A few months ago I bought an iPhone. It’s a really cool gadget but not so great at being a phone. I like the look of it. I like the features mostly. Being able to check my email anywhere is great (kind of) but it sucks as an iPod (the sound quality is really poor) and I can’t talk on it anywhere in the house except for right next to the front window.
So I’ve decided to get rid of it and just use my old phone. My old phone still works perfectly fine, actually a little better.
The grass was not greener on the other side of the fence.
I think the thing that triggered it was a couple weeks ago I got an email from Apple announcing the new iPhone. The tagline was ‘Twice as Fast. Half the Price’. It pissed me off. So now even though I just bought this thing 12 weeks ago, and paid quite a bit of money for it, I feel like a have a piece of junk because it’s not the shiny new version. Grr. I hate it so much. So screw them. I’ll have my 2 year old Motorola PEBL (which I really love) and send picture messages to everyone I know (can’t do this with the iPhone) and I’ll talk in every room of my house and I will be perfectly happy.
Marketing messages are really hard to ignore sometimes even when you’re fully aware that it’s all a game. I get sucked in. Apple is the worst for me. I don’t really care about cars or clothes or most material things but computers and iPods… They get me. I didn’t realize how much until I got that email and I felt that sinking feeling and the ‘Man I really want that one’ thing started going through my head.
I’m breaking the cycle. I already feel better…
Story of Stuff
· 26 June 2008
This video was recommended to me by a friend and I think it’s important for people to watch. Here’s your chance. You can view the entire video on the Story of Stuff website.
The less is more philosophy is something I have practiced most of my life. Occasionally I do slip up but I think for the most part I consume much less than the average American.
I think it’s very important that we start taking a long hard look at the American way of life and making some changes.
Even though I try to be thrifty and keep my priorities away from the material things I still do feel this pressure to have cool stuff. I find myself looking at the things I have and thinking ‘Maybe it’s time to get a new one’ even if the old one is perfectly fine. It’s a bad feeling. It’s bad feeling like all the things you have are obsolete and it’s even worse to constantly feel the pressure to have more and more money so you can surround yourself with more and more things.
The things don’t ever make you happy. Neither does the giant house or the newest car or gadget or clothes. Doing stuff with people you care about makes you happy.
I really hope there’s a shift, a major one, in people’s thoughts on what’s really important. Until then I’ll just keep fighting that urge to buy the stretch Hummer I’ve had my eye on…
Off to the PNW
· 23 June 2008
Soon very soon.. kind of not soon enough I’m off again to the grand old Pacific Northwest. Michelle is (finally) turning 30! To celebrate the occasion we’re going to the coast and having a 3 day girly weekend plus a couple days in Portland too. Cooking, drinking, watching stupid movies, roasting marshmallows, walking by the ocean.
I’m so fricken excited. I really, really, really need 5 days out of the city and away from the computer.
Yay!