Alex Gordon's Blog, page 11

Sunday baking

A normal Sunday during a not-normal time. Took Gaby for a walk through the neighborhoods and the wooded trail. Did a couple of loads of laundry. Some sorting and putting away in the dining room. Then I baked cookies. It’s a new recipe from the side of the Nature’s Path Old Fashioned Oatmeal canister. Chocolate chips/chunks and coconut and dried cranberries. What’s not to like?

One thing that was different–no eggs. I am assuming that the blend of two tablespoons of flax meal in the 1/4c of milk was the substitute, because after it sits for five minutes it gets pretty thick. And okay, I twitched things a bit. I replaced half the butter with applesauce because 3/4c butter seemed like a lot for 12-24 cookies, and besides I had read about applesauce as a butter substitute before and wanted to see what would happen. I added salt because imo baked goods always need a little, espresso powder to boost the chocolate and coconut, a tsp cinnamon, and a tsp vanilla because vanilla. I also used white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. I don’t have any all-purpose in the house. It’s either white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry unless I’m making something I can’t afford to take chances with.

The thing is, though, I need to be careful when I make that switch because I find whole wheat flours in general soak up more liquid. The recipe did state that the dough would be thick, but I found it almost crumbly. So I added three more tablespoons of applesauce, which moistened things a little more than I expected. I could still use the 1.5 inch ice cream scoop to portion the dough balls, which remained mounded on the cookie sheet until I flattened them. But they were sticky, and I worried that they’d spread all over the sheet. But they didn’t. I left a little over an inch between the mounds, and that was plenty.

Verdict? They’re okay, and may taste better tomorrow. They’re soft and cakey, which according to what I read is due to the applesauce. There is also a faint apple flavor, which I am guessing would be expected. Only 150 calories each, which is pretty low for a cookie. But I miss the harder, more crumbly texture and the denser crumb. Maybe I should’ve stuck to all butter. Maybe an egg instead of the flax and milk would’ve made the difference.

A week or so ago, I finally got around to baking those Smitten Kitchen Blue Sky Bran Muffins I mentioned a couple of posts ago. They didn’t come out looking like the ones over at SK—I think I added too much batter atop the fruit layer. Also, I’m used to muffins with rounded tops, and I’m not sure why these stayed so flat. Maybe the small mass of fruit in the middle—I used a blend of chopped apple and dried cranberries—reduced the expansion of the batter. In any case, I like this recipe. Lots of bran, not much sugar, and a very light texture.

Next time, I will try a different fruit blend. Maybe banana-coconut.

That is one flat-topped muffin

Time Marches On

Chilly, partly sunny day. Roaring winds. Spotted a juvenile red-headed woodpecker this morning, an uncommon site according to my Merlin Bird ID app. I don’t understand why given that Illinois is a breeding/wintering site according to the map.

That said, they do leave the northern and western parts of the range during the winter. Maybe this youngster ventured north a little early.

The Great Purge: late last week I realized that I needed to do something about moving friends’ couch to my living room as the pieces were too big for our Foresters. So I poked around online, and within a few minutes 1) learned that local grocery store rented U-Haul vehicles onsite and 2) had a pickup truck available. Arranged the rental online, went and picked up the pickup, drove to friends’ house, and had the couch in my living room within the hour. Then, a few days later, I broke down the wobbly cabinet. The particle board pieces went out, but I saved the glass doors and some of the hardware.

Plus, Habitat ReStore called back and asked for photos of the display cabinet. I emailed them, and they called the next day and said they’d take it. They won’t pick it up for a couple of weeks, but hey, at least someone will be able to use it.

WIP Update: reading Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy—Inside the World of Corporate Espionage by Eamon Javers. I’m still in the first third of the book, which is focused on the history of the Pinkertons and the beginnings of corporate security. Not really what I’m looking for, but I will keep reading it.

Baking: nothing to report. I have been remiss. Today I ate the last piece of fig-walnut bread that I excavated from the deep freeze, so I need to bake something soon.

I did make a batch of blueberry-brandy refrigerator jam, but that doesn’t count.

To wrap up, temps are bouncy here—40s and even 50s, followed by a dip into the 30s and a bit of wet snow. Daffodils are poking up a little more, and the mini-roses by the back door are putting forth tiny leaves. I know we could still get dumped on, snow-wise, but it does seem like spring is trying to break through. I did a stint at the Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show a couple of weeks ago, and got to enjoy some brilliant flowers.

The leaves belong to a Rattlesnake Plant from Brazil. I love them because they look painted.

Still winter

Snow expected tomorrow through Wednesday. But my Pink Fizz hellebore has a big bud, so there’s hope.

Hidden beneath the leaves

“The Great Purge” Update: the old couch is no more—it went to that big ol’ Living Room in the Sky this morning. I called Habitat ReStore to ask if they would take the display cabinet, and left a message. The other cabinet is too rickety to donate, but has a couple of glass doors that I like. So, I’ll remove them and turn the glass into wall hangings or something arty, and pitch the rest.

WIP Update: it does me no good whatsoever to think of plot twists for future Jani books* when I should be working on the book in progress. I’ve had good reactions to the parts of Echoes of War that I’ve read at various cons. I need to concentrate on that…and try to juggle it with the non-SFnal thriller that’s

Baking Update: these Blue Sky Bran Muffins from Smitten Kitchen are next on the list, probably with a chopped apple filling. I’ll post pictures.

Like I said up top, it’s still Winter here. During this morning’s walk, I passed a pond in a neighborhood park and came upon these images in the ice. I know they’re fissures that refroze, but they remind me of bare trees.

Kris’s Life Cleaning

Not to be confused with Swedish Death Cleaning.

I mean, think about it. Swedish. Death. Cleaning. Sounds…final, doesn’t it?

I first read about it a couple of years ago. I think it turned up at the tail-end of one of the periodic waves of Konmari articles. As I understand it, Marie Kondo’s Konmari method stresses the concepts of tidying up as steps on the path toward your ideal lifestyle and only keeping the things you love. Swedish Death Cleaning, döstädning, takes this several steps further. Now you’re cleaning up in order to make things easier for loved ones after you die. Getting rid of the garbage. Instead of willing objects to friends and relatives, you’re giving them away now. Making hardcopies of passwords and account numbers. The motto is minimize, minimize, minimize.

(As an aside, I don’t think it’s coincidence that two approaches to stripping your life down to the basics originated in Japan and Sweden, two countries with what I consider a very stripped-down aesthetic and simplicity in style and decor.)

I’m not quite at the ‘cleaning up to make things easier for my executor’ stage of life yet, knock wood. But I’ve talked about decluttering for ages, and I have a fair amount of junk that accumulated over a couple of moves, the clearing out of my grandmother’s house, and general acquisition. I have stacks of old manuscripts that need to be sent to Northern Illinois University, collectibles I don’t care for anymore, and books, clothes, shoes, and other things that need new homes or a date with the recycler.

Also, tastes change. For instance, furniture styles. I used to be content with a look that was vaguely Early American. But my living room is all wood and stone, and darker wood furniture tends to fade into the walls. So now I’m drawn to rustic/distressed, like this credenza, pieces that are usually lighter in color and often contains flecks of brighter shades, like blues and greens, that break up the brown monotony.

So, I am hoping that, barring the Inevitable Unforeseen*, this will be the Year of the Great Purge. I’ve started by clearing out two living room cabinets that I don’t want anymore. One contained a number of collectibles that I haven’t yet figured out how to dispose of—they’re getting stashed in a chest in the basement for now.** I’m also getting rid of the old couch, which is 30+ years old and pretty well worn. I’ll be getting a newish one from friends, a sectional in a more modern style and color that will work with whatever new pieces I add.

In the end, my aim is a neater house in which everything is in its place. Simple, right?

*yeah, I always qualify things right out the window. I blame Slavic Fatalism, aka “no good mood ever goes unpunished.”

**I know, but it’s either that or I break them up with a hammer. While most of them aren’t worth the effort to put up on eBay, a few may be. I’ll sort that out later. Right now, I want them out of the living room.

Some favorite links

Spent too much time bashing around the internet when I should’ve been doing other things, and came upon a few cool links.

Over at Digg, a YouTuber updated an old (1895) film clip of a train arrival using neural networks, increasing resolution to 4K/60FPS. The result is so crisp and clear–the enhancements really are startling. Instead of watching a clip from the past, I felt like I was watching a scene in real time.

This panorama of the Martian landscape taken by the Curiosity rover is amazing.

This next link isn’t a link–it’s one of my favorite photographs. I snapped it a couple of years ago on my old iPhone 5S. Autumn sunrise at the state park. The delicate leaves of the waterside shrubbery and the straight lines of the dock bring to mind a scene in Japan. I find it very peaceful.

Finally, I haven’t made Gimme Some Oven’s Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies yet, but I will soon. The recipes I usually come across use the partially hydrogenated stuff that doesn’t separate, but this one uses real peanut butter. And no flour. I am intrigued.

Resolve

So the holidays are pretty much over–Twelfth Night still to come. After that, I put away the ornaments, and it’s just Winter.

Busy late morning/early afternoon. Haircut. Errands. Home and late lunch and now it’s figuring out what to do next. I need to write some late Christmas notes, set up 2020 business files, and continue the seemingly never ending task that is the sorting out of my Life. The problem with that is that I decide to toss something, then check to see if it can be recycled. If the answer is Yes, I set it aside in a different place, which means it’s still in my house. If the answer is No, I wonder if I looked hard enough. Then I stumble over the crafty articles describing how to reuse different things, and I really freeze up despite the fact that I have no intention of ever making gift tags from old greeting cards.

Today, I sucked it up, and sorted through old cards, some dating from 2003. Reread a few notes. Teared up once or twice. But it was time to let them go. I tossed the plain paper ones into the recycling bin, and consigned the ones with foil and other decorations to the garbage. Then I filled a box with the boxes of unused cards and stashed it in my office closet. I swear, I have more Christmas, birthday, and other assorted cards than I will ever use. But I know where they are now, and have a general idea of the inventory.

I would like to do one small organizing task every day, but I’ve found in the past that if I miss a day, I feel like I’ve failed. That way lies freezing up. Instead, I will settle for most days a week. Organize one shelf. Get rid of one box–large or small, doesn’t matter. It took decades for me to accrue all this stuff. I won’t clear it out in a week.

What other 2020 not-calling-them-resolutions do I have? Write more, and try to settle into the more regular schedule that has eluded me for years. I would like to revive this blog. I have both Jani Kilian and Lauren Reardon/Gideon Witches stories in progress, and various other short and longer works rattling around in my head , and I’m having the same problem there that I’m having with everything else, namely an inability to settle on one thing and finish it before moving on. Given that I will soon be entering my Social Security years, one would think I should’ve figured this out by now.

I…guess not.

In other news, the weekend menu will include an English roast that will be turned into a pot roast. I will likely blend a couple of recipes, this one from Taste of Home and this one from my longtime favorite, Ina Garten aka The Barefoot Contessa. We’re expecting a little snow over the weekend, and pot roast seems a nice, homey antidote to the winter gloom.

Happy New Year!

It’s been a screwy winter so far here in northeast Illinois. No real snow since November. Record warmth. And this morning, I saw that some of my daffodils are as confused about the weather as I am.

These widgets have no business poking up out of the ground now.

We’re supposed to get some snow tomorrow (Monday the 30th). That should slow them down.

I don’t have any profound statements to make to sign off 2019. On a personal level, it had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. I’ll take it.

Happy 2020 To All! May it be mostly ups, and may the downs be trivial.

Snow, soup, and other s-words

Dreary days have arrived here by the lake. We’ve had rain, snow, and all forms in-between. Darkness settles before 5pm, and most all the green has faded to brown. The lakeshore turns stark, and the brown wood possesses its own beauty. But I’m a late spring person. I miss the warmth.

When temperatures drop, I crave filling foods like thick soups. For the past few years, Ina Garten’s Butternut Squash-Apple was my go-to. This year, however, I tried something different, Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Soup from the site Fountain Avenue Kitchen. Me being me, I tweaked. I doubled the garlic and curry powder because I craved a little heat and strong flavor, and I roasted the squash ahead of time because I love the way the sugars caramelize. The result was a hearty, filling soup that I will definitely make again.

I usually prefer to cook beans from scratch these days, but sometimes I find a recipe and want to make it that day. That’s the way it went when I found this Food & Wine recipe for Kale and White Bean Stew. I had everything but the beans–I even had mild Italian sausage in the deep freeze. To be honest, I should’ve gone with scratch beans–the canned cannellini beans were rather flat-tasting, plus they fell apart during cooking. But the stew still came out well. It’s hearty, and very filling. Great with garlic bread and shredded parmesan cheese.

As I type this, U.S. Thanksgiving is past. December’s ahead, with parties, friends and family, and even more cooking. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and Happy Holidays to all.

Fall Settles In

Remnants of TS Olga will whip through later today. Whole lot of unnecessary rain promised, 1-2″ probable and localized heavy downpours possible.

So I spent some time clearing off the deck. The deck chair, brollie, various gardening things, all stashed in the garage until spring. Then I topped off the bird feeders and put out the fall wreaths and spindly scarecrow. The pumpkin on the front step, I am happy to say, is still intact and free of rodent bites. This could be because I’ve been soaking it with deer/rabbit repellant every few days.

I didn’t think we’d have a colorful fall given the wet and warmth. But a few nights in the 30s came along and now the colors are everywhere. The maple are the most striking–red, vermilion, yellow. I have a couple of varieties of hickory on the property, and their yellow is starting to pop (see photo). Even the flowering shrubs are getting into the act–the hibiscus are yellowing and reds are coming through in the hydrangea leaves.

Hickory gold

The bur oak aren’t very exciting–dull brown.

I still need to mulch leaves. Rainy week ahead, but I still have November, she said, crossing her fingers as the weatherguy talks about snow chances in the next week.

Hints of Autumn

Chill arriving this weekend, with possible frost. I’m enjoying the few remaining flowers while I can. So are the painted lady butterflies. They’re everywhere.