4th of July food, hockey & the Dead Sea Scrolls

First, the hockey, because it's going to be unpleasant. That trade I talked about, the one I was so fearful about? It happened. And I'm so pissed you wouldn't believe it. They traded away the one guy who's been my favorite player as long as we've been going to Stars games, and acquired two forty-year-olds. (Also two players who are 5'9 and 5'10, and one of those is one of the 40-year-olds. The Stars are going to be among the oldest and smallest teams this season.)

I'm not happy and I think it's a bad idea. This is what I think is going to happen*: The old guys are going to get injured and play in fewer than two thirds of the games this season, so the leadership and guidance they're supposed to bring the younger players will be off in rehab somewhere. Jaromir Jagr, the big name player who's so close to the end of his career and who has never, ever played for a Western Conference team, is going to start thinking how much better the East is than the West (before he signed he asked the Stars about how the style of play is different in the two conferences). He'll finish the season, or up until he gets injured, with a general aura of contempt for the West. It's going to do wonders for morale, both within the team and for fans.

*Yes, I'll come back during the season and look at my predictions. If I'm wrong, I'll cheerfully admit it. If I'm right, someone owes me! I'll figure out who, and what, later.

For the first time this year, we didn't pay for our Stars season tickets with one payment in May, but just let them divide it up into three payments. The last one is supposed to go through on July 15th. I'm actually considering canceling and asking for my money back. Oh, sure, we'll go to some games, but I'm honestly not sure I'm interested enough to slog down to AAC and sit through all 45 of them. And, incidentally, I could subscribe to NHL Center Ice for less than 10% of our ticket price and watch all the Stars, Sabres, Ducks, Sharks and Wild games all season long. From the comfort of my own sofa.

I'm going to have to think about it.

In the meantime, on to food. I wanted to make something kind of special for the 4th, and happened to think about this recipe. Strawberry Shortcut Cake. Obviously the recipe is now available online, but I first encountered it in a Pillsbury pamphlet-type cookbook copyrighted in 1980, and I'm guessing that was about the time it came into my possession. The SSC is the only recipe I've ever made from it, I believe, but I've kept the booklet all these years so I'd have access to this cake recipe. It's one of those things that tastes yummy, looks reasonably impressive and yet is so easy you can actually spend all your time on another part of the meal and have two blow-them-away dishes.

You mix up the cake, combine berries and Jello, and spoon it over the batter before you bake it. After it's done, it's got a layer of gooey strawberry goodness on the top (or, you know, on the bottom if you just lift it out of the pan with a cake server).

I've always made it the way the recipe says, with strawberries. Making it today, for the 4th of July, I suggested to Rich that while we eat this red and white cake we hold our breath 'til we turn blue, just to make it appropriately patriotic. He suggested adding blueberries instead. So I faked a blueberry combination similar to the strawberry one, and put it on in diagonal stripes.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

And, finally, the Dead Sea Scrolls. They're here! In the Metroplex! Well, some of them, anyway, and you can see them at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. They have a pretty extensive exhibit, the culmination of which is actual fragments of the Scrolls. This is the exhibit's website, where you can buy tickets.

The Scrolls were impressive, but they're very dimly lit, of course, to protect them, and the ones on leather (which is most of them) are very dark, so they're hard to see. It's extremely cool having them right there in front of you, knowing the history behind them and thinking about the people who made them and all the hands who have touched them throughout the ages. But for the most part I kind of had to take their word for it. They pretty much look like dark, ragged blobs. (Honestly, I mean no disrespect.)

Tickets are for specific time slots, so visitors won't be bunched up, all trying to look at the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately, you watch a short film right before you go in to see the Scroll fragments, so at the most interesting (to me) point, you get all bunched up again. So be sure and take some patience with you. Don't bother, though, with the sweater they recommend (the Scrolls are kept at a low temperature, also to protect them). I tend to be cold in restaurants and stores, and I just carried mine the whole time. And if you're on Facebook, you should 'Like' See the Scrolls. They offered a discount code just for Facebook friends; we got $10 off our tickets. I bet they'll do that again.

In any case, it was worth the money, and the drive to Fort Worth.

Wow, I've gone on and on, haven't I? I guess I should split this up into multiple entries. And speaking of that…(next time).