The Joy

of Cooking.

Have you ever read it?

I don't mean the new fancy one, but rather the old one.
-The one that teaches you how to cook squirrel and porcupine.
- The one that provides a recipe for onions stuffed with sauerkraut, and notes as a subtitle: Not for a ladies' luncheon.
- The one in which the authors wax poetic about charlottes: "How dull seem the charlottes of our youth, with only a cream and a cherry, when compared with those put together in the sophisticated society we now seem to frequent!".
- The one that teaches you how to make as well as to pronounce vichyssoise: "This leek soup may be served hot or very cold. Yes, the last 's' *is* pronounced, like a 'z', but most Americans shun it, in a 'genteel' way, as though it were virtuous to ignore it."

It's great! Someday if I win the lottery and am done traveling the world, I may cook my way through this cookbook, just like Julie did with Julia's book. Muskrats might be hard to find by that time though...

Ode to Pie

ya know, I never was much of a pie woman. except growing up when mom made the strawberry pie - a cold one with whipped cream. mmm... my brother got ridiculed one year when he tried to make it and didn't bake the crust beforehand. yucky.

but then, i lived in Eugene OR one summer, living with my boyfriend at the time who was finishing school at U of O. we would go places every single weekend - glorious beautiful places (i may think that oregon is the most beautiful state in the union - sheer diversity of beautifulness).

one main road went through the town of Nimrod (which was always funny to us - he even posed once as a nimrod near the Nimrod sign). well, there was a pie place on that road - mom's pies. a counter with stools in front of it, where you'd sit down and have a piece of berry pie (oregon has great berries). although i wasn't a pie person, i appreciated those pies. fresh berries, great crust. mmmmm...

i never got into pies much even after that, since every time i tried to make a berry pie it would be all runny and that was no fun. i also was very against cherry pie - ugh, the whole concept of opening a can and throwing it between two crusts - ugh. but then i had my mother-in-law's cherry pie. made with door county WI sour cherries. omg. really really good. and i got her recipe, and learned that you just needed to add a little tapioca to make it firm.

later, i got into making apple pies, because a friend told me a secret about how to make that not run. a relatively large amount of flour (at least 1/4 cup - ish) and carefully layering the apple slices so they are stacked beautifully and tightly. Mm.... (and pst, a secret I learned - a leetle bit of cardamom)

i think i'm going to make banana bread tonight.

Recipes

Pecan Pie

First I started with a recipe a friend sent me from a search on MyRecipes.com, that was from Cooking Light: Pecan Pie. As I was mixing it all together, I thought to myself that it was way too few pecans. So I looked at Joy of Cooking (the new one). It had 2 c. of chopped pecans and the Cooking Light one had only 1/2 c! So, I think I added a total of 1.25 c - I would next time add more. It also said vanilla OR dark rum. Since I had already added vanilla, I just added in the dark rum - 1 TB.

I did not spray the pie pan with oil before putting in the pie crust because Joy of Cooking did not say to. Mistake - really, you should do it. I made the pretty decoration on the top of the pie - I just made that up since I had perfect halves.


Russian Tea Cakes

1 cup soft butter (I used one stick salted, one unsalted)
1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sifted Gold medal flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Combine all ingredients. I used a pastry cutter because I haven't unpacked my mixer, and I think it was a good thing. It's kinda like making scones - you mix it only as much as it needs it.

Chill dough. Roll into 1" balls.
Place on ungreased baking sheet.
(Cookies do not spread)*[see, mine did]
Bake until set, but not brown.
While still warm, roll in confectioners' sugar.
Cool. Roll in sugar again.

Temperature 400 degrees (moderate hot oven)
Bake 10 to 12 minutes
Makes about 4 dozen 1" cookies


I never noticed this before, but there's a quote in the new Joy of Cooking. Joy's soul lies in the doing. William Shakespeare.

Saturday Hunt - Love

Second one on the theme... I made this pie for the friends and neighbors that I love. It will be parceled out. I love to cook. I love when things come out well.



(OK, so I just wanted to show off my first ever pecan pie. I made a mistake and followed a Cooking Light recipe which also had oats in it, but then after checking with Joy of Cooking, realized I needed to jazz up the recipe, so doubled the nuts and added some rum too.)

Twittering the night before

- [Adding this Tues] - Today is Veteran's Day. I helped a veteran with directions on the way to work today. Felt good. I forgot to say thank you to HIM though.

- I spent Saturday all by myself. And it was fine. I went to a store that sells German food, and bought myself some brats, beet salad, mustard and a beer. The guy at the checkout asked me if I was going to a themed party and had to bring a little bit of stuff. I said No, I'm making a nice dinner for myself. It seemed to embarrass him.

- My 91 year old neighbor, Clara, asked me if I get my exercise by walking up and down the stairs because she can hear every step. Then she said she hears it when I turn the light switch on and off at my place. Oh dear. I fear for the days either 1) when a new noisy neighbor moves in or 2) I have a boytoy/boyfriend who stays over.

- Later that day as I was taking down a cabinet it fell on my knee. I yelled 'fuck me' twice. Then really loud laughter after my friend made some kind of comment. Wonder what Clara thought of that.

- My trainer is not shy about expressing himself at the gym. Loudly. And he generally has pessimistic comments. Last week I nearly died laughing when some other trainers were kidding him, saying that he should write on book on how bad life is and how to commit suicide - and it'd be a best seller as a book on CD or as an upload to a car navigator because it would tell you when to turn right to go off a bridge. OK, I can't explain it as funny as it was, but maybe I was just in the mood for suicide jokes. Luckily he can laugh at himself, and knows it's all true.

- Secret ingredient in the apple pie I made for my friend. Shhhh... don't tell. Cardamom.

- Just read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Really good. Thoughtful. Combining religion and science fiction.

- I had my friend take a picture of me sitting on my front steps. My brother had given me some Christmas cards that you insert photos into. So special people will get me for the holidays. ;-)

- How pathetic am I? I just started migrating to a personal gmail account (not my NoRegrets account) and was chatting with a friend. And got soooo excited when the faces were animated! I loved the one where the tongue sticks out. And it winks!!! Oh oh oh (excitement), I didn't try and combine the two... next time.

- Needless to say, my mood has evened out finally. Friday night the 1.5 week funk ended. Of course, we change the meds a little more on the 12th, so I may go through the whole cycle again. I sincerely hope not.

- Here's a song for you. Gotta love Mac Davis. ;-)

Let them eat pie

Today or tomorrow is my friend's birthday. The one who does my plumbing. He is a self described curmudgeon, so he likes sour things. So I made him a pie (my first here at this house!). It has 'fresh' sour cherries (were fresh, threw them in the freezer a month or two ago), one Stayman apple, and four small Empire apples. No sugar. Oops, about a tablespoon or two of honey. I thought maybe the apples would have enough sugar to counterbalance the cherries, and they might, but likely I'm gonna need the vanilla ice cream. My other friend is making dinner for him/us since her husband is out of town. And we're going to have a threesome. [that was for you Susan] My ex might show up too.

Pitting the cherries one by one tonight, I saw the opening to Obama's half hour infomercial. Sorry, I just didn't want to watch it. I did at one point click by the Spanish station, and he was there too, speaking in Spanish reasonably well, which I thought was great.

Here's the next stage of the kitchen. We're still not sure if the dishwasher works (did I tell you I got it at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $40?) because we have to find a way to connect the water. But I love my faucet!

Jalapeno Corn Bread

Someone made some. Left for others to share. I took a piece. Just can't eat it. One time, years ago, I made it and for some insane reason thought I didn't need to refrigerate it. Days later I was eating a piece. Halfway through, realized it was moldy. About barfed. But can't eat it.

Miel, Hoenig, Honning, мед, Mel, はちみつ

My friend who came to visit me this weekend was just in France for a wedding, and Paris for a short holiday. As birthday and housewarming presents she brought me many things, which were all wonderful, but my eyes lit up when I opened one package and found a jar of honey from Paris. Sunflower honey (has a slightly nutty flavor). She had found a store in Paris entirely devoted to honey. That would be my dream store.

I LOVE honey. Clover honey from the supermarket is fine, but look around for others. My favorites are the darker ones - Wildflower honey, buckwheat honey. These can be found in the United States - from farms are the best. I once bought Tupelo honey because of the song from Van Morrison, but it was very similar to clover honey. For my old job I used to travel internationally and when possible I would buy honey in whatever country I was in. (I did that several times before finally checking with the US Customs Service to see if it's ok, and surprisingly it is.) My favorite was/is from Brazil: honey from the cashew flower. (Did you know there's a cashew fruit? They make juice from it and mostly keep it in country. It's very nice.) When I was in San Francisco there was a special honey I saw which was $50 for a jar and I was SOOOO tempted to buy it, but resisted somehow.

To best taste the flavor, I tend to put it in steamed milk. You would think I'd like it on various body parts, but really I only like it on fingers and lips - might be the salt that gets mixed in otherwise, which really doesn't do it for me. My favorite term of endearment from a boyfriend was MHMB (my honey my baby) - 10,000 points if you guess which song that's from.

How do bees make honey? (I must admit, after seeing the animated Bee Movie, I feel a little guilty eating honey, but not so much that I'll stop.)

Of course, since bees are part of the environment, there's a crisis. Species and populations are disappearing at an alarming rate - which of course doesn't only affect honey production, but also pollination. I just found a really cool site that Haagen-Dazs has created to call attention to the issue and help the bees. It's interactive and interesting and cute - TAKE A LOOK.

Image
Translations

Shittles

Or, chocolate skittles. I had heard about them on the radio and thought it sounded disgusting, so figured I'd have to try them. There's supposedly five flavors in the package and I will taste all.

Vanilla: tastes kinda like vanilla I guess. like that vanilla syrup they put in milkshakes or some coffees. kinda gross.

s'mores: if I use my imagination I can taste the graham cracker. the vanilla is still there. not sure I taste the chocolate. edible.

chocolate caramel (I think): pretty disgusting

chocolate pudding (I think): pretty digusting, but not as much as caramel. trouble is these two look similar on the package.

brownie batter: I think I taste salmonella eggs. actually, it's kind of ok. passable.

So how's that for some glowing recommendations?

BTW, I know I'm on overdrive on posting, but I'm in a place where I don't have much to do, can't go outside and hang out, but do have high speed access. Come end July/early August I'll be in my place with no computer, and too much to do every night... And at work I'm kind of procrastinating on a final report I have to write.

Wheel o' Watermelon

So, I admit I'm a bit quirky. But I don't think how I eat watermelon is that quirky. My colleague disagrees. She came in for a meeting and burst out laughing. I have a wheel o' watermelon on a plate, and I use a knife to cut out pieces of it and stick it in my mouth. This is how we did it growing up with those huge long watermelons, with real seeds, not these current wimpy 'seedless' things. A long huge watermelon was gone in an instant, since a family of 8 having at least one inch thick wheels o' watermelon is a lot of watermelon. The ends were never that popular, since you had to use a spoon to get it out and occasionally the watermelon piece would go flying... And so how do YOU eat watermelon?

you say tomato, I say tomahto

. Yesterday I went climbing with some friends in 90ish degree weather. We started at 8:00 AM so we'd be done before the most evil heat kicked in. Someone heard my phone ring around 11:30, but since I was on a rock, and it was down there on the ground, I didn't answer. What follows it the phone message I had. It made me laugh so hard.

"Hello, It’s 11:30 and I don’t know where you are, and I’m just staring at this gorgeous tomato on the counter and wondering if I can eat some of it. So call me if you get this because I can’t look at it any more. It just looks so good. I want to make a tomato sandwich. I hope that’s ok. I’m sorry. Bye."

What was great too was the sighs and moans accompanying the statements. I didn't bother calling her back since I knew it was already cut up. This was a tomato I had bought at the farm market on Saturday, when I went strawberry picking in the evil heat. Gorgeous gorgeous strawberries and well worth the sunburn and thirst (14 lbs I picked). And so after climbing yesterday I made a batch of jam, a strawberry/cherry pie, and strawberry bread. And then I collapsed from tiredness, but not before eating 2 pieces of pie and a huge hunk of bread.

One thing that makes me happy

Vegetables! Specifically, I took my mom this weekend to a local farm market that had great great vegetables. Beets with good greens still attached, so you get a two-for-one when you buy a bunch. New red potatoes. Wax beans (for my mom). Early strawberries. Rhubarb that's thin and red (both characteristics are what you want). Nice nice celery roots (to make the wonderful dish for my friends this week). Black radishes! which I haven't seen in years - you slice them realllll thin, buy some crusty white bread, good butter, and a good ale, and you put the radish on the butter on the bread and follow it with a swig of beer...soooo good. It's a German thing apparently. I should have bought the half sour pickles, but didn't. Now I'm regretting it... OH NO! I'm supposed to be a woman with no regrets! :-)

Wonder-ful

One of the things about having the illness that I have is that I'm supposed to eat all the things that current wisdom says you shouldn't. White rice, white bread, etc. Yum... Right now I'm eating a doughy pretzel with lots of salt. I wish I had some Wonder Bread though. I love peeling out the insides [nooo....! screams the slice] and squishing it all into a heavy ball, and then gnawing on that.

Chocolate covered fruit

Chocolate covered dried fruit is good. The exception however is blackberries. When you dry a blackberry, all you have left is seeds. Thus, I am eating the chocolate around it and spitting out the blackberry.