Photo finish

There’s a Junie B. Jones book that begins with Picture Day at Junie B.’s school. She’s horrified that the photographer snaps her picture just as she’s squeezing one eye shut and making a horrible face. The picture is so bad, that poor Junie B. hides it under her bed to scare the monsters away.

But it's just a book, of course, and such a thing has NEVER happened at our house, oh no, not even when L. wore a wrinkled, mismatched shirt and thrift store suit jacket to picture day. The pictures still came back with L. looking eccentric and charming, and that year's school picture is by far my favorite one L. has taken yet.

So we had no experience with bad school pictures at our house--until this week, that is.

On Wednesday T. brought home her long-awaited school pictures. “They’re in my bag!” she told me excitedly while I buckled her into her seat. As soon as the first traffic light on the way home turned red I reached into her bag to pull them out. I love school pictures, I really do. But when I saw T.’s pictures, in all their glossy largesse, I really had to exercise some serious self-control. Clearly the photographer had instructed her to smile with her teeth because she was--with each and every single little white tooth. She had drawn back both her lips to reveal her upper and lower teeth in what can only be termed a grimace. The effort of the grimace had caused her eyes to pop out, too, so the effect was, well, startling. The photographer had accomplished what I once had thought would be impossible: to take a bad picture of T. who, in my biased opinion, is a really, really cute kid. One of those cute kids who always photographs well, and yet, well, there you go.

Of course we'll return the photos for a refund, but I'm worried about how to break this to T. without hurting her feelings ("don't I look CUTE?!" she exclaimed when she saw me looking at the photos). Do I ferret them out of sight, mail them back, then whisk her off to JC Penny's for a better result? Do I tell her the photographer made a mistake and that we had to send the originals back? Do we make a joke of it, a la Junie B. Jones, and hide them under her bed to scare away that dust-bunny monster that sometimes bothers T. at night?

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While you're mulling that over, I'll leave you with two recipes for the weekend. On my way into work yesterday I heard a wonderful story on NPR about renowned chef Thomas Keller (click the link and scroll down for some great recipes, including one for brownies). He spoke so wonderfully about what I have always believed: that through food we can nurture both body and spirit.

I was most taken with the story he shared about a meal he cooked for his father--a simple, all-American type of meal: barbecued chicken, greens and a strawberry shortcake. If I weren't a vegetarian and if we owned a working grill, I would most likely have raced home in the torrential rain to fire it up (under shelter of an umbrella), the piece was that evocative. But what I did crave on that Veteran's Day was some honest-to-goodness home-cooked comfort food, the type of food that we Americans do so well, I think. So I whipped up a pot of delicious butternut squash soup, and served it with fresh buttermilk cornbread, and an apple cake for dessert.

Butternut Squash Soup (adapted from here)

1 package of pre-cut butternut squash (I used a package from Trader Joe's)
Dash of nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
1 onion, chopped
4-6 cups vegetable stock (I tweaked this--I didn't measure, but only used enough broth to cover the squash while it was in the pan. I didn't want my soup to be too runny)

In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve with slabs of...cornbread. One thing: I'm not a huge cornbread fan, mainly because so many recipes end up so dry and crumbly the bread sticks in your throat. But this recipe was perfect--pale, moist bread that was perfect with a melting pat of butter and a drizzle of honey on top.

Buttermilk Cornbread

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the baking pan
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I left this out, but if you like your bread salty, keep it in)
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan (I used a small loaf pan). In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, and eggs (mixture might appear curdled). Add to flour mixture and stir just until combined (don't over mix). Transfer to baking pan smooth top.

Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Serve it warm, with butter and honey. I'd post pictures, but this site and photos aren't getting along these days.

Happy Weekend!