Garlic & Coconut

I really love the fall here on the Palouse, the leaves are changing, its getting cold and the apples are delicious! Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to buy all the delicious locally grown apples at the farmers market. This is where Backyard Harvest comes into play. Backyard Harvest started when its founder accidentally grew 200+ heads of lettuce one year thanks to her young sons scattering the seeds all over their backyard. Rather than throw them away she donated them to the local foodbank.

I has since grown into much larger project, they have farm plots around the town, they will harvest fruit trees in peoples yards, they set up a program so that people can use their food stamps at the farmers market, its really a fantastic program.


What does this have to do with Garlic & Coconut? Well, it has nothing to do with coconut, but I spent a little time volunteering on Saturday planting garlic for Backyard Harvest. We planted a lot of garlic! I had no idea that if you just plant a clove of garlic in the fall, come next harvest you'll have a whole bulb. I found out that we were planting the garlic because BYH also does a CSA, where people pay a fee and have fresh fruits and vegtables delivered weekly during the growing season. It is subsized for those with low incomes, just $5 a week. I learned a lot this weekend. And, we harvested a couple of apple trees right next to the plot. Yummy apples! It was kinda cool standing in the branches of the tree munching on an apple and picking them for seniors and the food bank.

Green Apples we harvested.

The garlic field all planted. We covered it with Hay to protect it this winter.

And Coconut...?? I've been saying to Mike for a few weeks that I wanted to try and make a coconut cake. So yesterday, I made a coconut cake. It was blustery raining day so it seemed like the perfect day to bake. I don't have a picture of it because . . . well my phone was dead and it didn't occur to me to use the actual camera. Ooops! But it turned out really well, really messy, but really yummy! The frosting was almost like a homemade marshmellow cream. And I think I'll be finding shredded coconut around my kitchen for days, but it was fun.

Where do we live?

For some reason, Mike and I have lived pretty nomadic lives as a married couple. We've lived in 7 different homes in 6 towns since we got married. Sometimes we've moved because we had too, other times we moved for new opportunities, and once we moved just down the street because we liked the house we moved into better! Even where we are now is relatively temporary so we'll be continuing our nomadic lifestyle for at least a little while longer. Here is where we've lived:

1. Chico/Durham: When we first were married we lived in a modular home we rented. It was in an almond orchard between Chico & Durham Ca. When we moved in, it was in the middle of an old orchard, unfortunately they began tearing out the old orchard to replant right after we moved it. So, instead there was a BIG dirt field behind us. We lived there for just about a year and just had to move. We shared the house with Mike's sister Stefanie, which was fine, but we rented it from her boyfriend, who she promptly broke up with shortly after Mike and I moved out. So you can imagine the stress. We did have our dog Max when we lived there. He was so fun and we miss him a lot, but when we moved we didn't think it was fair to move him into a small apartment. So we found a really good home for him out in Willows.

2. Temecula: We lived in Temecula, CA for 4 months 2001. It was such a crazy time period. We were staying with Mike's dad and step-mom in a beautiful home. I really got to know Don and Kathy and Mike's sister Erin and her little girl Nicolette too. We were there when the twin towers were bombed and it was such a crazy day. Mike and I commuted a really long way living here, but looking back we are very happy we got to live there. Mike's dad passed away just a couple of weeks after we moved into our own apartment. We all knew he was ill, just no one had any idea he was that ill. Living there was a blessing to us all.

3. Encinitas: I almost lived by the beach! We were pretty close when we lived in this little beach town. We loved heading over to the Cardiff Seaside Market and getting some expensive little snack and watching the waves. They decided to turn our apartments into condos and both Mike and I were working in San Diego so we moved after just one year.

4. Banker's Hill/San Diego: We loved this apartment! It was in the Banker's Hill area of San Diego. Right on a canyon so there was open land in front of us, we were just blocks from Balboa Park, not far from Downtown, Ocean Beach, and I really got to spend some time with my sister, Christine and her husband Brooks. Unfortunately, I really missed my mom and Northern California. If our landlord hadn't decided to sell our condo we would have stayed there longer.

5. Roseville - Folsom Rd.: Pt. 1 - We hosted our first Thanksgiving together in our first house in Roseville. This house had the biggest living room I've ever had! It made all our stuff look tiny. It was an ok place, but there was a back house that someone rented and a basement apartment and we were just ready for a place of our own. So we moved down the street:

Folsom Rd. Pt. 2 - Such a cute little grannie house! This was such a special place for Mike and I. Even
though we didn't move there until about 4 1/2 years into our marriage I think this was really our first true home together, everywhere else seemed kind of temporary. We loved loved loved the house, but we hated our commutes and weren't fond of our jobs. So...

6. Moscow, ID: And now here we are in Moscow, ID. We moved here 01/01/2008 and will be in our current apartment until at least May of next year. We live in University housing at the the University of Idaho. Who knew that at age 35 we'd be in family housing at a University. Sometimes this really bothers me, but then other times I couldn't be happier. Mike is getting to go back to school, I've been able to get out of the insurance brokerage arena, and am now working at the University. And we really love Moscow.

We'll see where the next 10 years takes us. We really don't know. If anything the last 10 yrs has shown... it really doesn't matter. We can make anywhere home for a little while.

Anniversary

Ten years ago, I was scrambling - running around town, getting my nails done, buying last minute things, confirming pick up times, waiting for my family to get to town, all so that I could marry my best friend. Looking back at the planning of the weekend, wow, I was so naive about planning a big party. I'd never done that before and I was really doing a lot of it on my own.

One thing I wouldn't have changed is the way we started the day. Mike and I decided that we weren't going to follow the tradition of not seeing each other the day the wedding before I walked down the aisle. The day of the wedding Mike and I woke up together early and we went and had breakfast just the two of us. We talked about what an amazing day it was going to be and just spent a little time together. We then drove up to find the bed and breakfast where we were staying the night, since we knew it would be dark when we drove out there after the wedding. Of course, we still drove right by it that night! But at least we knew we drove by it.

Then we headed back to our house and the chaos began!

We will celebrate our 10 year anniversary on Thursday. And what a wonderful 10 years it has been!

Split Pea Soup!

Yummy I'm so excited I made split pea soup for dinner tonight - it sure smelled like fall cooking in my house this morning!! It is the easiest recipe and it tastes really good! Also, it makes a very large batch so we'll have leftovers for lunches for a few days.

So I guess I've come around to it being fall now. The leaves are turning here, and really quickly. I need to get out and get some pictures soon.

Here's the recipe:

1 lb green split peas

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 ham hocks or 1 ham bone - or if you are watching calories you could either leave this out or add chopped up turkey ham

1 small/medium onion ( I use white) chopped

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

1 teaspoon pepper - or more to taste, I use a little more

2 quarts water

Put everything in a large slow cooker and let it go for 8 hours on low. After 8 hours, remove the ham hocks/bone, pick off any meat and return the meat to the soup. Once in a while the soup is a little to chunky for taste at this point so I use my immersion blender and give it a quick whirl before I add the meat back in. If you like it chunky then stir and serve!

Leadership Academy

Recently I was accepted into the Leadership Academy here at work. It is sponsored by the Provost's office here at University of Idaho. Apparently they only take one employee from our division, so I am so honored to be included. I'm really excited because I'll get to meet a lot more of my fellow employees, currently my office is located in a building that is way off on the edge of campus so I don't have much contact with the rest of campus other than by email. Also, since I work in HR I don't really have much to do with students other than the two work study students I supervise. I tend to forget that the reason we are all here is for the students. Our leadership academy retreat quickly reminded that the student are why we are here.

I've also learned a few things about myself. We had to take this assessment that let us know what our strengths were, in the context of this particular evaluation anyway. Here were mine:

Context: People who are especially talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.

Ideation: People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Activator: People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient. (I don't think I realized that I may often be impatient?)

Adaptability: People who are especially talented in the Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Learner: People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

I'm still learning how to apply this knowledge and I'm trying to decide if they are really accurate, but it gives me somewhere to start.

Football

Are you ready for some football?? We are. I'm not ready for fall, just football... yes I realize they go together. Last night was the first University of Idaho football game, it went well... Idaho had not won a season opener since 1998, but last night not only won the opener but achieved the largest margin of victory in 18 years by defeating North Dakota 45-0. It was just really fun to go and watch the team do really well! Mike gets into the games for free, but I had to buy tickets so this year I bought season tickets. It should be a lot of fun. Next week's game will be a lot tougher, we play Nebraska - in Nebraska, but its good, we've got the Boise State game in November so we really need the practice playing tough teams. This will be the last year of the Idaho/BSU rivalry. Maybe its a good, things can be really toxic in this rivalry (Mike would argue this point with me though!)

I'm also participating in a Fantasy Football league - I have NO IDEA what I'm doing??? I missed the draft so I fairly certain my team is terrible. I guess I'll find out when the season starts. I'm ready for my lazy Sundays watching football!!

Wait... summer just started!

Summer over... not happy!

I was walking to work the other morning and saw a few leaves fall. They weren't leaves that had turned colors or anything like that, it was just a little windy. It just got me thinking... wow fall is right around the corner, especially here in Northern Idaho, we have a VERY short summer. Normally, by the time fall rolls around I'm ready for the change, but not this summer. I've done no camping, no swimming in lakes, rivers, ponds, etc., my summer vacation was spent in a campus apartment at Univ. of Oklahoma with my husband and a whole bunch of 20 years olds... its just really been a funny summer.

School just started around here, so the campus population has exploded!! It really is just such a different town when the 'kids' are here. But hey, that's why we are here too.

Mike's been home for a few weeks now. Its so wonderful having him home, but its also a little strange having to account to someone else for my time. He keeps asking me when I'll be home from work... I guess "when I get home" isn't a very nice answer :-)

I've been working - A LOT, so that would be the reason for the lack of postings on this blog.