August, Pierce County

7/26/2010 Bloody Butcher Tomato, 26.5grams
8/4/10 Bloody Butcher, 32.9g
8/7/19 Bloody Butcher, 39.5
8/7/10 Bloody Butcher, 33.8

8/23/10 Bloody Butcher, 47.8

Do you notice anything unusual about that(other than the fact that I am neurotic enough to catalog my tomatoes and weigh them to the tenth of a gram)?
Every year, nature seems to do this little striptease to me.  My tomatoes start coming along nicely and around the end of July or the beginning of August, the plants give me a few sweet, juicy vibrant tomatoes!  And then nothing.  The plants continue to grow and undulate, taking over every cubic inch it can populate, whether up and out if I stake them, or stretching out, its bountiful branches like a cat languishing in the warm summer sunlight.  They grow and they grow, but they will not ripen. I would have to estimate that I now have around 200 tomatoes growing between my 11 fruit bearing plants.  Unfortunately, I chose plants based on expected total harvest rather than wisely picking a variety that would give me a consistent yield.
So the wait continues.  I guess I am stuck going through the longest, hottest days of summer while not being able to enjoy the fruits of it...yet.
Once the harvest finally does come, I will no doubt be feverishly eating them raw, drying them in the oven, attempting to can them, and giving them away to kindred spirits who know the true beauty of a garden fresh tomato.

The wait will be worth it

My First Follower!!

I am very excited to have my first follower!  Thank you so much for making me feel legitimate.  You know who you are, and I will take you out for a fabulous meal the next time you are in Seattle.
Note: I will not take everyone who follows me out to eat.  Sorry, but I am not rich.

I promise to have another post about food soon.

Breakfast For Dinner

One of the things that reminds me most of childhood is having breakfast for dinner.  This is a bit nicer than what I grew up with, but is still a hearty, quick meal to make any time.

Sorry about the poor photo quality!  I will get a better camera soon.
This is a frittata with sauteed onions and shallots, sausage and sharp cheddar.  I served it with rosemary crispy potatoes and a quick rosemary country gravy that I threw together.

Carbonara is magic

If I were ever to stop eating meat, pasta carbonara is the dish that I would miss the most.  It is a collection of so few ingredients that comes together to be the ultimate in comfort food.  It took me several times to convince Steve to try it, as he is not that adventurous with food.  He loved it the first time he tried it and would be quite content now to eat it several times a week.  I first found this recipe from one of Ruth Reichl's books.
I take no credit for the recipe, I am just paraphrasing how I remember reading it.
.
1lb spaghetti or other noodle pasta.
2 eggs
Parmigiano-Reggiano, not that hideous stuff that comes in a green shaker!
4-8 ounces good bacon
6 cloves garlic

Cut bacon into 1/2-1 inch pieces. Sliver the garlic.  Cook the bacon, but don't let it crisp as it won't adhere to the pasta if it does.  Add the garlic to the bacon about halfway through cooking.  While the pasta is cooking, crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and scramble them.  Drain the pasta and toss in with the eggs and add shredded parmesan and the bacon, including the drippings(that's why it tastes so good).

Sorry sprouts, I'm just not that into you

I have spent the last few years loving to grow my own food.  I have very little space and the actual volume of food that I get from my garden and containers doesn't really comprise a large portion of my diet.  However, the quality of the food that I grow is worth so much more than what I can buy.
It occurred to me after I had a packet of radish seeds that it would be quite nice to have baby radish greens.  They are wonderful and delicate and have such a bright flavor.  After a bit of wikipedia web searching I concluded that I would start growing my own sprouts!  The reality of growing sprouts isn't that great.  It is a process of soaking them, and then rinsing them 2 or 3 times a day.  Oh, and they mustn't be exposed to sunlight.  And they need to be kept at a pretty consistent temperature around 70 degrees.  That sounds kind of like an environment bacteria and mold and other nasty things grow.  I think I would rather rely on commercial growers that(hopefully) have it down to a science and are doing it in a sterile environment.

Parmesan Meringue: Fail

I saw this recipe in the Gourmet Cookbook which was last revised in 1965 and the thought of it really excited me.
Meringues au Parmesan
Beat 2 or 3 egg whites with a little pinch of cayenne and 1/4 teaspoon salt until they are stiff.  Stir in 4 to 5 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, mixing thoroughly.  Drop the meringues by teaspoons into hot deep fay (385) and fry them until they are delicately browned on all sides.  Remove the meringues with a perforated ladle, drain on absorbent paper, and dust with paprika.  Serve hot.

Sounds great, doesn't it?  I had made a mental image of this wonderfully light, fluffy, ethereal cloud of cheesy, nutty heaven.  This was not to be.
Beat egg whites:check.  I have this wonderful meringue that is not at all affected by cayenne or salt.  Stir in 4 to 5 tablespoons  parmesan: yeah, I did that and the meringue fucking fell!    I spent another 10 minutes whipping the hell out of them before I realized that the reason meringues must absolutely not have any yolk is probably the same reason the meringue would not rise again after I added fatty cheese.

I'm a lifer

I have worked in a plethora of the food service world.  From tray passing champagne in a tent set up outside a mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, to bartending for Republican VIPs including a former US Senator, to working a Somali wedding reception that did not start until after sunset(during July in Seattle? Really??).  The one thing that unifies all this is that I have had the privilege to be working with food that occasionally tended to actually be pretty fucking good.
As the years have passed, I have been blessed to be around friends that share my love for food.  It seems as each year passes, my interest, my attention, my fixation, my passion for food becomes magnified.  I want to use this blog as a way to share my experiences with dining and eating.  Ideally, I would love for this to be an interactive exchange with other people who love food.

I'm Changing My Name

Really Merlyn, you might be thinking you're thinking about changing your name? What a novel concept for you.
I started my blog as a way to share my interest in dining, cooking, and growing food in a serious way.  I felt it was whimsical and tongue-in-cheek to use a phrase from an outdated cookbook.  I  now realize that faggot is just too toxic of a word for most people.
Since I do most of my traveling by mass transit, and I love the juxtaposition of the two words, I will now be going by The Pedestrian Gourmet.  I am posting this on both blogs and I will transfer my previous posts to my new page soon:
http://pedestriangourmet.blogspot.com/