I love summer

My thoughts are with Jenny now as she deals with a sad loss. Also missing Papa & Grammie Roelle a bit, too. So here's another pic...I'm looking forward to the long holiday weekend, so I can spend time taming my insane garden.


The raised bed is working awesome! Some bug is eating broccoli & Brussels sprouts leaves, but no rabbits or bunnies or groundhogs yet. We've made a cube of netting that will have to adapt if/ when the quinoa gets tall, but for now is perfect.

from clearing the spot to garden - it has been weeded since that last pic...

Ice cream sandwiches

A couple of years ago, Jenny got me some ice cream sandwich molds from Williams Sonoma. Yesterday, I used them for the first time.

Step 1 - Super fudgy but thin brownies for the outsides, cut into shapes.


Step 2 - Assemble - I started assembling by hand - the results were authentic, but not quite perfect.


Step 3 - Then J pointed out that the molds are supposed to be used to assemble, too. I tried and, voila - the cows ended up quite professional looking.


Note: I inserted a strawberry in the middle of each - a nice surprise I thought. Hmmm. They freeze REALLY hard - caution when eating! Now I know.

Now I have a bunch of small treats in the freezer - awesome way to start the summer.

Iris

This was one or two wimpy blooms just last year. I love when the yard gets prolific - the pics will be coming!

Stories of grandparents

Papa & Grammie Musso (left) and Papa & Grammie Roelle (right) at Mom & Dad's wedding

Papa & Grammie Roelle (Cliff & Betty), my Dad's parents,were around quite a bit when we were kids, until they moved to Florida - sometime around Junior High, I think.
Before Grammie passed from lung cancer, both were heavy smokers. I remember leaning against Grammie once while in the kitchen and burning my hand on her cigarette.
Grammie knew I loved applesauce and always made a big deal about that. Made me like it more, perhaps.
I need to gather more stories about her, I realize now that I don't remember many details. Most of what I remember is of her passing and I'd like to instead remember her life.

Papa flew missions over the Pacific in World War II. He enlisted twice, the first time quite young. If I remember correctly, he was a gunner. When he was young, he looked like a movie star. He talked very little about his youth - but in the one story I remember, he looked out the window to see that the wing of his plane was missing. They went down into the water and were almost taken by a Japanese ship, but Americans came over the horizon just in time.
Here at home, he assembled plane models, did a bunch of woodcraft - making nativities and lights that looked like covered wagons. He collected Hess trucks and loved to fish.
When we were little, Papa had a stroke. He recovered, but often found himself reaching for words and it frustrated him. He talked less after that because he was self-conscious.
After Papa passed, I put together a scrapbook from his photos & papers, and Sonny put together a a display of his medals. I learned more about his childhood and his life before the grandkids came along which was very cool & important.

I miss them both and wish I could have had more time as an adult to spend with them, but I'm also grateful for the bits I have.

Sonny, Danny - chime in in the comments if you want with your memories. I'm going to take some time this summer to sit with Dad and learn more.

Mom & Dad now live in the 'ville

The move was finished last Wednesday, the truck returned to U-Haul Thursday am. Sonny was able to come for a few days to help pack, consolidate, and move garage stuff over. Dan came Tues/ Wed and did a lot of the stuff a young back w/ lots of energy is handy for. I threw things away, burned papers, and packed things before Mom was ready to. ;) - and packed, consolidated, and did some hauling.

Weird to think that pics from now on will be at a different place. I'm conscious of it now, so it might not happen right away, but I'm sure I'll head the wrong direction at least once when going to visit. Dad was worried about steps forward or backward. There isn't forward or backward, Dad, it's just a step. It's different. It's a new adventure.

Talking to Mom last night, she said Dad had mowed the new lawn w/ his old mower - it took 1/2 an hour vs the 1/2 a day minimum on the old. He was psyched.
They'll have fun.

Book #9 -Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman. I loved the variety of the collection - and the notes from Neil on each piece made it that much more interesting. "Monarch of the Glen" was great, but I can't comment on that until #1b1t - the One Book One Twitter book club - is done for spoiler's sake. Another favorite was "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire" ;) quite fun!

And another spring...

Bad pun day - come on it's Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you!) How could I resist?

Seriously, I meant to put these pics on yesterday's post. One is the crazy sweet (Jenny, I think I'm using the word MORE since that conversation! :p ) weeds that covered our backyard before the first mow. The other are the forget-me-nots - one of our favorite flowers....

Long, muddy spring - books

Actually, just one of the two fits that description...

Book #7 - The Frog & Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel. These were a favorite of J's as a child and I've been reading a chapter or so before bed to help us get to sleep. TBH, I did not read them as a child. Not bad. Some cute stories. J's fave is "Cookies", mine was "The Story".

Book #8 - Cold Mountainby Charles Frazier. Geh. What a stone. Yay I'm done! First off, good stuff: it picks up in the back quarter of the book - better pace, stuff is happening, you care a bit. But the remainder! Every person is so miserable and in such miserable circumstances that while they may not be mean-spirited, they live mean lives. No joy. For so much of the book nothing happens and I found myself asking often - "why am I reading this again?". I have to check out what's next in my rotation, but even WWII testimonials will be a pick-me-up from this one! I've read darker books, but Frazier's prose, his use of local terms that mean nothing to me and feel gratuitous - it just drags it all down.

The Pheonix poll

The local free paper The Pheonix is having its annual music poll, I am sending along one of my bands songs called "The Pheonix", it is about the paper, here are the lyrics:

Every Thursday I get excited
Because The Pheonix hits the stands
I pick one up and
Take it home then
Get disappointed
Once again

The City Paper I read in B'more
Would Keep me busy for some time
But if I got paid
To read the The Pheonix
Six bucks an hour
I'd make a dime

here is a link to the page for the best song catagory, we (The Sentimental Favorites) have a write in campaign under way for this song (go to the bottom of the column and write in The Sentimental Favorites, "The Pheonix" if you have the want to!)
http://thephoenix.com/BMP/Providence/Vote/SONG/

here is a link to the song itself: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/Sentimental-Favorites/33798799802?ref=ts

Quick book review

Book #6 - I wrote this up over at Media Creole. Wonderful, quick read that I think everyone can take something away from about life and dealing w/ what it throws at you.

Spring - before the squirrels attack

Easter pics, early memories

I'm currently reading Storycatcher by Christina Baldwin and I've come to the first series of "storycatching" exercises - recounting your earliest memory.

I was not yet 2-years old. I had been playing with my friend Kelly in the driveway, but he had to go home, across the street. Dad and I stood and watched him go. In my memory, I turn and see our house and our car - and there is no shed.

I can place the memory in time because I have another memory of looking at the balloons, gift table, and cake set up along the side of the shed for my birthday. Mom was VERY pregnant with Sonny, so that would have been my second birthday. Part of the memory of that party is spurred by home movies and photos of the day - but the angle of my view on the shed wall was not part of that, so that bit is my own, just as the earlier moment with Dad in the driveway was, as I do not know of pictures of the driveway minus the shed.

It's funny - in my memory I am me-sized - not small at all. I'm looking out from inside my head and it's what I observe that's important. I guess one key difference from then to now is the sense of self.

How about you? What is the first thing you remember?

Weird segue, but here are some pics from Easter. Mom, Dad, Dan, Tara and I went to brunch on Saturday (also Dan's birthday) to celebrate. Mom and I colored eggs Friday night - love how bright the colors were!

Joining the Party

I'm putting The Roelle Kids into the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 (see the badge in the sidebar), with hopes of gaining a few more readers.

For those of you joining from UBP - The Roelle Kids is supposed to be the collaboration of 3 siblings - but my brothers don't show up often.

There's me - Aprille (aka @eileen53) - a marketer who loves to read and cook - wannabe kick-butt chic (Sidney Bristow is my goal), passionate about storytelling (though that's mostly another blog MediaCreole), family chronicler of sorts - married, 2 cats

Sonny is the middle child - wire artist extraordinaire - also member of Sentimental Favorites in Providence, RI - dating, turtle



Danny is the youngest - he's a drummer in multiple bands - currently Hipswitch, The Meta Accord, and Nic & the Nice Guys. He loves to cook and subs in at a restaurant in our hometown from time to time. - married, multiple fish

So, that's us. Here's a brief intro to the blog. Leave comments introducing yourselves - asking questions if you're curious about anything - would love to start some conversations!

Mom & Dad are moving

When we were little, it seemed like we moved a lot. Nowhere near the level of armybrats or pk's (pastor's kids), but 4 years was the biggest hunk of time we spent in one house.

Of course, I'm super sentimental, so even a short amount of time in a spot makes me nostalgic. I want to lock all the memories of what happened there in a special place so nothing fades. I still run through our old houses in my mind, just to keep fresh the details of wallpaper, carpeting, imagined adventures as kids....

I think I was in junior high when my parents built the house they live in now - it was the one that broke the pattern. Our lot was carved from a cornfield - the summer after the house was built we tried weeding & planting grass systematically in square plots. It didn't work well - the barnyard dirt with velvet leaf made it impossible to keep up. Eventually we started mowing weeds and scattered the remaining seed.

This house saw a lot of formative experiences for us kids. It was here that we experienced our first real loss - with the passing of our Grandma Roelle. We lost Papa Roelle while living there, as well, and cousin Jeff.

We had our big high school graduation parties and both Dan & I got married while Mom & Dad were there - plus many other smaller family reunions and celebrations.

Now Mom & Dad are moving into town - downsizing a bit and able to have pizza delivered and walk to places. As I spent some time there over Easter weekend to pack my childhood room (yes, I had not yet done this), I took some video to mark some key spots.

This is several videos combined, so it's a bit long (5:30ish)

Projects

Well, this is going to be a shorter post than originally planned because I accidentally wiped my before/ after pics of my latest projects off of my memory card. I'm excited, though, because something kicked into gear last weekend and I've started on some projects that had been mulling around in my head for some time.

Project 1 is a transformation of an old dresser into a bookshelf. I should be able to find a pic of the dresser before, so it will just be the in-progress stuff I've lost. This project isn't quite complete yet - I need to finish assembly and then finish it off. At first, I was just thinking of a plain paintjob, but now I have a couple of experimental ideas based on other interests of mine that I'm thinking I may as well try (the shelf itself will be a basement shelf, at least at first, so I can take some more risks than normal). I'm hoping to get back to this a bit on Sunday.

Project 2 was an effort to freshen up the bathroom just a bit. The window was always covered by the vinyl blinds for privacy. These were dusty and the brackets holding them in had yellowed - sad shape and sad enough that I despaired of getting them clean without devoting an entire day. I got rid of them, cleaned up the window and frame, and put a textured glass film over the lower pane to maintain privacy. Not only does it look sooo much cleaner - the bathroom is a ton brighter on sunny days - could help cut back on use of the light as well.




Book #5 -The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A reread from high school days. It was alright. The forward was excruciating, but the pace of the book itself was much better. So many mixed metaphors in the portrayal of Pearl. And was the minister poisoned? Could he really have been that frail? More time on characters and less on clothes and the inherent evil nature of the wilderness they lived in would have been good. But overall, not torture.

(Currently reading Cold Mountain. A bit of torture there. Just seems to slog.)

The books that kicked off 2010

I'm moving at a pretty good pace so far in 2010, on my 5th book, the 6th will follow right on top of it, once I get through this. (Though, I have to say, in the second chapter of Cold Mountain and it's a slog so far.) Also, as I work to participate more in the things I enjoy this year - including more frequent blogging on both blogs, I will TODAY post these new reads to Goodreads - which I completely neglected in 2009.

Book #1 - Cooking for Mr Latte by Amanda Hesser. Jenny lent this to me and I took it on the plane to CES - finished just a short while before reaching Vegas. A quick, cute read. Nothing super deep, but chock full of recipes and an interesting pictures of the hyper-foodie existence. (I like to consider myself a foodie, but I'm definitely NOT at that level)

Book #2 - Cat People by Michael Korda and Margaret Korda. Meh. I liked the individual cat portraits. But underlying it all was an inherent snootiness from the authors. It took a while to get any sense that they really loved these animals they took in. And I really don't care about how expensive and designer your furniture is, please stop referring to it as if it's a huge tragedy when it gets scratched.

Book #3 - Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice. I sit here shaking my head. It started out okay, but ended up taking way longer than it should have. The narrator was not someone I cared about a lot - too much a child of privilege, too obsessed with the labels for high end brands of clothing, etc. And one of the main "big twists" was a reach. Trying to do something new & different? You don't have to go that far. I did not find it compelling, a source of conflict or interest or intrigue.

And, on a more positive note:
Book #4 - The Town Below Ground: Edinburgh's legendary underground city by Jan-Andrew Henderson. This was fun. So fascinating to learn the history of this city, the population exploding while the footprint is trapped within walls. Horrifying to think of the conditions that the majority of the citizens lived in in Victorian times. Super cool to hear about the ghosts. I am a fan of books that delve into people who live in "forgotten spaces" and this is a great part of the list.

Ciao for now, more soon.

Moroccan Harira

This is a winter of soups for me - trying to make one soup a week - all new ones so far.

The back story on harira - Moroccans eat it to break the fast each night during Ramadan (per Nancy Harmon Jenkins in The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook) - so it's hearty, but not heavy.

From: The Healing Foods Cookbook from Vegetarian Times

1/2c green lentils
1Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/2c chopped fresh parsley (didn't have - so I used a bunch of dried ground sage, which I have tons of)
1/2c chopped cilantro (sub dried)
1/2tsp dried ginger
1 cinnamon stick
15oz can chopped tomatoes,drained - liquid reserved
2c broth (I use veggie)
15oz can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
1/2c vermicelli

Tadouira (thickener)
2Tbsp flour
1/4c chopped cilantro
2Tbsp lemon juice
1Tbsp tomato paste

Cook lentils in pot of boiling salted water 2 min. Drain
Heat oil in pot over med heat. Saute onion, parsley, cilantro, ginger, & cinnamon 5 minutes - til onion is soft. Add tomatoes, saute 5 min.
Stir in broth, chickpeas, lentils, reserved tomato juice, 3c water, & salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to med-low. Simmer, stirring occ., 45 min. or until lentils are tender.
Whisk flour with 1c waterin bowl. Whisk in cilantro, lemon juice, & tomato paste. Stir into Harira w/ vermicelli. Cook 3 min, or until vermicelli are soft.

Happy Valentines Day to all! I'm focusing on yummy food (fig & fennel bread, sw potato ravioli w/ sage butter sauce, and a Wegmans fruit tart) and making progress on house chores. J has a lot of schoolwork to do with the end of his quarter approaching, so we'll have a makeup night out when he's on break.

Pecan Soup

*from Healing Foods Cookbook by Vegetarian Times

Native American Toasted Pecan Soup
Recipe says it serves 10, I halved it and got 4 servings

2 1/2 cups pecans
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
1/4c agave nectar or maple syrup
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3c veggie broth
4 sprigs fresh thyme**
1 bay leaf**
1c soymilk (I used real non-fat milk)
1/2c shredded cheese or an imitation of it, for garnish
1/4c chopped green onions, for garnish

**I used dried thyme and I think it overwhelmed other flavors a bit. Next time, I'll try a bouquet garni, instead.

1 - Preheat oven to 350. Spread pecans on baking sheet - toast 7-10 min, until fragrant. Cool 10 min, then coarsely chop

2 - Heat oil in saucepan over med heat. Add onion, saute 5 min, until soft. Stir in pecans, agave/syrup, chili powder, and garlic. Cook 2-3 min, until fragrant. Add broth, thyme/bay leaf, 4c water, and salt/pepper to taste - cover. Boil. Reduce heat to med-low & simmer 2 hours.

3 - Remove thyme sprigs/ bay leaf & puree soup in blender or w/ hand blender. Stir in milk/ soymilk. Reheat a bit & serve w/ cheese & green onion.

Jack

I didn't think about writing this until I read Neil's post about his cat Zoe. I wanted to share our story, so here's what I sent:

Mom's cat, Jack, recently passed. He was 18 and had been going downhill, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but he was the stronger of the two, the scrapper, so we figured he'd be the last one to go.

Besides the loss of a dear friend that is a common thread, I also wanted to share Jack's story because his coloring was much like Zoe's (I always thought of it as a cross between Siamese & raccoon), but Jack also went blind in the last 6 months of his life.

Jack and his brother Yellow had been found by the woman who sold my parents their land. She was old and ill and only lived in the back two rooms of her house, leaving the rest to whoever chewed their way in. She fed the strays & barncats of the neighborhood and took a liking to the batch of kittens at her door. Unfortunately, her mean Chihuahuas did not. They were so mean to Jack that we loaned a toybox turned rabbit cage for him to stay in.

Spending a bit of his kittenhood (until both he & Yellow came to live with us) in a cage gave Jack a good-sized temper. We've seen him chase deer off the property more than once. When I was a teenager, he liked to launch through the air, landing securely with his claws in my thighs - but only when I was on the phone. Both cats went out as they pleased, less often at night after the coyotes got bad, and hunted and fought quite a bit.

As he aged, Jack mellowed and demanded much lap time and brushing from Mom. It was quite upsetting to see him circle in corners, trying to find his way about, near the end. And though it was not a total surprise, he is quite missed.

Holiday crafts

I made a ton of crafty gifts for the holidays - several categories, each gift in a category was different. If I try to do that again, I'll get J to shoot me. Here's a sampling of what I did, though.

Books from scrap paper w/ postcard covers














Purses made from woven wrapping paper














Purses made from books











































Bracelets of beads made from catalogue pages





























Table made from books














So there it is. What do you think?

Before launching into 2010

I'm approaching 2010 a little late, as is common for me in general. I'm starting my focused "resolution-type" efforts tomorrow - now that CES and a whirlwind visit by J's aunt are past. So, it's appropriate that, on this last day of "2010 denial", I'm writing about my year-end for 2009 (this will be the first of two posts today)

Books - I just got to 24 books last year. Ah, well, some were quite meaty and took a while. I'll shoot for 35 at least in 2010, if not the magic 50.

Book #22 - Haunted Providence: Strange tales from the smallest state by Rory Raven. My brother knows Rory and I've met him - he was a mentalist long before the show existed, and is quite the skeptic. Still he digs up some good tales and I love learning more about the city Sonny lives in. He also makes some great points about storytelling that I will be blogging about on Media Creole in the next week or so.

Book #23 - Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. A fictionalized retelling of a tragic true story - a Senator leaves a party w/ a young girl, crashes the car in water, and the girl dies. Told from the girl's point of view and for the most part in the moments after the crash, flashback style. Powerful.

Book #24 - On Literature by Umberto Eco. A collection of essays and lectures, this can get quite technical at points and so is not recommended as a whole for the casual reader. Still there are some awesome points in here. Discussion on the search for the perfect language and how it ties to poetic artistry. A powerful essay on the power of falsehood, that, like Foucault's Pendulum, makes you realize how different history would be if one joke hadn't been played. The importance of literature:

...the wretches who roam around aimlessly in gangs and kill people by throwing stones from a highway bridge or setting fire to a child - whoever these people are - turn out this way not because they have been corrupted by computer "new-speak"(they don't even have access to a computer) but rather because they are excluded from the universe of literature and from those places where, through education and discussion, they might be reached by a glimmer from the world of values that stems from and send us back again to books.