JUNE 2011
Wednesday 2011.6.29
RETIRED
Today was my last day of work. I now rank among the gainfully unemployed, a liesured person, living in retirement. Excuse the stupid grin on my face. It seemed like the day would never arrive. I've been working since I was 16 years old and here at last I am free of the burdens of employment. The process happened rather rapidly. I wasn't planning to retire until the end of July or August, but there is this little thing called a COLA, or Cost Of Living Adjustment, that we have here in the USA. It turned out that if I waited one more month to retire, I would lose the current COLA and next year's COLA as well. Ultimately it amounts to about 4% of my pension. We did the math and my pension is actually higher by retiring one month earlier. Had I retired as orginally planned I would have stayed two years behind on the adjustments for the remainder of my life, and when you calculate the accumulated adjustments they become significant over time. So, I really had no choice but to give my boss a week's notice.
I couldn't be happier. What are my plans? First of all I want to do more cooking. The weekly recipes have been getting more difficult because I've run through the ones I've done many times. Now I am experimenting with new recipes, but before I post them I need to solve all the problems. In some cases they need to be tested many times. It is amazing how unreliable some cookbooks are. I also want to expand the web site a little, maybe do some product reviews, such as my experience with pressure cookers.
So there should be plenty to keep me busy for quite a while. A few people tried to warn me that I would be bored in retirement, but they were the people who are still working. The retired people I spoke with said retirement was the best thing to happen to them. They have no regrets whatsoever.
I don't see how boredom could be possible with a web site to build and all the cooking to do. In August, around the 15th, this web site will celebrate its first birthday. I'll have to think about doing something special.
Sunday 2011.6.26
Who Knew?
This week I received a very encouraging email from a fan of the web site. She (I am assuming from the name it is a "she") has been living with an eating disorder for 40 years. She discovered my Minute Meals page and the information there solved her problem of preparing, portioning, storing, and heating food for eating easy meals of well-balanced nutrition.
I am not a licensed dietician nor a nutritionist, but I do know that I personally benefit from my Minute Meals. For years I had struggled with finding an easy way to eat healthy and sensible meals without all the work of cooking and especially cleanup. It was simply too easy to cook a bunch of pasta or toss some chicken and rice and a skillet. No vegetables.
I named them Minute Meals because there is so little work at mealtime. Heat, eat, then go wash my fork. True, there is a lot of work in advance, but it only involves one major effort to cook in bulk (like four chickens or two legs of lamb) and then portion and seal everything in little packets for freezing. From then on eating is easy, until the stored food is gone and I do it all again. Other than cooking for the web site or for entertaining, I really only cook for myself once or twice each month.
Another benefit, about which I wasn't initially certain, was the improvement to my health and the loss of excess weight. I was just being lazy. However, if you've been following my diet blog you've seen that I've lost over 18 pounds in the 12 weeks since I began dieting at the beginning of April. My goal was to lose between 1 and 2 pounds per week (a safe rate of weight loss) and the average to date is 1.5 pounds per week, right on target.
So who knew that my Minute Meals would prove to be more than just a simple way for a lazy man to eat properly? I really feel heartened that it helped someone. When I started this web site I simply wanted to share my recipes. It turned out to be more satisfying than I imagined.
Wednesday 2011.6.22
Gadgets
I'm a gadget person. I like them so much, if I buy one that can be improved, I make the upgrade. A friend gave me a pizza peel. The wooden handle was plain, unfinished wood. I stained the wood a nice walnut color and gave it several coats of polyurethane. I similarly stained and coated the handles of several gadgets that also had plain wooden handles.
I have more gadgets than I can store. The ones I use most often are hung from hooks in my kitchen to keep them within easy reach. There are 8 kitchen drawers and most are full of gadgets, some of which I'll never use, but too useful to part with—if that makes any sense.
One of my strangest gadgets—or maybe formerly strangest would be more accurate—is something that looks like a pair of pliers that I bought back when I was in college. I saw it in a warehouse store that sells equipment and food for restaurants and other commercial food establishments. The pliers looked useful, so I bought them. When I started doing videos I looked on the Internet to find the item, just in case I needed to explain what it was and how to find it. I Googled and Googled and came up with nothing. I finally decided that the pliers were no longer made. Then, quite by accident, I discovered them in a picture. It turns out the pliers are "pizza pan grippers" and they are available in many places. I don't have a pizza pan, as I use a pizza stone. I use the grippers for my baking sheets. Google "baking sheet gripper" and nothing like my gripper shows up. So, now I know.
The one problem with gadgets is that I live in a mobile home, which doesn't have much storage. Now, before I buy anything, I need to think about where it will be stored and what I'll have to throw into recycling or donate to the thrift store to make room for the new item. Gadgets are small enough to be tucked into a drawer somewhere. It's the larger items that become a problem. Nonetheless, I try not to even look at gadgets when I'm in a store because I'll likely find something that I never knew existed (and therefore I got along perfectly fine without it), but now that I know it exists I can't imagine living without it.
As for cooking, I'm working on some easy summer recipes.
Sunday 2011.6.19
Just Taking it Easy
After last week's oral surgery, followed by a week of pills, rinses, and talking funny, I decided I needed a little break. This is the reason why I like to have recipes and videos "in the vault." Should I need to step back for a few days, there is material in the bank that can be called up to fill the gap.
The stitches came out on Wednesday and the surgeon was very pleased with the healing. All is well.
As for cooking, I'm gearing up for my next time off from work. I scheduled the first full week of July for my next marathon of cooking and doing videos. One of my planned events is making brioche because of a request on my YouTube channel. I ordered a dozen French-made brioche tins for the project. If I'm going to make brioche, I might as well get the appropriate tins, and they might as well be made in France. I've tried to buy brioche tins before, but the ones in the stores looked scratched and handled too much. These came in a sealed package, new and clean. I haven't even opened the package yet, and I like them so much I'm thinking or ordering another dozen.
I'm thinking of catering a small event during the last week of June. There will probably only be about a dozen people, maybe 20 at the most. I never did any catering before. So this should prove to be interesting. That's why I'm starting small. I won't be paid. It would be my contribution to the event, if I choose to do it. Nothing is finalized yet.
Not much else is happening. We're getting into summer, the time of year to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and drink iced coffee fortified with hazelnut liqueur or sip white trash martinis (note to self: Buy apple juice).
Wednesday 2011.6.15
Complicated Recipes
In one of my Italian cookbooks there is a recipe for rolled stuffed pasta that has been on my mind (and in my kitchen and refrigerator) lately. I've made it twice so far, doing two videos. When I put all the video clips together to assemble a finished video, it was 45 minutes long. And that was just the clips I needed to show. This is a horrendously difficult recipe to make. In the process, however, I thought up a super simple way to accomplish the same thing. Do it with store-bought lasagna. Furthermore, the outcome looks ten time more appetizing than the original, and tastes just as delicious. I will hopefully video it during the weekend and post it to the web site in the near future.
Another complicated recipe, which is fun nonetheless, is brioche. If you've never made them, be prepared to buy some butter. If I remember correctly, the formula is nearly half butter. I recently ordered a dozen French brioche molds because a fan of the web site requested a demonstration of brioche. The molds have arrived, so I have high hopes of also doing brioche this weekend.
The shepherd's pie recipe I've been working on started out simple, but I didn't want a really plain, ordinary pie that was obviously nothing more than a way to use up leftovers from Sunday's roast. So I made it a little more complicated to come up with a shepherd's pie that could be served with pride. The test run with guests went well. I need to make it at least one more time to correct the amount of gravy inside the pie. I'd like an exact measurement to put in the recipe.
As for more complicated recipes, another book arrived via UPS. I've been wanting to buy it, but the cost is $70. It is book two (of a two-book series) of professional pastry making. I waited until I received a $100 gift card and bought it with that. Book one gave me some great ideas. I can hardly wait to start exploring book two.
As for this web site, it's summertime. I'd like to feature only simple recipes that don't require heating up the house with the oven, but I might just slip in a challenging recipe now and then.
Sunday 2011.6.12
An Unusual Dinner Party
Friday evening I hosted a unique dinner party. I invited some guests to taste some recipes with which I have been experimenting lately. These are people I can trust to give me an honest opinion. They won't say something tastes delicious to spare my feelings.
I started them off with the Genovese Savory Pastries I struggled with a few weeks ago. Having solved the problems, these little pastries were ready to be sampled. They were received very well.
Next I served them a Shepherd's Pie I made. I've been trying to find a way to turn something ordinary and economical into something that might feature well at a dinner. They came back for seconds—always a good sign.
Finally, I served the Rolled Stuffed Pasta I've been perfecting. It uses sheets of homemade pasta on which is spread a filling of cooked spinach, cheese, and prosciutto. Then it is rolled up like a jelly roll, topped with balsamella, and baked. Sliced and garnished with extra balsamella, it went over very well.
We finished with coffee and some lightly sweet port.
So what was unusual about the evening? I didn't eat. Not a single morsel of food passed my lips. I'm still recovering from the oral surgery on Wednesday. Even a little substantial food, like thinly sliced chicken breast, seems to pull on the stitches too much. After they left I nibbled on crackers and peanut butter—something that hardly requires any chewing.
I am patient. I will recover. In the meantime, I can still make videos, do my food photography, and write recipes. As for the dinner party, it was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoy my friends.
Wednesday 2011.6.8
Cooking and Dentistry
They sort of go together; after all, teeth are used to chew food.
Remember that tooth implant I wrote about back in January? This morning I go in for surgery to thicken the jaw bone. The implant involves one of the two lower front teeth where the jaw is thinnest. There isn't enough bone to support an implant. So a bone graft is needed. The surgeon will either use cadaver bone (which gives me the creeps) or he'll take a chip of bone from another part of my jaw where there is plenty to spare. Healing time is something like 6 to 8 months. Cost estimate so far is $1,500 to $2,500. Have you ever brought your car to one of those speedy oil change shops that advertises $29.99 and when you drive away you're holding a credit card receipt for $200.00 for additional filters and repairs? I'm sort of feeling like that. I'd set up a donation page on this web site, but I've already got money set aside for unforseen expenses.
Part of the problem is that I'm a victim of "childhood dentistry." I am nearly 60 years old. When I was a kid, who knew anything about long-term dental care? My surgeon made it pointedly clear: "All dentistry fails eventually. The goal is to make it last as long as possible." To make matters worse, I grew up in a family where sugary cereal was standard for breakfast and desserts were sweet and sticky. I ate far more candy, cake, and ice cream than I did vegetables. So I'm going with a good implant. An alternative would have been a bridge, but that compromises the two healthy teeth on either side and doesn't help my already thin jaw bone. So the implant seems the best choice for the money.
Getting away from teeth—I'm doing something new in my latest video. It features a recipe I haven't prepared before and I'm starting from scratch with the video camera on. I wanted to try making a video in which I deal with problems in the recipe as I encounter them. I think it might be a good way for others to learn to read an unfamiliar recipe with a critical eye, making some important decisions from the start, and seeing how to fix problems as you proceed. The recipe, Shepherd's Pie, isn't great to begin with. Even with a few enhancements it isn't something you'd serve on a special occasion. Shepherd's Pie evidently came about as an economical way to use the leftovers after the typical "Sunday roast." I think of it as akin to those meals of leftovers you serve after the traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. You know the ones. "Turkey sloppy joes anyone?"
One final note: A fan of the YouTube videos requested a demonstration of making brioche. The one issue holding me back was the lack of proper brioche molds. Good ones are expensive. Well, they're on their way. I ordered a dozen molds this week and so I'll do a brioche video soon. I really like brioche. I never make them for myself, but they're a great thing to bring with you when invited to dinner. Homemade brioche are so much better than those factory biscuits or dinner rolls that come in a cardboard tube or cellophane package.
Addendum—Post Surgery
It was quite a procedure. He needed to remove a bone chip from elsewhere in my jaw (behind a molar on the lower right side) to have the bone he needed for the graft. The details are a little horrific, but the procedure went smoothly and I was relaxed and comfortable the entire time. The only part that was a little strange was the sound of the bone saw near my ear. Total time in the chair was just over an hour. Naturally there will be some "discomfort" (pain—let's call it by its real name) for a few days, but so far I'm doing okay. Of course, the anaesthesia hasn't worn off yet. The surgeon said ice packs will be my best friend for today.
If I can congratulate myself for a little something—I went through it awake. Normally the surgeon uses general anaesthesia. Although he was reluctant, he agreed to local. Afterwards he said I was easy to work on.
Sunday 2011.6.5
Another Vacation Comes to an End
I've been on vacation all the past week. I had high hopes of doing plenty of videos "for the vault," but videos involve more time now. Most of the early videos are of recipes I've made so many times I could practically prepare the food blindfolded. Now I am having to work in less familiar territory and that means more experimentation, sometimes shooting a video three or four times before I get everything correct.
As I mentioned on Wednesday, I've been making Rolled Stuff Pasta. Yesterday I made it yet again, this time for a new video. Thankfully I have hungry friends.
I've been trying to standardize the formula for béchamel sauce (balsamella in Italian) and no two cookbook recipes are the same. I even went through my cooking textbooks to come up with a basic recipe. What I learned is that each chef has his/her own preferences, and therefore I can have mine two. I stayed with the 1:1:1 formula I mentioned in Wednesday's blog. Once again, it worked perfectly for me. Why tamper with perfection?
One difference I noticed was in the viscosity of the sauce. In one of my Italian cookbooks the balsamella looked almost like a solid. It hardly flowed at all. It had the shape of a soft custard. I like my sauce to be more like a liquid, something that flows gently over the food without being too thin to leave a good flavor. Think of chocolate sauce as opposed to melted chocolate. The sauce is more viscous.
I had also hoped to experiment with a recipe I received from a fan of this site. It has been sitting on my desk for weeks, but there never seems to be enough time to experiment with it. One of these days.... Someone from England also sent me a recipe for Welsh Shepherd's Pie that sounds delicious. I love lamb and I really want to try that one too. One of these days....
Oh well. I go back to work for four weeks, then I have another week off again. Maybe next time.
One weird thing about this vacation: It's raining again. This is Southern California. It isn't supposed to rain in June. Coastal fog (we call it "marine layer"), yes. Rain, no.
I also successfully got one nuisance chore out of the way. My bicycle's real wheel broke another spoke. It attached to the hub beneath the gear cluster, which means disassembling the thing. It helps to have the proper tools. The task took more than an hour, but I replaced the spoke, trued the wheel, and all is well. Thankfully I can do more than cook.
Wednesday 2011.6.1
Cookbooks Revisited
Today I experimented with a recipe in a cookbook that was written by an amusing author. He doesn't try to be amusing, which makes his book even funnier. I think he hates the French. He goes to great lengths—researching old cookbooks, ancient manuscripts, pharaohs' tombs, whatever—to prove that the Italians always did it first when it comes to cooking. They learned nothing from the French. It was the French who stole their cuisine from the Italians and just made it fancier.
Béchamel sauce, one of the four mother sauces of French cooking, is attributed to Louis, Marquis de Béchamel, and is dated around 1790-1800. According to the author of this cookbook, balsamella, the Italian term for béchamel, can be found in a recipe for crema di miglio fritta dating back to the fifteen century. Ergo, the Italians did it first. I defer to King Solomon, who pre-dates the Italians. He supposedly said, "There is nothing new under the sun." (Ecc. 1:9) In other words, everything has been done before. There are exceptions, of course, like splitting the atom and corn dogs, but I don't think of most recipes as being truly unique and original.
The recipe with which I was experimenting today was for rolled stuffed pasta. The first attempt was dreadful. The recipe doesn't provide enough details and I rolled the pasta too thick. That, however, is the point of experimenting. I already know how I will make it again, avoiding the problems in the original recipe. The balsamella also had too much butter in it. I think of béchamel / balsamella as having a 1:1:1 ratio—1 tablespoon of butter to 1 tablespoon of flour to 1 cup of milk. There also wasn't enough balsamella; I'd like a lot for garnish at the table. As for the flavor of the rolled stuffed pasta, it is really good. I'm making it again tomorrow.
I am also looking through my Moroccan cookbook again. There is a roast lamb recipe I want to try. Maybe later this week.
As for this web site, another month has passed. May was better than April, which was dismal, but March still holds the record for having the most activity. And I still have no sponsorship. I wait patiently for All-Clad to discover my videos as an excellent opportunity to feature their top-of-the-line pots and pans. (I wouldn't say "no" if Viking wanted to remodel my kitchen too.)