I Enjoy The Variety Of Different Cuisines...

...and excellent selection of restaurants up this way; it is one of the few things I truly enjoy about living so close to the cesspool known as New York City. Then again, I think I could get to like the eats down south too.

Of course, with all the different cultural influences here in NY, we have adapted well. For example, there is a lot of fine Italian cuisine up this way and we enjoy things like this one.

While you may not think there is much road kill in and around NYC and its outlying areas, let me tell you that pigeons, starlings, sparrows, dogs, cats, mice and rats - with an occasional deer or turkey thrown into the mix - all go well with this delicious Italian sausage flavored pasta mix.  

All the best,
Glenn B

A Nice Christmas Eve and A Nicer Christmas, all ending up with me cooking a seafood medley for tomorrow (actually for later today)

So there I was, late on Christmas Eve, ever so slightly disappointed that my Christmas Season tradition of many years had not been upheld this year. I did not have the opportunity to make it into Manhattan to make my rounds from home to Penn Station, to Macy’s, to the Empire State Building (the thing I miss most), to Rockefeller Center, to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, to tiffany’s and Van Cleefe and Arpels, to Central Park, to Times Square, back to Penn Station and to home. I was however, as I said, only slightly disappointed. I did spend a few hours with Brendan and my mom at the assisted living facility in which she now lives. Mind you it is not a nursing home, more of an apartment complex with people to help you through your day. She has a two and a half room apartment there; a living room, a bedroom and a kitchenette. I decided that my time this year would be better spent visiting my mom since she has only been in her new living arrangement for about 2 or 3 weeks now. Brendan was nice enough to come along, and that made my mom’s day. We also brought along Pepe (named after the cartoon skink Pepe Le Peu) our 3 ½ year old male Chihuahua. He made a lot of peoples’ day at the assisted living residence, he was a big hit among the residents as well as the workers. Of course he is always a big hit with my family, as he is with most people, but not so much with other dogs (grrrrowl, he likes to be the boss).

After we visited my mom, I was able to uphold part of my tradition of many years, a part older than my going into Manhattan each Christmas Season for the above round, and that was to get my Christmas shopping done. I stopped at a small local liquor store and picked up 3 bottles of Gluh Wein for my wife (a German spiced red wine), and of course I got something for myself. I picked up a bottle of Redbreast. It is a triple distilled unblended Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey aged not less than 12 years in oak casks. It is not much like the extremely smooth Knappogue Castle Irish Whiskey I have enjoyed a few times in the past, it being of a more peaty/oak-like flavor along the lines of a finer Scotch Whiskys. I prefer the Knappogue Castle, but this stuff is not bad at all. That triple distilling of Irish Whiskeys has something going for it (note the ‘e’ in the Irish and not in the Scotch spelling of Whiskey/Whisky). After that I made a quick stop at a local Korean market for some delectable seafood and other goodies for a meal to be cooked by me in the near future. Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Squid, Pork Bellies, Rib Eye Steak, baby potatoes, scallions, Oyster Mushrooms, and Shitake Mushrooms all for one of my special dishes.

After that I was off to the local mall. Once there I headed for Dick’s Sporting Goods to get a gift for my daughter’s boyfriend, who everyone else thinks is that kind of person for whom it is impossible to pick the right gift. I headed right to the knife display and picked out a Benchmade Folding Knife:

http://www.benchmade.com/products/product_detail.aspx?model=10402.

As it turned out, I walked into the store, got to the hunting department on the second floor, and as soon as I got there they made an announcement that the store was closing in 5 minutes. Of course there were no salespeople in sight. I did find a young lass who was arranging things on a rack, and I asked her to help me get a knife – since they were locked in a display cabinet. I asked her how much was the Benchmark I had selected, and she was nice enough to find a scanner and price it for me at – well at a fair price is all I will say for a Benchmark knife. I took it to the checkout without her following me – as is required with most of the knives (and as it should have been with this one), and I made it to the checkout just as they announced the store was closed and that all purchases had to be brought to the checkout counters. I paid with cash and with a $10.00 certificate I had from Dick’s. Not a bad deal, wish I had enough to have gotten one for myself.

The I was off to home where put the finishing touches on our tree. When we had arrived home from my mom’s, Brendan put the lights on it, then headed off to his girlfriends. I was left to put the ornaments on it, and decided to do that after getting my shopping done. Yep, we only put up our tree on Christmas Eve this year, and I only purchased it the night before. A nice tree too at that. Once that was done, I wrapped a few remaining presents, and placed everything under the tree. Then I had a nice glass of Irish Cream liqueur, and then hit the hay.

Christmas Day was a nice one to which to wake up after the more recent days of inclement weather. It had snowed the past weekend, then we had some freezing rain, and then of Christmas Eve it was cold and rainy. Christmas Day, on the other hand was sunny when I crawled out of bed at about 0700, and it had warmed up considerably, probably into the 40s. Now I like a White Christmas more than do most folks, but I did not want to have to drive 85 miles to my sister’s place in the snow, and as it turned out it was a grand day for a drive. First things first, I made a pot of coffee (half French Guatemalan and half Tanzanian Peaberry) and then started on the bacon for breakfast. Linda cooked the eggs and biscuits, and Brendan helped us finish it all. Then we opened presents. Celina was away with her beau. Then it was off to Brendan’s sweetheart’s house to pick her up for the ride to my sister’s place where we would enjoy the day with my sister, my brother-in-law, my nephew, my brother, my sister-in-law, my mom and 8 dogs. Now back to the day being a grand one for a drive, it was actually even grander than expected since Brendan drove there and back. The day at my sister’s place was great, her cooking was absolutely delicious from the shrimp/crab spread she makes from scratch to the rack of Prime Rib for the main course to the chocolate birthday cake we had for my mom.

After we arrived home, Celina and her beau showed up and they opened their presents. After Celina departed, Linda cleaned up. Then she was off to bed, and I set about cooking up the seafood I also had bought yesterday. Once things were cleaned up and Linda was off to bed, and I headed to the kitchen for that seafood meal I was going to cook. As it turned out the mussels had keeled over. The clams were okay as was everything else except maybe the squid which was questionable. I tossed out the mussels and the squid and took it from there. I just got done making the whole meal, with the exception of the clams, which are in a basin in salt water cleansing themselves and waiting, unbeknownst to them, to be steamed. They may or may not be added to the dish tomorrow; I am debating on having them steamed plain. Things I added to my other ingredients in the pot and from the home larder were a can of tomato paste, a can of tomato sauce, lots of garlic powder, lots of black pepper, sea-salt, and some crushed hot red pepper sauce that I picked up in Chinatown. Oh yes, lest I forget, I added two bottles of good German Octoberfest bier to the mix, and a few dashes of ground Cinnamon and a dash of ground cloves. I have got to say that my creation of no name is tasty. I am sure that all will love it for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner.

It is now about 2:25 on the day after Christmas, and I think it high time I get my ass to bed and try to catch some z’s.

All the best,
Glenn B

Ballseye's Gastronomica - Frogs Anyone?

A few days ago I decided that it had been way to long since I ventured into the land of the lost, which for me would be my kitchen. Yes - I am ashamed to say that I have been a stranger to my kitchen - at least as a man who practices the art of culinary grumpiness - for way too long. So I decided, a few nights ago, to take a trip down to Little Italy where it blends together with Chinatown near Mott and Grand Streets. I was determined to pick up something from Di Palos, and Italian food store that sells absolutely scrumptious things. Not that I knew that from personal experience, but I had watched some cooking show the night before (actually a show about food stores and restaurants and such) and this place was given high kudos.

So I made my way there, the very next night after having seen the show, and I entered the place full of gastronomic anticipation. I expected my senses to be overwhelmed by the sight of the delicacies, the aromas of the many cheeses and meats, and hopefully by the flavors after a taste of this and a taste of that. What I had not been expecting, but will admit I had given a passing thought to, was the other customers who would be shopping therein. So when I walked in the door, and almost had to push my way inside because of the crowd, I was - to say the least - disappointed. I grabbed a number from the glossy red dispenser on the wall just inside the entrance, and they immediately called a number. Heck it was about 20 ahead of mine! I decided to take my number and take a walk.

I walked toward Canal Street on Mott, or maybe it was Elizabeth, but it was southbound. There were a lot of Chinese markets mixed in with the occasional Italian business. Over the years Chinatown has expanded northward to include much of what was once hardcore Little Italy. What a blend - east truly meets west - and when you think of Marco Polo - what could be more appropriate! Yet there have been some hard to blend issues among the Italian Immigrants and Chinese Immigrants, they don't always blend so well; yet I think they get along pretty well all things considered especially because they all they wanted to do was to become Americans. Two groups of immigrants that came to the USA with the same goals -seeking to better themselves and both groups offering their unique cuisines to the rest of New York. I was about to take advantage of one of them, but not the one I had expected.

As I walked along checking out the Chinese vegetable, meat and fish markets, my eye was caught by some movement. There in a bucket inside a fish market was a drum full of frogs. Nice, big, fat, frogs, with pretty good sized rear legs. My mouth watered, I had not eaten frogs' legs in probably 20 years or more. I thought about it for a moment. It would mean buying at least a few live frogs, transporting them home in my car, then keeping them alive until I decided to cook em. Of course this also would mean that if my wife saw em I might be outside in the cold really quickly - she has had enough of my pets, or at least thinks I have enough of them. Heck, there was only one or two other customers in the store, and Di Paolos' probably still had a good 12 to 15 people ahead of me since I had only been out of there for about 5 or 10 minutes at most. It was an easy decision, I bought three frogs, then I headed back to Di Paolos'. I turned out they had only gotten past two or three numbers, I walked back out and headed home.

Now three frogs is not enough to feed even one person on frogs legs even if they are big ones. I had thought I would be buying a few other things at Di Palos' but it just did not happen. So I headed home and figured at least Brendan and I could get a taste as an appetizer to something else. I guess that was Tuesday night. On Wednesday I decided to head back to the same area. I did not even give Di Paolos' a thought, it would be there when I again get a hankerin for Italian fixins; this time I headed right toward some Chinese fish markets on Canal Street this time coming from the other side of Chinatown. Nope, I was not going to the same one where I had bought the first three frogs, they had ripped me off, or tried. I had thought the frogs seemed lighter than that for which I had been charged, and I went back and asked them to reweigh them. They did and refunded me a couple of bucks. So on Wednesday night, I headed for place that I sometimes shop in for fish. No luck finding any frogs there; but I got some nice shrimp - 2 pounds of it. I made to yet another place. They had plenty of frogs and I got another three of them. Then I spied a container of sea scallops in another store and I got a pound and a half of them too. I also picked up some hot pepper sauce with crushed hot pepper in it. That was not for the dish I had in mind though. For the frogs, shrimp and scallops I figured to do something along the lines of sauteed bat wings pond/seafood in a mixture of shredded onions, thinly sliced mushrooms, slivered almonds, a touch of garlic, butter, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, and yes maybe even a touch of that pepper sauce. I was planning either one hell of a case of agita or one fine tasting meal.

I got the three new frogs home, and put them into the tank with the three I had already purchased. They did splendidly together. As the night wore on, at least one of them started to croak and sing his froggy song to the ladies in the tank. Lord knows what else happened. Little did they know this was to be their last such encounter, but such is the life of a Bullfrog - which by the way is the type of frog that they were. They grow fairly fast from tadpole to adult maturing in a year or two, they have a furious ferw seasons of mating if they have any luck at all and are not eaten by something else first. They can live up to about 8 years in the wild; in captivity, when kept as pets, they have been known to live much longer. Bullfrogs were native to the eastern and central United States but their range has spread markedly across many parts of the USA and sometimes across the oceans to foreign lands. They did not increase their range by themselves, they had lots of help in the form of people who liked to eat frogs' legs. They are the largest native North American frog, and tey eat a lot to gain the size they can attain. As nature would have it, it is often the destiny of the Bullfrog to eat other smaller creatures, only itself to wind up being eaten by other larger creatures. In this case these were destined to be eaten by other creatures - me, Brendan, and maybe even Linda and Celina.

Well, of course it was not time to cook them on Wednesday night, not with Thanksgiving being the next day and not with me having made a stop in my old stomping grounds on the way home. I got home kind of late after meeting up with a few good friends from the Farmer's Oval days. So I waited until today. Not a bad idea, actually cooking a fresh meal on the day after Thanksgiving and therefore getting around the whole 'we gotta eat leftovers thing. Well at least we got away from leftover turkey for a day, there is always tomorrow and there sure is plenty of turkey from yesterday.

Today, Linda and Brendan were out with Oma (Louise, my mother-in-law) to visit my mom; and Celina was working. Around noon or so, I went down into the basement, figuring this was the day for the frogs to meet their maker, and I clobbered them pretty good to make sure they would not feel a thing when I prepared them for cooking. Then I got down to the butchering part, I guess that is what you would call it. A sharp knife, and a pair of pliers were all I needed to get the job done. As it turned out, for some reason I only slaughtered 5 of the frogs, and gave one a pardon. I seem to recall something about me thinking there would be no pardons around here - but oh well what the heck.

After butchering the frogs, I rinsed the legs well, and I put then between several sheets of paper toweling in the fridge. I had time to kill before I would be ready to cook since it was only about noon. Then I went to work on our checking account, 6 months of unbalanced mayhem and a few hours of working it all out. Once I had gotten that dirty deed out of the way I poured myself a nice iced tea and Potato Vodka and then got to work on cooking the evening's meal. I did not have time to take any pictures when I was actually cooking it like I did when I was butchering them. It is just too hectic for a high strung type like me in the kitchen, especially since it has been such a long time my not being in there cooking (well truthfully I made an apple pie not all that long ago - yes from scratch, but it had been awhile since I did the main meal). Anyway, I got right down to it. I sauteed the frogs legs separately. Then I sauteed the onions and mushrooms and almonds, then added the shrimp to that. I sauteed the scallops on their own. When everything was ready I combined all the ingredients. Sides were boiled Yukon potatoes, and steamed corn kernels. When I sat down to chow down, I decided it would be best to slice up one of the Yukons then toss some of the pond/seafood mixture on top of it. Man it was good, and I can not think of a better complimentary vegetable than was the corn. Mmm, mmmmmm goooood.

While eating, I told Oma what was the one mystery ingredient in the dish. She asked me in sort of an incredulous tone: "What is this?". I told her again and she made a face showing her disgust. A few seconds later she was smiling telling me how wunderbar it tasted. Linda gave me sort of the same look but she too gave it a try and shortly thereafter her portion was devoured. Brendan hardly spoke except once or twice to say it was good and to say the frogs' legs really did taste a bit like chicken. He ate every morsel too. All throughout the meal, I was none too sure it was really to every one's liking; I am burdened with a lack of self confidence, something I have carried with me since childhood. Yet even I could see that from the looks of the cleaned off plates, yes indeed everyone had loved it.

Celina just got home from work as I sit here typing. She usually visits us on Friday nights. When she came in she asked what smelled so good. She sat down to eat almost immediately, and she called out to me that it was great. I guess I've done good today. I think maybe I should start getting back into cooking, maybe at least one or two meals a week, a loaf or two of bread a week, and at least one baked desert weekly too. Time will tell. I stopped cooking for a reason, it got me to wound up if something went wrong and my being wound up affected everyone. I have to admit though, I don't let it get me that way nowadays. Besides that, if I must say so myself, I can whip up a pretty tasty meal now and again, and when I make my genuine Apfelstrudel, it is to die for - I mean it.

Hmm, things have just changed a bit. Celina suddenly has stopped eating the frogs' legs. She had been devouring it, then I asked her what she thought it was that she had been eating. She said shrimp, scallops and squid. I asked her if she had ever seen squid with bones, and she was baffled. Then Linda told her what it was that she had been enjoying ever so much. That was it, she would not eat another bite of it, although she ate everything else. Oh well, she ate everything else, and had been eating the frog thinking it was delicious until learning what it was threw her appetite off. Ignorance can truly be bliss! Luckily for me none of them saw the pics that accompany this post, and better still did not see the pics I did not include with this post (much gorier). Brendan could handle the pics but I am pretty sure the girls would not have been happy, at least not if they saw them before the meal. Then again, that last pic is not bad at all - is it?

All the best,

Glenn B

What Caliber For Groundhog?

Okay, so its Groundhog Day. Yeah I know, I wrote a nice piece about it earlier, but I was just over at The High Road, and someone brought up the fact that no one had psoted a thread asking "Which Caliber For Groundhog" today. I thought that was rather an interesting subject. So which caliber would you choose if hunting the elusive, and oft times hard to kill (see the movie Caddy Shack), groundhog?

As for me, I'd probably use a rifle in .22WMR caliber. Sure it means you have to get prtetty close, but if you can get in with 50-75 yards, you should have a good chance at a kill shot.

Once you decide how to kill it, one other question arises - how to cook it!

Now that I have added the picture of my wife with a scoped Marlin 25MN, let me just add: wouldn't it be wonderful if I could get her to shoot them, clean them and cook them. As it is I only ever got her to the range once; but she is one heck of a great cook.

All the best,
Glenn B

Seafood/Pork/Beef Combo Whatzitcalled...

One nice chunk of pork belly, about 1 pound, cut into small pieces, about a pound of the meat from beef short ribs, also cut into small pieces (about 1/2x1/2"), one pound of baby octopus cleaned and cut into small mouth sized pieces, one pound of squid cleaned and cut like the octopus, one pound of cleaned shrimp (25-30 count per pound), one small can tomato paste, two 8 ounce cans of plain tomato sauce, garlic powder to taste, sea salt to taste, black pepper about 1/2 teaspoon, two large dollops of hot pepper sauce with garlic to taste (some stuff I picked up in Chinatown), a few sprinkles of cinnamon (maybe even a 1/8 teaspoon), a bit or oregano (only a few sprinkles), about 6 green onions diced at least from the bottom to halfway up the greens), about 1/2 pound of very small potatoes (this were about the size of walnuts) cut into halves or quarters.

I browned the pork to crispy on the outside, then the beef in the same pan in just a squirt of olive oil. Then added the octopus and squid to it and let it cook for a while in a deep pan. I did this as I got the other ingredients ready. I added all the other ingredients, except the shrimp, into a large pot, put the browned the beef, pork belly, octopus and squid into the pot with the sauce ingredients, and then brought it to a boil. As soon as brought to a boil, I lowered flame and let it simmer for one hour. Then I added the shrimp for about 5 minutes. All the while, as this was cooking I kept checking to make sure it did not boil over, and I stirred every 15 to 10 minutes for just a bit.

Whatzitcalled - who knows: but boy does it taste good right out of the pot. Tomorrow it will be for my lunch over a bit of white rice. My son thought it was good too, and especially liked the hot flavoring I added. Next time though, only the other spices, no really hot stuff, I want to enjoy the taste of the seafood more than the hot stuff. Next time, I think I'll use fresh tomatoes, maybe some fresh basil leaves, and no to very little sauce or paste.

All the best,
GB

Weekly Update - Soldiers' Holiday Package

I'll keep this fairly brief (for me), if only because most of my blog in the past week has been devoted to this effort.

To date I have received $425 toward the package fund, including my own $50 donation to the fund (excluding the cost I will pay out of my pocket for shipping and shipping materials). This money is from a total of only 15 donations (including my own). If you can or cannot afford it, think of our troops overseas who may possibly be wounded, killed, or just far from home either freezing their behinds off in a foxhole, or spending the holidays on an military base on foreign soil in a hostile land over the holidays. Am I trying to shame you into giving, nah no way, not my style. Am I trying to kick your butts into gear - you betcha. I am just trying to get you to remember these guys even if with only a dollar. By the way, one of the donations I received was from 2 young girls, sisters, who broke open their piggy bank to donate $9 and change, then their mom rounded it off to $10, and sent it to me via PayPal. Here is part of what the mom wrote to me:

"My daughters, age 6 & 7, are excited to donate the contents of their piggy banks, (9 dollars and 18 cents, which I am rounding up to 10 bucks) to this cause. "

These two girls and their mom did a really nice thing for our soldiers, my thanks to them. If they can do it, so can you, a buck probably will not even make you break your piggy bank. See the links at the upper right hand side of my blog to donate via PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to donate, and PayPal does not charge you a fee to donate (they charge me the fee to accept payments, and I will cover those costs out of my pocket).

I also received 12 tactical flashlights, with extra lithium batteries, from STREAMLIGHT absolutely free of charge! Can you say THANK YOU STREAMLIGHT!!! Wow that was nice of them. I made a price inquiry and they sent free lights.

Today I went shopping for items for the package(s). I picked up: A 6 quart Crock-Pot (something these guys requested), Various seasonings and spices (they said they wanted to cook for themselves for a change, so I guess they can cook it slowly in the crock-pot while out on patrol), a package of Chap-Sticks, Zip Lock Freezer Bags (these have lots of applications in sandy environments), a box of chewing gum, hard candies, chocolates and other candies. I spent $150.87 today on the items mentioned above, the Crock-Pot was only about $40, but are spices ever expensive, and I got nice sized jars of them! Thank goodness for Costco (click on the receipt to enlarge).

Other items I plan to purchase are: at least one box of 25 good cigars, possibly 12 pairs of high quality wool socks (one pair per each person in the unit), 12 folding knives (I have the Buck Bantam 285 BLW model in mind), sharpening stones (12 - one for each guy in the unit), other snacks (something of a holiday nature), and whatever else I can think of with any funds left over.

I have decided to split this into 3 or 4 holiday packages - still all for the same unit. This will make the package less bulky, and in the event one of them gets delayed, lost or stolen, the others are likely to make it through. I will probably send some of the stuff before the end of this week, and hope to have everything shipped by December 10th or thereabouts.

I hope to remember to take pics of the contents of each package before I ship them, and to post the pics on this blog once the items ship.

To those of you who have contributed, and/or provided links to my page for this effort: THANKS.

All the best,
Glenn B

PS: if you are wondering why I input all the below keywords, well I want to get as many people as possible who read my blog to read this post.

Feeling Good Enough Today To Do Some Cooking...

...so I suspect I might get back to work tomorrow. Being out for a week and a half may sound okay, but is is not enjoyable when you cannot do much of anything. I did get to go to the range last Saturday with Brendan, and even though he drove there and back, I guess I should not have gone because it whooped the tar out of me. I thought I was getting better, better than I actually was, and I paid for that few hours of fun with feeling worse the next few days. Oh well, as the doc told me, it will take time for me to fully get better.

I did manage to cook three times this week, and I have not cooked that often in quite some years. First I cooked some really decent steaks my wife had marinated, and I grilled up some young octopus too. Mmmmmm gooood. Day before yesterday, I cooked up one heck of a roast chicken, if I say so myself - but then again Linda and Brendan told me it was great. I mixed up some butter, olive oil, prosciutto, green onions, oregano, paprika, lemon zest, and thyme and used it to stuff the bird under the breast skin (between the skin and breast meat). I added a bunch of baby red potatoes to the roasting pan along with some cut up white turnips, and some of the left over stuffing mixture, and there it was. As for me I really couldn't taste it, I haven't been able to taste almost anything in about a week now, though some of the flavors did get through to me.

Then today I made a mixture of east meets west kind of a meal. I sauteed young octopus in a pan then added halved cherry tomatoes, about 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper, a small green pepper, a bunch of green onions, regular onion, minced garlic, fresh thyme, fresh basil, a leaf or to of fresh spearmint, salt, pepper and the juice of half a lemon and let it cook. Later on I added bean sprouts (the type used in Chinese cooking), and snow pea pods (nice fat ones), and a bit of soy sauce. This time I could taste it a bit. Mmmm good, and Brendan said so to. The wife is about to sit down to try it. My guess is she will say too much salt but that she will like it. The great thing is she complimented me on how clean I kept the kitchen. That means I may start cooking more often. I do love to cook, and I love to eat what I cook even more.

Added Note: The wife sat down to a huge plate of it, all that was left. She ate with some gusto, said too salty and a bit too spicy, but overall was good. Oh well, she ate it all; and I am pleased to have pleased she who must be adored.

All the best,
Glenn B