cissalj

First: please note that i am not actually doing any of this; I just think it'd be a good idea.

Assuming one has planned, sourced recipes, and made lists for a week's meals, there are other factors once can do to make putting dinner on the table faster and probably easier. (I believe that pre-planning, making a list, and shopping once per week is a HUGE tiime saver, and if you do nothing else, try that!)

One obvious thing: do the prep for several meals at once. For example: for us, it is very rare that some part of any given meal does not start out with sauteing onions, and often with adding garlic toward the end. There is no reason not to do all of this at once, and use an appropriate amount of the stuff in subsequent dishes.

A similar thing can be done with many other things; pre-cooking rice; blanching sturdier veg; etc. Depending how far one wanted to go, once could spend a few hours making "kits" for most of the rest of the meals for the week, with a lot of the prep done ahead of time- and more efficiently, since one would be sauteing a week's worth of onions rather than 1 per day.

And even that isn't getting into things that can be totally made ahead- if one is cooking a stew in the oven, one can also cook a pot roast. Some of this would need to be frozen; some not.

Now, I'm not that keen on doing this myself. I rather like wandering into the kitchen each day and starting to chop and saute an onion or 2! But it's really inefficient in all kinds of ways, and at times it'd be kinda nice to have a vat of sauteed, slightly caramelized onions at hand, ready for, say, a quarter cup or so to go into the latest batch of brown rice.

So: for efficiency: plan the menus; see what ingredients and prep overlap; pre-cook those as much as possible (peppers, onions, hot peppers, etc. can be done separately or together, depending on recipes; If I were doing a whole bunch, I think I'd do each veg separately and then combine them into recipe-focused medleys for use on the day).

it would also not be hard to make notes of any pre-prep that needed to be done closer to the actual meal- like, today, I lightly salted the steak in the early afternoon, wrapped it up again, and stuck it back in the fridge to dry-brine. I would not have wanted to do that earlier, but it needed to be done at least an hour before cooking. Similarly, the same treatment for a roast should be started several days ahead of time.

I guess ideally, one would do a flow-chart for the week.

Now: I'm not likely to do that for myself; my catch-as-catch-can approach of notes scribbled on scrap paper is working OK for me, mostly.

But: if I were doing a personal chef gig- I would look to ways to do this, and I'd have a list of Things to Do for every damn day that made pulling the fuds together easy and really home-made- and NOT simply pre-preparing a bunch of stuff that got frozen and then nuked. Some things are fine with that; others are NOT, and A Plan that is not very demanding in time or effort would be a fairly nifty approach, I think.

But- not really my are; I like metals enough that I am not planning to abandon them for cooking. I guess it's that watching the "chef" reality shows, and thinking about kitchen efficiency for a home cook instead of a chef, is rather a fascinating intellectual exercise.

I have now paid $200 to have a vendor listing on the "Offbeat Bride" website.

It's a good match for my wedding/commitment rings. However, I do have to wonder about some of their policies.

It's not that expensive to add additional photos etc. to one's listing. However, if one wants to change the text... it's an additional $200 AND it does not re-set the 1-year listing date- so, if one does this 6 months in, it effectively makes the per-year cost $400 rather than $200. Why not re-set the listing date with that? And also- why not offer a more affordable and practical means to edit one's listing????

This does not seem very pro on their part, though it's still a good venue for me. I think. Being able to tweak the listing for a reasonable amount of $$$ would make it even more attractive, of course...

These sorts of issues are one of the reasons I do love Etsy- you can edit the text and photos etc. to your heart's content, and it doesn't cost extra. And it's only $0.60USD/year to list something (NOT $200!), chosen in 4-month increments. Also, Etsy takes a minimal amount per item when you sell through them; I am delighted to pay that, personally, because pretty much any other arrangement is riskier and less lucrative. (This is similar to why I don't mind paying taxes; I WANT robbery protection, fire departments, driveable roads, educated kids, etc.)

It will be interesting to see if I get any additional traffic and/or clients via "Offbeat Brides".

I have had very good results with the basic recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Note that if you have a BIG brisket, you can cut it in half and freeze half after 2-3 days of brining; when you thaw it, it'll be fully brined.

After it's done, rinse well and cook in fresh water, according to any boiled dinner recipe. It usually needs at least 3 hours braising. Cut the time a bit short if you want to cut the beef for sandwiches (you want to retain some of the structure so it doesn't just fall apart), or cook it longer if you're using it for a boiled dinner.

Home-corned Beef Brisket (without saltpeter)

1/2 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns , cracked
3/4 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1/2 tablespoon paprika
2 bay leaves , crumbled
1 beef brisket (fresh, 4 to 6 pounds), preferably point cut, trimmed of excess fat, rinsed and patted dry

Mix salt and seasonings in small bowl.

Spear brisket about thirty times per side with meat fork or metal skewer. Rub each side evenly with salt mixture; place in 2-gallon-size zipper-lock bag, forcing out as much air as possible. Place in pan large enough to hold it (a jelly roll pan works well), cover with second, similar-size pan, and weight with two bricks or heavy cans of similar weight. Refrigerate 5 to 7 days, turning once a day.

I have turned off the ringer on the phone in the bedroom, because I am really sick of POLITICAL calls.

There is an election next Tuesday- I believe a primary to choose candidates to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate- and I am really sick of being harassed by these calls.

Steve P-something is the worst. (You can see how much I care by my inability to cite his name- that's because I hang up at that point.) Apparently he is veryveryrich, and is using lots of his money to buy frequent harassing robot phone calls. If I'd had any temptation to vote for him ever, that would have cured me.

Unfortunately, the person I had planned to vote for has also incurred my wrath. Only 1 robot call, which is something, and then one actual person-call. The latter happened after I had already been annoyed by a couple of robot calls for gook ol' Steve P, so I admit I was not nice.

The dude asked me if they could count on my vote for Coakley come Tuesday; I said "Well, you could have, but now I am not so sure because I am SO FUCKING SICK of these calls!" Dude actually took that pretty well, so I'm a bit sorry I hung up on him mid-apology. But only a bit sorry.

Anyway. The ringer on the bedroom phone is off till Tuesday night.

And I am drafting a nastygram to send to ALL the candidates pointing out that while the law allows them to ignore our preferences about being called, that does IN NO WAY mean that we APPRECIATE such calls, and offending people who you are wanting to do you a favor is generally Not A Good Thing, and perhaps they could consider VOLUNTARILY respecting people's preferences as depicted in the Do Not Call lists..!

OK, so we had 1 package sent registered mail go missing in Shrewsbury- meaning, the tracking confirmed it go there, and then... nothing. Nothing at all.

At this point we can start the official tracking of lost mail. Since registered is supposed to be insanely secure, with every item explicitly signed in and out at every step of the way, this ought to produce the missing package.

Except that a few days ago we sent another package via registered mail- this time via Priority Mail/registered, for faster delivery... and this one too got to Shrewsbury several days ago and since then- nothing. In the 3 days since it got to Shrewsbury, it should have been travbelling to its destination; instead- NOTHING.

So: at this point it's looking like somebody in the PO at Shrewsbury is stealing registered mail packages, despite all the bragged-on security these supposedly have. I can't really see any other reason that 2 packages, sent via different means (1 first class, 1 priority, albeit both registered), and roughly 2 weeks apart, have hit that point and disappeared.

This is very worrisome- both because of the vanished commissioned work, AND because it points up that there is actually NO safe way to ship bloody anything at all. Registered mail gets lost/stolen. FedEx drops stuff on porches, unsigned for, even when one pays extra to demand a signature on delivery. Etc., etc.

I really don't know what to do. I can't continue to make jewelry for people if I can't get it to them... and there doesn't seem to be any way to securely get it to them. I'd been relying on registered mail- and now that that's gone south- I have nothing.

Dunno what I can do... I sure cant' keep making stuff and having it vanish in shipment- and that seems to be my only option.

K now has an Etsy shop! It is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7910182

She is making and selling odd and nifty hats, of all things, including squid-based and sushi ones.

Very cool and fun, and I wish her great success!

The bloody Boston Globe is not only now charging $50/month for their ever-more-anorexic newspaper...

BUT they cannot seem to manage to give us the proper set of grocery store flyers on Thursday.

This is the second week we've gotten flyers for stores that are nowhere near us, instead of ones that are local.

The Globe blames the carriers. The carriers claim that they are, like the Pope, infallible.

Meanwhile, I do not have a flyer for the main store I go to, for the second week in a row.

Grrr.

Woo! It looks like my Mobius ring is an engagement ring in "Numb3rs"! And for a major character, even!

This is such a thrill!

Oven-poached Salmon, with BONUS! directions for an easy and insanely delicious meal

The Salmon

This makes pretty much however much you want of a melting-textured, tender salmon, good both hot and cold. It is tasty at pretty much any point from fairly rare through probably overcooked... which is handy, because figuring out the cooking times can be a bit approximate. I'd recommend erring on the rare side only if the fish is exceedingly fresh. This is based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, with tweaking on my part.

Ingredients
a sufficiency of salmon*
apple cider vinegar
whole lemon (optional)
salt, pepper, other spices (optional)

Preheat your oven to 250F. Eye your salmon hunk or hunks and tear off 3 pieces of foil: 2 will be joined together lengthwise and wrap around the width of the salmon; the other will be much longer and wrap around its length. Attach the 2 shorter pieces to each other so you have a large somewhat square rectangle. Lay this on a cookie sheet/jellyroll pan large enough to hold the length of your salmon, so the seam goes across the "waist" of the sheet. Lay the longer piece of foil lengthwise, so it hangs over the ends of the cookie sheet.

Arrange your salmon on the foil, in about the middle. If it's a whole one, or a section of the whole one, sprinkle the cavity and the skin with some vinegar. If it's fillets, sprinkle the flesh side of each with the vinegar. Add seasonings to taste- a wee bit of salt and some pepper are always good, and add other spices as you like- though in my experience they don't add a lot to the flavor. Slice the lemon thinly and add it, either inside the cavity or across the flesh of the fillet. If you have 2 fillets, arrange the second one over the first, head-to-tail to even up the thickness if possible.

Wrap the inner layer of foil around the fish, sealing the seams. Repeat with the outer layer.

Bake for anywhere from 30 min. to 1.5 hours, depending on how much fish there is and how cooked you want it. Err on the side of undercooked if in doubt, since you can always check it, reseal it, and heave it back in for some extra time. It'll cook a bit more when removed from the oven, but not much at this temp.

Excellent both hot and cold. If there are leftovers, remove the lemon and, ideally, the skin etc. before refrigerating. If you want to eat the leftovers warm, I recommend nuking something else (like cooked brown rice) and adding the cold salmon to the really hot rice- I think you could overcook it if you nuked it much.

The jellied broth is an excellent addition to the hot rice or whatever, so don't throw it away!
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OK, that's the salmon. Now, my lovely easy meal:

Cook brown rice. I recommend a rice cooker, which I also use for quinoa and other grains.

When the salmon is done, or almost done- cook some sugar-snap peas- a simple steaming works great. Snow peas are also good. Other peas and green beans and even broccoli work, but the sugar-snap peas are the best. Fresh adds crunch, but frozen taste fine- last time instead of steaming the frozen peas I heated them up in a frying pan with a bit of spicy-hot sesame oil.

When everything is done: plate the rice. Sprinkle it with a small amount of Chinese sesame oil (the toasted kind) or spicy-hot sesame oil. Sprinkle with truly excellent soy sauce (I like Eden's Shoyu). Put the salmon on top of it, preferably with minimal bones and skin, and maybe some of the broth. Sprinkle the salmon with a bit more soy sauce. Add peas and serve.

OMnomnomnom.
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* I'm sure this would be lovely with wild-caught, but I'm hesitant to buy that because of both its price and the data that says a lot of wild-caught salmon is actually farmed salmon sold for triple the price. :P

I've made it with both a hunk o' salmon, with only its innards removed, and- more usually- with fillets. When choosing fillets, the center-cut, thicker ones work better than the tail bits- though if you have a tail bit, and only 1 fillet, fold the tail over to equalize the thickness a bit. I have never tried this with under 1.5 pounds of salmon, but it scales up just fine. If you have 2 fillets, arrange them flesh sides together, and head-to-tail to equalize thickness, with the spices and lemon between them.

So! In an amazing exercise of data-collecting here in MA- home of mandatory health insurance payments yet optional actual coverage-

Emergency room visits have gone UP in the past couple of years! And for things for which people COULD be seeing their primary care physicians!

Except, of course, that damn near NO primary care physicians are accepting new patients these days; the rabies scare I had from GG is the only reason J and I have one- I persisted in trying to find a doctor, rather than just hitting the emergency room as I was mostly advised to do. Luckily, as it turned out.

So. Insurance requires that you get referred for care from your primary health physician (not our insurance, but most). And then- there aren't any. So people are required to pay for "insurance", and then left on their own to get health care- including at emergency rooms- and then they end up paying for both the useless insurance AND the care they actually need, with no help from the insurance since they didn't get the mandated referral.

Please understand: this MA approach is being touted as a MODEL for the rest of the country. If you're not dealing with it now, you may well be in a few years.

In practice, it is regressive, unfair, and downright sadistic. Please keep this in mind.

Mandated health insurance a la MA does NOT have anything at all to do with available health CARE- it just increases your payments, and decreases your options by requiring pointless payments.