In the Subject Line

Do you ever have trouble composing the subject line of an email you are about to send? Do you ever find yourself fretting over the precise combination of words that summarizes your email accurately?

Well, someone I know figured out a perfect solution to this problem. Let’s call this person Betsy Trotwood. (Clearly I have been watching David Copperfield on Masterpiece Theater lately.)

Betsy does not waste time looking for the perfect subject line. I bet she does not even have to pause for a second before typing it in. In fact I suspect Betsy does not think about it at all. All of Betsy’s emails have the same subject line. Short and sweet, it contains only two words: “From Betsy.”

Last Week's Mushrooms

What Is Happening to the Track and the Baseball Field at the Back Bay Fens?

Last week I went out to the Fens to run some intervals on the dirt track only to find it completely fenced off. A large piece of excavating equipment was parked at the far end near now mostly demolished risers by the Muddy River. A little worried about the future of the track, I endured my intervals running back and forth along Park Drive.

A few inquires and web searches later, I learned that the baseball field and the track around it are Roberto Clemente Field. The City of Boston and Emmanuel College formed a partnership to upgrade the field. The renovations will include a synthetic turf field, a rubberized all-weather track, new lighting, scoreboard and much more. Where, oh where, will all the Fenway dogs run around? You can find more details about the work being done in this article.

Chouquettes (Or Empty Cream Puffs)

Mom decided to let me make dessert for a dinner she hosted on Saturday night. On Thursday evening I poured over recipes and decided to make a second attempt at cooking a Napoleon. (Some of you may remember my first rather unsuccessful attempt...) A few hours later I promptly abandoned that idea after completely destroying yet another batch of pastry cream.

So instead of a Napoleon, I spent Saturday morning baking chouquettes--essentially cream puffs without the pastry cream inside sprinkled with some coarse sugar. I followed three almost identical recipes (David Lebovitz, SmittenKitchen, and a cook book by Nick Malgieri "How To Bake"). All three are pâte à choux recipes with the only difference being the amount of sugar used in the dough and the baking temperature.

My dough was a little too liquidy, but the chouquetts puffed up sufficiently anyway. Next time I may try to deep a few of them into chocolate.