Resolve

Does this mean my luck will come lately, if at all?

I’ve heard it’s lucky to have black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, but I never managed to get my act together enough to make them on time. This year is no exception, although I did manage to buy the black-eyed peas and similarly contemplated making something with them on New Year’s Day. Perhaps that will be good enough. Last night they went to good use, though. I formed them into tasty, albeit a tad spicy, black-eyed pea patties.

Black-Eyed Pea Patties (Makes 8 Patties)

* Preheat oven to 350° F.

* Combine:

1 can (15 oz.) black-eyed peas, rinsed and mashed

¾ c. quinoa flakes

¼ c. pecans, ground into a paste

¼ c. vegetable broth (this amount is approximate - you want the “dough” just firm enough to hold together)

1 tsp. amchoor powder

½ tsp. garam masala

½ tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. Hungarian hot paprika

½ tsp. salt

* Smoosh mixture together into patties 2″ x 2″ x ¼” and place on non-stick cookie sheet.

* Drizzle with olive or canola oil or spray with cooking spray.

* Bake for 20 minutes, turning the patties over at ten minutes.

Next time I make these, I think I might cut back on the paprika. Or use standard paprika. I like spicy food, but I think I really didn’t want these patties to be that spicy. Particularly as I served them with a couple of healthy dollops of hot, store bought mango chutney. Thank goodness for the chanterelle “calamari,” as they were the only thing that added a little calm to my dinner last night.

New Year’s Day is also the time for resolutions.  I do not make any regarding organization, finances, people, weight loss or even quitting smoking (when that was applicable). I may be ambivalent about whether or not I should make general dietary changes, though. It would explain why I bought the ingredients to make smoothies, but have instead discovered that if you mix equal parts Vegenaise and peanut butter with a hit of wasabi paste or powder you end up with something revoltingly and embarrassingly delicious. For the most part, what I do make are “knowledge” resolutions. I thought that it would be fun to list them here so I can get a good chuckle at the end of the year when I’ve made virtually no headway:

1. Learn how to play chess.
2. Learn Japanese.
3. Refresh my French. I’m really hoping I can save up enough for a visit this year.
4. Learn macramé. For real this time. I know I claimed I was working on this months ago, but it took several times for crochet to stick.
5. Learn how to read crochet patterns.
6. Take one ballroom dancing class.
7. Take pottery throwing classes.
8. Learn 12 new knitting tricks or techniques. (This includes alternative cast-on methods that I must put into practice . . . it’s quite sad that I still insist on using the long tail method despite the fact that I have a fondness for lace knitting. The two do not mesh well.)
9. Purchase a loom and spinning wheel. Weaving and spinning are from last year’s list. Sadly, my finances and desire to learn how to do both on fancy equipment were not in sync last year. This year looks more promising. At the very least, I will get a Nifty Knitter and a spindle. A five-year-old could afford these on a modern allowance, so I should be able to, too.
10. Read a book a week. If this means that I have to buy one of those machines made for paralyzed people that requires you to puff into it to make it turn pages, so be it. I should probably be humiliated that a friend recommended that I do this, but at least he understands how knitting complicates my reading life.

Not Frantic Yet

Normally nothing would make me happier than a large plate full of tater tots, but I had heard rumors that Whole Foods had waffle fries. Apparently, that would be the Whole Foods in Long Island only, unless there’s hope for the Bowery location. I had to have instant something, though, so I went for tater tots instead. On day 1 of Christmas Crafting for the Family they were a bit of a let down, but they weren’t supposed to be my prime focus. My grandmother’s lap quilt was:

I didn’t have the time to spare to move the pieced bits off of my bed, so yes . . . I slept on my grandmother’s quilt. Fortunately, this is not one of the evenings I slept on a sewing needle. Or a crochet hook. Or scissors. Or knitting needles. Clearly, I need to stop crafting in bed.

Hard Crack

Apparently I shower long enough for several dollars worth of sugar, corn syrup and cornstarch to go from “soft boil” to “hard crack.” After staring at my newly acquired candy thermometer, patiently waiting for the temperature to rise to 270 degrees, I decided I would be there for a while and really ought to shower because I decided “pulling taffy” would be a miserable excuse for being late to work yet again. It seems that’s all it took for the temperature to get a move on it, and by the time I stepped back out of the shower it had risen over 100 degrees, making my sugary mass no good for anything other than hard candy. Had I set it up accordingly. I didn’t, because I wanted to pretend as if those 30 degrees really made no difference, so I popped it into aluminum foil, still suffering from the delightful fantasy that I could turn sugar that should be soft crack but wasn’t into anything pliable. I do now accept the fact that I have been saddled with a rather tasty door stop.

Lump of coal cookies.

Sorry, Mom

I am such a bad daughter. Through the years I have been claiming “My mother can’t cook.” But every time I look at the New Farm Mac recipe (and on the one other occassion that I have dared to make it), I’ve always thought it was missing something — onions. Then I remembered, my mother used to make macaroni and cheese from scratch but, ungrateful family that we were, we clamored for Kraft so my mother’s one recipe didn’t come out very often. The thing of it is, I have this idea that I really liked the homemade mac and cheese when I was a kid. I also have it in the back of my head that it was my father who liked the Kraft stuff the best, although we all universally despised Velveeta’s mac and cheese.

Maybe I shouldn’t call it New Farm mac, but New Farm Little Dreams seemed to be pushing the beauty of this recipe just a tad. I love that we GF people get shapes now. I definitely ate a pentagram or two last night. And a bunny. Is that vegan?

Cookies Will Always Fix What Ails You

When you’re feeling a little sick and a little under the weather, nothing heals you like oodles of ginger tea, too many kiddie movies and cookies. For some reason, I never think to take sick days. I always end up in my office, hacking like an idiot and feeling miserable (this can be differentiated from normal days in that I’m not hacking like an idiot unless I’m trying to choke down a comment or two). But I made Saturday a good sick day. I slept through most of the cartoons, but I did manage to catch Viva Piñata, TNMT and Dinosaur Kings. I’m hopelessly in love with Dinosaur Kings. It is like Pokemon, but with dinosaurs. More importantly, unlike Pokemon, it has all of the old Pokemon vocal talent and a spot on non-cable TV. And dinosaurs battling their way through modern urban environments. And the occasional geographical lesson (important, since I missed most geography studies due the lack of national lesson plan requirements and my family’s unfortunate timing of our move from Northern California to Abilene, Texas when I was ten, which left me, sadly, without knowledge of where any state is except for the ones I’ve lived in or driven through . . . yes, I could have acquired this knowledge on my own, but I digress).

I also watched Dragonslayer, Popeye, Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky. I hadn’t seen Dragonslayer since it first came out. For some reason, I was obsessed with it as a kid despite only seeing it once. When I heard it was finally being released on DVD, I asked for it for Christmas, but did not receive. I decided to hold off on buying it, but it was going for seven dollars at J&R, so I couldn’t say no. I was not disappointed. I’d like to say that watching the movie again gave me ideas about creating a cape for winter, but truthfully, the cape idea has probably been kicking around in my head since I first saw the movie. That, and the scene where the baby dinosaurs were gnawing off the princess’s hands. Popeye is another movie that I haven’t seen all the way through since I was little. I’m not too sure I’d be in love with it if it hadn’t worked its charm on me before I was old enough to know better, but I like that it is very cartoony and exaggerated. And, what can I say. I always gravitate towards Miyazaki movies when I’m sick. There’s something about the worlds he creates that I find very soothing when I’m not feeling well. Lastly, I watched April Fool’s Day. It’s definitely not a kid’s movie, despite the fact that I was a kid when I saw it: