Today's Episode, in Which Heather Eats Pancakes Two Days in a Row

I ate pancakes two days in a row. Dear Readers who know me know that I normally will not eat pancakes at all, let alone two days in a row. What the hell is going on?

Well, it was all for a good cause, and provides a light on why the people who are most likely to oppose universal, single-payer health care are those who really need it the most.

Boxer and I went north for the holiday to visit with mia madre and various and sundry kinfolk. And on the day we left, we joined mia madre for a pancake breakfast benefit for a local small business owner who had a horrific illness, poor or no health insurance, and desperate need of funds to help her with her care. We could also have attend a pig roast earlier in the weekend for another individual in the same situation. And certainly, a health care fundraiser was held on behalf of my uncle and his family when he was dying from brain cancer.

This is what happens in these small, rural towns. When someone is sick and in need, everyone joins together. And everyone gives what they can. Because - for certainty - most do not have insurance. When people get sick in these areas, it is disaster. Homes are lost, families can be torn apart, and the debt just keep growing.

And yet, these are the same folks who would be ashamed to go on BadgerCare or any other publicly provided medical assistance - despite paying taxes. These are the same folks who think only "welfare queens" and "damn immigrants" can get access to public safety nets; yet they would never want to take advantage of those safety nets themselves, even when they can and should do so. Why? Because it admits to being poor, to having failed in some strange way at the grasping the American dream, because people and communities should take care of their own, because government is a bad thing?

So, individuals suffer. I imagine many die as a result of money to pay for health care or being forced to have substandard care because it is all they can afford. And, they continue to speak out against universal, single-payer health care despite the fact that it would dramatically improve their lives as well as the economic situation of their communities.

We often talk about the damage high medical bills and lack of insurance can have on the individual, and yet we don't often talk about the impact on communities. I cannot imagine how much money has come out of the community to pay for various medical fundraisers in recent years. In most cases, this was money individuals really could not afford to give, tottering on the edge of financial oblivion themselves.

It makes me wonder if the way to get single-payer health care passed in this country is to actually work on helping people understand that we are one big community. There are no people from Catawba, Wisconsin. There are no people from the state of California. We are all from the community of America, and our buying power - when put together - is way more powerful than it ever can be if we are all trying to buy a critical service in our own little worlds. If we work together, we can take care of everyone who is here, no matter what, so that everyone can have the basics of care needed to live healthy lives - not cut short by access to quality medical care.

Yup, They Was Weird

So followers on my blog probably also read Boxer's blog and, by now, no doubt know about the weird foods he was subjected to during our recent northern Wisconsin Thanksgiving. I gotta say, that coon was the best coon I had ever eaten. Tasted like fantastic BBQ beef. And deer heart is fantastic and so good for the iron levels; I don't care if my poor sweetie looked like he was gonna barf when I tried to coerce him to just taste a small piece.

But those microwaveable pork rinds? Gack!

I took them to my office today, because it is the only place I have a nuker. First off, they don't "pop" very well. And they smell weird...like burnt pepper. And they pop weirdly on the tongue and they don't taste good at all. I chucked mine in the trash.

Who in the hell is buying those things, enough that they sell them in bulk?!?!?! I am not sure I want to know!

Meeting the Family

So I took Boxer north this weekend to meet the family. He survived and hasn't run off yet, which is heartening.

We left early Friday morning, hoping to miss traffic. Which we did. Except we then hit major detours and construction. Par for the course in Wisconsin during the summer, I suppose, but what should have been a 5-6 hour trip ended up being an 8-9 hour trip. My god. Exhausting. Irritating.

We were met by a delicious cioppino, courtesy of mia madre, and the boxer and the Ikester got on famously and had a little dog loving going on, and there was a nice campfire and much laughter in the evening.

Saturday morning we went to my favorite place in the world, Big Falls County Park, and met up with my friend Donna and her husband Dana, both huge boxer lovers who now also like Boxer. We took the dog trail walking, chatted, ate some of Boxer's delicious chocolate bread and some of my delicious yoghurt cheese made from homemade yoghurt, and bitched about gas prices.

Saturday afternoon was the big family to-do. So we went and sat in lawn chairs and ate yummy food, and Boxer had them spinning because of course he had to explain the whole concept of pescheterian over and over and then confused them all by enjoying some homemade pork BBQ made by the 'Bama cousins. That evening we were supposed to go to my uncle's rock reunion, but we were both so tired and Boxer was having family overload, that we decided to have some quiet time, helping my stepdad haul the wood stove into the cabin and then taking a trip to the Wisconsin Concrete Park. Boxer has claimed the rights to blog about that, so watch his site for great photos!

We headed home on Sunday morning, and after another 8 hour trip, were we ever glad to see the old place. And so begins yet another work week, already exhausted.

Thank You, and Catching Up

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. It's true that we all mourn the loss of a loved one alone, especially late at night, but you certainly can't get through it without the support of loved ones.

The sadness comes and goes. I will go for long lengths of time and then, at unexpected moments, wham! I will just start bawling. I stopped at the pet store to get Pele a new toy and they had kitten adoptions and I burst out bawling right in the middle of the store. I had a really hard time when I picked up his ashes. And then again, when I put them in a nice cedar box, courtesy of my aunt via a gift to mia madre.

Pele is still depressed. She actually got out of the house the other day, looking for Leo. And she is acting out - lots of plant destruction and dish destruction and under the feet attempted destruction. Plus, she isn't feeling well right now either. Her allergies are as bad as I have ever seen them - lots of sneezing and snot and even eye booger unhappiness. We may be going into the vet to find out how much children's benadryl I can safely give her. And I feel her pain because my allergies are terrible right now too.

Life is slowly getting back to normal. Work is overwhelming and I really need some veg time. I am crispy toast. I did take half a day off for Memorial Day weekend, but that was all spent in the car, so I don't know that it truly counts as relaxation.

I went north for the holiday. I worked at home Friday morning and left at midday. Everything got off to a slow start as I got almost to the Wisconsin border and realized I had forgotten the one thing I needed to bring with me on the kitchen table and had to turn around and go back to get it. But I was still there by 6 pm. It was a wildlife weekend - six bears, a million deer, turkeys, a coyote, one dead albino peacock (don't ask), and Ted Nugent's summer home. I also found a place where I might be able to harvest my own wild rice, if I can find a flat-bottom boat in the fall. I received some very old stained glass windows that I will clean and paint and recaulk and then hang as decoration as well as a gorgeous butcher block. I went to the family rock piles and got several dozen large rocks, so I can start to build flower beds. I made a wild asparagus frittata on Monday morning, and then I drove home.

And when I got home I discovered that someone had dug up my two orange Icelandic poppies. Just those two. None of the other plants were distrubed. Not even the $50 in forest perennials I had sitting in the back because I hadn't had a chance to plant them yet. And I have only one thing to say about the theft of the Icelandic poppies.

Doodz! Heroin. UR doing it wrong.


Wild Asparagus Frittata

olive oil
1 cup wild asparagus, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 small zuchinni, sliced
1/4 cup yellow bell pepper, diced
8 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cheese
1 T Sunny Paris seasoning (from Penzy's)
salt and pepper to taste

Use a cast iron or other oven safe pan for this recipe. It also helps if you have a family member who has incredible skills for hunting the wiley asparagus. Store bought asparagus is good, but wild asparagus is great.

Pre-heat oven to 350.

On the stove top, put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of the cast iron fry pan and toss in your veggies over medium heat. Let them cook until they are just starting to get soft. In the meantime, crack eggs into a bowl and add the milk. Stir to mix and add some freshly cracked pepper.

Once the veggies are starting to get soft, add in the Sunny Paris seasoning and some salt. Then pour in the egg and milk mixture. Add half of the cheese and give the mixture a good stir. Then, turn the heat on the stove top to low and let the egg mixture cook very slowly. Leave it alone. Don't stir!

When it is close to set, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and stick in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until a butter knife stuck in it comes out clean.

Note: I used colby cheese for this recipe, as it was that or pepper jack and I hate pepper jack. I actually think this would be best with a sharp cheddar or a mild nutty swiss, instead.

Days of Turkey Destruction

Well, miracle of miracles, I actually did get to travel home for Thanksgiving. The DOE only mildly messed with my travel plans, and I ended up only having to work for part of a day on Saturday. A big thanks goes out to my friend Donna, who let me borrow her employer's Internet connection so I could download all of my needed files.

I actually began my holiday on Wednesday, driving through the pouring rain to Bakers Square, where I collected the holiday pies. I then had to stop and get new wiper blades, as mine were, well, dead, and I needed to be able to see to drive north. I managed to leave Gurnee at 10 am, and made it to the family homestead about 4ish. There was little traffic, the weather cleared, and there were few cops on the roads. Bliss!

Thursday was a pretty restful day, actually, involving some food prep, but mostly the playing of cards and the looking at of dead deer. Yes, I was the happy recipient of a small milk-fed venison, courtesy of the mighty family hunters. A picture will be forthcoming of the poor little bambi without his winter coat. Dinner was terribly traditional, although I did spice things up by adding some Middle Eastern spices to our roasted root veggies. Mwahahahahahahahaha! We finished the evening with more card playing, and I won a whole sixty cents playing poker.

Friday was spent processing the bambi, which is no fun in near zero weather. It may be easier to make carpaccio when the meat is semi-frozen but it is definitely harder to butcher a body when it is semi-frozen. Still, working together we got it done and I went to my friend Donna's house to cook her family dinner and use her Intertubes.

The evening ended sadly, however, as a family friend had too much to drink and got a little out of line and was physically escorted to the door and ejected. I may be an ardent feminist, but after that little incident, I can certainly say that there are times when a display of brute male force is not only appreciated but needed. What could have been a major incident was dealt with posthaste, leading to only a bit of discomfort and the understanding that an intervention is needed.

Saturday, I worked in the morning, and the afternoon was spent handing out (tm), eating leftovers, etc etc. And I headed home early Sunday morning. Again, little traffic, good weather, and only a handful of cops. Bliss! The only things distressing about the drive at all were the leaking of a quart of milk in my back seat which I didn't discover until I got back home (yuck) and the excessive number of signs supporting Ron Paul.

Going home for me is always a bit of bitter sweet. I often feel like some sort of weird alien. There are several things that really strike me when I travel north. The first is the incredible poverty of the area. And it appears to be getting worse - that or I really am a pretenious middle class bitch, what with my radical independence, my education and my owning a house and my lack of a male partner, etc.

I am also struck by the incredible racism of the area. The anti-Latino sentiment is glaring, and, frankly, if I hear one more of my friends or relatives tell me the difference between "blacks" and "niggers," at least as it was explained to them by our white relatives from Alabama who I am certain are not considering historical context of the terms, I am going to puke. So much of the racism is rooted in ignorance and poverty. Unfortunately, trying to educate most folks in that area doesn't seem to work well. They are very proud of their ignorance; for many, it seems to be a mark of high character (and yes I know not everyone is that way, but there certainly are a lot of folks I interact with up there that are that way).

The rest of the racism is rooted in poverty. See, there is this feeling that poor whites in that area are losing everything to interlopers, who - of course - are non-white. I had a friend tell me her son would never be able to go to college because he was a white man and everything was stacked against him and all the scholarship money goes to "those Mexicans." What they don't realize is that, for centuries, they - the white lower class - were completely disempowered by the white patriarchal system. They were powerless. They had a lack of resources. And the only folks worse off than they were were minorities. Well, now that many minorities are working toward moving out of that lower class, the white lower class is feeling threatened, feeling like they are going to loose what little power and resources the white upper class allowed them to have. What I wish for is if they could get over this and realize that if everyone in the lower classes banded together (no matter the color of their skin) and worked to take power and resources away from the white upper class, they would be better off. As long as the white upper class can keep the white lower class and the minority class battling each other, they can keep getting richer, while everyone else gets poorer.

You know what?

Viva la revolucion!

Recovered! Or, Why I am Glad We Only Have Reunions Every Three Years

Well, I have finally recovered from my long-weekend vacation to my family reunion in Rochester, MN. And recovery was needed. After the fiasco that was my plane trip to Minneapolis, I got in only a few hours late and Mom and I stopped to eat at the Vietnam Restaurant, a place whe had always wanted to try but never been able to find off the highway, largely because she hadn't driven far enough from the exit. We walked in and were a bit nervous as there were still many tables with dirty dishes, never a good sign at a restaurant. But, we decied to take a chance. It was quite delicious actually! And I have been yearning for good Vietnamese food. The restaurant was actually pan-Asian. We enjoyed a fresh spring roll Vietnamese-style (which means it had pork in it rather than shrimp), and Mom had a huge bowl of the best Tom Yum I have ever tasted, while I had a nicely seasoned chicken and cabbage salad. The prices were low and the portions huge - we ate leftovers for dinner.

On Friday, I spent the day mostly bored. I only like sitting around the house one day a week, usually Sunday, during which I watch all my Netflix releases of the week. So Mom took pity on me and we went to town to Birkmose Park, famous for its intact burial mounds, and then down to the waterfront park, where I walked across the bridge about half way over the St. Croix River.

Then, we went back home and got ready and, when my aunt J got there, we hoped in the car and headed to Rochester. On the way, we stopped for fish fry, that great Wisconsin tradition, and when we got to the hotel, we spent some time in the pool and hot tub.

Up the next day, we went to Denny's for breakfast (never had a bad breakfast at Denny's) and then out to the reunion. It was a fairly typical reunion - silly games like the girdle race, bingo, and lots of gossiping and looking at of pictures. There was a silent auction, which lead to some disgruntlement as a lot of the pencils had broken leads and certain someones were holding onto the only working writing weapons, meaning that not everyone was able to write their bids. You know who you are! The auction made a lot of money and half of it went to the Cancer Society, since so many people in the family have been stricken with some sort of cancer. There was also a Mass, during which I spent most of the time walking in the woods and trying not to scream out rude comments about Catholic monarchies and the abuse of young children.

We left for home Sunday morning and stopped for lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe, somewhere along the way. Decent food. I had the turkey plate, which was real turkey and not souped up deli meat. When we got home, Mom took a nap and I went for a walk, despite the fact that it was hotter than hell.

On Monday, I got packed and headed for the airport for a 3:30 flight. I got there just before the 2 pm flight was leaving. They called everyone who was there for later flights to the cat and said, "We don't know if your flight is going, so we are sending everyone who can get a seat on this plane." I got a seat, but I will tell you this - I will never fly from Chicago to Minneapolis again. For all the headaches and cancellations and delays and bull, I would rather just drive.

Weird Foods of Wisconsin Christmas

Sorry all for not posting for a while, but I have been terribly sick - fever, cough, head filled with cement. In fact, I have been sleeping until at least 10 every day for almost a week, which all of you know is unheard of. So, yup I am sick!

Well, I am feeling a little better today so I thought I would talk about the weird foods one finds at Christmas gatherings in many parts of Wisconsin... some of which are tasty and others which should be banished from the face of the earth.

Wolf Bait - this one is actually not bad even with the strange name. It is basically cream cheese, chopped up onion, and chopped up dried chipped beef or ham. Mix it all together and serve with buttery crackers. Yum yum! But it will make you need some mouthwash.

Cannibal Sandwiches - Good ground beef, chopped green peppers, chopped onions - mixed together with salt and pepper. Serve raw with rye bread. Yup, no cooking. I don't see this as often now as there have been so many e coli scares, but it used to be quite common. I always found it hilarious, considering how many cannibal grave robbing serial killers Wisconsin has produced over the years.

Lutefisk - This is a Scandihoovian tradition. It is basically cod fish that has been preserved in lye. Yes, lye. The same stuff mobsters use to dissolve bodies in remote burial sites. Basically, the pye-preserved cod gets rinsed and rinsed and rinsed again. Then it is boiled until it looks like a giant glob of snot. It is served with lefse (potato flatbread) and butter and sometimes sliced onion. Gack.

All in all, Christmas was ok. Visiting the stepfather's family was a bit like being in a casino - so many lights and noise and yelling and smoking. No jackpots though! And a definite lack of vegetables. I am not used to living n a situation where the meat is central and the veggie is the condiment. It is good to be home...