Everyone smiles for pie

Tags

baking, blackberries, fresh fruit, glaze, postaday2012, tarts

This morning I did weight class, cold sore and all, it did me good to listen to the ladies talk about a whole bunch of things such as; Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, it’s a must see and they talked about homeopathic remedies for poison ivy, chest colds and cold sores, Hillary Clinton came up in the conversation as well especially if she is going to run for the presidency in 2016. You would think that we had enough of politics after this past election but Hillary is special, the ladies really admire her.

I had car trouble so my co-leader Sybil, was sweet enough to come to Blandford to pick me up and on the way back from weight class, Sybil stopped at her friend’s house to pick up a bag of parsnips from her garden. When Sybil dropped me off, she told me to get a bag and the dear sweet woman gave me a nice bunch, of fresh from the garden, parsnips. Tomorrow I’ll figure out what to do with them, something fun and different I hope.

This afternoon I made a fresh blackberry and blueberry tarte. My hubby had purchased 3 containers of blackberries and a container of blueberries; I was going to put them in a ziplock bag and put them into the freezer. I was all set to do that yesterday, when the baby boy came over for food and asked me what I was doing with the berries. I told him that they were going in the freezer and the baby boy asked me why I wasn’t making a pie. I told him because no one was going to eat it. The baby boy said that he would eat it, and I replied oh really, you often say no the offers of sweet things. The baby boy said that a fresh blackberry pie would be something that he would say yes to, so it was decided, Friday after weight class, Maman was going to be making a fresh pie.

I had extra homemade pastry crust dough in the refrigerator that I rolled out into the fluted pie tin, I pricked the dough with a fork, lined the dough with aluminum that I filled with rice and put it into 375 degree oven to bake the pie shell completely, it took about 10 minutes and then I took out the aluminum foil and the rice and put the pie crust back in the oven for almost 15 minutes more and it was a golden brown baked pie shell.

I made a vanilla pastry cream to fill the pie shell with; so I took 1 1/3 cups of whole milk and put it to simmer on the stove while I mixed at high speed 4 egg yolks, 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for two minutes, this made for a real thick mixture. Carefully, a little bit at a time I whisked in the scalded milk, very important to go little by little so you don’t scramble the eggs. Once it is all whisked together, you put it back into the pot and whisk it for quite a few minutes until it gets real thick like a custard, I put the cream into a bowl, let it cool with a piece of parchment paper right on top so that the pastry cream doesn’t get a skin. Once it was cool enough, I put it into the refrigerator.

At about 5 o’clock, I took out the pastry cream and spread it in the pie shell and arranged the blackberries and blueberries over the pastry cream and to add the final touch, I added water to apricot preserves in a small pot over medium heat until it got syrupy and I brushed the diluted apricot preserves on the berries to make them shiny.

When the baby boy came over this evening, I told him that the tarte was in the refrigerator, a smile appeared on his face and he made a beeline towards the kitchen. He was a happy baby boy after a nice helping of the tarte.

Thoughts Eating Away at You

New York 2009 – New York University

I can't remember anything small that has ever gnawed at me for days such as perceived slights or anything like that. I have regrets about a few things of importance to me and I know that they are important to me because I still regret them. For example, during my last semester at N.Y.U, I received in the mail, special delivery, my Fellowship Award, given to those who will graduate in the top ten percent of their class and the official ceremony was to take place at a lovely old church near N.Y.U on Broadway and 10th Street. I asked my mother to go and she couldn't, my father couldn't either, and I let my disappointment in their non-attendance prevent me from going to my own ceremony. I deeply regret that to this day because I should have honored myself even if it was to be by myself. I had worked very hard during my time at N.Y.U not only scholastically, but also by holding down a full-time job. I should have been mature enough to see that and to realize that I was only going to regret it. Well you live and learn, no matter what if you accomplish something, be proud of yourself and do a happy dance. You deserve it.

It’s my blog and I can …

Tags

blogs, complaints, emotions, personal, postaday2012, vent, writing

It’s my blog and I won’t cry because I don’t want to cry on my iPad but I can complain if I want to and rail if I want to. Today was the same old, same old; walking Jack, hauling firewood, doing the outside lights, putting away the big storage boxes, checking all of the lights. My hubby likes to have a light in each window, we have 30 windows, I gave up halfway through today, I’ll continue tomorrow. What I am really complaining about isn’t the activity, it’s my stupid, ugly, ugly, itchy cold sore and now I have the hives on my left arm which is itching and burning at the same time. I originally thought it was the Shingles, but honestly how many times can I have them? I am prone to hive outbreaks when I’m stressed so I am going with the hive diagnosis. But seriously why is my stress attacking me so viciously right now, it is seriously raining on my parade. I didn’t go the doctor because he’ll just say the same blah, blah; you already have an auto immune disease, rheumatoid arthritis and prednisone therapy on top of that makes your system vulnerable to any awakening of your dormant viruses; like I said, blah, blah and blah. This is most unpleasant.

On a brighter note, for tomorrow I made a butternut squash gratin. I peeled and chopped two big onions and, on low flame, sautéed them until they were golden soft. Before that I had roasted two butternut squash, split in half rubbed with olive oil and a few unpeeled garlic cloves hidden in the cleaned cavities, for an hour at 375 degrees, and when the onions were soft, I scooped out the flesh and threw it into the pot, I squeezed the roasted garlic out of their skins, I added a little bit of chicken stock, some thyme and some sage, salt and pepper. I mashed it all together, I also added some Parmesan cheese, just because, and I put it into a casserole dish, I grated a whole mess of Swiss cheese on top and put it into a 425 degree oven for twenty minutes. It looks pretty and the house smelled awesome.

Thank you for letting me vent, it felt good. Feel free to vent yourself if you need to down below in the comment section. Everyone needs to vent and if you can’t do it on your own blog, than where can you?

Documentary Making

New York 2009 – New York University

I am trying to think of what I have felt passionately about for over a decade and if I felt so passionately about the same thing for over a decade, why didn't I actually try and do something about it, such as save up money to make a documentary. The fact that I haven't makes writing this a little awkward, but here goes. I have another blog, as some of you may be familiar with, called A Progressive's Thoughts. I basically cross post all of my comments to articles that I read on the Huffington Post to my blog and hence my blog's content.

When I was at college, my major was political science and everything that I had learned twenty five years ago is still relevant today; such as the loss of manufacturing jobs here in the United States, the lack of enforcement of anti-trust laws, the linking together of stock price and C.E.O compensation and the decline of unions. We debated these issues way back when and I, at least, learned that these issues presented a threat to the strength of the middle class and the strength of American dream of opportunity and possibility.

I am still passionate about these issues and I still write about them because, as I said earlier these problems haven't been resolved, they instead have been growing insidiously and are now so large as to be a little overwhelming for a great many Americans. Where do we go from here is a constant theme in all the writings that I read everyday from progressive journalists. So that is what keeps my other blog up and running, my concerns over the direction our country is heading and how are we to navigate the new and different challenges that are facing us in the 21st century.

Goodbye leftovers, farewell Thanksgiving

Tags

cauliflower, dinner, food, gratineed spinach, leftovers, postaday2012, saffron

Yesterday, I bid Thanksgiving a fond farewell until next year when I finished the last of the gratin of spinach. It was nice to be done with the leftovers because you do get bored eating the same thing day after day. On the other hand no more leftovers means more cooking, on the upside I had cauliflower in the refrigerator along with button mushrooms so I was at least prepared to cook something for myself this evening.

While walking Jack, I was going through the things that I wanted to do today such as; hauling more firewood, finish the Christmas tree, clean out the refrigerator and light bulb! cook the cauliflower in such a way as to be good and not boring. So I decided to caramelize two onions and four cloves of garlic and then throw in the sliced mushrooms and chopped up cauliflower florets and I seeped a nice pinch of saffron in hot water and added a little bit of chicken stock and put that in with the vegetables, I increased the heat for a few minutes and then put the flame on low and covered the pan so that everything can meld together as it slowly simmered. I figured that all this would take about ten minutes or so,

I figured that I would go in the living room, catch up on Sons of Anarchy and put the finishing touches on the tree. Why can’t I ever remember that I can’t multi-task? It isn’t a question of learning that I can’t multi-task, I know that I can’t do it. I just can’t remember that I can’t do it. I was lucky because, I think it was when I was about to fast forward through commercials that I realized that I had been doing something in the kitchen, then it hit me and I threw the remote control onto the couch and ran into the kitchen. It was a save, just in the nick of time. The vegetables were seriously caramelized but it was salvageable with some more chicken stock to help loosen any sticky bits.

It was good, the vegetables are for me only anyway so it wasn’t as if I had any pressure or anything. My deficient memory is becoming a theme here, but it does give me material to write about every now and again.

An Alternate History

Istanbul – Turkey

My sister and I were backpacking through France, Italy and Greece. We had hooked up with these 3 unbelievably sweet and funny Australian girls, I'll never forget them we hit it off so well; Natalie, Jennifer and Fiona. All five of us were hanging out at the train station in Rome to see the train schedule for the next day and we ran into these 3 guys who knew our Australian girls, they were 3 Canadian musicians; John, Greg and Bill, who were off to Corfu which is where my sister and I were planning to go to the following day. The Canadians and I hit it off immediately so we made plans to find them in the tiny village of Pelakis in Corfu. We did and we had a great time with them for a week exploring Corfu and eating exceptional food at this family held restaurant. At the end of the week John invited my sister and I to go to Istanbul Turkey. We declined, one of the biggest regrets I have. If we had gone, first we would have continued to be serenaded by the three of them, their favorite song to sing to the both of us "The Girl from New York" I know that we would have eaten phenomenal food because John had the nose to sniff out good places. Those three were certainly characters, Bill had the driest wit and Greg just walked through life, all laid back, never realizing how much of an impact he had on the ladies. He was completely consumed by music, constantly making up lyrics at the drop of a hat. If I remember correctly, Istanbul back in the mid eighties was much more secular than it is presently and I am sure that we would have had so much fun visiting the ancient church, the Sophia which is now a mosque, I believe. I know that Istanbul, what used to be Constantinople, was the crosswords of Christianity and Islam so the historical sites are for both cultures, I am not leaving out the cuisine, the pastries I have read everywhere are unbelievably yummy; baklava is the only one I know, but with a tradition cemented in that technique of honey and filo dough and nuts sprinkled in, everything must be just as delicious as the well known Baklava. I have also read of the spiced sauces; not spicy in terms of heat, rather very flavorful with a lot of cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg and onions and garlic as a sampling of the spice palette. After spending a sight-seeing bonanza of a week, it would have been back to Greece to resume our journey back home to Bordeaux, France

Doing the happy dance

Tags

goals, NaNoWriMo challenge, postaday2012, word count, writing goals

Today I wrote the last 3000 words, I typed the last word at 11:00 and I uploaded the entire 50,140 words, 70 pages in total, onto the NaNoWriMo website and then I got up and did a happy dance, hooray! I am relieved to be done for now, I have to get back to my novel to finish it, I know, but for now I am taking a few days to relax.

A light snow has been falling all day here in Blandford and little Jack was non to thrilled to be dragged outside to do his usual walks, even with his coat on. If you could hear me talking to Jack over my shoulder, trying to egg him on saying “come one Jack, Maman is getting snowed on as well and it isn’t that bad. Come on Jack, the faster you walk the faster we’ll be home and it’s not as if I’m making you walk all alone, I’m with you getting cold as soon as we get back I’ll make you a fire”

In the midst and in between all that drama, the drama with Jack was each and every time we went out. I loaded up the library with wood and the baby boy came by to check on his Maman and helped me bring in a huge mess of firewood into the garage, out of the snow.

I am not thinking about my novel for a few days instead I am going to finish the Christmas tree and finish decorating the rest of the house.

I feel good about what I did today,:)

NaNoWriMo challenge, getting there

Tags

difficulty, NaNoWriMo challenge, postaday2012, word goals, writing

I’m getting there with the NaNoWriMo challenge, I am definitely committed to achieving my goal of 50,000 words by November 30th. Yesterday while watching a Sunday morning political program, I almost never watch them because I get mad at them, the host Bob Schieffer had a panel of book writers, writers who don’t just write one book but many, many more. There was one who is relatively well known David Baldicci, who has written twenty five books. Heavens to Betsy, I am struggling with writing for more than two hours at a time and these writers churn them out out like little cakes out of a baking machine. I am hideously jealous of them, not so much for their obvious talent but the seemingly ease at which their words flow.

I powered through 10,000 words today. I am not going to lie, it was hard. I took the usual breaks, eating, walking Jack several times, bathroom breaks and feeding the stove firewood breaks. It wasn’t until the last thousand words that it graduated to impossibly hard. I am not exaggerating one iota, I nodded off three times while I was typing. I was dreaming the story and it got confused so that Is what woke me up, I think, I knew I had fallen asleep because my fingers were still moving and typing gobbly gook and my head violently snapped up and I deleted the meaningless string of letters. It then happened again and then again, at this point I was at 46,760 and I was thinking, I am going to do this, I am going to get to 47,000.

Tomorrow, the goal I have set for myself is the remaining 3000 words and then upload them to the NaNoWriMo website and I will break out into a little dance. My brain is now mush, after I publish this post I am going to watch one of my favorite shows, Bones and then go to sleep.

Moving in slow motion

Tags

attic, clean up, decorating, decorations, holidays, postaday2012

It is traditionally the weekend after Thanksgiving that the Christmas decorations make their way down from the attic. We have 4 very large storage bins,; chock filled with our artificial tree that stands eight feet tall, the lights, the ornaments and the various Christmas knick knacks that I decorate with in the entire house. These precious keepsakes have been accumulated over the course of our marriage, twenty two years worth of ornaments and various Santa’s and snowmen, quite a collection I have to say.

Today I have been operating in slow motion, we all went up to the attic together. Normally I do it alone, but my hubby took it upon himself to get the baby girl’s help, he could see that I was a little run down. I wonder what could have tipped him off? Perhaps the painful ulcer on my bottom corner lip, my cold sore. I am not prone to these outbreaks on a regular basis, they only happen during the cold months and when I am over tired, so imagine my joy when I woke up Friday morning with the throbbing pain of a cold sore. I know that in a short time it will go away on its own, so that isn’t a big deal, I am just dying to pick at it and it is taking all of my discipline to not pick at it. I am a little obsessive/compulsive with scabs, I pick and pick. Funny, as I was taking a break from assembling the tree and walking Jack, I was thinking that I was looking forward to getting a camera so that I can show off my new haircut, but then I was thinking I could wait a few more days so that my sore could heal ( vanity) but enough with my disfigurement.

The tree isn’t done, I put up two strings of light and then sat down, put up two more strings of light and then sat back down, so all the lights are up. I am slowly getting the ornaments up, but I am calling it a day for decorating. I’ll get back to it on Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Tomorrow I am spending all day writing to finish my NaNoWriMo challenge, the game plan is at least 10,000 words. Tuesday will be another day for the writing challenge and then hopefully fini. Wish me luck!

News items relateable to my life

Tags

human interest, newspapers, personal interest in news, postadaay2012, relateable

• Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life in some way. Write about that.

• News to Real Life
• Newspapers B&W (2)

  I have looked through my “newspapers” today and I haven’t found any uninteresting stories per se, I think that if something or some event makes its way into a paper than there is some human interest element to it. I also think that a story, no matter how mundane it may be, can be connected back to yourself. This morning I read about a gas leak explosion in my neck of the woods, Springfield, MA, the gas leak occured in a Gentlemen’s Club and the explosion was so powerful that it blew the windows out of every building in a three block radius around the point of origin. No casualties in the blast thank goodness, albeit there were quite a few injured, taken to local hospitals.

  After my initial shock over the size of the explosion and that no one was killed, I read that the effects were felt many miles away. My first thought was why didn’t we feel anything? I shouldn’t be surprised that I wasn’t aware of any explosion occurring at night, because the last time anything rocked Blandford, an earthquake, I slept right through it. So with this story, I went from be grateful that there weren’t any casualties to why didn’t I feel any tremors from the explosion to I always sleep through events because I am such a heavy sleeper. This is why all stories are interesting,we can always bring the back to ourselves.