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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Saturday, September 06, 2003

The "glaze" for Eric's Margarita Cake, turned out to be, as I suspected, little more than an excuse to pour a bunch of booze over the cake. To preserve the pretense of a serious Saturday afternoon baking project, I dusted it with a little powdered sugar. I also added lime zest to the "glaze" (which was more like a syrup) to give it a little extra zing. 7:36:41 PM    comment []

Abbas Resigns! But he submitted it to Arafat? Hasn't Arafat been deemed "irrelevant"? Shouldn't he have turned in his resignation to Bush? 5:39:18 AM    comment []

Champions               Lyrics by Queen Art by Chris Pagani 5:00:00 AM    comment []

Right now, I'm pressure cooking the smoked pork knuckles (4) with some tiny red dried beans I bought a while back at the oriental food market. Pressure cooking is now the method of choice for dried legumes here. I've noticed that larger beans take longer, so I'm thinking of formulating the cooking time - weigh a set number of beans, say 25, and come up with an average bean weight. Then, maybe I can come up with a constant to multiply that by to estimate cooking times for al dente, soft, and mushy. It would look something like this: Kg = tchewy, where "g" is the average bean weight and "K" is the magic number I want to derive so I can calculate tchewy , the time to al dente. Nothing on the order of a Unified Field Theory, of course,  but sometimes the scientific mind drifts into the realm of burritos. 4:24:29 AM    comment []

I took the latest issue of Bon Appetit in to the office this morning. It seemed to open to page 122 by itself, more than once, and each time my response was Pavlovian. It was the picture that did it, but here’s the accompanying recipe:   ONION AND BACON TART   Serve with a green salad for a lovely lunch or light supper   WHAT TO DRINK: Gewurztraminer or a dry Alsatian Reisling   6 SERVINGS   2 ¼ cups (or more) all purpose flour 1 cup warm water (I 10-F to 115 -F) 1 teaspoon active dry yeast ½ teaspoon fine sea salt ¾ cup crème fraiche* 1/3 cup large-curd cottage cheese 1/3 cup sour cream 2 small white onions, very thinly sliced (about 1 ½ cups) 12 ounces ¼-inch thick bacon slices cut crosswise into ½-inch wide strips Freshly ground black pepper   Combine 1 cup flour 1 cup warm water, and 1 teaspoon yeast in large bowl; stir to blend well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand until mixture bubbles, about 30 minutes Stir in salt, then 1-¼ cups flour. Mix until soft slightly sticky dough forms, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls it very sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1-½ hours.   Preheat oven to 500º F. Lightly flour 2 large baking sheets. Lightly flour hands; Punch down dough and divide in half. Roll out each half on lightly floured surface to thin 16x10 inch rectangle. Transfer each rectangle to prepared baking sheet. If dough shrinks, roll or stretch each back to size. Puree crème fraiche, cottage cheese, and sour cream in processor until smooth, Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread cream mixture over crusts. Sprinkle onions and raw bacon over cream mixture, dividing equally. Bake tarts until edges of crusts are crisp and brown, about 14 minutes, Sprinkle generously with pepper; cut into pieces and serve.   *Sold at some supermarkets. If unavailable, heat 1 cup whipping cream to lukewarm (85º F). Remove from heat and mix in 2 tablespoons buttermilk. Cover and let stand in warm draft-free area until slightly thickened, 24 to 48 hours, depending on temperature of room. Refrigerate until ready to use. 2:58:20 AM    comment []