My Favorite Things

Christmas shopping is just around the corner, Oprah is off the air and Ellen has her 12 days of Christmas, but I have my favorite things, too.  (Although, I'm not going to buy them and give them away to you.)  Here are a few of my favorite things.  As you can see, I have very affordable taste and maybe you'll get some fun gift ideas.

1.  REI down booties.  During a hut trip, I drooled over my friends' pairs of these.  I got my own last year!  (Actually, I think I got them for my mom and she didn't want them.)  There are two places on my body that, if cold, make my entire body cold.  One is my lower back, the other is my feet/ankles.  These puppies keep me toasty around our house, where we like to keep the electric bill low by setting our thermostats low.  (The sale below lasts until the 28th, I believe.)

2.  A silpat.  This baby fits on a cookie sheet and allows you to not grease your pan, and not even wash your pan, just rinse off your silpat when you're done.  Besides cookies, it's great for making candy on it, rolling out pie crusts, and I just used it to cook pumpkin seeds on.  Martha Stewart has this as a part of her collection at Macy's for $25. 

3.  Instant Netflix.
I don't even know how DVR works or if people still have Tivo's, but I just wait for interesting TV shows to come out on Netflix, then stream them to my TV via our PS3.  It's also good for watching movies, but not always new releases.  For that, you might want the DVD by mail deal. For a gift idea, you can give someone a few months of Netflix.

4.  Bananagrams.  It's like scrabble, but easy.  This portable game goes with me on every trip, backpacking, camping, or flying home.  If you're into board games, a few of my favorites are Carcassonne, Pandemic, Settlers of Catan for two, Power Grid, Agricola, and Thurn and Taxis.  I think playing board games is a great way to stay sharp. 

 

 5.  The Help.  I'm reading this now and it's a great book! I could see any woman enjoying reading this on their winter break.

6.  Good boots.  My dad bought me some good boots a few years ago and I use these for snow shoeing and playing in the snow and walking to work.  Dave's favorite boots are on sale at REI right now.  They are super comfortable!  I tried them on!

7.  Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  This is my cooking bible.

What are a few of your favorite things? 

Pumpkin Puree and Gluten Free Thanksgiving Plans

Since I last posted, Dave had a successful PhD defense, and is now Dr. Dave!  We also took a trip to Wisconsin and got to see lots of Dave's and my family.  It was a lot of fun!

Believe it or not, a month after the first frost, our CSA is still delivering weekly boxes of amazing veggies.  In the last month we've gotten lots of squash and pumpkins.  This weekend, the start of fall "break," I had a chance to catch up on five loads of laundry, cleaned my house, and decided I'd better start taking care of these pumpkins.  We have three huge ones, one small one, and Dave already used a different one to make a pumpkin stout that will premier on Turkey Day.

 

The pumpkin stout went CRAZY and Dave had to improvise with an external air lock.  Don't mind the orange wall and the red chair.  (Yes, we have a room that is orange, and we put a red chair in it, it kind of looks like a throne.  Hey, we rent!)

Two of the pumpkins are "Cinderella" pumpkins, which are really "Rouge vif d'etampfs," which you can read about here.  One pumpkin was green, one is a deep orange.  We got the green one first, and we had another small pie pumpkin that was old, so it was time to bake these things in round one.  It took Dave's muscles and a huge butcher knife to cut the big guy open.  His meaty part was so thick!  This was definitely not a carving pumpkin!  We filled three pans with massive pieces of pumpkin.

I spooned out the baked pumpkin and pureed it in my kitchen aid food processor.  Don't be fooled, that jar is twice as big as a regular canning jar and holds 8, yes 8 cups of puree. 

I decided I could use 8 cups of pumpkin puree, but the other 8 would have to be frozen, so I made 1-cup bags and threw them in the freezer.  My kitchen is the smallest kitchen known to man.  You'd be surprised how often I use the stove top as a counter top.  The huge seeds that came from this monster are drying there on the left.  I might plant a few of these next year. 

 I think this is a good time to remind you that this was from one cinderella pumpkin and one small pie pumpkin.  I still have another, larger cinderella pumpkin, and one giant "New York Cheese" pumpkin left!  So, if you're one of my Boulder friends, and you're in need of some puree, please stop over! 

What's a girl going to do with all of this pumpkin puree?  My good friend already claimed pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (she also belongs to a CSA and has the same problem).  It was time to get creative.  I made pumpkin fudge, and due to a massive failure of an ingredient substitute (canola buttery spread instead of butter-- hey, we were out!), I now have a huge amount of really thick candy-like jelly that might have to become a topping of some sort.  Try it yourself, the recipe is here.

Luckily, I've had a few other great suggestions.  I just bought some gluten free gingersnaps to try pumpkin cheesecake squares.  Best of all, though, one of my friends that dates all the way back to grade school loves loves loves pumpkin everything!  She just blogged about Pumpkin Risotto.  I whipped some up tonight and ate the whole thing (well, I cut the recipe down to 1 serving).  Savory pumpkin puree might be the way to go.  This was like thanksgiving in my mouth and I am so thankful that Alisa shared this recipe with the world.  Try it!   

Pumpkin Risotto.

Lastly, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Due to my gluten-free-ness, I am making a few extra dishes to make sure I can get all of my favorites on Thanksgiving Day.  Some I'll bring to share, others I'll just bring enough for me (stuffing, dessert).  I'm making

• whipped cream cheese mashed potatoes and gluten free gravy (found some new gravy packets at Sprouts that are great!)
• green bean casserole (click on this for my gluten free recipe)
• stuffing-- just enough for me and leftovers (click on this for my gluten free recipe)-- I just made my croutons for this recipe tonight!
• Dave is making candied yams with gluten free flour and corn starch and  marshmallows, yum!
• We're also bringing Dave's pumpkin stout and some of my home made mead (honey wine) 

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!   

Lenticulars

Don't forget to catch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" tonight on ABC.  I'll be flying to Fresno, CA for a quick two day conference and will miss it.  Maybe the airline will have TV? 

Speaking of spooky things, here's a few lenticular (lens) clouds from a few weeks ago.  People sometimes mistake these for UFOs when they are in their best form. 

Lenticular Clouds

Gold Nugget Squash

Another fun find from my weekly CSA veggies this fall was a gold nugget squash.  I just followed the directions on the sticker that said to fill it with applesauce and honey and bake it for an hour.  I didn't have applesauce, so I put in some apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, water, and honey.  I made some honey-water and wiped it around the edges so it didn't dry out.  We each ate a half for dessert with a spoon.  It was quite tasty!

Gold Nugget Squash

Pumpkin Pie Smoothies

I made pumpkin pie smoothies last weekend.  I took the recipe from here.  It actually tasted like a pumpkin pie!

Spaghetti Squash Three Ways

We got lots of interesting fall veggies from our CSA (community supported agriculture), including a cute pie pumpkin, a Yugoslavian finger squash, and a spaghetti squash.  Just last weekend my good friend and I were wandering the farmers market and she suggested I get one of these spaghetti squashes.  Good thing I waited until they came to me in my weekly box of veggies! 

Baked spaghetti squash

A spaghetti squash is shaped like a watermelon, but is much smaller.  When you bake it, the squash's meaty part becomes the texture of spaghetti noodles!  I cut mine in half, baked it face down in 1/2 inch of water in a casserole pan at 375 for 45 minutes, then flipped them face up for another 15 minutes of baking.  Then I  spooned out the seedy part.  With a fork, I scraped away at the inside of the squash.  It will be like spaghetti!

I threw mine in a frying pan with some butter.  I did mine three ways, one with butter and garlic, one with pesto I had in my freezer from our garden basil, and one with red sauce, which I had just made fresh using almost the last of the tomatoes from the garden (and the garden of a friend).

Spaghetti squash three ways:  butter and garlic, tomato sauce, and pesto.

Blanching garden tomatoes for my red sauce.

Pasta sauce is so much better made at home, from scratch.  It smells amazing

We both liked it!  It reminded me of the texture of thin rice noodles.  Surprisingly, it had very little squash flavor, which I am not a huge fan of anyway.  If I'd do anything different, I'd just salt it a bit more.  I wonder if you could use it in desert dishes?  This was a fun, new, gluten free find for me. 

Eggplant Parm Gluten Free

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) gave us a cute little eggplant.  It was actually a little different in color than the standard deep purple eggplants at the grocery store, same on the inside, though.  I made eggplant parm two nights in a row, so I thought I'd share the recipe, since it is eggplant season in Colorado at least.  This little guy made enough for Dave and I, then the next night I used a regular sized one for three people and we were overly full by the end of the meal.

CSA eggplant

My Eggplant Parm Recipe:
Lots of olive oil
1 eggplant
1/2 cup gluten free flour
2 cans stewed tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
dash leaf oregano
dash salt
mozzarella (buffalo or regular)
parmesan

In a pot, heat a small amount of olive oil.  Add three cloves garlic, diced.  Just before the garlic turns brown, add stewed tomatoes.  I used one small jar of tomatoes that I had canned from my garden, plus one fat can of petite diced tomatoes from the grocery store. Add a dash of oregano and salt.  Let this simmer. 

In a frying pan, begin warming a thick layer of olive oil for frying your eggplant.  Preheat your oven to 400. 

Cut your eggplant into 1/2 inch slices (thinner=better).  In a small bowl, pour 1/2 cup of jules gluten free flour and a dash of salt.  Push each eggplant slice into the flour, coating both sides.  Once the oil in your frying pan is hot and ready to fry, place your eggplant slices in the oil.  I let it fry about five minutes on both sides, or until brown.  If your pan is small, you might have to do a few batches to get all of your eggplant fried.  As you take them out, you can put them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.  I usually have to add olive oil a few times because the eggplant really likes to soak it up. 

Take out your favorite casserole or cake pan.  I used a 9X9 for the small batch.  Ladle a layer of your tomato sauce into the bottom of the pan.  Add a layer of fried eggplant, cover with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese, then more red sauce, then more eggplant, sauce, and top with cheese.  I like to create eggplant stacks, so it comes out as four, two-high stacks of eggplant. (About four slices total per person.)  Bake for 20 minutes, or until your top cheese has browned. 
-------------------
Serve with garlic bread!  Dave made an amazing gluten-filled chiabata bread for himself.  I usually take a slice of Udi's, butter it, garlic salt it, put a little bit of mozzarella cheese on it and throw it in the toaster oven so it is ready with dinner.  Yum!

We also broke out a bottle of home-made mead, which is honey wine we made a year ago.  It was a fantastic combination!

Green Bean Casserole Gluten Free

I was reading Jules Gluten Free's Thanksgiving cookbook, which she gave away for free last week, and it got me thinking that I should start practicing for Thanksgiving.  Really, it means that rather than waiting until Turkey Day to enjoy the goodies, I can start now so I can perfect my recipes.  One challenging dish is the classic French's Green Bean Casserole.  A few years ago, I tried a recipe from the Food Network and not only was it a time consuming recipe, I burned the onions and over salted the whole thing.  Classic green bean casserole uses cream of mushroom soup, which usually has flour (gluten) in it.  The French's Fried Onions are also gluten filled.  

I went to Sprouts, who have 25% off all  packaged gluten free products right now and found Gluten Free Cafe Cream of Mushroom Soup.

I grabbed some French cut green beans to go with it and I was all set.

At home I threw some olive and canola oil in a frying pan so the bottom was covered.  I cut up some sweet yellow onions that came from my organic community supported agriculture farm.  I threw the onions in some milk to wet them, then tossed them in Jules Gluten Free Flour and some salt.  I put them in the frying pan and fried them until they were golden brown.

In my casserole pan, I mixed a can of cream of mushroom with two cans of green beans and threw it in the microwave because I was too hungry to wait an hour for the stuff to warm up in the oven.  When the onions were crispy, I tossed them ontop of the warm casserole and put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350.

Sorry for the bad lighting, I couldn't find my camera, and apparently Dave's is too smart for me. 

Yum!  The properly made fried onions and authentic cream of mushroom soup really made this dish just how I remember it in my pre-gluten free days.  Eight years without proper green bean casserole made this experience positively heavenly.  I'm hungry just talking about it.  I think I will need to "practice" again soon!

In a celiac's shoes

http://theeyeopener.com/2011/10/in-a-celiac%E2%80%99s-shoes/
An article that looks worth a read.  I hear it's funny!

Need advice on using a blog for class

As I go through the semester, I have all of these great ideas on how to improve my course for NEXT semester.  However, it's still possible I could try a few of these things this semester if I act quickly.  I'm throwing this out there in case any of you have ideas or experience with this sort of thing.
I'd like to use a wiki or a blog for my climate change course.  The wiki or blog would serve a few purposes.

1. A place to link to readings and have a place for students to comment on the readings.
2. A place to post summaries of class lectures/discussions
3. A blog roll of climate change blogs
4. A twitter feed of a few good climate change tweeters
5. A place for student generated content.  

Let me expand on #5.  I have 30 students and they each were assigned a country, which belongs in a group with three other countries.  For example, the European Union, East Africa, the Middle East, Coastal South Asia, Large Asian Countries, Developed Countries, West Africa, and Latin America.  Each group then has four countries under its heading.  Each student is responsible for writing four papers throughout the semester on their country and then joining with their sub-group to decide on main talking points they can bring to the table for class discussions.  First, before we can get to discussions, they were assigned to write a paper and give a two minute presentation (2 slides) on the climate of the country and how it shapes that country's culture and society. 

I also want students to get a feel for other students' regions, not just their own, so I need a place where they can check out the other regions beyond our two minutes in class for each country and be able to add their comments or suggestions for peer review.


After the climate and culture assignment, they have upcoming assignments on climate change contribution, climate change impacts, and climate change mitigation and adaptation for their respective countries.  These assignments will culminate in a sort of in class United Nations discussion/debate on policy.

Okay, now you know what I want.  I imagine this colorful space where students can create their own page for their country, covering the four parts of the project.  I imagine a space where I am the center of control and can have the latest reading or announcement for them as the first thing they see, but the pictures for the countries in there peripheral view that they can click on.  (I also want those countries organized in their groups.)  I think having this be public would be fun, but not required. 

I have experience with pbworks wikis, blogging, and most commonly I just write my own html for course webpages.  I need a space where introductory level students can add material without having to code.  I want it to be pretty, welcoming, easy to navigate, students spending lots of time there because they keep finding more information to check out and comments to make.  Any thoughts?  Can I have that much control on a blog?  or does the newest post HAVE to appear on top?  A wiki is not as pretty as a blog and I think they are not as intuitive to use.  I'm about to dive into a bunch of peer reviewed literature on the topic and am hoping to find some ideas and current class blogs or wikis, but any help you have now will save me time!  If you were my student, would this whole idea of public publishing of class work freak you out?  Would it make you try harder?  I tried experimenting with this blog on how much control I have over content placement on the main page... I have no control.  Help!  What platform would be ideal?