Winter Garden

The best thing about Watergate was reading new revelations daily. Like a soap opera, it never ended and the venom one felt towards Nixon could only be expressed in then unthinkable expletives.

The best thing about the current financial crisis is that just when you think things have reached rock bottom, and a new source of venom is brewing,  something happens to make you feel like things may be on the upswing. The worst thing about it is that unless you are a professional blogger, trying to keep up is almost impossible.

Take, for example, what I wrote two days ago:

“Today’s Sunday New York Times is rich with advice and commentary. In the business section  Kelly Holland writes that good leaders tell their troops the truth about a situation. In this way, people can assess their status,  understand why certain actions are being taken, and make informed decisions.  She also says that being fair doesn’t mean necessarily treating people equally, especially when it comes to layoffs.

Thomas Friedman’s op-ed says Obama “should have gone on national TV and had the fireside chat..a talk where he lays out exactly how deep the crisis we are in is, exactly how much sacrifice were all going to have to make to get out of it…and then [ask the AIG executives] to return their bonuses “for the sake of the country…Inspiring conduct has so much more of an impact than coercing it.” Mind you, this comes two weeks after the press was calling for Obama to stop with the doom and gloom pronouncements and be more upbeat. Friendman suggests Obama follows  Holland’s advice.

Yes, Obama said during the election that everyone would have to sacrifice, but that implies a voluntary renunciation toward a shared goal. When there is no fairness when big banks get bailed and home owners with mortgages don’t; when rich executives get bonuses while workers get laid off; does it surprise you that anger is expressed by people  calling for the tumbrel’s rumble down Wall Street’s narrow alleys towards the people at AIG who engineered this mess?”

That was yesterday’s thinking.Today the curtain is raised on the toxic asset plan. The market soars, and three quarters of the AIG executives return their bonuses. Ok, scratch one for sacrifice. Obama didn’t even have to appeal to the executives directly. They did their civic duty while AIG supplied their homes with body guards.

Everyone is so eager for good news that even my SO talks about things getting better. Overnight? When there are banks still on the brink? When we don’t know if the toxic assets can be tamed?

Enter Michelle Obama and her new broom-or rather shovel- approach to being the First (Green) Lady.

Maureen Dowd, the one journalist who can turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear, wonders if “the wrong Obama is in the Oval” based on Michelle’s no nonsense expectation that even the president would be out pulling weeds “whether [he] likes it or not.”

Those muscles she likes to display in her favourite sleeveless attire are symbolic of who she is: not just brain but brawn too. Finally a woman in the White House who is feminine and forceful, secure in who she is and more importantly what she stands for.

Out in the cold, those scuplted pecs covered  in a dark cardigan, she was doing more than just digging an organic garden last week. She was showing all of us how we will  have to rely on ourselves (and our kids) to dig  out of this mess.

Mark my words, it won’t be president Obama who sows the seeds of a new age, it will be Michelle who already has planted the future in the White House lawn.

Green and Root Vegetable Stir-Fry

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 shallot, sliced

1″ fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1 turnip, sliced in 1/2″ rounds, then into 1/4″ strips

1/4 celeriac, peeled, and cut into 1/4″ dice

12 French green beans, cut in half

1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock

1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce, or any spicy condiment, such as a curry paste

1/2 cup cooked rice

1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

1. Heat the oil in a saute pan until hot.
2. Add the sliced onions, shallots, and ginger and cook over medium heat until slightly caramelized.
3. Add the turnip and celeriac and raise the heat until the edges are browned.
4. Add the broccoli florets and the stock.
5. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for about 3 minutes.
6. Remove the lid and allow the broth to cook down to almost nothing.
7. Add the green beans and the rice, toss to mix.
8. Add the chili garlic or other condiment paste and heat through.
9. Sprinkle with optional cilantro and feel virtuous with your virtually green meal.

Outrageous!

I will never associate the word outrageous with a recipe again. Meaning  “gross injury or wrong” or “grossly offensive to the sense of right or decency”, “passing reasonable bounds; intolerable or shocking,” a  recipe that bad, won’t see the light of day but rather the dark of the trash bin.

Outrage is the mot de jour describing the AIG executives who passively, and without protest or  public acceptance of responsibility for the current financial crisis, accepted millions of dollars of bonus money transferred into their accounts last Friday.

At last something has happened to make the American people, including President Obama, more outraged than calling for the head of Bernie Madoff, who, as immoral as he was, still harmed only a small fraction of mostly very rich (and very vocal) people.

The outrage aimed at him always surprised me given the fact that the banks and AIG have behaved not too differently from Madoff: both suggested for years that they had assets they didn’t; the growth and success of both relied on the willing suspension of disbelieft of experts;  both rested on business models no one understood.

The venom spewed at Madoff came from his victims and from people who saw him as the epitome of greed during a time of unbridled excess, which of course he was.  We could see him, his houses, yachts, family and jewelry. The Madoff story-from rags to riches to prison duds- was picked up on the celebrity channels whose usual fodder is Hollwood’s excess.We sucked it all up because he was a living, breathing example of someone who got caught. This was legitimate and guiltless scheudenfreude.

How  the press misled us all, including President Obama. Madoff was the fake bunnie all the press dogs were chasing while out in the real world the wolves were decimating our life savings. The “bankers” and  AIG “executives”  to this day remain faceless even as the news of their “outrageous” bonuses surfaced on Monday. Executives who have left the company even after receiving-somewhat cynically one would hope-”retention bonuses”, still are at large without bearing any sense of responsibility, not just to return the money but to let the world know who they are.

Suing them, asking them to do the right thing and return their bonuses while remaining anonymous are small penalties.  Making them come forward and identify themselves to their families, friends and neighbors, and then the general public, just as Madoff was forced to do, associates flesh and blood people with their actions and allows us to hold them accountable.

Only then can the level of outrage be directed where it belongs: to the people who have lost any sense of civic responsibility and connectedness. Let them suffer the isolation, scorn, and revilement that public humiliation brings. It is a higher cost than losing their bonuses and might actually make them think twice before finding a safe haven for all those dollars abroad.

President Obama used outrage first. Pre-election people worried that his inexperience would impede effective handling of foreign affairs. We marveled at his coolness under pressure. It didn’t occur to us that a global financial meltdown would be, as one New York Times letter writer puts it today “his Katrina”.  Now is the time  we need to see youthful heat and passion, genuine anger and actions that deal with outrage in its true sense of the term. Without any of these from the administration (forget Congress, they’re so tied up in this mess you can’t believe anything they say), we are forced to relie on words when in fact words will no longer do.

Outrageous…Outstanding Gluten-free Chocolate Nut Bars

1 cup  250g      all-natural nut butter, drained of any excess oil

1 cup 220g       dark brown sugar

2 heaping Tbsp cocoa

1/2  tsp            kosher salt

1/2 tsp             cinnamon

1                        egg

2 tsp                vanilla

5 oz             chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line a 8″x 12″ pan with parchment paper.
3. Place all the ingredients except the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle.
4. Beat on low speed until a smooth mass is formed.
5. Add the egg, vanilla, salt and cinnamon and beat until incorporated. It   will look crumbly, but don’t worry.
6. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until incorporated.
7. Pour the crumbs into the pan and press evenly into the corners.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes but no more than 20 or else they will be too firm.
9. As soon as they come out of the oven, slice them into squares and let cool.

Magic Mushroom Stew

Ben Stein was wearing his economist’s hat  on CBS Sunday Morning today. It’s a nice hat, as hats go, a grey, white and black Irish tweed with a crease down the center. It made him look a bit less nebbishy than usual, but still I was confused as to why it was there at all. Turns out, I missed his introduction and only started paying attention when he accused President Obama and his advisors “the big gumbahs”, of continued fear mongering about the economy.

In Stein’s view “If Mr. Obama and Mr. Geithner, his Treasury Secretary, and Mr. Volcker, his well-respected advisor, and some real superstars like Warren Buffett and Jack Welch all came out and said, “The recession will end within 12 months. We are sure of it,” the recession WOULD end within 12 months.”

In other words, all this bad news stuff about sub-prime loans, General Motors, Citibank, AIG, people losing their jobs and homes would all just go away if someone we believed in, like the president of the United States, would reassure us that we’re having a bad dream, that we will wake up (a year from now) and everything will be just fine…especially if we start shopping again.

What mushrooms has he been inhaling? Or maybe, being an actor when he’s not wearing his economist’s hat, he’s watching Finding Neverland. Maybe he believes that if we all clap loud enough, not only will Tinkerbell revive, but the economy will too.

For the last eight years, and who knows, probably further back than that, the public has been told what it wants to hear: that everything will be fine; just keep on spending.

Didn’t we just learn that the Bush administration didn’t include the Iraq war, emergency relief and Medicaire reimbursements in its deficit accounting? Didn’t the banks loan money to people who had no visible means of ever paying back excessive mortgages? Didn’t this attitude of ignoring reality and just hoping things would turn out okay actually put us where we find ourselves? We’re not just in hot water, we’re stewing in our own juices.

Stein feels that rather than focus on the 8% unemployed, we should focus on the 92% of the population who are employed (many of whom are terrified of losing their jobs). That’s like saying that the Great Depression wasn’t so bad because 75% of the population remained employed. Or that the deaths in Iraq weren’t so bad considering how many troops there were (unless of course, one of the casualties was your daughter or son.)

This is more than wishful thinking; it is hallucinogenic. Stein is encouraging everyone to continue as if nothing is wrong, as if our thriftless ways are okay and that further reduction of what little savings we may have will put everyone back to work and revive confidence in the market. If you believe that, surely you’ve been inhaling more than the comforting aromas of the stew below.

I’d rather  Obama tell the truth than get us high on falsehoods. We’ve smoked that weed, and now we’re in the weeds, big time.

Magic Mushroom Stew

1 onion, cut into 1″ pieces

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 lbs boneless, skinless turkey or chicken thighs, cut into 1″ cubes

2-3 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup port

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

10 fingerling potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces

4 whole cloves garlic, peeled

2 chili de arbol, crumbled

4 cups assorted mushrooms

2 Tbsp each, finely chopped: fresh dill, parsley, basil

fresh lemon juice, to taste

1. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Add the onions and saute gently until translucent.
3. Add the turkey pieces and cook, not browning until no longer pink.
4. Add the chicken stock to just cover the meat, then the port and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, and add half the mushrooms,  all the potatoes, chilis, garlic, thyme, rosemary and nutmeg.
6. Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 40 minutes.
7. Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until it coats the meat with a generous sauce, about 20 minutes.
8. In the meantime, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp oil in a small saute pan until smokey.
9. Add the remaining mushrooms and brown on all sides, releasing their juices and cooking them down until they’re almost gone.
10. Add to the simmering stew. Taste for seasoning and adjust for salt and pepper.
11. Add the fresh herbs, a squeeze of lemon juice and serve.

Eat one of these and call me in the morning….

Do you feel better when your doctor wears a white lab coat or street clothes? Do you read books recommended by The New York Times book review or by a friend? Do you believe in magic?

I ask these questions because as President Obama has assembled the most impressive brain trust, dream team, intellectual powerhouse cabinet, call it what you will, there’s still no sign that any of them have “the answer”.

Things are so bad that most of us are relieved that the White House is at least throwing solutions at the economy even if we don’t know why they’re supposed to work and they don’t know if they will work.

We want badly to  believe that the experts know something we don’t, know far more than we do, and will therefore somehow save us from this terrible mess. But fund manager Eric Sprott  recently pointed out  that the experts are trying to revive an economy based on behaviors that got us into this miasma in the first place; they’re not creating a new paradigm; they’re saving something dysfunctional and asking us to continue being enablers when it’s the last thing we should be doing.  He does not, however, supply any answers himself. Another expert with expert experience and opinions, but without a recipe for renewal.

And that’s why I asked the questions above: we want to take the advice of people who society says are experts: doctors in crisp, white lab coats bear the symbol of their knowledge and experience even though they are frequently baffled by the body; book reviews in the Times have the imprimatur of wisdom and intellectual range, even when the books are duds; and while there are many  things we can’t explain, like Bernie Madoff’s amazing investment returns, we still want to believe in those experts even if we don’t believe in magic.

It’s chilling to think that all those geniuses in Washington throwing money at every institution that’s too big to fail cannot predict the outcome of their actions.

And so it is with baking. Experts abound and none with more scientific credentials than Shirley Corriher who in two books-Cookwise and Bakewise- provides the scientific background for how and why ingredients behave the way they do.

Despite the fact that a much-touted cake recipe which heralded her book in that expert of expert venues, the Wednesday New York Times food section, was disappointing, tasting more tore-bought cake than homemade,  I bought Bakewise in the hopes that the cake recipe was more a matter of personal taste than of philosophy.

And so I baked expert Corriher’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies which she describes as “slightly crunchy on the surface and gooey chocolate inside…oh yum!” What she fails to mention, although she does elsewhere in her book, is that she loves sugar, not only how it performs in baking, but how it tastes.

The cookies look great but they released hardly any chocolate aroma while baking, a sure sign that something was amiss. And while the look and texture are as she describes them, to my palate, they are a disappointment: all that expertise and a lackluster cookie. That said, my SO thinks they’re tasty.

I have bolstered the recipe by calling for bittersweet chocolate and adding cocoa nibs for additional crunch and  chocolate flavor.

Shirley Corriher’s Adapted Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

3 dozen

1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz finely choppped bittersweet chocolate, melted

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp corn syrup

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa nibs

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. Blend in the bowl of an electric mixer the sugar and oil.
   
4. Add the eggs, corn syrup and vanilla. Mix until blended.
5. Add the chocolate and mix well, scraping the sides and bottom.
6. Add the flour and mix only until the dough comes together. It will be stiff.
   
7. Chill for an hour covered.
8. Preheat the oven to 325F.
9. Roll the dough into golf ball sized rounds.
   
10. Roll each ball in granulated sugar and then icing sugar, coating completely.
11. Place 12 to a tray and bake about 12-14 minutes or until puffed and crackled on top. They will deflate.
12. Remove from the baking tray after 1 minute and cool on a rack.