Dangerous Ingestions

This is where the GOP leaves us.  They had the opportunity to remove the president in February and they chose to not do so.  They were aware of the growing threat of a pandemic at the time, and they also knew that there was no way that he would be able to lead the country through it.  It might have been to predict just how poor a job he would do, but there was nothing to support that he would listen to scientists, nor would he be able to comprehend the magnitude of the problem.  So the fact that the makers of Lysol products had to state categorically that no one should ingest one of their products is appalling.  It is one thing to incite them to form large crowds that increase their risk of coming down with COVID.  It is quite another to go all Jonestown on them and inject themselves with bleach products.  He has a grammar school understanding of medicine and this is where he leaves us.  Once again, I wish I believed in hell.

Midwest Made by Shauna Sever

This is the year long cookbook for the Food 52 Baking Club, a group that cooks from a different cookbook each month, but has a bonus book to cook from throughout the year, a cookbook to get to know well.  I joined the group late in the year last year, got the year long book out of the library, but was largely uninspired by it, and ended up cooking nothing.  Not so this year.
The cookbook seems to be a love it or hate it experience.  One club member offered to mail hers to someone who wanted it, she wanted it our of her house and never see it again.  Then another is five recipes short of cooking everything in the book.
The recipes are overall very easy to follow, cover baked goods that come from the Midwest, so a strong German, Polish, and Scandinavian influence pervades.  The English Muffing bread does have the texture of an English Muffin, my mom declared that the Best Banana Bread was the best she had had, and the fancy show stopped of a Cassata Cake was easy to put together and looked just like the picture.  If you want to learn how to make a few solid desserts, from cookies to bars to pies to cakes and some savory things thrown in, this is a great place to start.

Aloo Gobi

Yet another recipe from our Indian feast.  I have been trying to cook out of the cookbooks in the Food 52 cookbook club, but every once in a while we return to old favorites.

Peanut or canola oil, for shallow frying

1 pound boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into thick 2 by 1 by 1-inch fries

1 head cauliflower (1 3/4 pounds), cut into delicate florets

1 tablespoon peeled finely chopped fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

3 tablespoons water

2 to 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro

1. Put the oil in a large frying pan and set over medium heat. When it is hot, put in the potatoes and fry them until they are golden and almost tender, about 10 minutes. Lift the potatoes out with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat to medium-high, put in the cauliflower florets, and fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until they are golden brown. Lift the cauliflower out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat off. Remove all the oil from the frying pan except for 2 tablespoons (the extra oil can be drained and reused). Turn the heat to medium-high and put in the ginger. Stir for 10 seconds. Now return the potatoes and cauliflower to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium. Put in the turmeric, salt, cayenne, cumin, and coriander. Stir gently to coat the vegetables with the spices. Add 3 tablespoons of water. Stir once and cover the pan. Turn the heat down to low and cook very gently for 4 minutes. Add the cilantro and toss gently. Serve hot.

Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)

Did I enjoy this movie?  I did.  Is it a great animated film?  No, it is not.  The thing is, I have been pretty low energy this pandemic.  I am really impressed at people in history who did great things while they were under lock and key for previous pandemics.  I find the 'what if's' to be inhibiting my ability to watch a movie with a deftly crafted plot, and let's just say, this movie was not taxing.
In this sequel the pets go their separate ways, coming together to save the day at the end, but they have different threads to their stories.   This is unlike other sequels from the year, where Toy Story 4 saw the same toys, new children, How To Train Your Dragon 3 saw same good guys, basically the same bad guys, with a new rescue plan, and Frozen 2 ramped up the magical powers, gave the sisters a new heritage, but saw the team working toward a common goal.  So this is the only bold move about the narrative.  It is like a couple of short stories strung together, in a fluffy manner. I do like that the owner has changed her story, and that time has passed and I did enjoy it.

Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester

I really loved this book.  I read an article from a Texas newspaper about 17 other books to read if you wanted to immerse yourself in the Latin experience but did not want to read American Dirt.  I a not sure you have to be Hispanic to be able to write about the culture, but it doesn't hurt, and there was so much back lash about the book that I felt it wasn't a good place to start.  This book is one of the first that I chose to read.
The book begins on the wedding day of Isabel and Martin.  They are pulling away from the church when the ghost of Omar, Martin's late father, appears in their car.  Martin is furious.  He and his father were not on good terms when last they met.  Isabel is surprised, but intrigued.  It is the Day of the Dead, and while she is unsure of the protocol on hugging a ghost, she wants to know more about Martin.  The book then toggles back and forth between the past and the present, chronicling Omar's story going forwards and backwards until it all comes together.  It is a pleasure to read.

Dehli Green Beans

We have continued to cook out of Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian Indian, even after getting a few other options.  Maybe it is because we have been cooking her recipes for years, or because the way she cooks and spices things speaks to us, but we always seem to come back to her.  My spouse has been working with critically ill COVID patients and when he came home from the hospital this weekend, he wanted comfort food, and we ended up with an Indian feast, including these simply prepared beans.

• Kosher salt
• 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1 to 3 fresh hot green chilis, such as bird's-eye, Indian long, or serrano, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger (from a 1-inch piece)
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add beans and cook until bright green and tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.
• Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high; add asafetida. A few seconds later, add cumin seeds and let sizzle a few seconds. Remove from heat; add chiles and ginger. Stir a few times, then return to medium-low heat.
• Add beans, 3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste), and coriander. Cook, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 5 minutes more. Serve hot or room temperature.

Secret Life of Pets (2016)

This is a bit of a retread of the Toy Story theme, where the pets do not know what their people do when they are gone during the day (ironic to watch this now, because of course so many of us are no longer gone the whole day.  My dog does NOT understand my fascination with my keyboard and computer, I must say, but he knows exactly where I am).  What we don't know is that they have a life of their own.
The trouble starts when Max' owner adopts another dog from the animal shelter and much like how Woody took an instant dislike to Buzz Lightyear, Max does not appreciate having Duke in the picture.  As you might imagine, after surviving some adversity together, Max is willing to risk his own life to save Duke's and when their owner arrives to an apartment in shambles but her dogs standing shoulder to shoulder, she has no idea what the day entailed.

Onion Dip

Passover has come and gone.  That is the holiday that is associated with potato chips at our house, and while gluten is now back in the rotation, the potato chips remain.
Truthfully, it started with the pandemic and not with Passover this year.  Our youngest is a fan of the chip, and when his classes were switched to Zoom, he became house bound in a big way.  He doesn't even go shopping, just curbside delivery.  That meant that his favorite dip became a high need food option, and after blazing through several commercial versions, it was time to make his own.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups diced onions

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups sour cream

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

 

In a saute pan over medium heat add oil, heat and add onions and salt. Cook the onions until they are caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Mix the rest of the ingredients, and then add the cooled onions. Refrigerate and stir again before serving.

Earth Day's 50th Birthday

A pandemic is very bad for the human race, but for the earth it has been a good thing.  There has been less industry, less air and water pollution, the oil market is collapsing, and the atmosphere is maybe not as clean as it was 50 years ago, but it is far better than it has been in decades.
In the months ahead, as we go back out into public and ramp up our use of energy, what lessens can we take with us from this time when we stayed indoors and tried to save each other?  Clearly there are forces of evil that want it to all go back to the way it was.  Captains of industry, who are no doubt hunkered down in safe places, are trying very hard to get people back into the work place.  The meat packing industry is Iowa should be a cautionary tale where that is related.  We have had a huge surge in COVID+ cases in the last week related to not improving safety there, in hopes of not interrupting the food chain, but failing to see that the way we protect health care workers needs to apply to all essential industries.  The industries that plan best for the return to the workplace will fare the best.
And today, say a prayer for the survival of our home, the planet Earth.

Troop Zero (2020)

I recommend this as an option for pandemic watching.  It is a misfit kid growing up movie that takes a lot of it's vision from Wes Anderson's Moonlight Kingdom. 
One reviewer described it as the new generation of underdogs, but I think these kids were always there, there was just a lot less sympathy for them in the past. Christmas is the girl who drives the forming of Birdies Troop Zero.  She has no interest in the existing troop in her town and they have no interest in her.  They are girls who see themselves as better than others, and have no compunction about bullying the less fortunate.  They want nothing to do with Christmas and she has no interest in them either.  She is fascinated by space, and when she learns that the winner of a Birdie competition will be included in a record that will go in search of intelligent life in the universe, she is all in on that quest.
She assembles a group of kids that includes physical disabilities, neglect, non-gender conformity, and they are all living in poverty.  Let's go team!  You cannot help but root for them. 

Falernum Mule

We have mint!  Therefore it must be really and truly spring!

I was bemoaning the lack of tonic water, not because I am convinced that it will somehow ward off ill effects from COVID-19, but because for me a gin and tonic is a sign that summer is nearing.  My spouse donned a homemade mask and braved the supermarket in order to lay in a small supply for the upcoming weeks of quarantine, but made this alternative last night.
Quite fresh and light!  Added bonus is that it uses mint--one of only 2 herbs we have growing on site, despite a few inches of snow last week.

• ½ oz Falernum
• 6 Mint Leaves
• ½ oz Fresh Lime Juice
• 1¼ oz Vodka
• 2 oz Ginger Beer

 Mix, pour over ice, muddle a little mint, and serve with a decorative sprig of mint.  If you have a mint bed, and live south of Minnesota, it should be producing nicely by now.

Gujarati Potato and Cabbage Curry

This recipe is from Meera Sodha, who wrote the cookbook Made in India.  My son was making a delicious Basmati rice dish and chicken tikka masala, and I wanted to make a complimentary dish.  Despite the quarantine I have potatoes and a massive green cabbage, so made this.  It is quick to cook, easy to prep, and delicious (although watch the chili powder--mine is quite hot, and this dish delivered a punch as a result.

500g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
Salt and black pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 pinch fenugreek seeds
½ tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
200g tinned plum tomatoes with their juice (ie, half a tin)
500g white cabbage (ie, half a large one), cored and shredded
1 tsp ground coriander
⅓ tsp turmeric
1 ½ tsp ground red chili powder
250ml lukewarm water

Put the potatoes in a pan, cover with cold water, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Cook until tender, then drain and leave to steam.  While the potatoes are cooking, heat the oil over a medium flame. Once it’s very hot, add fenugreek, mustard and cumin seeds and, when they start to crackle, stir in the onion and fry for six minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, cook for two minutes, then add the tomatoes, tipping them in with one hand and crushing them with the other as they hit the pan. Cook until the tomatoes become concentrated and paste-like and the oil floats to the top – about eight to 10 minutes.

Turn up the heat, add the cabbage and stir until well coated in the tomato mixture, then cover the pan and leave to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring infrequently (every couple of minutes, say), so the cabbage caramelizes a little while it softens.  When the cabbage is soft, fold in the potatoes, the ground spices and a teaspoon and a half of salt, and stir gently, so the potatoes don’t break up too much. Add the lukewarm water bit by bit, stirring after each addition, and leave to cook down for five minutes, until the liquid thickens into a sauce. Check and adjust the seasoning, then take off the heat.

Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)

If you are looking for comedy, which is the tickler that the trailer leaves you with, you would be sorely mistaken.  This is a straight ahead drama, which is largely exactly what the title leads you to believe.  Brittany gets a wake up call at her first visit to a doctor in what we have to believe is quite some time.  She is a party girl who is seeking a prescription for Adderall, but what she gets is a wake up call.  Her weight makes her in the obese age range, and her drinking is puttting her live at risk.  When she gets a peak at what a gym membership will run her, she takes to the streets to run.
So while that is the sum total of the story line, there’s a surprising amount of nuance in Brittany’s story. The movie unpacks the emotional baggage of how society treats you differently when you're a plus size, how the scars of bad relationships past can pool up insecurity, and how endless self-loathing can curdle into an attitude that hurts everybody in your path.  Far from being just a simple comedy about fitness and weight loss, Brittany’s journey includes the healing and forgiveness it takes to really meet those goals.

The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez

I read this memoir because it was on a list of books that one should consider reading if you wanted to know more about Mexican-American immigration and the border experience instead of American Dirt.
This memoir has been described as gritty and that makes it sound cleaner than it ended up reading to me.  It chronicles the struggles of a Latino boy who is inexplicably tied to the rough border town of Brownsville of his birth.  It is a scary, poor place where fathers and sons team up to smuggle pot into the United States, curanderas are consulted about border crossings, and a kid who  dared to go out with some drug thug's girl invariably ends up dead.  He captures what it is about leaving your family behind, how hard that is to accomplish, no matter how toxic they are for you.  It is a rough read.  The information divulged — about extreme poverty and misplaced machismo in a land where higher education is actually discouraged — can be as unbelievable as it feels unbearable.

Carmelized Onion Pudding

This is easy enough to make gluten free and made a nice side dish on Easter.  I think it could have used more eggs to be more puffy and substantial, but had a great flavor.

• 2 large yellow onions, peeled, sliced and cut into half circles
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon  flour
• ¹/₂ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¹/₄ teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 cup whole milk or 1/2 and 1/2

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil and butter. When melted, add the onions and the thyme. Cook slowly, over medium-low heat, until the onions turn limp and brown.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Using a mixer, beat the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and mix well over medium speed.
4. Lower the mixer speed and add the cream.
5. Grease a medium-sized gratin dish. Add the onions. Cover with the pudding mixture.
6. Bake 40 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Abominable (2019)

This is a road movie.  Yi lives with her mother and grandmother, and all three are still reeling from the death of her violin=playing father.  Yi had big plans to travel with her father throughout China, and she is saving up to do the trip on her own.
In comes the Yeti, who everyone is searching for but she is the one who finds him and hides him for reasons that go unexplained.  When it becomes clear that he is a relentlessly hunted creature, Yi sets out to return him to the Himalayas, his ancestral home.
The Yeto is magical, which helps them escape from  each and every pinch point that they encounter in their travels home, and while the story leaves nothing to the imagination, the animation is really quite beautiful in a way that is typical of Japanese animated films.  This is a combined effort from Dreamworks and the Chinese studio Pearl, and the collaboration may hold promise in the future.

It Would Have Been Enough

There is so much that has gone wrong with the US COVID-19 response.  It is hard to know where to start.  The concept of Dayenu, ot it would have been enough, is prevalent in the Passover story, and sadly fits our current debacle.
The first is that we do not have a leader who is capable of managing a day care center, much less a national response to a pandemic. Dayenu.  Second, he put his SIL, a man child who has nothing but a list of failures to his name, in charge of preparation.  Dayenu.  His aversion to expertise is on public display and as the death toll has risen, hospitals don't have enough PPE, he has become increasingly irrational and rambling. Dayenu.    The distribution of resources based on how much you praise him, the confiscation of imported items, and the graft in the bail out package all speak to a massively failed response.  Dayenu.  Now the GOP, which is the disease, is looking to shut down the post office so people won't be able to vote by mail. Ok, now you have gone too far. 

Chinese Broccoli in Ginger Sauce

There was a lot about our Seder this year that was different. It was sad to not be celebrating with the people that we usually do.  We were so lucky to have homemade gefilte fish, chopped liver, and meringues by the people who usually make them in other years, and my spouse took on the task of replicating a Sephardic haroset so as to replicate a lot of what we usually eat.
On the upside, we did a Zoom Seder with our extended family and if was chaotic as all get out, but really great to see everyone's faces.
Here is the nontraditional side dish, which we made because we had it on hand.

3/4 lb. Chinese broccoli
Salt
4 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp potato flour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water (optional)*

Directions

Step 1: Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Step 2: Wash and trim the Chinese broccoli. If the lower parts of the stems are thick and fibrous, peel away their outer skin with a potato peeler.
Step 3: When the water is boiling, add 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp oil, then the Chinese broccoli. Blanch it for a minute or two to "break its rawness." The stems should be just tender, but still crisp. If you are stir-frying them immediately, simply drain the broccoli stems and shake dry in a colander; if you want to serve them later, refresh the stems under a cold tap to arrest cooking before draining well.
Step 4: When you wish to serve the broccoli, add the remaining oil to a seasoned wok over a high flame, swirl it around, then add the ginger and sizzle briefly until you can smell its fragrance. Splash in the Shaoxing wine and add the sugar. Add the broccoli and stir-fry, adding salt to taste, until it is piping hot. (If you are using broccoli blanched earlier, then cooled, you will need to pour 2-3 tbsp water or stock into the wok and cover it, so the stems reheat thoroughly.)
Step 5: Remove the stems from the wok and lay them neatly on a serving dish. If you wish to thicken the juices, give the potato flour mixture a stir and add just enough, in stages, to thicken the sauce to a clingy consistency; then pour the sauce over the broccoli and serve. If you do not wish to thicken the juices, simply pour them and the ginger over the broccoli.

Wayne's World (1992)

Wow.  All I can say is that while I am glad that I waited until a pandemic to watch this, I did miss a lot of allusions to it over the ensuing quarter of a century since its release.  Almost every single scene has another movie that has played a riff on it.  So while the movie itself is almost unbearably stupid, it does have a very fine ear for society as a whole, the deadly effects of testosterone (the car scene where they are all rocking out to Bohemian Rhapsody is just classic) and why men desperately need the patriarchy or women in order to succeed.  The one thing that makes it work for me is that they are clearly laughing at themselves.  I believe I am amongst the last living humans to watch this, if you haven't seen it or it has been quite a while since you have seen it, now is the perfect time.  It is perfect shelter in place fare.  Pop some pop corn and belly up to the early 1990's sensibility and prepare to laugh and shake your head in disbelief and remember where you have seen this parody again.

Mask Making Fury

I have been so angry about the federal response to the pandemic.  Nurses working without PPE in New York, how did we come to this?  Obviously because we have a grossly incompetent leader who is aided and abetted by the GOP, who care nothing at all about the people they are elected to represent beyond suppressing the vote and getting re-elected.  That fury has translated into me getting no satisfaction from making masks.  Ordinarily it is an activity that would bring me at least some satisfaction, but no, up until Tuesday I was having none of it.  Then a highly valued coworker set me straight, and she didn't even mean to.  Since the CDC recommended wearing masks in public places, she has been worried.  She doesn't even have a sewing machine, much less the where with all to sew masks.  A light bulb went off.  Really, I need to help people to the degree that I can.  And I have been sewing masks ever since.  Including seven for her and her family.

Iced Lemon Bundt Cake

I love a good bundt cake, and this one is from Midwest Made, the year long cookbook featured in the Food 52.

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
•  1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. lemon extract
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk
• nonstick cooking spray, for greasing

Lemon Glaze

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. butter

Lemon Icing

• 1 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 3 tablespoons 1/2 and 1/2
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F (180˚C).
2. Make the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and salt with an electric hand mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon extract, and vanilla and beat to combine.
4. Add half the flour and beat to combine, then beat in the milk, then add the rest of the flour and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and make sure any floury spots are incorporated.
5. Grease a 10-inch (25-cm) bundt pan with nonstick spray. Spoon the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Gently tap the pan against the counter to release any air bubbles.
6. Bake the cake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. While the cake is baking, make the lemon glaze: In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the sugar and lemon juice. Microwave for 1 minute, stirring halfway through, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside.
8. Make the lemon icing: Sift the powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Add the other ingredients and whisk until smooth.
9. After the cake is done baking, let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet and remove the bundt pan. Use a knife to loosen the cake around the edges, if needed.
10. Use a skewer or fork to poke holes all over the top and sides of the cake. Brush the cake with the lemon glaze. If the glaze drips off, let the cake cool for a few more minutes, then continue brushing on the glaze. Let cool completely, at least 1 hour.
11. Pour the icing over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Grate lemon zest over the icing. Let the glaze dry completely, about 30 minutes.
12. Transfer the cake to a serving platter, slice, and serve.

The Padre (2018)

Revenge and money is what is at the center of this movie.  Every character is motivated by one or the other or both.  Except for Lena, an orphaned and abandoned girl who is trying to reunite with her sister, who was adopted out to Minnesota in the aftermath of their parents death.
Tim Roth plays a British con man who is hiding out in Columbia disguised as a priest--one that is not at all convincing in that he defies what the collar represents at every turn.  He is being pursued by Nick Nolte who is as crusty as ever, but somehow more on a hell bent single minded mission to avenge the death of his daughter.  He is not dissuaded by the fact that there really is no one to blame, that his treatment of her is at least as much to blame as anyone.
The problem with the movie is that there is a lot of needless death, and almost no growth on the learning curve at all.  It is just a flat out chase movie where you are really only rooting for the girl to escape, and that seems like the most unlikely outcome of all.

The Hubris of de Blasio

The the mayor of New York proposed conscripting healthcare workers and deploying them to areas in desperate need of medical assistance against their will it made me wonder what he himself was doing to combat the spread of the virus.  Was he driving delivery trucks or cleaning rooms in hospitals?  Was he putting himself on the line?
The answer is stunning.  He himself should be held responsible in part for the spread of the virus.  In mid-March, when the pandemic was very real in New York City hospitals, he resisted the closing of schools.  Parents were already keeping their students home when on March 15th he finally made the call.  His own staffers were ready to quit he was so slow to act.  He went to the gym the day he closed gyms.  On the eve of closing bars and restaurants he encouraged people to go out one last time and celebrate.  He resisted closing Broadway, and he was still giving out movie recommendations in March. 
He bears responsibility for worsening the spread of disease, and now he wants to force people to come and bail him out?  Without PPE or a plan to keep them safe?  All while he is making no visible sacrifices himself?  I wish I could say it is unbelievable but he is just an example that idiocy is not limited to one political party.

Chickpea Yogurt Soup

I usually have lots of dried grains and beans on hand, and buy rice by the 20 pound bag at the Asian market, so in my mind I was ready to shelter in place.  But it turned out that I had severely depleted supplies of some items, including chick peas, and my grocery delivery order came up short as well.  So I ordered on line, and now I have four pounds of dried chickpeas and I am going to make something every week with them.  Last week it was just marinated chickpeas for my salad, but this week it is the Genius Food 52 recipe.  Simple, and mostly with ingredients you are likely to have on hand.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 pinch fine-grain sea salt, to taste
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 1/2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• ¹/₄ teaspoon saffron threads (2 modest pinches)
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 cup plain yogurt (Greek or regular)
• 1 dash sweet paprika
• 1 small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

• In a medium-large pot over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil, onion, and a couple of big pinches of salt. Cook until the onions soften up a bit, a few minutes.
• Stir in the chickpeas, and then add the vegetable broth and garlic. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the saffron and egg yolks, then whisk in the yogurt. Slowly add a big ladleful, at least 1 cup, of the hot broth to the yogurt mixture, stirring constantly. Very slowly whisk this mixture back into the pot of soup.
• Return the pot to medium heat and cook, stirring continuously for another 5 minutes or so, until the broth thickens to the consistency of heavy cream, never quite allowing broth to simmer.
• Ladle into individual bowls and serve sprinkled with a touch of paprika and plenty of chopped cilantro.

Onward (2020)

This is a flawed movie in a flawed time, so it added up to a nice Sunday afternoon family time together.
Ian and Barley are elves who lost their dad at an early age. They both have typical teenage struggles, with Barley being the brave one and Ian being the cautious one.
They both get a chance to tap into their hidden adventurer when their mom reveals a secret to them, one she was meant to hold onto until Ian’s 16th birthday: Their father left them an ancient staff with a rare gem to place atop it. Those items, along with a few magical words, would bring him back to them for 24 hours—but they could only perform the spell once and they had to get it exactly right. Naturally, nothing goes as planned; they only get halfway through the spell, resulting in their father appearing from the waist down as just a pair of khakis and shoes with whimsical socks. It’s a strange idea and an even stranger image. In order to make the most of their limited time with him, they must go on a journey through their seemingly mundane town to finish what they started and make their dad whole.
The pace is jarring and the movie suffers as a result--there is way to much literally flying at them that you struggle to keep up, but in this age of untimely death the chance to meet up with a parent one last time is understandable.  I have mine under house arrest, hoping they can get through this.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Trueur

There is a saying we repeat at Passover every year which goes like this: They Tried To Kill Us, We Survived, Let's Eat.  This has the same message, but without the emphasis on food.
This is a book about the history of American Indians, largely stripped of emotion and historically accurate, but not delving very far into any particular time period.  The book is anchored by the aauthor's past and present.  He was raised on the Ojibwe reservation at Leech Lake in Minnesota, the son of a Jewish father and an Ojibwe mother, and his vision of America derived from his upbringing informs every page of this book.   His is a fascinating personal vision and in its own way uniquely American.  Treuer relies on extended interviews and personal memoir to tell his tale.
It is a painful history to read, one that rings true from previous knowledge but somehow more devastating for being laid out so matter-of-factly.  The hubris of the white man is deep and wide, reaching out into modern politics, having a voice being raised due to the overt racism of the current administration.  This book aims not to blame, but to revise the image of the Indian long prevalent in American literature and historiography as the Vanishing American, a race so compromised by disease, war and intermarriage that it is destined to disappear. His perspective is one of Native American resiliency and survival.

Pantry Peanut Noodles

Since I am a health care worker and so is my spouse, we are both going out into the world during the pandemic.  I am trying to convert all that I do to a televideo or telephonic platform, and so may at some point be better able to isolate myself, but my spouse is an ICU doctor, and so he will be leaving the house for the foreseeable future.  In that light, we have reduced any and all other contact with the outside world.
Hence, recipes that focus on things you have on hand are particularly attractive at this point.  Thank goodness the weather is warming up and our herb garden is reviving itself.  Chives and mint abound, and so can be added to any recipe as appropriate.

To make it, boil up a pound of whatever noodles you have: rice noodles, spaghetti, ramen, soba, egg noodles — see this as a way to cook up something that has been lying around for some time.

While the noodles are cooking, make the dressing by whisking together ⅓ cup peanut butter with ¼ cup soy sauce and 3 tablespoons each toasted Asian sesame oil and rice vinegar (or some other mild vinegar — white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or lime juice all work nicely). Season this with a grated garlic clove and a grated inch-long piece of fresh ginger root, if you have it (or leave it out). Then, sweeten to taste with a tablespoon or so of brown sugar, honey or maple syrup.

 Eat soon after making them or several days later, warm or cold, they are very versatile that way.

Lambert snd Stamp (2014)

This is a non-linear movie that essentially goes nowhere, and even then, it is hard to follow.  It meanders so far as to be off course often, but part of that it the subject matter.  It is a portrait of Kitt Lambert and Chris Stamp, two young Londoners who made their names and fortunes by managing a fledgling band called the High Numbers, who eventually became the band The Who.
It is an improbable tale.  It is not only an involving account of that group’s rise from obscurity to superstardom, the film is also an exceptionally vivid and evocative depiction of the cultural flux of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.  Lambert and Stamp were want to be filmmakers, art school at the same time as Pete Townsend. Their plan was to volunteer to manage his band and make a movie of the experience.  Ironically, they thought the band did not stand a chance, but that their movie would make them famous.  Seeing some of the footage of the film reinforces the adage that it is better to be lucky than to be good.  They were successful managers, flaming out some by the end, but this is a real deep dive into the time where two guys could actually know nothing and manage a rock band.
Kind of wild.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

I read the Handmaid's Tale when it was published and I was a young woman, and then again three years ago when one of my sons read it for a class.  At that point I was a considerably older woman, and in some ways, I found the book more relevant to modern women than I did when I was young.  At that point Roe vs. Wade was about a decade old, birth control was widely available and the concept that women control their own bodies was something I took to be true, a given.  Fast forward thirty years and it is glaringly evident that men continue to want to control women, and put it is a guise that any character in The Handmaid's Tale would recognize.
Thirty-four years later, Atwood has revisited Gilead at a moment in the #MeToo era when women have taken to the streets in handmaid costumes, adopting the scarlet cloaks as emblems of protest.  Aunt Lydia returns—the highest-ranking female oppressor in the Gilead described by Offred in a sequel of sorts set 15 years later. In the novel, Lydia is the foremost witness to the founding of the regime. This is a more optimistic view of a way out, that there are men who support the independence of women and there is hope to escape the oppressive patriarchy.

No Fooling, It Is a Pandemic

I didn't know this when I started to write about it but Google cancelled their usual April Fool's shenanigans secondary to the pandemic.  Suddenly fake news wasn't all that funny after all.
COVID-19 has brought to the forefront everything that is wrong with the current administration.  The first is promulgating the belief that the first pandemic in a century was orchestrated to foul up his reelection.  Seriously?  It reeks of the narcissism that pervades his public appearances.  The mistrust of expertise, to have to admit that there are people who know more than he, is unacceptable.  States that he perceives as against him get no federal aid.  It exemplifies his desire to be king, and worse yet, the Republican Senate are his handmaids in it all.  Meanwhile, the healthcare system is preparing and planning without federal coordination and without adequate supplies of masks and PPE.  It is criminal, but more likely than not no one will pay the price except those who needlessly die.  Happy April.