Our red wine collection was outgrowing the kitchen cupboard it shared with our liquor collection. We looked online for free-standing cabinetry to hold the wine. What we saw was either too cheesy or too expensive. So Julian got two black boxes online and constructed the dividers at our friend Bruce’s workshop. He set them up in the geek cave on the lower floor, where it’s cool. The depth of the boxes protects the wine from light. Bruce does good work.
Aug 29
Our Wine Cellar
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/29/our-wine-cellar/
Aug 26
Luau
One of my coworkers was going to fly to Maui the other day. Hurricane Lane messed with those plans, so she and her family had to settle for Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Friday Night Follies crew put on a luau. Cool weather prevented us from swimming. In fact, most of us wore fleece to stay warm on the patio. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.
The mains consisted of huli huli chicken and kebabs (beef or all vegetable). I made some Hawaiian coleslaw. Julian found the recipe online. I used a sack of coleslaw mix rather than getting separate heads of red and green cabbage. The dressing was a sesame-ginger vinaigrette. A ginger grater makes short work of reducing the ginger to a pulp. It works much better than the Multiplane, as the fibers don’t get stuck in holes. Mercifully, nobody made spam musubi. Drinks included a pitcher of potent mai tais. As usual, nobody left hungry.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/26/luau/
Aug 21
Haiku for Summer in Seattle
A smoky Tuesday.
Everybody’s wearing
Matching shades of gray.
This was inspired by my commute to work this morning. I looked around at my fellow bus riders and many of them were wearing gray. Maybe we’re trying to camouflage ourselves.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/21/haiku-for-summer-in-seattle/
Aug 19
Up in Smoke
This post is not about Seattle’s annual Hempfest, although it did occur this weekend. The wildfires in the western US and Canada have resulted in high levels of smoke. My hair stylist said that she and her husband encountered smoky conditions throughout their road trip to California. The air quality in Seattle last Wednesday was worse than in either Beijing or New Delhi. On that day I could barely see West Seattle from my office. Mount Rainier has been shrouded in smoke for nearly a week. There is no rain in the forecast until maybe next Sunday. Welcome to life with global warming.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/19/up-in-smoke/
Aug 18
Proximity Pays?
Over the years I’ve noticed a curious phenomenon in retail businesses. Often competing businesses are located close to one another. A few examples:
- When I was in grad school, Wegmans opened a supermarket next door to Tops Friendly Market in Ithaca.
- Cell phone service providers can be in nearby buildings or mall kiosks.
- Car dealerships are routinely clustered together. This is probably the oldest example in the list. As consolidation occurs, the effect is even more obvious. Many of the dealerships on a particular stretch may have the same ownership.
- In the new Totem Lake Shopping Center in Kirkland, Whole Foods opened literally next door to Trader Joe’s.
In some cities, this proximity also extends to health care. Three of the largest hospitals in Seattle (Harborview, Swedish, and Virginia Mason) are on First Hill, also known as Pill Hill. There were a couple of other hospitals in the neighborhood, but they were bought out or closed. One has been converted to a same-day surgery center.
The question arises: Who benefits from this? In cell phones and groceries, the consumer is probably the larger beneficiary. If you don’t like the deal one carrier has, you can walk down the street to the next one. If you can’t find arugula in Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods may have it. In the case of cars, the benefit is definitely in the dealer’s corner. (One could say that it’s always in the dealer’s corner.)
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/18/proximity-pays/
Aug 12
The PSSST Game
I’ve played a game with my cats over the years that I call The PSSST game. The rules are simple:
- Hide around a corner from the cat.
- Peek around and say, “PSSST!”
- If the cat doesn’t come the first time, repeat.
- Often if the cat doesn’t come after two or three times, peek around the corner and give a Bronx Cheer. Usually that brings the cat running to you.
I’ve noticed that my male cats are more likely to play The PSST Game than the females. Roscoe would come after three iterations. Jasper would come after one or two. Luka is in between his predecessors. While Chubbette would play, Phoebe would have no part of it. Neli follows the lead of the other females. Maybe the females understand object permanence better than the males.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/12/the-pssst-game/
Aug 12
Baking Between the Lines
I decided to make the One True Cobbler® for this year’s Spiediefest. Since several of our friends have wheat or gluten allergies, I decided to try a gluten-free (GF) version. This experiment was potentially fraught with peril, but I forged ahead anyway.
The most important thing in baking side-by-side versions of goodies like cobblers or cakes is segregation. I measured all of the GF ingredients for each cobbler into separate bowls, then cut up the peaches and mixed them with brown sugar and lemon juice. While the butter was melting in the individual pans, I stirred together the batters with separate whisks. I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour mix for the GF batter. When the butter was melted, I poured the batters into their separate pans and topped the batter with the peach mixture. I started off with the GF pan to prevent cross-contamination from glutenous batter splatters. I used a Pyrex pan for the GF cobbler. I figured the dishwasher would have rid it of specks of gluten from previous baking adventures better than the metal pans that we’d hand-washed.
As I was mixing things together, I noticed on the GF flour bag that, for best results, one should add xanthan gum to batters and doughs. I wasn’t about to run out and buy a separate package of xanthan gum. That stuff is quite pricey for a single use. (I’m not into molecular gastronomy. I like my cuisine to look like the food of its origin.) Besides, the 1:1 ratio of flour to milk in the batter wasn’t going to be much affected by the lack of xanthan gum.
One of my GF friends was intrigued that I’d used the flour mix I had, since she’d had trouble baking with flours high in chickpea before. I was more concerned that the legume flours would add an off-taste to the cobbler. Fortunately, she and the other GF revelers enjoyed the final result. I tried a little myself and was relieved at the texture and taste. It’s amazing what peaches and sugar will do.
Two cobblers. The GF iteration is on the left.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/12/baking-between-the-lines/
Aug 11
Going Full Upstate
Tonight is the annual Spiediefest. Check out last year’s post, Spiedie 101, as well. This year I’m going full Upstate by making salt potatoes alongside the spiedies.
Some history first. Syracuse, New York is known as the Salt City because of the salt mines in the area. Salt is more than a seasoning in Upstate New York, it’s essential to keep roads clear during the ugly winters. It’s also essential to the livelihoods of car washes, body shops, and rustproofing businesses, as road salt eats away at cars. Six winters in Ithaca did a number on my 1982 Nissan Sentra, despite getting it rustproofed my first year in town. Someone had the bright idea of cooking unpeeled new potatoes in brine and serving them with butter (from Upstate New York dairies, of course). The salt stays on the surface of the spuds, so the result is not intolerably salty. Salt potatoes are commonly served at picnics, family reunions, clambakes, and the New York State Fair. Salt potato kits (potatoes with the right amount of salt enclosed in a plastic bag) are sold in most Upstate groceries.
When I told Julian I was going to make salt potatoes this year, he asked if he should pick up some Genesee Cream Ale to really go Full Upstate. I vetoed that idea. Too much bad brew at frat parties back in the day…
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/11/going-full-upstate/
Aug 02
Tuning Out
Sometimes listening to the news on my commute gets very tedious, especially in these times. Fortunately, I have a trial subscription to Sirius XM in Gretta the Jetta. (The name was Julian’s idea, and the Friday night crew agreed.) My preferred channels are the 60’s and The Beatles. I can sing along to my heart’s content and don’t care about the traffic or what’s going on in the other Washington.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/08/02/tuning-out/
Jul 30
Crawdads!
Or crawfish, crayfish, or mudbugs. Call them what you will, these little freshwater crustaceans are mighty tasty. They’re not easy to find hereabouts, but we buy them when we find them.
Crawfish can be found alive on occasion in well-stocked fish stores. We’ve purchased them at Uwajimaya and Mutual Fish. They’re available during the summer. Most of the year we buy them in a frozen brick of shelled meat. Make sure you buy domestic crawfish meat. Once we bought a package from China. It was so vile-smelling that we had to throw the whole recipe out and ate dinner at our go-to Salvadoran restaurant.
A highlight of buying live crawfish is to watch the cats’ reactions. Luka wasn’t sure what to think, but he was interested. Last night we tried to introduce Neli to our future dinner. She couldn’t get out of my arms fast enough when she saw the mass of twitching claws and antennae.
A crawfish tries to make a run for it. Luka’s on the case.
So what to do with crawfish? You can do a traditional Cajun boil. Think of a shrimp or crab boil, with seasonings, potatoes, corn on the cob, and other vegetables in the pot. Because there’s so little meat on crawfish, you’ll need to buy at least 2 pounds of live critters per person. For a tutorial on how to eat whole crawfish, here’s one. We usually make crawfish étouffée, substituting cooked tail meat for shrimp.
Beer is the preferred beverage to accompany crawfish at all steps of the process. A lighter-flavored beer is preferred, although you could try the Dixie Blackened Voodoo ale – if you can find it in your area. So pop open a bottle, twist off some heads, et laissez les bons temps rouler!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/07/30/crawdads/
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