Category: Food

Cucumbers … and sesame


Asian cucumber salad with salmon pâté

The local summer tomatoes aren’t here yet. The cucumbers, though, are tiding me over. For the past three weeks, I’ve gotten three pints of cucumbers each week from my local farmers, Brittany and Richard. They grow four types of cucumbers. I love them all.

If I were asked to make a short list of the loftiest flavors on the planet, I’d include toasted sesame. Sesame is an ancient crop with a history that goes back at least 3,000 years. (Barley, by comparison, was cultivated 9,000 years ago!) I always have raw sesame seeds in the fridge, and every time I think to use them I wonder why I don’t use them more often. They’re easy to toast, in a skillet. As for storebought toasted sesame oil, I use that almost every day.

I haven’t seen it in ages, but health food stores used to sell sesame salt. That’s a Japanese condiment (gomasio) made from toasted sesame seeds (ground) and salt. It’s easy to make your own. Toast the sesame seeds in a skillet, and grind them in a blender.

We usually disparage the post-agriculture diet as inferior to the hunter-gatherer diet. No doubt that’s true. But, these days, when international trade and international shipping are so easy, we can have post-agriculture foods from all over the world at low prices — foods from other climates, and thus a much greater variety of foods. Then again, a purely local diet can be healthy, too — as long as one has, or has access to, some really good fields, pastures, and gardens.

After all, what is comfort food for?


Fried barley biscuit with fixin’s

Especially on a diet, there is only so much that a mortal can do to fend off the heathen craving for bread and wine. Yesterday, a friend in California who had no idea that I’m on a diet sent me this text:

“I got a loaf of organic sourdough batard, some organic avocado oil mayonnaise, some Irish Kerry Gold butter, and some prosecco from Spain. I also got a bottle of organic Merlot.”

That, and the news, sent me over the edge. I tried to work out how to get maximum comfort from, say, 900 calories or less.

Fried barley biscuits were the solution: flour made from hulled barley, a little olive oil, and nonfat milk. Frying the biscuits in a little peanut oil made the biscuits a little less dry than if I had baked them.

Ignorance and folly

One of the most horrifying images I’ve seen in months was the White House photo of Trump, Vance, Rubio and Hegseth lying their ignorant asses off for the cameras. It would be hard to find four greater fools and sicker souls anywhere on the planet, and yet there they were, in the White House.

MAGA types probably still believe Trump’s lies and triumphalism. But I give the media high credit for starting to get the truth out so fast that by Sunday morning, on the talk shows, Trump’s goons had to start walking things back.

One of my biggest concerns is terrorism. Iran doesn’t have the capability of a military response far from their own borders. They’ll have to retaliate on the cheap, and that means terrorism. The Washington Post took up that subject this morning: A weakened Iran could turn to assassination and terrorism to strike back.

I hope gasoline prices jump to $11 a gallon. Gasoline prices are one of the few things that the American ignorati can understand.


Fools, rushing in

Diet theory


A diet burger made from mashed pinto beans, whole-grain (hulled) barley, wheat germ, and seasonings

There is a movement that argues that diets don’t work, and that people don’t have to be lean to be healthy. Diets don’t work, they say, because, when people lose weight on a diet, they almost always gain it back.

Of course they gain it back! What would be the fun of eating lean all the time? There’s a fix for gaining the weight back: Do another diet.

Thus I often say that I’m an experienced dieter. The real trick with dieting, though, I would say, is to not wait too long to start a diet when you need to start a diet. For most of my adult life, my weight has cycled up and down by about ten pounds.

Gaining ten pounds is great fun. One feels lean after a successful diet, and one wants to celebrate. But eventually that will catch up with you, and another diet cycle must begin. The relative length of the cycles, for me anyway, is not that bad. A diet usually lasts for three to six months. Whereas a live-it-up spree can last from two to four years. If I had better discipline, I’d start a diet after gaining five pounds. That doesn’t work for me, though, probably because at five pounds I can still pretend that my belt isn’t getting too tight.

My first rule for dieting is to count calories, aiming for 1,200 calories a day. That’s enough to have a reasonable chance of getting enough protein. It would be possible to have a doughnut-only diet and lose weight on 1,200 calories a day. But that would be miserable, because one’s glucose level would cycle wildly.

It’s the simple carbs that have to go — bread and pasta, for example. Then, each day, one must figure out how to get enough protein and stay under the calorie target. Fiber is the dieter’s friend. You can have pretty much as much low-carb vegetables as you can eat. The fiber keeps the microbiome well fed, and I think that helps keep the appetite under control.

On a diet, you’re going to be hungry for part of the day. But that’s not so bad if you keep the carbs down, and thus the need for insulin. The current trend in dieting is intermittent fasting. I aim for 19-5 — two meals a day between noon and 5 p.m. I’m moderately hungry in the mornings, but I never go to bed hungry.

There’s pasta, bread, and potatoes in my future. But not yet.

Outlasting them is the best revenge


Jefferson Griffin, vile fascist pig

Today, at last, a ruling by a federal court put an end to a six-months-long attempt by a swamp-scum Republican, Jefferson Griffin, to steal a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. It’s important to understand the absurdity of Griffin’s claims to be able to invoke the appropriate level of disgust for this man. I won’t rehearse the details here — the mainstream media coverage has been good. But adding to the disgust is the fact that Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court kept Griffin’s claims alive for months when it was so obvious that Griffin had no legitimate claims and was only trying to subvert yet another election for Republicans.

North Carolina is a purple state. My expectation is that North Carolina will become bluer and bluer between now and the 2028 election, as Republicans show the world that what they are now is fascists. One of North Carolina’s senators, Thom Tillis, is up for re-election in 2026. He seems to understand that he cannot win a statewide election now, so he is one of the few senators market-testing flaccid Republican attempts to stand up to Trump.

My track record on Trump predictions is not good, because I have always been too optimistic that someone would stop him. Again and again, for years and years, the courts have let him skate, and Republicans in Congress blocked impeachments twice. For what it’s worth, I expect the next three and a half years to be a horror. But I still cannot imagine that fascism in America can survive the end of Trump. The fools who voted for Trump deserve all the misery that they are likely to get. Hatred for Trump already has reversed two elections in two other countries, Canada and Australia. Americans are far more stupid and more gullible than the people of Canada and Australia, but I don’t think Americans like fascism any more than Canadians or Australians, once Trump teaches them what fascism and corrupt government are, and they slowly perceive that it was not what they were promised.

Actually, the media have been negligent on one angle of Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to steal an election. I’ve tried to find out who paid for that six months of appeals, which must have cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. I still don’t know. We need to know who is paying for these Republican attempts to subvert the law, the Constitution, and some of the most important principles of democracy.


2001 Honda Rancher TRX-350, 4-wheel drive, electric shift

I did not need an ATV

For several years I have fantasized about buying an ATV. Everybody has one here in the sticks, whether they can afford it or not. It’s considered essential equipment. I can by no means justify spending much money on an ATV, but I came across a 2001 Honda Rancher 350, well maintained with low mileage. I bought it from the shop that had maintained it. It had been parked for a year. It has new tires and got a thorough servicing including a rebuilt carburetor. It runs perfectly, and, like my 2001 Jeep, I expect it to still be running when I kick the bucket at age 104. It’s a classic.

I like the design of the older Honda ATV’s. The body has soft, curving lines, as opposed to the sharp lines of newer ATV’s. My 2001 model also has a kind — if slightly goofy — face, unlike the aggressive faces of newer ATV’s. I have plenty of woodland trails here to ride it on. I may get a little yard work out of it. And when I’m too lazy to walk the half mile to the mailbox and the half mile back, the ATV will get me there. It will get me outside more. Plus driving it is more of a workout than I would have thought. Steering it is far from effortless, and riding it in hilly woodlands requires a constant shifting of body weight according to the terrain. Maybe it will help keep me young, the better to outlast the fascists.

New glasses

At my age, part of outlasting the fascists is to take care of the brain. We now know how important good vision and good hearing are for keeping the brain healthy and active. It had been almost three years since I got new glasses. I have glasses for reading and glasses for driving, but I particularly notice the improvement with my new reading glasses (which I also use for the computer).

The book is Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, by Diarmaid MacCulloch, an Oxford historian. I’ll have more to say about the book when I’ve finished reading it. It’s already pretty familiar terrain to me, though. When I claim that there is nothing on earth more cracker-fed delusional than the church, and when I further claim that there is no subject on which the church is more horsewash whacked than sex, I’m entirely serious. Anyone who doubts it either doesn’t know much about the history of the church or will believe pretty much any old thing as long as they’re told that it came out of the mouth of God.

My eye doctor is in King. That’s where the The Dalton bar and restaurant is, which I’ve written about before. (A Bistro and Bar in Trumptown). As usual, I had the grilled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled green beans.


I tried to talk the bartender into selling me a half shot of Oban 14, just so I could taste it. But he wouldn’t do it.

Mountain Laurel

Mountain laurel is very common all over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here in the foothills it is less common, but it is very abundant on the ridges and creek valleys around my house. The ATV gets me to places where I’m more able to appreciate it. Just now the mountain laurel is approaching the end of its blooming season. If I had ever seen mountain laurel bloom before, I don’t recall it.


Scottish pie from the high street bakery in Dunbar. One of these is a meat pie, and the other is a fruit pie.

Scotland calling

Travel is another thing that helps me outlast the fascists. I’ve booked a trip to Scotland in late September — a lovely time of year in Scotland. I’ll be hanging out with Ken, of course, near Edinburgh. But also an old friend from California is making his first visit to Scotland, so I’ll meet up with him and tag along for a few days in Aberdeen and Inverness. I have been to Inverness, but not to Aberdeen.


Scottish pie from the high street bakery in Dunbar

Panisses


Chickpea panisses with a dipping sauce made of Greek yoghurt and a pepper sauce. Click here for high-resolution version.

I have never been to the south of France. But I understand that panisses (singular = panisse) are a popular street food there, particularly in Marseilles. I came across a recipe recently online, and I had to make some.

The recipe is simple, though you’ll need to do some frying. Google for the recipe and you’ll find many online. You’ll need a dipping sauce. Pretty much any dipping sauce will do.

The panisses soak up remarkably little oil, probably because the chickpea polenta is saturated with the cooking water and is not thirsty for oil.

I’m always looking for high-protein, low-carb foods. I wish I’d known about these things sooner.


Click here for high-resolution version.

MSG for roasting


A low-carb, high-protein meal: salmon cakes with roasted Brussels sprouts and leftover slaw. Click here for high-resolution version.

I’ve written in the past about how I think MSG (monosodium glutamate) has gotten a bad rap. Thus I won’t go into that here, other than to say that MSG is not unnatural. It’s found naturally in some foods, and the commercial product is just a refined product of fermentation. When used for sautèeing and roasting, it hastens browning and adds umami.

My favorite way of cooking many vegetables these days is to wrap them in foil (with seasonings and oil), and put them on the gas grill. Turn them halfway through cooking. Total cooking time (at least on my grill) is 15 to 20 minutes. The vegetables get some steaming along with the roasting.

Asparagus is in season. Foil roasting on a gas grill is a great way to cook asparagus, not to mention broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and even carrots. You don’t need much MSG. A quarter to half a teaspoon will do.


The rhodendrons are blooming, as is the snowball bush in the background. Click here for high-resolution verson.

Winter vegetables


Rutabaga pie

For some reason — is it because of the political disaster? — the winter of 2024-2025 has felt incredibly long. Where I live, we’ve had two miserable intrusions of the polar vortex. I had planned a February visit to Washington, but I had to cancel it because of ugly weather. Maybe I’m being more liberal with the heating system, but I had the highest electric bill in January that I’ve ever had. In February, the wind blew down a tree, and the tree fell on the power line that feeds the road I’m on. That broke a power pole and left about 400 feet of wire on the ground. It took 24 hours for the power company to put in a new pole and haul the fallen wires back up. Fortunately I have a generator and can keep lights, the computer, and the refrigerator running.

Americans don’t eat a lot of rutabagas, though grocery stores where I am usually have them. I suspect that’s because the rutabagas we get here have a very long shelf life. They’re dipped in paraffin wax and keep forever at the grocery store or in the fridge. They’re as hard a ball of marble. Peeling them is downright dangerous. They’ll want a good 40 minutes in the pot to cook up tender. When the battle between a knife and a ball of marble is over, they’re a comfort food. Mashed, with butter, is the default way of fixing them.

I made a very nice rutabaga pie, though. I wasn’t sure whether to call it a pie or a quiche, because the method of making it is something of a cross between pie-making and quiche-making. Think eggs, cheese, milk, and some browned onions to add umami. Don’t forget to add a little nutmeg.

Wikipedia has a nice article on rutabagas. In some northern countries, they’re probably as important as potatoes. In Scotland, where they are called neeps, I’ve cooked neeps on a camp stove in a yurt. Neeps are so plentiful in some places that they’re used as a food for livestock. It amuses me to think that the sheep that provided the wool for my collection of Harris tweed jackets probably ate neeps. Neeps in the wool!

Winter vegetables are a big help in making winters more bearable. I don’t think there is a single winter vegetable that can’t be made into a comfort food.

Flatbreads


Whole-wheat flatbread; spinach, apple, and onion salad with Roquefort-garlic dressing; walnuts. Click here for high-resolution version.

Flatbreads are just as much a comfort food as any other hot bread. Plus they are quick and even healthy with the right flour. Whole-wheat flatbread works great, since whole-wheat breads rise poorly, and flatbreads don’t have to rise.

As for making the flatbreads puff up, I’m not the best at that. But whether they puff or not, they’re just as good.

I am no expert on flatbreads, though I make them fairly often. I’d recommend watching a YouTube video of a South Asian cook making flatbread. The trick is in having the dough moist enough, rolling to just the right thickness, having the pan just hot enough, and flipping at just the right time. My flatbreads puff only about a third of the time, but I’ve stopped worrying about it, even as I try to get better at it.

I use only flour and water in flatbreads. I don’t even add salt. For some reason that I can’t explain, unsalted flatbread has its own somehow special flavor that contrasts with whatever salty food you’re having with it.

Midwinter pottage


Click here for high resolution version

If C.J. Sansome was right in his Shardlake novels set in Tudor England (and I think he was), then pretty much everybody (except for Henry VIII) lived on pottage then. What was in the pottage depended of course on what you had. A good variety of garden vegetables would have made a huge difference. If you had some meat or fish, so much the better. If you could eat your pottage with a dark, hearty bread made from rye, oats, or barley, with some ale, then you were truly rich. And probably healthy as well. Butter and cheese? Princely.

Historians say that medieval peasants burned 4,000 calories a day. That would mean that they worked from dawn until dark. They probably were very thin, because that’s a lot of calories for poor people. Henry VIII weighed almost 400 pounds when he died. Thus I think it’s safe to assume that he wasn’t living off of pottage and that he wasn’t working from dawn until dark.

I’m 98 percent vegetarian. This was the first beef stew I’d made in more than two years. The midwinter gloom made me do it.

The beef, though, is almost like a seasoning. You don’t need much beef. It’s the vegetables that make the stew, the heavenly combination of potatoes, carrots, onions, and peas, in a sauce reddened with tomatoes. The key to good beef stew is the brown flavor, umami, which comes from browning the beef, the onions, and the flour (for thickening) before the other ingredients or any water are added.

When I think of beef stew, I automatically think of cherry pie for dessert. There was no cherry pie today, though. That’s something I’d make only for company.

Sweet potato biscuits

If you can make good biscuits, then you can make good sweet-potato biscuits. Substitute mashed sweet potato for a roughly equal amount of flour. Biscuit dough can easily handle a one-to-two ratio of potato to flour, and probably even one-to-one.

Your biscuits will be very tender.

Many kinds of bread, actually — both quick breads and yeast breads — benefit from some potato. I think of this as German thing, though I have had sweet-potato biscuits in African-American restaurants.