Things to come

Well, I'm surprised that Blog Protective Services hasn't snatched away this site due to neglect, and given it to someone who is a more consistent documenter of life. But since they haven't, I'll update it. Nikki and I now have a Soda Stream, a machine that let's you carbonate your own water for soda etc, thanks to a pile of neglected Macy's giftcards leftover from holidays. I just used it to make a 'Lapsang Souchong and Tarragon Julep', with a touch of smokey scotch. It somehow is good, and if I played with the balance of flavors a bit, might be worth making for people. For whatever reason I've recently been thinking up mixed drinks, almost entirely by accident. And this is happening despite the fact that I typically don't care for coctails. Some of this might be flavor creative blow-off from not brewing beer for some months because of space constraints. anyway, here is a link that you should click on: Today was a good day. made espresso for Nikki slept in late. Put public health lectures on my iphone and walked through park slope to downtown brooklyn. joined a credit union with Nikki. deposited 50 Euro left over from Italy to start them. The tellers were behind bullet-proof plexiglass. They were extremely nice and somehow pronounced my last name right on the first go just from looking at my license, something only 1 in 2.7 people are able to do. After that I walked to the, there's not another word for it -fabulous- , Brooklyn Public Library. There I paid a machine 26$ so that they'd stop sending me grumpy letters. The debt settled, I walked down sunny 7th avenue and bought baby herb plants from a rack in front of an organic food market run entirely by middle aged chinese women apparently. Basil, thyme, and lavender for like, $7...not bad. Got home, dropped the pots next to my sad looking, wounded plants who soldiered out the winter in our studio apartment under a compact fluorescent lightbulb. That includes a fig tree and olive tree somehow. Up the stairs, put on the absurd slippers I wear inside our home- hong kong knockoff plastic-y marshmallow looking fake crocs that I got at a 99 cent store...8 months ago. Anyway, long story short-er I made dinner with: [{Olive Brine^Thyme[Chicken]}: (parsnips,onion,yellow squash)/(Barley+thyme water)]x Pressure Cooker x 15-17 minutes = worth trying. descaled the coffee machina, cleaned up mess I made. mixed some earthworm casting 'tea' for the above-mentioned moribund plants- don't ask. Made the drink above as well. Resurrected the blog. Not bad.

New Year, New

Last few days a torrent of new music, books, and experiences. Discovered: and and

Hopkins is lovely; Baltimore, not so much

Title says it all for now

Micro-Projects underway

working on getting (NFP and Me)'s not-for-profit off the ground starting this new year correcting general areas of ignorance: - button sewing - logarithms - music theory - history of 20th century american journalism just ordered about a dozen books from The List (below) heading to Medieval Times tonight.

A return to form

X-mas list of wishes

Osso Buco

Osso Buco on the Food Network

Nikki's First BLT

Apparently, growing up in an immigrant household can severely limit childhood exposure not only to American movies (Nikki didn't see Jurassic Park until 2009), but also to the great american sandwiches. When I suggested making a B.L.T. last night, I heard this little voice over my shoulder say,
"what does that stand for anyway?"
...
So I decided to use my newborn sourdough ciabatta and whatever we had in the kitchen to make the closest thing to the classic that I could come up with. What appeared (see the blur below) was a 'Deconstructed BLT.'












local cherry and plum tomatoes, sliced then spiked with coarse salt
uncured, smoked bacon ends, sliced thick
local spicy greens, wilted in the rendered bacon fat
homemade mayo with shallot, apple cider vinegar, tomato pulp from the over-ripe specimens above, fresh thyme.
served separately with sliced ciabatta.

The end result were little BLT sliders that tasted great, but were messy since ingredients kept escaping through the holes in the bread. I'd say, 8/10 for flavor though. They would actually be great finger-food for a party if they were pre-assembled and bound.

With it we had a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's saison beer made with a new variety of hop from Japan called 'Sorachi Ace' that tatses like lemon cream. I think it convinced me to give it the nod for hop lead in our upcoming beer production:

Golden Snitch HPA

Which will be a butter-beer inspired pale ale hybrid: scottish yeast but at a high temperature fermentation, caramel malts, but with ample spicy hops, and now this lemon/cream note. The aim is a diacetyl tinged (but drinkable), rich and intriguingly hopped session ale. If it works, it might become our first House Beer.