I love caramelized onions, but cooking them on the stove takes a long time and constant stirring. Lately, I have been trying out recipes for doing them in the slow cooker:
5 very large onions, sliced thinly, a little butter, and salt
14 hours on low in the slow cooker,
Small, but delicious result:
I freeze them and then pop them out whenever needed.
You really must not mind the house smelling strongly of onions for a day or two!
The other night I went to bed a bit disheartened about things in general. As I lay there feeling a bit sorry for myself, I thought about how nice it would be to have a warm body to hug. Brindy was in her bed on the floor, so my obvious choice seemed to be to invite her up on the bed.
My immediate reaction to that thought, though, was that it would not be fair to the dog. After all, I don’t ordinarily allow her up on my bed while I’m sleeping and it didn’t seem right to confuse her just to satisfy my own need. How was she to know why the next night it was back to her own bed?
This idea of not treating other beings as objects for my own desires is something I have tried (very imperfectly) to practice for a long time and I started thinking about where I had first run across the concept. I was sure I had first seen it in Martin Buber’s book “I and Thou”. I know I tried to work my way through that tome when I was 26 or 27. I could picture reading it in my first apartment in Reseda. I can still even see a page in the book (left-hand side, middle of the page) when the idea enveloped my mind. I don’t know now if I ever finished the book or not, but what I took from it has stayed with me all these years as being part of a worthwhile guide to how to live an ethical life.
Since I had never looked at it again, I went on Amazon to see what was written about it; wondering if I was, indeed, thinking about the right book. Here’s a quote from the Amazon write up:
Throughout I and Thou, Buber argues for an ethic that does not use other people (or books, or trees, or God), and does not consider them objects of one’s own personal experience. Instead, Buber writes, we must learn to consider everything around us as “You” speaking to “me,” and requiring a response. Buber’s dense arguments can be rough going at times, but Walter Kaufmann’s definitive 1970 translation contains hundreds of helpful footnotes providing Buber’s own explanations of the book’s most difficult passages. –Michael Joseph Gross
“Rough going at times” is indeed what I remember about it, but apparently I did get the gist of his argument. I still haven’t found many better guides to how to treat others.
Any one else have a book that made a profound influence on their life?
Haven’t had much to write about. Like most of you, I am rarely out of the house. There are only so many pictures of my dog sleeping her day away that I feel I can post. Nevertheless, here’s another one of Brindy surrounded by her four “Big Blues”. These are the only toys she will have anything to do with.
The big fire in Cherry Valley in California is giving us smoky skies here. This was yesterday morning’s sunrise.
I did get a little bit ambitious over the weekend and made Praline Pull Apart Bread. Turned out quite well.
And here’s the Maple Pecan Twist I made a few weeks ago. It’s a good thing I have neighbors who are willing to help eat all these treats!
Today was my first walk in two weeks. I have been laid up with lower back pain. Apparently just muscle spasms as the X-rays didn’t show any signs of arthritis or fractures or any other type of bone problem.
At any rate, happy to be able to do a short walk and enjoy the sunrise.
We have had a coyote family in the scrub area next to our complex this year. Still haven’t been able to get any pictures of them as I am more worried about making sure Brindy doesn’t get involved with them than with pulling out my phone to snap a pic.
Yesterday, though, I was able to get this picture as we walked up the street. If you don’t see it at first, the coyote is mid-picture on the far side of the tee box. A few minutes after this shot, we saw the family of mother and two or three pups trotting down the nearby fairway. Too far away for a phone camera to get a shot unfortunately.
This morning one of the coyotes had just crossed the street in front of us as we started up the hill. Then as we went a few feet further, one on our side of the street stuck its head around the bluff about 20 feet away. We about-faced and decided we didn’t really need to climb the hill today!
At the end of the path in this picture you can spy a bunny who is not terribly concerned about Brindy. The animals around the neighborhood usually have a very fine sense of just how close is safe.
At Trader Joe’s the other day they had peonies. I don’t remember ever having a bouquet of these before. Impressive!
This little critter decided the flowers were way more important than the people and dog nearby.
Here in the Las Vegas area, our first day of summer is supposed to be 105°F or around 40°C. That’s a few degrees above the average. Still nice walking weather at 6 a.m., thankfully.
I just started the dishwasher and saw that I did not have a single dinner plate to wash: all bowls and small plates. Not sure what this says about what I am fixing mom and I to eat. Of course, she never eats enough to fill a dinner plate anyway!
As this “shelter at home” situation goes on, I find myself less and less inclined to cook. I made Country Captain last week. Seven chicken thighs, tomatoes, currants, seasonings, broth, etc., over rice. I had at least three meals from that; mom had five; and there was still a little left over that I threw out yesterday.
I could have frozen some, but that would have meant refreezing the chicken thighs and that doesn’t always turn out well. Besides, I still have stuff in my freezer from other dishes I’ve made that we couldn’t begin to finish up.
I really, really miss having people over to dinner: I have so many recipes to try. Cooking for two just isn’t exciting me any more.
I don’t often do trial runs of recipes: I just warn my guests that we may be sending out for pizza if things don’t turn out. I had seen a recipe for a leek terrine that I did want to try before setting it in front of company. I had never made any kind of terrine before and did not want to commit to buying four to five pounds of leeks without knowing how it would turn out.
So I made a small terrine with the three leeks I happened to have on hand. It turned out fairly well, although a bit bland. My terrine was only an inch or so high; I can see the layers would look impressive in a five-inch high serving.
Meantime, the flowers here around our complex our looking very fine.
Hope you all are well.
Still not much going on here. Nevada is slowly opening up, but while it’s nice to be able to go out occasionally, we’re still staying close to home. If it weren’t for doctor’s visits, we would almost never need to get gas!
Have gotten my hair done though. And mom is thrilled that she finally got hers cut.
Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from around our place:
Tuples and Attributes 