Monday, August 31, 2009
The Real Secret Sauce
Why do so many dishes cooked in high end restaurants taste so much better than those prepared at home? Steakhouse steak almost always tastes better for example. There are a few reasons for this actually, some you can do something about, some you can't. Firstly they use a LOT more salt than you do, way more actually. Secondly, they probably use better butter than you do, and more of it. Third, I often hear it said that restaurants get much better cuts of meat than a home cook can. While this is undoubtedly true if you get your meat at a run of the mill grocery store, you can pretty easily find excellent cuts of meat at a butcher shop (yes, they still exist, you just need to look). I find both Whole Foods and Costco have excellent meat, try to find "Dry Aged" meat rather than cuts straight from the Cry-o-Vac. The Fourth item on the list is heat, commercial stoves, broilers and grills can get exceedingly hot and easily produce a nice sear on the meat without over cooking, not much you can do about that. Lastly, they probably used a touch of Demi-Glace on it, or more if there is an actual sauce accompanying the steak. Demi-Glace is a French concoction that is basically Veal/Beef and Veggie stock which has been reduced down to a super concentrated, turbo stock. The trouble with Demi-Glace is that it takes forever and a day to make. The concentrate pictured above is a high quality, shelf stable Demi-Glace paste. You'll choke when you see the price given the quantity, but in reality it is much cheaper than going it on your own. Give it a go on your next steak, whip up a little Demi-Glace mushroom sauce, you won't regret it, like a good Catcher in baseball, Demi-Glace is a value multiplier. More Than Gourmet also makes a number of other sauces and stocks that are quite good, and their site has a number of good recipes incorporating their products.
More Than Gourmet
More Than Gourmet
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Blundstone Boots
While we are on the subject of oddball footwear, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Blundstones, or Blunnies as they are known colloquially. If you have spent any time in the Pacific Northwest, you probably familiar with the conceptually similar "Deck Slipper". Since you can't really get deck slippers on the East Coast, I picked up a pair of Blundstones on closeout from L.L. Bean. That was 15 years or so ago, and they are still going strong and are probably the best knock around boots I have ever had. Comfortable and indestructible, Blundstones make superb work shoes and I heartily recommend them, although not without a few caveats, as follows; Blunstones originated in Australia, and while it may not snow in Oz, it certainly does in New England, and Blunnies are slicker than goose shit on snow - dangerously so in fact. The most comfortable traditional Blundstone Boots (the one pictured) have no steel toe or any reinforcement of the toe box. If you drop something (like a hammer for example) it will hurt. Keep in mind, despite the premium price, these are not high performance hiking boots and are neither insulated, or waterproof. All that can be said of other shoes and none of it is a show stopper for me, but you should know the deal going in.
Vibram Five Fingers Shoes?
This new trend in footwear has been brewing for a while now, primarily in the running community, though I have yet to see anyone wearing these in the wild. Advocates claim that they are better for your feet than the now ubiquitous running shoe. Personally, I don't run unless there is something is chasing me, and I haven't tried a pair yet, but my guess is that we will be seeing a lot of these in the future. They may be weird looking, but certainly no more so than Crocs, and I would be willing to bet they are a lot more comfortable. A pair of these would be perfect for the beach and most likely for driving and generally bumming around.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Nimbus Motorcycle (What Hagrid SHOULD Have Ridden)
Unless you are a hardcore bike nerd or Danish (of the non-pastery persuasion), you have probably never heard of Nimbus motorcycles. Unlike the Nimbus 2000 of Harry Potter fame, this one runs on petrol as opposed to ye old magickal spelz. Note the unusual (for a bike) 4 cylinder inline motor. If you look closely, you will notice another oddity, these guys were shaft drive, even way back when. The Nimbus was made by a Danish company that also made vacuum cleaners and was manufactured from the 1920's until 1960.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Manhasset Music Stands - Not Just for Band Geeks
Even the most rabid HS Band Fanboys probably never gave a second thought about what was holding up their copy of "The Wizz". That's okay though, because the Crinkle Black Manhasset music stand is so common that almost nobody knows they exist, outside of music store owners and orchestra accounts payable clerks. It's a shame really, because it's very good at what it does, namely holding stuff up. Manhasset now makes a variety of stands, all with the more or less the same music desk that graces countless high school stages. Besides being good for holding music, the various stands have loads of potential for usage outside the music hall. The table top stand pictured above for example would be great for holding cook books up so you can more easily read the recipe while you are cooking, or for holding textbooks in an upright position for studying and transcribing. The company also makes a wall mounted version and the familiar height adjustable model, both of which would be handy for a host of uses where there isn't room for a table or when you need to consult reference material while standing - plans in a woodshop for example. Oh, and they are made in the U.S. and come in different colors.
The Manhasset Specialty Company
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tecumseh Small Engines - Closing up Shop
Well, a truly sad day for motor heads, Tecumseh closed it's U.S. small engine plant and apparently there will be no more Tecumseh engines produced. The power equipment Co. Ariens always used Tecumseh engines and they were incredibly reliable. The Tecumseh Snow King engine on my snowblower is close to 40 years old and still runs reliably, burns no oil and starts on the second pull every time.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Making Unions Successful and Relevant in the New Economy
A Recipe for the Teacher's Unions
What can the teachers union do to ensure the survival of unionized teachers? More...
Well, in my view, there are basically two different types of unions; labor unions and trade unions. A labor union is one where, in general, the workers are not united by trade, but rather by industry. The auto workers for example are a labor union, they don't all have the same skills (some are electrical workers, some are welders, some are upholsterers etc.).
The Carpenters Union is an example of a trade union, they are all carpenters (more or less). For the Teachers Union to succeed and thrive, they NEED to stop acting like a labor union and start acting like a trade union. Promoting quality, consistency and convenience are the keys to success. The Carpenters and Electricians have been selling this for years and it really works. Trade unions essentially act as certification organizations, much like Universities do when awarding MBA degrees, it indicates that the worker has the skills and knowledge required for their profession. To the employer, this provides the benefit of knowing what you are getting from a technical training perspective. Teaching on the other hand is a different animal, all the education in the world can't guarantee a good teacher, there are too many intangibles. What if being in the union guaranteed a good teacher? If the Teacher's Union was self policing and worked with the school administration to root out poor performers and help improve overall performance? Certainly the parents would favor this arrangement, and it would save the administration a lot of labor and headaches. Teacher's work conditions on the whole are undeniably tough and could be improved, but in order to get the community to fork out the extra dough to improve things for the teachers, there needs to be a something in it for the community. That something can really only be one thing, better quality teachers- give the public a reason to prefer unionized schools.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Hive - The Game
I first read about Hive in wired and I finally got around to ordering it last month. Hive is a turn based strategy game played on any flat surface by two players using chunky six sided Bakelite pieces emblazoned with insects. Each of the insects have a different pattern of movements and only one may be moved during a turn. The object is to surround the other players "queen bee" piece on all sides with a combination of your pieces and the other players pieces. I played it with my 3rd grade daughter and she was able to understand it pretty easily and in fact beat me. Definitely a good game to take on family trips for rainy days and buggy evenings.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Circular Saws Righty or Lefty ?
Growing up a right hander on the East Coast, I only knew one type of circular saw (as I recall they were all called "Skil Saws" no matter who made the actual saw). Needless to say, I grew up using "sidewinder" saws, ( that is to say, saws where the motor was perpendicular to the blade as in the top most picture). I never really noticed it before, but the blades were always on the right. I have no idea what the intention was behind the right side placement of the blade, but I can only assume that it was to keep your left hand (holding the stock) out of the path of the blade. This is all well and good, but the problem is (of course) the blade guide is out of your line of site (being on the opposite side of the saw). Not that this ever troubled me, it just seemed like the way it was, and I was used to it. A few months ago, I was talking to a colleague who was also a carpenter type and he was bemoaning the lack of saws for Leftys. Since I had spent some time on the West Coast I was familiar with worm drive saws (e.g. the saw in the lower photo), which in the traditional configuration are more or less ambidextrous and I thought they might be the answer to his prayers. Which they probably would be excepting that the blade is on the left, which puts the guide out of sight of someone holding the saw with their left hand. A further search found a somewhat newer class of sidewinder saws with the blade on the left. So what is the story? Is it better to have the blade on the stock side (which you are likely holding with you left hand) or on the opposite side with an obstructed view of the blade guide. Personally I prefer sidewinder saws, they are lighter and are more easily one handed, which honestly makes them more versatile for re-modeling, worm drives may be better for from scratch framing, but that's not what I do. I would like to hear from some Lefty's, would you rather have a better line of sight or your hand out of the way? FWIW Bosch makes an intriguing worm drive saw that has the handle on the top for one handed operation (as opposed to the traditional rear handle pictured above)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sous Vide - Fancy School Cafeteria Food?
Though not exactly new (it dates from at least the 1970's) cooking Sous Vide (which is French for "under vacuum") is gaining considerable popularity. Essentially, the food is vacuum packed and cooked for a relatively long time in a hot water bath at low temperature (typically below boiling). The resulting food can then be frozen or stored cold until it is ready to be served. When ready to be served, it is heated in a hot water bath and served as is or flash browned. The water bath is typically temperature controlled by a Laboratory Immersion Heater which can maintain temperature to within a few degree's F or less. Precise temperature control is essential as the temperatures can be a few degrees over the level where bacteria can thrive. The low temperature allows the meat to be cooked at a temp low enough that the proteins cannot form tough chains (At least that's how I understand it) The beauty of this method is that you can prepare a ton of food that requires little skilled preparation on site. This method was used to prepare 5 star food for hundreds of Katrina victims in D.C. Oddly enough Wired ran a short piece about Nathan Myrhvold (MS Chief Tech Guy) being an early proponent of the method. Also apparently French Laundry cooks their short ribs for 36hrs Sous Vide.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Automatic Power Tool Vacuum Switch
One of the biggest PITA of home improvement projects is cleanup, ( well, that and previous owners). Dust intensive power tools like sanders and routers can really make an awful mess and I often hook them up to a shop vac to keep the dust down. Hi end wet dry vacs are often equipped with a special switch which turns the vacuum on whenever you turn on an attached power tool for just this reason. The problem is that you have to buy a 300ドル-400ドル vacuum to get this capability. Lee Valley tools (whom I have had good luck with in the past) sells a stand alone switch for 40ドル which can turn on any vacuum into a tool vac. What is different about this one is it's ability to drive a 30 amp load by plugging each of the two cords into a different outlet on a different circuit. More... There are a lot of uses for this thing other than it's intended use though, you could hook it up to your TV and plug a power strip into the vacuum outlet and plug the VCR, cable box, DVD player and whatnot into the strip so that when you turned on the TV everything else would go on. Other than making life easier for the audio/visual technophobe, it has the added benefit of making sure all the "Vampire" appliances were deprived of power. A few caveats are in order though, the attached electronics would probably loose their setting (like time/date), and I am not sure if the TV current draw in a standby mode would inadvertently turn on all the switched components. Might be worth playing around with though.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
1966 Bertone Porsche 911
This pretty, little roadster was crafted at the behest of an American Porsche dealer by the Italian Design company Bertone, possibly best know for their out of this world Lamborghini Countach & Alfa Romeo BAT designs. In the end, only one of them was built and none were series produced, which is a shame, because I think it's a very nice design. To me, it looks to have influenced some of the 914 design elements (it came a few years later).
VIA: Coachbuild a very neat site with lots of interesting articles and pictures-check it out, you will be glad you did.
Update: Turns out Fiat just bought Bertone
Friday, August 7, 2009
Mercedes Diesel Wagon W123
In the late 70's and early 80's, these were the genuine old school preppy family vehicle of choice and they just oozed class (and smoke). People of lesser means (like our family) had to make due with Diesel Vdubs or Volvos. While comparable American cars were adding chrome, brougham and opera roofs, the period Benzes were ostentatious in their plain-ness. Detroit went to great lengths to make their hubcaps look like all manner of wire wheels, or alloy wheels, the W123's understated Fuchs alloy wheels seem to have been styled to resemble cheap hubcaps. It is the distinctive sound of the Mercedes diesels that I remember most about these cars, and to this day, I can still identify a Benz diesel of this vintage with my eyes closed, and no, not from the smell - "Ladies and Gentlemen, Pop Your Collars".
Top Gear's James May Flying in the U2 Spy Plane
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/x6cZLfK4Zjk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
This is really pretty neat, I had no idea that the U2 flew THAT high, quite an achievement for 50 year old design.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Antilles Seaplanes New - Old Super Goose Seaplane
I love this plane, it's based on the original Grumman Goose which dates to 1937, the new Super Goose features modern avionics and reliable turbines instead of the original radial piston engines. I have always loved seaplanes and have long been mystified as to why there aren't more around given the number of tourist destinations that involve water and rich people. In any event, the vintage looks are very cool.
Monday, August 3, 2009
PIEmatrix
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.piematrix.com/video/flowplayer/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CbaseURL%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epiematrix%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fflowplayer%27%2CplayList%3A%5B%7Bloop%3Afalse%2CoverlayId%3A%27lightbox%27%2Curl%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epiematrix%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Fvideos%2FPublic5min20080118%2Eflv%27%7D%5D%2CusePlayOverlay%3Atrue%2CuseNativeFullScreen%3Atrue%2CinitialScale%3A%27scale%27%2CautoBuffering%3Atrue%2CautoPlay%3Afalse%7D]
Here is a new SaaS company with an interesting project and process management tool. I have not personally tried it yet, and it looks like it might be a little shallow functionally, but they have a unique way of linking the various layers of a project that I have not seen elsewhere.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Bleach in the Kitchen
One of the best tricks I have learned from working in restaurants is that bleach works miracles in the kitchen. In every kitchen I have worked in, we always had a fresh bucket of bleach and water with a few rags soaking in it at each station for surface sanitizing. As good as a water and bleach mixture is in a commercial kitchen, it works even better in the home kitchen. I always keep a strong 1/8- 1/4 solution of bleach to water in the type of heavy duty spray bottle you can get at Homer Depot or Costco. We have a cast iron/ceramic kitchen sink, which stains very easily. Just hit it with the bleach solution and it sparkles like new with a few minutes of soaking, really it's that easy. Spraying your cutting boards and counter tops will keep them completely germ free, without expensive antimicrobial soap. Bleach will also extend the life of your sponge 10 fold. I find that even if you rigorously rinse your kitchen sponge after washing pots and pans, it still gets stanky after a bit. But if you spray the bleach on it right before you put it away, it will stay fresh indefinitely. And BTW: Those European sponges that resemble dish towels? If you hit then with the bleach after you are done, one of them can last for months, replacing at least 4 rolls of paper towels. A few caveats though; Bleach cannot handle a lot of organic matter and still be an effective disinfectant, so wipe surfaces off before sanitizing them. Bleach and Ammonia don't mix. Bleach WILL bleach cloth, so be careful. One last tip. Bleach/Water works like VooDoo on tile grout stains.
Kate's Homemade Butter - I Love This Stuff
Some years ago, Kate's showed up on the shelves of our local Whole Foods. I like to buy locally made food, so I bought a pound and have been buying it ever since. Even though it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, this stuff is really really good. I used to buy Plugra, which while good, isn't as good as Kate's. Today's globe has a nice article about Kate's, which is still being made in the family garage from local cream.
Boston Globe on Kate's Homemade
www.kateshomemadebutter.com
Cooking Perfect Bacon Every Time - Quickly and Easily
Bacon, second only to Spam as the internets and Google's favorite food can be remarkably difficult to cook. Unlike many other delicious foods, like Scallops for example, Bacon retains it's inherent salty goodness even in the face of truly horrendous preparation. So powerful is this effect that Bacon is often deployed to mask other poorly prepared and overcooked food, the aforementioned Scallop for example. With the addition of a few measly strips of Bacon, even burned hamburgers become mouthwatering morsels (especially when cheese is also deployed on the same patty as a force multiplier). Merely good bacon is a clear indication that you are dealing with a a cook of, at best, haphazard kitchen skills, if not one of outright moral depravity or borderline mental retardation. Perfect Bacon on the other hand, like true love, though far more rare, is sublime and transcendental. Perfect Bacon is flat and evenly cooked, is crunchy but retains some chewy mouth feel and has a bright, salty, smoked pork flavor. Fortunately perfect bacon is easily cooked with a few simple tricks I have picked up along the way.
1. Render the fat first.
The easiest, surest and most consistent way is to lay the pieces on a sheet pan and place in a 425 degree oven. Cook the bacon in the oven just until much of the fat and moisture is rendered and the slices have shortened but are not yet cooked. This takes less time than you think, so keep an eye on it. Your oven may vary, but it should not make much difference. Better to take it out prematurely than to let it cook too much. Cook's Illustrated says you can flip the Bacon and cook it completely in the oven, personally, I don't like the results.
2. Fry the Bacon at a low setting
This is where most cooks go wrong, Bacon can tolerate high heat initially while the moisture and fat are cooking off, but during the final cooking stage it will quickly burn if left on high. So, after you take it out of the oven, transfer the slices to a thick frying pan on a lower temp than you think is right (from 2-3 out of 10 works for me)
3. Actively cook the bacon
While the low heat buys you some time flexibility to cook eggs or toast, best results are obtained by focusing on the Bacon. Use your senses, smell it, does it smell like it's beginning to burn? Do you see smoke? Flip it and rearrange the slices to ensure even cooking. Take it out when it's ready
That is all there is to it.
1. Render the fat first.
The easiest, surest and most consistent way is to lay the pieces on a sheet pan and place in a 425 degree oven. Cook the bacon in the oven just until much of the fat and moisture is rendered and the slices have shortened but are not yet cooked. This takes less time than you think, so keep an eye on it. Your oven may vary, but it should not make much difference. Better to take it out prematurely than to let it cook too much. Cook's Illustrated says you can flip the Bacon and cook it completely in the oven, personally, I don't like the results.
2. Fry the Bacon at a low setting
This is where most cooks go wrong, Bacon can tolerate high heat initially while the moisture and fat are cooking off, but during the final cooking stage it will quickly burn if left on high. So, after you take it out of the oven, transfer the slices to a thick frying pan on a lower temp than you think is right (from 2-3 out of 10 works for me)
3. Actively cook the bacon
While the low heat buys you some time flexibility to cook eggs or toast, best results are obtained by focusing on the Bacon. Use your senses, smell it, does it smell like it's beginning to burn? Do you see smoke? Flip it and rearrange the slices to ensure even cooking. Take it out when it's ready
That is all there is to it.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
1982-1984 Dodge Rampage 1/2 Ton Trucklet
In the early 1980's, Subaru, VW and eventually Chrysler released El-Camino like variants of their compact cars. In Chrysler's case, that effort yielded the Dodge Rampage and it's cousin the Plymouth Scamp. The answer to a question nobody asked, namely -
Q: "Wouldn't an Omni GLH Make a Great Truck?
A: "WTF? Did You Fall and Bang Your Head"?
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