Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Will You Love Me Still? Book Review

I received by mail a most carefully, most lovingly wrapped book for review.  Inside the envelope, wrapped in cling wrap, a most sensible precaution, considering it traveled from snowy Oregon to rainy Chicago, after being printed in China, was a lovely board book. 


Will You Love Me Still? written by Valya Boutenko and illustrated by Katya Korobkina.


Lovely message of unconditional love and acceptance with beguiling, charming illustrations. Wonderful, I imagine to read with a toddler, as well as with a beginning reader.  The latter was my case as my daughter Wisteria is struggling to sound out words and make sense of written English. Repetition of phrases that start with "Will you love me if... " will build confidence surely.

The scenario is that a mischevious kitty continually tests the love of its young, bespeckled mistress as it gets into one naughty situation after another.  At its conclusion, the girl/mother figure reassures it in the most loving way.  I noticed that while the mistress and the setting are rendered with shading, the kitty is kind of flat and white and cartoonish.  Brilliant!  Makes it easy for a child to superimpose an image of himself or herself into the story.  I first time I read it out loud Wisteria answered an empathic "NO!"  to each of the questions.  What a toughie!  The second time around she was at "YES!" throughout. The third time she attempted to read the words herself. 
Very engaging story to be sure.



This made her hungry for noodles.



To the best of my knowledge this is the first board book referencing Kant (see the 5th from the left book spine on bookcase). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant


Devilishness conveyed with a few strokes: bared teeth, shifty eyes. 
What mom hasn't seen this expression? 



Serenity in adversity. A thing of beauty.

In a nut shell, this book was delight and very easy to recommend.

Disclosure: www.rawfamily.com provided me with this review copy to do an honest review.








Sunday, January 22, 2012

Rose hip retals

I don't even remember when I bought these.  Recently uncovered when reorganizing the kitchen: a package of El Pipila Food Products Jamica Rose Hip Retals. Fab impulse buy (1.99 for 4 ounces) as it turns out.  Steeped in hot water these make a rosey, berry magenta tea that is tart and delicious.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Noodles with poppy seeds, easy "recipe"

Some 10 days later, I discovered in the fridge, a Pyrex dish containing noodles with poppy seeds left over from Wigilia, added a little water to steam, stuck in oven, and enjoyed tonight. Yes, it tasted even better today, melding flavors, dontcha know.

This is how I made it:

Cooked 2 package eggs noodles (2 pounds dry).
Drained and mixed while hot with
1 stick of sweet unsalted butter, stir until butter melts and is evenly distributed.
Then added
contents of 2 cans of sweetened Solo poppy seeds,
contents of 1 can of Solo almond paste,
handful of candied orange peel
(other years I used fresh lemon zest).

No added sugar, but you may want to adjust to your taste.
I mentioned the brand name of the canned fillings, there may be others that are just as good that I'm not aware of.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Candied orange peel, rose maze

Life is sweeter with certain nonstaples: rose petal jam, poppyseeds in a can, candied ginger, dark chocolate, dried fruit, marizipan, candied orange peel.

One of my favorite memories: as a little girl, at an elderly aunt's, with my young mother, little brothers, on a hot sunny, summer afternoon, picking up a feral kitten, so wee, so new its fur was downy, who climbed my entire height with its exquisitely sharp, tiny claws.  It sprang away.  My aunt led us with baskets to her rose maze, tall hedges serpentined this way and that, laden with fragrant blood red, pudding maroon roses as big as my hands. An out house stood nearby. I felt very strange, destructive, plucking off their petals, never having desecrated a living thing before.  She told me to try not to bruise them.  When our basket were full, this is more fuzzy, she cooked them on top of her wood fueled stove with beet sugar, spring water (I imagine).  Intoxicating, rose petal jam served warm on yeasty bread she baked anticipating our visit.

I always loved the surprise of candied orange peel in the dough of paczki, cookies, noodles with poppyseed, sprinkled on ice cream with bits of dark chololate, big strips dipped in melted dark chocolate (thank you Blommer chocolate factory store).  This year I made my own candied orange peel.  I read that grapefruit and lemon peels can be remade the same way.  I watched various youtube videos and a couple of recipe websites to piece it together.  Funnily, some did not explain what simple syrup was or the proportions of sugar and water, one to one as it turns out. I would only use organic fruit peels for this.

So this is what I did:

Peeled 4 organic navel oranges, served fruit to family.
Boiled the peels for a long time in sauce pan with water to cover, drained, changed the water, boiled again, drained.
You can do it 3 times, each time takes away more bitterness.
Let cool.
Peeled away the white pith, leaving thin orange skins.
Cut into small pieces sized for future baking purposes. Had I wanted to dip them in chocolate I would have left in long strips.
Tossed in sauce pan with simple syrup to cover. Simple syrup is 1 cup water to 1 cup sugar, heated and melted. This is plenty if you are working with 4 peels. Increase amounts in same proportions to cover whatever amount you are working on.
Cooked for a long time, stirred when I remembered.
Turned off when the pot was almost dry. Sooner would've been fine too. Can use syrup on pancakes and such. Or eat out of pan with spoon.
Dumped out orange peel pieces onto a  flat plate of sugar. 
Tossed around so all the pieces were coated.  Some did clump together. I was not too careful about leaving syrup behind in pot.
Dried on the plate for a couple of days.
Stored in fridge in glass jar.

This is an easy thing to do a little at a time if you're peeling fruit for a few people.  You can also store peels in the fridge in a plastic bag until you accumulate a larger amount.

Happy New Year to you.  Carry sweetness and light in your heart.
Strew some candy on the floor of any house you visit today.