Freedom From Fear - Chapters 13 - 22

I've finished Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War 1929 - 1945
The last half of the book concentrates on World War II

• Chapter 13: The Gathering Storm
• Chapter 14: The Agony of Neutrality
• Chapter 15: To the Brink
• Chapter 16: War in the Pacific
• Chapter 17: Unread Ally, Uneasy Alliance
• Chapter 18: The War of Machines
• Chapter 19: The Struggle for a Western Front
• Chapter 20: The Battle for Northwest Europe
• Chapter 21: The Cauldron of the Home Front
• Chapter 22: Endgame

America had the luxury of being isolationist even though it wasn't in our best long term interest. Roosevelt's big struggle in the later half of the 1930's was to use the United States as a counter-balance to the aggressive designs of Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan. One of the biggest problems was what FDR called  "large misinformed public opinion" (p 393). Even after Pearl Harbor had been attacked there was an open question as to whether we would declare war on Germany; Hitler took us off the hook and declared war on us.

One of my "rose-colored" views of WWII was how everyone jumped in together and worked like one big happy family after Pearl Harbor. Not so much. Politics is always a consideration. After Japan had occupied the South Pacific and the export of rubber to the United States stopped, we invented a substitute. The Farm Bloc was instrumental in legislating that  a certain amount of the ingredients would come from grain alcohol rather than the more efficient petroleum based  compounds. In general the war purchases went to the biggest companies; the big got bigger (p 622). Another area where politics took precedence over what was right was the Japanese-American release from relocation camps in 1944. Their release was delayed for months until after the 1944 election.

The war strategy was also contentious and divided. England was strongly in favor of the North African and Italian campaigns; we took part of these over the vociferous objections of the US military. George Martshall went so far as to suggest that if the British insisted on the North African campaign, "the Americans should rewrite the fundamentals of their own highest strategy, abandon the Germany-first principle, and 'turn to the Pacific for decisive action against Japan'" (p578)  Roosevelt overrode those objections because he felt is was urgent that America take part of the fight against Germany and this was the only way to take part in 1942.  As it turns out the British were never in favor of the French invasion and slowed things as much as they could.

America's industrial strategy was to build a lot of everything. The focus was on quantity, not quality. Germany's approach was the opposite; build fewer things but each one would be almost perfect. "The Wehrmacht counted for tits margin of victory on 'qualitative superiority', on precision-made flawlessly performing, high-standard weapons.... [The result was] "lots of special ordering, and custom design that frustrated long production runs" (p648). One of the reasons for this was the virtue of necessity. The industrial force of the United States was "composed of ill-educated immigrants with scant industrial skills" (p 633). Since the dawn of the industrial age  "America's working class had placed a premium on organizing production around simple repetitive tasks that did not demand technical adeptness or extensive training" (p 623). This method allowed us to overwhelm the enemies with numbers of weapons.  "In the Pacific the disparities were especially dramatic. Every American combatant in the last year and a half of war...could draw on four tons of supplies; his Japanese opponent , just two pounds" (p 668 emphasis added) 

For years Russia clamored for England and American to launch a second front. By the time we were able to mount the D-day invasion in June 1944 Russia was making huge inroads on the eastern front and wasn't as demanding. One of the factors encouraging our invasion was the fact that had we not, Russia would have had a much stronger hand in Europe than they ended up with anyway. We had to protect or own interests against the Soviets.

As for the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was clear to me that there was no real discussion about it; it was just assumed that it would take place as soon as possible. Given the American experiences battling in the Pacific, I can totally understand it. 

Conclusion

After this tumultuous 16 year period from 1929 to 1945 American had changed mightily. The federal government had grown enormously and our place in the world had grown enormously. Throughout the early 1940's conservatives had successfully rolled back many parts of the New Deal. Many of the agencies had been shut down. But come the end of the day, "conservatives raised no hand against the child labor and minimum wage legislation, and banking and securities regulation. Those reforms were already firmly in place as untouchable pillars of the new social and economic order that Roosevelt had wrought out of the Depression crisis" (p783)

Looking forward

This is a fantastic book; it gave me a much better appreciation of the life of my parents' generation. It also has inspired me to go back and read about American history before 1920's. I've picked up a book on the Gilded Age: Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of America, 1877 - 1920 by Jackson Lears and will follow up with David Halberstam's book "The Fifites"

But before that, I'm doing my annual read of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This little book is just marvelous. I highly recommend reading this. Years ago, when the kids were young, we would read it aloud. Heck; if no one is around I often read passages aloud to myself. One thing that always strikes me when I read this is how true to the original the 1980's TV movie of the story starring George C. Scott is.

Dumpling Soup - November 28 ,2010

I recently subscribed to Food Network magazine. Perusing my first copy I realized how spoiled I've become with Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. I think the Food Network magazine is more than half advertising. But I persevered and found a few recipes to try. This  week we tried the dumpling soup (my version of the recipe is here); later in the week we'll have the Cantonese chicken.

The dumpling recipe promised to be a 30 minute dinner. We'll see.

Carla went to see the new Harry Potter movie and it was a quick prep so I thought I'd take some extra time to do a complete prep. Here are the ingredients. We'll take 4 3-inch strips of the orange skin for some citrus zest.

I'm a slow prepper; 20-30 minutes later everything is ready

 Everything is staged. Waiting for Carla to get back from the movie

It definitely cooks up quick; about 20 minutes.

We liked the broth; very nice for such a quick simmer. Next time I'll use Trader Joe's pot stickers or dumplings. The ones I picked up at New Season's market were too big and too doughy.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving; with quite and adventure with one of the turkeys.

We figured we'd have about 16 people this year; which is pretty typical. But the good news is I'd have some of the extended Thompson clan to give a little balance to the Austin crowd. My nephew Carr came down and stayed with us and made a terrific pumpkin roll. His brother Christopher took plenty of pictures, but hasn't sent them to me yet.

I don't like Thanksgiving food much and maybe as a result I haven't found a perfect Turkey recipe yet. Last year I tried to make a "rub" of butter and herbs but the turkey was too wet and I had more globs of butter on my hands than on the turkey. This year, just a little oil and salt and pepper. My focus was going to be on the gravy so I didn't want to brine the turkey which ends up with drippings way too salty for gravy. Another option was a dry-brined turkey which I read about in The Oregonian FoodDay where they compared two methods of brining.

 Also, I didn't want to spend a fortune on a turkey; so, I took a look at the Cook's Illustrated site to see what their taste test results said about turkeys. They agreed with me that you don't need to spend a fortune on a turkey; they felt (like me) that heritage birds end up tough without enough of the breast meat that people crave. They did recommend a kosher turkey so I thought I'd start there. A kosher turkey is packed in salt so I could save myself the effort of dry brining (maybe next year).

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I dropped by Haggens to inquire about kosher turkeys. I threw them for a loop; the guy I talked to wasn't the butcher and told me to call back on Monday or Tuesday. When I called back, the guy was in a meeting; I told the receptionist what I wanted and she knew all about it: "we've called Corporate to try to find kosher turkeys". Wow, I thought they are going out of their way. Finally I got ahold of the butcher and told him what I wanted. He said he'd get in a couple of cases and he'd hold one back for me. He warned me that they'd be frozen and to be prepared.

So, on Friday before Thanksgiving he called to tell me they were in. "Did they give you a price?" he asked. Uh oh. "No; what's the damage". Turns out they go for $3.99 a pound (compared to free ones if you spend enough on groceries). A 20 pound turkey checked in at just under $80. Yikes; so much for the idea of not spending a fortune. But I had specifically asked for a kosher bird and they really went all out for me, so broke out the debit card.

They were right; it was frozen absolutely solid. I put it in the garage refrigerator to let the defrosting begin. It was still pretty firm on Wednesday night so I took it out for an hour and put it under some running cold water.

Thanksgiving day everything went according to plan with just a couple of hiccups. It took about 45 minutes longer to cook than I expected. I should have started earlier in any case so it was a bit of  a last minute sweat to get it all done.

My brother-in-law Jim bought a new deep fryer this year to replace his old one and he deep fried another turkey as usual. It was delicious.

The pan dripping gravy came out well; I used a recipe from Alton Brown. His recipe was for drippings from a 14 pound turkey; I had too much drippings from my 20 pounder to fit in my large fat separator. No big deal, I improvised. I started things and Carla's brother Glenn took it from there while I carved the turkeys. I used the new method I had seen on Cook's Country where you take the whole breast off in one piece and cut it across the grain. I described the technique in my posting on the French Chicken in a Pot post. 

Everybody loves gravy and I wanted to make sure I had plenty; so I also tried to make another gravy based on a roux I used for Gumbo.  I figured I'd add some herbs, chicken stock, and wine to the roux. I had made the roux ahead of time and had it waiting. In short, it was an unmitigated failure. I had used oil for the roux when I should have used some sort of fat like butter or other saved drippings. Oh well, at least I experimented, which I don't do nearly enough of.

Dinner itself was fantastic. We had quite a few new dishes. I've read about Susan Stamberg's cranberry relish for the last 30 years. I thought I'd make it myself for the first time. Raw cranberries, onion, horseradish, sour cream and sugar. It was, um, interesting. Some people professed to like it but we sure had a lot of it left over at the end of the day. I was impressed with the power of my new KitchenAid food processor which ground it up to a nice chunk in about 5 seconds. I found out why later as I was cleaning up; the blades is heckuv sharp. I put a nice little divot in my thumb.

A great green bean with vinaigrette replaced the venerable green bean casserole. Carla's mashed potatoes were wonderful. We had two great dressings and a bunch of killer desserts courtesy of Glenn, his wife Carolyn and her daughter Stella.

For dessert, I busted out the new KitchenAid food processor to make the whipped cream. I'm used to spending a few minutes whipping up the cream with a hand mixer, so I put in the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla; turned it on and took my eyes off it. It would have been ready in about 20 seconds I think; I didn't bother turning around to look until over a minute passed. Soft peaks, it was not. Very dense; about the look of mashed potatoes. Well, it still tasted okay.

I'll get some pictures from Thanksgiving posted as soon as I get them from Christopher.

French Chicken in a Pot - November 14, 2010

I ran across this Cook's Illustrated recipe a couple of times and thought it held a lot of promise. I first was intrigued when I saw the recipe in the January 2008 copy of the magazine. Then a month or so ago I watched them make it on America's Test Kitchen.

 It looked to be very simple to prepare giving me plenty of time to do other things while the chicken cooks. The basic plan is to take a whole chicken, give it a rub, sear it for a few minutes with some vegetables and then pop in the oven for an hour or so. It would result in a tender, tasty chicken with some delicious jous. Can you hear a big "but" coming?

My copy of the recipe can be found here.

The ingredients are simplicity itself: a chicken with nice fresh vegetables and aromatics

Prepped and ready for the pot

Break out Old Blue for a quick sear with the onion and celery

Cover the pot with aluminum foil and then the lid to make sure none of the steam escapes

All done! The sauce is strained and fat removed; then the resulting jous goes into a pan for a quick simmer

 The finished product. Just carve and serve

Looks wonderful. I learned a new way to carve which is a plus. Remove the leg and wing. Then take the breast off in one piece and slice against the grain. I used the same technique on the turkey at Thanksgiving with success. Carla made cornbread and a broccoli slaw.

It looked good. But the flavor was very bland. The rub on the skin all ended up in the jous making it too salty. Next time (if there is a next time), I'll put the rub under the skin; and go with a smaller chicken. This specimen was about 5 pounds.. All in all it really was kind of dry and bland. It made good chicken salad for lunch the following week!

Posole

My best friend in junior high school was Bob Newlon (Bobby where are you?).  We also were good friends all through high school. We lived maybe 4 miles apart; in junior high and would trek through the desert to one another's houses. The trip was much easier in high school on our motorcycles. I had a Honda 305 scrambler; he had a Honda 350 road bike. After high school, I went off to college and Bob and some other of our friends moved in together down in Los Angeles. I'm sure all my Palmdale High School friends out on the interweb know or remember Bob; if any of you know how to contact him, let me know.

Anyway, one of my favorite meals growing up was burritos at his house. His mother made a terrific red pork stew in one big pot and pinto beans in another. Spreading them on a flour tortilla and enjoying them with his folks and two sisters was always a pleasure. Now every time I see a recipe for red pork I try it out to see if it can touch Mrs. Newlon's. Nothing has come close.

This month's Cook's Country has a recipe for Posole, a New Mexico red pork "stew" with hominy. It ended up being much more soup like than stew. It also features hominy which I've never cooked with. I was a little trepidacious (sp) but thought I'd push ahead. This recipe is not close to Mrs. Newlon's, but is good in its own right.

My transcription of the recipe can be found here

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/636560/Recipes/New%20Mexican%20Pork%20Stew%20-%20Cooks%20Country.pdf).

We start with the traditional meet-and-greet for the ingredients:

One of the things I like about Cook's Country recipes is the building of flavor upon flavor; this recipe is an example of that. Our first step is to take a couple of dried ancho chiles and roast them for about 5 minutes at 350*; then they are cored and seeded, mixed with some chicken stock and boiled in the microwave for a couple of minutes. This results in a great rich sauce. Next time I have a recipe calling for enchilada sauce I may just use this instead.

While the chiles steep, we fry the pork.

The pork is removed and we give the hominy a quick saute'.  The hominy then comes out and put in a bowl for later use. I munched some of it during the cooking process. It was delicious

Next step was to saute' chopped onions in the pan with 5 cloves of garlic added for the last 30 seconds. The onion and the chile/chicken stock go in the blender for a nice sauce. Then back into the pot with more chicken stock and the pork to simmer for 90 minutes.  Then the pork comes out to be shredded and the hominy goes in for 30 minutes. Finally after 2 hours all the ingredients are together as the pork is added.

As I mentioned earlier; it was thinner than I expected; a problem with my expectation, not the recipe. Denise and Mary say that radishes and cabbage make great toppings for the servings. I planned that, but we got carried away making the cole slaw and all the cabbage ended up there. We did chop up an avocado. 

Look at that; I even wiped up a couple of splashes from the side of the bowl before getting the last picture.

We'll be eating this for lunch and dinner a few more days. I rate it as 3 stars; worthy of making for guests but not in the regular rotation.

Next week I'll be making roast chicken in a pot. I saw it on America's Test Kitchen and it looks simple and delicious.

After lunch, I'll be mixing up some home-made vanilla ice cream for our church group's Dinners-For-Eight. We have dessert duty; Carla whipped up the pumpkin squares and it's all I can do not to go sample them.

In the meantime, Bobby if you are out there, let me hear from you!

Gumbo!

Halloween 2010


I made gumbo a few years ago but was not at all happy with it. The roux never "took" and the okra made it pretty slimy. So, late summer when I saw a recipe for it in Cook's Country (My version of the recipe is here) I was doubtful I could pull it off. But it had a method for coming up with a dark fragrant roux that was worth a shot. Was I ever glad I took a chance; this is one of my top meals ever IMHO.

To cook the roux, you start by putting raw flour in the Dutch oven and toast it over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. When it starts to turn brown, whisk in the oil then transfer the pot to the oven for 45 minutes.

 Timing is everything. While the roux is in the oven Jeff and I chop and measure.

After 45 minutes the roux came out of the oven; it was every bit as dark and fragrant as I had hoped. I figured we were on to something.

The Creole holy trinity of onion, green bell pepper and celery go into the roux, followed by the aromatics of garlic, thyme, and cayenne pepper. That is followed up by a combination of low sodium chicken broth and Thai fish sauce (really). Once that simmers; in goes the chicken for 30 minutes. 

While the pot is simmering, I start the rice. Toast it in butter for a few minutes, then add water and salt, and cover for 20 minutes.

Do a few dishes while things are simmering. Then the chicken comes out to be taken off the bone and chopped into bite sized pieces and put back in.  andouille and the shrimp join the party. Notice the lack of mention of okra. It is an optional ingredient so I left it out.

Linda made a delicious salad; Carla made corn bread:

Here we are at the end of the meal. Check out our new artwork just behind Carla: pastel and acrylic on sand paper. It was her birthday present this year.

For dessert we had coconut cream pie that Dianne McDonnell made yesterday. We were over to their place last night to have some delicious taco soup and watch the world series and see the Ducks trounce USC.

I'm thinking I need to change to a 6 star rating system so I can give it 6 starts. Jeff said "you could just make 5 stars louder". I responded "this is 6". If you've got a few hours and and want to cook one heluva meal, go for this.

Freedom From Fear - Chapters 11 & 12

These two chapters bring a close on the New Deal and prepares us for the second half of the book covering World War II. The two chapters are:

• Chapter 11 - The Ordeal of Franklin Roosevelt
• Chapter 12 - What the New Deal Did

Although FDR won a big victory in 1937, it wasn't complete. Although he demonstrated the change of the Democratic party by showing he didn't need the "solid south" to be re-elected, he was unable to move his agenda forward. During the campaign he tried to remake the South by supporting reformers, but his candidates did not win.  A reporter once rhetorically asked one of the southern senators (forget his name) if Roosevelt wasn't his own worse enemy; "not as long as I'm alive" the Senator replied. 

As a result of his miscalculations in the election he had implacable folds in both houses of Congress. These southern Democrats successfully filibustered a bill which would make lynching a federal offense. Of course the excuse was "state's rights". The south was worried that the anti-lynching bill would be followed by a civil rights bill. 

By 1938 the era of The New Deal was essentially over; there was no major legislation to extend reforms. In fact, the roots of modern conservatism started at this time. Southern Democrats "issued a ten-point 'Conservative Manifesto' that denounced the sit-down strikes, demanded lower federal taxes, and a balanced budget, defended encroachment and warn of the dangers of creating a permanently dependent welfare class" (p 340)

In 1937 a modest recovery had started, but was soon washed aside by another wave of recession in 1938. 

The lasting  legacy of the New Deal was structural reform rather than economic recovery.  In his summary of The New Deal, Kennedy says the pattern of reforms can be summed up in a single word: "security". (p 365). In addition to Social Security, which gave security to older Americans, The New Deal brought security "for capitalists and consumers, for workers and employers, for corporations and farms and homeowners and banks and builders as well" (p 365). With the exception of social security and agricultural subsidies, these goals were reached without massive taxpayer costs. The New Deal used the twin strategies of information and reliability to bring about this security. 

Security in the financial sector

In the financial sector security was brought about by two changes. The first was to separate investment banks from commercial banks which secured average American savings deposits from speculation. The second change was the introduction of the FDIC which guaranteed bank deposits up to $5,000. These two actions did not levy much cost on taxpayers or member banks; neither did it introduce impose heavy regulations. Together they injected "unprecedented stability into the American banking system" (p 366)

Security in the securities industry

Security was injected into the securities industry through the introduction of the Security Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to this, there was no reliable information for investors to use to make informed investments. The power of the SEC lay in two provisions. The first mandated standard disclosures of corporate health: balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and compensation of corporate officers. The second was the requirement of verification of this information by audits using standardized accounting procedures. This action elevated the status of accountants.

Security in the Housing sector

The Federal Housing Administration was created in 1934 to insure long-term mortgages much like the FDIC secured depositors' accounts. This was also when Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association was created.  These changes made it possible for people to buy houses with relatively low (10%) down and long term (30 year) mortgages. At the same time, construction and appraisal standards were put in place so that lenders could lend money with some level of safety in the property they were lending on. The housing sector was an especially important vehicle for reform because of its wide-reaching impact. There were no geographical boundaries; people all across the country needed housing.

The long view

In the past, I've viewed the Great Depression as an event in American history that "just happened" in a smooth flow of history. Now I think it can be seen as the visible fault line between frontier America filling out the country and modern America with diminishing free land building within the borders. In this decade America was remade; lasting social change had taken place. If nothing else, government was seen to have a "major responsibility in ensuring the health of the economy and the welfare of citiznes" (p377)

Come the end of the day, FDR steered America between the Scylla and Charybdis of "orthodoxy and revolution". (p 380) Germany, Austria, and Italy didn't go the same path. We'll see the ramifications of that in the second half of the book.

Freedom From Fear Chapters 6 - 10. American Labor and Recovery

This is a dense, interesting book. Lots of details but still a pretty nice read. The chapters I've finished in the past few weeks are:

• Chapter 6: The Ordeal of the American People
• Chapter 7: Chasing the Phantom of Recovery
• Chapter 8: The Rumble of Discontent
• Chapter 9: A Season for Reform
• Chapter 10: Strike!

I've never appreciated just how hard times were in the Great Depression; my mom, aunt, and uncle have told me stories from their lives, but to read about the magnitude of hunger and need for much of the 1930s is heartbreaking. 

As I mentioned earlier, Hitler was able to capitalize on similar problems in Germany to rise to power. There was certainly a big undercurrent of discontent in our country but it never really coalesced under one person or one ideology. This is most likely because of the immense size of the country and the resulting diversity. Different group saw the problems and solutions differently. The farmers in the great plains had different solutions in mind than the displaced industrial workers in the northeast or the landed cheap labor farmers in the south. 

Father Coughlin and Huey Long built large constituencies; but their solutions were really not workable. When Kennedy writes about the thrall of Coughlin using the new media (radio),  I can't help but think of the Tea Party and cable networks today: 

"He played guilefully on his followers' worst instincts; their suspicious provincialism, their unworldly ignorance, their yearning for simple explanations and extravagant remedies for their undeniable problems, their readiness to believe in conspiracies, their sulky resentments, and their all too human capacity for hatred" (p234)

Long and others hoped for the 1934 midterm election to go to the conservatives, which would push back the small progress the Roosevelt administration had made. This would result in a backlash and the possibility of Huey to become elected and perhaps become a dictator in 1937. FDR saw this radicalism building and feared that they might succeed inteh short term. But the resulting damage to the existing parties and social discourse would result in a sustained period of paralysis. "Not social revolution but statis was the worst plausible outcome of the radial agitation" (p 244)

FDR was a brilliant politician; he co-opted much of the platform for the 2nd New Deal. Kennedy argues that he turned against the upper class, the capitalists and industrialists in order to pull a following from the admirers of Coughlin, Long, and others. 

In Chapter 10, Kennedy outlines the steady improvements of union organization. The sit down strike against GM resulted in the biggest organized labor gains in decades. Because the governerships had fallen into the Democrats power, industry could not always count on the police and National Guard to beat the workers into submission. "For virtually the first time in the history of American industrial conflicts, state officials determined to sit on their hands, leaving labor and capital to negotiate their own way out of the impasse. Discipline and raw economic power, not legal injunction or political intervention, would determine the outcome" (p 312)

I've got another couple of chapters to read on the Great Depression before Kennedy takes up World War II. This is a fascinating book.

White Bean Soup with Kale and Andouille

I saw a nice recipe for this soup in this week's Oregonian FoodDay (you can find my copy of it here). One of my unmet goals last year was to make something with different color beans. I'd done red beans and rice and pinto beans but hadn't tackled black beans or white beans. I saw this recipe and figured I'd found my answer for cooking with white beans - great northern beans in this case. There were two optional ingredients that piqued my interest: pomegranate syrup and applewood smoked salt.

I made my shopping list and headed over to Bales Thriftway at Kinnaman and Farmington road after dropping off some items for the AHS Band rummage sale (I left my recycling container there; rats). I found the syrup okay, but needed Stephanie's (a courtesy clerk at the store)   help to locate the salt. Turns out they had just gotten it in. Herb and Dianne came in after breakfast to have a smell. It was REAL smoky; Herb may make some himself in his smoker. I thought it would be a great addition to the soup

I started the beans soaking in salt water: 3 Tablespoons to 6 quarts water. I had just read about this in the November 2010 Cooks Illustrated. It is supposed to make the skins softer.

After breakfast with the McDonnell's and a quick walk, I gathered the ingredients for the obligatory photo shoot.

Then I commenced to choppin'. Next time I'll wait on the Kale; it doesn't go in until the last 30 minutes of cooking and I could have had things started earlier. 

The onions, carrots and celery are sweating it out on the left while I brown the andouille in a skillet

Beans, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, andouille and a pinch of the applewood smoked salt meet the vegetables and cook down for a couple of hours. I had "beans" on the mind more than "soup" and it looked a little thin when I started so I cooked with the lid off hoping to get more of a bean feel to things. Looking back I think this was a mistake; the beans took longer than I expected to soften; a full 3 hours really. And it ended up a bit thick; I added a little more chicken stock to get things back to a more soup-like consistency.

The kale goes in for the last 30 minutes. After that cooks down I add the brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and pomegranate syrup. You've no doubt heard my rant about sugar in beans; I am not a fan. I just do not get baked beans. So, I was a little doubtful about adding both sugar and syrup but the amounts were very small so I figured what the heck.

Carla made the corn bread and dinner is served

I'm rating this 4 stars; definitely a do over. I don't think the pomegranate syrup is a must. I had to buy a whole pint just to use a teaspoon or two. I bet we find something to do with the rest; pomegranate martinis, anyone?

Sometime this winter I've got to make a nice pot of cuban black beans; anyone have a recipe for me to try?

Spaghetti and Meatballs

I received the November 2010 copy of Cook's Illustrated and found two recipes that looked very appealing. One is pot roast (sounds like a recipe from the 60's) and the other was spaghetti and meatballs. Meatballs seemed right up my alley so I was all in. The recipe is on the Cook's Illustrated site, but it is a paid site; my version is here.

This recipe was billed as spaghetti and meatballs for a crowd. This recipe serves 12 people. There would be four of us for dinner: Carla and me, Jeff, and Linda. I knew we'd want to send some home with Jeff and keep some for a 2nd dinner later in the week so I figured I'd cut it in 2/3's and make it for 8.

I took Friday off and did the grocery shopping figuring I'd have all kinds of time Saturday for cooking. I got kind of busy on Saturday morning though spending some time at Summer Lake Park where the Beaverton Rotary club was having a barbecue cook-off. Herb, by best bud, was an organizer and I thought I'd stop by to see how it was going. Had a nice chat with Herb, Bob, and Patrick, but didn't see anything but closed lids; as they say: "if you're lookin' you ain't cookin'".

Anyway, by the time I finally settled down to review the recipe in the afternoon, I realized I'd better get busy. Cook's Illustrated recipes are usually good, but they take a lot of ingredients and I wind up with a messy kitchen and a LOT of dirty dishes. This would be no exception. I tried to get pictures as I went along, but I ended up fighting the clock, and couldn't grab as many pics as I would have liked.

Here are the ingredients for the meatballs. It's hard to make out, but I have 4 ounces of prosciutto on the bottom right of the picture:

I wanted to get pictures of the mixture then of the meatballs; but I would have had raw beef and pork everywhere. I need to recruit someone to take pictures as I go.

After forming the mixture into 2 oz balls, they go on two racks in cooking sheets. After roasting for 30 minutes (flipping and changing position after 15 minutes) they come out looking delicious. Jeff had just come over and we couldn't help but take one and divide it up between us. Yum.

While the meatballs were roasting, I started the sauce. I had to grate a large onion to get started and since I was in a hurry ended up with three nice scrapes on my hand. When I make a fist, they line up real nice just like they did on the grater.

After the sauce simmers for 15 minutes, I added the meatballs and put the whole thing back in the oven for an hour. Here it is out of the oven

Another reason I need an assistant is I'm terrible at plating the food; what a mess, noodles flopping off the side of the bowl; spatters of sauce everywhere. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and this tasted good if I do say so myself.

It wasn't just spaghetti; we had salad too; here is Jeff showing it off while Carla gets ready to sit down.

And we sit down to eat.

This recipe earns 5 stars on my 1 to 5 star rating system. If you are coming over to dinner in the next few months as part of a crowd; you may get this (don't worry, we'll have turkey for Thanksgiving; not pasta).

If you aren't vegetarian, I highly recommend this recipe.

Chile Verde

Fall has hit; a cool and rainy day is the perfect day for a nice bowl of green pork chile.  My recipe comes from Karen Ray at the Food Network; it was an award winner and I've found it to be my favorite. My absolute chile is the Sunset Magazine El Cid chili; but that is a red, beef-based chile as opposed to this nice green Mexican dish.

One thing to know before diving into this recipe is that there is a lot of prep time required. It took me about 1 hours and 15 minutes to get things chopped, diced, cubed, etc.

I laid out all the ingredients:

That will all need to be chopped! Preparing the poblano chiles is probably the most intensive work; we want to get the tough outer skin off. The first step is to roast them; I put them on the gas burners turned on high and turn them a few times

After they get nice and charred I cover them up to let them steam a bit

Ah, the skins are all nice and puckered.

Now we rinse them under cold running water to get the tough outer skin off. Be careful here; if you have sensitive hands be sure to wear gloves. These are mild chiles but still can affect your skin. As I peel them under the water the smell and Capsaicin  rises and I got choked up. My hands felt a mild sting for a couple of hours. Here they are after rinsing to remove the skin.

Next we open them up, remove the stems and seeds and flatten them out preparatory to chopping them.

While I cube the pork and chop the onion and chiles I have the tomatillos , green enchilada sauce, salsa verde, and spice mix simmering on the stove. 

Here we are ready to start building the stew. Onion, pork, chiles, and garlic. Notice I still have a couple of green peppers in the background. I'll finely mince these later; they don't go into the stew for another 2 hours.

I sauté the pork and onion in batches. About 30 seconds before tossing into the chile pot I add garlic just to get it fragrant. You can see the chile pot in the background.

After all the pork, onion, and garlic have been added, in go the chiles.

After 2 hours of simmering I add a cup of the green peppers, adjust the seasoning and simmer for another 45 minutes. Here it is toward the end, it's nice and reduced and the flavors are all melded.

Dinner time! Top with a dollop of sour cream. Serve with tortillas and beer. Salad optional!

Yum! I rate my recipes on a 1-5 star basis; this is one of the few with 5 stars. Perfect for a rainy October afternoon.

Freedom From Fear Chapter 5

Chapter 4: The Hundred Days


In this chapter David M, Kennedy discusses the first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration. This time, marked by a special session of Congress, was the kick start of much of the New Deal. There are a couple of surprising things in this chapter for me.

The hallmark of the New Deal, the National Recovery Act, which gave us the Civilian Conservation Corp and the Public Works Administration was more than anything a response to a bill that Congress was going to pass: the 30 hour work week. The idea of Congress was to limit the workweek to 30 hours so that the available amount of work would go around. Roosevelt saw this as not workable, for many reasons, including the fact that it just wouldn't work for farm work where the schedule is set by the cows needing milking.

The second surprising idea was that the America's policy in response to the Great Depression was a major contributing factor to World War II. We've already seen in earlier chapters that the war reparations on Germany was crushing their economy and giving fertile soil for Hitler's brand of nationalism. At the same time, the New Deal  policies were intrinsically  inflationary; this inflationary pressure was incompatible with a balanced budget, a  balanced foreign trade, and the gold standard. England had gone off the gold standard and the United States by this time had given notice we would suspend the gold standard with every indication we would go back on it.  After the end of the first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration there was an international economic conference for nations to agree how to get back to being on the gold standard. At the meeting FDR dropped a bombshell by saying America's domestic woes trumped international trade balances and we would follow our own interest, which included staying off the gold standard.

This statement was fuel to the fire for Germany. They figured at this point it was every country for itself; if America was going to focus solely on domestic priorities at the expense of international relations, they would follow suit. As a result the Nazi party continued its rise to power by following a strict nationalistic agenda.

WOW. This really blew my mind.

Freedom From Fear Chapters 3 & 4

I've finished the next two chapters of David M. Kennedy's Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929 - 1945. The two chapters cover the end of the Hoover Administration and the lead up to FDR taking office.

Chapter 3: The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover
Hoover was elected because he was a problem solver; before becoming president (I think in the Coolidge administration) he built the plan to feed the starving people in Europe following the World War. Given that, Americans trusted that he would be able to solve the depression.

Hoover did what he could to help the agricultural depression and helped the banks. But there simply wasn't a mandate to help the working class with unemployment insurance or a program to feed the hungry. The prevailing philosophy of the Republican party was "Volunteerism"; fraternal organizations, churches and such could provide for the needy. The problem was that the sheer numbers of people out of work dwarfed anything that local, small organizations could fix.

Hoover and his administration saw the roots of the depression not in the stock market crash of 1929 but rather as a result of the World War. Germany had to pay crushing war reparations to England and France. At the same time England and France owed massive amounts to America who funded the war. Germany borrowed money from the United States and used the money to pay the war reparations to England and France who in turn paid off their war time loans to the United States. It was a 3 legged stool that would collapse if 1 of the legs came undone. Germany was the loose leg. They simply could not keep up the payments and keep their society going. Of course, this is where Hitler came in, whipping up nationalist fervor in a country suffering from the results of the war itself as well as the reparations.

Many in the country: progressive Republicans (history's term not mine) and the banks were in favor of permanently ending war reparations and forgiving the loans to England and France. Of course, this would mean the banking industry would profit by lending money to a world that did not have its governments bogged down with national debts. Hoover was able to convince England and France to suspend the war reparations payments for a year to help Germany.

At the same time the world was operating on the gold standard which meant a country could only have an amount of money in circulation as a ratio of the gold stock in the federal reserve. It  was simply unheard of to have a nation with an out-of-balance budget (except in war time). As the crisis deepened, gold flowed overseas creating deflation in the U.S. The only way to keep the budget balanced was to raise taxes. Of course this just made things worse.

By the end of the Hoover administration (FDR wouldn't take office until March 1933) the U.S. economy was at a virtual stand still. Following the election, Hoover tried to get Roosevelt to get on board with his programs, but FDR was not about to be tied down to Hoover's policies. It is surprising to me, as it was to many in power, that the people did not rise up in anger and revolution.

In the end Hoover was quite progressive for his time; he did what he could given the philosophy of the government; this was simply new ground that the world was just not prepared to deal with. As Einstein said, to get out of a problem, you need to be smarter than the brains that caused the problem.

These first chapters really put in focus the economic and political problems we've had since the collapse of the mortgage industry. We seemed to have learned the lesson of deflation; this is why the U.S. put together the TARP program; to keep things moving, to keep demand going. Once things stop it is very difficult to get them moving again. In the early 1930's we saw what happens when the banks get relief but not the rest of the country; deflation and depression.

Chapter 4: Interregnum

This chapter covers FDR as he prepared to take office in March 1933. Two important traits of FDR were his unbridled optimism and willingness to listen to everyone. He never, ever, seemed down. Even his closest advisory never saw him appear shaken or worried. He was like an virtuoso actor where you only see the character, not the actor. He curried the opinion of many different points of view, but was very careful to never tip his hand. This was very frustrating to the senior members of Congress who wanted him to support their side; they'd think he supported them but were never sure.

In contradistinction to the Hoover administration, The Roosevelt Brains Trust  seems to have seen domestic roots of the depression. In this view, the rapid advances in industrialization created an imbalance in the distribution of wealth. The captains of industry got the lions share of the wealth. The result was that the workers did not have enough money to purchase the products that would keep the economy afloat. It was the government's duty to keep the balance.

"...concentration of economic power in huge industrial enterprises was a natural and beneficial feature of modern, advance societies; and that the enormous concentrations of private power necessitated the creation of commensurately powerful public controls, or governmental regulatory bodies" [pp 120-121]

There was definite fear in the winter and spring of 1933 that the social fabric of the country would rip. As a result the most pressing items on the agenda of an early Roosevelt administration might be political stabilization rather than restoring the economy. There were 3 linch pins of the New Deal "social reform, political realignment, and economic recovery flowed and counterflowed through the entire history of the New Deal." [ p 117]

It looks as though the progressive wing of the Republican party would join with the Northeast industrial workers to reform the Democratic party going forward.

Bathroom Remodel Complete

Countertops are on; plumbing in; and the pulls are in
Take a look at the finished product and let me know if you see what is different than 80% (based on our observations) of other remodels of this sort (and it has nothing to do with me being inthe picture)

We are very happy with the results; it is a big improvement over the original. The inset sinks and higher counters are fantastic. We haven't put things away in the drawers and cabinets yet, but it looks like we will have a lot more room.

Thanks to Douglas Bernhardt.