I miss fruit picking.

Over the summer, the days I am home are usually built around two questions:

1) Am I working for Karen Hunter?
2) What is Alex doing?

Imagine my bewilderment without either, but especially without Alex, who goes fruit picking with me, helps plans cobbler night, and appreciates a good sock pattern.

So we've started a blog together, here, to catalogue our adventures while we're apart. Both of us will post one to a few photos everyday. Today was day two.

I'm coming back this weekend to deliver a very belated soup recipe, with accompanying matzoh.

Make me a bug.

Today is my first day working at the UCC's national office in Cleveland. I'm really excited about being able to work here--I got on the elevator at one point today and had a moment of "Oh my goodness, this is my life."

I'll be working primarily on myucc, which is the UCC's answer to social networking. We're on myspace, facebook, and twitter, of course, but having our own system will give us the opportunity to start really specialized groups, with their own blogs, and make communication that much more effective and cohesive across the denomination.

But if you've visited the website in the past month or so, you've noticed these bugs all over the website. Of course, the bugs are "theological" in the sense of "All things bright and beautiful/All creatures great and small/All things wise and wonderful/The Lord God made us all". But David Runnion-Bareford, of Biblical Witness Fellowship, had a different take on things:

"Non-UCC friends of ours who believe with some reason that the UCC has long been a bacterial infection in the blood stream of the American church have chimed in with the prophecy in Joel about God’s judgment on an unfaithful people, Joel 1:4, “that which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” Self-revelation is always an amazing phenomenon, and perhaps the UCC website’s infatuation with the bugs as a self-image is more profound than anyone anticipated?"

Immediately after reading that, I had a different thought:

Dear God, make me a bug. Let me chew like a termite at the structures of oppression and injustice. Help me be like a spider and spin a web that catches joy, hope, and love. Make me like an ant, strong and hardworking in Your name. Amen.

Also, I saw a new poster today that plays with the "UCC" acronym (you know how we love our acronyms...OGM, JWM, PAM, COREM, MRSEJ, CYYAM, PFKAPOC, just to name a few). The one I saw was "Unapologetic Church of Crossdressers". After writing a 15 page paper on drag queens, it warmed my heart to see that.

If you are UCC, you should make my life easier and get on over to the website, sign up for myucc, and explore. Also, check out Schatzi's blog. Sure, Schatzi is a cat, but the blog is hilarious.

Poached Eggs and Asparagus.

I can't even remember where I saw asparagus and a poached egg for the first time. Whether it was on someone's food blog or in Gourmet, I don't know, but something intrigued me. Never mind that I had never eaten a poached egg (or made one, for that matter), I thought that I might like it.

Eggs are everywhere these days. Yes, I know you've always been able to get them in grocery stores--I mean people seeing eggs as a versatile and inexpensive protein source. I'm fairly certain there was a spread in Gourmet not too long ago about them.

For the poached egg over asparagus, I simply blanched the asparagus for about a minute, poached the egg (to the best of my ability--I can't tell you how to do this just yet, I'm still trying to figure it out myself), and sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese and black pepper. It was delicious, even if the egg wasn't poached right.

I tried it again a few times (both immediately afterwards and over the next few days) and have had varying levels of success. So I'll throw this question out there--how do you poach an egg?

Ramen.

I love good Asian food, be it Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian or Malaysian. But more often then not I'm afraid to cook it myself. I had one bad experience after another concocting sauces for cellophane and soba noodles--sauces involving peanut butter, brown sugar, lemon juice and soy sauce in various combinations that were some of few things I've ever made and deemed "inedible".

I had never bought ramen until a few weeks ago. My dad is always eating it at home--I think it's one of very few things he knows how to make. I was thinking of something else to toss broccoli with and it hit me--ramen without the broth packet! I could eliminate the sodium (though the amount of soy sauce I use could negate that...) and turn that $.30 wonder into a well-balanced meal!

But what sauce would I use? I decided to keep it simple and toss the noodles, pan-steamed broccoli and some sauteed tofu (to warm it through) with soy sauce and just a touch of chili garlic sauce. I've also used bottled teriaki sauce. I just invested in some toasted sesame oil--I'll let you know how that goes.

This meal has been a real life saver this week. I'm in the midst of starting the second of three papers due Monday. To get a carb, a veggie, and some protein all in one bowl in under ten minutes (for $1.50, more or less) is pretty incredible.

Sweet Tea.

If you know me well at all, you know how much I love iced tea.

In 2005, I was in Atlanta, Georgia for the United Church of Christ's General Synod. I had my first taste of real sweet tea and thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever tasted. Fast forward to the summer of 2006, where a certain North Carolina native at Lancaster Theological Seminary's Leadership Academy made a pitcher of homemade sweet tea.

Shortly thereafter, I started making my own. It's one of few recipes I can make without a second thought, probably because I make it so often.

In honor of the near-90 degree weather this weekend (which was my birthday, and was excellent):

Sweet Tea
8-10 tea bags (Luzienne is arguably the most "authentic" brand)
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

1. Boil 4 cups water in a medium saucepan.
2. Remove from heat, stir in sugar and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 20-30 minutes.
3. Add ice to a half gallon pitcher. Pour "sweet tea syrup" over ice, and add water to sufficiently fill the half gallon pitcher.

Butterscotch Puddin'.

After getting my wisdom teeth out, I never thought I'd want to eat pudding again.

And then, on the "Contents" page of Gourmet's February 2009 issue was this recipe for butterscotch pudding.

It sounded so easy. It looked so sinfully smooth and velvety. I decided about ten minutes after picking up the magazine that I would make it--that very night.

And it was easy, and it was sinfully smooth and velvety. And it was sweet. I mean, I like sweet, but this stuff is sweet. It's not too sweet though, if you eat it with the whipped cream, or some bananas like I did.

My only complaint is that this recipe serves four and I am only one. It was hard finding other pudding lovers that week, so I ended up eating the whole batch myself. I know, I know--how terrible.

Butterscotch Pudding
from Gourmet, Feb. 2009

1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c heavy cream
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Butter a sheet of wax paper the size of your serving bowl (you'll need it in the last step). Whisk together brown sugar, cornstarch and salt in a heavy medium saucepan, then whisk in milk and cream.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking frequently, then boil, whisking, 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.
4. Pour into a bowl, then cover surface with buttered wax paper and chill until cold, at least 1 1/2 hours.
5. Before serving, whisk remaining heavy cream until light and fluffy for whipped cream.

The buttered wax paper prevents the pudding from developing an icky skin on top. I kept it on throughout the pudding's stay in the fridge, but I also covered it with a lid which, I think, damaged the consistency.

On Rachel Maddow:

I have really enjoyed reading about the prophets this semester. I think most people think of prophets like fortune tellers. True, there are some oracles in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, etc. But the prophets are more political and social commentary than fortune telling.

My Old Testament professor likened prophets, like Jeramiah, to modern comedians--speaking Truth in a very particular style that is almost subversive and garners them lots of attention. I think a better metaphor would be "political comedians" like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The prophets of the Bible are absolutely political--and while not that funny--they seem to be inspired by God to fight important issues and spread "truthiness".

I think Rachel Maddow is a modern day prophet (or an angel). Or at least like a prophet.

I saw the "Storm is Coming" commercial sometime last week and panicked a little. These people were convincing, and racially/age diversified, so much so that without sound, you could assume it was pro-gay marriage. Then I stumbled upon these Rachel Maddow clips.

Not only is Rachel Maddow right, but she's funny (and sassy!). She has a similar sense of humor I imagine God has. The kind of sense of humor that asks, "Really. Really?" The kind of sense of humor that sees stupidity, chuckles, and mercifully remembers to love the least (smart) of these.

I also call Rachel Maddow a prophet for reporting on something that just must be divinely inspired. The audition tapes being leaked? A rainbow coalition? 2M4M? I think something bigger than us is trying to say something. Rachel Maddow appears to be listening and spreading a good word. Take a look for yourself: