Inauguration Party Photos

This past fall, we had established a pattern of watching the debates with Jeff and his extended family. And the same group gathered on election night to watch the returns. So, it seemed only logical to gather this same group of friends on the night of the Inauguration this past week.

Got the dining room all decked out with party regalia - basically everything we owned in red, white and blue.










Grace was the master decorator of the Obama cookies - with some able assistance from Jennifer.



































Unlike the ladies who get upset when someone else shows up to the party in the same outfit, we were quite pleased to have matching shirts at this celebration. (Ian, Jennifer and I)



In addition to the beautiful cookies, dinner was a great combined effort. Jeff brought some lovely cheeses for a starter. I made red beans and rice, as well as some nice local sauteed kale. Jennifer and Ian brought roasted vegetables and cornbread. The beans and rice recipe came from Ivy Manning's new blog, Ivysfeast. She is the author of one of my regular cookbooks - The Farm to Table Cookbook.

One Week To Go - Do You Have Your Inauguration Plans?

I guess it's time to retire the Bush Countdown Clock. Cue large sigh of relief.

We have a small crowd with whom we watched the debates and then gathered again on election night. So, it only seemed right to follow through and invite them for dinner on Inauguration evening. I'm thinking theme food (?). At the least maybe some sugar cookies that we can decorate with red, white and blue frosting ala the cake that Ian made with the Obama symbol in the frosting. We're also contemplating some kind of simple activity in the spirit of service that the President-elect has inspired in so many people. Maybe writing letters to our representatives? cooking extra food to take to someone? Maybe just making a plan to do something else later on.

I ay have said this earlier. But, this election and inauguration together make probably the only time I wish I was back at the school where I was principal at the end of my career. Since at least 65% of my students looked like Sash and Malia, I really don't think it is possible to overestimate the significance of our choice to them and to their families. And, listening to the current principal describe what it was like at school on November 5, I know my hunch is correct.

So, today's post is dedicated to once again seeing a young family in the White House. I actually remember a lot of that kind of talk from 1960 - my first memories of a presidential election. I was 11 - old enough to watch election night and the inauguration on TV.

Leave it to the Irish

to find a family connection to anyone we want to call our own. Thank goodness some folks found the heritage of Barack's family in Ireland - the Kearneys from Moneygall in County Offaly. The Corrigan Brothers have even written a song, a modified version performed here by Shay Black.




I haven't written a post about the results of the election because I have really felt too overwhelmed - with the true significance (as opposed to the Irish linkage). And my own words don't feel adequate to the task. But, suffice to say, I am enormously grateful that, for the first time since I started voting in 1968, I am genuinely exited about the person for whom I voted in the presidential election. I believe Barack Obama is the right person for this difficult time. It's wonderful that he is our first African American in the office and it's great that he has an Irish connection. But, most important, he is an intelligent, ethical man with a clear vision of where we need to go and the calm, steady temperament to lead us there.

If the World Could Vote

In all honesty, politics is more on my mind these days than eating local foods. That's not to say we've given up on our efforts. In fact, it's become pretty much a part of our regular routines - and easier these days than some others with farmer's markets still open and even a few things still coming out of our garden.

But, meanwhile, there is this pit in my stomach. For those of you who don't know me, I am world class worrier. Until I met my friend Sarah, I thought I was pretty much top of the line in worrying skills. While I was a school principal, I had plenty on my plate to keep me up nights. Since I've retired, that load has gone down tremendously. Currently taking its place, though, is my concern about the outcome of the election. The polls look favorable for my candidate, Barack Obama. But, I think it's too soon to relax.

So, I am trying to keep busy. Sometimes it's doing other things that are fun to keep my mind off politics - Halloween party (pictures in the next post), church auction, a play reading on Tuesday.... And, other times, I'm throwing myself into the mix to make a few small efforts to help out - being an election observer for the Democratic party of Oregon and making phone calls for the Obama campaign.

All of which is a long-winded way to explain yet another post on the subject of the upcoming election. This exercise below is an interesting diversion. News reports about interest in our election among folks abroad has been pretty much leaning in one direction. But, just for the fun of it, and for my sister who is an expat in France, here's a link to see how people in other countries would vote in our election if they could.

What would happen if the world could vote in the upcoming US Election?

This was started by 3 guys in Iceland. Americans may vote as well.

You may vote on your computer only once.

Check out the tabs on the left at the website // look at the world
map - http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/

See the link below to vote --

http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/

Once you've voted take a look at how each country is voting!

Nope!

I voted this morning and this pretty well sums up my decision on the top of the ticket:
My thanks to Steve on More Hockey Less War for providing this best comic relief of the day. He found this on the site of one of our local newspapers, The Willamette Week. If you're really into this kind of thing, you can go there and download a pdf of the image to print.

I have to admit I need a laugh once in a while on the topic of the election. I think I'm spending WAY too much time reading various political blogs and news sites. Aside from the fact that I do actually have other things to do in my life, I'm finding every so often that I am getting that pit-in-the-stomach feeling worrying about it. (That and, oh, maybe the economic situation maybe?) I've neglected my own blog and the other local foodie blogs that I usually enjoy.

But, Grady and I are both done voting. I dropped mine off at the election headquarters this morning - hopefully no more calls, no more mailers, no more folks at the door. Back to local food reading and writing!

(Sorry, Maureen. I don't mean to poke a stick in your eye. I know you like her. But, it's my blog and I get to say what I want. Feel free to comment, though. I won't let anyone beat you up for your views. We've never been shy about airing differing views in our family! Dad would have loved the debating.)

Big Bean Soup Served with Little Nibbles is a great all-purpose recipe. I've probably written about it before on the blog. But, this is the early autumn, end of summer reprise. I was specifically looking for a soup to make that would use some of the abundance of vegetables we are getting currently from the garden and our CSA. So, I turned to this old fav.

It comes from Sally Schneider via Lynne Rosetto Kasper's "The Splendid Table" NPR program. What I like is that it comes in three parts:
Basic Bean Soup - onion, carrot, garlic, beans, broth, chili pepper, and some basic seasonings
Flavorings that are optional- including peppery greens, fresh herbs and garlic puree
Embellishments - which is a list of various vegetables that can be added at the end, like slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted mushrooms or fennel, plus things like cheese and other fresh herbs

So, there are almost endless variations of the options in the three categories. I used cranberry beans, turnip greens for the flavoring, and roasted some of our cherry tomatoes. Plus, I added some fresh zucchini, peppers from our garden, leeks, and green beans.
When using the leftovers a couple days later, I also threw in the leftover Zucchini Rinehart and some roasted local shittake mushrooms.

We had two good meals with this soup and another left that I put in the freezer.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the news and blogs and wondering whether our debate-watching party Friday night will be some other kind of party. This business of evading the debate is a new low - even for that campaign that seem to be lurching from one goofy idea to another. Now, it looks like he's not only trying to get out of his own debate, but setting the groundwork to get Suzie out of having to do hers as well. What a gentleman!

Family of Many Opinions

I am the oldest of seven (1 boy) and we are a group who tend to be strong in our opinions and we don't hold them back. Recently, our Alaska sister got a good email conversation going by offering her view of Suzie Palin. (Yes, I know they call her Sarah, but to me, she's not a Sarah - she's a Suzie so I've renamed her for my own use.) Maureen told us about how many of the folks in Alaska view her - how she helped the town of Wasilla grow when other towns around them have not, how she was an improvement over the previous governor, and that she is generally viewed as a politician they like up there. Well, that stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest among the "flaming liberals" of the family, myself included. Most of the responses had more to do with Suzie's social and political views. I wouldn't say we came to any meeting of the minds, but we all had a good airing of our opinions (among the family and a few friends, that is). So, hats off to Maureen for giving us that excuse!

Having vented on the issue of Suzie Palin in the family venue, I'm not really interested in going back into it all - at least for the moment. (And all the blog readers heave a sigh of relief.) But, instead, I will recommend you read another opinion that I thought was particularly well written. Laura has a blog primarily focused on local eating, gardening and raising chickens. She has organized, or helped to organize, the eat-local challenges I've participated in and written about. In this post about Ms. Suzie, her focus is mainly on the complicated issue of the desire of many to see a woman in high office and how this nomination comes up short. If this sounds of interest to you, you will find that post at: (not so) Urban Hennery

And I'm back to food reporting in the next post because the garden and CSA have been good to us lately.

She Did What She Needed to Do...

... and did it well.



Hillary's speech at the convention tonight brought me right back to the tears I felt when she officially dropped out of the race. I voted for Barack Obama in the primary and I have volunteered at his office since then. But, as a woman close to her age, who has dealt with some overt discrimination because of my gender, the primary race has been a huge bag of mixed feelings for me. So, it was hard to watch and, at the same time, I admired her for putting her own personal feelings aside and doing what needed to be done. I just hope she convinced those supporters of her who have been threatening to throw their votes away.

Me and about 75,000 of my best friends

hung out today at Waterfront Park, next to the Willamette River to hear Barack Obama speak. This picture from a TV news site pretty much shows the view that I had - from the northside of the Hawthorne Bridge. Actually had a pretty good view of him, but it was hard to hear him from this angle.
I rode my bike down about 12:30, which is the time they were due to open the gates. As soon as I rode out of our alley, I began to see people walking and riding bikes in the same direction - more and more as I got closer to the river. When I got downtown, I gave a brief effort to looking for Jennifer and Ian and the boys, but soon realized it was extremely unlikely I would find them. And also very unlikely I was going to be willing to get in the line that led to the bowl where the rally was held. At that point (2 hours before he was due to speak), the line was already a good 12 blocks away, 4-6 people wide, and, since I didn't go to the end of it, it could have been longer than that. Instead, I went down to a spot just north of the bridge (the rally was on the south side) and parked myself in a shady spot until he started speaking. At that point, I walked up onto the bridge and lucked into a spot along the sidewalk from which I could see quite well. We were looking at his back, of course, but he actually turned around a number of times.

These are my buddies on the bridge (among the 15,000 estimated to be outside the actual rally area).

One of the most challenging things, after giving up on finding my friends, was finding a place to lock up my bicycle. I have no idea how many people rode bikes to this event, but there were bikes locked up everywhere- to trees, benches, railings.

Finally, after walking about three blocks the other direction, I found a spot on the railing next to the river.

Here's my trust Novarra.

I'm not sure why I'm adding in this picture, but I just kind of like it. Taken from down on Waterfront Park looking up to the Hawthorne Bridge as people were gathering up there to see Senator Obama.

By the way, all this excitement has a lot to do with the fact that, for the first time in about 40 years, the presidential nomination has not been already decided before our primary race on May 20. For a musical explanation, see Ian's Portland Songs blog.

"Vote For One"

Yikes, now I am going to finally have to decide (or at least within the next two weeks). My ballot for the May 20 Oregon Primary arrived yesterday. We actually have quite a few interesting local races with real choices among good candidates. But, the big question for me that I have not yet resolved is which I will check in this part of the ballot:

National
United States President
Four year term
Vote For One
Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama

Write-in

It's not that I haven't given it quite a bit of consideration, but rather that I continue to see different strengths for each candidate. I know this is dangerous to ask, but I am still interested in hearing reasons for voting for choosing either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama if any of my minions of blog readers(!) want to give me advice in a comment. I am not a superdelegate, or any other kind of delegate, so this is just for one vote in the primary election. But, feel free to send cash or other items of value to enhance your recommendation if you feel strongly.

Meanwhile, the daily "input" keeps arriving- either in the mail or at the door. This is just from this past week's recycling box. (24 separate pieces) And, as I said, we have a little over 2 weeks to go. It might be worth noting that many of these candidates tout their commitment to sustainability.