Tag: food

Sunshine Blogger Again

On By Jennifer Mugrage19 Comments

Just as the sun must come up every day, rain or shine, so I am cursed to plod forever through an endless treadmill of answering questions. The questions are ever the same, but on the plus side, my answers keep changing.

I wasn’t exactly “awarded” this tag, but I did see it on the blog of one Bookstooge, who closed his post with “You aren’t hardcore enough!”

I am so hardcore. But, as usual, Bookstooge, thanks for doing everything exactly like Puddleglum. Or Trumpkin.

Here’s the participation rules

  1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog
  2. Thank the person who nominated you
  3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog
  4. Answer your nominator’s questions
  5. Nominate up to eleven bloggers
  6. Ask your nominees eleven questions
  7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs

What’s your favorite book and why?

The Bible, because so many reasons, but among others, it’s got some really wild ancient history that you won’t find anywhere else. At least, you can find stuff elsewhere that’s sort of similar, but you won’t know which parts of it are true.

Can you share some obscure/unusual words you like to use when writing?

I like “interlocutor.” It means whoever the person in focus is speaking to. I also like “salient” and “equivocation.” But obviously, which fancy words are the most salient changes depending on the context of the writing.

When I’m writing narrative, I prefer to describe the action and people’s thoughts as simply as possible and let the actual events deliver the emotional impact.

Do you have pets (if yes, photos!)

Not anymore, sadly. Our last remaining rabbit passed just a few weeks ago. We (my son and I) hope to get another batch of chickens this summer, but standing between us and them is a large run-and-coop building project that, to me at the moment anyway, seems as intimidating as the Tower of Babel.

What brings you joy?

Beauty.

Landscapes, especially if I can paint them; beautiful folk clothing from around the world; beautiful items knitted or crocheted by myself or others; the simple, unforced beauty when your favorite mug is sitting on your favorite coaster and they match. The beauty of a plant: hens & chicks filling a planter, a Boston fern spilling towards the floor. Sunshine on my dining room walls. I love beautiful music, even though I’m not very gifted at it, which is no doubt a trial to the people around me.

I also love things that are beautiful even though they are ugly. “Brutalist” jewelry, that looks weathered, like it came through the apocalypse. Things that are painted, knitted, or sewn in unexpected colors, like browns and greys, or colors that you’d think would clash but then don’t. Stuff that looks worn or pieced together, like an old farm quilt. Well-told tragedies, like the recently reviewed story of Jason and Medea.

Here’s an example of a “brutalist” ring.

“All things counter, original, spare, strange;/Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)/With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;/He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change/Praise Him.”

–Gerard Manley Hopkins

If there’s anything that can make you look forward to tomorrow, what would that be?

My husband and children.

Best vacation destination from your experience?

I have a whole bucket list of ancient sites I want to see, but that’s not what you’re asking about.

I have fond memories of a little cabin hut bungalow on a small island called Gili Air, off the coast of Lombok. Go out and snorkel in the morning, come back in the afternoon and sit on the porch and read. Look across the bay at sunset, and see the mountains of Bali looming out of the sea. Beach is not even my favorite setting, but boy that was one relaxing vacation.

Do you count steps?

What?

Favorite meal?

Fish and chips and coleslaw.

The last song you listened on repeat?

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

I realize you all have been aware of this song for years, but I just heard it in its entirety a few months ago. Like probably every listener, I found it to be a stunning work of art and also kind of a puzzle, and I listened to it a couple of times in a row for several days until I felt I understood it. I’ll spare you my analysis, as I think volumes have already been written.

How many blogs do you have?

Just this one. I used to have a recipe blog and a book review blog, both on Blogger. I haven’t checked them in years and am not even sure if I could find them anymore.

But don’t forget to buy my books! And for goodness’ sake, please don’t return them. My publisher charges me when you do that. If you buy a hard copy and hate it, just burn it or send it to Goodwill or something.

What’s your favorite quote?

There are so many good ones, I can’t really pick a favorite. It goes in seasons with me. But for today, I’ll leave you with this one:

This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,/who depends on flesh for his strength/and whose heart turns away from the LORD./He will be like a bush in the wastelands;/he will not see prosperity when it comes./He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,/in a salt land where no one lives.
"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,/whose confidence is in Him./He will be like a tree planted by the water/that sends out its roots by the stream./It does not fear when heat comes;/its leaves are always green./It has no worries in a year of drought/and never fails to bear fruit."
The heart is deceitful above all things/and beyond cure./Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:5 - 9

Now, my questions for you, Gentle Reader. These are inspired by our experience in grade school, where you were sure that you had to have a quick, permanent answer about your favorite color, animal, and favorite everything else ready to go. This is important! You never know when you might need to know this stuff! Answer with your first instinct and no cheating!

  1. What is your favorite brand of tractor?
  2. What is your favorite kind of cow?
  3. What is your favorite kind of chicken?
  4. Country or city?
  5. Ford or VW?
  6. Pickup truck or motor scooter?
  7. Star Wars or Star Trek?
  8. Beach or mountains?
  9. Sweet or savory?
  10. Sci-fi or fantasy?
  11. Favorite animal, domestic or wild, in your region or any other.

Asian Dish on a Fall Table

On By Jennifer Mugrage6 Comments

This is my favorite recipe that I learned how to make while in Indonesia, and it’s the only Indonesian dish I still cook. Who knew that it would look so good in a temperate zone, where we have seasons!

This dish is called tempeh orek. It uses tempeh, an affordable meat substitute similar to tofu. It’s firmer and chewier than tofu, with soybeans embedded in a sort of block that you can cut into strips and fry up like meat.

To make tempeh orek, you first deep-fry the tempeh all by itself in a pan full of that Indonesian cooking staple, palm oil. When the pieces are light brown, take them out with a strainer and drain them on paper towels.

Let the oil in the pan cool and pour off most of it (say, into a reserve jar). Leave enough to sautee spices. Then you need to sautee a large pile of chopped or grated shallots, grated garlic, and grated ginger for about 30 seconds. (If you have no shallots, you can substitute white or yellow onion, or even leave them out.) While sauteeing, add about a tablespoon of MSG, powdered chicken stock, or a powdered seasoning packet from an instant Ramen.

Once you have the flavors prepared, add back in the tempeh strips and stir to coat. Then sprinkle on palm sugar — about a quarter cup per six ounces of tempeh. Brown sugar makes a fine substitute. Stir, and the sugar will melt and coat the tempeh to make a savory syrup. Finally, add chopped steamed green beans and red peppers that you have pre-prepped. You may need to add a dash of water to the pan in order to get the syrup liquidy enough to coat all the goodies within.

Serve over rice. If you want a really authentic Indonesian experience, you should have sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) and pureed chile peppers (sambal) on the side, and fruit for dessert.

The only drawback to this meal is that tempeh costs $3 to $4 per six ounces (or is it eight ounces?) at my grocery store. I usually buy two blocks and make a double batch, which is sometimes enough for my family, but really, they would eat twice that in a sitting if they could.

Dr. Oz’s Good Intentions

On By Jennifer Mugrage3 Comments

Back in August, I got thoroughly shook when I heard a conversation between Dr. Oz and Ben Shapiro, on the Ben Shapiro show. I have saved my reaction for October, a month when I post about scary things, because Dr. Oz does not seem to realize how scary his plans are.

They are discussing the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again-) government initiative. Ben asks about the problem that patients have difficulty getting ahold of their medical records (their “charts”), which makes it difficult to get your information from one specialist to another.

Dr. Oz’s solution, though he doesn’t articulate it in this short, is that each patient chart will exist in a big government database. It will be tied to your social security number, and to “facial recognition, like in airports.” There will also be a big database of MAHA-approved healthcare providers, so these people can have instant access to your patient records. The MAHA bot can recommend to you an approved provider in your area, and, as Dr. Oz forecasts in this short, the MAHA bot can also call your attention to incipient health problems that you may have, and recommend, say, an app to help you lower your blood sugar. And it can tell you not to eat that thing that you’re about to eat. All this, said Dr. Oz on The Ben Shapiro Show, will be “completely optional.”

What could possibly go wrong?

I believe that Dr. Oz has good intentions. He wants to help Americans be healthier, and direct action on this by a massive, centralized government department is the only way he can imagine to get this done.

Whenever we create an awesome new power, we have to game out all the scenarios. We have to imagine not only how it will be used by people with good intentions, but how it could be used by people with bad intentions. Because every awesome new power will fall into the bad-intentioned hands eventually.

So, what could go wrong?

First of all, how long will participation in this system remain optional? And how “optional” will it really be? Will there be any health-care providers who accept patients whose charts haven’t been uploaded into the Leviathan database? Will this system, in fact, make it more difficult to find niche specialists who can help you with your particular problem? Because I gotta say, everyone I know who has become healthier, has done it by using resources outside the official healthcare system.

What happens if an error gets encoded in the official system? We saw this last week, where the diagnostic criteria for Lyme disease were dead wrong. Anyone who wanted to get diagnosed needed to find a rogue doctor. What will we do when Dr. Oz has gotten rid of all the rogue doctors?

Even if you try to opt out, you probably have some former doctors who would willingly turn over their records about you to Leviathan, to be listed next to your face scan and social security number. So you now have a, possibly outdated or incomplete, patient chart that is going to follow you around. Perhaps this chart will include an earlier misdiagnosis, like hysterical hypochondria instead of Lyme disease. Or “drug-seeking behavior” instead of chronic pain.

And how might our bad actors use this chart that is linked to all your other citizen data? Let me count the ways. You could be denied medical care if you don’t comply with a new, untested treatment. (Nevermind. That has never happened before.) Your taxes could go up if you are pre-diabetic; after all, you are costing the taxpayer more money! Never mind that you tried to opt out of Medicaid. You could have your grocery-store purchases restricted (card turned down!) if you try to buy something that the app deems inappropriate for a person of your health status. (These are the same people, recall, who apparently taught us the wrong food pyramid for sixty years.)

And, since this is October, let’s go for the really scary, but still plausible, scenario.

You’re walking down the street in your neighborhood. A drone buzzes up to you, identifies you using face-recognition technology. A friendly little Clippy pops out and chirps,

“Hello! It looks like your blood sugar is high. You have one year to get it down, using this app, or my brother drone will find you and euthanize you in order to save money for the taxpayers.”

Happy Halloween, my friends!

Lard is the Best for Pie Crust

On By Jennifer Mugrage2 Comments

See how it puffs up a little? More so than with vegetable shortening.

In making this–though I say it myself–dazzling lattice raspberry pie, I am standing on the shoulders (metaphorically) of a long line of matriarchs. Here are three.

My mother-in-law (and actually my father-in-law too) always made pies with lard instead of with shortening. I can remember going to the grocery store and having to hunt around for lard for them to make their pies, because for many years it was not popular. Now, people are starting to realize that emulsified seed oils may actually be as bad or worse for us than animal fat, and so people like me are starting to use lard for the first time in our lives. It gives the pie crust dough a bit more of a taste than shortening, which is a tiny bit off-putting to someone who is used to shortening pies … but in the finished product, the taste is more buttery.

While I tell you about the matriarchs, here are the steps for making a lattice pie, learned long ago from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

First, cut the lard into the flour and then slowly mix in cold water, enough to make a double-crust pie.

Roll out the bottom crust, transfer to the pie pan by loosely wrapping it around the rolling pin, patch cracks, and fill it with whatever fruit you are using. In my case, it’s raspberries picked from our patch, tossed with sugar, cornstarch and a dash of cinnamon.

Next matriarch: A cheerful saint at my church in Ohio, who had home schooled five children. Once I went to Sunday dinner at her house. She referred to her ability to get a full dinner on the table within an hour of getting home from church as “the forty-minute miracle.” She also told me this:

“When I first got married and started cooking meals, I thought that over time, I would become a gourmet cook. That didn’t happen, but what happened was that I got faster.”

Me too, Ruth. Me too. You get faster, which makes things easier, but unfortunately you only get faster at the things you actually practice.

On to the lattice.

Roll out the second half of the pie crust dough and cut it into strips, like this:

I don’t cut all my strips beforehand. I just make them as I go.

Take a shorter strip and put it across one side of the pie. Take another short strip and put it down at a right angle, so they cross.

And now, the magic happens.

As you add strips, you will need to gently fold back the ones that you want to go over the new strip. Here I am lifting one, to illustrate.

As you add new strips going at right angles to each other, keep folding back every other strip when you place a new one. Then put them back after the new strip has been placed. That’s how you get a weaving effect.

Like this.

The last matriarch I have to thank is whoever planted the large raspberry patch in the yard of the farmhouse we rent. It was probably the older farmer and his wife we rent from. By the time we got here, the bushes were already producing, keeping me busy picking throughout July.

All ready! Scatter small pieces of butter over the crust and put aluminum foil around the edge for the first 25 minutes of baking. Don’t forget to put a baking sheet on the rack underneath the pie. If you have done this right, molten raspberry juice will bubble out, and your smoke alarm will go off. You want the raspberry napalm to fall and burn onto the baking sheet, not the bottom of your oven.

Enjoy!

I Got Nominated … Sort of

On By Jennifer Mugrage17 Comments

(Is the above really the latest Sunshine Blogger Award logo? Looks kinda messy.)

So, Bookstooge sort-of-nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you, Bookstooge! I am so flattered. I think his exact words were, “If you’re reading this, consider yourself nominated, because it means you have a pulse.”

Rules For The Sunshine Blogger Award:

  • Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
  • Thank the person who nominated you.
  • Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
  • Answer your nominators’ questions.
  • Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
  • Ask your nominees 11 questions.
  • Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Questions from Bookstooge:

  1. Why Would Anyone Consider Cereal to be Soup?

It’s because they are trying to categorize things according to algorithmic rules/decision trees instead of the way the human mind normally works, which is by constructing a schema for the thing in question and then eyeballing it.

With schemas, if the thing mostly resembles the schema, it is considered an instance of that thing, even if it misses checking some important boxes. And if it checks all the boxes but manifestly does NOT resemble the schema at all, then it’s not an instance of that thing.

Cereal is in the latter category. It’s an ungodly modern creation of Mr. Kellogg, who believed that eating meat was morally wrong as well as unhealthy, and sought to banish it from the breakfast table. And I say this as someone who very much likes breakfast cereal, particularly as an evening snack, even though I know it has wreaked havoc with my metabolism (see question #10).

2. Why Do You Blog?

I blog to get you interested in my books. Go buy ’em. BUT, warning, don’t buy the Kindle version of The Strange Land until the end of next week, when it will cost 99 cents because of a special promo.

3. How Do You Justify Your Existence? (I got that one from the Tales of the Black Widowers, good isn’t it?)

Yep, it’s a good one.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“So God created man. In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. And He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the cattle and the creatures that move along the ground.'”

Edit: By quoting this passage, I am NOT asserting that the only justification for our life is to reproduce … i.e., that your life somehow has no meaning if you are not a parent. I happen to have been given three children, but that’s God’s gift to me, not mine to Him. No, the point of quoting this passage is this: I justify my existence because God made me. He made us. He wanted there to be people. He wanted us to exist as male and female. And, per the latter part of the passage, He wanted there to be a lot of us. If you exist and you are a human, He is happy about that.

4. How Do You Choose Who to Follow?

Unfortunately, I’m a lot like Trump in this way. If you say nice things to me, I like you and then I follow you.

An alternative route is that you posted something that really interested me. This usually means book reviews, discussion about writing, theology, ancient history, and sometimes art.

5. If John McClane and John Wick were tied on a railroad track and you could only set one of them free, which would you choose and why?

O.K., I had to duckduckgo him, but John McClane is the Bruce Willis character in Die Hard. I would save John McClane instead of John Wick for the following reasons:

  • John Wick could definitely save himself.
  • I only saw the first Die Hard, but in it, John McClane is a family man, whereas John Wick doesn’t even have a dog anymore.
  • Once when we were in Indonesia, somebody swore that my husband looked exactly like Bruce Willis and now I can’t unsee it. That makes me think Bruce Willis is even more handsome.

6. In a game of Parcheesi, who would win, Spongebob Squarepants or the Doom Slayer?

I expect Spongebob to win in the same way that Bugs Bunny would.

7. Do you feel guilty about all of my oxygen that you are breathing?

Yes. My gosh, don’t remind me!

8. What is your favorite movie?

It’s a tie between The Princess Bride and a little hidden gem called Undercover Blues.

9. If you were going to be “accidentally but on purpose” killed tomorrow, how would you spend today?

I would write long letters to each of my children. If I had extra time, I’d move on to my husband, then other close family and friends.

I might try to transfer the rights to my books so they don’t go out of print, but I don’t think that could be done in one day. If you snooze, you lose, and I guess I snost and I lost.

10. Are mirrors Friend, or Foe?

Friend, but only in the sense of “faithful are the wounds of.”

11. If you could change ONE THING about your blog, what would it be?

Every single visit to my blog would result in a book purchase and then a breathless review on Amazon GO BUY MY BOOKS PEOPLE!

Ahem. I Nominate:

I nominate seven friends (the number of perfection!) plus Bookstooge cause I want to hear his answers too. And I nominate you, Reader, if you want to do it! After all, you are breathing! Which might provide the answer to my first question!

To Answer These Questions:

  1. What is the best gift God has given you?
  2. Without sharing details you don’t want to share, how did you come out of your darkest hour/day/year?
  3. What kind of biome would you most prefer to live in (one that can be inhabited by people)?
  4. In real life, how are your social skills (and do you have any tips for me haha)?
  5. What is your favorite genre of fiction?
  6. Do you ever read nonfiction and what makes you pick it up?
  7. Tell me one nice thing about your grandparents.
  8. If you could speak any language, ancient or modern, fluently besides your native one, which one would you choose?
  9. What are your feelings on the Harry Potter series?
  10. Do you have a favorite YouTuber/podcaster? What do they talk about? Now’s your chance to promote them!
  11. When did you first seriously consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth? If you never have, would you do me a solid and consider doing so?

Guys, My Oldest Is 16

On By Jennifer Mugrage2 Comments

Here he is enjoying sushi on his 16th birthday.

I love this photo because it captures something about him … nerdy, techy, fit, into all things Japanese.

I also love the gritty urban look of this photo.

Naturally, I had to edit it so that his image is blurred and his privacy somewhat protected. (Guess who helped me find out where I could edit it? That’s right)

The other cool thing is this: We live in rural southeastern Idaho. You would think, all that’s available to eat out here is prickly pear, river fish, beef, and potatoes. But no, thanks to the fact that we live in this once-great empire that is falling into ruins but is still incredibly wealthy, we can drive less than an hour and get sushi. In Idaho. As this new year begins, that’s something I’m thankful for. Such convenience and prosperity certainly make it easier to raise this lovely young man. Who is, of course, another gift for which I’m incredibly thankful.