- Generally we have a side salad with our dinner each night, but this week we had extra cucumbers from the CSA and needed to figure out what to do with our bounty of produce. Enter the juicer. We juiced half a cucumber, half a head of romaine lettuce, a handful of spinach, and two pears, and in about five minutes we had a beautiful, inexpensive, and tasty way to get a few servings of veggies in on a Saturday afternoon. The salad juice was smooth and had a nice balance of sweet from the pear and zip from the cucumber. Apparently our countrymen could use to learn a few lessons in eating veggies, as yesterday's paper reported that only one in four Americans eats three or more servings of vegetables a day. Eesh. My advice- buy a juicer, it's fast and so yummmmmmyyyyyy!
- - For the first time in my life I have a U.S. style commute. By this I mean by car and about 45 minutes each way. While I decidedly prefer public transportation (and really, given the option who wouldn't?) or my former ten minute commute by moped, I have been making due and trying to find the upsides of my situation. Perhaps the best part is that I don't have to drive through a crowded metro area, but rather I drive between a metro area and a small town, crossing an idyllic Midwestern landscape. At this time of year that means hundreds of thousands of sunflowers, farm fields turning from green to gold, and rolls of hay dotting fields of cattle. The above photo is from the Ernie Miller Nature Center, which I pass each day and which is fairly representative of the scenery through which I drive. Below is one of my favorite paintings from the Spencer Museum of Art, Near Sundown by Grant Wood, which I am reminded of each day that I cruise along K-10, listening to the news on NPR in the morning and music on my iPod in the afternoon, soaking up the prairie scenery. -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We got a wealth of pumpkins and squashes from our CSA a few weeks back. I didn't get a photo of the pile of beautiful veggies, but I did remember to get a photo as we were working to freeze them. We cut up the squash, blanched it in a few batches, and put it into huge freezer bags, so now we have a few pounds of squash ready to go for the fall season, some like the acorn pictured here, but most of it being Delicata. I'm thinking about Ricotta, Red Onion and Squash Pizza, Squash Ravioli, and Squash Rissotto....
After a near three month silence, I think I am ready to get back to the blogging.
The last time I posted we were in the midst of packing up our Yokohama apartment at the end of two wonderful years in Japan, and now I sit in Kansas, close to the point from which we departed for our journey. The readjustment period took longer than I expected and was surprisingly disorienting and emotional at times. In the two years that we were gone we had many adventures, traveled all over Asia, learned Japanese, made wonderful friends, had a baby, and generally enjoyed a fantastic time of life when we felt very free. After returning to Chicago and visiting with family for about a week we came down to the Kansas City-Lawrence area and in many ways it felt like nothing changed at all, our two year life-changing adventure was a dream.
In some ways it has been very comfortable and easy to be back. Daily interactions are in English. I understand how things work (like how to rent an apartment or purchase a car). It’s been wonderful to see family and friends and to be reunited with our dog and cats.
In other ways it has been an uncomfortable and difficult experience. We have to drive everywhere. The carts at the grocery store are disgustingly large, as are the products and the cars into which people load their commercial bounty. American politics makes my blood pressure rise. People are rude.
The past few months have had their ups and downs, and we have done a few really fun things. We saw fireworks on the Fourth of July. We went to a baseball game and watched the Kansas City Royals play the Oakland A’s. We went camping in the Flint Hills with the dog and the baby. We joined a CSA. The list goes on. After this long period of adjustment, I finally feel like I am wholly back. I miss Japan dearly, and I look forward to going back, but for now it feels good to be fully in one place.
I hope that in the next few months I can find some time to post now and again, either about daily life, the experience of working on a PhD in Art History, cooking, travels in the U.S., or just general thoughts.
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