How do I know I'm a recessionista? Let me count the ways...
1) I am wearing an outfit (top, pants and scarf) I made myself and it's actually pretty cute.
2) The shoes are more than 20 years old.
3) I spent a couple hours this week making a thong out of leftover fabric.
4) Before I throw out any food I ask myself, "What would MFK* do?"
5) Date night is dinner out--at an ethnic (read: cheap) restaurant--and a DVD at home while wearing our Yoga Toes!!!
6) I'm checking books out of the library again.
7) I walk everywhere If I'm shopping, I take the granny cart. Really.
8) I made a set of stationery out of blank cards and envelopes left over from my daughter's bat mitzvah invitations (she is now 26 years old) and a homemade stamp. I like the image so much I've adopted it as my new logo.
9) I'm donating my time in the form of Pilates lessons instead of writing checks to my favorite charities.
10) I had to give up my adult, professional gardener. But I've hired my 13 year-old neighbor to weed and I'm paying him more than he asked for.
11) In place of therapy I take a walk with a friend and we tone our butts while solving all the worries of the world.
* That would be Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher. If you haven't read any of her stuff yet, this is the time.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
How to make really good hamentashen
This year's Hamentash-a-thon was a huge success. We made a mountain of hamentashen and introduced a new filling! And at least two people who had never made a hamentash before got to make their first hamentash.
What, you may ask, is a hamentash? Well the first thing you need to know is the singular is hamentash, plural is hamentashen. They are triangular, filled cookies eaten to celebrate the holiday of Purim. I'm not going to explain the holiday. It is way too complicated. And you'll find oodles of sites devoted to Jewish holidays that can do a much better job. Suffice it to say that we make and eat hamentashen on Purim. You may be able to find similar triangular, filled cookies in Jewish bakeries at other times of the year, but authentic, homemade hamentashen are much better and you won't find them out of season. It just isn't done.
I've been making and eating hamentashen my entire life. My first hamentash was probably eaten at the religious school Purim festival. It was probably filled with prune jam and it was probably made with a yeast dough. I can't find that kind of hamentashen anywhere these days. I've tried making yeast raised hamentash, so far without success. Maybe next year!
We made hamentash at home when I was a child using a cookie dough that had oil instead of butter or margarine. I don't know why, but that was the dough we used. Several years ago I experimented making hamentashen with an Italian pasta frollo, or pastry dough, that calls for butter. It was delicious and that dough, from The Italian Baker by Carol Field, is now my favorite choice. For the hamentah-a-thon I always make some of the Italian dough as well as the Flo Braker recipe, which is very popular and very easy to handle. I also make an "out-of-the-box" hamentashen dough with brown sugar, rolled oats, and flavored with cinnamon and grated orange rind. It is a cookie dough from a Sunset magazine recipe for Apricot Blossoms. It tastes great with apricot or cherry filling and adds a little variety.
This year we had prune, poppy, cherry, and apricot filling. Plus one new, daring experimental filling.
I won't post most of the recipes here because recipes for two of the doughs and three of the fillings are already posted on another blog. But we tried a new Chocolate Walnut Cinnamon filling this year. It was truly delicious all by itself and combined with apricot filling it was unbelievable!!
Chocolate Walnut Cinnamon Filling
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 ounces walnuts
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
Pulse the chocolate, walnuts, cinnamon and sugar together in a food processor until finely chopped. Add one egg and pulse a few times to combine.
I had dough and fillings ready when the hamentashen makers arrived. We spent the next 3 hours rolling and cutting the dough, enclosing a blob of filling inside each round by pinching up the sides to create a three cornered shape (see photo), glazing the shaped cookies with egg wash, and baking.
Ruth is brushing the sides of the cookies with egg wash. This step is optional, but I think it makes the hamentashen look much better.
Here you see Linda guarding the oven. She made sure we didn't burn any hamentashen.
Everyone who wanted to got to take home a selection of hamentashen. Carol, pictured here, claimed she had never made a hamentash before. But just look at those beautiful cookies!!!
Happy Purim!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Making the best marmalade ever
My friend Joan has given me a jar of her homemade marmalade every
year or so for some time. I finally asked her if she would be willing to show me how to make what I consider the best marmalade I've ever tasted. Earlier this week she came to my house with her two beautiful All-clad pots and we made two batches of delicious and beautiful marmalade.
The first batch was with Ruby Grapefruit, Blood Orange, and Meyer Lemon. Here's how you do it:
Ingredients:
1 Ruby Grapefruit
5 medium size blood oranges
4 medium size Meyer lemons
water (see below for quantity)
sugar (see below for quantity)
Wash all the fruit. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from each piece of fruit. Cut the zest into very thin matchstick pieces. Remove the white pith from the fruit. Separate the sections and remove seeds and any thick membranes. Cut the fruit into small pieces. Measure the zest and pulp. Dump all the zest and pulp into a large, heavy saucepan. Add the same number of cups of water, plus one cup. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add one cup of granulated sugar for each cup of pulp and zest. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until you notice slight thickening and a "translucent quality". Put a small amount of the mixture on a saucer and place it in the freezer. Remove the saucer from the freezer after exactly 2 minutes. The marmalade is done when the test sample moves very slowly when you tilt the saucer. Remove pan from heat and ladle marmalade into hot jars. Top with boiled lids and twist tight. Turn upside-down on a towel for 10 - 15 minutes. Invert jars and let them cool completely. Jar lids should seal with a "pop". But don't worry if they don't "pop" because you can always keep them in the refrigerator.
I'm not sure I can tell you how to recognize "translucent quality", but the test works just fine. Start testing before you think it's ready and you'll be fine. It's problem if you overcook the marmalade because it will be too hard and you'll have to heat it in the microwave before you can spread it on your toast.
The second batch was Ruby Grapefruit, Seville Oranges, and Meyer Lemon with Ginger. Here's what you need to make it:
Ingredients:
1 Ruby grapefruit
4 Seville orange
4 Meyer lemons
a scant 1/4 cup finely grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
The procedure is similar to what I've described above. Except you add the fresh ginger after you add the sugar and you add the candied ginger just before the marmalade is done cooking.
This is Joan using a silicon spatula to get the dregs from the bottom of the pan. She suggests you put the last bit in a jar or dish and keep it in the refrigerator until you've had a chance to eat it. It won't be as good as the rest of the marmalade because it's always a little too thick.
We used a mixture of real canning jars and recycled jars. I like the little artichoke jars that hold 6.5 ounces because they make nice hostess gifts. The larger Bon Maman jars are good to keep for our own use.
I wish you could taste our marmalade. It's the best ever.
year or so for some time. I finally asked her if she would be willing to show me how to make what I consider the best marmalade I've ever tasted. Earlier this week she came to my house with her two beautiful All-clad pots and we made two batches of delicious and beautiful marmalade.The first batch was with Ruby Grapefruit, Blood Orange, and Meyer Lemon. Here's how you do it:
Ingredients:
1 Ruby Grapefruit
5 medium size blood oranges
4 medium size Meyer lemons
water (see below for quantity)
sugar (see below for quantity)
Wash all the fruit. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from each piece of fruit. Cut the zest into very thin matchstick pieces. Remove the white pith from the fruit. Separate the sections and remove seeds and any thick membranes. Cut the fruit into small pieces. Measure the zest and pulp. Dump all the zest and pulp into a large, heavy saucepan. Add the same number of cups of water, plus one cup. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add one cup of granulated sugar for each cup of pulp and zest. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until you notice slight thickening and a "translucent quality". Put a small amount of the mixture on a saucer and place it in the freezer. Remove the saucer from the freezer after exactly 2 minutes. The marmalade is done when the test sample moves very slowly when you tilt the saucer. Remove pan from heat and ladle marmalade into hot jars. Top with boiled lids and twist tight. Turn upside-down on a towel for 10 - 15 minutes. Invert jars and let them cool completely. Jar lids should seal with a "pop". But don't worry if they don't "pop" because you can always keep them in the refrigerator.
I'm not sure I can tell you how to recognize "translucent quality", but the test works just fine. Start testing before you think it's ready and you'll be fine. It's problem if you overcook the marmalade because it will be too hard and you'll have to heat it in the microwave before you can spread it on your toast.
The second batch was Ruby Grapefruit, Seville Oranges, and Meyer Lemon with Ginger. Here's what you need to make it:
Ingredients:
1 Ruby grapefruit
4 Seville orange
4 Meyer lemons
a scant 1/4 cup finely grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
The procedure is similar to what I've described above. Except you add the fresh ginger after you add the sugar and you add the candied ginger just before the marmalade is done cooking.
This is Joan using a silicon spatula to get the dregs from the bottom of the pan. She suggests you put the last bit in a jar or dish and keep it in the refrigerator until you've had a chance to eat it. It won't be as good as the rest of the marmalade because it's always a little too thick.
We used a mixture of real canning jars and recycled jars. I like the little artichoke jars that hold 6.5 ounces because they make nice hostess gifts. The larger Bon Maman jars are good to keep for our own use.I wish you could taste our marmalade. It's the best ever.
Monday, February 2, 2009
My second grade classroom
1. My second grade classroom was one of six in what was then a new school building, three on each side of a long central hallway. I can still see the rack where we hung our coats and jackets when we arrived each morning. It was built into the room--very modern with clean lines and blond polished wood. I dreamed once that I arrived at school, lined up with my classmates when the bell rang, and filed down the short length of hallway to my classroom. When I took off my coat, standing in front of that built-in coat rack, I was wearing only my slip. It was plain white with a narrow band of lace at the hem and a tiny pink satin rose in the middle of the front. I don't remember what happened next. Maybe I woke up. Maybe I put my coat back on and walked home to get my dress. That's all I remember of the dream, but it is clear as day.
2. My second grade classroom smelled different when we returned to school after winter vacation. The janitors had waxed and polished all the floors until they gleamed. The strange smell was the wax they used. I thought the janitors must have missed us when we stayed away for those two long weeks and they polished the floors to welcome us back.
For the first few days after we came back, boys kept falling over backwards in their chairs with a loud bang. It happened when they leaned their chairs back on two legs and slipped on the gleaming, fragrant floors. We would all laugh at the boy who would usually act embarrassed. But some of them had already learned to cover up being embarrassed emotion with their own loud laughter.
I just realized why only boys fell over backwards like that. The girls all wore dresses so we couldn't push back on just two legs like the boys. Everyone would be able to see our underpants. we knew that it was bad if people could see our underpants but I didn't know why it was bad. Now I know protecting my underpants from being seen also kept me from falling over backwards in my chair. I would have been so embarrassed, not like the boys that just laughed it off. Boys aren't like girls.
3. Mrs. Burkett was my second grade teacher. She wore bright red lipstick and she'd often catch a bit of it on her crooked front tooth. It sounds ugly, but it wasn't. It made her smile friendlier.
4. Second grade was the year we kept a monarch caterpillar in a glass terrarium in our classroom. The terrarium was on the shelf right above my hook on the coat rack. The caterpillar climbed up and down the branches in the terrarium until it finally stopped and turned itself into a chrysalis. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful color of green. We watched and waited for a long time. Then one morning when we came in and started hanging our coats someone noticed the chrysalis had burst open and the butterfly was trying to come out. It took the butterfly all morning to work its way out of the chrysalis. When it had emerged it was all wrinkled and it looked wet. At 2:30, when we went home, the butterfly still looked damp and crumpled. But when we came back the next morning it was all dry and smoothed out--its wings looked freshly painted. Out teacher invited the other classes to visit our room so they could see our butterfly. We were polite during the visits, but we knew we were better than they were because we had a real monarch butterfly. The next day our teacher told us it was time to let our butterfly go free. So we took it outside and left the lid off the terrarium until it flew away.
2. My second grade classroom smelled different when we returned to school after winter vacation. The janitors had waxed and polished all the floors until they gleamed. The strange smell was the wax they used. I thought the janitors must have missed us when we stayed away for those two long weeks and they polished the floors to welcome us back.
For the first few days after we came back, boys kept falling over backwards in their chairs with a loud bang. It happened when they leaned their chairs back on two legs and slipped on the gleaming, fragrant floors. We would all laugh at the boy who would usually act embarrassed. But some of them had already learned to cover up being embarrassed emotion with their own loud laughter.
I just realized why only boys fell over backwards like that. The girls all wore dresses so we couldn't push back on just two legs like the boys. Everyone would be able to see our underpants. we knew that it was bad if people could see our underpants but I didn't know why it was bad. Now I know protecting my underpants from being seen also kept me from falling over backwards in my chair. I would have been so embarrassed, not like the boys that just laughed it off. Boys aren't like girls.
3. Mrs. Burkett was my second grade teacher. She wore bright red lipstick and she'd often catch a bit of it on her crooked front tooth. It sounds ugly, but it wasn't. It made her smile friendlier.
4. Second grade was the year we kept a monarch caterpillar in a glass terrarium in our classroom. The terrarium was on the shelf right above my hook on the coat rack. The caterpillar climbed up and down the branches in the terrarium until it finally stopped and turned itself into a chrysalis. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful color of green. We watched and waited for a long time. Then one morning when we came in and started hanging our coats someone noticed the chrysalis had burst open and the butterfly was trying to come out. It took the butterfly all morning to work its way out of the chrysalis. When it had emerged it was all wrinkled and it looked wet. At 2:30, when we went home, the butterfly still looked damp and crumpled. But when we came back the next morning it was all dry and smoothed out--its wings looked freshly painted. Out teacher invited the other classes to visit our room so they could see our butterfly. We were polite during the visits, but we knew we were better than they were because we had a real monarch butterfly. The next day our teacher told us it was time to let our butterfly go free. So we took it outside and left the lid off the terrarium until it flew away.
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