August 29, 2003
Random Weekly Wrapup
Notable Events of the Week:
I got a bicycle! I have been stalking one on eBay for a few days. I really hate buying things on eBay, unless I can do the 'buy it now' option, because I mostly lose at the last minute, or I mean to bid, but then forget at the crucial time. I did that on another item this week, where I was going to bid at the last minute, but was then actually working at the right time, so I lost. But the bicycle is mine! It's a local sale, so I get to pick it up on Tuesday after work. Then I can go on all kinds of wonderful bike rides.
My microwave died. This happened, of course, the very same day that I finished the careful preparation of foods to be heated in the microwave. Sigh. So this week was an adventure in heating food without a microwave. It went fairly well. Almost well enough to consider living microwave-free and reclaiming all that counter space, but not quite that good. So instead I'm trying to find the tiniest microwave I can find. The one I'm looking at right now is positively itsy-bitsy for a microwave. It looks like this:
And it measures about 14 inches square. My current one is over 20 inches wide, so that would be some significant savings. I'm not sure if my dinner plates would fit in it, though. It says it takes a 10" dinner plate, and I think mine are 10.5". Decisions, decisions.
Camping preparations are coming along nicely. We have a huge pile of stuff by the door. I was thinking, hey, no problem, until I realized that I also had a coolor, maybe two as well. We may have some fun fitting everything in tomorrow! We will be leaving as early as we can tomorrow afternoon, in hopes of beating traffic. That is probably just a pipe dream, though, and I am expecting to spend a lot of time looking at brake lights. We still need to grocery shop too. But the list is all made, and the master list of everything that needs to go in the car is completed as well.
I have watched two tv shows in the last two days where cooking lamb is a central feature of the show. It grosses me out. I'm really way too picky about the kinds of meat I'll eat, I've decided. But it's hard to be rational about it. No venison, lamb, buffalo, or ostrich for me. Also, hot dogs. Although those are on the menu for this weekend. I'm going to get them at Trader Joe's and hope that I will feel that they are organic enough to eat them.
I started reading an interesting book the other night. It's called From Hardtack to Home Fries, and is a history of American food. I was very excited to discover this book, as it exposed me to a whole new genre of books -- food history books!
Other books in this category that sound interesting include: Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked, The Old-Time Brand Name Cookbook, Whistleberries Stirabout Depression Cake: Food Customs and Concoctions of the Frontier West, and Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's and More from Your Kitchen Today.
One thing I had heard before I bought the book is that it discusses the origins of the 'Mock Apple Pie' -- the pie made with Ritz crackers that does not actually contain any apples! The book says (supposedly, as I have not read that far yet) that it could have its origins in the Civil War, when they had hardtack crackers to eat, and not much else. It will be interesting to get to that part.
So far, though, there have been no happy stories of bread or anything else baking. We launch right into the Irish Potato Famine, complete with entire families starving to death in their collapsed cabins, and Irish being unable to cook the food that other countries sent them as aid -- either because they had no fuel, or because they just didn't know how.
I am hoping it gets cheerier as it progresses, although probably stories of not having any fresh fruit and making do with nasty crackers because you're miles away from your family and busy fighting your fellow countrymen aren't going to be too cheerful either.
Posted by Rachel at August 29, 2003 12:11 AM