Sorry, but...

I don't know if anyone even read me over here on Blogger.  But I don't like the setup, so I'm packing up my typewriter and I'm moving back to Wordpress. So just in case you did read me here, I ain't here anymore.  You'll find me back at www.thevacavillehousewife.wordpress.com.

Okay, bye.

What Enormous Berries!

...said the actress to the vicar.  (Sorry--you know, sometimes it's just too easy.)
Now, no, that is not a euphemism for, ahem, anything. This is a family show. Rather I really am talking about the enormous strawberries that are in the stores now.  See that one little strawberry all alone in the bottom row?  It's pointy, plenty big enough, your basic attractive, tasty strawberry. But now look at all the other strawberries.  They're huge (and somewhat lacking in general quality, really).  And these aren't even very giant giant strawberries!  I bought some last week that were much bigger!  I don't know why bigger is supposed to be better.  Now they look like some weird strawberry relative. They're not pointy anymore, they are actually very blunty, and they tend to be sort of pinkish and fibrous inside. And the end that used to be pointy is really jam-packed with the little external strawberry seeds, way more than strawberries used to be. Frankly, they just aren't all that pretty.  I don't need a strawberry the size of a baby's head, thank you very much.  I'm sure it has something to do with crop yield--same number of plants but much more tonnage. And what kind of fertilizer situation is going on here? Well, I don't like it, not one bit.  I tried to grow my own, with remarkably little success. We know that I am not a plant nurturer (the strong will survive!), and I think strawberries may be the needy chick of the home-grown fruit world.  Once again, no immediate solutions, but I like to voice my concern and curiosity.

So now I've got these giant strawberries that beg to be cut up and cooked in some way. Usually I just put them on the stove with some water and sugar and let them cook down.  This time, however, I did something just a little different.

Roasted Strawberries (and rhubarb if you feel like it)
4 cups cut-up strawberries (or 2 cups cut-up strawberries and 2 cups cut-up rhubarb)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark, whatever you have)
4 Tbl. melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Stir all ingredients together in a bowl, turn out into a 9 x 9 baking dish, spreading evenly. Roast for about 15 minutes, till fruit is soft and juices are bubbling.  Let cool to warm room temperature.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.  Mmmm.

A Change is as Good as a Rest

I've rested, and now I'm changing, so that's that then.  I'm cutting Wordpress loose and moving on up, to Blogger. (Not to the East Side. Nor to a de-luxe apartment in the sky. Just to Blogger.)  There are some technical issues with some of the stuff I've moved over from Wordpress, where items appear in code, but I'm not going to worry about it at this point.  Maybe I'll go back and fix it one day, in my spare time. Well, fingers crossed, godspeed, bon voyage, etc. Here we go.  If you wondered where The Vacaville Housewife went, she's here now.  So don't fret.

Lemonpalooza

I have a lot of lemons.  Beautiful Meyer lemons.  My tree is extraordinarily fecund (that always sounds a bit off color...) this year.  Truly an embarrassment of riches.  I have heard you can keep ripe citrus on the tree for 10 weeks, and the quality will not be affected (my tree is in a sheltered spot, so frost is not an issue).  That said, I do feel quite a lot of pressure to put all my fruit to use.  In the December issue of Food & Wine magazine, there is a recipe for a lemon Bundt cake.  I made it today. It was quite a project--zesting all those lemons takes a fair amount of time!  But it was well worth it, as the cake is delicious. Actually, I didn't have to zest all 10 lemons--I mean, look at the size of these!  The lemon on the right is the usual size of a Meyer lemon, and I have just a few that size.  Most of the ones on my tree, however, are the size of the one on the left!  Why this is is anybody's guess.  Radiation from Japan?  Are they Three Mile Island lemons?  No, I don't think so.  Just a happy confluence of growing conditions that led to this crop.  I was worried that the size would mean a thick skin, more like a Eureka lemon, but no.  Thin skinned and juicy as always. There would have been an even bigger crop, but we had some crazy wind in early fall that knocked a lot of the baby lemons off (which, upon further reflection, may have led to the bigger lemons).  Perhaps just as well! Above are some of the ingredients for the Bundt cake--see how much zest there is?  The batter is thick and creamy--can you see the little flecks of peel in there?

See the finished product?  It's pretty!  I pasted the recipe in here from the Food & Wine  website, just so you know.  Read to the end of the recipe--I made a few small changes.

Lemon Bundt Cake

Food & Wine Magazine, December 2012

cake

1. Nonstick cooking spray


2. 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting


3. 1 1/2 cups cake flour


4. 1 tablespoon baking powder


5. 1 teaspoon salt


6. 2 3/4 cups sugar


7. 1/3 cup lightly packed finely grated lemon zest (from 10 lemons)


8. 1/2 cup canola oil


9. 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled


10. 3 large eggs


11. 3 large egg yolks


12. 3 tablespoons dark rum


13. 2 tablespoons pure lemon extract


14. 3/4 cup heavy cream

lemon syrup

1. 1/4 cup sugar


2. 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice


3. 1 tablespoon dark rum

glaze and topping

1. 1 cup confectioners’ sugar


2. 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice


3. 1 teaspoon almond extract


4. 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

1. MAKE THE CAKE Preheat the oven to 350°. Generously coat a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust the pan with all-purpose flour. Sift the 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and cake flour into a medium bowl, along with the baking powder and salt.


2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, use your fingers to rub the sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar resembles pale yellow wet sand. Add the canola oil and cooled butter and beat at medium speed until blended, about 1 minute. Beat in the whole eggs, egg yolks, rum and lemon extract until just incorporated, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the heavy cream and the dry ingredients in 3 alternating batches, starting and ending with the dry ingredients; be sure not to overbeat. Scrape down the side of the bowl and fold the batter until it is blended.


3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the surface. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1 hour, rotating the pan halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a rack for 30 minutes.


4. MEANWHILE, MAKE THE LEMON SYRUP In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with the lemon juice and rum and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Let the lemon syrup cool slightly.


5. Invert the cake onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Using a wooden skewer, poke holes evenly all over the cake and brush with the lemon syrup. Let the cake cool completely.


6. MAKE THE GLAZE AND TOPPING In a medium bowl, whisk the confectioners’ sugar with the lemon juice and almond extract until smooth. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Sprinkle the almonds on top and let the glaze set, about 20 minutes. Cut the cake into wedges and serve.

I put 3 Tbl. of lemon extract in the cake, instead of 2 Tbl.  The Meyer lemons are so sweet, you can lose a bit of the lemony sharpness.  In the syrup I added a 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract, again for the same reason.  As far as the glaze goes, you can see it was a bit too thin.  Next time I'd add a bit more powdered sugar, so so much didn't end up puddling underneath. And finally, it said to bake for 1 hour, which I did.  Next time, however, I'd check it at 50 minutes, and I bet that 55 minutes would be perfect. Now, go make some tea.  This cake begs to be eaten with a cup of tea!

Please! Don't Do It!

[caption id="attachment_2947" align="aligncenter" width="232"] These people are NOT going to the mall later.[/caption]

I am so dismayed by the practice that has been evolving over the last few years, that is, stores being open on Thanksgiving itself.

I worked for a (very) little while last year, when things were rather desperate, in a retail store.  When it came to light that I would have to work Thanksgiving night, I just about cried.  Actually, I actually cried. What is becoming of us?  A time to celebrate and commune with family and friends, with no presents or "stuff," with a meal that can be quite  inexpensive to prepare, that is a quiet time to just be, and we want to go to the mall.  Stop it!  Go on Friday.  Or, better, on Saturday.

What do you need so badly that you must cut short your and your family's and the store clerk's Thanksgiving? Even if you do desperately need an off-brand flat screen TV at a ridiculously low price, you know that you are going to have to stand in line and then throw elbows like hell to get one (and still maybe not get one!). You do know that, right?  So please don't do it.  Think of the people who have to work in those stores, who have no choice and can't quit their jobs because they have to work on Thanksgiving.  Moms or dads who have made a feast for their families, which is quite a lot of work, and then have to go to out to their jobs at 8:00 at night.  It's not right.

Let's get back to being civilized, family-centric people who don't do things like act like a horde of barbarians for some crap at Target or Walmart.  Please.  Stay in and enjoy your family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving.

AMA? ACK!

I realize that this is a bit of a rant, and that I'm going to sound old and cranky.  I actually am old and cranky, though, so that's not terribly surprising. Let's proceed.

I watched the American Music Awards last night. Well, I was in the room most of the time when the American Music Awards were on.  Not usually my bag.  In fact, I've never seen them before, but that's just how the TV planets aligned in our house, and long story short, I saw the AMAs.  And I have to say...what the hell was that?

Is the dirty little secret of pop music that no one can carry a tune in a bucket?  Usher  performed the most insipid, not catchy, off-key crap.  He seemed like he needed a nap.  Watching Nicki Minaj confirmed to me that the wigs and costumes are to distract you from the the fact that there is no there there. A wildly manscaped (boyscaped?) Justin Bieber wore a little sleeveless top and performed some oddly acoustic thing, obviously meant to show what a serious artist he is, and it was all off-key. Pink did some post-apocalyptic domestic violence  acrobat piece (with body paint--of course), once again an insipid, not-catchy piece of work. Carrie Underwood had a great dress on , and I think I might have liked her song (and I'm not a country music fan), had she been on key. It's  bizarre--such mediocrity on an awards show.  But don't record sales speak to who is the "best"?  Why an awards show?

I have no problem with good pop music.  Beyonce? Adele? Gwen Stefani? All great artists, all pop to the nth degree.  Usher's song "OMG" (listen)--so fun, so catchy, and just a great piece of American pop. Pink's "Please Don't Leave Me" (listen) or "So What" (listen) and the rest of that Funhouse album is great pop music.  So what the Sam Hill was all that tripe last night?  The best part of the AMAs was Carrie Underwood  and Taylor Swift's dresses.  And Taylor Swift's eye makeup--she's got the smoky eye down pat (well, her makeup artist does). So here's some music to which you may want to lend an ear. Some pop, some not. Just a bit different.  Click on these links to hear some aural relief.

Batteries May Drain (Steve Hauschildt)

Super Rich Kids (Frank Ocean)

All Eyes on You (Diego Garcia)

In the Air (Morgan Page, Sultan, & Ned Shepard)

Come Visit Me (The Rosebuds)

Tongue Tied (Grouplove)

Shock Value (Little Grey Girlfriend)

Holy Holy (Wye Oak)

Young, Beautiful, etc. (Second Date)

Another English Summer (Future Loop Foundation)

When was the Last Time You Heard This??

Now, before we get to the 70's music, look what I found on TV!  It's fantastic--every night at 5:30 on the Rural Channel (the Rural Channel??) The Mary Tyler Moore Show comes on, and then at 6 it's The Bob Newhart Show.  It's still so good, still so funny!  Tonight's Bob Newhart was a Christmas episode, from 1972 no less, and Carol (you know, the receptionist that Jerry the Orthodontist and Bob share?) was drinking eggnog out of the water cooler, and she was, she confessed to Bob, swakked.   At 9:00 in the morning.  Oh, the good old days.

Speaking of which, here are some excellent, really old songs that don't seem to turn up very often on oldie radio stations, but that will definitely take you back to your misspent youth as soon as you hear them.  AM radio, station wagons, mood rings...well, cuddle up with your pet rock, click on the links, take a listen (skip those damn ads!), and see some interesting sartorial choices from the 1970s.

In the Summertime (Mungo Jerry)  I don't even know what to say about those sideburns. I don't think we should discuss the mesh shirt, either.

Spill the Wine (Eric Burdon)   When I was a little kid I wanted to be in a band and play that ridged wooden fish instrument that you drag a stick along.  Apparently it's called a guiro.  I used to play air guiro.  And perhaps I still do when I hear this song.

Wild World (Cat Stevens)  Obviously pre-Yusuf Islam.  I'm guessing he doesn't do too many frivolous love songs anymore.

[caption id="attachment_2832" align="alignright" width="176"] Sweet[/caption]

Love is Like Oxygen (Sweet)  When I hear this, I am immediately back at a junior high school dance.  Despite that traumatic experience, I still love this song.

Moonlight Feels Right (Starbuck)  Take a gander at the drummer's hair.  And who doesn't love a xylophone solo performed in a zip-up jumpsuit? (Sorry about the Julio's Costa Rican ad--it was the best version.)

Candy's Room (Bruce Springsteen)  Never really been a Springsteen fan, besides this and Born to Run.  But I sure do love this song.

[caption id="attachment_2834" align="alignleft" width="246"] Hot Chocolate[/caption]

Every 1's a Winner (Hot Chocolate)  Do young black men ever play guitar in bands anymore?  And those stripey pants! Well!

Dreamboat Annie (Heart)  This type of song is not usually my bag, but this is beautiful. Those Wilson sisters were so young! And so thin!

How great was that??  I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, back to a simpler time when your parents worried about things like fiscal cliffs and deficits and tax increases, and all you worried about was how well your hair was feathered and if your Angels Flights looked good.  Sigh.