(Nothing But) Flowers

i wish I had more time to write on Palin because I find her to be a horrible choice as VP, not because she’s a mother of 5, not because she’s a woman and not because she doesn’t have enough experience but because SHE HAS HORRIBLE POLITICS!

Here’s a great “fact check” article on the misrepresentation in GOP’s speeches last night.

PS: Regarding Palin’s denial of global warming issues: a 19 mile chunk of the Canadian Arctic’s ice shelf just broke off this week. . .

Thursday night was the 10th annual Lantern Festival here in J.P. About 4,000 people showed up! It was inspired by Japanese Bon festivals to honor the dead (which is what the lanterns are sent out onto the water for). I don’t know much more about it than that! But, is was beautiful, as I hope these photos attest to! It was held in the Forest Hills Cemetery which is a gorgeous, old cemetery with lots of old statues & beautiful trees– I never thought I’d say it but we’re planning a picnic & bikeride through the cemetery one of these summer afternoons– its really a neat place.

Photo credits go to my sweetie, whose hand at night-time photography is much steadier than mine.

I normally don’t encourage folks to sign up for things like this, but this one is so easy & the International Rescue Committee does great work– so, Click here to sign your name so that $1 will be donated to their humanitarian work with Iraqi refugees.

(Yea, I know the html button doesn’t work on the image above, my html skills aren’t good enough to figure that out! Click here instead.)

Check out this post on the Rooftop Gardening website about the very cool rooftop garden that the Food Project maintains at the Boston Medical Center. Most of the food grown here gets sold at lower than market rates in the Roxbury-Dorchester area and also donated to food shelters around Boston. Yours truly helped with laying down watering pipes and planting some of the plants in the rows in the first pic (although I ended up planting ‘em too close together).
I have to admit to some weird obsessing on the idea of rooftop gardening– the other day when some friends described how they were going to build a deck over the garage behind their apartment, all I could think was: but, you could create a great rooftop garden up here! Luckily, I wasn’t geeky enough to say this to them. Kept it in my geeky little brain until writing it down now.

I bet many of you may have already seen these videos since I tend to be waaay behind on my pop culture references.

But, for those of you who haven’t seen them yet, you gotta watch this skit by Sarah Silverman telling Jimmy Kimmel that she’s (bleep)ing Matt Damon. Even better, is Jimmy Kimmel’s response. Believe me, these are well worth 5 minutes of your time, I almost died laughing.

We’re back from our trip to Sicily and here is a list of highlights from our food experiences (more soon on other aspects of the trip).

1. Fresh ricotta: this needs to come first because several of the others are based on it. Ricotta in Sicily is nothing like that pasty stuff we call ricotta here in the US (granted I love our pasty stuff too). It is fresh, made from sheep’s milk, creamy and soft with a delicate flavor. Mix it in with your pasta, throw it on top of a pizza, spread it on top of your pane siciliano (bread made of durum wheat)—yum!

2. Cassata: a dessert made of fresh ricotta with sponge cake around it and candied dried fruits either on top or mixed in with ricotta. The one I ate (see picture above) had chocolate chips in the ricotta and marzipan along the side. This was delicious! I was slightly obsessed with tasting this and finally was served it on our last day there by my partner’s cousin.

3. Gelato: Sicilian gelato is even better than the mainland gelato- I swear its creamier! Some favorite gelato experiences:

- Mulberry gelato—these are in season for only about 2-3 weeks and the tart gelato they make is delicious.

- Ricotta gelato—We only found this in the southeastern corner of Sicily (in Siracusa and Ragusa Ibla) and it is deliciously creamy.

4. Gelato in a brioche: OK, this could go above but it deserves its own category since you gotta love a people who eat gelato in a sweet bun of bread! This is typically Palermitano but is found in some other areas of Sicily. Especially good with chocolate or nutella flavors. Palermitanos even have this for breakfast in summer!

5. Watermelon pudding and other fruit puddings: Typically Sicilian this pudding is called “gelo di melone”. The watermelon juice is infused with jasmine flowers overnight and it gives the pudding a delicious aroma and taste. Heavenly! My partner’s cousin made this on a visit to the U.S. 9 years ago and I have dreamed of it ever since. Another version is one made of lemon—deliciously tart with miniature strawberries on top. My partner’s uncle who runs his own restaurant in Palermo has made his own version of this: mandarin pudding! I got the recipes from the uncle and am going to make my own.

6. Fragoline: Miniature strawberries!!! These are heavenly and tart and are the size of the tip of your pinky finger. I was a bit obsessed with them.

7. Arancine: Saffron-infused rice balls filled with cheese and then deep fried. So good and a meal in themselves.

8. Fruta da Mattorana: You often see this weird marzipan fruit at Italian bakeries in the U.S. They really come from Sicily, specifically Palermo where they were first made by the Catholic nuns at the Mattorana cathedral in Palermo in the 1600s. These are not delicious—I cannot tell a lie, but they made it onto this list for their cute-kitsch factor. Above are some pictures of some of the best fruta da Mattorana that I saw.

9. Seafood: Generally caught that day and served fresh—Sicily is a pescatarian’s delight! Some favorites were the clams, mussels, octopus, and the smoked swordfish.

10. Wine by the carafe: I am not a wine snob, but I love good wine and trying new wines. I am particularly enamored with the idea of going down to the local wine merchant and buying locally made wine in bulk. My favorite part of our meals was sampling the local wines by doing this—they were all good! Above is a picture of a shop in Siracusa (Syracuse) where you can get your own bottles filled with the local wines of Southeast—generally a Nero d’Avola variety.

One of the best things about Sicily and food is how much Sicilians love it and how assertive they are about where to go to get the best whatever (whether it is a type of pastry, a flavor of gelato, etc.). Meals were long and social and drawn out over several courses. I have to say I truly felt loved and welcomed by the feasts that my partner’s family put on during the time we were there! This list is totally random and doesn’t include many wonderful Sicilian specialties such as panelle, fritella, chocolate made in Módica, various types of cheeses, etc.

We owe many of our fabulous meal experiences to my partner’s uncle and aunt who are both wonderful cooks at home and who have a great restaurant in Palermo. His cousin is also a top-notch cook and host.

is very effective.  Jon Stewart on abstinence only education.

I’ve seen this piece on Suburban farming on a few different local foodie websites. Love this idea.

check it out

Ok, so this blog is hilarious: Stuff White People Like

It makes me laugh and makes me cringe with the embarrassment at identifying with many of the “what white people like” traits!

Speaks for itself. I love it.

Found via Boing Boing and downloaded here.

We just had a snowfall of at least 6 inches here in JP and across the Northeast. As usual, it is beautiful out! And it was very peaceful watching the snow fall all day yesterday. But! I am looking forward to spring & a shift in weather, which I know realistically won’t start until April here in Massachusetts.
In hopes of warmer days, I finally signed us up for our first ever try at a CSA (community supported agriculture) with Stillman’s Farm here in the greater Boston area. We’ll be picking up our boxes weekly come June. I want to learn how to blanch veggies & vacuum pack ‘em, so that we can store them for the upcoming winter. Our trips to our local coop have revealed very little (if any) local veggies which is expected in the Northeast– but, geez, they could try to stock local root veggies & squash at least.

Just found out about some folks doing a documentary on JP– check it out.

Last night some friends hosted a Gingerbread village making party– our theme started off as “An Urban Winter Wonderland” but quickly degenerated into Ginja’hood: complete with a bar, KFC, liquidation center, Snow Peeps, etc. See this link for my partner’s Flickr posting for more shots of the ginja’hood.

The pictures don’t do justice to the level of detail that went into this thing: the liquidation center has a bargain bin, towels (folded fruit roll-ups) on graham cracker and gumdrop shelves; the KFC has a graham cracker counter with a snow-peep employee and with two snow-peeps enjoying a meal of “chicken” and mashed potatoes and gravy on Necco wafer plates.

Note the Nike shoes (Good and Plenty’s) hanging from the telephone line below.

Go see this movie. Especially if you are/were a Sopranos fan.

After D.C., Boston has been ranked #2 as the most walkable urban center in the U.S. A study by Christopher Leinberger of the Brookings Institution found Boston to have good rail service to most of its neighborhoods and suburban areas. Its part of a larger study published in the book by Leinberger called The Option of Urbanism: Investing in the New American Dream.

We have definitely found this to be the case– I think we use our car here even less than in N.C.!

P.S: For those of you in SF–it ranked #3!

It’s cold out– in the mid 20s! We should be getting some snow this evening and tomorrow.

I am feeling very reflective as the winter arrives. Been thinking of some “winter resolutions” (I guess they are solstice resolutions, but a bit early)– things I’ve wanted to learn or do that I can take up as the winter progresses:

1) Bread making: I make lots of quick breads and occasionally make a yeasted pizza crust, but a goal this winter is to learn various bread styles. I have a loaf of bread from The Cheese Board Collective cookbook rising right now in a loaf pan– the real challenge is when I try to do sour-dough and those with fancy crusts. Let’s see how this simple loaf goes first!

2) Pie crust: For years I’ve been saying that I wanted to learn how to make a rolled pie crust but laziness takes hold and I always end up making pressed crumb crusts or buying filler crusts from the store. So, this Christmas. . .

3) Finding a spiritual practice/outlet. After having been raised Catholic, I know its not that. But, at the same time I think being raised Catholic has made me still feel some sort of need for some sort of spirituality.  I went to a celebration today at the local Unitarian Universalist church, but I have to say it was still a bit too formal and “church-y” for me. I didn’t expect the readings from the Bible and the formal hymns (OK, so maybe that was naive of me), but geez, I thought Universalists were sort of world religionists? I guess I expected a hippie-ish, “God is Love” sort of celebration– not so formally Christian. I may give it a second try, but I didn’t feel at home even though the folks were nice.

There is a Buddhist sitting group that meets Thursday nights at a space near us so I think I will try that. Its weird how as I get older I find I want to re-connect with some sort to spiritual practice (not necessary a formal tradition though). I have a feeling Buddhist practice may be the best one for me after today’s experience.

Can I say how much we love our new neighborhood an how lucky we were to end up where we are? Bostonians are known for being gruff & unfriendly and “too busy” to hang out. We’ve had the exact opposite experience in our neighborhood– its really nice! Since meeting folks at the labor day picnic we’ve easily gotten to know more folks throughout the neighborhood.

The trees are changing color (at their peak right now) and its gorgeous out, especially around Jamaica Pond. One of my favorite sightings on my runs near the pond has been the Albino squirrel that lives along the path that lines its perimeter. Check out this link for another picture of the cute, little pigmentless guy.

Tonight is the Lantern parade around the pond– every fall hundreds (thousands?) of folks walk around the perimeter of the pond at dusk with hand-made candle lanterns–should be fun! Hope to post our own pics later of that event later.

I do think some of the stereotypes about Bostonians hold (yikes- those aggressive drivers!) and many folks are workaholics, but there are pockets of people and places that aren’t like that– which was one of the things that attracted us to J.P in the first place.

Friday night we had a bunch of people over for a pumpkin carving party (I think some folks in CH may who we got this idea from?). We made up a batch of veggie chili & some cornbread . . yum! See a photos of our handiwork above and below.

The city-scape pumpkin were carved by our friend & neighbor Beth– and they represent J.P. The bottom photo includes the public library (complete with dropbox and Tom and I as the two folks in the upper window). The building on the far right is an abortion clinic with a 35 foot no-protest perimeter around it– MA just passed a law restricting abortion protesters from getting closer than 35 feet from a clinic. All this (including local churches & YMCA) were carved in by Beth with en exacto knife– the story & images evolved through the night .

We just spent the weekend on Cape Cod at Tom’s distant cousin’s place for his and his buddies’ annual lobster feed. It was a bit chilly (getting cooler earlier here in the Northeast) but it was a great time– complete with potato guns (I just learned what these are: PVC pipe, hairspray, lighter, + potato = potato shooter. I didn’t quite get the thrill!), hay rides run by a 1941 refurbished tractor, and lots of beer, wine, fresh clams and lobster.

Check out these photos of Tom’s uncle and father shelling lobster at the end of the night.

So far we are really liking Boston and especially our neighborhood. Over labor day weekend there was a block party where we got to meet a bunch of our neighbors and they are a very friendly group. We’ve already met some really nice folks who live just down the street.

Tom has been busy reading away everyday for his law classes but he seems to be enjoying the program. I started a part-time admin job this week at the public interest advising office at a law school in the area. Nice to NOT be looking for work any more!!! And the folks I will be working with are really great and dedicated to public interest work. My plan is to work there in the afternoons, leaving my mornings free for dissertation writing.

It’s not what you would think!

Last week, I went to my cousin David’s wedding in San Diego, so this was our first full weekend here in Boston so we got to do a bit of exploring.

Saturday night we went to see Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, speak at the Boston Opera House. Not exactly an out-on-the-town event (except for the chance to check out the Baroque-style deco of the opera house), but definitely very uplifting and inspiring. Although the tickets were pricey we figured we appreciated the opportunity to hear him speak since we both have found his books on meditation and relationships very inspiring and helpful. He didn’t disappoint!

On Sunday, we biked over the the oldest running farm in Boston, Allandale Farm, for their Heirloom Tomato and Corn Festival. It was a quick and easy ride from where we live. We bought some fresh focaccia bread that we lunched on our way home in the the Arnold Arboretum near our house. The farm-shop looks like our best option for getting local produce since our local food co-op carries a sparse selection of local produce.

The rest of our weekend was filled with the more mundane tasks of putting furniture together and continuing unpacking!