Stuffed Acorn Squash

I didn’t really use a recipe, but this is what I sort of put together for it…

1 pkg ground chicken
1 medium apple, cored and chopped
1 large bag spinach
orzo
acorn squash
~1 C shredded cheese (I used gruyere)

preheat oven to 350

cut ends off acorn squash then cut squash in half. clean the seeds out.
I would recommend cooking the squash for about 20 minutes before adding the mixture. You can add a little butter to the hollow for flavor while doing this.

For the mixture:
Make orzo following instructions (you could use rice instead). Probably make 3-4 servings
In a large saucepan, sautee the spinach in a little olive oil to soften it. Put in a bowl and set aside
Brown the chicken in the same pan
Once the chicken is browned, mix in the spinach, apple and orzo together

Stuff the squash halves with the mixture.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until acorn squash is tender to a fork poke.

*this mixture could be cooked in ramekins or in a casserole dish with biscuits/crust to make it more kid friendly, if need be.

Pumpkin muffin – Made my own puree!

Shackleton’s Whisky

The outer packaging

“A gift from the heavensfor whisky lovers” -Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte and Mackay

A few years back, under a hut which had stood on the Antarctic ice for more than a century, conservators from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust found three cases of whisky. This whiskey (originally 46 cases!) had been ordered from the Glen Mhor distillery for Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 journey to the South Pole. Of course their expedition would need whisky – they were gentlemen, after all, not savages.

The Story
In early 2007, when those conservators were working on the Cape Royds site, they discovered the cases buried under the shack in thick sheets of ice. Shackleton, who has become known in recent years for his management style, was in the news once more. Those in the whisky community were excited. People who care about Antarctica were enthralled. But there are international treaties in place to protect Antarctic artifacts (antartifacts?) Would anybody—let alone me—ever get to taste such a rare thing?

A crate of the whisky made its way to a museum lab in New Zealand in 2010. At the lab, the crate was slowly brought up to 0 Celsius and 10 of the 11 bottles were found to be intact. It amazes me that they survived so long… it reminds me of perfectly in-tact Greek and Roman glass, which clearly had divine protection to make it to our day.

Recreating the Past
Three of the bottles were flown via private jet to Scotland by Whyte and Mackay, the company which owns the Mackinlay’s brand. They “spent several weeks in the laboratory nosing, tasting and deconstructing the whisky to reveal its true heritage”. I’m amazed at what they could discover… that the whisky was matured in American oak sherry casks, that the peat was from the Orkney Islands… Science really is awesome.

the whisky along with the extras in the box.

The masters tasted the whisky (WOW!!!!) and, after what I’m guessing was a very spiritual connection with British history, they described the whisky like this:

“… light honey in colour, straw gold with shimmering highlights, and with an aroma that is soft, elegant and refined on the nose. Indeed, detailed nosing revealed delicate aromas of crushed apple, pear and fresh pineapple with notes of oak shavings, smoke and hints of buttery vanilla, creamy caramel and nutmeg. And, finally, the tasting revealed a spirit that has plenty of impact on the palate; a tantalising array of flavours that is both harmonious and exhilarating.”

In another bit of luck, even though the original distillery was closed, some of their product was still available. This meant that the flavor profile could be recreated more easily, using their whisky as a base.

Beautiful color, great flavor

My Tasting
My palate is nowhere near that refined. I recently ordered a bottle of this whisky and was impressed with the presentation when it arrived. Along with an interesting box, the bottle itself was covered in raffia (to remind the consumer of the original packing straw). The glass and labels were all created with the past in mind.

Along with the whisky, the box included reproductions and information about the journey. There is a map of Antarctica, of the hut (including where the cases were found), some prints of photos from the expedition and a booklet with a lot of the information I’ve shared above. It’s clear that a lot of love and respect went into this product.

In honor of Scott and the heritage this whisky represents, each bottle sold means a donation to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

After the delightful squeaky squeaky pop on opening the bottle, I took a whiff. I will admit a certain fear that the smell would not be pleasing. I was wrong. I tend to drink single malts, so the combination of aromas was at first surprising but soon I was picking out the different layers. The taste is light and, as stated above, definitely harmonious and exhilarating.

This will be a lovely treat as I read more about Shackleton’s Antarctic adventures.

——-
Read more about the whisky’s journey here: http://www.theshackletonwhisky.com
Donate to the Antarctic Heritage Trust: www.heritage-antarctica.org

Making my Own Tomato Sauce

I know I’ve written about sweets and baking mostly, but with the weather starting to turn cool but summer produce still plentiful, it seemed like a perfect weekend to try making something new—tomato sauce. I had a bunch of tomatoes from my own garden and supplemented them with a bunch of tomatoes purchased at a farmer’s market.

Yum! Look at these tomatoes!

I’ve never made sauce before, but I’ve made soups, so I figured I could handle this. I also did something great, which was to crowd source on Facebook. I can count many great cooks among my friends, I’m happy to say, and got some great advice on what to add, what to avoid and how to really bring out the best of the flavors I was using. I actually got so much good advice that I’m looking forward to trying this again to use all that information.

For the basic steps of making a sauce, I started with the about.com recipe.This was a great reference for me. What you’ll need:

• Tomatoes (it’s amazing how much this cooks down so for all this work, you should get a lot of tomatoes!)
• Onions, chopped finely
• Carrots, chopped finely
• Garlic, chopped finely
• Basil, chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 Bay leaf
• Wine (this is optional… you can also use balsamic vinegar or something else acidic. A friend said this helps the flavor to pop and she was right!)

You’re also going to need some tools. So, if this is your first time, here’s some stuff you’re going to need:

• A big pot. Maybe two, so you can use one for tomato prep and the other, bigger one for the sauce.
• A colander
• A long, sturdy mixing tool. I used a grilling tool at first for mixing then switched over to a long-handled spoon as the mixture cooked down.
• Several large bowls

Many people spoke up against adding sugar. On the advice of one friend, I added some carrots for sweetness instead and it turned out well. Another great piece of advice was to add more garlic than I thought I should. I’m also lucky that I grow my own basil, so I had plenty of fresh basil to use.

I put in a few tomatoes at a time to avoid crowding.

So… first step, prep the tomatoes. I had about 30-40 tomatoes. Other than the actual cooking down of the sauce, this was the longest step. Boil a big pot of water, and then put the tomatoes in for a few minutes to loosen the skins. Some people score the bottom of the tomato with an X to help the skin pull back. I didn’t, but on some of my tomatoes I wish I had.

When you pull them out, rinse them with cold water and drain them. Seriously, you’re going to drain the tomatoes 10 times and still have a ridiculous amount of water on them. Once they’re cool enough, remove the stems, skin and seeds. This is messy. If you compost, add all your skins and seeds for that. If not, I was happy to have a garbage disposal for everything. Did I mention this step was messy?

Once I was done with this, I heated up the pot with the olive oil (1/4 cup) and sautéed the onions (3 medium), carrots (I used 3), and garlic to soften them up. I think in the future I’d puree these afterwards so my final sauce wouldn’t be so distinct, but that doesn’t detract.

Most of that liquid will go away.

Next, add those tomatoes to the mixture, along with the basil, salt and pepper. Be careful – this step can be messy if you aren’t! Mix this together and let it come to a boil.

Reduce the heat and leave it to simmer. Stir occasionally. Use this time to clean up the dirty dishes, make a quilt, learn a new language, read a book, watch a football game or take a nap. I kept this on the lowest temperature I can get on my stove. I cooked it most of Saturday afternoon and another few hours on Sunday to get it to the consistency I wanted.

When it was the consistency I wanted, I added about a third cup of wine (I used a cabernet sauvignon), mixed it up, and let it cook down again. After all that work, I couldn’t resist having some right away. DELICIOUS!!!

Definitely worth the effort!

While the number of tomatoes I used didn’t leave me with enough jars to say goodbye to that supermarket aisle, it did give me the confidence and the ability to try to make more next year.

One note… I’ve never done canning (next time?) and didn’t make enough to have to worry about it, but if you do make enough to worry about that, it doesn’t seem that difficult. Just be careful—nobody needs botulism!

For the experienced readers, what advice do you have for novices?

Soylent Green

This weekend I watched Soylent Green for the first time. The movie takes place in 2022, a scant 10 years from now. There are a few funny elements, like how low-tech their future tech is and some of the acting. The 70s really were a wacky time, but this is serious dystopian science fiction.

I think most people know the reveal, so I won’t go into that. Since that line has become so iconic, it turns out that that’s not even that big a part of the movie. After showing how the world changes to bring us to the year 2022, the movie tells the story of Detective Thorn, played by Charlton Heston, investigating a murder. I will focus instead on some of the movie’s themes that have relevance to issues facing us today.

The Environment

The issues of pollution, food scarcity, and overpopulation shape the world of Soylent Green.  There’s a permanent haze, people shouldn’t go out without dust masks and there isn’t enough housing so the poor are living in stairwells or are crammed into churches. Along with that, the pollution levels seem to be making food production harder. Fresh vegetables, fruit and meat are prohibitively expensive for most people and processed food rations sustain most of the population. Running water is a luxury for the richest elements of society.

These themes seem eerily prescient. Today, we’re continually recalling food because it’s not safe to eat; weather changes are destroying crops, causing rising food prices; cities around the world have unhealthy air quality on a daily basis; and fights over water occur not just in the poorest of African countries but in American cities drawing from the Colorado River.

The environmental fears first addressed in the 1960s novel weren’t allayed in the early 70s by the time the film was made and seem even further from being addressed today.

 

Corruption

It’s striking to see the blatant police corruption in the movie. While investigating a murder, our protagonist takes a pillowcase and fills it up with goods from the deceased man’s home. He takes books, liquor, food and soap—all scarce items in the larger world—without even trying to hide what he’s doing. The coroners, detectives and police bureaucracy all skim off the top as well. Murders are given flimsy resolutions to cash in on them. Most people are too busy trying to survive, fighting off hunger and disease, to fight for any kinds of rights. And those who do fight are rounded up in dump trucks, presumably never to be seen again.

But this isn’t relegated to low-level corruption. The Soylent Corporation clearly controls their world. They’ve bought off police departments and the politicians are merely pawns in their global domination. It turns out their take-over has been implemented over several decades and runs up through the NY governor’s office. Soylent has the power to get Thorn’s investigation shut down.

The fears expressed through Soylent remind me of modern fears like genetically modified crops from Monsanto and food safety issues around Chinese imports.

Humanity

In one scene, a woman lies dead in the street and nobody notices. Our protagonist does, taking her now-orphaned child to an over-crowded church. There’s a priest at the Church, the same priest who heard confession from Thorn’s victim. The priest clearly seems shell-shocked, as though the horrors of this world—and the victim’s revelations—are too much to deal with. The priest isn’t the only one who can’t deal with the knowledge of Soylent Green’s composition. Thorn’s friend, the elderly “Sol”, finds out the truth and turns to assisted suicide rather than continue to live in this world.

The emotional center of the movie comes when Thorn visits Sol at the assisted suicide center. As he says goodbye to his friend, he cries. This is the only real emotion we see in the movie, these two friends saying goodbye. Even when Thorn becomes intimate with Shirl (“furniture” at the deceased man’s apartment), he doesn’t show an emotional connection. Perhaps he doesn’t see her as human, only as “furniture”, as he eventually abandons her to her fate.

Apartments come with furniture, such as sofas, bedroom sets and companions. When a new person moves in, they can decide what they want to keep, including the companions. Are these women full citizens or are they merely accessories? And what happens when a new tenant doesn’t want the companion that comes with the place? It’s not said, but building managers seem to double as pimps.

So, if your only interaction with this movie has been from The Simpsons or Saturday night live, I’d suggest taking some time to watch it. It’s a slower pace than you’ll be used to from current movies, but it has some thought-provoking themes.

Bread Pudding

I decided to try my hand at bread pudding. I’d never made it before but have always enjoyed it. People don’t tend to make it very often, so I thought it might be hard. It’s not.

For this I used:

1 loaf Challah* bread, cut into chunks
2 C whole milk
1/4 C butter
2/3 C brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 t vanilla

*you can use any kind of bread for this, really. A lot of recipes call for French bread. I bought mine the day before, sliced it and let it sit overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 1.5 Qt ramekin and fill with the bread. Be sure to coat really well. I found out the hard way that the bread crusts nicely onto the dish. Alternately, you can use single-serve ramekins.

Heat the milk over a medium flame until you just get a film forming. Add the butter and mix until it melts. Set aside for a few minutes so it cools.

Mix the brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Slowly mix in the milk mixture.

Pour this mixture over the bread and mix together so that the bread is thoroughly coated.

I had a fairly large loaf of challah and added more bread after the wet ingredients, making sure that everything was nicely coated.

Bake for around 45 minutes.

 

Along with this, I made a bourbon sauce to go on top.

1 stick unsalted butter

1 egg

1 C sugar

1 t vanilla

bourbon

Melt the butter in a saucepan

Add sugar, egg and vanilla

Whisk to blend and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened

Now, this is VERY IMPORTANT. If you have the kind of measuring cup that can spill while pouring, turn off the heat before adding the bourbon (or at least remove the saucepan from the burner while you add the bourbon). It is alcohol and it will burn.

Serve while still warm.

Orange Cupcakes

For Valentine’s Day, I offered to make dessert and we settled on cupcakes. I love citrus flavor and am always on the lookout for new, delicious ways to enjoy it, so I found this recipe for orange cupcakes.

The house was filled with the delightful scent of orange as I grated the peel and then baked them. I finished them kind of late on Monday and set them aside to decorate on Tuesday. I grated some more orange peel to add to the icing (I decided to go with buttercream icing instead of the cream cheese recipe included with that) and picked up one of the cupcakes to decorate it. That’s when I noted how heavy this dessert was.

I had been hoping for a lighter, fluffier cake but clearly didn’t get that. Luckily, they were still moist and delicious with the right amount of orange flavor.

Recently, I’ve noticed that using a piping bag and a star decorating tip gives the simplest cupcake a very fancy edge. Since it doesn’t take much longer than a spatula and is much cleaner, I’m completely hooked. Adding a few sprinkles, some crushed candy or silver dragees are a crowning touch. It’s been a lot of fun trying new decorating ideas.

For these cupcakes, I decided to top them with something I already had—candied orange peel. Some I topped with a plain piece of peel while others I used chocolate dipped orange peel

You can see the results:

*I’m still looking for a light, fluffy, moist cupcake recipe that I can play around with. If you come across one, please share!

Princeton University Art Museum

One of the things I decided I wanted to do this year was visit more local art museums. Towards that goal, today involved rounding up a few people and heading across the border into the not-so-wilds of New Jersey.

What drew me to this museum? Today was the last day of the exhibit Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum. I love medieval sculpture and was excited to see these pieces. Also, I wasn’t too familiar with alabasters, so this was an interesting new area to learn about.

One of the really interesting parts was the amount of color left on some of the alabasters. Since so many of the surviving sculptures and ivories are devoid of color, it’s a treat to see the art as medieval people would have seen it.

While there were 60 alabasters in the exhibit, a lot of them centered on John the Baptist or the Crucifixion. While the latter made sense, I was a  bit surprised to see how much devotion there was to John. There was also another saint, whose name escapes me now, who is a patron saint of gardeners. My tomato plants could use him…

by Ad Reinhardt

After we looked at the alabasters, we checked out some of the permanent galleries focused on American and European art. In the modern art galleries, I really found myself drawn to a painting by Ad Reinhardt. The canvas is broken into 9 squares, each painted in slightly different tones of the same dark color. From a distance, it looks like a solid black square but as you get closer, the individual blocks become more distinct.

Next, our group broke into two groups with one perusing American Art and the other headed to the Medieval collection.

14th Century Ivory

The Medieval gallery had some nice pieces in it, including a couple ivories. I love 14^th Century ivories. These small pieces tend to have a lot of detail in them and since many were made for secular use, the scenes and fashions are contemporary.

Besides the ivories, the museum has some nice enamels, lovely stained glass, Islamic pottery and murals and even a knight’s gisant with great detail.

Pisco Sours

Normally, if I try a new liquor or drink, it’s because I read about it in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. I am really susceptible to trends I read about; it’s a little pathetic. This year, though, I was introduced to a new drink in a different way.

A dear friend gave me a bottle of Pisco for Christmas. I had heard of pisco before, but didn’t really know what it was. I think I always assumed it was one of those Prohibition-era spirts that fell out of favor once people weren’t using their bathtubs as distilleries. Apparently, that’s not the case.

Pisco, it turns out, is a distilled grape brandy produced in Peru and Chile.

Everything you need to make a pisco sour

I’m always up for trying something new, so was excited to give this a whirl. The pisco sour is a pretty typical drink, so I decided to start there. (Sadly, we missed Pisco Sour day, which Peru celebrates during the first weekend of February.)

The recipe we decided on is:

6 oz Pisco
2 oz lime juice*
3 oz simple syrup
1 egg white
Bitters

*some recipes call for lemon juice. After consulting with a Peruvian friend, we went with lime juice.

Mix the pisco, lime juice, simple syrup and egg white in a shaker. Once it’s well-mixed, add some ice and shake a little more (this ensures that the egg whites froth up). Serve in an old fashioned glass. Garnish with a few drops of bitters.

Enjoy!

I have to admit, I was worried about the texture of egg whites in my drink. It actually didn’t taste “eggy” at all and was pretty light. In the end, the drink was a success and is pretty easy to make. The pisco sour is more of a sipping drink. If you like old time-y cocktails, those that aren’t likely to leave you in a diabetic coma, this will probably appeal to you.

 

So, cheers to my friend who decided that this would be a good Christmas present. It was!

Snowflakes

One of my favorite motifs is the snowflake. I love snowflakes falling like glitter from the sky, blanketing the world in white. I love those branching six-pointed crystals and the fact that there is a limitless number of ways they can be portrayed.

Bentley print in the Smithsonian's collection

When it’s time to decorate for Christmas, my favorite decorations to put out are the ones with snowflakes. Maybe it’s because I know that once the wreaths and ornaments are away, the snowflakes can hang around for a while longer, but since a growing proportion of my ornaments are snowflakes, it’s doubtful.

Snowflakes are delicate, tiny and ephemeral. If you catch one, it melts away. I like the early images Bentley managed to capture. I also like glitter-encrusted depictions of snowflakes. I like that snowflakes can be very simple or very complex designs and that either way they are always beautiful.

Something fun to do is make your own snowflakes. You can take a piece of paper and fold it up then cut out pieces to create a radial pattern. Or, if you want to be a little more environmentally friendly, you can try this online version.