Cleaning out files

Its something I have put off for a very, very, very long time. Cleaning out the files that contain things that relate to the work I used to do. In some bizaarly unexplainable way, having those things in files and moving them around over the years comforted me. Those mounds of paper showed I was who I was, that I did what I did. That I had positions that people looked up to. Ho-hum. So what. I'm not that person now.

The idea of cleaning out files, ridding my home of who knows what to create space, downsize, and prepare for my next move has made sense for years. I don't need all this paper. Keeping things that you don't know you have, or if you know you have them can't find them, is, politely put, NUTS! Yet I did it. Now I'm trying to undo it.

The process requires focus, and determination. Focus as in, don't find something more pleasant to do only 15 minutes into what is clearly a multi-hour job. Determination as in, don't look at every piece of paper in every file, reliving the time that paper came from, reminiscing about the people, the experiences, the....whatever. Just don't do it. Just grab, glance (to make absolutely sure something crucial isn't being tossed), toss and move on.

But I have to admit, I found a page ripped from the 1998 June issue of Red Herring, a publication that doesn't even exist any longer that stopped me in my tracks. It was an example of the kind of thing I tried to get "answers" from back then. For the most part, I didn't fit into the corporate settings I was in and was constantly trying to figure out "the" answer so that I would. Finally I realized that leaving was what I needed to do, so I did. But back to the magazine page.

I had highlighted a segment of the article. This particular bit of wisdom that I'd gleaned and thought so important I had to keep said:

"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in 'Metcalfe's law' - which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportion to the square of the number of participants - becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."

Sheesh. Not only was this prediction really, incredibly wrong, but I was appalled to note that it was made by someone who I continue to read (in the New York Times) and typically agree with. Sigh. While the part about people not having anything to say to each other (nothing significant anyway) is true, the economic impact thing, is 180 degrees off. And the title of this article? "Why most economists' predictions are wrong." The author? Paul Krugman. Nobel prize winning, Paul Krugman.

Ok. Everyone can be...correction - is...sometimes wrong. But not everyone has the type of bully pulpit that people like Krugman does. So - note to self - the stuff in the files doesn't contain consummate wisdom.  Just because someone writes something down and gets it published, doesn't make them smart or right (although I admit many people who write and are published are quite brilliant.) I'm long past needing answers in files and can finally admit that throwing it out all this stuff won't change who I was and what I did.

Back to the files...

Pumpkin cake for the current me

I love pumpkin. Growing up I couldn't get enough of if, because it seemed that the only time we had anything pumpkin was between about mid-October and Christmas. Which, by the way, is historically the season to have pumpkin unless you canned it. Commercial canning and out of area growing made year-round pumpkin even more possible. Of course now what is labeled pumpkin may actually be a winter squash mix....but I digress.

After leaving home decades ago I found that pumpkin wasn't just for that tiny window and so started collecting pumpkin recipes. One of my favorites was a pumpkin cake that had orange juice and orange zest in it. It was heavenly and I made it often, even adapting it various ways. Time passes and for whatever reason, that recipe was replaced by others. But when invited to a dinner last evening, I decided it was a perfect time to bring that wonderful pumpkin cake as a dessert. So I dug out the recipe and rolled up my sleeves yesterday morning to make the cake.

HORRORS! I read the recipe and it called for a stick of butter in the cake AND a stick of butter for the frosting! Had I really eaten that? Yes I had, and loved every minute of if. Today though, I don't eat so much fat (or try not to) for various reasons. And I don't even try to fool myself into thinking I can do it occasionally. Of course I can, but I don't want to. So what to do?

My solution was to leave the butter in the frosting since I didn't have a good idea of what might substitute (sorry - fat free creme cheese doesn't do it). That left the batter. Often I've used apple sauce to replace a fat in baking. So this time I used some recently canned pear sauce (just like apple sauce only I think a milder flavor) and wondered what would happen. Yes, it's risky to try new things when you are bringing a dish to a dinner, but why not get feedback from people who you know enjoy and know food? So I dove in and made the recipe with the substitution.

At dinner I didn't say what had changed in the recipe, only let people know there had been a change and asking for their thoughts. Seriously, there were moans of "yum" "ooohh, this is so good" and the like. I actually thought they were putting me on so I tasted it. It was good - very moist and delicate and 50% less fat than the original recipe. I learned that I can use pear sauce just as well as apple sauce and not risk so much at all. And since I made the pear sauce with pears from a nearby friend, I knew it didn't have gobs of sugar or anything else in it either.

I've shared the recipe on the Recipes page of this blog. I apologize in advance because I don't know where the original one came from. But with this adaptation, I guess it becomes mine :-)

How could he not know?

Yesterday I went to the grocery and purchased what I considered to be basics. Vegetables (loose Cubanella peppers, green cabbage, bunched labeled radishes, and bagged and labeled Brussels sprouts), fruit (bananas, bagged and labeled red grapefruit and Gala apples) plus milk and a few other items. In the check out line I was brought up short by a couple of things.

The person at the register was a tall, pleasant young man, possibly in his 20s. Perhaps he was in school working part time, or perhaps this job was all that was available to him in these tough economic times. I don't know. What I do surmize by looking at him was that he was morbidly obese. Even with his height I would guess that he was at least 75 pounds over weight. His belly not only hung over his belt, but it literally rested on the edge of the conveyer belt moving my purchases to the bagging area. I wondered about his habits and health based on his appearance.

Then as he registered all my items - scanning bar codes on most, having to weigh others - I was shocked again by his lack of awareness of fresh produce. He queried me about what the following items were:

• green cabbage
• radishes (they had a label)
• Cubanella peppers 

What had happened here? I don't consider these items obscure - ok, the Cubanella peppers may not be as common as the other two, but he seemed to not even know they were peppers. Did he really not know what these items were? Had he grown up not having them as a regular part of his diet? Did he not ask about the other items because they were obviously labeled with bar codes easily read by the technology? 

This isn't the first time a checkout person asked questions about the items I purchased. Unfortunately that is all too common as the emphasis is on speed (scanning as much as possible as quickly as possible) trumps product knowledge. But it is the first time I've been asked by someone where the apparent deficit had such potentially large implications. Maybe mine were the only items in the produce section he didn't know. I hope so.