Way up north in the 'Berg, as we like to call our hometown in Central Wisconsin ("The City in the Center" -- the center of what is the question), preparations are underway for our high school reunion. Emails are flying as are reminiscences. Jenni, now an accomplished accounting professional in Minneapolis, remembers 8th grade home ec. Does she ever. Mainly, what she remembers, other than making a stuffed animal elephant, was Mrs. Schutts (aka Chutes Away) criticizing her cinnamon toast for being undercooked.
You can undercook toast?
Such were the vagaries of Home Ec.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Pickles Accomplished
Armed with recipes copied from my grandma's big black book, on loan from my cousin Barbara (who has used her superior baking skills to parlay Grandma's apple cake recipe into a grand champion ribbon at the Monroe County Fair in Indiana), I set out to cook this weekend. Okay, "cook" is maybe overstating it. But, I made brownies (from a box, natch), spaghetti sauce, finger-lickin' barbecued chicken (cannot take credit for the stellar name, must credit the Jefferson County newspaper headline of 1976), spinach salad with warm bacon dressing, and ... refrigerator pickles. I ran into a bunch of my PEO friends at the farmer's market, and resisted temptation at the cute initial-jewelry stand to buy cucumbers instead. The little ones that look like pickles, in fact. The result? Cool, summery pickled cukes that keep for up to a year in the 'fridge.
Refrigerator Pickles
7 cups cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced onions
1 tablespoon salt
Let the above stand overnight.
Drain well.
Mix
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
Mix until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over cucumbers. Mix well and put in jars. They will keep for one year in the refrigerator.
Next up: Pineapple cake. It involves Duncan Hines yellow cake, vanilla pudding and Cool Whip. What can possibly go wrong?*
See entry #1.
Refrigerator Pickles
7 cups cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced onions
1 tablespoon salt
Let the above stand overnight.
Drain well.
Mix
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
Mix until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over cucumbers. Mix well and put in jars. They will keep for one year in the refrigerator.
Next up: Pineapple cake. It involves Duncan Hines yellow cake, vanilla pudding and Cool Whip. What can possibly go wrong?*
See entry #1.
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Hunger for Home Ec
If the Trader Joe's of the world are doing such a good job at filling the void left when Home Ec went by the wayside in the late 70s, why bring Home Ec back?
Childhood obesity, for one. The number of meals consumed outside the home has doubled from nearly a quarter in 1970 to nearly half today. As we relinquished control of our kitchens, we let market economics determine the ingredients. What do we get? Hydrogenated oils and transfats. Ingredients that enable food to sit for extended periods of time on store shelves and under heat lamps at fast food restaurants. Obese children who become obese adults.
A friend's latest routine is to go to Whole Foods daily, buy a piece of fresh fish that's already marinated or breaded, and fresh asparagus. She bakes the fish, roasts the asparagus and makes rice. Silly me, I was buying the fish and dipping it in egg, flour and breadcrumbs myself. She's smart: She's taking advantage of the ease of prepared foods without getting sucked into the downside.
Childhood obesity, for one. The number of meals consumed outside the home has doubled from nearly a quarter in 1970 to nearly half today. As we relinquished control of our kitchens, we let market economics determine the ingredients. What do we get? Hydrogenated oils and transfats. Ingredients that enable food to sit for extended periods of time on store shelves and under heat lamps at fast food restaurants. Obese children who become obese adults.
A friend's latest routine is to go to Whole Foods daily, buy a piece of fresh fish that's already marinated or breaded, and fresh asparagus. She bakes the fish, roasts the asparagus and makes rice. Silly me, I was buying the fish and dipping it in egg, flour and breadcrumbs myself. She's smart: She's taking advantage of the ease of prepared foods without getting sucked into the downside.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Are the domestic arts better viewed than attempted?
Martha Stewart. The Food Network. HGTV.
It's home ec porn. We sit agog in our living rooms, watching Martha or Rachael make prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and lemon drop martinis for some imaginary summer dinner party.
Do we dutifully turn off the tv, go into our kitchens and lovingly make the asparagus for our own family? No, we pull out a Trader Joe's entree, slap it into the microwave and call it dinner.
As I prepare to shop for the ingredients for refrigerator pickles, I ponder: If our grandmothers had so many prepared foods at their disposal, would they have gone to all this trouble?
It's home ec porn. We sit agog in our living rooms, watching Martha or Rachael make prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and lemon drop martinis for some imaginary summer dinner party.
Do we dutifully turn off the tv, go into our kitchens and lovingly make the asparagus for our own family? No, we pull out a Trader Joe's entree, slap it into the microwave and call it dinner.
As I prepare to shop for the ingredients for refrigerator pickles, I ponder: If our grandmothers had so many prepared foods at their disposal, would they have gone to all this trouble?
Friday, July 11, 2008
How hard can it be?
How. Hard. Can. It. Be. Five words that must never be uttered lest you invoke the wrath of the Home Ec gods. This applies to undertakings as complex as sewing blue corduroy wrap skirts (my actual 8th grade Home Ec project) and as simple as making a pie crust (pie crust has what, maybe four ingredients? What's so hard about that??).
What I learned in Eighth Grade Home Economics: Never, never underestimate your ability to completely mess up. Ask my kitchen mate, who ruined a pound of perfectly good ground beef by crumbling the beef in the pan as it cooked and then wondering how she was supposed to put the browned beef back together to form hamburger patties. True story.
About this blog.
Who: I am a 43-year-old mom of two young sons, very happily married, living in suburban Chicago. Actually, the North Shore. Think "Swingtown" without the swinging and 30 years later, and add a bunch of Range Rovers to the scenery in place of the Buick Skylarks and Dodge Darts.
Why: A writer by profession, I have written one novel that seems destined to collect dust under the bed despite my agent's best Starbucks-fueled attempts to sell it. I have an idea for a second novel and this blog's purpose is to generate material for that novel. That, and I think this endeavor might be not only fun, but good for life in general.
What: An attempt to turn away from the big box, warehouse store culture in order to make things that I value. What this blog is NOT: a Martha Stewart-esque attempt at perfection and one-uppance. Please. Me one-upping anyone in Home Ec is like the fly attempting to one-up the fly swatter. Sooner or later I'm going to get crushed.
Enough poetic metaphors. It's time to launch into our first Home Ec project. I have rejected the idea of making my grandmother's recipe for "Yummy Dip" that includes Braunschweiger, potted meat AND mayonnaise, in favor of Helen's summery, non-potted, completely meat-free recipe for refrigerator pickles.
What I learned in Eighth Grade Home Economics: Never, never underestimate your ability to completely mess up. Ask my kitchen mate, who ruined a pound of perfectly good ground beef by crumbling the beef in the pan as it cooked and then wondering how she was supposed to put the browned beef back together to form hamburger patties. True story.
About this blog.
Who: I am a 43-year-old mom of two young sons, very happily married, living in suburban Chicago. Actually, the North Shore. Think "Swingtown" without the swinging and 30 years later, and add a bunch of Range Rovers to the scenery in place of the Buick Skylarks and Dodge Darts.
Why: A writer by profession, I have written one novel that seems destined to collect dust under the bed despite my agent's best Starbucks-fueled attempts to sell it. I have an idea for a second novel and this blog's purpose is to generate material for that novel. That, and I think this endeavor might be not only fun, but good for life in general.
What: An attempt to turn away from the big box, warehouse store culture in order to make things that I value. What this blog is NOT: a Martha Stewart-esque attempt at perfection and one-uppance. Please. Me one-upping anyone in Home Ec is like the fly attempting to one-up the fly swatter. Sooner or later I'm going to get crushed.
Enough poetic metaphors. It's time to launch into our first Home Ec project. I have rejected the idea of making my grandmother's recipe for "Yummy Dip" that includes Braunschweiger, potted meat AND mayonnaise, in favor of Helen's summery, non-potted, completely meat-free recipe for refrigerator pickles.
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