No-Family Day (A Hubbuddy Post)

I have always wanted to have a family. Even as a young child, it was always obvious to me that I would have a family of my own . . . eventually. It wasn't a decision or a wish, it was a given. Unavoidable, even.

I imagined my adult children and their spouses in some living room on some weekend afternoon, chatting about books they had read and movies they had watched and things they were passionate about, while I listened to them all and occasionally chimed in myself.

But that's the last step. It reminds me of what Michael Kanin said: "I don't like to write, but I love to have written."

So if I wanted a family of happy adult children, I guess that meant having younger children. Which probably meant having babies. Which probably meant that I needed a wife. Which probably meant having a serious girlfriend. Which would probably require having any girlfriend at all.

And that first step was kind of a stumbling block for longer than I really want to admit. I guess a young twenty-something guy with fantasies of an informal multi-generational book club is not quite what the average twenty-something girl has in mind.

But then I meet my Sionnach. We dated. We got serious. We got engaged. We got pregnant. We got married. We had a baby. We did it quickly and only just a little bit outside of the proper order, but it was because of one of the many things that we shared: an absolute certainty that we were going to have a family together.

It was important. We were not going to wait for a good career or a good house. We weren't going to wait for anything. My parents were 30 and 32 when I was born; I was 31 when WOI was born. It was time to start.

This seems to be a somewhat rare drive among my peers. Some of them already have children; and some of them can't have children. But an awful lot of them want to have children 'someday' . . . or very definitely not have any children at all.

And it's not just my peers. The total fertility rate in Canada is sitting stubbornly around 1.6 children per woman. To keep the population steady, we need a fertility rate of around 2.1 children per woman.

This is doing interesting things to us demographically. There are now more sixty-year-olds in Canada than there are six-year-olds.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Pyramideca2010.jpg

The baby boom faded and we settled into a predictable two-and-a-bit million new babies every five years. And then, about a decade ago, something happened. Several hundred thousand babies were never born. Several hundred thousand adults never became parents.

Having children is certainly scary. It takes time and money and attention and effort, and all of them in huge quantities. Times are not good economically, especially for younger people. The cultural expectation that people will marry and start families and start families may well be the weakest that it ever has been. A generation of children raised in non-nuclear families have spent their lives worrying about the future and the planet and overpopulation, and now that they are adults they are sitting this major life event out.

I'm not encouraging you to rush out and start a family. I'm just curious about what you personally think about families, whether you are like me and always wanted one, or you don't want one, or you are still somewhere in the middle. Let me know.

Kefir Onion Dip

Onion & Leeks on Fire!

After having successfully achieved homemade crackers. I have begun my search for Kefir Onion Dip, because I still crave that stuff like crazy. For my first attempt, inspiration from Donna Schwenk at Culture Food Life with her "Ron's Kefir Onion Dip" I love her idea of 2nd Fermenting with Garlic the Kefir cheese, and will definitely do that next time. This time was about using what I already had. Going measurement free today, because with dips you gotta listen to your tongue.

Squeezy the Lemon.

I roughly Cut one Onion and one Leek, and sweated them a bit in a pan with Butter. Let them cool, while I stormed my fridge for all the tiny 125ml jars of Kefir Cheese I had sitting in there. I usually make it to use later and then forget about it. Consistency of the Kefir Cheese was mixed two jars were the ideal stiff cream cheese and the other two little runny greek yogurt style on the other two. If my mental math holds the four jars would total about 500ml or 2 cups of homemade Kefir cheese, used in total. Followed that up by getting a little fresh with a Meyer Lemon and adding the juice. Dashing in some Paprika, I whirled it around to get an even consistency of Kefir Yogurt and then added the cooled Onion Mix.

Where Onion Leek meets Lemon Kefir.

Food Processor Magic left me with some delicious tasting dip, and close enough to my memory of the Chip Aisle Brand that I am satisfied. The Consistency isnt as gollopy as I recall, but that just makes it stretch longer. It did have that "let me sit" flavour about it, so I stuck it in the fridge for a bit, and went out to purchase some chips, because someone had eaten all my crackers without my realizing it.

So, tonight along with watching one of the Hubbuddy's suggested movies "Iron Giant" we are partaking in some blue potato chips and the most delicious onion dip. Perfect texture, and consistency for dipping, after a sit in the fridge. The flavours have melded nicely. Could use a touch more salt, but the chips make up for it. So Happy to have found a more healthy version of a favourite indulgence. 

Kefir Guacamole

Avocados were on sale this week. Organic were the same price as regular. So we got us some Organic Avocados and I actually managed to catch the window when they were perfectly ripe for guacamole. Usually they are rock hard when we get them, and then I forget about them in the week span to when they are soft and delicious. I am one of those "lucky" people, to whom cilantro tastes like soap.  Therefore it is rare to get good guacamole in my world.  As such this is my second time ever making the Green Delicious. Being a Kefir addict I figured it would be natural to add Kefir to the mix.

After reviewing a few recipes here, here, & here. I settled on the following:

3 Ripe Avocados
1 Bulb Garlic (Loving my Garlic)
1 Onion (It had a bite)
~1/2 cup Kefir
Juice of 1 Meyer Lemon
Sprinkle of Chili Powder
Pinch of Salt

Remove icky bits & pits then whirly in the food processor.

I put some in smaller Jars for Hubbuddy's lunch, letting some stew for a bit, and then cleaned the food processor with Naan crisps. The raw onion was a bit strong, and I might reduce it next time. Although Woi enjoyed it with gusto, except ever so often the onion would hit her and she would cry and then make a face. She quickly learned to follow these instances with Water. By the end of the feeding session she was getting the water herself before signing and saying more for the next green covered crisp. Hubbuddy returned home from work to offer the advice of the onion being a bit sharp, and it needing something. I think playing with the spices over time and letting it sit a bit will help draw out the flavour better. Of course he ate it all so I guess next time. Good thing I bought more Avocados on the way home from picking him up at work.

CRACKERS

I am not sure why it took me so long to do this, but I made Crackers. It was probably embarassment from the fact it took me a bit back when I realized you could make crackers. Of course you can make crackers, but I had never even heard of someone doing it. Crackers were the high processed delicious chip subsitutes that came out of a box, and always a box. They were made in some mystical realm of MSG sprinkling tiny creatures. People didnt make crackers. So I broke out of the cracker box, and got cracking at making crackers.

Since crackers are delicious and the perfect medium for dips. I started searching for recipies online and came across a great basic one at Towards Sustainability here. Four ingredients and a ton of great comment reviews, plus I could modify it to use my Kefir which was what I was really hoping to do.

So with 2 cups of freshly strained Kefir I started the process by doubling the recipe.

2 cups Kefir
4 Tablespoons Softened Butter
4 Cups Flour
Salt (I added on top to one batch forgot the second)

I blended in the butter, and then the flour, then popped the lid on my 8 cup Measuring Bowl and walked away for the day. I returned to it in the morning and wow had the kefir made the dough rise well, but for crackers that just wouldnt do. So I beat it up with all the pent up baby wont nap frustration, rolled it out onto the Bar pan using a glass jar because the rolling pin was just too big, used a pizza cutter to score them and then sprinkled with Sea Salt and tossed the lot into the Oven. Then I went and dealt with the crankiest baby that ever did crank. I may of forgotten about it a bit, someone still wasnt napping but was able to rescue them before too much burn happened. They are a little thick but a good consistency. The second batch were crispier then the first, but the slight middle chew made good texture. With or without salt was a perfect dip medium. Now I just need to go figure out how to make an awesome Onion Dip.