Petoskey stones and mushroom houses in Charlevoix

I was the Rock Girl when I was a kid.

Not rock 'n' roll. Rocks, the ones you find on the ground.

I loved them, collected them, bought them, searched for them... it was an endless fascination for me. I really shouldn't be saying that in the past tense, though, because it's essentially still true: when I visit a bead shop and comb through the options for making new jewelry for myself, it's the stones and gemstones that grab my attention. Sparkly? Nah. Clay? I'll pass. Give me the rocks!

I think I bought a little drawstring bag of polished stones on every family vacation we took. I found one trip especially cool when we visited Yellowstone: We found a store outside the park that had a promotion in the store that lured you to buy a bag of uncleaned stones, sort through them in their pan-for-gold-in-the-water setup, and have the chance to find raw semiprecious stones.

I still have that bag of rocks.

I no longer keep a box of ordinary (but each with an interesting feature, of course!) rocks under my bed, but I'm still drawn to beautiful rocks.

The Petoskey area of Michigan is famous for a particular fossil-stone that washes up along the shores of Lake Michigan. On our trip to Michigan last week, Mom and I planned a visit to Petoskey (about two hours north of Traverse City) and Charlevoix and included some time combing through the shores.

Unfortunately, the weather gods over Petoskey gave us a 55-degree day with rain, fog, and 20+ mph winds.

Call me a wimp, but those aren't exactly the conditions that make me want to stand barefoot in the water and look for rocks.

I was brave enough to get out and get some photos, though, and I did come home with a (small) bag of pretty, smooth bleached-white stones.

Thankfully, by the time we got to Charlevoix, the skies cleared and the temperature climbed above 60 degrees. It was a photo of Charlevoix in a Michigan travel magazine (a photo taken in the exact spot as the one below) that had convinced us to take this trip, so we were both looking forward to visiting the town and checking out the local shops.

We were honestly a little disappointed. The number of shops was relatively small, and it seemed as though there really wasn't much to see or do in Charlevoix unless you had a boat and wanted to just sit along the water's edge. (And believe me, there were some nice boats around town!)

Not many people were on the beach that day, though we did see some impressively hardy souls sunning themselves on their yachts or balconies. Mom and I, on the other hand, had our jackets and sweatshirts zipped up to our chins.

The part of the town we found most interesting were the Earl Young homes. Earl Young was an architect in the first half of the twentieth century who made his mark by designing stone houses that are fondly called "mushroom houses" or "fairy houses", or more recently, "Hobbit houses." We found a rough map online and walked around town to see some of these interesting homes.

Most of them have curved, sloping roofs with cedar-shake shingles and chimneys that appear to be topped with dripping icing. Some are tiny, some are huge, and I'd have loved to have a chance to see inside one! Here are four of the ones we found:

As interesting as it would be to live in one of these homes, I don't think I'd ever want to live in a house that enticed people to constantly walk or drive by and take pictures. I like space, peace, quiet and privacy a little too much.

What about you -- would you live in an architecturally interesting house that drew attention like this?

Petoskey on Dwellable

Skipping town for a vacation - and some great wine!

Mom and I have made a tradition of taking a girls-only vacation together each year, and that's exactly what we did last week. Last year we trekked to the mountains of Asheville, NC and Knoxville, TN, so this year, we chose to surround ourselves with water instead. Traverse City, MI was our destination, and we capped it off with a couple days in the artsy communities of Holland and Saugatuck. Neither of us had spent much (if any) time in these areas, so we had a lot of fun just pulling ideas together for everything we wanted to see and do.

When we discovered that this particular area of Michigan is known for its wine (who knew?), we decided to make wine tasting one of our first activities.

Traverse City sits at the base of two peninsulas: the Old Mission Peninsula and the Leelenau Peninsula. Old Mission Peninsula is especially perfect for growing grapes for wine, because it sits a hair south of the 45th Parallel (the same parallel that runs through Bordeaux, France) and the bays on either side create an ideal microclimate.


View Larger Map

We drove to the very tip of the peninsula first to see the lighthouse. This was the first lighthouse I've visited, and I was surprised to see that it was essentially designed as a house with a light tower on top. I hadn't realized that not all lighthouses are singular lights atop narrow towers.

On our way back south, we visited our first winery, and it turned out to be our favorite: Bowers Harbor. It's one of seven wineries on the peninsula. Another 19 wineries call the Leelenau Peninsula home -- but because of that perfect microclimate, many of them grow the bulk of their grapes on Old Mission.

At Bowers Harbor, the facility was small and homey, and we chatted with the owner while we sampled a handful of her wines. Bowers Harbor harvests the majority of their grapes by hand, because it's less damaging to the delicate grapes, though many others harvest primarily with the help of machinery. We wondered about the feasibility of growing an organic vineyard versus through traditional means, and she said that the Michigan region isn't very friendly to organic growers because of the high likelihood of mildew.

I'm proud to say that we enjoyed this winery so much that we bought an entire case of wine. Not bad for our first stop, huh?

After Bowers Harbor, we ventured a few miles down the road to one of the first wineries to stake claim on Old Mission: Chateau Grand Traverse. This one caught our eye in the Old Mission brochure because it mentioned free tours of the production facility.

And Mom and I love a good tour!

The feeling we got when we walked in the door was striking: though the facility was beautiful, and the tasting room several times larger than Bowers Harbor's, it felt impersonal and commercial. We'd had such a great time at Bowers Harbor that we didn't even feel compelled to elbow our way up to the bar and sample the wine.

We did take the tour, though, and it was worth the 30 minutes! My favorite bit of information we learned: We'd noticed rosebushes growing at the ends of the rows of grapes, and we wondered whether it was purely aesthetic or for a specific reason. Interestingly enough, roses thrive and sicken in the same conditions as grapes. So if they notice a suffering rosebush at the end of a row, they can diagnose and pinpoint a problem before it taints an entire batch of wine.

We wrapped up our day back in Traverse City with some shopping downtown on Front Street, which had some great local shops -- including a nice little yarn shop that called Mom's name immediately.

It took a lot of convincing for me to get her to check out another shopping area the next day, though: the Village at Grand Traverse Commons. It's a former state hospital and asylum, renovated into office and shopping space. It was admittedly a little creepy, especially since the primary shopping area is in a basement of one of the buildings, with low ceilings, concrete walls, narrow hallways... it was easy to imagine the previous (likely unhappy) residents of the facility. We didn't linger here, and we left the campus to find dinner elsewhere.

I applaud the renovation effort, though! It's great to see a historic site being made over and put to good use, instead of razed and built from the ground up.

I have much too many stories and photos from the trip to cram into one post, so I'll have more in the coming days!

An herb garden in the making

An experiment in the making: my first herb garden.

I mentioned in my last post that I have a handful of different herbs growing (or attempting to grow) in pots on my deck. I don't have much experience with growing potted plants (heck, I don't have a lot of experience growing plants in the ground, either!), so I'm learning as I go.

I took a cooking class at Kiss Z Cook earlier this spring called "Cooking with Fresh Herbs," in the hopes that it would inspire me and teach me something about how to use my coming crops.

I'll just say that it didn't meet my expectations. If I'd been out to just cook some recipes in a group setting, I'd have considered it a successful evening. But I was looking for more educational, informational instruction, and I didn't get that at all.

The good news: I paid for the class with a Groupon that saved me more than 50%, so that helped to lessen my disappointment.

Ironically, just a couple weeks later, I went to a free (magic word) gardening fair at the county fairgrounds, hosted by the local Master Gardener's association, and I specifically went at a time when they were presenting a 30-minute session on growing, preserving, and using fresh herbs. This free session knocked the socks off the expensive cooking class. The presenter spoke completely without notes, purely from years of experience, and I took several pages of notes on her recommendations.

Fast forward to mid June, and my basil and oregano look great, but the cilantro and parsley aren't flourishing quite as much. I do love walking past them every day on my way to and from work, checking in to see how things are doing. I've especially enjoyed seeing the pattern in which the basil leaves grow. Leaves appear in 180° pairs, then the next pair grows on top of the previous pair -- but at a perfect 90° angle. I love the order and symmetry of it.

This is actually the basil pot where my toad couple spent the evening last week. I haven't seen the two of them together again (hope they're not on the outs), but their visit doesn't seem to have hampered this basil!

Finally, this cilantro seedling is s-l-o-w-l-y making progress. I like how delicate it is at this stage, yet completely recognizable.

I'm going to keep coaxing these along, and I can't wait to use some. I want to make pesto, salsa...

Are you growing any herbs? What are your favorite ways to use them?

Unexpected garden visitors

Four-legged visitors are usually unwelcome guests in a garden, but I have one that I have to admit I'm enjoying having around.

I've started my first herb garden this year, in pots on my deck. I'm growing oregano, basil, flat-leaf parsley, and cilantro. I tried starting some from seeds indoors, but I've since learned that my house just doesn't quite get enough light to nurture hearty growth. The basil was the only start worth keeping.

Seeds are cheap, though, and it was a fun learning experience, even if it essentially failed. I got a start of oregano from my aunt's massive plant, and I bought new basil, cilantro and parsley plants at area farmer's markets and garden centers. The still-living basil starts got transplanted into a couple pots (which, if they all take off, will end up giving me enough basil to last for about five years).

Not 48 hours after I'd potted all my herbs and settled them into their new homes on my deck, I noticed that something had been digging in the dirt around the cilantro. Thinking, at first, that it was a chipmunk (grrr), I was pleasantly surprised when I went to water the plants the next day and discovered what it was: a toad! He was buried in the dirt up to his eyeballs. It didn't look like he'd disturbed the roots, though, so I left him alone (hoping he'd feast on more than his share of mosquitoes).

After some further research into how much sunlight each plant enjoys, I shifted the pots around to better maximize the sunlight in this space. It seemed to have disturbed my toad, though, because I didn't see him again for a week or so (and he'd been nestled into his cilantro home each morning and evening).


Not to fear, though, because apparently it takes more than that to scare my toad away from his new home. Tonight, I got home from a bike ride and found him in a new pot -- a pot that is essentially in the same place as his old cilantro home.

And he'd brought a friend. Don't they look cozy?

He probably feels like he's been downsized, since this pot is in the same place, and it's smaller than the previous one. Unfortunately this couple has now definitely disturbed the roots of my basil seedlings... but since I have two others doing fine, I'm thinking I'll just leave them be.

My other surprise find tonight was this:

It's a squash plant. Growing in my compost heap. And I did not plant it there on purpose.

Actually, let me clarify: it's closer to 50 squash plants growing in my compost heap.

I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's blooming! I tossed some gourds out there at the end of last fall, so we'll see if that's the winner! Last year I found a bundle of tomato plants in this same spot.

This may be the easiest kind of gardening around.

Homemade granola

Meet my latest cooking kick: homemade granola.

Like so many other foods, once you've tasted the wonder of your own, personally customized, homemade granola, you'll find it hard to return to the boxed packages on the grocery shelf.

This isn't the first time I've had homemade granola, but it's my first attempt of making it myself. The process started in 2008 when Mom and I ventured to Colorado to visit Chase during his summer outside of Steamboat Springs. On our one full day with him, he took us to his favorite restaurant in Steamboat, Freshies, a place that offered house-made granola on the menu.

It was incredible. When we returned from that trip, Mom spent quite a bit of time researching recipes and tweaking multiple batches, trying to replicate the wonder of the Freshies granola. She's passed the recipe on to me, but this summer is the first time I've tried making it myself.

I honestly had forgotten that I already had the recipe in my possession, so I pored over several recipes before jumping in. One thing that makes Mom's granola unique is the fact that it's cooked in the crock pot. You'll find many recipes out there for crockpot granola, but it's more common to find recipes carried out in the oven.

But for as many recipes that there are, you'll find just as many stories of, "Woe is me, you won't believe how many batches of granola I've burned before finally figuring out how to do it in my own oven." I wanted to avoid this learning curve as much as I could, and having seen how easy it is to do in the crockpot (even though the whole process takes longer), that's what I wanted to do.

Alas, woe is me, it's still easy to burn granola in the crockpot.

Bummer.

If you search for crockpot granola recipes, you'll find widely varying temperature and cooking time recommendations (Some will tell you 5-7 hours on high. Huh?!). After having made about four complete batches in the last month (two in one weekend), I can tell you that when it comes to my crockpot, two hours on low is all it takes.

Once you know that, this is an incredibly easy thing to make, and the recipe is entirely flexible. Dump everything in, stir it up, cook it on low, and stir it every 30 minutes. That's it. The result is a looser granola than you might be used to; it's not clumpy, though there may be a way to do it. The flavor is great, though, so I don't really miss the clusters.

I made a batch this past weekend that has been my best yet. This version was loosely based on a recipe from Smitten Kitchen (great cooking blog, by the way), with some of Mom's tried-and-true flair thrown in. Here's my latest version:

Homemade Granola
Loosely based on Smitten Kitchen and Mom's Amazing Personal Recipe
Serving size: 1/2 cup

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup flaked coconut (I used unsweetened)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Approximately 1 cup of your choice mix of chopped nuts and seeds (this version used almonds, walnuts, pecans, and sunflower seeds)
1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey)
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon frozen OJ concentrate

I sprayed the inside of my crockpot with cooking spray first, but I'm not sure that it really did anything.

Dump everything into your crockpot. Stir to mix well and distribute the wet ingredients.

Cover, placing a paper towel across the top between the crock and the lid to catch condensation and keep it from getting back into your granola. Cook on low for two hours or so, depending on your crockpot, stirring every 30 minutes.

It's done when the granola is fragrant and golden brown. After you've turned off the crock pot, it will continue to dry and crisp up, getting a little bit darker (so it's okay to think you may have slightly undercooked it). Let it cool, then store in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple weeks or in the freezer indefinitely.

As you can see from these photos, the pre-cooking and post-cooking visual difference isn't huge.

Many recipes call for adding dried fruit after the granola has cooled, but I haven't done that yet. It doesn't really need it, though I know it would be wonderful, and honestly, I find myself forgetting to add it!

I love having this for breakfast with Greek yogurt and fresh fruit. We've had some unseasonably hot weather recently, so I've been enjoying more cold smoothies for breakfast -- and I've found that pouring the smoothie into a bowl (a very basic, bare-bones fruit smoothie), topping it with granola and eating it with a spoon is wonderful. You can also eat it like cold cereal with your favorite milk, or add some milk and warm it up in the microwave.

Now I just have to eat through this batch so I can start making some more...

Handcrafted

My grandfather is an amazing craftsman when it comes to anything wood. And one aspect of his talent that gives me an even higher regard for him is the art that he puts into his work.

This 90-year-old man is a modest, decorated WWII veteran from Kentucky whose beliefs and leanings tend to be very conservative. He built a long career on carpentry and is a pretty cut-and-dry, upstanding man. All of these traits aren't extraordinary when you consider other men of his generation. But one word that doesn't immediately come to mind when I think of Grandpa is "artistic."

And then I see the detail and the artistry in the pieces he builds, and I'm reminded that even though he may not fit in a typical "creative" mold, he definitely belongs there.

More than 10 years ago, I saw some wooden earrings I liked in a catalog or a magazine. I took the picture to him and asked if he could make some beads for me out of scraps of wood he had sitting around his workshop. He got right to work and gave me four pairs of wooden "beads" to work with.

My jewelry-crafting skills -- and my budget for nice hardware -- were limited, so I didn't wear the earrings much after I made them. But I've kept them all this time, safely tucked away and forgotten in a drawer.


This weekend, with an extra day off for Memorial Day and armed with some quality hardware, I deconstructed the earrings and got back to the original wooden focal pieces. I've now remade three of the four pair into earrings into updated, more quality renderings that I can't wait to wear!

The wooden beads in this pair are some of my favorites, because they show off one of Grandpa's strengths: he can seamlessly -- and artfully -- join three different kinds and colors of wood into one larger element. He's especially well known in the family for using this technique to create amazing bowls.

The colored beads that I used in this pair are leftovers from another project from years and years ago: a beaded watch.

These feature the same grain of wood as you saw in the first photo above. It's gorgeous all by itself.

I can't wait to wear these this week and have yet another great reminder of Grandpa nearby!

Historic Indianapolis 500 weekend

When you live in Indiana, the month of May features one very big event: the Indianapolis 500. Life during this time of the year revolves around the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. It's so big, road construction calendars all around Indianapolis are structured around the incoming traffic for the race.

It's an incredible event, and the 500 Festival plans dozens of activities with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to celebrate it and get fans involved. It really kicks off with the Mini-Marathon on the first Saturday in May -- the largest Mini in the U.S. -- which deserves attention all by itself.

Six years ago, I earned the opportunity to be involved with the festivities as a 500 Festival Princess. Thirty-three of us (the same number of cars in the starting lineup of the race) represented Indianapolis and Indiana at all of the events leading up to the race, and it was an unforgettable experience!

Today officially kicks off both Memorial Day Weekend and Race Weekend. This year's race is especially worth paying attention to, because it's the 100th anniversary of the very first Indianapolis 500-mile Race. The Indy 500 is often listed as one of those things you MUST do before you die, and I agree!

If you're new to the festivities, you can fill your long weekend with race activities. Here's what you can expect to find (with some of my photos from 2005 to help illustrate!).

On the Friday morning before Sunday's race, a memorial service is held on the Circle in downtown Indianapolis. It concludes with a ceremonial flyover that is sure to leave goosebumps on everyone's arms.

Usually, Saturday's main event is the 500 Festival Parade. All 33 drivers can be seen in the parade, in starting order, and it's bigger than ever this year, with 300,000 people expected to come and see it. (Can you picture what 300,000 people looks like?) Anderson Cooper is this year's Grand Marshall, and local mascot-celebrity Butler Blue II will be a featured honoree in the parade.

As I said above, usually Saturday's main event is the parade. But I actually think a special event at the track this year looks really cool: To celebrate the centennial, more than 100 veterans of the Indianapolis 500 will be on hand for one big autograph event. Activities at the track on Saturday aren't often publicized, so this is really a cool opportunity.

Race day morning on Sunday starts bright and early for anyone going to the race. The race itself starts at noon ET this year, but if you want to park anywhere near the track, it means hitting the road by 9:00 a.m. -- and that may be pushing it.

My experience as a Princess -- the one time I've been to the race -- probably spoiled me for life. We met early at the Festival House and had the luxury of being chauffeured to the race in buses with a police escort.

Yeah, that's not the normal experience.

Each member of the 500 Festival's Board of Directors gets to drive a special car during the month of May, which in 2005 were yellow convertible Chevrolet SSRs.

The Princesses arrived at the track around 9:30, and we got to take a couple quick laps around the track to wave to the crowds already claiming their seats. The track is a 2.5-mile oval, and it takes a trip around it (which the public can do on Community Day the Wednesday before the race) for the sheer size to really sink in.

 The glass building in the center of this photo is the Pagoda. This current building was finished in 2000, but there have been several iterations of this building during the history of the Speedway. It was from the 500 Festival's third-floor suite in the Pagoda that I got to watch the race. Again, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Even if you're not a race fan, you can't help but get swept up in awe during the race. The sound is incomparable. In 2005, I was there to see Danica Patrick lead some laps of the race -- the first time a woman has ever led in the Indy 500. Each time she came around the track, the cheers from the crowd outdid the roar of the engines. Goosebumps again.

As a photographer, I found this especially interesting: when the race is nearing its conclusion, a metal stand was wheeled out with numbers marking spots, and a bevy of photographers lined up and whipped out their massive lenses. The toting the weight of those cameras and lenses must have been a real workout for them, especially since the race often falls on one of the hottest days of spring!

One of the most recognized traditions for the winner involves drinking milk in the Winner's Circle after the race. Dan Wheldon won in 2005, and I got to stand just above the Winner's Circle and see it up close.

Finally, each winner's face is sculpted and added to the Borg-Warner Trophy, which is housed in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 11 months out of the year. It's not until you get next to it that you realize the sheer scale of this trophy -- it weighs 110 pounds! The winner gets a replica to keep.

This is a really exciting time to live in the Indianapolis area. Memorial Day weekend always signals the start of summer, but I can't imagine it without the Indy 500.

The Speedway has a great YouTube channel with lots of clips from memorable Indy 500 moments over the years, if you have time to check some of it out. I'm sure they'll be adding more in the coming days.

Happy holiday weekend! How will you be celebrating?

Podcasts: Why you should be listening

My newest blog post for our company blog was published this morning, and it's one I definitely want to share with you!

Free content that’s especially good for the multitasker

Business books put me to sleep. I know they offer a lot of expertise, but I find it physically difficult to slog through most of them.

But you know what? I don’t feel like I’m really missing out on much. Call me a product of generation Y, but because of the up-to-date, relevant information I can get through blogs and podcasts – many of which are offered by those business-book authors themselves – I feel like I’m staying educated.

I’ve extolled the virtues of blogs (and feed readers) here in the past, but podcasts deserve a post of their own.

What is a podcast?

Podcasts are audio files that are released through the web in episodes and generally on a schedule. This Mashable article includes a good introduction:

“[Podcasts] are simply audio files released through the web on a — more or less — regular basis. Like a YouTube video, podcasts don’t really have a set time limit. They can range from just a couple minutes to upwards of two hours. But unlike YouTube videos, podcasts rely more heavily on subscriptions, meaning people actually sign up to receive your podcast whenever it comes out (though they can listen without subscribing).”

Podcasts share characteristics with both blogs and radio shows. Like blogs, anyone, whether novice or expert, can create one, and each post – or episode -- is distributed online and can be subscribed to via RSS. Like radio, many are audio-only episodes (though more and more video podcasts are being produced) and feature a host who either speaks on a particular topic in each episode or interviews a guest. (Many traditional radio programs are also available after broadcast in podcast form online.)

After you’ve downloaded a podcast audio file, you can listen on your computer or sync the file with your favorite MP3 player or smartphone. (I favor the iPod route, myself, so for the purposes of this post, that’s the method I’ll refer to.)

Why you should be subscribing and listening

Podcasts offer a wealth of knowledge and commentary on any topic under the sun – and it’s usually completely free to listen. Want to learn about marketing? You’ll find hundreds of options. Interested in Internet marketing specifically? Dozens are at your disposal. It’s a bit like perusing the shelves at your favorite bookstore.

If you’re one of those people who find yourself saying, “I don’t have time to read,” then podcasts are definitely for you, because you can listen while you multitask. My favorite time to listen to podcasts is in my car during my commute to and from work. I know of at least one of my coworkers here at MB who listens to podcasts on his iPod while he walks his dog. Maybe you’ll want to listen while you’re fixing dinner, getting ready for work, working in the yard... you can take advantage of the opportunity to keep busy while you’re listening at the same time.
Where to find podcasts

The major hub for podcasts is the iTunes store, but other sources like podcast.com are available, and you can often get the files directly from the provider’s site.

If you go the iTunes route, you can download podcasts directly from your smartphone. Or you can launch the program on your computer, open your iTunes store and click Podcasts in the menu bar at the top. On the Podcasts home page, you’ll find new and noteworthy episodes, staff favorites, and a list of featured providers.

You can narrow down your options by using the drop-down menu (tiny white arrow next to Podcasts in the menu bar) to broadly navigate categories or by doing a search. The search box at the top right is at your disposal, or you can return to the home page, click Power Search near the top on the right side, and choose Podcasts from the first drop-down menu you’re given. This is handy if you’re looking for something more specific, like podcasts about marketing in the business category.

Now it’s up to you. You can try an episode or two before you decide to subscribe, or jump right in. Download to your heart’s content; the only limitations are how much storage space you have for your files and how much time you have to listen.

Finding good recommendations

The magnitude of available options can be overwhelming, so how do you narrow it down? Check out the listener ratings in the iTunes store, search your favorite blogs for suggestions, or try asking your friends.

And what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t give you some recommendations myself? Here are some of my favorites, all of which are free and available through iTunes:

• Public radio: Your favorite public-radio shows are available in podcast form, and these power-providers have many, many others that you won’t get on the radio. Two I recommend are Planet Money (NPR) and This American Life (Chicago Public Media).
• HowStuffWorks.com: This reference site has a trove of great podcasts, and the hosts are engaging. A couple of my favorites are Stuff You Should Know (recent episodes include “Does oil speculation increase gas prices?” and “How Igloos Work”) and TechStuff, which covers topics in the tech world (such as “Intel’s Tick-Tock Strategy” or “How Nuclear Reactors Work”).
• Quick and Dirty Tips: If you fall in the company of those with severely short attention spans, then these are great podcasts for you. Most of the episodes are between three and nine minutes long. I love Grammar Girl (want to know how to properly use a hyphen?), the Nutrition Diva, and Modern Manners Guy.

Give podcasts a try. Whether you only have five minutes or you’re willing to listen for 60, podcasts are a treasure for the intellectually curious. Listen for professional development, listen for fun -- just listen.

Reason #173 to do yoga

I'm a big fan of yoga; I try to do it at least once a week. Tonight, I figured out reason #173 to continue making it a part of my routine.

Sometimes I see things that just call out to me to be photographed, and I can't walk away. Tonight, after watering my herb seedlings on the deck, I looked down and saw this maple leaf covered in misty droplets that was practically screaming my name.

I couldn't have staged it any better myself if I'd had a hose and a spray bottle full of water.

The bright green underside of this leaf practically glowed against the dark, soaked deck.

But how does yoga figure into this post? Well, getting these photos -- without getting soaked from sitting or lying on the deck -- required some serious maneuvering: 1) squatting as low as I could go, without my butt hitting the ground, 2) leaning over, between my knees, to get the macro shot, without my elbows hitting the ground, and 3) holding variations of that position long enough to shoot 80+ shots of one little leaf. Hooray for flexibility.

Sure, I could have gone back inside to get a towel and plop down, but where's the fun in that?

Five books worth reading

I've been a voracious reader since I was a kid. When I was in elementary school, I used to sneak books and a flashlight to bed with me. I'd wait to be tucked in by my parents, then pull the covers over my head, make a tent with my knees up, prop my flashlight on my shoulder, and read before falling asleep. I felt like such a rebel!

Now I generally read a couple books a month. I'm no longer in a book club, but I've found that just having been in one -- and wanting to read books for it that incited thoughtful discussion -- has helped to change my taste in books a bit. I'm not getting as much enjoyment out of the simple, light novels I used to read. But that's okay!

I'm always looking for my next great read. One of the best ways to find that next book is to ask a friend -- so I want to share some recommendations with you, in case you're looking for your next page-turner! I've included a lot of variety in this list.

Nonfiction

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan: Claiming that a book changed your life is a big statement to make, but I feel like if I'm going to attribute that sentiment to a book, this would be one for me. From his website: "Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. By urging us to once again eat food, he challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach and proposes an alternative way of eating that is informed by the traditions and ecology of real, well-grown, unprocessed food. Our personal health, he argues, cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part."

This isn't a diet book. It's not an extreme, faddish meal plan. As I read this book, I felt like something clicked in my mind -- everything he suggests about how and what we should eat makes so much sense to me. His style is matter-of-fact, well researched, but easy to read. Reading this book encouraged me to analyze my own eating habits. I think everyone -- and I mean everyone -- should read it.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson: Larson has written a fascinating account of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, especially as it related to two important men: the lead architect, and a serial killer who preyed on the city's visitors. It reads like a detailed novel. As much as I enjoyed reading about the fair itself, what I didn't realize was how much this fair really changed the status of Chicago, both physically and in the minds of the country and the world. I also found it fascinating to learn what advancements were made and what products were invented for the purpose of this fair.

Fiction

The Valley of Horses, by Jean M. Auel: This is the second book in Auel's "Earth's Children" series. I read the first in the series, The Clan of the Cave Bear, a few years ago and finally got around to book two. The story revolves around one woman during the Ice Age, roughly 35,000 years ago, who is separated from her family and raised by a clan of Neanderthals. Auel's research for this series is highly regarded, and she explores the sociological and physical separation of these two branches of human ancestry. Ayla, the main character, struggles to fight or embrace her instincts in order to fit into the Clan or become a more independent woman. These are both great books that really make you think about our ancient history.

One Day, by David Nicholls: This is the lightest book on this list so far, and it's going to be released as a movie this summer (and you know the book is usually better). It's a story of a twenty-year friendship between two friends, as told on one day in July each year. You meet them as they're graduating from college, with very different ideas and goals for themselves, then you see how their lives evolve over the next two decades. One thing I liked about this book was its emotional depth, which it doesn't appear to have if you judge it by its cover. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation.

In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez: Here's a quick summary from the Amazon listing: "[This is a] tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government." I've always had a love for historical fiction, but I tend to gravitate toward stories based in Europe, or England, in particular. This is the first book I can remember reading that is set in the Dominican Republic, and I enjoyed reading about this small piece of history in that part of the world. I've been reading more and more books set in the 1960s, a time I find fascinating for two reasons in particular: 1) the social landscape was so turbulent, and so different, than today's, and 2) it all took place within my parents' lifetimes. It's not ancient history, which is often difficult to relate to. Fifty years is nothing in the bucket of time.

Summer is usually seen as a time to catch up on your reading, so I highly recommend that you give one -- or all -- of these a try! And please let me know if you do!

Mother's Day tulips

It's a shame that tulips don't bloom more than once, because they're such a welcome sight at this time of year! These are special tulips for Mother's Day, and I couldn't resist photographing them before they wilted away.

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing mothers in the world!

Homemade snack bars

What did we do before the invention of individually packaged snack or granola bars? They've become a great, convenient staple for those of us who need something to toss in our purses, backpacks, or desk drawers.

But finding a good grab-and-go snack with few, quality ingredients can be tough. Read the list of ingredients on most packages of granola bars, and you have to wonder how they get all the type to fit on the small wrapper.

Because of that, I love Larabars. True, their calorie tally is higher than many other snack bars, but take a look at the ingredients and you'll understand why: the list includes as few as two and no more than nine items. And they're all common, household ingredients that you can usually find in your own pantry.

Generally, my only obstacle to not having more of them around is that they're a little on the pricier side. They're generally sold individually, so I find it to be a snack I savor and consider a treat.

But why not try making your own?

In the class from Fermenti Artisan that I took in February -- the class about soaking and sprouting your foods before cooking and eating them -- one of the recipes we made in class was a model of a homemade Larabar. Your ingredients are really up to you! These guys had two general guidelines for when you develop your own mix: use stickier kinds of dried fruits for the best results (since they act as the glue that holds everything together), and use about twice the quantity of sticky fruit to dry ingredients.

The rest is up to you!

I made my own this weekend for the first time, modeled after Larabar's "Cinnamon Roll" flavor because I had everything on hand. My approximate quantities were:


1 lb sticky fruit (dates and raisins, for me)
1/2 lb nuts (walnuts, almonds and raw cashews)
1/2 t cinnamon

Beyond that, I had slightly more weight in dates than raisins, and my mix of nuts was about 2 parts walnuts, 1 part almonds, and 1 part raw cashews. How do you do it? Here are the Fermenti Artisan guys' directions, with my notes:

1. Chop by hand, or pulse in a food processor (always my preference), all the nuts until they're in small, coarse pieces. Dump into a large mixing bowl.
2. Puree in the food processor, or chop by hand and mix thoroughly, your dried fruits. Dump them into the bowl with the nuts.
3. Blend in your spices, using a spoon or your hands to thoroughly mash everything together. My hands were definitely the easier method here.
4. Grease a glass baking dish (mine was 8x8" square) with a small amount of coconut oil to prevent the mixture from sticking. I used wax paper instead, because it makes for easier cleanup and doesn't add any additional oil to the recipe.
5. Press the fruit and nut mixture firmly into the dish, smoothing out to the edges.
6. Allow to sit for at least 2 hours before cutting into bars, and you can put it into the fridge for a short time to help it set.
7. Cut into bars and wrap into individually packaged snack bars. Store them at room temperature, or in the fridge in the warmer months. They'll keep for a month or so, after which you just risk them drying out. Enjoy! The potential combinations of flavors are endless.

I calculated out the nutritional info for my recipe, to see about how many bars I should (and could reasonably) cut my recipe into. Twelve became my lucky number.

Nutritional info per bar: 12 bars in the above recipe
235 calories
11g fat
3.8 g fiber
25 g sugar
4g protein

I can't wait to try making more! Have you ever tried making your own snack bars?

New recipe: Purple Pesto Pasta

The number of blogs I follow continues to grow: I'm at 152, as of the writing of this sentence. (At this rate, it could change by the time I actually get to the bottom of the post.) Of those 152 blogs, 32 fall under my "Cooking and Food" category. I've printed off dozens of recipes that I want to try, and tonight I gave one of them a go: Purple Pesto Pasta. When I found it through a link on another blog (it's been long enough that I don't even remember which blog), I was so intrigued that I had to try it.

The ingredients are simple, and the prep and cooking time are, too: red cabbage, olive oil, garlic, sunflower seeds, salt, and pasta. That's it. A perfect weeknight post-work meal.

Here's the recipe:

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Purple pesto pasta (Red cabbage pesto)
You will need
1/4 head red cabbage, chopped coarsely
Several tablespoons olive oil (it will depend on how large your cabbage is)
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
Kosher salt
1 cup whole wheat penne (other pastas would work just fine)

Directions

Pulse cabbage, garlic, sunflower seeds and a few pinches of salt in food processor (it might work in blender, too–let me know if you try it).
Add olive oil in a thin stream through the food processor tube while pulsing, until the mixture forms a paste. (Because of cabbage’s texture, this will never reach the same pastiness of a basil pesto–as soon as it starts sticking together, you’re good.) Taste for salt, and add more if necessary.

Put a pot of water to boil. Cook penne in boiling water for 7 minutes or until al dente. Drain, reserving a bit of pasta water. Toss several spoonfuls of the purple pesto and pasta water with pasta in the still-warm pot. Top with toasted sunflower seeds (I also added some baby asparagus I had around, steamed).

Found on The Yellow House.

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My first challenge was a common one: adjust the recipe to serve one. I wasn't exactly sure how many servings this was supposed to make -- 2? 4? 6? 18? -- so that's where the guessing game began. My head of red cabbage was monstrous, so I cut off a chunk about 1" in thickness, 7" in diameter.

Next question: by how much should I reduce the garlic? I love garlic, so I wasn't afraid to have its flavor be a little on the strong side, so I used one average-sized clove.

I tossed that in the food processor with a tablespoon of raw sunflower seeds and a couple small pinches of kosher salt, pulsed it a few times, then slowly drizzled in about 1.5 Tablespoons of olive oil while I pulsed it some more.

It was beautiful! It looked perfect, just as the directions described. Meanwhile, I cooked 1 cup of whole-wheat pasta.

I tasted a spoonful of the purple pesto and was immediately hit by the strong garlic flavor -- but I was cool with it.

Did I mention that I hadn't looked at this recipe in a while? Yeah, well, I decided to be very generous with the amount of purple pesto on my pasta, since I couldn't remember the author's photo (and I was feeling pretty excited about my new dinner). Pesto, in general, is a fairly new experience for me. In my mind, this was more like a warm-salad-on-pasta dish than a pesto sauce.

Top it off with some sunflower seeds, and voila! A very colorful dinner.

So, how did it turn out in the end?

I consider it both a success and a failure.

I ate about 1/3 of it and had to stop. The garlic killed me. At first, it was fine, but the more I ate, the stronger it felt, and I started to think that if I kept going, I'd end up sick.

The idea itself, and the original recipe, were a success, and I'd definitely be up for trying it again. The failure was my own doing. Next time I'll drastically reduce the cabbage-to-pasta ratio, which will help spread the garlic love, and I'll also use less garlic for that amount of cabbage.

At least I won't have to worry about evil vampires visiting tonight.

Let me know if you give this a try!

Update 4/30/11: I made this again for dinner last night, determined to get it right. I used about the same amount of cabbage, a smaller clove of garlic, and everything else the same. But I only mixed a couple spoonfuls of the purple pesto into my pasta, and it was much better! And now I have more to enjoy over the next couple days. Success!

Magnolias in bloom

One of my favorite sights in early spring in Indiana is the blooming Magnolia trees. I love how they explode into color, granting us a break from the dreary monotones of winter.

I dedicated part of my lunch hour recently to photographing a tree. I essentially stood in one spot for 15 minutes, changing lenses a few times, and walked away with nearly 100 images. Here are a few of my favorites!

Happy Easter, and happy spring to you.