Eating Out Midterm Warning

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Shannon| Leave a comment

My husband and I, we have honed our skills, over the years, at eating in restaurants. We can occupy a table in a wide variety of places, three star and no star, of almost any ethnic sway, and hold our own. We have cultivated a pretty nice eating out technique and I think we’d be welcome customers in almost any establishment. A long time living in big metropolitan areas, plenty of travel, adventurous tastebuds, and a shared interest in trying new things has taught us a great deal. Not only are we pretty good at eating out, we enjoy it as well.

Well, our toddler is bringing down our Restaurant grade point average.

We went out tonight because for SOME reason our building shut the water off on our floor from 3pm to after 8pm, without warning. Cooking was out of the question. We went down the street to a friendly little Chinese place that always seems delighted to have children. They normally are very sweet to our daughter. But after tonight I think maybe they’ll reconsider that.

Things started off well, but then one thing let to another, and all of a sudden she was throwing chopsticks on the floor. The waiter brought clean chopsticks and handed them to her and she PROMPTLY threw them to the floor!

Appalling. I nearly left her with the bill.

I had to tell her that we’re graded as a TABLE. This is like a group project. And she’s bringing our GPA down. Not cool.
I tried to explain that if we don’t pass enough tests, we won’t pass the semester. And if we don’t pass the semester, we won’t be allowed to take Restaurants classes in the Spring. We’ll have to wait until Summer and retake Restaurants 101: Food Courts and Coffee Shops all over again. And frankly, mommy and daddy passed that decades ago with FLYING colors.

Someone needs to think of the good of the group and start doing their homework. I’d like to work up to 2 star sushi sometime this decade.

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Best of 2012

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Shannon| 53 Comments

I am so out of the loop on music and film, art and restaurants. I could make excuses about having a little kid, but it probably has more to do with being broke in academia again. Little time, little money, together equal very little participation in cultural enrichment.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t issue some “Best of” awards of my own devising…so here we go:

Best Book Read: “Cleopatra” by Stacy Schiff
Best Dessert Made: Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake
Best Email: May 12th. Subject line- “So last night got a little crazy” and in the body of the message, a photo of an adorable newborn baby girl.
Best New Electronic Thingy: my oh-so-shiny iPad2. I cook from it, I make lists, I read books, and I spend way too much time on Facebook. But better YET, it keeps my daughter delightfully happy and QUIET on airplanes and in car seats.
Best TV Show: Downton Abbey. No other show results in conversations between me and my friends that go like this-
“Downton. Omg.”
“I know”
“Omg.”
“I know!”
“Omg.”
Best Childhood Milestone Reached: Saying words! I would normally put Sleeping through the night, but I have been waiting to know what goes on in her little head for SO long, I love hearing her talk. Parents of non-stop 3/4/5 year old talkers, don’t ruin this for me!
Best Sister of the Year: Mine. She comes with airport pick-ups, a college degree, insane makeup skills, coveted just-released perfume samples, a ton of volunteer hours, a nutella addiction, and endless supply of “my auntie is awesome” tshirts in whatever size my daughter is.
Best Twitter Feed: @HonestToddler
Best Article: Also Most Terrifying Article- “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” by Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone
Best Photo:

Have a wonderful 2013!

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White Christmas

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Shannon| Leave a comment

The snow came just in time this year and has been progressively more beautiful every day since Christmas. The whole countryside is frosted in lovely blue-white powder and the sky is regularly filled with snowflakes.

My daughter discovered the joys of sledding with her older cousins. She was pulled around in a sled last year, but going down a hill is so much more fun. We were on an every-other-day cocoa schedule (or else there would have been non-stop cocoa and premature diabetes) and I’m pretty sure I went through 30 lbs of flour (not counting bread flour) in the last few weeks. There were cookies and cakes and pies, breakfasts and lunches and dinners, 16 houseguests, 6 visitors, 5 dogs, 20 stockings hung with care or thumbtacks, 9 christmas trees, and way too many store-runs.

It was a busy, interesting, memorable, and happy Christmas.

And we all loved that it was a white one.

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Happy Saint Lucia Day

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Shannon| 30 Comments

In Sweden, they celebrate the feast of St Lucia by sending the oldest daughter down to the kitchen to whip up some buns (with saffron and cardamom) and deliver breakfast in bed to all the adults in her white jammies with her head encircled with a flaming centerpiece. Sounds like fun, huh?

I have a 2 year old so flaming centerpieces are right out. She put the raisins on the buns and was happy to carry the tray, but that was about it. She looks adorable in her white flannel dress.

I could eat these buns all day.

Saint Lucia Buns

1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 beaten eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 strands of saffron
1 tsp ground cardamom pods
4-6 cups bread flour
1 package (2.5 tsp) dry active yeast
1/4 cup warm water

To top buns:
Swedish pearl sugar or 1 tablespoon granular sugar
pinch saffron

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1/2 tsp salt and let foam until doubled. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Add butter to milk, heat until melted. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add salt, saffron strands, and 1 tsp ground cardamom.
3. Mix butter/milk with eggs, slowly, tempering the eggs.
4. Add sugar and 1 of the cups of flour.
5. Add the yeast and the rest of the flour, 1 cup at a time until dough is no longer sticky and wet. Knead for 5 minutes.
6. Sprinkle dough with flour and let rise until doubled (2 hours-overnight).
7. Turn out on floured board and shape into S shaped or }{ shaped buns and allow to rise again on baking sheets, 30 min-1 hour.
8. Brush with beaten egg, decorate with sugar and saffron (optional nuts and raisins).
9. Bake at 350 F for 10-20 min until golden.

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I would like to check one bag and one child please.

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

We’re getting ready to remove ourselves to our holiday residence at my in-law’s house. On the way, I’ll be stopping briefly in Chicago. I’m very excited! There’s a lot to do before we leave. My daughter and I head out on Friday, my husband the 18th, and the cat, sadly, has to stay home this year. Poor cat.

I didn’t bother decorating since we’re leaving so soon, but I did put up some christmas lights. A certain kid loves them, asks me to turn them on a lot. I usually ask her to do something for me and then I’ll turn them on. That’s where we are these days, EVERYTHING is a negotiation.

I’m worried about the airports and the cars, the new beds and the restaurants. She’s a different kid since we last went anywhere else, she understands more, but her patience is maybe a bit less and she’s far less containable. I’ve been so very lucky with her on airplanes that I’m starting to fear that the other shoe is about to drop. Will this be the trip where TSA has to pry my 2 year old from a plastic tub? Will the passengers on this flight be staring at me with the “oh god, make it stop” faces? Will this be the trip where my ipad battery dies the moment we get into the car?

All these very real fears of parents all over haunt me.

As much as non-parents like to believe that a) travel is just for them and b) all children can be brought down from the throes of meltdown, I have some bad news for them. Kids go places. Especially on the holidays. They have every right to be on the plane as any other ticket holder. (The logic that some adults have that adults are worth more than kids baffles me.) Kids have complex and shaky emotional scaffolds, they haven’t learn to repress, delude, and compensate through years of turmoil and boredom like adults have. If one prefers to see it in a positive light, they are more honest. Loudly honest. So, not all bad behavior by kids on planes can be stopped with any simple procedure. If the parent isn’t even trying, that’s one thing, but we like to hear our kids scream even LESS than strangers do. Trust me.

Anyway, I’m hoping I can negotiate my way from here to there with my 2 year old. I have an arsenal of stickers, apps, videos, and snacks with which to bargain. And if all else fails, I suppose I could tell her Santa’s watching…

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Stop projecting on me, mom!

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

Sometimes I forget I have a kid. You know, like you forget the cat is around. Or you forget you aren’t wearing pants. Since she’s always there, I can sometimes merge her into my environment. Until she spills something, which is pretty often.

I am fully aware intellectually that she’s not just an extension of myself, but coming out of the baby years when she was so literally attached to me, it’s hard to shed the operating assumption that she is me and I am her. What I am feeling, cold/hungry/tired/sick, she probably feels too and when she’s cold/hungry/tired/sick, I’m probably feeling that way too.

But she’s getting all person-y on me. It creeps up on you. It’s been steadily happening, but you get a major system upgrade I think when they turn 2. She has opinions. Preferences. Strong ones. Suddenly simple things are a negotiation. I can usually get into her head and find a way to convince her to do what I need her to do, but not always. When I fail, it’s usually because I’m thinking that she feels how I feel.

Wrong. She’s a lot less tired than me.

There’s the usual “I don’t want to leave the playground yet” stuff and the “I don’t want to put on my shoes” stuff that all kids do. There’s the usual “I want YOU to give me a bath, not Dada” and the “This is not the cup I wanted” moments. Sometimes her motivation is obvious, sometimes it’s a total mystery. I’m a pretty capricious person, I know that, and I have my own strong preferences. But I can’t always see what her triggers or motivations are, I can only try to put myself in her place. It works… but less and less effectively than it used to.

So as we go along, I get to know the person she’s deciding to be. Which is a lovely way of saying “who are you and what have you done with my baby?”

But every so often, without even projecting, she looks up and says “cocoa” and I say “I was thinking the same thing!” And we are on the same page again.

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Butternut Squash Curry

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

It’s been awhile since I recipe-d at you all –sorry an old Onion joke– but I keep meaning to take pictures of stuff I am making and then forgetting until it’s done or possibly all eaten.

Lately, I’ve been scrapping together dinners from pretty random things and feeling a bit uninspired by it all, but this one was worth sharing. Sweet and spicy, warm and healthy. Perfect for November. Omg it’s November.

Butternut Squash Curry

2 cups butternut squash soup*
2 cups (about 1/2 head) cauliflower
1 medium onion, chopped in big pieces
1 red pepper
2 large carrots, cubed
1 cup shelled edamame
1 cup paneer cubes**
2 tbsp hot red chili paste (less or more depending on how hot you prefer)
1 tbsp garam masala
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut your cauliflower into small florets and toss with just a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt. Cut your red pepper into bite-size pieces and toss in olive oil. Bake both on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes until slightly brown. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook your carrots in olive oil, stirring occasionally, until tender and and reduce to medium low. Add your onions and cook until softened and starting to brown, stirring frequently. Add cauliflower, pepper, edamame and stir until combined. Mix in masala and curry.

3. Add butternut squash soup, stir to combine. Let simmer for about 5 minutes and then mix in red chili paste and paneer cubes.
4. Serve over jasmine rice or with naan.

*Butternut Squash Soup

I made my own soup for this, well actually, I used leftover soup for this. I recommend doing that.
Simply roast a whole butternut squash at 400 F for about 35-45 min, in large chunks, scrape the flesh from the skin into a saucepan, add 2-3 cups of vegetable broth (depending on the relative size of your squash) and 1 cup of coconut milk. Heat over medium-low and then blend with an immersion blender or mixer (you could pour into a blender, but then I’d recommend pureeing before you heat) and season with a little curry powder and cinnamon.

**Paneer

You can make your own paneer! I promise! It must be the world’s easiest cheese. You simmer some milk, you add some buttermilk and voila! Stir your curds, strain them into cheesecloth, a dash of salt, squeeze, set them under something heavy. Done. It’s so simple. I used the recipe and instructions here, at The Flourishing Foodie.

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Cats in the walls

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

My husband told me about this dream he had where this orange tabby cat, Cindy, from one of our kid’s books was living in the wall of our apartment with her kittens. I thought this was funny and our daughter was right there so I told her about the dream.

I might have made a mistake in doing this because now my daughter keeps asking about Cindy and if she’s in the wall (“see-see waah?!”).

I have explained in the best way I can about dreams and how this was just an imagined story, but about fiftyeleven times a day I have to restate that yes, daddy had a dream about Cindy living in the wall and it was just a dream, no, she’s not really in the wall, but yes, it’s a funny story. This seems to give her a satisfied laugh and then she moves on for about 20 minutes.

I wonder if she understands what I told her about dreams. She seemed to have a glimmer of recognition when I told her what they were. I bet she has pretty interesting ones. I bet they feature a lot of cats too.

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Re-election

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Shannon| 1 Comment

For those of you who are depressed about Obama’s re-election, I have a little story for you.

In 2004, the day after Bush won reelection, I remember sitting at Thai Basil in Champaign IL, having a bit of an epiphany that by sending that guy back to the white house we had just sent this horrible message to the world, about Iraq, about the future of diplomacy, about ourselves. I resolved that NEXT time, I would no longer be a bumper-sticker activist and I would do everything in my power to find and support a candidate that would not only be interesting to independents and liberals alike, but would listen to and work with opponents.

I went to work for Barack Obama in the spring of 2007 and did not stop until he had won. I was in seven states, knocked thousands of doors, organized event after event, and I talked to hundreds of voters about their concerns, face to face. I also happened to meet some amazing friends along the way. It is EASY to be cynical about politics, to demonize the candidates, to disparage the other side’s voters, it is much harder to take responsibility for improving the system. But if you really care, you have to get involved. You have to go out there and see how hard it is to be IN politics, how hard it is to solve problems that affect so many different people in different ways.

Not everyone has the luxury, as I did, to go work more than full time for almost no pay, but everyone certainly has the capacity to volunteer in some way. You have to do more than vote. If it’s important to you, you make time. Find a candidate, maybe one who seems like they’d never be able to scrounge up the funds but that inspires you, has talent, shows tremendous wisdom. Maybe that candidate has a funny name, a complex life-story, maybe they are a minority and people tell you “it’s impossible, no one will vote for them.” People might laugh in your face. But you educate, you inform, you get that person’s message out there and you stand up for them. You learn things about your own positions along the way and you begin to value compromise in order to get people to work together. You make the hard sell to people who kinda want to shoot you to get you off their property.

I’m no perfect volunteer, and I’m no amazing organizer either. But I’ve met a lot of people who are, and we all kept each other going. Because of their work, we have a two-term Black president with the middle name Hussein, the Affordable Care Act, the Dream Act, the end of DADT, a nation that did not fall into a deadly depression, and an end to the war in Iraq. So don’t be discouraged and don’t refuse to talk about it. Expect better and start with yourself. Be the change, you are the change, never give up.

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The Storm

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Shannon| Leave a comment

My city. It was terrible to watch the water sweep in and the lights to flicker out in my beloved New York last Monday. I was so worried about my friends, scattered throughout all 5 boroughs and New Jersey, but especially those in flood zones. If I was still living in my apartment on the Upper East Side, I would not have had to evacuate, but I would have been right on the cusp. I stayed up almost all night refreshing facebook, twitter, the NY Times, anything to tell me what was going on. And Tuesday morning, when the wind and water subsided, I waited for friends to check in, to tell me what they saw, to tell me if their homes were okay, how they were coping without power. The miracle of internet on phones.

And all my friends eventually checked in. Except one.

I found out through a mutual friend that one of my friends from the Obama ’08 campaign was gone, taken by a falling tree in Brooklyn along with her friend, on Monday night. Jessie Streich-Kest was a sweet and unique girl, only 24, only starting her career as a teacher. I spent so much time with her during the campaign, we petitioned together, got lunch for each other, and sat with each other in the office listening to Pandora for what felt like years, but was only a few months.

She was such an interesting person, a born activist and an irrepressible dog-lover, never afraid to go up to someone with a petition or to ask if she could pet their puppy. My admiration for her as a volunteer was tremendous. She and I remained friends after the campaign, whenever she was in town on breaks from UPenn or I was back from whatever state I’d been campaigning in, we’d get lunch, see movies, go shopping. My husband and I, despite being 8+ years older and having very different lives, kept in touch with her because she was so interesting and charming. Jessie and I worked on the midterm elections, for different candidates in the same column, and she finished up at school. When I left NYC, I hoped she would come visit me in Montreal. I hoped I would visit NYC more often to see her and my other friends. My last visit, Jessie and I played phone tag the entire trip and I will regret those missed calls forever.

And I’ll miss her so much. Her students, her friends, her family, her brother, and her parents have suffered an unfathomable loss and my heart breaks for them. I hope they can continue to fight for all the great causes for which Jessie worked so hard. My condolences to her friend Jacob’s family and friends, even though we never met, I know a life-long friend of Jessie’s must have been a pretty amazing person indeed and what I’ve read about him recently completely confirms it. To give to their respective memorial funds click HERE.

Many of my friends in NYC, especially those in lower Manhattan, are still without power, without access to their homes, without transit options. I wish there were some way I could help them. They are tenacious people and I know they’ll recover, again, from what feels like injury to a city only recently healed.

The days ahead for the people in NYC and along the coasts, those that lost their friends and family, will be so hard. Everything will seem too big. I wish them the best and am thinking of them always.

“What saves man is to take a step. And another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.”
Antoine de St Exupery

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