… I’m hooked on the BBC’s series MI-5 aka Spooks. I love the writing on this show. It’s smart, honest, challenging, thought-provoking, and engaging. I just watched the end of season three in a ball of tension, my hand gripping Paul’s hand (sorry, babe, if I was cutting off the blood to your fingertips) and tears rolling down my cheeks.

If spy stories are a genre you like, I recommend it.

No one knows when Butternut Hollow is going to sell. I don’t know how soon we will have to deal with the dilemma of moving. I’ve been doing research to discover what Paul & I’s best options are… both in terms of where to move and under what circumstances (i.e. rent, lease, rent-to-own, etc.)

I found out today that a program that I was interested in, a lease-to-own program, isn’t going to work for us. If we are going to do something like that, we need to be able to write off the payments to justify the additional monthly costs. With this program, you aren’t on the deed, so your payments are not tax deductible. The program isn’t a bad one, but not the right one for our needs.

I was surprised to find how sad that left me. I had been thinking we would be looking for a home that we would be, while at a higher cost than if we could buy it ourselves outright, making our own.

Tears have welled more than once, and I’ve bemoaned more than once today that I’m subject to my own emotions. I feel silly, but I do have compassion for myself. And I’m a roll with the punches kind of gal — I know everything is going to be fine. I know that things turn out all kinds of different ways than I expect. I know that I’ve always been graciously taken care of. I know.

For this afternoon though… I’m disappointed and sad.

It must be the season for soups because I made another batch up yesterday. We all enjoyed it, so I’m writing down the recipe here… so I remember how I made it and so you can try it if it sounds good to you. (As a note, I use pretty much all organic ingredients. It doesn’t change the flavor of the soup.)

4 cups vegetable broth
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 lbs organic ground beef
1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans
2 15 oz cans of cannellini beans (white navy beans)
1/2 cup alphabet pasta (I use Eden Foods, I can pretty much guarantee that Amira will eat the soup if I have alphabet pasta in it.)
1-2 lbs of baby spinach
1 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp oregano

I brown the hamburger while I’m putting all the remaining ingredients into the pot and heating at medium. Once the meat is cooked, I add it to the soup. I cook another 10-20 minutes or until the ingredients are thorough mixed and hot.

We like to it eat it with crocantini (flatbread crackers — they are made here by a local bakery… yum!)

Easy, easy!

Tagged by lovely Rhiannon at RingsLikeABell.com… here’s a degrees of separation meme for you. Here’s how it goes:

Rhiannon tagged me, and she was tagged by Kristina who was tagged by Stacey over at The Queen’s Creations…and she was tagged by Erin at Inky Smiles for this experiment which was originally started by Mary Demuth, who states: “It’s an experiment to see how many degrees we can separate (kind of like Kevin Bacon, only it’s blog relevant). How many people can one blog potentially reach?”

What we do is list out 10, 20 and 30 years ago and tell what we were doing at that time. Then you “tag” other bloggers and go back and comment on Relevant and let her know.

So here we go:

10 years ago (1997) - Paul & I had been married 4 years and living near downtown Seattle in Eastlake with our two cats. Paul & I were both working at Microsoft, him as a web designer and me in human resources for the sales and marketing group as an Sr. internal staffing specialist and HR generalist. We were also searching for and bought our first house in North Seattle. Sadly, I was working so hard that year, I don’t remember much else.

20 years ago (1987) - Living in San Diego with Mom & Dad… I was 17 years old. It was my junior year and going to Christian High School in El Cajon. I was on the Varsity swim team. My events were usually the the butterfly leg of the 100m IM, 100m butterfly, and 800m free. I won the award for “Most Inspirational” at the end of the season. I wanted to be a famous writer.

30 years ago (1977) - 7 years old. Wow. Let’s see. I was living in Klamath Falls, OR. I was on the city’s year-round swim team. This would have been around the time that I collected pennies because I thought they were going to stop making them. My dad’s print shop was next door to a 7-UP bottling company… and I also collected bottle caps. Heaven knows why! And, my best friend was my cousin, Pres.

Now… who to tag? Who to tag???

You know you aren’t going to get away, right Natalie? My puddlicious friend… you either, Kate. And the ever amazing, Amy @ Not just littering the air! Last but not least, because she’s been too quiet for too long, Tarie at Into the Wardrobe.

Can’t wait to read what you’ve been up to in years gone by. If any of the rest you decide to run with the meme, do let me know.

Who knew Amira turning three was going to be like trading in my sweet and compliant toddler for a different one entirely? And if you knew, why didn’t you warn me?? I mean, I could have done with a warning.

Recently, when Amira wants me to do something for me, she’ll say:

“No, you do it, Mama. You do it!…”

Then when that doesn’t work, she’ll say sweetly…

“You do it. It’s for you.  It’s beautiful, Mama. You do it….”

Oi.

This morning, she wanted something from upstairs. I was finishing up an email sending out a contract to a client and asked her to be patient while I finished it. I told her we could go upstairs as soon as I was done. That answer didn’t suit her. Imagine my eyebrows when she said:

“Mama, you stand up! It’s not an option!“

I picked up a handful of those freebie magazines outside our local Super Supplements store. One of the magazines in my collection turned out to be Conscious Choice Seattle. I haven’t finished all of it yet, but I’ve already read some fascinating articles about co-housing, why we are here and string theory.

My favorite so far has been on biodynamic farming. This was a new idea to me. The article highlights a farmer in Carnation, WA who recently converted his organic farm to biodynamic farming. What this means it that the farm is completely self-sustaining. So, if you need fertilizer for your farm, you have cows. If you need to feed those cows, you grow the food that they need. It’s a closed loop. You don’t bring anything into your farm.

Some of the concepts are a little woo-woo to read about… for example, taking cow manure and packing into a cow’s horn and burying it over the winter. The fermented mixture is then added to the water (threw quite a procedure) and dispersed evenly in the evening. The point? Apparently it strengthens root formation in the spring.

Farmers who practice biodynamic farming think of agriculture as being in tune with the earth and its cycles… everything from sun, moon, planets, starts, animal and plant life… and of course, us. It’s an enormous contrast to the commercialized form of agriculture that is the norm today.

Interestingly, vineyards are embracing this idea faster than farming. Being completely wine illiterate, the term terrior was meaningless to me (unless you’ve misspelled a type of dog). Terrior, instead of being a four legged and tenacious dog, is the flavor in wine that can indicate soil, geography and climate difference. Biodynamic farming practices increase the terrior in wine.  And from what I’m told, that’s a good thing.
With even organic foods being in question (a lot due to problems the FDA’s “certified organic” standards), more people are drawn to the idea of their food, whether it be plant, meat or dairy, coming from biodynamic farms.

Isn’t this fascinating? Or am I just getting more nerdy?

(Source: Seattle.ConsciousChoice.com, Biodynamic Farming, In tune with the sun, moon and stars)

Friday afternoon, Amira & I were so happy to head over to our friend Sabrina’s house for lunch and an afternoon of chatting, catching up and the warm glow of being with good friends. Amira was excited to Lucy too, Sabrina’s sweet German Shepherd that we used to dogsit a few days each week.

Sabrina made us this tasty lunch of Trader Joe’s pizzas, roasted red pepper soup and an amazing salad. Amira loved the soup and pizza (we are still working her up to a real love of salads).

Half way into our meal, things suddenly went wrong. Amira asked to go to the potty. And for the next hour, she was on and off the potty. It got so bad, she wasn’t able to make it to the bathroom.

So during what was supposed to be a nice catch-up lunch visit, we are suddenly thrown into stripping Amira down, putting her in the bathtub and washing all her clothes. I was tempted to be embarrassed, but I put it aside. And thankfully, Sabrina was incredibly gracious too!

The last 2 days have been more of this (although, thankfully, not as bad as it was at Sabrina’s house).

I found out that the Trader Joe’s pizza we ate has a corn based crust. Paul & I have had our suspicions that Amira is allergic to corn. We have avoided it in her diet, although not rabidly. But, this seemed like too much of a coincidence.

The thing is, A LOT of people are sick right now. Maybe she just has a bad stomach flu… but then again, it could be the corn. I just don’t know.

I’ve been doing some research on corn allergies and WOW… that’s no easy allergy. Look at this list of ingredients you have to avoid if you are allergic to corn. That’ll make you weak in the knees.

I know I should do a corn elimination diet for her and then try it to determine for sure if that’s what caused this. I’ll tell you though, if it is corn that caused this - I don’t want to put her through it again… know what I mean?

Sigh. I’m going to have to do it. Poor honey. For her sake though, I hope it isn’t corn. Corn is in EVERYTHING!

The last time I went to the grocery store, there was organic delicata squash on sale. I like love delicata squash (an heirloom squash sometimes called sweet potato or Bohemian squash). I bought some and then went in search of a recipe. I wanted a soup. Here’s what I found… the original recipe… and then I’ll follow it up with how I prepared it.

3 delicata squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 onion, chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tbps butter
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Place squash, cut sides down in baking dish Add 1/8 inch water in dish, cover with foil and bake for 35-40 minutes or until tender. Cool.

2. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until onion is softened but not brown.

3. Scrape squash out of the rind and add to the onions. Add the stock and heavy cream - cook over moderate heat for about 25 minutes.

4. Puree the soup in the a blender or food processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

—————————

Okay. My rendition. First, I had to drop the whipping cream and butter because Paul is allergic to butter… and then I tweaked from there.

3 delicata squash
5-7 Aidell’s natural chicken apple sausage, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 pototoes, chopped
1 fuji apple
1/2 cup dried cranberries
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsps extra virgin coconut oil
cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

I essentially prepared it the same way as above except I pureed only the squash, thinning it with the vegetable broth to make the process easier. I sauteed the onions, pototoes in the coconut oil. Added in the chicken apple sausage, apple, cranberries followed by the pureed squash/vegetable broth. I added cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and cooked on medium heat for about 20 minutes.

Yummy, yummy soup!

I think nutmeg or ginger versions of this could be really good in this too. The end results as I made it… a perfect comfort food: slightly sweet, warm and soothing soup. Perfect for a cool fall day! If you try it (or a rendition of it) let me know what you think.

but I want one!

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

I remember the fall of the year that Paul & I got married for many reasons. It’s a big deal getting married at 23, moving to another city and state, and leaving all family and friends behind. My life, and my self too, got turned upside down. My internal compass of how to navigate, how to be in life… it was crushed that fall.

But that’s not what this post is about exactly.

It’s about Tom Petty. About a month after Paul & I got married, on a whim, I picked up Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits.  I knew Tom Petty, his music and who he was.  But it wasn’t until I listened to the album though that I realized I was a fan.  And can I tell you what a gift it was to discover that?   A gift because Tom Petty and his music began to help me.  Trying to rebuild my compass was impossible… and realistically not a good idea.  A new compass was needed.  When your true north has so decidedly changed, the old compass no longer guides you in the right direction.   Realizing I loved Tom Petty’s music was a step of many over the past 15 years of creating a new compass and finding my true north.

Today I learned about a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers documentary… a comprehensive one based on the length (3 1/2 with an intermission).  Called Running Down A Dream, I’m looking forward to seeing it.

“A massive aerial assault and a break in harsh winds helped firefighters make their first major progress against Southern California’s firestorm, raising evacuees’ hopes of returning home for good. But flames were still drawing perilously toward thousands of homes.”

Let’s hope and pray significant progress is made today to contain these fires…

The winds are decreasing in San Diego county today.  That should help a little bit.  Things are still terribly dry though.  Air quality is bad and isn’t expected to begin to improve until Saturday or Sunday.  The heat will drop some starting tomorrow, but no substantial relief from the weather is coming.

It’s all so hard to watch… and like Natalie said… I keep wanting it to be wrapped up, done and the clean-up and relief efforts to be kicking in.  Instead, it’s just more watching and waiting.

My thoughts are with everyone in San Diego.