I have a post in the works about religion but I'm too tired to finish it right now, so instead I will give you a taste of our successful photo shoot for our Christmas card. Jen got the photo. :) It was EXACTLY what I was going for. YAY! So nice when a plan comes together.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Staying Connected
On sort of the other hand from my Communication post of a few weeks ago, (which itself was related to my Disconnecting post from a few days before that), today's ease of electronic communication really does help to stay connected with people, even if it's not via voice-to-voice communication. Being able to shoot an email to someone and know you're likely to get a quick response to something when they're available to get to it is better than trying to call them on the phone and leaving a message and playing phone tag for 3 days. And video chat/hangouts/Skype is pretty awesome. My brother is a big fan and it gives Nate a chance to talk to his Uncle "in person" more frequently than he would otherwise. It also makes business trips less sad because I can still see my family and talk to them in a more personal way.
Jen and I text and IM frequently throughout the day while I'm at work or while she's at work. We even video chat on occasion. Without that option, we wouldn't be able to speak on the phone with any frequency. Since we only see each other for more than an hour at a stretch 4 days a week, digital communication is the way we stay connected. We even make big decisions that way such as deciding that we someday want to be foster parents. We did make sure to talk about it in person later that day, but the main part of the discussion happened via instant messages.
I wonder, with all this written communication, if people are forgetting how to speak on the phone. People who aren't comfortable making phone calls have little need to ever speak to anyone. You can make changes to flights, arrange for gutter or carpet cleaning, troubleshoot problems with your cable box and even order take-out or delivery (all things Jen or I have done recently) without ever having to speak to a person on the phone. But then on those occasions when you DO need to make a phone call, do you hesitate or just not do it because you're uncomfortable with it?
I don't have a problem on the phone; I have to make phone calls for my job and have, in fact, become even more comfortable with making the less enjoyable calls for personal stuff because of that. I wasn't always as comfortable with it but when I lived by myself in grad school, there was no one else to do it. I tend to make most of the calls in our house because it doesn't bother me.
When we first started using our current babysitter, I used to try to call her to see if she was available. That's how I got my babysitting jobs when I was a kid. I didn't have a cell phone, heck, we probably didn't even have a cordless phone. If I wasn't home, my mom or dad took a message for me or the parents left a message on our answering machine. But our babysitter was a little slow to get back to us by calling. So one day, I texted her. I had her cellphone after all. IMMEDIATE response. So now I text to arrange babysitting. And it works VERY well. I can't complain. But how comfortable is she on the phone in general?
Will Nate know any phone etiquette by the time he's a teenager? I was always very polite when I called my friends. I usually got their parents. "Hi, this is Lauren, may I please speak to so-and-so?" Nate won't even have to interact with his friends' parents on the phone because he'll be calling (or texting) his friends directly with their cellphones.
Or maybe they'll just use the chips in their heads that we'll probably all have by then.
Friday, November 25, 2011
What's the big deal?
I officiated a wedding last week. It was a beautiful wedding for two women who plan to have a family in the future. Jen and I never really hesitated about having a family and so far haven't experienced any issues as a same-sex married couple with a child in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I'm sure it would be different in some other parts of the country.
Up to now no one has said anything to Nate about not having a dad or any other weird comments. He's only 3, he's not in pre-school, his almost 4-year old cousin is used to our family so doesn't think anything of it.
But I have noticed that about a year ago, when Nate was playing with toy animals that could be paired up into families, it was Mommy lion, Momma lion and Baby lion. That made sense; Nate calls me Mommy and Jen Momma. But then he started watching television. Caillou, Little Bear, Dino Dan, etc. Most of the shows he watches with kids have one mom and one dad (Dino Dan seems to have just his mom and in the episodes I've seen, no mention is made of a dad and Max and Ruby don't seem to have parents...). And slowly he started to make families with Mommy lion, Daddy lion and Baby lion. Except for one time I noticed, he's always doing Mommy, Daddy, baby. (That one time, he decided his 4 stuffed sheep were Mommy, Daddy, Momma and baby).
It would be nice if there were some children's cartoons where the child(ren) had two same-sex parents. There are two very sweet (non-agenda) board books for toddlers with two moms or two dads called Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa and Me that are sweet little books with sing-song text like "Mommy lifts me up up up, Mama puts juice in my cup" and Nate likes that one a lot. There are a few books like that though mostly meant for older kids and teaching about different types of families. I don't want a show or book with a lesson. I just want a show or a book where there happen to be two moms or two dads. Why does it always have to be a big deal?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Up to now no one has said anything to Nate about not having a dad or any other weird comments. He's only 3, he's not in pre-school, his almost 4-year old cousin is used to our family so doesn't think anything of it.
But I have noticed that about a year ago, when Nate was playing with toy animals that could be paired up into families, it was Mommy lion, Momma lion and Baby lion. That made sense; Nate calls me Mommy and Jen Momma. But then he started watching television. Caillou, Little Bear, Dino Dan, etc. Most of the shows he watches with kids have one mom and one dad (Dino Dan seems to have just his mom and in the episodes I've seen, no mention is made of a dad and Max and Ruby don't seem to have parents...). And slowly he started to make families with Mommy lion, Daddy lion and Baby lion. Except for one time I noticed, he's always doing Mommy, Daddy, baby. (That one time, he decided his 4 stuffed sheep were Mommy, Daddy, Momma and baby).
It would be nice if there were some children's cartoons where the child(ren) had two same-sex parents. There are two very sweet (non-agenda) board books for toddlers with two moms or two dads called Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa and Me that are sweet little books with sing-song text like "Mommy lifts me up up up, Mama puts juice in my cup" and Nate likes that one a lot. There are a few books like that though mostly meant for older kids and teaching about different types of families. I don't want a show or book with a lesson. I just want a show or a book where there happen to be two moms or two dads. Why does it always have to be a big deal?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Communication
Related to my last post, it dawned on me today that I don't talk to people the way I used to. I don't mean face-to-face. I still converse and interact with physical people the same way I always have. I mean long-distance people.
With FB and email and texting, I don't pick up the phone and talk to people the way I used to.
Geeze, in high school I was on the phone all the time. And we only had one cordless phone! If I was on the kitchen phone, which had a very long cord, I used to drive my mom crazy by walking back and forth past the table in the breakfast room and then into the kitchen and towards the hall to the diningroom, back towards the sink and then back into the breakfast room. On the cordless phone I used to walk in circles around the living room couches and then around the dining room table in a figure 8. Or I'd be on the phone while doing homework. And not always strictly conversing. Sometimes we were independently doing homework, or sometimes we were working on something together. Or sometimes we were gossiping or talking about the most recent high school drama. Thank goodness for call waiting!
College was a little different. We emailed a bit but it was still somewhat new so we also talked on the (still-not-wireless) telephones.
In grad school I walked a lot around town so I talked to people on my cell phone (once I finally got one in 2003) as I was going from home to class or between classes, etc.
When I got engaged I telephoned everyone to let them know.
When I got pregnant the first time, I phoned some people and emailed the rest.
When I had a miscarriage, I emailed everyone (but received phone calls in return).
When I got pregnant the second time I emailed everyone.
When Nate was born I posted it on myspace and facebook and emailed (and called my mom and brother).
Now I kind of assume people are reading it on Facebook or Google+.
And also there's texting.
Today I wanted to talk to one of my high school friends. Like with my voice on the phone. We've arranged a time to chat on Monday. Remember when we used to just call people at random? I think it's combination of becoming "adults" and parents and a combination of the new forms of communication that have developed. I wonder if people felt like this when telegraph and telephone started to become more widely used when before it had been a letter or nothing.
With FB and email and texting, I don't pick up the phone and talk to people the way I used to.
Geeze, in high school I was on the phone all the time. And we only had one cordless phone! If I was on the kitchen phone, which had a very long cord, I used to drive my mom crazy by walking back and forth past the table in the breakfast room and then into the kitchen and towards the hall to the diningroom, back towards the sink and then back into the breakfast room. On the cordless phone I used to walk in circles around the living room couches and then around the dining room table in a figure 8. Or I'd be on the phone while doing homework. And not always strictly conversing. Sometimes we were independently doing homework, or sometimes we were working on something together. Or sometimes we were gossiping or talking about the most recent high school drama. Thank goodness for call waiting!
College was a little different. We emailed a bit but it was still somewhat new so we also talked on the (still-not-wireless) telephones.
In grad school I walked a lot around town so I talked to people on my cell phone (once I finally got one in 2003) as I was going from home to class or between classes, etc.
When I got engaged I telephoned everyone to let them know.
When I got pregnant the first time, I phoned some people and emailed the rest.
When I had a miscarriage, I emailed everyone (but received phone calls in return).
When I got pregnant the second time I emailed everyone.
When Nate was born I posted it on myspace and facebook and emailed (and called my mom and brother).
Now I kind of assume people are reading it on Facebook or Google+.
And also there's texting.
Today I wanted to talk to one of my high school friends. Like with my voice on the phone. We've arranged a time to chat on Monday. Remember when we used to just call people at random? I think it's combination of becoming "adults" and parents and a combination of the new forms of communication that have developed. I wonder if people felt like this when telegraph and telephone started to become more widely used when before it had been a letter or nothing.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Disconnecting
So a good number of my friends on Facebook have recently been leaving for one reason or another.
One woman recognized that she had connected with many people from high school and even had connected with a previously unknown relative. However, she also found herself checking FB on her phone rather constantly and felt like those moments waiting with her daughter for her son at practice could have been better spent speaking with her daughter instead of seeing if anyone has posted any new tidbit of their life.
Another person who didn't use it frequently anyway and only posted photographs of her family decided to simply start a web album for her son and shared with all of us before she deleted her account.
And then there are a number of my coworkers who have left FB to devote all of their energy to Google+.
I understand all of those points. I definitely find that I'm curious to see what response I've gotten to my recent status update or photo or link and that I check my phone or online sometimes when I could be spending time with my family and also find myself staying up later than necessary at night because I want to "catch up" on FB or Google+ or the blogs I read.
One time recently, I found myself scanning quickly past many of the updates in my stream just after glancing at the name and then passing by without reading the update. So I decided to hide everyone that I didn't care to read. I figured if I missed them, I could unhide them. Which is exactly what I did. It's definitely fun to reconnect with people from high school and to stay in touch with relatives and friends but do I really need 531 friends? I think the next step will be to unfriend many (not all) of the people I had previously hidden.
I really don't think I'll delete my account because I do appreciate the connection I have with people. And I do miss reading the updates from the first woman I mentioned. But she does have a blog, which I read when she posts updates. I also have a blog ... um, you're reading it. :)
Somehow, I don't yet have the same reaction to Google+. Maybe because I have more control over exactly who I share with and it doesn't have to be the same people whose status I read. Yes, I know Facebook now has similar features but it doesn't seem intuitive. Okay, yeah, I may possibly have a bias since I work for Google and have been using it internally for awhile now, but I think it's more that I don't feel like taking the time to to customize it when there are already too many things to do online.
I think more than just social networks the problem is not being able to disconnect.
I recently half disconnected (from work stuff) when I went on vacation for 5 days. Today is my last day on vacation and I managed to not read my work email (or internal Google+) for 4 whole days. It was fun. However, last year when we went up to Maine for a week, we unintentionally went off the grid when the house that had had wireless the previous year we stayed there, did not have it. Our phones also were not an option as we were so close to the Canadian border that we were frequently roaming (and don't get reception out on Quoddy Head anyway). We didn't like it. This past vacation in Malibu, we did have wireless in the house we rented and spent a reasonable amount of time using it. It didn't take over family activities.
I also really enjoy the new side-effect of working at Google and having initially circled so many of my coworkers and reading their personal updates (and sharing mine) instead of just work-related things internally. I feel like I'm getting to know my coworkers better and discovering aspects of their lives and personalities that make me want to be friends with them. Of course, there's also the aspect of sharing my personal life with my coworkers which sometimes makes me leave them out of some of my updates. Sorry, guys. :)
I think, being online and keeping up with social networks is, as with anything, about moderation.
Maybe I just need to go back to my last job. I had so much down time that I did all my computer stuff at work and had more free time at home. But that wouldn't be as much fun as my current job. :)
One woman recognized that she had connected with many people from high school and even had connected with a previously unknown relative. However, she also found herself checking FB on her phone rather constantly and felt like those moments waiting with her daughter for her son at practice could have been better spent speaking with her daughter instead of seeing if anyone has posted any new tidbit of their life.
Another person who didn't use it frequently anyway and only posted photographs of her family decided to simply start a web album for her son and shared with all of us before she deleted her account.
And then there are a number of my coworkers who have left FB to devote all of their energy to Google+.
I understand all of those points. I definitely find that I'm curious to see what response I've gotten to my recent status update or photo or link and that I check my phone or online sometimes when I could be spending time with my family and also find myself staying up later than necessary at night because I want to "catch up" on FB or Google+ or the blogs I read.
One time recently, I found myself scanning quickly past many of the updates in my stream just after glancing at the name and then passing by without reading the update. So I decided to hide everyone that I didn't care to read. I figured if I missed them, I could unhide them. Which is exactly what I did. It's definitely fun to reconnect with people from high school and to stay in touch with relatives and friends but do I really need 531 friends? I think the next step will be to unfriend many (not all) of the people I had previously hidden.
I really don't think I'll delete my account because I do appreciate the connection I have with people. And I do miss reading the updates from the first woman I mentioned. But she does have a blog, which I read when she posts updates. I also have a blog ... um, you're reading it. :)
Somehow, I don't yet have the same reaction to Google+. Maybe because I have more control over exactly who I share with and it doesn't have to be the same people whose status I read. Yes, I know Facebook now has similar features but it doesn't seem intuitive. Okay, yeah, I may possibly have a bias since I work for Google and have been using it internally for awhile now, but I think it's more that I don't feel like taking the time to to customize it when there are already too many things to do online.
I think more than just social networks the problem is not being able to disconnect.
I recently half disconnected (from work stuff) when I went on vacation for 5 days. Today is my last day on vacation and I managed to not read my work email (or internal Google+) for 4 whole days. It was fun. However, last year when we went up to Maine for a week, we unintentionally went off the grid when the house that had had wireless the previous year we stayed there, did not have it. Our phones also were not an option as we were so close to the Canadian border that we were frequently roaming (and don't get reception out on Quoddy Head anyway). We didn't like it. This past vacation in Malibu, we did have wireless in the house we rented and spent a reasonable amount of time using it. It didn't take over family activities.
I also really enjoy the new side-effect of working at Google and having initially circled so many of my coworkers and reading their personal updates (and sharing mine) instead of just work-related things internally. I feel like I'm getting to know my coworkers better and discovering aspects of their lives and personalities that make me want to be friends with them. Of course, there's also the aspect of sharing my personal life with my coworkers which sometimes makes me leave them out of some of my updates. Sorry, guys. :)
I think, being online and keeping up with social networks is, as with anything, about moderation.
Maybe I just need to go back to my last job. I had so much down time that I did all my computer stuff at work and had more free time at home. But that wouldn't be as much fun as my current job. :)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Can't just stop eating...
So this blog post has been on my mind for a long time ... like since I started this blog a couple of years ago. I've actually started a post on this topic at least 2 other times and have written it in my head a few other times on top of that.
For about 5 years I struggled with an eating disorder. Not anorexia or bulimia but a compulsive overeating disorder (and specifically the binge eating disorder part of that). It's also considered to be food addiction. It's like the fun part of bulimia. But not really.
So what exactly does it mean? Well, it's not "oh, well everyone does that sometimes." Sure, we all eat a little too much at Thanksgiving, or maybe you decide to have a second piece of the cake you made or a third chocolate chip cookie, which you know might be a little excessive but in the long run isn't that big of a deal. No, this is eating that second piece of cake, and the third cookie, and then a fourth and fifth piece of cake and then you've eaten that much so why not finish it, and the batch of cookies, with a glass of milk. And then an apple because at least that's healthy ... but maybe with some peanut butter because apples and peanut butter go well together and then as you're putting the peanut butter away you have one last spoonful, and then another, and then you remember you have leftover chocolate chips so you add some on top of the spoonful of peanut butter and then the bag of chocolate chips is gone and the jar of peanut butter is empty and you had just opened a new one when you sliced the apples. That's what my compulsive overeating was like. About 4 or 5 days a week when I lived by myself. But I didn't really gain much weight since I had a gym membership and exercised every day and lived in Cambridge and didn't have a car so I walked everywhere.
So what about just not stocking sweets in my kitchen? Boxes of cereal ... jars of peanut butter ... bread and butter. Those work too. At least I never ate bags of flour like a friend's roommate once did. I was never quite that extreme. And on the topic of peanut butter -- it's evil. One of Jen's friends who was bulimic and went to a treatment center for food issues said that peanut butter was a trigger for nearly all of the women she met.
Once I figured it out, I was somewhat open about it so some friends knew what I was going through and I did start seeing a therapist about it. It really is an addiction. And abstaining isn't a solution. Can't just quit food. I also thought about food and what I was going to make ALL THE TIME. I didn't realize how much I thought about food until I did a 3-day juice fast with my church when I was eating and I still found myself starting to plan out my meals.
The therapy did help me figure out the reasons. Didn't immediately help with stopping but helped me figure out what was going on. Of course it was about control and stemmed from body image and trying to lose weight and wanting to be thinner. The control was wanting to control what I was eating and trying to follow a diet and not having a good attitude about what I thought were failures in my diet. So if I told myself I wasn't going to eat any sweets, or I was just going to have 1 cookie but then I had two it turned into "well, fuck it then, might as well just eat them all."
What made it go away? I got roommates with whom I was honest about my problem. Then I fell in love and got married. One day I realized it had sort of just stopped being an issue. Now I kind of do the more typical "oh whoops, I ate 2 pieces of cake" thing now and then but haven't binged since we lived in our apartment before we got married (nearly 7 years ago). Being pregnant was tough because all my weight issues came back. Seeing the weight go up and up was hard until I gave up and realized it was going to happen and there was nothing I could do and I'd worry about losing the weight after the baby was born. I did try to keep active though by going for frequent walks.
And now I can even go "on a diet" without having the "oh I fucked up so might as well just eat the world" reaction. I just let myself have the treat and don't focus on it.
I don't really have any good conclusion for this. Just "yay I don't have this problem anymore" because it totally sucked. And I have total sympathy for anyone with any eating disorder because it's not just something that is easy to ignore and get over.
For about 5 years I struggled with an eating disorder. Not anorexia or bulimia but a compulsive overeating disorder (and specifically the binge eating disorder part of that). It's also considered to be food addiction. It's like the fun part of bulimia. But not really.
So what exactly does it mean? Well, it's not "oh, well everyone does that sometimes." Sure, we all eat a little too much at Thanksgiving, or maybe you decide to have a second piece of the cake you made or a third chocolate chip cookie, which you know might be a little excessive but in the long run isn't that big of a deal. No, this is eating that second piece of cake, and the third cookie, and then a fourth and fifth piece of cake and then you've eaten that much so why not finish it, and the batch of cookies, with a glass of milk. And then an apple because at least that's healthy ... but maybe with some peanut butter because apples and peanut butter go well together and then as you're putting the peanut butter away you have one last spoonful, and then another, and then you remember you have leftover chocolate chips so you add some on top of the spoonful of peanut butter and then the bag of chocolate chips is gone and the jar of peanut butter is empty and you had just opened a new one when you sliced the apples. That's what my compulsive overeating was like. About 4 or 5 days a week when I lived by myself. But I didn't really gain much weight since I had a gym membership and exercised every day and lived in Cambridge and didn't have a car so I walked everywhere.
So what about just not stocking sweets in my kitchen? Boxes of cereal ... jars of peanut butter ... bread and butter. Those work too. At least I never ate bags of flour like a friend's roommate once did. I was never quite that extreme. And on the topic of peanut butter -- it's evil. One of Jen's friends who was bulimic and went to a treatment center for food issues said that peanut butter was a trigger for nearly all of the women she met.
Once I figured it out, I was somewhat open about it so some friends knew what I was going through and I did start seeing a therapist about it. It really is an addiction. And abstaining isn't a solution. Can't just quit food. I also thought about food and what I was going to make ALL THE TIME. I didn't realize how much I thought about food until I did a 3-day juice fast with my church when I was eating and I still found myself starting to plan out my meals.
The therapy did help me figure out the reasons. Didn't immediately help with stopping but helped me figure out what was going on. Of course it was about control and stemmed from body image and trying to lose weight and wanting to be thinner. The control was wanting to control what I was eating and trying to follow a diet and not having a good attitude about what I thought were failures in my diet. So if I told myself I wasn't going to eat any sweets, or I was just going to have 1 cookie but then I had two it turned into "well, fuck it then, might as well just eat them all."
What made it go away? I got roommates with whom I was honest about my problem. Then I fell in love and got married. One day I realized it had sort of just stopped being an issue. Now I kind of do the more typical "oh whoops, I ate 2 pieces of cake" thing now and then but haven't binged since we lived in our apartment before we got married (nearly 7 years ago). Being pregnant was tough because all my weight issues came back. Seeing the weight go up and up was hard until I gave up and realized it was going to happen and there was nothing I could do and I'd worry about losing the weight after the baby was born. I did try to keep active though by going for frequent walks.
And now I can even go "on a diet" without having the "oh I fucked up so might as well just eat the world" reaction. I just let myself have the treat and don't focus on it.
I don't really have any good conclusion for this. Just "yay I don't have this problem anymore" because it totally sucked. And I have total sympathy for anyone with any eating disorder because it's not just something that is easy to ignore and get over.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The most delicious apple pie ever. And also chowder.
So, if you know me at least a little bit well, you know I love to cook. Or specifically to bake. I used to bake a ton. Fresh bread every week, cookies or other sweets brought into work every week ... that sort of thing. Then I got pregnant. Didn't want to eat the first few months and started a new job and suddenly the baby was born and it was all I could do to make a box mix.
Lately I've had more time since Nate is more independent and also enjoys cooking with me so I've been getting back into cooking more.
If you know me more than a little bit, you know that I went through a bit of a "sugar nazi" (as Jen called it) phase when I was against sugar. I've gotten over that but was making a lot of Eating Well recipes for awhile (and still do when I want to be more healthy). Also, I recently got Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook which has recipes for simple foods but sometimes just a little more complicated than they need to be (though they certainly are delicious).
So today I did two things I haven't done in awhile and don't do frequently. I made a no-holds-barred chowder (it had 8 ounces of bacon's worth of BACON FAT in it plus 1/2 cup of BUTTER) and pulled out an old cookbook* sitting on my shelf and made a really simple apple pie recipe. Both of those things turned out SO GOOD!
First, the chowder. I took this recipe. I pretty much made it as is except that I used a bag of frozen langostino tails in place of the lobster (same thing, sorta), left out the scallops and used a pound of Turbot in place of both fishes. Also I only used 1 1/2 quarts of milk and 1/4 cup of butter and left out the curry powder. I think next time I'd add a few more potatoes and maybe do some type of herb. Not sure which. Possibly just give the curry powder a try. Jen's not a huge fan of soups/chowders but she loved it! SUCCESS!
The pie recipe was from Fannie Farmer's Classic American Cookbook (my version was printed in 1979). It's really simple and doesn't even bother with that fancy-schmancy egg wash on the crust. I've printed the recipe below but I will admit that I used a frozen pie crust from Trader Joe's (which is the best store-bought crust I've ever had). I'm not a crust person. I know they're supposedly really easy but I just haven't gotten the hang of them so I'll use one I know will be consistent!
Apple Pie
Ingredients:
Basic Pastry dough for 9-inch two-crust pie (store-bought or homemade, certainly up to you)
3/4-1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
6 large, firm, tart apples
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with half the pastry dough. Mix the sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour in a large bowl. Peel, core, and slice the apples and toss them in the sugar mixture, coating them well. Pile them into the lined pan and dot with the butter. Roll out the top crust and drape it over the pie. Crimp the edges and cut several vents in the top. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the head to 350 degrees F and bake 30-40 minutes more or until the apples are tender when pierced with a skewer or knife and the crust is browned.
*My dad read cookbooks. He read cookbooks for the introductions, for the little anecdotes and tidbits of information that were peppered throughout, but mostly he read them for the recipes. After he died, my mom and I found piles of saved newspaper and magazine clippings. They were all restaurant reviews and recipes. From his years observing my Chef-grandfather and reading recipes and eating all over the world, my dad had compiled a rich encyclopedia of food in his head. In all the years I watched him cook, I very rarely saw him use a recipe. All he needed to know was in his head. However, he did enjoy reading cookbooks. When he died at the age of 60, my dad had a collection of over five hundred cookbooks. He liked to tell the story of the one summer he went to the annual used book sale under a tent in one of the mall parking lots and came home with sixty-five new additions to his collection. When he came home very excited about his new purchases, my mom did not react with as much enthusiasm as he had hoped. Like many other families, there were bookshelves in the family room and a couple other rooms of my parents’ house. They were full of cookbooks. When my dad died, I had thirty-two cookbooks, eighteen of which my dad bought for me at the used book sale that summer. Of my collection, twenty-four books focused on dessert and bread making. After he died I took a bunch home with me and the Fannie Farmer's one was one of them since I ended up saving a lot of the older historical American ones that he had.
Lately I've had more time since Nate is more independent and also enjoys cooking with me so I've been getting back into cooking more.
If you know me more than a little bit, you know that I went through a bit of a "sugar nazi" (as Jen called it) phase when I was against sugar. I've gotten over that but was making a lot of Eating Well recipes for awhile (and still do when I want to be more healthy). Also, I recently got Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook which has recipes for simple foods but sometimes just a little more complicated than they need to be (though they certainly are delicious).
So today I did two things I haven't done in awhile and don't do frequently. I made a no-holds-barred chowder (it had 8 ounces of bacon's worth of BACON FAT in it plus 1/2 cup of BUTTER) and pulled out an old cookbook* sitting on my shelf and made a really simple apple pie recipe. Both of those things turned out SO GOOD!
First, the chowder. I took this recipe. I pretty much made it as is except that I used a bag of frozen langostino tails in place of the lobster (same thing, sorta), left out the scallops and used a pound of Turbot in place of both fishes. Also I only used 1 1/2 quarts of milk and 1/4 cup of butter and left out the curry powder. I think next time I'd add a few more potatoes and maybe do some type of herb. Not sure which. Possibly just give the curry powder a try. Jen's not a huge fan of soups/chowders but she loved it! SUCCESS!
The pie recipe was from Fannie Farmer's Classic American Cookbook (my version was printed in 1979). It's really simple and doesn't even bother with that fancy-schmancy egg wash on the crust. I've printed the recipe below but I will admit that I used a frozen pie crust from Trader Joe's (which is the best store-bought crust I've ever had). I'm not a crust person. I know they're supposedly really easy but I just haven't gotten the hang of them so I'll use one I know will be consistent!
Apple Pie
Ingredients:
Basic Pastry dough for 9-inch two-crust pie (store-bought or homemade, certainly up to you)
3/4-1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
6 large, firm, tart apples
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with half the pastry dough. Mix the sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour in a large bowl. Peel, core, and slice the apples and toss them in the sugar mixture, coating them well. Pile them into the lined pan and dot with the butter. Roll out the top crust and drape it over the pie. Crimp the edges and cut several vents in the top. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the head to 350 degrees F and bake 30-40 minutes more or until the apples are tender when pierced with a skewer or knife and the crust is browned.
*My dad read cookbooks. He read cookbooks for the introductions, for the little anecdotes and tidbits of information that were peppered throughout, but mostly he read them for the recipes. After he died, my mom and I found piles of saved newspaper and magazine clippings. They were all restaurant reviews and recipes. From his years observing my Chef-grandfather and reading recipes and eating all over the world, my dad had compiled a rich encyclopedia of food in his head. In all the years I watched him cook, I very rarely saw him use a recipe. All he needed to know was in his head. However, he did enjoy reading cookbooks. When he died at the age of 60, my dad had a collection of over five hundred cookbooks. He liked to tell the story of the one summer he went to the annual used book sale under a tent in one of the mall parking lots and came home with sixty-five new additions to his collection. When he came home very excited about his new purchases, my mom did not react with as much enthusiasm as he had hoped. Like many other families, there were bookshelves in the family room and a couple other rooms of my parents’ house. They were full of cookbooks. When my dad died, I had thirty-two cookbooks, eighteen of which my dad bought for me at the used book sale that summer. Of my collection, twenty-four books focused on dessert and bread making. After he died I took a bunch home with me and the Fannie Farmer's one was one of them since I ended up saving a lot of the older historical American ones that he had.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)