Scientists stunned as grey whale sighted off Israel – Yahoo! Singapore News.

There have been no grey whales in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean since the 1700s!  This whale is 39 feet (12 meters) long and weighs about 40,000 pounds! Click the pic to read the entire story!

As we get older things change. Or at least our perceptions of them do. About the time that Dad turned 70 he often would tell me about his birthday cake. Dad was born in 1921, so he grew up during the Great Depression. Lucky for him, his parents owned a small farm on the outskirts of a busy New England town that was a big manufacturing center. Still, money was tight. Every year for Dad’s birthday Grandma would make him a three-layer yellow cake put together with her own homemade raspberry jam, then frosted with thick whipped cream from their own cows. For several years just about every time I saw Dad he would tell me about that cake, how much he had hated it as a boy, how deprived he felt because his friends got real sugar frosting on their cakes – and how much he would give for one of those cakes now. I finally took the hint and made him this cake.

1-2-3-4 Cake

An American classic, One-two-three-four is probably the single best, most versatile cake recipe I know and while I do have a dependable yellow cake recipe that is less expensive to make, this is the cake recipe most often used in my kitchen. This would be equally good done with strawberries.

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour (cake or all-purpose, see Note)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder

Allow your butter to stand at room temperature for about a half an hour, then beat until it is smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until it is fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Stir in the salt, baking powder and vanilla. Add the flour a cup at a time, stirring to incorporate. Add about a third of the milk after each addition of flour. Once you’ve added all the flour and milk beat for about 2 minutes. Divide the batter among prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Preparing the pans: As I mentioned above, this is an extremely versatile recipe. It bakes very well as three to six 8 or 9″ layers, a 9 x 13, a tube or Bundt cake or several dozen cupcakes. For this cake I use three 9″ layers. Grease the bottom and sides of the pan you intend to use thoroughly with softened butter, then dust with flour. I like to line the bottom of layer cake pans with waxed paper to insure that the layers turn out easily and perfectly every time.

Lining the pans: Place the bottom of the pan on a sheet of waxed paper, then use the tip of a knife or a scissors blade to trace closely around the pan. Cut out the shape you’ve traced. Lightly grease the pan bottom to keep the waxed paper in place, then insert the waxed paper and grease/flour the pan as usual, including over the waxed paper. If you are lining more than one pan of the same shape and size, you can stack up several sheets of waxed paper so that you only have to trace the pan once. Waxed paper is thin enough that you can easily cut 3 or 4 at a time. If you prefer you may use parchment paper, but it is more expensive.

Baking times: Cake layers are done when the top is gently golden, the sides have just begun to pull away from the pan and the cake will spring back when gently touched with a finger near the middle of the cake. A toothpick or wire cake tester inserted in the cake will come out clean. I’ve always found that the cake is done or quite nearly so about the time that you begin to smell it baking. General time guides would be

Three 8-9″ layers or cupcakes, 20-25 minutes
9 x 13″ pan, 35-45 minutes
tube or Bundt pan, 45 minutes to 1 hour

Do keep in mind that just exactly how long varies with your altitude, the air pressure and your particular stove. The best guide is a careful eye – but leave the oven door shut! Nothing will ruin a cake faster than repeatedly opening and closing the oven door.

Remove the cake from the oven, let cool for a minute or two, then turn out onto a cake rack. The easy way to do this is to place the rack over the top of the pan. Using pot holders to protect your hands, put one hand firmly on top of the rack and the other under the cake pan, then quickly flip the cake-rack sandwich so that the cake pan is now on top of the rack. Lift off the pan and immediately remove the waxed paper disc from the cake layer. Allow the layers to cool until they are no longer even faintly warm to the touch.

NOTE: You can freeze the cake at this point. Wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap, then place inside a ziplock bag or a large plastic freezer container. Use within 4 to 6 weeks.

Assemble the cake: Place one layer in the center of your cake plate top side up. Frost the top with 1/3-1/2 cup of raspberry jam. Seedless jam is nicest. You can push regular raspberry jam through a sieve with a spoon to remove the seeds if need be. Place a second layer on top of the jam, top side facing the jam. Cover that layer with jam, then put your final layer in place. Whip 1 cup of heavy or whipping cream with 1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar. You don’t want the cream to be too soft (it will run off the cake) but be careful not to whip it so much you turn it to butter. (Do NOT throw this out if you do! It is real butter.) Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, then pile the cream in the center of the top layer. Use a knife or thin spatula to frost the cake, pulling the cream down to cover the sides. Decorate with a few fresh raspberries.

About the Flour: You can use either all-purpose or cake flour in this recipe. Layers made with cake flour will be lighter & more fragile. In either case, stir the flour to aerate it, then use a big spoon to pile it into your measuring cup or dip the cup down into the flour and lightly scoop to fill the measure to overflowing. Do not pack the flour down! Level the top using the straight edge of a table knife. No matter how many TV personalities level their measuring cups with a finger, this is NOT the correct way to get accurate measures for baking.

Mom grew up to become famous for her Fried Chicken. When she and Dad first married he bragged loud and often to his mother, my Northern grandma, about Mom’s Fried Chicken, so Grandma set out to duplicate it. She started by par-boiling the chicken. It was not a hit. She did not have to send any of us out to the yard to catch the chicken. The butcher did that for her. She did cut it up herself though.

North or South, 1928 or 1948, both of my grandmas served their chicken with a variety of pieces – breasts, legs, thighs, wings – because a chicken comes with all of those things. Or at least it did, until food purveyors decided they could make more money by selling the American public just the parts and keeping the less desirable bits to go into chicken patties, chicken nuggets, chicken stock and pet food.

In 1928 chicken belonged in every pot because it was one of the more expensive meats, a treat for Sunday dinner As a friend of mine learned last night while standing at the meat counter intending to buy a steak for dinner, today chicken is often the best buy in the market, even already cut up chicken.

In these tough economic times, it is important to many of us to maximize our food dollar. One way to do that is to cut up that chicken yourself, just like my grandmas did. And let me tell you a little secret here: you can get at least three meals from a single 3-4 pound chicken if you cut it up yourself! I like to wait until whole chicken is on sale for a good price per pound (you want broiler-fryers) and then buy several. You can also find good buys on bulk packs of whole chicken at Sam’s Club and BJ’s. Bring them home, grab a sharp knife, a clean non-porous cutting board and have at it. First, rinse your chicken and dry it with paper towels. Then cut your chicken into parts. Each chicken will take about the same 3 minutes that it takes to watch this video:

Unless you want to make stock immediately, freeze the wing tips and back section in a large ziplock bag. Sort the remaining pieces out and freeze whatever you don’t intend to use in the next day or so. One convenient way to wrap the pieces is to place each piece into an individual plastic sandwich bag and then place all of the pieces into a larger ziplock freezer bag.

Remember I said you can get at least three meals?

1. Remove the breast meat from the bone and the meat from one chicken is sufficient for a stir fry for four people. This is how you bone a chicken breast. You will want to simply remove the skin.

Granny’s Easy Stir-Fry

2 boneless chicken breasts, partially frozen (about 1 hour in the freezer) then sliced as thinly as possible

2 or 3 small to medium carrots, sliced thin on the bias
1 large onion, chopped or sliced
1/2 to 1 each green & red peppers, sliced into thin strips (or all green/red)
several mushrooms, sliced thin
about 1 cup of small broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 to 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
1 or 2 small, dried hot peppers (optional)
If you feel like it:
Sliced bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, peanuts or cashews
2 tablespoons oil (peanut is best, but any vegetable oil will do)

Sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup water or chicken stock
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon mirin

Heat your skillet or wok (I use a large cast iron skillet) then add half the oil. Heating your skillet first causes the oil to spread further so you need less. Add the chicken and stir over high heat 2-3 minutes until the chicken pieces have all turned white. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil, then add the garlic and ginger and any hot peppers you are using. Stir about 15 seconds, then add in all of the raw vegetables except the mushrooms. Cook over high heat about 2-3 minutes until the onion is translucent, stirring constantly. If you are using any of the optional ingredients or mushrooms, add those now and stir fry one more minute.

Stir together all of the sauce ingredients to form a slurry. Pour over the vegetables in the pan and stir. The sauce will come together in about a minute. If it is too thick for your taste or you want more sauce add a bit more water or chicken stock. Serve with rice or noodles.

Notice that all of the vegetables used in this dish are in very small amounts. Feel free to increase them or decrease them according to what you have on hand. Zucchini makes a nice addition if you happen to have some handy – one small to medium is about right – as does bok choy or baby bok choy.

That same amount of meat is also enough for chicken tacos or chicken quesadillas for four.

2. The legs and thighs will provide adequate meat for a chicken stew. I make mine with potatoes, onion, carrots, celery, chicken stock, peas, bay leaf, salt & pepper. If you want to be generous with the meat, use three leg/thigh sections. If you are stretching the food dollar, the legs/thighs from a single chicken will be fine. Add dumplings or serve over biscuits for a full meal.

Granny’s Dumplings
If you intend to serve dumplings with your stew make sure that you have quite a bit more broth than you might otherwise as the dumplings will absorb quite a bit.

2 cups flour
3 tablespoons fat (this can be any shortening or lard you have handy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk

Stir together the dry ingredients, then rub in the shortening until the mixture looks like cornmeal. I use the tips of my fingers just like you would to make pie crust, but you could simply pulse it in the food processor 4 or 5 times. Quickly and rapidly stir in the milk. Drop the dumplings by large spoonfuls into bubbling stew. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to very low. The dumplings are done when they look dry, about 20 minutes.

3. Use the leftover stew for a chicken casserole.

Spread the leftover stew in a greased casserole dish. Mix up a batch of dumpling batter (oddly enough, dumplings are exactly the same as drop biscuits) and spoon that over the top of the stew. Bake at 350 about 40 minutes until the biscuit top is brown. If you prefer you can use only 2/3 cup of milk, stir the dough rapidly with a fork to form a ball, knead the dough exactly 12 times, pat it out about 1/2 inch thick and cut into biscuits.

Waste Not, want not!

Dad, Mom & me.

Once upon a time I was the apple of Dad’s eye. He was a pilot who had served on the USS Wasp in WWII. Every Saturday morning until I was 7 or so we went flying in a two seater plane. In those days people still looked up to the sky when a plane flew overhead. We would fly up to my grandfather’s and wave down at him working in the garden, then turn and fly up to the farm and waggle our wings at the cousins a bit. Dad would fly up into the clouds where I would reach to catch a handful. He loved to do stunt flying, so sooner or later we would do a barrel roll or a loop-the-loop. (When I was a teen, the boys were always a bit perturbed that the most dreaded of rides at the fair couldn’t get the slightest squeal from me!) Eventually, of course, we would come back to earth.

During those years Friday and Saturday nights often found us at my grandparents’. Gram would serve up homemade pizza (no pizza parlor in the entire town back then!), and while the women visited in the kitchen or watched Lawrence Welk in the living room the men in the family sat on the back porch and told war stories. Uncle Percy had served in WWI & been gassed. Uncle John had been in the Army and had fought his way up the boot of Italy. The men talked about far places, strange sights, history being made before their eyes. Exciting things, some fascinating, others tragic. I loved to hang out under the table and listen. Every now and then my dad or one of my uncles would let me sneak a tiny sip of beer. I learned about ice bergs of the North Atlantic and the jungles of Panama. I was an eyewitness to the sinking of the Bismark and the air war over England. Why they told a little girl these things I will never know. Certainly today nobody would even consider allowing a child to listen even the smallest part of the tales I heard first hand. At least not without a thick coat of whitewash and a large helping of honey. That is, however, where I acquired my love of history. Dad and his stories.

Dad was a brilliant man, the sort who was more than competent at anything he set his hand to. His first real job had been working in a bakery, where he had learned to decorate cakes. It was Dad who made the cakes for my school parties. He could chop wood, build a house, lay a floor 25 different ways, tie every knot you’ve ever heard of as well as a good many that you haven’t, and change a tire by flashlight in the middle of the still-unpaved Alcan Highway, the only road to Alaska. He always whistled while he worked, often this

By the time I reached my teenage years dad and I had stopped flying. We weren’t very good friends anymore and didn’t get along most of the time. Mom used to say we were too much alike. Perhaps that is true. My father was a brilliant, generous man, the kind you either loved or hated. The last thing that he said to me was that he loved me. He knew that I had stopped believing him long before. Too much water over the dam. Too many hard words. Too much betrayal of trust. Too many things that could never be undone.

My daughters and I did not go to Dad’s funeral, held months after his death. One of my sisters insisted on a service he didn’t want, conducted by a minister who had never met him representing a church he didn’t believe in, complete with the military honor guard that he had decided against. Utterly meaningless. Instead, we drove along the back roads of New England one gorgeous fall day, thinking of Dad, speaking about how much he would have loved that single beautiful day. That was the last time of significance, I think, that we were together as a family.

Dad, I loved you too. Still do, wherever you are. Wish you were here.

God's gifts are everywhere. You just have to look!

I found this little clump of chives just coming into bloom a short time ago. They were hiding down among the weeds. Around the corner is a big patch that will bloom tomorrow. I missed them last year because they had been Thrown Out With the Trash when the lawn was mowed. In the morning I’ll rescue several clumps of them and pot them up. Meg will love the addition to her little garden and perhaps I’ll be able to take some away with me.

If you’ve never had chives, they have a gentle onion flavor. Just snip them into bits with a pair of scissors. I particularly love them in macaroni salad. Those flowers are edible too. Add them to a salad or do as the Shakers once did and stir them into a breakfast omelet. If you luck into a whole bunch of chives (they will multiply like mad planted outside) you can simply snip off a bunch of the stems, snip them up and freeze them as is in a baggie or little freezer container for use throughout the year.

Something Beautiful #1 – An American Quilt

One of my favorite quilting books, full of patterns from my grandmother's day.

Quilting has its roots in pioneer America. Woven cloth was imported from Europe or laboriously produced by hand in the home and it was precious. Every last scrap found a use. Dresses that became stained or discolored were cut apart, the pieces turned inside out and then resewn, or cut down to make clothing for the smaller people in the family again and again. Bearing in mind that old truisim “Use it up! Wear it out! Make it do or do without!” even the smallest scraps found a use, stitched into beautiful patterns and pictures to bring cheer & joy on cold winter nights.

The patterns have wonderful names that tell us so much about the lives of the women who first made them – Road to Kansas, 54-40 or Fight, Tumbling Blocks, Run Around the Mountain. And until very recently, when quilting became an art form rather than a handicraft, you could almost tell the state of the nation’s economy by the number of quilts being made. Quilts have been most popular in hard times. My grandmother’s generation made quilts in the Great Depression. My generation revived the art during the economic downturn of the 1970s, when gas was high and unemployment lines in New England went clear around the block. Something beautiful, made from what would otherwise be Thrown Away.

Today, I’m watching How To Make An American Quilt, courtesy of NetFlix. If you have a Wii, they’ll send you a disc you can use it to stream movies from NetFlix directly to your TV. NetFlix is also included in XBox Live.

Which would you choose? The lover or the friend?

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For the last 14 years I’ve lived with my daughter, a single mother.  Until last year I did all the driving.  Her child was born into my hands and I have been her caretaker 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year since the day she was born so that her mother could hold a job, have a career, go to college, travel the world, have a life.   Over the years I’ve contributed every dime to the household.  I’ve homeschooled her child.   I’ve always thought that this was my family, that I was cared for and appreciated.   And then one day last week I found my daughter moving boxes out to the car to take to her new apartment.  An apartment that I have never seen.  An apartment that I will never see.  And that is when I learned that I am being discarded, left behind, thrown out with the trash.  No explanation. No money. Nowhere to go. No way to get there.

I cannot sleep.  For days I did little other than cry, because frankly I am frantic.  So many times in my long life I’ve had to pick up the shards of the destruction of my life and glue them back together again.  But then I was young and strong and full of courage.  Now I am old, but not quite old enough for Social Security.  Now I am definitely not as spry as I used to be.  And this time, I am not at all sure that I can scrape together the courage that it takes to rebuild your life.  This time, I am not sure that I want to.

I haven’t really left the house in years.  One trip around WalMart puts me flat on my back for a couple of days.  The aisle in the grocery store that has all the candles and air fresheners and scented detergents leaves me gasping for air, running for an inhaler.  Still, I’m lucky enough to have hundreds of Facebook friends from all over the world.  When I first found out that I was to be thrown away I begged them to pray for me.  And so two nights ago I realized that I do have an education.  If my feet won’t let me stand up to work at McDonald’s, my allergies keep me out of WalMart and the grocery store, and  I’m too long gone from my profession, I can at least substitute teach.  If I can get a license.  If I can get a car.  If I can pay for the background checks.  If I can somehow keep body and soul together until school starts in the fall.

What do you do when you have just 18 days left?  I guess for me the answer is to write about all the things I love, the things I’ve lost, the places I’ve been.  18 days to end the only life I’ve ever known. 18 days to sell most of what I own.  What a new life might be I have no clue.  I’ve never made one just for me.  I’m not sure I know how.  I hope you’ll share my journey.

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Filed under: Thoughts on Life Tagged: abandonment, aging gracefully, children, family, grandparents, homeless, science fiction ]]>