Twilight

I'm about 25 years too old to be admitting this, but my friend has invited me to a Twilight party tonight. I'm happy for a chance to see some friends and have an early evening. For those of you too intellectual to know about the Twilight books, they are vampire romance stories. Okay just typing that made me cringe, but I found them enjoyable to read. This year was an extremely difficult year for me and reading some trashy fluff was perfect for my distracted state of mind.

I offered to make dessert for tonight and chose this cupcake recipe. The whole thing looked insanely sweet, so I substituted a mixture of strawberry and red currant jam for the cherry filling the recipe called for. I thinned it out with some Quantreau to make the blood drips on the top. I wish I had done that for the filling because it seemed to cut down some of the sweetness. I haven't tried one, but I think they turned out sufficiently cheesy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

This is Lindsay's account of Thanksgiving. I think it's a pretty good one. I mean, who doesn't like dessert best? We had gingerbread cake with whipped cream that I made and we had brownies and ginger molasses cookies that Graham's father made.

Hungry for Change

Move On is a wonderful organization. I heard that they amassed their fortune originally by inventing the flying toaster screen saver, but I'm not sure if that is true or not. Anyway, they believe that individuals are able to make a difference in politics. I find this refreshing in a time when most people feel so disenfranchised.

They send emails with different "actions" that you can add your voice to. They also make things very easy for the armchair activist. You can just add your name to a pre-written letter and hit send and they send it to your correct political representative. It doesn't get much easier than that.

They also organize house parties, where someone volunteers to host a bunch of strangers and people attend the party to make phone calls encouraging swing state citizens to go out and vote. I've attended these parties in the past, but I have to admit that I really hate cold calling people. Makes me feel like a telemarketer. I've done date entry for them when the option came up last election.

I was so happy to see their latest action, which was called "Hungry For Change". They brought people from all over the country together (they organize that part) to have bake sales to raise money for Obama's campaign. Isn't that fabulous? Last weekend I baked cookies for Obama. There were about 6 different bake sales in my immediate area and the one for which I baked cookies raised over $700!! Over 12,000 MoveOn members across the country held bake sales and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. What a simple and effective idea. You can click here to see photos from the different sales. I didn't make these cupcakes, but thought they were adorable.

a visit to Provence

I just got back from visiting my father who lives in Provence. He and my stepmother live in the old village train station that was converted to a house. The name of the town is carved into the side of the house and you see signs of where the tracks were in the back yard. Actually you see two long stone lines that go through their garden, which just look like the edges to the flower beds. The main house was the main station house, and then there's a small house, which was the waiting area for the other side of the tracks. It's a lovely house which gets a lot of light.

They rent the main house out in the summer and move into the smaller house. It's a great way to get some extra income, especially with their retirement income being in the deflated dollar.

With my father being ill, I didn't know what to expect when I got there. He's always been very healthy and shunned taking medicine. Although things are quite serious, I was pleasantly surprised with his energy (he still enjoys chopping wood for the fire) and interest in new things. I helped him set up a camera on his computer so we could Skype one another. It's a great way for him and Lindsay to see and talk to one another. I helped him set up a blog, which is something he's wanted to do for a while. And we cooked together. On his blog you can see the Hungarian chimney cakes we made. This is a dessert that is cooked on the bbq. You make a dough, which you wrap around a wooden tool that resembles a baseball bat. Then you baste it with melted butter and grill it over the bbq. After it cooks a while, you roll it in sugar and ground walnuts. When it is done, you rap it to make the dough fall off and then steam comes out of it to resemble smoke emitting from a chimney. It was delicious, and now I'm the proud owner of my own pastry baseball bat. I definitely need to refine the recipe we had, and now have some experience under my belt.


It was a wonderful visit. I decided not to bring my daughter and I'm glad I made that decision. I was able to spend uninterrupted time with my father, which would have been impossible if she had come. We had nice conversations, and were able to generally enjoy each other's company in a way that we hadn't for a while.

I also did some knitting while I was there, which I will post shortly.

So cheesy

The more technology (and stress for that matter) creeps into my life, the more I look for a simpler life. I learned knitting as a way to de-compress from my work. Then I learned spinning. Then I got very interested in bread making. Now I'm interested in making cheese. I joke with friends saying that soon they will see me beating my laundry on the banks of the East River.

So far I've made yogurt and mozzarella. I bought the book shown above along with supplies from the author who runs New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. She has a kit for 30 minute mozzarella. I was somewhat skeptical because you use a microwave. However, I made a delicious ball of fresh mozzarella. And felt very clever I might add. Here is a tutorial on making the mozzarella. I highly recommend trying it. You end up stretching the heated curds like taffy and then rolling it into a ball.

I'm not sure what kind of cheese I'm going to try next. I need to make or buy a press to make hard cheeses, so I think I'll stick with soft cheeses for a while. Now, I just need a good source for fresh milk...mooooo!

Summer Days

Today was a lovely sunny day in the low 80s. We got up early and went to the beach at Jacob Riis national park. I don't know how I've lived in NYC so long and never went here. It's a beautiful, clean beach, which doesn't get overly crowded until the afternoon.

Tonight will still be warm, so I'm going to serve gazpacho with small, red new potatoes. I boil the potatoes and then sautee them in olive oil and butter until golden brown. Then I put some sea salt and pepper on them. They are so sweet, that they don't need anything else.

The gazpacho recipe I make is adapted from Moosewood's first cookbook.

4c Tomato juice
1 small onion
1 med bell pepper
1 T honey
1 Cucumber
1/2 lemon, juice of
1 lime, juice of
1 t tarragon
1 t basil
1/2 t cumin
2 T olive oil
2c diced tomatoes (can used canned, but fresh are better)

I put the onion in the food processor first, pulse, then add the bell pepper and pulse, cucumber, pulse, and diced tomatoes with all of the spices and pulse until it is the consistency you like. We like pretty chunky gazpacho. Then add to the tomato juice and chill for at least 2 hours.

Eat with a yummy crusty bread and you have a great meal.

No-Knead Bread

I just bought a bread machine at a stoop sale for $10 and have been somewhat obsessive about making bread lately. I was trying different kinds of breads, including sourdough-with the smelly sourdough starter in my fridge and everything. I just dumped the starter because I realized that I wasn't really enjoying the sourdough very much and I had to keep renewing the starter each week to keep it alive. So every week or so I would make another loaf of sourdough that I didn't really enjoy. I have a *very* hard time throwing anything away, even a smelly wet lump of dough in the fridge. But I overcame all obstacles and did it.

I have to say that the crumb of a loaf of bread machine bread isn't the kind of crumb I seek out from a bakery. I prefer a crunchy crust with a chewy, filled-with-holes interior. I was trying different things, such as bread flour, gluten to add to the flour, etc. when my friend Dirk mentioned a recipe for No-Knead Bread he saw in the Times. Mark Bittman went to Sullivan Street bakery, where they have the yummiest white pizza (no cheese, just chewy/rosemary/salty goodness). He got this recipe for bread, which is super easy and produces the crusty/chewy of bread I love. Once you mix the ingredients, you have to let the dough sit for about 12-18 hours, but the actual work is minimal and absolutely worth it. I've made this bread using 1 c. whole wheat flour and 1/4 c. flax seeds and it was still light and airy. Here's a one page printed version of the recipe.