Pond Scum Soup

So, I needed a place to post this online and - guess what! I had this blog. Anyway, for anyone who ever wanted to know, here is Pond Scum Soup. Adapted from Danielle Koberstein.

Pond Scum Soup

*Note: The flavor comes from the items above the dotted line. Everything below can be adjusted or substituted to taste.

2 T olive oil

1 T butter

1 large onion, chopped

4 ribs celery, sliced

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced

7-8 cloves garlic, minced

14 oz canned diced tomatoes

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1-2 cans of chicken or vegetable broth

3/4 c barley

1/3 c quinoa

1 head of any greens

Some cabbage, cut up

Some eggplant, chunks

Some yellow squash, sliced

A couple handfuls of chopped almonds

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp onion powder

1 dash cayenne pepper

1.       Heat oil and butter in a pan. Add onion, celery, and carrots. Cook on low until celery and carrots are coated and have absorbed some onion flavor.

2.       Add 1/2 the garlic, cook until garlic flavor is into the vegetables a little, too.

3.       Pour everything into a crock pot; add everything else. (Add the almonds maybe 20 minutes before serving so they stay crunchy.)

NON-CROCK POT:

1.       Heat oil and butter in a large stock pot. Add onion, celery, and carrots. Cook on low for 15 minutes (until tender).

2.       Add the garlic and tomatoes to the pot and cook another 5 minutes.

3.       Add the rest of vegetables, grains and, if you are adding beans, those.

4.       Add greens UNLESS you are using spinach. Reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes.

5.       IF USING SPINACH: After that 40-minute simmer time, add spinach. Heat until spinach has wilted to appropriately scum-like conditions.

6.       Add almonds toward the end, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat throughout.

*Danielle adds 3/4 c dried lentils, 3/4 c dried split peas, 14-oz can of kidney beans and a 14-oz can of garbanzo beans. that is a lot of beans. I leave them out in favor of the cabbage, eggplant, and squash, and sometimes fresh green beans. If you include the beans AND these vegetables, you might want to increase the liquid and spices in the soup - a fair amount of liquid is important for the grains and greens. Use more if you want it more soupy and less like a stew.

*The most important thing in this recipe is to simmer it/leave it in the crock pot. I made this once in a rush and it wasn't that good. The whole flavor depends on the garlic, onions, and spices being able to sink into the vegetables and tougher-than-spinach greens.

dedicated to Oakland

Last week, we moved from Oakland, California, to a more suburban town farther south, closer to Jon's new job. We know Oakland gets a lot of bad press, but as we really enjoyed living there, we thought we'd do a good-bye post about things we loved about living in Oakland. (And let's be honest, we're still close enough that we'll be up there often enough.) When we tell people we just moved from Oakland, we often get negative reactions, which makes us think to ourselves, "Have they ever even spent any time there?" We recognize that Oakland has work to do in certain areas, but you likely already know the negative stories. We want to familiarize people with some of the positive ones, of which there are many.

For those familiar with the area, you'll notice that some of these are actually in Berkeley - but living in Oakland, we were close to Berkeley, so it was part of our experience. To be fair, later on we'll do a post about things we are excited about for our new area. (Neither of these posts will include things about people we miss or are excited about being nearby - just rest assured that we have great friends in both areas.)

The view from our bedroom window at sunset, 2nd Oakland apartment

Very first ... we will miss the feel of Oakland. That feeling of knowing the neighborhoods, knowing which ones you prefer and why, and knowing someone in every one of those neighborhoods. The intimate acquaintance with Adams' Point that comes with having five friends managing apartment buildings there. That slight grittiness with the flourishing culture within it - it's true that you have to be a little more alert, a little more careful in Oakland, but we think it's worth it. Plus, then you learn to be savvy - one trick is to slash through the registration stickers on your car with an Exacto knife, so that if someone tries to steal it they can never get the whole thing. Brilliant, right??

We have so many Oakland stories. Coming home from something one night, cutting through downtown and realizing that it's Oakland's birthday - stopping to participate in the party. Getting free Oakland Birthday party hats and eating from food trucks and stepping out of the way for the handful of guys who brought their tubas and are brass-banding it down the sidewalk. Driving down International Blvd at night and passing someone with giant lights and equipment, shooting a movie. Having friends who know where to get pretty much any kind of food. Walking home one night from a $5 classic movie at the Paramount, and passing the classic car gathering that always happens at the 1/4-Lb Giant Burger parking lot at the corner of W Grand and Telegraph. Our favorite area is west Oakland, with its wide streets, industrial areas, and artists' lofts and quirks. Listening to that one guy who always rides by on his bike, carrying his extraordinarily loud boom box on his shoulder. Having a view that includes either the temple or the beautiful downtown lights. And speaking of downtown lights, sometime you should check out the view of the city as you come around the 980 stretch from 580 westbound toward downtown. I'll never get tired of that one.

Here are some of our favorite Oakland things:

• We had a ridiculously short commute to the Oakland LDS Temple. And we went to church in the building next to it, which was fun.
• Berkeley Bowl, a grocery store built in I think what used to be a bowling alley ... they have a pretty good bulk section and the most incredible array of fresh, inexpensive produce I have ever seen ... plus some other fun things, like calamari steaks, Dang! coconut chips, and squid ink.
• Paramount Theater - monthly, they show old movies for $5. We LOVE going to those - it's not just a movie. First of all, you need to get there when the doors open at 7pm, because sometimes they sell out. And also because you need to be able to just sit and take in the environment. The inside of the theater is incredibly ornate, restored from the 1920's. The staff are dressed in tuxes and welcome you to the theater. The bathrooms are also restored, and include a giant powder room with stools and mirrors and lights, and the soap by the sink is a powder. Then, at 7:30 before the movie starts, they have an organist who plays for awhile, and then they do a Dec-O-Win raffle for prizes donated by local vendors. Then they show an old newsreel. And THEN they show the movie, usually by 8:30pm.
• Homeroom, a restaurant dedicated to macaroni and cheese. need I say more?
  
  
  
  
  

Oaktown Spice Shop, a tiny shop filled with tons of spices I've never heard of and a few that I have ... including a rainbow of colored and flavored salts. The owner knows everything - all you have to do is say, "I'm trying to make this. what spice should I use?" and he can point you toward several good choices, and explain them all. We go all the time and get the little sample packets for a dollar or two.

Dimond Park Lions Pool, where I learned correct swimming kicking, and where that one lady who has giant, flaming red hair, never shuts up and always has something vaguely inappropriately close to say that implies we are much better friends than we are.

• Kwik Way, a drive-in/outdoor diner sort of place. They have some of the most incredible burgers. I took a vegetarian there a couple weeks ago and she had their veggie burger, and said it was the closest thing she'd had to an actual meat burger ever.
• Merritt Bakery - They have chicken and waffles, and very tasty pastries. This is where I got the tiny cake top to surprise Jon on our first anniversary. (Edit: This place burned down a few months after this blogpost.)
• The whole Lake Merritt area. They have a lot of neat little places, most of which I only recently discovered. There is a small branch of the library right there next to the farmers' market and the spice shop - it makes for a pretty perfect little Oakland Saturday morning.
  
• The Mountain View Cemetery (in Oakland, not Mountain View). It's a gorgeous, 226-acre cemetery with peaceful, elegant mausoleums, incredible views, and towering crypts. You can visit Samuel Merritt's grave there, among many other big Oakland names. There's also a whole Jewish cemetery within it. The picture to the right is Jon in front of one of the mausoleums on the 4th of July.
• Bittersweet - it's a chocolate cafe, yo. It has excellent salted caramel hot chocolate, and slightly bizarre but also kind of good white chocolate cardamom hot chocolate.
• Oaklandish - The classic Oakland store. There are actually several little Oakland-y shops (including Loakal and Urban Indigo) but this one is kind of the flagship. Oaklanders are proud of their city, and this is one of the ways it shows.
• The Fuse Fitness - I've already blogged about this, but it's a gym in the quaint little "unincorporated community of 2200 homes" of Kensington. The street it's on feels like some sort of dream community, with adorable little houses and businesses and tons of people out walking their dogs or going for a run. And the gym is a tiny community of its own. It's a great place.
• East Bay Restaurant Supply - where to go for all your giant pizza peel needs. or your giant whisk needs, or your tiny whisk needs, or your barstool needs, or your other-stuff-you-never-realized-people-who-don't-run-a-restaurant-could-actually-buy needs.
• Monkey Forest Road - a coffee bar and Indonesian art gallery on Grand Ave. seriously. They're going to have a show coming up called the Grand Avenue Retrospective (tentative opening date 10/19/13) ... they are looking for submissions of old photos and memories from people who have lived in the Grand Ave area. It's going to be so awesome.
  
• Grand Lake Farmers Market - where we know exactly who sells what of what we like, but there are still sometimes surprises ... red russian kale, lemon almonds, apricot lavender balsamic vinegar, and the best cantaloupe I've ever had. This is listed as one of the best farmer's markets in the Bay Area (specifically in the East Bay.)
• The White Elephant Sale, where I got a box of books and a couple of great vases, and the cash was donated to the Oakland Museum. And where the line, an HOUR before it opened, was LITERALLY, probably half a mile long (those at the front had blankets and camp chairs). Where an actual person dressed in a white elephant costume to provide photo ops. I kinda want to volunteer there next year. Oh, a note: This is a once-a-year event, generally held in March.
• Sparky's Giant Burgers - they're just really good, ok? This is a great place to go after the temple, because it's closer than Fenton's and has way better food. (Not better ice cream though.)
• Urban Ore - This is a THREE-ACRE thrift store. It's so intense that they give tours. At any given time they have about 3500 DOORS for sale. Doors. And lumber, and books, and file cabinets, and sinks, and counters, and clothes, and art supplies, and SO MUCH MORE.
• The random small bookstores. It's possible they're not as prevalent as I think, but I feel like they're always cropping up where I least expect.
  
• Off the Grid - this is a SF-based thing that does a stop in Oakland every Friday. Tons of food trucks congregate so you can get a huge variety all at once.
• "The cannons" aka the cranes. We think they look like cannons. And also I can't look at them without thinking of Star Wars.
• The so many BART stations! There are a bunch in Oakland. And so many buses to get to them. 
• This sort of goes without saying, but Oakland is super close to San Francisco, so it's comparatively easy and quick to get there.
• Also super close to the Oakland airport. Hard to get more convenient.
• For the 4th of July, there are lots of places to see fireworks. This area is at a perfect crossroads that allows you to see fireworks in SF, Berkeley, Marin, and some farther-south but not-sure-exacly-where areas, all from one comfy hill! And also, as you drive home from that hill, you pass tons of other people lighting their own commercial-grade fireworks. Awesome.
• The beautiful Oakland Hills! There are also a ton of gorgeous parks up in there. It's always cool and shady and feels like you're in the forest.
• The Chabot Space and Science Center. We like going to their adults-only nighttime events. They are relaxed and it's like a giant space playhouse.
• The American Steel Studios - we've already blogged about this here, and it remains a super great place to visit. It's sort of hidden among lots of warehouses. it's like a secret awesome place.
• The East Bay Bike Party. It's on the second Friday of every month. You'd think that we love this because we just really love biking. Not so. We are awful Californians in the sense that we don't actually own bikes. (Hopefully that will change at some point, but I am still scared to ride on the street, because the one time I did it - in Provo - was terrifying. Jon has promised to teach me.) Anyway, the reason this is so awesome is because this traveling bike party has on occasion passed our apartment window, and it is the coolest sight (and sound). Floods of bikers, streaming down the street at night, often with glow-in-the-dark things and crazy music.
  
• The views. We loved our first apartment in Oakland, and it had a stunning view of downtown Oakland that I think I never took a picture of. We liked our second apartment pretty well (it couldn't quite compare to our beautiful yet inexpensive loft, but it was still a good space), but it had a great view of the Oakland temple (especially at night).
• The protests. Many people would see this as a drawback, but to us it's exciting to be in a place where things are happening, where people respond in vocal ways to national issues. We don't always agree with the sentiments, but it's still a crazy, adrenaline-ish experience to hear the news helicopters and pass the blocked-off areas and know that in Oakland, people are talking. 
• The running route we used to take, from our apartment, through downtown, to Jack London Square and back. It's awesome to see all the people and stores and buildings and cars and sights when you're trying not to think about your lungs.
• **Edit: Right after publishing this post, we tried the Cheeseboard Collective for the first time. This is some of the best pizza we've ever had. They serve only one kind of spectacular and unique pizza every day and they always have a line out the door and down the block.
• Finally, the diversity. In our ward, on the street, everywhere we went, there were a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds surrounding us. Our ward had a rich history and was a beautiful patchwork of cultures and levels of experience in the Church. We met people with incredible stories. Sometimes it could be a struggle, since many people had very different approaches to different situations, but overall it was a great example of how individuals of different backgrounds can strengthen the group.

So, there's our guide. Visit soon :)

My Superhuman Spouse

By Jon


This is a quick blog post.  I just had to mention something to the world before the amazing-ness of it wore off.  I came home tonight to find something surprising:

This is our dresser.  Not all that amazing, except for the fact that it is now in our front hall.  We're getting ready to move soon, and Brooke not only emptied it out, but she moved the thing from our bedroom into the hall by the living room.  By herself.  Without removing any of the drawers!

I just wanted to brag a little bit about how amazing she is.  I was actually wondering if we would be able to get the thing out with both of us working together, and she went and did it by herself.

Kimber, I'm not sure what that gym class that you've been teaching does, but whatever it is, it's helped Brooke realize her dream of being Wonder Woman.

Neon Run

Brooke has been busy with other projects and she's been encouraging me to contribute to the blog, so hopefully she won't mind if I post about one of the really awesome events we participated in recently.

A few months ago we saw a deal online for tickets to participate in the Neon Run.  For those of you who don't know what the Neon Run is (and I'm assuming that's pretty much everyone, including us before we saw this deal), I like to describe it as halfway between a 5k and a rave (minus the illegal drugs and pacifiers).  It's held at night, and everyone dresses in either neon colors or glow in the dark stuff.  Every so often they have these tents where they've set up a bunch of black lights.  As you run through they spray blacklight paint on everyone so you glow in the black lights.

We have been planning to do a race together for quite some time, so when we saw this deal we thought it might be a fun way to get started.  Our original plan was to come up with really awesome costumes for this race, but between starting the new job and looking for places to live (we're moving soon, but that's another post), I didn't get much farther than ordering a bunch of LED strips from ebay.

The week of the race came and I decided to throw something together that would still be cool, but not quite as incredible as we'd originally planned (we're saving that for Halloween).  We got some glow in the dark fabric paint and decorated some cheapo shirts.  We also used some black light body paint (provided in our race packet).  Here are the results:

Brooke would have you know that  the B on her shirt
stands for Brooke and not for the Red
Sox since she is a Yankee's fan

It was Brooke's idea to trace my
veins in blacklight paint.

The things I'm most proud of, however, were the LEDs.  I first put a couple rows of LED's behind my race number and hooked them to a battery and a switch so I could light up my number.  Then I put a strip of blue LED's around each of our shoes and hooked them to a 9V battery that I taped to the back of each shoe.  This is what they looked like at the beginning of the race:

But as it got darker, they stood out more and more.  I have never in my life gotten so many (or any) compliments about my shoes.  We literally could not go more than 100 yards without hearing someone say "look at those shoes!"  or "your shoes are awesome!"  It was a nice boost to my ego.  This picture should give you a better idea of what they looked like in the dark.

The run itself was pretty fun.  It was definitely not a race where everyone was super competitive.  I'm pretty sure some people walked the whole thing.  That was good for us, since neither of us is that fast.  We jogged most of the way.  Most of the time when we stopped, it was to adjust or fix our LED shoes.  I think we were both a little surprised at how easy it was*.

*Brooke's Note: I had heard of "fun runs," but I always just thought "fun run" meant "it's short, which is more fun and less hard/serious than more miles would be." Maybe I was right, but I felt that the Neon Run was probably the most literal definition of "fun run" I will ever see. The starting area was totally filled and refilled over and over with the thousands and thousands of runners, and it was actually nearly impossible to run at the beginning. From there on, it was more of a "go through the cool blacklight course and, if you want, you can run!" OK, most of the people ran at least some of the time, but loootttsss of the people defaulted to walking except during the exciting parts or after the first half mile. So, this is the perfect run for people who want to do a 5k where you actually are just at a giant party that moves.

Here are some more pictures and videos of us during/at the run.

Brooke's high school advice to teachers

I was going through some old papers today and found this list I made in high school. I don't know if I was feeling especially great about classes I loved or especially frustrated with classes I didn't, but it's still an interesting list. There are one or two I don't completely agree with anymore, but most I think I could still get behind. (Photo credit - the Washington Post.)

--

PRACTICAL THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM SCHOOL AND TEACHERS

1. Never try to make someone write a satire on something they don't care about.
2. Fun and creativity are good. People remember the things they enjoyed learning. Keep the fun focused on the subject and it will make the subject fun, not just the experience.
3. Ethos, pathos, logos! It works in persuasive argument, why not in teaching?
4. Remember that your students do not have your experience, and just because you think YOU can get a good "why the author wrote the book" from an R.L. Stine doesn't mean that they can (or that you're right).
5. Be fair.
6. Encourage people to write what they know, and to expand what they know so they can write more (and more effectively).
7. Invest yourself in your students. People respond well to sincerity.
8. Yours is not your students' only class, and school is not their only activity. Give efficient homework whenever possible.
9. Hold debates. In any class. Over anything, from whether or not Napoleon was a child of the Enlightenment to why this particular mathematical method is better than that one in a given situation. People like to argue.
10. Hold to your due dates enough of the time that your students believe you when you give them, but don't be afraid to give extensions.
11. Don't be so serious!
12. Convince yourself first.
13. Hands on, hands on, hands on.
14. Make kids think. Don't just present the material. Make them ask questions.
15. Some kids will never respond. Try to reach them anyway. Don't treat them like a lost cause.

Maker Faire 2013

For those who weren't around for last year's report, the Maker Faire is a huge DIY festival that takes place every year in San Mateo. (They have others around the country, too.) It's put on by Make Magazine. It's a great community of people, and really fun to see the things everyone comes up with. Also, I don't know why this is showing up as all-caps, because it looks like boring, lower-case Times New Roman to me. So, sorry about that.

Anyway, for my birthday, Jonny got me a Wondermark comic book and a really excellent Wondermark print, of a comic that I might as well have written. He got them for me specifically because we had tickets to the Maker Faire, and David Malki (who does the Wondermark comic) had just announced that he would be there with a booth. So Jon got me things to have signed!

(That says "bibliophibians" up there.) We went to the Wondermark booth as pretty much our first activity of the day. He does this thing called a Roll-a-Sketch, where you pay five bucks and roll some dice that correspond with different pictures. He will then draw you a comic of your very own, combining those pictures in crazy ways. So I did this! I was the first one of the day.

The "roll" part of "Roll-a-Sketch":




The "sketch" part:



The outcome:

After that, we explored the rest of the place. Here is "The Imperial March" being played on Tesla coils (this was Jon's favorite part):




And here is art made from piano parts:

And here is a thing where a guy took a piano out to Half Moon Bay and played on it every night for a few weeks, letting it deteriorate in the weather before setting it on fire for the last concert (more). Yay for the Maker Faire!

gonna-be-old-later things

While I have no children (and am not pregnant), I do have a thing with saving stuff (less like hoarding, more like scrapbooking). This morning as I was lying in bed, I thought about a sheet of 37-cent stamps I had, and was wondering whether to use them up or save a couple in the name of When Stamps Were 37-Cents.

Which got me thinking, how old would they have to be for someone to care?

Which got me thinking, who would get those stamps when I died? (likely my currently non-existent posterity)

Which got me thinking, what if those posterity people were to have a packet of their own of stuff from when they were born?

Which got me thinking, what would I put in it?

I think this is not a new idea, but crowdsourcing is fun, so. I made a mental list and would love additional thoughts. What is any and every thing you could possibly put in a packet or book of "Stuff from When I Was Born?"

• Stamps
• A postmarked letter
• A newspaper (probably the most common one, but possibly to get harder in coming years with paper news getting more scarce)
• Their first rattle (I have this of mine)
• A picture of the gas pump prices
• A picture of your car(s)
• A picture of the building you live in
• A picture of your cell phone (or even the cell phone itself, when you're done using it)
• A video of you with your new baby and spouse and friends (it would be interesting to see what my parents' sociality was like when they were 22)
• A copy of a movie that was made that year or your favorite book
• A few of your favorite or iconic comic strips from that day, or an iconic comic book printed that year
• Other era-iconic things, like a Netflix envelope, a Hot-and-Ready Little Caesar's pizza box top (give me a break, I'm brainstorming), the front of a couple cereal boxes (again), a fast food bag with the company logo on it, a piece of iconically fashionable clothing
• A Wired/Time/Newsweek/People magazine from that month or week
• A list of your favorite songs from that year
• A piece of art from/about the city you live in
• A list of statistics from that year (basic census data, sports teams that are winning, important weather patterns like Hurricane Sandy or the Oklahoma tornadoes)
• A For the Strength of Youth or Personal Progress booklet (those things get updated relatively frequently, and the old ones are AWESOME... one Personal Progress goal was that you could pour kerosene in all standing water for one square mile to get rid of mosquitoes, and one important youth standard was to not go out in public with curlers in your hair)
• Your favorite print ads from magazines or direct mail
• Pictures of your favorite billboards
• Ticket stubs from a movie or concert or game you went to that year (both for the movie of that year and for the look of what today's ticket stubs look like)
• Screenshots of your most-used websites or music players or programs or Freecell?
• If you live in a small town, pictures of the main street (big cities are probably less likely to change as much over a lifetime ... unless you get a picture of Times Square with the ads and everything)

Anything else?

p.s. I think this is also known as a time capsule.