twelve22

After five rainy days, the sun just came out this evening. It’s finally, really for real spring, and the grass is growing like crazy. Yay.

The last few days have been so beautiful, weather-wise, that I’ve spent all my free time outside instead of tidying up all the boxes the movers brought last week. I’m resigned to having a mess in the family room for a while, but I wanted to get the upper level fairly tidy before Rob arrives tomorrow. So I decided I would dig in today, since it was gloomy when I woke up and rain was expected.

I had to make room in the cupboards for the stuff I brought up from Minneapolis, which meant rearranging the pantry a little. Half an hour into my cleaning ‘spree’, I found the bags of German bread mix I bought last year (I was disappointed with the first loaf, so I hadn’t made any more) — obviously making bread right that minute was more important than dumb cleaning! It actually didn’t take up much of my time, although it definitely resulted in more dirty bowls for the dishwasher.

I went for a free-form loaf this time, baked on a cookie sheet (not in a loaf pan), and it worked better than before. It still didn’t rise much until it hit the oven, but the texture seems better this time around — it’s more like dense German bread should be. I had two thick slices for lunch, one with a sloppily fried egg and another with sharp Cheddar. I guess some people have a problem with partially-melted cheese (I just put it on the hot bread and let it do its thing) — I feel like cheese loses some of its flavor when it’s melted, but a little heat brings it out just right. (Plus attractive cheese sweat.)

I did get the kitchen cleaned up, in the end, but now the sun has come out, and I do have some broccoli and other starts to plant. So much for productivity.

My mom and I spent the weekend in Grand Marais, MN, and this was the view from our hotel suite — not too bad, right? People who aren’t familiar with the Great Lakes often don’t realize how huge they are. I’ve taken friends to Duluth before, and they’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, big lake,’ and then I have to say, ‘No, you don’t understand — this is the narrowest part, where you can actually see the other side on the horizon. It gets bigger!’ I was even amazed to see how tiny the distance from Duluth to Grand Marais (110 miles) is when you look at a map of Lake Superior in its entirety.

We drove up to the Gunflint Lodge during what was, unfortunately, the worst weather of the weekend. Nothing terrible (just a tiny bit of snowfall), but it wasn’t very attractive. That’s Canada on the other side of the lake, though, so there’s that. So we turned around and came back to Grand Marais, where we had some awesome nachos and split a ‘puffy taco’ (so called because the fresh tortillas are deep-fried). I’m convinced that the people of Grand Marais spend the long winters coming up with amazing things to eat and then perfecting their cooking techniques, because all the food we had at restaurants was delicious. And they’re pretty good about offering vegetarian options! I’m betting it’s due to all the hippies who come to canoe and hike the trails.

I came back to a freshly-tilled garden, thanks to my dad. Isn’t that nice? I had put down a lot of plastic last year in an effort to kill the grass/weeds below. I had hoped that would make tilling easier this spring, but I guess it was still tough going. The results are great, though! I’m going to do my best to keep the garden weed-free this summer, although that’s a million times easier said in May than done in July. But we’re nearly over what should be the last cold snap of the season — let the planting begin!

– Hey, friendpals! I forgot to share this photo with you. When we got back from Minneapolis this latest time, a deer was the welcoming committee. I’m not sure why she was alone (I think it’s a she; the males are just starting to grow their antlers), since the deer have been roaming around in a pack lately. Maybe it’s getting to be time to birth some bouncy, bouncy fawns. The deer have been coming up to the south side of the house, so it’s easy to watch them through the living room windows, which are probably 8-10′ up. They often spot me, look alarmed for a second, and then go back to nibbling grass. But the one time they saw me through the basement windows (at ground level), they freaked out and ran away. I guess deers don’t worry too much about predators from the sky.

– I have never known a dog as cuddly as Nova. I’ve known plenty of friendly dogs, but never one whose security is so physically tied up with her person (me). She was outside one of the times I was digging up plants in Minneapolis, and after a long stretch of sniffing things, she appeared at my side, wanting to be picked up. I don’t always give into that sort of request, but I did lift her up, since I wanted a break. Instead of twisting around like usual, to look forward, Nova stayed belly-to-chest with me, her back legs hanging down against my stomach, and then she rested her chin on my shoulder as we walked around. It was the sweetest and most ridiculous moment. It’s possible that she doesn’t realize she’s a dog.

– I made the mistake of looking at photos from May of last year. By the middle of the month, it was looking pretty darn green, and it’s hard to imagine that much progress happening in the next couple of weeks. It’s in the 40s right now (Fahrenheit), and the lawn is starting to green up, but barely. The trees are starting to bud out, though, so they might stay on schedule. And at least it’s not snowing in Hinckley (it is further south)! I brought up my rhubarb and some perennials from Minneapolis, and everything is living in the garage right now, waiting for the nighttime temps to get above freezing. And for the daytime temps to be high enough that I actually want to go out and plant them!

Hey, guys. I thought I’d post some photos from the past couple of days before I spring to my feet for the last push of packing this morning. And I’ll be sure to take a few more photos of how weird the house looks with most of the furniture in the living room and the piano room full of boxes. I had already finished most of the packing before I got here on Thursday, but there was still a lot to do during this round — the nice weather definitely kept me motivated.

Here’s Nova with a toy kitten. Later in the day, I discovered a mountain of fluff and the kitten’s disembodied head. Whoops.

More of those Beyond Meat ‘chicken’ strips, this time tossed in BBQ sauce while in the skillet. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to get these anywhere near Hinckley, but I suppose that’s what visiting city folks is for (uh, and the visiting part).

Lastly, Beany’s idea of helping me pack. I suppose she is more neatly stored away and easily stackable this way. All the pets have seemed really vivified (there’s a word I don’t often use!) by the packing process. It must be all the novelty — new places to crawl under and over.

They’ve also enjoyed the nice weather, although being here makes me glad that there aren’t immediate neighbors in Hinckley for Nova to bark at. She tries really hard to behave herself (she’ll sit on my lap or ask to be carried if there are people out in their yards), but she usually eventually snaps and runs to the fence to bark. Which means she goes inside. There are a lot of barky neighbor dogs (not obnoxiously barky, just protective), but I don’t stand for that sort of behavior. Beany did some gardening with me (or ungardening — I was digging up plants to bring with me) yesterday evening, with just the two of us outside, and she had a nice time rolling in the dirt. I hate to break it to her that it’s supposed to be back in the 40s (Fahrenheit) tomorrow.

I’m in Minneapolis for another packing spree (it’s a pretty slow and procrastinate-y spree, to be honest), and we’re finally getting some nice weather around here. I started my morning with a slice of banana bread (with dark chocolate chips) and a hard boiled egg. The eggs were a surprise from the Hinckley neighbors — they dropped off 1.5 dozen the other day, so I guess their hens must be laying well! I made the banana bread yesterday morning (I recently finish a loaf of pumpkin bread, because this has been a typical breakfast lately). My discerning recipe selection process was to pull cookbooks out until I found one with banana bread in the index. I wound up using the Veganomicon‘s recipe, and it’s fantastic. I added a quarter cup of dark chocolate chips, which is just enough to make it interesting with it being too chocolatey for breakfast.

I took the dogs for a walk to the dog park this afternoon. Henny was unimpressed with both the dog park and the walk itself (I can tell she would rather be wandering around the Hinckley property without a leash), but Nova had a great time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier; I couldn’t even get a photo of her full doggie smile. There was one other dog there, a really sweet pit mix, who lay down and waited for Nova to approach her. They played together the entire time, mostly chasing tennis balls that I threw. Nova loves to chase anything that’s been thrown, and she was actually much faster than the big dog, but she has zero interest in ever bringing a ball back. I think I’ll take her back tomorrow without Henny, so she can see more dogs.

Before the dog park, I went to Whole Foods to stock up on fake meats. I’ve never been a regular shopper at WF, but it’s even more of a treat now that I live so far from one. I can get the usual Morningstar suspects at local supermarkets, but I get bored with them. Today I saw Beyond Meat products for the first time, and I came home with the ‘Grilled’ variety. They have three fake chicken products (Grilled, Lightly Seasoned, and Southwest Style), and if disturbingly real-looking faux meat is your thing, keep an eye out for these! I cooked them up plain in a skillet today, just so I could taste them without any added flavors, and they’re really good. There’s a smoky flavor that’s not overdone (sometimes fake meats have obviously used liquid smoke to mask the actual flavor of the product), and the texture is… well, I’d say spot on, but I don’t think I remember what real chicken is like. At any rate, it’s not stringy like Morningstar’s fake chicken strips nor sponge-y like Quorn. Two thumbs up, fine family fun.