Garlic Loves

split time

2007-09-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

Christine reminded me that I haven't been posting here at all. That is due to dissertationing and general not-with-it-ness, but really it's because I've been posting a lot on my history blog, even writing about food over there! So if you want to keep up with me, you should drop by. I'll have doughnuts ready.

Collapse

2007-08-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight a bridge collapsed on 35w over the Mississippi, a bridge I drive on often, bike under even more often, a bridge connecting downtown and the U and Northeast Mpls. I first heard when Katherine called me to see if I was alive, and then I listened to the radio till I went to the bar to watch the telly, to hear the mayor and the governor and our senators etc make pronoucements. Cari was set to drive up to Roseville right at that time, and luckily she had to work late. Luckily all of my friends seem to be okay.

What a fucking catastrophe. What can I do as a historian? I wish I were an EMT. I wish I could be helpful http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifin some way. I work at the museum at HCMC, the hospital where they're bringing survivors. I'll try to get some oral histories tomorrow. I can't see what else I can do.

Here are some photos from flickr and the breaking news on wikipedia.

More fermenting

2007-07-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

I now have a million projects fermenting merrily in my kitchen:

a sourdough starter
kombucha
mixed veg dill crock
dill pickles (I'm brining them and will process them in vinegar for the fair)
Indian-style lemon pickle (from Indian Food Rocks)

Projects on the horizon:

This week at the market I bought 8 quarts of strawberries, so jam is coming soon.

I put in a big order to gem cultures, so there will soon be miso!

I ordered a cheesemaking book, so there will soon be cheese!

Other non-dissertation activities:
Went to the Walker with C. on Saturday to see the Picasso and American Art exhibit, which was actually pretty boring, lots of slavish imitations of early Picasso, and only one woman artist in the whole show (Louise Bourgeois). I did like the room of Jasper Johns at the end. But they have a fab show up of works on paper from their permanent collection, including some of my favorites: Amy Cutler, Julie Mehretu, that piece with the paper eaten by snails, this amazing book with a laser-cut house in it, the piece with postcard-sized comix images of what happens on every page of Gravity's Rainbow. Hurrah!

Also, I joined a choir. We're singing Fauré's Requiem. July 28, 7 pm, Ted Mann. Be there.

Poetry Friday: the aleatoric sestina

2007-07-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

Me and my friend R. finally got around to choosing words for our aleatoric sestinas. Rules: 5 random words from the dictionary, 1 from a globe. I don't have a globe so we used an atlas. Order of words used in the poems is up-for-grabs, can be chosen with dice or willy-nilly (and is yet to be determined).

My words are:
impatient
poppy
yellow
offense
futile
sea

Sounds like my usual post-colonial setting, but we'll see what happens.

Rachel's words are:
pester
fever
forefathers
menagerie
porter
ocean

She has some very particular words that you might not expect to see six times in a poem. I see in her words an 18th C epidemic, like Fever 1793.

Stay tuned for the resulting sestina!

Fireworks, fermentation, fluffy books

2007-07-05T15:40:00.001-05:00

Since I'm taking July off from dissertating, I've been able to do things I enjoy. Yesterday, for instance, I started up a brine crock with some cucumbers and kohlrabi and dill, started a sourdough starter, and made some kombucha from the mother R brought me (all the way from Grand Marais!). I went to a potluck at M's house and saw some nice fireworks. I talked doughnuts with G, A, and A. How many groups of hip young people want to start doughnut shops? Many, it seems. I read Millicent Min, Girl Genius. I joined a summer choir that starts next week. I get to play with computers at my summer job. I have a date next week. Lots of things are going right.

Found quote: "Milk is a more accursed drink than water." Lord Dunsany, Tales of Wonder, which I'm reading before I go to bed. His stories are all enormously frustrating, because they're about other stories that are too dangerous and terrible to actually tell us, or the characters die before they can tell the stories.

My other summer reading has been the novels of Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency romances. Usually, anything labelled 'romance' would never get past my heteronormativity shit detector, but recently lots of YA writers/bloggers have been talking about how much they love her, and I ventured up to the Dewey section of the U library and, well, I love these novels, with their plucky, unconventional heroines, and their grumpy gentleman and all their witty repartee. I have read about six so far, Lady of Quality, Devil's Cub, Arabella, Frederica, and--oh, dear, I can't even remember the others, they do blend toghether. But I recommend them as fab beachy novels.

Good words

2007-05-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

“The unfinished dissertation is more than a draft of a very long document; it’s an intermediate state of consciousness between your student past and the longed-for uncertainty of your professional life.” William Germano, From Dissertation to Book.

Graffiti seen today on my ride into work:

"Forgive yourself."

Last year's favorite graffiti, on the same trail:

"Freedom means never being in a hurry."

Daffodil

2007-05-16T14:51:00.001-05:00

I took the what flower are you quiz (via fuse), and I'm my favorite flower!

I am a
Daffodil

What Flower
Are You?

Hooded!

2007-05-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

Hey, I graduated today! I walked in the U's commencement ceremony, complete with gown and cap and hood (blue for PhD). I still need to finish the diss and defend, but I've been in an excellent mood all day. I sang a silly little song to myself while I biked around: "I gradu-ated from coll-ege!" I walked and sat with friends from my diss support group, both of whom have been working for so long and I'm so proud that they're finished. My friends in the audience shouted 'quackery' and clapped and hooted for me, and my advisor said "we'll get this done." I had ice cream with my friends and biked home and ate a mango and listened to Happy Secret.

And what am I doing this evening? Going roller skating!

What an amazing day.

Poetry Friday: "we are embracing our mourning"

2007-04-20T10:44:00.000-05:00

Several poetry-related items today.

1.
R and I, after discussing creativity and discipline and our own work, have decided to start giving each other poetry assignments and writing a poem a week the way we did in college. The poems are due on Mondays, and we trade off on developing assignments. If I like the poems I write I may share them here; I will share the assignments.

Last week's assignment was rather baroque (and was thus obviously mine):

Our first assignment is based on a poem by Hanna Andrews which appeared in Diagram. Read the poem and her author's note and write a poem in three sections. The first section must be written in full sentences, be at least 14 lines long, and include a primary color, a medical professional, and the name of a tree. The other sections must reinterpret, revise, or translate the first, using only words which appeared in the first section. The third section cannot be more than three lines long and must use only words which appeared in both of the other sections.

Next week's assignment is more simple, but equally challenging:

Write a poem using 12-syllable lines throughout, and somehow incorporating or responding to a favorite quote from another poet.

2.
Yesterday night I went to a reading by a Basque poet, Kirmen Uribe. His book is the first book translated directly from Euskera into English without a detour into Spanish. The poems were simple lyrics, not really my thing, but it was lovely to hear such a melodious and fascinating language spoken.

3.
Lastly, and importantly, Nikki Giovanni speaking on the events at Virginia Tech.

Reading patterns, season shift

2007-04-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

After three weeks of travel, some distressing, some energizing, I'm back in Mpls for a while. I shan't say "to stay," because I'm starting to become geographically unstuck, waiting for news on jobs and possibilities, and rethinking where I want to be and how I want to live (eg, I desperately need to have a garden). Things are stable at home, thanks for asking.

I'm still studiedly not thinking about my dissertation. I'm not at all ready to come back to it. Another week, maybe? I'm also studiedly not seeing my advisor, who wants to set a new schedule asap. I have an interview this week with the one job that actually requires me to have this degree, so how that goes could also energize me to want to finish.

My reading habits are changing a bit as well. I always think I can find solutions, or at least solace, in a book. Before I left for Detroit I was reading tons of career books and find-your-passion books. I think I've pretty well found my passion(s) by now and am reading Staying on Top When Your World Turns Upside Down. Also, I've been reading the YA blogs like crazy, so I'm reading everything folks have recommended. This is not new, but since I'm not attempting to write this week I can inhale teen vampire novels like popcorn. I'm also super excited that the 5th book in Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, Lady Friday, is out. I just picked it up at the library.

There is a lilac bush in my front yard. Things are looking up.

Some nice things I've done for myself while stuck in Detroit

2007-03-28T09:23:00.000-05:00

Took a walk by Lake St Clair
watched all of Brotherhood 2.0
bought a new sweater in the exact shade of red which is my favorite color
talked to my therapist every few days
ate beans and hijiki for breakfast
convinced my friend K. to come visit for the weekend
climbed a tree
rearranged furniture in 'my' room, also hung a record up on the wall

I've been here a week and I can't think of anything else I did in the way of self-care. I've been so busy taking care of my dad. I feel so exhausted and overwhelmed and angry and scared.

The next plane out of town

2007-03-22T03:46:00.000-05:00

Non-bloggable emergency. I'm going to Detroit asap.

3 out of 5 committee members agree

2007-03-20T11:49:00.000-05:00

that I can defend on May 30! Hurrah! I have a tentative defense date!

This means that I actually have to finish. Here are my next steps.

I was feeling crummy all last week and I missed my chapter deadline, but it was the combined chapters 1+5, so I feel okay about taking 3 weeks to finish instead of 2. Anyway:

3/23: Chapter 1 to advisor
4/2: Entire draft to advisor, including intro and conclusion and revised chapters
4/15: Drafts to readers
5/11: Drafts to entire committee, including reader comments, biblio, illustrations
5/30: Defense

This is all extremely scary, especially the next three weeks. I'm also supposed to be working two part-time jobs and applying for Real Jobs, and eating and sleeping and taking care of the cat. I'm feeling really anxious, not my usual productive nervous energy, but nail-biting worry that I won't be able to do it. Maybe I should lay off the coffee.

Update: Make that 4 out of 5!

"Is that your mom?"

2007-03-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

Yesterday J. and I went sledding on a hill near the creek. It was us and a gaggle of small boys. When I sled I tend to hit every possible jump or bump and go flying. After a particularly spectacular fall, J. reports that one group of little boys said to the other, with amazement, "Is that your mom?" I've never been so happy to be mistaken for somebody's mom.

Unfortunately, the other effect of my particularly spectacular sled fall (someone built moguls on the hill. Who does that?) is that I've bruised my tailbone, that vestigial troublemaker.* It's not broken, which would be excruciating, but I don't think I can ride a bike for a while. And of course, what am I supposed to be doing right now? Finishing Chapter 1, which requires sitting on my ass for long periods of time.

Speaking of Chapter 1, I've decided to incorporate all of Chapter 5 into it and present it to my advisor as a fait accompli: "Here's my revised Chapter 1, and by the way, it includes most of the material on masculinity from Chapter 5. I've got a 4-chapter diss now, I guess I can defend 2 weeks earlier." 5 has never fit in with the rest of the diss, in terms of geography, chronology, or theme, and the ideas in it really need to be introduced earlier. I talked it through with my diss support group, and they think it's okay, if I present it to my advisor when it's already done. It helps that both were pretty weak and underdeveloped chapters: add together 4000-word chapters and you get one 8000 word chapter! So now I actually have to do it!

*And I thought tonsillitis would be the most vestigial-organ problem I would ever have to deal with. Now I'm just waiting for my appendix to burst.

Dissertation Update, 3/7

2007-03-07T19:43:00.000-06:00

Today I got very little done on Chapter 1. I did read through it, but that's all.
Instead, I rode my bike around town, went to the library, worked on my museum's website, worked on the cover letter for the post-doc I'm applying to, read a book, and (gasp) wrote a poem.

You may know (well, I suppose you'd know if I told you, or you'd been monitoring my librarything) that I've been reading a lot of business books and lifehack blogs recently for both inspiration and vision, and general sanity and organization. A lot of them are full of pseudopsychology and are soothing but inane, but I found two books recently that I love and totally recommend. Creating a Life Worth Living is about life and career planning for creative type, and One Person/Multiple Careers is about arranging your life so you're able to make many of your passions into your work. Both have been making me think about my career, and (and this is a bit frightening) even rethink my museum career plans for something less structured. I'm even rethinking about the kind of place I want to live in. We'll see what happens. In any case, right now I have one priority, and I need to conceptualize everything else as happening after it gets done.

Library Tech Woes

2007-03-06T17:14:00.000-06:00

Putting on my patron hat: I'm very happy to have the new East Lake library open here in Mpls, but, today, on its first official open day, I've been frustrated with a number of web tech access problems.

First, the wireless doesn't work yet, and there's no exact date of when it will be up.

Second, though there are two dozen or so public internet-enabled computers, you have to sign up through only one login computer. It's a huge bottleneck over there. Even to use a 15-minute computer, you have to wait ten minutes at the bottleneck computer. This also means you have to sign in (with your library card bar code, natch) twice, once on the signin computer, once on the computer you've reserved.

Suggestions:
Get the wireless up, pronto.
I dislike the signin computer idea in general, but short of getting rid of it, here's some suggestions about that.
De-link the 15-minute computers from the signin system.
Set up two or three more signin computers.
Allow users to set up a library-only account with a signin and password, so users don't have to type their full name and totally unmemorizable library bar code.
Put up signage telling users where the signin computer is next to every computer.

I love having the new branch finally open, but these are really ridiculous problems to have in a supermodern state-of-the-art library.

Brains

2007-03-05T09:52:00.000-06:00

I finished* Chapter 4 and sent it to my advisor on Friday. We had a meeting last week and determined that I can defend the last week of May if I keep to my current schedule. I've also decided to walk in commencement this year! Exciting!

As a nice reward for my Ch 4 diligence, I went to two parties last weekend. The first was a big house party (a winter formal!) with a dancey band that sang about zombies and bicycles. I got to wear an amazing long black dress that was once my grandma's, with orange and purple flowers on it and a ruffley neckline, and danced up a storm.

The second party was my friend A's birthday. She had a cake-off! Everyone brought a cake (I made doughnuts, natch), and each cake had a sewn little pocket near it into which you could put a superlative (I got 'holiest' and 'best cake with a center grip'). There was so much cake I slipped into a sugar coma and had to drink lots of coffee to recover, but I had a lovely time and got to talk to my new friend C.

Also this weekend, the East Lake branch library had its grand opening, after being closed for two years! for renovations. The old library was cramped and ugly and had nowhere to sit and didn't even have windows on Lake Street. The new library is bright and modern and filled with light. The only downside of going to the opening celebration was that I got street harassed on my walk home. I thought winter was supposed to provide a respite from all that.

Back to the diss: Chapter 1 is due on the 14th of March. It's in crummy shape, so I really need to put my nose to the grindstone for it. I'm thinking of scrapping Chapter 5 and putting the relevant stuff into Chapter 1, but I haven't asked my advisor and am not quite sure if that would be okay. Would I seem like a slacker, turning in a 4-chapter thesis? It's just that 5 doesn't fit the new organization of the diss, and anyway the ideas in it should probably be introduced earlier. I'm still working through this.

*It doesn't have a conclusion, but is otherwise done.

Snowshoes

2007-02-26T15:30:00.000-06:00

I love the snow! We got about a foot of snow this weekend, and I got a new pair of boots from the vegan store. My reward for my work this week will be to go snowshoeing, which I love dearly. Maybe I'll rent some shoes in the Cities and drive out to Wild River Falls.

Chapter 4 is still plugging along. I did a full read-through, and I just have a few things to research yet, the chapter conclusion to write, and still the notes to do. I have some sort of block on doing the notes, so I'm planning to do (or 'implement,' as the lifehack bloggers would say) the (10+2)*5 procrastination hack, aka force myself to work by building in little breaks.

The chapter is due on Wednesday, and I worked at the museum today, so tomorrow will be the big push day. Wish me luck!

Also, my reader four time zones away should start her own blog. Not this week, obviously, but do think about it.

Chapter 4 comes together

2007-02-24T14:30:00.000-06:00

Hurrah! I'm making good progress on Ch 4 today. I finished the three sections I wanted to, and I added some more neat archival material. This may possibly be due to the fact that I couldn't sleep and got up ridiculously early; or more likely to the fact that I revised the intro first thing this morning, which helped me be more clear on what the chapter is about and is trying to argue. Note to self: for the next two chapters, revise the intro first!

I'm also excited about my word count. For my revised chapters, the tally is:
Ch 2: 10,600
Ch 3: 13,300
Ch 4: 10,100 (not done yet!)

total: 34,000 words=136 pages

I have two chapters, intro and conclusion, illustrations, and bibliography to go, so I think I'll hit 250. 200 is the unofficial minimum, so that's all I was going for.

And now, in honor of hitting 10,000 words on Chapter 4, I'm going to take a nap.

Ch 4 Update, 2/23

2007-02-23T19:18:00.000-06:00

I'm still a bit downcast about my progress revising chapter 4, mostly due to my limited success in getting up early today since it was so grey and dreary. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the U and sequester myself and get a lot of writing done, since I'll have the library there. Also I have a built-in motivator since I'm going to go see the Apples in Stereo tomorrow night, and I'll feel crummy about going if I don't make some progress tomorrow (since I've only seen them three times, and Marbles twice).

What did I do today?
Worked on the intro a bit. Thought a lot about organization and where this chapter fits in the diss.

But also!--and let's not discount it--I did a lot of work on a job cover letter. And I fixed a weird problem with my computer. Also I bought a chair at Savers, drafted an entry for my professional blog (about timelines. Why am I always thinking about timelines?), and did a number of things on my actionable to-do list. So, not a totally wasted day.

Here's the skinny on Ch 4 in general:
I've finished four sections.
I need to revise five more, including the chapter intro and conclusion.
I need to polish the language and fix the notes.
It's due on Wednesday, and I want to go to a history of medicine talk at noon, so I'd like to have it done before then.

Tomorrow I will:

Revise:
chapter intro
Dr. Ehrlich
Salvarsan
Look at the stylesheet for my notes*
fix the Ch 2 and 3 notes, and 4 if I have time

*With archival materials, using Refworks and other citation managers is a huge pain.

Chapter 4

2007-02-21T11:10:00.000-06:00

I've done a bit of organizing and work on Chapter 4 now, and it's actually really interesting. I'm starting to remember why I was so excited about this topic.

I've also learned that I need to write a section about blood--bad blood, blood poison, iv injection, serums. This had never occurred to me before--I really do learn by writing. I might just throw it into Chapter 5 and decide that it's about 'manly' blood.

Dissertation Update, 2/20

2007-02-20T14:56:00.000-06:00

Lots of news about my recent progress:

I finished Chapter 2 and sent it to my advisor on the 14th, the day it was due. It was missing a few things--some data on the AMA's Ethics Code, a few things about Dr. Cramp, and fixing the notes--but generally reads well and is pretty coherent. The point was that I sent it in on time. Six months ago I would have looked at it and been frustrated and disappointed and decided that it wasn't worth sending to my advisor. Things have changed. Though I've said for a while that 'it doesn't have to be good, it just has to be done,' I never internalized it till now. It helps that I have this robust schedule with actual deadlines, and that (it was this simple!) I wrote the phrase on a postit and stuck it on my mirror.

As a reward for finishing chapter 2, I went to a v-day party and ate chocolate and wowed everyone with my knowledge of vintage port (which I never thought would have come in handy in a gathering of arty young queers).

The next diss goal is Chapter 4. I was looking forward to writing it, but now it feels a bit drab. I'm revising it in small sections but I'm still feeling overwhelmed. I'll have to drop my goals to paragraphs.

Chapter 4 is due on the 28th, and I feel like I've wasted lots of the time I had to write it. I think I sat on my laurels a bit too much over Chapter 2, and did social things I really should have declined, or spent less time at. The other problem is that my sleep schedule had been disrupted by the enormous amount of coffee I had been drinking, so I decided to detox a bit, and spent a whole day sleeping and feeling crummy and reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, which gave me weird dreams.

So now it's the 20th, and I have a little more than a week to revise Chapter 4. I know that it's possible (I did most of the work on 3 in about 3 days) but my motivation is slipping. I'm going to read some motivation lifehacks and see if that helps.

Also, it's totally gorgeous outside. I'm glad I've had the chance to bike around, but good weather is no good for my motivation.

Chapter 2 Update

2007-02-11T13:52:00.000-06:00

Well, my personal deadline of 2/10 turned out to be inaccurate, but I'm still on track to finish Chapter 2 by Wednesday.

Chapter 2 has just hit 10,000 words. Someone should buy me a drink and ask me about the Ohio Medical Advertisers Association.

Dissertation Update, 2/5

2007-02-05T10:39:00.000-06:00

Last week, I finished my revisions on Chapter 3 and sent it to my advisor.

I started on my revisions of Chapter 2. It has some organizational problems, so I spent a few days reorganizing it, which went more slowly than I would have liked. Now I have ten coherent sections. Today I've already finished revising one of them, and my goal is to finish at least one other.

The chapter is officially due to my advisor on Valentine's Day. My personal deadline is the 10th, 4 days earlier. I believe I can make it.

I like this chapter less than the other one. It's the first chapter I ever wrote, two years ago, and I've revisited it too many times. Hopefully this will be the last time!

Dissertation Update 1/29

2007-01-29T14:36:00.000-06:00

Over the last few days:

I revised all of the sections of Chapter 3 except for the conclusion, and researched all of the little picky research questions I had remaining. I even had time to work on the notes!

The last thing to do is to polish the writing and consider my transitions, and finish the conclusion (I have the problem that my chapters stop, rather than conclude) and then--cue spooky music--I'll send it on to my advisor, I'm thinking this evening. I'm really pleased with my progress on this chapter, but I'm afraid that when I give it to her, it will be not at all what she wants, not rigorous enough, poorly written, etc. The feedback I get on this chapter will guide the rest of my revisions as well. Hopefully, if it's good enough for me, it will be good enough for her.

Today, 1/29:

So my goals for today are to fix the writing and the conclusion, and send chapter 3 to my advisor.

Tomorrow, 1/30:

I'm working at the museum all day tomorrow, so I won't have time to do much writing, but I'll look over her comments on chapter 2, the next one to go, and list the sections, and mark all the 'need more here!' places in bold and list them as well.

Also:

Because two blogs aren't enough, I've joined the Dissertation Boot Camp. Check it out!

Dissertation Update, 1/27

2007-01-28T08:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Saturday, Jan 27:

I wrote for about 8 hours, and added about 1500 words to my chapter, bringing it to a very-respectable-and-maybe-even-too-long 12,000 words.

I revised the sections on Dr. Flint, Reinhardt employees, foreign language newspapers, the 'defining doctors' stuff (which appears in Chapter 2, and so needs to be discussed only glancingly), and the conclusion. I also got rid of as many 'need more here!' sections as I could.

Today, January 28:

Today I'm going to the library to get rid of the rest of the 'need more here!' sections, which all require a bit of research. Sunday is a bad day for library-going in Minneapolis: the MPL branches are all closed, some St Paul library branches are open, but not till 1, and even the U's humanities library doesn't open till noon.

I'm planning to do some polishing, transition-fixing, and notes-fixing this morning until the libraries open, at which point I'm planning to fill in all the 'need more here!' sections, all 6 of them. After that--well, I guess the chapter will be done, 4 days ahead of schedule. I'll try to send it to some friends and get their opinions before it goes to my advisor.

Dissertation Update, 1/26

2007-01-27T08:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Friday 1/26, I worked on Chapter 3.

On my new 10-week schedule, Chapter 3 is due to my advisor on Feb 1.

Yesterday I worked on it for about 12 hours.

I wrote about 2500 words, for a grand total of 10,100 (about 40 pp)--and this is just filling in the 'more here' notes I wrote on earlier drafts. I worked on the chapter intro and the sections on the Chicago Tribune, Dr. Evans, Dr. Cramp, the exposé, and Dr. Zins. Though none of those sections are totally done, they're in good shape.

Today I'm going to write more. I'm planning to revise the sections on Dr. Flint, Reinhardt floormen, and foreign language newspapers, and hopefully the conclusion as well.

If I finish those sections, the ones left are on Chicago, other exposés, and polishing everything and making sure the argument is coherent.

I'm feeling optimistic about this chapter, for the first time in months!

Things to get me as gifts after I finish my diss

2007-01-14T16:26:00.000-06:00

The new Pynchon novel
A book on cheesemaking
heirloom vegetable seeds
kefir grains, koji, sourdough, natto, other cultures
a new bow for my saw (viola or cello please)
music lessons
a nice touring bike
three weeks of catsitting so I can bike around Lake Superior on above
a camp stove
that beautiful old movie theater on East Lake St. that I've always wanted to buy and turn into an art space

I say after the diss because all of these things involve time and energy that I need to put into writing. I think that's all for now. I'll link you back to this when I actually do finish (countdown: April!).

Liminology

2007-01-02T19:56:00.000-06:00

I'm continually amazed that our superfrenetic culture gives space for reflection, consideration, vision, around the new year. I've never been particularly interested in resolutions, but the past year was filled with so many changes and transitions, many of them painful, that giving myself time to reflect and take care of myself is not amusing but necessary. So here are my resolutions:

To practice active self-care
To be with people that challenge me and treat me well

and:
To finish my dissertation

For the first, I moved into a new apartment, full of quiet and space. I bought myself a coffeepot, that I can set to make me coffee at 6:30 every morning. I'm joining the Y, a block from my new place, so every morning I can wake up gently and go to the sauna, grounded and ready to write/program/read.

I hope you also had some quiet space this new year.

New house reading adventures

2006-12-28T15:30:00.000-06:00

I had a very low-stress move last weekend, thanks to my seven-person amazing moving crew, to whom I am eternally grateful, and I've set up the place a bit (I'd show you pictures, but then I'd have to kill you). Mira seems happy and so do the plants. The only member of my family who is less than happy is Ol' Squeaky, who does not like being left out all night in the cold, but I certainly don't want to carry it up and down the back stairs when it's not actively precipitating. So Ol' Squeaky is staying outside for the meantime.

In the new place, it's easy to go into hibernation mode. I've been sleeping a lot, and taking baths, and eating rice noodles, and reading.* My recent sojourn at the Nokomis Library reminded me how excellent their teen collection is. I got Saving Francesca, which I had heard about but never read, and which is excellent, and The Adventures of Michael MacInnes, and a book about SAD, and a book about saying no, and a book called If the Buddha Dated, which my therapist recommended. Oh, and also a Gene Wolfe book I've always meant to read. I've been cuddling with Mira, thinking about trimming the Norfolk pine, occasionally putting things on the walls. I'm also catsitting for two members of the moving team, who also have a Norfolk pine, which looks great now that they've trimmed and repotted it. Repotting my Norfolk pine, however, would require several people and a pot the size of Lake Hiawatha.

I have not done any dissertation writing at all. I told my writing group I would finish revising chapter 3 by our next meeting, Jan 11, and I still plan on doing that, but I think I deserve a bit of time off. My motivation comes and goes, and right now it's gone. How can I get it back? I had an idea that when I had my own space, I would immediately and magically start writing among the boxes, and that has not happened at all. However, I just bought a programmable coffee maker, so at least I can start waking up in the mornings again. Maybe that will help; I've found that mornings are my most productive.

I am at the coffee shop right now, so I will buy some coffee. It felt slightly pathetic to have the coffeemaker but no coffee. One can buy a machine at the Minnesota-based retailer I don't want to namecheck, but one with a conscience cannot buy coffee there.

Maybe we will have snow, or the sun will come out. Then I'll be able to write.

*I've also been mourning the closing of the Roosevelt Library (about which more tomorrow, on its official closing day)

Critical Distance/The Tough Guide to Fantasyland

2006-12-19T12:44:00.000-06:00

My reading of the otherwise charming Waterless Sea by Kate Constable * was marred by my concurrent reading of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, the hilarious how-not-to write fantasy book by Diana Wynne Jones. Justine Larbalestier was recently talking about it, and it was the only one of DWJ's books I'd never read, so I ran by the library.

The Waterless Sea is a sequel to The Singer of All Songs, a fantasy about a young woman who knows ice magic coming into other magical powers and facing off against an evil wizard. There's a very nicely sketched story about the kinds of magic in this world, all tied to particular places--except our heroine Calwyn has the ability to pick up all of the magics. Anyway, in the Waterless Sea, Calwyn and her friends go to a desert continent to rescue imprisoned children who can do 'ironcrafting' magic, and this involves her sort-of lover Darrow, was once one of the imprisoned children.

The characters are compelling, the story is interesting, but I kept thinking of The Tough Guide: ooh, this is a Vestigial Empire crossed with Desert Tribes, and ooh look, she sings for someone when they die, and ooh yes, he must be a Missing Heir. Being fully cognizant of some of the genre conventions, and in an (albeit gently) mocking sort of way, made it very hard to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the book. I'm learning that I read for plot more than I'd like to, racing through to find out what happens; giving myself that sort of critical distance really changes the experience. This may be linked to my compulsive re-reading: maybe I save the thinking for the re-reads? I'll try to be more reflective about my reading process and see if pleasure and critical thinking can't co-exist.

*I'm sick of being linked to amazon pages for books folks talk about. I want to start a trend of linking to book information through librarything.

Lunacy

2006-12-15T10:06:00.000-06:00

Some silly stuff.

I can't say I know much of anything about this French guy, seeing as I study history of sci/med/tech in the US in 'the long 19th century.' Oh, the horrors of specialization!

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Bike Thieves Must Die

2006-12-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

Josh pointed me to this new site with a scary name, 612 Lockdown, which is a clearinghouse for securing and recovering bikes stolen in Mpls. If only they had existed when my dear Breezer was stolen! There's a nice interactive map in progress showing where folks have had bikes stolen--looks like downtown is the worst so far. Check it out.

Another defense

2006-12-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

In the last two years, my department has graduated six students, three of them folks who had come to the program in the mid-nineties and drifted around a bit, changing topics, working fulltime, having children, getting other degrees in the meantime (basically, having a life). I expect once the cohort of older students graduates, the five-years-and-out model will reign, and the new students will graduate quickly and on schedule. The rate at which we graduate students factors into the kinds of grants the department and its students get and the rankings of our program, so it's in the faculty's interest to keep us moving.

Today another student who had been on a longterm timetable defended her diss, I'm sure successfully. Her work is very interesting, about Czech engineers, scientific management and rationalization in a number of different political contexts. The defense itself took place in a room almost hidden among the engines on the top floor of the ME building, and there was no coffee or pastries, no powerpoint, just the student and some overheads. Her work is so strong no coffee was needed, I think. But I wonder what my defense will be like: I do worry about the appearances, the right room to hold it in, having coffee etc, a nice presentation on the computer (and I do need the internet to show my nice interactive maps). I'll probably be a total wreck from the organizing of food and having my dad around as much as from the presentation and examining itself.

If I had been on track to finish on my earlier timetable, I would have been the youngest person to graduate from our program, and, though not the quickest finisher, but up there. Now I'll tie for youngest with G. At this point I don't need any titles, just to be done.

A think about apartments

2006-12-13T16:46:00.000-06:00

I am officially moving toward the end of this month, the better to write my dissertation at all hours and cook enormous meals in an enormous kitchen the rest. This will be the fourth place I've lived in in Minneapolis, and I thought a bit of comparison was in order.

Places will be referred to alphabetically, for anonymity.

A: 2br, 1st floor, okay kitchen
length of stay=1 yr
B: 2br, 2nd floor, amazing kitchen, amazing park view, amazing porch as big as the living room length of stay=3 yr
C: 4 br, big house, super cute, narrow kitchen, garden, indoor bike storage
length of stay=9 mo
D: 1 br, 2nd floor, lovely kitchen, lots of light
length of stay=can't say yet

A, B, and D are all in the same zip code, and C is just one digit removed. A and D are actually across the alley from each other!

I have always lived south of Lake St, north of 38th St, west of Hiawatha, and east of Chicago Ave.

Work has always been a 2-3 mile bike ride away.

I have been to meetings of three different neighborhood organizations.

I have lived with 6 different roommates and 3 different cats (Simon, I miss you!).

You may notice that this will be my first time living alone, ever. I am excited to: decorate all by myself, sleep when I want to, go around partially clothed, not have a television or meat in the house, have total kitchen control, have guests over... Many things to look forward to. I'll keep you posted.

December Reading

2006-12-12T17:41:00.000-06:00

It's not quite even the middle of December, but I've read millions of books (see: dissertation writing, lack of). Here's the list:

Novik, His Majesty's Dragon (dragons in the Napoleonic wars: amazing!)
Levine, Two Princesses of Bamarre (a story about courage, mostly)
Skrdla, Ghostly Ruins: American's Forgotten Architecture (amazing; a gift for my dad)
Westerfeld, Midnighters 2: Touching Darkness (the plot thickens)
Smith, Cryptid Hunters (okay adventure-fantasy novel with lots of cryptozoology talk)
Toth, Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia (brilliant, of course)
Baker, The Machine's Child (talk about the plot thickening!)
the most recent Journal of American History (I can't tell you a single article I read in this)

Summary: lots of YA novels, lots of series books. Many books to read before bed after writing makes me too exhausted to think. I regret that I can't give these books the time and energy they deserve. I admit that when I'm so exhausted and brain-dead I'm mostly reading for plot.

Food Pyramid Funtime

2006-12-10T19:59:00.000-06:00

My friend R. wrote me about a possible potluck pickle party, and, to emphasize how much she liked pickles, sent me her personal food pyramid. I thought it was charming and reproduce it here for you, with the rare foods at the top and the most frequent on the base:

Dark Chocolate + Those Mochi Balls with the Icecream Inside = Much Too Rarely
Grape Juice + Matt's Amazing Chili + Matt's Amazing Indian Food = Once a Week
Pita Pizzas + That Ethiopian Red Lentil Dish + Bananas = Everyday
Pickles + Peppermint Tea = Several Times a Day

I of course had to emulate it:

Fried things, the Birchwood = Much Too Rarely
Yogurt, Beer, Kale, Rice noodles, Eggplant, Tofu = Once a Week
Hot peppers, Butter, Pickles, Cabbage, Grits, Nuts = Everyday
Coffee, Russian tea, Apples, Garlic = Several Times a Day

Very interesting. Both of us definitely eat a very particular, personal diet, and there are no crossovers at all except for pickles. Pickles bring people together. I would be happy to eat anything on her pyramid, and R. is particularly lucky in having a nice person to cook favorite foods for her--I do miss cooking with DF.

What does your personal pyramid look like?

Free Verse: The Waldrops at the Walker, 11/30

2006-12-01T11:53:00.000-06:00

Last night A., M. and I went to see Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop at the Walker, sponsored by Rain Taxi (I like having them curate readings for me; if they put it on, it'll probably be good).

Rosmarie read a series of thoughtful poems about language and change. They took the podium together to a read an echoing collaborative work, and then Keith read a series of pieces from his book on the ruminations of Jacob Delafan (whose name I can never forget after hearing it repeated in every piece). I admit I marvelled at his long beard for much of the reading.
Both of them have quite different styles of writing and reading, but an insistence on collage and intertextuality really united the evening. Jacob Delafan reads widely and eclectically, and marvels at what he reads. It would all be very homespun if he didn't read things like a commentary on St Augustine that asserts that angels have nothing to "fall out" or "cut off." The questions focused on the Waldrops' work in translation and publishing, and how their different kinds of work amplified each other. I was relieved to hear intelligent questions, because at the Marjane Satrapi reading last month, the q & a period was filled with self-important rambling nonsense from the questioners.

A. collaged in a book of Rosmarie's, pasting in illustrations from a mid-century book on insects, geological diagrams, photographs, making a neat altered book which she gave as a gift but brought in to be signed. Rosmarie was highly amused by the alterations, and flipped through the whole book while talking with A. about Providence and Brown.

Then I defended Wickett's Remedy against its detractors over beers and Thai food.

Book procrastination

2006-11-29T14:49:00.000-06:00

My continued absence reveals that I've been hard at work dissertating; my return indicates some dissertation procrastination. Some folks blog to help them keep on track. That doesn't seem to work for me; it's just one more thing I need to write and don't have time for. Anyway, today I did some thinking about books:

I wrote 8 reviews of books on LibraryThing that very few people own and no one else had reviewed, included my recent acquisition Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns. New resolution: to read as many Virago Modern Classics as I can. Just to give this post food content, I'd like to point out that I (briefly) reviewed Simple Foods for the Pack.

Also, I picked up on this sci-fi book meme (via caveat lector):

“Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe*
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. *
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester*
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany*
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice (I read this in French--does that count?)
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin *
31. Little, Big, John Crowley** (One of my favorite books ever)
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick*
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon*
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson*
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester*
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Hmm. I read or started 34/50 books on the list, which is not bad odds. I may also have read some that I've forgotten about. I didn't hate any of these books, but I think I avoided reading those I'm most likely to hate, the military sf and the egregiously sexist stuff. I'm glad to see John Crowley on here; his books have recently been marketed as 'literary fiction' and I feel that reading him is enriched by thinking about his books in an sf context as well. (Hey! His new book is coming out next year on Small Beer!) This list doesn't, however, really make me want to go back and read the ones I've missed. And there are only five women on this list? Boring.

Popcorn

2006-11-01T16:50:00.000-06:00

Well, I've decided to turn this from a dedicated food blog into a food/music/etc blog.

My Halloween costume was food-related: popcorn! I strung popcorn onto fishing line (and, for its second incarnation, cotton thread) and made a headdress, necklace, earrings, and bracelets of popcorn. I planned on a belt, but it proved a bit too fragile. The upsides of the costume were many: I always had a snack with me, I smelled good, I could wear whatever else I wanted, there was the possibility of sharing my costume....The only problem was that it was difficult for biking, so I had to carry the popcorn jewels carefully while me and Ol' Squeaky made our way across town. Also, at one party someone tried to eat my bracelet without permission, and I made a little fuss about asking for consent. The popcorn-stringing itself was not particularly arduous, especially while listening to the new Blow album (food reference from "Parentheses": "If something in the deli aisle makes you cry/Of course I'll put my arms around you and I'll walk you outside/Through the sliding doors/Why would I mind?"), which is fabulous and dancey, and I'm allowed to like even though DF loves them too.

Popcorn had two costume incarnations--necessary because I ate the first one, at a future-themed party. I decided I was from the time in the future when the human genome had become contaminated with GM corn, and I repeated that ad nauseum (note: get a shorter soundbite next year). For incarnation number two, on Halloween itself, me and my dear friend Triceratops went to the Triple Rock. T had a trihawk to match his three horns. Unfortunately, the place was filled with drunk straight people dressed up as sexy butterflies, and we heard some awful cover bands. At least we had popcorn to eat!

Are you coming over for dinner? Are you coming over for love?

2006-10-03T08:54:00.000-05:00

Last night Phil (Mount Eerie) sang a song about bears with that lyric in it. I wore my bear hat to the show to give me courage. After glancing around to see where a certain person was standing, fixing in my mind the area of the room I should avoid looking at, I gave myself up to the music, which was beautiful and moving. I cried through the whole show, even (especially) at songs we had sung together, like "I, Whale."

Also yesterday my bike was stolen while I was at work.

I took the train home, went to the kitchen, and made---

Wait. That's not how it happened at all. I didn't cook at all. I made a cup of tea and went to bed.

I've lost my heart and my bike, and cooking can't help.

The Big Woods

2006-09-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

I took my first-ever solo camping trip last weekend. I didn't tell myself, I want to go camping alone, but I planned it by myself, and though I invited my housemate along (he couldn't go), I was ready to be all alone in the Big Woods.

Yes, those Big Woods, Laura Ingalls' Big Woods. There's a certain Minnesota State Park which claims to preserve what's left of them--so strange and disconcerting that in fact, though many stories tall, the trees, maple, elm, ironwood, basswood, were barely larger in diameter than me. This patch of southern Minnesota deciduous forest was saved by being broken up into 200 woodlots in the late 19th century, so not all of it was clearcut, and most was only partially cut, or grazed, until the 1940s, when some conservation-minded folks got the legislation through. It's also home to the dwarf trout lily, an endangered species that grows only in three Minnesota counties. I was too late for it, and too early for the fall colors, but I picked a cool and cloudy weekend that kept the other campers away and kept the park for me.

Of course, before I left, since it was a Saturday, I had to visit the farmers' market, and I picked up rosemary bread from Brett and Mary, apples from Denny (Sweet 16s!) and his last plums of the season, cheese and corn. My pack was mostly full of apples as I hiked through the Big Woods, and I stopped for a bread and cheese and apple and plum lunch over Prarie Creek. When I stood to continue my hike, I saw deer loping through the forest. I hiked to Hidden Falls, up a few small hills, and through most of the park's trail system, cool woods smelling of autumn.

I had brought as my only reading material Stalking the Wild Asparagus, and was more attuned than usual to wild edibles: I munched red clover from the sides of the trail, speculated on the mushrooms (but declined), and found a wild apple tree, with small white apples, almost sweet enough to hide the tannins that made my lips sting. So few humans walked by, and they all walked past the apple tree, not even noticing the windfalls on the path.

Retiring to camp, I made a smoky pine fire not without some setbacks (everything was damp) and commenced to cook my amazing campfire meal. I had marinated seitan and bell peppers and onions in a sesame dressing and skewered them as I waited for the coals to heat. The corn went in the firepit to roast, and the apples sat on the grate and roasted too. I also brought a bottle of wine with me, wine I had brought back from a trip to drink with the Deep Fryer (see previous post; henceforth, DF), because the wine was sweet, and so was she. I wished I could share this whole experience with her. The bottle had been sitting in my cabinet for months, and I decided it was time to drink it, if not with her than on my own. And I was on my own, in the woods, in my remote rustic campsite, with the fire and the trees and the moon.

Everything was delicious, though the onions never quite cooked through. And the apples! Hot and carmelized, the fire only intensified their spicy wild cherry taste (Sweet 16 apples! Thank you Minnesota!), and the skin was sweet and crisp from the grate marks and peeled smoothly off the soft apple flesh.

I watched the fire for a long time. I threw the half-cooked onions in the fire and watched (and smelled) them burn.

Deep Fried Broken Heart

2006-09-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

Sure, that's a rather unappetizing post title, but I'm hoping my own deep fryer will be 100% heart-free. I have decided to buy one of my very own, since, as my visiting friend M. says, my deep fryer broke up with me. So it's solitary doughnut making for me now--but at least I can put eggs in them.

Here are a few things I might fry this fall:
tempura
tofu
potatoes
doughnuts
apple dumplings
funnel cake
eggplant
flatbreads

My housemate J. wants me to make deep fried cookies, her State Fair discovery this year. Seems pretty simple--take a stiff cookie dough and throw balls of it in the fryer. I'll update you as the experiment progresses.

But no crying over the fryer! That's no way to douse a grease fire.

Ketchup at the Barn-B-Q

2006-08-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had a little end-of-summer cookout. The sky spit and threatened all day, but evening blew in cool and pleasant, good for horseshoes and grilling.

I made my first ever batch of homemade ketchup! It was a great success, easy, and quicker to cook down than I thought.

Ketchup for Everybody

12 large tomatoes
1.5 C brown sugar (I used sucanat)
1/3 C molasses
1/3 C cider vinegar
2 allspice berries
dash of cinnamon
salt and pepper

Core and seed the tomatoes, and chop roughly. Put in a large saucepan with about an inch of water and set to boil. Add other ingredients and boil, stirring often, until reduced by 75%, dark red, and thick. This took me about an hour and a half. You could double/triple/quadruple the recipe and can some, as I'm planning to do this weekend.

Black Bean Burgers

2 C black beans, cooked
reserved bean liquid
flour
cumin, nutritional yeast, berbere, mustard powder
1 small red onion, minced

I always cook beans with bay leaves, garlic and hot peppers, so the beans were spiced from the get-go.

Remove bay leaves and mash beans. Add onion and spices. Add bean liquid to thin, or flour to thicken. Form into patties and refrigerate for one hour. Grill till light brown grill marks appear.

I also marinated some asian eggplant in a hot and sweet marinade (pineapple salsa from my housemate's job, with oil and rice wine) and grilled that. Delicious.

Other highlights included delicious corn from my friends' garden and boxed wine brought back on a plane from Provence.

The Worst Summer Ever is almost officially over!

Pickles, Pies and Blue-Ribbon Biscotti

2006-08-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went to the State Fairgrounds in St Paul to drop off my canning entries. Security guards checked my ID and issued me a permit to drive around. It was empty, but bustling. The crowds of Minnesota humanity that will pack the place in a few weeks were noticeably absent. I've been at the fairgrounds for the Craftstravaganza and other events, the off-season fairgrounds, but this was different. The concession booths were setting up, pulling up the awnings. The carnival rides had started arriving. Folks were building frames and temporary structures for the fair. (I saw a platform being built for a car exhibit.) Groups of teenagers walked about deliberately (to help out at the 4H building?). And a steady trickle of women approached the Creative Activities building, boxes and bags in hand.

The Annex of Creative Activities is entered from behind, near the bathrooms. Five white-haired ladies sat at a long table in the flourescent-lit room, and checked in my jars, one by one. The final entry tally was: Beans, Beets, Bread and Butter, Sweet, and Not Otherwise Specified (Okra). The tables stacked with jars in the Annex were remarkably empty, and the ladies mentioned they hadn't seen many beans or beets this year. The judging is this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Right on time, here's a NYT article about the longevity of cooking contests at state fairs, concluding that baking and grilling are replacing canning as the most popular categories.

Prestigious Processor of the Pantry

2006-07-17T17:10:00.000-05:00

I've been writing a zine instead of this blog. And not the rhubarb zine, either. "Prestigious Processor of the Pantry: A Zine about Grief and Canning," will be available from me for $2 or trade in about a week (when I finish the drawings and collate). It's short and pretty intense.

Rhubarb forever

2006-07-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

I'm writing a zine about rhubarb! Anyone have rhubarb stories and recipes to share?

Ginger ale

2006-06-21T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well, sorry for the absence. I've been busy cooking and working in the garden.

Since it's now officially summer, I thought I'd share my favorite easy fermenting project. It's a good mixer, perfect for gin-and-ginger-ales, or sparkling juices. This recipe makes a light gingery drink that has a teeny tiny bit of alcohol in it. Ginger ale always reminds me of summer, of the cans of raspberry ginger ale I used to get at the vending machine at summer camp. For this project, though, I always cut the sugar way down, so it's not as sweet as commercial ginger ale. FYI, ginger ale that you buy in the grocery store is not fermented--it's a sugar syrup with seltzer water added to it. You can make nice ginger ale to your taste at home in two days, with about twenty minutes of active time. The recipe, with pictures, is too complicated to reproduce, so the link is here.

Basically you put some sugar, yeast, ginger, lime juice and water in a two-liter bottle, let it ferment in the sun for a few days until it feels hard to the touch, then throw it in the fridge so it won't explode, let sit a little, and enjoy.

The hardest part of this recipe, for me, is finding a two-liter bottle, since I never drink pop. Luckily a housemate scrounged one for me this time. Beer and wine makers will cringe at the use of bread yeast in this recipe, but folks usually have it around the house, and it tastes fine.
I use around three inches of grated ginger, and the juice of two or three limes, and only 1/3 C sugar.

Good luck!

Kitchen Therapy and Proposed Fermenting and Canning Projects

2006-05-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

I have been sad and lonely lately, so I've been cooking a lot. Here are some things I've cooked.

Rhubarb-Pear Crisp, for a potluck, with the assistance of M. and N.

Potato Pancakes, with some turnip in them, along with
Tofu Sour Cream.

Peanut Noodles with Sugar Snaps and Grape Tomatoes.

Fermenting Plans

Today I had some shopping therapy time and bought two nice dresses, and, since I was in St Paul, I went to the brewing store and got some things for my proposed rhubarb wine. We have rhubarb running rampant in the garden, and I've found several different recipes for making an easy country wine out of quantities of anywhere from 3 to 15 pounds of rhubarb. I've got a primary fermenter (a food-grade plastic bucket), a secondary fermenter (a gallon glass juice jug) and a fermentation lock, so all I needed were the following:

wine yeast
yeast nutrient (which consists of urea and ammonium phosphate. yum)
Campden tablets (potassium metabisulphite--to limit oxidation and kill bad bacteria)
calcium carbonate

I'd never been to the brewing store before, but it wasn't intimidating at all, and there weren't any dudes asking me patronizing questions, which I had expected for some reason, though I know a nice person who used to work there.

I'm trying to fill up my time with elaborate cooking projects. This week I'm planning to use up my extra koji and make some yellow miso. Summer is miso fermenting time! I'll keep you posted.

Also today I checked out the Minnesota State Fair's guidelines for their Creative Activities competition, which includes canning and baking projects. I'm going to plan my pickling accordingly. Each entry must be canned in pint jars, and each entry must include 2 jars, one to judge and one to display. I went to the cupboard to see how my pickled beets looked, and I don't think they're suitable for the fair, since the tops of some pieces of beet are not covered by the liquid. However, 40% of the points awarded go for taste, so I would have a leg up there. I'll keep a few jars sealed just in case. I'm also going to enter some pickled okra under 'unspecified other vegetable.'

Garlic love to you all.

Vegan Doughnuts of Various Sorts

2006-05-19T15:15:00.000-05:00

I'm reposting this from the old site, since I love doughnuts so much. Since rhubarb season is upon us, I'm thinking rhubarb doughnuts... Someday soon I'm going to veganize the lemon-yogurt fritter recipe from Orangette and post it up here!

Since B. bought a deepfryer, we have become doughnut wizards. Doughnut recipes are extremely easy to veganize, since what matters in doughnut-making is texture, not rising power, so eggs are not required. These are guaranteed to stave off the Vegan Hunger.

Pumpkin Doughnuts
makes 15

1 1/2 C flour
1/3 C sugar
2 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 t ginger, grated or minced

Mix dry ingredients.

1/2 C mashed pumpkin
1/4 C milk
1 egg (we used egg replacer)
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t vanilla extract

Mix wet ingredients and add to dry.

The batter will be stiff, but don't add more liquid. Doughnut batter should be stiff.

Chill 1/2 hour if you have time. If not, don't.

These will be a bit too sticky to roll out, so shape into balls and deepfry at 375 for 2 minutes or till golden brown, turning once.

Risen Doughnuts
makes 2 dozen

1 T sugar
1/2 C warm water (body temperature)
1 T yeast

Mix and set aside.

1/4 C oil
2 1/3 C warm water
1 t salt
4 T sugar

Mix together.

8 C flour

Add flour and yeast to oil mixture. Don't knead! Place dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Let rise 1 1/2 h.

Shape into doughnut shapes by rolling out a coil and pinching the ends together. Deepfry at 375 for 2 minutes or until golden brown, turning once.

Adzuki Bean Cakes

2006-05-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

A perk about living with someone who works at a grocery co-op is the enormous amounts of free food that come home regularly. Last week J. brought home about ten pounds of adzuki beans. These little red beans are easily digestible, have a mild flavor and are good for breakfast. I cooked 2 cups of them with garlic and a an unidentified dried hot pepper I got from Sisters Camelot.

But, besides breakfast, what to do with my enormous pot of adzuki beans? I was thinking refried beans as I came home last night, but adzukis aren't particularly good for that--what I really wanted was to ruthlessly mash them. So I made fried bean cakes. I ate them with a nice salad, and with shandong noodles tossed with sweet chili sauce and peanut oil.

Adzuki Bean Cakes

1 1/2 C cooked adzuki beans, drained and mashed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
one green onion, minced
black sesame seeds
ground cumin
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C flour
1 egg
dash sesame oil
dash rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Mash everything together until the batter is reasonably thick--so it falls slowly off the spoon.

Fry, a heaping tablespoon at a time, in canola oil, in a cast iron skillet or wok, until brown.

Note:
Halfway through cooking this I realized that a) I am not a vegan b) There were no vegans in my house yesterday night who might like fried things to eat c) I bought nice organic free-range Minnesota eggs at the farmers' market on Saturday. I was so surprised to remember these things that I exclaimed "These don't have to be vegan!"

Vegans should substitute corn starch or egg replacer for the egg, or just make the batter thicker by taking care not to add more liquids and/or by adding more flour.

Re-purposed Foods

2006-05-08T12:28:00.000-05:00

I am generally quite frugal, more for reasons of environmental guilt than monetary ones: I can't stand to put one more thing in the landfill. However, this is really a fancy way of saying 'Feldman packrat sickness'. My grandma, moving out of her house of 40 years, just had to move a huge garbage can full of disintegrating plastic bags, early 80s track lighting without the tracks, stacks of my grandpa's ancient Freudian books, etc, and lots of it ended up in my parents' basement.

In my recent move I held on to all sorts of junk I really shouldn't have. B. said: "It's like being at a rummage sale where everything is gross and you don't want to buy anything, but here we have to pack it up and move it." This goes doubly for kitchen things. It was only in desperation that I recycled all the accumulated tupperware and yogurt containers, rather than moving and using them, or taking them to the co-op to put in the re-use bin. I was really excited to hear the new egg vendor at the farmers' market will accept egg crates. And when I bought four pyrex pie dishes at a garage sale this weekend to replace one broken in the move, I felt I was saving those pie dishes from a sad and lonely life.

So, this packrat/recycling mania translates to food. If vegetables are spoiled, I have no qualms about throwing them in the compost, but other foods get the Depression-era treatment. Here are two recent food recycling incidents.

Croutons

My housemate dumpstered lots of nice ciabatta from the local bakery, intending on French toast, but we didn't use it in time and it got extremely stale. One might think that since the bread came from the garbage I would throw it right back, but instead I made croutons.

Soften the bread by dribbling it with water and throwing it in the microwave for 45 seconds.

Then cut bread into crouton-sized pieces with a breadknife or other serrated knife.

Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic, and other spices to taste

Bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Stir and turn occassionally so the croutons don't burn.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This is a normal sort of recipe, but instead of buying sour cream, I used sweet cream that had gone off. I adapted the recipe from the Joy.

Beat together:

1 C sour cream
2 eggs
2 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients:
1 1/4 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 C or less sugar
pinch of salt
cinnamon, nutmeg to taste
orange zest

Mix dry into wet. Turn into a greased 8 x 10 pan and bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

Orange-Coconut Cake

2006-03-29T12:40:00.000-06:00

I made this cake for the party we had in January, and it's so good that I'm moving it over!

I mostly made it up, but I took some suggestions from The Voluptuous Vegan. It's a moist, rich cake, with a soft crumb texture and a firm crust. I recommend using organic citrus for the zest. I baked it in my star-shaped cake pan, and it unmolded effortlessly. Definitely a special-occasion cake.

2 C white flour
1/2 C barley flour
1/2 C gold n white or whole wheat pastry flour
cinnamon to taste
1/2 T cardamon
1 1/2 T baking powder
1 T baking soda
1/2 t salt
2/3 C sugar
the zest of one organic orange
some zest (maybe 1 T) of an organic grapefruit

MIx all dry ingredients.

MIx together:
1 can coconut milk, well shaken
1/3 C maple syrup or honey
1/4 C canola oil
the juice of the orange you zested

Add to dry ingredients and mix until just mixed.

Bake in a 350 oven for 40 minutes or until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I iced the cake with shredded coconut, confectioners' sugar and a little orange juice, and chilled it to set the icing. I forgot to toast the coconut, but I recommend you do so.

A few weeks later, when visiting Mary, I made a similar cake in her kitchen/living room (that was a very coconutty visit--I made coconut roti later in the week too). However, I was impatient to eat it and didn't bake it long enough, because a few days later it started to get moldy in the middle! The first cake was eaten immediately, so I didn't get a chance to see if that happened, but definitely hold that off by 1) baking it long enough 2) eating it quickly or 3) throwing it in the fridge.

2006-03-29T12:06:00.000-06:00

Tomato-Mushroom Seitan

Hello friends!

I'm moving over from garliclove.blog-city.com, so there may be many posts to begin with, as I move over all the vegan doughnut recipes! Please bear with me.

With that, on to seitan. It's delicious and quite easy to make, even if you're not a breadmaker, and you can make stock at the same time, but for some reason I never get around to it--oh, I don't have any potatoes for the stock, I'm out of soy sauce, etc. I've had a bag of wheat gluten sitting in my pantry for a while (and it made two other batches of seitan) but hadn't found the time--until this weekend. This is a triumph of whatever's-in-the-kitchen cooking, and the joys of having a well-stocked pantry.

We made stock with potatoes, sweet potatoes, fennel greens I had stashed in the freezer, onions, garlic, bay leaves, celery seed, dill seed, peppercorns (black and white), some leftover celery, and a boullion cube (rapunzel brand). Once you've boiled the seitan in it the stock will become extremely delicious.

The seitan itself was based on a recipe scribbled on an orange scrap of paper titled 'Seitan is for lovers,' and also on a recipe from The Dirty South. I admit that Bethany made the actual seitan, so I'm not sure what all she spiced it with, but I'll do my best.

2 C vital wheat gluten
1/4 C nutritional yeast
salt, pepper
thyme
rosemary
oregano
1/3 C red wine
1 C stock or broth
1/4 C chopped tomatoes (home-canned!)
1/4 C chopped re-hydrated oyster mushrooms
soy sauce to taste

Mix all together. Knead until springy. If the dough's too wet, add some more flour. Let rest 10 min. Knead some more. Let rest 10 more min. Cut (scissors work best here) into 8-10 pieces and boil in stock for 30 min-1 hour, until the seitan is firm. Freeze whatever you won't eat in a week with a bit of stock to cover.

This batch of seitan turned out a bit squishy because of the tomatoes and mushrooms. Next time I would mince or process the mushrooms so the seitan pieces wouldn't be so crumbly. Also, I would use tomato paste instead of tomatoes because, once boiled, the tomatoes were a bit bland.

This batch of seitan was good in soup and in dirty rice and fried with broccoli.

Another seitan story: The very first time I made seitan, maybe 7 years ago, was an unmitigated disaster. I was cooking lunch for the (80-person) co-op, and Robin gave me a recipe that made a huge blob of seitan. I didn't know to cut up the seitan before boiling it, and the pot in which I ended up boiling it, though a cauldron, was a bit too small. It all burned. I made something else in a hurry but everything smelled like burnt seitan.

Luckily, I've since learned how to cook!