Historical Food Fortnightly, Challenge 10: Let Them Eat Cake (plus bonus grub!)

This semester is kicking my butt, so I've had to let fun stuff slide--fun stuff like eating home-cooked food.  I did actually make three historic dishes for my book club last month, to go with Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.  I can't really figure out where they would fit into the challenges, so here they are all at once.

SHREWSBURY CAKE

Year/Region: 1855; Hartford, CT

How Did You Make It: I had noticed this recipe in The Improved Housewife: Or, Book of Receipts; with Engravings for Marketing and Carving by Mrs. A.L. Webster, a married lady, when I was looking for "foreign" names. The recipe jumped out at me because it's the name of a nearby road.



I followed the recipe faithfully, although if you notice, the recipe doesn't say at what temperature or for how long to cook the cake (which is actually more like a cookie). In fact, it doesn't mention cooking at all. I ended up baking at 350 for about 12-15 minutes. I sprinkled the cakes with powdered sugar both before and after baking.

Time to Complete: Because I had 3 dishes to make, I spent a big chunk of the morning cooking and worked on multiple dishes simultaneously. This one probably took about an hour from start to finish.

Total Cost: I had all the ingredients on hand.

How Successful Was It?: The large number of eggs make for a cake-like, slightly dense crumb. I loved the delicate flavor of the rose-water, but didn't love the texture as much. I have a feeling my book club members were slightly less than enthusiastic about any of these dishes, but they really weren't designed for a modern palate. There were plenty of leftovers, which surprisingly never seemed to go stale. I feel they're kind of a generic cookie/cake.

How Accurate Is It? I used an electric mixer and a convection oven. I also used silpats instead of buttering the cookie sheet. Otherwise, it's an authentic recipe. The eggs were from our birds.


CHICKEN SALAD

Year/Region: 1855; Hartford, CT

How Did You Make It: I wanted a protein for my book club spread, but didn't want anything too heavy, hot, or messy. I've had this chicken salad before and quite like it. Again, it's from The Improved Housewife.



I decided to double the recipe since I was cooking for a crowd. I boiled some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It's nearly impossible these days to buy a chicken of that size; roasting chickens today are just massive.  I used cider vinegar and prepared yellow mustard. Instead of essence of celery, I used celery seed, which was suggested as a substitute in another recipe in the same book. I also opted to serve it on a bed of lettuce and tomato for color and put a basket of dinner rolls nearby for anyone who preferred a sandwich.

Essence of celery seems like a fascinating foodstuff we've completely lost:



Time to Complete: Maybe an hour, the bulk of which was waiting for the water to come to a boil.

Total Cost: It's been a few weeks, but I do recall that I winced at the price of chicken. I had everything else on hand.

How Successful Was It?: I've always liked boiling chicken. It's so fast and easy and not messy in the way that frying is. Today, we expect to have mayonnaise-based chicken salad, but this was lovely, if a bit dry. As my DH and I worked away at the leftovers, I tended to mix in a bit of mayo.

How Accurate Is It? Fairly accurate. I used chicken breasts only instead of a whole bird. The eggs were from our chickens. The one substitute I made was a period one.

PERSIMMON PUDDING

Year/Region: 1870; Oxford, NC

How Did You Make It:  I wanted a third dish and recalled I had a lot of persimmons on hand that I could put to good use. I cast about and came up with this recipe from Mrs. Elliott's Housewife: Containing Practical Receipts in Cookery by Sarah A. Elliott.




I had harvested local persimmons last fall and was able to raid the freezer. The day we harvested, a friend and I gathered all we could and tried several labor-intensive methods before finally settling on a chinois, those cone-shaped strainers you sometimes see in junk stores. We each ended up with three gallons of pulp and I've been gradually trying different recipes. I opted for the cornmeal option and baked in a pyrex 9x13 baking pan.

Time to Complete: Well, if you count the persimmon bit, for-freaking-evah! Otherwise, I ended up looking up a more modern pudding recipe and baking for about 40 minutes.

Total Cost: I had everything on hand. At this point, if you've done the math, you'll notice that I have used 17 eggs in just these three dishes!

How Successful Was It?: Moderately. I found that I don't really love persimmon and have a feeling the book club members didn't either. It has a distinct taste that lingers. The texture of this is also something modern eaters aren't used to--dense and quite moist. That said, I generally love puddings. It transported and held up well. I took to serving very small pieces at breakfast time. The chickens eventually enjoyed the last of the leftovers.

How Accurate Is It? As far as I can tell, very. I hand-harvested and hand-processed the persimmons, and they were a local variety from a nature reserve nearby. I followed the recipe faithfully.

There you go. Lord knows when I'll get a chance to cook again.

Historical Food Fortnightly, Challenge 3: Today in History

For me, this challenge exemplifies the absolute rabbit hole that is historical research and some of the lessons I teach my students in my writing classes. I didn't really know which date to pick, but didn't want to do a patriotic or obvious date. I happened to glance at my blues calendar and noticed all the musician birthdays or death dates within this fortnight: Georgia Tom Dorsey, Willie Dixon, Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Smiley Lewis, Louis Armstrong, and Casey Biill Weldon. Great, I thought, I'll look up some blues tunes to see if there are any that fit. I'm always up for some great double entendre blues.

I didn't find much until I hit Louis Armstrong, who was actually quite the foodie, even signing all his letters, "Red beans and ricely yours ..." I looked through his list of songs and saw references to cheesecake and bbq, but I ultimately opted to be inspired by "Cornet Chop Suey," which lacking lyrics, also lacks my beloved double entendres.



I initially misread the calender and thought Armstrong was born on July 4, something he himself believed his whole life. In fact, it wasn't until ten years after his death, that his true birth date was discovered: August 4. Lesson #1: Even people living their own history can be wrong about what is a historical truth. Armstrong definitely died, however, on July 6, 1971.

In search of a pre-1950 recipe, I poked around on Google Books and didn't come up with much: a US Navy cookbook, which didn't have an actual recipe, and a 1917 book by a Chinese author, which states "This dish is not known in China."

I'd been wanting to read Andrew Coe's Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States for some time. I love narrowly focused food books: Salt: A World History, The Big Oyster: History of the Half Shell, etc.  Alas, Coe doesn't really get to chop suey for about 200 pages, and I was under a bit of time pinch. Lesson #2, kids: The index is your friend. You don't have to read the entire book.

Lesson #3: By using only the index, you lose a lot of context. I used a 1910 chop suey recipe Coe transcribes from the Alton Evening Telegraph. Alton is just up the river from St. Louis.

The ingredients don't look particularly Chinese, do they? I'm only on Chapter 3 where I'm still with American merchants in China about 1840, but this recipe appears in Chapter 6, at which point Chinese emigres have been in the United States for several decades. Chop suey restaurants had become popular and the term itself had apparently come to mean just a "hash."

The Telegraph recipe reads as follows:

• "Place in a spider a lump of butter, size of a walnut; in this, when hot, brown one and one-half pounds of Hamburg steak; heat a can of tomatoes, fry four medium-sized onions, and boil two cups of macaroni or spaghetti; seasoning each article well; drain macaroni and add it, with the onions and tomatoes, to the meat, and simmer five minutes. No side dishes are needed if this is made for lunch, as it makes a palatable, substantial lunch for six or seven people."

Date/Year and Region: 1917; Alton, IL

How did you make it?: I followed the recipe but opted just to brown the ground beef in its own fat, and used the butter to fry up the onions. The recipe doesn't say what size of can to buy, but I bought a 28 oz. can, the largest at the store. Four onions is a heck of a lot of onions. As far as "seasoning each article well," I just went with salt and pepper. The dish also uses a lot of pots: one for the pasta, a skillet for the onions, a Dutch oven for the ground beef. I opted just to dump the tomatoes into the onions for 5 minutes as I couldn't bring myself to dirty a fourth pot. I'd say it would definitely make a "substantial lunch" as it absolutely filled my Dutch oven. We'll be eating this for several days, I'm sure.

Time to Complete: Probably about 20 minutes from start to finish, largely to chop and fry the onions.

Total Cost: Probably about $12.65. I used about half of a $1.29 box of pasta and half of a $3.00 bag of onions. The tomatoes were $1.50. The ground beef was the most expensive ingredient at about $5.40 a pound. Since I was cooking under a deadline, I couldn't wait for a sale like I normally do. I usually plan my proteins around whatever is on sale. Overall, the dish was more than I would normally spend per serving, but did make a ton.

How Successful Was It?: I thought it was pretty tasty if a little bland, like many early 20th-century dishes. My little helper was very interested in it and liked the bits that fell on the floor. My husband hasn't tasted it yet. I can see myself having to doctor up the leftovers after the third or fourth time, perhaps by broiling with a bit of cheese on top.

How Accurate Is It?: What is "truth" or "accuracy" really? I accurately followed a 1917 recipe for a dish with a Chinese name, a dish that even a Chinese author says "is not known in China."

Lesson #4: Not everything is on the internet! While I was waiting for the beef to brown and the onions to cook, I pulled some of my grandmother's cookbooks off the shelf. I use these cookbooks all the time as they have wonderful egg recipes and great techniques for hiding leftovers.  I looked in the index (Remember Lesson #2, kids!) and, sure enough, there were several chop suey recipes:

From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, American style:

And two more "authentic" versions:

And from the 1940 American Woman's Cookbook, a recipe very similar to the Chinese author:

Finally, one more food reference from this fortnight, although there's no recipe because I somehow think Mississippi John Hurt isn't really talking about food:

Dots

The bits and bobs of life have piled up, and I had forgotten how useful dots are to clearing them out of my head. I have ambitions to say more about each of them, but shall fall back on that important axiom of "better done than perfect":

• I finished all of my craft-it-forward projects for 2014 (some neckbows, a dishcloth, some punched paper, a scarf) and decided to pick up a few more reciprocal swaps. At the moment, I am making my fourth attempt at Calorimetry, each time taking out anywhere from 8-16 stitches. I don't see how the designer ever managed to make it with 120 stitches--it's massive in width and height. I'm down to 88 now and think this one will work. Finally. Please god.

• I have been obsessed for some reason with a mystery dishcloth KAL. I've done every one since August and have been stocking up on solid-colored, cotton yarn. I don't even use knitted dishcloths, so my obsession makes no sense. Still, last night we got invited to a last-minute birthday party, and I was able to grab two cloths as a small gift. 

• I saw Franklin Habit speak on Weldon's Practical Needlework. It wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but it was an enjoyable evening.

• I've committed to do a bit of charity knitting (bibs or hats for an orphanage in China) and am considering a charity sock monkey KAL as well.

• I did a KISS (keep it simple) valentine swap, which called for a card and a project only.  I opted to make a crocheted heart dishcloth, but now am beating myself up when I see all the creative projects coming in. My swap idea board is here if you are looking for a quick valentine project.

• I got this very cool project bag all the way from Canada.  The fabric is sort of a poly-blend twill with a really nice hand, and I love how it isn't all pinky-pinky. I asked for the pattern, but my partner just winged it, she said.

• Speaking of pinky-pinky, I made this project bag for a book club attendance prize. As a teacher, I can be quite punitive about attendance and preparation, but for grown-ups whom I can't grade, I'm a firm believer in bribes. Pattern by mairuru. She does hers by hand, but by leaving room for seam allowances, I was able to do this one by machine.

• I finished and mailed my Jane Austen swap, which I'll save for another post. I also finished reading Sense and Sensibility for the first time.

• In spite of my tendencies towards quicky projects, I decided to sign up for a Celestarium KAL. It's a beaded pi shawl with the beading laid out as a star map of the Northern Hemisphere. Ambitious, but some knitters have taken it father and used different sized beads to indicate order of magnitude and knitting in a band for the milky way. Simply following the pattern shall be enough for me. I've ordered my yarn, picked out my beads, and it all gets started on March 1.

• I sold a knitted cap online, so I've got a little paypal funds to play with. I bought this hat pattern, which I fell in love with on Pinterest.

• I caned my panniers last night and had to rope LB into the task. It was a royal pain in the butt, but today if the house ever warms up, I hope to finish the waistband and be done. This chemise (third down) is up next as soon as I get paid and can buy the pattern and linen.

• I spontaneously decided that Steu's nosework trainer needed a snood for her standard poodle. She'd posted a photo of him after the groomers, and he just looked so magical and snowy white that I knew he needed a unicorn snood. Steu helped model.

• And here is the beautiful recipient, looking like the magical creature he truly is. The trainer comped me a free class as a thank you, so crafting it forward was wonderful all around.

Teacher Training 2012

Teacher training is tomorrow, and I've written about the various annoyances of it practically every year since I started blogging. Mind you, I've actually been teaching for twenty years, sometimes at multiple institutions per year. That's a lot of teacher training.

This year, because I teach an inter-disciplinary class (meaning neither department gives a rats ass) and because my former supervisor was replaced, and because the program is rumored to be vanishing anyway, I somehow fell off the mailing list and didn't get any reminders about the dates. Technically, I don't have to go at all. Technically, I also don't have a desk this semester, but that's another issue.

Still, training pays about $75 (Eventually. The check will show up sometime in mid-September) and as whorish as it feels to say this, I can sit through a morning of lectures for $75.* There's even a free lunch, which I really, really, really need right now.

The real problem, however, is as always ... what to knit. While I've been concentrating on UFOs, they're UFOs for a reason. Too bulky. Too fiddly. Too wtf-was-I-doing.

The answer is generally socks, but again there's a problem. I'm tired of boring ribbed socks. I don't have access to a printer for my pattern. LB really likes toe-up socks, preferably two at once.

I'll let you know what I decide.

_______________________

*ps--don't tell anyone, but I usually enjoy parts of teacher training and almost always get 1-2 valuable tips. Shhh.

Pet Parade

Grades are due in three days, so of course I am quilting.

I entered one of the more tractable chickens in our local pet parade a few weeks ago and aside from winning the prize for "Most Unusual Pet," we also got a gift bag with treats and coupons and pens and such, including a t-shirt.

I hardly ever wear printed t-shirts, so for some bizarre reason (like grades being due in three days), I decided to make it into a tiny quilt for Steu's dog crate.

Yep. Grades are due in three days.

Mardi Gras 1-2-3

I should totally be grading all day today. I got about 15 done Wednesday, about 7 done yesterday, and only 6 this morning. These numbers aren't anywhere near to my goal, which was to have been done yesterday. Why? I could blame it on the five house guests, or on blogging, but the truth is that one bad sentence wrecks any grading momentum I may have established.

For example, did you know that Shakespeare wrote in Victorian English? Or that Romeo and Juliet was written over 500 years ago?

Anyhoo.

In the midst of incoming and outgoing Mardi Gras swap packages, I got an unexpected bonus package from my best friend from college.

Years ago, I had asked her to make me some Mardi Gras tags. She sent some beautiful ones, which I hang up every year. Somehow though, they didn't feel Mardi Gras enough for her, since she had improvised the designs.

All these years, she has been on a quest for the perfect Mardi Gras stamp set, which she finally found.

Look how beautiful!


There were three tags (yes, I know I only took a close-up of two)


plus a bookmark and blank note card.


She even included a journal, a fan, and some delicious comestibles, which the house guests promptly ate.


Yay for Mardi Gras lagniappes!

Nightmare Abbey

I've launched an online reading club, with the idea of reading nineteenth-century pieces and then just chatting a bit online about them. For now, my goal is that they all be available on Librivox so that we can listen while knitting or sewing.

For the first month, I've picked Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock. Free audio book is here. I'm about six chapters in and it's a pretty fun read. He really pokes fun at universities.

Feel free to join in. In future months, I hope to cover some slave narratives, women's diaries, and more fiction. I'm open to suggestions.

Headed towards Dots

Only two more classes before finals week. I, of course, am fighting a cold. I also have a series of rock-star gigs, extra hours at my LYS, social obligations, two knitting commissions, and much DIY-ing crammed in this month as well.

Plus, I keep entirely forgetting my no-dairy resolution, a resolution I suspect may have to last until mid-January. At any rate, I'm not feeling particularly articulate at the moment.

That said, I've had fun playing with fabric.


I've finished and worn the 1840s cochineal scarf, which I adore.


I knitted a pair of socks and resolved to finish the two other pairs I've got on the pins. It's actually three other pairs, but I only remembered two when I made the resolution.


It's really the most I am capable of at the moment.

Ephemeral Chaos

I've got a bunch of dotty type items today, some about ephemera. Hence the title.

Here we go, in roughly chronological order.

First, here's the story of a collection. A few months ago, I went to my favorite antique store and picked up some inexpensive CDVs. In looking at them, I realized they were mostly by the same photographer, Mrs. W. A. Reed of Quincy, Illinois.

I was intrigued by the location, but even more, by the fact that the photographer was a woman. Curious, I googled her and found out how amazing she was. So when I returned to the antique store, I had to buy the rest of the CDVs. I also picked up some mother-of-pearl buttons, an ironstone dish, and some nightstand reading material.



Next, my students had decorated the classroom this week.

I made a quilt for Ann to thank her for taking me to the World Series game.


Knowing that Ann's taste in quilts is much more modern than mine, I found some great inspiration on Pinterest, which I adore beyond all reason.

Finally, I got around to cleaning my sewing machine and whipping up a cover out of an old feed sack I had in my stash.


Today, I did some major yarn stash reorganizing, which I am hoping will inspire some more projecting.

Yay!

Game 6

Fairly regularly, I'll get a shockingly well-written, dynamic essay from an otherwise completely inarticulate student, often even a remedial developmental writer. Normally, I'd suspect plagiarism, but if the subject is sports, I know the real story.

This student has been pouring over sports magazines for years; sports writing is literally the only thing he ever reads. While I will tell him (and it's always a him) to stop using the present tense in narratives, I let him write as many sports essays as he wants. I always smile when I hear the voice of a sports writer come out of a gawky teen.

Remembered event? A big game.
Profile? A coach.
Compare and contrast? Two athletes.
Explain a concept? Icing the puck, in-field fly rule, touch back, or any other esoterica.
Evaluation? A restaurant review of a sports bar.
Proposing a solution? Negotiate an end to a league strike.

No problem.

I'll spare you my own sports writing about the details of the Cardinal's 2011 season and just mention that I love the game of baseball. I carry a schedule in my wallet, watch the home team every time they're on network television, and listen on AM radio when they're not (which happens more and more as MLB tries to control the entire revenue stream). Last Thursday, Game 2, the students in my night class tried to convince me to cancel class so they could watch the game. I said, “Unless you listened to the NLCS on AM radio, you do not love this game more than I do.”

On Sunday, Ann invited me to attend Game 6 of the World Series. Never ever in my entire life did I imagine myself at a World Series game. Then on game day, the commissioner postponed the game, to the same night as my Thursday night class. I tried not to feel heartbroken; after all, I’d never dreamed of going to the game anyway. Plus, I knew the Cards would benefit from the extra day’s rest. I was willing to take one for the team.

I tried to make my peace with it. I tried really hard. Fortunately, everyone else convinced me to get a substitute for my class (it was a film night anyway) and go to the game. My department chair, a Cubs fan, even offered to substitute.

Hoo boy! Am I glad I went.

Even on the way in, I couldn't quite believe I was going. When Ann handed me my ticket, I was convinced someone would sprint out of the crowd, rip it out of my hands, and take my place inside. When I handed it to the checker, I was convinced that the scanner would trigger some kind of you-do-not-belong-here gate, complete with siren and flashing lights.


We had amazing seats, although technically any seat inside the stadium for a World Series game is an amazing seat.


The only time I go to ball games is for Stitch n Pitch, where one can knit. This time, the cold weather meant we could crank out the knitwear. My red and white knitted socks were dirty from the rain-delayed day, but I could wear my red kerchief, and fingerless gloves, and a red boucle sweater underneath my jacket. Thank heavens, because temperatures were in the 40s.


Again, I will spare you the sports writing and just say that it really was a game for the history books. I will never forget it as long as I live. It was definitely, aside from my wedding day, the most exciting day of my life.

Thank you, Ann, from the bottom of my heart.



I thought about posting this yesterday, lest my Game 6 euphoria didn't hold over into Game 7, but (just in case you weren't paying attention) the Cards won the World Series.

Woo hoo!

Favorite Historical Era Swap--Incoming

I almost dropped out of the Favorite Historical Era Swap, because I started getting really nervous about it. In most swaps (like Hello Kitty or Mardi Gras, say), you select things from that theme (like Hello Kitty or Mardi Gras, obviously). Presumably everyone in the swap is fond of the same stuff (like Hello Kitty or Mardi Gras)

In "favorites" swaps, however, the theme isn't always clear. Do I send you things that I like? Do I send you things I think you would like?

The trouble is, when I am passionate about something, I tend to do a lot of research about it. I know about it in depth. If most people tried to send me a Civil War-themed package, I probably wouldn't be able to use 90% of it. Most of what's available at a typical Civil War reenactment is crap, frankly, with almost no relation to historic artifacts.

Plus, when I am passionate about something, I tend to collect obsessively. I already own a lot of stuff.

As far as sending out, some people said their favorite periods were an Egyptian dynasty, or ancient Japan, or who knows what. I wouldn't mind learning about those eras, but the thought of constructing a competent package freaked me out.

I'm glad I didn't drop out and hope my partner likes her package (more on that when it arrives).

In the meantime, my incoming swap arrived.

My partner chose Tudor England, which I actually haven't studied overmuch. My literary interests were medieval, then skipped to Shakespeare's era (just after Henry VIII), then settled firmly on the Victorians.

Here's the big haul.



ScrapingD included some crocheted mitts (which I am artfully modeling while trying to avoid showing my dirty fingernails) as well as a pattern to make some rose-themed mitts.



For knitting, she included some bamboo needles, a floral scissors fob, a variety of cases for needles and notions, and some stitch markers. A skein of Berroco Seduce paid tribute to Henry VII and his wicked ways. There was also a felted yarn bowl designed to sit next to my chair and hold my working yarn.



For pampering, I got a nail file, a lavender candle, a silken rose hair clip, and rose lip gloss.

There were some Christmas postcards of 1840s Baltimore Album quilts, which I have long loved and collected images of.

The cutest thing was this little thumb pin-cushion (again, notice the nail-free hand modeling!) made from a bottle cap and some bias tape. I might have to figure out how to make some of these.



Finally, a copy of The Wild Irish, a novel about Queen Elizabeth and a pirate, which sounds like a hoot. Earlier this semester, I showed Shakespeare in Love, which has a long-running gag about Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. Plus, we just finished reading Acts III & IV of Hamlet, with that most ridiculous literary device: pirates, who rescue Hamlet and return him to Denmark.

Time Management

Today is the long day, the day I leave home at 7 a.m. and don't return until after 10 p.m. After tonight I can say, "One down; fifteen to go."

I'm doing my best to make productive use of the hours and hours of down time, but Parkinson's Law still rules. Nevertheless, I've done the following so far:

Before leaving home:

• Hung a load of laundry. This is actually a fairly big deal at 6 a.m. or anytime really. The dryer broke last week, so all the laundry needs to be hung on the line that stretches the length of the basement. The basement, to put it mildly, has clutter issues.



• Decluttered and tidied upstairs for 20 minutes, and therefore ...



• Found my camera cord.



• Somehow misplaced my cell phone though.

At school:

• Taught one class so far.



• Set up a few Pandora stations.



• Finished one lesson prep for next Tuesday. I've hidden all my old teaching notes and vowed to create a fresh set of lesson plans this semester. I can get to my old notes if I need to, but I've been teaching some version of this class since 1991, using the exact text even, and need to do something to keep myself fresh.



• Caught up on my blog roll.



• Left the building, searched for, and found one of two geocaches on campus.



• Stopped by the bookstore to correct a textbook ordering error (I ordered four; they ordered three).



• Did not find the perfect, or indeed any, pencil case for my new giganto purse.



• Responded to and filed dozens of student contracts. I make students email me a class contract during the first week. I get their actual email instead of the one the school assigns, but then I am, of course, deluged with seventy-five emails which need to be responded to, credited, and filed.



• Ate lunch and consumed three Pepsi Ones.

I forsee some more Pepsi Ones in my future.

Getting It in Gear

Last night's post, and the urge to be somewhat industrious during my six-hour gap between classes, had me considering knitting in my office and motivated me to get the pattern and yarn for the ghostie socks together.

While upstairs, I found another WIP (the cuff of a sock) to add to the list. Sigh.

I don't have a photograph of the ghostie socks because I've somehow misplaced my camera cord. Sigh.

I remembered to bring the pattern down this morning, but when I went to leave for work, I couldn't find it. I trekked back upstairs. Not there. I checked the recycling bin, even flipping through the magazines, checked the stack of torn-out magazine recipes, my book bag, my purse, my knitting bag, the pile of crapola by my computer. Not there, not there, not . . . You get the point.

So I checked them all again. Nope. And now I'm running late for work.

Just as I was about to look for a third time, I spotted a corner of white peeking out from underneath Yma Sumac, the cat. She needs to lose weight if she can cover up an 8.5" by 5.5" stack of paper. Sigh.

I've already lost today's to-do list, jotted down while my students were doing some in-class writing. I'm pretty sure I accidentally recycled it when I was going through some papers. We have an office recycling bin, so to find my list, I'd have to stand in the hallway and launch myself into the bin. With this morning's luck, I'd probably find it underneath the cat when I get home. Sigh.

Plus, I wore my interview suit to work today. Might as well get some use out of it, right? When I take off the jacket, my new-to-me sleeveless top torques to the left, revealing quite a bit of bra, a fact I didn't realize until I went into the staff restroom. And not to reveal too much (although half the department has now seen quite a bit), the bra isn't exactly a solid color. Sigh.

____________
Grammar* tip of the day (which I, of course, forgot to include the first go-round. sigh): If you're not sure how to pronounce a word ("toile" perhaps), my favorite site is Dictionary.com because they have a pronunciation button where you can hear the word said aloud. For those of us who are voracious readers but live like hermits, having a computer voice say a word aloud is really helpful.

____________
*Technically not grammar, but you get the point.

Teacher Training

So I meant to post yesterday, and didn't. Then I woke before 5 a.m. and one of the things my whirring brain grabbed onto was that I hadn't posted. I also obsessed about cleaning my sewing room, paying bills, whether I should wear my new-to-me shirt today or Wednesday, and when my chigger bites would finally heal.

Among other things.

Teacher training was yesterday, and although I started rather crabby, I felt much better by the end of the day. Apologies for the somewhat boring rant (an oxymoron, no?) but here's why I'm crabby. Feel free to skip this bit. I stuck a gratuitous puppy picture at the end you might like:

Background: This summer I interviewed for a full-time teaching job, but did not get it. Close but no cigar. No explanation as to why either. My teaching demo went great. Past experience tells me that it takes at least 6 months to emotionally rebound from such a blow. Past experience also tells me that it takes at least a year, more likely 2, for another position to come open.

For the fall, I was offered 2 sections (not enough to live on) of a class I love. One section of the class meets 2 days a week at 3:30. The other meets once a week at 7 pm. When I was offered a 3rd class (a different prep) at 8 am, I felt forced to take it in order to pay the bills.

Quick summary: I have 2 different preps and classroom commitments from 8 am to 10 pm with hours of downtime in between, hours which aren't quite long enough to bother going home. And running errands just costs money, so does the gas to go home. Plus, 3 classes is enough to eke out a stressful living, but still not what even someone used to the itinerant life would consider comfortable.

I got great news that another section of the class I love was available if I wanted. I said yes, absolutely. Immediately. Four sections, yay!

The school's new administration came down with a new policy: adjuncts can no longer teach 4 sections--the goal presumably being that we focus more on our teaching; the unintended consequence being that more of us will have to teach at several schools to fill the gap, thus adding commuting time, and even more erratic schedules because back-to-back classes are impossible when teaching at several schools.

In addition, this policy came down only last week--too late to find work for the fall semester. I only found out about this policy when I checked my schedule.

By then, the fourth section had been given to someone else. Yay for them. However, I could have released the 8 am second prep and done 3 sections of only 1 prep for the class I love.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

That said, my mood lifted throughout the day and I got a ton of work done. I do like both preps and maybe I can use the down time to blog. Right?

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If you skipped all that, no worries. If you read it, remember my academic philosophy: You can do anything for sixteen weeks.

Here's the gratuitous puppy shot:



Say hello to my friends' dog Flora. She lives outside with the sheep and her job is to kill dogs, which she has done. Still, she's a gentle soul, provided you're not trying to eviscerate her sheep. She won't enter anyplace with walls and will barely come under the eaves, but she loves to be rubbed right at the bridge of her nose. I call her Florrie.

On Knitting and Shakespeare

On the surface, they don't seem to have much to do with one another. There's the odd quote:

• "The innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care" (Macbeth, II.ii)

as well as a bit of brow knitting, as one might expect (c/f The Rape of Lucrece).

Lately, I've been knitting while listening to Librivox recordings of Shakespeare because at this point in the semester, it's killing me to sit in one place for any amount of time, unless I'm watching bad television, of course. The shawl isn't Shakespearean. Instead, it's Victorian, via Weldon's Book of Practical Needlework, via Victorian Lace Today. Victorians, however, adored Shakespeare.

The yarn is in Dyeabolical's new Cheshire Cat colorway called "We're all mad here". Lewis Carroll was enough of a Shakespeare fan to parody the odd sonnet.

Steu and I went to a wreath-laying ceremony* for the Bard's 447th birthday. It rained, which was okay. Later that afternoon, I made a vague reference to "the Bard," and my history teacher friend totally missed it, necessitating an explanation. His fault or mine, I wonder?

I also designed a tea cozy for the royal wedding, which isn't really about Shakespeare at all, but is at least British.

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*it's definitely "laying" not "lying," given that the wreath is being placed, not toppling over of its own free will. That one's easy, so easy that I humbly offer it as a mnemonic device. You may thank me if you feel the need.

Broke as a Joke

Our school neglects to pay us in the month of January, since in their opinion we're not actually working. In other words, I haven't been paid since mid-December. At the end of December, I also had to shell out a thousand bucks in property taxes. My new teaching schedule meant a change (and cut) in my retail hours, and factor in a snow day or two which cut them even more.

We're okay, but have been stretched seriously thin.

To make it through, I invested in a five-pound bag of cornmeal and have cooked it about every which way to Sunday.

• sweet cornbread
• unsweet cornbread
• chopped up cornbread in milk
• hot cornmeal mush in milk
• fried cornmeal mush
• polenta*
• spoon bread
• chess pie

Payday is Friday; we'll be fine.

But lordy, am I tired of cornmeal!

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*I am proudest of the polenta: I fried the mush, then took some tomato sauce I'd made at the end of the summer out of the freezer, added a few tablespoons of instant tapioca to thicken it, and grilled it. All told, it probably cost just a few pennies, but was all goor-met and shit.