I have never been much for growing things (maybe it was the huge gardens we raised when I was a kid). Since I left home I have had exactly 3 house plants, and they've all died of neglect. I used to say that I had a black thumb. But ... whoever lived in my house before me planted perennials, so I have spring flowers.

And they tickle me to no end. I smile, I giggle, I talk about "my daffodils blooming" and "my crocuses coming up," just like I had something to do with it.

They herald the hope of the season for me, and I thank whoever planted them from the bottom of my heart every year as the cold finally creeps away and the first purple crocus peeks out of the ground.

The crocuses (which are finished now) were beautiful.

But the weird weather we've been having around here (really, snow on April fools?) messed with my daffodils. (Hear the ownership I feel?) They did bloom, but the stems had already bent over in the cold/wind/storms.

There's something especially sad about flowers that point at the ground. But, spring is coming, and, whether it's frozen or not, the moisture we're getting will make everything greener in the long run.

I'm not that into cooking (as you can read in my potato salad and Thanksgiving dinner posts). I can do it if I have to. I have actually had days when I've enjoyed the process, but these are few and far between. Finding the time to go to the store (because I never have the right stuff in my house) and then prepare everything, well, I find that difficult. So, imagine my surprise to find myself reading a cookbook.

I was visiting my parents, and my mom (who seems to be involved in all my cooking stories) had rediscovered an old favorite and had discovered a couple of new ones in the bargain. Herald Press and the Mennonite Central Committee have a collection of lovely cookbooks that are being sold as "World Community Cookbooks."

The first and oldest is the More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Originally published in 1976, this book was an early entry in the caring for the world while eating better, improving nutrition and saving money category. My mother has a very well-worn copy in her kitchen. Our editor-in-chief, KC, walked by my desk and picked up the 25th anniversary edition from my desk. She hugged it close and said, "I learned so much about cooking from this cookbook. It brings back so many memories." It does for me as well. When I look at the cover, I can see and smell the kitchen where mom cooked when I was younger. KC mentioned one of her favorite recipes involved enchiladas.

The next in the series is Extending the Table: Recipes and stories from Argentina to Zambia in the spirit of More-with-Less by Joetta Handrich Schlabach. First published in 1991, it begins with a map showing where the stories and recipes come from. It is a joy to read, with recipes from Ginger Tea as made in the Dominican Republic to Groundnut Stew from Ghana to Saudi Arabian Chicken Stew. And all the recipes have stories.

The one that got me reading, though, was Simply in Season: Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More-with-Less by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. Created from some 1,600 recipes that were tested rigorously, it is divided into seasonal sections based on what fruits and vegetables are available. Perhaps one of the most beautiful cookbooks I've ever seen, each recipe is again accompanied by a thought or story.

One of my favorites: "For me gardening is a connection to my rural roots, to my parents and grandparents who loved the soil and to my daughter who, though an urban child, has grown to love gardens also," from Joan Gerig of Chicago (page 125).

The MCC has put together a group of study sessions around this cookbook that explore the value of eating local, seasonal food. The Simply in Season leader's guide is available for download (or purchase in hard copy) from their website.

But it doesn't end there, the most beautiful of all the books and the one that caught my attention on my mom's shelf is the one created especially for kids, the Simply in Season Children's Cookbook. It's a gorgeous book with simple and fun recipes you can make with the little ones in your life. I think my mom was thinking of my nephews (they seem to really like to help out in the kitchen).

I've still only scratched the surface of these, but I intend to spend some more time in my kitchen, learning about the world community and seasonal foods. I'll keep you posted!

Photos courtesy the Mennonite Central Committee.

The editors of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) are nearing the end of their long road. According to the publisher (Harvard UP), this soon-to-be five volume work (the fifth volume, "S to Z" is due out next year) "captures the language spoken on America's main streets and country roads, words and phrases passed along within homes and communities, from east to west, north to south, childhood to old age." The dictionary has been in progress since 1965, and it is built on interviews recorded in 1,000 cities across the United States.

It's no secret that language fascinates me. My first article to appear in GRIT, "The Soft Drink Debate," explored just some of the regional differences that this dictionary is out to capture. 

One of the things that struck me as I read the AP story on this "Quirky Regional Dictionary" was how many of the regional words cited were rural in nature. Joan Houston Hall, who took over as editor for the dictionary when its originator Frederic Cassidy passed away, spoke of a quotation from president and Arkansan Bill Clinton that someone didn't know him "from Adam's off ox." Also mentioned were a "stone toter" (a kind of fish), and several versions of that great rural tradition a "potluck" (called a "pitch-in" in Indiana and a "scramble dinner" in northern Illinois).

Hall says that bobbasheely – a Gulf Coast word meaning "a good friend" or "to hang around with a friend" is her favorite word in the dictionary.

On the DARE website you can find a few more entries from the dictionary. Many, many children's games made that grouping. I was also excited to see some of my own dialectal/ethnic phrases – kolaches, kitty-corner, schnickelfritz – and a phrase from Caleb's most recent blog that was new to me "noodling" (catching fish with your bare hands).

You should definitely check it out. Meanwhile, I'll be over here hanging with my bobbasheelies on the punee looking for a schnibble and trying not to get honeyfuggled.

Photo by adotjdotsmith, licensed under Creative Commons.

So, today I’m going to let you in on a little secret that I usually keep to myself: I’m crafty. No really, I am. As someone who grew up a serious tomboy, it almost pains me to say it, but, it’s really true. I spin, I knit and crochet, I weave, I even learned a historical netting technique called naalbinding, which until fairly recently was only the purview of a few Swedish grandmothers. 

This Christmas I finally had to accept it because a significant percentage of the gifts I gave were handmade. One of the gifts made me especially proud.

While the family was at my brother and sister-in-law’s for Thanksgiving, we drank some wine one night. It was typical family time, lots of up and down and laughing and cooking, so people were forgetting whose wine glass was whose. A solution was reached pretty quickly, which was dubbed, “The Redneck Wine Charm.” Jodi had a stash of bread ties, and each of us used a different color. (They suggested that I take this picture and blog about it, so here we are.)

Well, this simply would not do, so, I set out to make some wine charms. The day that I decided to start the project, Lime & Violet (a great knitting blog) offered a crocheted Christmas tree and ornaments as their pattern of the day.

I thought crocheted Christmas ornaments would work great for wine charms. So, I blithely downloaded the pattern, gathered some colorful yarn from my stash, reminded myself how to read a crochet pattern (and a foreign one at that) and started in on them.

They turned out pretty cute, but a little big for a wine charm.

So, I went back to the drawing board and to my bead stash.

For these you need:
* Several novelty beads (some of these I made myself)
* Memory wire (I got this at my local craft store)
* Memory wire tips (though you could put little turns in the wire instead)
* Some kind of quick-set glue
* Needle-nose pliers (perhaps a few kinds of pliers)
* Wire-cutter of some sort

Cut memory wire so that that it overlaps a little more than halfway around its circle. Add a tip to one end using quick-set glue (or turn back on itself to create end). String beads in attractive groups. Add another tip using quick-set glue (carefully, to avoid gluing yourself to the charm). And, voila, wine glass charms.

You could get really funky with these, using any beads that you have around or that you can find. I've seen everything from crowns to letters to leaves to dogs at craft stores. I think my sister-in-law was happy to have them. We haven’t had an occasion to use them ... yet.

Also, a quick update on my “not-to-do list”: My inbox currently has zero unread items in it, I haven't been to a fast-food restaurant in the evening once (let alone 2-3 times/week) since I made that resolution, and, well, I'm going to be here at least another hour, so this isn't really the end of the day.

Using the advice I gleaned from obviously brilliant bloggers (and a few actual experts), I’ve been slowly but surely compiling my resolutions list. I like to be sure, which requires research, a few steps forward, and then some more research, and then some thought, followed by a little more research.

In the meantime, I thought I’d follow the lead of those equally brilliant editors over at Real Simple (love that magazine!) and make a “not-to-do” list for 2009.

1. I will not put off my blog until the end of the day. I’m a horrible procrastinator who thrives on deadlines. I get to set my own here and that’s bad. Here’s a list of tips from Leo Babuata (of Zen Habits fame) on how to battle procrastination. The Dumb Little Man  site is chock-full of great articles (that you, like me, can no doubt use as procrastination tools). 

2. I will not let my email control me. I love gmail – all my messages in one easy, amazingly searchable place. But at work, I have to delete things and organize things, and my searches take hours. On 43 Folders Merlin Mann offers some great ideas (some of which I’ve already used) on getting your email under control.

3. I will not give in and eat fast food more than ... twice a week ... OK, three times ... in the evening. If you need a reason, check out this list by Kathleen Frederick over at The Junk Drawer. I had my stint in fast food, too, and can attest. Yikes!

The gurus of resolutions said to stick to one or two with three as the absolute maximum, so, I'll let you know how it goes!

After reading that most people fail to keep their New Year’s Resolutions (the statistics report that 55-60 percent of people abandon their resolutions), I was ready to give up, but then I heard an NPR report that brought joy back to my list-making heart.

Turns out you’re 10 times more likely to follow through with a resolution than someone who doesn’t have one. Think about the percentage who are successful. In his NPR interview, John Norcross talks about a study where people with similar goals were compared. Of those with resolutions, 40-46 percent were successful at 6 months. The chance of similar success for those without resolutions was 0-4 percent (not-so-great odds).

If, like me, these numbers have inspired you to think about making some "new deals" for the new year, the top ten New Year’s Resolutions on About.com: Pittsburgh might add fuel to the fire. Then check out this eHow article on wording your resolutions in a way that makes them more likely to stick.

The University of Maryland Medical Center gets a couple more psychiatrists to offer tips on healthy resolutions and preparing for success (Dr. Norcross says believing a change is possible makes success much more likely).

And Gretchen Rubin, in the midst of some very good advice on changing habits, wins me over by quoting Voltaire.

Over at the Nemec household, we had a very ABBA Christmas (my parents saw Mama Mia on Broadway and are in love with the movie – my brother and sister-in-law, not so much). So, here's some music to get resolute to:

(Thanks Lime & Violet.)

I’ll post my list soon; in the meantime, take the next step and get some accountability by sharing your change of habit in a comment.

Image by Sally M, licensed under Creative Commons.

This year, for the first time in recent memory, I have been tasked with bringing something to Thanksgiving dinner. When I announced this in our staff meeting last week, everyone was quite impressed, until I told them I was making the two JELL-O/Cool Whip–related salads that we always have at a Nemec family holiday dinner.

One year we only had one of the two, and my little brother (not so little anymore) just couldn't handle it. So, these two must be there. The names are what we call them, and I'll have to check with Mom to find out from whence they came. (I'm pretty sure I remember the first time we had the apricot one, but the cherry seems to have always been a staple.)

The first we call "Apricot Salad," which is a bit of a misnomer, because it's not very "salad-y." It's made with only 3 ingredients: apricot JELL-O (1 package), apricot nectar (2 cups – I found this in the juice aisle at a local grocery store), and cream cheese (1 brick, 8 oz., softened).

The nectar takes the place of water in the directions on the JELL-O package. First heat one cup of the nectar and then dissolve the JELL-O in it.  Place the softened cream cheese in a medium-sized bowl, and then with a whisk (or an egg beater), slowly add the nectar mixture to the cream cheese. Then add the additional cup of nectar in a similar manner. (If you find it too sweet, you can switch out some of the nectar for water.)

This salad turns out differently depending on how earnestly you wisk/stir the creamcheese into the JELL-O. If you're a bit lackadaisical, you end up with slightly creamy JELL-O with a cottage-cheese-looking topping. If you are more serious about getting the lumps out, the whole thing turns into creamy goodness – though don't go too far, or you'll end up with foam on top. All of these versions taste great, and I'm pretty sure my brother prefers the cottage-cheese-y version.

The second salad (which my brother's been making lately) is the "Pink Fluff." This one is even easier, because you don't have to heat anything up. In this one you have a can of cherry pie filling (my dad's favorite), a can of crushed pineapple (don't get the "in syrup" kind), a can of sweetened condensed milk, and a container of whipped topping. Drain the pineapple juice (into a glass -- yum), then mix it, the cherry pie filling, and the condensed milk together in a rather big bowl. When those three are good and combined, slowly fold in the whipped topping. (This is where you can get in trouble with this one, when "folding" becomes "beating" you end up with a soupy mess.)

Most of my family eats these as "dessert" rather than with the meal, and a little goes a long way. When the pink fluff and turkey sandwiches are gone, it's time to head home.

When I was in college, I had a nightmare that involved my boyfriend taking me home to his family Thanksgiving and his mother asking me to make the gravy as a test... I woke up screaming.

Since then, I've advanced (much more than I let on). I can make many wonderful meals in my wok, I love quinuoa, and I'm learning more every day. I likely won't be involved in the turkey basting process this year (or maybe ever, one of my brothers has a restaurant management degree and is pretty territorial about the bird), but . . . I made the salads.