mohaus

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Outdoor Adventures | 2010 edition

This year was another really rough one for us. We spent the first half of the year living in separate states, followed by 3 months in a camper at a campground, before finally settling into a new home in a really rural part of Alabama. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of time available for adventures this year.

January - June
After one year of unemployment, Daniel moved to Chattanooga to start a new job.
We put our house on the market.
We finally sold it after 6 months.

July
Paddling the New River | New River Gorge, WV

August
Living in a Camper at Raccoon Mountain | Chattanooga, TN
Four Wheelers in the Smoky Mountains | Pidgeon Forge, TN

September
Mountain Biking at Raccoon Mountain | Chattanooga, TN
West Rim Trail | Cloudland Canyon, GA

October
Backpacking at Bob Bald | Joyce Kilmer Slick Rock Wilderness, NC

November
Point Rock Trail | Bucks Pocket State Park, AL

December
My First 5k

52 Books, Book 2

My number two book for the year is another novel that takes place in Russia. One of the things that makes "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn so intriguing is that this is the ONLY book by Solzhenitsyn to be published in Russia. That it was published at all is surprising given the content.

The book details the day of one prisoner as he goes about life in a labor camp. The specifics give true incite into what one of these camp's must have been like {Solzhenitsyn had first-hand knowledge after spending nearly a decade in a work camp in Siberia for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter}. In addition, there are several references to one prisoner's belief in God.

I won't say that I was enamored by the book, but I think that the circumstances surrounding the book make it a worthy read.

Excerpts from the book:

When you are cold, you don't expect sympathy from someone who's warm.

Easy money doesn't weigh anything and it doesn't give you that good feeling you get when you really earn it. The old saying was true – what you don't pay for honestly, you don't get good value for.

...He {the cook} had a trusty who carried it for him. He thought it was better to slip an extra portion of the stuff to a trusty at the expense of the prisoner's bellies than to break his own back. Then there was water and firewood to carry and the stove to light. The cook didn't do that either. He had other prisoner's and "goners" to do it. And they got their cut too. It's easy to give away things that don't belong to you.

"The thing is, you can pray as much as you like, but they won't take anything off your sentence and you'll just have to sit it out, every day, from reveille to lights out." – Shukhov

"You mustn't pray for that... What do you want your freedom for? What faith you have left will be choked in thorns. Rejoice that you are in prison. Here you can think of your soul." – Alyoshka

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Recipe: Turkey, Vegetable and Orzo soup

My sister-in-law recently introduced me to Orzo. It is found in the pasta aisle, but it looks like a large-grain rice. She made a Tomato Orzo soup that Daniel and I really enjoyed and I have worked to recreate it. I plan to post this recipe another time but I want to try a couple more variations first.

Anyways, I had leftover turkey from a turkey dinner I cooked last week and I decided that Turkey and Dumplings would hit the spot on a cold day in January. While looking through my cupboards for ingredients, I realized that I had some leftover Orzo and decided to use it in lieu of dumplings. I love dumplings, but the Orzo turned out to be a good alternative.

I based my recipe on this Chicken and Dumpling recipe from The Way The Cookie Crumbles. I highly recommend the Chicken and Dumplings, but if you have leftover turkey or want to try something new, this Turkey, Vegetable and Orzo soup was delicious.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and cut in quarter-inch rounds
3 celery ribs, chopped
¼ cup red wine
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth {I used 4 cups leftover from boiling my turkey and 2 cups of chicken stock from the store}
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley leaves
1 pound of turkey {I used what I got off the bone after boiling and removing from the bone}
table salt and ground black pepper
3/4 box of Orzo

Directions

Saute the onion, carrots and celery in the olive oil.
Add turkey {or chicken} stock and red wine and bring to a boil.
Add leftover turkey, salt, pepper, thyme and parsley and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Turn stove to high and bring to a rolling boil.
Add the Orzo and cook for an additional 9 minutes.

Yields 6 meal-size servings.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Holiday Recap

I feel like I am just now starting to recover from the holidays. I find it interesting that there is a big rush to get Christmas started {stores and radio stations pushing Christmas from Halloween on} and then just as quickly, there is a rush to take it all down and move on with the new year.

I lean towards letting Christmas come at its own pace. Preferably after Thanksgiving. When Christmas is over, I am all for letting it linger for a little while. I am in no rush to take down the twinkle lights and ornaments that remind me of days gone by. I want to savor it just a little longer.

Anyways, we had a lovely Christmas. It started the Monday before Christmas when my sister brought my Grandparents over for a quick visit. Wednesday we went out with Daniel's co-workers to celebrate a birthday. And then on Thursday we headed to Nashville to see more family - including lunch with Daniel's mom to celebrate her birthday. After lunch, we went to my aunt's house to meet up with my family. And Thursday-Sunday we stayed at my sister's house {sneaking out Christmas Eve to spend some time with Daniel's family}.

Christmas morning we woke up to snow – a rarity in the south {especially for Christmas}. My family draws names and we buy a gift for only one person, but everyone buys for Izzy {my niece}. It was so much fun watching Izzy open her presents {18 months is a great age to experience Christmas}. After presents and breakfast, we headed to my aunt's for a Christmas dinner with extended family.

Christmas night we headed to Opryland Hotel to take in all of the lights. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, the roads started to freeze and we had some difficulty making it back to my sister's house. This included an iced over ramp in which we had to turn around and drive off going the wrong way. Fun times.

Sunday we stopped in to say hi to Daniel's dad on our way home. Daniel's sister came with us for a quick overnight visit at our new house.

Then we enjoyed a low-key week. On New Year's Eve, we met friend's in Chattanooga for lunch. Daniel and I took care of errands while "in town" and splurged and ate at Chick-fil-a for our New Year's Eve dinner ;) When we got home, we watched Dan in Real Life and stayed up to watch the ball drop. Saturday it rained all day and we lazed around. And finally Daniel's dad came for a quick overnight visit.

We truly enjoyed getting to visit with both of our families. But we are just as thankful to be home and getting back to life as usual. Along with most people, I think our number one resolution is to lose weight and get in shape {no more Christmas snacking}.

*No pics of Daniel's family because I didn't have a camera with me... if they get posted online, I will add them.

52 Books, Book 1

I actually started City of Thieves by David Benioff last week but didn't finish until after the new year, so I am counting it towards 2011.

This story takes place during the Nazi siege of Leningrad. Lev Beniov is thrown into prison for looting and ends up in the same cell as Kolya, a deserter from the Red Army. This unlikely duo is given the opportunity to avoid death if they can perform one task: find 12 eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel whose daughter is getting married and wants a real wedding cake.

They have less than a week to secure the eggs. It is the dead of winter in Russia and food of any kind is scarce {much less fresh eggs}. A series of events lands them as prisoners of the German army. They cut a deal with the Germans that if Lev can beat one of the high-ranking German officials at chess, the Germans will give them a dozen eggs. You will have to read the story for yourself to find out what happens...

I enjoyed this story, though some of the brutality of war was difficult to read.

Excerpts from the book:

Darkness and solitude didn't frighten me. Electricity was as rare as bacon in Piter in those days... The nights were dark and quiet, but there was always noise somewhere... awful sounds, really, but sounds – something to let you know you were still in this world. That cell in the Crosses was the only truly silent place I'd ever entered. I could hear nothing at all; I could see nothing. They had locked me in death's waiting room.

Perhaps I had always known they would disappear one day, and so I had kept them at a distance, laughed at their jokes and listened to their plans but never really trusted their existence.

"The Germans. They think they're so efficient, the greatest war machine ever built. But you look at history... and the best conquerors always gave their enemies a way out... With the Germans you can fight them and get killed or you can surrender and get killed. They could have turned half of this country against the other half, but they don't have the subtlety; they don't understand the Russian mind; they just burn everything." – Kolya

I could not remember when I was not afraid, but that night it came stronger than ever before. So many possibilities terrified me. There was the possibility of shame... the possibility of pain, suffering through... torture... And there was the excellent possibility of death. I never understood people who said their greatest fear was public speaking, or spiders... How could you fear anything more than death?

There is a place beyond hunger, beyond fatigue. When time no longer seems to move and the body's misery no longer seems fully your own.

Saturday, January 01, 2011

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I did it. I managed to read 52 books in 52 weeks {#46 on my life list}.

Here is a list of the books I read in 2010. They came in all shapes and sizes. There was fiction and non-fiction. Adult short stories and novels from my childhood. Classics and sci-fi. Adventure and commentaries. Self-help and memoirs. It was a good year of reading...

An honorable mention goes to City of Thieves by David Benioff. I am 3/4 of the way through and it would have been #53 had I finished it.

Word for the Year: Adaptation

On January 1 of 2010, I sat down and thought about what word would sum up the coming year. After much deliberation, I decided on fortitude {strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage}. I had no way of knowing how appropriate this word would be.

2010 was a very difficult year...

Daniel and I started the year unsure of the future. After one year of unemployment, Daniel finally started a new job. But it was in a new state. The economy was terrible and we faced selling a house in a bad housing market. Daniel packed up and moved while I stayed behind until our house sold. We endured 6 long months of living 6 hours apart. It took fortitude.

Then there was the matter of my mom getting sick and surrounding this was some family drama. It was a rough summer.

We finally sold the house and moved into a 170-square foot camper in Chattanooga. Three months of living in a tiny space was welcome after separation but it was also challenging. After the camper experience, we bought a house in rural Alabama and I experienced culture shock that I didn't expect to encounter in America.

In retrospect, fortitude was an apt word. It carried us through a very difficult year.

Now I look forward to 2011. We are already in a better place than we were last year. We are together. Daniel has a good job and I am freelancing from home. We have a beautiful new house and my mom is recovering. We have many things to be thankful for.

For 2011, I believe that an appropriate word for the year is adaptation {to adjust oneself to different conditions, environment, etc.}. We are continuing to adapt to living in a new environment and making new friends. We are trying our best to embrace this new lifestyle as we learn to appreciate the nuances of living in a small town. We are adapting and will continue to do so throughout the coming year.

Word from previous years: Fortitude {2010}