Come the Revolution

Archive for December, 2007

Hey readership, sorry for delaying new posts. I’ve had some changes going on due to job stuff and stress of holidays. I consider myself culturally Catholic (shocking, I’m sure, with my Irish name), but my family is religious so I’m visiting their little corner of the suburbs. As per my usual, I have few boughten presents and quite a few made ones. The most notable of these are the bookshelves that my brother and I are in the middle of building for our parents. It’s an ongoing project to turn our late grandmother’s room into a library of sorts for the aging parents.

The plans for the library are extremely simple and made to last virtually forever. They are made of pine, but are strong enough to hold over 150 pounds on each shelf (we tested this by standing on them). Almost everything is done with 1×12 pine boards of varying lengths, except for the structural top and bottom pieces which are 1×2″ to the desired length (same as shelf). To figure out the proper length we measured from wall to windowsill. Since the plan was to make shelves on all the open wall space, we subtracted the distance required to have the shelves meet about corner to corner (ideally a tiny bit of overlap). Almost all the shelves are 12″ high (save a few particular ‘tall’ shelves), so we had to have 28 1×12x12’s cut to build in the supports.

For the first wall we used a fairly local lumber yard called Roval Lumber (Kearny, NJ). Unfortunately this year Roval was closed for Sunday and then Christmas and we had limited time, so were forced to go to Lowes. Roval had much better wood quality than Lowes did, and cost around the same. The difference was that at Lowes we didn’t have to pay for cuts, whereas at Roval we did. When we finish the project next year I have no doubt we’ll spend a little extra to give back to the community a little and be sure I’m getting a good quality of wood. This year we made a point of getting the screws at a local hardware store to support the local economy at least a little bit.

As for the rest of the presents, I’ll say that freshly made and yet-to-be-covered-with-books shelves are perfect for cooling a few thousand cookies and a hundred or so dog biscuits on. Stay tuned for recipes.

I’m making and canning cranberry sauce today. My father won’t eat it — he prefers his in jelly-form, still holding the shape of the can it came from. But I’m looking forward to it, and my mother will like it, and if it comes out well it’ll be gifted to several family members.

It smells yummy already. The thing about canning is that you don’t have to be constantly tending to the stove (unless it’s jelly, in which case you might as well chain yourself to the kitchen counter). Right now I’m at the stage where I have to “stir occasionally” while the berries burst and boil. For a minute or two they sounded like popcorn popping — and yes, one got me in the eye — but they’ve calmed down now, which gives me the opportunity to post the recipe.

I pulled it from Ball’s website. When canning, you have to stick pretty close to the given recipe; if you deviate, you might change the acidity of the product, and if it isn’t acidic enough it might grow nasties. We don’t want that. In this case I’m not too too worried about the acidity, since cranberries are pretty tart. I have images in my head of my best friend in college, doing shots of 100% cranberry juice to avert a UTI — it’s intense, to say the least.

Anyway. I’m sure there are much more interesting cranberry sauce recipes out there if you’re not canning it, but this is a nice simple starter-version. I’ll let you know how it comes out!

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
Makes about 4 (16 oz) pints or 8 (8 oz) half pints

You will need:
4 cups granulated sugar
4 cups water
8 cups fresh cranberries (about 2 lb)
Grated zest of 1 large orange, optional
4 (16 oz) pint or 8 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands
Directions:

1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.)COMBINE sugar and water in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil hard for 5 minutes. Add cranberries and return mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until all berries burst and liquid begins to sheet from a metal spoon, about 15 minutes. Stir in orange zest, if using, during the last few minutes of cooking.
3.) LADLE hot cranberry sauce into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot cranberry sauce. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
4.) PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Saturday night, on the way to the Rockapella concert (!), I noticed that my right lymph node was swollen. Not just a little swollen, either — it was big and hard, and not at all in a sexy way. It immediately made me feel nauseous, but then again I feel a little nauseous whenever I think about my lymphatic system.

I decided pretty quickly that I was dying. Either it was some kind of cancer, or my lymph nodes were desperately trying to fend off some kind of monster-infection that I couldn’t possibly survive (the plague, maybe?). Cian says I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. I say, expect the worst and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Unfortunately, the cold I’ve come down with does not feel like a pleasant surprise. I’m pretty sure I jinxed myself with all the complaining about the swollen lymph node. I’ve worked the past two days anyway, although I worked from home yesterday morning and part of this afternoon. It feels gross to be in an office when you’re blowing your nose every two minutes, approximately. Plus, if I’m at home, I can be in my PJs and drink cups and cups of tea.

The nice thing about being sick is that I can take the opportunity to not feel guilty for doing leisure-y type things. Plus, as previously noted, I can do them while in PJs and drinking cups and cups of tea. Here are my favorites things to do when sick:

• Sleep. Actually, this is always one of my favorite things to do. But it’s particularly gratifying when sick.
• Read something fluffy. Between work and personal interests, I read a lot of heavy stuff. Lots of scientific articles and academic books, and plenty of fairly dry how-to stuff as well. I love all that stuff (clearly, or I wouldn’t read it), but being sick gives me an excuse to catch up on all the fluffy stuff. My mother just sent me a trio of trashy romance novels I’m looking forward to.
• Craft holiday gifts. Being sick is no time to work on a canning project. My thinking’s too hazy, and besides, I don’t want cold germs anywhere near my pomegranate jelly. The canning will have to wait until I feel a little better, but luckily I have a crochet project I’ve been itching to begin (Hats! In shades of purple! With little stars!). I could also get down to the business of writing holiday cards, since soon it will be too late.
• Watch lots of movies. In PJs. While drinking tea, and crocheting. I perfected the art of illness-multitasking after I had my tonsils out. The kind of movie I can handle depends on how sick I am — right now I could probably handle something with some depth, but there are times when I just can’t handle anything tougher than Bridget Jones’ Diary.
• Whine, sigh a lot, and demand cuddles. ‘Nuff said.
• Blog!I spend a lot of time online for work. No, I mean, a lot. Sometimes nine hours a day. So most days, when I come home, I don’t even want to look at my computer. But I love writing, and it cheers me up, so on a day like today it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Okay, three people who read CTR: What do YOU do when you’re sick?

Sometimes I can think ahead for dinner but I can’t be damned to actually do much. Tonight was one of those nights. I did something that I picked up in college as a low-thought meal. Take an acorn squash (or other type of winter squash) and cut it in half. Scoop out the stringy mess from the center along with the seeds (season and roast these if you want- they taste like pumpkin seeds), and put the squash face-down in a shallow baking pan (the “face” is the inner portion of the squash). Pour water into the baking pan, leaving the level at 1/4″ or so. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour or so.

If you’re not always the healthiest eater- after the hour turn the squash over so that the halves are bowl-like, put some butter and brown sugar (I like to add cinnamon here, nutmeg also works, and I’ve heard of people putting a little maple sugar), and put it back in the oven until it’s tender. Arm self with favorite spork or variant, and enjoy.

If you MUST have something more healthy in your squash-bowl, fill it with other roasted vegetables (onion, pepper, etc.) and/or couscous. This takes little more thinking, but since the squash and vegetables can roast simultaneously it’s still pretty simple.

Who thought two minutes of thinking and “work” could bring about something that tastes as good as roasted acorn squash.

A funny story for the New Englanders out there. When I got to Massachusetts for my bachelors, I didn’t know what an acorn squash was. It took me a few months to eat the “roasted squash” strips in the dining hall (which were generally acorn), and even longer to realize what they were and be willing to buy and eat it in my post-dorm apartments. My senior year I roasted an acorn squash pretty much the way I did tonight and my roomates’ responses were classic. The one who had lived in New England for years said “Mmmm, smells like squash,” and the one from Suffulk County said “what the hell are you eating?”