Olivia

Lets dance 3 pro.

Val Kilmer to deliver William Woods commencement address... as Mark Twain.

Really, the headline says it all. This has to be the most head-scratching Missouri news in quite some time. I'm still not sure whether to call this career evolution or revolution. From the Columbia Tribune:

Val Kilmer will perform his one-man show as Mark Twain on the William Woods University campus in Fulton next month."Citizen Twain" is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 1 in the Dulany Auditorium. Tickets are $50 and went on sale yesterday. For reservations, call (573) 592-1176 or email box.office@williamwoods.edu. Kilmer will take questions from the audience after the performance.

My wife told me he's a bit too paunchy to play Twain. "He's ballooned out," she said. I replied, sadly looking myself over, "uh, yeah, that happens eventually."

Still, my default mental image of Kilmer is from the Zucker brothers classic Top Secret! It's a bit much to consider Nick Rivers as an older, paunchy man, dressing up as Mark Twain. But time can be cruel.

Because I just had the best sandwich ever, the blog is back

Yep, that's right, I just had a sandwich so powerful it brought back an entire blog. I've been considering resurrecting it anyway, but finally something happened that is both regionally topical and worth immortalizing in zeroes and ones. The best sandwich I have ever had.

I assure you, the superlative is entirely necessary. I was in my usual lunch rush today and decided to answer my stomach's call for BBQ if, for no other reason, to make my use of the noon hour more expedient. I was on the south side of town and decided to head into Zesto.

Now, if you are a mid-Missouri native, what immediately leaps to mind when I say "Zesto" is a blue cartoon Zesto comin' atcha on the same sort of ice sheet Marvel comic hero Iceman would throw down in a battle with an intergalactic megalomanic and his robot army. Usually, in an attempt to leave very quickly. So, cold things- shakes, sorft-serve cones, root beer floats. And that is all well and good. But something loftier has been afoot exclusively at the south side location. Drive by the place with your windows down and you will no doubt smell their pit. Not their ARMpit, you; their BBQ pit.

I was in the mood for some smoked meats, so I drove through and ordered a pulled pork sandwich. What arrived through my window a few minutes later was nothing short of miraculous. When I opened the foil package, the smell hit my brain and set the dopamine level to 11. I asked for the mild sauce to go with, but the aroma made me wonder if it was really needed. It was not. I was treated to tender shreds of deliciousness with hints of a spicy rub and fire. It was perfectly seasoned, and that is not an exaggeration. I usually like sauce and pickle, if not some onion, with a big pile of smoky meat, but I desired none of that. It was perfect as it was, unadorned, and I am a little embarrassed to admit just how thoroughly I enjoyed it. It almost feels indecent.

Formerly it was my opinion that the best sandwich in Jefferson City, Missouri was the Sub Shop Veggie. And it still reigns as the best sub, in my opinion. See how I wiggled my way out of that? The new reigning champ, in my opinion,  is South Side Zesto's pulled pork objet d'art... But maybe you disagree! I'm curious to hear what you think.

Holga Pics!

Here's some shots I took with my Holga of the Missouri River, trains that run on the tracks right along the river, and the fountain on the north mall of the Capitol (facing the river).

Dropoff Hell

I will have to get a pic of this to post.

Today Louis and Bryce and I headed up to Columbia on our usual early Thursday morning run. For the midweek, Wednesday night visit, I sprint up to Columbia from JC to fetch them, we have dinner together, play games or watch a movie, go to bed, get up and motor back to Columbia, then to JC to my office. It's like a lightning round version of the weekend. Anyway, school has been in session for a week and Columbia traffic has already reached a fever pitch. It seems I drop off Louis at Middle School at the same time the office drones and the college kids are all out on the roads doing their thing, too. It is chaos. Every intersection overflows. In an attempt to mitigate traffic problems at the school, parents can only approach the dropoff circle drive from one direction. It happens to be the opposite direction from 99.9% of the city. Today the traffic was clogged in both directions despite the two traffic monitors' best attempts to maintain order. This place is swarming, infested, overcrowded, teeming with vans and SUVs and oblivious parents whose minds seem more on their next destination than their current location. dangerous stuff.

This week, I also learned that my son's lunch hour is 10:30-11:00AM. 10:30. That's not lunchtime. That's morning snack. Predictably, he says he's famished most afternoons by 3:00. This is also the week I learned Louis' classes sometimes take place in one of the many trailers on the property.

I know all schools have the trailer thing. But the thing that peeves me the most is they have sacrificed distributed administration to save costs, most likely, but also perhaps to consolidate power in the central administration. The result is kids are bused from all over the city. My son spends an hour on the bus, sometimes two, one time three hours when the substitute driver couldn't tell their nether regions from a hole in the ground. And the time since they drove all over the city to get to their single destination, there were plenty of opportunities to collide with another vehicle, an opportunity the driver decided to take that day.

Meanwhile, neighborhood schools get the shaft- they are underfunded, understaffed. The buildings are neglected. Parking and play areas rarely get upgrades.

What would be ideal is for a kid to get to go to a neighborhood school throughout their school career. They would get to know their neighbors and build local bonds. The families would meet each other through school and other events. They could walk to school, or at least be driven a short way to their school. More locations, fewer students per classroom means better learning opportunities. Fewer trailers, I can only imagine.

Don't think I'm some kind of segregationist or something. I have no problems with integration and I believe we should all be equals in each other's eyes. But there is no reason why a school in a marginal neighborhood can't be a a good school, a clean school, a well-maintained school, a school to inspire pride of membership. Lift up the school, lift up the neighborhood. Why isn't this a priority in this day and age? Celebrate a neighborhood's uniqueness instead of dooming it to failure because of stereotypes and unwillingness to let go of some control.

But instead of fixing old schools and leaving things local, school boards vote to hand over large sums to land developers (who are frequently on these boards, along with the City Council) and opt for large, expensive, very inconvenient centralized schools. Who loses? the students, mostly, and that is a shame. But the taxpaying citizens lose, too, because centralizing services like this, while it seems it would save money, actually costs a lot more in the long run. It's almost always cheaper to renovate than it is to build new (not always, of course, but usually). And there is a lot of collateral damage that their budget reports can't incorporate, like wasted personal time, higher fuel consumption, risk of life and limb with increases in traffic, and the hit that quality of life takes.

I dunno. I'm no expert, but I can't accept that this is a good thing, that this helps anyone, that it's preferable.

Learning the ABCs of our environment in school

I would love for Missouri to follow in Maryland's footsteps!

Learning the ABCs of our environment in school | delmarvanow.com | The Daily Times : "the Maryland State Board of Education is on the verge of adopting a statewide environmental literacy plan."

Missouri River Fog

It's not uncommon to find the Missouri River shrouded in its own fog bank in the mornings. Not every day, of course, but when dewpoints and temps meet, it's practically guaranteed. The effect can be very dramatic in the winter, in fact. But this was just an ordinary summer morning. We've been lucky to have a few nights of the temps falling into the fifties this week; it's been welcome relief. Feels much more normal than the roller coaster of blistering heat and violent thunderstorms that have dominated the weather this summer.

I grabbed a couple of quick snaps while crossing the Missouri River bridge and in the river bottom that 63 straddles for a while before zig-zagging into the foothills, eventually heading north to Columbia.

Haze on the banks

Peering through the uprights

River behind the trees. 

No Worries...

I wouldn't even try.

I am now a coffee snob

According to Abbey, with the purchase of this hand-cranked burr mill, I have become a coffee snob. "Not so," I huffed. "The espresso machine is the coffee snob. It's very finicky about the grind consistency." and I realized those were surely the words of a coffee snob. So, I'm embracing it. I also prefer coffee that was ground the day, or day before, I buy it. In Jefferson City, that can mean only one place: Dunn Brothers.

Although I caved and bought a bag of Kaldi's French Roast beans at the supermarket today because I was already there. I'm glad I did.  Although I am very fond of Dunn Bros.' Tanzanian Peaberry, this Kaldi's French Roast has surprisingly complex flavor for a dark roast. Not a hint of burned taste, just sweet and buttery, with hints of blackberry. It's one of the few coffees I've tried that really live up to the "chocolate" description that gets heaped onto so many beans. It blows anything I've gotten from Dunn Bros. out of the water.

I'm not sure if it's smugness I'm feeling, but the use of this mill does provide satisfaction. It takes about five minutes of serious cranking to get enough finely ground coffee for a double espresso, but the effort is very much worth it. Not only is the flavor startlingly fresh, but I appreciate it all the more having applied a little elbow grease to make it. And there is something meditative about the milling of each bean exactly as long as needed for a good cup. I'm not sure if I will feel so at one with the universe on a morning when I'm more desperate for instant gratification, but  I think the inconvenience will be good for me. Help me build some character.

Godawful Summer

Summer in Missouri is punishing enough. A visitor once told me the thing that struck them about Missouri is it had no discrimination regarding bad weather; it's got it all. A typical Missouri summer is case in point, and the Summer of 2010 seems bound and determined to remain in our memories as one of the most uncomfortable. It's been unusually hot, the temps reaching in the 100s twice, both times earlier than normal; with them has come high humidity to make it feel even hotter. Midwestern summer afternoons can be characterized by pop-up thunderstorms due to the heat, but this summer the storms have been nonstop, more extreme than usual, releasing so much rain the tributaries are perpetually overflowing, the mighty Missouri running uncomfortably close to flood stage for a couple of months now. Storms have made for some interest sky watching as well. These were taken with a bad camera, but I think you can still tell the sky has looked pretty ominous, and downright bizarre, this July and August.

Dome Cloud

weirdly shaped layers

lit from within

heading into it

run away!

Spank me, Jesus

A long week- May 7-14, 2010

This week seems to be composed of a never-ending series of hoops helpfully provided through which the family has to jump. Nothing too serious- but it just seemed to keep on coming.

Last Friday: Olivia's school had a sort of street carnival in the parking lot, called West Fest. It was a tad underwhelming, but it's also having to compete with Ridgeway's wild and wooly Fun day, to which it pales in comparison. But it was fun to hang out with Olivia's teacher for a bit, watch her play with some of her school chums, enjoy some face painting and overly salty popcorn while swirls of kids ran around us like crazed dingoes. Kids never need much to entertain them, really.

Sunday was Mothers' Day. Abbey's mom has been heavily involved in a never-ending estate sale, and some of the bounty ended up as a gift to my mom; a lovely necklace and a very flattering lapis ring. Abbey was the proud recipient of a yoga mat, which you can see she's put into action already, showing Olivia some of the moves from her quite enjoyable yoga class.

The weather. God, the weather. This has been one of the squirelliest Springs ever. Granted, there are more storms during this time period (especially in the Midwest like we are), but this season seems to be taking cake. For once, the arctic air seems to be the equal of the moist Pacific and Gulf air; they hav a shootout that starts in Oklahoma and blasts its way nearly to Canada. Judging from weather maps, Iowa is having as much fun this season as we are. More often than not, days are rainy, rumbly, dark and unusually cold. This week was no exception, in fact I think it's been the most active week all season. We've made sure our emergency gear is working, in case we need to dash off to the basement in the middle of the night!

On Monday we fought the rain to get Louis to Gentry at 7:25 in order to catch an awards ceremony; Louis won an award for participation in the "technology" area. A chip off the old block, he is. Later, on Monday, I was convinced my pancreas was imploding. Only a few days later, Abbey manifest the same weird symptoms. I guess it's just a bug left over from cold and flu season. Either way I spent Monday morning donating my pee and blood to science, unaware this was a virus as it felt like no virus I've ever had. Fun times. Abbey and I have spent half the week complaining about things probably aching more than they would have ten or twenty years ago. Getting older is such a blast!

next time: garden update.

Who Funds Contrariness on Climate Change?: Scientific American

Who Funds Contrariness on Climate Change?: Scientific American: "If someone really believes in 'free market' solutions, and libertarianism, I mean really believes in a free market to solve most or all problems, then why be a denialist at all? It is inconvenient? If you really believe in a free market solution let it do the solving; stop trying to artificially help it out. Scientific research supports the climate change theory so that should be an opportunity in a free market not the condemnation of it."

brilliant statement, thank you so much.

Local Places: Cafe via Roma

Pros:

Lots of Capitol gossip. Soups are good. Best salads in town, my fave being the Vesuvio. Also, the Breakfast Panini is delish. Iced tea is always fresh. Great selection of syrups.

Cons:

You might get the grumpy/spaced out barista, who makes the worst latte in Jefferson City, next to Chez Monet who have demonstrated they do not understand the concept. Otherwise service is delightful.

Local Places: Arris Pizza

There is a grand tradition in the mid-Missouri area of Greek family pizzarias. The best of the crop was the first in the area, Arris'. The crust is pretty consistent among the various Greek eateries: thin, crispy at the edges and chewy in the middle. Arris' seems a bit crisper than most, which suits me fine. Toppings cover the usual gamut, and the more unusual ones,  spicy Greek sausage and gyro meat, are appropriately Greek and both delicious. There are a number of combinations named after familiar ancient Greeks; my personal favorite is the Hippocrates, which features every single vegetable on the menu. I like to order it light on the cheese. It doesn't make it health food, but it alleviates my guilty conscience. And this is one guilt-inducing pleasure I don't plan on sacrificing.

Mediterranean Lunch

Look at the great lunch Abbey packed me: a spinach salad with browned hallumi and baba ghanouj! Yum.

If only there were two of me

I've been taking a hiatus from the Cooler to establish a health-oriented blog (Mike's Health Magazine, you'll find it in the sidebar) with my wife. Currently we're in the beginning throes of taking a stab at South Beach. It seems contrary to what I stand for, typically; every fiber of my being is objecting. I don't respond well to restrictions placed upon my diet, and I think it's usually incumbent upon mature diners everywhere to explore the world around them, not shut it out. But the winter weight is especially heavy this time around, and, being in my mid-forties, a little extra weight is making me feel a lot more tired, sore, and grumpy that it might have ten or twenty years ago. Abbey and I have friends who have indeed lost their extra baggage on this plan, so we are going for it.

And just when Jefferson City finally has a decent (nay, GREAT) full-service bakery! I can't eat any of it. It makes the baby Jesus cry.

If you aren't me or Abbey, you probably don't know me (yet!), but I can tell you this: I do not suffer boring food gladly. Yes, I do have a few comfort food holdovers from childhood that I feel the need to indulge in from time to time (is there anything better than thickly sliced, genuine bologna and sharp cheddar with Miracle Whip on homemade bread with Pepsi from a glass bottle? Not much!), but overall I think I have pretty eclectic tastes, and plenty of opinions to share. I don't intend to hang on a thread eating egg beaters and salad with skinless chicken breast. Check out the spice-heavy ragout we had just tonight. Some of this will spill over from the health blog to the Cooler, inevitably. Stay tuned.

Paleo Girl

I've been reading up on the Paleo diet, mainly through the interesting blogs Free the Animal and Mark's Daily Apple. I'm especially interesting in light of our friend Rob revealing he'd lost 60 lbs following the South Beach diet, which has a lot (mainly no refined carbs) in common with the Paleo diet.

Tonight, it occurred to me maybe my diet guru could come from a closer, unexpected source.

Our six-year old girl, Olivia, mainly subsides on chicken nuggets. We're trying to get her off of the kid chow and into a more eclectic mode, figuring even if the alternatives aren't ultra-healthy, getting her used to variety is more important than any specific nutritional goals right now. So tonight, the parents had spaghetti carbonara with bacon and a lovely green salad. Olivia saw the carbonara and requested its distant cousin, ramen, for her dinner. We made it but it turns out of the two we have in stock, "red" ramen (beef) and "orange" ramen (chicken), she indulges in the orange variety exclusively. As we had only red ramen and are clueless parents, the ramen was red, and she rejected it.

Along with the ramen were several sliced strawberries. Also on the table were extra slices of bacon left over from creating the carbonara. Now, bacon is a provision for which olivia has great fondness. In no time Olivia ate all of the strawberries and all of the bacon, four pieces in total. The perfect Paleo dinner. Mark Sisson would be proud. And her obstinance gives me something to think about, too- what are we doing eating so many carbs at this dinner when Abbey are I were so knocked out about Rob's accomplishment, vowing to do something similar in the new year to shed our extra inches?

Food for thought...

But the carbonara, by the way... was awesome.

Pumpkin-riffic

Punkins everywhere! Why waste such an opportunity?

Guts

Seeds

Inside

Pie

Autumn Salads: Potato-Egg-Spinach salad

There's a local place called Cafe via Roma which serves a splendid version of farmer's salad called the Dolomiti.   It consists of crispy diced potatoes, eggs, red onions and a sweet vinaigrette mixed with field greens. (My current theory this is a delicious, westernized edition of Cretan Potato Salad.) It's one of my favorite things. I was hungry for something along those lines today but wanted to take a crack at it myself.

Being lunchtime, but willing to follow my vision, I decide to take out a little early and dash over to the grocery store. I didn't have time to dice and boil red potatoes, as I would have preferred, but, amazingly, Ore-Ida of all companies has a product called Steam-n-mash potatoes, which consists of nothing but diced cooked potato. remembering this from a former dinner emergency that demanded mashed potatoes in the blink of an eye, I hypothesized that this product would work equally well for pan-fried potatoes. Now, some people call pan-fried diced potatoes "hash browns," including Martha Stewart, from whom I learned the exact method used here, which is why around our house we call it "Martha 'Taters." Personally I consider hash browns the byproduct of browning shredded potatoes on a diner grill, and sometimes in my nonstick skillet. Which one is correct? Who knows. Let's not get bogged down by semantics.

I also picked up some precooked bacon- lately it seems like all the pre-made breakfast product I buy that's made by Jimmy Dean has been golden. They make the best precooked turkey breakfast sausage on the planet. (At least of the kinds that can found in grocery stores in the midwestern US.) I also grabbed a new dozen eggs, as we were in need. And would nearly be again, after this meal.

I put some oil in an iron skillet, brought it to temp, put in some of the frozen spud cubes and covered it, cooking them on medium. Meanwhile, I hard boiled some eggs. We use a method that either comes from Julia Child, or James Beard. Neither Abbey nor I can remember anymore. It's devastatingly simple- and I say "devastatingly" because for a long time I couldn't make a properly boiled egg to save my life. Since Abbey turned me on to this method, I haven't messed up one boiled egg, not one. Suffice to say the first perfect egg was devastating enough, but it always knocks me out how foolproof this is. Simply place the eggs (six, in this case, as Olivia likes hard boiled eggs), cold, in a sauce pan with maybe five inches of water and turn on the heat. Bring it just to a boil, turn off the heat, lid it and take it off the burner. Do something else for a while. If I recall correctly, wait three minutes for soft boiled, five to seven for hard boiled. Is that right? I waited about seven and it was perfect.

As you know, my initial vision of this salad was a mixed green salad with warm potatoes. While describing my project to Abbey, she was forming a vision of a take on German potato salad. That seemed better to me,  and a bit more comforting. October 2009 is about to go in the history books as the soggiest and coldest October in Missouri history. Today, it's raining and a little nippy- no surprise at all.  So something warmer than a green salad was sounding good. We decided to use up our fresh baby spinach for this meal, and I made a sweet apple cider vinegar vinaigrette to help everything meld.

So, for your pleasure, our potato-egg-spinach salad, which is half farmer salad, half warm German potato salad.

Ingredients

One standard grocery store container of baby spinach
Two bacon strips, thinly shredded or minced
half of a red onion, sliced very thin, in half rings
2 cups cooked and cubed potato
2-4 eggs, hard-boiled
1/3 cup canola or other light oil
3-6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp dijon mustard (not country style)
3 to 5 tablespoons sugar (I used normal granulated, but I bet brown or demerara would be good)
a piece or two of homemade or artisanal whole wheat bread (I used La Brea's Organic Wheat loaf- yummy)
salt to taste

Wash and dry the spinach and place in a salad bowl.

put a tablespoon or two of canola oil in an iron or nonstick skillet on medium heat. When warm, put the potatoes in there, more or less in one layer, and lid it.

Meanwhile, start your eggs- cold from the fridge, in cold water at least 5" deep, on high temp, and thin slice onions.

Doublecheck the potatoes. When the bottoms are browning, daub potatoes with a little butter, put a plate that is wider than the skillet on top of the skillet, and carefully flip it all over, being careful not to burn yourself. Pick up the skillet, put it back on the burner, and slide the potatoes in one gesture into the pan, so they stay browned side up. Takes a little practice but it is totally doable. re-lid, unless you need to cook bacon- here's a great place for it. Chop it finely and toss it in with the half-finished potatoes. Don't re-lid in this case.

take the eggs off the heat when it's just coming to a boil. put the lid on and take off the burner. Make a note of the time- they should sit there three minutes for soft boiled, five to seven for hard.

Meanwhile start the dressing. Add three tablespoons of cider vinegar to the third cup canola oil, add three tablespoons sugar, the mustard and a dash of salt. whisk.  test for sweetness and acidity. I usually use twice the amount of vinegar and another tablespoon of sugar, you may not like it that strong though. Whisk until smooth and thickened.

when the potatoes are almost done, put in the onions and let them cook a little. Also add the precooked bacon, if you are using that. After a couple of minutes of sauteeing, dump it all into the salad bowl.  Follow with the dressing and toss.

Toast the bread. Peel and chop the eggs into quarters. add as many as you like (we used three). toss them in the salad lightly, taking care not to tear them up too much. Cut the toast into cubes and toss on top.

That's it! Hearty, warm, sweet, sour, filling, green-y... Perfect for a gray, wet day. We followed up with a nice cup of black Assam tea. Feeling pretty good right now.