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Monthly Archives: January 2009

Inauguration Fun

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Jackie

Although we are about an hour away from DC, we are not even attempting to make the trip into the city for Inauguration Day 2009. My girls have the day off from school, and I have the day off thanks to midterm exams, so we have decided to host a party at our house for our two favorite families. Altogether we’ll have six kids and between three and six adults, depending on work schedules.

My friend Gaby will be making Obama’s favorite chili, and I will be making an apple spice cake, because the Inaugural luncheon menu includes an apple-cinnamon sponge cake. The recipe provided for that cake is way too complicated for me (I don’t even own ramekins), so I’m going to go with some kind of apple spice cake (maybe this Swedish one by way of Dorie Greenspan or this spiced apple bundt cake). The luncheon menu, by the way, is based on the one Lincoln served at his inauguration, which is a neat historical link for two presidents from Illinois.

I’ve found some Obama printables, which is good since we have two art-loving twins (mine) and also two four-year-olds in the crowd. I’m also looking over some other printables and crafts, and am going to tell the kids some stories about all the kids who have lived in the White House over the years. Finally, we’ll look at some slideshows on the computer and have the kids make cards for Malia and Sasha Obama to welcome them to their new home. I think we’ll have a fun time, including watching the ceremonies and celebrations on television.

What are your plans?

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The Pioneer Woman (Blogroll Spotlight Series)

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Jackie

Ree Drummond is the author of The Pioneer Woman, and her site has become a must-stop for me over the 18 months or so that I’ve been reading her updates.

She’s definitely a blogger with a great sense of humor and distinctive voice, but what makes Ree’s site different from lots of other personal websites is that she is also an incredibly talented photographer, and so her site is rich with beautiful photography of her family, friends, and the cattle her family maintains on their Oklahoma cattle ranch. I love looking at photos but have no interest in picking up photography as a hobby, so I like to just skim through her photography section and admire the results. I also don’t expect to homeschool, but have found a lot of great educational resources for my own family in her homeschooling section, and love the interviews and guest posts there from homeschool moms and children.

Of course, Ree is also known for her frequent and generous giveaways, paid for with ad revenue from the site, that have included Le Creuset dutch ovens and $500 gift cards to stores from Wal-Mart to Anthropologie, and I’ve entered more than a few in the hopes of winning (though comments on the giveaway posts often number in the multiple thousands).

Her lifestyle is also completely foreign to me– she homeschools her four kids, goes to rodeos, wakes up with sunrise and has watched calf nut removals with aplomb– and I really enjoy the window into another world, rendered in descriptive prose and incredible photos. Her cooking philosophy has been incredibly helpful to me– she doesn’t heap scorn onto canned or processed ingredients, but does introduce me to new techniques or vocabulary pretty often. The majority of her recipes that I have tried have been big hits at my house, and the step-by-step photos she includes are a big part of why I can try them with confidence.

Since I’ve been reading PW, her popularity has skyrocketed, with appearances on CNN, paid blogging gigs, and higher and higher comment tallies on each entry. I’m not surprised at all, and am looking forward to the cookbook she has coming out later this year.

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Poetry Group

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Jackie

This past Saturday I finally made it to my first-ever poetry group meeting– both with this group, and, well, ever! I met two of the poets involved through the second workshop I took at the Baltimore Art Museum, and they asked me to join their workshopping group– that alone would have made the whole experience worthwhile, even without the other benefits. The museum’s new audio tour launches this coming weekend, after a big launch party this Friday evening, featuring Laura Lippman and a lot of Baltimore area poets, plus me and most of the other writers from the workshop. I’m pretty thrilled about my second-ever reading, so if you’re in the area (and I haven’t already invited you on Facebook) feel free to stop by!

Way back in the beginning of 2008, I was bemoaning my lack of a writing community– my best poet friend had moved away to North Carolina and I was missing having someone to exchange work with, so I was determined to somehow find an entry point for myself in the Baltimore writing scene. I found the whole idea intimidating, partly because I often find groups of strangers intimidating, but also because Baltimore happens to be home to one of the top writing programs in the country, at both the undergrad and graduate level. I was convinced that these Poetic Masters and Mistress of the Universe would be dressed in fabulous clothes and raising one suspicious eyebrow (en masse) anywhere I ever dared to bring my own little “poems”. I have struggled with confidence in the past, in case that’s not clear.

But I was determined to get over that, and so when I heard about the first poetry workshop at the BMA, I signed right up, and got some great feedback, met the poet leading the workshop, and participated in my first reading. The first workshop led to the second, and now I’ve got this poetry group, will be in the second reading this Friday, and will be featured in the audio tour. Not bad for a year’s resolution, right?

The poetry meeting was fantastic– the other members have a wide range of styles, publications and personalities, and I can tell already that I will learn a lot about my work and about the submission process. I joined in with feedback on their work and got constructive comments on my own, and am proud of myself for not getting my precious snowflake feelings hurt by comments on my work. I’m already thinking about poems to bring to February’s meeting.

Some writers can and do work very well on their own, writing in isolation, with no writing buddies or sounding boards. I’m not that writer. If I’ve learned anything about myself as a poet in the past year, it’s that the structure of a workshop, the regular deadline, the feedback, the sense of community are all very potent for me, and very necessary. I need goals, I need other ears, I need to belong to a greater group of writers.

My poetic goal for this year is to go to more readings here in Baltimore (and maybe participate in a few myself), go to my new poetry group regularly, and send out as many poems as possible for publication. One of the poets in the group had already had three acceptances in 2009 when she came to last Saturday’s meeting, so I’d like at least three this year myself (even if it takes me till December to do it).

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Cooking in the Internet’s Kitchen

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Jackie

I’ve blogged recently about my own progression from novice to cook, but there are still a lot of ingredients, combinations, techniques and pieces of equipment that are mystifying to me. I don’t own a seasoned cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven, am mystified by the joints and bones of poultry, and still have to look up words like “braise.” Thank goodness for the Internet, which has made me it much easier to access all this arcane gastronomical knowledge– I can’t imagine trying to learn to cook without it.

One of the helpful guides along the way has been Mark Bittman, The Minimalist at the New York Times and author of cookbook must-haves like How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition): 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food, who is often one of the food writers who shines a light into previously hidden dark corners for me. In a recent article, he discusses pantry stocking, and a lot of what he considers “out” would currently be found on my kitchen shelves. I know my spices need to be culled, and that the parmesan in the green can is incomparable to actual cheese, but I also have no idea when to add cardamom to foods or how to cook quinoa or bulgur. Thanks to Bittman, I have more of a clue, but there’s a lot more experimentation in my future.

When I first started reading Bakers’ Banter, from King Arthur Flour, I emailed the main poster to let her know just how much the blog had meant to me as I experimented more with baking. I had no idea how much of a difference the quality of flour could make, and the step-by-step instructions, with so many photos, made me feel much more confident about attempting to bake with yeast (which still makes me nervous). She wrote back a very sweet response, saying that many people at KAF had doubted how effective a blog could be, until the comments and emails started rolling in from satisfied users like me.

But I’ve also learned just as much from other “regular” people out there who are Internet-foodies too, like this recent thread on roasting chicken from Bittman’s NYT blog (guest post), which led me to this page on roasting a turkey. I’ve got my first whole turkey in my freezer right now, and I never would have bought it if I wasn’t sure I’d find a wealth of tips and how-tos on the Internet.

Laura at 11d has interesting thread going about making time for cooking (and jarred pasta sauces) and Megan McArdle at The Atlantic has some interesting debates sewing after her interpretation of the Bittman piece . As far as time goes, I work two part-time jobs and have twins, so it’s not that I have oodles of time when it comes to cooking, but I think the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more likely it is that you can put together a homecooked meal in thirty minutes (with or without Rachael Ray).

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Sister Cities

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Jackie

Baltimore and Detroit have been linked for a number of years for not-so-good reasons– both cities appear on the list of most dangerous cities almost every year, both cities have horribly high homicide rates, and equally terrible rates of drug addiction and AIDS infections. When people talk about the grimly brilliant HBO series The Wire, and how it could have been set in other cities, Detroit is often one of the alternatives brought up (also Philadephia). Baltimore’s economy is better, partially because while a city heavily dependent on manufacturing at one time, we have succeeded somewhat in building an alternate biotech and health care dependent economy. We have also benefited from the presence of the Johns Hopkins university and other instutions of higher learning.

Funnily enough, when I left the Baltimore area to go to graduate school, I ended up in northwest Ohio, where the largest major city is, of course, Detroit. I remember going into Detroit to go to a baseball game, and being stunned to see the stretches of desolate, abandoned and decayed urban landscape, worse than anything I’ve seen in Baltimore or Washington DC, the cities I know best.

Anyway, apparently now we have something else in common with Detroit, which is that our current mayor has been indicted for a number of counts including perjury and fraud. Alleged corruption of public officials is always a sad case, but even more so considering that Dixon has been a very effective mayor from a citizen’s point of view. The city schools have made recent strides, she switched us to single-stream recycling (which has certainly made my life easier), and the city’s homicide count dropped remarkably last year.

I always joke that if you can watch The Wire, and still live in Baltimore, then you are definitely committed to the city. Unfortunately, it often seems like such a quixotic cause.

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Fluffernutter

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Jackie

Here’s a run-down of the relatively fluffy pop-culture stuff I’ve been enjoying lately, with a special bonus of two tasty, sugary recipe links at the end!

* Bravo ran a marathon of Seasons 4 and 5 of Project Runway around Christmas, and we recorded them all and have been doling them out, one by one. I got hooked on the show first, then got my husband into it, but the biggest ProjRun fan in our house is six-year-old Lucy, who gets out her little “sketchbook” and sketches her versions of the challenges during each episode. I’m hoping that Season Six sees the light of day sometime soon, but until then, I think we’re going to have to break down and rent the earlier seasons.

* Beyonce’s I Am…Sasha Fierce (Deluxe Edition), which my sister’s girlfriend gave me for Christmas and I’ve been enjoying ever since. I’m not making any big claims for the pop hall of fame or anything, but both discs have been in heavy rotation around here and have certainly eased my back-to-school transition.

* Gossip Girl, which I started watching because my students did, but now I’m completely hooked. I taught on Monday evenings last semester and had to record the show, but it was such a lovely way to finish off my Monday nights once I got home. The show went on a winter hiatus and came back with a bang (opium dens! copious argyle! Blair and Chuck!) and I’m so glad.

* Old episodes of The West Wing definitely saved my sanity during the election season, but also, I’ve gotten into a rhythm since my husband’s started school: come home, supervise homework (or Enviro Club or piano lesson), make dinner, eat, bed/bathtime, then downstairs for solo grown-up time watching two episodes of TWW, recorded during the daytime. Definitely comfort viewing for me, though not nearly as fluffy as some of my other choices (ahem).

I was partly inspired to write this entry after reading my dear friend Alissa’s recent post on guilty pleasures. As always, she was eloquent and insightful on the topic, and I am in complete agreement. Why chastise ourselves for enjoying harmless pleasures, like the Twilight books or Gossip Girl, from time to time? I would start to worry if my entire mental or aesthetic energies were absorbed that way, but in moderation? A tasty treat that offers a bit of respite.

And now for the recipes:

* First up: my grandmother’s fudge, otherwise known as the never-fail fudge from the Marshmallow Fluff jar (minus walnuts). This is truly the stuff of childhood for me, and I included chunks of it with the Christmas cookies I gave out. I know there are fancier recipes, but this one is the only one for me

* Second: are you a doughnut fan? Have you ever tried making them at home? If not, you’re in for a treat– they are much easier, and much more delicious, than I could have guessed. I used Aliki’s post to make these vanilla-glazed ones, and while I know there are lots of variations possible, that recipe is so tasty I need to make it one or two more times before I start fooling with it.

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The Simple Dollar (Blogroll Spotlight Series)

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Jackie

I’m going to do a continuing series of posts here, highlighting blogs on my blogroll and explaining why I like that site enough to feature it on my site, in an effort to build more community in the true blogging spirit. I will try to link to all the posts in the series at the end of each one.

This first post is about a blog I started reading relatively recently: The Simple Dollar, a single-author blog written by an Iowan named Trent, who’s married with a kid and has chosen to make personal finance and frugality his guiding passion as a writer. And I’m really glad he did, because I thoroughly enjoy his blog.

Even before the current financial crisis, my thoughts on finance had been turning towards how to build and maintain a more frugal lifestyle. There are several personal reasons for this switch, but none of them are a lack of money– we are in the best financial shape we’ve ever been in, a fact for which I am truly thankful. But as my girls get older, I’m more and more cautious about how to model the kinds of choices we want them to make, and the kinds of ideals we want them to see us putting into action. I also want to instill good financial habits in them, and want to be able to afford some of the dreams on our wishlist, like traveling, finishing our basement, and whatever other great experiences we all want to have.

I’m interested enough in frugality to clip coupons, but not enough to sign up for a coupon clipping service. I’m interested enough in personal finance to comparison-shop for banks, but don’t need sophisticated investment information (yet). Also, I’ve made enough choices already to need tips and advice past, “Give up lattes and manicures”. If you are me too, The Simple Dollar may be for you.

Trent’s also a great blogger for anyone to model. His voice is straightforward without being simplistic, direct and honest without being blunt, and his writing is just the right mix of philosophical and practical. He posts at least once a day, and his posts are well-written, concise and engaging. He also does a good mix of topics, from DIY posts, interviews, book reviews, tip lists or posts spurred by his own experiences or conversations. I don’t always agree with everything he says, of course, but I’m always intrigued enough to keep reading (except for his book reviews, because I never read personal finance or investing books).

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Roots and Shoots

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Jackie

When we decided to send the girls to the urban public school where they are in first grade, it was really important to me to do as much parent participation as I could. First, I want to take advantage of these years when I’m working part-time, and the flexibility I have. Second, their school currently has a very active PTA, and I know how important parent participation is for public schools, especially in an urban system like ours that constantly struggles with funding. Third, I really wanted to feel like part of a school community. As the daughter of a public school teacher, public school communities have always been a part of my life, and I want my girls to have that experience too, to feel truly rooted in the school community.

Last year when they started kindergarten, I did a small amount of PTA stuff, like election day bake sales, and lots of classroom volunteering, like lunch duty, playground duty, helping out for holiday parties in the girls’ classroom, and sending in supplies requested by teachers. This year, as I’ve taken on a bit more at work, I haven’t made it to lunch duty as often (and never playground duty), but then, the girls are settled enough that they don’t need me there as often. I’ve made it for most of the classroom parties, and am planning to do some more classroom volunteering in the next few weeks, before my college class starts and while my high school kids prepare for midterms.

This year, I took it a step further by becoming a co-sponsor of the Environmental Club for kindergarten, first and second graders. A mother I knew from kindergarten was organizing it, and so I said I would help out, and we’ve been meeting twice a month or so since the beginning of the school year. We have snacks each time, have read stories about recycling, done craft projects like making snowflakes from magazine pages, and took a nature walk for leaf-collecting. In the spring, we have another nature walk planned to a nearby butterfly garden, and are working on plans for April and Earth Day. We have loosely modeled the activities on Roots and Shoots, form the Jane Goodall Institute.

This is the kind of project I never would have thought I was organized enough to take on a few years ago, but I’m really glad I didn’t let my own conception of myself stop me. My girls have really enjoyed being in the club, it’s a free activity, and it makes me feel like I’m actively part of the school community. Plus I’m one of four parents involved, so the actual work involved has been very manageable.

Next year, my goal is to continue doing what I’m doing, and try and hit more actual PTA meetings so I can take part in more organized activities. We have been so lucky with their school so far, and I think it’s our responsiblity as parents and city residents to contribute all we can.

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Journals and Freewriting

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Jackie

I don’t know about kids today (she wonders, befuddled), but I’ve been keeping diaries, journals, and now blogs my whole life. I’ve moved with padded, fabric-covered diaries with locks and keys, to big hardbound sketchbook-type notebooks, and now here I am, tapping out these words on a pretty regular basis. Writing has always helped me figure out my life, and one of my dreams for my students to think of writing as not just something they’re forced to do in school, but as a survival tool, part of their personal growth toolbox.

In my most ambitious plans for next year, I would either start or end each of my ninth grade classes with a writing prompt, sometimes connected to the text we are studying currently, and asking them to express opinions, begin to form interpretations, and even make connections to their own lives. For about half of the units I teach, I already do have a fair amount of journal prompts, but not for the other half. I spent so much time this summer prepping for the new books/units we are teaching that I didn’t spend enough time thinking holistically about the curriculum, I think. I have never responded well to freewriting as a method, however, especially the kind where you are just suppoesd to keep pencil to paper for the allotted minutes. I need a prompt, a direction, to keep me on track.

But as usual when putting teaching theories and ideas into practice, there are so many other pieces to the puzzle. Should they keep a separate notebook for journaling? How can I make this a graded portion of the year’s assessments? Would I grade on content or writing skills or both? How often would I collect them? Would I add some entries they could do while reading, to have them reflect on their reading while they’re doing it, as well as in class? How long will it take me to compile enough prompts to have one for each class, all year round? I’m trying to read some different case studies and strategies to figure out what would work best for me. I actually enjoy this kind of work and find it stimulating, but have trouble finding the time when I’m trying to keep up with grading, meetings, teaching, etc.

I also finally ordered myself a copy of Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth to help me rebuild my Macbeth unit for the ninth grade this spring. I have a fair amount of plans, links and ideas gathered together, but I want the unit itself to be more cohesive, and I’ve always loved the lesson plans from the archives at the Folger website (linked on my teaching page). One of my long-term goals is to model Dana Huff’s lesson plan pages, where she maps out her units and includes links to all the online resources she uses. I’ve benefited so much from the wealth of information available on the Internet, and I’d like to start adding my own contributions to fellow teachers.

As much as I felt wistful as the end of winter break approached, I’m always happy to dive back into the work of teaching and start wrapping my head around new projects and challenges.

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Quick Round-Up

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Jackie

School starts tomorrow. I am both ready and not ready. Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot this vacation, but don’t have time to do full reviews of each, so here’s a quick round-up!

House of Sand and Fog: Most people read this back when it was an Oprah book, but I prefer waiting till the hype subsides so that I can experience the book on my own (plus my friend Karen had a spare copy!). This was a very well-crafted book, but so bleak and gut-wrenching that I don’t think I’ll be rereading it. It’s one of those stories where several characters are introduced (an Iranian colonel, now living in the States with his wife and two children, an addict recently evicted from her house, and an adulterous deputy sheriff), their lives begin to intersect, and then the whole train starts to hurtle towards the inevitable devastation. Kept me guessing, but such a miserable ending.

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure: I don’t know why I try to resist Michael Chabon anymore– his dazzling way with language engages me instantly, no matter the subject, and this swashbuckler was no different. The original title was Jews with Swords, and that’s exactly what the book is, cutting its way through swaths of Mediterranean landscapes with his trademark syntactical acrobatics.

Ordinary Love and Good Will: Two novellas by one of my favorite authors, Jane Smiley, who is once again quietly brilliant in these evocative portraits of everyday families, conflicts and secrets.

Home: A Novel: Robinson’s Housekeeping and Gilead are two of my favorite books ever, so I had hopes for this one, even purchasing it in hardback. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed– I think on a stylistic level, it’s just as good as her others, but plot-wise, and interms of character development, it just didn’t resonate with me the way her others did. It was also yet another book I read over this vacation that had an atmosphere of sorrow, which is sometimes fine, but I wasn’t quite in the mood for so much sorrow. I think I’ll reread this again in the future to see if the mood shifts.

The Road: I rarely give up on books without finishing them, but even I have limits, and after 100 pages of this one, I just couldn’t keep going. I’ve read a few post-apocalyptic books before (notably The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut) but am usually not drawn to the genre, in books or films. If I had read more reviews before I bought the book, I would have realized that. Second strike against it was the tone of unrelenting grimness and desolation that only got worse once the cannibals showed up, but was already bad because I have such low tolerance for seeing kids in misery anymore, even fictional ones. The third strike came when McCarthy used the phrase “they stepped out into the autistic dark.” Sorry, but no thanks.

Finally, my husband and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I found underwhelming. I’m okay with the fact that the Fitzgerald short story and the movie bear little resemblance to each other, but the framing device felt contrived and tying the plot to Hurricane Katrina felt superfluous and gratuitous at the same time. Cate Blanchett was beautiful and compelling, as always, and Brad Pitt emoted well through layers of aging make-up, but overall, no one’s best work.

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