Those of you who live in places where it's sunny and you have grass already can ignore the first half of this post. For the rest of you, I have posted my grownup hot cocoa recipe to get us through the (hopefully) last few weeks of winter.

My husband is on a lot of committees. I am very proud of his dedication to the community, but often grumbly when he is gone acting on that dedication. Fortunately for us, this month one of his duties is fun and family-friendly! He is hosting weekly tango nights for the community for the month of March. No, he is not an expert tango dancer, they have someone else teaching lessons, he's just the representative from Finlandia University making sure everything goes okay. Still. This past Friday was our first one, we did the first half of the lesson together with little Fred in the BabyBjörn (which worked surprisingly well), but after about an hour my back was getting tired so I took a breather. When I came back, the Freds were not sitting where I had left them, but out on the dance floor! I know, insert cheesy "awww" here. It was very sweet and pretty much made my weekend.

After a full week of quality control, I have determined that the veggie soup I made last week is, indeed, delicious enough to share. Go to my cooking page or just click on my veggie soup recipe.
For once I managed to actually get all my cooking done on Sunday this week, very exciting, with only a little food processing to do this morning.
This week's menu:
Oatmeal Casserole for breakfasts
Borscht with Chevre for lunch/dinner
Root Veggie Casserole with Buttermilk Rye Biscuits also for lunch/dinner

I promise to post the recipes later this week if they are as yummy as they look.

Also, in case you skipped the first half, I also added my grownup hot cocoa recipe.

The Freds and I had a very exciting time in Madison, Wi this past weekend. We taught the little guy how to protest (although he couldn't really join in on the call and response) and he felt so at home that he napped through most of it.

As a former Wisconsinite and life-long union supporter, it was an incredibly emotional few hours for me. The dedication of those who have been there for going on two weeks is breathtaking. These are both exciting and very frightening times.

I am so proud to be from a state where so many people will not stand idly by while our democratic process is sold to the highest bidder. I send you all my love, support, and strength.

On a significantly lighter note, we went to an amazing juggling show on Sunday that was well-worth the six hour drive to Madison. My fake twin brother Jay Gilligan, who spends most of his year teaching and performing in Europe, comes to the states once or twice a year to do a Shoebox Tour. He usually brings some other incredible performers and they do shows, often in small venues, in the cities where he has American friends he'd like to visit.
This spring he brought Wes Peden with him. Wes is also from the states and, like Jay, spends most of his time performing in Europe. I was lucky enough to have met Wes a few years ago when my husband and I were in Sweden so I knew what a treat we were in for.
Jay and Wes are fantastic jugglers and performers on their own, but together they were certainly more than the sum of their parts. It was a wonderful and rare experience (especially in the States) to see two men over six feet tall juggle with such an awareness of their physical presence. It was such a beautiful show without being feminine at all- there was a group of beer-drinking macho dudes sitting behind me exclaiming that this was the best damn show they'd ever seen.
I linked the pictures below to their personal websites, but you can see if they're playing in your town here.

So obviously I enjoyed their show, but what I took home with me and thought about on the drive back was a new clothing brand.

I have on occasion made costumes for Jay and his cohorts, but with a brand-new baby I had been out of commission for a while. I was delighted to see what they had worn for this tour. They both had on shirts by Humör, a new Danish brand inspired by urban life and strangeness.

This is the shirt that Wes wore, accessorized with a red bow-tie. Perfect.

I love the unusual construction and the use of different angles for the plaid.

I have quite a stash of deconstructed button-down shirts in my studio and I have been busy plotting what to do with them since I saw this shirt.

Below is a picture of more Humör wear. Anyone who has seen my own fashion will know that this is like a basket full of unicorns for me. Except for the doofy mustache, that guy is so my boyfriend. I think I've made my point.

I'm off to finish my cooking for the week- I'll have some wonderful recipes to share tomorrow. Enjoy!