Set a Reminder for 23 July - Repeat-No End

What's right: Amy Winehouse. We have conflicted feelings.

What's wrong: She didn't listen to her pop. That's a choice.

What's left: "You'e so fucking special."

I lived through the "Friends" era. A stain on American dignity that can only be "cured"

What's right: 'tis the season for smoked fish

What's wrong: The @NRA. This is their answer to the #SandyHook massacre. Guy on radio today: [sounded like a guy my dad's age - lived the great depression] 'When I was growing up the #NRA was nothing but gun safety and sport enthusiasm...now, they're just a mouthpiece for the gun industry...shameful'  


What's left:  Cold-smoked fish.

The Cure:

• 50/50 kosher salt/dark brown sugar
• Black peppercorns
• Fresh dill
• anything else you'd like to add to the rub

Preparation for Curing:

Cure the Fish:

Lay out a three layers of sheet pan-sized food service wrap, one on top of the other. Put down a layer of the cure on the plastic. Place one salmon filet on the cure and rub in very well, and add layer of cure on top. Repeat with subsequent fillets. Spread a good covering of fresh dill between each fillet, as desired. Any fresh herb, really.

Wrap cure-prepped fish tightly in the food service wrap. Re-wrap as you deem appropriate. But be forewarned. Refrigerate for 36 - 48 hours, turning occasionally. [If I don't have 24 hour cure time, then I'm not smoking fish.]

Remove the fish from plastic wrap and wash under cold tap water.Pat as dry as possible, but do not press on the fillets.

Post-Cure: 
Place fish on rimmed baking sheet with a wire rack.
Let air dry until pellicle forms. [if you skip this step, you're doing it wrong]. Use a fan directed over the fish at room temperature (65-72 degrees) for two-three hours for optimal results. Otherwise, up to three hours in the fridge. [don't forget to bring the fish to room temp prior to smoking]

After Curing:
Place the cured fish in your smoker on your terms. Cold smoke for 2 - 3  or 4 or 5 or 6 hours depending on wind and other weather conditions. Since I have a mighty oak in my backyard, I'll be using aged and fresh-cut live oak.




Derived from
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=13281.0

Split Pea Soup for the Soul

What's right: Beef pot roast in a pressure cooker.

What's wrong: Mike Huckabee is delusional.

What's left: This is the season for split pea soup. So, I offer options to achieve soup nirvana:


Ingredients:
1 lb dry green split peas
1 tsp olive oil
2 large carrots, peeled
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
7 oz reduced sodium ham steak, diced (Boar's Head)
6 cups water
1 tbsp Better Than Bouillon or 1 cube*
1 bay leaf

meld with these

Ingredients:

1 cup split peas, dried
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
5 slices of bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 medium potato, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

deviate further from these staple ingredients at your professional peril. 15-20 minutes under pressure, natural release. remove smoked hock, if used, and shred the meat in a separate bowl. stick blend to desired consistency. serve in a bowl with a splash of dry sherry and a dollop of sour cream and a spike of the smoked hock meat. have sourdough/peasant bread, room temperature organic butter, cream cheese, fresh smoked fish (salmon, trout), preserved anchovies, sliced hard boiled egss, chopped cornichons, red onion and capers at the ready and in plentiful amounts.

Time for the True African-American to Destroy Jim Crow

What's right: Obama won an electoral mandate.
What's wrong: The seas are rising.
What's left: Where is the federal legislative beef?

What's [faaaaaaaaaaaaar] right: Ted Cruz.

What's wrong: The Yankees lost.

What's left: Taking Sheila [Shazam] to get spayed at 0630 tomorrow. She is a super breed specimen, but I don't roll that way.

Sunday Goodness (or not).

What's right: I made short ribs in the pressure cooker.

What's wrong: Arnold put his disease in her?!? He's got a serious fetish closet.

What's left: The Giants lost.

Lazy Post

What's right: It's Sunday.

What's wrong: It's Sunday.

What's left: The work week starts in about 12 hours

Dinner with Lewis Black

What's right: Going to see Lewis Black tonight.

What's wrong: Mitt Romney release his taxes.

What's left: Dinner at a food truck after the show.

Super Frustrated

What's right: Stewart vs. O'Rielly

What's wrong: Send us to war without fiscal restraint. then pull the fiscal card.

What's left: an incredibly inept system of learning. 19 separate school districts in bexar county alone. but what does the right want to do? privatize. what does the left want to do? more money. both sides are wrong. if we can save money and resources with privatization, then we can surely save money without transferring the 2/3/5/10+ % in management fees by adopting the privatization principles internally.

Coin Flipping

What's right: Cheeseburger day.

What's wrong: Gourmet Burger Grill. Fail.

What's left: What this election will come down to? A coin flip.

Note to Future Self

What's right: I am not a journalist. I am not a writer. But this post inspired me to get back to doing what I like to do: send my future self messages from the past. If you kept a diary as a youngster, you'll understand what I am trying to convey. Conventional wisdom isn't conventional, it is contemporary. We march inexorably to our demise. Shit changes.

What's left: @twitter. Pinterest. Yelp. Flickr.

What's wrong: Just about everything the national GOP machine says. Everything. Yes, normal people lie. But sociopaths and psychopaths don't even recognize it as a problem.

I Drove 2,000 Miles for this???

What's right: I got back from vacay in SoCal and saw a post from @TheMontereySA about an @SAChefcoalition pop-up dinner on Alamo Plaza. Eighty-five bucks. I had been dreaming about this day since the first LuminariaSA in 2008. That very first Luminaria was amazing. Houston Street, Alamo Plaza and the Alamo (and the Hilton Palacio del Rio) were bathed in ever changing light and lasers, replete with approachable contemporary local art. As my brother, my sister-in-law, my young niece, my mother and her husband, my daughter and her friend, Faith walked south along Alamo Street from Houston Street, in front of the Alamo, I said, "Wouldn't it be a great thing to have a pop-up dinner here? You know, like in the spirit of the French plantation scene in Apocalyspe Now Redux, with long tables, candelabra, proper service and great food?"

Last night, that dream came to fruition through no effort of mine. As far as I know, there was no talk of the First Indochina War or even the shitty war we are still waging in Afghanistan (being consumed by green on blue homicide). Aside from the lack of candelabra, proper service and great food were in abundance. The SA Chef Coalition put in tons of hours and sweat to prep the dinner.

Alamo Plaza pop-up dinner prep

What did one get for an $85 entry fee? Plenty. First course was pickles in tens of ways:
giardiniera with pigs' ears, pickled haricots vert, spicy pickled tomatoes and pickled zucchini, 

in the light of the Alamo.

Second course was multiple salads. The salad at my neck on the table was romaine hearts with two types of grapes and almonds. Pedestrian salad to contemplate our pedestrian but elevated seat at the table of the Alamo.

The third course comprised of wood coal fired whole bronzini and red fish served piled high on butcher paper. Super fatty fish, punctuated with clean smoke. As chef Dady implored, "serve with your hands." In the end, that's what we did. We used our hands to serve ourselves incredible, and seemingly endless portions of super fatty specimens. I'm not sure why the fork is in the picture, as I ate with my hands all night long.

The fourth course was a cake-wrapped custard. As I'm not a fan of cake, I fingered the custard out of the cake, leaving a very unhappy cake on the plate.

This benefit is what is completely right in our little city. We are not Manhattan. We are not San Francisco. We are not DC. We will never be a great city in the global world. But we can be an amazing city of Texas, an amazing city of the south, and an amazing city of the new progressive movement.

What's left: City council must obliterate the raspa-only Alamo Plaza licencing. Open up the plaza for @rollinpig, @TheChiliQueens @LagniappeToday and all local food trucks at least once a month and not mid-week. Allow for a pop-up dinners at least once a quarter. Invite food truck and taqueria coalitions to bid based on stakeholder input (i.e. barbacoa dinner, sushi dinner, bbq dinner, box chicken dinner, soup dinner, comfort food diner, etc) 

What's wrong: The DRT, as eloquently posed here. And the fact that Texas is open for business, as long as your business doesn't interfere with established brick and mortar business.