My maternal grandfather was, by his own admission, an ornery old cuss. He dropped out of school as a teenager, but he had the rural equivalent of street smarts. One of his observations that’s stuck with me for decades is that farmers are the first to get into an economic depression and the last to get out. If Grandpa were here, he’d add trade war to that statement.
Let’s look at the present situation. After the current administration proposed tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, the Chinese retaliated with potential tariffs on US agricultural products such as soybeans. The commodity price of soybeans fell immediately. While this may look like a short term adjustment to people used to stock trades, it will affect farmers for years. Most of them have already bought their seeds and planted, if not prepared the fields for this year’s crop. If the price continues to fall, farmers may lose money big time on their investment come harvest. They can’t easily plow under the crop in July and switch to planting arugula. This can have a ripple effect on other industries. Farmers may not be able to invest in new tractors and other equipment, or complete deferred maintenance on buildings. Banks could see increased loan defaults. The rural economy is already shaky, and could get worse if the trade war is declared.
Agriculture is the ultimate faith-based occupation. Farmers have faith that bad weather won’t ruin their crops and that they’ll get a fair price at harvest. Unfortunately, the actions of this administration are shattering the latter.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/07/first-in-last-out/
The Passover-Easter season is awash in miracles. The burning bush. The parting of the Red Sea. The resurrection of Jesus. I add a small one: I found a vegetable salad that contains neither alliums or nightshades.
I offered to make an asparagus salad for tonight’s Mixed-Marriage Seder. This is one of the highlights of the year, even if it involves gefilte fish. I went through several cookbooks and found Salade Bagatelle in The French Kitchen, by Michel Roux, Jr. The recipe contains asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, and watercress tossed with a simple mustard vinaigrette. I went light on the watercress, as some people might be put off by the very peppery flavor. It was a rousing success. I left home with two bowls of salad and returned with a small amount left over, which will be eaten with tonight’s Easter lamb chops.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/01/a-minor-passover-miracle/
We learned that one of our resident bald eagles had died. I believe it was the one I called Edwina, who nested with her partner, Eddie, in the nest down the street. Her body was found on the street Sunday morning. Our local animal control transported it to a wildlife rehab center for a necropsy to rule out foul play. The initial report found no broken bones or bullets. She probably died of old age. Eventually the body will be donated to a Native American tribe. Eagles have a special place in their spiritual beliefs, and the feathers may be used for ceremonial functions.
When we first came to look at the condo, our then-landlord pointed out the nest to us. Since then we’ve marveled at the sight of the birds hanging out in the trees, fishing on the river, and trying to pick off a gosling. We’ve even watched a couple of eaglets grow up and fledge. Julian’s managed to get several pictures of Eddie and Edwina over the years. Below is my favorite photo of the two of them kibitzing away. Two weeks ago we saw three eagles flying around the nest, presumably in search of a hookup.
We have another nesting pair in the neighborhood, Edgar and Edna. I have yet to locate their nest. It’s possible that another pair will move into Eddie and Edwina’s nest, or maybe Eddie will pick up another mate.
Rest in peace, Edwina. You will be missed.
Eddie and Edwina, having an animated conversation.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/26/a-death-in-the-neighborhood/
Ringo Starr is now a Knight of the British Empire, under his birth name of Richard Starkey. It’s high time. To many people, John was too political. Paul is too sappy. George was too woo woo. Ringo is Ringo, comfortable in his own skin. He enjoys life. He tours with his All Star Band during the summer, even though he doesn’t need to.
Congratulations, Sir Ringo! We love you, yeah yeah yeah.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/20/sir-ringo/
We had a symphony concert on Saturday night. In addition, I was running desperately low on my drug of choice. So we went downtown in late afternoon. It was after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, so traffic was relatively light.
First stop was the Perennial Tea Room at Pike Place Market. As we rounded the corner into Post Alley, we were confronted with a long line of green-clad revelers. The Irish pub next door to the tea shop, Kells, was the attraction. Somehow the thought of waiting on line for hours to hoist a Guinness in a standing room only bar just to say I did so on St. Patrick’s Day was not appealing, especially since I’m not fond of said brew. However, we made it into the tea room and I got my drugs. In deference to the holiday, 3/4 of my purchases were Irish teas.
Next we went down to the Paris-Madrid Grocery. We were in need of some harissa. In addition, I knew they had their cookbooks on sale for 45% off. I wound up purchasing a reprint of the cuisine of La Mère Brazier. Madame Brazier was one of the most famous chefs in Lyon. She trained numerous successors, including Paul Bocuse. Some of the recipes in the book are quite accessible method-wise, if not economy-wise. Julian found a recipe for volaille en demi-deuil (chicken in half mourning). First you need a Bresse chicken, one with blue feet. Then you put slices of black truffle under the skin prior to roasting. Since we saw some black truffles in Paris going for nearly 3000 Euros a kilogram back in December, you might not have enough funds for your mourning relatives to bury you after paying for the ingredients.
The concert featured “Carmina Burana”, complete with the Seattle Symphony Chorus and the Northwest Boys’ Choir. After reading the translation of the lyrics, I wondered if the kids actually knew what they were singing. Since we resubscribed for next season, the Symphony had a treat for us – little boxes of Fran’s salt caramels. Not a bad ending to the day.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/19/st-patricks-day-at-the-pike/
Over the years we’ve done a lot of entertaining. Each event can teach valuable lessons, some of which we actually apply to future dinners. Here are three lessons we learned after last week’s French dinner.
- Don’t overextend yourself, especially when you’re hosting a crowd. Several of our dishes required last-minute preparation, which cut down the time we had to enjoy the company of our guests.
- Sometimes there’s just not a vegetarian equivalent to a carnivorous dish. Julian made pot au feu. This stew was made with numerous bony cuts of beef, and was a serious umami fest. He found an alternate recipe for our vegetarian friends that contained tempeh. The broth and vegetables were good, but the tempeh didn’t add anything to the flavor of the stew.
- Don’t overcook when others are bringing things to eat. We had scads of leftover bread, beef, and broth after the soirée. I’ve run out of storage containers because I put so much leftover broth in the freezer. I’ll have to repurpose it for other soups. I see pho in the near future.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/17/lessons-learned-in-entertaining/
I HATE car-shopping. This is one reason why I tend to keep cars for years after finishing off the loan. Having a root canal without novocain would be less painful than going from dealership to dealership looking for a new ride. While the sexist good ol’ boys wearing brown plaid suits and bad toupées have mostly retired, the younger generation of car salespeople have new ways of driving me crazy. Two examples are below. I won’t divulge the dealerships or the particular salesmen (they were both male).
The constant calling and emailing. There’s a reason these guys want your cell phone number and email address when you test drive a car: Some of them will badger you incessantly in an attempt to wear down your resistance. In my case, this tactic has the opposite effect: I want nothing to do with the dealership, even if the car would meet my needs. I test drove one model last week, and got two phone calls and two email messages from the salesman. One call came while I was at church today. Luckily, I left my phone at home; however, I’m sure Julian was awakened by the call.
“Let me speak with my manager”. This either indicates that the salesman doesn’t have a solid knowledge of the cars and options he’s selling, or he’s using a delaying tactic to keep you in your seat at his cubicle as long as possible. One salesman today had at least three conversations with his manager in response to our questions.
I’ve only owned four cars in my life, so each car-shopping experience is an adventure in avoiding new hard sell strategies. With luck, I can keep car #5 until I have better transit options.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/11/in-search-of-vehicle/
One of the challenges of setting up a kitchen is knowing what supplies you need. Start by asking yourself a few questions:
- Am I really going to cook, or just bring home food to eat? If you’re going to use your kitchen to microwave takeout food or brew coffee in the morning, you’re not going to need much.
- If I’m going to do any cooking, what am I going to make? Simple stuff or complex? Will it be ethnic food (which type and how adventurous) or standard American chow?
- Will I be doing any baking from scratch, and if so, what? This will influence the types of sugar, flour, and leavening you’ll need.
Now that you’ve answered these questions, you can begin to write a shopping list for staples. You don’t need to get everything at once, but you want to have enough on hand so you can cobble together a quick dinner. Much of what you’ll purchase will depend on any dietary preference or restrictions you may have. Here are a few basics:
- Starches: Rice (long grain white or brown), pasta (spaghetti and another shape)
- Flour, sugar, salt (Kosher), cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder
- Broth (chicken or vegetable)
- Canned and/or dried beans
- Seasonings: Black pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano, basil, cinnamon
- Cooking oil (neutral flavored and light olive oil)
- Extra-virgin olive oil for salads
- Tomato products (sauce, whole or diced, paste)
- Condiments – mustard (Dijon or yellow), ketchup, pickles or olives, soy sauce, peanut butter
These days a freezer can be considered a pantry. Have a few bags of frozen vegetables on hand. In addition, buy a few quick items for nights when you’re too tired to cook but too poor to eat out. Potstickers are a popular no-brainer meal here.
Finally, only buy what you’ll use in 2-3 months. While buying 10 pounds of chicken wings at Costco seems like a good idea, consider how many people you feed at a given time. This rule of thumb goes double for spices and condiments. And date what you buy.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/05/provisioning-a-pantry/
In the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, the idea of arming a small proportion of teachers has been floated by the President and others in the thrall of the gun lobby. This is wrong on multiple levels. For example:
Kids are not stupid, part one. It wouldn’t take much effort to figure out which teacher is packing heat. If a student wants to create mayhem, he (and 99% of mass shootings are committed by males) can do so in another classroom.
Kids are not stupid, part two. A firearm can easily be appropriated from a purse or drawer when the teacher is not paying attention. Or a student could overcome a teacher with a “concealed” firearm when the teacher is washing hands or using a urinal.
Gun carriers can be careless. Less than a week after the Parkland shooting, a police officer visited a kindergarten class. A child came up behind the officer and managed to discharge the firearm while it was in the holster. Luckily, nobody was injured. Why the officer didn’t make sure that the firearm was unloaded before he went into that classroom is beyond me.
Arms asymmetry. Someone with a handgun doesn’t have much of a chance against another person with an assault weapon, regardless of how good a shot s/he is on the firing range.
Liability issues. If a firearm discharges by mistake and kills an innocent bystander, who pays? The teacher? The school district? The state? The NRA?
While the “good person with a gun can stop a bad person with a gun” concept may sound good as a television plot, it fails miserably in real life, especially when our children’s lives are at stake. Arming teachers is the wrong way to protect students.
Addendum: An editorial in, of all places, The Weekly Standard agrees with what I wrote above. This may be the only time such an alignment occurs.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/02/25/an-idea-that-deserves-to-die/
Sometimes recipes have a finite life span. Food that was popular back in your mother’s or grandmother’s youth are no longer in vogue. Some of it may be due to fashion or access to ingredients. Rationing during World War II required some ingenuity that wasn’t needed afterward. Then there are recipes that just fell out of fashion.
Chicken marengo seems to be one of these recipes. We had this from time to time at the sorority when I was an undergrad. Julian thought it might be a good option for the upcoming French dinner. I knew there was a recipe in my 1970’s era Joy of Cooking. When I looked at other cookbooks of the era, I came up dry. Julia Child? Non. Craig Claiborne? Rien. Jacques Pépin? Non encore. I found a recipe in Michel Roux Jr.’s book, but it required crayfish and soft boiled eggs. So I tried the Joy version. Suffice it to say that we were disappointed. Maybe chicken marengo deserved to stay lost.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/02/25/lost-recipes/
Load more
Recent Comments