Jon In Albany

A Shop Rite Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:11:00 +0000

I was walking around Shop Rite, wandering through the frozen vegetable section, when out of the corner of my eye I saw it. I haven't seen it in years. Wasn't even sure they still made it. Seabrook Farms Creamed Spinach.

Sure it is highly processed and has lots of ingredients it shouldn't, but I loved this stuff. Back in the pre-microwave days, you'd simmer the frozen ice-cube pouch of creamed spinach in water. I just nuked it.

When it's good and hot, you cut the top off the bag and pour it into a bowl. Since I love the stuff, every drop is squeezed out of the pouch.

As a kid, we always ate this with Near East rice pilaf. The rice dish is less processed than the spinach although it has just the right amount of autolyzed yeast extract to make you eat the whole bowl.

Also in Shop Rite during that visit, I heard a series of loud popping noises while I was in the produce area. The staff at the cheese counter had their Magic Pop machine running. I had seen Magic Pop before, but I never saw it being made. It was kind of impressive and reminded me of the pancake machine I ran into at a Holiday Inn. Dough gets squirted into a little contain, the container closes, I'm guessing a combination of heat and pressure makes it pop, and these little popcorn-esque Frisbees come flying out.

If you look midway up on the left hand side of the next photo, I managed to capture the Magic Pop in flight.

After a bunch, the machine jammed up and need to be cleared out. The woman running the machine happily offered to bag me a fresh package of Magic Pop. These were cheddar cheese flavored.

Not a bad lite snack. I think a cracker was only 15 calories. I would describe them as a rice cracker with knock off Smartfood flavoring. Excuse me, I have to go clear out some space in the freezer and get a case of that spinach.

Channeling My Inner MacGyver

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 11 May 2013 03:27:00 +0000

Well, I don't actually have an inner MacGyver but with help from some friends and assistance from willing PizzaMaking.com forum member FeChef, I put together a DIY sous vide system. I am very pleased with how the system works. DISCLAIMER: I barely know what I'm doing. If you copy this, you're on your own.

The process began with seeking out a heating element. I tracked down an indoor turkey fryer on Craigslist and bought it. Turns out that without cracking it open to make some adjustments, the fryer element wasn't going to do it for me. Plus, the damn thing is so shiny and pretty I don't want to break it - I want to deep fry things in it.

After reading a several DIY sous vide articles online, a small water heater element looked like it would do the trick. So I went to Lowes to check one out. It was 10 bucks so figured I'd give it a shot. My idea was to drill a hole though a piece of stainless steel, thread the heating element through and cover up the electrical connection with a combination of shrink tube and electrical tape. Side note: I decided to uses stainless steel for the rust resistant properties completely forgetting that it is harder to cut and drill. During the development of this heating element, I went through a few hacksaw blades (I kept trimming the steel afraid to trim to much - 3 cuts later it fit snugly) and a drill bit. Here's the heating element:

The piece of stainless steel started at 14 inches long and was slowly whittled down to about 13 5/8ths and fits snugly onto the rim of our largest cooler. My idea was that it could then be place on top of other, smaller coolers for jobs that needed less water. We'll have to see how well that works.

Next up was securing all the electronics. This was pretty much a parts list supplied on a PizzaMaking.com post about brisket. Got an outlet, a PID controller, an SSR and heat sink, a better PT100 sensor (temperature sensor - the PID controller came with one too) and a water pump for circulation. Assembly took 2 nights. It was pretty straightforward (thanks again to FeChef's wiring diagram). The delay was more in me putting things together and then taking them apart to try and put together a little better.

After some mandatory trouble shooting, I was off to the basement for some testing. I filled a cooler with some hot sink water, set up the heating element and temperature probe and took it for a test drive. It held 140 what it thought was 140 degrees for a few hours. My instant read thermometer and the PT100 sensor differ by 2 degrees. I still have to put them both in ice water to see which one is off.

Today, I set it up in the big cooler with the water pump and cooked a sirloin steak in it. The box got hot during the heat up, but wasn't hot when cycling off and on to maintain the water temperature. A future improvement will include wither a cooling fan or additional heat sink. Here it is warming up on its way to 132 degrees.

I put the steak in an old rib rack so it would float around. I also wire tied a baking cooling rack to the heating element to keep everything away. The water pump suction feet didn't want to stay stuck to the cooler walls so it ended up positioned and clamped to the wire rack. I put the heating element and temperature sensor on one end of the cooler and was able to close the the larger part of the cooler lid to hep insulate the water and slow down any evaporation during future cooks.

Once out of the water bath, I gave the steak a quick sear on the grill. Not exactly the most appetizing thing right out of the water. Looked better after the sear and I was left with edge to edge medium rare.

Definitely a toy I'll glad to have. There's brisket, short ribs and a few other things I'd like to try in here. Many thanks to FeChef, the Harries (would you believe I know two guys named Harry?) and Jim for their guidance.

Franklin Hotel

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:26:00 +0000

I recently I found myself in Verona around lunchtime. A co-worker asked, "You guys have time for the Franklin?" I've always got time for the Franklin (side note: the restaurant isn't in Verona, it's in Rome). There's something about the place I just really like. Like most restaurants, some things are better than others. When I'm there, I always look for something seems like a Utica area standard. But just look at this place. It oozes history.

Here's an SAT flashback:

Franklin Hotel : Rome :: Ralph's : Albany

It's that kind of place. If you grew up near it, it would be the first place you wanted to go when you came home. Personally, I prefer it to Ralph's, but I didn't grow up near either place. The guys I was with went for some of the day's specials. One got manicotti and sausage.

The plate was a little nicer before one of the mannicotti was slipped onto this plate of eggplant parm

I went with one of the "Franklin Favorites." Greens, beans and sausage.

I really enjoyed it. Would have been a bit better if they were using my sausage, but that isn't their fault. I don't sell it. This is the kind of dish that would make a crappy winter day better. It is also very filling. I didn't eat anything else that day and I pretty much passed out on the ride back to Albany. Should you find yourself in Rome, check it out.

Restaurant Whinning

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:11:00 +0000

Maybe this is wussing out, but I'm not going to name the place. I've been a few other times and had significantly better experiences. I'll chalk this up to a Restaurant Week anomaly. So I'm going to bitch and moan about nothing of life changing importance. Hopefully none of this will get read by an actor.

I was downtown earlier tonight, me and two kids on tow, and without realizing it walked into one of the restaurants participating in the almost ended restaurant week. We got there at 4:45. The place was mostly empty. I asked for a table for 3. The hostess asked if I had a reservation and I did not. Apparently that was an incorrect answer. My response was met with sighs and paper flipping. Another host came to the stand. The first said to the second, "I have 3 walk-ins and I don't know if I can put them anywhere." Sorry to inconvenience you with my patronage of your restaurant.

I noticed a Restaurant Week sign, realized they looked like they were going to get slammed and said, "If you are booked up for the restaurant week, we can come back another time." I was told all they had was some tables by the bar or something in the lounge area. The kids were tired and hungry - I had them running all over town for the last 5 hours. So, we tried the lounge area. It looked nice enough, but I envisioned one of my kids dumping something all over the couches there and opted for a high table near the bar.

The kids got burgers. I went with the restaurant week menu. The appetizer and dessert were nothing special and get to escape the whiny, tirade that follows. The main course was not good. A dish that failed from it's inception. It was the dish that a chef proudly presents to Gordon Ramsey or Robert Irvine prior to getting read the riot act about why their restaurant sucks on a restaurant reality TV show. Everything about the dish failed:

The pasta wasn't good - no shit, you could buy better out of the freezer case of any local Italian market.

The sauce was a completely separated oil slick.

There were rings of a bizzaro kielbasa-ish meat, allegedly chorizo.

The diced tomatoes were those Styrofoam kind that get cut into huge chunks and top iceberg lettuce salads in the winter. Probably would have been better and cheaper if they came out of a can. Even cheaper if they never made it onto the plate.

There was some broccoli, mushrooms and shrimp in there too. Very backhanded compliment: though flavorless, the shrimp weren't over cooked.

I find it hard to believe that a professional chef in a pretty popular restaurant came up with the dish. I know, I know, I know...I'm whiny food snob and probably even worse. I wasn't expecting fine dining and I'm sure several corners were cut in trying to make some money at a $20 price point. But for how much chorizo was in the dish - buy a hunk of decent chorizo and use less. You'll need less anyhow. The pasta, you could probably do better at BJ's. Restaurant Depot probably has something along the same lines and maybe better. And the sauce, a line cook out there needs to learn how to make this one. The chef overseeing him should have taught him how to make this sauce prior to the last night of the restaurant week. In fairness to the hosting staff, the place did fill up while we were there. Although when we left, two of the reserved tables had yet to be seated.

Less bitching. More seltzer.

Unbelievable Week

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:58:00 +0000

This week has been nuts. Just insane. From the Onion:

“Maybe next time we have a week, they can try not to pack it completely to the fucking brim with explosions, mutilations, death, manhunts, lies, weeping, and the utter uselessness of our political system,” said basically every person in America who isn’t comatose or a complete sociopath. “You know, maybe try to spread some of that total misery across the other 51 weeks in the year. Just a thought.”

I was so sad on Monday. I lived in Boston for about 3 years. Unless you have been to the Boston Marathon, I'm not sure you get how over-the-top fantastic it is. Truly a special day. There's just an energy, a good feeling. Patriot's Day, which I had never heard of prior to living in Boston, really has its own vibe.

My spectator spot for the race was at the corner of Hereford (pretty sure that's the right street - next to a firehouse) and Bolyston. It is literally the beginning of the Home Stretch. The wheel chair racers are the first through and the street erupts when the first racer takes the corner and heads towards the finish line. Then there is a trickle of runners that slowly turns into a flood. You don't leave once the race has a winner. There are thousands of runners on their way that are counting on your support to make it to the finish. And that's not an exaggeration. I've seen plenty of runners that look totally exhausted and dehydrated and in dire need of a nap. But they don't stop. They can't stop. The crowd is literally propelling these completely fatigued runners towards the finish line. And if you know someone running...the only thing more exciting that looking for them in the field of runners is finding them. When my buddy Dan took that corner and headed up Boylston, I think I had that runner's high you hear so much about. And I was just cheering by the curb.

I have such good memories of Boylston and the Back Bay. Not just marathon related. I took a bartending class a few blocks away from the finish line. Sunday morning breakfasts (breakfast food in the early afternoon is probably more accurate) at Hunter's on Boylston. The pub crawl for my 21st birthday started at a place called the Pour House on Bolyston. The night I proposed to my wife, we stayed at the Lenox Hotel on Boylston. No idea how many times I walked up the street just on my way somewhere.

I joined Twitter about 2 weeks ago. The Boston Marathon bombings was the first time social media broke a news story to me. I couldn't believe it. Later that night all hopes of the damage being minimal were gone. Brutal. I found a large part of me wanting to look away, find a stupid sitcom world to escape and hide. And another part me felt obligated to watch. Turning away was ignoring what happened. The people there couldn't turn away. Why should I be granted that luxury?

And then an explosion big enough to register on the Richter scale rocked Texas. That disaster was followed by some much need relief at the All Over Albany birthday party. I got to say hi to people I've met a few times before and met a bunch people I "knew" online but had never actually met. TI felt nice to have a good time.

Unfortunately, that enjoyable evening didn't carry over onto Friday. One police officer was dead, another injured and the Boston area was in lockdown. And closer to home, Friday morning I saw something, nothing bad happened but, well here's what happened: When everyone shows up, 11 kids get on the bus at our bus stop. This morning, a 6th grade girl was there first. I was walking up the street with my girls. I'd say we are 100 to 150 feet away from the bus stop. I can see another parent coming toward the stop with two kids and a puppy. They are probably 200 feet away in another direction. A white van with some plumbing labels on the side stops in front of the bus stop. I can't see the 6th grade girl any more. Another white van (no labels) pull up next to the plumbing van. The vans are both pointed in the same direction. I imagine they are trying to figure out which house they are supposed to go to and have no idea there is a girl beginning to panic to their left. After a few seconds of the vans being parked, I see the girl bolt - running for your life fast - up the street to the other parent.

I don't mean to imply this girl did the wrong thing or over reacted. She did the absolutely correct thing. She feared for her safety, got the hell out of there and went directly to somewhere safe with an adult she trusted. The part that bothers me is that this is a lesson kids need to learn. And I saw the lesson in action a few houses up the road from mine. This is the world we live in. And I've got it easy. Try putting a 5 year old growing up in Watertown, MA to be tonight. What would you say?

Earlier tonight, I went to the Girls Scouts Decades Dance. Each troop picks a song and practiced a dance. This is my third Decades Dance. They are truly very nice events (even though one troop danced to a Taylor Swift song). And the kids really cheer each other on. It was pretty damn cute and hard not to smile.

After the kids were in bed, we turned on the TV and the second bombing suspect had been captured. Hopefully things are turning around. Next week has to be better.

Car Dealers

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 04:11:00 +0000

When the time comes to get another vehicle, I think I'm going to have a hard time. My problem has always been that if I hate your advertising enough, I'll never go your store. Even if it costs more. Never bought a mattress from Resnick's even though Air Tite Windows ripped their sign down. When we were shopping for a car a few years ago, we never shopped any "huge" lots. I really, really hate those ads. Thanks to the magic of DVR I am subjected to them much less frequently. And now, I'm getting annoyed with two other car lots - one where we bought the car and another where it has been serviced a few times. Maybe I'm over reacting, but here's what these two dealerships have recently done.

The dealership we purchased our car from (apart from jamming us for $500 at the closing and never following through with several promised free oil changes) keeps sending us email offering a "fantastic" deal using our current vehicle as a trade-in. In January, our vehicle plus a little over $17,000 would get us a new version of the car. In February, it would have been the trade plus $15,000. In March, the unsolicited offer dropped into the $13,000s. Yesterday, it dropped to $11,146.90 Perhaps, if I ignore them for six more months it will just be an even swap. The value of my trade in only keeps going down. How could they expect me to trust anything they ever tell me again?

The dealer that has done maintenance on the car sent an ad in the mail. But the entire ad is based in deception. They could have sent a flyer, but instead they sent a fake print out of an email sent from the owner to a sales manager. The letter is complete with from, subject, to, an attachment line, some customization to include my wife's name in a few spots and a printed attempt at mimicking a handwritten note. The letter also included a pretend email confidentially notice at the bottom so they could sneak in a few lines about combining offers, other restrictions and an offer end date. Why base your advertisement on a lie? And if it is so important for you to send me a pretend email filled with bullshit, why not actually send me a real email filled with bullshit and spare the tree?

I get that the car business is cut throat. Instead of living up to the sleazy car salesman stereotype, be honest. Maybe that's too much. Be mostly honest. If you have to send me stuff, send me information about what your car dealership can do for me - maintenance specials, deals for returning customers, estimate my trade-in value. Don't blatantly try to trick me when I'm not even looking for a car. I'll remember this when it is time for a new vehicle. The only thing both of these campaigns (and a few others) have done is make me regret ever walking onto either lot.

Maybe our next vehicle will be a jetpack. I've always wanted one and the kids will be out of booster seats by then. I bet jetpack dealers are cool people.

(Photo from flightglobal.com)

UPDATE (4/16/13): I swear I am not making this up. I received an email from one of these dealers earlier today. It's from the price dropping trade in place where we bought the car. I guess technically, the letter was only sent to my email account. The email was directed at the car to celebrate the anniversary of its purchase. Directly from the email:

Dear Malibu:

"Happy Anniversary" from your friends at XXX Chevrolet!

I hope you and Jonathan are getting along well and that Jonathan is taking good care of you. If you have any bumps and scratches, aches or pains, just come in and see us. We are here to care for you. As always if there is anything I can do, please call me at XXX Chevrolet at 518-XXX-XXXX.

I hope you and your owner have an excellent day!

Beef Packing

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:53:00 +0000

Had a busy day on Sunday. Got up at 6 AM (which is still night in my opinion) so we could be at the butcher shop by 7:00. Each half of a steer is owned by an individual. That individual makes all the decisions about how to process their beef. Steaks, roast, cube steaks, ground beef...the butcher doesn't care. He just wants to you be happy with what you get. This year I went first. I took some pictures but unfortunately not as many as I should have. When I wasn't making decisions, I was wrapping beef with freezer paper. Once decisions are made, the side of beef is broken down fairly quickly. My half of steer was cut, wrapped and boxed in an hour and 45 minutes. We started cutting and wrapping at 7:00, we were back at the house (a good 20 minute ride) before 2:30.

Here are some photos I took. Forgive me if I mess up a description. I'm getting better, but I'm certainly not an expert. The steers were quartered. Each quarter is hanging from a hook on a rail. There is an impressive track system in the shop. From the outer bay into the shop and then into a large walk in cooler.

Here you have chuck on the band-saw table, short ribs behind the chuck and a leg behind the short ribs.

The butcher's knife skills are nothing short of incredible. Basically no wasted movement. He also often uses gravity often and has a meat hook in his left hand. I don't have a photo of it, but watching him tie knots on a roast is also impressive. I'd love to follow him around and learn some of what he knows. I once watched him prep a deer for the cooler. I still can't believe how fast it was.

A brisket that will become corned beef pastrami. Would you believe most customers grind the briskets? Skirt steaks too. Several years ago I saw him remove the skirt steak and surprised him by knowing what it was.

Large chuck roasts. Good for stews and pot roast. And if I run out of ground beef, I grind it myself.

Short ribs.

Large bone-in sirloin steaks.

Shanks.

T-bones and Porterhouse steaks.

Beef being ground. This is the second pass through the grinder. He does a double grind.

Another shot from a different half of steer.

The ground meat is put in this huge sausage stuffer with a customized tip. If you look just to the right of the meat saw, you can see the hip switch that runs the stuffer.

Using his hip, the butcher stiffs the ground beef into these red and white sleeves. He's fast. He's stuffing the sleeves, one of us would tape the sleeve closed with a little tape gizmo he had, and another would label the tube of ground beef and put it in a box. It didn't take the butcher long to get ahead of us. And when you weigh a sleeve...they are all pretty damn close to 1.4 pounds. Here's my box of ground beef. Probably about 80 pounds in there.

I kept the ox-tail. That's a weird shape to wrap with freezer paper. I'm curious to see how the oxtail comes out of the pressure cooker.

One thing that amazes me every is how white and smooth joints are. I guess it is the same in a chicken. These are just so much bigger.

Among the cuts not pictured: flank steaks, skirt steaks, eye round roasts, sirloin tip roasts, top round roasts and steaks, chuck eyes, London broils, cube steaks and probably a few others I am forgetting at the moment. When we were done, two chest freezers (one of the chest freezers is huge the other is a normal size) and the freezer of a side-by-side refrigerator were completely filled with beef.

There were a few hogs hanging in the walk-in. Maybe some day. I'd need another freezer.

Hunger

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:06:00 +0000

Cathy Barrow over at Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen sent out an email last week to all of the Charcutepalooza-ers asking us to join bloggers across the country in writing about hunger in America today. I have been fortunate enough to have always had access to food. And the irony of writing about hunger hours after I participated in butchering enough beef to fill two chest freezers and the entire freezer portion of a side-by-side refrigerator is not lost on me.

The goal is to get people talking and encourage people to see the documentary A Place At The Table. I haven't seen the film but it will be screened locally (6:30, April 10th at the Spectrum and 7:00, April 18th at the WAMC Performing Arts Center). Unfortunately I will not be able to attend either local screening. I'm out of town on the 10th and have already accepted another invitation on the 18th.

One statistic that gets thrown around a lot in the media is that 1 in 5 children live in a home that is "food insecure." I've worked with enough statistics to know how they can be manipulated to make a case for most anything. Sadly, even if this statistic is reduced to 1 of 7 children or even 1 of 10 children, it's still too high. Plus, the problem of hungry children is completely avoidable in the US. It's not like we don't have the food. For me personally, the most disturbing part of this kind of data is that when I go into one of my children's classrooms, statistically a few of the kids in the room are hungry.

While I will not be able to see A Place at the Table this month, I plan to see it and encourage you to do the same. Poke around the food blogs today to see what others have to say. And if you have 10 minutes to spare, I recommend watching this presentation.

Stuffing the Ballot Box

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 04:40:00 +0000

Over at the Fussylittleblog, Daniel B. is once again trying to steer the "Best Of" voting (food related topics) at the Times Union towards deserving establishments. The idea being that a block vote helps local favorites get noticed instead of getting diluted in a sea of votes for chains. Maybe it is a little shady, but I'd argue the results of this annual poll are flawed at best without this tampering. So, I will tamper away.

Before my tampering begins, Daniel and I disagree on a few selections. The only choice I complained about over at Fussylittleblog is Health Food Store. While it may be a beautiful store (don't know-never been) the new Healthy Living Store in Saratoga is not a health food store. Neither is Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Shop Rite or Wegman's. All of these stores sell things that can be found in a health food stores, but they sell a lot of other stuff too. Health Food Stores don't. No beer, seafood counter, nose to tail butcher. The Price Chopper in Westgate has 3 aisles of international foods. Latin stuff, Asian stuff, Caribbean stuff, British stuff, Indian stuff...it isn't an ethnic market.

Since I'm ranting, here are the other parts of the election where I would differ from the block vote

Best Restaurant to Open in the Past Year – Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar
Never been, but it looks like it is a bar that serves some food and not a traditional restaurant. The place sounds great, but not like a great restaurant. No matter what Cheryl Clark says. I recommended Tara Kitchen, but I'm told that place is about 15 months old and doesn't qualify. So how about Comfort Kitchen instead. Never been but it sounds good. There's got to be a few others out there too.

Best Wine Store – All Star Wine & Spirits
I prefer Empire Wines. If you are looking for someone to guide you through the wine world, you are better at All Star. If you know what you want, you can probably save a few bucks getting it at Empire.

Best Italian Market – Cardona’s
In my opinion, Cardona's focuses on prepared foods more than the market side of the business. I used to get pork butt at their meat counter, but haven't for awhile. When I think Italian Market, I go to Pellegrino's on Central.

Best Health Food Store – Healthy Living Market & Cafe
Dean's is the best local health food store.

Best Standalone Butcher – Roma, Latham
Since it is attached to an Italian Market, I'm not sure how "standalone" Roma's is. Plus I have been unimpressed with the butchery side of the store. I think you could do better at Fresh Market down the street. How about we show some love for Sal's or Flavo or Fred the Butcher or Greulich's (also not 100% stand alone).

Enough whining, I'm off to go skew an election. Stop by Fussylittleblog and follow the link to cast you votes. Or you can go the Mr. Dave route and write in "Kurger Bing" for everything.

Craigslist

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 03:40:00 +0000

Have you ever found something that you don't actually need but really want on Craigslist so you send an email to some unknown person expressing your interest in their stuff then they never write back leaving you to stare obsessively at your phone desperately waiting for a little chime signalling the arrival of their reply so you can meet them and add this thing to your collection of junk that you may use one day?

Me too.

Trader Joe's again, and again

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 02:26:00 +0000

I haven't looked back at the past posts, but I'm pretty sure I have only complained about things I haven't liked at Trader Joe's. I know there was one about olive oil and another about sun dried tomato chicken tenders. So, off the top of my head, here's a list of things I do like at Trader Joe's: Columbus salami, cheese sticks, various fruits, maple frosted shredded wheat, a few of the breads, yogurt (if you're into soy, their soy yogurts are as good as soy yogurts get), sour cream, milk, whipped cream cheese, some frozen vegetables, a quinoa duo vegetable side dish that is strangely good, cereal bars, black olives, ketchup, jar of marina (in a pinch), a few pastas, lentil soup, these little cheese/cracker sandwiches (don't open the box unless you plan to eat them all), crumbled blue cheese for salads, lightly salted almonds, decaf Irish breakfast tea, kosher turkey breast splits, hot dogs, white grape juice (great when mixed with seltzer) and I'm sure I'm leaving several things off the list.

Truth be told, I've spend a lot of time roaming the aisles of the store. Probably too much time. Earlier today I was in Trader Joe's looking over a shelf. To my right, a gentleman was talking to a crew member. They finished their conversation and as the crew member walked away, she started helping another customer. The gentleman, turned around with another question and asked it before he realized the crew member was already talking to another customer. After 8 months of repeatedly visiting the store, I knew the answer and directed the gentleman where he needed to go. As we walked over there, we chatted. Nice guy, lives mostly in Phoenix and is looking forward to Whole Foods coming to the area. He really likes Whole Foods.

If I get laid off, I guess I'll fill out a Trader Joe's application.

Flashback: Easter Sunday 1993

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:50:00 +0000

In the spring of 1993, I was living in a dorm at the University of Connecticut. I had spent a lonely weekend on an nearly empty campus. When my roommate returned around 8:00 Sunday evening, he had a big plate of sandwiches that his mother had made for me. They were great. Everything about them was delicious. The rolls (egg knot rolls that I still remember 20 years later) were so fresh. The ham was moist and tender. I was treated to a perfect storm of sandwich greatness. On Monday, I fired off a thank you note to my roommate's mother.

That was the only year I shared a room with that roommate. We remained friends but he stayed on campus and I moved to some nearby off-campus apartments. Around 8:00 on Easter Sunday for the next three years, he tracked me down and delivered a plate of seriously kick-ass sandwiches to me.

I think of those sandwiches every Easter. His mother and I reminisced about those sandwiches at his wedding a few years ago. A few hours ago, I got an email from him wishing me a happy Easter. Earlier today his mother told the story of those ham sandwiches while she made this one and asked him to send me the picture.

Unfortunately, I don't get to eat this sandwich. It looks really good. But it is nice to know that I'm not the only one who remembers Easter 1993 and those sandwiches with a smile.

Weed Country

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Once the season of Moonshiner's ended, I stumbled onto Weed Country. Very similar show with cameras following people doing some illegal(and some legal) activities and other cameras following law enforcement. Instead of booze, marijuana is the star of the show.

The thing I took away from the show is that medical marijuana isn't definitely not bullshit. Sure there probably plenty bullshit prescriptions out there. "Yo, doctor dude, my back hurts and the Phish concert is this weekend. Do you have anything for that?" I'm not talking about that. I mean life saving medicine. The same playing field as penicillin.

There's a woman with a son named Ben. Ben is three and suffers from epileptic seizures. A lot of them. Many of them are severe enough to be life threatening. One of the grower's named Nate broke the law by taking some specific marijuana, separating out the Cannabidiol (CBDs) and getting it to Ben's mother. From the epilogue of yesterday's show: "Ben went from 10-12 seizures a day to less than 1 a month." Why is it a felony to produce this is turn it into a pharmacy grade medicine? That's absurd. And it's not just epilepsy. According to Wikipedia, this stuff may also be good for multiple sclerosis, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, convulsions, inflammation, nausea and inhibiting cancer growth.

Which politician or law officer want to knock on Ben's door and take the medicine away? Sorry kid. Good luck with the 4000 seizures this year. You can't have this stuff that would make it less than 12.

One of the growers said in the closing of the show:
"We're a great country and I love this country. But what kind of country would jail a person, put him in a cage, for using a plant that can heal their illness. That's just barbaric to me."

He's got a damn good point.

Slaughter

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 02:28:00 +0000

For about two years, these two steers roamed the field at my in-laws.

They were good animals. Only got jumpy once - they did not like the sound a weed-whacker makes. For the most part, they were very calm animals that wandered around and ate grass. Earlier today, both steers were slaughtered.

My nervous joke prior to participating in my first slaughter was that either "I'm going to have a lot of beef, or I'm going to be a vegetarian with a lot of beef to give away." I still eat meat but since starting in this home raised meat project, I waste much less food than I used to waste. I think a large part of that came from seeing the origins of the beef I ate. With that in mind, I am going to post some photos I took earlier this morning.

This is the first time I used a "jump." Hopefully I got it right. If this isn't something you want to see, please don't read the rest of this post. I'll put something else up in a day or two.

Both steers were put in headlocks. One was released and came around the corner and saw a bowl of food. It was then shot with a .22 rifle and it's throat was slit. The steer died very quickly.

A chain was put around one hoof and the steer was pulled to a frame (with a tractor) that has two hoists and a spreader bar.

The feet are removed and removal of the hide begins. The hides cover the cost of the slaughter and aging the beef. The knife work is incredibly impressive to watch. There is no wasted movement and extreme accuracy. One wrong cut can drastically reduce the value of the hide.

As the hide removal process continues, the hoists are raised as need. At one point (no photos of this because I was busy), the body cavity is opened and the viscera are spilled into the bucket of a tractor. The viscera are then loaded in to 55 gallon drums to be picked up by a rendering plant. For some reason, in my mind this is where the change from animal to meat occurs.

Once removed, the hides are placed in rubber buckets for transport. The hide of a full grown steer is surprisingly heavy.

An electric saw is used to cut the carcass in half.

Once split, the halves are cut into to front and hind quarters and lowered into a truck to be transported to the butcher shop.

The process was then repeated with the second steer. From start to finish, it took just under one hour for the steer to go from alive to quartered. Half of each steer was weighed when we arrived at the butcher shop. The hanging weights were 670 and 614 pounds.

Once weighed, the quarters were put on a track and moved into a cold room where they will dry age for two weeks.

In two weeks, we will make decision about how when want the meat butchered (roasts, steaks, cube steaks, stew meat, burger...) and wrap the beef for freezing. I'll post some pictures of that as well.

Caffeine Confession

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 03:25:00 +0000

I am a complete and total caffeine wimp. I used to drink caffeinated drinks all the time. Loved iced tea. Southern sweet tea is the greatest.

When I first started working at my current job, everyone went downstairs to grab a coffee around 10:00. I followed. We'd hang out for a few minutes, shoot the breeze and lady making the coffee brewed really good coffee. For about 2 months straight I had a 10:00 coffee. Until one fateful morning, I was scheduled to attend a 10:00 meeting and missed my coffee. The ensuing caffeine headache lasted 3 days. After that, I switched to decaf and choose my caffeinated moments more carefully. Like at work after being up all night with a baby or the times I had to change up my schedule and work the overnight shift.

Earlier this week I had to attend a few afternoon presentations. They were interesting enough and the presenters were engaging. But it was around 2:30, and the lights in the room were dimmed and I found myself fighting to stay awake. I had a couple head-snap-was-I-just-snoring? moments. Outside the presentation room in between talks there was a big bucket of ice cold Pepsi. Personally, if I'm picking soda I'd go Coke but beggars can't be choosers. I drank about 8 ounces of Pepsi. Wow. That perked me right up. I'd say even made me a little jittery.

And that is why skinny cans of Red Bull and those little bottles 5 Hour Energy freak me out.

Another round of pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:32:00 +0000

We had some more pizza for dinner tonight. When I made the dough, I was planing to make the pizzas on Sunday. That didn't happen and the dough spent an extra night in the fridge. It worked out in the end but I wonder what they would have tasted like Sunday night. I only grabbed pictures of the last pie. I was expecting it to come out the worst of the four I made - the dough stuck to the peel and I had a little trouble getting it in the oven - but dammit, it came out the best. The kids were happy there was an extra pie and demanded that the pizza be saved for their lunch tomorrow. Success.

Still need a little work shaping the pies but I would still argue that a decent night of home made pizza is still better than many of the local options. Sadly with 20/20 hindsight, I should have gotten a bigger piece of steel. And even sadder, there are a few more types of flour I want to try out even though I have about 40 pounds of one kind in the basement. So many recipes out there. Last night I saw another one that has me drooling. I think I might just have to pick one dough and focus on improving it.

A Visit to the Great Escape Logde and Indoor Water Park

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:42:00 +0000

My niece is on a swim team and today they had their end of season banquet and party. The banquet was a pizza party followed by some awards. Since no one will come to the Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Water Park on a pizza quest, no one will be overly disappointed by the pizza. The highlight of the banquet was when my niece was singled out for an award. Way to go, Abby!

Perhaps this review will be too jaded because I am in my 40s and there wasn't any shock and awe at the sight of the indoor water park. Two of the 3 kids with us thought it was "awesome" and one, over-tired, cranky, passing-out-on-the-ride-home kid said it was "boring." Strangely, she never looked bored while she was there. Look at this. This is kid heaven when it is below 30 degrees outside and it is summer inside.

Other than the banquet, we spent most of our time in the lazy river....

and waiting to spend 40 seconds going down the Avalanche slide. The Avalanche is among the worst run lines I have ever seen in an amusement park setting. You've got big tubes that seat up to 4 people going down a water slide. Not too big a deal. However, the people getting onto the ride don't start getting into the raft until the previous people have left the ride. They should be seated and ready to go ASAP. There's an overly complicated machine to bring the rafts to the top and it goes slowly. In the afternoon, they only had two rafts going. An automatic gate and a few more rafts would cut the line time in half. As an engineer, it was painful to watch how slowly it was going. Especially since the same stairwell is used for another slide. Not an exaggeration: the people behind us in line left one person to hold their place in line while the other two went down the adjacent slide 4 times before they got onto the Avalanche ride. They rotated and didn't abandon 1 person in line. Although the father never waited in the line - lesson learned for the future. Here we are at the top. Just about 20 more minutes before we get on the ride.

There are also the standard amusement park "fees." Locker rentals, over priced refillable soda cups, that kind of stuff. The weirdest thing there is the life guards. The few I talked to were extremely nice. But besides their red shorts and white shirts making me think of this song, they are trained to do a strange walk. They have their area that must be patrolled. They walk back and forth scanning their area. At each end of their 10 to 15 foot walk, they stop and do a weak version of ZZ Top arm wave and then head back in the other direction. Again and again and again. I hope they get paid well.

I don't want to beat the place up too badly. We had a good time. From the kid's point of view the place was great, from an adults perspective - eh. We also paid a $35 per ticket group rate to get in that included our lunch. Not cheap, but much less than the room rate. I just checked their website and to do this with a room next Saturday night is $320 for 4 people. That's not including the meals you are going to have to have to buy. So a night here can easily cost a family of four $500 to $600. That's half a membership for the family to the Ciccotti Center. For the price of two nights you have a scaled down water park and gym membership for a year. The hotel/water park rates go down if it isn't a Saturday, but is still isn't cheap. Unless the swim team heads back, I think this might be a one shot deal for us.

Grand Theft Cookie

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:00:00 +0000

On most days, I'm a pretty honest guy. But for the past few days, I've been considering turning to a life of crime and planning a heist. I knew when and where there would be several truckloads of Girl Scout Cookies. And since the Girl Scout Pledge start with the words "On my honor," clearly there was going to be no security.

Each local troop was assigned a time to load up on their cookies. We were there for two troops whose orders filled two pickup trucks and an SUV. Took about 15 minutes to load everything. The truly impressive sight was seeing large moving vans filled to the brim with cookies. To borrow a phrase from the Profussor, one truck was filled with a shit-ton of Thin Mints. This is one troop's allotment of Thin Mints.

Other cookie varieties shared space on the same truck.

I didn't pull the trigger so I've got a year to come up with a plan of attack. I'm considering going the Thomas Crowne Affair route. Any co-conspirators out there? Taking cookies from little girls would be almost as easy as taking candy from a baby. I wonder if we'd be able to hit a milk truck that afternoon....

As with last year, here is the extremely scientific survey of Girl Scout cookie popularity.

This year the Thin Mints took a hit but still remained king. Two large orders may have skewed the results. My brother Mike switched his case order of Thin Mints (he gives them out as gifts - at least that's what he says) to Trefoils. Plus a friend from the curling club ordered an additional 10 boxes of Trefoils (he's definitely not giving them out as gifts).

One thing that is interesting to note in the stats: more boxes of cookies were donated than the combined sales of Savannah Smiles, Thank U Berry Much and Dulce de Leche. I think that pretty much sums up the quality of those cookies, although there are people out there that really like Savannah Smiles. I don't get it. However, these Savannah Smiles lovers are probably very nice people that would never dream of stealing truckloads of Thin Mints and Samoas, unlike certain other people we know...

Super Market Wars Continue

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:42:00 +0000

In what I would believe are retaliatory renovations, both the Hannaford and Price Chopper in Latham are under construction. The Price Chopper is annexing some adjacent space and growing. It's already pretty big and I'm curious to see what they do with the space. A large portion of their parking lot is blocked off for a staging area. Other than some changes to the entrance and the removal of the little flower shop in the corner, the inside of the store is business as usual.

Across the street at Hannaford, they have completely rearranged the aisles. For awhile, I was in this Hannaford fairly regularly and knew my way around. Not so much anymore. The cashier told me they are arranging the aisles the same way tho Wolf Road Hannaford was reorganized. No more healthy foods section - everything is going to be mixed together. So that granola that used to be in the healthy section, that's in with the cereals now. Or the organic frozen broccoli, that's with all the frozen vegetables now. Personally, this is a huge pain in the ass. I used to know where the things I bought were and now I end up walking up and down aisles looking for them. It's the difference between shopping with or without a list. The way the store is set up now, I need a list or something will definitely be forgotten. Ironically, I stopped by the Latham store instead of the on on Wolf Road so I could just grab a few things and go. Instead, I spent at least an extra 20 minutes looking for stuff and got frustrated and picked up some soda at a different store because I was sick of walking in circles. I noticed a few other people in the same boat - roaming around looking at the aisle signs and sighing. I shrugged my shoulders sympathetically at a fellow lost shopper and she said, "They mooooved everything!"

One bright side to the Hannaford remodel, I was told they are not going to re-arrange the checkout like they did on Wolf Road. On Wolf Road you wheel your cart up to a greeter that directs you to a checkout line. Apparently I'm not the only one that really doesn't like that. I'll come back and wander around the Latham Hannaford once they are done, but I think I'm going to give them a little time to sort it all out before my next visit.

Corned Beef

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 04:44:00 +0000

The corned sirloin tip roast came out pretty well. I wold use a dry cure for corned beef again. The beef let off a good amount of liquid. No leaks. For some reason I couldn't get the bag to seal. Rather than try another bag, I just tied it off with a twist-tie. After 9 days (I went a little over the recommended week since this is thicker than a brisket) of daily flipping, here's what I had.

I put the roast in a crock pot filled with water set on low for 6 hours. After the 6 hours is automatically switches to the "keep warm" mode. With the exception of the programmable timer, my slow cooker sucks. the "keep warm" temperature is too low (around 150 def F) and the low setting is too high (around 215 deg F). While the corned beef was in its water bath, I stopped at Nino's - just off Central near the Shop Rite - and picked up a sliced rye. Seemed to have less seeds than normal, but I think it is the best around.

Looks like a corned beef...

The texture was a little different than a brisket but it was still pretty tasty. With the exception of a small gray spot in the middle (not sure how well you can see it below), the cure went through the whole roast during the 9 days and this method is easier than brining.

I like the flavor but it was missing something. Sadly, I think it was the clove that I intentionally skipped because I hate cloves. Want to ruin a ham? Spike it with cloves. I think next time around I might add a clove. Also, this roast probably didn't need the long simmer. Maybe in the smoker next time. I guess that would turn it into pastrami. That's not a bad thing.

L'Artiste

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:52:00 +0000

A week or two ago we got a letter from the school letting us know that one of Casey's art projects was going to be put on display at the Legislative offices downtown. Several works of art from around the are had been chosen to be put on display and several politicians were going to be on hand for a meeting on art in schools this week. We couldn't make the meeting, but on the eve of her 7th birthday, we set off to see the display.

I'm not sure which section/building we walked into first, but one thing is certain: the capitol building on is huge. So much bigger than I thought it was from driving by. The friendly guard that searched us like we were getting on a plane (except we got to keep our shoes on and he mostly gave the kids a pass) gave us directions to "The Well" part of the Legislative wing. "The Well" is a pretty impressive space. It would have been more impressive if the fountain was running. Check out the stairs, all stone, all beautifully constructed and symmetric.

Off to the side, we found the art display.

I thought it might take a little effort to find Casey's artwork, but the kids found it in about 20 seconds. It's the bluish one (I'm clearly a connoisseur of the arts) on top.

It's from a project called "Organic Shapes." I like it.

Got a picture of the artist with her sister Allison.

I'm not the biggest art guy but there was a lot of really impressive stuff on display here. I mean stuff I would consider buying. The kids don't bring home any art during the year. Instead, at the end of the year they bring home a portfolio. Every year there are lots of things worth saving and a few worth framing. I'm not sure what they are going to talk about at their meeting, but I hope it isn't program cuts.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:47:00 +0000

I have successfully avoided Facebook. The only time I was tempted was when I was invited to friend a chef whose blog I had been following. I hemmed and hawed and waited and eventually completely forgot about my invitation. About a month later, Facebook sent me an email reminding me of the invitation. When I got that, I feared I had completely blown off a chef that had been nothing but friendly to me - a complete stranger that stumbled onto his blog and got his email address. So I sent him an email that basically said, "I decided I wasn't ready to join the Facebook crowd and then quite rudely never mentioned it to you. I'm sure you spent many sleepless nights wondering if 'Jon in Albany' was going to join you Facebook, and for that I am sorry." He took not being friended by a complete stranger very well and continued replying to my occasional charcuterie question. I've never looked back at ignoring Facebook. Still quite glad I have nothing to do with it. I can waste hours in front of a computer screen without...well, without whatever people do on Facebook.

To date, I have also been resistant to The Twitter. However, with Twitter I am starting to feel like I might be missing something. Pretty sure I would mostly be a follower. A handful of comedians, maybe a few chefs, some local people too. The decision would be easier if I could figure out how to follow a conversation. There's got to be a idiot's guide to using Twitter out there somewhere. I could just wait a few more years and then the kids will teach me how to use it. So far, I am still better at computer stuff then they are. Those days are numbered though. I don't know, Twitter. I'm a definite maybe.

Spice of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:57:00 +0000

My favorite area health food store is Dean's Natural Foods in Westgate Plaza. Yes, Honest Weight has pretty much all of the same stuff and I've never really done a price comparison between the two stores. And I like Honest Weight too. I just don't see Honest Weight as a health food store. I still go to Honest Weight every so often but I just like Dean's.

Everyone there is very friendly. There is one woman that works there, I should find out her name, that greets you with a warm hello. When you say, "Hi, how are you?" back to her, the response is, "Reasonable." Wouldn't it be nice if we were all reasonable?

Dean's is where I get most of my spices. They might have a little less space dedicated to seasonings than Honest Weight, but I like the set up at Dean's better. It's more relaxed, they have little bags with stickers already on them to label the spices, and I think the spice prices are quite fair. Need a tablespoon of allspice, buy just a tablespoon of allspice. It will be cheaper and better than anything you buy in a supermarket. Plus you won't have a spice you use once and throw the rest away in 6 or 7 years. I stopped in earlier today to pick up some spices.

I picked up some oregano and granulated garlic just to have more of both in the house. The granulated garlic is great. I also picked up some bay leaves, yellow mustard seeds, allspice, and coriander (I already put the granualted garlic in a jar - it is potent stuff). Quick spice buying tip - put the date on the label so you know how old the spices are.

I mixed up some salt, cure#1, and brown sugar in the bowl on the left. Most of the spices I bought today are in the bowl on the right. I rubbed one of the last roasts I have in the freezer with the spices. Not exactly the traditional corned beef, but I think it will work.

It will get tucked away in the fridge for at least a week before it gets cooked. This is the first time I dry rubbed a corned beef. The few other times I've used a brine.

I loosely followed the Serious Eats recipe. Here's the Serious Eats write-up and recipe. We'll see how it goes. At the very least, I hope it comes out reasonable.

First Post-Pizzamaking.com Pizzas

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:53:00 +0000

I recently joined the Pizzamaking.com forum. The depth of information available there is astounding. I took some of the flour out of my 50 pound bag (a slight exaggeration - I broken the 50 pound bag down into lots of 4 to 5 pound vacuum sealed bags and one big jar) and made some dough on Monday night and put it in the fridge. The recipe was developed by a guy whose screen name is Glutenboy. How bad could the dough be? Tonight I put the homemade pizza steel in the oven and fired it up.

I don't know if it is the mixing technique (all the yeast and water and half the flour get mixed first) or the high protein flour or some combination of both, but this is the first time I felt like I was able to work with the dough and shape a pizza. I can't tell you how many video's I've watched only to tear the dough. No problems tonight. I even tried to flip the dough between my hands and kind of got the hang of that. I wouldn't have ever tried to do that before because the result would have been more like a donut once my hand went straight through. I used Scalifini crushed tomatoes for the sauce and Trader Joe's mozzarella for the cheese. Once again, the olive pizza is for the kids. I'll eat it, but doubt I would ever pick just a black olive pizza.

I've still got to work on how I use the oven. For the most part, these were baked for 3 minutes at 550 and then broiled for 1 minute. I'm probably more excited than I should be. Hopefully hanging around that website continues to assist in making improved pizza. Progress...

Summer in February

noreply@blogger.com (Jon in Albany) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:39:00 +0000

Winters can seem to drag on and seem endless. To get through it, we have an annual Summer in February picnic. It's a summer family barbecue in the middle of winter. Groundhog's Day has nothing on this. You ever have a Thanksgiving style food induced coma on Groundhog's Day? Didn't think so.

The tradition started a few years ago when we gathered at a camp on the Sacandaga for a pot-luck picnic and a bunch of outdoor winter fun. The food kept getting better and the event quickly picked up an alias, Pierogie and Rib Day.

Other than a little of the coordination, my contributions to the meal are the ribs and sausage. I've got a burn barrel for making charcoal. At some point in this barrels history, it was a 55 gallon drum of tomato paste. With a few modifications, this thing has been generating charcoal for barbecue for over 10 years. You cut a small door towards the bottom. This is where you shovel out the coals and control how much air the fire gets. You drill holes so you can make a grate of rebar above the door. My grate is by the lower barrel rib. The grate supports the burning logs and allows coal sized pieces to fall to the bottom. Once you're done cutting and drilling, you basically have a giant charcoal chimney.

Start a fire an you are off to the races. With the door at the bottom open, you can turn this into a jet engine. With is closed, you have a more controlled, slow burn. Although this year, I got smart and used a bunch of coals from the wood stove to heat the pit. Usually, I have to make two fires.

The pit is just a stack of old concrete blocks. In the summer, I just put the colas on the ground. You can't do that in the winter. The coals thaw the frozen ground then water comes out of the once frozen ground and puts out your fire. Ask me how I know. The work around is some bricks and an old cast iron grate just above the ground.

I cooked two rack of ribs and a few pounds of sausage in there. Instead of the usual rub, I went with one recommended by Mr. Dave. Here's a link to the recipe. As to be expected from a Mr. Dave recommendation, the rub is great. My wife's uncle took the extra rub I had home with him.

Off to one side of the pit was a slope my father-in-law set up for the kids. They had fun with it. Here's my nephew on a sledding run.

Once the food started, it never seemed to stop. There was a big taco dip with chips. On paper, I shouldn't like taco dip, but I love it.

I threw together a Buffalo cheese dip. Not bad. It's one of those things that isn't fantastic but for some reason you can't stop eating it.

Aunt Carol fried up a ton of pierogi. There are only 9 in the pan...she fried up a lot more than 9.

My mother-in-law makes some seriously good deviled eggs. Her potato salad is great too.

Now that's a lot of pierogi. The ribs came out tender and the combination of smoke with the rub wa delicious.

Here's Round 1 for me.

Hope you left room for dessert. In addition to ice cream, there were lots of cookies - some gluten free thin mints that really tasted a lot like the real thing, chocolate cherry cookies and kissing hands. Plus an apple square and a chocolate rum cake.

After the kids went to bed, there was a loud, highly contested six-handed pinochle game that went until 1 AM. Just like in the summer.