Turtles near the Wabash

It's always fun to walk down the hill to the Wabash River overflow pond at River Road and Quincey. These turtles (May 29) are considerably bigger than ones I saw a few weeks earlier.

Lady Slipper Orchid

A lady slipper orchid blooming in Happy Hollow Park (May 16)

Muskrat by the Wabash

On the other side of the Wabash, we saw this muskrat.

May in Indiana

Today on my way to the farmers' market downtown, I saw these birds in the woods by the Wabash River overflow pond down the street. On my way home, they were swimming in the pond itself. My birdwatching friend and family have identified them as Muscovy ducks. I've never seen them here before.
At the farmers' market, I bought asparagus and rhubarb.

The irises are just starting to bloom.

The Wabash is quite high today. I think I got there just as it is reaching it's high for this flood--21.6 feet.

I took a few pictures of the holding pond at the bottom of Robinson. A heron was right by my path--usually they stay closer to the river, but the land they often stand on is under water right now.

Rugelach

Having baked schnecken a few weeks ago, we decided to try Joan Nathan's recipe for rugelach. Though the schnecken were good, they were very much like other tasty cinnamon rolls. But the rugelach, rich in cream cheese and butter, were deliciously unlike anything we can buy in our town. So they are something we will make again.

Schnecken

Inspired by Mae's January 27 reference to a Joan Nathan article about rugelach and schnecken,
I decided to try Nathan's recipe for "Jewish Bake Shop's Schnecken" in Jewish Cooking in America , p 95.

My friend Mona and I made them today, following the recipe faithfully except that we used a mixture of dried cranberries and cherries in place of currants. They taste great. Here's a picture

More soup

Today Suzanne and I made Estonian broccoli soup using the new immersion blender. So much easier than last week's soup--no straining off liquid, using the food processor and putting soup back together. Only one pot and the shaft from the new blender to clean!

Soup and Bread on a Cold Day

It snowed all day today. I stayed home and baked bread this morning. I used the basic white bread recipe in the book that comes with my KitchenAid mixer. The dough hook did the kneading and I let the bread rise in a cupboard that has a heating duct behind it. It rose better than any bread I've ever made, and tasted wonderful. I decided to make soup to go with the bread for dinner. I managed a good soup from ingredients that I had, since I didn't want to go out in the snow. Here is the recipe, more or less the way I did it. It's a combination of ideas from The Joy of Cooking and other sources.
3 T butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 lb (2 large) potatoes, cut in cubes
1 can chicken broth
4 cups water
2/3 lb (2 medium) zucchini, shredded in food processor
1 carrot, shredded in food processor
1/3 C dry sherry
juice of 1/3 lemon
white pepper, nutmeg

Melt the butter in a large pot (4 qts). Cook the onion for about 10 minutes and then add the garlic and cook about 5 more minutes until all is soft. Add potato cubes, broth, and water. Cook about 20 minutes. Add shredded zucchini and carrots. Cook around 10 minutes more, until potatoes are soft.
Strain to remove liquid and puree the solid part in the food processor. Add the puree back into the liquid. Stir well. Add sherry and lemon juice. Season with pepper and nutmeg. Serve or wait awhile and reheat if necessary.
(If I had an immersion blender, I would use it instead of the food processor, saving a dirty pot and strainer. If I were doing it this way, I also would just slice, not shred, the zucchini and carrots, since they get pureed anyway.)

Served with a dollop of sour cream and lots of bread, butter and cheese. The two of us ate up a little more than half the soup. It would serve 6 or 8 as a first course.

Happy Chanukah

My friend at work gave me 10 yards of Chanukah fabric. It belonged to her mother, who was a Christian minister who was interested in all faiths. I'm not a very good seamstress, and I don't have a sewing machine any more, but I wanted to use some of the fabric. So yesterday I made a pillow case for a little pillow. I realized as I sewed, slowly, slowly, that I am lucky to have lived in the 20th and 21st centuries, since I would have been a failure as a girl in the 19th century. My stitches aren't very tiny and my seams aren't very straight. But I am so proud that the case fits the pillow and that I have a pretty decoration and a memory of a good person.

Rainbow over Yellowstone Lake

Not to be competitive, but Mae's rainbow reminded me to post this picture from this summer's visit to Yellowstone.

Butterfly encounter

A few weeks ago I went to a "Butterfly Encounter" at the Lilly nature center. They have 55 acres of prairie and woods. We saw lots of butterflies (though not as many as they have seen on warmer, sunnier days) but they are too hard to photograph. However, this monarch caterpillar sat still on its milkweed and I took its picture. It is probably a very hungry caterpillar.

Dan's rocks

This is a small box containing some rocks that belong to Dan. I think they may be ones that our neighbor polished, or maybe some that we bought. If Dan wants them, we will send them to him.

Grandpa's pin

My dad was a member of the engineering honorary, Sigma Xi. This is a picture of his membership pin, I think, though I may have it mixed up with some other pin belonging to other grandpa.
We also had a large blue book which was the membership list of Sigma Xi. We would use it as a booster seat sometimes.

Grandma's furniture

Here are pictures of Great-Grandma desk, chest of drawers, and dresser. She and Great-Grandpa bought the desk when they got married. I think the other furniture may have been Nana and Papa's before it belonged to Great-Grandma. She would like these things to stay in the family, so hopes that her children, grandchildren,or great-grandchildren want them.

Theo's Story: Ton ton

TON ton 1 Ton ton went for a walk and saw a snake. The snake said “lunch” .”Huh” said TON ton.Then she met a lion. Roaar said the lion.She ran ran ran.Then she fell in a tigers cage. The tiger wounded her! She ran ran ran again.She did not know that the zookeeper was a meanie. He kicked her!! She was wounded again,but she did not know it. “Ha ha” he said.A cobra attacked!!! She ran from the zoo 14 mph!! Than 20 mph! She then slipped. She broke her ankle!!!!! OW! OW! OW! She said. She hobbled home. The end.TONton 2 She entered the olimpics. She got bronze in the long jump. But she crashed in to the person behind her. They crashed in cement and rolled and rolled. Then she raced and raced.
She got 646th place of 2,987 runners. She raced on a 4 mile racetrack.She started in 1,412th. She ran 22.2 mph.the end.
TONton 3 She raced again. This time she raced with 168,789,098,876,443,897,986,909 runners!!!!!!! She started in 4,876th She ended in 4th!!!!!!! She got a red medal![gold=1st silver=2nd bronze=3rd red=4th blue=5th]She ran 34mph!!!!!!! She later fell off a tree house!!!!She broke four ribs!!!She got better and said “yes!”Than she was swallowed by a twelve foot cobra. She broke his body open, and escaped, very thin, because she did not get any food at all.CHAPTER 2Teeth chattering, she met a large lion.He wounded her horribly.OOOOW!! she called.He then knocked her out!CHAPTER 3Freezing she met a polar bear! He rolled her and gave her frost bite!She escaped in a plane.CHAPTER 4 Very damaged she ran home in a car 120 mph.THE end epilogue:on halloween, she saw a real goblin!!!! “hhhhhha” he said.”aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she said. The end.

Easter Eggs

Theo and Tessa dyed Easter eggs. Here is a picture of them with two of their beautiful eggs. Some of them have crayoned designs, and some have more than one color. Unfortunately, hard-boiled eggs don't last forever, so we took pictures to preserve them.

When I was a little girl, sometimes my mother blew the uncooked egg out of the shell. To do that, you need a little hole at each end. You blow through one end and the egg comes out the other. You wash out the inside and let the egg dry. Then you can paint the egg. My mom sometimes painted faces of people, or bunny rabbits and made them ears. Then we could keep them until they broke.

Lemon Layer Cake

Last night we had a birthday party for a 13 year old friend. Here is the birthday cake. I baked the cake from a mix and made powdered sugar lemon frosting. One friend made the chocolate curls (dark and white chocolate). The other friend (mother of the birthday girl) decorated with shredded coconut, strawberries, blueberries, lemon zest and the curls. There is lemon curd between the layers. It tastes as good as it looks.

THe Eagle

Today I went for a walk down to the Wabash. For the first time in two years, I saw the eagle that sometimes sits in the trees between the overflow pond and the river. He was a bit far away, but I got his picture both in the tree and in flight. The flight pictures are blurry, but here he is, sitting in the tree. If you click on the picture, you will see him bigger.

Here is a picture of the paper boat I made using the instructions from www.alisonosinski.com/pooltips/9.htm which are based on the boat making instructions in "Curious George Rides a Bicycle" by H.A. Rey

Happy Valentine's Day! Here is our dessert, chocolate pie, before and after I added the whipped cream.

Old Friends

This summer I got a chance to see several friends whom I have known for more than 50 years.
The first picture is my elementary school friend, Janie, in 1957 after she moved away from St Louis.
The second picture is of Janie in her garden in Wisconsin this summer.

The third picture is from my birthday party when I turned 13 in 1958.
The people in it are: Toby, Michele, Lynette, Mary Ann, Harriet (top row)
Liz, Elaine, Marilyn (bottom row).

The last picture is of me, Michele and Mary Ann in Oakland this summer.

Mistake?

When my sister was in 5th grade her teacher was called Miss Taake. She was ugly and mean to the children. Sometimes she would leave the children in the room by themselves when she was supposed to be teaching them. Then, if they got noisy or ran around while she was gone, she would punish them when she got back. The children called her "Mistake" because she was mean and nasty.
But here's another part of the story. Grandpa's Uncle was in Miss Taake's class in second grade, more than 20 years before my sister. At that time, he says, she was young and beautiful and all the children loved her. Then at the end of the year, she got married and, since at that time, around 1932, married women were not allowed to continue teaching, she didn't come back to school.
But she was still Miss Taake years later. What happened? Did she get married but tell the school she was not married? Or did she decide not to get married? Or did she get married and later get divorced? When did she go from being young and beautiful and kind to being nasty and old and ugly?
This is all a mystery. Or maybe there was some mistake.

Great Meal

These are pictures of the delicious meal we had at Harvest, a restaurant on Big Bend in Clayton. The salad had quinoa in it. The lamb was served with a cherry sauce, fennel and a potato cake.

Niki de Saint Phalle

The St Louis Botanical Garden currently has a fantastic exhibit of sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle. I took lots of pictures, but am posting just a few here, after a couple of postcards from my collection to contrast with the "nanas", which she called "heralds of a new matriarchal age".
The first postcard is a TWA advertisement called "Valley of the Sun", postage one cent. The second was sent by Aunt Bernadine (name on green suited lady) and Aunt Sadie (red polk-a-dot suit) in 1953, with the message "Two more days & we'll look like those two dolllies", postage two cents.


These nanas (translate as "chicks" or "babes", says the visitor guide) are in the water in front of the Linnaean House.

This lion looked like fun. You were allowed to climb on some of the sculptures.

And you could sit on some of them.

Some were really weird. There were 40 sculptures on display. I took pictures of most of them, and have posted them all on Snapfish.

Amphibians

Theo says he isn't so interested in amphibians any more, but I wanted him to see this picture. Turtles come out on the log when the sun shines. They live just down the hill from us, in the pond where the river overflows. This one jumped off the log right after I took this picture.

Father's Day

Since we will be out of town on Father's Day, I made a special treat for Grandpa last Sunday, chocolate pie with filling from Great Grandma Ruth's recipe and crust thanks to Lara.

Pie Shell:
1 1/4 C graham cracker crumbs
1/4 C flour
1/3 C sugar
1/3 C butter, melted

Combine crumbs and sugar in medium sized bowl. Stir in melted butter until thoroughly blended. Pack firmly in 9 inch pie plate and press to bottom and sides, pressing till crumbs come evenly to the rim. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool, chill and fill.

Chocolate Pie Filling
2 or 2 1/4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 1/2 C milk (divided into 1 C and 1 1/2 C)
6 T sifted flour
1 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 T butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix 1 C milk with the flour, using a blender or a wire whisk. Set aside.
In a double boiler or a pot set over simmering hot water or in a heavy saucepan on very low heat, mix the 1 1/2 C milk with the cut up chocolate. Stir (wooden or silicone spoon) and cook until the chocolate melts. Beat with an egg beater or the whisk. Gradually add the flour-milk mixture to the chocolate-milk mixure. Add sugar and salt and cook until thick, stirring constantly. (Takes from 8 to 12 minutes). Add a little of the chocolate mixture to the beaten egg yolks stirring hard so they won't start to cook. Add this mixture back into the chocolate mixture; keep stirring hard.
Now cook another 2 minutes or so until the mixture is really thick. Add butter (cut up) and vanilla. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally so butter is incorporated. Pour into the pie shell.

Cool in refrigerator. Decorate with whipped cream before serving.

Thank you Tracy

Tracy came to our house with a beautiful potted plant. We put it on the front steps. Then she went with me to the garden store and planned and planted a few beautiful garden spots and some boxes. Thanks to all the rain we have been having, everything is growing beautifully.

Spelling Stories

Today we are proud in West Lafayette because a local eighth grader, Sameer Mishra, won the National Spelling Bee. He had to spell the following words in order to win:
sudation demitass quadrat diener hyssop macedoine basenji numnah chorion nacarat sinicize hyphaeresis taleggio esclandre guerdon

(The words are in the story in the Lafayette Journal and Courier. I hardly know any of them, but I think they probably meant to write "demitasse." The writers at the J & C are not known to be good spellers).

I was a pretty good speller in elementary school, but I remember one embarrassing story about spelling. In third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Noble, wanted to know how to spell "sundae", the ice cream treat. She asked the class if anyone knew how to spell it. Since I always pronounced it "sunda" with a short "a" at the end, I raised my hand and said "s u n d a". She didn't tell me that I was wrong, so to this day I wonder if she has been spelling it wrong based on my answer. By the time I knew the correct spelling, I wasn't in her class any more, so I couldn't help her.

In fourth grade, we had class spelling bees, where a team, not an individual, was the winner. My friend Jane and I were both good spellers, so the teacher would always put us on opposite teams. That gave the teams both good chances, but meant that we could never both be on the winning team. Recently I reminded Jane of this, and she wrote to me:
"I forgot we were the good spellers. When I was in 6th grade in NYC, I won the school and the district spelling bee, but misspelled annihilate in the City-wide bee. I had a booklet of "hard" words to study. It's a strange concept to have spelling contests, but it's fun if you're good at it."

I recommend the movie "Akeelah and the Bee", which is not a "real story", but is a good fictional movie about a girl who goes to the spelling bee.

I hope I spelled all the words in this posting correctly.

Rhubarb Crisp

Appreciating Mae's link to my salad, I want to show my appreciation for her rhubarb crisp. I followed her recipe from last week using this week's rhubarb from the farmers' market. Here is a picture of mine, before we started eating. It is wonderful.