A Note From Bill Penzey
"Are we really going to leave unchecked the companies whose reckless pursuit of billions have so damaged our economy and our environment, and instead let our frustrations be redirected at the people who have spent their lives doing our unwanted jobs for dollars an hour? In our need to restore our sense of self-control are we actually going to reward politicians who are not working to bring us together, but instead are forsaking America's beautiful 234-year history of diversity? These are decent people's lives, real loving families where children will be separated from parents, where grandparents will be separated from grandchildren for what possible gain?"
Right on Bill. You make me proud to be one of your customers.
6 Comments
Minty Fresh Tips - Jul 21st, '10
1) I had forgotten that I had a bottle of rum and mint leaves infusing in the cabinet. It's been up there well over a week and no browning at all. Looks like the FruitFresh I added as an experiment worked as intended. I'm using about one third the amount it mentions on the label and it works fine without contributing much flavor at all.
2) I love Penzeys for spices, but they don't carry some of the things I want. In those cases I go to MySpiceSage.com. Much broader selection. Just a tip.
3) For those with Android phones - Launch-X Pro is the icon app you've been waiting for. Works as advertised. So rather than 16 icons per page you can get up to 56. It lets you make as many custom icon bars as you want, all with their own settings. Recommended.
1 Comments
Tacos - Jul 20th, '10
1) I keep trying to make tacos as good as the ones we can get at the taco shops here. And I keep failing, as the ones I make just don't measure up. Sure, mine are really good, but not as good as the real thing. In addition trying to make these tacos is silly, since our taco shops in San Diego are super cheap. But....... I guess I like the challenge. Anyway, al pastor would be a real challenge to make at home. There is no real recipe, and you need a super hot rotisserie.
The "secret" recipe is something of an oddity in the Internet age, but it does indeed seems to be secret. Even Rick Bayless's recipe calls for just buying a premade marinade. And the random recipes I've found online really don't match the taco shop flavor very well. I've taken a mole sort of approach and just used lots and lots of spices.
The grill is another challenge. My favorite al pastor is charred rather a lot so that all of the fat ends of charred black but the meat is still moist. My solution was to just cook the meat right on the chimney charcoal starter for sort of a jet engine effect. Works pretty well, but it takes forever to cook all the meat 1-2 pieces at a time.
End result? Good but still not as good. And certainly more expensive.
2) When making clove vodka, which is delicious, don't let the spices infuse too long. It will start to get extremely bitter after a couple days. So finding the best balance between a slight bitterness and full clove flavor is the challenge. I suggest checking it often after the first day for taste and racking off as soon as the clove flavor takes hold.
3) Cooking al pastor from scratch or making your own flavored vodkas might be cool hobbies. But I feel rather common and lazy when I check out what my old friend Erik Burrows is doing. From the shoulder mounted laser weapon, to the zombie apocalypse support vehicle, to the backyard iron smelter. Let's just say that when civilization collapses I want to be on his team.
3 Comments
Short Takes - Jul 18th, '10
1) Inception was a darn good movie. Certainly one I'm glad I paid to see in a theater.
2) Don't try to grind annatto seed in a mortor. You'll kill yourself. Either your grinder is up to the task or it isn't.
3) Looks like nerds aren't too impressed by Dyson's bladeless fan. Perhaps $300 is too much for a regular desk fan. But the hand drier seems pretty cool.
4) Happiness is having a great doner kebab place right down the street.
3 Comments
Information Is Evil - Jul 17th, '10
For a while now I've been watching the Bing.com TV commercials with complete amusement and contempt. The premise seems to be that Google search gives people too much information, which somehow paralyzes their brains and makes them sprout gibberish. Or that the Google results makes users stare at the screen in bewilderment as strangers using Bing steal their maids and girlfriends.
I don't understand these commercials and they seem idiotic. More information is bad? Google searches are too complex? People get stuck if the search engine doesn't give them one single answer? Seems........... dumb and wrong.
But on several of the tech podcasts I listen to people have been mentioning how broken Google's search model is and how people really want what Bing is talking about - One answer to their search. Huh? And the Bing model (whatever the fuck that is) is better than the cascade of crappy results you get from Google. Huh?
I really don't understand any of this. I'd rather have lots of relevant information. And in any case, if I try to do parallel searches in both Bing and Google I get basically the same thing. So Bing is better where? How?
It gets more silly if I do the search on my Droid. The returned results are so dialed in and detailed I wonder how they do it. Seriously. The Droid search results (which is Google mobile) are weirdly good.
I'm so confused I don't even know where I'm going with this. Bing gives better results than Google? Too much information is bad? Google isn't innovating? Seems like goofy talk to me.
2 Comments
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