Sunday Kind of Love

Something’s Got A Hold On Me

At Last

We used alder chips in the smoker, and rubbed the salmon with olive oil, tarragon, parsley, and garlic powder, and laid some very thin slices of lemon over the top. I didn’t do the actually cooking of the fish so I’m not sure how long it was smoked. I made a sauce to go with it – I roasted half a lemon – cut off a bit of the end so it stands up straight on a baking sheet, sprinkle the top with kosher salt, and stick under the broiler for a few minutes – and mixed the juice with mayonnaise (a bit more than a half cup), a little more than a half teaspoon of tarragon (dried, though fresh would have been better), and some fresh ground black pepper. Ended up with a lot more than needed for the dinner, but that was intentional – I’m planning to use it for some sandwiches and such throughout the week. Maybe a chicken salad.

All in all it was a very tasty supper, and I’m sure we’ll be smoking salmon again very soon.

There have been a lot of John Flavels in my family history, but this particular John Flavel was my great-great-grandfather. I’ve never known too much about him. I knew he served in the Civil War, and that he was wounded at Antietam.

Today I got find out a bit more. In one of the envelopes there was a chain, which the envelope said was for his watch. It’s an odd thing to be holding something that’s 150 years old. But the other envelope was even better. I couldn’t make out all the handwriting – something about a ribbon, and “23rd New York”. And inside was a small ribbon attached to a pin, with a picture of a bearded fellow on it, who turns out to be Captain Theodore Schlick, John Flavel’s captain. Well, now I had a regiment number. And I have the internet. So I decided to see what I could find.

First I found some histories of the regiment – the 23rd New York Volunteers Infantry Regiment, that is. They were at Antietam as I mentioned, as well as South Mountain and the 2nd Battle of Bull Run. I found some transcriptions of newspaper clippings about the regiment. I also found what appears to be a record of John Flavel’s pension, in the amount of $8.00 a month for a wounded right forearm.

And then I found a picture. This picture:

See the man sitting on the ground on the left there, with the impressive facial hair? I’m fairly certain that’s my great-great-grandpa. I can’t be certain, as I only have one photo of him to cross-reference, and photography being what it was in the 1860s this isn’t exactly “high resolution”, but that sure looks like his beard and his nose.

That picture was on someone’s website because he was interested in the axe in the foreground.

So there you have it. Thanks to a box of old things in my attic, the internet, and some guy’s fascination with axes, I found a photograph of my great-great-grandfather from when he served in the Grand Army of the Republic 150 years ago.

Today was a pretty awesome day.

Basil Walnut Tuna Salad

1  can chunk light tuna
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4  tsp lemon juice
1  tsp dried basil
3/8 cup chopped walnuts

Drain tuna. In a small bowl, mix tuna, mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Mix in basil. Mix in 1/4 cup walnuts. Transfer to serving bowl (if using a different bowl) and top with remaining walnuts. Enjoy!

Optional: Toast walnuts at 350 for 3-5 minutes before adding.
Notes: I like my tuna salad a bit on the “wetter” side, so you may find you don’t want to use as much mayonnaise as the recipe calls for.

So there you have it. It’s incredibly simple.  I’d actually never measured this recipe it out before today, I usually just eyeball everything, so don’t feel like you have to get out your measuring cups or spoons. Taste it as you go, and trust your taste buds. Overthinking food is a dangerous thing.

In 2009, and again in 2010, my church (along with another local church and ImpactLives) set aside one day to pack a shipping container full of food – 285,000 meals – to send to a region of the world in need. The first year, the food was sent to the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The next year it was sent to Haiti. And we were all set to do this again in October of 2011, but it was postponed. Postponed so that something even greater could happen. The Hunger Initiative was founded, and now, instead of two churches partnering with one food organization, we’re going to have eleven churches and three food organization packing food at eight locations. And instead of 285,000 meals, we’ll be packing three-and-a-half times that.

One million meals, packed in one day.

The Horn of Africa is experiencing the worst drought since the 1950s, and some 12 million Somalis, Kenyans, and Ethiopians are starving because of it. At the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, more than 2,000 Somalis are arriving each week, often waiting two weeks without food while a spot is found for them. Thousands of children die waiting.

The meals packed on February 25^th will go to those children, those families, waiting for their spots in the refugee camp. And to pack those meals, The Hunger Initiative needs volunteers and donations. And that’s where you and I come in.

The packing day is Saturday, February 25^th. If you live in Minnesota, I strongly urge you to sign up for a two-hour shift at one of the eight locations involved (I will be at the Maple Grove location). And no matter who you are or where you are, I encourage you to donate. One box of food costs $50 for supplies and shipping. I want to raise enough to send five boxes of food. I’ll pay for one box myself, which leaves $200 to pay for the other four.

$200 in 7 weeks. I think we can do that.

You can donate online through The Hunger Initiative’s website, or in person on the day of the event. In the next few days I will post a snail-mail address for those of you who want to donate via cash or check but won’t be volunteering. Of course if you know me personally you can get your donation to me and I will make sure it gets to The Hunger Initiative.

If you donate online or in person but still want your donation to count toward my $200 goal, you’ll have to contact me to let me know how much you’ve donated. I’ll be keeping a running tally of the total amount raised on my blog. I won’t reveal any information about individual donations, just the total.

For more information about The Hunger Initiative, or to sign up or donate, go to their website.

After a long hiatus, I am jumping back into the blogosphere with a new look and a slightly altered format. Here’s what you can expect from Musings of a Human Being now:

Monday Musings – A post about whatever’s on my mind. These posts will run the gamut from accounts of carefully thought-out essays on the human condition to an account of my spontaneous trip to the zoo with friends. In truth there will probably be more of the latter.

Interweb Wednesdays – Something of interest I have found elsewhere on the world wide web. You’ll see funny videos and pictures and links to websites, blog posts, or articles I find interesting or helpful, along with anything else I find on the internet and decide to share.

Foodie Fridays – Culinary adventures. A new recipe I’ve made, a restaurant I just went to, an interesting bit of food-related knowledge I just learned… if it’s related to food it will end up here.

So there you have it. Three posts a week guaranteed. And maybe the occasional bonus post thrown in (but don’t expect alliterative category names for the extra posts).

I really only did two noteworthy things this week; I went antiquing with the lovely Molly on Tuesday, and I went to Attack of the Moon Zombies last night with my friend KT.I hadn’t seen Molly since before she went to Germany, which was in mid-June, so it was excellent to finally do something with her. Seriously, I don’t know why it is that I always end up with best friends who have no time for me, but it seems to be my lot in life. We went to a huge antique store in St. Paul. The place went on and on and on. There were so many interesting things and it was very tempting to splurge, especially on the antique film projector. But I resisted the urge. I ended up with two vintage 7up bottle caps (which will end up as earrings) and a 1960s Squirt bottle (Squirt as in the soft drink). It’s a green glass bottle with a swirled/twisted bottom, very cool. After the antique store, Molly and I ate at 50′s Grill, which is a really fabulous place. Going to a retro diner was a fitting end to a day of antiquing. I really love vintage stuff, especially from the ’50s. I (not-so) secretly want to work at an antiques restoration place.

Thursday came, and with it the event I’d been anticipating for over a week: Attack of the Moon Zombies playing at the New Hope Cinema Grill. The movie is by a local guy named Christopher R. Mihm (website here), who makes retro-style b-movies. You know, “Attack of the radioactive something-or-others” or “Monster from a mysterious-sounding place”. I love those movies. So when I saw in the local paper that a movie called “Attack of the Moon Zombies” would be screening near me, I had to go. My friend Kt, also a lover of cheesy movies, came as well. The movie was hilarious, with the right balance of in-jokes about the genre and playing it “straight”, and the brilliantly-written plot and dialogue oozing with all the gooey cheesiness of a ’50s drive-in thriller. It was in black-and-white as well, which just made the whole thing.

After the movie was over I went to the merch table and purchased all 6 of Mr. Mihm’s movie, as a well as a patch like the one on the uniforms in Moon Zombies. I talked to the man himself for a little bit, got a couple suggestions for cheesy movies, and asked how one would go about getting on the crew or cast of one of his films. He said basically by asking how to get involved, and I should send him an e-mail saying I’m interested. So I shall do just that, and with any luck get to help out with one of his movies in the future.

The year before I started at Northwestern I had been planning to major in business, because one of the dreams I have is to open a B&B offering discounted rates to those in full-time Christian ministry. Business seemed like the most useful major. The problem with this is that I am not cut out to be a business major. I’m sure I would grasp the concepts just fine, and there would probably be parts of it I would enjoy, but overall me going into business would be like Einstein going into theatre. It might go well, and maybe even be enjoyable, but there are other places I would thrive much more.

In December of 2007, Northwestern’s student station, WVOE, broadcasted the first annual 97.7 Hours of Christmas. I had nothing better to do with myself at the time, so I tuned in to as much of the broadcast as I could. It was a blast, and made me realize that radio was something I could actually do. By that spring I was set on being a broadcast student at Northwestern, and here I am.

As much I love radio, I don’t seem to listen to it all that much outside of my car or the occasional friend’s show on WVOE. On the weekends I try to tune into MPR as much as possible, especially for Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me and Prairie Home Companion. But for the most part I don’t have any music on at all, let alone radio. I tend to watch TV instead. Now that I have it on my phone, though, I’ve been listening to radio a lot more (right now I’m listening to Cities 97). And I’ve noticed a weird thing: I’m more productive. Instead of just sitting around watching TV, I’ll listen to the radio and write a new blog post, or work on a story or poem or lyrics, or research something (mostly gardening these days), or wander about the yard surveying what’s growing and dreaming and planning. This could easily be a case of “correlation does not imply causation“, but I also know that when I listen to more music my mood tends to be better.

Another thing that helps my mood is good food. Fresh produce is one of my great loves (local produce even more), and I also like to come up with new things to make and try. Yesterday we had part of a watermelon, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post I had pruned our mint earlier in the day. I already knew watermelon and mint are a popular combination but I’d never actually made anything that used both. So I decided to give it a shot, and came up with what I’m calling a Watermelon Julep. (Fun fact: The word julep comes from the Persian “gulab”, meaning rosewater. By definition a julep consists of sweet syrup, water, and flavoring.)

Watermelon Julep

This was not at all exact. I’m going to keep honing this recipe, and once I have better measurements and any other improvements I’ll post a reworked recipe.

I cut up the watermelon and juiced it by putting it in a bowl and smashing it with a metal meat mallet (say that five times fast). If I were making a large batch I’d probably use a blender, but that seems like overkill for such a small amount, especially with something as easy to juice as watermelon. Once the watermelon was thoroughly smashed up I strained it into a glass (at this point professional recipes would say “discard the pulp”, but I suggest eating it). I’d say I ended up with about a quarter cup of juice. Next I took a few mint leaves (which came from my garden), tore them into smaller pieces, put them in the glass with the juice, and muddled them (meaning I took a blunt wooden utensil, in my case the handle of my citrus reamer, and used it to crush the mint in the glass in order to release the oil from the leaves). I strained the drink again because I didn’t want the mint leaves in the final drink, but that’s a personal preference. I added a couple drops of liquid sweetener, stirred the concoction, and voila! A watermelon julep.

I will definitely be making this again, probably often. I might try increasing the amount of mint, and of course it will be even better once watermelon is actually in season here.

As I was enjoying my watermelon julep, I realized if I’d bothered to take pictures every time I’ve been playing around in the kitchen, I’d probably have a decent food blog by now. I’ll try to remember to take pictures from now on, and with any luck you’ll be seeing more food-themed posts in the near future.