Basically, I'm an amazing cook

Or else just really good at finding amazing recipes. In either case, I've been bringing some pretty nice cooking smells to my hall recently.

First were these incredible triple ginger cookies - I actually stuck pretty close to this recipe. I forgot to roll the cookies in sugar, and I didn't have lemon rind so I used a tsp or two of extract instead. So good!

And after those were gone (I made many, many small ones, but they still disappeared very rapidly) I made pineapple cookies, since my collection of various interesting nonperishables was beginning to seem a bit large and I was looking for an inspiration to try a new cookie variety. I used one of the many basic recipes on Allrecipes (I think this was it), but added ground ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and walnuts for a more interesting taste & texture. The dough is really sticky - a little more flour might do well - but the cookies are great.

Then, yesterday I made my first yeast bread ever! I was so proud of myself! The recipe, for a Rosemary-Olive bread, came from my "Sun-Drenched Cuisine" cookbook ($5 at my favorite used book store!). I didn't have any olives (and I don't like them anyway) or fresh rosemary, so my bread was thyme and red pepper (for some reason, I have a whole jar of sweet roasted peppers right now). I have to say, it turned out pretty well. And now I can make my own interesting bread, instead of spending so much money on specialty breads at the store.

And for brunch today, since I have also a whole bag of yams and sweet potatoes needing to be eaten, I made sweet potato friatta (the original idea is here, although I only used the recipe as a really basic guideline). It's super easy, though it does take some time to cook. I chopped up a couple of small yams - I think that's what they were, though I had both those and sweet potatoes and don't necessarily know the difference. Anyway, I chopped them up (you might want to peel them at this point), threw them into a pie pan (that being the baking dish from my limited supply that seemed most suitable), and baked them at 375 degrees for a while, basically until they were soft. At this point, I removed the yam peels, chopped up some onion and some more of those sweet peppers and added them to the yam chunks - which I also cut a bit smaller, though the size is really up to your preference. For once I did the smart thing and beat my eggs in a separate bowl. I only had two, so I used those, about half a cup of cream, and the end of a bag of shredded cheese, probably somewhere between a fourth and half cup. (As you may have noticed, I was not really into measuring things today.) Instead of using nutmeg as the original recipe recommends, I stirred in some garlic powder (minced would probably have been better, but I was too lazy to bother), sage, and basil - I'm really not a salt and pepper girl, so those got left out also - then poured the whole concocotion over the veggies in the pie dish. Some thyme sprinkled on top and into the oven it went, turned down to 325 and then 315 when I decided the edges were cooking too quickly. When it was lovely and bubbly and just starting to brown on top, somewhere around half an hour, I took it out. Perfect Sunday morning food: easily adjustable for whatever you happen to have about, not too difficult to make despite the lesuirely pace of the process, and both yummy and filling!
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J'ai passé une bonne journée

It was sunny, it was Friday, and I ate good food. I do not ask much more from my days,especially here at school. The sun tends to go AWOL between mid-September and April here in Portland, but today it managed to keep in sight from one horizon to the other. Really, just a spectacular autumn day. I am told that fall on the west coast doesn't even begin to compare to the east coast, but honestly I am of the opinion that a lot of that has to do with very different cloud cover and precipitation pattern. When the sun is shining, and there's just the hint of a crisp breeze to keep you on your toes, and the leaves are glowing gold in the light, autumn is just as beautiful here as anywhere else in the world. I took a bike ride this afternoon with a couple friends, on a borrowed bike - my first ride since this summer.
I had spinach and feta tart for dinner, one of my finer cooking moments in my opinion. And the Boys and Girls Club brought a few groups of kids to the dorm for trick-or-treating, so a couple times our dinner was interrupted by small children in typical small-child Halloween get-up: pirates, devils, and, so my roommate tells me, the cutest kangaroo ever.
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I'm too lazy to write a whole post

- Letter from a Texas Republican, via Salon's War Room

I am sick to death of the negativity and lack of substance offered by McCain's campaign. The Ayrs [sic] "connection" is ludicrous, and the attempt to paint the "good touch, bad touch" training program for kiddoes is disgusting. Books could, and will be written about Palin's shallowness, and the arrogance that attempted to foist her on us. If these are products of the "'Straight Talk' Express" then I'd hate to see full blown Bushism.

BTW, I am a white Southerner, the descendant of a Civil War-era Tory. My family was voting Republican by 1868, if not 1864 -- way before all these Johnny-come-latelies, whose ancestors were in the Klan. Regardless, I cannot stand any more hubris, incompetence, cronyism, profiteering, lies, malfeasance, mismanagement, or perversion of justice -- whether by Bush, his enablers in Congress, or their successors.

I have guns and plenty of them. I am not fearful of losing them.

I have several Bibles. I am free to read them or not; and to interpret them as I wish. I am not fearful of losing that, either.

And I am not looking over my shoulder for some gay who will ask for my hand in marriage. And even if one were to do so, all I need do is decline.

I believe in the literal truth of the Bible; and I believe in my heart that it teaches abortion is murder. But the GOP has been in power more than long enough to overturn that. I conclude that it is not going away.

The concern I have -- greater than "God, guns, and gays" -- is going to war for a pack of lies. Bush's hands are bloodier than any abortion doctor's and he has exchanged the nation's moral high ground for a miry pit. He has perverted justice, and permitted Alberto Gonzales and Monica Goodling to pervert Justice. And I don't think Bush has the capacity to even realize that he's done anything wrong.

- I made the Spaghettis Bolo as directed, substituting broccoli for meat. I'm not sure that this really counts as a new recipe, even though I don't eat spaghetti much here, since it is almost identical to my mum's recipe. Essentially all you do is throw some broccoli, onion and garlic, chopped up, into a saucepan of whatever size you require, add mushrooms when the broccoli has started to soften up, then add crushed tomato, oregano and basil when the mushrooms are as cooked as you want them. Simmer until you're happy with the broccoli and serve with noodles.

I don't have a pan or the time for making lasagna, so I was considering at least making the bechamel to have with the tomato sauce, but the link doesn't work and I was getting lazy, so I just tossed some Parmesan on top. Strangely, even my roommate who rejected the last homemade tomato sauce she tried liked this one. I think I just have less discerning taste.

- Since I already finished this week's recipe and neither my cooking skills nor my budget were excessively tested, I figured I could afford to try another challenge. Oh, how foolish of me! On the very first blog I was sent to, I discovered a recipe for asparagus and feta tart that really called for me (easy enough to substitute real pastry for the pre-rolled stuff). And then I made the mistake of scrolling down. The moment I saw the next recipe, I knew I would be making it as well, only partly because I have spinach in my fridge at the moment that is begging to get used. I was intending to stop there so as not to tempt myself too sorely, but in the end couldn't resist looking to see what else I could find to tease my appetite with. I think I may be stuck cooking through this blog for a while...

- I'm partway through watching Monsieur Ibrahim right now. I have kind of a thing for French-language movies, but also for French speaking actors. I couldn't help but wonder what Pierre Boulanger, who plays the young Jewish boy in the film, looked like grown up a bit. Well, it's been five years, he's now 21, and he's just as adorable as he was in the movie, except now in a very crush-able way. Aww.
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Cookie + caramel + coconut +chocolate = pure deliciocity

So I finally got around to trying out that samoa recipe. I figured I'd wait until the weekend so I'd know I'd have enough time, which turns out to have been wise. The caramel-coconut-chocolate process is pretty time-consuming, especially when you're just figuring out what you're doing. I'm still waiting for the chocolate to harden, so I can't tell you yet how close the final result is to a samoa. I know they don't LOOK exactly like samoas, due to impatience, carelessness and lack of skill on my part. Nevertheless, I can at least assure you with complete certainty that this recipe tastes good at every step of formation from cookie dough onward.

Cookies ~ Homemade Samoas
(also known as Caramel de-Lites)
From Baking Bites via Once Upon a Plate
Makes about 3 1/2 to 4 dozen

I used the whole recipe, but the number of cookies produced (about 4 dozen) is a little overwhelming unless you have some specific event in mind that will require that many (and in that case, I would recommend that anyone not willing to put several hours into this project make something else). In the future, I'm going to stick to half batches.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
up to 2 tablespoons milk (I used vanilla soymilk)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, next, the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk only as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (you may not need any at all). The dough should come together into a soft, pliable ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough seems sticky.

It's easiest to roll the dough out in 2 or 3 batches (between pieces of wax (or parchment) paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or a little thinner) using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet (my baking sheet is nonstick and seemed fine without parchment or oil or any of that) and make a hole in the center. I used a knife; recommendations from previous bakers include the end of a wide straw or the small end of a large round piping tip. Repeat until the dough is used up (it's okay to re-roll, this dough is shortbread-like and very forgiving.)

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are very lightly golden brown around the edges.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, to allow them to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut
12-ounces good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips will do)

If you prefer milk chocolate, by all means use that. However, the caramel-coconut mixture is quite sweet, so bittersweet can help balance the sweetness bit.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F)

Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Watch carefully, especially near the end of toasting time; the coconut toasts very quickly once it begins to become golden.

Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it begins to firm up, to make it soft and spreadable once again. (Any spare caramel-coconut mix can be spread on a baking sheet or other flat surface to make yummy coconut brittle candy.)

While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. (Or you can use a double boiler on the stovetop.) Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate. Melt a bit of additional chocolate, if there is not quite enough for each cookie.

Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Lest it be thought that I reserve all my chef-ly strength for the occasional grandiose project like these cookies, I would like to mention that I did some other cooking this weekend as well, an apple pie and the Maque Choux from my random recipe challenge. The humidity is pretty low for Oregon this weekend, which made the pie dough a little less cooperative than usual, but it all turned out well in the end.

As for the Maque Choux, it also was quite successful. I used a half cup of chili beans instead of the tasso, canned corn instead of fresh (as with any canned food, try to buy the 'No Salt Added' version, and save a little of the water from the can to replace the corn milk with), dried thyme instead of fresh, and less tomato than was called for (I never seem to have as much tomato on hand as I think I do, probably because I will eat it on/with almost anything). My roommate and I ate it on whole wheat tortillas, not the most "authentic Cajun" option, but delicious regardless, and I tossed the extra in my scrambled eggs this morning. It's easy, healthy, and versatile. I will definitely be having this again.

As for this week:

My assignment (Spaghettis Bolo et/ou Lasagne - part way down the page) is particularly appealing this week because 1) the recipe is in French and 2) I was intending to try to make vegetarian tomato sauce this week anyway (the recipe isn't veg, but I'm not intending to use meat).
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Rock rock on

It's almost midnight, my ears are ringing, I'm covered in other people's sweat, my legs ache, and I have a cross country race in the morning. But for the Blue Scholars... it's always worth it. I overheard some one after the show saying that they've only gotten better, and it's true. I've been listening to them for a little while now, seen a few shows, been around when a couple records and EPs dropped, and I get more in love with them every time I hear a new song.

My school (for the second year in a row!) arranged to have them come do a FREE show on campus. I don't even have words to describe how insane that is. This is the group that introduced me to conscious hip-hop and the idea that you could have sick beats and meaningful lyrics in the same song. They the were first real show I saw - Aesop Rock was headlining, but I went for the Scholars and still maintain that they were far superior. They are the only group I have ever paid to see more than once. It is because of the Blue Scholars that I have the interest and appetite for such a diverse range of music. (Props to Colin, who gave me the Scholars and several other excellent groups; without you my musical taste would be much poorer and much more limited.)

If you have never heard the Blue Scholars or the other excellent acts on their independent label Massline, I urge you to remedy this grievous deficiency in your life and go visit one of the sites linked to above, go to one of their shows, buy a few albums (support your favorite local record shop if they've got the Scholars). Folks in the northwest, though you must be either terribly out of the loop or have the wrong taste in music if you aren't listening, you are very much in luck. They like to play on this coast (and even a bit inland, they've been to my hometown in Montana twice that I know of in the past two years) and from what I've seen they do a good job of getting their music in the stores. They've also got a couple of EPs on iTunes (though for some reason neither are available at the moments).

Well, I just finished downloading Common Market (who opened tonight - holla for two times the Massline magic) "Tobacco Road," which is his latest CD. And as much as I'd love to stay up and listen to all of it, I really have to go to bed. Assuming I can, which with all the adrenaline currently pumping through my veins is not certain.

Peace!
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Squash update

You may not realize this, but one byproduct of squash soup is squash seed, which are amazing when baked. This is one of the easiest recipes ever. Mix your squash seeds (pumpkins are especially great) with some oil and some salt. For bonus points, add a spice or two, or some Parmesan cheese. I used rosemary and garlic. Be creative! (Warning, don't put too much salt on because these are super addictive and you will probably eat more than you intend.)

My other squash adventure: zucchini bread in a pie tin! This was actually the only thing I was originally planning to bake tonight, since I'd just discovered that my zucchini was not happy with its proximity to the freezer and I needed something to do while I was waiting up for my laundry. The squash seeds only occurred to me as I was taking the zucchini out, since I'd placed them in the fridge yesterday with the intention of baking them "in the future" (The last time I was going to bake seeds "in the future" they got moldy first, so I'm very glad the future was today.)

The original recipe is from 101 Cookbooks, but as usual I've made some alterations, and also cut the recipe in half.

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fine brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 medium), skins on
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup oatmeal (my addition; if you don't want it just use flour)
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (the original recipe also suggests poppy seeds, lemon zest, and crystallized ginger. Again, let your imagination lead you!)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter your pan(s).

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly. Add the egg. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini (low speed if you are using a mixer).

In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, spices (the ones above are those I used; the original recipe used curry powder and I encourage you to try whatever appeals to you), and walnuts. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition. (I actually never use a separate bowl, a habit I inherited from my mother, but you are welcome to.)

Pour the batter into the pan(s) and level. Sprinkle more walnuts across the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on the size and shape of the pan(s) you are using. Even though the outside edges of my bread were well done, the inside was undercooked, probably because the pan was round. Keep this in mind if you are also using an unusually shaped pan, but also remember that it will continue to cook even after it is removed from the oven as it is cooling. Remove from the oven and cool the zucchini bread in pan for about ten minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to finish cooling - if you leave them in their pans, they will get sweaty and moist (not in a good way) as they cool.

I really like how this turned out. The walnuts are delicious and crunchy, the spices are warm and autumny, and the oatmeal gives it a nice texture. Enjoy!
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Food to accompany the sounds of falling leaves

Butternut squash soup and cornbread! My roommate and I signed up to make snacks this week for our residence hall's weekly study break, and that is what I decided to make. It's been getting chilly recently, and organic fall squash are 69 cents a pound at the local grocery, so voila! They're both vegan, since we have multiple vegans living in our hall and its nice to make them feel welcome. Plus well made vegan food is healthy and yummy.

The original recipes both come from the Post Punk Kitchen. The cornbread recipe I didn't really make any changes to, other than shortcutting on the mixing of ingredients. I was a bit more flexible with the soup, so here's my version of the recipe, with major changes noted.

Buttercup Soup (originally South African Butternut Soup)

Ingredients
1 buttercup, about 4 lbs (Honestly, any fall or winter squash would probably work. I have difficulty making distinctions between squash types so this is what I ended up with.)
1 apple
1/2 large onion
1-2 tsp medium curry powder
4 Tbsp flour
pinch of ground nutmeg
2-3 cups water
2 cups soy milk
The original called for stock cubes, boiling water and coconut milk, but I dislike stock, especially in cubes, and this was far more convenient.

Directions
Peel, seed and dice the squash. Peel, core and chop the apple. Peel the onions and chop roughly. In a large saucepan, saute the chopped onions in a small amount of olive oil or margarine. Add the curry powder and fry the mixture lightly. Add the butternut, apple, flour and nutmeg; saute. Add water and soy milk as desired, stir and cover. Cook until squash is soft. Puree or blend until smooth. The color of the soup should be a deep yellow and the texture creamy. Serve the soup hot. (I enjoyed it with some plain fat free yogurt and an extra sprinkle of nutmeg on top.)

Due to time constraints, I was cooking somewhat hurriedly and was forced to begin saute-ing before the squash was cut, with the result that the squash and liquids were added gradually as they became available and/or necessary. I also probably stuck the mixture into the blender a little early, as there were a few hard chunks left, but that might also be due to a poor peeling job (buttercup squash were not really meant to be peeled raw, I don't think). Nevertheless, it was for the most part smooth and delicious. One of the beauties of soup (other than the lovely warm and full feelings it gives you) is how easy it is to adjust recipes to the constraints of the situation.

As much as I like it, though, I'm not sure squash soup was a great choice for food to share, since squash is not a universally welcomed vegetable. Cooking for other people always makes me nervous, since I tend to be pretty nonjudgmental when it comes to (healthy) food. I always worry that something I consider perfectly edible will totally disgust the people I try to feed it too, as happened this afternoon when I tried to help my roommate make tomato sauce from crushed tomatoes, vegetables and garlic. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but though poor Jackie tried several modifications to increase the palatability of the sauce, I don't think she ever found something she really enjoyed. The corn bread, at least, was a success, though it is my experience that anything remotely edible that can be simply picked up and placed in the mouth is a success with college students (we are much like teething infants that way...)
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Playing with my food

I spent the last hour and a half or so reading food blogs. leaving me with a watering mouth and a keen desire to cook something. I cook a lot, but for the most part it tends to be either simple things, like eggs or pasta, or else completely random combinations that happen because something is getting old or I have nothing else to eat. I haven't been making much progress toward exploring new recipes, so when I discovered the "Blog Hop" feature at the Food Blog Blog (my new favorite time waster!) I was immediately seized by the possibilities. And now I have a new game, which will allow me to entertain myself while simultaneously introducing me to new food. It's not an especially creative game, because the essential idea is that, each week, using either the Blog Hop or the traditional "flip to a random page and point" method with either one of my cookbooks or a favorite cooking blog, I will select a new recipe to try. Being a nominally vegetarian college student, I'm going to give myself the freedom to skip past some recipes.

Legitimate reasons to not use a recipe:
-expensive, out of season or difficult to obtain ingredients
-long preparation time
-fancy equipment or preparation required
-meat, unless it looks really really good
-deep frying

Illegitimate reasons:
-ingredients I don't like
-it sounds boring
-fussiness

It's actually harder than it sounds. It took me four attempts to even get a blog I could use (the first was no longer there, the second was devoted entirely to bacon, the third was an Indian food blog in which every recipe I looked at used either dried lentils - too long to prepare - or some other incredibly exotic ingredient. I did bookmark it for future reference, though. The fourth blog didn't even have any recipes.) Finally, I arrived at a blog for New Orleans cuisine. After following the link to the new site, I scrolled around for a while in an attempt to find a recipe that met all my requirements, and rather than move onto something different or compromise one of my prohibitions already, I finally went back to the original blog and followed another link back to a recipe on the new blog: Maque Choux. I don't think eliminating the meat should be a problem (I may add the spices separately, though). I'm going shopping tomorrow and will cook sometime this week.

Also cooking this week: corn bread and delicata squash soup on Wednesday night for our weekly hall snack time; faux samoas; and possibly something with sweet potatoes. Plus probably some easier type of cookies at some point or other.

Now I'm really feeling hungry...
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Politicking (from 5 October)

It looks like John McCain has finally just given up on the idea that his policies are better than Barack Obama's. Or at least on the idea that he's going to be able to convince the American people of that. His campaign in the past few weeks has been so ugly that even Karl Rove has said that he needs to reconsider some of his ads. But now he's planning a 'fiercer' strategy against Obama . My first reaction to that headline was to wonder if that was even possible; my second was astonishment that McCain thinks that this is actually going to win over the independents he needs. Many of the things he says are demonstrably false and/or misleading, including one of the points he will probably be focusing on in some of his new ads: the relationship between Obama and William Ayers, something that Sarah Palin has also been discussing recently. This issue has been in discussion since the primaries, and it seems to be the general consensus (as the last article points out) that there was no close connection between Obama and Ayers.

It isn't as though Obama's campaign is entirely innocent of these kinds of attacks, but it is my feeling that he has maintained a higher standard of honesty and a better balanced array of ads. Though both candidates have spent about the same amount on attack ads, Obama is spending much more overall on ads and slightly less on attack ads, so while almost all of John McCain's advertising budget is now going into negative ads, less than half of Obama's is. Looking at the current top three McCain ads and the probable future targets, I don’t think that there is any content of real substance in any of them - he's accusing Obama of trying to raise everyone's taxes (false), advocating 'massive government' (questionable and not specific enough to constitute a genuine policy disagreement) blaming the policies he advocates for sending American jobs overseas (questionable) and being 'mum' on the market crisis (severely questionable). On the other hand, Obama's attacks address ISSUES like Social Security, health care, and the economy. (Disturbing side note - commenters on this article note that the McCain ad seems to be trying to 'darken' Obama. If you watch the beginning of the ad, it is kind of striking. I don't know if this is intentional, but if it is, well, I don't even know what to say. I honestly didn't think even McCain was that sleazy.)

What this all boils down to, for me at least, is that McCain is in essence admitting that he is less suited to be the president that the American people want than Obama is (slightly different than being the best president for the American people, which I hope he still believes he is, though I may not agree with him). He knows that he's not winning on issues - as this blog describes, no Republican is going to win a debate on the Iraq war today, and voters prefer Obama on the economy as well. He's even pulling his ads stressing the good things about himself in favor of those ads talking about the bad things about Obama, indicating that he thinks he can only win the personality contest by smearing his opponent. (And let's face it, those positive ads don't ring so true anymore either. Joe Biden did a pretty good job of deconstructing the 'maverick' persona, and all the lying/misinterpreting has made American voters less inclined to believe the 'Straight Talk Express'.)

So what does John McCain have going for him right now? In my estimation, not much. Sarah Palin didn't help (she might have done better than expected in the debate, but Biden won more voters, attacking Barack Obama isn't helping, and I don't see it getting any better (even the Washington Post is considering endorsing Obama. I've never agreed with McCain on the majority of policy issues, but before this election I at least respected him for playing fair, telling the truth, and standing up for what he believed him. Today, even that is gone.

Other miscellany:
-I just watched the vp debate online - it's legal and free. Near the end, Biden starts talking about Mike Mansfield, a former Montana senator (the library at the U of Montana is named after him). That made me smile, although other parts of the debate made me pretty angry. There's a good fact checking article in Newsweek.
-A recent look at what the electoral vote is looking like - good news, especially when you consider that at the moment Obama would win the popular vote by as much as 13% right now (summary of polls, Daily Kos poll) and in almost every poll is leading by percentages outside the margin of error.
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Sena Wanawake at Headwaters

I'm recently returned from an amazing weekend of running and had to share. It hasn't been a great summer for me runningwise - convincing myself to go for a run after working out in the sun for nine hours is difficult even when the running is fun, but for some reason (boredom, being out of shape, lack of running buddies, who knows) I seemed to have lost whatever it is that makes running so enjoyable for me. I still don't know what it is, but I think I've found it again.

Despite my lack of training, last Thursday I set off for a 3 day, 222 mile cross country relay in south-central Montana, near Bozeman. It's called Headwaters, and it runs from Missouri Headwaters State Park to Hellroaring Creek, "the ultimate source of the Missouri River". The relay runs through an incredible range of locations: along the side of highways, down dusty two tracks, and even in a couple places on true trails. It goes across bridges, streams, and cattleguards; up and down mountains; through farmland, high-elevation sage/juniper deserts, forests, Montana-style sand dunes, and wildflower-filled alpine meadows. It begins at 4000 feet, and goes as high as 9500 on the third day. I've done it once before when I was in high school, and both times it was an incredibly demanding, incredibly enjoyable experience.

There were fourteen teams total, four of them forming a group from Missoula. I was on a team with 8 other women, including a couple running buddies from high school. We camped Thursday night with the other Missoula teams and woke up at 3:30 Friday morning (and every morning after) so we could make it to the start of the run by 5:30. That day is the longest day, and probably the hardest for me, though it was the flattest. My first leg started out with a pretty steep uphill, which I had to walk a lot of, then turned into a long, long downhill. This day was the lowest in elevation, only 4-5 thousand feet, but I was struggling a bit with the altitude on that first run. The second run I did was actually just a part of a leg called the Miler's Revenge, where seven of us each ran a mile. That was a lot of fun, but my last leg was late in the afternoon, so it was very hot, and the leg, though only three miles, was flat and exposed and extremely boring. Because of the heat, I had to stop with .8 to go and have a teammate finish for me, which was disappointing, the next day I got to run an extra 4.6 miles because another runner had accidently been assigned two legs that were too close together. I'd run that leg the other time I did the relay, and I really liked it then. It starts with half a mile of uphill, but the rest is a great long downhill into Nevada City (which is not in fact a city but rather an old west mining town now turned into a tourist trap. There's a similar town two miles down the road called Virginia City where I think people actually still live). It was significantly harder this time than the previous time, but still a great leg. That run was midway through the day, again without much shade (there aren't many trees in that part of Montana). I'd already run the first leg that morning, which was incredible. Again, we started at 5:30, so it was still dark and a bit chilly. This was my longest run of the weekend, 5.8 flat miles through some pretty farmland. As I was finishing up, the sun was beginning to rise above the mountains on the horizon. It's hard to get up so early, but totally worth it for a run like that.

By Sunday, the final day, I was so sore and tired, but I'd done 19 miles already and only had five more to go. We started out at 5 that morning because the start was closer to our campground, so even though I was the second leg the sun hadn't risen by the time I finished. That was my hardest leg of the day, two miles of nothing but steep uphill, but after all the downhill it felt pretty good. I walked for a little bit in the middle, but fortunately by the time the first car for the college boys team passed me (their team started behind us, and didn't actually pass us for another couple legs, but the car came by early) I was running again, so I didn't have to feel too embarrassed. My next run was part of a five-mile Miler's revenge, again a lot of fun and this time mostly downhill. My last run again was in the afternoon, but there was a breeze and it was a bit rollier than my run the first day, so two and a half miles was actually pretty comfortable. And then I was done- more than 24 miles in just 3 days!
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