Man, I'm just a post-maniac tonight. I have to vent. I started reading the Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. She won the Nobel prize for literature, I figured I should give it a shot. The whole first chapter, which was at least 50 pages long, was nothing but this awful, canned dialog. Like the kind that's only purpose is to insert conflict for conflict's sake, and to introduce us to the characters, like "As you know, my oldest friend Anna Wulf, I was divorced from Richard for 20 years and have just returned from a year abroad. As you also know, I am a amateur actress and I tend to talk with my hands." It was AWFUL! And it's not like it was poorly translated, she's British! Now, I will say that once I slugged through the first chapter, I did notice that the next chapter seems to be a complete different style, so maybe it'll be better. If not, I'm returning that sucker to the library and getting some more Agatha Christie. You got to love that Miss Marple, she's such a card.

Fettuccine Alfredo

This weekend was very lamb-y, but today was nothing if not lionish, (although I DID have my first flower spotting of the season, a whole mess of snow drops and some flowers that were tiny yellow fuzzy balls. I have no idea what they were, but my neighbor had a slew of them) so I thought what better for dinner than fettuccine alfredo. Bethie, and other poor lactose intolerant souls, this is not for you. I got the recipe from wikipedia, of all places, but that also means I can just copy and paste the recipe below (ignore the links in the ingredient list):

The tricks to making a good Alfredo are gentle cooking and a proper balance of ingredients. The sauce should be just thick enough to coat the pasta without pooling on the bottom of the plate, but it should not be so thick as to be glue-like. The sauce can be made in the time that it takes to bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta.

Fettuccine Alfredo should be served immediately, because as it cools the large amount of fat in the sauce will congeal too much. If it cannot be served immediately it should be made thinner in the pan than you want it when it's plated and presented.

This recipe will sauce one pound of pasta and serves 6 as a first course.

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups (400 ml) heavy cream
• 6 tbs. unsalted butter
• 8.5 ounces (240 grams) grated Parmesan cheese or Asagio cheese
• 1 tsp. salt
• fresh-ground black pepper
• pinch of fresh-ground nutmeg

Preparation

1. Combine 1¼ cups (300ml) cream and the butter in a saute pan large enough to accommodate the sauce and later the pound of pasta. Heat over a low flame, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the cream comes to a bare simmer. Remove the pan from the heat once the butter is evenly incorporated into the cream.
2. Cook the pasta, draining it a little before it reaches the al dente stage. The pasta should be slightly undercooked before being added to the sauce because it will continue to cook while the sauce is being finished.
3. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, along with the remaining ½ cup (100ml) of cream, the cheese, the salt, the nutmeg, and several grinds of the pepper mill.
4. Heat the pasta and sauce over a low flame, tossing continuously, until the cheese melts into the sauce and the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 - 2 minutes.

Results: Wow. That's a lot of cream and cheese. Even more cheese than my macaroni au gratin, which I will post the next time I make it. I think it was, if you can believe it, too creamy. Maybe it would benefit by having some of the cream replaced by normal milk? I don't know how that would affect the end results. Also, I didn't use NEARLY that much cheese, maybe more like 2/3 of a can of grated parm (6 oz) instead of 1+ cans. Finally, I decided it was still missing something, and it wasn't more cheese. It needed a little....kick. I decided the whole thing was drastically improved by a little sprinkle of Old Bay. BAM! Even Alton Brown of Good Eats fame says it's his favorite spice. Now that's something.

Casualties: possibly a few arteries. Will let you know later.

Texas Caviar

In a large bowl, toss together 1 can (16oz) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained, 3 Tbs minced roasted red peppers, 1 small diced tomato, 1 diced jalapeno (seeded, if desired, for less heat), 1.5 Tbs chopped fresh parsley, 1 Tbs olive oil, 2 tps Worcestershire sauce, .5 tps chopped fresh oregano, 1 tps balsamic vinegar, and a dash of hot sauce. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. Drizzle with a little more balsamic vinegar before serving. Serve with a slotted spoon. Serves 6.

Results: Meh. This is a cold dish, and Chris wasn't thrilled with that. I wasn't thrilled with how bland it was, although I admittedly left out the jalapeño due to fear. Legumes, esp. black-eye peas and black beans, are some of the few "healthy" foods that Chris and I both love, so I'm always trying to find better ways to prepare them, and this didn't make the cut. Any suggestions?

Less chemical-y cleaning

I've had conversations and emails with both Suz and Jean about cleaning without bleach and chemicals, and since I posted the baking soda trick, does anyone want to contribute some more ideas? I would like, for myself, having all these tips together. (Jean, I could post that email you sent me if you wouldn't mind.)

You need a google account to reply to posts (this is to keep out the crazies), so if you don't have one and don't want to get one, just email me and I'll post it. Think of this as an exchange of ideas between people that I really meant to introduce to each other at my wedding but forgot. :)

As an aside, I got that baking soda thing from Martha Stewart, and she said it works better if you have fresh baking soda. If your soda isn't fresh, she had come up with this absurd replacement with things that I think you might need security clearance and a top secret supplier to get, things that no one would have around the house, so you might as well just run out and get some more baking soda!

I tried the custard again chilled, and it was even better than warm. The one potentiall negative thing is that the egg flavor comes out a little more when it's chilled, so people who don't like eggs are going to dislike that nuance. I like egg, though. I was thinking of upping the maple syrup, but I don't know how that would affect the final texture and cooking. Anyone know?

I played around with Google Earth for about two hours yesterday because in the most recent version, they added this thing called Google Sky. It's like a globe of the sky as seen from earth, but with pictures from Hubble and other telescopes mapped in, and they also have microwave and infrared. It's sooooo cool, especially if you love stars and maps. Which I do. Note to google: what would also be cool is Google Moon or Google Mars, where you can look around on the moon or Mars just like on Google Earth. There might not be enough data, but I think it would be a neat idea one day.

Maple Custard

Yesterday started out very badly. I was on my way to the market to once more look for herb seedlings (right now, I'm thinking basil, parsley and peppermint), and not only did they not have any herbs, but the warning lights on my dashboard lit up like all those cliches about things lighting up. I'm bringing the stupid car into the shop tomorrow. To be fair, it was free (and I'm so incredibly grateful to my family for giving it to me, because there's no way I could have afforded to buy a car on my own while I was in school), and it is way nicer and still running way better than any of the other 12-year-old cars I've owned. And the seat warmers still work, so it's got that going for it.

I was also having issues with Comcast. I'm just trying to pay the bill, but because Comcast just bought Insight, which was who we were using for internet, the billing system is all screwy and they hadn't sent us a paper bill yet. So I couldn't pay my past-due bill by check, nor could I pay it online because the account numbers changed, and the first guy I talked to gave me the wrong account number, and the second guy's system wasn't working so he couldn't check. Luckily, I did get a paper bill in the mail later in the afternoon. Phew!

Suz and the dogs came over to play, and although that was fun and Suz definitely cheered me up, Harper bashed me in the nose with her titanium unripe-melon head.

On the cooking front, I tried to make some of the black bean soup in Joy of Cooking. Bethie said it was really good, but I didn't listen to her and use canned beans, I went with the recipe and used dry beans. I accidentally threw out the water they were soaking in, so all that yummy starch when down the drain, and the beans just never really cooked through. So, Bethie, I'm sure the soup is good when you do it right, but I didn't and it's sort of a watery crunchy mess, and I forgot to take out the bay leaf before using the stick blender, so there's all these little pieces of bay leaf in it. I couldn't keep simmering it last night because we went out to karaoke, but I'm working on simmering it some more today. It's a little better, soup is always better the next day, and I think I'll try running some of it through a sieve to see if that gets the crunchy bits out.

HOWEVER, the day drastically improved when I made a recipe from the maple cookbook that Kathy sent me last week (thanks Kathy!!!).

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c pure maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
3 c milk, heated just to boiling

1) Preheat oven to 350. Bring 4 c of water to a boil and reserve.
2) with a whisk, gently blend the eggs, syrup, vanilla and salt. Slowly stir in the hot milk. (don't overdo the stiring, or the custard will be grainy) Ladle into 6 custard cups, filling each to within 1/4 inch of the rim.
3) place cups in a large, shallow casserole dish and carefully pour the boiled water into the pan, until it comes about halfway up the cups. Bake for about 50 minutes, until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm, or cool to room temp, cover, and chill.

Results: Very very very close to the fabled maple custard cups I had in Japan. Actually, it was a bit like heaven. I loved it, at least taste-wise. Any flaws were purely on the part of the cook. I halved the recipe, but then I wasn't sure about how that would affect cooking time. Also, the cups I used were maybe wider than the cups envisioned in this recipe, so the custard didn't come up as far on the cups, and so when I added the water, it was actually too much water. My understanding is that the water acts as a heat bank, absorbing the heat from the oven and only gradually giving it to the custard so it cooks evenly and slowly, but I think too much water makes the custard not cook fully. I added the water halfway up the cups, but I think it should have been halfway up the custard instead.

Anyway, all this means is that the cooking time was off. It still wasn't done after 50min, so I took some water out with a turkey baster (which I bought the one time I ever made a turkey and have carried around with me ever since) and put them back in. I think I took too much out, though, because when I pulled them out a couple minutes later, I think the eggs were starting to separate (if you overcook eggs, they start to lose their water). Also, I may have underbeat the eggs, since the cookbook says to be careful not to overbeat; I had a big glob of egg white in one of them. It was still delicious, though. I also added some more syrup on top, just for good measure. Brad and Suz were kind enough to try some when they picked me up for karaoke, and they liked it, too.

Casualties: one burnt finger. I unknowingly spilled some water on my oven mitt when I sucked some of it out with the turkey baster. Be very careful, water pretty much makes oven mitts useless. Luckily, I touched the casserole dish (which, as we know, is not terribly hot because the water is sucking up all the heat) instead of the oven rack (which I've done before), so it wasn't so bad. When the custards are finished, I would definitely recommend taking them out of the water (with tongs, if possible) and leaving the water and the casserole dish in the oven until it all cools down.

Here's a picture from last fall. Chris bought Harper a Redskins jersey. She's none too happy about this and is giving us the ol' stink eye because, you see, she's a Cleveland Browns fan. It's really the only thing that Chris and Harper don't see eye to eye on. We're a family divided by loyalties, like the War of the Roses. This fall's going to be rough, what with the AFC North playing the NFC East. Chris and Harper are going to be sad puppies when the 'Skins sweep them.