Karla loves the internet and drawing, it fits with her overall interest in the world around her. Naturally, when she noticed a young reporter using one of her illustrations for his story, you can imagine how excited and happy she became. The entire family received repeated emails about the event!
We gave Karla her own domain to post her drawings and she is catching on to the entire web design thing as well fairly quickly.
Congratulations Karla.
By the way, Karla’s big sister Karen (nick named by her ‘the poodle’) was an athlete at SC and previously Florida and drew lots of Trojans!
One of the many variety of Trojans Karla has drawn! ( Karen the fighting poodle?)
Laura and I have very fond memories of the USC and UCLA rivalry, because in 1969 it was our first date. We were high school seniors and as such my pockets were virtually always empty,I was very excited about tickets arriving from both schools for THE big game. I needed only a little money for gas and a couple of meals at Bob’s Big Boy on Colorado Boulevard and I was set. So, I borrowed the family car, dipped into my frugal collection of coins and off we went. The rest as they say is history.
No relationship is perfect, even the very long married will tell you that, but what they will also say is that they remember the good times and celebrate in big ways and small the special events in their lives as a couple. Three years ago, I wrote about a particularly long lived couple married over 80 years and what they attributed to their mutual long living attraction and love. Laura also blogged sweetly about the date… so what’s a guy to do?
Not every woman would enjoy a football game on her first date with a new guy, but fortunately, Laura did and maybe that has been the secret of a long relationship… mutual interests, positive shared experiences and the joy of just being around the other person.
Thanksgiving is one of the few universally enjoyed holidays in America and the ‘turkey’ is the star. Americans so love this bird that even Benjamin Franklin lobbied for the turkey rather than the eagle as our national bird! Although I do enjoy a plain bird with stuffing, on special occasions there is so much more we can do! I have prepared turkeys in all sorts of ways and there is nothing like a large bird to open the eyes of all the men gathered around! My oven limits what I can cook and a 44 lb was my largest. The size of the bird is one factor, but the flavor of many birds is quite an experience.
There is the TURDUCKEN and it’s many variations. The bird within a bird recipe goes back hundreds of years and I think the record goes back to medieval France with 15 birds in one recipe. This year, we will prepare a simple bird for our Thanksgiving, but during Christmas time while everyone is home it will be a Turducken with a twist. This year we will use: a turkey, a goose, a duck (2) and a chicken along with a wonderful stuffing for each. Obviously, the turkey stuffing will have sausages, including everyone’s favorite… ‘pheasant sausage!’
I love reading cookbooks because they don’t always tell the truth. Often they will omit key steps or ingredients and the picture of the culinary marvel in the book may not always match up with the disaster you prepared. For those of you who have blamed yourself, it may have not really been your fault.
There are some genuine reasons for the discrepancies. First, the pictured food product may not even be what it is purported to be! For example, an old photographer’s trick was to use flat Coca Cola to substitute for coffee in a layout. Why? Because, real coffee looks muddy with a matte finish in a photography while Coca Cola has the right glossy shine and deep black color.
However, another reason is that it might not even be the same product. This became apparent when I was asked recentl about WHY my ‘Meringue’ turned out so well. At first, I was going to tell the usual lies about how their Meringue didn’t work out because of the weather, phases of the moon or their marital happiness… but I opted for the ‘truth.’ Not everyone can handle the truth and the revelation that their cookbook had ‘lied’ to them came as a bit of a shock. There was a bit of reaction as they referred to my cornstarch addition as ‘goop’… but jealousy is an awful thing! 😉
So how do we avoid being ‘lied to’ in our cookbooks? Well, there are a couple of easy rules to follow:
1) Add some very old cookbooks to your collection that contain more steps and more ingredients… the pointers will be invaluable. Chef Escoffier , at the turn of the 1900’s, was saddened by the trend towards recipe simplification and ease of preparation which has continued to this day. 30 meals in 30 minutes has it’s place, but not when you want to make something special.
-- the I Ching or "Yì Jīng" of American Cooking --
2) Buy ‘nitch’ cookbooks. These are cookbooks that teach you everything about something specific. I just bought a cookbook produced by a Baking Powder company in 1908… invaluable!
-- no secrets are held back here! --
3) If a recipe doesn’t work out in your cookbook, set the book aside because the other recipes are probably going to be just as flawed. Albert Einstein once said,”Insanity (is) doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Cookbooks are like people, they have personalities and you have to find those you like.
Frankly, I do love the candies and desserts that come with this holiday, but I do like something different. A pumpkin bundt cake means something different to many folks. To me a pumpkin Bundt Cake speaks of pumpkin and the great spices, white raisins, nuts, chocolate chips and a wonderful cream cheese frosting covered with pecans!
So, tomorrow, we’ll be handing out chocolate to the trick or treaters, sitting by a fire pit and enjoying some Pumpkin Bundt Cake!
