rainy morning ruminations

Couldn't agree more about 9/11 overkill (oops). We watched the 'Skins game, of course, and were very put off by the flag waving. Puke. I agree; sports do not need to be politicized. There's already enough of a B.S. aura around them without adding that.

Anyway, we were glad to see the Vikes win, though I like the 'Skins, too. We, of course, watched only the first game, and even that had us up past our bedtime.

An earthquake!! How strange that I dreamed last night of an earthquake, before I read your blog. Too bad you didn't feel it. I hate to think of the reaction of those responsible for the new building: "Is it falling down?"

Mom's slicer is a Chef's Choice International 632. I know this because it lives at our house. Their old one required two people to run (it was coming apart), and when she got a new one she was not really comfortable using it. We slice stuff for her here (e.g., salami) and bring it over. The amazing thing is that with this slicer here I have actually overcome my fear of them. I used to have to leave the room when anyone was using one (this due to an accident I witnessed in Naperville, details furnished upon request), but now, with great caution, I can actually use it. It's nice for cutting up leftover meat thin enough to be able to heat it quickly.

It also works nicely for slicing guanciale. This is something we got from Mario's cookbook. It's a hog jowl (cheek, really), cured in salt in the fridge for a week, then hung in the fridge--this works nicely in the little upstairs fridge in Ben's (formerly Julia's, formerly Charlie's) room -- for three weeks or so. It's positively delicious, and cooks up better when thinly sliced. Goes in a couple of very good pasta dishes in Molto Italiano, a cookbook that we find ourselves using a lot.

I don't have a mandoline, but some day will get one.

Your chicken breast thing sounds good, Suzy. I truly believe your oven is slow; the chicken I cooked at your house took longer (as you remember) and did not come out crisp. As far as TV in the kitchen, I wish I had one, to monitor sports while cooking. It's in the plans, but not actualized yet. I can look at the TV in the dining room, but if I'm running water or the exhaust fan, I can't hear it, and it's pretty far away. When I'm doing tomatoes or some such thing, I watch CDs on my little player. I used to use my computer for that, but I hate having it in the kitchen when food is flying. One year I watched 15 episodes of the World at War while editing and trimming brussels sprouts. This year it was the Forsyte Saga while working on tomatoes. Plan one more tomato push (how can I let them go to waste?) to make a barrel of Mario's basic tomato sauce before I go to CA. That will give Charlie something to work with while I'm gone, and we can freeze what's left.

In Naperville, I used to watch baseball while ironing. I used the radio narration, though, because it furnished a little more detail and I liked the announcers better. Now we watch a lot of sports on mute because we become so annoyed with the drivel. Golf is quite irritating in this way, since the announcers want to tell you what each golfer is thinking. How do they know? Grrrrr. But football's bad, too. I remember that in the olden days baseball, even on the radio, was filled with silence. A memory of the Farm in Los Altos is being in bed, reading (on the porch by the garage) and hearing Dan's radio from her bed as she listened to baseball. And the sound I remember is the sound of the crowd talking; all of those people, outside in a summer night, and the radio transmitting that hum, interrupted by words describing the plays as they happened. None of this constant filler (color, ish). They shouldn't have access to computers; I'm amazed at the weird and irrelevant statistics they keep pulling up. Grumble, gripe (I hope some of you recognize this as a quote from Donald Duck).

Yesterday I made pita in the morning, before picking up Florence and later, Ben. It's easy, a little picky (the rolling out of the individual blobs of dough), and fun. It balloons up nicely in the oven. The day before I made the first apple galette of the season; the apples are just getting ripe. A nice crop this year; I thinned them mercilessly, and they're much larger and nicer than usual.

Rain here this morning, a fire in the fireplace. Charlie thinks it's not raining too hard to pick tomatoes; I disagree. He's gone to the chiropractor (left at 6:30), so we can further discuss this upon his return. In the meantime I shall continue with Queen Victoria, once I oust La Puss from La Fuma. I do grab a little leisure here and there.