SEPTEMBER 2012
Sunday 2012.9.30
Is it Fall Yet?
Summer lingers. Today and tomorrow the temperatures here in Southern California are supposed to climb into the low 90s(°F) along the coast and possibly top 107°F inland. And this past week I had prepared my evaporative cooler for winter storage. Oh well. It will come in handy again, especially because the humidity will likely be low.
Thursday's dinner with my friend from Oregon went well. Her son also ate with us. We started off with Minestrone Classico soup. Then I heated some Smoked Salmon Quiche I made in advance. Meanwhile, I'd been defrosting some Stuffed Pasta Shells to warm in the microwave. I also made some Pasta From Scratch, from which I made spaghetti. I thawed and warmed sauce I saved for Spaghetti alla Carbonara. There was an unidentified tomato sauce in the freezer. I though it might have been the roasted tomato sauce from my Ravioli recipe, but it turned out to be from my Pasta with Prosciutto recipe. They brought baguettes and brie, with a bottle of my favorite syrah. The dinner was a four-course sampler of recipes that I had formerly featured on this web site. There was no dessert, which was fine because there was no room for it. I'd rather nibble good bread after a meal anyway, which I did with thin slices of baguette topped with a little of the prosciutto sauce.
By the end of the evening my back was just starting to feel the strain, even though I rested it as much as I could. A good night's sleep solved that problem.
Friday evening a few of us here in the trailer park gathered for a little wine and cheese social. Those are always fun. One of the good sources of laughter was my neighbor telling everyone how I called upon him to help me muscle a heavy industrial sewing machine into the back of my SUV to drive it down into the city for a new belt. "This guy is just getting over a sprained back and he's moving his monster of a machine into the back of his truck." It's true.
The worst part was down in the city. I got the machine out of the car okay. It's on casters; so I was able to wheel it into the shop to get the new leather belt. However, I could not lift it back into my car. I tried several times. Finally, a young man walking by offered to help. When I arrived home I gave the neighbor a second laugh by asking him to help me manouevre the behemoth back into my mobile home. It really is a large and heavy machine.
You can fall in love with something all over again. The machine was built in the 1920s. About ten years after I acquired it in 1980 the belt, which was old and dried out, finally crumbled. I replaced it "temporarily" with a vinyl hose, which worked most of the time (it would jump off the pulleys occasionally) and served me for 20 years until it finally dried out and broke up. The new leather belt is perfect. The machine runs well and this belt will surely last longer than I will. It's an old machine, but I love it. They don't make machines like this anymore. It's nearly 100 years old and still going strong. That's the beauty of it. In my machine there is not even one molecule of plastic. It's all steel.
So, September is going out with a bang. Soon I'll be writing about soup weather.
Wednesday 2012.9.26
Time Off
As I've been mentioning, I'm taking a little time away from cooking to recover from a sprained back and get some easy chores done around the house—nothing that might strain my back.
Making ebooks:
I read a lot. I can't possibly store all my books in a mobile home. There would be no place to live, let alone cook. So I convert books to ebooks. You'd be surprised how little space a 400-page book takes up on a micro SD card.
True book loves might be incensed by my sacrilege. I have a very large, and very sharp, guillotine paper cutter. One swipe of the blade will easily cut through 250 sheets of paper. So, in true book sacrifice offering, I cut the binding off the book to free all the pages. Then I photograph them on a copy stand I built. The photos are cleaned up on a computer and then OCRed into text. I use Sigil to build my EPUB ebook for my NookColor tablet. As I read the book I proofread it. I've read dozens of books this way.
Lately I've read: Confidence Men by Ron Suskind and The World America Made by Robert Kagan. I am currently reading It's Even Worse Than it Looks by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. And I am converting Bob Woodward's latest book, The Price of Politics, to ebook. For light reading I've been working my way through Terry Pratchette's Discworld series (currently reading book 7, Pyramids).
CDs are another way to store ebooks. I have nearly 7,500 on one, a few of which I've read, and I have more than 300 cookbooks on another CD.
As for cooking....
None. At least not anything that would make it to this web site. My friend is here from Oregon. We drove down into the city yesterday afternoon. She bought me a nice gift. I've been wanting a fancy little salt cellar to use in my videos. She found the perfect one, hand painted in Portugal. Look for it in future videos.
Those who might know that I am not all thumbs when it comes to the sartorial arts won't be surprised that we stopped in a remnant shop and I bought two lengths of fabric to make aprons for my videos. Each length will make two aprons. I'll keep one and give the others to her as a Thank You gift for the salt cellar.
Another chore: I've been cleaning up an old Singer 31-15 industrial sewing machine I've had for 30 years. It needs a new leather belt. This morning I called someone who specializes in industrials. I'm just waiting for him to return my call and then I'll drive the machine (it's huge and heavy) down to his shop to get the belt installed.
How I got the machine is a little amusing. A theatre company needed some work done to mount a summer show, but there was no money in the budget to pay me. This old Singer was upstairs in storage, never used, and I offered to work for the machine. Deal. We had eight weeks to build the show. We were done in six, and I took the machine home. It dates from the 1920s, is nearly 100 years old, and will probably run another 100 years with proper oiling and maintenance. There is absolutely ZERO plastic in it.
And so my time off has been fruitful and relaxing. On Sunday I plan to publish a scallops recipe and video I made a few weeks ago. The scallops were expensive, but they were so delicious. The recipe was adapted from a chef's recipe in a restaurant trade journal. It really is good.
Sunday 2012.9.23
Friend En Route
As I write this, a friend is in her car driving from Portland, Oregon to Southern California. Her parents-in-law and her son live in this town. Her son, Eric, was the one who helped me during my few days of recuperation from a painful sprained back.
I like her visits because it gives me an opportunity to entertain someone I've known for more than half my life. In fact, Eric used to sleep in my arms occasionally when he was an infant. I have that affect on some babies. They look at me and see a big, soft feather bed. Lights out.
I am well prepared for her visit. Among the foods I set aside in the freezer are my stuffed pasta shells (which I sampled recently and they are still delicious), carbonara sauce for making spaghetti alla carbonara, and minestrone classico soup. I also have some "Italian Food Surprise," something that looks like it might be marinara made with roasted tomatoes, but I never labeled it, thus the surprise.
She and I go way back, to the year 1975, when I first moved to California. During the first few years we became really close friends, enough that when she married she asked me to be her patron of honor in the wedding. That's the male equivalent of the maid of honor.
I had done theatre in college. Besides doing a lot of acting, I worked many hours in the technical aspects as well. I designed the costumes for our production of Edward Albee's Seascape (for which I won an American College Theatre Festival Award), a set design for The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Elaine Hansberry (which we never produced) and a lighting design for And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (also never produced). Having done all this design work, she asked me to design and tailor her wedding gown. It was a lot of work.
And as for cooking lately, a friend told me to buy some Boursin Gournay cheese. If you're not familiar with it, it has the consistency of crumbly cream cheese and it is flavored. The three-pack in the warehouse store has garlic & fine herbs and shallot & chive. He wanted me to think beef (he's a big steak eater), but steelhead trout came to mind. So we made my Trout with Tomatoes recipe, but used the Boursin instead of the mascarpone. It was good.
I really need to work up some beef recipes. I am seriously lacking in that area. I don't dislike beef, but when I think red meat I think lamb. I am currently planning my next set of 25 recipes to prepare for this web site. I'll work in some beef recipes.
Wednesday 2012.9.19
Ambulatory At Last
I started walking on Monday. It was a bit tentative at first. I used the office chair in which I wheeled myself around my home to get to the kitchen, etc. I held onto the high back of the chair, pushing it in front of me, like a walker, for stability. I did as much walking as I dared, taking breaks to lie down and give my back a rest and do some stretching exercises.
Then on Tuesday, yesterday, I played a trick on a friend who helped me when I was well enough to get out of bed and unlock the front door. (For the first two days I couldn't even get out of bed.) He came over early in the afternoon. "What do you need me to do today?" I told him he was going to cook dinner for me. I had bought two racks of lamb and some prosciutto. He was pleasantly surprised and he did all the cooking as I coached him. The recipe was my Lamb Chops Saltimbocca, which is scheduled to be published here on Sunday.
The chops are cut in pairs for thick chops and each is wrapped in a slice of prosciutto and then tied with kitchen twine. However, before all that begins, a good reduction sauce is made from garlic, lamb trim, shallots, white wine (we used a good Marsala), and stock. When I first came up with this recipe a few weeks ago, I sent him a picture. He wanted to make it, but the opportunity never presented itself. So I surprised him with the ingredients and he got to prepare the lamb. He loves rack of lamb as much as I do, so it was the perfect choice.
For vegetables I bought four ears of really good sweet corn. He trimmed off the top and bottom and peeled away only the outer layer of husks. The ears were then wrapped tightly in plasic wrapped and cooked, in their husks, in the microwave oven. By trimming the bottom above where the husks attach to the stalk, the husks peel away really easily.
As for the chops, we heated up the stove top cast iron grill I had bought and grilled them, all fans running to exhaust the smoke out of the house. I know the grill was above 500°F (260°C) because we coated it with safflower oil, which has a smoke point of 510°F (266°C). We monitored the internal temperature with an instant-read digital thermometer. The meat was cooked to perfection, medium-rare, just the way we like it.
With eight double-chops and four ears of corn, there was, of course, more than enough food for two people. That's okay. We ate all we could. It was very satisfying. I gave him some to take home and the rest went into the refrigerator for meals later.
As I mentioned on Sunday, I have enough recipes and videos "in the vault" to cover all my uploads through the first week of December. So I am taking some time off—six weeks, if possible. I have some home projects to complete. I have a pen and ink drawing of a sailing ship to finish, and some mundane chores that need to be done. I'll still be maintaining my web site and writing my blogs, I'm just taking some time away from the fancy cooking for a while.
Sunday 2012.9.16
Short Blog This Week
Short, not because I don't have much to say, I just can't sit at a keyboard. I wrenched my back again this week. This one is the worst ever. I've been in bed for two days. This morning I put a plan into action: I rolled one of the chairs out of the office and into the hallway. Now I can push myself around my mobile home, getting to the kitchen at last. I hadn't eaten hardly anything for two days, hoping the pain would subside quickly. It didn't.
On the bright side, I am mobile. I might not be walking around, but I am rolling around, and that is better than being stuck in bed all day. Little things like shaving and brushing my teeth are a blessing when I have the mobility. And, thankfully, the freezer is well packed with Minute Meals.
I'm sure I won't be down for long. Already I am noticing some improvements. As for this site, I have plenty of recipes and videos "in the vault" for uploading. So there won't be an breaks.
Addendum:
It is now the evening of the same day.
What a difference some wheels make! While stuck in bed I did some research on back injuries due to muscle strain and one article said bed rest can actually delay recovery. Movement, within reason, can speed up recovery. This morning I couldn't hold my arms up without my back going into spasms. I needed to brace myself up using the arms of the chair. That's why it was difficult to type my blog this morning. I could only use one hand to type; the other was propping me up to take pressure off my back. Now I can hold my arms up without problems. I think tomorrow I might actually start walking again. I get little spasms once in a while, but thankfully the big spasms are gone.
Now I can get started on my next set of recipes. About six months ago I assembled 24 cooking projects I wanted to try for this web site. I completed most of that list, with a few added along the way. As a result, I have recipes and videos scheduled through the first week of December. Those are done and in the vault. It's time to start planning my next set of 24.
Wednesday 2012.9.12
Voices from Out of the Past
But first, how was your observation of the 9/11 remembrance here in the USA? I am still feeling some of the disturbance of that day, and the days that followed. I couldn't watch the TV broadcasts of the breaking news from that day. That year, 2001, was a major turning point in my life. Some of the events of that year, culminating in our nation's worst terrorist attack, were difficult to work through. Nonetheless, the growth of that journey benefitted me in so many ways, including my decision to work toward building this web site some day, which I finally did in 2010.
Now, onto the distant past: I received an email from a cousin from my childhood in Connecticut. I remember the family well, in general. They lived in a village that was a short bike ride from my childhood home. The particulars, however, were lost in time.
After moving away to California I did almost nothing to keep my memories refreshed and accurate. Unless we think often of the past, either by looking through beloved old photographs or by seeing our relatives at picnics and barbecues, those memories start to fade. Mine certainly did. I could recall a few faces, but no names. It was someone named Gloria who contacted me, but I didn't remember her. I remember a flower shop, a greenhouse, a horse, someone named Bud or Bub, a TV repairman, a few moms and dads, etc. They swirl around in the miasma of my clouded memory like fumes in a dangerous cellar. I had good reasons for leaving New England and never looking back. I'll spare you the sordid details.
The amazing part of all this was what happened the following morning. I woke up with all the memories restored. I remembered first and last names, professions, properties, who built which home, cousins, etc. A flood of memories came back to me. It was like they were all still alive and living in the same homes they lived in 50 years ago. The human mind is amazing.
More From the Past
Another thing that came from the past was my mother's chicken and dumplings. A fan of this web site requested a recipe. On the cautious side, the word dumpling covers too many possibilities. My mother's dumplings were steamed balls of dough, a little smaller than your fist. My food encyclopedia describes dumplings as "small or large mounds of dough that are usually dropped into a liquid mixture (such as soup or stew) and cooked until done." Search YouTube for Chicken and Dumplings and you'll see some people roll a stiff dough, like pasta dough, into a thin sheet and then cut it into squares or rectangles that they boil in their soup. This looks like chicken and noodles to me, but they call them dumplings. In the Recipe Archive I have a PDF for Chinese Dumplings, also known as pot stickers. They are stuffed with a savory filling. So there are many things that pass as dumplings.
I improved on my mother's dumplings by using buttermilk and making them a little smaller, more appropriate for a bowl of soup. I also deboned the chicken before serving. Fantastic!
Another positive event of the week is that I had a lot of heavy cream left over from a recipe I did last week. What to do? The expiration date was passing. A friend reminded me that I could make Mascarpone, as I had tested it and found that it froze and thawed satisfactorily. So I made more than a half gallon of mascarpone and froze it in portions. Yum. I'll be using this for Trout with Tomatoes in the near future, and maybe other things. Tiramisu anyone?
And yesterday I made Chicken Pot Pies the way I remembered them when I was a child. I liked a bottom crust as well as a top crust. When a pot pie had only a top crust, I felt cheated. My mother bought them pre-made and frozen. I made mine from scratch and they had a bottom crust. They are delicious, better than any I ate as a child. As usual, the recipes and videos will be uploaded here and to my YouTube channel in coming weeks.
Sunday 2012.9.9
Pressure Cooking
On Friday evening I used my pressure cooker again. If you're unfamiliar with pressure cookers, or you are unsure of their safety (there are well-founded horror stories of exploding pressure cookers), then read on.
Pressure cookers were first employed as "canners" in the early 20th century. They were made of aluminum and use for home canning. Believe it or not, there were no huge supermarkets with shelves stacked with heat-and-eat convenience foods. Many people grew their own food and preserved it for eating during the winter months by canning it in jars stored in the cellar. During World War II the supply of aluminum for cookers declined because aluminum was diverted toward the war effort. Cookers started to be made from steel.
After WWII the demand for pressure cookers leaped and suddenly there were dozens of manufacturers rushing cookers to market, without enough thought given to quality control. Some early cookers did indeed explode, and word spread far and wide about their danger.
With the reputation of pressure cookers destroyed by unscrupulous manufacturers, the popularity quickly declined. Even though there were good quality cookers among the unsafe ones, many home cooks were afraid to use them. My mother, however, continued to use her cooker for many years. There was never an incident. She had one of those old jiggle-top cookers that made a lot of noise. Evidently she had bought a good one.
Meanwhile, with fuel costs very high in post-war reconstruction Europe, some manufactures in those countries were developing cookers that were not only stylish, they were safe to use. The value of a pressure cooker is that it cooks food in less time using less fuel. For the economical homemaker, a pressure cooker was ideal. It took a while, but Americans began to discover those European cookers and their popularity increased here in this country.
The best cookers are made from stainless steel and they have redundant safety features. If one safety device should malfunction, there are several others that will prevent a disaster. My cooker has five different safety features. One important consideration about those "best" cookers: They are expensive. My 12-quart cooker was $250USD. Expect to pay a lot for good quality.
The sad side of manufacturing is that there are still some unscrupulous manufacturers who are far more interested in profit than quality. There has been some warnings about cookers made in China. I owned one and I can tell you that the pressure regulator was made of plastic that was not heat resistant. After about a dozen uses it began to leak steam. Afraid it might explode, I stopped using it. The pot without the lid, however, makes a great pan for cooking pasta. I only paid $40, giving proof to the saying: "Buy cheap, buy twice."
I don't know how many times I've used my quality pressure cooker. The pressure regulator is all stainless steel, not plastic. It has worked flawlessly for me every time I used it and the results have always been better than satisfactory.
How do they work?
By using high temperature steam. Water boils at 212°F (100°C). No matter how high the flame is under a pot of boiling water, the water's temperature will not exceed 212°. This is at sea level. At high altitudes cooks need to adjust their cooking times because water boils at a lower temperature when the atmospheric air pressure is lower. What if you were to boil water hundreds of feet under the ocean? The increased pressure would cause the water to boil at a higher temperature. That's how pressure cookers work.
By maintaining an internal pressure of about 15 pounds per square inch (psi), the boiling point of water is raised to 250°F (121°C). That higher temperature cooks food in less time. Additionally, because you can't leave a pressure cooker over high flame after it comes up to pressure (it will open a safety valve and release pressure), you are forced to lower the flame to a point at which the pressure is just maintained at 15psi. So, you cook in less time using less gas or electricity. You save time and money.
They can't be used for all foods, of course. Don't expect to bake a pot roast or cookies to a golden brown in a pressure cooker. They cook with moist heat. But for many foods, pressure cookers do an excellent job in less time, and with less energy. Call them "green" cookers if you like.
I used my cooker on Friday to cook chicken for Chicken and Dumplings. I'm trying to reproduce my Mom's recipe, with better results, for this web site. Watch for it in coming weeks.
Wednesday 2012.9.5
Challenges
I enjoy a good challenge once in a while. I can't respond to them all, and some just leave me completely flummoxed. A few, however, inspire me to do research and learn something new. If I can pass the information along as a better recipe, all the better.
#1—Why Stale Bread?
That was the question. Why stale bread if you're just going to add moisture to it anyway? Why not simply start with fresh bread and add less water, milk, or stock? I found two answers. Using stale bread came out of economy. In years long ago, bread wasn't made with the preservatives we have today. When it went stale, it wasn't thrown out. It may not be palatable, but it could be used to make something delicious—stuff a bird for roasting or make bread pudding. The second reason is texture. When bread stales—sometimes known as "cures"—the starch molecules change, giving stale bread its chewy texture. It's not just dry, the starch is al dente. That texture is preferred in some foods. Don't just dry bread in the oven. That just removes the moisture. Leave it out, uncovered, for a few days and let it "cure." (Covering the bread holds in moisture and that encourages mold.)
#2—Chicken Riggies
Ever heard of it? I hadn't. A fan of this web site wrote to me. Quoting: "Help me Obi-Wan. You're my only hope." How could I say no to a request like that? He wanted a recipe for Chicken Riggies, a dish popular in Utica, New York, but virtually unknown everywhere else. A little research showed it is chicken and rigatoni. My Italian-American mother made rigatoni often, so I started to feel right at home. The fan said he tried many recipes found on the Internet and, while some were good, none were great. I did some research and immediately saw why. Nearly all the recipes used a jar of this, a can of that, etc. No. If you want to make something great, not just good, you need to use only the freshest ingredients.
I did a spreadsheet, listing all the ingredients and proportions for 12 different recipes. Then I wrote my own formula, using fresh mushrooms and peppers, homemade marinara, etc., taking the best from each of the 12 recipes. One issue I encountered. Almost all the pictures looked like vomit on a plate. If you've been following this web site and blog for a while, you know I put a lot of effort into shooting the best possible photographs of the finished food. Look at the picture on the home page again. I call that photograph the "Royal", my best shot of the day. So for my version of Chicken Riggies I thought up ways to pop up the presentation value.
I made Chicken Riggies for the first time yesterday. Okay, a little bragging here: I know enough about cooking that I can usually make good choices. I smacked this recipe out of the park on the first try. It was better than delicious. What were the good choices? Almost all of the recipes called for red pepper, either ground or flakes. That made me think chorizo. It has the spiciness of red pepper, but plenty of additional flavor to add depth to the sauce. It worked perfectly. Italian cooking always makes me think of anchovy fillets too. Just two added a little more depth without any fishiness to the taste.
More challenges are in the works. Someone requested stuffed cabbage leaves. My mother occasionally made corned beef and cabbage. The sulphur smell was awful. I never ate it. But the idea of stuffed cabbage leaves has me intrigued. It's on my list of future projects.
As I said above, I can't answer all challenges. Some I don't even try because the food doesn't sound appetizing, at least not to me. I try where I can. Look for homemade bagels soon. That was a request, along with carrot cake, and cinnamon swirl bread.
Sunday 2012.9.2
Buy American, Hire Americans
I was delighted to see in a recent edition (June/July 2012) of AARP Magazine an article about some stores offering more goods that are made here in the USA. I fall into the 60 to 64 demographic, 81% of whom believe buying American is good for our economy and for whom labels that say "Made in the USA" strongly influence our buying decisions.
Many of us complain about the economy. Unemployment is up, home values are down, and between sales tax, state tax, federal tax, and Social Security withholding, we see a lot of our paycheck going to government, for which we don't get much bang for our buck these days. The Democrats can't seem to unite behind the issues and the Republicans want to lower taxes only for the wealthiest Americans (because they are the ones who help fund Republican campaign war chests). Although I consider myself more liberal than conservative, I don't put much faith in either party.
People want their government to solve the problems of the nation, but the power is in the people. The power of the vote is okay, but compared to the power of the purse it has less impact. Have you ever heard the expression "purchasing power"? How about "money talks"?
The problem is simple. This country has an unemployment problem. More and more jobs are going overseas where the cost of labor is cheap. When we buy products made in other countries, we provide jobs for the people in those countries. When we buy American, we hire Americans. It's that simple.
Not everything we might want or need is made here in the USA. I have cameras made in Japan and several items made in China or other countries. During a recent shopping excursion to a local store to buy a wire dish drainer for my sink, almost everything in the cookware section of the store had "Made in China" on it. Similarly when I shop at the local warehouse store, I see the same words on many items. I might look at an item, thinking "I could use this," but then I look to see where it was made. If the label says "Made in China" I put it back on the shelf and walk away. When I need to buy something, I look for "Made in the USA."
I don't mind paying extra for something made here in the USA because when the economy improves, our quality of life improves. I also trust American made products. We have laws that regulate the use of chemicals. More than one news article in recent months has reported the use of carcinogens or other harmful chemicals used by manufacturers in other countries. Those products are often destined for the USA market. Either there are few regulations in those countries or few officials to enforce them. In some economies the manufacturing sector is growing so rapidly, the government can't keep pace with the need for adequate regulation.
A friend bought me a beautiful glazed platter to use in my cooking videos. On the bottom it clearly states: "NOT FOR FOOD USE. MAY POISON FOOD." Thankfully she hadn't removed the price sticker. It says, "Made in China." I wasn't surprised. The glaze might be safe, but the distributer (a company in Fort Worth, Texas) probably labeled the item as dangerous to protect itself from potential liability. Although the item was clearly a food platter, it was labeled as a candle holder. When was the last time you saw a candle holder with no holes for candles and 13 inches wide?
I read books about government and politics because they interest me. I just finished reading Confidence Men by Ron Suskind. Last night I started reading The World America Made by Robert Kagan. The books help me see the big picture and that helps me make decisions with a broader view of the world. That's why I try to buy American. One person buying USA-made products won't change the economy any more than one person's vote can alter the course of government. Collectively, however, we have the power to make a difference.