Butter, huh.

The other day a friend of mine was extolling the Bread and Butter Pudding that his aunt in England makes. Then another friend joined in, saying how great Bread and Butter Pudding is. Now I know how to make great bread pudding, and I really think my custard is excellent, but I was all intrigued by the butter. I wanted to give it a try!

Well, so I did. This is phenomenal. I couldn’t have been happier! I did add some vanilla and one extra spoonful of sugar, but other than that, the dash of salt, and, well, the temperature I baked it at… here it is!

Bread and Butter Pudding (Recipe of FD's Aunt in England)
3 slices of buttered bread cut into quarters
1- 2 small handfuls of currents or Sultanas
1 desert spoon sugar
1 pint of milk
2 eggs

layer the bread in a greased pie dish buttered side up sprinkle the fruit and the sugar on the layers.

Heat the milk, not to hot, beat the eggs with a fork and pour on to the warmed milk then mix the mixture well
pour into pie dish over the bread, grate nutmeg on the top and leave to stand for 30 mins .
bake in a moderate oven for 30mins or till set and brown (375 F)
Serve with cream

What makes bread and butter better than bread? The butter makes it better. Otherwise this recipe is just like the great and wonderful bread pudding you and I love to eat. Or, it’s something like baked French Toast, which I also love to eat.

I used the ends of a loaf of Como from Grand Central Bakery, which I found to be perfect for this, letting the heels sit in the most liquid under the other layers. Just what I would have expected, they soaked up the milk and turned into delicious custard softness. But the buttered slices on top, which I also sprinkled with sugar after buttering then cutting in 2” squares, developed that well-buttered crunch on top with the custard soaking up through the square, creating a custardy, crunchy, raisin-nutmeg-y explosion of awesomeness that I ate warm!

Bread Pudding’s fine, and I’m happy to try it again, but Bread and Butter Pudding is on top!

The Vocal, the Literary

Finding one’s voice is a worthwhile pursuit and one that our lady, The Uncommon Reader, takes to develop. Interestingly, to me her voice is entirely strong and distinct throughout.

Yet, as I am not British Royalty, perhaps I just don’t understand. Having played at writing with the Queen’s voice (not included here), it is clear how differently she and I address ourselves and our world.

But we have a great commonality, the uncommon one and I. We read. We enter other worlds, learn other ways of being, and generally enjoy what’s out there – even to the point of sympathizing with other people.

Alan Bennett’s work in developing a character in her late 70s into a person of new interests and vitality was a great yet brief pleasure. The novella filled but one sunny afternoon. No matter, I’ll just pop back to the library and experience yet another voice!

Sugar Doodles

My nieces came over on a recent afternoon, so I thought I’d bake them a treat. My sister and I would be taking a walk, while they would ride their bikes, meaning that all will be hungry and really, really need a snack afterwards. The three little girls have varying tastes, and I decided to cater to the blandest, as everyone can accept plain, but not all can accept complex flavors.

Therefore, I set out to make a plain butter or sugar cookie. These are so simple, yet can be so improved with a little of this and a little of that. I found a snickerdoodle recipe and decided that although it was entirely inoffensive, it was also truly too dull. So I began to look online for cream cheese sugar cookies.

Those recipes were far more interesting, even if the only added ingredient besides sugar, butter, and flour was cream cheese! But they all wanted me to roll out the dough. I love my nieces, but I was not going to roll out dough.

True to form, I began to combine recipes, combine flavors, and keep it all white so that maybe the kids would eat it!

1 C butter
4oz cream cheese
1 ¾ C sugar
2 eggs
1t vanilla
½ lemon juiced – maybe a tablespoon
3 C flour
3t baking powder
Dash of salt

After mixing all that, I let the dough rest in the fridge to set up. I really didn’t want too runny of cookies! But neither did I want them overly stiff once baked. So, I put them still gooey on plastic wrap and rolled the dough into a log as one would for freezer cookies. The dough was pretty soft, actually, so I wasn’t expecting a perfect circle. I planned to slice the cookies off the roll and put oval slabs of them on a baking tray (400*F for 10min). I even was ready to toss a few sprinkles on them, as pink crystals of sugar don’t put the girls off, or necessitate extra exertion. :-)

When all was said and done, they turned out just wonderfully. The heaps of baking powder and a second egg kept the cookie cake-y, as you’d expect from a snickerdoodle, but the sugar cookie flavors came through so well that the couple leftovers I happily enjoyed baked off the following day. Therefore, it fit my goal of a delicious flavor with neither cinnamon nor rolling pin!

Confessions of a 'Sugar Person'

I don’t understand Barbara Kingsolver’s family-wide fixation with bananas. As they slog through a year of glorious organic produce and poultry in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, figuring out that it is as good as it sounds – having lots of gorgeous food from the garden – and that it’s as hard as it sounds – preparing in advance all that glorious stuff for winter – she keeps coming back to bananas.

Being a bit of a traveler, I’ve actually had bananas where they’re from, and they’re not that good in Seattle by comparison. I really think on bananas the way Kingsolver describes tomatoes: pretty phenomenal in the right circumstances, but hardly worth it otherwise. Anyhow, with all that great summer squash she harvested, there’s no need for bananas! They substitute very nicely.

When Kingsolver’s family set out to eat local food for one year, they allowed few big outside purchases, exceptions being olive oil, pasta, and flour. There were some further breaches made for beverages such as coffee, hot chocolate, and wine. That being said, I never noticed her calculated consumption of sugar. I was looking for it, too. And I know there was some, because they made jam!

The truth is that I have romanticized the idea of a self-sufficient farm where I could figure out how to grow what I want to eat (on a hard rock candy mountain), only to come to the realization that even though garden fresh fruits and vegetables are incredibly sweet, I just might want more than honey sometimes. Here you may take into account that I am a pastry chef!

The romantic ideals go back to Little House in the Big Woods when Laura Ingalls Wilder has bear for dinner and asks for the leg, or at Christmas gets maple sugar candy for a huge spectacular treat. Or, later, maybe by Plum Creek, when there’s an orange at a party that she delights in eating, segment by segment. I remember trying to savor the oranges that I got in my stocking as a kid – but knowing it was from our huge box of oranges really spoiled that, so I usually just returned them to the kitchen and curled up with my newest book instead.

Devouring books is no new thing for me, and I did gobble this book on “A Year of Food Life” faster than Kingsolver and her whole extended family could get through one home grown, free range Thanksgiving turkey. Like Kingsolver’s novel-writing, her personality comes through, sometimes overly precious, but still compelling. I do appreciate authors with less partisan political bent, but often enough she left that alone and discussed the real issue: food.

Gooseberry Custard Tart

Recently my mom’s friend shared her family recipe for rhubarb custard pie with me. A very simple custard of milk, eggs, sugar, and perhaps flour, and yummy enough for dessert or breakfast. I love a French custard tart, where the fruit is interchangeable, but often apple. It can be called an alsatienne, having equal parts cream, milk, and eggs, with sugar and vanilla, basically a sweet quiche. Or, even a clafoutis accepts fruit, which I’ve seen done dozens of ways, the basic French versions being my favorite. One is a thick custard, almost a flan, with cherries (pits included!) another calls for almond meal and berries.

The fact that these all excite me and I make them as often as I can, should be tempered by the fact that often I try them while out with nothing but frustrated disappointment. In my mind a baked custard is the easiest thing possible. Perhaps on par with chocolate chip cookies. How could someone make a bad one? It would have to almost be intentional sabotage of deliciousness.

But this is not true. I decided to do some online investigation and tried out some recipes that come up at the top of search engine lists. My Lord Jesus Christ, those were some foul desserts. One I made at my parents’ with my mom commenting politely, after trying the outcome, ‘um, honey, you know, I think I like my apple pie better.’

Hello! Understatement! McDonald’s apple pie is better. I decided to keep the recipe and write ‘Disaster! Do not try again,’ across the body of it. Generally I write all over my recipes, considering myself a culinary scientist, not so unlike the Half Blood Prince with his Potions book.

Therefore, my lovelies, here’s the custard tart I made with some suspicious fruits called ‘gooseberries.’ It’s worth noting that gooseberries are lots tarter baked – like how endives are super bitter baked, but sweet raw. Well, these little geese get sour!!

What Not to Say

Oh, do I like British writers: William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Helen Felding, and the list continues. Sometimes I don’t even realize an author’s British until I’ve begun a book, which is the case with Mark Vernon’s What Not to Say, which I picked up from the library expecting a light and silly read. With a bright colored-pencil stylized cover design and lots of scribbling, plus the description of awkward moments on the back, it is easy to assume. However, the subtitle, Philosophy for Life’s Tricky Moments, is in earnest.

So, ever want to know what to say to end a friendship? Carefully, advises Vernon after extensively considering Nietzsche and Plato. And why do you want children? Hm, maybe one question worth asking before giving it a go. He even advises you on a particularly clever poem to recite when a friend enters into an ill-matched or disappointing marriage, giving you, at last, something to say.

As with most British thinking, Vernon advises a great deal of tact when addressing one’s public and private moments. Very nicely, though, he always does advise one to speak and engage, often falling back on the less is more strategy, but with a punch. I particularly appreciate his treatise on making a complaint. Here the wit of a Brit can be absolutely delicious! If one’s wit is not quite as sharp, no matter, the point remains that one should articulate against injustices. If others are angry over silly things, let not that dissuade me from my rage of importance!

Vernon’s erudition is a pleasure as he leads one through ancient, modern, and otherwise texts and philosophers, distilling contemporary situations, thereby supporting, even with his own biblical references, that there is nothing new under the sun.

Summer Salads

Once again I was presented with an array of summer vegetables in my CSA box. When I opened it and looked around, I found a cabbage. I have only bought a cabbage one time before in my life, and only know two things to do with it. You can either bake it with corned beef on St Patrick’s Day, or you can make cole slaw. I made cole slaw.

That one time I bought a cabbage was a few years ago, to make cole slaw for the 4th of July, and although I probably found a great recipe which was fantastic, I decided to go looking again. I looked online, I looked in cookbooks, I thought about looking through my old cooking notes. And this is what I did:

One Green Cabbage
One Yellow Carrot
One Bunch Green Onions

Dressing:
Cider Vinegar
Bitter Honey
Olive Oil

Chop up the vegetables, make a dressing with the rest, pour it over the vegetables, and let it rest, refrigerated.

I found the bitter honey at the Chateau Ste Michelle winery in Woodinville. I had never seen bitter honey before and was curious about it. In fact, as I’ve attended a honey convention in France, and go out of my way to honey taste at markets from St Petersburg to Ballard, I really thought I’d seen most of the honey out there. Interestingly it was on sale, having stayed past its ‘best if used by’ date. One thing that I’ve heard reiterated about honey is that it doesn’t go bad, so I figured even bitter honey should be ok. And it is. I have paired it with goat’s cheese, added it to numerous vinaigrettes, and generally a dab here and a dab there for fun.

The yellow carrot is part of a bunch of rainbow carrots, with red, orange and yellow carrots all set together like a bouquet of Gerber daisies. I tasted each one separately. I probably should have done it blind folded, as the orange carrot was by far the best. I will save those for eating on their own.

Worth mentioning, I did make three salads, but received a particular complement on the slaw, even though I think that my broccoli salad was the greatest success, considering how little I like broccoli, yet finished this one off first! The third salad was beets and dill... yummy!

Trend towards Adrianism

Browsing for new books at the library is a seriously awesome pastime of mine. So, when I came upon Cass R. Sunstein’s book, I was hooked. It has two very impressive features; a phenomenal cover design and an enticing title. I give a little ‘hurrah’ for marketing in literature and picked it up!

I have not been disappointed. The library may be a little disappointed, as I was meant to return it last week, but we’ll be ok. I HAD to finish it and have it here to write about. The ideas and studies presented in Going to Extremes: How like minds unite and divide, were extremely compelling, explain enormous amounts of social interactions, and, I think, were incorrect. Er, I mean, very correct and perfect. Hm, shall I be united or divided?

How do likeminded people become extremists? It is certainly a question that I’ve asked as perfectly competent people make ridiculous decisions, which I’ve witnessed, stupefied. Or, better (worse) yet, be in a situation where one’s voice is entirely disregarded as the group runs away from truth. Oh, how that stings. And, it has a name! It’s called ‘cascading,’ but can go in any direction. And, I even discovered why, that one time, when I was completely certain of my own calculations, then looked at the crowd intent on a particularly lousy decision and decided not to put up the fight, merely excusing myself. Aha, I practiced self-censoring and self-selection. Notably, it has bothered me ever since, as I do not like to take that route.

There are two parts of this book that really got me thinking. One addressed the extremism of Islamic terrorism, and the other was a study of Stanford students. To address Sunstein’s whole argument leading up to his example of Islamic terrorism just might necessitate quoting the whole first part of the book. As I won’t do that, I’ll just give the clincher. If you would like to see a change in something that you find to be incorrect extremism, engage on respected terms. I have often encouragingly quipped ‘politely!’ to those wishing to go head to head with their opponent. Oh, to have someone whom you respect open your eyes to new information and ideas – so beautiful and successful. In the plainest terms, Sunstein concludes that only Muslims can change the mindset of Islamic terrorists.

The other was a study of university students who play acted a psychological experiment as guards and prisoners, wherein the activities were really foul. There was one quote by the psychologist conducting the study, Zimbardo, which has irked me. He said that the students showed no differences at the beginning of the study yet were entirely dissimilar by the end. From what I read, I would disagree, saying they were all still completely uniform at the end. Not one showed heroics, not one rose above any ‘station,’ and not one proved driven by any internal morality. Each participant responded to the authority with obedience, squelching any personally held ideas of individual worth; only a couple of the ‘prisoners’ objected to their treatment, necessitating removal from the project. (The fact that scientists may no longer conduct such human experiments for study is slightly encouraging… of course TV networks may produce highly similar ‘games’ for entertainment value.) Sunstein continues to discuss Abu Ghraib, individual thresholds against bad behavior, and concludes that there are dispositions towards evil and towards good. The makeup and interaction of groups will determine the final outcome.

So I’ve discovered. That there is the opportunity to influence outcomes through bold statements, truth notwithstanding, is overwhelmingly supported through studies and experience. That one may stand against group polarization (or create an opposing group) and turn the tide of extremism is an idea I hope to develop. Watch out for Adrianism!