a little quote for tommy

came upon this in the New York Review of Books:

"I have never seen any community in India so hopeless or, in its way, so hermetic in its poverty, so blatant in its look of menace, so sad and unwelcoming, as East St. Louis, Illinois"

I am back.

It has been forever since I posted! I think that has something to do with being really boring. Since everyone went home after Christmas, Jo and I have had a good time but have mainly just hung out. We do tend Laurel about once a week which is really fun. Next week I have to go to Florida for a week. Generally, I hate these trips, but at least this is Florida and not Minnesota. Also, I have to come home a day earlier than originally planned because the Super Bowl is in town that weekend and all the hotels have been booked for months for Thursday night! For me, this is really good since I get home a day sooner.

We miss you all and wish you were closer. Hopefully, we will get together soon.

Busy Week and Good News

Congratulations to Danny and Jenni who have seven months to go until a new little Currit joins their family. We are very excited. Jenni has been feeling a bit sick, but by the time the Beautiful Seattle Spring hits, she should be feeling better.

We miss you all! Thanksgiving and Christmas were great! Are we all tired of the cold weather yet?

Travis' blog was so interesting. We had Tommy and Alex's roommates (plus Reilly) for dinner yesterday. Feeding oneself in college seems to be a crisis. School is so expensive and the students work so hard, but they only take the time (or have the time) to eat pretty bad junk. There's got to be a better way. I think the secret might be taking some more time to prepare food, and having a plan. I suggested that posting four easy dinner ideas on the fridge then having the ingredients on hand would take some of the stupor out of the process. I also think its important to have a couple of dinners out of a can. I like canned ravioli. Is there anything else out of a can worth eating?? Any suggestions? I like tuna a lot, too. I watched Steve Currit put chunk albacore tuna in his salad when he was doing South Beach and thought, that looks good to me. I read an article on canned food, and very little nutrition is lost in the canning process. So you have to look for flavor and also realize that it is probably already salted to taste (or beyond). We should experiment with beef stews. I wonder if there's a good brand out there.

Jenni's cookbook is very helpful (I want a copy of a new one). Could we earmark some recipes that are super easy and good?

I think to survive you have to have high quality nutrition. For me that begins with real whole wheat bread. Great Harvest is a wonderful bread and freezes very well. I freeze the loaves in half, but you could wrap two slices in a sandwich bag, then in a bigger bag (double bagging prevents freezer burn). Not all ww bread in the stores is quality enough to satisfy real nutrition needs. Jenni's recipe for bread is good. I love it.

Anyway, I would start by centering my eating on real whole grains and surrounding myself with high quality fruit and vegetables, lean meats and eggs. Maybe taking a mulitiple vitamin supplement would be a good idea. I would eliminate caffeine and sugar, and all of those things that don't build solid health, but just stress it out.

Okay. Good luck. Any suggestions for surviving college starvation?

Love, Mom

Food budget back of the envelope calculations

Thought you guys might enjoy this... I recently again became infuriated upon reading the blog of a friend who claimed that for herself and her husband she paid a combined total of 100 dollars a month for food and other grocery items (soap, etc)! Paying myself several times this amount while trying to live thriftily, I was amazed -- how does she do it? So I did some armchair excel calculations of how cheaply, buying only at the lowest average prices at which I know I can find grocery items within my shopping radius, I could eat a healthy, balanced diet. I figured my friend must be couponing/stealing/making out of old paint chips hygiene items for free so I did not include them in my calculations. Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, eating real food and avoiding fats, it is impossible to feed two people on 100 dollars a month -- in fact, one person can barely squeeze in for that month on a third-world-style rice and beans diet. 200 dollars per person for a veggie-filled, ramen-free diet sounds about right. 

So, in conclusion, I am no longer racked with guilt upon hearing stories of 5-person-families-with-two-large-dogs living off 100 dollars a month, knowing that they must be doing it by stuffing themselves with cheap fats and processed foods.

But, I would like hints on how to save while eating mainly "ingredients" (food that didnt take a whole factory and herds of engineers to produce).

(BTW, for curiosity's sake, getting all your calories from McDonads 1 Dollar Double Cheeseburgers costs 4.25 / day including tax -- more than rice and beans but a lot less than anything healthy -- and what atmosphere!)

Merrrrry Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve!

All is well here in Sandy. We had Thai food last night after making donuts and giving them to a few neighbors. Then we watched a show with Alec Guiness that sounded good: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier? It ended up being incomprehensible and unforgettable. They talked in code words all of the time. It was about the Cold War and the spy stuff in England. I laughed all night. It was almost as good as a parody of those things. But it was serious.

Thanks Danny for getting Travis to the airport! What a winter. I heard that the Portland Airport is closed. We are very grateful D and J and boys aren't on the road driving here.

Tonight Ty and Dawn and Laurel and Dawn's folks, George and Sherrie, are coming for a visit. We hope to eat a bit and play games. I'm sure Laurel will have a say in that.

Take care and have a great Christmas!

Love, Mom

Post T.G.

I loved our Thanksgiving weekend. Thanks for coming. Let's be sure to let G-ma and G-pa know how much we appreciated it.

Travis' Christmas list was very informative. How about the rest of you? I'm with him on games, movies, fun.

Here's the website for the music set on Ty's Friday open mike: Nightwatchmanmusic.com I think it's under "music in the cafe" like that. The guy from R.A.The M. was Tom Morrillo.

Well, back to work. I want to repaint, put in new floors, make curtains and have the carpets cleaned before Christmas.

Love, Mom

Sewing Machine

I gave Agata her Christmas present early - a near-mint condition old Singer sewing machine. She's thrilled but sad she won't be able to use it until after finals.

Meanwhile, I'm busy as a bee. For some strange reason I work 3 odd jobs, tutoring, translating, and grading papers, which take up a lot of my time and keep me from getting my school work done, but at least help bring some bacon home to the frying pan. Speaking of which, here's a hit Polish recipe among the guys in my department, that maybe some manly Currits might enjoy -- especially you dangerously skinny ones:

Take 4-5 pounds of bacon, or, even better, smoked pork belly, chop it up into small bits and toss it in a frying pan with some garlic, onions, marjoram, and a touch of pepper, and let it sizzle on low (important: don't get it to hot and crispify the bacon). Drain the grease out occasionally into a bowl, keep going until you've got it all out, then put the drained bacon bits /onion pieces back into the bowl with the grease, and let the whole mixture congeal in the fridge. Now you've got the most delicious butter-substitute you've ever had -- use it for frying eggs, put it on bread with some pickles, eat it plain -- yum yum.

Thanksgiving is nigh, look forward to seeing you all there. I can't wait for Christmas either; my wish-list as always is lots of playing, chatting, late-night-movie-watching etc with the bros, sausage and cheese parties, and a couple of sledding trips. If anyone feels acquisitive, I could use anything rain or waterproof -pants, gloves, socks, hats, coat, etc -- that I can use to go sailing or in rainy weather. A wetsuit, ah, now that would be nice. Also anything even vaguely gadget-y is always a hit with me. But things to enjoy as a group always make the best presents, IMHO.

Well better get back to work. Enjoy yourselves and have a safe trip up.
TC

Laurel Soleil

Here's what's officially known as the first photo shoot

2nd Semester of School and Such

Hey hey!

How's everyone doing? I think I've posted something on the blog a total of like two times so I figured it was about time for me to write something. 

Well, I survived my first semester of school and I just signed up for next semester. Right now my schedule is looking like this:

Economics 110

History 348: Modern Southeast Asia

History 349: Asian Religion and Thought

PLSC 110: American Government and Politics

TMA 150: Public speaking 

Should be fun eh? Any suggestions?

Besides that I had a really cool experience on Monday when I went and picked up a member I worked with a lot in Thailand from the airport. He got a mission call to the Salt Lake City South mission (which includes Sandy) so we picked him up and took him to the MTC. 

Good fun.

Well that's all for now

November

Nov. 10, 2008

It was good to talk to people yesterday (Sunday). We went to Alpine to Elder Ward's homecoming. (He and Alex served in Thailand.) Don Ward is doing okay. It was good to see him. Todd and Alex had a lot of fun on their missions. I hope we get to see more of him.

So does everyone have a number ready for the family Christmas program at G-ma's? If not, you will have to come up with something at the last minute, which isn't bad, really. It worked last year.

Today is dark and cold and rainy. I have enjoyed it very much, because I have stayed home and organized stuff, just kind of rattled around. We are hoping the weather cooperates with a long drive at the end of the month.

Hopefully we will see Dawn, Tyler and Laurel on Wednesday. He had some great stories to tell on Sunday. They didn't come. Dawn had to work on her day off.

We love seeing Tommy and Alex whenever possible. Dennis went to a BYU game on Saturday with them. He was very impressed with the traffic. Tommy and Alex said they don't go anywhere for four hours after a game. BYU stunk but won again.

Christmas lists anyone? I want to watch movies and play games. It's hard to even think about gifts. I think planning an activity would be a great gift. Foyle's War was wonderful! We can't stop getting them from the library. Dennis even wants to watch them twice. Dawn and Tyler have some great photos of their family taken at Kendra's wedding. I'd like copies of those. Anyway, what do you folks need or want?

Remember to take boots and gloves to gma's for Thanksgiving. We're bringing the football.

Love, Mom

Pumpkin patchin

Hello all! Saturday we went with some friends to a pumpkin patch to pick a few pumpkins. We also ate some cider doughnuts, petted some farm animals and watched a pig show. Some good fall fun. Love you all and hope your enjoying the season.

~Danny

Last one, promise

Eating with some friends at Pop Bruger. Super fun night after a hard day of running around.

Best fish 'n chips in the city. (or so they tell me.)

Some our work that is in Nike Town.

The Oates' house, where we stayed outside of New Jersey.

Waiting to be seated at John's Pizza

And I figured out the labels...

Where all the chess games are played in Central Park

Waiting for the next seminar to start

This is David Blaine, the magician. He decided that hanging upside down for 60 hours was "magic!"

Some fire escapes

Grand Central Station

OK, It worked! More Ny Pics!

More Times Square

All of us waiting for the subway.

You can see the Statue of Liberty in the background... I think.

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Skyline from Shea Stadium, where we saw a Mets game.

this is a test...

The group of us in Times Square.

News From Home

Oct. 9, 2008

We have enjoyed so much all of the visits and events in the last two months. It has been fun!!! Laurel's birth was a highlight. What joy it was and what a miracle. Thanks to everyone who came to visit us in the last few months!

Alex has some wonderful opportunities possibly coming his way in his Thai studies. Keep in touch with him for updates. Tommy is very busy and can sort of remember the good times in New York. Agata is having fun teaching! I'm sure the students are enjoying her class. Travis is settling in and scoping out the amount of reading and writing he will have ahead of him. Danny and Jenni returned him triumphant after a very successful marathon.

I'm doing a little sewing, trying to recapture the creative part of it. I also started to do Crosswords, which I never could do or stand before. Somehow the discipline makes sense now. I'm running across all kinds of words I didn't know existed before.

Tyler and Dawn are two ships passing in the night as they take care of Laurel (that's how they put it). They are doing a wonderful job. She is a fun baby to be around already. Tyler is adding some music to Cousin Nate's cafe tomorrow night.

Dennis is very busy at work. Why is Alliant Tech's stock going down? I obviously don't understand these things. They have a lot of work. Speaking of stock, isn't it good to be able to laugh? We watched a Saturday Night Live Weeknight skit tonight spoofing the news when the news is so extreme and ridiculous. It was funny.

Who turned out the lights? It's so dark and getting cold. I usually can learn to enjoy this weather sooner or later. I must try harder.

Tomorrow we pick all of the tomatoes. It's going to freeze. Good-bye garden.

Take care. We love you all!

Mom

Currit Family in September and October

Times have changed. Here's everyone on the deck on their various PC's

Travis and Agata and Tommy enjoying a warm summer night

Dennis and Laurel

Danny and Jenni on their way to the St. George Marathon. Shortly after this it was cold and rainy. But they ran a great race.

Quick and Easy Cream Biscuits

Here's an old recipe that's like my Sunday butter biscuits:

Makes eight 2 1/2 inch biscuits

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for counter
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

(the heavy cream is in the place of butter or shortening)

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (or not. use non-stick and spray lightly)

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 second. (the less you handle the dough the better. Handle lightly)

3. Shape the dough into a 3/4 inch-thick circle. Cut biscuits into rounds (with a cup) or wedges. Place rounds or wedges on cookie sheet. (the baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to two hours). Bake until gold brown, about 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.

Apartment ovens can vary in temperature. The best way to check temperature is to make cookies or these biscuits would be a good check of temperature. Adjust heat or length of cooking time next time.

Bent Toe Goodness

Notice how the big toe on my left foot seems a little... crooked? It was snapped completely in half and bent to the left. Good fun, eh?

we proudly present our new apartment
http://picasaweb.google.com/niemorka/Flat?authkey=W-wEsH39jHk#5249302580352016530