eat, drink, men, women 飲食男女: this and that

Thursday, January 8, 2015

this and that - oregon jan 2015

I was hard pressed to come up with a meaningful title for this post, so I resort to the catchall "this and that". This post is more of an photo album than a blog post.

finally i broke into this aged Tennessee country ham from Benton's Country Ham; i found out about Benton's while watching the Mind of a Chef a while back

if you want to try true American country ham, i highly recommend Allen's Benton's Country Ham

i was going to write a post about my favorite omelette pan - this French copper pan with stainless steel liner; it makes the fluffiest simple French omelette in a jiffy

breakfast with home made corn beef

my friend loaned me this book by John Folse; strangely I immediately recognized John as I used to watch his cooking shows on OPB; what is strange is I totally spaced out about him when I was in Louisiana wanting to book a dinner prepared by his students from his Chef John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux

i flipped through it; seeing there are extensive history and culture that he and his team had compile and wrote about the Cajun and Creole i knew immediately i must have this book

i found one at a discount because it has slight blemish on the cover for a discount on Amazon

3 days later my copy arrived - this page is a turtle soup recipe

this is my second time cooking with sea urchin (uni, 海膽)

this one big sea urchin give me 2 entrée and a breakfast; i have been making fresh pasta a lot lately

now i am so spoiled to eat dried pasta and this machine get used a lot

recognize a bargain when i see one - i went and clean out their stock of semolina flour

i also bought a lifetime supply of Gardena quick connect kits (the classic starter kit) because they were at nearly 1/2 the normal price; it is totally out of character for this supermarket to stock Gardena products; recently the prices on Amazon has been much higher while the company expanded the product range (but still a far cry from what you can find on amazon.de)

the classic starter kit is the best deal if you are starting out with the Gardena system - that is if you can find it cheap like I did here; i snapped up 3 sets

found this great electronic scale on Amazon that I want for a long time; i want to weight the whole salmon when i buy them from the native Indians - i have been "cheated" on the inflated weight too many times

also found this nice pasta cutter - made in Italy; it is the cheapest on Amazon but the nicest, being a classic design

constructed mostly of cast metal alloy on a real wood handle

good quality hand tools are most important for the kitchen and i must have close to a hundred

my first night attending German level 1 class - call it one of my new year resolution if you will

i also try to learn at Deutsche Welle's free Learn German online courses

with a small bit of sea urchin left over i made a novel uni, mussel, and cheese omelette this morning

it was very delicious - it is a recipe that i conceived on the fly

my favorite German sifter finally gave up to ghost after 25 years of service

it is the best design as the closed side prevent the liquid from making a splash

the other thoughtful design feature is it rest securely on my sink

i snapped up two of these 25 years ago and eventually both failed the same way as the plastic became brittle; i really cannot ask for anything more; unfortunately they are irreplaceable

another new year's resolution is learn to cook Indian cuisines seriously; i acquired two of her cookbooks - used;

one of my receiver's center channel failed and i have to swap out the one I used for my mid-fi audio system to use in the "home theater"; it turned out I have to swap it back because it is the only one i have with phono input

while i have sworn not to buy another product by Sony after shopping around i could not find any in the price range that has a clean appearance design as the Sony lineup; this Onkyo is too gaudy

and the remote control is just plain ugly

i settled on STR-DN840; it has support for bluetooth as well as Apple's Airplay which is very nice; i was very close to buying a cheap bluetooth hockey plug addon receiver to use with my old receiver but concern with their useabilities

nearly all current receivers no longer has provision for analog audio recording (the ability to connect to a cassette, minidisc, or other audio recorders); that is why i hang onto some of my old equipment

7.1 channels of audio makes for quite a rat nest

my 2 bags of 20-lb green coffee beans arrived - ordering in larger quantity saves me shipping cost; this would probably last me 6 - 8 months

my friends were over for a Christmas dinner and they were impressed with my home roast

i found some cheap sea salt that i bought in bulk; looking for a container to store them i came up with the idea of recycling the Morton kosher salt

i am proud of my frugality

one way to eat a link of boudin is to squeeze out the stuffing with your teeth and fingers

and you left with something like this - i know what you are thinking

i have a bit of pork shoulder left over from making boudin so i decided to braise it like a Japanese ramen shop would

i cooked the pork under low heat similar to my recent sous-vide experiments

once the pork is done i cool them in the refrigerator so they can be sliced easily

the rich and clean tasting broth

these two panels of the fence collapsed from our recent big wind storm in December; they are now repaired and i salvaged the pile of weathered cedar planks which i want to put to good use; i like their beautiful patina

before the repair

some of the aftermath of the December windstorm

around Christmas the forecast was many days of subzero temperature and very blustery days; i did my part to help the hummingbirds through these most difficult days; i cleaned all 4 feeders and make sure they were full of nectar

in addition to keeping the hummingbird feeders shipshape, i also have to anticipate the foul weather days in advance in ensuring i have enough supply of home roasted coffee; i roast my coffee outdoors and even the slightest breeze make roasting coffee very difficult if not impossible

when the weather is very cold and windy the hummingbirds become most territorial; the strong ones would stay very close to the "flower" and would fight off any intruders; i put up a 4 feeders around different sides of my house so the weaker ones get to drink also

i am finally going to give in and put up a pot rack - i have resisted because i want to maintain the clean look of the kitchen without upper cabinets as i designed it

this was an improvised pot rack i used very long ago in a temporary kitchen while renovating the kitchen in my previous house; i really like this design over the store bought one