Memphis Democrat
November 16, 2006

Tony here, writing my first ever Dancing Rabbit correspondence column. Though I've lived here at DR for 10 years now, I always left the column writing to others, but with so few writers it seems my time has come. My hope is to keep this column filled with the critical information you are reading it for -- who came over for dinner and what kind of dessert was served.

In that vein, the big news is apples, apples, and more apples! Our friend Judy has been helping sell the remaining apples from the orchard in LaBelle and we have been trying to do our part. Suzanne and Alyson from Red Earth Farms helped Judy sell at the Rutledge Flea Market last Saturday and brought home the seconds and any leftover apples for us. Since then we've been enjoying apple crisps and apple pies, as well as dozens and dozens of fresh apples.

The apples were so good I had to call my sister to get our mom's apple pie recipe. I baked up two of them yesterday and it brought back all those memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The crust wasn't quite as good as Mom's and certainly not as good as Grandma's but I didn't hear any complaints from those partaking.

With a lot of people out of town, our usual system of eating in small cooperative groups is taking some creativity to keep going. Many of us normally eat in groups of about 5-7, with people generally cooking once every week or so, in a rotation. But with so many people travelling, Bobolink co-op and Sunflower co-op are each down to 3 people. But we are expert co-operators here so it didn't take much to get people sharing the load and eating together.

For instance Bobolink (currently just Rachel, Tony and our guest Ali from North Carolina) have been sharing dinner with Kurt and Alline twice a week (once at their place and once at ours). Its great to catch up with them and joke about all the old times. Plus, Alline has been treating us to the most delicious chocolate cakes and even chocolate mousse -- all vegan, ta boot. She is experimenting with recipes for her long dreamed of DR cook book. So far we give them all 5 stars!

Alyson has also been making the rounds for dinner with various rabbits. The second best thing about having her over for dinner is she brings a loaf of her wonderful sourdough bread (the best thing, of course, is her company!). She has become quite an expert bread baker over the years and inspires us all.

Speaking of bread, this week I've been experimenting with a bread technique I read about in the NY Times (online) that requires no kneading. Its really easy but does require the dough to sit overnight. So, if you like to make bread but don't like to knead then this technique can work great for you as long as you can think ahead.

We had a nice visit this weekend from Penn and Laura who now live in Iowa where Penn is in grad school studying the physics of wood stoves. It was great to see them again and hear their stories of getting to know their new neighbors. It sounds like the flat land up there makes them miss the rolling hills of Missouri. We of course sent them home with a bag of apples and bellies full of pie.

On Tuesday we had a voting party where most of the rabbits converged on our polling place in Rutledge to cast our votes in the big election and then gather for donuts and other treats at Zimmerman's. Since Rachel and I had been doing a lot of work on get-out-the-vote programs we were very pleased to see pretty much every rabbit at the polls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, we came in too late to hang out with the Rutledge Renegades but had our own little Rabbit Renegade fun at the cafe.

Some of us then spent the evening waiting for election results to come in. We don't really have TV here so we generally get our news from the internet. Me being somewhat of a news junkie, Tuesday night found me switching back and forth between the MO Secretary of State website, various newspaper and TV sites, and listening to NPR over the internet. Chris Feeney was even nice enough to send me the Scotland County results over email so I didn't have to wait until Thursday to find out. Alas we still ended up going to bed before the Missouri Senate election was called, but we all shared our thoughts and reactions crowded around the computer over breakfast.

Tereza (aka Susan) finished a six-week class on living well with a chronic illness, sponsored by the Health Dept. She wants to say a special hello to her fellow-classmates who read the DR column regularly. She really appreciated all the sharing of information and support.

On Saturday night a big group went out to Scotland County Lanes to bowl a few games. Evidently people had so much fun a few weeks ago they went back for more. I'm told Tom was tearing up the lanes and that everyone had a great time.

We also celebrated the return of our prodigal feline, Dweezil. Dweezil normally lives in Amy's room and has access to the second story deck on Skyhouse but does not generally roam free. Of course as soon as Amy and Juan go on their honeymoon he decides its time to explore the wider world and he made the leap off the deck. For three weeks we would only catch the occasional glimpse of him but we knew he was doing OK by the scattering of dead rodents around the village. Maybe it was the cold weather or maybe he started running out of mice but he finally started making nice with us humans and Ted was eventually able to catch him and bring him home. He now seems content to lay around on the bed and eat cat food again. Amy and Juan are, of course, relieved at the news.

Anyway, back to food. On Sunday we celebrated Alyssa's birthday with a special breakfast-for-dinner potluck. We all stuffed ourselves on hash browns, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, huevos rancheros, french toast, Danish pastries and of course chocolate cake (it was a birthday party after all). Dinner was followed by a game of charades that had many of us doubled over from laughing so much.

After charades some party stragglers stayed up practicing the newest craze to sweep DR - hula hooping. Ali is quite an expert, spinning the hoop from head to toe in the most graceful way. She's been showing folks here the tricks of the trade and I for one have gotten caught up in the fun of it all.

Well I had some hopes of writing as much as Dedie but I guess I'll have to be happy with writing as much as Ted who is renowned at DR for long columns.

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