SELMA

We posted in January about our new years resolution, eat more food. So we thought we might post an update. One of the things we have gotten involved in Ann Arbor is SELMA Cafe. It is a Friday morning community breakfast hosted by Jeff and Lisa in their home. Every Friday morning about 100-150 people from Ann Arbor show up at their house for some breakfast cooked by a different volunteer chef each week and served by volunteers. The breakfast is made is mostly local food and the proceeds (a suggested donation of $10-15) goes to support the local farmers. Arthur and I have been volunteer servers about one morning a month. We volunteer from 6:00 am to 10:00 am serving food, helping cook, making coffee, hanging out, eating good food, and meeting new people. It is a great way to start the morning and it is an awesome community event. Every Thursday night another group of volunteers goes to Jeff and Lisa's house to help prep the food. From 6:00-9:00 you help clean, chop, stir, and create the feast for the next morning. Then everyone sits down to dinner together. Last night Arthur and I helped prep for the first time. In honor of St. Patty's day we helped make:

Starters of scones and soda bread with fresh home-made butter and preserves will greet you at the table. In addition, you will be able to enjoy your choice of:

· Potato cakes with rashers (I think that is Irish-speak for bacon y’all) and a bit of hoop greens, of course

·Pinhead oatmeal porridge served with local honey, cream and cinnamon applesauce

If you are ever in Ann Arbor join us for breakfast on Friday morning and help us with our New Years Resolution to eat more food.

For more pictures of SELMA click here.

Photos by Myra Klarman

Seattle

For Arthur's spring break we went out to Seattle for 4 days. We got to see Sabine, Bebeth, Mark and Seattle! In case you ever wondered why I love Seattle check out some of the photos from our trip.

Seattle March 2010

On Friday we went for a walk from Bebeth's house to a local park. It was a beautiful walk through the woods to the beach and stunning views of the mountains. All with in a 10 minutes walk of their home! Do they have anything like that in Michigan?

On Saturday we went for a killer hike. We hiked Mailbox peak. It was 4000 feet up in 3 miles. Yes that is straight up for 3 miles. Even the stair master was no training for this. But the views from the top was amazing! Mountains in ever directions, crystal clear sky, and 60 degrees out. Bebeth carried Sabine all the way up. I was barely able to carry myself all the way up! We barely made it down in one piece but it was worth it.

As always 4 days flew by and it is time to say good bye to The Bine, Bebeth, and the mountains.

Folk Music

This weekend we were lucky enough to go to both nights of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. The festival is a fundraiser for The Ark which is a small music venue in town that has live music 300 nights a year and where we have seen Old Crow Medicine Show, Katie Herzig, Carolina Chocolate Drops. All of these wonderful artists we were introduced to use at last years Folk Festival. So we thought we might share some of the highlights from this years Folk Festival.

Friday night we volunteered as ushers and got to see the show for free. Some of our favorites were Po' Girl and Hoots and Hellmouth which would be a blast to see in a small venue. Check out their plywood dance in this video:



Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard played songs from their new album which would be worth seeing the whole thing preformed. And for those of you who live in Ann Arbor Nervous But Excited would be well worth seeing.

On Saturday night my mom was in town and she treated us to 4th row seats! The highlights were Rosanne Cash and Richie Haven. Rosanne Cash stole the show by playing mostly songs from her new album, The List, all of which were amazing. As for a new band check out Hot Club of Cowtown which was a lively band that mixed a little jazz with folk.

When in Michigan...

We figured you only live in Michigan once. So what do we do with our day off of work? Go to the Auto Show. There are a lot of cars! Not being car people we enjoyed all the "weird" cars. Most of them were new electric ones that were small, very very small. So check out some of the new cars coming to a town near you.

New Years Resolution...Eat More "Food"

Yes you read that right. We want to eat more food this year. Thanks to reading Animal Vegetable Miracle and In Defense of Food, volunteering at SELMA, and many other things we have gotten a lot more involved in the food movement. While I wont go into the details here it involves cooking more, learning about where you food comes from, eating more local and organic food, and generally being more aware of what you eat. So eating more food means eating food that you can identify as food, not something that has been processed and packaged so much that for all you know it could be toy inside the box not something you eat.

So... step one make our own yogurt! Thanks to tips from Arthur's cousin Nick this weekend we took a stab at it. It took about 24 hours and we ended up with something that kind of looked like yogurt and definitely tasted like yogurt. The prep takes about 15 min and the rest of the time it just does its own thing. Here are the steps:

1. Boil the milk to 180 degrees and then let cool to 110.
2. Put a glob of yogurt into a glass container
3. Add the hot milk

4. Cover with a lid and keep warm (about 100 degrees) for 12+ hours. We used our oven, turning it on once in a while.

And then you have yogurt!

Green Thumb

In our quest to eat more "food" we decided to try to grow our own food. So over Thanksgiving my Dad, Arthur, and Paul built a raised bed in our backyard. They found used wood at the Habitat for Humanity Reuse Store, got a truck load of compost from Recycle Ann Arbor (for only $7), and plastic and metal to make a mini hoophouse from the Reuse Center. In one afternoon of work our garden was ready.

There is one hitch, we have never been very good at growing anything. So in our quest to have a greener thumb Courtney took a bulb forcing class this fall. The first bulb bloomed over the holidays right when we were leaving to drive east. We were so determined to be successful that the amaryllis came east with us and made it through a 14 hour car ride and a hotel in Niagara Falls Canada. So we are well on our way to being able to grow our own food.

Arthur and Paul showing off the frame of the raised bed

Arthur, Paul and Proctor adding the compost

The amaryllis made it to Canada

The amaryllis made it to Vermont

Reused Holiday Part II

We have fallen behind on our blogging and have lots to post (and will soon) but for now we want to give a resounding applause to everyone who took part in our reused holiday efforts. With a little prompting and excitement the creativity was overflowing and wonderful. Our gifts were wrapped in reused wrapping paper and ribbon(from last years gifts to beautiful magazine photos) and they all looked beautiful and creative. Our gifts were made out of recycled material including tooth brushes made by preserve (http://www.preserveproducts.com/toothbrush.html), a basket made out of magazines, and a humming bird feeder hand made out of used beer bottles (http://www.maho.org/store/Hand_Blown_Glass_C122.cfm). Our gifts were pre-loved with many wonderful books and a beautiful piece of art work. And we got gift cards to yummy dinners and local music shows that will bring us entertainment through out the long Michigan winter! Each and every gift we knew was chosen just for us and wrap with thought and love. What more could you ask for in a gift!

So thanks everyone to all the love, support, and creativity!