Cafe Mutton…

… after the family zoom meeting we drive up to Hudson for a late lunch at our niece’s restaurant… lunch turns into a feast when they bring out a few extras because we are family… no need for dinner tonight… we love that they have a restaurant which requires their presence… we always now where to find them Wednesday to Sunday… we don’t get a lot of time with them but i am learning that small moments of contact can be very rewarding… hello, are you there?… yes, we are here!…

… a few of the dishes we enjoyed…

… tomato soup…

…country pate (made on premises) sandwich…

Baguette with butter and salami (made on premises), sautéed ham steak with garlic/parsley butter…

… i need to get better at making photos of the food…

… woke up at about 2:30 AM… tried to go back to sleep… stayed in bed until about 4:30 AM… not sure how much of those two hours was sleeping…

… my weight is up… a steady trend now… i have to turn it around… fewer carbs will do it… hard to do when your spouse’s pandemic skill is baking…

… dogs in a tizzy this AM… all ready to hunt… made me think they smelled something… they ran out barking and tonguing, but settled down quickly… i think the cat playing hide and seek with them got them going… glad there wasn’t anything in the back yard… they have been skunked before, though it’s a bit late in the season for skunks to be out and about…

… i reread something i wrote yesterday and think, yup, got that one right… well written too… i am getting good at leaving a record behind… a somewhat compelling one too… though the evidence that anyone reads it is slim…

… S’s swim team won the Washington State high school championship… they qualified for one of the race finals and came in 16th but still scored a point for their team which was, apparently, their goal… they are only a freshman and will get increasingly competitive as they progresses through the grades…

… we are thinking to go for a drive this afternoon… maybe stop at our niece’s restaurant for a late lunch…

… HCR crapped out, but not before relating disgraced General Michael Flynn’s statement questioning why we shouldn’t be a Christian nation, what is so special about our vaunted separation of church and state… we are being overrun by nitwits… i believe more than ever before that religious belief is a blight on humanity…

… we made progress on the house this past week… we ordered a new storm door for the front… been wanting to do this for some time but struggled to get clear pricing from the various lumber yards we went to… we found one yard in Newburgh that simply looked it up in a catalog that all of them must have, should have had… everyone else had to call their distributor to get pricing… the sale goes to the one who can tell us how much on the spot… H says the lumber yard has good reviews from its customers… so far, we are satisfied…

… Fiona will undergo spay surgery this week… we had been worried she was heading into heat, but that doesn’t seem to be the case… it’s hard to think about such a sweet and loving dog going under the knife, but we are obligated to the breeder to do it, it’s better for her long term health, and perhaps she will be a bit less of a flight risk going forward… she is quite the escape artist, finding holes in the back yard fencing as if it were swiss cheese…

… bought some haddock yesterday… going to make baked haddock in tahini sauce with golden onions… i take a detour to look up the author of the recipe i have settled on, Helen Graves… she doesn’t call herself a chef… she is a “freelance food and travel writer, recipe developer and editor”… doesn’t quite fit with a site titled Great British Chefs… whatever… i install her blog feed into feedbin… also the Great British Chefs feed…

… I came to dinner last night… i served a roast chicken (one i helped raise and slaughter), Emily’s English roasted potatoes, salad of frisée and lardon with bacon vinaigrette dressing… H made oatmeal cookies for desert… we had a good time trying to solve I’s struggles finding a suitable love interest… they are a particular sort of person… they are possibly commitment phobic… but they don’t want to be alone either…

… as generally happens when there is company, i had a little too much to drink… not feeling too much “the worse for wear” this AM… having climbed into bed at 10:00 PM i had hoped to sleep in a little but i came awake at 4:00 AM and never really got back to sleep… out of bed at 4:45 AM

… fog this morning… i wonder if it will persist past sunrise…

… i keep thinking we may be heading for authoritarian rule, or oligarchic rule… people around the world live their lives under such systems… does the average person do ok?… i don’t know…

… HCR meter this morning suggests the noose is tightening around 45 Administration officials… we are getting to the point of holding individuals accountable and i wonder if we will be able to… to this point, we have not… i fervently hope people start going to jail…

First Thoughts

… up at 5 AM… an hour later than i like… this jams me up on the things i like to do prior to heading out for a walk…

… there is research that suggests there are heart benefits to going to bed between 10 and 11… i have been trying that but i am not sure it is working for me… i had been going to bed between 9 and 10 with the desire to be up by 4 AM… this gives me a good amount of time to write and read in the morning… so maybe that is my rhythm… i’ve always been early to bed and early to rise…

… an exhausting day devoted to errands for the household… i have been very frustrated with the way activities that are not photography, reading and writing are intruding an hours devoted to those things… it has been a real struggle lately to keep that from happening… today, J will claim a certain amount of my time… tomorrow, a friend for dinner, which will require an early start on dinner prep… sigh… there are times when i’d like to take off to a cabin in the woods and hibernate… i’m quite good at being alone…

HCR meter, ominous rumblings in Europe… Russia threatening Ukraine… Russia and Belarus pumping immigrants into Poland in an effort to inflame right wing dissidents and destabilize the region…

… i was thinking about the benefits of having lived in a pretty stable country… there have been times of unrest, but generally speaking, the average citizen could go about their business and depend on the world around them to behave pretty much the way it did the day before… there are so many people around the world for whom that isn’t true… what must be the loss in human product and accomplishment?… are we heading into a time where the world will twist and turn in ways we can’t possibly predict?… where faith in anything is impossible?…

… Cape Malay Pickled Fish for dinner last night… two days of marination in pickling juices… it was tasty… not clear that i would go to the trouble again… maybe…

… i did a search for recipes for CMPF and discovered a bunch of them… it appears i used the only recipe (from Martha Stewart), that fries the fish after marinating in the pickling juices for a couple of days… every other recipe cooks the fish before marinating… hmmm… i now have to cook this again…

Cafe Mutton!

a sterling review of my niece’s new restaurant!

First Thoughts

HCR meter, encouragement to progressives… all about the stock market crash, subsequent Republican attempts to pound the people even further into poverty, the election of FDR and the New Deal, which sparked recovery and American prosperity for multiple decades following, enabling the nation to prevail in the Second WW… the thought that immediately flows through my mind, why are conservatives so bent on pounding the people back to the place of the Great Depression?… why are they so keen on dismantling the social safety net system?… is it all about greed?… about wanting as much money and as many toys as possible?… it doesn’t really make sense to me… but then, i come from a place where i don’t want much more than supports a relatively humble existence… well, we are a little better off than humble existence, but we are solidly middle class and i like it that way… i am not a fan of unfettered capitalism, which is brutal… and, in any case, wealth distorts even that playing field… it is difficult to impossible to hold wealthy people accountable… what passes for justice in this country is what keeps the masses in line… this will get worse if conservatives have their way…

… economics as if people mattered… Buddhist economics… there has to be a better way…

… made a nice vegetarian dinner and even used the Instant Pot… i don’t like the IP that much… it’s a time saving device mostly designed to help one be a last minute cook… still, it did make a lovely dish in perhaps a little less time than cooking with normal pots and pans… chickpeas and tomatoes with Indian type spicing… cumin, turmeric, Cinamon… i served it with basmati rice and a salad of radicchio, fennel and radish…

… no alcohol last night… the usual feeling much better this morning…

… we are steadily making our way through The Haunting of Hill House… we are more than half way through and just now getting to the place where scary stuff happens… so far, i am not very scared… i don’t think we will finish by Halloween, maybe a day or two after…

… i must not forget the chickens today… i have been a little off center since forgetting them last Saturday…

… i have begun the switch to Proton Mail… i have worked out a way to keep Proton Mail free of spam, i hope… my proton email address will only be shared with friends and family… gmail will be used to sign up for things… email from sources i actually want to see will be forwarded to the Proton mail account via my admin@studiombk.com address… the result so far is a very clean email experience in Proton… i am curious if the Proton email address will be harvested from someone using gmail to communicate with me?… it occurs to me, that everyone should continue to have my gmail address, i will just set up filters to forward their email to Proton… now i have to work out profiles to reply with…

First Thoughts

… heavy rain last night… woke up intermittently to the sounds of splashing water… gutters that are clogged and overflowing?… don’t think it’s our gutters… the houses next door?…

HCR meter, interesting and disturbing… more and more information coming out about January 06, the administration of 45 and Facebook… a lot of evil afoot… it’s more and more likely that the insurrection was planned… Republican House members are implicated… 45 is implicated… there seems to be a “festering turd” pile of rich conservatives trying to cement power towards an autocracy… HCR points to 1903 as the last time the wealthy made such a significant play for control at the expense of democracy… it was turned back then… there is no guarantee it will be now… even so, with so much coming out, there is plenty for the people to act on and a number of actors intent on doing that… hoping the people prevail again…

… made Moela (or Moelas, as a Portuguese contact spelled it) last night… chicken gizzards… it’s a good way to make them… H is not a fan of gizzards in general but said she liked this dish, as she has in the past… it wasn’t quite spicy enough… omitted crushed red pepper in favor of two fresh poblano peppers instead of the one called for… the long cooking tempered the heat of the poblanos to the point of non existence… should have kept the crushed red pepper… next time… my Portuguese contact has promised to compare my recipe to his mother’s and let me know of differences…

… there will be no photo walk today… rain all day… not really interested in a photo drive as i used to do on such days… will just skip the day in photograph making and focus on processing and other photography practice objectives…

… i over-drank last night… not badly, but enough to feel effects… sigh… it’s a struggle…

… i remember that D and K are coming for dinner on Friday… i remember that there is money owed me… will this be the day i communicate with people such that it will come to me?… i have been oddly resistant to doing that… in one case, i am not ready to start the work again… or at least hesitant about doing so… in the other i am unclear of the price i should ask… anyway… lets make a pact with ourselves and get it done today, shall we?…

… i couldn’t resist… started the download of OS Monterey… several hours of wait and watch i expect…

Moela, Portuguese Chicken Gizzard Stew

… wishing there was a way to capture smell the way light can be captured in a photograph… i have a Portuguese chicken gizzard stew on the stove and the aroma is out of this world…

Making Fish Stock

… scored a couple of fish heads at the farmer’s market… making stock for a yet to be determined deliciousness…

Food

… an afternoon of cooking… roasting sugar pie pumpkins for soup… roasting pumpkin seeds… for dinner i will make salt baked red snapper, fondant potatoes and a bitter greens salad… all with fresh ingredients procured in the last couple of days…

… toasted peppercorns, coriander seed, fennel seed, crushed in mortar and pestle, the most amazing smell… for the fish cavity… as the fish steams in the salt crust the toasted spices are infused in the flesh… the flavor is subtle and amazing… i made oven baked fries flavored with Old Bay in lieu of the fondant potatoes as it took less time and attention… dinner was terrific but i prefer the salt crust of the recipe i usually use… will combine the spicing of this recipe with the salt crust of the other next time…

First Thoughts

… woke at 5 AM… that is sleeping late for me… busy day yesterday… lots got done… another busy day today…

… made beach rose hip jam yesterday… actually more of a marmalade…

… my first successful BR jam… tried last year but managed to burn the sugar…

HCR meter, country approaching the precipice… Mitch McConnel has lost control of his caucus?… are there those who would really see the country crash and burn because they could rebuild it as an oligarchy or with authoritarian control?… i believe the conditions are being set for Manchin and Synema to blow away the filibuster… if this happens, a floodgate of legislation that should drown radical Republicans and wash them out to the sea… one can only hope… in the meantime, our retirement life hangs in the balance…

… i had the thought this morning, its actually been hanging out in the recesses of my consciousness for a while, that 45 will return as a Hitleresque leader and Tucker Carlson will be his henchman, the one who sets up the concentration camps… this might seem outlandish, but i see a host of characters on the far right that would readily fill the roles of Nazi German government… Steve Bannon would be head of the SS… it doesn’t take me to any kind of happy place to be having these thoughts…

… sirens in the distance… many sirens… police, fire trucks, i am wondering what is going on… if it’s big, i will find out later…

Classic French Omelette Project

… as i have likely mentioned before, my pandemic project was to master the making of a classic french omelette… i am getting pretty good at it…

… a fissure on the top, not ideal… otherwise, good form…

Farmer’s Market Bounty

… planning on grilling some veggies… also, making some fennel frond pesto…

06 Tools of the Omelette Making Trade:

… Iwachu cast iron omelette pan, stainless steel mixing bowl, silicone omelette spatula, wire whisk, chopsticks…

06 The Classic French Omelette Learning Curve:

… i make classic French omelettes on an almost daily basis in an attempt to develop my skill to the near perfect level… i have been doing this since last October and am getting pretty good at it…

… i complicated my quest by refusing to use a non-stick skillet, which are generally bad for the environment…

… after a great deal of research and trial and error, I bought an Iwachu large iron omelette pan… it was factory seasoned and largely non-stick out of the box, though instructions recommended the application of an appropriate food oil before first use, which i did…

… frequently, my omelettes have been sticking in the middle of the pan which is not a big problem, but i was trying to figure out why…

… making omelettes in a cast iron pan is a matter of a well seasoned pan and knowing how hot to get the pan before adding butter then eggs… i have it down to the point that i time the heating up of the pan… 3.5 minutes at medium heat on the large burner has been the routine…

… it occurred to me that the pan might not be getting hot enough in the middle of the pan, so i increased the preheat time to 4 minutes…

… no sticking this morning…

… i will repeat for the next several days to make sure that was the problem…

… a photograph of this morning’s omelette…

📷 🍽

07 Food Stuff:

A game changer…

… every now and again you learn something about preparing food that is transformational… one of those lessons came from watching Samin Nosrat on Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat… she told me to salt meat hours before you are going to cook it…

… nearly every recipe i have used for cooking a good cut of meat says salt and pepper just before cooking… no, no, no, no!… hours before!… liberally, joyously salt it and then put it in the fridge…

… pull it out a half hour before cooking to warm up… then cook away… no need to salt at the table, it’s already integral to the meat…

06 Pandemic Skill

… my wife chose sourdough bread, i chose the classic French omelette… it has taken about eight months but this morning i produced a near perfect omelette… i have complicated the mission by refusing to use a nonstick skillet, trying both carbon steel and cast iron, eventually ordering the specialized Japanese pan the omelette in the pic is presented in…

08 Road Trip Part II

… Cafe Mutton…

… and then there’s the food…

Tortilla Espanola

Fried Baloney Sandwich

… i have never had one of these but apparently it’s a New Jersey thing… Freihoeffer’s bread, Helman’s Mayo, balogney made on premises…

Salad of the Now

… red lettuce, scallions, blue cheese…

Cherry Toast

… Centre of buratta cheese, bread, cherries…

… total yum!…

… on the way back we stopped at Quatro’s custom butcher and purveyor of fine foods…

… we picked up an awesome ribeye steak, smoked garlic and pheasant sausage, smoked duck breast, and some fresh corn…

… once home we cut the steak in half, cooked one half and saved the other for another day…

Pan Seared Ribeye Steak

… the steak was awesome!

05 Presto Pesto!

… scored some garlic scapes in the farmers market and decided to make a pesto… turns out a stick blender makes a good grinder to get everything pulverized… i prefer a mortar and pestle as flavor is better, but hard to haul on vacation… a stick blender is compact and versatile…

20210612.06 Fresh Baked!

… H’s chosen pandemic skill was sourdough bread… she spent all winter perfecting her loaf and buying equipment that allowed precision, new kitchen scale, proofing box, baking cloches, and more… we had to leave all that behind while we are on Block Island… this is her first effort without the supportive equipment…

… she’s definitely developed baking chops…

07 Chicken Prep

… wandering around the meatball pen on Thursday, harvested on Friday, spatchcocked and marinated on Monday…

… getting the marinade ready…

… K comes up from the city… we will cook the chicken over charcoal fire on the Green Egg…

this is the recipe i am using

05 Food and Art History

… of course!… Art Bites!

… and then i look up one of the recipes and there is nothing in it that connects to art history… hmmm… and then i look up another recipe and it does contain history, like this recipe for chickpea flatbread with olivesthis citrus and avocado salad recipe had no history attached to it, but i wonder about the combination of rhubarb and avocado?, hmmm…

11 Food

… i have been looking for ways to use rhubarb as a savory ingredient… i am not big on deserts because i am on the edge of pre-diabetes and because i can think of many ways i would rather consume the excess calories (hello cheese course!)… last night i made a rhubarb and spinach salad which called for poaching the quince and reducing the poaching liquid to make a dressing for the salad… the dressing was delicious, the rhubarb mushy… tonight i did a salad that called for pickling the rhubarb and using the pickle juice as part of the dressing… i much preferred the pickled rhubarb which softened a little but largely retained shape and crunch while gaining sweet-tart flavorings… it was combined with lovage (in lieu of celery) and fennel… i think celery would have been a little better… lovage is a strong flavor which overwhelmed the fennel… however, i think rhubarb and lovage would be lovely by themselves…

07 Skate in Brown Butter Caper Sauce

Poaching the skate in red wine vinegar, water, thyme salt and bay leaf… i thought i would post the final product but forgot… it was good…

08 Chicken Stock

… paying attention to the finer details, in this case, flavor development in my cooking…

… this will make 5 or 6 quarts when finished…