I’m always amazed at the diversity of avian life at Casa Sammamish. This afternoon I saw one of our neighborhood bald eagles on the sand bar across the river looking for lunch. Needless to say, the ducks kept their distance while said eagle was hanging out.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/12/18/eagles-on-the-beach/
Dec 17
Another Loss
Friday morning we got the news that our former next door neighbor’s mother had died, two months shy of her 97th birthday. She’d been transitioned to hospice care earlier in the week. The cause of death was heart and respiratory failure. I took over half a batch of Miami onion rolls for condolence food.
Next month we will have a potluck to honor this amazing woman’s memory.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/12/17/another-loss/
Dec 14
Bubba Shark
I came down to breakfast the other day to find this on the couch.
It must be a French shark. It’s wearing a Grand Lyon Film Festival cap.
Julian’s comment: “It wanted to watch Shark Week.” Or it was trolling for Baby Shark videos.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/12/14/bubba-shark/
Dec 11
Back East
I’ve spent the last week in my hometown catching up with my family and checking in on my mother at the nursing home. My grand-niece and nephew are growing up quickly. I also have a grand-nephew-to-be who’s set to make his debut in late February. Mom’s doing well.
The downtown areas of small cities like Fulton and Oswego continue to be hollowed out, while the peripheries hold every big-box store and fast food joint imaginable. Dollar stores are also breeding like rabbits. I counted three different dollar stores on a two-mile stretch of street in Fulton. As a strike against this ugly trend, I try to frequent downtown businesses. Today I bought a couple of items at the River’s End Bookstore in Oswego. This store has a lot of titles I wouldn’t expect to see in upstate New York. I got several ideas for children’s books to order for the church bookstore. I also had lunch twice at Canale’s Italian restaurant. (Sometimes you just have to feed your red sauce need.)
The same plague of dollar stores was evident on the way to the Rochester airport today. I lost count of the number I saw on route 104. Downtown Rochester is also hollowed out, courtesy of Kodak’s successive cutbacks over the years. At least the universities and medical center seem to be thriving.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/12/11/back-east/
Nov 25
A Thought for Thanksgiving
One of my pool pals made this observation: The problem with Thanksgiving week is that you have to squeeze a week’s worth of work into three days.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/11/25/a-thought-for-thanksgiving/
Nov 16
Souper Slam!
Our friend Michael wanted to celebrate his birthday. He chose a potluck with a twist: A soup competition. The crew came ready to rumble with a variety of options. Michael made two varieties of vegetarian hot and sour soup; one spicy, one suitable for chile wimps. Chicken tortilla, Cuban black bean, African peanut, and sunchoke/cauliflower rounded out the list. Folks who didn’t make soup brought appetizers and desserts.
We made two different soups. Julian made a Spanish garbanzo soup out of Anya Von Bremzen’s The New Spanish Table. I made a cold sour cherry soup with fennel that Julian downloaded from Food and Wine magazine. The tricky part of my recipe was finding sour cherries. Luckily, Julian found them frozen at Central Market. The recipe went together very nicely. I cooked the onion, garlic, and fennel the night before so all I had to do was blend everything together when I got home from work.
This was an audience participation contest. Revelers scored soups on aroma, flavor, and texture. There were also three special categories: What to eat after the zombie apocalypse, what would you crave after consuming cannabis (we had some youngsters there), and an all purpose question. And we won! Julian received a Dr. Who mug for winning the craving category, and I won a coveted silver (stainless steel) ladle for second best soup. The golden ladle went to the African peanut soup. A fun competition.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/11/16/souper-slam/
Nov 13
Sourdough Experiments
Julian invited our friend Bruce over to pick his brain on another home improvement project. As a reward, Bruce gave me a bit of sourdough starter he got from Sea Wolf Bakers. The starter has bounced to life quite nicely after a feeding or two. Not wanting to throw away perfectly good starter when I fed it, I decided to experiment by making some semolina bread with a portion. I admit that I worked without a net on this. I didn’t add any yeast to the starter. Although I semi-followed a recipe that instructs one to make a sponge with yeast, water, and semolina flour, I mixed the semolina with the starter and water and put it in the refrigerator while I was at church to avoid the sponge oozing out of the bowl and onto the counter. The results were quite good. I took a loaf to work and the cube farm cronies devoured it.
The second experiment involved making a porridge of sorts with oatmeal, then adding the starter to it and incubating in the fridge overnight. I then added a little water, oil, maple syrup, whole wheat and bread flours. The bread was good, but we couldn’t eat through it before it got fuzzy.
The third experiment was a failure. I tried to make a focaccia with some starter that I needed to discard to reseed the rest. I should have added some yeast to oomph the rising. Next time…
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/11/13/sourdough-experiments/
Oct 27
The Not-So-Humble Concord Grape
Concords were the grapes of my childhood. They were grown all over the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for jelly, juice, and Kosher wine. I outgrew concords and moved on to seedless grapes grown in California. Or so I thought. Lately I’ve been buying organic Washington-grown concord grapes.
Concord grapes belong to the labrusca species. They’re cold-tolerant, which is advantageous for upstate New York winters. Vinifera grapes are less tolerant to cold; however, grapes from this species are being grown more often in colder climates (global warming, anyone?). Labrusca-vinifera hybrids are becoming popular to grow in the Finger Lakes for wine.
Although my consumption of concord grape wine is limited to Passover Seders, I enjoy eating this variety of grapes. They’re more flavorful than the ubiquitous Thompson seedless (aka Thompson tasteless) variety. The seeds are a hindrance to some, but not to me. The skins also slip off easily if you’re averse to a purple tongue after consuming them. A small price to pay for grape-y goodness.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/10/27/the-not-so-humble-concord-grape/
Oct 19
Light in the Dark Season
Seattle is in the midst of what the weather geeks call the Dark Season. Rain is forecast for the foreseeable future. My pepper and petunia plants are waterlogged and should be disposed of if it ever stops raining long enough for me to do so without soaking the floors. Still there is light. The leaves are in full color right about now. The trees across the river from us are bright yellow. Other trees and shrubs around town are red, crimson, and orange. A little light until winter descends.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/10/19/light-in-the-dark-season/
Oct 13
Poor Man’s Pizza
I had a chunk of leftover “French bread”, along with some mozzarella cheese and jarred spaghetti sauce. What to do for lunch? Make a poor man’s pizza.
For those of you not of the Cornell persuasion, the poor man’s pizza (or PMP) is the direct antecedent of Stouffer’s French bread pizza. It’s a chunk of French bread split down the middle, smeared with tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, then baked. The sandwich is served closed, unlike the commercial version. You can gild the lily with mushrooms or meat. The addition of mushrooms, pepperoni, and sausage is a Sui (short for Suicide). The PMP was served from the Hot Truck, which used to be parked near the West Campus dormitories after about 10:30 pm during the school year. The Hot Truck used to make appearances on the Arts Quad on Reunion weekends, so nostalgic alums could relive their gustatory glory days after visiting the beer tents.
Alas, like many traditions, The Hot Truck is no more. A sandwich shop downtown bought the Hot Truck when the owner retired. It disappeared from its usual spot last fall. Future Cornellians will never have the experience of freezing their butts off at midnight waiting to pick up their PMP – and hoping that the sandwich doesn’t get cold before they return to their room.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/10/13/poor-mans-pizza/
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