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Lori in PA

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  1. I have questions: 1. Please, please, somebody tell us how we could make an orange-vanilla vinaigrette. 2. This one is for the Atlantans: The Husband was on a business trip in Atlanta during the week. He was taken to dinner at a place called Canoe. He said it was terrific, but they do not serve dessert. So, what is the opinion of the locals on this place? And what's up with no dessert? 3. Tell your food frugality tips -- I always appreciate good ideas.
  2. Thank you -- the excerpts make me want to read more.
  3. Dinner -- Samuel lit the grill for me because Kevin was changing the oil in the van and giving it various other nurturing treatment. (If you look behind the grill, you can see a sliver of the view from the north side of the house. ) I guess confession time has come -- I must tell you that I'm afraid of the grill. I hate the thought of getting burned. Our grill's trigger starter thing stopped working about 30 minutes after the warranty ran out, so we have to turn on the gas and light it from the top with a match or an Aim 'n Flame. I mostly avoid using it at all. Tonight, I had to put the chicken on myself. I sort of tossed it on the grate -- standing as far back as I could. I had turned the burners to low, thinking I wanted to grill this long and slow to mimic the great chicken barbecue done around here for fundraisers -- they do it very slowly in pits. I covered the grill and this is what happened: The Husband recommended opening the cover, turning off one burner, and pushing all the legs to the other side. By the time I got this advice, the legs were already pretty dark, but we like it like that: Getting everything on the table: I rather like this photo -- buttering that hot corn: Fresh green beans, done the Julia Child way: blanched, shocked, and chilled; then reheated to evaporate water and tossed with butter, salt, pepper, and "drops of lemon juice." Mmm -- thank you, Madame Child. Ready to pray: The first corn of the year, from the Eastern Shore until ours comes in a few weeks from now:
  4. Here I am again, about to reply with quotes -- the trepidation is fierce! Aarrgghh -- I'm back to using color to differentiate my comments. I have my classes clean the kitchen until it is back in the state in which it was when we started the day. That means it is quite clean. They usually just volunteer to do the different jobs -- some like to wash, some dry, some do the floor, and so on. I'm one of the least amazing people I know, but thanks for saying so. I spied The Husband out in the hammock for a spell this afternoon -- I'm glad he did it, because he's had a hectic week, too. I haven't thought far enough ahead to the fourth. We're supposed to hold Wed's cooking class that day because one of my dear friends is scheduled to have her fifth C-section on the fifth and I get to go play Junior Midwife, but I'm thinking of doing some class shifting next week because of several students' plans, so I'm not sure. The Husband has the day off, which still feels like a huge treat and novelty to us, because until last Feb. he was a 911 dispatcher and almost never had holidays off. Oh, Anna, I hope you and your husband enjoy your meal with gusto and thankfulness for your marriage and your husband's health. I don't have clues about the food, much. The hazelnut cream seemed to be foamed cream or milk, somehow infused with the nut flavor? The onion soup would be fairly simple, I think -- a highly seasoned pureed cream soup, with 5 alliums -- what might they be? White and yellow onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, perhaps? The vanilla vinaigrette -- I'm really hoping SOMEBODY out there can give us a recipe -- I want to make this at home! Wow, high praise I'm sure I don't deserve -- I immediately think of my all-time favorite blogs and know your memory must be failing, Sandy. But thank you anyway. I do like Keeping Up Appearances, but I laugh with a self-conscious edge because I can't help but remember times when I've been too interested in impressing other people, when just being myself would have been a better plan. Monty Python? I like it much on an occasional basis. The Husband can quote sections, though! East Berlin is one of the oldest communities in Adams County. As I remember it, it was one of the last settled communities the pioneers passed on their way west -- at least the ones who were making the trip in Conestoga wagons they'd bought from the Lancaster, PA company who made them. Here is a bit of info from the historical society's website: http://www.eastberlinhistoricsociety.org/d...t.aspx?p=114244 The building which houses the restaurant looks like it would have been one of the early, finer houses -- it is located on a corner of the main intersection. Its sprawling nature indicates it was added onto several times. It may have been the local inn, but I'm unsure. (Note: fixed the quote codes -- JAZ)
  5. Tonight's dinner menu: fake PA Dutch barbecued (grilled) chicken leg quarters cherry salsa corn on the cob French-style green beans For Sunday dinner, I hope to serve: stuffed squash blossoms grilled salmon steaks baked cucumbers in cream more green beans Mom's French bread This afternoon, I prepped the green beans, which are lovely small ones given to me by our organic farmer brethren. I prepped the cucumbers to give off their liquid. I made the tomato sauce with fresh basil for the stuffed squash blossoms' accompaniment: I made the goat cheese and fresh thyme filling for the blossoms: The stuffed squash blossoms come from Georgeanne Brennan's excellent little In the French Kitchen Garden: the joys of cultivating a potager. I have enjoyed this book immensely -- it is a pleasure to hold the nubby dust jacket over the hardcover, the watercolor illustrations are delightful, and the gardening and recipes ideas are useful and do-able. Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081182034...1102422?ie=UTF8 I put together the cherry salsa: The salsa is just something I'm making up: white and dark cherries, pitted and cut in half, about 2 c. total 1/3 c.-ish minced red onion 1/2 minced jalepeno pepper zest of one lime juice of half a lime about 1/4 c. chopped cilantro salt to taste I think diced avocado would be a nice last-moment stir-in, but I'm the only one who likes it much, so I may add some to mine if the mood strikes me. Dinner's almost ready -- just have to cook the corn!
  6. Saturday meanderings Today has been one of my favorite kinds of days -- I have no commitments beyond what I choose to accomplish. Nobody's pulling at me -- well, except for a few thousand people on this website, I suppose. What I decided to do was have some fun in the kitchen. After three days straight of cooking classes, working alone in here feels like a reclamation of my space. It is peaceful, with an easy pace as I get into the groove of working on multiple little jobs in succession. I'm mainly making dinner for just our family tonight, but I'm also doing some prep work for Sunday dinner (which you understand is really lunch) tomorrow after worship. My mom and dad are just back today from a trip, so I've invited them to join us, too. Before I did much in the kitchen, I needed to pick up a few items. Often, when it's hot like it is today, I make myself my own version of iced coffee to have in the middle of the day. I make two 2-cup size mugs of coffee in the Senseo and pour them into a glass. I add two spoons of sugar and a big splash of half and half. I stir with an iced tea spoon and carefully put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge freezer's door. Ideally, I give it a quick stir every half-hour -- 1 hour until it is slushy, but it almost never works out that way. I always manage to get busy and forget about it and it freezes more or less solid: Then I wrestle with the frozen-in-place iced tea spoon and try to break up the mixture. If it isn't frozen solid, I chip away at it and usually plunge through the ice and splash coffee all over. Then I have to let it sit at room temperature for awhile until it is thawed enough to stir and drink. Anyway, it is a good way to have undiluted icy coffee: BTW, I think Rachel said she now only uses one coffee pod for the two-cup amount on the Senseo. I've done that since the beginning. Java aficionados may shudder, but it tastes good to me. I got on my way mid-morning and ran by Sandoe's for corn and more dark sweet cherries. I drove back through B-ville and down the road about a mile to a store that's been open since last winter, The Butcher Block: They want to be specialty grocery -- and I want them to be one, too -- but they are still figuring out their niche. They do have good meat and good weekly specials. Today, I got chicken leg quarters for 47 cents a pound: They have a lot of Maryland seafood, because they are owned by a nice little grocery store called Jubilee Foods in Emmitsburg, MD: I resisted the crabs and stuck with my chicken: I went to my parents' house to harvest some squash blossoms. Their garden is terrific -- a real thing of beauty. Here are potted herbs sunken into the ground in the foreground, with their stand of asparagus behind. Their asparagus is lonely, with no weeds to keep it company: Here are tomatoes (sorry, Susan) and snap peas surrounded by fencing in defense of the healthy (and well-fed) rabbit population they have: The fence also encloses some of their squash and all of their green beans, which I think they replanted two or three times before they broke down and got the fence: Ripe tomatoes -- I just can't quit! And, the raspberries are coming on: Here are the squash blossoms I harvested, a bit too late in the morning to have them open the way I wish, but I think I can work with them: After I left Mom's and Dad's, I scurried into Giant grocery store in Gettysburg for three things. By that time, it was 2 pm and I'd had no lunch. I ran into the Dairy Queen down the road for a milkshake. (John, if you are reading this, the photo I took of you didn't come out.) Everybody else, I wish I could show you John, the owner of our DQ, who sets a very high standard for friendly service. My mom says nobody can make a peanut butter crunch Blizzard as terrific as he (and his employees) do it. (Oh, when my family sees this picture, I'm gonna be so busted!) As I headed back toward home, I realized I forgot to take a picture of Giant, so I did it on the fly as I drove past the entrance road. Can't you see it? Back home I started puttering in the kitchen. More on that in awhile.
  7. In your honor, Susan/Snowangel, I have made the first BLT with the first harvested tomato from my garden of the season. I have also made what will probably be the tiniest BLT of the season. It was goo-ood! I may have a wee cruel streak in me. Addition after initial post: I was so disappointed in the blurry photo. Unfortunately, I ate the subject immediately after taking the picture...
  8. Weekday breakfasts are usually Every Man for Himself around here, but sometimes on Saturdays I do something a little nicer. This morning I felt like making pancakes. I add some cornmeal in place of part of the flour: I triple my recipe, so I have two skillets going: I like to cook bacon in the oven -- easier, less mess, and I don't have room for another pan on the stove anyway: The stack grows: I made sure to have an egg -- protein first: I cooked along with a British comedy this morning. My mil tapes them for me sometimes and they are one of my guilty (because sometimes I watch when I should be doing something else) pleasures:
  9. Dinner at Restaurant Sydney or, Taking One for the Team We decided to celebrate our twentieth anniversary from last July, our twenty-first anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks, The Husband’s job change last February, The Husband’s raise, and help out the blog all at one time last night with dinner for two on the terrace at Restaurant Sydney in East Berlin. I’ve been hearing about this place for over a year – more than one person has said it is the best restaurant in Adams County. We had decided the day before that we’d go, but with the morning I had I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do it anymore. I took a nap on the sofa in the afternoon, though, and woke up feeling human and happy, so I called for a reservation. As you know, there is a difference between eating out and dining out. We do eat out occasionally – when traveling or the odd fast food dollar menu drive-through lunch when a van picnic won’t work out because of time. Sometimes we get a pizza or a few hoagies to share from one of two little Italian places here in B-ville. We often get an ice cream after worship services or Bible study at Bruster’s or Dairy Queen in Gettysburg. Dining at an upscale restaurant happens annually or less for us, though, on average, so it becomes an Event when it does occur. And what an Event last night turned out to be – just wonderful. In fact, I rather think it may be the best restaurant meal I’ve had in the US. [Disclaimer: I know some of you reading this are knowledgeable and serious restaurant foodies, so I feel obligated to point out that what was an ethereal culinary experience for me might seem less exciting to you. My dad is a retired airline captain; therefore I grew up traveling often and have eaten some really good meals in various places and have some frame of reference, but please don’t book travel arrangements to East Berlin on my say so. ] Part of what made the evening so special wasn’t even the food. The weather was perfectly comfortable, we were seated next to a little garden filled with herbs, the company was excellent, our servers were friendly but not intrusive, and they paced everything so well for us – long and slow and relaxing – which was just what we wanted. The food was fabulous, though, and we really splurged. Normally when we dine out we might each order an entrée and perhaps share an appetizer or a dessert, but last night we did it up right. There was one “special” for each course and The Husband chose that for his starter, a chilled five onion soup with crispy shallots and toasted onion seeds: I asked for the warm duck confit tartlet with arugula salad, but they were out of it, so I took the other thing I’d been dithering over, which was citrus cured Scottish salmon with fried oysters, mango chutney, and orange-vanilla vinaigrette. Oh, that vanilla – I need to learn how to make that… I thought the chutney’s curry flavor overpowered the other elements, so after a bite or two I ignored it, but otherwise everything combined wonderfully. We waited to order our main course until we’d finished our appetizers and I spent some minutes happily musing over the choices again. Of The Husband and me, I am much the more adventurous eater, though he has made great strides from the time we met, when the only cooked vegetables he liked were potatoes, corn, and green beans. Really, his parents were plain eaters and he just hadn’t been exposed to anything else, so he was starting with a handicap. When we dine together or when I get creative in the kitchen, I’m always torn between offering full disclosure about ingredients or choosing to “wait and see” if he’ll discover a new taste and enjoy it. So, last night when he was considering whether to get the roasted halibut with caponata and green peppercorn sauce or the prime rib, which he loves, I was thinking, “Should I tell him caponata = eggplant or not?” I decided to keep mum until he made up his mind. He chose the beef, which solved my dilemma nicely. He got the medium-rare he asked for, along with perfectly cooked fresh vegetables, so he was pleased: I ordered the “lamb loin chop and braised shank with cauliflower mousseline, organic arugula, hazelnut milk, and rich-braising lamb juices.” Really well done – the contrast of the chewier medium-rare lamb and the fork-tender shank paired perfectly with cauliflower’s creamy wonderfulness – I unapologetically ate every scrap and polished my plate with a piece of bread to get all of the sauce, and probably made several embarrassing yum-yum noises as well: We shared bites of our starters and mains, but dessert was different. Our server intuited, I guess, that we were going to go halves on each choice, so she first brought one, waited until we finished it, and then brought the second. We began with poached banana ice cream with white chocolate/banana crepes and chocolate sauce. I’m not a huge fan of bananas sometimes, but there was much to love about this. I got carried away and started eating before The Husband took a pic (well, actually, we both did that more than once, which you’ve probably noticed): Lastly, we had the dessert special, which celebrated the cherry season in our orchard county – warm sweet cherry clafouti, cherry granita, and a miniature almond milkshake: What a perfect ending to a perfect meal. At one point in the middle of it all I looked up into the darkening sky and saw the beautiful crescent moon and just gave thanks for so many blessings – the kindness of postmen, the terrific kids in the cooking classes, naps, our family, and the grace of that good meal.
  10. Trying the quote thing-y again. I just can't understand why it isn't working -- I'm trying to be so careful. Follow-up after previewing this post. It isn't working! I'm putting my comments in green. The Big City to which The Husband commutes is none other than our nation's capitol, Washington DC. He is employed by the federal government, at an agency which has been receiving a good deal of bad press since last autumn. He does a combo of driving and metro commuting and carpools most days with one of two people. The travel time is about 2:15, so he is truly a hero. I especially can't understand it after taking a few tours at local processors. At a snack foods company, we saw them switch the name brand chip bags for a generic brand. The chips pouring into those bags were exactly the same! The grape tomato with the ripe fruit was a plant given to me by a family in our congregation who live in Lancaster County and have an organic produce farm. It was big when I got it in early April. I did my best to kill it for several weeks by leaving it in its pot on the north side of the house and forgetting several nights to bring it inside and forgetting to water it for days at a time, but it resisted all my efforts to make it die and survived until I got it in the ground. Then I kept putting a five gallon bucket upside down over with a big rock to weight it on nights when we had frost predicted, but half the time I'd forget to take the bucket off the next day and a couple of times I think I left the bucket in place for days. And still there are tomatoes. I don't deserve them, for sure. Our frost-free date is May 15, right in line with your Mother's Day practice. I planted the other plants a good one or two weeks after that because I didn't have time to get them and then I didn't have time to plant them. Don't sweat it, Lori. Considering you're chasing after last-minute financial aid forms and wrangling cooking classes in addition to blogging, the last thing you need to be worrying about is tediously counting formatting commands to find the odd one out. ← ← Thank you for trying. So, maybe it isn't actually my computer ineptitude? I did not have to muster the energy for dinner because we went out! More on that in the morning... The hammock has a crescent of old-fashioned hydrangeas around it. The flowers pre-date us as owners of this house and they take very good care of themselves except for one thing. Since we put up the hammock, every year at least one child, ours or a visiting one, manages to flip himself out of the hammock and into the hydrangeas. They don't take kindly to being crushed by flailing children. This year it happened smack in the middle of the clump. Ah well, someday we'll have a quiet house and unmolested borders, but I guess we'll be the poorer for it. I do enjoy my asparagus very much. I have 50 plants, which my dad and I put in more than 10 years ago. As I'm the only one in my immediate family who likes it, I often eat it three times a day in season and give away much of it to friends. The plants in the lower right corner of the picture look like something my Nana used to call cat's claw briar. Do they have particularly nasty thorns, or do they just look like they should? ← Nothing so interesting, I'm afraid. That tree in the forground holding up the hammock is a basswood and those are sprouts I have to cut back every year.
  11. A little culinary yard tour; first, the herb bed, clockwise from noon-1 o'clock: self-seeded dill, rosemary, basil, more rosemary, French tarragon, spearmint in a sunken pot (hidden between two tarragon plants); in the center is sage; the bare spot was dominated by two huge culinary sorrel plants until a couple of weeks ago. They'd choked out my old stand of chives, so we pulled them out. I need to go divide some of my folks' chives to get some going again -- I miss them. You can't see the thyme, lemon thyme, and flat and curly parsley. The "salad bed": successively-sown lettuces (with one lonely bolted head), Ruby Swiss Chard, and a Sungold cherry tomato We are growing nine tomato plants this year -- eight different varieties: 2 Cherokee Purple and 1 each of Sungold, Juliet, Aunt (Sombody)'s German Green; (Something) Striped, Celebrity, and two others I can't remember. Here is one without a support to weave through. Look! The first tomatoes of the season: The asparagus patch, with a fine crop of weeds surrounding it: The cook, and gardener's, retreat:
  12. Today is the last cooking class of the week. These are my big kids, ages 13 1/2 -- 18. They are the Advanced Class, though even here there is a range of knowledge and skill. If last night was the College Crisis Dinner, this morning was the College Crisis Class. What a performance -- we should sell tickets! It seemed a simple matter -- go over all the financial aid (for an Adopt-a-Student program) paperwork one last time, Mom proofread Alyssa's request letter to be sent to potential adopters, and run up to the post office to next day express mail it. First, I realized as I was finishing up my early-morning eGullet postings that I never picked up eggplant for one of the class dishes this morning. Samuel informed me we were completely out of milk. No problem -- I'll just run over to Jane's. Jane's had milk, but no eggplant until the produce truck arrived, expected in about an hour. No problem -- I'll just run home, get a shower, eat breakfast, and run back. It occurred to me before I got home that maybe Sandoe's would have some, so I popped in there, but no -- it's too early in the season, so I went home. I proofed A's letter, found some problems we needed to discuss, worked on that, kids arriving by now -- it just went on. As we were almost finished and ready to run to the post office, we realized we should copy everything for ourselves, so A went to the fire dept. to use the copier while I went to Jane's for the elusive eggplant. Then, The Husband called to remind me that the Second Most Aged Vehicle (my van) was scheduled to be worked on and inspected this morning (ack!). Ok -- A and I can drop it off when we do the post office run. Meanwhile, I told the others to start reading the plan for the day and going over the recipes. As the problems multiplied I told them to start cooking and gave them my cell # in case they couldn't find equipment or ingredients or had a question. Off we went. As we were getting home from the PO/garage run, I realized today is the day I have to turn in our homeschool portfolios to the school district. I wouldn't be able to do it after class because A would be gone to work with the other vehicle, so I had to do it immediately. After I finally got back to be able to teach the class that had been going on for an hour and a half pretty much without me, A suddenly shrieked and said, "Mom, we forgot to include a photo of me in the fiancial aid thing." The photo that is required. The photo without which the entire application would be rejected. The photo that was not in the envelope we paid $15 over an hour earlier to have next day express mailed to the school. We raced out the door together, shocked expressions on all faces (oh, the drama, the drama!), and careened, careened, I tell you, into the post office. I truly was fighting back tears and had to get hold of myself to explain everything to the postman (not the really nice lady postman, naturally, but the little-bit-reserved postman). He looked at me like I was nuts, BUT HE RETRIEVED THE ENVELOPE AND OPENED IT FOR US. For all I know, he broke dozens of federal postal laws, but he will have my gratitude always. On the way home, Alyssa said, "Next week this will be funny." Maybe. The positive side to all of this, besides the heroic postman, is the wonderful cooking class students, who soldiered on without their teacher, using new techniques for four unfamiliar recipes, and performed brilliantly. Clean as you go: Chopping raw spinach for the spinach garlic risotto: Ready to shape the foccacia dough: Rosemary, one of the best smells: Stirring risotto, a new technique/dish for all: Shredding the parmesan: Ready to dine:
  13. Lori, I will take the above as your permission to edit the post and fix the toggled quotes, unless you say otherwise. (I'm making this a post instead of a PM, so we have witnesses for your permission; otherwise, staff does not edit posts.) The only thing is that I am only briefly home from work for lunch, so I have to do it later. Meanwhile, blog on! It's a great one. ← Yes, please. And thank you.
  14. Sigh. I really CAN'T do this reply/quote thing. Maybe somebody in charge will take pity on us all and fix it?
  15. Yes, they have a huge generator to run everything. In the old store, it must have been located by the freezer. When it kicked on, it sounded like a 747 was taking off in there! I think those ceiling lights you see in the pictures are really a kind of skylight. There are pipes running around the ceiling which are connected to little gas jets that they light on really dark winter days. The store is heated in winter, but not air-conditioned in summer. The Husband tells me I got this all wrong, which doesn't surprise me at all. They do NOT use a generator; rather they use LP gas -- big tanks at the rear of the building. The sound in the freezer is just the motor. I think the other info is correct. Thank you, Ellen. I looked at the recipe and decided I wasn't totally nuts. My version would have been much more appetizing if I'd had time to line the platter with lettuce or something and garnish it. I'm always so pleased when I make the effort to add these touches, but I often don't feel able to manage it. Maybe I'll write a book someday and I'll call it No Time for Parsley. Yup, beef salad is cooked roast beef ground with pickles or pickle relish, maybe a little minced onion, and mixed with mayo. My mom used to make it when I was little (we lived on a farm and raised beef cattle), especially when we were taking one of our regular day trips to some historical site or museum or something for our picnic lunch. I think she thought she had invented it, simply because we had more beef than anything else. Then, when I started going to the Butcher Shoppe, there it was! It's a blast from my past. It is amazing how much one can learn with this little method. You can get cool placemats on all sorts of subjects from teachers' supply stores, too. I'm all for effortless learning. So, how is this different/better than my method? I just open Explorer a couple of times and have a toolbar at the bottom of mine screen with each window shown. I love easy, so if yours is better, do tell. But, tell simply, please! I thought these were a New England-thing since I associate the home-made kind with Maine in the summer! Tennessee claims to be the birthplace of the Moon Pie, apparently the same thing. Are they on the west coast at all? Have you done any lessons in Italian food or cooking of new Italian dishes since you asked us all about good books to use? I think Moon Pies are little different -- the cookie part seems thinner and the whole pie is dipped into an icing that hardens somewhat. I thought whoopie pies were PA Dutch, but who knows? I think chocolate cookie with white icing inside is the classic kind, but The Butcher Shoppe also makes chocolate with peanut butter filling like Mr. S. had, pumpkin with cream cheese filling, and red velvet with cream cheese filling. Thank you, Lucy (and others who have pmed me about this topic). The kind of surgery I had worked and continues to work in two ways: 1. My stomach was made much smaller, though all the functioning parts of it were retained, so at first I could only eat tiny amounts, which made me lose weight quickly. Gradually, the remaining stomach stretches so that now I eat "small normal meals." 2. Part of the upper section of my small intestine (duodenum) was divided into two limbs, so for awhile the food is kept separate from the digestive enzymes et al, which means I absorb fewer calories (and nutrients) from my food. The second part of the surgery keeps me from regaining weight. Most people lose over a period of about 18 months and then rebound a tiny bit to a stable weight. I have blood tests about 3 times per year to check a LONG list of nutrient levels. I always feel so sorry for the phlebotomist, who must research all the rare tests she is drawing for to find out how to handle the various viles. Then I feel sorry for me, because they have to take around 13 vials and I feel a little faint watching all that. That gave me a chuckle. I do have plenty of boys in the classes, which is lovely. Yep, Giant is my "regular" grocery store. I also shop at a small grocery here in Biglerville called Jane's, which is a Shurfine store, but the Shurfine parmesan cheese can pictured with Samuel's cheese toast is just one we keep to refill from a big Kraft parmesan cheese container we buy at Sam's Club. (I use parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated with my own hand , for most things, but cheese toast must be made with the canned stuff. It's a rule.)
  16. Beginner/Intermediate Cooking class, from yesterday: We had the same menu as on Wednesday, but I wanted you to see some of these students in action: We did a buffet today: The students I work with are what make me love teaching the cooking classes. Somehow when I started doing this years ago I had the foresight to make a couple of hard and fast rules: 1. Everybody stays focused -- we'll have lots of fun, but we are here to work and learn. 2. Everybody helps each other. 3. Everybody agrees to taste everything with an open mind. 4. (And perhaps most importantly) Nobody leaves until the kitchen is sparkling. This has fed on itself as students have grown up and little ones have joined us. I hear the oldsters telling the youngsters, "Now, don't tell yourself you won't like that zucchini until you taste it. You might be surprised." And, "Let me show you how to knead that dough." And, "_______, come back to the kitchen. We have to stay focused." It's rather gratifying to see them internalize these practices. In an hour or so my Advanced Class will start arriving. Today's menu: Risotto Two Ways Eggplant Stuffed with Roasted Veggies Foccacia Grapes with Brown Sugar and Sour Cream
  17. Dinner last night -- I hate to even talk about it. We had a College Crisis because we discovered during a late afternoon phone converstation with a counselor that a financial aid application we didn't know we needed to submit had to be received by Monday morning. It can't be faxed, so we are having to scramble to complete it and will OVERNIGHT EXPRESS it this morning (somehow in the middle of Advanced Cooking Class -- ) to the school. There is a great deal of irony in my confessing our intention to do this on the heels of a post about frugality, and the fact that the the thing that we'll have to pay so much to mail is an application for FINANCIAL AID isn't lost on me either... Anyway -- dinner. I wanted to make the warm pork slaw with cherries. I did make it -- like a whirlwind, with help from the kids, (Samuel's contribution: cheese toast -- more buns used up!) and with frantic calls for info for the form flying back and forth -- and told the kids to just eat as I got the plates served, since Alyssa and I had to work on the form through the meal. It sort of resembled cat sick with cherries in it, but it tasted fine: The Husband arrived home late, very tired, and with a household in uproar. I think I've said before on egullet that we don't allow our children to complain about whatever food is served. So, The Husband looked at the plate of food I'd fixed for him 30 minutes earlier and, out of hearing of the kids, said, "Yuck." Well. We got over it.
  18. Frugality is a trait to which most of us do not aspire unless we’re forced to it by circumstances. It doesn’t come naturally to me anyway. When we married 20 years ago, The Husband and I talked about what was important to us. We both hoped to have children and we wanted me to be able to care for them at home. It was a choice made consciously and with great significance because we were setting a priority which meant we would voluntarily remove many taken-for-granted-in-America “necessities” from our reach. I don’t mean we live off the power grid or grow and grind our own wheat – many people live much more simply and frugally than we; rather, it means our vehicles are into their second decades of use, we don’t have cable television, and as a matter of course we try not to spend money thoughtlessly. Some expenses are fixed, of course, but food is one of those budget categories with a good deal of flexibility and stretching that dollar can become a sort of art form when approached with a willing and creative attitude. Pre-Need Purchasing (PNP) is a term which is often bandied about in the funeral industry, but it is a great practice for lots of other applications, including food procurement. Most cooks use it to some degree – they buy more flour when they see the flour container running low even if they aren’t sure they’ll bake in the next week, for example. Periodic shopping trips to BB’s Grocery Outlet are a manifestation of how our family has taken this practice much further to save money. When I go there, experience has taught me to expect them to have certain items available every time – canned tomato products, beans, cereal, bottled drinks, tuna, yogurt, etc. What is uncertain is whether they’ll have the brands or quantity of a given item that I want to get, so when I see the imported Italian canned whole tomatoes (which BB’s considers an “off brand” and sells for 10 cents each!), I automatically consider the following: 1. How long will canned tomatoes stay fresh? 2. How often do I use canned tomatoes? 3. How many cans of tomatoes can I store in a safe and accessible way? 4. How long is it likely to be until I can purchase canned tomatoes of this quality at a price this good? 5. Bonus question for over-achieving PNPs: Are there ways I could increase my use of canned tomatoes in order to take advantage of this excellent price and reduce our food costs overall? 6. And the reality check question: Will I actually use canned tomatoes if I buy them? (They aren’t a deal if they never get consumed.) I do the same thing with the surprises BB’s usually has. Gorgeous dried mission figs for 25 cents a container? “Hmm, sell-by date is a year from now. How can dried figs be used? (Snacks, onion fig jam for crostini/meat condiment, as a sauce ingredient for pork, stuffed for appetizers/parties, in salads) Will I actually use them? How many containers can I store? How often do we want to eat figs – once every two months or so? I’ll take five.” And, I also do this at regular grocery stores. When napkins are buy one, get one free, I get enough to last until the next deal like that is likely to come along. When I started to get really good at thinking and purchasing this way, storage limitations were the thing that most often held me back from being able to take advantage of great deals in the best way. The Husband solved that by building some simple shelves. We call them our Grocery Store in the Basement: Now is as good a time as any for the fridge shots. The kitchen fridge: The door: The basement fridge -- looks like we need milk: The basement fridge freezer, with enough candied ginger to last the rest of my life: The small chest freezer in the basement:
  19. Things are buzzing here -- we're almost ready to sit down to our veggie stir-fry, rice, and cookies. I took a picture of The Husband for you in the wee hours of the morning -- eating his eggs, not to mention his hamburger bun toast (my hero!), and getting ready to head for work in the Big City so we can live in the Tiny Town. We don't have pets, so you have to make do with photos of the humans!
  20. About Weight Loss Surgery Body weight is among the trickiest of subjects. If we’re too thin or too fat, we are sensitive about it, but our “problem” is obvious to all. We spend a lot of time trying to change ourselves and we spend a lot of time trying to understand how we came to be this way. I could write a book, literally, about my personal experience with these issues, but it is enough to say that dealing with my excess weight has been one of the biggest difficulties in my life. I have struggled with it since I began adolescence at age ten. I wasn’t obese then; rather, my baby fat just never went away and my weight gradually climbed over the years, sometimes dipping temporarily with my regular weight loss efforts, but quickly bouncing up and over the pre-diet weights to continue its inexorable ascent to eventual super-morbid obesity. It was so frustrating. In every other area of my life I am self-disciplined, able to think and act logically, able to see what needs to be done and do it. I can’t say I tried all the weight-loss ideas out there, but I tried all the ones that weren’t stupid. By the time I reached age 33, I decided I either had to make peace with being fat or go crazy. A friend mentioned that her sister-in-law, a physician, had had weight-loss surgery a couple of years earlier and had lost a great deal of weight. Then I read an article about somebody named Carnie Wilson having a similar procedure. I started to research it. I didn’t tell anyone – not even The Husband. There was a good bit of information online, but this was before it really hit the media and became well known. Eventually, I decided I wanted to talk to doctors and my family about it. Nobody thought it was a horrible idea except The Husband, who on general principle is averse to change and was rather freaked out about the risk. I kept talking, researching, and reassuring The Husband. I settled on a type of surgery less popular in the US and more frequently used in Europe called biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (BPD/DS). I had the four-hour procedure done in New York City at Mt. Sinai Hospital in March of 2001. My recovery was long but uneventful. Imagine my shock when, during the summer after my surgery, The Husband started talking about doing the same thing. He was morbidly obese also, though his overweight was not quite as severe as mine, but I never dreamed he would even think of doing such a thing. I was more distressed about the prospect of him having surgery than I’d been about myself, partly because I knew if I hadn’t pursued it he never would have considered it. In October, with 911 still raw and missing loved-ones flyers still tacked to the walls, we went back to Mt. Sinai for his by-pass. His recovery was even quicker and seemingly easier than mine (surely he had something to prove?) and life went on. We both lost a great deal of weight – The Husband about 100 lbs. and 175 lbs for me. Everyone who has known me for a long time says the same thing: “You didn’t look like you weighed that much!” That’s nice, but I felt like I weighed that much, nevertheless. What is the best thing about what we did? It is a big relief to know the heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension which was almost certainly our future, due to our weights and family histories, is much less likely now. Day in and day out, it is wonderful to look average. Not beautiful, not whistle-worthy, just average. What is life like after weight loss surgery? Well, there is no free lunch, is there? It isn’t perfect – besides the expected need to take various nutritional supplements for the rest of our lives and keep on top of how our bodies’ nutrient levels are doing with a complicated battery of blood tests a few times a year – we cope daily with the reality that we took overly efficient digestive systems and made them work less well. Before surgery, gastric difficulties were the one ailment I didn’t have; now dealing with “tummy troubles” is a way of life for me. The Husband has had fewer complications, but he certainly has bad days at times. Would I do it again? Yes, although there are times when I think, “If every day had to be like today, I would not.” How do I eat now? My body doesn’t absorb as many of the nutrients or calories as a person with normal anatomy. I absorb, if my memory is correct, about 100 % of the simple carbohydrates, a somewhat smaller percentage of the complex carbs, 50% of the protein, and 30% of the fats I consume, so I have to focus on getting in enough protein. I aim for more than 100 grams of protein each day and my levels have been fine. There is no food I can’t eat at all, but I avoid having much pasta, rice, and potatoes because a small amount fills me up very fast and I can’t eat enough protein then. Also, they just don’t “sit” as well for me. I can eat bread, but I have to do it thoughtfully, if that makes sense. For example, I love pizza but often feel ill after eating it – I think I tend to eat it too fast, wanting to enjoy it while it’s hot, and I just have to go slow with bread-y kinds of things. I rarely drink soda – the carbonation doesn’t agree with me. Too much dairy can be a problem. Before and for awhile after my surgery, I wondered if my love of cooking and working with food would go away. It was much diminished for some months as I made this huge physical and emotional adjustment, but in many ways I love food now more than ever. I’m not afraid of it anymore and the thought of what I eat and weigh doesn’t cause me pain or embarrassment. Although I never approach anyone about it myself, many people have talked to me about weight loss surgery, for themselves or loved ones. I always urge anyone thinking about having it to research, research, research. All of the learning, talking, thinking, and praying I did in the months before my surgery let me go into it knowing exactly what risks I was taking and, since I ended up with a few long-term complications, it helps me to remember that I chose this route understanding they might happen. If you are reading this and thinking of a morbidly obese friend or relative, I beg you on their behalf to be compassionate. Don’t think they are somehow unaware of their situation – I assure you they know it better than you ever could. I am not a stupid, lazy, or immoral person and your loved one probably isn’t either. Like me, they almost certainly don’t want to weigh what they weigh. Please don’t ever try to influence someone to have weight loss surgery – there are serious risks and I believe the decision to have it or not have it is equally legitimate. Oops, it looks like I’ve written a book after all. I don’t mind answering questions if I can. A little internet research will turn up scads of information, too. This is the first time I’ve written about my weight loss experience since the early days before and after surgery, so this has been valuable to me and hopefully not too tedious for you. Today’s agenda: Beginner/Intermediate Cooking Class #2 – same menu, different students. Gotta get busy now to get ready for ‘em…
  21. I think I'm gonna try it... ...but not tonight. I'm tired. The Husband treated the fam and an extra kiddo we have with us tonight to an ice cream at the DQ. That may turn out to be my dinner, because it's my bedtime.
  22. I nearly always go to BB's on Tuesday morning and get there just before they open so I can stand in line with everyone else, so my experience is like yours. The few times, like yesterday, I've gone later in the day were a disappointment in terms of Deal Yield -- the lack of other customers tells me I'm not the only one who realizes this. Yes, they have a huge generator to run everything. In the old store, it must have been located by the freezer. When it kicked on, it sounded like a 747 was taking off in there! I think those ceiling lights you see in the pictures are really a kind of skylight. There are pipes running around the ceiling which are connected to little gas jets that they light on really dark winter days. The store is heated in winter, but not air-conditioned in summer. We have a dear woman who volunteers at the firehouse and keeps the firefighters fed and watered on long calls. Last night, a family had to be evacuated because their house flooded. They spent the night at the firehouse and she fed them and the volunteers like Alyssa who were out most of the night. Alyssa said Mrs. L made a great chicken corn soup, another PA Dutch specialty. Pepper slaw? I don't think we'll see any this week. My family doesn't care for it (though I do) and I actually don't make that many PA Dutch foods myself -- my heritage is Southern. Every time I've made my mother-in-law's Slippery Pot Pie over the years, I end up thinking, "What a waste of good ingredients -- I should have used them for chicken and dumplings." The coffee mug was a birthday present from my mom earlier this year. I'm not a collector of anything, but I do enjoy Mary Engelbreit's art and have several of her magnets proclaiming me Queen on my fridge. And so it must be true, yes? I would post the recipe in recipegullet if I knew how to do it. I guess it's all right to do it -- I got it from Mom and we've both been making it for many years. I don't know where she got it. What is tabbed browsing, please? I have a terrible feeling I'm probably doing this in the hardest way possible, because surely it isn't this difficult on purpose. I've seen the fieldstone travel plazas on the turnpike, but I didn't know the significance. We aren't affected by river flooding here in Adams County, so the worst of it for us is over now that the creeks are emptying into the river. Our house got its usual mini-stream across one part of the basement floor. I have two kinds of dishes -- a super-cheap set of white "china" my mom picked up at an outlet years ago and a cobbled-together set of ivory Wedgwood stoneware I got at TJ Maxx about five years ago, so it's just a coincidence. I hope to talk more about weight loss surgery, but there aren't any foods we absolutely can't manage, though The Husband never does well with more than a bite or two of rice and both of us have to limit pasta. After more than five years for me and almost that long for him, we just "know" what will work and what won't at any given time and adjust pretty automatically. Funnily enough, good steak always works great for both of us, but we almost never have it! Exactly what the foodblogs are all about! Wonderful blog, Lori. Good on Alyssa for fixing you up with your personalized accoutrements. Ham loaf looks good! The only thing I can't see on the recipe card in your photo is the ingredient list for the sweet & sour glaze -- other than the brown sugar, what's in it? Awaiting the reveal of the North Side of the House View! ← Alyssa is my personal computer consultant. When she leaves, I'll be in trouble. Lori's Mom's Ham Loaf 2 lb. ham loaf mix (equal parts ground ham and ground pork) 1 c. bread crumbs 1 egg 1 t. salt grinds of pepper to taste 3/4 -- 1 c. milk Mix together and shape into a loaf. Dust top and sides with flour. (I never do this.) Place in roasting pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Sauce Mix and bring to a boil: 3/4 c. brown sugar 1 t. dry mustard 1/2 c. water 1/2 c. vinegar Pour over ham loaf 1/2 hour before it is done. About the north side of the house: It turns out The Husband was referring to our view from the north side of the house. He simply means that photos can be deceiving. We live in a very pleasant neighborhood filled mostly with houses about 75-100 years old. Most are lovingly maintained, except for our next-door neighbors' house on the north side of us. They are nice people, but home and yard work isn't any kind of a priority for them. I often feel embarrassed around them because, as mayor, I get reports about letters sent to citizens for code violations and they are so often on the list for weeds, trash, building materials left lying about for too long, etc. I always wonder if they realize or care how much I know about it. Maybe we can have an Adams County Day sometime. We'd welcome you all, especially if you bring cookies. And to everyone: thank you VERY much for your kind remarks -- they mean lots and lots to me.
  23. (This blog was placed into suspended animation while the writer of it had a nap.) When I was telling a friend about doing this blog, I said, "It'll be great to do it during the cooking classes because I think people will find that interesting, but it'll be bad for me because I never feel like doing anything creative during the cooking class weeks. I mean, I want to be myself, but I'd like to be my best self." And that is the truth of it. My usual practice is a mix of feed-the-hoard scratch cooking and knowledge-stretching, fun-for-me messing around with ingredients. Occasionally I love to do Cooking Projects, where I really research an unfamiliar dish and make a big production of learning to do it well, as I see many of you doing. The problem is, much as I love my 4H-ers, teaching the cooking classes is draining. I'm nearly stumbling into the walls by afternoon -- certainly not my best self, and not a self with cool dinner ideas swirling through her mind. I had a semi-creative plan for dinner, though it concerned me a bit. I make a nice warm red cabbage and chicken slaw sometimes in the cool months with gorgonzola cheese, walnuts, and pears or apples. I thought I might do a take-off of that with leftover pulled pork, coleslaw mix I need to use, some brie I've got, and candied spicy pecans. The fruit was the worrying bit -- pears and apples are out of season, but I thought of cherries. Cherries are an enigma -- they are one of the most "special" fruits, but using them in recipes can be problematic once one gets beyond desserts and cherry sauce for meat, because they tend not to be beautiful when they are pitted and served raw, but no one wants to have to spit pits on the side of his plate during the meal if they are left whole. (Pit-spitting is best reserved for front porches, yes?) So, I was thinking, "Cherries with pork in a salad could be absolutely wonderful. Or, it could be awful if they look like they are bleeding into the slaw." Hmmm. All of my musing came to naught when my father-in-law stopped by. He just returned from a trip to Hawaii and was full of talk. Then, The Husband, whose nap lasted beyond mine, requested no dinner for himself and a wake-up call just before time to leave for Bible study at seven. I already knew only three out of five of us would truly enjoy this salad and that knocked us down to half the eaters liking something new and half enduring it, so I declared "Every-Man-for-Himself Night," and called it good. I won't even eat anything until after we get home anyway. If enough of you think raw cherries tossed into slaw such as I've described sounds workable, and provided I get more energy, I may try it later tonight. What say ye?
  24. Cooking Class 1 I’ve been leading cooking projects for our 4H club for about eight years. Each project usually includes six meetings, which we hold in late spring/summer in order to be finished before the big 4H Fair, a county-wide event at the fairgrounds where the members bring their projects to be judged. A few times we’ve used prepared project books from the Extension Service, but mostly I’ve written my own materials. (The published project books have become heavier on nutrition education and little science experiments and lighter on actual cooking as the years go by, and my 4H-ers really just want to cook!) We have always had a theme for the project: Breakfasts; Party Foods; and Soups, Sandwiches, and Salads, for example. The number of members taking the cooking project has grown a lot, so for a long time I've held classes with two separate groups, a beginner class and an advanced class. Last summer, I was feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of teaching two groups and getting everything planned because I was scheduled to have some surgery right in the middle of it all. I got the idea to use a published cookbook and after some research I settled on Marion Cunningham’s Cooking with Children: 15 lessons for children, age 7 and up, who really want to learn to cook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067942297...1102422?ie=UTF8 I divided the recipes into three years’ worth of classes. The children are split into two teams and work on different parts of the menu for the day. We have a new menu each time for Meetings 1-3 and then for Meetings 4-6 we repeat the first three menus but switch the teams so each child gets to prepare each dish. Here is the syllabus for this year: Meeting #1 Veggie Stir-fry w/ Rice; pg. 28-37 Oatmeal Cookies; pg. 126-130 Meeting #2 Spaghetti w/ Tomato Sauce; pg. 92-101 Steamed Broccoli w/ Garlic and Olive Oil; pg 86-88 Strawberry Shortcake; pg. 75-77 Meeting #3 Complete Chicken Dinner -- roasted chicken halves, stuffing, and vegetables; pg. 146-155 Ice Cream w/ Fudge Sauce (Mrs. B’s recipe) Meeting #4 (Repeat Meeting 1) Meeting #5 (Repeat Meeting 2) Meeting #6 (Repeat Meeting 3) Display requirements for the 4-H Fair: 1. project folder containing the syllabus, meeting plans, and extra hand-outs from me. 2. three oatmeal cookies baked by the member from the recipe in our cookbook, judged on uniform size, appearance, texture, flavor, and attractiveness of display. (You can be creative and use a basket, pretty plate, etc. to display your cookies.) 3. a completed Create-a-Project 4-H project book, including a project story written by the member and a filled-out activity record. Cost: $20 per member, payable at the first meeting What to bring to each meeting: 1. an apron, if you have one 2. a sharp knife for cutting veggies and fruits, if you have a favorite one you want to use 3. a cutting board, if you have one 4. your family’s cookbook 5. your project folder, once I give it to you at the first meeting 6. your eager attitude, ready to work and learn and help each other The first three items are optional – I have extras, so don’t go out and buy anything. The last three items are necessary. The rules: 1. Girls, tie long hair away from your face. 2. Everybody follows the cleanliness and safety rules we’ll discuss at the first meeting. 3. Everybody participates. Everybody agrees to taste each thing with an open mind. (All you past cooks are so good at this already!) Each time we meet for a class, we come together at the beginning to go over the menu and talk about what everyone will be doing that day. Then we cook, eat and evaluate our food, and clean up. My goals for the students are simple: knife skills, how to read a recipe, vocabulary, how to use various equipment, meal-planning, how to taste critically, and so on. This summer, there are so many kids wanting to take the classes that I divided them into three groups – two beginner/intermediate classes and one advanced class – so I have kids here Wed., Thurs., and Fri. mornings from 9-1. In addition, I have two teen leaders working with me for each beginner/intermediate class, which makes for a full kitchen. Today we repeat the menu from Meeting 1, which is stir-fried vegetables with rice and oatmeal raisin cookies. I’ve noticed the kids giving each other tips; for example, somebody from the team who made the cookies last time telling the team doing them today to watch out when portioning the cookie dough to make them the same size, which is just the kind of cooperative, trickle-down learning I want. I’ve said this before, but Mrs. Cunningham has captured my heart with her confident tone and simple, clear directions for basic cooking techniques. When I read her words, I end up imagining myself as a child reading my first cookbook (It doesn’t seem like that long ago!) and just believing I could make that interesting-sounding recipe and going into Mom’s kitchen and doing it and feeling so proud of the finished product. Cunningham makes me want to be that little girl again, but working beside her in her kitchen, perhaps with her beautiful old hands showing mine how to hold the knife, blend the pie dough, or toss the salad. That’s the sort of teacher I try to be – one who teaches good skills, praises sincere efforts, laughs off the goofs, and always, always encourages. Some photos:
  25. Klary, that looks SO good! Do you sort of drizzle the top batter on the cheese? Spread it with a spoon?
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