The FOG Blog

@!#%%%% Potato Pasta Disaster

2009-04-28T20:18:00.002-04:00

If any of you faithful readers have followed this blog for any length of time then you know the story of the great blackout of 2008. I spent about three hours before the power went out making gnocci for the first time. Well, I finally got around to cooking the little !@$!#!# turds and they were absolutely horrible. Either because of my leaving them too long in the ice water after initial cooking or because they absorbed water when thawing or just because the little !@$ turds didn't like me, they were a complete disaster. They were so water logged and mushy that they were completely inedible. Never again. They're just too difficult to make.

On the positive side, the rest of the meal went well. I made a pork cutlet dinner in a mushroom sauce that was great and I paired it with fresh green beans and braised fennel. We drank too much wine though, about 4 bottles among 4 people. It was the old standbys, nothing special for wine. One Hess cabernet, one Q cabernet, A Beringer Pinot Noir and a Puiley Fuissey (SP?) white burgundy. All of them great everyday inexpensive wines.

Ham a Lamb a Easter Diner

2009-04-15T09:29:00.003-04:00

There were thousands of people in our house for Easter dinner on Sunday. OK, it was only 20 or so people, but it was fun. The butcher shop threw me a major curve when they gave me one large lamb leg instead of 2 smaller ones, but it worked out well. The recipe wasn't as flavorful as I had hoped, but it was still tender and moist. I should have spread an herb blend on the outside in addition to the stuffing. Some highlights were the Easter decorated cupcakes from Sarah, the turtle cheesecake from Amy and the veggie casserole from Sue.

Now we have a bunch of leftover lamb and ham to eat, probably for the next month. On Monday night I made a lamb stew by using the lamb juices and making a gravy and adding a little thyme. I combined it with some potatoes and carrots. It made a nice stew. Tonight will probably be a ham and noodle casserole with some cheese and peas. Any suggestions on additional leftover lamb or ham recipes would be appreciated.

We did open the bottle of Jessup Cellars "Table for Four". It was very tasty, without being at all dry. Strangely, the bottle was very large and heavy, yet the amount of wine inside was actually less than in a usual bottle of wine. Very deceptive but it was still worth it.

Bad Habits

2009-04-09T17:15:00.002-04:00

By now the intrepid reader has found that I'm all about the taste. The taste habit has grown from loving food, evidenced by my ongoing battle to keep the weight down below the big 220 number, to the enjoyment of cigars. There is a lot of psycho babble that goes along with the cigar habit. When I was growing up Dad was a cigar smoker. Back in the day when it wasn't illegal for minors to buy cigars or cigarettes for their parents Dad would send me to "the corner store" to buy cigars. The corner store was officially titled Miners Grocery but everyone in the neighborhood knew it as either the corner store or Miner's. This place was a classic of the fifties and sixties inner city life. It was located in the basement of a three decker at the corner of Clifton and Oberlin Streets in Worcester, the city I grew up in. Worcester was a very ethnic city back then, with clearly defined neighborhoods. There were Irish, French, Italian and Jewish sections of town. Worcester was primarily an Irish city, but Clifton Street bordered the French section of the city, so there was a mix of Irish and French that lived there. Having DeLisle's and Caissie's on both sides of the family, we were clearly French interlopers.

I went to Downing Street School for grammar school (1 to 6). It was a 100 year old building, run down and pretty dingy at the time. It now houses part of the music school for Clark University where my daughter Sarah occasionally teaches. It was about four blocks from home, an easy walk to and from school each day. Miner's was at the corner of our block and we had to pass it each day on our walk to school. Back then we went home every day for lunch (there was no place to eat lunch at school even if you wanted to). On a fairly regular basis after lunch Mom would give me either a few cents for penny candy or a nickle for one of the big bars. These big bars now cost a dollar or more. Ring Dings, Devil Dogs and Sno Balls were a dime on special occasions. Today you can't even find the big Ring Dings any more. I think Miners made most of their money on the neighborhood kids that stopped to but sweets or bread and milk for the house.

Dad loved his cigars when I was little. Unfortunately he liked Phillies, a mild tasting nickle cigar. He would send me to the store to pick up a five pack (25 cents) and give me a few pennies for candy. I remember this vividly, as if it really meant something to me back then. If you have to smoke, cigars are fairly benign since you aren't supposed to inhale. It's all about the taste in the mouth. Dad would inhale (Whew). I started on cigars a few years ago and now smoke about one a week. My favorite is the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, but the Ashton VSG and CAO Cameroon aren't very far behind. Today I tried a Kristoff Maduro and really enjoyed it, a surprise since I don't usually like the Maduro wrappers.

Every time I light one up, I think of my father. Maybe it's not such a bad habit.

Just Loafing Around

2009-03-19T22:04:00.003-04:00

I've been on a comfort food kick for a while now, trying to remember all those foods that have made me feel better over the years. One of the recipes that Mom and Nancy's Mom have handed down is meat loaf. I've tweaked it over the years by adding a few spices and using multiple types of meat. Here it is:

Meat Loaf

1 lb ground beef, preferably 85% beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground veal (if available; use another 1/2 lb pork if not)
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste (for me it's 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper)
Barbecue sauce

1. There's no fine art here. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the ingredients with your fingers. It's the only way. Get in there and mush it up.

2. Do not use a loaf or bread pan. Form the loaf by hand on either a high sided baking sheet or a ceramic or glass cooking container.

3. Spread a thin strip of barbecue sauce down the center of the loaf. Bake at 350F for 1 1/4 hour.

4. Serve with real mashed potatoes (not boxed) and home made gravy (see below).

Gravy

32 ounces beef stock
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

1. Make a roulx with the butter and flour cooking on a medium low heat for 5 minutes or until the butter smells nutty.

2. Add the beef stock stirring rapidly to blend the stock smoothly into the roulx. Bring to a low boil. Add the thyme.

3. Cook approximately 10 minutes to concentrate the gravy. Salt and pepper.

The Restaurant that can't count

2009-03-18T11:13:00.003-04:00

I know I'm being picky, but at least they could have called it Fourteen Tables since that was the number of tables in the restaurant. For my birthday the kids made reservations at a restaurant in Cambridge called "Ten Tables" (http://www.tentables.net/). The original restaurant is located in Jamaica Plain and supposedly has only ten tables, hence the name. The Cambridge location is also called Ten Tables but according to Josh has fourteen tables. If that is the only thing wrong with the place then they are doing pretty well.

The menu was nicely varied with a good mix of meat, fowl and fish dishes. The waiter informed us we could also get the tasting menu for $40 per person. The tasting menu would be several courses chosen by the chef. The catch was we all had to order the tasting menu to get it. A vegetarian version was available for Sarah. Since it was my B-Day, everyone allowed me to pick. I chose the tasting menu for all and it was very good. Here is a rundown of the courses:

The first course was an amuse bouche consisting of a shot glass with a cold potato and leek soup. It was different and tasted mildly of the leeks. Sarah didn't like it, I did, and the rest of the table thought it was "OK". Second course was a fish broth with a nice pile of sauteed spinach topped with mussels. It may have been the best item on the menu. The broth was very tasty and the mussels added just the right hit of seafood to the taste. The third course was two diver scallops on a bed of farrow and beets. The farrow added a nice nutty offset to the soft sweet scallops. The fourth course was rare sliced steak on a bed of field greens. The steak had been marinated with a nicely acidic herb and juice blend. Very tasty. The finale was a grapefruit gratin and then a chocolate tureen with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

The restaurant would be difficult to find without very specific directions. It is housed in the basement of an apartment complex. The decor is traditional black and white and could be a very romantic destination for a party of two. Highly recommended.

Slacker

2009-03-11T11:02:00.002-04:00

I admit it. I'm a blogging slacker. I haven't been keeping up with this thing.

It was my B-day this weekend. We went to Fratello's Restaurant (http://fratellos.com/) in Manchester on Friday night. The atmosphere there is always friendly, the room can be noisy so you don't have to worry a lot about making your own noise. The food is good but not special. They have a nice mix of Italian and traditional dishes. I had the calamari Fratello, a nice combination of linguine in a butter and garlic sauce with fried calamari and chopped hot cherry peppers. The recipe had changed a little with the breading on the calamari being a little heavier now, but it was still good. Afterwards we went to Fran and Dave's for a warm fire, hot tub and cigars. I opened a bottle of wine from the wine club. It was the 2005 Zinfandel. I'm not usually a big fan of Zin's, but this was very different. Deep tasting while sipping with no after taste, and not dry at all. I usually like dry wines but this was different and good. I also had a Rocky Patel 10th anniversary cigar, one of my favorites.

Saturday night was pizza and guitar tunes with the Mulcahy's, always an enjoyable evening. My fingers are in bad shape so it gave me a great opportunity to build some calluses. I'm noticing some scratches around the sound hole so it might be time for a repair job. Sunday we drove to the beach and had lunch at the Lobster Cove restaurant on Long Sands at York beach. Nancy was having a problem walking with her new glasses. She said they made her feel like she was on stilts when she walked with them. I tried them on and could see what she meant. So I walked her around the beach walk holding her by the arm while she had her new prescription sunglasses on. It looked like I was leading a blind women around by the arm. Every time I had to let her go to let someone pass she had to take the glasses off to walk. Very strange.

In a few days I'll write about dinner witjh the kids at Ten Tables in Cambridge.

A Few Foodie Tidbits

2009-02-24T19:52:00.004-05:00

It's a new week and there are a few new items to note on the food frontier. I received this quarters shipment from the Jessup Cellars wine club. This shipment includes a Petite Syrah (2006), a Merlot (2005) and a Zinfindel (2003). The plan right now is to store these for a few years to let them mature. It should be interesting to see if I can resist opening those bottles for five or so years. My inclination is to open whatever is around rather than going to the store to buy a new bottle. May be for once I can resist the temptation.

I tried a new recipe tonight for dinner. This was one I came up with on my own, but it was influenced by the multitude of cooking shows I watch on a regular basis. It was very tasty and subtle in it's flavors. Here it is:

Baked Cod with Miso and Shitakes (serves four)

Four Cod fillets (approximately 2 lbs)
Two Fennel bulbs
16 ounces of chicken broth
1/8 tsp Ground Coriander
Salt and pepper to taste
1 packet of miso soup mix
1 cup water
Scallion garnish
3 fresh Dill sprigs
8 fresh shitake mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
1 fresh lime
Sea salt

1. Sprinkle a ceramic baking dish with the olive oil. Place the cod fillets in the baking dish. Salt and pepper the fillets to taste (a small pinch on each fillet). Sprinkle the coriander on top of the fillets. Bake at 425 F for 25 minutes.

2. Remove the green parts of the fennel from each bulb. Quarter the fennel bulbs. Bring the fennel and chicken broth to a fast simmer over a medium high heat. Cook for approximately 20 minutes.

3. Slice the mushrooms thinly.

4. Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add miso soup mix and stir. Take off heat.

5. Divide the miso soup among four large bowls. Spread the sliced mushrooms along the bottom of the bowls. Add one cod fillet to each bowl. Add two fennel quarters to each bowl. Sprinkle chopped dill and scallions over dish. Squeeze fresh lime over fish. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt over the fish.

Enjoy!

Winter Blahs

2009-02-23T19:36:00.002-05:00

It's now the last week in February and the snow just keeps coming. Just when you thought you might be able to see the ground again, another four inches of the white stuff drops on our heads. The only redeeming quality by now is that it helps to cover up the dirty snow that has been building up over the winter. I love the snow blower but there's a limit to how much enjoyment I can get from power tools.

There are three very large piles of fallen branches in the back yard just waiting to be incinerated in a ball of fire. The branches are a direct result of the tree harvesting fiasco from last spring and the ice storm in December. I'm picturing next weekend to be spent with a lawn chair, a water hose, two fire extinguishers and a few cigars. This is the perfect time of year to burn all that stuff and prevent the rest of the neighborhood from burning down along with it. I'm still wondering how big a fire I could actually get going back there. If you can see the smoke from Boston call me.

life (Not) On Caffein

2009-02-18T14:39:00.002-05:00

I confess to be an addict sort of person. I get hooked on things and then can't seem to break the habit. It's a little bit of the obsessive / compulsive that comes out in me all the time. One of my earliest addictions has been coffee.

I didn't start drinking coffee until around 1978, when I started working at my first job at Raytheon. I was an expediter, which meant I went around pushing people to do my product first before any other product was done. It was probably one of the worst jobs I ever held and I worked for one of the truly insane people in the world. Ed was a maniac. He would scream at people in the middle of the hall and have no qualms at all in making you look like you were an idiot. He would call you into his office and start throwing things against the walls. I learned early on to bring bad news to him in his office rather than in the hall and to make sure I brought him the bad news before he heard it from anyone else. It turned in to a good strategy because I was rarely embarrassed with the hallway beatings. In short order I needed a drug to help me through the day and that drug turned in to coffee.

It didn't help very much when my office was literally adjacent to the cafeteria. Any time I needed that little lift, I would step out approximately 50 paces and there would be the fresh coffee. For about two weeks I took it with cream and sugar, but that stopped when I realized I didn't really need the calories. Since then I have ranged between 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day for over thirty years. Let's leave my love for espresso out of this particular tome.

As the years have passed I find myself sleeping less soundly at night. I'm not the most easy going person in the world and I also tend be a little high strung. Last Thursday I finally switched to decaf. I found a decent bold blend from Starbucks (Veronna) and have been using it for the last week. The taste is reasonable and doesn't taste at all like decaf. I do notice a difference in the coffee jitters. I don't know if my sleeping has improved but I'm told it should also be good for my heart. Now if I could just stay awake at 3:00 in the afternoon.

A Little Italian...

2009-01-30T08:04:00.004-05:00

It's not gourmet, it's not outstanding and it's not even special, but it is very good. Florence's Restaurant (http://www.florencesitalian.com/) in Merrimack NH is one of those small restaurants you would normally see in a medium sized city, sitting on a little side street or the corner of your old neighborhood. Instead it resides in a small strip mall in a middle class town in New Hampshire. It's obviously an owner operated place and it shows when Florence greets you at the door, checks on your table, and tells jokes to the guests. The waitresses are mostly long time employees and after you've been there a few times they get know you as a regular. Once you've been back a few times it feels as if you are eating a decent meal at home. Although there are seafood dishes (calamari, shrimp, haddock) and the classic veal dishes (marsala, margherita, saltimboca), this is a basic red sauce restaurant.

Red checkered table cloths, and Italian mural scenes on the walls soften the lack of windows, strip mall look. A basket of bread and large bowl of family style salad are a given. The meals range in price from a low of $8 for the smaller pasta dishes to a high of $21 for the fruiti de mare or the pork chops, potatoes and vinegar peppers (both of these are some of the greatest comfort food). The eggplant parm is a perfect blend of pan fried eggplant, sauce and cheese, the best I have found anywhere. The total bill for a party of two, including drinks typically runs around $60 to $75 (including tip). It is the one restaurant we consider our "go to" place when we don't want to think about where to go. I'm already thinking about those pork chops maybe for tonight.

Fuzzy Love

2009-01-28T08:34:00.001-05:00

She is fully grown, even more so now that she approaches middle age. I sit in my corner of the couch where she knows I will stay awhile and relax. I like this spot because it's convenient and I consider it my spot even though I don't have it reserved specifically for myself. I start to read and in her quiet but thundering way she jumps up beside me, wailing her baby like cry of "riaooowwww". It is her way of asking if it is OK to sit awhile. She can be very intimidating to those that don't enjoy the pleasures of the feline species, but I know better. She is gentle beyond reproach. Her fangs are bared as she cries, and she is fearsome with fangs both top and bottom, and I know better. She just wants some peace with me as her motor starts to run. She will wait until I welcome her in, unlike Mother who will capture her and clutch her close for affection. She knows now that Father does not reach for her, although he will play and sometimes try to stalk her from her comfort. Eventually she will leave with her fat belly swaying right to left, but for now she sits and kneads Father with her paws, the motor running louder with each stroke against her fur. She is not the best Father has seen, but she is the most comfortable in her skin. She is Winnie, and there is no other quite like her.

Overcome

2009-01-20T20:10:00.002-05:00

Today I am at a loss for words. Not because of the historic nature of today's events, the inauguration of the first African-American president, but because of the opportunity for the United States to once again shine in the eyes of the world. This is a man who can once again return our country to the high road, to the ideal that everyone is equal and away from intolerance towards others. This is a man who can focus our country on solving the problems that face us rather than divide us along lines of forced morality. This is a man who can protect us from ideology and lead us intelligently. This is a man who can lead us all. President of the United States of America, Barak Obama.

Leftover 2008 Drivel

2009-01-07T16:13:00.004-05:00

After some thought there are a bunch of things leftover from previous blogs in 2008:

I forgot to add "The Princess Bride" to my list of favorite movies. How could I forget this??? I repeatedly say "Have fun storming the castle" to people in place of "Goodbye". There are so many memorable moments and lines from this movie that they are too many to mention. Anyway, my apologies to Rob Reiner for forgetting him on my list.

There wasn't one favorite movie from 2008. None stood out in my mind. A generally bad year for good stories. Too many "blockbusters' without any substance to the films.

Favorite "found" music from 2008: You can't call the stuff I listen to new so my category is to call it found music. This years favorite was some blues from Keb Mo. He is a bit commercial but it made for interesting listening. Honorable mention: The Pousette-Dart Band from the 1970's.

Favorite read from 2008: "A History of the Catholic Church: The Early Years". I can't say it was an enjoyable read, but it was informative. I'll keep my opinions about the politics of the times and their impact on the formation of the Church to myself. Ask me sometime and I might be willing to discuss it.

My apologies to the unknown reader from LA. Apparently the Orange County Fair is big and the wine judging is a major event in California. This would then make the label on the Arger-Martucci Merlot a little more impressive. I still haven't opened the two bottles we bought there. I'm waiting for a good dinner night at home.

I know it's not technically a 2008 blog however the pastry puffs from Memere's cream puff recipe is called a "choux". I'd rather put it here when I can remember it. The puff should be either cut on the bottom or a hole made to clean out a small portion of the puff to allow the custard to fill it.

Making gnocchi is still a pain in the A@! and it won't be changing any time soon.

Best cigar of 2008: Arturo Fuente Don Carlo's. A really nice, enjoyable smoke. My apologies to the Ashton people. Ashton comes in a close second. It's winter and I'm really missing my weekly cigar.

Restaurant: In one of the blogs I mentioned we had heard the quality at the Silver Maple, our favorite Chinese restaurant, had gone down hill. We visited before the holidays and it was just as good as I remember. Our friends may have hit them on a bad night. The Mai Tai's were great and Sarah mentioned the vegetarian platter was very good even though the tofu was on the soft side. On a side note, our favorite waiter Dave was no where to be found. He was always a cheery welcoming sight there.

I hope I didn't miss anything else. Have a joyous 2009!

Memere's Cream Puffs

2009-01-05T19:48:00.004-05:00

My love of food, and especially comfort food from when I was a kid, is unsurpassed. Mom cooked pretty simple food, but she was old school. For the most part it was meat, mashed potatoes and veggies every night. Rice did not exist when I was a wee lad (I was never a wee lad; 150 lbs at age 11). It was potatoes and occasionally spaghetti. That was it. I have some of Mom's recipes from those days and over the years I have modified them to suit my tastes but some of them have never changed. Today it is the Cream Puffs she made from my earliest memories. The filling is a wonderful custard rather than a whipped cream and a welcome addition to the serving is to drizzle with hot fudge. Absolutely decadent!

Memere's Cream Puffs

The Pastry Puffs
1/2 cup of margarine, softened
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup hot boiling water

1. Melt the butter in a pan with the boiling water (on the heated stove).

2. Add flour and salt, stirring vigorously and constantly until the mixture forms a ball that doesn't separate. Remove from heat and cool for about 10 to 15 minutes (so it is not hot but still warm).

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each until mixture is smooth.

4. Drop 1 tablespoon each of the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Space each drop about 2 inches apart since they will expand.

5. Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes.

6. Remove from heat and cool on a wire rack.

The Custard Filling

2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups scalded milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 eggs slightly beaten

1. Mix dry ingredients

2. Add milk slowly to the dry ingredients over a medium heat.

3. Cook about 15 minutes stirring constantly until mixture thickens.

4. Temper the eggs with some of the mixture. Add the tempered eggs to the main pot, stirring frequently for 2 to 3 minutes more.

5. Cool completely.

6. Add lemon and vanilla extracts. Stir completely. Refrigerate until cold.

7. Fill the pastry puffs with the custard and refrigerate until cold.

8. Eat as many as you can without exploding.

Hello....Is anyone there???

2008-12-30T11:26:00.002-05:00

Here we are almost a full month later and I'm finally getting around to posting another blog entry. It's not entirely my fault, however, I was a victim of circumstances. December is usually a tough month anyway, with our annual holiday concert (rehearsals, dress rehearsal and concert: http://www.merrimackconcert.org/), Christmas shopping, tree cutting, tree decorating, holiday parties, etc., but this year it was especially trying. Normally our concert would be over by the 9th or 10th of the month but this year the schedule had us going until the 20th. Then the BIG complication hit. There are lot's of stories around that event.

Thursday Dec 11th: If you don't know, I like to cook. I had been toying with the idea of making home made gnocchi for some time and finally decided on this day to give it a try. Around 2:00 in the afternoon I started cooking the potatoes and began the gnocchi around 3:00. Nancy wouldn't be home until later since she was going to yoga. Remind me never to make gnocchi again. What a complete and utter pain in the A?!. They came out great but it takes a long time and a lot of patience to make gnocchi. By 4:30 I barely had enough to feed two people. The plan was to freeze it and save for another day. At 4:30 my buddy Jeff called and asked if I wanted to go to a cigar tasting at Blowin' Smoke. I still had at least another hour to go before my gnocchi supplies would be exhausted, so I reluctantly said no. About ten minutes later I thought better of it and called Jeff back to pick me up. Since he was ready to go I needed to pack up and leave quickly. As we were pulling out of the driveway I noticed I had left the TV on.

The tasting was being put on by the Ashton cigar company and it just happens to be one of my favorite cigars. For $15 you received an Ashton VSG torpedo (large), a shot of Talisker scotch (one of my favorites; I'll need to blog about scotch some day), chicken wings, cheese and chocolate. The cigar alone was worth $12. To top it off they gave you 15% off on Ashton products. How could you go wrong. There were other cigar lovers around to talk to and I happened to meet a former co-worker there. I lost the business card he gave me, so unfortunately I can't contact him again. All in all, it was a nice way to spend three hours. Then we left.

It was a little icy when we exited the store and I thought to myself how the weather reports hadn't indicated any major issues for the night. By 9:00 the power went out. I started the generator and it stayed on for the next eight days. We were lucky because we did not suffer any damage from the storm but our neighbors had a tree land on their roof and four others down in their yard, including one of their beautiful apple trees.

I understand the term "cabin fever" now much better than ever before. The generator gives us the ability to prevent the basement from filling with water and keeps some basics going, but it doesn't give us all important water or flushing ability (we have a well and a pump up septic system). By day five without water, I was pretty irritable (read that down right ornery) in addition to being stinky from taking a shower only every other day. Couple that with an intestinal system that can only be used when you drive to a local restaurant to "borrow" their bathroom and I was ready to buy solar cells, a windmill and a whole house generator just as long as I could get power at any cost.

Friday December 19th: Power returned at 3:33 in the afternoon (notice the precise time; it is ingrained in my head). I wanted to sing the entire Hallelujah Chorus right there and then. It was snowing by then and wouldn't stop until Sunday night. We got 19 inches of snow that weekend. A fitting end to December of 2008.

PS: I think we'll still go with the whole house generator.

Would you care for a little w(h)ine...ehhhhhhhhhhh

2008-12-08T20:12:00.003-05:00

After multiple phone calls and worries about the bottles freezing and bursting in transit, I finally received the shipment of wine from our California trip today. It was cold but not frozen. Here it is:

1 Bottle of Reynolds Family Winery "Persistence" (blend)
2 bottles of Hopper Creek Winery 2005 Merlot
2 bottles of Arger-Martucci Vineyards 2005 Syrah
1 bottle of Jessup Cellars 2005 "Table for Four" (blend)

I opened one of the bottles of Hopper Creek (http://www.hoppercreek.com/) tonight with dinner. I took a sip almost immediately and it tasted very heavy and overly dry. After it sat for about 30 minutes it mellowed quickly and tasted fantastic. Not too dry, fruity with a nice finish and little aftertaste. This was the one I wasn't very impressed by in California, but here, it was very different. Well worth it and not that expensive ($35). You can't buy this on line yet but according to their website they will soon be making it available.

The Arger-Martucci 2005 Syrah (http://www.arger-martucci.com/arger-martucci/index.jsp) will probably not be saved for very long. Syrah's aren't usually stored for long periods of time, although a few years would certainly be OK. I remember this as on the fruity side, but better than the Hopper creek. It is labeled as the "Gold Medal Winner" at the Orange County Fair (how big can the Orange County fair really be??) and sells for $30, still not very pricey.

The Reynolds Family 2005 "Persistence" (http://www.reynoldsfamilywinery.com/index.cfm) is a blended wine, meaning it is a mix of several different grape varieties. I did not get to taste this wine in California as this was the winery that had only a barrel tasting when we were there. It is a more expensive wine ($50) and is labeled as being "Estate Bottled".

Saving the best for last. The Jessup Vineyards (http://www.jessupcellars.com/) 2005 "Table For Four" ($80) is another blended wine. We didn't get to taste this one in California either, but every wine I tasted here was wonderful. This one will get saved for some special event in the distant future. I joined the wine club from this vineyard and have already received my first shipment.

Something Smells Around Here

2008-12-01T12:54:00.002-05:00

I seem to be in a negative mood lately. First there was an entire blog on food that I just don't get and now one on the movies I can't see how they ever got into production. Movies that are intentionally bad (for laughs) don't count.

Any remake of an old classic movie. I'm dying to see the new version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I saw the first one as a kid and it made me love all SciFi ever since. I just know I'm going to be disappointed when I see it.

Any Clint Eastwood comedy. He's just not a funny guy.

Citizen Kane: I know, the American Film Institute has voted this the greatest movie of all time. I do understand that the camera techniques, angles and lighting were way ahead of their time, but to spend two hours watching a movie where all of the characters are trying to find out what a dying man's last words mean (rosebud) and then find out it was only...... Since seeing this for the first time, I have looked at other movies from that era to see the differences, and I do admit that the technique is way ahead of it's time, but that ending still leaves me shaking my head. I'm anticipating everyone who hasn't watched this movie to now be writing me asking "what the hell does "rosebud' mean?" I can only say, watch the movie.

Jaws 3D: All of the actors from the previous Jaws films except the sherriffs wife decided to pass on this one. How can you make a movie without all of the main characters except for one that had a total of ten minutes screen time from the previous films? I almost put this one in the category of being bad on purpose, but I don't think these people were that smart.

Time Bandits: Let's cut up organized religion and little people and make it look like it's a serious fantasy movie. Shame on the late George Harrison.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Let's make a movie where every character can be turned into a toy figure. Some really cute warrior teddy bears would really sell. And lets redo the big explosion scene from the first movie a second time, after all, what works once should be even better the second time around.

The Matrix 2 and 3: A 2 for 1 here. How such a great first movie could turn into 2 such horrible sequels is beyond me. The dance scene and the love scenes add nothing to these films and actually leave you with an icky feeling. They should have stayed with the theme of waking people up to reality. The brothers blew it on these two.

Mission to Mars: Josh and I went to see this one when it first came out. At one point in the film the actors turn to each other and make some comment on how bad the movie is that they're making. By that time, everyone in the theater already had it figured out. The only one that is worse then this one is....

Open Water: The first ten minutes of this film are on land while they prepare to go out on a scuba diving expedition. The next 90 minutes were spent with me cheering for the sharks to just eat them and get it over with so we could leave. The theater was packed too.

Danger WIll Robinson, Danger!

2008-11-20T20:49:00.003-05:00

If you've known me for any length of time then you know I have become a bit of a foodie (understatement). When we were first married my better half had a job on the other side of the city and she didn't get home until 6:00 every night. I on the other hand worked two blocks away and walked to and from work each day, arriving back at home by 3:45 every day. This lasted through new jobs, kids, split shifts etc... There were years when I worked and she didn't (young kids) but for the most part I took over the cooking duties the longer we were married. In spite of someone's complaints of a dinner consisting of boiled ravioli stuck to paper plates (no tomato sauce because that was just evil) I slowly learned how to cook. I experimented and just tried to make things that I would like.

I thought about starting a list of the foods I've grown to love, but I thought it would just be better to list the things I really can't find a way to like. I'd be happy to hear from others on this subject so if you comment I'll eventually create a series of writings on foods people hate and why. Tomato sauce doesn't count because there are way too many dishes that just can't be without tomato sauce. Here we go on a first pass:

Pork pie - We tried baking a store bought pork pie once. The best thing that ever happened to it was that it fell (face down on the floor) before we tried to eat it. Believe me, the floor dirt was an improvement and actually tastier than the pie. This should not be confused with French Canadian meat pie (toque).

Brussel Sprouts - I love vegetables, but there are no redeeming qualities to brussel sprouts. They are tasteless, hard little lumps of green leaves that taste like someone boiled a bunch of acorns. I've tried them steamed, boiled, sauteed with butter and roasted. It seems that I should like them. Someone please make me brussel sprouts that are edible and tasty.

Kiwi - A fruit with little tiny, hard seeds. The texture is annoyingly bad, almost as bad as...

Star fruit - A little tiny hard fruit with no taste whatsoever.

Haggis - To my friends and former co-workers in Scotland, I can't believe this is your national food. Intestinal parts (offal) cooked in a stomach lining and dropped on the plate. And to top it off you get to open it yourself by piercing the lining with a knife and letting it all release the steam at once. Maybe I didn't drink enough beer and scotch in Scotland. I'll take the steak, medium rare please. Which brings up....

Blood sausage - Need I say anything more.

Liver and onions - Anything that smells that bad when it is cooking just isn't worth it.

Warm cereal, any warm cereal - It's warm, it's mushy... what can I say.

Skim milk - You might as well drink water.

Please join me. Let's bash some food.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

2008-11-16T09:33:00.003-05:00

That is supposedly the worst opening line in literature...ever. But this isn't exactly literature so there it is. Yesterday was a very uneventful day here. My better half was still feeling low from the cold that hit her last week, so we had a quiet stay at home night. It was raining for most of the day and there was little we could do around the outside of the house. Inside we caught up on all the usual household chores. Dinner was a bunch of passable Chinese takeout from The Silver Maple, what used to be our favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. We might need to change that. It was at best average. We had heard from friends it wasn't very good any more. It might be a change in cooks, which can some times lead to dramatic changes in the quality of food. In either case, it was just OK.

Around 8:00 I looked at the outside thermometer and saw it was 65 degrees. I put on a sweatshirt and went out to the porch. Even though it was overcast there was a glow to the sky. I suspect it was close to a full moon, but I really don't know. I puffed a stogie and just relaxed. The big chimes (two feet long) would gong every once in a while when the wind was strong enough to move them. A tree in the woods at the end of the road fell down with a loud crash. I'm sure it will be a regular occurrence this winter since so many trees were cut down by the mad logger in the spring. For the most part the rain had stopped, but there was still a light mist and the remains of the rain were still trickling through the downspouts. It was a beautiful night.

Wine Trip

2008-11-13T14:21:00.003-05:00

After all the talk and pictures about the California trip you would think I would be done writing about it. There is however an interesting little postscript. Our last full day in the Napa Valley was a Friday and that was the day we chose to go on the small group wine tour. I ended up purchasing six bottles of fairly expensive wine. Since we were leaving bright and early the next morning (and it would be a Saturday) I was concerned about getting the wine home. With airline security being particularly tight now, and no liquids larger than three ounces allowed through security, I know I couldn't get the wine on board. I could have checked it, but did I really want the brainiac baggage handlers throwing my wine around?

I decided to ask the hotel concierge for suggestions. She suggested Buffalo Shippers in Napa, a company widely known for shipping wine safely across the country. The normal procedure was to fill out a form and contact Buffalo to pick it up. Since it was late in the day and Buffalo was already closed and we would be leaving early the next morning, she offered to contact them for the pickup in the morning. She said she just needed to open the box and confirm the wine contained inside was as stated on the form. When she saw the bottles, she commented on what a great selection they were, and seemed genuinely excited at the brands. I left them safely in her hands.

Well here we are a month later and the wine hasn't arrived. I called the hotel and after ten minutes of run around, they admitted the wine was sitting in the General Managers office and hadn't been picked up. They assured me it would go out immediately. I can't help but wonder if it had stayed there much longer, if that wine wouldn't have ended up in some one's personal supply. I still don't have the shipment, but I'm expecting it shortly. We'll see.

Bean Fascisim

2008-11-12T09:53:00.002-05:00

There has been an ongoing political movement in this country to give more rights to beans. Now some people would say that beans are no different than you and I, that they should have all of the same inalienable rights as other vegetables. But the leftists have been pushing their own agenda resulting in an inordinate amount of news coverage by the left leaning media for beans. Let me be clear on this, I have no agenda where beans are concerned. As long as they mix with their own kind I'm fine with beans doing bean things with other beans. But forcing a perfectly good chili to have beans inserted in the recipe is sacrilege. THERE ARE NO BEANS IN CHILI!!!

Chili today, warm tomorrow

2008-11-10T12:20:00.003-05:00

My chili continues to be a hit wherever it goes. The trick is not to use a prepackaged mix of chili powder and of course my barbecue spice mix. AND THERE ARE NO BEANS IN REAL CHILI!!!

Depending on the amount of heat you like in your chili (the more the better for me) take one package of dried peppers (ancho, new mexico etc; the dark brown kind in the produce section of the grocery store) and tear off the stemmed top. Remove as much of the interior seeds and ribs as you can with out spending too much time on it. There should be anywhere from 5 to 8 chilies in one package. Place the chilies in the blender and repeatedly pulse on grind until most of it becomes a powder mix. Note: it's ok if there are still some bigger pieces. This should yield 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of chili powder. Here's the recipe:

Fuzzy Old Guy's Chili

3 pounds of beef (I use stew beef and cut it into 1/4" pieces); some fat is good for flavor
1 pound of ground pork
1 large vidalia onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 3/4 cup chili powder
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
3 tbsp oil
2 fourteen to sixteen ounce cans of stewed or diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of your favorite mild salsa
Fuzzy Old Guys barbecue spice mix (1 tbsp each of dried ground cumin, ground coriander, garlic salt, onion salt, paprika, pepper, salt; plus 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar)

Directions:
Brown the meat in small batches and set aside.
Add oil to a large stew pot or dutch oven on medium heat (5 on a scale of 1 to 10). Add onions and sweat for 5 minutes. Onions should not brown, just sweat. Add peppers and celery; cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic; salt to taste. DO NOT BROWN THE GARLIC!
Add meat back in and stir thoroughly.
Sprinkle half of the chili powder mix over the top and stir thoroughly. Add the balance of the chili powder and stir again.
Add tomatoes and salsa. Stir thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste.
Add half the chopped cilantro.
Place in oven at 325 degrees for 2 hours stirring occasionally.
When finished add the balance of the cilantro. Serve with steamed white rice and hot sauce on the side.

The chilies add a nice smokey flavor that you don't get with the store bought powder.

Dirty Words Part 2

2008-11-03T10:58:00.012-05:00

I don't know how to restart this ramble and rant. So I lead a good life, in some ways better than my parents. But my parents raised us in a simpler time, when people were less materialistic and more concerned about just making a life for their families. Now we have plans for everything going out to the end of our lives, and all of those plans include buying lots of stuff. This consumerism has fueled our economy for the last thirty years, the thirty years of my generation. In that time we have paid less for most of our consumer goods, but the cost of the things that really matter has skyrocketed. Health care, energy, housing and education are a larger percentage of our income then ever before, and the middle class jobs that used to pay for these items plus our consumer goods have all moved to Asia where they now fuel the Asian economy and standard of living rather than ours. The decisions made by US companies to send these jobs overseas has resulted in profits and increasing shareholder value for the shareholders (which, yes, includes our 401K's) but a non-existent middle class.

When I went to college the first time (someday we'll talk about that fiasco) The cost of one year at a state college was $300. Room and board was another $1200. Today Plymouth State is a combined $15K and UNH is $20K. The average student leaves college with a $50 to $100K in debt, a burden equal to a mortgage in earlier times. The opportunity to start adult life looking towards the future is looking pretty tough.

Although it looked like I wasn't completing part 2, circumstances intervened. The stock market crash is a direct result of pure greed on the part of individuals and companies more concerned about the price of their stock than about the people who work for them. How much is enough? When individual CEO's earn $50M in a bad year and then are given $100M to leave, what are these boards thinking. The fact that we have looked the other way while companies were blindly allowed to follow their greed means only that we are all to blame for allowing our government to be driven by the same greed as these corporations. It's time for reasonable profits and companies that are more concerned about their responsibilities not only to their shareholders but to the people that work for them and what is best for all concerned.

New dirty words: conservative, liberal, family values, patriot, socialism, terrorism.... When are we going to start fixing the problems that confront us? Because I think the Iraq war was based on lies and a vendetta held by the hawks in one party doesn't make me any less of an American or less of a patriot. It just means I disagree over the war. And it doesn't make me support our troops any less then the anyone else. They have a tough job to do and I support them whole heartedly. But the use of labels thrown around to pump up the party faithful only continues to divide us, polarizing into us and them.

There have been some refreshing parts to this campaign season. Neither of the campaigns seemed to bring up "family values". Maybe they suddenly realized that there are so many different definitions of a family today that it was only falling on the ears of the party zealots. Unfortunately we continued to question each others patriotism by suggesting being an Arab or a Muslim was wrong. I have known good people of Arabic decent and good Muslims. I don't need peoples ignorance to tell me the difference between a fanatic and a good person.

I know there is a percentage of the population that believes it doesn't matter who gets elected, that nothing will change for them. Change comes gradually, sometimes over generations. Go out and vote tomorrow. And when the election is over, work to solve the problems we face, not to tear each other down because we might disagree.

California Vacation, Day 7: Napa Valley

2008-10-28T19:39:00.015-04:00

Well this is the end. Friday was our seventh and final day in California. We went on a tour of four different wineries through a tour company in the Napa valley. They picked us up at 10:30 in the morning. It was a shuttle bus, not a big honkin tour bus. There were five other couples and they were already pumped up and in a party mood when we boarded. The first stop was the Jessup winery in Yountville, the first town North of the town of Napa. Jessup was by far the best of the wineries we visited. They set us up with 8 different tastings that day. All of them were very good. I bought a nice varietal and signed up for the wine club there. No pictures, just great wines.

At the second winery, Walnut Creek, we had a nice little lunch in addition to the tasting. I bought two bottles of the Syrah. There was an herb garden there with an overwhelming smell of onions.

Nancy took some great pictures of the vines.

One of the group was kind enough to take our picture.

At the next winery (I can't remember the name) I didn't really enjoy any of the wines. I spent most of the time playing catch with the big black lab that was there in the courtyard. The ladies however did take advantage of the "crush some grapes" invite from the somalier.

The last winery on the tour was the Reynolds Family winery, a small boutique winery. I bought two bottles there (can't remember what, cause I was hammered by then). Here we got a tour of the barrel room and a barrel tasting.

Our last dinner in Napa was at the restaurant called 25 Degree Brix. The name represents the measurement at which grapes have reached the perfect time for picking off the vines. Dinner was outstanding but I don't remember what we had except for two more glasses of wine.

Thus endeth the vacation.

California Vacation, Day 6: Leaving Moonstone to Drive to Napa

2008-10-27T14:23:00.007-04:00

We didn't take very many pictures on day six. It was a travel day for us so there wasn't much to report. We took our last walk on the beach around 9:30 in the morning. This picture was actually taken earlier in the trip but I though I'd save it for a slow day on the blog. We had been told by friends (Fran and Dave) to watch for the really unusual sea weed. There's no other way to describe it: giant sperm sea weed. Here it is.

We left the beach to drive north to Napa around 10:00. Since the trip down the Pacific coast highway had taken so long, we decided to drive the highway this time. It took us through the hills and then the farm lands that line the California highways. We passed lettuce, artichokes, broccoli and of course grapes. It was really amazing to see miles after miles pass by of planted farmlands.

We stopped to take some landscape pictures and stummbled on this lizard.

We stopped at a little diner to have lunch. I forget the town or the name but it was pretty good diner food. We arrived in Napa around 4:00 in the afternoon. We decided to eat in the concierge lounge that night. There was a free appetizer and wine tasting followed by a free dessert bar. We grazed while watching the VP debate that night. I really can't stand that little phony wink she has when she speaks. It was to be an early evening but I made reservations for a bus tour of the wineries on the next day.

Tomorrow: Day 7, Napa.

California Vacation, Day 5: Moonstone Beach and the Hearst Castle

2008-10-26T10:26:00.020-04:00

We had made reservations in advance to see the Hearst Castle, which was located about 15 minutes north of Moonstone beach. The castle was originally built by William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, as his summer residence. There are two guest houses that most people would consider to be mansions. The family donated the castle to the state of California and now the state operates it as a tourist attraction. It's pretty spectacular.

You cannot drive directly up to the castle. You park at the bottom of the property and take a bus up to the entrance. The drive up the road has some very nice views of the hills and the California coast line.

The tour starts out at the swimming pool. Hearst was in the habit of constantly changing the house and the pool was no exception. It was rebuilt three times because he kept wanting it larger. This is the outdoor pool area.

There are actually four different tours you can take, with each tour focusing on different areas. Each tour lasts about an hour and a half. We took the "Experience tour", which is billed as the best tour for the first time visitor. It highlighted the pool, one of the guest houses, the entrance way and the main floor of the mansion. Here are a few views of the grounds surrounding the pool area.

Here is the fountain on the staircase leading up to the main entrance to the mansion.

The main entrance to the mansion.

The main sitting room when you first enter.

The fireplace in the main sitting room.

Hearst was a collector and one of the reasons he built the house was to have a place to store and display all of his collections. This statue was in one of the entryways.

All of the rooms were fitted with ceilings and wall panels from ancient castles in Europe. Here are two of the wooded ceilings.

The dinning room and the dinning table.

The tour ended with a look at the indoor pool which was built underneath the tennis courts. The floors were made of gold leaf and we were actually allowed to walk on them.

This ended the formal tour but there was also a very nice 45 minute movie on the making of the castle. On the ride down the mountain we saw the private zoo that Hearst maintained. The family still owns the surrounding land and maintains summer homes there. They also raise their own beef cattle and we did see them grazing on the way in to the castle. The herd is intermixed with a number zebra. We saw the zebra and Nancy wanted to get a picture before we left, but by then they were not to be found.

Tomorrow Day 6: The last of Moonstone and the highway ride to Napa.

California Vacation, Day 4: Pacific Coast Highway and Moonstone Beach

2008-10-22T17:57:00.031-04:00

I don't know where to begin for this part of the trip, but I'll try. This was one of the most beautiful car rides we've ever taken. We left around 10:00 on Tuesday morning and headed west through the city to the far shore of San Francisco. It took us up and over the hills. Of course we had the top down and here is my pale face. I completely forgot about the sun and by the time the day ended I was close to blistering on my forehead.

Although this part of the ride was still beautiful, it was the last 100 miles that were the best. We stopped just north of the Paso Robles National Forrest for lunch. I don't remember the name of the restaurant but it would be only one of two for the rest of the ride so our stop was at the perfect time. The food was good, not great, but the view was incredible.

The manager (owner?) was kind enough to take our picture.

The next 74 miles was some of the most twisting road I've ever driven. The road was elevated about half way up the sides of the mountains, with the downward side going straight down to the sea.

About halfway down we saw these turkey vultures by the side of the road.

Towards the end of the ride we saw this nesting area for elephant seals. They were just lying there, throwing sand up over themselves.

Lots more road pictures. None of them really do the scenery justice. There was a fire in the hills and we heard later that there were over 1500 firefighters working the fire. You can see the smoke rising here.

We arrived at Moonstone Beach around 4:00 in the afternoon. The cottage was across the street from the beach, with a gorgeous view. There was a nice patio out front, and I had a stogie out there on the first night.

The inside was very cute, with a gas fireplace and a hot tub.

The view from the front door of the cottage.

This feather duster walked right up to us begging for food. Mine! Mine! Mine!

The sunset view from the restaurant that was only two doors down from the cottage.

Tommorow: Day 2 at Moonstone Beach and the Hearst Castle.

California Vacation, Day 3: SFMOMA and Alcatraz

2008-10-20T19:40:00.020-04:00

Day 3 in the city of San Francisco was in my opinion the nicest day in the city. I had forgotten to pack a swimsuit and Nancy wanted to use the hotel hot tub, so we took a walk to Macy's, about 10 minutes from the hotel. From there we found the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We spent about two hours walking through the museum. There was one very cool exhibit where the artist painted shadows on the walls, ceiling and floor, as if you were looking at the shadows of a view from a window. It was subtle and very beautiful, made on site at the museum. We did not get a picture of the museum but we did see this odd display on the top of a building next to the museum.

Around 1:00 we stopped at the restaurant called Ducca's that was part of the Westin Hotel. They had a nice outdoor seating area and the weather was warm so we sat outside. Lunch was spectacular. We had the arincini appetizer and they were perfectly cooked balls of risotto with a warm cheese center and a light dusting of crunchy sea salt. There was a single leaf of fried sage, and the waitress was telling us we really needed to try it. As she picked up the plate to pass it to us, it flew away in the breeze. Our main courses were brought and I had chosen the mushroom risotto with shaved truffles and Nance had chosen the papardell with lamb. Both were fantastic. Since we would be going to Alcatraz at dinner time we wouldn't have time to eat a full supper, so the big lunch was great. Just when we were about to dig in to the the main course the waitress came out with a small plate of 5 or 6 of the fried sage leaves from the appetizer plate. Talk about great service. By the way, the sage was very delicate and tasted good. It had the slightly salty taste that was also on the arincini. I know we had desert, but by then I was in food heaven so I can't remember what we had. We walked back to the hotel and saw this really unusual building cube sitting on it's corner.

We sat by the pool and took a dip in the hot tub. As usual, the hotel tub was way too hot, but it was relaxing and a good way to spend some time while waiting for our trip to the jail. We were taking the evening tour of the jail, so we weren't scheduled to leave on the boat until 6:00. Here is a view of the city from the boat on our way to Alcatraz.

This seagull followed the boat all the way to the island, hovering in the same spot for the entire ride.

Different views of the island buildings follow. The state of California now owns the island and it is designated a state park. The tour has a nice combination of ranger guided tour and an audio tour. The audio tour is told by former guards and prisoners and is very compelling. Although I didn't love the tour, I thought the audio portion was good.

If I had this kind of company in jail I wouldn't want to leave!

They finally caught up with me!

The view of the city at night from the island is great. Many of the inmates remarked on how bad it was to be able to see the beautiful city from their windows and not be able to go there.

Tomorrow: The Pacific Coast Highway and Moonstone Beach.

California Vacation, Day 2: San Francisco

2008-10-18T08:05:00.016-04:00

Day 2 of our California trip was busy with a trip to Muir Woods, a side trip to the small wine town of Sonoma and dinner in Chinatown at supposedly the best Chinese restaurant called Empress of China. We didn't get pictures in either Sonoma or Chinatown. We left the city around 10:00 in the morning. It was extremely foggy that morning and we couldn't really see the Golden Gate bridge until we were starting to ride across. Once on the bridge you couldn't see the water or the mountains. It was cold, about 65 degrees in the city, so we had the top down and the heat on in the car.

Once we were over the bridge, the road changes to a very curvy, hilly ride through the hills. Muir woods is about one hour north of the city so it gave us a great opportunity to see the outskirts of the city. The temperature started to warm almost immediately after going across the bridge. The parking lots at Muir Woods were completely full, so we ended up parking on the side of the road about a 10 minute walk away. When we go to the ticket window, it turned out it was free day, no charge. The entrance begins with a cutaway of one of the fallen trees, and details how old they are. If you look in the lower left, that is someone's head, so the size of this tree is massive. The center label on the rings indicate the tree was about 1100 years old. Each label detailed a different year.

Reaching to the heavens.

Which way up?

Fallen trees are left where they drop to regenerate into the environment. All I could think about was what a nice fire this would make on the deck fire pit.

I used to be the one always taking pictures, but now there's a new shutterbug in town.

Periodic fires hit the forrest. The bark on the trees is so tough that everything else on the forrest floor can burn but the tress themselves only blacken on the outside but still survive. Many of the trees were blackened on the bottom. We spent about two hours walking through the woods. It was a beautiful hike. Nancy lost her sunglasses on the walk but someone left them at the front gate and she asked on the way out and there they were. We bought a souvenir at the gift shop, a large candle base made from a redwood burl with lots of cavities in it.

By the time we left Muir Woods, the temperature had risen to the mid-seventies. We drove to Sonoma, where we had lunch at a small winery outside of town. It was some sort of old home days event in the town square. We walked around for about an hour, looking at all of the artwork displayed on the common. By this time it was downright hot outside. We returned to the city only to find that the temperature in the city was still cool, about 65. Dinner was in Chinatown at the Empress of China, the most famous Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. It was at the top of a six story building at the top of a hill and overlooked the city. A nice view. The food was good, but I think the Silver Maple in Merrimack is better. The one interesting dish was a flaming quail appetizer, flamed at table side.

California Vacation, Day 1: San Francisco

2008-10-15T11:21:00.010-04:00

For the next few blogs I'll be trying my hand at uploading pictures from our vacation in California. Leave the city of San Francisco (although I did like it, city life is just not me) out of this statement, but for the first time ever I thought I could actually live in California. We rented a convertible (Pontiac G6) and enjoyed the ride from the airport to the hotel.

Here is the view from the top of our hotel, the Hilton in downtown SF, followed by some other skyline and city views. They gave us a free upgrade to a junior suite (in addition to the fact the hotel was free with the rewards points we used). I had paid a little extra for the concierge level and this is the view you see from the concierge lounge.

At the end of day 1 we walked 2.5 miles over the hill from the hotel and had dinner at Fishermen's Warf. That hill was up hill at about a 60 degree angle for half of the walk and then down hill at the same angle for the balance. Some how we didn't end up with any pictures of the hill. I think we were to busy wondering if we wouldn't both end up in the hospital from having a heart attack trying to do that walk. Then we had to walk back home.

It was a touristy spot at the end of Pier 39, Neptunes Palace, the food was good (not great) but the view of the harbor was fantastic.

After dinner we saw the sea lions at the end of the wharf where the restaurant was located. Notice there were a few tourists here.

We finished the night with a drink in the lobby of the hotel and crashed by 9:30 PM PST (midnight body time since we had just arrived).

Tomorrow: Day 2 in San Francisco, Muir Woods, Sonoma and Chinatown.

Dirty Words (part 1)

2008-09-18T20:14:00.005-04:00

My father was a good man with a very "colorful" vocabulary. He did not use curse words indiscriminately or lightly. He never used them in casual conversation and never in mixed company. His use of colorful language was limited to himself. When frustrated over something he was working on or something just wasn't going right, out would pop a new word. He new them all, too and used them in unique and interesting combinations. My vocabulary has been forever enriched by the loudly exclaimed words heard through the floor between our first floor apartment and his basement workshop.

Dad was a man of his generation, born Aurelienne (Aurel) Donat Caissie in Bouctouche New Brunswick Canada on January 8th 1928. He spent his first nineteen years living with 13 (!!!!) brothers and sisters in the same area, occasionally moving from Bouctoush to Scoudouc, both to this day very small towns on the Acadian Coast. He never made it past the eighth grade, but not because of a lack of intelligence. It was what the men did there at that time. After a certain amount of schooling they went to work to help pay the family bills. He was an intelligent man, just not from formal schooling. He always had simple needs and never really cared for many material things. He cared about his family more then anything else in life. His simple dedication to family above all else dictated all of his beliefs. More than any other characteristic I inherited his deep belief in the family as the center of life.

Growing up we were not rich, by any means, but we were certainly better off than his or my mothers childhoods. I'm not even sure we could be called middle class, by today's or any day's standard. We got by. My parents owned their home, a three decker in the beautiful industrial city of Worcester Massachusetts. We never lacked for food or other essentials and I would always spend a week or two each summer at my aunt and uncles cottage on Cranberry Lake. We grew up understanding the difficulties of making ends meet each day and trying to better our, and our children's lives.

My parents and other friends and relatives gave me opportunities that I feel indebted to pass on whenever possible. It can be argued that I took advantage of those opportunities and made much of them, but I can't deny that without those critical pushes in the right direction, I might still be hanging great big leather hides in a room filled with moist hot air and breathing chemical fumes from mixing leather glue. After all, I am still in my heart one of the greatest procrastinators of all time.

My mother visited a few weeks ago and she was a little different. She is now 79 years old, but looks and acts considerable younger. We went for a boat ride and at one point she was staring off the boat, resting her hands and head on the edge and staring out at the shoreline. She quietly remarked "you live a good life", and it has really started me thinking about where we came from and how we got here.

It's going to take more than one edition to get around to the point...

Sparks Flying

2008-09-13T08:11:00.003-04:00

It was our anniversary this week and unfortunately I had to travel on business and missed the actual day. When I returned home on Thursday night we decided to go out for a nice dinner. We hadn't been to CR Sparks in Bedford for a few years, mostly because of a bad New Years Eve experience there, so we decided to try it again.

We didn't have reservations but it didn't seem to be a problem at the time we arrived (6:30). Within a half hour of our seating the place was packed. Nancy had a cosmo (big surprise there) and I had a glass of Merlot (Flora ??? from CA). Pacing was good and we were never hurried. We started with the artisanal cheese tower and although it wasn't local cheese, it was fantastic. Three cheese plates: 1. Italian asiago with a tomato and raisin chutney 2. French blue with honey, almond slivers and candied walnuts 3. British cheddar with red onions and a very old balsamic vinegar. Dinner for Nancy was a clam spaghetinni with baby littlenecks, pancetta, cherry tomatoes and fresh corn. She enjoyed it very much. Mine was the dinner special, the veal porterhouse chop with arugula and a sort of home fried sliced potatoes. The taste was good but if your going to charge $30 for a veal chop and call it your special of the evening, it should be a nice thick chop. This chop was barely a half inch thick. Tasty but they cheaped out.

Desert was a nice layered chocolate indulgence cake, a nice ending to the evening. It did confirm my opinion of the restaurant though. It's always like the immortal Maxwell Smart said, " Missed it by just that much."

Presto Pesto!

2008-09-11T09:33:00.003-04:00

I admit to being a poor planner. My tendencies are if one of something is good, then more must be better. I love basil as an herb and consider it one of the most fundamental flavors for cooking. When I planned the garden this year, I decided that the herbs would take center stage and the only vegetable I would grow would be the tomatoes. I planted three sweet basil plants, three leaf basil plants and two Thai basil plants (love the Thai basil!!). Next year I think I'll eliminate at least two of the plants. The end result has been a glut of basil. No matter how much I use the size of the plants never seems to go down. On Saturday I harvested a bowl full to make pesto and now it looks like I didn't take any. The plan is to make lots of pesto.

Pesto freezes easily and can last months once frozen. One trick is to buy ice cube trays and freeze the pesto in the trays. Once frozen you can pop them out of the trays and place them in zip lock baggies for long term storage. One cube melted over some pasta will yield a great quick meal. My recipe follows:

Pesto

2 cups sweet basil (packed)
1 Tbsp pine nuts
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
Optional: 5 mint leaves, dried oregano, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Saving the oil for last, place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Do not use a blender. The blender will chop things too finely and result in a loss of texture. You want a choppy look to the pesto, not a fine mush. By packing the food processor with the dry ingredients first then adding the oil you will get better results. I prefer to add the Parmesan separately to the pasta or dish being served, but some recipes call for the cheese to be added to the pesto mix when making the pesto.

You say tomaaato, I say tomahtoe...

2008-09-03T21:58:00.000-04:00

Bambi is a beautiful story, one almost every child hears or sees when they are very young. Those beautiful long eyelashes, and the sad story of loosing her mother to the nasty hunters. Then they add to the misery by having the cute rabbit, Thumper tugging at our heart strings. Don't believe it for a minute. Those deer are blood sucking leaches.

I've grown tomatoes over the years in the backyards of the various houses we lived in. We've now been in this house for 19 years, the longest we've lived anywhere. I had attempted to grow tomatoes when we first moved here but it was during one of my busy periods at work and they quickly died of benign neglect. Over the years Nancy has had varying success with her flower gardens, the most difficult problem being that deer love to eat some of the flower buds. At times over the years they have completely decimated her flower garden. Her greatest success has come this year when she learned to put soap on a stick in the garden. The smell of the soap keeps the deer away. About five years ago I tried growing tomatoes in pots, close to the house, thinking they wouldn't dare come right up on the porch to eat my tomatoes. Oh you trusting man.

The tomato plants grew well that year and after about six weeks I had six healthy plants that were sporting lots of flower buds. another few weeks and every one of those buds had turned into golf ball sized starter tomatoes. I was on my way to a bountiful harvest. Ha! In one night the deer came in and completely wiped out every single tomato that was growing on the vines. That was the end of that experiment. So after years of longing for a decent tomato, I decided this year to do it up right. I dug a 12 x 20 foot patch in the back yard and planted twelve tomato plants. I got smart too. I put up a fence to keep the deer pests out. There is no punch line here. I finally have lots of tomatoes growing. The "Better Boys" are doing well and I've already had a few off the vines to test them. In addition I tried a few heirloom plants and ate the first of the "Black" variety today. Very sweet, ripe and juicy. Finally, victory!

Man Love

2008-08-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

I don't say this lightly because somewhere this will end up in cyberspace and I'll start receiving emails from weird web sites, but I've got a great big case of man love right now. It started innocently enough with a talk about the veggie garden and progressed to a discussion about growing peppers. I didn't plant any peppers (hot or sweet) this year because I just couldn't get around to more digging after all the work we did on the outside of the house this year. Peppers are one of my favorite foods. I haven't had a lot of success growing peppers because they don't do well in wet soil, which I have here, and they need plenty of sunshine, which I don't have here (still too many trees).

So I was discussing peppers with my buddie Dave and he was telling me about his success over the years growing peppers. Fran (Dave's wife) then mentioned what a great job he did making stuffed peppers. You've got to understand here, I never pictured Dave in the kitchen cooking. Dave is a great yard guy, spending untold hours landscaping and gardening, and it shows because he has a great yard. I don't do yard, unless I absolutely must, so I'm always impressed by the things he's done out there. This is not where the man love comes in to play. It's all about the peppers. Apparently one of the few things Dave cooks is stuffed peppers. When I married the love of my life, her first job was on the other side of town while mine was one block away. Since I was home first, I usually started dinner. Stuffed peppers were one of the first things I learned how to cook. They were fairly easy to do and very tasty, tough to mess up because if you overcooked them, they were just more tender. I didn't realize then, but I do now, that Nancy is not a big pepper fan. She will deny this, but the telltale sign is that she always picks them out of the food and shuffles them to the side. I'm ok with that, you like what you like. I stopped making stuffed peppers years ago mostly because of this. I know, I could still make them and just enjoy them myself, but one of the reasons I like to cook is to see the appreciation other people experience when they've had a good meal.

This weekend after a night time cruise around the lake, we returned to the house for a fire in the pit. On their way in, Fran placed a package in the refrigerator. It was a container with a stuffed pepper and lots of great looking sauce. Dave had cooked that afternoon. He gave me the aw shucks and described how the sauce was a little thin and might be a little tart. This reminded me of the sauce I cooked last year with fresh tomatoes that was so tart I might as well have sucked a lemon. I thanked Dave and there it sat in the fridge until today's lunch time. I poured it into a bowl and there it was, a beauty. The sauce was a nice marinara, with lots of cut up tomatoes, onions and artichokes (!!!I can here Sarah already; ARTICHOKES!!!!). It was the perfect stuffed pepper and just instantly reminded me of the early days of my cooking. Bon!

So here it is Dave. A little man love for you today.

The Best Book Ever?????

2008-08-21T10:17:00.000-04:00

I tried, I really, really tried this time, but I still couldn't do it. As my family knows, I am a voracious reader, sometimes going through periods where I'll read a new book every two days. Vacation was like that this year, having read three books in five days. I don't usually like junk either, instead usually trying to read something that at least has some literary content (ok, my love for Steven King isn't exactly literary but long live the Gunslinger!). For the fourth time in as many years I made another attempt to read "Ulysses", supposedly the greatest book ever written. I don't know who did the voting, but they didn't ask me.

I like a good long read because it gives you a chance to really get into the characters and feel like you're living the story as it's happening. My fourth shot at "Ulysses" didn't get much further than the previous attempts. I made it to page 160 before I decided to throw it against the wall again. My copy looks well worn now but it's certainly not from reading the pages. I think it's because of the damage I do to it each time I get tired of attempting to get through Joyce's crap. I don't use that word lightly, but there it is. I've never been in a position where I was unable to finish a book, no matter how bad it was ( hey, I finished "His Dark Materials" even though I wanted to choke the writer when I was finished). No matter how hard I try I can't seem to get past his so called style. The story takes place in Dublin and is full of Irish terminology (not a problem in itself). The thing that makes it a difficult read is he mixes the real time story line with the random thoughts of the characters as they are going through they're day. At one point we have the pleasure of listening to a man's thoughts as he is taking a crap (there's that word again). The worst part of it all is that his punctuation is horrible. He uses dash lines in place of quotation marks and you can never tell when the character is talking or when he is just thinking. Too much information.

So here I stand, a beaten man. I think this may have been the last attempt at Joyce. Maybe it was my educational level and I'm just not capable of reading this. I'm so turned off to this book right now I won't even try to look at some of his other writing. At least until the next time I have nothing to read and look at the bookshelf and there it is.

Baseball benn berry, berry good to me...

2008-08-19T15:48:00.001-04:00

I was 11 years old in the summer of 1967, the first year that I really remember baseball. We lived in the Main South section of Worcester, one of those old, seen better days, industrial cities that Massachusetts is famous for leaving abandoned by the side of the road. If Worcester was bad, Main South was the bad of the bad. We didn't know it was that way back then because we lived there and it was home. Mom didn't drive so we walked everywhere. If it wasn't within walking distance, we took the bus. The nearest organized little league teams were down at Beaver Brook park and that was just far enough (and cost money) that I never played organized baseball.

Eleven was one of the last years before everything changed. The summer I turned twelve was the last summer I would go to school with all my neighborhood friends. After that it was Woodland Prep for two years, an inner city prep school, free to those that had the grades or those that the local grammar school didn't want anymore (you decide which one I was). Eleven was one of those summers that are vivid in a mind that has forgotten more of my child hood then I care to remember (that sounds like a Yogi-ism if there ever was one). We didn't have organized ball, but we had back yard wiffle ball. A "listen up" to my two poser brothers here: if you think you created that back yard baseball diamond, your are dead wrong. I wore in that pitcher's mound, that dirt patch we called second base, and I placed that home plate there, not you. As for third base, that used to be the clothes line when I was little and it was broken off at the base because I snapped that puppy off grabbing it rounding third once. Every afternoon we played ball back there and in the fall we had the world series with the kids from Hollywood Street (literally the yard behind ours).

In the summer of 1967 Mom was way too busy trying to keep sis well. By then she was well into a lot of the health issues that plagued and pained her childhood. Help came in the form of the "Little Sisters" (I think the official name was the Little Sister's of the Assumption). They would help watch her and provided support with whatever Mom needed. This was right around the time that reforms in the church were taking place, but the sister's still wore the full black and white habit, the kind the flying nun wore (with the exception of the "flaps" the flying nun had on the ends of the hat; come to think of it, which came first: the flying nun's flaps or the flaps on the end of airplane wings?). The nun's had a "compound" of several buildings behind gates on the corner of Woodland and Claremont streets and they ran a summer program there to keep the neighborhood kids busy and out of trouble. It was a place to meet up with your other friends and play games or attend organized activities. This particular summer, they got a big block of tickets to see a Red Sox game. Close your eyes and picture this. Twenty inner city kids walking in to Fenway Park with a bunch of fully habit wearing nun's. We were a beauty to behold.

Of course, during that summer the Red Sox were having their first good summer in many years. By the end of the summer we would all be calling them the impossible dream team and I would be listening to every game on the radio. There was no television coverage of baseball games back then like there is today. The Sox didn't get much coverage in those days because they just weren't very good up until then. By the end of that game I was hooked on baseball for life. My fanaticism would only temper when the Mets came to town years later (I still can't watch the clip of Buckner; I know, lots happened in that game before Buckner, but that was the final straw for me). My hero's in those years were Jim Lonborg, Tony C and Yaz.

I was originally going to write about the garden today, but once again I spent hours in the car traveling between home and Connecticut. The radio was on and the big news was that Yaz had been admitted to the hospital with chest pains. Now 67 years old he has been through some personal issues lately. Yaz is and was my hero growing up (other than my Dad). He is a quiet, dignified man that played ball the old way, without self promotion. The last man to win the triple crown (#1 in RBI's, average and home runs). Here is hoping Carl Yastrzemski recovers well and continues to provide sports with the dignity it so sorely lacks now.

Cutting The Cheese

2008-08-18T16:37:00.000-04:00

Enough of the pontification and blathering, let's get back to some genuine good food. I've been on a quest for locally grown and organic foods lately, not just out of curiosity, but out of a genuine interest in seeing our food economy changed from big agribusiness food that tastes bland to locally grown and raised food that brings good taste back. It started with a real distaste for all store bought tomatoes (I don't care who you are, you can not find a good tomato in any grocery store), and has progressed to Internet searches for restaurants that serve local produce. Hat's off to one we found this week, Damien's on the River in New Boston NH (http://www.damiansotr.com/).

From the outside it looks like your typical small town pub. When I saw the outside I started to get very disappointed because I was thinking chicken wings and burgers again. Once inside, I started to change my mind. The decor was casually elegant and on the wall were several medals from cooking competitions and t-shirts from the CIA (no, not the spies; the Culinary Institute of America). It was a Thursday night and we had reservations but we didn't need them (there was only one other table occupied). Service was attentive and well paced. They didn't have the Malbec I requested (temporarily out) but they suggested a cab/sav that was very tasty. When I opened the menu, one of the appetizers immediately jumped out, the cheese plate ($9). You just don't offer up a cheese plate unless the cheese is special or local. It came with very fresh grapes, dried cranberries, pine nuts and thin toast wafers. The asiago was very dry with a strong flavor; the Gouda was on the bland side; the blue was a perfect chunk of locally made (NH) blue cheese (love all that mold). With the wine it was great.

We had dinner with friends and did an unintentional pairing: the women ordered the salmon with lobster risotto and the men ordered the lamb chops with barley (!!!!) and a thyme demiglaze. The ladies enjoyed the salmon and commented that the risotto had lots of little chunks of lobster. The lamb was cooked perfectly medium rare (without asking for it); the sauce tasty; the barley very different (nutty) but a nice offset to the heavy lamb. We didn't have desert (too full) but we checked out the desert counter on the way out. It would be worth the trip just to have appetizers and desert.

I hope this one is able to make a go of it out there in the woods. The place was quiet that night and once I find a good place I always worry when I see it that empty. This is well worth the 30 minute trip for the food.

Georgie Porgy Puddin and Pie...

2008-08-15T08:33:00.000-04:00

I need to blog more often. There's a bunch of stuff (the garden, Damien's by the River, cheese, the Olympics....) screaming in my head to get out right now but some of it will just have to wait. The loudest scream by far is Georgie boy. If you think you can tell me what to write about here, your wrong. My blog, my thoughts. I don't mind intelligent disagreement and discourse, but it doesn't matter what the argument is about, I win. I try not to talk about politics in person, but here I can do whatever I want. Don't read it if you don't want to, but it's mine.

I had the pleasure of driving between home and Syracuse, NY this week for business. For me the ride goes across some fairly small state highways in southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont. If you ever get a chance to make this drive, please do, you won't be disappointed. To name a few, the towns of Dublin, Brattleboro and Bennington (the statues!!!) are very interesting. When I'm alone in the car I listen to either sports, talk or news radio because the act of concentrating on the conversation helps to keep me awake. NPR was available so I spent most of the trip listening. In spite of what the conservative right will tell you, they provide a balanced, intelligent view of the issues. After listening to the local news reports, they switched to the BBC news hour. Both reports spent significant time discussing the latest reports out of Georgia and Ossetia (my co-rider later on referred to it as Ossipee). I think I understand the issues at least in a fundamental way. The Ossettians are the typical "breakaway" republic for Georgia. We have this problem all over the world. In Iraq and Turkey it is the Kurds, in Spain the Basques, in Columbia the FARQ, in China it's Tibet. The problem of ethnic majorities within regions of a country of a different ethnic majority is a common issue throughout the world. The issues in each of these regions are complex and have been there in some cases for centuries.

Georgia decided (or it's president Shaskavilie ??SP??) it was time to bring it's breakaway republic of Ossetia back into the fold by sending troops. Since Russia agreed with Ossetia, Russia decided to support the Ossetians and sent in troops. Small country vs big country; guess who won. Georgie boy decided we needed to put our two cents worth in and stated his "moral" outrage at the invasion of Russian troops into the sovereign nation of Georgia. I'm sorry Georgie boy, but no one is listening. You lost that little item several years ago in Iraq. You know the one I'm talking about. It's called the moral high ground. Thanks to you we are now looked on as just another power hungry country in the world. Afganistan was justified and needed to take place after 911, but the decision to go into Iraq, the lies and misdirection on weapons of mass destruction, the later excuse of freeing the Iraqi people from the dictatorship of Saddam, the need to control the news media reports of your administration and the use of interrogation techniques just this side of torture has left the world with a bad taste in it's mouth. I support our troops and the wonderful job they do following orders, but you have now left them exposed to the same torture techniques (sleep deprivation. water boarding, dogs ...etc) that you yourself condoned.

Imagine the conversation taking place between Georgie boy and Mr.Putin.

Putin: Ah, George, I've decided to invade Georgia.

Georgie boy: I don't think the people in Atlanta are going to like that Vlad.

Putin: Not that one Georgie boy, the one over here.

Georgia boy: I didn't know you had one over there. Why do you want to do that Vlad?

Putin: Because your tied up with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, because I can. Georgie boy, at least this one is near my home. Now you better not say anything to the rest of the world because they don't really like you right now. Everyone is laughing because your just like us now.

Sigh... Since WW2 we have been the supporter of human rights and freedom everywhere. Now we're just another land of politicians hungry for power. And everyone knows it.

Mai Tai, You Tai, We All Tai For Mai Tai

2008-08-08T08:40:00.000-04:00

Ahh... Hawaii. I still remember Hawaii like it was yesterday. Despite what everyone says about it being the most beautiful place on earth, it is the most beautiful place on earth. Some of the nicest people live there too. Honolulu was the typical crowded tourist city but it was still great. Maui was truly the most restful place I have ever visited. Every time I go to a Chinese restaurant now I have a mai tai and it immediately brings back memories of Hawaii. It's a short blog today, but it contains the two libations that come close to the way they make them in Hawaii. The mai tai isn't quite like the ones in Hawaii, but it's close. The bahama mama is just right. If you like rum drinks, the bahama mama is the better of the two.

Mai Tai

1 part golden rum
1 part Myers dark rum
a splash of cointreau
a splash of cherry brandy
1/2 part each of pineapple, orange and lime juice
shake well with ice; pour over fresh ice
top with a splash of either Pussers Navy Rum or almond flavored (Amaretto) liquor
(I've had it with both; I like the Amaretto better)

Bahama Mama

1 part Myers dark rum
1 part coconut (Malibu or Parrot Bay) flavored rum
a splash of cointreau
2 parts cranberry juice
1 part pineapple juice
shake well with ice; pour over fresh ice
top with a splash of black berry brandy

Bzzzz Bzzzzzz

2008-08-07T10:22:00.000-04:00

Not too many things truly scare me. Heights and bugs are pretty much the top of the scary tree for me. With bugs it's more of an ick factor then being truly scare, with ticks being the top of the ARGH! tree. Now there is a new scare factor for me where bugs are concerned. I tend to ignore most weired stories unless I see them multiple times over an extended period of time. This one now has me scared.

Gourmet magazine this month has two articles on the catastrophic problems going on in bee colonies. (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/08/colonycollapsedisorder) This is by far not the first time I've read about this issue. It seems that for the last two years bee colonies (hives) have been dying off at alarming rates. The disease is referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Bee hive owners have been going to their hives only to find that the entire colony is dead or gone. An analysis of the hives after the bees have gone shows an astonishing array of diseases had infected the hive. Researchers have cautioned hive owners that the bee hive apparatus should not be used again and any of the equipment should be burned to stop the spread of disease.

It's important to note that the commercial agriculture industry relies exclusively on commercial bee keepers to pollinate their crops each year. According to the article, we were already in a position where there were not enough hives to pollinate all of the crop requirements, but now we are getting in worse trouble as each growing season passes. Gourmet reports that organic farmers in northern California have started planting land surrounding their fields with grasses and other plant life that will attract natural insect life in the hopes that insects other than bees will pollinate their crops. This is just another data point on the delicate balance between man and nature. How do we know that CCD isn't caused by global warming or pollution or other issues caused by the constant encroachment of man and the imbalanced way we effect everything around us. If bees were to suddenly disappear over several growing seasons, would our ability to grow food to feed the world be effected?

On a separate but related subject, I had the season's first fresh corn last night. The ears were big and the kernels on each cob were similarly large. The end result was a corn that was tender but not as sweet as in past seasons. Our spring and summer has been unusually wet, with an accompanying reduction in sunshine. My tomatoes are not growing as quickly and they are ripening later in the season. Again, another data point on the delicate balance between man and his environment.

For today, here's to bugs. They may scare me but it would scare me more if they weren't around. I have a new appreciation for what they do for our environment.

All About Nothing

2008-07-30T10:38:00.000-04:00

I look forward to this week each year as if it were my one shot at heaven. For the third year in a row we've rented a house in North Truro (Cape Cod) for a weeks vacation. The best part of this vacation is the chance to sit and do absolutely nothing. Everyone else went kayaking or into town while I stayed here and read a book (Robert Penn Warren's "All The Kings Men"). It was very recuperative (chillable? restive? cool? sleepy?). I need one of these do nothing vacations every year just so I can get through another year of work.

This vacation has allowed me to catch up on almost all of my reading. Book one during the start of vacation was Phillip Roth's " Exit Ghost". I love books that create intense character studies of people that immerse you in the heads of the characters and Roth is one of the best at making you live the character. I wouldn't however put this one at the top of his creations. It is a continuation of a character that has appeared in many of his books as he has grown older as a writer. They are, to some extent, an autobiography of his life, or at the least a self examination of his experiences. Although I enjoyed the read, it was tough. I find it increasingly difficult to read stories about older characters examining their past and trying to reconcile their decreased functionality as they have aged. Ok, it's a bummer getting old. Trust me, I get it.

Book two on the vacation reading list was John Updike's "The Centaur". A very interesting look at a father and son relationship with allegorical chapters comparing the father to a mythical Greek centaur. It was a literary read (better described as you have to stick with it to enjoy it). Another look at age related self examination.

Book three is the previously mentioned "All The King's Men". As I get older my view of politics gets increasingly more radical. Although taking place in the depression years, this one tells me that when it comes to politics we have learned nothing over the years. We have only traded in local machine politics for the politics of big business.

Enough of the summer reading material. Let's talk about the important stuff: Food. Since this is our third summer vacation near P-town, we've now had the chance to start developing a taste for the local restaurant scene. The best so far is The Mews (as in a cat's meow, not as in the Greek muse or inspiration). Although expensive, the food is always great and leaves me talking about everyone's food, not just mine. I had the special (chili dusted scallops skewered on sugar cane, with corn puree, Moroccan couscous, leeks and a light pesto/lime aoli). I would have never pictured these ingredients working together but the chili powder was just subtle enough to offset the sweetness of the other ingredients. Outstanding. The other meals around the table were:

Roast duck breast with shrimp and sushi rice cake in a coffee molasses demi-glace (the coffee taste was barely discernible but the sauce was excellent)

Roast duck with mashed potatoes and asparagus (nicely crispy skin)

Falafel (could have been better)

Crimini mushroom ravioli with sundried tomatoes and golden raisins (good)

Appetizers: mushroom strudel, crab cakes (Spicy remoulade) and blue marlin carpacio (lots of garlic: excellent)

Sarah and Jay will be eating lunch today at the South African restaurant so maybe we'll have to call in guest reviewer for next week. From the sunny shores of Cape Cod......Ahhhh.......

The wind is Blowing 100MPH....

2008-07-14T08:52:00.000-04:00

There's an old saying about boat owners that the best days of a boat owners life are first when he buys a new boat and second when he sells it. There's always something wrong with it, or it sounds funny or it's not running right or you can't get out there enough to enjoy it. This was one of those weekends where it was worth it. We spent time on the boat on Saturday and Sunday. It was the annual "stop here and get free ice cream" cruise on the lake Saturday. The association has an annual boat parade (we missed it) and at night you can stop at one of the homes and get a free ice cream sundae. The weather was perfect and we picked up a few strays along the way (the Foley's). Sunday was challenging. The wind was blowing in strong 35 MPH gusts but we were out there. The moron was on the lake again (I'll talk about him some day once I've calmed down) so we kept it cool. A truly gorgeous day for boating.

I might make Monday's my recipe day on the blog so I'll add one today (someone please agree with me that it's Monday; I'm still not awake). It's more perfect food for a barbecue. This recipe goes really well with ribs, jambalaya/gumbo, chicken or anything that you would consider barbecue food. It's different; sort of a creamy, corn custard taste, but when cooked properly is just half way between a dry muffin and a pudding. A great replacement for corn bread.

The Corn Bake Stuff
(Hey! There's no other name for it; Thanks to the wife's boss Rhonda for the recipe)

1 can creamed corn
1 can whole kernel corn
8 oz sour cream
1 package of Jiffy brand corn muffin mix
1 egg
1 stick of melted butter
Salt to taste (about 1 tsp for me)
White pepper to taste (er... you're guess is as good as mine for how much)

Bake at 350 F for 1 hour in a 8" X 8" or 9"X 9" pan. A double batch fits really well in a 9" X 13" lasagna pan. This recipe reheats well so you can make it a day ahead if you want. The fresh ingredients make it perishable, so I'd say it's good for four days tops in the refrigerator. I've been thinking about some nice potential adds to change the taste and keep it different. Try one or more of these in the recipe some time: chopped jalapenos, chopped pineapple, chopped red sweet pepper, cilantro, chives.

Going straight to hell

2008-07-13T11:10:00.000-04:00

It seems that as I get older, all of my preconceived notions and beliefs change. We missed church this morning, formerly the sure road to hell. Our grand niece Kayla has been here this week, attending her annual two week period at the summer camp put on by the town. She is a great kid, but she requires constant attention. The girl is relentless in pursuing the things she wants to do, and very persistent that we do them with her. She is a great introduction to grand parenthood prior to having a grandchild of our own (no pressure here kids). Kayla hasn't spent a lot of time at church, so although we thought it might be a good experience for her, our common sense prevailed and we decided an hour of her fidgeting in church just wasn't worth it. When the wife asked me if I was going to church (by myself) my immediate reply was " No, I want to be in the same hell that you're in."

Of course she laughed, not because we were both going to hell for missing church, but because this is one of those things that we say to each other when we do those things we were raised to believe would send us to the nether world. Don't ask me to list them, it's just too long a list. It includes everything from eating meat on Friday (accidentally of course) to looking at another woman cross eyed (honey, I would never do that). It started one of those brain rushes about heaven and hell, God and the devil, and the existential nature of religion in general (whew, ain't that a mouthful of BS). Regardless of what my upbringing keeps whispering to me, any heaven where I can't remember my past life or can't exist with those people I've grown to love, just isn't a heaven worth living in. So, for today at least, if she's going to hell for missing church, I want to go to her hell too.

Could someone please hand me a tissue?

2008-07-10T19:40:00.000-04:00

There's nothing more miserable than a summer cold. I don't remember the last time I had one, but it must have been pretty miserable becasue I remeber being miserable. Maybe it's just that men in general are whiners when they're sick. I've been trying to remember the wife when she's been sick with a cold, but I can't. That's because when she's sick, she's silently sick. Me, I need to let everyone know that I'm sick.

The first phase is the " I think I'm coming down with something" phase. This one lasts a minimum of two days, and sometimes can last a week. Most of the time it never leaves this step, it's just a prolonged, low level whine. Then there's stage two which is the " I've got a sore throat" phase. It could be we just need a drink of water, yet there we are predicting doom and gloom. I swear, I can predict the effect of a good whine causing the sore throat.

The real whining starts when the nose gets going. There is nothing worse than spending every waking hour sniffling (except maybe passing a kidney stone or giving birth). It's bad enough in the winter when you really don't have a whole lot to do anyway, but in the summer time it's ninety degrees and who wants to sniffle when it's ninety degrees out. It's just not right. The only redeeming quality for a man with a cold is it's a good excuse to lay on the couch all day and watch TV. Maybe that's wht we go into phase one so often.

Hey, he's talking about his food again

2008-07-07T08:24:00.000-04:00

After seeing my daughter Sarah's Blog, I decided to give it a try. I'm sure this will end up a mess of scattered thoughts, recipes, reading materials, movies, music and rantings but here we go anyway. The posting for today will be my world famous rib recipe:

For all the rib lovers out there, the recipe:
The Rub:
1 tablespoon each of the following spices: ground cumin, ground corriander, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, thyme, kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

You should remove the "silver skin" from the back side of the ribs before putting on the rub. This is the thin membrane on the boney side that covers the ribs. If you start at one end and slide a knife under you can start to pull it up. Grab hold with your finger tips and it should peel off. Don't worry if you can't get it off. You really need to see someone do this to understand. The ribs will still be good with it on. Put the rub on the ribs the night before. There should be enough for about two racks of ribs. Rub it in well with your fingers (if your afraid to rub some ribs with your fingers too bad; it's the only way). When it's time to cook there are two methods you could use. The first (and easiest) is to place the ribs on cookie sheets (uncovered; sorry Fran) in your home oven and bake at 275 for 4 hours. The second is to place on the grill using the indirect heat method for 4 hours (low and slow). If you don't know how to indirect cook don't try this method. The ribs will burn if you haven't tried this using indirect before. It requires a lot of attention to the fire. Do not use Q-sauce until the last 20 minutes. The sugar in the sauce will burn if it's left on for any length of time. Use your favorite Q-sauce (I make my own and I'm still fooling around with it so no one gets it yet). My favorite store bought sauce is KC's Masterpiece Hickory. The classic southern style is a thin, vinegar & spice sauce, very different from most New England sauces.

Play with temp and cooking time as you get better at them. 4 hours at 275 gives you the falling off the bone kind of ribs, well liked in New England, but not classic barbecue. For the classic southern style, four hours at 225 to 250 is more like it. They will not be falling off the bone but they will have that juicy, sort of chewy flavor. I like the southern style better but it's hard to do without a smoker. Some day I'll figure out how to get a good smoker and then you'll see some real barbecue around here.