Is Everyone Recovering?

Are you all recovering from the current round of holidays, as we are? We had a white Christmas, which was lovely, and too much food (obviously...). My parents left today after much radar watching to see if it was safe for them to travel back up to Wisconsin.

The white is quickly disappearing because we no longer have the arctic blast that we had all last week and instead have 50 + degree weather. Almost all of northern Illinois is under a flash flood warning from the snow melt and the rains that are coming. Next week it will get cold again and then we'll have loads of ice to contend with.

Here's the deal with Global Warming--as the air temperature rises, it can hold more moisture, so when you do get any kind of precipitation, it tends to be more than in the good old days of my childhood. We'll continue to get record breaking rain totals and yards of snow instead of inches--my mom has already measured around 36 inches of snow at their house and that's confirmed by official tallies. That's just for December in Madison, WI. Here, in Illinois, we've had a record amount of snow for the whole of 2008.

*sigh*

We all had a fun time with all the visiting relatives, and we all felt extremely grateful for everything we received and have. We played Pictionary and the Father/Me team almost caught up with the Husband/Son team. Sorry for the Sister/Brother-in-law team who barely got off the blocks. The Daughter/Mom team didn't care and my daughter enjoyed doodling in between turns.

So, in spite of the obvious global warming and up-the-stream-without-a-paddleness we are all in, we experienced much joy these last few days.

Here's a great take on what Christmas can be all about from my good friend Neo-Agrarian over at Suburban Agrarian. Here's hoping that you got to experience some of this less commercial brand of Christmas this year.

Christmas Feast

We are going to have:

• Chocolate croissants, red grape, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry salad with honey sweetened yogurt on top, fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast.
• Tortilla chips and roasted garlic salsa, various cheeses and crackers and a really nice pate for snacking.
• Our choice of turkey or ham, chestnut dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, whole wheat rolls, butter, peas, beans, sweet potatoes and gravy for dinner. Cider, spiced cider, red wine or white to drink.
• Homemade: Sweet potato pie, spiced pound cake with ginger, nutmeg, cloves, orange zest with an orange glaze--served with an orange chocolate sauce. On the side, the best Christmas cookies ever.
• Whenever we want: my brother-in-law's homemade eggnog--with liquor and the kind without.

Hmmm. Do you think it will be enough?

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Chanukah everyone for whom it applies!

Myself, I have to go and get candles, because Chanukah always creeps up on me and I forget when it is--why does it change every year again? Plus, I'm always already busy getting ready for Christmas.

Inexpensive menorah I got from a Whole Foods aisle end cap. The display was tiny and pitiful and I felt like I should rescue this little menorah.

As a child of a Jewish dad (agnostic) and an Episcopalian/Unitarian mom (atheist) our winter celebrations always included a Christmas tree, stockings hung with care on the handles of the main hall closet (we didn't have a fireplace), and the lighting of the menorah. We didn't get the eight days of gifts though--kind of ripped off there. We didn't play dreidel or sing the songs. We didn't eat fried foods. We had a Christmas dinner with a turkey and chestnut dressing (absolutely delicious) and plum pudding with hard sauce in keeping with my mother's English ancestry. But, the lights were beautiful and we felt peaceful and proud lighting them.

The story of Chanukah is one of loyalty to one's own religion and fighting for what you believe in and not allowing yourself or your people to be destroyed. We will not succumb. The light for eight days when it was only supposed to last for one is a sign of God's constancy and approval. Let it shine!

We were/are secular people. So God didn't really play into it for my family. The symbolism of the menorah was that we are--and we will be. Our refusal to be destroyed by the Greek king of Syria in the second century B.C. E. is a reminder that in our own lives, we will fight for what is right and not give up. Just as Christmas is about good will and love and peace for us, and not the birth of Christ, Chanukah is about justice and right and perseverance, and not the miracle of the oil.

We have secularized these religious holidays because we are not religious people. The holidays, however, are a part of our culture and family tradition, and, that's very important to my husband and me.

As a teenager, I was home alone for some reason. No one else was there and it was Chanukah. So, I lit the menorah for myself and thought about the years of oppression against Jews across the centuries and how as a group, we have held fast to who we are, even as we became part of the larger societies where we lived. I thought about the tradition of the lights themselves and how others around the world were lighting the candles too and had every previous year for thousands of years. And then, I got bored and snuffed the candles out with a candle snuffer, because I was safety conscious and went downstairs to watch TV...it wasn't until years later that I realized the irony of snuffing out the Chanukah candles--you know, the light that lasted when it wasn't supposed to...My only excuse is that I was a goofy teenager. I think it's good that I thought to even do it in the first place.

Happy Chanukah, enjoy the lights! Also, I like Chanukah instead of Hanukkah and both are acceptable--so there.

Menorah trying to steal some of the felt advent calendar thunder...nice try menorah.

Heifer International

We're going to give a gift of money to Heifer International this year. We've done it in the past--I think we bought a flock of chicks a few years ago. This year we can afford to be a little bit more generous because we've been living more simply ourselves for the past year. That's also what allowed me to feel so free to continuously give to the Obama campaign. I'm sure I would have given once or twice in any case, but I gave almost every month for months. In fact, every time there was a debate, I gave. When issues like Reverend Wright or Joe the Plumber came up, I gave. It felt so satisfying knowing that combined with other small donations, the progressive side was pushing back against the Bush agenda and there was a very good chance that we'd win this time--and we did!

So, I know that when lots of people give to something, even a small donation, it joins together and becomes something much more substantial.

When you give to Heifer International, you are supporting a charity that supplies livestock to poor people around the world. If a family gets a couple of goats, they now have the means of enriching their own diet with fresh milk, but additionally, they can sell any excess and improve all of their lives. It's the same with a heifer, with sheep with a water buffalo. These farm animals supply nutrition, manure for fertilizer, and wool or milk or eggs to sell. Try to imagine the difference these animals might make in the lives of poor people who have nothing or very little. If people's bellies are full and there's a chance of improvement, they could buy building materials to make a warmer house for example, it enriches the people's lives and relations with others.

Part of Heifer Internationals program is teaching the recipients animal husbandry. They will know how to best care for their animals and they will pass on additional animals--that's part of the program too. So, one family's flock of chicks grows to a bigger flock and they pass on some of those new chicks to another family. And so on, and so on, and so on. That's better than a Fabrege shampoo commercial isn't it?

This is a simple idea. And it works. Whatever animals will work best in a particular area is what will be given to the participating families. This is also nonreligious--this isn't about saving people's souls. It's about saving people's lives and dignity. They will manage their own souls.

One idea of self help is "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps." But, what if you live where there are no boots? You can't pull a strap on a nonexistent boot. Heifer International supplies the "boots". People can help themselves with these animals. They can improve their own lives and begin to make more choices and take more control.

Go to this page to find out more about giving to Heifer International.

Self reliance and choice and care and growth and motivation all can come about when people have a chance at living a healthy life. You don't have any of that if you're hungry. You can't have much of it, if you have no way of making your own money. Heifer's animals supply all of this.

Give if you can.

The Best Christmas Cookies Ever

Taste is subjective. So, when I say these are the best Christmas cookies ever, there may, of course, be some people who would think they are heinous...I can respect that. However, they would be wrong, because these are, in fact, the best Christmas cookies ever.

Chocolate Filled Snowballs. Mmmmm. Delicious. A nutty, buttery shortbread surrounds a chocolate kiss that gets softened from the baking. Oh. My. God.

Look. Look! Can you imagine how there's a chocolate kiss in there? There is and it's fantastic. Don't you think Santa would appreciate getting a plate of these?

Come closer.



Closer still.

Yeah, right there. Do you see these babies?! Finely chopped pecans are mixed into butter, flour, sugar and a little vanilla. And then you stick a chocolate kiss in there. Do you even believe that?!

If you are like my family, you will fill cello bags with about 24 cookies, tie with rafia at the top, put a tag on wishing Merry Christmas and deliver, secretly, to your friends' houses putting the cookies in the door and then running like hell to the car where your mom makes a getaway before the people can discover the cookies in the door. We did that for a few years and then I felt it was too much work. It was fun for the couple of years we did it though. My kids felt like they were Santa.

Chocolate Filled Snowballs

1/2 lb. softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 pkg. chocolate kisses (5 oz.)

Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour (although I never sift, except for cakes...you do what you will), and nuts. Blend well. Chill dough for an hour. Remove foil and the little paper ripper thingies from the kisses. Shape dough around kisses (about 1 Tbsp. dough for each). Roll in hands to smooth and put on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. You want the cookies to be set but not brown. Cool slightly and then remove to racks to cool more. Dust with confectioners sugar. Secretly give out to friends and loved ones. Double the recipe, because a single recipe won't be nearly enough.

Happy cookies and Merry L'Chaim!

Two Sticks and a String Equals X-mas Gifts

When we first started The Compact almost a year ago, I thought I might go to thrift stores and find old sweaters to unravel and then I could harvest the yarn. There are people who do this and there are even youtube videos showing you how to unravel the yarn and how to take apart the seams. Fine. If they can do it, I can do it. I thought I would find all sorts of old fishermen sweaters in perfect shape that I could buy as my supply of yarn. That didn't happen. I never found anything suitable. I have tried to not buy new, and I have gotten all sorts of things used, but that hasn't taken away the fact that I am a fiber snob. I don't want an old acrylic sweater to take apart.

So, I haven't been knitting as much as I had done previously. I didn't feel right about getting new yarn, although my husband has gotten new bike parts, new lumber, a new vacuum and just as recently as 2 weeks ago a curtain rod and curtains--Compact cheat. We really haven't been as pure as I had wanted us to be.

Any way, I already had a bit of a supply of wool yarn and I started making felted coasters. They knit up quickly, they're mindless--no they're not mindless...well, they are, but that's hardly the point. I can be mindless as I knit them because it's not a difficult pattern to follow. I can talk with my friends while our kids take classes and lessons together and eventually knit up a pile of coasters.

Here is what they look like once they're knitted and before they're felted.

The edges curl up and you can see the individual strands of yarn. They will look completely different once I throw them into the washing machine with hot water and a little bit of mild detergent. You know how at some time in your life you or your mom or your husband threw a sweater into the wash that shouldn't have been thrown into the wash and it became doll clothing? Normally you don't want that to happen, but I'm going to do just that intentionally to make the coasters felt. I'll go do that now. Wait here.

I did it and they all turned out beautifully. Let's look at them together.

Here's a green set for my Mother-in-law.

Before:


After, now that they're felted:







How about a set for my husband's brother and his wife?

Before:




And now they are felted. Let's see:

Wow! These are turning out great!! I bet I could sell them on Etsy, except that this is a blog espousing not buying new things. There's some irony there. I could sell, but not buy? I could encourage others to buy? Except, as a friend clarified for me--they're art! Art doesn't count on The Compact, at least not for us. The world needs art--it explains, defines, elucidates, enraptures, provokes and who doesn't want a nice, interesting looking coaster?! Although, I don't think coasters are what struggling people need right now. Do they? I don't know, maybe some universal health care or something like that would be good. Let me know...

Let's see the final set for my sister-in-law and her husband.

Before:




Those sure are vivid oranges, rusts and golds; coincidentally just like their kitchen. All of these coasters (except the green set) were knit with Noro Kureyon yarn. It is a hand dyed wool yarn from Japan and it is beautiful.

Let's see after now:

We don't buy it (well, sometimes...confession coming soon) and if we can make it, we do.

Note: Reader Tamsen admired these coasters and wondered about the pattern. I got the pattern from Knitting Pattern Central, which has all sorts of free patterns. The pattern I used for the coasters is here. Wow, I just wrote the word "pattern" like 50 million times...

Speaking of Christmas Cards...

This is a production from the Bush's dog, Barney, not The Onion. Really.

Enjoy, if only for the car-crash-on-the-side-of-the-road-can't-look-away effect.

Monsanto is Evil...and, I have to Address X-mas Cards

I really have to address Christmas cards, but I want to rail about the evils of Monsanto after having read this post at DailyKos...

Here's an excerpt:

Having bought up the normal seed companies, having locked farmers in the Midwest (only an example, it is true worldwide) into patent contracts that remove their right to collect seeds anymore, having set loose a biotechnology that contaminates normal seeds of farmers who do not buy into the patented seeds, having made plain it will sue if even a volunteer plant comes up, Monsanto is now working to eliminate the last man standing between humans and corporate privatized seeds - the seed cleaner.

The farmers has had three choices - to buy normal seed (now almost gone), to buy GE-seeds at huge cost (and going
up

http://www.opednews.com/...

or to collect their own seeds and use them the next season. If a farmer has even 10 acres, collecting and cleaning those seeds is a huge task. If he has 1000, it would be an impossible task without the seed cleaner whose equipment can separate out seed in just a few hours and whose costs are 1/3 that of buying normal seed.

Thus, the move to eliminate seed cleaners.

The seed cleaner is the man who makes sustainable agriculture possible.

So, Monsanto is picking off seed cleaners now across the Midwest, in Missouri,

http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/...

in Indiana,

http://www.cbsnews.com/...

and now in Illinois where they are going after Steve Hixon.

Shortly after someone broke into Mr. Hixon's office and he found his account book on his truck seat where he would never have left it, and every one of his remotely located and very scattered customers had three men (described as goons with "no necks") arrive at their farm, going out onto it without permission. They appear to have serving over 200 farmers. Mr. Hixon and state police who were called in, believe a GPS tracking device may have been put on Mr. Hixon's mobile seed cleaning equipment. All of his customers being sued are being intensely pressured to settle, with men coming back again and again and with daily calls and letters. It appears they are being given a choice between being sued or settling out of court or testifying against Mr. Hixon that he encouraged them to clean GE-seeds.

Monsanto has made a fortune on these kinds of Mafia extortion settlements since no farmer has the money to stand up to them, so paying them off some huge amount even if the farmer has done nothing, saves them from legal costs they can't possibly manage and a potentially worse fate if they hire some little local lawyer to go up against not one but multiple legal teams working for Monsanto and present in court. And almost always the case is set in St. Louis where Monsanto is based).

The first words out of the judge's mouth when Moe Parr, a seed cleaner in Indiana, was sued, were "It's a honor to have a fine company like Monsanto in my courtroom."

In addition to the personal attacks on seed cleaners, Monsanto is getting laws put into place in state after state that themselves are overwhelming and destructive of seed cleaners and all those who save normal seeds.

So any commercial seed cleaning operation (and I'm sorry--but, I didn't know such a thing existed--I am so removed from truly understanding how food gets to my table...) may now be in for a hard time because of Monsanto.

Let's read on, shall we?

If Monsanto can eliminate seed cleaners, they would have accomplished a TOTAL monopoly in the Midwest, the bread basket of the world, and they would control world food, feed and now bio-fuel prices at will. They would, as well, have broken the fragile dam that seed cleaners and seed bankers now provide against the insanely-fast and just plain insane on-coming tide genetic engineering.

And Monsanto is working closely with the FDA in redefining seeds as a potential health hazard, subject to bioterrorism, and under that rubric to create rules for importation (controlling access)

Interim final rules on Prior Notice of Importation

rules for registering acceptable facilities (setting up corporate standards for the storage seeds, threatening small farmers)

Interim final rules on Registration of Food Facilities

rules for talking police control of the seeds (allowing for raids on farmers)

Final rules on Administrative Detention

and rules for a level of record keeping almost impossible for small farmers and ordinary people to achieve.

Upcoming final rule on Establishment and Maintenance of Records.

"These new rules will allow FDA to better identify potentially dangerous foods, as well as respond more quickly to new threats and to handle foodborne illness outbreaks more efficiently."

Using the Bioterrorism Act and the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), the FDA now has a focus on seeds which includes

1. Prevention (federal and state surveillance sampling programs to monitor the food supply)

2. Preparedness (strengthen laboratory capacity and capabilities)

3. Response (surge capacity to handle terrorist attacks or a national emergency involving the food supply), and

4. Recovery (support recalls, seizures, and disposal of contaminated food or feed to restore confidence in the food supply).

For those of you painfully familiar with what is happening to real milk dairy farmers and the government use of false "contamination" reports to raid farms, steal products ad equipment and terrorize and destroy farmers, it will be important to see how "bioterrorism" has now moved control over normal food even more tightly into the hands of government/corporate agencies, giving them national reach, crushing regulations for farmers, immense policing power over food, and the use of an emergency to be able to seize and destroy anything they choose.

So, more fear based policy in order to cow (pun kinda intended) us into submission about these crazy agriculture policies that do nothing but make it even easier for Monsanto to take over the control of SEEDS!!! That's crazy!! Under the guise of protecting us from bioterrorism, they can take control.

Wait, there's more:

The FDA talks about "a safety net" for human health but it is one defined by corporations and one that is closing on our small farmers' existence.

And even the FDA's basic food safety is being "set" in a way aimed to destroy seed cleaners and (if you will notice in the short list below) organic farming itself.

FDA's guidance on good agricultural practices (GAPs) can be found in the

FDA Guide to Minimize Microbial Hazards for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

where the key sources of contamination in seed production include:

Agricultural water sources
Use of manure as fertilizer
Harvesting, transportation, and seed-cleaning equipment
Seed storage facilities

Please note the FDA does not include Monsanto's petroleum-based fertlizers or pesticides, or GE-labs, as potential sources of contamination.

And finally there is this plea:

We need to understand that the effort to defend Steve Hixon, a seed cleaner, is an effort to defend the right of all of us and of our farmers worldwide to OPEN access to normal seeds. We must protect those who collect and clean them and we must roll back the massive corporate efforts to utterly control them - by criminalizing any aspect of owning, growing, collecting, storing and re-using of them.

Seeds are life and survival itself and our human right to access to them is being taken over. That is why people are coming together now to help defend Steve Hixon, a seed cleaner.

For those interested in joining FarmOn, a list aimed at providing funds to support the legal teams gathering to help Hixon, go to farmon@googlegroups.com and request to sign on.

Now I have to go address Christmas cards and send out our love to family and friends alike...

"Effing Monsanto...", *grumbles while gathering up cards and address book*

That was a Great Break!

Our weekend:

I made banana bread with kefir soaked whole wheat flour. The kids love it. The recipe is from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon and it always turns out nicely.

I soaked raw pecans in salted water overnight and then dried them in the oven at 150 degrees until they got crispy and so therefore retained their enzymes. Yum.

I made turkey patties with lots of garlic and cumin and sauteed them in butter. Delicious.

My kids performed at a nearby church: dancing, joke telling and singing with a group of other triple-threat kids. Boffo job everybody!

My son made pancakes for everyone this morning. Fabulous.

We made Christmas cards which I will mail out this week. Each of us drew part of a simple image on a blank postcard and then signed the back with our color...my husband's idea and it was a fun project for us all. My daughter was responsible for the yellow star atop the green tree (my part), the brown trunk (my husband's), the red border and red ornaments (my son's).

My daughter started out with Dr. Seuss like stars and realized that she really liked the look of a Star of David instead. Plus, it was easier for her to make. So, in keeping with my family heritage, we are sending out Christmas cards that have a Star of David in a place of prominence. Merry L'Chaim!

We got a Christmas tree and it looks and smells so woodsy and Pagan all glittery with ornaments and lights in a corner of the living room. We all decorated it with our traditional ornaments and our new ones that we made the other day.

We played Crazy Eights.

My husband noticed and discreetly commented to me that my daughter's fancy goldfish looks particularly buoyant. It's floating at the top of the water...I don't think that's good.

To the kids, I read Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot and The Gift of the Magi, which moved them both very much.

To myself, I read more of The Audacity of Hope--it's a good book. Obama's a good writer.

I did a load of laundry, dried it overnight on the bar in the laundry room and then had a sorting party with the kids on my bed in my room.

It was a fun weekend. What did you do this weekend?

Any more ideas for the Quote of the Week? Who blew your mind this weekend? What did they say? What did you read? What did you do?

A Sandwich for Santa (for Adult Eyes Only...)

When my kids were little, they knew that Santa was real and that he loved them and gave them wonderful things in their stockings. One time he even gave my little son a homemade man made out of yarn that I had tried to make a couple of weeks previously. My son noticed the difference in the quality between my lame attempt and the obvious superior craftsmanship of Santa's elves displayed in the red yarn man in my son's stocking. Those elves know what they're doing because they are a part of Santa's team. Mom just really couldn't compare with that--no offense to me, but magic is magic and mom is a mere mortal. Everyone knows that.

My kids also knew that Santa is not everywhere. There is only one Santa. Others may believe what they will, but this is what my kids knew.

So, when we would see a Santa ringing the bell asking for donations for the Salvation Army, my kids knew, as they dropped a few coins into the kettle, that that was only a man dressed up as Santa. He wasn't the real Santa. Santa is not walking around Very-Republican-Town, Illinois. He's up at the North Pole getting ready for Christmas Eve. He is exhausted and excited having the elves make all of the toys for the boys and girls all over the world. He is also not at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. We may have seen him there, but you know it's not him because you can tell that that guy is wearing a fake beard--it's so obvious. That Santa is there just so kids can get their pictures taken with him. It's just a photo op.

The Santa at Randhurst Mall, however, is real. While it's a very busy time at the North Pole, yes certainly it is, still, Santa wants to take a picture with whoever would like to actually meet him. And we know he's the real Santa because his beard is REAL. That's not fake and you can tell. This guy isn't the Woodfield wannabe, this is REALLY SANTA!! OH MY GOD!! How exciting is it to actually meet the magical man who has given joy to millions of children around the world for hundres of years?!

My kids went to Randhurst Mall and met Santa three years in a row. The third year there was some discussion, on the way home, that maybe he looked a little different than the previous two years. We had the photos to look at, and yes, maybe he looks a little different now, but maybe Santa ages in a magical way too. You never can fully figure out magic. Who are we to try and describe, define, quantify and limit the magic of Santa?

We have always left Santa cookies, milk and a note from the kids. Not only that, but we also always threw carrots up on the roof above our front door for a snack for the reindeer--they need sustenance too, we thought. My kids always excitedly looked to see Christmas morning that Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the milk--on the plate were a few crumbs and a couple of sips of milk were left in the glass. Outside, my kids could see shreds and chunks of carrot on the ground that the reindeer had dropped as they chomped up their snack. The physical evidence of the visit was overwhelming.

It was thrilling for the kids to talk to Santa. I liked to talk to him too. He was a nice man with a slightly sad, but mischievous look in his eyes. The third time we saw Santa, we chatted about various Christmasy things--Did we have a pretty Christmas tree up yet? Were we hoping for a snowy Christmas? Was Santa tired from all of the toy building? Were the reindeer ready to go? Did we always leave Santa a snack?

"Oh yes!" I said. "We always leave you cookies and milk." Santa looked at me for a moment and then said that he would prefer "A sandwich and some cocoa." Pause. Blink, blink. I looked into Santa's eyes and said, "Wouldn't you prefer what we always leave you--aren't you sure you'd rather have cookies and milk?" "Nope!" Santa said robustly with a smile. "I'd like a sandwich and cocoa!" He sat there grinning at me under his beard. I looked at him. The kids looked back and forth at him and me with their open, trusting, innocent eyes.

Damn.

That Christmas we left the carrots on the roof for the reindeer. The next morning there were shreds and chunks scattered all over the ground. We were going to try to leave Santa some cookies and milk, but the kids remembered what he had said, and they knew he would prefer a sandwich and a cup of cocoa. So, I made cocoa and poured it into a cup and I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich--just a light snack for the guy. The next morning there were sandwich crusts on the plate and a few sips of cocoa left in the mug. Santa had come!!

The next year we didn't visit Santa at Randhurst Mall--we were too busy and we somehow never managed to get ourselves over there. The kids reminded me that he wanted a sandwich and cocoa, but I said that I thought it was probably just that one time. I knew he would want the cookies and milk again and wouldn't want me to go to all the trouble of making a sandwich and making homemade cocoa. He knew I had things to do to get ready for Christmas the next day. Santa was considerate and thoughtful like that.

When the kids woke up that Christmas, the plate had cookie crumbs and the glass had a couple of sips of milk left. Santa had come and all was right with the world. He even left a thank you note for the cookies and he hadn't missed the sandwich at all...