Politician Penny

I'd vote for her candidate...wouldn't you????

"To Die For".....Apricot Bread Pudding

Years ago some "bakerish" store I used to frequent (maybe Sunrise Bakery in Walnut Creek) used to make a delicious (if you like bread pudding) bread pudding with dried apricots and blueberries...it was way better than the "regular" kind of bread pudding with raisins...although I love that too...especially at Mimi's...but I've always been on the lookout for the apricot kind...

Having some of those good Trader Joe's slab apricots tucked away in my pantry it occurred to me the other day that wonder of wonders I could now "Google" the recipe...this is why the Internet was created,right?

At any rate, I found numerous possibilties and, drawing on that hard to describe "recipe intuition" instinct, came up with this recipe, which is quite delectible (again only if you are one of those people who consider a big bowl of bread pudding just this side of heaven, only surpassed perhaps by a big bowl of Flan...) But I digress...of course... also no health claims are being made for this dish...other than the thought that any "comfort food" you make at home has to be way better than something you'd buy.







Apricot Bread Pudding

2 eggs
4 egg yolks
3 1/2 C milk
1/2 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t vanilla
5-6 C cubed bread (I used 6 slices of the Sheepherder's Bread from Safeway, trimmed of crusts and cubed into 2" pieces...some sort of french bread is better than regular soft white bread...one of those roundish loaves sliced for sandwiches)
20 (or so) quartered(use scissors) dried apricot halves (again...stay away from the "turkish" dried apricots, generally more available...they're sort of pale orange and puffy...)
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/2 t ground nutmeg
Topping: 1/4 C sugar mixed with an additional 1/2 t cardamom
1 T butter cut up

Put the cubed bread and apricots in a 2 qt. casserole dish.
In a pan or in the microwave, "scald" (as we used to say) the milk(don't boil, just get it good and hot)....meanwhile...
Beat the eggs/egg yolks (I use my electric mixer because I don't want to run into any little egg stringy pieces in my custard...you could just whip madly with a wire whisk)...add the sugar, vanilla, and spices....pour the hot milk into this, mix, and pour over the bread cubes. Push the cubes down into the milk if they pop up making sure they get soaked. Sprinkle the sugar topping over this and dot with a few little dabs of butter.
Bake at 300 in a water bath (see below...set casserole in larger pan and pour some hot water around it about halfway up casserole...this keeps a crust from forming). Bake about 45 minutes, until firm in the center. Let cool on the counter...if you put it in the refrigerator right away it gets watery on top.

It seems like I've gone on and on about a really simple recipe...can you tell I really CARE about my bread pudding! I made it yesterday...Kendra came over and had some...I think Dad had some last night, Mark didn't have any...it was gone before midnight.

"Oh My Gosh" : Butter Chicken

The other day, Kathy B...(one of the Great Cooks of the World) said she had made the Butter Chicken on the Pioneer Woman blog and it was YUMMM....So with that recommendation, I accumulated the ingredients and got around to making it last night while we were watching the Oscars. (I had started it Saturday night, because it's supposed to marinate overnight)


It only took a few minutes to actually put it together and about 40 minutes to cook...and looking at the final product didn't set off any bells and whistles...BUT when we finally scooped up some over rice...Mark's reaction..."OH, MY GOSH!" I agreed.


So here's my Butter Chicken...I need to get some plain white plates to improve the look of my food pictures...there's a better one at Pioneer Woman (actually it's a recipe from one of her readers on Tasty Kitchen)



















Butter Chicken

(Of course I couldn't actually follow the recipe exactly...I was doing more chicken breasts)

6 pieces Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts(the original recipe used 4)
5 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoons Black Pepper
½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper(I only used 1/4 t, but 1/2 would have been OK...I'm a chicken about spicy stuff)
¼ teaspoons Ground Coriander(I doubled this)
¼ teaspoons Cumin(I doubled this)
¼ teaspoons Cardamom(I doubled this)
2 whole Limes, Juiced( actually used 3)

1 whole Onion, Diced(it was a big one)
¼ cups Butter(1/2 cube)
1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Tomato Sauce
1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Petite Diced Tomatoes
1 pint Whipping Cream(I actually used 1 C cream and 1 C half and half)
1 bunch Chopped Cilantro, to taste

2 cups Basmati Rice (I just used regular rice)

Preparation Instructions
Combine first 9 ingredients and marinate overnight. I started out with frozen chicken breasts, put them in a zip lock bag and poured the marinade over...the original recipe only called for 1 lime...I used 3...they were small...I like lime...it seemed to make the marinade distribute better.
Then I put the bag into the refrigerator overnight...turning a few times...
Saute the onion in the butter until soft. Add marinated chicken (you throw the marinade out) and cook about 10 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Cook for 30 minutes over medium-low heat with the lid on. Add the whipping cream (I have used light cream or half-and-half also) and cilantro just before serving over Basmati rice.(I was too cheap to buy Basmati at Safeway)

More Cool Old People Related to You: Virginia Parry Nieman

Virgina Parry was born 11 Dec 1910, the seventh child of John and Emma Parry. She was born in Elsinore, Utah. I think she had polio when a small girl but recovered. Her father died when she was 14 and the family moved up to Salt Lake City. She was one of six daughters. She was a tennis player and a swimmer. She went to secretarial school...I'll have to find out more. She and one of her sisters,Joyce, went to San Francisco to work in the financial district as secretaries. She loved to recite the streets that ran out 19th avenue on the bus line...they're alphabetical. In about 1939 she and Joyce went to Honolulu to work. Can you imagine your Grandma Virginia being such an adventurous young woman! That was where she met Grampa Gil, working as a civil engineer for the military, building air fields as the threat from the Japanese built up in the Pacific.
In 1941 most of the American mainlanders were advised to leave the island. She and Joyce went down to the Cunard Lines to buy their tickets, but Virginia had just met this cute guy, Gilbert Nieman, (and she was 30 years old!) and so she didn't buy hers. Joyce went without her. Virgina was there on Dec 7 1941. She remembered standing in front of her house in Honolulu and seeing the Japanese planes fly over on their way to Pearl Harbor. She and Grampa Gil were married on February 28, 1942. Dad was born there on 17 May 1943 and Ed in August 1945. They returned to California in 1946 and lived in Bonny Doon before moving to San Jose.
This is your Nieman Family Tree I posted on Ancestry...And the Dean Family Tree is here...
I'll add more as I get more info...
She loved flowers and everything Hawaiian.

























This is how you kids remember her....

Me holding Michael (pregnant with Dave), Virginia and Kendra. We still had some almond trees in the back yard...and the old camper!


































Grandma Janiece, me holding Kendra on her blessing day, Grandma Virginia.(1980)


With Michael..what a look he's giving her!






































With her sisters: Jasmine(Ballard) Winnie(Sanders)Virginia, Joyce(Slusser)Kathleen died in 1969.



















The five Parry sister (Genevieve died in 1930).
Seated...Virgina, Jasmine, Kathleen; standing...Joyce and Winnie.

























I think this little blond girl is Virginia about 5 or 6 with older sister, Winnie.

Now, can you believe this is Virginia, about the time she graduated from high school!

























A new hairstyle!

























The young secretary...


























Virginia with Joyce and Kathleen.


























Soon after her marriage. I'll add more as I find more pictures....

If ye are prepared...

Here are the missionaries in Chili AFTER the earthquake!

Here's a great message that was on Meridian Magazine this morning:

President Larry Laycock and his wife, Sister Lisa Laycock head the Santiago Chile East Mission and had spent the two weeks prior to the 8.8 earthquake visiting each missionary apartment and preparing them for an earthquake. They brought specific instructions on what to do, supplied water purification bottles for the missionaries, told them how to create a 36-hour kit for emergencies and how to stay in communication should an earthquake strike. They prayed with each missionary and dedicated their apartments. Why? Because of a special experience that alerted them to what was coming...
Sister Laycock says....

Nearly two-and-one-half weeks ago, I was awakened at around 4:00 AM by just such a prompting. I did not hear a voice, but the thought was as clear as if it had been in the form of spoken words: "There is going to be an earthquake. Prepare your missionaries." I sat up in bed and immediately remembered Elder Scott's counsel. That morning I told Larry what had happened. He immediately set to work organizing our missionaries to prepare for an earthquake.

We set a goal and arranged our schedule so that we could visit every apartment in the mission to check for safety and to review with our missionaries what to do in case of an earth quake. What a wonderful experience we have had as we have met with them and shared scriptures with them about being spiritually and physically prepared. "...if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30).

We instructed every missionary to have a "go-bag" (36 hour kit). We reviewed our emergency action plan with them of where to go and what to do if they had phone service and in case they did not. We gave everyone a paper with all instructions in English and Spanish, and we reminded them that "this life is the time to prepare to meet God"......read the rest of the article here:

This will brighten your day!

"Whenever I see you I have an uncontrollable urge to fling open my arms, excitedly shout your name and scoop you up."

"Perfect love sometimes does not come until grandchildren are born."



"Those gasps of astonishment, those shrieks of pleasure, those sighs of delight, lost long ago when your children grew wise and wordly ~ are suddenly given back to you by your grandchildren. What seems to be the same small hands clutch yours, dragging you from one excitement to another ~ "Look! Oh, look! come ON!""

Cool Old People Related to you: Walter Gilbert Nieman and Ida Liebman

Well, I was feeling bad that I couldn't put up as many pictures for your Nieman ancestors as my Dean side, so I went prowling around the attic in all the boxes Dad brought home from Grampa Gil's...and I found a TON of photos! So I'll post a few now, but add more later as I get them scanned.

This is how I remember Grampa (Walter) Nieman. His wife had died and he lived in their Santa Cruz home. Here he is with Karl about 1973.


Walter and Ida Nieman are Dad's grandparents on his father's side...Grampa Gil's parents.

Walter Nieman is the youngest boy in the middle. He was born 23 May 1888 in Hamburg, Marathon, Wisconsin. His brother, Edward is on the right; brother William is on his left. His oldest sister, Augusta Wilhelmina, is on the far right; sister Agnes Alma is on the left. Parents, Carl Christian Frederick Nieman and Emilia Albertina Krause Nieman seated.(I think Jeanne looks a little like her)


Here are Walter and his bride, Ida Amelia Maria Liebman on their wedding day, 30 Oct 1913.

Another picture of Ida as a young woman.






Here is Ida...isn't she beautiful?



Walter Nieman...

Here is Walter's WWI draft registration...I love to see their handwriting. The "child" he refers to is Grampa Gil.

The Nieman's lived in Hamburg, Marathon, Wisconsin...google it...it's small, it's really COLD! The family farmed, dairy cows mainly. But they were also into fox farming (and later bought the land in Bonny Doon, near Santa Cruz for a fox farm), hunting, and harvesting ginsing roots for export to China. Walter is the one in the middle leaning on the truck, loaded with barrels of ginsing roots.




Here are Walter and Grampa Gil (about 10 years old)...they are boiling down maple syrup. The picture needs to be photoshopped...double click on it to see it better.



This is really hard to see...but it's Walter (on the right) with a MOOSE he shot!
Kendra...maybe you can edit these and we can replace them with clearer images?



Well, I have LOTs more...but that will have to do for today!