Starry Wisdom

Well, it’s actually fruitcake, but that word has some bad connotations, thanks to the radioactive studded substance we find at the grocery store this time of year. For the past 6 or so years, I’ve been baking fruitcake annually around Thanksgiving. Around Thanksgiving because it takes several weeks for the cake to mellow and age (with many spritzes of brandy) before it is ready to be eaten. This way it is ready just on time for Christmas gifting or parties.

This is basically Alton Brown’s recipe from I’m Just Here For More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking, which is subtly different from the Good Eats recipe from the episode “It’s a Wonderful Cake” (although I do recommend watching that episode, you can find it pretty easily on Youtube).

Fruitcake
(Makes one 9″x5″ or two 6″x3¾” loaf pans)

Note: The original recipe calls for the single larger loaf. But I had come across a pair of smaller loaf pans, and it turns out the smaller size is perfect for gifting, and doubles your unit yield. Instead of doubling the recipe, prepare multiple batches of the dried fruit mix, as it is hard to split into proper portions.

1. Mix together dried fruits, ginger, zests, cloves, allspice and rum – you can do this in the pot you will be using the next day (see step 2). Soak overnight.



2. The next day, stir in the apple juice, cider, butter and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring every few minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes



3. Remove from heat and cool ½ hour until it is room temperature. Stir in the eggs.
4. Put oven rack to lower middle position and preheat to 325°F. Either butter and flour your loaf pan(s) or spray with “Pam for Baking”.
5. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Stir in the pecans.
6. Pour the spiced fruit mixture into the bowl and fold in until it is just combined. Do not overmix.
7. Put the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness by poking a skewer into the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it is done baking, otherwise let it go a few minutes more before testing again.



8. Set pan(s) on cooling rack and spritz top with brandy. Cool completely before turning out onto wrack and spritzing with more brandy.
9. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then foil.
10. To age, unwrap and spritz with brandy and re-wrap every 2 or 3 days for 2 weeks, and then once a week for the next two weeks. After one month of aging and spritzing the cake is ready to be eaten.

Serving suggestion: toast lightly and spread with marscapone cheese.

This proposition is pretty much everything I abhor about the proposition system. 10 years ago, Proposition 10 was passed, which created a tobacco tax to fund early childhood development programs. Now, only a bit more than 10 years later, the legislature is telling the electorate it wants to raid this fund, clearing out the current savings, as well as using current revenue for general fund purposes. Of course, it is claimed that the money will be used to help fund children;

Proposition 1D Protects Children’s Services Funding. Helps Balance State Budget
Temporarily provides greater flexibility in funding to preserve health and human services for young children while helping balance the state budget in a difficult economy.

But if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

The budget is broken, and it needs to be fixed, but robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t the way to do it. The state needs new sources of revenue (not just new ways of shifting spending), and this can only be accomplished with new taxes – oh which the legislature is doing, but underhandedly, since they don’t require voter approval, but imposed in a very unfair way. With income and sales taxes as the most profitable revenue sources, the budget is going to always be doomed to follow whatever fate consumers are feeling. Without a strong corporate and in particular corporate real estate tax base, there is no real solution.

Until I see a real effort of compromise from the state GOP, I’m not going to take anything of this sort seriously.

I’ve posted the transcription of the journal I wrote while in Italy, via back dated posts. I suggest starting at the bottom and working up, here

I have completed National Novel Writing Month 2008, two days early:

I backed 3 horses (financially).

The first horse won, and won big (Barack Obama).

The second horse lost, not hugely, but soundly (No on Prop 8).

The third horse is still undetermined (Al Franken in MN).

Obviously it could have gone better. But sometimes you need to take stock and be glad for what you got.

I’m always going to remember where I was when Barack Obama was declared the 44th President of the United States of America – The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. And I hope to always remember watching Obama’s speech on the big screens there. Just before Obama spoke, my brother called me from Grant Park in Chicago. It must have been amazing time to be there, although for the majority of Americans (ok, 52-53% is a majority!) it was a great time to be anywhere.

I fully expect to be disappointed by a lot of what Obama does over the next four to eight years. I have no delusions on him being perfect. But I do believe he was the best man for the job at hand, and the country will be a better place under him. I just have to hope my belief is not unfounded.

Look, most of you probably know my politics, and I might have even tried to convince someone to vote for something or other. Well, we’re past that now. Just make sure to vote, it’s a right you shouldn’t take for granted.

(Still, if you are undecided, here are my suggestions:

• POTUS: Barack Obama
• California Propositions: Yes on 1A, No on 8 and No on 4. The rest I don’t have strong feelings about

)

Who is my landlord now? Is it the old landlord? I tend to think now, since there is still an auction scheduled for the house, even though it was pushed out a month. Is it the bank who holds the mortgage? I think so. But I don’t know who this bank is. And I think they don’t know I exist. So what’s the upshot of all this.

1) I am obligated to pay rent, or I violate the terms of my lease, evidently. And since I wasn’t told otherwise by anyone, I paid the old landlord (but there is a good record of this payment), I’m sure this tickles him pink.

2) There is no one to call for basic repairs. In particular the dimmer switch for the track lighting in my room burned out last week. I have a table lamp, but not having a light switch near the door is quite a drag. I actually bought a new switch, and spent time figuring out which circuit the switch was on, but when I opened up the workbox, well the wires made no sense, and it was just a spaghetti mess. I didn’t feel like hacking around to get it to work, so I sealed it back up. So, the upshot is, I have no working lightswitch, and no one to MAKE fix it for me. I guess I will call the tenant union tomorrow and ask them what is the right thing to do in this situation.

3) GRRR ARGH!

Courtesy of livejournal’s dixieflatline:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t dig for your favourite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Thank you very much,” Zefla said, holding one long leg out in front of her and looking at the bruise. “Wish I could say the same for your car.”

“Even so,” Sharrow said, frowning at her drink.

Now what was absurd!

It was requested that I tell you, my readers, more about the Fremont Troll in Seattle. So, shamelessy copied from wikipedia:

The piece was the winner of a competition sponsored by the Fremont Arts Council in 1990, and was built the same year. The Troll was sculpted by four local artists: Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead. He is interactive—visitors are encouraged to clamber on him or try to poke out his one good eye (a hubcap). The Troll is 5.5 m high, weighs two tons (1814 kg), and is made of steel rebar, wire, and ferroconcrete. The artists have chosen to exercise their copyright to control commercial use of Troll images, however, postcards, beer, and other products approved by the artists are commercially available and use is free to non-profit organizations.

So I’ve left you all hanging at part 1 of Seattle, and sadly, it’s going to have to stay that way for a bit longer. See, I really want my pictures before I post the second half, and my camera should be in my hands sometime next week, and so then I will post. Furthermore, I’ve been pretty busy this week, so that adds to it too. Posting will resume in the near future!