How to Feed a Crowd in a Hurry

After seeing Julie and Julia in September, Tom reserved a video series from the library of Julia Child's cooking show. It was so popular that he didn't get it for two months. We just watched her Omelette episode filmed in 1972 and got a few good tips.

I'm certainly glad Julia hasn't had one of my omelettes. She would probably call it "rubbery" because mine spend too much time in the pan. Julia heats the burner to the highest heat, melts butter in the pan and just as it stops bubbling and before it turns brown she ladles in two or three eggs which she has prepared in advance. Then she begins to move the pan around on the burner, which loosens the egg from the edges and bottom of the pan. Next she pulls the pan toward her, back and forth, and the egg begins to fold onto itself with each movement. She grabs a plate in one hand and the pan in the other and turns it over onto the plate, straigthens the omlette with a fork if necessary, and sprinkles parsley over it (which "will cover up anything that has spilled"). Her omlette is complete in just 20 seconds.

The cameras move to the dining room and there we see it set and ready for an Omlette Party. She has several fillings prepared and shows how simple it is to move from one omlette to another, preparing them to order. As she is working, narrating what her imaginary guests have requested for filling their omlettes, she reveals her plan for feeding a crowd in a hurry.

Since it takes 20 seconds to cook an omlette, you can prepare three in one minute. Now if you have five people making omlettes at once, you can prepare 15 in one minute. In just 20 minutes you can make 300 omlettes. "So how's that for a last minute supper party for 300 people, served in just 20 minutes!"

So the next time 300 of your closest friends drop by for supper, you have no excuse. Grab you omlette pans and get to work!

Amy's World

I wish I still had my niece Amy's "world." She was a preschooler, just three or four years old, when she flew down from Juneau to spend a week with Gram and Gramps. It was my good fortune to get to have her with me for a day. One of our outings was to a map store in the Wallingford District, a tiny shop crammed full of maps, globes and other world wonders, a place that always fascinated me. Over dinner she enjoyed meeting my housemates, young women from several different countries, quizzing each one about where she was from. And now she wanted to make a "world."

I got her a couple of sheets of paper and she began to staple them together, leaving enough room for some stuffing. "Auntie Ginger," she said, "I need some cotton." "I don't have any," I replied. "When we get back to Gram's we can stuff your globe." "No, I need some cotton now."

I suggested old nylon stockings and anything else I could think of as a substitute that might work to stuff her globe, but she would not negotiate. "I'll call Etsuko," she said. "Maybe she has some cotton." So this determined little girl got on the phone and had me dial Etsuko, one of the residents from the upstairs apartment. Sure enough, Etsuko had cotton and she met Amy on the steps with it.

Her "world" stuffed and stapled, Amy proceeded to draw the countries she knew of, including the ones of the girls she'd met over dinner.

I like to think that I had something to do with her love of travel, that her exposure to the world that day was a little seed planted in her heart. I really don't know. But this I do know -- she loves to travel. Amy is fortunate enough to have a very good job that allows her lots of travel time, but her trips are not job-related. This month she'll make her ninth trip to Nicaragua, where she volunteers each year at an orphanage. The photo above is taken with two friends, Juana and Celia, that she met at a children's home in Bolivia. With her study term in Spain and trips to India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Uganda, Madagascar, South Africa, Peru and Argentina -- mostly countries Amy didn't know existed when she made her globe as a pre-schooler -- she's touching people's lives around the world.

Way to go, Amy!

Second Sunday of Advent

The Word was first,

the Word present to God,

God present to the Word.

The Word was God,

in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him;

nothing—not one thing!—

came into being without him.

What came into existence was Life,

and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

the darkness couldn't put it out.

There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

The Life-Light was the real thing:

Every person entering Life

he brings into Light.

He was in the world,

the world was there through him,

and yet the world didn't even notice.

He came to his own people,

but they didn't want him.

But whoever did want him,

who believed he was who he claimed

and would do what he said,

He made to be their true selves,

their child-of-God selves.

These are the God-begotten,

not blood-begotten,

not flesh-begotten,

not sex-begotten.

The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory,

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

true from start to finish.

(John 1:1-14, The Message)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

What's for Dinner?

My brother Tim sent us a recipe that we tried out last night. It's his rendition of a dish his friend ordered at a restaurant. We were a bit nervous because the volume of kale, but were surprised and pleased by how tasty it turned out to be! I wish I had taken a picture of it but you're just going to have to use your imagination about how it looks until you try it for yourself!

Thanks, Tim! It was delicious!

Tim's Kale and Cannellini Chicken

4 chicken thighs

olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 bunch kale, washed and chopped

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained

1 28-oz can stewed tomatoes, drained and chopped

salt and pepper

chicken stock

In a large frying pan, brown chicken thighs in olive oil. Remove from pan and saute onion and garlic in same pan. Add kale and stir till it wilts a bit.

Add beans and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add enough chicken stock to cover and stir well. Add the chicken thighs back to the pot. They should not be submerged in the liquid.

Cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Serve over a bed or rice. Enjoy!

Can You Help Tami?

I received an e-mail from a dear friend, a writer, about her niece's difficult situation. As a caring aunt, she has thought of a way to help Tami and her family. I wanted to share the e-mail with you and let you know that she is happy to have you pass it on too if you'd like. Here it is:

CAN YOU HELP TAMI?

Here’s a chance to find a gift for someone special on your list and to help a hurting family at the same time.

My niece, Tami Wheatley Nichols, is going through a very dark valley right now as she battles advanced kidney cancer. It has spread to her lungs, making every breath a struggle. My sister, Patty Rawlins Wheatley, cares for her while Tami’s husband Bert works swing shift. Tami's twelve-year-old, Delaney, also does all she can to help.

They have catastrophic insurance, but it does not fully kick in until they have paid the first $7500 out of pocket. They will have barely reached that deductible in December, then another $7500 deductible starts in January. It would greatly ease their minds if they didn’t have to worry so much about where they’ll find the money.

We are offering a copy of my book, “A Logger’s Daughter: Growing Up in Washington’s Woods,” for each donation of $15 or more. “A Logger’s Daughter” costs approximately $20 plus tax in bookstores and online, so this is a good deal. Every penny you send, outside of shipping and handling costs, goes directly to the Nichols family.

You can order through my website, http://www.rainsongpress.com or at this address:

RainSong Press

26929 81st Dr. NW

Stanwood, WA 98292

Please indicate that your contribution is for the Tami Nichols Benefit Fund. Let me know if you’d like your book(s) autographed. If you are able to help Tami in this way, please accept our heartfelt thanks. Feel free to send this on to people you know who might be interested. You are welcome to personalize this however you like.

Sincerely,

Joan Husby (and Hank)

Mrs. Fix-It

There are women in my life who are creative and resourceful, mechanical even. My friend Janice, the one with the birds, hikes up the hill and fixes her well and water pump, lays flooring in her house, does whatever needs doing. Dad says Mom is so handy at home repair that she makes up for the brother he never had! My sister Peach grieved when Ernst Hardware closed its doors years ago because it was her favorite place to shop.

Not me. I'm satisfied with pumping my own gas and feel proud when I can get the printer ink changed. But now and then I do take on a challenge.

Yesterday it was the fan in our bathroom. I've been noticing that it had collected so much dust that the mirrors weren't clearing completely after a shower. So when I was scrubbing the bathrooms yesterday I decided to tackle the fan.

From perching on the rise of the shower -- where it comes up to meet the shower door -- I was able to reach up to the fan with a rag. As I worked I wiggled the cover and it slid out of place and dangled down three or four inches, hanging by a couple of U-shaped wires. I began cleaning in earnest. Some of the dust came out, but much of it got pushed into the corners of the fan's cover. So I flipped the cover around to get at it from the underside and the wire on one side came loose, making it easier to clean. I hauled the step ladder and the vacuum cleaner up the stairs and went back to work.

It's amazing the positions your body can assume when you are determined to complete a job. With one foot on the step ladder and one on the sink, trying to get the vacuum cleaner hose to reach the fan cover, I struggled to keep my balance. It was like doing a pirouette on a pogo stick. Finally I was satisfied with my cleaning job, but that was the easy part.

Getting the fan cover back on was the hard part.

To get the wire back into place so that I could push the cover into its proper position I had to get the little round circles at each end of the wire into its proper hole. By now my 5 feet 10 inches are stuffed into a space above the sink about 5 feet high, and I am having to lean away from the vanity bulbs to keep from burning a hole in my shirt. At some point it occurred to me turn off the fan. If this job was going to kill me it wouldn't be from electrocution. And who, I wondered, would bring meals to my family with all its unusual dietary issues if I ended up in the hospital from falling off the ladder or sink?

I wiggled and moved and forced those circles of wire with no luck. I could see how one had just a round hole to fit into and the other had a larger area to slide into and then pop into its hole, but it took a while to figure out that the slider went in after I got the other one in place. Since the cover hung only about three inches below the ceiling, I found it difficult to get my hands into the space to attach the wire. My feet moved around the sink for a better position; I'd switch one foot back to the ladder, steadying myself by holding onto the top of the shower door. Round and round I went. At last the first end of the wire popped into place!

Oh, no -- I got the left side of the wire into the hole on the right side! By now I'm sweating like a, well, something very unpleasant, and my face looks like I stayed way too long at the beach. Now the crazy wire won't come out of the hole!

Ten minutes later, my neck stiff from all the scrunching I've had to do, I push the cover back into place, climb off the sink, and fix myself a cup of tea. Now I remember why it took me so long to get to this task!