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That's the number of my house
1. Today I applied for healthcare from the state of Massachusetts. Because my current insurance is no longer affordable, not very helpful to me, and about to be terminated regardless at the end of March. Wish me luck.
2. There's a new issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone, meaning the issue six months previous is now freely available online. It contains my poems "Censorship" (for Cato and Adresteia) and "The Marriage He Saw Beneath the Shade" (for Arthur Machen and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ashlyme). Why don't I own Tanith Lee's Space Is Just a Starry Night?
3. Does anyone have a trusted recipe for a kind of sorrel borscht called schav or scharv? I saw it last night on a menu online and remembered that my grandfather had asked me to make it for him, very late in his life. I didn't quite understand about the sorrel. He kept saying "green borscht" and I was racking my brain trying to reverse-engineer borscht from dark leafy greens like kale or spinach and of course that wasn't correct. We're past both his birthday and yahrzeit at this point in the year, but I could still learn.
4. Charlie Chaplin wrote a novel. I'll have to get a copy of that.
5. Stone Telling hath a blog! (I just finished answering a questionnaire for it.) Also a Patreon page. You should donate. A picture of Dashing Mippo says so.
The bread pudding is great when reheated, too.
2. There's a new issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone, meaning the issue six months previous is now freely available online. It contains my poems "Censorship" (for Cato and Adresteia) and "The Marriage He Saw Beneath the Shade" (for Arthur Machen and
ashlyme). Why don't I own Tanith Lee's Space Is Just a Starry Night?3. Does anyone have a trusted recipe for a kind of sorrel borscht called schav or scharv? I saw it last night on a menu online and remembered that my grandfather had asked me to make it for him, very late in his life. I didn't quite understand about the sorrel. He kept saying "green borscht" and I was racking my brain trying to reverse-engineer borscht from dark leafy greens like kale or spinach and of course that wasn't correct. We're past both his birthday and yahrzeit at this point in the year, but I could still learn.
4. Charlie Chaplin wrote a novel. I'll have to get a copy of that.
5. Stone Telling hath a blog! (I just finished answering a questionnaire for it.) Also a Patreon page. You should donate. A picture of Dashing Mippo says so.
The bread pudding is great when reheated, too.
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Thank you for the update!
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You would probably saute or steam your sorrel (we usually saute it and make omelets) and then run it through a chinois strainer for a puree, but I am unsure what liquid you'd want. Chicken stocks might well be too heavy, and onion to excess will shout down the delicate sorrel flavor. You need to be careful how you cook it (blanch it first!!!!!), how much you use and what you combine it with, because sorrel is loaded with oxalic acid, and too much of that can make you sickish.
Try searching "sorrel soup" and "sorrel puree" and see if that leads anywhere.
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I know it's sorrel; I've read several variant recipes online so far. I was hoping somebody on my friendlist had a recipe of their own to recommend. I included both spellings in case it was a matter of dialects. "Schav" seems to be more common, but that's Google for you. My grandfather said "scharv." (It was his best guess at the spelling.)
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What you're looking for is going to depend on where he came from, but I really mean it about blanching the sorrel first (especially if it's larger, mature leaves)! I have had it as a pureed soup.
Sorrel is actually very easy to grow in a windowbox, and if you decide you like it and have a place where you can put a pot of herbs or the like, and get some sorrel seed, you can grow sorrel for your cooking pleasure. A little goes a long way, caveat. Treat it like baby lettuces to get the most out of it---cut a little and let it regenerate. It is perennial.
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My grandfather came from Brooklyn; his parents were from Łódź and Vishnevets. The internet just says "sorrel," but
Sorrel is actually very easy to grow in a windowbox, and if you decide you like it and have a place where you can put a pot of herbs or the like, and get some sorrel seed, you can grow sorrel for your cooking pleasure.
That's very useful to know. I don't know if we'll have a windowbox here; we certainly have enough sunlight, but my track record with plants is limited to watering them in my childhood and briefly cultivating some coniferous bonsai in a terrarium.
Thank you for the clarification.
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That looks like green borscht to me. Sure—if he doesn't mind passing the recipe along, I would like to see it! Thank you.
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4 tbsp butter
1 onion, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, peeled, coarsely chopped
½ celery root or 2 stalks celery chopped
1 leek (white part only), trimmed, rinsed, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled
½ lb. sorrel leaves
½ lb. arugula
4 cups chicken stock
½ cup flat leafed parsley, chopped
2 tsp nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper
juice of ½ lemon
plain yogurt for cold soup or heavy cream for hot soup
optional - 6 hen’s eggs, or 6-12 quails eggs, hard-boiled, peeled halved
In a large pot, melt the butter and cook the onion, carrot, celery, leek and garlic over medium heat until soft. Add arugula and sorrel and simmer for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, parsley, nutmeg salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for one hour.
Let soup cool, add lemon juice and blend until smooth with a blender/food processor.
Serve cold with a dollop of yogurt.
Hot soup, add a dash of heavy cream before serving (says the recipe, but I use yogurt in these circumstances too).
Garnish with eggs if desired.
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Thank you!
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There was bread pudding left to reheat? Such restraint!
The very best of luck with the health insurance.
Nine
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My grandfather called it "scharv borscht" and said it was green. It came up because I was cooking with Swiss chard, which he thought his mother might have used to make the soup in the absence of sorrel—which wasn't what he was asking me to do. I'd want a very dark green version if I were making it for myself. I don't even know where to get sorrel around here.
Dammit, I really want borscht now.
There was bread pudding left to reheat? Such restraint!
Did you see how much butterfat ended up in that recipe? If we'd split the dish, I would not have survived to fill out an unbelievably frustrating online application this afternoon!
The very best of luck with the health insurance.
Thank you. Massachusetts Health Connector has the worst interface of any website I've seen since the '90's.
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Depending on how much you need, either the Twin Cities Shaws in east Somerville or Russos in Watertown. I've only seen it in the tiny clamshell packages at Shaws.
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Sounds like Watertown is my best bet when I finally get hold of a recipe, then. Thank you!
What do you use sorrel for?
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I've never actually used it. I just like the sound of the word, so I notice it when I'm shopping for other herbs.
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Edited to add: That was useless. There was a sign for sorrel with a price, but no actual sorrel to look at. Ah well.
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It was a valiant effort!
(They had butter and filo, I hope.)
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Thank you for guaranteeing I never buy Athens brand filo. Holy crap. Drink more absinthe.
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Tell me about it anyway?
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That's really cool. What is "Sarcophagus" about—is it a characteristic Lee story, or just very well-written Blake's 7, or what?
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She was turned down to write for Davison's Doctor, apparently - I'd have loved her to invert Who.
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There's a direct line from this episode to Kill the Dead, then. I suspect the novel is out of print, like almost everything Lee published with DAW, but used book stores are your friend! You can also get it in an omnibus called Sometimes, After Sunset with Sabella, or the Blood Stone (1980), which is actually how I read it first.
Lee also wrote a rather good SF play for the same actor (Paul Darrow) called The Silver Sky (time-travellers from alternate Earths colliding into another universe)that I'm totally sending you if I can get a CD-R copy again.
(Thank you! I've never heard any of her radio work, either.)
She was turned down to write for Davison's Doctor, apparently - I'd have loved her to invert Who.
Seriously. Tanith Lee Doctor Who would have been fascinating. The ageless bodyswapping is something she would have been all over.
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Creepy as all get-out, but amazing. A pity she didn't write more of them.
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I first heard of Blake's 7 because of Tanith Lee. I've still never seen any of her episodes, but I've been told that her novel Kill the Dead (1980) is Avon and Vila with the serial numbers filed off and a twist. I like the novel, so that seems like a good sign for whenever I get around to watching.
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(Did you find that it held up?) What about those two? Obviously, they were the ones that wouldn't get out of Lee's head, either.
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I've read some of the stories
Best of luck!
Thank you!
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2) Wonderful poems. I always like your poetry but I especially like the Pan one, which I hadn't seen before.
3) I don't, but if you get one I would like it.
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Thank you! It was inspired also by this statue.
3) I don't, but if you get one I would like it.
I'll post if I find one. In the absence of recommendations, I'm considering this recipe from The Jew and the Carrot, which some people I know used to write for. The eggs seem to be optional depending on preference and/or family tradition, but I'm going to need a lot of sorrel no matter what.
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3) I would kind of like this too, though since if it involves leafy greens I'm the only one in my household that could eat it, I may never get around to making it.
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Can the rest of your household eat leafy greens if they're blenderized, which I'm seeing in several recipes?
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Thank you!
Is sorrel easy to grow? We don't have a garden, but I still ask.
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I grew French sorrel, but meanwhile there's a weed, sheep sorrel, that grows free of charge, and I often supplement with that. French sorrel has nice big leaves, whereas sheep sorrel's are rather smaller, but the flavor is the same.
(I did get into the kitchen, but then I got distracted. Right now I'm going to make some pea soup, and I'll take down the other cookbook to remind me to type the recipe into an email)
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Cool! Hm. Maybe the farmer's market will sell it.
The recipe came through. Thank you very much!
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I hope you can work out the sorrel borscht. I've a feeling that I've at one time or another used sorrel for something, but never a soup.
I'd no idea Chaplin had written fiction. I might have to get a copy of that one, myself.
I'm glad the bread pudding reheats well. In my experience it's a very comforting thing on a day like today.
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I don't think I've ever eaten the kind of sorrel that's made into borscht. I'm looking forward to the experience.