Day of the "C": Caramel Cupcakes and Candy Corn Cookies

On Monday I should spend half a day on school work and half a day on paid work but it just doesn't always work that way. Some days I end up in the kitchen. Sigh. This is one of those in the kitchen days, aka, major procrastination because I have so much due this week.

I know the caramel apple cupcake picture is blurry but that doesn't make them any less tasty. Oh my goodness. I found the recipe here at the King Arthur site. Mine don't look like the ones in the picture but they are still really good. The only thing that was a bit of a pain is that I didn't have boiled cider so I had to make my own and that took awhile.

Standing in line at the grocery store I saw a recipe for candy corn cookies made with premade sugar cookie mix. It seemed easy enough so, using this recipe, also from King Arthur, I divided the basic dough into 3 sections and dyed one orange and one yellow. I layered them in a loaf pan and stuck them in the refrigerator. The layers were just sliced and cut into triangles. Because I used whole wheat white flour the white section turned out brownish, so I improvised and dipped the white sections in a white glaze (white chocolate, a little soymilk, and a splash of almond extract).

Because I'm trying to eat better I can't have these around the house so I packaged 'em up and I'm going to give them to the neighbors.

Cupcakes and Drug Dealers

<---- This is my cupcake. It is a much raved about Fauxstess cupcake from Vegan with a Vengeance. I wish I took more pictures, but I was running off to a baby shower and I was running late because these things took a. long. time. to. make.

But they were so. worth. it.

I took a couple with me to my apartment, where I stayed up all night listening to the dealer above me host various people. And my car got hit! Needless to say, things are crazy here but I'm surviving.

So cupcakes, good. Drug dealers, bad.

Girl Scouts v. Boy Scouts. Or, are Boy Scouts Always Prepared?

The only fight that ever sent me to the hospital happened when I was about eight. From my swing I taunted a tall, skinny boy, about ten years old. "Girl scouts are better than boy scouts," I chanted. He challenged me to get off the swing and say it to his face. I did. He pushed me and I punched him in the face. His nose bleeding, he pushed me into a merry go round. Hours later the doctor said I may have internal injuries and I cried and cried and told my dad I was fine and wanted to go home.

Sigh.

Anyway.

Boy Scouts are taught to always be prepared, right? Girls scouts earn patches in modern dance and baking and cultural awareness and (occasionally) some lame version of camping. But when push comes to shove, wow, we women are prepared. I don't just mean with Dentyne Ice and Chap-stick and Excedrin migraine which are all part of my emergency bag.

I mean, when a small sort of explosion like thing happened this morning on the Metro, causing a brief panic and a bit of a delay, we women were prepared. Of the dozen or so people standing near my, nearly all of the women had flashlights and sensible shoes. During the delay, a rare moment when public transportation riders are allowed to talk to each other, we talked about our flashlights and first aid kits and emergency radios and we had all read the Metro Emergency Guide. The men, well, they did not have flashlights or first aid kits or emergency radios. They were wearing sensible shoes, as they always do, but in this case I would say the women were more prepared.

Maybe band-aids wouldn't matter if we are attacked by terrorists and we just need strong people to carry the wounded out of train tunnels. But this morning, well, this morning the girl scouts were better than boy scouts.

I want to choose my dissertation topic! Or do I?

Part of the reason I chose the PhD program I am in was because they allow complete control over the dissertation topic. I think social work might generally allow more student discretion in dissertation topic this than some other disciplines but I know some universities still encourage students to complete their research under a professor who has funding and who needs cheap or free labor (ok, I know that's a bit pessimistic). That is definitely not the case in my program and I am glad for it.

On the other hand, funding is an issue. After classes are over, my stipend and free tuition disappear and...then what? Some people receive grants buy my-oh-my is that a competitive world! In the current political climate there aren't too many people concerned about how immigrant families are fairing in child abuse and neglect cases.

When I started school and decided to switch to a part time position at work my policy area switched completely. I'm still committed to child welfare, but at work I am immersed in disability issues particularly related to youth. My boss likes me and just today talked to me about how happy she would be to have me work on my dissertation on company time. Well. That means a disseration in a different topic area. It's still human services. It's still youth. But it's not what I want and what I planned.

Hrmph.

But it means I would get paid.

And I know my dissertation isn't my whole career and I am allowed to have multiple interests.

Hrmph.

What to do, what to do?

Reading

I have loved reading since I was a little girl. In fact, every Saturday was chore morning at our house and my parents would always tells me, "No reading until your chores are done!" at which point I would burst into tears and miserably scrub the bathroom or dust the intricate woodwork of the dining room table until that joyous moment when I was done and could run off to a good book. Ok, maybe good isn't the right word. Some of the books I loved were really awful. Flowers in the Attic anyone? Ugh. But some I read and reread and I would recommend to children now: Island of the Blue Dolphins and Iggie's House and A Wrinkle in Time.

Which brings me to today. I miss reading for fun. Sure, I still read the occassional cookbook (like my newest acquisitions Apocalypse Chow and Vegan with a Vengeance). But mostly it's philosophy of science books and social theory and journal articles with titles like The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations. Don't get me wrong, curling up with Against Method can make me smile but it's not the same as reading for fun. In the meantime, my winter break reading list is growing...

Lazy Sunday

A month or so ago we decided to have fairly routine Sundays in order to accomodate school work and a little relaxation. I throw something in the slow cooker (usually something from this cookbook) and study all morning and watch football starting in the late afternoon. Friends can drop by but we don't really make an effort to "entertain" which is hard for me, but I'm getting used to it. It's also hard for me to have a day without plans to leave the house and not spend the whole day in the kitchen. Especially today.

In front of me is a box of goodies--organic whole wheat flour, and organic whole wheat white flour, and organic corn meal, and cute little silicone muffin cups so I don't waste paper ones, and a whole brick of yeast. Oh my! I am beyond excited. This is my first order from King Arthur and there will be many more--the whole grain cookbook and the square pop-up muffin pan are on my wish list. King Arthur has been my go-to flour for some time, because I think they have a great product and I like the company values. I can buy it in local grocery stores but they don't always have the type of flour I want. Since baking season is starting and I am itching to make some yeasty bread I decided to place an order.

But with all this new stuff I can hardly study. Not only can I not wait to bake bread and muffins I realized I should probably rearrange my cabinets. Oh my! This is not helping me study at all.

Romance

Call me naive, call me optimistic, say I see life through rose colored glasses: I am so happy to have a life partner who is my best friend and who I have no doubt will put up with me for the rest of my life.

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. It took us about ten minutes of back and forth to figure out how many years we have been married--let's see, we bought this condo 2 years ago, and when did you get your grad degree, and what year did the Iraq war start? Got it! Three years! After living together 8 (or is it 9?) years we have started to lose track. We were just babies when we moved in together!

The city where I am in school has Krispy Kreme doughnuts so I stopped on my way home to buy six of them. They are an anniversary tradition since we had them instead of cake at our wedding. Driving the two hours home can be stressful, especially after intense classes, but last night it didn't seem so bad. We decided not to go out or have a special meal since I got home late and J had a midterm tonight (his semesters are 10 weeks long). But, oh, those glazed doughnuts. Yum! J managed to eat four of them! Four! Four!! So, romance. Yes, sharing Krispy Kreme dougnuts is romantic.

Lots of Tomatoes, Part II

Gleaning tomatoes at our CSA means taking pounds of tomatoes that we knew we couldn't eat before they rotted. After making fried green tomatoes, sharing some nice ripe tomatoes with family, and eating our fill of tomato sandwiches, I knew it was time to preserve the leftovers. When we had a garden, I used to blanch, skin and freeze tomatoes for winter use in chili and sauces. This works fine and I used this method for some of the tomato varieties.

But these gorgeous little tomatoes (I don't know what variety they are--they are almost like mini-Roma tomatoes) didn't seem fit for blanching and skinning. Instead, I oven-roasted them. After cutting them in half, mixing them with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkling with a little sea salt, I just popped them in the oven at 200 overnight. The next morning they were shriveled and pretty and tasty. Much tastier than the expensive sun-dried tomatoes I normally buy. I put them in the freezer where they should be fine for a few months. I read they can also be put in olive oil and stored in the fridge but they don't last as long.

Eating Close to Home

Eating close to home isn't about finding the best local restaurants, it's about eating food grown close to home. I haven't quite figured out what that means for us in terms of money or time or any practical consideration. But what it means for the moment is I'm no longer content with picking up our food from the CSA and adding our fresh, local, organic tomatoes and pumpkin and eggplant and garlic and other goodies to food from far flung places. Don't get me wrong--I love food from far flung places. I love the flavors and textures that different cultures and geography contribute to our menus. I would be bored with the same food over and over even if it was from my favorite cuisine (Italian or Indian or Thai depending on the moment).

But we need to start considering the fuel wasted in transporting that food. We need to consider what agri-business is doing to local farms. We need to consider how federal farm subsidies influence the choices farmers make. We need to think about the social and environmental consequences of what we eat.

I have no intention of committing to a radical, though thoughtful and admirable, diet of food grown close to home as one couple did on the 100 Mile Diet. I don't plan on committing only to slow food or only buying things I can find through the Local Harvest Site. I'm not sure what I'm committing to doing other than becoming more mindful of what I eat and where it comes from. It doesn't mean I won't buy that really great Indian chutney or Costa Rican bananas. Yet. It just means I'll think more about it, pay more attention, and make an effort to find local food first. Given our current schedules I don't know how far I'm willing to travel for things, but if I can find a fairly convenient source of flour or eggs, why not?