Herb Your Enthusiasm -- A Rosemary Adventure

 Kimberly Library has a cooking club called Herb Your Enthusiasm where they feature a different herb or spice each month. I've looked into this before but it is usually a spice I don't have any interest in cooking with. This month was rosemary -- a herb that I actually have and recently started using. Instead of being at the library, it was at Il Bar Coffee Shop in Kimberly where we would get a cooking demonstration. Sign me up. I didn't pick up the packet of herbs beforehand.. why I already had rosemary.

Despite feeling like an outsider initially since everyone there usually came to every meeting, the librarians made you feel welcome. Then they asked for volunteers to help make the cookies. Since no one else volunteered, I did. I had a real tough job.  I had to use the hand mixer to make the dough. The pastry chef at Il Bar taught us to make lemon rosemary shortbread cookies. We never did get the recipe. It would be a fun summer recipe. I may have to google it.

The owner then showed us how to make lavender rosemary lemonade. Again they needed a volunteer and I'm glad I volunteered for the cookies otherwise I would have to squeeze 10 lemons. While our volunteer was squeezing the library we learned about the coffee shop as well as the rest of the ingredients. Surprisingly the lemonade was quite tasty. I am not a fan of lavender but it was very subtle.

Overall it was a fun hour and a break my mundane routine. It got me out of the house, got to meet some new people, try new foods, and discover a new coffee shop. I will definitely check out the Herb Your Enthusiasm again but probably not in May since I'm not all about foraging for food. I can't wait to go back to Il Bar for a iced chia latte or hot chocolate. They even have flights of their drinks.

7446. Make a cornhusk doll

 Every year the area libraries do a Fox Cities Reads book where all the area libraries and schools read the same book and then there are author visits. This year they picked two books There There by Tommy Orange and Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley. Both books were written by Native Americans which was their focus this year. As part of the Fox Cities Reads, they sponsored a cornhusk doll project at several libraries. Kimberly had one during the day and Little Chute had one at night.

I opted to go to the one in Little Chute. It stated at 6 pm and was limited to 30 people. I was worried that it was going to fill up quickly so I got there about 5:45 and was the second person there. We had a total of 6 people which was great since we were able to get a lot of one on one help.

Yntlekalau McLester, who is part of the Oneida Tribe, walked us through the steps of making a corn husk doll. We had directions and on paper they looked fairly straight forward. In reality it was as easy as the directions made it seem.

You start by layering 4 corn husks on top of each other (3 if you don't want hair) and tie them at the top with sinew. Cornhusks must be wet for this to work.

Leaving one piece separate for the hair make a head about an inch or two from the top. I messed up the order of my husks and my hair is longer than I wanted it.

If you want fancy arms, you can brand 3 husks together to make arms. You would do this twice.. one for each arm and then tie them together.

You then push them up under the head and tie it off under the arms to make a chest.

Then you take two husks and criss cross them off the chest to hide the strings and arms. 

To make hair, you pull your husk apart to get a Medusa look. Then braid it.

You add one final corn husks around the middle for a skirt. And hopefully it stands up.

Mine stood for a few hours and then would fall down. I tried to re-soak the skirt and it still falls down. I think my skirt is too long and wide to properly stand. 

While we made our dolls, we learned the history behind the corn husk doll. There are two stories on why they don't have faces. Basically an Indian Maidan thought herself to be beautiful and it got her in trouble. 

It was a fun class. I am glad that the libraries offered this event. I wish more people would shown up. Hopefully I will get to hear Tommy Orange speak in May. I can't wait to see what next year's Fox Cities Reads is and what ancillary events they have to go with it.