Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Er, Finished TAFF Reports

Well, it's been a glorious October here in Seattle, with dry weather, clear sunny skies, and a particularly spectacular fall display around campus. It's been so dry that I actually got to wear my red suede coat for much of the month without fear of ruination. And I've been keeping my little Lumix in my coat pocket and taking quite a few pictures as I walk to and from work and class. I also keep thinking about nattering about it here, but, well, Chinese class, therefore bizy. Also, after Randy Byers asked about it, I made the mistake of starting a little post about my trip to California to clear out my parents' Mariposa place, and that post turned into this massive, ever-growing travel journal about the entire drive down and all my little detailed observations along the way, and side trips into recent fan visitors and outings, plus fannish participants in my Big Estate Sale Adventure, and basically the thing snowballed into a fanzine article that is currently 8 pages long and not yet done, but overdue. Go, me.

I'll probably post it here eventually, too, once it's actually finished, because lately the things I send off to fanzines seem to fall into a dark gravity well of egobooless obscurity and despair from which no comment hooks can ever emerge and I do like to have at least *some* sense that other people read what I wrot.

Anyway, for the longest time I had that post saved only as a draft in LJ and so I kept feeling like I couldn't post other things until I got it finished with it. And when it comes to trip reports I seem unable to let go of recording every picayune detail for my own recollection and amusement, and this is why I have thirty thousand words of TAFF report down and no immediate hope of getting it edited down to a readable finished work.

But for now I have that post saved as a Word .doc, and a clean slate here. And so here, before it's too late, a post for October. It's been a grand month.

Not Actually Torta Rustica

One of the things I had wanted to post here, as an aide memoire to myself, is this recently unvented recipe for torta-rustica-esqe quiche, a sort of riff on the wonderful torta rustica at Tweets Cafe in Edison, WA.

1 pie crust (made or bought -- I bought mine)
1 package sliced prosciutto
1 package hard salami
1 wedge Beecher's Flagship cheese
1 wedge Red Apple smoked gruyere cheese
1 wedge Dubliner cheese
Herbed feta cheese
fresh-cracked pepper
6-8 cloves garlic smashed
4 eggs
Half-and-half
Several sprigs fresh thyme

Pre-heat oven to 400°

Grate about half each of the three grateable cheeses. In the prepared, unbaked pie crust, layer the meats and cheeses and garlic thus:

Layer 1: sliced salami to cover
Layer 2: grated cheeses, crumbled feta, and garlic cloves generously distributed
Layer 3: prosciutto to cover
Layer 4: grated cheeses, crumbled feta, and garlic cloves generously distributed
Layer 5: mixture of salami and prosciutto to cover
Layer 6: grated cheeses, crumbled feta, and garlic cloves generously distributed

In a mixing bowl, whisk together 4 eggs until uniformly mixed, grind in black pepper to taste, add the leaves from the thyme, and then mix in a sufficiency of half-and-half to fill your pie shell. Fill your pie shell to just over the level of the top cheese layer.

Shove that puppy in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325° and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes or until crust golden brown and a knife inserted in the center pulls out clean.

Let cool 30 minutes. Nom that nommy thing.