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Turn On Me
August 1, 2008 | permalink
The first stage of fermentation of the (not-quite-yet-but-soon-to-be) Buckwheat Mead is complete; I moved have it out of the primary fermenter and into the glass carboy, where it will continue it's transformation.
In the strictest sense, this isn't necessary. Fermentation would continue if it was left in the primary container, and I would still end up with a good mead. However, transferring to a new, clean vessel allows one to leave behind the dead yeast and other solid by products that have accumulated thus far, and will leave you with a clearer end product, in terms of both visual clarity and taste. It also stirs everything up, and so in effect 'nudges' the yeast (which is slowing down at this point) into a second round of high activity. Additionally, it frees up the primary for the next batch of whatever you are making, which is important if you are doing your brewing in a small New York apartment like I am. And, of course, it creates a good opportunity to taste the mead in-progress.
And what did it taste like, you ask?
When the must was sealed into the primary, it was god-awful sweet, the kind of sweet that makes your teeth vibrate and your eyeballs itch, and totally overpowers any other flavor that might be present; in other words, completely undrinkable. Now, however, I would say about three-quarters of that sweetness has become alcohol. It is still sweet, but not unpleasantly so, and it is currently about as strong, alcohol-wise, as the test batches I made earlier this year, and it still has a bit to go before it is done. The flavor is emerging from behind the sweetness as well; it has these dark, bitter, molasses-y tones that are really interesting. I can't wait to see how the finished mead turns out.
Posted in Food and Drink & The Home Front(0) Comments
Honey-Wine
July 7, 2008 | permalink
Earlier in the year, I made a couple of small test batches of mead. Mead, if you are not familiar with it, is honey-wine, very old and very simple; in its base form, it consists of only honey, water, and yeast. I made a gallon of mead with clover honey, and another with orange blossom honey. They were delicious.
Both came out light and (unsurprisingly) a little sweet, but also crisp. There was a champagne-like quality about them, which was made more prevalent by the fact that both batches were slightly carbonated. Which was not certainly not a problem, but also not my intention; I bottled them both just a touch too soon, with the yeast still active. Oh, and did I mention that it's really strong? Stronger than wine, certainly. I neglected to take any measurements, so I can't know for sure exactly what proof it ended up, but it's strong enough to warm you as it goes down, and two glasses is enough to make me pretty tipsy. If I had to guess, I would put it at 18 or 20 percent.
This past week, having successfully done my trial runs, I started a big batch- 4 gallons. Which, for your reference, ought to yield me about 18 wine bottles worth of mead. I am quite excited.
I made it with buckwheat honey. I don't know if you have ever had it; it is very sweet, dark, and full of flavor. Imagine an equal mix of clover honey and dark molasses and you have it about right. It ought to end up giving me a very dark, rich, and seriously strong mead. Sort of the stout of meads, I would think.
I know what you are thinking, Gentle Readers. You are wondering how you can get your hands on some of this elixir. The truth is, at it's base, mead is really simple, and you probably have nearly everything you need in your house to make a gallon of mead right now. The batches I have made, including this last big batch, all follow the same basic recipe- combine 3 parts water to 1 part honey, add yeast, and let it sit and ferment for 6 weeks or so. It is a little more complicated in practice- everything needs to be sterile and handled right, so you don't end up growing a giant mold colony- but only a little, and certainly doable in your kitchen.
If anyone is interested, I will post detailed directions for making a batch yourself. And I will certainly let you know how this batch turns out. I should be able to taste it somewhere near the end of August....
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Green Green Grass of Home
May 19, 2008 | permalink
Most of what I have been doing these last few months while I haven't been writing has revolved around making more of what I consume from its base ingredients. One of the things I have done do help me achieve this is to start a tomato and herb garden at home. It is, as you can see in the photo, thriving.
Some of it (the rosemary and the lemon verbena) are growing in earth in pots, but most of it is in an Aerogarden, which, if you are not familiar, is a small hydroponic system. It is pretty cool, I must say, and deeply satisfying to see the herbs grow. They grow quickly, too... It's been not quite six weeks since I got it, and you can see how far it's progressed.
There are some who may ask, 'My calamitous friend, isn't using some machine to grow your herbs sort of counter to the idea of making things for yourself?' Well, I did think about that. And what I decided was that I am not against technology in general, or using it to do things better- that is what it is for, after all. The garden uses little electricity, the plants produce oxygen as well as feeding me, and, since I am realistically going to be gone for days or a week or more with little or no notice (not yet being independently wealthy), the Aerogarden allows me to grow things that I might not otherwise be able to keep alive.
On top of that, it's just damn cool.
Posted in Food and Drink & The Home Front(3) Comments
Homemade Butter
March 2, 2008 | permalink
I made butter yesterday.
I didn't do it all Olde Timey style, like with a churn (not that I don't want to- I just don't have one. I bought one on Ebay a while ago, but I got stiffed). I have a small food processor that it turns out is the perfect size for a pint of heavy cream.
Making butter is really simple, and I have done it before, though not for a very long time. I had kind of forgotten how it all worked, and how cool it is to see the transformation happen. And it is, of course, way tastier than what you are getting at the grocery store. I highly recommend you give it a whirl.
Butter from the Blender
- 1 Pint Heavy Cream
- Salt to Taste
Blend the cream on high in your blender or food processor. In fairly short order it will become whipped cream. Nothing will appear to happen for the next 5-10 minutes- just keep blending. The volume of the whipped cream will begin to slowly decrease, and you will feel, rather than see, the solids start to collect into butter. Shortly after this, and very quickly, the cream will collapse and separate into butter and buttermilk. (mmm... pancakes, anyone?)
Strain the buttermilk into a container and discard or refrigerate for later use.
Take the mass of butter and rinse under cold water, gently kneading with your hands, to rinse out any large pockets of trapped buttermilk. Transfer the butter to a bowl and add salt, if desired; I used about half a teaspoon, and I found it to be a little less salty than store butter. (Salt will also make your butter keep longer). Now would be the time that you should add any other herbs or flavorings that you might desire, in lieu of (or in addition to) the salt.
Using a rubber spatula, work and smear the butter against the sides of the bowl until all the buttermilk is extracted and the salt (or whatever you ended up adding) is thoroughly mixed in.
Place in a covered container, refrigerate, and enjoy!
One pint of heavy cream yields what looks to me like a little less than a half a pound of butter, and around 3/4 cup of buttermilk, more or less.
Posted in Recipes & The Home Front(3) Comments
Cool Water
December 16, 2007 | permalink
Hey, guess what? My sink got fixed this week! It only took three and a half months.
And people say that the days of prompt and courteous service are gone...
(1) Comments
That's the Way
September 24, 2007 | permalink
I am getting ready to leave the house on Saturday to meet my sister The Star, and there is a knock at the door. It's the super, and he says there is a rattle in the pipes somewhere in my apartment line, and he needs to turn on the water in the kitchen and bathroom to see if it is originating with me. So, I let him in and finish getting ready to go. No problem.
Yeah, right.
I poke my head in the bathroom before I leave, and he is trying, in vain, to turn on the hot water faucet. I have been fighting a losing battle with the faucet to keep it working... the threads have been stripping out. I keep making it work for a while, and it keeps getting worse. (Sure, I could have had him fix it, but I hate to be a bother unless it is absolutely necessary, you know? Or, I am just stubborn.) So, of course, it completely gives up the ghost while the super is there.
He runs downstairs to grab a new faucet handle, and returns in a couple of minutes. He switches it, turns on the water to test it (it worked just fine, no slippage), and turns it back off. Only the water doesn't fully turn off. I am not talking about a drip here, Gentle Readers. This was a steady stream of water. The super then says, and I quote, 'That's no good.'
So he turns off the valve on the wall that should, in theory, shut off all of the hot water in the bathroom. It makes no difference at all to the stream of water pouring from the faucet. 'You have a problem inside, my friend. I fix.'
So, I left, and left him to it. When I came back later, I noticed right away that there was a rusty hacksaw blade on the floor outside the bathroom door. I knew right then that I was in for a treat.
Sure enough, not only were both faucet handles gone, but the spigot had been hacked off, and the resultant hole had the vestige of the pipe in it, surrounded by plumbing putty. It looked kind of like a neck, after the head has been decapitated. At least it wasn't leaking at all. Oh, and there was a note: 'Be careful when using the sink.' Be careful?!? I would have to use pliers to get it to work at all. It was all quite amusing.
So, in theory, it will be finished today. Although this morning the guy downstairs knocked on my door to say that there was water leaking down from my bathroom. Which, since I had no water running at all, is Not a Good Sign. I think there must be a leak in the wall, now. I think my whole bathroom is going to get torn apart this week...
Posted in Random & The Home Front(5) Comments
E-Ticket Ride
July 19, 2007 | permalink
I am on vacation this week from my full time gig. I am terrible at vacationing.
Not only did I not go leave town due to a lack of funds for such an endeavor, I actually took other work, and have spent a great deal of my vacation, well, working. Which will generate some extra cash, and as such, is a good thing, but... well, I feel kind of lame about it anyway. My big excitement is that I defrosted my freezer.
Did I mention that I am terrible at vacationing?
Posted in Musings & The Home Front(1) Comments
All at Once
March 17, 2007 | permalink
My office job is making me fat, Gentle Readers.
Or, I suppose more accurately, eating like I ate when I was doing a lot more physical activity (and counting on the job to provide me with the physical activity I needed even though it no longer does so) is making me fat. At least, it's making me feel fat, which really amounts to the same thing. I don't want to stop eating, so I've started running.
It hurts, and I hate it. After an embarrassingly short distance I feel like I am going to die, gasping for breath, heart pounding, the stitch in my side feeling like somebody hit me with a pipe. It's awesome. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way- I realize I've been craving something like this, and even after the very first run (which wrecked me) I felt great about what I was doing. And because it's hard, it appeals to my stubborn nature and helps me to be motivated. See, if it was easy, it wouldn't matter much to me if I did it or not- but because it's difficult, I'd feel too much like I was wussing out if I let myself quit for no good reason.
Nothing like using yourself against yourself to get something done, eh?
Posted in The Home Front(2) Comments
Phantom 309
November 30, 2006 | permalink
I bought my first piece of real art this weekend ('real' as in, an original piece, signed by the artist...), and I'm very excited about it. It's something I've thought about a lot; I really like the idea of having art in the house. I have a couple of reproductions of paintings I especially like, of course, and a bunch of my own photography (ranging from snapshots of friends and family to prints that I would say have some small artistic merit) is hanging on the wall. But... maybe it's silly, but this feels different. More satisfying, somehow.
When I saw it, I knew I had to have it. Something about the washed out quality of the color, and the mechanical typewriter, so out of date and out of context lying in the grass captivated me. I guess partly because I learned to type on a very similar machine, which I used to crank out endless reams of bad stories and poetry; but also because part of me has a definite yearning for the past.
Not exactly in the way that is stereotypical of old men, longing for bygone days when everything was better. In general I think progress is a good thing, and I am filled with amazement when I think about the advances in technology and medicine and science that have occurred so far in my lifetime, and I am excited to see what comes next.
What I do wish, though, is that people still spoke with more of the elegance and wit and formality of years past. It just seems so much more refined, and I think that the more complicated language forces one to think more about what they are saying, and what they really mean to say. Even insults sound better. Doesn't 'scandalous cur' invoke so much more animosity than 'son of a bitch'?
I try, in my own poor way, to carry on those rich lingual traditions here, but I am afraid I must admit that I do not do nearly so well a job of it in person. Not that I won't keep trying... maybe I will start a movement.
(2) Comments
If Things Were Perfect
November 17, 2006 | permalink
I can't believe that Thanksgiving is just next week. I swear it was six weeks away the last time I thought about it... and that only seems like a week ago, to me. I guess that's what happens when you get busy; the time just slips past. Though it seems to me that as I get older time slips past faster and faster. My theory is that this effect is a combination of encountering fewer new things (which catch your attention and break up the flow of routine), and the fact that each year is a smaller and smaller proportion of your life as you age, and so is allocated less and less of your brain power. That might all be a crock, but it makes sense to me.
Anyway, Thanksgiving-
I'm headed up to my Mother's place this year, with The Star and Rockette. We're leaving Wednesday afternoon, which is a little bit of a bummer, as it means I will miss the Wednesday Before Thanksgiving Gathering at the Edge Bar for the first time in years. The WBTG got started something like twelve years ago because The Director needed an event to take a date to. The girl is long gone, but the gathering still draws a good crowd. It's all people from our Off-Broadway days at the Public and the New York Theatre Workshop, people that I don't get to see very often anymore. Beer and darts- what could be more fun?
Despite missing the gathering, I'm looking forward to going upstate. My Mother makes a mean bird, and most of the family will be there. And of course, being a cook, I enjoy Thanksgiving on lots of levels. I had a conversation with my Mother yesterday, figuring out what I should make- I'll be making the bread for dinner, and a batch of fudge for dessert. Yum!
Never Fail Fudge
This recipe is not my original creation. However, it is so damn good and easy that I cannot, in good concience, keep it to myself. It was created by Durkee-Mower, Inc., the manufacturer of Marshmallow Fluff.- 5 Cups of Granulated Sugar
- 1 12 oz. Can of Evaporated Milk
- 1 Stick of Butter (or Margarine)
- 12 oz. Marshmallow Fluff
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1 Cup Walnuts (if you like)
- 2 12oz. Packages of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
Combine the first five ingreedients in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until blended. Gradually increase heat, still stirring, until you are at a moderate flame. Bring the mixture to a boil.
NOTE: This mixture is ridiculously hot! Don't use plastic utensils! (I know this because I melted a rubber spatula once while making this) Don't stick your finger in for a taste! (I know this because I burned myself) Also, don't mistake escaping air bubbles (Fluff is mostly air, after all) for boiling.
Boil for five minutes, then remove the mixture from heat. Stir in the chocolate, vanilla, and nuts. The chocolate will melt (and use up most of the heat; NOW you can have a taste) fairly quickly. Once you are thoroughly blended, pour the mixture into two 9 x 9 buttered pans and cool. Yield: Approximately four pounds.
I'm telling you, this is the good stuff.
Posted in Food and Drink & Holidays & Musings & Recipes & The Home Front(0) Comments
Mushroom and Three Cheese Tomato Sauce
November 5, 2006 | permalink
I made baked tortellini last night, with sauce I made from scratch, served with fresh bread and red wine. It was quite delicious, Gentle Readers. I can't really think of a better meal on a chilly evening, can you? And the leftovers are going to be fantastic...
Today is the NYC Marathon, as I am sure you are all aware. I am off to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street to go be the Northern Cheering Section for Osmium, among others. It's mile 21, and the point where the runners re-enter Manhattan for the final stretch. From conversations with past runners, it also sounded like it was a place without many people, where the runners could really use some cheering. I'll let you know...
Mushroom and Three Cheese Tomato Sauce
- 7 Ripe Tomatoes, Large (3 Cut into Smallish Chunks, 4 Quartered)
- 10 Baby Portabello Mushrooms, Caps only, Coarsely Chopped
- 6 Large Garlic Cloves, Minced
- One Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
- 1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella
- 1/4 Cup Parmesan
- 1/4 Cup Romano
- 1 Tablespoon Basil
- 1 Tablespoon Rosemary
- Olive Oil
Throw the Quartered Tomatoes, about a third of the Mushrooms, and the Cheeses into a blender or food processor and liquefy. Set aside.
Place a deep saute pan or saucepan over medium-low heat, and add a few tablespoons of Olive Oil. When the Oil is hot, toss in the Garlic and Onions. When the Onions start to give up their moisture, add the Basil and Rosemary, tossing well to get everything evenly coated. After a few minutes, add the chunks of Tomatoes and Mushrooms, again tossing well to evenly coat everything with Oil and Herbs.
When everything in the pan is hot, stir in the Tomato-Mushroom puree and turn the heat way down- about as low as you can get it. Loosely cover with tin foil (don't use the pan's lid- you do want a lot of the water to simmer out of the sauce. You just don't want it to happen too quickly) and let it simmer, giving it a good stir occasionally.
The longer you can let it simmer, the thicker, darker, and richer the sauce will become. To a certain extent this will continue even after it's sitting in the fridge, but on a much smaller scale. Four hours of simmering time is ideal, but it's quite tasty after only two and a half, even.
There are a lot of simple things you can do to get variations of this sauce. You can make it chunkier by leaving the tomatoes and mushrooms in larger pieces, and /or by pureeing a smaller proportion of them. You can also vary the amount or kind of spices and cheeses pretty much however you like, without affecting the underlying consistency at all. And of course, you can add whatever other vegetables tickle your fancy.
It is also easily scalable. Nothing weird is going to happen if you double or halve the recipe. You'll just get more or less sauce. As it's written, this makes a little more than a quart of sauce- just about perfect for a meal for three or four people.
Posted in Recipes & The Home Front(0) Comments
The Strangest Party
November 3, 2006 | permalink
I love the change of the seasons. I don't think that I would be completely content in a place without them, though I am willing to sip cocktails in some tropical place for a while to see if this were really true or not. Because I'm scientific like that, willing to endure hardship in the interest of fact finding. But I digress...
This time of year, late autumn into winter, is my favorite. The crispness of the air and the cool temperatures are invigorating, and seem to make everything smell and taste better. The gourds and apples are at their best, perfect for cooking with, and everyone seems rosy-cheeked as they bustle about. It just makes me happy.
Posted in Around New York & Musings & The Home Front(3) Comments
Bear's Cinnamon Bread
October 24, 2006 | permalink
Here, Gentle Readers, is the latest offering from my kitchen. I dreamt this recipe up a while ago, and tried it out last night- it turned out to be very tasty, if I do say so myself. The bread is a little dense, and a bit sweet- just like I like it. It's perfect for toasting, and for breakfast with a cup of tea. Which is, of course, what I ate this morning.
Bear's Cinnamon Bread
For the Starter:- One Cup Very Warm Water
- One Package Active Dry Yeast
- One Tablespoon Sugar
- One Egg
- One Half Cup Sugar
- One Tablespoon Vanilla
- One Teaspoon Salt
- Two to Three Cups Flour
- One Quarter Cup Sugar
- Two to Three Tablespoons Cinnamon
Proof the yeast by dissolving it in the warm water with the sugar, and let it sit for about ten minutes. While it is getting all yeasty, beat together the egg, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
After the yeast proofs add the egg mixture and one cup of flour, mixing well. Continue to add flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic.
Work the dough into a a flattish oblong, the short side about as wide as your loaf pan, the long side as long or short as you like (the thinner you make the dough, the more layers the finished bread will have). Dust with the cinnamon / sugar mixture and roll into a loaf. Place in a buttered loaf pan, dust the top with the cinnamon / sugar mix, and allow to rise until doubled (about an hour). Bake at 350 for 30 - 35 minutes.
By dividing the dough up into smaller balls, you can easily used this to make cinnamon buns instead of a loaf of cinnamon bread.
Posted in Recipes & The Home Front(4) Comments
Chocolate Brownies
October 12, 2006 | permalink
I made brownies in the wee hours of the night a few days ago. While I desperately wanted (and needed) sleep, the insomnia had me, and I couldn't stand to watch another re-run of Without a Trace or The Late Show. So I baked, instead. With much success, I might add; the brownies came out awfully tasty, if I do say so myself.
I prefer mine without nuts, but of course you can add in nuts or whatever else tickles your taste buds without having to alter anything else in the recipe at all.
One Bowl Brownies
- Two Ounces Bitersweet Chocolate
- Two Ounces Unsweetened Chocolate
- One and One Half Sticks of Butter
- One and One Half Cups Sugar
- Three Eggs
- One Cup Flour
- One Half Cup Cocoa Powder
- One Teaspoon Vanilla
- One Teaspoon Salt
- One Half Tablespoon Baking Powder
Pour the batter into a greased and floured pan, 13 x 9. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. If you cut the baking a little short, you will get chewier, fudgier brownies; contrary-wise, you will get cakier, drier brownies if you give them a little extra time in the oven.
Posted in Insomnia & Recipes & The Home Front(1) Comments
A Rose by Any Other Name
July 29, 2006 | permalink
I went to the DMV this week, to renew and update my ID. It's been expired for the better part of a year, and I never bothered to change my address and the picture is twelve years old, so I thought it was time. I went to the DMV office in Harlem, and let me tell you, Gentle Readers, they have got a hell of a streamlined system down there. It was less than an hour between when I walked in off the street and when I walked out with my new temporary ID card. I was astounded. I figured it would be at least 3.
The first time I tried to get ID was not so easy. And I want to say upfront that as fantastic and unlikely as what I am about to relate to you sounds, it is, in fact, a true story. It's another of those bizarre little things that seems to happen to me. Another part of the backstory- I lived my teen years on a farm, driving the farm truck, for which the operator, as long as he is on farm business, need only be over the age of 16- so there was no need for me to get a license until much later in life than average.
So- I'm twenty, and am trying to get my legal license. I get the forms from the DMV, see what I need, and call my parents to get my birth certificate. They don't have it. Not only do they not have it, but I learn that the name I have been living under is NOT the name I was born with. The Old Man changed his name to distance himself from his abusive family when I was about two. So I need to accquire the birth certificate with the wrong name and the legal papers showing my name change.
Getting the birth certificate wasn't hard. And at first, getting the name change documents from Albany didn't seem like it was going to be too hard either. A couple of phone calls, a letter or two. No problem.
Yeah, right. I get a letter from Albany a few weeks later telling me that they couldn't find the paperwork at first. There didn't seem to be any record of my name change. Then they found the original application from 18 years ago, and realized that it had never been processed, so my name was never changed. The letter went on to say that they were submitting the paperwork now for me, and that I should recieve my copies in four weeks or so. Okay, great. I've been living my whole life on an assumed identity. But it's getting taken care of, so it's okay.
Two months later I still haven't gotten anything, and I start making phone calls. I get the run around for a couple of weeks, and then someone finally admits to me that the paperwork is nowhere to be found: they lost it. So now I'm back to square one. Actually, square minus one. Because now I have to get a lawyer and legally change my name from the name I was born with to the name that I have been living under my whole life. Which was expensive, and a pain in the ass, since it was impossible for me to prove that the name on the birth certificate was me, because every other piece of paperwork I had, including my Social Security card, had the other name on it. Finally it was resolved, and I got all of my documents and my New York ID.
I decided to keep going while my luck held, and went and got my passport as soon as my state ID got to me in the mail. As I'm sure you know, you have to give the passport agency all of your documents for verification. They take them, and mail them back- or at least, they used to. So I handed over my Birth Certificate and ceritfied copies of all of the name change paperwork along with my application. A few weeks later I got my passport. My other documents never came back to me, though- they lost them.
Posted in Around New York & Family Matters & The Home Front & The Past(0) Comments
The Golden Throne?
June 11, 2006 | permalink
So, my toilet seat broke yesterday. The ring snapped when I sat down, right across the center. It was a terribly uncomfortable moment, and if I didn't live alone someone would have surely called through the door to ask me what on earth had made me yelp like that. But that's not the point of my story...
Naturally, this was something that I wanted to replace sooner rather than later, so after I got dressed I hit the neighborhood housewares stores. How hard could it be, I thought, to find a plain old white toilet seat?
Gentle Readers, I had no idea. None of the shops had what I was looking for, which really surprised me. What surprised me even more was the staggering variety and complexity of modern toilet seat design. And when I say variety and complexity, I mean unbeleiveable gaudiness. There were airbrushed seascapes and embroidered Betty Boops. There were clear acrylic seats with seashells embedded in them, with fishing lures, with pressed flowers. Toilet seats with sparkles. It was astounding.
What really took the cake, as far as I was concerned, was the toilet seat with the money in it. That's right; money. Clear acrylic with nickels, dimes, and quarters embedded around the ring and in the cover. Is it supposed to be like those good fortune candles? Every time you use the toilet you increase your chances of coming into wealth? What is the appeal? Who buys this stuff?
Posted in Musings & The Home Front & WTF!?(5) Comments
The Warming of the Bar
March 19, 2006 | permalink
Well Gentle Readers, I threw my bar-warming party last night. I figured that I needed to make sure the thing worked, and would hold up under use... and I am happy to report that it passed with flying colors, withstanding the drunkeness of my dear friends quite nicely.
Posted in Social Life & The Home Front(0) Comments
Home Improvement
March 10, 2006 | permalink
My bar finally came in, and as you can see, it has taken its place in my apartment. I think that I have finished (at least for now) with the buying of furniture and the re-arranging of the place. I am quite pleased, and the couple of people who have seen it have agreed wholeheartedly.
I think the only thing left to do is to throw a bar-warming party...
Posted in The Home Front(0) Comments
Or, As My Sister Says, The Earth Rejects Us
February 23, 2006 | permalink
Last week, when I was getting my chocolate fix with Turtalia, we stopped into Crate and Barrel. We browsed around a bit, and when I saw this bar, I instantly coveted it. It's the perfect size for my place, it has plenty of compartments (always a plus with me), and it was way classier than the little table that I am currently using as my bar. So today, after a very short half-day (the tail end of a strike... most of the work was done yesterday), Smacktalk and I went back to Crate and Barrel to pick it up.
It was quick and painless (except for running into my ex-wife in the store) and in twenty minutes it was loaded into Smacktalk's car and we were cruising uptown. Once he dropped me and my bar off, I proceeded to re-arrange the living room. The bar was part of a whole new grand plan for the layout of the place, and I was very excited to put it all in motion. I grabbed my tools, opened up the box and...
The thing was smashed to pieces. Only it didn't feel or sound like it had been smashed to pieces when we picked it up, because the packing materials somehow managed to hold it all in place. Until I opened it. What a mess. And of course that was the last one they had in stock... now my new bar is on a truck back to Crate and Barrel (I made them come and get it, since it was smashed), the replacement is on back order, and my furniture has been un-rearranged.
I know this kind of thing happens from time to time; it's just bad luck. For some reason, it seems to happen to me a lot. I'm not whining, mind you; I think it's kind of funny, even. Here, in no particular order, is a list of things that I have bought over the years that had to be immediately returned because straight out of the box they were smashed, broken, or otherwise defective: One desktop computer, two laptop computers (I exchanged a broken one for another broken one), two printers, one DVD player, at least a dozen DVDs, a PDA, my home phone, two cell phones, a cordless drill, three gallons of paint, and a window fan. Wocka wocka wocka!
Posted in Musings & The Home Front(2) Comments
Reflection
January 26, 2006 | permalink
Well Gentle Readers, I'm back. I went upstate for The Writer's wake and funeral. There is something really just extra crappy about burying a young person. When someone is old and dies, it's natural. But this...
The Writer was stubborn, contrary, smart as a whip, and full of humor. I often wondered, during the course of his illness, if I would be able to maintain the same good cheer and hopefulness that he did under the same circumstances. I consider myself fairly tough and resilient, but I'm not sure that I could. He was like a light in a dim room. I'll miss him.
Posted in Family Matters & Musings & The Home Front(0) Comments
A Lot Like Family
January 23, 2006 | permalink
People's lives get entwined with each other's all the time. Some times it's kind of loose, sometimes very close, sometimes for a few weeks and sometimes forever. Usually this happens on an individual basis, but sometimes whole families end up bound together. My sisters (The Star and The Rockette) and I, have such a connection with the Wurts'.
Mama Wurts was one of the guidance councilors at our High School. (And believe me when I tell you that we needed a lot of guidance, the home life being what it was.) We all, seperately, became very close to Mama Wurts. Her son The Writer and I became friends. Her daughter The Giggler and my sister The Star became thick as thieves. The Rockette got close to everyone, and eventually Papa Wurts and the youngest of the Wurts' daughters, The Idealist, got into the mix. For fifteen years, they have been like family.
The Writer died this weekend, succumbing to comlications and infection as a result of leukemia. He was twenty-nine. It's a crappy, crappy thing, Gentle Readers, for one so young and full of promise to fade away like he did. It makes me sad.
Posted in Family Matters & The Home Front(0) Comments
Who Says Cooking Isn't Exciting?
January 14, 2006 | permalink
I had a bonafide culinary adventure today. It had it all... plans gone awry, certain doom, and the last minute save. Okay, maybe it wasn't really that exciting. Or maybe I'm more bored than I think I am. Anyway:
My mother and step-father came into the city today to see me and my sisters. It was my job to make dinner for everyone. As it was supposed to be rainy and crappy all weekend, I decided the other day to make chilli. I wanted to slow cook it all day, but I also wanted to have lunch with the family, so yesterday I went to Target and got a crockpot (I'd been coveting one for a while, and I finally had a good excuse).
This morning I put the rice (Texmati- delicious!) in the crockpot to get it started. Since I was planning on letting it simmer all day there was no need to cook it seperately... I just had to make sure that there was enough liquid for it to absorb. In went the corn, the pinto beans, and the lentils as well.
While that all heated up, I started the meat. I melted coulple of tablespoons of butter in a frying pan, added six diced garlic cloves, two chopped onions, and a pound and a hlaf of ground beef. While that browned, in went a generous sprinkling of cumin, paprika, majoram, red pepper flakes, and habanero hot sauce. Only the shaker lid of the hot sauce popped off, and a lot of habanero went in. Waaay more than I intended. But I thought that maybe it would be fine. So I proceeded.
Once the meat was brown (and smelling quite spicy, I might add) it went into the crockpot with the rice and two cans of diced tomatoes. Set to medium, and forget it, right?
Yeah, right. I putter around cleaning the apartment, and then I get all showered and dressed to meet up with the family. On the way out the door I give my now simmering chilli a taste. Oh. My. God. The burning. I couldn't serve it like that. If it was too spicy for me none of the rest of them were going to like it.
I spent a little time online trying to see if I could find some kind of magic cure for over-spiced food. You know- add a dash of sugar and lemon and spin around three times clockwise, or something. Nothing. I was doomed. My only hope of making it edible was to double the chilli. The crockpot (remember that I bought it for this, specifically?) was no longer sufficient for the task. Into my big stockpot it goes. Then a trip to the store for more meat. I added another pound and a half of ground chicken, and another cup and a half of rice. Still too spicy, and now tasting watery too. I was beginning to think that I was ordering pizza for dinner.
But I'm nothing if not stubborn. More cumin and paprika, more garlic, another can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste go into the pot. Simmer and stir, simmer and stir. Let it cook and resist the urge to taste it every two minutes. This was my afternoon.
It turned out to be delicious. It's still a little spicy, but not excessively so. Dinner was a big hit. And its a good thing that it is good, because I have a lot of it... I ended up with nearly three gallons of chilli. I'm going to be eating it for weeks. Anybody hungry?
Posted in Food and Drink & The Home Front(0) Comments
It's a War of Attrition
October 11, 2005 | permalink
So, ever since the bastard subletters left, I have had mice- definitely in the plural. I quickly became sure there were six of them, and I have been trying to get rid of them ever since. They would scurry around all over, day and night- they were quite brazen.
Of course, the first step was to clean the place and make sure that all the food in the cabinets was mouseproof. I was hoping that if the available food was gone, and the place stank of cleaning products, that they would move onto greener pastures. Unfortunately, the little bastards had been eating like kings in my kitchen, and were not inclined to be so easily discouraged. And since I didn't really want to kill them (I'm not a big fan of killing things if it can be avoided) I had to come up with other strategies. So the campaign stretched on...
One died trapped in the empty garbage can while I was out of town for a few days. Rooting around in the trash was their favorite trick- I caught two of the others in the trashcan and set them free outside. Another I caught in a plastic bread bag, nibbling on my future sandwiches. He went outside, as well. That left two.
Clearly cleverer than the others, the last two eluded me for months. I tried to block up the hole I thought they were coming from, but I either wasn't doing a good enough job or there is another hole I can't find. I cleaned neurotically. I tried reasoning with them, appealing to thier rodent brains. I set out humane traps- but, being too big to be placed in their usual paths, they avoided them. I finally decided if I was going to be mouse free, I was going to have to resort to snap traps.
I got two, and left them out for two weeks, disarmed, near the path, but not in it; this way they would get used to them. Then last night, I armed them and put them in strategic places along the Rodent Highway that the far wall of my kitchen and living room had become. I had them both within 4 hours.
I feel a little bad- like I said, I'm not a big fan of the killing. But I tried to warn them; I made it very clear that I was not sharing my kitchen with them, but they just wouldn't listen.
Posted in The Home Front(2) Comments
Life in a Box
June 22, 2005 | permalink
Sadly, my brief sojourn in NYC is nearly at an end... I depart tomorrow for the Great Upstate and the Summerscape Festival. In preparation, I swung by my place today to drop off a couple of things that I no longer needed and to pick up a couple things (mostly movies that I haven't seen 400 times), and it was a little surreal. Other people's things all over, even a different smell in the air. Very bizarre. I feel very uprooted. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating- I don't think that I will leave home like this again.
Posted in Musings & Out of Town & The Home Front(0) Comments
Talk About a Load Off!
June 18, 2005 | permalink
I made it out alive! Woo hoo!
The Festival is over, and I am back (briefly) in NYC. I didn't realize, until I got away, how unhappy I was while I was there. It wasn't the work, or the long hours (we ended up with an average of 76.5 per week, for seven weeks); those things are really not a problem for me. Well, I suppose it's more accurate to say that they are not a problem for me in and of themselves- though it probably didn't help me any that I was working so much either. The real issues were that I have been doing a lot of work re-connecting with the people in my life and building this support network for myself, and then all of a sudden I was cut off from all of that, isolated partly by the distance, but mostly by the schedule we were keeping. And I was in charge, so I felt like at work, I had to be 'on' all the time- for the most part, my crew were not peers, like they are here in the city. They're kids- and it's not appropriate or productive to lay any of my personal stuff on them, or even around them. At least, that's what I think.
So, by they end, I was a mess. Working with the same group of people for 12-15 hours a day, the last thing I wanted to do when work was done was hang out with them more... So I spent most of my off-time alone, which probably didn't help me either, but at the time it seemed very necessary. When I got back to the city yesterday, and had some time to let my guard down and decompress, I had myself a little, um, episode, if you will. But god damn I felt so much better... so much lighter. It's very nice to be home. Even if it is my sister's couch.
Okay, enough about the Festival. It's over, and I'm done. What else have we got going on here?
I had dinner at Soba Nippon on 52nd and 5th last night- if you haven't been, I highly recommend it. They own their own wheat fields in Canada, and make their own noodles from it. Very tasty. It's also the only Japanese place I have ever been that has cheese in some of the dishes.
I had breakfast with my sisters today. It was great to have the three of us together. We ate and bullshitted and caught each other up on everything that was going on. I love those classy broads.
My goals for the rest of the time I am here include going to my apartment to do a little stuff swap; seeing Smacktalk and the rest of the gang; NOT working. I think all of that is definitely do-able.
Posted in Out of Town & The Home Front & Working(0) Comments
If That's What I Wanted, That's What I Would've Asked For
April 12, 2005 | permalink
I've been trying to sublet my place while I am out of town for the summer. No one I actually know needs a place, so I've been posting ads on Craigslist. It worked out pretty well for me last summer, so I figured it would work out well this time. And it has- I've got a few people who are genuinely interested coming to see the place this week. Hopefully by Friday I will have it all settled.
What's been driving me crazy is this: The vast majority of the responses are from people who want the place for dates other than those clearly specified in the ad. And I'm not talking about a week or so in one direction or the other- I mean really off. I'm looking for someone to take the place from May 1st to August 21st. I've had requests for May and June; mid-June to mid-July; the last three weeks of June only; April 15 (hello, I haven't even left town yet!) to June 15; and the kicker, August and September.
I just don't get it. Am I crazy here? I mean, if those were the dates that I needed housing for, I wouldn't respond to my ad. Is it just me?
Posted in The Home Front & WTF!?
(Hellbound Train)
(Bear's Eggplant Parmesan)
(Bear's Eggplant Parmesan)
(Bear's Eggplant Parmesan)
(Bear's Eggplant Parmesan)
(Tiny Little Fractures)