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The crisp fall air always makes me crave hearty, fall-flavored soup, but unfortunately, soup is not among my husband’s favorite meals. Among the few exceptions to this rule is our Levantine Clam Chowder. My husband learned the original recipe for this chowder from a Lebanese chef in
Recipe for Levantine Clam Chowder Ingredients: (Be forgiving, quantities vary with our mood and inclination!) - 1 quart of light cream - 2 small turnips (the apple-sized variety, white with purple tops and thin skins), diced - 1 medium-sized parsnip, diced - 2 cups of celery, diced - 1 cup of carrots, diced - 1 small yellow onion, diced - 4 gloves of garlic, diced - 1 8 oz. jar of clam broth or juice (we used a no-MSG variety from Snow’s) - 1 10 oz. can of whole baby clams (chopped clams can also be used if kids are squeamish about seeing clam bellies or if you aren’t from New England and feel squeamish yourself!) - 3 pinches of salt - 2 pinches of black pepper (onto coarsely chopped garlic) - ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (or crushed red pepper) - ¼ tsp cinnamon - ¼ tsp nutmeg - 2 pinches of cumin - Enough olive oil to sauté vegetables Yields 1.5 quarts of chowder Directions: First, set quart of light cream on counter to allow it to slowly warm to room temperature. Next, dice and brown diced carrots, parsnip, celery, turnips, and onion in olive oil with salt to taste. Be sure to sauté in a wide pan to allow moisture to evaporate. While this is sautéing, chop garlic on cutting board and sprinkle pinches of black pepper and salt over it. Allow garlic mixture to sit until vegetables are brown. Then, add garlic (coated with pepper and salt), cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and cumin to the pan and sauté a little longer, until you smell the garlic. (note: these flavors mix better when liquid has reduced, but be careful not to sauté too long, or the seasonings will burn). Pour sautéed vegetable mixture into a soup pot, adding the jar of clam juice and can of clams. Next, pour in the quart of cream. Stir and heat on medium-low heat for about 7-10 minutes. Chowder should simmer, but do not allow boiling, or the cream mixture will break! Now you're ready to serve! Enjoy with a tossed green salad with olive oil and balsamic dressing. We don’t eat bread, but fresh pita or lavash bread would be an excellent accompaniment!
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I've been writing here about lifestyle differences within the United States, but hoo boy, I noticed some really big differences when I visited England for the first time two weeks ago. And I think they stem from education!
I went to London and Birmingham with a colleague from work to check out the reception of a new packaging industry product in the British packaging trade (yep, that's what I do!). Well! Throughout the country I met people who were well-spoken, focused, and most astoundingly, well-educated. You might think I am writing about the "business people" I met. No way Jose, I'm talking about everyone, from the Indian-born clerk in the BP gas station where I bought "crisps" to the "northern" taxi drivers who brought me to and from the convention center and my hidden hotel, to the professional packagers who talked with me about my company's products. The vast majority of people I spoke with demonstrated knowledge of current events and technical matters.
One example that may be meaningful only to me (but I hope not!) was when two 60-something women visited my company's stand at a trade show and introduced themselves as the proprietors of a company that makes Christmas puddings year-round, selling them during the Christmas season within the UK. Well, I expected them to have some general interest in our computer-based products, but I was bowled over at their knowledge of computers and electronics. They certainly knew a lot more than I did! And yet their main experience had simply been baking for most of their lives!
If this conversation had taken place in Chicago, it would have been far more general in nature. These ladies would have asked their "technicians" to contact us for information, and many follow-up conversations would have been necessary. In comparison to Europeans, I think it is absolutely undeniable that most Americans have far less grasp of science and math, and far less understanding of the world around them because of this. I believe that, because subjects are taught so very differently in England, these two bakers had the knowledge they needed to size-up my company's technical products and determine whether they would be an advisable purchase.
Schoolchildren in Warwickshire
What a lesson to me! That experience served to solidify my interest in home schooling, and my concern for the children I have not yet had! |
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We had an awesome day apple picking today! The whole group of us met up at Barden's Orchard in the northwest corner of Rhode Island. I thought I would blog a little something about it today, especially after my writing about being so interested in life in other parts of the country. This is a great part of being in New England!
My father drove up from South County with my sister Alexis and her 4 year-old Aidan in the backseat, my brother Albie and his fiancee Barbra drove up on their motorcycle from their apartment in the middle of the state, and my husband Alex and I drove together from our Mill building condo just 15 minutes away, but late as usual. My family has been doing this on Columbus Day Weekend for many years, and I am so happy that we could do it again this year!
After picking the apples, we stopped at a farmstand to buy cider and were surprised to find apple wine. We bought a bottle of that as well, to enjoy with dinner. Then we all returned to my father's house near the ocean where we began making several apple pies (one for each household) and, for the first time this year, apple dumplings! Alex and I learned about and ate our first apple dumplings when we visited northwest Arkansas in August, and we decided to give them a whirl ourselves. For dinner we ate sauteed fish in lemon sauce, mashed cauliflower, roasted green beans, and a garden salad with some of the last of my father's garden tomatoes. Delicious!
Here are a few photos of us:
Here's my husband Alex striking a pose for the camera
My sister Alexis holding the bag while Aidan industriously fills it with apples
Rare sister shot: I'm stuffing an apple in my mouth while Alexis avoids the camera
This year Aidan helped peel the apples for the first time!
I hope this is how apple dumplings should look un-cooked! I got the recipe from southernfood.com
Here they are cooked! Not sure we prepared the pastry quite right!
And now for something we ALL knew would be just right: my father's apple pie!!
My Dad's crust is the best, and eating it with him makes it even better!
You can imagine how this ended: we ate a pie and apple dumplings served a la mode with vanilla ice cream from the homemade ice cream shoppe. I'm still full!
Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend yourselves!
- April |
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Here's a post that began as a reply to Small World, but that I wanted to share with everyone. It's about my interest in home schooling, which is a very "out there" idea to me and, I'm sure, to just about everyone I know and probably even to everyone they know.
In fact - this sounds very silly - but I'd never even heard of home schooling until I watched that special on the Duggar Family on Discovery Health. I was fascinated at how Mrs. Duggar could manage 16 children, especially since I come from a family of four children and we had a really difficult time "holding it together" without distress.
So from watching the few specials on television I began to seek out some information online, and that's how I discovered home schooling. Right away I noticed that everyone seemed to be from the southeast, heartland, south central, or northwest parts of the country, and almost no one was from New England!
Another embarassing confession: at the same time, I felt curiosity about these parts of the country about which I knew absolutely nothing! So, in a move called "bizarre" and "campy" by friends, family, and co-workers alike (who also thought it was interesting), Alex and I took our annual 4-day vacation celebrating our (two-year) anniversary to ... Eureka Springs in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas! (If any of you have seen the Duggar specials, this location is somewhere near their home - we chose it because we didn't know of anyone or anywhere else in that part of the country!) This was a big trip for us, and I can tell you that we found things and people to be even more different than we imagined! But: we liked the differences!
Now we are asking ourselves: what are we missing out on, commuting to Boston everyday and living here? As I said, I'd like to find out more about how others are living, what is important to them, and how they are making their children and spouses into families. |
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Hello everyone!
As my profile will tell you, I'm currently working full-time and attending school part-time online, while my husband is attending school full-time. We don't have children yet - and we're not even sure we will! However, last month I have stumbled across the HomeSchoolBlogger, and read with great interest the blogs of many home school families since then.
Your blogs have been a real education in a totally different way of life for me! Perhaps it's because I live in southern New England, but I have never known, or even known of, a home schooling family. I've never thought about home schooling before, either pro or con! For the first time, I am becoming very interested in the possibility of raising a family and teaching our children ourselves both to gain the joy and satisfaction of being together as a family and learning together naturally, and also to avoid many of the obvious pitfalls of public school education.
One of the main reasons I've created this blog is so that I will be able to post comments now and again on some of your blogs. I hope to exchange thoughts with some of you soon!
April |