SNL Skit: I Threw It On the Ground!

Sometimes you just have to laugh at something stupid! Saturday Night Live is always good for that.

Chippewa Moraine Ice Age Reserve

The hiking book says that the Chippewa Moraine Ice Age Reserve contains a 4.5 mile hike (also known as the Circle Trail), which is the hike we completed, but there are also several shorter hikes not mentioned in the book. The Dry Lake Trail is a 1.8 mile loop and the Mammoth Nature Trail is a .7 mile loop. The 4.5 mile Circle Trail took us about an hour and 45 minutes.

I have to admit I have a phobia about bears, and this hike was woodsy, secluded, and long enough that my bear encounter fears reared their ugly little heads. But I've learned that the more you do something, the less afraid you are, and the less you do things, the more afraid you become. Just keep on trucking!

After all, think of everything you might miss out on if you let your fears dominate you. Here is a view taken from one of several bridges on the Circle Trail.

Labor Day Weekend Tour of the Upper Mississippi River Valley

According to the Alma, Wisconsin website, this unique town is located on State Highway 35, (the Great River Road), along the upper Mississippi River in western Wisconsin, only 90 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul, 55 miles north of La Crosse, Wisconsin, or 325 miles northwest of Chicago.

The website says that Alma's "setting between the Mighty Mississippi and the 500-foot limestone bluffs gives Alma a unique look and feel. Alma is a quaint river town, established in 1848 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

Buena Vista Park is one of the must-sees of Alma local attractions. We hiked the nature trail that leads up to Buena Vista Park. The Alma local attractions website says "this scenic vista 500 feet above Alma and the Mississippi River Valley has a natural viewing platform. Visitors can watch barges traveling up the river and locking through Lock & Dam #4 along with views of the sand islands and backwater areas". Here are a couple shots we took from the top, an aerial view of the upper Mississippi River Valley and Lock & Dam #4:






On Hwy 35, right off the main street of Alma, you can access a platform adjacent to the lock and dam where you can stand and watch boats entering and leaving the lock (I've included a picture below). The website says "An average of 175 million tons of freight moves on the Upper Mississippi each year. One barge will hold an average of 1500 tons, which equals the tonnage of 15 railroad cars or 58 semi trucks. The lock is 600 feet long by 110 feet wide and raises and lowers traffic 7 feet..."



Although extemely small, Alma has a diverse offering of downtown shops, including art, pottery, flowers, restaurants, and a local bakery. Here are the fancy Wilder Rice and Halsa Breads we bought at the MadBaker of Main Street.



When leaving Pepin, if you continue a few miles on Hwy 35 south to Nelson, be sure to stop at the Nelson Cheese Factory for ice cream. (They also have great food).

We continued on Hwy 35 for about 10 more miles to Pepin, which is known as the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Here is a view of Lake Pepin, taken from the deck of the Pickle Factory restaurant, where we enjoyed a delicious meal (Harbor View Cafe in Pepin is also one of my favorite restaurants). The Pepin website says that Lake Pepin is "formed by the delta of Wisconsin's Chippewa River," and that it is "a 28-mile-long, three-mile-wide natural waterway that is part of the Mississippi River."



Walk out on the pier, and you almost feel like you're on vacation...



And to think, all this beauty is only one small section of the Great River Road, which runs along both sides of the Mississippi. The seventy-mile Lake Pepin "circle route" is a fabulous drive, with historical markers, scenic overlooks and other attractions of the Mississippi River valley.

Three Sauces in One Outcome

It was ambitious but last week I did complete Janet Chadwick's 3-in-1 canning project I described in a previous post (and managed to be in bed by 10:30 pm every night). Above you see (left to right) seven half-pint jars of chutney, seven pints of sweet and sour sauce....

and below, seven pints of Indian BBQ relish...

It took me several days to prepare...one night to prepare the peaches and another to prepare the tomato puree. But it was worth it.

The entire process quieted my mind and relaxed me during a stressful week with school finally back in session.

I can't wait to crack open these sauces to serve with different dishes throughout the fall and winter.

Canning Continued

My canning curiosity began with the Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cook Book. My sister got it for me at a thrift sale or a library book sale--I can't remember which--cast out among all the ancient, abandoned books that nobody wants anymore. Although I fancied it a treasure, I didn't look at it for years. But I kept it anyway. Sometimes you're given all the tools you need for something, before you even know you need them.

Yes, the sticker on the cover says $2.49! Copyright 1973. I envision this book being used by a quiet, passive, perfectionist, born-to-please housewive like Betty Draper from the early seasons of MadMen. But who cares if the book is older than I am?! After all, how much could have changed about canning in the last 36 years or so? In this age of quick, fast, and easy, I don't really see canning as an evolving discipline or a fashionable, high-in-demand hobby.

Or is it more popular than I thought? It sure does fit with our current interest in sustainability. BHG gave me some basic recipes and enough information to start (I began with the spaghetti sauce I pictured in a previous post), like acidity levels of foods, when to use a hot water bath versus a pressure cooker, how to sterilize jars, etc. Then I decided to try salsa. A quick Google search for "salsa canning recipes" returned numerous resources on canning, among them this guide to preserving various salsas.

But it was Barbara Kingsolver who especially inspired me. Ever since I read Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I wanted to do the three sauces in one canning project:relish, sauce, and chutney, all in one day, by adding a series of different ingredients into a stock pot and canning and three different points in the process. (All the AVM recipes are online at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/ )

Then I noticed that Kingsolver credited Janet Chadwick for the recipe, from Chadwick's book The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food. So I ordered Chadwick's book too! Chadwick's book includes recipes, tips, and how-to's, for various types of food preservation (not just canning). In addition, she provides detailed information about different kinds of kitchen gadgets that may be helpful in your food preservation adventures.

So for the last few days I have been planning for the three-in-one canning project. And trying to carve nonexistent time out of my day to do it. Yesterday I bought 30+ pounds of tomatoes from a local farm. I researched where I can buy fresh peaches (straight from Michigan, it turns out), and will purchase them tomorrow...even though I will have to sneak away from work to do it.

I've practiced blanching peaches and tomatoes, and removing their skins. Last night I prepped the fresh peaches I already had, purchased from a Sunday afternoon farmer's market in Central Wisconsin. Tonight I will make at least four quarts of tomato puree. Then I will be almost completely prepped to attack my canning project tomorrow night after work.

It has been a long time since I've been excited enough to plan how much I could get done after work. For the longest time, I got through the day by counting how many hours until I could go home and sleep on the couch (especially in Winter). I have found something that energizes me, excites me. Sort of like blogging. Every day I try to learn something new about blogging. For example, how to include pictures of book covers in this blog post (without having to physically locate the image on the web, save it and upload it to your blog). On that note, which book cover image format do you like better--the plain image or the image that includes the purchase info from Amazon? Obviously I'm not trying to sell anything, but I like to share where I found things.
I don't know if finding things I like to do has re-energized me, or if I was getting re-energized enough on my own to be open to finding these things, or maybe a combination of both, but I have found tremendous peace and healing in such simple things as canning foods.

Try Something New

Find the thing(s) that calm you, replenish you, allow you to focus completely, and do them. Find the thing that quiets that relentless voice in your head, also known as your thinking mind. Think about things you’ve always wanted to try and things that you look forward to doing. Things that make you feel peaceful and inspired and whatever adjectives you have to describe yourself feeling good (if you don’t know what makes you feel good, then you should practice being aware of how you’re feeling throughout each day and write it down!).

In the years following my mom’s stroke, I developed different ways of coping with my feelings (some good, some not so good). I began watching the Food Network cooking shows with my mom, and I began to try different recipes. I realized that I got a lot of satisfaction out of preparing different foods. I could come home from work and from being at the hospital during my mom’s rehabilitation, and be overwhelmed with the polarity of emotions I was feeling at the time—hope and despair, gratitude and grief, faith and fear—and ten minutes into chopping up peppers or sautéing zucchini all was quiet and peaceful inside.

I found the same healing power with plants. Somehow while rutting up the earth and sticking my fingers in the dirt to nurture life in perennial and vegetable gardens, I felt peaceful and alive.

And so it was that I recently rummaged through my parent’s basement to find my mom’s old canner and pressure cooker, stuck back in a corner of the cellar, covered in cob webs and dust. And I raided her collection of mason jars lining the shelves of the basement, darkened by dust, standing untouched for at least four years—back to the date my mom suffered a stroke—a day that we will never forget, the dividing line between our “old life” and our “new life.”

So as I canned (for the first time) tomato sauce and tomatillo salsa I realized that so many of mom’s things from her “old life” stand untouched now…her canning supplies, her sewing machine. For a long time we mourned our loss of our “old life.” But many things that were nonexistent in her “old life” are now a staple of her “new life”—reading more than 50 books a year, wintering on the Florida beaches...

At some point we have to quit hanging on to the old, and make room for the new. Life happens and things change. Adapt and move on. Find your thing and do it. And if the time comes when you can’t do it anymore, I hope that you can be as courageous as my mother has been. The universe may be stretching you to find something new.

Hiking for the Soul

This weekend we purchased the book 50 Hikes in Wisconsin by John & Ellen Morgan.

Our first pick was Hike #8, Hoffman Hills State Recreation Area, in West-central Wisconsin.

The Tower Nature Trail at Hoffman Hills is about 2.7 miles and takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It has lots of hills and, as the book says, provides a challenging yet peaceful workout.

Here are two views from the top of the tower that is located at the highest point (about 110 feet) on the trail.

My goal is to complete all the hikes in the book, and then possibly buy the Minnesota version of this hiking series.

I have long anticipated finding a hobby that c and I can do together, which combines exercise with meditation and relaxation for the soul.

If there's anything I've learned in the last few years it's the connection between stress and illness.

Take care of yourself.