All's Fair

This blog after 12/21/12 has two primary purposes: to prepare us for UNanticipated disasters in our lives, and to celebrate that the world did not end on the aforementioned date.

This post is dedicated to the latter, and it features photos from my day at the Elkhart County Fair with Miss Gokey.

I would like to be able to say that I'm the one who looks good in the "evidence photo" that proves I was there, but I can't. Instead, I'm concentrating really hard on getting both of our heads into the frame.

It was a day during which I did not get to see a tractor pull, because this blogger, as able as she might be to survive a camping trip in the wilderness, is not able to locate the correct train platform when it counts. Before we start celebrating, allow me to provide a little bit of public service and inform you: MAKE SURE YOU ARE STANDING ON THE CORRECT TRAIN PLATFORM. That way, if you want to, you will get to see a tractor pull.

Did you know...the rides at fairs do not run before a certain hour of the day, causing everything to look all weird and creepy like the empty carousel pictured below.

 

 

I don't know what I was thinking when it came to taking photos. I managed not to take photos of any of the food we ate all day, but I did capture the spirit of fair food, wherein one can go and pet some very cute animals only to be directed to a nearby booth where you can EAT its cousins, with this photo:

 

The fair is a good place to get information, like how to bid on a cow at auction (did you know you don't actually have to take it home?), and the parts of a llama, which you totally need to know:

 

The actual llama is cuter. I'm a big fan of llamas. I find them endearingly goofy-looking.

Facts about sheep:

 

 







WHERE is my photo of the view from the Ferris Wheel? I don't know. Miss Gokey decided that if you're going to die on a badly-constructed fair ride, it might as well be the one that debuted at the 1893 World's Fair. It was terrifying. Oh, well. We shall have to content ourselves with the view from the place where we ate some ice cream:

 

 



A-ha! HERE'S the view from the Ferris Wheel:

I took that one right after I won a little dolphin from a shooting game. See, that long-ago visit to the Gun Store really paid off!

Vicious bunnies...

and finally, all's well that ends well. I didn't get to see a tractor pull, but I did get to see a horse pull, and that's the same thing, except with horses instead of tractors.

 

 

And that pretty much sums up my day with Miss Gokey at the fair, although it doesn't do it justice. For as long as Miss Gokey shall visit Elkhart County in the summertime, I will endeavor to accompany her. One of the non-pictured activities we participated in was a class about composting. There was a powerpoint that went along with the class. If you are interested in learning about composting and seeing the powerpoint, the presenter will send you the presentation if you email him at burchkingsley@gmail.com. 

Next time, as we continue our summer celebrations, I will tell you all about Pierogifest. Maybe. I might just complain about Bear Grylls. I haven't decided yet.

Great News!

This will be a very brief from-the-phone post just to let you know that there is an alternative to the bug life I blogged about last time.

Literally 3 minutes after I posted it, I saw a pin on pinterest announcing that there are 52 wild plants which are edible.

They include dandelions, asparagus, hickory nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, gooseberries, elderberries, mulberries, cattails, and garlic.

There were lots more, but you'll have to google edible wild plants, because I donlt remember them.

A word of caution to conclude: we've all read Into the Wild. We remember how it ends.

Before you go munching on nature's random bounty, be absolutely certain that you know exactly what you're putting in your mouth.

Desperate Times...

The success of this post depends on you, loyal readers. In order to get anything out of it, these two things must be true of you:
1) you do not follow National Geographic on twitter (in which case you will already know most of the information in this post, with the exception of the personal info), and
2) you are not squeamish.

There is a famous bug chef. And he looks categorically insane. National Geographic interviewed him and wrote an article in order to promote the re-release of a book that he originally wrote in 1998.

Having nothing more compelling to take up space on my blog, and thinking that someday we might be reduced to eating bugs, I decided to share this information with you.

I actually nearly ordered the book. Until I remembered the recent conversation I had with my Aunt Sherry, who was visiting Northwest Indiana to see Smokey Robinson. I was singing the praises of Morningstar Farms "fakin' bacon," and she asked, "You mean you would rather eat chemicals than pork?"

Yep.

So I thought twice about ordering the bug-eating book. I barely made it to the end of the article.

The crazy-looking bug chef (he intentionally looks crazy! When your book is already crazy enough, why do that to yourself??) contends that because the beef industry uses an unsustainable amount of land and water and produces a disproportionate amount of global warming, eating bugs is the way to go.

Other intel from the bug chef:

• It is dangerous to just start harvesting bugs from your backyard, due to pesticides. Order instead, he says, from a commercial joint that raises bugs for sale (in that case, what's the point, really, but continuing...)
• When harvesting bugs (in a remote location due to the backyard prohibition), use a "1 in 5" rule: only take a bug if there are 5 more around. This way, you lessen your impact on the ecosystem that produces the bugs.
• He doesn't say this one, but he says it's what he does, so I'm telling you to ALWAYS, ALWAYS tell your guests if you are feeding them bugs. He says grinding them up is a good way to help people come to terms with eating bugs.

Some of the recipes mentioned included chex mix with crickets, and waxworm cookies.

I think that on my long journey back to being carnivorous, I am more likely to start with chickens than with grasshoppers.

That having been said, if I am traveling in Mexico and someone offers me chocolate chapulines on a stick, I would say "when in Rome," only because I've never eaten them before.

So I nearly put this crazy man's cookbook on my Amazon wish list. But I didn't. National Geographic hits us with a shameless self-hyperlink that I actually may have blogged about before, a long time ago, but maybe not.

I think I'll stick with the article for now. If you start asking me to add things to my Amazon wish list for Christmastime, then maybe I'll rethink that.

Yeah, probably not.

Bon apetit, loyal readers!

It's Like a Heat Wave

No, wait...let me check...it IS a heat wave, ready.gov's definition being "an extended period of extreme heat...often accompanied by high humidity." (Note the humidity part as an explanation as to why I haven't talked much about heat before.)

You've had to wait a few days for a post, but there's a good reason for that: in an AC outage during the 2nd-hottest day in Chicagoland since last August (the hottest day being, of course, tomorrow), my immediate family evacuated to my Granny's house for a night until the AC at my parents' house could be fixed.

It was this impromptu campout that inspired me to search on ready.gov on your behalf, so that you know what to do if a similar outage happens in your neck of the woods.

Honestly, the list of things to do "before" a heat wave is pretty intuitive: know your neighbors, update your disaster kit, check your weather stripping...One suggestion I thought was interesting was putting reflective material into your windows. Like sun shades for the house. I have seen this done out in Las Vegas. It doesn't look good, so some communities don't allow it, but if the government says it's effective...well, in MY opinion you should use your own knowledge of your surroundings, your own common sense and aesthetic tastes.

Here's what to do DURING the heat wave:
- Crank up your NOA radio (I assume you must have one by now) and stay tuned for weather alerts.
- Never leave children or pets alone in closed vehicles.
- Stay indoors as much as possible. I will revise this to, "as much as you can stand." I personally had to play squeakyfootball with the dog for five minutes a day to avoid going completely insane.
- Stay on the lowest floor out of the sunshine if AC is not available.
- Postpone outdoor games and activities.
- Consider spending the hottest part of the day in public air-conditioned buildings.
- Eat well-balanced, light, and regular meals. Do not take salt tablets.
- Drink water, not caffeine or alcohol.
- Dress in loose-fitting, lightweight and light-colored clothing.
- Wear a wide-brimmed hat. :)
- Avoid strenuous work during the hottest part of the day.
- Check on family and pets. FINALLY...
- Avoid extreme temperature changes.

So...that's that. As for me, until the heat breaks I'll be reading a trashy romance novel and doing more experimental cooking. Stay tuned.

How Sweet It Is!

Inspired by the pure deliciousness of some freezer jam that Beth brought to Michigan with her, I decided to make some myself, and since it is amusing for my three loyal readers to occasionally glimpse my kitchen shenanigans, I decided to share this little project with you-all.

Many thanks to Granny for providing little jelly jars for my experiment.

Below you will see the supplies.

 

 

And now, below, you will see the reason why I will never make this particular type of freezer jam again. That, my loyal readers, is 5.5 cups of sugar. 

 

 

I may be preparing to make a deadly refined-sugar poisonous treat, but at least I have a fancy spatula, as you can see below. 

 

 

Here is a close-up of a standard pectin pack. Before attempting my freezer jam, I had never before seen pectin, nor did I know what it was. Turns out it's a collection of "partial methyl esters of polygalacturonic acid," so your guess is as good as mine. 

 

 

And below...rewind to me smoooshing all the antioxidants out of my blueberries so they could be eaten by the 5.5 cups of refined sugar...

 

 

And finally, after mixing together those three ingredients and performing an ancient alchemical jelly dance...the happy result! 6.5 containers of SUPERDELICIOUS blueberry freezer jam! Great news! I ate a tablespoon on some zuchini bread, and I am proud to announce that at no point in time did I keel over dead. :)

 

 

Merry Christmas to five of my associates (I plan to keep 1 jar for myself and have already consumed the 1/2 jar): here's some diabetes in a jelly jar.

 

Lucky for everyone, there is a better way. There is a special brand of pectin you can buy which allows you to make the same amount of jam using just ONE CUP of RAW HONEY! Wooohooo!

 

By way of advertisement, I will also announce that I have pledged my loyalty to the producer of what will be my favorite honey for the duration of my stay in Northwest Indiana: Panos Farms in Michigan City. Regardless of whatever dirt you have on the Panos clan and any shady dealings they might be involved in, their honey won me over and I refuse to use anything else as long as I have access to it.

 

So. After my Blueberry Jam of Death has been consumed, I will make another batch, likely of a different flavor, to share with you here. Something for you to look forward to.

Coming Soon...

...my valiant attempt at making freezer jam.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos taken during a favorite summer activity of mine cruising around with my dad on vintage bicycles, finding one geocache at a time.

My Summer Reading List

Occasionally, I get lost on the internet. Since Semester at Sea's MV Explorer is one of my favorite boats, I occasionally stalk it on its website and recently (May-ish) came across Dr. Toby Zinman's Book Club list. I set myself to reading it this summer.

Since the majority of the books are available for Kindle, I'm almost done with the list, excepting the classic Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which I have just now added to my wish list. The only book I have yet to read from the list is The Uncommon Reader, and it is waiting for me when I finish this post.

I did not enjoy Drown very much, perhaps because it is written a lot like I would write a book if I were ever to write one. However. Once I finished it, the Kindle revealed to me the titles of other books by Junot Diaz, and this is how I discovered Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal.

Another bit of blog fodder delivered (this time by wireless whispernet) from the Universe.

Apocalypse is a 13-page document about the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Diaz compares the earthquake to an apocalypse, deconstructing the Greek term and assigning it three criteria. The apocalypse has to be the end of something, look like the end of something, or reveal and/or clarify something about what has ended.

Disasters, Diaz claims, "...don't just happen. They are always made possible by a series of often-invisible societal choices that implicate more than just those being drowned or burned in the rubble."

Amen, brother.

He goes on: "We must refuse the familiar scripts of victims and rescuers that focus our energies solely on charity instead of systemic change."

Near the conclusion, he states: "...apocalypses like the Hatian earthquake are not only catastrophes; they are also opportunities: chances for us to see ourselves, to take responsibility for what we see, to change."

Like the trailer for a popular movie, I give you these quotes as teasers which will hopefully inspire you to read the full 13-page document. To sift, as Diaz would say, through the ruins, and to study them. It is only $2.99 for the Kindle.

Stumbling upon this gem of a paper was well worth the 1.5 days I invested in his novel.

More about my reading list, and the progress I am making, in the posts to come.

If it Had Been an Actual Emergency...

Greetings!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July.

After taking a week's vacation, I still have very little to share with you. I have only this photo which I took myself, featuring a Life is Good brand t-shirt that I spotted at a local card store.

 

 

Haha. So. Until next time...