Saturday Snapshot

Exposure Compensation.
Yes mam, that's what I'm talkin' about!

It would just be nice if I knew what it was.

Okay, I'm kidding (just a little bit) there..... I do understand it now.  I think.

For our photography class this past Thursday we had to turn in a picture.  Any picture that we had taken in the last week.  Anything at all.
We were going to talk about "tonealities"  (lights, darks, colors)  and how the camera wants to make everything gray, BUT  we can fix that with  "exposure compensation"

Take for instance this picture of cookies with a glass of milk.  I took this for my blog.  A lot of times I'll when I'm taking pictures of food, I'll use a white poster board so just the food will stand out.  I thought I was so smart.

Um....it's gray.  Look at that background!!!  It's GRAY!
And I thought I was so cool.   SOOOO cool, using my white background.  Of course, many of you food bloggers are way more savvy than I and already change your exposure compensation so you had white in the background and not gray.  I applaud you!!!

By the way,  my camera does have scene modes, but we are not allowed to use them during the semester.  He says that scene modes are useless anyway and we need to do it manually to get the best quality.

I know you didn't want a  photography lesson here....let me just say that we are really having a great time, the Handyman and I.   We go out to eat with our friends before class  (2 other couples and 2 women sans their husbands who didn't want to do the class).  Sometimes we have a glass of wine.  Just one. 
Funny that my son once got in big trouble for doing the exact same thing in high school!  (man, and they do say we regress as we age.  ~grins~)

This is the photo I turned in  (and yes, he put everyone's photo up on the screen so we could talk about the tonality.
This was a practically perfect picture.  Tonality wise--not composition wise.
The sky is blue, the whites are white, the darks are dark and the yellow is yellow.
(sigh)

Hmmm.... don't tell the teacher, but  that happened all by accident as I just did a  'point and shoot" without checking any of my settings.
He said that will happen  15% of the time.

I was one lucky duck.

I am linking this to Saturday Snapshot at  "At Home With Books".
It's a fun meme/roundup of ---well, of snapshots.

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then link up.   Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.
You should go check it out.

Cookbook Sundays--Chocolate Drop Cookies

I think everyone has probably made, or tasted a version of Chocolate Drop Cookies in their life.  My Grandmother used to make them at Christmas time, but I had forgotten about them until this past holiday season when I tasted some at my daughter-in-law's aunt's house.
That was a mouthful to say...I should just say 'my friend's house'.
Any way you put it tho--I was reminded how good they are and decided to make some for Valentines Day.

My grandmother always put chocolate frosting on her's, but  my daughter-in-law's family frosts with a white frosting  (and their cookie was a bit more flat than mine. They were good.  I loved them.)
They're just a simple chocolate cake cookie with a frosting.  The Handyman LOVES them--I am trying to stay away from them.

I do not have my grandmother's original recipe, but I called my mom and got the facts.   YES my grandmother did make them. YES it was around the holiday time. NO my mom didn't have the recipe she used either.  But she did remind me of a  notebook that my aunt had given me for a  wedding shower gift 34 years ago..and in that notebook was the exact recipe for my grandmother's chocolate drop cookies.

The notebook was a collection of recipes from the Dorothy Dean Homemaker's Service, sponsored by the Spokesman Review Newspaper of Spokane, WA.
The newspaper launched its home economics department in 1935 with a test kitchen and cooking school for homemakers. Home economists also sent out recipe leaflets and hosted a phone line to answer questions before closing in 1983.


The Dorothy Dean Homemakers service distributed leaflets (three each month for 11 months, with an index to the recipes on the 12th month) which subscribers collected in a green binder.

As you can see, I have my green binder.
My aunt had given me a very small collection (considering.... that they began in 1935) of the leaflets, from the early 1970's.


Here is what  the pages look like (there were about 5 or 6 recipes on each page, front and back):

 I used this recipe as my very first potato salad recipe.  I've switched things up since then, but this really was  a "Patio Pleaser"

 The leaflets would be different colors sometimes--close to holidays.

I used to go thru the notebook and make notes to myself:  "good"  or "try this".
I think 34 years later, I still do that in cookbooks sometimes.
Icky splatters on an old recipe mean it's good, right?

I am really not sure how my aunt chose to give me what she did. Maybe it was her collection that she had been subscribing to.    I treasure it, because she is no longer with us, and I'm also interested in checking out  eBay to see if I can find any others from the series.
I have  all the leaflets from 1973, 74, 75, 76 and 77.

I found this article which says:

Born in the mid-1930s when housewifery was serious business for brides, the newspaper promised in a front page story that Miss Estelle Calkins, the first head of the Dorothy Dean service would, “teach Spokane housewives how to ‘housewife’ in the latest scientific manner.”


“Husbands should smile. Life should be pleasanter because of Miss Calkins – if wives will listen to Miss Calkins and do all the things she tells them to do.”


The recipes produced by the department span 45 years and were tested in the Dorothy Dean test kitchen. The recipes were updated year after year and new recipes added. The leaflets were always reflective of the popular dishes and trends of the day and the current science on food safety was always included.

But it's really difficult to find out  a whole lot of information about the Dorothy Dean Homemaker's service online. There are a couple of blogs out there that popped up, when I Googled, but they say the same thing.  I find it amusing....it's a mystery to most of us.  The biggest mystery of all is:  Was Dorothy Dean a real person?   Or was she just a  logo?  A Brand?  Who thought of using that name?
Her name is copyrighted, but it says that the Homemakers service was started by the Spokesman Review in 1935.   Hmmmm....???
These are the things I cannot find out.  Of course I could call the Spokesman Review, but I probably won't. 
Baking and Boys says:
I have a two sided sheet of paper with a bunch of no-bake cookie recipes on it, it looks older, like it was from years ago (70’s/80’s?) and says “Dorothy Dean’s No-Bake Cookies”, recipes from Dorothy Dean’s Taste Testing Kitchen, from The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington). I have no idea where I got this sheet of paper. I looked online for information about Dorothy Dean and found an obituary (just from this past April) for someone who was dubbed “Dorothy Dean” as she was the head of the Homemaker’s Services for the Spokesman-Review. The thing that sort of baffles me about this paper full of recipes is that I really have no idea where it came from and even why it just showed up here. Did my mother give it to me years ago? Hmmm. Whatever the case, it’s got a number of fun recipes on it and I do like that it is a good no-bake go-to page. Some of the recipes are Chinese Ting-a-lings, Skillet Date Cookies, No-bake Brownies, Porcupine Cookies and the Caramel Chews were among them and some others as well.

One day that could be the exact words of my daughter-in-laws or my granddaughters!   (that's kind of the reason I started researching today)
I will link this to Cookbook Sundays and also count it as Cookbook #51 in my own cookbook countdown.

Oh...and don't forget the whole point of this post--Chocolate Drop Cookies. 

Chocolate Drop Cookies
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine softened  (or shortening)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1.  Heat oven to 400f.  Grease cookie sheet with butter.

2.  In large bowl, beat sugar, butter, buttermilk, vanilla, egg and melted chocolate with an electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, soda and salt.

3.  On cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about  2 inches apart.

4.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched.  Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.  Cool completely-about 30 minutes.

 Chocolate Frosting
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3+ tablespoons of hot water

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt chocolate with butter over low heat. Remove.  Stir in powdered sugar and hot water until smooth.
Spread over cookies.

Enjoy!

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot

is brought to you by

Alyce

from

At Home With Books.

For all the rules, details and to check out all the other awesome photos, check out her blog.

I was driving home from work the other day and down at the end of my street, was this:

A desert sunset.

And some ugly old power lines.

I thought they were kind of interesting tho, so am including there here.

Rest assured--I hope to get better as the semester goes on.

(had a great one-on-one session with the instructor this week.  My camera is AMAZING!  If I understood it.   That's my goal.)

Rice Pudding

Rice pudding... a Superbowl hit?  You bet!   Who would have thought that it would be?  In the land of chicken wings, pizza, garlic dip, nachos and salami--it was the rice pudding that made the  'ooooh'  and  'ah man, this is good'  list.

It was an extra satisfying feeling for me because as I was making the rice pudding, The Handyman said...isn't rice pudding kind of bland and for old people?

I replied NO.  But the truth is,  I didn't really know,  neither of us had ever had rice pudding before.  I'm sure our mothers or grandmothers must have made it, but I don't remember ever eating it.
What I do remember is, after supper, if there was left over rice,  pouring cream and cinnamon and sugar on it.  (like a poor man's rice pudding )  
 I knew I liked that.   Even now, once in while, if we have some rice left over and I feel like something sweet, I'll make it like that, but the Handyman never eats it.

So it was with trepidation that I began the  'not difficult, but kind of time consuming'  journey,  of making rice pudding.    On Superbowl Sunday of all things.
I trust my friend Karen from Karen Cooks,  (I mean, just look at her blog!  Her photos make me want to eat everything she posts.  Just gorgeous)  so her Portuguese Rice Pudding was what I chose to make. 


HOLY COW!  (or insert any expletive you want here)  It was really good.   Really good.   It even won over the Handyman--- but not until the Superbowl party.  Because he wouldn't taste any when I was finished making it---it was for old people.
(I think he thought people without teeth  heh heh)

I took it to the Superbowl party, along with sausages and  hoagie rolls  (my homemade hotdog buns were shaped funny, so we just ate them at home the next day.  They looked like ice-cream cone shaped rolls.  I'll try again tho), and assorted mustards.  I didn't want a whole bowl full of this great rice pudding  left at my house, because I knew I'd eat it ALL, so I figured what the heck, someone might eat it (know if they just tasted it they too, would be rice pudding lovers).

These were the comments I heard:
I LOVE rice pudding!
My mom used to make it for me.
Hey, this is really good--want some?
Sweet Rice!!  Debbie made sweet rice boys, want some?
Man, this is so creamy.
It tastes great.
Mmmmm....it's so creamy.

And you know what?  It was.  It was very creamy, and sweet and cinnamony and YUMMY!!  The Handyman couldn't resist trying some after hearing every exclaim how good it was... and he was hooked.
Please visit Karen's page here to get all  yummy details.  As she said, it was a bit time consuming to make, but not difficult at all and  well worth it.  I will be making this again.  We are rice pudding converts, The Handyman and I.

PORTUGUESE RICE PUDDING

1 cup uncooked rice
1 cup water
5-1/2 cups milk
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon
Nutmeg


Put rice and water in large saucepan and boil until water is absorbed. Add 2 cups milk and bring to a boil. After mixture comes to a boil, stir constantly to prevent burning until all milk has been absorbed. Add another 2 cups milk and bring to a boil, then stir constantly until all milk has been absorbed. Add 1-1/2 cups milk and bring to a boil, then stir constantly until all milk has been absorbed. Beat egg in a small bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of the hot rice mixture and stir. Add egg to the saucepan and stir until well blended. Add sugar, stir and cook an additional 2 minutes. Pour into individual bowls or into a 1-quart serving bowl; sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg and let cool.

Booking Thru Thursday

 This week's Booking Through Thursday question is:
If you had to pick only 5 books to read ever again, what would they be and why?’


(Such a cruel question!)

Really?  I have to choose five?  This is very hard.  But here goes...
First of all, I looked at some other answers and they chose more intellectual or classic books than I am going to.   Mine are pretty simple.   Its funny how different our choices are.


Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly.
I bought it at a book fair when I was in the 8th grade.  My first love story--written in 1942.   The description in it is beautiful.  It makes me want to be there in that kitchen, that house, falling in love with a teenage boy all over again.

A summer to remember...

Angie always thought high school romances were just silly infatuations that come and go. She certainly never thought she would fall in love over one short summer. But when she meets Jack, their connection is more than a crush. Suddenly, Angie and Jack were filling their summer with stolen moments and romantic nights. But as fall grows closer, they must figure out of their love is forever, or just a summer they'll never forget.





The Stand by Stephen King.
How can one not include Stephen King if one has to read it over and over again?   The ultimate story of good vs evil.

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.



And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.




The Guernsey Literary  Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Because---I like books written in  epistal form and, it's just the sweetest book ever.

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….



As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.




The Mother Tongue by Bill  Bryson.
It's just one of the most interesting books I've ever read.

With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson--the acclaimed author of "The Lost Continent"--brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can't), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world's largest growth industries





and last but  not least
Every single  one of the Deborah Knott Mystery Series by Margaret Maron.
Of course, all 18 of them need to be in a collection--a very HUGE book--to be counted as one.

This first novel in Maron's Imperfect series, which won the Edgar Award for best mystery novel in 1993, introduces heroine Deborah Knott, an attorney and the daughter of an infamous North Carolina bootlegger. Known for her knowledge of the region's past and popular with the locals, Deb is asked by 18-year-old Gayle Whitehead to investigate the unsolved murder of her mother Janie, who died when Gayle was an infant. While visiting the owner of the property where Janie's body was found, Deb learns of Janie's more-than-promiscuous past. Piecing together lost clues and buried secrets Deb is introduced to Janie's darker side, but it's not until another murder occurs that she uncovers the truth.



I think is my list---for now.  It's subject to change depending on my whims.


PS  my whim is thinking of switching  one of the above books for the Godfather by Mario Puzo.

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

My first paragraph......

Ester's hand raced over the paper as if the colored pencils might be snatched from her, the quivering inside  her, wild, foreign, thrilling.   All this time she hadn't known that 'blue' was actually seven distinct shades, each with its own name--azure, Prussian, cobalt, cerulean, sapphire, indigo, lapis.  She pressed the waxy pencils on the paper, amazed by the emerging hues: the ornaments curving on the Armenian vase were lapis, the purplish contours of the Jerusalem mountains were shrouded by indigo evening clouds.  In this stolen hour at Mademoiselle Thibaux's dining-room table, she could draw without being scolded for committing the sin of idleness, God forbid.

Would you read it?  That is the question.   This is the book.

I am joining Diane from Bibliophile by the Sea and her

First Chapter, First Paragraph Meme.

Beer Steamed Mussels with Chorizo (and my first attempt at French Bread)

I hope by the end of the semester, I can take better pictures than this:

I almost thought of not posting this recipe because of the photos, but this was so, SO good,  I just had to.    The broth is--and may I us a cliche`--to die for!!

To be honest I was apprehensive, I'm not a huge beer lover (I like it under the right circumstances tho)  and I didn't want the mussels to just have a beer taste (if you know what I mean), there is no stock other than the beer.  Given the fact that this recipe called for a 'dark' beer made me extra apprehensive, as dark beer is so strong!    But I followed the recipe to a tea  (except for making my own chorizo--I purchased it--as it is readily available here) and I would suggest you do the same.   It's so good, as I said--TO DIE FOR.  I can't wait to make it again.

I found the recipe in the Homesick Texan Cookbook by Lisa Fain.  There has been some buzz about it going around the blogging world over the past 6 months or so.  I think there was even a cook-along, which is what made my interest peak about this cookbook and I thought I'd check it out.  I'm so glad I did---as of right now it's my favorite cookbook.  That's saying a lot when it joins over  200 other cookbooks in my house.


I am a seafood lover as well as a Mexican food lover, so this recipe jumped right out at me when I was going thru the book.  I don't live anywhere near the sea, and fresh seafood is--questionable when you are land-locked, so I used frozen mussels.  A plus is that they had already been cleaned.
This recipe had a little bit of spice to it.  It's funny because the Handyman, is not a 'foodie'.  He loved the dish, but go a little tired of me saying "man, can you taste the chili?  Wow, this is SO GOOD.  The chorizo adds so much flavor, doesn't it?"   Anyway, I liked the spice that the chilies and the chorizo gave.  It
calls for  2 serrano chilies, but I used jalapenos instead. The heat factor scared me a little bit to tell you the truth. We like hot, but not so hot you can't eat it.  I already knew we loved the jalapeno flavor, so I went with that.  You can do want works for you of course.

If you like shellfish at all--you MUST try this!  I can't say enough about it--and--you must make your own bread to sop up the broth.  

I made French Bread from my friend Karen @ Karen Cooks.  Her bread is beautiful!  Mine is not.  BUT, it smelled heavenly while baking and it tasted great.   And it was my first attempt,so you have to forgive me it it doesn't look pretty.  I will be making it again with more finesse...after all, practice makes perfect, right?  (it was really, really good tho)  
 *bread recipe after the mussels*

Beer Steamed Mussels with Mexican Chorizo
from the Homesick Texan

2 lbs mussels
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound plum tomatoes, diced or 1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained (I used the canned tomatoes)
2 serrano chilies, stems and seeds removed, diced  (I used jalapenos)
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 pound Mexican Red Chorizo  (I used more), drained and crumbled
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 12oz bottle of dark Mexican beer, such and Negro Modelo (which I used)
Bread for serving 

1. Clean mussels in cold water, removing the beard (the hairy patch that will be poking thru the shell's opening) by pulling on it if it hasn't already been removed.

2. In a large pot or Dutch oven heated on medium-low melt the butter and add the onions. Cooke while stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.  Add to the pot the tomatoes, serrano chilies, cilantro, cooked chorizo, lime juice, lime zest, salt, mussels and beer.

3.  Cover the pot and turn the heat up to high and cook until the shells open, about 10 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer steamed mussels into either a large bowl or individual bowls (discard any mussels that did not open)  Pour some of the broth over the mussels and serve with bread for sopping up the liquid and and extra bowl to collect the shells.

and now...

...the bread

Crusty French Bread -
from Karen Cooks (original recipe here)


2 ¼ tsp dry yeast
2 cups warm water
6 cups flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
2 T olive oil
Cornmeal for dusting the pans
1 egg white
1 T cold water


Fit stand mixer with paddle attachment. Pour water into mixer bowl and add yeast. Stir to dissolve. Add sugar, oil and salt. Mix on low for 30 seconds.




Mix in 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. Mix on medium until all flour has been incorporated. Add an additional 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. Mix until all flour has been incorporated. Change to dough hook and knead on medium until dough is smooth and elastic, or about 8 minutes. Dough will be sticky.


Place dough in a large greased bowl and turn to coat. Cover and place in a warm place to rise until doubled, about an hour.


When dough has doubled, punch it down, cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.


Punch dough down again and knead for 1 minute on a lightly floured surface. Cut dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 12x9 rectangle. Roll up jelly roll fashion and pinch the seam together. Tuck ends underneath.


Line baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place bread on parchment, cover and rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.


Make evenly spaced diagonal cuts on top of each loaf. Beat egg white and water together and brush over each loaf of bread with a pastry brush.


Place a pan of hot water on bottom shelf of the oven. Place baking sheet with loaves on shelf above water.


Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from baking pans and cool on wire racks.


I am linking this to  Cookbook Sundays, My own Cookbook Countdown,  (where it just so happens to be cookbook  #50!!)  Weekend Cooking and  See You in the Gumbo.