La maison de l'urine

Yep, that's right, I don't live in Urinetown, but I do inhabit the house of pee.

It has been a trying couple of days here on Summit Street--Ian spiked a fever on Tuesday night and so has been home from school for the past two days. Day 1 wasn't so bad--lots of juice, naps and any video he wanted (Wallace and Gromit 5 times in a row--yes, we know there is a Wallace and Gromit movie coming out soon) kept him pretty content and meant I had a little time to give Fiona the attention she demands these days.

Day 2 was a different story. Ian was still a little sick so I couldn't send him to school, but he was well enough to raise hell and demand a lot of attention. And Fiona was feeling about as stir crazy as I was and frustrated that her needs kept being put aside. So what did she do? Pee of course!

This kid has been completely potty trained for at least a month now, with hardly an accident. But yesterday she decided to pee on the floor and each time very near the urine receptacle. Intentional? You betcha! In the morning she stood and peed right next to her potty downstairs with a look of defiance firmly plastered on her face, and in the afternoon she went in the bathroom and purposely peed right next to the toilet. I know, I should have picked up that she wanted some more attention after the first incident so in a way it is my own damn fault that I live in La maison de l'urine.

But wait! That isn't all the pee! Our aging dog Sylvie (the dog with 9 lives since every month or so we think she will have to be put down and then she makes a miraculous recovery) decided that yesterday would be the day to try incontinence. Moments after cleaning up Fiona's second gusher, I went in our bedroom and there was Sylvie lying down quite unperturbed in a big puddle of her own urine. I think the most disturbing thing for me was how she didn't seem to mind it--she has been a dog with almost human emotions and in the past you could see her embarrassment and shame at any accident. This time it hardly seemed to register. I got her downstairs (which meant her sodden fur dripped pee all the way down the stairs, through the hall and dining room to the back door) and outside. Then I spent the next hour or so with lots of paper towels and Murphy's Oil Soap.

To say I was in a lousy mood by this time would be an understatement. I plopped the kids on the couch with a large supply of kiddy-cocaine (a.k.a. Goldfish crackers) and juice, turned on a Thomas video and retreated to my now urine-free bedroom.

And then I realized how good it would feel to rip out some knitting. (You were wondering how this would get back to one of my 4 obsessions, yes?) Remember how yesterday I said "no way in hell" would I rip out the long rows of the Ribby cardigan even though I was pretty sure I had messed up the decreases? Well, there I was in hell (which, by the way, has the acrid smell of pee) and rip away I did.

It took the length of one Thomas video to rip out what I had done and get it all back on the needles. The Denise interchangeable needles proved to be a boon in this exercise because I could detach portions of the needle and rip out sections separately without having the whole damn thing unraveling at once. I'm not entirely sure that I got everything back on the correct row (I may have ripped a row or two lower on one side than the other) but by then I really didn't give a damn. I went downstairs and put in another Thomas video (and appreciated the glazed, dull look my children get when they watch way too much TV in a day. Glazed and dull was just the state I striving for.) and then went back up and tried re-knitting the decreases. When the second-shift child-care worker (a.k.a. Brian) came home, I wasn't far enough along to tell whether the new decreases looked any better than the old ones or if I had messed up the sweater in a new and different way. But at least I had had a little ripping therapy.

It may be raining outside today, but here is to hoping that it is dry inside my house.

a lack of photographic evidence....

I made chocolate peanut butter ice cream the other day and for some strange reason, I have no photographic evidence of the stuff! It really is so damn good that I keep forgetting to photograph it--I'm far too intent on getting it in my mouth.

I used the chocolate ice cream recipe from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book (which I really like. I have the library copy but I need to buy my own copy.) This time I had organic heavy cream and organic milk in the house and I think it made a difference--the creaminess factor is even more apparent. Once the ice cream was finished in the machine (soft serve consistency) I layered it in the tupperware storage container with some natural peanut butter. This peanut butter happened to be too liquidy for good sandwich making (it was Trader Joe's basic stuff which usually is a bit firmer but must have been made from a particularly oily batch of peanuts) but it was the perfect pouring consistency for layering with the ice cream. After a few hours it was ready for scooping and man is it ever good.

I do have some photos of other things I've been up to. First, to stay on the food subject, here are some shrimp I made the other night:
They were really easy, which is always a plus. The only time consuming part was threading them on the skewers and that could be made less onerous (though more expensive) by buying bigger shrimp. I bought frozen shrimp that had already been shelled and deveined so the prep was particularly fast. Here's a basic recipe taken from a Cook's Illustrated e-mail newsletter:

Spicy Grilled Shrimp

Serves: 4 to 6
Start to finish: 30 Minutes

Shrimp can be grilled with the shell on or off and can be served hot or at room temperature.

Vegetable Oil
2 pounds large shrimp, deveined
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Lemon wedges (for serving)

1. Turn all the burners to high, close the lid, and heat the grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Clean and oil the grill. Leave all the burners on high.

2. Meanwhile, pat the shrimp dry with paper towels (if using frozen shrimp, the fastest way to thaw them safely is by putting them in a colander and running cold water over them), then rub with 2 tablespoons oil and season with thyme, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne and with salt and pepper to taste. Thread the shrimp onto metal skewers facing all in the same direction so that all will lie flat on the grate (if they seem too loose and spin on the skewer, thread them with a second skewer to secure).

3. Grill the shrimp, covered, until barely charred and bright pink, about 6 minutes. Serve with the lemon wedges.

I also have some photos of the Ribby cardigan I'm working on:
Here you see the fronts, sleeves and back all joined together on a really loooooong needle. And yes, that is a big tangle of the 5 balls of yarn that are attached. They remain in that tangled state until the snarl stops my progress and then I try to untangle them which lasts about 5 minutes and then they are all glommed together again.
And here is a close up of the most nerve-wracking part, the join between the sleeves and the body, where all the decreases for the raglan shaping are taking place. I'm pretty sure that I'm doing K2tog and SSK in the opposite place from where they really should be, but I figure as long as I'm consistent, it won't matter that much. I am a complete idiot when it comes to left and right so the logic of left slanting vs right slanting decreases is beyond me. I'm sure this would drive a perfectionist knitter crazy, but thankfully I am a member of the "good enough" knitters. Also, there is no way in hell I'm going to rip out a row that long.

On the reading and writing front, I finished Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. I really liked it with the exception of the ending which struck me as too abrupt, as though the author couldn't really figure out how to let go of the characters or the story.

Right now I am finishing up Madeline is Sleeping, which is still interesting, but not involving. A shallow confession, sometimes I think I continue to read it because I like the cover photo so much. It is a photograph by Lewis Carroll (yes, the Alice author) and it perfectly captures the weird dreamy, fantastical nature of the story. I'm always amazed at how much cover art influences me, especially since I'm not a very visual person. As I mentioned before, the horrible cover art of Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries kept me from such a fantastic book for way too long.

And yes, there is actually some news on the writing front--that is to say, there is the possibility of writing in my near future. Sarah, Ami and I are doing a weekend writing retreat from October 28-30 at the Bluebird Trails B&B in Hillsdale that Lynne highly recommended. We'll leave on a Friday afternoon and have all day Saturday and Sunday sans kids and spouses and pets and phones and other distractions to write. That may not sound like much time to some of you, but in the past 5.5 years, I have only had that much time to myself once. To say I am excited at the prospect of time to think and write is a big understatement.

blog comments update

After being slammed by a load of comment SPAM a couple of weeks ago I reset the settings on this blog so that only registered users could comment. This seemed to keep the SPAMers away, but sadly it also meant that some other people, whose comments I value, have e-mailed me to let me know that they don't feel comfortable having to register with Blogger in order to comment.

Since one of the things I really value about blogs (as opposed to personal web pages) is the comments portion where dialogue is encouraged--as a Work At Home Mom I have way too many one-sided conversations with the rug rats--I have changed the settings back so that anyone can comment.

If the SPAM comes back in an intense way, I may have to go back to the registered users setting since I can't stand the idea that anyone who comes to my blog has to wade through a clog of (badly written) ads. My feeling is that SPAM limits dialog even more than requiring one to register with a company in order to have one's voice heard. The only trick I can pass on, if I do have to return to the registered users setting, is one that I sometimes use. I have a "junk e-mail" (mine happens to be through Google G-mail, but a Yahoo or Juno or Angelfire or other free, web-based e-mail works just as well) and I am perfectly comfortable using this junk e-mail that contains little to no personal information when companies require me to register with them.

Anyway, here's to hoping that the SPAMers stay away from this little space in the virtual universe.

I've been holding this in

I know that no one looks to this blog for political opinions or commentary on the state of the world (in fact, I assume most people come here to take a break from the brutal reality), but I just heard an editorial about Katrina and the government that I have to pass on.

The video of the editorial is here at onegoodmove.

I'm trying to find out when Katrina refugees will be arriving in Ann Arbor and settled into the (at least) 100 apartments that McKinly is making available in our area. I know refugees arrived in Battle Creek on Monday and will be dispersed in the coming week. I'm checking this web site regularly to find out when local volunteers will be needed and what we can do.

My response to crisis is always to turn to my kitchen and figure out how to cook my way out of it, or at least to offer food as a comfort through hard times. I may not have lots of money to replace material things that these people lost, (and unfortunately I can't follow Kim's example and volunteer to go where ever Red Cross needs people most for two weeks) but damn it, I can cook. I know that organizations like Food Gatherers and the like will be providing refugees with food so I'm hoping that I can find a way to be involved in that. Maybe I can get together a team of the good cooks I know and prepare large quantities of transportable food to reach out to these people and let them know they are welcome in our community.

Friends from far away

Two of my favorite people in the world, Lee and Patrick, were here yesterday on their cross country drive back to their home in Berkeley. In celebration both of their presence and of the fact that I can (finally) taste again, I made some good food for dinner.

We had

Beer-Can Chicken

Roast Sweet Potato Wedges

Alice Waters's Coleslaw (recipe below)

Buttermilk Biscuits

and for dessert, a Peach-Almond Gratin served with whipped cream.

By far my favorite part of the meal is the coleslaw. The recipe was published in the New York Times Magazine a few years ago (back before Amanda Hesser became the food editor of the magazine and back when, dare I say, the recipes were still pretty usable) and I always forget how much I love it until I make it and can't stop eating it.

The rest of the dinner was good, though the Peach-Almond Gratin, adapted from a recipe in Patricia Wells' The Paris Cookbook for cherries, was too rich. The almond cream that goes over the top of the fresh peaches is a wonderful flavor complement but with a whole stick of butter and a whole cup of ground almonds, I thought it was too heavy. I'd like to try spiking the topping of a regular cobbler (like this one) with a little almond extract and some sliced almonds instead.

Alice Waters's Coleslaw
serves 6-12 (depending on the cabbage lovers among your guests)

1 medium cabbage, outer leaves removed
1 large jalapeno pepper
1/2 a small red onion, cut in half through the stem, peeled
1 C loosely packed cilantro leaves
4 T lime juice
1 T red wine vinegar
1/3 C olive oil
1 1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
large pinch of sugar

Quarter the cabbage through the core; cut out the core. Finely shred the cabbage into a large bowl--I use a mandoline (actually a cheaper Japanese Benriner mandoline look-alike) to get it really thin and fine. It is worth the risk to my knuckles. Finely slice the red onion into half moon shapes (again, I use the mandoline). Cut open the jalapeno, discard the seeds and dice it fine. Chop the cilantro. Add diced jalapeno, onion, and cilantro to the cabbage and toss to mix. Sprinkle with the lime juice, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and sugar and toss to coat.

You want to make this at least an hour before serving so that the salt has time to wilt the cabbage. Waters likes to serve it at room temperature, but I prefer it gently chilled.

back again

I just got back from the Caribbean--No wait! That wasn't the Caribbean! That was another place that starts with "C"-- Canada!

No kidding. The photo above was taken a couple of days ago on the shores of Lake Superior. Can you believe it? We took the kids canoe camping up at Lake Superior Provincial Park for the long weekend and it was so breath-takingly beautiful I'm still a little stunned. And at this time of year there are (drum roll please) NO BUGS. No black flies, no mosquitoes, nuthin'.

I read the most wonderfully appropriate book before back-country camping. On Thursday afternoon I finished Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness and on Friday morning I was in the wilderness myself.

I approached Into the Wilderness with some trepidation; I knew it was supposed to be a sequel to Last of the Mohicians but not much more about the story. It was the author I was concerned with because Sara Donati also writes under the pseudonym Rosina Lippi and her book Homestead is wonderful--one of the best books my book group has read and one of my favorite books of the last few years. I knew the books written under the name Sara Donati would not be similar in tone and I was worried that I'd dislike her doing historical fiction, and, what's more, historical fiction that is also a romance. But it was a terrific transporting read--completely different from Homestead, but lots of fun and a total immersion.

And I appreciated the story of a woman going off into the bush even more while sitting at my island campsite, enjoying this sunset:
There are three more books in the Wilderness series and Donati is finishing up the fifth one. I've heard a bit about it on her wonderful blog Storytelling--one of my favorite blogs out there (even though she hardly ever mentions food in her blog...thankfully the books have ample descriptions of frontier/Native American foods. I have a strong hankering for corn bread now though I think I'll pass on the rendered bear fat.)

While camping I got a good way into another book, recommended by Ami (and endorsed in its goodness by Annie), Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. As Ami mentioned to me when she told me about the book, the main character Harriet is a lot like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird: a little older than Scout and maybe a bit more defiant, but that same good grubby fearless girl spirit. The comparison with Mockingbird doesn't end here--there is a version of Calpurnia in Harriet's beloved housekeeper Ida, the book is set in the deep South, and the main character is trying to solve a mystery. The writing is really terrific--not at all showy, but really tight and vivid. I haven't read Tartt's debut novel The Secret History, but I'm pretty sure when I finish this one that I'll want to read it soon.

A sad day for the caffeinated

Lynne alerted me to the fact that my favorite coffee roasting/delivery service is closed, possibly for good. Here is the notice printed on Amazing Beans home page:

Dear Friends,

For some time now, Amazing Beans has been a novel enterprise working hard to provide great beans and service. We've had phenomenal growth, too! Unfortunately, there have been growing demands on my time in other aspects of my life... So, instead of sacrificing the level of quality and service, we've decided to temporarily suspend our business operations. The roaster (the machine), our warehouse and all of our other equipments will still be around, albeit in hibernation. We hope to be able to bring the business back into operation in the near future. When we do, we sincerely hope that your enthusiasm for our products and services will continue.

If you have a pre-paid subscription with Amazing Beans, we will be providing you a pro-rated refund to your credit card in the next few days. If you have any questions, please give us a call at (734) 794-7106 or send us an e-mail at info@amazingbeans.com.

Johann
Owner/Roaster

I have become hooked on their Espresso Roast and completely dependent on the free home delivery (if you live in Ann Arbor) the day after the beans have been ordered and roasted.

It is going to depress the hell out of me to have to go dig in a bin of dubiously aged beans now. Or to pay through the nose for Grumpy Monkey (which is also only sold at a place that is completely inconvenient for me to get to).

I probably have enough Amazing Beans left for a few more morning lattes and you can be bet that while I drink them, I'll be praying to the coffee gods that Johann can start up his business again.

slowly slowly

I am very slowly getting better from this wretched cold. Today is Ian's first day of kindergarten and I think I can walk around the corner to his school without getting too dizzy.

Pathetic.

The thing about being sick is that I get so damn bored. Lying around reading and knitting for a week sounds nice at first, but I much prefer to be sick in the wintertime, not when the weather is beautiful outside and I want to be able to play with my kids.

So in desperation, last night Brian and I invited some friends over to bring some social stimuli to me. I made dinner in lots of little steps--I'd get up, chop something while sitting at the table, then go lie down again. I didn't have the energy yet to cook in big swoops but the step by step method worked pretty well. My taste buds are not quite back to normal yet--I wasn't able to detect subtle flavors, but could tell sweet from savory.

I made a traditional Cordoban gazpacho to start. That is a gazpacho that isn't like watered down salsa--I'm not a big fan of that kind of gazpacho (I was disappointed to see Mark Bittman do a column in the NY Times where he took a basic fresh salsa recipe--tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, onion, garlic--and then added some olive oil and cucumber and called it gazpacho).

The gazpacho I made simply consisted of whole tomatoes (from my garden), a hunk of bread, almonds, garlic, salt, olive oil and sherry vinegar. A LOT of olive oil--a whole cup--gets poured in slowly to emulsify the tomato mixture. As a result, it tastes almost creamy. I did veer away from the traditional garnish of chopped hard-boiled egg and julienne strips of serrano ham; I went with a mini dice of cucumber to give it a nice cool, crunchy garnish.

Then I made some more of that fabulous grilled corn. Here is a photo of Ami (who provided the recipe in the first place) helping with the cheese anointing:I think Ami looks like a Vermeer here with her concentration on the task at hand and the strong light source. "Woman with Yummy Corn"--an elegant title don't you think?

I also made hamburgers with Chipotle seasonings, cheddar and guacamole. They were ok, but the corn was so good that I felt like the burgers paled in comparison. And I also made the burgers a little too chubby--it was difficult to get one's mouth (even a big mouth not adverse to stretching to cram in good food) around the whole enterprise.

For desert I did the roasted peaches with brown sugar and basil and John brought some fabulous Vanilla ice cream he made that day.

This is what the peaches looked like when they came out of the oven.

And here they are with their decadent cap of ice cream.

My taste buds weren't up to detecting the basil flavor, but Ami and John, whose flavor sensibilities I trust wholeheartedly, said it was a nice addition. John suggested a final broiling next time to crisp up the brown sugar which sounds like a great idea.

So that was my reward for no tasting and no company all week. I'm a little tuckered out now, but at least I'm not feeling like an insane cooped up woman who will assault the first adult that stumbles across her path with the demand "Talk to me! For god's sake, talk to me!"

While sick I finished reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. It was a fun read while sick, but not a book I'd go out of my way to recommend. I'm not the ideal audience though, since Vampire lore isn't really that appealing to me. I was much more interested in what I thought of as historically based travel writing--I liked reading about the settings (Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey) and the stuff that took place there more than the characters and their motivations. I also thought the book needed a better editor to tighten up the story and catch some things that were annoying blips (parents in the 1960s would not hike up to a monastery for a day trip with their 9 month old baby and then on a whim decide to spend the night--Hello-diapers??)

Now I am about 3/4 of the way through Madeline is Sleeping. It's ok--dreamy and impressionistic, but I'm not finding any of it sticking with me. I shut the book and forget about it right away. Thankfully, Ami gave me some suggestions for some more compelling reading: The Little Friend, Atonement and Being Dead.

I can't taste but I can dream of tasting

I'm in Kate-hell right now. The cold has knocked out my taste buds. I can't taste anything. I made very strong coffee this morning and it could have been chamomile tea. I smeared apricot preserves on my toast out of habit before I realized that it was just for looks since I couldn't taste the damn stuff.

And two days ago, I made intense vanilla ice cream with the intention of affogatto-ing it (word mutilation comes with the territory when I'm sick) but it is going to have to wait until my sense of smell and taste return for its espresso bath and in the meantime I know it will become less ideal in texture (homemade ice cream without all the guar gum glop in it is best as soon as it firms up in the freezer; after that it starts to form ice crystals and get kind of stiff instead of creamy).

Rather than sit out this period of sense-loss I've been planning for its return. I've been reading back postings of The Traveler's Lunchbox which is such a lovely food blog. And I have been organizing some recipes I want to try while the season is right. I have a load and a half of swiss chard in my garden, a significant quantity of cherry tomatoes and it is still Red Haven peach season. So the menu for when I return to the world of taste goes like this:

• Swiss chard stuffed ravioli with fresh tomato sauce (which I clipped from, I think, Food and Wine magazine)
• Cherry tomato confit over fresh herbed ricotta (in today's NY Times--the link will only be good for a week so print out the recipe if it looks good to you)
• Peaches roasted with brown sugar and basil (again in today's Times)
  

Sounds like a dreamy way to consume the waning days of summer, yes?

On a positive note, and one I think Jillian will appreciate, this cold has got me out of eating in Frankenmuth. I still have to go up there tonight (we're selling our cabin on Lake Huron to some folks who live in Saginaw and the closing is taking place in Frankenmuth this evening) but I will get out of the food portion of the visit. I do plan to try and save up enough energy to track down the treasures buried beneath the kitch--specifically something in the line of Jillian's taco Christmas ornament, and maybe a little more yarn since we all know that yarn is key to recovering from sickness.

I have been knitting and reading a great deal in all the time I've saved by not cooking. Both can be done while lying on the couch and since I'm still feeling kind of weak (yea, that's the reason the house is a sty....) that's where I want to be. My Ribby Cardigan is getting close to the point where I attempt to attach the sleeves to the body and try and knit the whole thing, from the armpits to the neck, in the round. And last night I finished a wonderful book: Making an Exit : A Mother-Daughter Drama with Alzheimer's, Machine Tools, and Laughter by Elinor Fuchs (whose Death of Character book was one I actually enjoyed reading while in grad school). The writing in the memoir is wonderful--precise, funny, moving.

So now I am off to another day of child-neglect, couch lolling, reading The Historian, and dreaming of tasting again.

Touched by his noodly appendage

Thanks to Kim, I have been touched by the noodly appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Bobby Henderson's brilliant response to the Kansas School Board. I received my Flying Spaghetti Monster T-shirt yesterday and in his honor I made this for dinner:
Ok, so it isn't spaghetti but it is very noodly--Korean Chap Chae with tofu. Unlike a lot of Korean food this one is very mild--no hot peppers and just a small amount of garlic. It is noodly comfort food which is what I needed yesterday as I have come down with the dreaded summer cold and in particular a sore throat. Nothing like bean thread noodles for slipping down easily. If you are not under the weather, you could punch this up by serving it with a good cucumber salad and some fiery Kim Chee. And the recipe is easy enough that you can still make it even when feeling less than capable in other areas (say, child rearing and maintaining a hygienic atmosphere in which said children are currently living).

Chap Chae with Tofu

1 big cake of firm tofu
some soy, rice wine vinegar, ginger and garlic for marinating tofu
1 T vegetable oil

6 oz bean thread noodles
1/2 C good soy sauce
3 T Asian sesame oil
3 T sugar
1 T chopped garlic
1 T vegetable oil
1 1/2-2 C onions, sliced lengthwise
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced (go for Shitake if your budget allows, if not plain old white will do just fine)
4 C baby spinach

Cut up the tofu into cubes and put in a tupperware--douse with a reasonable quantity of soy, a dash of vinegar, 1 decent sized diced clove garlic, and some ginger (powdered or fresh). Put on the lid and shake gently to coat. Pop in the fridge and let marinate as long as you want. Give it a toss every now and then.

Soak noodles in a bowl of warm water until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain. Cook noodles in boiling water until just tender--about 1 minute--then dump in a colander and rinse under cold water until cooled. You don't want the noodles fully cooked because then they won't absorb the sauce well when stir fried.

Blend soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic in a blender until smooth.

Heat oil in a deep 12 inch heavy skillet and saute onion and carrot until softened (about 3 minutes), add mushrooms and stir fry until softened and most of their liquid has evaporated (another 3 minutes or so), add spinach and stir fry until it is wilted. Add noodles and soy sauce mixture and stir it all up. Simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the noodles and/or evaporated (you don't want it soupy).

Meanwhile, drain the marinated tofu. Heat a T of vegetable oil in a nonstick pot and when hot, chuck the tofu in the oil (it will splatter so hold a lid like a shield to protect yourself from flying droplets). Let one side sort of firm up and crisp a bit before stirring it up. When fried up to your taste (I am way too lazy to make sure each side of a cube of tofu is cooked until crisp), scoop the tofu out of the pan and drain a bit on a paper towel.

Transfer noodles to a shallow serving bowl (necessary because all the spinach and carrots and stuff will have sunk to the bottom of your frying pan) and top with tofu. Serve warm or at room temperature.