Justin Recommends

I like sweet potatoes, but this hasn't always been the case -- even the marshmallow-encrusted goodness of my mom's Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole wasn't enough to tempt me for years and years and years. But now I keep them in constant supply for fries and soup and quesadillas and topping with chili. But I may have gotten a little overzealous as Justin placed a moratorium on sweet potato chowder and peanut butter vegetable soup.

I also like chickpeas, another late addition to my food repertoire and so I've tried to make up for lost time. Chickpeas in salad, in soup, in chili, in hummus, in veggie burgers. So many chickpeas in so many things that my man called a chickpea strike, which I've tried to respect. Mostly. (Because one has to draw a line in indulging her husband's persnickety inclinations. It's true.)

Then I came across this falafel recipe that included sweet potatoes and chickpeas, and I made it for supper without apprising Justin of the situation. He ate it and he liked it. Because it was very, very good. And if you like sweet potatoes/chickpeas/falafel, I suspect you'll like it, too.

Tonight

Justin and I took Yeti out for her last walk of the evening.

At the same time, the young neighbor boy the next house over was seeing his girlfriend out; her ride was waiting in the street, car running, lights on.

He was going in for a goodnight embrace of some sort just as we passed, but Yeti interrupted -- shoving her needle nose between them looking for some love herself with her helicopter tail aloft and circling.

It was just a little bit awkward for us all.

And also hilarious.

In which I digress

My kitchen is small, but not too small for baking. And my oven, uninsulated door and wildly varying temperatures aside, isn't impossible to work with -- but I haven't been baking, which means I haven't been writing, which means there are things I want to say that I haven't said.

Like about my dad, who finished chemo the week before Easter, and how we went to a cutting in Rapid City late this winter and how he stayed up way too late and made me promise not to tell mom, fed me steak and tried to sign me up for the stater class even though I'd only ridden a cutting horse once, out behind the barn last summer.

Or how I saw Salman Rushdie engrossed by his blackberry outside the Cosmos Club in Washington DC where, should you ever have the inclination, you can order pre-Prohibition-inspired cocktails at the restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union, and if you're braver than I am, or if you really love bacon, you'll try Bone. It's where I learned, over dinner, that one of the men involved with the Jerusalem artichoke debacle had ties to my alma matter in Orange City.

I've wanted to say how I've started running again and how it's hard, but good and slowly making me feel like myself again. How I'm researching a story about Roswell Garst who told Nikita Krushchev in a letter in the middle of the Cold War that only a man with small ideas eats a cherry in two bites and that unless Garst's recommendations on agriculture be taken seriously and in their entirety, he'd rather they not be taken at all. And isn't that just perfect? It takes a fearless man to say that -- or at least a confident man who knows his own business. I don't know a lot more than that about him yet, but already I like him -- and am reminded that people are just people and while we can admire them, it's ridiculous to be awed or cowed or however you want to say it.

And so, you see, I have things to say and I'll ask your pardon if, for now, they meander away from the kitchen, though I still have plenty to say about that, too.

Showdown

I've always been a little indifferent when it comes to cookies, not so much in the eating of them -- heavens no -- as in the making. Now I understand that not every quirk and preference is the direct result of some childhood trauma or event, but if I had to pinpoint a cause for this particular one, I'd say it started with Anne.

My dad, if you'll recall, has five brothers and one sister. All his brothers are married and all of them farm in the same community, which means I had a lot of aunts, in a range of ages, in close proximity. Anne, who's married to my dad's youngest brother, was singularly fascinating to me because she seemed more glamorous babysitter, like my cousin Angie, than aunt. Plus she liked horses and grew up on a ranch, which made her way cooler than Angie. And one day she invited me over to bake chocolate chip cookies!

I don't remember how old I was or how experienced a cookie baker, only that it was a banner day, but cookie baking seemed an altogether too tedious process after that. You don't have to handle cake or quick bread batter -- you pour it in the pan and you're done. Bread dough is more involved, but you knead it in one big mass and your hands only get sticky once.

And cookies are sensitive, especially chocolate chip cookies: there's a very small window between underdone and overdone. And who wants an overdone chocolate chip cookie? Even when perfectly done, I'd much rather have a soft, chewy chocolate crinkle, which made an annual appearance at our house during Christmas, or one of grandma's molasses cookies, than the kind of crisp chocolate chip cookie my dad prefers.

But then Frieda Wollman's Perfect Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies made an appearance in the Zion Mennonite Cookbook. If you want a general idea of what these cookies are like, imagine how a Keebler Soft Batch chocolate chip cookie would melt in your mouth after being warmed slightly in the microwave. Frieda's cookies are like that without the microwave, and they became a staple in my college care packages. I hate to say it, but my roommate and I sacrificed a lot of those cookies in the name of manhunting (however unsuccessfully), especially freshman year.

Eventually they did help snag a boyfriend in a roundabout way. Justin came over to help me study one night shortly after we started spending time together, and I wanted to impress him -- only I made a mess of it because, you see, I decided to halve the recipe. I don't know why -- if I was running short on butter or eggs or some other essential ingredient -- but the problem was that I halved everything but the flour. The kindest thing to say is that they came out biscuit-like. However, he still ate them and a year or so later we got married, so it worked out okay in the end.

Frieda's recipe reigned uncontested over all other chocolate chip cookies until last year when the New York Times published this much-circulated article about one man's quest for perfection in cookie form. So I made them and they were good. Very good, thus planting the seed of doubt, which could only yield one thing: a showdown.


Before I reveal the results, I have to offer a few disclaimers. (1) Frieda's cookie dough aged 72 hours in the fridge; the NYT dough aged 48. Ideally both would have aged 36, but life happens. (2) I used all-purpose flour in both recipes, though the NYT calls for a mixture of flours. (3) I am currently without a food scale, so for the NYT recipe, I assumed about 4.4 ounces in a cup of flour. (4) Even with a thermometer, the temperature on my oven is extremely difficult to control, and I think that explains the difference between how the NYT cookies turned out when I made them in Omaha as opposed to the scary 1950s-cooks-100-degrees-too-hot oven in Waconia. (5) I added a bit of salt to Frieda's recipe.

So all I'm saying is I'd like to conduct this trial again with fewer variables and a few tweaks here and there. Even so, preliminary results do seem to indicate a favorite.

Frieda's cookies (below) maintain their perfect softness through this simple yet effective secret weapon: pudding mix.

The NYT cookies make excellent use of sea salt. Seriously.

The cookie scoop keeps hands clean and cookies spit free. Years in 4-H have taught me to bake as though God were watching every move, every finger lick.

Now on to the reckoning. Thanks to Justin for documenting and overseeing the voting process.

Jason's vote: Frieda. "This is the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had; does Susie know when my birthday is? No. I'm serious."

Brett's vote: Frieda. "I like the flavor of the other one (NYT), but the soft pillowy texture of this one really makes it."

Maren's vote: NYT. "It's a tough call, but I think I like the flatter ones better." Note her perfect, glowing, post-run skin.

Mike had a tough time. After an initial vote for NYT, he reconsidered and went with Frieda. "It's a really tough call, but I think I like this one better."

Chris' vote: NYT. "This one's better."

Justin's vote (not pictured): NYT. "I like salt."

As for me, it should be obvious. I have a history with Frieda -- who is one heck of a lady -- and her cookie recipe. And yes I like the complexity, the salty chewiness, the sophistication of my second favorite chocolate chip cookie, but I can't turn my back on my first love. Yum.

But don't take my word for it -- have a little showdown yourself and let me know which one's left standing.

Frieda's Perfect Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from the Zion Mennonite Cookbook)

1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
3.4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
(I also added about 1/2 teaspoon salt)
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and sugars in a mixing bowl until light.
2. Add pudding mix, eggs and vanilla.
3. Combine flour and soda and add to the creamed mixture.
4. Mix well.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (I kept the dough in the fridge for a couple days and made the cookies slightly bigger than teaspoon size.)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned

Yield: Between 3 and 4 dozen.

Ten years ago,

we celebrated my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in the fellowship hall at Zion Mennonite with stewed beef and sauerkraut. The beef was tender and the sauerkraut, fragrant, as sauerkraut is wont to be, so you might not believe me when I say the whole business had romantic underpinnings, but then consider it was a rerun of the dinner served all those years ago at their reception. Never mind that some of us entertained ourselves by seeing how much sauerkraut we could trick our younger cousins into eating.

And then there was the music -- a flute-saxophone duet of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" performed, to the accompaniment of strings on a CD, by yours truly and my dear cousin Steph. It sounds ill conceived, I know, but it was at least the third time we'd performed that little number -- the other two times being at church and the high school Christmas concert. Even so, it's safe to say grandpa and grandma were pretty unaffected by all the Titanic hype and, consequently, unmoved by our otherwise quite stirring (i.e. our moms liked it) rendition. There may also have been singing, but since maybe three out of the multitude of cousins aren't tone deaf, that's best forgotten.

We had punch, of course, and nuts and mints, which were plentiful thanks to the aunt who slapped down would-be snitchers when they came to set up tables and chairs earlier that afternoon. She later recounted the experience saying, quite succinctly, "I'm firm about my nuts." If that's not enough to scare one toward the straight and narrow, I don't know what is. I just don't.

But it's only now, being married for three years, that I can begin to grasp the enormity of what it means to be married for 50. A lot of life happens in 50 years -- heck, a lot of life has happened in 10: a dozen or so high school graduations, that many more from college, a handful of graduate school degrees, four businesses, four weddings, five great grandchildren and another on the way, Paul's passing, cancer, retirements, first jobs, first loves, promotions, transfers, houses bought and sold -- all along with the day-to-day tragedies and quiet miracles a family of 40-some accumulates on the way.

On January 16 my grandparents started on their 61st year of marriage. We celebrated much as we did 10 years ago. But instead of beef there was ham, and instead of singing (which grandpa and grandma lobbied for but were ultimately denied, for the greater good) or Celine, there were tributes and jokes and a power point that Mallory, bless her heart, put together with next to no notice, and instead of Al from Marion taking the family picture, it was Brenda. There were nuts and punch and (cream cheese) mints, per usual, because what celebration of note could be complete without those mints? And there was cake, but I'll tell you about later.

I can't imagine what it's like for grandpa and grandma to look back on the years since they first met at the barn dance -- or when grandpa called on grandma when she had the chickenpox, depending on what version of the how-we-met story one's gullible enough to believe. Love and all else aside, it's an uncommon gift to have someone by your side who's shared all that time, all those experiences that have shaped your perspective and, ultimately, who you've both become. So if you happen across my grandma at the store or at TOPS club, or if you see my grandpa hauling pop or doughnuts into town for the guys at Kevin's office, tell them congratulations. And marvel with them a little bit at the miracle of 60 years in love.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Before the leaves turn or the grain ripens, fall settles in more subtly; the piercing clarity of the summer sun softens slowly to gold, painting everything it touches in such warm, glowing shades that your heart will burn and you'll lift your face to the sky to be painted gold, too.

All the while other things will be absorbing the light until you look around to see the whole world ablaze with possibility. At least that's how it is for me.

Some look to spring for rebirth, but I see it happening now -- partly because I'll always associate fall with fresh notebooks and new pencils with erasers yet unmarred. And there's the way farmers like my dad assess, reassess and plan for next harvest even while bringing in this year's crop. But mainly it just seems a little easier to breathe and dream, to shake off the lethargy -- and restlessness -- of summer and settle in for something new, whatever that may be.

My alma mater had some sort of off-the-books-rule that forbade freshmen from dating their first two weeks, or month, or semester (?) of school. The first several weeks of school were generally very camp-like with strangers thrown together away from home with an itinerary (orientation, then classes and mixer activities) and enthusiastic, if not occasionally overzealous, counselors (resident directors) to direct; the theory, I suppose, was that it was best to avoid the brief-yet-intense romances such a setting could inspire.

Oh but fall in Orange City, which happens to be on the Monarchs' migration path, could be magic, with many a young couple breaking the rule to fall in love over long walks, stargazing and coffee (the three primary dating activities the town had to offer those without reliable transportation). And while I, along with the rest of campus, followed the progress of these romances with skepticism, when I fell in love with Justin it was in the fall, over coffee, long walks and letters, and Linda Hasselstrom.

So there's that.

But I also remember falling asleep in the combine riding with my dad after school; the day may have been biting cold, but the cab was warm and the sound of corn raining into the hopper, soothing -- and my little belly was always filled to capacity with one of the meals my mom and aunt brought out to the field for their crew. How to describe that feeling -- Safety? Comfort? Contentment? In any case, for that little girl sleeping on her daddy's shoulder as he combined corn, everything was right in the world; there were only possibilities, not problems.

So there's that, too.

As I sit here writing now, I'm warm on the couch with J; not everything's right in the world and I'm mourning winter's eminent arrival, but there is an apple crisp cooling on the counter (thanks for the apples, mom) and the day was so beautiful and bright we could walk to the lake without coats even though last week it snowed. Nothing gold can stay, it's true, but there are possibilities, still.

And if you, like me, need reminding on occasion, try these (because even once winter's come, we'll still have Libby's and apples):

Pure Gold Pumpkin Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg white, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)
1/2 cup golden raisins, if desired
Nuts, if desired
Candied ginger, if desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (My new oven bakes 100 degrees too hot, which I discovered thanks to the 4-dollar oven thermometer from Target.)

Whisk together dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat butter until creamy, add sugar and beat until lightened in color and texture, then beat in the eggs. (I did this all by hand, having failed to pack the hand mixer for the move to Minnesota; it worked just fine.) Add pumpkin puree and vanilla and stir until just blended. Add pumpkin purée, and beat until just blended. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, stirring until just combined. Fold in raisins and nuts, if desired.

I made this in mini loaf pans, but you could use a large loaf pan or muffin tins -- either way, make sure your pans are greased. I topped the loaves with candied ginger and if I'd had more on hand, I would have folded some in with the raisins. It's really good.

Bake until done -- about an hour for a large loaf, or 20-25 minutes for mini loafs and 15-20 for muffins.

Betty Crocker's Apple Pie

(with butter)

You can find the main recipe for Betty's apple pie here; however, I don't make a two-crust pie -- I go the crumb-topping route because that's what I prefer. Also, I use butter instead of shortening. I'm not enough of a pie crust expert to have decided opinions other than that. I do have a few basic tips, though.

1) Make sure the water is ice cold.

2) Do not overmix -- it's okay if there are butter smears in the dough, as pictured below; the less you handle the dough, the more tender it will be.

So that's all I've got on pie crust, but this article from the New York Times can tell you more; there are other opinions, of course, but this is definitely a good read.

If you want to use the crumb topping, all you have to do is cut a 1/2 cup butter into a 1/2 cup of brown sugar (packed) mixed with 1 cup of flour; that will take care of a 9-inch pie; you can adjust the amounts up or down slightly, depending on what you need.

It's true that today

the stove caught me on fire. If you notice that my jacket looks a singed on the bottom, that's why.