It’s a Frugal Gourmet bread. Recipe here. I should figure out how to convert it to a bread machine recipe. Or not.
Published on August 15, 2016 by Marica
Gone the sun
Bread is done.
Ahem.
“We are quite sure that when the Romans invaded Greece they had their eating habits changed dramatically. The Greeks were better bakers. … . ”
I bake bread.
And I can tell you that this is one of the best breads I have ever baked.
This is an interesting one. And you know this is not a political blog. But we do like history and we think there’s value in the observations of those who lived in the past.
Interesting also because this was another instance of Big Dogs Jawin’–the early years of developing Missy and Rocky’s characters. This one I have not edited for clarity (no he said/she saids). But I think it’s readable. Enjoy!
Published on August 14, 2015 by Marica
The gangster spirit survives and must be dealt with.
We should not create a paradise for gangsters.
I could not agree with the sentiment more, could you? We shouldn’t create a paradise for gangsters. Gangsters would disrupt our peace and we don’t want that, now do we?
Yes. I got a new crappy old book today and was thumbing through it. A Basis for the Peace to Come: The Merrick-McDowell Lectures for 1942. The quote comes from John Foster Dulles’ contribution, “Toward World Order.”
Dulles, as you may recall was a Secretary of State. A diplomat back in the crappy olden days before iThingys and not-iThings. In other words, back in the days when a gangster could just light a match and poof! What evidence?
I don’t know enough about Dulles to have an opinion on the worth of his life, or the value of his service to his country. I don’t know what controversies may have surrounded him while he was climbing the political ladder, or as the issues of his time passed him by. I came across one small grain of information that tips the scales in Dulles’ favor regarding him as a man, but I don’t know the details and I never will. So I have no opinion about him.
What I do know is that every thoughtful person has an opportunity to observe, and if inclined, to memorialize those observations. If such a thoughtful individual was in a position of “authority”– as a Secretary of State would be– his or her observations, though tinted by world- and self-views, could nevertheless be informative, especially in retrospect.
(OMG! I just remembered we went to a Condi Rice lecture at State a couple of years ago!)
And so here we have Dulles observing that when order breaks down– earlier paragraphs indicate that what he means by “authority” is orderly or common national courtesy behavior based on common sentiment– the gangsters move in.
Hel-l-l-lo!!! What was your first clue?
“Hello! Hallo! A hoy hoy!”
“rfffuuuuffffff?…”
“Oh my gosh, Missy! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you!”
“Well it’s too late now! Now I am wide awake. Why in Heaven’s name would you shout out ‘Hello’ in the middle of the night?”
“rrrrrrrrrrffffuuuuffuuffuuufff.”
“I dunno. And again, I am sorry. I was just working through some thoughts in my head and I had a moment.”
“Well, now that I’m awake, I– as your faithful companion– am here to listen if you need me.”
“rrruuufff.”
“Gosh! Thanks, Missy! You are such a good listener.”
“rrrrruuuuffffff!!!”
“Go back to sleep, Dear Friend. Marica and I are having a conversation.”
“R>U>F>F”
“Rocky, You look confused. Go back to bed, Boy.”
“So, anyway, Missy. Here’s what I was thinking about. I’m thinking that history doesn’t just repea… . Missy? Missy?”
“rrrrrrrrrrrrzzzzzzzzzuhrrrrzzzzz”
Published on August 14, 2014 by Marica
Tip of the old John Deer cap to Mr. Big Food’s Dad who sent these along. Enjoy!
Subject: 30 Things a Southern Boy Will Never Say….
30. When I retire, I’m movin’ north.
29. I’ll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.
28. Duct tape won’t fix that.
27. Come to think of it, I’ll have a Heineken.
26. We don’t keep firearms in this house.
25. You can’t feed that to the dog.
24. No kids in the back of the pickup, it’s just not safe.
23. Wrestling is fake.
22. We’re vegetarians.
21. Do you think my gut is too big?
20. I’ll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits and gravy.
19. Honey, we don’t need another dog.
18. Who gives a damn who won the Civil War?
17. Give me the small bag of pork rinds.
16. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.
Fifteen more below!
Continue reading
Many more at Powerline’s The Week in Pictures.
Gosh, would you look at her! Her official birthday is at the end of August, so she’s not quite one year old here.
Who would have thought on August 13, 2012 that Missy would write an epic novel titled, Vitiosus Canes, Virtutum Actus (Vicious Dogs, Virtuous Acts) that was destined to become a best seller?
[Link above goes to a free short story (read or download the pdf) about Missy coming to write her Epic Novel. It’s fun, family friendly, and a little bit educational!]
Even more amazing–we knew Missy was very talented from the get-go–who would have thought that she would start a school for
all the animals on our farm who wanted to learn and teach from those great books of knowledge passed down to us through….
And that I would write a book about a pack of farm dogs starting Miss Missy’s School?
It’s on sale at Amazon! Choose the hardcover ($12.64) because the illustrations really shine on that heavier paper.
Published on August 13, 2012 by Marica
Dear Self,
Hope and pray that Missy lives to a ripe old age. But remember to never ever get a long-haired dog ever again.
Have a nice day,
Myself
Check out what’s playing tonight and tomorrow. Do you imagine that the antenna once broadcast audio of the movie that was playing? Or something else?
Downtown Aberdeen looked to be pretty prosperous. It even has a fabric store! On the other hand, I think Penny Lane’s has seen better days. The menu was limited, and the biscuits & sausage gravy wasn’t all that good– but we’re pretty particular about our biscuits & gravy. In all my years, I have never had biscuits & sausage gravy that just had bulk sausage chunked up on top of the gravy. Maybe it’s a local custom.
Published on August 12, 2016 by Marica
Aristotle contemplating a bust of Homer, Rembrandt van Rijm (1653)
Homer, about 1040 BC
Aristotle, 384-322 BC
Rembrandt, 1606-1669 AD
You and I, 19xx-
Published on August 11, 2013 by Marica
I came across this while skimming through one of my newest– and newer (1978)– crappy old books, Webster’s Encyclopedia of Dictionaries: 12 Complete Dictionaries in One.
It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man– the struggle between a proud mind and an empty pocket– the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end. Have the courage to appear poor, and you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.
— Mrs. Jameson
A few tangential thoughts before we turn to the mysterious Mrs. Jameson.
An Encyclopedia of Dictionaries! For two bits! That go to charity! Life is great, isn’t it?
The quote comes from the “Familiar Quotations” section. Included also in the Encyclopedia of Dictionaries are Crossword, Bible, Scientific, Music, Rhyming, Legal and Medical Dictionaries, plus some other stuff. For $0.50 that goes to charity! I ask again, is this a Great Country or What?
I like Mrs. Jameson’s sentiment, don’t you? I heard a story– a first-hand story told to Mr. Big Food and I by one who was present– about a “well-to-do” couple, in terms of income, up to their necks in debt. They were advised to analyze past expenses and track current. When then asked why ‘clothing’ expenses represented such a large proportion of total expenditures, the woman replied that she needed a new wardrobe every season. I’m not making this up. She donated last season’s to “the poor” as a charitable contribution. She was advised to consider dry-cleaning. Have courage!
Mrs. Jameson. Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson (1794-1860). I had never heard of this woman. (The Wikipedia entry is lifted straight from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition which is largely unchanged in my 14th edition (1955) from which all paraphrases and quotes come. from.).
What a woman. What a prolific writer. I wonder why no one’s heard of this woman.
She became engaged to Robert Jameson, broke off the engagement, traveled, wrote a best-seller, and later married Jameson. “The marriage proved unhappy… . … The couple separated without regret.” Translation: they were still married, they just went their own separate ways.
And then she wrote, Characteristics of Women (1832), an “analyses of characteristics and differences of women of Shakespeare’s heroines.”
And then, after writing some more, she joined her husband in Toronto in 1836. That didn’t go well. But before she returned to England, she hung out with the natives and wrote Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838).
Later, back in England and at home on The Continent, she wrote about art galleries, how the Madonna was depicted through history. And so on.
Still later, “she took a keen interest in in questions affecting the education, occupations, and maintenance of her own sex. Of these subjects, she wrote Sisters of Charity (1855) and The Communion of Labour (1856).”
~~
Mrs. Jameson strikes me a a modern day heroine. She bounced around the world as she knew it. And wrote about it. Good for her.
I’d love to find a copy of Characteristics of Women.
Why haven’t we heard of this woman?
Some ideas on active and passive near the end.
Published on August 10, 2015 by Marica
Lyric by George Graff, Jr. Music by Jack Glogau. Published by Leo. Feist, Inc., New York. Copyright MCMXVI. (That’s 1916, for folks who don’t speak Roman.)
Believe it or not, this image– on a piece of sheet music I picked up in the Friends of the Starkville Library 50⊄ room a couple of months ago– has a presence on the World Wide Web. It’s easy to find, as is information about the lyricist, George Graff, Jr. He has a Wikipedia page!! If you’ve ever hummed, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” you’ve hummed one of George’s songs.
I haven’t been able to find too much information about the song itself. (FYI: The lyrics are not those to the Miley Cyrus song.)
I take that back!
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson campaigned for his second term on the basis of having maintaining a position of non-involvement in the war. The song “Stonewall Wilson,” by Robert Mortimer, portrays the President as a strong, picturing him in uniform and leading soldiers on the sheet music cover, while the point of the song is that he kept the country at peace. This mixed political message shows a president that can lead in war, but only if absolutely necessary.
There were voices of those who opposed the peace movement and saw frightening consequences if the United States did not enter the war. For example, a recording made in 1916 by Frederick Wheeler, “Wake Up America,” demonstrated that many realized that the United States would have to send troops to Europe.
When the United States declared war with Germany in 1917, partly in response to German attacks on United States shipping, it was realized that the popular attitudes about the war needed to be turned around. Songs were one means of changing people’s minds.
From the Library of Congress which reminds us
that you may find some stuff that happened in the past offensive.
No kidding. History is literally littered with offensive stuff.
(What’s with the passive voice in that quote? “[I]t was realized that the popular attitudes about the war needed to be turned around.” By definition, passivity removes action– agency. Who realized that attitudes would have to be “turned around?”)
You know, if I were a Libertarian with a big L and liked history and I knew how to write, I would write a little American history book for home-schooled kids of about ages 7-15 in which everything that anyone from the 1600s until the present day ever did that lined up with my big L-Libertarian self-reliant admiring self would be presented in the active voice. And every single damned thing that freedom-hating welfare-state loving think-i’m-better-than-you person ever did would be written about in the passive voice.
But alas. Though I am a big L-Libertarian, and I only play a writer on this here blog.
Who remembers The Farm Circle? We met every other Friday afternoon July through early August, 2020. It was an attempt at “normal” life when people were up to here with the abnormal. We held it in the Apartment and conformed to all the dictates. It was a lot of fun. This was the last one, and I was glad of it.
Published on August 8, 2020 by Marica
We had some tinkering to do with the setup to get the television high enough for Mr. Big Food to read quotes from Nobel Prize speeches.
This may or may not have been the final Farm Circle. Who knows? But it was an excellent one! The Apartment Lecture Hall was filled to capacity (10). Andrew even virtually joined us! The talk and discussion went on for two hours before we adjourned to The Bunkhouse Bar for drinks and food, then talk and discussion on the patio. Quite lively.
We shall see what the future of The Farm Circle is as “real” life moves forward. I wouldn’t be sad if there were no more meetings. But I haven’t put the furniture back where it belongs.
This is from back in the vault! If you have not experienced the difference between McCormick (or Kroger) paprika and true Hungarian Paprika, you have not yet lived.
Published on August 30, 2012 by Marica
FAZOLOVÉ LUSKY NA PAPRICE
2 quarts water
1 tsp salt, plus an additional ½ tsp
1 lb green beans, cut
1 C sour cream
4 Tbsp butter
¾ C onion, chopped fine
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp paprika (preferably sweet Hungarian)
Bring water and 1 tsp salt to boil in a stock pot, drop in beans by handfuls, return to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cook beans just until tender (do not overcook), and drain beans immediately. Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan, add onions, cook until translucent, remove from heat, and stir in paprika until onions are coated. Beat flour into sour cream, stir mixture into saucepan with onions, and add remaining ½ tsp salt. Simmer 4-5 minutes or until sauce is smooth, gently stir in beans, and simmer about 5 minutes longer or until heated through.
Published on August 7, 2012 by Marica | Edit
Unit for unit, peppers have more vitamin C than citrus. And there ain’t nothing like fresh corn.
CORN STUFFED BELL PEPPERS
Serves 4
4 to 6 medium bell peppers, washed, tops removed, seeded, parboiled in salted water 3-5 minutes, drained
1 ½ C canned or fresh corn (drained if canned)
1 C diced raw tomatoes
4 Tbsp celery, chopped fine
1 Tbsp onion, chopped fine
2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs, beaten slightly
1 ¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
½ C soft bread crumbs
1 tsp sugar (if canned corn is used)
Water
Preheat oven to 325o-350o. Combine corn, tomatoes, celery, onion, butter, eggs, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs (and sugar, if using canned corn). Stuff peppers, replace tops, place in a greased casserole with a small amount of water, and bake covered for 50-60 minutes.
Published on August 11, 2021 by Marica
This looks good! There’s a PDF of the recipe at the end of this post. You can download it.
From First Lady Bicentennial Cookbook, South Carolina (1975), Section 4, Breads and Rolls, “Committee’s Choice,” Mrs. John Wolff, SCFWC, Florence, S.C.
MRS. JOHN WOLFF’S SCRIPTURE CAKE
Makes 1 large tube can or 2 loaf cakes
1 C Judges 5:25 “last clause: butter” (“He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.”)
¾ C Jeremiah 6:20 (“To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.”) (sugar)
¼ C Proverbs 24:13 (“My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste”) (honey)
6 Job 38:14 (“She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand”) (eggs)
1st Kings 10:2 (“And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.”) ( 1½ tsp ground cinnamon tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp ground nutmeg)
3 tsp Amos 4: 5 (“Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings—boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD.”) (baking powder, plus 1 tsp baking soda)
1 tsp Leviticus 2:13 (“And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.”) (salt)
3¾ C 1st Kings 4:22 (“Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour and sixty cors of meal,”) (unsifted all-purpose flour)
1 C Genesis 24:11 (“And he made his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.”) (water, “we substitute 1 cup cold buttermilk”)
2 C 1st Samuel 30:12 (“And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.”) (second clause: raisins)
2 C Revelations 6:13 (“and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.” (cut up dried figs)
1 C Numbers 17:8 (“The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds.” (chopped almonds)
Preheat oven to 300o. Heavily grease and flour a 10-inch tube or Bundt pan or 2 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. In a large bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter until smooth, add sugar gradually and beat in well. Clean beaters, then blend in honey at low speed. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating at medium-high speed after each addition. On a large sheet of waxed paper combine cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 3¼ C of the flour. Add blended dry ingredients to batter alternately with buttermilk. Toss remaining ½ C flour with raisins, figs and almonds and gently fold fruit and nuts into batter. Pour batter into pan(s), cut through with a knife to distribute evenly and bake about 1 hour 30 minutes or until a cake tester poked into center comes out clean. Let cool in pan(s) 30 minutes, then turn out of pan(s) and cool completely on rack.
You can quick after you see it. My Quicktime isn’t working and I can’t figure out how to edit.
Enjoy!
Apparently I searched for a followup to the post of 8/6/15.
Published on August 6, 2015 by Marica | Edit
As a follow up to a post from yesterday, I give you
Ike Walton’s Prayer
by James Whitcomb Riley
I crave, dear Lord,
No boundless hoard
Of gold and gear,
Nor jewels fine,
Nor lands, nor kine,
Nor treasure-heaps of anything.-
Let but a little hut be mine
Where at the hearthstore I may hear
The cricket sing,
And have the shine
Of one glad woman’s eyes to make,
For my poor sake,
Our simple home a place divine;-
Just the wee cot-the cricket’s chirr-
Love, and the smiling face of her.
I pray not for
Great riches, nor
For vast estates, and castle-halls,-
Give me to hear the bare footfalls
Of children o’er
An oaken floor,
New-risen with sunshine, or bespread
With but the tiny coverlet
And pillow for the baby’s head;
And pray Thou, may
The door stand open and the day
Send ever in a gentle breeze,
With fragrance from the locust-trees,
And drowsy moan of doves, and blur
Of robin-chirps, and drove of bees,
With afterhushes of the stir
Of intermingling sounds, and then
The good-wife and the smile of her
Filling the silences again-
The cricket’s call,
And the wee cot,
Dear Lord of all,
Deny me not!
I pray not that
Men tremble at
My power of place
And lordly sway,;
I only pray for simple grace
To look my neighbor in the face
Full honestly from day to day-
Yield me this horny palm to hold,
And I’ll not pray
For gold;-
The tanned face, garlanded with mirth,
It hath the kingliest smile on earth-
The swart brow, diamonded with sweat,
Hath never need of coronet.
And so I reach,
Dear Lord, to Thee,
And do beseech
Thou givest me
The wee cot, and the cricket’s chirr,
Love, and the glad sweet face of her.
Poem found in Favorite Poems of James Whitcomb Riley Chosen by William Lyon Phelps (1938) and found in digital form here.
Illustration from While the Heart Beats Young by James Whitcomb Riley with pictures by Ethel Franklin Betts (1906).
This is a repeat of a repeat but that tells you just how good this cold supper was!
Published on August 12, 2020 by Marica
Originally posted June 2016; Serve with French Potato Salad and Blood Mary Soup
This was spectacular! I changed up the recipe– from Serve it Cold! A Cookbook of Delicious Cold Dishes (1968)– a bit and I’ll make note. The recipe makes extensive reference to fat– trimming it, skimming it. We just bought a half fully cooked smoked ham, like a Jeno turkey ham but real ham. It had no fat. I did score the top of it though which turned out to be brilliant because both the rub and marinade seeped deeper into the meat.
And… in the interest of keeping the kitchen cool, I baked it in the toaster over. Perfect. And sliced it with the meat slicer.
COLD GLAZED HAM
1 fully cooked ham (or half) 8 to 10 pounds [I scaled down to one of about 3 pounds and adjusted accordingly]
1 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. ground cloves
2 Tbsp dry mustard
1 cup Madeira or cream sherry
1/2 cup orange or ginger marmalade [I used plum because that’s what I had]
Trim most of fat from ham and place in roasting pan. Make o paste of pepper, cloves, mustard and a couple of spoonfuls of wine; pat onto ham. Pour wine into pan; cover loosely with a tent of foil. Bake at 325 degrees F about 15 minutes per pound, or by wrapper directions. After 1 hour, remove foil; baste ham often with wine. [My 3 pound ham baked with foil for about 45 minutes.] Pour off drippings and skim off fat. If any fat remains on ham, score in traditional diamond patter if desired. Blend 1 to 2 tablespoons fat free drippings with marmalade. [I made no adjustments for quantities for the glaze. In fact, I used all of the drippings!] Spread glaze over ham. Cook until lightly glazed, about 30 minutes. Cool ham. Refrigerate covered in plastic wrap. Serve in thin slices.
For our cold supper I served the ham with Bloody Mary Soup and French Potato Salad.
This is interesting, at least to me, not because of my little rant, but what follows– a short conversation between Missy, Rocky, and I. The very first Big Dawg Jawin’ post was in 2013. I see three years later I still had not gotten around to doing he said/she said. Made for difficult reading, so I’ve edited what’s below.
The Big Dawg Jawin’ posts were the beginning of all of the Miss Missy stories. More than that. They were the beginning of getting to know Missy and Rocky– their personalities, foibles, likes & dislikes. Their characters.
I began earlier this year putting some of the Big Dawgs Jawin’ posts into story format. The first, “Missy’s Epic Novel,” is here.
Miss Missy’s School Book I: A Pack of Farm Dogs Starts a School needs a new cover design. Don’t be bashful about hitting the tip jar below. Thanks!
Published on August 5, 2015 by Marica
but as I was posting some recipes to Pinterest, I noticed this:
Dude. Your child is not a prop in your life. What is wrong with you?
That is all.
“Marica?” Miss asked as she lifted up her head.
“Yes, Missy?”
“Are we props in your life?”
“Ruff?” Rocky asked from deep inside his box.
“Oh! Good Heavens! No!” Marica replied.
“Ruff, ruff,” Rocky grumbled. He does not like being awakened so late in the evening.
“To be honest, I don’t even know what a ‘prop’ is, but it can’t be a good thing to be a prop in the life of someone who’s supposed to love you, can it?” Missy asked, and then sighed and laid her head back down on her outstretched legs.
“I wouldn’t think so, Missy,” Marica said.
“RUFF!!” Rocky agreed
“Shall we say a good night prayer?” Marica asked.
“Ruff.”
Marica suggested, “Now I lay me?”
“Oh, no! I don’t like that one,” Missy said.
“Ruff?!?”
“The Lord is my Shepherd…?” Marica offered.
“I’m not crazy about that one either,”
“RUFF!!”
“Come, Lord Jesus?”
“Marica. Seriously. That’s a prayer for dining,” Missy said.
“Ruffruffruff,” Rocky chuckled.
After a moment or two Marica said, quite too loudly, “I’VE GOT IT!”
“RUFF!?!”
“Dear Lord, Please protect the animals, except those who are eating my tomatoes.”
“Ahen.”
“Ruff.”
Okay, so when I first started doing this, I really was looking through 11 years’ worths of posts to find The Best of the date. Now I’m just going for some variety. Here I was, I think, getting ready to advertise the apartment for rent. We never actually did this.
Ah! Found another very interesting one. Coming up soon.
Published on August 5, 2019 by Marica | Edit
Yesterday I texted Kat & Miss M asking what, beyond the obvious, did “furnished” apartment mean. I then listed things that were in the apartment and asked what I was missing. Miss M responded that it needed a can opener (forgot to include in the list). Kat responded with links to sites advising folks how to set up AirB&Bs. Boring, boringer, boringest.
Every single one of these sites tells one that beige is the best color for everything, do not have personal items on display, for God’s sake do NOT have religious items laying about, and decorate with as much flair as a slug. I disagree. I like to see a little personality and local nick-naks or color about. Granted, a couple of B&Bs we have stayed in took this too far. The one filled with Cabbage Patch Dolls was creepy. The one featuring the bison and stuffed with so much stuff collected on the owner’s travels that you had to walk single file through the lanes was a bit much, but still, if I wanted to stay in a place with no personality, I’d stay in a hotel.
The sites about furnished apartments were the same. One of them even counseled that people who let furnished apartments are told to make them boring so if you rent one, bring your own pictures, etc. to liven the place up. Geeze.
That’s all I’ve got this morning.
