petecarpenter.com

7/31/2006

• needless to say, it’s been a puppy-filled week. it’s been fun, it’s been tiring, it’s been challenging, and it’s been pretty great. George has made lots of friends in the neighborhood, and has instantly become the most popular dog on the block. I’m a little worried that he’s going to be kidnapped by an admirer.
• The boys over at Formaggio have taken their Saturday BBQ to a whole new level. The pulled lamb shoulder sandwich loaded up with bbq’ed onions and cole slaw fed both of us for lunch and prety much kept us full for the rest of the day. I’ll need to try the pulled chicken thigh or pulled pork sandwich next time.
• i tried making pickled watermelon rind on friday, which was pretty much a mushy disaster. I love the idea of this, so i’ll have to give it another try using my own recipe.
• because we’ve been spending all of our time in the kitchen with the puppy, we’ve watched pretty much no tv for the last week. and guess what? we haven’t missed anything. our tivo is pretty much empty. summer tv blows. with the exception of two shows that i found on INHD, After Hours with Daniel and Three Sheets. In After Hours, famed chef Daniel Boulud gets a bunch of chef friends and celebrities together for an over the top dinner party at a NYC restaurant, and they just hang out and eat and drink and tell stories and cook crazy stuff. Three Sheets has comedian Zane Lamprey travelling around the world getting drunk. Yup. He just goes from place to place learning about the drinking traditions of various countries, and proceeds to get really drunk. He’s slightly obnoxious, really funny, and an excellent drinker. Somehow, it’s a really entertaining show. Plus, both shows are in HD, which doesn’t really make any difference for either of these shows. Go figure.
• In addition to a dog, a big goldfish has been added to our responsibilities this week. But we’re just feeding it for our neighbors while they’re on vacation, and it stays in the back hallway.
• oh, i got a haricut. yes, my once-every-four-months haircut has me looking like a respectable clean-cut guy again. i was getting a little shaggy there for a while.

Swinger

Ok, all together now.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Yeah, this dog is a Carpenter.

Fresh

On the day that we welcome a new member of the family into our home, we also celebrate some other new things: the first tomatoes of the season. After a successful go of it last year, we planted a dozen Super Sweet 100 tomato plants in our garden, and the first ones are just starting to ripen. We love these type of tomatoes because they seem to grow and ripen over a long stretch of the summer, beginning now and ending later in september. It seems like there are a bunch of new ripe ones every few days, so we’re never waiting around long for new ones. Of course, the only way to sample these beauties was with a few leaves of basil picked from the neighboring plants, some pieces of fresh mutz, a drizzle of good olive oil, and some sea salt and pepper. Yeah, they’re good. Luckily, we have the whole rest of the summer to enjoy them. Now just don’t go into our garden and steal any when we aren’t looking.

7/24/2006

• it’s puppy central in our house. Thanks to the fine folks at PetEdge, our house is filled with doggie stuff. Apparently, they’re the place to buy stuff from, because they sell to local petstores, so you pretty much buy everything for wholesale cost. Nice. George is going to be one hip looking pooch.
• Saturday night was pizza night, so with 7 hungry people to feed, of course it was time to experiment. Bad idea. A trip to Home Depot found me with a stack of unglazed quarry tiles. I’ve read in a bunch of places that you can use them to basically turn your oven into a homemade pizza oven, like this. So i loaded them in, fired up the oven, and started sliding in my pies. Unfortunately, I think I used too many and shouldn’t have put any above my stone, and it actually prevented the pizzas from cooking properly. The cooked slower, didn’t puff up, dried out a bit, and didn’t brown well. I also realized that when I made my dough, I forgot to leave it out for 30 minutes before putting it in the fridge, so that may have had an impact. Luckily, the pizzas tasted good, and I tried out a few new ones. My favorite, and most likely my new signature pie, was made with braised artichokes and fresh thyme. But I’m so disappointed with the crust and oven that I may have to make a batch at some point this week just to reassure myself that I can still make it properly. Can some one please buy me a wood burning pizza oven? Please?
• I used to be completely against playing golf at an ungodly early hour on a weekend. What person in his right mind would want to wake up at the crack of dawn to play when you can sleep in and play later in the day? Well, I’m apparently old now, because I get up so fricking early anyways, that it’s better to get up and play and be done before noon. That way, it doesn’t eat up the entire day. I hit up South Shore with Dickie on Saturday, and I have an interesting game. Despite playing only once or twice a year, I haven’t lost my golf skills. I played just about as well as back when I used to play 5 times a week. How does this make any sense?
• Susie has turned into a tennis nut. But she still gets pissed when I beat her.
• A george-cam is in the works. Stay tuned.
• Congrats to Robert and Margaret who have decided to do the smart thing and elope on the cliffs of Big Sur. I’m sure they’ll have fun telling their families that.
• we’re on a complete mexican food kick right now. like, 2 or 3 times a week kick. Like I’m craving tacos and tamales all the time. After a quick perusal of the Burrito Blog we made a visit to TaQueria Mexicana in Somerville. For $8, we got a whole of of tacos and tamales. Definitely go with the pork tacos, as they put the shredded pork on the griddle for a couple of minutes to get parts of it all nice and crispy. And at $1.25 for a tamale, get about 47 of them. Our quest for the best taqueria around will undoubtedly continue, and in the meantime, we’ll be making both tacos and enchiladas at home this week. Like I said, we’ve got a problem.

An Ode to My Rotisserie

Have I mentioned how much I love my rotisserie? Oh, I have? Ok. Well I do. A lot. I’ve been using it as much as possible this summer, despite the fact that it’s starting to warp a little bit, it’s a pain in the ass to clean, I have to run an extension cord from my garage or basement to run it, and pretty much every time I use it, at some point in the cooking process, the food in question falls off into the grill.

So it’s not the easiest piece of cooking equipment to use, but when the stars are aligned, it produces pretty much perfect food. Ever wonder why those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are always ridiculously tasty? It’s pretty hard to screw up. You could take a chicken, season it with just salt and pepper and it would come out great. What about brining, marinating, searing? Don’t I have to do all of these to come out with juicy, flavorful meat? Nope. The rotisserie takes care of all of the work for you.

Contrary to popular belief, the food is actually not rotating above the licking flames, flavoring it with smokey char. Indirect cooking is the name of the game here. Because the fat and juices are dripping off the meat, having a flame directly underneath would cause constant flareups, which is no good. When I use it, the 2 outside burners are on low/medium, and the center burner is completely off. Shutting the lid keeps the heat in, and the grill acts like an oven. Because of this slow cooking, the fats and connective tissue within the meat has a chance to break down, making it tender, flavorful, and juicy. A good rub of coarse salt on the outer surface helps render the fat (such as in the skin of a chicken or the outer layer of fat of a leg of lamb), which gives a crispy exterior while at the same time basting itself. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect way to cook, and when it’s 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity out, you’ll be happy not to have to stand by the blazing grill all afternoon. Once you’ve hooked up the motor, run the extension cord, repositioned the piece of chicken that keeps falling off, and crossed your fingers, just like my man Ron Popeil says, you can set it and forget it. And when you come to the table bearing a giant spit of perfectly crispy and delicious meat and everyone oohs and ahs, you’ll forget how much a pain in the ass it was.

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Super Grain!

I remember first hearing about quinoa back in college, when my friend, SuperG, raved about the “Super Grain of the Future.” I had never heard of it before, certainly didn’t know how to spell it (it’s pronounced “keen-wah”), and thought it was just some sort of hippie grain that probably tasted like dirt. Fast forward 8 years, and while looking for a substitute for our usual staple, Israeli couscous, I stumbled upon the mysterious quinoa.

It turns out that it is indeed a super grain. Quinoa comes to us from the Andes in South America, and it was an important staple for the ancient Incas. It’s loaded with protein and essential nutrients and amino acids, and it happens to be gluten-free. But how would it work for us? Well, it turns out that it’s also really tasty and takes on other flavors nicely. Simply boil a cup and a half of quinoa in salted water for about 7 minutes (or until tender), drain, cool it under cold water, and then dress it just as you would a pasta salad. Lemon juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar, chopped parsley, mint, basil, scallions, olives, chili, salt, and pepper, and whatever other flavors you want. Pesto would work, or you could also bulk it up with some chopped grilled veggies like onions, zucchini, tomatoes, or eggplant. It’s really whatever you want it to be.

It’s a great side for anything from the grill, like the lemon and herb marinated grilled salmon pictured here. We make a lot of salmon, and to be honest, it gets boring after a while. Just a simple brush of olive oil and salt and pepper followed by a squeeze of fresh lemon after it comes of the grill is always good, but sometimes you need something a little different. Last week, I figured I would try treating it like I treat chicken, marinating it briefly in olive oil, lemon juice, chopped scallions, parsley, and garlic. It’s important to only let it marinate very briefly, no more than 10 or 15 minutes, because the acidic lemon juice will actually start to “cook” the fish, just like a ceviche (another Peruvian dish). Grilling it skin-side down first over high heat produces a nice crispy skin, cooking it about 70% of the way on this side. Turning it over for the last couple of minutes on the flesh side finishes the cooking. You end up with a juicy piece of fish tasting of herbs and lemon with the nice contrast of crispy skin. Nice. Together, you have an easy, quick, tasty, and healthy meal, that luckily, doesn’t taste like dirt.

A Dark Secret Revealed

The Lovely Suse has a secret addiction. She doesn’t like to admit it because it seems a little trashy, but it’s time that the rest of the world knows about her “problem”: Texas Pete. A few months back the Lovely Suse’s Mom brought a bottle to our house for the sole reason that it was named after me (ok, not really, but a boy can dream), and ever since, things haven’t been the same.

I’ve never been a huge fan of hot sauces. My college roommates seemed to dump Tabasco on every single thing that they ate, no matter what it was. Steak, pizza, chicken, chips, breakfast cereal, salad (who am i kidding? They never ate salad), it didn’t matter. They though that everything tasted better with Tabasco. I just thought that it made everything taste exactly the same: like Tabasco. It never really did it for me since I think that the taste of that particular hot sauce is just too overpowering. It just masks every other flavor, and for some reason, reminds me of the flavor of bile that you may taste after a particularly rough night of drinking. Needless to say, I wasn’t rushing out to try other hot sauces.

Enter Texas Pete. It’s got a good name, a fun bottle, and it was already in my house. I tried it on a few tortilla chips, and you know what? It actually tasted really good. It had heat, but more importantly, it had good chili pepper flavor,and wasn’t completely overpowering. You could still actually taste whatever it was you were eating. Hey, this could work! Maybe the next time we made tacos, I’d give it a try. The Lovely Suse, however, wasn’t about to wait for her Texas Pete.

It became a constant presence in the post-work-pre-gym time, when you just need a few bites of something to tide you over. It seemed like every day, Pete made an appearance, usually poured directly into tortilla chips,and occasionally, on the front of pants or shirts. There was no stopping her. Before I knew it, the bottle was completely empty and we were rushing to the store to replenish her supply. She needed her Texas Pete, goddammit!

Her addiction has yet to impact her work or family life, so for the time being, we’re going to let the Lovely Suse continue to enjoy her Texas Pete. But when the day comes that I catch her pouring it onto my pizza, it will be time for an intervention. In the meantime, keep a close eye on her.

7/17/2006

• sorry for the late update. a not so fun end to a fun vacation. on the way back from a visit with the twins, my water pump died and my engine belts fell off. A 25 mile tow back to our mechanic followed by a half hour walk home wasn’t exactly in the gameplan. Turns out that the towtruck driver managed to completely bend my right rear controller arm making the car completely undrivable. Fun! Luckily, my good friends at AAA are taking care of it.
• we had our yearly visit to Seven Nickanoose, and it was relaxing and fun as always. We didn’t have the greatest weather, but we got some beach time in, did a little biking, did some reading, some grilling, and some eating. what more could you ask for?
• Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford. The name pretty much says it all. New Yorker editor Bill Buford somehow goes from inviting Mario Batali over for dinner, to working as a kitchen lackey in the Babbo, to working his way up the kitchen heirarchy, to going to Italy to follow Mario’s path and seek out his mentors and learn the secrets of Italian cooking. It’s a really entertaining and enlightening read, and you’ll definitely walk away with a different image of Mario and of his flagship restaurant. Let’s just say that he is truly a man of excess, in all senses of the word. But I still love him and his food.
• the best deal on the island is still the $5 beer/sprits tasting at Cisco Brewery. Not only do they have tasty brews, they’re happy to keep refilling your mini-pint glass as many times as you want. Even the large, obnoxious, overly-pampered and overly-spoiled college girls wearing all of their finest chanel, lacoste, gucci, and louis vuitton and turning their samples into mixed drinks with lemon-lime soda could spoil our mood. god, i wanted some one to punch them.
• There’s no better way to feel like a rock star than standing in the middle of town with Max, our friends’ friendly 105 pound polar bear/great pyrenees. Literally, every person on the street approaches you to find out what he is and to pet him. Luckily, he’s the friendliest dog in the world. A group of 15 year olds have taken him as their official mascot and hang out by him hoping to pick up cute girls. Smart guys.
• I started playing the Music Quiz on my ipod on the trip back from the island. it’s completely addictive and really hard. I never even knew my ipod had it, as it must have gotten it from a firmware update at some point. basically, it takes all of the music on your ipod and plays a random 10 second clip from a song. it give you a choice of 4 songs that it is, and every few seconds, it eliminates one. you have to pick the right song, and the longer it takes you, the fewer points you get. I think I got 71 out of 100 before I had to stop because it was too much pressure.
• T-minus 8 days until the arrival of George. The purchase of puppy supplies has begun.
• speaking of new arrivals, congrats to Dan and Melissa on the bith of Elliot Adin Wasserman. Can you believe that this guy is now a dad? Just kidding danny.

You Can Always Make Pasta

It’s time to go back to the farm for another night of cooking. A hankering for a farm-fresh pasta left us at the mercy of season and the market, and thankfully, the market was very kind to us. It must have been the big wet kiss we had given it recently. Luckily, pasta is a very adaptable dish, so there was bound to be something that we could use in it. As an added bonus, we ended up with 2 ingredients that we had never used before: green garlic and mizuna.

Green garlic is simply young garlic, with long slender green stalks reminiscent of scallions, and a very small bulb of garlic cloves on the end. It’s a much milder stage of the plant, and it has many uses. The stalks could actually be used raw, while the thicker parts and bulb take kindly to some sauteing. Mizuna is a Japanese mustard green, often seen in mesclun salad mixes, and can be used in the same way that arugula is used. In fact, I thought that it actually was arugula when i saw it at the market. The kind farmer managed to correct me without calling me a big dummy, which is nice. Finally, some tiny round pattypan squashes would round out the mix. We had the makings of our pasta.

The plan of attack: saute the finely sliced lower part of the green garlic along with chopped pattypans until softened and slightly caramelized, toss with the slender upper parts of the garlic stalks along with the mizuna into the cooked pasta, squeeze some lemon, drizzle some olive oil, shower with parm. Sounds good, right? Having never used the green garlic before, we were sort of just guessing how to use it. We figured that the upper stalks would wilt just like the mizuna, but unfortunately, this wasn’t really the case. This was our only misstep. Next time (um, next year, since green garlic is all gone by now), we’ll either cook the upper parts as well, or at least finely slice them before tossing them in with the hot pasta. The mizuna, however, was the real star. Eaten raw, it has a fresh and zingy flavor much like you would expect from a salad green. Cooked, however, it takes on a whole new personality. The mustard flavor starts to shine, and it can knock you on your ass if you’re not careful. Not quite as bad as that sneaky pile of wasabi that the sneaky sushi chef thought would be funny to hide under your piece of tuna, but it will definitely clear our your sinuses. Hey, learning theses things is half the fun, right? Learning about new ingredients and how to use them will definitely break up your routine and get you thinking in new ways. We certainly get in those ruts, so being forced out of them always has positive and hopefully tasty results.

7/10/2006

• thankfully, this was a much quieter and uneventful week for us, and we actually got to enjoy a summer weekend. This is the start of vacation week for us, so updates will be less frequent, probably. I hope you don’t miss me too much.
• lots of athletic action for us lately. We’ve been playing tennis a couple times a week, I shot hoops for the first time in about 10 years, and we dusted off our bikes (literally. they’ve been hanging in our garage and were covered in sawdust) in anticipation of our annual Nantucket visit. The middle school down the street has nice tennis courts, basketball courts, and fields that always seem to be open for us, so it’s like having our own personal recreation center.
• when we visit Nantucket, we end up cooking for our friends that we stay with. so if we’re cooking, we need our knives, right? Yes, we actually bring our own knives, kosher salt, and a pepper mill. I know, it’s a little crazy, but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t have the basics, and it makes a huge difference. Plus, it makes me feel like a professional or something.
• the Lovely Suse’s favorite thing in the world to read is the Belmont Police Log for entries such as this: “4:41 p.m. A Gilbert Road resident reported that someone broke into her home and defecated in the toilet while she was away. The woman did not report missing items or signs of forced entry. She said the same incident occurred a year ago when her home was undergoing renovation.” Or this one: “2:50 a.m. A Common Street resident said she awoke to the sound of tires screeching and discovered rubbish on fire in a toilet on her front walkway.” Or one of our all-time favorites: “A Belmont woman said someone stole seven pairs of her underwear from a Laundromat on Common Street.” Yes, this is the big police activity in our town. This blog keeps up with even more funny police log reports.
• We had our first successful dinner and guests out on the patio. By the way, I highly recommend the Off Powerpad Lantern. I t works amazingly well.
• I’m currently using Vibestreamer to listen to my home tunes at work. Nice and easy to set up, sounds great, nice and smooth. I’ve tried using Orb in the past to do this, but it doesn’t like Linux very much.
• i’m certainly not a big futbol fan and i certainly didn’t watch much of the World Cup (unlike Mark), but how can you not enjoy watching this over and over and over. Just utterly shocking and unbelieveable and entertaining.
• We started watching Midnight Madness the other night, and it’s every bit as good as I remember. 20 years later, and I still remember almost every scene.