Dec 31
New York has the ball at Times Square. Key West has the giant high heel shoe containing a drag performer. Given the year we’ve had, I propose that we drop a giant model of a coronavirus. To be more physiologically and aspirationally correct, the spike proteins should have antibodies stuck to them. As midnight approaches, the virus heads for a white blood cell. At the stroke of midnight, the white blood cell eats the virus. A very fitting ending to 2020.
Happy New Year.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/31/an-alternate-new-years-eve-drop/
Dec 26
I spent much of my adult life working in research laboratories. While some of the equipment and supplies have no use in home kitchens, others would be perfect additions. Here are a few that I’d love to see sold at the supermarket or kitchen supply store.
Parafilm. This is what plastic wrap wants to be when it grows up. It stretches to form a nice seal over your beakers or bowls. You can buy it in different sizes so there’s less waste. It can be reused a few times.
Magnetic stirrers. I thought these were magic when I first saw them as a kid. Some of the stirrers have heating blocks as well. This would make candy- or roux-making much easier if you had a large enough magnet that was relatively heat-proof. Some stirrers look more like propellers and are suspended into the liquid.
pH meters and test strips. The pandemic brought on a new interest in canning and preserving. The problem is that if you’re not careful, whatever you canned could be contaminated with nasty bacteria if the acidity isn’t high enough (as measured by a pH less than about 5.5). The key is finding pH test strips that don’t leach stuff into your food. A pH meter would only be for the truly geeky among us. The detector can be a bit fragile, especially if you get it too close to a stirring magnet. (Been there, done that a few times.)
A table-top incubator. You can get big ones for cell and bacterial cultures, but one the size of a dorm fridge would be handy for making yogurt or kick-starting bread dough. It would hold the temperature at a balmy 37° C (99° F) to make the Lactobacilli and yeast very happy.
I could get even geekier, but that would venture farther into molecular gastronomy than I’m comfortable with. I prefer my food to resemble food.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/26/lab-stuff-that-should-be-in-kitchens/
Dec 26
I was not in the mood for Christmas this year. I didn’t bother decorating. Shopping for presents in person was not a pleasant idea given the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the possibility of encountering infected virus deniers. I did do a quick dive into two stores for presents for my sister’s grandkids – and sent them off at the last possible minute. I was in full bah, humbug mode.
We had one semblance of normal in a virtual white elephant exchange with our friends on Christmas Eve. The Lizards on a Stick made a repeat appearance. Fortunately, we didn’t get them. I got an unopened Ancestry DNA kit. Julian got a pandemic survival kit containing more hand sanitizer, N95 masks, and Lysol.
Christmas started out on a bad note when I managed to spill Julian’s coffee on the white living room carpet as I was wrestling a large package. A half hour of rug cleaning ensued. (Why does anyone put white carpeting in homes? Three places in a row that we’ve rented have had white carpets.) We’d assumed that the package was from Back East. It turned out to be a 12-pack of tissues that Julian had ordered a couple of weeks earlier. We broke down laughing. The rest of the day was much more relaxed, with a walk in the park just before it started raining again. We also finished off the Christmas Eve duck for dinner.
Hope you managed to have a merry little Christmas. Next year, virus permitting, we should have a more normal celebration.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/26/a-little-christmas/
Dec 25
The Lord and Master decreed that we shalt have pie for our Christmas Eve dinner. Since I’d just bought some pecans on sale, pecan pie it was. The filling recipe came off the pecan package. It was identical to the recipe on the corn syrup label, although it used about 50% more pecans. (Gee, I wonder why…)
Pie crust is the weakest link in my culinary chain. I tried to avoid making pie crusts for years. I’d make crustless quiches and pies with graham cracker crusts, anything to avoid making pastry crusts. Some of it is my aversion to shortening, for nutritional and taste reasons. Shortening is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which contains trans fat. Trans fat increases the LDL “bad” cholesterol and decreases HDL “good” cholesterol, which is why food companies tripped over each other trying to get it out of their products as a marketing tool. However, if a product contains less than half a gram of trans fat per serving, it can be labeled trans fat free. Butter is my solid fat of choice for baking.
Several years ago I found a food processor recipe for pie crust, which works quite nicely. I fired up the food processor this morning. I think I added too much water to the dough, which made it way too sticky to roll out at first. I added a little more flour and re-rolled it successfully. I worried that the resulting crust would be too tough. I tucked the crust into my largest pie plate, poured in the filling, and let it bake while I did some work.
The result was tasty and not too cloyingly sweet. I’m still no pie crust expert, but it passed the test.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/25/pecan-pie/
Dec 12
Julian made a pot of borscht last night. He used a recipe out of Anya Von Bremzen’s Please to the Table. Borscht takes as many forms as there are Eastern European grandmas. There are light, summery borschts and heavy, wintery ones. This version was a hybrid. The broth wasn’t thick, but there were plenty of vegetables. The problem is, this recipe made A LOT of borscht and there are only two people to eat it. (Luka and Neli have no interest in beets.)
After dinner, it was time to make up the grocery list for the week. Julian came down with his proposed menu for the week:
I drew the line at smoothies.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/12/the-borscht-that-keeps-on-giving/
Dec 09
The Texas Attorney General is suing the states of Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in an attempt to overturn their election results. Republican attorneys general from 17 other states have filed an amicus brief. Maybe Democratic attorneys general should sue Texas for some of the politicians it’s sent to Washington over the years.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/12/09/ah-texas/
Nov 27
I wrote a short story with this title when I was in 8th grade. The main character’s mother was highly adventurous in the kitchen. This was in contrast to my mother, who had to feed three finicky kids and didn’t dare cook outside the lines. I don’t remember the full story, but the last sentence was something to the extent that I expected squab to be on the menu the following year. Had I ever eaten squab (pigeon) at that time? Hell, no, and I still haven’t tried it.
Julian and I have done our share of Thanksgivings à deux over the years. Most of the time we’ve done turkeys. This year, however, we did duck. We were going to try a sheet pan deconstructed duck with sriracha and roasted fruit. I found the recipe in the Washington Post. We managed to find fresh figs – for a price. Unfortunately, the figs were compost and the duck didn’t thaw by Thursday morning. Back to the tried and true duck à l’orange.
As sides, I made dressing, fennel salad, cranberry-orange relish, and pumpkin pie. I wasn’t happy with how the pie turned out. It had too much clove, which drowned out the fresh ginger I’d grated into the filling.
Before dinner, we had a Zoom happy hour with the Seattle friends we usually gather with on the holiday. Our beverage at both happy hour and dinner was Château Ste. Michelle dry riesling. Even though it was a socially distanced holiday, we made it festive.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/11/27/duck-for-thanksgiving/
Nov 25
Thanksgiving is associated with a variety of traditions in our home. The bread- and pie-baking. The cranberry-orange relish getting ground up in the food processor at the crack of dawn. The cooking SOS phone calls from friends. My least favorite Thanksgiving tradition? The last-minute mad dash to the grocery store to pick up some essential item we’d forgotten.
I have claustrophobia. My idea of Hell is having to go to a grocery store the night before a major holiday, fighting my way through crowded aisles to get the necessary ingredients, then standing on an endless checkout line. I had this happen one year when we lived in Dallas. We lived in a dry neighborhood and I worked in a wet one, so I had to pick up a bottle of wine and a few other things after work.
This year’s pandemic adds a whole new layer of torture to this ordeal. Some virus-deniers picketed one of our favorite grocery stores earlier in the week because it required customers to wear a mask. All of the stores hereabouts require masks, so I don’t know why they chose this market in particular. Maybe the protesters like the fish department better than others.
We had a few things we were about to run out of, so I went to the grocery store this morning. I went to a larger store in the hope that I could stay out of others’ way. Fortunately, there wasn’t a large number of shoppers to impede my progress. However, one man was wearing his mask below his nose. I avoided being within ten feet of him. Surprisingly, I found everything I was looking for. I didn’t have to wait on line to check out. A triumph!
Despite this successful shopping trip, I’ll let Julian run to the grocery store tomorrow if we discover another ingredient is missing at the last minute.I don’t want to press my luck.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/11/25/the-least-favorite-tradition/
Nov 21
Family-owned restaurants are struggling to survive during the pandemic. Some restaurants in southern climates can serve customers at open-air tables that are socially distanced during winter months; however, this strategy won’t work in places like Seattle or Syracuse. These small businesses are among the highest risk to fail, and need our help.
We’ve resolved to do takeout food once a week. We choose a different local restaurant each time. (The choice often takes more time than the actual ordering and picking up.) This is how to make sure the restaurant of the week gets the maximum amount of money from your purchase:
While not a perfect solution (PASS A RELIEF BILL ALREADY, CONGRESS!!!), ordering takeout from family-run restaurants can help them stay in business until the pandemic subsides and they can offer indoor dining again. Consider doing so if you can afford it.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/11/21/takeout-night/
Nov 20
The United States has surpassed 250,000 deaths directly attributable to COVID-19. This nation is number one in the number of cases and mortalities – unenviable statistics. While finger-pointing has gone on since the beginning of the pandemic, I believe blame needs to be placed where it properly belongs.
I do not blame the virus. It’s not an autonomous being. Its only mission is to find a target cell and hijack its genetic apparatus to produce more viruses. No, I blame certain sentient creatures. For starters, our political leaders and their capon-esque enablers have failed to formulate a coherent, nationwide strategy to test, trace, and treat the disease. Is it any wonder that two out of the three branches of the US government are COVID-19 superspreader venues?
I also blame the virus-deniers. They eschew masks in the name of “freedom”. Freedom isn’t free, to use a popular conservative phrase. It takes hard work. It also takes cooperation between people. You can’t fight a pandemic by being a rugged individualist and doing what you damn well please.
Hospitals and their staffs are overwhelmed as a result of the inertia and denial regarding the pandemic. In some states, there are no intensive care beds available. This limits the number of other serious illnesses or procedures that can be performed. A patient who’s forced to wait for an elective coronary artery bypass surgery may wind up in the emergency room with a massive heart attack – or worse. As bad as the situation is in large city medical centers, rural hospitals have it even worse. These facilities can’t attract traveler nurses or outside doctors because of salary requirements, so the existing staffs are stretched thin. In North Dakota, the governor has decreed that nurses and doctors who are positive for the virus but asymptomatic to keep working. This puts patients, staff, and their families at risk.
We need a single central strategy to deal with the pandemic, not 50+ separate ones. This is going to cost money; however, the cost of the current strategy is too much in terms of lost lives and productivity. This can’t wait until the new administration takes office. The current cast of characters needs to have pressure put on them to do right by the American people. Get mad, raise hell, buttonhole your recalcitrant representatives. And stay healthy.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/11/20/two-hundred-fifty-thousand/
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