LSA News

No. 85, November 2007

If you have anything you want in the next newsletter, send it to lsaweb@lists.uoregon.edu

Index Food Thanks Giving (A Love Story) by Rose Layton Persian Food by Nargas Oskui The Italian Diet by Risa Bear (Not so light) Light Soup with Chicken by Mandi Garcia MPCU Takes a Field Trip by Dotti Clegg Tasty Tostadas! by Lonni Sexton Backyard Diversity by Melissa Logan Random Question From the Fact File by Terry McQuilkin Events of Interest Announcements People in the Library

Rice noodles with tahini dressing accompanied by avocado and persimmon prepared and photographed by Melissa Logan

Thanks Giving (A Love Story)
by Rose Layton

We were both great cooks. We were comfortable working in the kitchen and liked to cook a meal together each night. In fact, we sometimes found ourselves trying to out-cook one another in an attempt to impress.

photo by Terry McQuilkin

But, when Thanksgiving rolled around each year, it brought out the worst in both of us.

Which Thanksgiving dinner would we eat? My mother's Southern-style meal planned around the turkey, a cornbread-based dressing, giblet gravy, green beans cooked with the ever-present bacon, candied yams, and sweet potato pie for dessert? Or his mother's Midwestern-style meal with a bread-based stuffing baked inside the turkey, green bean casserole, baked acorn squash, and a pumpkin pie with plenty of whipped cream topping?

Each year, the tension mounted as the week of Thanksgiving shopping approached and we had to reach an agreement on which meal we would cook. The grocery budget (and our waistlines) would not support us cooking a Thanksgiving feast that included every dish that we both wanted from both menus. Stubborn as we were, both of us dug in our heels and refused to budge from the Thanksgiving meal we were looking forward to eating. We would finally come to an "agreement" or we would have ended up with no Thanksgiving dinner. But one of us would be secretly resentful of the meal that we had expected and not cooked. Finally, the tentative Thanksgiving agreement broke down when he had the audacity to suggest that the sweet potato pie and the pumpkin pie tasted the same to him!

That next year's Thanksgiving led to an outright "Iron Chef"-like competition, with the secret ingredient being "pie." We did not have two kitchens to work in, so we scheduled separate sessions to bake our pies in without interruption (or spying) from the competition. Pastry crusts were made from scratch, the pie ingredients were measured and mixed carefully, and two pies were lovingly baked in that old oven and set gently on the cooling racks when they were done.

After the big Thanksgiving dinner was over, we each sat down together over coffee and tiny slivers of both kinds of pie dolloped with a little bit of whipped cream on the top. Slowly, we tasted each pie and looked into each others' eyes. Sheepishly, he admitted that the pies did not taste the same. And, shyly, I smiled and agreed that while they did not taste the same, they were both equally good.

That next year, when we sat down to plan our Thanksgiving dinner, we were able to pick the recipes that made us both happy. His mother's green bean casserole and baked acorn squash, my mother's giblet gravy and candied yams, both a stuffing and dressing baked with the golden turkey. And, we managed to bake the desserts together. Dessert was one plate shared, two pieces of pie: one pumpkin and one sweet potato.

ROSE'S MOM'S SWEET POTATO PIE

(Recipe approved for distribution by Rose's mom)

2 to 2 1/2 cups sweet potatoes or yams, cooked and mashed (or 1 large can of yams)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 pie shell, unbaked

Mix together well in a big bowl using a hand mixer and pour into large 9" pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes (until filling is firm to the touch in the center). Cool.

Serves 8.

Persian Food by Nargas Oskui

I was born and raised in the United States, but I've been to Iran nine times. The last time I was in Iran was the summer of 2005. I have grown up on Persian food and I feel grateful for it; it's healthy and rich in flavor. My mother always prepares authentic dishes, and I've been learning a little here and there. One of my immediate goals is to prepare complicated dishes. I went home the other day, and upon entering the front door the smell of the food cooking took me back to Iran.

Nargas sent a number of links to some great-looking recipes, and recommends the Persian Cuisine pages of Persian Mirror and the Persian Recipes page of Persian City. Recipes aside, Persian Mirror looks like an interesting site. Although Nargas and her family get their spices from Iran, through friends returning or when they visit there themselves, many of these spices can be found in stores like the Kiva or Market of Choice. Pomegranates, at 2833 Willamette, has an intriguing selection of foods from all around the Mediterranean, as well as a small, interesting cookbook section.

For "an accurate account of modern Tehran," Nargas recommends watching "Rageh in Iran," a BBC documentary.]

To explore some of the recipes Nargas recommends, click here. —Ed.

The Italian Diet by Risa Bear

Are we allowed to have spaghetti yet? Is Atkins over?

The real trick, though, is to make only enough that there can be no "second helping." And cooking it less, which results in what Europeans call al dente. This spaghetti is a little harder to chew and digests more slowly.

Now add your own home-made sauce, made in a small enough quantity that there will be no leftovers. Make fresh, eat fresh.

Dice very small some zucchini, green onions, pok choi, mushrooms, and, if you like it, tofu. Blenderize a homegrown Roma tomato with a chili pepper. Mix all these. No need to cook the sauce. You could put it all in the blender, but I like texture.

photo by Risa Bear

Drain the al dente noodles, put them on a heated plate, pour the sauce over them, and add two more ingredients: a sprinkling of basil flakes and chopped elephant garlic blossoms (in season).

Serve with a simple three-lettuce salad (Romaine, Simpson, iceberg). Skip the Thousand Island, and use a vinegar-virgin olive oil dressing made with your own hands. Doesn't need to be too fancy; just add your favorite spices, along with a garlic clove, to a sixteen ounce bottle of your choice of vinegar, and when you're ready for the dressing (don't try to make ahead) combine one oz. of the vinegar to one oz. oil in a four ounce bottle and shake.

If you're dining alone, the above should work, or multiply quantities as needed for two or for guests.

For drink, try serving water or a very small glass of red wine, or both.

You can do all this in a half hour. Spend another half hour lingering over dinner and chatting. For dessert, go take in a nice sunset.

This can all be part of a daylong plan: cup of oatmeal with diced apple, or one egg on one piece of toast for breakfast, snack on carrots, salad for lunch, celery for snack, and now the one-helping pasta dinner. I know that sounds like starvation to some people, but, really, that lunch salad can be sustaining if you build it yourself in the morning.

Example:

Take a pair of scissors and go through a handful of leaf lettuce, some pok choi, spinach, leaf of red cabbage, snow peas, red bell pepper, and those ubiquitous elephant garlic blossoms. Dice up a firm small ripe tomato or halve some cherry tomatoes. Toss. Heat up some diced pok choi and red chard stems in a small nonstick frying pan, lightly oiled (virgin olive, which is good for you). Add cubed tofu and mushrooms. Now add sesame seeds or sunflower seeds, and some basil. When it looks ready (pok choi beginning to soften, but mushrooms not shriveled) take off the heat to cool, then add to the salad. Toss again. Seal in a container and take to work.

If you prefer, try dicing up a hard-boiled egg instead of the tofu and mushrooms.

This works! And it takes only about as long as standing in line at the Grind while two people in front of you get their espresso mocha thingies made.

(Not so light) Light Soup with Chicken by Mandi Garcia

This recipe is an Americanized, revised version of one of my favorite Ghanaian soups. Normally, you would eat it with fufu, TZ, or banku, but I usually just eat it alone or with rice.

Light Soup is a very popular soup in Ghana. It is usually made with goat or fish, but chicken and beef work well too. Fufu is cassava, yam, and/or plantain that has been boiled, then pounded into a doughy ball. TZ (pronounced like "tea-zit") is made by boiling and stirring corn or millet flour into a gelatinous mass. Banku is a fermented corn flour mixture that is formed into a ball. Each of these are staple foods in Ghana, served with soup, stew, or hot sauce (peppe). They are eaten morning, noon or night.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
2 cups chicken broth
2 T tomato paste
1 eggplant
3 medium tomatoes
2 T chopped ginger root
4 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1 habanero pepper
2 T butter (optional)
Salt to taste

First remove the skin and chop the eggplant into cubes; boil these to soften. Meanwhile, chop the onion, garlic, pepper and ginger into small pieces and place in a food processor. Blend until smooth and set aside in a large bowl.

When the eggplant is soft, strain and let cool. Now blanch the tomatoes and remove their skin. Dice the tomatoes and place in food processor. Blend, and set aside with other mixture. When the eggplant is cool enough, blend it too.

In the large bowl mix all of this together with a half a cup of water. Strain mixture into a pot. The mixture should be smooth with no large chunks. Add chicken broth, tomato paste, and a cup of water to the pot. Bring to boil. At this point, add the (optional) butter. Place chicken thighs into the pot, lower heat to medium, cover and let simmer for 1 hour (add more water if necessary). Salt to taste and serve.

Serves 2-4 (depends on if you're really hungry or not)

The World Around Us
Backyard Diversity by Melissa Logan
photos by Erik Dahl and Melissa Logan

Mine is a typical middle-class family. We get competitive when we play board games, we all worry about what to get each other for Christmas, we love the Oregon Country Fair every summer ... okay, so we're hippies. And we each have a particular, or peculiar, diet.

Squash salad with apricot curry dressing

Growing up, I ate a lot of junk food at my mom's, but my dad carefully learned and adapted to what I would eat, as my perpetual pickiness waxed and waned. He'd find sources of protein and vegetables I liked and made desserts from scratch so they weren't full of chemicals. Looking back, I think I was pretty lucky, but when I was a kid, other people thought of my diet as weird! No one understood why I didn't eat meat, eggs or garlic. Those things are good for you, right? Why wouldn't I eat them?

So, I've decided to write about diet diversity in my family. The funny thing is, most of us don't really think of ourselves as picky eaters. We all have things we do or don't eat and various reasons ranging from personal preference, to the effect of food on the mind, to health. There's my dad Ravi, who follows a sattvic diet (no garlic, onion and ... well, you'll find out), my stepmom Michele who can no longer eat wheat, my little sister Asha who is even pickier than I was when I was her age, my darling boyfriend Erik who will eat anything, but somehow mainly survives on wine, cheese, and bread, and there's me. I no longer follow the sattvic diet, but it's influenced my tastes and the way I think about food.

(story continued)

The Materials Processing and Conservation Unit Takes a Field Trip
story and photos by Dotti Clegg

Section sewing

On September 12, 2007, Carol Lenocker, Marilyn Mohr, Audery Lee, Amanda Garcia, Dotti Clegg, and Brenda Willis of MPCU piled into a moderately comfortable minivan and headed for Walla Walla, Washington to visit the Northwest Library Bindery, Inc., in Walla Walla, Washington.

For many years now we have been sending journals, repairs, and other materials up to Washington to be bound by their fabulous crew of people, but half of current MPCU staff had not yet seen the bindery. There was a lot of glue, machines, and hard work. We were given a guided tour of the bindery by Mark Melahn, the one person in the bindery that can run every single machine. They are a highly efficient and organized crew of people. Despite the large volume of pieces they make very few mistakes and rarely, if ever mix up pieces.

Pioneer Women

It was interesting to see that we do many of the same types of binding that they do right here in our own conservation lab, just on a much smaller scale. They put a book together with side sew, fan glue, and oversewing, make pockets, back boards to books, and add end sheets. The only things we don't do are lettering in gold and computer lettering on buckram cover sheets, and the "flex-m" process.

This was a three day trip. On Wednesday, we stopped at Maryhill Museum, and visited a wine tasting room and vineyards. On Thursday, we visited the bindery and had lunch with the office team. We also visited Three Rivers Winery, and made a trip to the Whitman National Park and dressed in authentic clothes of the time period. Marilyn Mohr and I made a trip to visit a friend of Theo's at Whitman College. We all left early Friday morning for the drive home: a beautiful drive along the mighty Columbia Gorge.

Click here for more photos from the trip

Tasty Tostadas! Or: How to Carry On When All Gusto Has Been Drained From Your Life
by Lonni Sexton

I was rooting around in the fridge the other day looking for something to make for dinner. All I had were odds and ends, nothing appetizing. Then a few things caught my eye: stale tortillas ... some leftover chicken ... half a cabbage ... a small tomato .... Eureka, I thought, Tostadas. Once again, Mexican food saves the day.

Eh, but I'm on Weight Watchers now. I can no longer eat food the way it was meant to be enjoyed. So instead of frying those tortillas until crisp in half an inch of hot oil, I had to put them under the broiler. By the way, if you don't care about your health and you want to fry these, fresh tortillas will not work. They must be stale. Fresh ones fried in oil will turn into a peculiar mush.

Here's my recipe: shred cabbage until you have a cup (less, if you hate cabbage). Squeeze half a lime over the shredded cabbage, and, if you can still have salt in your diet, pause for a moment and give thanks to the god of your choice. Then liberally salt the cabbage and grind some fresh pepper over it. Chop up the tomatoes and some onions.

Don't forget to chop up a chili pepper too. Try seeding it and grilling it under the broiler along with those tortillas until the skin blackens. Wrap it in a paper or plastic bag for a few minutes. When it is cool, rub off the blackened skin. Slice into very thin strips. Sprinkle these on top of your tostada for spice. I like these better than raw chilies.

These are also the chief ingredients for fish tacos, so if you have some frozen fish fillets taking up space in your freezer, try them on your tostada. Or, if you have some frozen shrimp, thaw some under cold running water, shell them, then squeeze the other half of the lime over them. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with minced garlic and a big pinch of salt. At this point, I used to add a liberal shot of tequila to liven things up a little, but tequila is not on the Plan so I no longer do this. Let them marinade for about an hour.

Did you know you can grill shrimp directly on your stovetop burners? It's true! I learned this in college from three guys who lived in a small apartment near me. Their oven was broken so everything was cooked on top. Of course, this creates a fire hazard that some people will find unacceptable. In fact, I was in their kitchen talking to one of the guys when his shirt burst into flames. He put it out by calmly rolling his shirt up from the bottom.

I am quite sure that by the time I figured out which way to roll up my shirt, my hair would be on fire. So I cook shrimp under the broiler and I keep a small fire extinguisher in the kitchen. You can put the shrimp on the same sheet as the tortillas. They take about the same amount of time to cook. Don't forget to spray the baking sheet with some PAM (or rub it with organic hand-pressed virgin olive oil, or whatever you have in the cupboard).

Anyway, next open a can of black beans, or use those leftovers from last night. Heat them up. Grate a little cheese for a topping. Remember that cheese is a garnish, not a life-restoring manna, and like all food, it cannot replace essential human relationships. Assemble the tostadas starting with the black beans topped with your choice of shrimp, leftover chicken, ham, grilled tempeh or whatever, followed by cheese, cabbage, tomatoes and onion. Top with some green salsa if you have some (green salsa goes well with cabbage.)

If you are on a diet like me (sigh), a modest amount of lowfat yogurt or non-fat "sour cream" is allowed. Otherwise, go for the good stuff: crema agria. This stuff is super! I baked a chocolate cake with it once that was like having a dopamine injection. Definitely not on the Plan.

Vegans: tired of beans in every recipe? Try a mélange of lightly sauteed yellow crooknecks, onions and red bell pepper. Squash and corn share an affinity that is both delicate and beautiful, yet strange, like first cousins who are also newlyweds. Heck, sauté squash blossoms and throw them on top. I've never tried this but it sounds good.

Well, this ends today's episode of Cooking with a Depressed And Hungry Former Foodaholic. Don't come back looking for that chocolate cake recipe, by the way. I burned it. Next time: How to remove all the fat (and joy) from popular Italian dishes.

Bon appétit!

Random Question

From the Fact File
by Terry McQuilkin

For some of you, changes in the menu for your holiday meal will cause serious consternation. Use the same stuffing for the turkey as every other year, and don't mess with the pie recipe! If that's you, we're going to ask you to loosen up a bit, at least long enough to do this month's contest, because we've served up an international feast that would probably give Aunt Thelma a heart attack, but that we hope you'll find tempting. See if you can identify the plates and places described in the clues that follow.

1. Plantains are a very important part of Puerto Rican cuisine. Were you to find yourself enjoying a traditional meal on the island this Thanksgiving, you might whet your appetite with platanutres (fried plantain chips) dipped in mojo (garlic and lime sauce) and you might find amarillos (fried sweet plantains with sugar) as a side dish. And don't be surprised if your're served a traditional Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with a concoction made of mashed fried plantains, olive oil and garlic, common to several Caribbean nations, but particularly associated with Puerto Rico. Give us the name of this foodstuff.


2. If you're tired of the usual dinner rolls, you might want to add a touch of Scandinavia to your table. Quite a few Norwegian American families include this traditional flat bread made with potato flour on their Thanksgiving and Christmas menus.


3. Kimballton, Iowa has a strong Danish American heritage, and it's perhaps no surprise that in the city's park is a replica of "The Little Mermaid" like the one in Copenhagen's harbor. Should you visit this town during Thanksgiving weekend, you'll not want to miss Julefest, which signals the beginning of Christmas celebrations, and where you might enjoy this apple pancake that's usually prepared in special pan and served with powdered sugar and jam.


4. In the northern part of Finland you might be served poro during the Christmas season. Tell us why this would not be welcome news to Dasher and Dancer by giving us the English-language equivalent.


5. Quebecers and people of Québécois ancestry are apt to be enjoy this traditional meat pie, usually made with pork, beef or veal, at Christmas and New Year's Eve.


6. Maybe you'd like to conclude your feast with a taste of Hawaii. Usually cut up into little squares, haupia is a traditional pudding made from a fruit that is abundant in the islands. Give us the name of this fruit that is a member of the family Arecaceae.


7. Of course, there is almost no end to the list of desserts you could include. Vinarterta, means Viennese tort, but is likely to have originated in Denmark rather than Austria. In any event, this fairly simple cake (the ingredients might be flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baker's ammonia, baking powder and cardamom) is strongly identified with a Scandinavian country that was home to the pop group The Sugarcubes (one of whose members became profoundly famous). Tell us the name of this country.


8. This dish, consisting of boiled wheat often flavored with honey, sugar and fruit, predates the Christian era, but has become a liturgical dish in the Eastern Orthodox traditions of Greece, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It is eaten after funerals as well as at the Christmas meal.


9. We're looking for the French name of a traditional French dessert, whose name translates to "Yule Log," is served during the holidays, and is made from sponge cake, frosted, rolled in the shape of a log, then frosted again. It's often filled with chocolate buttercream and dusted with powdered sugar.


10. The name of this traditional food comes from a Nahuatl word, and it has become an essential part of the Mexican Christmas culinary tradition. Typically, women of the family will make several dozen of these items, which consist of corn meal dough filled with a savory or sweet filling and wrapped in corn husks.

Events of Interest

As well as featuring upcoming LSA events, we'd like to get the word out about events staff are involved in that might be of interest to co-workers. If you'd like the world, or at least your co-workers, to know about something cool coming up, please email Harriett Smith or lsaweb.

LSA EVENTS

Thursday, November 29, 2007: The LSA Holiday Sale gives you a chance to shop locally and support your co-workers while finding all sorts of wonderful gifts and treats. The Sale will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. In the past it's featured such things as knitted items, jewelry, jams and preserves, cookies, rummage sale treasures, cards, icons, cutting boards, and even bulletin boards! The only thing we don't offer for sale at the Sale is books—unless of course they are hand-constructed blank books, or hand-press printed books from our own bookbuilders and printers. This autumn's dessert raffle features a wonderful dessert creation by Bruce Tabb. Just one dollar buys a chance for gustatory ecstasy!

LSA will not cash any customer's check til after payday. For questions or to help with the Sale, please email Pam DeLaittre or phone her at 6-1826.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007: The LSA Holiday Potluck will be held in the Knight Library Browsing Room from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. We'll come together as usual for festive socialization and culinary bliss. For questions or to help with the Potluck, please email Megan Dazey or phone her at 6-1853.

NON-LSA EVENTS

Thursday, November 15, 2007: Some people never get enough of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana! Having sung this wonderful piece several times with the Eugene Concert Choir, Harriett Smith and Jean Murphy are now singing it with the Eugene Symphony. Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero is always thrilling to watch, and brings such a deep level of musicality to his work that he has been wooed away from Eugene and will be moving on to the next stage of his career all too soon for some of us. But we still have a few chances to enjoy his creativity, and this exciting, theatrical piece is going to be a don't-miss-it event. (The choir is already sounding fantastic!) Paired with this will be Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastoral.

Friday, November 16, 2007: Accordions Anonymous will be opening the show at 7 p.m. at Cozmic Pizza at the 6th in the series of Grrrlz Rock! Concerts. Other acts featured that evening will be Deb Cleveland & the Blues Divas, Acoustic Minds and Electric Soul Improv. Tickets are $6. (See the grrrlzrock MySpace page for complete series listings and a short AA video.)

Announcements:

Program Committee seeks new members. If you've got a great idea for educational or social programs, or the energy to carry out someone else's ideas, or just want a chance to get to know and work with some really great folks from various areas of the Libraries, or just even vaguely think you might be interested, email Dave Baker, or phone him at 6-0753.

"New" Microwave Donated to LSA. Risa Bear of the LSA House Committee writes "We have received a new (3 years old) Kenmore microwave for LSA from [retiree] Susan Mincks (and a couple of soup bowls, which are now in the cabinet). The oven is currently sitting on top of our file cabinet. I'm sure we'll figure out a better place/use of it, and maybe retire the one over in the dark corner; in any case it's available to help us with the holiday potluck." Thank you, Susan, for your continued generosity!

People in the Library
edited by Jen Lendsey

Welcome:

Heghine Hakobyan - Metadata Services and Digital Projects Date started: September 24 Job Title: Slavic Librarian Education: Tyumen State University, Western Siberia; Queens College, CUNY, New York. Best way to spend the weekend: In the mornings, I turn the boombox on to gently fill my room with the sounds of my favorites, while sipping my freshly made coffee and looking through the newspapers. Weekend afternoons are for fun: learning new things (like biking), laughing, enjoying nature and people. Basically, anything fun! Favorite movie: Sophie's Choice, As Good as it Gets, Good Will Hunting, and The Usual Suspects.

Chris Tweeter – Acquisitions Date started: October 8 Job Title: LT2, Acquisitions Technician Previously: I used to live in Fargo, ND and Grants Pass, OR. I graduated from Nike University (aka UO); while I was a student, I worked for two illustrious years at the Circ Desk (to everyone’s everlasting dismay). Education: BA English, Philosophy minor. Best way to spend the weekend: My hobbies rotate, but they include guitar, biking, doing impersonations, refuting Dan Brown enthusiasts and refusing cake. Favorite movie: A Mighty Wind, Blade Runner, and every movie made by Michael Bay.

Goodbye:

Congratulations:

Staff announcements and photos by Jen Lindsey unless otherwise indicated