OM NOM NOM

Once in a while, I use a recipe that turns out surprisingly better than I had expected.

I've become more "opportunistic" of late in the choices of meat I buy. I used to be "If it's not a steak, I don't really want to look at it" but that often led to me taking steaks that only looked sort-of OK, and turned out to taste less-than OK. So I've gotten pickier about the appearance of the meat, but less picky about what cuts I buy.

Yesterday, the Kroger had some decent looking beef short ribs. I'd never actually cooked short ribs myself, but had eaten them a number of times (They are one of the dinner choices sometimes on the Texas Eagle). I also thought I remembered seeing a recipe in either Cuisine or Cook's Country. So I bought them.

A quick check of the recent issues of either magazine failed to turn up what I was looking for, and a consult of Mark Bittman's big book didn't turn up anything that seemed appealing (Yes, probably any pot roast recipe would work, but I wanted to try my first go-round on a recipe designed for this cut).

SO I checked he good old Settlement Cookbook. They had one recipe for Spanish-style boiled short ribs. (I don't know about boiled beef; I mainly think of it from some of the British novels I read, and the description given there is not very appealing). But they also had a braised recipe, which sounded pretty good.

They call it "Oven Barbecued Short Ribs," though barbecue purists would probably not consider it true barbecue, especially because of the braising style of cooking. But it is very, very good. I will give the recipe as written first, and then list my changes to it.

2-3 pounds beef short ribs
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup tomato sauce (the plain unseasoned kind, not spaghetti sauce)
2 Tablespoons chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 Tablespoon prepared mustard
dash of cayenne pepper

Brown the ribs on all sides (You probably won't need to oil the pan, short ribs are pretty fatty). Place the browned short ribs in a Dutch oven, covered casserole, or other covered ovenproof dish. (I used a Corningware roaster). Mix all the other ingredients and pour over the short ribs. Cook 2 hours or until tender at 350 degrees.

I modified the recipe by doubling the wine, sauce, onion, and vinegar. That was partly because I had a 2-cup can of sauce and a 1 cup bottle of wine (those little serving-sized bottles are nice if you like to cook with wine but don't drink it yourself: it's much easier to use up.) However, I also used a much larger container than I needed for my four short ribs, so they needed more liquid to cook in .

And I don't like mustard, so instead of it and the salt, I used maybe about a half tablespoon of Penzey's Adobo Seasoning - which has salt and cayenne in it along with other flavorings.

After I put it in the oven, I thought, "They say "barbecue" but there's no sweetener in there" and I was concerned it would not be very good, but it was. (I think sweetener would have detracted from it. I used a merlot wine which I suppose is sweeter than some).

I also cooked it longer and lower (about 3 hours at 275 degrees) but that was partly because I planned on working out in the yard and didn't want it to get done too early.

It was *excellent.* One of the better recipes I've made and something I'll definitely make again, provided I can find short ribs. (They can be hard to come by). I have a little more than half of the batch left over, I expect it will probably make good sandwiches later this week.

The sausage "recipe."

I know Charlotte asked for this. I wanted to wait until I had tried the first sausage from out of the freezer to post about it, just to be sure my version of the recipe was OK.

I find that the amount of spice is going to depend GREATLY on the mix. My mother said she used a tablespoon of the sausage spice mix to a pound of ground chicken. I used Penzey's "Ozark Seasoning," which contains many of the same spices as are in sausage (they also have a couple of sausage mixes, I think, but this was what I had on hand). I used a half-tablespoon to a pound and that was a bit strong - not inedible, just stronger than I would have liked. Next time, I think I will go with 3/4 of a teaspoon.

All you do is put the ground chicken or turkey into a bowl, sprinkle on anywhere from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of your selected seasoning mix, and mix it well (like you would if you were making meatloaf). Then, you form the mix into patties, and wrap it in wax paper (my mother warned me that wax paper seemed to be the easiest thing to get to "release" the frozen patties), and put it in the freezer. I would not keep these for more than a month or two - generally ground poultry gets freezer burned easily (in my experience).

I got 12 patties from a pound of ground chicken. I made the patties about golf-ball sized but flatter (of course)

To cook the patties, heat a pan to medium heat. Put in a small amount of water (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a bit more oil (I use the light olive oil for this kind of cooking but any oil would work). Fry the patties in it - you can put them in directly from the freezer. I think it took a total of about 10-12 minutes to cook the patties this morning but the ones I had were kind of thick, and I'm also very paranoid about cooking any kind of ground meat well.

You might, depending on how lean the meat is, want to mix a bit of fat in with the meat when you're adding the spice...the patties I had were a bit dry (but that may have been because I overcooked them a little).

If you don't have a spice mix, possibly you could base the combination on this sausage recipe, from "The Little House Cookbook:"

2 pounds of lean pork, 1 pound of "fat pork" (I presume they mean pork fat, or very fatty pork)
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 Tablespoon crumbled dried sage

You start by cutting the meat into 1 inch cubes; then, using a chopper you mince the cubes into small pieces. (They recommend keeping the fat and lean separate, and refrigerating the cubes you are not chopping for easier cutting). Then, they ask you to combine 2 parts lean to 1 part fat, add the seasoning, and then shape the sausage into patties.

Again, here, they recommend freezing the sausage for storing - the cookbook author speaks of smoking meat elsewhere (recommending following the description given in Little House in the Big Woods to build a hollow-tree smoker), but that seems like excessive work provided you can freeze stuff). Again, you fry the patties up without thawing them (or parboiling them, as you might do with some sausages) first.

The author also gives a recipe for milk gravy to use the drippings from these, but she notes: "Although this lean sausage is well suited to modern tastes, the fat gravy may not be." (Essentially, you take a cup of milk, beat in a 2 Tablespoons of flour, and combine and cook that with the drippings and lardons that are left in the pan)

Well Traveled Bagels

(And a recipe, at the end)

On my way home this afternoon, I decided I had to stop at the grocery - I was all out of plain yogurt (a dietary staple of mine), and also, I wanted to make a roast beef sandwich to go with the leftover red cabbage I was planning for dinner, and my last bit of bread went moldy the day before.

I went to the little locally-owned grocery (Green Spray) because (a) it's near to me (b) I like being able to support a local business and (c) I feel happy after I walk out of there, instead of feeling stressed and angry at my fellow humans, like I often do after walking out of the Wal-Mart.

I think there are a few things that cause this. First of all, the store is small. It's about 1/3 the size of the wal-mart grocery section. This means you don't have as giant a selection (and they don't carry some brands I use regularly), but it also means you don't feel like you need to be on roller skates to get from one end of the store to the other. Also, the cashiers seem a lot less harried, and are friendlier. I don't know if it's a difference in management style or if the smaller store just sees fewer customers (and fewer problem-people) in a day. And finally, the place, while it's busy at times, is never a madhouse the way the wal-mart is sometimes. And people seem to behave better. I don't know if that's because it's a different clientele (a lot of the Green Spray shoppers seem to be older people).

Another reason I like it: because a lot of the clientele seems to be older people (empty-nesters or widows or widowers), it's a lot easier to find small packages of stuff as opposed to the MEGA FAMILY PACK with eighteen pork chops in it when all I really want is one.

So anyway, I went there.

And I wanted bread for my sandwich, but like many stores without an in-store bakery, they do tend to suffer from a poor bread selection. Most of it was what my old high school French teacher would damn as "pain Kleenex"

So I wound up deciding between bagels or English muffins, which I figured would have a bit more structure. I went with the bagels.

When I got home, I noticed something about the package:



"Authentic New York Style Bagels" but made by Rocky Mtn. Bagels.

So, where do Rocky Mtn. Bagels come from?

I would have guessed Colorado; a number of the brands this store carries are based in Colorado, Utah, or Idaho.

Nope:



Avon, Indiana!

I guess these kind of things amuse me inordinately much, but they've got essentially three regions of the U.S. represented there.

And I was looking for things that amuse me. I'm grading exams. Several of them...do you remember that scene from "A Christmas Story," where Ralphie is imagining his grade school teacher grading their themes? And she's dressed as a tragic heroine, and there's sad dramatic music playing, and she's gasping and moaning and holding the back of her hand up to her forehead over how terrible they are?

A couple of the tests were like that.

Sadly, I've not yet found one that I can feel justified in exclaiming over and giving an A + + + + + + + to. (Though there were a couple people who scored in the low 90 percents).

I will say the worst tests belonged to the folks who have the poorest record of attendance. Interesting how that works out. (and by 'interesting,' I mean, "totally expected by me")

I will say one of the most frustrating things I know as a teacher, is explaining something again that you know certain people don't understand well, looking out over the class, and realizing that several of those people are absent for your re-explanation.

****
And on to the recipe. This is a new-to-me way of fixing red cabbage. Well, the method is new, the flavor is similar to most braised red cabbage. It uses a slow cooker, and it's an excellent way (or so I think) to fix the vegetable - for one thing, you can put it in there and leave it for most of the day, and not have to worry about it burning. And secondly, the cabbage cooks down much better - a few times when I used the stovetop method in the past, the small pieces got cooked but the larger pieces (or those from closer to the core) were still hard, and that's not very appealing.

You can cut the cabbage (and apple, and onion) with a food processor, but I admit I still prefer the old method of a knife. I think it takes about the same amount of time for either, but the difference is, with the knife, you spend your time cutting, whereas with the food processor, you spend your time cleaning the food processor. I'd much rather spend my time cutting.

So, here it is. This is based on a recipe from "Healthy Crockery Cookery" by Mable Hoffman.

One head of red cabbage, core removed, and chopped fine (about 2 lbs)
One onion, finely chopped
One apple, cored and chopped.
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup whatever liquid you are using* (must contain acidity)

For later:
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

*About the liquid. The original recipe called for port. I don't keep such a thing on hand, and didn't want to go out and buy any. (Besides, I remember my mother once making a face about port, and saying it was disgustingly sweet for a wine). Perhaps port would have made the cabbage less sour. I wound up using a dry sherry I had on hand for cooking. I liked the result, but I will say it was VERY sour and VERY oniony, but I like things that are sour and oniony. If you don't like things as sour, use some other liquid than sherry, and if you don't like a strong onion flavor, you might try half an onion instead.

Incidentally, whatever liquid you use, it should have an acidic pH. Red cabbage contains an indicator chemical that changes color with acid and base. In acid, it's a pinkish purple. But in base - or at neutral pH, it's a pretty disgusting shade of greyish blue.

Next time I make this I might try cider. Either sweet cider, if that's still in the stores, or I'll make the somewhat scary foray into one of our local liquor stores and see if they have the slightly fermented cider (like people in Europe have) available.

Anyway - what you do is combine everything in a 3 1/2 quart or larger slow cooker (except for the vinegar and cornstarch) and cook it on low for 7 or 8 hours.

Then, at the end, you mix the cornstarch and vinegar, add them to the cabbage, stir it, turn it up to high, and let it cook for 15 or so more minutes, so the juice gets thickened.

Sweet Potatoes Recife!

Yes.

I do not know what the Portuguese version of "Ole!" is, or I'd say it.

This is a recipe I tried over the last weekend, from that Mennonite cookbook I've referred to in the past. It was one I kept looking at and wondering, "Either this is good, or it's very, very bad."

I finally tried it, and I'm happy to report that it's good. It's also good as leftovers - if anything, it tastes better reheated after sitting in the fridge a couple days, the flavors blend better.

The contributor of the recipe lived in Brazil, hence the name. I do not know if this is a common Brazilian recipe or just one she invented. But it's still good, and it's easy.

For the three servings I made:

2 cups mashed sweet potato (I used a can I had on the shelf that I wanted to use up, I suspect fresh boiled-and-mashed would be even better).

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

2 to 3 Tablespoons melted butter

1 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Whatever spice you like - following the recipe would have called for 1/8 teaspoon cloves; I used about 1/2 teaspoon of the "Cake Spice" (a blend of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and nutmeg) instead.

You mix it all up and put it in either ramekins (I used three of my four Mini-Cocottes) or a small casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs. Bake 20 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until it's hot through.

I think there are a lot of other things you could do with this. You could increase the sugar, add some milk and beaten egg, and cook it as you would a baked custard, and have a delicious dessert. (Or a filling for a pie). You could put struesel topping on top instead of breadcrumbs and serve it as a dessert or a breakfast dish. (Heck, as it is, it would make a nice breakfast). You could add raisins in with the pineapple. You could make little crumb crusts in the ramekins and make it like mini-pies.

You could also probably cut back on the sugar if you want a less-sweet dish. Especially if you're using canned sweet potatoes, which seem to come in a sugar syrup already, it seemed plenty sweet to me.

I ate it as a main dish, but I think it would be an excellent side dish for either ham or poultry.

Also: 109 cats in sweaters

Knitting and soup

So sometimes, the going gets rough. And you kind of square your shoulders, and say, well, dangit, I'm going to keep going and try not to let an unpleasant person spoil my life.

And if you do some kind of creative hobby, sometimes you start a new project.



This actually came about as part of a complex chain of thought. First of all, back when I was up in Illinois last week and visited Ewe Knit, the owner was knitting on a shawlette called "The Age of Brass and Steam." (Which immediately grabbed my attention because of the title). I filed the name away in my mind.

And then this afternoon, while in a bout of self-soothing Raveling, I looked it up. (You can get it off Ravelry, or the author also has it available through her(? I assume) blog.

I wanted to make it bigger. So I figured, I could use worsted yarn, and get more of the yarn...and I had a coupon from one of my favorite online yarn purveyors (and I still had part of the $200 I earned reviewing a textbook left over), so I ordered some sort-of-tarnished-brass colored Malabrigo to make one.

And then I thought: wait, I have some Malabrigo in stash, that one of my friends on Ravelry sent me around my last birthday (but not enough for the pattern as I intended to make it - and not the color I wanted for this particular item).

But I thought about it, and went home and found the yarn (two skeins: enough for a smallish scarf) and wound it off, and decided that seed stitch (or moss stitch, if you're on the other side of the Atlantic from me) would work the best with the variegation - it might help prevent excessive flashing or pooling.

(I know, I said before seed/moss stitch is tedious, but sometimes it's what you want).



This is pure comfort knitting. The yarn feels nice (the color is called something like SM Gold), it's easy, you don't have to think about shaping. I was even able to read a bit, earlier this evening, sitting on my bed, with the book propped on a pillow and held open with my toes. (it was a hardcover - not sure it would work so neatly with a smaller, tighter-spined paperback).

Sometimes you need comfort knitting. I don't know yet for sure if this scarf is going to be for me (but I already have so many scarves), or an eventual gift for someone, or, if I might find one of the charity groups that needs wool scarves and pass it on to them. The point of comfort knitting is not so much the finished project as it is the soothing process.

(The scarf is sitting on one of my many stitch libraries - I bought this one from JoAnn Fabrics with one of their 40% off coupons. It's called Super Stitches Knitting and is published by Watson-Guptill, which I always thought of as a British publisher, but the copyright page lists New York as the location, and the terminology given seems to mostly conform to U.S. usage. It's one of my favorites of the stitch libraries, actually - a small chunky book with nice photos of the swatches. And the more complex stitches are charted as well as written in line-by-line format, and I appreciate that.)

****

Also, a recipe. One of my favorite older cookbooks is one I bought years ago - perhaps as many as 25 years ago now - at the Hudson Public Library used book sale. (They used to have one every Saturday, and I loved them, because hardbacks were something like 50 cents and paperbacks either a dime or a quarter, and you could get a lot of books, even on the meager allowance I had).

It's called "The Flavour of France." It's by the Chamberlains, which, if you're a foodie, you might know the name of - they're the people who had Clementine in the Kitchen. They lived in France (Samuel, his wife Narcissa, and then their daughter Narcisse) in the 50s and 60s. And this book is a collection of French recipes.

The really nice thing, as far as I'm concerned, is they're not fancy recipes. They are the sort of farmhouse/everyday recipes - the things, the authors say, you would not likely be served as a foreign guest (and therefore would get the fancier, "better" dishes), but would be the things the family would eat when they were, well, en famille.

And I like simple cooking. Peasant cooking (though this is perhaps a couple notches above that.)

Another lovely thing about the book is that each recipe has a photograph (apparently all taken by Mr. Chamberlain). Usually, it is of some sight in the area where the recipe came from - so Parisian recipes might have a photo of the famous quays, or of Notre Dame, and one from Normandy would have a photo of Mont-St.-Michel or something like that.

And of course, with my new discovery that I am, in fact, distantly, part French, and moreover, I know where my ancestors came from, I've been looking at the photos from near Poitou and the Dordogne Valley with new interest.

And this was a recipe I had seen in there a while back, and marked as interesting. I finally made it over the weekend and found it very good. Again, it's extremely simple, but sometimes you want simple.

It's called Tourin des Landes, or Vermicelli and Onion Soup.

I'm going to give the formal recipe - from the book - but note my modifications for reducing the serving number.

Big recipe (to serve 6)

4 onions, chopped
1 T butter
1 T bacon fat
3/4 cup vermicelli, broken into small lengths
3 T tomato paste
6 cups "good beef or chicken stock or consomme"
Parmesan

You saute the onions in the fat until they are soft and starting to brown. Then you add in the vermicelli, and saute it with the onions until it is "just beginning to brown." Next, add the tomato paste and the stock, cook the whole thing together at a simmer for 10 minutes or so. At the table, on each serving, you grate a little Parmesan.

For my "single person" quantity, I used one onion (and I used a mix of olive oil and butter, not having bacon fat on hand). I used maybe 1/4 cup, maybe a bit more, of the vermicelli, and 1 T of tomato paste*. And a scant two cups of chicken broth (from a can...I'm sure homemade stock would be even better).

(*The tomato paste - I think the brand is Amore - that you can buy in a tube is good for this. It's more concentrated, I guess, than the canned kind, but that didn't matter for this recipe. And I love the idea of tomato paste in a tube - so much easier to store in the fridge, probably less likely to go bad (they claim it keeps "indefinitely"), and you can squeeze out just the amount you need. I bought mine at the gourmet shop in my parents' hometown, but I noticed that the Krogers nearest me also carries it, so probably many groceries do).

As I said, really simple - but it's good and it seems to me that it would be especially nice on a cold night, with some good savory toast on the side and maybe a little salad, or if you needed a bigger meal, a salad and a piece of toast with a poached egg.

Thanks for all the nice comments. I think the whole idea of my definition of success is something I need to remind myself of periodically, because "the world" is too good at fooling people (including me) into thinking that what it deems important is what is really important.

***

Here's that recipe I referred to on Friday:

Pizza crust/breadsticks. (Makes 1 generous serving with leftovers, or enough for two).

3 Tablespoons warm water
3 Tablespoons milk
1 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Mix those four ingredients and let stand 5 minutes.

Then add 1/4 cup flour (the recipe calls for bread flour; all I had was all-purpose. I think I wound up having to add more than what the recipe called for). Stir it in well. Then add

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons finely ground yellow cornmeal

Mix those in. Then continue to add more flour - the recipe lists adding 1/2 cup more, but I had to add more like 3/4 a cup more to get the dough the right consistency (it was also very humid that day which may have affected things).

Knead the dough 5 minutes. Then pour a little olive oil over the dough ball, cover the bowl it's in, and let it stand in a warm place 1/2 hour (or more, I suppose, if you can). Punch the dough down and let it rest another 10 minutes, or, if you're impatient, shape it and then let it rest.

For breadsticks, I separated the dough into eight sections and sort of rolled each one out into a "snake" (like you did with clay in 1st grade). Then, I put each formed breadstick on a pan that had been sprinkled with a little olive oil and a little cornmeal. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

For pizza dough, you would stretch the dough out until it's 8 or 9 inches in diameter, depending on how thick you like your crust. I usually like to bake homemade crusts for a couple minutes before putting toppings on; they are less prone to get soggy. I guess you would also want to oil the pan or put cornmeal down on it to avoid the pizza sticking.

For breadsticks, you can top them with whatever you like. I brushed mine with more olive oil and sprinkled on dehydrated garlic and Italian seasoning, but they would also be good with sesame or poppy seeds, or, with a little parmesan cheese on (I think I would wait until they were nearly done to add that.) Or you could use other spices depending on what you were going to serve them with.

They were done in about 10 minutes in a 425 degree oven. I ate mine with a small dish of warmed-up marinara sauce, but of course they would also be good with soup or a salad.

For the pizza, of course the toppings are up to your imagination. The pizza might have to bake longer, like maybe 15 minutes.

***

I've been working away at different things this weekend. I had planned to go in to school on Saturday but after mowing the lawn early Saturday morning, I got a bad headache (humidity?) and wound up staying home. I had the headache all day but was periodically able to bat it back enough with ibuprofen or hot tea so I could read some on one of the books I'm making my grad student read and discuss. (I really need to finish it in the next day or so).

I started a new pair of socks to knit on while I read. I had been working on the long-stalled Mini Mochi socks but then got to the point where the yarn was splitting so much I had to keep looking at it, and it was annoying me. So I pulled out a ball of Opal and started some just-plain socks.

I once commented that I liked Cascade 220 because it was a "well-behaved" yarn - it didn't split, it rarely had knots, it didn't fuzz while you were knitting with it. Opal is the same way. It's tightly enough spun that it doesn't split and especially compared to the Mini Mochi, it's very even. All of which make it a pleasure to knit with.

The particular Opal yarn I'm using is one I bought a little while back. It's from a line inspired (designed, maybe?) by a German singer who goes by the name Antonia (Opal Antonia: theirs are all out of stock, but I think Simply Sock Yarn might still have some). I'm using color 2805, which is sort of "earthy" colors - browns and orange and a leaf green. The yarn says "Antonia aus Tyrol" on the label and has a photograph of her (in white short-shorts and a midriff baring yellow top) superimposed on what must be Tyrolean scenery. (Apparently each yarn in the line shows her in a different outfit, at least on the Simply Sock Yarn page)

I don't know exactly what kind of pop Antonia does and have never heard any of her music, but it's interesting that she wound up designing a line for Opal.

One of the things I like about doing "just simple" socks is that there are different ways you can knit them up. Of course there's the toe-up/cuff-down decision; for me, I always do cuff-down because most of the traditional toe-up heels fit me badly, and I'd rather Kitchener stitch than "bind off loosely" the 64 stitches or so at the end of a pair of toe up socks. But also, there are decisions as to ribbing, and depth of ribbing, and will you rib the entire sock or just the top, or will you do a picot edge instead, and what heel will you do...

On these, I decided to do 6 rows of stockinette BEFORE starting a short ribbing (my plan is to do 12 rows of rib but I'll see how that looks when I get it done). A short segment of stockinette at the top makes a top that curls just a little and I liked that for this yarn. (I also started at a point I can "find" again in the pattern later, for the second sock, so I can make them matching.) I think I'm only going to do a short rib, and then do the rest of the leg in plain stockinette.

I also like the yarn because the colors to me almost seem like "Heidi" colors - very springy and natural. I can see the Tyrolean alpine inspiration in it. (Though maybe, if it had been named something else, I wouldn't see that. For me, the color name of a yarn tends to be powerfully evocative).

But anyway. The nice thing about plain, not following-a-pattern socks is that periodically you have a decision to make. (It's almost like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books in a way, except you never wind up falling off a cliff or getting eaten by a minotaur.)

Sometime, when I get a little time to bake, I want to try making these home-made versions of a Pop Tart. I particularly like the suggestion of leaving the sugar out of the dough, and filling them with pesto or ground nuts or a marinated black olive tapenade sort of thing.

But I also like the thought of making the sweet-dough ones and filling them with Nutella. Om nom nom, as the cool kids say.

A little recipe for today.

This is something kind of different - and maybe some people might consider it a little outrageous or dated. (It comes from a 50s-60s era cookbook: "Good and Easy." (It's a Betty Crocker book; a small, spiral-bound-with-hard-cover book - apparently they did a line of these, I have a copy of Cooking for Two that is the same format, and there's at least one more, a book on entertaining that has some wonderful luridly decorated cakes in it. Here's a picture of the book in question. It's from 1954).

It's called Baked Curried Fruit. It seems like something that would not be done today (at least, I've never had it) because of the overwhelming idea (at least that I've heard from some people "into" nutrition) that fruit must be eaten fresh and raw. And of course, the recipe has sugar and butter in it.

But it's good, and it's different, and it's interesting, and it would go well with a roast. I made this recipe last night as a trial - we're having a dinner at church on Sunday, ham is being served, and I thought this might be a good potluck dish. (I think it will go very nicely with ham).

I think it would also make an interesting pie filling.

The recipe is pretty simple. Like a lot of older recipes, it called for "Number 1 cans" and "Number 2 cans" (Stop laughing! The numbers correspond to ounce size. I have a conversion table in one of my newer cookbooks - I always have to look them up) . But you could sub any amounts of what you wanted.

The main thing is the sauce. You melt 1/3 cup of butter, stir in 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar and 4 teaspoons of curry powder. (I used a "sweet" curry blend from Penzey's; you could probably use a hotter curry and just use less of it). I found I had to add some water to make the syrup liquid enough. (You could probably cut out some of the butter and use water or the juice from the fruit instead...)

Then, you open your number 1 cans of pears and peaches (or apricots), drain them, arrange them in a 9 by 13 dish. Then you open your number 2 can of pineapple chunks, drain them, and add them. Then you add a few maraschino cherries for color. You pour the sauce over the fruit and pop the whole thing in a preheated 325 degree oven for 15 minutes, then baste, then bake 15 or so minutes more.

It's surprisingly good, for something so simple: it's not as sweet as fruit straight out of the can (despite the brown sugar, and when I make it again I might use less sugar), it has a nice complex flavor. (The spices that make up the sweet curry mix are many of the same ones that go in chai tea - so you could almost call this "Masala fruit" if you wanted to be uppity). The recipe as printed made enough for me to have a big serving of it at dinner (along with a salad, it was dinner), and maybe 2-3 smaller servings leftover. I think you could safely say it would serve 4 to 6, especially as a small serving as a sort of relish with ham or turkey.

Well, a couple good things did happen yesterday (other than my clever fix of a knitting mess-up).

First of all, as I was heading home from school (I wasn't getting anything done, it was loud, and I had exams to grade) I decided to run by the local glass company. This is a long-term business, it's been here for like 50 years.

I planned on just asking the guy if he could do it, and maybe have him measure to cut the mirror (I guess I was assuming cutting mirror took a long time). Instead, he looked at the mirror, and said, "If you have about 30 minutes right now, I can do it now."

It didn't even take that. He cut a new piece of mirror, pulled out the broken pieces of the old one, glued it in, taped a couple of narrow blocks of styrofoam over the edges, and told me to leave the tape-and-styrofoam on for 24 hours.

It cost $15, which I'm guessing is about 10% of what I would have paid at the dealership.

So: broken car mirror, go to a glass company.

(The bad news is it looked like maybe they were going out of business, there was a For Sale sign up in front of the building. Or maybe they rent the building and the owner was just selling, or they were moving. I should have asked. But I get shy about stuff like that sometimes)

But, on the other side, I've partially fulfilled my 3-50 commitment for the month.

(Have you heard of this? It's kind of a grassroots thing. The idea is, each month, you spend a total of $50 (at a minimum) spread over three locally-owned businesses. As I have a quilt shop in town, and the place I like to buy cards and gifts for people is run by one of my AAUW colleagues, it's usually not too hard. The idea is, I guess, you're supporting local businesses and the $50 thing was based on a calculation that if a certain critical mass of people - not necessarily everyone in a town - did it, it would keep downtowns and locally-owned businesses alive. And I think restaurants count too.).

I also spent part of it at the locally-run grocery. I had not shopped there much, because when they first re-opened, it seemed like they didn't carry any of the brands I normally use. But maybe they've been taking patron requests, because I see they now have Daisy brand products (my favorite sour cream). And they went up GREATLY in my estimation when I found they had the Saco powdered buttermilk - nowhere else in town has it, and I don't think I've even seen it in shops in Sherman. The powdered buttermilk is a boon to have if you like to bake, and sometimes do things that require buttermilk, but don't want to have to run out and get it and then either struggle to use it up (I drink it sometimes but it's not my favorite beverage ever) or have it go bad.

(I had stopped in to buy whipped cream for the AAUW cake).

I also made a fruit sauce. I kinda-sorta followed a Mark Bittman recipe, with a couple modifications. Here are the pithy instructions:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
~4 T butter (you can use less, it's partly to make the sauce glossy)
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED strawberries
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED raspberries (These are the fruit where the whole fruit/slices are frozen "loose" and are in a bag - they are not in a syrup)

about 1 to 1 1/2 T cornstarch, mixed with water.

You mix the water and sugar and bring them to a boil over medium high heat, then melt the butter in it (turn the heat down to medium). When it has mixed and thickened a little, you dump in the fruit. Bring it back to a boil, cook and stir for maybe 5 minutes (turn the heat down after it boils). Then slowly add the cornstarch-water slurry and cook over medium to low heat until it gets thick and glossy.

It's simple and pretty good. You can keep cooking it down more to make it thicker, but remember it will set up a bit more after it cools.

(I also was reminded of my childhood, when I got in trouble for using up my mom's cornstarch. You can make a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water, and it's tons of fun to play with. Actually, it's probably fairly cheap as toys go, I think her main annoyance was that I used it up and didn't tell her.

Also, one of my favorite Mythbusters "Taking it to the extreme" myths involved this - after the unsuccessful ninja walk-on-water, Jamie made a giant vat of the cornstarch-water mixture for Adam to run across. It was pretty impressive and looked like a lot of fun - as long as he would run across it, it would support him, but when he stopped and stood at the end, he sank into it like quicksand. ("Oh, this feels SO wrong" was his comment, as I remember).

And one last good thing - when I bent over to brush the (dry) cornstarch I had dropped on my pants leg, my nose was down near my knee, and looking at my leg from that perspective I thought, "wait, my thigh looks smaller than it used to." So I pulled out the measuring tape and, even though I was wearing slacks, measured over them. Yup, an inch and a half smaller than the last time I measured (like a year ago), and I'm definitely in that "magic category" of women who are allegedly protected from heart disease because they have larger-than-sticks but well-muscled thighs. (I will hasten to say that I'm happier about the allegedly-protected-from-heart-disease thing than the reduction; and anyway, my thighs are still bigger than what Madison Avenue or Hollywood would consider "acceptable." But hey, if I'm less likely to keel over of an exploded heart at a young age, I'll take it.)

I don't know if I ever shared the recipe for the hot-milk sponge cake or not, but it's a good recipe, so I'm going to, even if I did before.

I'm going to give the "small" version of this. Unlike some cakes, this one also doubles well, and that's what I do for groups like the CWF group where we could be serving 20 people or so.

It makes a nice, mild, pleasant-textured cake. While I generally like chocolate things, I also really like this cake, even though it is just a plain yellow cake. (It is good - again, in the case of CWF - to bring places where you have someone who is allergic to/dislikes chocolate)

If you double the cake, bake it in a 9 x 13 inch pan. And you will most likely need to bake it for longer than the allotted time.

There are a lot of things you can do with this cake. I'm going to include, at the end, the recipe for the "traditional" Lazy Daisy topping (a sort of under-the-broiler form of frosting). But you can also frost it (my mother used to make a really good cooked caramel icing for this cake, and no, I don't have the recipe). Or, as I'm going to do with this cake, use it kind of like a shortcake base and serve it with a fruit sauce and whipped cream. (My mother used to use this cake for strawberry shortcake when strawberries were in season). I think this is also the same basic cake she used in pineapple upside-down cake, which is one of my dad's favorite desserts (but which, I have to admit, I don't care too much for).

Hot Milk Sponge Cake (amount for 8" pan)

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup cake flour*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla (can also use lemon, or rosewater, or vanilla + almond depending on what you want in the finished cake)
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter

(*You can use conventional flour - take out 2 t from the cup, I think is how the substitution goes - but I really recommend cake flour for this one. I've made it both ways and the cake flour makes a definite difference to the texture)

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in one bowl.

In a second, larger, bowl, beat the eggs well. (My mom says to use an electric mixer; I always just use a whisk. But beat them well: they should be lemon colored and sort of frothy)

Add the sugar gradually, beating all the while. Beat until the resulting mixture is smooth.

Melt the butter, and add the milk to it. Heat it until it is warm to the touch but not boiling (the microwave is good for this). Add the flavoring to the milk mixture.

Then, add the flour mixture to the egg and sugar. Beat them well (add the flour gradually). When they are well mixed, stir in the milk mixture. (You don't beat it; you kind of fold** it in). Make sure that the milk is well mixed in; my mom warns that if you don't do that, the cake can separate and have a rubbery bottom layer. I've never had that happen to me.

Put the batter in a greased 8" square pan (glass is fine, I always use glass) and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until the cake tests done.

To test for doneness: the cake will be quite brown on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. If the cake seems to be getting too brown before it is baked, you can put a foil over the top of it (just lay it loosely on) to slow down the browning while it cooks.

(**Fold: if you don't know how, here are some pointers. I say that because I read an article a while back claiming a lot of people didn't have "culinary vocabulary" any more and didn't know terms like "braise" and "fold" and "cream" ("cream" used as a verb, as in creaming together butter and sugar.) But you probably all are more knowledgeable than that)

And here's the Lazy Daisy topping. It's nice and it's good but I don't think it's the only - or perhaps even the best - way to top the cake.

As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, spread this on the top and put it back in the oven for about 7 minutes (watch closely!) to allow the icing to spread and melt over the cake.

This is a VERY tender cake and it will tear if you are rough with it. (If you're going to actually ice it, it's best to make a cooked icing that will be pourable but will set up as it cools).

Lazy Daisy topping:

7 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cream (or evaporated milk)
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts, coconut, or a mix of the two.

Drop in "blobs" over still-warm cake. Put back in the oven for about 7 minutes. Icing will melt and spread. When you take the cake out, you can further (gently) spread the topping with an offset spatula.

Edited to add: Another successful execution of this recipe!



This also kind of gives you an idea of the degree of brownness you want on the top. (And the cake in question took 30 minutes...it tested done at 25 but the top was still a little pale)

Pumpkin cookies! (Actually, pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies)

(Edited because of typo in baking time, thanks Charlotte)

I made these this weekend, for the five day feast of finger foods that we have in my department during the December exam week: everyone brings stuff in, some old favorites, some new recipes, to share.

This was a new recipe for me. I was not sure how they would be, never having eaten pumpkin and chocolate together. But they are very good. (And they are spectacular if you can serve them still warm from the oven, so the chocolate is still a bit melted).

The recipe comes from a back issue of "Illinois Country Living." This is a magazine that the electric and gas co-op my parents belong to puts out, they feature a few recipes from one of those "community" cook books (like churches and Junior League groups put out) every month. This one was from a cookbook put out as a fundraiser for a school in my parents' town; the taco dip recipe I posted last year came from this same issue.

(Which makes me think I should call up the school when I get up there for Christmas and see if they have any of the cookbooks left to purchase, seeing as two randomly selected recipes were good).

Anyway, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies:

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use my fallback: the "light" tasting olive oil, which doesn't taste "olivey" at all and which has "good" fats in it)

1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, DISSOLVED IN 1 teaspoon milk
6 ounces of chocolate chips (I used the Ghiardelli 60% cacao semi-sweet chips and they were about perfect. I think a sweeter chocolate would be too sweet, but the semi-sweet chips with their dark chocolate flavor were really good).

Preheat the oven to 375.
First, dissolve the baking soda in the milk and put aside.

Then, mix the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg. Add the vanilla.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt) in a separate bowl. Sift if you need to. (I find I rarely have to sift flour these days).

Add the flour "alternately" with the milk (which seems odd as there is only 1 t of milk, but that's what the directions say). Make sure the milk/baking soda is stirred up so the soda isn't all on the bottom of the cup or bowl you mixed them in.

Stir until combined, and then add in the chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet. (They don't say to grease it - I used parchment paper which I find always works well for baking cookies). Bake for about 10 minutes.

The batch I made made just shy of 4 dozen. They are more cakelike than the typical chocolate chip cookie. You don't really taste the pumpkin strongly; you might not realize it was in there if you didn't know.

Quickly in, typing up yet another textbook-chapter review (yeah!) before running back home to watch at least some of the Dirty Jobs Labor Day marathon.

I picked away at various things over the weekend. Saturday was mainly devoted to reading the chapter and handwriting my comments on it, and reading both program assessment reports my department is required to produce every year (thank goodness, I don't have to write the things; I just have to contribute a certain amount of data for them). Program review is one of those things you have to do in academia. It's not fun, it's not clear that it's really that useful in improving the program, but it's mandated. And you have to do it every year, with accreditation years (which is coming up in a couple years for us) being extra not-fun.

Sunday I pulled out the quilt blocks I finished a long time ago (the green, yellow, and red, using mainly Mary Engelbreit fabrics). I laid out and sewed together most of the quilt but ran out of steam on it. This quilt is a lot more involved and requires a lot more attention than I thought it would.

I also worked more on the sleeve of the Airy Cardigan. I am within 30 rows of being finished with this. I can't quite believe I may have this done this week. Heck, I may have it done TODAY if I work diligently on it and the edging isn't a major pain to do.

I also finally found a way to cook up butternut squash so I like it nearly as well as I like sweet potatoes. I was often disappointed by butternut squash - it smells good when you cut it up, but upon cooking, it develops a slight "earthy" flavor that I tend to find objectionable.

But, I persist. Because squash is cheap and is "good for you." (And because the new-crop sweet potatoes haven't come in and the ones at the store right now are disappointing. New-crop sweet potatoes, especially where I live (they usually come in from Louisiana, not very far away) are FANTASTIC but the ones that have been in storage nearly a year are not so good). But this time I based the preparation on an idea from Mark Bittman*, from his big huge cookbook.

You season the cooked squash with ginger. Not even all that much ginger. It seems to have a noise-cancelling effect on the earthiness of the squash. (I used somewhere between 1/2 and 1 t for an entire small squash).

So I baked the cut-open squash for maybe an hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees. I started out with water in the bottom of the pan but that cooked away fairly rapidly. Then I scooped out the squash, added a small lump of butter, added the ginger. And I added some honey to sweeten (Bittman suggests brown sugar, but I think the honey was better).

It was probably (short of making butternut squash soup, which is more work) the best way I've had squash.


(*I will admit at times I grow weary of Bittman's attitude. Then again, I also grow weary of James Beard's attitude sometimes when I read him. It bugs me when someone comments essentially that a certain food is "not worth cooking" simply because they do not like it. Especially when it is something I like. And Bittman's locavory, while a noble goal, doesn't always work out so well for those of us far from specialty markets or a "Whole Paycheck" and who have to depend on either our little local groceries or the Mart of Wal.)

Thanks all. (Illyrsdaughter: thanks. I had kind of figured that's what they meant. I probably do do better than a lot of people. I probably still exceed the "guidelines" on added sugars, but not greatly. Especially since I don't really care for pop - so I usually drink water when I'm thirsty.)

Hopefully today will be better. Actually, it reached the point midafternoon yesterday where all the mess-ups and missed communications ceased to be annoying and began to be somewhere between funny and surreal. Kind of like one of the old Laurel and Hardy shorts where you can't quite BELIEVE that stupid thing is going to happen to them, yet you also KNOW that it is - and it does. (Or sometimes something even WORSE happens)

Perhaps I got my quota of stupid annoyances for the next two months out of the way yesterday. One can only hope.

***

Anyway. One of the best ways I know of dealing with having had a frustrating day is to go home and cook something nutritious and good for dinner. This seems counter-intuitive, as it does take time, and it dirties a lot of dishes, and it makes more of a mess than a simple salad or a bowl of cereal would.

But there's something therapeutic for me in chopping vegetables or mixing stuff. And there's the thought that the world can't be too badly messed up if I can still successfully cook dinner.

So I tried a new recipe last night. This is a modification of one from the most recent Eating Well magazine. I like Eating Well fairly well - I could maybe do with a bit less smugness in some of the editorial writing, and I'd like to see more of the recipes readily made cut-downable (Oh, and fewer "exotic" ingredients I'd have to mail-order). But most of the stuff I've tried from the magazine has been good, and, as you might guess from the title, you can be pretty assured that the food meets nutritional guidelines.

What I made was a stir fry. I'm calling it Protein.* stir-fry (in light of the old Windows search convention). The original calls for pork. I used chicken breast, which was good. I think tofu would also be excellent in this dish. You could probably use lean beef, as well, but I'm not sure how it would work with the sauce - I think you need something a bit more neutral flavored.

I also ate mine over rice rather than the recommended rice noodles or soba noodles. (I'm not even sure I've SEEN soba noodles at my local grocery stores). Rice just seemed easier somehow.

I also used Napa cabbage rather than the called-for bok choy. Because I could not find bok choy in the larger of the two grocery stores I usually shop in (and I assume the smaller one - being even more provincial - would not have it). But the napa seemed a reasonable substitute. Though, next time, I'd use a greater amount, as I was not prepared for how much it would cook down.

So. Here it is, "for two," though I dished up half the amount it made, ate three-quarters, and decided "no mas" - any more and I would have been too full (so I put it away with the rest of the leftovers). I think you could easily get three servings out of this, or four, if you served something like a nice fruit salad along with it to fill in a little.

First, prepare the noodles or rice so it will be ready.

1/2 pound to 3/4 pound protein item of choice, cut into slender matchstick pieces

1/2 pound Napa cabbage, cut similarly (including "ribs." The "ribs" of napa are actually pretty good)

a small onion, cut similarly.

(I have read that in some forms of Asian cooking, there is a principle called "harmony of cut" - where it is considered aesthetically pleasing for food to be sliced into similar sized and shaped pieces. So for once, I resisted my tendency to dice the onion into near microscopic pieces - because I normally hate big globs of onion in stuff. But this time, the bigger pieces were OK, because they did cook thoroughly.)

1 chopped clove of garlic

3 T water
1 T reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/8 cup dry sherry (you can also use rice wine, it says. I had sherry on hand)

Mix the water, soy sauce, and sherry in a bowl and stir in the corn starch. Set aside.

Heat about 1/2 T oil (I used "light" olive oil) in a large skillet or fry pan (you may need more oil if it's a large pan. And a wok would work even better if you had one). Put the onions in. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or so. Then add the napa cabbage. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or so. Next, add the garlic and the protein.

Finally, add 1/2 Tablespoon of "chili garlic" sauce. (a/k/a sriracha*)

Then, cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes until the protein is cooked through. (Tofu, you'd probably cook less time. Maybe 2 minutes).

Re-stir the cornstarch mixture, add it to the pan. Let it come to a boil and stir until the sauce thickens, maybe 4-5 minutes.

Serve over rice or noodles.

(*I actually used a brand called "Aroma Kitchen" (heh). I bought it because, I admit, the "real" sriracha scared me a little. The difference between the two...the real sriracha, sitting on the store shelf, looked to me like the tomcat snarling in the back of the cage at the animal shelter, and the Aroma Kitchen brand was the kitten falling over its own feet. Or maybe, it's like when a girl first starts noticing boys and thinking about dating them, she goes for the nonthreatening, kind-of-nerdy guy with glasses and a forelock of hair that falls down over his face and who has a silly sense of humor, instead of the brooding wanna-bee delinquent who wears a denim jacket he's written band names all over on in Sharpie and who is saving up for a motorcycle. Or maybe that was just me. Anyway, I bought the less-threatening looking brand**.)

And I have to say: sriracha, where have you been all my life? I know, I avoided you because you were "spicy," and I didn't like "spicy" things. But really - used judiciously, it is incredibly good - yes, it's spicy, but it is also garlicy and not-quite-tomatoey-but-sort-of (I think that's the chilis) and it just adds something to food. So I think I will use it again, and not just for this recipe.

Because this recipe - well, it was outstandingly good. I figured it would be fine, I can usually judge a recipe by reading it. Though I have had a few Food Defcon 3 adventures where something came out just "wrong" and I couldn't finish eating it.

But this one...oh, my goodness, delicious. Definitely one I will make again. And it's not that hard or time-consuming.

(**truth be told, I still prefer the sort-of-nerdy guys with silly senses of humor to the brooding types)

The original recipe can be found here.

This is going to be kind of long and rambly. I will put the most difficult stuff at the end, I think.

****

I did make the Senate Bean Soup this weekend. (I also made bread, but used the bread machine. I've been having some elbow issues - overuse, I think, coupled with the high pressure we've had - so I thought kneading might be unwise. The elbow is better this morning; I think all of the mouse-and-click needed for revising a paper on Friday was what stressed it).

The soup was good, but perhaps a bit bland compared to what I'm used to.

Here's the recipe, I will note possible modifications at the end.

Senate Bean Soup ("for 2*")

(*Despite all the hysteria about PORTION SIZES HAVE GOTTEN TOO BIG AND THAT IS WHY PEOPLE ARE TEH FATZ, I find when I cook from older cookbooks (this one is from 1959) a lot of the "serves howevermany" suggestion actually seems like pretty huge portion sizes. I'd say this could serve four pretty easily).

1/2 lb small white navy beans
1/2 lb. ham hocks (or, in my case, 1 t "ham soup base")
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 quart water.

Rinse the beans well, discard any "bad" beans or stones. Put the beans and water and either hamhocks or soup base together in a saucepan, put on the burner. In the meantime, saute the onion in a little olive oil. When the onion is cooked, add it to the beans.

Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer until the beans are done (done = can be mashed with a fork). In my case this was about 2 hours but I think I had new-crop beans; older beans will take longer. If you used hamhocks, pick the meat off and add to the soup.

Add pepper and salt (if needed) at table.

Like I said, this was a little bland. I've seen other recipes calling for adding chopped celery (I have a food intolerance to celery, so I wouldn't use it, but you could) and instant mashed potatoes (for texture).

I think, though, next time I make something like this, I'll make a couple changes.

First, I'd use some kind of more flavorful bean. Navy beans may be traditional but they are kind of bland. Pintos might be better, or black turtle beans. (Call it maybe, "Senate with Diversity Bean Soup"? Seeing as Pinto beans are more typically used in Hispanic/Southwestern cooking, and black turtle beans in Caribbean cooking?). I do suspect pintos or turtle beans would necessitate longer cooking, or perhaps a pre-treatment of the "quick soak method" (where you boil the beans a couple minutes, then soak an hour before cooking)

I also think adding a can of those "petite diced tomatoes" (with the juice substituting for some of the water) would be better too. And maybe some fresh parsley added at the very end. And maybe adding a can (or part of a can) of corn.

One thing I like about soup is that you can play around with the recipes. Another thing I like is that you can stick a bunch of vegetables in there - and vegetables I might either never eat together, or might not even be that inclined to eat on their own (rutabagas), I will eat in a soup.

****

I've been looking at another recent-purchase book: Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace in Estonia. (Nancy Bush is a genius. But I think most knitters know that.)

She talked a little bit about the different cultures where lace shows up - the Shetlands, of course, and also parts of Russia and countries like Estonia. And it makes one wonder: What is the phylogeny of knitted lace? (or at least, it makes ME wonder).

Did it develop in one culture, and then spread via trade? Did sailors bring back these new unusual knitted items for their mothers or sweethearts, and those mothers and sweethearts look at them and think, "Why didn't I come up with that?" and then try copying it - or try coming up with their own way of doing it?

Or did it have what we would call in evolutionary biology a polyphyletic origin, where it arose independently in several different cultures?

One thing I've noticed is that some of the Scandinavian colorwork patterns (the eight pointed star, for example) resemble some of the traditional Islamic designs. Brought in by traders from the east? Brought back by returning Crusaders? (Did the Scandinavians even participate in the Crusades?)

I don't know. But it's something that intrigues me - where did all this knowledge come from? How did things we think of now as "traditional" first develop? In a pre-Internet, pre-jumbo-jet era, (even a pre-printing-press era), how did ideas move from place to place?

I think you could say that about almost any type of craftwork - lace, turning the heel on a sock, crochet, quilting, metalwork, carved designs...

****

Now the more difficult topic.

I do not know what to do about the Youth Group. Have I run my course as its leader? How will I find a replacement, if I'm not doing a sufficiently good job?

I had two kids last night. Two boys, friends, who giggled through the lesson. I stopped several times, my co-leader spoke to them. I was THIS close to getting up and saying, "I'm sorry, but if you're not interested, I can't keep teaching" and walking away.

(After group, I went home, washed my hair, played piano for 1/2 hour, read, watched some tv...and still had a hard time sleeping because it was weighing on my mind).

I interact OK with younger teenagers, I guess - or pre teens. When this current group was younger, they could be pretty adorable at times - they answered questions, they asked good questions, sometimes they said funny stuff, they interacted.

Now that some of them are older, I have certain issues:

Texting. Good God, I hate whoever invented the text message. It gives people such an easy, such a tempting way to "check out" of a group. Even a "no texting" rule, even a "phones off" rule, I'm still having to harp on people every single week.

It wears me down.

I'm also fed up with the random giggling. Did I say something funny? Is there some word I'm using for its "straight" meaning that now has a sexual meaning to teenagers? (I tend to immediately assume that the kind of barely-suppressed giggling is "She said .... uh huh, huh, huh")

I don't know. I presented the ideas of what we could do this fall (find a curriculum, do an "issues based" study where we come up with a list of issues and discuss them, do a "historical" study (what was life like in Biblical times?), do an in-depth study of a book or books of the Bible, have more interactive stuff). I'm TRYING to make this interesting for them. I'm trying.

And I realize, yeah, it's not about me. But there comes a point where you just get so worn down by the horsepucky that you want to quit.

The biggest issue I think I deal with is people not wanting to participate. In anything. When they were younger, we could do anything - go out and play kickball, play charades, sit around and talk - and everyone wanted to be a part of it. But now - people wander off to do their own thing. And what's the part of HAVING a group if they are scattered among different rooms doing different stuff?

The biggest thing that got me last night was this: some of the late 20s-30s members of the church have formed a small "praise band." They meet on Sunday nights to play together (the aim, as they point out, is NOT to take the place of hymns in Sunday services, but to have some fun on Sunday evenings). They were playing last night and suggested that we all come and take part.

One kid would NOT go. He didn't want to. He just didn't want to. Even though everyone else was in there. Even though, I felt like it was sort of impolite of him to balk so much. Even though I've pointed out that there are more people here on Sunday evenings now, and we have to learn to share our time. But no, nothing worked.

I doubt the band noticed and had their feelings hurt by his absence, but I admit mine were a bit.

I don't know. I'm not good at dealing with teenagers in the "separation" or "rebellion" phase. I was NEVER rebellious (like you would never have guessed that, eh?). I didn't go through very much of the pouting or the refusals or whatever.

I think part of it was I felt like I was SO unpopular with the other kids, and that the adults still seemed to like me, so I figured I'd throw my lot in with the adults, rather than try to fit in with the kids and have the adults mad at me and the kids still continuing to ridicule me (as they would have, I know, if I had tried to "fit in" more).

So I don't quite know what to do. And I wind up beating myself up for not being "more interesting" or "more relevant" or whatever the heck it is that teenaged kids want.

If there were someone who could do this better than I am doing, I'd give it over to them in a heartbeat. But there's no one willing to take over. It's my job for life. (One of the dirty little secrets about volunteering).

So I don't know. Maybe this week was just a bad week. Having only two people - both of whom are close friends, and so, have a "history" outside of the group and in-jokes and all of that contributed. But it's just a frustrating thing.

Maybe I just need to be patient for some of the Adored Little Kids to mature a few years...though by then I bet one of their parents takes over the youth group...and does it totally different and "so much better" than what I did.

I don't know.

"crazy easy" baked homemade egg rolls. (Except I think I'd buy fresh mushrooms and cook them down a bit, rather than use canned).

This probably makes more than I could eat up. But I wonder, maybe the uncooked egg rolls would freeze well...you could make a batch and pop them in the freezer and take out what you want. I may have to try that one of these weekends.

Charlotte: my (perhaps flip) assumption as to why the guy wanted to know: he's hypercompetitive and a pre-med. So if he figures someone else who is a pre-med is "out of the running" for the "good" schools, it's to his advantage. (If I were more devious, I could "play" the pre-meds off each other the way Greg House did to his fellows a couple seasons ago. Then again, I'm not psychotic*)

(*I missed last night's episode but apparently that fact was revealed - that he has had a break with reality, or some such. I wonder if the series is going to end either with a child with autism playing with a snowglobe containing a model of Princeton-Plainsboro, or with Hugh Laurie waking up in bed next to Geena Davis and telling her he had the strangest dream...)


****

I've had several increasingly-agitated messages from a student who (I assume) is in danger of failing a class; he is demanding to know why his lab grade is not higher. As I do not teach the lab section of the class, I have no knowledge as to why.

If he calls again, I am going to give him the lab instructor's phone number. He is claiming she told him he had a score 9 points higher than he had; I have no idea if that was an honest mistake, an attempt at sowing miscommunication, or what.

This is someone who's had a difficult attitude all semester so I'm not exactly cheery about working with him at this point. Add to which I have two more exams to give, a textbook evaluation to write, and two candidates for a job to observe and decide upon before Friday, and I'm really in no mood to be the intermediary in this situation.

***

I'll be glad when Friday afternoon gets here and I'm (hopefully) sailing down highway 69 on my way to the train station (or, failing that, driving up the Indian Turnpike to get to 44 and eventually to 55...that's if there's flooding that turns the train into a bus, not unlike how midnight turned Cinderella's coach into a pumpkin.)

***

I did get some work done on the new lace scarf:



The pattern is called "Crest o the Wave," it's an old Shetland lace stitch.

I'm not as far as I might be, because (a) the students got done on the final yesterday faster than I expected and (b) I made a mistake (forgot a yarn over) and had to unknit several rows because I couldn't find a way to "fudge" it that looked good. (So now I'm counting yos as I do them - there are four to a repeat.)

I think the fact that it's dark yarn makes it harder. It's certainly more difficult to see what you're doing.

***

Another reason why I'm not quite on top of things...the reason I am having to be involved with interviewing two candidates? One of my colleagues is retiring. Today is (I think) her last day. This is someone who's been a friend, who was my first grad student, who could be depended upon to fill in for stuff when needed.

We're having a lunch for her today. Because she's someone who watches her diet, it's a "light" lunch (one of the wags in the department said he was bringing "Miller Lite." Not possible, because we're a dry campus, and besides, I think he's the ONLY one who would actually drink beer that early in the day...and it wouldn't be Miller if it were). So I made a salad that I've made a few times already, it is really good and fairly simple, with a homemade dressing:

Good Big Spinach Salad.

2 bags (or 3-4 bunches) of spinach (or a comparable amount of other greens)\
2, 11 ounce cans of mandarin orange segments, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 cup of slivered almonds, toasted for 10 minutes in a 350* oven

Wash the spinach and combine it with the other things.

Dressing

3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons sugar
1-2 teaspoons white wine vinegar*
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup salad oil (I use the "light tasting" olive oil)
1 crushed clove of garlic.

(*at first I wrote that "whine." It's been that kind of a week)

Combine the lemon juice, sugar, salt, vinegar, and garlic. Shake them up (you will be removing the garlic after it's "steeped" in there for a while. Add the oil and shake to blend. It's best if you make the dressing a couple hours in advance and keep it in the fridge to let the garlic flavor the dressing.

N.B. This is a VERY mild vinaigrette. I had to add the vinegar (the original recipe didn't call for it) because it wasn't sharp enough for me - and I usually like my salad dressings pretty sweet. If you want something sharper, I'd recommend cutting back on the sugar and maybe adding more vinegar (maybe upping the vinegar to oil proportion).

You can do other things with this - you could use other fruits (strawberries are a classic but I think also small cubes of fresh pear would be good), or other nuts, or add sliced boiled eggs.

Self-frosting Nutella cupcakes:

Self. Frosting. Nutella. Cupcakes.

squee. I think I have all those ingredients (oh, nope, wait, out of eggs) at home.

My (belated) Christmas present to myself came yesterday, and I promptly put it up:



It looks vintage, but it's actually not. It's a reproduction from Victorian Trading (made in India, I note with a bit of dismay, despite the stamp on the front of the object).

I like it because it looks like something that my grandmother would have had in her house (in fact, I think she had something very similar to this, but that sat on the floor rather than hung on the wall).

I also like it because it is a so-simple-it's-elegant solution to a problem - having a convenient place to hang various unmentionable items while they dry. (I do think I will keep some scraps of plain white cloth in the cabinet below where it hangs; I am not at all sure that the stain on those arms won't transfer to things).

It will also work to hang up damp-but-clean kitchen towels.

And when you're not using it, it folds up neatly out of the way:



It looks very right in my kitchen. As I've said before, I live in a vintage 1946/1947 house and I sort of like to have a few of the impedimentia that might have been around during the era when the house was first built. (OK, the original of the dryer is probably older than that, but I am sure people in the 40s had similar things to dry clothes, especially in the winter or in damp weather when you could not hang things outside).

****

My jaw is still somewhat sore, so I decided to make some chocolate pudding to have with dinner last night. This is a simple but not-quite-instant (because it can take 10 minutes or so to thicken up as you stir) recipe, originally from the (sadly out-of-print) Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern:

4 T cocoa (I used Hershey's "Special Dark," but I suspect the pudding would be really spectacular with a high-grade gourmet cocoa like Droste or Valrhona)

4 T corn starch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 t salt

You mix those things together in the top of a double boiler and put it over a pan of hot but not boiling water. Then you add

1/2 cup light cream*

and mix it all together.

Then, you scald (I did, though maybe it's not strictly necessary) 1 1/2 cups additional cream and SLOWLY add it to the mix while stirring. Then you stir constantly until it thickens (this is the time consuming part, add 1 T vanilla (or whatever flavor you like; I suppose you could spike it with rum if you are into that). Put in a big bowl or serving dishes, cover well (to avoid a skin) and chill.

Be sure to stir WELL. My pudding actually wound up a bit lumpy because I stirred kind of lazily, and I also think I might have had the water a bit too hot - I think I heard it boiling before I turned the heat down.

The recipe claims it makes 4 servings but what I wound up with looks more like 6 to me. Then again, the Sterns are not known for stinting on portion size.

Even with just the plain old Hershey's (though I think the Special Dark cocoa powder is better than the regular), it was fantastic. Much better than "box" pudding, and not THAT much more work to make.

(*I grabbed, by mistake, heavy cream, and didn't realize until I got home [stupid Friday wal-mart]. My mother confirmed what I thought: that mixing it half and half with milk would approximate light cream, but she also added, "I make a similar recipe and just use skim milk." Which would be more accessible (I don't keep cream on hand) and would be much lower fat. But I like to make a recipe as-written the first time and then change it up. But I suspect you could use any grade of milk or milk-like liquid in this; perhaps even soy milk, which would make it both vegan and lactose-free...but I suspect you'd have to be even more careful heating and stirring to keep the soy milk from curdling.)

***

And here is the second "Vanna's Choice Taupe Mist" critter. This is probably the most unusual amigurumi I have ever made.

Some years back, when Beanie Babies were in their first popularity, there was a list making the rounds of "failed Beanie Baby characters" or something. It was marginally funny; the one that I remember best (because it struck me as the funniest one) was Tapey the Worm.

Well, this isn't Tapey, but it's his cousin, Flats:



Yes, it's a crocheted planarian. The pattern is a freebee on Ravelry. You crochet two flat pieces and then sew them together. The only little change I made was to do the eye spots with embroidery floss rather than the yarn scraps recommended.

It's about 9" long and I think it would also make an amusing cat toy if you had a largish cat.

****

I'm not sure how to post about this without seeming a bit of a Pharisee (in the sense of it looking like I'm publicly advertising how "good" I am), but whatever.

I put the binding on the Bento Box quilt last night. And I decided it wanted to go out into the world and make its living (like they say in the fairy tales).

And, coincidentally (but perhaps not*), I received the regular e-mail newsletter from Quilt Asylum. And what do they mention but being a drop-off point for Project Linus? So I take that as a sign that the quilt needs to go with me this morning and head out to its new life, hopefully to comfort some child somewhere:



(*There are really quite a lot of things in my life that happen that could be interpreted as coincidences or could be interpreted as not-coincidences. I don't know if it's simply a fact that I'm very good at seeing "patterns" in things, or maybe if there isn't maybe something more to it.)

YAY NEW DISHWASHER!



It got installed this afternoon. The couple who installed it were pretty nice, when I warned them there might be dead mice behind the old one (there weren't) the guy just kind of laughed and said he didn't care, as long as the mice didn't run up his arm.

There was a tense moment - like so many things in this house, stuff has been retrofitted and put in wonky and wrong. The tile floor (which you can see in the bottom of the photo) was apparently put in AFTER the old dishwasher. The guy was afraid at first they wouldn't be able to get the old washer out or fit the new one in.

But fortunately (as you can see), they were, by both of them kind of shimmying it into place.

(There were no dead mice behind the old dishwasher, but there was a great mass of pecan shells from the mouse that inhabited there previously. I took a few moments to sweep them all up, and I'm hoping that Hantavirus isn't present here... I think what I had WERE in fact fieldmice.)

So, to celebrate the nice new dishwasher - and my being able to cook again without casting a jaundiced eye on how many pots and pans and little glass dishes (for separating eggs and such) that I use, here are two festive recipes. Both of these are for the FFFFF we do in my department (five-day feast of festive finger foods), a/k/a exam week nibbles.

Recipe the first:

Taco Dip.

1 lb ground beef (or turkey, or prepared TVP)
1 packet taco seasoning, or your preferred mix for seasoning a pound of whatever protein item you make tacos out of
1, 8 ounce can tomato sauce. (Just plain tomato sauce. I use Contadina brand)
1, 16 ounce can of refried beans (you can, and I did, use fat-free here)
1, 8 ounce cup of sour cream (again, you can use the lowfat kind. Daisy makes a very good low-fat variety if you can get it)
shredded cheese - cheddar or "Mexican blend"

Brown the beef in a skillet. Drain off excess fat (if necessary) and add the seasoning. Turn the heat down, add the tomato sauce and refried beans, stir well until completely combined. Pack into a 10" glass pie plate or comparable-sized dish and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Right before serving, spread the sour cream over the top and sprinkle with cheese. Serve with tortilla chips. This is meant to be eaten as a cold dip. It's surprisingly good given how simple it is.

Recipe the second:

This is actually a fairly old recipe, one that one of the long-time members of my parents' church contributed to a church cookbook.

Cranberry-raspberry jelly candies

1 16 ounce can jellied cranberry sauce (the kind that splorps out of the can and has the ridges on it)

3, 3-ounce boxes of raspberry gelatin

1 cup sugar

Mix the three (do not add extra liquid, warns the original recipe). Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the cranberry sauce has melted and the gelatin and sugar are fully dissolved. This will take a long time. Don't rush it. I rushed it one year and got soup instead of candies. It can take up to 20 minutes. (You can add 1/2 cup or so of chopped walnuts at the end if you like)

Then, let the mix cool 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Spoon it into a well-buttered 8" square pan. Let cool and set up overnight at room temperature - do not refrigerate.

The next day, turn the candy (you may need to "peel" it out of the pan) onto a wax paper with sugar heaped on it. (The candy is very sticky). Cut the candy into small squares or rectangles with either a knife or kitchen shears (I found the shears easier). Roll each piece in granulated sugar so that they won't stick together.

These are very good - they are kind of like a softer version of a gumdrop - and they keep well for a very long time if you keep them in a cool dry place.

I tried something new this year. (Edited: Now with photos! What an exciting life I lead, photographing bread as it rises. Tune in next week for my photo essay on drying paint...)

This is a recipe I've been dying to make since I first read about it, and this year it seemed apropos. I love these kind of historical recipes, I love having a chance to taste something that my ancestors might have eaten. (And I do have New England-y ancestors, on my mother's side, so they probably ate this cake).

It's Election Day Cake. The tradition was, apparently, that this cake was given out on Election Day (and also on Town Meeting Day) in New England. In some places, it was (apparently) used as a bribe/reward (along with whisky) for voting straight ticket.

The recipe I used was James Beard's. I'm going from memory here so I may have to correct it later. (there are other recipes out there that are a little different. And here's another one. I do think the lemon zest would have been a good addition, though perhaps not 18th-century-authentic.)

2 cups milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 packet yeast

You heat the milk to lukewarm (the old recipe says "scald" but you only need to do that if you're using raw milk). Then dissolve the sugar, salt, and yeast in it.

Next, beat in 4 1/2 cups of white flour (or a mix of white and some wheat, if you want to be more authentic). Beat until the dough is "smooth and beginning to be elastic.")

Then, you put that aside to rise. It took just over an hour in my house but it was fairly warm. The dough (really a batter) should be doubled in bulk.

Once that has risen, you mix (in a separate bowl):

3/4 cup butter
1 cup (I think...this might be wrong) white sugar

Cream those together.

Then beat in 2 eggs

Next, take 1 cup raisins - or a mix of raisins and currants - or best of all, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups mixed raisins, currants, and citron (I could not find citron OR currants in the stores here so I just used raisins). Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over them plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon mace.

Add the floury, spicy raisins to the butter/egg batter.

Next, combine this with the yeast batter. They need to be combined WELL. (I used my hands for this step. Put the batter in well-greased loaf pans (the recipe I used warned sternly not to fill the pans any more than half-full; this will make two medium sized and one small loaf, or two large loaves). Put the pans somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size again (this will take much longer than the first rising as the dough is heavier).

Here it is, rising in the pan:



(Shaky effect courtesy of photographing using Extreme! Night! View! to avoid flash and flash-related artefacts. And yes, I have salmon-pink Formica for kitchen (and bathroom) counters. I kind of hated it and apologized for it to anyone who came over, but now I've grown to kind of like it. And if nothing else, it doesn't give off radioactive jimmie-jams like the fancy granite countertops that all the Cool Homeowners have)

When they have risen, bake in a 375 degree (preheated) oven. It will take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour depending on how large the loaves are - you can test them the way you do a cake for doneness.

Let the cakes cool for a little while on a rack before trying to tip them out. I broke one by tipping it out too early. You may need to run a knife around the edge of the pan.

The finished bread: