Wedding fever

I don't have any interest in the British royals.  I don't care about the ring.  I never thought one way or the other about Prince William, military uniforms, or horse drawn carriages.  In fact, as a feminist in the 70s I can remember writing college papers deconstructing fairy tales.  The wedding wasn't really on my radar as I went to bed Thursday night. 
I was caught completely off guard early the next morning as I watched clip after clip on the BBC news feed.  Was it the sight of full grown trees lining Westminster Abbey, the long slow march down the aisle to the trumpets of Hubert Parry's "I Was Glad", or the stunning simplicity of the bride's gown that drew me in?  Maybe it was the gorgeous 1902 diamond tiara, so delicate it looked almost like a headband holding her veil. I don't know, but whatever it was it was enough to move me to tears and keep me clicking through a whole lot of video clips. 
I'm guessing it was the presence of the ordinary amidst all the grandeur that got me.  The trumpets pulled on the sublime emotions, but the nervous expression on the bride's face through the netting of her veil and the quick intake of breath to steady herself as the music signaled the start of the procession was more powerful for me.  It brought back my own jitters as I took my first step down a much smaller aisle towards a life just as filled with uncertainty.  No, I definitely wasn't overcome with emotion for the glory of Empire, or the bright future of the monarchy. It wasn't because I was full of joy for the royal couple, or in awe of the bride's beauty (which was awesome).  It was the moment when one of the newscasters read Kate's lips as she was exiting the church and breathed "I'm so happy".   It was the visceral memory of my own relieved "I'm so happy" as I exited the confines of another chapel out into another beautiful day.  I know that feeling.  I've been there.  I think that was it.  As the mother of two daughters it was probably also the anticipation that one day I may be watching those same emotions wash across their faces.
I think it was the bride's insistence on simplicity that allowed us in, past the pomp and circumstance, even from way across the pond.  Maybe the wedding fever that's gripped so many of us has something to do with a collective acknowledgment that weddings are still powerful and momentous occasions, even in a world dominated by divorce and cynicism.  In the end it was at best great theater, or at least a good soap opera.  Whatever, I had a good cry.
Maybe it's time to think about renewing my vows.  I'll just have to locate a suitable tiara...

Happy Birthday Dad!

A role model I try every day to live up to!

Group project update

Cathy sent along this photo of the latest group project that's been hanging out at her house for the past few weeks.  It was due today---congratulations Cathy!  

What is this project supposed to be?  Who knows?  Who cares---this project has all the bells and whistles...nice patriotic festooning, a pulley system, and the creative use of the dryer vent hose is a brilliant touch....this project will definitely earn that check mark.  

:)

Cravings

I have always loved Starbuck's Maple Oat Nut Scone.  Even though there is a Starbuck's in town, we hardly ever go because there are so many unique coffee shops and bakeries in the area.  But every once in a while nothing else will do.

When this happens, it's nice to know that lots of other people feel the same way and have posted copy-cat recipes online.  There are whole sites and cookbooks devoted to recreating the best commercial dishes.  There are lots of versions of this scone online, and part of the challenge is choosing which one to try.  I went with this one.
I only had to pick up a few non-pantry items...heavy cream, pecans, and maple flavoring.  The scones also contain maple syrup, but apparently it doesn't have enough concentration of flavor to get the desired effect.
These scones turned out great--- they're very close to the original.  I made them right before dinner and had to have one right then.  I'm staring at them now, about to have one for breakfast.

Maple Oat Nut Scones

• 1 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cold butter (small pieces)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon maple extract
• 2/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Maple Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
• 5 teaspoons water

I followed the recipe pretty closely, although I added a little bit of vanilla in with the maple flavoring in both the scones and the glaze.  I also use the food processor for most of the work, which makes it quick and easy.  I have found that there's no reason to laboriously cut in butter by hand in any recipe, including pie crusts; I have always just pulsed it in the Cuisinart and it comes out great. 

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Using a food processor or blender, grind the oats.
3. Add in flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, pulse to blend.
4. Add maple syrup and butter and pulse several times until the butter is incorporated and you have a grainy texture.  Stir in the chopped pecans.
5. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the cream and maple extract.
6. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms.
7. Place dough on a floured surface. Knead and pat dough into a 8 inch circle and cut into 8 wedges.
8. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment. Place wedges on top and bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until light brown.
9. Remove scones from oven to wire rack. Let cool at least 5 minutes.
10. Mix glaze ingredients until smooth. Adjust the amount of water to get to the desired consistency. I like the glaze to be rather thick. Spread lots of glaze over each scone and dry about 15 minutes before serving.  Top with chopped pecans or a sprinkle of oats.

Notes:  Don't over-knead the dough, you just want it to come together so you can pat it out.  I like the scones to be thick, so I make sure my circle of dough isn't too big or thin.  My scones only took 13 minutes.  Don't over bake or they'll be dry.   Be sure to lay on a thick layer of glaze; since there are only 2 tbs of sugar in this recipe, the glaze is an important sweetener.  Be sure to let the scones cool a bit before frosting or the glaze will just melt into them.  If you don't eat them fresh from the oven, put them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so.
What I might do differently next time:  I might add a bit more sugar, and a bit more butter.  I will also try to track down natural maple extract, which is hard to find.  I used imitation maple flavor, which is all that was available in the store, and is actually what Starbuck's uses, but I want to try to find the natural stuff.  That's about it! 

 

Name that plant

Besides the beautiful daffodils and other bulbs that are sprouting up all over, there are other blooming plants that I can't identify.  You guys seem to know more about it than me...

This is a tall shrub and these beautiful purple blooms are on the bare wood.  It's not azalea. 

This huge shrub is in our front yard and smells like jasmine or something.  It's familiar to me, but I don't know the name.

 The little blue flowers are all over the place...

Thanks for identifying this magnolia.  It's now my favorite.  The scent rivals the orange blossom that I hated to leave behind in California. 

Happy Easter!

 and my personal favorite...

When things go wrong

they go horribly, horribly wrong.  Like my Caramelized Vidalia Onion and Blue Cheese Dip.  I know, it sounds foolproof, doesn't it?  How can you go wrong with those ingredients?  The way it can go wrong is when you substitute other ingredients for the ones you don't have on hand.  I'm usually pretty skilled at that.  After a lifetime of cooking, you get a sixth sense about substitutions.  But I guess I got a little cocky.  The original recipe is from Paula Deen, and came highly recommended.  
I used beautiful vidalia onions and a gorgeous block of blue cheese from the wine and cheese shop down the street.  

I thinly sliced and carmelized the onions nicely. 

But the recipe calls for 2 8 oz blocks of cream cheese, and some sour cream.  I had neither.  But I did have some goat cheese and some creme fraiche.  Sounds good, huh?  I pulsed them in the food processor just as the recipe said.

I blended in the onions, seasoned with salt and pepper, and put in my baking dish.  So far so good.  I baked it at 350 as directed.  I went to take it out of the oven and it was pure liquid.  Like soup.  And it was an unappetizing blue-grey color.  There was oil and then coagulated cheesey stuff.  It is probably the worst culinary disaster in my memory.  Good thing we didn't have guests.  I'm really puzzled about what went wrong.  I've never seen anything like this.  What would cause it all to liquefy?
The  funny thing is that Grant and I ate it.  We were hungry, there was nothing else for dinner, and we had a nice baguette all ready to go with it.  Yummm. 
It was so ugly I can't even show you a photo.
No, really, I couldn't.  Too embarassing.
Don't push me.
Grant insisted on putting the leftover 'dip' in the fridge on the theory that it might 'set up' over night.  Yeah, right. 

Muffin doctor

I'm a homemade muffin fanatic, especially when they're hot from the oven in the morning.  The trouble with that plan is that you have to have the time and energy to make muffins early in the morning: by definition, before breakfast.  Not always fun or feasible.  I noticed this mix at Trader Joe's and thought I'd give it a try, on the theory that TJ's baking mixes tend to be pretty good, and don't contain artificial ingredients that have ruined many a commercial muffin mix.  Ever had those "blueberry" bits? 
Trader Joe's happened to have some good looking blackberries...so an idea was hatched.  I also grabbed a carton of buttermilk, which I think makes everything better. 

I followed their directions which simply calls for 2 eggs and a cup of water, although I substituted buttermilk for the water.  I added a bunch of blackberries, cutting them in half first.  They say to fill the muffin cups 2/3 full for a yield of 12 muffins.  I find that with bran muffins you can mound the cups very high.  Bran muffin batter is thick, and doesn't rise much.  If you're going to have these for breakfast, you're going to want them to be pretty big.  Even with the added blackberries, I ended up with 9 good sized muffins.  They came out pretty good, although a little dense.  Maybe I needed to add a little baking soda to help them rise.

Now that I've got leftover blackberries and buttermilk, I might try a homemade version and see how it compares.  It's amazing how the Internet has revolutionized cooking...I just did a Buttermilk Blackberry Muffin search and came up with lots of options.  Is there anything you can't search for on the Internet??

PS  To answer my own question I just did a joke search for Parsnip Muffins.  You can't believe how many came up...

Don't get me started

I had my weekly Tuesday afternoon phone call with my sister yesterday.  Since we're now on different coasts and time zones, a weekly phone appointment seems like the best way for us to keep in touch.

My two nephews are still in school, and part of our conversation usually revolves around that.  I'm always reminded of how different my life is now that Molly is a freshman in college and the Los Angeles Unified School System is a mere memory.  I can relate to everything my sister's going through. I can commiserate, I can try to give advice, but I'm secretly thrilled to have it all behind me. Yesterday we touched on one of the more onerous aspects of the school years: the dreaded Group Project.  Even just typing it out sends chills up and down my spine. If you're part of an earlier generation, or your kids went to private school, you might not relate. I'm convinced that the Group Project is a clever scheme cooked up by teachers to foist off some of their work onto unsuspecting parents. I can imagine the teachers lifting their coffee mugs in the lounge and cackling smugly on assignment day.  This ingenious ruse relies on the commonly acknowledged fact that a child's success in school depends on parental support and involvement. It goes like this: the teacher divides the class into groups, each group is responsible for producing a Project, and, here's the kicker, that Project will be done entirely outside of class.

If the horror of all this isn't quite clear to you, let me lay out some of the parameters of the Group Project:

1.  Outside of class is code for your dining room. 

2.  Teachers select the groups randomly. Random means one responsible student to every five to seven slackers. Therefore, every group will include only one responsible student.  Undoubtedly that will be yours. 

3.  A Project can be anything.  It can range from the relatively simple to the horrifyingly complex. Be prepared for everything from a model of a Native American longhouse, to a working suspension bridge made entirely of popsicle sticks, to a 3D multi-media rendering of a human pancreas. Be afraid.

4. No matter how prepared you think you are, you will not have the stuff around the house that the group needs.  The first few stores you visit will not have glitter glue sticks, green styrofoam, or 3 foot metal rods either.

5. The quality and amount of food you provide to the group will be in inverse proportion to the amount of work that gets done. You may start out with homemade cupcakes, but by the third week you will have them on starvation rations just to get things moving along.

6. There will be an element of the lowest common denominator in every Group Project.  Things will be pasted crookedly, words misspelled, and random objects will protrude inexplicably from its surface.  Get used to it unless you want to spend lots of quality time together, just you and the project.

7.  The assignment sheet almost never shows up until the final hours before the Due Date, when it's dredged up from the bottom of somebody's backpack.  This will always result in the discovery that everything has been done wrong. 

8.  Projects never dry; they remain sticky, tacky and wobbly until the bitter end. Every time a Project is shifted, touched, or 'fixed', it will get progressively worse.  The Second Law of Thermodynamics is at work here---things fall apart.  Try not to get too attached, especially if you are a type-A. 

9.  Once in a while the unthinkable happens and a teacher assigns a coed group.  This is pure evil: they know all too well that from kindergarten on the sexes don't work well together. Once the hormones kick in it's complete chaos.  Cupcakes will be thrown, woodwork dinged, dogs terrorized, and no, absolutely none, nil, nada, work will get done on the Project.  Ever.

10. There will always be one forlorn child left in your living room still waiting to be picked up as you try to get dinner on the table.  The errant parent will honk rudely when they finally arrive, hours after the arranged time.   

11.  Due Day will come, but a Group Project will never fit on the bus.  It will have to be driven to school.  Your child will stagger into school with a tenuous grip on the project while you watch with a little bit of pride and a whole lot of relief.

12.  About a month later, as you and your dining room are recuperating nicely, your child will get off the bus with a thoroughly mangled version of the Project.  No one else's child will ever volunteer to take it home.  The returned Project will not fit in your child's room and your child will make you feel like scum for even suggesting it go out to the curb.  You will have to store it in the corner of the dining room.  It's then that you'll notice the large check mark and happy face written in red sharpie across the back.  That's it---no grade, no comment.  And you'll swear that there's more than a hint of a smirk on that happy face.

I was understandably a  little alarmed when, in the spring of senior year one of Molly’s teachers assigned the mother of all Group Projects--- the biggest, most challenging, hugest behemoth of a Project ever,  at a time when the kids are already into college, they have spring fever, and no motivation whatsoever to do any schoolwork at all, much less work outside the classroom!   I steeled myself for the worst as her group arrived at our house for their first meeting.  I watched in amazement as they took their shoes off at the door, headed straight out to the back porch, and got to work.  When they needed supplies one of the girls drove out to get them before I could find my wallet and keys.  She not only brought back the supplies, but Subway sandwiches as well. I sat in the empty dining room in bewilderment, snacking on my cupcakes and listening to the happy chatter coming from the porch.  As it started to get dark, I noticed one of the girls was carefully packing up the Project in custom made cartons that she had made from cut down cardboard boxes and duct tape.  She was going to take the Project home with her for the night!  The next week the group met at another girl's house and they all slept there so they could continue working into the night.  One girl brought along a beautiful cake, another a freshly baked loaf of bread.  I never did get to see that finished Project since the girls drove it to school themselves.  In fact I felt a little bit cheated.  It's amazing what a Group Project can teach kids.  

Calling all mixologists

Maybe it's the change of season that's causing me to look for an alternative to my nightly glass or two of wine, but I'm in the mood to play with cocktails. Not the retro hipster/lounge lizard kind of cocktail--- nothing blue, nothing that looks like it came out of a chemist's beaker, definitely none of those weird little onions. I'm envisioning something refreshing and healthy, made with fresh fruits, juices, and natural flavors. Lots of ice, and thin straws, too.  I'm going to start with rum.  It seems to mix well with fruits, isn't overbearing, but isn't totally tasteless either. It has a nice beachy, sitting under an umbrella in the sun feel.  And yet rum has a long storied history in New England as well.  Apparently, along with gold, rum funded the American revolution!  ( Wikipedia, where else)  I've already  bookmarked a great recipe for Colonial Hot Buttered Rum for Thanksgiving.

After looking over lists of rum cocktail recipes, I'm planning to experiment with a bunch of possible ingredients: lots of fresh citrus like lemons, limes, ruby red grapefruit, tangerines, as well as the more unusual varieties...blood oranges, meyer lemons, pomelos, tangelos, key limes and clementines.  I like the idea of using the fresh fruit, since I won't have large containers of juice that might go to waste, and I can vary my drinks on a whim. 
Besides the citrus I might use berries and other fruits for muddling.  Also:
fresh mint
coconut milk
cranberry juice
pineapple juice
small cans of strawberry, apricot and peach nectars
ginger ale
Trader Joes Sparkling Italian Fruit sodas
champagne
Grenadine
Any other ideas???

My first try was pretty simple---  
The juice of half a ruby red grapefruit and half a lime squeezed into a glass.  Add Trader Joes Italian Grapefruit Soda, a shot of Mount Gay Eclipse rum, and ice.  Garnish with a lime wedge.

Tempting photos to come once this rainy spell passes.

Saturday in Cambridge

We spent Saturday in Cambridge getting a little head start on clearing out Clare's dorm room.  Magical as the college experience has been for all of us, the moving in and out of dorm rooms is not one of its highlights.  We think we're being pretty clever in spacing out the grunt work over the next few weeks.  We'll be able to enjoy graduation (May 26th) much more knowing it won't be followed by a marathon march up and down the 4 flights, dodging futons, down comforters, and other dazed parents.

 Load #1. 

Ted's excellent adventure

at the Great Island Common...

Let the snarky comments begin...!