Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Special thanks to my friend Michael for forwarding me the following two websites. They detail (or, at least outline) two new programs going into effect starting July 1, 2009. The College Cost Reduction & Access Act has two parts that will be of interest to public interest lawyers. One, after making loan payments for 10 years on government-backed loans, the government will forgive the loan balance for qualifying borrowers. And two, there's a new, income-based repayment system in place: monthly loan payments will be capped at an amount relative to the borrower's income and after 25 years, the federal government will forgive any remaining loan debt. For further info check out the following: Student Loan Relief on the Way for Law Grads and The National Law Journal

I found a batch of wild poppies in an alley behind my house this weekend. I never cease to be surprised by what's hiding in the neighborhood! My Fruit CSA with Wayward Seed Farms has finally started (yay!), and my first delivery was 3 quarts of some of the most gorgeous strawberries I've ever seen: I froze some, turned some into a strawberry vinaigrette (pureed strawberries, fig balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, a little sugar, garlic, and oil), and put some into a strawberry tart for my dad for Father's Day: The pastry cream recipe is from the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe Cookbook . I received it as a gift for my birthday one year, and it is a staple in my kitchen. I find it's a great resource for ideas when you're looking at a random ingredient and not sure how you want to use it. Also, they've done tons of leg work and have figured out the best methods and ingredients for making almost every classic/basic dish out there. Also, I harvested my first bat...

My friend Dan lives in the country about an hour north of Columbus, and a few of us had dinner there this past weekend. His home is a two-story brick, Federal-style house built around the turn of the century, with a huge backyard, a garden, and a large fire pit. It's a great place to go for a mini-vacation, and escape from the city for a weekend. As evidenced by the above picture above, it's also a great oportunity to run into some nature. We grilled up some locally raised, grass fed hamburgers, made roasted potatoes grown in his wife's garden, and feasted on assorted snacks made from recent forays to the farmer's market at the North Market. Among those snacks were stuffed zucchini blossoms, filled with goat cheese and herbs, then battered and fried. Eaten hot out of the pan, these tasty morsels ooze with warm, melty goat cheese, and carry the slightest floral essence (for lack of a better word) from the blossom itself. Also on the menu were my girlfriend Betsy's (D...

For those of you that watch Saturday Night Live, there was this Weekend Update segment that Amy Poehler and Seth Myers would do called "Really!?! With Seth and Amy." They used it as their opportunity to skewer the inanity of all sorts of topics, politicians and the economy being the most popular. We've had two "Really!?!" moments in our office in the last two days: a jaywalking ticket filed against a--wait for it--three-year-old and a felony charge for a juvenile for stabbing a tree with a knife. I'll give you a moment to let that sink in. And yes, you read that correctly--a three-year-old. As in, probably not potty-trained yet. As in, really limited verbal skills. As in, he probably doesn't understand that the State has to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. To add insult to injury, the kid was HIT BY A CAR when he darted into traffic. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but for some godforsaken reason, the cop issued a ticket to the kid. Real...

Last week, I was out staking up the tomatoes in my tiny GV patio garden and discovered the little guy pictured above--the first tomato of the season! Hooray! He's on one of the three roma tomato plants I put in the ground in early May. This is the overview of my tomato/pepper/carrot/onion patch. There's 5 heirloom tomatoes crammed in there, along with the 3 romas, 2 jalapenos, and a green pepper. It's probably a little crowded, but I'm hoping that attentive pruning of the plants will allow for enough sun to get through. I realize the root systems might be a bit close as well, and will learn my lesson if the plants don't grow fruit due to being smushed. That's a tomatillo in the planter next to the bed. It's growing like crazy and, having never grown a tomatillo before, I'm thrilled. I see lots of salsa verde in mine (and my friends') futures. In the other corner, I've got more onions and three red cabbages. The cabbages have grown like ...