Some Food, and Kitty Hilarity (sort of)

Once again, from my postings (or lack thereof), you'd think we haven't been eating, haven't been cooking, or both. Not quite true, although the last few weeks have passed in a blur that meant "catch as catch can" for most meals.

Having said that, though, the new hit around here is a sort of deconstructed pesto & greens pasta dish I put together a couple of weeks ago and replicated yesterday. After all, we have to use up all that farfalle somehow!

In a big iron skillet: lots of garlic, some olive oil, a bunch of chopped chard (or arugula, which I used yesterday), a few leaves of fresh marjoram, a little salt, sauteed until the greens are done to taste. Then finely chopped basil stirred in in the last couple of minutes. Toss that with hot cooked farfalle, a handful of pine nuts, and possibly a bit of tomato and a few olives. Rennet-free parmesan for me, soy gouda for J, and it's a fabulous and fast lunch.

J has also been making hummus a lot lately, and that's been a treat.

As for the kitty: a simple annual checkup turned out to be a day-long ordeal yesterday when she went ballistic in the examining room and had to be sedated. If that weren't bad enough (both that she & all the people involved had to go through it, and that it was expensive!), it's taken her a long time to come down from the sedative and the drug they give to reverse its effects. I do confess that I found her stumbling around a bit funny, and what seemed to be some kitty hallucinations hilarious: she was convinced last night that my cd binder was her mortal enemy, and this morning she was growling at J's bag of clothes to be drycleaned.

Luckily, she's fine now, and the checkup didn't turn up anything wrong, although we haven't gotten blood test results back yet.

Go, California!!!!

Need I say more?

Except that Miss J just happened to fly to San Francisco today for a conference at Stanford this weekend, and has been celebrating in the streets since noon! I sure wish I could be there with her, but who knew that today would be the day? Now let's just hope the conservative dumbasses don't go all out to reverse the ruling.

"The Extraterrestrial Is My Brother"

This from Yahoo news today...and I have a lot of questions for this Rev. Funes. For example, why is the extraterrestrial necessarily male? Is the little green gal his sister? What if she happens to be a big ol' dyke who wants to be a cardinal? What if Brother ET is already among us in the form of, say, a parasitic worm? Does brotherhood really extend that far? Uhhhh....

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press WriterTue May 13, 4:07 PM ET

Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God,the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.

The interview, headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.

The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.

But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance."

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo's persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has "caused wounds."

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

"The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration."

Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

The Vatican Observatory has been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world's best.

The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the pope has a summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

But really. It's great that the Vatican is echoing Jodie Foster's line from Contact that if we're the only ones in the universe, it's an awful waste of space.

Pasta Salad, Anyone?

Occasionally, J & I order from Fresh Direct, which allows us to lay in heavy dry goods like flour and cat litter without having to carry them home. But Fresh Direct giveth and Fresh Direct taketh away: sometimes they mess up the order a little. So far, none of the mistakes (except for giving us a box of Uncle Ben's Perverted Rice) have been bad enough to complain about--in fact, we once got a free 6-pack of beer!--and it's kind of fun to wonder if, or how, FD will make a mistake this time.

I think this week's substitution is a little funny. Among other things, I ordered a box of linguine, a box of farfalle, and a jar of white vinegar (the cheap stuff, to clean with). The linguine arrived, but no vinegar, and instead of one box of farfalle:



Some poor soul out there was going to make a big huge pasta salad, and got my vinegar instead!

The kitty, of course, has been hard at work lately:

This is just begging for a LOLCATS caption. Any ideas, y'all?

Cabbage and Leek Gratin: SO Not Vegan

...and it's not much of a looker, but it's delicious.



I pulled this (almost) entire from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers cookbook, which J's parents gave me for my birthday last year. Here it is with Deborah Madison's proportions, but mostly my prose:

1 1/2 pounds green cabbage, Savoy if possible, chopped into 2" squares
3 fat leeks, white parts only, quartered & chopped
salt
1/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
3 eggs
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or dill

1. Preheat oven to 350 and butter or oil a 6-cup gratin dish (I used a glass pie plate)

2. Put water on to boil for the cabbage, and when it boils, add some salt and the cabbage and leeks & boil for 5 minutes. After that, press as much water out of the vegetables as possible so it doesn't dilute the custard (I squeezed the water out using a lint-free tea towel).

3. Whisk the flour, milk, sour cream, eggs, and herbs together, then add the veg. Season with salt. Pour into the dish and bake until firm and lightly browned, about 45 minutes.

Now, what I did differently: the major difference is that I used marjoram instead of the the parsley or dill--mainly because I was in the mood for marjoram, and also because I think it goes nicely with egg. I also added about 3/4 cup white cheddar to the mix, in part because I was not planning to make the mustard cream sauce that DM suggests to go alongside it (though that would be good, too--I just didn't have any shallots or white wine vinegar in the house).

I also just realized that I think I only put in 1/3 cup of milk, too, but it worked out beautifully anyway. I can't think how the extra milk would have changed much about it, though maybe it'd have been creamier. Anyway, no loss!

Making it again, I would continue to use the marjoram, but I would also consider making a breadcrumb crust for a little textural contrast. This one doesn't want a full-blown crust, I think. But DM is right about Savoy cabbage being a better choice than quotidian green cabbage. The cheddar was a nice choice, but for those of you out there who don't have to avoid rennet I can see various delightful variations on the theme. I think Cheshire would have been perfect in this, but I couldn't find any. And if I weren't allergic to pork, I think a bit of bacon would add a lot.

Now, because this recipe is SO not vegan, I expect I may be attempting a lactose-free version for J sometime soon! So I wonder if substituting silken tofu for the sour cream and soy milk for the milk would work. In that case, I think I would use dill instead of marjoram to compensate for the tofu's blandness.

The whole thing was very quick & easy to assemble, and the baking required no attention at all.

Goth Chicken

According to its package, that chicken enjoyed her life. I made sure she--or, at least, I--enjoyed her afterlife. If I had known that carcass was going to contribute to as much and as various deliciousness, I'd have documented it along the way, but I had other things on the mind, like passing my dissertation proposal defense and keeping Kleenex in business with spring tree pollen allergies.

First I roasted her with some potatoes, and had steamed asparagus on the side. Divine. And much to my delight, the package also contained two livers, which I fried up as an appetizer. Glory days.

A few sandwiches later, I pulled apart a thigh and a leg and made green curry with the rest of the asparagus and some bamboo shoots I found in the cupboard.

Then, Saturday, I sent her off in style as enchiladas. I had in mind to try to replicate the enchilada half of Charlottesville Guadalajara's "#F" (would half of #F be # C?), which I did, except that my cheese wasn't right and I didn't also try to replicate their salsa--so really, I just had chicken enchiladas, which were gorgeous. If I had known they were that easy, I'd have been making them all along!



The rest of the carcass is in the freezer, awaiting inclusion in stock.

Saturday was a day of recreational cooking all around: I also made my first cake from scratch. Devil's food. Much better than Duncan Hines. That recipe, like the enchilada sauce recipe, came from Joy of Cooking. I didn't take a picture, though, because I decided not to ice it, so it's not all that pretty--but it sure does taste good.

And a couple of weeks ago, I made latkes, but forgot to write about that. Not kosher, but totally fun to make in that way that frying things can be. I et them with garlic mayonnaise alongside pinto beans and asparagus.



In gardening news, my parsley sprouted but hasn't achieved its real leaves yet. And I found the perfect use for the cable box:



That's chard in the tupperware, waiting to sprout. Chard seeds look like they're from outer space. I have some lettuce seeds started elsewhere, but there wasn't room on the cable box for them, too!

The Book I'm Not Reading: I'll know as soon as I come up with a revised research plan!