On the menu

We're switching things up here at Chez Mystery this year. Christmas dinner will be tomorrow evening. The Thanksgiving Feast will be served Christmas Day. Yes, I know I'm Jewish. Wanna make something of it?

Tomorrow's menu:

• Standing Rib Roast au Jus
• Yorkshire Pudding
• Mashed Potatoes
• Brussels Sprouts and Pearl Onions in a Horseradish Cream Sauce
• Green Beans
• Pumpkin Pie
• Strawberry Shortcake

Do you think that's enough food for three?

Braces

MM has braces. Did I tell you? He's had his upper ones on since January, lower ones went on yesterday. He's being a total trooper about it. Excellent flossing technique.

This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I decided to cook a lamb stew last night, where the lamb was tender and the vegetables were falling apart. The whole thing was very tasty and easy on a sore jaw. He's got leftovers in his lunchbox today, too.

I bought a box of Mallomars on Wednesday

I still have some of them left. This is an unprecedented feat of self-control.

Question for the reader: what is your food that, if it's in the house, you will eat it all up?

Random on a rainy Tuesday

(original title, "Random bullets on a rainy Tuesday" and then I read it over, and realized that the phrase "random bullets" has only one meaning now, and it's not "items in an unordered list that have nothing to do with each other.)

• Muffin Man won his classroom spelling bee last week. Which surprised me, not because he's not a good speller (he's a terrific speller), but because he'd told me a few weeks ago that he'd participated in a classroom bee and he'd done terribly. Turn out that other bee was geography. Okay then. His winning word was "necessary".
• This means he's now going to compete in the school spelling bee on the 24th. Not much time to study. I printed out the study guide from Mirriam-Webster, and he's pegging away at it.
• He's super excited, because if he wins the school spelling bee, he'll be joining his friend ReallyTheyCouldBeTwins*  at the county-wide spelling bee, since she won her school's bee a couple of weeks ago. The county-wide bee will include middle-schoolers, too.
• We brought banana cake to services this weekend. This time, I made a banana filling for it. Wow! Delicious.
• Speaking of services, Rev. Anya came over to our house to have a confab and I made latkes using a different recipe. The one I used to use was from Kosher Gourmet, and don't get me wrong, it was good. But the one I used this time was from this past December's Bon Appetit, and it was phenomenal. Oh. My. GOD.
• My left eye is itching. It's been two days now. What is UP with that?
• Everyone in my office is wearing blue today. Including me. So far as I know, there wasn't a memo.
• Even though the weather is gloomy, I'm kind of glad it's raining. It gave me an excuse to wear my silly rain boots and poncho.

*formerly known as "SheIsAlmostAsTallAsMe", which is an out-dated name. She's 5'4". Turning 11 next week

A post to make you jealous about my lunch

Yesterday, when I got home from work, Mr. Spock and Muffin Man were in the kitchen and the house smelled terrific.

"What are you making?" I asked.

"MEATBALLS!" MM said quite proudly. "Did you know that meatballs are basically all the ingredients for veal cutlet, only you mush it all together?*"

"It smells fantastic. Can I help with anything?"

"No, we have this covered," he said nonchalantly. "You could set the table though, and you're going to have to clear the table ALL BY YOURSELF because you're the only one not cooking."

"That's the rule, all right."

So we had the most delicious and beautiful Swedish meatballs I have ever had in my life, served with noodles and Brussels sprouts.

And we're all having them again for lunch today.


*Muffin Man was in charge of measuring and post-egg-addition mixing. Mr. Spock rolled one meatball as a model, and MM did the remaining 35.
MS did all the heat-related activity since there were four things going on at once. And I am a bad, bad blogger because I forgot to take any pictures.

First sentences

Most years, I do a post of the first sentence of the first post for every month throughout the past year. Here they are for 2011.

• January:

  This year, my resolutions are to send my son to school with a packed lunch at least 3 times a week, and to be a better house-keeper.

  I wasn't perfect on this front, but I did pretty well. Keeping these as my resolutions for 2012.


• February:

  Here's the birthday boy, playing Epic Mickey (one of his birthday presents)

  Muffin Man's birthday is on the first of February, so the first post tends to be about that.


• March:

  Over ten inches off!

  Mystery Mommy gets a haircut, a story in pictures.


• April:

  I'm wearing this in aubergine.

  Still one of my favorite things to wear.


• May:

  Muffin Man's science class is talking about habitats, the environment, the food chain, and all that kind of stuff.

  I should have posted the picture myself. Mr. Spock's blog is gone.


• June:

  This jacket from Nordstrom, it's by Halogen and it breaks my rule about pockets near the rack of doom.

  Outfit blogging, with pictures.


• July:

  Please keep my Grandma in your thoughts.

  She's recovered well and is back home. Celebrated her 93rd birthday the other day!


• August:

  We've switched things around at Chez Mystere.

  A picture and description of my bedroom.
• 
  
• September:

  So, 11 days ago, I got a Droid X2 to replace my Droid Eris, which died an ignoble death (dropped from a height onto uneven pavement. Smash).

  I still don't know how to plug ICE phone numbers into an iPhone. Do you?


• October:

  Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I hauled out of the fridge several pounds of beef cubes, a sheaf of golden beets, a bunch of young carrots, a bag of red potatoes, a package of chopped crimini mushrooms, a leek, a large onion, and a quarter of a stick of butter.

  And now I'm hungry.


• November:

  We didn't know when Muffin Man asked to be the Cone Head Zombie from Plants vs. Zombies this year that it would be so topical!

  I'm pretty proud of that costume.


• December: There are no words on that first post. It's just a video of The Roches singing "Star of Wonder" as the first song of 25 for the December Holidays. Here they are again.

Happy New Year!!

Chocolate Dropkins

Chocolate Dropkins are a tradition in my family. My earliest Christmas memories include making bread dough figures for the tree, and these chocolates for treats.

The chocolates are dead simple to make, you take one box of unsweetened chocolate and melt it in a double-boiler. When it's all melted, you cool it slightly and mix in one can of sweetened condensed milk. Let it cool to rolling temperature (should not be liquidy, should feel like play doh.)

This is almost to the right temperature, but was still a little goopy.

Once the consistency is right, you roll the chocolate into small balls, and coat in colored sugar, nuts, powdered cocoa, or coconut. This year I used white and gold sugar. The gold looked better than the white.

Ooh! Pretty!

What looked best, though, was a mixture of gold and white, which really made the chocolates look Christmas-y. The hardest part of making these chocolates is waiting for the mixture to reach the right temperature.

A Perfect Day for Banana Cake

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, all from scratch.

Mr. Spock turned 53 last week, so this past weekend I made (at his request) a Banana Cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Recipe from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book.

Banana cake, sliced

I had some for breakfast this morning. What? It's fruit!


(Extra credit for the first person to say where the title comes from. Mr. Spock is not eligible for this credit).

Yes, we have no banana bread. But we do have beef stew.

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I hauled out of the fridge several pounds of beef cubes, a sheaf of golden beets, a bunch of young carrots, a bag of red potatoes, a package of chopped crimini mushrooms, a leek, a large onion, and a quarter of a stick of butter.

Mr. Spock and I chopped up the beets and the carrots and put them and the beef and potatoes into our large slow cooker.

We chopped the leek and onion, peeled and squished a large clove of garlic, and added them and the butter to a large pan with some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and sauteed them until they were soft. Then we scraped the whole mess into the slow cooker.

By that time, MS had poured a half a cup of wine and a half a cup of water and added them to the mix. I popped a bay leaf into the pot and then I went walking for Cliff Keirce (and Jennifer Wexton, and Mike Kondratick).

I was able to get one development done before it started raining in earnest, so I went back home, had a cup of tea to take the chill off, and tasted the stew broth. I added rosemary, thyme, sage, more salt, more pepper, and three more cloves of garlic.

And then I looked at the five really ripe bananas that were in the fridge. I got out the Fanny Farmer Baking Book and realized that we're all out of walnuts. So I put the bananas in the freezer for next week.

Then we all played an escape game together, while the aroma of stew wafted through the house.

Dinner was pronounced a success, though we all agreed that the potatoes should have been cut up, the beets could have been left out, and more garlic was needed.

What did you do this weekend?

Random bullets of a busy weekend

• QuiltsALot and TellsDonaldDuckStories were in for the weekend, much eating and talking was done
• And sorting through boxes of photos and organizing them, and throwing away the blurriest of them. And the one of an ex-boyfriend's dog.
• Yeah, I don't get why I had that one either.
• Muffin Man introduced TellsDonaldDuckStories to the crack that is Plants vs. Zombies.
• Muffin Man stayed with them at their hotel, and went swimming. 
• Did I mention the eating?
• And the talking?
• And then we ate more.
• The End.

What to do with less-than-perfect-looking cornbread.

Put it in the cuisinart and use the crumbs for coating chicken thighs for oven-fried chicken.

DELISH.

MM was not a fan, but that's okay, I ate his share.

Sending lunch

Everyday, I've sent a snack with MM to school since his class eats lunch late, but he was buying the cafeteria lunch most days.

After following Mrs. Q's blog, I decided that I really didn't want him eating the school lunch anymore. After all, we're trying to eat healthier at home, taking small steps like cutting out HFCS where possible.

So we sent him a satisfying lunch in reusable containers, and it was a good feeling.

In Attendance over Thanksgiving Week

My two grandmothers.
My mom and step-dad.
Me, Mr. Spock, and Muffin Man.
My sister, her husband, my niece and nephew, and the wonderful exchange student.
My Aunt and Uncle TandemBicycle and their daughter (cousin in picture).
My Aunt and Uncle JustAFewYearsOlderThanMe and their three kids.
My Uncle SnarkySenseOfHumor, my Aunt WorksWithSpecialNeedsKids, their two daughters, their grand-daughter, their eldest daughter's boyfriend, their youngest daughter's best friend, and the best friend's daughter.
My mom's Cousin MiraculouslyGetsYarnUntangled, her stepfather, her son, his partner, and their two kids.
And a brief visit by my mom's friends, FamousActorAndSinger and CollectsQuilts, and one of their sons, PlaysBanjoAndSingsBeautifully.

My mom hemmed some pants for me. We ate 4 tons of food. Mr. Spock and I figured out my parents home theater system and wrote up a user's guide for it. I knitted on a hat which I had to rip (thus the yarn detangling), and start again (it's much better now).

In short, I can't wait until next year.

Reviews from NYC

Momoya Sushi - W. 21st Street and 7th Avenue in Chelsea. Delicious sushi. I had several of their ala carte specials. Types of fish I'd never heard of, and all just some of the best tasting food I've had...ever. MM had the salmon nigiri and the tekka maki. And made it disappear. It's very noisy, though. Not a good place for a shmooze.

Sweet Melissa on 7th Avenue, b'twn 1st and 2nd Streets in Park Slope. I had the mushroom quiche and a salad. Also iced coffee and a chocolate croissant. Very good. Nice atmosphere. Easy to talk for hours in.

Le Pain Quotidien on 19th Street near Broadway in Gramercy. Fun curried chicken sandwich. Also easy to talk in. Good for people watching.

Szechuan Delight on 7th Avenue b'twn Garfield and Carroll in Park Slope. Delicious Sub Gum pan-fried noodles. MM would have given their dumplings rave reviews if his mouth hadn't been so busy eating them.

There was lots more, but that will have to do for now.

Cooked this weekend:

• Fritatta made with eggs, cheese, potatoes, chorizo, onions, and fresh herbs from our garden (for a pot-luck barbeque)
• Brioche (my first! From How To Cook Everything). Came out beautifully and was really very easy. It went very well with my BIL's homemade strawberry jam.
• Pesto (from Good Food Gourmet) using sunflower seeds instead of pignolli nuts - 5 times cheaper. Came out very well, but needs more olive oil to replace the oiliness of the pignolli nuts. Sunflower seeds are much drier. I'll use 1/3 cup oil next time.
• BLT using the first beefsteak tomato from the garden. Oh. YUM. YUM. YUM.

What did you do this weekend?

Experiments

I baked this bread this weekend and had moderate success. However, I didn't notice until late that the first temp is in Celcius (my stupid stove is only in Farenheit), and I didn't use enough yeast.

So next time: More yeast (and maybe more proofing the yeast) and higher heat.

What I was hoping for was a crusty loaf. What I got was a slightly moist ciabatta. Not bad, just not what I was looking for. I hope that my corrections will turn this into the crusty loaf I'm looking for. But if not, ciabatta is still a good bread.

We went camping.

Perfect weather. 75 and sunny. Not humid. It rained in the middle of the night. Poured, actually. We stayed snug and dry in the tent. The sun was out and the tent dried completely before we packed it up.

Hotdogs, hamburgers, s'mores for dinner.

Bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast. And french-pressed coffee. We're not savages.

Farm stands, and diners, and ice cream, and inexpensive gasoline.

Badminton, and batting practice, and Rummy 500, and Labyrinth.

And the views. HOLY GUACAMOLE, the views. Turns out, the Shenandoahs have good reason to be such a big deal, who knew?

Pictures coming later. Both MS and MM took some.

I took along an appropriate book, but I didn't get much chance to read it at the campsite.

I did read some more of The Magician's Nephew to MM.

Neither book I've linked to is the edition I own.

What did you do over the weekend?

MS says...

There's a pot roast in the crock pot at home.

Makes it very difficult to concentrate on my work, knowing that I'm going to eat well when I get hom.

Observations on Cereal (while shopping at Costco)

Of these cereals, which is the least expensive?

• Cheerios
• Corn Flakes
• Frosted Flakes

Of these cereals, which does NOT contain High Fructose Corn Syrup?

• Froot Loops/Apple Jacks (combo pack)
• Corn Flakes
• Frosted Flakes

The answer to question one is Frosted Flakes. The answer to question two is the Froot Loops/Apple Jacks combo pack.

MS and I came up with an explanation of Why Frosted Flakes Might Be Cheaper: Inferior ingredients masked by the sweetness of HFCS.

We thought that the lack of HFCS in FL/AJ might be due to being Kosher for Passover? But all the cereals were marked with a K. And aren't the grains used in cereals trayfe for Passover anyway?

In any case, we're paying more attention to ingredients. And, where possible, we're avoiding HFCS. Which means no Corn Flakes. HFCS! IN CORN FLAKES! Sheesh.

Division of (household) labor - baking bread edition

I baked bread today - three loaves (from the Little House on the Prairie Cookbook). Start-to-finish, it took about 6 hours, though only really only one hour of that was me interacting with the materials.

So, at around 0830, I mixed the ingredients for the sponge (warm water, yeast. Stir. More water. Stir. 4 cups of flour. Stir. Cover and set in a warm place for about an hour). After it was covered and set in a warm place, I tidied up a bit and Mr. Spock made breakfast (pancakes). We cleaned up the kitchen together.

That took us to 9:30, whereupon I mixed milk, "drippings" from a pot roast MS had cooked (we cooled down the gravy in a container on the back porch back when it was freezing out, pried off the layer of fat that rose to the top, and stored it separately from the gravy in the freezer), sugar, salt, and a cup of flour together. Then I added the sponge, kept mixing. Added more flour, kept mixing. Then I turned it all out onto a cutting board and pounded it with graceless abandon (my knuckles are still sore). Three minutes kneading, three minutes resting, three kneading, three resting, three kneading. Then I put the whole thing into a bowl greased with more "drippings" and covered it with a towel. And I greased the pans.

I was exhausted. I don't know how Laura did that and milked the cows and whatnot.

MS cleaned up the kitchen.

We played a game of Bananagrams, we argued over whether "zot" is a word (it's not. We checked). Ninety minutes passed. I punched down the dough, divided it in three (relatively) equal pieces, put them in the greased baking pans and set them to rise for another 2 hours.

Then I took a shower while MS made lunch. We ate, we watched a bit of TV, we played Set. I called my grandma.

I put the bread in a preheated oven and baked them for 30 minutes. Decided they could brown up a bit and gave em another 5 minutes. Then another 5. Took them out of the oven. Left them to cool.

Went to do some phone-banking for Cesar del Aguila. Ran some errands, and ate dinner out (MM loooooooves that Sushi!). And then came home to freeze two loaves and put the other one in the breadbox (well, it's a cupboard, but we call it the breadbox).

I was thinking about all this in the context of the post at Global Comment by Sarah Jaffe on "Rethinking Work: Cooking as Labor. And how I would probably NOT baked bread today if I'd been responsible for all the other cooking, or if I'd been responsible for the cleanup of the mixing bowl. How grateful I am that I have a spouse who a) likes to cook and b) doesn't wait to be asked to clean the mixing bowl.

Add to that, the context of Laura Ingalls Wilder. How grateful I am to have ingredients to hand that require very little work on my part. I did not have to grind the wheat into flour. In fact, I had white flour in great quantities. I didn't have to twist hay to make enough burnable sticks to both heat the house and bake the bread. Baking bread is a leisure activity for me, not a necessity.

All of this is bubbling in my head, while I nurse my sore knuckles.