Things that Go Bump in the Night

O keeps waking up at 4:30 every morning and creeping into our room. At first, I kept wondering why I was always waking up at 4:30. Every day this week. It was really concerning me, a sign of old age (like the zillion gray hairs that I am noticing.) Maybe an indicator of some health issue?

Then I realized, it was because at 4:30 every morning, light would wake me up. You see, D is convinced the boys need the hall light on because they can't sleep without it. So, we keep our bedroom door closed so that I can sleep. At 4:30 as O creeps in, the light suddenly explodes on me and disruption takes over.

O wraps himself up in his blanket and sleeps on the floor by D. He stays all snug like a bug in a rug long past when I leave in the morning. It takes all my will power in the morning to not scoop him up and just hold him. But if I really look at it, I'd rather he stay in his bed so I can sleep until my alarm buzzes.

But for now, it looks like I will have to deal with a little O that goes bump in the night.

Being a Farmer is Good

It's the third Saturday of the month ... so we all know what that means, right? Another Wine Club adventure!!!

Tonight's foray took us to a little known spot called The Bachelor Farmer. It's one of the "hottest" spots to eat at in the Minneapolis foodie scene. As in, getting a reservation was something I'd been trying to do since March for Wine Club and we finally got one in October! As in, when President Obama recently came to the state ... this is the restaurant he chose to dine at. I had heard mixed reviews about the place, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It's in the Warehouse district and all signage is very subtle, so it's best to spot it by it's "farm-like" blue check awnings. Then you can't miss it.

Your meal starts off with what they call a snack. It's not your typical bread basket ...

It's a little bowl of radishes that you dip in some sea salt (and there is also some flatbread, that was on another plate for the rest of the group, since they all enjoy gluten.) They were so good, just a crisp, slightly peppery radish. I ate too many.

Before I get into the rest of the meal, I need to talk about wine. They have quite an extensive wine list, but the way they handle the wine is quite different than anything I had experienced. On their wine list, you could order any wine listed as a half bottle ... or if a bottle had already been opened, they had chalkboard that listed the wines available by the glass. (Or of course, you could always order a full bottle.) Half our table is white wine drinkers, so they ordered a bottle of white. Fortunately, my sister enjoys reds once the fall has arrived, so I had someone to order a half bottle of a light Italian red called St. Magdalener, from Alto Adige, Italy. It was a nice light, juicy red that would work with what we both planned to eat ... now on to what I ate!

One of the things everyone tells you to order at TBF is their toasts. They have a variety of toppings for their toasts. For me, they would offer it with cucumber slices if I wanted to try the toppings. I passed (but for the record, the rest of the ladies did say the toasts were phenomenal) and instead enjoyed beets roasted in duck fat, sprinkled with a dry-cured mullet roe and almonds, drizzled with lemon. 

At first, they sort of reminded me of the beet chips you buy from the grocery store. They were okay ... but not something that knocked my socks off. Then I bit into an almond. Okay, I know it's just an almond, but when I took a bite of the beet with the almond ... then it was something special. 

I followed the beets with grilled rabbit wrapped in bacon on top of vermouth-braised leeks and roasted cauliflower. 

If you have never had rabbit, it's a very sweet light meat. (I didn't learn until later that D absolutely loves rabbit, and he was jealous of my meal. The server also told me it was her favorite dish. So clearly a good choice.) Let's just get one thing out in the open ... if you wrap anything in bacon ... well, perfection is easy to find. The leeks were a tad bit overcooked, but the roasted cauliflower made up for it. (For that is perhaps my favorite vegetable and preparation. If you've never had roasted cauliflower, you are truly missing out on something wonderful.)

For dessert, I ordered the Riesling-poached pear with currant Bavarian cream and walnut cream cheese. This was the only major miss-step of the dining experience, because when she brought it out, I started eating the cream (pictured on the right) and then I put my spoon on the golden mound on the left ... and realized it was phyllo dough. so I had to have her take it back. She brought me a new gluten-free plate and was extremely apologetic. But it was kind of a bummer to get my dessert last.

I also enjoyed a cup of coffee with my dessert, which I think I may have to do always going forward! To send you off, and so that you have fond memories the next day, TBF provides you a parting gift:

These sweet little almond cookies. The boys ate mine this morning and they said they were delicious.

Overall, it was a lovely meal (I was quite full at the end) and of course, because the company was superb, I will have fond memories of the evening out.

My First Cooking Class at Kitchen Window

I cannot believe I have let almost five days go by without sharing an update about my cooking class! Seriously ... #epicfail from a blogging standpoint. Anyways, to the point.

Monday I took a demonstration class at a placed called Kitchen Window. It was called: Autumn Vegetarian Comfort Foods and the chef/instructor was Anna Dvorak.Anna is a big advocate for healthy living. I had heard about her classes through one of my friends who had taken a class and gave strong reviews. After they talked about Anna and her general views on healthy eating, I explored her website and signed up for her newsletter. So I was thrilled when I found out she had some classes available this fall and this one happened to be gluten-free cooking. So, I signed myself up.

Basically, I was getting a five-course meal, but with an education. Pretty novel and if you like to know about what you eat or what you should eat ... it's a great idea. The class started with a balsamic roasted pear salad. She provided some tips on how to make salads delightful without ever needing dressing. These were changes I've already implemented in my eating routine, but it was nice to know my food choice was being reinforced.

Next up was a lovely minestrone soup -- perhaps my favorite course of the evening. It had delicious fall vegetables, a wonderfully glorious stock (home made of course) and a brilliant kale pesto garnish. It was so good. I could have just eaten five bowls of the soup and lived a very content evening.

Third course was a gnocchi with a mushroom sauce. I loved listening to her talk about the mushrooms, and she showed us a few different varieties I'd never seen before. She also told us that you can boil gnocchi or pan fry it if it doesn't turn out the way you want. It was fun to watch gnocchi being made, and I'd love to show D how she did it (he's made a pretty good gnocchi on his own, but now I know which type of gluten-free flour he should use.)

The next course was a pot pie. Anna shared with us a basic gluten-free pie crust. So simple and easy, and you can use it for sweet or savory dishes. The pot pie was full of delicious flavor, bright herbs and lots of vegetables. However, this was the one dish from a timing perspective that was a little off and I think may have thrown Anna a little bit. She handled it gracefully, and we all devoured our piping hot individual pies.

The class ended with a rustic apple tart. And inspired me to make a pumpkin pie this weekend. It was a no-sugar apple tart (she uses maple sugar, never refined sugar) and it had just enough sweetness to round out the meal.

The class didn't end until about 10 p.m., so it was a four hour meal and lesson. A bit long for me since I usually go to bed at 10, but I really enjoyed it. Since I went solo, I befriended another solo attendee and enjoyed a glass of Pinot with the class. I will definitely repeat this experience again ... but maybe next time I'll bring D!

Just a Little Too Soon

I love the holidays - the hustle and bustle - the search for perfect gifts - the food - spending time with friends and family - decorating - snuggling by the fire - all of it. However, even I think that mid-October is too soon for Christmas commercials on television. Normally, I don't even notice commercials because the only t.v. I watch happens to be shows I've dvr'd. However, last Friday night I was having a major dvr catch-up session (alas, a major crying session, because I got up on all my dramas and was bawling most of the time) and as I was fast-forwarding ... I noticed Christmas commercials. I had to stop, rewind and make sure I wasn't seeing things. The worst part ... I am catching up on shows from three weeks ago, so some of the commercials may have been airing back then!!! I can't believe it. It's horrible. It's too soon. Let me savor the joy of cheesy Halloween movies and all that is October before we move on to the festivities of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I even picked up a couple of my favorite magazines November issues ... and low and behold ... they already had gift-giving suggestion articles. (To be fair to one, it was a November/December issue.) While I may have already purchased my first gift (totally defined by treasure hunt, I just happened to see it, and it spoke to me for one person) and I love the whole idea of hunting for perfect gifts ... I don't know if I am quite ready to dive right into Christmas festivities yet. And I totally get putting up the outside lights now before it gets too cold (just not turning them on until after Thanksgiving.)

Oh, well ... I guess it speaks to the season and to spreading out the gift-purchasing. And maybe it will lead to folks acting with the Christmas spirit year-round.

The Day in a Life of a Mother

Today started out like any atypical day. I went for a run, since my normal Saturday run was not possible. As I ran the same path I normally due I looked over to my right and running slightly ahead of me across the corn field there was a fox running, too. (Okay, it is strangely bizarre that there is a corn field just outside of my neighborhood - because, yes, I live in a standard suburban development.)

Then just a quarter of a mile farther down the road ... I saw a family of quails. My first thought was that the fox must have detoured before finding the quail. (Not sure if I felt sorry for the fox or grateful for the quail.) I guess I was most grateful for the fact that all the animals kept their distance and I could just keep on going. Many of my friends were running much greater lengths today at the Twin Cities 10 Mile and Twin Cities Marathon, so my short half-hour jaunt was really nothing. But anything to get healthy is better than doing nothing.

...

In the afternoon, I decided to take the boys to this event called Storywalk. It is a joint event sponsored by the local library and park systems. It seemed like a fairly low key thing to do ... and it would give D some solo time to enjoy his football games.

We arrived at the park, and K did a superb job reading the story to me and Oliver. The boys enjoyed running along the path and loved the illustrations:

It was a nice picture book - and there was some great activity to get the kids to "live" some of the story. They also had a few activities down at the pavilion, including creating your own leaf and body poetry (also known as yoga - K did pretty good ... and so I told him he really needs to do yoga with me from now on.)
Here was horror moment number one: O threw a tantrum the size of Mount Vesuvius - it was ridiculous. If I hadn't had him by the shoulders, he would have thrown his head against the cement flooring of the pavilion. He screamed as a two-year-old does and so I had to put him back in the stroller and try to calm him down. (The reason for the tantrum, he wanted to make two leaves, not just the one he was allowed.)

After the activities, I let the boys play on the playground. It was a small playground, but just the right size that I didn't worry about O performing death-defying acts. K kept asking me if there was an older kids playground, so clearly he's starting to overcome his own fears of heights and slides.

We then decided to talk a stroll on the walking path around the park. It was a nice walk around the lake. There was a cute little bridge we walked over. And I enjoyed chatting with K. We got to the end of the walkway and then K started to run ahead. He was doing a pretty good jog (and now he never has an excuse for not keeping up while running at school or in sports, because I've seen proof he's a good runner today.) But he kept running farther and farther ahead of me. I yelled at him to wait, and he'd get to a bench and sit down and wait for us to catch up.

Horror moment number two:  He didn't want to keep waiting for long. So, the next time he started running, he got so far ahead of me I could barely see him. When we got back to the clearing, I saw him and yelled at him, but he kept running. As I ran (pushing a non-jogging stroller) to catch up, he turned around (I never saw him turn around) but then I turned around and saw him. It was eery, like a dream when you are trying to find someone and they appear in the distance too far away. Well ... he then went back down the path, but I couldn't see him. I became frantic and yelled his name. One of the ladies who had helped me before realized I was looking for him and one of the other helpers also tried to help me look for him.

I appreciated their help, but their fast pace just wasn't enough ... so then I ran like Usain Bolt down the pathway ... and I finally caught up to K. He knew he had done something wrong ... and he told me he was just trying to find a place to rest. I had to explain to him that he had three people looking for him. We got back to the other ladies and the younger one said to me, "Man, you run fast." I didn't want to tell her that it was the adrenaline surge because I thought my son was gone. I thanked them. Then K and I proceeded to continue to have a long chat about the danger of the situation.

While I think he understands why it was not a good day for mommy, I know that it doesn't mean it won't happen again. And goodness knows, this old body can't handle two runs in one day.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

I know that I live in a conservative, Republican-slanting area of a liberal leaning state. And unfortunately, I tend to have a very different viewpoint than many of  my neighbors who have selected a certain, vocal (perhaps neurotic) U.S. congress member. However, I have never felt the disgust that I felt today. 

For those who may not be following Minnesota politics, this year's election presents Minnesotans with the decision to change one of our state amendments and how marriage is defined. This is a political issue that has been raging across the U.S. And, just like it has been in every other state addressing a similar issue, it is a very hot debate that stirs up lots of passion and emotion. In my own neighborhood, we have conflicting signs sprinkled throughout the neighborhood (and some are across the street from each other.) So yes, on my Saturday morning jog I see this in one breathe:

 And in the next breathe, I see this:

We live in the great U.S. of A - and one of the benefits of living in this country is our First Amendment right and the freedom of speech. We all have the right to have a different opinion, and even if we don't agree with those opinions we should respect the rights of others to voice their own opinion. 

Unfortunately, this was shattered in my own neighborhood today.

Vandals Hit 9 Blaine Properties

The very homes I drive by every day and run past each week ... someone chose to vandalize these homes and attack people for having the courage to share their opinion. It angers me to the highest degree ... In this day and age, people are so ignorant, so disrespectful that they have to lash out with immaturity and crime to get their own opinions across. I am disgusted that the police department is treating these as acts of vandalism and not hate crime ...seriously? These houses were Targeted because they had the orange signs in their yards and the vandalism was graphic and offensive (so much so, they didn't even show it on TV). HOW IS THIS NOT A HATE CRIME. If these were nooses or fire-burning crosses, would we say the same thing? Are we too embarrassed to own up to the fact that hate crime can still happen today because we know it shouldn't???

It's 2012 and I am heartbroken that society has clearly not evolved to the point that we treat all humans equally and with respect -- even when they are different than we are. I can only hope and pray that things evolve and change more quickly ... otherwise I may take my family and move to a remote island. I am truly devastated tonight.