"All the fun is in how you say a thing." Robert Frost

In case you didn't realize, this year is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. A few years ago I watched a great movie telling of the story called 'Good Bye Lenin!' http://www.sonyclassics.com/goodbye/flash.html It's a movie must-watch, in my opinion. It's quite humorous and presents the conflict between the East and the West from a unique perspective.

Speaking of unique perspectives, I found a great tool for teasing out ideas when writing fiction. The site is called Language is a Virus http://www.languageisavirus.com/ and the more I play around on it, the more of a useful resource I find it to be. As we may have mentioned, both Erica and I have aspirations to write and publish fiction. Personally, I've been picking away at a manuscript for a while. Without boring you with the details, it's a historical fiction that I'm gearing towards young adults. Although I'm good with the 'historical' part (since I'm basing much of it on my MA thesis), I still get stuck on the fiction. Mainly, I find that I second guess the believability of what I write. I want it to be compelling and exciting but I also want readers to be able to buy into the story; to be able to escape into the fiction and fantasy of it. I suppose it's about striking a balance. What I really need to do is start scheduling some designated writing time. I'm not kidding myself into thinking that this will be a short process, but I am hoping get some big chunks of it finished within the next few months. More on that later.

In 100 Mile Challenge news, I wrapped up the challenge this weekend and consider that it was a great success. I think it was a good idea to pick 80% though, I'm not sure I'm tough enough to go the whole 100%. I'm going to keep it up as much as I can. It's so easy to head to the farmer's market although I might allow myself to purchase the non-local vegetables now. It's still supporting the local economy though, right? I'll also continue baking bread and muffins regularly. My freezer is full but it's just so much easier to do it that way than to purchase it from the grocery store. This is especially the case considering the amount of sodium and sugar (were you aware?) that are added to commercially baked products. Same for pizza dough- 100 mile pizza with local pork sausage, tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms was my favourite meal by far! Overall though, it was an important personal challenge and certainly worth the struggle. Apparently it's also becoming quite trendy! http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/07/14/f-grocery-stores-independent-buy-local-meat-produce.html

Comfortably Numb

I just watched the movie Knowing. I've been wanting to see this movie for a while given my A) deep, undying love for Nicholas Cage, and B) affinity for apocalypse movies. I'm not sure why I enjoy these movies so much because they always result in me A) freaking out, B) spending excessive time fact checking the plausibility of the claims made in the movie in question, and C) needing to spend significant time undoing the anxiety by distracting myself with various soothing activities. Tonight, after only limited fact checking (apparently the last significant solar flare was 20 January 2005), I've decided to spend some time online watching the things that make me happy. Ordinarily that involves the Nerdfighting Vlogbrothers (http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers#play/uploads/3/7pR1f_DSoDg). Occasionally it involves a bit of classic Eddie Izzard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAOLOGGftTY). As of tonight, it includes the lovely Julie Nunes, who has become my favourite youtube musician and cover artist.

Here's a super cover.


And an original.

Challenges are challenging...

It's day three of the challenge and things are going well so far, particularly because of the wiggle room I've given myself. I've adjusted slightly the direction of the 100 miles. Being way up north (my igloo has hi-speed!) and given my transportation restriction, means that there's not much in the way of farming north and west of here. So, I've allowed the border to extend east and south just a bit to incorporate more farmland.

I've also thrown in the "snack rule." Clearly, I can't go all day without some munchies, and while I love fresh peas and baby carrots, I have them all the time anyways. The real loss comes from the goodies I have as treats like granola, chips, desserts, etc. Therefore the "snack rule" allows for treats to bring in lunches or have in the evening but the condition is that they have to be made entirely from scratch and with at least 80% local ingredients. For example, tonight I'm baking muffins with local applesauce, butter, and eggs, but the flour is just standard non-bleached. Make sense?

Last night's meal was vegetable soup and bruschetta, and tonight is bison pot pie. I'm using my Nono's secret recipe except with bison instead of beef. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.

100 Mile Challenge

Recently I watched the 100 mile challenge show (found here http://100mile.foodtv.ca/ Watch! It's great!) and I found it interesting, inspiring, and definitely something I'd like to try. Basically the idea is to eat locally, within a 100 mile radius of where you live. There are a number of different ideals to go along with this challenge; avoiding processed foods, supporting local economy, cutting down on the carbon emissions from food transportation, etc. Really, the list could go on and on. Personally, I'm interested taking the challenge for two reasons: A) to adopt back-to-basics, cooking from scratch methods, and B) to truly take advantage of the local, seasonal produce that's available. Ultimately, the timing is right. It's summer and the markets are full of local farmers. Plus almost everything I need is in walking/riding distance.

So, as of today, I'm officially taking the 100 mile challenge. I've decided to go about 80%. I'll do 100% local vegetables, eggs, and dairy, and TRY for local meats as much as possible. I'd love to be able to go all the way but I am constrained by work hours and my bicycle-only transportation methods. I'm also only going for two weeks. I feel that two weeks is an attainable goal. Any longer than that is a bit overwhelming. Of course, I'll be open to extending the challenge, based on how well it goes.

I've also given myself the exception of using up the existing perishable, non-local food in my fridge. That means a morning in the kitchen for me! Banana bread with yogurt icing is on the list and I have yet to decide how to use up the other random ingredients. As for my first 100 mile meal, I'll be heading to the market this afternoon and I'm hoping to make stuffed peppers and roasted potatoes.

Wish me luck!