H.A. Larson's Blog, page 52

Coffee Talk: Photography, Traveler's Itch, and the Write Life

Good morning! It's time for a cup of coffee and a chat. Have you got your cup? I've got mine, so let's get started. 
Recently, my husband and I were talking, and I brought up photography. As most of you already know, I love taking photos...it's a bit of an amateur hobby of mine. Over the holidays, I used my gift money to purchase a good camera. Since then, I've been using it a little more often. My husband suggested I start trying to capture motion shots, and I thought that was a great idea. So, recently when I took Nature Girl to our local park, I brought my camera with me. The Teen met us there later and I captured a few shots that I really liked. 
While I'm not going to post those photos today, here are a couple of cool photos I took that day as well.


The Grotto staircase in Elmwood Park, Omaha, NE.



Someone took the time to build this shelter out of logs and sticks. Cool, huh?



View of the Ozarks from Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas.


Next month our family vacation is happening, and we're all very excited. As I've mentioned before (in this post), we're heading to Arkansas. Arkansas? Yes, Arkansas. My mom moved there a few years ago for her job, and I took the kids down for a short three-day visit. I didn't really know much about Arkansas, so you can imagine my surprise at how beautiful it is. It's a nature lover's/outdoor person's dream! My mom is literally surrounded by mountains and forests. Mountains and forests everywhere!
We've got a plan, and a week off, and we're all picking out at least one place to go. That way everyone gets to do at least one thing they'd really like to do while we're on vacation. It's a special trip for us as well as it's our first, full-fledged, family vacation. I mean, we did take our actual first one last year--to Colorado which was awesome btw--but it was only for four days, including driving time. It wasn't nearly enough and we all wished we had more time to explore the mountains and forests there. Well, now we get to do it. While the Ozark Mountains aren't as large as the Rockies, they're still impressive.







I'm still slugging away at The Box. I was hoping to be at the editing stage right now, but I really want this book to be perfect, so I've taken the extra step of having someone read through it before I work on it much more so I can get a good idea of any grammatical or continuity issues. Also, feedback is good, and since I self-publish, this is a good preliminary step I'm going to start taking from here on out. 
I have found a new book writing program that looks like it will be perfect for finally getting my book to look the way I want it to look after upload. I'll keep you posted on that, as well as my progress. I'll have it done, just you wait! This time though, I'm doing it better. If there's nothing else I can say about The Write Life, I keep improving and that's important.


Well, that about wraps up today's Coffee Talk. It's hump day which means we're halfway to the weekend again. The weather here, while windy, is beautiful right now, and it's got me thinking about spring. How about you? 

A Lovely Family Day

Saturday was a fantastic day. Where last weekend was cold and snowy, this weekend was dry and warm at 72 degrees. Like I've said before, recently, Midwest weather wildly fluctuates. We decided before the weekend even got here that we should definitely get out for a hike. So, all four of us (yep, The Teen is still hanging out with us, yay!) packed a picnic lunch, hopped in the car, and headed for Platte River State Park.
We parked near the bigger of the two observation towers, and went into the forest for a good hike. We really explored areas of the park we hadn't gone before, and I pushed myself to hike up every hill without stopping (I'm preparing myself for some serious hiking that we're going to be doing on our family vacation next month). It's a beautiful place with many differing views.




Along the main trail, you can hike up to--and around/on--the small falls that are contained in the park. We've visited these falls in every season, including winter when it was frozen solid, and they're always a treat to see.




A wider view of the falls.




Nature Girl and The Teen love to climb things, especially when we're out hiking. 




We moved from the falls trail up into the hills. We came back down over on the side where the Platte River sits. This is a view down the creek that feeds into the park, and thus the falls, from the river.








Dad and Nature Girl climbed up this tree. Gee, I wonder where the kids get their love of climbing from?




When you get to the river itself, there are train tracks that run alongside. A train was coming right after we got there.




After the train passed, we went over the tracks and spent some time admiring the scenery and skipping rocks into the mighty Platte River. Look at that view!




When we finished hiking around the park, we made our way back to the Walter Scott Lodge. The trailhead we entered the forest from is located behind the lodge. Also located behind the lodge are picnic tables, which is where we had our picnic. NG and I made homemade breadsticks, and I brought greens with all the fixin's, veggies with dip, chips & salsa, peanut butter pretzels, and some fruit cups. The weather was gorgeous and we each took turns talking about what we liked about each other. It was absolutely wonderful.




Here's the amazing view we had from our picnic table. Not too shabby, huh?





While Dad and NG climbed the big observation tower, The Teen and I put our cooler back in the car. We noticed behind us were some horses in a field that belongs to the Park. I had no idea the park had horses, so we went over to check it out. A nice couple in their 50s were there feeding them with carrot chunks, and they gave us some. When Dad and NG came down from the tower, NG came sprinting over as she absolutely loves animals. 
The Teen went back to our cooler to get the carrots we had for lunch, and we shared them with the nice couple and a few more kids so we could all feed the horses. They were beautiful creatures.




Me petting a horse.




The Teen really enjoyed it. The wife of the nice couple in their 50s asked my son what grade he was in. When he told her he was in 11th grade, she responded with, "You're awfully polite for an 11th grader." It was a nice compliment. Both of our kids are great kids, and it's nice to know other people think so as well.




NG was even wearing her horse t-shirt. *laugh* She especially enjoyed the horses.

Latest Libations: 4th Edition

Happy Saturday! It's my favorite day of the week and it's already off to a great start. After a good night's sleep, I'm getting some busy work done (of course), but I'm also getting some other things done. I'm making a loaf of bread, some breadstick twists for today's hike, some cashew cheeze, and some vegan cheeze sauce. 
It's going to be perfect weather again this weekend (oh you, silly Midwest weather) and we're taking a real hike today (all four of us) in preparation for our family vacation next month! Next month, already! We're all super excited to take a full family vacation doing our favorite thing: outdoor adventure. Anyway, we're packing a picnic lunch for today and I'm planning on vegan enchiladas for supper tonight. 
Today, though, I'd like to share with you some of the latest brews I've imbibed in. So let's get started!



I absolutely adore a good fruit ale, and Samuel Smith makes the best. The four that I've drank over the years are: raspberry, cherry, apricot, and, the one shown, strawberry. It's light and refreshingly sweet, while not overly-sweet and having decent body. I highly suggest you try one of these.




Good old Guinness is one of my favorite beers to drink. I'd seen their Rye Pale Ale in the Mix-a-Six section, and knew I'd have to try it. It did not disappoint! While it has that distinct Guinness taste in the background, it didn't take away from the excellent pale ale taste.




West O Smoked Red Ale is a brew made here in the Midwest, Lake Okoboji to be exact. While a decent beer, it's not as impressive as other red ales I've had, and if it's intended to be smokey, I'd didn't really catch it. Still, it's a good beer and I would drink it again.




I love a good shandy. Typically, a shandy is perfect for drinking under the shade of an umbrella during warm weather days. I really like Traveler's Grapefruit Shandy, so when I saw this in the Mix-a-Six section, I thought I'd try it out. It has that shandy taste while simultaneously having a winter spice taste. Not overpowering, so it's still crisp and light, but the spice makes it a good winter sipping beer.




Lucky Bucket consistently puts out an excellent product. Local to my area, I've toured their brewery and drank countless of their beers. This gem, Wide Eye Coffee Stout, has all the greatness of a stout, complimented with cold-brewed coffee. As any serious beer drinker can confirm, stout and coffee go together like ice and water.




Remember last edition when I talked about Coney Island's Hard Ginger Ale and how much I enjoyed it? Well, I decided to take a chance on another of their flavors, Hard Cherry Cream Ale! Maybe it's the girl in me, but I love brews like this...as long as they're made well. While it seems the Ginger Ale isn't being made anymore, I will take this as a suitable replacement! This brewery knows how to make the perfect soda-brew. I highly recommend any of their drinks. I'm now an official fan.




I like Kinkaider brewery and I like pale ales, so I grabbed this one to try: 4-County Pale Ale. It was good, but not of the same caliber as the Guinness Rye Pale Ale I had.




O.M.G. Founder's Porter is a MUST for any true beer lover. More like a dessert, this porter is black as night and dreamy like cream. This is a solid 5 out of 5 and I say that you must have one.




Brickway Brewery is another local brewery that I have toured (which you can read about here in an older blog post of mine). They make a decent brew, but I had not yet tried their Maple Pecan Brown Ale. It is delicious. I love a good Brown Ale--Newcastle is my favorite brown ale hands-down--but this one has the complimentary flavors of maple and pecan. If you ever get a chance to try it, I would. 


There you have it, the Latest Libations! I hope you enjoyed this walk down delicious brew memory lane. I also hope you get out and enjoy your weekend. See you on Monday! 

The News

Good morning friends and fans. It's Friday, and I'm ready for the weekend (aren't I always though?). I admit that I'm not feeling much like putting up a well-thought-out post this morning. There are two reasons for this: 1. I stayed up a bit late having a few rare weekday drinks, and 2. I'm feeling a bit blue. The first one is easy enough to understand, but the second one needs a bit of explanation.
Sometimes...I shouldn't read the news. More specifically, sometimes I should not read certain stories in the news. I see headlines and think, "I really shouldn't read the story", but I always (like a dumb dumb) do. The result is that I read something that unsettles me to the core, and then I spend the next several days trying to get it out of my mind. No, I'm not talking about politics or some faux-celebrity here, I'm talking about gut-wrenching stories that will make your skin crawl. They usually, for me, involve kids and/or animals, and are hard to understand. So, without going into specifics, let's just say that I read a story that affected me deeply, and now I'm feeling more than a bit sad. 
I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about the news, but the stories that affect us are different. We all get fired up or feel discouraged by certain things we read. How do we deal with things that are out of our control? How do we put things like that out of our mind? For me, it usually takes some love and hugs from my favorite people, sometimes a few drinks (last night for me!), and a bit of time. 
How about you? How do you deal with these situations?

An Afternoon with the Kids

Lately, my Sunday afternoon adventures with Nature Girl have been joined in on by The Teen. It's been a pleasant addition because he had quit going anywhere with any of us for quite some time now. He's a typical teenager that would rather spend time with his friends, so we had just resigned ourselves to the fact that it would just be Mom, Dad, and Nature Girl, or Mom and Nature Girl on Sundays. Sometime in January, however, The Teen started expressing an interest in going with Nature Girl and I on our Sunday adventures. I'm sure glad he did, because it's awfully nice having him around. 
Anyway, this last Sunday saw some warmth come back to the Midwest. Our Midwest weather has lived up to it's reputation of being wildly fluctuating. Sunday, while in the 40s, was a sight warmer than the previous few days, and that's warm enough to get outside. We headed out to Schramm State Park for a hike, where we were treated to various degrees of Winter. Here, then, are some pictures from the afternoon.



Nature Girl draws while The Teen looks out one of the ponds.



Much like the last few bodies of water we've been too, birds were there, namely geese.



The kids carefully navigate a fallen tree that's always been there.



A view through the trees on the half-trail.



Snow covered steps.



Green algae floating on one of the fish hatchery ponds.



The kids look for fish in the fish hatchery pond.



Some of the fish in the hatch ponds. There was a nice mix of them floating around. We fed them while we were there.



The kids and I.

Recipe of the Week: BBQ Cauliflower

Oh cauliflower, how I love thee! There isn't anything more versatile than cauliflower, seriously. You can grate it, turning it into "rice"; you can baste it and bake it whole; you can boil it and blend it up into a dip or add it into a sauce (I suggest spaghetti sauce); you can cut it into thick slices and grill it (I highly, highly recommend this Forks over Knives recipe...it's amazing); you can eat it raw; or you can break it up into florets and do countless numbers of things with it. 
This last way is how I often cook it, either by dipping the florets in batter, baking them, and then adding a sauce; or just simply cooking the raw florets in a sauce. I have the good fortune of living in the same town as Isa Moskowitz' ground-breaking vegan restaurant Modern Love. Even before I fully embraced a vegan lifestyle, I found this restaurant to have the best food I've ever eaten at a restaurant, and each visit since has proven my point. One visit saw BBQ cauliflower on my plate and I fell in love. I never thought of combining the two before, so I tried it at home and found it to be just as great. 
I've made it a few times now, and it's very simple to prepare. I serve it over rice and a side of some kind of veggie, in this case it was brussel sprouts. I know, I know...I'm always making brussel sprouts. (Don't judge me!) I love brussel sprouts, and I freely admit it. You don't even know how often I would eat them if I could! In fact, at the grocery store the other day, they had bags of them on sale for 95 cents (!!) a bag, so many came home with me. Okay, now that I've gone off the rails, let's get back on track. Here's my simple, but delicious, recipe.



BBQ Cauliflower over basmati rice with a side of miso-roasted brussel sprouts.

BBQ Cauliflower with Rice

Ingredients:

2 T. coconut oil1 head of cauliflower, cleaned and broken up into florets2-3 c. BBQ sauce
2 c. veggie stock
1 c. basmati rice


Instructions:


1. Bring the veggie stock to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Add the rice and bring to a boil again. Turn it down to medium heat, cover, and cook for approx. 15 minutes.
3. Heat coconut oil in a frying pan until the oil ripples.
4. Add cauliflower florets and turn to coat in oil. Stir regularly while keeping an eye on it. You're just looking to lightly brown the cauli.
5. Turn heat down to medium and add BBQ sauce. Start with 2 cups, but add more if needed. Stir to coat evenly, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until tender.


To Serve:

Put a bed of rice down on a plate, then add the cauli. Spoon a bit of the sauce over the entire thing. Garnish with chives. I like to serve a side of roasted or sauteed veggies with this, preferably a green one. Broccoli, green beans, snap peas, brussel sprouts, zucchini, or anything like that would be perfect.


Notes:

*You can use any kind of oil you prefer, but coconut oil really gives it that "something" in the flavor department.
*You can use any kind of BBQ sauce as well, but a smokey-sweet one is my preference.
*You can easily increase the size of your meal by adding another head of cauli and more bbq sauce. In this case, you would want to fry the cauli in batches, and then add them all together for the sauce.
*You can reduce the amount of oil you use as well, to 1 T., but I think 2 works best.

Artist Portrait: Lisa Wells

Sugar Skull Wallet by Lisa Wells

Good morning! A few years back, I did a short feature on a musician that I knew, and reviewed an album of his. I'd like to do a little more of that, as I love art, music, and anything creative in general. This artist's portrait is about Lisa Wells, a personal friend of mine, who's into making art of many mediums. I had a chance to sit down and talk with her, and I'm going to share that with you today.




Magic Woman by Lisa Wells



Hi Lisa, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?  

I’m a Nebraska native who’s just recently relocated to Portland Oregon. I received by Bachelor’s of Studio Art with a K-12 teaching certification from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2009. Since graduating, I’ve had a lot of different experiences from teaching English in Thailand to helping build a cob house at the Gypsy Café in Oregon. I love being surrounded by the natural world. I have always been very interested too, in sociology, psychology, ontology -the fields that pose existential questions and spark the imagination. 



What inspired you to start making art? What inspires your art now? 

I’ve always created art. As a kid, it was almost a compulsion. I’d space out in the middle of math class and come to moments later to realize I’d drawn all over my desk. That never went over well. Over the years, a lot of inspiration has come from the natural world and then throughout college it was very existentially-focused. Currently, my work has taken a couple paths: there’s the more heady academic work and the lighter, utilitarian project. My drawings and hand-painted leather items are inspired by the desire to offer art that is playful and easy to access. They feature the kind of designs, subjects, and bright colors that have delighted me since childhood. Most recently, I have been inspired by my work on a sorting, and researching project concerning an extensive collection of antique engravings and lithographs from the mid 1800s to the early 20th century. It’s a lot of Art Noveau work and naturalist library prints. Look to see this new influence in my upcoming leather paintings and drawings.



What is your favorite medium? 

Hmm, that’s a hard question. I really love 3-dimensional art because of the endless possibilities- It’s very outside of the box. I did a sculptural piece where I painted a 6’ x 6’ wall and then mounted plaster casts of faces along with tassled curtains. There is so much I long to explore in this medium. You can use sound, light, tangible objects, time. It’s heavy stuff but totally open. Painting, though, is soothing and very meditative. I can do it anywhere which is great for my current situation working and living in such a small space. I can just focus on how the colors interact with each other and on the repetitive, yet exacting motion of the brush. 



What kind of art are you currently making? 

I’m currently doing a lot of hand-painting on vintage/lightly worn leather. It feels great to give something new life and to be able offer more affordably priced items. I’ve also done some drawing, and currently offer custom drawings of pets. A lot of the work is very representation yet stylized and design oriented. They’re the more commercial sort of pieces that one can wear or hang on the wall, but of which the artistry can still totally be appreciated. 




Is there any kind of preparation, mentally and physically, that you do to get ready to create? 


I have to be at peace with my self. My conscious and subconscious minds have to be on good terms. That means I need to address worries, distractions and any other cognitive clutter before I create. I try to be in a meditative state. Whatever I’m drawing or painting I intensely contemplate. I often unlock great new insights while in this state. 



Is your art for sale? If so, where can we find it?




You can find my art for sale at 
www.etsy.com/shop/WishesByWells
also check out my other work at
www.facebook.com/artist.lisawells

Coffee Talk: Bad Weeks, Late Starts, and Lagging Behind

It's another edition of Coffee Talk, and I'm going to admit right off the bat that I do not, in fact, have a cup of coffee. Today's caffeine is courtesy a cold soda. What?! I know, I know. Look, sometimes I prefer a cold soda as opposed to coffee. I don't know why, but I just do. If it will make you feel better though, I am going to stop and get a good cup of coffee on my way to work today. There, see? Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's get to chattin'!
So, the weather turned icky, just like the weatherman said it would, and just like I mentioned in Monday's post. Because of this, my job (which is at the local university) is going to start two hours late. This gives me some extra time this morning, which I've already used being productive here in front of my computer. I got some future blog posts primed, some other unrelated-to-writing work done, and I will get to work on The Box after I've finished here.
I'm glad we're starting late today anyway. The last few weeks have been very stressful, for various reasons, and it all came to a head yesterday. Luckily, the day ended with some much-needed relief in the form of a family discussion about working together to help each other out, and to work on finding solutions to problems together. I finally feel like my body isn't in a perpetual state of tenseness, and I'm thinking a bit more on the positive side.
Because of all that's been going on, I'm not as close to finishing my latest book as I had hoped. I had fully intended on being ready to edit within two weeks of my announcement, but I am definitely not going to make that. I'm not concerned about putting it out later than intended, but I am worried that it might take too long. I hate to rush anything, trust me, I've learned from past experience on that, but I also don't want to finish The Box much later than I had hoped either. At least, that's the way I have been feeling lately, but I imagine the stress hasn't helped me out there. Now that I feel more positive today, I'm feeling better about that as well. I might be lagging behind a bit, but I'll make up for it.
Well, I guess that's all for me today. I'm going to get to work on the book before I get ready to go to work (and don't worry, I won't forget my coffee). Have a great Friday, and Happy Weekend! It's finally here.
-H.A.

Nature and Wildlife

This past weekend brought gorgeous weather to our neck of the woods, and we spent the majority of it on house tasks. We cleaned up the front yard, the backyard, the garage, and defrosted our deep freezer. I was so productive that I even got Nature Girl's room clean and the oil changed in my car!
After Sunday's work was complete, I realized that we hadn't gotten out into nature at all, so after we did our last task (taking glass in to the recycling center) we decided it was time for a nature pit stop. We drove up to Wild Heron Haven just so we could take a leisurely stroll and catch some wildlife. I grabbed my camera, of course, so I could take pictures.




Wild Heron Haven (WHH) has a decent-sized pond for ducks, heron, and geese to visit or stay for awhile. The Sun is starting to set later and later, thankfully, and I captured this beautiful photo of it setting against the pond.




Nature Girl ran to the end of the wetland pond boardwalk to check out the water fowl.




Of course the geese mostly flew away as we were walking up to them, but I was able to get a good photo of the last group of them on the pond before they took off.




There they go!




WHH built this cute little viewing spot a couple of years ago, and here we have NG and Daddy relaxing here for a moment. There was another couple here as we arrived, and they were just leaving this spot with an empty bottle of wine. Smart idea!




The big pond is fed from smaller inlets--or feeds into them--and it was in one of these that we saw a muskrat. It took a few minutes of patience to get a good shot of him.




This is the muskrat's home. I love how beautiful the reflections of everything were. I find beauty in nature, no matter what time of year.




A view up a tree.




We saw a group of mallard ducks as well. Their green heads are so vibrant!




We saw this guy on the walking trail. He thawed out (prematurely I might add) as the weather was unseasonably warm, and is supposed to grow cold again (with snow) this weekend.




One more shot of the sky before we went home. Ahhh, what a pleasant evening's stroll. Truthfully, it was so pleasant that I didn't want the weekend to end. The fact that it was at or near 70 degrees all weekend definitely helped with that.
Have a great rest of your week, and I'll be back Friday with a new post!
-H.A.

February's LVJ Subscription

Good morning and Happy Monday! Another weekend has come and gone, and, man, was it beautiful. The weather was in the mid to high 60s all weekend, and we managed to get a lot of things done that needed to get done. We cleaned up the front and back yards, cleaned up the garage, and defrosted the deep freeze. It's nice to start getting ready for Spring and Summer. I have a post coming up on Wednesday about my weekend, so look for that. Today, however, is about my lastest Louisville Vegan Jerky subscription.




This month's box and sub card. The woman on the postcard is Enid Yandell. I took a minute to look her up, and she was a semi-famous sculptor from Louisville, KY (which is where LVJ is located) who was lucky enough to study with Rodin. Here's the Wikipedia entry for her.




If you've seen any of my other posts about my LVJ sub, you'd know that each month's box comes with two standard flavors and one test flavor. Sriracha Maple is a standard flavor and is always good.




The second standard flavor I got is my all-time favorite: Smokey Carolina BBQ. If they sent me nothing but three bags of this every month...I'd be a happy, happy camper. Hands down their best flavor, and to think, it started out as a test flavor. (You can bet I was one of the lucky ones to receive that original batch.)




This month's test flavor is Cherry Chipotle. O.M.G. This is probably my second all-time favorite flavor, next to Smokey Carolina BBQ. It has cherry juice and actual cherries as well as chipotle, and the combination is heavenly!
So there it is, the latest LVJ sub. This ranks up there as one of my favorite monthly boxes! As usual, if you're interested in their sub, here's a link to their website, and check out Ms. Enid Yandell...what an interesting life she had.