An infrequent blogger returns to the blog

We made a kind of Passover dinner Sunday night. Veal meatballs with matzo meal, green olives, egg, parsley and garlic; served with perfectly diced (by me of course!) braised parsnips and turnips picked up from the Public market on Saturday. Shopping at 7:30 am when the weather is 20 degrees was unexpectedly fun.

We have a cooking class tonight at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. It is based on maple, so includes salmon, pork, chicken, brussel sprouts, parsnips and so forth. This is more for my husband than me. In exchange, he has agreed to go with me to a class in two weeks on bivalves, which I love. Finally, I get to learn how to chuck oysters!

Lecture last night at RIT was fascinating. Hiroshi Ishii was the lecturer for "The Art of Tangible Bits." The premise was that there are more ways of interacting and getting information from the environment than mouse/keyboard/display, so why be constrained? There are the science fictiony elements such as the screen displays seen in "Minority Reports." Examples shown include a glow lamp (ambientdevices.com) that changes color based on the stock market; a bottle, placed on a glass table, that when uncorked plays bird song if the weather is nice; a sand table or clay table that is continuously mapped by a computer and has contour maps or other information overlaid on it as it is changed.

I have been picking up and reading and resting from reading "Songs of the Dying Earth," a tribute anthogy to Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" series. I remember reading his book as a teenager and the stories entranced me. However, the effulgent language is best taken in small draughts and so it has taken me over 6 months to get almost to the end. Another book, Ricardo Pinto's "The Third God," I have been avoiding starting as it feels like such a commitment. I know once I get into it I will enjoy it as he is a visionary writer. It occurred to me to go with my husband to his family this easter weekend as a way of starting the book during the 12 hour total car ride. My husband made fun of me for that thought, declaring he would have taken pleasure at starting the book at home if he knew he was all alone.

We have new kittens arriving in May from Natureworks cattery in Gananoque, Ontario. They are Pixie Bob cats, mainly because I wanted cats that would be on the large size. We couldn't get, for example, Savannah cats, as the lower generation (larger) cats are not legal in NYS. These are likely our last kittens. We've loved all our cats over the years, large and small, but all non-pure-bred; in memory of our big boys Pascal and Tamarind, and girls, Teaka, I wanted big cuddlers. It should be interesting having kittens around! We were commenting the other day about kitten proofing the house and about how we have to train them to not get on the kitchen counter and not walk over keyboards. But then we came to the realization after opening the door for Pumpkin and Pudly for the upteenth time that they train us!

So, names for the cats are under consideration. Obviously they may change as we get to know the kittens and their personalities. Immediately, Ada came to mind for the girl, in honor of Lady Lovelace, the progenitor of computer programming. Grace is also under consideration, for Admiral Hopper, inventor of COBOL. Albert came to mind for the boy, in honor of Einstein. My husband suggested keeping with the theme of famous programmers but they generally have such boring names: George and John and Guido, for example. Von Neumann is on the table. Getting back to physicists, and staying away from names with sibilant consonants: Galileo, Kelvin, Henri, Nikola.

Baking preferences

There are few things in life more sublime than a nice warm freshly baked biscuit. Sad to say, though, the readily-available Bisquik mix is lumpy. The recipe from Joy of Cooking or similar cookbooks is another doughy, dry lump. My husband and I had a discussion which ended with him declaring he would make a biscuit! He used a puff pastry recipe, which exemplified his ideal of a buscuit: buttery, layered, crispy. And it was good, although I got on his wrong side by asserting it was a puff pastry not a biscuit recipe. So the next weekend I turned to one of our newest cookbooks, Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman. I was not disappointed. It was a nice, chewy, layered biscuit, which exemplified my ideal.

It also made me realize the importance of testing recipes, and how much I appreciate cooks such as Michael Ruhlman, Alton Brown, and the guiding light behind Cook's Illustrated, Christopher Kimball. They take the time to throughly vet recipes, understand the science behind the techniques and ingredients used, and share it with the middling cook, such as myself. Also, as a scientist, I appreciate the scientific approach. I hear of people who eat out most nights of the week, or simply reheat prepared foods, and I shudder. Maybe I am too hard on myself, calling myself a "middling" cook, but even my mediocre (ok- outright failed) attempts usually taste better than the Olive Garden or frozen dinners. I know the kids in school have a lot to learn and would probably rebel at the thought of more classes in their curriculums. But would it kill them to take a semester or two of basic home cooking, accompanied perhaps by visits to restaurant kitchens of higher caliber? I probably would not have appreciated it at the time, too, myself, but that would've enhanced my life so much now. As well as other things that were self-taught such as balancing my check book, etc.

Reading is good

I have always been a voracious reader. Anything in reach will be read even if it is not interesting. Dining is normally multi-tasking with a book or newspaper. Preferred genres are science fiction, historical biographies (as in, dead more than 100 years), science non-fiction, single topic books (as in, Salt), Edith Wharton and suchlike. As someone who has a lot of books, many of which she has re-read, that take up two and a half rooms in her house, I have always harbored the fantasy that I could be a writer. However, as this blog bears witness, I write quite infrequently. So I will aim to write more often, and to branch out from the culinary delights that are oft my subjects.

So I will today relate my love for the feline members of the household. We are down to 4 (from a high of 10-12, depending on how you count). It feels empty sometimes, when we remember the crowd that we had once. We have been fortunate to share many years with our companions, with the majority passing away at advanced old ages. So who is left? A petite, q-tip fetching, long haired black and white girl; a three-legged all-orange tabby boy; a playful all-grey tabby boy; and the old orange tabby curmudgeon who came with the farm and now leads his retired life of leisure indoors. It feels sad to relate that setting out their meals does not anymore require wading through a sea of fur; yet the nightimes still finds us trapped in positions in bed where we do not wish to disturb our sleeping buddies.

Dining in Rochester

We went out for dinner last night at Eros' biweekly wine tasting dinner. Of note for me were the riesling for the first course, a delicious Bloom riesling from Germany. The second course was a pleasant surprise with a lobster/cornbread/strawberry salsa. The company at the approx. 40 person dinner was pleasant, we sat with an architect and his wife, who recently relocated from Texas. She could not get used to our regional pronounciations of "Chili," "Charlotte," "Lima," and "Avon." They live in the top floor of a local landmark, recently converted to loft apartments. I was talking with my co-worker about his travel plans. He mentions how nice it is to come home to the known comforts of Rochester. Even though the restaurants might be better elsewhere, even though the architecture is grander, the art institutions larger, what we have here is usually good enough and actually not bad at all.

Polenta, Polenta, Polenta- what to do?

I've often commented to my husband, my co-occupant of this house, my co-omnivore, that I don't know how to cook for two. Really, I don't. Two cups corn meal + six cups broth; you can see that's a lot of corn mush. Corn mush- really, the proper name for polenta. Polenta is such a sexy euphemism for corn mush. But, aaah, add cheese and an herb, say, rosemary, you got yourself a stellar side dish!

Mainly, this failing of mine results in leftovers- which he enjoys. But sometimes it's too much and it goes to waste. Tonight I'm not sure a pound of veal, the above-mentioned polenta (dredged in panko and fried), with mushrooms sauteed with rosemary and garlic, will receive the proper destination- stomachs, not compost.

Will work for dinner

Last night we had a good dinner to celebrate my husband's first day of paid work in about 10 months. I picked up some NY Strip Steak at Skips. Many thanks to my friend Mike for telling me about this butcher- their prices are so much more economical than Wegman's. Sauteed some bok choy with garlic and balsamic vinegar, made smashed potatoes with baby reds (skin on, of course), and sauteed some shitake mushrooms. My husband was enlisted to mash the potatoes when they were done, as I had enough to do with monitoring three other burners at once. He commented that gave him the opportunity to add extra butter without me knowing about it. Well, it all tastes better that way, doesn't it?

The temperatures could have been higher on the steak and the mushrooms, as they were cooked through but lacking that nice caramelization. Got me to thinking about how sometimes our jobs, paid or not, can bring out the best without going too far. By far, my current job is my least favorite. It will not challenge me, but neither will it burn me out. Of my past positions, the ones that were the most challenging were the best ones. And by challenging, I mean they had technical challenges and not merely institutional speedbumps. In today's economy, this current position will have to do until things pick up again. Here's hoping that my husband's new long commute- an hour plus each way- will not burn him out but afford him thinking time to consider what he'd like to do.

Eats to remember- Thai red curry

This blog is intended to be a place to document my remembrances and enjoyments.

One of things we enjoy is good food. In our household, margarine and Wonder Bread are verboten. However, due to childhood likes, boxed Mac and Cheez are not. And should I mention how good Merlot and Cheezy Puffs are together? Probably not.

My husband made a very nice dinner last night. I asked him to make a curry dinner, using the canned curry pastes we have in the pantry. My preference is Green, but I guess we only had Red and Yellow available. He made Basmati Rice, sauteed some shrimp and scallops, stirred in coconut milk and red curry, then added onion, pepper, garlic and ginger. His genius touch was wilting bok choy separately with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Combine all the above and it was a very good dinner, the scallops were like butter! I think all I could have done differently was to reduce the sauce a bit more so it thickened and coated everything. And it could've used more curry as it was not hot at all... pay no heed, as I was one who once used a whole can of curry paste which is a story in and of itself.

The tragedy of it all was when the carefully packed leftovers were not put in my lunch bag the next morning. Imprecations were mentioned, with which I will not sully your eyes with, dear reader.