Travis Pettijohn: Blog

I was cleaning up some old packaging (as well as taking down the Christmas tree) when I noticed that this box full of packing peanuts had a note in it that the peanuts were made of cornstarch. Intrigued, I got one wet and it melted away. So I dumped the whole box in the sink and stirred it in hot water until they dissolved. They washed right away. I wonder if I could thicken a sauce with them, too?

I just did my first grocery order with Peapod, and let me tell you folks, it was amazing. I picked a two hour delivery window, and when the guy showed up, I buzzed him in and he rolled a dolly loaded with my groceries right to my door. My fridge and pantry are now stocked for the first time in months. The first order took a bit of work roaming through the various online "aisles," but next time I can pull up a list of what I've purchased in the past and just set quantities. How awesome is that? Delivery charges are reasonable (and justifiable if it saves me from eating out one or two meals). The produce is very good quality. I'm hooked!

I'm a big fan of the products found at Trader Joe's. A recent New York Times article sheds some light into the process of how products make it to store shelves. It's a pretty interesting read. They seem like a very passionate bunch of food lovers over there.

A very interesting article about bananas. Some snippets:

It also turns out that the 100 billion Cavendish bananas consumed annually worldwide are perfect from a genetic standpoint, every single one a duplicate of every other. It doesn't matter if it comes from Honduras or Thailand, Jamaica or the Canary Islands—each Cavendish is an identical twin to one first found in Southeast Asia, brought to a Caribbean botanic garden in the early part of the 20th century, and put into commercial production about 50 years ago.

A fungus or bacterial disease that infects one plantation could march around the globe and destroy millions of bunches, leaving supermarket shelves empty.

A wild scenario? Not when you consider that there's already been one banana apocalypse. Until the early 1960s, American cereal bowls and ice cream dishes were filled with the Gros Michel, a banana that was larger and, by all accounts, tastier than the fruit we now eat. Like the Cavendish, the Gros Michel, or “Big Mike,” accounted for nearly all the sales of sweet bananas in the Americas and Europe. But starting in the early part of the last century, a fungus called Panama disease began infecting the Big Mike harvest.

Another price difference noted at the grocery store: the apples up front, right near where I walked in were more expensive than the apples near the back in the organic section. The organic apples in the back weren't coated in wax and they looked fresher and more natural. This is good. I walked back up front and put the mass produced apples back. I'll take lower priced organic produce any day.

I tried a new food today at the Earwax Cafe on Milwaukee: seitan. It's a meat substitute made from wheat gluten. Supposedly it's very high in protein and very low in fat. I had a seitan reuben: grilled slices of seitan, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing and swiss cheese served on light rye bread. It was a pretty tasty dish!

Jen and I had artichokes as part of our dinner at my apartment last night (along with guacamole and fried rice with tofu). After we were done, I put the artichoke leaves down the garbage disposal. Bad idea. An odd smell started coming out of the drain. At first I thought it was the mixture of artichoke, lime and other foods. But as the smell got stronger, it was clear that it was raw sewage. Add to that the fact that the drain wasn't draining. After the laughter subsided, I reached in and pulled out the fibers of the artichoke leaves that had gathered in the disposal. Once they were clear, the drain still wasn't going down. And my kitchen still smelled like poop. Nasty, nasty, poopy sewage smell in my kitchen. More laughter. I grabbed a toilet plunger and went to work. After about ten minutes of alternating between plunging and laughing, the drain was finally clear. And with a fan on, the sewage smell quickly became a memory.

I read Jay Bazuzi's personal blog. In his professional life he's a Microsoft employee working on the Visual Studio C# IDE. He's been talking about eating live (fermented) food recently, and I've found myself intrigued. When I went to Africa last summer, I took a probiotic supplement. Good bacteria in your intestines helps your body fend off potential unpleasantness, so I'm comfortable with the idea. So last night I ordered some kefir grains from a seller in Chicago. Kefir is a fermented milk drink. You put the grains (starter culture) in milk and let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours. The bacteria in the kefir breaks down the lactose. The bacteria also has the benefit of being able to colonize your intestines. That sounds good to me: a bacteria living in my intestines that can help my body break down lactose. I'm looking forward to this experiment!

I bought some Frank's Red Hot sauce so that I could make some Buffalo wings (Frank's and butter is the original sauce, created at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York in the 1960s). I decided to try pan fried tofu coated in the sauce instead of chicken. It was good. It turns out that chicken is just a vehicle for the delicious sauce.

I made paneer last night, which is an easy to make unripened, soft cheese. Bring a half-gallon of whole milk to a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Add 3 T lemon juice (supposedly vinegar works, too). Put on low heat. Stir for 30 seconds or so until the yellowish whey separates from the white curds. Strain through cheesecloth. (This is chenna.) Shape and press with a pot full of water (or other weight) for 30 to 60 minutes. Now you have paneer.

My intent was to make saag (spinach) paneer. I read a few recipes and sort of combined them. It's all right, but it doesn't compete with Bombay's. I'll definitely make paneer again. Probably add it to a store-bought simmer sauce. Or maybe I'll actually try following a saag paneer recipe next time.

I made pizza from scratch tonight. Dough from scratch. Sauce from scratch (food processed canned whole tomatoes, reduced in a saucepan, enhanced with garlic, olive oil, and hot peppers). The pizza was topped with coarsely chopped fresh basil, pepperoni (pre-baked to cook off some fat), onions, green peppers, black olives, and mozzarella cheese. I kept the toppings sparse enough that it was all really well balanced. Yummers. I'm looking forward to my leftovers!

I made a pot roast for dinner tonight. Following the Cook's Illustrated recipe, I used a chuck-eye roast, seared it, covered it halfway in a beef broth/chicken broth/water/carrots/onions/celery/thyme/garlic mixture and slow cooked it for four hours in a covered Dutch oven. The result was meat that simply fell apart and melted in my mouth. The only possible downside is that I'll be eating the leftovers from the 3.5 lb roast all week. And this is not an especially lean cut of meat. But so, so good. I enjoyed starting it in the middle of the afternoon and checking on it every half hour while cleaning the apartment. It was a great way to spend a Sunday.

I was buying some groceries today and I stopped to buy some eggnog. (A former roommate describe eggnog as "The Prince of Drinks.") I was comparing the Schnuck's brand to some other non-store-brand that was ten cents more. I was looking over the ingredients list and they were identical, even in the hyphenation of "mono- and diglycerides." Then I saw a "processed at plant x" number on the Schnuck's brand. The non-store-brand had the same number on it (but different wording). I'm convinced that they're the same, identical product that came from the same production plant.

(Yes, my life is this boring.)

I made some General Tso's Chicken tonight from scratch. I like to read multiplerecipies when I make something new. I think it gives me a better general feel for how the dish is supposed to be made. Sometimes I pick one and follow it. Other times, I just wing it, using the recipies as a guideline. Tonight I winged it. I was pleased with the results. If you're curious, the Washington Post has an article, Who Was General Tso And Why Are We Eating His Chicken?

I made a great dinner for myself last night. Following the recipe in the current Cook's Illustrated magazine (I can't link to the recipe, you have to pay to join their website), I made American Potato Salad. The recipe uses russet potatoes, which are a little crumbly, but absorb vinegar better than waxier potatoes.

While that was cooling in the fridge, I used the "Spice Rubs for Grilled Steak" article to guide me in making a rub. I made a mix of 1 t. ground chipotle, 1 t. ground cumin, 1/2 t. allspice and 1 t. black pepper to rub on a strip steak. I used my in-oven digital thermometer to broil it to a perfect medium-rare. The juiciness of the steak really blended those spices together.

For my vegetable, I had some green beans tossed with a fresh diced tomato and red onion, drizzled with just a touch of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (Actually, I learned that what I call balsamic vinegar isn't really balsamic vinegar. Only 3,000 gallons of the real balsamic are released annually. It costs about $150 for 8 oz.) I had a plum for my fruit and a chocolate malt for desert. It was a delicious dinner!

I got that issue of Cook's Illustrated for free when I signed up for the Americas Test Kitchen web site to get the pad thai recipe. I really like how they explain the process they use to get to the recipe. It's not just "here, do this," it's, "here's what I did, here's what didn't work, here's what tasters didn't like, so here, do this." Considering that, plus how delicious dinner was last night, I think I'm going to subscribe.

In somewhat related news, I sharpened my two "best" knives this afternoon (they're crappy knives, but the best in my arsenal of hand-me-down, cast-off knives). Yesterday I was getting frustrated cutting a tomato. Sliding the blade along the fruit would not bite. The blade just slid along the skin and left a little dent. I had to stick the point into the skin to break the surface. Then I could saw through it. But of course it squished the fruit and squeezed the juices and seeds out. How frustrating! Today, I remembered that I had a whetstone in one of those boxes of tools that I got when we cleaned out my grandparent's estate. To make sure I knew what I was doing, I watched a Food TV video on how to sharpen a knife. My whetstone has two grits, one on each side. Rough first, fine second, then finish the edge with a sharpening steel. I then plucked a tomato out of my garden and set to work slicing it. It was effortless. The blade just slid through the skin and eased its way through the flesh. I had clean slices with no squishing from a dull knife. This will buy me some time until I eventually buy a new, nice set of knives. Right now, my sights are set on Forschner/Victorinox knives. They were rated best by Cook's Illustrated.

Olympic women's beach volleyball is on the TV right now. They're hardly wearing any clothes. I'm going to watch it.

Tonight, I had BLT's. Made with home grown tomatoes. It was the first BLT I've had this summer and first tomatoes I've picked. It was amazing. I think I'd forgotten, over the course of the previous year, what a good tomato tasted like. I've gotten used to eating Santa Sweets, which are very good, but they're no where near what I had tonight. Big, sweet, juicy, meaty slices of tomato laid on top of romaine lettuce and fresh-cooked center cut bacon with just enough mayo to complete the sandwich. I enjoyed the first one so much that I made a second.

The only down side is that I only had three red, ripe fruits on my one tomato plant. And I ate two of them tonight. There are three green ones still growing, but I'm worried that the plant won't get enough sun for them to turn red. We'll see.

Friday's 8:30 bedtime of course led to an early waking on Saturday. That, in turn, led to an early bedtime on Saturday, which led to an early waking time this morning. (This might actually have been the shift I've been looking for...we'll see how long it lasts.) This morning, when I woke up at 8:00, I had to force myself to roll over because I didn't want to get up. I tossed and turned for a little while, but in the end, I was up making coffee before 9:00.

One of the side effects of waking up early is that you end up getting stuff finished earlier as well. This can be viewed as a positive; for me this weekend, it felt like a negative. I had too much time left over. Yesterday, I woke up, did laundry, ran a few errands, worked out and then got groceries. I was done before 3:00 or 4:00. Today, I woke up, read some of the current issue of Harper's and worked out. I was home before 1:30. I had accomplished everything I had hoped to do for the entire day before 1:30. What was I to do? I just read some more. Harper's is an interesting magazine. I saw the editor on The Daily Show a few months ago and really liked what he had to say. I decided that when I got my own place (this place), I would subscribe. The cost of a year's subscription was less than two issues at a newsstand, so I decided to take the risk. There's a lot to read. This month, there was a fascinating article about cadaver trade (or tissue banks). There was also an essay on how Globalism is reverting back to Nationalism. The magazine is filled with literature, politics and art. I enjoy reading it, though I never know quite what to expect.

Over the past two weeks, I read The World According To Garp, by John Irving. This was the third Irving novel I've read. The first was The Cider House Rules and the second was A Prayer for Owen Meany. Irving is a great writer. No matter what he writes, it always flows beautifully and is easy to read. Garp was no exception. It's hard to summarize the book. It's about the fears of a father and how he tries to protect them. But ultimately, his actions cause harm to his children. It's also about the polarization of the sexes. I enjoyed reading it, as evidenced by the fact that I read it in two weeks (pretty quick for me; I averaged almost 50 pages a day). I needed a new book, so yesterday I picked up The Da Vinci Code. I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it. I'll start it sometime this week.

As I mentioned, my shopping yesterday also included a trip to the local grocer. I picked up a lot of produce. I've been trying to reduce the amount of refined sugar I consume. I'm also trying to reduce my total fat intake. To achieve these goals, I'm trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. I got an eggplant, some spinach, fresh broccoli, Santa Sweets tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, carrots and some regular iceberg lettuce. I've really been enjoying how I've been eating lately. I made a sandwich tonight with portabella, eggplant and red bell pepper marinated in balsamic vinegar then cooked in olive oil. I got the inspiration from a lunch I had a Biaggi's recently. It was very tasty. Later this week, I'm going to make some eggplant parmesan. I'm excited for that.

I think I saw the baton girl at The Fitness Center today. She looked familiar to me, and I had the thought that it was her, but I didn't really think anything of it. But then, she and I left at about the same time. I noticed her license plate: TWRL UI 7. It must have been her. She was definitely decked out in orange and blue clothing, so I'm pretty sure it was her. I feel like I've seen a celebrity!

This has gotten long and it has no point. Just rambles. I enjoy when I write blog entries that are succinct little stories. When I started this, I used it mostly for journaling. Then I started reading Renice's blog and I loved how she told cool stories. Whenever I visualize very short stories like that, they are semicircles. They start succinct, expand enough so you get a body, then quickly wrap back up. I love it. I've done it successfully a few times, but tonight was not one of those times. Tonight was a need for something to do, so I filled it with a summary of my weekend. Conclusion: I need more to do with my time. Working out is a start, but it is just a start.

My legs are sore. I covered over two-and-a-half miles today on the treadmill. In response to Renice's comment, I don't pronate my feet when I run (though I did have to look up the word). I do the opposite. I come down on the outside edge of my foot and then roll inward. The past few days I've made a conscious effort to come down evenly on the front of my foot. I've felt some strain on my calves, but it's the strain of use, not the pain of misuse. Anyway, my long run has left my legs sore in a good way.

I made fudge today. Real fudge. The kind where you cook the ingredients to 234ºF, then let it cool to 110 then stir it with a wooden spoon until it loses its gloss. If you cook it too hot it becomes brittle. If you don't cook it hot enough, it stays soft. If you stir it too long it becomes rock hard. Not long enough, it never sets; it's just a fudge soup. My dad can do it perfectly every time. I think I'm getting there. I've blown a lot of batches in the past, but I think those days are over. I didn't have a thermometer, so I had to pick one up. I got a cool in-oven digital. It has a metal sensor attached to a long cord which plugs into a display unit. You can stick the sensor into a turkey or something and run the cord outside of the oven to the display. I think it's pretty cool. And my fudge is delicious.