JANUARY 2012
Sunday 2012.1.29
Back in the Kitchen Again
This week I finally got back to cooking in front of the video camera again. It had been nearly six weeks. The last time I recorded a video was December 18th.
First, there was the need to move my web site to a new hosting service. That required days of research before I found a service that I liked. Most of the changeover went smoothly, but coming up with a working Contact page (that's what that button is for in the left-hand panel) was a major challenge because it required learning how to write the script code in a different programming language. My old script wouldn't work. That took two weeks.
Then Computer-2 (I don't give them pet names—just Computer-1, Computer-2, and Computer-3) started to fail. I blogged about that on Wednesday. It means I no longer have a Computer-3 because that computer donated its motherboard to the cause, which is fine because I rarely used that computer anyway.
And, finally, I took a week to prepare for a friend's visit. I blogged about that last Sunday.
So, what was the occasion that got me back in front of the video camera again? There was none. I simply wanted to return to the pleasure of making cooking videos. And it was a pleasure. I made another risotto. Risotti are a strange things with me. I don't really enjoy eating them, but I love to prepare them. They are labor intensive—you stand at the stove for 20 minutes, stirring your rice constantly as you add stock a little at a time. There are few foods in which you participate 100% in the preparation process.
This risotto is unique—risotto e fagioli. The Italians do not typically mix rice with beans. You see it often in Spanish and other Latin cuisine. Only the Tuscans, evidently, combine rice and beans. The original recipe claims they prefer black-eyed peas for this dish. I had cannellini beans; so I used them instead. The flavor was magnificent.
I usually give away most of the foods I make for my videos. My neighbors love to see my windows covered with blackout curtains. (Doing so allows for better control of color in my videos because the studio lights are constant; whereas, daylight intensity and color changes throughout the day). Those blackout drapes indicate that I am making a video and therefore they can expect me to arrive with plates of food to share. I share because I don't want the calories in the house. (Therefore, my neighbors are also delighted that I am on a diet and they willingly help out by taking high-calorie foods off my hands.) In the case of this risotto e fagioli, I portioned it and froze it for my Minute Meals. It was delicious.
The recipe and video for the risotto will appear on this web site and on YouTube in coming weeks.
Wednesday 2012.1.25
Computer Stuff
I would like to blame yesterday's solar storm. Computer-2, the one on which I update this web site regularly, died this week. It has been having problems for several months. I'd press the on/off switch and then go make a cup of coffee. Eventually the computer would power up and work through its POST and boot processes. When I returned with my hot cup of coffee the computer would be fired up and ready to go.
I assumed it was the power supply unit (PSU) because I have replaced more than my fair share of those. The one in the computer has a "lifetime" warrantee, but that is useless because the forums on the Internet say the company finds every excuse it can dig up to dodge its warrantee. In these difficult financial times I suppose any company would do that. Look at Wall Street.
I popped the cover off the PSU, thus voiding the warrantee, to look for bad capacitors. They all looked swollen, but none were leaking. I decided it was too much work to replace them, one at a time, until I found the bad one. So I ordered a new PSU, a modular one.
If you're not familiar with PSUs (and there is little reason to assume many of you would be), they are like an octopus. A dozen or so bundles of wires come out of the PSU box and those bundles power the various components inside your computer. The problem is: They come with a maximum of cables, designed to fit just about any configuration of computer. In my case, I only need five of them, which leaves more than half unused, needing to be tucked away somewhere inside the case to keep them from interfering with the fans.
This is the beauty of the modular PSU. Only the basic few cables are permanently wired into the PSU box. All the others are separate. You plug in the ones you need. All the others go into storage with the rest of your spare computer hardware. The PSU I bought came with a neat little vinyl and velcro case to store all the spare cables.
Well, the PSU wasn't the problem. The new one is a beauty, but the computer completely failed to fire up. Dead motherboard (mobo). Did I mention "spare computer hardware"? Thankfully I had a spare mobo. It's a long story. Suffice to say that a friend recommended them as the latest, hottest mobos since the invention of Internet and I believed him (and I wasted hundreds of dollars until I learned to ignore his advice). I bought two and one burned out within days of the warrantee expiring. I immediately ordered two new boards that were well reviewed by those who use them (but not by my friend). They've been up and running on a daily basis for just over four years before one of them finally died. So I am using one of those "latest, hottest things" in its place. Hopefully it won't burn out like its twin did.
It took about a day to re-build this computer. I started in the early afternoon, worked into the evening, and finally finished up before noon yesterday. Assembly isn't difficult; it's all the process of loading drivers and getting everything configured that takes time. It's one of those things you do only once every five years or so; so you never master it. You just struggle through, groping in the dark, hoping for the light at the end of the tunnel.
In the next two or three years I will build two new computers. I like to build in pairs, both identical, so that when something goes wrong I can switch parts to isolate the problem. I didn't do that with the PSUs because it is such a pain to remove one, let alone two, and then install again. If I had, I would have found the mobo problem and saved myself $200 for a PSU I don't need. Now I have TWO spares. Oh well. Less to buy when I build in the future.
Sunday 2012.1.22
Having Fun Cooking Again
My friend from Spokane, WA, is in Southern California visiting family and he arrived here yesterday evening for a visit and shelter. He attended a daylong seminar at the graduate institute where we both earned our master's degree in counseling psychology. He left this morning and is currently on the road, driving back southward to family again. He loves the Pacific Northwest. (He can have it.)
His visit gave me the excuse I needed to get back into some elaborate cooking. I hardly cooked at all since the end of last year, concentrating mostly on getting this web site fully functional after moving it to another hosting service. Most of my meals were either chicken vegetable soup using stock I had in the freezer or my Minute Meals, for which I have enough portions stored in the freezer to get me through most of next month (with the occasional purchase of some frozen vegetables).
I prepared recipes from this site. You will find them in the Recipe Archive. For a starter I made Clam Chowder, followed by Veal Involtini and Roasted Vegetables. Neither of us has a lot of interest in desserts. He told me in advance that he is not a big eater, especially in the evening, and I assured him I would not be offended if he didn't eat much, because all the leftovers would certainly be portioned for later consumption in my Minute Meals. I thus made enough food to easily feed eight people.
The meal was fantastic. I rarely eat fancy meals, preferring the Minute Meals I eat most days. So it was fun doing this level of cooking, and especially eating it with a good friend. We drank a little wine and got well caught up on all that has been happening in our lives. It had been a year since his last visit. We drove down into the city and walked out on the Wharf and then strolled State Street, enjoying the weather and the people, until we felt it was time to return to base.
Besides cooking, I have also been repairing/updating my computers. I wore out one DVD burner with all the disks I burned to archive my videos. I bought two more. Now I have a spare. So far the disks total over 330 DVDs, and those are just the archived backup disks. On top of my home entertainment center (a fancy name for what we used to call a stereo rack) is my collection of videos on DVDs. Each DVD has five or six videos and a simple menu for navigation. So far there are 14 volumes. Tomorrow a new power supply unit (PSU) will arrive. I cannibalized the PSU from the third computer to keep this one running. The new PSU, 850 watts, will replace this one and the cannibalized PSU will go back into that third computer.
It was fun getting back into cooking again. I have more recipes planned. I am looking forward to preparing them. And it feels good to keep these computers well maintained. I am very much dependent upon them.
Wednesday 2012.1.18
Buy Cheap, Buy Twice
It seems like such a cliché, but ask any carpenter. Skill alone isn't enough to build a great house. You need good materials and excellent tools.
Many years ago I had a job in which I maintained a do-it-yourself car wash. Among my responsibilities was keeping the equipment running. For tools, my boss would drive to the nearest K-Mart (within walking distance) and come back with the most god-awful stuff. Because of the constant moisture, pulley wheels would rust to the motor shaft, no matter how well I greased them. A proper gear puller was essential. There was a cheap one in the shed, but the threads had stripped long ago. Without ever telling the boss, I went to a specialty tool outlet and bought an expensive ($90 at the time) gear puller (using his money), which I kept hidden in my own toolbox. I also spent $30 of his money on one open-end/box-end wrench specifically for removing the pump valve covers. Those tools made my job easier. When he sold the car wash, I was allowed to keep a few things that he thought he'd never need. I kept those two tools. I doubt I'll ever need a gear puller, but if I ever do I've got a beauty!
Whether it's bread pans, a food processor, stand mixer, springform pan, potato ricer, sieve, spatula or spoon, the right tool for the job is a joy to work with in the kitchen. Some are expensive, but you don't need to buy all your tools at once. I collected mine slowly, through many years. Some of my tools go all the way back to my college days, and the fact that they are still doing the job 40 years later is proof of quality. And it sometimes surprises me how well inexpensive items work. Recently I ordered a six-pack of ice cube trays and today was the first time I use them. With a light twist all the ice cubes popped out cleanly. I've never owned ice cube trays that worked this well. (I bought six because my freezer shelves are set up in such a way that six trays slide perfectly into the space where I normally keep the ice cube box.)
Keep your eyes open for bargains. When Henckels discontinued their 9-inch Professional-S chef's knife (a model that was manufactured exclusively for the USA market), I bought a new one, still in the package, for $60. For other items, just bite the bullet and buy the best you can afford. I once bought a cheap ($40) pressure cooker (made in China) in a warehouse store. The plastic in the pressure regulator wasn't heat resistant. After only a dozen uses it started leaking steam (and was probably dangerous). I replaced that pressure cooker with a $250 Kuhn Rikon. The pressure regulator is all stainless steel. That cooker will last for the remainder of my life.
That is why I created my Product Reviews pages for this web site. Yes, it is true that we learn from our mistakes, but it is less expensive to learn from the mistakes of others. Hopefully those product reviews will help those who are thinking of purchasing something for their kitchen.
There's another side to this coin. When a former friend was asked if she could cook, she answered, “Of course. I have a KitchenAid.” (Trust me, she isn't a great cook.) The best tools in the world won't make you a fantastic cook simply because you own them. Like any carpenter, you need to master your skills through practice.
Sunday 2012.1.15
Cooking Up Code
I have done virtually no cooking at all during the past two weeks. I have enough recipes and videos "in the vault" to get me through the end of February; so there is plenty of time to panic later. Each day has been consumed with almost nothing else but trying to figure out how to get my Contact page working. Back in the good old days when I was hosted on someone's garage server I simply downloaded a PHP script, followed some infantile (my level) step-by-step instructions, and BOOM—I had a working feedback page. I'm not dumb, but all this ASP.NET stuff is way over my head. Geostationary satellites are closer.
There are, thankfully, sources. It turned out my hosting service has a scant "knowledge base" section that you can't find by looking. Their tech support person sent me some stuff that was, well, harder to sort out than knotted cooked spaghetti. There is the Internet, which has some helpful information. I have a 1000+ page book and I have a simpler book—the one I used to build this web site.
I like to brag that I built my web site "by the book." Literally. I started with Lesson 1, worked through exercises, turning pages, and when I had a web site I closed the book. I should have kept going. Chapter 20 is dedicated to "Creating a Form and Collecting Data."
None of that however, made the slightest bit of difference. The tech support people sent me a generic page and code sample that I was able to use to get the bare minimal setup working. I've been struggling, trying to make the code work on a page that has all my layout stuff in it—that header at the top and the button bar on the left. Every time I uploaded the Contact page and tested it, an error report was returned. Grrrr.
Yesterday morning, figuring there had to be a problem in the code at the top of the page, I started working through that code, comparing my problem page to the bare bones page that worked. Starting at the bottom of the header section (I should have started at the top), I eliminated one line at a time, tested it, and then eliminated another line, figuring that when something finally worked I would know which line was causing the problem. When I got to the very top I saw that on the working page the first line tells the server that the page being loaded contains C# code. That line was missing from the problem page.
I simply put that line at the top of the page I was trying to get working, leaving all the other code untouched, and BAM—the page loaded perfectly and works just fine. I had a lot of cleanup to do, changing all the Contact buttons and links on all my pages, pointing them to the new Contact page. After an hour of making all those changes and uploading everything, my site is finally FINISHED! It's done. It's working. I can get back to cooking again. I am happy again.
Wednesday 2012.1.11
Secret Recipes
This week I heard from a fan of the web site who has a recipe that was given to him by a professional chef. His wife added her own "special ingredients" to make it even better. That is exactly what I do, make little adjustments to improve upon the original according to my own tastes. I expect others to do the same. His wife keeps her recipes secret and evidently it took a while for her husband to convince her to share it. This brings to mind a story from many years ago.
A friend and his wife from Dalian, China, were living here in Southern California while he was a Ph.D. candidate at the local university. She is the best Chinese cook I know. She quickly mastered Western flavors and incorporated them into her meals. Traditional mainland Chinese food can be rather bland, but her food is rich and delicious. She also does not share her recipes.
I was at their home eating her marinated fish one day. It was fantastic and I asked for the recipe. She gave me her list of ingredients, but I could tell from the flavor that something was missing. "I taste nutmeg or cinnamon, though," I said. She remained silent.
"Oh! Oh!" my friend exclaimed, jumping up and rushing into the kitchen. He came back with a jar of Chinese Five Spice powder. His wife scowled at him. I haven't published that recipe yet, but I'm working on it.
I can't complain about anyone having secret recipes. I have one of my own. I've told all my friends that I regard nearly all my recipes as public domain. I'll share almost any of them with anyone. But there is that one recipe, the one for which I am most famous among those who know me, the one that I keep hidden. No one has ever tasted anything like it. My Italian grandmother, from Naples, made it. After she died I set about trying to recreate her recipe and I succeeded, even improving upon the original a little because I am not as frugal as she was. It is so original that I dread seeing it pop up in restaurants or in grocery store freezer cases, someone making a lot of money from it. So, I keep that one secret.
As for that secret recipe from a fan: I'll experiment with it, but out of deference to her I won't publish it without her permission.
Sunday 2012.1.8
A Weird Sort of Memory
I have good sense memory when it comes to flavors. That is one reason I am a good cook. In my recipe and video for my Linguine With Clam Sauce I mention that I experimented with shallots one day, caramelizing them and then tasting them to see if any ideas came to mind. "That flavor would be good with the flavor of clams," popped into my head. I then set about creating my own recipe, using caramelized shallots.
One of the earliest flavors fixed firmly in my mind is that of baby cereal. No, I wasn't a good cook back then, but the flavor stuck as one of my first favorites. Down through the decades, only on rare occasions, I tried to find that flavor in adult foods, with no success.
This past year I ground up some rolled oats, typically sold as "Old Fashioned Oats," in a food processor and substituted the "oat crumbs" for bread crumbs in several recipes. It works, and it's a little more healthy. One day I tried boiling up some ground oats in milk and adding some sugar. That was the flavor I remembered from childhood. Evidently the baby cereal I enjoyed as an infant was baby oatmeal.
I enjoy a little snack at bedtime. Usually I eat toast. Lately I've been making some baby oatmeal before retiring. I'm still experimenting with it, hoping to find a way I can put everything in a paper bowl and then cook it in the microwave. One less thing to clean. That was what I liked about making toast. No pan. So far it appears ½ cup milk and a scant ¼ cup ground oatmeal; mix and cook for 2 minutes on high is enough. Stir and sweeten when cooked.
As for this web site, some of you might have noticed the "Contact" page us "Under construction." I am having difficulties getting the form to work. On the previous hosting service it would send me an email whenever anyone submitted the form. On this service I get an error message. I'll try working with tech support. If that fails, I'll put out a call to those who know PHP scripts to give me a hand. I know nothing about it.
Wednesday 2012.1.4
Too Many Hats
At the risk of appearing to be a braggart, I am going to blog about the many hats I've been wearing lately. You all know I can cook and write and photograph and do video stuff and do carpentry (I built my deck, remember?) and build a web site. I do all my own post-processing. I can even make a fool of myself in front of a video camera. Here's a few more:
Computer Technician—I have three computers, all three of which have BFG Power Supply Units (PSUs). I bought BFGs after having problems with lesser known brands, probably manufactured in a water buffalo stable just off a rice paddy somewhere in the far east. (That'll get me in trouble...) BFGs have a "lifetime warranty," not that it will do you any good. They have the worst SATA power connectors I have ever seen—brittle and thin plastic that will crack of their own accord just by being attached to a hard disk. Supposedly, if you send the PSU back with broken connectors they'll claim you broke them by mishandling them. I read that in the forums. The only connector that never broke in each computer was the one I never used.
I tried fixing them with plastic glue and reinforcing them with epoxy putty. It helped, but I still got the dreaded "Cannot write to D: drive" or the even more dreaded "Blue screen of death." A little bit of fan vibration was enough to shake them lose, thereby breaking the connection. I finally bought some replacement connectors, made with good polyethylene (strong, flexible stuff) and rather than crimping them in place (the installation for which they were designed) I carefully removed the terminals from each one (using a tool I made from a paper clip), soldered the wires very neatly into place, and then replaced the terminals. Everything is running perfectly again. For the past two years two of these computers have had their side panels only resting in place, not bolted down, because I removed the panels so often to jiggle the connectors back into place. I felt so confident about my repairs that I used the case screws to secure the side panels in place.
Tech Support—I think I hate this more than fixing my computers. I built my computers; so I know where everything goes. I did not build the Internet. Ugh! Trying to move my web site from one hosting service to another was one of the most difficult tasks I've attempted lately. I'd rather replace the kitchen faucet, and I really hate plumbing. I have only ever done this once before; so this is not a task with which I am confidently familiar. I don't know DNS, which I think stands for Disgustingly Nauseating Stuff; so I resorted to the Bible method: "Seek and ye shall find." I kept clicking links, changing stuff that made about as much sense to me as particle physics (whatever that is) until something finally worked a little better, then I moved on to click more links. Eventually I clicked enough of them because my web site is online and appears to be fairly stable.
Psychologist—I won't mention any names, what with HIPPA and all that. I am not a practicing, licensed, paid psychotherapist. Nonetheless, there are those who know I got my master's degree in counseling psychology and I was pretty good at it before I gave it up to do fun stuff. I occasionally listen to guys with girlfriend problems. You only get their side of the story; so, naturally, they are little saints whose girlfriends are demons from hell. I just listen. No amount of advice will ever do any good because they are guys; they are going to do what they want to do and ignore any helpful recommendations. They just need to vent...
...like I'm doing right now. You see, I don't have a therapist friend I can go to with my problems. My blog is my way of venting, when I need to. And now that I feel better, how about something positive? I also encode and burn my own DVDs (another hat I wear). I have a small library titled "White Trash Cooking on DVD." There are nine volumes so far, with five or six of my videos on each. I have 52 videos on DVD so far, slightly more than half of them, and I'll continue to add more. Now when guests come over and want to watch one of my videos while waiting to eat, they can look down a list (generated from a database I also programmed—yet another hat I wear) and that tells them which volume and track number is the video they want. Way cool.
Now that I have all the difficult DNS stuff worked out, I'll cook something special this week. I found this recipe for risotto made with beans. Italians usually never mix rice and beans; pasta and beans is their passion. Supposedly in Tuscany it is not uncommon. This risotto sounds like something I might enjoy making. If all goes well I'll add the video to my YouTube channel and publish the recipe here in coming weeks.
Sunday 2012.1.1
Another Auld Lang Syne
What a year this has been! Some points of interest:
The highlight of the year, of course, was my retirement. I love being among the gainfully unemployed. I haven't worked a day since the end of June and I continue to receive a paycheck each month. Every day is my own and the drop in stress has been significant. Not only do I not need to deal with the pressures of my former job, but now I also have plenty of time to create, photograph, and video recipes for this web site.
The Recipe Archive expanded from only 20 recipes to 74. The design of the web site changed very little, which tells me I got it right when I first created the site. I added a Basics page, which was seldom visited; so I went back to the original structure. The Recipe Archive was organized better. I knew it would need to be subdivided as the volume of recipes increased. Eventually it will become too large for one page, in which case each subdivision will get its own HTML page.
I spent $11,000 (from a windfall paycheck) on my video camera gear. For those interested in such things, it's a Sony PMW-WX1R. It shoots in 1080p, which seems like overkill to create YouTube videos. All the video files, however, are stored and backed up. I currently have a small library of White Trash Cooking DVDs on top of my home theater (such as it is) rack and I let friends pick videos to watch while they are waiting for me to serve dinner. It's fun.
Early this year I fabricated a removable kitchen counter that allows me to face the video camera directly, rather than trying to shoot videos over my shoulder from behind me. I'm not a bad carpenter; the counter looks good.
I added a fourth camera lens to my collection. It was recommended by a professional photographer when I asked him how to get the shallow depth of field I wanted for my food photography. He gave me additional tips and as a result my photography improved immensely this year. I still use my standard 18-55mm zoom lens for most photographs, but when I shoot the final photos of the food on the plate, I switch to my 50mm 1:1.4 prime lens. Those photos get the label "royal" as the best shots of the day. I still love my Nikon and I have no plans to upgrade to any of the newer models. This one is still perfect for my needs.
And speaking of photography, I solved a white balance issue I'd been struggling with since the beginning. My kitchen photos were always too yellow. I needed to use my computer to adjust the color in every photograph. After thinking about it for a long time, I created a "neutral white card" that is actually painted with a light yellow color to trick the camera into the white balance I need. The problem was created by my studio lights combined with my camera's flash gun. My camera couldn't record an accurate white balance reading. The new "yellow card" works perfectly. I no longer need to adjust color in post processing. I'm feeling pretty proud of that little photographic coup.
Statistically, the site's popularity increased slowly but steadily. One of the statistics I enjoy seeing is the number of countries outside the USA that visit my site each month. April saw the lowest number, 21, and the number steadily increased from there. November had the highest number; my site was visited by people in 55 countries. The Facebook fan site continues to gain popularity, with more than 100 "Likes" currently, and the number of subscribers to my YouTube channel increased dramatically to over 200. Total views of my videos is almost 30,000.
On a personal note, I put myself on a diet at the beginning of April because I was overweight (technically obese). During the year I lost almost 30 pounds. I'm not done yet. My goal is to lose a total of 50 pounds.
Recipes continue to keep me in a quandary. I create a recipe that I think will be super popular, and no one seems interested. I toss up a "filler" pulled from the vault because I don't have anything to upload and that recipe (for which I expect to be flamed) takes off and sets records for popularity. Lamb recipes are not popular, but I love lamb. I rarely buy beef. If I buy red meat, it's lamb. One of my earliest recipes, Mascarpone Cheese, continues to be the most popular, both on my web site and on YouTube. I was really surprised the Chinese Dumplings (Pot Stickers) are so popular. They almost equal Mascarpone in downloads. My Chinese foods do not rank highly, and, surprisingly, my Smoked Salmon Quiche is not a favorite. I bake that often for gatherings and I have to make sure I have enough because if anyone doesn't get a slice I hear about it.
So, rather than trying to find recipes that might be popular, I cook, photograph, and video recipes that I enjoy cooking and eating. I think of it as playing with my food. That gives me the most entertainment, satisfaction, and joy. I love my web site and I love where it takes me.
One final point: I am moving my site to a new hosting service this week. My former service recommended the move because they were having difficulty keeping their servers on line. Hopefully the changeover will go smoothly and no one will even notice.
So I am wishing you all a prosperous, healthy, and happy 2012.