Month: April 2004

I took this week off to get into the garden and get some early planting done. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating. Here you can see yet another thunderstorm rolling down the valley. Tonight it is supposed to go down to freezing, so perhaps it is best that we have not been able to get in to plant.

In other signs of spring, we have new growth on our evergreens.

Last night, Gretchen and I felt the need for a sweet after our meat. For the last IMBB, I said that in this circumstance, we will sometimes make a pineapple upside-down cake, since it is quick and easy and made with pantry staples. Well, these butterscotch squares fall into that category and are what we had last night.

Butterscotch Squares

• ½ cup Unsalted Butter
• 2 cups Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• ¼ teaspoon Salt
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 cup Dry Shredded Coconut
• 1 cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)

1. Combine the butter and brown sugar in a 2-quart sauce pan and cook over a low heat until it just starts to bubble around the edges.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool enough so that the eggs will not scrambled when you add them.
3. Add the eggs and beat well.
4. Mix in the vanilla, salt, baking powder, and the flour — adding the flour a little at a time.
5. Fold in the coconut and chopped walnuts (if you are using them).
6. Spread the mixture in a greased 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Alternatively, use a parchment lined dish.
7. Bake in a 350°F oven for 15-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

Breakfast was two scrambled eggs and some ham with two cups of coffee. I weighed 157 pounds.

I am on vacation this week.

I had a banana and a glass of orange juice as a mid-morning snack.

Lunch was two more of those little ham sandwiches and a Saranac Pale Ale.

Gretchen and I had another Saranac Pale Ale late this afternoon.

Dinner was a marinated grilled Delmonico steak with sautéed onions and Indian Harvest Aztec blend rice, accompanied by to glasses of Redwood Creek Merlot, with three butterscotch squares for dessert. The steak was from a steer raised by the dairy farmer down the road… and very tasty and tender. They raise all of their own feed.

I have to say that these two bottles from Redwood Creek — both the Merlot and the Pinot Grigio — were much dryer than comparable wines from other vineyards. Not that that is a bad thing. They were still quite drinkable, but it is something to keep in mind. Also, the corks in both bottles were quite loose (some wineries prefer loose corks). I would recommend a cork screw to extract the cork. I personally prefer a cork pull. I feel that I am much more likely to get out the cork undamaged. However, it requires an initial downward force on the cork. If the cork is loose, this can drive the cork down into the bottle. Again… just something to keep in mind.

This comes to us via The Amateur Gourmet:

Not one in 10,000 knows who General Tso (most commonly pronounced “sow”) was, nor what terrible times he lived through, nor the dark massacres that distinguished his baleful, belligerent career. Setting their chopsticks aside, patting their stomachs, the satisfied diners spare scarcely a thought for General Tso, except to imagine that he must have been a great connoisseur of hot stir-fried chicken. [Browning]

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the General, The Definitive General Tso’s Chicken Page defines General Tso’s Chicken this way: “fried boneless dark-meat chicken, served with vegetables and whole dried red peppers in a sweet-spicy sauce.” Though, many variations exist.

Martine Gingras presents her own personal variation, in the “General Tao” style, over at Suburblicious.

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Browning, Michael. “Who Was General Tso And Why Are We Eating His Chicken?” The Washington Post. 17 April 2004. <www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59302-2002Apr16> (26 April 2004).

Give a visit to a page that presents some instructional videos on how to create Latte Art, including a heart, a leaf, and an apple.

Inspired by the excitement of watching Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Wolfgang Puck in Battle Egg, I went a little crazy and added a whole big bunch of new links. If you are looking for something new, go browse through the links under Interesting Blogs.

Gretchen wanted to get the potatoes in today, but we got our first thunder storm of the year today, so it is too wet to get into the garden, but at least we worked out the garden layout.

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal with banana slices and two cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

Lunch was three (very small) ham and cheese sandwiches and a Saranac Pale Ale.

Dinner was whole wheat spaghetti and marinara sauce with Italian bread and a small salad and two glasses of Redwood Creek Pinot Grigio to drink (and a few peanuts).

Consider this: from the perspective of a profit-maximising medical and pharmaceutical industry, the ideal disease would be one that never killed those who suffered from it, that could not be treated effectively, and that doctors and their patients would nevertheless insist on treating anyway. Luckily for it, the American health care industry has discovered (or rather invented) just such a disease. It is called “obesity.” Basically, obesity research in America is funded by the diet and drug industry — that is, the economic actors who have the most to gain from the conclusion that being fat is a disease that requires aggressive treatment. Many researchers have direct financial relationships with the companies whose products they are evaluating.

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Campos, Paul. “The big fat con story.” Guardian Unlimited. 24 April 2004. <www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1200549,00.html> (25 April 2004).

The asparagus is finally up!