Post-Christmas Fall-out

Christmas was extra lovely this year. Everyone seemed to be sprinkled with Good Behavior Pixie Dust, the weather was positively balmy and aside from a snafu with Red Envelope I managed to get everyone's gift purchased and wrapped with time to spare. Naturally there was a flurry of baking activities, none of which got photographed, but all of which turned out just tops. In no particular order, the baking menu included:

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti dipped in white chocolate

Cappuchino Biscotti with hazelnuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips

Orange Almond Biscotti dipped in milk chocolate

A double batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies that were my personal faves

Butter Shape Cookies

Mock Mince Pie with cream cheese crust

Mini Lemon Chess heart shaped tart made from left-over pie crust dough

Cinnamon Pecan Sticky Buns

BBQ flavored doggie biscuits

I think that's it. It certainly felt like a lot more than just that at the time but now looking at the list it doesn't seem like that big a deal. I did split it up over the course of a week and none of it was too onerous. Littlest effort for biggest reward has to go to the dog biscuits of course since the doggies are always appreciative of any and all culinary gestures in their direction. Frankie even rewarded me with a Happy Feet dance reaction to them, which was a huge compliment.

Biggest pain in the rear treat that will probably never be made again award goes to the Sticky Buns. Several hours of rising, fussiness and stickiness. They were good, but overall, not really worth the massive amount of effort involved. I was using an America's Test Kitchen recipe though, and they can be a perfectionistic lot. I did not use a metal pan, a pizza stone or allow the buns to rise a second time for 1.5hrs, just 30mins, but it all turned out ok. I put the extras in the freezer. Who knows how that will work out but I couldn't bring myself to just pitch them after all the chaos involved in making them.

Everything else was definitely a repeat, including the Mock Mince pie which turned out to not contain any beef fat or ox heart or anything else nasty, just raisins and apples, and was quite nice. Dad suggested next year that I not use honey but use sugar instead and to up the brandy level, ho, ho, ho. I think whatever makes him happiest is ok with me.

The kitchen has mostly returned to a semi-liveable state, if only looking a bit tired. What can I say, I am tired. Luckily it is now onto the new year, and with all the good intentioned resolutions of fresh fruit, flax seed smoothies and soy milk that it brings. Time to retire the baking pans until next Christmas!

Bread and Jam Pudding meets Jane Goodall

So tonight I discovered a great recipe for using up stale bread and found a very cool new Google feature called Google Earth. Maybe you've heard of one, maybe you've heard of both, but both of them have me pretty excited.

Google earth takes blogging to a whole new level, showing you just where on the globe the person writing is sitting. Look around here: http://earth.google.com/tour/thanks-win4.html to download the app (very quick install) and the bookmarks for the websites that are already trying it. Aside from the Jane Goodall Institute's blog there are other sites on the Wirefly X PRIZE cup which if you're an aeronautical engineering geek should be exciting. The Discovery Channel has a site, as does the Da Vinci Code guys. Get a look at this cool tool before it becomes overloaded with San Dimas High School Football Rulez!! type live feeds from your local junior high. I suppose unless it becomes something you can link MySpace to maybe that won't happen but for now it is still in its pure geek infancy. Anyone else remember the original Listserv discussion boards before they came up with IM? When people would actually reprimand other users for putting up advertising and correct grammar? No? Maybe it's just me then. I am sort of hoping to find Jane Goodall's official biography under the Christmas Tree this year, or barring that, a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble.

Along the lines of purism and childhood memories, I decided to make a simple bread pudding to get rid of some french bread from Saturday. Jamie Oliver has a fantastic one that I will not print verbatim in order to avoid copyright infringement. Much easier than it looks, and totally worth it. I thought I was full after dinner but I've now polished off a second helping (seen in the photo) and am contemplating a third. Plus it's made of eggs, which I normally hate, so it's a good way to get protein, right? Right? Right.

Ingredients: 4 eggs, 2 1/2cups milk, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 3/4 cup + 2 TB sugar, 4 TB fruit jam, 1 tsp vanilla. Preheat oven to 300F. Separate 3 eggs. Combine yolks with remaining whole egg with whisk, then add milk, bread crumbs, vanilla and 1/4 sugar. Spread jam on bottom of baking dish (about pie plate capacity or little larger). I used more than 4 TB because I wanted to cover the bottom evenly. As it turns out this adds more liquid (duh) and so therefore you need to cook for longer but it didn't ruin anything. Pour egg yolk mixture over jam and bake in oven for 1hr or more until set and not wobbly in the middle. Beat egg whites until stiff, then add in remaining sugar. Cover custard with glossy, stiff egg whites and continue baking until meringue is set and lightly browned, 15-20 mins depending on surface area. Let cool before eating or you'll burn your mouth on the jam. Should serve 4 - 6 unless I'm in the house when it will serve 1 1/2 people. I am planning on saving this for breakfast tomorrow. It's eggs, bread and jam so tell me how it's not also good for breakfast? Oh and those two little brown blobs on the baking sheet are some left-over meringue that I made into cookies. After the custard is done, turn the oven up to 350 until it preheats, put blobs in and immediately lower heat to 250. Cook for 45mins or so. Make sure you use parchment paper or Silpat mats otherwise they'll just crack coming off the baking sheet.

Edited for clarity: The BREAD was used to make the BREAD CRUMBS via the Cuisinart, although you could just as easily cut it into cubes and do that instead.

MS Center on WNBC Early Morning News Show

Friends of mine who are involved with the NJ side of things MS related sent me this link. Be sure to program your TiVo's!

HUGE NEWS FOR THE MS CENTER AT HOLY NAME HOSPITAL!!!!!!

As you all know, Chris Cimino, WNBC-TV Meteorologist, has been one of our guardian angels since he became involved with our wonderful MS Center 4 years ago. Well now, he truly is our holiday angel. The great morning team at the Today Show, Rob Morrison, Darlene Rodriquez, Chris & Otis Livingston were all asked by the Today Show Producer, the wonderful Emily Raiber, to pick a charity to showcase for the holiday season that they felt was close to their heart. A charity that needs awareness, a charity that makes a difference in people's lives. Out of all the millions of needy organizations Chris picked the MS Center at Holy Name Hospital because he is truly amazed at what we do here! Chris, Emily and crew were here last Wednesday taping and it was such a special, emotional and honest interview. Even Chris got teary eyed! In case it ends up on the cutting room floor, Chris kissed Johanna on the cheek after she shared her incredible history of her life and her life at the Center!!!! We all know how special the MS Center is and how we make a difference in patients lives every day and now EVERYONE in the tri-state area will know!!!!!!!! Please tune in to Channel 4 next Tuesday, December 19th at 6:40AM to see the wonderful interview Chris did with our very own stars, June Halper, Susan Zurndorfer, Johanna Zurndorfer and Judee Rosenthal.

Entertain without strain

This is not so much a recipe, as it is a secret trick of caterers: no-one at parties pays attention to what the food tastes like, they only look at the plate. Spend 50% of your budget on your serving platters, 10% on food and 40% on booze. You can serve anyone frozen pigs in a blanket from a warehouse club if you put them on a pretty plate with fancy mustard in little bowl. Translate the name into French, Italian or Thai and you can get away with anything. Pigs in a blanket become Saucissons en Croute. Mini-quiches become, well, Quiche au Jambon (ham) / Bacon (duh) / Oignon (onion). Grilled chicken on wooden skewers with a dipping sauce of peanut butter mixed with soy sauce are Chicken Satays. Stick the non-chicken loaded end of the stick into a block of floral foam that you have put into a dish. Put plastic flowers or grass in first that are shorter than the satay sticks. Everyone likes shrimp cocktail, and you can buy a huge bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp for next to nothing. Again, put it on shaved ice in a nice glass bowl and suddenly you're a genius. Take the sauce out of the jar and put it into something pretty. Make a cheese platter out of a cutting board with red & green grapes and those red cabbage leaves. Put strawberries on it even though people don't eat them when they're next to cheese.

You don't have to be a good cook to become known for good holiday parties. Just make sure there's enough booze for people to not notice the food, and be sure to throw out the boxes from the freezer section before the guests arrive. Have good music and pretty women in abundance. Follow the reheating directions on the boxes. Take a shower ahead of time. Enjoy the festivities but don't drive drunk! Happy Holidays everybody!

Apples, Oats, Almonds, Brown sugar and Cinnamon - that makes it healthy, right?

Apple crumble is very easy to make, and it makes a good dessert and a good breakfast. So make lots, and have two things covered at once. I thought I should throw in a picture of the finished product with a glass of orange juice just to emphasize that in fact it does make a nice breakfast treat. The original recipe can be found here, on the FlipFlopFlyin.com website, a lovely place to spend time if you haven't already discovered it. I spiffed it up by adding some rolled oats, sliced almonds and cinnamon to the topping and putting the crumble in individual baking dishes for portion control. You could also add raisins (ed. note: ewwww...) or use other fruits; it's a pretty forgiving recipe. Just be aware that fruit with liquid might need 1 or 2 TB's of flour mixed in with it to prevent it from getting soupy. Rhubarb & strawberries in the spring might be nice, or pears in the fall.

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

3 TB butter (1/2 stick or so)

3 TB brown sugar

1/3 cup rolled oats

handful sliced almonds

Combine flour, butter an' brown sugar in mixer or cuisinart. Stir in oats and almonds, unless you prefer them blended, then whizz away. Pre-heat the oven to 350F and coat the sides & bottom of your pan of choice with butter. Peel, core and cut up an apple or two depending on how big they are (you can also leave on the peel but add 1 tsp water to compensate if you do). Toss apple parts with cinnamon, schpritz of lemon juice and spoonful of sugar so they are equally coated and place in pan. Ungracefully dump topping over apple pieces without tamping it down. Bake in oven for 35mins or so until topping is nice and golden. Serve as is or with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, yogurt etc.

Overheard...

A friend travelling from NY to Florida today just told me about a most interesting cell phone conversation they overheard. Apparently they were seated near Ami James, owner of Miami Ink and cable-tv level celebrity and waiting for the same flight. In between signing autographs, Mr. James made time to have a phone conversation with an unidentified second party about some hot motorcycles available for sale. Did he forget that a)he is a recognizable personality and that b)he was discussing the purchase of stolen property? It never ceases to amaze me what kinds of conversations people will have out loud in public, especially celebrities. This same friend also had the (dis)pleasure of listening to Vince McMahon, head of the WWE wrestling federation, leave a startlingly pornographic and desperate voicemail for his girlfriend, again, in a very public location. I wonder if these people forget that they are famous for the period that they are on the phone. It certainly makes it easier to believe all those gossip columns that being, "We hear that..."

For the sake of your publicist's sanity, Ami, in the future try to keep those kinds of discussions limited to text messages. Not that someone couldn't break into your phone and read those if they really wanted to, but at least make it challenging.

5 Less Introspective things about me -

Ok, so when I wrote that other post it was probably too late at night, and i was taking myself just a bit too seriously. So here's 5 things you didn't know about me that aren't also likely to be topics of conversation on Oprah:

1) I have monkey toes. I can pick up anything I want with my feet, turn off the bathtub faucets, etc. I could even probably pick up a pen and write with it if I really wanted to.
2) My natural defense mechanism seems to be barfing. I throw up at the slightest provocation. I can't even get on an airplane without packing Bonine. The first sign of me having a cold is that I throw up. I throw up just thinking about roller coasters. However, I never get a fever. If I have an actual fever it probably means I'm near death.
3) I can wink really well. I can even walk around with one eye closed flat and the other wide open. The things you practice as a child.
4) I may be a hippie anti-gun person, but I am a very good shot with a .22 rifle. Very good.
5) I've met lots of famous people, but I was most impressed with Bill Gates. He was very normal. In fact, a little too normal. I kept looking at his hair and thinking, "The richest man in the world can't afford a $0.69 Ace comb?" He has very messy hair in person.

Other less introspective yet surprising things about me include my seeming failure to study for the approaching final exam that is motherhood. I spent my vacation reading time finishing Bones, by Douglas Ubelaker, a really fascinating collection of his observations and case studies as a forensic anthropologist. Did you know that bones burnt after they are dried will have a totally different cracking pattern than bones burnt with the flesh on? Death and its effects on the human body totally fascinate me. I was completely engrossed in this book the whole time I was in Mexico, and then I saw another pregnant woman reading by the pool. She had her "What to Expect" diary with her and another telephone-book sized tome on pregnancy and motherhood. She was actually writing in her diary. I don't think I've written in the diary since the first trimester ended. What is wrong with me? My rationalization/spin on this is that at least I won't be one of those crazy moms that makes their kids nuts fussing over them all the time. So maybe they'll have nightmares and messy hair, at least they won't feel like they're being micro-managed to death. Yep, keep telling yourself that chief...

Tagged!

I have been tagged! I am honored and blown away and totally confused all at the same time, all of which is compounded by the fact that it happened while I was out of the country for five days. I feel like Anthony Edwards in the first half of Gotcha! Suddenly my little game at pretending to be a writer has turned into an action-filled drama of cold war spies and espionage. No, not really. But it does explain why someone I don't know actually commented on my blog instead of it being just my sister calling me on the phone to comment on it.

According to the rules, I am now supposed to reveal five things about themselves that few people know and then tag five other bloggers to play. Sadly, though, both of these present a challenge to me as I have a big mouth and pretty much tell everyone everything anyway, and I don't know that I could come up with five lesser-known bloggers. However I can come up with a group blog created by at minimum five very creative individuals with whom I wrote some truly horrific comedy sketches for a piece of time. They very wisely lost touch with me a few months ago. Nonetheless, I am holding out hope that they will decide to respond to this invitation with creative elan and not flaming bags of poo instead. It is Christmas, after all, boys. What would the baby Jesus do? So please check out - http://www.boredfornow.blogspot.com/ - I promise it won't be a waste of your time.

Onto to the five things that no-one knows about me:

1) I am convinced I will die young, but I accept this and am in fact more ok with this concept than living beyond my capactiy for rational thought. I have always had this feeling and it explains a lot of bad behavior in my past. It also explains why being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis was not a surprise to me, but rather a moment of, "Aha! I knew it all along"-like enlightenment. I now take it to mean that I have to practice patience more seriously since wasting time yelling at crazy stupid people just takes away time I would have spent noticing better things instead. Very challenging mantra to keep to in airports, however.

2) When I was 11, I practiced having a mid-Atlantic accent and made non-dimensional Picasso like portraits of my classmates. Plus I wore L.L. Bean duck boots every day and started a Young Archeologists club with two other girls that involved one of us burying something and then the others going off to find it. I wondered why I was not invited to as many birthday parties as I had been in the past.

3) In my 20's I had a shamefully large number of terrible and unhealthy relationships with a wide variety of insecure and arrogant bastards. I thought they were the best that I could do and the most that I deserved. I didn't wake up until I was 30 and had the most abusive relationship of them all finally blow up on me. Not because I broke up with him; he dumped me. Via email. 90 minutes after he'd told me in person that he would meet me at the airport that evening for the flight to France for the wedding we were invited to. And it still took me a week to realize what an asshole he was.

4) I have a tattoo of a dog. I am seriously considering getting another tattoo of a dog but this time somewhere prominent and large. Check with me on my 40th birthday.

5) I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, I just know that I want to make a difference and that I should probably go back to graduate school for something in the sciences.

Mind you, the Good News is that I am seriously freaking happy with my life, the most happy and excited and self-confident I've ever been. I am married to an amazing man who really "gets" me, we are going to have a baby girl in a few months, I live in an adorable house with an adorable dog and I am more at peace with this flawed piece of humanity called Me than I ever thought possible. So you know, 2:05am tends to produce contemplativeness in me instead of a list of celebrities that I have spoken to, but that may be why I'm awake at 2:06am to begin with. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and write about the food in Cancun airport and what happened to Vinnie's Christmas tree this year. It will entertain and amuse. Cheers, Subservient Worker for giving me a frame for Christmas.

Baby Pancakes makes a face

This is Baby Girl Breslin at 18wks, 5days. As of tomorrow she will be 23wks "old". Life is good.

Final Quiche shot

Mmmmm!

Well dinner came out great - no runny eggs here! I suppose had I added a light salad it would have been healthier but that didn't occur to me until just now while looking at the plate. Next time I guess.

Spazzy Spag Bowl

On top is spag bowl; bottom is the mystery macaroni referenced in the cous-cous recipe

This is a really quick recipe, and it's spazzy because you'd have to be a total spaz to mess it up. Do not make it the English way and use Heinz Ketchup instead of canned tomatoes; that requires a lot of beer to be enjoyable.

Ingredients:
Small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lb ground meat
14 oz can tomatoes
Cooked Pasta

Dice up onion and sautee in frying pan over med-hi heat. Add minced garlic and meat. Cook meat until still pink-ish but not red. Add tomatoes, bring to boil and reduce heat and simmer for 10mins or so until liquid is reduced. Serve over pasta, or if you're on a diet, cook half a spaghetti squash and use instead. Feel free to skip even the onion part of it and use onion powder or Adobe salt instead. Add herbs if you're feeling fancy, or red wine if you're feeling boozy and fancy. Just don't leave the plate where the dog can reach it while you're out of the room! Serves about 3 people, or 2 people plus left-overs.

Quickie Quiche-y

I hated eggs as a child. Hated, hated, hated them. Unfortunately they were a common enough staple of my mothers' cooking repetoire that I had to endure them repeatedly. There were many things I did not like about eggs, but the way my mother cooked them did not help. She seems to favor the "wave a match near the pan" methodology, which means they always tasted raw and wobbly to me. I always knew it was going to be a bad day if I woke up and there were poached eggs waiting for me for breakfast. In hindsight I can't understand why I wasn't allowed to have cereal instead of being forced to eat runny egg yolks that touch EVERYTHING whether you want them to or not. I think it may have been part of a general campaign to make me very, very excited to leave home the minute I turned 18. I believe there is a song from Bread and Jam for Francis about soft-boiled eggs that sums it up best:

"I do not like the way you slide,
I do not like your soft inside,
I do not like you lots of ways,
And I could do for many days
Without eggs."

Now that I am an adult (technically if not in actuality) I realize that eggs are an important source of protein and are better for you than bowls of Frosted Lucky Charms, even if they lack marshmallow surprises. When I lived in France during an exchange for business school, I was able to try a "real" quiche or two and was surprised to discover I actually liked them. Cooking the quiche all the way through seems to make a huge difference. After hauling out the Cuisine de l'etudiant booklet to scan in a photograph, I decided to try a few of the easy-peasy recipes after all. Last night was Spaghetti Bolognese, which was so good the dog stole half my dinner when I left it unguarded in the basement for a few minutes. Tonight is Quick Quiche. If it ends up reminding me of my childhood, this will be the last time I make it. Hopefully that won't be the case.

I looked at the French version, and found a similar recipe on Epicurious.com and arrived somewhere in the middle.
Link to Madame Quiche's basic recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/15850

Here's the cheater's version:
Pre-made crust + filling + eggs + heat = Quiche

Buy pre-made pie crust, either the frozen one or the refrigerator section one (look near the pre-made rolls). Pre-cook the crust according to the directions on the package after poking some fork holes in it. Don't do what I did, which is to follow pre-baking instructions for a real pate brisee and then the crust got over-browned. Leave aside to cool. Also I used a 9.5" tart pan with a removable bottom, but you can use a pie plate or whatever, but try to make sure it's relatively shallow. If it's too tall and deep, you end up with raw middles, the bane of my childhood.

Ham bits being cooked plus shallots and herbs minus bone which, yes, is still in the dog...

Fillings are as varied as your leftovers are. Just make sure that the meat is pre-cooked and in small pieces. I am not a huge fan of broccoli in quiches since it is too big, but if you like it, go for it. Basic rules are dice meat, stir over med-high heat in a frying pan, add onions or shallots and herbs until cooked through. Try stirring in some frozen vegetables for added nutrition. I am craving ham like crazy lately (thank you baby!) so that's what I was doing with a ham steak. I added some diced shallot, chopped parsley and minced thyme since I had that in the fridge. Once cooked through, put filling on the bottom of the pre-baked crust. I added canned marinated artichoke hearts too since who doesn't love artichokes and ham?

Quiche prior to being covered with egg filling

Egg mixture should follow the basic recipe of 3eggs + 1/2cup milk + 1/3cup cream or creme fraiche + 1/2cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese + salt & pepper. Beat with a fork to combine and pour over fillings. Try using Egg Beaters instead of real eggs, or fat-free half n' half instead of cream, or plain yogurt instead of cream. You could probably switch the cheeses out for something different but make sure it's a semi-hard cheese that melts well. Fontina? Raclette? Dunno. Just don't substitute Brie, because that would be a mess. You could probably also go with the pre-shredded variety in the bag near where you found the pie crusts and not suffer any major dilemmas. If you're using a larger pie plate, double the number of eggs and milke, etc.

Bake at 425 F for 30mins, less if you're using two smaller tart pans, more if you're using a larger pan. Quiche is done when it is nice and brown and golden on top, and it doesn't wobble when moved. Stick a knife in it to see if the center is cooked all the way through. Since I pretty much burnt the crust, I used pie shields while baking the quiche to keep them from burning for real, but feel free to skip this and/or use tin foil instead.

Le Quiche au Jambon est pret!

Parenting Pop-quiz Failure

I just let the dog eat an entire ham bone. I mean he literally swallowed the whole bone. It was a little round circle, as found in a ham steak, bigger than a life-saver but smaller than a bagel. Maybe the size of a silver dollar? Somehow, even though the I-told-you-so part of me knew he was going to swallow the whole thing, my emotional brain convinced the strict part of me that he would just gnaw at it instead and leave the undigestible bone part on the floor. Ha. It was gone in 3 seconds.

I fear for my future child. What kind of parent am I going to be? I have just failed yet another mini-pop-quiz on how to be a good parent.

What am I doing up at 6:00am slicing up a ham steak anyway? Good question. I am planning on making a quiche for dinner and since I couldn't sleep thought I'd get started on it ahead of time. I'll post more about the quiche tomorrow.

Cuisine de l'étudiant

Cous-cous de l'étudiant

This blog entry is to demonstrate to my vast audience of two people that I do not in fact live on cookies, cake and brownies. But let's face it, those are far more fun to photograph and eat so that's usually what I remember to put into the blog. In the interest of appearing more healthy than I normally am, I include this delightful recipe for Cous-Cous de l'étudiant, which is not, in fact, something that I came up with as a college student, but it is more inspired by my little cookbook entitled Cuisine de l'étudiant which I picked up in B.H.V. department store sometime in the 90's in Paris. The photographs, however, were clearly taken at some point in the early 80's and are extremely hilarious. The food was photographed with papers in the foreground, or maybe a binder or two - no computers/ordinateurs mind you - just to remind you that this is food for the student, and not the pathetic bachelor. Often the same background was used for two different dishes with one minor change. Maybe this was meant as a memory game to keep the student mind sharp? I just hope the food was not left lying around on a set somewhere, forlorn and fuzzy with mold for a decade. I think the book was part of a "How-to" Series: How-to Fly Fish, How-to Taxidermy, How-to Pole Dance.

The cover photo features a plate of macaroni mixed with brown bits and little green bits, and is comfortingly surrounded by pencil sharpeners and magic markers in elementary school colors. Something tells you that it's all going to be ok, as they haven't set the bar exactly high. Even my limited French vocabulary should be able to get me through macaroni hoops with a side dish of markers. I bought it for a grand sum of 32,30 francs, about $6 at the time. Number of times I've used it? Zero. Being able to read a recipe for making tuna salad in French and feel vaguely international? Priceless.


(actual photo from the recipe book)
In college I liked to relax before a big exam with two meals and a glass of wine. I would often sit down in front of a closed window shade with a photo of my special friend, Monique. We hadn't actually met yet, but I could tell from the picture she included in the frame that I bought from the campus bookstore that she thought I was pretty special too. We had that kind of bond. It was unspoken. You wouldn't understand, really.

To get to the actual recipe portion of this rambling commentary, cous-cous is crazy easy to make. First you must accept that it is a PASTA and not a grain. There is no such thing as a cous-cous bush, and if you dare argue with me I will beat you senseless with a meat tenderizer, occasionally pausing to read from the Rumsfield Handbook for the Righteous to explain that it is not actually torture if you disagree with my religious position on cous-cousology.

Measure out 1 cup of cous-cous into a nice serving bowl. Boil 1 cup of water or stock, then add to the cous-cous and stir. Cover with saran wrap or a plate and wait 5mins. You now have cooked cous-cous. Start by adding the flavourings first, then the chunky stuff. For this recipe I added sliced almonds, dried cranberries, chopped green onion, orange peel zest, orange sections, grated ginger and a splash of sesame oil. Stir, stir, stir and taste to check the seasonings and adjust where needed. Then I added some pre-cooked turkey breast from Whole Foods and some steamed snap peas, again from Whole Foods, not that it wouldn't be easy to do those from the freezer but I happened to be in Whole Paycheck today and it was easier. You now have dinner. The beauty part of this is that you can either eat it hot or cold, whatever you prefer.

Did I mention that I also made sweet potato soup out of left-over roasted sweet potatoes that I didn't use for the pies I made on Thanksgiving? I did. Dump left-over mashed yams in a soup pot or alternatively crack open a can of pumpkin pie filling which is mostly made out of butternut squash, btw, add chicken broth and heat over med flame. Purée if needed with a stick-blender. Season to taste. This time I went with mild curry powder, cumin, paprika, dash of cayenne pepper and sea salt. Feel free to go the onion powder/thyme/sage route instead or even I suppose cinnamon, brown sugar and marshmellows but that might be more of a dessert soup, something that should be limited to the under 9 set and achieved through vigorous stirring of ice cream and toppings really.

The whole thing took literally 15mins to make tops and it was pretty tasty, pretty looking and pretty healthy. I must say when I get it in gear I do a nice job of Monday night dinners. Maybe tomorrow night I'll whip up a Clafoutis Salé which sounds complex but in actuality is just a baked omelet. Maybe I'll just keep that part to myself and beg for compliments from John anyway.


This is Un bon cous-cous. What makes it masculin instead of feminine? Why the nuts of course. D'oh!

Cranberries and Chocolate

Cranberries make it healthy!

What do you do with a left-over brick of white chocolate, a bag of fresh cranberries and a semi-sweet Easter Bunny? Why make mixed chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies, of course! http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231316
They tasted very nice, a really good blend, but they flattened out more than I would have wanted. I think either I left the butter out too long to soften or next time I make them I need to add more oats and/or flour. But they were very pretty and pretty tasty too. I made some cranberry brownies to keep them company, which means I added a handful of chopped cranberries to a box mix of brownies. They are actually a nice tart little addition to the unrelenting chocolate which means you don't eat all of them at once, just most. Having said that, I probaby have to throw the rest out since there is a limit to how much baked goods even I can eat at one time.

Update:

Frankie & I emailed Hi Monkey! with our Panda cake story, and he was gracious enough to respond to us. Here is the correspondance in its entirety:

At 03:00 PM 11/16/2006, you wrote:
Hi Monkey,

We made cupcakes for our new friend Jayce, who just came into this world yesterday. We thought it might be a nice present, but unfortunately we don't have a great photograph since we were rushing to get to the hospital in time to see everyone while they were still awake. There is a little story about it on the blog www.oyster-stew.blogspot.com, and here is a picture for you of just the cupcakes: *we included a picture of Frankie wearing his Lavender Wreath*

As you can see, we have had our license to operate a #12 spreader revoked and now have to go back to using the #14 safety spreader until our classes are completed. :(

I volunteered to eat all the cupcakes until Mommy gets it right but somehow she didn't think that was a good idea.

Love, Francis (aka Frankie)
(with some typing assistance from Mom Heather)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
my dear frankie,

i can't tell you how delighted i am that you took the time to write me such a charming note. you are certainly a photogenic and festive chap!

you and your mommy are so smart to whip up panda cupcakes to celebrate jayce's premier. many people are not aware that new born panda cupcakes need time to develop their ears. i noticed that you even had some pandas that were a wee bit younger than the others because they still had their baby white noses. i must say i am concerned that you had your #12 spreader license revoked. i've seen many a master of the #12 spreader shy away from a panda cup cake. i'll be speaking to the licensing board immediately to have your license reinstated and see that you receive a commendation for frosting tinting.

i must say that is very compassionate of you to eat any unsightly panda cupcakes. just remind your mommy to remove those chocolate ears first!

all my best to jayce, his mummy and daddy and your mummy!

deliciously yours,
monkey
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Panda Bear Cupcakes for Jayce's 1st birthday

I decided to make some Panda Bear cupcakes for, alternatively, Jayce Preston's first birthday or Jennie's first dose of chocolate now that she's given birth depending on which excuse you prefer. When I first saw the recipe on HiMonkey.net I knew that I would have to try them at some point. If you'd like to see the original inspiration as well as photos of what they should look like, check out -
http://www.himonkey.net/cooking/pandacupcakes/
The only thing I did differently was to make the Devil's Food from scratch with a recipe from cupcakeblog.com (http://cupcakeblog.com/index.php/category/ingredients/chocolate/?s=devil) and I skipped the ganache filling because well, I had to get to the hospital at some point. Oh and of course the other thing I did differently was completely mess up the frosting. One would think that I could handle a simple buttercream recipe at this point but apparently not. I need remedial frosting class. Maybe I could take a pastry class just on making frosting because I don't think I could eat the sheer volume of cupcakes it would take to get it right on my own. I did however splash out on a set of nifty food coloring gels which not only mixed up the perfect color immédiatement but did not get all over my fingers, hands, countertop, dog's ears, etc. which the watery tear-drop old-school ones always manage to do. I am throwing those away right now as I doubt there will be much use for them except for easter egg dying, and quite frankly, with a newborn infant I don't think there will be much playing around with eggs this year, human or chicken.

Pandas ears actually develop post birth (well, the cake ones anyway!)

ProFlowers vs. UPS Smackdown

The original bouquet

I never got around to posting this when it happened, but after coming across the photos still sitting on my desktop thought it was worth sharing. I decided to order myself some flowers after I'd had a minor tiff with John because well, don't we always deserve flowers after a small fight? Being the practical sort I figured it was probably easier if I just ordered them myself, so I found a good deal on ProFlowers.com and waited for them to arrive. Surprisingly they never came on the expected delivery date, which was odd since I had been home all day. I checked the UPS tracking number and was surprised to see that "Owner not home, package required signature" had been entered as the reason why. Surprised especially because a) I was home, b) no signature was required and c) no "Sorry we missed you" post-it note was left on my door, mailbox or entryway. Clearly the driver just got lost and decided f-it, it's Miller Time and left the package for the next guy. I contacted ProFlowers right away and let them know, and they were surprisingly helpful and accomodating. They ended up offering me a replacement arrangement of equal value, and I took them up on it and ordered a more expensive Lavender Wreath, offering to pay the difference. Woo-hoo, they comped me the whole wreath! I was pretty excited, especially as the original arrangement did arrive the following day in not too-terrible shape. Unfortunately, when the wreath arrived it looked like it had been sat on. Naturally when it was delivered the driver rang the bell and ran away, and as I was in the bathroom at the time, he was gone by the time I got to the front door. Grrr... half the lavender buds had been knocked off the wreath. Some might think that this was the end of the story, but no. I did send pictures of the smushed box to ProFlowers not to get anything else from them but just to let them know what a rotten job UPS was doing of delivering their product. So naturally what happened on the following day was a package left at my house for a neighbor with a totally different street address (ok same number but totally different street name). I managed to get ahold of one of the managers in the Elmsford office and explain to her that her company was inspiring a dangerously low level of confidence in me and that one more f-up and I would be tempted to write all kinds of threatening letters. Lo and behold they managed to find the driver who dropped that package off to come pick it up again and redeliver it. He gave me some song and dance about how this was a training route for new drivers and that it must have been someone else that messed up all the flower orders but I could tell it was him. He was enough of an old-timer to have had the time to sit in the driver's seat all day concocting excuses for why his packages were late/lost/smushed. It did make me wonder if I shouldn't consider not shopping for Christmas presents on the internet this year for once.


The box the wreath was shipped in. Clearly someone needed a booster seat to reach the steering wheel and thought the one marked "Fragile" would make a good choice. 


Frankie is wreathed in lavender 

I spent something like eight hours making applesauce and pesto today. I still haven't finished canning all the pesto. I am pretty wiped out from all the standing. Sometimes I amaze myself with my ability for stupidity. Pregnant and suffering from an MS attack? Sure, excellent time to stand all day. Moron. I hope the sauces were worth it though.

The chickadees have already memorised where the feeder is


I am loving my new bird feeder. It has a cover that slams shut should a squirrel or bullying mourning dove decide to jump on the perch. It is so much fun to watch the doves get sent away seedless so my beloved chickadees can come back again and again. Hopefully the doves will learn to leave the feeder alone eventually. I'm sure the squirrels will take some time before quitting though. I'd leave peanuts out for them but I'm afraid the calico cat I've seen stalking the feeder might appreciate that all too much. It would be like pouring out salt in front of deer stand. Then again, the blue jays like the peanuts too.

Yesterday I spotted two red-tailed hawks circling overhead while walking Frankie. I think they must have migrated away somewhere for the summer. I hope they are nesting nearby and will hang out for the winter. Definitely makes the morning walks more lively!



They can be quite the Bluto Blutarskys of the feeder crowd


Chickadee gets ready for take-off 


Nuthatch shows off his chin and why he isn't a Chickadee 


This guy on the left still needed help eating 

If you leave me alone long enough I will figure out how to escape from here...


Frankie had a bath on Saturday. As usual he did not love it, but it was necessary. The stink was getting stanky!


I'm wet and I'm miserable and I'm not smiling for the camera

Goodbye Gene


On Friday, September 22, 2006, Gene peacefully went to sleep for the last time. We were able to help him end his life in a dignified way, and halt the suffering he had been experiencing for the last six months or so. It was a difficult decision for us to make, but ultimately it was the right one. After looking through all the old photographs of him and remembering all the stories of how vital he was in his youth, it was hard to justify keeping him alive to appease our pain. He spent so many hours comforting us when we needed it, and it was time to give him permission to go.

Gene was the most gentle, patient and loving dog I have ever known. Despite his terrible start in life being abandoned and abused, he never lost trust in humans. He was the best example of forgiveness and patience I have ever known. Ok, maybe not so patient when there was cheese nearby, but otherwise he was perfect tempered. Perhaps the lesson I was meant to learn from him was that everyone has good in them, and we all deserve second chances in life. Even though he was the one that was rescued, he spent the next 14 years of his life rescuing us.

We love you Gene.

- The Seal Family


Where I adopted Gene from in 1992: http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/RI35.html
Where we found Frankie in October 2005: http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/NY187.html

John Senior's Birthday Party

John's father's birthday was September 19. We celebrated with a cake and some coffee at our house. I made a three-layer yellow cake with orange chocolate mousse filling and a semisweet ganache frosting sprinkled with chopped macadamia nuts. Unfortunately I seem to have neglected to take a close-up photo of the cake, but it was a big hit nonetheless. I can't say that it was easy because it wasn't - I don't know that I've ever made a yellow cake from scratch before but having done it twice now I think I could easily manage it in future. If only there were birthdays every week to celebrate!


John opens cards



John opening a gift



John considers blowing out the candles

Baby Shower Bonanza

The evil armada of duck-cakes awaits their final instructions to take over the world...

These were the cupcakes I made for my friend Jennie's baby shower two weeks ago. I did have fun making them, and people seemed to find them tasty enough. Aren't the cupcakes adorable?


Just Duckie