Celebrating the highs, episode II

In preparation for a final exam, Cassie has been working hard on her singing and guitar playing in recent weeks. She sounds great, but that hasn't stopped her from catastrophizing about what will happen when she fails the exam and gets kicked out of her music therapy program. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Instead, the exam went really well and Cassie got some great feedback on the "massive" strides she's made just since her midterm (which is especially impressive given our family singing genes). That called for a celebration. Celebrating good news is a happiness-enhancing strategy that falls under happiness activity number 9 ("savoring life's joys"), and I'm happy to say that we've already been doing this one for years.

 

*********

 

Green is good, episode IIa

Green is good, episode II was the episode covering how to make Genovese basil pesto, either the traditional way with a mortar and pestle or in the food processor. Since then, I've streamlined the process of making the pesto in a food processor, so I decided to post this recipe separately. These are the exact same quantities as in the original pesto. But the first recipe was for a classic Genovese pasta al pesto ricco with potatoes and green beans. Since those vegetables require some extra work, and my goal here was streamlining the whole process, I figured I'd also offer frozen peas as another vegetable option to make this version even quicker and easier than the original. Mom and Brad approved.

Streamlined Pesto with Pasta and Peas

Time: 25 minutes

For the pesto
43 grams/1½ ounces Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, cut into chunks
14 grams/½ ounce grated pecorino Romano cheese, cut into chunks
1 garlic clove, unpeeled
30 grams (¼ cup) raw pine nuts
kosher or coarse sea salt
55 grams/2 ounces (2 cups tightly packed) Genovese basil, rinsed and patted dry
53 grams (¼ cup) extra-virgin olive oil, more if needed

For the pasta
1 to 2 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 pound dried pasta such as fusilli or penne
227 grams/8 ounces frozen peas
28 grams (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
freshly ground black pepper

    1. Bring 4 quarts of water to a rolling boil in a large pot over high heat.
    2. Place the chunks of Parmesan and pecorino Romano in the work bowl of a food processor or mini food processor (I used the mini food processor attachment for my immersion blender). Pulse and process until the cheese is finely ground. Transfer the cheese to a medium bowl.

    3. Nuke the garlic clove for 10 seconds in the microwave. (You can skip the microwave if you don't have one, but it makes it easier to peel and smash the garlic, as well as taming the flavor of the raw garlic some.) Slip the peel off, then flatten the garlic with the flat face of a chef's knife. Place the garlic, pine nuts, and a good pinch of salt in the now empty food processor. Pulse and process until finely ground to a paste, but don't go overboard and make pine-nut butter.

    4. Chop the basil roughly, then add to the food processor along with 27 grams (2 tablespoons) of the olive oil. Pulse and process until the basil is finely minced, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

    5. Transfer the basil-pine nut mixture to the medium bowl with the cheese. Pour in the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Work everything together until the pesto has the consistency of creamed butter, adding a little more oil if needed. (If you are not using the pesto right away, transfer it to a glass jar and top with a thin film of olive oil. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days, or freeze.)

    6. When the water boils, add the fine sea salt and stir to dissolve. Add the pasta and stir a few times during the first minute or two to keep it from sticking. When the pasta is about 2 minutes short of al dente, scoop out a mugful of the pasta cooking water, then stir in the peas. When the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta and peas in a colander.
    7. Return the drained pasta and peas to the now empty pot. Add the pesto, butter, ½ cup of the pasta cooking water, and a grind or two of pepper. Stir vigorously until well combined, adding more pasta water as needed to achieve a creamy consistency. Serve promptly. Serves 4.

Summer lockdown project

Over the past year, Cassie followed Dylan's lead and really took to climbing. After making regular trips to a climbing gym in Tallahassee, Cass was bummed when going to the gym was ruled out. So she started researching home climbing walls and put together a fancy PowerPoint presentation to convince Mom and me that it was feasible in our house. After we signed off on the project, Mom and Cassie ordered and got in all of the necessary materials. With a huge hand from Adam on the construction parts of the project, we now have a really cool climbing wall in Dylan's old room:

Before

During

Adam doing the heavy lifting on the project

After

*********

Fast food, episode VIII

I tried out a new recipe for Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew recently. It was fantastic* but took a lot longer than expected (I'm working on streamlining it a bit). While everyone was waiting for the sweet potatoes to finally be cooked through, Cassie browsed recipes for some kind of artichoke dip to make as an appetizer, but we were out of one ingredient or another for all of them. To keep the hungry crowd at bay, I whipped up this dip I had just seen in Joe Yonan's new Cool Beans cookbook. He calls it "Fastest-Ever Smoky Red Salsa." But Brad, Cass, and Mom all say it's the best salsa ever, so I edited the name to reflect that.

---------
*But that's another episode.

Best-Ever Smoky Red Salsa

Adapted from Cool Beans (2020) by Joe Yonan

Time: <10 minutes

If you're not wild about the flavor of raw garlic, zap the garlic clove, unpeeled, in the microwave for 10 seconds before peeling and mincing it.

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
¼ cup packed (10 grams) cilantro leaves and tender stems, coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced (see note)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon (15 grams) freshly squeezed lime juice

Place all of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. It works fine in a full-sized food processor, but the recipe is small so your best options, if you have any of these things, are: a mini insert for your food processor; a mini food processor; or the chopper attachment of an immersion blender (which is what I use). Pulse until combined but still slightly chunky, just a few pulses. Taste and adjust flavor with more adobo sauce, salt, and/or lime juice as needed. Makes about 2 cups.

Walk in the woods, part II

This morning's walk wasn't as eventful as last week's, but I did bring Mom to check out the beaver activity at the pond, and the blooming mountain laurel, in Biscuit Run. The beaver are making mincemeat out of some fairly large trees with their razor-sheep teeth:

I found out where the beaver lodge is from another hiker we chatted with briefly. He said it would take a machete to get to the lodge, which is just as well since I'm not planning on making a home visit any time soon after reading the linked article about the Belarusian fisherman.

The mountain laurel are blooming more and more but don't appear to have reached their peak just yet, although it looks like many of the shrubs won't flower at all this year:

*********

Green [Book] is good, episode IV

Mom and I have finally been hitting our stride as empty nesters the past few weeks. We went for dinner twice during Restaurant Week, to Bizou (pretty good) and Junction (excellent). We've also been out to lunch twice, to Iron (for Mom's benefit) and Kanak Indian Kitchen, which just opened and is already one of the better restaurants in C'ville and super convenient for us at 5th Street Station. We've also been to two UVA basketball games at John Paul Jones Arena; the first against Florida State was one of our better all-around games of the season, while the second, an overtime win against Notre Dame, was the worst game I've ever had the misfortune of seeing in person (the only thing that could've made it worse was if we'd lost that stinker). We went back to the JPJ for V-Day, which we spent with Trevor Noah, who was very entertaining. We also saw Just Mercy at the Violet Crown (Mom sobbed through most of it) and Green Book at the Paramount, which screened the movie on the one-year anniversary of its Oscar win for best picture.

Because it was Academy Award day, the Paramount ran a special contest: the entrant who picked the most winners in 10 separate Oscar categories would get a prize package consisting of a Paramount tote bag, the Paramount's Green Book poster, and two free Paramount movie passes, with two free popcorn and drink vouchers. I ended up winning the contest with 8 correct answers out of 10, which may be the first thing I've ever won in my life. Which is hilarious because I'd seen exactly one of the films nominated for any of the Oscars—Marriage Story—and that one only because it was showing on Netflix. I do have a secret to my success, but I can't tell you because then I'd give it away to my vast UaKS readership and wouldn't be able to double down on my achievement next year. Sorry.

One of my prizes

*********

Killing time, part II: The nature cure

Three hours into the wait for my car to be done, I showed up at the dealer and they hadn't even started on the recall repair yet, so I just sat down in their cushy waiting room and starting thumbing through magazines. I happened upon a long and interesting article in Outside magazine called "The Nature Cure," which promised an inside look at "the health revolution that could change your life." As it turns out, the health revolution involves nothing more than going outside more often, which has all sorts of well-documented positive effects on physical and mental health. In fact, there are increasing numbers of doctors who are writing "nature prescriptions," often with specific "dosages" for getting outdoors. To make it more appealing to children who are receiving the prescription, doctors are using a mapping tool called Park Rx America to show the kids exactly where the parks near them are.

My favorite place to run:
The Hartman Trail at Monticello

The article dovetailed nicely with a book I've been reading, The Nature Principle by Richard Louv, which goes into much greater detail on how people can be restored by reconnecting with nature, as was the case when we evolved in hunter-gatherer societies. It can be as simple as working in your garden or going for a walk on the beach or in the woods or just moving your run "from the treadmill to the park to optimize your well-being benefits," as Laurie Cameron suggests in The Mindful Day. But any way you do it, the evidence is that "there is something profound going on," primarily by lowering your stress levels, when you spend time in nature, as cognitive psychologist and avid backpacker David Strayer was quoted as saying in the January 2016 National Geographic article "This Is Your Brain on Nature."

My favorite place to run:
The John and Clara Smart Trail at Monticello

So how much time outside is the right dosage? A new study published in Scientific Reports says that at least 120 minutes a week was the threshold at which the nearly 20,000 participants' reports of good health and high well-being increased significantly. Positive associations peaked between 200 to 300 minutes a week, with no additional gains after that. That pattern held across all key groups of people studied—men and women, older and younger adults, different ethnic groups, and even those with long-term health issues. And it doesn't matter if the ≥120 minutes is achieved in one day or over several shorter outings during the week. The bottom line is to get off your butts and out in nature for at least 2 hours a week and you'll be healthier and happier.

*********

My other self, episode IV: the underwear king dethroned

As the three long-time readers of UaKS are aware, my other self is a Colombian underwear mogul whose wares previously dominated Google searches for "Paul Ferrer." But it looks like Señor Ferrer's business may have fallen on hard times, because his brief models, formerly ubiquitous, have pretty much disappeared from the internet. Instead, it is now yours truly who shows up right there on results pages 1 and 2, though the hits, alas, are for work stuff, rather than UaKS. (Note to my true self: time to increase the marketing budget for this blog.) I guess that pair of PAUL FERRER underwear Mom got me as a stocking stuffer in 2015 is now a collector's item.

*********

Sparking joy: two items

Organization expert Marie Kondo has been trumpeting the "life-changing magic of tidying up" since at least 2014. Then she really hit the big time at the end of last year with her Netflix show "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo." The book and show have been so popular that people have been "bulldozing" their closets, resulting in a huge uptick of donations to thrift stores, libraries, used book stores, etc.

So how do you know if it's time to get rid of a possession? Simple, examine it and see if it "sparks joy"; if not, then off to the thrift store it goes. And how do you know if something sparks joy? I'll let Marie Kondo show you:



Note: if fondling any of your worldly goods actually makes you behave like anything approaching either of the extremes demonstrated by Marie Kondo, I can give you the number of my running buddy Dr. Tom, who is an excellent therapist and can help you work through those issues.

Item #1: A solid fork

For years, we've had exactly seven dinner forks, manufactured by Splendide (I don't know the model), that were actually worth eating with. They couldn't have been expensive because they're 18/0 stainless steel, and the "0" means no nickel (which contributes to a silver-like shine), so less pricey. But they're just the right length (20 mm/8 inches), look simple but relatively, and, most importantly, have some heft (62 grams each) that is well balanced along the length of the fork.

From left to right: Splendide, Amazon Basics, Reed & Barton

Eating with the Splendide forks is definitely a joy-sparking experience for me. The problem was that we would often run out of the Splendide forks before the dishwasher had gone through[1] and I'd be stuck eating dinner with one of the Reed & Barton forks, which are too short (18.5 mm), have a fugly design, and no balance or heft whatsoever (only 39 grams). I finally decided to search for some matching Splendide forks to add to our collection, but they're only available on eBay and I wasn't interested in going there to buy someone's used forks. Then I found some Amazon Basics 18/0 dinner forks that are $12 for a dozen, so I gave it a shot. They're not a perfect match for the Splendides, but they're pretty close in shape and length (20.5 mm), fairly well balanced, and weigh in at a solid 58 grams each. So now I can eat every meal with an extra measure of joy.

Item #2: A real side-sleeper pillow

I woke up with a stiff neck recently. This happens once in a while, undoubtedly because I'm a 100% side sleeper who's been using flat little hand-me-down pillows all my life. Until now. Heather Turgeon, one of the authors of The Happy Sleeper, says that, "[b]ecause of the greater distance between their heads and the mattress, side sleepers often need a thicker pillow to keep their head and neck in a neutral position." Who knew? Happily, Turgeon recommends the Wamsutta Extra-Firm Side Sleeper Pillow, which goes for all of $15 in the standard/queen size at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I dug through my impressive stack of BB&B coupons, picked out a $5-off-any-purchase-of-$15-or-more coupon,[2] and practically stole one of the Wamsutta pillows for just $10.52, with tax. Which may be the best $10.52 I've ever spent, given what a pleasure it is to sleep on this pillow every night.

Mom, another 100% side sleeper, had been eyeing my new pillow covetously every night since I bought it, so I picked one up for her yesterday, and this morning she woke up and hollered, "Best pillow EVER!" And that right there is the definition of sparking joy.

---------
[1] I know what you're thinking here: Why don't I just wash one fork by hand after every meal so I always have a Splendide when I need one? To which I can only respond, in the words of my buddy Joe from Philly, "Who ast you anyway?"

[2] For you math whizzes: This coupon is a much better deal than the usual 20%-off-one-single-item BB&B coupon, as long as your purchase is right around, but not less than, $15 (including tax, apparently, since the Wamsutta pillow actually costs $14.99). I saved an extra $2 on each of the pillows I bought for Mom and me.

*********

Putting our empty nest time to good use

You all think we sit around doing nothing other than watching Madam Secretary since our house emptied out. Well, we do do plenty of that, but we do lots of other stuff too. Last Saturday morning I finally got Mom to go to the City Market with me, and we loaded up on good veggies (more on that soon) and eggs and sausage from Free Union Grass Farm, among other things. On the way home, we stopped at Krispy Kreme to watch the doughnut machine like the old days. On Sunday night, we capped off a great weekend by going to the Downtown Mall for some gelato before seeing Mary Chapin Carpenter at the Paramount. Her concert was so good even Mom is a fan of MCC now! And next weekend, we have the book sale starting on Friday night, then on Saturday afternoon we're seeing "Free Solo" as part of the Virginia Film Festival, and who knows what else?

*********

The essence of mushroom

Mushrooms are not a universally popular item in our house, but Dylan and I love them. If you're looking for an easy way to prepare mushrooms to have on hand for various uses (the classic pairing is Beef Wellington, but it's great in scrambled eggs or as part of the appetizer below), try duxelles (pronounced dook●sel). Named for the 17th-century French Marquis d'Uxelles, who employed the chef who came up with the idea, duxelles is basically a mushroom paste made from finely diced mushrooms sauteed in butter with a little shallot, herb, salt, and pepper. Once it's cooked down and browned, duxelles is like the essence of mushroom—which sounds great to me, but may seem like a nightmare to some of you (but definitely not to Dylan, who made the crostini appetizer with duxelles and pronounced it "ridiculously good," which is his equivalent of Mom's "heavenly").

Crostini

Time: 15 minutes

1 large baguette

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 400 degrees. Cut the baguette on the bias into ½-inch-thick slices. Arrange the pieces in a single layer on an 18-by-13-inch baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. Turn the pieces with tongs. Bake until the bread is dry and crisp and taking on a little color, about 5 minutes more. Makes about 20 crostini.

Seasoned crostini
As soon as the crostini come out of the oven, rub them lightly with a peeled, raw garlic clove. Brush lightly with extra-virgin olive oil. Season to taste with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Duxelles

Adapted from Vegetables Every Day (2001) by Jack Bishop

Time: 30 minutes

There are many uses for duxelles: try adding ¼ cup when beating scrambled eggs, making the appetizer below, or stirring them into soups or stews or mashed potatoes or rice or anything else you can think of. Dylan likes to spread duxelles on the inside of a grilled cheese made with Asiago, which sounds fabulous.

10 ounces/285 grams cremini or white button mushrooms or a mixture
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil or a mixture
2 tablespoons (15 grams) minced shallot (1 small shallot)
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme or rosemary leaves
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
a few drops of dry sherry or white wine (optional)

    1. Wash the mushrooms. Trim a thin slice off the bottom of the stems. Halve the mushrooms. Mince the mushrooms into ⅛-inch pieces. You can do this by hand, but it’s easiest in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, using 5 or 6 one-second pulses. You want very small pieces, not mushroom puree (see the photo above).
    2. Melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Stir in the shallot and thyme or rosemary and cook, stirring frequently, until the shallot is softened but not browned, about 2 minutes.
    3. Stir in the mushroom pieces. Season with a big pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their liquid, the liquid has evaporated, and the mushrooms are browned, about 15 minutes. If you have a lot of fond on the bottom of the pan, you may choose to deglaze the pan with a few drops of dry sherry or white wine. Taste for seasoning. Use promptly or store in an airtight container in the fridge for several days. Duxelles also freezes well, so you may want to double the recipe, using a 12-inch skillet if you do. Makes about ¾ cup.

Crostini with Whipped Chèvre and Duxelles

Whipped chèvre adapted from The Quick Recipe (2003) by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated

Time: 8 minutes to make the whipped chèvre; 15 minutes to assemble the crostini

4 ounces/113 grams fresh chèvre goat cheese
2 tablespoons (30 grams) half-and-half or heavy cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
20 crostini (from recipe above) or firm crackers such as Trader Joe's Pita Bite Crackers
¾ cup duxelles (from recipe above)
a good finishing salt such as fleur de sel or Maldon

    1. For the whipped chèvre: Place the goat cheese, half-and-half, lemon juice, a pinch of sea salt, and a twist or two of pepper into a medium bowl. Whip with a handheld mixer until soft and homogeneous, about 1 minute. (The whipped chèvre may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.) 
    2. Spread a good dab of the whipped chèvre over each of the crostini. Place a spoonful of duxelles over the chèvre on each of the crostini. Sprinkle a small pinch of finishing salt over all of the crostini.

Tinkering, episode II: Hummus 2.0

Dylan recently sent me an article by J.M. Hirsch, who went "In Pursuit of Perfect Hummus" in Israel. The article appeared last year in Christoper Kimball's Milk Street Magazine (which is a perfectly pretentious name for Chris Kimball's post-Cook's Illustrated endeavors) and won a 2018 Beard journalism award in the "Dining and Travel" category. The lede certainly gets your attention if you consider yourself a hummus fan: "We make it wrong. We serve it wrong. We eat it wrong." Hirsch explains that hummus is served for breakfast in Israel, where people line up outside of shops to bring tubfuls of hummus home to be eaten warm. As for making the hummus, Hirsch covers various important elements: always use small, dried chickpeas versus canned; the chickpeas should be processed while warm; use a toasted, well-stirred, thin (pourable) tahini; and no garlic. The last element is interesting, as my first recipe used only one clove of garlic, while other recipes of note, including Ottolenghi and Zahav both use four cloves of garlic (albeit for double the recipe but still way too much for me).

The marriage test

I recently read Ann Patchett's wonderful collection of essays, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (2013). In the title essay, Patchett devotes as much attention to all the failed marriages in her family, including her own first marriage, as she does to her second marriage, which is the "happy" one. While at a writer's retreat, Patchett received some useful advice on how to figure out whether her first marriage was worth saving:

Standing waist deep in the swimming pool at Yaddo, I received a gift—it was the first decent piece of instruction about marriage I had ever been given in my twenty-five years of life. “Does your husband make you a better person?” Edra asked. … “Are you smarter, kinder, more generous, more compassionate, a better writer?” she said, running down her list. “Does he make you better?” 

“That’s not the question,” I said. “It’s so much more complicated than that.”

“It’s not more complicated than that,” she said. “That’s all there is. Does he make you better and do you make him better?”

This rings true to me as a passable test of a worthwhile marriage, all the more so because it mirrors a scene in one of my favorite sappy movies, The Family Man. In the movie, Jack (Nicolas Cage) is a high-powered Wall Street investment banker living life in the fast lane. Around the holidays, an angel gives Jack a glimpse of what his life would have been like if he had married his college sweetheart, Kate (Téa Leoni). It takes a while, but Jack finally figures out that his king-of-capitalism days couldn't hold a candle to his suburban, just-scraping-by life with Kate. But just when the light bulb goes off, Jack is returned to his former life. In the concluding scene of the movie, Jack catches Kate at the airport, where she is about to board a plane and fly off to her new job in Paris (of course), and tries to convince her to wait and have a cup of coffee with him. In explaining what their life together could be like, based on what the angel had shown him, Jack tells Kate that, "You're a better person than I am, and it made me a better person to be around you." As in Patchett's anecdote, that's what it takes to prove you work together: you make each other better people.

I applied this test to my marriage and Mom passed with flying colors; she makes me smarter, kinder, more generous, more compassionate, better all around. I'm not convinced I do the same for her, but Mom assures me that's the case, so I guess that's all that matters.

Of course, psychologists have identified a much simpler test, which requires a lot less self-reflection. Daniel Kahneman explains it like this: "[M]arital stability is well predicted by a [simple] formula: frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels. You don’t want your result to be a negative number." (Thinking, Fast and Slow [2011].) I won't gross you out by telling you how Mom and I are doing by that measure.

*********

It's not the size, it's how you use it

Brad graduated from high school last week. In a whirlwind week, I went to Brad's sports awards banquet, senior awards night, graduation, and his first soccer game playing in a summer adult league with Dylan. (I thought it would be fun to see them playing their first ever competitive match together, but it wasn't very competitive. Their team could use some practice and a little experienced coaching. 😉)

We used to receive communications from Monticello HS at our old email, but that's been shut down for a while. We didn't hear from any teachers that Brad would be getting any awards on senior night, so we weren't sure what to expect. But Brad ended up getting the same award as Dylan for Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics. We knew the chairman of the math department was describing Brad when he said the recipient of the award is “one of the most humble and intelligent students we have at Monticello, just so smart and kind and funny (if you can get him to talk).” That is Brad in a nutshell!

The plaque they gave Brad has the same design as the one Dylan received, but when I looked at Dylan's to see how I hung it up on his bedroom wall, I noticed they had downsized the plaque from six years ago.

Dylan found this amusing and commented that it must be because the math department only thinks 60% as much of Brad as they did of Dylan. On the other hand, the engraving is much larger on Brad's plaque, so I can actually read it with my old eyes. Anyway, "it's not the size, mate, it's how you use it."

*********

Feasting before the Rome derby, episode III

After this week's epochal win over Barcelona in the Champion's League quarterfinals, we had high hopes going into today's derby with our hated city rival Lazio. Alas, it wasn't to be this time, as the game ended in a 0-0 draw, with Bruno Peres and Edin Dzeko both rattling the woodwork for AS Roma. It was still an okay result, as we remain tied with Lazio for the third of four Champions League spots reserved for teams from Serie A, and we have the tiebreaker over Lazio, having defeated them earlier this season. Even so, our position remains precarious, since we're also only one point ahead of Inter, who holds the tiebreaker against us if it comes down to it. I guess we'll just have to win the Champions League this year to secure our direct qualification into the Champions League next year.

*********

After a months-long inquiry spearheaded by the Charlottesville 29, it has been determined by the cognoscenti that Charlottesville's signature dish is the ham biscuit. Brad will undoubtedly be disappointed that the winner was not an egg-on-everything-bagel from Bodo's, but Chef Angelo appears to be on board as he is now serving up his own version of the dish at C'ville's best restaurant, the Ivy Inn. In honor of the unveiling, here are my own buttermilk biscuits, which I'm sure are not as tasty as Angelo's, but are still pretty good. 

Buttermilk Biscuits

There are lots of ways to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. I went with grating in frozen butter shards, because I keep butter in the freezer, and it's an easy method that works well. You can also cut the butter into ½-inch cubes and incorporate it into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender or by rubbing it in with your fingers. Or you can mix the dry ingredients in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, then scatter ½-inch cubes of cold butter over the flour mixture, and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal, about 8 to 10 one-second pulses. The food processor works very well, but then you have to clean it, which is why I like the grating method.

360 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (12 grams) white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 slightly rounded teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (113 grams; 8 tablespoons) frozen butter
303 grams (1¼ cups) buttermilk

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 450 degrees.
    2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
    3. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the frozen butter onto a plate or cutting board, then scatter the shards over the dry ingredients. Stir the butter into the flour with a silicone spatula.
    4. Pour the buttermilk over the flour-butter mixture. Stir together with the spatula until mostly combined.
    5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough just enough to bring it together (maybe 8–10 times). Gently pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick rectangle, then fold it over onto itself. Repeat the patting and folding two more times; this will help make flaky layers in the baked biscuits. Gently pat the dough into an 8-by-10-inch rectangle (for square biscuits) or a 9-inch circle (for round biscuits). Either shape should be about ¾-inch thick.
    6a. For square biscuits (easier), flour the edge of a bench scraper. Use the bench scraper to cut the rectangular dough into 12 or so squares. Push straight down when cutting (no twisting).
    6b. For traditional round biscuits, cut circles out of the dough using a floured 2½-inch biscuit cutter. Push straight down when cutting (no twisting). Gather the leftover dough and gently pat it into a ¾-inch-thick circle, working it as little as possible, and continue cutting out biscuit rounds.
    7. Arrange the formed biscuits, upside down, on a 13-by-18-inch baking sheet. (There is no need to grease the baking sheet first.) Bake for 5 minutes, then turn the oven down to 425 degrees. Bake until golden brown, about 7–8 more minutes. Serve warm, with good butter and/or jam, or allow to cool completely to make ham biscuits.

Ham Biscuits
Get your hands on some of the best-quality Virginia country ham you can find. Split biscuits in half. Spread each half with a thin layer of honey mustard. Pile on some thin-sliced country ham.

The dud avatar

Cassie has created a monster. She made an avatar of herself using Bitmoji and sent it to Mom. Mom was so impressed with Cassie's avatar that Mom decided to make her own. And Mom is obviously very happy with the result, because she has been sending out avatar texts left and right. Here are some examples:

Aren't they romantic (especially the top one)? But here's my favorite:

I felt left out, so I made my own avatar. Except Mom said it didn't really look like me, what with all my gray hair and all. So while Mom's avatar looks just like her when we started going out more than 30 years ago, this is what I'm stuck with:

In other words, Mom sees herself as a sexy young woman and me as a middle-aged librarian. Oh dear.

*********

Does something qualify as a family favorite if only three of us like it? Cassie and Dylan were never big on pasta with butternut squash, but Brad, Mom, and I all love it. Anyway, the recipe is now here for whoever wants it, and maybe Cassie and Dylan will come around someday.

The grated squash before cooking

Penne with Butternut Squash

Adapted from The Minimalist Cooks at Home (1999) by Mark Bittman

Time from start to finish: 40 minutes

a 1½-pound butternut squash
2 tablespoons butter and/or olive oil 
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 pound penne or other tubular pasta (such as the rigatoni pictured above)
1 teaspoon sugar, optional
¼ cup cream or half-and-half, optional
½ cup (1 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste
10 large sage leaves, minced, optional

    1. Peel, seed, and cut the butternut squash into rough chunks. Place the chunks in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until the squash looks grated; don’t make butternut squash puree. (In theory, you can grate the squash by hand on a box grater, but I’ve never tried it, and I imagine it would be pain in the ass.)
    2. Bring 4 quarts of water to a roiling boil in a large pot.
    3. Place the butter and/or oil in a large skillet or saucier over medium heat. Add the grated squash, stir to coat with the fat, and cook for a minute. Season with a few good pinches of salt and 4 or 5 twists of black pepper. Stir in ½ cup water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. As the pan dries out, add more water, about ¼ cup at a time, but be careful not to add too much—the idea is to have the squash cooked through and just soft, but not soupy or mushy when the pasta is done.
    4. Depending on how long your pasta takes to cook, you’ll want to add the pasta and 1 to 2 tablespoons of fine sea salt to the boiling water about 10 to 12 minutes after starting the squash to have them be done at the same time. Stir the pasta a few times during the first minute or two to keep it from sticking.
    5. While the pasta cooks, season the squash with the sugar and/or more salt and pepper, if needed.
    6. Just before the pasta is cooked al dente, scoop out about ½ cup of the cooking water. Stir ¼ cup (a 2-ounce ladleful) of the cooking water and the cream or half-and-half, if using, into the squash mixture.
    7. Drain the pasta, then add to the pan with the squash mixture. Off heat, toss with the Parmesan, nutmeg, and sage, if using. Adjust the consistency with additional pasta cooking water, as needed; you should have a nice, creamy sauce. Serve promptly. Serves 4 to 6.

No Y chromosomes, please

Mom has been taking some of you to a cookie exchange with some of her Walton friends for years. Last year, Mom said I should go, and so I did for the first time. What Mom didn't tell me is that the cookie exchange has always been strictly for kids and Mom's women friends. Oops. I walked in to some hostile looks, and felt my testosterone level drop significantly. I made it through the evening, but didn't make the same mistake again when Mom invited me to this year's cookie exchange.

This beautiful little Italian cookie was one of the kinds Mom made and brought to the cookie exchange this time around. I saw these in a special collection of "Christmas Cookies" from the folks at America's Test Kitchen a few years ago, but hadn't gotten around to trying them yet. I flagged them as a good gluten-free option because the recipe's headnote says they are traditionally made with rice flour, but that they changed the formula to use all-purpose flour and some cornstarch because most people don't stock rice flour. Naturally, Mom didn't read the headnote ("details") and so didn't realize she could make these with the rice flour we are amply stocked up on. But that's okay, more of these yummy cookies for me until the text time we make them with rice flour. (David Lebovitz says that while his similar recipe "will work with regular white flour if that's what you have on hand," it's actually better with rice flour, which "gives the cookies a delightful crispness.")

The pastry chef at work

They look like little cookie hamburgers

Baci di Dama

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

In Italy, these “lady’s kisses” are traditionally made with rice flour, which has the advantage of making them gluten free. If you don’t stock rice flour, you can substitute 70 grams (½ cup) all-purpose flour + 20 grams (2 tablespoons) cornstarch.

115 grams (1 cup) hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (I use Trader Joe’s Dry Roasted & Unsalted Oregon Hazelnuts)
90 grams rice flour (~¾ cup + 2 tablespoons Thai white rice flour) (see note)
50 grams (¼ cup) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
85 grams bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or chocolate chips (½ cup)

    1. Place racks in the middle two positions in the oven, and heat to 350 degrees. Line two 18-by-13-inch baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
    2. Place the hazelnuts, rice flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until everything is finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the butter and vanilla, and process until the dough comes together, about 30 seconds more.
    3. Transfer the dough to a counter and divide into 4 equal pieces. Press and roll the first piece into a thick rope about 10 inches long by 1 inch wide. Use a bench scraper of a sharp knife to cut the rope into 20 pieces. Take your time—you want the pieces to be as even as possible, so the final cookies bake evenly and come out the same size. Roll each piece between your palms into little balls. Space the balls about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. 
    4. Bake until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned, 16–18 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking. Transfer the sheets to wire racks, and let the cookies cool completely on the sheets.
    5. In a small bowl, microwave the chocolate or chocolate chips at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted, 1–2 minutes total. Neatly dip one of the cookies into the chocolate, then top with another cookie, pressing lightly to hold them together. (You can also spread about ¼ teaspoon of chocolate onto each of the bottom cookies using an icing spatula or a piping bag.) Lay the sandwiched cookie on its side on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Let the chocolate set for at least 15 minutes before serving. Makes 40 sandwich cookies.