Success at Regionals

Since early November, Drew's been involved in the Little Huskies wrestling program.  He takes this sport very seriously, and it's been fun to watch his development as a player.  He's showed the mental toughness it takes to be successful in this sport.  This year, he kept practicing in spite of a bloody nose...in spite of getting a (baby) tooth knocked out...in spite of dislocating his shoulder.  But all those things are exactly why, as his mother, I can hardly stand to watch him wrestle.  It just about does me in to see my child contorted into a pretzle during a match.  Even tho my dad wrestled back in the day, and I grew up hearing the stories about what it takes to be a successful wrestler, it wasn't until my own son took up this sport that I understood why my grandma never went to my dad's meets.

Today, however, I checked my protective mamma persona and went to Drew's meet.  He was wrestling at Regionals today, and I wanted to show my support as he takes the first step toward his goal:  making it to State.  He did well, coming in 2nd place in the 74-lb. weight class, which is good enough for him to move on to Sectionals next week.

As soon as we arrived home, the first thing Drew asked was, "May I call Grandpa and tell him how I did?"

Drew and my dad have always had a good relationship.  Since Drew's started wrestling, it's given them another thing to bond over.  Earlier this month marked 50 years since my dad was the first Iowa high school state wrestling champion in the town where I grew up.  Drew placing second at Regionals today is another step toward following in his grandpa's footsteps.

Before Drew wrestled his final match, I asked him if I could take a picture of him.  He struck the traditional wrestling pose, and it reminded me of my dad's wrestling photo I'd seen while growing up.  I've always thought Drew looks like a carbon copy of Baird, but when I compared these two pics, I see my dad's wrestling toughness in Drew's eyes.

Snow Globe Sleepover

Tonight Erin invited her XC buddy H over for a sleepover.  I've never seen two teenage girls so enthusiastic about snow, ever.  In fact, I think they very well may be the only ones in the country who are still enamored with snow this late in February.

I'm not sure who came up with the term "sleepover," but I've always considered it an oxymoron.  "Overnight hang out" is a much more accurate term for what teenage girls do when they're together past 11pm.  Tonight was a perfect case in point.  Erin and H started making banana bread at 11:30.  A couple of hours later they realized it was snowing big, giant flakes outside.  They decided to place themselves directly into this middle-of-the-night-snow-globe moment, and they captured their play on film:

Erin's enjoyed every moment of this, the snowiest February on record.

At least someone is!

This Old House - Part 2

So I mentioned yesterday about the furnace issue.  At last post, the water was gurgling thru the pipes, the house was back above 60 degrees, and it looked like we were on our way to sleeping in a warm house.  The best laid plans...

It became apparent last night that the hot water was not making its way thru the all of the pipes, and the temperature in the house began to fall again.  My handyman hubby knows when to throw in the towel and call in a pro, so this morning we called a plumber to help us out.  The problem was fixed by early afternoon.  As each child walked in the door after school, they all had the same observation, "Ahhhh!  The heat's on!"

After I said good night to Drew, I chcked the thermostat, and was thrilled to see it  look like this:

It's gonna feel soooo good to wake up to a warm house tomorrow morning!

This Old House

Our house was built in 1922.  It seems like there's always something to fix.  About 5:30 this morning we all heard this horrible noise coming from the basement.  None of us knew exactly what it was, but one thing's for sure, when a noise like that comes from the general vacinity of the furnace, it's never a good sign.  Baird took the day off work to address the problem:  the motor that runs the hot water thru the pipes to warm up the house was shot.

Baird shut the water off to drain the pipes and get to the motor.  As the house plummeted to 56 degrees and we had no running water, it felt like an indoor camping experience.  Thank God for a working stovetop, oven, and hot tea!

The mess:

The metal:

The motor:

The man behind it all:

Around 2pm, the water was back on, the motor was running, and the house was back up to 60 degrees.  Thanks, Baird, for being my favorite handyman!

Legacy Link

I've mentioned before that Drew is a legacy for the first time this year.  Today we discovered a really cool legacy link:  Erin's Breakfast with a Book project is used as the example to follow!

Kitchen-Style Cabin Fever

Every February I get a serious case of cabin fever.  Februarys in Chicago will do that to a person.  I'm in the middle of such a spell right now, and it's spilled over into my cooking.

While I'm pretty good at serving my family variety, I have been known to fall into ruts.  There was my Thai noodle phase, where at least twice a week I was serving some sort of rice noodle with meat, veggies and sauce.  I realized how bad it was getting when I served Thai noodles for the third time in ten days and heard Baird say (more to himself than to me) "Oh, it's another Thai noodle night."  I got the message, and made sure to put some extra space between Thai noodle meals.

It's not quite that bad right now, but for the last couple of weeks, I've been feeling stuck in what I'll call a winter food rut.  It seems like we've been eating a lot of soups, stews, and chili, with the occasional roast chicken or beef thrown in for good measure.  Honestly, I'm tired of it.  I'm ready to walk out my back door and pick fresh herbs from my garden.  I want the bounty of the farmer's market sitting on my kitchen counter.  One could say I have a case of kitchen-style cabin fever.

In order to cure my cabin fever, I've decided to cook a new dish once a week.  Not just any new dish...an international dish I've never cooked before.  Tonight was the first meal.  I made Cuban Black Beans and Rice from Cook's Illustrated.

I learned that sofrito is a cornerstone of Latin cooking, and the specific elements in the mix differ from one Latine cuisine to the next.  A Cuban sofrito consists of onions, green peppers, garlic, cumin and oregano.

To make my beans and rice, I soaked black beans overnight.  I enriched the beans with chicken broth, salt, garlic, bell pepper, onion, and garlic and set them to simmer.  I drained the beans, saved the bean juice, and rinsed the rice.  I used my food processor to blend green peppers and onions.  I cooked lean bacon and then sauteed the herbs and veggies in the rendered bacon fat (veggies in bacon fat...there's no way this will be a bad dish!).  I stirred in the rice, beans, and the bean cooking liquid I had reserved.  I added a bit of red wine vinegar and salt.  I baked it all in my new Dutch oven.  I fluffed it with a fork, let it rest, and served it with lime wedges.

This recipe actually reminded me of Cajun dirty rice, but with less heat.  It had a complex, earthy flavor, which was just perfect for a cold, dreary, February night.

I'm already feeling better!

Vacation Day

It's been a very busy month, and I've found myself desperately in need of a vacation day.  I decided to spend my day off at Mel's house for another foodie film fest.  We chose the movie Six Degrees of Separation and decided on high-society Hors d' Oeuvres and tea.  My two offerings consisted of Mini Crab Cakes on Endive with Caper and Lemon Sauce, and Bruschetta with Rosemary, Roasted Red Peppers, Goat Cheese and Prosciutto.  Mel's contribution: Sweet Potato and Bacon Filled Endive Leaves and Mini Raviolis on a Spoon.  The green tea pearls with jasmine from Todd & Holland (when Mel sipped the tea she remarked, "I feel like I'm drinking flowers") were the perfect complement.  This was certainly one of our more memorable F3 events, partly because we were both so in synch with each other from an ingredient perspective - we both used capers and endive in our Hors d'Oeuvres.

When I photographed our day, I didn't realize there were water marks on my lense, which rendered my photos a sloppy mess.  These pics of our day are brought to you by Mel.

We're watching Chocolat next, so our theme will be French food.  Stay tuned!

Winter Version

On my return trip from dropping Drew off at school this morning, there were forestry workers camped out by my garage.  Their mission was to trim the dead branches off my elm.

As if the rainstorms of 2010 weren't enough, my poor elm took a beating during the blizzard of 2011.  It is but a shadow of its former self.  Once again, I was told to enjoy this tree while I still can.

As I took a moment to capture the winter version of this old elm, I realized how much I'm going to miss this tree when it comes down.

Early Valentine's

Years ago, Baird and I went to a hip, popular restaurant on Valentine's Day without reservations.  The restaurant had strongly enouraged us to stop by without reservations, because they only set aside a third of their dining room for reservations on any given night.  We were young and stupid and figured, "why not?"  As soon as we opened the door to the restaurant, we knew we'd made a big mistake.  We also knew we were totally comimtted, as every other restaurant would be just as busy.  We settled into the bar to wait out the 90 minutes we were told it would take to get a table, only to have that hour-and-a-half turn into two...turn into two-and-a-half...

We were closing in on the three-hour mark when we were finally seated.  At that point I was so hungary I didn't even care what I ate.  While the conversation was good and the company was amazing, and when we finally did eat our food it was delicious, even tho it was going on 11pm, Baird and I looked at each other as we left the restaurant and said, "Never again."  We've stuck to that.  We've actually never eaten a meal out on Valentine's Day since then.  I've either cooked at home or we've eaten out very near the holiday, but never on.

This fall I scored a coupon for $40 off eating at Vermilion, and Baird and I thought that would be a lovely place to spend a pre-Valentine's meal.  This place has a hip, trendy vibe with Indian/Latin/South American fusion as its theme.  I know, it seems like an odd combination, but for the most part it works.  Our first course was blue corn crusted scallops on a kali mirch latin calabasa goat cheese puree.  The scallops were perfectly cooked, but the blue corn crust was a little stale.  And while the sauces were exotic and amazing, I thought the presentation was a little funky.  I couldn't help but see some dude with sunglasses and a funky ear ring staring back at me.

Next course:  artichoke pakoras on eggplant chili coconut sauce.  This one was quite good.  The fried artichokes actually reminded me a bit of the best bloomin' onion I've ever had.  The dipping sauce, however, was far, far better than anything I've had with a bloomin' onion!

Baird went with the chimichurri New York strip with Argentinean bife de lomo and “kadai” sweet potato.

Baird loved his steak, but when he gave me a bite, it was pretty spicy.  That's exactly why he loved it and I was happy with just one bite.  I loved my Tandoori skirtsteak with fried plantain chips, chorizo kale, and jicama citrus garnisih.

Celebrating a day early meant a quite, unhurried, on-time meal at a fun fusion restaurant, and we were back home at a very respectable 10:30.  We are such the old, married, suburbanite couple, and that's ok with me.  It's a good thing I've embraced this roll!

It's Starting Already

It's exactly one day after she turned 16, and Kelsey received this in the mail today:

her very first piece of mail from a college!  Drexel University has the distinction of being the first place of higher learning to send her mail.  Kelsey has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.  She has no clue where she wants to go to school.  She's not worried, and neither am I.  But I think I was more excited about her mail than she was.

16 Candles

I usually post baby pics alongside current shots of the kids on their birthdays; however, I've been informed that when one is 16, one does not want a public display of one's baby photographs.  So, part of my gift to Kelsey is honoring her wish.

My Sweet 16 daughter has grown so much in the past year.  She's in a positive, happy place.  Her grades are good.  She's kind to those around her.  She practices her saxophone without being told.  She has a heart for social justice causes.

Kelsey really doesn't like the spotlight, and she begged us not to throw her a big, giant party.  Again, we listened and allowed her to have a low-key day.  Actually, her birthday celebration is being strung out over several days.  I made her two favorite desserts:  chocolate cream cheese pie, and poppyseed cake.  She's not a big fan of birthday cake, so we put her 16 candles in the poppyseed cake when we sang Happy Birthday.

Kelsey added another ear cartilage piercing (she's up to four now) as part of her birthday activities.  Tomorrow is her birthday dinner - we'll be enjoying chicken pockets.  Saturday Baird's taking her to get a mouthpiece for her newly-acquired tenor saxophone.  Next week, Baird, Kelsey and Erin will be going out for sushi.  On February 16th, Kelsey, Charlie and Baird will be heading down to Jazz Showcase to hear live jazz featuring the saxophone.  See?  I wasn't kidding when I said this celebration is being strung out over several days!

Happy birthday, Kelsey!  You're 16 and you're beautiful!

Ready to Move On

This is the view out my front porch:

This is how I feel about it:

'Nuf said.

Learning How to Huskie

Tonight Erin joined hundreds of incoming freshmen at Oak Park-River Forest High School for Open House Night.  Every extra-curricular and co-curricular activity at OPRF had a table or booth so the almost-high schoolers could get a feel for what types of activities they could join.  There was everything from Chemistry Club to Students for Peace and Justice to Cross County and Ping Pong.  With thousands of people threading their way around the cafeteria, gym, and surrounding hallways, it could have felt a bit overwhelming.  Actually, it was loads of fun.

Erin and I never walked for more than a minute without running into someone we knew.  Erin saw friends she played soccer with years ago.  Her old ice skating buddies who attend the other middle school were there.  We came across neighborhood friends and acquaintances.  There was an expectant feeling of excitement in the air, as the Class of 2015 took one more step toward becoming Huskies.

While we were at the Huskie logo wear booth, I saw these t-shirts, and I just had to get one for Erin:

The shirts are a nod to the video some students shot earlier this fall to boost school spirit:

Next on the agenda:  meeting with the guidance counsellor for final course selection tomorrow night.  Yea, Erin's learning how to Huskie, and she's loving every minute of it! 

Taking a Bow

As the weather warmed up a bit today, Kelsey's tall, thin snow(wo)man took a bow...

While neighbor MJ's resting snow giant pretty much stayed intact.

Historical Second Snow Day

The kids were thrilled to pieces last night when they learned they were in for another snow day today.  Snow days for the Chicago public school system are few and far between (before yesterday, it hadn't happened in more than a decade), and even more unheard of for Oak Park school districts 97 and 200.  This is the first time in the history of the Oak Park schools that there have been back-to-back snow days.  Today's day off seemed to be related more to the overnight temperatures plummeting to -20 or lower, and the fact that not everyone's been able to dig out.  Thanks to Baird's hard work, we were able to get around fairly easily by late afternoon yesterday.  Venturing out today certainly wasn't very dramatic for us.  Clearly, tho, there were those who weren't so fortunate, like the poor owner of this car on Highland between Fillmore and Harvard:

Today became a "do your own thing" day at our house.  Baird was up early and went to work.  He said he had no problems getting there - 290 and 294 were in great shape.  Kelsey quite literally slept the morning away, finally coming to life a little after 1 this afternoon.  Erin, ever the early bird, was up by 8:00, not wanting to miss a moment of the treasured day off.  "When I look back on this," she said, "I want to be able to talk about how much fun I had in the snow.  I don't want it to be, like, 'yeah, I spent the two snow days sleeping and watching TV.'  How lame would that be?!"  I couldn't agree more!  Since the roads were passable, Erin and her neighborhood friends connected with those north of the highway and went sledding at Ridgeland Common.

Drew and his friends met up at Barrie Park for some football...

...some hot chocolate...

...and some king of the mountain.

This weekend-in-the-middle-of-the-week has lasted just long enough to be fun.  Tomorrow, it's back to school for all of half a day, then it's Super Bowl weekend.  Oh, and we might get some more snow.  I have no idea where we're going to put it!

Digging Out from Blizzard 2011

I must admit that when I woke up this morning and saw this:

my very first thought was really?  That's it?!  Somehow I thought it would be much, much more!  But the bottom line is that we did get a lot of snow overnight.  So much, in fact, that by early morning, this storm was severe enough to place it in the top three all-time snow storms in Chicagoland.  The truth is, it actually didn't look that bad from inside, but once we went outside and started digging out, it was clear that this was, in fact, a BIG snow storm.

Baird, bless his sweet heart, spent just over 7 of the last 18 hours snow blowing our entire block three times over.  He worked on the alley, Finn & Kat's car port space, and Ted & Sue's sidewalk on Fillmore too.

While Baird ran the snow blower and Kelsey worked on the stairs and walkway to the garage, Drew and I had a little fun on the way to Barrie Park.

The hill at Barrie Park was a popular place this morning!

Erin and her neighborhood friends were part of the group that enjoyed the fantastic sledding.

When they'd had their fill of sledding, the Neighborhood Three decided on a change of venue. They climbed onto our garage roof for some more snow day fun:

It was a pretty easy endeavor since there was a giant pile of snow that was formed when the dads on the block worked at clearing the alley.   The pile was even bigger than it was in the earlier pic when Drew and Emm were sledding on it.

Once they scaled the side of the garage, the girls set to work on a snowman.  They used the snow from the roof, carrots, chocolate chips, and food coloring to make a whimsical work of art:

Not to be outdone, Kelsey worked on her own snow(wo)man in the front of our house:

Here's the finished product:

I know for a lot of people this snow storm was a huge hassle, but for our family, it was a pretty great day.  We enjoyed each other's company.  We had fun playing in this historic snow.  There was not a single fight or cross word the whole day.

As my thoughts turned toward supper, I thought comfort food all the way.  I went with London broil, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and Caesar salad.  And of course, for dessert, there was snow ice cream.

We've just received word that both District 97and District 200 are closed again tomorrow, since side streets and alleys in a lot of places are still impassable, tho ours are in pretty good shape.  It's also turning bitterly cold, with wind chills sinking to 20 to 40 below zero tonight.

This is winter, Chicago style!