Taylor Marks

I was in disbelief when I read the email last night that Taylor Marks had been killed in Iraq Thursday. I hadn't seen Taylor in a few years, but my daughter Michelle and I had just been wondering what he was up to a few days ago. We didn't know he was deployed to Iraq and now wish we had kept in contact with him and his family more frequently.
(Normally, I am over-zealous about not infringing on copyrighted material, but I wanted to post this photo of Taylor, so I hope the Oregon National Guard forgives me for using their picture.)

Taylor was a close friend of my daughter throughout their middle and high school years. His mother and I had been in the same single mom's group at church. I was the interpreter for a boy in Taylor's small group in middle school for nearly a year before I learned that my friend was the mom of Michelle's friend.

Taylor was silly and wacky, but always a good kid with a wonderful heart. He had a growing faith and was the best of friends to my daughter, who had a very difficult home life due to her sister's serious problems. Taylor was always there for her. I always felt they made a great couple and was surprised they never dated. Many people assumed they were a couple, but they were just close friends. I had missed him once he changed to another church.

This photo of Taylor is from middle school. Sadly, it is the only photo I seem to have of him. It has been rough for my daughter and I to deal with the grief, but we had a rare visit with my granddaughter planned for today, so that kept us busy. We want to go visit his mom on Monday and support her during this unbelievably difficult time. Please pray for Taylor's mom, step-dad, sister and father.

Going Green, even if it's blue

Sure, I care for the environment and, yes, I did belong to the Sierra Club and supported the World Wildlife Fund when I was in high school in the 70's. (Who didn't?) I loved hiking and backpacking and wanted to know that we would always have wilderness places to enjoy and wild animals to see. But I've never been an extremist or activist. I recycle, but occasionally throw out a can or jar in the trash instead (usually because I found it in the back of the fridge with something fuzzy growing in it).

Interestingly, I find myself more and more concerned with going Green and becoming more eco-friendly. I have bought a number of fabric reusable grocery bags. I even remember to take them in with me on occasion. I reuse the plastic grocery bags as trash can liners or lunch sacks. I even reuse plastic containers (yogurt cups to take out sauce cups) for mixing paints or other craft needs.

Maybe it is the increasing emphasis on going Green that I see on TV. I find myself watching the Green network (who knew it even existed?). QuiltingArts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, plus the whole lot of Stampington Press have more and more on using green materials, recycling and upcycling (a new vocabulary word for me). The online ideas sent by CraftStylish also often includes recycled or green projects.

Pictured at the top of the page is one of the better ideas I've seen. Make your own reusable produce bags! Inexpensive netting and a bit of yarn or ribbon make bags you can use over and over instead of adding plastic bags to the landfill. I made and used my first one last week. Quick to make; I plan to make a bunch more. The netting is less than $2 per yard and comes in a variety of colors. I decided I liked blue, this time, but may go with yellow or purple next time. It was also easy to find coordinating thread and ribbon, though you really could use whatever you have at hand.

What cool "green" ideas have you seen lately?

Tropical Snowballs

I enjoyed the movie Julie & Julia, remembering fondly watching Julia Child years ago and being inspired to try new recipes and have fun with my cooking and baking. I'm not good with keeping a regular routine, such as Julie Powell cooking through Julia's book in one year, blogging her experience daily. My days are just to unpredictable, no, I'm too unpredictable, to follow such a regimen on my own. I have a habit of not honoring commitments made to myself.

But I WANT to be consistent. I love to write and often "blog" in my head, even if I don't have the time or energy to get to the computer to type the words. At the same time, I love cooking and would love to host my own cooking show. I plan to actually enter The Next Food Network Star competition this year, though I can't imagine what unique culinary point of view I could offer. I love to invent recipes and want others to enjoy cooking, not dread or fear it.

I've decided (we'll see if I do follow through) that I need to do a vlog of cooking. Each time I invent a new recipe, I want to make a video showing the steps and just have some fun with it. I want to respect my deaf friends, but doubt I'll have time to caption my movies. I think I should make signed versions as well as voice versions.

I've also decided that what I lack in culinary expertise I could learn through a similar method that Julie Powell took. If I find some great cookbooks that include a wide array of culinary techniques, I can cook my way through them to learn the classic preparations and sauces the "big" chefs use. It should be fun along the way.

So, to the main point of my thoughts today. While shopping for a specific book (which was not to be found) my daughters and I happened upon the following book...

(only ours has blue gingham; 2007 edition)
Cool. Should be good inspiration as we face this year's state fair in a few weeks. I wondered if I or any of my notable competitors had recipes in the book. I checked and Oregon was one of the fairs included. Time was short, the store was closing, so I made the quick decision to buy the book (luckily not too expensive at Ross). At home, I leafed through the book. Great recipes. I can't wait to try them, especially the ones from the Maui Onion Festival.

For now, get your copy and turn to page 342. I'll wait. Oh, you don't have the book? Okay, here is a photo of the page for you. (click image to enlarge)

There I am. Nestled between Blueberry-Ginger Sorbet (Maine) and Pumpkin-Ginger Ice Cream. I vaguely remembered being asked permission to have one of my recipes included in this type of cookbook, but couldn't remember when and I had never heard anything else about it. It was so neat to find myself in print! Feel free to make some... they have no added sugar and came from a recipe I invented for my diabetic step-dad earlier that summer.

Hope to start vlogging this week as I begin practicing for this year's fair. Keep cookin'!