MARCH 2015

Sunday 2015.03.29

"First You Gotta Make a Roux."

A few years ago someone in Texas told me about an expression used there that comes from the long and slow process of making a dark roux. "You know how it is honey; first you gotta make a roux." Think of doing lengthy taxes or being at the DMV to solve a complicated clerical error with your car's license plate — something that could involve a lot of time and red tape.

The expression came to mind again because a few days ago, despite the temperature outside rising to above 90°F (32°C) I videoed the process of making all four colors of roux — white, blond, brown, and dark. Dark takes forever. I didn't want to burn the roux; so I adjusted the temperature of the burner to almost the lowest setting and let the roux slowly darken. It took at least an hour, maybe longer. I read in my culinary school textbook that some cooks transfer the roux to an oven-safe pot and bake it in a 350°F (177°C) oven until they get the really dark color they want. It should be the color of dark chocolate — not burnt, just very dark brown. The book has a photograph showing all four colors of roux. I kept the book open on my kitchen counter as the process progressed, comparing colors until I was satisfied I had the dark roux I wanted.

The procedure was videoed as part of the intermediate-level course I proposed to Curious.com. The course, as I mentioned on Wednesday, will be about sauces, if approved. During the previous day I did a video about clarifying butter and went into more detail (think intermediate level) about butter here in the USA, the grading system, the amount of butterfat compared to water, etc. I was hoping to have 10 minutes of content. I came in at 9:40. Close enough.

To be honest, I'm hoping Curious.com won't approve my Sauces proposal. I had an epiphany. I am beginning to earn a little money on YouTube. I haven't earned enough to receive my first payment — they send a check only when the balance at the beginning of each month exceeds $100. Maybe in April. However, what if I were to create a series on YouTube, such as Sauces Part 1, Sauces Part 2, etc. I could produce a course on YouTube more easily than on Curious, where I must edit it into clips with titles, exercises, and include attachments. Of course, Curious pays a lot better and all at once. But I'd like to see, at least once, how a course would perform on YouTube. It's a thought.

COMPROMISED!

I've never had anything like this happen before. Friday evening I walked to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for a carbonara sauce recipe and the point-of-sale thingy at the register said my ATM card was not authorized. That seemed odd because I was at the same store earlier that day and made a successful purchase. I walked over to my bank, which is in the next block, to check my balance. Again, "This card is not authorized."

As soon as I arrived home I called the 800 number on the back of my card. The bank's Fraud Management Department put a block on my card because a $1 charge for postage popped up during the day. She said that is a common practice to test the validity of stolen card numbers. Once validated, the thieves will start making withdrawals from the account. However, the postage check alerted the bank to potential fraud, and thus they immediately placed a fraud hold on my card.

Thankfully, no money was withdrawn from my account. I can still use the account, although not with an ATM card until I receive a new one. It is a slight inconvenience and it caused me about half an hour of worry, but I am very thankful that my bank has a Fraud Management Department that is alert and responsive. I wrote a check to the IRS to pay my taxes. What if that check had bounced? Waiting a week to 10 days for a new card is a small price to pay for the security of knowing my account is safe and my payments, especially to the IRS, will be processed normally.

On the slightly down side, I made the trip to the grocery store to look for pancetta, but they no longer stock it. However, the deli counter had prosciutto on hand. That, along with some regular bacon, will allow me to fake it. No one will be able to smell the hickory smoke flavoring in the video. (Pancetta is bacon that does not have any flavoring, such as hickory smoke, added.)

I shot the Sauces video yesterday, making a large batch of white sauce from which I make four finished sauces — Béchamel, Carbonara, Alfredo, and finally a sauce I'll call my seafood sauce. I used that last sauce to make my Seafood Fettuccine, for which I used green (spinach) tagliatelle noodles because a white sauce looks better on colored pasta. White on white doesn't offer much presentation value, even with a little pink on the cooked shrimp.

Next up: Two videos about velouté, one with chicken stock and the second with beef stock.

Wednesday 2015.3.25

First a Little Bad News

Jeremy Clarkson, lead host of my all-time favorite TV show, BBC's Top Gear, was sacked for his conduct after a day of filming. I read the official announcement in The Telegraph this morning. There is no word yet who will replace him, but an article said the BBC is wooing Chris Evans to host the show. I don't know anything about him, but another report said he is one of England's most prestigious car collectors. No word yet on whether co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May will remain on the show or leave with Clarkson.

The deeper story is interesting and reminds me of MSNBC's decision not to renew Keith Olbermann's contract several years ago. Like Olbermann, Clarkson was evidently a loose canon. He didn't align with the BBC's conservative political correctness. From what I was able to learn, they were looking for an excuse to excise him from their staff and the "fracas" reported last week served their needs well enough to dump him. Olbermann returned to sports reporting. Where will Clarkson land?

And Now a Little Good News

The remaining three episodes of season 22 of Top Gear, postponed during the investigation of Clarkson, will be broadcast. I look forward to seeing them.

And Some Food News

Yesterday I finally edited the video for the Almond and Ricotta Cheese Cake I made a couple weeks ago. The recipe and video link will appear on this web site in coming weeks (I haven't written the recipe yet).

Meanwhile, I still have the Buttermilk Bread video to edit. After the bread cooled I was able to take some better photographs, the ones I call "royals."

This time I didn't give away any bread. I wrapped the loaves and put them in the freezer. I nibbled on the dinner rolls until they were gone. I conclude every evening with a couple slices of toast and, when I feel like it (which is most of the time), I'll make a sandwich of the toast and a fried egg. I can't fall asleep when I'm hungry; so this satisfies my needs.

More on Curious.com

They contacted me again and asked me to consider doing another set of videos to assemble a teaching course. This time they want something more at the intermediate level. Here is what I'm thinking: How about a series of 10 to 12 short videos (10 to 12 minutes each) devoted entirely to sauces? Start with an explanation of "mother sauces" and a demonstration of clarifying butter, which is used in a lot of these sauces. Then demonstrate making the four colors of roux — white, blond, brown, and dark. White and blond roux are used in most sauces these days. Brown roux has fallen a little out of favor with the increased popularity of reduction sauces.

Then use the roux to make sauces like Béchamel, Alfredo, carbonara, and my favorite fish sauce that I use with shrimp and pasta. Move into making velouté sauces, for which I have plenty of chicken stock. I've been saving oxtails in the freezer for making beef stock. There are many velouté sauces I can demonstrate.

Demonstrate emulsion sauces — mayonnaise, hollandaise, and béarnaise. Then progress into cooked sauces, demonstrating the difference between a ragu (chunky sauce) and marinara (smooth sauce). I can make a puttanesca sauce as part of that demonstration.

Do a demonstration on reduction sauces. I've made plenty of those.

Finally, do some demonstrations on cooking flour to store in the cupboard and demonstrate gravies and other quick sauces.

Along the way I'll make use of some of my favorite recipes, like my Seafood Futtuccine, Linguine with Clam Sauce, Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce, and maybe modify my Lamb Bolognese to make a classic Beef Bolognese. There are many possibilities. And, of course, like last time, they would pay me in advance.

And, Finally, More Warm Weather

The weather is warming up here. Today we'll see temperatures at or above 80°F (27°C). Through the weekend we'll see days possibly above 90°F (32°F) again. And, of course, no rain in sight.

Sunday 2015.3.22

Garnish This

I eat a lot of vegetables. I try to have them with every lunch and dinner. If you've seen my Minute Meals page, you know how I portion, freeze, and later prepare them. I don't like to garnish them with butter though. My doctor says my cholesterol is not high, but it could be lower. He recommended I cut out the butter. I cut out some, but not all.

My favorite topping for cooked vegetables is Butter Buds. Alas, the local grocery store stopped selling it. They only stock Molly McButter now. I tried it and I can't tolerate the salt. It has three times the sodium (180mg) as Butter Buds (60mg) per serving. What to do?

Thankfully, Amazon sells groceries on line. I ordered a case of 12.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that getting a dozen jars might seem excessive. I looked closely at the jars — top, buttom, all around the sides — and I didn't see an expiration date anywhere. The carton doesn't have a "sell by" date either. I'm assuming if someone found one of these in an ancient mummy's Egyptian tomb it would still be good. The best part, though, is the price. If I remember correctly, these cost me about half what they would have cost in the grocery store.

Buttermilk Bread Take Two

The recipe makes enough for three loaves. I made two large loaves and used the remaining dough to make dinner rolls, baked in a muffin pan. I had ten rolls, but I ate one to test the flavor before doing the photograph for the recipe page. Mild and delicate, and just a little sweet from ¼ cup (140g) of honey. This recipe is definitely a keeper. It also gives me a good way to use up leftover buttermilk in the refrigerator. I have about a cup remaining; so I'll work that into my next batch of bread.

The previous two loaves I gave to neighbors. These I'll freeze and save for myself.

Wednesday 2015.3.18

Oops

Yesterday I shot a video of a bread recipe someone recommended. There is a fan of this web site who regularly experiments with bread and she suggested I try Buttermilk Bread. Intrigued, I did some research and found a recipe that looked promising. The only problem was that it makes three loaves in 9x5-inch pans. I have only two. However, I also have two 12-inch pans, but 4 inches wide. What to do?

I tried calculating a new recipe. I was tired. I had a headache. I told one person I felt as lucid as a brick on a very cold day. I don't know why I thought of that; maybe it was just an example of how poorly my brain was working. Finally, I gave up and decided to prepare the recipe as it was written.

The recipe idea came at a good time because I had a carton of buttermilk in the refrigerator and it was nearing its expiration date. I know you can eat some foods that go past their date, but I had plans to give the bread away and I didn't want to take any chances. As a further incentive, the neighbors have been out of town and they took their barking dogs with them. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to shoot a good video.

The recipe made more dough than I needed. I filled both bread pans and had enough to fill 9 cups in my 12-cup muffin pan. I like this idea. Why not get dinner rolls too? As far as untried recipes go, this one is a good one. It was obviously tested and the proportions were just right. I didn't need to adjust or fix anything.

However, there is still human imperfection to contend with. All went well right up to the moment to put the loaves in the oven. I had set a timer earlier for the second rise. The timer went off just as I put in the loaves to bake. When I turned off the timer, I pressed the wrong button. I turned off the oven. I didn't know. I set the timer for 50 minutes and walked away. 50 minutes later the timer went off again and I opened the oven to take out the baked bread. It was white, obviously risen, but not browned and somewhat collapsed.

I turned the oven back on again, cranked the temperature up to 425°F (from 375°F) to get some fast browning, and let the loaves and rolls bake an additional 15 minutes. I saved them, somewhat. The color was good. The texture was fantastic — soft and tender — but the loaves had partially collapsed. They didn't look as good as they would have looked had they baked properly.

I'll need to do this recipe again. I gave away the loaves. They were good enough for that. But for the best photographs and video, I need to get this one right. The bread is really worth the effort. It is delicious. I expected a sour flavor from the buttermilk, but there is no sourness or bitterness at all. It is delicate, mild, and slightly sweet (from adding ¼ cup of honey).

This is one of those recipes I want to keep for future use. I occasionally buy buttermilk for a recipe, but I rarely use it all. This would be an excellent way to make use of it rather than see it go to waste.

Comptuer

The part I ordered for the other computer arrived yesterday. I actually ordered two to have one for a spare. One of the mobile racks had a damaged latch lock. There is a lock thing that prevents someone opening the door and accidentally releasing the system drive disk. Cool, but I never use it. I didn't care about the broken lock because all I really needed was the connector at the back. It was almost identical. The only difference is that it is made better. The cables are permanently attached — one less thing to break. Two screws removed it and I swapped it onto the rack with the broken connector. I started up the computer and, so far, everything is working perfectly.

Someone up the street asked me if I could fix her computer. No. I build my own computers. I know what's in the box. When something goes wrong, as the power supply unit did over the weekend, I usually know what it is and how to fix it. Computers sold off the shelf in stores often have proprietary components. You might not be able to simply order a spare part and solve the problem easily. And that is yet another reason I like building my own computers. If something fails, I can easily buy a replacement part without having to worry whether or not it is compatible.

And so I continue to limp these two computers along. They're both working, for now, and I'm satisfied.

And, Sort of Computer

Actually, it is a computer, but it's also a tablet. Everyone needs a new toy once in a while — some of us more often than others. I bought a Microsoft Surface Pro at Costco yesterday. I might have mentioned that I went into Costco last week to look at tablets. There is one guy there whom I really respect because he builds his own computers too. We agree on things like the best motherboards and the best cases. He recommended the Surface Pro and gave me a demonstration. He owns one; so he knows his way around. I went home, did some research, thought about it, and decided yesterday that I needed to have it. I've been busy learning how to use it. Just moments ago I downloaded the Barnes & Noble Nook ebook app and the first ebook I imported into it was my Complete Plays of Shakespeare. I will continue reading Henry IV Part 2 on it. Next I want to import my Mobile Home Gourmet cookbook. It will be fun to show it off at groups.

Sunday 2015.3.15

Unusual Bread This Week

There are a few fans of this web site and my YouTube videos who write to me on a fairly regular basis. Two of them devote a lot of their time to baking breads. One was reading a bread book published in the 1970s and experimenting with some of the recipes. She sent me pictures of her results.

I was intrigued by two loaves that had a twisted look to them. They were, indeed, twisted. She said she accomplished this by dividing each dough loaf in half after the first rise. She rolled each half into rope and twisted the two together before placing them in the loaf pan for the second rise, after which the loaves were baked normally.

I decided I needed to try this, with the goal of maybe making a video of it. I started with my plain white bread formula. When I am ready to do a video of this bread, if possible, I'll use my formula that makes use of half a dozen egg yolks in the dough for a more golden color.

I'm pleased to have got the baking out of the way during the week. By week's end we were enjoying near record breaking high temperatures with low humidity, 95°F and 11% humidity.

This is unusual for March. I moved to California from Connecticut to enjoy the milder winters. I have no complaints about this unusual warmth. I love it. But one of my computers didn't.

The Ongoing Computer Saga

Computer-1 (that's how I name them — Computer-1 and Computer-2) took a dive in all the heat yesterday. All went black. This caused a bit of a panic because I needed to use the computer the following day to upload this week's video and participate in a program I recently joined.

Opening the case and letting the insides cool for a while did nothing. I've been suspecting the power supply unit (PSU) would soon fail. Several attempts were required some mornings to start the computer. The PSU was a 650 watt, not a good choice, but it lasted six years. Thankfully, I had an 800 watt PSU, new in box, out in the shed.

What's that principle that says, "If it can get any worse, it will"? I noticed the connector where the SATA cable attaches to my C: drive caddy bay (AKA mobile rack) was broken. The metal prongs were there, but the plastic bit was broken and stuck inside the end of the SATA cable. That might explain why I was getting occasional "blue screens of death." Working from the frame of mind that I couldn't possibly make it any worse, I mixed up some epoxy and glued the thing back together. Surely it wouldn't work, but what's the worse that could happen?

If the fix didn't work, I knew I could simply install the C: drive in the computer and connect it without using the rack. However, that would eliminate the luxury of a dual-boot system (XP and Win7) until I could find a replacement part. While the glue hardened I installed the replacement PSU and hooked up all the wires.

The dead PSU, by the way, is a BFG that has a lifetime warranty; however, a few years ago I read an article that advised never to return one for replacement. The author said BFG will always claim the customer broke the PSU by abusing it, refuse to replace it, and the customer loses the money s/he spent for shipping.

The first test, without the C: drive, was successful. A blue light on the motherboard lit up, meaning it was receiving power. I pressed the boot button and all fans began spinning. Confidence was building. Then I shut it down and connected the C: drive bay, but it could not be recognized. Uh-oh. I tried direct connection, outside the caddy, and it had the same problem. It was the cable. With a new cable and a little cleaning up of the glue around the edges, the caddy bay worked just fine. So far so good. I just want to limp these poor things along until I can replace them, but for that I want to wait until Windows 10 is released. For now, I'm functional with two working computers again.

Total time, with cleaning, glueing the C: drive caddy bay connector, replacing the case covers, and making all the connections in the back of the repaired computer, was just under three hours. A professional could have done it in under 30 minutes, but I was able to do it myself. I can do more than cook.

That evening I went on line and ordered two more of those mobile rack/bays. They're only about $15 each and at that price it seemed a good idea to have a spare.

For Pi (3.14) Day I ate two slices of pizza pie.

And, finally, I finished reading Henry IV Part 1. I'll start Part 2 this week.

Wednesday 2015.3.11

Minute Meals

More and more I am loving my Minute Meals lately. If you don't feel like reading all about them on my Minute Meal page, I can define them in a single sentence. They are pre-portioned packets of frozen foods ready to heat or cook, then eat. It's that simple. I like them for the convenience, but also for the nutrition. I feel better, physically and psychologically, when I eat right.

Lately I've been enjoying some Wild Caught New Zealand Ling that I bought at Costco. I blogged about it earlier, saying I cut the large fillets into pieces of 3 to 4 ounces each, then heat-sealed them in little plastic pouches with water for freezing. I enjoy them so much, I went to Costco and bought another package of fillets because I don't know how long the store will stock them. Many fresh fish items, especially if caught wild, are seasonal. The second package was nearly $40, but it yielded 17 servings averaging 3.6 ounces each, for a cost of $2.27 per serving. For protein portions I like small servings.

The meals will come in handy during the next few months. I joined a 16-week program named Prevent. It is supposedly a $500 program paid for by my health insurance. I'm certain they don't pay the full amount. The program is supposed to follow a pattern of healthy eating with some exercise like walking. I want to ride my bike more. The thing that intrigued me the most is that they are sending me a "wireless weight scale." I wondered what the scale might be. The FAQ on the program's web site says: "The scale uses the GSM cellular network for transmission. No Wi-Fi is needed and no setup is required." It reports my daily weight to the program for tracking. Additionally, I will be on a team of 12 to 18 participants and we will have a facilitator/coach. There will be opportunities for interaction. It could be fun.

Weird Dream

I woke up from a strange dream this morning. What made it significant was that in the dream I told myself, "I should blog about this." I had driven a white rental car and parked it in a city with many parking lots. Now I was trying to find where I left it. I walked through buildings, going from one lot to another. One building was a church in which there was a service in session. I sat in the back for a while, pretending to be a worshiper, then I let myself out through a side door.

Of course, the Mamas and Papas song California Dreamin' is going through my head. "Stepped into a church I passed along the way/Well, I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray."

I walked through several restaurants. One was a meeting room in which each person received a little rectangular dish with three meatballs on it. The meatballs looked okay, but the presentation was awful. They were on a bed of tissue paper.

In one parking lot a security guard saw the confusion on my face and asked if he could help. I told him I couldn't find my car, partly because it was a rental and I only knew it was white. There were hundreds of white cars. He said it was too bad I didn't have one of those remote key fobs with a button on it to sound the horn. The key ring had such a button; so I began pressing it. It worked, but the problem was that the car was always in the next parking lot as I went from building to building. I woke up without ever finding the car.

Anniversary

It probably won't mean anything to anyone else, but it's important to me. Today marks the first year anniversary that my garden storage shed was complete and I started moving my stuff into it. I blogged a lot about it while it was being built. I really like having that shed. So far, I haven't used all the extra storage space as an excuse to accumulate more stuff. It is just spread out over a larger storage area, making it a lot easier to find things.

Sunday 2015.3.8

Happy Later Sunsets (if you do that sort of thing)

Here in the USA we moved our clocks forward 1 hour for Daylight Saving Time beginning today. Not all states participate, but for those of us who do the sun will set an hour later until we return to Standard Time in November. I like Daytime Saving Time — not only for the longer daylight in the evening, but also when I do cooking videos. The extended time gives me an extra hour to shoot my final photographs using natural lighting.

Strange Cake

Last Month I mentioned an unusual cake recipe I received from someone who is from Italy — Almond Ricotta Cake. It's not like my Roma Cheesecake, which is more like a cheesecake, only with Ricotta cheese. This is a real cake, made with flour and leavening. I made it on Friday.

I love this cake. For one, there is no frosting. I don't enjoy cake that is an inch thick with half an inch of frosting on top. I chose to decorate the cake with sliced almonds before it went into the oven. Dusting with powdered sugar before serving is optional. Another reason I like the cake is that it isn't too sweet. I like cake, and this tastes like cake. Along with almonds, it is made with golden raisins that were left to soak in dark rum for an hour or two. I added two tablespoons of lemon juice and the zest from a lemon taken from my neighbor's tree (she doesn't use her lemons and tells me to pick them). If the batter seems a little too thick when mixed (mine did), add a couple tablespoons of the rum the raisins soaked in.

The picture of the slice in the recipe page, by the way, is the first piece cut from the cake. It was perfect the first time. Sometimes I cut several pieces, using the best one for a photograph. This slice was good enough to qualify as my "royal."

There is another enjoyable benefit of this cake: More than a year ago I wanted to learn about making cakes. Someday I would like to have the formula in my head, such that I won't need a recipe for a basic cake. I am getting closer to that goal. In the last entry of last month's blog I wrote about the difference between baking soda and baking powder. Here was a good opportunity to put to the test the chemistry I learned. I used 1 teaspoon of baking soda rather than the baking powder. The cake, as you can see from the photos above, rose fine.

As always, the recipe, more photographs, and a link to the YouTube video will be available here in coming weeks.

I brought the cake to yesterday's world events discussion group. They liked it, but it might have caused a problem. It put some people into a party attitude and one woman in particular would not shut her mouth. She dominated the conversation for two hours, taking the lion's share of the time to present her own news story and then interrupting everyone when they tried to talk. I wasn't the only person to have issues with the lack of respect. The person next to me experienced an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) episode and other person left early.

I know about OCD from my studies as a psychology therapist. It often manifests itself when the person feels threatened by circumstances out of control. OCD is like a coping mechanism, an attempt to create and/or enforce order as a way of gaining control. No one could control this woman's interruptions.

I won't quit the discussion group yet, but I'll attend it only one more time. If the obstructions continue, it will be my last attendance.

Reading

I finished Antony and Cleopatra earlier this week. King Lear is next. I feel like I should watch the film The Dresser with Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney, in which the play was featured. It's one of my favorite films.

Wednesday 2015.3.4

Bread

In Sunday's blog I mentioned making two loaves of bread on Saturday, one of which I slit the top before putting the loaves in the oven. Bread goes through a short period of "oven spring" when it goes into the oven, which is a rapid expansion. Slitting the top provides an expansion joint that makes room for the rabid rise. I wanted to experiment to see how slitting, or not slitting, the dough would affect the texture of the bread.

Both loaves came from the same batch of dough and was let to rise the same amount of time. The only difference was slitting the top before placing both loaves in a 375°F oven. For comparison, two slices were taken from the middle of each loaf and they were cut with the exact same thickness (I used my electric rotary slicer). Cutting a slit in the top of the dough loaf before baking makes the internal texture a little lighter (if you can trust a test population of only one sample), but the loaf didn't rise as high.

In conclusion, I would say it's up to the baker. Do we want a lighter or denser loaf? It probably depends on the use of the bread.

Good News

This week Thomas Roberts returns to MSNBC. I like Roberts' reporting because (1) he seems to be as enthusiastic about the news as I am and (2) his reports appear to be less biased than that of many news people on TV.

If I remember correctly, Roberts was on MSNBC from 8:00 to 10:00 in the morning, but that was back when I had a job. I could only watch his program when I was home on vacation or sick. He left MSNBC and was replaced by others, such as Ronan Farrow. A report I read said Farrow's ratings were low; so the network changed their daytime programming and brought Roberts back.

I had to mute part of Roberts' show today. He seemed to take a contrary stance when interviewing one person, as if he, Roberts, was trying to increase controversy and sensationalism to boost ratings. He's new back on MSNBC, which has been shuffling programs to improve ratings; so maybe Roberts is under pressure. I still like most of his news reporting.

Every silver lining has a dark cloud though. This adds another two hours to my potential TV news watching.

8:30-9:00 A.M. France 24 (Paris, their 6:00 PM show, seen here in the morning)
9:00-10:00 A.M. Democracy Now
10:00 A.M.-12:00 NOON MSNBC Thomas Roberts Live
3:30-4:00 P.M. Nightly Business Report (NBR)
4:00-4:30 P.M. France 24 (not a repeat of the earlier broadcast)
4:30-5:00 P.M. DW Journal (Berlin)
5:00-5:30 P.M. BBC World News America (Washington)
5:30-6:00 P.M. NBR (repeat of the 3:30 program, and thus a good time to eat dinner)
6:00-6:30 P.M. BBC World News (London)
And if I don't feel saturated yet…
6:30-7:00 P.M. Newsline (Tokyo)

If I sit for the entire broadcasts, that's seven hours of news. Needless to say, I don't watch all the shows everyday. I need to set aside some time for reading too. Speaking of which, yesterday I finished All's Well That Ends Well. Later today I'll start Antony and Cleopatra.

Fish

I've been experimenting with buying fresh fish fillets at Costco, cutting them up, and heat-sealing them in little single-serving pouches by adding water before I seal the packet. This week Costco has "Fresh Wild New Zealand Ling" in the cooler case. Not cute like a little white bunny, but the flavor is good. I put a dozen servings in the freezer. I fry a piece while I cook the vegetables from my Minute Meals in the microwave. It makes a simple dinner, and I know fish is good for me. I feel like I'm taking good care of myself.

Sunday 2015.3.1

Memories

I've been enjoying some good memories this week. I mentioned in earlier blog entries that I am trying to read all the plays by Shakespeare. This week I am reading Othello. I was in Othello, playing a Senator, when I was in college. It was an amusing experience because the director, who didn't like me, cut almost all my scenes and lines. I had a few lines in the first act and I wasn't seen again until curtain call at the end of each performance. He didn't like me because he knew I didn't like him. He was an old, grizzled, gray-haired man who used his position to score (sexually) off the female theater students.

One fun memory came to mind. We were doing the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. The director's young girlfriend at the time, a very good looking blond bombshell with a great figure and vacuous talent, auditioned for the play, as did most of us. When she wasn't called back for a second audition, she threw a major hissy fit, threatening to kill herself if she wasn't given the lead role. We waited to see what would happen. In the end, the power of carnal desire won over the power of artistic integrity. I remember sitting in the audience watching the play. When she stepped onto the stage she looked as if she didn't know where she was or why she was there. I laugh even now to think about it.

If I remember correctly, Chekhov's plays are challenging even for the accomplished actor because they emphasize mood more than action or plot.

Reading Othello was fun because I tried to remember which lines I spoke on stage. I'm not sure — it was about 40 years ago — but I do know it was in only Act 1, Scene 3. I spoke my first line as I walked down a flight of stairs into the scene. "Indeed, they are disproportion'd/My letters say a hundred seven galleys." I held papers in my hand; so those must have been the letters and therefore that must have been my line. I spoke other lines in the scene, but I cannot remember which ones were cut and which were kept.

After my scene, I returned to the dressing room were I removed my costume and makeup, showered, and dressed in my street clothes. I had the whole evening to study for my classes. For curtain call, I put my robe over my clothes and walked onto stage to take my bow. Thus clean and dressed, I was the first to leave the theatre for home.

As for my cut lines: The director thought the play was too long. If uncut it would have gone more than three hours. He therefore cut many lines, much like Franco Zeffirelli did in his film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, to tell the story without burdening the audience with the entire play.

Meanwhile, I used the latter half of this week to set up for my next video, the Almond and Ricotta Cheese Cake. I gave myself the luxury of time, not rushing to get everything ready on short notice. I plan to do the first run later today or tomorrow. I say "first run" because I am making a major change to the cake formula and it might not work the first time.

These Old Computers

How much longer? Yesterday morning this computer, which has been the better one, wouldn't display anything on the monitor. The sound indicated it had booted, but the monitor stayed dark. The little lights along the bottom indicated it wasn't getting a signal from the computer. Is there a problem with the monitor? The cables? The video card? I opened the computer and rocked the video card back and forth in its motherboard socket a dozen times, hoping to seat it better and get a better connection. Then I booted the computer again. It worked. I'm still hoping I can limp these two along long enough for the next Microsoft operating system.

How about a microprocessor chip that costs more than most computers? One chip, $1,050. As one reviewer said, "If you're building an extreme rig, you don't think about price." The chip is an 8 core Intel microprocessor. I am not a gamer, but I do encode a lot of cooking videos — what with YouTube videos, Curious.com, and the TV shows I've done, maybe I've created close to 300 videos. On these old rigs it might take 90 minutes to two hours to encode one video. That's another reason why I have two computers. I work at the other computer while this one is chugging away doing an encode. What would an extreme rig do? I want to know, by experiencing it myself. Yes, I'm getting all sweaty at the thought of it.

And, Finally, Bread Day

Yesterday was bread day again. I make two loaves of bread every other week, depending on how quickly I eat them. Last month I blogged about my loaves — I can never get them to rise high enough. I want tall loaves, not short squat loaves. I finally decided the problem was my bread pans. They are not standard loaf pans. I upped the ingredients by about 20% and the results have been better than satisfactory. I'm really happy with my loaves of bread now.

I experimented. This time I slit the top of one loaf to allow for oven spring. The other loaf I didn't cut. I'll compare textures to see if I prefer one over the other.

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