Recently, some friends who happened to be in the neighborhood stopped by on the off chance we might be home (which, happily, we were).
It made me realize how rare this is; generally, a ringing doorbell indicates either an Amazon delivery or that our trash can lids have blown open.
In my ever-faulty memory, it seems to me that neighbors used to stop by unannounced with some frequency, especially when we were kids. But this has gone the way of the dodo, thanks to crime, COVID, and other modern inconveniences.
I must confess I would never just show up — I might text to see if somewhere were home or if it was a convenient time to receive visitors — but I kinda think that’s a shame.
I’m continually in awe of all of you who post regularly no matter what! Much as I love to write and hear from those of you who make time to respond, I sometimes just can’t seem to fit it in. And I don’t even have the excuse of a full-time job!
Although I heartily dislike the whole concept of “guilt”, it does nag at me that I haven’t kept my bargain with myself. (Never mind the pandemic pounds I haven’t lost either.)
Take last week. A hastily-arranged trip to Texas to see family was followed by an equally hasty return to host, first, a visit with dear friends we don’t see often enough and then several intense days (Highs! Lows! Seafood! Cocktails!) with my two wonderful stepdaughters. All absolutely enjoyable but with no spare energy for the computer.
On a related note, have any of you watched the series “Guilt” currently in Season 2 on PBS in the US (which presumably aired before this in the UK)? Of course those guys are stealing, lying, murdering, etc., which makes me feel better about my own minor infractions. There’s guilt and then there’s GUILT.
Lately, my inbox has become a game of whack-a-mole.
No sooner do I delete, say, a dozen messages — not a single one announcing that a distant relative has bequeathed me a sprawling, all-expenses-paid estate in the Cotswolds — than another two dozen appear.
And spam filters never seem to catch the nasty varmints. ARRGGHHH.
Whew, dear readers. After weeks of inactivity (blog-wise, that is) I have recently noticed more and more “can this be true?” events in the world.
You’ve probably seen the news story of actress Anne Heche driving out of control and hitting some unlucky woman’s house, causing it to burst into flames and destroying all of her possessions.
While Ms. Heche’s subsequent intubation and mental health issues may deserve sympathy too, here’s what has me shaking my head: WHY does the woman whose house was crashed into need a GoFundMe page to get her life back together, rather than millionaire Ms. Heche’s family immediately offering to pay what’s necessary??
And on a different note (literally), I was driving the other day and an old Eric Clapton song, “I can’t stand it” came on the radio.
My question: Who on God’s green earth would EVER cheat on Eric Clapton?!?
Continuing with alternative baking methods/bread, I decided to attempt focaccia. Spoiler alert: not perfect, but perfectly acceptable in a pinch.
In my search for a suitably-sized vehicle, I discovered that out of the dozen or so bread/loaf pans accumulated in decades of marriage — this not being the first for either of us, though that may not explain the excessive number — only one actually fits in the toaster oven.
Dimensions, for anyone else who is oven-less, or wants to give this a try (the rest of you can enjoy a short snooze):
Length: Exterior including handles 9.75″/25 cm; interior 8.25″/21 cm
Width: Exterior 5″/12.25 cm; interior 4.25″/11cm
Height: 2.5″/6.5 cm
Ingredients
(Dough)
1 cup warm water (not too hot; you don’t want to cook the yeast)
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon (more or less) extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
(Topping)
12 pitted olives, Kalamata or Castelvetrano, as you prefer, sliced
Place warm water in a bowl. Sprinkle the dry yeast, stir and let it dissolve for about 10 minutes.
Add 2 cups of flour and 1 tsp salt to the bowl and stir. The dough will be sticky.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Add more flour as needed. Shape dough into a ball.
Pour a little olive oil into your bowl, add the dough, and roll it around until it’s lightly coated.
Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm area until doubled, approx. 1 1/2 hours. (First rise)
Punch it down, knead into a ball, return to the bowl, cover with plastic and let it rise in a warm place until doubled. This takes about 45 minutes. (Second rise)
Pour a small amount of olive oil into your loaf pan and spread it around to coat the inside.
Once the second rise is finished, punch it down lightly, transfer it to the loaf pan and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary and add the olives on top. Let it rise uncovered for about 25 minutes. (Third rise).
Using your fingertips, press indentations into the surface of the dough. The oil will pool in the indentations. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt
Bake at 450 degrees F (230C I think?) for about 15-20 minutes. Mine began to burn at 20 so keep an eye on it!
Serve warm with more olive oil. Adding garlic and herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme) to the oil is even better.
Wanting to take advantage of an overabundance of fresh tomatoes, I had a pizza craving yesterday. I could have ordered one, but a) take-out pizza around here is less than stellar, b) I only wanted a small portion for lunch, and c) I was mostly in the mood to bake and we don’t have our ovens yet. (Ah, the endless joys of home remodeling.)
One option would have been the grill but I didn’t feel like a massive post-lunch cleanup and preferred something quick and easy. Solution: the toaster oven. I was also curious to see if other items like cookies or baklava could be baked in it.
Step 1: Divide a pizza dough recipe by 25% to make a quantity that might fit in the toaster oven. Caveat, this is not my favorite recipe, which is best made 2-3 days ahead, but it was ok in a pinch:
1 cup bread flour (sorry, MacGyvering did not allow time to convert to grams)
Scant 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Approximately 1/4 cup warm water
Method
Mix dry ingredients in a medium-large bowl
Add most of the olive oil, retaining a small amount in reserve
Add about half the water, and begin mixing everything together
If dough is too dry/crumbly, add more water a little at a time until it comes together. Likewise, add more flour if the dough is too soggy.
Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it forms a ball.
Spread remaining oil around the inside of the bowl, add the dough, and roll the dough around until it’s lightly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
After the dough has nearly doubled in size, punch it down lightly and shape it into a rectangle on an aluminum foil “tray” that will fit in your toaster oven.
Pre-bake the crust at the hottest temperature (mine only heats to 450F) until golden brown.
Remove from toaster oven and add toppings. I used a light layer of (more) olive oil, then sliced tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, and scattered bits of Boursin cheese because that’s what I had in the fridge.
Return to the toaster oven and continue baking until cheese is melted and everything is cooked. You can blast it on the “toast” setting towards the end to help brown the crust.
I can’t tell you exactly how long this takes because you’d have to experiment, but it was maybe 20-30 minutes baking time.
BeforeAfter
Delicious quick lunch with my nonalcoholic Faux Cosmo:
Fill a tall glass with seltzer or sparkling water. Add a splash each of orange juice and cranberry juice. Add the juice of 1/2 lime. Garnish with a slice of lime. Pretty and refreshing!
I hope this is not a new trend. In recent weeks, Dear Husband and I have eaten at two excellent restaurants with truly inferior bread. What gives??
First up, Toulouse — a lovely French/Creole place in Seattle, where one would expect to find good sourdough or certainly an acceptable baguette. Instead, we got flabby structure and squishy crust; mon Dieu!
Then, last week, a local place on the Oregon coast — the Bay House — which has a relaxing ambiance, superb service, and beautiful food (see below) — with this notable exception. Hey, if it’s too humid, pop the loaf in an oven to crisp it up! I’m tempted to bring my own sourdough next time. Think they’d mind?
At the Bay House, DH’s beet salad starter was a work of artAs was my halibut— those green shapes are pea purée
Bread lovers of the world, unite! And what’s your pet peeve when eating out, dear readers?
“You almost got the job” (Translation: You were second out of a zillion applicants).
“You were almost accepted” … to the club, college, team, etc.
“You almost made the flight”… and now you’ll be stuck at the airport lounge eating stale peanuts for three hours.
This sneaky little word can encapsulate the difference between success and failure, or, in the case of our never-ending home renovation, the difference between ”livable” and ”not exactly”.
When our well-meaning neighbors ask, ”Is the house finished?”, no doubt wondering how in hell this remodel has taken a year and a half and counting, we generally answer ”almost”. As in, we still don’t have shower doors in two of the bathrooms because, well, somehow they were measured incorrectly. Twice. And no ovens, because they were “only” ordered nine months ago. Oh, and an unusable bath tub because the tub filler was set too far away from the tub so water splashes all over the floor and needs to be replaced. I could go on, but you get the picture.
On the other hand, ”almost” could have magical powers, e.g., ”The bullet almost pierced your lungs/spine/brain” or ”That car almost plowed right into you”.
If only this were one of those good ”almosts”. Grrrr.
A couple of weeks ago, I wandered down a blog rabbit hole reading a post and responses concerning the author’s dilemma of whether or not to have a third child.
The comments were sensitive and thought-provoking, relying on various writers’ personal experiences and larger ethical questions, such as: Is it selfish to bring more children into a world where profound climate change threatens to create an uninhabitable future for the next generations?
Set against the current debates on Roe v. Wade, the decision whether to have children at all is increasingly fraught.
It is, of course, both a deeply personal and mostly unknowable decision with no ”right” answer. Some of the women had yearned for children and wished they’d had more before their biological clock stopped ticking. Others admitted that parenthood involved more sacrifice than they’d ever expected. Which isn’t to say they regretted or resented having kids, though some might have, but it was not exactly what they’d envisioned.
Having struggled to balance a demanding career with raising two kids— on my own after my divorce when they were young teens— I know it’s not a simple choice. And that it’s not for everyone, regardless of what your friends, family, or well-meaning co-worker tells you. Or, frankly, your spouse, unless they are the sort of person who is guaranteed to cook, clean, change diapers, do at least 50% of the work, and take over when it all becomes too much to handle.
The only person who should decide what you truly want is you. Letting anyone else pressure you either way will just lead to resentment.
As someone who is not particularly patient, and who likes things done the way I want them done, I could easily have forgone the parenting experience. And not because I don’t love my kids, which I do, but because I would have been a happier person if I hadn’t been stretched so thin.
I do know this: parenthood is hard. Kids get sick, get hurt, require a lot of attention for the first two decades, change your marriage (not always for the better), and come into the world with their own personalities which may not be the mini-me you envisioned. And how would you handle serious illness or disability— theirs or yours? Or becoming a single parent?
For anyone on the fence, I’d say you will be ”ready” when you feel that any and all obstacles are less important to you than not having kids. If you thrive on order and control, the chaos implicit in having children will be profoundly stressful, no matter how much money you can spend on childcare. Kids are messy, unpredictable, and not for everyone. I know an awful lot of people who never had children and don’t regret it.
Another litmus test: What’s your ideal pet? A cat, which can be happily left on its own? A dog that needs frequent walks, lots of attention, and rewards you with unconditional love?
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