Bright Acid for the Dragon Days

Happy Year of the Dragon!
The moon is growing again, Janet is another year older, and the most depressing day of the year is past*, which means that it is time to announce the new resolution.
Through 2012, the year of the dragon, I will be exploring acid.
If I have learned one thing from watching too much food-television (and we don't even have cable!) this last year, it is that acid brightens everything. I've learned that many things are out of balance, a state which could simply be corrected by the addition of acid.
So I'm going to learn to cook with acid correctly. I have a small flock of vinegar bottles (fourteen? maybe fourteen different kinds of vinegar is a large flock) to help me do it. I'll be writing about vinegar. And citrus (definitely going to get some yuzu, meyer lemons and key limes in the mix). And making pickles. And drinking coffee and wine (okay, I do that anyway).
Beyond that, I'm open. Exploring wit? Acid-washing my jeans as they become to big? Teaching the pH scale? I might be doing cool color change experiments like the Williams sisters, but I probably won't be wearing acid-brights.** I probably won't listen to much acid music and I'm not going to be taking any drug-induced trips.
Anyway, the resolution is acid. Suggest related activities at your leisure.
Many thanks to the Mister who not only gave me a collection of vinegars for Christmas, but suggested the theme unprompted. It's a little scary, and a lot romantic, how well he know me.

*Some study years ago determined that Jan. 24 was the most depressing day of the year. It happened to be a good friend's birthday, so the factoid has stuck. As it happened, three friends had beloved pets die yesterday and two of my colleagues are out of town at funerals of close family members, so it was largely a downer of a day.
**Right after I typed that (this post has been four days in the making) I opened the protective eye wear cabinet in the lab and all of the goggles were in neon colors. It made my day.

The Other Resolutions

While my fun resolution (or theme for the year) garners attention on this blog, I do have "normal" resolutions as well.
Every year I resolve to read 50 books. I usually come close, but usually don't know if I've actually succeeded. In 2011 I read more than 60. I'll post the list once I figure out how to add pages (which will involve having time at home to devote to learning new technology steps, so don't count on it anytime soon).
In 2012, I plan to read at least 50 books.
I will read a book a month with a friend as part of the continuing STIR project (Portugeese novel up for February).
I plan to return to my pre-pregnancy weight by my birthday.
I will exercise, as exercise (in addition to the daily commuting walking) at least once a week.
I will write at least one hand-written piece of correspondence each month.
The Mister is trying to better manage our food supply, cook more with local and interesting products and eat more whole grains. I'm heartily with him on all of these.
In 2012, I also have a few possibly impossibly paradoxical ambitions:
I want to be more social without being a social coordinator.
I want to want to not bring any work home, teach as well and research better than I have, and leave work earlier.
I want to stress less about convention and perception while having a cleaner house, looking sharper and being a more in-touch friend and correspondent.

Beyond that, I'm going to brighten with acid, but you'll need to wait for Janet's birthday/lunar New Year to learn about that.

Noodle Making

My parents have a hand crank pasta machine that hasn't been out of the basement for years.
Late in December, the Mister and I combined the snails Santa left in Mister Splashy Pants' stocking with a fresh Oregon black truffle to create a special "present" dish for M+D . Along with the mushrooms, shallots, wine and cream, and accompaniments of crusty bread, creamed spinach and braised fennel, I thought the dish needed homemade pasta.
With mom watching and actively thinking I was crazy, I noted how they can make pasta (with time to plate) in 30 minutes on "The Next Iron Chef", pulled out Mom's Marcella Hazan*, and made some pasta. Dad helped me crank it out. Mom took these photos**.


It was great. The escargot and truffles may have been better on angel hair rather than the fettuccine, but overall it was great.
So great that my parents pulled out the noodle machine last night and the Mister and I are talking of buying one (someday***). So great that I wondered how a whole noodle year passed without me making these noodles and so great that I came home and made ravioli a week later. So great that I think you should try and see the magic that can happen with eggs and flour and a little time. Let me know how it works.

*The Classic Italian Cookbook.
**The Mister took some on our camera as well. It just seems that M+D are better organized (and have flashier phones) than we are.
***But if you see one at a garage sale or have one from a wedding gift you never use, we'll take it.

If thinking were writing . . .

. . then I would have written these posts long ago.
Lessons from Jane Austen Light I: 16 is too young. A comparison of the ages of heroines in Jane Austen novels and the derivatives and a tribute to my requited-but-unfulfilled love at 16 (who turned 40 on Monday) and our right-for-us spouses.
Lessons from JAL II: "I guess being sarcastic isn't necessarily modern." Like Amateur Reader, I laughed when a 21st century character in Jane Austen in Boca suddenly realized this from reading Pride and Prejudice. But then I found myself surprised by the sarcasm in Thorne Smith's Night Life of the Gods and Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, both written in 1932, as if I expected 1932 life everywhere to be like Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago (1999) and A Year Down Yonder (2001 Newberry Award Winner) which take place in 1932. With thanks to Jenny, AR and VJ for the books and suggestions.
Lessons from JAL III: And I'm Pretty, Too! If a whole bunch of heroines [list here] can suddenly realize that they are pretty as they turn 40*, I can, too.
Star Books I Short reviews of the star books I read last spring [list goes here].
The Next Star on the Shelf Comparisons of the books I've read simply because they have had star in the title [list goes here].
Judging Books by Their Covers Discussions of books I selected because their spines intrigued me at the library [list goes here].
Not Quite Stars Report from looking at the moon and planets every night with a two year old.
Glowing Stars Adorable images of my sons in their space pjs.
Sledding Stars Video of my family sledding
Noodles! I made homemade noodles! Just a year late.
Ravioli! I made homemade ravioli for the first time. Also a year late. There are images on my friend's facebook page. I know because I am now also on facebook (Ack!). There will be images here someday.
Star Cookies I baked with my students and Dianthus baked with both grandmas and it was all good fun. I also bought the ingredients to make Zimmsterne but didn't bake them.
Star Anise Cider It's actually pretty good.
STIR Reports What we read this year, what's coming up.

Of course, if thinking were writing my assignments would also be written, which means that I would have time to actually write the above posts rather than just summarize my intentions (and if thinking were cleaning who knows what I would accomplish?) and, alas, that is not the case.
Let me know what you'd like to learn more about.
*Yes, a series of books full of women suddenly realizing they were pretty initially caused me to gag more than the streak of gorgeous heroines I had been reading about. Then they were inspiring and now I'm pretty as a result.

Guest Star: Quilts from my MiL

From Guest Star Prairie Quilter:
The big star is a replica of a quilt from Kentucky made around 1870. I call it My Kentucky Star. The multi star quilt is "My Williamsburg Stars". It is a replica of a quilt I saw in the museum in Williamsburg when we were there two years ago.

Note from SpSq: These are but a small sampling of Prairie Quilter's fabulous star quilts.
Thanks for sharing, Prairie Quilter!

Black-eyed Peas and Stars

Tonight I'm going to see the old year out looking at the Milky Way from the Smoky Hills of Kansas*.
Tomorrow, I'll be introducing the in-laws to the all-important lucky legumes of the New Year: black-eyed peas.
Wishing you a 2012 filled with laughter, learning and good luck. Don't forget to eat the black-eyed peas, lentils, tamales, sauerkraut, apples and honey, dumplings. or whatever it is that brings you good fortune.
*Themed resolutions run through the Chinese New Year or Janet's birthday, so I technically have more time to observe the constellations, but I will have few chances as good as a winter night on the ranch.

What's in your stocking? and the dangers of tradition

It's Christmas Eve morning and I sit here drinking coffee with eggnog in a Christmas mug. I don't particularly like the flavor of coffee with eggnog. But coffee with eggnog is part of Christmastime for me and, it turns out, I miss it if I don't have it.
My parents and I are traditionalists. This is a somewhat of a problem because we are not particular about what traditions we follow. We pick them up as we go along and add them, at least temporarily, to what we do. It's not like we've been drinking coffee with eggnog for generations. While we've always had eggnog around, we probably didn't start drinking it in coffee until Starbucks started selling eggnog lattes. And the rest of my family has moved on. They are back to black coffee in the morning and spiked eggnog, with freshly grated nutmeg, late at night. But eggnog coffee is a Christmas tradition I'm not yet willing to part with.
This is a problem among tradition scavengers. While I was growing up, my nuclear family picked up St. Lucia Day, St. Nicholas Day, yule logs (both cake and in the fire), roasting chestnuts, dim sum, kumquats, pizelles, rosettes, fruitcake, pralines, stollen, panetonne, Christmas crackers on New Years, Mexican Christmas Eve salad, flaming German drinks and a plethora of good luck charms, just for starters. My brother recently called asking my mother for the family's traditional Christmas breakfast strata recipe while the Mister, who is on his ninth holiday season around my family, doesn't know what a strata is and wonders why we are not having the German lunch meats for breakfast he thinks are traditional in my family. How is my mother to know that Christmas will still be Christmas without kumquats, but not without fried oysters?
One year Santa inadvertently left toothbrushes in our stockings. My brother and I have anxiously awaited them ever since. Santa's helper has informed me that Santa knows of no such tradition and everyone knows that toothbrushes come in Easter baskets. But to me, the toothbrushes are part of the stocking formula (orange, nuts, chocolate, lottery ticket, socks, book, music, something goofy, toothbrush and maybe an apple) giving to all good boys and girls (and sometimes a cat) of any age.
There's more to write, but typing a blog post is definitely not a Christmas tradition. So I must be off.
What's in your stocking?
Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating.