The Ursine Calamity

Where, Gentle Readers, does the time go?

Wait, don't answer... I know where it goes. It vanishes like soap-bubbles down the drain, sucked away by work, attempting in vain to be social, the impending holidays, the imperatives of other pursuits and obligations, by the malaise and ennui brought on by the failing light and the waning year. In other words, frittered away by everything BUT my work here.

And what, you might ask now that I am back, have I done with all this time that I haven't been here? The sad truth is that most of it has been spent in a god-awful cycle of productions with odd schedules that pretty much completely fucked mid-October to mid-November up for me. I'm talking about a not knowing what day (or even what time of day, sometimes) it was level of disconnection, my schedule got so erratic.

Despite that mess, though, I did manage to accomplish a few things that were noteworthy. Well, two things. Firstly, I brewed some pumpkin beer, which while not as overtly pumpkiny as I hoped, is pretty damn delicious. Secondly, I have managed (though frankly I am not sure how) to keep up my writing for the music blog, which is now part of Pajiba. My first piece under the new banner is here. The older stuff is here.

As for current events, I am in San Francisco at the moment. I have a little time here to enjoy myself, and then I am bound for San Diego for a gig. I have some fun stuff planned for my time here, and I will give you the highlights of those adventures soon.

Don't look at me like that! I really mean soon. The hard part of this fall and winter is, I think, over, and I should have lots more time and energy for the writing and the posting and the attempting to be witty from here on out.

Haiku #167 (A Train to Lefferts)
A thousand lives run
For an hour in parallel
Next stop: Canal Street

Every time I hear the name 'Hoboken,' the very first thing that pops into my head is the Bugs Bunny cartoon with the lost penguin. In Bugs' attempt to bring the poor little thing back to the South Pole, he accidentally ends up in Hoboken, twice; each time he exclaims, 'Hoboken?!? I'm dyyyyin' again!' As an inveterate Saturday morning cartoon watcher, this reaction of Bugs Bunny's defined my idea of Hoboken's appeal from as long as I can remember.

The second thing that immediately comes to mind, after Bugs Bunny, are my experiences on the PATH train and at and around the Hoboken train terminal, which I have passed through on various trips upstate. It do much for my opinion, I must say.

So that was my mindset when, this past weekend, I went into Hoboken proper for what was really the first time in order to check out the Garlic Festival in the courtyard of the Hoboken Historical Museum. The garlic festival was smaller than I hoped, but fun- lots of garlic varieties and other related produce were available for the tasting and the buying, and I came away not only with a couple of different garlics, but also some hot peppers and delicious heirloom tomatoes.

Afterwards, there was some walking around Hoboken. It is cuter than I thought it would be. Lots of red brick, very New England. And fairly quiet. I can see why people would like to live there. Except...

Well, except for the people. I am sorry, Gentle Readers, if I offend, but I must say that I wouldn't be able to stand it there. The only coffee shop we could find was Starbucks. Every business that was open on a Sunday was a brunch place in full swing, with scores of young corporate types downing mimosas and belinis. For all its lovely, solid architecture, the Hoboken I was in seemed to have no soul.

I am sure there is more there that I did not see. I am sure it has a soul, somewhere. I cannot say that I saw the whole town, or claim to know it in any intimate way. But I will say that from what I saw, I am not really thinking I would like to go back. I'm sorry, Hoboken, but this is the way it has to be...

I was a boogeyman in someone's day last weekend, Gentle Readers.

While I was exploring an abandoned water treatment plant I stumbled across while hiking, some other intrepid souls came upon the same building, and peered in the window that I had so recently been looking in myself. Being somewhat unsociable, and having gone hiking in the first place to avoid as much human contact as possible, I had no desire to be seen by or engage in conversation with these newcomers. To that end, I decided to slip past the window to a place out of sight, and hope that they did not decided to do more than peek in.

I was not fast enough, however, and one of them caught a glimpse of me. And let me tell you, it freaked him right out. His companions, when told that someone was lurking inside, thought he was just fucking with them. It kind of amused me. Plus it discouraged them from trying to come in, which was what I wanted in the first place (though I had no intention of frightening them, or even being seen).

I have been coming back to it all week; it's strange, I think, how little we realize the impact we have on those around us, especially in a place as crowded as New York. I am not talking about our friends, the people we intend to affect; I mean the guy you bump into on the subway, or the kid you hold the door open for, or the woman behind the counter at the bodega... We tend to think that those are just isolated moments, but really, how far do those actions ripple down the other person's day, or week? I mean, I bet my 'friend' from the water treatment plant will be talking about me for a while to come.

It's a little bit sobering. It's easy to be careless, especially with strangers; easy to discount those moments in time. But perhaps we should not be so quick to do so...

I think the picture says it all, Gentle Readers, so I don't think I need prattle on too much. I am getting out of Dodge for a couple of days in the great outdoors. This is bear weather, after all, and I am am very much looking forward to being out in it. Destination? Harriman Park and the ruins of Doodletown therein.

See you in a couple of days!

Haiku #166 (Autumn)
I shiver and flush;
Fall kisses my cheek, her cool
touch upon my neck.

I made ravioli from scratch last week. It was good- really good. And a lot easier than I thought, but don't get me wrong- it is still a significant undertaking. And they weren't flawless, either; the recipe below has been adjusted to account for the things I learned and the mistakes I made. The two chief ones being that I made way to much filling and I left the dough a little too thick. Alack!

Seriously, though, Gentle Readers, even with such flaws they came out very well. The pasta recipe is something I have been playing with, and am very happy with, and what is not good about cheese and olives? Of course, you could stuff them with just about anything you desired... I reckon that by adding some sugar to the pasta recipe and filling them with some kind of sweet fruity mix you could make a nice dessert, too... perhaps deep fried blueberry ravioli?

I might have to try that...

Cheese and Olive Ravioli

For the Dough:
• One Cup White Flour
• One Cup Semolina Flour
• 1/3 Cup Water
• Three Eggs
• One Teaspoon Salt

For the Filling:
• One Cup Ricotta Cheese
• One Cup Mozzarella, Grated
• 1/2 Cup Parmesan Grated
• 1/2 Cup of Diced Olives
• One Tablespoon Olive Oil
• One Teaspoon Pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the filling together in a bowl and set aside.

Sift the flours and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and water to the well, and with a fork start beating the eggs, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients. You will need to switch from the fork to a wooden spoon or other, sturdier utensil eventually, and at the end you should be working it with your hands. The dough should be smooth and very elastic, but not at all sticky; if necessary, turn it out on a generously floured board and work in some more flour by rolling the dough out, dusting with flour, folding it on itself, rolling it out, and so on... once it is no longer sticky, you can either work it down to the proper thickness in a pasta machine (#2, I think, is right) or by hand with a rolling pin (in which case you are going to want to divide the dough up to make it easier to work with). It needs to be very thin when you are done, less than 1/8" thick- otherwise your ravioli will be very chewy.

I used a ravioli mold like this one to make the ones you see in the picture, and it was quite easy. Flour the mold and then lay a piece of dough on top. Use the plastic bit to make the depressions, and fill each with a teaspoon or so of the filling. Cover your proto-ravioli with another piece of dough, flip the plastic bit over, and use it to push down, sealing and cutting your raviolis. Gently extract them from the mold and repeat until you run out of dough and filling.

Now, if you want to make them by hand, without the mold, you should lay out a piece of dough on your work surface and place the filling on it by teaspoonfuls in a grid, on about 2" centers. Dip a finger in some water and moisten the dough between the filling, where the seal will be. Lay another piece of dough on top gently press down, sealing each bit of filling in its own little pocket. Take a sharp knife or pastry wheel and cut your ravioli apart.

To cook, add the ravioli to boiling water (with salt and oil in it, of course) and cook them for about 5 minutes- a little longer if you have stored them, but not much. Serve with the sauce of your choosing and enjoy.

And there you have it! With a pasta machine and ravioli mold, this should take about 2 hours from start to finish. If you do it all by hand, it will probably take 3 hours. You can cook them immediately or store them in the refrigerator for 5 or 6 days. If you store them, make sure they are generously floured first, or better yet separate layers of them with waxed paper; otherwise they will stick together and you will have a giant ravioli ball instead of a bunch of cute little pasta packets of goodness.

The Fall is my favorite culinary season. Apples, pumpkins and squashes, nuts... these are some of my very favorite things to cook with. Apples especially.

This is an update of an older recipe. Well, perhaps 'variation' is a better way to describe it, since the other sausage pie recipe is more along the lines of a cottage pie, what with the vegetables and all, and this one goes in an apple-y, cheesy direction. But update works too, since the batter I am using here is a direct descendant of the one in the older recipe. In any case this version is, I think, far superior Gentle Readers. And really, have you ever known me to lead you astray in matters culinary?

Sausage, Apple, and Cheddar Pie

For the Filling:
• One Pound Sweet Sausage, Cut into Chunks
• 4 Ounces of Cheddar Cheese, Cubed
• 2 Ounces of Cheddar Cheese, Grated
• 3 Medium Apples, Thinly Sliced
• One Tablespoon Minced Garlic
• Four Cups of Apple Cider
• Butter
• Salt
• Pepper

For the Batter Crust:
• Two Cups of Flour
• One and One-Quarter Cups of Milk
• Three Eggs
• One Tablespoons Oil
• One Tablespoon Salt
• One Tablespoon Pepper
• Two Teaspoons Baking Soda

Heat the oven to 350º.

Put a large pat of butter in a hot saucepan over medium heat. Saute the garlic until it starts to brown. Add the sausage chunks and cook until well browned. Add half of the cider and let it simmer down into a glaze.

While the sausage simmers, in another saucepan melt some butter over high heat. When it is hot, throw in the sliced apples and fry them until they begin to soften (and soak up the butter). Add the apples and the remainder of the cider to the sausages, stir, and let simmer until the cider thickens once again into a glaze. Remove from heat.

While the sausage is cools, combine all of the ingredients for the Batter Crust in a large mixing bowl. It should end up fairly thick- if it is runny, add more flour by the tablespoon until it thickens up.

Generously butter a pie plate or cake pan (9" round), and pour in a little less than half of the batter. Gently (as we are trying to get it to sit on top of the batter, not plummet through to the bottom of the pan) add the sausage and apples, and the cubes of cheese. Pour the rest of the batter over everything, trying to cover it all. Sprinkle with the grated cheddar and some more pepper, if you like (I do).

Bake at 350 until the top of the pie browns, 45 - 50 minutes.

You can serve it piping hot, of course, but it is also delicious cold. Enjoy!

I managed to brew beer during Fashion Week.

Well, that's not strictly true, I suppose; I actually brewed it before Fashion Week, and I bottled it just after. But it fermented during Fashion Week, Gentle Readers, which still feels like an accomplishment to me. Productivity by proxy, maybe, but productivity nonetheless. Truly, I cannot remember the last time I accomplished something in my personal life during Fashion Week. There are those who would say that this must mean that I didn't have enough to do; I, however, think it means that perhaps I have grown some, and am not so self-deprivingly single-minded as I once was.

I tried my hand at a Strawberry Wheat this time, a distinct departure from any of the beer that I have made to date, being both my first attempt at a wheat and my first use of fruit. In my typical fashion, I did not avail myself much of the information on the subject of brewing with fruit on the internet, preferring instead to estimate what was needed myself and succeed or fail on my own. Stubbornness? Certainly. And possibly foolish, not to take advantage of the knowledge of others when freely available. But dumb or not, I would rather fail at my own plan than succeed with someone else's.

It turned out pretty tasty, to judge from the sample I tasted when I bottled it yesterday. Wheaty, to be sure. And a sharp front note from the hops. The fruit is subtle; a bit too subtle, actually. I think I need to double, at least, the strawberries next time. But they are there in the finish. So, lesson learned. And I am quite pleased, even if it didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned it.

But then again, what does?

I am talking about the perils of acoustic arrangements today over at The Music is the Message...