A really delicious casserole worth remembering.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Eggplant-Potato-and-Pepper-Casserole-347

I'd recommend George Foreman-ing the eggplant instead of frying it (less oil; delicious taste), but frying the onions, potatoes, and green peppers is a good idea.  I'm not sure when I made this the first time I owned any actually thyme (maybe I used dried? maybe I used basil and/or oregano?), so feel free to season as you would.  It was surprisingly ridiculously delicious.

Oh, and we definitely layered in canned roast beef to make it an entree.  And we probably added cheese.  Awesome.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

The snow from last night is melting this morning, so the world outside is a mix of white snow, yellow and orange leaves, and a slick brown shininess to everything melting and being melted on.  Necessarily, I wanted pumpkin something for breakfast.

I'm a solid cook, but I am not a great baker.  These muffins, however, were fantastic and easy.  (Except--I put in more chocolate chips than was called for, maybe just 1/4 cup more, because why not?  And turns out, it was maybe too many chocolate chips.  I was eating the muffin wishing I could taste less chocolate and more pumpkin.  Weird, right?)

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup(s) flour
• 1 cup(s) sugar
• 1 tablespoon(s) pumpkin-pie spice (OR some mix of ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon)
• 1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) salt (kosher is my preference, always)
• 1 cup(s) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2  large eggs
• 1 cup (do not use pumpkin-pie filling) canned solid-pack pumpkin (OR maybe 1 1/4 cup?)
• 1/2 cup(s) (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted (OR 1/2 cup applesauce and 1 tablespoon melted butter)

---

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray muffin tins.
2. In large bowl, mix first six ingredients; add chocolate chips, tossing to coat. 
3. In another small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients; add to flour mixture and stir just until combined (do not overmix). Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until muffins spring back when lightly touched (or, as I did, until they mostly look done and the edges look crispy but the top doesn't quite spring back but you have to leave to go practice a hymn for church the next day). Cool muffins on rack.

Adapted from http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/paula-muffins

Recipes I've been a-using

This is mostly for my records, but feel free to look in.  Both of these are delicious for breakfast.

Chilled Raspberry Soup
(adapted by Sarah from Betty Crocker)

2 bags (about 4 cups) frozen raspberries, thawed overnight in fridge
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cranberry juice or orange juice
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1 tsp vanilla (or to taste)

1. 1 Place raspberries, sugar, and juice in blender. Cover and blend on high speed until smooth.
2. Strain raspberry mixture through sieve into bowl. Discard raspberry seeds.
3. Stir yogurt into raspberry mixture.  Add cinnamon and vanilla; stir.
4. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until cold.  Serve topped with fresh raspberries.

Pear Clafoutis

(adapted by Sarah from the Domestic Goddess)

4 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/3 cup flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 large pears, cored, thinly sliced

powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously butter 9-inch-diameter glass or ceramic pie plate.
2. Beat eggs, sugar, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk in flour. Add milk, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon - whisk until smooth.
3. Arrange pears in bottom of prepared plate (preferably in circular-fan pattern). Pour custard over pears.  Sprinkle additional cinnamon and/or sugar on top.
4. Bake until clafoutis is set in center and golden on top, about 40 minutes.
5. Sprinkle or serve with powdered sugar.

Homemade Caramel Recipe

The following is mostly for my own records, but you should feel free to use it too. It comes from this website.

CARAMEL:

3 c. sugar, divided
3/4 c. milk
1 egg, beaten
Pinch of salt
1/2 c. butter (cut up)

Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar in heavy saucepan; place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar melts and syrup is golden brown.

Combine remaining 2 1/2 cups sugar, milk, egg and salt in a bowl, stirring well; stir in butter. Stir butter mixture in caramelized sugar. (The mixture will lump, becoming smooth with further cooking.) Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until a candy thermometer registers 230 degrees (15-20 minutes). Cool 5 minutes. Beat with a wooden spoon to almost spreading consistency and spread between layers and on top of cake.

Grandma Hoggard

This past Tuesday morning, at approximately 12:30 am, my Grandma Hoggard died. Mom and Anika were there with her, in her hospice care facility, and I had seen her earlier that evening, earlier that day, and for many hours on the previous two days. We had been praying she would die on Monday because she was so uncomfortable. It was such a blessing to have it happen when and how and as peacefully as it did. Grandma considered her death a graduation, and she requested we play "Pomp and Circumstance" at her funeral, which the bishop thought was "resoundingly appropriate." So on Friday, at her funeral, as the cousins pall bearered her casket out of the chapel, Cousin Stephen played a version of the graduation anthem. I'm sure she was 100% delighted about that.

At Uncle Rick's request, I wrote a tribute to Grandma, which was included in the program for her funeral. For posterity's sake--and to update this long-neglected blog--I post it here.

Grandma Hoggard, we love you very much. I miss you already.

* * * * *

As Grandma Hoggard Would Say, “We Just Had to Laugh”

I once won $1100 for an essay I wrote about Grandma and Grandpa, in which I essentially just wrote down experiences I’d had with them. I wrestled with not submitting the essay in the first place—should I make money on Grandma’s idiosyncrasies? Could it really be okay to share her foibles with the world? In the essay, I describe watching Grandma give herself insulin shots, poking a sharp needle into her belly, sitting alone late at night at the kitchen counter. And of course, of course, I expose her fridge for all that it is—a tattooed appliance, covered by a collection of quotes, handwritten by Grandma in black permanent marker. “Pornography is the literature of the devil,” the freezer says. “If jealousy were a fever, all the world would be ill.”

I shouldn’t have worried about sharing these things. When I showed Grandma the essay, she laughed at every page. “You painted me perfectly!” she said. “You got me just right!”

The perfect, shocking thing about Grandma’s willingness to laugh is that she was also so serious about so many things. The gospel of Jesus Christ, for one. Her family. Genealogy. Graduations, events, holiday decorations. New clothes for the grandkids, new shoes for the grandkids. Pretty much anything for the grandkids. Fudge.

With seriousness, she decried sin. (She once told me: “Rick bought his kids a poker table. Someday he’s going to call me and say, ‘Woe is me,’ and I’ll say, ‘Woe IS you!’”) She advocated for achievement. (She counseled a soon-to-be-lawyer grandson to take all 50 state bars at the same time, “just to get it over with.”) She loved buying things. (One day, after hearing her emit a string of gasps and “That’s darling!”s in the BYU Bookstore, I asked her if she saw anything she didn’t think was cute. She stopped walking, turned entirely around, and said brightly, “Nope!”)

And she gave, gave, gave. Gave. Gave more. (For instance, a former roommate of my sister’s recently credited Grandma Hoggard with helping her avoid urinary tract infections, so plentiful was Grandma’s supply of cranberry juice to Anika’s college apartment.) Grandma never stopped giving—she was giving the rings off her fingers for weeks before she died—and she hasn’t yet. (Turn an object over in Grandma’s house, and you’re likely to find a “Stephen” or a “Coco,” written in Grandma’s own schoolgirl cursive. She long ago began preparing to divide her possessions among her family.) My guess is she’s already finding ways to keep giving, both to us here and to our family on the other side.

Grandma Hoggard is one of the finest, funniest, most passionate, most loving people ever to live on God’s earth. We who are lucky enough to be descended from her by birth or marriage have been trying since our very first days to live with as much meaning, good humor, and generosity as she showed everyday.

She’d like that, I think, because she loves us. And because she has always, always enjoyed a good laugh.

Salad Crazy?

Me too.

Which is why Manfriend has made this:

sarahssalads.wordpress.com

He says he'll update it every time I eat a salad, which, it turns out, is typically at least once a day. But already we're two salads behind--a pork salad and a salad I ordered as part of lunch today at The Prime Rib, during DC's restaurant week. But he has an iPhone, plenty of access to me (hooray), and the desire to document our crazy salad eating.

Here's hoping even more attention to me and my salads doesn't go to my head.

(Manfriend, that pun was for you.)

Stay tuned.

Coolest (Thesis) Idea (Ever).

http://writemythesis.squarespace.com/

I haven't checked it out yet, but it is the brainchild of my friend Brittany Watson, who has better taste and more personal class/loveliness than just about anyone I know.

Academedia revolution! That's what I say.

Spread the (design/media/academic) word.