Vegetable Egg Rolls

Ingredients

1 package egg roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
10 oz. package shredded cabbage
10 oz. package shredded carrot
Handful of mung bean sprouts

Last one out of Dayton, please turn out the light....

It was announced last week that the GM plant in Moraine is closing. That sucking sound you hear is thousands of people fleeing the sinking ship of a city that’s been all but dead for years, kept alive only by the GM feeding tube. I could write an entire anthropological study about what the plant has meant to this city, having employed thousands of people, including 3 and 4 generations of entire families, since the 1950s. There is a “GM culture” here very similar to that of the coal mining families in Appalachia. It’s actually hard to describe the cloud of death hanging over everyone here, because even those of us who have no connection to GM at all will be affected.

Everyone wants to blame this problem on NAFTA, and specifically, Bill Clinton. But the truth is, that has nothing to do with it. The Dayton plant manufactures SUVs and large trucks, which no one can afford to buy anymore. The entire industry is (finally) beginning to shift toward hybrids and more environmentally friendly vehicles, which GM has dragged their feet on getting involved with for years. I actually think the skyrocketing gas prices we are experiencing might be the best thing that could have happened to our planet.

So foreign car manufacturers that produce smaller, compact cars and hybrids are making a killing while American manufacturers (GM and Ford) are going under, and somehow that’s NAFTA’s fault. Unfortunately, the folks who work at these plants are generally not educated enough to understand what’s really going on. It reinforces their hatred of anything not American, and keeps them from moving forward into the future.

The other factor in the demise of Dayton’s plant is their own greedy union. When you pay people $30 an hour to sweep the floor, it’s kind of hard to make a profit. Greed is really what it boils down to. A sense of entitlement that says, I’m entitled to make $30 an hour to sweep the floor, and I’m entitled to drive a gas guzzling Hummer simply because I want to. And when this nice little life gets slapped in the face with reality, I’ll blame the foreigners.

Well, that's the gloomy news from Dayton today.

Feeling Stressed

Last week was the week from hell. Man. I had strep throat for the 2nd time in 2 months (I know, I should dump the guy). My weed eater broke. My computer got hit with a nasty virus. My bathroom has a mold problem that has now reached the point of having to call in a professional which is going to cost me a ton of money. Grrrr. These are just the highlights, btw.

The kicker was coming home last night to find my air conditioning not working. The problem is that the pipes in my basement have a leak and the freon oozes out and forms an icicle an inch thick around the pipe. This happened last year and a guy who wanted to do me a favor came over and fixed it for me. I called him yesterday and he said we would come to look at it, but he stood me up. Grrrr. So now I am waiting for someone else to come over today to hopefully fix it. In the meantime, I have every fan in my house running and I'm wearing as little as possible.

The AC went out in my car last week too, but thankfully all it needed was freon and Auto Zone put it in for me.

I need a break!!

A Recipe

People are always asking me for vegetarian recipes and I say I don’t have any because, really, I hardly ever use a recipe to cook. But I’ve started making a concerted effort to start writing down the steps and ingredients of things I make [in other words, the recipes], so I can pass them on to my daughter some day if nothing else. And besides, now I have a good camera to play with! Can you tell that I LOVE my new camera? LOL. So here is a dish I made last night. I call it Spinach Rotini. I know, very original, eh?

Oh, and one more thing...I keep forgetting to tell you all. My sister Anna and her family are gone on a 3 month missions trip. Can’t say where due to safety reasons, but it starts with a “C” and if you’ve followed her blog in the past you should know. So, keep them in your thoughts!




INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound Rotini pasta
• 1/2 pound fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 15 oz. can diced tomatos, drained
• Salt to taste


DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and spinach and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente; drain and reserve.

2. Heat tomatos in sauce pan on medium heat.

4. Pour over cooked pasta.

5. Season with salt and toss

6. Eat!


I usually saute some garlic to add to the tomatos, but didn't have any last night. This is Noelle's favorite meatless dish.

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at a cabin in the eastern Ohio appalachians, at Lake Hope State Park. What a gorgeous place. It did wonders for my psyche. It's amazing how the serenity of the woods clears my head and enables me to think so much more clearly. I haven't had that in sooo many months.

We took one of Noelle's friends with us, who had never done anything like that before. We hiked until the girls threatened mutiny, lol.

We had perfect 80 degree, sunny weather which is a miracle because Friday was cold and rainy, and today was cold and rainy.

We stayed in a cabin as it was almost a 3 hour drive from home, and my tiny little Hyundai Accent can't take the load of camping gear that far up into the mountains. Especially with gas at $4 a gallon! But this was our one trip for the year, and it was worth it.

Happy Mother's Day!

I bought myself a new camera for Mother's Day. Noelle accidentally broke mine a couple of months ago, and I have been using hers. (Yea, don't ask me why she was using mine when she has one...) It was going to cost as much to fix that one as it would be to buy a new one, so I bought a new one. I upgraded to a Fuji Finepix 700, which lets me do a lot more than the regular point and shoot digital cameras, for only about $10 more!

Here are some pics I took yesterday. The robin has a sad story -- when I got home from running errands yesterday morning, Noelle and her friend came running to tell me about a robin that was hanging from a string in a tree. Sure enough, the poor thing had gotten her wing caught in a string just a foot away from her nest and was twirling around crazy on it, getting herself caught tighter.

We got the ladder and managed to cut the string for her. But she wouldn't let me cut the string from her body. She hopped away bleeding. I told the kids there's not much chance she's going to be able to fly and feed her babies, and she'll probably die. I could not reach the nest even on the ladder, so I feel bad for the little babies. Kinda sad with today being Mother's Day...

Catching the Light

My daughter has taken up my love of photography, and actually surpased me, I believe, in her ability to capture pure, unaltered beauty all around her. I can take a decent photo, but I think about it way too much and try way too hard. Noelle just has the ability to capture perfect moments with ease. Looking through her photos, I am reminded of the article I posted recently by the adult woman with Asperger's, who said, "If you could live in my head for just one day, you might weep at how much beauty I perceive in the world with my exquisite senses. I would not trade one small bit of that beauty, as overwhelming and powerful as it can be, for 'normalcy'."

I do weep at the beauty Noelle perceives in the world... particularly in her friends. I thought I would share a few of her photos with you because, well, I'm a mom and I just like to brag, lol. Can you spot the self portrait?