Miss Macchiato

Sabbath rest Saturdays have become a new tradition for me. One day a week, I have a “me” day. No chores get done. No work gets done. No cooking is done, either. I sleep in. Sometimes I even take a nap in the afternoon.

I know. I’m a party animal.

Friday nights are now spent tidying up the house, preparing for my big day. I even make a dish that will perform well as leftovers to carry us through Saturday lunch and dinner. So far it’s been really great, and this past weekend I even decided I’d make a breakfast that would handle the same type of idea.

Enter the strata.

Like “Enter the Dragon”, but cheesier.

Cook’s Illustrated actually introduced strata to me. I had never heard of it until I started cooking through their “2008 Holiday Baking” booklet for the AwK monthly segment. The breakfast dish features a layer of toast with other fillings and cheese, then the layer is repeated. On top, smother the entire dish with egg, milk and sometimes with a reduced white wine. The dish sits and soaks, then is later baked. If you want to see a photo step by step process, you can find it on AwK here, from the Breakfast Strata with Sausage, Mushrooms and Monterey Jack post.

Friday night, I assembled my strata. The dish was very simple and I was able to organize it while my dinner baked in the oven. Normally you’re supposed to totally compact the dish down with weights, but I couldn’t because my plastic wrap wasn’t tight enough to keep the egg from spilling out. Instead, I covered it as best I could and placed one box of chicken broth in the center. Good enough for government work. Then I stuck it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I threw it in the oven to bake…

50 minutes later I had a fluffy egg, cheese and spinach breakfast that fluffed up in the oven beautifully. The toast gives it lots of great structure. Cut into squares and serve.

On Sunday morning, I wrapped the leftovers loosely in foil and baked it in my toaster oven for 15 minutes to warm up. What a fantastic little breakfast. Highly recommend!!!

Breakfast Strata with Spinach & Gruyère Courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated
Serves 4

8 – 10 slices supermarket French bread (1/2-inch thick) or Italian bread (6 – 7 ounces)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 medium shallots, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach , thawed and squeezed dry
1/2 cup medium-dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc
6 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 large eggs
1 3/4 cups half-and-half or milk

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 225 degrees. Arrange bread in single layer on large baking sheet and bake until dry and crisp, about 40 minutes, turning slices over halfway through drying time. (Alternatively, leave slices out overnight to dry.) When cooled, butter slices on one side with 2 tablespoons butter; set aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sauté shallots until fragrant and translucent, about 3 minutes; add spinach and salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach and shallots are combined, about 2 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl; set aside. Add wine to skillet, increase heat to medium-high, and simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup, 2 to 3 minutes; set aside.

3. Butter 8-inch square baking dish with remaining 1 tablespoon butter; arrange half the buttered bread slices, buttered-side up, in single layer in dish. Sprinkle half of spinach mixture, then 1/2 cup grated cheese evenly over bread slices. Arrange remaining bread slices in single layer over cheese; sprinkle remaining spinach mixture and another 1/2 cup cheese evenly over bread. Whisk eggs in medium bowl until combined; whisk in reduced wine, half-and-half, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread layers; cover surface flush with plastic wrap, weigh down (see note, above), and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

4. Remove dish from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature 20 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Uncover strata and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese evenly over surface; bake until both edges and center are puffed and edges have pulled away slightly from sides of dish, 50 to 55 minutes (or about 60 minutes for doubled recipe). Cool on wire rack 5 minutes; serve.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two months late. My only excuse is that I haven’t downloaded photos from our digital camera since September! I know that isn’t a very good excuse and I am endeavoring to use the camera more this year.

So for Thanksgiving (way back in November), I went home to see my family. Before I moved to upstate New York, I lived in north Seattle, but originally I am from Tacoma (specifically a suburb called University Place). It’s about 45 – 60 minutes south of Seattle. My parents bought the house when I was 1 year old and they’ve been living in that house ever since.

This was the first family gathering since Tom and I were married five years ago, so we were all really excited to see each other. I think Team Williams had the most fun we’ve ever had together, so maybe the old adage is true: Distance makes the heart grow fonder. Hopefully we won’t wait another five years to test that out.

Tom and I arrived at the airport the night before Thanksgiving. Neall had already arrived a couple of hours prior and was hanging out at the airport until we got there, just so our parents wouldn’t have to make two separate trips. He’s very thoughtful.

I’m happy to say that I got to make the majority of the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Mom and I had such a great time, and everything was did was really low key, so we could enjoy the day without rushing around. We made Alton Brown’s brined turkey, garlic smashed potatoes, a delicious baked stuffing from Cook’s Illustrated that involves sausage and golden raisins, and a sweet & tart cranberry dressing from Bon Appetit. Just about everything on the menu was new — I was going for the non-traditional Williams dinner this year, just to break everyone out of their food comfort zone.

Of course, Dad requires his creamed peas and pearl onions, but I wasn’t going anywhere near that. I let Mom handle it.

We had a lot of fun, dinner was a huge success, and I think that’s the longest we’ve all ever sat around the dinner table just talking and enjoying each other’s company. And that’s weird. Usually we can’t wait to run away and do our own thing. This year it was different. This year, we were a real family. I had a great time.

Mom gave the wishbone to Neall and me, but it hadn’t had a chance to fully dry and it slipped out of my fingers. I guess that means Neall wins by default. Ha!

Zoolights is a big local tradition. Every winter, the zoo is fully decorated from top to bottom with colored holiday lights. I mean to tell you, this place is a total spectacle.

Photos don’t do it justice. It’s totally dark out (and a little wet and rainy!) and the whole place is lit by millions and millions of holiday lights. You just walk along the paths and enjoy.

Tom took a shot of Mom, Neall and me before we set off on our trip. I wish some of the photos had come out better, but that would have required use of the flash and that cancels out the magnificence of the light display.

Click for bigger versions if you want to see the family shots. I kept them small because if you aren’t in my family, these just aren’t as big of a deal. Feel free to skip right through them.

You also need a big cup of hot chocolate for the walk. It’s a must. Concession stand hot chocolate courtesy of my brother. He’s awesome.

Dad was pretty tired and wasn’t able to come along with us, but the rest of us had a ball.

Here’s one of the four of us – I’m never too shy to ask a total stranger to take a picture for me!

Due to the flash used in this photo, I look like I’m possessed.

Of course, there’s always a kid-friendly component to Zoolights. The kid’s area is always left open and, at that time of night, the Meerkats were out and having a grand time.

I had a hard time pulling Tom away from the Meerkats. In fact, I consider myself lucky that I didn’t find a couple in our suitcases when we got home!

Here’s a couple more random shots of the zoo…

All in all, we had a fantastic time, and I’m really hoping we can make it out for another holiday next year… Tom, wink wink, nudge nudge…

Har.

Over the last couple of weeks, the same theme has been recurring: I have a control issue. As in, I have a hard time relinquishing control.

I know. What a shock. Hope you were sitting down.

People always talk about giving God control of your life. Theories abound on what that means and how to practice it. Over the years, I’ve tossed and turned over my own philosophy on the matter and, unbeknownst to me until recently, I had settled on one. The philosophy was a statement made by a friend of my mother’s when I was a young teenager. I remember the discussion like it was yesterday. We were sitting in my parents’ living room, and she said to me, “It doesn’t matter what you do in life, because if God wants you to become something or to do something, it will happen. He’s God. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do.”

The reason it struck me so severely is because it filled me with despair. Though I can strongly argue against that statement, it stuck with me and became the foundation of nearly everything I did in life for the next 20 years.

Of course that philosophy is false. Moses didn’t want to go back to Egypt and confront the Pharaoh. According to scripture, he was afraid. So what happened? Did God turn Moses into an automaton and force him to go and carry out divine will? No! The God of all creation stood around arguing about it, listening to Moses’ many, many fears and responding to each one. After God provided answers and miraculous signs for all of Moses’ questions, Moses still begged to send someone else:

But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.” Exodus 4:13 – 17

For some reason we hone in on the anger of God in this passage and minimize everything after it. Often, the lesson incorrectly taught here is that you shouldn’t make God angry. If God asks, be a good corporate citizen and do what you’re told! Forget your own feelings, slave – God has given you a directive!

But that’s not really what’s happening. Sure, God wants us to do what he asks, but he cares about our feelings, too. There’s a reason the Holy Spirit is also called “Helper” and not “Slave Driver”. Here’s the scenario: God’s the dad trying to get his kid on a bike for the first time. The kid is scared and doesn’t want to fall or lose control or get hurt. God gives the kid a helmet, pads, training wheels and, though it’s still super scary, God promises he’ll hold onto the bike and won’t let go. And it still just wasn’t enough for Moses.

“Can’t you get someone else to ride this bike, Dad?”

So God was frustrated – but he didn’t give up on Moses! As it turned out, Moses’ brother, Aaron, was already on the way, so God sent them both. Aaron drove the bike and Moses rode shotgun.

More importantly, Moses wasn’t forced to stay in the passenger seat after that, showing us that God’s desire and plans for Moses weren’t revoked, even though he was being a pain in the butt about trying out the new, shiny bike God picked up for him.

So back to the original topic of not giving God control of our lives. Does it matter? What does it mean to give God control of your life? What does that look like? Despite the illustration above, I still didn’t know. After all, He is God. If he wants something to happen, then he’s big enough to make it happen. He created spacetime, for crying out loud, so he should be able to do minor crap, too. It shouldn’t matter what I do, right?

And that’s what I was pondering… Until Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, I was on my way to work, per usual. I got onto I-590. It has three lanes: The far right lane continues on 590 toward Buffalo. The middle lane splits and can either continue to Buffalo or become the onramp to I-490 east – which is what I need. The far left lane becomes the onramp to I-490 west. Traffic heading to Buffalo typically slows down the freeway, so anyone who needs 490 usually gets over into the far left lane to get around it and then, just as the road splits three ways, anyone needing the middle lane just gets over. And that’s what I did on Tuesday, just as I always did. I didn’t like the slow traffic heading to Buffalo, so I got over into the far left and went around the slow traffic. Eventually, I see the middle lane is speeding up earlier than usual. I’m in sight of the ramp to 490, so it’s pretty close anyway. I get over.

As soon as I do, red lights flared and traffic slowed way down. Screw that. I jumped back over into the far left lane and, as soon as I did, the lane I just got out of sped up. A lot. The three cars that were in front of me were all going straight, trapping me in the far left lane, heading east. I’m about to head in the opposite direction that I needed to go in. This had never happened to me before! I was shocked! I slowed down. I noticed an open spot for me to get over soon. Relief! I was ready to swerve over – but someone a few cars behind me was doing the same thing I was and got over into the middle lane, blocking me again.

I had to stop on the onramp.

I know. I couldn’t believe myself, either. Usually, in order to avoid an accident, I would have kept going and turned around at the next exit. In fact, I remember thinking how shocked I was at my own behavior! I don’t know what got into me! Cars behind me were piling up, flashing headlights, honking horns, and getting mad and I can’t say that I blamed them. Finally, a spot opened up and I got over.

After I merged onto 490 safely and quietly and in the direction I needed, it struck me: That little scene was a metaphor for my life. When I take control, thinking I have a faster or better means to an end, I get stuck and end up going in the wrong direction. That’s why God asks us to give him control.

So how do we do that? Often, we feel that we have to do something or, even more dangerous, stop doing everything. But that’s not how anything is done in the Kingdom of God. Not even salvation, the most important start of our lives, is accomplished by any physical act other than a word of acknowledgment: We pray. So, we simply say, “I don’t know how to give you control, but it’s yours, God.”

And now we have faith – not in our ability to follow Christ, but in his ability to lead us in the right direction on the roads of life.

At the time, I had no idea who James Beard was. I just liked pasta and cheap cookbooks, and his was on a closeout shelf at a bookstore. I bought the book for just a few bucks and stuck it in my stack of cookbooks, and promptly forgot all about it.

Years later, I came to know who he was: The Godfather of American Cooking. By then I had forgotten I had even bought the book, and didn’t realize until about a year ago when I was putting my kitchen through a hefty re-org.

The book, Beard On Pasta, is now very expensive, though you can probably find most of his recipes in his consolidated, complete tomes, or on ebay. In my opinion, if you love pasta, it’s a book worth having. He’s come up with some incredibly creative dishes that play with flavor and texture, and are absolutely fantastic. My favorite thus far is an interesting dish that combines the technique of souffle and jelly roll — but as a pasta dish. By using really tiny pasta (like pastini), whipped egg whites, and grated mozzarella, he creates a light and fluffy pasta dish with a texture that’s just fun to eat.

This is a light and fluffy pasta-y, cheesy, egg-y goodness topped with a simple and delicious tomato sauce. I’m really excited to share this recipe with you. It’s so good.

Pasta & Cheese Roll in Tomato Sauce
4 – 6 servings
Adapted from James Beard’s Beard on Pasta

3/4 cup acini di pepe (or pastina, orzo, or star-shaped stellini – whatever you use, make sure it’s light enough so they don’t drag down the souffle mixture)
6 eggs, separated
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3 cups light tomato sauce (below)

Butter the four corners of a 15×11-inch jelly roll pan (it keeps the parchment in place during the baking process.) Line the pan with parchment, leaving an overhang of about 2 inches at each end.

Cook and drain the pasta. (Note: I did not salt my pasta water. Enough salt goes into the egg mixture later, and Parmesan/Romano also adds salt.)


I used Acini de Pepe, which look like little peppercorns when cooked. Very fun to eat.

Beat the egg yolks until they are light and lemon-colored, then gradually stir in the pasta, butter, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft, unwavering peaks. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture quite thoroughly.

Be gentle when folding. You don’t want to pound out the egg whites and undo all the work you put into whipping them.

Spread the mixture in the prepared pan, smoothing it with a knife or rubber spatula so that it is the same thickness overall. Sprinkle it evenly with mozzarella and bake it in a 375-degree oven for 15 minutes, until it is firm and puffy.

Take it out of the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 325-degrees.

With most souffle-roll mixtures, you would now quickly invert the pan onto a towel and peel off the paper. But you want to keep the mozzarella on the inside of the roll; so, instead, you grasp the extended ends of the parchment paper or foil, lift it out of the pan, and lay it on a large cooling rack.

Let it cool for 10 minutes, and then use the paper to help roll it up, starting with one long side. As you roll, peel off the paper. You may have to use a small, sharp knife to help you along.

Slice the roll into 10 rounds.

Arrange them in an overlapping row in a buttered baking dish. Cover them with tomato sauce, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan and heat at 325-degrees for 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Light Tomato Sauce
Makes 3 cups, enough for about 1 pound pasta

28-ounce can Redpack whole tomatoes in puree
2 small onions, sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried basil (optional – I use 1 tbsp. fresh sage, but whatever you have handy works just fine)
4 tablespoons butter

Cook the tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper and basil over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. If you want a smooth sauce, strain it or puree it in the food processor. Then add the butter and continue to cook while it melts.

Variation
Instead of the basil, substitute 1 teaspoon dried oregano or tarragon or any other herb that you fancy. If using fresh herbs, increase to 1 tablespoon.

Warning: The contents of this post are a tad inappropriate. If you want to see the whole post, click on the (More) tab. I cut out the explicit bits however, the screenshots came from two horny 11-year olds who were trying to pretend they knew what to do with a naked woman. You have been warned.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I’m back in World of Warcraft. My druid has been transferred to a new roleplaying server to be with Kerry, Jeff, Bob, and Mel, who have integrated themselves into a gigantic guild. Like a faithful lemming on a cliff, I’ve joined, too. I won’t give you the guild name, but I will say that it’s horde (of course) and has 5,000+ members.

Yeah. Needle in a haystack, man. I cope by setting up a separate window just to collect guild chat and announcements, and then I mostly ignore it. No, that’s not typically the way I like my guild participation to be, but for now it works.

For the most part, it’s the same kind of people on every other server. And, with a high-population server, first and second rate avatar names are already taken, so most people use what’s left.

Even if it was spelled correctly, what the crap is a CHASTITY HEART? A heart wrapped in gigantic, steel panties?

No, thanks. I’ll just stick with the generic one.

Life on a roleplaying server is a little weird. I didn’t really know what awaited me — a Tolkenesque world of imagination and adventure?

Nope. (more…)

I have too many websites. It probably doesn’t seem like too big of a deal since I’m not required to post anything anywhere, but I’m going through a season of examining all of the irons I have set out in different fires because, you know, I have a lot of them. This isn’t the first time I’ve brought this up. I’m looking at everything in my life now, even the small things, trying to figure out how I can stop spreading myself so thin.

One thing I want to do is consolidate a lot of my web interests to my personal blog. That means what I was doing on my old WoW guild website will start appearing here — in the form of abusive and hilarious and somewhat inappropriate screenshots, for which I’d like to apologize in advance. As Kerry politely pointed out to me, this will label me as a huge nerd, but you already knew that so it won’t be a surprise to anyone. Food will probably start appearing here as well. Ken and I are in discussions over what we’d like to do with AwK, but nothing conclusive. It’s been fun thus far, but I’m rethinking the effort I’ve been putting into it. Do I want to continue to put all of my energy into that? No, I don’t. We may continue AwK, we may not. Either way, we’ll make a decision and get back to you because, if we aren’t going to use it, Tom will probably want to stop paying for the domain when it expires (ha!).

The point of this post is to warn you that I’m about to revamp this tiny, personal blog, and you’re about to see a wider variety of things here.

~jleigh

HELL YES. Used to watch the original cartoon with my brother every Sunday…

Just want to say Happy New Year to all of my family and friends. Like everyone else, I have just a couple of… well, I don’t know if I’d call them resolutions, per say. I equate resolutions with “giving up chocolate” (which you know I’m not going to do) and “losing 10 pounds” (I like food too much to say that without laughing). This year, I’m putting some very realistic goals on the calendar.

1. Finish two books and have them available for readership via the web. One will probably be available for purchase on lulu.
2. Write and record a record. (Construction on my studio begins soon – woo!)

I hope you challenge yourself with at least one life goal this year (maximum of 3 – make it attainable!) and do your best to form a plan to accomplish it – then put it into action! Life is for living, so let’s get to it.

I love you all. (Except Ed. You suck. <3 )

~Jen

Final grades have been posted online. Woo!

I knew it. I just knew. On Saturday night, I posted to twitter “My Sunday worship set is done”. It seemed like such an innocuous comment at the time, but a couple of hours later I had a real funny feeling. For no reason at all, I went back to my account and re-read what I had written.

The second time around it seemed… funny… almost poignant in some strange, adumbrated way.

That night, I woke at 3:00am and tossed and turned for a good half hour before I started to pray. While I was praying, I realized I hadn’t fully given up the worship ministry in my heart and needed to do so. So I prayed about it. It was a quick prayer, nothing fancy — no bells or whistles, no trumpets of angels or anything odd that signified it was done. In fact, when it was all over I just felt “okay”. I can’t even say I was at peace about it; it was just one of those things I knew I had to do simply because I was being asked to. So I turned it in, like the badge and gun of a seasoned cop. A done deal. After that, I knew Sunday was the end of worship for me, even though a replacement worship leader hadn’t come forward. I had faith that something was going to happen.

And it did. Church was really weird yesterday and I can’t explain why. I mean, I know why it was weird, I’m just not sure I could put it into words. You’re just going to have to trust me that the whole thing was weird. The worship service was just… the strangest one I’ve ever done, not to mention the shortest. Everyone was distracted for one reason or another, myself included. People were coming in and out, totally late (per usual) and I found it a lot more distracting than I typically do. And there was this guy — when he came in, there was a group of people in back who were really excited to see him and it added to the distraction. When he came up for communion, along with everyone else, for some reason I happened to look up when he was near my piano and I realized that for some inexplicable reason I was smiling, and oddly enough, he was looking at me and smiling — we were both grinning at each other like idiots. Why the hell were we smiling? I don’t even know. Then I went back to the worship set thinking just how weird that was. It was all just weird, man.

I ended worship early because I was so distracted. Afterward, I confided in a good friend of mine, Yvonne, what had happened the night before and that I knew worship was going to be resolved that day. She said she’d be praying.

Sure enough, an hour after I got home, I got a call from my pastor saying someone had come forward and said that they felt that the worship was something they were supposed to do.

My response: So when do they start????

No start date yet, but I’m praying it’s ASAP. I still have the Christmas Eve service to do on Thursday which is fine (I guess). I’m ready for change in a really strange way… Now I’m ready for the next step, though I’m not really sure what that means.