Monthly Archives: February 2015

Celebrate and Sing Yourself (like Walt Whitman in “Song of Myself”)

Donsie's rose

When I was a teacher, I gave my high school juniors an assignment to make a collection of poems in different categories as a part of an introduction to a poetry unit. Two of the ten poems were to be original, and the rest they were required to gather from books by other authors. The students had to thoughtfully comment on each of the poems, including the two they wrote themselves. One of those original poems had to be a poem that celebrates who they are. This was to be a spin-off of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”

It got me to thinking about celebrating and singing myself, and how many of my family and friends have inspired me and guided me to look for, and feel, the positive in life. I learned from them that we should celebrate ourselves regardless of what is happening in our lives…sometimes in spite of what is happening. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how easy or difficult the experiences, it is all worthy of celebration. Life is just life and life is good! I celebrate myself and sing myself.

The tune of my very own song is a joyful one, full of laughter and mystery. The people in my life surround me with love and I face my challenges with competence and confidence. I’m secure in the knowledge that failure holds the promise of true and pure learning. Oh yes! Lots of that!

I have a big, round life. Just when I think it’s going nowhere, it circles around and makes a satisfying a tie-in to its previous self. This is not a life that is going in circles though; it is a life full of valuable, interesting and sometimes happy connections.

Mine is certainly a life worthy of celebration. And in addition to the inspiration from family and friends, I owe a lot of my energy for perseverance to nature. Those palm trees and other plants that, not only survived the hurricane five months ago, but are going strong, growing new branches and hanging in there, are great mentors telling us, “Don’t let life’s storms get you down.” Consequently, I think it wise to stand with my shoulders back and my head held high. Why not greet each day with a happy dance? Gloom is for cowards. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s easy to let difficulties get us down. The heroes are the ones who say, “Okay, bring it on! I can handle this.”

My father-in-law is a perfect example of this. He has stage 4 colon cancer and the doctors tell him to get his life in order, eat and drink anything he wants, and enjoy what’s left—six months to a year. I can only imagine how overwhelming and sad it must have been to hear this, but he is taking it in stride. What a great guy, to be thinking of others, especially his dear wife, and making arrangements for the inevitable. He says, “Well, if it weren’t to be this, it would be something else. I’m 84 and have lived a good life, and I’ll keep on living as best I can till it’s over.” His “what will be, will be” attitude is inspiring to friends and family. Bravo, Dad. You demonstrate real grace. You are my hero.

Somewhere inside each of us is a place we can retreat, be still, and listen to our own hearts. Then we can muster the necessary tools to dance with whatever life presents. Celebrate and Sing Yourself. Oh, and it might help to hold each other’s hands. What do you think?

Here’s the beginning of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

See the poem in its entirety at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174745

Baking a Red Velvet Cake in Baja

As it turns out, baking a Red Velvet Cake in Baja presents a challenge for

Susie Homemaker.

The recipe calls for two cups of cake flour. Can’t find any around here or in Todos Santos. What is cake flour anyway? How does it differ from regular flour? I go to the best cookbook ever, The Joy of Cooking, for the answer.

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Apparently, cake flour is made of soft wheats with less expansive gluten. It is not making me happy when I find out that the flour I have is in no way going to give me the results I’m after. But hey! You do what you can, so I followed the substitution directions to use one cup, minus 2 tablespoons of flour to equal one cup of the real thing.

There is no buttermilk to be found around here either. The substitution for this is to use milk and add vinegar to it. Okay, I’ve used this before with satisfactory results. It is clear I will not be working for perfection here. 3/4 cup of buttermilk coming up.

Oh no! The recipe calls for three tablespoons of Dutch processed cocoa and all I have is Hershey’s (that I brought from the USA). I’m three for three.

The rest of the ingredients are in my pantry or refrigerator, so I’m going to give this a go and make the best of it. It’s only a cake after all.

Ingredients:

3 medium beets

3/4 cup unsalted butter

juice of one lemon

2 tsp. of white vinegar

1-1/8 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

Rather than using a bottle of red food coloring (yuck), I am using three medium beets. Yep! That’s what I said. I roasted the beets yesterday and after they cooled, I peeled them and put them in the refrigerator.

beet

Beats are tasty, but I never thought of putting them in a cake. They have a pretty earthy flavor. Wow! These guys (the beets) are super red. Deep purple—almost. This reminds me of a rock band from Great Britain back in the 70s. I can’t name any of their hits, but I remember the group—Deep Purple, and that they played hard rock.

I hope my cake isn’t hard as a rock.

This cake is a challenge for me here in Baja. I do not have all the key ingredients, or a food processor, and I don’t have any round cake pans (or any cake pans at all). I will be substituting square pans that aren’t even the same size as each other. And I’ll be using a blender instead of a food processor. Oh well.

I will call this a Deep Purple Substitute for a Red Velvet Cake. It is making me happy to merely “go with the flow” like this. It shows that I’m not a perfectionist, which, if you know me, is not news. I have been known to be picky about some things, but I am not seeking perfection in anything. In fact, the older I get the more I tolerate imperfection in my life. I like that saying, “It is what it is.”

Lest you start believing I am a Polly Anna, I want to set the record straight: I used to be a Polly Anna, but no more. I have seen what evil lurks in the hearts of men (and women), and I am a realist now, or as close to that as I can get. You might say I am a recovering Polly Anna.

Enough of that. Let’s whip up this (substitute) cake. First, wash your hands. Prepare the cake pans (or whatever you’re using) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend (because remember, I don’t have a food processor either) the beets, buttermilk (my substitute), juice of a lemon, vanilla, and (two more teaspoons) vinegar. Set this aside.

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Sift the dry ingredients and the cocoa into another bowl. That means I’ll be using two ingredients in this part that are posing as the real things—reg. flour and Hershey’s cocoa. This also means there is yet another bowl to wash.

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Beat the butter and sugar together and add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl between each addition of egg. This part is my favorite because it comes out so creamy and pretty. I like the sound of the beater fluffing everything up.

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You start with a little of the dry ingredients in the mixer, then add a little of the beet mixture and lastly the fluffy part: eggs, butter and sugar. After alternating like this, adding a little of each, you end with the dry ingredients.

Once it is all mixed together, you pour half into each of your cake pans (my two square pans that aren’t the same size). I put parchment paper in the pans first and the cake will be easy to remove this way.

parchment in pans

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Lovingly place these into the preheated oven and bake for 20 + or – minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. I had to bake mine for 30 minutes.

baked

These did not rise very well and the cake is spongy and dense, not crumbly, which is because I didn’t have cake flour I suppose. However, I am moving forward, letting the cake cool in the pans completely before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting is so decadent.

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp.

1 lb of cream cheese, also at room temp.

6 cups (I used 3) of powdered sugar (In Mexico they call it azucar glass.)

powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla–here I am proud to say I have the real thing.

vanilla

Mexicans cook with real vainilla (Spanish spelling–pronounced vah ee nee’ ya) instead of that horrible bourbon vanilla from Costco I used when I lived in the States. Believe me, the difference is amazing.

After you cream the butter and cream cheese together, you add the vainilla and azucar glass. I used my mixer to do this and the icing is divine. Plenty of sugar even cut in half. Next time, however, I am going to use some lemon peel in it. I think it would be even better with the lemon flavor added.

frosted cake

My husband said that after all the trouble HE went through to get the powdered sugar (it isn’t easily found here), he wanted a piece of cake BEFORE dinner. Not a chance, Gregorio! You have to eat your dinner first: Shredded beef with horseradish sour cream, garlic mashers, cherry tomatoes, and picked beens and asparagus (thanks to our next door neighbor’s “Blaze’s pickled veggies.”) Not a tough thing for him to swallow, so he didn’t protest. I, however, do not eat meat, except fish, so I had left-over tequila lime sauce on fish, instead of beef. Yum. BTW, when you heat something with alcohol in it, you lose all the alcohol. Not to worry–I remain sober! (36 years in April)

*****

Here’s the cake with some pieces out of it. It’s pretty. It’s tasty, but I’m not as happy about it as I could be. It’s too dense (I relate) and I think it’s “the flour business,” plus the fact that I think I used too much of the blended beets. I was supposed to blend them first and measure out a cup. I didn’t do that. Shame on me. Because I just threw in all three medium beets with the rest of the liquid ingredients, I probably ended up with 2 cups of beets. That’s my guess. I also have a feeling that my baking powder is old. I bought it here in Mexico and it isn’t labeled with an expiration date that I can find.

cut cake

It’s definitely not the worst cake in the world, but it’s not the greatest one either. Will I make it again? Probably, but not for awhile. Maybe I’ll make one for Mom when I visit her in San Diego for her 99th birthday. She was born March 16, 1916. Wow! It will make a nice birthday cake with all the correct ingredients, and I’ll measure the beets next time.

I’m just sayin’…

1 Reply

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1. fugitive: fleeing, as one would flee from a dangerous situation, place, or from justice. But you can also be a fugitive from negative thinking; running away from bad thoughts. Right?

habits of thought

2. When you turn something over and over in your mind, like you (and I) do as we’re trying to fall asleep, it’s called ruminating. It also suggests images of cows. Like cows chewing their cud, we choose to chew our thoughts—over and over, and we can’t get to sleep. In that case maybe we should count cows instead of sheep.

cartoon ruminate

cow ruminating

3. purloin: to steal; I would use this word to explain that I purloined my friend’s play on words: “undivine intervention.” This phrase speaks to me and makes me laugh. Laughing is good for one’s health. And you may purloin the phrase, (UN)DIVINE INTERVENTION, from me now. (YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION, SO IT’S NOT PLAGIARISM.)

thief

4. rue: regret. I have many regrets, don’t you? I’ve heard you aren’t supposed to have regrets. What?!? How can one NOT have regrets? I suppose we could decide to take the lesson learned and run with it. Then we can appreciate what we said or did or thought and feel no remorse (another word for rue).

regret

5. pedant: According to the dictionary, pedant is a person who lays unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning, displaying a scholarship lacking in judgment or sense of proportion. In my opinion, teachers have to be careful not to be pedantic. I’m not mentioning any names here though.

pedant 2

6. love: It’s Valentine’s Day, so naturally I’m thinking about this. I love lots of people and things and places. Today it is my wish to remember to appreciate those people and things and places all the time. Even when they disappoint. Happy Valentine’s Day, Everybody! love copy