afternoondeelight's weblog

I meet with my friend Heather every Thursday. I have discovered an on going theme, a pattern if you will, that has emerged. I have not yet determined what the root of this behavior might be, but the facts remain.

I sporadically decide to bake on Thursdays.

It has consistently been about 1 hour before I meet Heather that I make this rash decision. On a banana bread week I actually just brought a bread pan of batter over and borrowed her oven. I realize this is not normal behavior. Luckily, she doesn’t seem put off by my oddities- so I continue in my ways.

Anywayyy.

Health-Nut Muffins:

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or line with paper muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, oat bran, quick-cooking oats, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently stir in the blueberries and walnuts. In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed banana, buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix just until blended. Spoon into muffin cups, filling all the way to the top.
3. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly touched.

The beauty of this recipe- is you don’t REALLY have to follow it. In fact, I haven’t yet! [this is usually my biggest flaw with baking! but it works here.]

I omitted the walnuts, substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil, raw sugar for white sugar, used spelt flour instead of the other types, and added flax seed instead of the oat bran. All in all, it hasn’t mattered. They become muffins.

They are not as glorious as the user reviews- but they are very calm on my tummy in the morning and taste good too! My problem both times is that they are a little sticky feeling… like too moist. which is usually a good thing! but I like my muffins more fluffy. I realize they are super dense and have no chance at fluffiness, but I’m going to try to get them to be a little drier on the outside next time.

well I haven’t posted in a while. the reasons are 4-fold. “the school year” started. which I am a part of by default. frisbee started, which I am a part of by personal choice. the weather was pretty, making time outside a priority. and also because my work week was pretty mild, and my kitchen experience was as well.

of course the real reason stands loud and clear. you hear it: laziness

:]

Monday we made the Asian Lettuce Wraps.

At our CSA we get to pick our own head of lettuce, and the kind we chose reminded me of those yummy lettuce wraps at pf changs.

so we tried. aaron liked them, but i’d call them a fail!

Recipe: We browned 1 lb ground turkey with shalllot, garlic, and onion. then we added terriaki sauce [store bought, organic though]. On the side we had chopped celery, bean sprouts, white carrot [from milsaps farms! it is so strange to eat a white veggie that tastes just like our orange familiar friend] and green onion. We also had some of those “asian chop suey noodles” left over from a while back that added a nice crunch.

it was just missing something! i think terriaki sauce was a boring choice. we’ll keep trying:] we had some pot stickers from mama jeans, which we frequently enjoy! i had mine boiled and aaron pan fried his. they were quite yummy as well.

Tuesday: frisbee. didn’t eat until 10pm. left over african yam soup.

Wednesday: We ran a bunch of errands until about 8. We knew we had left overs/squash ready to become soup- BUT I was craving thai express, and had been for months. yes months! Thus, we split 4 crab rangoons dipped in the delicious vinegary fruity sweet sour spicy heaven sauce, and I got Pumpkin Thai Curry with tofu and veggies. one of my favorite things in the world. those creamy bites of pumpkin. oh my. Aaron actually ate the left over lettuce wraps! proud!

Thursday: again, naughty. Aaron had a rough day at work. and we were both outraged with the new supreme court decision ** souce** and I had a stomach ache. I knew we would not be eating in this night either! We headed to Little Tokyo, a cheap sushi restaurant. mm.

Friday: FINALLY we cooked! We had dear friends Stephanie and Brian over for Indian! This is share worthy! One of our staples!
I consider it to be Indian comfort food.

We discovered Chicken Major Grey at my favorite restaurant in St. Louis, Riddles Pentuleum **source**.

RECIPE:

To start we puree 1/2 cup mango chutney [found in most all grocery stores in the ethnic food isle].

Cook 1lb chicken breast in a little olive oil, and slice it into chunks as it begins to cook. It needs not fully cook yet.

In a larger pan we take a small chopped onion and brown it in a little olive oil or butter until transulucent.

Add to the onions the chutney puree, 1/4 cup curry powder- give or take, and 1 cup milk, and maybe 3 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt if you have it. If you don’t have the yogurt add more milk. It should be a creamy sauce. Once combined add the chicken.

Let it simmer until the chicken is fully cooked. Usually we just let it hang out a while with a lid while the rice finishes. We serve this over brown rice, or basmati rice. We garnish it with some chopped green onion.

We ALSO made Saag Aloo

RECIPE: [i copy pasted from the website, but changed what we did, so you can compare/contrast]

• 2 medium onions [one small red, one small yellow, and a small shallot]
• 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger [I stole the ginger from our sushi plate at little tokyo! same effect]
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil [we used olive]
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped coarsely [I omitted tomato]
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds [ground in my coffee grinder]
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric [has really great health benefits!]
• salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 20 ounces (2 packages) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained [we used 1 bag fresh spinach from the CSA + maybe half a bag chopped frozen organic spinach]
• 1 1/2 cups cooked, drained chickpeas [we made Saag Aloo, which substitutes potatoes for chickpeas]
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Chop the onion, the ginger and garlic. In a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the cumin. When it darkens (1 to 2 seconds), add the grated ginger and garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then add the onions and saute until lightly browned (about 10 minutes).

Add the coriander, turmeric, salt, and cayenne. Mix well, then add the spinach. Mix again, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in the potatoes and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the garam masala and lemon juice and serve hot.

http://wiki.thisblueroom.net/wiki/Saag_chole

We added quite a bit more spices at the end! but I think our spinach was quite a bit more than the original recipe.

I also made “homemade hummus” which was really 1 tub of original hummus with 1 can of mashed garbanzo beans with my own chopped garlic, parsley, and red peppers. Dillons didn’t have tahini, and Mama Jeans was closed [it may have been 11:30 the night before...]

We also enjoyed chai tea afterward, with some hookah smokin! a darn good eve.

Well that was our yummy friday meal. I’ll share my week with you I hope. I have been prepping food all evening [I get in moods] so I’ll have lots to share!

PS: I know hummus and pita is greek/middle eastern, not really indian… but it was yummy with the flavors]

this is just a post to make yesterday’s post not be the most recent on my blog. i kind of just needed to vent a bit.

i haven’t gotten the chance to make any more food this weekend, which is kind of sad. but it is because people keep offering us free food- which is kind of not sad!

also,  after reflecting i realized good things did happen at work friday. one client who was clean off drugs/alcohol for 9 months while she was pregnant had a horrible relapse after DFS immediately took her baby. BUT that relapse only lasted 4 days. she has now been clean for one month, and has a steady job! she came in to share the good news, and genuinely looked like an entirely different and beautiful person.

lastly, i just saw where the wild things are with my sista in law. really good! a lot less conclusive than i expected. i think that is my conclusion.

see what i did there?

:]

Setting: Let it be said, that I have been trying to eat healthy this week.

Action: I arrive at home, exhausted. I begin recklessly opening a bottle of wine and pour myself a glass. We are invited to the Farmer’s Gastropub [the NEW and ONLY restaurant in Springfield to use local and sustainable ingredients- exciting!] to eat with Emily and Allison. I ordered the veggie pannini [so so so good! cucumber thinly sliced, with a cheesy tasting hummus, and fresh spinach leaves on tasty bread slightly grilled] with fries. I chose fries over butter nut squash soup. That is one of my absolute favorite soups. This tells you something about my mood.

Then we wend to mud lounge. mmmm. coffee drinks and alcohol- it really doesn’t get any better por moi.
I look for the most chocolatey rich sounding alcoholic drink on the menu and discover the Naughty Skipper. Hazelnut liqueur with Godiva dark chocolate and frothy milk. yes.

Then, aaron was in the mood for dessert. We ordered the chocolate fondue for 4… my favorite fondue in Springfield. It is so rich and dark. It is accompanied with pretzels, strawberries, oranges, grapes, and walnuts!

15 hours earlier:

I arrive to work at 8:01, as usual. One minute short of my goal.

8:02- telephone call. the landlord of one of my clients, who I have gotten into housing. [an obvious goal of a homeless services case manager]. long story short, the landlord is evicting my client for breaking the lease. I sat and let him list reason after reason he is evicting the client.

Here is a taste: “Joe Blow has been complaining of the neighbor living above him stomping on the ground. That neighbor is a retired college professor from so and so college. My best friend went to that college. It is a very reputable place. There is no way that professor is causing a problem.”

“Also, Joe Blow complains of a different neighbor stomping up the stairs, drunk at night. That neighbor goes to so and so church, there is no way he even drinks a drop of alcohol!”

this landlord, obviously, has sound judgment.

He then threatened that if I do not take care of this with my client in a week, he will be sending an eviction notice. He stated that normally in Missouri there is a 30 day period after an eviction, but in violent or drug related offenses there is only a 5 day period. I asked him to clarify how my client’s offense would be categorized as violent or drug related [it wasn't...]

he then said this: “Look, I understand you are new at this job so let me explain this for you… [AHHH] most case managers just comply and understand why they are being evicted and go from there, but since you are new I will explain it again.”
I wasn’t asking him to explain why she was being evicted, I was clear on that. She broke the lease. However, the offense was neither violent or drug related, therefore; my client deserves 30 days to remove their things.

calm and composed I said thank you and good bye.

8:15-9:30 I basically spoke with both of my bosses about how to approach the situation from there.

9:30, client enters the office… hands me a note… walks out. The note is two pages. It is essentially a suicide note. It did not describe how or when, but it did imply it with lots of good byes and descriptions of their pain.  So then I had to call 911 for a wellness check, which is a pain. The client left their cell phone number on the note [making it also seem to be more of a cry for help, which is still serious but not as urgent.] so I called them and talked them down a bit, also discretely asking for details on where they were so I could tell the officers when they arrived.

while all of this is happening there is a nursing student from MSU, basically shadowing us for the day. No one has made a move to interact with her, so I have taken on that responsibility as well.

As I am trying to write the Information Report for calling 911, I get a call from a client’s aunt- stating that she received a call last night from an unknown caller who sounded distressed “like they were having a stroke”. She hadn’t heard form my client in a while. I hadn’t heard from them since Jan. 4th which is slightly out of the ordinary. so that is worrisome.
Then. That client’s mom calls. She proceeds to share most of my client’s life story. for 45 minutes!!!!!!! and there is really nothing I can do or say to comfort her, to challenge her, or to shut her up. I really just had to listen. for 45 minutes. I tried my best to bring her solace.

It was hard to talk with someone for 45 minutes. but it was also hard to hear stories of my client, whom I care about quite a bit, and understand more about why they are the way they are today. i was listening to a horror story of someone’s real life.

stomach in a knot, i used the last 5 minutes I had left of lunch and ate my left over african soup:]

the only other noteworthy event was the a-hole landlord calls back. “I have never had a probelm with a case manager like this before, but since you are new I will explain. [that is 3 times he has said this. I am about to throw punches! I am shaking.] I called my attorney and he said that violation of the lease is 10 days, so she will have 10 days if you don’t take care of it.”
What he meant to say was, “Wow, I’ve been in this field for years and have never run into a csw who actually does their job and knows what they are talking about! I better watch my back. You were absolutely right Deanne, your client did not have a violent/drug related offense. They deserve 10 days rather than 5. Thank you for catching me on my mistake!”

I politely concluded that I was not trying to be defiant and simply wanted to make sure the procedures were following landlord tenant law. I thanked him for his clarification and said good bye. I was even smoother than that sounds! I can’t even recreate how perfect it was:]

hence the wine. and fried food. and chocolate.

now today i feel gross, and plan on going to the gym to elliptical and then to yoga class for 1.5 hrs and then will rock climb at night. hopefully that will make up for it all, haha.

“this is my first post just to post post.

i could have divided that with commas, but i felt it would be fun to read and re-read.

my desire to blog isn’t just to have a place to get the weight of the world off my chest and into cyberspace, but that is what it has been so far. i’m not sure what my desire to blog is.”

I love irony!  This “new post just to post” has been up on my web tab since the weekend. obviously, posting just to post isn’t going to work for me.

SOOO. I have devised a plan. I have finally discovered the direction this blog will be going. I will talk about two of my favorite things:

FOOD AND HOMELESS PEOPLE

Unfortunately, that is as far as the plan has gone. I do know a few things I will not be doing. I will not be getting fancy with this. I realize that every other blog in the world is beautiful… and it probably isn’t hard… and it would probably make it more reader friendly… yada yada. I know. I realize these things. I also realize that it is intimidating enough for me to sit down and write on a regular basis. If I attempted beautification, it would only generate more justifications for me not to write.

Also, I read a lot of food blogs. a lot a lot a lot. I spend more time browsing food blogs than facebook, soul pancake, wikipedia, npr, the weather… anything. I know they take a ton of work to keep interesting and relevant. They also take a tonnnnnn of research. Some amazing women and men are out there in the world sharing important information with the public regarding food.

I am not one of them. I don’t want to claim to know it all by any means. I am 22 years old. I have just started cooking meals at home regularly a year ago. However, I have learned a lot in this past year… and will likely include some of that in here. But my purpose is not to educate or inform but just to share things that I think are fun or interesting. Essentially I am saying, my purposes here are selfish. For now anyway… I would loveeeeee  [I went back to add more eeeeee's to emphasize how much I mean that!] to have my own “real” food blog someday. I just can’t handle that pressure right now.

Regarding homeless people. I don’t really have much else to say. I work with them all day long. I care about them. I care about issues relating to them. I want to share these things as they come along.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

So now that I have semi-clarified. I’ll share my recipe we had tonight! I found this recipe for Spicy African Soup one day when I was looking for a way to use sweet potatoes. African recipes always stand out to me, because Aaron and I have never been to an African restaurant. Also, I respect their cuisine quite a bit [I guess as much as you can without trying it first] because many of my favorites [middle eastern and indian] originated from african flavors. I love trying new flavor combinations, and salsa + peanut butter + thyme + cumin sounded unlike anything I’d tried before.

I went to grab a coffee at Big Mamas after work with a friend I have lost touch with quite a bit after college [good times! pumpkin vanilla latte- ehh] and told Aaron that if he wanted to he could get started on the soup before I got home. That meant to start the rice and maybe chop some veggies if he found himself bored. Well, I entered the door and was greeted by a thick, delicious, foreign aroma and a cute little husband with a grin. He made the whole thing! I therefore cannot comment on the difficulty level, but he has stated it was very easy and I trust this assessment.

SPICY AFRICAN YAM SOUP

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spicy-African-Yam-Soup/Detail.aspx?src=rss

I always check the comments at the bottom of any recipe site I use, and these comments were raving! Most people made little to no changes in the recipe, so we felt safe keeping it simple!

We used sweet potatoes, onion, & garlic from our CSA share. http://millsapfarms.wordpress.com/about/

organic chicken broth, 2 tbsp crunchy organic pb, and kashi rice pilaf [it is a decently cheap alternative to white rice! lots of fun textures] we had 2 salsas that I got from the Kitchen Annex [sometimes we get free food when it is about to go bad, and we ask... shhhh] one chipotle garlic and one mango salsa. I assumed we’d usea a  the garlic one for the dish- but aaron went with the mango! it worked just fine. very yummy.

REVIEW: I really enjoyed the soup a lot! I will definitely make it again, because we often find ourselves with these ingredients on hand. [- the zucchini... but we could add peppers maybe or squash]

Additional comments: at work we often discuss our household rituals. I am always intrigued by people’s evening rituals. My conclusions from these conversations seem to be that aaron and I might be disgusting human beings? we do not sweep/vaccuum every night or even every week sometimes… we do not really get bothered by crumbs on the ground or spots on the table… nor do we always take our belts off before the laundry basket… nor do we put our dishes away right away… nor do we have places for our papers… nor do we shower every day… and you know what?

i love it.

Pre-marriage, this feeling was familiar. The norm. but since I have had a partner to cuddle with the late nights of insomnia have subsided for the most part. But tonight is an anomaly. At least I hope so.

Julia by The Beatles, Empire something or other by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and the lullaby Golden Slumbers have intertwined and been stuck on repeat in my head for the past hour or so making sleep ever so difficult. Besides the melodies, I have been thinking of my job. Amongst other things I suppose… my st. louis family, aaron, my friends, my blessings, my childhood, how toasters work, what would happen if those who prayed stopped, love- both mushy gushy and universal.

I don’t think my work situation now will ever be an out of site out of mind thing. I guess I am glad for that. It would seem superficial if it were. However on occasion it does cause sleeping issues. Tonight we went downtown to eat dinner. The idea came about when we opened the refrigerator and saw only 2 pears and a couple of condiments, none of which would pair well with pears [ha].

As we pulled up I saw a client. The first client I’d seen since we’ve been home from AZ. Considering we just got back last night, it’s no big surprise I guess. It was just strange to go 11 days without recognizing any of the flannel jacket, backpack wearing faces I saw. It was lonely for all of us. They had never really left my mind though. I imagine that after I leave the streets of Springfield, the faces of my homeless friends will still tip toe through my mind from time to time.

I guess I can’t sleep because I want to remember why I am here. to help those in need. Not to get a pay check, not to look good to my friends and family. But to help those in need. However I best can.

I think learning more about the world, about its history, and about the people in it will help me help those in need. It will help me determine what those needs are, and how I can most effectively meet them with my skill sets. I think asking is another way I can help. Asking what it is those around me need the most. I presume their answer would be surprising, maybe to the both of us.

They have learned how to survive in the cold. They know how to go for long periods without food. They know where to find blankets, and warm coats. But they shouldn’t have to learn to survive without love. without friends and family, someone to trust. But most of them have. In fact, that is often where their situation began.

My eyes are finally showing signs of sleepiness. We all need sleep sometimes, right?

Sorry to be so inconclusive dear reader.

My stomach is presently maxed out.

Tonight was the annual Taste of Victory. I had the opportunity to sit at a VIP table, paid for by Burrell, and enjoy fine foods from some of the greatest restaurants in Springfield. Thank you [so very much!] Cook’s Kettle. Tonight the gentlemen who have endured a year long program at the Victory Trade School are graduating into the real world. Their lives have been transformed by Jesus.

so

My thoughts are fumbling about. Somehow during the games of dots with my husband or jokes with my co-workers, I managed to soak in a little bit of the 3 hours of varying speakers at this event.

Probably more than most of the things I believe in- hope chills out at the top. More than love, more than God, more than all of the beautiful people around the world [though some may argue these words are in some ways synonymous- which I might agree with someday, but not currently]. Hope is always worth fighting for. No matter who you are, what you’ve done, what has been done to you, what others say about you, or what you think about yourself. There is always hope. but.

I don’t get it. What a miracle is? What treatment looks like with and without God? How forcing religion on a person actually does/could change a life? How table 6 old white man with a powerful mullet can drive a lexus? Can mental illness, substance abuse, past traumas [homelessness..] be addressed without “professional help”? can jesus fix em?!

Off to mud lounge. Imcomplete thoughts. a-okay with me. Hopefully okay with you, reader.

today is the first day i have taken off work due to illness. i almost made it 6 months with 0 sick days.

to me accruing time is frustrating. i accrue 1.3 ish hours of sick time each pay period, two weeks. so really i wasn’t provided the opportunity to get sick until 16 ish weeks of working with burrell. also, what is up with the word accrue. it was not in my vocabulary until i started this job, and really i wish it would just stay out. i never pronounce it correctly [accure is what i like to say] and i also have trouble putting it in proper context. i’ve been scolded many times, so hopefully i am using it correctly for the purpose of this blog.

besides the 8-4 issue [8am every day, no sunshine in the afternoons, no random errands, no trips to a coffee house, no naps, consistency, schedules, suffocating] accruing time off is one of my main problems with real jobs. when i heard i had 10 days of vacation and 3 days of sick time i was perfectly fine with it. it is something like that… the 10 might include my sick or something. i kind of forced myself to forget as soon as i learned it was a lie. yeah, i’ll have 10 days- after a year. i have to slowly but surely accrue in the meantime.

there is a wee bit more on my mind, but i am ready to drift off to sleep in a big warm bed and feel all better in the morning. i’m listening to john mayer’s acoustic session on austin city limits. if john mayer is a sell out- i think he has done it with style. maybe he was from the start, and is digressing. either way, i didn’t care for him initially, as a musically snobby high schooler, but right now his tune is sweet to my ear. he is bringing a stadium of people together, and i dig it.

i don’t like finishing books alone. i was worried, because the end of the bean trees was rapidly approaching and aaron was gone at a frisbee game. as i got to the second to last page- he came in the door.

i am thankful for today. a day of rest. a day of chicken noodles and sherlock holmes. a husband who is warm and a couch that is comfy. peace.

At BP we have a sheet for the homeless to sign in on when they come in the door.  The sheet is there for the purpose of counting how many individuals we serve on any given day. The names do not matter. The time does not matter. When push comes to shove, the sign in sheet matters only four times a year when my boss counts up every sheet to see how many people we have served that quarter.
Part of the closing process each day is to take the sign in sheet off the binder, storing it in our office. We then write tomorrow’s date on a new sheet and secure it back in the binder.

By 4 pm I am exhausted and ready to leave. I say this definitively as if it is every day without exception, because it is definitive- every day without exception. Just to clarify.  As I bring the sign in sheet back to my office, my insides smile. I say this definitively as if it is every day, with out exception- because it is definitive- every day without exception. I see the mental illness carved into some names- Kim who writes her name- followed by her detailed daily plans all into a box roughly the size of a paper clip. Or Erika and her “2 unborn brats soon to come”. The proud George Clifton Walker Jr. or a simple P. Street names, slang names, ambiguous scribble. The nameless. The unknown.

On September 16^th someone wrote I love you at the top of the sign in sheet. It was doodled in such a way as I might have written in 6^th grade on the margins of my notebook or at the end of a top secret note to one of my girlfriends. I didn’t think anything of it.

On September 18^th someone wrote love.

On September 21, 2009 someone wrote it again, you are loved.

Sometimes I think we need someone come up to our face so close that we can smell all of their breath and whatever other smells might come attached with them. So close that it damages our eardrums as they desperately shout- you are loved.

But I am, and you are, and so are the 85 people on that sign in sheet. Named. Known. Loved. I’m overwhelmed by that.

i made the decision to blog, much like i make all decisions in my life.

sporadically and without much research.

to give myself a small amount of credit i do feel like i could come up with some adequate reasons for my desire to blog, but they admittedly came long after i created a log-in name and password.

i am going to go for a run now because it is pretty outside.

i will finish this thought later. hopefully it lets me do that.