Waving Goodbye to '09

As this year draws to a close, I can't help but pause to reflect on the ups and downs it has contained for me.  Echoing my first post here on this blog, it was the exploration of my hobbies/pastimes/loves that served to sweeten the pleasures of this year and temper the tough times for me.  Everything posted here (and much more!) has kept me sane and joy-filled.  I would never have survived the difficulties of unemployment or the challenges of graduate school that in many ways defined my 2009 if I did not continually take up cooking, baking, reading, crafting, and other things I love.  One of my New Year's resolutions is most certainly to continue this exploration of these things that I am passionate about--in other words, I hope to never forget love.

Go ahead, use real butter!

I've been thinking about butter lately.  Well it IS the holidays after all!  Ok so maybe not everyone immediately thinks holidays=butter.  But then again, not everyone loves to bake.  Oh and some people bake with butter substitutes.  Not me, I absolutely love butter.  And I'm not talking land o' lakes butter--I mean good, yummy butter.  I love to use Kate's Homemade Butter because it's made with fresh organic milk by a small family farm.  At Whole Foods it is one of the cheaper good butters.  I understand why people don't like to use butter in everything or eat it on everything; many of my family members have very high cholesterol and need to use butter substitutes.  That being said, I think maybe Americans have become too scared of butter.  I'm not a nutritionist, but if Julia Child (who loved butter and used it in absolutely everything!) lived up into her 90s, I think it can't be the bad guy many people think it is!

Season's Greetings

It's that time again.  We are in the midst of Advent and Christmas is right around the corner.  I know there are many people who do not celebrate Christmas and many partake in a non-religious way and I am definitely respectful of that.  But I think everyone can agree that the essential, beautiful messages of Christmas are needed more now than they ever have been.  As our nation continues to escalate the wars we are involved in, as children in the cities we live in continue to encounter violence every day, and as friends and neighbors suffer because of the economy, I think everyone needs the hope, light, peace, and faith of the Christmas message.

As for me, I have always loved this time--the waiting, the expecting, the hoping.  I love the preparation for the big day.  For me, it is more than just the material preparation.  I make sure to take extra time each day for myself--to enjoy quiet reflection.  It is that time that helps counter some of the commercial craziness that inevitably comes with Christmas.  This is not to say I don't enjoy some of the material preparation!  I have a mini-tree in my living room, a pine wreath hanging in the hall, and a snowman angel on our table. 

Also, I am currently reading the Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook.  I absolutely love it!!  It was an early Christmas present from my mother and I've been up at night reading it in bed.  This is more than just a Christmas cookbook--yes, it has beautiful, wonderful, yummy holiday dishes and treats, but it is much much more.  Any kind of holiday party food you could want is all there in one book.  My only problem is that I can't decide which recipes I want to make.  I have a few holiday parties coming up and on Friday I am hosting book club here with my roommate so I do have some opportunities to test out the recipes.   

I will keep you all updated as my Christmas preparations progress.  Aside from making food for parties, I will be making treats to give as gifts and making some crafts for loved ones and tonight I am working on some holiday cards. 

How are you preparing for the holidays?  Whatever you do, don't forget to take time for yourself and remember why we do all of this preparation in the first place.  Enjoy!

Adventures in Pumpkin Flan

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!!  I hope yours was as relaxing as mine.  I enjoyed some time in Connecticut.  It was nice to be out of the city.  I never thought the suburbs were quiet until I lived in big cities.  Now every time I am getting ready for bed in the room I grew up in, the quiet is so pervasive it is almost difficult to sleep. 

Over the holiday, I had the pleasure of introducing one of my roommates (who is originally from San Fransisco) to a Connecticut Thanksgiving with my family.  Since she is allergic to gluten, we decided to make a special gluten-free dessert to share.  Lo and behold, the December issue of Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for Pumpkin Flan.  The actual recipe comes from the book Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn. 

 The result was a beautiful, spicy, sweet creation I think you will enjoy. 

 Now, don't let this seemingly fancy dessert fool you!!  Here is the recipe, it is actually quite simple and your guests will be more than impressed. 

1/2 c granulated sugar

3/4 c light-brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup cooked pumpkin puree

1 1/2 c half-and-half or cream (I used low fat half-and-half)

5 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

-Preheat oven to 350. 

(Ok now comes the only complicated part, more on this below)

-Put the granulated sugar in a pie plate, set on the center rack in the over, and bake until the sugar is caramelized 8-12 minutes.  Swirl to cover the bottom of the pie plate with the caramel.

-In a large bowl, whisk together the rest of the dry ingredients.  Then stir in the pumpkin.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, and vanilla.  Then blend the egg mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

-Set the pie plate with the caramel bottom in a large roasting pan then pour the custard over the caramel.  With care, pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the side of the pie plate.

-Bake until custard is set, about 1 hour and 10 minutes then cool and set in the fridge to chill.  Once it has cooled off, run a knife around the outside edge of the flan and invert it onto a plate. Scoop out and serve with whipped cream.

 So, about that complicated part....carmelizing the sugar took much much longer than the 8-12 minutes from the recipe.  I'm not sure if the oven needed to be higher or if the recipe was wrong.  I also have to admit that I wasn't feeling well while we were making the recipe, so a lot of the work fell to my roommate.  She probably knows more about what happened with the sugar.  Anyhow, eventually it worked out but it was tricky so just note that when you try it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!! 

Time Travel

Sometimes, I time travel.  It’s no secret and it doesn’t involve any special ability.  I guarantee you do it too.  After all, how often do you find yourself—at work, on the train, out walking—and instead of being fully present where your feet are, your mind is moments, months, years behind or ahead of where you are in time. Last week, I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and I’ve been haunted by it. I’m going out on a limb here to say it might make the list of my top 20 favorite books (although I have no actual list).  I just can’t stop thinking about time travelling and how I think we do it all the time, just not physically. 

Part of being human, as opposed to being some sort of other animal, is the blessing and curse of having a memory.  It is so easy to let our minds wander, to time travel.  When work is a little boring or you miss someone who is no longer in your life, when you hear a song or see a sight that is tied to a memory, down the rabbit hole you go.  It can’t be healthy to live in the past, but it sure is lovely to transport yourself from time to time.  All that being said, after reading this book and learning about Henry and Clare’s experiences, I wouldn’t want to physically go back.  I’ll settle for the ability I already have.

If you haven’t read Time Traveler’s Wife, what are you waiting for?  If you are anything like me, perhaps you heard a lot of hype and are hesitant (I sometimes purposefully don’t read books that are super popular and have a lot of hype around them).  But then my mom read the book and raved about it and sent me back to the Bronx with it from one of my trips between CT and NY.  It sat on my shelf for a bit while I took care of book club related books.

This book is just a great, unique story.  Henry has the ability to travel through time (but not necessarily when he wants to) and Clare is his wife who must wait for him when he is gone.  They meet when she is young and he is old—he spends much of his married life with her time travelling to the past to meet her as a young girl.  This means that when she is 18 and he is 20 she knows him and loves him deeply, but he knows nothing about her because he has not met her yet in the present (only when he is in his 30s does he meet her as a girl).

Ok, stay with me here! My mother’s advice to me: immediately suspend your sense of disbelief and do not waste time questioning why or how Henry can time travel, just jump right in.  Please heed that advice.  I have talked with others who have read this book and many had difficulty with the how’s and why’s.   

As for some surface aspects of the book, I love the quotes about love and time that mark beginning of each new section of the book.  I loved figuring out the dates of the time travel vs. actual time and the ages of Henry and Clare—I’ve heard that some people didn’t like that or found it confusing.  I thought it kept things interesting and I found it to be a sort of enjoyable puzzle to solve.  I also enjoyed the settings.  I haven’t been to Chicago but I felt transported there.  I’ve also never been to Michigan but I felt as though I knew Clare’s family home and the land surrounding it.

Also, Niffenegger’s method of writing the story from both Clare and Henry’s points of view was fantastic.  I felt that the characters were complex and deep and I appreciated the back and forth—hearing the story from a male and female voice. I was just amazed at Niffenegger’s ability to write so convincingly through both voices.

This book is so many things—part science fiction, part tragedy, part mystery—but above all, it is a love story.  But it isn’t a mushy-gusy or unrealistic kind of love (ok, so except for the fact that Clare meets Henry when she is in grade school and he somehow travels through time).  Their love is real and intense.  It is a kind of love that I believe only grows out of the struggles and difficulties partners experience in relationships.  Niffenegger’s portrayal of Clare and Henry’s love does not gloss over the gritty reality of their married life; yet it is this grittiness that makes their love beautiful, deep, and true.

Please go out and read this book!  You won’t be disappointed, I promise.