Tips and Tricks

Longer ago than I care to admit, a dear friend asked me about making pie crust. And since today is that person’s birthday, I figured evidence that I hadn’t forgotten that request might make a suitable birthday gift.

When done well, pie crust is a deep brown, delectable testament to the near-miraculous effect of heat on a few simple ingredients. Tender and flaky, it serves as a perfect embrace for fresh fruits, pudding, or whatever tasty filling a cook can devise. Pie crust can also be intimidating as hell to make, because the quality of those simple ingredients really matters. So does the cook’s handling of them. I am by no means an expert pie baker, but I am adequate and if I had regular practice, I’m confident I could become an expert one. So could you; and here are my tips and an excellent recipe for starting down that path. Let’s head into the kitchen!

It figures—the day after I wrote this, I found a book I’ve had for years that will be a great help in getting my body more toned in fairly short order.

Y’all know we had a garden this past summer ... but in my focus on the tomatoes and their prodigious output, I overlooked commenting on a few other crops. Today, with a lot of economic bad news and worrying, and with Bush’s so-called stimulus plan seen through and the U.S. dollar still getting fucked by Paulson et al., our little corn experiment is worth reporting.

A while back I went on and on about turkey. Having recently roasted another big bird, I have a few observations on the process, along with another food bonus for those willing to wander back in to the kitchen with me.

A while back I read an enthusiastic endorsement of a new cheesecake cookbook on a foodie site; being a cheesecake lover, I clicked through to Amazon to check it out. The cookbook is apparently based on a successful restaurant’s New York-style cheesecake recipes. But a few things in an editorial review turned me off of the book, and of their cheesecakes. My primary objection is the use of corn starch in the cheesecake. Now, I know that restaurants need to be as concerned with food appearance as much as taste, but as something of a cheesecake snob, I do not like extra binders in my cheesecake. The cheese and eggs should be sufficient—no flour, gelatin, or corn starch should be necessary to get a smooth cheesecake. They can add off flavors and textures to the cake. I’ve never had a problem with cracks in my cheesecakes, and I’ve never gone to the lengths described to accomplish a picture-perfect cheesecake—I don’t use extra binders, I don’t use a water bath, and I bake the cheesecakes at typical (325–350° F) temperatures.

All that said, making a pretty and delectable cheesecake is one of the trickier propositions I’ve encountered. Still, all that’s required is some extra care in preparing the batter and baking the cake. For starters, one must plan ahead: cheesecakes taste best after mellowing about 24 hours after they’re baked. Follow me into the kitchen if you’re interested in the secrets of homemade cheesecake success.

I realized last night that I was almost out of my last batch of home made schnapps, so thought it would be a good time to share the recipe here.

Before I start, and just for the sake of argument - those who are purists or like to work a lot harder than necessary... here are some links to other methods.

Brewing Real Schnapps by distilling - without a real "still"
What are Schnapps and Cordials?
Complete, exhaustive recipes and directions here.

So! Start out with JUST ripe, fresh fruit if at all possible. Frozen fruit is ok, as long as it is top quality and JUST ripe when frozen. (Good luck unless you picked it and froze it yourself. sigh) Wash and clean (peel if needed, core, remove stems, pits, etc.) carefully, then allow to drain thoroughly. Fruit that turns dark on exposure to air can be sprinkled with vitamin C powder. Grind some C tablets with a mortar and pestil - just remember to wash out the chili powder you ground up last!! LOL

Chop fine or run through food processor on coarse setting. Don't puree.

ratio is 1 pound clean, dry fruit to 1.5 cup everclear or 95% grain alcohol PLUS 1.5 cup filtered or distilled water. OR you can use 3 cups of 80 proof Vodka. Some vodka has a funky flavor, so the better quality the better the finished product will taste. I won't use vodka at all since I started with the Everclear - but the vodka is ok if you can't get the other.

DO NOT ADD SUGAR at this point.

Mix these in a sterile glass or stainless steel container with a good tight seal. Allow to stand in a cool, dark place for 2 to 4 weeks. Pour through a fine metal strainer into a clean glass jar. Allow it to drip and don't press. The fruit pulp will make wonderful topping for all sorts of things, so don't even DREAM of discarding it! It can be frozen in ice cube trays and then put in plastic bags to be used little by little.

When you have the pulpless product in the glass jar you can choose whether or not to add sugar - or how much. The standard recipe calls for 1 1/4 cup white granulated sugar for the batch size above. That much sugar may or may not dissolve immediately, but will be ok eventually. Don't use more, however. This should be sealed again and left to age in a cool, dark place for about 3 months.

I have plans to try some plain honey instead of sugar on the next batch. The honey would be especially good with some of the herb liquors like peppermint or spearmint. I want to do some with chamomile and maybe one with rosemary too.

For an herbal recipe, start with the 1.5 cup water, boiling. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the dry herb and allow to steep until the water is cold or longer for bark (cinnamon) or seeds (like dill). Strain out the herbs and add the alcohol, then sweeten or bottle unsweetened. It doesn't need the same "working" time as the fruit, though it will improve in flavor with age.

One of my favorites is made with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves and apple juice concentrate for the water. This one definitely needs the sugar. It's dynamite on/with hot apple pie or to make "mulled cider" in a flash. Use a recipe for apple pie spice mix to get the proportions. I'll look it up and try to remember to add it later.

Whew! Have fun with this. I need to go find something to drink! [G]

For many people, the zing of tomato sauce, especially if made from garden-fresh, ripe tomatoes, can be too acidic. A very common solution is to add sugar to the sauce. It works, but it also makes the sauce sweet; and I for one despise sweet tomato sauces. (How anybody can stomach that sweet, gloopy Prego stuff, when homemade tomato sauce can be deliciously and easily accomplished in about half an hour—or longer if you want a full-bodied, rich flavor—is beyond me.)

The first I am surprised I didn’t create from the outset, when we began our arduous migration to Drupal [the buffalo got nothing on the difficulties we faced!]: tips and tricks. Any kind of helpful hint, product or software recommendation, etc., that we post should go in this category; and I expect that an accompanying category tag will help further classify them (e.g., pood, Pengy Power), although I am not going to be the tagging police and insist upon it.

The second is a bit of inspiration that came to me yesterday, to help me be more consistent about sharing fun things I discover as I cook. “Cooking the alphabet” is intended to be a semi-regular feature, focusing upon some food or spice—one for each letter of the alphabet. Some will be commonplace, while others will be unusual. I’ll try to include at least one recipe with each letter, but won’t guarantee it. And I will probably break my loose rule of focusing on ingredients rather than final dishes at some point, but I doubt anyone here will care all that much about that. I have the first entry in mind already, but need to get this issue of Sunni’s Salon finished before I can indulge myself.

If any Conspirators want to do their own cook the alphabet series as well, I think that would be marvelous. Or you dear readers can run with the idea yourselves, too. It ain’t as though I’m going to copyright the idea.

Update: How could I have forgotten to mention “Wisdom and Inspiration”? Well, I did; sorry. As the name suggests, that category is intended to mostly be a repository of quotes and other bits of wisdom or insight. Certainly not only from “famous” people, either!

Last weekend, for an outing with some freedom-minded folk, I made a New York cheesecake, and wanted a topping to offer with it. I recalled that Lobo picked huge quantities of blackberries while we were gone, and most of them are still waiting patiently in the freezer for my attention ... so I made a blackberry sauce. It's very easy to make sauces full of fresh-fruit taste, from frozen fruit—but it does require some advance planning.

For a long time, I had a cell phone contract that was way too much for my phone needs. Most of my calls are brief, and local, but occasionally I do travel and need to have inexpensive, reliable access. To get that I was paying a fair amount each month -- and most months my airtime usage didn't exceed 30 minutes. What a waste!

When we moved, coincidentally shortly after my cell contract expired, I began looking into other options. Immediately I honed in on TracFone, because I could buy the phone anonymously, there are no service contracts, and outside of purchasing the phone, I pay only for the airtime I use. Just the thing for a privacy-minded person -- especially one on a budget!

But when I began looking at the phones online I noticed that some phones' descriptions (e.g., Motorola V170) had one line of text that others' descriptions don't (e.g., Motorola V60): "Single Rate for every call: local, long distance, and roaming." I tried and tried to figure out exactly what that meant in terms of service, but found nothing on the site that was helpful. No, I didn't call the company, because: 1] I don't like to use the phone, and particularly don't like calling "customer service" lines which typically don't provide anything I'd call "service"; and 2] it's been my experience that one won't get clearer answers when talking with a human than reading available material on a company's web site, since they're generally reading from a canned script. So, being on a very tight budget, I opted for a model with that "single rate" service.

Over the holidays, I visited a friend who lives in an even more remote area than we do. She also has a TracFone, but she opted for one of the two-tiered rate models -- fortunately for her, it turns out. She was complaining to me that even when she's at home, she always gets charged the roaming rate for her calls; that's 2 units per minute of airtime, contrasted with my constant rate of one unit per minute of airtime. Here's the difference, though: she could get a signal at her house, whereas I was never able to. Not being a techie, I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but my guess is that some networks are more expensive than others. My single rate phone can't access them, but hers can; and she is charged more for that service.

I've no problem with being charged more for more expensive service, of course. But I really disliked not having any service while visiting my friend -- especially because I didn't know when I selected a phone that I was limiting my access. I consider myself lucky that my phone works at home. It would have been a very unpleasant surprise if it didn't.

So if you're considering a TracFone and you live out in the sticks, you'll probably be better off with the two-tier rate phones. They're the ones that don't have that "single rate" phrase I quoted above. Yes, that's the only thing in the ad copy that differentiates the two types of phones. Shame on TracFone for not making the service differences clearer. (But yay on 'em for recognizing some folks' preference for privacy, and filling that niche.)

For quite a while I have been thinking about what it will take for Liberty to advance. Sunni, in her talk at Freedom Summit reminded me that Freedom is a continuum, not an absolute. She also reminded me of something Gary Greenberg, who more than anyone brought me into the movement, told me over 25 years ago.

Lobo and I have never tried to indoctrinate our children with our beliefs -- that is, to become obedient soldiers in the war for freedom. We have tried to instill in them our values, which include a deep respect for life and property, and being a person of honor. But we don't try to hide our dislike of the state or other busybodies from them, either. (Leads to some highly raised eyebrows when we answer some of their questions in public, and folks are listening in -- a consistent source of amusement ...)

After seeing an excerpt from a gun column by Massad Ayoob at Backwoods Home Magazine courtesy of Bill St. Clair, I clicked through to read the whole thing. I've met Ayoob before, and read a fair amount of his extant work (including at least one book), and had consistently been impressed. However, this time he stumbled so badly out of the gate that I didn't make it through all of his answer to the first question. Here's the offending bit, which is all the more disappointing because it started out promisingly:

Male or female? It's less about gender than about hand size and shooting experience. A home defense gun is a "pool weapon," like the shotgun in a police patrol car that's on the road for three shifts a day: multiple individuals may be resorting to the same weapon. This means that the gun's size and power have to be tailored to the smallest, least physically capable shooter who is authorized to use it. A large man can easily shoot his wife's short-stocked 20-gauge shotgun or her slim-gripped SIG P239 9mm, but she will be awkward, clumsy, and poorly prepared to defend herself with his long-stocked 12 gauge, or his fat-handled .50 caliber Desert Eagle, which also requires a long finger to properly reach the trigger.

The truth of the matter is she might be unable to handle either of those weapons. "She" -- this mythical female -- won't know unless she tries them. I wonder how many women might read that bit o' excrement from Ayoob and not even try any larger gun, because she "will be" awkward and poorly prepared to defend herself.

The first firearm I ever shot was a "long-stocked 12 gauge". Pump, too -- none of that fancy-pants semiauto stuff. Not having Ayoob's, er, wisdom to guide me at the time, I was a natural with it, and I absolutely loved it. Later, when I got comfortable -- and a bit careless -- with the gun, I learned that I could abuse my shoulder quite soundly with it; but even that did not render me awkward or clumsy.

Moving on to handguns, as Ayoob himself subtly suggests, there's more to the choice of a suitable one than a "slim" or "fat" grip. It's how the weapon fits and feels in your hands, whether your finger can comfortably reach the trigger and smoothly pull it, and whether your arms can handle the recoil sufficiently to recover the target quickly. Much of that has very little to do with caliber size -- contrary to Ayoob's inference otherwise. I once shot a training course with a Glock 27 -- the mini version in .40 -- and found the damn thing just too barky for me. The larger 22 and 23 feel better in my hand, and perform splendidly for me. [Please take note of that, if you're reading this and considering buying a handgun: Same caliber, same manufacturer, but very different feel and performance. The lesson here is two-fold: never take anybody else's word as gospel on what will or won't work for you; and before you settle on a gun, try everything you can get your hands on in the largest caliber you can safely handle!] One of the most wonderful handguns I've ever shot is easily the Grizzly Win Mag, although I'm not generally a fan of the 1911 frame. It's a honkin' big handgun, but I don't recall shooting better with any other pistol. I've shot a Desert Eagle, too, but the experience didn't really stand out in my mind.

Just to be clear here: I'm not some big, strong Amazon wench, nor do I have huge hands -- I do have rather longish fingers, though. Nor am I petite. My hands are quite a bit smaller than my Sweetie's, but my fingers are just about as long as his, if memory serves. But that again goes to my point: men and women alike have tremendous variation in hand/wrist setup -- palms can be meaty or dainty, as can fingers. Either can be squat, average, or long. Some people have a great deal of wrist/forearm strength, where others don't. There's no firearm equivalent of Match.com, where one gives one's relevant physical data and the computer spits back a list of good guns for the individual.

I imagine that some folks who've been shooting with me will be protesting that I'm not providing sufficient information on my shooting experiences. Okay, I'll confess: It's been alleged that I'm a recoil junkie. Yeah, I have shot some impressively big-bore stuff that I've not mentioned above; and yeah, I've enjoyed it. Recoil junkie? Maybe ... ["Wouldn't you like to find out?" she asks with a sly grin] But I've also shot smaller guns that worked well for me, too. I've done a little shooting with smaller calibers, but mostly haven't seriously bothered with any ammunition that I don't think is sufficiently powerful to protect me.

And the point isn't what I like; it's what works for the person choosing and using the gun. It was hugely disappointing to see Ayoob end up defaulting to the "only big people can handle big guns" nonsense; it was even worse to have the "small calibers are better for the girls" nonsense slyly shoved in there too. I realize that Ayoob may not have done the latter intentionally -- but that doesn't let him off the hook. If he's to be taken seriously as an expert, he needs to be extra-careful to avoid sloppy shit like that.