Catch Me If You Can....

It's time to play 'Where's Ladysprite Now!'

Next Sunday and Monday - April 25 and 26 - I'll be performing in the Boston Babydolls show, French Kiss, at Club Oberon. It looks like it's going to be a fun show, and I'm excited to finally be able to dance with my slithery partner again after his extended foray into I'd-rather-bite-you-than-dance-land. If you want to come see the show, check out the Babydolls web page for tickets.

Earlier this weekend, on Saturday the 24th, tpau and I will be hosting a bake sale, crafts fair, raffle and auction at Camelot Cohousing at 69 Village Court in Berlin. This is a fundraiser for our participation in the 3 Day Walk, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Details are available here, and I do hope that you all come if at all possible - even if it's just to drop by for a few minutes and buy a cupcake. Every little bit helps. Spread the word if you can, too; the more people that show up, the better.

If, for some reason, though, you can't make it, we are pre-selling raffle tickets - details are here, just leave a comment here or there to let me know.

Thanks, and looking forward to seeing y'all!

Cookbook Project, Books #163, 164, and 165

"The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook," Beth Hensperger

I have no idea when or where we got this book. I don't see a secondhand store's penciled-in price on the inner cover or front page, but I also know I wouldn't pay full price for a book like this. It must have been a hand-me-down from umbran's mother; that's the only answer that makes sense.

I used to use my bread machine nearly constantly, but since my old one died of age and overuse, I've gotten out of the habit - it took me a while to figure out the ins and outs of the new machine, and there were enough less-than-successful loaves that I just stopped trying. So I don't think I've ever used this book before. And on a first read-through, almost all of the recipes call for added gluten, which makes me even less likely to use it. I tend to dislike buying things like that; if I'm baking I like to use basic pantry staples - flour, eggs, butter, sugar. I've made plenty of loaves of bread without gluten, and I see no reason to start using it now.

But I had leftover buttermilk after another cooking endeavor, and found a recipe for Buttermilk Cheese Bread that didn't call for any unreasonable ingredients, so I decided to give it a try. And, blessedly, it worked. Tasty, sweet, tangy bread that toasted well and went nicely with a stew that we were serving to guests. I'd make it again, and it's good enough to justify keeping this book around....


"Incredible Crescents," Pillsbury

And here we have this post's obligatory glossy checkout lane booklet, another hand-me-down from umbran's mother. It's old and kind of scary looking, but I'll admit, I have a soft spot for Pillsbury crescent rolls - they're cheap, semi-versatile, quick, and were a decent staple when I was in grad school.

On a quick read-through, this booklet actually had some decent recipes - for actual food, not just convenience-wraps. There were a couple of options that looked interesting, and we finally wound up making Lamb Pastries - seasoned patties of ground lamb layered with sauteed mushrooms, wrapped in crescents and served with a sour cream, dill, and caper sauce.

These were.... really darn good. I'd make them again in a heartbeat. Probably with an actual pastry crust, but still. Lamb is good in almost anything, and it's always nice to find another way to work with it. And I'm still white trash enough to not feel too ashamed of making this.


"Casseroles," Favorite Recipes of University Women

Last but certainly not least, we have this book. It's huge; almost 400 pages and the size of a standard hardcover, with tiny print and half a dozen recipes per page. It's older than I am, and it used to belong to my grandfather. It had been on my to-do list for months, but somehow I kept always managing to put it off, intimidated by the lack of pictures, the sheer number of recipes for strange conglomerations of glop, and a fear of bland, squishy food simmered in canned soup.

Eventually, though, I had to actually use it. If nothing else, casserole weather was coming to an end, and I refuse to let this one book be the thing which keeps this project running until next December. So I picked a safe-looking recipe more or less at random, and wound up making Sausage Mozzarella.

In spite of the rather odd and incomplete name, this was just a variant on baked ziti. Pasta, tomato sauce (again, a quick homemade sauce - something that I've found most older cookbooks do much better than newer ones), sausage, and cheese, layered and baked together. Simple, affordable, and tasty enough that a friend asked me for the recipe.

There's something to simple food. As much as I love making petit fours and fancy bruschetta and four-hour recipes with dozens of ingredients, when I'm in need of comfort and sustenance, it's always stuff like this that I turn to.....