let's meet in the middle

Cool website alert! At Meetways.com you can find a "point of interest" (such as a coffee shop or restaurant) at the exact halfway point between two addresses.

So, for example, if Diane and I wanted to get together for coffee halfway between her church in Minnesota and my clinic here in Longview, WA, Meetways tells me we could meet in Harlowton, Montana. I think the Cornerstone will fit the bill. Look at these friendly people waiting to serve us!



If Presbygal and I decide we want to have lunch, it looks like we could meet at the Honey Lake Campground Restaurant and General Store near Milford, California. I googled a picture from Honey Lake. Hmm... hope this isn't the place, because it does not look promising.



Back to the drawing board...

pic of the day

Mr. Tumnus capturing the essence of the word Monday:




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(photo by Offspring #1)

what would a maverick do?

I love Queen Latifah, so I was excited to hear she was going to pop by SNL and portray Gwen Ifill moderating the VP debate. Tina Fey again brilliantly played Sarah Palin and Jason Sudeikis did well with Joe Biden.

Great stuff here!

Flow Food

Yay! Offspring #2 is home for the weekend, and I made dinner last night in a new category! It definitely wasn't fast food but it certainly wasn't slow food either, so I decided to name the "hybrid" flow food (as in 'go with the flow' I guess!)

Anyway, I ended up making chili in the crock pot, adapted from a recipe I found in the Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly cookbook.

Warning: I am not known for my culinary skills! But this is what I made:

I'll call it Flow Food Chili:

1 1/4 lb. ground buffalo (natural and sustainably raised!) It came from here.
1 -- 27 oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 -- 14 1/2 oz. can low-sodium diced tomatoes, undrained
1 -- 14 1/2 oz. can roasted garlic diced tomatoes, undrained
1 -- 8 oz. can tomato sauce (woo hoo! found an organic one!)
1 medium size organic onion, chopped
1 organic green bell pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. black pepper

1. Brown buffalo in nonstick skillet; sing Home on the Range while doing so.
2. Place in slow cooker.
3. Add all ingredients. Stir.
4. Cover. Cook on high 4 hours or on low 8-10 hours.
5. Garnish individual servings with shredded cheese if you like.

For dessert...
Alden's "Organic All Natural" Vanilla Bean ice cream; topped with fresh blueberries and raspberries from our yard. Alden's is an Oregon company so they are kinda sorta almost local-ish. Here's Hubby with the ice cream and berries:


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Buffalo pic at top taken by me in So. Dak. a couple of summers ago.

fast food bad. slow food good.

I just finished reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (which had been included in my birthday presents from Offsprings #1&2). It was a worthwhile read, a real eye-opener about what we eat, where it comes from, and how it gets to our tables. (I won't bother with a book review because you can read the NYTimes review here.)

Since I'm realistic, I know I won't be making immediate, drastic changes in my eating habits. However, I will definitely be making more of an effort to choose foods where words such as "natural", "organic", "local", and/or "sustainably raised" apply.

Of course part of the trick is making sure those labels are accurate. (Misleading marketing drives me crazy!) Bopping around the internet, I found the Sustainable Table website. You can type in your zip code and find good local resources. So that's a start!

oh joy...

From today's USA Today:



Guess I can scratch that one off my list of things to try if stopped by the police.

here kitty, kitty

With so many negative, stressful things in the news lately, couldn't we all use something upbeat?! Yeah, thought so! Tip o' the hat to Offspring #2 for this: