A lot of things happen in ones life that give cause for pause.
The three pictures above are versions of me with the ‘true’ me on the far right. The middle me is a photo shopped version of my two right sides of my face and the far left is of my two left sides. These three interesting pictures appear in my wife Laura’s new second edition ofDiscovering Biological Psychology.
The point Laura is making is to show that all of us are a bit more expressive on one side of our face than the other and this demonstration makes that point clearly.
Oh, this might sound just a mite strange talking about the wonders and virtues of mouse pads… but even with the advent of optical mice years ago… I still find using one much much more comfortable and reliable.
Having become one of the worlds leading experts on mouse pads… it was my job to search the cosmos to find the perfect mouse pad manufacturer. Laura with the help of her daughters worked up a great design, and it became my job to find someone who would make it and sell it for very very little. hmmmmm
Here is Laura and her prototype… the rest arrive tomorrow!
Laura has some fond memories from childhood regarding something called Gingerbread Cake often served with a ‘hard sauce.’ I am very familiar with many cakes… especially something called ‘spice cake’… but this isn’t that.
Gingerbread is a ‘firm’ cake sliced in layers and served often with a wonderful hard sauce… and ice cream ( which is how I like it). Laura enjoyed her serving with tea (Earl Grey), honey and lemon. The hard sauce contained: orange brandy, orange zest, cream, rye whiskey, powdered sugar, ginger and butter.
There are many claims to gingerbread and gingerbread cake alike. Both the Romans and the Chinese were fond of a honey cake with ginger. In middle age Europe, gingerbread was viewed as a medicinal aid to digestion with curative powers. In pre-Christian Europe, gingerbread was part of the winter solstice ceremonies and continued on to help ring in Christmas. The ancient Greeks and the Egyptians were said to use it in their ceremonies.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has often been quoted as a fan of gingerbread:
“Had I but a penny in the world, thou shouldst have it for gingerbread”
In America, gingerbread has been a favorite from the very beginning . It is said that President George Washington’s mother served gingerbread to the Marquis de Lafayette on his visit to America in 1784.
The ingredients and preparation styles of gingerbread have always reflected the times. When stoves didn’t have ovens, gingerbread was cooked very much as you would Boston Baked Bread in a container surrounded by boiling water. The availability of spices and cost considerations also limit the recipe construction. I have even found recipes for gingerbread where the addition of ginger appears to be an afterthought and much reduced.
Fortunately, we won’t bother ourselves with trivial concerns for time, effort or expense in our recipe.
Sonrisa Gingerbread Cake
By the way, Gingerbread is one of those things you can bake the day before, reheat, top with hard sauce and it’s all to the good. I will be producing a hard sauce (tomorrow) to drip over the final creation… should be fun.
Although it’s still half a month off, what a great birthday present! One of the things I missed about the south is the flavor of really smoked foods. Here in California, folks throw some wood on the coals and call that ‘smoking’…oh please!
Laura was horrified that I might convert an old water heater into a smoker, so I think she did the next best thing by finding a superb smoker for my cooking pleasures! Weber makes a wonderful smoker in two sizes that she bought through Sears on line that is wonderful.
The pictures above are of me opening my ‘surprise’ and my smoker going at 4:30 am this morning! I have been making my own corned beef these past weeks and smoking converts it to Pastrami… my wife’s favorite meat! Ah… I see there was method in her gift!…. smart girl.
There are many great recipes on line, so I would follow them or check on the ones at Morton.com. However, my basic corned beef spices:
1/2 tsp of each: red pepper flakes, Carraway and Coriander
crushed cinnamon stick
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp each of: mustard seed, ginger
1 tsp of black peppercorn
8 whole cloves
6 Juniper berries ( a strong taste)
12 allspice berries
6- 8 lb brisket
my brine mixture containing 5 cups water and 3 cups ( 2 bottles) Heineken beer ( in my daughter’s honor)
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Now to convert Corned Beef to Pastrami requires smoking for about 6 hours or so.
After washing and soaking I added the following seasonings prior to smoking: Pimenton ( Spanish smoked Paprika), salt, black pepper, garlic powder and a smattering of Pickling spices
