Category Archives: Editorial

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Jeans

Posted on December 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

They say so much about a person who wears them, and who wears them well. I’ve always been one who looks for comfort, but then I’m older and if a model likes and fits into a pair, go for it.

We live in the mountains so sometimes it’s jeans with long underwear underneath, and I only wear silk longjohns so that leaves another wrinkle. Jeans and long undies and the right SmartWool socks and the right boots for the weather.

Then we have a plethora of coats, including down, polartec and  polartec vest that can protect my core. Hats, at least a half dozen from hand-knitted Pippi (yea that’s you pdxknitterati) to my new fur cossack hat and it’s too dark to take a good  photo of it right now. Then gloves, I’ve at least five pair, glove liners to serious gear.

We moved and put all our stuff in storage.  All of it. I brought a few clothes with me and we’ve bought a lot for my husband here as he was in “Casual Banker” attire which was gabardine pants and a dress shirt sans tie. Now he’s in a pure cotton plaid shirt with corduroy pants or nice jeans. He only brought one suit, that works for interviews and also works, unfortunately, for funerals.

Sometimes we must go to a happy or sad occasion and we “clean up good” as they’d say in Texas. We’re always happy to see folks we care about and at my age, no one is going to tell me how to dress. I feel comfortable with who I am, and if someone doesn’t want to be seen with me, so be it.

Our lives our short, there is time to be had together and I’d hate to think that a bit of denim could get in the way of quality time. Cheers, Dee

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Top Chef

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 4 comments

Today is the first time I got to see the Tribute portion of Top Chef. The task was to showcase something that got them to start cooking.Some succeeded, some failed. Many talked of their grandmothers, or mothers. One talked of his nanny and did well.

Both of my grandmothers were dead before I was a year old. One couldn’t cook anything, and Dad’s mother taught my mother some German recipes before she died. I remember rouladen, rolled beef around a carrot and pickle or something but it was always tough and I hated it, along with stew and rice pudding, and farina soup dumplings.

Now I braise meat in the winter, have tried my own latkes in the past month, make matzoh ball soup regularly searching for the seminal NYTimes recipe from the 1980’s. I’ve even made spaetzle.

Given that challenge I couldn’t say my grandmothers were my cooking muse. My mother wasn’t either. We were the Campbell’s Cream of Whatever Soup mix family until a family friend ordered a lifetime of Gourmet magazine.

I’m guessing the rest….. My mother didnt’ know what hit her. She was so intelligent and needed something she could do that would also help her husband in his new job and take care of her chldren, three of four were still at home, I was away at college.

One night she served us a lovely cheese quiche and a salad and asked Dad if he liked it. He said it was great, what’s for dinner? Whoops! In my culinary mind I think that was the beginning of the end.

My other muses were my Aunt and fellow educator who launched a catering business for the summer season when they were not teaching. Their rule for us as family was to taste, then ask what’s in it. Tonight I made a blue cheese butter to top my filets, and never would have thought of that if I hadn’t tasted their three cheese dip that included blue cheese that I wanted to hate.  I loved it.

Do I have cooking school and cookbook mentors? Yes. But before the age of ten I had these amazing women and the Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook.

Breakfast-wise, we begged Mom to buy those cinnamon, and orange, pastries in the frig section, so we could pop the canisters, frost and bake them. Our goal was breakfast in bed, but we never managed it, because she knew our plan and always got up to eat at the table.

Food brings up so many memories, especially during the holidays. Everything was closed here today. I had dinner planned but as usual hubby threw a monkey wrench into it by getting up early. I’d planned on two meals today.

So I must tell David Sax of the infamous “Save The Deli” that our local Asian place (no buffet) was open for lunch, sushi bar et al. 99% of businesses were closed today in our unique State. Cheers and happy holidays to all. Dee

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Christmas Menus

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 1 comment

We didn’t expect to be here, but here we are. My husband is on call this week for work emergencies so we have to stay in town.

He got his birthday off, first time since we’ve been out here, nearly three years, so we have four days together. He doesn’t seem to get that I still have to do laundry and make the bed and make breakfast and dinner. On weekends he likes to go out for lunch.

Last night, Christmas Eve, I made a pork tenderloin that I’d marinated overnight. I rubbed it with grainy mustard, placed it in a plastic bag (in a bowl, always) and added a beer, Heineken was the best I could find at the time. It was drained, dried, and brushed with olive oil, seasoned with s&p and grilled to perfection.

I served it with mashed potatoes and braised carrots.

Christmas dinner, I still can’t find capon  and have received 37 hits on this blog for how to cook capon in the past two days. We didn ‘t know we’d be here otherwise would have ordered from http://www.roastgoose.com

So I made filet mignon (grilled perfectly by my husband), scalloped potatoes and brussels sprouts with bacon.

Some dishes worked, others didn’t work as well. The filet was rare and wonderful. Let me think about it and the rest, it’s late and I wish you a merry Christmas. Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Recipes

Best Wishes

Posted on December 25, 2011 | 2 comments

to y’all this holiday season. Merry Christmas to our family and many friends. Happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa to others but this entire thing is silly.

It’s like one can only say congratulations to a potential groom, and best wishes to the fiancee.

Now you have to say “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas” will follow and then you can say it back. Then, I’ve been corrected by several people and told to do the PC thing and say “Happy Holidays.”

We are currently living in the strictest religious state in the country but supermarket checkers will make sure you’re politically correct even as a customer. Hey, some stores here refuse to bag your groceries if you bring in a reusable bag that looks like it came from another store.

I’d like to remember reading Christmas stories and what the “family gift” was that year, as it could have been a ping pong table. Also what we grew up eating and how our Christmas breakfasts and dinners evolved.

My husband and I do not exchange gifts, but somehow my dog went to Bed, Bath and Beyond last night and got me a $20 instant room heater so I can take a bath in comfort even if it is five degrees outside. What a sweetie! I’m just wondering what Santa was on the other end of the leash… Happy Everything. Dee

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Leadership

Posted on December 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Isn’t it strange that two very different leaders, Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong Il, died on the same day.

People always joke that the only duty a US Vice President has is to go to funerals, but I know which one I would want him to attend.

The Velvet Revolution leader, President Havel, was a true leader who rose up from nothing and led his people to freedom. A great light has gone out with his passing.

A dictator also died, who starved his people to create nuclear weapons and a huge army.

If you look at our Republican candidates, Mr. Gingrich wants to do away with the Judicial branch of our government, one of three branches, including Congress and the Executive, that are mandated in our Constitution. I assume he wants to do this without Congressional approval, the approval of the US citizenry or go through the nasty process that the ERA movement failed, twice.

I think this smells a bit like a dictatorship in the making. Our ancestors Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, Roosevelt(s) and others are already turning in their graves. People like Mr. Havel have used power to free the powerless, the poor, the hungry. Dictators take the spoils for themselves and feast at the table alone, or with the company of the elite and corporations that keep the wealth of a, even this, country to themselves.

I understand the need for public financing of campaigns but one candidate is always rich enough to pay for his own campaign, and trounces the other by buying the voters. We are becoming a nation visibly governed by corporate interests (it’s always been there, do you think I just fell off the turnip truck?).

Think about what leadership means to you, or tell me you know it when you see it. In memory of Vaclav Havel, Dee

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
Vaclav Havel

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/vaclav_havel_2.html#ixzz1h6ohkvJd

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Guardians

Posted on December 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

We are all guardians of children. This latest Penn State scandal involving Jerry Sandusky is horrifying as the legion of purported victims escalates and now there’s an Assistant DA missing since 2005 who was prosecuting this case.

This is reminiscent of the Catholic Church and its pedophilia that was hidden for so many years.

If Jerry Sandusky is guilty of crimes against children, the people up and down the ladder at Penn State are equally guilty, as are those at the charity he supported, for allowing him to do these deeds.

An ADA went missing in 2005 after looking into Sandusky. This case may go as far as murder.

In this society many couples work  and may not be there to pick up their children from practice. In high school or college, now parents will have second thoughts of the locker room, even if Mr. Sandusky is innocent before being proved guilty.

If we live in a world where two need to work to raise a family, we are now told we cannot trust a babysitter, nanny, coach or teacher, what do parents do?

I went to high school two blocks from home so hoofed it in my gym gear and showered at home before dinner. Who knows if my coach was lesbian, or my classmates? I won’t ever know or have that tale to tell, thank God.

All I can do is pray in my own way for these boys, abused by men they trusted in situations they trusted. It’s not your fault. Don’t be ashamed. Come forward and put these people in prison, where they deserve to be.

I believe that the word guardian is a sacred one, that means you’ll look out for someone and take care of him/her as needed. There are many guardians out there who are true to my term, and a few errant parents and those prospecting for their own predilictions.

Falling through the cracks is the usual excuse. Let’s be true guardians and let our children grow and prosper. In hope, Dee

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It’s All Up to Us

Posted on December 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Christmas, the economy, and I don’t mean buying more toys. I try to volunteer and make a difference to our world, but seasoned volunteer leaders are marginalized or treated like dirt.

I don’t quit anything, but stopped a disaster before it started and bailed on a charity that didn’t even know I existed, except to sign a waiver that they weren’t responsible for anything that happened to me.

Our economy has not come back, no-one knows how to get the money back that they banks spent on bonuses so cheaters and liars could drive nice cars and live in McMansions. People are homeless and on food stamps and line up at Wal-Mart to “go” when their WIC card kicks in, which may be 4:17 in the morning.

I believe the Bush administration initiated the largest US debt and assault on the American public by coddling his friends in the banks, insurance companies and especially energy industries. Remember Enron?

I believe that secret forces, like the Fed, which is not a government entity, kept lending money and that the Obama administration inherited this (along with a war) and made it worse by creating TARP which gave money to the liars and cheats. When banks and insurance companies take money from the government and have no reason to use it to help their customers, they pocket it. Of course!

Banks, insurance companies and the government have screwed the American public at least three times since 2008. All of them. And then the car companies cashed in as well. Hey, the government is paying out big time, you poor suckers will only have to pay for our excesses by losing your job and home. No big deal!

We, the people, have to know that the bank we entrust our money to is not in it for us. Our insurance company makes money every year we don’t have a fender bender then questions us if we do.

Our highest politicians taks money from these industries and that is why they were spared any economic distress, and their bonuses are healthy and at least a few red Ferrari’s were sold this year. In the meantime others are out of work and losing their homes and the federal programs in force have to be written by the hands of the sullied bankers. They don’t work.

Please look closely at the people you have before you this election. Talk to people in your community. Look up candidates on the internet.  Ask questions about your retirement and health insurance and jobs, whatever you care about most.

In a representative democracy, where we elect people to make decisions for us, we have to know that these people will represent our interests, not just the interests of the corporations who are paying them to run for office. Yes, this is what our “democracy” has become. Only rich people can run for office, and the salary is such that no humble teacher or preacher could live in Washington or in any state capital on a legislator’s salary.

That is our quandary for today, dear readers. Cheers, Dee

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HuntingNet.com

Posted on December 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yes, writers to their forum (I’ve been denied access) have shot something they probably shouldn’t have shot, a Greater Sandhill Crane. They were looking at ducks and all of a sudden shot a 6′ tall migratory bird.

We watch these birds come up north and land every spring to mate, nest and raise their colts. Even though I have a cooking blog I do not specialize in Greater Sandhill Cranes because I’d rather see them on the Preserve we abut and watch them with their young, teaching them to find food, and to fly.

I’ve always said I’d rather shoot them with a camera instead of a gun.

This year they had two colts that learned to fly early, as last year they lost one to a fox. You can easily see all four looking for food.

All I can say is that I’m glad these and several other pairs, who mate for life, live and breed on protected lands. These hunting sites won’t let anyone in, even if they’ve tagged this blog. No, I don’t know the best way to cook illegally caught Sandhill Crane. Nor will I help you gut it, de-feather it or cook it.

Also, please try to look at the bird you’re aiming at before you pull the trigger, fellas. Maybe that pre-dawn six-pack is kicking in.

And hunters, before you swarm in on me, we got us some wild hogs. I draw the line at protected species, will not give you recipes for dodo bird, and don’t hunt. Keep up the poaching ’til you’re caught, guys. Have fun in HuntingNet-ness. Dee

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The Kennedys

Posted on December 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

To Caroline, you’re a year older than I am, and my parents probably came home quickly from the appliance shop where they were looking for a washer and dryer, when your father was killed. I didn’t remember the details but we watched the funeral. I had a book, called Four Days, afterwards and relived it but certainly not as you did.

Over Thanksgiving we spent time with many family members north of Dallas. We had lunch downtown and went by the 6th Floor Museum, did not go in, but there were many people in line.

One young man ran into the highway and splashed champagne on the X where your father was killed. I was horrified by his behavior. These displays are only going to intensify as we near the 50th annivery of JFK’s death.

Yes, there is interest in his and your lives. Look at who followed. OK, we only had the worst of Vietnam, Watergate, Noriega and “that woman.”

I am sorry you’ve been plagued by the press all your life. You seem to have dealt with it very well and they leave you alone, and for that I am grateful, as your family has done enough for our country.

Sometimes I wonder if you think about being just a regular person, like most people may wish to pretend how they’d be if they were famous.

No, we’ve nothing in common except age and gender. Except I’ve cared for your family since I knew you existed. I wish you and your family well. Cheers, Dee

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Wise Counsel

Posted on December 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

As the field is narrowed for the 2012 Presidental election, Eric Holder is shocked, SHOCKED, that Republicans are trying, as always, to keep the disenfranchised from registering to vote. Readers who remember Casablanca recall  the closing of Rick’s due to illegal gambling as the chief of police was collecting his winnings.

I’m going to give you some sage advice from some higher-ups who were very good or bad but left me with something over the years:

– You got in 1 1/2 hours early to work and bought two newspapers, local and NYC, read them. It’s your job.

– It’s a really bad idea for your boss to make staff break copyright law to make money on a conference and for me to be called out on it when I’d made my position clear.

– To that boss, when I get up at 4:30 a.m. to get to an early meeting and have to stop to get a bagel, because you won’t let me have the key to my office, pay for the damn bagel.

– Never trust a guy who tells you that you have to pull individual weeds on a clay tennis court and only a man can run an automatic, sit-upon roller. And respect Pythagoros, because he’s who got us out of there.

– When a guy says he has to sit on the right in church so God knows he’s a conservative, first tell him God may be in front looking at him and see him on the left, then leave, quickly, and forever.

– Whenever anyone hires you and wants to still do your job or change everything you do moment to moment, find another job immediately.

– If your brother says “you don’t need ski lessons,” get them, you won’t be left crying on Big Emma.

– Enjoy the fried catfish your clients bring in on birthdays, because you’re not about to be paid this month.

– Know that sisters bring traditions. Mine wouldn’t get up in high school until I picked out her clothes for the day. Now I get my husband’s out of the closet because I dread “Honey, what should I wear??” when I’m making breakfast.

– An old friend of my dad’s once said that to leave a clean desk was to die, that you had to leave something to get back to on Monday morning. He’s Irish and a great writer and would say it, today, much better than I ever could.

– Never eat maroon food.

– for another view of the universe, my brother, who asked “who turned on the dark?” Yes, he’s sane and lives by a tv set where they do murders every week.

I don’t know that I have a quote, have always been quite practical, and emotional.

I would say happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Kwanzaa. Oh, and SNL’s Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child would have told us to “Save the giblets.”

Dee

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