There are three topics in this post. See title for details.

1. Cute baby. On Saturday, Denny, my parents, my grandparents and I all went to Dubuque to see my cousin Debi’s new baby, Meredith. She is extremely cute. She was also very mellow; she spent most of the day either sleeping or looking around. She only cried for about one second, and that was very quickly remedied with nourishment.

2. Sleep-talking taken very seriously. I’m glad I don’t live in a world in which I’m legally bound to the things I say in my sleep. Sheesh! This couple in India is being required by local Islamic personal law to enact the divorce the husband requested in his sleep, even though they don’t want to. I wonder why they ever bothered to tell anyone.

3. Wide rice noodles. I’ve had a few requests for the recipe for fresh wide rice noodles. Here’s what I did, and it worked pretty well.

WIDE RICE NOODLES

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups white rice
• 1.5 cups water
• vegetable oil

Equipment:

• A blender
• A large steamer (I didn’t have one, so I invented one by putting four large spoons in the bottom of a big dutch oven rounded side up, adding water until the spoons weren’t quite submerged, then putting a cake pan on top of the spoons)
• 9-inch in diameter cake pan
• A brush for spreading the oil
• A cutting board and sharp, skinny knife

Method:

1. Soak the rice overnight in the water.
2. Put the whole mess in a blender and blend for about 8 minutes, or until the mixture is very smooth and you can hardly feel any graininess between your fingers. Blend longer if needed; err on the side of too smooth rather than not smooth enough.
3. Dribble about a teaspoon of vegetable oil into the cake pan and spread it out on the bottom and sides with the brush.
4. Put the cake pan in the steamer and steam for five minutes.
5. Open the steamer and pour about half a cup of rice batter into the cake pan, or whatever it takes to get a thin layer on the bottom. Close steam and steam for three minutes.
6. Open the steamer and dribble some more oil onto the cooked rice layer. Spread out with the brush. Add another layer of rice batter. Close and steam for three minutes.
7. Repeat step 6 until all the batter is gone. Close and steam for 5 minutes to set the whole thing.
8. Remove (carefully; it’s hot) the cake pan from the steamer and invert onto a cutting board. Cut the slab into sections about 1 inch thick, then width-wise however you prefer your noodles to be sized. Separate out the layers, and bam, you have wide rice noodles.
9. Use immediately, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and use within 1-2 days.

I’m happy with how these noodles turn out, but I still haven’t managed a satisfactory sauce. All my sauces seem too drippy or something. I think it’s because I’m using the same basic recipe as I use for dishes I serve with rice, and rice is more absorbent in grain form than noodle form.