Patience!

This post is titled Patience! and frankly getting it posted has tried mine. This first paragraph is the last one written. Blogger's formatting features stink and my HTML skills are non-existent. So the font size may vary and my patience is shot! Just pretend that the stuff in the larger font is really important - Okay, I'm just deluding myself.

I've successfully survived both Christmas and Boxing Day and life around here is easing into the New Year. I should be cleaning house, but blogging seems like a creative moment of procrastination.

Back in late July I posted about my mustard making. I've been remiss about the follow up (and way too many other things!).

So here are the results - first the Coarse Champagne mustard turned out wonderfully. So much so that I've finally started another larger batch. I learned a few things on the first batch, not the least of which is that like many things in life; patience is rewarded! The coarse mustard was sharp and alcoholic to start. As it sat and mellowed I found I needed to add more liquid, which I did in the form of more wine vinegar. The mustard really came into it's own after a couple of months.

This stuff rocks on a roast beef sandwich, in a vinaigrette or as a dip for pretzels . I've found myself rationing my meager remaining dabs of this wonderful condiment. So I'm making some more. This time I'm adding more liquid in the form of additional wine. Once it's ground I'm going to put the jars in the basement to age for about 6 weeks.

Coarse Champagne Mustard V.2 - This Recipe is an composite of several recipes I've seen online

1 cup Yellow Mustard Seed
1/2 cup Brown Mustard Seed
1 1/2 Cups Champagne Vinegar
1 1/2 Cups chardonnay (I'm using Pinot Gris)
1 T Sea Salt

1. Combine ingredients in a nonreactive mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1–2 days so that the mustard seeds soften and the flavors meld
2. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a food processor and process, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the seeds are coarsely ground and the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a jar and cover.
3. Refrigerate overnight and use immediately or refrigerate for up to 6 months. (The flavor of the mustard will mellow as the condiment ages.)

Note: This stuff doesn't need to be refrigerated while it ages. Between the acidity of the vinegar and wine, the salt and the anti-bacterial properties of the mustard, this stuff is pretty sturdy stuff.

The other mustard I made was Spicy Guinness Mustard. Frankly, the jury is still out on this one. I think it's a good mustard, but it just isn't to my taste.

Finally; I made a cocktail last night that I really enjoyed. I discovered it in The Atlantic's online food archives.

Lion's Tail

• 2 oz. Bourbon Whiskey
• ½ oz. to ¾ oz. Allspice Dram
• ½ oz. Fresh Lime Juice
• ½ spoonful of Simple Syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. This was pretty good stuff! The St Elizabeth's Allspice Dram is available at a couple of local liquor stores or if you've got a bit of time, you can make it yourself!

Pimento Dram - Allspice is known as Pimento in Jamaica where this elixir originated - This recipe is from the wonderful blog Cocktail Chronicles

• 2 1/4 cups 151 proof Lemon Hart Demerara rum
• 1/2 cup whole dried allspice berries
• 3 cups water
• 1 1/2 pounds brown sugar

Using a mortar, coarsely crush the allspice berries and place in a jar. Cover with the rum and seal tightly. Let the mixture steep for at least 10 days, agitating it daily. Warning: if you open the jar and sniff it at some point, you may have the urge to chuck the whole foul-smelling mess. Resist the urge--it gets better later on.

Pour the mixture through a fine strainer, pressing on the solids to extract as much rum-spicy goodness as you can. Pour the liquid again through a coffee filter.

Make a 1:1 simple syrup using your brown sugar and water, heating and stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let the syrup cool, then add it to your infused rum. Bottle it tightly in a clean, sterilized bottle, and let it rest for at least one month.

Note: if you get curious while you're bottling it--and you will--the young mixture will still taste a bit odd, with the "heat" from the high-proof rum seeming to make the mix pretty rough and unbalanced. Patience!

A Day's Labors

A day's labors.....hah! I haven't done much all weekend! Practicing what it will be like to be retired.

Labor Day has noble origins. People risked their lives for a nine hour work day and a six day work week. Sheesh, I struggle to make it through a 40 hour work week these days.

I've been making use of an abundance of local produce from my patch and the bounty of friends.

My tomatoes are all splitting from the rain this weekend. I picked about 15 pounds of splitting tomatoes from my vines. I put a small X on the bottom of each tomato and an popped it in boiling water until the skins started to curl back from the X - about 30 to 60 seconds depending on how ripe the tomatoes were. I cut them in half through the circumference (stem end on top/blossom end on the bottom) and squeezed out the seeds. I diced them up and froze most of them in zip lock bags with a bit of Maldon Salt.

Garden Bounty Stewed Vegetables

One Large Zuchinni or Patty Pan Squash sliced - seeded and peeled if needed
A cup or two of peeled and seeded tomatoes
A Japanese eggplant sliced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced thinly
Optional - a quarter of a preserved lemon diced
A tablespoon of olive oil

Saute' the garlic until it's fragrant, but not browned.

Dump in the tomatoes and stir for a couple of minutes until they're juicing

Put in the rest of the ingredients and a generous pinch of salt and a big grind of pepper.

Cook over medium low heat until the vegetables are very tender. You don't need to add any liquid - the vegetables will release a lot of liquid.

While I was stewing up some vegetables for my lunch today I came across the following recipe.

John Mariani's Diaquiri Recipe

The diaquiri is a classic Puerto Rican rum creation, perfect for hot summer days.

Here's the recipe from the back of restaurant critic John Mariani's business card. The italics are his.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 freshly squeezed lime
1 teaspoon sugar
2 ounces gold rum

Do this
Shake with ice, strain into Martini glass

I didn't have any gold rum - so here's my take

Calamityville Daquiri

Fill a martini glass or glasses with water and ice to chill

1 1/2 oz white rum - I used Cruzan

1/2 oz demerara rum - I used Lemon Hart 80 proof Demerara Rum is the

1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice (the juice of one lime)

1 teaspoon of Agave syrup - I really like the slightly caramel flavor of agave syrup and it mixes easily.

Shake in a Cocktail Shaker until the outside is frosty and you can't stand to hold the shaker any longer.

Strain in to the chilled glass and enjoy a couple of these!

Note: Demerara Rum is made from mollasses and is the rummiest tasting rum going.

Cutting the Mustard

The slacker is back! No good excuse for not writing other than the summer doldrums.

My son graduated from basic training on Friday. He spent yesterday on a bus going from Columbia SC (Fort Jackson) to Huntsville AL (Redstone Arsenal). Four Hundred and twenty miles on a bus. He said the air conditioning was working well, the bus wasn't crowded and he was going to rediscover the art of the nap.

I've been carefully tending my nine pimenton de padron peppers and seven tomato plants. I've got eight apple and cherry trees in pots too. I harvested several handfuls of cherries this year. The birds beat me to the the several handfuls. I've got four apples on the Fuji tree - not enough for a pie. The peppers are wonderful sauteed is a bit of olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of see salt. The tomatoes are still a ways out although I've harvested a dozen or so of the two types of cherry tomatoes and eaten them on the spot!

The rest of the yard has pretty much gone to hell. I either need a large flock of goats or a D4 cat to clear the land.

I've had a thing for sandwiches lately. A good loave of bread, some meats and or cheeses and a bit of mustard. Seems like the thing for a late lunch/early dinner. Too hot to bake bread and I'm not up to tackling making cheese or salami right now, so I'm trying my hand at mustard making

I've got two batches of mustard brewing. Mustard used to be a pretty reasonably priced condiment, but in this day and age of specialty items, a small jar of coarse mustard is $5 or more.

I've got about $25 invested in ingredients in addition to what I had around the house. Plenty of mustard seed left to make another 3 or 4 batches. Each of these recipes makes 3 plus cups or about four or five boutique sized bottles of mustard.

Coarse Champagne Mustard - This Recipe is an composite of several recipes I've seen online

1 cup Yellow Mustard Seed
1/2 cup Brown Mustard Seed
1 1/2 Cups Champagne Vinegar
1 cup chardonnay
1 T Sea Salt

1. Combine ingredients in a nonreactive mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1–2 days so that the mustard seeds soften and the flavors meld.

2. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a food processor and process, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the seeds are coarsely ground and the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a jar and cover.

3. Refrigerate overnight and use immediately or refrigerate for up to 6 months. (The flavor of the mustard will mellow as the condiment ages.)

Spicy Guinness Mustard - from Saveur

1 12-oz. bottle Guinness Extra Stout - I used Stone Russian Imperial Stout - 22oz bottle. The extra 10 was pretty damn good drinking!
1 1⁄2 cups brown mustard seeds (10 oz.)
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. kosher salt - I used sea salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1⁄4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp. ground cloves
1⁄4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1⁄4 tsp. ground allspice

1. Combine ingredients in a nonreactive mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1–2 days so that the mustard seeds soften and the flavors meld.

2. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a food processor and process, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the seeds are coarsely ground and the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a jar and cover.

3. Refrigerate overnight and use immediately or refrigerate for up to 6 months. (The flavor of the mustard will mellow as the condiment ages.)

MAKES 3 1⁄2 CUPS

I used a quart jar with a loose fitting lid to mix and let the mustard seeds macerate.

I'll try to report back in a couple of days with the results.

"Sing to me, oh Muse..."

It isn't that I haven't been writing, it's just that I've been writing crap. At best I've usually only posted about one in three or four of the items I write. So, if you roll your eyes at what's posted, just think of the suffering I've saved you!

I've developed an appreciation of people who crank out something on a regular basis; be it a daily column, once or twice a week or even monthly. I'm sure having your paycheck based on your output is a great motivator. I write mostly as an outlet. I have no aspirations of writing the "Great American" novel. I'm not sure I have anything that profound to say.

One of good and bad things about the blog format is that it's totally free form. Some of the stream of consciousness posts out there are a little "too out there" to suit me, but essentially a blog is for the person writing it. If it make the writer happy that's a wonderful thing. If it makes other people happy that's even better and a blog that generates income might be a real bonus. But I digress.

I started out today to write a Father's Day Post. I've been thinking a lot about my Father lately. Actually I've been thing about both my parents lately because their age is showing.

I call my parents frequently. My dad loves to have a little chat; only rarely does it go longer than ten or fifteen minutes. My mother on the other hand is not one given to talking on the phone, at least not to me.

My call to my mother on Mother's Day went something like this.

Me: Hello mom, Happy Mother's Day!

Mom: Oh hi, thanks for the call, would you like to talk to your dad?

I guess she had other fish to fry.

My upbringing was pretty Ozzy and Harriet. My father worked outside the home and my mother was a housewife. In my childhood hometown in the late fifties and through the sixties this was the norm. I only knew a couple of kids my age, that had mothers that worked outside the home.

One of the things we did a lot of was camping. We had an old tent trailer that we drug around behind various vehicles. Later we had an Aloha Trailer and then we went upscale with an aluminum skinned Avion.

We put a lot of miles on those trailers. On weekends often went out just for a night or two at a nearby state park or just someplace off in the woods in the nearby Wallowa Whitman National Forest. In the summer we always took a couple of weeks for a family vacation. We'd alternate years; one year traveling to someplace out of state and the next year heading for the coast.

Dad was a Boy Scout and therefore so was I. He was involved in Scouting in one way or another for nearly seventy years. We spent a lot of good times together on Scouting activities and though I didn't appreciate in as much then as I do now he kept me on track and I got my Eagle Award.

My father was also involved in the community. He served on the vestry at church and was always hauling me over to the church to make a repair of a faucet washer or some other little item. Perhaps the most thrilling thing I remember about church chores was him taking a pellet gun into the basement of the church and shooting a rat.

He also had a four year long stint in politics as a City Commissioner. I think we were all glad that he did it and were even happier when he was done.

My mother was and inveterate planner and our itinerary was well laid out. We'd have reservations in campgrounds with power, water and sewer connections, so we never really had to rough it too much.

My mother always sewed a lot and still does. She used to make clothes for the whole family, but the prized products were quilts. Originally, they were frugally made of scraps from the clothing. Later on she started buying fabric specifically for quilts and makes them in patterns she sees in the quilting books.

The other thing my mother did was cook. We always had home cooked meals. Going out for dinner was a rare treat. Much of what we ate was supplemented with home canned pickles and fruits. We didn't live high on the hog, but we never lacked for the essentials.

Another memory from my childhood is perhaps a different awareness of the seasons. We would plan a trip to the coast for clam tides - my father was a very efficient stalker of razor clams. At work he'd schedule projects around the seasons too. He always seemed to be in Walla Walla when the farmers were bringing in the sweet onions. Magically he'd be in the Blue Mountains when the mushrooms were out. He wasn't a big game hunter or a fisherman, but we did go after pheasant, chukars and the occassional quail. I remember that he and the other guys on his survey crew always seemed to have they're shotguns in the truck when they were going to be over around Pendleton in the fall.

Summer was canning time. Cherries from orchards near Cove. Peaches, pears, plums and apricots too, although I don't remember where they came from. Hard to keep a house cool when you've got a canner and pans full of syrup boiling on the stove.

I have a much greater appreciation for the home processed and wild harvest goods as an adult, than I ever did as a child. We were part of the slow food, locavore movement when it was life, not a lifestyle.

Here's a cocktail that I make that makes use of a couple of my homemade ingredients

Mystic Wood - from Mix Magazine - From Reach for the rye, by Liz Colie Gadberry, Jan/Feb 09

This is the original recipe

2 ounces rye whiskey (Sazerac 6-year-old)

½ ounce cherry liqueur (Heering)

½ ounce apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter)

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients over ice and strain into a small chilled cocktail glass or champagne coupe.

- From Kelley Swenson, bar manager at Ten-01

The first few times I made this cocktail I made it with some homemade apricot liqueur (recipe later in this post) and Cherry Heering and it was pretty dang good. I was having a hankering for it the other day and I ran out to Pearl Specialty and bought a $25 bottle of the highly touted Rothman & Winter apricot brandy that the recipe calls for, frankly I thing the homemade version is as good and with a few tweaks might be better.

The Home version

Mythic Wood

2 ounces rye whiskey (Wild Turkey 101 of course)

½ ounce cherry liqueur (liquid from homemade Maraschino Cherries - any version)

½ ounce apricot brandy (Housemade - Recipe Below)

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients over ice and strain into a small chilled cocktail glass or champagne coupe.

Housemade Apricot Brandy

1/2 pound of dried apricots
1 cup of boiling water
2-3 cups of brandy or vodka
1 cup of simple syrup - two parts sugar to one part water
5 apricot kernels (the seed inside the pit) or five raw almonds or a couple of drops of almond extract.

Pour the boiling water over the apricots to plump them.

After 10 or 15 minutes drain off the excess water into a measuring cup and add liquor to bring the total to 3 cups.

Put the apricots, liquor/water mix and the kernels or extract in a jar and let it set in a cool dark place for a minimum of two weeks.

Strain the liquid from the apricots and add the simple syrup.

Bonus Factoid: Apricots are related to Almonds. Apricot pits have trace amounts of cyanogenic glycosides which release cyanide when digested - now, before you think I'm trying to kill you or myself, it should be noted that bitter almonds contain a much higher amount of this compound and the lethal dose of them is considered to be in the neighborhood of 50 to 70 kernels

The Bitter Truth

My son has joined the Army. He reports to Basic Training on Tuesday. He currently resides in Georgia, will drive to some Fort in Alabama to report for duty and then get sent to Fort Jackson SC. The distances in his part of the world seem smaller than around here.

He lives in Trenton Georgia, which is in the extreme northwest corner of Georgia. The closest city of any size is Chattanooga Tennessee. Many of his co-workers and customers (he's been working as an assistant manager at McDonalds) live in Alabama.
I've got mixed feelings about him joining the Army. Career wise it's probably a good move. He scrapes by on his wages, but the long term outlook is not bright in a small, four franchise company. He's risen about as far as he can go anytime soon in his corporate world. So, he's enlisted in the Army for a six year stint.

He tested well and got his choice of schools. His choice is Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) - oh boy, my baby (soon to be 26) is going to play with bombs! He'll undoubtedly get an all expenses paid trip to Afganistan and/or Iraq. I've been reassured by a friend that more Marines die on motorcycles than in combat. Whew, that makes me feel better, but at least at this point he doesn't own a motorcycle.

Upon successful completion of the EOD course he'll be entitled to wear the EOC Crab patch - this is apparently a big deal, as it one of the only or the only specialty that gets it's own patch. It also means he's made it this far without blowing his ass to kingdom come.

He flew into town on Monday for a final visit with friends and family before reporting. He stayed at my house last night so that I could have him at the airport at 0430. I picked him up at the car rental place at about noon. I asked him what he wanted to do and he quickly recited a list; he wanted a giant salad made by me, he wanted to veg out and watch movies, he wanted to see a decent liquor store and he wanted Thai food. All of this was fairly easy to accomplish.

We hit Movie Madness and picked up an assortment of videos. Hit the grocery store and got a bunch of salad fixings and headed for the house. I put him to work repairing one of my computers while made a salad. He packed away about 10 pounds of salad, so I guess it met his approval.

After watching a movie we headed to the Thai Restaurant and Rose City Liquor. We ordered up an assortment of food at ChaBa Thai - Angel Wings, Pad King Sod, Pad Thai and Green Curry.

He thought the liquor store was a big improvement over what he's used to - he said the selection was about four times what he was used to. The down side - he gets a 10% discount at his store with his newly minted Army ID and we don't get that here - didn't matter though, I was paying.

I'd needed to make a trip to the liquor store anyway, so of course he didn't have to twist my arm to get me to stop. I picked up a bottle of the usual Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth. I was getting low on bitters and was delighted to see that in addition to the usual Angostura and Peychaud Bitters; they were now carrying Fee Brother's Bitters! I also grabbed some more Angostura Bitters and a bottle of the Fee's Old Fashion Bitters.

Thai Food, Movies and Manhattans with Junior at home! - Living the good life!

Fee Brother's Manhattan
Ingredients:
1 Dash Fee's Old Fashion Bitters
1 Oz Sweet Vermouth
1 1/2 Oz Whiskey
Directions:
Stir with ice. Strain into a 3 oz cocktail glass.
Garnish: Cherry

This was a good starting point - but these folks are in business to sell bitters! Use some bitters dammit! And garnish with a cherry? That will not lead to anything good. Accept no less than homemade!

These bitters have a much different flavor profile than Angostura Bitters. They have a big hit of cinnamon, hints of allspice and a big bitter taste on the palate from gentian. I really like the bitterness of the gentian in a Manhattan. I'm a bit on the fence about the cinnamon, but I really like the allspice. Not necessarilly a better Manhattan, but a nice change from the usual.

Improved Fee Brother's Manhattan
Ingredients:
3 Dashes Fee's Old Fashion Bitters
1 Oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Sweet Vermouth
1 1/2 Oz Wild Turkey Rye
1 barspoon juice from homemade maraschino cherries (1 1/2 teaspoons)
Directions:
Stir with ice. Strain into a 3 oz cocktail glass.
Garnish: 2 homemade cherries

Stop and Pick Up the Litter - An Earth Day Post

I awoke this morning to the sound of a flicker drumming on the street light by my driveway. I assume this is some sort of "This is My Turf" activity because sometimes it gets a reply. One time another flicker drummed on the the furnace vent of the house across the street in reply - the behavior went on for several hours and while I found it amusing the neighbors didn't. Studying up for this post I discovered that I have Red Shafted Northern Flickers (Pictured). There is also a Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker.

Tomorrow is the start of Spring and the date of the 39th Earth Day. All day long today I've had the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" playing in my head. It seems appropriate somehow and I hope that the idea of Earth Day does stay Forever Young.

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

When I was younger I remember "Don't Be a Litter Bug" public service announcements on TV. It always seemed like the obvious thing to me to not litter, but I do remember a semi-traumatic experience riding back from a baseball tournament where the family I was riding with bagged up all the trash from our fast food meal and heaved it out the window as we drove down the highway.

Today I drove to the liquor store to pick up some Campari. Driving down the street I noticed that not only is this week the start of Spring, it's also the start of Garage Sale season. People are big on putting up signs for their garage sale, but most seem to lack the follow through on pulling down the signs when the sale is done. I guess we're supposed to just ignore the sign when the date has passed.

I stopped by the Post box down the street to mail a couple of things that I'd missed getting into today's mail. There on the utility pole by the Mail Box was a fluorescent green garage sale sign. I pulled it down and threw it into the litter sack in my car. I pulled down another ten signs over the rest of the trip to the liquor store and library. It felt good. The neighborhood looks better. It probably added ten minutes to the trip, but when all was said and done, it was time well spent.

This isn't just something I did today. I pulled down a few more than usual and I'm more inclined to stop and pull down pole litter on a sunny day than on a day when it's pouring rain. The point is that if we'd all just pick up a couple of pieces of litter here and there, the world would be a better place.

Negroni

This is the Classic Recipe
1 ounce gin (I used Tanqueray)
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth (I use Martini & Rossi)
Garnish: Orange slice.

Shake or Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail class.

Garnish with an orange slice

For a less sweet, stouter drink try David Wondrich's Version

Perfect Negroni

1 1/2 ounce gin
3/4 ounce Campari
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
Garnish: Orange Peel Twist.

Shake with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist

Spring Break

I'm still battling the laurel hedge in my front yard. The more I hack away at it, the more I want to cut it down to the ground.

When we first moved in to our house thirty plus years ago the road was a thoroughfare (note to self - don't buy a house on a road with striping down the center). Luckily they built a freeway a couple of blocks down the street a few years later and now I live on a dead end street.

The hedge was a barrier to sight and sound in those early, more heavily trafficked days. Now it hides the lawn when I neglect to mow in a timely fashion and provides a cloistered feel to the front of the house.

Yesterday morning I hauled a trailer full of hedge prunings to the yard debris recycling center. I had good intentions to fill the trailer and make a return trip this morning. I found several other things to do instead. Perhaps I'm feeling a bit unsure about what to do with the other larger part of the hedge. Pruner's remorse perhaps.

So here I am, sitting inside on a beautiful spring day, sorting through books and magazines, clearing the bookshelves of clutter.

Taking a break from the sorting - I've got salmon in the oven. I think I'll dine outside.

Salmon en papillote with preserved lemons and fennel

This is the grown up version of the Hobo Lunch (hamburger patty, carrots and potatoes wrapped in tin foil and pitched on the campfire)we used to take on Boy Scout day hikes.

Preheat the oven to 425F while preparing the packets

A couple of squares of parchment paper lubed up with olive oil
2 - boneless skinless salmon filets - about 6 oz each and seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 a preserved lemon - finely diced - you could substitute a couple of thin slices of lemon
1/2 a red bell pepper - cut in thin strips
1/2 cup of fennel fronds finely chopped
1 small zucchini coarsely grated

Divide the zucchini between the two pieces of parchment paper

Lay the salmon on top of the zucchini

Spread the red peppers on top of the salmon

Cover the red peppers with the fennel fronds

Sprinkle the preserved lemon over the top of the fennel fronds

Fold the parchment over the goodies and roll up the edges of the paper, crimping it as you go. Put a couple of slits in the top of the packets.

Bake for 12 minutes on a baking sheet.

I served this up with a fennel slaw made from a finely shredded fennel bulb dressed with a simple slaw dressing of mayo, rice vinegar, a dab of Dijon mustard and a bit of salt and pepper.

I was wishing for a nice bottle of a good German Spatlese with this, but settled for a glass of iced tea

Homonymy

One of the signs of specialization in modern society is our junk mail. Since I own a few rural acres and have been known to attend Oregon Horticulture Society meetings; I get junk mail for farmers. Farmer junk mail consists of advertising for seeds, fertilizer, land use issues and several small advertiser supported agricultural magazines that specialize in the latest and greatest farming techniques using products advertised in the magazines. Got a nematode problem? Have we got a product for you!

It's been a long week. I worked hard in the yard last weekend in a burst of energy, incited by a couple of nice Spring days. I managed to aggravate old injuries in my knee and shoulder. Today I had one of THOSE DAYS! and came home with a splitting headache and wallowing in self pity over my decrepitude.

When I walked through the door, the phone was ringing. Caller ID showed an area code unknown to me. My luck seemed like it was due for an uptick, maybe it was Publisher's Clearinghouse calling to tell me I'd won a million dollars! Hey, it could happen.

No such luck. I'm not a millionaire and we're not having a big party to celebrate. Don't give up hope though, I dropped a couple of bucks on lottery tickets this week.

Me "Hello"

Guy "Is this Keith?"

Me "Yes"

Guy "We're calling about the information request you sent in for our new weed killer"

Me "I don't use weed killer" note: I'm a lying bastard - I use weed killer and I would have hosed this guy down with it in an instant if he'd been standing in front of me.

Guy "Let me ask you this; Do you own a farm?"

Me "Yes"

Guy " Well what do you use to kill weeds"

Me "Goats and Hoes" note: I'm a lying bastard - I've never used a goat for weeding - I'd like to, but at this point I haven't. I have used a hoe and I would have whacked this guy in the head with it in an instant if he'd been standing in front of me.

Guy excitedly and volume going up "Ho's! You use Ho's to weed?"

Me "Not Ho's, Hoes - You know Garden Hoes!" Images in my head of Female Garden Gnomes plying the world's oldest profession...........

Guy - still excited and loud "Oh, well those aren't the kind of Ho's I use!"

Me laughing "Well to each his own"

When I was a kid, my dad used to make hoe cakes - I haven't had them in forty years. Seems like it might be time to make them myself. These were called Hoe Cakes because the field hands would cook them on their hoes.

Hoe Cakes

A couple of handfuls of cornmeal, a teaspoonful of salt. Mix with cold water (all my dad ever did) or buttermilk and soda if preferred. Make a thick batter; pour 3 or 4 inch sized hoe cakes on a hot greased griddle (this is a perfect use for that stash of bacon grease in the fridge) or for a more authentic experience go get your hoe and build a fire in the garden.

Serve with a bit of butter and syrup or if you're like my father you'll skip the butter and syrup and splash them with a bit of Tabasco.

If this seems too mundane or trailer park to you, jazz them up by calling them "Grilled Polenta"

Some Like it Hot!

Last Sunday we had sunshine, wind, rain and hail. This weekend's ending on warm and dry note. I've got daffodils and my few remaining hyacinths in bloom. The fruit trees are starting to bud and I'm late pruning the grapevine along the fence. Hopefully the late pruning will cut back on the vigor of the grapevine.

After a fairly hard winter by my wussy Portland standards, I'm ready for spring weather. I'm not ready for the spring yard work that's needed. I took a trailer load of yard debris to the recycling yard yesterday. I can't say that the yard looks any better for it. The first load and the next are just getting rid the winter debris and accumulated junk in the yard and garage.

Spring is the season for rebirth and renewal. I've got big plans for the yard this year. The laurel hedge out front is reaching for the sky, the lawn is full of moss and weeds and the old garden plot has been overwhelmed by blackberry vines. I'm afraid that I'll be taking a load a week of yard debris out of this place until the end of September of next year.

After getting the trailer cleaned out I came home and loaded up the back of the Suburban with recycling and boxes for Goodwill from the basement.

This morning after unloading at the recycling center and dropping off boxes at Goodwill, I hit Cash and Carry for some supplies. By the time I got out of there I'd purchased all the ingredients I needed to make a megabatch of Hot Sauce. The habaneros were a bit spotty and when I mentioned it to the guy he gave me a second pound for free.

By the time I got done with all of the things I wanted to get finished before starting on the Hot Sauce it was 2 PM. I should of been taking a nap and I was starting a frigging canning project. What a dumbass!

Picking through and cleaning two pounds of hot peppers took about an hour. You've got to have everything in place and be prepared to ignore the phone and anything else. These peppers are so frigging hot that you don't want to get the smallest amount in you eyes or on your nether regions. Once I got done with the peppers the pressure was off. For once I managed not to get peppers on any tender places.

So now it's quarter to 10 and the last batch of Hot Sauce is in the canner. Twenty Quarts of goodness to share and consume. I'm glad I'd scheduled a vacation day for tomorrow!

This is a recipe for a Caribbean style habenero hot sauce inspired by Portland's own Secret Aardvark Sauce. I'd been a fan of it for a couple of years and I heard a rumor that the guy that makes it was going to stop production. I bought a bottle and read through the ingredients. A couple of batches later I had a reasonable facsimile at a fraction of the cost, at least if you don't count labor! Secret Aardvark is still making sauce locally and so am I!

I've posted the recipe on eGullet, but I'll save you the click.

Sorta Secret Aardvark Sauce

1 – 14.5 oz can of roasted tomatoes chopped - include the juice

1 – 14.5 oz can of rice wine vinegar

1-1/2 cups of peeled and grated carrots (packed into the measuring cup)

1 cup of finely diced white onion

1/4 cup of yellow mustard

1/3 cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of Morton’s Kosher Salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

13 small Habaneros – seeded and membranes removed. (This was 2 oz. of Habs before cutting off the tops and removing the seeds and membranes)

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 cup of water when cooking

5 or 6 cloves of garlic - roasted if you've got it

Put it all in the crockpot on high until everything is tender. About 3 hours

Whirl in food processor – Don’t puree until smooth – make it lightly/finely chunky.

Makes 3 pints - To can; process pint jars in a water bath canner for 15 minutes

Feast of the Longhouse

My buddy Jeff and I met for coffee Saturday morning at Blend, our new favorite coffee shop. We’d been looking for a new favorite coffee shop for a while. Our old favorite spot moved to a new spot across the street from the old location. The old location was homey and low key, the new location is much larger, glitzier and too noisy for us to hold a conversation. We needed to find a new "Go To" place.

I saw a piece on local TV a few weeks back filmed at Blend showing local baristas in action and getting ready for the National Barista Championships that were held here in Portland. Blend is close to where I work so I decided to give it a try. The folks there seemed genuinely happy to see us and the coffee is very good. So now happily, we’ve got a new favorite coffeeshop – woohoo!

My buddy Jeff is a hunter and fisherman. Actually, he’s a great hunter and fisherman. He’s also a generous hunter and fisherman, which means I get to share in his success and reap the benefits via a share of his harvest and the stories that go with it.

Spring in the Northwest means one thing to a serious fisherman and that’s Spring Chinook. The Spring Chinook is the Cadillac of salmon. The fish are fresh from the ocean and headed upstream. They’re also all fattened up for the trip upstream to spawn and have the richest flesh of all the salmon. This time of year you can just about walk across the Columbia River on the wall to wall fishing boats when the fishing is good.

Jeff has a tradition of sharing his first fish of the season with a privileged few. He calls it "Feast of the Longhouse". The idea being that by sharing the first fish of the year it ensures a good catch for the year. I don’t know the origin of Jeff’s tradition, but I assume it’s got its roots in the First Salmon Feast that is a tradition among the Columbia River Tribes. The reason we’d gotten together for coffee this morning was so he could carry on his Feast of the Longhouse tradition and present me with a piece of the first Salmon of the year. That's Jeff's fishing buddy holding the first fish of the year.

I served up the Salmon with some Spicy Daikon Slaw, Brown Rice Pilaf and a 2005 Sparr Gewurtztraminer

Feast of the Longhouse Spring Chinook Salmon
4 – 6 oz pieces of Fresh Spring Chinook
Old Bay Seasoning
Lemon

Season the fish with the Old Bay Seasoning

Put the fish skin side down in a hot cast iron skillet and sear the bottom for two minutes.

Transfer the skillet to a preheated 350 degree oven for another 10 to 15 minutes until the fish is just barely cooked through.

Serve with lemon wedges

Spicy Daikon Slaw
A pound or so of peeled Daikon Radish – grated with a medium grater
1 Tablespoon Grated Ginger
2 or 3 Tablespoons Unseasoned Rice Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
Sambal Olek or Chili Garlic Paste to taste
½ teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Seeds

I just winged it this and made it to taste, so the amounts are approximate.

Sprinkle the Sesame Seeds on the slaw when you plate the meal.

You're Fired!

I've fired my cats. It was harder on me than it was on them. They not only don't seem to mind, they seem to be totally oblivious to the fact.

Three cats; all useless. These cats owe me dammit! I saved their sorry furry butts from fates unknown! All three are rescues via my vet.

India and Jubilee are sisters, an American Longhair and an American Shorthair respectively. They were a few days old when their mother was run over. The vet's staff bottle fed them and I got them at age 6 weeks. India looked like Don King with hair going in all directions and always meowing about something. Jubilee was smaller and quieter and by all appearances butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Their lack of proper feline parenting was apparent from the beginning. No fear of dogs. In fact when other dogs come to visit they will often intimidate them by following them around the house and yard. Max, a co-worker's black lab got so frustrated he sat in a corner of the back yard and barked and howled until I rescued him from the annoying pests.


India fancies herself as the mightiest hunter of all time. Her prey consists of leaves and small sticks. Never the shy one, she announces each successful capture with much caterwauling and proudly brings each trophy into the kitchen for me to admire.

Jubilee is an avid snake hunter. In the summer she stakes out the various snake lairs in the yard and when she successfully captures one of the resident garter snakes she brings it into the house and releases it. Catch and release at it's finest.

Gigi or Ginger, she ignores either name, is a Tortoiseshell. She was brought to the vet as a kitten to be euthanized after her back was broken when she got slammed in a door. The vet managed to nurse her back to health and she shows no outward physical signs of the trauma. She is however totally skittish and paranoid and flies through the house at the slightest noise.

Ginger hunts monkeys or to be more specific "the monkey". The monkey is a small stuffed monkey that she adopted at the vets. Her daily task as she sees it, is to seek out the monkey and kick the monkey's butt (I'm pretty sure the monkey likes it). She hurls it around, pounces on it and finally grabs it in her front paws and kicks it ferociously with her rear paws. Mission Accomplished, she then settles in for a bath and a long nap.

I don't ask much from these cats for providing them with food, a clean litter box and the occassional ration of catnip. While hunting leaves, sticks, snakes and monkeys is all well and good and are even admirable talents when done well it's not enough. Really, would it be too much to expect for them to catch a damn mouse?

Friday evening while cooking dinner I saw a mouse skitter out from under some shelves across the floor and under the refrigerator. Smooth move and I thought it was pretty brave considering the fact he did it in front of two of the cats. They couldn't be bothered to respond though. Apparently a mouse is under their radar.

I turned off the stove and put things away for later. I headed up to the hardware store and grabbed a six pack of sticky traps for mice. I set three up in the kitchen and three in the basement. First thing Saturday morning I checked the traps and the one in the kitchen by the refrigerator had a mouse in it.

The cats were not impressed. They showed no remorse that I had to catch the mouse myself. I was angry and I told them so. Then I fired them. I told them each individually, explaining that they were not meeting my expectations and that I was going to have to let them go. Good thing I've had management training.

So far the their firing hasn't affected them much. I thought they might decide to seek a home where they would be appreciated for their meager skills, but for the time being they show no signs of going anywhere.

The aborted Friday night dinner was Braised Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Olives. I finally made the recipe on Saturday and it was just OK. It called for fresh lemons and I think it would have been better with preserved lemons. Since I'd bought an abundance of lemons I decided to preserve my own for the next try.

Housemade Moroccan Preserved Lemons

Scrub a half a dozen lemons - I used the common Eureka Lemon, but it's okay to use Meyer Lemons if you've got them.

Cut the tips off of either end

Slice the lemons from one end lengthwise almost to the other. Give it a quarter turn and repeat. You'll want about 3/4 of an inch at the bottom to hold the 4 quarters together.

Use a tablespoon of sea or kosher salt per lemon. Pour it over the open part of the lemon and then stick the lemon in a clean quart canning jar. Repeat, jamming the lemons in to the jar as tightly as you can.

Jam the lemons down everyday. They'll get softer. Rotate the jar and turn it over to keep the salt and juice distributed. At the end of a week cover the lemons with extra juice if needed.

Put them into the fridge for a month and then they'll be ready to use.

You can spice them up if you like. I've seen bay leaves, corriander seed, dried red peppers and cinnamon recommended. It might be fun to try a sprig of rosemary.

I used a bay leaf, a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of corriander seed in mine.

One Man's Trash

Clear Creek Distillery, one of the original of micro-distilleries in the United States, is located here in Portland Oregon. Steve McCarthy, the owner, is a genuinely nice guy and a man with vision. Of course it's taken 25 years for most of the world to appreciate his vision of eau de vie and other products made from locally grown fruit.

I first met Steve in about 1990 when I was making wine commercially in a rented garage in Newburg Oregon. Steve was making grappa from muscat and gewurtztraminer pomace left over from local wine production. Those of us that were willing to set aside the pomace from our production would receive a few rationed bottles of grappa from his minuscule annual production.

For those unfamiliar with the production of wine or it's terminology; pomace is what's left after you squeeze all of the juice out of the grapes. Having someone haul it away for me was a bonus. It meant I didn't have to hall it away and dispose of it or worse yet pay someone to haul it away. Getting some grappa or another one of Steve's brandies for my trash was a screaming deal in my book.

Over the years Steve added to his repertoire of eau de vies and brandies. While his pear brandy is a pure expression of the fruit from his family orchard and a wonderful product, it was never my favorite. I tended to like the aged apple brandy or the fragrant grappas made from muscat and gewurtzraminer. Occasionally when I'd stop by the distillery for a bottle I'd get to sample some of the other products he was working on like a peaty whiskey or a green hued eau de vie made from grape brandy and the tips of the new spring growth on Coastal Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).

The first time I tried the evergreen scented brandy he pulled from a barrel, it was to say the least, off putting. It had an evergreen aroma, but it more closely resembled Pinesol than something I'd want sit and sip. A few years later after much experimentation he finally had a product that he was comfortable releasing for sale. The evergreen scented brandy he finally released had been tempered with a bit of pear brandy and the fruit complimented and rounded out the evergreen aromas. We sampled it and I found intriguing enough to get a bottle to take home.

Later, at home, I opened the bottle and found it to be a bit much by itself and set the bottle aside to contemplate later. Later didn't come for several years. I hadn't thought much about that bottle in a long time; it was out of sight and out of mind.

On Friday, Steve had his second Proof Blog entry published in the NY Times. One of the products he highlighted was the Douglas Fir infused spirit. I thought perhaps it was time to revisit that long forgotten bottle. I went looking for it and finally discovered it in the back of a file cabinet in my basement office.

I pulled the cork and took a sniff - it wasn't as powerful in the nose as I remembered. I don't know if it had mellowed as it sat in the file cabinet or if my tastes had changed. This stuff was really interesting. There were hints of the evergreen and pear and even more. It's herbal complexity reminded me a bit of Absinthe but with a bit of mint and citrus instead of anise.

I had one of those "Ahah" moments and decided to make a Sazerac with Douglas Fir spirit substituted for the Absinthe. The Douglas Fir isn't as potent as Absinthe and it takes a bit more of it to make the cocktail reflect the character of the spirit. Several years after the fact I was finally able to appreciate Steve's vision for this bottle.

Pseudotsugarac

2 oz Rye
2 barspoons of Douglas Fir Spirit
1/2 teaspoon agave syrup or 1 sugar cube
2 generous dashes of Peychaud Bitters.

Stir all of the ingredients together in a Boston Shaker without the ice. When the agave is dissolved in the rest of the ingredients add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass.

I didn't garnish this with the lemon twist called for in a traditional Sazerac. The Douglas Fir Spirit has a slight citrus quality. I suppose I should have gone out in the yard and picked a sprig off the fir tree for a garnish.

Life is just a Bowl of Cherries

In hindsight I probably should have called this Blog "House of Rye" or the "Manhattan Project" because I drink much more rye than bourbon these days and most of that rye is consumed in the form of Manhattans.

One of my earlier posts, Garnish with a Cherry, dealt with recipes for Manhattans. Since a Manhattan consists of only four ingredients, whiskey, vermouth, bitters and a cherry or two, it shouldn't be that hard to reach nirvana.

Whiskey in the form of Rye is my preferred poison in a Manhattan. Some folks use Bourbon in a Manhattan, but I find they make the cocktail too sweet. I most often choose Wild Turkey 101. It has a nice spicy rye bite and the high proof gives it some kick. It's a bargain to boot at $22 for a 750ml bottle. I usually have a few other bottles of Rye in the house as well. Currently I've got Jim Beam, Rittenhouse, Russell's Reserve and the ubiquitous WT 101 ryes on hand. There are other high end ryes out there that I cast a covetous eye on when I hit the local liquor shop, but basically I'm a cheap bastard and unwilling to pay price they command. With liquor as with many other things in life, a doubling of price doesn't extend in to a doubling of enjoyment or quality. That being said I'd gladly accept a gift or donation of a bottle of Black Maple Hill for the purposes of research.

Sweet Vermouth is the second component in a Manhattan. There are a couple of vermouths that are widely available in Oregon; Noily Prat and Martini & Rossi. Of the two I prefer Martini and Rossi. It's a bit fruitier and complex in my opinion and better compliments the rye. For folks with a fatter purse there are some additional choices to consider including Carpano Antica, Punt e Mas or the domestically produced Vya.

The third ingredient in a Manhattan is bitters. A couple of dashes of bitters changes the whole complexion of cocktail. For years the only bitter's choices available were Angostura and Peychaud. Angostura are the bitters of choice for an everyday Manhattan. Angostura now has an orange bitter available too and it make an interesting variation with it's strong orange aromas. Bitter's: both homemade and commercial are becoming much more widely available and are worth of posts of there own.

Last and certainly not least is the cherry. Many people are put off by dayglo maraschino cherries. One can hardly blame them. The maraschino on the grocery store shelf is a shadow of the original liquor soaked wild maraska cherries that were the original Maraschino Cherry. Maraschino. Luxardo, an Italian Liquor producer makes a high quality candied cherry that is pretty good, but it wasn't what I was looking for in the ultimate cherry for a Manhattan. While it's much better than the dayglo variety, it didn't quite cut it.

What's a guy to do? Life wasn't a bowl of cherries. I needed the perfect cherry to reach my Manhattan Nirvana.

Time to search the internet, because you can find anything on the internet can't you? Most of the recipes I found called for putting cherries in a jar, adding sugar and covering them with brandy. This produces brandied cherries; tasty, but not a Maraschino Cherry. After searching further and not finding anything that really looked like it would make me happy, I decided it was time to experiment.

Call it beginner's luck, karma, kismet or whatever, the first batch of cherries I made were spectacular. Now known by the few who have had the privilege of tasting them as "The Chcrries". The Cherries were everything I wanted. They are tasty, not too sweet, have complex flavors. They are the treat at the bottom of the glass. Indulge, use two! A half gallon of them, I'm rich! Those things will last me a year for sure. Share the wealth and give a few away, because there's a half gallon of them, I'll never run out.

Okay, I ran out. What's a guy to do? I thought why not try infusing some frozen or canned cherries. So I got a pound of frozen cherries at Trader Joe's and made the following recipe.

Housemade Maraschino Cherries - Using Frozen Cherries

The advantage of this recipe is that it can be made year round. The frozen cherries seem to absorb the alcohol and sugar much more quickly than the fresh cherries and the process only takes a week.

• 1lb of Frozen Sweet Cherries
• 2/3 C evaporated cane sugar
• 1/2 C Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 1/2 C Clear Creek Kirschwasser

1. Put the cherries in an empty one quart canning jar with all of the rest of the ingredients.
2. Give the jar an occasional gentle shake.
3. When the sugar is dissolved put the cherries in the refrigerator and let them age a week before using.

This makes just under a quart of damn good cherries, not "The Cherries", but damn good. These are not inexpensive to make, but they'll last a long time, not as long as you think, but a long time.

A special shout out to Cat for kicking me in the ass and getting me to write a post.

Thanks Cat!

Wasting Away in NE Portland

For the last year or two I've had a fascination with cocktails. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them before that, it's just that I never thought much about them. The place that raised my awareness was the now closed Taqueria Nueve and their assortment of margaritas. They had a half a dozen or so margarita choices and a couple of other house cocktails that were well worth trying (and I did).

With the internet it's pretty easy to find an overwhelming amount of information and opinion on whatever topic you happen to be interested in at the moment. A Google Search for "Margarita Recipe" returns 221,000 results in 0.18 seconds. This includes sites devoted to margaritas, recipes for margarita cheese cake, margaritas made with beer and of course Slurpees..er frozen margaritas.

Taqueria Neuve House Margarita Clone
2 oz Blanco Tequila
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 oz lime juice
1/8 orange
1 sugar cube

Muddle orange and sugar together
add ice and the rest of the ingredients
Shake and strain into a highball glass, filled with ice and with a salted rim

My Dinner with Mr. Sulu

I was teaching a two day class in Everett Washington earlier this week. The first night we had a wonderful dinner at Ivar's Restaurant in Mulkiteo. A couple of bottles of Chateau St. Michelle Eroica Riesling on the 50% off All Washington wines on Monday Night Special to wash down an appetizer of red curry mussels and an entrée of Alaskan Razor Clams. Good food, new and old friends and conversation.

Tuesday night we went out to dinner at Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant (It was featured on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives) . I was seated next to one of the guys in the class and I kept thinking this guy's voice sounds so familiar. Kevin is a Japanese American and he grew up in Hawaii. He was explaining all the dishes to us before we ordered. I've never been to Hawaii, but I've found some types of Hawaiian cooking to be appealing; who doesn't like pit cooked pig (kalua pork) or raw ahi tuna marinated in soy sauce and other flavorful things (poke)?

Anyway, it dawned on me....this guy sounds just like Mr. Sulu. Okay, so I didn't really have dinner with Mr. Sulu. I just had dinner with a guy that sounded just like Mr. Sulu. Still, it was fun eating a table full of food with narration by Mr. Sulu.

Most of the folks were ordering beer, but since the restaurant was full of faux palm trees and other Pacific Island type decor I thought it might be possible to get an authentic Tiki Drink. I wandered over to the bar and asked the woman tending bar if she made Mai Tai's from a mix or from scratch. She assured me that she made them from scratch and with a very authentic recipe. I ordered one. Alright, I should have asked what was in the "Authentic Recipe". The drink was most notable for it's plentiful rum, so it wasn't all bad. It also included passion fruit nectar and grenadine and while it wasn't a Mai Tai, it was drinkable and after all when you're eating dinner with Mr. Sulu, life is pretty good.

Here's a recipe for an "Authentic Mai Tai" and an appetizer to serve it with at your next Luau

Beach Bum Berry's $100 Mai Tai

1 oz of Saint James 15-year Hors D'Age Rum
1 oz of Appleton Estate Extra rum
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz of Curacao
1/4 oz orgeat
1/4 oz Rock Candy Syrup

To make one $100 Mai Tai, crush enough ice to fill a double old-fashioned glass, and put the crushed ice in your cocktail shaker. Next, pour in one ounce of Saint james, one ounce of Appleton, 1/2 ounce of Curacao, and one-fourth of an ounce each of orgeat and rock candy syrup. Then, pour in one ounce of fresh-squeezed lime juice. Shake it up an serve in a hollowed out pineapple, your favorite Tiki Mug or a highball glass.

Lomi Lomi Salmon

Recipe courtesy Bobby Nakihei at Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant, Everett WA from Diners, Drive-In's and Dives on the Food Network

Prep Time: 15 min

Inactive Prep Time:12 hr 0 min

Cook Time:0 min

Level:Easy

Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup diced salted salmon
• 5 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium round onion, diced
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• Sea salt
• 1 cup crushed ice

Directions

In a large bowl, cover the salted salmon with water and soak overnight. Drain and rinse the salmon.

In a large bowl add the diced salmon, tomatoes, onion, and green onion, and mix well. Add sea salt, to taste. Chill and just before serving add the crushed ice.

Chef's Note: if unsalted salmon is used, rub the salmon with sea salt or rock salt and let stand overnight, then use in the recipe.

One is the Loneliest Number

Recently I've received some invitations to be a Facebook Friend. Frankly I was a bit uneasy about being asked. I'm not really sure why I was uneasy other than ignorance of what Facebook is or can be at its best. It seems like there are a lot of stupid people out there doing stupid things and in a final stupid act; posting narrations and pictures of the afore mentioned stupid acts on the Online Social Network of their choice - Not something that really made me want to run out and join, I mean I've done my share of stupid things...will I now feel compelled to post about them?

So today I received a third invitation to become a facebook friend. This time there was an explanation of the request that actually made sense and was even a bit intriguing. So I signed up and accepted the friend invitation. Checking back to my Facebook page I see that I now have "1 Friend". Fifty-Four years old and I have "1 Friend". This isn't making me feel all warm and fuzzy, but at least I still have my dogs and cats.

I've contacted the other two folks that asked me be friends and the wife of my first friend has befriended me so I don't feel quite so bad. Definitely not one of the popular kids on campus, but I never was and I can live with that.

Okay, so now I've got four friends and I realize that I don't qualify for the latest Burger King Promotion; Whopper Sacrifice. Defriend ten Facebook Friends and get a free Whopper. I don't think I'd qualify for a free Whopper by going into negative six friends territory and what am I supposed to say? "Hey Chumps" you just asked me to be your friend and I'm throwing you over for a crappy fast food burger" - I've just added you to the other 112,030 people scorned for a free burger coupon!

To add insult to injury, my first Facebook Friend is the person that introduced me to the pleasures of Happy Hour Hamburgers at Clyde Common! Sacrificing a friend like that.....well it just doesn't pencil out.

So thanks Rod for inviting me to be your friend and thanks too to Mike, Robert and Pam. I don't feel quite so lonely now.?

So, Hey Rod, just when are we going back to Clyde Common? I'm curious to see how well they make a Sazerac.

Sazerac for One - Inspired by Chuck Taggart

In your cocktail mixer:

• Mix 1 teaspoon of sugar with 1 teaspoon of water or use a teaspoon of simple syrup
• Add 4 dashes of Peychaud Bitter and 1 dash of Angostura Bitters
• Add a bunch of ice and two oz of Rye - Sazerac Rye if you've got it, but Wild Turkey works just fine
• Stir for thirty seconds

Rub the rim of a chilled cocktail glass with a strip of lemon peel
Add a 1/2 teaspoon of Absinthe into the glass and coat the inside of the glass with it
Strain the cocktail into the glass.
Heretic that I am, I throw the lemon peel into the glass because I really like the aroma

Absinthe is expensive but well worth the price in this cocktail. I bought a miniature for $7.00 and it's made a bunch of cocktails so far and will make many more.

Garnish With A Cherry

A few years ago I picked up a copy of "Villas at Table" at Multnomah County Library's used bookstore; Title Wave Used Bookstore. The book is a collection of Mr. Villas' essays on food and drink.

Most of the essays are entertaining and educational and frankly forgettable. They're articles about restaurants, visits to France, wines of some obscure region or a recipe for Glockenspiels with Horseradish Sauce. You know the type. The article that keeps you interested while you're waiting to be called at the doctor's office. The story you can put down 95% of the way through and not care if you finish it or not. I like books like this, they're kind of like Reader's Digest, good to have when you need a quick read at bedtime or while you're taking care of business.

This book would probably have been donated back to the library system for them to sell again if an unpublished essay called "A Few Choice Words About the Manhattan" hadn't grabbed my attention. The essay outlines Mr. Villas's introduction, at age twelve, to the Manhattan by his father. It continues on with his pursuit of Manhattans in Manhattan prior to the current cocktail renaissance (the book was published in 1988 and doesn't say when the essay was written). One of his biggest obstacles was that during the time period the essay was written many establishments had eschewed the glowing red maraschino cherry in favor of a lemon or orange twist. Mr. Villas took to carrying his own bottle of the bright red gems in order to satisfy his habit.

Villas the Elder's Manhattan
2.5 oz Blended American Whiskey (I'm guessing I used Elijah Craig 12 y.o. Bourbon)
1 oz of Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
"less than a dash" Angostura Bitters
and a maraschino cherry
Served strained into a 4 oz stemmed cocktail glass

Inspired by fervor of Mr. Villas, I bought a bottle each of marachino cherries, Angostura Bitters and Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth. I don't know what bourbon was in the house when I made that first Manhattan, but I was hooked. Many bottles of bourbon, vermouth and cherries have passed through the doors of my house since I read this article.

James Villas's Perfect Bourbon Manhattan (In his words: "and by "Perfect" I'm by no means referring to the abomination by that name that includes a shot of dry vermouth")
2.5 oz Bonded Whiskey (Bottled in Bond Bourbon is 100 proof)
1.5 oz Cinzano Sweet Vermouth
"a quick dash" Angostura Bitters
A Big Fat maraschino cherry
Served strained into a chilled 6 oz stemmed cocktail glass

Something about the Big Fat Maraschino Cherry has never sat quite right with me. According to the article the Manhattan was invented around 1890 by Supreme Court Judge Charles Henry Truax when he was president of New York's Manhattan Club. The Maraschino as we know it today was invented by an Oregon State University professor named Ernest H. Wiegand. The original Maraschino cherries were made by soaking small sour wild black Maraska cherries, from what is now Croatia, in Maraschino Liqueur. These original cherries were a luxury item and getting one as a garnish was a real treat. I'll deal with my pursuit of the ideal cocktail cherry in a future installment.

Mr. Villas was kind enough to include Judge Truax's recipe for Manhattans in the book. It includes more sweet vermouth than what is common in most of today's recipes. A lot of the older cocktails include a higher proportion of sweet modifiers and I suppose that was a reflection of the tastes of the day.

Judge Truax's Original 1890 Manhattan Club Cocktail
2 oz Rye (or bourbon)
1 oz Sweet Italian Vermouth
A dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a stemmed Maraschino Cherry

One of the really good things about the essay was the fact that there were multiple recipes, using different ratios of whiskey to vermouth, different whiskeys and vermouths. Obviously this is a cocktail that can be customized and tweaked to suit your preferences. This is the kind of research I can get behind.

After making my original Manhattans with a variety of bourbons I noticed that the original recipe called for rye. Hmmm....rye? I headed off to Rose City Liquor and was gratified to see that rye was readily affordable and came in a handy multiple choice selection. The rye I came home with that day, Wild Turkey Rye 101, has pretty much become my house pour for Manhattans ever since.

The Manhattan I'm Drinking Now
2.5 oz Wild Turkey Rye 101
1.0 oz Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth
2 big dashes of Angostura Bitters
1 housemade cherry

For further reading on Manhattans see This Article by Gary Regan