The Rising Sun

His body was fragile, but not his intellect; he had the strength to write his thoughts, a younger associate spoke them. With quill shaking in hand, he scribbled that sometimes painters had difficulty deciding whether a sun was rising or setting. “That chair,” he wrote, motioning to the large, darkened chair at the front of the room as his words were read, “carved and lacquered, has only a sun with its rays. No clues or cues as to morning or evening. Should it be painted yellow or crimson?” For the longest time, he couldn’t decide if the day was beginning or ending.

Yesterday there were three people that I needed; three people through which I found a good portion of my earthy self-worth. One of those just left. Someone that would never leave me has left. Left ugly and completely and without a spoken reason. I’m clueless and devastated.

The light of my day has changed. But is the sun rising or setting?

Sticky Buns

I’m hungry. But I’m not going to make anything. I’m not happy with my weight. So I’ll find sustenance in words.

My favorite time of all is a cool morning. That’s probably why I miss the ocean so much. When I lived in Cal (or visited NJ here), every morning felt brisk. A fresh, fragrant breeze suggested my sweater be at the ready. Hot coffee and freshly prepared food made every day a pleasure to begin. I just remembered driving to the beach in New Hampshire during my undergrad, leaving Manchester before sunrise. We had no money to buy anything, including food, but it sure smelled grand. Greeting the first waves of the day is special to me ...

Places and friends change; I know none of those locales or people anymore. But I can still open my door as it is right now and smell the richness outside. The woods are nothing like the beach, but they hold their own magic.

This recipe started in Gourmet Magazine, but I have changed it a lot. It takes a while to make, but seems to be perfectly timed for getting up early and welcoming everyone else when they arise. The prep time is perfect for a cup of coffee and a shower; the cooking time fits nicely into arranging the table and cleaning up.

I’ve had great sticky buns (including at OCNJ), but there’s nothing like making your own. I love the syrup still dripping from being freshly baked. It’s just not the same from a bakery. These buns – if any are left over, which is rare – nuke quite nicely.

Sticky Buns

Prep Time: 1 hour 5 minutes; Cook Time: 45 minutes

2-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup raisins
1 (8 ounce) frozen Bread Dough
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

You can buy the bread dough from the freezer section of the store. I put one loaf in the fridge overnight to defrost.

Butter an 8 by 4-inch pan.

Melt 2-1/2 T butter in small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in 1/4 cup brown sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice. Increase heat to medium and whisk until sugar melts and syrup boils. Pour syrup evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Sprinkle with pecans.

Put dough on floured surface. Roll out dough to 8 by 12-inch rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/4 sugar and cinnamon. Starting at one short side, roll up dough jelly-roll style. Cut crosswise into eight 1-inch-thick rounds.

Arrange dough slices cut side down in prepared dish, spacing evenly. Cover with plastic. Let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Turn out onto platter. Cool slightly. Serve warm.

Politics, then food

One quick political comment. Harriet Miers is a Christian. A Southern Baptist Christian. That means Bible-thumper. Maybe she won’t be hard enough on abortion, but still a strict constructionist who will not expand civil liberties from the bench. That means reluctance to find rights hidden in the penumbra clauses of deny and disparage in the 9th. That is my litmus test.

And don’t forget, W is a card player. Everyone out there is saying his first pick was cautious – had to be, he knew a second one was coming. Then they said his second pick would be a hard-line conservative – had to be, it’s his last chance. Well, folks, have you looked at the age of John Paul Stevens? 85 years, 5 months, 13 days and counting!! The dirt in my back yard is younger. Pick 3 will happen. W’s nominee won’t get shelved until the primaries are well under way for 2008; then the dems will scream about letting the next POTUS pick the nominee. Stevens may not have 2-1/2 years left in him. And – here’s the card playing – he may be a lot less concerned now that he sees the temperament that W selects in nominees.

So perhaps Miers is a prelude to getting Stevens to go out to pasture. I suggest that three strict-constructionist justices are better than one moderate (Roberts) and one hard-line conservative. Let the pubs scream all they want for now.

Onward …

Whenever I have crab, I think of Ocean City, NJ. I’ve only been there a couple of times as an adult (maybe just once, I don’t recall). I think I was there as a kid – if not, I know I was very close. I remember the name “Diamondhead Beach” from a trip in the 1960s.

During that early trip I remember digging for clams as my dad sat on the beach. I would dig with my toes until I felt one and would then hurriedly dig with my hand to get him before he could run away. I must have been very quick, because not many got away.

One time when I brought my arm back up, a crab was attached to my hand!!!! I had this wart thing my dad called a “carbuncle” in my palm. It was massive. Was there for months (or so it seemed). The crab had a good hold on it. I screamed and shook my hand. No one could hear me over the waves.

The crab eventually dropped off. And took my carbuncle with him.

I told my dad the whole story. Apparently he wasn’t watching. He smiled and gently chastised me for not bringing back the crab.

As an adult, I had a different reality there. But just as memorable. I remember cooking with crab for the first time. Just crab cakes, but they were so good for a lot of reasons.

I found the recipe below a few months ago. It claimed to be “very similar to the San Remo Seafood Dip at the Olive Garden.” Never had the OG dip.

I liked the mix of flavors and it tasted very good. I made one change so far. The breadcrumbs were originally a half cup. Way too much. I cut it below to a quarter cup. My advice is that you want a thin coating perhaps a quarter inch thick at best. Too much tastes grainy and takes away from the crab. Just watch it the first time – don’t let the topping brown before the dip is bubbly hot; cover it with tin foil for a bit it you need – you can always use the broiler to brown the top if you need to in a hurry.

Crabmeat Dip Extraordinaire

1 8 oz. package cream cheese
6 Tablespoons grated onion
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons chili sauce
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
1 5 oz can crab meat (more crabmeat would be even better)
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup Italian seasoned dry breadcrumbs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, sauté the onion and add cream cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, chili sauce and parsley; heat at medium temperature until the cream cheese is softened and stir together. Remove from the heat and add drained crabmeat.

Place in a casserole dish. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter and dry breadcrumbs. Scatter on top of the crabmeat mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until breadcrumbs are toasted and mixture is bubbly.

Serve with your favorite crackers, or even better: get a loaf of thinly sliced French bread and lay several slices on a cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil and broil until golden brown.

Ah, to be free

Freedom from caring about the political idiots is a wonderful thing. The LAT began an ed with something about W "bragging" just a year ago about the political capital he had earned as a result of the re-election and how he was going to spend it. I could feel the venom and the low-life smear-your-face-in-THAT-natural-disaster theme coming up. Click ... I didn't read any further, I don't care what Kingsley has to say behind the nameless "editorial" label.

Life is good. Watched the Yankees win the AL East yesterday. It was very kind of Boston to keep the seat warm for us most of the season whilst we juggled the pitching rotation. And today should be quite fun to watch - ESPN2 at 205/210. If Boston loses and Cleveland wins, then they play tomorrow to see who moves ahead. The fun part is this: they have Shilling on the mound. A great pitcher that Francona ruined last year when he kept him in to pitch over 130 pitches while he was hurt. Shilling's year was horrible. Now Boston's season hangs in the balance on this wounded soldier. It's a shame. Kinda.

I have a couple of days off this week. Quarter just ended. I teach on a quarterly basis full-time (undergraduate Sociology stuff) and a semester-basis part-time (graduate Criminal Justice). The quarterly teaching is paring back because I also manage the distance-learning school for the college. The application for accreditation will be finished tomorrow. Lots of big things happening. The part-time gig is three classes - two at night and one on alternate Saturdays. The night classes are tiring.

The new quarter will be just two classes - both Macroeconomics - so a lighter load and fun subject matter. I get to explain how utterly pathetic John Maynard Keynes was and how Arthur Laffer wasn't a theortician, he was just documenting what Coolidge/Harding and Kennedy did. Most of my students are fashion majors so I talk about supply and demand in terms of fabric and design. Corporate investment is buying product from the Far East or India, and opening a shop in SoHo. Personal consumption trades off the Martha Stewart Prison garb for 1940s Bette Davis slim-line dresses. Edith Head makes more than one appearance, as does Grace Kelly. I want to sit with the fashion professor and better understand her course content, but she is so enormously pregnant right now that I can't get too close - physically it is difficult, and I can't lose this picture of projectile vomit. So it's hard to keep a straight face. For now, I'll just do some research and borrow a book.

My part-time gig may continue to be three classes for the spring. That would be good. The extra money is how I keep two teenagers from feeling poor. I have Ethics, Law & Social Policy, and Writing at present. The L&SP goes away and may be replaced by Juvenile Justice & Deviance. The writing class is very cool - six hours on alternate Saturdays. The students are very attentive and involved. Grammar and writing for three hours ... but it's fun!! The rest is CJ docs. I have them write and share in the mornings. I like everything about the class. My other classes are wonderful, too (thought I'd write that in case some of YOU are in the audience; remember, these are my personal musings - just because I don't mention you fondly doesn't mean that I don't love you. Jessica - how's your grandmother? I hope she's feeling better and is comfortable. You finished your writing assignment yet?).

A recipe? Sure. This is very simple, but yummy. When the mornings get cooler, I love fresh pancakes. They seem to warm me through and through.

I have made these with wheat flour and thought they were too heavy. I have also whipped the egg whites with a mixer and by hand - I prefer the mixer. By hand seemed to have not quite enough impact on the pancake. I always go a little heavy on the pure vanilla (maybe 1-1/2 T?). I buy a litre at a time at a Mexican grocery - it's worth finding.

How many does it make? Never counted. I feed my family - wife has 2 or 3; girl has 3; boy has 3 or 4. Leaves 1 or 2 for me. So ten decently sized pancakes (or one Uncle Buck pancake - snow shovel flipper not included). If you keep your syrup in the fridge, be sure to nuke it for a moment or two.

Clyde's Pancakes

1-1/2 Cups unbleached white flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder

3 eggs separated
2 Cups milk
1/4 Cup melted butter
1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.

Beat the milk, eggs, and butter, and stir into the dry ingredients. Stir in the vanilla.

Beat the egg whites until fluffy but not dry. Gently fold them into the batter.

Change of direction

I stopped blogging for an extended period. In part because I was busy; but in equal measure because I was bored. My writings were about the politics de jour and the fodder was just so repetitious: pubs complain about biased media; libs bark at everything like junkyard dogs; media gleefully reports to their agenda.

Katrina? Global warming; W is pathetic for not signing Kyoto. That would have changed 20-year cycles of hurricanes? Would have changed the 1965/66 decision (after New Orleans was flooded by - surprise! - the effects of a huricane) to build levees greater than Cat-3 status? The relief efforts were defined by economic class and race of recipients? Do I look stupid to you? All of it has the intellectual depth of a spring-rain puddle and I am no longer drawn to it.

I had a good run: Instapundit linked me a few times; The Wall Street Journal's online edition - Best of the Web gave me direct links to a few of my stories and credited me for contributions several times; this blog was one of two on CNN during a piece on political blogs; Slate linked me to as one of the hottest political blogs (or something to that effect); and I was listed as one of the top 25 international blogs for a long time. Pretty amazing for venting on my part. But I didn't do it as some other writers do - which is to say that I rarely jumped ugly. I just wrote my opinion and tried to back it up.

Politics will now be secondary, or trichiary, or maybe non-existent ...

However, I do like to cook. And that's a good thing. So, let me share a recipe. Sound like a plan?

Clyde's Pasta Gravy

1 large yellow onion diced
1 TBLS minced garlic

Sauté in EVOO until translucent; then add:

1 qt. tomato sauce
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
14.5 oz. whole peeled tomatoes (cut up a little before adding)
2 TBLS Italian Spices (see below)
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Bring to a boil, and then simmer partially covered. The longer you cook, the deeper the flavors seem. I usually let it go all afternoon - approximately 4-1/2 hours. You can speed it up dramatically draining liquid from the crushed tomatoes before you add them.

BUT ON MORE STEP … about 1 hour before you are done, add:

14.5 oz. whole peeled tomatoes (cut up a little before adding).

I find that this last step adds a “freshness” to the finished sauce.

The yield is about 3 quarts. When I make a big lasagna (four noodles in each of four layers), the yield of sauce is exactly enough for the lasagna and a gravy bowl at the table.

Italian spices mixture:

2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried marjoram
2 Tbsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp dried coriander
2 Tbsp dried thyme
2 Tbsp dried rosemary
2 Tbsp dried savory

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients. Process for
30 seconds until finely ground. Transfer to a tightly sealed container,
label, and date. Store in a cool dark place for up to 3 months.

Makes a scant cup.