Lucidia

Here’s what I’ve been up to during the first week of Lent.  Giving up Facebook has provided time and energy for other projects.

Cooking

I decided not to obsess over food-related Lenten disciplines, though I have managed to do without cookies and cakes.  After finishing off last week’s Baked Rigatoni and Italian Herb Focaccia, I brewed up a big batch of Lentil Soup and baked a loaf of 10-grain bread (using the recipe in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Bread Bible).  So I’ve been eating simple but hardy soup & bread all week (and have quite a bit frozen for future meals).

Sewing

Several years ago I bought this beautiful, bright fabric to make a curtain for the window in my stairway.

A few days ago I finally made the curtain.  I think it looks perfect!

The remaining fabric will go for a similar curtain for my back door.

Lenten Reading Group

After my Willa Cather Book Group disbanded, I decided to join a Lenten Reading Group through the University Episcopal Community in a study of Lactantius’ Divine Institutes.

The syllabus describes this project as follows:

Lactantius was the first Christian to compose a comprehensive account of the faith of Christians in the Latin language. The Divine Institutes, written during the last Great Persecution of the Church by the Roman authorities (303-13 A.D.) was meant as a definitive description of Christianity that would answer all possible pagan objections and provide a permanent way which would draw middlebrow folk on to ‘that full and overflowing fount of teaching which slakes thirst in the inmost parts’. Among these middlebrow folk was Constantine the Great (306-37), who emerged from the years of the Great Persecution as the first Christian emperor. The Divine Institutes open a window onto the Christian experience of persecution and onto the sort of Christianity embraced by Constantine. What they have to say, in particular about Christian ethics and the Christian hope, still has the power to illuminate lives today.

For the first week our assignment was Books I-III, 225 pages setting the stage for the rest of the book’s defense of Christianity.  I made it through 187 pages.  So far Lactantius’ primary rhetorical device seems to be ridiculing the beliefs of the pagans and calling them “stupid.”  He is rather witty (probably more so to those more well-versed in classical literature) and I did mark several passages that made me laugh out loud.  I marked even more passages that seemed to contain criticisms which could be as easily leveled against Christianity as against the pagan gods.

In any case, the man leading the group is entertaining and full of great stories, so I’ll likely plow through the remaining 250 pages, which spread over the next five weeks should be less arduous than this first section.

Images of Haiti

My church, which has a partnership with a church in Bigonet, Haiti,  has produced a book of stories (and a set of posters) about Haiti, in English and Haitian Creole.  I’m helping out with a bit of internet research locating Haitian Studies and Creole Language Programs for possible marketing of the book and associated posters.  The book and posters are being sold through SyracuseCulturalWorkers.com.  Or contact me to learn more about it!

WOW!

On top of all that, in the evenings I’ve been trying to stay awake to watch the Olympics, though don’t get me started on the NBC Olympic coverage–ARRGGHH!!

And I’m still managing to take my naps, do my yoga, and otherwise manage my CFS.  I doubt I can keep this up for long (I occasionally have bursts of energy followed by periods of total exhaustion), but I’m thankful for this productivity nonetheless.

Happy New Year!  Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Apologies for long delay between posts.  Ho Ho Ho drained all my energy.

Much of my attention right now is directed toward the earthquake in Haiti (7.0 on Tuesday January 13, 2010), but I will need some more time to process before I blog about that . . .

Not much news on the cooking front.  Haven’t been exploring many new recipes and have already posted most of the old favorites.  Speaking of . . . I made my favorite Turkey Mushroom Rice Casserole a few days ago and discovered that the recipe I had posted was missing a few steps. (I had listed herbs and S&P in the ingredients but never mentioned when to add them.) You can see the corrected version at: Turkey Mushroom Rice Casserole.

I also made another batch of my Black & White Burritos. This time I cooked dried beans instead of using canned. I used the oven method suggested by Marcella Hazan that I described with my Minestrone recipe.  The surprise was that even though Black Beans typically take at least 90 minutes to cook on top of the stove, they were done in less than an hour using the oven method (I used 1-1/2 cups beans and the same 3-quart casserole mentioned in the instructions in the Minestrone post.  I’m going to be eating lots of rice, beans, and pasta in the next few months (due to winter budgetary restrictions), so I’m thrilled that this method works with a variety of beans.

Took advantage of a rain delay in tonight’s ballgame to post my latest recipe:  Curried Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.  Feel free to play around with this one and let me know how it works out.

Time to go heat up a bowl for myself!

It snowed last night and actually stuck to the ground . . . pretty early for the Twin Cities . . . melted by afternoon, but more expected tonight. As soon as the weather forecast said “snow”, I started thinking about soup. So yesterday I stocked up on onions and celery and carrots and such. And today I brewed up a big pot of Minestrone, aka Italian Vegetable Soup. I followed Marcella Hazan’s recipe from “The Classic Italian Cookbook”, though I left out the cabbage (I would have added kale, but the store I was at yesterday didn’t have any that looked good) and didn’t bother to leave it boiling for 3 hours . . . after 90 minutes I was too hungry to wait any longer

I don’t like to post recipes stolen from other sources, but I can give the basics for this soup without much guilt. For the specific details, buy Marcella’s book . . . (my paperback copy cost $5.95 many years ago and may no longer be available . . . her newer edition is called “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” but I’m betting it includes a pesto recipe.

Minestrone Soup

Put some oil and butter in the bottom of a big soup pot. Thinly slice half of a large onion (or a whole smaller onion) and add it to the pot at medium heat. Add to this some chopped carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, and green beans (I used 1 cup each of the carrots, celery, and green beans and 2 cups of the potatoes and zucchini). For this recipe don’t bother to prep everything ahead of time, just chop and drop each veggie into the pot, give everything a stir each time, and keep the heat low enough so nothing starts burning.

(Once all the veggies have cooked for several minutes, I would usually add several cups of chopped kale and cook until it wilts a bit.)

Add 6 cups vegatable broth (or a combination of broth and water) and one 15-oz. can of diced tomatoes. Cook at a slow boil until thick (90 minutes – 3 hours). About 15 minutes before serving add 1-2 cups cooked pasta and/or cooked white beans (see instructions below). Just before serving (or in the individual bowls) add a large pinch of parmesan cheese and/or a big spoon of pesto.

Cooking Dried Beans

I’ve always had trouble cooking dried beans. Either they boil too rapidly and split and/or boil over OR I set the heat too low and they don’t cook. Here’s a method I had never heard of before (adapted from Marcella Hazan).

1. Soak beans overnight covered in 2″ of cold water. (I used 3/4 cup of small white beans for my soup.)

2. Preheat oven to 325°.

3. Rinse and drain the beans and put them in a large casserole dish or pot that can be used both on the stovetop and in the oven and has a lid (I used a 3-quart corning ware casserole dish). Cover with 2″ of water.

4. Bring the beans to a boil on top of the stove. Cover and transfer to the preheated oven. Cook for 40-60 minutes. Leave in their water until ready to use.

This method worked GREAT! Nice tender beans with much less hassle.

Apologies for the 2 months between posts. Too much Facebooking.

I have updated some of the recipes by adding photos (see Apple Cake, Evil Jungle Prince with Chicken, and Thai Eggplant with Broccoli/Bok Choi).

Baseball continues to be exciting, at least in the American League Central. Once again the Twins are battling with the Tigers for the Central Division Championship. They won in extras this afternoon and are now only 1 game back. Playing again right now. (Double header due to rain out last night.)

Must go watch now!