Galette, gavotte

After a long food discussion at Thanksgiving, Danger Baby and his wife sent me a Trader Joe's gift card and the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook by Cherie Mercer Twohy for Christmas. I went on a fantasy fill-your-cart shopping trip to fuel a winter Big Cook, but not after reading the cookbook. So, when I did start marking recipes with colorful sticky arrows I had the inspirations, but not all the ingredients. And the first inspiration was the asparagus tart on page 24. Had the fresh asparagus from Trader Joe's and 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Two out of seven ingredients! We have a winner.

You sigh. You roll your eyes. Have I ever had all the ingredients? Have I ever followed the directions?

I love cooking with Google. Type in the items I have, and, voilà, recipes appear. They may not be tested recipes, but I won't follow them anyway. 

Asparagus + crust + cheese....   

Wait! Asparagus + refrigerator piecrust dough + Parmesan cheese + mushrooms + Meyer lemon + garlic + spinach ...BINGO!

Google results were for asparagus galettes. Galettes seem to be unfettered savory or sweet pastries made without a confining pie pan. How did I not know about this ridiculously easy way to make a supper or brunch? I wanted to dance a gavotte!

galette--a flat round cake of pastry or bread

gavotte--a medium-paced French dance, popular in the 18th century;  a piece of music accompanying or in the rhythm of a gavotte, composed in common time beginning on the third beat of the bar.

https://www.britannica.com/art/gavotte

With a full tummy I drifted off into a happy dream of an earlier trickle-down era, the early '80s in Omaha. Upon awakening I couldn't remember the name of a favorite ladies' lunch destination beloved by my mom after discovery by  my Welcome Wagon club. The restaurant was done in lovely pinks and corals with white trim and not-annoying paintings hanging on the walls. Best of all was the dessert counter visited after soup-salad-sandwich with its amazing rich cakes. The restaurant was probably on the south side of Center Street, maybe Pacific, a little east of District 66. Fritzi's favorite cake was a ga- ga- ga- something with apricots. It took about an hour of searching to find the word "gateau," and I never did find the name of the restaurant (I am embarrassed to admit this failure):

gateau--a rich cake, typically one containing layers of cream or fruit.

Stumbling around in rich French desserts I got side-tracked by garrote. (This is not a French carrot cake.) The first time I read of murder by garrote was in Margaret Truman's Murder in the White House. Donald Bain, who died in October, ghostwrote some of Truman's mysteries, but not that one.

garrote--kill someone by strangulation, typically with a length of wire or cord.

But what of Marat? Did he die by garrote? He did not.

Mystery readers mourn the loss of Sue Grafton today. While I only made it to "N is for..." I always wanted Kinsey's shipshape apartment and elderly neighbors.

Thanks to Donna Leon and Louise Penny for another year of thoughtful, well-written mysteries.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Hope, park, purse, fly

In a year-end display of flagrant optimism I purchased a new purse at DSW today. It is not a perfect purse, or a stylish handbag, or even vaguely appealing. It just seemed workable, and the extremely workable purse of the previous 2.5 years bit the dust.

Yes, it has come down to workable. How will this purse work traveling through the TSA screener and under the seat in front of me? Does it have a cross-body strap? Can it be cleaned up with a Clorox disinfecting wipe after a bad Panda Express moment? Will it hold a bagel sandwich, a library book, or all of my prescriptions? Will it preserve my invisibility as a woman of a certain age? Please don't let it make a statement!

The 2017 fiction audiobook that rises most often to mind is not the amazing Lincoln in the Bardo, performed by a full cast. It is Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Katherine Rooney, narrated by Xe Sands. New Year's Eve 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish, former ad copywriter genius, takes a ten-mile stroll around a gritty Manhattan in her mink coat ruminating over her six decades in NYC. How do we travel? How do we stroll? What's in our heavily-packed psychological wheelie luggage?

I would not want to lift the karmic baggage of 2017 into the overhead carry-on bin. The stress of 2017 won't fit in the bin, and I don't fit in the ever-shrinking airplane seats. It's all I can do to stow my purse under the seat.

Not to be downer Debby Dystopia here, but life in the Trump administration has been a drag on my in-town miles-per-gallon in 2017. Being hopeful, or at least staying calm, is an everyday challenge. That's why I love leaving the Buick at Park'N'Fly. 

The guys who drive the shuttle vans have a unanimous appreciation for the 2002 Buick Century. They tell me I could sell this beauty for big bucks. They rhapsodize on its fine points and pristine condition. They ooh and ah about its mileage total. It's Mad Max meets Fidel: Road Warrior. 

I drive off in my magic pumpkin coach with my purse of invisibility. Maybe we can survive after all.

And hey, there's a purse museum in Little Rock. And hey, there are some Buick museums, too.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Ladling oatmeal with millennials

Let's learn about work with Weekly Reader!

Punch in: To check in formally at a job upon arrival.
Punch out: To check out formally at a job upon departure.


Hold the fort: To take responsibility for a situation while another person is temporarily absent.
All hands on deck:  
A call for all members of a ship's crew to come to the deck, usually in a time of crisis. By extension, everyone 
available to help with a problem, or a call for those people to help. 

 The mail must go through.

Work your fingers to the bone: Boney fingers 
 Your job may be crucial for the greater good: Keep the ships from crashing on the rocks no matter how small you are.
Ladle that cream of wheat through holidays and blizzards: Sick people need to eat, and so do the folks taking care of them.

Find your own sub: You are responsible for covering the time and the work you are assigned whether or not working is convenient.

The show must go on: Regardless of what happens, whatever show has been planned still has to be staged for the waiting patrons.

Just a tiny cog in a big machine: You probably aren't as important as you imagine.







Another day older and deeper in debt: Tennesse Ernie & ZZ Top.

Perpetual tardiness is arrogance: It’s simply that some people no longer even pretend that they think your time is as important as theirs. And technology makes it worse. It seems texting or emailing that you are late somehow means you are no longer late. Rubbish. You are rude. And inconsiderate.

Let's just get it out there: Working with millennials is not always a picnic in the park. I birthed and raise three of them, but most of the others are from another galaxy. Even so, many are amazingly committed to causes and passions, an inspiration to older coworkers, and a bonus to any team. Except when one wants to boot them off the island... Kids These Days gave me valuable new and often infuriating insight into how we created the Millenials and the economic situations they face.

Bring out the hammock:  You didn't just imagine it. Our weekends have lost the restoring, relaxing powers we desperately need.

Much has been written about Hillbilly Elegy and The Glass Castle. Jeannette Walls' book is the more powerful to my mind, bringing out so many choices we make about work, callings, parenthood, and personal responsibility. Do any of our choices make more sense, and why?

    
    

David Brown's memoir is a powerful description of police work, but also a celebration of vocation, meaning and purpose in one's life work.

The Promised Land of Error is a reminder that for much of mankind's existence work took up less of each day than it does in this time of labor-saving devices and technology.

And now this Christmas evening I will hang it up without ranting about earbuds on the job. Be present.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Gifts for taste buds

Inspired by Claudia Leon, a blogger who has lived all over the world and shares amazing photos, I got curious about preserving Meyer lemons in the Moroccan manner. Eight lemons for $1.99 at Trader Joe's was another deciding factor. Kosher salt and a pint jar, check.

The Daring Gourmet recipe I used only called for lemons, salt, and water. I've since found recipes with cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, bay leaves, fennel seeds and coriander seeds.

Yesterday was so dark and rainy that spicy soup was on my mind. It's time for eggplant and sausage stew! Steamy tonight, and it just gets better by freezing it for future lunch breaks. This is how at looks before it cooks:

You can see the tomatoes, andouille sausage, spinach, eggplant, celery, and white beans, but you can't see my addition of a parmesan rind. Take that, Blue Apron!


© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

No knees, no hips, no shoulders?

Major contraption.

The TSA-Pre screener asked the question fast, "No knees, no hips, no shoulders?"

Huh? I thought he said "sore knees, sore hips, sore shoulders," and answered "yes." How did he know I'd been sitting on the floor with my grandson playing Legos and Lite-Brite for two days?

"No, wait," I said as it dawned on me he was asking if I was titanium-free. He stared and slowly asked, "All   original   equipment?" like I might possibly be hearing impaired. Nodding and miming that I was creaky but manufacturer parts only, he waved me through the machine.

Our solar system and another solar system nearby. Pluto is far left.

Remember when Barbie was unbendable and needed a metal stand? Nobody told us it was our future!

  

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

A leaf is to catch with a stick

First thing on a walk is to find a very useful stick. A stick is to imitate old relatives with canes. A stick is to poke and scratch the sand. A stick is useful for pointing grown-ups where to look. It is very good for fling-flanging about in the air.

A leaf passing by in time is for catching with a stick. A pinecone is difficult to catch. A stick is for emphasis when telling Daddy to find a rock to throw in the lake. A lake, of course, is for throwing rocks into.

Picnicked on my lunch break watching a little boy and two grown-ups select sticks for hiking and for retrieving tennis balls from the creek. The perfect stick was elusive. "Look, Dad! I upgraded my stick!" Easy to download and install.

With thanks to Antoinette Portis, Ruth Krauss, and Maurice Sendak.

© 2013-2017 Nancy L. Ruder