The Inky Whisk

a blog about books and more

Missing Mom on Mother’s Day

My mother’s life and my son’s life overlapped by a mere 15 months. A blip of time. He was, at the time of her death, her only grandchild. My brother’s children have never known her and my son has only vague memories and an understanding that there is a low ache like white noise on my side of the family.

So Mother’s Day is a combination of joy and melancholy for me. For two Mother’s Days I was a mom with a mom. On my first my son was barely two months old. My head was still underwater and my mom was only recently diagnosed. We spoke in terms of hope and getting better and cures. She spent all the time she could with her tiny grandchild. By my second mother’s day the elephant in the room was getting intrusive and noisy but I diligently practiced denial. The treatments were not NOT working, but the results weren’t spectacular.

I was a first-time mother and a late mother. My son was still small and while I worried about him, that worry happened while he was in a hip sling or attached to my hand. It wasn’t until after she was gone and I had to send him out in the world (pre-k, school, etc.), and I inevitably felt his first pushes against me and toward independence that I finally really got my mother. I understood how hard and how fiercely she loved me, how difficult it was for her to let me venture, and how important it was for me that she bit her tongue and sat on her hands and let me. I wish she could be around when my son is a teenager and late coming home. She could remind me of all the times I sauntered in a bit past curfew and wondered why she was so upset about five minutes.

I understand why, when it was clear her tumor was not going anywhere she said with relief in her voice “at least now I know I will go before you kids.” I didn’t know that part of motherhood is getting used to always having your heart in your throat. And I wish I had had a chance to say “I get it. I get YOU. It all makes sense now.”

So while I never want to take anything away from the wonderful Mother’s Day I had today – the sweet homemade card, the bundle of thorny roses, the donuts in bed (!) – I can’t let the day pass without mentioning that cancer is an ass, and pancreatic cancer is the biggest ass of them all.

I miss you mom. Happy Mother’s Day.

 

 

The Return of Lorelei Lee

Loos2Today, almost 90 years after its original 1925 publication,  Liveright Publishing releases a new edition of  “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” by Anita Loos, with a new introduction by Jenny McPhee. I dusted off my copy of the jazz age classic about the shrewd, gold-digging flapper from Little Rock along with its sequel “But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.”

It has been years since I laughed at Lorelei’s vapid musings and I think I might revisit on the next quiet afternoon that becomes available.

The Menu: “Archetype” by MD Waters and Chicken Marengo

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We have accumulated various things over the course of our marriage. Among those bits and pieces of years gone by is a stack of Look magazines. Something about the ads appealed to us and we would spend evenings flipping through the issues pointing out great mid-century furniture, technicolor bright food spreads, and other delights. One night husband showed me an article from the September 9, 1969, issue about the Napoleonic origins of a dish called Chicken Marengo. He asked me to make this odd combination of chicken, crawfish, brandy, and fried eggs and it has been a favorite ever since (with a few minor changes.)

The first thing I changed is the crawfish. I have an uneasy relationship with exoskeletal seafood – I like it until I think about it – so I downsized to peeled and deveined shrimp. I also left out the breadcrumbs called for in the Look magazine recipe because … well, I think  I was out of breadcrumbs at the time. And speaking of bread you will want plenty on hand to soak up the intense garlicky sauce this makes!

Archetype by M.D. WatersWhile dinner cooks let me tell you about a book I recently finished, “Archetype” by MD Waters  (and thank you NetGalley and Penguin First Flights for the opportunity to read an advance copy.) Our protagonist Emma wakes in a hospital with no memory. A man named Declan tells her she is his wife, and that she has had a terrible accident. But she dreams another woman’s life, and she hears another woman’s voice – and that voice tells her she may not be getting the whole truth.

This book is a thriller, a dystopia, and a mystery. It is fast-paced, compulsive reading that kept me up far too late on too many work nights. Fans of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “Before I Go to Sleep” by SJ Watson, and “The Stepford Wives”  by Ira Levin might consider picking up “Archetype.” My only complaint is the book occasionally reads like a classic romance novel.  I have nothing against romance, I’m just not fond of capital-R romance novels. That said, it isn’t overbearing, and if you like romance novels then that is one more thing for you to like about this book. I give it four whisks (out of five, of course.)

“Archetype” is part one of a two-part series with the second part, “Prototype,” due out in July 2014.

Now, let’s eat!

Chicken Marengo (serves four)

One chicken, cut up (or whatever combination of bone-in chicken pieces pleases you)
2 TB olive oil
1.25 tsp. salt
2 TB sliced garlic
6-8 large raw shrimp (peeled or unpeeled)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup brandy
1 tsp dried thyme
1 egg per person

In a deep, wide saute pan brown the chicken in olive oil over medium heat. Sprinkle with salt. Add the garlic and saute one to two minutes. Add the brandy. Lay the shrimp on top of the chicken pieces. Cover the pan and cook 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the heat so your brandy doesn’t evaporate completely.

Add the thyme and the tomatoes, pushing them under the chicken pieces. Cover the pan and cook an additional 15 minutes. Again, keep an eye on the heat. You want the sauce to thicken but not cook dry. Check the chicken for doneness – cook an additional five to 10 minutes if needed.

In a separate pan gently fry the eggs to desired doneness and serve over the chicken. Serve with crusty bread to soak up the sauce.

Advent Socks

SockadvDecember already! It came so quickly I almost forgot to get items to fill our Christmas countdown baby socks. I saw this idea a few years ago but they were pinned to a garland. I decided to loop ribbon through the slats in one of our dining room doors and staple to keep it in place. A few packs of cheap baby socks, a tube of puffy paint, clothes pins, and about 30 minutes was all it took. Each morning my son finds a small treat – a wrapped chocolate, a pack of gum, or a small toy. It has turned into one of our favorite traditions – for me because I like thinking of all the little items to fill the socks, and for him because … well …

Lego Minifigures are the perfect size for these stretchy little socks so I like to put one or two in as something extra special.  These socks are also perfect for those tubes of themed figures – animals, Egypt, space – because you can put in just a few items from the tube every other day and by Christmas Eve they have a collection. Tickets to whatever is the big animated holiday movie is also a fun surprise.

Breakfast Picnics

Happy happy first day of autumn! It felt like it would never come. It is hot where I live most of the time. Humid and hot. In fact, I didn’t expect the first day of fall to feel much different from the last 90 days of summer. So imagine my happiness when I woke to a cool breezy morning. I opened all the windows wide and waited for everyone to wake.

I do not deal with heat well. I act like a big baby all summer long, moaning and complaining and acting like I can expect something different from the weather in the southern U.S.  I diligently tend my garden until about July when I can no longer stand it and I hunker down behind closed shutters in a kind of reverse hibernation. I plot out all the soups I will make when the mercury drops. I send others out to harvest for me. The outdoors is neglected until the temperature returns to something habitable.

But I have a child and children need to be out of doors and I feel terrible about not wanting to do things outside in summer. Certainly my husband does plenty with him outside but I was starting to feel left out.

So I came up with the Breakfast Picnic.

I am an early riser and my son has always been an early riser, too. So on the first Sunday of summer break I filled a thermos with orange juice and heated two breakfast burritos I had made on my last freezer cooking day. I woke my son, we quick threw on some clothes, told dad we were leaving and were off to the park at 7:30 a.m.

It was the nicest morning.

It was quiet and not too warm. Only a few joggers were in the park. It felt like a secret. The best part? Talking with my son – he talked at length about school and ideas for new lego sets, and how he will decorate his mansion when he grows up (bowling alley and arcade, in case you were wondering) and on and on and on. He ran around on the playground for a little bit after we ate and then we headed home where dad was just getting up. It was only an hour, but it was the best hour.

The next Sunday when I went in to wake him he was already ready to go. This time we got bagels at a drive through. Another week was blueberry muffins, then breakfast sandwiches, then a donut run and so on until it was time to go back to school. We didn’t make it every single weekend, but we got most of them. We changed up our parks, too.

The first weekend after school started I was happily surprised when he asked what we were taking for our breakfast picnic.

Today, in honor of the first day of fall we took Pumpkin Oat Muffins. It is a recipe I got a few years ago from a magazine and tweaked. I usually write down from where I get a recipe but I didn’t on this one. I tried a search for the recipe but nothing turned up quite like mine, so I’m sorry I can’t tell you where it originated. I do, however, hope you enjoy them.

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Pumpkin Oat Muffins

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1 Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
3.4 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat over to 400.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Blend together the wet ingredients with a fork in a medium bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry all at once and combine until just moistened – do not overmix. Grease the wells of a 12-cup muffin tin and fill each well with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack for five minutes. Pop the muffins out and continue to cool on the wire rack. Enjoy!

Happiness is a New Pen…

My father-in-law performed the most amazing magic trick last week. He produced from the deepest recesses of his top dresser drawer a box containing a Parker “51” fountain pen and mechanical pencil.

Never inked.

Swoon! I kid you not these were still in little plastic wrappers and the price stickers ($15 and $8, respectively) are still on the barrels. Of course I immediately released the pencil’s lead from its 60+ year prison and wrote a “quick brown fox.”  Poor neglected thing.

The pen, though … that is going to take more thought. Of course I want to use it. I think lovely things should be used, expensive perfume worn, toys played with, etc. Unfortunately, I know I will take forever dithering over just the right ink.

Still, as problems go this is the happiest for a pen-crazy girl to have!

Parker 51

Hatch Chile Time! (Plus an Appetizer)

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The Hatch chiles have arrived at my grocery store! And just in time because I recently finished last year’s chiles. Aren’t they gorgeous? I love this time of year when they pull out the big rotary roaster and I can buy containers of the lovely chiles (mild, of course – I admit I am a wimp when it comes to heat.) I know it would be just as easy to roast them myself but It’s enough work scraping out the seeds and removing the skin, I don’t mind being able to skip a step.

Here is a simple and favorite appetizer my mother used to make that uses green chiles. I am sorry I don’t know from where she got it – it has been part of the family repertoire since the 1970s. I hope you enjoy it!

Cheese Pie

1 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup 2% milk, divided
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1 cup grated muenster cheese
1/4 cup chopped green chiles

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together the egg, flour, 1/2 cup of milk, and salt and pepper until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Beat in 1/2 cup of the cheese. Stir in chiles. Pour into a well-greased eight- or nine-inch glass pie plate. Bake 30 minutes. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake five more minutes. The pie will not rise to fill the plate so do not be concerned. Let it cool to room temperature, then slice into triangles and serve.

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