Month: January 2004

<a href="http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season1/Onion/OnionTranscript.htm" title="A Bowl of Onion Transcript">A Bowl of Onion</a>: &ldquo;&lsquo;Life is like an onion. You peel it off a layer at a time. Sometimes you cry.&rsquo; �Or so wrote Carl Sandburg.&rdquo;

Breakfast this morning was a toasted slice of Gretchen’s Italian bread with some preserves we got as a gift for Christmas, some pecan halves, and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 158 pounds.



Lunch was Panda Buffet’s orange chicken with vegetables on steamed rice with hot and sour soup and a small sierra mist. I walked to the HUB and back (2 miles, round trip).



<ins datetime="2004-01-09T10:43:00-05:00">Dinner was half of a homemade Hawaiian pizza and a glass of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>.</ins>

<a href="http://mfdh.ca/writing/nonfiction/Death_By_Cheeseburger.html" title="Death By Cheeseburger">Death By Cheeseburger</a>: &ldquo;The story of the cheeseburger begins under the chapped ass of some fierce thirteenth century Mongol warrior, riding hard across Eurasia on the back of his foaming steed. You see, the Tartars felt that the tough ribbons of gamey beef to which they had access on the Russian Steppe should best be tenderised by using them as saddles. This delicacy would, with some modification, eventually find its way to the West as <em>le steak tartare</em>.&rdquo;

Breakfast was a bowl of Irish oats and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 159 pounds.



<ins datetime="2004-01-08T12:43:00-05:00">I had a <a href="http://www.naturevalley.com/Products2.htm" title="Welcome to Nature Valley: Products">Nature Valley Oats &rsquo;N Honey Crunchy Granola Bar</a> for lunch.</ins>



<ins datetime="2004-01-08T19:45:00-05:00">Dinner was a salad, a slice of Gretchen&rsquo;s Italian bread, three <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolates, some tortilla chips and homemade salsa, and a glass of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>.</ins>

• 12.995 Gallons
• $1.539/Gallon
• $20.00
• 279.9 Miles
• 21.5 Miles/Gallon
• 7¢/Mile
• 24 Days

<a href="http://www.theonion.com/4001/top_story.html" title="The Onion | Spaghetti-Os Discontinued As Franco-American Relations Break Down">Spaghetti-Os Discontinued As Franco-American Relations Break Down</a>: &ldquo;The international dispute casts a pall over the proud and storied history of Spaghetti-Os. A symbol of trans-Atlantic friendship dating back to 1965, the canned lunchtime staple began as a cooperative effort between U.S. president Lyndon Johnson and French president Charles de Gaulle, who shared the conviction that the convenient pasta meal was a delicious and nutritious way to maintain good Franco-American relations.



&ldquo;From 1965 to 1968, a panel of top U.S. food engineers painstakingly developed the four sizes of Os while France&rsquo;s most esteemed chefs developed the distinctive tomato-and-cheese sauce. When finally unveiled at a White House dinner, Johnson hailed Spaghetti-Os as &lsquo;the zesty, flavorful glue that holds our two nations together in peace.&rsquo; Subsequent development of meatball and sliced-frank varieties of the product only added to its enduring mythos.



&ldquo;After years of mutual amity, however, the Age Of Spaghetti-Os may have finally come to an end. More fuel was added to the fire earlier this month, when U.N. Secretary Of Quick-Heating Prepared Foods Stefan Fredriksen openly questioned the Franco-American venture in the November issue of <em>Bon Appetit</em>.&rdquo;

Breakfast this morning was a few dried apricots and dates. I weighed in at 159 pounds. Lunch was an orange. No walk today — it is cold, my legs are sore from my walk yesterday, and I have a meeting at 1:00.



<ins datetime="2004-01-07T12:19:00-05:00">I had a <a href="http://www.naturevalley.com/Products2.htm" title="Welcome to Nature Valley: Products">Nature Valley Oats &rsquo;N Honey Crunchy Granola Bar</a> this afternoon.</ins>



<ins datetime="2004-01-08T16:49:00-05:00">Dinner was the last of the butternut squash and vegetable gratin, a small green salad, a slice of Gretchen&rsquo;s Italian bread, and two <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolates.</ins>

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/dining/07MINI.html" title="The Minimalist: Spanish for Clams">The Minimalist: Spanish for Clams</a>: &ldquo;Sherry comes from the area around Jerez (pronounced he-RETH, which is supposed to sound something like sherry), a town in southern Spain. It starts its life as white wine made from the palomino grape but for some mysterious reason produces a yeasty substance called flor, which gives it its unusual character. It is then &lsquo;fortified&rsquo; &mdash; its fermentation stopped by the addition of extra alcohol &mdash; so it is a little more potent than normal table wine.



&ldquo;You can spend a fortune on sherry, but since each bottle is a product of several different vintages it is consistent from year to year, and the fact that it is stabilized by alcohol enhances its shelf life. (Refrigerated, an opened bottle retains good flavor for several days.) In short, all real sherry is good (you should stay away from the fake, supermarket variety), and bottles costing $10 or so are more than acceptable. Fino is probably best for drinking, but the slightly sweeter, nuttier amontillado and oloroso are perhaps a little better for cooking.&rdquo;

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41339-2003Dec30.html" title="The Basics of Bubbly (washingtonpost.com)">The Basics of Bubbly</a>: If you are a once-a-year bubbly consumer, here are five crucial points to consider: 

1. Get the temperature right: Champagne should be just a little colder than still white wines, but a prolonged ice bath will get it too cold and obscure its complexity. From room temperature, a full hour in the refrigerator or about 25 minutes in the freezer will be about right.
2. As Hippocrates said: First, do not poke your eye out. Keep constant downward pressure on the cork, even when unwinding the wire cage. Ease the cork from the bottle by grasping it firmly as you twist the base of the bottle from side to side. A very faint release of air pressure (phonetically, ‘pfffft’) is all you should hear.
3. Spring for a few decent glasses. The broad, shallow coupe-style should be pitched into the fireplace in favor of tall, slim, flute- or tulip-style glasses, in clear (i.e., uncut) crystal.
4. No soap, ever! A flat beer is a drag, but a flat Cuvee de Prestige is a catastrophe. You can remove fingerprints and lipstick from the outside of glasses when perfectly inverted with a lightly soapy sponge, but never let any soap into the interior, which should only be rinsed with very hot water. Dishtowels can retain soap residues, so air-dry the glasses or use paper towels.
5. If tonight’s festivities will be crowded and noisy, Cuvee de Prestige Champagnes would obviously be prohibitively expensive, and though ‘pearls before swine’ would be too harsh, it makes no sense to serve wines deserving contemplation under raucous circumstances.

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41345-2003Dec30.html" title="You Can Grind Your Own (washingtonpost.com)">You Can Grind Your Own</a>: &ldquo;One way for a consumer to keep some control over the content of hamburger meat is to buy a preferred cut, either organic or traditional, and grind the beef at home. In so doing, you can choose a cut that is not near a bone or the spinal cord and you can ensure that your grinding equipment is not contaminated with those parts of another animal. Also, not incidentally, you can make a delicious burger with just a small investment in a meat grinder and about 10 minutes time to grind a few pounds of meat. 

The Cut

“To grind beef at home, start with the right cut. The best ground beef and, at this point, the one that might be safest, is typically made from a boneless cut, preferably a relatively high-fat cut such as chuck steak. (The fat lends juiciness to the burger.) The intensely flavorful but somewhat leaner sirloin steak, or a combination of chuck and sirloin, may also be used. 



“If available, select choice-grade beef, which tends to contain more marbled fat and, hence, more moisture. 

The Grind

“Once you select a cut of beef, you can grind it at home (see below) or you can ask the staff at a local meat counter to grind it for you. (Some stores may not indulge this request, especially during exceptionally heavy shopping hours or late at night after the equipment has been cleaned.) 



“To grind a cut of beef at home, there are several options. For the most consistent and best results, use a grinder. An inexpensive old-fashioned meat grinder or chopper can be clamped to the edge of a counter and hand-cranked (typically from about $30). A meat-grinding attachment may be purchased for a standing mixer (from about $65). And there are dozens of free-standing countertop grinders available in all shapes and sizes and prices. If using a grinder, grind the meat twice. 



“A food processor fitted with a steel blade may also be used to ‘grind’ beef, although it will result in a slightly mushier, less coarse consistency. Process the meat in small batches, pulsing briefly (1 to 2 seconds) just until the desired consistency is attained; do not overprocess. 



“Before grinding, cut the beef into chunks or thick strips and freeze partially (about 25 minutes) to prevent the beef from becoming too warm and mushy during grinding.”