Jan 13

Taste Thresholds

Aging is supposed to increase the taste threshold for sweet and salt. In other words, it takes more sugar or salt to satisfy you. In my case, it’s the opposite: My threshold for sweet has decreased with time. Stuff that I’d gladly eat when I was younger is way too sweet for me now.

I can attribute this in part to no longer drinking soda. I stopped drinking cola in high school, and other sodas in my 20’s. It didn’t matter whether it was sugared or diet, I discontinued drinking them. I figured I had better use for those calories, i.e., chocolate. I remember stopping at a fast food joint with my sister on a visit to New York years ago. The restaurant didn’t have any diet non-cola soda or unsweetened iced tea, so I had to order a diet cola. I damn near gagged, it was too sweet.

Last week our friend Bruce visited from Michigan. I had some fresh pineapple left over in the fridge, so Julian “encouraged” (translated: nagged) me to make pineapple upside-down cake. The amount of brown sugar the recipe called for seemed excessive to me. My suspicions were confirmed after the cake was finished. No matter, our guests enjoyed it. If I made that recipe again, I’d definitely cut back the brown sugar by at least a third.

It should surprise no one that Julian and I have divergent views on what’s too sweet. He loves pecan pie, but most of the recipes are cloying to me. He will drink sweet tea from time to time, whereas I cannot abide it. Yet he thinks baklava is too sweet. Go figure.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/01/13/taste-thresholds/

Jan 01

Snow Day Lentil Soup

We’ve had some snow and sub-freezing temperatures in the last week. In weather like this, the last thing I want for dinner is salad. Soup is required.

I cook more dried lentils than other legumes. They cook much faster, especially if you presoak them. In addition, lentils are grown in the Palouse region of Washington state. Our local Town and Country Markets carry a variety of Washington-grown lentils. They’re also a fixture in a variety of cuisines. I decided to go Basque with the soup, riffing off a recipe I saw in a cookbook. Here’s what I did:

I chopped up about a cup of onions, 2/3 of a large carrot, and two celery stalks. I sautéed them along with two small cut-up Spanish chorizo sausages. Once the onions were translucent, I added 1/2 pound of lentils that I’d soaked in the refrigerator for about 10 hours, about 6 cups of chicken broth, a teaspoon of dried thyme, and a bay leaf. I also stirred in about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste that I had in the freezer. After about a half hour, I stirred in some jarred chopped roasted piquillo peppers and a brown rice/wild rice/ barley mixture that needed to be used. I let the soup simmer about 15 more minutes. Just before serving, I added some chopped up kale to the pot. Not only did the soup warm me up for that dinner, but for lunches the following two days.

I’ll confess that the soup was predominantly a clean-out-the-fridge-and-pantry affair. You could substitute any cured sausage, such as kielbasa, for the chorizo. Or go vegetarian and leave out the chicken broth and sausage. Regardless, you have a substantial soup to ward off the chill.


Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/01/01/snow-day-lentil-soup/

Dec 29

Blue-ish Christmas

If anything, my mood this year about the holiday was even worse than it was last year. The continued claustrophobia of working from home and the pandemic wore on my psyche big time. Add to that the losses of my mom in January and Luka earlier in the week and you have a recipe for depression.

Three events came to my rescue, along with love and support from Julian.

  • First, the weekly Zoom happy hour less than two hours after Luka’s death. I didn’t know whether I’d be able to attend, given veterinarian schedules. Fortunately, we got back in time for me to crack open an IPA and join.
  • Second, the almost-annual Early Morning Lap Swim Breakfast at Burgermaster. This year’s event came the day after Luka’s death. It was a smaller group than usual, but we were still had lively conversations. Our lifeguards were also able to join us.
  • Third, the annual White Elephant party. We all needed negative Covid tests to attend. (Julian had bought two home test kits before our aborted Europe trip, which were still good to use.) Fourteen of us feasted on brisket and other goodies. Our contributions were potato latkes made with gluten-free flour and applesauce. I used a recipe out of the latest edition of Joy of Cooking for the former. Lizard on a Stick did not make an appearance. My gift was a Goat Yoga game (see below), complete with inflatable goat. Julian got socks, Mexican chocolate, and candies.
What, no real goat? Neli needs a companion.

As a result, I’m feeling better. Here’s hoping the world can get the pandemic under control so we can resume having normal holiday get-togethers.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/12/29/blue-ish-christmas/

Dec 20

Elegy for Luka

Luka, our elder states cat, died today at the age of 14 1/2. He probably had cancer. The vet who euthanized him also euthanized his predecessor, Jasper, years ago. Julian and I were able to be with him when he died.

Luka came to us from a breeder in Ohio in August 2007. I picked him up from the airport by myself, as Julian wasn’t feeling well that night. Not much noise came from the carrier on the way home; however, Luka tore out of the carrier eager to explore. His wanderlust led him to escape outdoors a few times. He was out for 24 hours once when we took friends to Mount Rainier. Luckily, he didn’t become coyote chow.

Luka never read the paragraph in the Russian Blue Code of Conduct that he should be shy and aloof. He was often center stage at our Friday Night Follies gatherings, showing off his tricks and snuggling with our guests. Our friend Bruce was a particular favorite. The one houseguest he didn’t like was the Welsh corgi who came to visit last summer and chased him upstairs.

Luka and Neli, getting their fix.

Luka was bonded tightly to Phoebe, our first Russian Blue. After she died, we acquired Neli. She’s Luka’s half sister (same father). While not tightly bonded, the two would chase each other up and down the stairs and fight over the catnip bag. There was one time when I had them both on my lap while I was working on the computer.

My legs are under them somewhere…

Luka took COVID-19 seriously. He loved that I worked from home rather than commuting to work. Here he is demonstrating social distancing while I was on a Zoom happy hour with my classmates.

Appropriate social distancing, most uncharacteristic for Luka. (No room on my lap at the time.)

We noticed that Luka was losing weight around the time the above picture was taken in 2020. The vet thought it was either lymphoma or inflammatory bowel disease. He prescribed prednisolone to increase Luka’s appetite and famotidine to reduce vomiting. His weight was reasonably stable until the last few weeks, when he went off his feed and got progressively weaker. We took him to a local vet emergency center last Saturday. The x-ray images were inconclusive. We opted for palliative care. This morning when he could barely stagger to his food, I figured it was time.

Luka was a great companion and a charming clown. He will be missed.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/12/20/elegy-for-luka/

Dec 03

Spatchcock that Turkey

It’s been a while since I’ve made turkey on Thanksgiving. Last year we made duck, then for several years before that we went to friends’ houses for the holiday. This year we hosted two other couples and made the turkey.

I’m not wedded to the Norman Rockwell idea of an intact turkey, perfectly browned, coming to the table. Anthony Bourdain, in his cookbook Appetites, advocated having separate stunt and business turkeys. The stunt turkey was for show, the business turkey got served. This seems a major waste of money and precious oven space; therefore, I went with spatchcocking.

You can find directions for roasting a spatchcocked turkey (or chicken) in numerous cookbooks. My initial instructions were from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Food Lab. Julian also found a You Tube video (see this page). I went to work the night before Thanksgiving with a 10-pound turkey and a pair of kitchen shears. Note to self: I need sharper shears. I lived in fear of slashing myself. Luckily, I managed to remove the backbone without bleeding to death. The avian victim was put in the refrigerator overnight. The next day I smeared herb butter under and atop the skin. I chopped up some carrots, onion, and celery and put them in the bottom of the roasting pan. The turkey was spread-eagled on a rack above the vegetables and placed in a 450° oven. Miraculously, the bird was done in less than 90 minutes. Even more miraculously, the turkey was tender. (The preponderance of butter didn’t hurt.)

I didn’t think to take a photo of the final product. As a consolation prize, here’s a picture of the everything rolls I made Thanksgiving morning. (You can find the recipe here.)

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/12/03/spatchcock-that-turkey/

Nov 26

Thanksgiving, Warts and All

The Thanksgiving story we were told in elementary school was a myth. As a descendent of the Pilgrims on my father’s side of the family, the myth is coded deep in my DNA. A hardy group of settlers land in the New England wilderness and manage to survive their first year with assistance from the Wampanoag tribe. They feasted to celebrate the harvest, along with the Wampanoags. Several years later, the Pilgrims went to war with the Wampanoags over land and hunting rights. (So how come the Pilgrims get singled out? What about the St. Augustine, Roanoke, and Jamestown settlers? They all predated the Pilgrims, and no doubt clashed with their indigenous neighbors.)

The myth of the Pilgrims was brought into sharp relief for me when we visited the Pilgrims’ Museum in Leiden, The Netherlands, 30 years ago. That country was a haven for a variety of religious refugees, including the French Huguenots from whom my maternal grandmother was descended. The museum explained that the Pilgrims left Leiden because they weren’t making any new converts and were afraid their children would be corrupted by their more liberal neighbors. Therefore, they opted to sail to North America so they could practice their faith. Later on, they persecuted the indigenous tribes and more recent European arrivals to Massachusetts who didn’t share their rather dour, Calvinist interpretation of Christianity.

All myths carry lessons. They may be obscured by other myths or the baggage of time (past and present). The Thanksgiving myth reminds us to be grateful for what we have. In addition, the holiday reinforces that we aren’t as self-sufficient as we make ourselves out to be. Good lessons for these times.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/11/26/thanksgiving-warts-and-all/

Nov 13

Cuban Bread

I admit that often I don’t have the foresight to make artisanal breads for every occasion. This week I’ve had to do some revisions for a quarterly submission and get ready for a course assignment that’s due next week. So when our former neighbor invited us to dinner last night and I offered to bring bread, I turned to an old reliable recipe.

I’ve been making Cuban Bread since I was an undergrad and bought the original New York Times Cookbook, by Craig Claiborne. He attributed this recipe to James Beard. Curiously, I couldn’t find this recipe in any of Beard’s cookbooks on my shelves, not even Beard on Bread. The beauty of this recipe is that it only requires one full rising. You put the loaves in a COLD oven with a pan of boiling water in the bottom. The preheating oven and the steam provide the second rise before it gets too hot for the yeast to survive. The result is a softer crumb than an artisanal bread, but with a chewy crust, a good compromise to make all of your friends happy.

Here’s my 21st century adaptation of Beard’s/Claiborne’s recipe for a stand mixer: Put 1 package of dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons), about 1 tablespoon Kosher salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar into the mixer fitted with the dough hook. (Because I’m a lazy bum and hate hand-washing extra utensils, I don’t bother with the flat beater.) Stir in 2 cups of lukewarm water, then add in 6-7 cups of flour. I normally use bread flour and up to 1/3 of whole wheat. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you add flour. Knead the dough until it’s not sticky and has a smooth and bouncy texture under your hands. Knead the dough for only a minute if you’re using a large, powerful food processor. If you’re kneading by hand, it may take 5-10 minutes to get the right texture. Let the dough rise for about an hour in a greased bowl until it’s doubled in volume. (I usually dribble olive oil into the mixer bowl and roll the ball of dough around in it. Again, I’d rather not wash an extra bowl.) Once the dough is risen, shape into two balls or logs. I prefer balls. Set the dough balls on a baking sheet dusted liberally with cornmeal. (I usually line the pan with parchment paper.) Let the breads rise for 5 minutes while you put a metal pie pan on the bottom shelf of the oven and boil some water. Slash the tops of the loaves 2-3 times with a knife. Put the loaves on a shelf in the middle of the oven, pour the boiling water into the pie pan, shut the oven door and heat it to 400°F. Bake the loaves for 40-45 minutes until the loaves sound hollow when you thump them. Cool them completely before letting your friends slice and devour them. Each loaf is sufficient for 6-8 people to eat at one sitting.

Cuban Bread is a flexible recipe. I’ve added sourdough starter to it (see this post). You could probably make a simple rye bread with it, although I’ve never tried to do so. Since rye bread doughs tend to be sticky, I wouldn’t add more than 1 1/2 cups to the dough. This is an ideal bread to make for the novice or someone without lots of time to spare, which includes most of us at one time or another.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/11/13/cuban-bread/

Nov 06

Menu, Schmenu!

We do our weekly menu planning on Fridays. This menu greeted me on the refrigerator when I came down to breakfast Friday morning.

Note the lack of JV initials.

Here’s my reply:

Needless to say, we hammered out a more feasible and equitable menu plan at lunch.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/11/06/menu-schmenu/

Nov 01

How Lean is Too Lean?

My background is in science. The thought of getting a business degree never occurred to me. I have picked up a few business buzzwords over my years in healthcare. One of the most prevalent examples of MBA-Speak is Lean. This four-letter word is sprinkled liberally in job postings throughout all sectors of the economy.

What is Lean? In plain English, it’s reducing waste as much as possible. Lean was derived from the Toyota Management System and has been applied to other industries, including healthcare. While Lean is a structured philosophy that is more bottom-up than top-down, companies have often corrupted the process to mean that they don’t hire staff until it’s absolutely necessary to do so. They don’t order supplies until needed – “just in time” delivery. Warehouse space is kept to a minimum. 

While Lean may serve its purpose in good times, it has been a disaster in the era of COVID-19. Consider the impacts of Lean in healthcare:

  • Human Resources. Nursing and allied health staff are hired in numbers that are necessary to maintain accreditation. Twelve-hour shifts were sold to nurses as flexibility; “three days on, four days off – such a deal!” When staff got redeployed to care for pandemic patients, this flexibility fell apart fast. Staffing reached crisis levels when nurses, doctors, and other front-line staff such as respiratory therapists wound up in hospital beds or quit their jobs due to burnout. Hospitals put out the call to retirees to gown and mask up. Some (bless them!) did so. Large hospital systems used traveler nurses to maintain staffing levels, often offering large sign-on bonuses and generous salaries – more than what the regular staff received.
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Supply chain folks made sure they had enough on hand for normal patient census. However, when COVID-19 patients started flooding into emergency rooms, PPE ran out quickly.  Other countries supply most PPE, so shipments were delayed. American medical supply houses also followed “Lean” principles, so their warehouses were quickly depleted of masks and gowns. Hospital staff were reusing masks, face shields, and gowns beyond their useful lifespans. Some nurses in supply-strapped hospitals were using large garbage bags as gowns. Hand sanitizer was nearly impossible to find. 
  • Hospitals in General. Hospitals had to postpone elective surgeries to stretch staff and supplies. These procedures, from plastic surgeries to overnight sleep studies, are key revenue-generators. When elective surgeries are canceled, a hospital’s bottom line can rapidly turn red. 
  • Rural Hospitals. Even though I work in a major metropolitan area, I grew up in rural upstate New York. The counties bordering Lake Ontario east of Rochester have one hospital each. Residents there go to Rochester or Syracuse for procedures such as heart valve replacements. The rural hospitals deliver babies and stabilize emergency patients for transfer to the cities. COVID-19 swamped these hospitals’ already limited intensive care unit capacity. The aforementioned supply chain issue affected independent rural hospitals disproportionately, as they didn’t have the bulk purchasing power of large hospital chains. The combination of staff who may have quit or become traveler nurses and the limitation on elective procedures induced a downward spiral. Some rural hospitals, especially in hard-hit areas of the southern US, have closed their sliding glass doors for good. Others may have been bought by larger chains that may have little or no connection to the region.
  • Patients. Preventive care has always been the poor orphan of the US healthcare system. The pandemic only made matters worse. Folks were scared to enter clinics or hospitals for routine mammograms or colonoscopies. Elective echocardiograms or cardiac catheterizations were also postponed. Some of these people wound up requiring more extensive or emergency surgeries down the road than if they’d had their tests performed earlier. Early detection saves lives. 

Reserve capacity is necessary to sustain any system against shocks. So-called “Lean” management failed healthcare miserably during the pandemic. It may be time to rethink this strategy to prevent future crises.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/11/01/how-lean-is-too-lean/

Oct 24

Two Saturdays, Two Caribbean Restaurants

Last Saturday we had dinner at Mojito on our way to a symphony concert. It’s a tiny pan-Latinx restaurant just off Interstate 5. Mojito’s owner, Luam Wersom, started out as a dishwasher at the restaurant before he bought it several years ago. We’ve been going to the restaurant almost as long as it’s been open. My go-to dishes on the menu are lechon asado (pulled pork) and pabellon (the Venezuelan equivalent of Cuban ropa vieja). I had the former last night, while Julian had the camarones Carmen Miranda (shrimp stir-fried with mango, pineapple, and bell peppers). Even though we had been there once since the pandemic started, Luam remembered us.

Yesterday we went to Bahama Breeze at Southcenter Mall. We needed to go to the southern end of Lake Washington to do some shopping at Ikea. We’d taken Julian’s mother there several times after we moved her to Seattle. In contrast to Mojito, it’s part of a chain. You could fit about 15 Mojito buildings into Bahama Breeze. We had to make an early (4:30) dinner reservation. We had conch fritters, black bean soup, jerk chicken, and stuffed plantain. The service was okay, but it was obvious that the restaurant was understaffed. We had to pay through a computer pad on the table.

While both restaurants serve good food, I’m more inclined to go to a family-owned place. Mojito gets my vote. It doesn’t require going down western Washington’s longest parking lot (I-405) to get there. It’s also nice to go to a place where you’re recognized and welcomed.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/10/24/two-saturdays-two-caribbean-restaurants/

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