Two More Things

24. I want to like Nina Simone, I really do. This is a great song, but sometimes her voice sounds like someone trying to put a cat in a bag.

25. I walked in a wedding with the linguist who created the Klingon language.

Go Ruth

"Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so slight, so frail, so like your bubbe in her tight bun and Boca-size glasses, was pissed.When she read aloud from the bench a summary of her dissent in Gonzales v. Carhart, her words were incandescent, shimmering with rage and steely reason.

The protection of reproductive rights, she said, is not a matter of "some vague or generalized notion of privacy" but of "a woman's autonomy to decide for herself her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.""

Read the rest of Rebecca Traister's article about Ruth Bader Ginsberg at Salon.com

23 things

For facebookers, or fb-ers, who have "tagged" me with 25 facts about themselves, here's the post I wrote a week or so ago with 23 things about me.

By the way, I have been at the computer for an hour this morning and have accomplished nothing thanks to facebook.

I Love Lucy

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. -Lucille Ball

Kid Fix

Last night I chilled with my homegirls Maggie and Molly (hee). Our project for the evening was pie. The girls peeled the apples, stirred, cut the butter, rolled out the crust, and helped flute the edges. They were very good little pastry chefs. It was deeeeelicious. Not to mention the fact that they were absolutely adorable, kissy, giggly and sweet all evening. Just what I needed. Don't tell their parents, though. They still think I'm doing them a favor by watching the girls.

Pictured

The cookie pictured in the header is this one from last Valentine's Day. I don't recommend using the Meyer lemon. It weirded out the flavor. A classic shortbread recipe would be better. Maybe one with less than three sticks of butter in it. But they were pretty.

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

Mike has had strep throat this week, so I made up a big pot of homemade chicken soup. We had it for two dinners plus a lunch with toasted sourdough bread and butter, and a sprinkle of pepper flakes. This can be completed in approximately 30 minutes. As you prefer, all of the ingredients can be diced in little squares, or sliced to make a chunkier soup.

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
2 T olive oil
2 celery stalks, sliced or diced
3 carrots, sliced or diced
1/2 large onion, cut in half again and then sliced or diced
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper

1/2 package di Cecco fettucine noodles (you can use any noodle, just choose the amount for the number of portions you want to make)

Chicken stock, veggie stock, or Better than Bouillion
+/- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, diced

1 cup frozen peas
2-3 chard leaves, stemmed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup parsley or flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Tools
Large saute pan
Large saucepan or med stockpot
Knife and cutting board
Wooden spoon

Method
Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add cut up chicken and brown partway. Push chicken to the side and add onion, celery and carrot to pan. Sprinkle with a little salt, pepper and thyme. Stir.

Fill a large saucepan or stock pot 2/3 with water or chicken stock. (You are not going to drain the noodles. If using bouillion or stock concentrate, add later.) Cook noodles until 2/3 done-- when the white in the center is gone, but they are still firm.

While the noodles are boiling, saute vegetables and chicken until veggies are softened and slightly golden and chicken is cooked through. Deglaze the pan with a ladle full of chicken stock or water from the noodle pot. Add contents of saute pan to almost-done noodles and water/stock in saucepan.

Add peas, chard and parsley. If you don't have enough liquid in your soup, or you need to feed more people, add a little more water or stock at this point. Add bouillion or season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring up to a simmer. Remove from heat when carrots and noodles are al dente, or to your liking. If the noodles are not overcooked to begin with, they will keep some of their bite when reheated. Serve with buttered, toasted sourdough baguette slices. Add a pinch of chili flake if desired.

I like chard, because it's a nutritious dark green that blends in with whatever it's cooked with. You can use more or less than I did. Any number of different vegetables could be thrown in here, such as roughly chopped spinach, kale (be sure to remove spines and tough stems), or anything else leafy and green. You could even use cabbage, just not too much.

******
For dessert lately, I've been liking fruit-based desserts with a small scoop of ice cream, rather than the other way around. Half of a baked apple topped with ice cream and sprinkled with cinnamon feels wintry and comforting. The apples at Whole Foods right now are so great-- I tried Honey Crisp and Pink Lady varieties yesterday and both were delicious raw and cooked. Good mixed because they differ in texture when cooked.

Or a sliced banana with whole toasted almonds (salted, smoked and raw almonds are great, too) ice cream and cinnamon sprinkle. This seems to be a good way to have dessert and not feel terrible about it, not to mention making the ice cream last longer. Cinnamon is also supposed to aid in moderating blood sugar, so I try to include some with dessert if I can.

Spring for Those Who Don't Have It Yet

The valley is ablaze with yellow flowers, and I thought you all could use a little sunshine. Now if you could pass a little of that rain our way, we'd be much obliged.

Me, Meet....Me

I have a truly modern dilemma: somehow I have created two Facebook profiles. So some of my "friends" are attached to one profile, and the other half to the other... I don't know how to merge them or if this is at all possible, so I decided to try to become friends with myself. Then at least my friends would have a mutual acquaintance.

So, I sent myself a friend request. Simple enough. When it arrived in the email box that both of me share, we gladly accepted it. Except I was already logged in as the me who had sent the request, so I had to log out and log in as me again. In order to do that, I have to log in with my log-in email, which is exactly the same as the other one. So it thinks I'm just me again, poking around the same profile with the same friends. It became necessary to change "my" contact email and send a confirmation to "myself" so that "I" could then accept the change of email address and log in as "me".

Tapping the keys gingerly, I logged in. But until I confirm my change of email to my alternate email, I must still log in with my original email. Which takes me to..........my original profile. I can search myself on Facebook (who started this stupid site, anyway?) and find both of myselves, but only one of me is now accessible by me. The other one is off-limits to anyone but me.

This all came about because a year or so ago, I put up a rudimentary Facebook page just to see what would happen. NOTHING did. Nothing. For a really long time. So I canceled my page. Apparently one of the ways they (oh, those evil they) get you hooked is by leaving your name in the files, even if you go away, so that as your former friends and long-lost stalkers are sitting in their cubicles, staring at the clock at 3:18 on a Wednesday afternoon, after clipping all the binder clips within arm's reach to each other, they can type your name in and unknowingly entice you to rejoin. Again and again. Sort of like stepping in gum.

So, my message is this: If you are looking for me, and you find me on Facebook, just pick the me with the friends you like the look of best, and you can be part of that group. If you want to gossip about me to me, I can't wait to hear the dirt. I have been very naughty lately, or so I've heard.

Or, better, send me your email address as a comment to this blog if you don't know my email address, and I will answer you and we can be friends, and not "friends". If I don't answer you, you can always try my evil twin.

Love,
Tam

Tableau

Tableau

Two pink porcelain roses
beneath an ornate, carved
jade-colored
asian vase

Graduated pelicans
form an accusing trio
looking down their long
salmon-colored beaks

One lonely walrus
on his island of driftwood,
his hide and tusks
made from originals long-dead
overlooks

a red-clawed family
of turquoise crabs

1/21/09

Excellent Scones

Buttermilk Lemon Scones

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c cold butter, cut into chunks
3/4 c buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 dried currants
1 T grated lemon peel
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together flour, sugar, bp and salt. Add cut up butter and cut in with a pastry blender or pulse in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal. (If using a processor, scrape into a bowl.)

In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk and egg to blend. Add to flour mixture along with currants and lemon zest. Stir with a fork until evenly moistened. Dough will look crumbly.

Scrape dough onto a floured surface. With lightly floured hands (important) work into a ball, then pat into a 7-8 inch round about 1 3/4 inch thick. Cut dough into 8 equal wedges. Place wedges 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.

Bake scones until tops are browned, 20-25 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle glaze over slightly warm scones.

On my most recent visit to Gma and Gpa's, I chose to tackle a box of recipe clippings, coupons and newspapers, to see what needed to be saved, and what tossed. It was an interesting exercise, going through decades of recipes, finding out about my grandmother's culinary obsessions over the years. The very best find was her 1935 school handbook. She would have been about 12 then, and in the 6th or 7th grade. The booklet explained the best way to do dishes, how to plan meals for optimum nutrition, and was full of basic recipes. In the pages in the back, Grandma had noted that she was "making batters today" and had detailed two unfamiliar verses to "Polly Wolly Doodle".

Scones appeared again and again in the stacks. Everything from Traditional English Scones to Ginger Scones with Passionfruit Jam. You name it, if it was a scone, she'd clipped it and saved it. So when I returned home, I had to smile at the recipe for these, already sitting on my own desk. And of course, I had to make them. They are quite rich-- I don't even want to tell you what the calorie count is per scone-- but they are a rib-sticking breakfast and mighty tasty. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine, April 2006.

Some of the other items that seemed to be of particular interest: panettone (which she still loves), Dutch Baby (a giant pancake), crepes, blintzes, crab, almost anything with pumpkin or apples, quiche, cheesecake, pancakes and waffles, waffles, waffles. Though it appears that Gma was obsessed with breakfast food, the breakfast I remember best was always soft-scrambled eggs made with milk and pepper, and bacon frying on the electric stove. I am always glad to make the scrambled eggs for her now when I get the chance.

Yet Another Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is about the easiest cake there is to make, travels well, and Grandpas seem to like it...

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and butter an 8 inch round baking pan. Line bottom of pan with a round of wax paper and butter paper.

Chop chocolate into small pieces (I just threw it in in two big chunks). In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture, and whisk until just combined. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool in cake pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate. Dust cake with additional cocoa powder if desired.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, start to finish.
Makes one 8 inch cake.
from Gourmet, 1997 via epicurious

Previous flourless chocolate "Velvet" cake here.

Simple Chocolate Icing

Here is the icing I used with Lucille Williams' Never Fail Cake:

Simple Chocolate Icing
(Ghirardelli's card No. 13, no date)

3/4 cup ground chocolate (I only had cocoa powder, so this is what I used)
3 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp butter
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla. Cook in double boiler until it thickens, stirring constantly. Cool a bit and add flavoring.

This makes a fluid icing that forms a smooth, fudgy shell over the cake, dripping attractively down the sides until it hardens. It turned out to be just the amount of sweetness that the cake needed. I don't recommend whisking before spreading, as this caused bubbles in the icing that later popped and made my cake's surface a bit moon-like. I think it would be ok to pour this on when the cake is still a little bit warm. I encouraged drips down the side by pulling a little bit of icing away from the center with a spatula. If the icing cools too much before it's time to ice, try putting it back on the double boiler to warm, and stirring gently with a silicone spatula.

PS- While I was visiting this week, I asked Grandpa if he knew who Lucille Williams was. No clue. So while she has gone on to bigger and better things, her cake will live on via the internet.

From the Vault

Lucille Williams' "Never Fail" Cake

1/2 c cocoa powder

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c water

1/2 c butter

1 c sugar

3 egg yolks
1/2 c milk

2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

add egg whites beaten dry

This recipe was among the hand-written cards in the metal White King Flour recipe box given to me by my grandmother on a recent visit. This box, and the other boxes and binder that came with it, are a treasure to me. Some of the recipes in the box are my grandmother's, some my great-grandmother's (my grandfather's mother). Others are from their friends, neighbors, newspapers and advertisements collected over many years.

When I volunteered to bring dessert to some friends' house for dinner today, I thought it would be fun to pull one from the vault and try it. Looking through the neatly filed cards, I thought of all of the women who had carefully written, typed, taped and glued the recipes together.

Lucille Williams' cake may have been "Never Fail" because she knew the recipe so well, or because back in the 30s or 40s or 50s or even 60s, whenever this recipe was placed in the box, everyone knew how to make a cake from scratch. The recipe consisted only of ingredients. No directions, not even an oven temperature. The only thing that was indicated (thank goodness) was that the first three ingredients should be cooked together.

I had all of the ingredients already without having to make a trip to the store, and I was intrigued to find out if the cake's name would hold true, so I guessed at the method and went for it.

Here is what I did: (Preheat oven to 325º)

1. Cook brown sugar, cocoa and water over low heat, stirring until smooth and melted

2. Cream butter and sugar, separate eggs and set aside whites, add yolks one at a time

3. Add chocolate mixture

4. Add dry ingredients (flour sifted and bp, bs and salt mixed in), alternating with milk

5. Beat egg whites until dry, fold into batter

6. I lightly sprayed and greased a 9" straight-sided cake pan and had a second at the ready.

Once filled, it didn't look like I could fill another whole cake pan, so I filled two 4" porcelain ramekins. This worked well for post-bake testing of the cake to make sure I didn't need to punt with a last-minute apple pie in case of cake failure.

7. Bake at 325º for approximately 50 minutes, or until a sharp knife comes out clean.

The cake was fairly moist, cocoa-y and not too sweet. I did feel that it needed a glaze or icing, so I chose one from the box as well, which I will post later.

In What Universe...

...is this cute? I hope that's her hair and not a desert neck guard slipping down the back. She looks like a video game mushroom. I was just looking for a pair of Ugg boots for someone, and this came up. By the way, did you know Ugg boots were so expensive??? I just thought they looked like tall slippers. Boots for people who don't like to get out of bed, maybe.