Sailing Vessels

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian) 

This week we're offering another instructive rhyme from Nautical Nursery Rhymes by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers, (SAFR 18665, HDC 571):

Sailing Vessels

A sailing ship when under sail,
Or being towed must never fail
Her side lights to let others see,
As told by Regulation Three;,
And also, as we all should know,
A masthead light must never show.

Sauce Bèarnaise

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

The next recipe in the Library's copy of  The captain's table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America is for another sauce, Bèarnaise. The recipe is prefaced by the statement, "This classic sauce on fish or meat always makes a gourmet treat." How neat!

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan combine 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon chopped shallots, and salt and white pepper to taste. Cook the mixture over high heat until the vinegar is reduced to 1 tablespoon. Cool the liquid slightly and gradually beat in 6 egg yolks. Return the pan to very low heat or transfer to the top of a double boiler. Add gradually 1 pound melted butter and cook the sauce, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until it is thick and glossy. Rub the sauce through a fine sieve and season it with 1 teaspoon each of chopped fresh tarragon and glace de viande (meat extract) and a pinch of cayenne. Serve the sauce warm. Serves 10 to 12.

What to do with 6 leftover egg whites?  I like adding them to an omelette, whipping a few up to give a little extra lightness and body to a pumpkin pie, or using a couple to make coconut macaroons (my favorite recipe is in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which I follow almost exactly as written, with the exception of adding a heaping 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar to the whipped egg whites to add a little bit of body to them).

Sauce Mornay

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

This week we bring you another recipe from the Library's The Captain's Table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America, the recipe for Sauce Mornay:

Sautè 2 tablespoons finely minced onion in 4 tablespoons butter until it is golden.  Stir in 4 tablespoons flour and gradually add 3 cups milk, heated just to the boiling point.  Cook the sauce, stirring constantly, until it is smooth.

Sautè 1/4 pound (1/2 cup) finely chopped or ground veal in 2 tablespoons butter over very low heat. Season the veal with 1/4 teaspoon salt, a sprig of thyme or a tiny pinch of thyme leaves (powdered thyme will discolor the sauce) and a pinch each of white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Cook the veal for 5 minutes, stirring it to prevent browning. Stir the veal into the sauce.

Cook the sauce in the top of a double boiler over hot water for 1 hour, stirring it from time to time. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve. There should be 2 cups. Mix 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten, with 1/2 cup hot light cream and combine with the 2 cups sauce. Cook the sauce, stirring constantly, until it just comes to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons each of butter and grated parmesan or Swiss cheese. Makes 2-1/2 cups sauce.

New titles in the Library, right from Keys

(by Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

Although our new acquisitions are available from our WorldCat.org  profile page, which also provides an rss feed, there is now a way to see them right from the Keys Catalog home page:

Keys Catalog Screenshot

Like just about everything on the Catalog's home page, this link was easily added, and can easily be changed. For folks interested in the "Behind the Scenes" aspect of working with Koha (the software that powers the Keys Catalog), here's how it was done:

Once again, Nicole Engard's post on the ByWater Solutions blog about creating a new items pull-down menu came in handy--from idea's gleaned from Nicole, I was able to create the following search:

http://keys.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=acqdate%3D2012-08+not+itype%3ALOOSEPER&sort_by=acqdate_dsc

Note that "q=acqdate%3D2012-08" searches for records added to the catalog in August, 2012, and "+not+itype%3ALOOSEPER" is knocking out all the "loose periodicals"--I eliminated the loose periodicals added to the database from this search, since I think that this search should highlight the newly acquired books, videos, archives, etc., rather than every issue of every periodical checked in during the following month.  The last component of the search sorts the items by date acquired with the most recent first.  (This, of course, is easily changed on the search results screen--just open the pull down menu on the upper right and change "Acquisition date: Newest to oldest" to any of many other options

Then it was a simple matter of plugging it into our OpacMainUserBlock system preference--it's that simple!  In the coming week, when I've cataloged more items into Keys, I'll change the link so that with one click you can retrieve items cataloged last month, or simply click to see items cataloged this month.

We hope you like this new feature on Keys!