Bread Pudding

Well, we voted on a bell schedule.  It was one our school developed which is quite similar to the current bell schedule.  Now we need to hope it passes muster (some brass has to approve it).  If it passes, I'm going to be happy.  I think it's a sound schedule, and it really is workable.

I spent the better part of the week agonizing over how to motivate the students to do better on schoolwide reading assessments.  I certainly don't want to be called the albatross of the language arts department!

My sweet tooth escalated this week, and I ended up making several desserts.  One thing I made was bread pudding.  For some reason, we always seem to have odds & ends bread pieces in the freezer.  Not wanting to waste, I think I'm the one who keeps throwing bread (still in the bag) into the freezer, thinking I'll eventually get around to making croutons.

I accumulated enough bread slices to make the volume requirement for this recipe.  But this recipe is so delicious that it wouldn't be a bad thing to buy bread just for a pan of bread pudding.  Of course, there was one occasion where I bought a loaf of French bread on the way home from work.  When I got home, I realized the bread was old and hard (perhaps this was the reason for the discounted price).

What to do?  Make bread pudding of course!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Kikukat's Bread Pudding

     1 lb bread, cut or torn into 1/2" cubes (about 12 cups)

     1/2 c dried fruit

     6 eggs

     1 c sugar

     2 tsp vanilla extract

     1 block butter, melted and cooled

     1/2 tsp cinnamon

     1/4 tsp nutmeg

     4 c milk, heated in microwave for 1 minute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13" pan.  In a large bowl, toss bread cubes and fruit.  Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg using a whisk.  Gradually whisk in milk.  Stir egg-milk mixture into bread-fruit mixture.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 40 minutes.

When I was younger, I liked eating cold bread pudding.  I liked the cool, creaminess of it.  But as I got older, a heated chunk of bread pudding with a generous pat of melting butter is my favorite way to eat it.

 

Hilo welcomed Chinese New Year this weekend with a festival at Kalakaua Park.  We arrived just after 10 am, and it was already crowded.  There were a handful of food booths and a whole bunch of craft fair type booths.  The only quasi-Chinese foods sold were shrimp chips and gao.  I was tempted to buy a bag of shrimp chips, but I changed my mind when I saw them sodomized with odd flavors like garlic and furikake.  The gao booth was another scene of corruption.  In addition to traditional gao, they had the audacity to sell green tea-flavored and chocolate-flavored gao.  Popo would've fainted! 

The Big Island Shaolin Arts Lion Dancers culminated their trek throughout downtown Hilo with a performance on Kalakaua Street (between the park and the East Hawaii Cultural Center).

I didn't buy anything at the festival, but on the way back to the car, I bought 2 Kendama from the Irie Smoke Shop (on the advice from one of my favorite students).

I remember taking the Ds to "feed the lion". . . feels like a thousand years ago!

Cookie Jar: Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies

Whew. . .I'm glad today is a holiday!  I was running around like a chicken without a head this past week.  The Ds had so much going on.  D2 had an intermediate school registration meeting on Tuesday.  D1 began work at the hospital that same day.  She had games on Tuesday and Friday, and both Ds had dental appointments on Wednesday.  D1 doesn't drive, so I'm still chauffeuring her around.  Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. . .one less thing to worry about.  AND less to pay in car insurance.

Our school was visited by a team made up of district people and a bunch of frequent flyers from Oahu.  What a bunch of sorry ass losers.  They were okay with me, but in one class, the students felt threatened when one of them started firing questions.  When the teacher tried to intervene to calm the student, the Oahu lady flew her hand down to wave her off.  Unreal.  One of the ladies who observed me had her foot up on a chair!  That's something even my students know better than to do.  That's rude!

Similar visits took place in the school district where I worked previously.  Teachers there saw it as a good thing and were looking at the visits as an opportunity to rat out the principal.  They were under the assumption that the visit would lead to the principal getting canned.  None of the visits led to that. . .I know because the same inept principals are still in their positions.  At my school, the faculty seemed to band together and wanted to protect the administration from these nefarious alien invaders.  To me, that says a lot.  People LIKE coming to work.  Students LIKE attending school.  I don't know of any school in the other place where the faculty and students would say that.

Someone said these unannounced visits were for evaluation purposes.  #anylaborattorneyslookingforwork  #lawsuitwaitingtohappen  I hope not because the individual classroom visits were unannounced.  One of my colleagues got into it with one of the brass from Oahu.  I think the Oahu lady behaved in an unprofessional way.  And if we're on the unprofessional tangent, sharing evaluative information with some staff members was also unprofessional.  If these people were respected, it would be a different story.  But a title and a few extra bucks does not garner automatic respect.  The only saving grace is that these idiots are not the ones in the classroom!  I would rather eat wasabi than have my kid be taught by one of these morons.  

Speaking of trash. . .this past week, I threw out what was left of the mini M & M cookies (its long after Christmas, so no point in trying to pass green & red M & M cookies as freshly baked), the ones LA didn't manage to eat.  I needed something to put into the cookie jar, so The Help suggested oatmeal cookies.

Now The Help would much rather eat cookies which are soft and chewy.  To me, soft cookies are either underbaked or stale (its part of the package when you live in such a humid place. . .you WANT cookies which are hard and crunchy).  But I told The Help that if he wanted soft cookies, he could either leave a some cookies out on the counter for a few hours or microwave them til they are warm (they will get soft).  Problem solved.

This is the oatmeal cookie I bake when I want oatmeal cookies.  The dough is sturdy. . .no refrigeration necessary, and the cinnamon-cranberry combination reminds me of my favorite bread machine bread.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies

     1/2 c butter, softened
     1/2 c shortening
     3/4 c brown sugar
     3/4 c sugar
     1 tsp cinnamon
     1 tsp salt
     2 tsp vanilla
     1 egg
     3 c quick oatmeal
     1 c flour
     1 c dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Combine butter, shortening, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat until smooth.  Add egg.  Stir in oatmeal and flour.  Add cranberries.  Using a #50 disher, drop dough onto prepared cookie sheets.  Flatten dough drops to 1/4" thickness (use fingers/palms).  Bake 20 minutes.  Transfer to a rack to cool.

When I make this, I stagger the baking.  Begin by baking 1 sheet on a rack 2/3 up in the oven.  10 minutes later, place another sheet on a rack about 3" below first sheet.  10 minutes later, remove top sheet and move lower sheet to higher rack.  Add new sheet onto lower rack and start timing cycle again.

Granola

When you read this, I will be on vacation (actually formerly-known as furlough, directed leave without pay).  Yay!  Its a much-needed vacation (furlough is still a vacation since there should be no work issues), and I don't even want to think how quickly the next 2 weeks will go by.  Since I will be at home, I plan on having leisurely days. . .breakfast when I get up, lounging around in PJs, and not being a slave to the alarm clock.  Normally, I have a bowl of steel cut oats (cooked in the microwave) and a cup of joe, but since I'm on break, I think I'll change things up a bit and have granola and yogurt for breakfast.

I tend to be picky about granola.  I like things crunchy...not a fan of soggy granola.  I also don't like walnuts so many of the commercially-available granola are out. . .too many cheap walnuts.   I like granola with pecans or macadamia nuts.  Sliced almonds are okay too.  For the fruit, I use cranberries, dried mango, and dried pineapple.  If I have it on hand, I'll even chop up some dried apricots to throw in.  I keep the raisins away (raisins are on THAT list, below mustard, but somewhere near peas).  Homemade granola is great because you can choose what you put in it, but the best part is the smell as it bakes.  The aroma of cinnamon always makes me think "holidays".  Mmmmm.

And since Christmas will be here next week, this is a good time to make a batch of granola to keep on hand as a gift for people who surprise you with a gift.  Place cooled granola in an airtight container and tie with a holiday bow.  If you don't need to use it as an emergency gift, you'll have the pleasure of consuming it yourself.

 click on recipe title for printable recipe
Granola

     4 c rolled oats (old fashioned)

     2 1/2 c nut pieces

     1 1/2 c sweetened flaked coconut

     1/4 tsp salt

     1/2 tsp cinnamon

     1/2 c vegetable oil (scant)

     1/2 c honey

     2 c dried cranberries (or mixture of dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Line a large, shallow baking pan with parchment paper.  Toss together oats, nuts, coconut, salt, and cinnamon, in a large bowl.  Whisk together oil and honey, then stir into oat mixture until well coated.  Spread mixture in prepared baking pan and bake, stirring every 10-20 minutes for 1 hour.  Increase oven heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes, stirring midway through.  Remove from oven and stir in cranberries/dried fruit.  Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.  Makes about 10 cups.

Unfortunately, my leisurely morning was hijacked this morning because the workers showed up before 8:00 am to fix my pool.  After 5 years, the liner at the deep end was tearing.  The Help patched it several times, but it got to the point where even the patches were pulling off.  I was telling people not to splash in the deep end.  Actually, I'm not upset at all that the pool people showed up this morning; in fact, I'm grateful that they could work today...its a typical Hilo day...overcast, cold & semi-drizzly.  But having a "new" pool brings baggage.  For the past few weeks, the pool pump and filter have been off.  The pool boy (a.k.a. The Help) saw no reason to condition and treat the water when the repairs were looming, so I was able to benefit from not having that eat into my electrical bill from HELLCO.

I guess I'm going to be turning the pool pump and filter back on later today or tomorrow and starting back up with my electrical consumption, but guess who showed up on Saturday!!!  A crew of nearly a dozen burly men spent 6 hours on my roof making a huge racket.  Because optimum roof real estate was taken by solar water heater panels and pool heater panels, the pv panels had to be places on 4 different roof faces.  30 panels and several arrays later (and several $K poorer). . .waiting for the inspectors to show, and more importantly, waiting for a small bill from HELLCO!  Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me!  I can't wait for tax time to get here. 

I try not to get down with the events around me, but my heart aches when I think about all the families in Newtown who experienced great sorrow on Friday, December 14.  Having visited Connecticut a few years ago, I remember it as an idyllic place, straight out of a Norman Rockwell scene.  Lives there will never be the same.
Tales of teacher heroism in the face of death illustrate what I already know...teachers are dedicated people with a strong commitment to their students.  How many government bureaucrats would put themselves at risk to save others?  So for those of you assholes negotiating the teachers contract and trying to nickel and dime us, think about the work we do for your children, think about the commitment we show, .and then think about how many kiddie lives were saved because a teacher (Vicki Soto) sacrificed herself for her students.  Nobody is talking about how her students performed on a test; nobody is talking about whether she was a highly qualified or highly effective teacher.  Social media sites are inundated with how she was committed til the end.   Isnt' it obvious. . .what counts is knowing kids came first, that the were safe, not how well they scored on a test!  I hope you will feel ashamed at the way you've treated us, how superficial you've been to let test scores determine teacher pay (really, anyone will tell you, some kids are just smarter than others).  Settle the fucking contract and give us what we deserve!!!