Baking

I can, now, at the age of 36, say that I am a pretty good cook.  Not a gourmet cook, or anything, but 95% of the time that I make something, even if I wing it, it turns out to taste really good.  Baking, however, has always been another thing entirely.  Brownies have been my fallback for a long time, because apparently they are almost impossible to screw up and it's amazing how good chocolate frosting (something that doesn't take an oven) can cover a multitude of culinary sins.

Part of it is that I've never really enjoyed baking, especially cookies.   The pressure of getting something cooked perfectly even once is hard enough, but pan after pan of the things - no thanks.  It doesn't help that my grandmother is the queen of homemade bread and my mother the undisputed and quite famous queen of chocolate chip cookies.  They have both assured me that their expertise comes from years of practice, but I also think they have a knack for it.  There's also the fact that baking is largely about proportions a.k.a. math and about chemistry - bleck.

However, in the last few weeks, thanks to our abundance of produce, I've decided to get brave and try making some baked fruit desserts.  Last week I made a cobbler and this week apple pear crisp.   The cobbler was ridiculously easy, the apple crisp a little less so (I'm not a big fan of peeling either) but both came out yummy.  Now, they won't win prizes or anything, and they won't touch my mom's cookies in the "favorite dessert" contest anytime soon, but they both tasted really good and were fun to eat.   So maybe baking isn't so evil, especially if I lower my expectations --- and stay away from trying to bake cookies.   

It's snowing....

This is the time of year when I start holding a grudge against Utah.   The time of year when I think "Who needs a PhD, I'll go be a file clerk wherever this icky white stuff doesn't fall from the sky in October."  (Especially since it was eighty degrees last week and most of our leaves are still green!) 

Luckily, I married someone who hates snow as much, if not more so, than I do, so at least in our case, misery has company.

Family History

So for a couple of months my Grandma Maureen and I have been working on a project to help her write a life history.  I've been sending her questions via e-mail and then she writes up an answer  and sends it back.  Then I compile them in what I hope is some sort of logical order.  We're up to 12 pages now.

It's been a really delightful process,  one of those few moments in life when something completely worthwhile is also easy and fun.   I know I'm biased, but I've been struck with how interesting my grandmother's stories are.  Maybe I'm just at an age where I'm ready to pay attention, but whatever the case I'm glad I get to work on this with her.   I deal with a lot of history in my life,  but doing this with my grandma has reinforced how much more interesting things are when you directly relate to them.  Something to remember if I'm ever in a teaching position again.

Oh and watch out Mom...you're next :-)

Beautiful But Soulless

I've been anticipating watching the new version of Jane Eyre since I first heard it was coming out.  I was finally able to watch it today and was fairly disappointed.  It's not that the movie is bad, it isn't, the cinematography is beautiful and foreboding, it is a respectful treatment of Charlotte Bronte's book, and there were a couple of really nice moments.  I can even forgive the actors for being far too attractive for the characters they are supposed to be playing.  However, there wasn't a lot of emotional spark between the Jane and Rochester characters in this movie (they seemed to try to make up for this with  lengthy make out scenes) and Jane's resilient spirituality and quick and direct intellect, perhaps my favorite things about the book, are almost nonexistent in this version.  To me Jane also comes off as a bit pouty and petulant, which may be the most unforgivable problem with the film.   In any case, it's the third or fourth time this year when I've gone into a movie wanting to love it and come out disappointed, maybe I'm just too hard to please.

Star Trek

So I started rewatching Star Trek Voyager because it was available on the Netflix streaming, and was surprised how addictive it was.  I think it's interesting that, really, in terms of quality I think Star Trek: The Next Generation is by far the better show (you'll notice Captain Picard was the only Star Trek character to make it on my fictional favorites list).  Yet, Voyager is the one that most sucked me in, yet again. 

I don't think of myself as a Trekkie (or Trekker or Trekster or Trekaholic, or whatever they're calling it these days).  Other than my soft spot for Spock, I find most of the Original Series to be unintentionally hilarious and/or annoying, and didn't watch Deep Space Nine or Enterprise.   Yet Voyager was lots of fun, yet again. 

Maybe it was the fact that when I watched it I was young enough to still be totally sucked in to a fantastical world, and yet old enough to relate to the characters.  (Though I find it interesting that the moment I relate the most to takes place on a Klingon barge of the dead, hmmm....)  Anyway, it's been fun to watch it again.

And it gave me something to blog about, which lately is the real bonus.

Better Keep Your House Clean

Add this to the interesting things I've learned while working on my dissertation. 

In 1968 the FBI (among others) considered a messy dorm room to be a sign of "immoral behavior" - seriously, I could not make this stuff up.  

Art - and again with the decorating

So I started watching design shows again.  The only thing that is saving our budget is the fact that I can't bring myself to think about decorating unless the house is clean, and I can't manage to get the house clean with the life-sucking cold and time-sucking dissertation hanging over my head.

I did get wild today and by a new frame for a picture that has basically been screwed up since we moved into this house almost five years ago.  It was 50% off of relatively cheap.  However, the new frame takes two nails to hang and not one and I'm too lazy to figure it out for myself so Tracy has agreed to take pity on me this weekend and help me rehang it.  

We're also pondering a new frame for a painting of Redfish Lake that not only is cool but has sentimental value for Tracy.  One thing about the two of us, we're lucky to have had talented grandmothers and friends of the family so that we have some actual art in our house.   Oh, and Tracy's photography of course.  I'm lucky that I have a husband who takes pictures like this that I can hang on the living room wall.