Monthly Archives: December 2013

Forget About It

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Pulling out the 1970s fireplace insert a few inches would have been an easy way to expose the crumbling tile and mortar from inside the chimney. The requisite inspection before we closed on the house almost six years ago missed it. The repair estimate would have made Mr. Rogers kick himself.

It was Al who would finally dislodge the feelings of regret that could be triggered by something as mundane as a commercial for cat litter.

“Seven thousand dollars! We were screwed!”

“It happens.” Al said.

“Yeah, but…”

“It happens.”

“Our realtor should have…”

“It happens.” He said.

“Shouldn’t the inspector known to have…”

“You buy a house and the boiler goes out. Cha-ching! You discover that every window sash in the place is completely shot. Cha-ching. The carpet is hiding blemished floors. Cha ching. Welcome to home ownership. Did the inspector do his job? It’s hard to say. Do these things get missed? All of the time. Would it have changed your decision? I doubt it. Did you overpay? Maybe, but probably not by much. Do you love your house? Forget about the rest of it.”

Letting that sink in, while counter to my appetite for impossible justice that can turn back clocks, was a tremendous relief.

While other priorities would compete with it and while Brian never shared my enthusiasm for fixing it nor my feeling that a fireplace you couldn’t use could fill a room with a certain kind of emptiness, this particular restoration project was never a serious point of contention. And yet I had the feeling that when I did finally turn my attention to it, I would need to convince him that the time had come for this investment. I would bring it up and he would make that face.

Convincing anyone of anything can be tricky. It would be better if the worthiness of a good idea were self-evident. It’s particularly tricky for me because giving up persuasion was a deliberate choice prompted by a letter I received out of the blue a long time ago.

An old friend from the Minnesota for Dennis Kucinich campaign wrote to me – one progressive to another – to ask that I join her in supporting Al Franken for the U.S. Senate. She assumed that I would agree that Franken was the real deal while I couldn’t believe that a real Liberal would ever be taken by him. In response I would make the case for a better candidate, one who was actually worthy of the support of anyone who had ever believed that holding rush hour vigils on a bridge in sub-zero weather could transform the bleary-eyed commuters who chugged along on the freeway below.

Wilson sitting on my desk.

Hearing the clacking of the keyboard (in these moments I miss the zing of the old fashioned typewriter), Brian quickly sized up the situation and accused me of “bickering on the listserv.” Stretched out on top of the desk in front of me, even the cat paused to question whether this was really a good use of my time, but then quickly dropped it and went back to angling for tummy rubs. So while Brian fried eggs and Lester Young set a mood suitable for dozing tabbies and giant snowflakes drifting to the ground outside the window behind me, I continued to fake my way through a second and third draft of my counter.

My arguments fell flat. Trying to convince someone to see things as I saw them, especially where it came to politicians and the abstractions they espouse, made me feel tired. So I quit. I had a nice breakfast and never thought about it again.

It never came to arm-twisting. One Saturday morning I asked Brian to help me measure the fireplace, which he happily did. I suspect he knew what I had in mind, but I could not detect the dread I had anticipated. Instead of hashing it out, he set to carefully noting the measurements in his famously perfect printing and within an hour we were on Franklin and 29th looking at wood burning stoves.

Recognizing my debilitating hatred for shopping and making purchasing decisions, Brian quietly filled in the gaps so that we might enjoy a fire before the summer rolled around again.

I’m still letting that sink in.

So, we’ve narrowed down our search for a fireplace to two options. Choosing one has been difficult because I like each for different reasons. Feel free to weigh in.

 

Thanksgiving Leftovers – A Soup

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Thanksgiving Leftovers
Author: 
 
This is proof that knowing a few basic tricks makes winging it in the kitchen a little less of a gamble. Using tips I've collected from cooking shows, recipes and friends, I came up with a soup made from Thanksgiving leftovers. Below is listed what I used. Use whatever leftovers you have.
Ingredients
  • Turkey Carcass - From the turkey, of course!
  • Rice - I used a short brown rice. I thought about using potatoes instead. Noodles would also work.
  • Carrots - some end-of-the bag scraggly carrots
  • Celery - 2 stocks
  • Leeks - left over from a Lentils and Soba recipe that called for just the white part of the leek
  • Onion -
  • Mushroom stems - left over from The World's Best Green Bean Caserole that called for removing the stems
  • Flour
  • Vegetable stock - left over from when I made potato soup.
  • Olive Oil - Extra Virgin
  • Heavy Whipping Cream - the portition that wasn't used for whipped topping for the chocolate pie
  • Red Wine
  • Milk
Instructions
Prep
  1. Clean meat from turkey bones and set aside.
  2. Chop carrots, celery, leeks, onion or whatever vegetables you have. A consistent shape - whatever you choose - works nicely. Set aside.
Turkey Broth
  1. Sauté bones with a little olive oil. You can add an onion or other vegetables if you like. Stir occasionally. Don't burn but brown enough that some sticks to the bottom of the pan. When this happens turn up the heat and add enough water to cover the bottom before it burns. Be careful of the steam. Stir while scraping the browned crusty goodness from the bottom of the pan. At this point, you can add enough water to cover the bones and simmer for 20-30 minutes. For my experiment, I did this after letting the water cook down (not to a dry point), added more water and back and forth. Use a colander to separate the bones from the broth or save a dish and just carefully pour the broth into a bowl, leaving the bones behind in the pan.
Rice
  1. In a large pot, add a little olive oil. Cover the bottom with rice. I probably should have measured the rice, as I used more than I needed, but the soup is still quite good. Toast the rice until it smells good. Be careful to stir as not to burn it. Turn up the heat. Add enough turkey broth to cover the rice. Be careful of the initial steam this will create. As the broth cooks down, add more broth. Repeat until you've used up all of the broth and the rice has doubled in volume. For a final product, you're aiming for rice that is cooked or mostly cooked and slightly covered with liquid.
Vegetable Mixture
  1. In a separate pan, sauté vegetables in olive oil until it smells good.
  2. Stir in a big TBS of flour.
  3. Add vegetable stock, stirring to make it smooth, blending in a little at a time.
  4. Add a splash of wine.
  5. Drink a splash of wine.
  6. Add cream.
  7. The end product should be vegetables in a creamy sauce.
The Soup
  1. Add vegetable mixture to rice.
  2. Add milk.
  3. Season to taste.
Spices
  1. What no spices? I considered putting a curry twist on this to mimic a turkey soup recipe that my friend Nancy gave to me. I also have some Bouquet Garni that pairs nicely with poultry. In the end, I didn't season it at all. I tasted the soup and liked it just fine the way it was. However, at the table, I did find myself adding salt and pepper.

Lentils and Soba Noodles

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This dish that can be served warm or cold could be your answer to “What do I bring to the potluck?” It also worked well as a Thanksgiving side dish.

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Lentils and Soba Noodles
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • Olive Oil
  • 2-3 cloves Garlic - Chopped
  • Red Pepper Flakes
  • ¾ to 1 C. Lentils (Lucy says that French ones are the nicest)
  • 1-2 Leeks - Cut in squares, white part only
  • 1-2 Carrots - Cut in squares
  • 1 bunch of Chard - Remove stems and chop leaves
  • 8 oz package of Soba Noodles
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Boil lentils 15-20 minutes - Do not overcook and make them too soft.
  2. Warm olive oil, garlic - Do not burn.
  3. Add Pepper Flakes - Cook 1 minute.
  4. Add Leeks, Carrots and sauté for a bit
  5. Add cooked lentils and chard
  6. You will need to add liquid, like the lentil water, chicken or veggie stock, white or red wine - whatever. Just make sure there is a brothiness to the end product.
MEANWHILE:
  1. Boil Soba Noodles. When they are done, blend with sauté
SERVE:
  1. Drizzle olive oil & grated parmesan cheese
Notes
This is a solid recipe as is and worked perfectly the first time I tried it. It's also easy to imagine variations. For example, I think lima beans could be used in place of lentils.