Hair, There, and Everywhere

Niece has rather unruly hair. There's a lot of, it's wavy and curly, and impossible to contain/control very effectively. I understand this hair, as mine was almost identical to hers when I was a wee lass. Mrs. Igor came up with a good summer solution, though: she took Niece to one of the local beauty colleges (when a friend's daughter is currently a student), and got Niece's hair put into bunches of little braids. It's WAY CUTE!

I'm a little jealous. A couple of years ago, when KP and I went to the SnoopyFest in Santa Rosa, she did my hair in "spider braids" one day. It was cool, but the rubberbands kept poppin' off, I guess because my hair was too slippery or something. Sorry, can't seem to find a picture, but here's one of KP checking out the Snoopy statues instead:

My Sunflowers

Part of the row - they all came up and bloomed, despite my neighbor's over-watering of his yard and subsequent flooding in mine!

Close-up:

Food Pix!

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings - the biscuit dough gets all puffed up; very cool!

Ready to become "freezer meals" (a homemade alternative to the ones from the store, full of chemicals and salt and such).

Turkey Cheeseburger Casserole - turkey, peppers, onions, carrots, etc. in the skillet.

All done, and very tasty!

15 Books

15 Books That Will Always Stick With Me

( I got this from Wide Lawns, as a FB note - don't know if it's on her blog))

1. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austin
2. The Giver - Lois Lowry
3. The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
4. Small Sacrifices - Ann Rule
5. Gone to Soldiers - Marge Piercy
6. Anne of Green Gables (series) - LM Montgomery
7. Ulysses - James Joyce
8. Beany Malone (series) - Lois Mattingly Weber
9. Savage Inequalities - Jonathan Kozol
10. The Breadwinner - Deborah Ellis
11. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling
12. Letters Home: Correspondence 1950 - 1963 - Sylvia Plath
13. A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson
14. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
15. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh

Y'all Are Strange...

(Mamie's Recipe Binders and Assorted Cookbooks)

...because a surprising number of you want to know what's up with my menu planning. Okay, yes, I admit to menu-planning (hey, my mama did it when I was a kid). I finally have my organizational crap together enough (and enough recipes, and enough skills, and well-stocked-enough pantry) to select around 20 dinners each month that I plan to prepare. 20 is the number because the remaining nights are generally taken up by business travel, dinner at Wombat's or Chez Igor, or left-overs, or popcorn-for-dinner. I've managed to do this for the last 6 or 7 months pretty consistently, and to tell you the truth, it's like this giant burden of THINKING ABOUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT DINNER/OH CRAP NOTHING'S DEFROSTED-PREPPED-AVAILABLE has been miraculously lifted. Also, the local restaurants are getting FAR fewer of my slaved-for dollars - perhaps bad for the local economy, but good for my own fiduciary health.

When I pick the 20 I do it based on what's in the pantries and freezers, what's on sale, and what we might be craving. I try NOT to pick stuff that requires the purchase of special ingredients that will only every be used once (if you read my mother's blog, this was mentioned recently). I don't mind buying something that I can use in multiple dishes. Example: pure maple syrup. I admit, I like a little Log Cabin on my panqueques and wafflies; despite years of living practically steps away from the "Gourmet Ghetto" of North Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley, CA I never really converted to the pure maple thing (among other foodie failings).** However, I've got a couple of new and delicioso-sounding pork shop and chicken grillin' recipes that involve the use of maple syrup, and I know there will be other recipe opportunities down the road that will ultimately make this a worthwhile purchase.

**Disclaimer: I am not dissing the Berkeley gourmet scene. The Best. Meal. I. Ever. Ate. was at the famous Chez Panisse prix fixe dining room in about 1994. It involved peas (which I loathe), and many other vegetables, and I don't-even-know what sort of exotic meat delicacy and it was incredible. Alice Waters is a freakin' food genious. Alas, I am not Alice Waters, as you will see shortly.

Anyway, I pick the 20 or so dinners at the end of one month for the coming month and make sure to include any necessary items on my major monthly shopping list. I put the main dishes on a chart with the major ingredients listed, pull all the recipes from my main dish recipe binder, and then put it all into a different (cool, striped) binder. Every Sunday night I sit down with a little form for the coming week that has a space for each day (Mon - Sun) and decide what will be prepared each night (which main dish from the list, and whatever sides sound good). Obviously I look at personal/work calendars to account for evening events, social plans, etc. that impact the dinner experience. It takes about 5 minutes and gives me an enormous feeling of security and control (my favorite emotions!).

I am not a food blogger, nor a mommy-blogger, nor a organizational/productivity blogger. I'm not going to commit to doing a cool fancy weekly menu planning/recipe exchange thing here every week or month. I am, however, willing to share-as-I-go. So here's what you can have:

1. This week's menu with recipe sources, listed below.

2. A zip file with my August '09 plan and all recipes - leave a comment with your email, and I'll send it to you. There's probably a better way to do this, and I'll figure that out eventually, but right at this moment, that's what I can offer.

MENU FOR JULY 27 - AUGUST 2

Monday: Cheesy Hashbrown Chili (Niece and Nephew loved this)

Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings (I added some canned/frozen veggies to this)

Wednesday: Turkey Cheeseburger Cassrole (Niece and Nephew will be over for dinner)

Thursday: Homemade Pizza - I already have the sauce and dough in the freezer

Friday: Easy BBQ - I will be working late, running a training and prepping/loading equipment to leave for Up North on Sunday, so whoever is around can just toss a CostCo burger patty/hot dog/hot link (the Louisisana hot links from CostCo, which I LOVE, slathered with my homemade "fry" sauce!) on the grill and live it up.

Saturday: No plan yet, as not sure what we are doing this day. It will be my major monthly shopping day, so I may make something cool and elaborate and involving many fresh ingredients. I'll keep you informed.

Sunday: I'll be eating a Wendy's taco salad in my hotel room in Salt Lake. Everyone else can have leftovers/freezer meals (which are leftovers that have been frozen into individual portions for occasions such as this, or for lunches to take to work, or to feed Niece and Nephew when they are here).

Happy now? I am; I've got my plan for the month!

"A Time of Angels" - Book Review

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and definitely my top fave when it comes to young adult literature. Karen Hesse is well-respected in the field, and her Out of the Dust is a masterpiece (and one of the few really good YA historical fiction novels set in the time of the Great Depression). However, A Time of Angels fell short for me. The setting is Boston, during the great influenza epidemic (1918). I had high expectations, but found the story to be awkwardly told. Many things were under- or unexplained, and this is a failing when it comes to YA novels (not all kids have adequate background knowledge, and a skillful YA writer will make sure to weave the necessary information into the flow of the story). I expected Hesse to be able to carry off this novel quite a bit better than it actually came off, at least for me.

However, this is a time period and topic that has NOT been exhaustively addressed, especially in YA fiction, and the books does have several good qualities, in particular, the exploration of the cultural context of orthodox Judaism in the story's time/place. This wouldn't be a bad addition to a classroom library or 10 - 12 year old's personal bookshelf.

For a fantastic treatment of an epidemic era, check out Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson - an extremely well-received read-aloud in my classroom for several years.

"Diamond of Darkhold" - Book Review

The Diamond of Darkhold is a relatively satisfying conclusion to the "Ember" series. While I LOVE City of Ember and did it as a read-aloud to my classes for several years, I found People of Sparks to be weak (and overly "preachy") and Prophet of Yonwood to be downright depressing. The Diamond of Darkhold is not nearly as complex or riveting as City of Ember, but it does give us the chance to revisit Ember itself and see what became of the city after the people fled. While loose ends are tied up, there are other aspects that could have been explored in greater depth.

If you are a fourth or fifth grade teacher, definitely read City of Ember with your students - there's much to discuss, and the mystery element makes for an engaging class activity. I always had a large chart paper with the incomplete contents of the letter transcribed for the class to fill in as the story progressed. Once you've read City of Ember aloud, your students will want to read the prequels/sequels, so make sure they have access to the other books.

If you're an "Ember" series fan, go ahead and commit to reading The Diamond of Darkhold - you need to achieve completion!

Cider Vinegar Chicken and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

I mentioned last night's dinner on Facebook, and was then asked by several people about the recipes.

We had "Cider Vinegar Chicken," from the "Stolen Moments Cooking" site. I didn't make the smashed red potatoes that are included in the recipe; instead we had parmesan mashed potatoes, the recipe for which came from RecipeZaar.

Here's what the cider vinegar chicken looking like while cooking:

It was delicious! Niece happened to be around at dinnertime, and she really liked the chicken. She followed up with Pioneer BBQ left-over dessert: Lemon cake and homemade berry sorbet (see previous post for recipes).

Niece also spent some time that evening engaging in her jewelry-making hobby:

These were both new recipes, and are definitely keepers!

Pioneer Day BBQ

Pioneer Day, which is an official state holiday, is celebrated here on July 24th. The intent is to commemorate the arrival of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. For natives and die-hard members of the dominant faith, it's an important cultural observance. For outlanders like us, it's another day to relax and shoot off some fireworks - which is exactly what we did!

Niece rode on a float and threw candy in the Village parade; I "accidentally" missed that and slept in until all of 7:30 or so. Then it was time to get cookin'!

Pictures from all the food and fun will be coming soon, but let's start with the menu. My intent was make all the dishes with food that was on had in pantries/freezers (these are plural, as I consider Wombat's and Mrs. Igor's pantries/freezers as extensions of my own!). This was mostly accomplished- the "mostly" will be explained below.

I started the morning by making Chocolate Pudding Zucchini Muffins. I got the recipe from Amy's Finer Things. Obviously I used zucchini from our garden (of which we have COPIOUS amounts). These muffins are INCREDIBLE!!! The fact that they have zucchini and whole wheat flour in them only adds to the wonderfulness. I ate a couple for breakfast, and both Wombat and Nephew in particular enjoyed them as BBQ-appetizers. Wombat took home a Ziploc with 5 or 6 muffins for later enjoyment; I individually bagged and froze the rest for breakfast-on-the-go/kid-snax. Truly an excellent recipe, and a good way to use the massive quantities of zucchini we have piling up.

The main event of the BBQ was London Broil, expertly grilled by GolfDad. Mrs. Igor and I had each purchased some fabulously-sale-priced London Broil during the recent Village Market produce extravaganza and we had both cut them into smaller portions for individual family use. We decided that three of these smaller pieces would suffice. I contributed two, which I marinated in a soy-ginger sauce; Mr. Igor seasoned their contribution liberally with Monterey Steak Seasoning.

Soy-Ginger Marinade

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground mustard
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix the above together throughly in a Ziploc bag, then add the meat you want to marinade. The original recipe can be found HERE, on the "Taste of Home" website.

Our salad needs were fulfilled by "Macaroni Salad for a Crowd," which you will find HERE on the "5 Dollar Dinners" website. I SOOOOOO should have cut this recipe in half... we'll be eating the left-overs for DAYS! I substituted two 12-oz packages of "Wacky Mac" vegetable pasta for the elbow macaroni, which made the salad quite colorful.

With our London Broil and pasta salad we had potato chips and Bush's baked beans - the BEST canned baked bean available. While I have many wonderful baked bean recipes, I needed some simple sides like chips and canned beans to make life easier today.

I had INTENDED to serve a "Pineapple Crisp Cake" as part of the dessert (along with homemade berry sorbet), a recipe which came from the Pioneer Woman's cool new Tasty Kitchen website. DarlingMan thought this sounded dandy - I think he liked the concept of a cake baked with lemon-lime pop. I'm not going to tell you much more, though, because this was a DISASTER. I don't know if I did something wrong or what, but really, there were only four ingredients - couldn't have been that hard, and I do have a few skills at my disposal. However, flop it did! I'm glad I did this early in the day so that I could change gears quickly.

I like the combination of berries and lemon, so I switched to a "luscious lemon cake" recipe my mom sent me eons ago - she got it from a newspaper article. I don't even have it in an electronic version, just an old printed page with the original email on it. However, fear not, because it's almost identical to this recipe for "Extreme Lemon Cake" on Tasty Kitchen. The "mostly"-from-the-pantry from above comes into play here, as while I did have all the ingredients for my lemon cake except an actual lemon - needed for zest (which I could have lived without, if necessary) - I was nervous about having quite enough "RealLemon" juice, and also decided that I was running too low on canola oil. So I did end up making a quick trip to newWalmart (grateful for it being on my corner, yes) for a lemon, another bottle RealLemon, and back-up canola oil. The lemon cake turned out FANTASTICALLY!

The berry sorbet was also a hit. I'm pleased about this, because I have just started experimenting with homemade ice cream/sorbet. I've made three batches of vanilla ice cream, two of which were great and one which came out oddly lumpy. I tried a watermelon sorbet that I gave to Wombat and GolfGuy; don't know what the end result of that was. Right now we are borrowing GolfGuy's CuisineArt ice cream maker; DarlingMan wants the KitchenAid mixer attachment (insulated sleeve) for making ice cream. I think we'll just keep borrowing until GolfGuy wants his back and then make a decision on what to buy for ourselves.

Anyway, the berry sorbet recipe is HERE . I modified it slightly by using 3 3/4 cup frozen mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries), which I let thaw fairly well before pureeing. I also skipped the optional liqueur, since Framboise is not something we usually have sitting around at Casa Palomar. You have to start this sorbet EARLY, as your sugar syrup must cool completely after cooking before you can put it together with the berry puree - and then THAT mixture must cool another hour before putting it into the ice cream freezer. I'm just warnin' ya! I did not have a proper sieve to put my berry puree through, so the sorbet was a little seedy, but nonetheless, it was throughly enjoyed by ALL and complemented the lemon cake quite nicely.

Following dinner was fireworks fun... except the part where Igor tried to set my front yard on fire (more than once), and the part where the alarm on the Rav went off from exceedingly loud firecrackers (more than once), and the part where I burned my fingers on a sparkler (only once, fortunately). I used my Canon Rebel digital SLR on night portrait mode and got some VERY cool pictures. I'll put a few on here tomorrow, and a bunch on Facebook as well. If you live in the neighborhood, come on by to see all the new scorch marks we contributed to the street and our driveway!

And that was Pioneer Day.