Breaching The Web

• Construction has started on the Blackfriar’s Bridge Solar Platformin London. This is a train station bridge with solar panels installed on the roof — it will be the longest solar bridge in the world when complete.

• Bicycles at war

• Canada launches its War of 1812 commemoration, which focuses on how the war (when Canada joined forces with the English and Aboriginal Canadians to repel American invaders) defined Canada. There’s also a War of 1812 website to help educate Canadians about the importance of the war.

• On managing wild horse populations out West

• Two celebrity chefs will serve food at a ballpark to a hometown crowd (October 18 in Frederick, MD)

Miss Representation is a new documentary that takes on the issue of the media’s portrayal of women, and the very real harm this causes to women and girls in the United States.  Watch the trailer here:  Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) .  Oprah is distributing the film, and it will be shown on OWN.

This is an old issue.  But it’s still with us, and it still matters.

Today’s quote of the day is from an optimistically ambiguous apocalyptic novel:

Buildings, streets, the economy, the government, even our families, stay together simply because we want them to. Without that will, that desire to maintain, things fall apart.  — from Quarantined, by Joe McKinney

Image by Lady_Fox via Flickr

Mmmm… pumpkin pie. I love the texture, the flavor, and of course the sweetness.  What I don’t love is the crust — unless it’s homemade, it’s usually tasteless. Luckily, pumpkin pie is just a custard in a crust. If you leave the crust out, you won’t lose much.  The custard is simple and fast to make.   You can whip it up in a food processor or mixer.  It’s even low in fat, but that’s just a happy accident.

I have a small 3 cup food processor, which isn’t large enough for all the ingredients.  I mixed up the eggs in a bowl and blended the evaporated milk, sugar and pumpkin together in the small food processor in 3 batches.  Then I dumped the pumpkin mix with the eggs, added everything else, and stirred it up.  It worked fine, but I think next time I’ll use my stand mixer.

I made 6 custards in stoneware coffee cups.  Cups, not mugs!  They are really, really cute.  My husband and I enjoyed a couple for dessert.  Tomorrow morning I am going to have pumpkin custard and steel cut oatmeal for breakfast.  That will be brilliant.

Pumpkin Custard
Makes 6 1-cup servings

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 12-ounce can evaporated skim milk
2 large eggs
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a baking dish with vegetable oil spray (not olive!). Use one of the following:

• a 6-cup baking dish
• six 1-cup ramekins
• two 3-cup baking dishes

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process with a blade. Pour the mixture into your baking dish(es) of choice.

Bake 45 minutes, until the center is firm and the surface is dry to the touch. A larger dish might require a few extra minutes of cooking. Serve warm or at room temperature.

You’ll find a Google docs version of the recipe here.

Image via Wikipedia

I cook a lot, but it still feels like it’s not enough.  And lately I’ve fallen into a bit of a rut, cooking the same things over and over again.  I’ve been inspired by @genehack to try and get some of my cooking mojo back.  I’ve been particularly focused on cookbook exploitation (a simple idea which emphasizes cooking recipes in cookbooks you already have as a way to both get cooking and save a few bucks) and have made some tasty new meals.  It feels good.

But cookbook exploitation aside, I bought Mark Bitman’s Cooking Solves Everything as soon as I saw it.  It’s not really a cookbook — it’s not even a book, it’s a Kindle single (which is a long-form article) — but it does include a few meal ideals in the back, written in Bitman’s characteristic free-form style.

This little book is brilliant.  I’m a big fan of Michael Pollan, but as good as his work is, it takes a very high-level, almost “public health” approach to why we should cook and eat more real food.  I can’t get motivated to cook by thinking about how cooking will save the planet, any more than I can get motivated to visit the gynecologist because routine pap smears bring down population-level cancer rates.  What’s in it for me?

Bitman takes a completely different approach, as the subtitle to the book suggests: How Time in the Kitchen Can Save Your Health, Your Budget, and Even the Planet. See, saving the planet is still part of the reason for cooking, but it’s not the only reason.  It’s also fun and educational and fast and convenient and healthy and cheap and good for the people you love.  Bitman lays out 10 reasons for cooking, and for each he describes and explains the logic behind them in an accessible, compelling, and emotionally relevant way.  I felt very motivated to get in the kitchen and cook after reading this book.

Image by katxn via Flickr

Tonight for dinner I made this beautiful, rich,  minestroni-like soup that I call “Wintry Mines-stew-ni” because it’s so deliciously chunky and warm and filling.  It’s like a hug in your tummy.  Credit for this recipe goes to Casual Kitchen’s Wintry Tomato Soup. I swapped out the water for homemade chicken stock (you can use store-bought, I won’t tell), and I adjusted the seasonings to my liking.

The biggest change I made was to add smoked Spanish paprika. This adds a sweet, smoky middle note, making the flavor more complex and interesting — it also deepens the red color. You can use any smoked paprika, or if it’s all you have, you can use regular paprika. But I really feel the smoked version is worth the extra cost.

The soup reheats beautifully.  You might need to add more stock or another can of tomatoes when you reheat it — the pasta will expand in the fridge overnight.  You can also freeze it, but leave the pasta out until you reheat it.

I garnished each serving with a tablespoon of pesto .  You could also garnish with Parmesan cheese, a glug of a high-quality dipping oil or a sprinkling of fresh basil.

Wintry Mines-stew-ni
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 onions chopped coarsely
2 zucchinis, diced coarsely
1 pound mushrooms, stems removed and cut into quarters
6 large cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 14-ounce cans stewed tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (more if you like it! I usually add 1 tablespoon or more)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 cup ditalini pasta
1 handful chopped fresh basil, oregano and/or thyme
(or 1 Tablespoon dried basil and 1 Tablespoon dried oregano)

Directions

Chop the onions, zucchini and mushrooms to a size that you’d like to see on your spoon — make them a bit chunky.

Heat the oil in a dutch oven, add the onion and garlic, and saute on medium heat until soft (4-5 minutes) minutes. Add the zucchini and mushrooms and saute for another 4-5 minutes. If you are using dried basil and oregano, add it with the zucchini.

Add the chicken broth and water. If you like your soup chunky, add the tomatoes directly. For a smoother soup, whir the tomatoes in a blender before adding them (I always do this). Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the pepper, salt, paprika, and pasta and cook for 15 more minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally so the pasta does not stick.

Updated to add: here’s a link to the Google Docs version of the recipe, for printing.

On September 3, I put two bottles of cheap ruby port into my oak barrel. On September 12, I tasted it and thought it was pretty good. On September 19, I tasted it again — and thought it was really, really good.  The flavor is sweet and a bit smokey, with a lot of caramel flavor.  The color is a beautiful toasty red/brown.

I decanted it back into the original bottles and almost filled them both.  The angels didn’t take much — they didn’t the opportunity.  Then I immediately filled the barrel with single malt, un-aged spirit from Copper Fox.  Yes this is unorthodox — that’s the point.  I can’t wait to find out how it turns out.

The Western United States was largely settled by illegal immigrants — claim jumpers, squatters, sooners, you name it, our pioneer ancestors didn’t wait around for the government before moving out, moving on, moving in and moving up to make a living off the vast wealth of the West.

Tim Lee looks at squatters for Forbes:

[F]ew settlers had either $640 or the legal expertise to navigate America’s cumbersome property laws. And so thousands of migrants simply ignored the law and settled illegally on vacant land.

Offended by their disrespect for the law and worried about lost revenue, the federal government responded harshly. The US Army began evicting illegal squatters and destroying their homes….

These crackdowns failed. As migrants continued to pour west, it became obvious that the federal and state governments lacked the resources to evict more than a fraction of the lawbreakers….

Kentucky was one of the first states to offer squatters a path to legalization. Under the Kentucky system, any squatter whose claim went unchallenged for seven years, and who paid taxes on the land during that period, was eligible for a clear title to the property regardless of who had owned it previously. This system was controversial at first, but other states gradually saw the need for reform. Congress finally acknowledged defeat in 1862 with the passage of the Homestead Act, which gave settlers free federal land if they cultivated it for five years. The Act didn’t so much establish the practice of homesteading as formalize what settlers had been doing illegally for decades.

Sounds a lot like amnesty to me.

Amazon is reportedly in talks with publishers to create a Netflix of books, where you can pay a monthly fee and have access to a certain number of books (some reports suggest you would have acces to certain books, like a book club).

I used to say that I wouldn’t read eBooks until there was a Netflix or Rhapsody of eBooks (I’d still prefer a Rhapsody of books — a flat monthly fee to read all I want? I read fast, so sign me up!).  Then I was given a Kindle as a gift, and I’ve given up dead tree books almost entirely. I find reading on my Kindle to be almost completely frictionless.  I read much more, and much more frequently, than ever before.

But I’d still love to have a service that would allow me to borrow books for a lower fee than I currently “buy” them from Amazon — especially since I’m licensing them anyway, and I rarely read a book more than once.

Eight days ago, I put some cheap port in a 2-liter whisky barrel. I just had a nip from the barrel.  The port is darker and more brown than it was a week ago, and the flavor is more complex.  I can definitely taste the char and some deeper caramel notes.  I’m going to leave it in the barrel a bit longer.