Crystal ball - part duex

I blogged earlier about how I was going to order a crystal ball from a web site that specializes in metaphyiscal paraphanalia (it's like an online Diagon alley). Well, my crystal ball arrived last night - literally, the UPS driver didn't deliver it until about 7:00pm.

It came in a cool red box. Below are some pictures I took today over lunch. The image in the crystal ball is inverted; so, I inverted the images so that the reflection would be right side up.

This is the street in front of my house, my back yard, and some iris blooming in the front yard.

Pad Thai

Linda works one day per week (usually) on Thursday's.  As such, I am responsible for cooking dinner on Thursday.  Mind you, I do contribute on other days as well.

Yesterday, I decided to make Pad Thai.  As I often do, when I have a hankering for something, I lookup several recipe's on the internet and then combine them into my own recipe.  So, here is my recipe for Pad Thai

Ingredients

Sauce

• 2 Tbl liquid tamarind
  
• 2 Tbl fish sauce
  
• 2 Tbl palm sugar (or brown sugar)
  
• 1 Tbl rice wine vinegar
  

Marinated tofu

• 6 oz extra-firm tofu, not silken
  
• 1 cup soy sauce
  
• 1 tsp chinese five-spice powder
  

Pad Thai

• 4 oz rice stick noodles, soaked in warm water (about 1 hour)
  
• 1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
  
• 1 Tbl soy sauce
• 2 Tbl oil (peanut, canola, etc.), divided
  
• 2/3 cup green onion, sliced
  
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
  
• 2 whole eggs, beaten
  
• 2 oz mung bean sprouts
  
• 3/8 cup chopped peanuts
  

Garnish

• 1/3 cup green onion, sliced
  
• 1/8 cup chopped peanuts
  
• 1 oz mung bean sprouts
  

Directions

1. Marinade the tofu in the soy sauce mixture for, at least, 4 hours (up to 12 hours)
2. Soak rice noodles in warm water (for about 1 hour), then strain
3. Mix together sauce ingredients and set aside
4. Dry shrimp and then lightly toss with 1 Tbl soy sauce
5. Heat wok, when hot put 1 Tbl oil in wok 
6. Put marinated tofu in wok and lightly brown, gently tossing so as to not break up too much, remove when done
7. Add shrimp to wok and lightly toss until done then remove and add to cooked marinated tofu
8. Add 1 Tbl oil to wok
9. Add garlic and onion and lightly toss for about 15 seconds
10. Add egg and scramble in wok
11. Add soaked rice noodles and sauce and toss to get everything coated
12. Add remaining Pad Thai ingredients and toss to get everything coated with sauce
13. Add reserved tofu and shrimp and toss to incorporate into Pad Thai
14. Remove Pad Thai to a platter
15. Sprinkle with garnish ingredients
16. Serve and savor its deliciousness

Casting our pearls before swine

To be honest, I'm having a difficult time getting all worked up in righteous indignation over HBO Big Love's plan to depict the LDS temple ceremony. First of all, it's already out there for anybody who's really interested. Just google and a few clicks and you'll find pictures, and even the text of the entire endowment ceremony. And the reality is, it's been available to anyone who was interested for decades. When I first joined the church - way back in college (way way back in college) - I went to the public library looking for books on mormonism. Lo and behold, there was an anti-Mormon book in the library that included the entire temple ceremony.

Now, I do concur that there is a difference between having it available in some obscure media that few are even aware of verses blasting it out to the masses on a cable TV network. And, I think it shows a tremendous lack of respect on the part of HBO to make light of things we consider very sacred.

But, the temple ceremony is more than just funny underwear, odd clothing, words and a few hand gestures. It's being in a beautiful room with others all dressed in white. It's the quiet whispers. It's waiting in the chapel for the session to start in quiet contemplation. It's sitting in reflection in a beautiful celestial room at the conclusion. It's the whole experience. There is no way they'll be able to duplicate that experience on a TV show. What will be depicted on Big Love will be a pale imitation - distorted and out of context. True, a few of our pearls have been cast before the swine - but we still have the pearl necklace held tightly against our bosom.

What is interesting about all of this is the lack of outcry from non-Mormon's. Try depicting sacred parts of Islam and there would likely be a tremendous amount of righteous indignation with much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth - and not just from muslims. The same would be true for the Eastern religions.

But Mormon's - in fact, Christians in general - are fair game. It's like white guys being the only ethnic group you can poke fun at without being accused of being bigoted. Christianity in general and Mormonism specifically are the only religions you can poke fun at without being accused of being disrespectful. We're the fall guys. We're the plunky side kicks who are constantly running into walls and having pies thrown in our faces. If you're a white Mormon guy - well then there is absolutely no hope - we might as well walk around with a jester hat and a sign on our back that says "kick me".

So, when we are kicked. we can allow ourselves to get all worked up about it - but in the end, it won't change anything. Or, we can just shrug our shoulders, say "whatever" and move on with our lives. I opt for the latter.

Corning the beef

Saint Patrick's day is coming up next week on March 17th.  Traditionally, we have corned beef and cabbage on or around this day.  This year we decided to do something a bit different, we are making our own corned beef.

Linda was inspired by a recipe in the 2009 Spring Entertaining edition of Cooks Illustrated magazine.  I was inspired by an Alton Brown episode.  So, the question was:  Which recipe would we use?

Making corned beef is really pretty simple.  There are two basic methods:  

1. A wet method where the meet is soaked in a brine with herbs and spices for a week to 10 days.  This is the method that Alton Brown used.
   
2. A dry method where the meat is coated with a rub consisting of salt with herbs and spices for a week to 10 days.  This is the method that Cooks magazine used.
   

Other than wet vs dry, the biggest difference in the two recipes was the amount of herbs and spices.  Cooks magazine used 

• salt
• black peppercorns, cracked
  
• dried thyme
  
• ground allspice
  
• paprika
  
• bay leaves
  

Alton Brown included all of these, except the paprika, with the addition of

• sugar
  
• saltpeter
  
• cinnamon
  
• mustard seeds
  
• whole cloves
  
• juniper berries
  
• ground ginger
  

According to the Cooks magazine, the taste testers liked the red color that the saltpeter imparts - but did not like the chemical aftertaste.

Both recipes called for a 4-6 pound piece of beef brisket.  Unfortuantely, this is not the time of year to buy brisket.  Memorial Day is when beef brisket tradionally goes on sale here in Texas - since it is the meat of choice for BBQ.  So, my choices were limited.  I couldn't find a single brisket that was in the 4-6 pound range - all of the briskets I found were either much larger or much smaller.  So, I opted for two smaller briskets - one about 2 pounds and the other about 3 pounds.

Having two briskets opened up a new possibility - I could try both recipes.  I started with the Cooks magazine recipe and mixed together

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 Tbl ground black pepper
  
• 1 Tbl dried thyme
  
• 2-1/4 tsp ground allspice
  
• 1-1/2 tsp paprika (I used a smoked hot paprika)
  
• 2 bay leaves

I started grinding my own pepper using the pepper mill; but, my hand was getting tired.  So, I used about half fresh ground and half pre-ground black pepper.  Also, I picked the bay leaves fresh off of our bay laural tree; so, I couldn't crumble them.  Instead, I chopped them up finely with a knife.

Using a digital kitchen scale, I measured how much the rub weighed and then reserved 40% of it in a separate bowl.  The other 60% I rubbed onto the 3 pound brisket, after poking a bunch of wholes in it with a meat fork.  I then put it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and squeezed out as much air as I could.

To the reserved 40% rub, I added

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  
• 4 whole cloves
  
• 5 juniper berries
  
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

I used the blender to grind the mustard seeds, cloves, and juiper berries and then added the other spices (including the reserved rub) to the blender to mix it all together.  I then rubbed this onto the 2 pound brisket, after poking it with holes, and put it in a 1 gallon ziplock bag.  This isn't quite like Alton Brown's recipe - since he used the wet brine method; but, I figured it should be very similar

Now my two briskets are sitting in our refrigerator - corning as we speak.  I will note that the additional spices in Alton Brown's recipe smelled more like what I think of with corned beef.  Not saying the Cooks magazine recipe won't be good - but I expect Alton Brown's version to taste more traditional.  Anyway, time will tell - I can't wait until this weekend when we can feast on our corned beef.

Cooking will be straight forward; although, I'm going to use the method in Cooks magazine.

1. rinse the meat and pat dry 
   
2. boil in water, covering the meat with about 1 inch of water (at least 8 quarts) for 2-3 hours
   

We've always cooked the cabbage and new potatoes along with the meat, adding them during the last 30 minutes of cooking.  But, the Cooks magazine testing noted that doing so makes it difficult to judge when the vegetables are done.  So, they recommend boiling the corned beef then removing it to a platter in a warm oven and cooking the vegetables in the reserved liquid.

Cooks magazine also seprates the vegetables into category 1 and category 2 - with the category 2 vegetables being added 10 minutes after the category 1 vegetables were started

Category 1 vegetables

• carrots
  
• rutabagas
  
• turnips
  
• new potatoes
  

Category 2 vegetables

• boiling onions
  
• green cabbage
  
• parsnips
  
• brussel sprouts
  

I'm not a big fan of rutabagas or parsnips; but, I do like a good turnip once in a while.  I like brussel sprouts - but it seems like overkill to have brussel sprouts with cabbage.  So, we'll probably just stick to our traditional cabbage, new potatoes, and carrots - with the possible addition of turnips (gee, I wonder if any in our garden will be ready by then?)

Compost bin

oI ordered a compost bin today from www.CompostBins.com

Dimensions:  30L x 30W x 34H inches
Material:  100% Recycled Plastic Resin
Cubic Feet:  14.7
Weight (lbs.):  19

Cost was $99.99 with free shipping.  But, I googled the company name to see if there were any promotions, and found a promotion code for $10 on orders over $75.  So, I got it for $89.99 (total, no sales tax or shipping fees)

According to their shipping estimate, it should arrive on Wednesday, March 11th. Interestingly, I could have paid extra for 2-day expidited shipping - which had an estimated shipping date of Thursday March 12th [huh???]

I'll be setting it up in the front next to the gate and near the vegetable garden with a metal trellis (which I already have) in front. I'll plant some sort of vine plant to grow on the trellis - I'm thinking of Jasmine or something similar.  I still have my composting area in the back yard which I use for overflow in the event this fills up.  It will primarly be filled with yard waste (leaves, weeds and plant trimmings), pond waste, and kitchen vegetable waste.  I use a mulching mower on the yard; but, I do put the bagger on the mower when mowing around the swimming pool - so there will be a few grass clippings.  Oh, and all of the rabbit poop from the bunny will go into the compost.

I may install a couple of drippers from my drip irrigation system to help keep the compost moist - but I'm going to wait and see if that's a problem.  If we're continually adding fresh vegetable waste, the moisture in the plant material may be enough to keep the compost moist.

I'm excited about my new compost bin.  I'll have a lot of yard waste when I start cleaning up the back yard in prepration for two weddings coming up this spring.

Politically incorrect

I'm probably going to get hammered for this; but, I thought it was pretty funny. 

IF WOMEN CONTROLLED THE WORLD

Headstart

Saturday Linda and I went to Marshall's Feed - a new store in town - and bought some plants for our garden: Tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs. It's a bit too cold to plant them outside just yet; so, I have them under a florescent light along with some seeds we planted: Beans (pole and bush), squash, watermelon, okra, & peppers. I just wish I had planted the seeds a couple of weeks ago.

A cold front moved through the area this last weekend - got down into the upper 20's at night. I checked the garden this morning - and all of the plants seem to have fared OK. The red lettuce looks a little wilted - but not too much, and I'm sure it will bounce back once it gets a little warmer. Our average last frost date is mid-March; so, (according to the weather forecaster I was watching) this may be our last freeze of the season.