Bread, Wine, Salt

Athena from A Field of Dreams   asked me to post her virtual shower gift to Justine on my blog.   I hope you'll be inspired by these cookies to go check out her blog and see what other treasures she has to share.  Athena  says: In Greek-Australian tradition when a child is born, practically all the friends and relatives turn up to the hospital or home. With them they usually have a plate of Greek biscuits. As there are so many people who visit; biscuits, coffee and tea are given to the visitors as a small gesture of thanks. So as a virtual visit to Justine's Shower I give her these for her family, friends and visitors. Melomacarona (Greek Honey Cookies) Mελομακάρονα 2 c. olive oil 3/4 c. sugar 3/4 c. orange juice 1/4 c. brandy 7 1/2 to 8 c. sifted flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. Soda FOR THE SYRUP: 2 c. honey 2 c. sugar 2 c. Water Beat together first four ingredients. Sift flour, baking powder and soda three times. Add the sifted dry ingredient...

A virtual shower gift for the Bean, who is far more than half-baked. First, some background: Justine wasn't my friend, originally. She more properly belongs to my husband, who has been friends with her since college. Both she and my husband know how to sing and play an instrument. (I know how to play the radio.) They kept in touch after college and started reading each other's blogs back in the dark ages of blogs when people believed the internet might be private. This was on a different blog platform under a different name. I was there, too, and eventually I added Justine to my list of friends on said blog platform. I was snooping, is what I was doing, and I was too lazy to keep checking back to see if she'd updated, so I wanted her there on my friends page (this was before FB, can you imagine?). Of course the blog platform in question informed Justine that I had added her so I had to send her an email letting her know that she didn't have to be my friend...

Is Music Monday a thing? Google tells me it's a twitter thing, but it doesn't appear to be a blog thing. But I'm making it a blog thing, or my blog thing, or my blog thing today. I don't remember exactly how I discovered singer/ songwriter/ geek lord Jonathan Coulton . But I've been a fan of his for several years now. He's a internet rock star, the first internet rock star in fact, and perhaps the most successful. In addition to selling his songs on his blog and performing in venues around the country he releases all of his music under a Creative Commons license, which means that so long as you're not trying to make a profit you're welcome to cover his music, make videos of his music, or record his live shows. It's a part of what makes him awesome, and it means that you can spend a lot of time on YouTube going from song to song getting a feel for his music. He writes a lot of silly geeky songs and a lot of songs that resonate with the ...

There are a lot of changes coming for me, and while I'm not making New Year's resolutions per se, it seems appropriate that these changes come at a traditional time of starting over. And while some of these changes revolve around my health, I'm not going to go too crazy. You'll find no promises to give up carbs or fat or whatever it is all the cool people are giving up these days. I will be trying to be more aware of what I'm eating, and not eating things which aren't good. What's that you say? “Of course you shouldn't eat things that aren't good. Who does that?” Me. I do that. I eat things when I'm not really hungry and I sometimes eat things that aren't really tasty even though there's no reason. If I'm going to stuff myself full of something, I want it to be something lovely, eaten in a way that acknowledges that food is not just fuel. So unresolution number one is to make more waffles. These are good waffles. Th...

I'm a big believer in homemade birthday cakes . Unfortunately that doesn't always translate into the time to make them for my friends. When it does I have my usual concerns about making a cake that isn't pretty enough. Certainly no one is going to pay me for my decorating skills. But if I don't over-extend myself on the decorating I can produce an acceptable cake exterior. Once you start slicing, the pretty doesn't matter anymore, but the flavor and texture of the cake matter with every forkful. This carrot cake was wonderful, flavorful, tender, and just sweet enough.  Cream cheese frosting is a natural with carrot cake, and this one is just right.  The recipe comes from BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher, who you might recognize as the cheerful food scientist who makes appearances on Good Eats . Corriher uses the science of food to come up with recipes that work perfectly. It's a big book, and I haven't tried all of her recipes (not even close)...