On the Brink, A Treatise on Turning 39; OR An Ode to a Ginger.

Once upon a time, on this date in 1973, a new ginger came to be.  His father wanted to pass down the family name, making this boy about the hundredth William in the family, but his mum said stuffaroo to that and called him Robin Alexander, herein known as GingerMan.

Almost exactly two months later, I was born and given an exceedingly plain and yukky name and blame my wild and cantankerous nature squarely on they who stuck me with such a homely moniker.  For this boy, from a tiny town called Ballymena, outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, would overcome the grayness and depression of The Troubles which plagued his land for so long and strike out for California, in the great free nation of America at the age of 27.

He took passage with the Evil Empire MS (tm), who, with promises of stock, riches, cheap drink and loose women, lured him from his tiny island home. There were those who derided him, certainly.  Some said it could not be done, and he would return home and face dreary reality sooner than later, but he persevered.  A stranger in a strange, sunny, palm-treed land, he bought a convertible, lowered the roof and drove to Half Moon Bay from the lower Bay Area without sunscreen or water, a closely death-defying feat if ever there was one.

He made friends and one night went to a halloween party where, due to the last-minute nature of his attendance, he managed to be wearing a women's-size nun's costume.  I came upon him wrapped in black nylon, swilling ale and grinning like a mad ape.  The poor bugger had obviously been given very bad advise by drunken cohorts or read the wrong tourist guide pamphlets when he landed on these shores or surely he would have made a better match, but marry we did and he has paid dearly for it every day since. 

In some way I believe, against my rock-solid atheism, that some tiny, elegant force of nature changed his fate when his mother stood fast on his name--he became a man with more inner strength and integrity than any other five people I know combined.  He has at times felt the heavy gray mantle of life's lesser ambition weigh him down, hasn't been able to see the virtues and abilities and brilliance others value in him.  I'm not sure he sees the beauty of his twisted wit and twisted snarkiness, that he is smart AND intelligent, that he is kind AND gentle AND caring.

I on the other hand....

See the one who became GingerMan.  The one who grew a shark fin and flaming red viking beard, the one who started believing in himself and walking taller.  The one who very kindly keeps his zombie and horror flicks to himself.

And now we seem to have woken up and become 39.  Eleven years have snapped and compressed to the length of ten minutes and--and--and... Now We Are (Nearly) Forty, (Christopher) Robin!  I mean it, we became.  I remember birthdays:  the pirate birthday I threw at a restaurant, with hats and goody bags (what is turning 37 for???), the Star Wars Birthday with the 3D printed table cloth with glasses to see it  and all...Yet these things, these numbers just floated by, and here we are.  39.  Thiiiiirteeeee Niiiiiiiine. 

Now, seeing as how a good deal of our friends and family have long since crossed to the land of Fifty-ish, I can hear them wetting their pants with laughter, but kindly grant us license on this threshold. This intrepid Traveller, this inimitable, indomitable,  perfect GingerMan is sure his liver is only good for another 20 minutes, and the revelry of this coming weekend should shave another ten off that, so we are feeling somewhat fragile, if not certain that Fifty, Sixty and Seventy are just another wake-up away and we have no time to waste.

No time at all to waste, my love.  You are my Rock, my Light, my Viking-Pirate-Jedi-Knight adventure companion and I cherish every single minute we have together.  Happy Birthday, Robin Alexander. 

Love, Me.

Pin It Now!

The mixer stands silent. For now.

Marion Cunningham, the latter-day Fanny Farmer,  has left the kitchen.

In an early post, I compared Joy to many other tomes of American culinary tradition, and may have found the Fanny Farmer (nèe The Boston Cooking School Cookbook) a bit less awesome in the deal. And yet, it is a fantastic book, full of rock-solid basics and a good format.  So easy and comforting for a new cook, and a time-tested bible for veterans.

             

Just in time for Tomato Season, Plus Something Good for Olympic Viewing!

Marion met culinary legend James Beard in the 70's and eventually stepped in to freshen up the Fanny Farmer's stodgy, aspic-y personality, to bring home cooking into relevance for a new generation of working women and an increasingly no-longer "traditional" family life.  Yet she felt her mission was to somehow lure us back to the family table, for just a moment, every day, to share life together. Every interview with her fairly vibrated with passion and dedication to this goal.

I meet people all the time for whom (like me) this was their first cookbook, often a wedding gift from mom or grandma.  Some lucky ducks (with peanut stuffing, pg 262, Twelfth Edition, 1979) inherited the family's edition replete with generations of notes, additions and alterations.  Here are my books:

Neither of my grandmothers left notes???  How am I sposed to know ANYTHING???

You may read one of the better memorials written here in the New York Times .  All I can manage is to hope that, with our books propped open against the slow cooker and held open with the fruit bowl, we continue her mission to pause every day to show love and value and kindness in the feeding of friends and family.  And maybe, if we're very lucky, to share this with one small percentage of the lives Marion Cunningham touched.

BTW, Revlon's new Colorstay Overtime Lengthening Mascara, is, as advertised on the tin, Flake-Proof, Smudge, and Tear Proof, as is now Fairy-tested. Pin It Now!

Change Your (Cruciferous) Fate!

I had been holding my breath for last weekend.  Weeks and weeks for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, months for Brave.  ALVH will wait for the next post as I still need to go lied down in a cool, dark place and practice calm breathing every time I think of that stinking mess of a celluloid disappointment.  But Brave.....

A young Scottish princess seeks to change her fate, avoid an arranged marriage, forge her own destiny...

And does.  With her mother.  Not with a man.  Not saved at the last minute by her big strong beau who’s won her over.  NO last minute glorious wedding.  

Familiar?

It begins with a mother instructing her teenage daughter in duty and protocol and ends in a beautiful friendship between two women that left me weeping several times through the film.  Each character is a finely crafted personality, nothing is tritely cookie-cutter. Throughout literature and film, conflict is carried as close to the end as possible, each person wrapped in their own spite, sorrow, fear and anger until the last possible moment for redemption when 1) The hero saves the day, Boy and Girl revel in True Love and Disapproving Parent joyfully accepts newly repented children; or 2) The fate of the pained falls far beyond salvation and Lives are ruined, Loves lost and Lessons are learned, which tend to become the motivation driving the plot of Case 1.


Brave has lesson learned from the past, but also fallible personalities who can immediately regret their harsh words and rash actions, as real people do.  The family is not perfect, the resolution not facile.  It is dark and perilous and Merida is a breathtaking heroine, especially when paired with her mother.  


As GingerMan posits, the true test of feminist strength in plotting comes when two female characters carry a story and do not focus on the romantic involvement of a Prince Charming or his necessity for resolution and salvation.  Brave is all skirts, even the ones on the blokes, and in battle, all skirts are equal.

Another masterpiece from Disney-Pixar.  Bring your kids and your tissues.  Bring your honey and tissues, this is some seriously bad-ass animation!  The texturing, lighting, movement of hair and fabric and facial expressions is exquisite.  D-P are pushing the envelope ever further toward perfection and this movie is absolutely BREATHTAKING (have I said that enough?) in it’s beautifully rendered Scottish medieval backdrop.

What better to finish a great movie night than Broccoli Salad, V 1.0 (oh, and some pulled pork!)?

We begin at the beginning before getting fancy with all the variations mentioned in the last post, and I’ve only just realised that I forgot the onion.  It is included in the recipe. I was in a state, is all I’m sayin’--Go see a woman become a Woman, Brave and True, then come home and snarf this down on a hot summer night!

BROCCOLI SALAD, V. 1.0

PREP TIME: 30 MINS

COOK TIME: BROCCOLI- 3 MINS / BACON 5-7 MINS

CHILL TIME: 15+ MINS

SALAD:

• 1 Med Head Broccoli:  Pare down to bite-size florets, then skin the stem and cut into bite-size pieces-you’ll be pleased when it’s cooked- it’s crunchy and sweet!
• 3+ Strips Bacon (Follow your porky-lovin’ heart)
• 1/4 C Yellow Raisins OR Brown Rasins OR Dried Cranberries 
• 1/4 C Chopped Yellow OR Red Onion

DRESSING:

• 2/3 C Light Sour Cream
• 3T+ Sugar
• 1T White Wine Vinegar OR Apple Cider Vineagar
• 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
• Several Grates Fresh Nutmeg OR
• 1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp Fresh Ground White Pepper 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Blanch the Broccoli:  A) Fill a large pot 2/3 full with water, set on the stove on highest heat and get to a near-boil;  B) Set a colander in the sink and have a bowl of ice handy;  C) When the pot comes to near-boil, turn down to medium, then pop the broccoli into the CALM, NOT BOILING WATER.  Stand over it for 3 minutes, watching the color change.  You're looking for an immediate brightening of color-3 minutes, that’s it. D) Remove pot from stove IMMEDIATELY AND DUMP BROCCOLI INTO COLANDER;  

E) Run cold water over broccoli and toss in colander for a count of 20, turn off water, then dump the ice into the colander and gently mix the broccoli and ice then LEAVE IT TO COOL.  Make sure you keep the broccoli in the colander so the water and ice all drain away, preventing water-logging.  The point of blanching is to take the raw edge off veggies and convert a bit of their starch to sugar, giving them a lovely bit of sweetness and softening them just a TINY bit.  They should be bright green and very crisp, but the florets will have lost the characteristic rubberiness of their raw state and the peeled stem will be a heavenly, crunchy sweet treat. 



 Cook the Bacon:  I have often just dried out the same pot, cut the slices with scissors into the pot and cooked them up, then removed and drained.  Technique is not crucial, but if you have an electric stove, you can leave the burner on, dry the pan real quick and get the bacon back on while you're dealing with the broccoli's ice stage.
  Mix the Dressing:  Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Taste for sweet/sour balance and correct for your preference.  I like it sweet-tangy, your mileage may vary.
  WHY SOUR CREAM??  Most traditional recipes use mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, but when I was in a panic the last time, I subbed the sour cream and loved it, so my base-line is Clover Light Sour Cream.  Mayo and The Whip will have their day in court, I assure you!
Notes on variants:  Apple Cider Vinegar will give it a bit more fruitiness; Dried Fruits can be mixed and matched to great effect; and black pepper can be substituted just as well, but use less as it is more pungent and somewhat more acrid (that is a positive attribute in pepper, remember).  

SPECIAL NOTE:  Fresh Nutmeg is not a mystical device, you can find them in many markets, at Penzeys shops or at Penzeys.com.  They seem a bit pricey, but you get HUGE flavor from a few grates and in a ziploc or tupperware container they will literally last until the end of eternity.  You will get your money’s worth and all it takes is a microplane grater or a fine-grade rasp from the hardware store.  Nutmeg is bitchin’ on all dark greens:  kale, spinach, broccoli, chard, etc. as well as anything Indian and all baking applications.

MIX IT ALL UP!!!!  Just toss all the stuff into a large bowl and add the dressing, then gently turn over and over with a spoon to cover.  Voy-OLA!!! 



  SERVE: With a generous side of Pulled Pork from your crock pot with any of Guy Fieri’s kick-ass BBQ sauces (you'll probably find them in your supermarket, but this is a shopping link as well,) on a toasted brioche bun.  

Be Bold, Be Beautiful, and most of all Be Brave, in your kitchen and your life. In the words of Ben & Jerry’s founder Ben Cohen, there are very few irredeemable mistakes, so start experimenting and change your Fate! 


**Seriously, All photos property of Joy of Cooking Fairy or Disney-Pixar, You know what's-what and Who's Who, play fair and be good, Munchkins.

Pin It Now!

Broccoli Brain-Join Me!

The other day I cleaned off my counter a bit.  I already have more counter space than any girl should have a right to expect in life, but I get...cluttered feeling.  Plus, I need inspiration.  So the cookbooks that had become wedged into a corner behind the letter box and the crockpot came out of hiding, some went upstairs to be wedged into the bookshelves  and some became the newly displayed on Grandma's book table:

BTW, a brief aside:  Allow me to introduce you to the Food Lover's Companion. 

 A brilliant piece of gastronomic quick-reference, it's a dictionary--an encyclopedia, nearly--of food terms and ingredients concisely defined and elucidated. All entries contain phonetic spelling, Foreign-language terms are translated and referenced back.   Your romantic dinner menu for a new flame calls for Ostrica?  

"Ostrica [oh-STREE-kah]  Italian for Oyster."

The entry for Oyster being on the next page and beginning with reference to Jonathan Swift's appraisal of the first consumer thereof.  The Companion is a treasure.  This is no book for the Higher Gastronome, this is a pocket book for the people, demystifying and delineating.  I use it at work constantly and The Companion saves my bacon every time.

Oh, really, Who am I kidding...It wasn't just a Spring Cleaning, I am Deferring. 


I am Disturbed.  Deeply Disturbed.  

Joy has failed me.

No, Really.  Broccoli Salad has brought The Book low.  

The Scene:  Last week I sat in my nail salon (Strawberry Nails in San Jose for those on home turf, treat yerownself if possible), where they air Food Network allllll day long.  The Entrèe basket on Chopped included Catfish, and I became obsessed with frying dinner that night.  So I cruised through Lunardi's on my way home, grabbing some Cod (check Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch App for great recommendations on sustainable fish available in your area) and corn meal.  I remembered I had broccoli so I popped some raisins into the baskets too.  Southern peeps, you see my fever here.

Let me state here for all eternity the Most Sacred and Holy Writ of Broccoli Salad:  It shall contain, No More, and No Less than blanched Broccoli, Raisins, Bacon, Red Onion and Dressing. 


 I thought.

I get home, bouncing around the kitchen, setting up my fry station, fish station, heating the oven for the biscuits, then starting on the Broccoli Salad so it would have the requisite bedding-down time in the fridge.  I know, like I know the feeling of hand-knit socks on my feet, egg-zackly what this is supposed to be.  Each part, and the whole. 


I thought.


But I'm sketchy on the dressing.  So I swing over to the book rack and flip through the Joy (2006, 75th anniversary edition), straight to Broccoli. 

-Cheese Casserole

-deep-fried

-freezing

and five more of the like.  No salad. Check Salad; No Broccoli. Pardon, WHAT?  Vegetable salads, yes--Tomato, Cucumber and Waldorf. Period.  


Back to the 1975 edition-- Broccoli's Record in the age of Disco? Three, count 'em three entries: "Creamed, quick; deep-fried; timbale".  Salad includes "Cheese Ring"(bleurrrghhhh), but no cruciferous members.


Foxtrot back to the 1953 blue Joy.  Hooray!  Broccoli swingin' in the Salads!  "Cooked Broccoli; Raw Broccoli Stem Salad"!  Which basically consist of broccoli, in French dressing (the popularity of which between 1935 and 1965 is astounding in itself), served on a lettuce leaf.

WHATDAHECKPEOPLE!!!!!

So my lovely little blog post on yummy Southern Dinner night turned into OCD Days, heavy on the Obsession Sauce:

I went through Julia, Bon Appetit, America's Test Kitchen, two editions of Fannie Farmer and Better Homes and Gardens.  Then I went deep, to the cookbooks inherited from grandparents who would have long-hurdled 100 by now, to the odd-ball stuff like The Prudence Penny, the California Regional Cookbook, The Household Searchlight, TheWaldorf Astoria Hotel Cookbook, The White House Cookbook; pamphlets and hand-written notes on backs of envelopes; digging into a mayonnaise-and-canned-tuna-aspic laden first half of the twentieth century which should, for the most part, remain hidden.

Three winners emerged:  The Betty Crocker Cookbook, 10th ed. 2006 ( one entry- "Broccoli Sunshine Salad", pg 384);  the California Cookbook, Third Edition 1949 ("Raw Broccoli Salad", pg 8);  and the Grand Prize winner, with FOUR recipes, the Sisters In the Kitchen Cookbook, 2007 (pp 67-68),  from my sister's church in Kansas.

Now, to give you some small background on my madness (oh reaaaalllly,you say?),  at some point you will find I have had to return to university to obtain a degree in Food History solely to publish a Thesis on Potato Salad as Social and Historical Adhesive and Accelerant.  Meaning, I've been chewing over this idea for years that the complexity of the world of Potato Salad holds vast insight into the inner workings of social order, family structure, group migration and personal identity.  The variants of Potato Salad are infinite and someday I will invite you into this world.  


What I did NOT expect the other night, when I innocently set about my down-home dinner fixin' was to discover:  A) Broccoli Salad seems to be a quite recent invention;  B) It's permutations and social divisions appear to be in some sort of proto-Potato Salad state with regard to ingredients and dressings--Mayo vs. Miracle Whip, anyone??


What a mess. And it's fascinating.


I've been sitting here for days under piles of books, researching the internet for recipe variants and it's like watching a colony of Sea Monkeys suddenly start to ACTUALLY evolve.

And so far, no fun cook-along recipe and lovely photos for you from the other day. I tried a couple of dressings off the internet--one which shall remain un-referenced as it called for a HUGE amount of mayonnaise, a bit of balsamic and a small amount of sugar.  It tasted like the inside of a rancid Mayo bottle. So I found a couple more and improvised.  By the time I got the dressing together I was in a dead run to finish cooking dinner:

Sorry for the quality of the photo, but I only realized at the last minute I had no snaps to prove any of this happened.  The fish was not, in fact, plated by a Wolverine, I had only just forked it's crunchity flakiness when I grabbed my iPhone.

So, a delicious result, but a great deal of work ahead.  Hopefully by the end you'll love broccoli and begin to feel the wonder of how Cooking is a Living Art.  If you have a recipe for Broccoli or Broccoli-Cauliflower salad, please feel free to share, with full attribution for your genius, and maybe some info on who you got the recipe from, where you're from, how long you've been making it, etc.  Like I said, this is what makes Cooking Alive. Join Me? 

Pin It Now!

Coming Out Party

Obama Came Out--Shall we Give a Shower?


This morning marked an historic occasion, for which we should Give Thanks, Pause to Reflect, Take Action, and Have Cake.


We were greeted by the news that President Obama has stated his belief in marriage equality.




He considered his friends, his colleagues and staff, the parent's of his children's friends...and his children.  Do they see these same-sex couples as different and undeserving of total equality?


No.


Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, once he left office, fulfilled a long-standing promise to his wife to join the Catholic church.  Very soon after, he was vigorously questioned as to how he could have championed legalizing gay marriage in the UK when it went against the very strongest moral tenets of his faith.  His reply:


"It's what was right for the nation."


So Obama is charging ahead for equality, in the face of North Carolina's Amendment 1 passage, the now-constant assault on women's equal rights to access healthcare and reproductive services, and the long-standing barrage of Tea-Party/Right-Wing/Name-Calling. Dunno about you, I feel simultaneously wound to the hilt and worn the f*&k out people.


GingerMan and I donate to the Democratic party and PBS as a family. I donate to Planned Parenthood and Girl Scouts, and used to give to Susan G. Koman, until it surfaced with solid evidence that The Pink Ribbon had Consorted with Evil.  Until they show solid evidence of true directorial reformation, those funds are now redirected to Planned Parenthood, where they are again applied to a panoply of women's health checks and preventative care initiatives, free of politics.


But the phone calls...Ohhhhh the phone calls.  


And the emails.  I get five or six a day just from Obama for America, then one or two from Courage Campaign, a couple from Credo, who support PP, and on and on.....every day.


As I said last week, I really had to take stock and cut out most of the news in print and on TV.  The depression was overtaking me and the pleas for petition signing and letter writing and just that one more little donation of 5 bucks....


That was me: my mental capacity to deal and formulate the most cogent plan of attack; to streamline and focus attention and support, both moral and financial; was collapsing into useless ellipses.


So as I sat to write this, I decided.  Fixed donations, select recipients.


A contribution to Courage Campaign. I have supported them before, but I never before believed in sending money or manpower to other states to change their elections until the dilemma hit home.  I had a very religious friend who made it clearly known that they donated money to their church for the training of campaign workers sent here to California from their home state  in the midwest to promote Prop 8, the Anti-Marriage Equality law.  


As well as contributing to pro-Prop 8 advertising campaigns, funds went to the campaigns of elected officials IN MY STATE, NOT THEIRS, supportive of Prop 8 and ultra-conservatism in general.  We haven't spoken since.  Now it's a Civil Rights Issue, NOT a State's Rights argument.  They are no longer allowed to run and hide behind the good ol' Tenth when they come crawling out to infest the rest of us with their odious hatred when they think the coast is clear.


Also, I'll still support Planned Parenthood and Girl Scouts, with a huge-whoppin' cookie buyout every spring. Scouts, that is, PP don't do a range of cookies, but they sure deserve some.


 There are so, so many issues pulling us from so many directions--home, work, family, and all the political and social struggles that overlap-- I know I'm not the only one feeling stuck in Moral Molasses. 


We have Pagan Coming Out day, National Coming Out Day, and today is the President's Coming Out Day. So I declare this next week National Giving Out Week. It's breaking things down into smaller bites.  You may be a family of two Mums with a small child and four aging parents. You've got a lot on your plate just keeping up every day, and money can be tight. 


Step One: Ask fundraisers to take you off their phone lists.  I know it sounds obvious, but when it's the Democratic party, it seems a little harder to turn down the Home Team.  


Step Two: If you get a million emails from organizations you've donated to or signed petitions for once or twice in the past, deep breath--unsubscribe.  You can "Like" most of them on Facebook if you really want to keep track of them, but otherwise, just let yourself have some headspace, and inbox space, back.


Step Three: Then pick two or three organizations, set up contributions and be done.  


Some things, like PBS or Courage Campaign will do a small monthly amount you only have to set up once.  Anything else that comes in the mail, set it on fir--I mean, promptly recycle.


And that's it.  Really.  The rest of  it comes down to our own grass-rooting--what we talk about in Knitting Group, at parties, what we post on Facebook and Twitter and Google-Spaghetti-O's.  We may not feel it's a lot, but we have just made ourselves Drops in the proverbial Bucket.  Check your FB Friend's List--that's a whole lot of Drops--come join the Shower!

SUPER PARTY SNACK TIME!!!

And what's a party without cake?  Well, we're talking about doing good, so it's actually a super-healthy Banana Bread which anyone I have ever put it in front of has snarfed like Chocolate Gateau. 


This is my amalgamation of a few very healthy Banana Bread recipes, and it turns out my favorite Baked Good is Secretly Packing Nutritional Heat.  TOP PRO TIP:  Slice this up and wrap separately, makes a great lunch bag snack or on-the-go breakfast!

BANANA BREAD

PREP: 15 MINS

BAKE: 40-45 MINS

PREHEAT OVEN: 325F

INGREDIENTS:

-1/3 C Canola Oil

-2 Large Eggs.  Some Recipes split the eggs into whites and a yolk or accept egg-substitute, and it's possible, but I don't like to.

-1/4 C Sour Cream or Yogurt:  Using low-fat sour cream is a great idea, as it does nothing to the taste or moisture of the bread.  I have used plain 2% Yogurt and it was okay.    >>Graduate Level:  I'm planning to try Greek Style Yogurt in either 2% or Fat Free next, as they both have a very rich texture. Go for it, I'm saying.

-1C Ripe Bananas. We're talking way, way, way brown.  Like they look like UPS delivery guys.  Like they look nearly bad.  Trust me, they'll be MAGIC.

-1tsp Vanilla+ 1tsp Almond Extract.  You can skip the Almond Extract, most recipes call for just Vanilla. 

-*1.5 C White or Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour.  Purely up to taste and aesthetic.  

-*2/3C Sugar. Use White or Brown, again, to preference. I haven't used Agave or Stevia yet!

-1.5 tsp. Baking POWDER.

-1/2 tsp. Baking SODA.

-1 tsp. Cinnamon. OR 1 tsp. Penzeys Cake Spice.  (i <3 it.)

-1/4 tsp. Salt.

ADD INS:

-4Tbs. Flaxmeal (ground Flax Seed).

-1/2C Chopped Walnuts.

-1/2C Chocolate Chips OR the darkest, highest % cacao chocolate you can find, chunked up.

A WORD ABOUT FLOURS:

My attempts thus far have yielded the following:  

White Pastry Flour:  Very cake-like product, especially when using white sugar as well, much like a store-bought bakery item.  

Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour:  A little firmer, still tender due to being pastry flour (it has low levels of weak-gluten protein content compared to All-Purpose or Whole Wheat).  

Whole Wheat Flour:  Okay, wait--what was that mambo 'bout weak glutes?

Wheat Flours contain gluten, which we hear a LOT about these days, but basically it makes a big sticky protein-y net when you add liquid to flour and make any kind of dough.  Different kinds of wheat have different kinds of proteins and are sometimes processed more (or less) to achieve different uses--e.g. bread flour, cake flour, all purpose, etc. (On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee)

The JoC explains further that these differences in types of wheat and proteins affect the amount of moisture the flour can absorb.  So in most cases, we want to stick right to the recommended flour for the recipe as all the other variables have been accounted for.  

Think of it like knitting a scarf:  Cake-flour cake is like lace, Pastry-flour goods are like a cashmere scarf. Whole-Wheat regular flour used in their stead will usually produce something akin to the Woolen Breastplate of Boudicca sweater your Great Auntie knit you for Christmas.  

However, in this very specific case, I've started playing round with all these variables.  You see I've toyed with the dairy.  I'm eyeing the Sugar with Intent to Tweak.  But I started with the Flour, and I have to say, switching all the way to Whole Wheat has produced a very firm, but tender bread.  

SNEAK PREVIEW!   WHOLE WHEAT STYLE! CHOCO-CHIPS!

Definitely more bread than fluffy cake, and I feel there's even more nuttiness to it.  Start with the basic, then branch out.

As for the Add-Ins, they're all to taste, but I really do recommend the Flaxmeal, on two counts: Again, it gives a lovely nutty flavor without nuts, and it ups the fiber and omega goodness.  Nature's Broom and all...

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Lightly oil the bread pan.

2.  Beat- Oil, Eggs, Sour Cream, Banana and Vanilla in stand mixer or by hand mixer until creamy.  It'll look like Banana pudding.  Already Good.

3. Mix-Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt, Cinnamon in a separate bowl.

4.  Start Mixer, Add Dry Ingredients to Wet.  Slowly, in a couple of stages. Mix until just combined.

5.  Add-Ins.  Stir in gently, just to combine.  Let it be cool and groovy, baby.

6.  Spoon into Pan, Pop into Oven.

7.  Check  at 40 Minutes, Skewer/ Toothpick/ Slim Knife should come out clean when poked in. 

8.  Let sit in pan on cooling rack for 5 minutes.

9.  Turn out on cooling rack, let sit for 10 minutes.

10.  Snarf.  Add Ice Cream or Yogurt as dessert. 

EXHIBIT A:  HAPPY GINGERMAN

Pin It Now!

This is the Sound...Of Silence. And Spring!

[A mahogany-and-pink-striped head peers timidly round the corner]

Why, halloo there...


So good to see you, the last couple of weeks have been quite hec--


How long??????


Jumpin' cocoa-covered crickets.


Well, Spring is here and Reformation is at hand, my friends.  The holidays melted into early 2012-- '12' --mind you, and I was still working a LOT, every weekend from New Years to mid-March was scheduled from Thanksgiving and suddenly my head was spinning like a little Exorcist demon.  Several things were wrong, first among them, I was working too much; second, I had accrued what seemed to be a vast amount of angry, as evidenced in my last few posts.


Then I got a cold.  Minor Inconvenience, but laid out for several days under a blanket on the sofa.  Watching TV and knitting.  Until the Unthinkable happened.  I yarned myself into Knitter's Elbow.  So stiff I couldn't knit.  What to do?  I can't just sit and watch TV, drives me plumb crazy, so I did something so rare and arduous it deserved a diary entry:  I read a book.  I downloaded The Karla Trilogy by John LeCarrè, of which Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is the first entry and plunged in.  I read the whole thing in two days.


Back story: Five years ago January, I quit smoking.  The age-old advice states if you really want to make a go of quitting, move house.  It's an undertaking which requires a complete overhaul of your every daily habit, waking to bedtime.  My strongest proclivities led me to believe my car probably wouldn't start without lighting a cigarette first, and the only way I could go to sleep was to sit outside and smoke up to half a pack while reading, depending on the seductive power of the tome before me.  My lifetime propensity was for the full digestion of 3-4 books per week.  Once quit of the coffin-nails, however, my literary bent came to a screeching halt.


I couldn't concentrate.  I tried the many suggestions of friends and family but after a year I was resigned to the torture of passing my 5 overloaded bookcases of former printed-paper lovers without knowing the pleasure of their partaking.


Returning to present, I grabbed my iPad and downloaded these three books.  First book, two days.  Second, The Honourable Schoolboy, was 1100 pages and, due to my return to work, took 10 days.  Then I downloaded several  Terry Pratchett Discworld novels (probably my favorite author ever) and tore through those, especially as I was knocked flat a second time with sinus infection.  Seven books in two months...


The words stick in my consciousness and reading is once again the nearly erotic delight I spent a lifetime devoted to.


Now, what of my difficulties, First and Second, alluded to above?  Man, I was an angry, angry little girl this year.  The politics of womanhood and equality seem to be speeding backwards at a rate of acceleration matched only by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.  As for work, my Benevolent Employer had twice broached the subject of job satisfaction relating to work schedule, a conversation ironically interrupted both times due to extreme business.


With this moment of sickitude, in which I joyfully reclaimed the printed page, I reclaimed something much, much more precious, but also a bit more vexing as far as this blog is concerned:  Silence.  After the first cold, I had been home for a few days in a row, reading  in quiet solitude.   I returned to work and approached my Benevolent Employer to resume our conversation and cut back on my availability.  B.E. was happy to have the feedback and moving forward began scheduling me with the fewer hours I enjoy.


Then I stopped watching and reading the news.


Yet, in the midst of this, I told a friend that I was quite worried that I was missing something, that I was slow, that there were Things To Do and I didn't know what but I was anxious about it.  She paused and rephrased these things I had recounted for her:  "You were stressed out as usual, then you laid down boundaries to take back your time, you stopped listening to the repeatedly negative, and now your brain is calm and quiet so you can read a book, which you have been whinging on about for the last five years.  Your problem?"


The problem has been the Silence which unwittingly extended to our time here.  Apparently the immediate result of Calming The F*$k Down means I just Shut The F*$k Up.  Truly.  GingerMan spent most of March asking me if I was OK--


"You're just.....really quiet."


Was he concerned or watching the knife drawer?


But for a steady stream of short daily posts on Facebook, I seemed to have lost my voice.  And somehow it's THE LAST DAY OF APRIL.


Now, however, I'm Getting Stuff Done:


I've been cooking some, went to Stitches West 2012 here in Santa Clara (at the end of February, mind you), snuggled my various babylicious nieces and read enough books to double my intake for the last 5 years combined. Last week I went shopping with Mary Kay Carol and finallyfinallyfinally bought a bunch of new bras.  No, chillin's, you have no idea how long I put that off...


 I have suffered some continued knitting/spinning ennui, and I haven't really exercised in what I now realize is over a year.  


Several weeks ago, Jedi Jasmin introduced me to Cat Bordhi's Houdini Sock, which is simply genius and I have since completed two pairs, one of which goes to my Benevolent Employer.  I scoured some sock books and japanese stitch dictionaries* (ooooohhh soooo lovely-they are beautifully concise, charts and photos show multiple repeats; photographs are ample and detailed) and have two sock projects queued up, yarn balled and ready to go in bags.  


This last Saturday I had the whopping privilege of taking Stephen West's Top-Down Shawl class at the fun, funky, wondrous knitting/spinning/sewing shop,  A Verb For Keeping Warm in Oakland, and now have three shawl projects ready to go.  My Schacht Matchless spinning wheel is coming out of exile in my upstairs office down to the living room. This will be a bit more of an undertaking--I feel as though I've forgotten everything about spinning.


Sooooo, Fairy 2012 is, indeed, learning to Lick The Spoon, albeit with a bit less sturm und drang than in the past.

MMMMMMMM--Olive Oil and Sea Salt!

Finding my Outside Voice again seems to take some doing, but I've plans to catch us up and plow merrily through the rest of the year (which already looks pretty nuts, including a trip to Europe, hopefully featuring significant time at The Edinburgh Festival!) and beyond.


Is there anything you'd like to catch up on?  Anything you'd like to cook? Chirp up Spring Chickens! Also, does anyone know the cure for Cadbury Mini-Egg Addiction?  All Posts Welcome.


* Being Laid Low with Plague, I posted that Thursday night: "blarrghh, need Donuts, a Burger and a Japanese Stitch Dictionary." Friday, Jedi Jasmin pings me, saying "What kind of donuts?"  Half an hour later, eight Psycho Donuts appear on my doorstep.  The next day, my doorbell rings again and The Pink One delivers a stitch dictionary, which I read cover-to-cover.  It was oddly comforting.  Jedi Jasmin is The Very Sister Of My Heart.

Revelations:  Chocolate Cake and Roasted Asparagus

So, last winter,  round about Christmas, I made the Cocoa Cake from Joy of Cooking ("Fairy 2012:  Dungeons and Flagons of Joy").  One thing that stuck, sniggling in the back of my head, was that every recipe I had ever seen using cocoa powder of any kind in a baking recipe also used hot water.  And this one did not.  I was puzzled, but remained faithful.  It was a dense cake, and bordered, in my opinion, on dry. Kinda, ya know, moseyed round the fence of un-moistness.  But it was still very flavorful and was great with the cranberry jam in the middle.

CHOCOLATE CAKE, THE STAFF OF LIFE.

While I was down the second time with the stupid sinus infection, GingerMan left for Ireland on a Diplomatic Mission to the Relations, e.g. for niece and nephew spoiling.  So alone and with time to waste, my Idle Hands became Devil's Food Playthings.  The new recipe was Penzeys Aunt Velmas Chocolate Cake.  It is Moist, it is DEEEELISHUS.


They post it in the store a couple times a year and it's available online.  It uses many of the same ingredients, this being a basic recipe common among many cocoa-producing companies and published recipe collections.  Variations depend mainly on slight changes in amounts of flour, cocoa, baking soda and eggs.  But they ALL use hot water with the cocoa powder.  So follow the link and follow the directions EGG-ZACKLY.  Now, after cross-referencing many different recipes on the 'net, I was really nervous, as Aunt Velma's was the only one that had the eggs plunging in right after the boiling water.  I thought to myself, quote:


"Scrambled Eggs.  Chocolate Scrambled Eggs."


Nothing could be further from the truth.  Just do everything right down to the letter.  EXCEPT:  You can make it in a bundt/tube pan by simply adjusting the time to 50-55 mins.  Also, if using a bundt or tube pan, I like to butter/spray the very bottom of it, just for insurance.  Do not do the sides, the cake needs some traction to rise.  There were going to be pictures here, but the cake disappeared before the camera made it to the kitchen.

ROASTED ASPARAGUS, NATURE'S GREEN CANDY.

The Asparagus orgy is on, and for a limited time only.  If you ever see asparagus outside of this season, be suspicious.  This recipe yields a culinary delight to surpass (almost) French Fries.  


CAUTION:  The first time I made this, GingerMan was HIGHLY suspicious, staring  at them as the pan lay on the cooling rack.  Then he tried one.  While my back was turned, half of the first pan disappeared down his greedy Irish gullet.  Score One for Nutrition.




Heat oven to 350F
Time: Prep: 5 minutes, Cook 1 hour*


*In which you need do a) nothing, b) fix all the rest of the meal without having to worry a bit about the veg!


INGREDIENTS:


AS MUCH ASPARAGUS AS YOU WANT/ CAN AFFORD
OLIVE OIL
SEA SALT
HERBS:  This is your Free Pass To Flavor.  I have used Penzeys Mural of Flavor, which is a blend of just about every herb you can think of, I have used a basic Italian Blend, I have used Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb at my mom's house and they are all great.  Experiment and enjoy, just make sure you use DRIED, they work better in this long cooking process.


PROCEDURE:


1.  Rinse asparagus.  Hold tip in one hand, hold bum in other hand and gently bend.  It will decide where to snap off.  Do not think you can "save" a lot of asparagus by only clipping off the very, very bum end, you will end up with a lot of fibrous stalk on your dinner plate which you will find hateful and distasteful.  The Stalk Knows.


2.  Lay stalks out on cookie sheet(s).  Ensure they are dry.  Drizzle lightly with Olive Oil to coat, sprinkle lightly with Sea Salt, then lightly with Herbs.  Roll the stalks round in all the good stuff then lay them out evenly over the sheet.

3.  Pop them in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 350F.  Check first at 30 minutes, and see how you like them.  This is a question of aesthetics. The longer they roast with the heat on, the crispier the tips become, the more caramelized the stalks will be.  What this looks like, however, is darkening tops and collapsing stalks.  Be brave, but decide how far you want to go.



4.  At the end of 30-40mins, DO NOT REMOVE from the oven!  Shut off the heat and leave them in the cooling oven for the rest of the hour.  Remove from oven and place sheet pan(s) on cooling rack(s) for a few minutes.  Dish 'em up and watch 'em disappear.





Pin It Now!