My birthday dinner had some hits and some misses.

First Course: Salmon cured with mint, cucumber, and dill on sushi rice. The
salmon had been cured too long. As a result, it was too salty and too firm.
The tastes of the cucumber and vodka were lost, and the mint was just barely
discernible. Lesson learned: Remove salmon from the cure much earlier, and
use a *lot* more cucumber and mint.

Second Course: Tempura squash blossoms. These were nice, but a bit plain.
Lin was also a bit worried about the fat content. I think I could have come
up with something more elaborate with more planning, but this ingredient was
kind of sprung on me. Initially, I had planned to make a
sunchoke-and-avocado salad, but no sunchokes could be found. This was a
first for me; I hadn't realized that there *was* a sunchoke season, because
every time I've looked for them in the past, my local Safeway had them on
the shelves. We still have squash blossoms we haven't cooked; I think they'd
be very good in quesadillas.

Third Course: Smoked tomato soup with watercress and cheddar. I had planned
to make cheddar powder using aged cheddar and tapioca maltodextrin. But it
never powdered, for some reason, so I ended up with cheddar granules.
Nevertheless, this was a very good course. Lin hickory-smoked the tomatoes,
and the soup was beautifully flavored by the smoke, the cheese, and the
watercress leaves which had been puréed with a tiny bit of extra-virgin
olive oil. The soup was made by putting the smoked tomatoes through a food
mill, then through a conical strainer, salting to taste, then adding the
cheddar and the watercress purée on top.

Fourth Course: Country-style ribs braised in foil with plums, habañeros,
allspice, and salt. I donned gloves to remove the seeds and membranes from
the chiles, and then left the chiles in fairly large chunks so they could be
avoided if they were too spicy to eat. The combination was amazing: The pork
was unctuous, the plums picked up a bit of the floral flavor and heat of the
chiles, and the allspice blended it all together seamlessly. *Definitely*
worth doing again.

Fifth Course: Watermelon "pickled" with rice vinegar and shiso. Shiso turned
out to be fairly hard to find. None of the herb farmers around here had it,
so Lin had to buy it from a sushi restaurant we patronize regularly. This is
a bit hard to explain, since I've gotten perilla (of which shiso is a
specific variety) in my CSA boxes before. The watermelon pickle was
intriguing: sweet, sour, and exotic-herbaceous. I can't say it wowed me with
its flavor, but there wasn't anything bad about it, and it was very
interesting. I'm glad I tried it, but I probably won't do that again.

Sixth Course: Liquefied popcorn with honey-pepper foam. This was intended as
a kind of drifting-toward-dessert course. It's made by popping popcorn, then
cooking the popcorn with butter, sugar, salt, and water. That results in a
kind of popcorn mush. The mush gets blended and then put through a fine
strainer. So far, the recipe is from _Alinea_, the cookbook from the
restaurant of that name. But that recipe goes on to make a foam from caramel
and soy lecithin. Instead of doing that, I infused honey with black pepper,
then made a foam from the strained honey, egg whites, water, and lemon
juice. The foamer had to be chilled for six hours before the foam was ready
to dispense. To serve, the room-temperature popcorn stuff was put into
little porcelain sake bowls and the foam was dispensed on top. Yowza! This
was another hit. We had a bunch of the foam and the corn stuff left over, so
I consolidated them and I am currently freezing the mixture in my ice cream
machine.

Seventh Course: Apricot "anti-lava" bar and cinnamon hot chocolate. The
"anti-lava" bar was made by cooking dried apricots and apricot nectar
together until the apricots were soft. That mixture was blended and put into
little containers (two tablespoons? somewhere around that size), then put
into the freezer until frozen on the outside but still liquid inside. The
cinnamon hot chocolate was made by melting milk chocolate in hot milk, then
sprinkling with cinnamon. The idea was to put a spoonful of the ice-cold
apricot stuff into your mouth, then take a sip of the hot chocolate. This
was a FANTASTIC way to end the meal; the flavor combination was so
astoundingly yummy I could have cartwheeled for joy.

The meal was accompanied by a chilled Riesling from Navarro Vineyards and by
ginger-peach iced tea. By the time we thought about taking pictures, we were
already into the ribs, so we just blew it off.

All-in-all, it was an enjoyable and memorable meal!

Bob, reeling from the Riesling

"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote in message
...
> My birthday dinner had some hits and some misses.
>
> First Course: Salmon cured with mint, cucumber, and dill on sushi rice.
> The salmon had been cured too long. As a result, it was too salty and too
> firm. The tastes of the cucumber and vodka were lost, and the mint was
> just barely discernible. Lesson learned: Remove salmon from the cure much
> earlier, and use a *lot* more cucumber and mint.
>
> Second Course: Tempura squash blossoms. These were nice, but a bit plain.
> Lin was also a bit worried about the fat content. I think I could have
> come up with something more elaborate with more planning, but this
> ingredient was kind of sprung on me. Initially, I had planned to make a
> sunchoke-and-avocado salad, but no sunchokes could be found. This was a
> first for me; I hadn't realized that there *was* a sunchoke season,
> because every time I've looked for them in the past, my local Safeway had
> them on the shelves. We still have squash blossoms we haven't cooked; I
> think they'd be very good in quesadillas.
>
> Third Course: Smoked tomato soup with watercress and cheddar. I had
> planned to make cheddar powder using aged cheddar and tapioca
> maltodextrin. But it never powdered, for some reason, so I ended up with
> cheddar granules. Nevertheless, this was a very good course. Lin
> hickory-smoked the tomatoes, and the soup was beautifully flavored by the
> smoke, the cheese, and the watercress leaves which had been puréed with a
> tiny bit of extra-virgin olive oil. The soup was made by putting the
> smoked tomatoes through a food mill, then through a conical strainer,
> salting to taste, then adding the cheddar and the watercress purée on top.
>
> Fourth Course: Country-style ribs braised in foil with plums, habañeros,
> allspice, and salt. I donned gloves to remove the seeds and membranes from
> the chiles, and then left the chiles in fairly large chunks so they could
> be avoided if they were too spicy to eat. The combination was amazing: The
> pork was unctuous, the plums picked up a bit of the floral flavor and heat
> of the chiles, and the allspice blended it all together seamlessly.
> *Definitely* worth doing again.
>
> Fifth Course: Watermelon "pickled" with rice vinegar and shiso. Shiso
> turned out to be fairly hard to find. None of the herb farmers around here
> had it, so Lin had to buy it from a sushi restaurant we patronize
> regularly. This is a bit hard to explain, since I've gotten perilla (of
> which shiso is a specific variety) in my CSA boxes before. The watermelon
> pickle was intriguing: sweet, sour, and exotic-herbaceous. I can't say it
> wowed me with its flavor, but there wasn't anything bad about it, and it
> was very interesting. I'm glad I tried it, but I probably won't do that
> again.
>
> Sixth Course: Liquefied popcorn with honey-pepper foam. This was intended
> as a kind of drifting-toward-dessert course. It's made by popping popcorn,
> then cooking the popcorn with butter, sugar, salt, and water. That results
> in a kind of popcorn mush. The mush gets blended and then put through a
> fine strainer. So far, the recipe is from _Alinea_, the cookbook from the
> restaurant of that name. But that recipe goes on to make a foam from
> caramel and soy lecithin. Instead of doing that, I infused honey with
> black pepper, then made a foam from the strained honey, egg whites, water,
> and lemon juice. The foamer had to be chilled for six hours before the
> foam was ready to dispense. To serve, the room-temperature popcorn stuff
> was put into little porcelain sake bowls and the foam was dispensed on
> top. Yowza! This was another hit. We had a bunch of the foam and the corn
> stuff left over, so I consolidated them and I am currently freezing the
> mixture in my ice cream machine.
>
> Seventh Course: Apricot "anti-lava" bar and cinnamon hot chocolate. The
> "anti-lava" bar was made by cooking dried apricots and apricot nectar
> together until the apricots were soft. That mixture was blended and put
> into little containers (two tablespoons? somewhere around that size), then
> put into the freezer until frozen on the outside but still liquid inside.
> The cinnamon hot chocolate was made by melting milk chocolate in hot milk,
> then sprinkling with cinnamon. The idea was to put a spoonful of the
> ice-cold apricot stuff into your mouth, then take a sip of the hot
> chocolate. This was a FANTASTIC way to end the meal; the flavor
> combination was so astoundingly yummy I could have cartwheeled for joy.
>
> The meal was accompanied by a chilled Riesling from Navarro Vineyards and
> by ginger-peach iced tea. By the time we thought about taking pictures, we
> were already into the ribs, so we just blew it off.
>
> All-in-all, it was an enjoyable and memorable meal!
>
> Bob, reeling from the Riesling
>
>

I see no meal. All I see is keyboard pounding yourself on your back... you
know what they say, self priase is no recommendation... show us, LIAR!

Sheldon wrote:

> I see no meal. All I see is keyboard pounding yourself on your back...
> you know what they say, self priase is no recommendation... show us,
> LIAR!

No, ****HEAD!

Bob

Bob Terwilliger wrote:

> Sheldon wrote:
>
>> show us, LIAR!
>
> No, ****HEAD!

Starting to think that r.f.c. = rec.food.crèche

--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy

"ChattyCathy" > wrote
>
> Starting to think that r.f.c. = rec.food.crèche
>
>

Methinks you mean rec.food."kvetch". LOL LOL

: crèche
a.. Function: noun
a.. Etymology: French, from Old French creche manger, crib, of Germanic
origin; akin to Old High German krippa manger - more at crib
a.. Date: 1792
1 : a representation of the Nativity scene
2 : day nursery
3 : a foundling hospital
4 : a group of young animals (as penguins or bats) gathered in one place for
care and protection usually by one or more adults

------

1kvetch

a.. Function: intransitive verb
a.. Etymology: Yiddish kvetshn, literally, to squeeze, pinch, from Middle
High German quetschen
a.. Date: circa 1952
: to complain habitually : gripe

------

brooklyn1 wrote:

>
> "ChattyCathy" > wrote
>>
>> Starting to think that r.f.c. = rec.food.crèche
>
> Methinks you mean rec.food."kvetch". LOL LOL

Maybe that too. But I was thinking along the lines of:
>
> : crèche
> a.. Function: noun
> a.. Etymology: French, from Old French creche manger, crib, of
> Germanic origin; akin to Old High German krippa manger - more at crib
> a.. Date: 1792

> 2 : day nursery

--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy

In article >,
"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote:

> My birthday dinner had some hits and some misses.
>
> First Course: Salmon cured with mint, cucumber, and dill on sushi rice. The
> salmon had been cured too long. As a result, it was too salty and too firm.
> The tastes of the cucumber and vodka were lost, and the mint was just barely
> discernible. Lesson learned: Remove salmon from the cure much earlier, and
> use a *lot* more cucumber and mint.

Sorry. I can see Salmon with cucumber, but with mint? What does it add?

>
> Second Course: Tempura squash blossoms. These were nice, but a bit plain.
> Lin was also a bit worried about the fat content. I think I could have come
> up with something more elaborate with more planning, but this ingredient was
> kind of sprung on me. Initially, I had planned to make a
> sunchoke-and-avocado salad, but no sunchokes could be found. This was a
> first for me; I hadn't realized that there *was* a sunchoke season, because
> every time I've looked for them in the past, my local Safeway had them on
> the shelves. We still have squash blossoms we haven't cooked; I think they'd
> be very good in quesadillas.

Squash blossoms were always served stuffed, then fried here. They are
fun that way. :-)

>
> Third Course: Smoked tomato soup with watercress and cheddar. I had planned
> to make cheddar powder using aged cheddar and tapioca maltodextrin. But it
> never powdered, for some reason, so I ended up with cheddar granules.
> Nevertheless, this was a very good course. Lin hickory-smoked the tomatoes,
> and the soup was beautifully flavored by the smoke, the cheese, and the
> watercress leaves which had been puréed with a tiny bit of extra-virgin
> olive oil. The soup was made by putting the smoked tomatoes through a food
> mill, then through a conical strainer, salting to taste, then adding the
> cheddar and the watercress purée on top.

That sounds wonderful. :-)
I'm fixin' to go ahead and purchase a food mill. I can't find moms
Chinoise. :-( I think sis' absconded with it and if so, that's ok...
I'm hoping that BB&B has one, along with some muslin bags for making
jelly.

>
> Fourth Course: Country-style ribs braised in foil with plums, habañeros,
> allspice, and salt. I donned gloves to remove the seeds and membranes from
> the chiles, and then left the chiles in fairly large chunks so they could be
> avoided if they were too spicy to eat. The combination was amazing: The pork
> was unctuous, the plums picked up a bit of the floral flavor and heat of the
> chiles, and the allspice blended it all together seamlessly. *Definitely*
> worth doing again.

Pork or beef? Sounds like a winner either way.
>
> Fifth Course: Watermelon "pickled" with rice vinegar and shiso. Shiso turned
> out to be fairly hard to find. None of the herb farmers around here had it,
> so Lin had to buy it from a sushi restaurant we patronize regularly. This is
> a bit hard to explain, since I've gotten perilla (of which shiso is a
> specific variety) in my CSA boxes before. The watermelon pickle was
> intriguing: sweet, sour, and exotic-herbaceous. I can't say it wowed me with
> its flavor, but there wasn't anything bad about it, and it was very
> interesting. I'm glad I tried it, but I probably won't do that again.
>
> Sixth Course: Liquefied popcorn with honey-pepper foam. This was intended as
> a kind of drifting-toward-dessert course. It's made by popping popcorn, then
> cooking the popcorn with butter, sugar, salt, and water. That results in a
> kind of popcorn mush. The mush gets blended and then put through a fine
> strainer. So far, the recipe is from _Alinea_, the cookbook from the
> restaurant of that name. But that recipe goes on to make a foam from caramel
> and soy lecithin. Instead of doing that, I infused honey with black pepper,
> then made a foam from the strained honey, egg whites, water, and lemon
> juice. The foamer had to be chilled for six hours before the foam was ready
> to dispense. To serve, the room-temperature popcorn stuff was put into
> little porcelain sake bowls and the foam was dispensed on top. Yowza! This
> was another hit. We had a bunch of the foam and the corn stuff left over, so
> I consolidated them and I am currently freezing the mixture in my ice cream
> machine.
>
> Seventh Course: Apricot "anti-lava" bar and cinnamon hot chocolate. The
> "anti-lava" bar was made by cooking dried apricots and apricot nectar
> together until the apricots were soft. That mixture was blended and put into
> little containers (two tablespoons? somewhere around that size), then put
> into the freezer until frozen on the outside but still liquid inside. The
> cinnamon hot chocolate was made by melting milk chocolate in hot milk, then
> sprinkling with cinnamon. The idea was to put a spoonful of the ice-cold
> apricot stuff into your mouth, then take a sip of the hot chocolate. This
> was a FANTASTIC way to end the meal; the flavor combination was so
> astoundingly yummy I could have cartwheeled for joy.
>
> The meal was accompanied by a chilled Riesling from Navarro Vineyards and by
> ginger-peach iced tea. By the time we thought about taking pictures, we were
> already into the ribs, so we just blew it off.
>
> All-in-all, it was an enjoyable and memorable meal!
>
> Bob, reeling from the Riesling

Good review!
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people until they put their foot down."
--Steve Rothstein


Subscribe:

"Omelet" > wrote in message
news
> In article >,
> "Bob Terwilliger" > wrote:
>
>> My birthday dinner had some hits and some misses.
>>
>> First Course: Salmon cured with mint, cucumber, and dill on sushi rice.
>> The
>> salmon had been cured too long. As a result, it was too salty and too
>> firm.
>> The tastes of the cucumber and vodka were lost, and the mint was just
>> barely
>> discernible. Lesson learned: Remove salmon from the cure much earlier,
>> and
>> use a *lot* more cucumber and mint.
>
> Sorry. I can see Salmon with cucumber, but with mint? What does it add?
>
>>
>> Second Course: Tempura squash blossoms. These were nice, but a bit plain.
>> Lin was also a bit worried about the fat content. I think I could have
>> come
>> up with something more elaborate with more planning, but this ingredient
>> was
>> kind of sprung on me. Initially, I had planned to make a
>> sunchoke-and-avocado salad, but no sunchokes could be found. This was a
>> first for me; I hadn't realized that there *was* a sunchoke season,
>> because
>> every time I've looked for them in the past, my local Safeway had them on
>> the shelves. We still have squash blossoms we haven't cooked; I think
>> they'd
>> be very good in quesadillas.
>
> Squash blossoms were always served stuffed, then fried here. They are
> fun that way. :-)
>
>>
>> Third Course: Smoked tomato soup with watercress and cheddar. I had
>> planned
>> to make cheddar powder using aged cheddar and tapioca maltodextrin. But
>> it
>> never powdered, for some reason, so I ended up with cheddar granules.
>> Nevertheless, this was a very good course. Lin hickory-smoked the
>> tomatoes,
>> and the soup was beautifully flavored by the smoke, the cheese, and the
>> watercress leaves which had been puréed with a tiny bit of extra-virgin
>> olive oil. The soup was made by putting the smoked tomatoes through a
>> food
>> mill, then through a conical strainer, salting to taste, then adding the
>> cheddar and the watercress purée on top.
>
> That sounds wonderful. :-)
> I'm fixin' to go ahead and purchase a food mill. I can't find moms
> Chinoise. :-( I think sis' absconded with it and if so, that's ok...
> I'm hoping that BB&B has one, along with some muslin bags for making
> jelly.
>
>>
>> Fourth Course: Country-style ribs braised in foil with plums, habañeros,
>> allspice, and salt. I donned gloves to remove the seeds and membranes
>> from
>> the chiles, and then left the chiles in fairly large chunks so they could
>> be
>> avoided if they were too spicy to eat. The combination was amazing: The
>> pork
>> was unctuous, the plums picked up a bit of the floral flavor and heat of
>> the
>> chiles, and the allspice blended it all together seamlessly. *Definitely*
>> worth doing again.
>
> Pork or beef? Sounds like a winner either way.
>>
>> Fifth Course: Watermelon "pickled" with rice vinegar and shiso. Shiso
>> turned
>> out to be fairly hard to find. None of the herb farmers around here had
>> it,
>> so Lin had to buy it from a sushi restaurant we patronize regularly. This
>> is
>> a bit hard to explain, since I've gotten perilla (of which shiso is a
>> specific variety) in my CSA boxes before. The watermelon pickle was
>> intriguing: sweet, sour, and exotic-herbaceous. I can't say it wowed me
>> with
>> its flavor, but there wasn't anything bad about it, and it was very
>> interesting. I'm glad I tried it, but I probably won't do that again.
>>
>> Sixth Course: Liquefied popcorn with honey-pepper foam. This was intended
>> as
>> a kind of drifting-toward-dessert course. It's made by popping popcorn,
>> then
>> cooking the popcorn with butter, sugar, salt, and water. That results in
>> a
>> kind of popcorn mush. The mush gets blended and then put through a fine
>> strainer. So far, the recipe is from _Alinea_, the cookbook from the
>> restaurant of that name. But that recipe goes on to make a foam from
>> caramel
>> and soy lecithin. Instead of doing that, I infused honey with black
>> pepper,
>> then made a foam from the strained honey, egg whites, water, and lemon
>> juice. The foamer had to be chilled for six hours before the foam was
>> ready
>> to dispense. To serve, the room-temperature popcorn stuff was put into
>> little porcelain sake bowls and the foam was dispensed on top. Yowza!
>> This
>> was another hit. We had a bunch of the foam and the corn stuff left over,
>> so
>> I consolidated them and I am currently freezing the mixture in my ice
>> cream
>> machine.
>>
>> Seventh Course: Apricot "anti-lava" bar and cinnamon hot chocolate. The
>> "anti-lava" bar was made by cooking dried apricots and apricot nectar
>> together until the apricots were soft. That mixture was blended and put
>> into
>> little containers (two tablespoons? somewhere around that size), then put
>> into the freezer until frozen on the outside but still liquid inside. The
>> cinnamon hot chocolate was made by melting milk chocolate in hot milk,
>> then
>> sprinkling with cinnamon. The idea was to put a spoonful of the ice-cold
>> apricot stuff into your mouth, then take a sip of the hot chocolate. This
>> was a FANTASTIC way to end the meal; the flavor combination was so
>> astoundingly yummy I could have cartwheeled for joy.
>>
>> The meal was accompanied by a chilled Riesling from Navarro Vineyards and
>> by
>> ginger-peach iced tea. By the time we thought about taking pictures, we
>> were
>> already into the ribs, so we just blew it off.
>>
>> All-in-all, it was an enjoyable and memorable meal!
>>
>> Bob, reeling from the Riesling
>
> Good review!
>
>
But none of it's true. Poor hard working Om owns a camera and posts pics of
some fine vittles... I would never doubt any meal Om claims to have made.
Do you really believe that gum flapping big mouth baboon ass faced
prevaricator can't scrape up like a hundred bucks for a digicam... of course
not... he's obviously unemployed (unemployable) and sponges off the schmoo's
food stamps... if not for the schmoo twilly wouldn't have TP and would have
to wipe his butt with his bare hand, like an arab. LOL

Sheldon wrote:

> But none of it's true. Poor hard working Om owns a camera and posts pics
> of some fine vittles... I would never doubt any meal Om claims to have
> made.

Of course it's true. Sheldon's envy is transparent; he couldn't even
CONCEIVE of a meal like that, so he assumes others have the same
limitations. Sheldon couldn't even conceive of the brunch we had the next
day, where we used the remaining squash blossoms. (Given a bag of squash
blossoms, Sheldon would either throw them away since he doesn't know what to
do with them, or he'd mash them into a pan of his beloved SPAM.)

As I mentioned in the post, the idea of taking pictures of the food didn't
occur to us until we were more than halfway through the meal. It's not part
of our normal routine to take pictures of food; in fact, it's a pretty
abnormal person who INSISTS on it like Sheldon does.

Sheldon's envy is also plain to see in his disparaging my job and my
marriage. Poor Sheldon has neither, he's just a bitter lonely loser lashing
out at his betters while waiting for death. Let's hope it comes REAL SOON!

Bob

"Bob TwiLIAR" wrote
> Sheldon wrote:
>
>> But none of it's true.

Show us, LIAR! It's obvious that I intimidate you, I mean REALLY INTIMIDATE
you, otherwise you'd not be constantly following me sniffing my butt making
dispariging remarks. Show us, LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:59:18 GMT, "brooklyn1" > wrote:

-->
-->"Bob TwiLIAR" wrote
-->> Sheldon wrote:
-->>
-->>> But none of it's true.
-->
-->Show us, LIAR! It's obvious that I intimidate you, I mean REALLY INTIMIDATE
-->you, otherwise you'd not be constantly following me sniffing my butt making
-->dispariging remarks. Show us, LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!
-->


Ahhhh look brooklyn1 has a groupy, better the groupy bugging him than him
bugging us.

brooklyn1 wrote:
> "Bob TwiLIAR" wrote
>> Sheldon wrote:
>>
>>> But none of it's true.
>
> Show us, LIAR! It's obvious that I intimidate you, I mean REALLY INTIMIDATE


No, not. The word is "irritate".

Sheldon started foaming at the mouth:

> Show us, LIAR! It's obvious that I intimidate you, I mean REALLY
> INTIMIDATE you, otherwise you'd not be constantly following me sniffing my
> butt making dispariging remarks. Show us, LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!

Boy, you *really* want to see the food I cook, don't you?

Funny thing is, when I *do* post pictures you feel even worse, because it
shows just how ignorant and pathetic your own efforts in the kitchen are.
Then you make "dispariging" [sic] remarks like the ones quoted above, which
fall well short of making you feel adequate, but you feel a *little* better.
"That guy can't possibly cook that well, I'll show HIM! Argle bargle..." LOL

Your impotence is comical; will you dance a little jig of frustration to
entertain us now, Flaccid Boy?

Bob

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:59:18 GMT, brooklyn1 wrote:

> "Bob TwiLIAR" wrote
>> Sheldon wrote:
>>
>>> But none of it's true.
>
> Show us, LIAR! It's obvious that I intimidate you, I mean REALLY INTIMIDATE
> you, otherwise you'd not be constantly following me sniffing my butt making
> dispariging remarks. Show us, LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!

no, people don't make 'dispariging' remarks because you intimidate them.
they make remarks because you're a ****ing idiot, and thus a figure of fun.

blake