Pulling the Print

01 Mar 2010 at 12:10

Matt

Worth Noting

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Although I don’t consider myself a ‘news’ junkie, I do consume a fair amount of the stuff. However, starting today (or perhaps tomorrow – I forget when my subscription runs out) home delivery of my local news paper – The Keene Sentinel will stop. I’m not renewing my subscription.

I’ve taken the Sentinel ever since I moved to Keene, NH – which is now pushing 18 years. Before that I took the local news where ever I was living – Sunnyvale and LA, California and before that Knoxville, TN. The Sentinel was a nice change from those larger metro papers. I could consume it in less than 30 minutes and it had a nice mix of local, national and regional as well as sports, comics, puzzles, classifieds, etc. When they started a Sunday edition, I took that too.

It’s not that the paper’s gone down hill, lost it’s important coverage or local importance. What’s happened is  my reading habits have changed – from primarily physical (I don’t really watch much TV news) to mostly digital and in particular web-based syndicated news feeds.

Several years ago I started using a service called Netvibes which allows each user to construct web based pages that display different types of information from various online data suppliers, e.g. gmail, Facebook, news feeds, blogs, and the like. Primarily I use their RSS/ATOM feed system to grab web-based syndicated news from national, regional and local sources as well as syndicated technical, lifestyle, book reviews/events, classified and yes, even comics and bring them all together in one spot. In some cases I’ve had to create RSS feeds from raw web pages using services such as Feed43 and Yahoo! Pipes.

At this point my news consumption is primarily on-line via my Netvibes based custom news portal. Yes, having the technical understand of how to leverage web based content and how to create news feeds has helped, but eventually my feeling is that everyone will be crafting their own “newspaper” using feed syndication – even if newspapers and other media outlets start erecting pay-walls for their content.

I’m perfectly happy to consume news and information from sites that offer it for free, including my local paper. But if I have to pay for it I will so long as it’s worth paying for. If news outlets are simply repackaging AP stories, that’s not worth paying for. Original content that’s meaningful and important to me I’ll gladly pay for. Until then I’ll soak up the free stuff as long as it persists.

For now, however, the only thing that I’ll miss about the printed edition of my local paper is the lack of wood stove starting material.

Update: Seems I’m not alone – I wrote this post before I read the article. Coincident?

Garlic Night

23 Feb 2010 at 22:18

Matt

Cooking, Sauce

1 Comment

Confession is good for the soul so I’ll confess that I was a closet store bought minced garlic user. That is until I broke down and purchased a garlic press and started doing it the old fashioned way. Pressed or minced the flavor is 1000x better than from the jar and it’s not much more of an effort.

Tonight’s dinner included garlic on every item – toasted garlic bread, roasted asparagus seasoned with garlic salt, pepper and lemon juice and then fettuccine noodles in a creamy garlic sauce.

I made a cheese based pasta sauce a week ago and ended up with a gooey mess after adding cheese to the hot dairy mixture. This time around I was determined not to repeat that. I read in On Food and Cooking that the cheese should be added slowly and that the dairy into which it is mixed should be no where near boiling. Letting this sauce cool a minute or two off heat and slowly whisking in the cheese kept it from becoming a gooey mess. It was smooth all the way around!

The sauce, adapted from Get Saucy, goes like this:

  • 1 head of garlic
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1.5 tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tsp chopped basil, divided
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350. The garlic gets sliced in half horizontally and placed sliced side up in a glass pie pan or other small glass dish. Drizzle the EVO over the top and sprinkle garlic halves with the thyme and basil. Cover with foil and roast for about an hour. Garlic should be tender, gooey and golden. Let cool.

Pick out garlic centers with a tooth-pick, removing any skin and place in a small sauce pan. Mash until smooth. Stir in the cream and heat over medium-low heat until slightly reduced – 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a minute or so. Whisk in cheese a little bit at a time until combined followed by pepper, basil and salt to taste.

I prepared this a day a head of time and refrigerated it in a sealed container. When the noodles were about 5-7 minutes from being done I returned the mixture to a sauce pan and reheated until smooth. After draining the noodles I returned them to the pot, mixed in the sauce and let stand a minute or two for the sauce to be absorbed by the noodles.

Just Jus

22 Feb 2010 at 21:48

Matt

Cooking, Sauce

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This week’s menu has a number of dishes that incorporate a sauce, either as a main part of the meal or as an enhancer.

Tonight’s sauce was a relatively simple pan sauce made from roast chicken drippings, chicken broth and red wine. The receipe for the chicken is Alton Brown’s B & B Chicken. Basically a whole chicken is butterflied and then broiled/roasted on both sides on a bed of vegetables (onions, celery, carrots – i.e. Mirepoix) for about 50 minutes. After the chicken is removed from the roasting pan, the pan itself is set over high heat and 1 cup red wine and 1 cup chicken broth are added and brought to a boil.

The vegetables gave up most of their goodness in the cooking process so they can be discarded once they’ve soured the pan bottom to loosen the fond. The mixture is reduced over high heat until about 1 cup of liquid remains – any drippings from the resting chicken can be returned to the pan. It’s then strained into a fat separator through a mesh strainer to remove the solids. After a rest, the “jus” can be poured off into a small dish for serving. It won’t disappoint!

The roast chicken was served with mashed potatoes and green beans. The potatoes got drenched in the pan sauce (along with the chicken) and the green beans (just 12 oz of the frozen variety) were dressed in a simple amandine sauce as follows:

  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 1.5 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp lemon juice (fresh is best!)
Toast almonds in a non-stick pan over medium low heat for about 6 minutes. Add butter, let melt and stir constantly until golden about 3-4 minutes. Should give off a “nutty” smell. Transfer to a bowl and add lemon juice. When bean are done cooking (basically my microwave “binged”) toss them with the almond mixture and serve.

Hash Browns: Solved

14 Feb 2010 at 22:19

Matt

Cooking, Hash Browns

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After incorporating the “wash and drain” step into the hash brown preparation I think I can call this quest solved/over. For the past several weeks I’ve used different types of potatoes (Russets, Whites, Yukons, etc) and they’ve turned out perfect every time. The secret was washing that starch off after shredding – it was never about moisture.

So, here’s the final recipe for a single serving:

  • 1 medium sized russet potato
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 tsp garlic salt
  • 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Peel and wash the potato. Using a box grater, shred the potato using the largest holes. After shredding, rinse the potato shreds in a strainer under cold running water for a minute or so, turning the shreds over each other under the water. Let drain and then arrage in a single layer on a tea/paper towel. Press to remove excess water.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and compress down with a spatula form a single mound about 1/4-1/2″ high. Sprinkle garlic salt and pepper on top of potato mound. Cook for 5 minutes without touching. Turn entire potato mass over and cook for another 5 minutes without touching. Serve.

They have a great, fluffy white texture on the inside without a hint of sliminess. The outside is golden brown and delicious. Served with scrambles eggs it makes a fantastic breakfast. It was worth all the trouble and experimentation.

Past Banana Blast

03 Feb 2010 at 14:01

Matt

Cooking, Recipe

No Comments

I lived in Houston, TX for a time growing up and for a Mother’s Day brunch our family visited Brennan’s of Houston. I was probably all of 7 or 8 at the time. At any rate I was reminded of all of this not by my mom, but by a friend commenting on how much she liked “Bananas Foster”. As I recalled, that Mother’s Day was the first time I ever had Banana’s Foster.

Turns out that Brennan’s is the originator of that delicious dish and the recipe is on-line for all of us to enjoy. If you’ve never had it, give it a try. It’s not too hard to make and extremely yummy!!

Hash Browns: Ever Closer

31 Jan 2010 at 15:21

Matt

Hash Browns, Quest

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I think I’ve solved my texture issue with hash browns. While watching an America’s Test Kitchen episode on mashed potatoes, the cooking technique called for rinsing the sliced potato pieces in water before boiling. Washing the slices removed  the surface starch which would cause gumminess in the mashed potatoes. WHAM! Gumminess is exactly what I was trying to remove from the texture of my hash browns.

This weekend I decided to give it a try. I grated the potato on a box grater per normal, but before pressing the water out with a towel, I loaded the shredded potato pieces into a small strainer and rinsed them under cold water. After draining and pressing the excess water out using a towel, I ended up with the driest potato shreds I’ve ever had – amazing! Some oil, pepper and garlic salt coupled with 8-9 minures of heat and I had the texture I was after.

I had been working under the assumption that the gumminess was being caused by excess water instead of the surface starch. In hindsight I should have realized it was the starch since changing potatoes to Yukon’s and Red’s dropped the gumminess vs. russet. Russet’s have the least water while reds have the most and russets have the fluffy texture I was after  - think french fries – and reds don’t.

Now that I have the texture I’m going to try to get more middle fluffiness. I’ve observed that the mound of shreds shrinks as cooking progresses. Some of that undoubtedly is the downward pressure, but I’m sure that the water loss from the cell destruction also contributes. I’ll try some higher mounds.

The (Wood Stove) Sting

22 Jan 2010 at 14:09

Matt

Irritant, Repairs

No Comments

Remember the movie “The Sting“? Paul Newman and Robert Redford play con men and conspire to swindle money from a mob boss played by Robert Shaw. Great movie! The movie was arranged as a series of “acts” – The Players, The Setup, etc. with each “act” designed to build up Robert Shaw’s confidence before Newman and Redford pulled the rug out from under him in the final act.

The Sting’s “confidence game” acts reminded me of my just completed woodstove install. The players, actions, and events of this little drama all built confidence toward a preconceived conclusion on the part of the “stingee” (me in this case) that getting a new wood stove would be a relatively simple process along a well thought out path that others had traveled before me. And while the end result is what I wanted, a new wood stove, the journey sure as hell felt like a sting operation.

  • The Players – me, my 1977 Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove, The City of Keene, US Tax Code
  • The Hook – $1000 voucher to replace an old wood stove, 30% tax credit, help with cleaner air
  • The Tale – take a few pictures, fill out a form or 2, draw a floor plan, get a permit, get a voucher, take voucher to store, pick out a stove, subtract $1000, pay balance, installed wham – new stove, deduct 30% of final bill (including install) from bottom line of taxes.
  • The Shutout – How big is that hearth and what’s it made of? Fire codes have changed in 30 years, need a new hearth, new non-combustible protection for  rear wall, new double-wall stove pipe for chimney connection, $$$$, oh and here’s a new form that we didn’t tell you about at first, and by the way that’ll be $75 for the permit.
  • The Sting – money already committed to purchase, paper work filled out, permits obtained, do I really need this? Nothing really wrong with the old stove. Could invest money in other projects? Don’t really need tax write-off. Sniff, air quality seems fine to me.. sigh.. I’m already here – might as well continue.

To be fair, every one of the players (including the vendor/installer) was as helpful as the could be. The people at city hall went out of the way to be helpful and answered my questions no matter how many trips I had to make. The vendor and installer were professional and told me exactly what they needed from me in order to do the job right. I read all the documents available to make sure I thought I understood what I was getting into.

If I had to add another act to this saga, I guess it would be called “The Gripes”:

  • Timing – This is probably my largest issue. The program only had $100,000 in vouchers. At $1000 per person only 100 people could participate in the program. With a population of 22-23K it seemed like “first come, first serve” would go fast. Add to it that once accepted into the program a new stove had to be purchased within 21 days. Install could drag out but the purchase had to be complete. Oh and the program only lasts from Oct. 22, 2009 – Jan. 29, 2010 – slightly more than 3 months from start to finish. Don’t forget the holidays…
  • Requirements – there should have been a fire code/pre-install check list to ensure that the consumer understood the areas in and around the install that may need to be addressed. Hearth construction requirements, sizing issues, non-combustible space requirements, all fees, etc. Finding these out as I went along and from different people (mostly the vendor and installers) make the process feel unorganized and haphazard. Granted I could have done more up-front investigation but the “time constraints” on the project meant that things had to happen quickly.
  • Game changing – to be fair, I didn’t get my install permit finished until just before the install. Problem was there was a “new form” to complete before getting the permit that neither I or the vendor had ever seen. If I had completed the permit right after the purchase, the form would not have been required – my bad. Still, adding a step to the process that some had to complete and others didn’t smacks me the wrong way. I certainly understand the need for the extra form but the city should have thought of that before hand and once added, informed all parties of the change and what it meant.
My gripes aside, we got our new Jotul Castine wood stove, a nice looking new hearth, a “up to date to-code” install and, after the taxes, probably only paid for 1/3 the total cost of the stove, hearth and install. The new stove will be more efficient at burning wood than the 1977 Vermont Castings Vigilant which translates into less wood used overall which save us money over the long haul.
I do want to acknowledge Fireplace Village (my vendor and installer) and in particular Andy at the Keene store. He did a fabulous job working with me on all the paper work, helping with the stove purchase and commiserating on the process.
Redford and Newman felt good as they parted ways at the successful conclusion of The Sting. Despite my gripes I feel pretty good about my outcome too.

Sweet and Sour Chicken & Vegetables

08 Jan 2010 at 21:12

Matt

Recipe

No Comments

I like Asian cooking, well the taste at any rate, and when a recepie came along for a sweet and sour dish with vegetables I wanted to give it a try. The issue for me is the original recipe was a strictly vegetarian preparation using tofu and salad bar vegetables. Sorry, I’m just not that into tofu and having a pound of salad bar veggies sitting around didn’t excite me either.

I decided to see what I could do with using chicken and a bag of frozen onion & pepper stir fry vegetables. This makes a good dish for 4 people when served with rice. Here’s how it works:

  • 1.5 lbs chicken (about 4 breasts) cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp garlic-chili sauce
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • 1/2 cup corn starch
  • 1 lb frozen stir-fry vegetables (pepper and onions were my choice)

In a large non-stick pan, heat 1/3 cup of oil over medium high heat until shimmering. Note that you may want to work in 2 batches if your skillet isn’t that large. Just half the oil for each batch of chicken.

Pat the chicken dry, cut into cubes and set aside. Add cornstarch to a shallow pan (pie pan works good here) for dredging and set aside. Reserve 1 tbsp of corn starch for use in sauce.

Whisk together honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic-chili sauce, and reserved 1 tbsp of corn starch and set aside.

When oil is shimmering in pan, dredge chicken in corn starch, and shake off excess. It’s best to dredge all (or a batch) of chicken and then add to pan rather than piece at a time. Add dredged chicken to pan and cook until golden brown turning as needed so all sides are cooked, about 6-8 minutes. Remove to paper towel lined plate.

Add frozen vegetables to pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes until liquid is gone. You can cook them in a separate pan to speed things along. Add soy sauce mixture to pan and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Return chicken to pan and stir to mix well. Serve. Note that if you used a separate pan, return the vegetables to the pan used to cook the chicken.

Some observations: This was my second time making this and I think the frozen vegetables come out way to soft. I’d like them to be crisper. I’d also like to try a mixture of beans and watercress. If you’re not a spicy fan, you may want to cut back on the garlic-chili sauce. My wife found it to be a bit on the spicy side. The cornstarch dredge gives the chicken an interesting texture. It seems lighter than flour and is “bumpy” on the surface.

Scrambled Eggs

01 Jan 2010 at 21:04

Matt

Recipe

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I’ve made scrambled eggs most of my life. When my kids were much younger, one egg in a microwave-safe glass bowl for 1 minute was an instant breakfast. Recently I’ve experimented with cooking them on the stove-top attempting to get a really light, fluffy texture.

Over the past couple of months I’ve added 1/8 tsp of cream of tartar per 2 eggs as I’ve whipped them in a bowl. I’ve been doing this on the advice of several articles I’ve read on getting them fluffy. No more. I’m adding milk to the scrambling process.

I just whipped up 2 scrambled eggs to have with some left over holiday ham and they were the lightest, fluffiest  eggs I think I’ve ever had.

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp whole milk
  • 1/2 tsp butter

Whip eggs with mik in a bowl using a fork. Melt butter in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until just foamy. Add eggs and drop heat to low. Constantly push eggs toward middle of pan forming a larger curdle mass in the middle. When egg liquid is all gone, evacuate eggs from pan to serving plate and let stand 1 minute. Enjoy!

Now I used the drippings from the ham I heated in the 10″ pan instead of the butter but I don’t think that’s what made them fluffy. I think it was the milk and not over-cooking them. Now if I can only get my hash browns to turn out I’ll have a great breakfast trio!

Christmas Dinner

31 Dec 2009 at 17:56

Matt

Menu, Party

No Comments

Our family has started a tradition of having roast beef tenderloin for Christmas dinner and this year was no exception. This year’s menu was:

  • 3 lb beef tenderloin roast, rubbed with pepper, thyme and garlic
  • cranberry-pear chutney sauce
  • garlic mashed potatoes
  • rosemary carrots
  • fresh green bean casserole

This is my 4th year making the roast in the same manner and it came out a little drier than usual. I think the internal temperature got too high (150+ range) which caused it to loose moisture. Next year I’m going to try searing it first and then 200 in the oven until it hits 140-ish.

As my wife will tell you I detest green bean casserole, but I found a recipe at Cooks Illustrated that solved all my issues. The green beans were crisp, not soggy; the sauce was made from fresh mushrooms and tasted wonderful; the home made bread crumbs complimented the only prepared ingredient - fried onions. I even ate left-overs the next day! It’s certainly a green bean casserole I can get behind.

For dessert mom and I attempted a cherry cobbler using Bing cherries. Let’s just say that mom’s crust was magnificent and the filling was – well – interesting.

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