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Sunday, January 19, 2003

A picture from that endless basement city in Seoul. You may wonder why Santa and his 6 (?) reindeer are still around three weeks after Christmas. So did I. Then again, they might wonder why we put this shit up right after Halloween. So do I. Below Santa, left to right: Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins (didn't check if kimchi or ketchup was flavor of the month), Shinsegae (home of incessant bowing, $300 ginseng, $300 pine mushrooms), and last, but far from least - Pietra's, marked here only by the yellow background PASTA, where they have hot dog pizza, antisalad, and spaghetti with oysters and cabbage! A funhouse mirror reflection of any US shopping center, but before we giggle at the miscues, we oughta imagine how silly ours would look to them. Okay, now giggle. 9:27:25 PM    comment []

Here's the way to Historic Occoquan, but Virtual Occoquan is better by more than 11%! 9 out of 10 veterinarians favor it over Alpo! Tired of stale Post Toasties and vacuum cleaners that skip school? Then head on over to Virtual Occoquan and check out the verbal and pictorial delights: Science News Catnmus - Penguins Gone Wild   Fiction Jim - Maxine Daley The Corrupters - FWTBT The Eyes of Sauren - Mark Hoback   Rants The Raven   History Jan Haugland - Last Days of the Fourteenth Century   Politics Rob Salkowitz on the Worst Case Scenario Rayne on Bush Economics Kriselda Jarnsaxa on MoveOn.Org   Really Tiny Little Pieces With No Unifying Theme Steve Raker   Ponderous  Daniel Dolinov on the Space Time Continuum   Hints From Heloise Neva Cavataio on Blisters   Obituaries The Braidwoods - Daniel X O'Neil   True Stories The Last Time That W Hit Me - VeryModern GSW in the ED - David Fox   Memoirs The Preacher P.J. Part 2 - The Barbaric Yawp   Travel Paul Hinrichs in Korea   Paid Advertising Robertson Baker Fallwell Seagull Sits in for Susan McNerney   Galleries Mannequins 1 - Maxine Daley Still Life - replicator 8:50:39 PM    comment []

Front burner = shiitake mushrooms for now Back burner = orange marmalade fixin's for manana I am terminally stupid today. Jet lag goin' west makes you feel like you're on a moving train, jet lag back east just makes you feel stupid. 2:58:08 PM    comment []

I've decided to go with the Ball Blue Book recipe for orange marmalade with some minor variations. I'll cook the additional skins in the water, strain them out, then add the juice, orange sections, and thinly-sliced rinds for the hour simmer. I won't add the zest until it's ready to cook up for canning sometime tomorrow. Here's what the book says: Orange Marmalade   2          cups thinkly sliced orange peel (about 10 medium) 1          quart chopped orange pulp (about 10 medium) 1          cup thinly sliced lemon (about 2 medium) 1½        quarts water             sugar (about 6 cups)   Combine all ingredients, except sugar; simmer 5 minutes. Cover and let stand 12-18 hours in a cool place. Cook rapidly until peel is tender, about 1 hour. Measure fruit and liquid. Add 1 cup sugar for each cup fruit mixture, stirring until dissolved. Cook rapidly to gelling point. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headroom. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 7 half-pints. 12:30:25 PM    comment []

This is a cross section of one of the Seville oranges, shortly before it became juice. Sections were removed from some of the other oranges, cut into thirds to add a little texture. The microplane is a wonderful tool, but this job belongs to the zester. It makes attractive curly-cues and the microplane makes little fragments. They would be perfect hidden in a frosting, but this is marmalade and the zest is an important visual component. There are three basic components that I am building separately with an eye to the finished product: squeezed juice and fruit sections in a balance favoring juice, zest with a few thinly sliced slices of rind, and whole rind and seeds ("pips") to be cooked in a muslin bag just to add pectin. The goal is a jelly with just enough small sour solids to put a little "chew" in it and enough big fruity ones to make a few bumps. Think toasted & buttered English Muffin on a clear dry day. 3:38:05 AM    comment []

Now that we've got the blues out, let's make some orange marmalade. This page offers the most detail I've ever seen, like it's surgery, right down to the weather: "choose a clear dry day". It's up-to-date, suggesting a microplane for removing the zest. Check the produce department of your grocery store, Seville oranges are never around very long. Let your kids pretend they're Dracula and squeeze some red orange juice for them, have some yourself with a little vodka, eh?, just make sure it's a clear dry day. Here's the recipe lifted from Home Cooking. Check out the pressure cooker part, this is serious. Seville Orange Marmalade Recipe Ingredients 1-1/2 pounds Seville oranges juice of 1 large lemon 2-1/2 cups water 3 pounds sugar, warmed Instructions Wash the fruit, then cut it in half and squeeze out the juice. Tie the pith and pips in a muslin bag and shred the peel. Soak the peel and the muslin bag in the water overnight. Put the peel, muslin bag and the water in the pressure cooker. Put on the lid and bring to HIGH (15 pounds) pressure. Cook for 10-15 minutes, according to the thickness of the peel. Reduce pressure at room temperature. The peel must be really tender before the sugar is added. To test, let it cool, then press a piece of peel between thumb and forefinger. When it is cool enough to handle, take out the muslin bag and squeeze the juice from it into the cooker. Then add the warmed sugar. Stir over gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved, then boil it rapidly in the open cooker until setting point is reached (sugar temperature should be 221 degrees F.). Skim if necessary and let the marmalade cool until skin starts to form before pouring it into warm, dry jars. This prevents the peel rising in the jar. Cover each jar immediately with a waxed disc; when it is cool, cover with cellophane or a lid. Yield: about 5 pounds marmalade Credits From: The Color Book of Pressure Cooking - Edited by Eileen Turner (Octopus Books Limited) - out of print 2:15:41 AM    comment []

It’s karaoke time here at Salon Blogs, go ahead grab the mike, it’s guaranteed to make you sound good and tonight is Blues Night!   I went down to St. James Infirmary I saw my baby there She was stretched out on a long white table So cold, so sweet, so fair   Let her go, let her go, God bless her Wherever she may be She can look this wide world over But she'll never find another sweet man like me   When I die bury me in straight lace shoes A box back coat and a Stetson hat Put a twenty dollar gold piece on my watch chain So the boys'll know that I died standing pat   Let her go, let her go, God bless her Wherever she may be She can look this wide world over But she'll never find another sweet man like me 1:40:30 AM    comment []