Boeuf Bourguignonne

A few entries ago I mentioned that I was NOT into cooking these days. Famous last words. We are hosting a dinner party and "we" are cooking a fabulous meal for six. Inspired by Julie/Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell and the culinary expertise of M. in Book Club, I am going for that classic french dish, Boeuf Bourguignonne. Alas, I do not own Julia Child's cook book. I will rely on the Joy of Cooking, which is probably a bastardization of the original. It is the best I can do.

I am glad to have the excuse to cook. This occasion has spurred me to buy my very first dutch oven. Up until now, if I saw "dutch oven" in a recipe, I turned the page. Now I can master slow cooked meats (giving me plenty of time to read while I am cooking). The dutch oven is gleaming on my stove top as I sit here and type. I even bought a 10-cup coffee maker so that I can offer coffee to my guests. Domesticity is in the air. It is snowing too.

The meat is marinating. Tomorrow I'll slow cook it. Wednesday is the event.

Boeuf Bourguignonne Recipe
(from Joy of Cooking, with thanks to Cracker Jack'd, who posted it December 13, 2005)

Cut into 2-inch chunks:

• 2 pounds boneless beef chuck, short-rib meat, or bottom round

Place the meat in a large bowl and add:

• 2 cups dry red wine (I chose a Beaujolais; Pinot Noir is recommended)
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or scant 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir to combine and coat the meat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour or up to 24 hours, turning the meat occasionally. Drain the beef and pat dry. Strain the marinade and reserve it and the vegetables separately. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add and brown:

• 4 ounces bacon, diced (I plan to subsitute a healthy dollop of zsir-otherwise known as lard- made by my local Hungarian culinary source.)
  

Remove the bacon, leaving the fat in the pan. You should have at least 2 tablespoons of fat. If not, add some vegetable oil. Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the beef in batches and brown on all sides, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add the reserved vegetables and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Cook, stirring, until beginning to brown, about 1 minute. Stir in the marinade, then return the beef and bacon to the pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the meat is fork-tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add:

• 8 ounces mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered (I bought tiny portobellos.....)
  
• 8 ounces small boiling onions, peeled (I will use pearl onions as I have no idea what a "boiling onion" might be. To peel the onions: pour boiling water on the onions and let cool. Then cut off the ends and the skin will slip off with a little push.)
  

Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. (It took longer than 20 minutes for the onions to tenderize. You could saute them in a little butter before adding them to the stew to speed up the process.) Skim off the fat from the surface. Add:

• 1/4 chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

To thicken, you may add in 1 tablespoon kneaded butter (which is butter creamed with flour).

"Heavy" Readers

"For decades, reading studies have repeatedly found that 'heavy readers' not only read more books than light readers and nonreaders but also do more of almost everything else, including traveling, attending sports events and concerts, visiting museums, and participating in community organizations and politics. For many, reading is a way of being engaged with the world. These readers like to know about things and they read to find out."

"Reading Non-Fiction for Pleasure: What Motivates Readers?" Catherine Ross in Nonfiction Readers' Advisory, Robert Burgin (ed)

A Few Laughs

You Know You're From South Bend When. . .

*this list was forwarded to me by a former Bender,
who claims the author is unknown.

1: You know all about the Snyder scandal and often
refer to Roseland as Snyderville.

2: In middle school, a typical weekend consisted of
hanging out at the movies, but never actually SEEING a
movie....or going "Meijer-ing"

3: You remember when Movies 14 was Movies 10.

4: You hate Penn High School athletics.

5: Favorite graduation party activities include
Cornhole and Euchre.

6: The last week of classes was spent playing cards.

7: You're a die hard Notre Dame Football fan. HELL
YA!!

8: Whenever someone says to meet at either Wendy's or
Taco Bell you always ask "the one on 31 or the one by
the mall?"

9: You tailgate every home game of football season.

10: "Going out" on a Friday/Saturday night means going
to a friend's house to drink.

11: You can't recall the last time we had a snow day.

12: You hate snow.

13: You hate being stuck behind a Michigan driver
because let's face it, they can't drive.

14: You've gone tubing at Saint Pat's Park.

15: You've been to the Niles Haunted House multiple
times.

16: During your last years of high school, whenever
someone asked what your college plans were you said,
"Probably IUSB or Purdue"

17: You've wondered why Old Navy isn't part of
UP...And you know what UP is.

18: You and your friends have taken turns guessing
what the new building on the corner of 31/Cleveland is
going to be.

19: You know what "Nick's" refers to and only ever go
there after 10:30pm.

20: You've either gone can collecting or have had
people come to your door demanding non-perishable food
items.

21: During the summer, 50 degrees is unbearably cold.
During the winter, 50 degrees is scorching.

22: You wear flip flops in the snow.

23: When deciding where to go out for dinner you drive
up and down both Grape and Main.

24: You go to Barnaby's after every high school
football game.

25: You're a frequent ranch and salsa mixer at
Hacienda...and you know what Hacienda is...and it's
your favorite restaurant.

26: You grocery shop at Martins.

27: You see nothing odd about the word "Mishawaka"

28: You go at least 10 mph over the speed limit in the
section of Ironwood between Douglas and 23. Who set
the 30mph limit on a 4 lane road anyway?

29: You went to Franks Red Hots before it became K's.

30: When people ask you where you're from you always
follow "I'm from South Bend" with "*pause* . . . it's
where Notre Dame is"

31: You've ever tried to exaggerate on how cold it is
outside, and the actual temperature is colder than
your exaggeration.

32: You still wonder if the old guy that sits on 31
holding the flag is dead or not.

33: You're still holding a grudge against Joan Raymond
for Plan Z.

34: You remember when Scottsdale Mall was shut down.

35: Your elementary school field trips were spent at
Copshaholm, the Studebaker house, Leeper Park, and
Amish Acres.

36: You consider Mishawaka, Granger, and Roseland all
extensions of South Bend.

37: Driving slowly down Primrose with your headlights
off is a fun, scary thing to do when you're bored.

38: You have always wanted to get the HELL out of here
. . . AND if you did you came back.

39: You know what Dyngus Day is . . . and were
surprised to learn that the rest of the country doesn't.

NYT Ten Best Books of 2006

Check out the 10 best books of 2006 according to the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/review/20061210tenbestbooks.html?ref=books

Argh

I am going through the I-have-too-much-to-write-about-and-
so-I-will-just-be-lame-and-engage-in-avoidance-behaviors-such-
as-contemplating-baking-instead-of-writing script.

Can you say, "Precipice"?

Although I had a serious case of carrot-cake-baking between the ages of 14 and 15, in general I cook because people need to eat these days. Cooking for the pleasure of it? I have realized that the cheery kitchen fairies who left nary a shoe print one night as they scraped my crusty pans are not REAL, after all. Damn. That means if I dirty it, it stays dirty and slowly--with appropriate sun and moisture--moves into the science experiment phase. I have taken the only measure possible and ceased and desisted from anything resembling a culinary act. Thus, if baking a cake seems more appealing than writing OR reading, then I am teetering on the edge.

This entry is me forcing myself to write. something. anything. Other than what I write for my students. Cryptic notes about MLA requirements do not count as poetry.

I have been reading lately. Even reading in the service of my writing. L. recommended a new title that sounded similar to my work. I just finished it and am working through a love/hate reaction. The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits twists and turns around the life of a young narrator whose coming of age entailed an elaborate act of narrative fiction. Mary disappears from field hockey practice and then reappears weeks later. The story revolves around the truth about the events during her absence. Was she abducted? She did purposely hide herself away? Was she raped? She was a virgin, but returned not a virgin. I enjoyed Julavits uses of language and her inventive plot. In the end, however, I just didn't buy into the narrator.

The narrator of my own novel-in-languish is also a young woman still in high school. Julavits' s character narrates the experience from about ten years later, which allows her a level of retrospection that my character doesn't have. Julavits writes in the third person. My choice to tell my character's story in the first person is feeling more and more like a cage instead of a podium. Hhmmmm...to rewrite entirely from the third person? Argh.

In other reading, I also recently finished Eve Ensler's new book, Insecure at Last: Losing it in our Security Obsessed World. Her blunt declarative sentences are brutally honest about her life, her political views, and her various states of insecurity. By the end of the short work, you want to join her movement and give up security in order to allow peace to take hold. If security (think personal integrity AND national security) becomes our first priority, then our stance toward the world is by default a posture of defense. This is the antithesis of peace, which is fundamentally empathic. You can't build walls and dish up bowls of soup at the same time. If you are curious about Ensler's work, read or see The Vagina Monologues. Then read her latest book. It will make you want to be honest with yourself; it may even help you say "Vagina" in unexpected places. Like to your priest. Trust me, he needs to hear it, especially if he is under 40.

(Speaking of Eve Ensler, Me, and Priests. . . remind me to write about that trinity sometime. I've got loads of material.)

Eve. . . and. . . C.S. Lewis. Currently I am reading, really re-reading, Lewis's Till We Have Faces, which retells the Cupid and Psyche myth. I was entranced by this book's exploration of the sacred v. profane theme the first time I read it (maybe ten years ago?). Sacred v. Profane: a false dichotomy! Repeat after me: false dichotomy. That is right. A binary opposite that serves only as a rhetorical flourish! (Hear me rant.) I look forward to our Book Club discussion in December where I promise to try and not interupt others.

And, finally, a note for the anonymous reader who wants to know why I durst to resent a statue. . . I'll post a reply in the comments on that original post. Soon.

Poem: Raking by Tania Rochelle

Raking

Anna Bell and Lane, eighty,
make small leaf piles in the heat,
each pile a great joint effort,
like fifty years of marriage,
sharing chores a rusty dance.
In my own yard, the stacks
are big as children, who scatter them,
dodge and limbo the poke
of my rake. We're lucky,
young and straight-boned.
And I feel sorry for the couple,
bent like parentheses
around their brittle little lawn.
I like feeling sorry for them,
the tenderness of it, but only
for a moment: John glides in
like a paper airplane,
takes the children for the weekend,
and I remember,
they're the lucky ones--
shriveled Anna Bell,
loving her crooked Lane.

Provided by American Life in Poetry
Reprinted from "Karaoke Funeral," Snake Nation Press, 2003,
by permission of the author.
Copyright (c) 2003 by Tania
Rochelle.

Protest O.J. Simpson

Last week the YWCA of St. Joseph County made a
public statement (read the statement in the South Bend
Tribune) reacting to the announcement that O.J. Simpson
will appear in a two-part special on the Fox television
network, as well as a soon-to-be-released book detailing
how he "would have" carried out the murders
of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

The YWCA has received an overwhelming response from
people wanting to join the protest, and they encourage
people to contact the following numbers to request
that booksellers not participate in the book sales, and
that FOX TV not air the special: 

Barnes and Noble - Customer Service Center at
1-800-THE-BOOK (1-800-843-2665).

Amazon - you can send an email via their website
(no really good way to directly connect with them)

HarperCollins (the publisher) - 212-207-7000

ReganBooks - 212-207-7000 (a division of HarperCollins)

FOX - contact the local FOX station 574-679-9758 and/or
fox28news@fox28.com AND the national office
-http://www.fox.com/links/affiliates.htm AND (310)369-3553

You may also contact big box retailers like Target
(again both local and national office) to ensure they do not
carry the book in stores or online (their online book service
is provided by amazon).

Spread the Word!

UPDATE!!!!!

O.J. Simpson book and tv show cancelled!
Read the headline.

Party Ponderings

Throwing a party is good for the general order. When you live day-to-day you can ignore the year's worth of flotsam accumulated beneath the couch cushions.

In fact you go about your evenings perched on the sofa, mug and novel in hand, blissfully unaware of the ecosystem evolving beneath the leather. Suddenly, on an otherwise typical Tuesday night except that it is a Tuesday before the Party on Saturday night, your brain concocts a certain (as yet unnamed, as far as I know) chemical. Somewhere deep in your genetic code an embedded switch triggers a latent domestic skill once witnessed in the childhood home: Lift cushion, Insert vacuum extension device, and Suck up all that lingers there.

And so there I was in my ridiculously purple robe hoovering up paperclips, popcorn kernels, and assorted flora. All for the sake of the general order. No one would look beneath the cushions. Yet it made happy to prepare the way for my guests, especially in such a secret way.

The day before the party, I bought myself sunflowers and arranged them in a vase given to us as a wedding gift from my book club. I should buy myself flowers more often. But somehow it takes a party to think of the indulgence.

When I throw parties, my house is never more radiant. I see it through a guest's eyes and fall in love with the wood beams and chipped plaster walls that desperately need to be painted. That leaky faucet. . . quirky. The needs-to-be-replaced old school linoleum floor. . . perfect for spilled drinks. The Persian rugs emanate color in the candlelight. And that statue I have always resented (yes, resented) seems light-hearted and whimsical.

People talking with vigor (in order to be heard), fancy shoes, colleagues not talking about work, philosophers being chatted up by working stiffs, biologists and high school German teachers a-mingle, writers, graphic artists, professors and former students. . . all mixed up in a tiny house with food catered by Victorian Pantry (it was my first time to have a party catered and and oh boy was it tasty and pretty) and copious libations of all sorts (the tequila defined smooth).

Parties come in all shapes and sizes and fulfill all kinds of functions: celebrations, life-rituals, traditions passed down, etc. But I love me a good-old fashioned Bacchic occasion. No reason needed other than the compulsion to enjoy friends and make new ones. And nibble a bit on the buffet. And watch your friends' babies turn into little people.

Not to mention the decadent feeling of sleeping in the next morning knowing that your couch doesn’t have to be vacuumed until the moon is full once again.

Borat Bandwagon

Jump on the Borat Bandwagon.

York Times Review, November 3, 2006

NPR Review

The Unofficial Borat Homepage