Posts
https://visionaware.org/everyday-living/essential-skills/cooking/safe-cooking-techniques/
https://visionaware.org/blog/visually-impaired-now-what/instant-pot-to-the-rescue/
Friday, April 30, 2021
Teaching a Friend how to Cook
Julia Child Quotes
"People who love to eat are always the best people."
"A cookbook is only as good as its poorest recipe."
"I don’t believe in bottled salad dressing… why should you have it bottled? It’s so easy to make. And they never use very good oil."
"Fat gives things flavor."
"I don’t think about whether people will remember me or not. I’ve been an okay person. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve taught people a thing or two. That’s what’s important. Sooner or later the public will forget you, the memory of you will fade. What’s important is the individuals you’ve influenced along the way."
"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredients."
"I would far prefer to have things happen as they naturally do, such as the mousse refusing to leave the mold, the potatoes sticking to the skillet, the apple charlotte slowly collapsing. One of the secrets of cooking is to learn to correct something if you can, and bear with it if you cannot."
"It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate, you know someone’s fingers have been all over it."
"If you're afraid of butter, use cream."
"Always remember: If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who's going to know?"
"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."
"Well, all I know is this—nothing you ever learn is really wasted, and will sometime be used."
"The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly."
"I believe in red meat. I've often said: red meat and gin."
"I think careful cooking is love, don't you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a Valentine as you can give."
"Celebrity has its uses. I can always get a seat in any restaurant."
"To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating."
"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."
"Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it's done right. Even a pancake."
"People who love to eat are always the best people."
"This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun."
"The more you know, the more you can create. There’s no end to imagination in the kitchen."
"Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!"
"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."
"Remember, ‘No one's more important than people.’ In other words, friendship is the most important thing—not career or housework, or one's fatigue—and it needs to be tended and nurtured."
"Really, the more I cook the more I like to cook."
"I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one's hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as ‘Oh, I don't know how to cook...,’ or ‘Poor little me...,’ or ‘This may taste awful...,’ it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one's shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think, ‘Yes, you're right, this really is an awful meal!’ Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed—eh bien, tant pis! Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, as my ersatz eggs Florentine surely were, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile -- and learn from her mistakes."
https://www.southernliving.com/culture/celebrities/julia-child-quotes
Albert Einstein
I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care for money. Decorations, titles or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. The only thing that gives me pleasure, apart from my work, my violin and my sailboat, is the appreciation of my fellow workers.
Albert Einstein
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Toby Litt
To go from being a competent writer to being a great writer, I think you have to risk being – or risk being seen as – a bad writer. Competence is deadly because it prevents the writer risking the humiliation that they will need to risk before they pass beyond competence. To write competently is to do a few magic tricks for friends and family; to write well is to run away to join the circus. Your friends and family will love your tricks, because they love you. But try busking those tricks on the street. Try busking them alongside a magician who has been doing it for 10 years, earning their living. When they are watching a magician, people don’t want to say, “Well done.” They want to say, “Wow.”
TOBY LITT
Dream
I met Pete F's new wife. I said "I've seen this face, I know these lines" and I traced my two pointer fingers along the oval shape of her face.
She had five Standard poodles a male, female and a large, medium, and small offspring.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Stanley
"People are so crazy out there and I gotta tell you frankly some of them are real assholes. I was in LA driving my tractor trailer in bumper to bumper traffic when I saw a couple in a car up ahead having a huge fight. Suddenly the man threw something out the window. It was a black bag and it started moving. Something in it was alive. I climbed out of the cab and cars were everywhere. I grabbed the bag and opened it. There was a cat inside. I picked it up and by this time all the cars were honking at me, but I didn't care. I took this cat all the way back home to Rhode Island. The cat was skittish for a few weeks but I just left her food and a litter-box in the truck and she calmed down and began to trust me. This cat still is the best friend I've ever had! We've taken several road trips together. She's always waiting for me when I get home. It's like she knows I saved her life and to tell you the truth, she saved mine."
Ada Limón
I cannot tell anymore when a door opens or closes,
I can only hear the frame saying, Walk through.”
―
I want to feel
“I want to give you something, or I want to take something from you. But I want to feel the exchange, the warm hand on the shoulder, the song coming out and the ear holding onto it.”
― Bright Dead Things
so many different ways to be quiet
“I'm learning so many different ways to be quiet. There's how I stand in the lawn, that's one way. There's also how I stand in the field across from the street, that's another way because I'm farther from people and therefore more likely to be alone. There's how I don't answer the phone, and how I sometimes like to lie down on the floor in the kitchen and pretend I'm not home when people knock. There's daytime silent where I stare, and a nighttime silent when I do things. There's shower silent and bath silent and California silent and Kentucky silent and car silent and then there's the silence that comes back, a million times bigger than me, sneaks into my bones and wails and wails and wails until I can't be quiet anymore. That's how this machine works.”
― Bright Dead Things
Ada Limón
For me, the fun part is just being at home and writing in my sweatpants. And then being like, “I wrote a poem and I like it.” There’s nothing that compares to that. Nothing. Not The New Yorker, not The New York Times. I feel like that’s something that sometimes gets lost in our culture, where everything’s about building a brand before you even have an established creative process. Please, don’t be a poet unless the number one thing you like to do is write poems. And read poems.
ADA LIMÓN
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Colum McCann
Gogol said that the last line of every story was: “And nothing would ever be the same again.” Nothing in life ever really begins in one single place, and nothing ever truly ends. But stories have at least to pretend to finish. Don’t tie it up too neatly. Don’t try too much. Often the story can end several paragraphs before, so find the place to use your red pencil. Print out several versions of the last sentence and sit with them. Read each version over and over. Go with the one that you feel to be true and a little bit mysterious. Don’t tack on the story’s meaning. Don’t moralize at the end. Don’t preach that final hallelujah. Have faith that your reader has already gone with you on a long journey. They know where they have been. They know what they have learned. They know already that life is dark. You don’t have to flood it with last-minute light.
COLUM McCANN
Wheat Pulp Paper
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/wheat-pulp-paper-washington-columbia/
“We all have to learn to become stewards and gardeners, not just extractors,” says Rankin, who points out that in the 1960s there was a big shift toward recycled paper, and today over 65 percent of paper products in the U.S. are recycled. He’s excited to be a part of the next significant shift. Non-wood pulp, he believes, “could be the beginning of another big transformation in the industry.”
August Wilson from The Writer's Almanac
It’s the birthday of playwright August Wilson (books by this author), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1945). His lifework included a series of 10 plays, known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, that explored the African-American experience, mostly in Pittsburgh, during the 20th century. Two of the plays, Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1988), won Pulitzer Prizes, and Ma Rainey’s Blac Bottom (1982) also received critical success. About playwriting, he said:
“I once wrote a short story called ‘The Best Blues Singer in the World’ and it went like this: ‘The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.’ End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I’ve been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story. I’m not sure what it means, other than life is hard.”
Wilson grew up in a poor neighborhood of Pittsburgh called “The Hill.” He had six siblings, and his father, a German baker and pastry cook, was often absent. As a teenager he was always in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh reading. After a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a paper on Napoleon he dropped out and decided to just go to the library every day, where he devoured Dylan Thomas and read every book he could get his hands on. He spent so much time in that library that after he became a famous playwright, the Carnegie Library awarded him an honorary high school diploma, the only one they ever bestowed.
Wilson spent three years in the Army, worked as a short-order cook, a porter, a dishwasher, and a gardener, before deciding to try and make it as a writer. He bought a stolen typewriter for $20.00 and began pounding out poems. He liked to write on napkins in bars, cigar stores, and cafés, listening to the way people spoke and what they talked about.
Wilson founded a theater company called Black Horizons Theatre in The Hill district in Pittsburgh. He didn’t know anything about directing plays so he simply took out a theater-directing manual from the library and learned. The group performed his first play, Recycling, in 1968 in schools, public housing community centers, and small theaters. They charged 50 cents a ticket.
Years later, when Wilson’s play Fences opened on Broadway, it made $11 million in a year, setting a record. Other plays in The Pittsburgh Cycle include Jitney (1982), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986), and Radio Golf (2005).
In the early 1960s August Wilson discovered the blues, in particular, the music of Ma Rainey. The sound and syncopation of blues music would have a profound impact on his writing. He said:
“Blues is the bedrock of everything I do. All the characters in my plays, their ideas and their attitudes, the stance that they adopt in the world, are all ideas and attitudes that are expressed in the blues. If all this were to disappear off the face of the earth and some people two million unique years from now would dig out this civilization and come across some blues records, working as anthropologists, they would be able to piece together who these people were, what they thought about, what their ideas and attitudes toward pleasure and pain were, all of that. All the components of culture. Just like they do with the Egyptians, they piece together all that stuff.
“And all you need is the blues. So to me the blues is the book, it’s the bible, it’s everything. My greatest influence has been the blues. And that’s a literary influence, because I think the blues is the best literature that we as black Americans have.”
In 2020, a film adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by screen-writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson and director George C. Wolfe was released.
August Wilson died in 2005.
Dream
I dreamed I walked into the big beautiful Providence superior courthouse and I saw a man with a shotgun aimed at a witness. The gun body was wrapped in a long piece of cardboard but the barrel was exposed. I turned around and left the room thinking I'd better call the Woonsocket Police.
Monday, April 26, 2021
Hot Tea
My friend Monsef drinks hot tea with an ice cube. I finally understand! After the tea has brewed it's still too hot to drink.
Dzigar Kongtrül III
“Self-reflection is a practice, a path, and an attitude. It is the spirit of taking an interest in that which we usually try to push away.”
“What we need now is a very strong antidote, and the antidote to jealousy is the practice of rejoicing. Rejoicing is simply feeling happy when something fortunate or beneficial happens to someone other than ourselves. . . . When someone becomes a vegetarian or donates money to a charitable organization, we can rejoice. We can rejoice in the virtue of people who have put their life on the line to help others, the Good Samaritan we hear about on the news. We can rejoice in the spiritual accomplishments of others.”
― Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence“The natural principle that all beings long for happiness and freedom from suffering serves as the basis for generating compassion”
― Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence“Only you can find the good things at your worst moments.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“The practice of putting others in the center is not simply a crusade to do “good.” It is a practice based on the understanding that our own happiness is inextricably linked with the happiness of others.”
― Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence“We may rely on the Three Jewels,1 God, or the law of karma, or we may simply have a basic trust in the goodness of the world. Whatever the case, a positive focus brings stability to our lives and pulls us through challenging times. Placing our trust in positivity is faith.”
― Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence“the strength to harvest peace through looking directly at the mind.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“When we can’t find a self within or outside of these parts, we may then conclude that the self is that which is aware of all of these things—the knower or mind. But when we look for the mind, we can’t find any shape, or color, or form. This mind that we identify as the self, which we could call ego-mind, controls everything we do. Yet it can’t actually be found—which is somewhat spooky, as if a ghost were managing our home. The house seems to be empty, but all the housework has been done. The bed has been made, our shoes have been polished, the tea has been poured, and the breakfast has been cooked.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“In his teachings, Kongtrül Rinpoche demonstrates with uncompromising clarity how the identification with a solid self and the resulting feeling of self-importance offer an open target for the painful arrows of anger, obsession, pride, and jealousy.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“Another essential testament to the authenticity of Rinpoche’s teachings is his unflinching devotion to his teachers and the strong emphasis he puts on nurturing bodhichitta, the vital altruistic attitude that leads one to realize, as the masters of the past stated, that “anything that is not meant to benefit others is simply not worth undertaking.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“It takes courage to accept life fully, to say yes to our life, yes to our karma, yes to our mind, emotions and whatever else unfolds. This is the beginning of courage. Courage is the fundamental openness to face even the hardest truths. It makes room for all the pain, joy, irony, and mystery that life provides.”
― It's Up to You: The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path“Genuine faith . . . brings warmth to the heart and makes us feel at home. It is a resting place. It allows us the courage to openly question experience and the world around us. Genuine faith does not require us to put on blinders and believe what we are told. It is an open question. And we can stay open because we trust in something bigger.”“Contemplating impermanence helps us have a simpler approach to life, in which we no longer create kingdoms in our minds.”
― The Intelligent Heart: A Guide to the Compassionate Life
― Light Comes Through: Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence
Jicama Mango Slaw with Honey Cilantro Dressing
https://blog.misfitsmarket.com/2020/07/22/jicama-mango-slaw-with-honey-cilantro-dressing/
- 1 jicama, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
- 1 mango, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 small red onion, diced
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
- In a large bowl, combine jicama, mango, bell pepper, and red onion. Set aside.
- In a smaller bowl, combine lime juice, salt, honey, and cilantro. Whisk until well combined.
- Drizzle dressing over jicama slaw and serve immediately.
A Happy Food: Cornmeal Pancakes
Cornmeal Pancakes (for supper!)
(mix dry ingredients together and wet ingredients together then combine and make pancakes)
These are so fluffy and yummy!
- 1 3/4 cups lowfat buttermilk
- 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
- 1 tablespoons corn oil
- 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
Susan Sontag
We fret about words, we writers. Words mean. Words point. They are arrows. Arrows stuck in the rough hide of reality. And the more portentous, more general the word, the more they can also resemble rooms or tunnels. They can expand, or cave in. They can come to be filled with a bad smell. They will often remind us of other rooms, where we’d rather dwell or where we think we are already living. They can be spaces we lose the art or the wisdom of inhabiting. And eventually those volumes of mental intention we no longer know how to inhabit will be abandoned, boarded up, closed down.
SUSAN SONTAG
Happy Birthday Carol Burnett
from GK's The Writer's Almanac today:
It’s the birthday of American comedienne Carol Burnett, born in San Antonio, Texas (1933), whose long-running television show, The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978), introduced audiences to such characters as “Chiquita,” a parody of Spanish singer Charo, the pneumatic, dimwitted secretary Mrs. Wiggins, and “The Charwoman,” a beleaguered cleaning woman with a penchant for breaking into song. The Carol Burnett Show was so popular that Hollywood stars lined up to appear; the show boasted luminaries like Lana Turner, Betty Grable, and Gloria Swanson.
Her parents were performers, but also alcoholics, so Burnett’s childhood was rough. When her parents moved to Hollywood, Burnett’s mother installed her in a one-room apartment with her grandmother, Mabel, who raised Burnett from then on, while her mother lived down the hall, drank, and tried to make it in show business. Mabel wore long johns with a drop-seat, was a notorious hypochondriac and took Burnett to the movies all the time, sometimes twice a day. Back then, movies were always double features, and only cost 11 cents for Burnett and a quarter for her grandmother, so they ended up seeing four movies a day several times a week.
Burnett thought she might be a playwright so she enrolled at UCLA, where students in the playwriting program were required to take an acting class. Burnett’s life changed. She had a small role in a production and decided to make the most of it, drawing out her single line to try and get a reaction from the audience. She says:
“They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you’ll hear a laugh that great again.”
After a class performance at a party in Hollywood, Burnett was stuffing cookies in her purse when a man approached her and asked if she wanted to be an actress. When she said yes, he offered her a thousand dollars to go to New York City if she promised to pay it back in a year and then do something nice for someone else if she got famous. Burnett was skeptical, but the man’s wife said he was sincere, and the next day he drew up a contract, and off Burnett went.
She got her first big break in television, acting in a sitcom with Buddy Hackett and on The Garry Moore Show (1959), but it was her appearance as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress — the 1959 Broadway musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” — that really got her noticed.
Burnett wrote about her childhood in the memoir One More Time (1986). Explaining her determination to succeed as an actress, she said, “There is something about being poor and having alcoholic parents that either poisons you or toughens you for life. I realized it was either sink or swim — get out, or be pulled down.”
At the end of every episode of The Carol Burnett Show Burnett would tug on her left ear. That was a special sign to her grandmother Mabel that she loved her.
In 2005, she was recognized as “one of America’s most cherished entertainers” and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom “for enhancing the lives of millions of Americans and for her extraordinary contributions to American entertainment” by President George W. Bush.
Thermos Mug/ Food Jar
I bought this Thermos Mug/ Food Jar made by Nissan back in in 1995. I still LOVE it and STILL use it daily and. It has Reversible Threads: left-handed or right-handed. I hope they get manufactured again.
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Whole Wheat Pancakes
We just made these and they were perfect!
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (5 ounces by weight)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp oil, margarine or melted butter
- butter for greasing the griddle
source: https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/whole-wheat-pancakes/
Buttermilk is a Miracle
I love buttermilk and more importantly I love what buttermilk does when making bread, pancakes or marinades. Our local Price Rite sells low-fat buttermilk in quarts. If you have never cooked with buttermilk I suggest you try it. You won't be sorry.
https://shewearsmanyhats.com/buttermilk-chicken-recipe/
https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/whole-wheat-pancakes/
https://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2020/01/22/sourdough-buttermilk-biscuits/
https://www.butterforall.com/traditional-cooking-traditional-living/buttermilk-sourdough-bread/
https://thefeatherednester.com/buttermilk-brined-pork-chops/
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Epictetus
Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them to. Accept events as they actually happen. That way peace is possible.
Epictetus
To Balance or Not to Balance: Thinking About Mood
My mood goes around and around, from receive to transmit, in a regular pattern. It is healthier for me to not ride that Ferris wheel, but to consciously engage in activities located at the center, the fulcrum. Then mood becomes almost irrelevant.
In receive mode I am always willing to center myself by swimming and writing. It feels like a life or death choice to avoid the lowered mood.
On the other hand, transmit energy is so seductive and distracting that I often blow off my centering routines and just enjoy the heightened mood. I am delighted to drink extra coffee, stay up late, miss my swimming appointments, and enjoy feeling wild.
As ever, I am examining these tendencies right now as I am in a well-tended receive mode state. This is how change for a fisherman is made: on dry land.
Friday, April 23, 2021
Fortune Teller
“Your unique creative talents and abilities are flowing through you and are being expressed in deeply satisfying ways. Your creativity is always in demand.”
―
“How you start your day is how you live your day. How you live your day is how you live your life.”
― Heal Your Body A-Z
Foster Grants
On my big black boot limpy walk home from the pool today I found a brand new pair of Foster Grant reading glasses on the ground, folded. When I got home my husband noticed there was sticky glue from tag still on the arm and he removed with Naptha. Like old people we'll leave them near the phone.
Zeema's Crime Syndicate
Zeema seemed not to be fazed when her door got kicked in by the swat team. Her boyfriend was dealing drugs and the law caught up with him.
She just got a new boyfriend
and then another,
and then another.
and then the last guy was taken away on a domestic violence charge.
Zeema has two beautiful children and finally has a nice boyfriend. But she also has a bunch of teen boys living in her apartment. They drive all night in their Audi's Mercedes' and BMW's but now the law is catching up with them too.
Is Zeema the mastermind behind all of the vehicles and drugs and money?
My husband laughs, it's Zeema's Crime Syndicate!
Bird Fetus
On my walk today I found a bird fetus. It was so fascinating with its mauve translucent skin and hints of yellow beak and a small round blue dot for a belly. I picked it up and carried it home and put it on the porch to show my husband. 45 mph winds blew this baby out of her nest!
elizabeth bruenig on taking food to people
taking food to people: a threadit's been a tough year. on top of all the disasters that happen in the ordinary course of life — a baby arriving unexpectedly early, a fender-bender, a bout with the flu, getting legionnaire's from a hot tub in los angeles — lots of us have friends/family dealing with covid19.one nice thing you can do for people who aren't feeling well or are temporarily out of commission is to take food to them. so here are some tips and considerations toward that end if it's something you'd like to try out.1.) different situations call for different foods. if the person is sick, what kind of illness is it? people going through chemo can have serious digestive trouble, so think rice pilaf, homemade bread and butter, etc. for covid, brothy soups with ginger, etc.new moms are often nursing, and certain herbs are helpful -- fenugreek, for example -- while certain ingredients, like caffeine, can pass through the breastmilk to the baby. so just try to do a little recon to get a sense of what might be maximally helpful/not harmful.2.) check with the person to make sure there are no dietary restrictions, and be extremely mindful of allergies.3.) consider the person's living situation. are they looking after a family? then make lots! are they alone? focus on easy-to-prepare and portionable things.4.) once you know what you're going to make, figure out if you're going to deliver it fresh (i.e., ready to eat out of the pan) or frozen (to be eaten at their leisure.) for fresh, make surer you've got a good delivery system -- i use tupperware and disposable pans.5.) if you're freezing stuff, make sure you know how to get it defrosted, so you can include defrosting instructions. i put a strip of masking tape on the tupperware and provide oven temp and preferred defrosting method with directions, so there's no fuss.6.) what can you freeze? a lot of things! some things you want to freeze post-production (i.e., bread -- a loaf of fresh bread can be frozen and just as delicious defrosted) and others pre (for instance, cookie dough -- fresh, hot cookies anytime!) mains can often be frozen.7.) for inspiration, consider cookbooks (i have and love 'it's always freezer season') and the stuff you see in the freezer case at the store. if they can freeze a lasagna, so can you. if costco can freeze a pizza, a chicken bake, or a bowl of soup, so can you.8.) sometimes you'll want to break the dish up into component parts as opposed to freezing it altogether. for instance: you can make a single soup base (just the soup/veggies/herbs) and then send along dumplings, matzo balls, or homemade noodles, all separately frozen. DIY soup!9.) i really try to limit two things: dishes that will require the person to use/buy their own stuff (i.e., frozen fresh pasta with no sauce/meatball accompaniment, etc.) and dishes that will create a giant mess. i send dishes in disposable pans they can be cooked in when i can.10.) of course, the most important thing to remember is that this is about the person you're feeding, not you. it's okay if it's not perfect if it's what they like. it's fine if it's not something you'd usually make. sharing food is about taking care of people, it's about love.
Love this Sentence
Even as a meat-eater, I rarely had sheep’s heart, liver, or lung lying around the house to make haggis with.
Start Thinkin'
"The most beautiful women in the world started out as men. Yup, it's true! Look at their muscles!" she said dipping her wooden spoon into her ice cream and stirring until it became soft-serve. "I can't compete with that no mater how many weights I lift."
"Perhaps you're right. I never really thought about it."
"Well, start thinkin' woman. Wake up! It's 2021."
Nancy
My pal Nancy is wearing a heart monitor. I asked her what it was like.
"It's lightweight with a few little wires."
"You can tell your boyfriend you are working undercover for the police!"
"I will," she said and we laughed.
Try
Writing is not like dancing or modeling; it's not something where—if you missed it by age 19—you're finished. It's never too late. Your writing will only get better as you get older and wiser. If you write something beautiful and important, and the right person somehow discovers it, they will clear room for you on the bookshelves of the world—at any age. At least try.
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Dream
I had a nap and dreamed I stepped into a foyer in a house in Woonsocket. A Talking Heads song was playing and I started dancing. David Byrne and his girlfriend appeared and joined in. We were dancing in a circle holding hands with our fingers woven together held above our heads. I was smiling. I was wearing a gold heart-shaped locket on a chain around my neck and the heart swung into my mouth. "My heart is in my mouth," I said. I remembered there were photos inside so I spit it out. Mr. Byrne's girlfriend had a small empty spice tin with a soap dispenser pump stuck inside for reuse. I said "I love this idea and I just yesterday found an empty tin of Hungarian paprika and I couldn't throw it away. Now I know what to do with it." Then I told Mr. Byrne why we love Woonsocket. "When I bought my house all my parents could say was, 'You bought your house ahead of your sister!' They didn't care how beautiful it was or that I bought it with my own hard earned money."
Epiphany
My brain has been ruminating cogitating on an idea. If I keep the same wake, swim, work schedule patterns in transmit-mode and receive-mode then I might go so far as to say it makes less difference what house I am in. Perhaps this is just another stage in my evolution of understanding how best to take care of my mood shifts. I like it.
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Tom Shaker on The Diner
What’s on the menu? Hearty, home-cooked meals and desserts, of course. Bring your appetite but not a lot of cash. Diners are the true American eating place.
Join Tom Shaker for an exploration of all-things diner, and discover how Walter Scott’s late night, walkup lunch cart in Providence in the 1870s inspired a nationwide craze.
(22 min) https://warwicklibrary.org/breakfast-served-all-day-story-rhode-island-diner
Dr. Tom Shaker is a college professor, a radio DJ, a documentary filmmaker, and an expert on Rhode Island jazz.
His radio show The Soul Serenade, featuring classic soul music from the 1960s and 1970s, airs on WICN on Mondays at 7 p.m.
His award-winning film with Norm Grant Do It, Man! The Story of The Celebrity Club tells the story of the legendary Celebrity Club, the integrated 1950s nightclub in Providence’s Randall Square neighborhood.
His book with Dennis Pratt A Treasury of Rhode Island Jazz & Swing Musicians is a biographical collection of jazz and swing musicians who have played in Rhode Island and a sequel to Who's Who in Rhode Island Jazz: c. 1925-1988 by Rhode Island musicians and historians Lloyd Kaplan and Robert Petteruti.
His book with Lloyd Kaplan In Harmony: Early Vocal Groups Remembered & Celebrated looks at over twenty trailblazing vocal groups, including The Mills Brothers, The Golden Gate Quartet, The Boswell Sisters, and The Delta Rhythm Boys.
you owe that to yourself
Persist. If you stop, then you’re removing yourself from the conversation. You have to keep going and weather rejection until you find the person who will open the door for you. You have to hold up your end of the bargain. Become the best writer you can because nobody owes you anything; you owe that to yourself.
JESMYN WARD
DA BOOT
I dug out DA BOOT (big velcro black monster from when I broke my other foot) and I'm wearing it around the house and on short dog walks. It is protecting my foot's injured tendon and possible fracture. The progress severely slowed the past week and re-injury is just too easy.
Homemade Tartar Sauce
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/38503/tartar-sauce-recipe/#itr-recipe-38503
1/2 cup mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise
1 small dill pickle, chopped very small (3 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon capers, chopped, optional
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, optional
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
je ne sais quoi
Using steaming water from vegetables (ex. carrot, potato cabbage) in making bread is the quintessential je ne sais quoi delicious!
I once used concentrated kale steaming water leftover from pressure cooking and the bread was scented like a cabbage and slightly green but amazing nonetheless.
Be resourceful and adventurous. The potato has a tenderizing effect on the dough. The carrot sweetens it.
Larry Page
"If you're not doing some things that are crazy, then you're doing the wrong things."
Larry Page
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Grizzly
“I’ve held my bear spray 100 times but never had to use it,” Riley said. “What happened to Carl could happen to anybody that walks into these forests at any given time ... I would say if the forest kills me, the forest kills me.“
Fulcrum
Swimming made me transmitty today, hence the food obsessions. But as the day wears on I realize I am not in transmit-mode. Luckily swimming is the FULCRUM making it NOT MATTER where the hell I am as long as I can swim every day and write.
A Topping
Shiu-Min Block made these eggs when I stayed with her in 1994. She's a
longtime family friend. She is always cooking. She made a topping for
rice: chopped garlic, sesame seeds, and red chili
flakes sauteed with green tops of scallion and soy sauce. So good on rice!
Prize of the Day
I drove by the Social Street School apartments and a shirtless man was sunbathing on the very slab of granite that 20 years ago hundreds of happy kids would run out on for recess. He had his black radio propped up next to him. He was content, browning his oiled hairy chest, distanced from the road by a swath of green grass and a tall chain link fence. This is on the main artery that cuts through our city. I love it.
Morticia, Cruella
Morticia, Cruella, Dejanira, Medusa
I love these bad weather bitches!
I am all of them today
No more toothy smiles
This woman screams and howls
Give me rain wind and snow
to match my mood
Baked Fried Chicken
I must try this. Crispy Fried Chicken
Awesome fried chicken. I’m only 10 years old and I made it three times. Great every time. My family and I loved it. I do find it easier to bake it in the oven for 30 minutes, turning over halfway. It was a little spicy but totally worth it. -Isabella
Today I blended the flour mixture for chicken tenders 3/4 recipe. I'll be baking at 425 F. I can't resist flour blending as I do with my breads. I'm using a blend of 1 cup of ww flour, 1/3 c rye flour, 1/3 c cornmeal, 1/3 c AP white flour, and the cornstarch, herbs and spices. We used actual diced garlic and onion and had no white pepper. We decided not to add more cayenne as the paprika and hot sauce were plenty of heat. (stay tuned for results).
Update: For this recipe we should have done it the author's way and fried our breaded baked chicken tenders. Onward. The buttermilk did amazing things. We baked it and the breading and chicken was delicious but my adapted coating was dry so after it cooked I chopped up the baked breaded chicken and made a dill sauce using buttermilk, dill weed, Hellman's mayo and salt and black pepper. I poured it over the chopped seasoned chicken and now its the most amazing chicken salad. (4/22/21)
(4/23/21) I mixed in some cooked brown basmati rice to neutralize the intensity of the salad and it was perfect. Now can I freeze it?
Cast Iron Stories
Becky Fajkowski, 74, San Francisco
“I found it under the sink of this really cool apartment on Sage Road in Houston. The girl who moved out was named Tuesday (or Wednesday), back in the early ’70s. Still have it.”
Daniel Kelly, 37, London
“Years ago, I used the cast iron to make an apple tart for a Friendsgiving. When I left the party with some friends, I brought the pan with me as we headed back home on public transit. We got sidetracked along the way, and I ended up sneaking a 12-inch frying pan into a strip bar (Jumbo’s Clown Room, to be precise).”
Deborah Dimitrov, 68, Thornhill, B.C.
“I found my cast-iron fry pan in a deserted trappers cabin in the wilderness in northern British Columbia. The man who owned the cabin told me to take it. I can barely lift it now, but this pan will cook anything. If I could thank someone for it, I would do so gratefully. When it’s time to hang this pan up for the last time, I will pass it on to someone else who will appreciate it the same way I do. Anything this useful, resilient, old and well-made is meant to be passed on to others and shared. No one person should ever be the sole owner!”
THE COUNTRY a Bill Collins Poem
The Country I wondered about you when you told me never to leave a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches lying around the house because the mice might get into them and start a fire. But your face was absolutely straight when you twisted the lid down on the round tin where the matches, you said, are always stowed. Who could sleep that night? Who could whisk away the thought of the one unlikely mouse padding along a cold water pipe behind the floral wallpaper gripping a single wooden match between the needles of his teeth? Who could not see him rounding a corner, the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam, the sudden flare, and the creature for one bright, shining moment suddenly thrust ahead of his time— now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid illuminating some ancient night. Who could fail to notice, lit up in the blazing insulation, the tiny looks of wonderment on the faces of his fellow mice, onetime inhabitants of what once was your house in the country? Billy Collins
The Brazen Mouse
Our cat died three weeks ago. This morning I noticed a hole chewed through the burlap rice bag.
Save the Pickle Juice!
The best pickled eggs are hard-boiled eggs dropped into pickle juice! Lazy and easy!
Urban Surprises
Urban surprises. Yesterday morning sitting outside we heard our neighbor singing off his balcony. Glorious voice! We clapped and he became shy and retreated.
Later on we heard other neighbors, in a different tenement. Two women fighting and screaming with verbal accusations of biting and choking. I heard clamoring and thumping. I was ready to phone the police.
Later in the day I stepped out onto my balcony and saw a smashed up door on their porch, presumably from the fighting and their tiny balcony was covered in dog feces. Their poor dog is huge and he has never been outside. This is what this particular absentee landlord has ended up with, tenants abusing each other and their pets.
Before bed I heard the police radio and looked out. Six police were back here. One officer was questioning the kid driver of the black Mercedes and the others were standing much further away.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Romeo
This morning Romeo jumped up and stuck his nose under the chair near the radiator. Then I saw it! We have our first mouse since Sammy-cat died.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Homemade Tortillas
Recipe by Mark Bittman
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups masa harina
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, lard or butter
- About 1 cup hot water, or more as needed
- Flour for kneading
Preparation
- Combine the masa and salt in a bowl; stir in the oil. Slowly stream in the water while mixing with your hand or a wooden spoon until the dough comes together into a ball.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until it is smooth and elastic — just a minute or two. Wrap in plastic, and let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to a few hours.
- Break off pieces of the dough (you’re shooting for 12 to 16 tortillas total), and lightly flour them. Put them between 2 sheets of plastic wrap, and press them in a tortilla press, or roll them out or press them with your hands to a diameter of 4 to 6 inches. Begin to cook the tortillas as you finish pressing or rolling them.
- Put a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Cook the tortillas, 1 or 2 at a time, until brown spots appear on the bottom, about a minute. Flip, and do the same on the other side. Wrap the cooked tortillas in a towel to keep them warm; serve immediately, or cool and store tightly wrapped in the fridge for a few days.
Favorite Summer Food
Favorite Summer Food: Grilled vegetable kebabs. Marinate the veggies in simple dressing and add cherry tomatoes and button mushrooms zucchini, eggplant, red onions and bell peppers. Thread vegetables on skewers and grill over hardwood charcoal fire, turn after 3 minutes and cook some more. ENJOY!
The Modern Nighmare
The drone users would have wearable “pods” that can be hung around their necks or clipped to their clothing. The pod would provide voice feedback on posture and speed, as well as control the drone’s settings and communicate with friends or family.
Article
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Court Stroud
"April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This year, at 54, I'm determined to take back my voice. To all those men who felt they had the right to my body without my consent, I say now what I couldn't then:
STOP."
-Court Stroud (article)
Taking Care
I was been in a grumpy mood after 11 hours of sleep and then I was even grumpier that I was grumpy. Good news: my sore foot is showing signs of improvement but I have to be sure not to go full tilt. So I started straightening up a little, quick vac, quick wash of tablecloth clothes and blanket, watered plants, made granola. I had a big session with my notebook and Romeo-pup snuggling with me on the couch. Bill hung our new Joblot front porch shades and they work. The neighbors were being loud so we went back inside. I made applesauce from the mixed batch of leftover apples. We replaced our broken food mill and today was the debut! I tuned into the internet blues radio station. I had forgotten I had musical choices. The blues cheered me up!
Friday, April 16, 2021
Spinach Stromboli
We just made a gigantic spinach olive provolone pepperoni STROMBOLI using my bread dough.
It came out so good. I want to dance in the street!
(It's very simple--the trick is using parchment paper under the dough
so you can lift the stromboli onto a baking sheet and bake it at 400).
RECIPE:
Saute 1 pound of frozen spinach (defrost and cook off the excess water). Slice up 1 can of black olives. Add freshly chopped garlic and olive oil, red chili flakes, and salt. Add a splash of chianti and let it cook off. (Let the spinach mixture cool off to room temperature while you take the next steps.)
Flatten pizza dough with your fingers on a layer of parchment paper. Make it thin. Use extra flour or cornmeal if it's sticking.
Layer the cooked spinach mixture onto the dough.
Add a thin layer of Provolone and slices of pepperoni but it's also good without them.
Roll up the dough carefully making a log shape. Seal the ends by tucking them under. Slash short diagonal cuts in the the top and brush on a glaze with a beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water.
Transfer onto baking sheet using the parchment as a stretcher! It helps to have an extra set of hands here.
Bake at 400 for 20 or 40 minutes depending on how large your stromboni is.
A Wind Gust
We were just at Stop and Shop Bellingham and we saw the burned house
on Auclair Street in Blackstone. The top
outside wall looked like it was about to fall over. I said to Bill "We'd
better let Woonsocket Fire Lieutenant Gary Harnois know, because he'll know who to contact," and
then a wind gust came and it fell over!
Ready to Eat
When I come home from swimming I am always ready to eat and cook. I just
made pickled eggs. I hope I can be patient while they season for a few days.
Chef Demetra Overton's Red Wine Vinegar Pickled Eggs
https://sweetsavant.com/red-wine-vinegar-pickled-eggs/
- 6 hard-boiled and peeled eggs
- 2 cups red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds (optional)
- 1 bay leaf
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Spring Pickle-Juice Eggs
For a quick method of pickling eggs, place hard boiled eggs in pickle or pickled beet juice. Refrigerate at least two days before serving.
source
My Version of German Potato Salad
I just made my interpretation of German Potato salad in the 10 quart Instant Pot. I've made it in the stove-top cooker for 42 years. The recipe came with my original Presto Pressure Cooker that I purchased in 1980. It was my first kitchen tool when I lived on my own.
Today I chopped a whole bag 5 pounds of red potatoes (yellow ones and white ones are good too), a full bunch of celery (you can even use more I have sometimes used a bunch and a half) and a gigantic white onion. I added 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and one tablespoon of sugar and 1 Tablespoon of Gulden's mustard and a squirt or two of Sriracha hot sauce (optional). I mixed the sauce (taste tested it) and then poured it over the potatoes celery and onions.
I set the Instant pot to high pressure for 4 minutes and then gave
it an instant release (with a kitchen towel draped over the vent pipe). I scooped everything out into a few shallow containers placed in front of the kitchen fan for rapid cooling.
Don't be deceived if you taste it while it's hot because the true in depth flavor comes out as it cools off. The vinegar is cooked in! The liquid at the bottom of the cooker has lots of flavor too so be sure to mix it into the potatoes.
Dream
I dreamed our friend Rodney bought a piece of real estate. It was a black box one story high and it opened with double doors and more doors. Faded red curtains were painted on the sequence of doors. This was a theater and the building was on wheels. I offered to repaint the curtains.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
I LOVE Faith Shearin's Poetry
Places I Have Heard the Ocean
by Faith Shearin
In a cat’s throat, in a shell I hold
to my ear — though I’m told
this is the sound of my own
blood. I have heard the ocean
in the city: cars against
the beach of our street. Or in
the subway, waiting for a train
that carries me like a current.
In my bed: place of high and low
tide or in my daughter’s skates,
rolling over the sidewalk.
Ocean in the trees when they
fill their heads with wind.
Ocean in the rise and fall:
lungs of everyone I love.
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Mary Fitzgerald's Spinach Pie from Ireland
Here's a quick and easy way to present the good-for-you-greens as a side dish or light lunch. The recipe dates back three generations in the family of Mary Fitzgerald, a gardener who lives in Wexford, Ireland.
You'll need six 4 1/2-inch tartlet pans, preferably with removable bottoms. This can also be made in a deep 9-inch tart pan; adjust the baking time as needed.
Servings:
Tested size: 6 servings
Ingredients
Directions
Heat a wide saucepan of water over medium-high heat; seat a steamer basket above the water level. Place half of the spinach in the steamer. Cover and steam until just wilted, then drain and coarsely chop. Press with paper towels to remove as much moisture from the spinach as possible, then transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with the remaining spinach.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use cooking oil spray to grease the tartlet pans, then arrange them on a rimmed baking sheet.
Add the onion to the spinach, along with the eggs, cottage cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pepper and nutmeg; stir to blend well. Divide evenly among the tartlet pans. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until barely browned on the edges and set at the center.
Wait 5 minutes before dislodging from the tartlet pans. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with the edible flowers, if using.
Adapted from "Irish Country Cooking: More Than 100 Recipes for Today's Table," from the Irish Countrywomen's Association (Sterling, 2014).
To do the Useful Thing
“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.”
― The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
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