Ring in the New

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson --written 1850

Amazing how this 150-year old poem is so salient today. A new president, a new year. A chance to start again. May that peace and compassion, love and honor, win the day. Tennyson says it more lyrically than I can, but I share his longing for a better tomorrow for all.

Quiet

I really like the quiet time between Christmas and New Year. We put a lot of focus on the new year in our household (more on that in another post). There's something redemptive about the turning of the page, the chance to start afresh. And after this year, which had some amazing highs, but accompanying painful lows, I am ready for the new.

The last of our company left about an hour and a half ago. The four of us all seem to be in separate rooms reading, watching tv, playing games, or just piddling around. This feels very restful after the last week of company, prep and all that noise and commotion that comes with Christmas.

I had relatively bruising Christmas. Some long-ago family issues that I had thought were resolved and past came bubbling up to the surface. This is on top of the screaming fight that broke out at my mother-in-law's on Christmas Eve between a husband-and-wife guest (not relatives). As a result, there was just a lot of tension all around me. (I'd be more specific, but although I feel completely comfortable blogging my own issues, I don't want to share other people's). This situation, coupled with the real pain of seeing someone you love hurting, has just left me feeling raw and mentally fried.

So, I want to spend the next few days enjoying the healing company of my little family. If the weather cooperates, we'll be taking some walks in the woods. We'll play games. We'll watch movies. And I have a few enjoyable little art projects to work on as well.

We need some time to just be still.

Finding books

I've been under the weather this week, and whenever I try to do too much, my body responds by forcing me back to bed. As a consequence, I got through quite a few library books.

I have a weakness for medieval mysteries. I have always been fascinated by the middle ages and by one figure in particular: Eleanor of Aquitaine. I read A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver when I was 9 years old and that started my Eleanor fandom and my interest in medieval England.

Mysteries I like to get from the library, because rereading them is usually not enjoyable. Why buy a book you're only going to read once? And luckily, my library is chock full of mysteries--they seem to be very popular with readers in my area of town. The Houston Public Library also has an online hold function, where you can request a book over the Internet and it will be sent to your branch from other branches...I use this a lot.

So, about the whole medieval mystery thing. Historical mysteries are an interesting subset of the mystery genre. There are all these English and history professors out there, brimming with knowledge of a certain point in time, and dying to stuff everything they know into a book people will actually read. So they choose to write mysteries, because they know general audiences will never buy their scholarly texts.

I thought I'd mention a few of the characters I've been hanging out with recently...and then maybe see if a blog reader has suggestion for others.

Mistress of the Art of Death. I can't recommend this book, by Arianna Franklin, and its sequel, The Serpent's Tale highly enough. The lead character, Adelia, is a Salerno-educated doctor who specializes in forensics and pathology. She comes to England and then is forced to stay by King Henry. She also chooses single motherhood The books are extremely well-written and just fascinating. And imagine how I squee'd when Eleanor appears in the second book.

Dame Frevisse. I love Margaret Frazer's books. My favorite is Joliffe, an actor and spy with a theater troupe (set in early 1400). Her Dame Frevisse character (these books are set around the same time, as Frevisse and Joliffe occasionally interact) is a nun (there are lots of clergy in medieval mysteries, probably because these were some of the most educated folks around, who were able to travel).

Speaking of clergy, I like the Peter Tremayne series with its lead character Sister Fidelma. Sister Fidelma is sister to a King of Ireland, and a highly educated lawyer. She is also a married member of the clergy, married to a Saxon monk. These books are packed full of details about the Irish court system and the shifts that were occurring in cultural mores. Women at this point in Ireland (set in 664 AD) have many more rights than they will in just a few years. These books are sometimes thinly plotted, but I like the historical information so keep reading them. In fact, my hold request for Dancing with Demons was in, so I picked it up today.

I've also just read both Lord John books by Diana Gabaldon. Lord John Grey is a character in Diana Gabaldon's fantastically popular Outlander Series. These spin-off books are set in the 1750s (so not exactly medieval). Lord John is gay and there are some mild sex scenes, so if that sort of thing bothers you, these probably aren't the books for you. But, there's also a lot of truly fascinating information about what it would have been like to be gay in a time and a place where you could have been executed if the wrong people found out. And, like the Outlander books, they're good reads. They're also more character studies than true mysteries.

As are the Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear. These books, not medieval at all, are set in England between the wars. They are usually classified as mysteries, but they're more unravellings, with the focus on the characters and their histories. I just think they're beautifully written.

I've also recently read one of Edward Marston's Nicholas Bracewell books (also set in the Elizabethan theater), and read plenty of Brother Cadfael (more clergy, set in the 12th century). Today at the library, I checked out a book by Alys Clare, so we'll give her a try.

Finally, I found this great site, called Literature map, billing itself as the tourist map of literature. You can plug in an author, and see which other writers map closely to him or her. It's kind of fun to see what comes up, and it gives you some names of new authors to check out.

What are the odds?

So, I'm just sort of wondering what the odds are of scraping both the bottom of the peanut butter jar and the bottom of the jelly jar and ending up with just enough to make school lunches this morning? Surely that's a harbinger of something good.

Milestone

My oldest son has hit 5 feet tall. He's just turned eleven years old, so he's probably going to be taller than me by the time he's finished with sixth grade. It's been hard to predict what his adult height will be just by looking at his parents. My husband has an adrenal dysfunction, the medication for which shortened what his adult height genetically should have been.

My physician dad took one look at the kid over Thanksgiving (and the size of those flippers he calls feet) and said, he'll be 6 foot 2, easy. I looked it up on a growth chart recently (which of course is just an average), and sure enough he's exactly on the line for 74 inches (6 foot 2). How'd my dad do that? I guess forty years of being a physician has some uses after all.

It just points out the importance of establishing yourself as the authority in the house, before they physically overwhelm you.

Irish Pork Ban

As happened with the Chinese melamine scandal, the US FDA is being incredibly, glacierly slow to remove dangerous products from US marketplaces.

Just so you know, Ireland has recalled all its pork products produced since September 1st because the entire food chain has been contaminated with dioxin, a known carcinogen (and something you really don't want to ingest). There has been no official recall (yet) of Irish beef, but there are some reports of contamination as well, as the culprit is thought to be oil-contaminated feed. Hog and beef producers are being isolated, and there will be a massive slaughter of affected animals. However, Irish product has already made its way into US stores.

If you are a fan of Irish pork sausage, ham or bacon, now would be the time to throw it out. The FDA will get around to banning it in four months or so, if we're lucky. You don't want to wait for the FDA and you really don't want to eat dioxin-laden pork.

For more info, visit the hap girls.

Tastes of home

It's not exactly Proust and the madeleines, but yesterday, I had my own trip back in time. We went out to Hockley (a new place, our old one is now a housing development) to cut our own Christmas tree. On the way back, I made everyone stop at the brand new Steak n Shake on FM 1960 for lunch. It's the only one in Houston at this point.

Steak n Shake was founded in Normal, Illinois, not all that far from where I grew up in Saint Louis. My mom, who is pretty picky, actually likes their steakburgers. So, this was one of our eating out places. We went there fairly regularly.

In high school, every Saturday night, we'd end up in one of three places: Steak n Shake, White Castle, or Naugles. I think I can smell the grease from each of them. Sadly, Naugles and their greasy delights are no more and White Castle seems rooted in the midwest. But Steak n Shake has been steadily expanding. There's one in Tallahassee we'll usually stop at on the way to the beach...but now we have one near us. When we walked in the door, one of my kids said, "this looks just like the one near Grammy and Papa!"

There's a certain embedded memory for these places deep in my soul. I can still smell the White Castle. My mom hated White Castle, so it's only a place I went with my friends, and there were 40 years of grease and onions that lent a distinctive odor to the building. Your hair would even smell like White Castle after you went. Even though the Steak n Shake we went as teens burned down in the 1990s, I can still hear my high school gang noisily clustered around its tables, ordering one more order of fries to share. And, although Naugles is shuttered and long gone, I can still see their tacos greasing up their wrapper and taste the hot sauce I loved so much. We'd join the long line of kids in the drive-thru or if we were wanting to be social, we'd go in and see all our friends.

It's amazing how rooted in a certain time or place certain things are. Each of these foods really means Saint Louis to me:

• Imo's pizza. Saint Louis style pizza requires a mixture of mozarella and provel cheese. Think of provel as a processed white cheese. It melts smoothly and it is the best for cheese toast and pizza. It's hard to get outside of Saint Louis and for the life of me I don't know why. For a very brief window, you could get provel at Central Market, but I guess other shoppers didn't know what a treat it was and they stopped carrying it. I will probably crave Saint Louis-style pizza forever.
  
• Amighetti's sandwiches. Saint Louis has a large Italian population and a lot of Italian markets and restaurants are concentrated on "the Hill." These sandwiches are the food of picnics.
• Miss Hullings Lemon Cake. Miss Hullings cafeterias are gone, but this was a St. Louis staple since the 50s. Miss Hullings cakes have a gazillion layers (not really, but that's how it seemed). You can still get them at Straub's grocery, but it's not the same as going down to the past-its-prime cafeteria and pushing your tray through the line.
  
• Toasted ravioli. It's not toasted, it's fried. Now you can get this on lots of menus, but once upon a time it was really only available in Saint Louis.
  
• Ted Drewes. Frozen custard, which is a lot richer (and caloric) than soft-serve ice-cream. Ted Drewes is a Saint Louis tradition, still busily packed on summer nights. There's a whole menu of mix-ins and just before they hand it to you, they turn it upside down to show that it's so thick, it stays in the cup. I always got a small with banana and chocolate chips. The first Ted Drewes opened in Saint Louis in 1930.
  
• Crown Candy Kitchen. The giant bowl of ice cream and sauces. We'd always share. Opened in 1913, and still serving up the good stuff.
  
• Gooey Butter Cake. Someone always brought a gooey butter cake to the potluck. Think of a collapsed cake oozing and you've got it. There's a recipe I use sometimes in the cake mix doctor book that pretty well replicates the taste. Here's one from Paula Deen.
  

Today, with the proliferation of chains and the popularity of cooking shows, there seems to be a lot less regionality with restaurants and food products. You can mail order anything from anywhere and as grocery stores have 50,000+ products, you can probably find your childhood memory on a shelf somewhere in town. I don't have any idea what will say Houston to my boys. I wonder if there's a smell, a taste, a look that will transport them back in time the way that some of these foods do me.

I'd love it if you'd share your memories in the comments. I get a huge kick out of this sort of stuff.

Frothiness for Saturday

You wouldn't think you'd be able to get a whole blog out of one food item, but you'd be wrong. The folks behind cupcakes take the cake regularly (several times a day) post about their favorite food, cupcakes! The interesting thing is that it makes for fascinating reading. When you're dedicated to one subject, you can really tackle it in full. For some reason, I am fascinated with this blog, and read it regularly. It's kind of interesting, because not only am I not even a huge cupcakeaholic, I don't often eat dessert.

We've got two of those trendy "cupcake boutiques" near us. These are Houston-grown bakeries who mainly (or only) serve cupcakes. I haven't tried either one. You can get all sorts of unusual flavors, including things like eggnog, pumpkin, ginger lemon or red velvet. This is not your Kroger's chocolate cupcake with mounds of inedible icing spray-colored neon colors; they are definitely little mini works of art. So, perhaps because I'm such a devoted blog host, maybe I'll figure out if they're actually as delicious tasting as they look.

Sugarbaby's
Crave Cupcakes

And, it serves more than just cupcakes, but I'm going to give a plug to the Dessert Gallery, because it's been around for years. They have this old-fashioned chocolate diner cake that I think is perfection.

But, beware, local Houston cupcakeries, a chain from LA, Sprinkles, is muscling into town in the spring. Let the cupcake wars begin!

Mixed Emotions

Today's kind of a weird day for my family. Today's the day we're selling the family farm. This is land that has been in my father's family for generations. It's where my dad would spend summers with his grandparents, where he learned to drive, where he learned about people and human nature. It was the land where our family members married, had children and died. Our family history is certainly interwoven in its acres.

But none of the siblings in my father's generation are really farmers. One of them looks after it, and we have a tenant farmer who grows the rice and the soybeans and the cotton. But to be honest, we haven't farmed it as well as it should have been. There have been huge, barnstorming family fights over that land (just like all those other families throughout history fighting over land).

My generation, there are six girls. As cousins, we're not all that close, although we do like each other well enough. We did not grow up going to see our grandparents on that land--so we have a familial connection to it, but not that emotional pull of childhood memories. And, none of us lives close--the closest one is 500 miles away. Not a one of us wants to farm it or oversee the farm. And, our bonds are not strong enough that our relationships could withstand those tempestuous family fights anyway.

So our parents have made the decision to sell it, helped along by the fact that an Argentine farming corporation seems to think they'll farm it better than we have (that's not a high bar to reach). They're buying up lots of land in that area of Arkansas, and paying top dollar, more than anyone local can pay. That's a sort of extra weirdness, like Belgian brewers owning Anheuser Busch, the fact that South Americans will own a large swath of Arkansas delta.

The money will help my father's siblings in their retirements and that is a good use of it. And now's a good time to sell, as almost everyone has capital losses this year, so the taxes on the sale of the farm will have some off-setting losses. It's definitely the right thing to do.

But, for my father and his siblings, it's still somewhat emotional. And I have to admit, that even though I have no real connection to that land, and never met the ancestors who lived on it, there's a part of me that is a bit sad today.

Gerald O'Hara: Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts.

Leftovers

I generally do not care all that much for leftovers. I don't know why. My husband will eat anything twice in a row and with great gusto. I usually will not (unless it's something I love). But what I will do, is turn one dish into something else. So chili becomes a baked potato topping; leftover bits of meat get turned into a hash or a pasta dish. Leftover chicken becomes quesadillas or enchiladas and so on. But, sometimes it's hard to be creative when you're faced with a previous dish.

I thought it might be helpful if we shared some leftover ideas.

I'll start.

Tonight, I'm making soup. A cold front came in last night and it went from the high 70s (shorts on December 3rd) to barely in the 50s. So that calls for a hearty soup in my book. Starring is a couple cups of leftover meat sauce from Monday night's spaghetti dinner. Added to that is a couple of teaspoons of taco seasoning (I buy it in bulk instead of the little packages) and one chopped up chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. Enough stock to make it soup-like. It's all simmering on low in the crock pot. Later on today, I'll add frozen peas, corn and carrots to the pot make a full-meal soup. I picked up a crusty loaf of bread at the bakery when I was running errands and I've got brownies in the oven for dessert.

With my kids, you have to be careful with the spice...they're getting better, but even a tinge too spicy and they won't eat it. I'll probably add an extra bit of adobo sauce to my husband and my portions. We think the smoky flavor of the chipotle pepper is just divine but the kids don't exactly agree. The addition of the chipotle changes the flavor quite a bit from the meat sauce.

I am trying very hard to be a more useful consumer of leftovers and reduce our food waste. I sort of realized that I was throwing out a lot of food, partially because I would buy too much at one time and partially because the leftovers would sit and then have to be tossed. So, I am making a real effort to use the leftovers and not waste food.

In addition, I still haven't gotten my stuffed fridge back from the storm (after having to throw out everything in there three times due to our unstable power situation, I have been hesitant to completely stock up). This means that foods aren't getting lost quite so easily in the fridge or in the freezer. I am making an extra mid-week trip to the grocery store (usually combined with another errand), so I buy less at any one time and think about how to complement what I already have with a few purchases.

Anyway, any leftover suggestions would be highly appreciated and probably enjoyed by all the blog readers.

Hashbrown Casserole

Because every now and again, you need a dinner that is so easy there's no excuse not to cook.

Ingredients:
1 bag Ore-Idea peppers & onion hash browns
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream
2/3 cup diced ham (or so, or chicken, or go meatless)
15 smashed saltines (or so)
2 tablespoons melted butter

In a large bowl, mix together soup and yogurt. Add hashbrowns and ham and stir, then put in an ungreased 13x9 pan. Mix smashed saltines (a great job for kids) and melted butter. Sprinkle on top of hashbrown mixture. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes.


I'm not usually a big fan of cream-of-anything-soup cuisine, but this is a just-fine weeknight meal. It won't win any contests, but it will provide a hot, not that expensive meal. For one of those nights when you're too tired to cook or you need something that requires only 10 minutes of prep time.

Stupidity on Wheels

Driving home from taking the kids to art today, I was cut off by a man in a Ferrari. A brand spanking new one with paper plates, just off the lot. If you were driving around in a car that cost way more than the average house, don't you think you'd be somewhat careful in it? Just saying.

After Ike

I've been meaning to give an update, for those of you out of the area.

Things are returning to normal. The piles of branches and leaves and refuse were picked up long ago. Most fences have been repaired (although not mine). The number of houses sporting blue tarp roofs continues to decline, although there are still some in every neighborhood. Some neighborhoods have a lot--it sort of depends on how the wind swirled through the area and how the houses were built.

In the woods across the street from me, there are still plenty of downed trees. This is echoed throughout the city. Most of the trees on paths have been cut, so that at least you can get through when you are walking. But every park we visit seems to have a pile of brush that is yet to be cleared. And I'm not sure if the downed trees will stay. At Memorial Park, the woods look very changed. Large oaks show their roots, just downed easily. But, the park is usable and being in the woods is very soothing. I've started to walk there again and pay attention to my surroundings, marveling at all the changes.

The biggest remaining scar is the signs. Very few of those shattered business signs have been repaired. It is just that there are so many of them and there are not all that many sign companies. Those that are here have been working non-stop since the hurricane, and yet you still don't see that much progress.

Every now and again, you run into a big reminder of the storm. Today, I was at my post office, which suffered a fair amount of damage. The ceiling has been removed and the wires and conduits are all visible if you look up. The front door is still made of plywood, and today was missing entirely.

And of course, there are the still-reported stories of the people who lost everything or a lot of things. Everyone know someone who lost a beach house, or their real house, or had big damage. We have friends living in apartments and waiting for contractors; friends who had trees split their houses in two. And those without insurance, the poor? They're really suffering right now.

Even though we're cutting back on our gift-giving this holiday season, we will be donating to charities helping people in hard-hit hurricane areas. Two we will support are the Lambi Fund, which works in Haiti and the Houston Food Bank, which feeds people in this area.

The Portable Kitchen

I have a list and I'm trying to decide what to bring with us to Austin. I get to cook Thanksgiving Dinner at my sister's house. My sister is single and hasn't accumulated nearly the kitchen tools and basics I have, many of which I rely on daily, but some just for special occasions. I'm trying to decide what HAS to come with me.

The Kitchen Aid mixer I opted to leave at home. Even though I really want it when it I make the meringue, I think I can get by with her hand mixer if I chill the bowl. So, I'm bringing a metal mixing bowl to be safe.

The giant roasting pan and turkey rack have to come, as well as the large stockpot for brining the turkey. The roasting thermometer is a must as well--overcooked turkey is blech.

Some 13x9 pans (she only has one), a casserole and a deep dish pie pan are in the pile. As well as the ring that goes along the edge of the pie to keep the crust from over-baking.

A potato masher, a baster, a microplane grater (this is the best invention ever; everyone should have one). Should I put my favorite kitchen knife in the box? I am undecided on that (surely she has knives?), but just to be sure I put a knife sharpener in the box. Add to that, some of my favorite silicone spatulas and the gravy whisk (yes, there is a specific whisk for gravy) which are already in the box.

Now spices. Sage, thyme, cornstarch, allspice, nutmeg, cream of tartar--why ask her to buy those things when she'll never use them again?

Most of the recipes are in my head, but I'm making corn pudding, which I don't make very often, so that book is in the box. I already made cornbread this morning, so it's in a gallon bag in the box as well. It just gets crumbled up for the dressing, so no problem if it gets smashed.

And, finally, the egg poacher. My seven year old asked to please bring this as he loves poached eggs and eats them for breakfast and the occasional snack. It's small and it fits nicely inside the giant stockpot. Wondering if there's room in the car for the whirly pop. Over the hurricane, we brought it and used it nearly every day. It's way better than microwave popcorn.

Anyway, it's a whirl of activity and now it's time to decide what kid-stuff needs to come. I wonder what time we'll be ready to leave? And how full will the car be?

Apricot-Mustard Chicken

Lots of food blogging recently. Part of it is I'm in one of my interested-in-the-kitchen moods. Part of it is that I'm a cook who doesn't really follow recipes. I just sort of "do" in the kitchen. This doesn't work for baking, but for producing savory foods, it works great. But, by blogging what I've made, it creates a record, so that when someone asks for a particular dish, I can actually remember what I created.

This recipe is adapted from Saint Louis Days/Saint Louis Nights. I switched some of the ingredients and revised it for the crock pot (slow cooker), but I'll include their original directions at the end for oven cooking. I made it one weeknight this week, and with the four large chicken breasts, it fed us all for two meals, with a chicken-sandwich lunch for me as well.

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken breasts
half of an onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped finely
1/2 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon cornstarch

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and onion and garlic. Brown chicken (you are not cooking through, you just want to add color). After the chicken si browned on both sides, transfer that and the vegetables into the crock pot. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, apricot preserves, Dijon mustard and yogurt. You will want to taste it, and adjust the mix according to your taste preferences. Poor the sauce over the chicken. Cook on low heat for about six hours. About 45 minutes before serving, mix the cornstarch with a bit of the warm sauce and then return to the crockpot.

Oven directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 1/2 cup white flour and 1 teaspoon salt and place in a large ziploc bag. Add chicken pieces a few at a time and shake until chicken is coated with flour mixture. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons melted butter in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place chicken on top in a single layer, bone side down and bake for 25 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and spread with the apricot mixture and then bake for 30 more minutes until done. You may add toasted slivered almonds if desired (not for my kids or nut-averse husband).

And finally, I thought I'd share one of my favorite food-themed blogs--the Haphazard Gourmet Girls. Warning, their blog is a lot of fun but can be slightly saucy (in all meanings of the word). It also can be heavy on food politics and policy (which I find interesting). So, don't blame me if you're completely horrified by their posts about the FDA's snail-paced abject failure to address the melamine taint problem.

Ode to Da Sauce

I've lived in Texas long enough to know that barbecue is not what you do in your backyard, that's grilling. Real Texas barbecue is cooked over a (preferably ancient) pit, long and slow. It's beef brisket, but there is room on the pit for chicken, sausage (hot links), and ribs.

People get in fights over what's the best bbq in Texas, but road trips to Lockhart and Llano and Taylor are sacred pilgrimages for a Texas foodie. There's nothing better than pointing to your meat and having the pit master slice it off right there and hand it to you on a piece of butcher paper. You pay by the pound and often the sides are an afterthought. Why would you clutter up your stomach with marginal potato salad or coleslaw when you can fill it up with meat nirvana?

Many pit afficionados forego sauce, seeing no need to cover up the perfectly-smoked meat. But I have to admit I am addicted to good sauce. Any good sauce. I like it Texas smoky, Kansas City spicy and South Carolina mustardy. But I love, love, love the North Carolina-style vinegar sauce.

Why else would I have slow cooked pulled pork today (besides the fact that you can cook a cheapo-cut of pork shoulder and eat on it for days)? Most Texas folks don't think pork measures up and doesn't even deserve to be called barbecue. So, here's my little secret. I make pulled pork just so I can make a batch of that delicious, scrumptious North Carolina vinegar sauce. I make it with the pan drippings, vinegar, some spices, pepper, a touch of hot sauce and a little ketchup. And although the smell when you get that vinegar going is a bit, uh, cough-inducing, the payoff is worth it.

Just between us, I'll even admit to putting (lots of) extra sauce on my plate just so I have to sop it up with some more bread.

Thanksgiving Menu

So this year, we're going to Austin for Thanksgiving. My sister just moved to Austin in May, so this is our first opportunity to visit her for the holidays. My parents are coming down and she's invited some of her friends over as well.

She's single and hasn't really had the opportunity to cook as much as I have, so I'm the designated chief chef for the occasion. I'm using her kitchen, which is much fancier than mine, and I'm looking forward to an oven that can hold more than one thing at a time, unlike in my state-of-the-art-circa-1955 kitchen.

I don't usually cook Thanksgiving dinner. I have in the past, but for the last few years, we've traveled (for fun, not to visit anyone) over Thanksgiving and we've eaten out. When we have Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law, I am in charge of the dressing, because as my mother in law points out, they don't make dressing in South America and she doesn't cook it right.

In fact, Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law is often amusing, as she realizes that she needs to produce a turkey, but for my American-born-and-bred tastes, she often misses on some of the sides. We'll have something weird, like rice, which is a perfectly good dish, but has no place on the Thanksgiving table, in my opinion. There have been years when we've had Thanksgiving with them, and I've cooked a whole additional Thanksgiving meal at home the next Sunday, just so it'll feel right to me (although I usually just do a breast then, not a full turkey).

Really, the sides on the table are our cultural legacies from our families, aren't they? There's a lot of regionality and family history represented on the Thanksgiving table, from which pies are made to what goes in your dressing, and from whether you stuff the bird or cook the dressing separately. When you form your own family, you blend your respective food traditions, which is kind of beautiful if you think about it.

Both my parents are from the South, so we have to have cornbread dressing (with sausage). We love it, and I usually make it for Christmas day too (that's the meal that I usually cook every year, with both my family and my husband's family and anyone else hanging around in attendance). My mom and my sister love the cranberry jelly from the can (the pure jelly), so we serve that sliced right along with the homemade cranberry sauce I make. My kids like the canned stuff better too, but I love the homemade sauce. Especially the next day on a turkey-and-dressing sandwich. It's one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal.

So, to that end, here is my menu for Thanksgiving.

Turkey
Cornbread Dressing
Corn Pudding (this is so rich and sinfully delicious. A spoonful is enough)
Mashed Potatoes
Asparagus
Salad
Parker House Rolls
Cranberries

Butterscotch-pecan pie
Lemon meringue pie
Pumpkin cake

I'm curious what HAS to be on your Thanksgiving table. What sides do you look forward to each year?

In this economy

My husband is a manager of a medium-sized division of a much bigger company. Over the last week, about 30% of the employees have come up to him or his deputy to ask about the security of their jobs. Of course, everyone is concerned about the economic situation (both macro and micro) leading up to this holiday season. The news he can share is partially reassuring--the company is not planning to cut personnel, but raises will, quite simply, suck this year. They won't keep up with inflation, and of course, health care expenses will rise as well. That translates to less money in ones pocket, but at least its a job, and a fairly secure one at that.

Personally, I'd rather them do that than lay off people as many of the employees are people who have worked with my husband for years and years. We know their spouses and kids. They are more than just numbers.

That news, combined with the massive hit our college funds and retirement savings have taken, has led me to feel somewhat less secure financially. I've made a commitment to building up our cash padding. They tell you to have six months' worth of expenses in cash and we're nowhere near that. That is my goal for the first four months of 2009--to get closer to that six months' worth of cash on hand.

So, I'm reworking our family budget accordingly. I think I'm going to cut out a planned spring break trip. I have reservations at the Grand Canyon (made a year in advance) and had not bought plane tickets (they were $600 each). Now they're $300, which is darn good, but I don't feel like I want to spend that money. For the first time, we're not swapping gifts with my husband's family and I've made a strict allocation for how much to spend on the kids this season. My husband and I don't usually buy each other gifts, but we make a large purchase for the household together and that could be eliminated (although I'm not sure how much longer my fridge will keep going). We were looking at a private middle school for our older son, and I think we've decided that's not financially feasible. I'm trying not to cut out my charitable contributions, but that's a possible area for some savings if I feel desperate.

In little ways, in daily expenses, I've already cut down. I no longer buy Starbucks coffee or iced tea. I try to limit eating out to one meal a week, plus one weekend morning of donuts or kolaches. I buy cheaper cuts of meat and make sure to use leftovers. I'm going to the library to borrow books instead of buying them. I've refused to renew magazine subscriptions. I think we're going to eliminate the movie channels on our cable package (but I'm keeping my cable and Internet service). I know there's probably other ways to save. Any other suggestions for creative cost-savings from blog readers? Post them in the comments and we'll help each other out.

Now, do you think I could ask my kids to quit growing so that I wouldn't have to buy new jeans for them?

Fun games

These are fun physics games. My kids love them and they learn about things like angles and levers as they play.

fantastic contraption

assembler

splitter

For Tai

There's a picture I don't let myself look at all that often of the two of us. It was taken in October of 2000, and there we are -- pregnant with our babies at the same time and laughing at the antics of our older kids. Except for the slightly green pallor I'm sporting, you can't really tell with me. But Tai was three months further along and her belly was obviously swelling with baby number three. Almost exactly three years after this picture was taken, at the age of 37, we buried her. A mother of three children, ages 2 to 6.

In the photo, just as you can't yet tell that I'm pregnant, you can't see the cancer that is eating Tai. An estrogen-fed monster of a breast cancer found the fuel it needed to storm and invade from the hormones of that pregnancy. When her youngest was three and a half months old, she found the lump. Already that cancer had invaded her chest wall and her lymph nodes. They could successfully beat it back for a while, but not long. It was just such an aggressive form of cancer--I honestly believe that early detection would not have helped--this cancer (from growing up in an industrial, toxic chemical soup of a town she believed) was going to take over and the result would have been the same.

I've been thinking of Tai a lot this fall. On the fifth anniversary of her death, I cried and cried and cried. I don't let myself do that much, because the situation is not anything I can affect or help.

Tai was the glue in her family. She was incredibly vain and frivolous--with a beautiful face and a bit of a princess complex. She loved shopping and goofing off and she hid her spending from her husband, who was so busy working he rarely saw. She indulged and indulged her two boys and as a result, they were wild kids--swinging from chandeliers and all--little tornadoes in motion. I don't think I ever saw her discipline them. She gave generously of herself and her love though; when you were around her, everything was fun.

Their dad of course was the opposite. The absent disciplinarian was his role. He seemed emotionally removed and spare with his love. He decided at some point in her illness that he was going to cut her off from her old friends. They moved into a big fancy house in a neighborhood where they knew no one, instead of staying in their smaller house here in the neighborhood where there were friends all around.

Part of it was her--vain girl that she was, she didn't want people to see her hairless and ill. But the driving force was him. I don't know what his emotional baggage and scars are, but they created a complex person who sees everyone around him not as separate individuals, but as a reflection of him. It took me a long time to work it out, but one day I realized. Her illness somehow reflected badly on him (he is a physician) and he didn't want others to see.

For a while, we managed to see her anyway. When she was feeling well enough, we'd meet for lunch or one fateful day I snuck up to the hospital when I knew he wasn't there. Instinctively, I knew that was the last time I would see her, that the illness progression would make future visits not doable. In my own way, I needed to say goodbye and so I did.

I hear glimpses of their lives occasionally, but their father made it plain that there was no real place for her old friends in this life. I know and live near her close relative, who helps take care of the three kids, now 7-12 years old, a lot of the time. So, from time to time, I see her or see the kids. I have other friends whose children are at school with Tai's, so I hear about them that way too. It's been a succession of live-in nannies, impermanent figures who come and go. Their father has girlfriends, and he works just as many hours as he ever did. He believes that providing for his children means making a lot of money, and he put many hours into becoming well-trained. His career comes first.

I think of my friend coming to the realization that she was going to die and knowing that she was leaving her kids with someone who could not possibly care for their emotional wellbeing. He is incapable of putting someone else ahead of him, and that's what parenting is. You know instinctively that adolescence is going to be trouble for those kids. It breaks my heart that they won't have a true memory of their mother, who loved them with all her heart. I just hope that some of the strands of love, some of the early seeds she planted, still rest within them.

And that's why I don't let myself look at that photograph very much or allow myself to think about her too often. I can't help those kids and that haunts me.

Product shrinkage

I wanted to make pumpkin bread this morning. And I did (see recipe below). I know folks have been ranting about hidden product shrinkage...when companies reduce the size of their container so they don't have to charge more. But they are effectively charging you more because you get less. Well, let me add my voice. Do you know that pretty much every single pumpkin recipe in the universe calls for two cups (16 oz) of canned pumpkin? Yep, at least every one I found in my highly unscientific search this morning. Do you know why? Because a 16-ounce can has been the standard, at least as long as I can remember.

But do you know what you'll find if you buy one can of pumpkin now? 15 ounces. That's right. A can of Libby's is no longer 16 ounces; it's 15. It's not really any big deal, I guess, in that I couldn't taste any difference between 16 ounces and 15 ounces of pumpkin in the recipe, but it just seems "not right." On their website, Libby's has gone and changed their recipes to further camouflage the change -- but I'm telling you, it should be 16 ounces of pumpkin.

Anyway, this is a great recipe. My kids and husband don't like nuts, so they really like the smooth texture of this bread.

Pumpkin Tea Bread

Makes 2 loaves

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups (16 oz) canned pumpkin
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

In a mixing bowl, blend together sugar and oil; add eggs and pumpkin. In another bowl, blend together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients gradually into two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans, lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees until done (about 50 minutes).

Recipe from Saint Louis Days/Saint Louis Nights

Speaking of pumpkin bread, I like this recipe from Libby's too...I'm a big fan of cranberries and buy extra when they're in season and stick them in the freezer to use all year. I have a great cranberry coffee cake recipe that I get a craving for occasionally.

Puzzler Alert

The Simpsons this Sunday will feature the voices of crossword puzzle creator Merl Reagle and puzzle editor to the gods Will Shortz. The theme will revolve around crossword puzzles...and is titled "Homer and Lisa exchange Cross Words." Not only that, but the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle will contain a hidden message relevant to the episode.

That's a lot of cross-promotion. But the big fun is the puzzle geek factor. Every single crossword visible in the episode will have been created by Merl Reagle and I think it'll be fun to see how many references I can catch. I'm an occasional Simpsons watcher, not an addict, but this one will definitely be one to catch if you're a puzzle fiend.

Tending the garden

So, Houston is an odd place garden-wise. When the rest of the country is closing down its gardens, down here October and November are the times to plant and cultivate. You try to get your winter color in by Halloween, so that they have time to grow and get a bit hardy to resist the coming cold snaps. Nothing cheers me up more than seeing the bright faces of pansies and other plants in winter.

But, my garden was frankly a mess. Over the last year, I just had let it go and go and go. There were weeds, trash trees and overgrown foundation plants. Last year I never got any winter color planted and maybe that was the start of my 2008 troubles. This inaction was followed up by not planting any spring or summer color accents and just letting what was there go wild.

It just was hard to figure out where to start, but one Saturday in October, start I did. I began freeing the bed of daylilies from their choking collars of Saint Augustine runners and weeds. Some of their leaves barely had any green color on them, they'd been stifling under that mess. With that bed restored, I moved on to the grasses and the butterfly irises and the kniphofia. I got Paul to help me remove some of the bigger trees and little by little, the beds and order was restored. I don't like rigid lines and formality in the gardens, but these had gotten a little too Darwinian even for me. The plumbago and the esperanza (yellow bells) were trimmed back to semi-recognizable shapes. The holly bushes and foundation plants were trimmed so that you can actually see the windows.

I gave myself a budget of $200 to plant some color. Flats of pansies, alyssum, nasturtium, and dianthus added the splashes of color. Hurricane Ike removed so many branches from the oak tree that my back yard is significantly less shady than normal, so I'm trying some sun-lovers in new spots.

I ripped out some lantana that has never bloomed right since I planted it 4 years ago. I added a butterfly bush (I have never had luck growing these, but I am trying a new, slightly more protected from the summer sun spot), some gayfeather (which I grew successfully for several years in the garden) and some society garlic. I'm a native-plants type of gardener, and I have a local nursery that provides good quality stock. Their plants are probably a little more expensive than the big-box garden shops, but I've always had good results.

Finally, after a fruitless search locally, I ordered some daffodils from a mail-order company. I've been wanting to plant daffys for ages, but I always miss the window. I've ordered pre-chilled bulbs and when they come in December, I'll be interspersing them with the daylilies. This is a combination that works really well in gardens and I hope it'll take in mine. I don't want fussy plants that I have to dig up, so I ordered a cultivar that naturalizes in Houston.

In the back butterfly garden, the Monarch caterpillars are munching the Mexican milkweed. We still have eggs and we've hosted quite a number of caterpillars. I'm not messing with that bed, because the weeds are helping provide cover for the caterpillars from those birds. The kids and I check the caterpillars nearly every day, and we watch them grow from the length of a pinky nail to big and fat and ready to transform.

Anyway, I think restoring my garden was the first step in making things better.

Progress

I realized today that we've been two weeks without losing our power for more than five minutes or so. We even went through a big thunderstorm with our power intact--no blinking clocks making us late this morning. This represents huge progress for us--we were losing power 3 times a week. Just three weeks ago, I had to throw out everything I had re-accumulated in the fridge because we lost power for 18 hours. The grid is seeming more stable.

That's also a good metaphor for me right now. I feel more stable. The election being over helps (man, that was stressful), as does finishing up a brutal fall sports schedule. We've got issues to handle and deal with, but they're no worse than normal (except for that finding a middle school thing). I am starting to feel confident again, less nervous and overwhelmed.

Of course, that confidence doesn't extend to the economy. Watching so much of our carefully saved money go "poof" in the market downturn has made me feel more cautious about spending. So, one small thing I am doing is trying to make sure I cook more and buy less convenience and prepared food and take-out. This last 10 days I've been in a fall mood, as we had a slight nip for a few days (seems to be gone now). So I've been using the slow cooker a lot. In addition to getting to use cheaper cuts of meat in the cooker, flavorful stews and soups are a big hit with almost everyone in the family.

Here's what's in the cooker now--a Moroccan-inspired Tagine. I'll cook some couscous at dinner time to serve the tagine over. I didn't have tomato paste, so I used crushed tomatoes and a bit less chicken broth. And I threw in a chopped red pepper for an extra hit of antioxidants. Everyone likes this dinner. We have a busy day with Odyssey of the Mind practice after school (I'm coaching the younger's team), indoor soccer practice and a middle school tour sandwiched in there. I have more energy in the morning, so it's nice to know that dinner's in the pot already.

Chicken Tagine

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 3/4 pounds total), cut into 1-inch pieces

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

4 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

2 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons garlic salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. In a 6 quart slow cooker, layer chicken, onions, carrots, raisins and apricots.

2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk chicken broth, tomato paste, lemon juice, flour, garlic salt, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper. Pour over chicken and vegetables.

3. Cook 5 hours on high heat or 8 hours on low.

daytime tv

I've been laid low with a stomach virus. It's worse than the normal ones, in that you spend a good 12-15 hours retching. And today, that over, I still don't feel well. I'm much better than yesterday, but only about 50% on the road to normal.

Thanks to Ike, we still don't have cable (or decent Internet access). Comcast is my new bogeyman. Their customer service is horrid. Now, they refuse to answer your calls and just say, "we'll call you when your service is back on." Today was the original date that the cable guy was supposed to come, but my money's on a no-show. Everyone understands about the breadth of the recovery after Ike, but the lack of communication has been appalling. When things are back to normal, we'll be considering other options.

My library finally opened earlier this week, so I have a couple of books. I just don't feel up to reading. My head hurts and I can't really concentrate. So, I'd like to lie down and watch tv. I really, really would like more options. Yesterday, I watched 15 minutes of a Fantasy Island rerun before falling asleep. Something better than 1970s tv, gameshows and soaps would really be welcome right now.

Weary

That's just kind of how I am. Weary and a bit exhausted mentally. I haven't been sleeping well and that probably adds to my feelings.

Don't get me wrong. I know how lucky we are to have someplace to stay and a way to get out of the heat and humidity of a Houston non-fall. My sister has been fabulous, and been a great host and incredibly hospitable and welcoming. We had a nice outing to the Botanical Gardens with a friend here in town.

But, we're all tired. We'd all like to be back in our normal routine as much as possible and there's not been that much progress towards one. There's still no strong estimate about the power at our house; the power restoration in our area has been non-existent. We do find out today at 5pm whether the kids will start school Thursday or next Monday.

Anyway, I'm feeling kind of blue and down this afternoon. That doesn't happen to me that often and I'm trying to shake myself out of it. I thought perhaps blogging those feelings would help me figure out what's at the root of them and how to feel better.

On evacuations

I've gotten some questions on why we didn't evacuate prior to Ike, and I have some sort of random thoughts that I wanted to work out. Blogging is always a good way to do that.

The Houston metropolitan area is huge. As we saw in Rita, there is no way to get all the residents out in advance of a storm. So the city has set up different zones, based on the risk of flooding. The plan for Ike was to get those people who had decent chances of being flooded out. The power of the storm surge is tremendous, and as you can see from the remains of Crystal Beach, you don't want people in area where they can be inundated by storm surge.

As bad as it is, we were actually quite lucky in that Ike took a wobble and passed over Galveston instead of further to the west. A direct hit over Freeport could have been catastrophic for Galveston Bay (and Clear Lake, Pasadena, and all of SE Harris County and Galevston County). Hundreds of thousands of homes could have been flooded and the potential for injury and loss of life was large.

Folks in my area were asked to stay in place so that those who were in danger could get out. In a lot of ways, this plan worked quite well, both for us and for our community. The people in mandatory evacuation zones did get out to safety. And Ike passed over, a powerful storm but not catastrophic. We were able to evaluate the situation at our home post-Ike, prepare our house for an extended absence, do some fence repair work, and then leave. We had supplies at home for more than a week and two cars in good repair with full tanks of gas.

But, of course, being this prepared takes money and time. I had an extra $400 to buy water, nonperishable food items, bug spray, batteries, plywood, etc. We had the time to gas up the cars and board up our home. While the kids were at school, I could go wait in line to buy bread and peanut butter and jelly. We have a camp stove and propane and everything you'd need to rough it. And, we have the financial ability to go stay in a hotel out of town (or with my sister).

I think asking people to stay was right. But, if you are going to do that, you have to be prepared to help them afterwards. Not everyone can afford to buy what we bought; way too many people scrape by from paycheck to paycheck. Not everyone is a salaried employee who gets paid when they miss work. Many people faced the storm unprepared, but they stayed put because their city and county and state asked them to. This was vitally important in that it could have and probably did save lives.

But, what will happen next time? This has been extremely difficult and hard on so many people. I worry that next time, people won't listen to the city and the county and won't stay.

Tavuk Izgara

That's what we had for dinner tonight. Here's the link to the original recipe from Whole Foods. Tavuk Izgara is a Turkish dish, but it's basically another variation of my favorite yogurt-marinated chicken. This sort of marinating really helps produce a juicy dish and keeps the chicken from drying out.

And here's my modified version:

• 8 chicken thighs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 yellow onion, grated
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice of 2 lemons, plus the shredded rinds
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
  
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Mix together the yogurt, onion, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Put chicken thighs in a bowl and add marinade. Toss to coat each piece completely. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight or at least 8–10 hours.

When ready, preheat your oven and add the chicken to a 13x9 pan. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so (the easiest thing to do is to use a meat thermometer - poultry is finished at 165 degrees). At that point, turn the oven up to broil and broil for a few minutes to get some color on the chicken (it's very white otherwise). Serve with pilaf and your choice of vegetable. The Whole Foods Recipe calls for grilling and I am sure that is the best way to cook it. But, I wanted to stay inside.

It's very tangy and delicious. My kids love lemon. The littlest one picked out all the onions, but they both gave this dinner a big thumb's up.

And while I've been writing this, they're playing monopoly as we wait for the pineapple sorbet to chill. Here's that recipe:

• 1 whole pineapple
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup simple syrup

Peel and core one ripe pineapple. Do it inside a bowl so that you can catch the juice. Shred the flesh until it's in small pieces. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and let sit...the sugar will draw out more juice. If you don't have any on hand, make a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, heated until the sugar dissolves) and let it cool.

When it's time to make the sorbet, add the pineapple pieces and the syrup to the ice cream maker. Follow manufacturer's instructions to freeze (mine takes about 20 minutes).


Honestly, this is a simple and delicious desert. Very pleasing on the palate; very easy to make. This got a big thumbs up from everyone.

From scratch

For some reason, this week I've been showing the kids the real way to make stuff, from scratch. Part of this is financial...after our big trips this summer I'm needing to tighten the belt a bit, but part of it is a desire to refocus ourselves. We're making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of pre-packaged goods we use and reduce our carbon footprint. I know it's a tiny drop in a large sea, and we don't claim to be perfect at it, but everything is babysteps.

I no longer buy individual juice boxes or waters. I have BPA-free water bottles that anyone is free to fill up and carry with them, and I make juice from concentrate or buy juice in larger, recyclable containers. I am trying to avoid single-serving products (which has been easy this summer, but will be harder when school starts) because of all the extra packaging that goes into it.

So, yesterday we made home-made ice cream, something the 7 year old has been wanting to do all summer. Our flavor of choice was vanilla custard ice cream, with chocolate chips. We have an old Krups ice cream maker that pretty much sits idle, so it's good to know it still works. The end result was delicious. I don't think you save any money this way, but it's fun! We're going to make pineapple ice to go with tonight's dinner. Just one tiny note on pineapple: this corer is the best gadget for fresh pineapple.

Then, last night, the kids helped me make pasta sauce from scratch. It's fairly easy, and you can control the sodium better. I had these great organic tomatoes, and the end result was rich and delicious.

And today? We made popcorn! On the stove, just like I used to when I was a kid. It tasted so much better than the microwave version, and took just a bit more time. The secret is that I bought my own anniversary present (yesterday, 18 years), a whirley pop. I now see why people rhapsodize over the whirley pop. It makes some mighty delicious popcorn. Perfect for today, a grey, drippy day that we were going to spend at the pool but are instead watching star wars movies. Aggregating out the cost of the whirley pop, I think in the not-very long run you can come out ahead financially. And I know that buying one bag of popcorn and using oil we have on hand is significantly less packaging than microwave popcorn.

I'm not sure how well I'll do on my anti-packaging crusade. There are some products we may not be able to do without (like single servings of mandarin oranges). But, we'll keep trying.

My boys are tepid kitchen helpers, meaning they have the attention span of gnats. But, I do find that they are more enthusiastic about food they've helped prepare.

Dreaming of....

Indian food today.

So here's another little secret about me. I love to read cookbooks. I read them like novels, although with a bit more flipping around. I get ideas; I look at how people put together recipes. And then, I don't follow them. I am a little-of-this, a little-of-that cook....I taste and I adjust. So, oftentimes I go in the kitchen with a general idea of ingredients, and end up with a totally different dish. That happened last night when I ended up with an orange-and-curried vegetables with pork over noodles that somehow started out as pork chops. Don't ask me how and I couldn't recreate it if asked.

Today, I sat down with a new book I bought myself as a treat for my recent birthday: An Invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. She's well-known for making Indian cooking understandable and doable for American cooks. This is sort of her classic book, written in the early 70s that turned a whole generation of Americans onto Indian food. I'm looking forward to learning more about the specific spicing and techniques of Indian cooking. I'm an avid consumer of it at restaurants, but I think food prepared at home is much healthier and more economical. I already make a yogurt-marinated tandoori type baked chicken that the kids love, so I'm hopeful that their palates will stretch even further with some of these recipes as inspiration.

I thought I'd share some of my favorite cookbooks. I'd love to hear what inspires you in your kitchen too.

Greene on Greens. This is just one of my favorite books ever. There is a roasted asparagus recipe in this book, that I make often (like everything it's modified). Trim asparagus, sprinkle with salt and olive oil and add grated parmesan (the good stuff) over the top. Roast in a preheated 450 degree oven until done (depends on the size of the aspargus). It is darn delicious. There is also a corn flan in there that is a decadent only-at-the-holidays treat. I am always trying to expand the vegetable repertoire around here, so this book provides good suggestions.

New Vegetarian Cuisine. This is a collection of colorful vegetarian recipes that I love to browse through. My oldest son went through a period of about a year where he didn't want to eat animal meat. This book was a godsend. He's back eating meat, but I still make a few of these recipes as we try to go meatless at least two nights a week.

Lee Bailey's Country Deserts. The exception to my no-recipe policy is deserts. Baking is a science and I don't mess around with that. I love the crisps, cobblers and ice creams in this book. It was a wedding present 18 years ago and I still use it to this day.

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence. By Amy Sedaris. Buy this book. Just buy it. So funny and interesting recipes too.


A few others that I refer to often: Comfortable Entertaining by Natalie Dupree, Cuisine Rapide by Peter Franey, The Great American Seafood Cookbook, and Kids Cook! for when I have helpers.

There's a special place in my heart for Junior League cookbooks, especially those from smaller towns and cities. St. Louis Days/St. Louis Nights is one of my favorites, but I treasure those from Savannah, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, and Monroe, LA among others. I just think fundraising cookbooks, with their contributions from all and sundry, are just an anthropological treasure trove. Unlike a professionally authored cookbook, usually the fundraising cookbooks are desperate for enough recipes. As a result, there are great passed-down-for-generations recipes in those books and there are ones that just make you go....huh? As in, who would eat that? In particular, there's a book from the Houston Jr. League that is permanently stuck in 1960 (hey, but at least I know where to turn for 100 kinds of casseroles). The Houston Jr. League has a new, fancier, cookbook that actually uses fresh herbs, but I'm strangely partial to the time-warp of mushroom soup cuisine. It's a glimpse into an era where people dressed up for dinner and tried to impress each other with a stunning number of variations of stuff-on-crackers.

And finally, I'm giving a shout-out to Seasons of Santa Fe. I enjoyed this cookbook even before I knew that my friend and fellow letterboxer AstroD was a volunteer for Kitchen Angels, the maker of this book. There are even a couple of her recipes inside, but she'll have to tell you which ones. Like the best of the fundraising cookbooks, your purchase of their cookbook (and it's a good one if you like Southwestern Food) goes to support their mission of providing meals to those facing illness and challenges.


I have some other food-related thoughts, especially about my increased efforts to eat local food, but I'll save those for another post.

Things you don't know about me

Honestly, who doesn't love the Olympics? And for those of us who toiled away in "minor" sports, it's fun to see them get a small modicum of attention. And so it is right now, where I am watching a men's field hockey match between Pakistan and Great Britain. Yes, field hockey. On TV. They must be seriously desperate to fill some programming hours. But, I love watching them play at an elite level.

Sure, swimming and track get the spotlight, but here's a salute to those who rarely see fame and fortune for their sport, defining what it means to be an amateur athlete (because I can't imagine at least in the US that there are many field hockey sponsorship deals. Pakistan maybe).

And, FYI, I was a starter on my high school's field hockey team for three years, team captain and MVP for two. My public high school perennially got smashed by the stronger teams fielded by all-girls Catholic schools in our area (and better coached; we had to make do with a coach in name only--a gym teacher who had never seen, much less played, a game. We coached ourselves). Still, I loved playing and being part of a team and a few of my field hockey teammates are my good friends to this day.

The photo above is from Team USA's first match against powerhouse Argentina. They tied 2-2. For the American women, this was a stunning result. I hope the women get some TV time too.

Life at the DMV

Tomorrow is my birthday and in Texas, your driver's license expires on your birthday. This was my year for renewal. There were lots of plans for going earlier in the summer and even earlier in the week, but my busy summer, my admitted laziness and tropical storm Edoard conspired and I had to go today.

And here's the thing. Everyone has to go to the DMV. It's one of those rare places where you get a real, true cross-section of America--rich, poor, white, brown, black, old, young, beauty and the beast--we're all sitting and standing together in one line (or many lines) at the DMV. You can't pay someone else to do it for you; you have to invest the time yourself.

And time it is...all the old cliches are true. The Texas Department of Public Safety has an incredibly inefficient system. I'm just gonna point out some issues I observed.

• The stated open time is 8 am. The posted time on the door is 8 am. So, I arrived at 7:45. They actually open at 7:30, so by the time I got there, there was a quadruple double-backed line. This was the line for the information desk...the person who was the gatekeeper for all things DMV-like. Everyone had to stand in this line. It took 45 minutes to get to the information desk. Several people in front of me didn't have the correct forms or ID, so they waited those 45 minutes for nothing. It seems unbelievably cruel to make someone wait that long only to tell them that you can't help them.

• They understaff early in the morning. One area only had one person working from 7:30 to 8 am, and then two from 8 to 8:30. From 8:30 on, they had four, and things finally started to move. I decided that the point was to set up a backlog from the very beginning. Because otherwise, you would staff with more people to handle the morning rush (especially on a Friday, which is bound to be a busy day...with the extra expiration dates of Saturday & Sunday tripling the number of people who HAVE to go on Friday).

• After you arrived at the information desk and your preliminary paperwork was checked (along with your eyesight), you were given a short form and a number. You could then go sit down and wait for your number to be called. When it was (30 more minutes), you then could go stand in one final line to be called up to the person who could actually process your renewal (15 more minutes). At the information desk, we were handed a "wait time" survey, so that they could see how long everyone was waiting. The idiotic thing about this survey is that it is completely inaccurate, as they are missing the first 45 minutes I stood in line, waiting to even get into the system.

• In business school, we learned about a deliberate business strategy similar to what I think is the accidental system at the DMV. The idea is that if you break someone's wait up into several discrete steps, people will be so excited about some movement they won't realize the length of the whole wait (you see this a lot at amusement parks when they have you move through different sections). I never thought this was effective and I guarantee it didn't work for me.

• On my renewal form, I was asked if I wanted to donate $1 to blindness education (sure) and $1 to organ donor awareness (absolutely), but no where was I asked if I wanted to be an organ donor. This, like many people who have loved ones in their lives who have benefited from organ transplants, is an important issue to me. So, I asked. They had information in Spanish (nothing in English), but all I needed was the sticker off the bottom...they also had a form to fill out to be part of a state-wide database. This I happily filled out, but I wish they'd be more pro-active about the whole thing.

All in all, it was an interesting sociological event that I hope I don't have to repeat all that often. And that my picture turns out halfway decent.

Later on in the day, as I was taking the kids bowling, we drove past and the line was even longer than at 7:45 am. So, I think the decision to go early was a good one.

On long and short marriages

My mom called last night and one of the tidbits she dropped was that my aunt and uncle are separating. Well, they didn't call it that, but she's moving into a condo in downtown Boston and he's staying in the house in the suburbs, so that's what it is.

They've been married 33 years, in a marriage that many thought would last five. They're just such different people--radically different people. He's from a small town; she's from Manhattan. He's southern to the core; she's northeastern. He was raised Christian; she's Jewish. He played college football; she disdains sports. And so on. But somehow, for many years, they seemed to make it work, not only partnering in life but in a successful business they co-owned. But, all along, I think there were cracks in that well-spackled facade.

About 10 years ago, I was having a conversation with my aunt and she said that those fundamental differences do not get any easier over the years, that in fact they get harder and harder. When you are young, you think love can conquer all, but later the pull of your differences becomes harder to bear. The sacrifices each had to make to make that marriage work became too soul-crushing I guess.

It sounds very amicable. My wish for them is that they each find separate happiness but that they can look back on their time together with joy and love. It was a supportive marriage, through cancer and family crises and the raising of an incredible daughter...and that deserves honoring.

This is bookended by a friend of my sister's who recently got married after a whirlwind courtship of a month. She's been married before and proclaimed that she knew she had found her soul-mate. Who knows if this will turn out to be so, but she's giddy and happy now. In many ways I admire her ability to jump, in spite of past bad relationships and the uncertainty of this one. Who's to say where happiness is to be found? I have some friends who have had long marriages built on short courtships and those who had short marriages built on long courtships. What keeps people together is complex. The only marriage I can truly know is my own, and even that is a partially obscured view.

On addictions

I have never really been a smoker, a drug user or a gambler (other than the normal amount of experimentation) and I'm not a big drinker. But for more than 25 years, I had one constant addiction: soda. My drug of choice was originally diet coke, and later diet dr. pepper. I had soda just about every day from the time I was 13. I don't want to think how many cans that adds up to, but it is of course well into the tens of thousands.

Then, last year, I had a series of stomach and intestinal issues and I was playing around with my diet. I was trying to figure out if there was some food I should eliminate to make myself feel better. Turned out the suspect substance wasn't a food, but a beverage, aka soda. So, for six months, I have generally been off soda. And I feel better. Significantly better. Usually.

I have relapses (had one last week) and always, the stomach issues return. So pure logic would dictate that I stay off the stuff. But logic and a more-than-25 year habit don't always co-exist happily in one's brain. Right now there's diet coke in the fridge (because my sister was visiting this weekend) and it's calling me. So I made a big cup of iced tea and am writing this blog entry to avoid answering that call.

It makes me much more sympathetic to smokers who, in the face of medical evidence and their own diminished lung capacity, can't quite seem to kick the habit. I'm not sure I ever really understood that disconnect before.

New Link

I added a new link to my blogroll, Rex Parker does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. Every day when I get up, while drinking that first cup of coffee and if I have time (easier in the summer as life is less rushed), I do the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle online. Then, I submit my solution and compare myself to other puzzle solvers. For instance, today's time of 8 minutes puts me 143th so far today. Finally, I read what Rex Parker has to say. I find his comments on the puzzles very amusing. I love words and wordplay.

Rex Parker is a pseudonym. It's very letterboxing-like to have a puzzle-fiend alias and that appeals to me. When I decided on my letterboxing trail name, I had run into someone on the trail and she asked my name. Dewberry just sort of popped out of my mouth--it was a play on my last name--and it seemed to fit. Since then, though I've thought many a time about changing it to something that is a bit more reflective of me--my actual personality & self. But, by this point, people in the letterboxing world know me, so there didn't seem to be much point. Maybe I can just have a puzzle-fiend alias too...and become known on the crossword circuit as _________? Mad coffee-drinking puzzle-freak? That doesn't exactly trip off the tongue either. I'm afraid I would need something ultra-clever to hang with the crossword crowd.

So, any suggestions on what my puzzle name should be?

Gas Prices & Behavior

I heard an interesting radio interview yesterday on NPR. Someone from Consumer Reports was on and their new issue has a study they did about the benefits of switching to a more fuel-efficient car. Turns out that economically, your cost per mile driven is often significantly lower if you keep the car you have rather than prematurely trading it in for a more fuel-efficient vehicle, even with gas around $4 a gallon. There are of course a fair number of qualifiers and it depends on your individual situation. This result was fairly counter-intuitive, and I don't think it matches up with a lot of folks' perceptions. I think we automatically assume that a more fuel-efficient car will be cheaper (and it is, over the long-run).

Anyway, the whole thing got me wondering about if we've finally reached the point where we can begin to make national energy policy decisions and individual consumption decisions based on something other than cheap oil.

On the one hand, expensive gasoline is definitely a hardship for many people, putting a pinch in the family budget (along with the more expensive food prices). But, people are ingenious and they begin to find ways to cope--carpooling, mass transit, biking to work, reducing trips, etc.--that are actually more planet-friendly choices. And when it is time to get a new car, people are definitely opting for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Here's Memorial Day, with the official kick-off to the summer driving season, and I'm wondering if high gas prices are affecting your summer plans? We have a long road trip planned, and I've had to be somewhat more careful about lodging and other expenses to compensate. But so far, that's about the extent of it.

What's the price point where you will see a seismic shift in behavior? I'm thinking it's $5 a gallon. I wonder when we'll get there.

Did you know?

That if you're making strawberry quick bread and you realize after it's already been in the oven for five minutes that you've left out the egg (because you see it still sitting on the counter), it'll be okay. Apparently you can pull the bread out of the oven, stir in the egg, put it back in and have it turn out fine. I was surprised too.

The speed of information: zoom-zoom!

So, yesterday I was working out at the gym, listening to music on my nifty personal satellite radio and watching the TVs just for something to do. A local station ran a story about a political protest, 1000 Prairie View A&M students marching to vote in Waller County.

I thought it was a neat story, very inspiring and positive, so I went home and read a little more about it and did some slightly more in-depth research. I thought others should know, so I wrote a quick little piece.

Then, I posted it on dailykos (a liberal blog site) as a diary. People found it interesting...and started commenting. This piece started getting picked up and linked elsewhere.

First, on burnt orange report. And then on Texas Kaos. Both of these are Texas-based blogs, so it's very appropriate. But, somehow, this story had some legs, which I think is a good thing. It's a good, powerful story and I think those kids did a great thing. But, it's been odd today to watch my piece be picked up a bunch of places. It's now linked to from several national blogs, like one that's part of Time Magazine online. And then this afternoon by Politico.

I've had paid pieces published in national magazines before. But the time between writing, submitting, getting approval and receiving the magazine in the mail with my piece in it is many, many months. It's just been interesting for me to watch this story zing around in the space of a day. Some of it is uncredited, about which I care very little. The students are the story here. I'm thrilled by their efforts and their story should get out.