Category Archives: Education

Role Reversal

Posted on March 11, 2015 | Leave a comment

Every so often I watch DIY for home improvements. Given an opportunity the wife’s eyes widen and a smile comes to light at the word “shopping.” At the same instant the husband looks upset and says “budget.”

In our household, it’s the other way around. Years ago I said I didn’t need a new MacBook so he bought me more memory, a large monitor and cordless keyboard. I didn’t think I needed those either but love them. He recently sent me a new battery which is a life saver because my laptop lasts less than two minutes without its electric life line.

He is the consummate shopper, doing detailed research on every product. Shirts from London, Hong Kong. Budget. That’s me. I pay the bills but appreciate him so much for doing all the leg-work on things we need and he doesn’t want me to carry from the store to my car, such as paper products.

We are the scientist and artist/teacher, a classic combination. When it comes to shopping and budgeting we cross paths. One thing I’ve never done is to go shoe shopping with a girlfriend. Perhaps that might have changed things but then I may have never met my prince.

As children my sister and I got one pair of school shoes each year. Mom told me she should get my sister two pair and I should wear the boxes. One wish in life is to someday have a pair of cowboy boots hand-made for me. It would be a boy’s size, around 4 1/2 wide. No stiletto’s for me. Cheers, Dee

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Puzzles

Posted on February 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

My parents always expected me to go to college. I never got to rebel against anything or be bad so I fought the thought of going to college, for a few minutes.

We came up with a deal. Apply jointly, choose, visit with my father, who was a college president, and then decide my future. I chose college, and worked summers to make 1/3 my tuition, that was part of the deal.

It was a Catholic college, even though they said it was not. The first class, a guy walked in wearing a brown robe with ropes around his waist and a crucifix and we all stood and said a “Hail, Mary.” That wasn’t on the potential student tour from the gal who went to public school.

So here’s this 17 year-old, unable to get into bars, thinking she will be alone in the dorm forever making no friends, shy and away from home the first time. I was corralled into classes to meet my requirements, including religion. Philosophy is a different post but that was included as well.

By end of sophomore year I learned to work the system (volunteer in the development office for a couple of years) and got art history. Fr. John, didn’t know him but was interested in art and history and had to take tougher courses so really wanted to do this.

It was exhilarating and all the English, history, science, math, religion, philosophy courses started to coalesce. Why do we learn these disciplines and never put them all together? I was 19 and happy to think I could gain knowledge and not just facts.

Look at art, especially ancient, medieval and renaissance art and it tells you the story of the people. I believe Guttenberg changed the world of religious art because with the first Bible, peasants learned how to read and didn’t have to depend upon what religion told them of stories and beliefs.

Fr. John gave great stories and slides of his travels and expected us to learn history from his lectures. Once in a darkened auditorium setting where Fr. John held class a fellow student tried to cheat off my test. I covered it and after class I told him I’d report him if he ever tried to do that again but I would spend time tutoring him for free, before the next test. He thanked me, and never cheated off my papers again. Perhaps someone else’s….

Years later I studied art on my own in Europe. Pulling together all the disciplines and knowledge was a gift from two priests, unfortunately Fr John passed years ago but I know he keeps sending me to art museums and churches.

After Art History II, I chose Fr John once again for Renaissance and Reformation, a history course. He was an inspirational teacher. To higher education, Dee

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Menus

Posted on December 7, 2014 | 2 comments

Why are menus so difficult? When I was freezing cold sitting under an arctic weight comforter many years ago with a coat and gloves in my small bedroom, separate thermostat up to 55 degrees for my presence (the others were at 45) I spread out cookbooks and melded tastes and textures and flavors for the perfect meal.

For a couple of years I was a professional “orphan” at Christmas. I was always the 7th to their six, even third to their two. For the past 13 years Thanksgiving is always at my husband’s grandmother’s, whom we both call Nanny. It is a feast of epic proportions and one to be very thankful for one’s participation.

We’ve been by ourselves on Christmas, sometimes being in a new town but we’re back. I love to welcome those with no parents, family halfway around the world, newcomers to town. In no way are they “orphans” but I do love to cook dinner for a few brave souls, usually neighbors, and try to make a menu for them.

These days one must ask allergies and dislikes and one dinner was kicked out immediately. As I age and get more experienced with menus and cooking I must also gauge cooking space in the oven and on the stove.

For those of you who’ve read me for a few years you may remember the capon debacle. Whole Foods, while I love it, will not carry capon. My mother used to make it for every special occasion except Thanksgiving and Christmas and with four kids and a husband, it was pretty much a monthly occasion and her butcher was easily prepared for it.

A few weeks ago I interviewed the head of http://www.roastgoose.com, Jim Schiltz, head of Shiltz Farms. They took on Wapsie Farms’ capon business. Jim, I have to tell you that I will do a goose in the future but right now we’re moving across country in a month and there is much to do and it does not include studying cooking or carving a goose or innovating many leftovers.

I will order a large capon for dinner for six. Make mashed potatoes and probably roasted carrots, steamed green beans. Appetizer undecided. Dessert would have to be cold and kept outside, covered because of no frig space or oven space to make a pie. Or I could make mincemeat tarts in advance. Capon would be stuffed under the skin with butter, s&p and herbs. Stuffed with sausage & apples and toasted wheat bread.

It’s a good feeling so far. I’m now sitting at the computer in 68 degrees next to several cold floor-to-ceiling windows (less than 1/2 degree per year). It reminds me of the old days. For three years we placed all our stuff in storage except for a couple dozen tech books for my husband’s work. I did without cookbooks. If there was anything new I needed ideas for, I looked it up online.

Now my cookbooks are back (at least for now) and to think of something, like Julia Child’s Uncle Hans’ City Scrapple and knowing just where to look it up is a comfort to me. There will never be a total replacement for books, at least while I’m on this earth.

Happy menu planning! My mother went through turkey for years before doing the traditional English feast of prime rib, Yorkshire pudding et al. To each his/her own. Enjoy the holidays. Cheers! Dee

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Birds

Posted on November 17, 2014 | 1 comment

I wanted to title this “Game Birds” but Jim Schiltz would not allow me to do so. I just got off the phone with him in a fascinating interview in which I learned many things about….. birds.

Who is Jim Schiltz? Only the head of Schiltz Foods, Inc. and Schiltz Goose Farm, Inc. He knows his birds. He told me geese were domesticated about the same time as dogs and cattle. My research on dogs says up to 40,000 years. I’d have to check my father-in-law, the rancher and former dairyman, on cattle.

For those of you who know me from the past, yes, I still want a capon and have spent years finding one. While I’ll be at Nanny’s for my 13th Thanksgiving with my husband’s family and am only allowed to bring table snacks, sides and a dessert, Christmas is a different story, to be told later.

One of my favorite girlie movies is the one where the Aussie/Canadian girl learns to fly and takes the geese, from the eggs she found, south for the winter. Fly Away Home, with Anna Pacquin and Jeff Daniels and Dana Delaney. These must be different geese.

The farm began in 1944 and Jim was added to the gaggle in 1962. After tastiness, they had to breed for white feathers because everywhere but France, where the infamous Toulouse geese live and die, people want white down pillows, not grey ones.

Jim said he’d heard of an 82 year-old goose, and that many can live to 25 or even 40, but after maturity they usually go to dog food. Lucky dogs! Mine eats frozen raw rabbit, lamb, turkey, and venison, but I’ll have to check out goose.

Which brings me to capon. It was always a special meal in our home and widely available, even in rural neighborhoods like the one I grew up in. On my birthday I got to choose my cake (Viennese Chocolate Pecan Torte) and dinner, which was capon.

I mis-spoke earlier when I said this was my 13th Thanksgiving at Nanny’s. My husband worked for an online retailer years ago and they wouldn’t let him off for Black Friday so we had to forgo the trip. A month earlier I went to Whole Foods and asked for a capon. No. I asked why? No reason. I asked customer service. No answer. I called HQ. I don’t know why they won’t let me order a capon.

Look up capon on this site. I’ve done my research. Wapsie Farms had capon. Marc and Jim struck up a friendship at industry events and now Schiltz farms has a capon enterprise as well, and you can order from them at http://www.roastgoose.com.

My husband has been off for several months on a consulting contract but of course we’re meeting at his Nanny’s for Thanksgiving. Christmas we’ll have on our own. I’m getting a goose, a capon and a container of goose fat to make Pommes Anna and keep in the frig for good stuff. Jim even told me how to cook a goose (recipes are on the site) but they do have a goose for ‘fraidy cats. Get it frozen and heat it up in an hour. Your family and guests will never know and you can make side dishes instead of basting!

I do shop at Whole Foods Market and everyone is nice to me at this store, but I may have to keep moving around the country to keep that the case when I bring up capon. The store’s protein rules are strict and arbitrary. My father-in-law would love to get his registered Angus cattle into the butcher’s case, and so would raisers of geese and capons.

Principles, not solely marketing, should be the driving force in a market, and that market could be anything from Wall Street to Main Street. The holier-than-thou attitude of Whole Foods Market looks down on anyone not wearing espadrilles and carrying in ten bags then asking if you want to donate a dollar for using the bags you already bought from them, and if you want to donate to their charity of the month.

GIVE ME CAPON! For heaven’s sake, is that too much to ask? Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving. I’m making spicy almonds and cashews, marinated Kalamata olives, cranberry chutney, brussels sprouts and cauliflower gratin, and mincemeat tarts. And driving 1,500 miles to get there.

Many thanks and happy holidays to the Schiltz’s and the Wapsies, who both hail from Iowa. I won’t hit that state or SD en route but got a bunch of quarters to get through the Oklahoma Territory as I messed up and put a dollar bill in the machine two years ago. Oops, almost got a warrant on that one. Caponly yours, Dee

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Hello Jeff Bonforte

Posted on October 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’ve been on hold another hour, that makes 39. I’ve noticed that right before you cut off the phone and muzak you play Wylie Gustafson’s yahoooooooooooo yodel. I know Wylie and have asked him to sue you again for using his yodel right before you piss off a customer and cut off the call before ever accessing a human being. Hopefully he’ll have more success than I have had so far.

As for customer service, you say at the outset that I may be cut off and no-one may ever answer. I’ve my old iPhone hooked up to power and have the volume up so I’m awaiting the yahoooooooooooooo and hang up. Going on 40 hours now. Time to get a lawyer and sue your a**es. Dee

ps you can use the same prefix but I’m at gmail right now and prefer my paid yahoo pop.mail account I pay for.

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I Don’t Know

Posted on September 30, 2014 | 1 comment

`It’s a phrase one may never utter but as long as I now have light and glasses I’ll tell you why I believe it’s important.

Saying I don’t know does not make one impotent, it is merely a challenge to learn something new. I have the greatest luck to live a door away from a Swede who is coming over to teach me his meatball recipe with his old girlfriend who is visiting from the homeland.

I can say aloud that I do not know how to make his sweet, silky Swedish meatballs (Kottbullar, he brought me some frozen ones from Sweden) but he is willing to teach me something I do not know.

In turn, I will teach him real Texas chili. LBJ, actually his wife in 1962 with JFK and 5,000 on the Ranch at Pedernales. Texans call it perdenales. Texas chili has no beans. Here’s to good eatin’ Dee

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Lessons

Posted on September 23, 2014 | 1 comment

Over my storied life, I have learned much from my family, school and music teachers, my husband and his family, my work at several venues and of course my dear professors.

There is nothing as educational or wisdom-producing as having responsibility for a life. No, we don’t have children, not our blessing. But I’ve been responsible for the lives of two cats and two dogs in my life over the years.

It’s like being a parent, you watch what goes in and what comes out. Sneezes as a little one and bumps as they age. You choose to adopt and take on a life and at the end, help ease them out of it.

Being responsible for a life teaches care above oneself, humility, joy, and as our Zoe would say ROUTINE. You have to go to the vet for shots, surgeries, even a first senior blood panel and keep your dog quarantined anywhere in the US under the British travel scheme permanently in case you’re sent overseas.

My first dog and cats passed after many happy years over 13 years ago. Now I’ve one old dog, nearly eleven years who we’ve had from six weeks of age. Five walks per day, perhaps six. Creating an indestructible toy. Baths and brushing and her herding us. Deciding to have her hips removed as a pup as she had severe hip dysplasia and going through two recoveries. Oh, she walks just fine and can run fast and corner because she had to grow her own hips from cartilage.

She doesn’t usually bark or whine, just stares until we do what she wants. If she’s over 70 in “dog years” perhaps that is what I should start to do. Just stare at my husband until he does what I want. Ah, well, it doesn’t work with people unless you want a horrible relationship. It does work for a herder, however. Patience is another virtue while caring for another life. It’s 5:00, time for dinner. It’s 5:02, you’re late. Get into the magic room and make my dinner, I don’t care if you’re writing about me on the blog. OK, I’m full, now I need to go for a walk. Stare.

She says “I killed a mouse today. I ate an old dead bird off the pavement and am going to vomit 48 hours later, in a safe place, your bed. Seven loads of laundry later you’ll still love me.” And we do.

Education is key. My first dog was abused for a year then in a shelter for the next. I was a volunteer and met her the first week and we were buddies but she was terrified of men, especially those in uniform, and kids. Even at this no-kill shelter there was word of another meeting to decide her fate. She was home with me the next morning. All it took was a home, love, care and training and she was the best rehabilitated dog in the world. Everyone loved her, and the kids would call out her name from the tot lot and run up to pet her and she adored them.

Did I hear the word sacrifice? No. It’s joy. For many years I was alone, not just single, alone. These were my companions and still are. Our dog Zoe follows me everywhere to make sure her pack is intact, especially as my husband has been off on a work assignment. Trust and loyalty are traits I admire from both me and Zoe. And my old dog’s ashes are in a teddy bear’s heart I move everywhere.

I do not hunt squirrels, however. Don’t worry, she’s on a 6′ leash and couldn’t get them even if she was off it, my dear hip-less wonderdog. Or bunnies. She doesn’t understand why they stay still until she’s 10′ away so they’re just interesting, not prey until they bolt. One thing is that I learn something new every day and that has always been my goal in life in all arenas. Cheers, Dee

 

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You did OK

Posted on September 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

That’s one phrase I always wanted to hear, from any of my childhood or adult pursuits. Dad was wishing it but never there. Mom never thought to think or say it.

I put my handprint in clay! I got 100+ (why didn’t you get 100 ++)! I turned to teachers, aunts of course, friends and their families. In college there were priests (never a wayward moment for them), for education and trying to learn enough to make a difference.

Then business. The awful things people say about priests today I never knew until I met legislators after college. It was all I could do to keep my skirt down in an elevator, but I did do so. Wearing opaque tights helped my defense.

Still, no-one ever said, you did OK. Now I have three-day Thanksgiving cook-fests and sometimes my mother-in-law and I rarely speak, just dance around in time making our dishes. She’s OK, and I know she knows I’m OK because she lets me use the oven. No, really she accepted me as her daughter-in-law and that’s OK for me. Did I say three days? I mean it. And this is Texas the land of sweet tea and many desserts.

And the day after I met my father-in-law for the first time he took my husband out of the truck and said “When are you gonna ask her, son? It’s OK with me.” His mother took four more days to say OK but we cook every year even though she moves the kitchen stuff around on me and I have to break the dance and ask where’s the peeler?

There’s nothing like family. Mom’s gone now. Dad’s still never around and we’ve not seen him in two years. Sisters, one may be trying for a reunion after six years.

I was a coach and a consultant and volunteer and the first thing I did was train then reward with compliments. I’m an “Atta Girl” gal and look to reward whenever I can. Corrections are necessary but need not be harsh, only fair and unemotional, on point. With extra training and more compliments.

Atta girls and guys, right here. Keep cooking and make your family proud. Dee

 

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Posted in Editorial, Education, Family, Music, Pet, Recipe Ideas, Recipes

Trust

Posted on August 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

It is something I’ve believed in my entire life. I thought the founding fathers trusted each other and the people and the fact that we could become a nation.

I will always believe (unless the story is ridiculous) before I am betrayed. Let’s just say I won’t give in to the Nigerian Spam Scam Scam, a wonderful two-person play but playwright Dean Cameron hit the mark on this one. A charity should send old, lonely folks waiting for the phone to ring to see this. With other old, lonely folks so they can laugh and get together for coffee and become friends who no longer wait for the phone to ring.

As one gets older and hopefully wiser, politicians are just guys asking for a paycheck and health insurance for life. I could have gone that route but chose not to do so.

Everyone is in sales, whether you’re a lawyer, plumber, doctor or CEO. Yet our elected officials sometimes get lower trust ratings than used car salesmen.

We have abandoned trust. We think my family only wants my money, my lawyer only wants the fee on the settlement. My assistant will be let go for incompetence and she’ll sue me for harassment.

High rise buildings, neighbors hear your key in the lock and close the elevator door anyway. Dog owners who pick up their 15 lb dog because they think my 30 lb dog will kill it. Perhaps sniff the dog’s butt and nose, nothing more, tails wagging all the time would work a lot better.

Faith. I have faith that people are good. Some of that is instilled by my parents but some is pure instinct. It helps to try to sort out a good situation from a bad one and act accordingly.

My husband sleeps soundly. So soundly he and the dog slept through a Cat. 5 hurricane for ten hours. If I had to take out the dog in the middle of the night if she was ill, he wants me to be safe because sure as heck he’s not going to wake up. The dog slept through a storm I watched last night right by windows. As long as I stayed on the bed, she was safe and could sleep. That is trust. Dee

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Saints and Sinners

Posted on August 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’ve been lucky to know a few saints. No, they were not awarded sainthood by the Holy Roman Catholic church but are saints to me.

One who comes to mind is the gentleman I met first day of college orientation who was somewhat bereft of a bed so slept on a blanket outside our dorm room. I found him the next morning. Though our talks and his writings I learned to know more about myself and what I was capable of being.

To my college advisor, with whom I must schedule lunch 1,000 miles away per our phone conversation last week, he gave me great advice and then got me out of a tough situation my senior year. We’ve kept in touch for nearly 40 years. He is a saint and perhaps his miracle is me as I learned that knowledge is power and that to trust is a miracle in itself.

My great aunt O taught me to love food and friends and enjoy being with folks who, partly thanks to my efforts, are covered by policies that prohibit discrimination in housing and employment due to perceived sexual orientation and now allow same sex couples to marry.

To my aunts L and J, for keeping a dictionary in the bathroom and making me learn a word every time I went in there. They also taught me how to cook, and to taste something they made without asking the ingredients. Yes, they introduced me to the splendiferousness of blue cheese.

To St. Francis of Assisi, I know he’s already a saint. He helped me in my volunteerism and advocacy for animals over two decades. I’ve yet to see Assisi but have seen his robe in Siena.

There are certain saints among us every day, including my friend Dan who passed recently. He took care of old people in nursing homes and was gifted.

Is there a saint in us? I’d like to prove that now rather than wait the the HRC to recognize me 500 years hence. Cheers, Dee

 

 

 

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