Weems Creek

2011-06-11T12:24:00.000-04:00

2006-11-30T12:37:00.000-05:00

Letters from the Rambling Rector

Sunday, 19 November 2006

My Dear St. Mark's Community,

The South African leg of our sabbatical comes to a close. Tomorrow evening, Pontheolla and I fly from Johannesburg to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam, we Eurail to Munich (where we'll see Dorothee Hahn, one of our former seminarians and now associate priest at Ascension Anglican Church), Prague, and Salzburg, before ending up outside of Florence for six weeks. While in Florence, we plan to rest and recreate and do no sabbatical study (well, if we do, it shall be only by human accident or cosmic serendipity!).

This overview of our South African journey is lengthier than our previous 'from the road' missives, for so much of what we have experienced, we feel, is unforgettably and deeply informative regarding the sabbatical theme.

Johannesburg

We flew into Johannesburg on Tuesday, 24 October, in a deluge. (This is the rainy season in South Africa. Rains are common and heavy, with lightening displays the likes of which I've not seen. On a couple of occasions, I could have sworn that I heard the banging of Noah's hammer!) We disembarked via stairs to the tarmac. Armed soldiers stood about in varying postures of readiness, for what, we weren't sure. However, given the warnings, indeed, reality of the high incidence of crime, this was but a prelude to the pervasive evidences of and attention to security that we would encounter.

We reconnected with old friends, Earl Neil, a retired Episcopal priest who served for many years in the DC area, his wife, Angela, a native South African, and their daughter, LaToya. It is grand thing, when traveling, to have friends in various places who truly ably can share the sense and spirit of life in the land.

Our visit to the Apartheid Museum made for an equally inspiring and dispiriting afternoon. Inspiring, for we were reminded of the resiliency of the human spirit in the face of grievous oppression. Dispiriting given the reminders of the seemingly fathomless depths of human cruelty and the nonpareil human capacity to justify the cruelty. An arresting museum feature confronts you immediately. Upon paying the admission fee, you are given (irrespective of your race or ethnicity) a card identifying you as a white or non-white person, each directing you to enter the museum by the designated door. The idea is to give you a sense of what apartheid was like. The museum's exhibits ' photographic, textual, visual, audio-visual (much of it, archival film), and actual (e.g., bales of concertina wire piled high, a massive state police armored vehicle used in the suppression of anti-apartheid rallies, replicas of the tiny prison cells in which the incarcerated were held) arrayed in chronological order from the conception and development of the apartheid system through its dismantlement to Nelson Mandela's emancipation and the pathway toward democracy ' are extensive and elaborate. I cannot do justice by describing them, so I won't try. Again, we spent an afternoon and, easily, could have spent thrice the time.

We also spent an afternoon in Soweto (Southwestern Township), perhaps the most well known South African township ' a vast conglomeration of several black communities with a population of about 3.5 million people. George, our guide and driver (a necessity, we're told), a Sowetan, took us wherever we wanted to go. Siphiwe, another guide, took us part way down a street in one of oldest parts of Soweto, a shanty settlement. (He assured us, upon entering, that it was completely safe, but added, cautiously, 'Let us go in peace, so that we don't come back in pieces.' A sobering advisement.) One water spigot, called a standpipe, and one port-a-potty serve a neighborhood of 16 families. The streets are dirt paths. The homes made mostly of tin, mud, clay, or whatever materials are available. Most homes are girded about with fencing of whatever sort, yet, all are topped with concertina wire, the latter being a status symbol, Siphiwe said, signaling that the owner has something valuable and worth protecting. (Incidentally, almost all Johannesburg homes have gates, fencing, and barbed wire. In the wealthier neighborhoods, the fencing sometimes is electrified. Additionally, it is not uncommon to see 24-hour guards stationed at sentry posts. The South African security industry is pervasive and prosperous. Fear, apparently, is a successful marketing and sales tool.) We visited a school, where 15 children, newborn to age 3, were crammed into a room the size of St. Mark's sacristy. It was the lunch hour. The meal consisted of ground meal and mixed vegetables, which the caregiver/teacher provided as most parents could not afford to do so. We were so affected by the poverty and by the power and pride of the people to persevere that we offered a contribution, small by our standards, to cover the cost of a 2-week supply of food. We visited the Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church, the largest Catholic parish in Soweto, with seating for about 2,000 and a congregation about twice that number, and a designated national landmark for its role as a gathering and meeting site for anti-apartheid activism. (As a stark symbol of that activism, the church retains the several ceiling and window panels with holes, made by bullets fired both from within and without, left by the state police in the effort to break up an anti-apartheid rally during the 1976 uprising.) We visited the memorial and museum of Hector Pietersen, the first child murdered by the state police during the 16 June 1976 Soweto student uprising against the government's imposition of Afrikaans as the language of all education ' an uprising that gave new vitality to the anti-apartheid movement. Across the street from the museum stands Holy Cross Anglican Church. We met the rector, Steve Moreo, a most genuine person, who exudes equal measures of gentleness and strength. We visited the home that Nelson Mandela lived in before his 27-year incarceration on Robben Island near Cape Town and the home to which he immediately returned upon his release. He now lives in the Houghton Estate area, two blocks from the B&B where we stayed. (By the way, 'Nelson' is the name given to Mandela by a teacher during the early years of his formative education, who could not pronounce his given name, Rolihlahla, which, prophetically, means, 'disturber'!) We also passed by the homes of Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela. As we prepared to leave Soweto, George said, earnestly, 'I hope you enjoyed your visit.' I replied, 'Enjoyed? No, we can't say that. Moved and inspired? Yes, that we can say.' He answered, very quietly, 'Thank you for saying that.'

Hillcrest

After a week in Johannesburg, on 30 October, we drove southeast to Hillcrest, a town between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in the Land of a 1000 Hills. (For me, driving a manual transmission car on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right was somewhat stressful. I had to think more about what I was doing, but, I suppose, being a natural 'lefty' helped. One other thing, South African drivers are, in three words, speedy and daring!)

This two-week leg of our journey was arranged by our own Eliza Getman. (We thank Maureen Shea, who, many months ago, got in touch with Eliza on our behalf. Here, we'd like to thank Greg Gay, too, for his good assistance regarding the South Africa portion of our sabbatical.) Through Eliza, we were 'in residence' at her parish, Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Jenny Sistig is the rector. With her husband, Andreas, also a priest, they serve Holy Trinity and the four valley congregations of the Zulu community (Christ the King in Molweni, Ekukhanyeni kukaKrestu [EKK, for short] in Nyuswa, Holy Spirit, and Kwamsindisi in Nqeto). They are young, energetic, committed, and compassionate people and priests. Their dedication left me, as a priest of 28 years, hopeful for the state of ordained ministry in the current and next generations.

Andreas took us on an afternoon's journey to and around the valley ' a land of exquisite, indescribable geographical beauty and excruciating human poverty. We also joined him on a 'bereavement call'. A woman, a member of one of the valley churches, had died after suffering prolonged physical abuse from her husband of whom she was the second of three wives. Upon entering the home, we observed the mourning customs. The son busied himself with preparing the house for guests and the feast the family was obligated to provide. The women of the family, the daughter, sisters, and the third wife, who is considered a sister of the deceased, sat on a mattress on the floor where they would remain until the day of the funeral. The mother's clothes were stretched out on the floor beside the mattress. A candle was lit nearby. (This last detail brought to mind the Lazarus story in John's gospel, particularly the ancient notion that the spirit [or flame] of the dead lingers near the body for four days, then, departs.) Andreas led us in praying with the family and offering words of condolence.

On another day, I went with Andreas to the home of Christina Gasa, an 80-something year old grandmother, who suffers from cataracts and other disabilities of aging. As many of her children have died from AIDS, she cares for 9 grandchildren. Her home, in the valley, about half-way down a steep, half-kilometer hill, has two rooms, all of which could fit within the space of our Penniman Room at Baxter House. We were there to assess her needs and to offer help. This, for me, was a proverbial unforgettable, perhaps, life-changing experience. Christina offered a selfless hospitality in welcoming us into her home, a gracious humility in accepting whatever help we offered (which, truth to tell, was far short of her needs), and an admirable faith and fortitude in coping with her daily cares. (I discovered later that she also climbs that hill each Sunday and walks 2+ kilometers to church!) Christina, in the two hour's time of our visit, taught or re-taught me a number of things: that physical poverty does not mean that one lacks wealth, for her spirit was abundant in its capacity to give; that an abiding, unassailable faith in God is honorable and is to be respected, even, perhaps especially from the standpoint of a skeptical believer like me; that when I complain about my 'various worries and woes' I must try to do so in fair relation to their severity, for the daily burden of some others is far weightier than anything I endure; and that graciousness and hospitality have much to do with a true welcome and acceptance of 'the other'. On this last point, I was 'the other' in Christina's home, yet, she received me as if she had known me for a lifetime. (Upon entering a Zulu home, it is customary to sit immediately without being asked. To do otherwise would be an insult. Yet, before I could sit down on the floor, Christina rushed to bring me a mat upon which I could sit. She did this, not because I was a priest, an 'uZwe' or 'carer', but because I, simply, was who I am, a person who had come to her home. In the spirit of the Zulu greeting or word of hello, 'sawubonya', meaning, 'I see you', she, simply and profoundly, had seen me.)

That same afternoon, we visited the home of Edie Zondi, whose granddaughter, Slindiwe, had served as our translator during our visit with Christina (although Andreas has an admirably and enviably good working knowledge of the isiZulu language). Edie was so pleased that we had come into her home. Here, as with Christina, I felt the presence of a sacred spirit of hospitality. Over tea and biscuits, Edie spoke of her daughter's death, some years before, due to AIDS. In recounting her experience, she repeated the question that she had asked many times, 'God, why did you let AIDS come to my house?' She, then, spoke of reaching some resolution in hearing the voice of God, saying, 'I stand at the door and knock. To those who open the door, I will enter and dwell with them.' I recognized the words as a paraphrase of Jesus' words in a passage from the Book of Revelation. Yet, Edie shared it, I believe, as a word of solace and strength that had found a home in her heart. Edie's loss remained great, yet, with assurance, she could say, 'I know that Man' (meaning God). There was a time when I might have described such faith in God as sincere and simple. However, here, I sensed a profundity in Edie's ever holding in tension her anguish and her assurance ' not one alone or one without the other, but rather, the latter in spite or, indeed, because of the former. There is nothing simple about maintaining such a daily, delicate spiritual balance.

On Sunday, 5 November, we attended worship at Holy Spirit Anglican Church, one of the Zulu congregations. Although we didn't understand most of what was said and sung, because it was an Anglican liturgy of Holy Eucharist, we could follow easily. (I am reminded of Ed Kneedler's comment during a 28 June post-General Convention meeting at St. Mark's. Ed expressed his desire that the Anglican Communion remain intact and, particularly, that the Episcopal Church not desert the Communion, for there is immeasurable value in being and feeling welcomed throughout the world in the familiar liturgies of the Anglican Church.) The pews, fashioned in the shape of a semi-circle, were filled with women, men, and many children. The singing was rapturous ' a capella, richly musical and harmonious, and vigorous, with much clapping and dancing. The preaching of the Rev. Doris Sithole, a 76-year old community priest (a member of the Holy Spirit church community; much like our adjunct clergy in relation to St. Mark's) was impassioned. Doris invited me to say a word, which I did (well, actually, it was a JAFT, just a few thoughts, one of which was my sharing your greetings, as the St. Mark's community, to the people of Holy Spirit), with one of the wardens serving as my translator.

At Holy Trinity, I presided and preached at a Thursday midweek service, during which we used the Eucharistic rite from the 'old' South African prayer book (think 1928 Book of Common Prayer or the Rite I service in our current BCP). On Sunday, 12 November, I co-presided with Jenny and shared a JOT (just one thought) as an appendage to her sermon. (Prior to the service, Jenny generously invited me to participate in these ways, graciously apologizing for belatedly confirming her requests, and thanking me for being so flexible. I replied, 'Jenny, no need to apologize. I'm the rector of St. Mark's, Capitol Hill, where flexibility is a requirement.')

We also were treated to an enjoyable evening of dinner and fellowship with Eliza and her family, Jonny, her husband, their children, Noah, Aidan, and Luke, and Sara, her mother-in-law. Other dinner guests, along with Jenny and Andreas, were Michael and Dorrie Nuttall, the former Bishop of the Diocese of Natal and his wife. Conversation was lively ' mostly about the politics of the Anglican Church and America. Regarding the latter, everywhere we've gone both in England and South Africa, as soon as we open our mouths, someone will say, nearly always in the following order, three things: (1) 'You're American, aren't you? I can tell by your accents,' (2) 'Where are you from?' and (3) 'Let me tell you what I think (largely unfavorable) about your government.'

Additionally, through Eliza's good offices, I was invited to present my paper, 'Reflections on Pluralism', at the Theological Caf' ' a weekly gathering of the faculty and student body of the religion and theology department of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus. After my opening brief (really!) remarks, the floor was opened for comments and questions. The response, both from Christian and Muslim participants, was lively and engaged. I have treasured each and every moment when I've been challenged to rethink and amend or embellish what I have written.

Finally, we attended two meetings, each different, one from another, and each significant in its own way.

START HERE...

One was a gathering of the Anglican clergy of the region. The rector of the parish where the meeting was held warmly welcomed and introduced us as visitors from Washington, DC. He, then, apologized for not knowing how to pronounce Pontheolla's name, asking her to say it. He, having misheard her, thinking that she had said Pantheolla, replied, 'Does your name come from 'pantheon' as in 'pantheon of the gods'?' To which I replied, humorously, 'No, she is God!' He laughed, nervously. (Immediately, I wish that I hadn't been so flippant. As a guest, especially in light of the sabbatical theme, I had a sense that I, as 'the other', might have offended 'the other.') The meeting's focus was evangelical in nature; evangelism understood traditionally as winning souls for Jesus Christ, particularly through the means of Christians 'invading secular space' so to meet people where they are. At the end of the meeting, the rector asked us to divide into prayer teams of 3-4. Some of the teams prayed in what I would term a 'charismatic' fashion ' that is, in recognition of and reliance on charisms or gifts of the Spirit ' with audible exhortations and the laying on of hands, in one case, resulting in the person for whom prayer was offered being 'slain in the Spirit' (that is, spiritually 'struck down' and physically falling to the floor as a sign of the Spirit's having killed some inner defect of sin, so to raise one to renewed and strengthened life in Christ). It had been a long while since we encountered such acts of what we would call hyperspirituality or what some refer to as 'happy, clappy Christianity.' For Pontheolla, it brought to her mind many childhood scenes growing up in the Church of God in South Carolina. Under the banner of our theme, 'conversation with the other,' as much as we would have liked to have said, 'If it works for you, then, blessed are you,' we, nevertheless, were left not knowing what to think, but remaining rather skeptical.

The second meeting was the Growth Group ' a cross section of people from the Holy Trinity and valley congregations who prayerfully and thoughtfully are focused on how to 'grow the community'. Pontheolla and I attended. A fair portion of the 2-hour meeting was devoted to members of the group directing questions to us about St. Mark's. We had an open opportunity to share something of our rich communal life with them ' what works and what doesn't work. By all appearances, given the avid interest of the growth group members, we're an interesting bunch! However, what impressed me most was the Growth Group's focus or, I should say, foci, for congregational growth was addressed in a number (pun intended) of ways ' not merely numerically, but also spiritually, and, even more and as importantly, in terms of mission and service. There already is much about the Holy Trinity and valley congregational communities with which I would like us, as a parish, to explore and consider engaging. (Recall that I expressed a similar interest in our developing a relationship with St. James's Church, Piccadilly. Suffice it to say, this sabbatical has opened my mind, heart, and spirit to an array of possibilities for us as a community for developing and deepening our connections with others around the world.)

Johannesburg, again

We returned to Johannesburg on Monday, 13 November. With the exception of one hour, it rained unbelievably hard for the duration of the 5-hour drive. (By the way, the N-3 highway between Jo'burg and Durban passes through some of the most gorgeous countryside imaginable, much of it known as Drakensberg ' rolling hills, verdant pastures, lofty and majestic mesas, and distant and shadowy mountains. Around each bend of the highway lay one more breathtaking sight. Think of driving through the Smokey Mountains, only on a steeper and more serpentine road.)

Penultimate Words ' For Now

Under the heading of sabbatical 'findings,' a few, but not all of the things I've discovered or, perhaps, rediscovered while traveling around the world'

1. 'The other,' whoever she or he may be, even when it is one's self, has inherent dignity simply by virtue of having been created. Our conversation, indeed, all conversation, even inward conversation must be carried out with common, perhaps uncommon human respect, both for the other and for one's self.

2. The idea of 'the other' must be expanded beyond those who differ in faith and religion, even race and culture to include those who occupy different economic strata. The poor have much to tell us and teach us about human authenticity, dignity, and hospitality.

3. We, Americans, are passionate and profligate consumers. So much of the world lives on far less, indeed, needs far less in order to live. I recall a news report while we were in London. The New Economic Foundation, a British think-tank, marked 9 October 2006 as the day when humankind had reached the point of consuming the earth's resources beyond their renewable sustainability. We shouldn't be surprised that America was designated the chief national offender. Moreover, during the flight to Johannesburg, I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth ' twice! All of this stirs up in me a hope that Pontheolla and I and we, St. Mark's, as individuals and as a community, can become and will be repentant consumers, that is, that we continue to learn to be more conscious environmentally. In this regard, I am gratified to read on our egroups of the ongoing efforts of Jane Osborne and others at St. Mark's concerning our deepening involvement with the Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light as we learn to be greater stewards of God's resources.

4. The South African 'experiment in democracy' is less than generation old, yet, there is much that we, Americans, in the 231st year of our experiment in democracy, can learn. There is much violence in this land. One is reminded daily through even a cursory glance at the news. However, I find something deeply inspiring and empowering about the fact that our South African sisters and brothers were able to bring about an internal regime change with the committed help of a global consortium of nations and without the massive, nationwide bloodshed that long had been predicted and feared. If I were to venture a political comment, I find many lessons to be learned from the South African experience in regard to what we as an American nation have wrought in Iraq.

5. At the same time, there is much that America can teach South Africa. Apartheid was so brutally, relentlessly divisive, separating people, one from another, in every way ' physically, socially, culturally, spiritually, economically, and politically. Hence, in this new day, peoples have to learn about 'the other' in daily social, public, and, certainly, political exchanges previously unknown. As continually and deeply flawed, in some respects, as I believe our American race relations are, we do have an historical track record of racial assimilation and acclimation to share.

6. More personally: South Africa has 11 official languages. Most South Africans of whatever racial or tribal group are bilingual, trilingual, or, even, quadralingual, speaking some combination of Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, and other native languages. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's 1st Corinthians reference to language facility in relation to love: 'If I can speak in every human tongue and that of angels'' Paul makes clear that without love, being able to communicate with others is only making noise. Nevertheless, the capacity to speak with others in their languages is a gift. Although I have a great fondness for words, I am fluent only in English. I have read Bill Flanders' 12 November sermon at St. Mark's, based on Jesus' story of the widow's mite. On reflection, while in South Africa, I, on many occasions, either by accident or intentional search, have discovered my deep poverty. I have found myself, when in conversation with others, incapable of listening clearly, understanding deeply, and expressing myself meaningfully. I was poor. I am poor. I wonder. When I return to the comfort of my familiar surroundings in my country, my city, my neighborhood, and my parish community, will I relax and forget again my poverty?

7. More locally: Concerning us, St. Mark's, as I mention above, I see possibilities of our engaging in and with the mission and ministries, the life and witness of both St. James's, Piccadilly, and Holy Spirit and the valley congregations in South Africa. St. James's because of the multiple similarities with St. Mark's and the Hillcrest church communities because of the many differences. Even more, the sabbatical has helped me to reach a greater sense of vision for St. Mark's, of course, as I see it. If I were to attempt at this stage to articulate it in a few words, it would be: Faithfully grounded locally, St. Mark's engages in mission and ministry globally. I relish talking more with you about our parish vision upon my return.

A Final Word:

Dear friends, please know of Pontheolla's and my love for you and our community. We miss you greatly and look forward to returning and sharing life anew with you.

Love, always and in all ways,
Paul

2006-11-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

2.0 Another version, using also a list:

Now that's a list
And this is an item in the list
and this is an indent to start another list in the list

call MKL for birthday greeting

ending
end
ended

Or would this be a better editor to create blog?

Create & save to-do list
get Florence apt.

call Oregon again
contact Linda via Rick or direct

do 30 min. yoga minimum
shower & hairwash
get BMW inspection ASAP
upgrade Mac by noon

more RAM

select vendor
order 512 MB card to replace 128 MB card

bigger HD

ID method to reuse original 30 GB

select vendor for drive enclosure, drive
order 80-120 GB drive
order drive enclosure
remove drive and place in enclosure which can get power from adapter, USB, or FireWire port

Stove Top Smoking

2006-11-20T12:13:00.000-05:00

Potted Salmon / Rillettes: recipes & websites

2006-11-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

And a recipe from Corban's, NZ (?)

Potted Salmon:

Enjoying Wine
Potted Salmon
Potted SalmonServes 6

* 3 tablespoons cream cheese
* 1 cup créme fraîche
* 1 teaspoon brandy
* juice of 1/2 lime
* 1 small clove garlic, minced
* 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
* 200g hot-smoked salmon, skin discarded
* zest of 1 lime
* sliced rye bread or pumpernickel to serve

Beat together the cream cheese, créme fraîche, brandy, lime juice, garlic and thyme.

Cut the salmon into rough 2cm dice.

Using a fork, mash a few peices of salmon into the cream cheese mixture. Gently fold in the remaining salmon and the lime zest.

Spoon into ramekins or small bowls, cover and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

Spread onto small squares of rye bread or pumpernickel to serve.
Wine Match

Sauvignon Blanc (Corbans Cottage Block Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc)

Recipe courtesy of Cuisine
The Great British Kitchen
Potted salmon was very popular in the eighteenth century. There are a number of variations and this one comes from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

4 x 175 Gram Salmon steaks (6 oz)
15 Gram Ground mace & ground cloves well mixed
White pepper
50 Gram Butter (2 oz)
Melted butter

Method

Set the oven to 180 �C / 350 �F / Gas 4.

Wipe the salmon steaks and season with the spices and a little pepper. Place in a well-buttered ovenproof dish and dot with butter. Cover with a lid or piece of foil and bake for 30-40 minutes, occasionally basting the steaks with the liquid.

Lift out the salmon steaks and allow to drain well. Allow to cool a little, then remove all skin and bones and flake the flesh finely. Place in 4-6 ramekin dishes and press down well. Spoon the melted butter over the fish to seal, and leave to set. Serve well chilled, as a starter, with buttered crusty bread or toast."

Green Tomatoes, Pickles, et al.

2006-10-16T06:29:00.000-04:00

Pickles, e.g.:

See del.icio.us: green tomato Pickle cookery recipe
HOT FISH-HOUSE STYLE GREEN TOMATO
PICKLES

2 qts. quartered green tomato
2 c. chopped onion
3/4 c. chopped hot peppers
2 c. sugar
3 tbsp. salt
2 c. vinegar
1 tsp. celery seed

Put tomatoes, onions and hot peppers in large pan. Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat immediately, put in hot, sterile jars and seal.

NOTE: For spicy but not hot pickles, reduce hot pepper to half or less the amount called for and fill. Measure with chopped sweet peppers.

Spiced Pickled Onions & Peppers Recipe
Green Tomato Kosher Pickles Recipe

Submitted by: rec.food.recipes Piper edmaldonado
Difficulty: 3 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)
Serves/Makes: 1 quart
Ingredients:
10 small green tomatoes or cucumbers
1/2 cup vinegar
2 cups water
3 cloves garlic
2 red peppers, dried
1/4 celery stalk
1/4 cup salt
1 bay leaf
Directions:
Place green tomatoes (or cucumbers) in a quart jar. Bring vinegar, water and salt to a boil, cool, and add to the jar with bay leaf, garlic, red peppers, celery. Seal tightly. Let stand at room temperature for 3 days. Open and taste. Store in refrigerator.
This recipe for Green Tomato Kosher Pickles serves/makes 1 quart
Green Tomato Pickles Recipe
Ingredients:
25 green tomatoes -- thickly sliced
1 pint vinegar
4 cups brown sugar
cloves -- to taste
cinnamon stick -- to taste
whole allspice -- to taste
Directions:
Let tomatoes stand overnight. Sprinkle with salt, then drain. Cook until tender. Add vinegar, brown sugar, and spices to taste.
This recipe for Green Tomato Pickles serves/makes 25
Green Tomato Pickles Recipes
Ingredients:
1 gallon green tomatoes
or
16 cups sliced
1/4 cup salt
1/2 tablespoon powdered alum
3 cups vinegar; 5% acidity
1 cup water
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon mixed spices
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon mustard seed
Directions:
Slice tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and allow to stand overnight. Next morning drain and pour 2 quarts of boiling water with 1/2 tablespoon of powdered alum over the tomatoes and let stand 20 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water, drain. Combine vinegar, water, sugar and spices; tie spices loosely in bag, and bring to a boil. Pour this over the tomatoes. Let stand in this solution overnight. Then drain and bring solution to boil and pour over tomatoes. Let stand overnight. On the third morning bring the pickles and solution to a boil. Pack into sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch of top. Put on cap, screw band firmly tight. Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.
This recipe for Green Tomato Sweet Pickles serves/makes 8 pints
Simply Recipes: Pickled Jalapeños (Escabeche) Recipe: "Pickled Jalapeños (Escabeche) Recipe

Chiles Jalapeños y Serrano Escabeche

This year I decided to grow jalapeno and serrano chiles - those wonderfully hot and flavorful Mexican chiles that are used salsa, guacamole, and so many Mexican dishes. But I certainly wasn't expecting each plant to yield over a pound of chiles! What to do with so many? I posed the question to Diana Kennedy when she was in town a few weeks ago. The answer? Escabeche, or pickled jalape�os. Of course. I remember these being served as a condiment with so many meals I've had when visiting Mexico. My mother used to buy jars of escabeche when I was a child. The chiles can be cut up and used for so many dishes.

1 lbs serrano or jalapeño chile peppers
1/3 cup olive oil
2 medium white onions, thickly sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
1 head garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Kosher salt or sea salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 sprigs of fresh marjoram or 1/4 teaspoon dried
4 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 Tbsp sugar

1 Wash the chiles, leaving the stems intact. Cut a cross in the tip end of each chile so that the vinegar will be able to penetrate.

2 Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the chiles, onions, carrots, and garlic. Fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning them over occasionally.

3 Add the vinegar, salt, herbs, and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes for serranos or 10 minutes for jalape�os.

4 Pack 6 half-pint sterilized jars with the chiles and vegetables. Top with the vinegar and seal.

Once opened, can keep for one month in the refrigerator.

Note from Diana Kennedy is that partially cooked chiles allow for the growth of bacteria. It is very important to cook the chiles thoroughly if they are to be stored for any length of time.

Recipe adapted from The Essential Cuisines of Mexico."

GREEN TOMATO PICKLE

Printed from COOKS.COM

1/4 pkg. (1 3/4 lb.) green tomatoes
4 onions
1/4 c. salt
4 peppers, chopped
1 qt. vinegar
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. mustard seed
1 tbsp. whole allspice
1 tbsp. whole cloves
1 lb. sugar

Firm, small to medium green tomatoes (entirely green, not partially ripe) and firm, white onions. Wash well. Slice tomatoes and onions, sprinkle with salt and let stand overnight. Rinse well in cold water; add peppers. To the vinegar, add spices (tied in a bag) and sugar. Mix with vegetables and cook for about 2 hours. Remove spice bag. Seal pickle in clean, hot sterilized jars.

Makes five 1 pint jars.

Sally's green tomato pickle :: Recipe :: ABC Tasmania

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1328033.htm]
Sally's green tomato pickle
Chef: Sally Wise
Chilly nights and frost on the ground? This easily-made pickle's a good way to use up those green tomatoes you get at the end of the growing season.

You need:
Tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, spices and flavouring. Use a good quality curry powder for best results.

750 ml bottle vinegar (white gives the best presentation)

3kg (6lb) green tomatoes

1kg (2lb) onions

small handful of salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1kg (2lb) sugar

3 tablespoons curry powder

3 tablespoons mustard powder

Method:

Chop the onions and tomatoes, sprinkle with salt, mix well in a bowl, then leave to stand overnight.

Next day drain off the fluid. Add three quarters of the vinegar, bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes. Add the sugar, bring back to the boil, stirring, then boil for one hour, stirring often.

Mix the remaining vinegar with the dry ingredients. Add to the pot and stir until well combined. Boil 5 minutes, then bottle and seal.

Sally tells us this is "...the best and easiest pickle recipe she's ever come across".

Recent Dinners; Witte-Mork Visit

2005-09-10T07:26:00.000-04:00

A list of trips, menus this past week:

Friday night:

Thai-ish fish soup
Basmati rice
Vanilla ice cream with home-made chocolate sauce

Thursday:

During the day we went over to Blackwater National
Wildlife Refuge. Saw many great blue herons and snowy egrets, also many tri-color herons - they look much like great blue but shorter. Mimo was also fascinated by the frogs and many turtles and one great Delaware fox squirrel.
night - we went to Cantler's in St. Margarets for a dozen large steamed crabs, Maryland crab soup, potato salad, french fries, wine and beer and coca cola, ending with very good chocolate cake. Mimo completely enjoyed smashing open crab claws and picking crabs. Also enjoyed seeing the crab trays in the "zoo" and the Maryland diamondback terrapins in the restoration pens.

Wednesday night:
Tuesday night: sushi at Joss, Annapolis
Other items:

A fatoosh, bread salad with many leftover iterms included.
The smoked cod brandade with dried tomatoes.
The salmon in potato chip crust with green sauce. Too salty - look for less salty potato chips.

Baked Halibut Fillet with a Potato Chip Crust Dinner

2005-08-31T08:37:00.000-04:00

Corn on the cob, white and yellow
Caesar and caprese salad
Baked Halibut Fillet with a Potato Chip Crust

Baked Halibut Fillet with a Potato Chip Crust

- Ingredients

1/2 cup crushed potato chips - a good way to crush is to roll under a round wooden pestle or rolling pin
1/4 cup bread crumbs - used Panko crumbs
1 teaspoon dried dill - as I didn't have any dried dill, I ground up 2 tsp dill seed and then sieved out the hard cores, yeilding perhaps 3/4 tsp dill dust; I then added approx. 1/4 tsp curry powder, 1/4 tsp garam masala. Twas delicious, and subtle.
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 large salmon fillet (about 3 pounds), skin on - used a 1 1/2 lb fillet halibut - wonderful
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper

Garnishes

1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges
Fresh dill sprigs - I found a leftover green cilantro chutney which was a great idea, which recipe I don't have to hand but should be easy to find one on Internet: google green cilantro chutney.

Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 375° F. - I started out with the oven at 500° F.

In a small bowl, combine the crushed potato chips, bread crumbs, dill, (spice mix) and garlic; set aside. (Note that any contact with the crushed chips leaves a greasy film. Don't be dismayed, as it's the oil in the chips that keeps the fish so mosit as it bakes, I believe.)

Put the salmon (halibut) skin-side down on a lightly oiled, foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Remove any pinbones with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. Brush the surface of the salmon with the mustard, spreading it evenly (and thicker is better). Sprinkle the potato chip mixture over the mustard, packing it lightly with your fingertips so that it adheres to the surface. Season with the pepper.

Bake until the crust is golden brown and the salmon is opaque when a knife is inserted at the center of the thickest part, about 30 minutes. (I turned the heat down to 450, then 400. Although the fish was perfectly cooked, moist, tender and flaky, after 25-30 min., the crust only browned nicely where extra had fallen to the side of the fish. I place this pretty crumble on top of the finished fish.)

Using 2 spatulas, carefully transfer the fillet in one piece to a large serving platter, leaving the skin on the baking sheet; garnish with the lemon wedges and dill sprigs. (Or pour the green sauce around the fillet and serve on plates with portions. Extraordinary.)

Serves 6 (our 1/2 portion would have certainly been adequate for 3.)

(Nancy and I didn't quite finish our huge portions. They make excellent leftovers. I served this with boiled fresh yellow and white corn and the same Caesar salad - caprese combo I made for Nancy's birthday. In fact, this fish was to be the other course for her birthday, which we skipped as too much. And it would have been. We drank a nice California Merlot with this. A memorable meal.)

Copyright © 2003 by George Dolese & Steve Siegelman. Reprinted from Firehouse Food without permission from Chronicle Books. Jeanne is a third-generation San Francisco firefighter with a long history of salmon fishing. Her dad, who is now retired, still shows up at the station every now and then with a freshly caught king salmon for Jeanne and the crew. Needless to say, he’s invited to stay for dinner.

Other recipes to be supplied...

2005-08-29T09:13:00.000-04:00

Some recipes I'd like to retain or get written down here:

Shrimp and scallop seviche with mango - a Mexican recipe from Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless. Bayless suggested avocado. I had, and therefore used, a fresh mango instead.
Sfogi in Saor - marinated fish, Venetian style. I used a piece of tuna and some catfish. From Peterson's Fish & Shellfish.
An Indian fish masala from Kerala, from current issue of Gourmet.
An Indian coconut rice, from same issue of Gourmet.
Another Indian dish, a vegetable dal stew, from my own making, I think. No, it was based on a recipe on the back of a packet of Masala seasoning. I added some variations, of course.
Sweet and sour okra, a recipe found on the Internet.

New recipes, events...

2005-08-29T08:01:00.000-04:00

Recipes from Nancy's simple birthday dinner, last Saturday, 27 August.

Caesar and caprese salad

Crab Gumbo
Ken's Basil Scallops
Chocolate torte: I cheated on this and bought a beautiful piece at Whole Foods. Serve with vanilla ice cream on the side.

Caesar and caprese salad

This made a delicious starter.
The Caesar salad, not quite from scratch.

Romaine lettuce leaves, torn in peices. Red are nice for color, if available. Use "enough" per person. As the size of leaves is quite variable, think about large torn or chopped pieces roughly half a palm size, if you have large hands.
The dressing is special for Nancy, as she loves anchovies.
Take two anchovy fillets in olive oil and put them in salad bowl. Mash around bottom of bowl with a fork until they are coming apart. Add 1 minced garlic clove. Add 1 - 2 tsp. Dijon style mustard and stir together. Add 1 tbsp. mayonnaise or mayonnaise substitute - e.g., Vegenaise worked fine (this is the not quite from scratch part.) Mix with anchovy mustard. Stir in 1-2 tbsp good quality olive oil. Check for taste. If needed, add 1 tsp or more lemon juice to taste.
Mix romaine leaves into dressing until leaves are covered. Arrange on a large display plate.

The caprese salad

A sufficiency of fresh mozarella - I used a few pieces collected from the salad bar at Whole Foods. Slice in 1/2 in. pieces.
A fresh, summery ripe, tomato or two, peeled, juicy and bleeding. Cut in wedges.
Scatter in little collections of tomato and cheese around the outer edges of the Caesar salad.
Cut a bunch of basil leaves, again, a sufficiency for quantity of salad being prepared, in chiffonade. In this case, don't stint on the sufficiency. You want plenty of basil. Scatter the basil over the cheese and tomatoes.
Finish by drizzling good extra virgin olive oil over the cheese, tomatoes and basil. You might also sprinkle with a little sea salt or even fleur de sel. A crackle of fresh cracked black pepper makes a nice final touch.

Serve the combined salad with salad plates and either little forks to pick at, or a serving spatula. Accompany with bread and a nice, cold, dry sauvignon blanc.

Crab gumbo

Starting with several recipes I read, I made this up from ingredients at hand. I had bought a couple of pounds of backfin crab from North Carolina at Frank's in the morning - they were having a "buy 1 lb. and the 2nd is half price" special. I also had on hand a couple of pounds of beautiful okra I had just picked at Clagett Farm that afternoon, as well as a plentiful supply of fresh tomatoes and fresh sweet and hot peppers. I also had green beans fresh from the Annapolis Farmer's Market.
Ingredients

1 lb. backfin or claw crab meat, shells picked out

1 lb. fresh okra, tops trimmed off, cut in 1/2 in. pieces
1 white or yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 sticks celery, diced, with chopped leaves
1 - 2 medium peeled white or yellow potatoes, large dice
1 - 2 lb fresh tomatoes, peeled, chopped coarsely or 1 large can tomatoes, chopped, with juice
1 - 2 sweet peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 - 2 or more hot peppers, to taste, chopped. Include seeds for more piquancy.
1 lb . green beans, (optional), ends snapped, cut in 1-2 in. lengths
1 lb . summer squash, (optional), cut in 1 in. pieces
2 tbsp sweet butter
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups stock - I made fish stock using Japanese shaved bonito in 5 cg. packets; many recipes recommend beef or chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
2 tbsp soy sauce or 2 tsp salt
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Prepare the stock: for fish stock using bonito flakes, bring 4 cups water to boil and take of heat; open 2 5 cg. packets of bonito flakes and pour into water. Steep for 5 minutes and strain. Dogs or cats find the strained flakes a tasty treat.
In a deep pan or soup pot saute (braise or sweat over medium heat) onions, carrots, celery and peppers in butter and olive oil until onions turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and garlic and sweat another couple of minutes. Add okra and sweat a couple more minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the tomatoes and stir.
Add stock and cup of wine. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.
Add bay leaves, Old Bay Seasoning and simmer for 20-30 min. About halfway through add in the summer squash - you want it cooked but still intact. There is no need to overcook the vegetables. Use the green beans as a guide. When they seem done enough, everything else should be about right. If using potatoes, they provide a second check - you want them firm but not crunchy.
Just before serving, add the crab meat. It will be heated by the body of the soup. It is already cooked so needs no additional cooking. Don't overcook or it may toughen.
Check seasoning. If salt is needed, the soy sauce works well and disappears as a separate flavor if you don't use too much. Add Worcestershire sauce now, also, and stir in.
Serve soup in bowls or cups. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or basil. Bread alongside is nice for sopping up the delicious juice. This makes a fairly dense soup. You may want to thin with additional stock, water, or white wine.

Ken's Scallops (I don't know who Ken is. 'tis just the name of the recipe I found.)

I made these for Nancy's birthday using very large sea scallops at just 3 each per our two servings. They weighed about 10 oz. altogether. Excellent just lightly bronze colored. Bought these beautiful scallops that morning at Frank's Seafood, Jessup.

Quick, simple, delicious! What else do you need? Prep
Time: approx. 15 Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 4 Minutes.
Ready in: approx. 19 Minutes. Makes 2 servings.
Printed from Allrecipes, Submitted by Ken Gouge

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh basil leaves, chopped
20 scallops, rinsed and patted dry
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 wedge lemon

Directions
1 Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook
garlic and basil in oil for about 30 seconds, and then add
scallops. Season with salt and pepper, and squeeze lemon over
the scallops. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
I turned scallops over after a minute or so, checking that they had just begun to show some color, then cooked on second side until gold color began to show. Remove from heat as soon as they begin to appear opaque through the center - don't overcook!
The quantity of basil is the indefinite "1 bunch fresh basil leaves." I used a couple of handsful from our kitchen herb garden, cut as a chiffonade.

Some urban topic resources...

2005-06-29T19:06:00.000-04:00

Baltimore: DTI - href="http://www.dtinational.org/">Development Training Institute
2510 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Phone: 410-338-2512
Fax: 410-338-2751
info@dtinational.org

MIT OpenCourseWare » Urban Studies and Planning

Rockefeller Institute of Government: Urban Studies

Milano Graduate School A division of The New School -- Innovative master's degree programs in professions of critical importance to urban areas; a commitment to racial, ethnic, and gender diversity; and a concern for social responsibility, these are the hallmarks of the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy.

Center for Civic Innovation

Urban Studies Program @ Stanford

Paris; And tonight, garlic scape Thai fish soup; fresh strawberries from the farm and cheese

2005-06-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

Arrived in Paris, we met the crew during breakfast.

Karl held the baby, who also showed she could stand on her own (almost.)

Her mom and dad joined us, too.

Tombeau de Sartre & de Beauvoir en Montparnasse.

On our trip to Paris we walked one morning after breakfast through the Jardins Luxembourg up to the Montparnasse cemetery. Found Sartre's tomb but could not find Poulenc.

Saturday last, we stayed home: dinner

2005-06-06T10:27:00.000-04:00

For dinner we had pasta, fish, strawberries:

Pasta was a combination lemon-flavored garlic scape sauce arrabiata with penne
Lightly floured haddock fillet sauteed in butter and olive oil with a quick sauce of fish sauce, lime juice, mirin
Strawberries fresh from my last local GSA delivery - outrageously good, cut up on a bed of fresh salad greens with a bit of balsamic vinegar
A bottle of prosecco

Garlic Scape Pesto / Hummus Dip

2005-06-06T10:10:00.000-04:00

Garlic Scape Pesto / Hummus Dip was a huge hit at a Marla's farewell party this past Sunday. Note that only a couple recipes I found on the Internet point out that you should cut off the scapes below the bulge where the flower bud begins. Use the tops as decorations for the pesto / hummus dip. In the recipe certain ingredients are not essential but enhance the result, making it smoother, richer or both. You may omit the spinach or pine nuts, for example, if you don't have them, but they are nice touches.

INGREDIENTS
1-2 cups of garlic scapes
1-1 1/2 lemons
1 can chickpeas, drained.
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1-2 teaspoons salt
2-3 cups "tender" greens such as spinach, arugula, spicy greens mix
2-3 tablespoons sesame tahini
1 cup or more finely grated parmesan or romano cheese
1 cup pine nuts

PROCEDURE
Remove tops from 1-2 cups of scapes and reserve as decorations; cut in 2 in. lengths. Process with 1/2 - 1 cup olive oil in food processor for 2-3 min. until finely chopped.

Add drained chickpeas.
Add 2-3 tablespoons sesame tahini.
Add juice of 1 - 1 1/2 lemons, seeds removed.
Add 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste. You (I) want it to have an edge, but not to be overtly "Hot."
Add 1-2 teaspoons salt - I use kosher, but any will do. Salt to taste, not too much.
Process until chickpeas are finely ground.

You may want to taste at this point to see if more cayenne is needed. Note that the sauce will "heat up" as it sits.

Add 2-3 cups spinach or spicy greens or arugula, whatever you have, for more green color and to lighten the hummus. Process until finely ground and well integrated in sauce.

I also added 1 cup finely grated parmesan and a cup or so of pine nuts, also all ground in for another minute or two.

You want the sauce to be smooth for dipping. The raw scapes resist chopping so they require a good deal of processing. The end result will still have a little texture from the scapes and the pine nuts - a good thing!

As a dip, finish by putting dip in a bowl and dribbling fine extra virgin olive oil over it. As a future revision I would add some lightly toasted cumin seed: heat 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed in a skillet until it begins to be aromatic; grind it coarsely in a mortar; mix 1/2 in the dip. Sprinkle the remainder over the top.

This sauce / dip could as well be used as a pasta dressing or over a piece of fish to be baked. In this instance I served it as a dip in a bowl with peeled raw kohlrabi sliced thin and cut in half as chips. It got rave reviews.

Posted by: Mark Lindley | June 6, 2005 10:07 AM

Friday dinner, other developments

2005-06-04T08:18:00.000-04:00

Dinner:

Fresh sushi quality yellowfin steaks seared and sliced with ginger garlic sauce - per Pat Wells Bistro Cooking and Pleasures of the Viedtnamese Table of Mai Pham.
Pommes de terre Savonette again, this time with organic russet potatoes more uniformly shaped - some cooked too long in water and were breaking up but still wonderful flavor, texture, the crisp skin on the soft potatoes
Stir fried veggies - thai eggplants sliced and stir-fried with some left-over mixed greens, with soy sauce, hot sauce, mirin,
lovely tossed salad with salad greens, spring onions, vinaigrete ala Jacques Pepin
Nice bottle of merlot

- Good meeting at MCIJ: got list of inmates for next Thu evening discussion
- Met Dr. Peters, Annapolis Gastro Assoc. who will perform endoscopy on me this Thu afternoon or earlier in the week if a cancellation occurs.
- firmed up plans after speaking to Chuch Weikel for discussion group on city planning for Annapolis
- Working with several lenders on refinancing real estate
- Monitoring investments
-

Dinner Monday, Memorial Day: Baked Shrimp w. Feta, Potatoes Savonette

2005-06-02T14:13:00.000-04:00

Visited Loudon Park to review the stone where my family is buried. The inscription for Mother was done correctly. The cemetery seems to be going through a growth period as well as needing better maintenance. Our stone was okay but a number of older stones, of marble, seemed to have weathered badly. In a number of cases they were tumbled over or broken either by weather or vandals, unclear which.

Baked Shrimp w. Feta

Blanch shrimp 1 min. thawed, 1 1/2 min if frozen. Shell the shrimp. Make a tomato sauce. Layer shrimp, crumbled feta, tomato sauce. Top with feta. Bake 5-10 min. until sauce bubbles, feta melts. From Meze, by Kochilas (I think.)
My changes: not enough shrimp, I cut up a fillet of haddock to fill in the holes. Also, adding some minced garlic to tomato sauce was nice. Adding minced mixed herbs when assembling, e.g., on the tomato sauce was a nice add, also. The minutes seemed off - I left in oven for 15-20 min or more. Fish did not overcook and the feta never melted.
Dish was delicious. Could do same just with fish fillets whole or sliced up. Also tasty cold. There was a lot of liquid when I took it out, perhaps a result of too long in the oven. The juice was a great soup - would have been better with bread to soak it up.

Potatoes Navonette:

Julia and Jacques, a recipe by Jacques Pepin. Thick sliced potatoes are boiled with 1 tbsp each butter and peanut oil; covered with a lid to keep in steam. When potatoes are soft through per a knife inserted goes in and comes out with no resistance, let the rest of the water boil off and brown the potatoes on both sides in the remaining oils. Salt and pepper to taste. Be sure to scrape up any fond that sticks to the pan. It is the fried starch that leached into the water and it is tasty. Outstanding result.

Perhaps this could be sprinkled with parsley or other herbs to serve but it works well to soak up the extra juice rendered in the shrimp/fish dish.

Salmon and potatoes for dinner Thursday

2005-05-30T09:43:00.000-04:00

Salmon from Copper River with an orange marinade and a salsa from Legal Sea Foods Cookbook.
Potatoes to die for: sliced with sliced onions, layered in a casserole with plenty of salt and black pepper, slices of butter over the top. A cup of beer (I used Corona) and into a 400 degree oven for 40 min. Then, with 10 min. to go, add over a half cup of heavy cream. Becomes creamy and delicious. From Richard Olney's Simple French Food.

Dinner of Basque dogfish, mixed greens / asparagus

2005-05-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

Ross brought me a couple fillets of dogfish / sand shark from his adventure at Assateague this past weekend - high winds, high tides on Friday, moderating through the weekend.

I found several - not many, but several - recipes online. I then checked Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood. He had a couple and the Basque one caught my fancy, with the ingredients in that recipe not far from what I had in the house. Plenty of garlic, some chopped herbs and hot peppers, in plenty of olive oil, gently cooked atop the stove. I lacked the earthenware pot called for but, cooked in a nice stainless steel skillet with plenty of oil I doubt it was far off the Basque dish. I had a selection of fresh herbs which I chopped together - parsley, oregano - and added a thin sliced chopped shallot, plus the garlic called for and spread over the fish fillets in the already garlic flavored oil. Before serving, crack a good serving of black pepper over. Served simply on a plate with the scented olive oil poured over - delicious.
Greens and asparagus. Finished allotments of asparagus, chard. Cut the asparagus in two inch lengths. Separated chard stems and parboiled them until tender in salted water with a little half and half added to keep the color - it worked! Chopped chard leaves. Stir-fried in oil in lightly smoking wok: first, a garlic clove minced, a chopped, deseeded jalapeno. Then, in order, for a minute or so each (as needed, ) 3 chopped scallions, asparagus stems except for the tips, the chard greens, the asparagus tips, the chard stems. Then add the sauce and stir until sauce thickens and nearly disappears. (Sauce: 2 tb. mirin, 1 tb. soy sauce, a little lime juice or rice vinegar (2 tsp))
Nancy made a wonderful salad from arugula fresh from the farm, strawberries from the local CSA, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper.

Luigi goes to the farm

2005-05-24T18:47:00.000-04:00

Luigi and I had a wonderful first day last Saturday at Clagett Farm. Luigi is a black standard poodle who loves to run free and bark. Only a little more than two years old he is often still a puppy. But there are times when he suddenly appears very adult - and surprises us with some behavior we've only suspected.

After gathering our veggies we went down one of the farm roads on Clagett's land and spotted three or four cows / cattle, with a calf, in a field. When I pointed them out to Luigi, he showed considerable interest. I parked near a place where several barns or cattle sheds stood. We looked briefly into that field, but Luigi appeared to be getting too excited so, to keep from disturbing the bigger animals and the calf, we walked into another open field, away from them.

My wife usually walks Luigi. I brought him with me just to get him out in the open air. My wife has described what she calls his "herding" behavior. She says that when Luigi has been around groups of dogs, as he is often at the doggy park at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, on occasion he has tried to "herd" them, circling and barking. The other dogs, of course, not being sheep, pretty much ignore him.

At Clagett, we went into the next field and over the hill. There we spotted, in the distance in yet another field a herd of 20 or 30 or more cattle. At first I wanted to divert Luigi from seeing them, but as we walked through the grass he soon noticed the herd. He looked and looked. Then he bounded across the field in their direction in his amazing light footed gazelle gait. When they spotted him, to my amazement and amusement, they gathered themselves together and rumbled or lumbered over in our direction, toward the fence at the bottom where the hills came together. I was a little concerned about Luigi's ability to maintain some decorum - he likes to bark, a lot. But no, he seemed to know they didn't need his barking. I soon saw quite a number of calves as well as the grown cows. I also spotted a couple of goats. Finally, the herd had gathered under a big shade tree in the hollow of the hills by their watering trough. Luigi and I approached but kept some distance - then Luigi started barking. Several of the calves drew back, startled. The more mature adults nodded their heads at Luigi and looked almost happy - "Ah", they seemed to be thinking, "a herder. Don't be afraid, little ones, he's just a puppy, too. But he knows we're a herd, we know he's a herder, and we're all just doing what we're supposed to be doing." It was as though there was some deep psychic exchange going on, some mutual intuition of innate instinct that drew these animals together in a bond outside my own experience.

As I was a little less confident than the cattle seemed to be, I soon had Luigi follow me up the hill and back to the car. But, running back and forth on the green hills, having herded a real herd for the first time in his life, under the beautiful puffy clouds and ice blue sky, I knew we would have to come back many more times.

Now, when I say "farm", Luigi looks at me with that look that says, "When are we going back? Today? Today? Please!"

Dinner and a show, 49 West

2005-05-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

George Watson joined us last night for soup and salad and then we went for jazz to 49 West.

Dinner:

A lovely fish soup, based on a recipe from somewhere for a haddock soup: chicken stock and white wine, leeks, haddock fillet, some cream. My rendering: a quart fish stock from bonito flakes, 1 or 2 cups white wine, leeks stir-fried in wok plus a garlic scallion, all simmered for 20 min. or more; then added a cup of heavy cream, a cup of coconut milk, several grinds of black pepper, 5 tbsp. of Thai fish sauce; add in 2 medium fillets of smoked catfish to heat through and a cup or two of chopped arugula; at serving, 1/2 - 1 cup chopped basil and mint. Amazingly good soup. It's worth noting that a day and two days later we enjoyed this soup as leftovers. Perhaps even better than fresh cooked. But note that fish was not reheated to boiling, only to quite hot - and quite delicious.
An update from the pasta smoked fish and asparagus salad from the day before: add some freshly stir-fried garlic and asparagus, along with also stir-fried smoked shad, toss in the previous left-over salad into the wok and briefly blend together. Add 1/2 cup dill sour cream dressing from another meal and mix. Serve over fresh salad greens - could have used a little dressing for the greens. It was all delicious.

At 49 West it was Joe Byrd's 72 birthday. Playing with him was a wonderful youngish (July 22, 1955 in Elizabeth, NJ) jazz guitarist, Joshua Breakstone.

Friday Dinner & Rain & Wind

2005-05-21T09:16:00.000-04:00

Big tree limb from locust tree came down in Ausherman's driveway next door yesterday.

Trying to get Ruly and Charlie Boyle together to go sailing this morning.

Dinner last night was too late but also too good. From Peterson's Fish & Shellfish:

Laotian Catfish Soup - excellent, excellent & wonderful soup: used lemon zest as I was out of lemon grass
Grilled fish salad - I used smoked salmon, pasta - very good

Mac fixed! Lots of Rain today + wind; dinner last night

2005-05-20T18:13:00.000-04:00

Mac fixed! Between a new battery and discovering damaged power cord (and getting replacement part) my mac seems now fully able to charge a battery and keep a charge and I have a backup battery - the old one. It probably drains fast, but the new one has about 1/3 more capacity- and its new!

Dinner:

Smoked / Grilled Mako shark steak, using a recipe from James Peterson's Fish & Shellfish. Not one of the fish that Peterson recommended for the recipe I made but fortunately it worked anyhow. The shark was luscious, amazing.

Used dried corn, dry lemon grass stalks, fresh dill for smoke.
Also smoke fillets of catfish and shad.

Khun tom's Pumpkin Soup from Jackum Brown's Vegetarian Thai.
Nancy made a salad.

New wok & New Battery; Dinner

2005-05-18T07:08:00.000-04:00

My new wok arrived from the Wok Shop in San Francisco. It is a 14" carbon steel flat-bottomed wok with two wood handles. I seasoned it using the oven method. I found that cleaning it was more effective scouring with a "green pad" than with steel wool, though this may be because the steel wool was too fine. At any rate, it looked nice and golden after it's fourth cooking in the oven, as the instructions suggest.

My new 4800 mAh battery arrived also and I began using it. It did hold a charge overnight, but it seems to lose charge very rapidly. Instructions suggest resetting the PMU, which I plan to do today. It is done by depressing the little button on the back between the video out and the telephone ports and then rebooting.

To initiate the wok's career, I cooked two dishes and Nancy added a tossed green salad.

Orange Asparagus Stir-Fry Pasta w. Shrimp (tofu) - Serves 4

# 1 pound Mostaccioli, Ziti or other medium pasta shape, uncooked (1/2 lb)
# 2 tsp. vegetable oil, divided
# 12 oz. frozen small shrimp, thawed (or use 1/2 lb tofu)
# 3 medium carrots, thinly sliced on diagonal
# 1 bunch scallions, sliced
# 1 pound asparagus, cut diagonally into 2-inch lengths
# 1 cup fresh orange juice (used frozen, reconstituted with only 1 can water)
# Salt and pepper to taste
## ADDED: some nuts would add flavor, texture: several recipes suggest slivered almonts, pecans, and I think also of pine nuts, all lightly toasted in the wok - used pecans in this instance.
## AND: 1 1/2 tablespoons oriental sesame oil - forgot to add; next time.

- Prepare pasta according to package directions.
- While pasta is cooking, warm 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over high heat in a large non-stick wok or skillet.
- Stir-fry the shrimp until firm, opaque and lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. (Stir fry cubes of tofu in oil until golden: drain.)
- Add the remaining teaspoon of vegetable oil to the pan and stir-fry the carrots for 2 minutes.
- Add the asparagus and scallions and stir-fry for another 3 to 4 minutes, until asparagus is tender-crisp.

When pasta is done, drain it well. Add pasta, shrimp (tofu) and orange juice to skillet and toss until hot, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately. (Scatter toasted nuts over dish.)
Broccoli Pad Nahm Man Hoi (Stir-fry w. Oyster Sauce)

A Recipe of Kasma Loha-unchit; Recipe Copyright © 1998 Kasma Loha-unchit.

This recipe is similar to another featured recipe, Stir-fried Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Naw-mai Farang Pad Nahm Man Hoi). Compare the two to see how adaptable a Thai recipe is. In fact almost any vegetable can be stir-fried with Oyster Sauce. Be sure to use Thai oyster sauce, not Chinese. You can order it online from one of the online markets found on the website: look for the "Mae Krua" brand.

Ingredients
* 2 medium-size stalks of broccoli
* 4 cloves garlic, chopped
* 2-3 sliced shallots, or 1/2 cup sliced onion (optional)
* 2 Tbs. peanut oil for stir-frying
* 2 -3 Tbs. Thai oyster sauce
* 2-3 tsp. fish sauce (nahm bplah), to taste
* 2-3 dashes of ground white pepper

Cut the broccoli into small bite-size pieces. Use the bottom stem also, after peeling off the tough, fibrous outer skin. Prepare the garlic and shallots or onion (if using). Also, I blanched the broccoli for a minute or so - was not enough as the broccoli was a little more chewy than needed.

Heat a wok over high heat until its surface is hot. Swirl in the oil to coat evenly. When the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic, followed a few seconds later with the sliced shallots or onion (if using). Sauté 10-15 seconds to flavor the oil, then toss in the broccoli. Stir-fry about a minute. If your stove is very hot, add 2-3 Tbs. of water as needed to help steam the vegetable so that it doesn't burn.

Sprinkle in the oyster sauce and stir-fry another minute. Then season to taste with fish sauce. Continue to stir-fry until the broccoli turns vibrant green and is crisply cooked. Sprinkle liberally with white pepper, stir well and transfer to a serving dish. Serve warm along with other dishes with steamed rice.

Recipe is Copyright © 1998 Kasma Loha-unchit.

And for dinner, mushrooms + spinach, fried potatoes, smoked salmon

2005-05-17T06:26:00.000-04:00

Without going into details:

Potatoes were leftovers from "camp" potatoes recently, fried in butter in non-stick skillet until crispy and brown. Served with fresh ground black pepper, fleurs du sel, chopped tb of parsley.

Mushrooms were small portabellos and white cut in half or quarters, stir-fried in oil with garlic and shallots, then sauced with saki, tamarind, fish sauce and cooked, then sauce cooked down, all removed while quick stir of fresh spinach, then all heated together with a couple of tb of chopped cilantro.

Salmon left from smoking a few days ago.

Very tasty, nice and easy meal after evening yoga class that worked the shoulders, straight spine, etc. carefully in adho mukha svanasana, adho mukha vrksasana, sirsasana, and sarvangasana.

Lunch of Veggie Pad Thai Tofu: Thai Basil Research

2005-05-16T16:02:00.000-04:00

Was researching about Thai basil. Began to learn that there are several, at least three, different varieties or species: lemon, holy, another.

Ran across several recipes for pad thai, in various spellings, with various "main" ingredients: shrimp, chicken, beef, vegetarian, tofu. Made up a tofu version for lunch, including eggs which some veggie versions omit. I also used fish sauce instead of just soy sauce, and yellow bean paste in lieu of suggested fermented tofu. It was very tasty. Had to force myself to leave some for Nancy, which she has now enjoyed for her lunch.

Thai Basils: The notes are from scattered references and don't seem to be consistent and therefore not authoritative. As the taste "is the thing," though, I am finding in cooking with these that, short of an overweening need for "authenticity," most seem to work well interchangeably. Just note that varieties will vary quite a bit.

Thai Basil, Thai Sweet Basil, Asian Basil, Anise/Licorice Basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil (bai horapa, hora-pa, Bai horapha, Ho Ra Pha, HORAPHA, Hun Que): Ocimum citriodorum ‘Thai’. Also common in the cuisines of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Used in curries and with steamed mussels. It releases its aroma and flavor only when cooked. Leaves have strong anise smell. Siam Queen (Ocimum thyrsiflora) is good variety for growing. Another is, Thai Basil 'Queenette' (Ocimum basilicum.) OR Thai Basil 'Horapha Rau Que' (Ocimum thyrsiflora)

Holy Basil, hot basil (bai gka-prow, Bai gaprow, Bai Grapow, Bai Krapow, Bai Ka Phrao, KAPHRAO): Green Leaf & Red Leaf. Narrower and often times reddish-purple leaves. Two types: a pale green or white type, and a red type, with purple reddish tinged leaves. Peppery is perhaps the best way to describe this type of basil. Holy basil has a clove-like taste. Popular basil for Thai cooking. The Thai equivalent of sweet basil, which can be used as a substitute if you cannot get holy basil. "Hindus believe that basil is sacred and they like to plant it in religious sanctuaries. " This variety tastes rather like cloves, and is just as pungent. The leaves release their full flavour only when cooked.

Lemon Basil, Hoary Basil (bai maeng-lak, BAI MAENG LAK, Bai Mangrak, bai menglah, Maeng-Lak): Hoary Basil is an annual herbaceous plant with slightly hairy and pale green leaves. It can be eaten either raw or cooked, and used as a flavoring. It is sometimes called lemon-scented basil but definitely has a peppery taste when chewed. Fast growing plant. Has a lemony flavour with tiny leaves and is usually sprinkled over salads or used in soups. Young leaves are used in Oriental dishes. Lemon basil has a real citrus-like aroma and flavor. The leaves have a smell redolent of citrus. Usually eaten raw as an accompaniment to curry.

Now, off to yoga.

Karl; Pentecost; Melissa Cook Wedding, Sunday dinner

2005-05-15T22:37:00.000-04:00

And Karl called this morning, with information about Witte's visit, etc. I need to contact Moog at USNA for possible talk either there or at St. John's. Also, contact SJC about a possible talk in Great Hall or some other low-key venue for interested persons. Finally, I need to send him our approved and sealed itinerary for travel to Paris, so that he can have Angel complete our hotel requirements.

Today was the feast of Pentecost, the Whitsunday of my childhood. It was a high feast day at St. Mark's today, with an extra musician, a gifted trumpeter. There were three baptisms, including the child of a gay couple. And Paul preached a dynamite sermon on what would be sufficient per the Johannine gospel for the day. Afterwards we attended the Pub Lunch honoring Dorothea Hahn's (?) time with us, her departure soon, her graduation from VTS next week, and her ordination to the diaconate a week ago yesterday, Saturday. Also honored new members of St. Mark's, someone's birthday, and other assorted honorings.

After, we came back to Annapolis and then went to the open house at Don and Hollis Lamb-Minor at 107 Northwest St. Saw Phoebe there, whom I must contact. Then, back home, Mike Cahall and Charlie Boyle showed up to work respectively on their boats. Charley and I came up with a scheme to get Ruly Know down to the boat by the end of this week, perhaps out next week to watch the Blue Angels fighter aircraft precision flying team perform next week for the Naval Academy graduation.

We went to Melissa's wedding yesterday. It was held at the ____-____ Mansion on Enterprise Road in PG County. It was quite wonderful. Food at luncheon and cakes were outstanding.

We did not eat dinner last night after the good meal in the afternoon. I ate popcorn instead.

Tonight I made the eggplant with tofu, dried tomatoes, zucchini, and red peppers from the Grace Young Breath of a Wok. Again, simple preparation, very tasty. A little elaborate, though, on the ingredient side for the average cook. Along with, we had leftover greens from a few nights ago, served at room temperature with a vinaigrette.

Thai Smoked Fish Soup & Seussical

2005-05-14T09:40:00.000-04:00

Went to St. Mark's last night to see the Player's production of the musical Seussical. Was less than overwhelmed because of inability to hear a lot of the dialog.

For dinner, light, I made a simple soup using both cured smoked salmon from earlier as well as the very salty smoked bluefish. Turned out excellent. Starteed my mods by adding two crushed lemongrass stems to the fish broth. Recipe from Fish & Shellfish Grilled and Smoked. Instead of the specified juice of one lemon and one lime, I used 3-4 tbs. of tamarind pulp. The can of Light Coconut Milk from Trader Joe's had a very off taste after I added it - buy no more! - and I was afraid I had ruined the soup. But the addition of 1 - 1/2 tb of palm sugar helped and when I added not only cilantro but Thai basil, the latter especially, completely brought it together and the final soup was excellent.

Meals this week...

2005-05-13T18:21:00.000-04:00

Last night:

two kinds of smoked salmon, using different cures from Manikowski: Fish, Grilled and Smoked; using feed corn as well as wood to generate smoke. As Manikowski insists, the smoke is mild and sweet, not the potentially acrid and bitter smoke some woods can produce. Though when I heated some corn on the stove as a test earlier, it seemed to me that by the time it was fully incinerated it had gotten some nastiness about it.
smoked olives - same reference; wonderful
campfire potatoes: roasted in foil over coals - same ref.; very good

Zydeco catfish "wellington": smoked calzone-like stuffed dough packets with fish, cheese, veggies - large and tasty. Also from Manikowski.

Mother's Day - Karl called. Saturday night dinner...

2005-05-08T08:28:00.000-04:00

Karl called just past 8 a.m. to wish Nancy a happy Mother's Day. He told of cold weather in Germany just as we did about the past several cold nights here.

Gorgeous morning, cool and blustery, clear and sunny. A very high tide came up over the shelf on the dock.

Last night I cooked another Chinese and Greek meal from various sources, still learning from Grace Young's Breath of the Wok.

Soup: combined 2 cups leftover veggie avgolemono with 1 1/2 cups leftover fried fish soup from Dancing Shrimp. Cut up the fish in the latter soup and add it just before serving. The lemon and spiciness go well together - leading, soon, to my invention of Southeast Asian fish avgolemono. Which is to say, it was outstanding.
Having prepped all the ingredients, I then put two pieces of salmon fillet onto a plate, drizzled with soy sauce, then sprinkled over salt and fresh ground white pepper. Cut a lemon in half: squeeze juice of 1/2 over fish, then slice remainder into four pieces and lay over fish. Also scatter two scallions cut up and sliced over fish, along with 4 slices of ginger. Put all in a wok set up as a steamer and steam for about 10 minutes until cooked. Serve in dish it was steamed in, sprinkling a little toasted sesame oil over the fish. Serve with steamed white rice.
As a dish along with the salmon, while it steams, stir fry of asparagus, gingko nuts and wolfberries. Lacking all but the asparagus, I cut up enough fresh strawberries to make up about 1/2 cup, dressing them with a little sugar and some juice from a jar of maraschino cherries. I also ground a little anise to give the hint of that flavor suggested in Bruce Cost's description of wolfberries and sprinkle the ground anise over the sweetned berries. Lightly brown 1/2 cup or so of pine nuts in a skillet and let cool to substitute for the gingko nuts. Peel the bottoms of perfectly fresh asparagus, then cut off ends and cut spears in two inch lengths. Stir fry with a little oil and salt until beginning to show brown spots, then add more salt, continuing to stir fry. After a couple minutes add the strawberries and the pine nuts and a sprinkle of sugar - not enough to make it overtly sweet.
A very nice meal, with a Paarl Chardonnay.

Recent Cooking, Wok-wise & Greek Easter

2005-05-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

From Breath of a Wok:
Spinach stir-fried
Mushrooms stir-fried
Stir-fry Chinese eggplant
Smoked fish, eggs

From Dancing Shrimp:
Hot and Sour Fried Fish Soup - I used catfish, which was delicate and delicious: using matzoh meal as it was still the week of Passover, dredge the fish and then stir fry in wok...

From several Greek sources:
Psoros savori - I need to check spelling: fried fish in a vinegar and red wine, onion sauce, kept overnight

Mango Salad, Fish Sauce on Spaghetti Squash, Greens

2005-04-27T12:29:00.000-04:00

Recipes discussed:

Mango / Papaya Salad
Gefilte Fish Sauce on Spaghetti Squash
Greens and Red Chard

Mango / Papaya Salad

This is a version of a variety of Southeast Asian salads made with green or unripened fruit. The tartness of the fruit contrasts with a slightly sweet dressing. Alternatives are offered to make either a vegetarian version or a smoked fish version. Recently I had some field cress which I chopped and added to the salad. It fit right in.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 unripe mangos or 1 2 lb papaya or 2 med. carrots (in a pinch)
1/2 lb smoked fish, if using. Smoked bluefish, trout, salmon will all work.
1 minced shallot / diced small sweet onion

Dressing:
2 tb. lime juice
1 tb. fish sauce or, for vegetarian version, soy sauce (light preferred)
1-2 tb. palm sugar or brown sugar
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes or more or hot sauce, e.g., Tabasco
1 tsp. grated galangale or ginger

1/4 - 1/2 cup shredded cilantro

Directions:
Peel and coarsely grate the mango. They should be green enough that they are firm and not juicy. One mango will make enough salad for four.

Mince the shallot or dice the onion. Onion could alternatively be cut in half and sliced thinly.

Shred the smoked fish, if using. Discard any skin. Two dinner forks are good tools for shredding fish.
Mix shallot / onion and shredded fish with mango.

Now make the dressing.

Mix the lime juice and fish sauce in a glass bowl. If the fish sauce and or lime juice are cold, you may want to soften the sugar for 10-20 sec. in a microwave. Dissolve the palm sugar in the lime juice. Add the red pepper flakes or hot sauce and the grated galangale or ginger.

Serving:
Just before serving toss the salad and the dressing with the shredded cilantro. Serve as a side salad or, on individual salad plates. Can be nicely served atop lettuce leaves.

From several sources.

Gefilte Fish Sauce on Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients:
1 2-3 lb. spaghetti squash
2-3 tb. olive oil
1 lg onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, chopped coarsley
1 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3-6 mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1/2 28 oz. can marinara sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes, crushed
1/2 tsp
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 c. dry red wine
1-2 tb olive oil, optional
2-3 tb sweet butter, optional

2 (or more) leftover shad gefilte fish, cut up into 3/4 in. cubes, along with any sauce left over

Directions:

If cooking in a regular oven, place spaghetti squash in oven on foil or an oven roasting pan to catch any drippage. Probably cook for 30-40 min. at 350. OR, using a convection / microwave oven, I set it up as "Ultima" cooking for 3 pieces baked sweet potato. This took aboue 25 min. but the squash was just right. When it is done, it will hold its heat, so until ready to use it, just leave it in the convection oven or take it out of the oven and rest on counter.

Put the olive oil into a large skillet or deeper frying pan over medium high heat. Add red pepper flakes, ____, and garlic. Stir briefly until aroma of garlic is smelled - this should be only a few seconds, depending on the heat of the oil. Then immediately add the diced onion and stir occasionally until translucent and beginning to color. Add the green pepper and saute for 2 minutes. Add along with the green peppers the mushrooms, if using. Now add crushed stewed tomatoes and marinara sauce and the red wine.

Let simmer for 15-25 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. A few minutes before serving, cut the squash down its length into two oval halves. Remove the seeds with two dinner forks, then remove and shred the flesh into spaghetti like strands. Do this to both halves, begin sure to remove all skin flakes. For added richness you may pour some fresh extra virgin olive oil over the strands or several tablespoons of butter. Put as much of spaghetti squash as you think you'll need into a large, warmed bowl.

Add the sauce to the spaghetti squash. Toss and correct seasoing, if needed, with salt and pepper. Serve.

Greens and Red Chard

I used the leaves from a small batch of red chard along with a nice bag of fresh, young spinach for greens for our Seder dinner. I still had the stems, freshened in a glass of water. Then I found another batch of red chard as well as some other greens - mustard, probably, and something else. I decided I use all of these up and dress them with a vinaigrette.

Ingredients:
1 batch red chard stems
1 batch red chard + some other greens
(1 carrot, peeled and sliced in thin rounds.)

Vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, salt, olive oil

Directions:
Bring a soup pot half full of water to the boil. Add 1 tsp. of kosher salt.

Strip the chard leaves from the stems. Do the same with any other greens that have firm stems. Now chop the stems in two or three pieces. Put the stems in the boiling water until they are cooked to the point of only a little crunch. Remove the stems and place in cold water. When chilled, remove from cold water and drain.

If using the carrots, a nice touch, boil them also until tender and then chill. Remove to drain.

Put the leaves into the boiling water. Just cook until wilted, then remove and chill in the cold water bath. Remove and wring out as much water as possible. Then chop somewhat coarsely. You should have about 1 cup of chopped greens. Combine these in the serving bowl with the stems and carrot slices, if using. Toss with the vinaigrette. Serve.

Passover Dinner 2005

2005-04-27T12:21:00.000-04:00

Recipes to be discussed:

Chesapeake Bay Shad Gefilte Fish - Joan Nathan
Southwestern Sauce for Shad Gefilte Fish
Matzohball Soup - A near disaster
Fresh horseradish: white and red
Pistacchio Macaroons with Strawberries and Whipped Cream
Kosher wines:

Mouton Cadet Bordeaux Cab. Sauvignon
Alsace Cramant
Chardonnay

Wonderful fish pasta ...

2005-04-21T13:07:00.000-04:00

Recipes discussed:

Three Fish Marinara Sauce on Pasta

A few nights ago I made a dinner of leftovers. We had had a pasta sauce last week that I had made by combining a couple of soup remnants with some sauteed onions and garlic and a bit of red wine, then throroughly blending it until a smooth puree. To this puree I added a can of tuna in olive oil, with the olive oil. We had used about half of this on some pasta last week, so about two cups remained. This latter I heated slowly, with a bit more red wine - probably a cabernet.

Meanwhile, we had leftovers of three different fish we had eaten over the last week. A piece of catfish with a blackened ground mixed nut crust, some salmon with a mustard crust, and a couple of pieces of bluefish marinated in the Portuguese manner (see Davidson) and then floured with some spices Emiril and sauteed in olive oil. These three fish I cut into bite sized pieces and, as the penne paste were cooking, added to the sauce and covered, allowing all to come to a nice warm, but not bubbling, temperature. When the pasta was done, I added the pasta to the sauce and tossed some minced herbs over all with salt and pepper. At the table, tossed and served, this, with a simple salad and vinaigrette and a bottle of red wine, was exquisite.

Note this was a sauce using four different fish, all "oily": tuna, bluefish, salmon, catfish. And they were cooked or canned in olive oil. Nevertheless, the tomatoes and wine in the sauce seemed to set the fat to nought - just a rich and deeply tasty symphony of mysterious tastes.

Greek Easter Preparations, practice

2005-04-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

Recipes discussed:

Avgolemono (Greek egg and lemon soup)
Sauteed portabellos over tossed salad w. vinaigrette

For practice, I made a pot of avgolemono for dinner last night. I reviewed 25-30 recipes online and then developed the recipe shown. It should scale up easily. I only made enough for Nancy and me with a cup left over.

In addition, I sauteed a couple of large portabello mushroom on the griddle, in butter and olive oil, with salt and pepper. Then I made a salad with juilienne of 1/2 sweet red pepper, 3-4 tb. julienne of daikon, a few small spinach leaves, washed, some red leaf lettuce, salt and pepper scattered over, all tossed together with a vinaigrette of lemon juice and fruity olive oil. I also sliced up and cut in half the slices of 1/2 a sweet onion, then sliced the sauteed mushrooms on one side of a plate with the salad, then tossed over all the onion crescents and then a bit more vinaigrette over all. A nice taste treat after the delicious and rich soup. We had a bottle of nice chardonnay along with all and enjoyed the beautiful evening on our deck by candellight.

Avgolemono (Greek Lemon Chicken Soup)

What I actually did. I've been asked to provide this soup for a Greek Easter feast on 1 May, 2005, which is the date this year.

Serves 2–3

* 3 cups Vegetarian Stock (see below) - I started with two quarts of water, resulting in 6 cups of stock after removing and squeezing vegetables. As I was only making soup for two, I only used 3 cups and reserved the rest. Can be doubled or more for larger group.

Vegetarian Stock
* 2 onion, peeled and chopped plus greens, if any
* 2 small carrots, scrubbed and chopped
* 2 small white potatoes, peeled and chopped
* 1/2 lb chopped white mushrooms
* 1/2 tsp celery seed
* 1 bay leaf
* 4 green cardamom pods, crushed
* chopped stems from 12 parsley or cilantro
* 1-2 tbsp minced rosemary, other herbs - thyme, e.g.
* 2 whole cloves
* 2-inch stick cinnamon
* pinch of cayenne
* 4 medium allspice pods
* 6-8 black peppercorns, mildly crushed in mortar along with allspice
* Zest from 1 1/2 medium lemons - reserve 1 tbsp for later
* pinch saffron, if available
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Rice or Orzo
* 1/2 cup long grain rice basmati; could use 1/2 - 1 c. orzo

Lemon & Eggs
* 2 large eggs at room temperature
* 1/2 of 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

* 1/2 stick butter
* Nutmeg -- ground - a pinch to add at the end.

Garnish
* 2 TB finely chopped parsley
* 1 large scallion, sliced thin, and 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
* salt and pepper to taste
* thin slices lemon for garnish as needed for each serving

Instructions:

1. Make stock and heat to boiling.
- Melt butter in heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat, then add olive oil. Saute spices in butter and olive oil: cardamom, allspice, cloves, peppercorns lightly crushed in mortar, one 2-inch stick cinnamon. Then sweat add onions, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes and herbs - rosemary, thyme, stems of coriander and/or parsley - for 10-15 min.
- Pour in two quarts hot water. Add bay leaf and salt. Bring to a simmer. Add lemon zest, and a pinch of cayenne and a hint (about 1/8 teaspoon) saffron threads, crushed between fingertips, to stock. Gently simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Set aside. Strain stock and return to boil.

2. Cook rice or orzo
- Add rice and gently simmer for 20 minutes, until soft but not falling apart.

3. Remove from heat and set aside.
- This is an essential step, as the stock must be off the boil before coming with egg-lemon broth to prevent curdling eggs.

4. Prepare egg - lemon
- In a bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; add yolks and beat well.
- in a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together until a little frothy.
- Combine yolk-lemon mixture with egg whites.

5. Combine stock and egg-lemon mix.
- Add about 1/2 of the warm, not hot, broth with the egg-lemon mix, beating continuously. Then add another cup of the stock, very slowly, whisking while you pour it in.
- Pour this mixture back into the pot of stock and rice. Whisk until nicely combined. It should look like the stock has become cloudy, with a nice skim of thin froth.
- Heat lightly until some steam appear, four or five minutes, but do not simmer or boil.
- Add 2 tbsp butter now and let it melt, if using.

6. Keep warm over heat. To avoid curdling, do not allow soup to come to a boil.

7. SERVE
- Season with salt and peppe to taste. Sprinkle with sliced scallions, minced parsley and mint. Dish up among serving bowls, adding a thin slice of lemon to each serving. Serve with warm bread on side. Goes well with chardonnay or sauvignon blanc - think Sancerre.

Easter 2005: Smoked Roasted Leg of Lamb &Grilled Whole Rockfish

2005-03-28T07:28:00.000-05:00

Rick and Jane Rutherford, Dan Sullivan, and, recovering from foot surgery, George Watson, joined us for a splendid Easter dinner. In addition to the mains described here, we had cheeses and bread to start, a smoked bluefish and mango salad, asparagus with a butter / lemon & orange zest / garlic sauce, potatoes roasted in the juices of the lamb, and a huge berry cobbler with with whipped cream.

Grilled Whole Rockfish

This Rockfish Recipe is based on one from the MD Seafood Marketing Program.

1 4-6 lb. Rockfish, dressed
1 lemon
4 green onions, sliced thin; instead, I diced one medium to large yellow onion
4 mushrooms, chopped; I used more, med. dice
Pepper to taste; I added also 1/2 chopped jalepeno - it gave a nice zing
½ cup chopped sweet pepper - I used a sweet red peppep
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 teaspoons capers, drained
1 teaspoon lite soy sauce - and a bit of teriyaki sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil - a bit more
¼ teaspoon garlic powder - I would only used minced fresh garlic
¼ cup dry vermouth, or white wine - I also used white wine, quite a bit more than 1/4 cup, as I cooked it down several times
8 strips bacon - omitted, see below.

Toothpicks

Start fire with charcoal briquettes. As I already had a nice fire going from cooking lamb roast, we just added cherry wood logs as needed.

Squeeze lemon juice on Rockfish, inside and out and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Sauté vegetables in olive oil and lite soy sauce with seasonings and dry vermouth.

Cover with lid and add water - or wine - as necessary to keep vegetables from burning. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Stuff fish with vegetables and wrap bacon around the fish to hold together and secure with toothpicks - I used dental floss to sew up the fish as well as short wooden skeweres. Grill fish in wire rack - which lacking I placed fish on foil in a large pan and sat this to the side of the grill off the fire. Cook about 10 minutes, flip and cook about 10 more minutes until fish is done (about 20-25 minutes). But did not flip. Do not allow fire to flame up. Sprinkle with water as necessary. To serve: Remove bacon and toothpicks. Carefully remove skin. Place skinless pieces of fish and stuffing on platter and serve immediately.

Smoke Roasted Leg of Lamb

Ingredients:
1 4-6 lb boneless lamb leg

MARINADE FOR LEG OF LAMB
Based on one on COOKS.COM, also Cuisine of the Sun

2 oz. lemon juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup dry red wine up to 2 cups
4 oz. olive oil
2 large cloves garlic -- minced or more
1 lemon -- zested and 1/2 orange zest
2 med. onions, chopped
1/2 c. chopped parsley
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce -- omitted
1 teaspoon soy sauce - or two
2 tsp. marjoram
2 tsp. caraway seeds - or fennel seeds, coarsely ground
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 pinch kosher salt

This may be used to marinate 8 lamb chops or a 6 pound leg of lamb.

Combine all of the above ingredients. Place meat in a plastic bag, pour the marinade on top and place in the refrigerator 12 hours. Or leave out for several hours in cool room. Place meat in a roasting pan, cover with foil, and bake at 325 degrees for 3 1/2 hours, basting often with the marinade. When using lamb chops, marinate them the same way and grill.

To Cook the Roast in a grill / smoker: Start the charcoal 1/2 hour before time to put meat on. Figure 20-30 min. / lb. Use a thermometer to guage cooking stage. Omit foil.

If you want good smoke, soak some flavorful wood chips in water. I had a lot of cherry wood which makes excellent smoke. As it has been out in the weather all winter, I used it damp on top of the charcoal both for flavor and for heat. I kept the fire on one side of the rectangular grill, with the logs on the charcoal. Then, with the stuffed leg in the cotton mesh bag it came in, I placed it on the grill over the heat - this for a few minutes until blackened on the fire side. Then, using available tools - I found wooden salad "claws" to be the best device for moving the meat around - turn meat over and roast on second side for a couple more minutes. Now place on a rack in a pan on the cool side of the grill. Pour a couple tablespoonsful of marinade over the roast as well as two cups of liquid - white wine, dry white vermouth or water in the lower pan. Lower the top of the grill to contain heat and smoke and roast until an internal temperature of 130-140 for rare to medium rare. This should take two to three hours. Add wood or charcoal as needed to maintain heat of 300-325. Baste whenever you add wood or every 20-30 min. Keep liquid in lower pan so that juices from meat will not burn.

After reaching heat, turn meat out into a pan and keep warm in a warming oven or oven turned on to lowest heat. Meat will keep without further cooking for as much as a couple of hours, at least. Make gravy with drippings. (See my notes for a future discussion of gravy prep.)

Basil Scallops & Pasta, Shad Roe with Tomato-Anchovy Sauce

2005-03-25T07:08:00.000-05:00

Basil Pan-Seared Scallops over Pasta

NOTES:
While pretty much following this recipe, I found it important to make sure that the scallops were not cooked for too long. The way I cooked them, for just two or three minutes per side, did not result in much color. The color developed in the sauce from the carmelization of the juices from the scallops after they were cooked and set aside on a plate, covered, in the warming oven.

Also, I took 9 spears of half-inch thick asparagus, broke off the bottoms (and boiled them as a treat for Luigi) and then sliced up the remaining bottom half of the spears on the bias. As the pasta was cooking, after about five minutes, I put the bottom slices into the boiling water with the pasta. When the pasta was just about done, I put the tops in the boiling water, to give them a minute or two of blanching.

For the sauce, once the scallops were cooked, I took the marinade and added it into the pan to simmer down. To serve, I took the rotini pasta from the pot and put in a temporary dish and poured the sauce over it, reserving the asparagus tips. Then I put the sauced pasta back into the pan on the fire in which I had just made the sauce and stirred it around to pick up the fond from the pan. When ready to serve, I put the warm scallops on the pasta and then dressed it with the asparagus tips - pretty, and tasty, too.

When purchasing the scallops, be sure to look for a subtle pink or creme color. Stark white scallops have been soaked in water to add extra weight. Other pastas such as rotini, shells, or penne can be substituted for the farfalle. Makes an excellent main course, or add spinach or asparagus to turn it into a meal in itself.

Prep Time: approx. 15 Minutes. Cook Time: approx. 20 Minutes. Ready in: approx. 35 Minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Printed from Allrecipes, Submitted by Grace

1 (16 ounce) package farfalle or (bow tie) pasta
24 scallops, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried basil
9 tablespoons whipped butter

Directions
1 Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook rotini pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain, rinse, and transfer to a large serving bowl.

2 Meanwhile, place scallops in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the black pepper. Pour mixture over scallops. Arrange scallops in a single layer in a large baking dish or plate. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon dried basil over scallops so that only one side is sparsely coated with basil.

3 Heat a large skillet over medium-high, and melt one tablespoon of butter in the pan. Place 12 scallops basil-side down, and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes until dark golden brown. I think the heat must be higher to get as much color as the recipe suggests or else the scallops are going to be overcooked. Better cooked well and not too much color than to have color and rubbery scallops. Turn scallops, and cook the other side. Cook the remaining 12 scallops the same way.

4 In a small saucepan, melt remaining butter with 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon basil, 1/2 teaspoon garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Or, as I said above, use the marinade and the pan used to sautee the scallops, both with the added advantage of having any juice from the scallops.

5 Toss pasta with butter and olive oil mixture. Divide pasta onto plates, and top with scallops.

Shad Roe with Tomato-Anchovy Sauce
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002

My modifications were to use just one set of shad roe for the three of us, separated, briefly (30 sec.) parboiled to firm them. Note that the roe were so delicate that when sauteeing they split open in a couple of places. I just continued cooking, and, with the sauce, they were excellent. To serve, I placed them on a warmed plate, cut each into four or five pieces, then poured the delicious sauce over them.

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Medium
Yield: 4 servings

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic or more
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 1/4 cups seeded, chopped plum tomatoes - I used canned tomato strips - worked great.
2 teaspoons drained small capers
Pinch red pepper flakes - Didn't have any; used 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Essence, or more, recipe follows - not included in this posting.
2 pairs shad roe (4 lobes), with unbroken membranes - used only one pair; now a delicacy at 10.99 for 1 set.
1/2 cup olive oil or, mix of half olive oil, half butter

Baby arugula
1 lemon, juiced
Extra-virgin olive oil

To make the sauce, heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet or medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until starting to color, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the anchovies, lower the heat, and stir, crushing them into a paste against the sides of the pan. But note that they will cook down themselves while the sauce is simmering, if you give it enough time - more like 20-30 min, instead of 15. Add the tomatoes, capers, red pepper flakes, and white wine and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Add the parsley, butter, and lemon juice, and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and adjust the seasonings to taste. Cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

Combine the flour and Essence in a shallow dish. Dredge the roe in the flour, shaking to remove any excess.

In a large skillet or saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the roe and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes per side. (The roe still will be slightly pink inside.) Remove and lightly season with salt and pepper. Can be cooked longer, if cooked slowly; keep warm in warming oven.

Divide the roe among 4 plates and serve with the tomato-anchovy sauce on the side. I served them sliced with sauce over pieces of roe. A rich, deep, mellow flavor combination.

Trout Butterflied in vinaigrette, Broiled for dinner

2005-03-19T07:18:00.000-05:00

And then we went off to see the Annapolis Opera's Madama Butterfly. Karl gave a brilliant lecture beforehand and the production went very well.

Now, off to get ready to go to the prison at MCIJ with Dan Sullivan for the RUF program.

Trout with Herb Vinaigrette from the Internet, somewhere.

You can bake it, broil it, sauté it, pan-sear it, blacken it or throw it on the grill. Personally, I prefer to cook it on the grill to smoky fruit wood coals along with some sweet bell peppers and red onions, but you do what you want. If your trout is dry, don’t blame it on the fish - you’ve overcooked it. If you have trouble with fish sticking to the grill when you barbecue, make sure that the grate is clean and hot. The fish is much more likely to stick to a grill that is not very hot. If that still doesn’t work, dust the fish with a little seasoned flour before grilling. If that doesn’t work, give up and put the fish under the broiler.

To butterfly your trout, use a sharp boning knife and, starting at the head, run the knife between both sides and the spine. This will separate the bones from the spine and fish can be opened up flat. After cooking, the bones can be easily removed.

4 servings

4 one pound trout (weight after cleaning, head-on), butterflied
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
pinch salt
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (seems like a lot - cut in half.)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, minced (only used one.)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh herbs, chopped (had fresh parsley, thyme, rosemary)

Season fish with salt and pepper. Combine remaining ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously. Baste the fish with the stuff in the jar and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. I prepared the pan for the broiler by covering it with a sheet of foil. Then I brushed the flesh side of each fish with some of the vinaigrette and placed it skin-side up on the foil.

As I was going to broil the fish in the oven, I then pre-heated the oven. Next, basted the fish on the skin side and put the pan under the broiler. Cook until fins and skin begin to char and seve with more vinaigrette on the side. Or: Place fish, skin-side down on a medium heat barbecue. Cover with lid or foil for 5 minutes, baste again and give the fish a quarter turn with a spatula. Cover again and cook for 5 minutes more. Fish should be done throughout. Remove bones and serve with vinaigrette on the side.

Salmon Ginger Teriyaki Tonight...

2005-03-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

And for dinner tonight:

Ginger Glazed Salmon Teriyaki w. salad, and, perhaps, oven-roasted potatoes with rosemary.

Ginger Glazed Salmon Teriyaki
Recipe modified from one courtesy of Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

"The subtle elegance of Oriental seasonings sings in and over the great taste of wild BC salmon or even with store bought farmed salmon fillet. If frozen, salmon should be thawed before marinating to maximize the marriage of flavours."

Makes 4 servings
4 wild salmon steaks, cut about 1” (2.5 cm) thick
Or 1 wild salmon fillet, about 1½ lbs/750 g or 4 salmon steaks
¼ cup low-salt soy sauce Or ¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar and / or same amount(s) fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. finely minced ginger
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup brown sugar but, substitute half with maple syrup
¼ cup water

1. Heat brown sugar, soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic and lemon juice in a fry pan large enough to hold the salmon snugly. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sugar is melted. Cool.
2. Place steaks in shallow glass dish or in a plastic bag. Brush on both sides of salmon and let salmon sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or in refrigerator for several hours. Perhaps, place salmon in plastic bag to insure thorough coverage. Brush ginger mixture over salmon again.
3. Pour marinade into pan approx. same size as salmon and heat to simmer. Add salmon, reduce heat, and cover. Simmer salmon for 5-6 minutes per side.
Or: Broil or barbecue on oiled grill 4 to 6 minutes per side, turning once and basting again.
4. Remove the salmon and keep warm.
5. Boil the sauce until thickened, about 4 minutes. Simmer remaining ginger mixture 2 to 3 minutes or until syrupy.
6. Serve the salmon drizzled with sauce and garnished with lemon slices, immediately before serving with rice and vegetables.

Dinner last night: Cioppino

2005-03-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

After my yoga class, I came home and finished up a cioppino. With a glass of red wine, a delicious green salad with pears and plenty of French bread, it was delicious.

Cioppino in Crockpot a la mal

A seafood stew from many sources. Generally believed to have been first created between Monterrey and San Francisco by Italian fisherman. Serve with a loaf of warm, crusty bread, preferably a sourdough, to sop up the broth!

Prep Time: approx. 30 min.
Cook Time: approx. 3-6 hours in crockpot.
Ready in: approx. 7-8 hours.

-- Type of Prep : Crock Pot, Slow Cook

Makes 12 to 14 servings.
See end for Origins.
-- 3/4 cup butter (or olive oil or combination)
-- 2 onions, chopped
-- 2 / 6 / 8 cloves garlic, minced
-- 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
-- 1 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
-- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes and juice
-- 2 carrots, chopped
-- 2 celery, chopped
-- 1 parsnip, chopped (optional)
-- 1 hot pepper (optional), chopped - used 1 serrano, chopped
-- 2 large green peppers, diced and/or 1 red pepper, chopped
-- 1 cup water
-- fish fumet or make your own with 1 pkg. Japanese dried bonito flakes in hot water

-- 2 bay leaves
-- 1 tablespoon dried basil
-- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or more
-- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or more
-- 1/2 teaspoon paprika or more
(-- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper- omitted: quite spicy enough from serrano; use only if no hot pepper)
-- 1 t. oregano or coriander seed (some suggest adding ground fennel, too)
-- 2 cups white wine or 1 red & 1 white or all red

1 1/2 pounds large shrimp - peeled and deveined: I used 12, deveined but unpeeled 21-30 ct.
(1 1/2 pounds bay scallops)
(18 small clams)
(18 mussels, cleaned and debearded)
(1 1/2 cups crabmeat)
1 1/2 pounds cod fillets, cubed: used 1 1/2 lb. catfish

Directions
1. Over medium-low heat melt 2 TB butter, 1/4 C. olive oil in large stockpot,
add onions, garlic and parsley and sweat. Cook slowly, stirring
occasionally until onions are soft. Add carrots, celery, a parsnip if you have it.

2. Add tomatoes to the pot (break them into chunks as you
add them, if not using diced tomatoes.) Add water, bay leaves, basil, thyme,
oregano, water and wine. Mix well. Bring to simmer for 30 minutes or so.

3. Then place all ingredients in slow cooker except seafood. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low.

4. To get ready to serve, turn the heat of the crockpot up to HIGH.

5. Make a broth to cook the seafood in another stockpot. Add 1 cup dry white wine, 1/2 cup dry red, a cup or so of water to a large stockpot and bring to a simmer. Take 2 or 3 cups of juice from the crockpot and add to stockpot.

6. A few minutes before serving, put the cubed fish in the pot. After 3 minutes put in the shrimp and other shellfish. Cook gently just until the shrimp show color and any shellfish ha ve opened - do NOT overcook: shrimp and scallops, if using, should be tender and juicy, not cooked until rubbery.

7. Meanwhile, take another 2-3 cups of soup base and put in a container using a hand blender or put in a blender and puree. As the seafood is finishing cooking add this puree to the stockpot. Finally, as 2-3 cups of the veggies from the soup base in the crockpot to the stockpot with the seafood.

8. Now serve the soup. Put several pieces of fish in each soup plate. Using a ladle fill the soup plates with the soup from the stockpot in which you cooked the fish. Top each plate with several shrimp. Sprinkle each plate with chopped parsley and serve.

"Serve with true sourdough bread if you can find it. We here in San Francisco are lucky in that we have a choice of several really 'sour' tasting brands. By the way, don't be afraid to dunk your bread in the cioppino as it's considered perfectly good manners in this case.

Will's Notes:
*You can add water to the recipe to thin out the Cioppino somewhat but we prefer it nice and thick.
**Use your imagination and personal preferences as to which seafoods to add. "

Origins in 6 recipes online, e.g., Allrecipes and others, Submitted by Star Pooley, and Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book and Leith's Fish Bible, among others.

Mardi Gras dinner and others...

2005-02-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

Recipes discussed:

Pancakes: The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
Salmon fillet, marinated and seared on the grill.
sforzola: Baked cauliflower from Marcella Cucina
pasta al forno: Marcella Cucina to used leftover pasta
Fried pasta
fasolada

Dinner last night was:

pancakes from the King Arthur baking cookbook recipe for pancake mix; just add 1 egg and a cup of buttermilk; wait 5 min. They were excellent.
Nancy made a lovely salad.
I cooked a 1 lb. piece of salmon fillet, briefly marinated in a oil and balsamic vinegar marinade, then seared on the grill until the skin turned black - excellent.
Had a bottle of Charbaut champagne to top the meal.

Recent dining dishes:

I had a cauliflower I needed to use before we go to Jamaica. I found a couple of recipes in Marcella Cucina, one which made a sforzola (perhaps): a blanched cauliflower, then cut into small pieces. Mixed with a bechamel, topped with grated parmesan, the whole baked until golden. The recipe calls for 1/4 lb of diced boiled ham. As I don't eat ham, I needed to omit or substitute. I remembered I had made a batch of "blox," i.e., bluefish cured as one would salmon. I had not approaced this, as I was afraid it might have been a disaster, related to some fish I failed to use in a timely way. But, wonderfully, the cure had fully preserved the bluefish and it had the suitable oiliness to work as in same way as salmon. It turns out to be quite subtle and worked well as an alternative to ham. Outstanding, surprizingly subtle. The bechamel followed someone's advice (probably Marcella, again) to add some nutmeg; also, after heating the milk, let it stand for a few minutes with rosemary and bay leaves steeping in the milk.
I conceived of "fried" pasta. Not finding a recipe ready at hand, I saw another in Marcella Cucina, I think, for pasta al forno. Which I made, as it used the leftover bechamel - I think I made these dishes in the reverse order, the cauliflower appealing because it called for the 1 cup of 3 made left from this dish. Yes. And instead of a meat sauce, I used the remaining chili and fasolada for one layer of pasta, then a layer of pasta with 2 cups bechamel, then another pasta layer covered with, believe it or not, leftover thick split pea soup, finally covered with grated parmesan. Note that first the buttered baking dish was sprinkled with lemon zest and several seeded, sliced thinly kumquats, in place of the zest of a whole orange that Marcella called for. This dish, too, was rather wonderful.
The leftover from the pasta served to be the base for the fried pasta I had desired. On Monday night after yoga class I fried the pasta in a stick free skillet with plenty of olive oil. Tasty and crunchy.
We went to dinner at Alex and Neil's Saturday night. I made another batch of fasolada as my contribution. Alexandra, who's been to Greece, is Greek, and has run the kitchen of the family restaurant, was very kind to the fasolada. This time I again used cranberry beans, but I cooked the vegetables with a couple cups of red wine as well as plenty of garlic. I also only pureed a small amount of the soup, so that it was a little thinner than my previous trials. I liked it best this time. A considerable dish.

Mucky snow, sleet, then sun; Sat. dinner.

2005-01-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

Black bread w. mustard, broiled Gruyere cheese
Pommes de terre a l'huile from Cuisine of the Sun
Red snapper fried whole w. onion+wine+vinegar+rosemary sauce. Kremezi The Foods of Greece

Cold morning; we took Luigi to the doggy park at Quiet Waters, only to find it closed due to the light snowfall. We drove on out to the site the much enlarged from early days Key School. Then we returned to park entrance, parked across the street and walked Luigi into the park. We let him off the leash as there was no one around and he had great fun running away from us and coming back. Later, we returned into Annapolis, where I stopped at Hard Bean book store to buy the Sunday Times and some chocolate frosted donuts. At home Nancy made more coffee and we ate out donuts. I had gotten one creme filled donut with chocolate icing - it was about the best of this kind of donut I can ever remember having.

After donuts we went to church at St. Anne's. A guest preacher talked about what kind of world would it be if, instead of posting the ten commandments in courthouses, etc., we posted the Beatitudes? Rather nifty, I thought. We went to lunch at 49 Cafe, then back home for the rest of the day.

My reading group was supposed to meet this afternoon but was cancelled because of the snow.

For dinner last night, I stumbled upon a recipe in E. David's Omelette for black bread slathered with mustard, covered with lots of Gruyere cheese, then broiled until cheese begins to melt. As I had no black bread, I looked for same when I went out to Grauels' for groceries. The closest I could come was pumpernickel bagels. I sliced one in half, then filled the hole with cutouts from the second bagel, then followed with the Dijon mustard, the cheese, and the broiler. Recommended to be drunk with white wine well chilled, I found a bottle of Grove Mill S. Blanc at 42 deg. in the wine store room A delicious combination!

Meanwhile, I had begun a skillet of pommes de terre a l'huile from Cuisine of the Sun. Cut in half 5-6 cloves garlic, crush a bit, then saute in skillet with 6 tbs. of olive oil at medium heat. Cube 3 medium size potatoes (for the two of us, more than enough) and put in the oil. Turn heat down and turn frequently until lightly or more browned all over. As I had lots else to do, the potatoes got to cook for at least 90 min., mostly on low heat, so they browned nicely, slowly, and were just about right when I served dinner. Season with plenty of salt and pepper before serving, and scatter two or three tbs. of chopped parsley (or basil, if summer) over them.

For a main dish I had thawed a 1 1/2 lb. red snapper the night before. I found an interesting sounding recipe in the Kremezi Greek cookbook The Foods of Greece for frying a whole fish and saucing with a onion / wine / vinegar / rosemary sauce. I used this recipe for the red snapper, served up with the potatoes and Nancy made a salad with mixed greens and sliced kumquats and a sliced limequat. This we ate with bottle of red wine - a California 2001 cab. sauv. Very nice meal.

For our light Sunday dinner tonight we finished the fasolada from Friday with croutons of multigrain bread and the rest of the second pumpernickel bagel sauteed in butter and oil with a bit of garlic rolled around in the oil. Finished up with some more of the second bottle of wine from Sat. dinner.

Spent most of the day reading the NY Sunday Times, the Wash. Post, the Annapolis Capital.

Finished edit of Karl's short piece on Konstellation ohne Sterne.

Am working toward working on Larry Bratt's letter.

Bright & Sunny but Cold

2005-01-29T13:36:00.000-05:00

A Warming Trend, high near 40! Tonight sleet and snow moving up from the south - SC and GA under several inches of snow already this morning.

We went to see Million Dollar Baby last night at the theaters not at the Mall. It was excellent,
sad, beautifully done...

For dinner we ate the soups I had made yesterday, some with a bit of my catsup.

Cleaned up the kitchen this morning.

Ate fried pasta from the other night, together with the remaining piece of tuna from that evening's dinner, all with a couple of eggs cracked over them. Delicioius.

The dinners I have not recorded have not gone unrecorded fully because of lack of motivation. Sometime over the past couple of weeks I lost track and then, entering one of these entries, it got trashed by the system and an hours work was lost.

Am trying to get back on the stick.

Need to go and change Jamaica tickets to prove I'm on the stick!

Soups on a cold day

2005-01-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

It was only 13 degrees F. when we took Luigi to the groomer at 8:30 this morning. Brr...

Tonight we are going out to see Clint Eastwood's new movie about a female prize fighter.

I also completed making some ketsup / catsup that I started yesterday evening.

Made a couple soups from 1 lb. of lima beans, using the sacred pressure cooker.

1. Tomato Catsup mal. So, my first recipe:

2 28oz. cans tomatoes
1 large onion, diced

1 1/2 tsp. whole clove
2 stick cinnamon, broken
1 tsp. mace
1 tsp celery seed
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 TB black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 - 2 tsp salt
2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp each nutmeg, ginger powder

1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar

Chop tomatoes. Saute tomatoes and onions until onions are transparent.
In a separate pan place vnegar, sugar, spices. Simmer "tea" until aromatic, let steep for 30 min. or more.
Cook down tomatoes and onions for 20 min.

Strain tea into tomato and onions. Simmer untill thick. Puree.

As it was not thick enough, I needed to heat it gently until thickend sufficiently. I did this by putting the catsup in a wide pan and sitting it in a 225 degree oven for several hours - close to 5!

Bottle. Tricky to do because it was now too thick. I had to push it through the stem of a funnel using a chopstick. It would be more efficient to use a pastry bag - I need to get one!

2. Lima Bean Soup
From COOKS.COM

1 lb. dry lima beans, washed / used only 1/2 of cooked beans.

Salt as needed

1 lg. can or package sauerkraut, drained and rinsed

Few diced potatoes, optional

GRAVY:

2 tbsp. butter, melted

Several Tbsp. flour

Wash beans and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let set overnight. The next day, using the same liquid, bring soup to a boil again and boil for at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Test for softness. Salt soup as desired.

If desired, add diced potatoes and boil. Add sauerkraut to beans and add enough water to cover. Bring to boil then simmer.

To make gravy: combine melted butter and flour in skillet and brown slowly, until slightly brown. Turn off heat and cool before adding 1 to 2 cups water. Stir to thicken. Add to soup. Strain into broth if necessary.

NOTE: Chopped cabbage may be used in place of sauerkraut.

2. From The Foods of Greece, Aglaia Kremezi and the www.

Fassolada - Greek Lima Bean Soup

Notes in italics are from web recipes or are my added comments.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb dry lima beans; soak overnight or use quick-soak method and then cook for 20 min. in pressure cooker.
2 stalks chopped celery w. leaves
2 carrots sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
1-3 chopped onions
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 small hot pepper, minced (or dash of tobasco sauce)
3 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs dry mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon or more
Add'l recommendations from internet recipes:

1/2 teaspoon of oregano

3-4 cloves of minced garlic

1 bay leaf

Note that I did not use these the first time

Directions:

Using 3 quarts of cold water, boil the mixed beans. Cook gently until skins barely slip but the beans are still firm. Drain. Cover with fresh water.

Saute the rest of the ingredients separately, except for the tomato paste and mustard, until the onions are transparent: about 3 min. Combine vegetables and beans and add the mustard and tomato paste. Simmer until all ingredients are tender. Puree 1 - 1 1/2 c. either in blender or with handheld blender. Serve with bread and red wine. I think it is best to wait a day to eat the soup, because the flavor is better.

Rain and Cold

2005-01-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

Tasks

Weather today:

warm early with rain; clearing to very cold later
tide quite high, possibly due to wind from the east

Walk Luigi optimism
Record last two days: DONE
Breakfast: DONE
Asana
Lunch at Touchstones: On my way; DONE
Send note out for schedule of KKAH Program Committee meeting; DONE
Work on OEC narrative; DONE and sent to Nancy V.S. for review
Attend Study Circle meeting Wed. evening, the 12th: DONE

Discussion

Walk Luigi optimism: It may not happen as the weather and my availability will both limit our possible times.
Record last two days

Wed.

Attend Study Circle meeting this evening: DONE

Six people present: Claudia Boynton, Judy Cabral, Leonard Blackshear, Alan Hay, myself; coming in about 7:30 or 7:45, Sheila Murdoch, friend of Pat Schenck and member of AnnapolisFriends Meeting.

We discussed some of the Program preparations and Fund Raising possibilities. It turned out to be a fairly good, productive meeting.

Low turnout partly determined by very unfriendly, foggy weather, as well as knowing some people could not attend, e.g. Pat S. had told us last week she would be away.

Decided to hold next meeting next Tuesday, not Wed., which works out OK for me.

I agreed to get Program Committee together before next week, to hold a meeting between now and then. I need to send out a schedule with my meeting availability so that others can respond and we have a meeting. Must do before noon, today.

Prep dinner: DONE but... Thursday

Made pumpkin soup / Soupe de courges au Curry per curry powder from P. Wells The Paris Cookbook and from M. Johnson's Cuisine of the Sun but did not eat it, as we got a call from Brian Cahalan, proprietor of Cafe 49 West about the appearance that night at his place of the classic folk performer Carolyn Hester.

Thursday

MCIJ
Letter for Larry Bratt
Walking Luigi: His 2nd Birthday. We walked at the Naval Academy for about 1 1/2 hours. The sun was shining, puffy and skittering clouds and wind, the temperature in the low 60's, a most special and glorious afternoon for dog walking and dog birthday. We met lot's of mids running around the Academy. Taught Luigi to ascend and descend the parade ground risers around Worden Field. He pranced along the sea wall along the Severn facing into the bracing wind. Then we rock-hopped along the big boulders of riprap along the Spa Creek sea wall. He had reservations about this for most of the way but did not balk and kept up with me. We both got home real tuckered out.
Shopping: I shopped after MCIJ at Frank's for fish, where the mild weather has allowed fishermen to get out a lot, providing lots of fresh fish at low prices, $2.99 / lb for fresh, large wild rock, flounder, and farmed salmon, as well as $1.50 / lb for large wild blue - say 5 lb. and above. I got one of each, two flounder, and had them filleted into the bargain, plus a couple of pieces of cod to try the poissons aux champignons with cod, as specified.

Also went to David's Natural Market, the Giant on Riva, and Shopper's; made it down to SECU to withdraw some money for the week.

Dinner:

An opening course, as the weather had just begun to drizzle, of Charcoal-Grilled Prawn Salad from Dancing Shrimp by Loha-Unchit. Made with medium shrimp from the Giant on sale at $5.99 lb. GREAT. HOT.
The soupe de courges au curry, previously described, with a dollop of creamy yogurt, as a second course.
Bluefish fillets slow cooked on a piece of foil on the grill after cooking the shrimp. I had sprinkled the fish with coarse salt and pepper (black and white) and crush allspice and sugar mix from Blox recipe, then as, they went on the foil, sprinkled them with lemon juice from a Meyer lemon. Covered the fish on the foil on the grill with a lid after placing a piece of bark from the trees here on Ridgely between the grill pan and the grill top to make sweet smoke. The fish were on the grill for perhaps 25 min. as the heat was very low. The smoke permeated the fish. When it was done I cut a few openings in the fillet pieces and but little pats of butter in the openings and sprinkled some more Meyer lemon juice over the fillets to server. Amazingly delicate and delicious.
We had water with our meal.
As alluded to above, I used the rest of two big bluefish fillets to make Blox, i.e, bluefish substituted for salmon in a recipe for gravad bluefish, per the Bluefish Cookbook.

Breakfast: DONE

Heated in a skillet some leftover pommes de terre aux herbes; fried sunny side up a couple of egges; sliced finely a couple of kumquats, added some P. Wells Chanteduc rainbow olives, a bit of ketsup: quite good!

Asana
Lunch at Touchstones: Yesterday at MCIJ Eric Badger attended. He is on staff at Shimer College. He and Dan Sullivan told me that Stephen Werlin is in town, on his way to Florida and then on to Haiti. Someone else, also a Haiti veteran, like Eric, is here who lives in Hershey, PA and is interested in ways to use the Open Space / Touchstones model in the US. I suggested we all get together for lunch. I'm not sure who or when or where, but will head over to Touchstones pretty soon, it now being 11:32 a.m.
Work on OEC narrative

Another day, another dog walk.

2005-01-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Recipes given or referred:

Sauteed veg. loaf sauced w. six-minute flounder in spicy tomato sauce. Preceded with a bowl of reheated New England fish chowder; hors d'oeuvres reheated lavash w. some humus, cheddar.

Poisson aux champignons and Pommes de terre aux herbes: M. Johnson's The Cuisine of the Sun.

For breakfast: Omelette Moliere from E. David's Omelette and a Glass of Wine.

Summary

Walking Luigi

Dinner Monday
Editing Karl's Daghani lecture
Dinner Tuesday

Sleeping
Wednesday breakfast
Monday yoga class
Tuesday meeting at FLOC
Wednesday breakfast

Walking Luigi

I walked Luigi this foggy morning from the house down to Monterey Ave. around behind past Purple Cherry's office to Melvin Ave. Then we crossed Rowe Blvd. to the USNA Stadium and walked around it in the clockwise direction. We walked down to the front of the Court House and then up beside and behind it before we went over to the walk along the Taylor Ave. side and across the back until about halfway when we cut across the muddy field to the parking lot behind the Stadium near Melvin Ave. We then rejoined the path and went on back home. Luigi behave very well, requiring less intervention from me than on our much shorter walk yesterday.
On Monday morning we walked from the house to Monterey, then down to the apartment buildings and their swimming pool on Weems Creek. There a small dog with slightly opened windows in a car barked at Luigi who took it in stride. We walked back up and along the street at the back of the block between Ridgely Ave. and Rowe Blvd. and then back up Melvin to Ridgely and back home from their. Luigi required several times to be called to heel and became calmer as we walked.

He had already been to the doggy park with Nancy. She said that later in the day he seemed very well behaved when she walked him again.

Dinner Monday: Mostly made up of leftovers after I returned from yoga class.

Sauteed a couple of slices of the vegetable loaf until it began to dry a bit and crisp up on the outside, and microwaved the remaining six-minute cod (actually flounder) in spicy tomato sauce as the sauce over the loaf slices. Preceded with a bowl of reheated New England fish chowder and accompanied by a salad Nancy made that was a little heavy on the grated vegetables - I wasn't real excited by the texture. For hors d'oeuvres we had some of the lavash I had made Sunday that Nancy had reheated on the grill, together with some humus, some cheddar, and the leftover raita - the raita beginning to fail, I thought. We drank water with dinner.

Editing Karl's Daghani lecture: I spent most of the day Monday working on this. Karl had called early, as I was getting ready to look at Nancy's edited version, to tell me that he had reviewed her edits and "did I want to use his new version?" I said, "Of course" and he sent it to me. About 17 pages long, it had several odd usages along with the difficulty of the unfamiliar material but I worked my way through it. My favorite triumph was having deciphered that the phrase "time forms" probably should be "time frames." Lecturing the English speaking auditors would probably unconsciously transform it to "time frames" but anyone reading it closely might be mightily puzzled.

Dinner Tuesday:

From Mireille Johnson's The Cuisine of the Sun: Poisson aux champignons and Pommes de terre aux herbes. Both very good but a little overcooked, the potatoes a little chewier than I wanted, the flesh of the pink snapper a bit dry after I had filleted it. I reduced the mushrooms and sauce perhaps a bit more than necessary. It would have been nicer to have a little of the sauce liquor to moisten the fish. Nancy had a glass of chardonnay from that which I had opened to cook the fish. I finished the one glass of prosecco left in a leftover bottle, now flat. Later, I had a shot of rum and slept poorly, as a consequence, I think.

Sleeping: until last night I had slept as much as eight hours a night since New Year's, a result, perhaps, of limiting my alcohol intake. Last night I drank a glass of prosecco with dinner and then had double of rum with most of a Diet Dr. Pepper before going to bed. Whether it was the rum or the wine or the DDP, by about 5 a.m. I was tossing restlessly and got up a 6 to relieve myself and read the paper. Tonight I shall continue the study and see if no alcohol, no DDP results in a sound night's sleep.

Monday yoga class: I made it to class on time. Mary had us focus a great deal of attention on the relation between our sacrum and pelvis and the muscles of the thigh as they go down the leg, across the knee and on down to both sides of the foot.

Tuesday meeting at FLOC: we met about the OEC DOJ grant and how to develop it as well as to discuss the leaving of Rich ... who we had hired in July to run the programs at the OEC (Outdoor Education Center.) It was a hard but productive meeting. I am tasked to write up the narrative of the grant description and review it with Nancy van Scoyoc before our next meeting on or about 1.25.2005. Writing the narrative now becomes my primary work over the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday breakfast: I made an Omelette Moliere from E. David's Omelette and a Glass of Wine. I drank DDP instead of wine, but it was still delicious. I finished the intro and read the first chapter and a half of David Perkins' A History of Modern Poetry: Modernism and After.

Wednesday Tasks

2005-01-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

Recipes discussed:

Eponymous omelette from E. David's An Omelette and a Glass of Wine
Soupe de courges au Curry: P. Wells The Paris Cookbook, M. Johnson's Cuisine of the Sun

Walk Luigi: DONE

Walked over to and around USNA Stadium

Read paper: DONE
Cook and eat breakfast / lunch: DONE

made the eponymous omelette from E. David's An Omelette and a Glass of Wine

Asana: Not Done
Write up notes for last two days: Done
Work on OEC Narrative: Did some, need vastly more
Attend Study Circle meeting this evening: DONE

Six people present: Claudia Boynton, Judy Cabral, Leonard Blackshear, Alan Hay, myself; coming in about 7:30 or 7:45, was Sheila Murdoch, a friend of Pat Schenck and member of AnnapolisFriends Meeting.
We discussed some of the Program preparations and Fund Raising possibilities. It turned out to be a fairly good, productive meeting.
Low turnout partly determined by very unfriendly, foggy weather, as well as knowing some people could not attend, e.g. Pat S. had told us last week she would be away.
Decided to hold next meeting next Tuesday, not Wed., which works out OK for me.
I agreed to get Program Committee together before next week, to hold a meeting between now and then. I need to send out a schedule with my meeting availability so that others can respond and we have a meeting. Must do before noon, today.

Prep dinner: DONE but...

Made pumpkin soup / Soupe de courges au Curry per curry powder from P. Wells The Paris Cookbook and from M. Johnson's Cuisine of the Sun but did not eat it, as we got a call from Brian Cahalan, proprietor of Cafe 49 West about the appearance that night at his place of the classic folk performer Carolyn Hester. We drank far too much alcohol and regretted it all day Thursday.

Epiphany Sunday items

2005-01-10T09:11:00.000-05:00

St. Mark's Capitol Hill: Stephen Edmondson preached a very good Epiphany sermon with a context in the final battle in the Lord of the Rings.
For lunch I used previously made up pancake mix to make pancakes for Nancy and me at home.
Dimitri Fotos: Dimitri's show of B&W photographs of local scene musicians opened at 49 West; we attended briefly; marvelous show. Saw many folks, including Max Ochs who I told I would call today to set up an appointment or lunch later in the month.
Lavash: for dinner snack of Sunday evening I finally made lavash, the mid-eastern unraised bread; a little tricky rolling it out; a little tricky cooking - i.e., too long will be burned, too short too much will be underdone and chewy; the texture should be crunchy but not quite flaky. I also made humus as one of the accompaniments and put out the leftover raita from the night before; together with some cheddar cheese; added a couple of pieces of the cabbage / veggie loaf from Friday which I heated until browned on both sides in a film of oil on the grill and sauced with some of the red fennel sauce from the six-minute cod (really flounder) in red fennel sauce of Friday - delicious!
Nancy worked on Karl's Daghani paper, sent it to him; he called just a few minutes ago to ask if I wanted his revised version to work on, I said yes, as I had just put together today's schedule with that near the top.

St. Phillips; Dinners Friday, Saturday; Shopping

2005-01-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

Recipes discussed:

Cauliflower fricassee with a raita: Elements of Taste by Kurz & Kaminsky

Salmon with a pan-fried crust and orange ginger chili couli: Elements of Taste

"cabbage loaf" from Richard Olney's Simple French Food.

6 minute cod in a spicy red fennel sauce (using flounder): Wells The Provence Cookbook.

At St. Phillips yesterday, I attended a forum where Fr. Nat Porter delivered the remarks for the discussion of grace in life. I saw an ad for this in the Sat. morning paper and thought it is time I began to get serious about getting known in the St. Phillips community. At the end of the forum Nat introduced me as a friend he had known for over 40 years, as we met, he announced, at the March on Washington in 1963. Afterward, a couple of women from the church came forward to announce themselves as also having been there. I note that Shari Blanton, with whom I worked on the Study Circles for the Slavery Reconciliation Walk in September and who is on the new Study Circle planning committee, is giving the fourth and concluding talk in the monthly series.

Dinner last night (Saturday): Both dishes from Elements of Taste by Kurz & Kaminsky, excellent model teaching cook book I have been studying; meaning, they exemplify aspects of their theory of taste and cooking via actual recipes for one to cook, to learn both technique and theory through applications of the theory:

Cauliflower fricassee with a raita: I had found I used a leftover raita with cucumbers that had drained overnight, substituting coarsely grated daikon radish for the beansprouts for a nice crunch and thinly sliced shallots for the chives: very good. The fricassee was a little too crunchy, a little too sharp - less lemon juice or more sugar to cut it and a longer cooking time either on stove top or in oven

Salmon with a pan-fried crust and orange ginger chili couli: I substituted panko bread crumbs for the rice flakes specified and that worked fine; excellent dish.

Shopping: Also, shopped during the day at Sam's for salmon, paper towels, coffee - should have gotten six red/yellow pepper bag for, as it turned out, we are out of them. Went to Bed, Bath & Beyond for Microplane grater - which I used for the fricassee, above, to grate the zest off of two lemons - amazingly fine zest as well as a paper towel holder for the garage. Also drifted through Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble where I bought a book of Wodehouse on Jeeves. Finally, went to Shoppers Food for corn tortillas but couldn't find cans of chipotles in adobo sauce.

Dinner Friday night:

Note that I had abstained from wine or liquor since 1 January, for both dieting and spiritual reasons, for a system cleansing, for a calming effect. In all respects this seemed to be a good thing and, after two dinners with wine, I shall go back on the discipline today until the end of the week.

For dinner I made a "cabbage loaf" from Richard Olney's Simple French Food. From Patricia Wells The Provence Cookbook to go with it, a recipe whose title I have already forgotten but is something like 6 minute cod in a spicy red fennel sauce.

Cabbage Loaf: Not my favorite title for a recipe but a delicious mound. I had about 1/2 a cabbage which I boiled. I added diced mushrooms and red pepper and zucchini sauteed in butter. I used broth or sauce from the previous evening's New England Fish Chowder in place of milk and chopped a few pieces of fish and potato also into the loaf. After cooking the requisite 30-40 minutes I served it, but I think it could have cooked a bit longer as the center still seemed a bit mushy and, as a leftover, it's almost runny. It has a great flavor but needs a bit more stiffening.

6 minute cod in a spicy red fennel sauce: I made the spicy red fennel sauce but instead of cod I used the fish I had, a fillet of flounder with skin on. Although the fish was fully thawed and ready to go, it did not cook in six minutes. After about ten minutes, I served it, and it still needed further cooking, so I put it in the microwave for three minutes and that did the trick - immaculate white fish emerging through the delicately perfumed sauce - exquisite.

Dinner developments

2005-01-07T09:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I worked on notes for the previous night's dinner.
I thought more about how my cooking is, indeed, my major yoga: I began reading "The Power of Now." Realizing that when I am cooking I am most present in the "now" I continue to entertain the thought that it is my meditative work - I have set aside the time, I am calmest, it has a beginning, middle, end, it is present, it is other oriented, it has many positive qualities, I am able to write relatively objectively about it, it is a focus.
I cooked a dinner for us of New England fish chowder - see below.

We celebrated in a very subdued way the Feast of the Three Kings - we turned on all the Christmas lights for the last time. We will degreen and detree this weekend.

I thought a lot about the meaning of memory, due to Karl's work on literature as the carrier of memory for the human species.
I spent an hour or more on the phone talking with Andy about his trips to Oregon and then his emergency visit to California.

In Bend, Ore. Andy was with Michael Cahall and the Cahall family, Lorna and Dick, and their nearly lost son, Sean. From his reports and earlier reports via Karl it was an awful time.
In a place he described as "near Burbank" Andy had gone to help out when his first love interest, Claude, had died, to help Claude's current companion / lover / (note: for future discussion, my own inability to keep the language "straight", e.g., I can never remember how to refer to two people who are of the same gender in a committed relationship), Mitch. Mitch, whom Andy described in very pejorative, had called Andy after Claude's death, to ask for his help in dealing with the preparations for burial, etc. Andy immediately flew out to California, Mitch picked him up as the airport and took him back to his house. There Andy tried to help by going through Claudes computer files and other papers and finding the documents necessary so that funeral arrangements could be made. As this was going forward, Mitch heard from his mother that her husband had just died in an accident from a broken neck. In the additional chaos that followed, Mitch lost it, beginning to accuse Andy in somewhat paranoid sounding terms of being "the Devil." After some pretty crazy sounding goings on, including making sure that Mitch's two children, who were living with Mitch and Claude, were still safe, Andy left the house, spent the night at a hotel on the airport, and then returned to Annapolis.

I let Andy tell me about all of this because, it seemed to me the right thing to do and also to be a natural way for me to begin to explore my difficulties in being open to gay people, to explore how to be more humane to more people.

I saw in the paper that the Washington Antique Show was opening and thought that I should go in to talk to people there about selling the art work for the IFC. Nancy and I will go in about lunch time today. I need to call Clark to see what he thinks.
For dinner last night I made the following New England fish chowder:

New England Fish Chowder

mal, 01.06.2005: I used this, modified as shown in italics, for dinner this evening. Nancy made a very good salad to go with it.

Jasper White notes, "To me, this is the most authentic and most important recipe in this book (50 Chowders, One-Pot Meals...). It is the gold standard for chowder; a hearty main course with deep flavors, luxurious texture, and generous chunks of fish, onion, and potato. New England fish chowder is easy to make, uses simple ingredients, and doesn't require you to be fussy or exact. After making this chowder a few times you'll begin to understand the Zen of chowder."
4 ounces meaty salt pork, rind removed and cut into 1/3-inch dice 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- use 4-8 oz "grav rocks" as i've named it, i.e., rockfish fillets prepared as for gravlax; I would also try home made grav lax, as it has worked well in other preps I've done as a substitute for ham.
2 medium onions (14 ounces), cut into 3/4-inch dice
6 to 8 springs fresh summer savory or thyme, leaves removed and chopped (1 tablespoon)
- lacking these, I used 1 short teaspoon of thyme dried
2 dried bay leaves
2 pounds Yukon Gold, Maine, PEI or other all-purpose potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/3-inch thick
- hmm; I cut the potatoes in ~3/4 in. cubes
5 cups fish stock: used Japanese dried bonito flakes, two packs, to make plenty of fish stock; a little smoky but I think made helped make up for not using salt port
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper: did not add salt as the salted grav rocks was very salty
3 pounds skinless haddock or cod fillets, preferably over 1-inch thick, pinbones removed
- used about 1 - 1 1/2 pounds rockfish fillet, skin removed; difficult to remove pinbones so warned of their presence; proved not too obtrusive in the end
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (or up to 2 cups if desired)
- only had about 1/2 cup; added about 1 c. light cream, about 1/4 c. leftover crema mexicana, a sour cream; was plenty rich
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives: not available, can be lived without
Heat a 4 to 6-quart heavy pot over low heat and add the diced salt pork. Using the grav rocks, sliced thin, heat with planty fo butteer and olive oil - 2-4 tablespoons. I also used the skin; I would omit the skin in a future instance as it is hard to get crispy enough to matter and has too fishy a taste. Follow the next instructions to cook fish until crispy. Once it has rendered a few tablespoons of fat, increase the heat to medium and cook until the pork is a crisp golden brown. Use the slotted spoon to transfer the cracklings to a small ovenproof dish, leaving the fat in the pot, and reserve until later.
Add the butter, onions, savory, or thyme, and bay leaves to the pot and sautè, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes, until the onions are softened but not browned.
Add the potatoes and stock. If the stock doesn't cover the potatoes, add just enough water to cover them. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil, cover and cook the potatoes vigorously for about 10 minutes, until they are soft on the outside but still firm in the center. If the stock hasn't thickened lightly, smash a few of the potato slices against the sides of the pot and cook for a minute or two longer to release their starch. Reduce the heat to low and season assertively with salt and pepper (you want to almost over-season the chowder at this point to avoid having to stir it much once the fish is added). Add the fish fillets and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and allow the chowder to sit for 10 minutes (the fish will finish cooking during this time).
Gently stir in the cream and taste for salt and pepper. If you are not serving the chowder within the hour, let it cool a bit, then refrigerate; cover the chowder after it has chilled completely. Otherwise, let it sit for up to an hour at room temperature, allowing the flavors to meld.
When ready to serve, reheat the chowder over low heat; don't let it boil. Warm the cracklings in a low oven (200*F - 95*C) for a few minutes. I reheated fish cracklings in a skillet with yet more butter; this worked fine.
Use a slotted spoon to mound the chunks of fish, the onions and potatoes in the center of large soup plates or shallow bowls, and ladle the creamy broth around. Scatter the cracklings over the individual servings and finish each with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and minced chives. It was rather pretty and very tasty with plenty of leftover stew for another day.

New Year Starts 2005

2005-01-06T13:35:00.001-05:00

Topics:

"Reconciliation" Study Circles: meeting on Wed. night went quite well, people were there who I was surprized and pleased to see: Shari Blanton, David Arthur. Also, a new participant, Claudia Boynton (sp), from St. Mary's, tasked with bringing Study Circle process to St. Mary's.
Cooking breakfast, revelations, reading:

This morning I cooked a "simple breakfast"
I've been reading Richard Olney's Simple French Cooking as well as, most recently, Elizabeth David's An Omelette and a Glass of Wine: both are revelations of what good writing and good writing about good cooking can be.
The simple breakfast that I cooked this morning was pancakes with left-over soup: doesn't sound particularly memorable or even appetizing. But my thoughts as I savored it while reading Elizabeth Davids essay para Navidad were along the lines of, if we don't record, remember, reflect on, moments when revelations come then, what's the point? So, these notes.
The pancakes were to be simple, and they were. No recipe. I put a couple tablespoons of unbleached all-purpose flour in a bowl, joined them with a little less corn flour (fine meal would do, I think). To this I added pinches of baking powder and baking soda, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of coarse black pepper. I mixed well one egg with about a cup of buttermilk with a little more thin yogurt. When this was all well mixed I added it to the dry ingredients and stirred in the bowl to break up the lumps, but not too much. Meanwhile, I had heated a griddle.
In the microwave I reheated, slowly, some leftover soup in a small bowl. As it had set, congealed, gelled, it was a bit before I realized it was not a leftover fish soup but instead the little bit of vegetables and broth left from a red snapper en papillote (which see below.)
I cooked the little bit of pancake batter, resulting in five or six small cakes. I rolled them up with a little butter in each. I cut the rolled logs into several narrow pieces, each now a sort of pinwheel.
I then took the bowl of leftovers with its rich fish broth and the rolled pancakes over to the dining room table, sat down, and ate the pancakes segments dipped in the fish broth. Awhile I read the E. David essay, para Navidad, about how in southwest France, in near poverty and deprivation, the people would prepare foods of memory to save until Christmas, how the weeks and months before Christmas had ther moments of anticipation, of waiting, and of the quiet joy (my term, not hers, she doesn't seem to me a "joyous" type writer - who knows what kind of person she was?) of looking forward to the time when all the riches saved up could be savored and enjoyed. I would look up, out our grand view across the clear blue water rustling in a light breez to the clear blue winter sky - moment of awareness, of joy, of enjoyment and simple living amidst the chaos and destruction we're seeing in the media about the horrific tsunami in the Indian Ocean. A revelation, a memory, quickly fading now as I am finishing this up on Fri, January 7.
The recipe for the red snapper:

Mark's New Year's Eve 2005 version

1 (8-ounce) salmon fillet, pin bones removed
1 (2-3 pound) whole red snapper, cleaned, head on
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 whole lemon, zested and then thinly sliced
1/3 cup julienned fennel bulb
1/3 cup julienned carrots
(Other tender vegetables as available)
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 orange zested, peeled, then thinly sliced; discard seeds
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Fruity olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Cut foil into 15 by 48-inch sheet. Fold in 1/2 and lay on baking/cookie sheet. Unfold. Coarsely chop fennel stems, 1 stick celery and put on bottom of foil. Lay snapper diagonally on sheet pan on top of 1 foil. Salt and pepper fish, inside and out. Place 1/2 lemon and orange zest, 1/2 herbs inside cavity of fish along with 1/2 of lemon, and 1/2 of red onion. Arrange vegetables next to fish on all sides. Put garlic, and remaining lemon and orange slices and red onion on fish and lay tomatoes and fennel creating somewhat of a wall. Pour fish and soy sauces, wine over fish and dot with butter. Drizzle with the fruity olive oil. Fold over edges of foil to create an almost airtight seal. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. Carefully open and serve or fillet before serving (be aware of bones in the fish). Serve fish with vegetables and spoon broth over fish. Reserve leftover vegetables and broth for use later.

Memory, forgetting - interesting that this is becoming a focus of Karl's research.

New Year Starts with Fish

2005-01-06T13:35:00.000-05:00

Mark's New Year's Eve 2005 version

1 (8-ounce) salmon fillet, pin bones removed - added to make sure there's enough for three people
1 (2-3 pound) whole red snapper, cleaned, head on
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 whole lemon, zested and then thinly sliced
1/3 cup julienned fennel bulb
1/3 cup julienned carrots
(Other tender vegetables as available)
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 orange zested, peeled, then thinly sliced; discard seeds
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Fruity olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Cut foil into 15 by 48-inch sheet. Fold in 1/2 and lay on baking/cookie sheet. Unfold.
Coarsely chop fennel stems, 1 stick celery and put on bottom of foil. Lay snapper and salmon diagonally on sheet pan on top of 1 foil. Salt and pepper fish, inside and out. Place 1/2 lemon and orange zest, 1/2 herbs inside cavity of fish along with 1/2 of lemon, and 1/2 of red onion. Arrange vegetables next to fish on all sides. Put garlic, and remaining lemon and orange slices and red onion on fish and lay tomatoes and fennel creating somewhat of a wall. Pour fish and soy sauces, wine over fish and dot with butter. Drizzle with some fruity olive oil. Fold over edges of foil to create an almost airtight seal. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes. Carefully open and serve or fillet before serving (be aware of bones in the fish). Serve fish with vegetables and spoon broth over fish. Reserve leftover vegetables and broth for use later.

Notes for Christmas, New Years 2004/2005

2005-01-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

Christmas:

Smoked a turkey breast; seared shrimp over cherry wood fire; smoked fresh marinated salmon and a piece of mahi mahi

Marla and Bernie came for their last Christmas in the U.S., as they will be moving to New Zealand in February and June.

Keith and Celia joined us, also.
With Nancy and Karl and myself, we were thus seven .

New Years

was simply spent with Karl and Nancy and I eating a quiet meal together. I cooked a red snapper en papillote - see recipe in first week of January notes.

Karl and I walked Luigi up to the corner of Annapolis St. and Taylor Avenue to watch the fireworks over Annapolis.

Thoughts on memory...

2004-12-12T09:04:00.000-05:00

I am always trying to forget.

Alcohol numbs memory and I use it to blot out memory, reality.

Confusion kills memory.

Lies delude memory.

Memories: I didn't practice my instruments when I was a kid because my dad objected to the "noise" and so I harborded resentment at the same time that I felt guilty at school for not practicing, so that everywhere I was the one at fault instead of confronting one situation or the other.

I have moments of lucidity when such recollections break through and I then try to recovere from them by behaving badly.

I also remember various aspects of teasing from my older brother which seemed to me at the time to be torture, assaults on my masculinity when, in front of our priest's daughter, my brother referred to be as a "little faggot" or something similarly demeaning. And I still cannot get too close to my birth family because of all the issues between my parents...

Meetings with Fred Taylor; Leonard...

2004-12-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

Have had two meetings this week to get started on Study Circles in the 2005.

Have a list of people to call for Jan. 5 kickoff meeting.

Thursday went to MCIJ but they were closed. Will try to go again on next Thursday.

Thursday evenign went to DC with Nancy and Paula to see a nice production of Shakespeare's Pericles. We also had dinner, not a very good one, at Zola, which I think we will not repeat.

Met with Fred and the FLOC OEC Board Tuesday afternoon, then went to dinner and Wizards basketball game with Fred and his son Wednesday night at the MCI Center in DC.

Will meet Fred for lunch Monday at the Potter's House with a Mr. Dodge (sp), a friend of FLOC's who recently retired from DOJ and will help us better understand the structure of the grant from DOJ Juvenile Justice to the OEC for $750,000.

Contact Steve Steurer.

Another Month...

2004-12-12T08:18:00.000-05:00

Recipes discussed:

Pancake mix: The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
Cheese latkes: The Washington Post
Fish Salad: mal
Sambal Soup: probably from The Madhur Jaffrey Cookbook

Well into December I pick up some more note making.

This morning I read a note from earlier in the current year in which my primary interest seemed to be food although it was in the context of other activities I had become involved in, e.g. the Slavery Reconciliation Walk. Similarly, I find that, although preparing now to work with Leonard Blackshear to get Study Circles going here in Annapolis, it is proving difficult to start up.

Anyway, food on Friday:

In the morning I made up a batch of pancake mix from the King Arthur baking book, and then, when Nancy came in from the opera, made a batch of pancakes using the mix. The mix, once made, is simply added to one beaten egg and a cup of buttermilk or half milk, half yogurt. In the event I had and so used buttermilk. The resultant batter was not as thin as the recipe had suggested, so I added additional liquid. The pancakes were light and excellent.

In the evening, for dinner, I had found another pancake recipe, this from the Washington Post for cheese latkes. They were made using ricotta cheese which we had in house left over from Thanksgiving. Once cup ricotta, two tb each of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, and two eggs, together with some flavorings - sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, salt - constituted the whole recipe. Beaten together - oh, and a tb of melted butter - a thickish batter appeared. The pancakes were cooked on hot griddle onto which 1 tb of batter was poured. I tried to spread the batter a bit, then let it cook. The little "silver dollar sized" pancakes were tasty but too sweetish and "traditional" in vanilla land flavor for me. But, per a recipe suggestion of serving them with fruit, jams, or sour cream with caviar, I offered them with applesauce I had made from leftover cooked apples and cranberry sauce.

Also, thinking fish, I found a quantity of left-over rockfish which I shredded and mixed with a variety of ingredients to make a very good fish salad. Ingredients included shaved finocchio, grated apple, grated carrot, onion half slices and diced, lightly browned pignole nuts and pecans, all mixed with a vinaigrette of lemon juice, Dijon mustard, minced garlic, fruity olive oil, salt and black pepper. As the apple shreds began to brown from oxidation I also sprinkled them with some fresh lime juice, so there was a bit more fruity sourness to the dressing. The salad was served on a bed of lettuce, all alongside the little pancakes; very delicious, the unctiousness and sweetness of the pancakes nicely blending with the sharp oceanic character of the salad.

Sambal Soup: I cannot fail to mention, also, that we had first had a soup I had prepared. On Thanksgiving Day I had made a rasam as the soup from which there was left over the dal that provided the stock for the rasam. On possible use of the dal is to make a sambar, which I had been wanting to do since Thanksgiving. I had found some pretty golden turnips at David's Natural Market on Tuesday which I decided to use. I peeled one and diced it and cooked it in a pan with some salted water. Meanwhile, I had also put on a half cup of basmati rice to cook to serve with the soup. I sliced an onion thickly, got a cup or so of Trader Joe's frozen french style green beans, peeled, chopped the last two tomatoes from Anne Arundel County, and made the sambar paste per instructions from various tomes - Madhur Jaffrey's three in one volume, and others. This involved roasting spices in a pan until fragrant, cooling and then grinding to a powder - black pepper, cumin, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, red pepper; making up some tamarind juice from about two tbsp of tamarind; then sauteeing some black mustard seeds in ghee until beginning to smoke, also, roasting a couple tbsp of shredded coconut until golden; and putting all together into the blender with a tbsp of minced ginger and blending until smooth. The tricky part that almost threw me happened, as always, near the end of making the soup. There was guidance to put a tb of ghee or oil in a pan, put in a tsp or so of black mustard seeds, then, when they had begun to pop, to put in the onions. I used too small pan and so had to maneuver the onions into a pan which they almost o'ertopped. I heated the dal, added water to think, added and stirred to keep from sticking or burning, then added the onions, tomatoes and turnips, then poured in the blended spices together with a bit of salt and sugar. As it was finishing up it seemed too sweet and not hot enough, so I added a couple of pinches of cayenne pepper. Served in soup plates with a mound of rice in the center and sprinkled with freshly chopped cilantro, all came together at last and it was delicious, nicely balanced, hot enough but not too hot, well-seasoned with salt but not salty.

Turkey Smoking TEST

2004-11-26T17:32:00.000-05:00

How To Smoke a Turkey
By Cheri Sicard

This entry was intended to see whether copying code, including pictures and tables, could be done from another web site. It turned out to be completely easy.

Smoked turkey is a delicacy that many people love, but they don't have it that often because, let's face it, buying a smoked turkey is expensive. If only these turkey deprived folks knew just how easy and economical it is to make your own smoked turkey at home.

We used a water smoker to make our turkey. These are available wherever barbecue grills are found, but here's an economical secret: start going to garage sales. For some reason, smokers seem to be a popular item, possibly because a lot of folks don't know how to use them. I purchased my smoker, almost new, for a measly seven dollars, and I see them often while on my regular Saturday garage sale runs.

Water smokers are available in electric, gas or charcoal model, and all work well. Charcoal smokers have two pans - one for charcoal and one for liquid which creates the moist, hot smoke needed for cooking.

If you don't own a water smoker, you could also smoke your turkey on the grill using the Indirect Smoking Method. Just follow the simple instructions given to us by America's Smoking King, Famous Dave Anderson.

Important Points
Food safety is of primary concern when smoking turkey. Turkey breasts, drumsticks, wings and whole turkeys are all suited for smoking, although for safety's sake, stick with whole turkeys that weigh 12 pounds or less. A larger turkey remains in the "Danger Zone" - between 40° F and 140° F for too long.

Do not stuff a turkey destined for smoking. Because smoking is takes place at a low temperature, it can take too long for the temperature of the stuffing to reach the required temperature of 165° F, not to mention that smoked stuffing has an undesirable flavor.

Recipes
Smoked turkey doesn't need a recipe as seasonings, ingredients and spices are not necessary. You can add a little salt, pepper or poultry seasoning, but the smoke provides the principle flavor. Don't be afraid, however, to get creative with that smoke by experimenting with different types of wood -- hickory or mesquite being the most popular. Any chunks or chips of water-soaked hardwood or fruitwood will work, but do not use softwoods like pine, fir, cedar or spruce as they will give the food a turpentine flavor and coat it with an ugly and inedible black pitch.

Turkey Preparation Thanksgiving 2004

2004-11-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

What I did to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving, 2004

I brined the turkey overnight using a brine derived from a couple I read about and based on my experience last year roasting a turkey I had brined. That turkey was brined using a recipe from the Nov-Dec 2003 Cook's Illustrated. That recipe called for brining and then rubbing the turkey inside and out with a spice rub. It became the kickoff for this year's preparation.
After the brining this year I prepared the turkey for smoking by rubbing it inside and out, as well as under the skin, with a garlic and oil spice rub. The spice rub was based on the Cook's Illustrated spice rub from 2003 and something I read somewhere else using a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil. I took the cloves of garlic and the spice rub recipe, place them in the small bowl of the hand blender, then added enough olive oil to make a paste. I rubbed this paste inside and outside and also under the skin, even loosening some of the skin on the thighs and legs to push the rub under the skin there, as well as the breast and back. (A couple of useful insights: "You can expect to use 10 lb. or more of charcoal for a 10-14 lb. turkey, so have some extra just in case...Each time you remove the lid for those of you who are lookie loos, it adds between 10 and 15 minutes to the cook time, so don't take the lid off to see your prize until you absolutely have to.")
Brine recipe I developed from several sources; used with great success this year (2004): Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to the boil; cool by letting stand or adding ice, then put turkey in plastic bag large enough to hold it along with the brine (brining bag is acceptable; I always use clean plastic trash bags, placed in a containers large enough to hold turkey and small enough to fit in refrigerator; if temperature outside is 40 or less, the brining holder with turkey can be place outside overnight if wandering varmints are not an issue.)

1 gallon water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon whole allspice, crushed
15 peppercorns, cracked
5 garlic cloves, crushed (3 whole heads recommended)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped unpeeled fresh ginger (1 /1/2 c suggested)
4 bay leaves - depends on size
1 cup soy sauce ( 1 1/2 cup suggested)
1 teaspoon tarragon
1-2 hot dried peppers
Try adding these next time:

1 onion

1 carrot

bunch of scallions

Alice Waters adds

4 juniper berries, crushed

1 bunch fresh thyme

suggests 1 whole head of garlic

I set a fire in the smoker with charcoal briquettes and hardwood charcoal to heat it initially to as high as 300°. I also included some chunks of cherry wood well soaked with water to provide sweet smoke. This is probably unnecessary early on, as the fire will need to be refueled many times during the course of cooking.
After brining the turkey overnight I wrapped it in wet cheesecloth and tied it somewhat tightly fore and aft using dental tape instead of string. (I'm still looking for a source for unwaxed dental tape - it seems to no longer be made.) Then I placed the turkey in a V-shaped rack which on which I first placed crumpled foil to keep the steel bars of the rack from leaving lines in the turkey breast. The rack that I had available was not very deep but worked fine. I concluded that the real purpose of the rack is to keep the turkey stable and any arrangement which does that will work fine. The intention was to place the turkey breast-side down but it is unclear whether that was what I actually did. Once it was wrapped and ready to cook I was unsure how to tell which side was up, so next time I will pay closer attention early on. The end result was fine, anyway, perhaps because the method of brining and slow cooking in a humid environment ensures moist meat anyway. I then found a metal oven tray deep enough to catch the turkey juices but not so deep as to have the top of the turkey in contact with the lid of the smoker. I placed the turkey on its tray on the cool side of the s smoker, away from the heat and any flames that might flare up. The 12-13 lb. turkey went in the smoker around 9:40 a.m. and stayed until 5:30 p.m. or so, for reasons explained below.
I put a pan able to hold about 1/2 gal. of liquid in the smoker on the hot side of the grill and kept it filled with various aromatic liquids including beer, Diet Dr. Pepper, Coca Cola, and water. The purpose of the liquids is to keep a humid atmosphere inside the smoker.
I checked the smoker every so often, perhaps every 30-45 min. I think this proved important to the final product as little things were kept from getting out of hand. At one point the liquid had been almost completely boiled off and a crunchy looking residue was forming. This taught me to be sure to always keep plenty of liquid at hand and in the pot. I also basted the turkey just about every time I opened the cooker after the first couple of hours of cooking. Next time I will make this a regular part of the process.
During the cooking a major weather change took place. A front came through with rain squalls and heavy winds and a dramatic temperature drop. The winds were severe enough to take down many trees in the DC area and cause major holiday havoc. Here, the wind and temperature drop both impacted the cooking time by cooling the cooker. To lessen the impact of the wind I used aluminum foil double or triple folded to block the main draft on the back of the cooker as well as two smaller side vents. As the bird still did not seem to be rendering any juices after four or five hours and to combat the temperature drops I added logs of cherry wood to the fire, as well as additional charcoal. I had been adding a small shovelful or two of charcoal about once an hour to maintain the temperature but was having trouble even keeping a temperature of 200°. (Recommendations I have now read suggest opening the cooker as little as possible, that each opening increase cooking time by 15 min. Also, when adding charcoal always add more than you think is needed - you'll need it.) The logs, first one, then two, finally three helped to push it up to around 250° but it required consistent attention to maintain. At one point it seemed to be too hot and so I removed a burning log and doused it in a bucket of water - which, another pointer, should be kept handy and in a metal bucket, so that, if a burning log rest against the side of the bucket, it does not melt it, as might happen with a plastic bucket.
Finally, the burning logs generated a good deal of flame as well as lots of smoke, and the side of the turkey toward the flames colored considerably darker than the opposite side. I worried that it was over-cooking or even burning, as the color of the turkey and its cheesecloth became very dark brown, edging toward black.
I turned the turkey over, belly-side up (I think), and let it cook for a while longer in this position, basting it again; perhaps after six hours. After another hour or so I cut away the cheesecloth and, basting again, began to try to measure the temperature with a meat thermometer. The meat of the thigh on the fire side showed 180°, clearly well cooked. The breast on the cooler side seemed to show only about 150°, while a bit later, the fire side breast showed 160-170°, the right range. I concluded that the turkey had finished cooking and could come out to rest, to do the slight added cooking that it would do while resting, and that in a half-hour or so it would be ready to carve. (Recommendations: Estimate 20 to 30 minutes per pound if using a smoker. Always use a food thermometer. The whole turkey is done when the food thermometer, placed in the inner thigh, reaches 180° F. The breast is done when the internal temperature reaches 170° F.)
I then moved on to making the gravy from the drippings in the pan beneath the turkey and the turkey stock which I had prepared a few days earlier. I made a roux in the drippings pan and then added this to the stock. It did not seem to thicken enough for Neil who took over the gravy making at this. He took some more flour and mixed it in a jar with water, then added this to the mix. I tasted what seemed to me undercooked gravy, with a flour flavor, but all others seemed happy. As I don't eat it, other than to taste, I was content.
Neil carved the turkey. At first he was concerned that it was not done enough but I think that was because of the color. The smoking and / or combination with the brining results in the flesh next to the skin developing a kind of pink blush, which may be interpreted as undercooked. But the eaters all seemed in agreement that the result was outstanding, with several repeated comments about how moist the flesh was. This was consistent with the experience last year as well as everything I've read about brining.
On the whole, a great success and worth the effort. I used the remaining heat in the grill to cook a large piece of salmon for Dmitri Fotos and me.

Sunday early: Mild, calm, overcast

2004-11-21T09:26:00.000-05:00

Last night we had a pretty meal: a bowl of my vegetarian caldo verde, with sour cream and my home made veggie chorizo sausage; there were orange chanterelle mushrooms on special sale at Whole Foods which I sauteed in butter as well as some sliced criminis, with shallots, salt, and minced parsley over top of them and a splash of lemon juice, delious over thin slices of briefly sauteed crisped potato and onion frittata, an intentional leftover; and a salad of ultra gravlax, my homemade gravlax that this time was allowed to cure for nearly a week, making it very dry, salty, and thin slicing like Smithfield ham, as well as leftover tuna steaks from a Provençale dish, also sliced quite thin, over salad greens and with some scallion white sliced in half-inch pieces, tossed with a mustard lime olive oil and garlic vinaigrette. The dressing made the tuna moist and delicious, the saltiness of the salmon speaking to the sweetness of a new Greek olive oil. A bottle of Chiliean sauvignon blanc went well with the salad and mushrooms, not as well with the soup - it seemed a bit thin.
A column this morning by Michael Dirda that had tears dripping from my eyes. A review of a new novel by someone Robinson, previous author of, I believe I recall, Homecoming, both books regarded by Dirda with enormous affection and respect, sounding very tempting. The current book a reflection by an aging (77) minister in the midwest of his lonely life and then the joy of a young wife and their child. With many developments but very tender and gentle love stories and reflections.
Today into the city to St. Marks for church, early so we can be photographed in a group photo for the ages. So, I must get dressed now to make by the 10:30 hour for the picture.

Quick update

2004-11-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

Overcast but not too cool, near 50 overnight. Some drizzle, now stopped.

Thanksgiving the Fotos family will join us, I don't know who that will include but probably Christine, Alexandra, Neil, Dmitri.

I'm off to farmer's market.

Yesterday afternoon met with Martin Dyer's Committee on Diversity at St. John's. Will meet in Bethesda on Monday with Irene Crowe, also a committee member, who is on the Board at the College.

Attended visitor's Touchstones at MCIJ on Thursday.

Wed. evening attended pre-show dinner, then very good performance of Bellini's I Puritani at the Baltimore Opera with Paula Binder and her daughter, Didi.

Thursday evening at St. John's President Chris Nelson's house for a concert hosted by Joyce Ohlin, Chris's wife, of the Ensemble Galileo with commentary by Neil Conant of NPR.

Had very positive medical checkup with Dr. Krimins on Friday; noted that I had lost 17 lb. since February as a strongly positive development. I am, however, to have a followup checkup with another doctor per my attacks of esophageal spasm.

Had lunch Friday with Dan Sullivan at Boatyard Grill in Eastport to review our training on next Tuesday at MCIJ. I need to confirm on Monday with Ms. Mobley that we will be able to bring in training materials.

Must run.

Another beautiful day, but chill...

2004-11-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Here on Weems Creek the air is still, the water calm, the sun bright, the sky a little wispy with veils of mist high up making the light seem to come from everywhere.

Sunday, Nov 14. A beautiful day, clear and sunny with little wind.
Sunday we drove into DC for church at St. Mark's. After, we had lunch at Cosi on Pennsylvania Ave. with Penny Hansen, Sr. Warden, to discuss our past year at St. Mark's. where we are and where we're going. I think she was afraid that we are going out and not coming back. I hope we reassured her that that is not the case, that we've been looking around a bit in Annapolis and always come back to St. Mark's for the preaching, the teaching.
After driving back to Annapolis we rested for a while at home.
Then, in the late afternoon, we went to the Caritas Society's Meet the Authors event at St John's. I generally avoid these events, but Michael Dirda, one of my personal heroes was to speak and I wanted to see him in the flesh. I've been reading his columns in the Washington Post for years and have come to depend on his wit, his acumen, his apparently vast knowledge of literature and everything it touches upon. I made sure to read his column in the morning before going to church, as I try to do every Sunday.

The event was much better than I had expected. The two other authors who spoke were both interesting and spoke well and all answered questions thoughtfully.
Dirda's new book is about growing up in central Ohio in the 50's and 60's as a bookish kid and teenager and going off to college at Oberlin where he first began to blossom. In his talke he told a wonderful story about how he persuaded his mother to buy him a complete set of the Great Books, promising to win the $500 prize offered by the company, if she would make the $375 investment. She did and he did, as well as his sisters also winning prizes, ultimately to the tune of $2,500!
After the presentations the authors sat at tables in the FSK Lobby to answer questions and sign their books. Nancy bought me each of the authors' books, much to my surprise. Dirda chatted with us very easily, and mentioned Walter Benjamin in passing, leading us to tell him of Karl's interest as a leader of the International Benjamin Society. He signed the book to Karl as a fellow devotee of Benjamin and in the process made a mess in the book with his pen - and, to make it up to us, gave me another of his books, a set of essays: Readings - Essays and Literary Entertainments. I've read most of the latter now and dipped into the autobiography a bit - much prefer the Readings as they are each a finished piece in itself. The other book is more extended, less thoroughly written. But in both I am learning more about Dirda and myself - and why at least part of the resonance is so powerful.
He tells stories of becoming a library borrower, of getting to the "adult" books, of reading series and endlessly and looking for guidance in his reading.
As I looked through a list that he prepared when he was 16 of books he had read, I got to the ciatation, "Plato (parts)", and was suddenly transported to my first encounter with Plato. I was baby sitting at the farm home of the Rogers, family friends who raised goats, kept dogs and horses, and had many children. As the children had all gone to bed, I was looking through the bookcase at the foot of the stairs and saw Plato's Republic.I felt a thrill of something forbidden, I'm not quite sure why, of something that I had seen referenced in other books I had read, as something a bit both bizarre and threatening, as a book that should not be read by children. I took the book down and opened it to the opening scene. I was gone from the farmhouse, gone from Maryland, I was on that walk back up from the Piraeus with Socrates and his friends. I don't know how much of the Republic I read that night, but I do remember the sense of magic, of being transported to another world.
More other worlds: Dirda became a reader of fantasy, science fiction, the Hardy Boys, and mysteries as a growing youth. I never made my way into the cult of mysteries, largely because my mother loved to read them and I somehow thought that one mystery addiction was enough - I'd learned a lot from her, but I didn't much want to share in that. But science fiction - when Dirda alluded to Corwainer Smith, a name I thought I'd forgotten, and the thrills of his stories, again, I felt that sense of ahhh, so that's why I feel so needy to read his column every Sunday. And these little moments of recognition kept coming as I read more and more. Also, the stunning lack on my part of real understanding of literature, especially next to a Dirda who ultimately finished a PhD in, I think, comparative literature. And he has taught, ah well.

Yesterday, Monday, was a beautiful day - a bit cold, but not too much wind. In the morning there was frost on the yard and covering the cars. By midday it had burned off and was almost balmin, perhaps near 60.

At yoga class last night Mary was back and worked us very hard on backbends. It was a good class. I learned a few things about muscles I didn't know I had, i.e., I felt work going on in parts of my anatomy that were unfamiliar, around the upper hips and again the shoulders, even though we were mostly reviewing familiar asanas. As we spent more time in them, and Mary talked to us about what to do, to tweak this or that, we got to spend enough time hanging out in one body part or another to actually begin to learn something new.

At home, after class, Nancy had cooked a very nice dinner with various leftovers, from a balti dish to the revived tuna provençale.
In bed, I read for a while in GULAG, the book by another of the Caritas authors, Anne Applebaum, like Dirda, both a Post writer and a Pultizer Prize winner. It was not as much fun as the Dirda, as her evocation of the horrors of the Russian Revolution run counter to my liberal whimsies, my preference for not thinking too much about the evils of the "Evil Empire."

Today, I need to get myself together to go off the MCIJ, then to pick up a package at Touchstones.
Thoughts about Dirda and about the movie we saw last week, Ray, keep rising. While watching the movie I was challenged at some point, given a revelation, and, of course, now I'm hiding from it. But it was along the lines of how creative can you be if you don't let yourself be as creative as you can be, how brilliant, how, caring, how all the good things we all want to be can we be unless and until we craft the disciplines and practices into our lives that will make us so. And, so, also, Dirda, who obviously does more than just read. He also digests and studies what he reads so that he can write something worth writing, in a way that is, for others, worth reading. His obsessions, Nabokov, MFK Fisher, Montaigne, Rousseau, Jefferson, Emerson, Shakespeare...

New, Beautiful Sunday

2004-11-14T09:01:00.000-05:00

Today, beautiful, sunny, windy, quite cool, not quite below freezing but you can feel the cold due to the wind.
Yesterday we did the following:

I went to farmer's market, late, but got some onions, potatoes, kale
I made a nice luncheon salad of mixed greens with blanched, sauteed onions and gravlax; queso blanco; a one-egg cheese thin omelet in julien strips; turnip and carrot shreds; kalamata olives; and a lemon juice / dijon mustard / olive oil vinaigrette.
We went to funeral of John Fotos, son of Christine and Nick, brother of Alexandra and Dmitri, nephew of Bill. We spoke with Angie Nichols after the service. At Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Riva Road in Annapolis. Burial followed at St. Demetrios Cemetary, Annapolis. While there we observed the graves of several people we had known, in particular George Nichols, his mother, and Angie's wife, Mary Ellen.
From there we went to flat of Charlie Berliner and Kathy Dahl on Prince George Street, in the old synagogue, now converted from CBF offices to two luxury flats. They were hosting a harpsichord recital followed by an art show. The harpsichord recital was OK, if a bit boring with second rate Baroque composers, Dowland, Frescobaldi, Frobisher (?), L. Couperin, Handel. We saw Joyce Olan and Chris Nelson, President of St. John's, from whom I learned that they had just elected a new President, finally, at Santa Fe. Also, the Kutlers. The art had been brought in by a friend of the Charlie and Kathy's who has a gallery in Gloucester, MA and works also at a gallery in London, UK. Some works were mildly interesting, mostly for technical reasons. After the concert more people arrived. We saw Paula Binder, the Benders.
Then, around 6:30 or 7 p.m., we went on out to the Fotos house, to spend some time with Christine and the family. Nancy spoke with Alex about perhaps joining us for Thanksgiving. Dmitri and I talked photography. Dmitri and Bob, a friend of John's from Tennessee where he had been living for many years, talked of memories of John, speaking of his eating habits, his friendliness, and, Dmitri, childhood and teenage problems with alcohol and drugs.
Around 8 I would guess we proceeded downtown for the gala 10th anniversary celebration of the Main Street Gallery. Parking was bad and I left Nancy off while I went and parked the car. Then, at the Gallery, I saw Christine (the Gallery founder), spoke briefly, and, overcome by the density of the crowd and a long day with crowds, took Nancy and went home.

And the week was almost as busy.
Friday, a bleak, rainy, windy, cold day:

We had an early lunch of leek and potato soup, per J. Child The Way to Cook, and a saute of large shrimp in a chipotle in adobo with brown sugar and lime juice sauce, from Cook's Illustrated. We had a bottle of Beaujolai Village that was quite good and then took naps until time to go to the funeral home.
We went to the Hardesty Funeral Home on Ridgely for the afternoon gathering to honor John Fotos. We saw many people there from St. John's - Jeff Bishop, Barbara Goyetter, Mary ..., etc. We talked with Chris, Alex, Neil, Dmitri.
From the funeral home we went out to Maryland Hall to greet Rob Levit who was hosting an art show and was playing with his trio for the show's opening. We saw lots of people, including Arlene from the Mayor's officed and Paula Binder and went home.
From The Cuisine of the Sun I prepared what turned out to be a marvelous Thon Provençale accompanied by sauteed shredded zucchini with a few onion slices I threw in. We had a chardonnay with dinner.

Thursday evening:

We saw Ray at the Mall. It was excellent. We went into town for dinner at 49 West and heard Rob Levit trio play interesting stuff, especially Rob's solo acoustic guitar musings. Spoke briefly to Brian, just returned from Paris, where he and Sarah seemed to have had a wonderful time.

IFC Concert 2004; MCIJ; FLOC OEC

2004-11-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

It was the best IFC Concert Nancy and I have attended. With youth choirs and dancers and chant is had an enthusiasm and vibrancy that I don't remember as vividly from past events. The elaxer of the massed choirs did an excellent job and the pieces they sang were appropriate and worked well - a Duke Ellington piece opened the concert, an African chant arrangement closed it.
I went up to MCIJ in the early afternoon and met with several inmates for Touchstones planning. They are working hard to keep it going. They are having trouble getting enough discussion time in for the students, as the teacher, Miss Lagorio, seems to take up the largest amount of time by talking herself. Dave indicated he would speak to her about this. Mike Boyer has rejoined the group and wants to participate in planning and leading discussions. TDP needs to provide a training session either on Nov. 16 or 23. A portable microphone is still needed for RUF.
Nancy and I drove into DC after I returned from MCIJ so that I could attend a FLOC OEC board meeting. Budgeting took most of our time - it looks to be in good shape for the next year or so. Our second discussion had to do with the progress of the new exec. dir., Rich ____ and how to shore him up to ensure greater success. We decided to give Nancy Van Scoyoc and Fred Taylor authority to work with him over the next four months to improve marketing and communication both in the community in West Virginia were the facility is located as well as in the Metro area. We decided that we need to begin to meet monthly as a board, at least for the next several months, to monitor the situation and provide support and correction as needed.

Yoga; CCR

2004-11-09T11:13:00.000-05:00

Yoga class last night: Mary was out sick, so Linda took the class. We did a lot of working on stretching the hamstrings. A particularly new asana was something like "parsva hasta padagusthasana..." in which, with one foot on wall, you turned your torso 90 degrees, turning also the standing foot and the foot against the wall, and then bent down, supporting arms on blocks or on floor.
Below are links to organizations related to Michael Ratner and the suit to give better legal counsel to the detainees at Guantanamo bay. Also, there may be links to sites associated with Peter Weiss, who spoke at St. John's Homecoming Lecture. He is a V.P, of the Center Constitutional Rights (CCR) that sued the US over the prisoners.

Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy - LCNP.org

TNI Publications: "IALANA"

Photo sent via e-mail through flickr:

2004-11-04T11:34:00.000-05:00

Luigi on Deck

Reflecting Weems Creek

2004-11-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

This reflects from our back deck across the creek.

Originally uploaded by maleldil.

Front of Our House on Weems Creek

2004-11-04T08:58:00.000-05:00

Front of House

View of Weems Creek

2004-11-04T08:56:00.000-05:00

View of Weems Creek
Originally uploaded by maleldil.

The Day After

2004-11-03T13:15:00.000-05:00

- Kerry seems to have lost surprisingly fully, across the country.

- Today is lovely, partly cloudy and windy, coolish.

- I stayed up until past 2 a.m. hoping for some break in the dismal news, but there was to be none. I finally went off to bed around 2:30. I have now just learned that Kerry called to concede at about 11 a.m. EST.

- Karl called this morning. He indicated it would be desirable to find a program for Dr. Witte's son to participate in in the early week's of September 2005 when they will visit the US. Also, Karl told us yesterday that the position they are talking about for him in Duesseldorf would be an eight year appointment. But the exciting thing he called about this morning was that he has received a personal note from the chair at Duke who is the same person who translated Witte's book on Benjamin and who wanted Karl to know that he would certainly be interviewed for their position.

-

Another post...

2004-10-29T11:28:00.000-04:00

Have only gotten to set up these accounts, account also at flickr for photo uploading, etc.

--- And another thing about the Hardy Boys...

A View from the Weems Creek house:

Or, directly:

Beginning to blog

2004-10-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

I've set this up so that I have someplace to record random thoughts, projects for the day, etc. If it proves useful, I'll continue using it. I don't intend for these notes to be public, but you never know.

Weather: Cloudy, mild, calm

Today I have the following projects in tow:

Yoga:

pranayama
asanas
shower and shave

Sign and mail IFC letters
find and deposit check from PSInet litigation $81.nn
call ed grandi
prep for & call rutherfords
prep 2003 taxes
tonight go to LOC to see Crumb Quartet
calls for touchstones

call elin whitney-smith
call st. andrews, college park
list Jacqui sent me, etc.

study circles

call ex. dir. ywca janis m. harvey 410-626-7800
Connie Harold & Assoc. 410-268-3330

Added edit for testing.