Ashley and I have made the tough decision to divorce from our weekly Wednesday McDonald’s tradition. I believe the restaurant is under new management, and it shows. We’ve had poor service, been submitted to not-so-pretty smells, and been shocked to find the restaurant completely without napkins (they said the truck was on the way) in the past few weeks.  Plus, we’ve received no discounts. After talking it over, we’ve decided it will be best for us to try other options, like the Wendy’s near us! We will probably check back in with our McD’s occasionally, but for now, we’re looking forward to trying out some new menus.

[AMSides] This was weird. I was leafing through an 1820s geography textbook today, and I stumbled across a list of the known planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Herschel.

…HERSCHEL!?!?

Has anyone ever heard of that?

I learn something new (even if it’s from the 1820s) every day.

I am a tennis-shoe snob. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I had to have Velcro action on my tennis shoes. And I preferred to have rainbows on them, particularly the plastic kind that magically rippled different colors when I walked. Oh, and I had a very narrow foot (double A), and my tennis shoes absolutely had to be snug — and still do. The rest of the shoes in my closet are Target purchases or hand-me-downs from my sisters, and almost all of them are falling apart, and I don’t care. But tennis shoes have always been my one indulgence, my very great splurge. This obsession heightened when I started to play basketball in middle school and then to run track. You simply can’t wear basketball shoes to run track, at least, not if you want to run track well. Because I took ballet for five years, my feet require shoes with arches just so high and in just the perfect place, or I end up in a lot of pain. Plus, they must be pretty shoes; I am a girl, after all. And white is absolutely out. What makes finding this combination more complicated is that my left foot is about a half size larger than my right. So when I find a shoe whose arch feels good on one foot, it still rarely rises in the needed area on the other. Ugh. I am willing to pay the big bucks for my tennis shoes, as they are so important to my being able to work out and avoid knee injury (which I also have a history of), but I will not purchase a pair that does not meet my strict standards. My mom won’t even go tennis-shoe shopping with me anymore. I can spend hours trying on different pairs and walking and jogging around the store in them and still not find something I’m comfortable with. Usually this happens at three or so stores. I think Mom feels sorry for the salesmen. When I lived overseas, I quickly wore out the pair of tennis shoes I went over with; I walked practically everywhere. On cobblestones. When Mom came to visit, she brought several boxes of shoes with her, and I got to pick a pair. Lo and behold, the joy of my feet was in one of those boxes, a pair of New Balances that have been my trusty comrades for the past three years now. I usually get new shoes every single year, so that tells you how much I’ve bonded with my 871 off-road trail runners. Everything about them is perfect — the color, the attached wrap-around tongue with the tug-hole in it for easy foot entry, the wavy laces that stay in place, the light weight, the stability grid that corrects my pronation tendencies, and the arch. But I have killed my dear shoes. The traction on the soles is no more. The side material is cracked and ripped. And most tragic of all, where there once was a soft heel cushion, there is now only hard plastic, which recently tore into my ankle and caused quite a bit of bleeding while I was at the park. I started doubling my socks to delay the inevitable, but at last I couldn’t take it anymore. It was time to begin the dreaded task of finding a new pair of tennis shoes. If only they hadn’t discontinued the 871 and its successors. If only they hadn’t changed some of the most attractive features of the 871 when they made their newest trail runners. I’ve been a New Balance girl for about 10 years, but this year, there was nothing at all in the New Balance store that I deemed worthy of my feet. I had to start from scratch. After no fewer than five hours of shoe shopping spread over two weekends at no fewer than six stores (and I went to two of those stores multiple times), I’d narrowed down my selection to Asics and Sauconys. There was a problem, though: While Asics offered the high arch and had awesome colors, it couldn’t compare with Saucony’s cushioning. But the Sauconys had no real arch to speak of. I liked feeling like I was walking on virgin memory foam with every step in the Saucony shoes, but I loved the solid rise in the Asics. And I wasn’t willing to purchase either without the other’s best feature. So the sales lady introduced me to SofSole’s performance insoles, which offer maximum arch support for high-impact activities. You can buy them with low, medium, or high arches, but I need the high ones. I pretty much had to build my own shoe this year to get something I could be happy with. So I took out the manufacturer’s insoles in the Saucony 1927-6 (which I decided to go with) and replaced them with the high-arch insoles. Now I have cushion and support. I’m still not convinced I will ever be as bonded to these new shoes as I am to my 871s, but it’s time to make new friends, and I’ll definitely give it my best shot. Do any of you walkers/runners out there have other shoe suggestions? I saw Ryka brand at many of the shoe stores, and I have zero knowledge of what they’re like — do any of you have experience with them? What’s your favorite pair of shoe, athletic or otherwise?

I’m naming myself coupon endorser this month! My friend Janet always sends me her leftover coupons, and my sister Shannon sends me her Central Market coupons (for some reason, our store has stopped sending out coupons, but they still accept other branches’), and this month I saved the big bucks on groceries. How much? $28. Yes, really. I saved $10 at Central Market and $18 at Wal-Mart. I go to each of these stores only once a month. At Central Market, I spent $43.19 after using my coupon. At Wal-Mart, my bill went from $171.46 to $153.33. And that is just plain awesome! The trick with coupons is to not buy things you wouldn’t normally just because you can get a few cents off on them. So far I’ve been disciplined about this, but it’s not easy — some of those other cereals look very yummy. One hint: A lot of women’s toiletry items have a coupon on the instruction pamphlet, and it is most often for $1 off. If you don’t want your coupons, send them to me, please!

Ashley and I woke up early this morning to make sure we had time to vote in the primaries before going to work and running errands. I felt excited as I made my way through the school hallways to the voting booths and marked my ballot. A teacher had brought a small cadre of students to the doorway to expose them to the wonders of democracy. With all the recent stories about the election process in Iraq and the news about Benazir Bhutto’s death, I made sure not to take this moment for granted. So on this Tuesday, I’d like to take a few moments to share some things I’m thankful for.

1.) That I live in a country with a democratic election process (okay, so it’s not based on popular vote, but still)

2.) That I, a woman, can vote and without having to be fearful of repercussions

3.) For my sweet little niece and nephew, who are full of energy and joy

4.) For my husband, who takes care of me

5.) For cookies ‘n cream ice cream — yum!

6.) For Handel’s wonderful musical genius, which soothes my occasional road rage

7.) For my camera, which gives me a creative outlet and is just fun to use

8.) For my church family, who encourage me and always write to see if I’m okay after I’ve missed a meeting time

9.) For my fuzzy red pajamas and my heating pad; as proved yesterday, it does snow in Texas!

10.) For the Czech stop in West, Texas, whose kolaches make driving I-35 to San Antonio so much more fun

I was first introduced to the yumminess that is halušky by Matúš, a Slovak friend who lives in Prague, while I was on a Harding campaign in 2001. Bryndzové halušky is made with dumplings, bryndza (a sheep cheese with a feta-like texture that’s made in Slovakia), and fried bacon. When Ashley and I lived in Prague, one of our favorite restaurants in our neighborhood was Koliba. Not only does Koliba have great service and atmosphere, it has live music and wonderful food at incredible prices, including halušky. Now that we live in the States, we miss this Slovak dish a lot. I mean, we have macaroni and cheese, but it doesn’t even compare. And as much as I love Italian gnocchi, they are just not halušky. I am thankful that Matúš once allowed me to watch him work his magic in the kitchen and that the Slovak tourism website has a halušky recipe on it. Before I could make this dish, I had to locate and purchase a halušky press. Czechs call this a struhadlo na halušky; it is basically the same item Germans use to make spaetzle and call a spaeztle-ass. There are several different kinds available, like this one at Hrnce.cz and these at my favorite little store here in Texas, the German Deli. I bought the circular Kuechenprofi one, and it worked just fine, except that the holes are a little small. My stainless steel spatula worked a bit better at pushing the dough through than the plastic one that’s included. I should say that bryndza is difficult to find in the United States, though I have read that there are some specialty stores in New York that do import it. While not quite as tasty, a feta-and-cream-cheese mixture makes a good substitute. Also, it’s best to find bacon that’s in a block and then chop it up to fry it. I tried using salt pork, which was not the best substitute. Strip bacon would have been better than the salt pork. I used a food processor and a blender to shred the raw Yukon gold potatoes and then added flour and an egg (I used the recipe below, but ended up adding a whole lot more flour to get the batter to a consistency that would go through the press but still hold together like a dumpling in the boiling water). Here is the documentation of my cooking adventure:

RECIPE FOR HALUSKY

2 to 3 potatoes

4 to 5 tablespoons flour
(I used more like a cup)

salt

1 egg

1 package feta cheese

3/4 package cream cheese

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Peel potatoes and finely shred them. Add egg and flour. Make a batter that is not too tough but not too watery. You may use more or less flour or add a little bit of water if it is too tough. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Boil water with 2 tablespoons of salt. Use teaspoon to drop a little bit of the dough into the boiling water. Be sure the water is always boiling. Push batter through press. When halusky are done, they will float on top of the water. Pick them out with a slotted spoon or a strainer. Heat cheeses and milk together. Mix all the time. When it starts to boil, remove from the heat. Cut up little pieces of bacon and fry them. Serve halušky with the cheese sauce mixed in and sprinkle with the bacon pieces.

Electric cars, solar panels, wind farms — going green can seem prohibitively expensive, not to mention overwhelming. But there are some things we can do to steward our Earth that won’t put a dent in the pocketbook. First, recycle. Second, use your microwave instead of your oven when possible, as microwaves are 3.5 to 4.8 times more energy efficient. You could also buy recycled napkins instead of new fiber napkins — according to American Way magazine’s research, if every household in the United States would do this, we would save one million trees — and use a low-flow showerhead, which, depending on the model, can save a family of four up to 20,000 gallons of water annually. Most energy companies offer the option to pay a little more for energy generated by renewable resources. I personally haven’t switched to this yet, but wish I could. It would increase our bill by 10 percent, which isn’t bad but also isn’t doable for us just yet. You could also carpool, switch your light bulbs to energy efficient ones, and unplug your appliances when not using them (yes, they still draw electricity even when turned off). Finally, forget about those plastic sacks at the grocery store — cloth is the way to go. I was nervous the first time I brought my cloth bags to the grocery store, but it turns out that I must be riding the wave of this trend, because the cashier did not even bat an eye. The Container Store sells some pretty cool cloth bags if you’re going for style, but I’m an economy girl, so I headed to Hobby Lobby and bought a bundle of canvas bags for $5. I can fit a ton of groceries into them, and since they are sturdier, I can fill them with numerous heavy items without having to worry about them ripping. Plus, they are easier on the hands. I also bought a cloth bag at Central Market for $2. That one is wider, so it’s great for egg cartons. I encourage everyone to make at least one change to benefit the environment this year. In the meantime, find out what your carbon footprint is. Based on this test, my footprint is 15, and if everyone lived like I do, we would need 3.3 Earths. I want to read everyone’s score! How are you doing your part? And if you have another good carbon footprint calculator, share it, and I’ll try it out.

This is the first time I’ve been engaged in the presidential primaries. I believe whom you vote for is private, so I’m not going to endorse or naysay any candidate here. Actually, I believe the qualified have stepped up for this race and that we have a flock of strong contestants to choose from. And I’m excited about this and know that I have a tough decision ahead of me. I’m registered as an independent, and in Texas, that means I can vote in either the Democratic or the Republican primary — so I will have to choose my strategy wisely. One thing I would like to point out, though, which I realized today while reading a newspaper article about it, is that with this election, Supreme Court seats are also at stake. As the Supreme Court rules the land and in many ways establishes standards of morality, I think we should all take the judges’ seats into consideration when marking our ballots this year.

2 garlic cloves, pressed

small red onion, sliced

2 mild Italian sausage links, sliced (optional; Ashley likes them, but I prefer without)

1 can red beans

1 can dark kidney beans

4 pieces of bacon, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons tomato paste

8 oz. can Hunt’s tomato sauce

28 oz. can Hunt’s petite diced tomatoes

5 bay leaves

1 box jiffy corn bread, bake as directed

Place pressed garlic, onion slices, and sliced sausage into a sauté pan with some olive oil. Heat on medium for a few minutes until sausage slices are browned. Add tomato paste to skillet and then add the remaining ingredients and mix together. Place the bay leaves on top and simmer covered on low to medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves. You can add some water to the bean mixture to thin it out if you want to. Place a piece of corn bread in a bowl, and then cover the bread with the bean mixture. Serve. (I have used many different kinds of beans — canned and those I’ve soaked overnight — and they’ve all worked in this dish.)

Much to my surprise, two people have told me this week that while they love fish, they’re afraid to make it — they think it’s too hard to bake! I love to have fish on the menu at least once a week because it’s so easy and quick to prepare. So for all the fish-bake phobics out there, I offer this simple recipe (feeds two):

RECIPE FOR FISH
2 fillets of orange ruffy (a sweeter-flesh fish) or tilapia

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter a casserole dish. Rinse fish and place in dish. Salt (and pepper, if you want to) each fillet. Place two to three thin slices of butter on top of each fillet. Bake for 20 minutes. Unless your fillet is more than half an inch thick, it will be done in 20 minutes. If you are cooking tilapia, it might be finished after 15 minutes, as tilapia fillets are often thin. Serve immediately, or, if you prefer, add a little lemon juice (not to orange ruffy) and then serve.

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I am a big fan of cheese enchiladas. My sister Shannon introduced me to this recipe, and I have not had better enchiladas anywhere — and I live in Texas, the mecca of awesome Mexican food.

RECIPE FOR CHEESE ENCHILADAS

Filling:

1 lb. grated cheddar cheese

1 small onion, chopped

1 teaspoon oregano

3 tablespoons chopped olives (optional, I leave them out)

For the tortillas:

1 dozen corn tortillas, give or take

24 oz. enchilada sauce (warm up half of it in a skillet)

skillet of olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all filling ingredients. Heat oil in skillet till hot. Dip each tortilla in oil and leave until it puffs (if that doesn’t happen, you can make your oil hotter or just remove from oil after 10 to 15 seconds). Then dip the tortilla in heated enchilada sauce and set aside. Important: Do not get any other moisture in the oil — no water or sauce should transfer to the oil, or it will pop. Use one fork or set of tongs for putting tortillas in and out of oil, another fork or set of tongs for dipping in and removing from sauce. When all tortillas are done, fill each with filling and roll up. If they don’t roll nicely, they’re probably too full. And you might be able to make more like 18 to 20 enchiladas out of the filling. Line up the tortillas in a buttered dish, pour some remaining enchilada sauce over them, and sprinkle with more cheese. Cook in oven until cheese melts, about 20 minutes. Serve.