I am really angry tonight. Or maybe I’m just deeply grieving. Maybe it is a mixture of both if the pseudo-science of psychology is to be believed. What I do know is that the country I woke up to this morning, is not the same country I will lie down to sleep in tonight.
Three of my most cherished possessions – having survived as many decades and cross-country moves – are beautifully illustrated books of poetry given to me by my grandmother. Through them, she passed along her love of well-crafted literature.
I got a jump on “Spring Cleaning” this week, culling tools – bakeware, cookware and gadgets – no longer useful in the creation of nutrient-dense, whole-food. Keeping all-things-Corning, glass, and cast iron, I discarded the few remaining non-stick pans, aluminum bakeware, and a crockpot. Most were decades-old, having far more nostalgic, than practical value. The most difficult for me to remove? The now-“vintage” Tupperware.
Surveying the refrigerator, my eyes landed on a new smoked Spanish cheese I’d been saving for something “special”. Souffle’! Slicing off bites of the cheese, I popped them into my darlings’ mouths. “Oh, that’s very, very good cheese”, my 14-yo said, her eyes squinting as she analyzed its flavor. “There’s a….smoky component…a bit of a bacon-y edge. Let’s go with that.” Excellent! Game on!
I had special plans for this morning’s biscuits. Yesterday, I’d picked up some freshly-made ground pork from a local farmer, and my goal was to create smooth, velvety, creamy sausage and gravy to pour over the biscuits. I’ve made some pretty extreme, complex 5-star breakfasts over the years, and while old-style southern-style sausage and gravy over biscuits is deceptively simply, it’s one of those recipes that brings together your “Best Of” techniques.
This 1986 recipe winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, has gone through a few changes over the years. Pillsbury once published it, similar to what I’ve included later in this post, but eventually revamped it, replacing the 100% made-from-scratch method with its refrigerated biscuits, loaded with homogenized shortening and chemical-laden synthetic preservative.
It’s that time of year, yet again, when our poor light-confused parrot is egg-laying. Even though she’s without a mate, she is as protective and attentive to the egg, as if it were fertile.
If I’ve seen a movie or television show once, I have no desire to watch it again, with the exception of “Gone with the Wind”. But as for everything else? It’s time to move on to something new! That rolling-stone (as in “gathers no moss”, not Rock ‘n Roll) attitude transfers to how I cook. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same omelet twice, for example. Even when I have similar ingredients, the end-result is a little different.
One of my favorite childhood deserts was lemon pudding cake, especially welcome on a blustery, cold Minnesota-winter night. One rip and dump of the Betty Crocker box, over which we drizzled hot water, in less than 30-minutes, everyone was licking the last drop of the creamy lemon “pudding” from their spoons. “Magic” pudding we called it, fascinated the pudding somehow appeared on the bottom layer, while the top turned into a light and fluffy cake.
Three of my most cherished possessions – having survived as many decades and cross-country moves – are beautifully illustrated books of poetry given to me by my grandmother. Through them, she passed along her love of well-crafted literature. 
I got a jump on “Spring Cleaning” this week, culling tools – bakeware, cookware and gadgets – no longer useful in the creation of nutrient-dense, whole-food. Keeping all-things-Corning, glass, and cast iron, I discarded the few remaining non-stick pans, aluminum bakeware, and a crockpot. Most were decades-old, having far more nostalgic, than practical value. The most difficult for me to remove? The now-“vintage” Tupperware. 
Surveying the refrigerator, my eyes landed on a new smoked Spanish cheese I’d been saving for something “special”. Souffle’! Slicing off bites of the cheese, I popped them into my darlings’ mouths. “Oh, that’s very, very good cheese”, my 14-yo said, her eyes squinting as she analyzed its flavor. “There’s a….smoky component…a bit of a bacon-y edge. Let’s go with that.” Excellent! Game on!
I had special plans for this morning’s biscuits. Yesterday, I’d picked up some freshly-made ground pork from a local farmer, and my goal was to create smooth, velvety, creamy sausage and gravy to pour over the biscuits. I’ve made some pretty extreme, complex 5-star breakfasts over the years, and while old-style southern-style sausage and gravy over biscuits is deceptively simply, it’s one of those recipes that brings together your “Best Of” techniques. 
This 1986 recipe winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, has gone through a few changes over the years. Pillsbury once published it, similar to what I’ve included later in this post, but eventually revamped it, replacing the 100% made-from-scratch method with its refrigerated biscuits, loaded with homogenized shortening and chemical-laden synthetic preservative. 
It’s that time of year, yet again, when our poor light-confused parrot is egg-laying. Even though she’s without a mate, she is as protective and attentive to the egg, as if it were fertile. 
If I’ve seen a movie or television show once, I have no desire to watch it again, with the exception of “Gone with the Wind”. But as for everything else? It’s time to move on to something new! That rolling-stone (as in “gathers no moss”, not Rock ‘n Roll) attitude transfers to how I cook. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same omelet twice, for example. Even when I have similar ingredients, the end-result is a little different. 
There are those moments, when everything comes together in a magical moment of everything-is-right-with-a-world-that-is-so-not-right….