Petting the People

For the past couple of days, we have been dog sitting my in-law's dog.  She's a very good dog, housebroken, well-trained, and really well-behaved.  And I've loved having another living creature in the house.  I miss that.  But, and this is where I am going to get controversial, after much consideration, I definitely prefer cats to dogs as household pets.

Don't get me wrong, there is something very special about being greeted by an exited, yippy, tail-wagging, jumping up-and-down dog when you come home, even if you've only been gone for a walk around the block.  But still, I prefer cats -- even with the indifferent greetings upon returning home.

I love having an animal on, or near, my lap, but I miss the purr.  I know, dogs wag their tails, but that's not the same as a purr.  And licking is not the same as kneading.  Overall I prefer the gentle, quiet nature of cats' affection to the boisterous, in-your-face-ness of dogs' exuberance.

Also, cats do not require getting up and dressed and going outside in the cold, grey rain of winter mornings.  Though I will be the first to admit I complained often enough about managing litter boxes, so it's really a wash on that score as far as I can tell.

Yes, I am happy to have an animal sharing my space, but this particular animal, no matter how great a dog she is, reminds me that she is not a cat.  And while it's not her fault, there are moments when I can't quite forgive her.  Though, if she learns how to purr… 

Scrummy

Zealous sports fans and where:  Peel Pub, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

On one of my visits to Montréal, we stopped for dinner at the Peel Pub.  It was still early evening, so the pub-cum-sports bar had not filled just yet.  We were escorted to a table just in front of the big screen, but didn't really think anything about that location.  It was obvious we were not locals, if only because we did not speak French as easily as everyone else.  (Aside:  despite what I have heard from other people, I find Montréal to be less English-friendly than Ville Québec.)  I am not sure if the hostess put us there because she knew we would not be interested in what she knew was going to happen, or just because she decided to torture the foreigners in a bit of good-natured inside-joke hostess-fun.

Not long after we ordered our meals, the big screen came on.  Two things about sitting directly in front of one of those huge sports-bar tv screens:  (1) the noise is not nearly as loud as I thought it would be because the speakers are not on the screen as they are on tv's; and (2) those things generate an immense amount of heat!  It was a chilly autumn evening, so we had light jackets on, but very quickly after the big screen came on we all had to take our jackets off, and I was really wishing I had another layer I could take off and still be decent.

But anyway, the bar filled up and the big screen came on.  I was sitting with my back to the screen, so I could not see without turning completely around.  And when I did, I found a France vs. New Zealand rugby game on. I knew very little about the game then (and still know very little about it), and while I understand French, it's not really the best idea to try and figure out what's happening during an unfamiliar game while trying to hear announcers speaking a foreign language in a crowded sports bar.  I could tell when something good happened for France because the crowd would cheer.  I could tell when something bad happened to France because the crowd would boo, with more than a few curse words mixed in -- which for some reason were predominately in languages other than French!

I'm not sure I would have truly described them as zealous, and never felt unsafe in the crowd, but it was certainly the largest bunch of sports fans I ever encountered on vacation.  Well, until I saw Simon & Garfunkel in Melbourne on the same night an Australian Rules Football game was being contested next door, but that's a story for another time.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, we politely waited until a commercial break to leave so we would not block the view of the game for any of the, increasingly inebriated fans by getting up and waking in front of the screen.

Present-ing the Past

Today I was watching a re-run of the Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament.  During the break in the Jeopardy round, Alex asked one of the contestants about his unorthodox teaching of history.  The contestant said he made a decision to revise the order in which he taught the required elements, not in the traditional past-to-present order, but instead in reverse order present-to-past.  When queried about it, he explained he felt it was far more important that students know and understand what's going on now than it is to know and understand the War of 1812.  He said he teaches history with the question "How did we get here?" taking precedence over "Where are we going?"

I've spent much of the day pondering this idea.  Even when I was in history classes in school, I felt we teach history wrong.  World events do not happen in a vacuum.  One even influences the next.  The repercussions of World War I are still being felt and tackled, even 100 years later.  And that is only (relatively) recent history.  Everything else is interconnected as well.  The American Revolution influenced the French Revolution, which in turn set up the rise of Napoleon, an era which flowed into the Crimean War.

History should not be taught as isolated events, because it is not.  Yes, it is important to know that William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, and the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, but those events are not isolated in terms of the overall history of the world.  Yes, Columbus sailed to the new World in 1492, in a (failed) effort to find a faster route to the East Indies, but that was not the end of the impact of that misguided exploration.  Nothing in history is isolated.  It may seem isolated at the time, but in the clarity of hindsight, it is easy to see that it is not.

I have always felt we needed to teach history not as a timeline for France, a separate timeline for Germany, another for the Holy Roman Empire, still another for England and the Commonwealth, and yet another for the United States of America, and on and on.  I have always felt it was a much better idea to teach history as a continuum -- detailing what was happening all over during the period in question.  While I could answer the question that the state of Virginia was named such in honor of Queen Elizabeth I, I was in college before I connected that it was named in her honor because it was settled during her reign.  Maybe that was me not connecting the dots, but I can't help but think some of that was also the way history was taught.

I am not sure the Jeopardy! contestant's idea of reversing the timeline is the answer, because it is important to learn history, so we can learn from it.  But at the same time, starting at the "end" of the story does make it easier to pick out the important bit when they happen.

Yes, teaching history needs an overhaul.  It needs to be re-thought and re-examined, not only so we can be sure our students know the facts, but so we can be sure they know what the facts mean.  We need to be sure students (of all ages) learn not only the story of history, but the lessons as well.

Forty-Seven and One-Half Percent of My Life

Years spent traveling:  Nineteen

Well, in some form or another, we are all traveling from birth.  And I routinely went to my grandmother's house in the summer.  Some of those summers, we took either day-trips or slightly longer trips -- one was to Mansfield, Missouri to see the Little House museum there.  I still have my Charlotte doll and the copies of The Long Winter and These Happy Golden Years I got on that trip.  I am so sorry I lost the sunbonnet along the way, because it would really be perfect (if a bit quirky) for my walks to the grocery.

But as far as leisure travel, with the destinations chosen by me and paid for with my own money, it's been since 1995 when I went with my best friend to Washington, DC to celebrate graduating from college.  It was a great trip and one day I'm going to go back.  And when I do, I WILL see the White House.  Yes, I know it's touristy, but as I've said before, I'm a tourist.  Besides, when I went to DC on CloseUp in high school, we were supposed to tour the White House but the First Gulf War broke out and between that and a snowstorm, everything closed.  Then on the trip after college, my friend had already seen the White House, so we decided to skip it.  It's the one thing in DC I have not done and I still want to!

Anyway, leisure travel has really only been in the past 19 years.  I think I've packed a lot of seeing in those years -- 3 continents, 12 cruises, 4 big land tours, and I've lost count of the long-weekend-type trips around the US.  I admit I've missed a good number of popular destinations, but I've been to unusual ones.  I've been to France, but not that France, and I love being able to say that!  (We went to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon on a cruise, and it is France, though in all honesty it's more Canada than France.  I understand from locals that France tends to forget it's there and part of the country.)

Leisure travel is only worthwhile if the traveller enjoys it.  Life is not a competition.  There are no prizes for racking up the most entry stamps in your passport.  Each trip, no matter where or how long, should provide memories for a lifetime.  Each trip is special.  And each trip is memorable, even if it includes nothing but touristy attractions.  See what you want to see of the world, not what guidebooks or other people tell you you need to see.  Stand on the Jordan Staircase because you want to, not simply to tick off an experience box.  Collect the experiences you want.  That's what I do.  And why the next time I'm in DC I am going to the White House, with or without my traveling companions!

Silent Sunday

Menu Plan -- August 5-11, 2014

Tuesday:
Three Cheese Calzones, Green Salad

Wednesday:
Whiskey Marmalade Chicken, Jasmine Rice, Carrots

Thursday:
Black Bean Flautas with Salsa Verde, Tortilla Chips, Vanilla Pudding

Friday:
Savory French Toast, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Vanilla Pudding

Saturday:
Parmesan-Crusted Turkey, Pasta Alfredo, Baked Chicken

Sunday:
Baked Spaghetti, Pesto Soda Bread, Black Forest Pudding Cake

Monday:
do-it-yourself dinner

Testing the Technique

MasterChef Australia has finished for 2014.  I really do not know why I got caught up in it.  Those kind of shows only aggravate me.  But for whatever reason I did and I was, unsurprisingly, not happy with the result.  I am pretty sure the show is rigged for ratings and not necessarily to pick the best amateur cook from the pool of applicants.  It is television, after all.

I've discussed my feelings about various parts and challenges from the show before.  Hint, I really have nothing to good to say about them.  Tonight as I was turning leftover Spanish rice into something different for dinner, I got to thinking about actual challenges for amateur cooks.  I know there is a difference between being a home cook and being a restaurant chef, but the basic skills are the same.  And to be successful at either, you need to contend with the same ingredients.  Kitchen chemistry is the same no matter where you are cooking.  Eggs are tricky to time and cook well weather you're in a professional kitchen or a home kitchen.  Fresh pineapple will prevent gelatin from setting in your home kitchen exactly the same way it will in a professional one.  Basics are basics no matter where the ingredients are coming together.

It's wonderful that cooking competition shows are showcases fancy foods and complicated techniques, but somewhere along the way, producers decided that the basics are unnecessary.  It's wonderful that the chef-testants can turn beets into gelled blobs resembling cherries, but if they don't understand how or why the technique works, how can they use the same technique to turn turnips into peaches?

Somewhere along the way, these competition shows really need a back to basics challenge.  Take basic ingredients and turn out something good and honest, even if that is nothing more than muffins and fried eggs.  It's a basic technique.  Knowing how to make a basic muffin means you know how and why a muffin is a muffin and not French bread rolls or a cake.  This is equally as important as knowing how to make truffle purée, and a lot more practical for the dinner that needs to be put on the table.

I was thinking about basics as I was making dinner.  The Spanish rice was originally used for rice & bean tostadas, but I was out of tortillas so I could not serve it again that way.  That meant I had to do something with it, using only things I had on hand.  In the end, I added a drained can of tomatoes to the rice, and then using the juice from tomatoes, I made am enchilada-style sauce to bind it all together and baked the mixture as a casserole with some cheese sprinkled on top.  It was this sauce that really made me think more and more about a basics challenge for cooking competition shows.

One of the best, and frankly, easiest, things to make in a kitchen is a roux-based sauce -- cream sauces or gravies.  Once you master the technique and proportions, you have literally hundreds of options on what to do with the result.  From béchamel to velouté, from sausage gravy to enchilada sauce the roux-based sauces are the base for many things.  In and of themselves, they are not difficult, but they can be a bit finicky, especially if you care not careful to incorporate the liquids well.  That is one of the points where it can all go wrong, leaving you with a bunch of lumps of flour in a thin, watery sauce.  But if you're careful it can be a smooth, flavorful, fantastic thing!  And you can turn leftovers into something truly special.

Roux-based sauces are certifiable kitchen magic.  And they are basic:  one tablespoon of flour, one tablespoon of fat, and one cup liquid will produce a really great sauce, and the base for literally hundreds of dishes.  I think that the chef-testants on shows need to demonstrate an understanding of the basics, and really, being able to make a good béchamel sauce is far more useful than being able to create cherries from beet juice!  Besides, I am pretty sure you have not earned the title Chef until you have demonstrated a mastery of basic sauces.