Amazing oven fries

I have a love affair with the potato, and that's a fact. In junior year English, we were asked to write an essay describing which food we would like to be, and I chose the potato. So cheap! So versatile! Saved the Irish!

I try to sate my passion with baked potatoes (the Wendy's ones are great) and mashed potatoes rather than fast food French fries or Perkins hash browns (extra crispy) that I love. This oven fry recipe is a great middle ground.

My mom made oven fries for us often when we were growing up, usually as a side to our fish on Thursday night. Her version involved large wedges of russets tossed in vegetable oil. This is a somewhat refined version for the nights when we want something special.

Cut Yukon Gold potatoes in fries 1” long and ½” thick. Toss with a couple teaspoons olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a sprayed or lined baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes, or until golden, stirring halfway through. Toss with salt and serve.

If you choose to cut them bigger or use russets, the flavor and texture will change--russets are fluffier, these are more sturdy. Make sure to give yourself enough time for any potato to get golden on the outside and tender on the inside!

An afternoon at the library

About every three weeks, I have the pleasure of working Saturday and Sunday at the library, which means watching and guiding the antics of families who like to visit us on the weekends. Yesterday afternoon, a four-hour shift, was pretty typical, and this is some of what happened and some of the requests I received.

• "Do you have a kids' book about an unhappy triangle?" (Turns out it's called "The Greedy Triangle, and no, we don't have it, although it's cool--a triangle that visits a shape-shifter to become a square, etc.)
• "Do you have a kids' book about a girl who eats lima beans? I read it in third grade. No, I don't remember anything else." (After visiting our catalog, Amazon, and finally Google, we identified it as _A Bad Case of Stripes_ by David Shannon. We have multiple copies, and there are lima beans on the title page!)
• "So I lost my reading program sheet. (I hand her a new one.) Well, no, I guess I left it at home. Can I have another one? (So, you left it at home but you know where it is?) Yes. (No, it's one per person [the prize is pizza].)" This particular interchange happened several times.
• "Do you have any books about fall? Any books about pumpkins? Any books about apples? I know I should have come earlier ... " (Do they realize we send books to over 70 preschool classrooms, most of which want fall books? Not to mention everyone else who comes in asking? I do really wish we could accomodate them....)
• "What section is the books for kids aged 5-12? (Well, you could start with picture books, then go to early readers, then the chapter books, and some 12-yr-olds read young adult books.) So they're all mixed in, then?"
• "Can I sign up for the computer? ... Someone else is on the computer and it's my turn ... The computer headphones are broken....."
• No running in the library! (That's me. As a rule, we don't shush people, but we do make them stop running. With so many little ones and toys underfoot, it's just not safe.)
• A young boy at the self checkout says to me, "I can read all 13 of these movies by 1 AM! I'll just stop for some energy drinks on the way home!"
• Plus any number of book and movie requests that I was more easily able to fulfill, all topped off by myself and a coworker spending a frantic 1/2 hour picking up all the toys, books, puzzles, lego pieces, etc. strewn across every conceivable surface while listening to multiple kids screaming their heads off (while banging their double strollers against the metal radiator) that they did NOT want to leave the library!!

I never feel like it's a wasted afternoon, that's for sure! :)

Iowa Library conference, part two

Here are some pictures to go with yesterday's post. Top left--the nametag with flair. Top right--a slide from our presentation that I set up to show the progression of letter knowledge (one of the six early literacy skills) in kids. It starts with comparing cubes to spheres, then circles to squares, then identifying letters. Bottom left is the slide for narrative skills--retelling stories--it's a flannelboard set for Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We can take the portable flannelboard with us to storytime visits, or we can wear the flannel apron. The apron is great fun and super easy to deal with, although things get interesting when you let the kids slap the pieces onto the apron.... Bottom right--me in my suit while I was packing. If I get an action shot from the presentation day, I'll post that later.

Mary Kay Trainings vs. Library Conferences

(Pictures to come tomorrow!)


I recently returned from the Iowa Library Association conference where a coworker and I did a presentation about how Ames Public Library takes early literacy storytimes to daycares and preschools. While I was there, I pondered the similarities and differences between this conference and the trainings that I went to when I was a Mary Kay consultant. I found this fascinating; hopefully, you will at least find it mildly interesting.

(Disclaimer--I loved being a consultant and I love being a librarian, and I love my fellow-mostly-women in both professions, despite fun-poking that ensues below.)

1. Break time: consultants go to the bathroom to fix their makeup. Librarians don't even wear makeup (I am so serious about this--I wore some on my presentation day, but I was definitely in the minority), so at break time librarians go outside and find a place far away from all the noise and people. If you happen to walk by "their spot," you might get looked at with a librarian look.

2. Dress: consultants wear "uniforms"--black or red jacket, black skirt, closed toe shoes, hose, or director's suit. Librarians: a handful of us wore suits--some directors, my boss (she says she can't wear nice suits with short skirts for storytimes so this is her chance)--and I wore a pantsuit the day of my presentation. Most people were wearing business casual, and quite a number wore tennis shoes. Ever the practical ones.

3. Flair: This surprised me. At Mary Kay meetings, it's all about the flair: the pins and whatnot that show off how successful you've been, or at least how much product you've bought. Library conferences are not so different. When we got our nametags, we were given ribbons to stick on them based on various achievements--committee member, ILA member, ALA member, presenter, etc. Those who had given lots of money got special lanyards. Although I thought it was a bit silly, I admit to feeling proud of my "presenter" ribbon and a bit piqued that they didn't give me the ALA member ribbon I deserved. We all like recognition.

4. Evening entertainment: I found out how old I am the second night of the conference. I was sitting with a group of women who were older than I, waiting for the Storytellers Group to come tell us bedtime stories. Then the young, hip, twenty-something librarians swooped through, including my newest coworker, so I asked what they were doing. Board games in room 732! she cried! Come join us! And I realized that I would have lots and lots of fun playing board games in room 732, but I would never get to sleep after that. And since I'm old now, sleep trumps fun. :( Which is also why I quit going to weekly MK meetings--the bright lights, loud music, all the energy intended to motivate us--all conspired to ensure I never got a good night's sleep on MK nights. What do old MK consultants do? I don't think there's a Bedtime Storytellers' Group in MK.

5. Food: I opted for vegetarian meals at ILA, which was a great choice. I like meat in moderation, but at conferences they always give you a slab of meat that covers the whole plate. Not my style. This way I had room for dessert--cheesecake, tiramisu, apple pie.... I wasn't in MK long enough to get a feel for the food culture, although I went to a few meetings at Panera and a couple at mom and pop restaurants with lots of meat and cobblers.

So there it is, my decidedly unscientific ramblings about the Iowa Library Association conference and how it compared with my Mary Kay experience. Hope you were amused!

Favorite Parmesan cheese

If you're like me, you grew up shaking powder out of a can onto your weekly spaghetti. That was good and everything, but there is a whole world of Parmesan cheeses out there. I've been reading "foodie" magazines and books for years now, and every single one of them raves about "real Parmesan cheese from Parma Italy with Parmesan Reggiano stamped on the rind." I'm here to tell you, save your $20/pound. (Seriously.) I've bought it a couple times and it is just not that great, certainly not great enough to justify the price. I've also tried the lookalikes--American imitation wedges (only $5-10/a pound!)--also not good. The stuff that comes in a bag from Kraft is pretty good, but the best is what you see above.

The new product you see is a marvel of food and plastic engineering. I'm sure the wedge of cheese in the container is not from Italy (although the packaging is--how much sense does that make??), but when freshly grated onto soup or pasta, it tastes great. And so easy--just turn the green dial on the bottom. If you turn it the wrong way (as I inevitably do), no worries--just turn it the right way for a while and the cheese will move down the spike on which it sits.

It's great--no grater to wash, only the amount of cheese you want, and fresh cheese every time. It lasts 3 weeks in the fridge once you open the pack (longer than either a regular wedge or the bag). As for price, I think it was $3-4,

Drawbacks--I haven't seen it at Fareway, and you do have to throw away a rather large hunk of plastic. Nothing's perfect!

Late summer recipe

For anyone who still has zuchinni and eggplant around, this is my favorite way to cook them.

For the dish shown in the picture:
Slice zuchinni and onions thinly. Saute in olive oil. Add a couple pinches of dried oregano.

My grandma Walburg has made this for us for years.

My slight update:
Cut zuchinni and eggplant into small cubes. Slice onion thinly. Saute in olive oil--add eggplant first, then other vegetables. Add more olive oil to keep them from sticking. Add a couple pinches of dried oregano.

Timing will depend on the heat you use to cook it, the size of the veggies, and how many veggies you have, as well as whether you like them crisp or mushy!

Enjoy!!

A recipe for a cloudy day--Minestrone

Normally I think of minestrone as a recipe for August, when eggplant, tomatoes, and herbs are at their peak. However, this version makes use of mostly canned and dried ingredients, and still manages to capture a lot of that sunny garden feeling, making it perfect for rainy fall days like we've been having this week.

Don't you love the steam rising off the soup? Kudos to my new camera.

This recipe is very flexible, especially with the vegetables. My mom likes to add cabbage and potatoes to hers. What I like about this one is that the puree makes it quite thick, verging on vegetable stew. Although it looks long, it really doesn't take much time to put together. A lot of the cook time is simply simmering. Enjoy!

Minestrone
Moosewood Cookbook
6-8 servings
45-60 minutes

5 cloves crushed garlic
1 c chopped onion
3 T olive oil
2 t salt, divided
1 c minced celery
1 c cubed carrot
1 c cubed eggplant
1 t oregano
¼ t pepper
1 t basil
1 c chopped red pepper
3 c vegetable stock
1 lg can (20 oz?) tomato puree
14 oz can of kidney beans
3 T dry red wine
14 oz can chopped tomatoes
½ c small dry pasta such as shells
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a soup kettle, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.
2. Add 1 t salt, carrot, celery, and eggplant. Mix well. Add oregano, pepper, and basil. Cover and cook over low heat 5-8 minutes.
3. Add red pepper, stock, puree, beans, and wine. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes and remaining salt. At this point, you can simmer the soup as long as you like, or proceed to step 5.
5. Bring soup back to boil, add pasta, and boil gently until it is tender, about 7 minutes. Serve immediately, topped with copious amounts of Parmesan cheese.

You can substitute zucchini for the eggplant; just add it along with the red pepper (which can also be green pepper if you prefer). This soup freezes nicely—just don’t add the pasta to the portion of the soup you freeze. When you warm it up, you can add pasta or just eat it as is. If you put extra beans in, it will be plenty hardy. If you buy “real” Parmesan cheese and have a leftover rind, let it simmer in the soup. You can then gnaw on it at the table. Tasty!

Green cleaning

My adventures in green cleaning continue. I found another website with many great ideas of nontoxic substitutions for cleaners. My oven floor was a mess because of these great pizzas that we bake right on the rack--crispy crust, messy oven. I was pondering what to do--it's a self-cleaning oven, and all you do is set it up and it does the work, right? But then I remembered the last time Mom and I did this--it got so hot and smelly in the house I just couldn't stand it.

So I thought I'd try this. And turns out, it's even easier than the self-cleaning. All you do is remove the racks, sprinkle 1/2 inch of baking soda all over the bottom, spritz it with water, and go to bed. In the morning, scrape off the baking soda and junk with something like those great Pampered Chef scrapers and a sponge. No sweat, no smell! I'll never be afraid to clean my oven again.

Why I don't blog much

I haven't posted anything for months, and when I am in doubt about what to write I can always get introspective. I don't normally have a shortage of things to say, so why hasn't blogging really caught on with me? A few reasons:

1) I am proud and like to impress people when I write or speak, and I do both of these things a lot anyway between my job and work at church. Writing or speaking in public is not the easiest way for me to unwind.
2) I like targeting what I say to the specific audience. I don't enjoy offending people and when I post a blog I am always imagining the easiest-to-offend person out there reading it. Selective communication is also a way of presenting yourself differently to different groups of people, and not necessarily desirable.
3) I am long winded. Long blogs take a long time to write and people don't read them, and working to make things shorter feels like work and isn't fun.

So really all of it can be explained in terms of various character flaws. Of course I could probably sit down with an avid blogger and find other character flaws that lead them to blog. Score another one for total depravity.

My dishwasher

So this (and this) is what our kitchen looked like until just recently. Crowded and often full of dirty dishes. I was getting fed up and so we started looking into possibilities. We didn't really want to redo our whole kitchen since the floor and the appliances are new and the cabinets look pretty good. We checked on portable dishwashers--none available locally for purchase that would fit. Finally we found the Danby 18" portable online, and eventually found that we could have it shipped to Walmart. We don't normally shop there, but saving that much money on shipping, plus having some place we could bring it back to if necessary, was very attractive.

And now, so is our kitchen. See below.


We fit the dishwasher between the stove and the wall, where, not surprisingly, an old non-functioning portable dishwasher lived when Alex first moved in. I am mystified as to why we didn't replace it right away--I think I thought the baker's rack was more important. It is now across the room, next to the kitchen table (which is smaller than it was when we got married--no leaves now.) The move opened things up so much.



Here's the dishwasher. One reviewer called it "the easy bake oven" of dishwashers, and it is small, but we don't generate that many dishes. On average we run it every 2 days, unless I cook enchiladas. Then we ran it twice in one day! It gets the dishes way more sparkling clean than I ever could. But it does take almost 2 hours!


Here is Cleo's reaction--he was really freaked out the first night we ran it. He's used to it now.

All in all, a great early birthday present that will keep on giving. Thanks, Alex!

A simple fall recipe

One of the great delights of fall is squash. Personally, one of my strongest memories of squash is from the year our family went to Disneyland. We grew, then cooked and froze, then ate enough squash to save money to go to Disneyland. Or at least cover one of our tickets.

Anyway, this is my favorite way to do acorn squash.

Exact recipe--makes enough for 2 good-sized servings:
1. Take a small to medium-sized acorn squash.
2. Punch a hole in it.
3. Microwave it for 2 minutes.
4. Take it out and cut it in half.
5. Scoop out seeds.
6. In each half, put 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon brown sugar.
7. Put it back in the microwave for about 5 minutes (until soft).
8. Enjoy.

You can also do it in the oven. With ones shaped like this, I'm tempted to slice them into rings because they're so pretty, but this is just easy!

Easy coffee for one

(This one's for you, Anna!)

First, the history. I never used to drink caffeine at all because it has the potential to mess up the absorption rate of some medications I take. However, a couple years ago I was having great difficulty getting going in the morning, and my doctor said, well, I could prescribe a stimulant, or you could just drink a cup of coffee in the morning. Overjoyed, I chose the coffee--I've long loved decaf, and the flavor options are so much greater with caffeine.

But I hated how the coffee maker took up a good portion of my one work counter in the kitchen. Then my coffee-loving friend Jen DeBoest showed me the handy little contraption above. (She also gave me the mug.) You set the plastic thing on your mug, put in a regular filter (or a special-sized one if you like to spend money), and a large tablespoon of coffee grounds (I grind mine each week at the grocery store--perfect combination of freshness and convenience). Then you pour enough boiling water in to fill your cup (but not overflow it--that's really the only trick). We love it! ("We" because Alex actually makes the coffee--and the breakfast--every morning although he only drinks tea and coffee "socially.")

It's available locally at Cooks' Emporium for about $5. It comes from Holland, and if anyone is interested, I'm sure I could get more details on the name of it.

Uses for cooked chicken

If you've started making cooked chicken and stock on your own, you may have cooked chicken lying around (hopefully in your freezer). Here are some favorite uses:

1. Slather some bread with mayonaise and top with chicken; salt if you didn't use much salt when making the chicken, and make a great sandwich.

2. Chicken pot pie--I don't yet have a favorite recipe, being torn between ease of preparation and healthiness, but my sister-in-law gave me a super easy one that I'd share and Cooking Light has a great-looking healthy one.

3. Quesadillas--top tortillas with chicken, green chilies, and cheddar cheese, add another tortilla, and bake or toast in skillet.

4. Chicken soup--saute some chopped up carrots, celery, and onion, add the stock, add some noodles or rice and simmer until soft, add chicken, season as desired, and serve.

5. Chicken Tetrazinni--there are all kinds of versions of this that require baking, but I don't see the point. I boil some spaghetti, and meanwhile I make a white sauce with the stock (you can also use can of creamed chicken soup). Stir in some grated cheddar, a bit of dried parslely, a can of drained mushrooms, and some chicken. Use as sauce over the spaghetti.

I hope you all don't mind the lack of precision. These recipes are all quite forgiving, so figure out what works for you, and if you have a specfic question let me know!