Swing dancing on the USS Hornet New Year's Eve, anyone?
http://www.uss-hornet.org/calendar/newyear/index.shtml

... is people!

Just watched the movie, because sometimes I get on a weird kick and have to see some old SF ... <g>. There's some I still want to get, but ...

Well. Today was the day I have alloted myself to go and play. LIving in the City but working away from it means I do not get to casually enjoy many of the special places here that people who work here get to. So today I indulged. After sleeping in until 9 or thereabouts, I dressed, hopped on the 19 and took myself to Swan's Oyster Depot. The line outside was just long enough to whet the appetite and peruse the selection board and what was on ice in the window. Soon a stool at the long marble bar opened up and I ordered a crab salad, half a dozen mixed variety of oysters, and an Anchor Steam. The salad was light and crisp shredded iceberg mixed with crab meat from the body, a Louie dressing, and eight pieces of fresh claw meat placed on top. The sourdough was fresh. And the Anchor was a true measure. Words are insufficient. The oysters were mainly miyagis from a variety of places. The closest being Drake's Bay. They slip down nicely. One of the things that makes Swan's so appealing is that it is a family owned and staffed place and most of the people behind the counter really want to make sure you get what you want and that you enjoy it. A combination of heartiness and knowledgeability that works really well. This is not really a restaurant. It is a fish market that also serves fresh shellfish.

I then hopped back on the 19 and took it to the end of the line at Aquatic Park. A short walk found me in the Buena Vista at the bar where an Irish coffee was soon surrounded. By now, it was eleven and the place was packed with tourists eating and early lunch. Still, there were a group of regulars there. Despite its fame and tourist appeal, the BV still maintains its credentials as a waterfront bar. BTW, the Irish coffee was strong in both senses. A Good Thing as the day was turning grey, windy, and wet.

The changing weather meant that the line for the Powell-Hyde Cable Car was minimal. It also meant that all the tourists crowded inside the sheltered half of the car leaving me with a choice of either the lefthand or righthand front corner platform. For those who have never ridden the Powell-Hyde, these two spots offer one of the best rides found outside Disneyland. Not only are you completely outside the car, you are even ahead of it and the views available are unmatched. And the Powell-Hyde also goes around corners so you really need a good grip.

I got off at Union Square. Geary down to Market was very crowded so I avoided that area. Instead, I concentrated on Sutter, Post, and Bush as they blend into the Financial District. First though I went into the lobby of the St. Francis to see what holiday centerpiece they had produced. Unfortunately, it was the same pastry castle that they had last year. It even looked a little dusty. Lamenting also the demise of the Compass Rose, I made my way across Union Square. The window box displays at Shreve & Co. were marionettes portraying operas in the Italian and French canon: Turandot, La Boheme, Othello, Faust, Carmen, La Traviata, usw. It began to rain. This was good for the shops as most people were not prepared for it. Lots of potential customers. After looking into the various shops that I like to patronize, I wound up at Le Central where I resolved to have a late lunch/early dinner.

As I entered, the bartender was engrossed in a dice match with several obvious regulars. The rest of the bar was clear so I took a seat at the far end from the game. Eventually it was resolved who was paying the lunch tab and the game broke up. I had hit on just about the perfect time to eat at the bar. The lunch crowd had left and the dinner crowd had yet to arrive. Given the weather, I decided to have the French onion soup, the cassoulet, and a bottle of the house Cote de Rhone. Le Central is justly famous for their cassoulet. As of today, it has been cooking for 12,710 days. Large white beans that just slightly resist the tooth before surrendering. A large piece of sausage warm and juicy. Long shreds of confit duck or goose. All served up in an enameled iron pot with cover so it stays hot. Their French onion soup is worthy of no less praise. Unlike many places where the broth is garnished with a floating piece of broiled bread and cheese, Le Central's soup is completely sealed in the bowl by the broiled gruyere cheese. You have to break it open to reach the broth. (Rather like the old Ghieradelli sunday, The Rock.) Both were perfect on a cool wet day.

Feeling very well with the world, a couple of bus trips saw me home at dark whereupon I am writing this. Tomorrow, she'll be coming home and then all will really be right with my world.

http://kenalbala.blogspot.com/2009/11/gobble-gobble.html

Having left me camerade at work, I have no pictures to offer. Intent on the utterly traditional Thanksgiving, as always, I made a detour in NOT using anything prepackaged, canned or frozen. An unusual challenge as it turned out. Who ever realized that I was using Il Fornaio bread and canned Swanson broth for stuffing?? I have now. So it was my own wild yeast bread and a 12 hour turkey (NOT chicken) broth. If it hadn't burned on the bottom, I would be reeeling still.

The experiment that truly worked, however, was a turkey. Let me offer details. Take out the backbone and rib cage entirely so have two lobes and legs and wings still attached. Put this into a big bag deigned for brining, but no, we shall not brine. We cure. Salt, sugar, spices, and nitrites, oh! A few tablespoons of each. With bay leaves and rosemary. For a full 10 days, while I was away. No liquid at all. Then truss into a compact shape with string and smoke, over grape cuttings, lemon and oak, in this case for about 6 hours. And it is an actual TURKEY HAM. Succulent, sweet and smokey after the blackened skin in removed. Served cold, and remarkably wondrous. Better than the other turkey right beside him.

The rest is a blurr, which must be a good thing, though it was two days in the kitchen. Don Christobal and I made a real meat micemeat with suet raised crust, which was the best thing on the table. Add about 100 pounds more food and you will get the idea for 20 something people. And there is still a case or more of wine. OH pover mio!

This week's Resolution Recipe: Hard Sauce.
( Special bonus points for identifying the source of the subject header. )

Rain? Yes, rain. Hmm. I guess I didn't pay attention to weather reports. Hrm ... don't need to go anywhere, so that's at least something.

The Harry & David folk's website screwed up my order, but a quick visit to their customer service site and it appears to be fixed. Whew.

Looking at box o'slides, and realizing that I need to really look at these. This box of slides was handed to Juan and Rose at Investiture by an anonymous person. They handed it to me. Some of what's in here may be completely unrelated, some of it looks like Ren Faire ... the hard part is that without actually scanning them it's hard to tell. However, I have a slide viewer that I am just loading with batteries, and I will take a look ...

ETA: Um, none of these are SCA slides. They go back to 1968/1973, two sets are Ren Faire, and one is "Waterfront Faire" (held in San Francisco). Interesting to look at, but totally useless for the SCA History website ... sigh.

(On the plus side, I think I know how to run the slide part of my scanner now, although I haven't actually scanned anything with it ...)

Got all of Dierdriana's stuff gone through. I deleted a bunch of photos as being hard-to-tell-who-is-in-them ... and so on. Have the rest up on the History site now. Whew.

Mantled in dark clouds
The hills hunch shoulders against
The rain's cold fingers.
I watch from my window and
Wonder when it will rain here.

EDIT: About three minutes after I initally posted this and it sounds like cats and dogs in tengu geta on the skylight. Which is not helping my headache much. Maybe this is a Two Advil Day.

Best place to go on a Black Friday? Daiso Japan in Union City. For those late to the party, Daiso is a chain of 100 yen stores based in Japan with several branches in the Bay Area. The Union City one may actually be larger than the one over in Daly City and getting there does not require a bridge toll, so I'm glad I checked it out. $1.50 for most items, with some priced a bit higher, they carry a little bit of everything from stationery to kitchenware to plastic containers and organizers of all sizes and shapes.

I replaced one of the two stolen HOCM teapots for a whopping $4, an inoffensive green ceramic pot with bamboo handle, complete with wire tea strainer for loose tea. I picked out two sets of three tea cups (threes are lucky, sixes not so much) in complimentary colors, found a bento for a Twelfth Night gift for someone who had admired mine awhile back and who does not read my LJ so shhhh. And chopsticks in a case and a strap to go with said bento so she can dine in style. Office Christmas gifts are 50% done: nice lidded baskets which can be filled with candy or the ashes of dead project managers or whatever.

http://www.scatoday.net/node/14523

Most members of the press who visit SCA events stop at the fighting. Recently Sam Friedman of the Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror went further and investigated the cooks.

read more

A quick heads up... Phoebe's birthday is on New Year's Eve so we will be having a party here with crash space etc. I am going to do finger foods :) Make sure you give Ms. Phoebes a good Bday spanking! Back to our regularly scheduled program...

Really fun Turkey day! We brined the turkey and then stuffed the skin with sage and butter and them smoked it. It totally caught on fire! Like the paint burned off of our smoker, kind of fire. But it was early in the process and... it actually turned out freakishly yummy! Brion is the Turkeymaster!

I made a leg of goat (slathered with ginger, tumeric, garlic, honey and a bunch of other spices, then I put in a pan with cabocha squash, oranges, carrots, onions and raisins and slow roasted it), leg of lamb (garlic and rosemary), candied yams, green salad, garlic mashed potatoes. Jax brought stew and soup and Gina Marie brought soup as well. Etaine brought cookies, Gislane brought bacon wrapped dates with nuts in the middle. I made lox, pig heart (not as good as Lamb heart) and sausage stuffed calamari. Sue made cucumber finger sandwiches. I made Phoebe some love humus. Wulfric and Donata brought some yummy pies (I am eating some right now) everyone brought lots of yummy wine. It was so lovely! I love my chosen family very much.

Today is slouch around in my pajamas day. The kids are playing Rock Band with Bri and I have the turkey carcass in the big stock pot getting this weeks turkey soup going (which smells great!). Gianetta came by and picked up the feast gear she generously let me borrow for Esfenn FoFA. We are both pretty excited about the stuff we are doing for Eireanwood! And a heads up for Eireanwood participants... I will be doing "the Courtesans visit the Papal Palace for a Garden Party" theme all day on Sat so if you feel like bringing Italian stuff I will running Sat like a period play space as much as possible for the full day. So Food Geeks of Eireanwood Unite!

Time for the annual address-book update and holiday card extravaganza! Please respond with your address -- comments are screened for your protection.

I wandered down to the Mission on a ramble today, and decided to stop in at Tartine for a Morning Bun. They are indeed quite good - orange, sugar, & a bit of spice - but they aren't worth waiting twenty minutes in line good.
But the rest of the ramble was nice. I worked off a bit of the lovely dinner last night at B&R's, which was fun. Low-key chattage with lots of people, as well as watching Bloodsport with the sound off. Due to a miscommunication both etaine_pommier and I brought pecan pies, but hers was chocolate and mine was plain, so it worked out.
Now I should do some homework.

http://www.scatoday.net/node/14520

For nearly the 500 years since it took place, experts have disputed the location of the Battle of Bosworth which saw the defeat of Richard III. Now a team of historians and archaeologists believe they have found the site.

read more

The Fuyu persimmon pie was quite good, but tended to lose structural integrity when sliced and serving was attempted. The sugar mixture might need thickening with corn starch. Works nicely in a graham cracker crust, possibly swapping brown sugar for cane might be a nice variation. Original recipe is here. http://keyingredient.com/recipes/17783/fuyu-persimmon-pie/

The Pumpkin Maple pie was actually subtler and less sweet than I would have expected, but really lovely. (In fact, I'm probably going to have some for breakfast as I kept the pie with the blackened crust.) I used cream instead of condensed milk and it didn't set up quite as firmly as I think of pumpkin pie, so might try it that way next time. http://www.producepair.com/recipes/pumpkin_maple_pie.htm

Spent a lovely afternoon at mamapduck 's with her family and a couple of friends. I'm still kind of boggling over the need to cook and mash ten pounds of potatoes for six guests, but it made Her Boys happy. I called home and got passed around the table to say hi to everyone in Annapolis. (Gotta figure out when I can get home again: the spring, maybe.) Excellent company and a bit too much food.

Tried some variations on a few dishes this year.

Pecan Pie The pecan pies have always seemed a bit too thin on pecans and too thick on pie, so I tried it with chopped (rather than whole) pecans and somewhere between two and three times the recommended volume. Also one more egg than the recipe calls for (for a total of three, I believe) to try to avoid the tendency of the filling to run out the cut edges. The nut increase worked, but the filling still ran. I'm working off a base of the recipe on the Karo syrup bottle, but maybe I need to back up and do more research.

Cranberry relish This was just an improvised variant. (My more usual atypical cranberry dish is a mousse.) Juice a large orange. Cut the skin off and remove all the white pulp, then cut the rind into very thin strips and chop. This is because the Maine brother evidently owns neither a grater or zester. To the juice and zest, add one bag fresh local cranberries. Also about 1/4 cup brown sugar (there not being any white sugar in the house for some reason). Start simmering over a very low heat because you want to sweat the moisture out of the berries before the oj cooks off. When it starts liquifying, add a good solid dash each of ginger and cinnamon. Cook, covered, until a good stir breaks up every last berry.

http://www.scatoday.net/node/14596

Records report that, in the 18th century, three fingers, a tooth and a vertebra were removed from the tomb of Galileo Galilei and placed in a container. Since then, a finger and the vertebra have turned up, but the tooth and other fingers were still missing. Now, two fingers and a tooth have been found and are scheduled to be placed on display.

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...Because he knew he'd lose if he went up against these guys.

Was very nice.

We drove up to Sac, with only a couple of slow bits on the freeway (which was weird) ... one of them caused by lookie-loos at the site of an accident (fender bender from what we could tell). The idiot woman behind me (tailgating, swerving to the left to see what she could see around me ...) finally got a chance after we passed the accident to go away (and stop endangering us!).

Got there about an hour after planned. Oh well. Traffic is.

Had a pleasant time. Dinner was ... well, what we tend to expect (pretty traditional Turkey Dinner). Good food. Good chats. Met part of the step-father-in-law's extended family (his brother's daughter and her family ... she was at the memorial, don't recall if her husband was, I seem to recall meeting her before but I can't remember).

Left there about 7ish and drove home. Took care of taking out the trash (weekly chore), pet the cats, cleaned up a couple things, watched Dark City because ... I felt like it.

Herself is staying in Sacramento with her sister to spend the day at the SFIL's going through her mom's stuff ... will be back Saturday morning (time to unwind a bit, and get our stuff together for the Orphan's Thanksgiving party at stella_nordica's ...).

I intend to spend time trying to catch up on some projects tomorrow. Now for bed.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving day ...

http://www.scatoday.net/node/14579

Minowara Kiritsubo, new editor of the Compleat Anachronist, the research publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, is seeking contributions for the magazine.

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The second set of new recipes has been pretty disappointing - there's only one repeat from these.

1. Cinnamon ducks. I'll make these again. Basically a snickerdoodle dough, though not as sweet. Texture right out of the oven is crisp at the edges and cake-y in the middle. Very good as a basic cinnamon cookie.

2. Hazelnut and chestnut pinwheels. Basic nut shortbread with filling. The ones from the new cookie book are OK, but a little bland. I suspect there are more flavorful pinwheel cookies out there. Not a repeat.

3. Whetstone cookies. The flavor is lovely, but the texture is terrible - hard and tough. I will see if they soften over time. If not, these aren't worth repeating. I will lift the rosewater and caraway as a combo, though.

4. St. Catherine's cookies. Pretty boring butter cookie with currants, and difficult to shape. The ground almonds don't really add much. I have better recipes for currant cookies.

Next up: the requisite rum balls, etc. No more new recipes until Wednesday or so.

The scent of spices
Is not half so pleasing as
Your smiling faces.
As we sit down together,
Nothing can separate us.

Well, sometimes you have to settle for a virtual table to smile across. Dad called last night to find out where I'm going to be so the family can call (I may call them first instead - it may be simpler), and I just got a text on my cell from James.

Persimmon pie is cooling in a graham cracker crust hastily acquired at the Safeway this morning. I'll be interested to see what this is like: diced Fuyu persimmons tossed with cinnamon and nutmeg, with a mixture of sugar, egg, butter and a little flour poured over it.

Then I'll head out to mamapduck 's for the rest of the day's festivities....