Beer Bread and not $4 a loaf!

I just hit some stupid key and erased the whole post.  Curses. 

Ok, the gist of the post was that you should whip up a batch of beer bread.  This will take about 2 minutes plus rounding up ingredients time.  And the loaf doesn't cost $4!  You will need 12 oz. of beer (cheap is fine) and some self-rising flour. 

Here is the link:
Simple Beer Bread

One important note:  Cut the sugar down to 2 Tablespoons.  Your bathroom scale and your liver will thank you.  

My mom made this in the 70's and we scarfed it down.  She sprinkled sesame seeds on the bottom of the loaf pan.  Use your creativity. 

Grapeshot

L.A. Times Award Book Finalist

Some good reads here.  So nice when authors are recognized.

L.A. Times Book Award Finalists

Help out an author today.  Buy some books!

Meatloaf with a Kickass Topping

Meatloaf was the first entree I learned to make.  My mom was a bridge player and once a month she would leave the recipe and ingredients for meatloaf which I would stick in the oven after I got home from high school. 


A pound of ground beef
Salt and pepper
Some crushed saltines
A medium onion, chopped
An egg, beaten 


 Mix, form a loaf and put in the oven at 350 degrees Farenheit.  Bake for an hour.  
An idiot could do it.   While the meatloaf baked, I put on the topping. 


1/3 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon mustard


Mix and spread over meatloaf.  Good!  Good!  Good!  A million years later, it's still good, although I usually use bread soaked in milk or bread crumbs.  Add some seasonings and beaucoup parsley.  The original recipe still rocks.  Especially the topping. Sometimes simple and easy rules the day.  How cool is that?   


Grapeshot

What is Uglier Than Old Roadside Snow?

In Boston, we've had the Week of the Great Melting, which is to say that the mountains of snow are trickling into the earth.  Of course the good part is that I can now reach the back yard bird feeders, hell, we may even grill tonight.  The 60 degree weather on Friday was like a miracle, and the rumbling of thunder Friday night bringing melting rains sounded like music.  


That being said, the ugliness is über alles.  The landscape looks like garbage fell from the sky along with the snow.  That isn't how it happened.  Piles of filthy icy ick along the side of the road, and the melting has brought forth the trash and the garbage  that people in this part of the country (some, not all) feel privileged to toss out of their car windows wherever.  Their thuggish don't-give-a-damn attitudes give the landscape the appearance of a garbage scow.   One of the first things we noticed moving here from Chicago was what a dirty, trash-littered city Boston is.  Sad, really.  I don't think Paul Revere and Sam Adams would like the trash-tossers.  I don't.  


Now the cold has returned and we have the most disgusting roadsides you can imagine.  Filthy ice littered with more filth.  Medieval England couldn't have looked this bad, although it may have smelled worse.  Do you recall that fab scene in the movie Tom Jones where they came into London and it was a pig sty?  An untraveled theater-goer whispered to her seat mate, "is that how it looks?" Maybe we need a present day movie of the winter streets and by-ways of Boston, and yes, that's how it still looks. 
Litterers should be arrested and forced to pick up the roadside trash as penance.  Maybe they would see the error of their ways.  With photos in the paper each week of who will be gathering litter and where.  Sometimes, the punishment should fit the crime.  


I am now off to make oatmeal, the five minute kind with lots of fiber and flavor.  We eat it with raisins, turbinado sugar and sometimes a spoonful of cream.  The Yin and the Yang of Oatmeal on this blustery Sunday. 

High Temperature Method for Roasting Prime Rib

This recipe call for faith and hope, because you are trusting a large roast and an equally large expenditure to your faith in the recipe, which will not be misplaced.  I can't tell you how good it is.  The Jan 30 New York Times resurrected Ann Serrane's recipe again.

Here is the recipe with no attribution.  I couldn't fine Ann's online, but this is identical.  You will be so proud of yourself.

Make popovers with the fat and serve a nice green vegetable and a salad.  We always eat our veggies. 

Ann Serrane's Roast Rib of Beef

Beef Stroganoff for a Birthday Dinner

recipe from the 1977 House & Garden Cookbook - Long Live Cast Iron!

 -Yesterday was Significant Other's birthday, and I decide not to make his favorite stuffed cabbage but instead to make another old favorite, Beef Stroganoff.  He always ordered it at Jacques French restaurant on Chicago's North Side back in the day.  This is a menu item that could always be found on any "Continental" restaurant menu.  I've been making the New York Times recipe for years, but thought it always lacked je ne sais pas, so I hunted around and sure enough, in an old 1977 House and Garden New Cook Book someone had given me, I found a recipe calling for cognac, dried mushrooms, tenderloin, etc.  It looked good and it was.   The recipe is not on line, but a similar one is here from
Martha Stewart  

  I only  expected to get one meal out of it, because I cut the recipe in half, but lo, there was a lot left.  With the tenderloin and sour cream it is rich, and we had salad and veg to accompany.  For dessert I served my mom's Bacardi rum cake, made, as I discovered from a box cake and a package of pudding and LOTS of rum.  I followed some tips on the web site where I double-checked the recipe, and used milk instead of water and put the nuts all the way through the cake.  I also added part of a grated orange rind to the glaze.     We cooks know how to help each other out, cooking among women being mostly a collaborative not a competitive endeavor.  

S.O. took a photograph, which I'll post soon.  Cold weather is back.  Birds have suet now, but have "flown the coop."   Warm weekend ahead.  I am reading my friend's novel MS on my Kindle and it is better than much of the published stuff I read.  A  great and perpetual mystery.  

Off to do the morning tasks.  Stay warm, stay dry, and remember, April is just around the corner, but then it is the cruelest month before the merry month of May.   

 As ever, 

Grapeshot  

Seven Suspenseful Sentence Sunday - Week 6

Kreuzberg back in the day

Don't forget to visit the other Seven Suspenseful Sunday Authors at:  The Magnificent Seven 


From The Shadow Warriors: 

In a sleazy Berlin neighborhood, the narrator ducks out of a bar one jump ahead of a bad guy.

 

Peering around, I realized that I wasn't in the alley, but a courtyard.  Groping along the stone wall in the darkness, I almost fell over a bike rack.  A tenement stood facing the yard, but only a few windows on the upper floors were lighted. A banner with a skull and crossbones hung over one of them. I picked my way across the rubble and ducked around a dumpster. The screech and scream of alley cats, fighting or mating, caused a dog to respond with a deep savage bark.  When I hit my shin against a crate, I sobbed in frustration, wondering how was I going to get out of here. 

The Shadow Warriors is available as a trade paperback AND on the Kindle.   It contains many  suspenseful scenes, and some funny ones, too.  You can find it on Amazon. 

 

Visit the other Seven Suspenseful Sunday Authors at:  The Magnificent Seven

In Disgrace

My Facebook account caught a virus which sent itself to 200+ friends, and after I deleted each and every message, Facebook blocked me from sending links. 

The MWA newsletter that arrived today had some interesting links to online writing advice.  Here is a link  you may profit by:

Writing Advice  


The writer is Janet Finch and she has some trenchant suggestions. 

How does it feel to be in the doghouse?  Baaaaad.  Sometimes I think I've spent the better part of my life smarting from something I did wrong, didn't do, didn't say, should have said, blundering along like a blind dog in a meat house (my Dad's phrase).  This person becomes a black sheep.   I wrote a story about that once, and even gave a speech at Toastmasters about black sheephood.  Did you know that black sheep are undesirable because THEIR WOOL CAN'T BE DYED.   Today's fact. 

I'm going to crawl back under my rock.

Sadly,

Grapeshot

The Whole World Was Watching

I am so touched by the events in Cairo and how the people prevailed and peacefully.  They taught the world a lesson, and for those who already knew that lesson, they issued a strong reminder.  Today was a transfixing moment, and we should all be so proud of Egypt and her citizens.  


Tourism is 10% of the GNP in Egypt, and few tourists have landed there in the last few weeks due to the uncertainty of what would eventually happen.  Early spring is a great time for tourism.  You can see thousands of years of history and you can feel the good vibes from the past two weeks. 


Grapeshot

White Chicken Chili

White Chicken Chili a la Cook's Illustrated

This New England winter calls for hearty soups and stews, pot roast and ribs.  It's hard to make low-calorie choices when the weather is cold.  I mean, really, who wants shrimp salad when the thermometer reads 22 degrees F.?  Not me, not you.

I've ventured into--let's not call it diet cooking--but cooking that doesn't break the calorie bank.  It's good, it's tasty, but man it is labor intensive.  We are trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diet and also attempting to eschew processed foods whenever possible.  We are also trying to reduce sodium, yada, yada, well you can see where this is going.

Eating healthy is hard.   The "diet" chicken pot pie I made was delicious but was it ever work!  If I still worked 8:00 - 6:00 (nine to five jobs being a thing of the past) no way could I do this.  When I was in the labor force we ate out twice a week, had chicken breast one night, pork chops another, steak a third and on the weekends I cooked.

Years ago, on a business trip to Wisconsin, our host took us to a restaurant that served white chicken chili.  It was amazing,  and we were hooked.  This particular recipe used loads of sour cream, cheese, and well, the chicken was the only thing low-cal about it.

I discovered a recipe with no cheese and no sour cream in Cook's Illustrated.  Drove to the Dedham Whole Foods to pick up the chicken and an assortment of peppers along with a bunch of cilantro.  The ingredients did not break the bank, another consideration.  Today, I  made the chili.  Ye Gods it was a lot of work, and I used all the bowls, and two Cuisinarts and assorted kitchen tools.  Filled up the dishwasher with prep stuff.  Cooked it up, and tasted.  Not too interesting.  Added last minute ingredients.  Yowza!  This was good.
And we can eat it for two more days.

Here is a link to the recipe

You will surely want to try this.  Some markets may not have poblano and Anaheim peppers, but Whole Foods did.  Love that store.  You will need a food processor.  I used my mini-chopper for the garlic and jalapenos and the big bruiser for the peppers and onions.  Already looking forward to dinner tomorrow.  Oh my! 

Seven Suspenseful Sentence Sunday - Week Five

Below is the beginning of a mystery novel that I'm trying to sell.  Does it have suspense?  Unanswered questions?  Do you want to find out what happens?  I've changed the beginning several times.  Beginnings are hard.  Endings are even harder, but literary agents don't read the ending before they reject your novel.  Nope!  They read the beginning.  Because I worked in technology for a donkey's age, I usually put some aspect of technology into my writing. The novel is titled, Promiscuous Mode.  Tell me what you think.  Would YOU read on?

Sex seldom rears its head during a technical presentation, but the minute I noticed him, I knew he was going to hit on me. His just-for-you smile, like we shared a secret joke, and his half-lidded bedroom eyes gave him away. He sat in a Chicago hotel conference room with fifty other attendees, the audience for our dog and pony show, Conduct Your Own IT Autopsy, a snoozer for anyone but techies. We stood while the meeting honcho announced, “please  welcome Wayne Wendel and Emma Lee Devens of Nemecek Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts.”  Thumbs flying, the mystery man keyed on his cell phone during our introducion. I suspected he had entered my name into contacts. 

Waste of time, Romeo.

One of my books that is available as a trade paperback AND on the Kindle is The Shadow Warriors.  It has lots of suspenseful scenes, and some funny ones, too.  You can find it on Amazon. 

Visit the other Seven Suspenseful Sunday Authors at: 
The Magnificent Seven

Congratulations to the players and fans of Green Bay.  What a great thing for a little city. 

WSJ picks best novels by men in 2010

Best Novels by Men in 2010. 
The Wall Street Journal writer Cynthia Crossen (booklover@wsj.com) picked her favorite novels by men. 

"Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey. (19th Century America)

"The Wake of Forgiveness" by Bruce Machart  (early 20th century Texas)

"Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes.  (Vietnam War)

"The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell  (late 18th century Japan)

"One Day" by David Nicholis (English love story)

"What Is Left the Daughter" by Howard Norman  A tragedy is a catalyst

"Man in the Woods" by Scott Spencer  A carpenter hero

These all sound like good reads as well as books full of meaning and emotion.  I'm going to buy "The Wake of Forgiveness" for my uncle who grew up in that Texas milieu and will certainly appreciate it.  Our family came from North Georgia and trekked to Texas early in the century.  There's still a deserted old homestead in Elath County that has musket balls and maybe even arrowheads buried in the walls.  

Looking for a good home:short story markets

A while back, I wrote a mystery type short story that takes place on a yacht cruising New England waters.  It had been in my mind for a long time as a book in my series, but since the series is somewhat moribund, I wrote the book as a short story. 
It wasn't that short.  Probably should have been a novella.  I pruned and pared and left stuff out and ended sort of up in the air and pruned and pared some more.  Snip. Snip.  Snip.  

It still comes in at almost 7,000 words, not really long, but longer than most markets want, which is 2500 - 5000 words.  It's kind of an odd story, not a conventional genre story, but still a mystery, and not literary, but again, not adhering to genre conventions either, and so of course I'm having a hard time thinking where to send the story.  It's a little noir, but not  VERY noir.  

And I think it's pretty good, with some fun stuff about sailboats and rich people and New England  sailing waters and how the boat cook looks at life aboard.  I  read so many boating magazines and even went to the Boat Show and visited Mattapoisett to get the right atmosphere.  

Many short story markets had disappeared and there's not that much out there for mystery-themed stories, especially when the mystery is open ended and doesn't get solved.  I think this is called shooting yourself in the foot, but dammit, you have to write the story you have to write, and this one practically wrote itself.  

The easy part was because I was actually on a similar sailboat with some eccentric people who cruised the same waters many many moons ago.  I danced the Hustle on Fisher's Island and we did sail into Cuttyhunk in the fog and someone really did fly purple panties from the mast.  Yup.  Interesting week.  

That being said, the people in the story aren't real people and the events are (mostly) made up, too.  I was going to send it to Esquire, but it's too long and I was going to send it to Playboy, but they aren't accepting unsolicited fiction anymore.  Not really an Atlantic or a New Yorker kind of story, well, the New Yorker summer issue might work.   The story isn't literary enough for most journals.  

I hope someone will love it. 


The Chicago Tribune has a yearly contest and I got all excited about entering that, but the story does have a smidgen of bad language and a couple is observed "going at it like crazed minks" in a cemetery.  So, probably not for a family newspaper.  

Have you ever painted yourself into a corner?     


It's really too bad that fiction has to "fit" somewhere.   I have other stories, most of which were published, that had the same problem. It's not like  Yachting  has fiction.   They probably wouldn't print it anyhow, as some of their snooty customers might be offended.   Not for the airline magazines either. 

Do you begin to see the problem?  Story needs good home.  Housebroken,  Looking for love.  

At Tall Ships event a while back.  Note nautical scarf.

Sigh.  

Cabin Fever

How is it possible to have Cabin Fever when not confined to the cabin?  State of mind.  We have a state of siege.  Snow siege.  It annoys me that I cannot get to the back yard.  I thought about going out via the cellar door, but it has two feet of snow on it.  The snow in the yard won't bear my weight. I tried walking around the garage this morning.  Impossible.   We found another suet feeder and hung it up on the front porch.  In the meantime, the flicker and friends are on the last pecks of the backyard suet.

Even in Chicago in the winter of 1979, we could get to the backyard.  I have no desire to wade through waist deep snow.  What if I get stuck?  How embarrassing would that be?

The post-Christmas snow caterpillar has morphed into the sinister shape.  The cats have a hard time bird watching, because the birds are way up on the snow and the cats are down on the living room floor.  The orange cat has been inconsolable the past few days.  Does he, too, have cabin fever?  He likes to sleep by the hot air vents in the kitchen and the bathroom.  He sleeps on top of me whenever he gets a chance. 

I-tunes is playing a Latin version of Volare.   The first time I heard this song I was playing water frisbee in a swimming pool in Aurora, Colorado with a guy named Tim.  A million years ago.   

I am making a recipe from Gourmet for dinner, a diet chicken pot pie.  Ye gods, the ingredients list!   And I think I didn't get the sauce thick enough.  Instead of crust it has mashed potatoes (with low-fat sour cream) on top.  Sounds pretty good.  Definitely from scratch.  We're going to have some white chili next week.  In this weather it is temping to make comfort food with loads of calories.  Discipline.  Discipline. Yup.

A long ago Thanksgiving in Puerto Vallarta at Daquiri Dicks

It's hard to write.  It's even hard to rewrite when one has this "siege" mentality. Ah, for I have forty pages of edits left.   Then that book gets put away for a while.  I need to get World of Mirrors on the Kindle because The Shadow Warriors is doing all right.  How about them apples?  I haven't publicized it because I accidentally tossed my hand-written "plan" away.   Just a few modest mentions so far and of course blogging on Suspenseful Sunday with Seven Sentences.

This business in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and even Yemen is so interesting.  Who would have thunk it?  I watch a lot of TV and read three daily papers, dinosauress that I am.  Astonished to find two women who have never heard of the "Tiger Mother."  Astonished that people can go thru $160,000 for a college education and not learn anything.  Astonished by how high the freaking snow is.

I will never cease being astonished.  Astonished that my book is selling.  It has a good description of the Boston Public Garden and Fanieul Hall in winter.  Normally, I write summer books.  Now I know why.
I long for Southern Climes?  Puerto Vallarta anyone?

Grapeshot                      

Sucking It Up in the Snow

Why do I feel a bad case of cabin fever coming on when I was out  yesterday morning and in New York City from Thursday - Sunday?  Grocery shopping on Monday. 

This morning, with all good intentions I decided to take a cake of suet out to the empty bird feeder.  But I couldn't.  The way around the garage had  5 feet of snow.  The door to the deck is blocked.  I thought maybe the sidewalk and then a slog thru the yard, but the shovellers had a big wall by the sidewalk, too big to plow thru with good intentions and feet.  I seriously thought about jumping out the living room window (crazy, I know), but the icicles were like pointy daggers, and I whacked at them, but didn't get them all.  Besides, (duh!), how would I get back into the house?  Marooned in the back yard and having to call 911.  How embarrassing would that be? I did have my phone along.   I flung bird seed out the open window, and the juncos were there almost immediately.  On the front porch, we have titmice, chicadees, juncos, turtle doves and bluejays.  And one exotic sparrow.  Marsh?  Swamp?  Downy, Hairy, and one big mother of a flicker eat at the suet feeders, one of which either fell down or was ripped down by a ravenous raccoon, and the other is empty.  The third one still has a bit of suet.  When it's gone, I absolutely have to figure out a way.   

In Boston yesterday, a coyote fell thru the ice of the Charles River (in a very urban area) and was rescued.  I hope people have found a way to feed the feral cats.  In New York on Fifth Avenue in a posh neighborhood, a flock of sparrows was all fluffed up and cheeping hungrily.  Doubt if anyone is feeding them.  Maybe feeders in Central Park.  Have wonderful photo of hundreds of pigeons on a power line. 

So, you are asking, how much snow do we have?  See below.

View from our front porch.

East Side, West Side, All Around the town of Old New York

Before the last storm.  Even higher now.  Ye gods!