April 1-30: Noah the Musical, $10 each for local residents

This one's just for locals.  If you live near Branson, Missouri (including in Harrison), one of the benefits for the bargain-aware is that many of the shows offer "local appreciation" specials during the offseason.  This gives them a chance to build local goodwill and word-of-mouth and gives their performances an audience as they prepare their shows for the hordes of visitors that descend during traditional vacation seasons.

It gives my family a rare chance to see Branson entertainment, as we would never- and I mean never- pay what most vacationers do to see these shows. 

Anyway, it's local appreciation season for the Sight and Sound Theatre in Branson.  Noah the Musical can be seen for just $10 a ticket through April 30.

You'll need to bring a utility bill or something that will prove your resident status, but once you do you can purchase up to 15 (!) of the tickets.  Since seeing the show usually costs $47 per adult ticket, this is a significant savings and a chance to see what's supposed to be quite a spectacle of a show.

Questions or to make reservations?  Give them a call at (800) 377-1277.

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One Pizza Sauce to rule them all.

The best I've ever had.  The original recipe came from a popular one on Recipezaar.com, but I tweaked it a bit, as is my wont.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 tsp dried minced garlic (or 1 clove minced)
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion (or 1/2 c chopped)
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce (or 2 6 oz cans tomato paste + some water, or some combination thereof)
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed

1.  If you have a fussy toddler like me, break up fennel seeds in a blender or mortar and pestle so that she can't pick them out and wrinkle her nose at them.
2.  Heat olive oil, onions, and garlic on low in a saucepan until they've rehydrated a bit.  (If using fresh, saute onions on medium heat until cooked, then add garlic for about 30 seconds.  Garlic burns easy.)
3.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low for up to an hour to help flavors blend, stirring periodicaly.  (If you're like me, heat through and immediately smear it on the pizza because you didn't think to make it ahead.  Works great that way too.)

It freezes well, so double or triple the recipe and freeze if you'd like.  I'm thinking about making up small jars of all the dried items (onions, garlic, cheese, herbs, spices, sugar, etc) so that I can just dump it into 16 oz of tomato sauce when I need a quick sauce-- or to give as gifts.

Seriously.  It is THAT good.  The only thing I can imagine improving it is the onset of fresh basil and oregano when the summer garden gets rolling.

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Fences. Gardens. (Bloody) Financial Food for Thought.

I need a fence.  I want to garden, but I need to contain my two children safely to be able to spend more than a few minutes at a time with them in the yard.  (Somehow, they just seem unwilling to stay quietly by my side while I schlep around with mulch and compost.)

My dog needs containment too.  She's been visiting the neighbors and coming back with mysterious bones and then barfing all over my carpet-- which makes me feel a little rabid.  (I know.  "Don't let your dog go make friends with the neighbors."  But if I don't let her out when she needs to go, she'll pee upstairs in secret.  And I can't see how I can leash and walk the dog on demand several times a day with a two- and four-year-old in the house with me.  Dogpee in the house, walking the lurchy antileash dog with two toddlers several times a day, dogvomit on the carpet, or a fence.  Which do you pick?)

But this isn't really about the fence idea.  (It's late.  I'm tired.  I'm sorry I can't stick to one topic.)

Tonight I've been hunting down pictures of fenced front yards (on older houses) tonight, which led to cottage gardens in the front yard, which led to potager gardens, which led to this amazing enormous public potager just an hour and a half from me (must visit!), which led to its newsletter, which led to this quote, which seems very much worth recording tonight:

"Money is like blood," says NEF researcher David Boyle. "Local purchases recirculate it, but patronize mega-chains or online retailers," he says, and "it flows out like a wound."

Ouch.  Wounding my community with each uber-convenient Amazon.com purchase.

It's something I want to keep in mind.  I'd heard of this concept before, of course, but something about the idea of the currency as lifeblood makes it a more potent image.

(Yes, I do get that distracted when I sit down to look something up on the internet, especially late  at night when the house is quiet.  I'm an ADD magpie of shiny pictures and information.)

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Pondering kidbeds.

I have a recurring fascination with creating an unusual bedroom for my kids... something cozy and unique.  My own childhood was filled with requests for bunk beds, hammocks, and other bizarre beds; my parents never relented, and I spent my childhood sleeping on one very unremarkable twin bed (dressed in various comforters over the years).

I'm sure I'm living out my own childhood fantasies, but here's my latest find:

Suspended loft beds! 

Screwed into the wall studs on two sides, the mattress frame has just one unsupported corner that is held up by heavy-duty cable that extends into the attic to loop over pipe straddling two attic joists.  It's reportedly amazingly stable, and much cheaper to build than traditional loft or bunk beds because of the reduced amount of lumber used.

Someday, when they're a bit older, I want to do this for them.  Fantastic.

(Pictures all snagged from this discussion thread on Bobvila.com.)

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Baaaaaaa. (mmm.)

This winter, my husband picked up a new client (he works with Medicare Advantage insurance) and learned that she raises sheep for a living.  Because we have an increasing interest in buying our produce and meat locally, and because he loves to do business with his clients wherever possible, he immediately placed an order for a lamb.

I've never really cooked lamb.  I'll admit to being a bit intimidated about taking on a whole carcass worth of unfamiliar meat.  But no more!  The wonders of the modern (online) recipe hunt have vaporized my trepidation.

Our Lamb Lady brought the sacrifice to death's door; once the deed was done and neatly packaged, I was dispatched to pick up the results.  (FYI- if you're looking for a slaughterhouse-- our lamb lady prefers this establishment because they don't kill the animals in front of one another.  This is much more humane, and also keeps their adrenaline levels down, which improves the meat flavor.)

Thus far, we've enjoyed three different dishes.

My foodie friend Faith's crockpot Lamb Ragu was our first adventure.  She's right-- the longer you can leave it in the crockpot, the more meltingly delicious it is.  (The browning phase made a massive mess on my stovetop, though.  I'll use a dutch oven instead of a frying pan next time to try to cut down on the splatter.)

Next, my husband prepared and grilled Alton Brown's amazing Silence of the Leg O' Lamb, which wowed our pastor and his wife (and us too).  YUM.

And finally, tonight I whipped up a quick stovetop version of this Rustic Lamb Stew from Recipezaar.  Again, very tasty, although I think the prescribed 8 hours in the slow cooker might have made it even better.

I'm still adjusting to the gamier taste of lamb, but it's not unpleasant-- just different.  The fun of hunting down these new recipes, though, has made our introduction to preparing lamb an adventure.

Hooray for new, healthier food habits!

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Reaching my frozen fingers out toward spring...

Fuzzy's been quiet lately, hasn't she?  What's up?  It's 1 a.m. and my latenight Earl Grey's keeping me awake, so there's time to answer that question a bit.

Nothing specific is "up"-- just the holidays and then the post-holidays and then the January lungmuck that attacked us all, although only the two-year-old ended up with steroids and antibiotics to help him fight it off.  Stuff's a-brewing inside my head and home, though.

We're thinking of adding a storefront to my husband's business, which is exciting and terrifying and financially serious.  Painting and reception room furniture and decorating and GETTING ALL THE BUSINESS STUFF OUT OF MY HOUSE, oh my.

I've been mulling over the combination of my children's rooms into one (I'd like them to share a room together while they're little), and thinking of a loft bed and wondering whether someone will get damaged if we use one.  I'm also eyeing the sickly pale yellow living room that is destined to become burnt orange, and wondering if that shouldn't start happening soon, since the last time we painted a room was April 2009.  (This house is a black hole of painting tasks... )

I've been slowly, stealthily purchasing the oils and supplies I need to make cold-process soap.  (Did you know, if you buy things for a crazy homemade project slowly, one at a time, you don't really have to add up in your head how much it this little obsession is costing?  Great technique.)  I was going to have a go at that tonight, but now it's too late to start something that huge.  Also, maybe the Mediquick clinic should be open when I do it, just in case a burn a hole in myself with the lye somehow.  I'm a bit scared about that.  I've also been playing with making body butter with the shea butter (works great, smells a bit funky) and collecting a great many recipes for other things (lip balm, homemade deodorant, hot oil hair treatments, etc). 

Slowly and surely, I'm becoming one of those freaky people who reads labels and watches documentaries and freaks out about how the industrial revolution has turned on us and started to destroy us all while we're not looking.  Pass the local non-ammonia'd burgers and the non-GMO corn, please, and I'll pass you some homemade HFCS-free chocolate syrup.  (What a weirdo I'm becoming, almost against my will.)

I just potted and trimmed some lavender cuttings that have been growing leggy and waterlogged in a vase since last September; hopefully they'll become four new lavender bushes to join our two overenthusiastic rosemarys in the front walkway.  The hostas that have been reigning there look lovely in May and cruddy by July, so I'm thinking they need to be transplanted to some more out-of-the-way nook.  (Which means I'll dig them up, try to dig a hole or two somewhere in our rockfield of a yard, and then probably let most of die a terrible root-exposed death because I refuse to use a pickaxe to PLANT A STINKIN' HOSTA.)

Obviously, spring's on my mind tonight; the mums and hyacinths are trying to wake up already, which is stupid, but that's all it takes for me to get all seed-happy and start thinking about fresh lettuce and snap peas.  This year, by gum, I WILL plant my early garden early enough to enjoy its harvest.  Our little garden plot didn't flourish last year, but perhaps it just needs some mulch, a little more attention, and a summer with less rain and more heat.  There's always hope in spring garden thoughts... such a pleasant season for mediocre gardeners like myself.

Garden Resolutions of 2010, Completely Off the Top of my Head:
1)  Find a way to garden with the kids and no fence.  Or win the lottery and build a fence.
2)  Plant the early garden early this year, for pete's sake.  (See above.)
3)  Make the 2nd wire fencing circle to hold the fallen leaves.
4)  Find out how much it would cost to get some stone to build a raised bed on the sunny slope.
5)  Many, many snap peas.  Freeze some.
6)  Many, many tomatoes.  Can (?) or freeze some.
7)  Sunflowers along the bottom wall.
8)  Try a few strawberries in the stone circle bed and see if there's enough light for them there.
9)  Make use of the herbs you planted, stupid.  Mint tea, and lots of it.
10) Buy the Rocky Top salad mix from Baker Seeds, and also experience their Spring Planting Festival.

That's enough rambling tonight.  G'night, all!  May you be enjoying this delightful season of garden-dreaming, and may you and yours avoid all loft bed and lye accidents...

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Anti-inflammatory Carvacrol in Essential Oils

This article at science daily reports that Japanese scientists have discovered that some essential oils have anti-inflammatory action similar to that of red wine.  There were several statements I found interesting...

 

One, this statement:  "Of course, the exact way they work is not completely understood."  So interesting that a scientific source like Science Daily would admit that! 

 

Two, that the research on this is coming from Japan, where I've read that aromatherapy (ie use of essential oils) is surging in popularity.

 

Three, that carvacrol is the anti-inflammatory component in these oils.  Carvacrol is present in other oils as well-- most notably and strongly in oregano, I think-- and is strongly anti-viral as well.  (This Italian study on oregano oil's effect on a form of staph virus give you an example of how powerful it is.  Sorry it's so hard to read!)

 

Hope you all are doing well... I'm assuming interest in continuing the blog is pretty low at this point, so I'm not posting much here.  Had a great time doing this while it lasted, everybody!

 

Posted via email from the Oil Crowd

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