9/11...2010

If you have friends in Gloryland,
Who left because of pain
Thank God up there, they'll die no more
They'll suffer not again.

Then weep not friends, I'm goin' home
Up there we'll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

The lame will walk in Gloryland
The blind up there will see
The deaf in Gloryland will hear
The dumb will talk to me

The doctor will not have to call
The undertaker, no
There'll be no pain up there to bear
Just walk the streets of gold

We'll need no sun in Gloryland
The moon and stars won?t shine
For Christ Himself is light up there
He reigns of love divine

Then weep not friends, I'm goin' home
Up there we'll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore
(Gloryland by Carbon Leaf)


9 years... may we continue to remember.

Splenda... Splendid?

There is a lot of debate out there on how to lose weight. No carbs, low-fat, blah blah. I am happy to sidestep the entire question and come to the general conclusion that we can all agree sugar is bad for you…although equally highly delicious. For years I have shied away from baking with Splenda (figuring it was a disaster waiting to happen), but I finally caved a couple weeks ago and tried it in a banana bread recipe, hoping that if the Splenda truly was awful the natural sweetness of the bananas might salvage things. Well, much to my surprise, the bread was great! The texture was fluffy like it was supposed to be (fluffy for banana bread anyway) and I honestly couldn’t tell that there wasn’t real sugar in it.

Of course, I made mine with chocolate chips, so the chocolate might have masked the lack of added sugar… but still, it’s a healthier version than it would have been! I thought I’d pass along the recipe to anyone who, like me, finds themselves in the curious-but-scared-to-try-it-before-someone-else-verifies-it-might-work stage of Splenda cooking.

Banana Bread (healthy substitutions optional…after all, bananas are healthy by themselves!)
½ cup butter, soft
1 cup granulated sugar (I used splenda, as copiously detailed above)
2 eggs
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
2.5-3 bananas, ripe & mashed
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like dark chocolate chips for the darker flavor) or ½ cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Combine butter, sugar, eggs. Sift together flour/soda/salt and add to butter mixture. Add mashed bananas and mix together. Add sour cream, vanilla, and chocolate chips (or nuts) and stir again. Pour into pan and bake approx one hour. Then enjoy!

I initially found that this recipe made slightly too much batter for one loaf but not quite enough for two. Annoying. (Let’s just say the first time around I succumbed to temptation to use all the batter, filled the pan to the brim, and 30 minutes later was staring in horror as clumps of batter overflowed, fell to the bottom of the oven, and burned to an ‘aromatic’ crisp). I later realized I had an abnormally big loaf pan, so I think for most this would do two loaves… or I’ve actually baked mine in a 9x9 pan. The recipe rises a decent amount (hence batter dripping/burning story above), so in a 9x9 pan it can pass as breakfast or can be served as cake as the mood strikes. I learned this culinary flexibility from my mother…to quote her wisdom on a similar culinary treat, if it’s after noon, it’s apple pie. If it’s breakfast time, it’s apple Danish!

Being a New Yorker now I don’t do a whole lot of meal cooking, but I found this website to be a good source for recipes. Many of the recipes are based around South Beach food (but don’t let the mention of healthy food scare you off); I found it a good resource for lots of different foods… I personally recommend the roasted Italian sausage soup – it was delicious!
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2005/05/recipe-favorites.html

And the mentioned soup:

http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/03/roasted-italian-sausage-soup-recipe.html

The Mirage of Matisse

We went with my parents today to the Museum of Modern Art's visiting exhibit on Matisse. This probably demonstrates my woeful lack of art history skills, but I had no idea that Matisse was such a revisionist in his art. And no, I don't mean that he revised the rules of what 'art' was (although he did) -- what I mean is that he literally painted over and over on the same canvas. He'd move people over slightly, create background and then change it, and in some cases complete scenes that he would then entirely paint over. A prime example of this is the 'View of Notre Dame.' The picture on the left is the original painting; the one on right is the final version. The new version paints over the old with a blue background, but glimpses of the original are still faintly visible.


At first I found this painting annoying - the first one seemed much more detailed and more 'interesting,' at least in the obvious sense that there was more going on visually. But as I perused through the multiple gallery rooms of Matisse's work, I began to appreciate his desire to keep improving and keep molding his original canvases. If I was an artist, I probably would have tossed the canvas and started over, but Matisse recognized that a piece of art is a journey, and each phase should be appreciated and remembered rather than covered over completely or thrown in the garbage.

This seems much like life to me. We often hear it described as a journey, but it is also not that simple... not that linear. I think we are all much like Matisse's canvases... colorful and flawed; people who learn and change and continue through life. But through it all, we retain memories and traces of colors from our previous stages/experiences.

The pitfall of looking at Matisse is that at first you only see the top layer. You have to look closely and really carefully inspect the work to see the layers of paint underneath. This cursory "I glimpsed and what I saw on top must be all that's there" attitude is unfortunately common, and a recurring pitfall among both politicians and the media/reform bills surrounding the financial crisis. The easy thing to see is Wall Street -- blame the fat cat bankers who only cared about profits and drove the country into the ground. Well, yes, bankers certainly hold their share of blame. But underneath this obvious scapegoat are myriad other parties at fault hiding behind the bankers. The mortgage issuers who earned commission per loan and didn't care who they issued them too. The people who took out the loans, knowing they wouldn't be able to afford the payments. The lawyers who wrote wording for the mortgage contracts that was so complex and convoluted that no one could really understand what they were signing. And even partly the government, who put LIBOR near zero, essentially offering the banks free money to use however they wanted (and use it they did). So are the bankers to blame? Partly, yes. But like Matisse there are many more hidden factors at play.

Britt Scripp Scones

A couple weeks ago Chris and I were in Southern California for vacation and spent the last couple days of our trip in San Diego at the Britt Scripps Inn (pictured on left), a home from the 1880's renovated into a nine room B&B. The place was great... individualized service, and each room had its own unique decorating theme. We were in the carriage house, a freestanding house in the yard converted into a room with a french country decor. But by far the highlight of the stay (for me at least) was the made-to-order breakfast, which began each morning with a different scone course...not to mention the fresh squeezed OJ in crystal juice glasses, personalized menus, and cute tables for 2.

On our last morning there, I found the chef and asked for the scone recipe. Afraid it was a secret family recipe, I was ready to grovel and offer to name a future child after her, when I was shocked to hear the recipe came from the Joy of Baking online! The one listed is chocolate chip, but another morning we had a blueberry with white chocolate chip version that was awesome too. For those adventurous in the kitchen, the recipe is here:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesChocChip.html

I've never seen buttermilk in a scone recipe before, so perhaps this is its secret to greatness??

I have a secret dream of one day opening a small store that is half bakery, half bookstore. Yes, I know e-readers are the new thing (full disclosure: I have a kindle and love it), but nonetheless, the dream lives on. Anyway, I have now added these scones to my imaginary baked goods inventory. (Maybe if I sell kindles the business will actually be viable?) In the mean time, however, I'll keep my current job as an investment portfolio/accountant type. Maybe I can be like Clark Kent, accounting/financing during the day and popping out at secret moments to save people's lives with a much needed slice of apple pie...


A few other pictures of our California escapades:

Flour, Eggs, and Financial Regulation

I feel sort of ridiculous. I usually think of bloggers as falling within two buckets: those who are blogging as a job, and those who are blogging to update friends/family on Unusual Escapades or Grand Adventures. I am neither of those. And having read blogs of friends in Teach for America, serving the poor in St. Louis, and generally solving the world's problems for little to no money, I realize people generally have little motivation in reading about my life - that while perhaps marginally interesting one cannot really compete with the "how-I-single-handedly-saved-an-African-village-from-drowning-by-teaching-free-bridge-weaving-classes-to-indigenous-people" stories.

However, I am going to ignore all of that, and write about what I find interesting - namely, at the moment, finance, baking, and living life in the current locale of the big apple.

So stay tuned ... at least you'll never know what you might find here next! :o)