The Ballad of Mary Webster

                             The Ballad of Mary Webster

T’was in Harrison House in Battle Creek In the State of Michigan, brother,

   That a maiden stood with a comb in one hand And a pair of shears in the other.

“That’s it,” she exclaimed as she finished the job; “I’ll find a new spot on this sphere

   Where a new type of work will earn money in gobs And the weather is cold

most all year!

I have seen how Kellogg’s makes Corn Flakes, How ships go through locks at the Soo

   How Ford makes autos at Dearborn And the malls of Kalamazoo

But I never have seen any mountains! No ocean’s come under my gaze!

   I’m going to climb in my Cutlass And just drive northwest for days!”

So Mary did climb in her Cutlass With sleeping bag, grubstake and gear.

   “Goodbye,” she called as she headed north, “I’ll stay for at least a year.

I may prospect for gold in the valleys Or hunt in the mountains for bear

   Or get a job on a fishing boat, Just anything but curl hair!

I’ll call when I get to Alaska Where the air’s unpolluted and clear

   For the natives are friendly and helpful And I’ll make it in no time, have no fear.”

From Mackinac Bridge she rolled westward Through woodland, o’er rivers

and plains

And great stretches of mountainous scenery “Til she came to the city of Haines;

And there the long highway ended. “How can I reach Juneau?” asked Mary.

   “You’re in luck,” the station man answered, “Tomorrow’s the day for the ferry.”

“I must stop this outflow of money, And establish an income real soon.

   These motels are draining my grubstake.” mused Mary as she looked at the moon.

“First a phone call to tell them I made it, And see if my puppy’s okay;

   Then into that big boat for Juneau! At last I have gotten away!”

So into the Capital city At the meeting of mountain and sea

   Drove Mary and found an apartment On Mt. Roberts side by a tree.

And now to the employment office; What will be her new line of work?

   “How are your typing and shorthand? Can you sew quite well?” asked the clerk.

There’s a hairdresser needed in Glacier Village, Just north of here at M’Lady’s

   “It’s for me,” cried Mary delighted, Jumped into her Cutlass and drove like Hades.

In M’Lady’s Salon in Juneau In the State of Alaska, brother, 

   Mary stands with a comb in one hand And a pair of shears in the other.

“It’s a pretty good life after all,” smiled Mary, “Even better than fish or hunt bear;

   I’ve an ocean and mountains to look at And I don’t really mind curling hair!”

by Olive Webster

Cole slaw

Asian cole slaw

 - green cabbage
 - purple cabbage
 - carrots
 - water chestnuts
 - sesame seeds
 Feel free to add snap peas or other veg if you like.   I stick with crispy stuff. Bamboo shoots work fine. a scallion is good too but onion is too strong


marinade:

 - rice wine vinegar (about a cup, depending on quantity of veg you're using)
 - stir in honey, at least a tsp but a bit at a time & let it set. it takes awhile for the flavour to marry. keep stirring
 - a tsp or so of sesame oil. it's a bit opposite of a vinaigrette. you don't want it oily like salad.
 - a tsp or so of  crushed ginger

all really just to personal taste.  keep in mind the vinegar will sort of cook the cabbage so depending if you want crispy or not, add marinade less than an hour before serving

Posting

also, I know I've been really bad about this. I really hate this set up & am looking at migrating this over to wordpress. I want to set up so I can include my walking/running posts every day & now that I'll have super kitchen, hopefully much more cooking notes.

yeah!! be on the lookout.

CUPCAKES!!!

Ok. As promised,  here's the recipes.

Apologies as the blog I saw this on is someone who prattles on & on. You can ignore all that & just look at the instructions.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
 - I didn't tweak too much. There's some good advice - have eggs at room temperature.
 - For yogurt in baking I always use the 'french style'. it's consistency is similar to cream & works well. I did not have vanilla in the house but the yogurt was vanilla so instead I put in a tsp of whiskey.
 - And I used a pinch of allspice instead of the cinnamon & unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the Dutch.
 - if you don't have a sifter, whisking dry ingredients will work.
 - I did not use Guinness, but trader joe's chocolate stout. Some of them are tricky - they're flavoured with artificial vanilla & can be really strong. but this one tastes like beer & not like it's been stirred with a bad candy bar.

They turned out great. Really moist but also light & fluffy.  I used frosting & caramel from a different recipe though, which you'll see here:

Buttercream Frosting & Salted Caramel

for the caramel, again I used the vanilla yogurt instead of heavy cream. It actually gives it a great flavor, creamy but not too sweet. & I used a little extra whiskey as I didn't have vanilla extract on hand.
the same with the buttercream.
No one who tasted has commented on lack of vanilla & the whiskey combined with vanilla in yogurt covered just fine.
Also no mixer so I stirred it all by hand. Yes. Really.

I also made these, which turned out good. Maybe not as impressive as the beer ones.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

 - The ingredients are metric but there's a ton of online conversion if you need that.
 - This was the big adjustment. I did not have self rising flour so I looked at subs online & whisked some baking soda & powder in before adding the dry ingredients to wet. For additional help I also added about a 1/3 cup of sparkling water to the orange juice. There's tons of recipes that use orange soda (full of sugar) & the fresh juice/sparkling water combo is the perfect substitute.
I didn't measure too exact on the water. when it was all mixed I put in a bit more to get the consistency I wanted. It's still a pretty thick mixture for cake but cooked up really well.
 - I used the same buttercream icing as the others partly because there was a lot of it. & because I didn't want to go super orangey. i mixed in a cream cheese one but it used caster sugar & i was not happy with how it dissolved. or did not. I'd go all powdered if I did that again.

& There we go. Happy to answer any questions.