Feeding the Flock

Moving

2009-11-04T08:38:00.003-05:00

Daylight savings time, in addition to making it feel like winter is really here, has for the first time ever succeeded in completely ruining my lazy sleep schedule. So much so that I wake up, without the benefit of an alarm before 8 am. I wasn't even sure a before-8-am existed prior to this - I thought it was a myth. This change has been wonderfully constructive, and I am going to attempt to keep it up. A fitting resolution for the Celtic new year. I have actually been getting things accomplished, and I want to spread that productive spirit to this thought repository.

So, in a fit of creative determination, I have decided to combine the two blogs that I have created. I update with lamentable infrequency, and spreading those posts over two blogs reduces their numbers even more. So from now on there will just be my other blog. All my food post will be here, all my scholarly posts, all my pop culture posts, all my random posts... well, you get the idea. This does shift the theme of my postings somewhat, but really it fits with that blog completely - food and books and pop culture and complete randomness are what les pensée de la fleur contain, and as such are what should be reflected here - not divided and relegated to a separate space. And sadly I am no longer feeding the flock, the flock has scattered, everyone going their own ways and starting their own enclaves of irreverence.

So, a new leaf... or at least a new electronic leaf...

Cupcakes!

2009-10-01T13:12:00.000-04:00

So the votes came in on Twitter and Facebook and I decided to make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes for my evening class this week. Everyone kept saying we should bring food, so I thought cupcakes might be a good initial offering. I found a recipe that fit what I was looking for on Cupcakes Take the Cake. Being constitutionally incapable of leaving well enough alone, though, I had to tweek it a bit. So, here you go - tasty, easy, and even kinda good for you - in terms of cupcakes, anyway...

2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oatmeal
1 3/4 cups pureed pumpkin
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup brown rice syrup (if you can't find this, use white sugar and add an extra 1/2 Tbsp molasses)
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup canola oil
4 eggs (or egg replacer - flax seed would probably be particularly good)

1 Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line three 12-cup muffin tins with decorative cupcake papers.

2 In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. stir in the oatmeal.

3 In a large bowl, whisk (I used and electric hand mixer) together the pumpkin, syrup, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla and oil. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.

4 Add the flour mixture in three additions, stirring with a large wooden spoon until just combined.

5 Fill the muffin tins about three-fourths full. Bake until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the tins to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the tins and let cool completely. Makes 3 dozen.

...

The frosting I used was a complete improvisation. I wanted cream cheese frosting, but didn't have cream cheese, so I went with sour cream instead - similar tangy flavor to offset the spice in the cake.

1 stick butter (or Earth Balance), softened
4 oz. sour cream (or Tofutti Better Than...)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Beat ingredients together, adding the sugar in thirds, so as to not powder your whole kitchen. Add additional sugar to bring frosting to your desired spreading consistency. Spread on cooled cupcakes with a frosting knife or spatula.

Pickles!!!

2009-09-21T15:30:00.004-04:00

So, I have not been cooking much lately. Settling into a new place, figuring out schedules - I am home hand awake when my sisters are gone or asleep. I miss them and I live with them. =( But we do get weekends together - yesterday we tried a new restaurant and went grocery shopping.

I am also adjusting to a smaller kitchen - less counter space means I have to be super efficient while cooking, and I have to plan and prep better. So not how I do things, in the kitchen or out of it. On the up side, I have a gas stove again and it is AWESOME!!

Yesterday at the grocery store, we saw cucumbers on sale. As you can see, we decided not to pass them up. So in two weeks we will have yummy, garlicky refrigerator pickles.

Cooking Kosher Cajun

2009-08-12T21:05:00.000-04:00

Prep.

Spice.

Bagel.

Bite?

Rainy Day Rissotto

2009-05-30T19:32:00.005-04:00

Like much of what I do in the kitchen, these measurements are approximate as I generally am of the dump and pour method. This is as close as I can recreate.

1/4 c butter
1/4 c olive oil
2 Tbsp Chopped garlic
2 sundried tomato garlic spread
3 c rice
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1.7 Litre veggie bullion
.5 Litre boiling water
2 tsp. cream cheese
1/3 c sour cream

melt the fat. sauté the garlic & spread. saute the rice. add vinegar. cook down. add enough liquid to cover rice. boil down. repeat until rice is soft, but not mushy. add the cream cheese and sour cream towards the end of cooking.

I am not a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, but when they are not the only flavour, they are ok. For this dish i really liked it. It was pretty tangy, so probably a better side dish than main meal.

Little Miss Picky Pants said, "It's ok." - for those not familiar, that is a ringing endorsement.
His Sinfulness thought, "It is very good, and I garnished it with sun-dried tomato bits." - he likes sun-dried tomatoes much better than I do.
Teh Doctor, who was stranded "The texture was fantastic. Definitely firm creamy. The sour cream flavour lingers a little too long. And I went a little over board with the garnishing." - he also was excited by the sun-dried tomatoes.

The use of animal byproducts

2009-05-22T16:31:00.001-04:00

Warning: This post is heavy on the philosophizing and includes hot button topics of death, Christianity and veganism. If this is not your thing you may want to steer clear. Also, it is long.

This is a topic that has been much debated amongst various members of the flock - with strong proponents on both sides of the issue. The arguments range from corporate greed to health to evolution to personal pleasure. That is not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about death.

Vegans are, with the possible exception of Christians, people who are more afraid of death than any other group I have encountered. This maybe because many of then were raised in a culture where the shadow of Christianity's fear of death has created a culture of youth that is unable to even talk about death. I don't know why it is, but most of the vegans I know, and know of, equate all death with cruelty and label all death as bad. There is a definite value judgement being placed on the ending of a life. In my experience value judgements are made out of two places - sometimes, they come from great joy; but, much more frequently, they arise out of fear. Now if you do not subscribe to a world-view where there is something after this life - be it heaven, reincarnation, or whatever - this fear makes sense. However, these same people are also frequently deeply spiritual people. I have to admit, this baffles me.

I understand, and even agree with, many of the arguments made about quality of life, health benefits, awareness and all of that, right up until they get to the point where death equals cruelty. That is where they loose me. None of the world-views that the vegans I know support this conclusion. Christians are only concerned with the life-after-death of humans, and it is supposed to be better than here. Buddhists believe in a cycle of reincarnation to end suffering - this one comes the closest to making sense to me, as your choices in this life effect your next incarnation, but death is a release into either the next incarnation or to enlightenment; it is the end of suffering. The Neo-Pagans I know come down on varying degrees between a summerlands-type heaven and a cycle of reincarnation, and the same issue that what comes next is something to look forward to applies to them.

So, if all these world-views see death as a good (or at least not bad) thing, why are vegans so opposed to it? Here we get to the value of life, which ones are more important and deserved to be preserved and which ones don't matter. It is argued by ethicists that the line sentience.The sentience line is usually drawn at the vertebrate/invertebrate line by science. But that is not the line that vegans take - otherwise lobster would be fine. And so would honey. So what is the line that makes some life ok to consume for sustenance and pleasure and other life, cruel. And who gets to decide where to step outside the cycle of life and death. Nothing lives except by the death of something else.

Now would probably be a good time to state that there are several points which vegans make that I completely agree with. That the quality of life of the animals we (omnivores) eat should be improved. And the giant corporate factory farms and animal testing do nothing to contribute to an improvement - or the ienvironment, or the health of developed nations. And that by making uninformed food choices which support these businesses, you perpetuate animal cruelty. I also think that it is important to consider all the consequences of your choices - especially food choices.

But by focusing on the death, I think that much is missed in the beautiful, natural cycles of the present.

Yay! Camera!

2009-04-28T20:03:00.000-04:00

I got a camera! Well, I already had a camera, but now I have a better camera, a camera with which take beautiful pictures of food... or teapots... or anything I want, really. I know that this is not the best demonstration of its powers, but I was too excited to not put up something...

As to when you will get a post of more substance, all I can say is after thesis, grading and moving... but now I will have pretty pictures to go with the posts that I will eventually be posting... so, Yay!

Excuses, excuses...

2009-03-22T23:38:00.000-04:00

I have been cooking, and even keeping a journal - albeit intermittently, but between my thesis and teaching, the time that I may have had for decent posts just disappears... please don't give up, my very few, very faithful readers - I will post about tasty goodness soon...

Birthday foods...

2009-02-02T13:46:00.001-05:00

So my first foray into fondue was lovely... I can't believe I got the the ripe old age of 29 never having tried it... we went to The Melting Pot in Ft. Collins and it was super tasty - I have to say I am a fan of fondue, though I think the caloric intake will be limiting my indulgence... still I could totally see a fondue set in my future...

Ch-ch-ch-change...

2009-01-15T17:09:00.000-05:00

So...

WordPress and hosting issues have lead me to switch back to blogger, which does everything for me. I am still playing around with templates and formats, but here we are - the address is the same, but you will have to reset your rss feeds, so let me know if there are problems...

tidbits...

2009-01-07T17:58:00.000-05:00

On this day in 1896 that Fannie Merritt Farmer published The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, which was later renamed The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It was the first cookbook to use accurate measurements.As it is also National Soup Month, I think I will make her Clam Chowder - It is a blustery day here and it will simmer nicely as I put together the grapefruit jelly I have planned.I think a better digital camera will have to be a priority for 2009...

Crumpets!

2008-11-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

So I made my first foray into crumpet -making today. The Flock tasters have given their stamp of approval, but I am not satisfied. I used this recipe here. I don't know if the recipe is what needs tweaking, due to high altitude, or my technique needs work, but I am not happy with the centers - I think they are not bubbly and firm enough. Also, I would like them with less of a yeasty taste, but that is me being picky. I have a few more variations that I want to try, so we will see how the next batch goes, but for now the Flock is happy...

so, life gets in the way...

2008-11-11T16:23:00.000-05:00

I really meant to post these earlier, but school happened and life happened. so anyway, pictures...[gallery]

So, applebutter...

2008-10-17T01:06:00.000-04:00

The applebutter experiment was a rousing success. I love that I was able to make it in the slow cooker. And the applebutter aficionado in the house says that it tastes like his favorite store-bought brand - a ringing endorsement, to be sure. Photos of the finished product need work, maybe the batch I do on Saturday will photograph better than this batch did.So, the recipe...

2.5 kilos apples, cored and finely chopped (I ran them through the food processor)

800 g raw sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the sugar, spices and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, (mine took about 10) stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. During the last hour, blend it smooth with an immersion blender. Ladle into sterilized jars. Boil filled jars for 15 min. Cool and store.

I used organic Gala apples, but I think Granny Smiths or Jonathans would work well, too.

It seems to me, too...

2008-10-10T14:23:00.000-04:00

"It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it; and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied; and it is all one."M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Peaches!

2008-09-04T16:24:00.000-04:00

Yay jam! My first attempt at peach jam appears to be a success. I used a super easy recipe from a food blogger, Orangette, called Italian Family Jam. I am very happy with how it turned out - though my normal tasters have not yet passed down their verdicts, so we shall see.

2008-08-26T20:17:00.000-04:00

A few of the things on my plate this semester...- Classes - i am taking 9 graduate credits- Teaching - i teach 1010 every monday, wednesday and friday- Program for College Teaching - i am getting a teaching certificate- PRAXIS - so i am marketable on a high school level, in addition to college-Thesis - i need to have narrowed my topic by then end of the semester... a hard task for someone with such disparate interests...and that is just for school...

2008-08-05T17:59:00.000-04:00

I made pickles!!! This may only be exciting to me, but I have never done it before and it is an exciting kitchen accomplishment for me. They are Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles and when the 3 days is up and I know if they are good, I might post the recipe. Until then....Squeee!

Almost makes you want a Big Mac...

2008-07-24T09:40:00.000-04:00

Funny on Wonkette...and also very sad...

2008-06-16T12:36:00.000-04:00

When Candy Goes WrongI can't decide what is funnier the title, which sounds like something from a budget horror film, or the picture, which speaks for itself...

It is my passion.

2008-06-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

Do you remember falling in love, discovering your passion - I was nine. We had free-time. I was laying on my stomach looking at the books on the bottom shelf of the classroom bookcase, books we never used in class. I have always had a fondness for things that involve never. There were lots of books i knew by then that i was supposed to be interested in, classics - Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty. The there was this old, faded blue book - you know that weird library-binding blue that is nothing like the author or publicist intended. There was a grainy, faded picture of a girl on the front with her yellow skirt and hair blowing out to the side - rather unrealistically, I now know - but completely wonderful to my rather overdeveloped imagination of the time. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I started reading it. For people who know me now that may seem like no big deal, but let me assure you it was. I did not read. I was in Chapter 1 reading, not because I didn't know how, I was reading when I was three years old, but because I refused to do it. The power of my will to not do something I didn't want to was such that I almost failed out of school - before the 5th grade. So me reading, and right there in the middle of the classroom even, that was not normal behavior. But it was free-time and no one noticed. It was not the first book I had read, but for some reason I was pulled into that world. It was the first time I wanted to read. I took the book home with me. I finished it in two days. I read it again. And again. (I did eventually give it back - but only after I had acquired my own copy at a school book fair.) Then I went to the library to see if Elizabeth George Speare had written any other books. The Calico Captive, The Bronze Bow, and The Sign of the Beaver were all quickly devoured. And just like that I was a reader. It is my passion.

The new release list...

2008-04-29T13:25:00.000-04:00

So I was browsing the through the cookbook section, as I am wont to do on occasion, and what do I discover, but a lovely conflation of my interests in food and technology. If you thought about getting me a gift to celebrate the end of a successful school year, this is something you might want to consider (and if you didn't, why not - it is always a good time for presents)...Food 2.0: Secrets From the Chef Who Fed Google By Charlie Ayers looks like tons of fun, and as one of my goals for the summer is to get back into the kitchen more, it would be a lovely addition to my already extensive, but never complete, collection. And as the buzzword for this chef is brainfood, it would be helpful in fortifying me for my other summer goal of finishing my reading list...

i am locavore...

2008-03-01T17:53:00.000-05:00

so, i am not a big ranter... overall, i tend to avoid conflict whenever possible - i mostly just want everyone to get along...that said, this is a rant - and not surprisingly it involves one of my two great passions: food... it was inspired by a friend - our conversation made me realize how seldom i talk about some of the things i really believe in... so you all get a rant...i am an advocate of local food - or as much as possible in a place like BV city... i believe quite passionately in the importance - to all levels of society - of buying your food locally... it is one of the most important food choices you can make - and it effects all other dietary choices... this does not mean that you have to give up all foods that don't grow within a 100 miles of where you live, which is good, 'cause i would starve here, it just means buying locally whenever you can - let's be real, i am not going to be giving up good dark chocolate anytime soon, and everyone is better off for that decision... but i can get my tomatoes and squash locally, eggs and beef, too.there are so many ~~good~~ great reasons to eat local...eating local means more for the local economy - dollars spent locally support the local community twice three times as much as business owned by outsiders...locally grown produce is fresher... and as a result, local food just flat out tastes better...locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen - less spoilage - less waste...eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic - organic food is often shipped hundreds and sometimes thousand of miles, using so much more fuel and energy to get to you, and thus polluting more...buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons - you eat what is fresh when it is harvested, instead of imported out-of-season food...eating local protects us from bio-terrorism - you know where it came from and who had access to it before it when on your plate - and the opportunities for tampering just aren't feasible in a market which is so much smaller...local food connects you to your community - you get to know the people who grew your tomatoes and baked your bread...local food equals more variety - smaller farms can try crops that you would not normally see in your local agri-business run supermarket, and things like zebra tomatoes and purple string beans become available for anyone to try...supporting local providers supports responsible land development - land being used in a sustainable manner for farming will not be sold to developers to build McMansions - and the variety of crops helps to keep the land continuously productive and in use, without damaging it or leaving it fallow...and if you do eat meat, you know how the animals were treated before they were killed, what, if any, chemicals and hormones went into their diet, and how fresh the meat actually is...one of the best resource (for the US readers), no matter what your diet choices are, to find locally produced food is an organization called Local Harvest... you can find all sorts of sources for locally produced food, including CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) - which are kinda like a subsidy - but instead of the government paying farmers to grow (or not) what they think should be on the market, the consumer pays the farm directly for the food, ensuring that they make a fair amount for their products without government intervention - a fresher and more varied product than what is available in most stores... the one that i am looking at is Grant Family Farms, which is just across the border into colorado...i really could go on for quite some time, but as i stated at the beginning, i am not big on rants and this one covers most of the main points...it is really just a logical iteration of the maxim that to effect change you have to think globally and act locally...

food, food, food...

2008-02-28T13:42:00.000-05:00

i have found a new food blog that i absolutely love, so i just had to share - even knowing that i am probably the only person who reads this blog who is interested in food blogs...it is called Tea & Cookies, and beyond being as much in love with food as i am, she is a fabulous writer, really worth checking out... here is one of her early posts that made me happy ... and here is one that is more recent ...don't worry, i know that the interest here is less than the sqee-ness that i am feeling... but because of that squee-ness i had to share...

life and whatnot...

2008-02-25T18:25:00.000-05:00

an update on my life... and stuff...grad school - it's great! i love my classes, even when i don't want to go... theory is not sucking nearly as badly as i was afraid it might... i am actually really liking it *gasp*... i know, crazy, right?... poetics is often very theoretical, as well, but with a direct connection to the poetry we are reading, rather than text in general... and really my classes are made that much better by the rather brilliant people by whom they are populated - the comments of my classmates are something i look forward to as much, if not more than, whatever topic is under discussion for that day...on a note related to grad school, i am also putting together my reading list... for those not from the world of literary academia, i compile a list of works encompassing at least three categories - in my case, time period, genre, and approach - read them and then next fall i will have to synthesize them in a reading list test, an oral exam given by the committee approving the list... i have decided to specialize in the medieval - probably not a surprise for those who know me - so along that line i have chosen to read medieval french lit, 19th and early 20th century fantasy, and cultural studies theory... my list is not yet complete and approved, but i am excited for it anyway...also, i have applied for a teaching assistantship for next year, and, should i get it, my internet time will be significantly reduced... and i might get an office... how odd...in the kitchen... well i haven't actually been in the kitchen that much recently... yesterday was the first time in ages i had cooked, and it was lovely... i suppose there is a combination of reasons for that... my kitchen style tends to be slow food for large groups, and while i am living with a large - relatively - group, the various dietary choices and restrictions of that diverse group make slow food somewhat difficult... most vegetarian and vegan food actually happens rather quickly... and slow food often involves meat of some kind... and timing has also been an issue - time to cook when i don't need to be doing other things has to be balanced with the time that other people want to use the kitchen... it is not a single-butt kitchen, but the flow does not work really well for more than two or three people... as a result, very little of my time has been spent in the kitchen as yet this year ... and that is sad, because i love food, making and eating it...one of the things that has been taking away my kitchen time is fitness - largely, bellydancing and hula hooping - and i really love it... i am nowhere near the level of skill that i would like at either of them... but, i am gonna keep working on them both, even though this week is the last week of bellydancing class - no more security of having a teacher to tell me what to do... i am hula hooping a lot and i am finally starting to try some tricks - tricks which will need much more practice before they are made public... the result of all this jiggling is that i have finally started to lose the weight that i want off, though, again, only a start on a much bigger project...so, overall, life is good... and now you know...

february...

2008-02-13T15:05:00.000-05:00

as readers and fellow flock members know, february and i have a mutual distrust and hatred for each other - i try my best to endure and the longest month of the year does its best to defeat me... as an antidote to the dismay imparted by this interminable month i have complied a list of moments... happiness is... ...cooking with my grandmother ...the perfect glass of pinot grigio ...medieval french poetry ...blood oranges ...a hot cup of tea on a cold day that i don't have to be out in...shopping with my sister...summer stars in the high desert...slow food...my mountains...the sound of the ocean...dancing until i can barely move...hula-hooping ...soup and sourdough...happily ever after...the sound of the rain...late night conversations...green growy things...visiting someplace i have never been before ...heirloom roses...ripe, summer peaches...other peoples stories...red carnations...old, character-filled houses ...cooking for the people i love ...a list as fleeting and incomplete as happiness itself...

a holiday list...

2007-12-03T03:50:00.000-05:00

tacky or not, the holiday wish list is making an appearance - it is by no means a complete list of my desires, and if you feel inspired to get me something not on here, feel free... and if you don't want to give me anything at all that is fine, too... but several people have asked what i want, so here it is in all of its greedy glory...fun, writer-type stuff:anything from here, cause they are fun: http://www.ninthmoon.com Scrivener Curiokitchen stuff:le creuset cookwarea digital kitchen thermometera mandolin slicer - talk to squid first, though cause she said she might =)and the ubiquitous book category:Pure Dessert by Alice MedrichWill Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More by Dianne JacobThe French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas KellerMore Great Good Dairy-free Desserts by Fran CostiganRejection, Romance and Royalties: The Wacky World of a Working Writer By Laura Resnickany of the Andrew Lang Fairy Booksthis category could go on indefinitely, so i am stopping...that is more than enough greediness for the year... and really i don't need presents from anyone, but honestly, who doesn't like presents... my nod to the commercialism of the season has been fulfilled...

NaNoWriMo

2007-11-04T19:27:00.000-05:00

National Novel Writing Month... read about it here... and then go write...

recipes are fun...

2007-10-14T14:12:00.000-04:00

Tessa- 1/4 cup of ambition- 2 heaping tablespoons of kindness- a gallon of crazyServe hot.
'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

banned book week - the closer...

2007-10-05T15:23:00.000-04:00

so this is the end of banned books week and i thought that i couldn't let it pass without saying something, so...U.S Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read"They are noting people's race and they are writing down what people read""The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment."really the whole article is about the censorship of travel... soon they will decide when and where you are allowed to go... the loss of personal freedom is huge, and when you start with small things like what people are reading and what they are allowed to read - it very quickly leads to bigger things... "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings."- Heinrich Heinesome links in the fight against censorship...Delete CensorshipThe 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000Banned Book T-shirts The Forbidden Library Controversial & Banned Bookssome more quotes on censorship...

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education."-- Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

"If the human body's obscene, complain to the manufacturer, not me."-- Larry Flynt

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."-- Lyndon Baines Johnson, February 11, 1964

and my personal favorite...

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?"-- Juvenalso, go read a banned book...

Harvest Home...

2007-09-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

today is the autumnal equinox, the first day of fall astrologically (though if you live in wyoming you have probably noticed the chill in the air before today), second harvest festival and, in contemporary america, Mabon... it is a day of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and the gifts in our lives... considered a time of balance, as the day and the night are equal on this holiday, it is when we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toiling in our gardens, working at our jobs, studying for tests, or just dealing with the craziness that is everyday life... as with all pagan holidays, it reflects the cycles of nature and personal relationship with the world around us - and on this day we contemplate the seeds we have planted in our lives and see how they are coming to fruition...

2007-08-15T17:29:00.000-04:00

As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. ~ Albert Einstein

lammas

2007-08-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

Lughnasadh (August 1) is the time of the first harvest, when the seeds of spring give up their fruits and seeds for us, to feed us through this year and to continue the cycle of life into the future. the feast has many names - Lughnasadh, Lammas, Feast of Bread, Harvest Home, Feast of First Fruits, Loaf-mass... whatever it is called, it is a celebration of the bounty of summer, a thanksgiving for the blessings in our lives, the food on our table... it is a feast celebrated by Christians and pagans alike ... it is a recognition of the passing of summer and the need for death to bring new life... it is the smell of sun-ripened peaches and the explosion of sweetness as you bite into fresh corn... may you never go hungry on this or any day and may we all be brought to greater awareness of the blessings in our livesBlessed Be...

i am a foodie...

2007-06-11T14:23:00.000-04:00

my heroes are people like MFK Fisher, James Beard, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Giada De Laurentiis. chefs and cooks, authors and entertainers, very different personalities with one thing in common – a deep love of food and its creation… aside from romance novels, one thing that i will always be excited to read is food writing, be it memoir, cookbook or restaurant review… a recent article linked off of Brendon’s blog made mention of a few things that made me wonder about the term foodie (this is a tangent, not a statement about whether wine or beer is better – i say, if they are good, give me both)… it spoke of “the rise of pastoral chic” – as though a return to local, sustainable food sources and a lack of chemicals in our food was, at best, a marketing ploy, if not a figment of the collective imagination. i have to say that i disagree with that thought… while it may not be a mainstream truth in America, it is a growing desire to have good, natural food – if this were not true, the marketing wouldn’t work… the rise in this trend was not brought about by hippies, but by foodies (though a lot of foodies are hippies at heart, just as many are irresponsible over-consumers, as well). and while the health benefits were considered, the main goal behind the call for fresh and chemical-free was, and is, taste – fresh food tastes better and a reliance on local availability calls for a greater creativity, because you have to work with what is there. i do think that this rise in popularity of fresh, organic food has brought about a support of farmers who may have otherwise not been able to maintain business, but i don’t think that the majority of the consumers with a desire for these products went out and bought a farm… they did not even follow the example of the early 19th century poets speaking out against the industrial world in which they lived, and extol the virtues of a pastoral life… they mostly just want their food... like me - mostly, i just want my food... but after watching the way in which food affected my mother’s cancer fight, am also way more concerned about things like antioxidants and vitamin content… lucky for me the taste goes well with the health benefits =)yay for food!

summer reading...

2007-05-26T16:30:00.000-04:00

While we are on the subject of reading i thought i would talk a bit about summer reading... it is that time of year after all... and as i know there are foodies in the small readership that i have here, i thought i would start with a food book... Two for the Road by Jane & Michael Stern is a memoir with a fun look at travel and american food, including: shopping for souvenirs in maximum security prison gift shops ... enrolling in bull-riding school taught by a rodeo champ ... feeling no pain in the drinkingest bar in the West ... ceremonial burial of pants that suddenly don't fit any more ... trying to dispose of the foulest food in the history of travel ... and much more... If you are looking for something a little more serious, try God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens... i have not read it, but i plan on getting a copy as soon as the publisher reprints it - it is so popular that the first printing has sold out...And for those of you who know me, you know that no summer reading list would be complete without a little romance... Nora Roberts' new full-length hardcover, High Noon, comes out July 10th and i can hardly wait... just 'cause i own all her books does not mean i am obsessed, just loyal...What will you be reading this summer?

advice to those who live with book lovers...

2007-05-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

It is our belief that bookworms are born, not made. You know who we mean. The kid who sneaks in a paragraph when Mom’s back is turned. The child who devises an elaborate under-the-covers flashlight system because when it comes to sleep versus finishing a chapter, well, sleep isn’t all that important. The one who, despite her parents’ vehement arguments to the contrary, believes that reading outside is playing.

True bookworms are rare. If you are unfortunate enough to live with one, we’re sorry. All we can do is assure you that there’s nothing that can be done. There is no twelve-step program to cure reading addiction. You can try to take away the books. It’s a waste of your time and energy, but we won’t stop your fruitless endeavor. You’ll learn. Those stacks of books are a book lover’s security blanket. They are important. (Booksquare)so you see there is really no advice to be had, just acceptance... love us for who we are =)

in other news...

2007-05-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

so a bit of an update on the grad school front - i have been awarded a full time tuition waiver - this award will make grad school about 90% less stressful as i will not be constantly worried about money, or at least not as worried about money anyway...on the literature front i have become re-enamored with the snarkiness that is Anthony Bourdain - currently i am loving the nasty bits, a delightfully jaded look at life, travel and food - three of my best things - his voice is fabulous and, well, snarky, and as those who know me will attest, snark is also one of my best things - it is the perfect book for me =)

too cool not to try it...

2007-03-19T14:38:00.000-04:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

pink ...

2007-03-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

so i was catching up on my blog reading and one of my favorite authors, Jenny Crusie, had responded to a new york times op/ed piece by Maureen Dowd... not wanting to be one sided, i had to go find the piece and read it...Heels Over HemingwayBy Maureen Dowd The New York TimesI was cruising through Borders, looking for a copy of “Nostromo.”Suddenly I was swimming in pink. I turned frantically from display table to display table, but I couldn’t find a novel without a pink cover. I was accosted by a sisterhood of cartoon women, sexy string beans in minis and stilettos, fashionably dashing about book covers with the requisite urban props — lattes, books, purses, shopping bags, guns and, most critically, a diamond ring.Was it a Valentine’s Day special?No, I realized with growing alarm, chick lit was no longer a niche. It had staged a coup of the literature shelves. Hot babes had shimmied into the grizzled old boys’ club, the land of Conrad, Faulkner and Maugham. The store was possessed with the devil spawn of “The Devil Wears Prada.” The blood-red high heel ending in a devil’s pitchfork on the cover of the Lauren Weisberger best seller might as well be driving a stake through the heart of the classics.I even found Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” with chick-lit pretty-in-pink lettering.“Penis lit versus Venus lit,” said my friend Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, who was with me. “An unacceptable choice.”“Looking for Mr. Goodbunny” by Kathleen O’Reilly sits atop George Orwell’s “1984.” “Mine Are Spectacular!” by Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnurnberger hovers over “Ulysses.” Sophie Kinsella’s “Shopaholic” series cuddles up to Rudyard Kipling.Even Will Shakespeare is buffeted by rampaging 30-year-old heroines, each one frantically trying to get their guy or figure out if he’s the right guy, or if he meant what he said, or if he should be with them instead of their BFF or cousin, or if he’ll come back, or if she’ll end up stuck home alone eating Häagen-Dazs and watching “CSI” and “Sex and the City” reruns.Trying to keep up with soap-opera modernity, “Romeo and Juliet” has been reissued with a perky pink cover.There are subsections of chick lit: black chick lit (“Diva Diaries”), Bollywood chick lit (“Salaam, Paris”), Jewish chick lit (“The J.A.P. Chronicles” and “The Matzo Ball Heiress”) and assistant lit, which has its own subsection of Hollywood-assistant lit (“The Second Assistant”), mystery lit (“Sex, Murder and a Double Latte”), shopping lit (“Retail Therapy”), the self-loathing genre (“This Is Not Chick Lit”) and Brit chick lit (“Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging”).The narrator of that last, Georgia, begins with a note to her readers: “Hello, American-type chums! (Perhaps you say ‘Howdy’ in America — I don’t know — but then I’m not really sure where Tibet is either, or my lipstick.) ... I hope you like my diary and don’t hold it against me that my great-great-great-grandparents colonized you. (Not just the two of them. ...).”Giving the books an even more interchangeable feeling is the bachelorette party of log-rolling blurbs by chick-lit authors. Jennifer “Good in Bed” Weiner blurbs Sarah Mlynowski’s “Me vs. Me” and Karen McCullah Lutz’s “The Bachelorette Party.” Lauren Weisberger blurbs Emily “Something Borrowed” Giffin.I took home three dozen of the working women romances. They can lull you into a hypnotic state with their simple life lessons — one heroine emulated Doris Day, another Audrey Hepburn, one was the spitting image of Carolyn Bessette, another Charlize Theron — but they’re a long way from Becky Sharp and Elizabeth Bennet. They’re all chick and no lit.Please do not confuse these books with the love-and-marriage of Jane Austen. These are more like multicultural Harlequin romances. They’re Cinderella bodice rippers — Manolo trippers — girls with long legs, long shiny hair and sparkling eyes stumbling through life, eating potato skins loaded with bacon bits and melted swiss, drinking cocktails, looking for the right man and dispensing nuggets of hard-won wisdom, like, “Any guy who can watch you hurl Cheez Doodles is a keeper,” and, “You can’t puke in wicker. It leaks.”In the 19th century in America, people often linked the reading of novels with women. Women were creatures of sensibility, and men were creatures of action. But now, Leon suggested, American fiction seems to be undergoing a certain re-feminization.“These books do not seem particularly demanding in the manner of real novels,” Leon said. “And when we’re at war and the country is under threat, they seem a little insular. America’s reading women could do a lot worse than to put down ‘Will Francine Get Her Guy?’ and pick up ‘The Red Badge of Courage.’ ”The novel was once said to be a mirror of its times. In my local bookstore, it’s more like a makeup mirror.now, having read the column, i can definitely say that i am offended by her ignorance, and thought a response at this date may seem some what belated i cannot just let it slide, maybe because i am a participant in the so-called "re-feminization" ... although i am not sure you can have a re- without actually having been feminized in the first place, and, as a culture, that did not happen in spite of what second wave feminists may think... i think that this pinking (and i want to go an record as saying i hate the color pink) of the covers is a male marketer's response to books that they don't know how to categorize anymore - they are not traditional romance or memoir - they are written by women and we want women to buy them so let's make them pink - i think that the rant should have been about the poor marketing, rather than a criticism of book she hasn't taken the time to read... the more i hang out on authors' blogs, the more i realize that you can't judge a book by it's cover, because the content isn't how the cover is chosen, marketing is...apparently the anger genrated by this column was not just on the part of us poor, misguided women readers who have made this state of affairs come to be (by buying and reading books)... of the many letters the times must have recieved in response, they published ones from a sociaology professor, "So just let us girls read anything we want. Some of these girls may still grow up to be college professors.", an independent bookseller, "People who make the decision to spend their money in the large chain stores instead of in New York's few remaining independent bookstores bring about the much-lamented demise of the culture they claim to want.", and a father supporting his daughter's reading, "Turns out, there are bad pink books. There are good and bad books of every color."... none of the letters seemed to agree with ms. dowd's point of view... some other responses were: Booksquare and Fearless Voices ... others posted the article with no comments, so maybe they agree with what she has to say, but it seems to me that the general consensus is that pink does not, in fact, give you cooties, but sometimes it gives you a good read...

food, food, food

2006-06-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

i have been on a food kick the past couple of days... my every thought has been about food it seems, or something to do with the kitchen - i organized my cookbooks and started sorting through loose recipes. last week i cooked indian food, yesterday i made chili (hot, hot, hot) and a jug of sweet tea (very cool) ... for lunch i made spaghetti with eggs, a recipe from a book i read - mark was not into it, but i really liked it ... tonite i made super tasty fish cakes and corn on the cob (too early for really good corn) and salad with bleu cheese... i have been reading the cooking magazines and a book called Cooking for Mr. Latte, which i loved... i am starting My Kitchen Wars, another food memoir, right after Dr. Who tonite, if i am still up... i think that i am going to make doughnuts in the morning... and i am having a mental debate on what to make for dinner tomorrow... i have returned to the kitchen with a vengeance - the only thing keeping me from going completely crazy in the kitchen is the fact that we are broke till next week, so i can't go out and buy all the wonderful ingredients right this second - a very good thing all around, as i am forced to use stuff we have at home and need to use anyway ... i did not realize how much food was actually in the house... it is rather comforting actually... yay for food

Food as comfort...

2005-10-06T23:54:00.000-04:00

maybe it is just a natural reaction, but now that it is starting to cool down (read: i probably will not be warm again till may or june... f*****g wyoming) i have started to really be obsessed with food again... i am pouring over recipes, flipping through cookbooks, surfing the cooking sites and lusting after the food channel... cooking in our house can get a bit frustrating - with 5-6 people using the kitchen at any given time, space and clean dishes are often somewhat of a problem - but i still love to do it when i am able...“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”... i love this sense of connection that cooking gives me to the past and present and hopefully the future - whether they read recipes i have written or merely eat things that i eat now, and cook now - the connection of food is a strong and universal one.

time for fall food...

2005-09-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

i have puchased a pumpkin... it is not for jack-o-lantern carving, no this pumpkin will serve a higher purpose - this pumpkin is for feasting, as all fall feasts should involve pumpkins. this feast will have such items on the menu as pumpkin shrimp bisque and pumpkin creme brulee. this feast will make those who live with me very glad, and those who don't slightly envious, unless, of course, you don't like pumpkin, then you probably won't care at all...you may even be greatful not to be present for the feasting... i love fall food... this will be the first feast of many... may you all enjoy the harvest as well...blessed be...

house adventures

2005-07-14T14:24:00.000-04:00

for those of you who didn't already know - the flock has started a commune... maybe not in the traditional sense - we are fairly territorial about food, none of us are vegitarian until Raksha gets here, and any free love happening is confined to partners and bedrooms, mostly - but most of the remainder of the flock in laramie, including His Sinfulness, has moved in together in an appartment down by the railroad tracks... and now you can read all about life at Flock Hall ... it will be entertaining...

Cookies

2005-07-11T17:34:00.000-04:00

this is an excerpt from a longer piece i am writing. let me know what you think...Making cookies in Grandma's, while my younger sister napped, is the first memory I have that is not more sensation than experience. I was supposed to be napping too, but I could not sleep, the lure of the kitchen was too great. We creamed butter and sugar, used only real vanilla and the eggs were so fresh we had to wash them off before cracking them into the bowl. The whir of the electric mixer was more soothing than the hymns I learned before I could read. When the dough became too thick for the mixer we used wooden spoons, taking turns. Grandma would not let me give up when my right arm got tired, "Cookies need lots of elbow grease." So I switched arms. Flour, oats, and then the chocolate chips. Stir some more. The first batch went into the oven. We got the next pan ready while the first baked, but invariably I would finish dropping those perfectly rounded balls on to the pan ages before the timer sounded. The timer was old, a dial with sixty dashes to mark off the minutes. It would start about thirty seconds before zero with a low buzz, softer than the bees that came inside with the peonies from GrandmaÂs garden. Then it would actually click over the mark and the volume would increase to fill the house. We had to turn it off before that click so Mary didn't wake up. The anticipation brought by that soft buzz was almost more than my four-year-old being could stand. The smell of the cookies that preceded the buzz, caramelizing sugar, melting chocolate, seemed to me a more powerful alarm than the buzzer itself. The peak of the smell would tell you when twereeere done, not the peak of the noise.

A Fall Festival Food

2004-10-15T01:11:00.000-04:00

for my friends i finally was able to make supper this semester, i cooked soup in a pumpkin ...cut the top off the pumpkin and clean the guts out...cut up about half a loaf of french bread and a little block of gruyere cheese into smallish cubes...place in the pumpkin along with a sprinkle of salt and some tarragon and garlic, probably about a teaspoon respectively... add a couple chunks of butter... pour about half to three-quarters cup chicken stock over the stuff already in the pumpkin... fill the pumpkin to about an inch bellow the opening with a combination of milk and half and half... put the cut-off top back on... bake at 400 for about two hours, give or take, (i wasn't paying really close attention to the exact time, but it was probably about that) on a cookie sheet of baking dish (with some sort of sides to prevent dripping, i used a 9x13 cake pan)... make sure you don't let the bottom of the pumpkin burn... stir it a couple of times while baking... take the pumpkin out of the oven stir it really well, make sure to scrape the sides a bit so that you get some chunks of the pumpkin mixed in... don't scrape to deep or your serving dish/pumpkin will get a very messy hole in the side or bottom... put the top of the pumpkin back on till you serve it, the pumpkin will provide some insulation, but serve it within about half an hour to forty-five minutes... the amounts of the ingredients will vary according to the size of the pumpkin...

In the Beginning...

2004-09-02T13:19:00.000-04:00

In the beginning there was a group of friends, lets call them the flock... we all had our roles within the group - the pontiff, the scribe, the inquisitor, the artist - and I became the mistress of hospitality.me