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Author: kate

first for a reason

first for a reason

our forefathers were pretty smart. they put the first amendment first for a reason: your right to free speech and to assemble, freedom of religion, press – it’s all first because they’re some of the most important tenants of this country. more important, i would say, than the right to bear arms.
but here’s the thing: you can’t pick and choose which cause is more important when you defend someone’s first amendment rights. 
the same amendment that gives anti-trumpsters the right to protest gives you the same rights to protest DAPL. and stand in front of abortion clinics with signs. and protest the war. and and support the war. and wave signs saying gays are going to hell. you don’t get to pick and choose who should be able to protest and who shouldn’t.
but make sure you’re protesting legally and peacefully and within the law. the moment things start to veer toward the illegal is the start of why people get fed up with protesters.
and if you’re fed up with protesters? well,  that same amendment? it gives you the right to look away from those protesters. it gives you the right to say they’re wrong and their cause is wrong. but don’t tell them they can’t or shouldn’t utilize their firet amedment right and do anything you can to dissuade or prevent the from doing so. once the government start suppressing others’ rights in the first amendment, yours are soon to follow. 

thanksgiving!

thanksgiving!

today is foodblog. sorry for the lack of words!

  1. bacon made that galette SO MUCH BETTER. any future squash spinach galettes will include bacon. 

bacon  galette jane
so i spatchcocked the bird again, which reduces cooking time significantly i’ve never been able to capture the seasoning process of the turkey before, but liz was able to get some pics of jane scooping in the seasoning while i shoved it under the skin. spatched squash
bird
mmm look at that bird! i think i forgot a step that would have flattened the breast out a little more, but that’s quite all right. it was pretty delicious as is! 

shiny

shiny


[i am not choosing the scary monster and animal, but i saw a combo that i wanted to write about.]
rudy roamed the woods on a regular basis, searching for something to eat. his thirst for blood never stopped; as soon as he stopped feeding, he felt sated for short amount of time, then it was off to look for new blood.
the days were short this time of year, which meant more time for hunting for rudy. he didn’t like being outside when the sun shone bright, and he spent most days curled in a cave, waiting for sunset. 
time to hunt.
rudy stretched out his legs and trotted out of his cave, sniffing the air to catch a scent of a rabbit, a raccoon; even a squirrel would do well about now. smelling nothing on the crisp air, he set out across the icy ground and started his daily ritual for food. 
it wasn’t too long until he found his first victim: a small, white rabbit hopped across the corner of his vision, and rudy was there in a flash, his fangs popping out and sinking into the quivering animal’s flesh. he felt warmth course down his throat, felt his stomach contract after feeding for the first time that night. after the rabbit was drained, it dropped from rudy’s mouth, and he pushed around the corpse, trying to get every last lick of blood off the fur. he had to find more.
he wove in and out of trees, shrubs, and across mounds of snow, stepping lightly across frozen streams and ponds. he found many squirrels, a couple raccoons, a few rabbits, and a fox who put up a fight. he saw a bear in the distance at one point, but he hadn’t tried to take down anything larger than he was, let alone something that big that could fight back, so he steered clear. that was a fight for another day. 
it was a good night so far: he had eaten enough that he didn’t feel stomach pains from hunger, and his rush to find more to eat had slowed.
he was about to turn around, when he caught a whiff of something on the air; something he hadn’t smelled before. it smelled of crispness, of fresh apples, of snow. it smelled alive. slowly, rudy followed the smell through the woods, wondering what this animal could be, and if he would be able to take it down. it smelled delicious.
the trees started to thin, finally giving way so all rudy could see was an expanse of snow.  just past the last few trees stood a tall pole. the smell was strong and seemed to be wafting from the pole, so rudy trotted over, his fangs popping out. he investigated the pole, wondering what the smell could be and where it was coming from. 
suddenly, a rush of air, the pole disappeared, and a group of deer appeared in its place. at first, rudy was confused, but the smell was overpowering, making him crazy with hunger. his instincts took over and he felt his own consciousness slipping away as he went from one deer to the next, first bringing them all down, then doubling back and draining the blood from their bodies, getting as much of the blood as possible into his mouth. 
when finished, he stepped back and looked at the bodies lying in the snow, blood specks surrounding them. his consciousness flooded back to him as he focused on what he had done. it was a lot, and finally, he was sated. whatever these deer were, they had done what he had been searching for since his change.
he heard a rustling behind him. he had smelled nothing on the air, which was odd. rudy whipped his head around to see what animal was there to witness his doings.
it was a man with a large, white beard in a leather jacket trimmed with fur, standing in the snow and pointing an uzi at him. 
“rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. we meet again.”
the last thing rudy saw were silver bullets coming his way. his reindeer games were over.

so it begins…

so it begins…

tonight i made real cranberry sauce from scratch! 
we never had cranberry from a can growing up; my uncle squire attended to the cranberry orange relish that was a staple on the thanksgiving table. and that relish* STAYED a staple for my entire 37 years…EXCEPT THIS YEAR. i’m changing it up.
sorry uncle squie 🙁
i went searching for a reasonable recipe to make cranberry sauce, and it turns out they’re all pretty reasonable. cranberries, juice, sugar. alton brown’s and the pioneer woman’s recipes were pretty similar, and they eschewed the refined sugar and went the natural route: honey and maple syrup, respectfully. 
i went with the pioneer woman’s recipe as i like the taste of maple syrup over honey, and i doubled it. 
it’s so simple, i can still remember it:

  • bag of cranberries
  • 1 cup cranberry juice
  • 1 cup syrup
  • orange zest
  • 3 tblsp orange juice (i put a little more than that)

(i also threw in a pinch of salt.)
so what we’re doing here, effectively, is making a cranberry JAM. bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. i then poured it into jam jars, and now they’re all sitting in my garage waiting for thursday, when it will be served cold. 
i’m hoping the stuff holds their jar shapes so we can make them jiggle.
(also, i might add, my new kitchen is MUCH more conducive to good food photography.)
cranberries
cransjars
(except when i can’t focus, apparently.)
*relish: throw cranberries and a whole orange into a food processor. blend. throw in a bowl and mix with a boatload of sugar. taste. probably add more sugar. serve cold. 

RELIEF

RELIEF

was at work today, and wanted to check my blog to make sure my posts timed correctly yesterday, so on my break (…) i checked it out and there on the front page was a post form OCTOBER 14.
WHAT
WHT
WT
i nearly keeled over in my chair. checked with liz; she saw it too. all my california posts…gone….
i racked my brain; there was nothing i did that would’ve caused a complete breakdown of my blog. i hadn’t done any updates, i hadn’t changed any settings, i hadn’t even touched a plugin or theme setting anywhere. just two posts. WHAT WAS GOING ON.
so i calmed down a bit and contacted my host when i got home. 
apparently they had moved servers and expected their clients to update their nameservers for their domains. (i feel like that should just be an automatic update.)
so the tech help dude told me how to change it, then i had to wait a few hours, and NOW, thankfully, i have all my posts back. 
whew!
this kablpomo has turned into a real mess of things, hasn’t it. 

ATK's squash galette

ATK's squash galette

so i made this squash galette today from america’s test kitchen via lynne rosetto kasper (on twitter).

Copyright 2016 America's Test Kitchen (Daniel J. van Ackere)
Copyright 2016 America’s Test Kitchen (Daniel J. van Ackere)

and it was really time consuming. cubing squash is not my most favorite thing to do on the planet, that’s for sure.
but it was really yummy. and FILLING. omg. i don’t think it could ever replace just squash at a thanksgiving meal. it could be a nice appetizer, but the whole wheat crust really fills you up, and you’d have no room for dressing during t-day.
also, if you weren’t going vegetarian (this was vegetarian option for thanksgiving guests), this could definitely benefit from some pork product – sausage, bacon, something. 
i definitely would make this again, and i’m thinking about making just the filling for thanksgiving. throw some bacon in it, and it would be delish. or if there were a less filling way for it to get from table to mouth – a cracker, perhaps? i might make it for an appetizer. we’ll see what happens!

a tour back

a tour back

today i went to spicer to help out liz’s in-laws clean out their house (personal details not to follow – just know that the time has come to clear out a house). 
i drove down a county road from avon to richmond that i’d never been on before that was lovely, except for the snowy roads bumps that made me slow down from time to time. in richmond, i hooked up on good ol’ highway 23. 
oh, 23. for 15 years i traveled you back and forth from the st. cloud area to new london. good times. it’s changed, especially the section that no longer goes through paynesville, but that’s really another story for another time. 
what surprised me this time was rounding that dratted corner right before new london and seeing the water tower come into view. my gut wrenched up. what on earth – it’s been 23 years since i first got puke-worthy nervous over seeing that water tower show up around the bend. 
after my mom took her job in willmar, we lived in st. cloud with my grandparents for a bit, and every morning we drove from st cloud to new london to drop me off at high school and then my mom to willmar for work. those first couple months just wreaked havoc on my nerves as i had to navigate a new high school after 9 years of being with the same people in school. so, with good reason that the water tower brought on a bout of nervous butterflies.
but it waned, as it had to, since i drove into new london quite a bit from the east. this time, however, it was a surprised nervous flutter that quelled almost as soon as it started. but it was there. 
i’m not sure how many more times i’ll be heading that way, but i hope the nervous nellies take a hike.

thanksgiving foods

thanksgiving foods

thanksgiving is coming up so quickly! of course there’s going to be a nice, organic, free-range turkey in the oven, and i’m going to make pies, pumpkin and raspberry rhubarb i believe.
so this weekend i have to go shopping for such foods, and it’ll be interesting if i get out of the driveway. my drive home took me almost twice as long as it normally does due to the snow today. OMG. i can’t believe they didn’t close the campus. the roads were icy and snow was blowing over them from the 50-mph winds howling out of the north. 
the worst part of the drive, and i was expecting it, was my road – parkwood circle. i hadn’t expected them to plow it already, but there was so much snow on the ground that it was right at the bottom of my car body as i was driving through the ruts in the road. then there was the hill. i was worried i was going to have to have nate come attach a rope to my car and pull me up the hill, but after 5mph and crossing my fingers, i made it up. my driveway was the easy part! i just glided right down and into the garage. 
i’m supposed to go to spicer tomorrow, but we’ll see if we’ll get the driveway cleared out in time. i’m also supposed to hang my xmas lights this weekend, but not sure if that’ll happen (should’ve done it last month).
that totally diverged from thanksgiving foods. here’s what i think i’m making:

  • turkey
  • stuffing
  • cranberry stuff (hot or cold – not sure yet
  • squash galette
  • sweet potato stuff
  • potatoes/gravy
  • beans or mushrooms or something. glazed carrots??
  • pie, pie, and pie
  • eggnog! 

i feel like i’m missing something…

a chance to go beyond the safety pin!

a chance to go beyond the safety pin!

here’s something i just wrote on my facebook wall for tomorrow’s give to the max day here in MN:
hi friends! tomorrow’s give to the max day, and i’m at a conference tomorrow so i’m going to post about this now in case i can’t get to it. now is a great time to throw some weight behind that safety pin! donate to organizations that support and help the vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, since 1) they always need it and 2) funding cuts are most likely on the way. for instance, you can donate to my mom’s org, PossAbilities, that helps people with disabilities. or your area food shelf, women’s shelter, or united way are always great places to give. i give to the land stewardship project every year to promote land conservation because the environment is my #1 priority (really, without a habitable earth to live on, nothing else much matters). and at the risk of of inciting a large debate that i will try to ignore, giving to planned parenthood is a great idea; they help low-income women and men with their reproductive health and STD tests, do cancer screenings, and provide low-cost birth control. what are you waiting for? if you’ve been low income at some point in your life, and i definitely have, then you know the importance of these programs. let’s make a difference!
i donated to my mom’s org, to the landstewardship project, and i set up monthly donations to planned parenthood. 
i’ve been poor! not just as a kid when my parents were down and out, but as a new college grad making $7 and hour and scraping by. for about five years before i got health insurance like a grownup at a real employer that offered health insurance, i went to planned parenthood for my yearly checkups and for birth control (for my monogamous, responsible relationship! and even if it wasn’t, NBD!). i paid on a sliding scale, which was much cheaper than if i’d had to pay at a clinic and pharmacy with no insurance. this is a real service to women who can’t afford to go to a family practitioner once a year or get birth control at the obscene amounts the companies charged. before obamacare made BC covered, i paid $400 out of pocket AFTER INSURANCE for my mirena. i was paying about $30/month for a pack of BC pills in the early 2000s, and that was a CHEAP pack. i had my mirena replaced a few months ago, and there was absolutely no cost to me. and if that part of obamacare is repealed (god forbid), we’re going to have to pony up the dollars again. 
let me tell you my planned parenthood story. i was going in for my yearly exam, and i encountered a single older gentleman in front of the door praying the rosary. this is not uncommon in st cloud, where they don’t even perform abortions (only one in the state is in st. paul). it was raining, so i hurried in, had my exam, and was ready to go out and chat with this guy. i planned on thanking him for praying for a good result from my yearly exam, making sure i flashed my wedding ring in the process. unfortunately, he was gone by the time i left, but i was ready to talk to this guy, to maybe plant a seed of thought that perhaps women who used planned parenthood aren’t all there to have their daily abortions, that maybe it does provide some services beyond that.
so, that’s my story, and here’s my plug for donating during give to the max day. it’s a feel good day when you can go on one site to find an organization worth giving to, something you feel really passionate about. there’s even a place you can donate where all the money goes to help CATS!! and it’s one GREAT way to show your support for the people who are going to need your help during the next four years. beyond the safety pin!!

https://www.givemn.org/