Values

What is it I value? Most of all: freedom, independence, respect. I think of Emerson's urging toward self-reliance.

I cook my own food, as much as possible from scratch. I tend a garden to provide fresh fruits and vegetables. I pickle my own cucumbers and cabbage, jar my own jams.

At present, I have budgetted to pay off our remaining $30,000 in student loans within the year. We own our car and our van. Our credit cards are paid off each month.

And yet, I am not quite free. I fantasize about opening a bagel shop with my family. What is it I'm running away from?

Work provides me with respect these days. It is exhilirating to pursue my own ideas to their logical ends. Sure, part of me laments that by rights I should still be an academic, with leisure to consider odd avenues of thought, contemplate how they fit into the jigsaw puzzle of problems and solutions, without the constant worry over where our next revenues will come from when the present projects end.

But then, I am happy where I am; happier most likely than I would have been. There is something challenging and positive in the need to focus on practical applications and the short fuse of funding that keeps us just that much on edge.

Yet, I still depend on others. Both for funding and for labor. At times the need for oversight and supervision is oppressing, time consuming, exhausting. But then, I don't really wish to do it all myself. There is drudgery and tedium in getting to an end. I welcome the company along the way. And I trust and hope that my degree of involvement in their work will diminish over time.

I hope!

Banana-Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

I modified an old recipe. One change, I dropped the raisins, as one of my sons (the Painter) refuses them.

Banana-Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups	bread flour
1/2 c.	dry oatmeal
7 tbs.	apple sauce
1 tbs.	flax seed meal
2 tsp.	baking powder
1-1/2 c.	soy milk
1	egg
1 tbs.	brown sugar
2 tbs.	plum butter or jam (any variety)
1	banana sliced
2 tbs.	chopped nuts (optional)
1 dash	cinnamon
1 splash	vanilla extract

Directions

Combine wet ingredients in a medium batter bowl. Mix with fork to scramble egg. Add flour ½ c. at a time while mixing, interspersing with flax seed meal and baking powder, and cinnamon to ensure ingredients are well mixed. Add the sliced banana toward the end, to retain some chunks. Cook over medium-high heat, in a lightly greased or non-stick pan or griddle. Flip when popped bubbles remain open.

Sour Garlic Pickles

These are not only the best pickles I've made yet, but they rival my memories of "Lower East Side Kosher Garlic Dill Pickles".

Get yourself a good pickling crock. I use a 7.5l Harsch. You may also want to invest in a little kitchen scale, since weight measures are more accurate than by volume. Here, then is the recipe.

• ~7 lbs. of fresh pickling cucumbers (or kirbies)
• 10 large cloves of garlic
• 5 grape leaves
• 1 bunch of fresh dill.
• 5 l of water (boiled, then cooled)
• 175 g salt (35 g/liter) This is the summer recipe. You can reduce the salt to say 30 g/l during cooler months). Be sure to use "pickling salt" which is salt pure and simple, containing no iodine and no anti-caking agent. In the past I had used "coarse kosher salt" but this contains anti-caking. Table salt also normally contains iodine. Apparently both have a deleterious effect on fermentation.
  
• 15 g mustard seed
• 10 g black peppercorns
• 10 g coriander seeds
• 5 g red pepper seeds
  
• 4 bay leaves

Wash the pickles in cold water, setting aside any that are bruised. Snip or cut the flower end off the pickles. Pack them tightly in the crock (but don't crush), standing on end. Add the spices (don't worry about mixing, they'll be under water for a long time). Pour cooled salt water over pickles, to a depth about 1-2" (3-5 cm) above the pickles. Be sure it's well cooled-you don't want to cook your pickles! Set a weight on top of the pickles to keep them under water. Leave the crock at room temperature (in your kitchen if possible) for about a week, then move to a cooler location for an additional 3-4 weeks. If you use an airlock type crock (like the Harsch) you shouldn't need to skim the scum that might otherwise grow. If you use an open crock, you may need to take such precautions.

After about a month they're ready! You can harvest a jar's worth to keep in the fridge as needed, and leave the rest to continue fermenting. Note, these are fermented brine pickles-no vinegar. The grape leaves apparently help preserve the firmness of the pickle skin. So also does snipping the flower end off. Another suggestion I've heard, also to preserve the skin's firmness, though haven't tried it, is to not add the garlic until a week or two before the first harvesting. I've heard that 3 months is needed for a full sour, but mine were great at about 5 weeks (perhaps they'll need longer in cooler months).

Peach Jam

... and blueberry, and apricot-raspberry too.
My family is happy, and the neighbors love us.

Cooking anyone?

Looking over recent draws to this blog, I've discovered that over 1/4 of traffic comes to find my recipes. Hmmm.

Late in the Season

I finally got the vegetable garden set today. About three weeks ago, I dug up the sod in a triangle bed just outside our back fence, along one edge of the driveway leading into our detached garage. It seemed a useless patch of grass, too small to play in, good for little more than an extra four minutes of weekly mowing. Silly, I thought... but it has a nice warm micro-climate, sheltered and insulated by the wood plank fence, and warmed by the concrete driveway, with a full-sun westward facing. Today, I finally finished with separating the soil from the roots, tossing the dying grass in a pile by the worm-bin, and tilling up the soil in the now vegetable patch.

We had bought a bunch of seeds to start the garden (along with some still languishing bulbs and tubers) that populate our back stairwell. I decided at this late stage in the season, it'd be better to plant some seedlings than to start seeds. The Inventor and I headed out to a couple garden centers. Tomatoes we found in abundance, but sweet peppers were hard to come by. Many varieties of hot pepper, but I could only locate two types of sweet (both oddly enough purple). So, we have a half dozen tomato plants, five hot peppers, four sweet (purple!) peppers, one bean plant, and three strawberries. I also bought a few packs of lettuce seedlings (which it's certainly too late to start from seed) in hopes that they'll provide us with a month or two of baby salad greens. I'll plant them along the inside of the fence tomorrow.

Still a little room in the triangle patch. Maybe I'll put in some seeds, or purchase a couple other plants (eggplant? more beans?) Not really enough room for cucumbers or zucchini there. I might find another spot (though I'm not sure it'll be this season). There's a lot to do in the garden besides. I was also planning on starting a small bed or two inside the fence, and have half a notion to plant some corn in the greenway along the street. We'll see. Anything that doesn't get done tomorrow will have to wait.

We'll be taking off for a few days starting on Tuesday. My wife's grandparents own a remote house near the Wisconsin Dells, on a dirt road, alongside a pond ("the lake house"), which is the venue for occasional family gatherings, most traditionally for the Fourth of July. We'll be heading up a couple days early, and staying on a couple days past.

No computer. It'll be five days without email, or internet. RocketMom promised she'd try to plan enough activities and outings so we wouldn't get bored. And I promise, I'll try to just be in the moment. Vacations are good... I'm just not always so good at being there.

Seared Ahi Tuna with Mango-Pepper salad

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb. of Ahi Tuna steaks
• ~1 cup of minced peppers (use several kinds)
• ~1/2 cup of diced fresh fruit (mangoes, peaches, apricots)
• 2 tbs. thinly sliced green onions or chives
  
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• juice of half a lemon, half a lime, half an orange
• 1 tsp. fresh minced garlic
• 1 tbs. fresh grated ginger
• 2 tbs. soy sauce
• 2 tbs. rice wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
  
• 1/8 tsp. wasabi powder
  
• fresh greens (lettuce, arugula, radicchio)
• fresh sprouts
• cherry tomatoes

Mince & chop peppers, green onions, & fruit. Mix in bowl with oils, seeds, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, wasabi, and citrus juices. Stir well. Gently Sear tuna about 3 minutes per side (don't overcook it). Arrange leaves, sprouts and tomatoes on plate. Set tuna steaks on leaves, spoon mango-pepper sauce on top. Serve with rice. Enjoy.

The mango-pepper chutney was devoured by our pepper-loving (won't touch most other fruits and vegetables) Painter. Chalk that up as success.

Submitted

This morning, at around 4:00am local time, while I slept soundly, my previously uploaded and complete application silently became a submitted proposal. All told, it's worth about $150,000 and 12 months of effort... that is, if it's funded. Now it's on to the next project.

I spent a few hours the past couple days in the garden, getting a bed ready for vegetables, though it's already late in the season to get started.

The next priority is preparing and filing a patent application. Simultaneous with that, I need to start investigating other grant opportunities to support research and development.

This has been a good process for me, clarifying my ideas, specifying applications. The more I have delved into current efforts, the more I become convinced of the value of my own ideas. The trick is figuring out a way to realize them in practical applications.

I picked up a copy of The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, by David A. Price, for inspiration. It's a model for me. There are similarities in what I'm trying to do, in a different domain. Can I do it on my own? No way of telling just yet. But shy of making friends with the next Steve Jobs, or giving up, I haven't a choice.

Been Quiet

I've been quiet here for a few days I see. I'm busy. Friday, I had a morning meeting (followed by lunch) with a nearby professor to consult about possible future collaborative projects. I had first met him a couple weeks ago, but finally with a non-disclosure agreement in place, we were free to talk more openly. After lunch, I had another meeting with the local coordinator for the entrepreneurs network, who agreed to help me out a bit with my grantwriting.

I feel really good off of those meetings. On the one hand, local prof (let's call him Mark Johns) was supportive, but cautious. He's an engineer, trained in one domain of the discipline in which a large part of my current efforts infringe. He validated my view both that what I'm trying is novel and valuable. Next, it actually pleases me a bit his skepticism on some points. The reality is standard practices in Applied Research Field were established long ago when different problems appeared. Those problems led to certain directions in the research. Generations of researchers have tweaked and plumped those techniques, but a few of the fundamental assumptions (in large part determined by the needs of those original questions) fail to go challenged.

I believe the skepticism on Mark's part derives from those assumptions. I fully expect there may be greater complications to what I'm attempting. But I see them as hurdles to climb over, rather than roadblocks. I think, from the vantage of his training and experience, he simply can't see that. It's a good feeling to be so confident in what I'm doing, knowing full well that there is much in his knowledge base that I lack, having not been trained in that discipline. But I'm on to something, I know it, I feel it, I'm validated in that when I get someone like Mark excited about the novelty of it.

And I also know that my ideas are not all that complicated, not all that inspired, not all that spectacular. It's simply, coming at this field from a new direction, with new eyes, I've noticed a stone left unturned. When I turn it off, it's marvelous to see [--I suppose if I were a real academic I'd have written mirabile dictu--] that there are creatures under that stone yet to be catalogued.

The afternoon meeting was exciting as well. Let's call my local entrepreneur coordinator Dick Lindt. Dick's another engineer, but from a quite different area. I've met with him twice now, and talked on the phone and emailed numerous times. He's got great energy, and seems to really believe in what I'm doing. He thinks this first grant should be in the bag. We'll see.

Coming off those two meetings, I honed a bit of the proposal on Friday. The weekend was mostly for the family and the garden. We've gotten a good start on that. I've been edging the yard, setting off small planting areas along the walkways. Hopefully this week we'll decide where the vegetable garden will be, and get started on that. Saturday night we joined some neighbors for a camp fire, to drink and talk. That was really nice as well. It's a good place for us to be, all around. It feels like HOME!

Little pleasures

Our dear Mira is gone. In some ways, knowing the end was coming, makes it easier. I remember when Mouse was run over by a car. I was devastated. Such a sweet, fluffy (she was the only longhair in the litter), intelligent (she was the only one who could open doors by grabbing the handles), beautiful cat.

Mouse in March 2002

She had a habit of running across the busy frontage road beside our condo complex to catch field mice and gophers in the greenway along the highway. One day she didn't make it back. She had been out for hours, I was worried. I found her, flat and stiff, wrapped in a newspaper beside the road.

It was the daily habits that reminded me. Each day, I reached for four cat bowls... then put one back. These days I reach for three, and settle on two. Two toms remain. Enormous cats. Not really fat, just enormous. Take a look at the tail size on the other tabby beside Mira in this photo and you'll get a sense of what I mean. The fourth cat of the litter was Spock. His tabby "M" marking on the forehead reminded us too much of Leonard Nimoy's character to forego the namesake. We had given him away shortly after weaning. It was very hard. We decided to keep the others. Five, then four cats... now down to two.

My three boys

But there are many small pleasures in life. Looking in my baby Composer's grey-blue eyes. I wonder if they'll remain that color. His mother has long been my "grey-eyed goddess Athena". My paternal grandmother had sky blue eyes her entire life. The older two boys have my hazel-green. Composer is just four months now... they could yet change. But those eyes seem willful in their determination to take after their mother's.

I love to tickle his cheek, and watch his delighted, gaping, toothless grin. I love the creativity of his elder brothers, their stories, and their questions. I enjoy those rare occasions when all three (or even just two) play contentedly together.

Multigrain sourdough

The past couple days I've enjoyed my baking again. I was never a baker until the past couple years, when my yearning for dense and flavorful Central European-style bread (the kind you just love to slab a hunk of cheese on), and the inability to find it anywhere, led me to purchase a baking book, and start experimenting. I'm finally at the point, where I can modify recipes on the fly and be fairly sure they'll turn out. I learned the secret to free-form loaves that don't collapse: long rising times (about 3-4 hours), with a couple intermediate sessions of folding the dough in on itself (like an envelope). That stretches and strengthens the glutens. The loaf above is a multi-grain sourdough (wheat, rye, spelt, cornmeal). I baked a dozen bagels the night before.

And now, it's back to work. I'm still honing the technology narrative. I have lunch today with an upcoming senior in computer science and business at a local college, who will be taking on developing a business plan for my firm as his senior project. Then, I head on a two-hour drive for a talk about the research priorities of one government agency. Busy days. Good days. It helps dispel the sadness of loss.

Bittersweet Lamb Shank

In honor of passover leftovers.

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb. lamb shank (bone and gristle removed, meat cubed)
• 1-2 small carrots (diced small)
  
• 1/2 medium onion (chopped small)
• 1 c. petite diced tomatoes.
  
• 1/4 c. raisins (finely chopped)
• 1/2 c. apple sauce
• couple dashes of paprika
• 1-2 tsp. or to taste of garam masala (I made my own, but you can purchase it as well)
• 1 tsp. freshly ground horseradish root (or from a jar)

Saute the onions in a large skillet with some olive oil. When translucent, add the meat and paprika. Toss until browned. Add carrots, raisins, garam masala, and horseradish. Stir for a couple minutes until well mixed. Heat over medium high heat for 5-10 minutes. Add tomatoes and apple sauce, stir, heat on medium high for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently then lower heat to bare simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes. Serves 4.

Baked Mango Chicken with Rice

This experiment turned out well, so I thought I'd share it.

• 1 cup (uncooked) rice (I opted for Vietnamese red rice).
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2-3 cups water
  
• one medium onion, slivered
  
• one whole mango, diced
• 1 large (or 2 medium) carrot(s), coarsely chopped
• 4 chicken thighs (about 1 pound)
• Seasoning to taste (I used salt, pepper, and paprika)

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread rice along bottom of a 9 x 13" roasting pan. Pour in stock and water. Set on stove top over high heat to bring just to a boil. Meanwhile saute onions in a little olive oil (or butter). Add to rice mixture. Prepare mango and carrot; add to rice mixture. Brown chicken in onion saute pan. Add to rice mixture. About now, the liquid in the rice mixture should come just to a boil. Turn off stove, and carefully slide pan into oven. Cover with foil. Heat for 40 minutes to an hour (my chicken was not fully defrosted before I browned, so it took just over an hour). Check chicken for doneness after 40 minutes. Leave uncovered in oven for the last 5-10 minutes to brown the skin, if desired.

That's it.

White (chicken) risotto

Last night's dinner, inspired by the presence of white asparagus at the grocery store:

White Chicken Risotto

One medium onion, diced.
1/2 cup of celery, diced.
1-2 cups of white button mushrooms, quartered.
~ 3/4 lb of chicken meat, cubed.
1/2 lb of white asparagus, cut into 2" parts.
1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts.
2 cups arborio (or other short-grained) rice.
1/4-1/2 tsp of saffron, chopped.
dash or two of white pepper.
~ 4 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock.
1/2 cup cream or half-and-half.
1/4-1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese.

Precook the rice in 2 cups of water, until all the water is absorbed (about 15-20 minutes). Partly steam the asparagus. Meantime, saute up the onions and celery in some olive oil or butter. Add white pepper to taste. Stir in the chicken cubes, and lightly brown. Add the rice, and stir for 2-4 minutes. Add the mushrooms, and gently stir another minute or two. Add the saffron to the mix and stir. Slowly stir in the stock, 1/2-1 cup at a time. Add the asparagus and artichokes. Gently stir. Cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Just before serving, mix in the cream and parmesan cheese, stir over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.

The nice thing about an all-white meal (served in this case on "movie night" with dim lighting) is that it forestalls most questions from young boys about what's in the meal. It's just stuff.

Halloween pudding

It is a constant struggle to get the Painter to eat his fruits and vegetables. It's not that he's actually a picky eater, at least not as I've come to understand that concept. See, it's not that he actually dislikes the taste of most foods. He's got a rather accepting palate. But refusing to eat things seems to have more to do with his desire to control his environment, including having control over mommy and daddy. He learned a while ago that we consistently react to issues of his diet with great concern. Unfortunately, we must have reinforced his refusals enough that he randomly changes his tastes: [scream] you know I don't like [fill in the blank with something he happily devoured three days earlier].

Sometimes we still take the bait, but the arguments are endless, and fruitless, and normally unpleasant. So, I've resorted to all sorts of subterfuge to trick him into eating things. Last night we had "cheesy scallops" otherwise known as scalloped potatoes, because he refuses to eat potatoes. He really liked the "cheesy scallops" (mark that up as success, but we'll see what happens next time I try it).

Tonight was leftover veal scallopini (with mushrooms & wilted romaine lettuce) from two nights ago, along with the "cheesy scallops" and some turmeric rice from last night (which accompanied poached salmon with julienne carrot and celery--he ate the fish, but refused the "julienne strips" Ah well, worth a try). But how to get him to eat veggies tonight? We had some leftover broccoli from last night, and acorn squash from two nights ago. Aha!

So, I scraped the acorn squash from their shells, added with milk and cream to the blender. Blended until smooth (you need a good blender, trust me). Warm in the microwave with some brown sugar. Stir, then chill. After dinner, we had this "Halloween pudding" served with whipped cream and holiday sprinkles. It was devoured.

I'm pleased. A new tradition!

Shepherd's pie

The Painter: Yeah, pie. That's a dessert. I want pie for dinner.
Me: Well... it's not exactly pie... I mean it's not a dessert. But I think you'll like it.

Two thinly sliced uncooked potatoes to line the pan. Spray pan lightly with oil or butter, layer potato slices, spray or top with butter. 5-6 medium potatoes, peeled, cooked, and mashed for topping.

I used five kinds of mushrooms (halved or quartered), yum! Thinly sliced red onions, yellow onions, shallots, and pearl onions (halved). Lots of freshly sliced garlic. Sauté in pan with butter and olive oil, paprika, black pepper, and salt, to taste.

Thinly sliced or chopped lamb. Add lamb to onion/garlic mix, stir until gently cooked. Add mushrooms. Thinly sliced carrots & celery. Add and toss. Mix in frozen corn & peas. I added edamame (soybeans) and 2-3 tablespoons of miso paste. A few dashes of Worcestorshire sauce, and some thick (sweet) soysauce. Add some red wine, if you have it handy. Mix and stir (gently so as not to destroy the mushrooms).

Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Add water (or other liquid) as needed. Mix in some cornstarch rue (if desired) for thickening. Pour stew onto layer of potatoes. Spoon and spread the mashed potatoes (best if they're fairly thinned with milk) on top. Gently fork the potatoes, to create ridges. Top with some paprika and butter, and/or grated cheese (okay, it's not kosher, but it's delish). Heat in over (375F) for about 20 minutes. Broil for a couple minutes if needed to brown top.

Serve. Eat. Have seconds, thirds.

Even the Painter ate a good portion, and he didn't even notice the pieces of celery and carrots (after I mixed them back into a few forkfuls) that he had painstakingly picked out.

Risotto

I just wanted to say, that I've lighted on a rather ingenious way to get my boys (most especially the Painter) to eat sufficient vegetables and protein. In a word, risotto. Like tonight, I took a jar of chicken soup (with lentils, zucchini, celery, carrots, tomato), which I canned up a couple months ago, off the shelf. I cooked 1-1/3 cups of short-grained rice with 1-1/3 cups of water in the rice cooker. Then mixed the half-cooked rice with the quart of soup (supplemented with more chicken from the fridge), and some fresh celery. Add a little bit of milk. Voila. Now, I expect the Painter to pick things out of his rice. But he'll eat most of it. And... when I get really desperate, I can always blend up everything before mixing with the rice.

Zucchini for a nose and tomatoes for eyes

Lilian asked about my garden. Ah yes. A couple days ago I gave it a heavy pruning. The Painter and I have taken to walking the neighborhood with a LARGE aluminum bowl full of tomatoes and zucchini to distribute to any neighbors willing to have them. Three times in the past week, mind you! I've been harvesting 2-3 pounds of tomatoes, and a similar amount of zucchini, each day. I have 30 (count them 30!) canned quarts of tomatoes, as well as about 4 quarts of ratatouille, 4 quarts of spaghetti meat sauce, 3 quarts of goulash, several quarts of soups (vegetable-barley, and chicken-vegetable), and a few canned carrots and zucchini. The freezer contains four or five gallon ziplocs of parboiled zucchini and another couple gallon ziplocs of beans. The fridge is overflowing with carrots, as well as pickled zucchini and green tomatoes. The worms in my worm bin have been eating too well, so I thought the neighbors ought to benefit from my harvest a bit.

And, as a boon, we've gotten some great lemons and grapefruits in the bargain (in exchange from grateful neighbors). We've got some limes of our own, and the oranges threaten to ripen within the next month. So... I gave the tomatoes a heavy pruning (and bought a few more cages to tame the wild ones. The pepper plants are finally starting to produce (but not yet in overwhelming numbers). There are occasional cucumbers, which are nice. And there's a small honeydew about 4 inches in diameter at this point that looks yummy.

Last night we had some grilled fish, and the four acorn squash the garden gave forth (the vines died back, so I suppose that's all). They were delicious. Tonight, I made a fresh gazpacho (zucchini, tomato, cucumber, peppers, a little bit of onion and garlic, some lemon and lime juice, a dash of sour cream, and a sprinkling of cilantro) for dinner. The Painter, quite to my surprise devoured it, and said Daddy, it's good! I was charmed (even though The Inventor had only a taste).

Other than a drawer full of young zucchini (I figure if I pick them small they might be more manageable) and a counter full of tomatoes, we're mostly caught up with our eatings. Except, I think tomorrow I'll find a use for beans.

Family diet

Ah, back from our trip to the inlaws. The week went by fairly quickly. Mostly we had a good time. The big stress from the trip was the Painter's eating habits. I think he managed to get through the entire week with about 2 portions of fruits/vegetables. Mostly, he ate breads, a little bit of meat, and chips.

One afternoon we were visiting his great-grandmother, who seemed terribly concerned that he would starve. She had a spread of cold-cuts and side dishes. The Painter willfully refused everything, except, what he seemed to really want was a roll with mayonnaise. Um... no! Frankly, Rocket & I were half tempted to just give him a bowl of mayonnaise, and let him have at it. But we resisted. And so did he. Okay, don't eat!

But that tactic was anathema to great-grandma. She was terribly concerned. As we were preparing to depart (you know it takes at least an hour to really leave a visit to family), she asked if maybe he'd eat a ham sandwich then (we don't keep kosher). I doubt it, but you can surely suggest it. I won't stop you.

So, she did, and when he refused, she offered (with her thick German accent) some chili on bread. Oh, I thought, yeah, that's a face-saving maneuver. Maybe he'll eat some chili. What's chili? he asked. She turned to me, what do you call chili? What, cham? You want some cham on bread!?

Oh my god, she didn't just do that, did she? A-yup. So... he gets himself instead of a little bit of hunger that might teach him a lesson, half a roll with a fat smattering of her homemade currant jam! What's worse, she promised him if he ate his jelly-bread, he could have a big slice of cake.

I was incensed. Once he finished, I ran interference as he was trying to sneak into her kitchen. Then, I had the very uncomfortable duty of contradicting great-grandma in her own house. No, I can't let him have that. Jelly-bread isn't exactly a well-balanced meal. But we can take some cake along, so he can taste it if he has a good meal tomorrow.

Ah, to be home again, in my own kitchen! I think we'll have mostly a vegetarian week. First night back, we stopped for sushi on the way home. He devoured the edamame, and vegetable tempura, and the avocado on his favorite caterpillar roll. A sushi restaurant is the one place we know he'll eat well and healthy.

This morning, I made my signature mango-banana pancakes:

• 2 cups of blended fruit
• 1-3/4 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2-1/2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 c. wheat flour
• 1-3/4 tbs. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Blend up wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients in a mixer (or by hand in a large bowl). Slowly pour in the wet, stirring constantly, until well mixed. Fry in a large pan (I use butter) over med-med/high heat. Flip when batter no longer fills in the holes made by popped bubbles. Cook on second side for 2-4 minutes. Transfer cooked pancakes to a warm serving plate in the oven at ~250F.

I always finish with one large pancake from the final remains of the batter bowl, scraped down with a rubber spatula. This I call the family pancake, which is duly cut into equal parts for each family member at the table.

It's good to have control over my family's diet once again (at least, as much control as any parent of a preschooler has)!

Basque poached eggs

Years ago, I was a student in Annapolis, Maryland, where among other things, I worked the overnight at Chic 'n Ruth's 24-hour delicatessen. A block or two up along Main Street was a small Basque restaurant (the name escapes me), which was my favorite place for an occasional Sunday brunch. My preferred order was eggs poached in ratatouille. Yum.

I have, on special occasions made this dish at home, like this morning as we prepare to head to the inlaws (near Chicago) for a week's respite.

Because of the glut of zucchini and tomatoes in our garden, I have recently had cause to make some ratatouille, simple enough: equal portions of diced tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant (sadly the last was store bought). I salted and drained the eggplant, then mixed it all in a pot with a bit of olive oil. Simmered for 20-30 minutes, then it's ready. You could of course add diced onions, garlic, what have you. But the simple version serves.

Then, spoon an inch or two of sauce in a small casserole (warm in oven). Once the sauce and casserole are pre-warmed, top with a fresh egg, and grated cheese. Bake in oven around 375F for about 10 minutes (until the egg is just right), then serve with crusty bread.

It just eats my heart that my two lovely boys left most of it over. Ah well, at least they ate the eggs and bread.

Domesticity

Breakfast: homemade sourdough roll topped with a cream-cheese & lox omelet; slice of home-baked sourdough multigrain bread, smeared with garden-fresh "tapenade" (more like a bruschetta, I suppose) of zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and onions, cooked down to a medium paste.

Last night, I jarred up a couple more quarts of peeled tomatoes (we harvest about 2-3 lbs. a day!). Night before last, I tried my two week old pickled zucchini medley (zucchini, carrots, celery--only the last was store bought). It was good enough to jar, and make more (we harvest about 2 lbs. of zucchini every day too!). Rocket got me one of these for pickling! I jarred up nearly two quarts of the pickled medley, and refilled the crock with about 5 liters of freshly julienned zucchini (alone this time), some salt and spices, and a mere cup of water.

I'm sold on the Harsch fermenting crocks. They require very little salt, and the results are great!

Okay, enough domesticity. Back to my presentation.