Puddings

Stout?

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It‘s Ann here today. Andy is in OurLittleCorner with a stamp of approval.

My interest in “stout” began a few weeks ago when our food-writer daughter said I should make a sticky toffee pudding recipe with a “Stout Caramel” sauce for a dinner party we were having. She had written an article for The SF Standard raving about the delicious food at San Francisco’s new Dingles Public House. I was supposed to figure out how to replicate this dessert she’d been served. I knew from her article that it had Guinness Stout in the sauce and Earl Grey tea in the pudding.

Rather than tackle the challenging sauce and pudding project and do some friction maxxing (remember Andy’s last blog?), I took the easy way out and sat and day-dreamed about other things, such as…

What does the word “STOUT” really mean?

STOUT: A dark, full-bodied ale?

Clearly a stout – from St James Gate, Ireland

STOUT: having physical strength and vigor?

These three women seem pretty stout. Photo from Netflix and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, a series we just enjoyed.

STOUT: Someone who is brave, bold, resolute, full of courage?

(note here to all my CC Gamma Phi Besties: didn’t we used to sing, “With our crescent of pearls, we are stouthearted girls”?). Below is a statue of a woman who was really stouthearted, probably more so than me and my Besties! 🙂

Statue of Grainne Mhaol Ni Mhaille , Grace O’Malley, 1530-1603), the Irish Pirate, located at Westport House, Co. Mayo, Ireland

In case you’re unfamiliar with Grace O’Malley, here’s what Anne Chambers, author of the biography about O’Malley (entitled Granuaile ) writes: O’Malley was a “fearless leader by land and by sea, political pragmatist and tactician, rebel, pirate and matriarch, the ’most notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland’ GRACE O’MALLEY challenges and manipulates the turbulent politics of the 16th century. Breaching boundaries of gender imbalance and bias, she re-wrote the rules to become one of the world’s first documented feminist trail-blazers.” You can read more about this Irish Pirate here.

STOUT: A person who has a thick body?

Is one of them stout?

When I finally got up the nerve to try to develop a recipe, I was a little anxious about the potential calorie content…after all, at my age it’s easy to get a little stout. So I looked up some exercises…the kind I might actually do. Please turn the sound on so you can fully appreciate why I think this fits today’s blog.

Sea shanties came along probably 200+ years after the Irish Pirate Grace O’Malley lived – but I think she would have liked this song, “The Wellerman,”even though the lyrics refer to whaling ships in New Zealand in the mid-1800’s and the singer, Nathan Evans, is Scottish, not Irish, and didn’t record it until 2021, 418 years after her death. Would she have been happy that it became a huge TikTok hit?

Facebook reel by Doc H.

After picking and choosing ingredients and measurements and instructions from about eight online Sticky Toffee Pudding recipes, I’m pleased with the way my recipes turned out – even if it was a struggle. Whew.

Hope you have a happy and fun St. Patrick’s Day next Tuesday. We suggest you enjoy a Guinness, watch the How to Get to Heaven from Belfast series, read up on pirates (especially Irish women pirates), and have a (small) piece of Sticky Toffee Pudding – served on top of a big spoonful of Guinness STOUT Caramel Sauce and topped with vanilla gelato. Then do a wee bit of exercise.

Guinness Stout Caramel Sauce

This is adapted from a Food52 recipe.

  • 1 12-ounce bottle of Guinness extra stout
  • 3/4 c light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 T butter
  • 1 c cream
  • 1/4 tsp Diamond kosher salt

Pour the stout into a medium saucepan and heat to boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the stout is reduced by about half.

Stir in the brown sugar and vanilla. Heat to boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and let mixture cook for 8-10 minutes without stirring.

Remove from heat, add the butter, cream and salt and gently stir. Put into a glass container and let cool. Refrigerate – and use within 2 weeks.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

The cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, and ginger can be omitted – and the cake may actually be more traditional and just as delicious…but I like the flavor they add.

  • 1/2 lb (about 8 oz) pitted dates , roughly chopped
  • 1  1/3 c boiling water (optional: add 3 bags of Earl Grey tea to the boiling water and steep for 4 minutes before pouring over dates)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 8 T butter, softened
  • 3/4 c light brown sugar , loosely packed
  • 3 eggs 
  • 1 T golden syrup (optional but delicious)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp Diamond kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 3/4 c flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9″x12″ baking pan.

Place dates in a medium bowl and add the boiling water. Stir in the baking soda (it will fizz).

Put the flour in a medium bowl, then whisk in the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, ginger, salt and baking powder.

Place butter and brown sugar in a bowl or food processor. Beat or process until smooth. Add eggs, syrup and vanilla and beat until well-blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Then add the date mixture and mix or process until combined well – but don’t over mix.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes – or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the pudding in the pan on a wire rack. To serve – cut into small squares, ideally while it’s still slightly warm and place each square on top of a generous spoonful of Guinness Stout Caramel Sauce, then top it all with with a little vanilla gelato.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

It’s D-lightful; It’s D-licious; It’s D-lovely

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It’s Ann here today. Andy is in OurLittleCorner with milk and crackers.

Fran’s Chocolates Smoked Salt Caramels – recommended by Ina Garten

We all need a touch of something sweet now and then, especially during the holiday season. Fran’s Caramels look fantastic – even D-lectable, but I have a sweet that’s even better than Fran’s that I’d like to recommend. Why is it better? Because it’s actually good for you! And only one a day is recommended, so you won’t overindulge!

A 2-week supply of Nordic Naturals Vitamin D3 Gummies – Wild Berry flavor – recommended by Ann of BigLittleMeals.com

As many of you know, I was an English teacher/social studies teacher/gardener – but not a nutritionist/doctor/dietition, so I don’t pretend to be an authority on supplements, but I do read a lot and try to use reputable sources.

According to the NIH.gov, “Vitamin D is found naturally in a few foods, such as the flesh of fatty fish, fish liver oils, beef liver, egg yolks, and cheese. In American diets, fortified foods (e.g., milk, breakfast cereals) provide most of the vitamin D.”

People can get some of their daily vitamin D through exposure to sunlight, although the season, time of day, length of day, cloud cover, melanin content of the skin, and other factors can affect ultraviolet radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis.

According to Yale Medicine.org, “Just being outdoors, you get a fair amount of sun exposure and some sun-related generation of vitamin D. Because skin cancer, particularly melanoma, can be such a devastating disease, it’s best to use sunblock when outdoors in strong sunlight for any prolonged length of time. Because this may limit the amount of vitamin D you get from sun exposure, make sure your diet includes sources of vitamin D from foods or supplements.” 

Harvard Health Online has an excellent explanation of what exactly Vitamin D is – and how we get it and why we need it.

A 2025 article in Prevention.com lists the following possible health benefits of D3:

  • Strong bones
  • Improved immunity
  • Better heart health
  • Boosted mood
  • Strong muscles

Who can’t use all of those? But the real reason I’m all in is because I’m slightly addicted to the gumdrop-like berry flavor of these gummies. How many times do you actually look forward to taking your supplements? How many times do you have to stop yourself from enjoying just one more? It’s kind of like “have your cake and eat it too”or having two good things at the same time.

One gummy provides all of the recommended daily amount of D3

BUT – in case you aren’t really into healthy berry-flavored gumdrops – AND in case eating the flesh of fatty fish or taking fish liver oils or eating beef liver doesn’t appeal – AND if you’re not getting much sun exposure this winter, here’s a holiday-ish recipe that’s got a ton of egg yolks AND evaporated milk which is fortified with Vitamin D.

May the dessert boost your mood, if nothing else.

2 T of the evaporated milk supplies about 6% of the daily Vitamin D requirement.
One egg yolk supplies about 5% of the daily Vitamin D requirement

Our wish (among many) for the New Year: Don’t Be D-ficient!

And we (roughly) calculate you may get 23% of your daily Vitamin D requirement from just one nice-sized piece of this flan. Go for it!

Easy Mexican Flan
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It’s Your Civic(s) Duty

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It’s Ann here today. Andy is in OurLittleCorner blogging about pinball and a pirate

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about elections and about how you get folks to turn out to vote – and vote intelligently. I’ve been thinking about how a country creates socially-responsible citizens, and I’ve been thinking about the teaching of civics.

Most of us took Civics or American Government in high school, right? According to the Nat’l Education Association (NEA) almost all states require at least a semester of government. Yet it’s obvious to one and all that that course isn’t doing what is needed. According to Pew Research about 44% of the voting-eligible U.S. population didn’t turn out to vote in the enormously-important 2020 Presidential election. Also, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in 2021 a bare majority of Americans (56 percent) were able to identify the three branches of government and nearly one in five (20 percent) were unable to identify any.

An alarming statistic

Sandra Day O’Connor in 2009 – when she first retired from the Supreme Court – was concerned that civic education was disappearing from the curricula and when it was taught it was boring. So O’Connor helped start a program called iCivics with the goal of transforming civic education for every student in America with innovative, truly engaging games and resources (according to the iCivics website). In 2018 iCivics formed a coalition called CivXNow, a ” a fast-growing movement of 150+ influential members calling for a civic education revival in America.”

With a little googling I found this 2023 video, “The Functions of Government” sponsored by iCivics. It’s intended for 6 to 11 year olds. I’d love to know your reaction to it.

Using cartoons to teach about government isn’t new. Our son says that Schoolhouse Rock songs were a memorable part of Saturday mornings for all Gen X kids (born between 1965 and 1980) . These short cartoons covered civics, history, economics, math, science, and grammar. While “Conjunction Junction” is a favorite, “I’m Just a Bill” might be the most famous of them.

With a little more googling, searching into ways to teach young people about our government, I came up with a 1950 talk John Kennedy gave to a convention of Massachusetts high school student council members. Kennedy, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, would be elected President 10 years later. I’ve posted a couple of his more relevant comments below.

Representative John Kennedy in 1950

“…public schools are expected to develop leaders for a democratic society. Certainly, all of you must recognize an obligation of the most pressing sort to participate in, and to contribute to the life of your country.

I do not mean by that that you should all embark on careers in the executive or legislative branch of our government. But I do mean that you are obligated to participate in, to contribute to the national life at all levels (the underline is mine, not Kennedy’s).

Aye there’s the rub. In 2018 Judy Woodruff from NPR interviewed a group of high school students about the voting problem, and one student suggested that we should all be required to vote. Can you even imagine what our country would be like if voters – with absolutely no idea of the issues or the candidates -legally had to cast a vote?

A few states require students to pass the same test that immigrants must pass to become U.S. citizens. Take a look at the questions from the test here. I actually think it’s an awful test…just rote memorization. Applicants are given 100 questions (with the correct answers) to study – with the caveat that there may be other correct answers but test-takers should use one of the suggested responses. At test time they are given 10 of those 100 pre-determined questions and required to correctly answer six (6!) of them.

So if neither a requirement to pass the immigration test nor requiring voting would seem to insure engaged citizens, what can we do? More funding for the social sciences, perhaps?

In 2022 The American Bar Association posted an informative article, “Momentum Grows for Stronger Civic Education Across States.” That article provides an astounding revelation about school funding: “Civic education has been chronically underfunded, both federally and locally, the federal government invests a mere 5 cents per K–12 student compared to $54 per student for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”

“STEM will get us to Mars. Humanities will help us get along with one another here on earth.”

And with more funding would come the means to create more innovative curricula and better-trained teachers.

According to civxnow.org, “civic education, when done well, produces young people who are more likely to vote; work on community issues; become socially responsible; and feel confident speaking publicly and interacting with elected officials.” I vote that we do everything we can to support equitable, non-partisan civics education!

Now that I’ve got the serious stuff off my mind, I’m thinking about adding more to those trivia-type Citizenship Test questions. One could be “What U.S. president served for 4,422 days (that’s over 12 years)? And who was that President’s 3rd Vice President? And what was the name of that Vice President’s wife? And what year did that Vice President become President?

And the answers are FDR, HARRY S TRUMAN, BESS, and 1945. And here’s a recipe from Bess Truman (who apparently never publicly discussed politics. Did she not have a good high school civics class?).

Bess Truman’s recipe as it appears in the 1948 Congressional Club Cook Book. My grandmother’s notes indicate that there are two additional, identical recipes published in the cookbook – but with different names. The recipe was clearly popular.
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