Best Christmas Song Ever

Deeping Slogs

German Word of the Week: Zottelig

Nee Shitteru? (Revised)

Oooo, such an intersection of weird and cute, no? You really should check out the many other Mameshiba on YouTube. And how about these guys:

After a long, hard day battling the Imperfect Subjunctive and dividing Polynomials, a homeschooled girl's gotta relax, right?

Like all good international adoptive parents, Mr. D*S and I tried our best to encourage in Panda an interest and pride in her Chinese heritage. We joined the local Families with Children from China group and attended festivals and culture camp. The New Year’s Dragon dance terrified her, and she was relieved when a peanut allergy finally put an end to that. She bravely endured seven years of Mandarin lessons but plainly detested it. Like most kids, Panda was more interested in developing the culture of Panda. So her recent enthusiasm for all things Asian has come as a delightful surprise, even if it is mostly pop culture. She’ll find her own Panda way, I’m sure.

First Vegetables

I've grown and picked culinary herbs for years now, and last year we grew our own tomatoes and salad greens for the first time. But this beautiful bunch of chard is the very first vegetable I've ever harvested. I got such a kick out of gathering this bunch in! The leaves and stems were cooked up into a risotto with lentils—and there's leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Yum.

Summer Survival

Running this house feels like sailing a boat these days. Instead of trimming sails, we run around opening and closing windows, drawing curtains, directing fans and consulting the weather report and thermometer. We have a very large house with 5 stories, going from chilly in the basement to sweltering on the top floor. For the last two summers, we've managed to avoid putting on the air conditioning more than five times total. Until now—the heat wave of 2010. Everyday for the last two weeks, CBC reports not just the expected highs, but the "humidex." As in, the thermometer will reach 30 today, but it'll feel like 43 with the humidex. Ugh. The A/C has been humming pretty well the whole time.

On the other hand, my body feels like an ancient car. A certain amount of maintenance is imperative: stretching, strengthening, icing, heating. Limiting walks and bumping up and down the many, many stairs on my bottom. Rattling, creaking and popping from joints. I need to spend over an hour a day doing my exercises for knees, back and shoulders. Do I actually do this every day? Well, most days I'm a good girl. I have very little choice.

I leave you with a photo of the back yard during one of the frequent rain storms that never manage to cool anything down, just intensify the humidity. In other words, the humidity is at 100%, rather than our normal 80%.

And it's not doing much for the ping pong table either.

Spanish Soccer Supper

Since, once again, I will not be attending The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, it will be a Soccer Weekend here at Deeply Suburban. To make it a more meaningful experience for the less-than-enthusiastic sports fan, I'm going to cook up the sole Spanish dish in my repetoire: Tortilla Española. It's not quite an omlette, being more robust, more satisfying and much more versatile. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, soccer supper—you name it, it does the job brilliantly. Though the potatoes are poached in olive oil, just as they do in Spain, it will not be oily at all. Most of the oil drains off and it can be used again if you like. I use plain (not EV) olive oil. And I know, it's not really authentic with that kale in there, but I'm a bit of a leafy greens fanatic and I don't think any Soccer fan, Spanish or not, will scorn this yummy dish.

Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla

• 1 lb. boiling potatoes
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 lb. kale, center ribs discarded
• 7 large eggs
• 
  

Peel potatoes and cut into 1/3-inch dice (2 1/4 cups). Heat oil in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then reduce heat to moderately low and cook potatoes, onion, and 1 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Blanch kale while potatoes cook:
Cook kale in a 4- to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop cooking. Drain again, squeezing handfuls of kale to extract excess moisture, then coarsely chop.

Add kale to potato mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain vegetables in colander set over a bowl, reserving drained oil, and cool 10 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a large bowl, then stir in vegetables, 1 tablespoon drained oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Add 1 tablespoon drained oil to skillet, then add egg mixture and cook over low heat, covered, until sides are set but center is still loose, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 15 minutes.

Shake skillet gently to make sure tortilla is not sticking (if it is sticking, loosen with a heatproof plastic spatula). Slide tortilla onto a large flat plate, then invert skillet over tortilla and flip it back into skillet. Round off edge of tortilla with plastic spatula and cook over low heat, covered, 10 minutes more. Slide tortilla onto a plate and serve warm, cut into wedges.

Kitchen Corner

I always know what I want, but sometimes it takes a while to put it together. For two years, we’ve used a corner of the kitchen for Moxie’s crate, but it was crying out for a smart kitchen set, and not just any kitchen set either. First, the table: French bistro-style with a marble top. I may never possess the kitchen of my dreams with marble counters and backsplash, but I can own a little piece, can't I? And how about that chair-of-the-moment, the French Thonet? Well, it turns out I can't actually have that. Sure, Crate & Barrel has a knock-off, but what a flimsy chair at $149. Fortunately, the search for our table base led us to the Chair Room of a restaurant supply store, where we found these beauties for $25 each. Comfortable and sturdy. Mr. D*S is so handy with a paint brush, and the soft vinyl is perfect for a kitchen—and cheap, too.

Here's the original chair from the restaurant supply:

And the finished table and chairs in our little kitchen nook:

I'm tickled every time I sit here for my coffee or with my laptop. It was worth the wait. And to make it even sweeter, I've spied similar chairs in a magazine lately for over $1,000 each. Yeah, I'm happy.

Next trip into the city, we'll look for bamboo blinds to warm that window up a bit.

Declaration of War

Whereas Old Mrs. Groundhog and Family have committed repeated acts of war against the Deeply Suburban Family and their Garden; therefore be it Resolved by the D*S Family Council that the state of war between the D*S Family and the Groundhog Family which has been thrust upon the D*S Family is hereby formally declared; and that Mr. D*S be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire manpower, technical ability and resources of the D*S Family, including the use of our most vigilant and faithful Guard Dog Moxie Crimefighter, to carry on war against the Groundhog Family; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the the resources of the Family are hereby pledged by the Family Council of the D*S Family.

Initial Assault:

The Last Straw:

Mr. D*S and Defence Works:

No Comment

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

There is a lovely, short scene in this movie that personifies the difference between a very good film and the run-of-the-mill garbage you get here at our local outlet-mall cinema. Juliette sits on a park bench, her reading glasses halfway down her nose, reading the last page of a book. She takes in that last sentence, straightens a little, closes the book and, with that gesture that is so familiar to a lover of books, rubs her hands affectionately over its cover. She thinks for a second, looks around, and returns to caressing the book with a slight smile. That's it. Less than 30 seconds.

Kristin Scott Thomas is inspired in this subtle character drama about a woman who has spent the last 15 years of her life in prison for a mysterious crime. It's also about forgiveness, trust and hope, and is surprisingly uplifting considering the tragedy at its core. I know, I know—this will not appeal to everyone, but I was very moved.

Nocebo/Placebo

In The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, there is a remarkable story about Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a 16th-century Spanish explorer who spent 8 years travelling on foot from Florida to Mexico. His account, La relacion, describes extreme hardship, as well as a detailed and sympathetic portrait of the Native American tribes he lived among. Many tribes believed the strange white foreigners to be capable of great healing and begged them to cure their sick. In this way the explorers became reluctant faith healers, and progressed to curing cripples and raising the dead. Soon they could not move for the press of eager villagers and the explorers became very angry. Then,

a strange thing happened… [M]any of them fell ill, and eight men died the next day. All over the land, in the places where this became known, they were so afraid of us that it seemed that the very sight of us made them almost die of fear.
They implored us not to be angry, nor to wish for any more of them to die; and they were altogether convinced that we killed them simply by wishing to.

This is a powerful example of the flip-side of placebo effect, known as the nocebo effect, caused simply by suggestion or belief. It’s a fascinating, highly complex subject and I love Ben Goldacre’s well-reasoned explanation. Well worth the 5 minutes!



NOTE: Ben has re-posted this, along with another very entertaining clip from Nerdstock with delves further into the placebo/nocebo effect. This second clip is hilarious, but NSFW: Nocebo

Catching Up

Instead of a traditional birthday cake, we celebrated Panda's 15th birthday with these Toasted-Almond Caramel Dacquoise. Yes, they are the same ones featured on the cover of the February issue of Canadian Living. I already had 4 egg whites left over from a dinner party chocolate pudding and plenty of almonds, so it was a stroke of serendipity. They were amazing.


What a disappointment when I realized that moving to Ontario would mean no more fresh herbs from my balcony in the winter. (Duh!) So my solution is a fluorescent tube set up in the basement on an old Ivar bookcase. I hope to extend our little grow-op to include salad greens and, of course, we'll start our seeds for the garden here.

This is my current home decorating project. It may be a long, long time before it is finished, but when we finally have new pinch-pleated drapes for the family room, I'll post another picture.

Apologies for the quality of this photo, but it's darn hard to catch something like this on film. So now you know why I must keep our kitchen counters absolutely clear of anything remotely edible. Or even chewy.

Things I have rescued from Moxie's mouth:

• $20 bill & $5 bill
• socks
• panties
• oven mitts
• kitchen towels
• chicken legs
• dead mouse (found on a walk, NOT in the house!)
• reading glasses
• paring knife
• CD's
• envelopes, paper scraps, toilet paper rolls
• guitar picks

Things missing in action:

• $12 worth of Oka with Mushrooms cheese
• three days worth of vitamins and anti-inflammatory medicine from pill case (found in pieces)
• bruxing guard (only some pieces found)
• many kitchen sponges, which do turn up eventually, if you know what I mean

Mox, we love ya, but man, you are one dumb doggie sometimes.

Leekdog

If you'd like to vote for Panda's creation, click here. It does require signing up for a membership, but no other obligation. Thanks!

Strong Stuff

Staff of Life

It's been many years since we bought a loaf of supermarket bread. In Vancouver, with a wealth of interesting healthy bakeries, it was easy to avoid the flabby mass-produced loaf. We lived in bread heaven, stopping often at Terra Bread, Transylvania Bakery and, while it was around, Ecco Il Pane. A zesty, crusty cheese or earthy walnut loaf from Terra with my morning coffee, and a dense, tangy sourdough whole-wheat from Transylvania for everything else, please. Yes, it was expensive. Non, je ne regrette rien.

No such luck in Suburbia. I had experimented with bread baking before, but never seriously. When the New York Times published an article by Mark Bittman about the famous No Knead Loaf, I had a short but meaningful fling, which I mentioned here. An excellent novelty loaf but no good for everyday. I was looking to make a long-term commitment, and Michael Smith's Real Bread, also in the 18-hour No Knead tradition, fit the bill nicely for a while. But still I craved a 100% whole-wheat loaf, so Mr. D*S has taken over the task of making Real Bread for our sandwiches:

The more substantial whole-wheat bread that I was after would require good, old-fashioned kneading. Finally, I found the answer in the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. This involves a rye sour and tastes very much like the whole-wheat bread at Transylvania Bakery (only—I have to say it—more tender). It's a cranky baby, but my pride and joy. The first bread in a long while that I don't feel the need to toast, even after a few days. Just a lick of butter and I'm happy.