Not The Right Season

     The past two days were all bright and sunny.  On Friday it was warm enough to run shirtless at Track, and spend the evening walking the neighborhood with my friends before we went to see The Hunger Games (which is one of the best book based movies in awhile).  On Saturday, Mom spent all day working in the yard, and Cy, Dad and I walked to the park with a 5-gallon bucket of water balloons and a sling-shot.  With hopes of more warm, sunny weather, I set out today with a plan.  I was going to make basil lemonade, and cinnamon-orange sorbet, and paella.  But instead, the sun deigned to peak out from the clouds today, so we've got a summery meal, and a gray sky.  There's just a little hint of sun behind the clouds, a point that's a little bit brighter than the rest of the sky.


I started early this afternoon, making the lemonade.  The recipe was from the New York Times, Mark Bittman's food column.  I juiced lemon's, strained the juice, and steeped the rinds with basil and sugar before mixing it all together.  Once the lemonade was chilling in the fridge, I moved onto the ice cream.  From the same NYT issue, it's a cinnamon-orange sorbet.  I put sugar, a cinnamon stick, and and orange zest into orange juice, cooked it until the sugar dissolved, and threw it into the ice cream maker.  A few hours later, we got started on the paella.  It too, is a Bittman recipe, (uh-oh is this turning into another Bittman tribute dinner?)  It's a chorizo and clam paella, and is proving to be a little troublesome, though it should still be good.

     Wow. The paella was really good, the chorizo, onions, clams, rice and peas created an amazing flavor, not really something I can describe, it was far to complex for me.  Let's just stick with, "It was good," and say that the only disappointment was that the clams weren't quite done when the rest of it was.  The basil lemonade was just as amazing, with a complex flavor not usually seen in lemonade.  It was incredibly sweet, and layered beneath the lemonade flavor, was just a little hint of basil.  It would have made great popsicles, and is definitely a recipe I want to remember for this summer.  The ice cream was also amazing.  Somehow, it was creamy despite being just 2 parts orange juice, 1 part sugar, a cinnamon stick, and some orange zest.  It was orange ice cream at it's very best.  Also a recipe to remember for the warmer months.  All told, an amazing, complex dinner, but maybe not the right season.

What Is In Your Wine, And Steaks

     A few minutes ago, Dad and Cyrus sat huddled around the grill, trying to start it in the middle of a rain/snow- drizzle/ hail storm.  Now, with the grill alight, the the rain clouds have cleared out to make it a beautiful day.  Thats the way its been for all day.  This morning, Cy and I ran in the Shamrock Run's 5k, as we finished the weather was warm and sunny.  When we got home, there were a few seconds of snow, and intermittent rain and sun, at one point the backyard shed was steaming.  Despite the questionable and unpredictable weather, Cy decided to open grilling season today.  He's got steaks on the grill, and a salad in the works.  Outside, tending the grill, his breath is as visible as the smoke.

"Our local reactor" at full power.
The blue glow is Cherenkov Radiation
surrounding the core.

     The past few weeks I've been taking a Saturday Academy class at "our local nuclear reactor" at Reed College.  Tucked into the basement of the Psychology Building, the reactor sits at the bottom of a twenty five foot pool of water. On one side is a hallway, the other side is a control room, and the third and fourth sides are concrete and brick walls to the outside.  One of the things we got to do for the class, which was attended by a total of 8 kids, all except me from the distant suburbs, was NAA.  NAA stands for Neutron Activation Analysis, and is a process by which the atomic makeup of the objects irradiated in the reactor can be inferred.  Everybody tested different things, from table salt to chewing gum (surprising finds: selenium in the salt, titanium in the gum). I tested three wine corks, a French red, an Argentine red, and a white from Washington.  Each of the wines had selenium, sodium, potassium, and arsenic, and the reds had cadmium, bromine, and cobalt.  The French had thallium, and most surprisingly, gold.  The Argentine wine had iridium and tellurium.  Both the French and Washington wines, though not the Argentine, had measurable amounts of manganese and radium.  It's interesting to think that there's titanium in our chewing gum, and gold in your wine.

     While I've been telling you about the atomic makeup of your wine, Dad and Cy have been dishing up a wonderful meal.  Our main course is a set of New York strip steaks, with green beans and baked potato sides.  Together it's a really wonderful meal, I'd rank it among some of our better all-time.  The green beans were greasy and soft, and charred and crunchy, catalonian style.  The steak was mouth watering-ly juicy, and the myriad spices on top gave each bite a complex flavor.  It had been generously rubbed down with the "Back of the Yards" spice mixture from the Chicago Spice House that our Uncle Clark got us hooked on. It looks like the day will end on a bright, sunny note.

Spaghetti and Meatballs, A Pre-Grill Placeholder.

     On Friday, the sun was out and shining strong.   My English class had our lesson outside, and us distance runners on the Track team ran shirtless, even though it wasn't to hot, to celebrate the sunshine.  The rest of the weekend, was not so grand.  Yesterday saw Cyrus marching with the Sellwood Band in a St. Patrick's day parade, the whole time there was a light drizzle.  Today, the sky has been all clouds.  Which we assume is not what the people at the estate sale we visited were hoping for.  It was a little house across the street from Cy's school, and there wasn't much in the house that interested us except for a few old newspapers.  We got two, an Oregonian from May 1, 1945, headlining the Soviet capture of the reichstag, and Mussolini hanging by his ankles, as well as an Oregon Courier-Journal from April 14, 1945, headlining FDR's untimely demise.  The sun just wouldn't come out, and while I wanted to start grilling season very early this year, fate was not on my side.  Luckily I had meatballs as a backup plan.
     The kitchen has been filled with wonderful garlic and onion smells all afternoon, as well as plenty of grandes cajones de carne jokes (though meatballs are actually albóndigas).  Right now, the stove has all four burners going, one for the sauce, one for the pasta and two (for the meat)balls.  The cooking itself is now almost over, between the sauce and the meatballs I was involved for the whole time.  The meatballs have lots of meat, parsley and fennel seeds and mushrooms, the sauce is mostly just tomatoes and onions.

The kale salad recipe.

     The food was good, though not great.  The meatballs were inclined to fall apart on your fork, and they had the same texture as the spaghetti, so while they tasted good, they were hard to eat, and hard to know you were eating.  Mom's kale salad was good, though admittedly I'm not a very big fan.  Mimi absolutely loved it though.  A good meal overall, though not worth it's continuous two hours of prep.

Bacon Grease

     Today has been the nicest day yet this year.  The sun is shining, and the weather is warm enough to go outside in a t-shirt.  All day, you've been able to hear people mowing their lawns.  This morning Mom made a pie, and we put up our magnetic knife block, which we have had for years, and put on the knives that Dad (yesterday) and Mom (tomorrow) got for their birthdays.  For dinner, Cy's going to make pork chops with green beans and stewed apples.
     Right now, Cy's chopping the apples, (though not with the new knife), and Dad is prepping the green beans.  Cy says the new knife is great, and though I haven't gotten the chance to use, it does look really cool.  The pork chops are sitting out on the counter, waiting for the moment, alongside their batter.  Once the green beans and apples are on the stove, they'll get dipped in salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and paprika, then be dredged in flour before being thrown onto the stove to cook in bacon grease. mmmmmm.  In an instant, the beans, apples and pork chops are done.  I think this might be the first Sunday Dinner we've had during daylight this year.


     The pork chops were awesome.  They were juicy, and the batter was ridiculously flavorful.  The green beans were good, Cy cooked them Catalonian style (lots of olive oil and sprinkled with big chunky sea salt), and the apples were also great, they had just a touch of cinnamon and clove in them that set off their apple flavor.  The apple pie, for dessert, was excellent.  The filling was one of the best I've ever had, though it was a little sparse.  The crust was very tasty too, though a little tough.  Between courses Mom opened up her Birthday present from Cy, Dad and I, a photo book.  The pork chops were amazing.  My theory: bacon grease.

Sellwood-Moreland Sushi Dilemma, Part III

     I don't know what genius decided to have the NBA All-Star game and the Oscars on the same day, but I won't listen to either of them.  Defying tradition for our third Oscars, we won't be having nachos, and we won't be at the All Star game - having cotton candy hawked by man in a neon yellow shirt, or, medium rare steaks delivered by a man in a tie for those who can afford to sit courtside.  No, today we're going to cook something I've been wanting to make for a while, sushi.

 
Everybody is in the living room watching the red carpet coverage of the Oscar's, and in the kitchen we're almost ready for the fun part.  We've scooped out the rice, converted 1.1 liters to cups (4.5), set the rice to boil, made the vinegar dressing, (100 milliliters rice wine vinegar, 60 grams sugar, 20 grams salt), and proceeded to be really glad that there is only one system for measuring time.  Now, we're ready to break out year-old seaweed, and roll it around rice and raw fish.  It's almost as crazy a food as cheese.
     Tonight we're making cucumber rolls, California rolls, salmon sashimi, and unagi.  Dad is making the unagi and sashimi, and he's slicing the ingredients for the cucumber and California rolls.  Together, this should only take fifteen or twenty minutes, so we should be done in time to see all of the awards.

     We got the sushi made in time, and it was great.  By the time they had presented the third or fourth award, all but the last few rolls were gone, and we settled in for the show.  The Cirque Du Soleil piece was amazing, Hugo swept the night, the Bridesmaid people were funny, and a silent film won best picture.  Those guys know this 2012, right?  The sushi, was very good, though like the last couple of times we've made it, the rice was inexplicably a little gummy, and of course we suffered from the Sellwood-Moreland Sushi Dilemma.  Like the sushi restaurant in our neighborhood, the pieces were a little too large. Leaving us with the dilemma of whether to stuff our faces all at once, or to take two bites at which point the roll is falling apart. We think we need to rinse the rice a little more before cooking.  Maybe we'll have it down next time.

Strong Stuff

     I was hanging out with friends all day, so I didn't actually get to see any of the cooking.  When I got home, we dished up the food and watched Bourne Ultimatum.  We had a beet salad, with intense amounts of ginger, a excessively vinegary roasted sweet potato salad, and a spicy dish of mac 'n cheese.  Good stuff.  Strong stuff.

Reubens

     This weekend was the District Swim Meet, we had preliminaries on Friday, and finals on Saturday.  Even though I only swam 600 yards over the past three days, it was tiring, and I can feel it now.  I'd hoped to make sushi for dinner tonight, but that means a trek to get ingredients, and I just didn't have it in me today.  Instead, I sifted through Mom's file of recipes that she has torn out of magazines.  I found a few I liked, and noticed one that we've done in the past, chicken under a brick, on that ripped out sheet, I spotted something I really liked: pressed reuben sandwiches.  We decided to add coleslaw, and a bag of chips we bought at the grocery store while we were picking up everything else.  Should be good, should be easy.
     The Thousand Island Dressing took only a second to make, and then it was on the the assembling the sandwiches and giving them to Dad to cook.  I've got a plate, with the Thousand Island and sriracha, corned beef, swiss cheese, rye bread and sauerkraut.  Dad is at the stove, cooking asparagus and the sandwiches.  The sandwiches are going on two burners, and to press them, Dad has taken saucers, laid them atop the sandwiches and then added weight atop the saucers.  One of the saucers has a tea kettle perched on top of it, the other has cast iron skillet.  Since we can only do the sandwiches two at a time, Dad is using the warming drawer in our oven to keep them warm until it is time to eat.

     Those were some good sandwiches.  They were still warm and buttery, and even though there was only a little splash of sriracha, you could taste it's bite.  The sauerkraut came through too, and the cheese was warm and only slightly melty, just enough to be stringy.  The sandwiches were awesome, we set them off with Kettle chips, and Dad's asparagus.  The recipe for the reubens came from the the May '11 issue of More magazine.  I'm going to say it again, those were some good sandwiches.