chowmama
chowmama's JournalMore fun with the old cookbook, and using up things.
The pantry had a little over 8 oz of pitted prunes. DH wanted them at one time and actually ate a few, but better than half the carton has been just sitting there for way too long. The only way I'll eat them is if I have to, in a kolache, hamentaschen or some other pastry, and even then, I prefer poppyseed. Still, the prunes had to go.
Rombauer had an interesting-sounding recipe for a spice cake flavored with prune pulp. Ok, I'll give it a shot. First, I stewed the prunes, added a little sugar (which I'm not really sure was necessary), cooked them a little longer and put them through a food mill. This gave me a prune jam which is...not bad, actually. Apparently, it'll last a while in the fridge, too.
Then the cake. I followed every direction to the letter, sifting cake flour into the measuring cup and then again with the other dry ingredients. Butter or shortening was 1/2 to 1 cup and I used the lesser amount of butter. Everything else per the directions (the butter, sugar and eggs beaten until almost white), and the batter tasted quite good.
Baking went awry. There just isn't enough structure for the weight of the other ingredients. Also, I elected to try them as cupcakes for portion control and there's too much batter for a pan of 12 cupcakes. They have crispy edges (I was worried and actually scorched a couple making sure the middle was done), but the body just gives way under the weight of the top.
Still, the flavor's great and there's a lot of promise here. We're eating them upside down, holding onto the crispy edges and eating the soft parts first, but DH keeps saying how good they are. I'm going to have to work on this. I could make several batches, adding progressively more cake flour but that seems wasteful.
So next time, I'm using all-purpose flour, same volume measurement, but more heft. (The sifted cake flour came in at 3.2 oz per cup, and I usually figure all-purpose for 5 oz per cup.) If that's too bready, I can sift the AP flour pre-measure for a little less weight on a third try. I'm also going to default to a 13x9" pan. The recipe allowed for 2 layers, 1 deep layer, or a tube pan and later referred to a loaf, so there's wiggle room.
But now I have to buy more prunes. That wasn't the idea.
Audrey (Furball Mama) has been spayed
And microchipped. No more birthing kittens on cold construction rubble under porches for her. Baby Belle will be scheduled for next month.
She came home mid-day yesterday, still drunk/loopy/liquid. They'd never have let her go so early if I wasn't a vet tech. I spent the afternoon on cat watch. She slept most of it, but needed watching whenever she woke up and decided she was able to manage stairs. Or couches. Or litter pans. By evening, she was mostly coordinated. But she was definitely pain-free.
She is, however, a Houdini when it comes to her cone collar. She pays no attention to her incision site, which is impressively keyhole and has no visible sutures. I'm letting it ride for now, but am inspecting her several times a day. As long as she keeps it up and the site continues to look good, we can continue this way. If she starts in on her site, all bets are off. I'll put her in plate armor if I need to.
I tried canning beef last night
Brisket, to be specific. This is my first attempt. I trimmed all visible fat. Used the directions for raw pack and packed it loosely, per the instructions I had. I figured that since I'm getting 1.25 to 1.5# of boneless chicken per quart jar, it would be about the same for beef,
I guess not. The 2 jars are only half full, so they're half full of air. The other half is meat juice and much-shrunken meat. They did seal, but this much airspace is supposed to be a problem for long-term seal life. I divided 3# of brisket between them and they looked full enough at the beginning. And there was no blowout; nothing in the kettle water and the jar tops were clean.
I went to my USDA book, and they say I should be able to get 3# per jar. I'm not sure how I can stuff that much into one wide mouth jar, but I'll try next time. Meanwhile, I'm opening one of the jars to see how tender it got and it's going to be Shepherd's Pie tonight. I have to start boiling the potatoes in a few minutes to mash for the top. If I don't like the beef, I'll use up the second jar soon, but I may not try again. If I do try again, I'll be canning 1.5# portions in pints. We're only 2 people and 3# of meat at a crack is just too much.
The other new try this week was the Rhubarb Cream pie from the 1943 Joy of Cooking. That's a winner. We had the second half for breakfast. (The recipe was for a 9" pie, but that was obviously too little filling for that size shell. 7" was perfect.)
Semi-historic food question
I'd been looking for a 1943 (not '46) Joy of Cooking for a long time because I'm interested in the period. I never expected to use it; just ro read it. I finally got one a few months ago.
It's wonderful. Every other JoC I’ve seen, including the modern one I was gifted, has left me completely cold. (Of my old cookbooks, it was Betty Crocker for preference and Good Housekeeping second, both from around the year of my birth). I cracked the 1943 edition open and, within a page or two, thought ‘Wow, this is how I cook’. And there are hacks for shortages and rationing. And I love the sense of humor and occasional snide comment. This is my JoC.
But there are some differences. Apparently, 7” pies used to be a thing. (Goodwill had one plate, so now I have it. And I'm going to use it this week.) I can figure out a lot of things on my own. For instance, dry vermouth is called 'French vermouth', sweet vermouth is 'Italian'. Some can sizes are different. A few products are just no longer available. And it tells you how to open-kettle can food, which is not, repeat not, safe.
But the biggest one is that she only refers to 2 kinds of white flour, cake and bread. No mention at all of all-purpose or plain flour. Is her 'bread' flour just flour that isn't cake flour? Some of the uses make me suspect this. But when did what we now think of as bread flour (higher gluten) become commonly available? It was invented by this time, but might have only been used by professional bakers.
Audrey's gone into heat.
The Furballs are 4 months old. This isn't the right time of year for her heat, but it wasn't the right time of year for her birthing them, so her timing seems to be off anyway. It's not impossible, just unusual.
She's driving Fast Eddie bonkers. He doesn't particularly like her anyway, so he finds her following him around, crooning and posturing (full kowtow, chest to ground, butt in air, ears in a non-threatening position) just weird. He was neutered as a young feral, so he's been out of that line of work forever. He has no idea what to do. I don't know who I'm sorrier for; him or her. She's got the screaming thigh sweats and he can't get her to leave him alone.
Now she is getting spayed in a couple weeks, so it should resolve itself. But the stress level around here is kind of high. Cat's in heat, DH has shingles, work's completely insane, and Trump's in the White House. I'd ask what's next, but I don't want to hear the answer.
We just had our first French press coffee
The grandkids got me a Williams Sonoma gift card for Xmas. So, what the hell.
I'll have to find a way to tactfully request something else next year. The last time they gave me one, I went to the local store and got dissed big time. Apparently, I don't dress to Galleria standards. Ok, I never do, but it was the coldest day of the year and I was doing errands. All old clothes. They behaved as if I'd just come off the streets to get warm and would go back to the encampment later. I finally had to buttonhole somebody to wait on me. Gee, sorry for the commission, honey. I didn't want to go back there ever and still don't. But, gift card, so I went online. It took a lot of looking, but I finally got the coffeemaker and a good knife sharpener and only spent 8 dollars more.
The coffee's pretty good. We're not going to have it every day, but for special breakfasts it would be great with croissants or something. DH said that once he got used to it, it was really good but more like a meal than just a drink. Very strong, but not bitter.
Before that, I spent some of the day defrosting the chest freezer. Winter's a good time for that because I can just keep the food out on the back porch, knowing it won't thaw. When it was finally done, washed, dried and back in place, it refused to start up. I had a quiet nervous breakdown because A) we can't afford to lose that much food and B) no way can we afford a new freezer. After a half hour, it finally consented to start working. Whew!!!
However, it's about as full as it's going to get, even after I itemized, organized, and shifted things around between the refrigerator freezer and the chest. I'm going to have to can just about everything from now on.
I have to go now - the kitten's trying to pull a full laundry basket down on herself. She hasn't yet learned that the classic cat gravity tests are best done with the cat at the top, not on the bottom.
Will the Terra Cotta Toddler get 25th Amendmented out of office? I doubt it.
Not for a long time, or at least for as long as they can prop him up. It's ironic, but I think he'll end up the same as his dad Fred.
If you remember the stories, Fred spent his later days getting into his 3-piece suit, going down to his office and signing pieces of paper they provided him, often blank. They let him believe he was still in charge, which made him happy and manageable. Note - none of this 'support' came from his son Donald, who took the opportunity to be abusive (verbally and possibly sometimes physically) to get payback for all the abuse he'd gotten from Fred over the years.
However, Fred wasn't POTUS. Trump will be signing real pieces of paper and being told that all of these things were his genius ideas. He's always been a fool for flattery. When he can't be propped up, appear publicly, or stay awake any longer, it'll be over. Neither Vance nor Musk are able to keep the cult going. They are real con men, but they've always had to go out and find the marks; sign of a second-rater. They're not liked, let alone worshiped. They can't play the front man. Or get elected dogcatcher.
I wish Donald was able to understand irony; I'd love to let him know what's going to happen. But he can barely understand a simple declarative sentence. Complex ideas and subtleties have always been beyond him. He's going to be an object of contempt and...well, I don't think anybody who ever met him is going to feel pity for him. So, just contempt. My bet is that Ivanka will be the 'Donald' to Donald's 'Fred'. She'll put him through hell to get back at him for what he's put her through. Melania and Baron will have cashed out and abandoned him utterly. I don't think the boys are up to fighting Ivanka for control of everything and not a one in the entire family will be able to head the cult.
Surviving till he craps out isn't going to be easy, but there is an end coming eventually.
What music are people listening to today, especially while cooking?
I'll start. So far, it's been Broadway original cast albums, Nanci Griffith, Gordon Lightfoot, and my only Xmas album.
I grew up on the Firestone annual Xmas albums, bought by my dad. (He also collected as many of the Lucky Strike 'Remember How Great' albums as he could - anybody remember those?) I guess I like the classics well enough, as long as I'm not subjected to them all day, every day starting with Thanksgiving on. Just don't get me started on Christmas Shoes, or Santa Got Run Over, or even All I Want. Either version; Mariah Carey or the kid missing his 2 front teeth. I did once translate the Chipmunk Song into Irish for a party - having done all the work, I was Alvin - but I'm not tempted to buy it. And the only Santa Baby belongs to Eartha Kitt. No other need apply.
But DH's whole family is extremely, and justifiably, proud of their heritage. So his aunt asked relatives in Ireland to recommend a traditional Irish album, which she bought. We got it within a week or two, with an Xmas card telling how/why she got it and the addendum "This is the most awful thing I've ever heard, and I thought of you."
Honest, she didn't mean it that way. She just knew we liked more traditional music. Her idea of good was the Irish tenor from the Lawrence Welk show, doing Toora Loora Loora. And this album dared to suggest that there was economic inequity in the Old Country and it might just be undeserved. She was as Republican (old school, not MAGA) as it gets, and this was not to be bourne.
It was Christmas and Winter Songs, by Noel McLoughlin. It's quite good.
Three of the Furballs are home now.
Their forever homes. Tepin had been claimed weeks ago by someone I knew, but I wanted to wait until they were over 8 weeks old, so they had enough time with Audrey and the litter. I still took them to the clinic weekly for socialization and enrichment, as well as a quick check over.
The extra time seemed to work wonders. Not only are they healthy, but they're fearless, hilarious and very loving/lovable. Nobody could be less feral. Tepin in her new place was left in her opened carrier to come out on her own when she was ready. It took not 5 seconds before she was out, exploring, climbing the couch, using the new catbox, checking out the dishes and generally making herself at home. No other animals, just her and her new nanny, and they're having a great time.
Ancho went to a friend of a friend. There's another cat and three not-too-young kids and everybody seems to be getting along fine. The kids are over the moon. I don't have much more news from there, but I think he's home to stay.
Relleno won over another person at work by spending the day in an office instead of the kennel. He played with Cascabel (also in the office), two humans and a visiting workman, slept, and demonstrated his skill at sitting up on his butt like a meerkat while listening to the humans talk. He went home the same day. Once home, he was given a place to sleep in the bedroom, with soft bedding, litter pan and all the amenities, but barricaded against getting into any trouble during the night. The new nanny woke up in the morning to a sleeping kitten half under the covers and pillowed on her shoulder and neck. Yep, he's staying.
So now there's only Cascabel left. And Audrey, of course; she lives here now. DH is starting to say that keeping Belle (Caskie's nickname) might not be so bad. It's only three cats and a dog. Audrey is getting slightly less hysterical about food, so meals are a little easier to prepare - I don't have to keep extracting her from everybody's dinner as I fix it, and she does eventually admit that trying to trip me on the way to placing her food in its area might just be slowing the process down. I'm allowed to start walking relatively normally when I get about halfway there. Before that, a faceplant is a definite possibility. Especially before I've had my coffee.
I'll still keep trying to find Belle a home, but we're not sending her to a rescue if I can't.
Well, there are going to be food shortages.
Not this year; this year's harvest is already in. But the new god-emperor is going to deport every agricultural worker in the US, so next summer/fall is going to be bad, and subsequent years are going to get worse. Meantime, tariffs will make imports unaffordable if they even exist.
I've had 2 major experiences with shortages. The most recent, which we all remember, was Covid. An earlier one was when DH lost a much-needed job and a planned business didn't pan out. My check barely covered our expenses, if we cut them down to the bone. The credit cards were near their limits anyway.
It was spring. I looked for a CSA (community supported agriculture farm) that would take a credit card. None did, but just one took PayPal, and PayPal takes cards. I maxed out the last card on food for the next 6 months. We picked up our box at a local coop on Monday, and I spent Sundays figuring out how to preserve anything we hadn't eaten so it didn't go to waste. Meat and other protein sources weren't the focus of any meal, but we had enough to get by, especially as they were just adjuncts and flavoring. It worked out ok and DH did eventually succumb to a courier gig by winter.
Takeaways - if you can, get a pressure canner and supplies now. An Instant Pot will not do. You want an old-school dinosaur. By the time things start getting tight, everybody will be trying to get one and prices will skyrocket. The Chinese digitals will be expensive as hell and when they break, you won't be able to replace them. Digitals are disposable; dinosaurs can have parts replaced. Mine is an All American (brand) which has the advantage of not needing a gasket, which is usually the first thing to go. Even though the pressure gauge eventually started sticking, the weighted deelybob on top that rattles as it releases pressure above the designated amount still works great. I just depend on that, even though I could order a new gauge if I thought I needed one. That thing will outlive the grandkids and I can cook in it too, if I want to.
Same goes for a chest freezer, even a small one if you have room. Whatever food you do manage to get, you'll be wanting to get enough to store. Somebody here will be glad to teach you how. Soups, stews, chilis - make big batches and stick all the now-canned excess in the pantry. When/if veg are cheap (and they'll always be cheaper than meat), they can be put by for the winter. I haven't had much use for my dehydrator, except for some dried tomatoes, but if you think it'll work for you, get it now.
On non-food issues, a basic sewing machine is also a good idea, and I don't know of any that are US made, so those prices are going to skyrocket. All you need is a straight stitch, a zigzag and maybe an overlock (although you can use a zigzag instead). Fast fashion, all made overseas, is going to be a thing of the past soon, unless you want to dress exclusively in Ivanka's stolen designs and other Trump gear from China. (What, you thought there wouldn't be an exemption for that? It is to laugh.) At minimum, you're going to be mending.
Get ahead of the crowd or you'll risk getting crowded out.
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Member since: Sat Apr 9, 2022, 09:43 PMNumber of posts: 855