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Archives for June 2011

Cheese Puffs Gougere

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gougeres1.jpgGougere Bread (Cheese Chou)

Preheat oven to 375

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1/4 lb. Gruyere or Swiss cheese, cut into small cubes
2 Tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of pepper

Preparation:

1- In large saucepan, combine milk, butter, salt, and pepper and bring to a rolling boil.
2- Add all flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with whisk, till mixture forms a ball leaving the sides of the pan clean.
3- Remove pan from heat and beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is thoroughly beaten into the batter before adding the next.
4- Mix in the cubed cheese.
5- Drop balls of dough on parchment paper on cookie sheet. Leave 3″ apart.
6- Brush gougeres with milk and sprinkle each one with grated Parmesan cheese.
7- Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the breads are well puffed, firm and golden brown.

Serve immediately! Makes about 15 chou.

Not The Sharpest Tool In the Shed

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So okay, I admit. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed nor the brightest color in the crayon box but God help me that was hard to read. Oh wait a minute, it was even harder to understand.

Classic classic! The Master and Margarita! Got it, should read it. It was assigned for May in our reading group on Goodreads. Fell for it and read the thing. While doing this I had to go back, brush up on Faust and other literary classics to begin to grasp the story.

I am glad I read it. Some people found it funny and humorous in my group. More power to them. I found it morose and dark. To each their own. Most subjects dealing with the Devil leave me disgusted. And in this book, his persona was all over the place.

It would be impossible to give you an account of the story without using several pages of description. Suffice it to say that many posts on the net describe the book in detail, blow by blow. There are even Cliff notes on it. Russian humor escaped me as well as Russian social norms.

I liked it well enough but not for another go around. I would never pick it up again unless for a class. 🙂

*** Yes, I own it.

Here I Sit To Write

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_MG_1992.jpgIn the few years of writing one ugly fact reared its compelling head over and over again, namely practice. It is not that I dislike writing. I love writing. But if I want to write quality work and continue writing well, I need to write more, starting and completing as many projects as possible for me.

This brought on the short story frenzy which has joyfully invaded my life. Obsessed with short stories in all forms, I forged forward. I read them, write them, critique them and devour the genre, from Maugham to Poe. My desire for them, grown over the last few months brought me to demand of myself fifty, yes you heard me, fifty short stories by the end 2011.

As I pondered this dilemma I set up for myself, I realized that all it constituted was a mere four stories a month. By the end of the year, I should have fifty stories. That made it one a week. Forget the extra two weeks which makes the year 52 weeks. We’re having none of that!

Now for someone like me who talks non stop, this should be a breeze, right? Wrong! My publisher, bless his holy heart, made a deal with me that at least 25 of those had to be Novelettes. This qualifies them to at least ten thousand words each.

So,
Here I sit broke hearted
Tried to write
But only started
Then one day
I tried to pen
And all I did
Was say Amen

Yeah, you got it! I lost my mind! Now maybe I can write.

Julie and Julia Cooking A Storm

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Continuing with my Meryl Streep month, this is one of my favorite movies of hers. If you do not like to cook, do not watch this movie. It will seem uninteresting. The book was a good decent laugh but Meryl Streep as Julia Child was awesome in so many ways. She was crass in some places, loud, inappropriate and delightful.

This was no beauty contest since the real woman had no physical appeal to speak of. Yet, Meryl Streep gave her a new life that gave me a joy for everything culinary since I love to cook. The time line between their lives and the parallel lives they led even at such a difference in time and age was delightful and well thought out.

Scenes from Paris delighted me to no end. Her Cordon Bleu experiences rang true. If it is true that she snubbed the blog chef, it shows even more of her crassness and the hard personality she portrayed in her old shows on television. Maybe true!

On the whole it was a fun to follow both lives. A fun movie.

* * * * Yes, a four and I own the DVD.

$300 At a time To Buy Friendship

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Dear Baba Rumcake,
How much is the most you’ve spent on friends? Me: almost $300 bought what they sold. Not even sure these “friends” are true friends.
LovinFriends

Dear LovinFriends,
Wow, that is some serious inadequacy. What in the world were you thinking? Are you seriously that needy or is this just a ploy for attention.

Either way, it is your money. But darn lady, that is so screwed up. The problem is not only with you spending all this money but with those people you seem to believe are friends who allow you to spend all this money. So, they give you crap you do not need for money that you are willing to spend but need to complain about.

You are pathetic actually. Glad they are using you. You deserve it. Grow up! Find real friends or keep getting used.