Links

I got nothin' to talk about worth using up space here except for a fantastic new drink that Sarah introduced our book group to: Ouzo and Pink Grapefruit juice. Fan-bloody-tastic.

So go out, get yourself the two ingredients (try and get the kind of ruby red juice that is combined with other juice concentrates rather than high fructose cornsyrup--look in the natural foods section of the market) and some ice cubes and while you are sipping away at your lovely anise-grapefruity combo, I give you a couple of links to blogs that are helping me get through this week of single parenthood--escapism, humor, even a little inspiration for when life gets back to normal.

• Monster Crochet--her fantastic crocheted T-bone steaks with eyeballs have to be seen to be believed. I wonder if I could knit a T-bone...
• Pandafix--because in the depths of winter, watching fuzzy bamboo eaters is almost as good as the sun.
• Nixie Knox the Tatooed Librarian--with a name like that, you really must visit. And she's local.
• Go Fug Yourself--because laughing at celebrities (even celebrities who you are too unhip to even recognize as celebrities...) can make you feel better about yourself. And how can you resist copy like this in which Katie Holmes is described as "leech on a man-alien, incubator to the Rambaldi baby (or whatever that thing is in there), and altogether pitiable pregnant lady who just makes us all hurt a bit for how miserable she's going to be soon"?
• Cute Overload--I know, "Cute" and "Kate" rarely occur in the same sentence, but if you are desperate for something to make you smile, try this site.
• thumbscre.ws--some damn funny writing.

For the love of an appliance

Avert your eyes if you can't stand witnessing an excesses of love and joy because I'm about to get all gushy here.

I love my stove. I love love love love love my stove.

No, I don't have a $3000+ professional beast. I have a competent, yet relatively modest, Jenn-air Model JGS8850ADW. It has a gas cooktop and a gas-convection oven.

I am sure that my perception of my stove is influenced by its predecessor, an electric, evil piece of crap I used to call "The Inferno" since it had two settings: Off and Burn. When we finally decided to replace it, we didn't even consider donating such a malicious machine to a place like the Re-Use Center. Instead we got a little therapeutic relief by ripping the damn thing apart and throwing the pieces into the driveway. Seeing an appliance that has tormented you reduced to a pile of debris is really very satisfying.

My latest reason for loving my current stove beyond all reason is this:
See that button at the bottom of the (grubby) control panel in the first full column on the left? The one that says "Bread Proofing"? I used it last night to make this:

perfect, thick creme fraiche.

We keep our house pretty damn cool in the wintertime (daytime setting 61 F, nighttime setting 59 F) and without this nice warm place for the bowl of cream with a tablespoon of buttermilk to sit and fester I would have had watery glop that was decidedly not "fraiched".

Tempting as it is while solo parenting to sit down with a spoon, a bottle of potent alcohol (more Poire William anyone?) and a video of a Jane Austin movie and eat the whole bowl after the kids go to bed, I am actually going to share this glorious stuff with my bookgroup tonight. We read Three Junes by Julia Glass (which, I confess I didn't re-read though I did enjoy it the first time I read it about a year and a half ago) and in honor of the portion of the book set in Scotland, I am making an appetizer/canape sort thingy with smoked salmon, salmon caviar and some of that glorious creme fraiche. I haven't exactly decided what form the completed dish will take, but with three such ingredients, how can it be bad?

Before and after

I am no organization queen. Far from it. But to prepare for the chaos that will be this week of solo parenting (Brian is off in sunny Phoenix again) I decided that I would clean out a few of my kitchen cabinets. Because we all know that if your kitchen cabinets are organized and tidy then you won't lose it and start drinking gin at 3 pm. (Though I'm out of gin after taco night so I'll have to venture into the disorganized booze cabinet and see what else is hiding there.)

This urge to organize in a vain attempt to feel in control of your life reminds me of my friend Lee who decided the night before she was to host a baby shower that had been foisted on her and that she didn't want to host that she simply had to alphabetize all her books rather than clean or cook. And this woman has a lot of books. But you know, the next day when people arrived at her kinda dusty, disheveled house and ate supermarket hummus and crackers she felt a whole lot better about the whole enterprise because all the Margaret Atwood books were together on the shelf. And really, a happy host has a big impact on a party.

Often when I open this cabinet:
something falls on me. Here you see the impressive engineering feat (and you thought Brian was the one with the engineering talent in the family! Ha!) that is my cabinet: teetering packages of crackers, a precariously balanced container of currants and a bunch of stuff on the top shelf that I don't think I've looked at (or for) in a few years.

I also decided to tackle this cabinet:
Tea towers to the right and piles of cans to the left with a few miscellaneous items hiding in the back.

The scariest things that I found were these:

Baby food that expired in 2004....

I also discovered that I had four boxes of baking soda, some green tea I didn't know I owned and don't remember buying and over three pounds of dried apricots--why three pounds? I dunno. I guess every time I went to the store I thought I was out of them and bought some more. What will I do with three pounds of dried apricots? Apricot scones? Other ideas?

Half a day later, this is what the two cabinets look like:

Raisin boxes lined up with almost military precision! Nothing threatening to bonk me on the nose when I open the door!

Oh my, you can actually find what you are looking for in this cabinet. And no scary baby food either.

So this week, when the kids make me cuckoo and I can't stand the chaos that is the rest of my life, I plan to open the doors of these two cabinets and just gaze at the order and (hopefully) remember that life will not always be insane. And if the view doesn't quite do it on its own, I'll try gazing at the cabinets with a vodka tonic in hand.

Ann Arbor Bloggin' News

Just a short post to direct you towards a terrific new blog my friend Deb started called "Blue Pencil: The Uninvited Editor". She re-edits sections of books mostly for the flaws that British authors make when trying to write American characters, but also just grammar goofs in general. The kind of thing that we passionate readers wish more PAID editors would catch before publication. As many of you know, my little sub-specialty in the uninvited editing world is culinary accuracy in fiction. Deb has the British/American idiom thing down pat.

And while this may not be news to you all, it was quite a thrill for me to meet Julie "The Bookworm" while swimming with my kids at the Y this morning. In between wrestling our respective children back into their clothing we were able to talk a little about books and the aesthetics of book printing and how we feel when a badly printed book or crappy cover art turns us off of the book.

Rippidy Doo Dah!

What can I say? My fingers started to itch. That's why I took this rarely worn garment:
And ripped it out to become this:

Note: I did not organize the balls into the triangular shape. They wanted to be that way. And if you wonder why the yarn seems so much brighter in the bottom photo it is because the SUN is actually SHINING. Of course the sun quit such foolishness moments later and everything, including the yarn, looks dingy again.

Ripping is so therapeutic, especially when one actually used decent yarn. That sweater was made of Rowan Biggy Print (though I don't think they carry this color any more) that I bought a couple of years ago on sale at Flying Sheep (by far my preferred local yarn store due to their lovely employees and owner). It is a really lovely, springy, soft merino wool and tolerated my non-too-gentle ripping very well. The funnelneck sweater I made was from the Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits and it never really worked. It turned out too warm to wear inside and did nothing to minimize my broad shoulders. If anything it made me look like a linebacker.

So now I'm going to turn it into a raglan cardigan and I'm going to do a little math (gasp!) and use the Custom Fit Raglan Sweater pattern generator. I plan to use chunkier needles--I'm thinking size 13--so the resulting knit is a little airier and less dense than the previous sweater which was knit on size 10s. Hopefully the raglan sleeves and no seams will minimize shoulder size. I think that was one of the big problems on the previous sweater--chunky wool makes a chunky seam, even if the seam was sewn really well, which, in this case it was not. Sloppy seaming and chunky wool made it look like it had shoulder pads.

I haven't decided how I want to edge the sweater, whether I should add some ribbing or do a couple of rows of crochet as an edge. Maybe I'll swatch a little example of each and post them here so you all can vote and help me to decide.

Palate preparation

I may be in the minority here, but last night I decided that the best way to prepare my palate for this culinary delight:
was by first polishing off this:
and two gin and tonics later, following with four of these:
Nothing like gin and retro-crappy tacos to prepare your palate for Lavender Orange Almond Cake.

In my defense, I did wait until after 5 pm to hit the gin and this week was a pretty tense one in the parenting department. Fiona has learned how to punch Ian's buttons. She is no longer the sweet little sister who thinks that he's a god and does whatever he says. While a part of me applauds her feisty spirit, by 5 pm on a Friday, the rest of me was just sick to death of being a referee. So the ref hit the sauce and there was much rejoicing! When Brian came in the door at 6 pm we were running around the house singing the melodies from Carmen and Beethoven's 9th at the top of our lungs.

To say that we were a spazzy mess of humanity is a bit of an understatement. Thankfully Brian did not turn right around and head back out the door; instead he helped usher the taco fixin's to the table (news flash: taco filling is just fine when made while drunk!) I think this is the first time I've made the totally non-authentic tacos that I grew up with. The last time I had one of these was, oh probably 1985.

But you know what? They weren't that bad; they were kind of comforting in the food memory department, they were easy as hell and (big drum roll) the kids actually ate them too.

Despite intense interest from the short people of the family,
once the taco fest was over, it was too close to bedtime to risk giving them any sugar.

After we wrestled them into their jammies and beds, I was feeling pretty sober again so I relaxed on the couch with my slice of cake, a cup of peppermint tea and this excellent book:
And the cake? Awesome. Very moist with a heavy almond flavor from the ground almonds and almond extract in the batter and the sliced almonds on top, and the orange and lavender pushed it over the top. I think it would still be an excellent cake without the lavender (if you don't have any on hand), but the lavender does provide a little extra boost of interest. You can get the recipe here at The Traveler's Lunchbox.

Tonight, I think I'll have another slice and pair it with some of the Poire William eau de vie that I've been neglecting of late.

LIGHT!

The sun is shining today! It has been a LOOOOOONG time.

Heading out to get some happy rays. That is all I have to say.

The Power of Suggestion

When it comes to food, I am incredibly susceptible to the power of suggestion. That is why I subscribe to so many food magazines, read food blogs (especially those with nice photos) and now, listen to food-related podcasts.

For this latest addiction, I have Jillian to blame. At a holiday knitting party, she off-handedly mentioned that I should get an I-Pod and listen to the Eat Feed podcasts while working out.

I dare say Jillian has no idea the power she has over me. (Hi Jillian! Want me to go jump in a frozen lake? Bake you a cake? Name my cat Jake? Stop rhyming? Will do!)

A few days later I had ordered this:

My new friend. I am in lurrrrv. And yes, I have a way with earphone cords that makes them tangle like a nasty ball of yarn every time I take them off...Luckily my yarn experience makes me pretty adept at untangling them.
(For brand justification, see below ***)

and, after a little teeth gnashing and some child neglect, I figured out how to download these podcasts to my computer (using I-Tunes, which yes, works just fine on a Windows computer):

• Eat Feed
• KCRW's Good Eats
• KCRW's Bookworm (both KCRW shows available for download here)
• NPR: Food (which excerpts any food related radio bit from stuff like Morning Edition and All Things Considered and compiles them together for your food obsessive ease)
• The Diane Rehm Show Friday News Round-Up (the only time I really listen to the show)--both NPR podcasts available here.

I also loaded Beethoven's Symphony No 7 (my sanity and concentration inducing music--especially the second movement) and a couple of the kids' music albums (my car stereo is perpetually freaking out so I can plug in the player to a little transmitter and play it over the radio).

This weekend while sweating away at the gym and boosting my endorphins in a desperate substitute for mood-altering sunshine, I listened to the "Easy Japanesey" (the title makes me wince, but that didn't stop me from listening to it) Eat Feed podcast and so tonight I'm making Tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets--super comfort food).

I have a podcast on Scandinavian food and the foods of Vermont loaded up so we'll see what effect those two shows have on my upcoming cooking desires. There are over 30 Eat Feed episodes that I can download with more being added each week so there's plenty of good listening up ahead.

In the non-food area, I also listened to a wonderful interview with Robert Pinsky courtesy of KCRW Bookworm whose book of poetry, The Want Bone, is one of my favorites of all time. I went so far as to include the title poem in my wedding vows. He was talking about his new book, The Life of David, which I just so happen to have just got out of the library. How's that for good timing?

*** So why did I choose the Creative MuVo TX FM 512MB-Portable Audio Player w/Headphones and not one of those popular I-Pods? A couple of reasons:

1. I wanted an MP3 player with an FM tuner so that if I wanted to switch to radio rather than something I downloaded, I could. Fresh Air is not available as a free podcast and if I get the chance to listen to it, I will.
   
2. I wanted a Flash player rather than one with a hard drive so I wouldn't have to worry about it getting banged around or skipping when working out (I-Pod Nano and Shuffle are flash based, the others are not--if the Nano came with an FM tuner and wasn't so damn expensive--see reason #5 below--I'd have been tempted to get that). I keep this thing wadded in my gym bag or pocket and am relieved that I don't have to be gentle with it.
   
3. I didn't want to tote around my whole CD collection because I'm not that good with choice so I got a player with 512MB of storage rather than, say, 20 gigs. That is plenty for me to download 4 or 5 podcasts and some music. And then I delete the podcasts after I've listened to them and load on a new one.
4. This little fellow got great reviews for sound and ease of use quality from PC Review.
5. And I got it for $50!! I found it on sale at Buy.com and it also had a rebate and free shipping at the time. (Unfortunately, it is back up to $114 now.)

Busy hands, though not in the kitchen...

I haven't been cooking or knitting as much as I'd like (I still read folks, or else I'd be locked up in the loony bin. Writing? Ha! You try writing when the cruel AA school district decides to put off starting classes until January 9th).

However, I have been keeping my hands occupied making this:

and helping Ian make this:

to hold this:

so that the tooth fairy will find this:

(We decided on red and silver glitter to attract the tooth fairy to the prize.)

and leave this newly gap-toothed boy some money.

If you too are in need of a Tooth Fairy Gazebo and Sign, or other wonderful, free printable, foldable boxes and toys, visit The Toymaker.

I am planning to do some non-subsistence cooking soon and thankfully the January 2006 issue of Gourmet rocks in the recipe department. Some of the recipes serve as reminders of things that I've made in the past and haven't thought of it a while (pork loin stuffed with prunes) and others are things I've never tried making (the fabulously named Eggplant Kuku for instance).

So here's what my upcoming recipe list looks like:

• Lavender Orange Almond Cake which The Traveler's Lunchbox listed as one of her favorite recipes of 2005.
• Carrot Ginger Salad dressing
• Eggplant Kuku ( I'll have to make it for a dinner party because announcing the name will be so much fun.)
• Pho (I haven't' figured out which recipe to use yet.)
• Mustard Cheddar Crackers
• Braised Pork Loin with Prunes
  
• Kefta and Zucchini Kebabs These will make Brian very, very happy because he can never have too much middle eastern food.
  
• Chocolate Souffle Cake with Orange Caramel Sauce
  
• Cheese Grits (hopefully I'll get Meg to give me her recipe.)
• Cauliflower Cheddar Gratin with Horseradish Crumbs
  
• The absurdly named "Men's Favorite Salad" which sounds like a good coleslaw.
• Stilton Dressing

Watch this space to see if any, or all, are worth the effort.

Yet who would have thought the old "beet" to have had so much blood in him?

Yea, well, you'd be ripping off Lady Macbeth too if you had just grated 6 beets into your borscht and stained your palms a delightful shade of magenta.
"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" and ya know why? Just before serving, this recipe has you add some lemon juice and ten, count 'em, TEN squashed cloves of garlic. So not only are my hands purple, but they stink.

And the Borscht? Pretty good. I remember it tasting fantastic (rather than just good) when Halla made it for our book group to go with our discussion of Everything is Illuminated. But maybe it was the fact that someone else had made it and I didn't have purple stinky hands that pushed it up a notch from good to fantastic. Or maybe it was the effect of good company, good wine and a really good book that elevated the eating experience. But still, it was a pretty decent beefy, beety, dilly, garlicy bowl of heartiness which had the intended effect of helping me tolerate yet another sunless winter day.

And if you too are in need of a winter antidote, or if you just want the recipe, go here.