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.