Still Connected

It was a lonely Thanksgiving for me, but really not too bad. One of the things I like about Seattle is that you can do things alone here without feeling like a pariah. Lots of people go places alone, sometimes by choice and sometimes by circumstance. I took the bus downtown, window shopped at Nordstrom and Macy's, wandered around a little bit, saw the movie W., wandered some more, and took pictures of the lights at Pike Place Market.



I made a lot of calls on a barely-working cell phone to family and friends back in Ohio. Between dropped calls, I had plenty of time to think about family dynamics and the nature of connections. I wonder if I was too hasty in my decision to move out here. Mars Girl, your post came at just the right time. I'm going to give Seattle another year... maybe a couple more years... and re-evaluate. They say that home is the place where, if you have to go there, they have to take you in, right? Maybe I needed to move here in order to stop taking home (and many of you, dear readers!) for granted.

The highlight of my weekend was lunch with my mom's cousin, who moved out here 30 years ago and never looked back. She is not the easiest person to get to know. I'm glad I talked her into meeting me. I was worried I might not recognize her, but there was a definite "oh yeah, I'm related to that person" moment. Compared to my mom and aunt, she chose a completely different life, but some of her mannerisms are so much like theirs it's scary.

My mom's cousin reminded me to be deeply thankful for memories of my maternal grandparents. They both passed away when I was in junior high. My middle sister doesn't remember them before they were sick, and my youngest sister doesn't remember them at all, which is really a shame. J's MySpace profile says our grandparents are the people she'd most like to meet now that she's old enough to appreciate who they were. They were the best kind of small town people... warm, accepting, genuinely friendly, and generous with their time and talents.

Don't Forget My Senior Discount

One of the first things they teach you in Sandwich Artist school is to never, under any circumstances, give customers the senior discount unless they specifically ask for it. Not even if they look like they're 112. Not even if they're related to you and you know exactly how old they are. This is a good rule, usually. I remember the day my dad's Golden Buckeye card came in the mail. He was totally depressed. 

Every once in awhile, though, you'll get an older gentleman who thinks your mission in life is to rip him off. He'll examine his receipt, see no discount there, yell at you and demand to speak to the manager. If this person is on your Christmas shopping list this year, might I suggest the following?

Sandwich artists everywhere will thank you.

A Very Tasty Soup

I ate this soup for dinner every night last week and never got tired of it. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Pumpkin Tortilla Soup

12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
5 cups unsalted vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and cubed

Cut 6 of the tortillas into 1/2-inch squares.

Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, cilantro, and chopped tortillas and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is soft.

Add cumin and cayenne and sauté for another minute.

Add pumpkin, tomatoes, vegetable stock, and salt and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for one hour.

While the soup is simmering, cut the remaining 6 tortillas in half and then into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Fry tortilla strips in two batches until crisp and light golden (about a minute). Using a slotted spoon, transfer tortilla strips to towels to drain.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and garnish with tortilla strips, avocado, and cilantro.

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I used this stuff called Better Than Bouillon to make the vegetable broth. It is better than bouillon, but it contains an almost lethal dose of sodium, so I didn't add the additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Magic Mushrooms

Western Washington is a botanical fairyland. From February until June, neon colored rhododendrons bloom all over the place. There's a tree in my neighborhood with blossoms that look like those fiber-optic decorative art pieces from the '70s. There are bushes on campus that sprout what look like miniature buckeyes. They go from green to orange to fucshia to deep red when ripe. Ordinary oaks and maples have leaves that are bigger than your head. Oh, and we have palm trees, too!

A few days ago, a co-worker went out for her daily walk on the Burke-Gilman trail and returned to the office with a giant orange hallucinogenic mushroom.



Yes, that is a full sized paper plate. We used our best librarian skills to identify this mushroom as Aminata Muscaria, common name Fly Agaric.

The toxicological details of this mushroom are interesting enough, but check out the Wikipedia entry to read about cultural depictions of this shroom. (Yes, I'm citing Wikipedia. Want to make something of it?)

As it turns out, this mushroom is a symbol of good luck. It commonly appears on Christmas cards and it just may be the reason certain reindeer can fly. Yes sirree bob.

What's more, these mushrooms provide lodging for Smurfs:



I read this factoid to my co-worker. She responded "No way! I knew I'd seen that mushroom somewhere before, but I couldn't quite place it..."

Election Reflection

Elections are different here on the left coast!

I watched the returns with a small group of co-workers, one Canadian, and one Jack Russell terrier. The party host checked out a projector from the library so we could watch on a big screen. We were just barely settled in with our munchies when Obama was declared president-elect at 8:01 Pacific Time. Our polls closed and *poof*! We could hardly believe it. I was pessimistically expecting a repeat of Election Night 2000. I spent that night at the home of Joanna, Liz, and Starfish, all of us thinking that if we just stayed up 15 more minutes, surely they'd call it. Surely.

Nobody said a word or moved a muscle during the victory speech. Not even the terrier. I thought it was very telling that the concession speech happened in an exclusive hotel and the victory speech happened at an enormous public park with people of all colors, ages, races, shapes, and sizes in attendance.

I forget which network we were watching, but the 50-something white male news anchor... Charlie Gibson, maybe? Anyway, he got all choked up over a picture of the presidents. It was the type of picture that hangs on the walls of social studies classrooms all across the United States. Generations of school kids had pictures like that staring down at them every day. Even if you never consciously thought "I'd like to be president someday" I really believe pictures like this have done a number on your psyche. What if you can't see yourself in the picture? What if you're not white? Or male? Or (lately) rich? I got a little choked up, too. A few days later, a local pastor posted this picture on his blog. Powerful stuff.

The original source of this image is http://www.patrickmoberg.com/