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A Pleasant Surprise in Texas

An Episcopalian school in Austin returned a $3 million donation rather than comply with a parent's request to censor the gay-themed Annie Proulx short story "Brokeback Mountain" (recently adapted into a film). St. Andrew's Episcopal School made the unbelievably gutsy decision despite pressure from rich guys like Cary McNair, whose daddy owns the Houston Texans, and Ben Crenshaw, a professional golfer.

Wow. For the record, that story absolutely blew me away when I first read it in the New Yorker. And now it's been made into an Ang Lee movie! (Via Bookslut)

More Cookies!

For a party a few weeks ago, I tried Abby Dodge's One-Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Weekend Baker (which deserves another plug—it's that good). They came out delicious, but they were disconcertingly (and somewhat unappetizingly) pale. She specifically warns against overbaking, but they never browned. Luckily for me, the amazing folks over at CooksTalk came to the rescue. Someone promptly taught me that baking powder contains baking soda and enough acid to neutralize the soda but doesn't influence the color of cookies, whereas baking soda by itself is alkaline and is a major contributor to browning. This recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking powder, so she suggested I try 1/2 teaspoon baking soda instead. I was hesitant, so she went off and made a batch herself and then provided a photo to show how lovely and brown they came out! She also did one tray at 350° using conventional heat and one try at 325° using convection, because I'd asked about that, too. She said there was no difference. This is a person whose real name I don't even know, and she went and did this, all in the name of getting to the bottom of a kitchen mystery. Imagine that.

So, for yesterday's block party, I made the cookies again, this time substituting 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for the 1 teaspoon baking powder. Perfect! (top photo) Well, except for one thing: There's a part where you let the hot butter mixture cool, but I didn't wait long enough, so some of the chocolate chips melted and ended up kind of marbleizing some of the cookies. (bottom photo) Didn't affect the flavor or texture at all, though! They were gone almost as soon as I put them down on the potluck table. We had beautiful weather and I think it's safe to say that a great time was had by all. We even got to meet our new neighbors, who've been here long enough that I was feeling really guilty that I hadn't stopped by yet.

One-Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 26 18 cookies.

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (6 oz.) chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts, optional

Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat liners.

Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 at least 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder soda, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts, if using.

Drop scant 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake one sheet at a time, until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 12 minutes. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, life the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Andy Rooney Doesn't Mince Words

Ike Was Right

I'm not really clear how much a billion dollars is but the United States—our United States—is spending $5.6 billion a month fighting this war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into.

We still have 139,000 soldiers in Iraq today.

Almost 2,000 Americans have died there. For what?

Now we have the hurricanes to pay for. One way our government pays for a lot of things is by borrowing from countries like China.

Another way the government is planning to pay for the war and the hurricane damage is by cutting spending for things like Medicare prescriptions, highway construction, farm payments, AMTRAK, National Public Radio and loans to graduate students. Do these sound like the things you'd like to cut back on to pay for Iraq?

I'll tell you where we ought to start saving: on our bloated military establishment.

We're paying for weapons we'll never use.

No other country spends the kind of money we spend on our military. Last year Japan spent $42 billion. Italy spent $28 billion, Russia spent only $19 billion. The United States spent $455 billion.

We have 8,000 tanks for example. One Abrams tank costs 150 times as much as a Ford station wagon.

We have more than 10,000 nuclear weapons—enough to destroy all of mankind.

We're spending $200 million a year on bullets alone. That's a lot of target practice. We have 1,155,000 enlisted men and women and 225,000 officers. One officer to tell every five enlisted soldier what to do. We have 40,000 colonels alone and 870 generals.

We had a great commander in WWII, Dwight Eisenhower. He became President and on leaving the White House in 1961, he said this: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.…"

Well, Ike was right. That's just what’s happened.

How Old Are You Now?

I am 43 years old.
I am 522 months old.
I am 2,267 weeks old.
I am 15,869 days old.
I am 380,877 hours old.
I am 22,852,664 minutes old.
I am 1,371,159,849 seconds old.

Let's face it, folks, I'm old. (Via Kirsty)

Bill "Mr. Virtuous" Bennett

Can't say it better than Leah. For Pete's sake (well, not my Pete, of course), this guy was Secretary of Education!

Carefuly, It's Catchy

Don't be alarmed, but I've been BAFAB'd! Today I received an Amazon package and couldn't recall having ordered anything. 'Cause I didn't. Scott sent me a book for no real reason except for Good Karma. (And seeing as I BAFAB'd a blogger too, I'm thinking that Debra might want to change the thing to BABAB: Buy a Blogger a Book!) Anyhow, I received Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Scott's been trying to convert me to the Church of Gibson for a while now, but I've resisted. I've just never been interested in futuristic stuff. So he wisely sent me Gibson's latest, which just happens to be set in the present. I'll report back on my impressions, but for now let the record show that I was tickled pink to receive a surprise book in the mail! Great idea, Debra!

You still have time both to get BAFAB'd and to commit BAFABery. Full details here.

Pesto

Cosmo and Madeline harvested the last of their basil crop last week and gave most of it to me. I finally got around to making a monster batch of pesto, part of which I will freeze and the rest I intend to pack in small containers and give to my friends. Here's the basic recipe, which is pretty strong, the way I like it:

With food processor running, drop in 3 garlic cloves and finely chop. Stop motor and add 1/2 cup pine nuts, 2 oz. freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 2/3 cup), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves. Process until finely chopped. With motor running, add 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, blending until incorporated.

To serve it with pasta, you can thin it with a little of your pasta cooking water.

I Swore I Wouldn't Tell Anyone, But . . .

Nancy called me this morning because she couldn't figure out how the kids on "Clifford" could be wearing swimsuits and going down a water slide in the same episode that they were jumping in a big pile of leaves. What season would that be? I suggested that perhaps the weather on Birdwell Island is different than what we get here. I also suggested she have more coffee.

And I thought I was sleep deprived! (We were both up all night with coughing daughters.)

Belated Friday's Feast

Appetizer: When was the last time you visited a hospital?
For myself? Giving birth to Julie in 2001.
For someone else? When Pete had to stay overnight last year for a possibly infected bug bite.

Soup: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?
4

Salad: Make a sentence using the letters of a body part.  (Example: My Other Ukelele Tings Healthily.)
Karen Is Doing Nothing Effective Yet.

Main Course: If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?
I did start a book group, but we don't have a name. Does that count?

Dessert: What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?
We have terra-cotta tile in the kitchen, medium-colored parquet wood floors elsewhere downstairs, green carpeting in Stephanie's and my bedroom, blue carpeting in Pete's bedroom, beige carpeting in Julie's bedroom, ugly nonescript tile in the bathrooms.