Jan 29

There Oughta Be a Law

There are several food faux pas that I don’t get riled about. Want to drink red wine with fish? Okay by me. Want to pre-boil your ribs before grilling them? It’s your life. However, there is one thing that should never be done: putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich.

I’ve made my opinion on mayonnaise known in this blog post. The only appropriate spread for a pastrami sandwich is mustard. Pastrami is well-marbled to begin with. Adding mayonnaise to a pastrami sandwich just adds more greasiness. The acidity of mustard cuts through the richness of the meat.

We thought about going to a relatively new deli in Seattle yesterday. While we were driving there, I looked at the menu on my phone. One of the sandwich items had pastrami with mayonnaise. The horror… We opted not to go there because it didn’t have indoor seating. We went to a Colombian restaurant two doors down instead.

I’m not alone in this aversion to mayo on deli sandwiches. The Metropolitan Diary feature in the New York Times had a scene in a Manhattan deli. A tourist came in and ordered a pastrami on rye with mayo. The man behind the counter had to put the mayonnaise in a cup on the side. He couldn’t bear to put it on the bread himself.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/01/29/there-oughta-be-a-law/

Jan 07

Twenty Years in the Northwest

On January 7, 2003, Julian, our two cats, and I caught a flight from Greensboro to Seattle so Julian could start his job at the University of Washington. I don’t remember much about the flight, but I sure remember going through security with Jasper glommed onto me. I still have the divots from his claws in my shoulder. We were met at Sea-Tac by my former roommate Jennifer, who took us to the moving company parking lot to pick up my car. We’d had it shipped west in advance so we didn’t have to rent a car. Jennifer and Zach graciously hosted us until we moved into our rental house. Even more important, they took care of the cats while we flew back to North Carolina to finish packing.

Move-in day was, shall we say, interesting. There was no room in the van for the futon or box spring, so the movers shrink-wrapped them in plastic and tied them to the back of the van. In January, when most of the country has some form of precipitation. As you can imagine, they were both a sodden mess when the van arrived. Julian’s espresso machine was somehow trashed in the van. The worst was Julian’s car. In the rush to secure it in the van, the movers managed to puncture the aluminum oil pan. We weren’t aware of it until we drove across town for lunch and noticed a puddle of oil underneath the car after we ate. Needless to say, there was a hefty damage claim with the movers that was settled without going to court.

The last 20 years have been full of ups and downs. We found ourselves in a neighborhood of great people close to the University and the largest Unitarian Universalist congregation in town. Having an instant network was a great perk, which gave lie to the “Seattle freeze” stereotype of standoffishness. I managed to cobble together freelance writing assignments and part-time teaching at community colleges before I started working at Swedish Medical Center. We moved Julian’s mother to Seattle when it became obvious that she was no longer able to live independently. My mother was able to visit us twice and my sister once, along with several friends from our past lives.

Is the Northwest perfect? No place is. There are days when I regret the nasty traffic, high cost of living, and the bland sameness that’s afflicting the city and suburbs. However, the sight of Mount Rainier on a sunny day never gets old. Nor does watching the traffic on the Sammamish River behind our condo. I think we’re here for the long haul.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2023/01/07/twenty-years-in-the-northwest/

Dec 26

Santa Claus-trophobia

The snow and ice of the last week meant that we didn’t feel safe driving. I can drive in the winter provided that the yahoos in SUVs stay home; unfortunately, anyone who drives one of these thinks they’re invincible – and winds up in the ditch. We ventured to the grocery store Christmas Eve morning once the roads got clean to get ingredients for the White Elephant dinner. We also had a non-frozen duck on reserve for our traditional Christmas duck à l’orange.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have claustrophobia that’s been exacerbated by the pandemic. I knew this was going to be the perfect storm, and I was right. The parking lot in front of the store was jammed. We wound up parking two blocks away. Luckily, most of the snow, ice, and slush had disappeared by that morning.

I told Julian that we would not be dilly-dallying – just get what’s on the list and vamoose. Vamoosing was easier said than done. The line for the self-checkout stands extended to the main entrance. Fortunately, folks were mostly in a good mood and rolled with the crowds. It took us a half hour to reach a human-staffed register. I got on line with the cart while Julian picked up a few things we’d forgotten along the way. Once we finally checked out, Julian stayed with the cart while I brought the car over to the pick up point. My blood pressure returned to its normal range once we got to the Bothell city limits.

We managed to forget a few things on Saturday’s jaunt (plus we needed to get gas for my car and supplies for the bums), so we ventured out to Woodinville this afternoon. Fewer crowds and shorter lines. Traffic was a little heavy, but I found a sneaky route into the shopping center. We stayed away from the post-Christmas sales. I think I’ve done enough shopping for a few days.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/12/26/santa-claus-trophobia/

Dec 25

Ice and Eggnog

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had an ice storm here Thursday night. King County Metro canceled all of its bus routes until about 3 pm Friday, when they went to the snow routes. Our driveway was a sheet of ice until Saturday morning

Since we were scheduled to go to the annual Christmas Eve Latkepalooza/White Elephant exchange Saturday night, we needed to make our contributions to the festivities. One of our contributions was the Infamous Eggnog Bread. This batch included dried cranberries, raisins, and dried apricots. I didn’t include nuts because there’d be a few new bellies around the table and I didn’t know their dietary aversions/allergies. I tried a different brand of eggnog for the recipe because that was what was available in quarts. This meant a taste test – pretty good, but a little heavy on the nutmeg.

Making the other contributions had to wait until we could get to the grocery store. More about that shortly. I made applesauce to go with the latkes, while Julian made crème brûlée. (Note: Our hosts have a corgi pup named Latke. He was NOT be on the menu).

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/12/25/ice-and-eggnog/

Dec 23

Snow Dazed

Snow days aren’t what they used to be. The three of us would wait breathlessly to hear, “Hannibal Central School is closed”, from the TV or radio. It always seemed as if Hannibal was the last school in the county to close. We believed that if the district superintendent couldn’t see the barn across the street from his house, school would close. I don’t know why some enterprising student didn’t test this hypothesis by covering his front windows with spray-can snow.

As an adult, I also looked forward to snow days. When I lived in Dallas, I heard on TV that the Medical Center where I worked and took classes was closed. HOT DOG! I shoveled my driveway and sidewalk, then shoveled my elderly neighbors’ drive and walk as well. Ruby and Virgil thought I was stark raving mad, but they appreciated it. Little did I know that UT-Southwestern issued a retraction of the closure while I was shoveling. To quote a former governor of Texas, “Oops.” Later on, I used snow days as an excuse to play in the kitchen (see this post).

Now that I’m working from home, a snow day is just another day. I log onto my work computer and slave away. Earlier in the week, I amused myself for an hour shoveling my driveway. I logged it on the Apple Watch as “functional strength training.” The result was a dry and clear driveway so I could drag the trash cans back into the garage without risking a broken leg. Unfortunately, we got an ice storm overnight. Today our driveway could be used as a luge track. The weather’s supposed to warm up this afternoon so we might be able to get out and fetch groceries, including our traditional Christmas duck.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/12/23/snow-dazed/

Nov 29

Pho Gobble

One of the biggest quandaries of Thanksgiving is what to do with the turkey carcass. You could keep picking away at the scraps of meat until the bones are clean. My preferred way of dealing with the carcass is to make turkey carcass soup. In past years, the soup has been standard turkey noodle; however, this year I made pho. Chicken pho is pho ga, so turkey pho should logically be named pho gobble.

Here’s the recipe of sorts: Start by putting the turkey carcass, preferably with some meat still on the bones, into a large pot. You may have to do some butchering to get the carcass to fit. Add water just to cover the carcass, then set it on the stove over medium heat to boil. While the water’s heating, peel two medium yellow onions and halve about a 2-inch piece of ginger lengthwise. Place the onions and ginger on a foil-lined pan and broil until the edges get charred, then add them to the pot. You can also add a stick of lemongrass. Add fish sauce or soy sauce to taste. Once the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 90 minutes. The meat attached to the bones should come off easily. Remove the carcass, onions, and ginger from the pot and pick off any more meat, discarding the skin and fat. Keep simmering the broth while you prepare the rest of the soup fixings.

Unlike most chicken or turkey noodle soups, the noodles are cooked separately. Use rice vermicelli. These noodles cook in about 5 minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse several times before adding to the soup. Rice noodles give off a lot of starch and can stick together in a gluey mass unless you rinse them. Prepare a plate with assorted herbs and lime wedges to garnish the soup. Cilantro and basil are good choices. You can also add mint. If you live near a Vietnamese grocery, try rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) or red shiso. You can also add bean sprouts, but I don’t use enough of them after the soup’s finished. Shredded cabbage in small amounts can also be added. In our house, sriracha is a must.

The final product came out very well. We ran an aliquot of it down to our friends who were in town from Michigan who had brought a nasty case of the flu to Seattle. They were most appreciative.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/11/29/pho-gobble/

Oct 29

Eating East Coast

Although we live in Washington, I still have a hankering for the foods of my youth. This mostly applies to produce. I’m a farm girl. I have family and friends in the orchard business. I prefer east coast apple varieties to those routinely grown here.

I pulled into Yakima Fruit Market earlier in the month to pick up some lettuce for a Thai beef salad. When I looked at the apple varieties, I saw a huge mound of Rome Beauties. Be still, my fibrillating heart! These are my preferred apples for applesauce. They’re not as sweet as the currently popular Honeycrisps and Cosmic Crisps. They also taste more apple-y.

I used my time-honored recipe from this post. The red pigment from the peels turned the resulting applesauce a deep pink. It was also thick and chunky, just the way I like it. I think I’ll get some more Rome Beauties before the fruit market closes for the season.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/10/29/eating-east-coast/

Sep 10

Who Minds the Mint?

I don’t have much luck growing mint. I can grow buckets of basil and Vietnamese coriander. I had a lemongrass plant in my former office. However, successful mint cultivation escapes me. It never winters over well. I have to buy new plants every year. It gets leggy and doesn’t taste as strong as the supermarket herbs.

Many years ago, friends planted some mint in the postage-stamp-sized plot of soil that Julian had on his apartment’s patio. The stuff came back and crowded out everything else year after year. For all we know, there’s still some mint outside that apartment 30 years after he moved out. Mint is about the only plant Julian had success growing, which doubles my misery.

I threw out this year’s mint plants today. The aphids had feasted on the plants for weeks. Maybe this was a good thing. By devouring the mint, the aphids ignored the basil and other plants on the upper deck.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/09/10/who-minds-the-mint/

Sep 10

Red-Eye Ribs

Julian cooks ribs on the grill for most holidays in the summer. Usually he smokes them and makes his North Carolina-style sauce to slather them at the end of cooking. (Note: His sauce is in the tomato-based Lexington style. East of Raleigh, the sauce is vinegar and cayenne pepper. I won’t discuss the mustard-based abomination folks in South Carolina torture their pork with.) He decided to try a different sauce for Labor Day: Red-eye barbecue sauce. The link in the previous sentence is very close to what he made.

An explainer: Traditional red-eye gravy consists of two ingredients, drippings from a slice of fried country ham and strong black coffee. According to Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking, the red eye is derived from a circle of reddish fat that forms on the surface of the gravy. My belief is that the originator was too hung over to know what they were doing when they poured coffee into the skillet. The barbecue sauce Julian made had coffee in it, along with more traditional tomato-based sauce ingredients. I’m not sure that Lexington Barbecue #1 or Stamey’s uses shallots in their sauce recipes, though.

The ribs came out fine. The sauce wasn’t particularly sweet and had the telltale bitterness from the coffee. The bitterness was less pronounced when we had leftovers the next day for lunch. Perhaps the sauce needed time to let the flavors meld better. Julian usually doesn’t like coffee in other dishes, and I rarely touch the stuff. We’re not sure we’ll make it again.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/09/10/red-eye-ribs/

Sep 06

Kitten-Proofing a Home

Acclimating Dudley to our home has been challenging. We haven’t had a kitten in over 11 years, so we’re a bit rusty in kitten-proofing. In addition, our previous two homes were ranches. We didn’t have to worry about what might be going on upstairs or downstairs. Each feline has its own personality quirks to consider as well. A few examples of lessons learned the hard way:

Dudley loves to explore the kitchen counters. He’s taken off with some pea pods and shishito peppers I had on the counters. Last night I came upstairs to find that he’d walked across the touch pad to the induction range and turned on a burner with a dirty pan on top. Luckily, I was able to clean out the burnt on food. Henceforth, we will lock the range controls and remove pans from the burners.

He is also obsessed with wires. I haven’t had a cat so interested in cords since Roscoe 40 years ago. Back then it was just electric cords, not the plethora of chargers and computer hardware we have in the office.

The relationship with Neli is still a work in progress. They have been within six inches of each other without a a fight breaking out – for about 30 seconds. Then Neli starts hissing and the chase is on. We’re hoping that once he has his little operation, things will calm down.

Despite all the chaos, Dudley can be a very sweet little boy. He’ll sit with us for more than 15 minutes while we’re watching television. He also tolerates his pedicures because he knows he’ll get a treat at the end. He has potential to be a great lap cat.

A rare moment of repose for Dudley.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/09/06/kitten-proofing-a-home/

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