The Diary of A Simple Man

Today was a good day. I finished applying the second coat of stain to the pieces of the new bookshelf I'm building; that's all the staining that needed to be done. It's not a professional job, of course, but it looks fine. I'll let the pieces dry for a few days, maybe a week, and then put the whole thing together. It'll be great to be able to alphabetize and shelve all our movies!

I'll work on more shelves soon, if possible. I've heard that the price of wood has gone way up, but we'll see.

I also barbecued, and the burgers and hot dogs came out great. My technique has continued to improve. The burgers are smaller now (intentionally), but tender and juicy. Tonight I had Sebastian help by making the fries and some onion rings. I need to get him moving on learning to drive.

All in all I'm feeling good. Hopeful. For the first time in a long while.

My old frying pan has been getting a bit worn-looking - and since it's teflon-coated, that's not good. So when I saw a large cast-iron pan on sale at Wegman's, I picked it up on impulse.

I've never had a cast iron pan before, so I looked up some videos about it. It's...interesting; they're definitely very different from more modern pans! But I like that they can last forever, and that they don't have the kind of health concerns that teflon pans present.

So far I've just used it to make smashburgers for me and Sebastian a few times. They were, I must say, delicious. I don't know if it will be good for browning meat, but I'll give it a try soon. Tomorrow, though, I'm going to try seasoning it. It came pre-seasoned, but as I understand it more seasoning is always good. This should be interesting!

[As far as I can tell, there are NO other reviews of this book on the web. That's a real pity, particularly since it's very likely that it will never be published again. So I did my best to recapture the charming and memorable qualities of the book in this review.]

The Cat Who Tasted Cinnamon Toast by Ann Spencer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a lovely book! And how sad it is that I'm almost the only person in the world who seems to remember it. But I've shared it with my son - just read it to him again tonight, to his delight - so I've done my part to share the memories.

The Cat Who Tasted Cinnamon Toast was both written and illustrated by the talented Ann Spencer. It's the story of an elderly millionaire, Miss Margrove, whose cat Augie suddenly goes through a strange transformation: he absolutely refuses to eat cat food. One taste of cinnamon toast, and all is undone; he now insists on only the finest gourmet fare. His psychologist is unable to explain this mysterious change.

But Augie is fickle in his tastes, venturing into the haute cuisine of one culture after another. Miss Margrove's stable of chefs eventually lose their tempers and leave. Fortunately an unexpected television appearance by the French Chef, Julia Child, inspires Miss Margrove and saves the day.

The balance between text and art is particularly well done. Each page features large, finely-detailed black and white illustrations. Unusually, there is absolutely no "talking down" to the young reader; words and phrases like "Escoffier", "truite amandine", and "la vie en rose" are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Nonetheless, the story is quite easy for children to comprehend, and the humor of the words and illustrations is ideal for a child.

I first began reading The Cat Who Tasted Cinnamon Toast to my son when he was about four years old, at a guess. He loved it, and still does five years later; it helps that he's a cat-lover (and any child who is a cat-lover is sure to like this book). There are no serious crises, no moments of terror or stress. Augie is naughty at times, but in a very lovable way. It's a perfect bedtime book.

Reading the book aloud takes about one-half hour, including the very necessary time spent allowing the child to look at each picture. As I noted above, some of the cooking-related language is a bit esoteric; if you're not familiar with the words, you may want to look up pronunciations before reading it aloud. It's definitely worth the effort.

There is one illustration which might trouble some parents. When Augie sneaks out to the Omar Khayyam restaurant to be inducted into the wonders of Persian cuisine, the illustration includes a representation of a fairly large painting on the background wall that depicts a naked woman seated (with legs turned sideways) next to a man. So far, my son has never commented on it, and I see no reason to call it to his attention or be concerned. When I was a child myself, I never noticed it through many readings.

For very strict parents, I suppose the page where Augie gets drunk on baba au rhum could also be a concern. My son found it hysterical. So do I.

If you're reading aloud, a passable Julia Child impersonation adds quite a lot to the experience (she has a short but memorable television appearance in the book). It's also useful to be able to sing the old "Let Your Fingers Do The Walking" jingle from the Yellow Pages commercials in the 1960s and 70s. But neither is a requirement, of course!

The book is out of print forever, I suppose. It represents what might now be considered an impossibly "high culture" moment in America, an aesthetic which I cannot imagine will ever return to public awareness, much less popularity. And that's sad. Still, if you're lucky enough to find a copy, it's a wonderful, memorable book.


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To my surprise, Sebastian took another walk with me today. It was shorter than I wanted, only about 25 minutes, but we had a nice stroll.

Earlier tonight, I did an experiment of sorts. I mixed equal amounts of ground turkey and ground beef together, made it into hamburgers, and barbecued them.

I didn't like the way the meats mixed together; they weren't homogenous, but seemed like very moist clay. The texture seemed wrong. I mixed in a small amount of my soy sauce & Worcestershire marinade, but was very dubious about the whole thing - so much so that I grabbed some hot dogs and threw them on the grill too.

The burgers had the color of chicken breasts, and didn't smell quite right. I was psyching myself into nausea. But when I finally tried one, I have to admit: it was virtually indistinguishable from a regular beef burger. And I think it was probably a good bit healthier, since it had half the red meat of my usual burgers!

It was a lovely day. Teri and Sebastian woke me up for breakfast and gave me beautiful cards. My parents and my sister and her husband came down from Boston for a cook-out. We had a downpour (with lightning and thunder) after I lit the coals, but I dragged the grill under some thick leaf cover. The weather was strange, with the sun bursting out several times in the middle of the storm. But it stopped raining completely in time for me to cook.

I wish every Father's Day could be like today!

A few days ago Teri asked me to make breakfast for Sebastian. So I made my first omelet.

I should explain that I hate eggs, and never eat them. But suddenly it seemed silly not to make one for him.

So I made an omelet and included some bacon and ham that was left over from the breakfast of the previous day, along with some cheese. Made the whole thing into a sandwich on toast.

He loved it. My first omelet was a success!

I grilled burgers for dinner last night. That's not easy to do with only one hand, believe me! So Teri and Sebastian helped a lot.

Sebastian spent quite a bit of time out in the back yard with me. It was dark; it's been getting dark early, of course. The moon was just over half-full, hanging over our house near the chimney. I looked at it, and thought of Sebastian's telescope. My father gave it to him a year or two ago, but we hadn't been able to look at anything much with it so far. I wear glasses, you see, which makes it really hard for me to focus the damn thing. It's also really hard to aim it right.

But Sebastian took a look at the moon, and suddenly ran in the house and came out with his telescope. It took some work, but I was able to get it focused on the moon. The view was breathtaking. Sebastian loved it.

The burgers came out great, too.

Stayed up late last night. On Sunday I made a pan of chocolate-chip cookie bars for Sebastian's Cub Scout open house on Tuesday (tonight), but on reflection it seemed likely that it wouldn't be enough. So I made another pan tonight. He asked me to make them chocolate with white chocolate chips.

The white chocolate chips were pretty old, though, and to tell you the truth they're not very good-tasting. So I used the new bag of chocolate chips instead. It wasn't hard to make the cookie dough chocolate; I just added 2/3 of a cup of powdered baking cocoa. They smell delicious. It should be a pretty intense chocolate experience!

Too damned tired.

I don't often answer questions on Askville any more, but this was one I absolutely couldn't resist.

I’ve been questing for the perfect hamburger for more than thirty years now. I have a remarkably narrow palate - I don't eat fish, or any sort of birds if I can help it, and I'm not comfortable with the texture of steak - so I’ve probably eaten more hamburgers than almost anyone else in the world. Here’s how I cook mine.
 

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P.S. - Leftover burgers can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for much longer. They re-heat best either on the grill (be careful not to overcook!) or by being wrapped in aluminum foil with bit of marinade and put in the oven at around 450 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes (this is handy to do if you're making french fries in the oven as well). They'll be on the well-done side, but still very flavorful! I've also had excellent results using leftover hamburgers to make dirty rice. The smokiness of the burgers adds a nice extra kick.

As I've mentioned before, Rhode Island has one of the few remaining unexploited regional cuisines in the US. The city of Woonsocket has its own unique cuisine as well. I'm a transplant to Woonsocket, but since I've been living here for more than ten years now, I thought I'd take a stab at a Woonsocket dish.

I must admit that I was inspired by something I had at the Great Pumpkin Festival over in North Smithfield (which adjoins Woonsocket) on Saturday.

It was a dynamite, made by the North Smithfield firefighters. Very spicy, but very good. I looked up a few recipes online, and then went and basically winged my own version. It came out pretty good!

• 2.5 lbs 80% lean ground beef


• 2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped


• 1 large red pepper, coarsely chopped (green is traditional, but cooked green peppers disagree with Teri)


• 2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped


• 1 16-oz can tomato sauce, Italian style


• 1 8-0z. can tomato paste


• Minced gtarlic (I forgot this, and added dried minced garlic later; at a guess, 3-4 cloves would have been good)


• Sea salt and black pepper (red might have been better) to taste

In a very large frying pan, brown beef with the onions. Once most of the pink is gone from the meat and the onions are starting to turn clear, add the red pepper and celery. Continue to cook at a medium heat until the peppers and celery are soft - the red peppers will start losing their skins. At this point most of the fat should have cooked off (do not cover the pan while cooking!). Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, plenty of pepper (black and/or red), and salt to taste. Stir and simmer for another 10-20 minutes. Serve sandwich-style in soft, fresh Italian torpedo rolls. Leftovers can be stored or frozen.

I have to say, it was easier to make than I expected! And pretty good, too. It was my idea to not drain the meat before adding the peppers and celery, and it turned out to be a good one. They cooked very nicely in the hot fat.

Of course I have to admit that it's not the healthiest dish in the world...

P.S. - Of course I've had dynamites many times before. Chelos (a small Rhode Island chain of family restaurants) used to make an excellent one, although only at two of their locations. But they changed their recipe a while back, and it's nowhere near as good.

I can't remember what the dynamites were like at The Castle, but either I haven't tried them or they didn't make a big impression on me.

The dynamites at Bellingham Palace didn't work for me. The pieces of vegetable were far too big, and the whole thing didn't taste right. That's the only time I've had anything at Bellingham Palace that wasn't really good, though.

Dynamites are often served at local carnivals and festivals. Woonsocket also has at least one dynamite cook-off each year, and probably more (and no, I will not be entering).

Argh! I'm starving!