Through the Looking Glass

I am not kvetching.

I am 53 years old.  I take medication to treat hypertension and high cholesterol. I am not overweight, but I have a beer gut. I have arthritis in my hands. I have hyperopia - farsightedness.

If I were 30 years older, 4 inches taller, and 50 pounds heavier I would be my father. In fact, other than the male pattern baldness, I inherited everything I am from him. He is also the Optometrist who prescribed my first pair of reading glasses in 1980.

They were +1.00 then, and they still are in use by my wife. As for me, I am up to +2.50. At some point, as my vision deteriorated, my Dad (who at 83 is still doing the Optometrist gig full time) told me to skip him and just get them at a dollar store.  My Culinary Comrade Fred said the same thing. It's a good thing - I go through glasses at a rapid pace. The temples pop off when I take them off - I have pairs with the temple glued in place like a permanent erection. I had one pair that just perched on my nose like Dorothy Malone in The Big Sleep.

The gift of 8 pairs (including two tinted pairs for reading outdoors) is worth noting.  I don't only need the for reading, I need them to eat (I like to see what I am eating) and I need them to cook (I really like the tips of my fingers).  I have both stir and deep-fried them.  I have had them fall off my face and stepped on them. Now I have a bunch more at various places around the house for any necessity.

I still won't find them when I need them :)

Thanks Georg and Ted!

CSA Report

Meet Steve and Erin, the couple (they are getting married this fall) who operate Root Down Farm a new CSA we are shareholders in. I met them face to face for the first time today and I think we made the right choice. They are friendly and energetic, committed to their product, and skipping the organic label.

The latter is what made me take the gamble with them.  Everything they do would qualify, but I'd rather they plow their money back into the ground than pay a 3rd party to put a Seal of Approval on their stuff.

We were late getting started.  Considering the wet Spring (no Spring?) we had, I wouldn't have been surprised if the start had been delayed even more. But it started today.

Today's haul was 3 types of lettuce (Romaine, Butterhead and Red Leaf.  An over-stuffed bag of  field greens (I passed on the purslane - doing quite well wild in my own garden space).  Some young turnips and radishes.  Yes, salad. But more.

The greens from the turnips and radishes, will be nice sauteed with my pancetta, some garlic and good olive oil.  I think some of the lettuces and roots are destined to be quick kimchee.  I might even share it with Steve and Erin.

I will keep you apprised!

It all tastes great, by the way.

Food Comic for Today

http://www.gocomics.com/bliss/

Thursday Morning Food Humor

Food Comic of the Day

The Life Cycle of a Common Beef Brisket

Brisket: mid-14c., perhaps from O.Fr. bruschet , with identical sense of the English word, or from O.N. brjosk  "gristle" (related to brjost  "breast") or Dan. bryske  or M.H.G. brusche  "lump, swelling." Online Etymology Dictionary - Douglas Harper

Good Morning Children.  Are you sitting comfortably?  Good, let's begin.

The brisket is a segment of muscle tissue from the chest area of a bovine.  As this area is used often, it provides a tougher cut best suited to moist, slow cooking.

The common Brisket begins life as a cute and cuddly calf, also known as veal.  Can you spell veal?  I spell it Y-U-M.

When it grows up it is called a steer. Look at this noble beast. Now imagine this noble beast on the barbie.

But first it has to be confined to a feedlot where is "finished" on a diet that is made up of things it's not designed to eat. Between the cramped conditions, loads of manure, and its diet, the bovine often becomes sick.  Can you say antibiotics?

Now the beef is gently treated by persons of questionable immigration status. This because no one else (white people) wants the jobs. Don't say it.  Looking at these sides of beef you are thinking barbie again.

The sides are further broken down into Primal Cuts, then Subprimal Cuts.  This Subrimal is a whole Brisket. NAMP 120. It includes not only the common flat cut, but the fattier point cut (including the delicious deckle), which is hard to find as the neighborhood butcher has gone to a land far, far away.

There are may ways to prepare this, including my Mommy's secret recipe for. I'd describe it, but then you'd have to sleep with Mr. Fishy. . My favorite way is to corn it.  It is called corning because this method was discovered by glass technicians in the southern tier of New York.  The Brisket may be corned in a wet cure (right), a dry cure or with simple-minded, overdrawn humor.

Boiling is a Bozo no-no word. Simmer gently with aromats. When the Brisket falls off a pot fork, remove it, wrap in foil, and hold in a 200° oven while cooking yummy vegetables in the broth.  Cook the beets in broth separately as all pink food is yucky.

Doesn't this look yummy?  But you will have to deal with leftovers.

You can have Red Flannel Hash. Topped with an egg and a heathy dose of the Cholula Hot Sauce in the background.

You can make my favorite sandwich - The Reuben, which is totally not Kosher.  I use Jarlsburg Cheese and a homemade Thousand Island dressing made with Weber's Hot Green Tomato Piccalilli Relish.

Alas, everything comes out in the end. But don't be mad at poor Mr. Hankey.  Another word for pooh is "fertilizer".  Can you say fertilizer?
Hidey ho!







Fertilizer makes grass grow, and that feeds these beeves who need food to make more Brisket!








Next Week: Zinc Oxide and You
 

Good to Hear From an Old Friend

I have missed Ruth Reichl, and I miss Gourmet.  When my magazine life stabilizes, I'll write about it. This interview gives me hope for her voice to be around again on a regular basis, but for me the money quote is:

ELAINE: What do you think about the new generation of food bloggers? Are they changing the landscape of food writing in general?

RUTH: A lot of them are really, really good. I think it’s changed for restaurant critiquing in particular. You can read 30 reviews and make up your mind yourself. A professional restaurant critic’s word shouldn’t matter that much. People should bring their own intelligence to it. What real criticism should do is give you a better way to appreciate food and give you the tools you need to enhance your experience, good or bad. And food bloggers have put the burden back on the professionals to be good educators and good writers, and maybe even be a little bit more humble about their own opinions.