May 2016
Sunday 2016.5.29
Loving Cast Iron Cookware
The more I use my cast iron cookware, the more I enjoy it. I've always been a nonstick skillet sort of guy. I buy them regularly, using them for a few years before tossing them into recycling and buying another one. I have one, new in box, stored for using in videos when my current sauté pan becomes too scratched to look good. They're not expensive at Costco.
I learned something new last week from America's Test Kitchen (ATK). I have a few of their cookbooks. When doing research for the doughboys recipe and video, I looked up something about fritters in one of those cookbooks. I learned that 350°F (177°C) is not hot enough for the oil when frying batter or dough. Too much oil sinks into the fritters, ruining the texture and flavor. They should be light, not greasy. ATK recommends 375°F (191°C), a temperature just right for cooking the dough but keeping most of the oil out of it. At higher temperatures, the fritters brown too quickly — even burning — before the inside dough is thoroughly cooked.
I tried 375° for the doughboys and they were excellent — light, a little fluffy, and not oily. Thankfully my New England Clam Cakes recipe is already written correctly, mostly. I made a few adjustments to better explain the temperature and uploaded the updates.
The cast iron skillet was really helpful when cooking the doughboys. The pan is thick and heavy. It holds heat much better than an aluminum pan. Therefore, the temperature of the oil doesn't drop drastically when the raw dough is placed in it. Maintaining that constant temperature resulted in delicious doughboys that were not soaked with oil.
Another thing I learned when doing the research is that these doughboys are not uncommon. They simply have different names. In Italy they are called zeppole. Other names I've seen are sfingi, scones, fry bread, even elephant ears.
And another advantage of the cast iron pan is that when cooking something like dough in oil, the pan is really easy to clean afterward. Drain the oil, rinse well with hot water while wiping it with a paper towel. Then dry it with paper towels. No soap is needed. I wouldn't do that trick after cooking something like chicken or fish in the oil. I prefer to use soap to remove everything. But frying bread dough made for easy cleanup.
Chocolate Chile Barbecue Sauce
First off, is it chile or chili? To me, Chile is a country in South America and the name is pronounced CHEE•lay. Chili is a pepper and pronounced CHEE•lee. But I see both. So, which is it?
One of my food encyclopedias, Food Lover's Companion, says it can be either, sort of. The book uses chile to refer to the pepper that grows on the plant. Chili is the word used for foods or flavorings made from chiles, such as chili con carne (chili with meat), chili paste, and chili sauce. On the other hand, my Larousse Gastronomique uses Chile for the country and chilli (two L's) for the pepper, the food, powder, sauce, etc. So now what?
If you search the Internet — "chile or chili?" — you'll see there is no consensus. Curious, I looked through my spice jars to see which word was used. There was no consensus there either.
I keep one food encyclopedia, Food Lover's Companion, next to my computer, for use when I'm writing this blog or writing recipes; so I'll use it as my authority.
Given all that, the correct name (for me) is Chocolate Chili Barbecue Sauce, because, as far as I know, there is no such thing as a chocolate chile. (And one of these days I'll search through the Recipe Archive to make certain all my recipes use the correct word.)
As for the barbecue sauce: I was browsing through the recipes in a restaurant trade journal and discovered the sauce. Chocolate? The recipe uses unsweetened cocoa powder. They credited the source as the book Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling by Meathead Goldwyn. I checked. It's available on Amazon.
I had to try it. On Friday evening I prepared the sauce, with a couple substitutions. Rather than sugar, I used honey. It gives the sauce more sticking power and it eliminates a step — simmering the water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. I also used 1 tablespoon of frozen orange juice concentrate rather than ¼ cup orange juice. The formula is three parts water to one part concentrate. ¼ cup = 4 tablespoons; so 1 tablespoon concentrate is equivalent to ¼ cup juice. I'm not good at math, but I can handle a few ratios.
One adjustment I didn't make was to the ground chipotle chili pepper. The recipe uses only 1/8 teaspoon. That isn't much. In the video I suggest ramping up the chili powder if your prefer your barbecue sauce to have a more spicy kick. And I also learned something new about chipotle chili pepper. It is made from dried smoked jalapeño peppers.
Is the sauce any good? It is delicious. There are people who love chocolate. They live for it. I'm not such a person — I like it, but I can take it or leave it. However, for chocolate lovers this might be the world's best barbecue sauce.
In the magazine the sauce was used on ribs. I didn't feel like buying a large rack; so I bought some chicken thighs instead. Yesterday I grilled them, experimenting with brining for the first time, and then I mopped them with the sauce before putting them under the broiler for a quick finish. Delicious!
Wednesday 2016.5.25
Tortoise
Here in the trailer park there are several "RV" (recreational vehicle) spaces. They are not camper sites, but they are temporary home spaces for people who live in their RV and travel. The residents stay for a few months and then move to another part of the country. It's fun to meet them.
I was walking back from the office on Sunday and almost stumbled over a tortoise. I met its owner, a pleasant woman who used to work for a veterinarian who specialized in reptiles. She said some people would get a tortoise, thinking it would be a good pet (after all, they don't bark), and soon have problems with it. She found many good homes for tortoises. She kept this one for herself and she has been caring for it for many years. I do know they live for decades, some for more than a century.
Many years ago I visited the San Diego Zoo with friends. The tortoises there are huge. It was spring, mating season, and tortoises not only walk slowly.… Say no more.
Many years ago I was visiting a friend in Santa Barbara and a tortoise wandered into his back yard. He was feeding it watermelon. They eat slowly too. He fed it for a while and then one day it moved on. When I was a kid we lived near a pond and in summer I would catch turtles and keep them for a while as pets, then return them to the pond. One turtle I always wanted, but never found, was a box turtle. They're more like a tortoise, living on land rather than in water. Now, even a turtle might be too much responsibility as a pet. I like being free of such obligations in my retirement. I'll bring home a gopher snake once in a while, but I never keep them for more than two or three days.
Doughboys
About a week and a half ago I mentioned doughboys. They're a New England treat, mostly known in Rhode Island, that are like a doughnut. It's bread dough fried in oil and dusted with sugar. I mentioned that I wanted to experiment with them because my mom made them when I was a kid.
There is one major difference between real doughboys and my mom's doughboys — almost everything. Mom purchased Pillsbury biscuits, the kind that came in a closed refrigerated cardboard tube and you whack the tube against the side of the counter to break it open. Raw biscuit dough was inside, but it was sectioned. You arrange them on a baking sheet and bake them. They were good, as I remember. That was many decades ago. For doughboys, mom would heat butter in a skillet and fry them until brown top and bottom. We ate them with maple syrup instead of pancakes.
I left New England in 1975. I haven't tasted them, or the baked Pillsbury product, since well before then. Probably the last time I had doughboys was in the 1960s. Thats about 50 years ago.
So, today was the day. I set up to make real Rhode Island Doughboys, but I also bought a package of Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits so that I can show how my mom made them. And, as a further treat, there is a Chinese restaurant where I meet a friend for lunch almost every week. They have something very similar on the buffet table. They call them something like "sugar buns." I was there on Monday and brought two home for comparison.
They're actually pretty good, like a sugary doughnut. I've eaten them many times. I never thought of them as doughboys, but they actually don't taste much different from my mom's doughboys. I show them in the video as well.
I finished shooting the video about an hour ago. Then I walked the doughboys up to a neighbor after I had tasted one. One was enough. I also tasted the Pillsbury product. Yuck. It was okay, but I could taste chemicals in it. My own doughboys had a fresh bread flavor.
The neighbor up the street who received them said they tasted good too. That's good enough for me.
Sunday 2016.5.22
Why I Like Multiple News Sources
My interest in the news is no secret here. I've blogged about my sources before. At 4:00 I watch France 24 (Paris). At 4:30 is DW Journal (Berlin). 5:00 is BBC World News America (Washington) followed by the financial news at 5:30. At 6:00 is BBC World News (London). I also read news online, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and others.
Why so many different sources? To get an accurate story. I learned this from watching a documentary about Noam Chomsky. He recommends getting news from as many different sources as possible to sift out the sensationalism and bias to get the clean facts. The crash of the EgyptAir Flight 804 Airbus A320 can be used as an example.
CNN loves sensationalism. They make their money from commercials. The higher their ratings, the more they can charge for each advertising minute. They sensationalize the news wherever possible to get people interested, thereby improving their popularity, and therefore their ratings. MSNBC isn't much better. I do watch both programs, but I don't take their news too seriously.
They immediately jumped on the possibility of the EgyptAir crash being caused by terrorism, even though there was no evidence. Other reports were saying the possibility of terrorism was low because (1) no terrorist group was taking responsibility, (2) the flight was a low-profile target that wouldn't typically interest a terrorist organization, and (3) the flight came from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, which has one of the world's best security systems. This led some to speculate the crash was the result of either a structural or electronic failure.
On Friday reports emerged saying there was smoke and possibly a fire on the aircraft, in a compartment that housed the plane's flight control computers. An incendiary device might have been planted to cause the fire, but, again, no terrorist organization was claiming responsibility. The report certainly ruled out a bomb because the failures were reported over several minutes. A bomb explosion would have caused an instantaneous catastrophic failure.
Digging deeper, there were past reports of a common problem on the Airbus C360 — something to do with the heated windows in the cockpit. They proved to be a possible source of electrical fires and therefore the FAA required they be replaced on all A320s in the United States. It is not known if Egypt replaced the windows in their aircraft. If you think about it, a terrorist couldn't embed an incendiary device inside a window panel.
Nothing is conclusive yet, of course, and won't be until the black box flight recorders are found and analyzed. The investigation could take many months. However, even as late as yesterday, CNN was still looking for ways to blame the catastrophe on terrorism. By the end of the day they had all but ruled out terrorism as a cause. And this morning CNN's Jake Tapper was reporting "a stunning new revelation about graffiti scrawled on the EgyptAir plane that crashed. Was it a warning?" He makes me laugh. That story was reported in the New York Times as having been written two years ago as an act of anger during their country's political revolution. There were reports of other Arabic graffiti on planes at the time.
And that's why I like multiple news sources. Rather than getting caught up in the sensationalism, I feel like I'm getting more accurate news.
Trying to Catch Up
It is almost laughable how far behind I am in some of my responsibilities. I am trying to work through more than 200 email messages to answer questions people asked about baking bread or inconsistencies in a recipe. I don't wish to ignore people, but I can't get to everyone as quickly as I wish I could. If you are among the slighted few, I promise to get to your email soon.
Part of the problem has been Medicare-related paperwork. On July 1st I will officially transition to Medicare. However, I've been getting weekly junk mail offering Medicare supplemental insurance plans to provide extra coverage to help pay for procedures, services, or prescriptions not paid for by Medicare. AARP with their UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company coverage has featured the most prominently in my mailbox.
Fortunately, I've been covered by insurance through my former employer. The coverage continues into retirement. And now that I am being handed off to Medicare, the insurance coverage changes to offer its own Medicare advantage plan. After reading pages and pages of explanations and then filling out an enrollment application, everything will remain about the same. Go to a doctor, pay a $20 copay fee, and the insurance covers all the other costs.
The advantage is that I continue with coverage I already know and like. I used it a few weeks ago when I suddenly went — sort of — deaf in one ear. Using Debrox to clean my ears, the treatment didn't go as planned. I clog of wax was pushed up against my eardrum and I therefore couldn't hear in that ear. A quick trip to a doctor cleared up the problem and my only cost was $20. I like that.
The disadvantage is that, unlike Medicare alone, I am limited to a primary care physician. With Medicare I can go to any doctor that accepts Medicare (and pay 20% of the fee, leaving Medicare to pay the remaining 80%). However, this isn't a major disadvantage. A new medical office opened up only a few blocks away. I can walk there in minutes. I walked over there on Friday afternoon to ask how the whole Medicare / insurance thing works. Their staff is wonderful, very pleasant, and very helpful. They explained it all and I was thoroughly satisfied. I went home and immediately put the enrollment application in the mail.
Now that the insurance paperwork is out of the way, hopefully I can get caught up on email questions this week.
Wednesday 2016.5.18
* * * SOLD * * *
My surplus landscaping stone was purchased on Sunday afternoon. Cash. The money exchanged hands and the stone went to my neighbor. He wanted to clean up his space too. His landscaping will be easier because there won't be any need to cut stone. We came up with a plan that would look good, be easy to accomplish, and be easy to maintain. My landscaping took eight weeks to complete. He has less area to cover. He could easily be done in two or three days.
The first step was to move the stone. I wanted it out of my driveway ASAP. He moved it in the evening. And that left only a pile of sand, which he wanted to use beneath the stone. I said he could have the sand free of charge. By 4:00 yesterday afternoon the sand was gone and I swept my driveway clean — the first time in a year.
And there is another advantage. For a year I've been waiting for the park to make a decision on an additional project they wanted done for drainage. I kept telling the manager that I wouldn't wait beyond one year. That was Thursday of last week. Now, if they decide they want the additional work done, I can say "Sorry, I no longer have the materials." The stone isn't expensive. I paid 17½¢ per pound. Less than half a ton would give them more than they need. And they can hire someone else to do the work. I spoke with the park manager yesterday. He knows that additional project is now no longer possible and he's okay with that.
White Bolognese Pasta
Sunday's feature recipe and video will be White Bolognese Pasta. That was a fun recipe to prepare, for several reasons.
The recipe came from a restaurant trade journal. I always explain those. Trade journals go to businesses only. You don't see them on the magazine rack at the grocery store. The advertisements are for commercial products rather than home items. For example, the restaurant trade journal advertises walk-in refrigerators, restaurant steam tables (the things that hold hot buffet foods), or five-gallon buckets of ketchup — with free pump.
I like the recipes in those trade journals because they are created by professional chefs, for their restaruant, and therefore they almost always turn out correct. I can only remember one that was a problem. There were ingredients in the MOP (method of preparation) that were not listed in the formula (the list of ingredients). That's another thing about commercial kitchen recipes. The list of ingredients if often called the formula and the directions section is the method of preparation, usually just referred to as the MOP. The best recipes are often written in such a way that they can easily be multiplied to feed 10 people, or 40.
The ingredient that initially attracted me to that recipe was the pappardelle. I like making my own pappardelle. My pasta encyclopedia describes it as the second largest of the flat Italian noodles, lasagna being the largest. The pappardelle I am most familiar with is cut into long strips, maybe ¾ inches wide. Four or five of them would make a serving. The encycopedia says the size varies from region to region in Italy. Some pappardelle is cut as squares. I'd like to find a recipe, other than lasagna, that uses pappardelle squares.
Pappardelle are often served with a chunky sauce (ragù) made with game meat — either furred, such as rabbit or boar, or feathered, such as duck. I'm thinking of making a duck meat ragù one of these days. I already have a recipe for Rabbit Ragù in the Recipe Archive. Maybe I can plate the duck ragù over squares of pappardelle. Hmmm, that's a thought…
Another ingredient that attracted me in the White Bolognese Pasta recipe was chicken livers. I really like chicken livers. They are an important ingredient in Dirty Rice and, of course, Chicken Liver Pâté. I am famous here for my Chicken Liver Pâté. No one is indifferent to it — you either love it or hate it. I am sometimes invited to a barbecue or picnic and when I ask if they want me to bring something, Chicken Liver Pâté is often requested.
The White Bolognese Pasta used a preparation of chicken livers that I had never seen before. You chop them up well in a food processor, reducing them to a liquid. It's easy enough to do. Raw chicken livers have the consistency of over-ripe fruit. However, I wasn't prepared for the look of it. It's gross. I'll only go as far as to say that it looks like thick blood. I'll spare you any further details.
One amusing feature of the video is that you can hear it raining outside. I really do live in a mobile home. It has a metal roof and heavy rain, especially hail, can make a lot of noise. According to the reports from the water district, we had 22 storms this El Niño season, none of which did us hardly any good. The reservoir never exceeded 14.9% capacity. We are currently at 14.6%. The rain for the season was below average, 71%. All the good rains went up to northern California. The most pessimistic predictions are saying Southern California might now be in a permanent drought condition. How much longer before the reservoir is completely dry? And then what? I keep saying it — desalination. It's expensive, but it is better than no water at all.
As for the meal itself: White Bolognese Pasta is delicious. I love pasta anyway. And I love sauces made with cream. This recipe isn't difficult to prepare, especially if you buy noodles at the store. For a home-cooked meal, you can use almost any pasta with the recipe — fettuccine, egg noodles, penne, even elbow macaroni would be okay. As a presentation dish for a special occasion, you might want to make your own pasta. In the Recipe Archive, in Basics, there is a recipe and a video link for making Pasta from Scratch. It's a fun project and when you get the hang of it, homemade pasta is an excellent addition to your cooking repertoire.
One Final Announcement
This is the week of the Amgen Tour of California cycling race. It has been fun to watch so far. In about six weeks the Tour de France will begin. I'm looking forward to it.
Sunday 2016.5.15
Where Do I Stand?
I express a lot of interest in politics sometimes. However, I really don't participate. Really. More on that in a moment… For me, politics, as I've said several times, is a spectator sport. I like watching the events unfold. In a recent blog I described this season's campaign cycle as edge-of-your-seat entertainment. What will happen next?
Living in Southern California, I am probably more liberal than conservative now. I was born and raised in New England and had I stayed there my views would probably be a lot more conservative. 40 years in SoCal can change how a person thinks.
For all my interest in politics, some people find it odd, maybe shocking, that I don't vote. There are several reasons for that. I really do believe my vote would make no difference. Yes, I've heard the arguments. "If everyone felt that way, no one would vote." True, but they do vote. That's like saying, "Eat your peas; people in Africa are starving." What good would I do for the people in Africa if I ate my peas here? Besides which, I happen to really like peas. Brussels spouts too. But that's another story.
One reason I don't vote is because a tidal wave of voters don't vote for a candidate. They vote against. They vote their anger, frustration, disappointment, even outrage at the people currently in office. Do they really think Donald Trump is a qualified leader for the USA? Many will say, "No, but he's better than what we've had." There it is — "better than what we've had." They're voting for him because they don't like the leaders they are voting against. Even among Republicans, who have had a reputation for sticking together, their disgust after years of congressional obstructionism has moved them to want anyone who isn't a politician. As for me, who would I vote for? Do I believe any of the current candidates will solve this nation's problems, unite the divisions, restore our country's greatness? You already know that answer.
Another reason: You can't trust the politicians. As an example, consider Ted Cruz's promise to abolish the IRS and establish a flat tax. Without an IRS, how would the flat tax be collected? And can a flat tax really be established? There are so many people and corporations taking advantage of tax loopholes and dubious deductions (including illegal ones — re: the Panama Papers), the lobbyists would tear any flat tax proposal to shreds before Congress could ever vote on it. There would be so many exceptions, it would be as complicated as our tax code is now. So why did he make such promises? He was telling the people what he thought they wanted to hear, hoping to get their vote, without any credible intention of keeping his promise. Remember the first President Bush? "Read my lips. No new taxes!" How long did that promise last?
Yet another reason: The Electoral College. That's the system by which our country elects its presidents. The popular vote — the voting of the people — is nothing more than an opinion poll. People don't elect their president (and VP); the Electoral College system does that. You can fact-check that on Wikipedia. And that is why Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 but George W. Bush was elected president. The people wanted Gore. The College elected Bush.
The Electoral College was created by this country's founding fathers because they believed the election of a president was too important to be left to the people. I agree with them, for the reason stated above — most people don't vote for cnadidates; they vote against them.
So who will be the next president. I thought it would be Clinton, but now I don't know. I agree with what former VP Dan Quayle said this week. This seems like the year for people to vote against anyone who is "establishment." That includes Hillary Clinton. She's viewed as a Washington insider. Maybe voters are so fed up with the Washington status quo, they'll vote for Trump mostly because he is not Washingtonian. I believed that was the reason Obama got the nomination in 2007. Clinton was too close to Washington central.
Okay, I've bored you long enough.
Doughboys
Someone formerly from Rhode Island responded to my video for New England Clam Cakes. In her comment she mentioned Doughboys. OMG! I forgot all about those. I've lived in California since 1975 and no one ever mentioned Doughboys here. They're pieces of fried bread dough. You can dust them with powdered sugar or sugar mixed with cinnamon. My mother would sometimes make them for us for breakfast and we ate them like pancakes, coated with maple syrup. So I'm thinking that might make a good video project soon.
Wednesday 2016.5.11
Politics is Boring Now
There was so much to look forward to. Would Trump get to 1,237 delegates? Would the RNC and the "Stop Trump" movement stop him? Would there be a contested convention in Cleveland? If so, what would happen if the GOP derailed Trump at the convention? The Indiana voters settled all those questions. Cruz and Kasich are out. The only things worth expecting at the Republican convention are the balloons.
Not all speculations have been put to rest. There is still November to anticipate. Although there are some who might not agree with me, it's a safe bet that Hillary Clinton will be the president next year. What will become of the Senate is still in doubt. Will the Democrats take control? If that happens, the Supreme Court could swing liberal. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be safe, as will a woman's right to choose and same-sex marriage.
The House will still be dominated by Republicans — not enough seats will be vacant for the Democrats to take control in this election. And that leaves the question of how much legislation will be passed through Congress. Will the Republicans continue in their obstructionist posture? If so, how many House seats will they lose in the 2018 mid-term elections? Maybe that is looking too far ahead.
Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress are in damage-control mode. Finally, after seven years, they are working hard to pass legislation — currently working mostly on financial bills — to shed their disrepute of the "do-nothing" party, the obstructionist party, or "the party of No."
I do think that it is sad that the best candidates both sides of the aisle can offer are among the most unpopular candidates ever nominated by their respective party. Are the candidates really that awful? Or are the American voters so jaded by politics that no one would be welcomed?
Enough on politics.
Landscaping Revisited (Hopefully for the Final Time)
I continue to do the finishing work on my landscaping project. Mostly I've been waiting — for a year — to cover part of the utility easement along one edge of my space. This week is the final week. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the start of this project. I told the park manager that this is the end. If nothing is resolved with the easement this week, there won't be any work done. I showed him a major bruise on my arm (I lost control of a stone) and I told him I'm getting too old for this work. He delayed me a year. Will it be another year? Two? Will I be able cut and heft stones around when I'm 66 or 67? Enough already. I want my driveway back.
The bruise is actually looking better now. It was darker, and more painful, a couple days ago.
I started disposing of those surplus materials. There is a pile of construction sand and another of top soil, both of which are clean. So I've been loading a couple five-gallon buckets with dirt and sand and carrying them up to the edge of the park where there is railroad property. Trespassing might be against the law, but dumping clean dirt and sand isn't littering. It's earth. I've been taking it slow (those buckets are heavy), doing three or four loads per day.
My neighbor wants to purchase my surplus stone to do some landscaping in his space. I quoted him half of what I paid for it, 9¢ per pound. When all the materials are gone and my driveway is clean again, that's it. If the manager wants the easement covered, he can buy stone and hire someone to do the work.
Experimenting with Macaroni and Cheese
Okay, so it ain't the most gourmet food you're likely to find. I didn't notice it among the meals Anthony Bourdain ate in the Parts Unknown TV episode about the famous chef Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France. I like it, but I rarely eat it. However, it's fun to experiment once in a while.
Last year a new Smart & Final store opened up down the street, easily within walking distance. I do most of my shopping there. One day I noticed cans of cheese sauce. It's that yellow-orange sauce you see on top of nachos (which I don't eat). But I wondered…
First, a little explanation. The Kraft stuff that comes in a box is unsatisfactory, mostly because of the macaroni. If it "cooks in 5 to 7 minutes," cook it for 4 minutes and start testing. The pasta shreds if it is overcooked. More than once (when I was working through a serious craving for mac & cheese) I took the envelope out of the box, dumped the macaroni in the trash, and cooked up some better quality pasta. At $1.00 a box, I'm not tossing anything of great value in the trash.
Okay, so back to the cheese sauce. It isn't bad. With a little added butter and salt, it competes well with the Kraft product. And there is no macaroni to throw in the trash. Use the pasta you like.
I'm sated. I doubt I'll make macaroni and cheese for a year or two, but I like knowing that canned cheese sauce — as disgusting as it might be — is in the store. It's easy. It works. It isn't as good as properly made mac & cheese made with real cheese, topped with bread crumbs, and baked in the oven. But to satisfy a craving, it does suffice.
Sunday 2016.5.8 — Happy Mother's Day
Clam Fritters
As planned on Wednesday (see the blog entry below), I experimented with the Clam Fritters recipe I found. Happily, they didn't burst in the hot oil. Unhappily however, they lacked the flavor and shape of my own original recipe for Clam Cakes. All this is important to me because in about four weeks it will be the birthday of the Down syndrome guy up the street. He really likes my clam cakes; so I want to make a batch for him. However, I want to make certain they are really delicious. And thus the reason for experimenting with a new recipe.
Computer Stories
The motherboard I ordered arrived — sort of — on Wednesday. Fast shipping! However, it was the wrong board. Pictured on Amazon was a desktop computer mobo ("Intel Desktop Board D975XBX2") with audio connectors in the back and all the other connection ports you would expect to find on a computer. The board shipped was a "server" board ("Intel Entry Server Board S3000AH"). Not even close! It isn't meant to be used as a standard desktop computer. There are no audio connectors. The PCI slots (the things peripheral cards are plugged into, such as a sound card) are turned the other way round, with the key toward the back of the slot rather than the other end, for peripherals like a server RAID card. I couldn't add a sound card if I wanted to.
I'm sure none of that is clear to anyone. It is barely clear to me. What is clear is that the board sent was not the one in the Amazon offer. I submitted a request for refund because I can't use the board. Amazon graciously and quickly processed a refund in less than 24 hours. As for the seller of the board — I haven't heard a word from him. So far, I don't even need to return the board. I don't know what I'll do with it. If I were the enterprising sort, I might try to sell it cheap on Ebay. But I'll probably just box it up and store it out in the shed. It might be fun to experiment with someday.
Old Recipes
An Italian friend who is visiting her mother in Italy sent me a translation of a recipe she found in an old 1975 magazine. It wasn't an unusual recipe. It was very similar to the pandoro recipe I experimented with last week. However, what set it apart was its lack of details. My friend explained this as "typical" because homemakers 40 years ago did a lot of cooking. They didn't need lengthy explanations. For example, the recipe says to "combine the eggs and milk." Today's recipes would say, "combine the eggs and milk, mixing with a whisk until well blended." Back then, home cooks just knew.
There is another reason modern recipes need to be more detailed. When I was a child in the 1950's I sometimes went with my mother when she shopped. The local markets were small. They sold basic ingredients. Meals were cooked in the home. Then the supermarkets appeared and now most of the aisle space is taken up with heat-and-serve meals that are already prepared. As a result, some people today don't know how to cook.
Mom always made her own spaghetti sauce. Even I cheat, combining Ragu with Prego for my "cheater" sauce. For my Minute Meals I buy the rotisserie chickens at Costco. They're inexpensive (cheaper than the raw chickens) and already cooked. I only need to debone them and package the meat for my meals. I do, however, save the bones and trim to make my own stock from scratch. So, I can't claim to be much better than today's consumers.
I looked at my neighbor's overflowing trash and recycling bins. They don't cook. Their meals are either heat-and-serve or take-out. I don't wish to be critical of anyone. Their trash demonstrates the problem. People are too busy to cook. We live in a consumer oriented society. I'm not innocent. I plead guilty to spending $12,000 last year to build two new computers. Our toys are expensive and people who work need their jobs to earn the money to pay for the possessions they want. (This year I am considering a 4K flat screen TV — I'm still using an old picture-tube television.)
I do cook, however. My trash each week is one bag. I could probably put my bin out for pickup once every four to six weeks. It would take that long to fill it. And that demonstrates another advantage. I contribute little to the local landfill dump site. One of the problems with consumerism is the amount of trash we dispose or recycle. All that packaging needs to go somewhere. The recycling company here wants only clean materials. We can't, for example, recycle used paper plates. They don't want items soiled with foods. If a food box has a plastic bag inside, the box can go into recycling, but the plastic goes into the trash, i.e. landfill. The only exceptions are soda bottles and cans. I don't drink soda and I rinse the cans well before recycling them.
And there is yet another problem. There are many manufacturers of pre-prepared foods. They compete with each other for our dollars. The way to win customers is to make the foods taste good, better than the competition. They do that by adding sugar, fats, artificial flavorings, and enhancers like monosodium glutamate (MSG). To keep costs down, they extend the shelf life of the food by adding preservatives. All that extra stuff in food is contributing to the global epidemic of obesity.
So what does all that have to say about old recipes? Cooking is becoming a lost art. I won't say it's sad. It's progress. Change happens. It is enjoyable, however, to discover old recipes and experiment with them.
I'm Getting Too Old For This
Those of you who have been following my blog for more than a year will remember that almost one year ago I began a major landscaping project. I tore out all my lawn and replaced it with sandstone and drought-tolerant Dymondia ground cover. It was to reduce water usage and to make maintenance easier. I now have no lawn to mow.
There has been one area to complete and I needed to wait for permission because it is not part of my yard. It is part of a "utility easement," which means the utilities — gas, water, electricity, and sewer — run underground beneath that easement. I worked several hours on Friday, covering most of the area I was assigned. On Saturday I finished the work.
There is another section, but that will be someone else's problem. I waited a year with piles of dirt, sand, and stone in my driveway. I am clearing my driveway. If someone asks, "Can you cover the other section too?" I can say, "No, sorry, I don't have the materials." I'll be 65 in July and this landscaping is hard work for someone my age. If they want the remainder of the easement covered, they can buy the materials and find someone younger to do the work.
Wednesday 2016.5.4
Oh Yeah, I Forgot About That…
One of my reasons for building new computers late last year was that one of my old computers no longer communicated with the CD/DVD burner. It was weird. It would read discs okay, but I couldn't burn new discs. I tried different software, cables, and even switched the CD/DVD component itself. Nothing worked. That narrowed down the problem to something in the motherboard. Well, that EVGA motherboard I wrote about in Sunday's blog was the one that I had stored out in the shed.
The board works great in almost every way, but I can't use it to burn DVDs. And that is the main reason I wanted to keep a working Windows XP computer. Now what?
Yesterday I risked $200. I ordered a brand new, "still in original retail box", Intel LGA 775 DDR2 ATX motherboard. That won't mean much to most of you out there, if anyone. But it says the motherboard will use the same microprocessor I am using now and the same memory. And the same power supply unit and video card will fit. That's important, because I have all those components. I only need a fully functional mobo that will use them. I don't want to spend $1,000 building an old computer.
It ain't easy. "LGA 775" is the socket into which the microprocessor chip fits. That's the computer's brain. You saw what happened to Dr. Frankenstein's creation when he inserted the wrong brain. Imagine what could have gone wrong if he assembled the body from both male and female parts or, worse yet, pieces of other mammals. There were a lot of 775s floating around in the latter half of the last decade. They used different parts. I even found one board that used both DDR1 and DDR2 memory on the same board! That's just plain weird.
If the shipping tracker is correct, I'll have the board on Monday. I can only hope it will work. I really want one Windows XP-compatible computer.
Indiana Wants Him
I had the TV on all day, watching the news about the expected outcome of the Indian primary. Up until late last week the prediction web sites, despite the polls, were giving the state to Cruz. All that changed during the weekend. Not only did the predictions change to Trump, but the probabilities soared. FiveThirtyEight.com was giving Trump an 83% probability to Cruz's 17% of winning the primary. Kasich was given less than 1%. He is announcing today he is suspending his campaign too.
Of course, predictions and polls can be wrong. They proved that plenty of times during this campaign cycle. And they certainly proved it yesterday with the Clinton/Sanders primary. FiveThirtyEight gave Clinton a 90% probability of victory over Sanders, but everyone else, including Clinton, knew Sanders would win the state. It was close, but Sanders won.
I also had the Huffington Post reporting page open on my laptop computer. As the polls closed in Indiana it reported the returns from the various precincts.
Then Cruz's withdrawal from the campaign became the big news of the evening. Many were expecting it. Trump winning Indiana mathematically eliminated Cruz. So now it's a race between Clinton and Trump.
Two favorite headlines from the day: I think it was the New York Post who put Trump on their cover with the words, "Hoosier Daddy?" The NY Daily News put a red white and blue elephant in a coffin with the headline: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the GOP, a once-great political party, killed by epidemic of Trump." The GOP was supposed to reshape its image after losing the presidency and control of Congress in 2008. However, they continued to remain the Grand Obstructionist Party, even refusing to consider President Obama's nomination to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Maybe this time…
Reported in the news: The Republican National Committee (RNC) conceded that there won't be a contested convention in June. Trump will easily win the party's nomination on the first ballot with more than the required 1,237 delegates. Their stop-Trump efforts failed. "The brash billionaire businessman will doom their campaign in November." That's a quote. Even Reince Priebus, the current chairman of the RNC conceded the outcome.
I think it's amusing that prognosticators are still using past election models to forecast the outcome of this campaign. However, this cycle has been unlike any other. When Michael Steele, former chairman of the RNC, was asked to explain the latest results, he was speechless. None of the rules apply. Going back several months, Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post was confident Cruz would be the nominee. No one seems capable of predicting this race. And that, I believe, is what makes this election so fascinating to watch. No one knows what will happen next. This is edge-of-the-seat entertainment.
Several reporters are using the expression: "The writing is on the wall." (That's from the Bible in which God's finger wrote on the palace wall, projecting the end of King Belshazzar's reign. It ended that night.) November's outcome comes into better focus now. Clinton will be the next president and the Republicans will lose control of the Senate. (They'll maintain control of the House, but by a smaller margin.) She will nominate liberal justices to the Supreme Court as older justices, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, retire. That outcome, like all others in this cycle, is certain to change. Again, nothing can be predicted accurately this time around.
Meanwhile, the GOP will, once again, examine its image and try to rebuild. They can, and will, gain power again, someday, of course. No change is ever permanent. However, the nation will swing liberal for a while. As for Trump, he'll either sue somebody if he isn't elected president or he'll laugh and say he only campaigned for a lark. "It was good for business."
My prediction for November: It will be a blue bloodbath.
Clam Fritters
In the Recipe Archive on this web site there is my recipe for a treat I grew up with in New England — Clam Cakes. Technically, they are fritters because the batter is deep-fried in hot oil. However, in New England they are almost ubiquitous as "clam cakes" at snack bars and fast food stands.
I use yeast for the leavening. I tried baking powder, but the shell of the fritter would cook too crisp too early, causing the cake to break open while cooking, squirting uncooked batter from the center. The yeast makes a more elastic cake that expands well in the hot oil, allowing the insides to cook.
I found a new recipe that uses baking powder. The batter is made almost the same way. The one exception is the use of eggs. I am wondering if the eggs change the texture of the batter, allowing for elasticity. My plan today is to shoot a video and if it works I'll add it here and upload to YouTube in coming weeks.
Sunday 2016.5.1
Happy May Day
I remember May Day celebrations from when I was growing up in Connecticut. If May 1st happened to fall on a school day, especially when I was in grammar school, there was some sort of celebration on the school playground. I remember at least one occasion involving a maypole, a pole that participants would dance around, holding one end of a long ribbon as we decorated the pole. I also seem to remember learning much later in life that the festival possibly had origins in Greek paganism, maybe connected to the dithyramb, a festival honoring the Greek god Dionysus. I did some research on the Internet and this connection is supposedly false.
Here is Southern California I never see any May Day celebrations. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I am somewhat amused, however, that my first name, Dennis, is said to be a modern version of the name Dionysus.
Life Without Windows XP? Close, But Not Quite.
When I built two new computers last year, I kept one of them to run Windows XP, which I need because a few pieces of legacy software (that I have been unable to replace with usable Win10 versions) I cannot live without. In particular, when I create DVDs of my cooking videos, there is one piece of software that I use to burn the physical disc. I have a Win 10 version, but the discs won't play in my Blu-ray player. However, created with the XP version, the discs play fine.
Last week the old computer wouldn't boot up — sort of. Almost everything worked properly. The speakers would get sound. All the fans spun. But there was no signal to the monitor. I'd seen that before. Some boring history:
When I built those old computers many years ago, I bought two ASUS motherboards. Prior to that time, ASUS had a good reputation for building cutting-edge computer components. Their ratings slipped, a lot. I had bought two other "highly-rated" ASUS boards and I couldn't even give them away after the customer ratings ranked them among the worst ever made. So I shipped them back and replaced them with two less-than-cutting-edge, but well reviewed ASUS boards.
In each box was a little fan that could be attached to the board. The manual said it was "optional." One of the boards died after about 6 months, after the 90-day guarantee expired. I did some research and people said to consider that little fan absolutely mandatory; otherwise, the board would burn out its video circuitry. I put the fan on the surviving board and it served me well for several years.
To replace the dead motherboard, I bought an EVGA board (and swore never to buy an ASUS mobo again). I really liked that new board. It, too, worked well — so well, in fact, that when I chopped up my old computers and put the parts in either recycling (you might be surprised at how much recyclable plastic and metal there is in a computer) or electronics waste, I saved that mobo. I cleaned it up, boxed it, and placed it carefully in storage. It was too good a board to part with. I'm glad I saved it.
When the old computer died last week, it had to be either the motherboard or the video card. I suspected the mobo. Despite the little fan, the video circuitry burned out. That was why everything worked well but there was no signal to the monitor. Thankfully, I remembered that old EVGA mobo sitting out in the storage shed.
So, late last week I built a new old computer, combining the best of the parts from the two oldies to make one working version to run XP. It was fun, a trip down memory lane.
Surprisingly, it booted up okay. The hard disk had all the drivers on it for the ASUS board, not the EVGA board, but it worked anyway. On Friday evening I formatted a hard disk (3½ hours!). Then yesterday I did a fresh installation of the XP operating system and loaded the few XP‑compatible-only programs I need. All my other software is on my new computers. Now everything is working wonderfully again. Happy happy.
I wish I could build a new computer that would run Windows XP. Intel, however, said they would stop manufacturing CPU chips that supported XP. There are old "refurbished" parts available; so, technically, it is possible to at least buy some hardware that could be cobbled together in the future if I really need it. However, before tossing that dead motherboard into e‑waste, I removed the CPU chip — an Intel Core 2 Duo — and carefully sealed it in an anti-static envelope. I have a spare.
An interesting discovery: When I suspected the problem might be the video card, I went onto the EVGA web site and noticed the Titan Z, which is the video card in my other new computer, is not listed as available. I paid $1,500 for that card. I found one on Amazon. There is only one in stock and the price is now $3,300! Talk about bragging rights! I can now claim my computer has a really expensive video card.
Why the Titan Z is currently unavailable is unknown. I am assuming EVGA is developing a newer version, maybe the Titan Z mach 2 or something and, hopefully, it will be a water-cooled hybrid card. It generates a lot of heat. One reviewer said he installed extra fans in his computer to help keep it cool and his computer keeps his home office nice and toasty in winter.