Aug 09

Today’s Harvest

Padron peppers off just one plant.

Padron peppers off just one plant.

My padron pepper plant is working overtime. This is what I picked off it today. These are destined to be pan-roasted as a tapa tonight.

Padron peppers are a Spanish variety. They are sweet, although random ones will pack a little heat. I bought the plant at the Spanish Table at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. We shop there often for wine, paella rice, and the occasional cookbook. For those of you who don’t garden, the store usually carries these peppers during the summer and early fall.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/09/todays-harvest/

Aug 08

It’s a Miracle!

I’m not sure what I did right, but this is the formerly green tomato from last week:

In the homestretch...

In the homestretch…

I’ve already harvested about 10 cherry tomatoes off the other plant. Moving the plants may have helped. It also cooled down a little from last weekend. (According to the Burpee website, tomatoes don’t like really hot temperatures.)

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/08/its-a-miracle/

Aug 06

The Votes Are In…

And there was a whole lot of crack-smoking by those ten candidates in Cleveland, based on their answers. My second hypothesis was correct: The average score for each candidate was closer to 4 on my scale. Nobody had a 1 in his column, and only two candidates uttered anything that merited a 2. Only one candidate escaped without a 5 in his column, whereas another one was all 5’s all the time. Next time I think I’ll play Buzzword Bingo.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/06/the-votes-are-in/

Aug 05

The Debate Dance Card

Friends, the die is cast for tomorrow night. Thanks to being on the West Coast, I’ll be at work when the also-ran forum is broadcast. However, I’ll be home for the main event. Here’s my dance card:debatedancecardOn the X axis I put the 10 candidates in order of their poll numbers. On the Y axis is a 5-point scale, where 1 = talking sense; 3 = dubious; and 5 = Is this guy smoking crack?!? I’ll rate each utterance by an individual candidate on the scale. Recall from a previous post that I’m theorizing that the candidates at each end of the X axis will say more outrageous things than the crew in the middle. Then again, given recent headlines, they all may be up in the smoking crack category.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/05/the-debate-dance-card/

Aug 02

Okra on the Menu

Okra gets a bad rap. It’s usually cooked beyond dead, and the result is a mucilaginous mess. When I lived in Texas and North Carolina, I developed a taste for okra in its many forms: Fried, pickled, in gumbos, and stir-fried. The latter is what I did for dinner tonight, as a Cajun dish called maque choux.

Okra pods are hard to find in the northwest because the growing season is often too short to get fruit to set. Luckily, our friends east of the Cascades have the climate that allows okra to thrive. So I picked up some good-looking pods yesterday at the Yakima Fruit Market, along with the apricots immortalized in the previous post. I had most of the other ingredients on hand for the recipe, including corn, onions, peppers (off my plants), and tomatoes. I started by sizzling the corn kernels in a little butter until they started to get caramelized. I scraped them into a bowl, then started sautéing the onions and peppers. I added in the okra pods, cut into 1-inch lengths, as the onion pieces were beginning to get translucent. I let everything cook for 5-10 minutes until the okra pieces got tender. I added some Cajun seasoning during this time. Finally I added the corn kernels back into the pan along with some red and yellow tomatoes, halved. Once everything was heated through, it was time to eat. I’d also made some country-style ribs on the grill. The maque choux was minimally slimy, and the dish complimented the barbecue sauce on the ribs. We drank unsweetened iced tea with the meal, although beer would also be an acceptable beverage.

Should you want to try this dish, pick okra pods that are bright green and unblemished. Size isn’t critical, since you’re going to cut them up anyway. If you live in the northern US, chances are the vegetable was shipped from far away and may not be particularly fresh. If you’re anti-slime, you should choose small pods and keep them whole; however, you’ll want to trim off the stem end. I used frozen corn because I am dubious of any corn on the cob that I haven’t picked myself. If you’re unencumbered by farm girl genes, go ahead and buy corn on the cob and cut the kernels off before or after grilling. Go ahead and use any tomatoes you have handy, even a small can of whole or diced ones. If you don’t have chile wimps in your household, you can even use a can of Rotel tomatoes with chiles. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/02/okra-on-the-menu/

Aug 01

Yakima Apricots

Not only does the Yakima area grow good peaches, its apricots are awesome. Alas, the season is coming to an end. I bought a bunch of them today at the fruit stand for our regular potluck with friends. I poached them in sweet white wine, and received rave reviews.
This is what I did: Open a bottle of inexpensive (but drinkable) sweet white wine and pour it into a large skillet. I used Moscato, but you could use Riesling or Gewürztraminer. Add 1/2 cup sugar, three long pieces of lemon zest, and a vanilla bean, split open. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile, halve and pit 10 ripe apricots. I didn’t peel them because I wanted the halves to keep their shape. When the poaching mixture comes to a boil, slip in the apricot halves so they fit in one layer. Turn the heat down to simmer. Place a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the apricots, then cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Scoop the apricots out with a slotted spoon, then turn the heat up and boil the poaching liquid until it’s the consistency of a medium to heavy syrup. Let the syrup cool slightly, then pour over the apricots and refrigerate until ready to serve. Put one or two apricot halves in a dessert dish, scoop in ice cream, and top with some fresh raspberries or blackberries. You can drizzle a little syrup over.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/01/yakima-apricots/

Aug 01

The Annual Question

tomato

When will you ripen, little one?

It has been the hottest June and July on record in western Washington, and among the driest. Yet the same annual lament arises from gardeners from Longview to Lynden: “When are my *^#$ing tomatoes going to ripen?!?”
When we lived in Seattle, only a patch of the front yard got much direct sunlight. Most of that was occupied by a huge rosemary bush. I tried growing tomatoes once in the front yard and failed miserably. Our current home has two south-facing decks. The upper one gets scorched by the Sun all day year-round. Finally, I thought, I can have an edible garden!
Two years ago I grew bumper crops of basil and other herbs. Last year I supplemented the herbs with a banana pepper plant that provided plenty of fruit. This year I got Cubanelle and Padron pepper plants. In addition, in the ultimate leap of faith, I got two tomato plants. The peppers are very prolific. So are the tomatoes, but I have yet to see so much as a blush of pink on any of them.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. The plants get watered nearly every day. I doubled down on the watering on the 90°-plus days. Today I rearranged the deck so the tomatoes are on the brightest corner, where the herbs were. If this doesn’t work, I’ll think about making my mother’s green tomato pie with what’s currently on the plants.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/08/01/the-annual-question/

Jul 30

Applying the Ideal Gas-Bag Law

Friends, the first Republican debate/rugby scrum is next week. This is a perfect opportunity to test the Ideal Gas-Bag Law in action. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the equation:
PV = NRT.

P stands for pressure, to increase puny poll numbers or get attention.

V stands for venue.

N stands for number of cameras and microphones at the venue.

R stands for the need to raise money.

T stands for timing.

Since V, N, and T will be the same for the participants in the big debate (and for those attending the also-ran wrestling match), the Ideal Gas-Bag Law can be boiled down to a simple equation, P = R. Is this beautiful or what?
Under normal conditions, the higher P or R is, the more wacky a candidate’s statements become. Every region in the country has its group of perennial also-rans who run just for the sake of airing their issue in the voters’ guide. They have a snowball’s chance in Hades of getting elected, but that’s irrelevant. This year could be different. I’m predicting a J-shaped curve between P and R, and the wildness of the candidates’ statements in the debates. So grab a pen and a piece of graph paper for next week. Rate each candidate on P = R on the horizontal axis, and put the wildness of his/her statements on the vertical axis. This means you’ll have to give up the buzzword bingo drinking game to be sober enough to draw a graph, but the shape of the eventual line should be interesting. Enjoy!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/07/30/applications-of-the-ideal-gas-bag-law/

Jul 29

The Ideal Gas-Bag Law

Some of you may remember the Ideal Gas Law equation from your days in general chemistry. Then again, maybe you slept through that class. I’ll refresh your memory:

PV = NRT.

Research at the Edible Thoughts Laboratory has developed a parallel equation, The Ideal Gas-Bag Law. This explains the state of a gas-bag at any given time. The variables are a little different, but the equation is the same.

P stands for pressure, just as with the original equation. Here pressure can be taken as pressure to increase puny poll numbers or get attention.

V stands for venue. A town hall meeting in Keokuk, Iowa or Cheraw, South Carolina is a nice thing to do, but maximum exposure is critical. A large rally at a big city auditorium is much better.

N stands for number of cameras and microphones at the venue. Remember the old adage about the tree falling in the forest. This falling tree is going viral on YouTube!

R stands for the need to raise money. This can be considered a constant, similar to the original equation.

T stands for timing. The Sunday morning talk shows are perfect timing; failing that, make news by mid-day Monday through Friday so all of the media outlets can lead with it on the evening news. NEVER make news after 7 pm Pacific Time on a Friday night. Folks on the East Coast are sleeping, and those on the West Coast are out on the town and not paying attention.

The beauty of this equation is its scalability from local to national elections. I’ll leave it to you to do the math.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/07/29/the-ideal-gas-bag-law/

Jul 26

The Kirkland Classic Car Show

Today’s trip was to this car show. Julian was a motor head in his youth; my brother was a connoisseur of American muscle cars. Kirkland is the town next door, but has a much different feel than Bothell. I don’t understand how the town can support all of the beauty salons, gyms, and plastic surgeons located therein.
While Julian was waxing nostalgic at the sight of cars similar to the one he learned to drive in and his beloved Corvair (I know that should be an oxymoron, but not for him), I ran across this sight. Friends don’t let friends drive I-405…dont drive 405

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/07/26/the-kirkland-classic-car-show/

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