We Really Should Do This More Often
Now I can reveal that the baked good I had to throw away because of the broken thermometer was English Muffin Bread -- a kind that is specifically made for toasting and that, when toasted, actually is very reminiscent of English muffins. I've made another recipe for it before, as well as bought a packaged version. This time I used the recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook I won in that silent auction. One of my sisters, a recipient of an untainted loaf on Christmas, wrote in a thank-you note: "It was so good that I would've eaten it even if there had been glass fragments in it." (I told her the thermometer story at the time of gifting.) Now there's a book-jacket blurb for you!
Hosted a lovely brunch yesterday for the first Monday of the new year. The guests were five homosexual gentlemen (to borrow a phrase one of them once used). I hadn't had a real dinner party or brunch in more than a year. Everyone especially seemed to like the nonalcoholic Ginger Punch, which I'd made before. It's from Sunset All-Time Favorite Recipes (one of those books I got years ago as my introductory three-books-for-a-buck deal from the Paperback Book Club, just before I quit) and contains a quarter-pound piece of ginger, pureed and strained, as well as pineapple and lemon juice -- and yes, some sugar and water. Very intense but immediately improves one's well-being!
Another success: Overnight Breakfast Casserole from a cookbook I turn to again and again, Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin. (I call the otherwise superb Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison, "Complicated Vegetarian Pleasures.") It's one of those egg-and-cheese "stratas," but this one also contains crumbled smoked tempeh strips for a little of that baconesque flavor. I'd never made it before, but it came out great. Even the three non-vegetarian homosexuals present cleaned their plates. All in all, a perfect afternoon with good conversation, laughs, social commentary, and inspiration for more such gatherings in 2006.
Little over two years ago, I knew only one of my five guests, and now here they are at my table. Cheers to them, and thanks.
Hosted a lovely brunch yesterday for the first Monday of the new year. The guests were five homosexual gentlemen (to borrow a phrase one of them once used). I hadn't had a real dinner party or brunch in more than a year. Everyone especially seemed to like the nonalcoholic Ginger Punch, which I'd made before. It's from Sunset All-Time Favorite Recipes (one of those books I got years ago as my introductory three-books-for-a-buck deal from the Paperback Book Club, just before I quit) and contains a quarter-pound piece of ginger, pureed and strained, as well as pineapple and lemon juice -- and yes, some sugar and water. Very intense but immediately improves one's well-being!
Another success: Overnight Breakfast Casserole from a cookbook I turn to again and again, Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin. (I call the otherwise superb Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison, "Complicated Vegetarian Pleasures.") It's one of those egg-and-cheese "stratas," but this one also contains crumbled smoked tempeh strips for a little of that baconesque flavor. I'd never made it before, but it came out great. Even the three non-vegetarian homosexuals present cleaned their plates. All in all, a perfect afternoon with good conversation, laughs, social commentary, and inspiration for more such gatherings in 2006.
Little over two years ago, I knew only one of my five guests, and now here they are at my table. Cheers to them, and thanks.
posted by Billy at 12:15 AM
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