DECEMBER 2010
Friday 2010.12.31
Special New Year's Eve Blog
Looking back: On August 16th of this year I launched this site, after years of hearing "You've got to publish your recipes" from friends who have eaten my food and love it. It was not a glorious beginning. I spent weeks with a Dreamweaver book, working through exercises, testing and scrapping ideas, before I finally came up with a layout I liked. I certainly didn't break any new ground. I stuck with a style that is almost ubiquitous on the web: Header, side panel to the left, content on the main panel. Hardly adventurous, but I wanted a design that would already be familiar to people. No need to make people learn to navigate my site. Just get them directly into the recipes. The gem I am most proud of is my little trailer graphic, which I drew myself using illustration software on this computer.
The PDFs were, thankfully, easy. I have a good Nikon digital SLR and flashgun, and enough lenses to suit my needs. I mostly use my 18-55mm zoom lens, but occasionally I reach for either my 55-200mm zoom or my baby, my fixed focal length 105mm micro lens. All are Nikkor AF-S lenses. I also have all the software I need to do the necessary postproduction editing of the photographs and build the documents that ultimately get encoded to PDF.
Not everyone was delighted with my ideas. I actually lost one friend because I got so pissed off at his constant criticism. "You should only use white plates. Food is always photographed on white plates." I went through my more than three dozen cookbooks and only one had photographs of food on white plates, The French Laundry Cookbook. I sent him a picture of one recipe on a white plate and I complained that it looked like vomit on a dish. Then he had issues with the way the food was plated. There wasn't enough color or it wasn't artistically arranged. He even suggested I use him as my "food stylist." He never once said anything positive or encouraging about my site. He wouldn't even acknowledge it unless he could find something negative to say. The guy is only a travel agent and he never photographs anything, let alone food. That friendship, thankfully, is over. Auld Lang Syne.
Then came the challenges of videos. My friend Eric owns the "prosumer" camera that we use for the 720p videos. If I remember correctly, his gear cost him over $8,000. The first proof-of-concept videos were laughably awful. I was stiff and nervous. The microphone on the camera picked up every background sound as I cooked and moved around the kitchen. To solve that problem I bought a lavelier microphone system for $500. Then there was the challenge of lighting my kitchen. I ended up purchasing several work lamps with 40w halogen bulbs for fill and one spot light to shine directly on me when I'm talking to the camera. Eric, thankfully, has a good eye for lighting. As many as 6 lamps are used to light the kitchen, adjusted as needed for each shot. At first they were too hot. Silks were needed to diffuse the light. I bought a nylon shower curtain and cut it up to make silks. The lights and silks are now semi-permanently mounted around my kitchen ceiling. I had a pile of blackout fabric from some drapes that were discarded at my workplace. I made blackout drapes to cover the windows because the outdoor ambient light changes throughout the day, distorting the indoor lighting.
The next problem to solve was the camera angle. Every counter in my kitchen faces a solid wall. Eric had to film the videos from slightly behind me and to the side. I built a 1¼-inch thick kitchen counter that bridges the archway leading into the kitchen from the dining area. After staining the wood and applying several coats of polyurethane, the counter looked beautiful. Now we can position the camera directly in front of me as I talk about the recipe and demonstrate the procedures. When not needed, the counter is easly removed and stored.
Finally, there was postproduction. Thankfully I have access to video editing software through my employer and I have two good computers at home, computers I built myself. It took a while to learn the software and develop a style for the videos, but the results have been well received and several people complimented me because of their quality.
Looking ahead: For the beginning of the new year I want to concentrate on some cooking basics, as I commented in my 12/26 blog. I am also thinking of accepting recipes from fans of the site. I am not a chef and therefore my skills are limited.
Eric taught me how to operate his camera and on several occasions he left it with me. I set up my own shots and operate the camera with a remote control. The results have been very satisfying. The bad news is that his camera won't be available indefinitely. So this year I will probably purchase my own video equipment. One advantage to living in a mobile home is that expenses are low. I have saved plenty of money and therefore a good "prosumer" camera and tripod are affordable.
Finally, I want to continue to develop my photography skills. I think the "clinical" lighting and photography work well for the step-by-step photographs in the recipe PDF. It's the final photo of the food that I want to improve with better lighting and a narrower depth of field. I've been an amateur photographer for about 30 years, so I thankfully have the skills to compose decent photographs. There is still room for improvement, however. I want to experiment with natural lighting and different aperture settings.
In conclusion: If you've been with me from the beginning you've witnessed the development of this site. There is still a long way to go and I hope you'll stay with me. To those who have sent me helpful feedback: I say, "Thank you, indeed." It has been a pleasure hearing from you. May the new year be a prosperous and happy one for you all.
—Dennis
Wednesday 2010.12.29.
Sometimes Dreams Are Dumb
Have you ever had a hilarious dream and woke up laughing? Did you ever write down the details of the dream before going back to sleep? Did you ever read your notes in the morning and wonder what was so funny?
Last night I dreamed I was standing in front of my graduate school class doing sort of a stand-up comedy routine. We were discussing depression (my master's degree is in counseling psychology) and some of the "red flag" incidents that might indicate a client is planning to commit suicide. "You see him trying to jimmy the latch on the door of the microwave oven so that it can be turned on while the door is still open. Of course, what happens if you change your mind after 30 seconds? It's not like jumping off a bridge. You can change your mind after you jump off a bridge, but you can't do anything about it. Maybe you'll suffer jumper's remorse, but it will only last for a second or two.
"What would your head look like if you changed your mind and pulled out after 30 seconds in a microwave oven? What kind of a lie would you invent for your plastic surgeon when you go in for face reconstruction? 'I half cooked my head in a microwave oven by accident.'"
For some odd reason that led into—
"How can the governenment be in debt? We print our own money! Just come up with a one-billion dollar bill and print 100,000 of them. Problem solved. Can you imagine the Chinese government office worker opening the mail and finding 10 one-billion dollar bills in an envelope? What kind of thoughts would go through his mind? 'Can I slip these into my underwear and pretend I never saw them?' He'd be the richest man in the world, but it's not like he could do anything about it. You can't go shopping. Buy a bag of rice at the market, hand the cashiere a one-billion dollar bill, and hold out your hand for the change? You can't exactly walk into a bank with the bills and tell the clerk, 'I'd like to open a checking account.' You'd be screwed!"
I am not kidding. I dreamed this last night and woke up laughing. I wrote it all down before going back to sleep. This morning I read my notes and wondered, "Huh? What did I eat before going to bed?" Only a couple Italian Christmas cookies (they're still not rocks). Oh well. Dreams are dumb.
Have a Happy New Year.
Sunday 2010.12.26
A Christmas Without Cooking
As far as Christmases go, this was one of the most quiet and satifying holidays I've enjoyed in a long time. I wasn't called upon to cook anything for anyone this year. Instead, I made a full batch of Mom's Italian Christmas Cookies this week (the orignal test was successfull) and delivered plates of cookies to my neighbors.
Of course, one might argue I did my Christmas feast a little early this year by stuffing and roasting a goose for last week's Feature Recipe. I ate goose and stuffing for days. That recipe PDF, by the way, has been the most popular download ever in a single week.
And then there was preparing and videoing this week's Feature Recipe, my Cannelloni Florentine. I made enough for eight servings and ate all the leftovers during the week. Although the Roast Goose recipe holds the record for the most downloads in a single week, my Pasta From Scratch recipe is the clear leader for overall downloads. So why not continue the trend and make cannelloni?
My one annual tradition that I have been observing for many years is reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol during the week of Christmas. This year I read it on my early Christmas present to myself, my Nook Color.
I also don't have anything festive planned for New Year's Eve. And as for the weeks following the holidays, I think it would be worthwhile to spend some time on cooking basics—sauces, stocks, clarifying butter, etc.—to start off the new year. I also want to focus on breads again, perhaps baking pain de mie and one or two braided loafs.
Thus this year winds down toward its end. I'm not the type to reflect much. I spend too much time thinking about the future.
Oh, and as for those Christmas cookies mentioned in the last blog—I saved a few and they're still not rocks.
Wednesday 2010.12.22
Christmas Cookies
It has been about a month since Thanksgiving and once again kitchens are heating up—only this time, around the world. My mother, may she rest in peace in her urn (a futile wish because my father's ashes were mixed in with hers and God only knows what they're fighting about now!) made the most awful cookies every Christmas. As children we loved to decorate them because Mom would spread them with a drippy white frosting and then we got to add the colored sprinkles (nonpareils).
They were somewhat chewy, like a stale bagel, and sweet the first day or two. Then they became pretty rocks. We weren't allowed to throw them in the house. Over the years I have tried to replicate many of my mother's, and her mother's, recipes, often improving upon the orignals, but my mother's cookie recipe has remained safely obscure.
They were "Italian Cookies," to be sure. She no doubt learned them from her mother, who was from Naples, Italy. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression in this country and therefore she was notorious for cutting corners when cooking. Butter is expensive, water is cheap. Substitute. When you make a cookie that is mostly flour, water, sugar, and flavoring, what happens when all the moisture evaporates? As for her meatballs, we called them breadballs.
My grandmother cut corners in other ways. Like many illiterate immigrants, she worked in a shoe factory. When you purchase a pair of shoes, do you ever find a ball of tissue paper stuffed into the toe section? My grandmother used to steal that paper from the factory and use it as toilet paper. We dreaded answering nature's call when visiting my grandmother.
My mother's cookie dough was very much like children's modeling clay. It could be rolled and shaped by hand into all kinds of configurations—tied knots, twisted pairs, things that sort of looked like tied knots, but they weren't tied—and some of the dough she shaped into a long loaf, baked it, sliced it like biscotti while still warm, and then she frosted it.
Knowing what I know about their "substitution" issues, I finally let curiosity get the best of me and last night I tried making Italian cookies. No water. Eggs, heavy cream, and almond extract. Flour, butter, sugar, and baking powder. Create shapes. Bake 13 minutes at 375°F.
Light and delicious. I'll let you know whether or not they turn into rocks later.
Sunday 2010.12.19
Roasting a Goose
It has been at least three years since I last roasted a goose. I was originally inspired to attempt it by the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu At Home (1991, William Morrow & Co.) in which the goose is the last recipe in the book (penultimate, actually, because it is followed by a recipe for a dessert to serve after the goose). My recipe diverges from the original in almost every detail, except that it still involves a goose.
I like dark meat. I'll eat chicken breast or turkey breast, but it's the dark meat I enjoy most. Goose is all dark meat. There is a simple biological/physiological reason why: Geese fly. Flightless chickens and turkeys hardly use their breast muscles. They use their legs; thus, the leg meat is dark. Goose breast meat is just as dark as the leg meat. As for the flavor, it tastes very much like turkey, but richer.
The problem with geese is the cost. At over $60 for a 9-pound bird, you wouldn't want to serve it often. A single goose only serves 6 to 8 people. At that price, I'd rather have lobster. However, roasting a goose is a fun challenge occasionally and it always makes my friends start calling. "Can I come over for goose?" It's a rare treat, and the rarity alone guarantees the pleasure. You can't fail when you bring something exotic to the table.
Exotic is needed when serving goose. The meat is a little tough. It certainly isn't as delicious as shrimp. But it's goose, and that makes it fun. It's sort of like sliding down a snow-covered hill on the back of a sled. It is nowhere near as fun as skiing, but it's fun. So you do it.
There is another benefit. Geese rend a lot of fat when roasting and the fat is healthy, being low in saturated fat. The French like to eat potatoes fried in goose fat. I've tried it and it's good. Of course, I love potatoes. So even the deep-fried potatoes (French fries) cooked in trans fat at the fast-food takeaway wasn't objectionable when I was in college.
So that's another goose cooked and gone. The stuffing, made this time with chopped roasted chestnuts and cooked wild rice, was fantastic. Although it might be another three years before I attempt roasting a goose again, the stuffing recipe will used again, and often. Maybe under a rack of lamb. Hmmmm.
Wednesday 2010.12.15
What a Difference a Mistake Makes
For the past few weeks I've been joking with my friends about the Salmon Jerky recipe. "There must be cooking classes somewhere that are learning to make salmon jerky and all the students are downloading my recipe. It got downloaded 35 times in one day!" Or, "It must be salmon season in Canada or the Pacific Northwest and everyone wants a copy of my Salmon Jerky recipe."
Is my face red? Redder than salmon.
On Sunday I blogged about my new toy. Today I brought my Nook to a free wi-fi site (well, sort of free, because I needed to log in with my employee I.D.) and I downloaded all my PDFs to the device. It seemed like a fun way to test my links. When I clicked the Smoked Salmon Quiche link I received the PDF for Salmon Jerky.
Ohhhhhh! So that's why no one downloaded my Smoked Salmon Quiche recipe! I couldn't figure that one out because this quiche is fantastic. Everyone who eats it tells me how delicious it is. I love it. But my salmon jerky... well, it's an acquired taste. Even my buddy up in Spokane—a rugged, outdoors type of guy—eyes my salmon jerky dubiously.
All right. That problem was fixed. I expect my Smoked Salmon Quiche recipe will now soar to the top of the popularity chart very quickly.
Meanwhile, my How to Bone a Chicken PDF was a runaway smash hit when I first posted it. Then, it tapered off rapidly, sinking into obscurity. When I tried to download and view the PDF today, my Nook reported it as damaged and unreadable. Well, that explains a few things. So I generated a new PDF and posted it to the web site today.
Sadly, no one used the Contact page (button in the left panel) to let me know about these problems.
Lesson learned: Check all your links, not only from within your site on your computer, but live from a remote computer. Do this at least once a week.
Sunday 2010.12.12
Boys and Their Toys
Despite the aquisition of a distracting new toy this weekend, I still managed to video the three pick-up shots I needed to complete the Pasta Fagioli video. You can detect the pick-ups in two ways. My hair is shorter because I cut it yesterday (yes, I cut my own hair) and by the clock on the wall. According to the clock, I finished making the soup before I started.
As for the toy, I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color ebook reader. I had wanted the black and white Nook because it, and not the Color (yet), displays ebooks in Palm eReader format. My ebook library (about 100 books) is encoded with the Palm Markup Language (PML) to preserve italics, bold, footnotes, illustrations, etc., and I couldn't imagine parting with my PML ebooks. Through my research I learned I could make my own EPUB ebooks (compatible with the Nook Color and other ebook readers) using Adobe Creative Suite 4 InDesign. Over time I can convert my PML ebooks to EPUB. I've done two already and it's relatively easy.
The deal maker was when I learned the Nook Color could display PDFs. All my recipes for this site are in PDF format. One annoyance when cooking and testing a recipe is having to run back and forth between the kitchen and the office to check a recipe. Now I can have the PDF in the kitchen with me. My mobile home kitchen is too small for a computer and the tablets and "pads" are too expensive. The Nook Color was the perfect fit.
Maybe I should explain ebooks. I really do live in a mobile home. I don't have room to store hundreds of books. I can store thousands of ebooks on a single micro SD card. Also, I like searchable text. Sometimes I want to go back to something I read. Searching an ebook is a lot easier than leafing through the pages of a book. And I can carry my entire library with me.
You realize, of course, that all the above arguments in favor of the Nook Color are merely rationalizations. That's another thing we boys do. Given enough time, I can rationalize almost anything.
Wednesday 2010.12.08
Overwhelmed Sometimes
This morning was rather hilairious. It actually started last night. I was on the phone with a friend while trying to make vegetable stock for Pasta Fagioli, a recipe I plan to post on Sunday. The pot needed to simmer 30 minutes and it didn't come up to a boil until 9:30. At 10:00 I turned off the stove and went to bed. I only hit the snooze button one time this morning when the alarm went off at 6:00. I was therefore out of bed at 6:09.
Meanwhile, I had left one computer running overnight to charge my cell phone (the battery was nearly dead after all the time I had spent on the phone). While I was checking my web site's stats on that computer I turned on the other computer, which reported it wanted to get a lot of software updates. I keep that computer safely offline because it is my "production" computer and I don't take any chances after the last virus attack.
Meanwhile, I put my my chinios (conical strainer) in another large pot and dumped the cooked vegetables and stock into it to strain and drain.
Meanwhile, my camera's battery indicator said the battery was too low and I am trying to take pictures for the PDF of the Pasta Fagioli recipe.
Meanwhile, I found two typographical errors in my Home Page for this site.
Meanwhile, I put my dry cannellini beans in a bowl and filled the bowl with salted water so that the beans would be ready to cook this evening.
So, the battery went into a charger. I dumped the strained vegetables into a square of muslin and squeezed another two cups of stock out of the discards. I put the partially charged battery back into my camera and took the pictures I needed. I put Computer2 online and got my updates. Then I corrected the typos in the Home Page and uploaded it. And somehow, through it all, I manged to get ready for work. I even washed the stock pot, chinois, and utensils!
Sometimes things just get that way.
Sunday 2010.12.05
A Bological Adventure, or Dr. Frankenstein's Chicken
Yesterday was quite an adventure, and I'm repeating it today. Yesterday was for the video camera. Today I am taking photographs for the PDF that will eventually be on this site.
I removed the skin from a chicken, all in one piece, after slitting it up the back. Then I deboned the chicken, removing the drumstick, thigh, and breast meat. (The bones, as is the custom in this kitchen, were put in the freezer for making stock later.) Then I laid out the skin, outside part down, and assembled the chicken meat back into a chicken again. This is where the Dr. Frankenstein part came in. The drumstick meat was pushed back into the leg skin, followed by the thigh meat. I put the breast meat back in its original place. Then I put a generous portion of stuffing (my classic recipe) down the center. Finally, I brought the skin back together again where I had slit it along the back and stitched it together with a skewer.
I turned the chicken over, breast side up, and tied it in three places, like a roast. Then it went into a 350°F oven for about an hour, to an internal temperature of about 165°F. After resting for 15 minutes it was up to 172°F, a very safe temperature for chicken. The skin was golden and the breast meat was so moist and tender it could be cut with a fork.
The best part was the carving. No bones. The chicken could be sliced like a loaf of bread, each slice having chicken meat and stuffing in it—white meat at one end, dark meat at the other end. I made double the stuffing and the extra went into a casserole dish and baked with the chicken. With an extra helping of stuffing on the side, and some mashed potatoes and veggies, it was a magnificent feast.
Bring a roast like this to the table. People will look at it with dubiousness. It does look a little odd for a chicken. After all, it has no skeleton. But when you start slicing it, then listen for the "Ooooo!s" and "Ahhhh!s" from your guests.
It's an adventurous task, but it makes an incredible impression. And that's why I think I'll name this one Dr. Frankenstein's Chicken.
Friday 2010.12.03
Just Playing
I don't usually blog on a Friday, but I'm testing something to see if I can add to my site from another location (technically: here at my job).
This week I thought up something that might be a fun idea—boning a chicken but keeping the skin all in one piece. I'm thinking of cutting the skin down the back and removing it all in one piece. Then fillet off the drumstick, thigh, and breast meat. Push that boneless meat back into the skin where it orignally was and then pack the middle with a generous portion of stuffing. Bring the skin back together along the back and stitch it closed with a skewer. Tie the bird like a roast and bake it. The finished chicken, if all goes according to plan, could be sliced like a loaf of bread. Those who want light meat would get breast meat and stuffing all in the same slice. The same would be true for those who like dark meat.
So, today I drove to work (rather than commute by bicycle) so that I could shop on the way home. It should be a fun experiment and at only 99¢ per pound for the chickens the experiment won't be too costly if it all ends up in the trash. The chickens are sold two to a package, so that will give me one with which to experiment before going live in front of the video camera.
Speaking of costly, I'm thinking of roasting a goose again this year, for a video. I haven't roasted a goose in three years. They're expensive, over $50 each in the grocery store, and you only get about six servings off them. If you're not familiar with geese, they're all dark meat. There is a biological/physiological reason for this. Chickens don't fly. They don't use their breast muscles, which makes the meat light. Geese fly. So their breast muscles are as dark as their leg muscles. Still, that shouldn't make them cost ten times more than chickens, but they're an exotic (if expensive) treat to be enjoyed on rare occasions. They are really fatty. So the skin gets pierced all over to let the fat rend and escape during roasting. The fat is healthy, being low in saturated fat. The French love potatoes fried in goose fat. So I save the fat and use it for cooking.
Okay, let's see if I can upload this blog. If you're reading this, all was successful.
Wednesday 2010.12.01
Cooking Marathon
Last month I blogged about a marathon that shut down the avenue in front of my home for a few hours. This past week I had one of my own, a cooking marathon. I was home for nine days and I cooked for nine days—eight days in front of the camera and one day of respite in which I only baked Almond Biscotti for a friend. As a result, I assembled nine videos, three of which have already been uploaded to YouTube. I have another six "in the bank" for future posting.
Thankfully I have friends who eat, and eat a lot. There are very few leftovers in my refrigerator. Better yet, my freezer, which is always full to overflowing (I wove nets to hold stuff onto the shelves when I open the door) now has one empty shelf. I swear, I am going to eat out of the freezer until it is nearly empty. On the positive side, I added 14 cups of homemade chicken stock—frozen in one-cup blocks—to the freezer. With the stock already in there (bringing the total to 39 cups), I'm set for chicken soup for the next few months. Winter is my time for eating soup.
I'm looking foward to another marathon next month. Eric will likely leave his camera with me during the holidays at the end of December. Similar to my homemade chicken stock, White-Trash-Cooking.com has plenty of source material for the next few months.