Slippery thoughts

Somehow, the last few days, even though at moments I seem to have pertinent observations & reactions to events around me, that might amuse and delight blog readers if I just wrote them down, I feel like it's all eluding me, slipping away -

My brother has written some pretty entertaining posts by simply recording random observations - 'course, he smokes some dope as inspiration, and I am still afraid to imbibe the bud-butter shortbread he sent me for Christmas.

Maybe it's a season of passages, and that's why I can't get a grip. I thought 2005 would be a big year - I turned 50; my mom, if she lived would've been 80; John 18, and graduating high school. Instead, even though my 2009 birthday will be 54, which doesn't seem nearly as significant, after my check up in April I got a letter from my doctor that the pap smear was normal, and the blood test shows I am officially in menopause. John's graduating college in a week, and my mom'll be dead 5 years at the end of July. I keep seeing pictures of people in the public eye, who turn out to be my age, or even a little younger, and they look so old ... William Kentridge is a year younger than me, hmm, but Yo Yo Ma's my age, and he looks good - Wikipedia's changed around the way they list births by year, and there seem to be less - I know, for example, that Jeff Koons is a '55 baby, and he's not on the list. Koons still looks youthful, preppy as hell, but youthful.

Yesterday I tried out a healthy cookie recipe from 101 cookbooks. They are both vegan, and gluten-free (and no sugar except what's in the chocolate chips). I think two out of two is bad in this case - I think I'm gonna chuck them. They're kind of like damp, banana-flavored, stacks of oats - and straw - there's a little unsweetened coconut in there too.
Click here for the original recipe, if you want to try it (Heidi's picture makes the cookies look better than mine - I think she made them smaller, so not so damp, and with big hunks of chocolate) -

I'll have to wait till it's time to take out the trash to chuck the cookies, though - or maybe I should compost them - because my cat has reached new heights of food thievery. She's known for a long time how to dive into the trash and pluck out what are tasty morsels to her, like paper towel on which bacon was drained, or plastic wrap that has recently been wrapped around cheese. The other night, she chewed up half a sponge to get a taste of pasta Primavera cream sauce, and this morning, while I was baking the rhubarb muffins, I left the baking ingrediants cabinet open, and turned back just in time to see her jumping down with a bag of marshmallows in her mouth.

Perhaps in response to the healthy cookies, or maybe just in my ongoing crusade to use up leftovers, I made enchiladas for dinner, chicken and beef, so plenty of meat & cheese. The chicken was left from the book club dinner - half a breast, shredded and combined with cooked onions, filled 6 enchiladas. These are the beef - ground chuck from Knoche's, a local institution with a reputation for great meat, where I had never shopped before, but had a chance to stop in Saturday. The meat was more finely ground than the ground beef from Sentry, and lean - did not have to drain any fat off. Next time I want to make a beef roast, that's where I'm going to get it!

The recipe for these is based on one from Everyday Food; I think I have posted it before, but here it is again: Tex-Mex Beef Enchiladas. I cleaned out the veggie drawer and made broth to use in the sauce, in lieu of the canned chicken broth called for.

Mark says they changed the formula for the rhubarb muffins at the farmers' market, from Stella's Bakery, and they're not as good this year. So today I made rhubarb muffins from the Rhubarb Ripple Coffeecake recipe I like.

Since they're filled muffins, they're a little unsteady - I like how they look tipsey on the cooling rack.

And maybe that's a rite of passage as well - I made the same coffeecake last spring, and also did a rhubarb muffin photoshoot.