Nee Shitteru? (Revised)

Oooo, such an intersection of weird and cute, no? You really should check out the many other Mameshiba on YouTube. And how about these guys:

After a long, hard day battling the Imperfect Subjunctive and dividing Polynomials, a homeschooled girl's gotta relax, right?

Like all good international adoptive parents, Mr. D*S and I tried our best to encourage in Panda an interest and pride in her Chinese heritage. We joined the local Families with Children from China group and attended festivals and culture camp. The New Year’s Dragon dance terrified her, and she was relieved when a peanut allergy finally put an end to that. She bravely endured seven years of Mandarin lessons but plainly detested it. Like most kids, Panda was more interested in developing the culture of Panda. So her recent enthusiasm for all things Asian has come as a delightful surprise, even if it is mostly pop culture. She’ll find her own Panda way, I’m sure.

First Vegetables

I've grown and picked culinary herbs for years now, and last year we grew our own tomatoes and salad greens for the first time. But this beautiful bunch of chard is the very first vegetable I've ever harvested. I got such a kick out of gathering this bunch in! The leaves and stems were cooked up into a risotto with lentils—and there's leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Yum.

Summer Survival

Running this house feels like sailing a boat these days. Instead of trimming sails, we run around opening and closing windows, drawing curtains, directing fans and consulting the weather report and thermometer. We have a very large house with 5 stories, going from chilly in the basement to sweltering on the top floor. For the last two summers, we've managed to avoid putting on the air conditioning more than five times total. Until now—the heat wave of 2010. Everyday for the last two weeks, CBC reports not just the expected highs, but the "humidex." As in, the thermometer will reach 30 today, but it'll feel like 43 with the humidex. Ugh. The A/C has been humming pretty well the whole time.

On the other hand, my body feels like an ancient car. A certain amount of maintenance is imperative: stretching, strengthening, icing, heating. Limiting walks and bumping up and down the many, many stairs on my bottom. Rattling, creaking and popping from joints. I need to spend over an hour a day doing my exercises for knees, back and shoulders. Do I actually do this every day? Well, most days I'm a good girl. I have very little choice.

I leave you with a photo of the back yard during one of the frequent rain storms that never manage to cool anything down, just intensify the humidity. In other words, the humidity is at 100%, rather than our normal 80%.

And it's not doing much for the ping pong table either.

Spanish Soccer Supper

Since, once again, I will not be attending The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, it will be a Soccer Weekend here at Deeply Suburban. To make it a more meaningful experience for the less-than-enthusiastic sports fan, I'm going to cook up the sole Spanish dish in my repetoire: Tortilla Española. It's not quite an omlette, being more robust, more satisfying and much more versatile. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, soccer supper—you name it, it does the job brilliantly. Though the potatoes are poached in olive oil, just as they do in Spain, it will not be oily at all. Most of the oil drains off and it can be used again if you like. I use plain (not EV) olive oil. And I know, it's not really authentic with that kale in there, but I'm a bit of a leafy greens fanatic and I don't think any Soccer fan, Spanish or not, will scorn this yummy dish.

Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla

• 1 lb. boiling potatoes
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 lb. kale, center ribs discarded
• 7 large eggs
• 
  

Peel potatoes and cut into 1/3-inch dice (2 1/4 cups). Heat oil in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then reduce heat to moderately low and cook potatoes, onion, and 1 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Blanch kale while potatoes cook:
Cook kale in a 4- to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop cooking. Drain again, squeezing handfuls of kale to extract excess moisture, then coarsely chop.

Add kale to potato mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain vegetables in colander set over a bowl, reserving drained oil, and cool 10 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a large bowl, then stir in vegetables, 1 tablespoon drained oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Add 1 tablespoon drained oil to skillet, then add egg mixture and cook over low heat, covered, until sides are set but center is still loose, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 15 minutes.

Shake skillet gently to make sure tortilla is not sticking (if it is sticking, loosen with a heatproof plastic spatula). Slide tortilla onto a large flat plate, then invert skillet over tortilla and flip it back into skillet. Round off edge of tortilla with plastic spatula and cook over low heat, covered, 10 minutes more. Slide tortilla onto a plate and serve warm, cut into wedges.

Kitchen Corner

I always know what I want, but sometimes it takes a while to put it together. For two years, we’ve used a corner of the kitchen for Moxie’s crate, but it was crying out for a smart kitchen set, and not just any kitchen set either. First, the table: French bistro-style with a marble top. I may never possess the kitchen of my dreams with marble counters and backsplash, but I can own a little piece, can't I? And how about that chair-of-the-moment, the French Thonet? Well, it turns out I can't actually have that. Sure, Crate & Barrel has a knock-off, but what a flimsy chair at $149. Fortunately, the search for our table base led us to the Chair Room of a restaurant supply store, where we found these beauties for $25 each. Comfortable and sturdy. Mr. D*S is so handy with a paint brush, and the soft vinyl is perfect for a kitchen—and cheap, too.

Here's the original chair from the restaurant supply:

And the finished table and chairs in our little kitchen nook:

I'm tickled every time I sit here for my coffee or with my laptop. It was worth the wait. And to make it even sweeter, I've spied similar chairs in a magazine lately for over $1,000 each. Yeah, I'm happy.

Next trip into the city, we'll look for bamboo blinds to warm that window up a bit.

Declaration of War

Whereas Old Mrs. Groundhog and Family have committed repeated acts of war against the Deeply Suburban Family and their Garden; therefore be it Resolved by the D*S Family Council that the state of war between the D*S Family and the Groundhog Family which has been thrust upon the D*S Family is hereby formally declared; and that Mr. D*S be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire manpower, technical ability and resources of the D*S Family, including the use of our most vigilant and faithful Guard Dog Moxie Crimefighter, to carry on war against the Groundhog Family; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the the resources of the Family are hereby pledged by the Family Council of the D*S Family.

Initial Assault:

The Last Straw:

Mr. D*S and Defence Works: