Madwoman's Attic: In The Attic

Quick Recipes (and a blog post to boot) for Heather

These are a couple of recipes I wanted to share with Heather after we went wine and olive oil tasting last summer in Paso Robles, and also because she has so little time for herself.  Pasolivo's Lemon Olive Oil is delish in the first recipe.

from Laurilyn

Feta, Red Onion & Olive Oil Pasta

Cook 1 lb. spaghetti in salted, boiling water.  Drain.

Meanwhile, quarter one medium red onion and thinly slice.  Sautee in olive oil until starting to brown slightly.  Toss in a pinch of crushed red pepper (optional) and some fresh chopped oregano or marjoram.  Pour over the drained pasta and toss.

Cut an 8 oz. block of feta cheese into chunks.  Add to the pasta and toss again.  The heat of the pasta will make the cheese a little bit melty.  Drizzle some good extra-virgin olive oil or Lemon Olive Oil over the top and mix well.  This shouldn't need much salt because of the feta, but now would be a good time to add salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Lemon Basil Pasta

Cook 1 lb pasta in boiling salted water.  Drain. (I've used spaghetti for a warm main dish, farfalle for a cold pasta salad at a picnic.)

Mix 1/2 c. fresh lemon juice, 2/3 c. freshly grated parmesan, and 2/3 c. olive oil.  Pour over pasta and mix well.  Tear up about 1 c. of fresh basil leaves and mix into the pasta.  Add salt and pepper to taste (but not too much pepper--it takes away from the freshness of the lemon juice and is kind of overpowering next to the basil).

These are a great way to take advantage of the fresh herbs that'll soon be available.  Oh wait, they are probably already available in the valley.  Darn rainy Pacific Northwest and its slow transition into spring. 

Enjoy!

Bread Pudding

I think I promised this recipe to Laurilyn a long time ago, but don't remember if I ever posted it.  So, here it is now (or again, as the case may be).

Heather's Mom's variation of the Pioneer Bread Pudding from the 1943 edition of the Woman's Home Companion Cookbook.  (Mom has increased the levels of a few ingredients and added whipping cream for richness). 

Bread cubes or chunks, 2 cups
Milk, 2.5 cups
cream, 1/2 cup
1/4 cup sugar
Butter, 4 tbsp.
Eggs, 3
salt, 1/4 tsp
vanilla, 2 tsp.

Scald the milk and cream in a saucepan with the butter and sugar. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly while you prepare the bread-dish.

Use day-old or slightly stale bread, crusts and all, breaking it up into 1/4 to 1.2 inch cubes.  Place this in a buttered or cooking sprayed 8x10 baking dish.

Beat the eggs slightly in a separate bowl; add the salt; stir into the warm milk mixture, add the vanilla.  Pour over bread cubes.

Set the baking dish in a larger baking dish (9x13) containing warm water up the level of the pudding (this technique is called a bain marie-- there's an actual device for the stovetop for it as well.  It graduates the heating process so the cooking is more gentle and prevents the custard from crusting before the interior begins cooking).  Bake in a moderate oven (350) about 1 hour or until a small knife comes out clean from center.  Makes 6-8 servings.

Serve hot or cold with plain cream or a hot sauce such as caramel, lemon, orange or chocolate.  Or sprinkle top with nutmeg and cinnamon or shredded coconut.

As a bonus for Laurilyn, who loves Asian inspired cooking, I'm going to recommend this coconut-ginger rice pudding recipe from  Sandra Dee's Semi-Homemade show.  Mom and I made this one yesterday and it is quite yummy.  It does require the crock-pot, though. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_155094,00.html

I have finally gotten four days in a row where I don't have BE anywhere other than my home (or immediate surroundings such as grocery stores).  Last week was bit of a bear as I was driving all over hell and back for meetings, housesittings, doctors appointments, job interviews. . . . There were some good things thrown in there, too, . .. lunches with friends, seeing a play, discussing it afterward. 

But right now I'm happy to be home. 

And frankly I kind of HAVE to be home because there is a ton of stuff I have to do to prepare for the Tulare County Renaissance Festival this weekend.  I've just been putting  a lot of stuff off in the last few weeks.

So, I'm sorry. . . I don't really have much to report or muse on lately.  I hope you kind readers have taken the opportunity to look at the photos of St. Henry's Guild at the 4th Annual Bard's Birthday Bash.  My troupe looks spectacular. . . even if I got eaten alive by mosquitoes!  Ouch! 

Yay for Elementary School!

checking in

Today, I had a brief period where I was just sick and tired of being a chauffeur, a cook, a waiter, a secretary, and a case manager all at once.  (I know that those of you who are mothers are saying "Welcome to my world," but there is a reason why I have been very careful NOT to have children without the support of a stable husband-type).  It sucks doing all that stuff by yourself. 

But then I had some homemade strawberry shortcake and that made it all better. 

How do you learn what you learn? 

Last night, I'm sitting in the second row, jotting down some notes on a modern dance concert I'm reviewing for a local magazine.  The concert is part of the Arts and Lectures series at the College of the Sequoias, so naturally there are a goodly number of dance students in the audience. 

The girls behind me were dressed to the nines for their evening out and spent most of their time between pieces texting on their phones.  But when they weren't they were attempting to discuss what they saw on the stage. 

Now, modern dance can be difficult going for a lot of audiences.  But as dance students, one might hope that they have a more thorough reaction to the work on the stage. 

But as I sat listening to these girls and their baffling comments on the show (one girl decided a piece using a couture dress as a cocoon and the dancer freeing herself from it was about "the girl's wedding with her bridesmaids), I thought about how I was at their age.  I sat in the same theatre, watching very similar arts and lecture series, and was certainly less cohesive in my observations as I am now.  In fact, I was very often the girl in the seats who actually admitted she didn't get it. 

But now, fifteen years later, I sit and absorb a variety of feelings, impressions, themes, and imagery, while a sense of order and meaning tend to come naturally out of them.  And I can even articulate my responses to them. 

Is this simply a manifestation of added experience?  Sure, I've finished my degree since I was a 20 year old student.  But that ended at the age of 25.  Believe it or not, a teaching career in the California education system doesn't lend itself to increased higher order thinking skills in the arts.  If anything, it dulls them. 

I have directed and studied theatre a lot in the interim years.  I have explored more about art history, design elements, and various other aspects of the arts.  I've read more books, been to more museums, had more sex, solved more problems (and created many more new ones). And yes, I do have a more enriched emotional life than I did at 20. 

But the mystery to me is always how these elements of individual maturity and learning manage to combine so succinctly and elegantly into an ability to "get it".  I "GET IT" much more now than I ever did.  And hopefully, in another 15 years, the 50 year old me will say the same thing about the 35 year old me.   And more than just "getting it", I understand a little more about what's not worth the time and effort to "get". 

While I do envy the 20 year old me her body, her potential, and her hot boyfriend. . . I don't think I could actually bring myself to go back there if it were magically offered to me. The trappings of my life are far more complicated now, but my inner life is way more fun.

Stats

One of my favorite things to do as a blogger is to review my stats pages and check where people are coming from.  You find yourself linked to blogrolls you never knew of before.  But my FAVORITE FAVORITE thing is to go to the google searches people came through. 

You see, when someone googles a phrase and sees one of my entries and they click through, my stats counter records the google search that the person used.  It can be both random and reassuring.  Usually, I find the same keywords lead people to my blogs (Theatre Quotes, Shakespeare theatre, victorian dancing, Ren Faire California. . . ).  Sometimes, though, you get some random things and you wonder why people clicked through to my blog. . . from today:

"uses for pre-smocked fabric"

"fluctuations in blood pressure"

are two.  Now when I see which entry they're linked to, it makes a little bit of sense.  But you can see from the snapshot on the google site that my blog is not going to explain the ins and outs of blood pressure to anybody (that one was from a Mom Update post from two years ago). 

The one that always makes me proudest though are the ones using the key words

"madwoman attic"
or
"madwoman in the attic".

The first page of that google search lists 9 references to the seminal work of feminist literary criticism by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar and one entry referring to my blog.  Not much else on the first page of that search. 

Ten years ago when I established that domain name, there were three or four others using some similar derivation of that phrase on the internet as a handle.  Now, it's Gilbert & Gubar, this chick, . . .and ME. 

 

For the first time in a while, I am actually bodily tired at the end of the day.

After some Woodward Shakes meetings this afternoon, I went to the garden supply store and bought some fleurs, potting soil, seeds, etc.  Then I actually spent the afternoon potting and planting things.  (My mother was shocked. . . I rarely volunteer to work in the yard, but now that I actually have a nice table and umbrella out there, its nice to have pretty things about to look at. 

I planted some sunflower seeds along the fenceline, some wildflower seeds in the dead space next to the shed, and set up several pots of herbs under the shade umbrella on the patio table.  I also potted a large French lavender bush, two spanish lavender plants, and planted seeds for some English lavender starts.  I also potted some frezia and a bundle of origami blue and white columbines. 

So, I'm hoping to get some good fragrant breezes in my backyard this spring. 

Tonight I took the fruits of what was already growing in my yard and am making a variety of flower waters with them, specifically:  rosewater, lavender water, geranium water and deutzia water.  The deutizia is the one I'm really hoping works out because the deutzia bush only blooms two weeks out of the year (it is, in fact, always a shock to us when it does because we always forget that it blooms until we start to smell the fragrance of it which is vaguely like a cross between honeysuckle and wisteria). 

Anyway, I know the rosewater will work out.  The others I may have to tweak the recipes a bit by heightening the fragrances with some essential oils (which I sometimes have to do with the lavender water).  We'll see. 

The easiest way to make rosewater is simply thus:

Take the petals of 3-4 roses, preferably grown organically and in your own yard, place them in a glass bowl.  Bruise them slightly to release their fragrant oils.  Pour four cups of boiling water over the petals and cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap.  Allow to steep for at least 30 minutes.  Strain the petals from the water and pour the water into a canning jar.  Add 5 tbs of vodka to act as a preservative and disinfectant.  Seal and place in the refrigerator to cool.   With the vodka, the rosewater will stay fresh in the fridge for up to a month. (Without the vodka, the rosewater will last 5-7 days in the fridge).

Post Script:  Here's a discovery for you-- Two drops of essential oil of 'heather flower' deepens and sweetens the fragrance of all of the above waters.  Interesting.

The Queen's Questions Podcast

Wow, this is a really crappy podcast with a really crappy, not-even-English accent.  But there it is. 

Download TheQueenPodcast.mp3

In this podcast:

The Woodward Shakespeare Festival Bard's Bash

The Queenly pastimes.

The social economy of the Elizabethan Era.

The proper way to make tea. 

• No Tea Bags
• Taylors of Harrogate

And Baroque Harpsicord by Simone Stella. 

Help a Queen out. . . .

So, this Monday morning, I have to appear on KJWL 99.3 fm (out of Fresno) as "The Queen of England" (I love that they don't specify which one-- ostensibly I'm supposed to be Elizabeth I) in order to promote the 4th Annual Bard's Bash for the Woodward Shakespeare Festival. 

This will require me to do something I've rarely done before:  speak completely in BFA (Basic Faire Accent-- a mishmash of standard stage diction, Shakespearean prose, faire-isms, and, in my world, a bit of Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II) for a WHOLE HOUR AT A TIME!

So, I need to practice this weekend.  And here's how you can help me out:  We're going to play "Ask the Queen."

Post in the comment area a question you would ask me as some Random Shakespearean Festival Queen Type, and I'll collect them all and put them in a podcast this weekend. 

The questions can be anything upon which I could conceivably give an answer  in character (Andrew, this means none of those hypothetical puzzle "The world has been taken over by zombies, what would you do?" questions.  You know I hate those). Post as many questions as you like.

I am your Queen.  Petition what you will.