Category Archives: Recipes

Nature, Recipes

First Barbecue of 2013 – Simple Potato Salad

img_3405May, with all its green and flowery pleasures, is here, and how delightful it is after a fairly cold winter. We have had a stretch of warm, sunny days that have been good for any number of activities—biking, gardening, other yard work, and best of all, having a barbecue on the patio. Not only has the weather been glorious, but—miracle of miracles—the black flies aren’t too bad this year. I’m not sure why this is the case—perhaps it’s been too dry for them to flourish—but whatever the reason, I am grateful. How nice it is to work outside or sit on the patio and not be enveloped by a swarm of little biting bugs. Most seasons, my husband, Clif, and I have to resort to bug spray, but this year, not so much.

Clif and I are notorious homebodies. For both of us, home is best, and nowhere is it better than on our patio in our own backyard. We are always thoroughly cheered when we can bring up the patio furniture from the basement, give the tables and chairs a good wiping, and have as many meals as possible on the patio during spring, summer, and fall.

On Saturday night, we had our first real barbecue of the season, and it was one of those meals where everything just came together, where there was a real flow. Cooking isn’t always this way, but when it is, what a pleasure. As with all good meals, a bit of planning was involved, and for our first barbecue, I thought a simple potato salad would be in order. Our usual potato salad includes sour cream and bacon, but I had neither of those ingredients. However, I did have a vinaigrette to put on the warm potatoes as well as mayonnaise and mustard. And eggs. What is potato salad without eggs?

Right after breakfast, I cooked the potatoes in a big pan and the eggs in a smaller one. When the potatoes were done, I drizzled them with the vinaigrette—in this case one of Newman’s bottled Italian dressings.  (I have made this potato salad with both a homemade vinaigrette and a bottled one, and truly, I couldn’t tell the difference.) Then I put the potatoes in a big bowl in the refrigerator, the eggs in a smaller bowl, and I pretty much forgot about them for the rest of the day.

Around 5:30, it was time to put the evening meal together. First, the potato salad. I cut up the eggs and mixed them with the potatoes. I added a few tablespoons of mayonnaise, a teaspoon and a half of mustard, salt and pepper to taste, and voilà—a simple potato salad. Onion lovers could add fresh onions, but neither my husband nor I are keen on raw onions.

Earlier in the day, I had also taken out some chicken tenders, and my husband put together a rub consisting of chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper to go on the tenders. What to go with chicken and potato salad? Why, homemade biscuits, of course. Finally, for a colorful side, steamed peas.

While my biscuits weren’t as fluffy as my mother’s—they never are—everything tasted “pretty darned good,” as Clif put it. The chicken was moist and spicy, the biscuits were tender enough, and the potato salad had a pleasing tang, even though it didn’t have sour cream.

Welcome spring, welcome summer! In the months to come, we’ll be having many more meals on the patio. Some will be for just Clif and me, but we will also have friends and family over from time to time. We have a nice backyard, and we like to share it.

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Food for Thought, Recipes

Lunch Just for Me: An English Muffin with Ricotta, a Sprinkle of Oregano, a Drizzle of Honey, and Walnuts

img_3379The other day, when I was at the library making packets for our library expansion campaign, I said to Shane, one of our librarian extraordinaires, “It’s almost time for lunch. Today I’m going to have a toasted English muffin with ricotta, oregano, honey, and walnuts.”

“Sounds great,” Shane said. “Is this a lunch for friends?”

“No, just for me,” I replied.

Although this is an easy lunch to prepare, it does sound rather fancy, something we wouldn’t make “just” for ourselves. But in the refrigerator I had a smidgen of leftover ricotta, which I hated to throw away, and somehow the combination of ricotta, oregano, honey, and walnuts came to me that morning as I was doing chores. (I have an ongoing habit of daydreaming about food, which makes it extremely difficult to maintain a healthy weight.)

As soon as I came home from the library, I put my plan into action. I toasted the English muffin in the toaster—this could also be done under the broiler. After the muffin was toasted, I put the two halves into a small pan—an 8 x 8—and I spread 1 tablespoon of ricotta on each half. Then I sprinkled each half with some dried oregano—fresh, of course, would be best, but this time of year, fresh isn’t that easy to come by. (Don’t get me started on those pathetic “fresh” herbs that come in the little plastic containers.) Next came a swirl of honey on the English muffin halves. Finally, the pièce de résistance, 2 walnut halves on top of the ricotta, oregano, and honey. (Walnut lovers who are trim could use as many as 4 on each muffin half. Alas, this walnut lover is not that trim.)

I set the pan under the broiler for a few minutes, taking care not to burn the walnuts. I had to keep a sharp eye on those nuts. The amount of time it takes for a walnut to go from brown to burnt can be measured in milliseconds.

Here is what I got with the very first bite: the crunch of the toasted muffin followed by the smooth ricotta that was made both sweet and spicy by the honey and the oregano, topped by the rich, deep crunch of the walnut.

Pretty fancy for one person, but why not? Aren’t we worth it?

I took my muffin, along with some celery and carrot sticks, outside to the patio. As I ate, the dog begged for bites—which he got—the orange cat lay in the chair across from me, and birds flew from the trees to the feeders. It was lunchtime for them, too.

As I ate, I reflected on how Shane was right: This would make a nice lunch for friends, and I begin thinking of a summer luncheon, where I would serve these ricotta muffins along with a green salad and some fruit slices, perhaps cantaloup. The day would be sunny and warm, and we would eat on the patio, where we could admire the flowers in the garden and the deep green woods on the edge of the yard. For a drink, there would be freshly brewed ice tea. For dessert, homemade raspberry ice cream and perhaps lemon-frosted shortbread to go with it.

A luncheon to celebrate summer, beautiful summer.

 

Nature, Recipes

Two for One Crock-Pot Meal: Chicken with Diced Tomatoes and Italian Chicken Soup

img_3342This year, in Maine, spring is certainly dragging its heels. The weather has been cool and the skies rather gray. I’ve begun hanging laundry on the line, but I have to plan carefully, keeping a watch for rain as well as following the weather reports. Still, the ice has melted from the swampy swamp up the road, and the peepers have begun singing their spring song. They are joined by the quacking wood frogs, and the two voices join together in pleasing harmony, one high and ethereal, the other deep and steady.

In my gardens, all the perennials seem to have survived the cold winter, and the bright green of the new growth is always a heartening sight. Irises, lilies, phlox, and liatris will soon be joined by balloon plants, hosta, and sweet woodruf. In some ways, early spring is my favorite time in the garden. While it’s true there are few blooms—instead there are various shades of green—everything looks so new and fresh, so full of promise. The slugs and snails, a huge problem for plants at the little house in the big woods, haven’t come out yet. Ditto for the Japanese beetles, and this means the plants can grow freely without the menace of munching, marauding jaws.

Between the gardens and the yard, there is much work to be done, but I don’t mind a minute of it. I love being outside, and, to me, time spent outside is always good, even if it involves hauling wood or raking or tending the gardens. It’s funny how work outside is so much more enjoyable than work inside.

During this busy time of year, before it is really warm enough to use the grill, it’s handy to have plans for simple meals for those fine days when yard work takes precedence over cooking. Not long ago, I stumbled across a neat little trick, a two-for-one crockpot meal, and both turned out so well that I’ll be making them again soon.

One week, both chicken thighs and Hunt’s diced tomatoes were on sale. The tomatoes were seasoned with rosemary and oregano and came in 14.5 ounce cans. Meal number one couldn’t have been easier. (So easy that I’m not going to give a formal recipe for it.) Place 8 chicken thighs in a Crock-Pot, add two cans of the diced tomatoes, a teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder, and let the whole thing simmer until the chicken is tender—high for about 4 hours and low for 7 or 8 hours. Fresh onions and garlic could be added, but I wanted to see how it would turn out with minimal intervention. The chicken was all that it should be—succulent, tender, and nicely flavored by the tomatoes.

To reduce the amount of fat, I had removed the skin from the chicken. This was a very good idea because just before dinner, when I removed the chicken from the Crock-Pot, I noticed a lovely tomato stock was left behind, and it wasn’t swimming with fat.

Was the stock good enough to save? A quick taste told me that indeed it was. Here was the making of a soup for another meal. I have a large refrigerator, and there was room enough for the Crock-Pot’s stoneware crock, which meant that the next day all I had to do was remove the crock and put it back into the Crock-Pot base to begin the second meal. (I could also skim off what little fat there was, which rose to the surface when the broth cooled.)

Below is the basic recipe for the soup, but need I add that this is just a starting point, that other vegetables—onions, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms—could be added? That rice could be used rather than pasta? There are so many ways to make soup, which is one of the things I love about it.

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Recipes

Carol’s Anything Soup

img_3291We are a family that loves soup. We can happily eat it one, two, three, even four nights a week, and a good thing, too, as we live in a state where it is cool enough 9 months of the year to eat soup. (If June is rainy, the way it often is, make that 10 months.) Soup also pairs very well with my cooking style, which tends to be a bit improvisational at times. I am happiest when I can tinker with a dish and add a little of this and a little of that as well as make some substitutions based on what I have in my larder. Because I have been cooking for so many years, the results are at the very least edible, and sometimes they are even “pretty darned good,” to quote my Yankee husband, Clif.

Therefore, when my cousin Carol recently told me about her Anything Soup, I was extremely interested. It’s a squash-based soup made with onions and chicken broth, and from there the variations are many. Carol agreed to email me her instructions so that I could post them on this blog. Carol wrote, “In a 2 qt saucepan sauté 1 medium onion, 2 stalks of celery and 2 sliced carrots until celery and onions are softened. Add one can chicken broth, 1/2 cup cooked and mashed buttercup squash and 3/4 to 1 cup of vegetable pasta or vegetable spaghetti broken into smaller pieces. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook until pasta is done. This is the base of the soup. I have changed it up by adding one or all of the following when I add the pasta. You could add any vegetable you like. Great way to use up leftovers.

2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup cooked turnip
1/2 cup black beans
leftover cooked chicken”

Yes, indeed, and in my freezer I had 2 cups of cooked squash, the last from Farmer Kev’s garden. Because I had more squash than the recipe called for, I decided to increase the other ingredients so that we would have even more soup. I liked the idea of black beans, and as I had plenty of dried beans waiting to be soaked and cooked, I decided to go with them. I also had some kielbasa—bought on sale—in the freezer, and I decided to go with that as well.

When Carol and I had talked about the soup, she had mentioned that the tomato paste gave the soup a bit of an Italian taste. Well, I thought, why not go one step further and add some oregano? And how about some garlic, too? (I wasn’t kidding when I said I like to improvise.)

Readers, the results were so good that even though I have only made it once, this is one of my favorite soups. In fact, it’s tasty enough to buy fresh squash at the supermarket especially to go in this soup, and I’m tempted to try canned squash to see how it will turn out. The soup is slightly sweet, but not too sweet. It has a rich, full flavor, and it is thick enough to be called a stew. It is smooth and nourishing, just the thing for the end of a busy day full of chores and meetings.

Thank you, Carol!

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Recipes

Spicy Cabbage Soup for a Cold Spring Day

IMG_3212 Here in central Maine, even though it is spring, the ground is still covered with snow. In my refrigerator sits a great green cabbage purchased for 39 cents a pound before St. Patrick’s Day. What to do with this formidable vegetable on a cold day? Why, make soup of course, which is just what I did yesterday. And because my day was busy with a meeting, I made the soup early and put it in my crockpot so that it could simmer away while I was at the meeting. As a bonus, the house smelled spicy and good when I came home. Now, cabbage does not have the best reputation for smelling good when it cooks, but this soup somehow incorporates the flavor of cabbage without the traditional—ahem—pungent smell.

The soup itself is all vegetables and would certainly be fine as is, but my husband, Clif, and I like a little chew with our soup, so I cooked some small pasta to add to the bowls after the soup had simmered most of the day. Pasta can be mixed right into the soup for the last 45 minutes or so, but a funny thing happens to pasta in leftover soup. It swells and swells and swells like some kind of science-fiction creature until it gets too big and soft. Clif and I have decided that we like pasta and rice in soup much better as last minute add-ins.

Clif went back for seconds—always a good sign—and gave it his Yankee rating of “Pretty darned good.”

On a less  upbeat note…at the meeting I went to—a board meeting at the Winthrop Food Pantry—I learned a sobering statistic. Maine ranks with Mississippi and Louisiana for its number of hungry, food-insecure children—18 percent. I was shocked and so were many of the other board members. I suppose I shouldn’t have been shocked. In Maine, wages are low, and the cost of living is high. It only stands to reason that families would have a hard time buying good, nutritious food for their children. But still!

This cabbage soup is made with basic ingredients, which means not only is it spicy, warm, and nourishing, but it is also a very frugal dish, even when you use Muir Glenn tomatoes—purchased on sale—as I did.

This soup has a lot going for it—healthy, low-cost, aromatic, reasonably low in calories, and tasty. Eat up!

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Recipes

Tea Biscuits with Pam

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IMG_3169Yesterday, I went to Pam Riley Osborn’s house to discuss the Charles M. Bailey Public Library and the upcoming expansion. (Pam was the children’s librarian when we first moved to Winthrop, and she is on the expansion committee.) First, a little about Pam’s house.

Pam lives in an old house where the big, light-filled kitchen overlooks the yard as well as the driveway, which has a line of trees, bare in mid-March but nevertheless beautiful in their starkness. Tom Sturtevant, a friend to both of us, once remarked that in this area, Pam’s kitchen is the best place to be, and he certainly got that right. Pam is not only lively and literate, as befits a children’s librarian, but she also has a keen artistic sensibility, which is evident both inside and out. In the house—along with the light, some wonderful old furniture, and gleaming wood floors—are little collections of objects—mostly found, I think—that line her many window sills. These collections include shells filled with rocks and an array of  metal objects, small and rusted, and arranged so artfully that they could be in a museum exhibit. Yet the effect is not that of a museum. Far from it. Pam’s house is warm and cozy and welcoming.

In her kitchen, in a corner hutch, is a picture of the outside of her house when she first bought it many years ago. Then, it was sturdy but drab. However, Pam’s artistic eye saw what could be done with this house. The kitchen was bumped out, a porch was added, and so were peaked dormers. Somehow, these additions come together to make the house look even more authentic, as though they had once been there and were just waiting to be rebuilt. Lucky old house to have Pam as an owner.

Linda McKee, another library supporter, also joined us, and we talked and talked and talked, literally for hours. Along with the library and the vital role it plays as the center of Winthrop’s community, we talked about books—Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, and many others as well.

I asked Linda, “Do you think people are either in the Austen camp or the Brontë camp but seldom in both?”

She nodded. “Yes, I do.”

And so do I.

Families were discussed, and all three of us were concerned about how hard it is nowadays for young people to find good jobs.

Along with the tea, Pam served Edith’s Tea Biscuits, which were oh-so-good and a lot like scones. She got the recipe in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and she agreed to share it with me, even giving me permission to post it on this blog.

If you make these tea biscuits, picture eating them in a bright kitchen in an old house with a wood cookstove. Picture three women, drinking tea and talking about libraries and books. Picture the time of year to be Mid-March when the mud was deep, the sap was running, and the day was bright.

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Community, Recipes

A Recipe from the Food Pantry: Pumpkin Cake

IMG_3111For over 15 years, I have volunteered at the Winthrop Food Pantry. With a little cart, I take people around so that they can make their food choices, and I get to talk about food and recipes for 2 or 3 hours. For a foodie, it doesn’t get much better when it comes to volunteering.

The food pantry has its share of cookies and sugary things, but it is also chock-full of fresh fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, potatoes, apples, cauliflower, onions, and oranges. The food pantry recipients are thrilled to have so many healthy choices.

Now, I know this flies in the face of the common conception about how food pantry recipients like to cook and eat—quick, cheap, and processed—but in Winthrop, at least, this simply isn’t true. In Winthrop, people cook. I’ve also heard comments such as, “Well, maybe the older recipients can cook, but I bet the younger ones can’t.” Again, not true. Younger men and women as well older ones go through the pantry with a keen eye of what will go with what. It is true that the food pantry recipients tend to be plain cooks and must sometimes be coaxed to try new things, but there is nothing wrong with being a plain cook.

Last Thursday, at the food pantry, one young woman told me, “I can make chili with these dried kidney beans, canned tomatoes, and the onion.”

Another woman, this one older, said, “I have a stockpile so that we always have the ingredients for something good to eat.”

Words to warm my heart.

Right now, left over from the holidays, the food pantry has a huge supply of canned pumpkin, and JoEllen, the executive director, has included copies of pumpkin recipes alongside the cans of pumpkins. One recipe is for pumpkin cake and the other is for a chili made with pumpkin.

“This looks really good,” I said, taking a copy of the pumpkin cake recipe for myself. (I also took the pumpkin chili recipe.)

“It does,” said the woman I was helping. She, too, took a recipe for the cake. “I guess I’d better have a can of pumpkin, then, and try making this.”

In my very own home pantry, I had a can of pumpkin pie mix, waiting to be used, and the next day I made the cake. As is usual with me, I fiddled a bit with the recipe, enough so that I can, with a clear conscience, call it my own and include it here.

I was very pleased with the results, so pleased that I will be making this cake again sometime soon. The pumpkin cake is easy to mix up, and it is moist, spicy, and delicious. The recipe doesn’t call for a butter-cream frosting, but let’s face it, cake is always better with frosting, and I made one for this pumpkin cake.

But the true test of this cake’s deliciousness came when I brought some of it to a gathering I went to on Saturday. One of my friends, Peggy, took a bite and said, “This cake is to die for.”

Oh, that made me feel good, especially as Peggy is a foodie, too. And best of all, this cake is a great keeper, maintaining its moist texture days and days after it was baked. (I really dislike dry cake.)

So dig out that can of pumpkin you still have from the holidays, and bake yourself a late-winter treat.

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People, Recipes

Mike’s 30th Birthday Tempura

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The birthday boy
The birthday boy

 

Last weekend was a big one for us—we celebrated the 30th birthday of our son-in-law, Mike. Let’s just say that from my vantage point, 30 seems like a very long time ago.

“Do you remember turning 30?” I recently asked my husband, Clif.

“Not really,” he answered.

“Neither do I. ”

Nevertheless, 30 is one of those milestone birthdays. Ordinarily, we are quite frugal when it comes to birthdays, and we have even been known to slip in a “gently-used” present or two into the mix of what we give. (The gently-used present is usually a book.) But on milestone birthdays we splurge, and for Mike’s 30th birthday, we all chipped in to buy him a Nikon camera. As his family also chipped in to buy the camera, we were able to get a nice one for Mike, who has a great eye and has been taking terrific shots with just his phone. I can’t wait to see what he does with an actual camera and a good one at that.

Our daughter Dee came from New York to join us, and what a great meal we had at our daughter Shannon and Mike’s home. The centerpiece for appetizers was homemade pretzels, baked fresh as we sat at the dining room table. As Shannon noted, it’s amazing how something so simple can taste so good. The pretzels are boiled first and then baked, like bagels, which means they are not just twisted bread. Soft, chewy, warm, salty and dipped in melted cheese—the jarred kind that I don’t usually like but somehow seemed perfect for those pretzels. I am embarrassed to admit how many I ate, so I’m not going to do so. Let’s just say that after those pretzels—along with fresh-baked tortilla chips from Whole Foods—I was so full that I wasn’t sure how I was going to eat any of the main meal, a tempura.

Oh, those pretzels!
Oh, those pretzels!

But, it’s amazing what a half-hour break can do to settle the stomach. Mike opened his presents and quite naturally took a long time examining his camera. We chatted about this and that, and there was a fair amount of camera and photography talk.

Then it was on to tempura, a fancy term for food dipped in a simple batter and, in this case, fried in a wok right at the table. There are usually dipping sauces, and Shannon provided two sweet sauces and one hot and spicy. We had mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, and chicken. The food, piping hot and crisp and bite-sized, is delicious, but more than that, the meal becomes a ritual as diners watch the tempura chef dip the vegetables in batter, fry the food, and then pass small portions on a plate for everyone to enjoy. Not every meal, of course, can be a ritual, but how nice it is to have one like this for special occasions.

The veggies, waiting to be fried
The veggies, waiting to be fried

Clif started out as the tempura chef, but because of his broken wrist, he was not as adept with the chopsticks as he usually is. Since I am pathetic with chopsticks, and Shannon is a wiz, she took over from him. (Unfortunately, I only thought to take a picture of Clif at the batter bowl.)

Clif at the batter bowl
Clif at the batter bowl
Lovely, lovely tempura
Lovely, lovely tempura

Again, I am embarrassed to admit how much tempura I ate. A real cheat day for me, and the ice cream cake we had for dessert was the perfect ending to an oh-so-good meal.

Happy 30th birthday, Mike. I can’t wait to see your pictures.

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Books, Food for Thought, Recipes

Creamed Tuna Revisted—And Some Thoughts on How to Cook a Wolf

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In Maine, we are having what might be called a good, old-fashioned cold spell, where the temperature barely rises above zero during the day and goes well below zero at night. Add a brisk wind and you have weather so chilly that people barely want to go out to get their mail, much less go for a walk. A hard time for our dog, Liam, who is still energetic at 8 and loves to run and bark in the backyard. Despite the cold, Liam nevertheless gets his chance to run and bark as every day I have to bring in three wheel barrow’s worth of wood for our furnace.

This brisk weather is a good time to make a cup of tea and settle on the couch with a book. This January, I am rereading M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf, first published in 1944. Despite the stiff competition from an increasingly crowded field, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908–1992) remains one of America’s best food writers. W. H. Auden noted, “I do not know know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose.” This is high praise coming from a great poet, and it is no exaggeration. M.F.K. Fisher wrote beautifully, and, just as important, she had something to say.

How to Cook a Wolf is fortunately metaphorical rather than literal—there are no instructions on how to butcher and roast a wolf.  The book was written during World War II, and it addresses how one might live creatively in a time of shortage. In the second chapter, Fisher quotes her grandmother: “I see that ever since I was married, well over fifty years ago, I have been living on a war budget without realizing it! I never knew before that using common sense in the kitchen was stylish only in emergencies.” Fisher notes that although her “grandmother’s observation need not have been so sardonically phrased…probably it was true then…and it is even more appropriate now.”

Almost 70 years later it is still true. Common sense belongs in the kitchen (and the rest of the house) in good times as well as hard ones. In addition, Fisher’s frugal but common-sense tips are particularly relevant today.

Many of us, even in this richest country in the world, feel as though the “wolf is at the door.” Expenses go up, but for most of us, salaries remain the same. What was once a comfortable income is no longer quite as comfortable. Bills must be paid. Pennies must be pinched. Extras—such as meals out and plays—are often eliminated. While those who have jobs and health care have much to be grateful for, there is no denying the feeling that things aren’t quite as good as they once were, except for the few at the top, where life is better than ever. With Earth’s dwindling resources, increased automation at the work place, and a still-rising population, it is my guess that the wolf will be at the door for quite a while. It seems to me the trick is to acknowledge this and to still live as well as possible. (And, of course, to elect politicians who will address the gross inequality in this country.)

These observations, in turn, bring me to creamed tuna, a thrifty dish my mother often served for supper. She was a child of the Great Depression and knew a thing or two about making do with little. My mother often said of her own grandmother: “Even when it seemed as though there was hardly anything in the cupboards or refrigerator, my grandmother could still put together a warm, tasty meal.”

Cream sauces are not very much in vogue right now, but I must admit to having a fondness for them. Smooth, warm, rich with butter. Really, what’s not to like? All right, they are a little plain and old-fashioned, but what wrong with that?

I loved my mother’s creamed tuna, which she usually served over potatoes. (We are Mainers, after all.) But I wondered, could I jazz it up just a little, so that it would have extra zing? Yes, I could, with garlic and dill, nice additions which lifted the cream sauce from tasty to very tasty. And how about a little sour cream or yogurt to replace some of the milk? Ditto.

Creamed tuna is definitely a family dish and probably not one you would serve to company. However, when the thermometer barely rises above zero, and the wolf seems to be nuzzling the door, creamed tuna on potatoes (or toast) tastes, as my Yankee husband would put it, pretty darned good.

Note about the tuna: Tuna, as I’m sure readers know, can be high in mercury, with albacore being the worst. Chunk light tuna, which is often yellow fin, is lower in mercury and the tuna of choice in our house. Still, it is only an occasional treat for us.

 

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Food for Thought, News, Recipes

Blueberry Bran Muffins on Inauguration Day

IMG_2892Monday was a fine, cold day, perfect for making blueberry bran muffins to go with soup—Campbell’s Tomato, one of my weaknesses and the only canned soup I really like. After having made the muffins and heated the soup, I settled in the living room with my husband, Clif, so that we could watch the presidential inauguration while we ate our lunch.

There were all the usual things that go with an inauguration—the ceremony, the rituals, the swearing in, the first lady and daughters decked out in their finery, the patriotic songs—done beautifully this time by various singers. (Where else would you hear, on the same stage, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and James Taylor?) A Maine poet—Robert Blanco from Bethel—read a poem that was full of everyday things and working people.

But there were some surprises, too, chiefly President Obama’s speech, which was unabashedly liberal—or progressive, if you will. Despite the luminous delivery, it seemed to me that the president was throwing down the gauntlet to the Republicans. After four years of trying to work with Republicans and having terrible results, Obama made few references to bipartisanship in his speech. Instead, the president spoke of the need for collective action, of how freedom “was not reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.” President Obama noted that truths might be self-evident but they were not self-executing, that we cannot succeed when only a few do very well and when many can hardly make it. He affirmed gay rights, voting rights, and immigration rights. By gum, he even mentioned climate change, sustainable energy, and the environment.

As the columnist Mark Shields put it, this speech marked a change in attitude, from the “me” generation to the “we” generation. I agree, and it is long overdue.

I realize as well as anyone else that a speech is just words and that actions and results are what really count. Still, words do matter. They signal intent, and I felt more hopeful after hearing this speech than I have in a long time. Stiff opposition will likely follow, but President Obama just might surprise us with how much he is able to accomplish. After all, he passed a health care bill, something no previous president has been able to do.

Finally, as with election night when Obama was elected, I was struck by the beautiful diversity of the event. In America, there has always been diversity, it just wasn’t allowed to be visible. Yesterday it was, on the podium and in the crowd. And it was good to behold.

Note: This bran muffin recipe, one of the best I’ve tasted, has already been posted on A Good Eater. But because the recipe section isn’t exactly organized—Clif, are you reading this?—I’ve decided to post it again.

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