Cooking with Dee

First, let me tell you how much I love my new LED desk lamp that allows me to write without awakening my loved ones.

Uncle Stevie, we hear (OK, everyone is snoring so I hear) the trains. Must mean cooler air and fall. Even though the train station is so close to us we don’t hear it much in the summer with the saturated air. The physicist (Jim) will be consulted on this. But all I know are the sounds. I’m the art, he’s the science. OK, don’t start singing Ebony and Ivory….

Soon I’ll be able to open the windows and purge our place of garlic and pot roast and other aromas. I love this time of year. Hate to say it but Hurricane Ike took a lot of leaves off the tops of the trees and we can actually see the city from here now. Not that I ask for more hurricanes, just prudent pruning from the city that will never happen. We do what we can.

Well, Steve, we’ve fixed the aerobed that Zoe popped and you and Nanny are welcome to visit anytime. If you fly or drive in, we’ll make sure to take you on a train. Love from Jimmy and Dee

Tasty, now our entire place is redolent with its aroma. I asked Jan to use her oven for the spicy almonds and cashews, which worked out well. The noodles were fine with the pot roast and gravy.

Jan brought along some brussels sprouts she’d cooked up. Also ruby chard with onions. Both were yummy.

And I tried to make my Mom’s apple pie and prepped the apples only to find out I had no flour. So I threw together a crumble topping and poured melted butter over the top for something that didn’t look pretty but tasted quite good given my multiple failings.

It’s been a rough day and all I want to do is get some sleep and start fresh tomorrow. Thanks for your kind comments.

Silicone egg-poachers. I just bought two from Sur La Table today (Jim needed a protected knife to take fruit and snacks to work) and they’re in flower shapes from www.siliconezone.com. Their site doesn’t ask one for questions.

Can I poach two eggs at a time in the poacher? I’m thinking of disastrous results in the microwave because egg yolks tend to explode as they’re encapsulated.

If anyone knows, please tell me before I wash and use them. Otherwise they can always be a lovely gift, if you get my meaning. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Say no more. Dee

This terrific actor died today, and was quoted in the NY Times by Aljean Hermetz as saying “The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

From what I see from his many movies, he took little from this earth. OK, maybe from carbon emissions from his racing! But he did so much using his brand to give $200 million and counting to worthy charitable causes.

The farmers in Jim’s family will enjoy this summing up of an extraordinary life. As would our mother, who is in her final hours. No, she’s not going to get front page mention on the NYTimes, even mention from the crossword mavens who she’s beaten for the past fifty years.

We had Chicken Saltimbocca, spaghetti squash (not as good as my brother’s), sauteed arugula and rice cooked in chicken broth. Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks for writing in and reading, Dee

ps I love my new lamp! It lights up my keyboard without bugging Jim next door. I can even run my hand right on the six bulbs and it’s cool as can be. We’re both coming down with colds so are on Yin Chaio every two hours.

Every day since before the hurricane Jim asked if I’d received a package. No. What is it? A present.

Today it finally arrived. Right now he’s working normal hours, but as a software guy, left to his own devices his schedule would change to that of a night owl.

I’ve been up nights catching up on email and the blog and as we live in an urban loft, our bedroom has no door (next door to our study) and it is open to catch the light from the living room and study windows overlooking downtown. It’s open from 7-10 feet, for about seven feet horizontally.

I used to leave the blinds open all night to get light from outside, but can only do that during winter months because the sun streams in here early morning and the A/C has to work overtime.

So I’ve been up middle of the night on my computer and he is trying to sleep in the next room. So he splurged and bought me a LED desk lamp, that we look forward to trying out after dark tonight. The base probably weighs 10 lbs. It adjusts to any position, can focus light downward (instead of into the bedroom) and is cool. Previously I used his desk lamp with a halogen bulb that burned hot and I would just sit here and sweat.

Dee's LED Lamp

So now this night owl will presumably be able to work at 2:00 a.m. and my love will be able to get his thinking sleep. Thank you, love! Dee

Our friend Jan called this evening just as I got off the phone with sister Lisa, and was about to take out the Fur Ball. Jan is a “dog person” currently without a dog but with a cool cat. So she got out to meet some “dog people” and their pups.

Zoe is so smart and lazy that she hangs out in the backfield and waits for a ball to be thrown. The pups are clueless and just want the big exciting run, but Zoe is there waiting for it to come down, gulp. So the conversation went something like: “most of these dogs are rescues. this is Willow. Oh, you’ll see Wilma in the doggie cart attached to the bicycle going by – she just had surgery on her knee so can’t run right now.”

Mom is doing worse and this may be the end, but we say that every day. I have everything to make her Chicken Saltimbocca, which I’ll make tomorrow night. Today I was running serious errands and talking to family on the phone. So I had to warm up some brisket (still have 1/2 brisket left after two dinners), make potatoes, saute some arugula that Jim wouldn’t eat and also some cherry tomatoes that we both ate.

Tomorrow I’ll also probably make the spaghetti squash a la my siblings, cooking helps me keep in touch with everyone when I’m so far away. Especially Mom. I changed the water on her gerbera daisies today. Also got from new neighbor Tom , with whom we ate dinner last night, two empty bottles of Bernard Czech lager with proper bottle-stop, that I will decoupage and use for daisies, Mom’s favorite flower. Well, gerberas are up there with glads, too, but they’ll be too big unless I cut off the bottle top and stop.

We’re not doing a traditional service, but something Mom wanted. Most of her life she did everything that was expected of her by others whether it be her family, the Church or others. For a number of years, perhaps since she read Betty Friedan, she went back to college and got degrees because she is so intelligent.

I told you she got out of the “Betty Crocker” days and graduated to Gourmet. Her Christmas dinner is a legend in her time: perfect Prime Rib with gravy, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and veg. Desserts include mincemeat tartlets, Scandinavian cookies, apple shortbreads, oatmeal cookies, Snickerdoodles and date squares.

If the four of us “kids” got together we might be able to make one of Mom’s historic meals. I thank her so much for introducing me, us, to great food and great dinners.

And we tend to stay away from trendy restaurants because we actually cook better! Not better chefs, but better cooks and we get to stay home and tell jokes and hang out. OK, if there is one thing I’d do with Mom’s “estate” when she leaves us, I’d sponsor getting her knives sharpened before they go in a box and storage.

Thanks again for sticking with me. You’re great! Dee