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Apr. 7th, 2003
Little House math
Apr. 7th, 2003 04:07 pmI was rereading some Laura Ingalls Wilder books over Shabbat, and kept noticing math problems left and right, especially in West from Home and her travel diary about moving to the "Land of the Big Red Apple."
I started wondering where I could put these math questions. I suppose I'd have to get permission if I wanted to quote excerpts from the books, too.
I've had this happen before, reading books and having word problems want to be written (I suppose other people manage to read books without word problems leaping out at them?). I remember it happening very clearly when learning Eruvin (the mishna, not the gemara), thinking how I could turn it into a couple of chapters on plane geometry, then thinking I could have some 3-D geometry (volumes and surface areas, anyway) using the design of ritual objects. And I did do that whole Purim math quiz, too.
I never did write up any questions (other than the Purim quiz), but I wonder just how long it would take me to type in word problems when I see them, even if just for my own entertainment (don't even start, I know that's warped)? I suppose somewhere there might be teachers who would use them to link literature and math, or halacha and math, etc.
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I started wondering where I could put these math questions. I suppose I'd have to get permission if I wanted to quote excerpts from the books, too.
I've had this happen before, reading books and having word problems want to be written (I suppose other people manage to read books without word problems leaping out at them?). I remember it happening very clearly when learning Eruvin (the mishna, not the gemara), thinking how I could turn it into a couple of chapters on plane geometry, then thinking I could have some 3-D geometry (volumes and surface areas, anyway) using the design of ritual objects. And I did do that whole Purim math quiz, too.
I never did write up any questions (other than the Purim quiz), but I wonder just how long it would take me to type in word problems when I see them, even if just for my own entertainment (don't even start, I know that's warped)? I suppose somewhere there might be teachers who would use them to link literature and math, or halacha and math, etc.
a
Evening cooking
Apr. 7th, 2003 08:57 pmI was inspired by the lemon curd recipe in the cooking LJ community, and already had some grapefruit from Pheromone. I knew I had to get eggs anyway, so got an extra dozen, just to be on the safe side.
First, though, I wanted to get some veggies roasting in the oven (to have something for dinner :-), so diced onions and Yukon gold potatoes were put into a pan, topped with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh rosemary, and some olive oil.
While that started cooking, I made a batch of bread dough, mostly white flour (I'm not sure how many pounds I have left, but likely 10-15 I want to use up this week if I can), with some rye. That's rising now, and I'll cook on time bake overnight, to bring fresh bread into the office tomorrow morning. (They eat everything...)
Then on to the most experimental part of the evening: grapefruit curd. I tried grating the zest off a grapefruit, but was rather unsuccessful. I'm not sure how it resisted, but it did. I had little zest, and finally gave up. I juiced the grapefruit, and one was all I needed. I separated six eggs, and added a cup of powdered sugar to the yolks in the double boiler. I reserved the whites to make an onion-tomato-basil frittatta with, having rejected the idea of making a pavlova as too much work for one evening (though something to keep in mind for Pesach desserts).
Then on to the stirring part of the evening. I added the juice, the little bits of zest, and two sticks of unsalted butter (yeah, yeah, clogged arteries), and started stirring. And stirring. And stirring. I called a long-distance friend for a visit and kept stirring. After 30 minutes or so, it really was thickening (the recipe I'd tried for the lime curd hadn't specified time, so I think I'd given up too early on it). Woo-hoo!
I have two half-pint, and another half of a half-pint, jars of grapefruit curd. When I tasted it, it's not quite as zingy as I'd like, which I assume is a function of lack of zest. It could also be because pink grapefruit is less tart than lemon, too. Interestingly, the yellow of the yolks won out, and the pink grapefruit curd is yellow.
First, though, I wanted to get some veggies roasting in the oven (to have something for dinner :-), so diced onions and Yukon gold potatoes were put into a pan, topped with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh rosemary, and some olive oil.
While that started cooking, I made a batch of bread dough, mostly white flour (I'm not sure how many pounds I have left, but likely 10-15 I want to use up this week if I can), with some rye. That's rising now, and I'll cook on time bake overnight, to bring fresh bread into the office tomorrow morning. (They eat everything...)
Then on to the most experimental part of the evening: grapefruit curd. I tried grating the zest off a grapefruit, but was rather unsuccessful. I'm not sure how it resisted, but it did. I had little zest, and finally gave up. I juiced the grapefruit, and one was all I needed. I separated six eggs, and added a cup of powdered sugar to the yolks in the double boiler. I reserved the whites to make an onion-tomato-basil frittatta with, having rejected the idea of making a pavlova as too much work for one evening (though something to keep in mind for Pesach desserts).
Then on to the stirring part of the evening. I added the juice, the little bits of zest, and two sticks of unsalted butter (yeah, yeah, clogged arteries), and started stirring. And stirring. And stirring. I called a long-distance friend for a visit and kept stirring. After 30 minutes or so, it really was thickening (the recipe I'd tried for the lime curd hadn't specified time, so I think I'd given up too early on it). Woo-hoo!
I have two half-pint, and another half of a half-pint, jars of grapefruit curd. When I tasted it, it's not quite as zingy as I'd like, which I assume is a function of lack of zest. It could also be because pink grapefruit is less tart than lemon, too. Interestingly, the yellow of the yolks won out, and the pink grapefruit curd is yellow.