Una menonita living la vida loca...sorta
For the last week-plus, I have been dining on arroz y habichuelas, platanos, pastillos and flan on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico more than any food that Mary Emma would recommend...alas my absence from here. Before that, I have no excuses. No, we weren't doing anything noble or altruistic like most good Mennos do when they travel the world...just plain old vacation in the sun and on the beach with sweet drinks in hand.
But, I did think of my frugal, Menno grandma quite often. Her favorite thing to say (which I learned when she came with us on vacation to California when I was in jr. high and we ordered a $5 piece of cheesecake for dessert) is, "well, that ain't nothin' special." When you are a tourist in a tourist world with tourist prices, that phrase sure can come to mind regularly -- like when you have to pay a taxi $12 to take you a mile and a half to your hotel because you don't know any other way to get there from the airport or when you were looking for a cheap, authentic, local-type place to eat dinner and go to "Chez Shack" thinking that the name suggests such a place, but are badly mistaken.
A couple of weeks ago I actually made something out of "MCC:FFR," (as it has been wisely shortened to by my fellow cooks/writers) but then was too lazy to write about it, partly because I was rather disappointed - again - with my results. I found the recipe for Popovers (p. 21) and thoughts of a heavenly pastry creation filled my mind. What came out of the oven was little more than round, hard blops of baked dough. Ok, so they were more like smooth biscuits with a hard outside and a soft inside. But there was nothing airy, light or popover-esque about them. And they were quite bland. Was it me? Probably. I found a recipe for Popovers in the new Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (that nicely includes photos for those of us chefs who need them) that has a very similar recipe (did they borrow and adapt from MCC:FFR???). Their picture shows what I was hoping would come out of my oven -- something that you have to pierce to let the steam escape from because it has risen so much. I don't know what the problem was...could have been because I didn't "sift" the flour like I was told to, or maybe it is our oven that doesn't seem to really know what temperature it is inside. The recipe calls for them to be baked at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat for another 20. My little rocks didn't even make it to the second round before they were already hard and done...without rising at all. But, Ben -- ever a quite frugal Menno - didn't want to throw the creations out too quickly, like I was ready to do. He seemed to think they were alright with a little jelly.
But, I did think of my frugal, Menno grandma quite often. Her favorite thing to say (which I learned when she came with us on vacation to California when I was in jr. high and we ordered a $5 piece of cheesecake for dessert) is, "well, that ain't nothin' special." When you are a tourist in a tourist world with tourist prices, that phrase sure can come to mind regularly -- like when you have to pay a taxi $12 to take you a mile and a half to your hotel because you don't know any other way to get there from the airport or when you were looking for a cheap, authentic, local-type place to eat dinner and go to "Chez Shack" thinking that the name suggests such a place, but are badly mistaken.
A couple of weeks ago I actually made something out of "MCC:FFR," (as it has been wisely shortened to by my fellow cooks/writers) but then was too lazy to write about it, partly because I was rather disappointed - again - with my results. I found the recipe for Popovers (p. 21) and thoughts of a heavenly pastry creation filled my mind. What came out of the oven was little more than round, hard blops of baked dough. Ok, so they were more like smooth biscuits with a hard outside and a soft inside. But there was nothing airy, light or popover-esque about them. And they were quite bland. Was it me? Probably. I found a recipe for Popovers in the new Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (that nicely includes photos for those of us chefs who need them) that has a very similar recipe (did they borrow and adapt from MCC:FFR???). Their picture shows what I was hoping would come out of my oven -- something that you have to pierce to let the steam escape from because it has risen so much. I don't know what the problem was...could have been because I didn't "sift" the flour like I was told to, or maybe it is our oven that doesn't seem to really know what temperature it is inside. The recipe calls for them to be baked at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat for another 20. My little rocks didn't even make it to the second round before they were already hard and done...without rising at all. But, Ben -- ever a quite frugal Menno - didn't want to throw the creations out too quickly, like I was ready to do. He seemed to think they were alright with a little jelly.
posted by jshb at 4:57 PM
1 Comments:
Welcome back to the Midwest, chica! Missed you. BTW, I'm in the same boat as you w/ sifting. I was under the impression that it's not really necessary, and to be honest, I don't even have a clue what it is. Do you guys know? Not that I'll change my slacker ways...
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