work

another book review:

so i've finished work by louisa may alcott. i'm not really a fan of hers (i despised little women...) but i was reading this for some thought-provoking background to the new exhibit going up here at work in april. yes, this book is fiction, but it is meant to represent the life of a working-woman in nineteenth century america. it is meant to be a social justice title, and according to many sources was actually inspired by alcott's own life.

christie leaves her comfortable aunt and uncle's farm at 18 to seek her fortune and find her way in the world. the book follows her as she goes from one job to the next, working herself to the bone. after about 10 years, an illness and kind of breakdown, she falls in love and finally finds her place in life. but then the civil war breaks out and changes everything again.

this book wasn't bad, but in true alcott fashion, it's heavy on religion and how christie finds it and it saves her, etc. etc. but it's a much better story than little women and i truly didn't mind it at all. still, for me, it was really only a space filler, and something i wouldn't have read normally and don't know that i would encourage others to read it either. overall, it's alright.

challenges and the blahs

so i haven't been really good with my 90-day challenge recently. no, i haven't eaten any pre-packaged food or in a restaurant, but i've wanted to.

trouble is, lee and i have been super busy recently. so we've been having dinner very late at night, sometimes at 9pm. we've been really run down. so sometimes i come home from work and i throw some pasta on to boil and i have pasta and tofu and cheese. then i eat that for dinner, lunch the next day, and dinner again because i'm too tired to make anything else. that's not exactly what i imagined when i set this challenge for myself. i was really trying to make great, wholesome food everyday.

the other interesting thing is that i've realized i may not be able to keep my "no restaurant food" vow. mostly because lee's office has invited me to come in and talk about library design to them. there will be a corporate lunch out thing afterward, and i can't really not do that. sigh...

i've been a little in the "blahs" because of all this, but tonight's dinner was a sure way to cure that! i encourage you to make this and eat it yourself. we almost ate the whole pot :)


tofu beer stew

1 lb. tofu
1 onion, diced
1 celery rib, sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme (dried)
1/2 tsp oregano (dried)
1 tsp parsley (fresh, chopped)
black pepper, to taste
10 oz. vegetable broth
1 bottle brown beer of your choice (if your bottle is a big bottle, use only 350 ml)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tbsp cornstarch

1. preheat oven to 350. slice tofu into about 1 inch cubes. heat a pot on the stove top with olive oil. brown tofu.
2. put in veggies and herbs. saute until onions are translucent.
3. add all other ingredients, EXCEPT cornstarch. stir well and place into preheated oven.
4. bake for about an hour. dilute cornstarch with some of the cooking liquid. add to pan and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
5. serve immediately.

we ate it over mashed potatoes and nearly drooled on ourselves. plus, it smells up the house so nicely. it's perfect for a chilly day! oh, and share with friends--they'll thank you :)

cute 'n tasty li'l muffins

this recipe was on the back of the bob's red mill teff flour. i thought i'd give it a try. teff is the staple grain of ethiopia and is used to make traditional injera. i love ethiopian food, but i have never had injera made this way. i've been told that what you usually get in restaurants is made of a barley mixture, better suited to american tastes, apparently. but the next time i have ethiopian food, i will request teff injera :) this is my first cruise with teff and it is delicious! you could probably substitute the brown rice flour for all-purpose flour, as well. but these muffins have a unique and wonderful taste as is!


teff muffins

1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c teff flour
3/4 c brown rice flour
1/2 c arrowroot, potato, or tapioca starch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg (the original recipe used cinnamon instead)
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/3 c olive oil
2/3 c water
1/2 c chopped hazelnuts

1. preheat oven to 400. grease or line muffin tin.
2. combine sugar, flours, arrowroot (or starch of choice), baking powder, nutmeg and salt.
3. mix eggs, oil and water together. add to flour mixture and combine quickly. stir in nuts.
4. fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full and bake for 25 minutes.

EAT! i like them warm and split in half with either butter or strawberry jam :)

dracula

here is my first book review of 2010:

dracula by bram stoker

i really enjoyed this book! i am kind of a vampire nut--i greatly enjoy good-quality vampire stories, but NOT ones that are gratuitously bloody or lack depth and plot. i have seen the old dracula movies with bela lugosi (a hungarian, and historically it is thought that dracula was based on a wallachian count from transylvania--historically part of hungary--so lugosi is an appropriate choice!). i have also seen the german film, nosferatu, which might be my favorite old movie ever. it's only natural that i went back to the dracula story source--finally--for a good vampire book.

the book chapters are sections out of the various characters' journals, so everything is from someone's first-person point of view. and what i like about the story, what i didn't know really, is that mina harker is the true heroine! she is jonathan harker's new wife. they get married after jonathan's ill-fated trip to transylvania to meet with count dracula and discuss the new property he has just purchased in london. what starts out as a business trip turns sinister, as jonathan realizes he is actually held captive in the count's castle.

i don't want to ruin any of the book if you haven't read it, so i will just say that eventually jonathan gets out, mina goes to him at a mental hospital and they get married. once funky things start happening back in england, they get wrapped up with a man named dr. van helsing and mina (more than once) saves the day with her feminine wit and smarts.

overall, a great read and i highly recommend it for anyone who likes vampires, victorian literature, classic stories, or just a wonderful book :)

the good and bad of ala

it's been a while, but i have a valid excuse. i have been so busy at work, and over last weekend, the american library association's mid-winter meeting was held here in boston. i went for work and just had so much to do!

the bad:
i attended an alcts (association for library collections and technical services) symposium on "living digital." i did not like it. first, it separated people into these new buzz terms: "digital native" or "digital immigrant." the only people using those terms are older librarians! these aren't legitimate ways to classify ourselves or our users! basically, if you were born after 1980 and have always had technology in your home or classroom, you're a digital native. if you were born before 1980, you're an immigrant. even though i was not born after '80, i consider myself a native because i've been using a computer since kindergarten and grew up with a video-gaming system in my house. i call it close enough. but mostly, these terms just create an us v. them attitude. it gives librarians an excuse to not embrace technologies or to think that today's students don't do work like "we" did. i will say, ann wolpert, the director of mit libraries spoke on a panel and she was fantastic and one of the few speakers who seemed to have a lot of sense. otherwise, everyone speaking was a "digital immigrant" speaking about THE OTHER! shouldn't they have been a little more even-handed and less "books are disappearing" doom and gloom? there was not one "digital native" speaking at the event!

the good:
i ran into a former co-worker from atlanta, georgia on the exhibit floor. we went out for drinks. it was great to see her. i also had the opportunity to attend a special event at the eric carle museum of picture book art in western massachusetts. he's the author/illustrator of the very hungry caterpillar. check out the web site--it was cool! and while i was there, i got to meet and hear norton juster, the author of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE children's book, the phantom tollbooth. and he even signed the copy i've had since 1989 :)


but i've been worn out from all this and so have nothing else to really blog about at the moment. lee and i haven't even been eating dinner together very much, so i have no good food news either!

p.s.--i should say here that i have nothing against older librarians. or even old libraries! i just feel that some librarians are alarmist about print collections. they're not really going anywhere any time soon. i know--i've pretty much only worked in historical/special collections libraries...

5-spice molasses cookies

mmm... i'm sharing this recipe today on my sick-day home from work :( but the cookies were delicious! thanks to lee's mom for sharing a ginger molasses recipe that worked great to convert to gluten free, 5-spice cookies! sorry for the lack of photograph, but i either mailed the cookies away or ate them. they are long gone--but the lucky recipients of them (my nieces and kara--the purchaser of the great 5-spice) will enjoy them, i hope. even if they arrive via usps in a million pieces...

5-spice molasses cookies

3/4 cup vegan shortening (or softened butter or margarine)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp high quality chinese 5-spice
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cup gluten free flour mix of your choosing (or regular all-purpose flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum IF you are not using a GF flour mix that already has it. OMIT for regular white, all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar

1. preheat oven to 350.
2. in a large bowl, beat shortening or butter on high speed for about 30 seconds.
3. add brown sugar, 5-spice, and baking soda. beat until combined. beat in egg and molasses.
4. add flour (and xanthan gum if using)--beat in as much as you can with the mixer. then add any remaining flour by hand if necessary.
5. shape dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls. if you are using gluten free flour, you may need to refrigerate the dough for 5 minutes before doing this. roll in white sugar to coat.
6. bake on a parchment covered baking pan (for GF cookies) or an ungreased baking sheet or baking stone. bake for about 10 minutes, until puffy and lightly browned. let stand about 2 minutes before attempting to remove from baking sheet.

mmm...mmm...morning...

anyone who knows me knows that i'm not a morning person. i sleep until 9 or later when left to my own devices, and even for work it is almost impossible for me to get up before 7am. but i do like my breakfast!

my 90-day challenge to eat only homemade foods is most difficult in the morning. it's hard to cook a breakfast from scratch each morning and make it to work on time. so last week, i finished a box of cereal that was opened before the challenge began, and then had toast made from my first bread machine loaf for the rest of the week. but toast is not filling, so i was trying to think of other solutions without eating baked goods every morning. because though baked goods are homemade, and i make mighty fine breakfast baked goods if i do say so myself, they are not always so healthy for you!

so i made rice pudding instead :) i love this rice pudding recipe because you can throw whatever you have on hand in it. i sometimes make it when we have people over for brunch and it's always a hit. i made a big batch and can then just quickly reheat on the stove top (we don't own a microwave, and i never will!) with a smidge of milk. mmm...


rice pudding breakfast cereal

2 cups cooked basmati rice
2 cups soy milk
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup toasted almond slices
pinch ginger
pinch nutmeg
1 cap-full rose water

1. mix all ingredients together in a bowl--use spices to taste. transfer to oven-proof dish. bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until all the milk is absorbed.

this recipe is wonderful because you can make it with any kind of rice--i've successfully made it with everything from uncle ben's to sushi rice. you can use any kind of milk. and you can use any fruit, nuts, whatever in it. a family favorite for us is to put apples or pears in it, with plenty of cinnamon. i've never put rosewater in it before, but i thought the ingredients this time would go well with it (and they did!). i do love tasty rosewater applications :)

i'm looking forward to breakfast all week now!

french onion soup

yum!

because i don't eat beef broth, i cook my onions down, then add marsala wine (or red wine if i don't have marsala on hand). this time i added about 1/3 cup, and boy does it taste fabulous! on top you see a tasty piece of garlic and basil millet bread and some lovely low fat provolone cheese. i'm mopping drool up off of my keyboard!

and for those who might be interested, i bought this stalk of brussels sprouts. i had no idea that this is how they grew. trader joe's had these, and they said that 1 stalk had approximately 5 servings on it. note: it's been a few days since this picture was taken, but we've eaten about 6 servings and are still going!

fun at work

i'm writing an article for our online object of the month collection on fannie farmer. i've been reading the boston cooking-school cook book and chafing dish possibilities, along with plenty of biographical entries on fannie farmer to do this. i wanted to share some real *food for thought*:

Cookery is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the body.
Prehistoric man may have lived on uncooked foods, but there are no savage races to-day who do not practice cookery in some way, however crude. Progress in civilization has been accompanied by progress in cookery. (p17 of the original facsimile edition of the boston cooking-school cook book, 1896)

Food is anything which nourishes the body. Thirteen elements enter into the composition of the body: oxygen, 62 1/2%; carbon, 21 1/2%; hydrogen, 10%; nitrogen, 3%; calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, chlorine, sodium, magnesium, iron, and fluorine the remaining 3%. [...] Food is necessary for growth, repair, and energy; therefore the elements composing the body must be found in the food. The thirteen elements named are formed into chemical compounds by the animal and vegetable kingdom to support the highest order of being, man. (p1 of the original facsimile edition of the boston cooking-school cook book, 1896)

I wish more people today thought so highly of food and its preparation!

now for some books

for anyone who knows me, i read a lot. i'm a librarian, so i read for work. i'm curious, so i read for knowledge. and reading for pleasure is just, well, pleasurable. a couple of years ago, i kept a list of everything i read for the year, and it was over 50 books. so i'm doing the same again. it's under the "what i'm reading now" bookshelf and called "books in 2010."

here i will keep track of every book i read. some of these are for work, such as work by alcott. also, i'm not counting any book that i started reading in 2009. so the chronicles of narnia will not be able to help my book count. i will also only count books that i read in their entirety. i often have to read parts of books for work. if i don't read it cover to cover, it doesn't count! i'm really interested to see how many books my tired eyes will read this year...

challenges to the new 90-day challenge!

okay, it's day 3 of the 90-day "make everything homemade" challenge that i set up for myself. here is what i've noticed will be challenging so far:

1. there are still a couple of pre-made things in the house. so i guess i've resolved to finish them before i make the same thing homemade. example: bread mix--i just bought a bread maker (to assist in the making of gluten-free bread, and also handy for this challenge). but about 3 weeks ago i bought a bread mix from whole foods, expecting that i would make it before my challenge kicked in. i never had time to make it, but decided that i would use it as the inauguration batch for my bread maker, rather than letting it sit for 90 days and buying the ingredients to make bread from scratch.

2. i don't have complete buy-in. my husband is apparently bent on thwarting me when he can. we went grocery shopping and he bought yoghurt and sorbet--both are things on the list that should be made homemade. next week, i won't let him go off on his own at the store!

3. my friend trinity asked me about quickie meals. my solution: on sunday, i am cooking up a big batch of something and eating it for the whole week for lunch. so this week i am making sweet and sour tofu. i will package the veggies, tofu and sauce in one tupperware and the rice in another and just scoop out lunch portions every morning until it's done. for quickie dinners, we often make big stuff at the beginning of the week and then eat the leftovers later in the week. we will continue to do the same. so eating only homemade stuff doesn't dis-clude leftovers. (THANK GOODNESS!)

4. snacks are proving to be a problem. still thinking about this one... i bought some blue corn tortilla chips for lunches and snacks this week--i wouldn't be able to make these homemade anyway, but i struggled to think of other things for snacks that aren't pre-packaged junk food. i can make fruit-nut mixes, of course, but does anyone have other suggestions?

otherwise, we're off to a good start. on new year's day, we went to our neighbor's house for dinner and they made a beautiful home-cooked meal of roasted tomato and mushroom soup, white beans and chard, and a fennel and radicchio salad. for dessert, we had chocolate tofu mousse with jellied fruit on top. yesterday, lee and i had the leftover cinnamon rolls for breakfast, along with picking at some leftovers for lunch. then for dinner, we had a wonderful baked pasta dish. here is the amended recipe (how i'll make it next time, because the sauce was a little too runny):

smoked salmon baked fusilli

6 oz. brown rice fusilli
4 oz. wild smoked salmon
1 tbsp butter
2 celery stalks, diced
4 scallions, sliced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 cup plain, unsweetened rice milk
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tsp dried dill
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp gluten free breadcrumbs or cornflake crumbs

1. preheat oven to 425.
2. cook pasta according to package directions, leaving a little under done. drain, rinse and toss into bowl with chopped up smoked salmon.
3. saute onions, scallions, and celery in butter. season with pepper and dill. add rice milk, broth, and frozen peas. bring to a boil. scoop some of the liquid back into a measuring cup. add cornstarch and mix well. pour back into pan. bring to a boil to thicken.
4. once thickened as desired (add more cornstarch if you like it thicker), pour over pasta and salmon in the bowl. toss well.
5. place in buttered 8x8 baking dish. mix together parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. coat top of dish evenly. bake for 20 minutes or until brown on top and bubbly.

it was very delicious and smelled divine baking. if you don't like fish, smoked tofu or tempeh would do the trick just as nicely. i can't wait for the leftovers!

new year, new 90-day challenge

i never make new year's resolutions. but this year, i was inspired by many things (including julia child!) and also thinking more about my health and how i can make 2010 the year that i finally feel like i think a normal person feels like. so this year, i have a resolution--and i think it will be easy to fulfill because it only requires being diligent for 90 days.

i have resolved to make virtually EVERYTHING i eat homemade until march 31, 2010.

EVERYTHING includes:
bread
pasta sauces
pasta (when possible)
yoghurt (for lee, not me--i hate yoghurt)
bbq sauce
any pastries, sweets, etc.
some alcohol, such as hard cider

EVERYTHING does not include:
things that are not easy to make when one has a full-time job, such as:
tortillas
crackers
other alcohol, such as beer (because i do not know how to make gf beer)
cheese
butter
soymilk

i think you get the picture.

i will try to get as much as i can locally and/or organically, but i already do, so that is not the focus of this project. this project is meant to inspire me and prove that living without wheat is a wonderful thing. when i was a chef, even though i worked in a kitchen all day, i still made almost everything homemade. every week, i made bread, yoghurt, granola, cookies and snacks for our lunches, you name it. i'd like to get back to that. i do not need to eat out as much as i have started to. i do not need (nor do i really like) pre-made mixes. it's about taking time to prepare everything i eat, and making it WITH LOVE :)

obviously, if friends want to go out, i will go out for a drink of wine (or what have you), but i will not eat food out. also, if friends want to have us over for dinner, we will do that as well. but our friends will also have to make the dinner from scratch--NOTE: this is not a problem at all with our friends. whenever we have dinner together, we all cook together anyway. this will not be an undue hardship.

so to start the year off right, i made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. i modified a recipe from here which apparently came from a book called The Gluten Free Kitchen by roben ryberg. here it is:


gluten free cinnamon rolls (TO DIE FOR)

2 tbsp vegan shortening
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup room temperature vanilla soymilk
1 packet yeast
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup namaste all-purose gluten free flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup roasted and crushed hazelnuts

glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
milk, to taste to make spreadable or drippable glaze

1. preheat oven to 375.
2. cream sugar and shortening.
3. dissolve yeast in milk. stir well and add to sugar mixture.
4. add rest of ingredients and mix well until there are no lumps.
5. grease 2 large pieces of wax paper with some oil. place dough on one piece and lightly sugar the top, then lay the other piece on top and roll out dough to desired thickness between the two sheets. i made mine about 13 inches by 12 inches.
6. remove the top piece of wax paper. spread filling on the dough. leave about 1/4 inch on both the top and bottom of the dough--some of the filling will squeeze out as you roll. also leave a couple of inches on the one side. you want the dough to stick on the one side so your rolls will close.
7. using the bottom piece of wax paper, slowly roll the dough into a jelly roll shape. cut into 8-10 pieces. put pieces into a greased pie plate. bake for about 20-25 minutes.
8. while the rolls are baking, make glaze. drizzle glaze over warm rolls before serving.

the next time i make these, i will not use nuts. the hazelnuts tasted fabulous, but they pierced through the dough in a couple of places, which made the rolls difficult to cut and transfer to the pie plate. and i really don't think the rolls needed them. i'm kind of a purist when it comes to cinnamon rolls.

these rolls are delicious and they made my year! 2010 is off to a great start. i have been in heaven since consuming them :) ta da!