Author: Average Jane

Average Jane’s Team Spirit (or Lack Thereof)

The Kansas City Royals are playing in the World Series and everyone around me is losing their minds about it.

Me, well I'm holding steady at the level of "mildly pleased and glad you're all so happy about it." When a local sports team does well, to me it's the equivalent of a friend's child getting a good grade in school: I think it's nice for them and now I'm going to go about my business.

Part of it is that I have never been able to work up any enthusiasm about sports. I remember my dad watching sports when I was a kid, but it was a dad activity and it never occurred to me to join in.

When we started playing sports in school, it seemed to me that everyone else understood the rules and what was supposed to be happening while I had absolutely no idea. So sportsball and I are on different pages altogether.

Then there's the fact that I'm not much of a joiner. I always failed to muster any school spirit because even at a young age I was fully aware that I was only attending that school because I happened to live nearby.

I feel the same way about professional sports. Yes, I live in this town but I could just as easily live somewhere else. I don't play on the team and nothing they do affects me in any tangible way, so what's the big deal?

Most of the time I can slide under the radar with my terrible attitude, but right now it's much more obvious because I'm the only one not wearing a Royals shirt at half the functions I attend lately. I don't even own anything royal blue except that one tank top with the grease stain on it that I should really turn into a dust rag.

People will say, "How about those Royals?" and all I can say in reply is, "Pretty impressive!" I suspect there's some kind of secret sports phrase that's meant to be the traditional response, but I don't know what it is.

At least I know the outcomes of the games thanks to Twitter and Facebook. Oh, and all those TV monitors in restaurants. The shouting and carrying on tells me when things are going well.

The rest of the time I go about my regular life, occasionally reminded of the status of the Royals by the fact that seemingly every fountain in town has been augmented with some kind of blue dye (non-toxic, I hope).

That said, I wish the team luck on their World Series games and I hope they win. Forgive me if I don't buy a t-shirt to that effect. I have enough t-shirts already.

October 17, 2014
Average Jane Feels Like Dancing

Driving home from work today, I saw a kid on the sidewalk doing a thoroughly dorky dance. He saw me looking at him, caught my eye and gave me a big smile and a wave. Naturally, I smiled and waved back.

I get so much joy from how unselfconscious kids are. My nephew loves to dance and he will dance and dance until he literally burns up all the dancing energy left in his body. I watched him do it at the MC Yogi/DJ Drez concert at the Kansas City Yoga Festival a couple of weeks ago.

In fact, here he is doing a light saber routine at a school talent show a couple of years ago. (Sadly, the music has been removed.) Look at all that energy!

Adults worry WAY too much about what people think of them. Go ahead and give that speech, sing that song and do that dance. Your audience is way too wrapped up in themselves to judge you in any way that's going to matter tomorrow. Don't be afraid to express yourself the way your inner voice is urging you to do.

Now get out there and dance!

October 16, 2014
Average Jane’s Recipes

Since I've recently "come out" as a vegetarian to myself and the rest of my world after more than a year of gradual transition, I've been giving some thought to the content of my recipe list over there on the left. It's occurred to me to wonder if I should take down the ones with meat and dairy that I won't be making anymore.

Of course this is my blog and I can do whatever I want, but for now my intention is to leave it as is. I can think of few things more personal and individual than someone's dietary choices. Although I have made mine for a variety of reasons, including my own health and my evolving views on animal welfare, I am not here to try to drag all of you along with me.

If my older recipes are useful to you and you can get enjoyment from them, there they are! I wouldn't have posted them if I hadn't liked them at the time, and many of them date back to my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and beyond.

I have a big stack of vegan cookbooks on my coffee table right now and I'm going to spend the next several months trying to establish a good variety of new favorite dishes I can make. As with my recent tofu-topped pizza recipe, I'm looking forward to discovering new dishes to share that veg and omnivores alike can enjoy and I'll add them to the sidebar list as they're published.

Hope you like vegetables, beans and grains!

October 10, 2014
Average Jane Makes Vegan Pizza

My husband hasn't fully joined me in my gradual conversion to a plant-based diet, but one recipe that we both like a lot is tofu-topped pizza. The topping recipe comes from this ehow video. I use the pizza dough recipe that came with my KitchenAid mixer, divided in half and rolled out very thin to make two crispy crusts, and I've added tomatoes because I think every pizza needs something tomato-based.

Here's where I've netted out on the whole recipe. I think you'll like it. It makes two full-sized pizzas (you can halve the recipe, but then you have an extra pizza crust and half a package of tofu left over).

Vegan Pizzas

1 lb. firm tofu, pressed and drained
1 medium onion, diced
10 cloves garlic
4 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup corn flake crumbs
2 tsp. dried oregano
3 tsp. sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. or more fresh tomatoes, diced (or halved, if grape or cherry tomatoes)
2 unbaked pizza crusts

For the topping: Heat a splash of olive or grapeseed oil in a skillet and saute onion until it starts to get translucent. Press six of the garlic cloves and add them to the skillet with the onion and continue sauteeing until the onion is soft and perhaps beginning to brown lightly. Remove from heat.

Crumble tofu into a bowl with your hands until it resembles small-curd ricotta cheese. Add onion/garlic mixture and press the remaining four cloves of garlic, adding them raw to the mixture. Add in chopped spinach, oregano, sea salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, corn flake crumbs and olive oil. Mix well.

For the crust: Make the pizza dough and let it rise, per recipe instructions. Divide the dough into two equal balls and roll out each one onto a pizza pan (I use the rectangular baking stones from Pampered Chef). Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and place both pizza crusts in for five minutes or so until the crusts begin to puff up slightly.

Once crusts have been pre-baked, divide the chopped tomato between them and spread over the surface of the crust. Return to oven and bake for another five minutes or so to remove some of the moisture from the tomatoes and partially cook them.

After tomato-topped pizza crusts have been removed from the oven, spread the tofu mixture evenly over the top of both pizzas. Return to oven and bake until hot and slightly browned on top and edges, about five to seven minutes. Cut and serve immediately after removal from the oven. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and the slices reheat nicely in the oven.

October 4, 2014
Average Jane Enjoys Pumpkin Pie

Today I am plugging my family pumpkin pie recipe at Kansas Women Bloggers. I keep meaning to bake one and perhaps I will do so tonight. There's a chill in the air and we may not want to pursue our original outdoor plans this evening, so why not bake a pie instead?

October 3, 2014
Average Jane and Music

This month, I’ve been exposed to a wonderful variety of live music. Of course, I’ve already told you about my fantastic Pura Vida Tequila/Uproar Festival experience, but here’s a rundown of the other performances I’ve been to over the past few weeks.

On September 2nd, I met up with my dad and some of his friends to go to Knucklehead’s Saloon and see Eric Lindell & Co. Eric is a New Orleans-style blues guitarist and he played a nice mix of songs that I recognized from past albums and new songs I’d never heard before.

He’s also my first cousin once removed (my dad’s great-nephew), so we like to catch his shows when his tours take him to Kansas City.

Last week I went back to Knucklehead’s with my husband to see Living Colour perform. I hadn’t seen them in concert since they came to Kansas City in the late ’80s in support of their hit album “Vivid.”

This was mostly the same lineup—guitarist Vernon Reed, vocalist Corey Glover and drummer Will Calhoun, with the addition of the very talented Doug Wimbish on bass—and we enjoyed their set from beginning to end. We bought their live CD after the show and got it autographed. Really nice guys.

Then this past weekend I attended the Kansas City Yoga Festival and had two very different musical experiences. The first was a kirtan, a chant-based yoga practice designed to facilitate meditation, led by Moses Love. I sat on the floor in the circle throughout, singing and trying to add some percussion with a shaker. It was fun to join voices with so many other people at once.

After that was a performance by MC Yogi and DJ Drez. I didn’t know what to expect from a hip-hop emcee with songs like “Ganesh is Fresh,” but it was a really fun show and I danced until I was exhausted and drenched in sweat. There wasn’t a huge crowd, but that didn’t faze the performers and they actually played beyond their alotted time, despite the fact that some people had filtered away by then.

This past Saturday night, I performed with my own band and worked on applying some of the lessons I’d learned from seeing such a diverse group of performers. I think I picked up some good tips for connecting with the crowd and even though I was very tired from two yoga workshops earlier that day, it felt as though I had the audience with me throughout.

When I was younger, I was a lot more limited in my musical tastes. Today, I have considerably more appreciation for all types of music. I still have my favorite genres, but it’s amazing how powerful any music can be when it’s performed by people who clearly love it and want you to love it as well. That’s what matters most.

September 30, 2014
Average Jane’s Neighborhood Woodchuck

We have a woodchuck (a.k.a. a groundhog) living under our deck. At least I thought we did until I talked to my neighbors last weekend and learned that they think of it as the woodchuck that lives under their deck. So it turns out that there's a very spoiled woodchuck in our neighborhood with at least two luxury dens.

This woodchuck is just shy enough to make sure we don't try to do anything crazy like touch it, but it's bold enough that we see it pretty often. It suns itself on our patio, grazes in all parts of the yard, and sometimes just peers out from under our deck steps.

We've been coexisting nicely for quite some time. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the same woodchuck that I used to see ducking in and out from under our shed when it was younger and smaller a few years ago.

However, recently we have had a minor difference of opinion regarding the mums I planted in pots and flower beds around our yard. I believe that mums make great fall decorations. The woodchuck believes that mum blossoms are incredibly delicious and should all be eaten.

At first I only suspected that it was the woodchuck smooshing my mums and removing the flowers. Then I caught it red-pawed the other day as I was coming out my front door with the dog. It was standing on its hind legs, removing the blossoms from the mums I keep in pots on the front walk. The dog barked, the woodchuck ran, and now the front of the house is flower-free.

Fortunately I only spent 98 cents for each mum plant, so the lost investment is minimal. Also, the plants remain largely intact except for the missing blooms, so it's possible that they'll survive as greenery.

There is one final pot of intact mums in the center of our driveway between the garage doors. If the woodchuck is very bold, it may get them. If not, it will be the only fall decor I have left unless I decide to put out our Halloween decorations (which hinges on whether I feel like staying home to give candy to the half-dozen trick-or-treaters we can generally expect).

Under the circumstances, I think I will forego putting out any real pumpkins for decoration because I suspect they are equally as delicious as mum blossoms.

I am willing to overlook the sacrifice of my mum plants just because the woodchuck is so cute. I'm glad my neighbors and I have provided a safe place for it to go about its woodchucky business.

September 29, 2014
Average Jane Parties With Rock Stars

Man, what a fun time I had at Uproar Festival! I'll start with huge thanks to Pura Vida Tequila for providing my ticket and VIP access. Now I'll tell you about my day (this is going to be a long post, but it has fun pictures!).

I got to the amphitheatre early so I could catch all the bands. I actually arrived before the gates opened and I could hear one of the security ladies shouting about restrictions on the types of bags you could bring in. I was carrying my Jump from Paper bag which was probably well outside their allowed parameters, but I decided to take a chance because I didn't feel like going back to my car to look for an alternative. I walked up to one of the security guards at the gate, opened my bag, took out my wallet and showed him the inside. He waved me through without a word.

Once inside, I texted my Pura Vida Tequila contact to let him know I was there even though I wasn't meant to go to the bus until six o'clock. We texted back and forth until I figured out where the bus actually was so I would know for later. Then the bands started.

I like to be there to support the up-and-coming bands at festivals because they often don't have much of a crowd so early in the day. The day started with battle of the bands winner TROY from Springfield, Missouri, followed by Canadian band Sons of Revelry, and Birmingham, Alabama-based Within Reason. As I was making my way toward the stage to see Escape the Fate, I spotted my longtime friend Paul Chokota, who is the photographer for the venue. He took this photo of me, which was to be the last time I looked the way I intended for the day, because moments later it began to rain.

Photo credit: Paul'luc Chokota, Reflections by Paul

The guitarists moved their pedalboards to the back of the stage and kept playing as the stage crew covered all the speakers with plastic. It rained pretty hard and I was a little concerned about the shock potential of the microphones, but the band kept going and finished their set. While I waited for Buckcherry to go on, I sought shelter under the tent covering one of the ATMs, but I was so thoroughly soaked that it really didn't make much difference.

The crowds grew throughout the day and although I got pretty close to the front for Buckcherry, the increasing violations of Wheaton's Law made me retreat before the end of the set. I spent a little time in the Rockstar Energy Drink tent and learned firsthand that a tent that big has a center seam that fills with water and dumps it inside from time to time. Luckily I wasn't standing directly underneath when that lesson came about.

Finally, six o'clock rolled around and I walked to the back parking lot, knocked on the door of the Pura Vida Tequila bus and introduced myself. On many of the stops of the tour there are radio station contest winners and numerous other guests on the bus, but in this instance it was just me, a couple of guys representing a liquor store, and a bartender hired to mix the drinks.

We were greeted by Stewart Skloss, President and CEO of Pura Vida Tequila, along with his assistant Randy Ingle. I didn't have to shiver in my soaked t-shirt for long because Mr. Skloss provided a nice, dry Pura Vida 8:15 Tequila Time shirt, and I immediately ducked into the bus restroom to change. Considering that my original shirt was still a little damp when I woke up the next morning, that was a most welcome improvement to my comfort.

After a couple of delicious tequila drinks on the bus (I'll be sharing some recipes in another post soon), we headed to the backstage area. Our meetup time with Godsmack lead vocalist Sully Erna had been pushed back a bit, but in the meantime we had the opportunity to share dinner with the backstage crew. This was a particular stroke of luck for me in that I had been on site all day long with only a soft pretzel to eat. Most concert venues don't have a lot of food options and this one was no exception.

Once we had dined, we headed to Sully's dressing room to share in the band's 8:15 p.m. pre-show tequila shot. This tradition started with some of the women on the crew and has gotten more elaborate in conjunction with the band's Pura Vida Tequila partnership.

I'm not going to lie—I spilled about a quarter of my tequila portion on my purse while I was juggling my Dixie cup shot and my iPhone taking photos. I'm pretty sure the tequila I did consume is responsible for my somewhat goggle-eyed look in this photo. (But my hair was dry by then!)

Sully (I can call him Sully now—see above) got his "two minute" stage warning just as we finished the shot, and although he offered to take a couple of questions from me before he left the dressing room, I didn't want to be that guy.

Instead, I made my way around to the front of the stage to take advantage of my photo credentials. I saw Paul Chokota again and he and the other professional photographers looked at my iPhone camera with unmistakable pity.

Right in front of the stage, the subwoofers were so powerful that I could feel my shirt vibrating. I was wearing the high-quality earplugs I always carry with me (unsponsored shout-out to Etymotic!), so at least my eardrums were safe. The stage was about my head-height and I got some amazing photos, even with just my iPhone. The only drawback to being so close is that the band members were spread out too much for me to get a shot of all four of them together during the three songs we were allowed. Here are some of my favorite shots with different lighting schemes. (Click any photo to enlarge.)

I had an all-access wristband that would have allowed me into the VIP audience area in front of the stage, but the crowd was getting a bit rowdy where I was thinking of going, so I decided to enjoy the rest of the set from a bit further away. I am a huge Godsmack fan and they played all of their many hits as well as a bunch of new songs from their latest album, 1000hp.

I stayed to the end and then went home to experience the delight of dry socks and warm pajamas.

All in all it was an amazing day and evening, and the rain did not inhibit my enthusiasm one bit. I'm very much looking forward to receiving my shipment of Pura Vida Tequila varities, Naranja and Sangrita so I can play around with drink recipes and share some of them with you.

Disclosure: In exchange for my participation in this program, which will include an eventual total of three blog posts, I received VIP tickets to the Uproar Festival and will be receiving product from Pura Vida Tequila. All opinions are my own.

September 8, 2014
Average Jane Prepares to Party
You know I love hard rock/metal and I've also been known to enjoy a mixed drink or two. Thus, when I ran across the opportunity to attend the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival as a guest of Pura Vida Tequila and take part in the #815tequilatime premium tequila shot with Sully Erna and the rest of Godsmack, well of course I signed up!

The lineup for Uproar Festival is awesome:
- Godsmack
- Seether
- Skillet
- Pop Evil
- These Raven Skies
- Buckcherry
- Escape the Fate
- Within Reason
- Sons of Revelry
I've only seen a couple of those bands live before, so I'm really looking forward to catching all the sets. I've taken the day off and I'll spend all day at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre (it'll always be Sandstone to me!) in Bonner Springs, Kansas, this Friday, September 5th going between the two stages so I can see every performance. At 6 o'clock I'll get my VIP credentials and get to party on this bad boy:

With these guys, who I am pleased to note are my contemporaries:

I'll be tweeting at @average_jane and Instagramming at @average_jane and you can also follow the #puravidaparty and #815tequilatime hashtags on either platform. Here's hoping the party bus has enough power for me to recharge my phone!

So far I'm the only blogger lined up for this stop on the tour and they'd also really like to have a photographer. If you're in the Kansas City area and you're interested, sign up here.

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to wear and keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain.

Disclosure: In exchange for my participation in this program, which will include an eventual total of three blog posts, I am receiving VIP tickets to the Uproar Festival and product from Pura Vida Tequila. All opinions are my own.

Photos provided by Pura Vida Tequila.
September 2, 2014
Average Jane Tells You Why You Should Microchip Your Pet
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, my husband told me that he and another night owl friend had been eating at our local 24-hour Steak and Shake the night before and encountered a friendly stray cat. It had come up to them while they were chatting in the parking lot and made itself at home on the hoods of their cars. It was so sweet and nice that they asked around at the restaurant and nearby motel and learned that it had been hanging around for quite a while, making friends and presumably scoring food from anyone willing to offer some.

So they brought it home.

"Did I do the right thing?" my husband asked me, worrying that he had stolen someone's cat.

The fact that it had been cruising fast food dumpsters at 3:00 a.m. was enough to convince us both that it was in need of some help.

I went down and met the cat and decided that his neutered status and the skinny physique under all that fur suggested that he probably belonged to someone, but had been lost for a while.

My schedule wouldn't allow for me to get him scanned for a microchip that night, but I made sure to set tonight aside for a trip to my vet for a scan. In the meantime, he chilled out in our basement away from the other cats, gratefully accepting food and water as offered and mostly just staying curled up on the blanket and pillow we provided.

After work today, I stuffed his rather unwilling self into a carrier and my husband and I took him to our vet's office. The scan immediately revealed that he did indeed have a microchip. It was harder to look up the number online than I anticipated, but the vet assistant and I figured out which company it was from and I called them.

They discovered right away that he had been reported missing on the first of the month and put me on hold to try to contact the owners. They couldn't reach anyone and left a couple of messages, but because the owners had kept their registration current, the company was able to give me the owner's name, phone numbers and home address.

Since we were driving around with the cat in a carrier anyway, it seemed reasonable to stop by their house, which was within about a mile of where my husband had found the cat.

The GPS led us to their door and we got out and knocked. I asked the woman who answered, "Do you have a lost cat?"

She peered into the carrier and exclaimed, "Max!" Her daughter came out and retrieved him from the carrier, taking him inside to resume the food and snuggles that his disappearance had interrupted.

It turned out that Max (short for Maximus Prime) had actually been missing for several months, but they couldn't find his microchip paperwork right away to make the report to the company. Somehow he had crossed several very busy streets and couldn't find his way back on his own.

Luckily Max's natural charisma got the attention of a couple of cat lovers out for a late night meal and his microchip ensured that he made it back to his family.

A couple things to note about microchips:
- You have to make sure you register them and keep your information updated.
- Some brands (including the kind Max had) charge a renewal fee to remain activated. Obviously, it's worth it.
Hooray for Max and his family! I'm very glad to have been a part of their happy reunion.
August 21, 2014