I’m always amazed at the wildlife behaviors we see at Casa Sammamish. This morning I saw one of our neighborhood eagles fishing on the other side of the river from our home. Suddenly it jumped into the water and started swimming. Yes, friends, eagles swim. Badly. They stroke with their wings, a cross between flailing and freestyle. The eagle persisted and got to our side of the river. In its talons was a good-sized salmon or trout. It then proceeded to gut the fish. The crows took over once the eagle had its fill. No trace of the fish an hour later.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/16/the-swimming-eagle/
Apr 14
Social Distancing Demonstration
I was on virtual happy hour with my Cornell classmates yesterday when Julian took this picture of Luka practicing social distancing:
Appropriate social distancing.
In contrast, here’s a photo I took last week of Neli doing quite the opposite:
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/14/social-distancing-demonstration/
Apr 12
Not Canceled
This spring has been a series of cancellations. March Madness. In-person religious services. The annual Mixed-Marriage Passover Seder. However, there is one thing that I refused to cancel: The annual hot cross bun bake.
Hot cross buns are a British tradition on Good Friday. I wind up making them on Easter weekend. I’ve used several recipes over the years. This year’s recipe came from the same cookbook where the hamburger buns I made two weeks ago originated. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins; otherwise, I followed the recipe. The amount of dried fruit seemed a bit excessive. The dough was also extremely sticky. I added a little more flour, but not much. After a 2-hour rise, the stickiness had abated a little.
In this recipe, rather than making the cross with a confectioners’ sugar icing after baking, the cross is made with a flour and water mixture piped onto the buns just before baking. I cut too large a hole in the plastic bag I used to squirt out the mixture, so the crosses were pretty crude. No matter – Julian declared the buns excellent.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/12/not-canceled/
Apr 12
A COVID-19 Playlist
Here are some songs apropos of the pandemic. (OK, Millennials, I know these tunes come from before you were born. Deal with it.)
- Are You Lonesome Tonight, Elvis Presley
- Someday We’ll Be Together, The Supremes
- Splendid Isolation, Warren Zevon
- So Far Away, Carole King
- Get Off My Cloud, The Rolling Stones
- Invincible, Pat Benatar
- Paranoia, The Kinks
- Rescue Me, Fontella Bass
- Mr. Lonely, Bobby Vinton
- Fever, Peggy Lee
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/12/a-covid-19-playlist/
Apr 08
Cooking as Comfort
In these times, having something under your control is essential to one’s sanity. Even better if it doesn’t require potential pathogen exposure. Julian and I have been cooking and baking up a storm with ingredients we have on hand.
Last week I got some burger out of the freezer. I didn’t have any buns in the house. No worries, I made my own. I found a recipe for Turkish breakfast buns in a little book I bought at 75% off several years ago. The dough included crumbled feta cheese, which I had in the fridge. I topped half of the buns with za’atar (Middle Eastern spice and sesame seed mixture). Julian approved.
On Tuesday I made an adaptation of an Egyptian lentil and rice recipe that Melissa Clark published in the New York Times. This is part of a series she’s running of adaptable recipes that utilize pantry ingredients. The critical part of the recipe is caramelizing the onions. Given that my commute these days is one flight of stairs down from the kitchen, this was fine by me. The results were very tasty. It would have been a more Instagram-worthy dish if I’d used red lentils, but I had French green ones. Clark just published a pound cake recipe that I may try later this week.
On Sunday I made some meat sauce for pasta, along with focaccia from Jim Lahey’s My Bread. Lahey is the originator of the no-knead bread that’s the most downloaded recipe in the history of The New York Times. The dough was nice and springy, and spread into the half sheet pan easily. Yesterday we both had focaccia poor man’s pizzas with the leftover sauce for lunch. A riff on nostalgia food.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/08/cooking-as-comfort/
Apr 03
The New Toilet Paper
As Covid-19 cases increase exponentially and more people are forced to stay home, the shift of shortages has switched from paper products to flour. It’s as if all of the keto and paleo enthusiasts have said, “If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die eating real cake and cookies, dammit!”
We noticed the lack of flour at Central Market two weeks ago. Last night Julian ordered groceries through Instacart – no flour. I checked the Costco, Bob’s Red Mill, and King Arthur websites this morning. All were out of wheat flour. Many of the non-gluten flours were also out of stock.
I’m okay for the moment. I have some bread flour and a little whole wheat flour. I even have a little gluten-free flour mix in the freezer. Things could get desperate if Julian gets a hankering for onion pockets or cobbler in the next few weeks.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/04/03/the-new-toilet-paper/
Mar 29
Bad News, Good News
Julian was compiling a list of items to order from Amazon/Whole Foods. He came upstairs while I was working on some bread dough. “I have bad news and good news,” he said. “The bad news is there’s no unbleached all-purpose flour to be had.”
“What’s the good news?” I asked.
“Caffe d’Arte is still shipping orders.”
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/03/29/bad-news-good-news/
Mar 23
Virtual Happy Hour
Just because I’m an introvert doesn’t mean I’m a hermit. This work from home self-isolation stuff, while necessary to flatten the curve of new COVID-19 cases, is miserable. The idea of virtual happy hours has arisen to fill the void. The concept has become so popular that The New York Times published an article on how to throw a proper event.
One of my fellow class officers suggested this as a sanity check. About ten of us gathered via Zoom with beverages of choice. Some of the women I’d seen last month in Las Vegas; others weren’t able to attend. The discussion focused on how we and our families were coping with the new abnormal. Most of the celebrants were on the east coast, but three of us were west of the Mississippi. It was a good time. We’ll probably do it again.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/03/23/virtual-happy-hour/
Mar 23
Tonight’s Festive Repast
We ventured out for groceries mid-day today and stocked up on staples. This was several hours before Washington’s Governor put the state on stay at home orders.
Julian put a rack of ribs into the cart and decided to smoke them for dinner tonight. He used the tried and true recipe with a homemade western North Carolina-style barbecue sauce. The feature of this recipe is that the onion that goes into the sauce is smoked with the ribs before being cut up for the condiment.
As usual, the results were superb. He made baked sweet potato “fries” and green beans alongside. Who says you have to eat freeze-dried dreck when you shelter in place?
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/03/23/tonights-festive-repast/
Mar 22
The New Abnormal
Washington is in near lockdown, as are many other states, due to Covid-19. Restaurants and bars are closed except for takeout. (“Hey, bartender, I need a Malayan Fog Cutter to go.”) Schools, community centers, and gyms are closed. Events are canceled. Hospitals and nursing homes are limiting or prohibiting visitors. Elective surgeries are canceled to conserve limited stocks of personal protective equipment. My friends on the Infection Prevention team are working 24/7 to keep patients and caregivers safe, as are the infectious disease docs.
I’m now in mandatory work from home mode. I have remote access to my work computer, but it’s slow going. I miss seeing my fellow cube farmers. I’m keeping my usual work hours at home. Since I’m a morning person and Julian isn’t, I can get a lot done before he comes down to the office.
Friday afternoon I went outside and spoke to several of my neighbors (with acceptable social distancing). My next door neighbor was planting more stuff on the strip of dirt between our units. She’d gotten some huge ferns for free from a plot of land that was being bulldozed to build more soul-less townhouses. (To quote Malvina Reynolds: “Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky…”) Two other neighbors reminded me why I love our neighborhood: It’s like living in a national park because we’re surrounded by park land with a river running through it.
Luckily, our fridge and chest freezer are well stocked for the moment. We’ve been cooking mostly comfort food that can serve as lunch leftovers. I made baked penne, while Julian made some navy bean soup. Tonight I’ll make quiche with some vegetable and cheese odds and ends. Eggplant parmigiana may be tomorrow’s dinner, as we have two eggplant that need to be used up.
Although things may be ugly for a while, I’m trying to stay optimistic. In the words of our former chief of cardiac surgery, “We shall prevail.”
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2020/03/22/the-new-abnormal/
Recent Comments