The Vote

(Day 2 of 30 Days of Thankful)

Not only am I thankful for the right to vote and engage in our democracy, I'm also thankful for the collective national sigh marking the end of the campaign season.

My vote might not always "count" but exercising my voice in selection is table stakes to exercising my voice in critiquing.

I must now go and watch them tally the votes and project the results.

30 Days of Thankful Redux

Welcome to November readers!!! Only 24 more sleeps until Thanksgiving and to celebrate I am reviving my 30 days of Thankful. Not only do I want to build upon what I started in 2009 (I have more than 30 things for which I am ebulliently thankful) I feel compelled to finish what I started.

After my friend Larry died a blinking cursor was more than I could manage. So daunting in fact I could not even bring myself to complete and distribute the annual Christmas newsletter that gave birth to this very blog. He nurtured my love of writing so what better symmetry than to kick off the month sharing how thankful I am for... Words.

Courtesy of my niece Sophie, I think Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street sings it best, "Words, words and more words, how I adore words."

Grammar, tense and punctuation futilely render inconsequential sans words to knit together. Cornucopia, ramification, smorgasbord, organza, medieval, precipitate, palpable and even fuck--with all its creative and spicy derivatives--are some of my favorite words. Either the sound they make rolling off the tongue or the image they conjure.

Think about it, when you read the word organza what immediately comes to mind? Not a brick? And the word precipitate, you know something is going to be falling from somewhere--snow from the sky, solid out of a liquid suspension or innovative ideas in response to a barrier.

To punctuate my point in closing recently a friend of mine and I spent nearly 20 minutes over dinner one night discussing the difference between a gulch, crevasse, chasm, canyon, ditch, and valley; just two word nerds talking over dinner.

This Week in Pumpkin: Pumpkin Caramel Tart

Okay... this recipe was the inspiration (courtesy of JoePastry.com) for a variation I ran through my test kitchen last week as a part of my market testing for my someday bakery. While I have changed up the recipe and flavor profile quite a bit I wanted to share it with my readers in the spirit of the season and all things pumpkin.

Note: Don't let the sugar go too far, once that dark spot gets larger than a plum you're at risk of burning the sugar and if so, that stinks--literally. I burned the first batch and had to pour it into an old pizza box in the front yard just to evacuate the kitchen. The next morning I had a tar black candy slick seemingly untouched by nearby woodland creatures.

Also, this recipe makes enough custard for two 10-inch tart shells.

Ingredients
Caramel
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water

Custard
2 cups cream
2 tablespoons dark rum (optional)
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs

Moisten the first cup of sugar with the 1/4 cup water in a sauce pan and swirl over high heat until it turns light amber, then dark amber. For a more pronounced caramel flavor, wait for a brown-black spot to appear in the center of the pan before you remove it from the heat and start adding your cream slowly in a steady stream, whisking all the while (watch out, it'll foam and sputter a bit).

Once all the cream is in, whisk in the rum, pumpkin, sugar, spices and vanilla. Keep the filling warm on a very low flame until the crust is nearly ready. It should NOT be bubbling/boiling.

Pour the warm filling into your favorite shortbread tart crust hot out of the oven to create a water-proof seal.

Put the pan into the oven and drop the heat to 350. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the pan, jiggling it to see how "sloshy" it still is in the middle.

Bake another 5-10 minutes or so, just until the center no longer "sloshes", but jiggles firmly. Cool for a minimum of one hour before slicing and serving. I prefer mine chilled.

This Week in Pumpkin: Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes

Okay friends, it is that time of year again... my kitchen runneth over with pumpkin--shortage be damned! This week is a favorite I have made for years and my sister-in-law has been patiently waiting for its turn on the menu.

This was that weekend. We had these pancakes with turkey sausages, coffee and orange juice as a primer to our trip to the orchard. Sophie loved them, she ate three!

This recipe may look a little intimidating compared to standard pancakes but do not be thwarted by the whipping and folding egg whites... you're the boss and final pancake is worth it. Also, let the batter sit for 20-30 minutes before hitting the griddle.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups milk
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vegetable oil
Maple syrup

Preparation
Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Whisk milk, pumpkin, egg yolks, melted butter and vanilla in medium bowl to blend well. Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients; whisk just until smooth (batter will be thick). Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter in 2 additions.

Brush large nonstick skillet with oil; heat over medium heat. Working in batches, pour batter by 1/3 cupfuls into skillet. Cook until bubbles form on surface of pancakes and bottoms are brown, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining batter, brushing skillet with oil between batches. Serve with butter, maple syrup, honey or pumpkin butter. Makes 20-24 pancakes.

Bon Appétit November 2000 by way of epicurious.com

Movie Review: The Blind Side

I love a good football movie and The Blind Side delivered. You know how it got the name 'The Blind Side'... It is because you'll be blinded by tears multiple times.

RIP Crabapple Tree

You were lovely for the four days of the year you bloomed.
Today, my buddy Gary cut you down and now the sunlight streams in.



I have a blank canvas in which to build the outdoor room of my dreams--oohh the possibilities.

Google knows.

I think it knows too much actually.

Here I sit, laptop in the couch nook listening to So You Think You Can Dance on the TV. I hear the TV cut to commercial and the voice of Michael Strahan and I perk up--part NFL pre-season hopes part crush. He's doing a commercial for Dr. Pepper and how he loves the delicious mix of the 23 flavors.

I think, "hmmm... 23?" So I tickety tickety tap tap tap it into the googler. I get as far as 2-3-_-f-l- and Google fills in the rest and with one click, here's the list.

The 23 flavors/ingredients of the famous Dr. Pepper soda secret...

1. Amaretto
2. Almond
3. Blackberry
4. Black Licorice
5. Carrot
6. Clove
7. Cherry
8. Caramel
9. Cola
10. Ginger
11. Juniper
12. Lemon
13. Molasses
14. Nutmeg
15. Orange
16. Prune
17. Plum
18. Pepper
19. Root Beer
20. Rum
21. Raspberry
22. Tomato
23. Vanilla
    

Did Google know what I was watching? I'll have to plug that into the googler next.

Pizza Paradise

Warmer days and crops in the ground mean there are many summer pleasures on the horizon. Today's musings were brought about by my buddy Kirk putting a stake in the ground and scheduling our summer pilgrimage to The Pizza Farm.

The Pizza Farm (formally known as A to Z Produce Farm) is the front yard of a working farm in Stockholm WI, about an hour southeast of Minneapolis and one of the coolest secret/insider things I know about. During the summer months on Tuesday nights only from 4:30PM to 8:00 this family turns their farm into a wood fire pizza kitchen.

Each of the ingredients is either grown on the premises or from neighboring farms (happy pig sausage) and the outcome and the ambiance can best be described as casual summer awesomeness. I am certain this pizza ranks as some of the best pizza I will ever have. Top five for easily--and that includes empty placeholders for Italy.

Now, all you get is pizza in a box so the rest of the experience is up to your own design. Some families have tables with place settings and even a little centerpiece, others come with simply a six pack and picnic blanket. Good times with great friends and phenomenal pizza.

Stay tuned for pictures and the 2010 rundown after we make the trek in late July.

Dear Ticketmaster

I would have more respect for you if instead of an $8.75/ticket "convenience" fee you just called it profit, overhead, jets, genital waxing.... whatever it is you do with the money.

Because frankly I cannont fathom just who exactly you're conveniencing with this crap.

Bravo Post-its

I live in a townhome and in August 2009 the association did some painting and made some repairs to the siding. This meant we needed to remove our house numbers for a few days. To ensure my pizza and UPS deliveries still arrived on my doorstep I wrote my house numbers on Post-it note and stuck it on the vinyl siding. The work was completed by the end of September but I was not ready to reattach house numbers that I never really cared for. I took this opportunity to find some that I really liked.

After shopping around, on foot and on-line I found some house numbers I really liked but then the busy holidays were bearing down on me, and then the Christmas super-storm, and then that long and brutal cold snap. I was in the thick of winter and there was not enough daylight much less warmth to undertake this exterior project. Heck, there were days it was so cold I’m pretty sure the juice in my level would have froze. Never fear, my address Post-it held strong.

The snow stopped in February and March brought a slow steady thaw and longer days with warm sunshine. Just before Easter, when I resolved to take down my Christmas lights, I installed my new address numbers.


That little square of paper with the removable sticky held up through a Minnesota fall AND winter facing rain, sleet, snow and wind. However, a note to my friends at Sharpie… I did have to rewrite my house numbers three times.

Bubble Pizza

I owe this recipe to my dear friend Deena who I used to share a standing Wednesday night dinner with in the good ol' days of 90210.

There are many different variations to this comfort food gem. I'll start with the original and then highlight variations at the bottom.

Barbecue Chicken Bubble Pizza
3 tubes regular size refrigerated biscuits.
1 18.5 oz bottle of barbecue sauce (I like Ken Davis)
4 chicken breasts, roasted on the bone
1/2 red onion sliced thin
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Tear each biscuit into thirds and roll into a ball. Mix in a bowl with barbecue sauce. Pour into 9x13 cake pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Remove cooked chicken from bone and dice. Spread over biscuit/barbecue sauce mixture. Sprinkle onions and cheese over top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Delicious variations:

• Taco pizza style: substitute 1 1/2 pounds cooked ground beef for chicken and Ortega taco sauce for barbecue sauce. Use cheddar instead of mozzarella. Service with fresh tomato, black olives, salsa and sour cream.

• Bacon Spaghetti style: substitute 1 1/2 pounds cooked ground beef for chicken and add half about diced cooked bacon, Hunts traditional spaghetti sauce for the barbecue sauce. Use white onion instead of red. Stick with mozzarella.

• Meatball Sub style: substitute 1 1/2 pounds cooked meatballs for chicken. Use marinara sauce instead of barbecue. Use provolone instead of mozzarella.

Because of the blue Sharpie

Because I haven’t blogged in almost three months.
Because one of my favorite office curmudgeons asked about my blog today.
Because I was on a spectacular roll in November with ‘30 Days of Thankful.’
Because I am a congested mouth-breather no longer.
Because I had a moment today that warrants tapping out a few lines...
Because I have sensitive skin and a weakness for high-end beauty products.
Because I am on the downhill side of my 30’s.
Because the cold dry winter has driven me to a richer, evening facial moisturizer to replenish.
Because I am brand loyal, I bought something from the maker of my day-time moisturizer.
Because both products are from the same maker the packaging is identical.
Because when I wash my face in the evening I do so on auto-pilot.
Because I cannot be bothered to read all the little words to know I am selecting the P.M. product.
Because I am a nerd who knows what poka yoke means and how to error-proof a process.
Because the blue sharpie was in tucked into a note pad on my nightstand.

I colored the end of the tube dark blue—as in nighttime.
Yeah, this is my life and I'm back at the keyboard.