What If They Ever Make an Artifical Heart out of Cheese?

Lately I have had trouble sleeping because I am so nervous about moving back to Philadelphia without a job or a home. But tonight I can't sleep for a different reason. Tomorrow morning around 5am, Dustin and I are leaving Kentucky for here!



My favorite place in the whole world, Monroe, Wisconsin. Home of Cheese Days. Ten years ago, I met Dustin at college and he told me about this magical festival in his home day, 1,000 miles away. Not thinking about being 19 and not having a car, I said I had to go. So a bunch of us went and Dustin was right; it was magical. I fell in love with the place. So much that I kept going back, even on off Cheese Days years. Finally I moved there after college.



Land of my first apartment, first job out of college, where I moved to become an adult. All because of a cheese festival. I was confident at 22 that I would probably never leave.



Look how well that turned out. Of course things didn't go as planned. I only lived there for two-ish years but five years later, the only thing I would change about that time is that I would have eaten meat. Monroe is that magical to me.



This is the first year that it's just Dustin and I going to Cheese Days and I'm okay with that. All the years having tons of friends come along, polkaing in the streets in our Cheese Days outfit contest outfits was great. And this year will be great as well. So long as I have a book to read on the porch during the parade. I really don't like parades.

Who Are You Going to Listen To?

"The reason you haven't felt it is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons" -Don Draper. Sheesh Don, you tell us this in the pilot, what else do we have to look forward to? It's a good thing I am watching Mad Men backwards.



"Wouldn't this be more of a cultural experience if I had a local boyfriend? Maaa pass the wine" -me one year ago tonight in Chile, two hours before I went to the bar in a taxi thus meeting said local boyfriend five minutes before he planned to leave. Maaa indeed. Six months of up and down maaaing.



"I've been taking on a new direction"- Tina Turner. And me. I just need to get more hairspray.

I Think I've Got Your Number

This is Gloria. She's fun and blue and has a tail like a bottle brush. She's named after the You Tube sensation Glowpinkstah. I think they would get along well.



Also on the subject of numbers, I got some emails today from a long lost relation in the Deepest South regarding my old cell phone. They made me laugh so hard and were an excellent reminder about recent decisions I have made. Despite the 20 hours I spent in the car this weekend and the speeding ticket from West Virginia, my life is so nice right now, it's like an ABBA song.

Calling Anne Shirley

What would she say to these?



"Look at the puffs!"



All you need is the above ingredients and the mixer below.



Some patience to let the potential puffs gel, some clean scissors, and a lot of sugar to dredge. You don't even need an oven!



They are so light and fluffy and sugary. And they pass the roasting and strangers enjoying them tests. No more store bought marshmallows for Mocabee Creek!



What would this guy say to that?



"Don't eat me!"

This Is What I Do

Hang out with boys at truck stops.



These are the fellas in my life right now.



I am trying to be a good influence on the little one, and not just because he's the cutest and I work for him.

Photos courtesy of lovely Laura Rucker. Baby courtesy of lucky Leah Rucker.

The Day This Turned into a Food Blog

Somebody got stung by a wasp yesterday...I told him to come back when he got stung by five more through two fences and a up a steep hill from the house and didn't lose any blackberries, then we could talk.



In attempts at ignoring the puffy hand, we made dinner. Local sausage from the Sausage Fairy who lives down the street, squash from the garden, corn from a friend in Ohio and cheese and noodles from Kroger. And plenty of sweet potato bread.



We aren't sure what kind of squash this is and thought it might not ripen until the fall but it tastes good now.



The friend from Ohio who sent the corn also supplied dessert: rich buttermilk cookies.



Look at the puffs! If the swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow, we are going to make a short horror movie. Hopefully there will be fog!

Cow Crossing

This morning we moved all of the cows except the milking one and her baby to the pasture across the street. You would think that herd animals would just follow each other easily.



They may not be smart but they sure are pretty. These are the boys, Frank and Tank. There were three girls, Blondie, Pepper, and Kenya. Pepper and Tank are the two without horns. I led Kenya because she was supposed to be the gentlest. She only scrapped her horn against Rob and stepped on my foot once!
I love Tank because I think he looks like a woolly mammoth muppet.



Then I made some sweet potato bread.


Who knew that making food that actually looks like the food it is supposed to look like could be so satisfying? More people should make bread. I think if everyone kneaded dough two or three times a week, there would be no war. And we'd all have toned arms.