Making God Chuckle

The old joke goes that the best way to make God laugh is to make a plan, and that's just what I'm doing.  It starts with a return to grad school.  Instead of mathematics, I'll be pursuing a Master's in Security Studies. Eventually, I would like to work in either the Office of Net Assessment, or the USMC Strategic Vision Group.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, as I still need to apply, be accepted, and find a way to pay for it, but I know that writing is in my future.  With that in mind, I will begin posting once a week, starting next week, a short essay on an article, or book, related to national security.

International Relations and Security Network (ISN): Our focus this week: The Securitization of Organized Crime 

The Nature Conservancy: Will climate change lead to a future with more war?  

It started with the Zombie Apocalypse

Photo by Daniel Hollister; used under Creative Commons Attribution license.

Well, maybe not directly, but it plays a part. It started because I was turning 40 and having a daughter. I thought it might be nice to live long enough to see her grow up. So I quit smoking, cut back on drinking, and started exercising.  Casually at first, but then I got serious when the missus suggested trying P90X.  I didn't think I would care for it, but I really got into it. I've been through one complete round so far, and am in the third week of the second round right now.  However, I do feel the need to complement P90X with some functional fitness workouts, which brings us back to the Zombie Apocalypse.

Simplicity

Moroccan sardines in spicy oil, couscous with preserved lemons and ras al hanout on top of a bed of baby spinach.

I recently watched Islam: Empire of Faith, and I found myself thinking that my ignorance of history is shameful. But then I remembered I'm an American, and we don't have history, just answers on game shows.

Watching Satellites

While it's possible I might have been able to see them in the city, it's definitely been enjoyable to be able to sit my backyard, looking up at the stars and watching for satellites. I had no idea how many could be seen. This page does a good job of showing what's passing by over your head. The default is just the International Space Station (ISS), but it also displays several others if you do a little digging.

My Latest Obsession

I got a lock picking set this past Christmas, after wanting one for several years. I played around with it for awhile, but got a little frustrated at my lack of progress, and so only intermittently would try my luck. But last month Wired ran an article on Marc Tobias, and I resolved to actually learn what I was doing. I started, like you do, with a Google search and found this guide from Locksport International. This was a nice place to start, but it was this document that really helped me understand what I was doing. As a consequence, I've discovered that Master Locks and Kwikset door locks are not nearly as secure as I thought they were. Now I need to find some new locks to practice on. And there's still more theory to learn. There's always more to learn.

Where My Head Is, That's Probably Where I'll Be.

Instead of trying to maintain two separate blogs, and subsequently maintaining neither, I'm no longer limiting this one to food-related activities, but will now write about pretty much whatever comes to mind. I'm sure there will occasionally be cooking mentioned, but I've been predominately interested in several other things these days. Sorry to disappoint anybody.

My Blueberry Rice

I was in the mood for peaches, and wanted to construct a dinner around them. Pork seemed a pretty obvious choice, but what could serve as a side dish? Well, blueberries play nicely with pork and peaches. I ended up with a damn tasty meal of pork in peaches and cream, with blueberry rice. And yes, the title of this post is a reference to Wong Kar-Wai's film, My Blueberry Nights.

Better Late Than Never

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I Forgot To Mention...

in all my *ahem* years of existence, tonight was the first time I've ever come across a maraschino cherry pit.

Act of Desperation or Stroke of Genius?

Why not both? Wanting a cocktail, but out of ice, I decided to use some frozen peaches that as an ice substitute. It added a nice taste to my Manhattan, and now I have some lovely bourbon-soaked peaches to make ice cream with.

Spring Fling Experiment

This was really tasty, though not yet in its final form. It's a mango gel sheet, pineapple coconut pearl tapioca, raspberries, maraschino brulee, and lime sugar. Wild Sweets Chocolate has a recipe for a hot fruit gelee using agar and gelatin. When warm, it should make a wonderful wrap. The pineapple and coconut may end up as separate components as I'm not particularly happy with how the tapioca turned out. More than likely I'll end up doing a coconut jelly and just brunoise some pineapple. Over all, a pretty successful experiment that I'll be trying again soon.

It Feels A Little Like Christmas

Martin Lersch at Khymos has updated his hydrocolloid recipe collection. It's a wonderful resource for learning how to use the chemicals commonly associated with molecular cuisine. Download it and start playing with your food today.

Smoking In Manhattan

...is illegal, but smoking a Manhattan is perfectly acceptable. To make sure some of the smokiness made it to the drink, I first placed the ice in a Mason jar, laid it on its side, and smoked the jar with cherry wood. Then I placed it in the refrigerator to absorb some of the smoke. I went ahead and measured out my liquor, some wonderful Maker's Mark bourbon (as an ambassador, I say unto you, when drinking bourbon, drink Maker's Mark) and sweet vermouth, trying to minimize smoke loss when it came time to open the jar.

Since I didn't have any maraschino cherries, but I did have the juice, I mixed it with some sodium alginate, and decorated the glass. I also bruleed a bit of the mixture and used it to rim the glass. The maraschino brulee was pretty damn tasty on its own. I'll have to find another application for it sometime.

Next I popped the lid to the jar, poured in the liquor, then tilted the jar and smoked it one more time. An appropriate shake time, and then sweet inebriation. It's a little more work than I care to put into every cocktail, but the smokiness and the maraschino brulee added a little extra something to the first Manhattan of the evening.

Smoked Salad

Sometimes you just can't help playing with your toys. In this case I made a fairly simple spinach salad with bacon, mushroom, and cheddar cheese. I usually add pecans, but since I didn't have any, I decided to smoke the whole thing with pecan wood. I let the smoke infuse for about ten minutes. The smokiness was pretty subtle, though a little more pronounced when I took a bite with mushroom. The bacon was cooked on the stove top on medium heat so as to render the fat. I deglazed the pan with an appropriate amount of apple cider vinegar so that I had a nice warm vinaigrette. While not ready for fine dining, still a damn fine dinner.

Smoked French Fries, The Second Time Around

So I was feeling lazy and hungry and succumbed to the temptation of fast food, in this case Mcdonald's. Since I got some fries, I thought I may as well smoke 'em. I dumped them in a bowl, covered in plastic wrap, and smoked them with applewood. They were even better than normal. Now to figure out if it worked this time because the fries are thin, because they're actually fried as opposed to baked, because I used a different smoke, some combination of all these, or none of them.

Pesce & Peche

Orange roughy, peaches, tea caviar & spaetzle. I cooked the fish & peaches sous-vide, 15 minutes at 125 degrees. The tea caviar is the tea/alginate mixture left over from the other night, dropped into a 1% calcium chloride solution for a minute, then fished out and rinsed with cold tap water. The spaetzle is just a basic spaetzle recipe. It's garnished with a little chili oil and mint oil. I'll have to try this again, but low roast the fish & peaches instead, perhaps adding a bit more liquid. That's the problem with having to use a FoodSaver instead of a fancy commercial vacuum sealer. Sure, I could freeze any liquid before adding it to the bag, but I don't always have that kind of prep time.

Putting It Another Way

I strained the coconut milk and reheated it, placed it in an N2O siphon. It thickened up slightly, but I think I may not have allowed it to sit long enough to achieve whipped cream consistency.


The cellophane noodles were softened in warm water and sauteed in chili oil. Not the best idea I've had as I now dread having to clean that skillet.


While not terrible, it didn't stand up to the previous night's version.