Cooking from Escoffier is a bit of a challenge since no temp or times are mentioned.

Côtes de Porc a la Flamande (pork chops and apples)

Season both sides of the chops and brown them on both sides in fat or butter (mmm bacon fat). Peel and slice eating apples allowing 3oz per porkchop. I used enough apples for 6 chops since the chops were extremely thick. Throw the apples in an earthenware dish (or dutch oven). Put the half-cooked chops on top and drizzle with leftover cooking fat. Complete the cooking in the oven. "Serve the dish as it stands."

I cooked at 325 for 30 minutes+ (I lost track of time so it was good that the chops were very thick).

At least I didn't need to flip back and forth to sub-recipes for this one. Everyone loved it; the chops were nice and juicy.

Because it isn't about just me.

That is the answer to so many questions. Questions I ask and questions asked of me.

You are probably asking "Mzungu, do talk about anything other than food?" The answer is that of course I think and talk about other things!

For instance: Safeway and a living wage

Our local Safeway is being picketed as part of a nationwide protest about wage negotiations. Safeway and their stores in CA, including Vons, are negotiating work contracts and want to cut benefits and wages. The company claims that they must cut costs to be able to compete with Wal*Mart and other box stores that are getting into the grocery business. Under the present contracts, full time grocery workers get full health benefits and a good wage that increases with years served. Grocery workers who work full-time are part of the middle class. Wal*Mart pays its workers considerably less and offers no paid health benefits for most workers.

I have been discussing this whole issue with my children, my SO, my coworkers, my religious leaders and community, pretty much everyone I'm in contact with.

If my SO and I both worked fulltime at Wal*MArt, we could not live in our current home or our previous home (2 bedrooms for 5 people). We could not afford two cars. We could not afford vacations. Almost one full salary would go toward health insurance.

If Safeway needs to compete with box groceries, why not cut their profit which is considerable instead of the worker's benefits? Why not? Because it is less obvious than raising grocery prices and less painful to the bottom line.

If the workers accept the new contract, even though the current workers retain their benefits and wage levels there are no guarantees that those workers will be kept on the job. What incentive is there to keeping current employees when new workers can be hired for much lower wages and lower benefit costs? Would management really work to edge current employees out? Of course they would; they care about the money not the people and they show that by making this move in the first place. Loss of health beneifts and lowered wage levels drop grocery workers to the edge of poverty.

In many situations I don't think Unions have a role anymmore but then I see situations like this and I think that if the workers didn't have the unions to rally them, living conditions would plummet and industry would treat people like shit.

It is easy for me to stop shopping at Safeway. Within a few miles of my home there are 2 Safeways, 2 Giants, a Sam's, a Shopper's Food Warehouse, and a Super Fresh; just a few more miles away are a Costco and My Organic Market (M.O.M.). The local Wal*MArt does not sell groceries. However, my old neighbourhood (where many people do not have cars) has only two grocery stores within walking distance and they are both Safeways (not very nice stores either! I used to hate sifting through the produce looking for something that wasn't moldy). Even using public transport or a car in the city there are only a handful of grocery stores and the majority are Safeways. There are a few Whole Food markets but they are expensive and an hour by public transport each way. So what choices do these neighbourhoods have?

I've been a persistant blogger but I could not get anything to publish during November and December.

What did you miss? There was my vent about Martha Stewart's "Easy" truffle recipe that was published in the paper while I was visiting my mother. Martha says truffles are easy and then gives a recipe with several complicated (and unnecessary) steps. I mean really! what is easy about adding corn syrup? It's an extra step and dilutes the chocolate.

My Easy Truffles that are easier and taste better than Martha's:

Single malt truffles

1/2 cup cream
12 oz chocolate, in bits (I use bittersweet)
4 tbs. butter, in bits, at room temp
1/4 cup single malt

Bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until smooth. Stir in butter until blended. Stir in scotch.

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. (or immediately pour over pound cake or ice cream)

Scoop into small balls. Roll in cocoa.

Options: replace the whiskey with chambord and add 1/2 cup of melted seedless raspberry jam.

There were other vents and aha moments. Perhaps they will stir in me with the power of the truffles and I'll try them again now that I can post and publish.

We got a lovely dutch oven as a late Christmas present http://www.homewarehouseusa.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=280 so yesterday I looked for recipes that would use it. We had all the ingredients for beef bourguignon.

Dice 1/2 a pound of bacon and saute until crips. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Brown 3 lbs of beef (cubed) in the remaining bacon fat. Stir in 1 cup of chopped onions. Sprinkle meat and onions with 3 Tb flour and salt and pepper. Cook over med high heat for 5 minutes while stirring. Add 3 cups of stock, 3 cups of Burgandy, 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or 2Tb. tomato paster, 1 Tb. chopped fresh rosemary, and the bacon. Bring to a boil, cover, and place in 350 degree oven. Cook about 2 hours.

Cut and cook 2 cups of carrots, 2 cups of pearl onions, and saute 1/2 pound of mushrooms.

Place pan on stovetop, stir in vegetables and 1Tb. red currant jelly. Heat through and serve.

Tonight: Pumpkin soup and shrimp on a bed of leeks served with couscous.

Tonight for dinner I sauteed some mushrooms and onions, then I tossed in a handful of walnuts and sauteed some more. I pulsed the mushroom mixture in the foodprocessor with some chevre. I deglazed the pan with some red wine and stirred that into the mushrooms. I pounded some b/s chicken breasts and then formed them over a large scoop of mushrooms. I baked at 350 for 30 minutes and served with tomato stewed rice and buttered greenbeans. Apples for dessert!

These little children who are so sweet and gentle: this little boy who kisses my hand as we pass in the hall, this girl who gathers in the wallflowers in her class to play, this girl who still curls on my lap and wraps her arms around my neck. I don't want them to be fierce. I don't want them to have the "eye of the tiger". I don't want them to think of physical intimidation as a weapon, even a weapon of defense.

But they are fierce as they charge through the leaves. They are fierce in love and play. They are fierce and passionate about so much they do.

If I celebrate one ferocity, why not another?

Breaking out of the rut...

Tuesday: Pasta Puttanesca, salad, and garlic/garlic and anchovy bread. It was funny how the m'totos turned their little noses up at the anchovy garlic bread but slurped down the puttanesca with exclamations of delight.

Wednesday: Creamed chicken on pasta. This is really just veggie heavy chicken potpie served mixed with pasta. No dessert tonight they had cookies for snack.

We ate the same old boring food for supper all weekend. I'm embarrassed.

Friday - homemade pizza - choice of sauce + cheese + garlicky spinach + sauteed mushrooms and onions, salad
Saturday - Quatro Fromagio with fusilli, salad, choclate icecream for the boy and a scotch for me.
Sunday - Chicken breasts in may/mustard sauce (baked), greenbeans, salad, shortbread.

My brother-in-law is an asshole. A manipulative lying dickhead, an affront to penises everywhere. He has the appalling nerve to lie to people and think that I will back him up. He lies to people we see and talk to and then gets upset (I'm such a mean and spiteful bitch) when we deny the statement and I affirm I never said that.

If he thinks that I will support his emotional and verbal abuse of a woman, he is wrong. Wrong!

He is not making even a token move to address his drug addiction. He counts any mention of his open use of cocaine and crack as "bad mouthing". In my mind it is warning the innocent and unaware that they may be putting their children and finances into danger.

He is not attempting to be mature in this breakup. How many times has he broken up in his life and yet he has not learned how to be reasonable about it. He may not use the fact that we are related to strongarm people into doing what he wants. If he REALLY cares about his relationship breakout impinging on our daily lives, he would make his own plans for division of material goods OR follow the steps that we offered when he asked what to do.

Dinner tonight was served plated.

Bed of salad greens, smaller bed of tabouli (from a box but tarted up), sprinkling of grilled yellow peppers and red onions, slices of grilled steak (perfectly medium rare). The Man and I had cilantro chutney to spice up our meals. The m'totos had their choice of ranch, honey mustard, or ketchup for dressing.

Dessert was sliced pears and leftover Easter chocolate (I won it at a party this weekend).

Dinners without electricity:

Lamb kabobs, couscous, grilled vegetables, icecream

Grilled chicken, grilled peppers and onions, canned black beans, spinach, and cheese in tortilla wraps, salad, fruit

Grilled fish packets, salad, chopped veggie salad, fuit

Go out to eat

Cheeseburgers, grilled red onions and red peppers, salad, chocolates

Dinners this week:

Monday - Grilled tandoori chicken, brown basmati rice, salad of spinach/avocado/grilled yellow and red pepper, leftover birthday cake for dessert

Tuesday - Shrimp tomato Alfredo, mixed green salad with sugar snap pea pieces, Belgian bittersweet chocolate coins

Wednesday - Marinated lamb kabobs, spinach salad with grilled peppers, tabouli, plums and grapes

When I was 7 and my sister Bea was five, we spent a lot of our time in our courtyard. We played in big steel drums, climbed the Jambula tree, peered over the walls into other courtyards, and ate fruit from the fig, guava, jambula, and pomegranate trees. It was the pomegranate tree that caused us the most trouble; it was not a climbable tree because the branches broke so easily but the lowest fruiting branches were higher than our reach.

One quiet day we spotted a prize pomegranate. It was large and fully red with a blush of purple and the skin was starting to thin. It was, of course, too high for me to reach, too high for Bea to reach even when I lifted her up, and too high when we stood on a bench we dragged over. I boosted Bea to the lower branches on the trunk but the beautiful pomegranate was towards the end of the branch.

We were focused, nothing could stop us from getting and eating that pomegranate! The bench was very heavy and we had only gotten the end of it to just under the prize. Bea and I started searching for items to place on the bench so that we could reach higher. We added a wooden chair, some books from the library, and then Bea brought over a cinderblock. She placed it on top of the books and the bench turned into a seesaw. It seemed like slow motion; all the items slid toward the end of the bench. Bea and I struggled to hold the bench and chair up. The cinderblock, the cinderblock slid down and fell about 2 feet onto Bea's big toe. Things weren't slow any more they were frantic. The drive to hospital with Bea screaming and blood sucking into our dresses and clotting in between our toes was a squealing whiplash ride. My Mother wanted to hold and comfort Bea but she was the only driver in the house.

Bea had a cast from toes to hip for 6 weeks. I was older and should have known better; I had to pull her in a little red wagon to nursery school every morning.

A: I wouldn't want him for my OB.

B: Why not? Because he goes to your church or because he is gay?

A: Because he mumbles.

I didn't realize, until last night, that "the night was like silk" speaks not only for the colour, and temperature, and a sense of warmth but also for the feel of a breeze lightly sliding *exactly* like a silk wrap, cool and barely present, over my arms.

That isn't a very good sentence.

Today at the co-op, the checker in the next aisle wished a male customer to "have a blessed Day". That's a little over the top for the co-op so I turned to watch. They usually just smile or say "Thanks" or "Have a great afternoon!" or "Can I take those to the car for you?" The customer looked surprised as well, his eyebrows were *up*. He smiled and replied that he hoped she'd "Have a happy and healthy day."

I thought that was a good deflection. It made a point in a gentle way. Happy and healthy certainly go with the organic nature of the co-op whereas "blessed" has nebulous religious baggage.

The checker didn't buy it. She argued with the customer! Is it argueing? Yes, I think so, her tone was combative. She claimed that without the blessing there is no real happy or healthy.

The customer caught my eye and I gave a little shrug. He stayed silent as she went on. I turned back to my cashier and turned down a helping hand with the groceries. I headed out with my healthy booty and as I elbowed the door open I heard the next customer in line muttering about weirdos. Was she talking about me. the blessing cashier, or the happy and healthy man?

There is that moment. The time between day and night when the dome of the sky is coloured in a range from midnight blue straight above me to navy to purple to rose at the horizon. Every leaf and twig is distinctly etched in bas-relief of black and it seems as if the world has hesitated and every being and object is holding still until the dark drops suddenly down and shadows wrap around.

Does nobody else in this household EVER flush the toilet?

My kids noticed that the pigs were gone. They've got an eye (or three) for details. Several times a week we drive through an agricultural area, lots of cornfields and cows and the occasional tractor. They (whoever they are) keep pigs. There is a little compound of two-doored huts with fences around the houses and a larger fence around the whole area. They start out smallish in the Spring; they looked about the size of a standard poodle. By late August they were big. Not Volkswagon Bug big but I've seen smaller cars. Every time we drove by there were sightings, naming and disputation of names, and consideration of changes in their sizes.

Today, they noticed.

There are weeds growing in the compound and two of the gates had been left open.