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Getting Things Done

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I’ve always been an Autumn girl.  Something about the colors changing, Halloween (which is my favorite holiday, hands down – over my birthday and Christmas), the crispness in the hair, apples, cider, pumpkins, changing leaves, mums and frost just strikes a chord in me.  It’s when school starts and things happen.  So it makes sense that I sympathize with starting the year in the Autumn.

Fall is the beginning of the year, and nobody call tell me likewise.

A small sampling of lists.

Which means that Fall is when I clean out closets, put on my jeans and get ready for the long haul.  When I went to school each year, it was the time of setting up my organizational system that would carry me through the schoolyear.

It seems I really can’t break that habit.  Over the weekend I cleaned out my closet, and committed a bunch of clothes to be donated.  I re-organized my remaining clothing (it needed it, the old system needed maintenance almost every other weekend, and it just wasn’t happening).

I also made lists.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, Michael and I have become big lists makers.  There’s solid proof that writing down your goals (ie making lists concrete lists) increases your likelihood to achieve desired outcomes.  Having someone to check up on you?  Makes it even more effective.  We have lists for everything.  A casual perusal around the apartment (I wasn’t even trying!) turns up lists for:

  • themed meal weeks
  • things for our apartment
  • wedding registry ideas
  • times to leave for work
  • places to go when driving to the farm
  • short term travel places
  • long term travel places
  • medium term travel places
  • designing monthly goals
  • designing quaterly goals
  • shopping list
  • shopping sub-list: wants for next week
  • meal plan list
  • weekly list Jen
  • weekly list Michael
  • Jen’s daily list
  • Weight Watchers Metrics List
  • Recipe Idea List

And best of all: a list for a list.  We decided, much like our weekly meal plan list (which we print out each week and fill out) we needed a packing list, of things we need to remember to do and to pack when we travel.  We also have a list of lists we need to make for this week.

Why all the lists?  Well, Michael and I hold each other accountable.  When we write things down, we are more likely to do them.  And if I’m going to be juggling a wedding and a business, I need to make sure certain things get done by the end of each week.

So what do you do to stay organized?  How do you make sure that things get done?

We Made out Like Bandits, I Tell ‘Ya

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Michael and I belong to a CSA, Spiral Path, which we pick up once a week from the Silver Spring Farmer’s Market.  Every once and a while Spiral Path will have an open farm day for its members.  It’s a cross between a harvest festival and a good backyard party, and we’ve been wanting to go for a while.  The only drawback is that the farm is 3 hrs away in PA.

However, this last weekend Michael and I had Ray visiting (who has a car that gets double the miles to the gallon that our car does). Coincidentally, there was an open farm day.  We decided to make a day of it, and got up REALLY early (before the sun rose) and drove to Spiral Path.

The drive was well worth it.  There was a fabulous pot-luck, tours of the farm, heyrides and other wonderful events.  Michael and I hadn’t quite realized how big Spiral Path is – they service 2250 members.  Just for perspective, most CSA’s have around 200 members.  Spiral Path is huge, but still very down to earth.  All the growing they do is organic, and you can see the values they hold in every choice they made about how the food is grown and prepared for shipment.  Michael and I feel very passionately about supporting efforts like this, and it’s great to know that we not only are getting great value for our food, but that it is going to a solid business model.

The most lovely part of the open farm day is the goodies that you get for free.  Spiral Path has a chunk of produce that it grows that for whatever reason isn’t considered sell-able – either it has blemishes, is too small, or has something else wrong with it.  Normally they donate the “reject food” to the local food shelter, but when they have the open farm days, they make this extra produce available to the members for free.

Our bounty from Spiral Path (the veggies) and Rock Hill (the apples)

Take a look at our haul:

We took home: 2 pumpkins, 2 butternut squash, 2 spaghetti squash, yellow squash, green beans, eggplant, summer squash, and a whole bunch of peppers, of various sweet and spicy flavors.

Finally, Spiral Path also had a herb garden where members could cut their own herbs.  We brought home mint, sage, and lots and lots of basil (for making pesto).

The event ended at 3, and by that time I was pretty tuckered out.  But we weren’t done yet.  On the way home, we stopped by Rock Hill Orchard, and picked up some Empire and Jonathan apples.  Just because it’s the beginning of fall, and that’s what you got to do.  Go apple picking.

Summer Travels

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Our Amtrak train coming to pick us up.

So I promised that I would tell about the rest of Michael’s birthday trip, and I’m keeping my promise – though it’s a little late.

You can refresh yourself by going here – I’ll wait for you.

After finishing up a couple of relaxing days in Ashland, NC, we proceeded to board another Amtrak train, this time taking us to Richmond, VA.  We had a layover there for a couple of hours, which wouldn’t have been of note, except Michael’s grandmother lives in Richmond.  So she met up with us and we all went out to lunch.

Richmond train station has a lovely outdoor seating area.

Michael’s grandmother, called by him Oma, is a wonderful lady, and I use the word lady in the truest sense.  She’s 92 years old, and has aged with grace and poise.  Her brain is as sharp as a whip, and she’s one of the best people I know at cutting Michael down to size when he’s getting a little bit too full of himself.  There’s such obvious love and affection between the two of them, and I always love watching them together.  One of the big moments I’m looking forward to is introducing my two grandmothers to Oma, and I think all three women have aged with grace – and I think they’ll all get along very well.

After having lunch with Oma, we proceeded to board the train again (do you sense a theme?) and head on to Cary (as Michael calls it, Containment Area for Relocated Yankees), where his parents proceeded to pick us up.

Random Mantis.  It was cool. Hard to get a picture of, though.

What commenced was a whirlwind of activity.  We visited with our friends Ray and Alison, ranged around Carborro trying wines at trendy grocery stores and investigating railroad tracks.  We tried Mexican food and played with interactive art.  Then we went home, celebrated Michael’s birthday with friends, played games, went to bed, woke up and came home.

It was a lovely trip, and a good balance of quiet and rest with family and activity.  It was also a nice way to say goodbye to summer, as it seems that just after we came home, the weather began to change.

Summer is for vacation, right?

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Hey, not to state the obvious, but I think I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I haven’t been around much on the inter-webs lately. Socking Shocking, I know.  Heh, I have been doing quite a bit of sock knitting too, but I can’t talk about a lot of it yet, because it’s going to be coming out in a few different places in the next months.  Details when I can talk about them, I promise.

So what’s been happening?  Well, let’s just say this is a bit of a story, so I’m breaking this up into two posts.

Last week Michael and I went on a short vacation in honor of his birthday to Ashland, VA, and then continued on to Richmond, VA and finally to his parents who live outside of Chapel Hill, NC.

The common question I was asked when I told people where we were going was, “Why Ashland?”

Well, if you look at Ashland on a map, it doesn’t seem to have much going for it.  It’s small, the town history is rather brief, as there have been no real major events in the town.  No one famous was born or died there.  No battles were fought, no slave uprisings or protests.  It’s a pretty quiet town.

Well, quiet in one way.  In other ways?  Not so much.  Because CSX has a train line that runs right through mainstreet.

And that meant there were trains.  Michael loves trains.

Michael and I have a list (we actually have many lists) of places we see when going someplace (say his parents) that we would like to stop and see one day.  It can be a restaurant, an antique store, a town, a museum  battlefield, anything really.  Ashland was one of them.  We have passed through Ashland every time we take the train to Michael’s parents.  The reason we take note of it is because Main Street is bisected by the train rails.  So there’s one lane of traffic, the rails, and another lane of traffic.  It seemed like a quirky town, with a general store that’s been operating for 120 odd years, old architecture and a quiet southern feel.

It was lovely.  We spent two nights (three days) in the town.  We visited a coffee shop, used bookstore (I found a few gems) and model train store.  We went to the Iron Horse, which had some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had the honor of encountering.  Seriously.  I’ve been to some good restaurants in DC, restaurants run by chefs from shows on TV, ones that have been written up in magazines.  This place ranked above them.  There was this chocolate pave (I think the word was) that blew my mind.  Also, gnocchi that was savory and rich, but the serving was just enough not not be overwhelming.  The almond encrusted chicken I had struck just the right notes with the mashed potatoes and green beans I had with it.  Seriously good.

The hotel we stayed at, The Henry Clay Inn, overlooks main street.  And it has a southern style porch, two floors.  After lunch, we plunked ourselves out on the porch, and Michael watched trains go by.  Me?  I swatched.  I had originally hoped to get yarns from a few different companies so I could work on some design deadlines that I have due later this month.  (It’s going to be a rather frantic few weeks).  For good or ill, they did not arrive by the time I left, so that meant I brought yarn to dream and plan.  I swatched for a few different design calls, and then, when I was done with that, I got to work on my own stuff!

I’m working on a doily to go on the hutch Michael and I are slowly refinishing.  I’m doing something freehand, which is entirely wonderful.  There’s some things I do in my own work that I sometimes find to hard to describe to people who read my patterns, so when I’m designing for magazines I sometimes follow conventions instead of doing what *I* like to do.  When I’m working my own projects, I’m also free to brainstorm ideas that aren’t firm enough to become a design proposal yet, but I need to work out on a piece.  It’s a quirk of mine that even my swatches have the potential to become part of other projects, or part of samples for teaching lessons.  I like everything to have at least two purposes.

One of the best parts of the trip was just watching Michael geek out over trains.  One of the most lovely things about him is that he brings the mind of a historian and researcher to almost everything he does.  So taking a trip to a train town means I get a guided exposition about train history.  Any question  I could have about trains, Michael can probably answer.  If he doesn’t know the answer to it, he knows where to find it.  I love that about him, because it always makes it incredibly interesting to talk to him about what he’s pasionate about.  This trip, Michael had recorded all scheduled trains that were supposed to go through the town.  Then, he tracked in a journal if they were running on time, late, their engine numbers, and a bunch of other information (so he can report back to his train friends on the Amtrak Forums).

 Since I do the same things with yarn, I guess it’s fair.

Breezy Spinning

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About three weeks ago, many people will remember that a rather crazy Derecho swept through the middle of the East Coast, and Michael and I were not excepted.  We lost power from Friday night until the next Tuesday Night, and consider ourselves lucky that it was only that long – many people in our area lost power for longer.

Our picnic 

If you remember, it has also been hot, and let me say, the Metro DC is humid hot.  The first day Michael and I surveyed the damage, and hung out at a friend’s basement.  They didn’t have power, but at least it was cool.  The second day, tired of being cooped up indoors, we walked down the street to Sligo Creek, which runs nearby us.  Armed with books, knitting and and all the foodstuffs that we were worried would spoil, we headed down to the creek.  There, in the shade in the creek-bed (which, might I remind you, creeks are the lowest points in the area and thus are oftentimes much cooler) with our feet in the water went spent the afternoon and evening on a rock.  It was lovely, and while not what we had planned to do with our weekend, an nice treat.

The creek also did a good job keeping our lemonade cool, which we submerged in the running water.

By that time we were lucky enough to have a friend call us who had power, and offered to let us use her freezer for anything that would spoil.  We went and did that.

And then we went back to our 8th floor apartment.  Which was not as nearly pleasant as the creekbed.  I remarked to Michael that it wouldn’t be nearly so bad if I had a fan.  Instead, I was sitting and sweating and spinning.  I couldn’t knit or crochet because well – my gauge changes when my hands sweat.

So what did Michael, the most wonderful man in the world do?

I with modded spinning wheel/fan

He disassembled a fan, melted a hole in it, hooked it up to my orifice, and rigged it so that as I treadled, I spun.

Not a bad weekend, all things considered.

Weekend Ravels

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Over the weekend Michael and I decided we needed to take a bike ride, as the weather was lovely and it wasn’t looking like this week would be very pleasant.  We decided to go to Arlington Cemetery, because I’d never been and it had been a long time since Michael was there.

It was a lovely, beautiful bike ride and a great way to spend the afternoon.  I find there’s a peace and reverence to cemeteries that I find quite comforting.  The sense of time there always manages to put things in perspective.

Farmer’s Market Week 4 Sushi

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As I’ve mentioned before, Michael is working on making me a sushi roll every week from the Farmer’s Market share we get.  We like to challenge each other like this every once and a while.  We’re now starting to get some more interesting vegetables, and this means that Michael is able to get more creative.  Also, since I’ve been critiquing his sushi, it’s upped the bar, and he’s been doing some research to start to create more varied recipes.  I think this has been his best attempt yet.

The Sauce (to be served in roll or over)
3/4 tsp mayo
1/2 tsp black bean paste
1 splash soy sauce
1 smidgen red pepper flakes
1 dash coriander

Filling:
1 zucchini
1 Japanese white radish
2 sprigs cilantro
1 or 2 garlic scapes (if you like things super garlicky)
1 green Swiss chard

As always, roll, cut up, and serve

My thoughts: I really liked the crunchy aspect of this roll, from the vegetables.  I also liked that the sauce was a bit more spicy, and that combined with the bite of the pepper and garlic made this an unexpectedly zesty roll.  Also, because of the firmer vegetables, this had quite a bit more internal structure, which made things stay together nicer.  There was a better balance of rice and filling.  As I told Michael, he’s getting closer to delicious with each attempt.

Farmer’s Market Week 3 Sushi

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As I mentioned in my first post about this challenge to Michael, there’s a fair amount of limitations on him to create delicious sushi. He’s limited by his ingredients – with the exception of the rice, seaweed paper and any sauces/garnishes, the bulk of the roll must be from our Farm Share.  Thus, if he doesn’t get something, or gets things that don’t work well together, he’s limited.  I’ll touch on that more at the end, when I talk about what I thought about this week’s roll.

The Sauce (same as last week’s)
1 tsp mayo
1 splash soy sauce
1 dash sugar
2 pinches ginger

The Filling:
1 carrot
1 radish
parsley
green onion

My thoughts: my largest criticism of this roll is that it is bland.  While the first two were on the sweet side because of the strawberries, this one’s filling was filled with vegetables that don’t all have very strong flavors. Combined with the sauce also not really matching these veggies (I almost want something with a bit of a bite to it, maybe add a bit of tobasco sauce to the sauce?), I felt that the rice and rice vinegar were the dominant flavors, which is not what I’m looking for.  The center either needs to be heftier, or the rice less.  Since Michael isn’t too keen on eating sushi, I think it also works against him that he hasn’t developed any taste for sushi, nor would he really enjoy eating his own creations.

He’s hoping we get more variety of veggies and other goodies soon.

Farmer’s Market Sushi Recipe #2

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As I mentioned last week, I’ve served Michael a challenge: to make me a sushi roll using ingredients from the farm share each week. This week’s farm-share was filled with greens, carrots, strawberries and lettuce of various sorts.  I’ll be sad to see the strawberries go, I think next week will be our last week.

Week 2 Sushi Recipe

The Sauce:
1 tsp mayo
1 spash soy sauce
1 dash sugar
2 pinches ginger

Mix sauce and serve with or over the Sushi.

Filling:
1 carrot, shaved
frisse (basically, frilly baby endive)
green onion
2 strawberries

Arrange ingredients on mat, add sauce, and roll.

My thoughts: the ginger went surprisingly well with the strawberries. I’m still not sold on strawberries in a roll, I don’t think their lack of structure goes over well (on the other  note, avocado doesn’t hold structure  well either, and I like that just fine).  I think this roll worked better than last week’s.

Farm Share Sushi

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The farm share started last week and Michael and I got our first delivery.  It was filled with delicious fruits and vegetables, which was lovely.  After we made a salad out of the greens for dinner, I was talking to Michael and I mentioned how cool it would be if he made me a sushi roll for each week of the farm share.  It would be a challenge: at least 100% of the core ingredients would have to be from things in the farm share.

This week was his first roll.
If you’ve never made sushi before, don’t be intimidated.  I’m not a fan of true sushi, with raw fish, and will just make rolls with cooked ingredients or with vegetables.  With a few supplies you can get rocking, and really, there’s no wrong way to do sushi.  It’s like sandwiches: you can put anything between the carbohydrates, and in some combination, it will probably taste good.
If you are looking for a good tutorial, go to this tutorial by Pioneer Woman.  She’s got it spot on (with the exception of not being able to make sushi on the stovetop.  I do it, and you just need to practice a little bit more than with a rice cooker.)
Disclaimer: These rolls are not like the normal recipes I sometimes talk about.  They aren’t heavily tested, which means the results can sometimes be interesting.  But it’s fun.
Week 1 Sushi Recipe

Sauce (mix them together)
1 tsp mayo
1 dash coriander
1 pinch sugar
1 splash soy sauce
Inside of Roll
2 strawberries
1 raddish, sliced into sticks
1 handful peas, fresh
1 green onion

Place items evenly along roll, in a pleasing manner.  Roll the sushi, and slice.  Serve and eat soon after.

What were my thoughts on this roll?  With the peas and the Strawberries, this could definitely be more of a desert roll instead of a dinner roll.  The sauce was good, but wasn’t quite the match I was thinking of.  I also think the sauce would have been better served over the roll, and that it would have looked better, presentation-wise, if it had been served inside-out, with the rice on the outside and the seaweed wrap on the inside.  Overall, pretty good.

Do you like sushi?  What non-standard rolls have you encountered that you’ve enjoyed?

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