I never believed in these things anyway

Yesterday was the "last day of winter," in some official sense, or at least a widely agreed upon one. Biking required no more than a long-sleeved shirt, and I didn't wear gloves. So naturally the "first day of spring" opens like this:



Nice, very nice.
-Dr. S.

Route to the lab

Get on the train at the platform with this interesting backdrop:



Then getting off at the river, follow the route:










Now you know the secret way to our government lab.
( I'll take this over a highway commute any day. )

Unrepeatable Pizza

What do I do with leftover party beer (bad guests, bringing Heinies!), the dregs of a turmeric bottle, an unwanted fennel bulb, too many Thai chilies, and a dried-up squash?

Pizza dough: Spicy and Decidedly Yellow

2.25T yeast in 1C heated beer and 2.3 C warm water sat until mixed. Mixed in 3.5 C flour , 1T salt, 1 T turmeric, 1T chili oil, 1T toasted sesame oil. Rose very little its first 1.5 hours, really got going the second hour after being punched down.

Topping combo 1:
White sesame seed chili paste, Bbbbbbb squash pieces, and sauteed fennel bulb with onion.
Chili paste: 1 Thai chili, 1 dried ancho chili, 2t powered cinnamon, oil to wet, ~2T white sesame seeds. Minced chilies. Mixed all in mortar & pestle.

Bbbbbbbb squash: Removed rind, halved and seeded 1 old-ass, dried up acorn squash. Boiled in 1 unimpressive beer, 3T butter, few bay leaves (both big and baby), bit of bouillon. Once tender, considered whether to add brown sugar. Not bad.

Fennel bulb and onion sautee:
Wedged (enwedgified) 1 big ol' fennel bulb, likewise a handy onion, and sauteed in olive oil with (untoasted) sesame oil (raises the smoke point, doesn't add much flavor). Dusted with ground white pepper, garlic powder, and ground allspice.

Topping combo 2 :
Tomato sauce and huge gobs of fresh mozzerella. Threw in some of the onions from above, dusted with ground black pepper.

~

Result: Combo 1 wins. Enhances the spiciness of the dough with the chili paste, while complementing it with the sweetness from squash and fennel.

You think I is swizzfiggling you?

The problem here is that the camera wielder is too bright. The flash was not on, in fact.



Resting in his brine: Turgay the Turkish Turkey. (Turkish friends suggested the name "Kalaynak," which is one of the large, extinct birds, and apparently sounds funny in Turkish. But everything Turkish sounds funny to us non-speakers... And their backup suggestion of "Hindi," which refers to the selfsame bird immersed in brine above... is already an English word, with the wrong meaning here.)





It's all the stuffing.

All of it.



(OK, yes, I know, but it was that, or have it sideways in gphoto2, which uses exif information to auto-rotate, and I'm stubborn.)






... and that's it for documentation. After the first course is on the table, it's not as interesting to arrange pretty pictures.

_Dr. S

They say it's from Hawaii

...but apparently the back porch here will do just fine. Progression from the past three days:

Evidence

A good weekend.

_Dr. S

parentheses for dinner

...also available au gratin:


_yum

But what to do with the plantains?

Some recipes in my usual style: What looked interesting at the market, and what existed at home. Recipes are in the past tense for a reason: This is just something done this way once; the next time, it will probably be different. What person is the same at two subsequent meals? So use your judgement following any amounts/ingredients/techniques/life choices I might make; I'm not responsible for you, you baby. Enjoy!

Wei, You're Distracting Me Garlic Chicken

Chopped many cloves of garlic,
chopped a few chicken thighs,
threw in a tablespoon of Dijon mustard
about 1.5 t <powdered wasabi
to marinate ~1hr.

Cooked in a little oil (lightish olive oil) until tender and cooked.
Served with a small amount of molasses, which turned out to be genius.

The whole time I was chopping and researching uses for chard which would be tasty, Wei wanted to chat. Kept washing the garlic or chicken from hands so I could type back... sticky keyboards aren't my steez.

Lord Bless This Bacon-y Chard

In a pot, cooked Irish Bacon over high heat with some fresh oregano from a potted plant I bought earlier today, making a nice mess of the inside of the pot.
Added many leaves of chard, cut across the stem into inch-wide strips (thinner at the stems).
Stirred over high heat, wilting thoroughly. Lots of juice produced.
Added cider vinegar, butter, a little white whine.
Added slightly too much salt; don't do that, ok?
Cooked over medium-low heat, uncovered, to reduce the liquids away.

Christ Jesus, that was some tasty pork!

note: The oregano's probably completely unimportant, but looked nice while the bacon was still piles of pink flesh in a clean pot, and certainly didn't hurt. I'll add it after the meat is crisped, next time.

Sadly, the plantains I bought found no place in dinner tonight. They're sulking on the counter, but I've got some tasty plans for them, too. What about spicy, ginger-fried plantains? Crispy chips, maybe, since these little guys are a bit green right now.

_jmsj

raw oysters and wine for breakfast

A cold, blustery, rainy morning at the market. Shared a dozen raw oysters (Gillardeaux, petite et moyens) with friends, standing by the seafood mongers' stand. White wine is complementary. My last Saturday morning market for the foreseeable future; glad I finally tried this.



yum,
_jmsj

resuming posts

Think I'll go back to posting here. Hello again.
_jmsj

The table dinner

_jmsj

oh woops

purple sheet was new. Now the pink socks are.

_jmsj

photo essai

clouds from the Jura mountains mean rain

flanking CERN, clouds from the right.

maybe that last one is only interesting to me.
_jmsj