omenti

staying warm and celebration a common tradition

It is really chilly for about the first time this Winter and I found myself out in the cold without gloves and a cap for a bit too long.  In theory I shouldn't mind much - after all, I did grow up in Montana and remember taking walks in -40° weather and fierce blizzards. 

 

About a year ago I was fortunate enough to have made contact again with Jeri - a fellow classmate from Great Falls High.   In an email exchange a poem came up.  It turned out both of us had memorized it in different junior high schools and both of us have taken delight in reciting it over the years.  The poet was a Scottsman who spent most of his life in Canada, becoming famous for poems associated with the Yukon and the gold rush. 

 

A bit earlier I met Reggie Watts at a TEDx talk.  Both of us had "performed" and somehow found ourselves chatting afterwards.¹  In my talk I mentioned that I was from Montana and he told me he grew up there too.  Another minute of talking revealed we had lived within 500 feet of each other and went to the same high school albeit separated by a couple of decades.

 
It turned out Reggie knew the same poem and it was the introduction to the word moil for both of us.  

 

The world seemed very small as we talked that night.

 

 

By now you're probably curious ...  I'm afraid I couldn't get all of it from memory and had to cheat a bit.  I guess I'm out of practice.  My guess is Reggie and Jeri wouldn't have any difficulty.

 

Turn the lights down, light some candles and crack a window to the cold.Read it outloud armed with a cup of peppermint hot chocolate (recipe follows).

 

The Cremation of Sam McGee

by Robert W. Service

 

 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

 

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

 

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.

Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;

It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

 

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,

He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;

And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

 

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:

"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.

Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

 

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.

He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

 

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,

With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;

It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,

But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

 

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.

In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

 

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;

And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;

The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;

And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

 

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;

It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."

And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;

Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

 

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;

Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;

The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;

And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

 

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;

And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.

It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;

And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

 

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;

But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;

I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.

I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

 

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.

It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

 

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¹ TEDx Gotham.  I'm afraid my talk wasn't great and was very much in the shadow of Regge's amazing performance.  Mine was followed by a wonderful talk architect Craig Dykers and then the electric Juliette Powell.  As a speaker it probably makes sense to stay away from events with such serious talent.

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Recipe Corner 

 

Somehow a nice warm soup seems appropriate.  This one makes good use of carrots - use a rich vegetable broth, water just won't work.  As always all amounts are approximate

 

Carrot Soup

 

Ingredients

 

° 2 tablespoons butter

° 1 large yellow onion chopped

° 450 g carrots, peeled and diced to about 1/2 inch

° 600g  vegetable stock stock

° 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds

° 1 tbl honey

° 1 tbl lemon juice

° 1/8 tsp allspice

° Salt and pepper

° sour cream or plain yogurt for garnish

 

Technique

 

° Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes.

° Stir in carrots and broth and bring to boil. Now cover and cut the heat to a simmer until carrots are tender.  (20 - 25 minutes)

° In a small skillet stir and toast the cumin seeds over medium-high heat until you can smell them (about 5 minutes?) Now grind them in a spice mill.

°  Puree the soup with a stick blender until smooth.  

° Whisk in the honey, lemon juice and allspice and season with salt and pepper.

° Pour the  soup into bowls and sprinkle with toasted cumin.  Add a bit of sour cream or yogurt and serve.

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Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

° one cup heavy cream chilled in the 'fridge (half is for topping and is optional)

° 2 tbl + 1 tsp white cane sugar

° 2 cups whole milk 

° 120g 60% chocolate chopped into chunks

° a small pinch of salt

° 1/4 tsp peppermint extract

° chocolate (85% is good) for shaving to use as garnish if you like

Technique

° Whip half of the cream and the tsp of sugar into whipped cream and put back in the 'fridge

° Whisk the other half cup of cream, the sugar and milk in a pan over medium high heat and bring to nearly a boil

° Remove from heat, whisk in the chocolate, salt and peppermint until it is smooth

° Pour into mugs, add a dollop of whipped cream and shave some chocolate onto the cream

 

epigenetics, story telling as input for a serendipity engine, and dogs and relativity

December 30^th is looming.  An important day for me as it marks the birthday of a close friend and an annual deadline.  I probably need to explain the deadline.

 

When I joined Bell Labs years and years ago my director took me aside and told me I should find a way to think about something different from what I was doing and hopefully different from what anyone else in the labs was doing at least once a year.  Work scheduling was very flexible in those days, but he said he would cover for me if necessary.  He didn't want a report, but felt the exercise of devoting my working hours to something that interested me was extremely important.  The practice was not uncommon, although approaches varied widely.  

 

I spent a fortnight learning about how mother bats located their offspring in caves as millions returned from their nightly feedings. The question had been posed during a lunch table discussion just before Christmas and was something none of us (all physicists) knew about.  

 

My tools were a pad and pencil, the then wonderful Bell Labs Murray Hill library, access to Princeton's libraries, a telephone and a bit of curiosity.  

 

It is silly to think you can learn very much in two weeks, even if you are going seven days a week at twelve hours a day (it was a really interesting problem!).  But I was able to track down a few researchers and get a lot of information on signal encoding in bat calls including some very raw information that I was able to preform a bit of signal analysis on.  

 

It was completely delightful and much better and rejuvenating than a vacation.  Two weeks was long enough to get a sense of the problem and perhaps a bit of direction and no more.  But I was refreshed and sharp for my regular work at the end of the period.  It has become an important element in my education over time.

 

My mini introduction to bat signal processing came in very handy a few years later when some of us were asking some questions about signal encoding.  It is always nice to see a system that just works.  It provided a bit of insight that may have seemed out of the blue to anyone who didn't know about bats, but was obvious when pointed out.  It allowed me to connect a few important dots that would normally be outside the scope of what you might think Bell Labs did.  But it turned out a lot of people were spending some time thinking about very different areas.  I believe it was one of the "secret" core strengths of the old Bell Laboratories.

 

I've been doing it since.  Sometimes I take real vacation time, other times I've been able to manage my work.  Finding a seed question to think about is sometimes difficult and sometimes completely obvious. Some have proven to lead to rich topics and others don't - I don't make the selection on the likelihood of success as the important byproduct of this activity is serendipity over the long term. I don't make the decision until December 30^th and start my mini sabbatical on January 2^nd.

 

Some of you know I do this and have been asking questions about this year's seed.  The simple answer is I don't know yet.  There are a few candidates.  One that I've thought about before that came up again when I was rowing in the pre-dawn darkness today is how to explain important bits of science to non-scientists.  A problem that has been bothering me for a long time and one that is very important to crack.  Most scientists are very bad at it, but a few are excellent.  I've spend some time talking to a few who know what they are doing, but that only leads to more questions.

 

Without going into the different techniques I know about, I'll give some examples.  

 

Anyone who follows science at the Scientific American or even the Science section of the NY Times level, is familiar with epigenetics.  It is fundamentally important, but most people seem to be ignorant of it and most explanations assume more background than the average person has.   WNYC's RadioLab does a most good job of communicating some of these ideas at a very high level.  They do it only using the spoken word - something that is very important to their technique.  Their story telling requires an enormous among of time, but is effective.

 

Listen to these two pieces from a recent show that focused on epigenetics.  The stories are familiar to any science type, but would be mostly ignored in favor of a technical description.

 

I'm lucky enough to have access to some amazing storytellers, so it is an accessible area for me.  I have to think about how I might get started down the path.  

 

There are a half dozen other candidates and I'm sure I won't know until Monday. It almost always comes down to the last moment.

 

Feel free to propose interesting questions - I'm used to a bit of lobbying.   

 

In return I have a suggestion for a bit of mini dive that may be delightful for you if you have never had (or have forgotten) your high school physics,  It is also something any 14 year old who has a bit of trig and algebra under her belt can handle - learning special relativity^.1

 

Somehow "relativity" is labeled as being difficult.  I'll concede that general relativity requires a fair amount of mathematical sophistication if you want to learn and understand it, but special relativity is really just high school level.  It does require some careful thinking and logic in addition to a few hours of study and is an great learning experience.  It may not be important in your field, but working out some of the more interesting apparently paradoxes is great mental exercise and, as such, maybe an important dot or set of dots to add to your arsenal.

 

special relativity is not difficult!

 

I'll recommend two books:

 

How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog by Chad Orzel.  A very gentle introduction that gets at the basics and requires only a bit of algebra and trigonometry - nothing a 9^th grader can't handle.  I do recommend working though it with a pad and pencil and to make drawings and thing about things as you go.  It has a serious impact on our lives even though it is generally regarded as something that only is observable with very fast moving objects.

 Spacetime Physics by Ed Taylor and Archibald Wheeler is a classic for those who are a bit more secure with math (although only high school level math is required) and are used to sorting things out logically.  It is more demanding than the first book and gives you more tools to explore a bit more deeply.  I'd recommend it to someone intending to major in the physical sciences or as a text for a college student in a first year course for science, math and engineering students.  Spendy, but probably good for at least 60 to 100 hours of serious learning, so cheap on a dollar per hour basis.

 

And as a bonus why not treat yourself to learning how to use a slide rule?  Basic rules are available online and regular use will give you and intuitive sense for logarithms as well as sharpen your ability to do mental math.  I was asked by my management not to take my rule to the corporate headquarters for brainstorming sessions (I'm not a fan of brainstorming unless it is carefully constructed) as "it gave too much of an unfair advantage" (his words)...

__________

¹ I note that there must be a desire to learn this.  Not everyone has the motivation and that is just fine as there are so many things worthy of learning. It will take a bit of effort, but there is a real elegance and beauty in its simplicity.  It also runs counter to most people's notion of how the world works, but turns out to be a better description than Newtonian physics.  And the most important point is that we know it is "better" from experiment - the real world really does behave in this strange way.  It is an excellent example of how our senses and experience fail us.  Realizing this is important to many fields.

 

__________

 

Recipe Corner

 

Some time ago I put in some comments on making a good mango lassi.  In the past few days I've made a few variations and have a better version. Most Indian restaurants use canned mango pulp for seasonal consistency.  I've had good luck with Rellure Kesar Mango Pulp.  You can find this sort of thing online or in most Indian groceries.

It is important to chill the ingredients to near freezing - you may even want to slightly freeze the milk.  Also chill the serving glasses in your freezer.

This makes a very rich and thick lassi.  If you prefer lassis that move through a straw easily and are perhaps a bit less rich use non-fat milk and regular (not Greek) non-fat plain yogurt.  Many prefer something even less thick and one approach is to go with the thin regular yogurt and add some crushed ice to achieve the chill.

 

Mango Lassi 2

 

Ingredients

 

° 200g  Fage 2% plain greek yogurt ( I tried whole Fage and it was almost overkill)

° 150g whole milk (near freezing)

° 150g mango pulp (near freezing)

° 25g  white cane sugar (or to taste)

° some ground cardamom to taste - I probably used a tsp.  I tried a holiday variation that was ok - nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, but prefer cardamom

° slice almonds or chopped toasted pisachios to top (optional)

 

Technique

 

° add incredients (except for the topping) into a blender and blend until smooth

° serve in a chilled glass and top with the nuts.

 

 

trying to make a leap - a really big leap

There are a several loaded words where people often can't agree on precise definitions.  I was in a group where we flagged such words and carefully looked over our publications to make sure we weren't abusing them.  Words like community, data and innovation.  

 

One of the radioactive red flag words was breakthrough...

 

On any given day press releases from Universities and companies speak of "breakthrough" research and products, but if you re-visit them a few years (sometimes months) later, they seem to have vanished.  DARPA has an effective definition - they generally avoid the term (at least internally), but speak of improvements to current technologies that are at least a factor of ten better in at least one important parameter. A technology that cut the cost of an electric car battery from $20,000 to $2,000 would be a breakthrough.  Something that cut it in half, while desirable, would not.

 

Real breakthroughs tend to come out of surprising areas - there is a lot of connecting the dots going on that is often under the radar of large scale focused work.  This can be, but rarely is, cultivated in business and the process leads to a lot of failures.

 

Rather than dwelling on examples and postmortems it is more fun to think about ideas that didn't make it.  They often fail because someone wasn't connecting enough dots - they had missed some crucial bit of information.

 

Negligible Tales, by Ambrose Bierce

The Failure of Hope & Wandel

From Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, December 2, 1877.

I will not bore you, my dear fellow, with a narrative of my journey from New Orleans to this polar region. It is cold in Chicago, believe me, and the Southron who comes here, as I did, without a relay of noses and ears will have reason to regret his mistaken economy in arranging his outfit.

To business. Lake Michigan is frozen stiff. Fancy, O child of a torrid clime, a sheet of anybody’s ice, three hundred miles long, forty broad, and six feet thick! It sounds like a lie, Pikey dear, but your partner in the firm of Hope & Wandel, Wholesale Boots and Shoes, New Orleans, is never known to fib. My plan is to collar that ice. Wind up the present business and send on the money at once. I’ll put up a warehouse as big as the Capitol at Washington, store it full and ship to your orders as the Southern market may require. I can send it in planks for skating floors, in statuettes for the mantel, in shavings for juleps, or in solution for ice cream and general purposes. It is a big thing!

I inclose a thin slip as a sample. Did you ever see such charming ice?

From Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, to Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, December 24, 1877.

Your letter was so abominably defaced by blotting and blurring that it was entirely illegible. It must have come all the way by water. By the aid of chemicals and photography, however, I have made it out. But you forgot to inclose the sample of ice.

I have sold off everything (at an alarming sacrifice, I am sorry to say) and inclose draft for net amount. Shall begin to spar for orders at once. I trust everything to you — but, I say, has anybody tried to grow ice in this vicinity? There is Lake Ponchartrain, you know.

From Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, February 27, 1878.

Wannie dear, it would do you good to see our new warehouse for the ice. Though made of boards, and run up rather hastily, it is as pretty as a picture, and cost a deal of money, though I pay no ground rent. It is about as big as the Capitol at Washington. Do you think it ought to have a steeple? I have it nearly filled — fifty men cutting and storing, day and night — awful cold work! By the way, the ice, which when I wrote you last was ten feet thick, is now thinner. But don’t you worry; there is plenty.

Our warehouse is eight or ten miles out of town, so I am not much bothered by visitors, which is a relief. Such a giggling, sniggering lot you never saw!

It seems almost too absurdly incredible, Wannie, but do you know I believe this ice of ours gains in coldness as the warm weather comes on! I do, indeed, and you may mention the fact in the advertisements.

From Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, to Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, March 7, 1878.

All goes well. I get hundreds of orders. We shall do a roaring trade as “The New Orleans and Chicago Semperfrigid Ice Company.” But you have not told me whether the ice is fresh or salt. If it is fresh it won’t do for cooking, and if it is salt it will spoil the mint juleps.

Is it as cold in the middle as the outside cuts are?

From Mr. Jebez Hope, from Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, April 3, 1878.

Navigation on the Lakes is now open, and ships are thick as ducks. I’m afloat, en route for Buffalo, with the assets of the New Orleans and Chicago Semperfrigid Ice Company in my vest pocket. We are busted out, my poor Pikey — we are to fortune and to fame unknown. Arrange a meeting of the creditors and don’t attend.

Last night a schooner from Milwaukee was smashed into match-wood on an enormous mass of floating ice — the first berg ever seen in these waters. It is described by the survivors as being about as big as the Capital at Washington. One-half of that iceberg belongs to you, Pikey.

The melancholy fact is, I built our warehouse on an unfavorable site, about a mile out from the shore (on the ice, you understand), and when the thaw came — O my God, Wannie, it was the saddest thing you ever saw in all your life! You will be so glad to know I was not in it at the time.

What a ridiculous question you ask me. My poor partner, you don’t seem to know very much about the ice business.

 

 

In 1942 Lord Mountbatten convinced Winston Churchill of the merits of pykrete - a mixture of ice and wood pulp created by the eccentric English boffin Geoffrey Pyke.  The notion was to build an enormous aircraft carrier at least 2,000 feet long and 300 feet wide that could provide an airbase in the North Atlantic  The problem was that it required an enormous amount of wood and, of course, it would eventually melt.

 

...  but the Habakkuk project was given a nod ...

 

£5000 was provided for a small test which took place on Patricia Lake in Jasper in the Canadian Rockies.  I first encountered it listening to an old timer in a tea house near the lake when I was hiking there years ago...

 

When your back is against the wall you are willing to try almost anything..

 

The name is from a book in the old testament and something that puzzles me.  I was told that it is from a verse in the book - something this source agrees with.

 

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told to you.” Hab. 1:5

 

But I like something a biblical scholar told me when I asked him for a bit of background ...  Habakkuk was the only prophet who questions god's wisdom when he saw a great injustice and asked why god wasn't doing anything about it.  Somehow I can imagine that squaring with the English sense of humor a bit better.

 

There are real breakthroughs out there - but those who find them are frequently not those who complete the innovation - finally taking them to a point where they are realized and successfully used.  So many pitfalls, but it is often how progress is made.

 

Before moving on to the recipe section I'll just note that I find much of the focus of current technology and computation a bit boring.  There is some very clever work going on, but mostly it isn't focused on the major challenges we have as a people.  It would be refreshing to see more serious attacks on the (many) real challenges that face us.  

 

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Recipe Corner

 

Rather than starting with a recipe I'll give a few recommendations for cooking essentials as a few people have asked for comments.  I like to cook and bake and tend towards gadgets, but I've learned that most of the items go unused.   It is possible to do quite a bit with very little.  So with that here are a few...

 

° Proper oven and refrigerator thermometers. 

Our current oven is much colder than its temperature setting.  It is good practice to get an oven thermometer and calibrate your oven.  For me that means a calibration chart I have next to the oven.   A good oven thermometer costs less than $10 - get one with a big dial so you can easily read it.  I also test mine in boiling water and by noting the melting point of sugar.

Ideally you might have an oven that, in addition to temperature, regulates humidity. These are common in professional kitchens, but are way too spendy for me.  I wish I had one though - they can make a big difference. 

The refrigerator has very different temperatures throughout and I baffle the air flow to create zones I trust.  I also know the regions that get a bit too cold for many items.  I have three - two in the 'fridge and one in the freezer.  They were under $10 each and make a difference.

° A nice chef's knife and a good paring knife

I wish I would have started with a good knife and had known you don't need speciality knives. You don't have to spend a huge amount of money (but you can).  I buy mine at Korin in NYC - they have an incredible selection of Japanese knives and related kit and give excellent advice.  Get a good sharpening stone or two and learn how to use them unless you can have a professional regularly sharpen yours.  I like Minsono knives with a Western edge, but there are many excellent brands.  Minsonos are a nice compromise in quality and price and have a nice feel in my hand - I'm sure I'll be using the same knives ten years from now.   Western edges are much easier to sharpen than Japanese edges - so go that way if you sharpen your own.  

Two two chef's knifes - one with a 240mm blade, the other 170mm - and a little 120mm pairing knife are all I need. 

° Cooking thermometers.  

I have a fast reacting probe thermometer as well as an infrared thermometer.  

I can't tell you how useful the IR thermometer is in and out of the kitchen.  I've been using a RayTech for nearly a decade and have given several of them as gifts. 

° A good kitchen scale

These are fundamentally important and every kitchen needs one as volume measurements don't make sense for many ingredients (flour for example).  The $25 Eat Smart is great for general use.  Mine reads to one gram and is reasonably accurate and repeatable.  A gram accuracy is all you need unless you are doing speciality work with spices or food additives.  For spice work I bought a scale that reads to 0.01 grams, but I rarely use it.  

The $25 Eat Smart is great for general use.  

Also if you are counting calories you need a kitchen scale.

° proper height working surfaces

If you do a lot of work with food you might find yourself with a sore back.  It turns out the 36" counter height in most kitchens is a by-product of post WWII standardization that came with the mass production of cabinets.  It reflects the 5'4 height of the average woman at the time (which, it turns out, hasn't changed in the US since).  If you are a bit taller, try going for a 1" or 2" thick cutting board.  If you are more than about 5'10 you might consider an even more raised surface.

I'm 6'1 - not terribly tall, but enough to cause serious back pain when I'm working at my cutting board for more than about 30 minutes at a time.  My friend Colleen is about 6'7 and has a larger problem.

The solution for both of us was a custom raised cutting board.  Mine adds about six inches and her's nearly a foot. You don't lose a lot of counter space as you can store things under them.  I had AWP make both of them in hard maple and strongly recommend the company.

If you are much shorter than about 5'1 it makes sense to stand on something or AWP will make a custom height roll around work surface.  I know a serious cook who is about 5'1 who wears Dansko professional shoes which add a couple of inches - they are comfortable and work perfectly.  In either case the tight grained hardwoods are quite hygienic and studies show probably cleaned hardwood is as safe as other cutting surfaces.  Plus the are very beautiful.

Of course if you are building or remodeling a kitchen, the countertop can be anything you like.  And with remodeling you can also consider kitchen work-flow ... something I've never been able to do.

° a high quality blender

I don't have one as I can't justify the high price, but I've used them in other kitchens - Vitamix blenders are wonderful if you need to blend anything.  If you make soups you probably want an immersion blender (also called stick blenders).  Unless you do it every day something like this model will be just fine. 

° a good pressure cooker

They are completely underrated and I recommend one to save time and cut energy use.  You have to learn how to use them, but once you get the hang of one, you won't turn back.  There seems to be wide agreement that the Kuhn Rikon models are superior.  Stay away from the electrics.

° specialized kit

As you specialize you'll probably find a few really great tools that are great helps and that also make no sense to the normal cook or baker.  I like to make ice cream and have instrumented my ice cream maker - if you are handy with electronics, instrumentation is a nice way to combine hobbies and perhaps get a bit more insight into cooking. One of these days I would like to get into low temperature cooking - often, but improperly, called sous vide.  Something I can't justify due to space and money, but "one of these days"...

But this is getting out there.  Pay attention to the first four items on the list (possibly five) and you can be very happy.

 

 

 

a little christmas story

For the past few days I've been doing some work probing the notion that the fundamental structure and design of Facebook has a higher to people who tend to live through a remembrance of the past, while Twitter is much more focused on the present and the near-term future.¹

 

While doing this I thought a bit about my own real world graph.  I have a very small number of extremely close friends.  Those people I consider family and dedicate my tithing of time to.  Then there are varying levels of friends and acquaintances, correspondents, people you nod to on the street and so on .. you probably have much the same, although how these assemble is fascinating and probably unique to each of us.  The weights of the edges of these graphs depend on the intensity of the relationship and that varies with time, place, situation and many other factors.  I found myself thinking about those who are close.

 

One, who I won't identify, has been in an email conversation for a few days explaining something she does that strikes me as the core of what the holiday season is about.  For background she left her family and moved to the big city of Toronto immediately after high school with no contacts or prospects.  She has told me that she felt she had to leave even if she had no idea if she would be able to survive.  Her first year was very rough, but she limped through and then moved on to another city.  Since then she has been growing and learning and I count myself enormously lucky to have established a brilliant friendship with her - a friendship that has been enormously important to me and my wife.

 

She landed in Toronto the other day to spend the holiday with her brother's family.  But she had something just as important as family to tend to.  Rather than write about it, I asked for and received permission to quote a few parts of the emails.  

 

 

I will see a priest who works with kids who don't have much of a chance.  The come to Toronto on the bus and he finds them a cheap place to stay and work though people he knows.  He found me my first work at a tiny pizzeria.  I cleaned the kitchen, tables and floors and was a waitress.  I quit on my own because I wasn't very good at what I was asked to do, but it got me started and off the street.

I then find a restaurant with a kid who is struggling and leave a really big tip.  It happened to me when I was working.  A stranger who probably had asked what I will ask, had a piece of pizza and a coke and left an envelope with a new $100 bill in it.  The envelope just said "Merry Christmas to the tall blonde girl".  I do the same thing every time I'm back in Toronto and seek out the priest for guidance.  For me it is payback for the kindness and remembering how important it was to me.  For me money was completely unexpected and a gift of goodness that still makes me cry and feel special.

I don't see myself as being good.  It gives the message that even a stranger can offer just enough help when you really need it and it is good to look out for other people.  As an anonymous giver it makes me wonderful and is now a huge part of my Christmas.  I don't mean it to be charity as much a hope and a wish.  I try to write a note asking them to do the same for someone else when they can afford it.  I also put a good chocolate bar in the envelope because I know the money will for for food or rent or even some basic piece of clothing and they deserve a good treat. 

 

(from the next email about a day later.  I note that she is fairly deaf and can't listen to music so she reads lyrics - the song she quotes also happens to be a favorite of mine)

I now have the bills and chocolate and will seek out the priest.  This is the holiest piece of my holiday:-)  Whoever did it for me must have had it done for them and I do sit up sometimes wondering where and how it started.  I'm so proud to be part of it and someone who tries to keep it moving on.  

The priest must know a lot, but he and I have different beliefs.  His is his God and mine is in humanity.  But maybe that is more similar that it seems.

I read a lot of song lyrics and remember one by Dar Williams.  I can't remember it word for word, so I cheated and looked it up.  There is some truth here (although I'm not a pagan. I'm excited and waiting for her next communication)

The Christians and the Pagans

Amber called her uncle, said "We're up here for the holiday, 
Jane and I were having Solstice, now we need a place to stay." 
And her Christ-loving uncle watched his wife hang Mary on a tree, 
He watched his son hang candy canes all made with red dye number three. 
He told his niece, "It's Christmas Eve, I know our life is not your style," 
She said, "Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and its been awhile," 

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table, 
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able, 
And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said, 
Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses. 

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch, 
Till Timmy turned to Amber and said, "Is it true that you're a witch?" 
His mom jumped up and said, "The pies are burning," and she hit the kitchen, 
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, "It's true, your cousin's not a Christian," 
"But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share, 
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere." 

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table, 
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able, 
And where does magic come from? I think magic's in the learning, 
'Cause now when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning. 

When Amber tried to do the dishes, her aunt said, "Really, no, don't bother." 
Amber's uncle saw how Amber looked like Tim and like her father. 
He thought about his brother, how they hadn't spoken in a year, 
He thought he'd call him up and say, "It's Christmas and your daughter's here." 
He thought of fathers, sons and brothers, saw his own son tug his sleeve, saying, 
"Can I be a Pagan?" Dad said, "We'll discuss it when they leave." 

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table, 
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able, 
Lighting trees in darkness, learning new ways from the old, and 
Making sense of history and drawing warmth out of the cold.

 

First you need an excellent holiday treat and then you need to be listening to Christians and the Pagans by Dar Williams.²  If you don't have it, here is the link to the iTunes Store or find it somewhere else.  The next best thing is to listen to a youtube performance.  

 note: the ending to this little story appears in the comments:-)

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¹ From the selection of follows and friends, the weightings of the edges of the graphs and so on...  There are some interesting models that can be built to try these ideas to see if they make sense.  This may be fundamentally tied to how mobile these services are - or not.  There is rich room for experimental design and measurement and perhaps a bit of insight.

Fun stuff to think about - particularly when one considers these services both map poorly onto real human connections (although both can be useful).  But this is for something other than the blog.

² I'm not a pagan either, but this song turns out to be very personal to me too ... I've been lucky enough to have been at a concert where nearly everyone was singing along with Dar as she performed it

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Recipe Corner

 

This one is wonderful.  Last year I posted a holiday desert that someone in Italy tried and loved.  He sent a nice letter with his grandmother's prized biscotti recipe.  This is exceptional if you like biscotti.  I've done a few things to make it work with American ingredients.  

 

Christmas Biscotti

 

Ingredients

 

° 55g  of a very mild extra virgin olive oil

° 170g white cane sugar

° 2 tsp vanilla extract

° 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

° 2 large eggs

° 220g all purpose flour

° 1/4 teaspoon salt

° 1 tsp baking powder

° 60g dried cranberries

° 180g unsalted shelled pistachios

 

Technique

° Preheat oven to 350º F  and Pam or grease a cookie sheet

° In a mixer bowl beat the olive oil and sugar together. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and eggs, beating until the mixture is blended.

° In a small bowl, whisk by hand the flour, salt and baking powder.

° On low speed gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and slowly beat in the cranberries and pistachios. (you can do this by hand too)

° Form the dough  into two logs about a foot long and two inches in diameter. (if it is too sticky use the trick of forming it with cold water on your hands)

° Bake for 30 minutes or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, cool for at least 20 minutes and cut slices diagonally about an inch thick.  

° While cutting reduce the oven temperature to 275° F

° Put cookies on a cooling racking placed on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes flipping cookies once midway.

° Line a cooking sheet with parchment.  Put the slices on their sides and bake at 275° F until the cookies are dry, which varies a lot with humidity.  Usually about 10 to 15 minutes for me.  I flip them at the 5 minute mark.