A bear wandered into a liquor store in northern Wisconsin. The newspaper had a lot of fun with it because the bear settled into a spot with the Hamm's beer, which has a bear as it's spokesperson. As a corollary to this story, the state legislature is considering increasing the tax on beer. So I say, let the bears pay the beer tax! (Here's the Simpson's reference)

I'm actually not opposed to the beer tax since it's the third lowest in the country and hasn't been raised since the '60s, I just think they're doing it wrong by making it a dollars/barrel tax instead of a percentage, and they're asking for too extreme an increase (from $3 to $10).

Departing from my normal postings, here's a video on different ways to tie a scarf. This is specifically a shout-out to Em in Moscow, since of all of us she probably has to wear scarves the most (although not as much now that she's no longer living in Siberia).

My mom visited this weekend and we had a terrific time. We painted my office/studio a beautiful shade of Biloxi Blue (think a muted-periwinkle/Wedgwood blue mix) and hung out. My personal goal for her visit, other than to see her and introduce her to my new home, was to try to demonstrate to her that we wouldn't be that cold in the winter. (she says she's not worried about it.) Unfortunately, we had an unseasonably cold front move in bringing snow(!). Also unfortunately, or maybe ironically, it was 83 degrees when she flew out on Friday afternoon. Oh well, we still had fun, even if our plans had to be altered somewhat because of the weather. It's snowing again today, but it should be a closer-to-normal mid 50s next week.

Creamless Creamy Squash Soup

I made this soup for my mom when she was here this weekend. Soup seemed appropriate since it was frigid and snowing. Sigh. This is from the Gourmet Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fine-quality extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Tuscan) plus additional for drizzling
• 1 lb winter squash such as butternut, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 lb boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 whole fresh peperoncino (small hot Italian green pepper) or 3/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
• 3 1/2 cups boiling water plus additional for thinning
• 1 crisp amaretto (Italian almond macaroon), finely crushed (2 tablespoons)

Directions

1. Cook celery, carrot, and onion in 2 tablespoons oil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Add squash, potatoes, peperoncino, and sea salt. Stir in 3 1/2 cups boiling water and simmer, covered, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Remove and discard peperoncino (if using pepper flakes, leave in soup). Purée soup in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), adding more water to thin to desired consistency.
3. Serve soup drizzled with additional oil and sprinkled with amaretto crumbs.
   

Results

As usual, I didn't have some of the ingredients, like amaretto crumbs and peperoncino. Luckily, butternut squash soup is pretty hard to mess up, I think. I left the skins on the potatoes since we weren't really going for looks and the skins are healthy. When I ate the leftovers I mixed in a dollop of lowfat plain yogurt to give it a little zing (and because it was REALLY hot), and that worked well.

Book Review Time!

I just finished A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. I'm not usually into nonfiction, but this was awesome. He basically shows how major world events were shaped by beer (which he presents as partially responsible for civilization), wine, liquor, coffee, tea, and Coke. Read it! It's great!

Fresh-Pickled Vegetables

I like this refrigerator pickle recipe from Alice Water's Simple Food book because it has so much less salt and sugar than other recipes I've used. And, because they're refrigerator pickles, you don't have to worry about canning them. They're ready in a few minutes and keep for a week. She recommends using veggies like sliced carrots, quartered cauliflower florets, quartered pearl or cipolline onions, halved okra pods, small turnips cut into wedges, whole green beans, small cubes of celery root, etc. I went traditional with sliced cucumbers. You can vary the brine a lot by using different spices or vinegars. I didn't have half the spices she called for, so I basically just used dill and red pepper flakes.

Alls you do is bring the brine to a boil, cook the veggies in the brine in batches (if you're using more than one kind of veggie, cook each kind separately), pull the veggies out when they're cooked but still crisp, and let them cool. When the veggies and the brine are cooled to room temp, combine the veggies, put them in a jar or another covered container, pour the brine over them, and refrigerate.

1 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 3/4 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 of a bay leaf
4 thyme sprigs
Half a dried cayenne pepper or a pinch of dried chile flakes
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 whole cloves
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped in half
Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Here's a site with a bunch of information about vinegar. Apparently, white wine vinegar is not the same as white vinegar, which I didn't know. I thought one was just a fancier term to allow the manufacturer to charge more for the same stuff.

Felt like a bit of a change of pictures at the top. This is my new favorite spot in my new favorite town. It's on a bridge downtown overlooking what I think is the Eau Claire River, although it may be the Chippewa River. I still get them mixed up. Anyway it's probably irrelevant to you which one it is. Regardless, it's a river in downtown EC, and I think it's pretty. Maybe if I get motivated I can collect topical photos to rotate with the changing seasons. Won't that be fun!