the good teacher

Faculty vs students basketball game

Yesterday Jay came home to celebrate his birthday with us. He wanted to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. And so we did. They have a new Skinnylicious menu with lighter fare. He and I both ordered Margaritas off it. B had Riesling. I ordered the White Chicken Chili. I've made this myself a few times but I've never had it so tasty before as this is. It was off the skinny menu too even though it had a bit of cream of it. Jay had a burrito and B ordered meat loaf. One thing about The Cheesecake Factory is that even though the menu is huge and offers so many choices, the food is always excellent.


practising his presentation for his Masters Degree

He spoke of his students while we ate. Jay is starting his fourth year of teaching high school business. He received an A+ on his Masters thesis which was bestowed on him this spring. I like to listen to his talk of teaching. Although there are always a few unruly students who become major discipline problems every year, for the most part I think he enjoys teaching and I think he is pretty good at it.

Last year he told his class a joke every day. He said they always groaned but secretly they liked.

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger; then it hit me.

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Did you hear about the butcher who backed into his meat slicer and got a little behind in his work?

On Halloween he brought them candy and the doll from the movie Saw. He made them talk to the doll as if it were him and answered them through the doll. It sort of freaked them but they loved it.

He told us this year that he informed his Accounting class of celebrities who started out as Accounting majors...among them Janet Jackson, Kenny G and JP Morgan. He said that a background in Accounting probably helped Janet figure out how much money she was making and if she was profitable but probably didn't help her any with her wardrobe malfunction at the Superbowl. His class didn't know who Kenny G was so he played them a Kenny G song on his phone while they were working through an Accounting problem. On Friday, his birthday, he told his class that gasoline was so much cheaper when he was in high school. Someone asked how old he was. He responded "Uh, 29". They asked when is his birthday. He made them guess. Someone guessed September. Yup. What day? Someone guessed the 20th. Nope. The 18th. Nope. The 16th. Yup. There was a long pause and then someone said "Hey, wait, that's today." Jay said Yup...don't make a big deal out of it. Jay told me he made it through the day without any of the faculty knowing that it was his birthday. He thanked me for not posting on his Facebook wall. I don't know why he never wants to make a big deal out of it.




He is an assistant Lacrosse coach at R-H. The team did very well last year.



He likes to cuddle with his two kitties...Brody and Tess



He is a health nut and I knew he wouldn't want a cake for his birthday so I made this healthy one containing no sugar. It does contain carrots, banana, wheat flour, wheat germ, egg, olive oil, vanilla, flax seeds, chia seeds and black walnuts. I did frost it with a little cream cream frosting. He ate some and even took some home. It really is very tasty regardless of how it might sound as a birthday cake.

So we had a pleasant bday visit with Jay. He spent the night and we had a Greek breakfast before he headed home again. I think he had a good birthday. I hope he did.
I'm looking forward to hearing more stories of his classes and students throughout the year.

september song

I love September. Just love this month. Every year I bask in the richness and ripeness of this month. The weather becomes a little bit drier, a little bit cooler, crisper. I get a melancholy feeling that it's not going to last much longer and the dreaded cold weather will be on it's way soon. So I need to love it, drink it in now.

Squirrels start to fatten up, a few crispy leaves start to fall from trees, spiders spin intricate webs, fuzzy caterpillers precariously make their way across country roads, school children are excited about their new supplies and enthusiatic to start classes...the drudgery of attending those classes yet to set in.

Everything that grows is at it's peak of maturity. Seed pods burst open and seeds float through the air on delicate feathery parachutes. Crops are harvested. On this day 29 years ago, I was at my peak of maturity also. I was harvested and produced a healthy 7 lb 10 oz boy baby that we named Jay. Happy Birthday Jay! Just another reason to love September.

s-a day 14

The secret of self-acceptance is....

not giving yourself too much importance, nor taking yourself too seriously.
Your true importance will increase proportionately to how little of it you claim for yourself.

Easier said than done.

by the light of the harvest moon

I was blogging my recipe for pumpkin coffee cake last night. While listing the ingredients I came to pumpkin. How much pumpkin did I use? I used approximately half a can. But how many ounces were in that can? Well, it was garbage night and that can was out in the recycle bin alongside the street. I dashed down the stairs past B working at the kitchen table and out the door to retrieve that can. I didn't even tell him where I was going and I didn't return until at least twenty minutes had passed by.

As I reached the end of my driveway, my path crossed with a lady walking her two Springer Spaniels. They looked exactly alike except one was half the size of the other. I stopped to pet them and inquire about them. She told me that they were from the same litter but the girl, Eleanor, stopped growing at six months while the boy, Rigby, kept on going. I told her that she looked familiar and she said we were in Girl Scouts together. I told her that couldn't be it because I only had a boy. I asked her name. She told me it is Julia. She remembered that I had an exotic name like Helena. I laughed and told her it was Ramona. We figured out that we were in PTA together when our kids were in grade school. I told her why I had come outside. She told me that she loved to cook and was a retired nurse who now worked in the prepared foods section at Wegmans. I told her that I dreamed about working at Wegmans. She told me it wasn't all that great. You work hard and it is intense. I told her my sisters were nurses. We talked about how we still live in the same houses. She lives on the street behind me. I told her that we have talked about moving to Arizona. She told me that she and her husband bought a house in Green Valley AZ a couple years ago. I told her I had nieces in Tucson and a sister in Scottsdale. She told me that her husband left her last year after 32 years of marriage so she doesn't have the house in Green Valley anymore. He has it. She lives alone. Her daughter moved to Ireland and her son lives near Hertel Avenue. I told her my son lives in Rochester and teaches at Rush-Henrietta. She told me that is a good school district. She told me that she is from Rochester. I told her that my best friend moved away to Rochester and that we should get together sometime and do something fun. She told me that she would love to because her husband had never liked having fun.

Then my neighbor, Karen, crossed the street and came over. She petted the dogs and we talked some more and looked at the harvest moon. Then Karen's husband, Bob, came out to find Karen and he came over and we talked and looked at the moon.

It was nice and friendly and a warm fuzzy feeling under the orange glow of the harvest moon.

sour cream pumpkin cardamom coffee cake

I was going to make Carla's cookies but they called for more pumpkin than I had. So I started perusing cookbooks. I came across something called Sour Cream Cardamom Bars. I love cardamom. It's a flavor that I thought would go good with pumpkin. So I adapted the recipe. Because I was adding pumpkin I left out one of the three eggs. Also with more liquid ingredients I needed to add more flour. What I came up with turned out more like coffee cake than bars. But the important thing is that it turned out good.

here is my adapted recipe....

2 c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cardamom
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 large eggs
3/4 c pumpkin
2/3 c sour cream
confectioners' sugar for dusting

Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground cardamom.
Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the pumpkin. Fold in the flour mixture in three batches alternating with the sour cream.

Spoon the batter into a 9 x 13 prepared pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Remove from oven, let cool and dust with confectioners' sugar.

baking day

Sunday I was in a baking mood. I had two things I wanted to use up. One was a jar of Concord Grape pie filling that I had purchased at the Farmers Market and opened up a few weeks ago only to use a tablespoon on my pancakes. The other was the remaining canned pumpkin from the souffle I made.

I got out my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, the one with the red and white plaid cover. The pages are old and yellowed now just like my mom's cookbook that I used to use when I was young. I had mastered the pie crust recipe in this cookbook years ago. Although I haven't baked a pie in years the crust to this grape tart I made turned out light and flaky.



And there was a little dough leftover to make pie crust sprinkled with cinnamon sugar just like my mom used to make for me with the leftover dough. B had this for dessert. I brought the pie to work today. I had a tiny piece and it was delicious but so far the Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake that I also made yesterday with the leftover pumpkin was the bigger hit.



I had a little piece of both.

pineapple-teriyaki chicken

pineapple-teriyaki chicken in the pan


pineapple-teriyaki chicken on my plate with brown rice and carrots/snow peas

Ingredients
1/3 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 can pineapple rings, plus 1/3 cup juice from the can (I used fresh)
4 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

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Directions
1.Whisk sherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, and the 1/3 cup pineapple juice in a large bowl. Add pineapple rings and chicken and gently stir to coat. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. I refrigerated for several hours.
2.Remove the chicken and pineapple from the marinade and pat dry; reserve the marinade. Here the directions call for you to grill the chicken but I put it in a glass pan and broiled it in the oven until it was cooked through.
3.Whisk the reserved marinade and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, whisking, until reduced and thickened, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in butter. Serve the chicken and pineapple drizzled with the sauce.

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note to self

I downloaded a new app to my phone called Note to Self. You can record messages to
yourself and email them. So I'm trying it out and I recorded a lengthy message to myself reminding myself not to forget to love yourself. When I looked to see the message it recorded, all it recorded was the word "doc". So I tried again with a briefer message. I recorded simply" Don't forget to love yourself". When I looked to see what it had picked up I saw these words..."Don't forget to wipe yourself". I suppose that is an equally important message.

pumpkin souffle

ready for the oven

Although today was not too fall-like, fall is coming. I love the foods and flavors associated with fall. I bought some canned pumpkin yesterday and while I was walking I was thinking of what to make with it. I'm going to try cousin Carla's pumpkin cookies. But I also thought a souffle might be good. I Googled pumpkin souffles and found an easy recipe that I made for dinner tonight.


fresh out of the oven

Pumpkin Souffle

4 eggs
3/4 c pumpkin
3 T maple syrup
a dash of salt
a dash of nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375.
Mix the egg yolks, pumpkin, syrup salt and pepper. Beat the egg whites til soft peaks form. Mix a dollop of the whites vigorously into the pumpkin mixture and then gently fold the rest of the whites into pumpkin mixture. Place 4 6-oz ramekins on a rimmed cookie sheet and fill the ramekins with the mixture. Place in oven and immediately turn it down to 350. Bake 25-30 minutes.


my yet to be tossed salad

I served with one of my favorite salads....greens, chopped apple, chopped celery, chopped onions, cheese cubes(I used Colby-jack this time, chopped pecans and poppy seed dressing.



asparagus with Bearnaise sauce and cod

My cod was just a tiny bit disappointing. I had haddock at Cracker Barrel that was outstanding. It had been dredged in cornmeal and flour and grilled. This cod I dipped in a mixture of beer, egg and milk and dredged in cornmeal and flour. I thought I'd save calories by baking but I should have just lightly fried it to a golden crispy crust. It wasn't bad though and the souffle and asparagus made up for it.

dahlias

My dahlias are doing fine. They are the only flower that the deer don't seem to enjoy eating.

swamp walk

It was a beautiful sunny low humidity mid-seventies day. I'm afraid we won't have too many more of these. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. So I walked through Great Baehre Swamp to Margaret Louise Park today....about an 8 or 9 mile trip.



a really swampy part of the swamp



Some highlights along the way were goldenrod



a Catalpa tree heavy with beans



a brand new shiny white Peterbuilt truck hauling three more brand new shiny white Peterbuilt trucks



an industrious spider's web



a kid's zucchini stand



and the two zucchini that I bought for a dollar

I'll buy that for a dollar!

s-a day 10

The secret of self acceptance is.... not expecting too much of others, for only thereby do we learn not to expect too much of ourselves. I don't think I do expect too much of others. But what is wrong with expecting too much of ourselves? Doesn't that help us strive to be a better person? I have relaxed some in this area but I don't want to relax entirely. I don't want self-acceptance to give me license to not try.

s-a day 9

The secret of self-acceptance is...

forgiving others; for as we forgive, so are we ourselves forgiven by them, and by Life itself. By forgiving others, we acquire also the wisdom to forgive ourselves.

After reading my potato peeling story you may think that I hold a grudge against my mother-in-law and that I have never forgiven her. I did hold a grudge for a lot of years. Although I have never forgotten what she said that day and other things she said to me after that, I have forgiven her. It no longer matters to me that I disappointed them by being a small town girl whose father was not a doctor or a lawyer or a bakery owner like Betsy's father. It no longer bothers me that every time my father-in-law saw me, he would ask me "How are things in Middleton?" to which I always responded with a sneer "It's MiddleTOWN". I can even smile when I recall these things.

I hold no grudges. I hope my father-in-law forgave me my insolent response to his question. I have forgiven everyone who ever hurt me intentionally or not. I am certainly no angel so I ask forgiveness from all whom I have hurt intentionally or not. I ask forgiveness from myself and from Life itself.

on peeling potatoes

Today is Labor Day and I guess you could say we celebrated it by not laboring. But it was the weather that kept us from it. If it had been a nice day instead of gray and overcast, B would have been working in the yard. Since it is gray and overcast he suggested we go see The Help. I had asked earlier this weekend if he would like to go see it as I had just finished the book. The movie was good but as always the book was better. I left the movie feeling a bit disappointed knowing I probably would have liked it more if I had not read the book. But I'd rather read the book. I did like the Celia character in the movie. She actually seemed a bit more real than Celia in the book.

If I had stayed home I would have started cleaning and organizing my sewing room....a job I have been wanting to tackle but have been putting off. It's one of the last things to do now. I've tackled all the ironing that has piled up, gone through all the stacks of papers on both desks, sewn buttons back on and hemmed skirts. Once I get the sewing room cleaned I can start sewing and it scares me a little. It's something I think I want to do but it's been a long time. What if I find I've lost the desire or the creative spark?

I've cooked and baked some this weekend. I've found that I haven't lost my creative spark and desire in that department too much. I made those Blue Moon cupcakes. I made fresh corn cakes. I made Wheat Germ French toast, grilled pork tenderloin and Chiavetta's chicken. Tonight I'm making Swiss steak. I bought a sirloin from Wegman's from a local farm, Angus Hill Farm. I pounded flour, dry mustard and salt into it. Browned it in olive oil. Put it in the oven with canned tomatoes, green pepper and fresh garlic. I had four potatoes that were a tiny bit past their prime. They had grown a few eyes. Normally I don't peel potatoes but since these were past their prime but not bad enough to throw away, I thought I'd use them up and placed them in with the meat while it roasted.

As soon as I started peeling, the thought that always comes into my head when I'm peeling potatoes came into my head. It was 1974. B and I had been dating since the beginning of our sophomore year. He had an internship with one of the Big Eight accounting firms and was living at home and working in downtown Chicago while I was still at Illinois State. I took the train from Bloomington to Joliet to stay with him and his family for a few days. He was at work and I offered to help his mother cook dinner. She gave me the task of peeling the potatoes. I wanted to please so very badly. I didn't want to peel too deeply and take too much potato with the skin or gouge the eyes out too deeply and leave big holes. So I erred on the other side. Trace pieces of potato skin remained. She looked at the potatoes and scoffed "My family would never eat potatoes with skin still on them". Maybe she didn't scoff. But she did say it and scoff is how I heard it. It's how I hear it yet to this day when I peel a potato.

s-a day 8

The secret of self-acceptance is....

serving others ever more consciously as an instrument of a Higher Power.

I'm not sure what this means. Community service, running for office, recruiting for my faith, doing a good job at work, making dinner with a smile on my face? All of the above?

s-a day 7

The secret of self-acceptance is....

loving others and not waiting for them first to love you.

If I waited for that I could be waiting forever. Nope, no problem with this one. Most people seem so sweet and vulnerable and worthy and needy, don't you think?

once in a Blue Moon

Once in a Blue Moon a cupcake comes 'round that I'd like to try. I'm a cookie person as a rule and cupcakes don't excite me too much. When I heard about Blue Moon cupcakes I wanted to try them because although I'm a wine person as a rule and don't like the bitter taste of beer, I do like the flavor it emparts in food. Beer bread, cheddar beer soup and meat cooked in beer for example.

I Googled Blue Moon Cupcakes and a number of recipes came up. One even called for Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa. I love chocolate but I think it would totally overpower the taste of beer. So this is the recipe I came up with...

Blue Moon Cupcakes

3/4 c unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
3/4 c brownulated sugar
2 1/2 c flour (I used White Lily Flour just because the bag is so cute that I wanted to try it out)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 t cinnamon
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp orange zest ( I reconstituted Penzey's dehydrated orange peel)
1 c Blue Moon beer
1/4 c milk

Frothy Beer Head Frosting [recipe follows]
small orange slices, for garnish

Directions:
1. Line 24 cupcake trays with liners. I used some white and some blue.In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking power, cinnamon and salt.
2. In a large bowl beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar a little bit at a time, beating well.
3. Add eggs, beating after each.
4. Add vanilla and orange zest and beat.
5. Mix beer and milk in a measuring cup. Alternatively add beer/milk mixture and flour mixture to butter mixture in the large bowl, beating after each. End on the flour mixture.
6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 18 minutes at 375 degrees F until cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Once cool, frost each cupcake with a generous amount of frosting. Just before serving, garnish each with a small orange slice.

Frothy Beer Head Frosting

2 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange juice
1 c sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 c Blue Moon beer
Directions:
1. In a saucepan, mix sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites, vanilla and orange juice until soft peaks form. Slowly add hot sugar mixture, beating continuously. Beat for 7 minutes until stiff peaks form.




the beautiful creamy cake batter


ready for the oven


fresh out of the oven...the aroma is yeasty and heavenly


a beer tray from 1959 that we found in our basement bar when we moved in


cupcakes served on the tray


I choose this one. Do they look better just white or with blue sugar sprinkles?

s-a day 6

The secret of self-acceptance is....

mixing with those who, in their own expansiveness,offer support to others. Shun the company of those who are cynical or insecure.

Now this one I have to beg to differ with. Yes, it's good to mix with those who offer support and who are always upbeat. I truly believe that they help us believe in ourselves, expand our thinking and make us feel good about ourselves. But if we don't mix with the cynical and insecure, who will help them expand their thinking and make them feel good about themselves. Besides a little cynicism can be fun at times as long as it's not disrespectful. Insecurity is no picnic and these people need all the support they can get.

s-a day 5

The secret of self-acceptance is....

respecting everyone; for as we are so do we imagine others to be: and as we view them, so do we ourselves become even more.

I think I do this. I hope I do this. The times I feel that I fell short of doing this have made me feel bad. Even when opinions differ greatly and personalities clash, others are always deserving of our respect.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes; one I strive to live by. Be extra nice to people, you never know what they're going through.