Toasted Pecan Coconut Banana Bread

We have a toddler and toddlers love bananas.  Almost as much as monkeys.  But they have this uncanny ability to love bananas one minute and hate them the next.  Literally.  So we buy bananas, in bulk sometimes for those days when our munchkin decides her insatiable bananappetite needs 14 bananas now.  And some days, she stops mid banana and decides she hates them.  For a week.  And now I'm left with a truckload of bananas on the counter collecting fruit flies.  When this happens, I throw them in the freezer.  I also keep a freezer bag on the door to collect her half-eaten bananas so those don't go to waste.  When I have enough for a triple batch, about 9 to 12 bananas, I make this bread.  I make it into mini muffins and freeze them in a gallon freezer bag to pull out for snacks or a quick weekday breakfast on the go.

Makes one 9-inch loaf:

2 c (10 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c (5 1/4 oz) sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c toasted pecans, coarsely chopped (yield will be 1 cup) (you can substitute for macadamia nuts as well)
4 very soft, ripe bananas mashed well but still chunky
1/2 cup toasted coconut
1/4 c milk, preferably whole, alternatively you could use yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream--I prefer the milk and it's usually what I have on hand
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9 by 5 by 3 loaf pan.  Shiny metal one works well.  I use coconut oil in its solid form to grease the pans.

2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and nuts in a large bowl and set aside.

3.  Mix the mashed bananas, with milk, eggs, butter, vanilla and coconut in another bowl.  Fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula until just combined.  It will be thick and chunky.  Scrape the rest of the batter into the pan and smooth the surface with the spatula.

4.  Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.  Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.  You can freeze these loaves whole as well.  If you are making mini muffins, reduce the cooking time until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.

Canning Queen

It's the end of summer and I know because the house is filled with steam, fruit flies abound and produce is coming out my ears.  I can't find all the lids to my canning jars and if I don't see another apple for the rest of my life, I wouldn't mind.  That is until winter hits and my body craves fruit.  Or veggies.  Or anything green.  When the winter wind howls and chills my body to the core, I want to hibernate after a big bowl of stew or some warm apple crisp.  I want a steaming bowl of oatmeal with warm peaches and a bloody mary with pickled spicy dilly beans like the ones they make at Brennan's in NOLA.  Fortunately for Duane and me, we can make this happen since none of these meals depends on fresh produce and the items we've canned, frozen or dried lend themselves well to these kinds of dishes.

We began canning after I took a canning class a little over a year ago and once I realized how simple it was I all but refused to buy anything from a store.  It might sound cuckoo to someone who doesn't know me, but if I am able, I do.  Since we made the decision to move away from chain grocery stores and began seeking out local produce options, canning made sense.  We started eating seasonally and this is after all, what folks did when they lived off the land.  They put up the harvest by canning, drying, pickling, and curing.  I know it would be easy to just go to the store and buy a can of corn, but since we started all this mess, neither of us wants to go back.  Sure we spend a lot of time for about six weeks at the end of summer preserving the bounty, but we spend the rest of the year enjoying it.  And I can tell you, very few things in life (outside of the joy my family gives me) have given me the kind of satisfaction I have gotten from planting a seed, watching it grow, harvesting it, eating it in season and finally preserving it to last through the winter.

Researching heirloom seeds and watching them grow, lamenting when a crop dies from something unexpected, tasting the summer sunshine bottled up in a perfect peach, being able to taste the grass in the milk of a cow that grazes a few miles away--all of it gives a deeper meaning and appreciation to eating, which is something most take for granted because they do it multiple times per day.  Not us.  Sure I can go to the store and buy a bottle of barbecue sauce and put it on a chicken.  But how was that chicken treated during its life?  What kind of preservatives are in that sauce?  How much sugar is in it?  Are the chickens pumped with hormones, vaccines and antibiotics and if so, how will that affect my tiny little toddler as she grows?  How will it affect me as I begin my 14th round of fertility treatments?  I don't know.  But I do know that I don't have to find answers when I just make things myself.  It makes us eat seasonally as well and the food tastes so much better.  No more January strawberries that are tart and white.  No more mealy tomatoes and peaches.  No more cardboard corn on the cob.

Yes, it's a lot of work.  No, it doesn't really save us money in the long run.  Yes, we would do it again and again because we know where our food comes from, we support local farmers, and we reject the food policies in this country.  But honestly, we do it because it just tastes good, it makes us happy and it's something we can do as a family that gives us purpose and keeps us from taking for granted just how hard it is to get that food on our dinner plate.  It makes us realize three times per day just how blessed we are to have this incredible food to nourish not only our bodies, but our soul.

So far this year, we've done quite a bit to put up the harvest.  Most of it we get from a local farm since we just bought this farm in June.  But we hope to be fully self sufficient within a few years or at least have enough to feed our family and sell or barter the rest.  For example, we don't eat applesauce, but I usually substitute half the oil in a baking recipe with applesauce.  I shred the zucchini and yellow squash and freeze it in four cup portions and make a double batch of mini muffins using the squash mixture and applesauce and freeze them in a gallon freezer bag for breakfast on the go.  We also save all the peels and vegetable scraps in a gallon freezer bag until it's full and we add bones to it as we get them from roasts.  When we have enough we make a big pot of stock and reduce it and pressure can it.

We've canned:
Peach butter
Applesauce (low sugar)
Salsa
Tomatoes
Drunken Peaches
Carrot Cake Jam
Raspberry Jam
Blueberry Jam
Apple Pie Filling
Peach Barbecue Sauce
Corn
Meat stock
Chow Chow
Pickles from yellow squash and cucumbers
Pickles peppers
Dilly beans
Salsa Verde
Apple butter
Nectarine sour cherry chutney
Sauerkraut
Peach pie filling
Plum barbecue sauce
Blackberry jam

To be canned this summer:
Asian plum sauce
Spiced plum jam
more tomatoes
Green beans
Ketchup
Barbecue sauce
Apple cider vinegar

Frozen:
peaches
blueberries
basil pesto
sugar snap peas
Hatch green chile
zucchini and yellow squash shredded
corn
green beans
roasted sweet peppers
shelling peas
cherries




Dried:
apricots
tomatoes (these are awesome to reconstitute and put on pizza)
hot peppers (these are good for crockpot chile)
pears
apples
herbs like dill
We also plan on making some fruit leathers
beans

We also made apple cider vinegar from apple peeling and raspberry vinegar from the rest of the raspberries.

Back Where I Come From

When thinking about a topic to blog about next, many ideas ran through my already cluttered and busy head. My thought process stopped dead in its tracks after reconnecting with two people I have always carried with me, who in my teen years were instrumental to my relative success now.  Due in large part to their mentorship, my love affair with food exploded under their tutelage.  Many years later, I am just as passionate about food despite a near 20-year hiatus from the restaurant industry.  A few weeks ago, a spark reignited when I started shooting a series of cooking videos for our local CSA to help people expand their recipe ideas when dealing with large amounts of fresh produce and some not-so-common vegetables produced on the farm.

Angela and Seth Raynor

Chicken Tikka Masala

This recipe was actually pretty simple to make, it just took some time and tools.  You can marinate the meat the night before or you can do it while you prep the ingredients for the sauce.  Sorry there are no photos in tonight's blog.

 

First, you absolutely need a food processor or blender for this recipe.  Second, you can peel the ginger with a spoon.  Third, this isn't exact--adjust the spices, sugar, salt, heat, and lemon juice to your taste.  I changed the original recipe because I prefer bolder flavors.  I think this adaptation hits the mark for a soul-satisfying Indian curry without having to leave the house.  

I package the leftovers in a sandwich container by putting the rice down first and ladling the sauce and chicken on top and freeze it like that.  I put these freezer meals in our lunches for work.  After making dinners throughout the week, I generally have a lot leftover, but by doing this, we have ready-made meals if we are just too tired to cook one night.  Over time, we build up quite a variety.  Be sure to label the lids though with a grease pencil or masking tape so a month from now, you remember what it is. 

Chicken Tikka Masala: (Adapted from Food Network’s chef Aarti Sequira)

Marinade:

2 cups plain yogurt, whisked until smooth
6 tablespoons Ginger-Garlic Paste, recipe follows
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds chicken, poked with a fork—you can use any combination of chicken, skinless or skin on, boneless or with bone.  We used four legs and four thighs, bone and skin on.  Just make sure the pieces are the same—they all have skin and bones or they are all boneless and skinless.  If the pieces are cut, make sure they are uniform size and note you will be grilling them, so you won’t want to make them too small.  If you don’t have a grill or want to speed up the recipe, you could just used cubed chicken pieces and omit the grilling and place the raw chicken chunks in the sauce to cook.

Ginger Garlic paste: in a food processor puree 2 whole heads of raw, peeled garlic with one large peeled piece of fresh ginger, about the size of a small hand.  Cut the ginger into small cubes for ease and add canola oil while it’s blending until it finally purees.  It should be the consistency of pesto.

Sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp butter
1 c Ginger-Garlic Paste
2 serrano or jalapeno peppers, minced (seeds removed if you don't want it spicy)
1 small can tomato paste
3 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp teaspoons paprika
2 large cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 tbsp teaspoons kosher salt
1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (optional)

¼ to ½ c packed brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
Minced fresh cilantro, for garnish
Cooked basmati rice, naan, or crusty piece of bread, for serving

Directions

For the marinade: In a large bowl, or baking dish, mix together the marinade ingredients. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Marinate at least 30 minutes, or in the refrigerator up to overnight.

For the sauce: When you're ready to make the curry, place a large skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and butter. When the butter has melted, add the Ginger-Garlic Paste, onions and peppers. Saute until lightly browned around the edges. Add the tomato paste and cook until the tomato has darkened in color, about 3 minutes. Add the garam masala and the paprika and saute for about 1 minute to draw out their flavors.

Add the undrained tomatoes and salt.  Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook until thickened, about 30-60 minutes. Meanwhile, fire up your grill. When it is nice and hot, lightly brush it with oil. Place the chicken on the grill, shaking off some of the excess marinade. Cook until it's charred, about 2 minutes on each side. (Don't worry that the chicken will still be a little uncooked, it finishes cooking in the sauce).  If your sauce is chunky and you’d like a smooth sauce, now is the time to hit it with a stick blender to puree it.  Add the chicken and fenugreek leaves, if using. Take the heat down to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the cream and stir through. Garnish with minced fresh cilantro, and serve over rice, with naan, or a crusty piece of bread!

What's For Dinner?

When we first moved in together, I burned through my arsenal of recipes,including a dish my mom used to make: Chicken and Rice.

When Tanya and I first started living together, we were both excited to show off how well we could cook.  One night she made the most amazing meatloaf I’ve ever had in my life.  Other nights she’d introduce me to her Sloppy Joes, Beef Stroganoff, chicken pot pie, lasagna, and the list goes on.  For her I made some of my specialties like grilled pork chops, potato salad, grilled cheese, risotto, polenta, Caesar salad, and the list goes on.  I think most people have a repertoire of things they make and they run through that when the question, “What’s for dinner?” comes  

up.

When we first became CSA (community supported agriculture) subscribers to a local farm, Whistling Train Farm, we encountered a problem.  We couldn’t just eat tacos on Tuesday or whip up a bowl of mashed potatoes when our mood demanded them.  We had all this produce we needed to use each week and sometimes there were things in our weekly basket we had no idea how to use.  Sometimes we just got plain sick of eating what we were given and had to find creative, new ways to use it.  The first winter we were subscribers, we had beets every single week for 12 weeks straight.  And Tanya HATED beets.  She hated beets though because she remembered the pickled old-people beets of her youth that came out of a can and ended up on some social gathering next to pickled herring and bread and butter pickles.  They taste a little different when they are orange heirloom beets, tossed in a little olive oil and roasted with some grey salt and cracked black pepper.  The point is, if we were going to do this, we had to be committed and we had to get creative.

We started to examine how to use preexisting recipes and techniques, tweaking them to use what we had on hand. One example is the often beloved, technically misunderstood, and not very intimidating once understood, Sushi Roll. We deconstructed the roll ingredient by ingredient and substituted what we could to meet our needs. The only thing that we couldn’t get away from buying in the store was the Japanese sticky rice (one because it is so farkin delicious and two because I love rice).  We did find an organic source, however.  I think it’s also important to remember you don’t have to go all in to make small changes. Replace one ingredient for something easy.  In this instance, we couldn’t get organic nori, the seaweed paper used to make sushi rolls, so we substituted it with blanched swiss chard.  

Here's a short instructional video about how to roll sushi in general.  Keep in mind, we've replaced the nori with blanched chard.

First I steamed the rice in a rice cooker.  For me, this means 1 cup of organic Japanese sticky rice to every 1 1/4 cup of water.  I added a little rice wine vinegar once it was done.  I realize sushi chefs train for years just to learn making rice before they ever even look at a fish, but it is what it is--let's get dinner on the table.

Next I got all the vegetables julienned and roasted off some pork the night before and shredded it.  You can use whatever combination of vegetables, fish, or other ingredients you choose.  It isn't the ingredients that matter, but the concept that sushi can be adapted to whatever you have and will be a nutritious and filling meal.  Unless of course you eat sushi in Mississippi where it's deep friend and sauced with mayonnaise.

Once the fillings were prepped, I got the chard ready by bringing a shallow, wide pot filled halfway with boiling water.  Next to it, I had a bowl of ice water to blanch the leaves to stop the cooking process once they came out of the boiling water.  You only want to soften the leaves and turn them bright green--cooking too long will compromise the leaf's integrity, making rolling the sushi difficult.

Once they are blanched, cut the tough rib out of the center.

I set all the ingredients aside and got plates ready.  I wrapped my sushi mat with plastic wrap to keep the rice from sticking and layered the chard leaves on top of that.  Then I added a thin layer of rice, not coming all the way to the edges.  To that I added vegetables and the shredded pork in the center.  I rolled the sushi and cut it into six pieces with a very sharp knife, being careful not to push on it and saw, but rather slice the roll gently so as not to crush it.

When we set out on this adventure, we didn't always know what to expect.  Cooking isn't like baking--it's very forgiving.  And even if everything fell apart, we could have just eaten this dinner as a bowl of rice and it still would have been delicious.  Don't be afraid to step outside of the box.   You never know what is waiting there for you.  While we still make Sloppy Joes, cheddar polenta, chicken pot pie and Caesar salad, we make new things too.  It turns out, we have some favorites we didn't even know about.

Five Minute Bread

Going organic isn’t just about finding labels marked “USDA certified organic.”  It’s a lifestyle change.  It’s about making sure our food is something we actually want to feed our families.  And without getting too political, it’s about making sure our food is coming from a local, sustainable source.  For us, that means setting a goal to grow and make as much as we can at home, with no additives, no preservatives, and no health inspector standing over our food to reassure us it was handled with care.  If we’ve grown it, made it, canned it, preserved it, raised it, there is no doubt it was. 

Recently, a friend of mine sent a book called “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking” by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois.  I was kind of skeptical at first since I’ve baked bread before and it just isn’t that simple.  The bread machine made baking accessible for me so when I want fresh bread, that’s how I make it.  The problem with bread machines is they take up a lot of space and they leave a weird hole in the bottom of the bread, making sandwiches crumble.  When we went organic, I found organic bread often cost $5 or more per loaf.  In addition, it was difficult to find specialty breads such as hamburger or hot dog buns, English muffins, bagels, pitas, and other sweet breads.  I could go to Pike Place Market, but wow is that a trek for a loaf of French bread.  Even then, it was impossible to find a good organic bagel.

These books, however, revolutionized the way we make bread and we haven’t bought a loaf since we got the books.  My actual time spent in the kitchen is about five to ten minutes, including clean up.  I can have a hot loaf of fresh bread on the dinner table every night with little effort.  All I have to do is pull out some dough when I first get home, and 40 minutes later, shove it in the oven.  Honestly, there is no reason to buy bread when you see how easy it is using this method.  I’m not trying to sound like a commercial, just encourage you to let you know that learning how to cut expenses out of your budget and to switch to organic foods isn’t that hard if you slowly change your habits one at a time.  This is a good one to begin with since it’s easy, cheap, and nothing is more satisfying than a crusty, hot loaf of bread you baked yourself. 

I’ll give you the recipes for the basic dough and an example of what you can make with that basic dough to get your started, but I highly recommend you buy the books.  I’ve adapted the recipes slightly for our use, and you may do the same as you get more comfortable with how the recipes work in your kitchen and to your family’s liking.  Good luck!

Master Recipe

makes 4 1-pound loaves which can be doubled or halved

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packets)

1 ½ tbsp. kosher salt

6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method

cornmeal

Gently stir the yeast into the water

Mixing and storing the dough

Warm the water slightly: it should feel just a little warmer than body temperature—about 100 degrees F.  Add yeast and salt to water in a resealable, lidded 5-quart (not airtight) plastic bucket.  Don’t worry about getting it to dissolve.

Scoop the flour from the container and use the flat end of a knife to level off the cup

Mix in the flour to incorporate it, but do not knead.  Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient cups by gently scooping up the flour into the cup and then sweeping the top of the cup with the flat end of a butter knife to level it off.  Do not press the flour down into the cup.  Mixing with a wooden spoon right into the bucket is easiest, but you can use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook or a high capacity food processor with the dough attachment.  You will have more dishes to clean, however if you use the stand mixer or food processor and they aren’t necessary.  When everything is uniformly moist without dry patches, you are done.  Use your hands if necessary, but do not knead.  The dough should be wet enough to conform to the shape of the container.

Just leave the dough to do its thing for a few hours, then put it in the fridge for up to two weeks.  It's really that easy.

Allow the dough to rise.  Cover with the lid and allow to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours.  Letting it rise longer will not harm the results.  After this period, you can use the dough at any time, though fully refrigerated dough is less sticky and easier to work with.  For best results, refrigerate overnight before trying to shape a loaf.

On baking day: do not knead the dough, just shape it into a loaf.  Prepare a pizza peel or you could use a large, flat cutting board with a piece of parchment paper on top of it sprinkled with cornmeal to slide the loaf onto a pizza stone in the oven.  We use a large, domed clay oven, which eliminates the need for a pizza peel and a steam bath, which I will talk about later.  Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour and pinch off a piece the size of a grapefruit.  Add just enough flour to your hands to keep it from sticking.  Gently shape it into a ball by turning the dough a quarter turn in your hand as you fold the dough under to form a ball.  The bottom of the dough might look ugly, but it will flatten as it bakes.  This process should take less than a minute.  
  
Rest the loaf and let rise uncovered on the pizza peel, the parchment paper, or on the clay oven bottom for 40 minutes.  It may not look like it has risen much after 40 minutes—don’t worry.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a baking stone in the oven to preheat as well.  Place an empty broiler tray or a metal pan on the lowest shelf.  You can omit this step if you are using a dome-covered clay oven as it will trap the steam from the bread as it bakes.

Dust the bread liberally with flour and slash a ¼ inch deep cross over the top of the bread with a serrated knife.

After 20 minutes, slide the loaf off the pizza peel or parchment, or put the lid on the clay oven and put it into the preheated oven.   Add a cup of hot tap water to the broiler tray or the metal pan.  Omit this step if using the clay oven or your clay oven will crack.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.  Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Store remaining dough in the refrigerator in a lidded container (it doesn’t have to be the 5-quart bucket) for up to two weeks.  Just cut off dough, shape and bake as you need it.  The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.  You can also bake off the bread and freeze the loaf for croutons, bruschetta, bread crumbs, or bread pudding later.

Variation 1: mix in 2 tsp of dried thyme and ½ tsp chopped rosemary into the water mixture for an herbed bread.

Variation 2: for sourdough, don’t wash the bucket once you’ve used all the dough; immediately mix a new batch of dough in the dirty bucket and scrape down the dough left sticking to the sides.  It will ferment and incorporate into the new dough.  

These are the dishes I had to clean after making one of the more complicated recipes: Pumpkin Oatmeal Bread

Cinnamon rolls

Makes 6-8 cinnamon rolls

For cinnamon rolls, about two hours before you want to eat them, begin this recipe provided you already have some dough in the refrigerator:

Choose a topping for the cinnamon rolls:

Caramel Topping/Sticky Buns:

6 tbsp salted butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup pecan pieces or halves

Cream together the butter and sugar and spread in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan.  Scatter the pecans on top of the butter and sugar mixture.  Set aside.

Cream Cheese Icing:

8 oz cream cheese, 2 tbsp corn syrup

2 tbsp heavy cream (you can use half and half or milk)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or use a hand mixer.  Beat on low speed until combined about a minute, and increase speed to high.  Beat until free of lumps.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

1 ¼ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

Mix ingredients until it’s free of lumps.  Set aside.

For the cinnamon roll filling:

4 tbsp salted butter, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup chopped and toasted pecans (optional)

Cream all ingredients except nuts together and set aside.

For the cinnamon rolls:

Dust the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a grapefruit sized portion.  Carefully stretch the dough by tugging slightly while rotating the dough in your hands a quarter turn.  On a large surface lightly dusted with flour, roll the dough out into a long 1/8 inch thick rectangle.  You could lay down wax or parchment paper or cover the surface with plastic wrap for easy clean up and to aid in rolling up the dough if you don’t have a bench scraper.  

Spread the filling evenly over the top of the dough and sprinkle with nuts if using.  Starting with the long side, roll the dough into a log.  With unflavored dental floss or a very sharp knife, slice the log into eight pieces, or if you want smaller or larger ones, how many pieces suit your needs.  

If you are not using the caramel sticky bun recipe, then butter the pan liberally.  Place the rolls into the prepared pan of choice, either swirled edge facing up.  Cover loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise for an hour, or 40 minutes if you are using fresh, unrefrigerated dough.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  If you aren’t using a pizza stone to keep the temperature beneath the pan, 5 minutes is adequate.  Bake for 40 minutes, rotating once halfway through, or until they are brown and firm in the center.  While they are still hot, run a knife around the edge to loosen them and invert onto a large serving tray.  Ice them while warm if necessary.

Just another sorority girl

The Seattle Yacht Club

Last night was a pretty rare occasion for us.  We don’t usually go out, and we certainly never splurge.  Last night we did both.  It wasn’t a normal date night; it was the Puget Sound Association Phi Beta Kappa Chapter’s 60^th Anniversary dinner.  Dr. John Churchill, secretary of the national Phi Beta Kappa Society was the guest speaker and the event was at the Seattle Yacht Club.  This might not seem like a big deal, but it kind of was.

Dr. John Churchill inspired both Duane and me with his speech about higher education.

Most people when I tell them I am a Phi Bete, which I rarely do for this reason alone, think I am just another sorority girl.  Nothing against sororities, but Phi Beta Kappa isn’t one—it’s the nation’s oldest academic honor society.  It’s kind of a big deal.

Requirements for nomination are tough.  Less than 10 percent of the nation’s universities have a chapter and less than 10 percent of students at those universities are nominated for membership.  I was inducted in 2002, my senior year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  I’m fairly certain if you knew anything about my past, you would know this was probably one of the proudest moments of my life.

Duane and I at an Airman Leadership School graduation

At any rate, when the opportunity to attend this dinner came up, I asked Duane if we could go.  I say “asked” because I know it isn’t in our budget, and I knew I’d have to buy a dress since we haven’t been to an event like this in ages.  Spend almost ten years in the military and see what happens to your wardrobe.  The nice thing about being in the military is any time there is a function, you can wear your service dress. 

I made a pretty good Flapper at a Decades party

We weren’t quite sure what to expect since Seattle is fairly laid back.  People wear leather and cargo pants to the opera.  No joke.  And no one stares.  It’s Seattle.  That said, I didn’t want anyone to stare at me for being over- or under-dressed.  Call me paranoid.  I wasn’t all that excited about shopping.  I hate shopping.  Last time I had to calculate on this level what I was going to wear was for a decades farewell party.  Everyone chose the 70s or 80s because it was easy; we chose the 20s.  It goes without saying if there was a costume contest, we would have won.  We looked awesome.  It isn’t that easy anymore to just slip into something comfortable.  Shoe shopping is a special kind of torture—not only are they extremely expensive, but I will only wear them once and I immediately regret my decision to be wearing any shoes about 14 steps into the evening.  In Mississippi, I just wore capri pants and flip-flops and looked fabulous.  Four pregnancies, 11 rounds of hormone-laden fertility treatments and two surgeries later, things don’t fit me like they did then.

Jessica Simpson can kiss my ass if she thinks I am going to wear these shoes for longer than five seconds.

Duane and I both managed to get through the formalities of trying very hard to look like we hadn’t tried hard at all to fit in at this event.  We had no idea what to expect or who would show up with their A-game for networking.  Turns out, we shared a table with the University of Washington’s provost, a World War II veteran, and a brand spanking new member of Phi Beta Kappa.  The best part about it all, is as I tried to practice my conversation skills, I played the “Who is the Phi Bete” game and learned every single man at the table was the spouse, not the Phi Bete.  Even the woman married to the WWII veteran—she was the scholar.  Girl power!

Our tablemates.  He is a WWII veteran, she is a Puget Sound Association Phi Beta Kappa Chapter past president.

At the end of the night, I felt like a piece of me had returned.  It was a piece that has been missing for a long time, and that piece is the fighter in me who worked full-time while going to college full-time.  It’s the woman who became a woman, not by wearing pretty clothes or learning how to do my own makeup, but by reading books, studying and learning how to argue and defend my beliefs.  Last night reminded me how I got here: by spending five years of my life working my ass off, nose in the books, learning, determined to make a better life for myself and my future family.  When we first moved to Seattle, people assumed we moved for Duane’s job.  I watched their faces turn to embarrassment when they would learn it was my job we moved for.  Last night I realized just how far I’ve come and how much farther I can go.  The American Dream is still alive and well and I am proof of that.