Buy American!

In the past month, I have watched two depressing HBO documentaries signaling the fall of manufacturing in this country. One was about the garment industry in New York City and how virtually no clothing is made in the U.S. anymore, thanks to people wanting to buy cheap from big box stores. Second was about a Chrysler plant that closed in Ohio and the thousands of people in that community who had worked there for 20-plus years and how their lives would be affected.

I happened to be watching the show on the garment industry at a time when I was folding laundry and sure enough, most of my Banana Republic shirts are made in various third world countries. When I started thinking about it, neither Mike nor I drive American cars. If you look around the grocery store, a lot of our produce and meat even comes from different countries. Why eat the 1.29 grapes from California when you can get .49 grapes from Chile, instead? Right?.... I don't even want to think about JM's plastic toys and where they were all made.

Mike's company is definitely moving toward shifting their production to "low cost locations" around the world, which gets me thinking. Not to be Debbie Downer, but if the U.S. stops manufacturing things and growing products because people want to buy at the cheapest price (especially in this economy), doesn't that hurt us all? I understand why healthcare for everyone is important, but isn't this the elephant in the living room? Shouldn't we be all be trying to buy American to save our own jobs?!!! This starts off affecting blue collar jobs, but wouldn't you think it would ultimately affect us all?

I just finished reading Julie and Julia about the lady who spent a year trying to cook Julia Child's recipes and got famous blogging about it. Maybe I will try to buy American for the next year and blog about that.... Hmmmmm...

Here are some sites I just found while this was top of mind.
How to Buy American
Buying American Toys
Savingmanufacturing.com
Some of this on the front page is a little crazy for lil ol Democratic me, but here is madeintheusa.org
If you want to buy some cute handmade American-made stuff, I love Etsy!

Cutest Pumpkins

Yesterday we hosted our weekly playgroup for a Halloween party.
May I just say that these babies are the cutest kids?
I love our playgroup. It's totally random that I found these women.
Someone posted on the Nest a little over a year ago that they really liked this Meetup group of moms and at the time I really needed to get out of the house and meet some moms. It must have been a God thing, because I really like these women and our babies are all around the same age.

Here are some pics from the party.
Trying to get this group shot was pretty much hilarious. No one wanted to cooperate!











Karen and cutie pie penguin, D.































Yes, JM is going as the Travelocity garden gnome.













And, might I add that it's a little crazy that my little toddler is running around and may even be able to do a little trick-or-treating this year when last year he looked like this in his sweet little pea in the pod bunting and couldn't even crawl?!! They grow up so fast!



AC: love

Garner State Park Camping

We went camping again this weekend. It's finally become cool enough down here to venture out in a tent, again. We had so much fun in late May at Enchanted Rock that we wanted to get out there again. Garner State Park is about 3 hours from Austin in Concan, TX and a gorgeous park. The park has been there for over a century and many people have floated the Frio River down there and met their spouse at the dances in the pavilion that still take place in the summer.

Our trip had no tubing, nor dancing, but the scenery was beautiful. The weather was glorious during the days. Friday night we about froze to death. Even with a down comforter, a quilt and flannel sheets on our air mattress, full on socks and long sleeves, I was cold and spent the night worrying about JM in the pack and play. We bundled him up in flannel footie PJs and a heavy fuzzy sleep sack. He woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning and I thought nothing about sweeping his little body out of his bed and moving him in with us, where he did not make a peep until 7:30!

We camped with Cheryl and Chris and their kids and enjoyed tooling about in the riverbed, taking a not-so-nature hike, eating smores and cooking out doing all the things you are supposed to do on a camping trip. I was very grateful, not being such a camper by nature, to have clean bath and shower facilities very close to our site and extra storage in our car, to boot. While I don't want to go every weekend, perhaps I can make it out annually from now on... at a two night limit, of course.

our site












jm and avery exploring










jm's walking stick




our very short-lived hike

family pic

Tequila Lime Chicken Chili

Mike and I both love the sweet, campiness of the state fair. Last weekend, while JM was snoozing in the BOB stroller, we were in the arts and crafts pavilion looking at the quilts and listening to a cooking demonstration. Okay, so we are dorks. We also love getting free samples at the food and fiber building.

Anyway, this chili was what they were serving at the cooking demonstration. They gave us a free sample and the recipe including a spice packet, so I was eager to try it. Do you like the flavor of mole? You will love this chili. Made with chicken, it has a rich, tangy flavor and served over rice, with a lime squeeze, is different, yet tasty and perfect for a chilly fall evening!

Tequila Lime Chicken Chili
Recipe by: Culinary Students Association of El Centro College


Ingredients:
2T olive oil
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1C onion, white or yellow, chopped
1.5 lb boneless chicken thigh meat, coarse ground
3C chicken broth
15 oz. tomato sauce
2T tomato paste
1/2C tequila
1/4C fresh lime juice (get 2 limes)
1/4C fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Spices:
2T chili powder
1T cumin
1T coriander, ground
1T basil (dry)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp majoram
1 tsp parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2T salt
1/2T black pepper
1T sugar

Directions:
In large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until transparent. Add chicken meat and raise heat slightly and lightly brown chicken until cooked through. Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tequila, lime juice, cilantro and spices. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally to mix well. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning and thickness if necessary by adding water. Remove bay leaves and serve over rice with additional cilantro, lime wedges and crispy tortilla chips for garnish.

Notes:
- Do not fear this large list of ingredients. You probably have most of the stuff in your cabinet. :)
- Instead of the ground chicken thighs, I used diced chicken breasts and I thought it was just as good.
- I've never had chili with rice before, but this really tastes good together, trust me!

State Fair

Busy, busy, busy. My apologies to the four readers of this blog, as I have been seriously slacking on my updates, which makes me feel really guilty, because JM is changing every day and I feel like I am neglecting to capture every.single.minute! Between working again and doing a lot of fun stuff, this blog is suffering. Um, so okay, an update. First, we went to ACL for three days of music, rain and mud. The first day was perfect weather, the 2nd day I spent most of the day trying to stay dry under an umbrella and the third was a mudfest because of day two. I did happen to fall in love with wine-chugging Eddie Vedder and the entire Pearl Jam closing set made the three days of uncomfortableness almost worth it. Next year (for reals this time) I am only doing one day of the fest. We are so blessed that Mike's parents babysat for the kids (ours and Cheryl's this year), but I think I'm too old for dealing with all the walking and weather for three days. I'll take their remaining two days of babysitting for something else, methinks.

Last weekend, we went to Dallas for Blake's baptism, the State Fair and for U2. It was a great break, but seriously two weekends in a row of partying means our house is in a serious state of disarray. Anyway, we had such a good time at the fair. JM was just old enough to enjoy some of the kid stuff, including this little farm-to-market exhibit, the petting zoo and his first ride! He loved all the goats and seeing a real live pig at the petting zoo. Not surprising that Mr. Speed loved the little car ride with his Daddy. It was adorable to see them together. Here is a little mishap at the petting zoo, which makes me giggle. Should we submit this to America's Funniest Home Videos?
JM's first Corny Dog


I love this picture of the boys on the car ride









Oh, and we saw Oprah... on her way to the Fried Butter









Here is us with Bono (he's somewhere in the background). The U2 show was AWESOME. It's a tough call as to which passionate rock star I love more, Bono or Eddie. Hmmm

Smarty pants...

We're pretty sure he's Harvard bound! :)