Tough Hands

I came across this ad in our newspaper.

The in-your-face cracked fingers made me cringe - as no doubt they are meant to. I can only imagine how these cracked paw pads must feel - even little cuts hurt like the dickens when I trot through sections of salted sidewalks. Cringing now?

When I turned to the next newspaper section, I had to laugh at the ad I found there. Good thing they had the sense to not place them side-by-side.

This image also rather disturbing. Mostly because the combination of tape, glue, and fur is never to be taken lightly. But I do think this gorilla might appreciate it if someone gave him some O'Keefe's Working Hands cream.

If you are still cringing, take in this image. Aaaaah!

Although you still might want to handle with care.

Greek Potatoes

This Greek potato recipe gets its name from its baked-in lemon-garlic-oregano goodness. You can use any kind of potato. Yukon golds are yummy. This scallopy potato dish is hard to screw up - so it earns high marks in our house. The potatoes bake for a long time at a high temp, requiring only that you stir it every once in awhile. They are great as leftovers too.

Serve them as a side-dish to anything you think would benefit from zingy 'tatos. Great with falafil!

Greek Potatoes
6-8 cubed potatoes (to fill a 2.5 liter/quart baking pan)
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
4-6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
3 cups hot water

Place cubed potatoes in baking pan. Mix together next six ingredients and pour over potatoes. Add as much water as fits - you can add any remaining after some of it has cooked away.

Greek potatoes ready for baking

Bake at 475 degrees uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally to immerse any potatoes that are starting to brown (about every 20 minutes). Add any leftover water as they bake. When they have achieved a scalloped texture, allow the top to brown a little. Cool and serve.

Greek potatoes after baking.

After all that baking, clean-up can be a bit daunting. Hounds are always happy to help. Call me.

Greek Potato recommended clean-up method

Don't worry, we have a sterilize feature on our dishwasher (Susan made me say that).

Splendid Ice Cream

There have been some changes in our house, since the holidays. The big one is that we are now the proud owners of an ice-cream maker. The success of this appliance has led to new behaviors in my family.

Boy#2 is finding his way around the kitchen at a deeper level than the preparation of sandwiches and frozen pizza. His speciality is Simple Chocolate Ice Cream which he makes to fend off threats of Beet Ice with Mascarpone, Orange Zest and Poppy Seeds or Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry Ice Cream.

Dave has taken up jogging. Needless to say, I am thrilled with this unintended consequence. He's aiming for 5K by March. Bark bark bark!

The machine that churns out the calories is an electric Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker. 

Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker

It is a sled-dog of an appliance, working cheerfully to churn out batch after batch of delicious desserts. The secret of its success is letting the freezer bowl live in the arctic conditions of the deep freeze except for the half hour per batch that it sees action.

How did this all come about? I read an article about the science of making rich and creamy ice cream (without eggs!) -- Here's the Scoop in Saveur. I left the magazine skillfully positioned on my Susan's bedside table for her to discover. 

As I hoped, her interest was piqued and the cookbook Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home was ordered, wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree with the aforementioned appliance. 

Every recipe we've tried has lived up to the claim that Jeni's food chemist+artisan approach results in amazing flavors with scoopable texture. Here are our favorites (so far):

vanilla beans

• The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World (Susan used espresso so it was intense - too much for Boy#2 but Boy#1 was in heaven. I skipped this one as chocolate is not canine-friendly)
• The Buckeye State Ice Cream (rich, salty peanut butter with dark chocolate flecks) Did I mention it is PEANUT BUTTER? I lick the bowl before the chocolate is added)
• Ugandan Vanilla Ice Cream (The first time we'd ever seen a vanilla bean up close...ours was from Madagascar. YUM!)

I am hoping for some Bacon-Squirrel Ice Cream next...

Jeni's Ice Cream Base - recipe

Ice Cream 101 (step-by-step illustrations to make Jeni's ice cream base)

Running of the Squirrels

What can I say? I love squirrels. I am booking a flight to Spain as we speak.

Goodbye, Dolly!

2011 brought the passing of Dolly the Llama who lived at the Duluth zoo. It was a bittersweet passing for my family.

Dolly the Llama, R.I.P.

Dolly was undeniably cute. As a member of the petting zoo, her job was to be an animal ambassador. Susan and the boys used to visit her every year at the zoo on their Up North trip.

Then one year, Susan was telling Dolly the llama how cute she was...and Dolly gave her that llama stare...and lobbed spit-boulder right in Susan's face.

The story goes that Susan shrieked, taught the boys some new words and spent 15 minutes in the zoo bathroom washing it off. She reports that llama spit is very sticky and very stinky. 

Wikipedia explains about llama behavior:

"Llamas are very social herd animals, however, and do sometimes spit at each other as a way of disciplining lower-ranked llamas in the herd."

Susan did not appreciate Dolly believing that she was a lower-ranking llama. Also,

"One may determine how agitated the llama is by the materials in the spit. The more irritated the llama is, the further back into each of the three stomach compartments it will try to draw materials from for its spit."

Dolly must have been very annoyed with Susan.

In the following years, they always viewed Dolly from a distance and laughed.

Dolly was almost as funny as that Duluthian seagull that crapped right on Susan's head.

Holiday Hamsters

While out Christmas shopping the other day, Susan and Boy#2 popped into a pet store to aaah over the furry animals. Boy#2 likes to get his kitten fix and I know Susan thinks about puppies all the time(!)  Of course, their time would have been better spent saving that love for moi. But I digress...

When they got home, they told us about how they watched the pet shop gal unload a massive mother ship of hamster from a shipping box into an aquarium.

They thought it was funny that the shipping box said FRAGILE: Handle With Care: LIQUIDS. Obviously, hamsters do not come in liquid form. But they must have run out of boxes marked FRAGILE: LIVE ANIMALS. The whole idea that one would mail hamsters is odd to me. I suppose they have be delivered somehow.

Why people go to pet shops to pay money for small rodents is also odd. Then they go pay money for rodent control devices to trap the free mice that live in the basment. People are weird. But back to the story...

This freshly mailed mama hamster lurched a bit as she got her bearings in the aquarium. Then she planted herself in the food bowl - but not to eat. She began methodically stuffing seeds into her pouches until they were nearly as big as the rest of her.

Pet shop gal proceeded to unload the rest of the box one occupant at a time. She gently placed at least a dozen babies in the aquarium with their mother. Each landed swaying on infant legs then began wandering around checking out their new home, oblivious to the frantic homemaking of their mother.

Susan and Boy#2 watched as the momma hamster continued gathering seeds, ignoring her children, and resisting her own urges to explore her new territory. Her eyes began to bulge with the load of seeds.

They wondered what her plan was...grab all the seeds and then go dump them in a stash a mere six inches away in the corner of the aquarium? Pretty pointless. This wasn't some desert. No competition - no one but hamsters here. There would be more food where that came from. But hamster mother just couldn't be sure.

Clearly, the mother was driven to gather and stash sustenance. Having spent the last hours in a box marked LIQUIDS, she couldn't be too sure when the next meal would arrive. For all she knew, the dish held all the seeds in the world. So she'd best grab and hide them. More likely there was no thought at all. Hamster sees seeds. Hamster gathers and stashes.

As I watch the holiday preparation madness, I can't help but picture this mother hamster stuffing her pouches. Sure there is excitement, even joy when Christmas approaches. The songs insist it is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. But there is also a fair bit of of auto-pilot in the seasonal prep that swirls around me. People zooming about in their cars, stumbling out of stores laden with bags, clicking Proceed to Checkout on Amazon, wrapping and piling gifts to be dispersed to family and friends.

From where I sit, this holiday work isn't all that different from hamster work. Holiday rituals seem so ingrained that I think they too must be deeply rooted in instinct. The drive to exchange gifts, a ritualized passing back and forth of wealth, is quite similar to the hamster gathering seeds from the food bowl and moving them over to the corner of the aquarium.

No doubt December behaviors are so entrenched that people just can't help themselves. Must give gifts, must put up tree, must play Bing Crosby, must clean house, must prepare Christmas foods...I like this last one very much.

But like the hamster, it must feel awfully good to empty out the stretched-out pouches and get back to normal business in the New Year.