A Digital Medievalist's Commonplace Blog

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2010-03-19T19:19:00.001-07:00

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Stuffing

2009-11-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Prepare one box of StoveTop Pepperidge Farm or Mrs. Cubisons or other stuffing mixture, according to the package instructions, using broth instead of water, or use about four cups of bread crumbs, corn bread crumbs, mazo meal . . . whatever you've got.

Add to the stuffing mixture:

Ingredients

1 Cup onion sauteed in olive oil
1 Cup Celery
1/4 teaspoon Garlic
3 teaspoons Sage
2 Teaspoons Fines Herbs
1 can sliced water chestnuts or 1/2 Cup chopped Chestnuts (boiled, peeled, chopped)
Pepper to taste
Cooked giblets, and neck meat, if desired.

Procedure

Fry a small patty of the stuffing to check for taste, and adjust accordingly.
Mix thoroughly, and stuff a clean, rinses, salted and seasoned (garlic, salt, pepper, etc.) bird, without packing too firmly.
The ingredients should be adjusted to taste; you might use other herbs (Thyme, Tarragon, Parsely, Rosemary).

Stuffing is something that you mess with, adjusting to individual taste, and the available ingredients. Other possible ingredients: dried soaked (to soften them) cranberries, apricots, raisins, apples. Green onions, parsley, more garlic, thyme, herbs de provence. More sage. If you use bread, let it dry a day or three (unless it's homemade corn bread or biscuits; one day only then) and make crumbs. Some people like to use milk instead of broth. Butter is really unhealthy, and makes the stuffing really good. Choose your poisons.

From LRS AKA "mom"

Lena R. Spangenberg's Pound Cake

2009-11-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 pound (2 cups) room temperature butter
3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour1
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground mace
3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla
10 eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Procedure

Assemble ingredients 1 hour ahead of time. Everything should be room temperature.
Separate eggs.
Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
Preheat oven to 300 F.
Beat egg whites with 1/4/ teaspoon salt until whites stand in soft glossy points, but not until they're dry.

Gradually add one and a half cups sugar, beating after each addition until blended.
Sprinkle the cream of tartar on top of the whites, and using the mixer on the lowest speed (or a spatula), gently fold into the whites.

Put flour, soda, ground mace, and 1 1/2 cups sugar into large mixing bowl.
Put the egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon juice in a second bowl and set aside.
Transfer the beaten whites to another bowl and set aside.
In large mixing bowl, beat the butter until it's creamy.
Gradually add 1/2 cups sugar, blending it in to the butter.
Add the egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon juice, gradually, alternating with the dry ingredients.
If the batter is too stiff, add an additional tablespoon of lemon juice.
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, until thoroughly combined. You may need a larger bowl to do this.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, smoothing the top with a spoon. Set the pan down hard on a table to remove air bubbles.
Bake approximately 1 1/2 hours, until done. The cake will shrink from the sides of the pan. Use a knife to test for doneness.
Remove from oven and let stand for about fifteen minutes.
Loosen sides with a spatula. Using pot holders to lift the hot pan, vigorously shake up and down to loosen cake, and then turn out on a rack.

Notes

The original recipe was in Woman's Day Magazine December, 1954. As published, the recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace.

Mom doesn't actually sift the flower, she "fluffs" it though. Mom usually makes one larger and one smaller cake form this recipe. The size depends on how well the whites are beaten. It really fills a bundt pan, rising above the rim.

Murder Your Darlings

2009-10-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

To begin with, let me plead that you have been told of one or two things which Style is not; which have little or nothing to do with Style, though sometimes vulgarly mistaken for it. Style, for example, is not—can never be—extraneous Ornament. You remember, may be, the Persian lover whom I quoted to you out of Newman: how to convey his passion he sought a professional letter-writer and purchased a vocabulary charged with ornament, wherewith to attract the fair one as with a basket of jewels. Well, in this extraneous, professional, purchased ornamentation, you have something which Style is not: and if you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. (1863–1944) On the Art of Writing. 1916.

C. S. Lewis on Narrative Lust

2009-09-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

I give you C. S. Lewis in "On Stories," at the part where he talks about "narrative lust":

The re-reader is looking not for actual surprises (which can come only once) but for a certain surprisingness…In the only sense that matters the surprise works as well the twentieth time as the first. It is the quality of unexpectedness, not the fact that delights us. It is even better the second time. Knowing that the "surprise" is coming we can now fully relish the fact that this path through the shrubbery doesn’t look as if it were suddenly going to bring us out on the edge of the cliff. So in literature. We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness. The children understand this well when they ask for the same story over and over again, and in the same words. They want to have again the "surprise" of discovering that what seemed Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is really the wolf. If is better when you know it is coming: free from the shock of actual surprise you can attend better to the intrinsic surprisingness of the peripeteia.
(C. S. Lewis. On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature. 17

The Very Best Maine Blueberry Muffins

2009-07-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 to 1/2 Cups blueberries, adjusted to taste
2 Cups flour
1 Cup sugar (may be slightly reduced depending on berries)
1/2 Cup milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 Tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Procedure

Grease muffin pans or use liners.
Beat butter, add sugar beat till creamy and fluffy.
Mix in eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt.
Fold in half the flour, then half the milk. Stir gently.
Add the rest of the flour and milk alternately.
add the blueberries, folding them in gently. Don't over stir.
Pour into muffin tin cups.
Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the sugar and nutmeg mixture.
Bake at 375 25-30 minutes until the muffins are golden brown.
Let the muffins cool about a half hour before removing.

These freeze really really well. If you're planning to freeze them, take them out of the oven one or two minutes before they're done. I like to substitute finely shredded fresh lemon zest, a generous teaspoon, for the nutmeg in the sugar topping.

H. L. Mencken on Puritans and Puritanism

2008-08-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.

—H.L. Mencken. Prejudices, First Series. 1919.

Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

—H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956

Plato on Writing

2008-07-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.

Plato—Phaedrus 275a-b

John Davies' Weasel Sonnet

2008-07-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

According to medieval bestiaries, with help from Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville, "the weasel conceives through the mouth and gives birth through the ear"-- Isidore, after describing this genetic miracle, says it is false, but that didn't stop John Davies from using it in a sonnet.

John Davies of Hereford, Wittes Pilgrimage, Sonnet 29

Some say the Weezel-masculine doth gender
With the Shee-Weezel only at the Eare
And she her Burden at hir Mouth doth render;
The like (sweet Love) doth in our love appear:
For I (as Masculine) beget in Thee
Love, at the Eare, which thou bearst at the Mouth
And though It came from Hart, and Reynes of me
From the Teeth outward It in thee hath growth.
My Mouth, thine Eares, doth ever chastly use
With putting in hot Seed of active Love;
Which, streight thine Ear conveyeth (like a Sluce)
Into thy Mouth; and, there but Aire doth prove:
Yet Aire is active; but, not like the fire
Then O how should the Sonne be like the Sire?

Via Cliosfolly

Rebecca West on Feminism

2008-05-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist when I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute
Rebecca West

Robert Frost on The Figure a Poem Makes

2008-05-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

. . . inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life—not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.
Robert Frost

Robert Frost On Education By Poetry

2008-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. People say, “Why don’t you say what you mean?” We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections—whether from diffidence or some other instinct.
Robert Frost

Chaucer on Plain English

2008-03-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

Speketh not in the heigh style, but so playn at this time,
I yow preye, that we may understonde what ye saye.

The Host to the Clerke of Oxenforde. Chaucer. Canterbury Tales. c. 1400.

Mark Twain on Doing Right

2008-01-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest
Mark Twain

Book, Libraries, and Readers in the Sixth Century

2007-08-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

In cuiuscumque maibus libellus iste venerit, rogo et cum grandi humilitate supplico, ut eum et ipse frequentius legat, et aliis ad legendum et ad transscribendum non solum tradat, sed etiam ingerat, ut et de suis et aliorum profectibus duplicem a Domino remunerationem recipiat. Hoc ideo suggero, quia multi sunt, et forte aliqui religiosi, qui plures libros et satis nitidos et pulchre ligatos habere volunt, et eos ita armariis clausos tenent, ut illos nec ipsi legant, nec aliis ad legendum tribuant: ignorantes quod nihil prodest libros habere, et eos propter mundi huius inpedimenta non legere. Liber enim bene coopertus et nitidus, si non legatur, non facit animam nitidam; ille enim qui iugiter legitur, et pro eo quod saepe revolvitur pulcher a foris esse non potest, pulchram animam intus facit.

Caesarius, bishop of Arles, sermo 2 (after ca. 506) by way of Dr. Carol Lanham

Christmas Fruitcake Muffins

2006-12-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons (1/2/ stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup diced red and green cherries
1/2 mixed diced candied pineapple
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons orange zest

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 400º.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a second bowl, mix together the egg, milk, and melted butter.
Add the egg/butter/milk mixture to the flour to make a lumpy batter (do not over mix).
Fold in the rest of the ingredients.
Spoon the batter into muffin cups or tins, filling each cup about two thirds full. I usually line the cups with paper muffin shells.
Bake at 400º until the muffins are plump, golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean; about 30 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Verbing

2006-12-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

"First they came for the verbs and I said nothing, for verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns and I speech nothing, for I no verbs."

Attributed to Peter Ellis (via Diane Duane)

Candied Fruitcake

2006-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

3 7 1/4 ounce packages of pitted dates
1 pound candied pineapple, red and green, and yellow
1 pound whole candied cherries, red and green
2 cups sifted all purpose flour *
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 pounds pecan halves (Taste them; they must be fresh)

*Mom says you can get by with "fluffing" the flour with a fork.

This makes roughly four loaves, depending on the sizes of the pans.

Procedure:

Prepare the pans by oiling them and lining them with brown paper cut to fit. Then oil the paper.
Preheat the oven to 275 F.
Chop the dates into three pieces or so. (It’s about 3 1/2 cups cut)
Chop the candied pineapple into about 1/3 of inch wide wedges (about 2 1/2 cups)
Put the chopped fruit in a large mixing bowl. Add the candied cherries, whole (about 2 cups).
Lightly spoon the flour into a measuring cup.
Add the salt and baking powder to the flour.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the fruit.
Mix fruit and dry ingredients until all the fruit is well coated.
Using mixer, beat four eggs until frothy.
Gradually add one cup sugar to eggs, beat until well blended.
Add eggs and sugar to fruit mixture, mixing well.
Add two pounds (eight cups) of pecan halves.
Mix until nuts are evenly distributed and well coated with batter.
Pack into pans, pressing down with the back of a spoon. If necessary, rearrange pieces of fruit and nuts to fill up empty spaces. This should be a dense cake, without holes.
Bake one and a half hours at 275 F. When done, tops of cakes should look dry. If there is any doubt, leave cakes in oven longer, as a little extra baking does no harm. Watch for the edges of the cake to pull away from the pan; that’s a sign of doneness.
When cakes are done, remove from oven and place on cake racks.
Let stand about five minutes.
Turn out on racks, and carefully remove paper.
Cool cakes, and turn top side up.

Traditionally you would douse the cake with sherry, or bourbon, or brandy, and wrap the cake in several layers of cheescloth and put it in a container for at least two or three weeks. It isn't requires. You may use the same method to freshen a dry or over cooked cake.

Wrap cakes in plastic food wrap and then foil to freeze them; they freeze well. Thaw at room temperature.

After making the cake the first time, you may find you prefer more nuts or fruit, in which case you may need to add extra batter, using the instructions above. You can use half the eggs, sugar, etc. to make more batter if you don’t need quite so much.

From LRS; originally from Woman’s Day December, 1954.

Grad Student Chili

2005-08-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2–3 Tablespoons Olive oil
1.5 to 2.0 pounds hamburger
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small can green chilies
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup Beer
1/2 cup strong brewed black coffee
1 128 ounce (794 grams) can of crushed tomatoes
2 12 ounce cans of beans (424 grams per can)
5 Tablespoons Chili powder (to taste)
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or crushed cumin seeds)
1 teaspoon dried Oregano
Salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.
Add the onion and garlic, saute briefly, then add the hamburger. Cook until the hamburger is lightly browned, stirring frequently.
Add the beer and the coffee. Cook for five minutes, stirring it once.
Add the canned tomatoes, with their juice, the beans, chili powder, cumin and oregano.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and cook, partly covered, for half and hour, stirring it every ten minutes or so.
Taste the chili; season to taste, and cook a little longer, say, thirty minutes to an hour
The most important thing is to taste the chili, and adjust the seasonings accordingly.
Garnish with chopped cilantro, onions, and grated cheese. Serve with tortillias, grated cheese, cornbread, or over rice or baked potatoes.

Notes:

Trader Joe's frozen garlic is Just Fine. Omit the beer or chili as long as the same amount of liquid is used. Substitute broth (beef, chicken or vegetable. Use ground turkey, or tofu, if you'd rather. You can extend the chili, by adding another can of beans, or a can of corn. Chopped green pepper, celery and mushrooms are nice additions; saute them with the onions. The chili is better the next day, and freezes well. You can even freeze the cooled chili in Ziplock bags. Make sure the bags are tightly sealed, and don't over fill them.

To those who ask why this is "grad student chili" . . . I started making it as a grad student, and it's well suited for cooks on a budget since it's easily extendable and it uses ingredients that are fairly common. Plus it includes two staples of many grad students' diets— beer and coffee. I confess, I started using the beer because I had some and didn't drink beer, but it does add something.

Culled from Twenty Years Ago

2005-08-03T13:13:00.001-07:00

Michael culled these from lower level English composition classes in the early 1980s.

"Maturity and experience come with age."

"Most spectators see Formula One drivers as people who stop at nothing to win."

"As an end product of each class, I received a letter grade from A to F, excluding E."

"When reality finally sets in, the true fan will feel as though a close freind [sic] had died."

"Students are now in school to get degrees so they can get a descent [sic] job."

"The two city council candidates do not frequent the pool thusly they did not have enough information to make a valid claim that the department wastes money on lifeguards."

"The president is only a figurehead with a birthright position."

"It was a very encomppassing book which captivated my attention until the very end."

Signals

2005-06-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is from a poster RAL and CDL gave me, and that is an enlarged photocopy from an unknown book.

2 people	2 signals
3 people	9 signals
4 people	28 signals
5 people	75 signals
6 people	186 signals
7 people	441 signals
8 people	1,016 signals
9 people	2,295 signals
10 people	5,110 signals
11 people	11,253 signals
12 people	24,564 signals
13 people	53,235 signals
14 people	114,674 signals
15 people	245,745 signals
16 people	524,272 signals
17 people	1,114,095 signals
18 people	2,359,278 signals
19 people	4,980,717 signals
20 people	10,485,740 signals
21 people	22,020,075 signals

A mathematically inclined friend thought the equation that explained the relationship between the People and Signals was

S=(p*((2^(p-1))-1)

Wycherly's Country Wife

2005-06-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

I culled both of these sentences many years ago from a paper on the Restoration play The Country Wife by William Wycherley.

Horner's action in this play is mainly based on manipulating other characters orally.

Horner's manipulation of Sir Jasper Fidget continues when he pretends to be impotent.

Red Potatoes with Lemon, Parsley, and Olives

2005-05-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 pounds of red potatoes
1 lemon
3 tablespoons Olive oil
1/4 chopped fresh Parsley
Several cloves of Garlic
1/3 cup olives, pitted
Salt to taste
1 well-oiled 9 x 13 inch pan

Procedure:

Slice the potatoes, unpeeled. They should not be sliced too thinly.
Thinly slice the lemon, peel and all, being careful to discard the seeds.
Mince the garlic.
Chop the Parsley
Toss everything except the olives, with the olive oil, then spread evenly in the x 13 pan.
Bake at 425F for an hour, stirring everything two or three times.
Add the olives during the last five minutes of cooking.

Notes:

The recipe is from T. Carter who found it in Fine Cooking March, 2004 and posted it here and wrote:

The recipe called for oil-cured olives . . . The potatoes are supposed to crisp while the lemons caramelize.

The thinner you slice the lemons, the happier you'll be. I've found a knife with a serated edge works best. Do try lemon varieties; they all taste slightly different. The recipe doesn't call for it, but when you add the olives, a sprinkle of salt and pepper won't go amiss.

Eachard on Plain Language

2005-03-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

As if plain words, useful and intelligible instructions, were not as good for an esquire, or one that is in commission from the King, as for him that holds the plough.

John Eachard, 1670. Some Observations Upon
the Answer to an Enquiry into
the Grounds and Occasions
of the Contempt of the Clergy.

Cicero on Human Language

2005-03-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

The one point in which we have our very greatest advantage over the brute creation is that we hold converse with one another, and can reproduce our thought in word.

Cicero