GREEN SCENE: OK, so it's not the Breakfast of Champions (TM, I'm sure), but what could be more appropriate for a St. Patrick's Day morning meal than special shamrock-themed Lucky Charms with a side of gold coins? (We'll go back to kale smoothies tomorrow, really!) Predictably, we had corned beef going in the crockpot before 9 a.m., right after finishing the 'magically delicious' breakfast you see above. (And yes, the milk did turn green, for the record.) The golden Oreos were an experiment of sorts. We'd seen a 'recipe' for them online (spray Oreos with golden food coloring in a can), but tried our own twist. For starters, we started with Golden Oreos instead of the traditional brown ones. I knew that had to make our task easier. Here they are in their "natural" state.
On some, we used Wilton's "Color Magic" spray. On others, we used a less-widely available product, "Edible Gold Spray" by Chefmaster.
On some, we applied superfine gold dust (suspended in clear vanilla).
On others, we sprinkled on edible gold flakes for extra bling.
In the end, we decided we really liked the color of the Chefmaster spray better (it was more gold, as compared to the Color Magic's more orange tone). We also decided to try our hands at making Irish soda bread.
We found a highly-rated recipe on the Food Network, by chef Ina Garten. We followed the instructions carefully, but found them lacking. For instance, the ingredient list calls for currants, but it doesn't say what to do with them (how to prep them or when to add them to the mix). We did have instructions regarding when to add the orange zest (or Clementine, in this case, since that's what we had on hand).
Also, the recipe tells you to "dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf." Well, OK, but it would have been nice to know how many times she meant by 'a few'. "Few" is standardly thought of as five, but kneading the dough just five times seems like that wouldn't be enough.
Also, she didn't say how big around or thick your raw round loaf should be. Should it be 5x5 or 12x2 or? Pretty big omission, IMHO. Fortunately, our loaf turned out OK. Actually, it was delicious.
When we took our walk past the neighborhood's Irish pub this afternoon, I told the kids that in Chicago, they dye the river running down the middle of their city green. They'd never heard of such a thing, so when we got home, we found a YouTube video (by Dan O'Leary, courtesy of ChicagoStPatsParade.com) showing the process.
We could see men in a boat tossing an orange-y powder into the water, and immediately wondered what it was.
I had the kids do some research, and they learned that back in the day (the 1960s, when the tradition started), fluorescein was used to get the job done. For environmental considerations, years later, the dye was changed to a vegetable-based product.
WOODSY WALK: It was beautiful (these days, that means it wasn't torrential rain or gale force winds) this morning, so we decided to go a bit afield for our walk. We headed just a couple miles west of home, to Discovery Park.
Knowing there's a not-much-used full court basketball court in the park, we brought a ball along. The kids played one-on-one for awhile, but then they switched to just shooting. I explained the game of H-O-R-S-E to the kids, and they gave it a go. I think they each got an H and an R before calling it quits.
I also demonstrated the unique underhand free throw technique, and was proud of myself for remembering it was Rick Berry who shot that way in the NBA. And before anyone starts making fun of Berry's 'granny' style, you should know that in his 14 years in the NBA he made 90 percent of his free throws. Nothing to snark at, is it? (In case you're wondering, about 75 percent is the average rate of free throw success in the NBA.) If you want to see the keys to Berry's success, check out this oldish tutorial on video:
The beloved zip line the kids have screamed along on for the past 9 or so years is long gone. Oh no! They were sad pandas, for sure. A sign filled in a couple of blanks for us.
However, we still have questions. First of all, obviously construction of the new zipline isn't complete (it's a month past Feb. 15). Second, we're wondering how in the world we never heard about the play part of the park getting a renovation. I'm pretty plugged in to social media sources in these parts and we've not heard a peep about it. We did spy this little sign, giving us an online opportunity to give us some input, and we each took the survey this afternoon.
I sure hope that somehow we are notified about the public hearing when it happens. We're happy they're putting another zipline it, but we're also fairly certain the new one is not going to be anywhere near as big, and it surely won't have that same exciting 'is this old thing safe?' feel about it, ha ha. ABSOLUTELY: Our math homework this afternoon left us wondering, "why does anyone even care about or use absolute values?" Fortunately, we're able to hop into the Internet and quickly learn that there's more to think about rather than just stripping the negative off a number. Really simply put, absolute value is about how far a given number from zero on a number line. We watched this catchy video, from Shmoop, first.
WAY BACK MACHINE: On this day (Mar. 16) in 1966, NASA pulled off an important first.
Photo: NASA
Neil Armstrong was command pilot when he and pilot David Scott
successfully docked their Gemini VIII spacecraft with the Agena target
vehicle, marking the first time two spacecraft were linked together in Earth orbit.
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. Cornelius Tiebout and Rembrandt Peale, 1801 - Library of Congress digital ID: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.15715
STRIKE A POSE: Saturday we were fortunate to get to see "A New Republic," an exhibition of artist Kehinde Wiley's works at the Seattle Art Museum. Wiley is renowned for bold, regal paintings of people of color - something that has been missing from fine art of the Western World seemingly forever. A happy coincidence, today I received an email from the Library of Congress titled "Reading Portraits: Analyzing Art as a Primary Source." The article, written by Tom Bober, the Library of Congress 2015-16 Audio-Visual Teacher in Residence, and Briana Zavadil White, Student and Teacher Programs Manager at the National Portrait Gallery, states, in part, "The strategy of reading portraiture encourages the visual analysis of a piece of art, similar to closely reading a document. The visual clues found in portraiture may be decoded to learn about the individual featured in the artwork. To get started, select visually complex images that include objects and a compelling setting."
That's exactly what we were thinking about this weekend when looking at Wiley's work, all of which featured people of color. Conversely, the portrait subject in the Library of Congress article was Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, pointing at a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Something to think about. IRRATIONAL: Yesterday was a geeky 'holiday' we always look forward to: Pi Day. As you no doubt know, Pi is an irrational number which can't be expressed exactly as a fraction and its decimal representation never ends, nor does it ever settle into a permanently repeating patter. But it always starts off with 3.14, which makes March 14th Pi Day! We celebrated the occasion with food. Pizza "pi" from Pagliacci for just $3.14 for two slices for lunch!
For dinner, we had a delicious, home-made curried chicken and vegetable pot pi(e), a savory delight!
#KEHINDEWILEY: Saturday, we took advantage of the Smithsonian's free Museum Day program passes to visit Seattle Art Museum. Our main draw? Checking out the Kehinde Wiley exhibit "A New Republic." We'd seen the vibrant posters promoting the show 'round town and couldn't wait to see it for ourselves. However, we knew nothing about Wiley beyond the posters, so we really didn't know what to expect. As we walked into the exhibit, you could practically hear jaws hitting the floor and eyes popping out of their sockets. So. Much. Awesome. Fortunately, I have some photos to share because the artist wants people to know his work and its message. But keep in mind, these photos don't do Wiley justice. The original paintings are a dazzling, Technicolor marvel of photo realism, bold patterns and powerful messages. Wiley masterfully takes contemporary figures, most often young men and women of color, and places them in old European art traditions, including oil paintings, portraits, stained glass and bronze busts.
An inspiration for Wiley was a mug shot he found on the streets of Harlem. He saw it as "a perverse type of portraiture." He contemplated artistic portraits throughout history - the regal clothing, surrounds and lifestyles depicted, and noted how people of color were missing from these images.
And so, he changed all of that - with remarkable results.
The works are stunning, and the scale makes them all that more amazing.
No detail is overlooked in Wiley's work. The frames on his paintings are in and of themselves works of art. Wiley works in a variety of mediums, from gold leaf ...
to stained glass. ...
There were even amazing bronze busts.
In the middle of the exhibit, we sat and watched a biographical movie about Wiley's preparation for his show "An Economy of Grace." Fortunately, I found it on the PBS Web site, so you can enjoy it as well! Check it out here: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365311240/
