HHDD#14: Potato Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables
August 18, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Posted in events, savory things | 16 Comments
Oh potato gnocchi, why do you torture me so? Homemade gnocchi has been a bit of sore spot for me. I’ve made the leadballs, and even worse, the disintegrators– the ones that fall apart in the simmering water, leaving you with a pot full of mess and no dinner. So why am I even bothering to try again? First, because I LOVE them (!), and second, because gnocchi is the theme for this month’s Hay Hay It’s Donna Day, hosted by Cafe Lynnylu. It doesn’t hurt that I finally had one of my restaurant buddies show me a good technique, either.
Bake the potatoes in a salt crust (this helps them really dry out) and rice them while they’re still hot. Then let them cool to room temperature before adding the other ingredients. Making the gnocchi dough is definitely a “by feel” kind of thing. Start with some flour and add more as you lightly knead the dough, until its no longer sticky and you can move it around easily. Going overboard on the flour, however, will give you dense gnocchi. Then let the dough rest before rolling and shaping. I’ve never seen this step in any books, but it my friend swears that this is crucial to avoiding those aforementioned “disintegrators.”
Although R would rather have a heavy Bolognese covering his gnocchi, I decided to slice and dice a few veggies to go with them. I quickly sautéed matchsticks of zucchini and carrot along with grape tomatoes, minced garlic, snap peas and corn in some butter and olive oil. Then I threw in a splash of chicken stock and cooked it down to make it a bit saucy. I tossed through the cooked gnocchi, and after a little s&p and grated Parmesan, my dish was done. And it was light and delicious.
P.S. I saw Donna Hay give a live demo in Sydney in June. R was convinced she didn’t exist, and thought it just a brand-name. She is in fact very real, is quite funny and cooked a lovely dinner party menu.
Potato Gnocchi – makes 4-6 servings
3 large baking potatoes
Kosher salt for crusting potatoes
1 1/2 egg yolks
4 oz all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 handful of Parmesan (grated)
salt and pepper to taste
-Scrub potatoes, dry with a tea towel and lightly crust with Kosher salt.
-Place on a baking sheet, and bake in a 400°F/200°C oven until baked though (about 45-60 minutes).
-Peel and rice potatoes while still hot. Spread riced potatoes over a sheet tray to cool to room temperature.
-Add egg yolks, Parmesan and salt and pepper to cooled potatoes.
-Add in initial amount of flour and combine mixture with your hands. Add in additional flour as needed until you have a cohesive dough that’s no longer sticky. (I probably needed another 2 ounces or so for my batch…depends on the potatoes.) Do not overwork. Form into a large log and let rest on a floured surface, covered with a tea towel for 15-20 minutes.
-Break off pieces of dough and roll them into ropes on a floured surface. (If the rope falls apart when you roll it, knead in a bit more flour.) Use a paring knife or a metal bench scraper to cut the rope into 3/4″ pieces. Toss in a little flour to keep from sticking together and move aside while you proceed with the rest of the dough.
-Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Salt it as you would pasta water. Cook gnocchi in batches to avoid overcrowding, and simmer until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon.
**Extra uncooked gnocchi freezes well. Spread them on a sheet tray in a single layer and freeze for about an hour. Then put in a zip-top bag or airtight container for freezer storage.
browniebabe #3: Milk Chocolate Brownies with Wattleseed
August 16, 2007 at 4:22 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, events, sweet things | 6 Comments
Woo-hoo! It’s browniebabe time again over at Once Upon a Tart. Myriam continues to taunt us all with her super-cute apron! I’ve already declared my love for all things plain and simple when it comes to brownies, so I really tried hard to think of an uncomplicated brownie that was a little different.
The last time R went to the States was back in February. I gave him a shopping list to stuff to bring back…Crystal hot sauce, Diamond Kosher salt, Jif, Quaker oats, Cascade dishwasher tabs (how this guy made it through customs, I do not know). When he called from the airport while waiting for his flight back to Sydney, I tacked one more last-minute item to the list: a Gourmet magazine from the airport bookshop.
A recipe on the last page of that issue has stuck out in my mind since– milk chocolate brownies. I’m definitely a dark chocolate fan (and the higher the percentage, the better), but this sounded interesting. I went out and got myself a couple bars of Lindt Excellence, which in the same issue, Gourmet named as their preferred milk chocolate for general cooking purposes.
I bought some wattleseed awhile back, but still hadn’t used it. This is something that I’ve had in restaurant desserts here, and was excited to find at my spice shop. Wattleseed is from the Acacia plant, native to Australia, and is often described as tasting like a combination of chocolate, coffee and hazelnut. All good things for a brownie I think, so I eye-balled in a couple teaspoons to the recipe. I don’t think wattleseed is readily available outside Australia, but a little instant espresso powder will do the trick if you are looking to make the flavor a bit deeper (I always put it in my dark chocolate brownies anyway).
These brownies were surprisingly good, and I’d definitely make them again. They had a perfect texture–crackly tops and chewy, but not raw, centers. They were thankfully not as sweet as I’d imagined they would be. They had a nice caramely flavor from the chocolate with a hint of coffee from the wattleseed. The seeds and the extra milk chocolate that gets stirred in as chips at the end give the brownies a little crunch.
If you want the basic milk chocolate brownie recipe, you can find it in the February 2007 issue of Gourmet magazine, or here on Epicuious.
Red Velvet Cake (a.k.a. Red Silk)
August 14, 2007 at 5:38 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, layer cakes, sweet things | 15 Comments
*I Photoshopped that candle flame in– how fake does that look??
Every year around the start of August, I ask R to think about what kind of cake he’d like me to make for his birthday. I’ve done Boston Cream a couple of times, Black Forest, and once even a chocolate cream pie. This year he asked for a “red silk cake.” Hmmm…I wasn’t sure what that was, but I thought I should know, so I said no problem. I would figure it out.
I couldn’t figure it out. So the next day I broke down and asked for clarification. What he described was just a red velvet cake. Can’t blame the guy for confusing his fabrics, but now I can’t stop calling it “red silk,” and as it sounds sort of exotic, it must be said in a sultry whisper.
I’ve never actually had red silk…umm, velvet…cake myself. One time, years back, I saw Martha Stewart and a guest make it on her old show. I saw them put two bottles of McCormick red food coloring into the batter! Horrifying– I mean, remember when they thought red M&Ms would kill you?
I remembered seeing that the Daring Bakers had risen to the red velvet challenge back in March. That was before my time in the group, but I looked back over many of the posts to see their individual experiences and to know what to expect. Most thought a cream cheese frosting was traditional and that the chocolate flavor of the cake was very subtle.
There were a lot of different recipes out there, but I wound up going with one in a book I have at home. I’ve had the Chocolate Bar cookbook for sometime, without ever having baked from it. Now was as good a time as any to try it out. The book was written by Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson, and I chose this recipe because Mr. Lewis is now a co-owner of Baked in Red Hook, a favorite sweet spot when I lived in Brooklyn. The cake and frosting recipes below are for an 8-inch three layer cake, but I halved the recipes below to make a six-inch two layer one instead. Also, I only have gel food coloring, so I just used a little squirt (in case you wonder why it’s not super duper red) and added a spoonful of extra boiling water to make up for the missing liquid.
Although in the book, the authors recommend a vanilla buttercream (at Baked they use a cinnamon buttercream and decorate with red hots), I decided to go the cream cheese frosting route instead. I found this to be a tricky cake to ice– even with a crumb coat, there were little flecks of red all over the place. Oh well…one of the charms of homemade, I guess. R thought it looked and tasted great, and since it was his birthday, that’s all that matters to me.
Red Velvet Cake – makes three 8-inch rounds
adapted from Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar
4 T cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 t salt
1 cup buttermilk
6 T (3 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
1 T plus 1 1/2 t vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
2 T boiling water
1 T white vinegar
1 t baking soda
-Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans lined with parchment circles.
-In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring and 2 T boiling water. Set mixture aside to cool.
-In the bowl of standing mixer, cream together butter and shortening on high speed until light. Add sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.
-Mix buttermilk and vanilla into cooled cocoa mixture.
-Sift together flour and salt. With the mixer on low, alternatley add flour and cocoa mixtures, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
-In a cup, dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar (it will be fizzy). Add immediately to batter and mix until just combined.
-Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, about 30 minutes.
-Cool cakes on a rack in their pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out and let them finish cooling completely on the rack. When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting, below.
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting – makes enough for a three-tier 8-inch cake
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 t vanilla bean paste (can substitute 1 t extract)
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
-In the bowl of an electric mixer, slowly paddle the cream cheese, butter and vanilla bean paste. Add the powdered sugar and mix until just smooth, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. If too soft to spread, add more powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency.
Blogging by Mail– Thanks Rai!
August 13, 2007 at 4:43 pm | Posted in events | Leave a comment
Last month, I signed on to participate in Blogging by Mail, an event hosted by Happy Sorceress Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness fame. I packed up a few of my favorite things (some long time favorites and other “new” Aussie discoveries) and had them whisked away to a far-off address, supplied to me by Stephanie. Then I not-so-patiently waited for a box of someone else’s favorites to make its way to me. I can’t tell you how excited I was to go to the post office today and pick up my package!
When I got home, I tore open the box, and found it had been sent by Rai from Ugly Fruit. Even though she’s just moved home to Iowa after spending three years abroad, and she’s working on setting up a new business, she still had time to put together a really fun package, containing:
-a handwritten note from Rai, introducing herself and explaining what she’d sent
-a cookbook called Cooking USA (I’ll have to start with the recipe from Iowa–corn casserole!)
-a CD from Iowa musicians, the Barn Owl Band (this will be on while I make dinner tonight)
-corn muffin mix (in a hilariously cute ear of corn “outfit”)
-strawberry fruit leather (which I love, and ate immediately after snapping the photo)
-jars of cranberry honey and peach butter (I know what I will put on my toast tomorrow morning!)
-an “Iowa…more pigs than people” magnet
-a soy bar and ranch-flavored soy nuts
-an Iowa geode (which I promptly cracked open with a hammer to see the sparkly crystals inside)
-a form from Australia Post saying that it had quarantined some unpopped popcorn (drat–sorry, Rai)
I have never been to Iowa myself, so thanks so much, Rai, for sending Iowa to me!
And thanks very much to Stephanie, as well, for organizing the event. She clearly put a lot of thought into matching everyone up, and I truly appreciate the time and effort spent.
Who received the package I sent? Why, Mai and Kevin, authors of the lovely blog Feed Your Vegetarian. Check it out!
Graham Crackers
August 8, 2007 at 6:17 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, sweet things | 13 Comments
Yes, I am aware that it looks like I’ve taken a photo of a pile of damp sand, but a few crumbs are all that I have left to share of my experience with homemade graham crackers. I have plans for those leftover crumbs, though…you wait and see.
Waaay back when, I promised that if anyone was interested, I would give the recipe for homemade graham crackers that I used in making my Namaimo bars. I did get a request, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get this out.
This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, which calls them “the best graham crackers.” And I can attest to them being very tasty, since I did a quality control check before I whizzed the batch to bits. I imagine they’d be very good with a little peanut butter (one of my favorite snacks).
Graham Crackers – makes 32 crackers (3.5″ x 2.5″)
adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
1/2 c (2 oz) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c (7 7/8 oz) whole wheat flour
3/4 c (3 oz) powdered sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon (optional)
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
2 T (1 1/2 oz) honey
2 T (1 oz) cold milk
– Preheat the oven to 325°F/165°C. Have ready two baking sheets, with parchment to match.
– Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly.
– In a separate bowl, stir the honey into the milk to dissolve. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, tossing with a fork until it comes together. If it seems to require more liquid to come together (mine did), add a little extra milk.
-Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and fold it over gently 10-12 times until smooth (I found a metal bench scraper to be quite helpful here). Divide the dough in half, and form each half roughly into a rectangular shape. Work with one half at a time, keeping the other half covered.
-On the counter, lightly flour one of your parchment sheets and a rolling pin. Roll one piece of dough on the parchment, adding a little more flour as necessary, into a rectangle about 10″ X 14″ (almost the size of your parchment). The dough should be about 1/16″ thick. Trim the edges to make a clean rectangle and dock evenly with a fork.
-Using a pizza or pastry wheel, cut the dough into 16 rectangles. Lift the parchment onto your baking sheet. There is no need to separate the cookies– they will bake together, but will break apart easily along the pre-cut lines when slightly cooled.
-Repeat the last two steps for your other half of dough.
-Bake for 15 minutes, or until medium gold all over (mine took a little longer). Let the crackers cool on the pan until just barely warm. Carefully snap crackers apart and cool them completely on a rack, before wrapping them tightly for storage.
Daring Bakers in July: Strawberry Mirror Cake
July 30, 2007 at 3:43 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, daring bakers, groups, sweet things | 50 Comments
Sometimes when a challenge is thrown my way, I shake my Magic 8 Ball to predict the outcome. But here, I think I’ll take a cue from the Queen in Snow White: “Mirror, mirror on the wall. Will I skate through my first Daring Bakers challenge, or will I fall?”
Yes, that’s right. I’m now a whisk-wielding member of Daring Bakers. For months I’ve read about the escapades of this group, and I’m very pleased to be able to display the logo myself. Isn’t she cute?
Our hostess of the month, Peabody from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, had us tackle a strawberry mirror cake. I’ve actually made a similar cake once before (in culinary school…I think we called it “fruit mousse miroir”), so I was reasonably familiar with its components– sponge cake Bavarian cream and gelée. I knew that gelatin is what makes this cake possible, but I don’t eat red meat, so I also do my best to avoid gelatin. One of the hard and fast rules of DB membership is that you must make the recipe the way it is written, and resist the urge to tinker and tweak. An exception is allowed for food allergies or strong aversions, so the green-light was given to use agar-agar as a gelatin substitute.
Armed with my agar powder, a whole bunch of eggs and several baskets of surprisingly nice-looking winter strawberries, I set out to make the cake.
I started by making the sponge cake, which was easy and really delicious. I had a fair amount of scrap left over, so I stuck it in the freezer where it is waiting to be reincarnated, possibly as a trifle….mmm.
From there, however, things took a turn for the difficult. I had never actually used agar-agar before, and really had no idea how. I did some reading on the subject, but perhaps too much, because I wound up confused. You can substitute powdered agar-agar for powdered gelatin in equal amounts, but strawberries are acidic, so they might require more agar…you need to boil it, but it sets at room temperature, blah blah blah. What did I get myself into?
In terms of dissolving the agar-agar in boiling liquid, I did what I thought was best without altering the amount of liquid in the recipe (that was my real concern with using the stuff). Everything looked the way it was supposed to, which was a good sign. So I crossed my fingers and slid the cake tin in the fridge for a nice long rest. When I popped the cake out of the tin, I couldn’t believe how big it looked on the stand–with only two of us in the house, I’m used to just making little six-inchers. It was quite shiny and splendid in all its red and pink glory, and I could actually see a bit of my reflection on the surface!
It’s not all about looks here, though. What’s inside counts, too. I knew I had to bite the bullet and cut the cake, and I was nervous. The Bavarian cream was a bit softly set, but held up fine. Sadly though, it had a bit of a pasty texture that I wasn’t too fond of. I know that had nothing to do with the original recipe. It was the fault of the agar, or more likely, the fault of the person using the agar.
I’m not too keen to blindly experiment with agar-agar again anytime soon, but I have a packet in my pantry in case the urge surfaces. I am a Daring Baker now, after all.
To see how the other DB members tackled this assignment, visit the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll. And if you know of any worthwhile books with recipes designed specifically for agar-agar, or if you’ve had good luck with any of the Kosher gelatins available, please let me know!
SHF#33: Tropical Pavlova
July 27, 2007 at 10:02 am | Posted in events, other sweet, sweet things | 17 Comments
I only realized that it was time again for Sugar High Friday when I saw the great-looking posts popping up on other blogs. Recipes with mango, coconut, pineapple…it didn’t take a genius to see that this month’s host Mary from alpineberry has chosen “tropical paradise” as the theme. Right on time, too. I could use something lighter– I’ve just about OD’ed on chocolate mud cake from that madhatter I decorated over the weekend. Also, there’s a really good selection of tropical fruit here (I think Queensland is a big growing region). It all looks really nice and is easy to find.
I didn’t have to wonder long what tropical concoction I would make. The new issue of delicious. magazine was in my mailbox on Tuesday, and on the cover was a winter pavolva with poached quince and cinnamon whipped cream. Of course those particular flavors wouldn’t whisk me off to palm trees and hot sand, but I immediately thought that a pavlova would be an excellent vehicle for tropical fruit. So I went to the market and came back with passion fruit, mango, papaya and star fruit. To amp up the tropicaliness (new word!) of the dessert, I folded a little fine desiccated coconut into the meringue before baking and I sweetened the whipped cream with soft palm sugar.
If you’ve never had a pavlova before, it’s a legendary Australian dessert, although I think the Kiwis also argue that it’s theirs. I don’t who’s right about that, but I do know that crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside meringue topped with whipped cream and tropical fruit will make you feel like you are somewhere far away from your small city apartment.
Tropical Pavlova – makes 4 servings
adapted from delicious. (August 2007)
for the meringues:
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
125 g superfine sugar
1/2 t white vinegar
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 t cornstarch
2 T desiccated coconut (optional)
for the whipped cream:
200 ml heavy cream
2 T palm sugar (can substitute 2 T powdered sugar, sifted)
for the fruit:
use whatever you like
-for the meringues: Preheat oven to 230°F/120°C. Draw four 9 cm circles on a sheet of parchment, leaving space between. Flip the parchment over and use to line a baking sheet (make sure your circles are visible beneath the sheet).
Using a mixer, beat whites with a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the superfine sugar, beating well between each addition. Whip until the whites are stiff and shiny. Carefully fold in the vinegar, vanilla, cornstarch and coconut (if using). Pile meringue onto circles on baking sheet and spread to size, making an indent in the center of each.
Bake for 50 minutes. Meringues should be crisp on the outside. Turn off oven, crack door slightly and cool meringues in oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven to finish cooling.
-for the whipped cream: Whip the cream to soft peaks with the sugar.
-to assemble: Pile whipped cream on top of the meringue indents. Top with cut fruit.
Honey Nut Tart
July 24, 2007 at 12:57 pm | Posted in out of town, pies & tarts, sweet things | 9 Comments
I don’t think I mentioned this, but R and I made a weekend trip to Auckland, NZ back in early June. I was my first time in the country, and since it’s probably the closest “foreign land” (anywhere else seems to be at least a nine hour plane ride away), I’m sure we’ll be back. I’m dying to go to the South Island, home of the world’s best Sauvignon blanc…but I digress! We had great time in Auckland. It’s a nice small city with big city food. We had a beautiful dinner and way too much wine at The French Café. During a leisurely lunch at The Grove, we even got to chit-chat with one of the owners, an American who fell in love with the country while traveling years ago.
On Sunday afternoon, we took a short ferry ride from downtown Auckland over to Waiheke Island, where, thanks to the advice of a friend of a friend, we had made a lunch reservation at a vineyard called Te Whau. I very much enjoyed their signature house-smoked salmon, and then had john dory (my favorite fish–lucky for me it was a special that day). I’ve gotta draw the line somewhere, so I don’t normally go for dessert with lunch, but this was vacation. I wouldn’t beat myself up too much if we just shared one. Exercising my wifely right to make decisions for “the team,” I decided that we should try the honey pine nut tart with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious…lots of toasty pine nuts held together in a honey goo. Not that pecan pie can be improved upon in any way, IMO, but this was sort of like its fancy cousin.
After over a month of thinking about it and wanting to make it at home, I finally did a bit of research and found this recipe on Recipezaar. I apparently didn’t do a very thorough read-thru of it before I went grocery shopping, though, and wound up not buying nearly enough pine nuts. I had some walnuts in the fridge, so I used roughly a 50/50 combo instead. Oh well–just as tasty and cheaper, too, I imagine. The honey I have is one that I bought at a farmers’ market; it is quite floral and went nicely with the lemon in the recipe. I know that in the northern hemisphere right now everyone is enjoying peaches and berries, but in the cooler weather down here, when there isn’t a lot of good looking fruit around, a tasty nut tart is just the ticket.
Warning: If you open the recipe link, your eyes may want to wander over to a box on the right side of the webpage containing nutrition (or lack thereof) information. Don’t let your eyes do this, or you may never make the recipe.
Back to School: Madhatter Cake
July 22, 2007 at 5:15 pm | Posted in around sydney, cakes & tortes, classes, sweet things | 33 Comments
I’ve just finished a two-day decorating course on a wacky cake design called a “madhatter cake.” I took the course at Planet Cake in Balmain, where they make all sorts of gorgeous couture cakes.
I’m by no means an expert cake decorator, so there were plenty of things I found tricky about this design. It required a lot of precise trimming to get the angles on the finished cake just right. Also, while I have covered plenty of cakes with rolled fondant, the moment before I drape the fondant over the cake, I always have a mini heart attack! I find it so hard to make it perfect, and it’s even more so when the shape is all “wonky” like this. All in all, I’m quite happy with the way this came out though, and I’m especially fond of the poofy bow on top (even though I did slightly ding up one side of it in the car on the way home–crap!). The cake inside is a very dense mud cake that R and I will be eating for the next five years.
I’m back, and I’ve been tagged
July 19, 2007 at 5:39 pm | Posted in events, other stuff | 1 Comment
I’m back at my desk chair, all moved into my new apartment, with the DSL finally up and running. Thanks for all the comments to my last couple of posts while I was away– it was really nice to have so many waiting for me!
I’m working on a couple of new recipe posts, and hope to have them up next week. In the meantime though, I’ve been tagged for the “eight things” meme (my first) by KJ over at A Cracking Good Egg. Thanks, KJ! Maybe my facts are not so interesting, but they are definitely random…
My Eight Random Facts:
1. I am horribly bad housekeeper. One of my least favorite things is folding clothes, and I use the dryer as a dresser until another load of laundry must be done. Yes, my clothes are often wrinkled.
2. I hate driving. We have a car, and I even hold two licenses (one for New York and one for New South Wales), but I can guarantee that I will not sit in the driver’s seat unless it is a medical emergency. Usually I walk where I need to get, and if that is not feasible, I take public transportation.
3. I was a math major in college/university. I must seem a little ditzy, because if the subject comes up, people usually are surprised by this.
4. I look forward to going to the dentist. I don’t enjoy having cavities filled, but I get very excited for my six-month cleanings. When I was a kid, I adored my pediatric dentist Dr. D’Aquila (who had an office subscription to MAD Magazine), and I even wanted to be a dentist. Later, though, I realized that I am grossed out by a lot of things, so that profession did not turn out to be my calling after all.
5. I have a long scar on my left hand from a tragic Big Wheel incident. I was four, and that and the resulting trip to the emergency room for stitches are my earliest clear memories. This did not dampen my love of the Big Wheel though, and we were together for a couple more years.
6. I love seafood and have a couple of pieces of chicken or turkey each month, but I haven’t eaten other meat in almost 20 years. (It really frustrated my father to have a kid who would refuse hamburgers and hot dogs.) Probably 90% of what I cook at home is vegetarian, although not necessarily super-healthy.
7. With the exception of my signature, I only write in print, never in script. And all of my Rs are upper-case. I don’t know why or how that started.
8. My satin baby blanket is my most prized possession. Grandma W gave it to me the day I was born, and it is still on my bed and in great condition. I have it dry cleaned when it needs to be, but R is still horrified by it.
I see from other blogs that this meme has really made its way around, so I won’t tag anyone myself. If there are eight things you are dying to share with everyone, though, please do, and then let me know so I can read them!
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