CURRENT MISSION

Make art, not war.

ABOUT ME

Rachel and Ben were married in 2002. They are both rather tall, but not scary at all. They recently returned from a beautiful trip to Mexico (Coatepec and environs).

Rachel is a poet and teaching artist with groups of all ages in the community. She also likes to grow her own vegetables in her backyard garden, read, dance (salsa/bachata/merengue, hip hop, electro...), sing, camp, and share food and conversation with friends, all while laughing embarrassingly loud in public places. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, attended college in Kalamazoo, Michigan, spent a semester abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, and has spent some time in Ireland, Guatemala, and Mexico. She met Ben in San Diego where she lived for a few years before moving to Chicago.

Ben is a visual artist and recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he focused on painting, drawing and fiber art. He was born in Tucson, Arizona, but grew up mostly in San Diego, California. He's road-tripped across the U.S. twice, and the second time landed him in Chicago. He just completed his first "major" trip abroad to Mexico, and he really misses the food.

Pourquoi je suis sur Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Since we live in a major U.S. urban center, pretty conveniently located, we can offer our couch/floor and warm welcome in Chicago, as our schedule permits. We visit other parts of the U.S. from time to time as well, and are planning to spend time in Latin America in the near future and excited by the prospect of connecting with other CS members.

Centres d'intérêt

Street art, poetry, vegetable gardens, hip hop, indie rock, homemade pie, vegetable gardens, good stories, cookies, pleasant porches, walking and exploring, cities, water, language, Latin music of all kinds, shoes that are comfortable yet awesome, rock and roll, tasty beverages, camping, community development, potluck meals, bicycles, yoga, comix...

• arts
• poetry
• singing
• street art
• dancing
• bachata
• dining
• potluck
• baking
• yoga
• running
• walking
• gardening
• painting
• drawing
• music
• latin music
• camping

Morceaux de musique, films et livres

Books: yes. We like 'em. Comix, poetry, novels, whatevs.

Music: yes. Too much to name. Off the top of our heads: Justice, Ray Barretto, Prefuse 73, Calle 13, Diplo, Mala Rodriguez, MIA, Mos Def, The New Pornographers... Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Outkast, The Roots, Pedro the Lion, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Mates of State, Stevie Wonder, Sam Arnold, Adam Faucett, Big Science...

Movies: yes. Examples: The Wire, To Kill a Mockingbird, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Unbreakable, Cool Hand Luke, Miller's Crossing, Gilda, Serenity, Punch Drunk Love, Born into Brothels. We like old dramas, science fiction, documentaries and the occasional ridiculous comedy. Coen brothers, Almodovar, Marx Brothers, Will Farrell...

Une aventure extraordinaire que j'ai vécue

Rachel: in Guatemala, I swam under a waterfall of hot water cascading over big round rocks into a river of cold water in the midst of a forest. It was really nice there. I didn't want to leave.

Ben: I don't know, it's all been amazing.

Enseignez, apprenez, partagez

OUR FAVORITE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups blueberries, either fresh or frozen, wild Maine berries preferred
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Preheat your oven to 375°F. Grease 12 muffin cups generously; a vegetable oil pan spray works well.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until they're light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in the milk and vanilla. mixing only until smooth. Quickly stir in the berries (batter will be very thick).

Fill the muffin cups 3/4 to almost full, using all of the batter. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Bake the muffins for 28-30 minutes, until they're light golden brown, remove them from the oven, and place the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of one muffin, and try to lift it out of the pan. (These muffins are very tender, and if they don't cool long enough, they'll crumble when you try to remove them from the pan.) If the muffin lifts out of the pan without crumbling, remove all of the muffins and cool them completely on a wire rack. If the muffin sticks or the top peels off, allow them to cool an additional 10 minutes, then try again. Yield: 12 muffins.

Note: if you're short on blueberries, the muffins will not be as big, so use less cups (for example, if you have 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, make 11 muffins instead of 12). The recipe is also good with a little chopped orange or lemon zest mixed into the batter, if you like citrus (1 tsp or less).

Pays que j'ai visités

Estonia, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, Russian Federation, United States

Pays dans lesquels j'ai vécu

United States