Recipe reduction--can I call it a countdown yet? 35-34

Surprise* Cinnamon Rolls
by L.V.Anderson on Slate's You're doing it wrong series

Good, very good. Is there any such thing as a "bad" cinnamon roll?  But I left the egg out of the batter recipe, so I'll never know if the "good, not great" desigation is appropriate.  Unless I try them again....

Sounds like an excuse to eat more cinnamon rolls.

Question: when you're dealing with a yeasted batter, is there any way to keep it from rising under your fingers before you can roll it up?  It swells like a sponge!  Should I turn the air conditioning down to sixty and put my hands in the freezer for ten minutes?

Slow Cooked Apple Butter

Don't know.  I didn't have Applejack, but it was just a small ingredient among many.  I didn't have real apple cider but used unfiltered apple juice as a good substitute. My choice of apples--Granny Smith and Pink Lady--could have been better. When I do it again I'll use cooking apples. And finally, the measurement of cloves and allspice hadn't transcribed into the saved recipe.  I used 1/16 teaspoon and that may have been a too much.

With all those problems I'm not surprised my results were only so-so. It was certainly better than supermarket apple butter but maybe not as good as farmer's market.

Just to reveal my naivete, I didn't think clearly about how to store the almost two quarts it produced. I'd just assumed I'd store it in the refrigerator--stupid! It will take me a year to eat that much apply butter. Today I'm going to go back and try to can it.

Recipe Reduction 37-36

 Wild Rice and Roasted Root Vegetable Bowl
from Oh My Veggies

I see you've noticed from the picture that the only root vegetables I included were onion, carrot and potato. I'm sure she was thinking parsnips, turnips, rutabaga or even sweet potato--I was thinking of RV accessories and I'm surprised I even remembered the potatoes.

It's just as well I didn't waste any of those yummy and sometimes exotic root vegetables on this recipe.  But if I'd remembered the dress the rice with vinegar and olive oil, would that have improved it so much?  Possibly a little.  It wasn't much of a "recipe" anyway--just cooked wild rice (with vinegar and olive oil), roasted veggies, served on a bed of greens. I used grocery store kale which was tough as oak leaves so I cooked it. The only thing that might have made it a "recipe" was the dressing--but it was just a mixture of tahini, garlic, lime juice and cumin. Not a good combination.

It's wholesome and edible and will feed me nutritiously next week.  But I'm not looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

Sardine Fritters in Lettuce Leaves with Sriracha-Soy Sauce
by Mario Batali, sauce by Stuart Brioza

Why in the world did it take me so long to cook something so simple and so lovely?  Open two cans of sardines--make sure the cats are out of the room--and mix them wiht bread crumbs, egg, garlic, Parmesan cheese and parsley.  Fry in a little oil. Serve with a dipping sauce of equal parts Sriracha, soy sauce and lime juice.

The author said "perfect for a dinner of four friends."  I say, equally perfect for a lunch with one. Me.

Bored to tiaras

Get Fluffy
A Pampered Pets mystery
by Sparkle Abbey

When I say I love to read, I mean it. There's a wide range of genres, styles and scenarios I enjoy reading, and a slightly smaller range that I can tolerate for a short time.  Like the extent of a single book. But--I'm beginning to remember--there are a few that I just can't take.

Even when they're well-written. I slogged through a Tom Clancey novel once and while the subject matter bored me to tears, I had to admit it was top-rate writing. James Patterson, too--so long as he was writing about children with surgically implanted wings, I could enjoy a book. (not two)


But Get Fluffy is a different matter. Having just finished an instructive, touching, heartful book about dogs in general and Merle in particular (Merle's Door), and currently listening to an audiobook about search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers, I found Get Fluffy abominably trivial. The "detective" runs a boutique selling dog's clothes. Her clients buy the clothes. The dogs wear jeweled collars and tiaras. The suspects in the case wear Valentino gowns and carry Hermes Birkin bags. And as far as I can tell, that's all they do...except go to parties and gad about. It reminds me a little of Jane Austin.

Yuck. I did my requisite 30 pages or three chapters, whichever comes last. Glad I didn't pay money for this.

Not up to normal even

Normal is Just a Cycle on the Washing Machine
by Len Bourland

I shouldn't have waited two weeks before writing about this--I've forgotten it. I think that says a lot. 

Maybe all the people who loooved it just happened to be in the same place in their lives as she was.  Clearly, I wasn't. It was readable, but didn't resonate with me an never threatened to make me laugh.

Sorry.

Great YA Great!

Eliza and her Monsters
by Francesca Zappia

It's all here and put together awesomely. Eliza is a high school kids with a marvelous talent for drawing and storytelling. Her web comic is so popular that people pay her to produce it. Other than a couple of online friends and her family, no one knows that's she's the much sought after author of Monstrous Sea.  (Okay, this warrants a fantasy/wish fulfillment alert, so here it is. Who doesn't like to read about geniuses?)

 She's also a recluse and a nerd, following in the spirit of her favorite author, the woman who wrote four volumes of the five-volume series Children of Hypnos and then quit, never ending her series. Some people say it was because she couldn't deal with fame.  But the real reason is a complete mystery.

Back to Eliza. A new kid comes to school. A guy, of course. And they talk--or rather, they write notes and exchange texts. He's a tremendous fan of Monstrous Sea and writes transcriptions of it. Very good ones.  Unfortunately, by the time she comes to trust him enough to share her secret with him...she can't. It would be like admitting to him that she lied during all those weeks when he shared his own secrets with her.

What a mess, huh?  It gets worse. And better. And worse. Read it.

Gardening In My Roots, fall will never come

Not a bad harvest for September 21. From top, next year's okra, this Sunday's fried okra, and lotsa hotsies.  The hot weeks this month have done a number on my baby turnips, carrots and even the okra.  But okra and peppers can't get enough of it.

Love this author. 3rd book, no misses.

What happened to Goodbye
by Sarah Dessen

I seem to remember this book having lower ratings than some of her newer ones, but now that I've read (listened to) it, I don't see why.  Oh--yes--I remember now. The other books of hers I read had some supremely intense events in them--rape, imprisonment--so the subject matter of this one is light by contrast.  Just divorce.  And feelings of rejection, homelessness, inability to persist relationsships....

I could see someone coming off this saying, "Wasn't that sweet?" But if they did, they weren't paying attention. This girl was going through a lot of misery underneath, and her failure to wallow in it was just a sign of the problem.

In true Sarah Dessen way, the author gets to put some heavy messages in her young characters words. I rolled my eyes a couple of times. 

Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. 

But her description of what a true friend is by calling them a "two a.m." is right on.