We have a variety of shops: cheese, socks, pie, underwear, candy, Cracker jacks, Three Musketeers, peanuts, toast, jam, fish balls, ice cream, chocolate, books, Gold mine stock, swamp real estate, Brooklyn Bridge, air, pet rocks, nails and screws.
What should we name our little mall? Should we open on holidays?
Our last day of the cruise was really just a quick ride from the Port of Lisbon to the airport. No statues, no scenic tour, no talkative guide with plenty to say on the current political climate in Europe (or America). The Lisbon airport is quite large and getting through the duty-free shop before getting to the gates is like a trip through a perfume-drenched Ikea.
Just after escaping the duty free, as we walked down the hallway, hoping to find our gate, we saw the brightest, most colorful shop ever – it looked like a carnival inside – with rows and rows of colorful tins. After a bit we realized it was shop full of sardines – just sardines.
Apparently Portugal is known for its sardines and from what we could tell from the shop, aged sardines are a real treat. The tins are marked with years on them, although I find it hard to believe that there were 50-year-old sardines in the tins marked 1967. The shop was busy so we couldn’t get anyone to confirm if they were really that old or if it was just a marketing gimmick. Both of us are vegetarians so even though it initially seemed like a fun thing to buy at an airport, we both passed. But even a week later, I’m still amazed at how one product can keep a store open, especially such a big store!
If your store had just one product, what would it be?
I started becoming a vegetarian when I was four. My Aunt Effie served lamb for Easter and when I discovered what was on the plate I promptly threw up. At the age of five I had to be taken out of a seafood restaurant when I realized the lobsters in the tank at the entrance were becoming the meals at the tables around us. When I was six I found out that venison was Bambi. And so it continued.
I gave up the very last bit of meat left in my diet (ground beef) when I was 16. Even after all these years there still a few things I miss. Tuna salad on a tomato on a hot summer day, sizzling bacon on a cold winter morning.
And marshmallows. No yams with marshmallows at Thanksgiving. No Rocky Road ice cream. No s’mores. That’s the one that really hurts. In the past few years there have been a couple of companies that have tried vegetarian marshmallows but they weren’t very good to start with and not good at all for s’mores: too small, too sticky, too melty. Over the years I’ve even tried s’mores with marshmallow cream. If you think regular s’mores are messy, marshmallow cream is messier.
So when I saw the Trader Joe’s has come out with vegetarian marshmallows I was skeptical. But I figured if they were terrible it was only a couple of bucks. Over the weekend, Young Adult and I made a little fire in our pit and gave them a try. Imagine my surprise when they turned out to be great. Not quite as soft as your basic Stay Puff, but great for s’mores. They stayed on the skewer until they were done and tasted just fine. They did go pretty fast from light brown to bubbly but that might have had something to do with the impatience of the s’more makers. Guess I’ll have to try marshmallows on yams next!
What have you given up that you miss?
Went to Trader Joes to pick up a few things from their flyer.
I’m sure the pasta tastes just like, well, pasta – but the colors were so pretty that I bought TWO! I felt like a crow attracted to a shiny object.
What bird would you be?
Husband and I were delighted to find a bag of Swany White flour recently in a natural food store in Fargo. The store owner told us that Nicole, of Nicole’s Fine Pastry in downtown Fargo, won’t use anything but Swany White. Nicole makes great pastries. He also said that Nicole and the mill owner were cousins. (I love the small town angle in these conversations.) I hadn’t seen any Swany White since the Freeport, MN mill burned down a few years ago. We had heard rumors that the mill was operating again. We snapped up a 25 lb bag, and hauled it home. I baked French bread with it this past weekend. I used a combination of Swany, Artisan flour, and Bread flour. 
We froze all the loaves as we had too much bread already to start another loaf, so I can’t say if the flour quality is the same. It doesn’t have the same bran flecks the original flour had. It is just as finely ground though, like silk.
I think we have more kinds of flour than most people. In addition to the Swany White, we have King Arthur all-purpose white flour and King Arthur bread flour. We have King Arthur artisan flour, French flour, whole wheat flour, and white whole wheat flour. We also have a bag of White Lily flour for Southern-style biscuits and white wheat berries for a rustic Italian bread we like to make.
Husband is a real fan of baking rye bread, so he has white rye, pumpernickel, medium rye, rye flour blend, rye chops (coursely ground rye berries), rye bread improver, deli rye sour, First Clear flour (it increases the gluten content in rye breads), and frozen rye sourdough starter. He tries to replicate the wonderful rye breads we found in Winnipeg.
On Sunday, Husband bought Rose Beranbaum’s The Baking Bible for me as a Mother’s Day present. I think he had ulterior motives for me to bake pastries for him. Rose is an absolute fanatic about flour, and compares the protein content of various flours and likes to balance the proteins in her breads using bleached and unbleached flours for just the right results. I think she goes too far, but who am I to judge. She really likes Gold Medal bleached flour as a basic baking flour.
Husband’s brother-in-law has tried for years to replicate the hard rolls baked in their home town of Sheboygan WI that are used for bratwurst. They are wonderful rolls that I have not encountered anywhere but in Sheboygan. Batch after batch has been baked and deemed lacking. I convinced him that the problem is in his home oven, and so he is thinking about a wood fired clay oven in the back yard. He is also thinking about apprenticing himself to a Sheyboygan bakery to finally solve the problem. If you knew Husband’s brother-in-law, you would agree that keeping him busy with this is best for all concerned.
We read at Easter about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness when he says to Lucifer that man doesn’t live by bread alone. I think the Devil has a point, though. Bread is wonderful. I don’t see our going overboard over bread or flour as sinful at all. There are worse things we could be doing.
What makes you go overboard?
At my book club (my other book club) last weekend, after we had lunch, my friend Rita brought out some fabulous-looking brownies. As if that weren’t enough, she then brought out vanilla ice cream. As she scooped the ice cream onto the plates with the brownies, she said “the ice cream helps cut the sweetness.” We all laughed and then someone commented that if we had Diet Coke, it would counteract the calories as well. And we laughed some more.
What “story” do you tell yourself?
I’m a cynic about weather – I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop – but Sunday I threw caution to the wind. A friend and I walked from her house to Black Coffee & Waffle where I had the best waffle ever.
Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, granola, almond butter and whipped cream. No syrup needed. Then we went over to the Conservatory and saw the beautiful reds, purples and pinks of the Sunken Garden. And my jacket? Left it in the car!
What’s on your agenda for unseasonable weather?
Today’s post comes from Clyde
A colleague, science teacher/coach, posted this sign: “Tain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.” He taught you have to earn what you get and pay for your mistakes.
Tisn’t always true. One colleague went from free lunch to free lunch, as do others.
What have been your free lunches?
Today’s post comes from Verily Sherrilee
My mom doesn’t like to bake. Heck, she doesn’t even like to cook that much. So it was interesting that she decided on cookies as a great holiday gift for teachers, ministers, postmen, etc. We would make eight to ten kinds of cookies during the weeks before the holidays, all of them going into the freezer. Nothing fancy, just the basics: chocolate chip, oatmeal, snickerdoodles, peanut blossoms, sour cream with almonds, frosted sugar, brownies. Then one afternoon we would put all the cookies out on the dining room table, each take a box and walk around the table, loading up the box w/ an assortment of cookies until it was full and then we start again with a new box. We were still doing this each holiday when I was in high school.
Without even meaning to, she handed down a baking tradition that I cling to, to this day. I don’t do as many cookie gifts as when I was in school, but I still do plates for my vet, my hardware store guys, my library and my milkman. Most of the cookies, however, end up being taken to various parties throughout the season, or brought out for visitors. And eaten with hot chocolate while watching holiday movies.
Nonny doesn’t bake anymore, although she does help out when she visits around Thanksgiving. She won’t measure, pour, stir or any job that requires that she get her hands dirty. However, she LOVES to clean so we are a perfect pair. I mix and measure and every time I’m done with a cup or a spoon, she whisks it away and washes it. On the years that she isn’t visiting when I cook, I really miss that!
This year we did 13 kinds of cookies in three days. Peanut Blossoms, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla Crescents, Peanut Butter Bon Bons, Oatmeal Scotchies, Chocolate Crinkles, White Chocolate Ting-a-Lings, Frosted Shortbread Sticks, Red Velvet Shortbread, Ginger w/ Caramel Filling, Spritz and 2 kinds of fudge.
Do you have a favorite holiday cookie?
Today’s post comes from Barbara in River Town
According to Wiki, a pot luck dinner is: “a gathering where each guest contributes a dish of food, often homemade, to be shared. Synonyms include: potluck dinner, spread, Jacob’s join,[1][2] Jacob’s supper, faith supper, covered dish supper, dish party, bring and share, shared lunch, pitch-in, bring-a-plate, dish-to-pass, fuddle, and carry-in.” I always enjoy learning where words like this come from, and Wiki says: “The word pot-luck appears in the 16th century English work of Thomas Nashe, and used to mean ‘food provided for an unexpected or uninvited guest, the luck of the pot.’[this quote needs a citation] The sense ‘communal meal, where guests bring their own food,’ appears to have originated in the late 19th century or early 20th century, particularly in Western North America, either by influence from potlatch or possibly by extension of traditional sense of ‘luck of the pot’.” The only rule, unless you’ve been asked to bring a particular type of dish, is to bring enough to share with several other (not necessarily all) attendees.
I remember once reading an advice or manners column (which one is lost in the mists of time) stating that when hosting a Holiday Dinner, it is incorrect to ask the guests to bring food. I heard myself saying aloud to the newspaper, “What universe do you live in??”
So far in December we’ve been invited to 8 potluck Christmas or Holiday gatherings. This week alone there are Husband’s pool group (billiards, not swimming) party, our Harmonica Group and Wellspring Singers, my T’ai Chi group, the Wiscoy Community Farm carolers, and the Unitarians (Garrison would have a field day here) after caroling at nursing homes on Saturday. The folk dancers have their party on the 30th…
This is in addition to non-holiday pot lucks – November 12 we joined a spontaneous “sing-in” out at Zephyr Community Farm, sort of a coping tactic after the election. Last week was the Frac Sand Ban Victory bash put on by the Land Stewardship Project – the Winona County Commissioners voted in November to ban all further frac sand mining here.
Of course, this will all come to a screeching halt in January, and we will go through Party Withdrawal, along with Christmas Music Withdrawal, and Colored Light Withdrawal. At any rate, I hope there is one pot luck somewhere in January.
What’s your “go to” dish to bring to a pot luck?
Trail Baboon 