Tom McMahon

The Jewish Zodiac: A 12-Year Cycle Like The Chinese Zodiac, But Where Every Year Is Represented By A Deli Food. And Yes, They Do Sell Placemats

The Jewish Zodiac: A 12-Year Cycle Like The Chinese Zodiac, But Where Every Year Is Represented By A Deli Food. And Yes, They Do Sell Placemats

Another one from my former Pattonville classmate Bonita Spell Holder.

Deep South Peanut Pie

Deep South Peanut Pie

Anybody ever have this?

How To Season a Cast Iron Skillet

Left: Unseasoned    Right: Seasoned

From Wikipedia:

A seasoned pan has a stick-resistant coating of polymerized fat and oil on the surface. Seasoning is desirable on cast-iron cookware and carbon steel cookware, because otherwise they are very sticky to foods and rust-prone. For other pans e.g., stainless, aluminum, enameled), the same chemical phenomenon can occur, but seasoning may not be desired for cosmetic reasons (it makes a pan look splotchy), or the pan may already be stick-resistant (e.g., at medium heat, a clean stainless pan with oil is very stick resistant to many foods). ...

As with other cast iron vessels, a seasoned pan or dutch oven should not be used to cook foods containing tomatoes, vinegar or other acidic ingredients. These foods will damage the new seasoning. Instead, newly seasoned ovens should be used to cook food high in oil or fat, such as chicken, bacon, or sausage, or used for deep frying. Subsequent cleanings are usually accomplished without the use of soap. Because modern cleaning methods (detergent soaps, dishwashers) will destroy the seasoning on cast iron, manufacturers and cookbook authors recommend only wiping the pans clean after each use, or using other cleaning methods such as a salt scrub or boiling water.

From KitchenEmporium.com:

Cast Iron Cookware must be seasoned properly and it will last a life-time. ( I still use my Grandmother's cast iron skillets on a regular basis and they must be at least 60-70+ years old.)

New Pans

1. Heat the oven to 250 - 300 degrees
2. Coat the pan with lard or bacon grease. Don't use a liquid vegetable oil because it will leave a sticky surface and the pan will not be properly seasoned.
3. Put the pan in the oven. In 15 minutes, remove the pan & pour out any excess grease. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for 2 hours.

Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger "seasoning" bond.

Also, when you put the pan into service, it is recommended to use it initially for foods high in fat, such as bacon or foods cooked with fat, because the grease from these foods will help strengthen the seasoning.

Why Campbell's Soups Have Always Been Mmm Mmm Good

Why Campbell's Soups Have Always Been Mmm Mmm Good

Did You Ever Get Really Really Hungry?

From Did You Ever ...

I offer for your consideration the observation that in times past people were really really really really hungry in a way that most humans living now can not imaging. I say this not because I have pictures or scary drawings of starving plague ridden masses. No. I say that with confidence because of some of the food that we now consider indulgences which - except for starvation - would never have been consumed by human beings.

Exhibit 1: artichokes.

Examine a picture of an artichoke. I apologize to Castroville California, the artichoke capitol of the world but honestly, when you look at that thing does your mouth start to water and you feel the urge to hunt for a pot of boiling water and some melted butter? I think not. Can you imagine how hungry the first human being had to have been who started chewing on one of these things? Why would you ever think to yourself as you traversed the sands of the desert that "Gee, I'm gonna pick me a mess of these things, set up camp, boil the last quart of water that stands between me and dehydration and steam these suckers up. Some day some body's gonna charge a lot of money for these things and sell them at high-end restaurants". No, I tell you. Ancient man was thinking "Damn I am hungry and there's nothing here but these crappy thistle things. I guess I will chew on the leaves for a while. Maybe I wont die.

Don't get me wrong, I like artichokes. But seriously, if you had never been exposed to these and someone invited you over for dinner and plopped a steamed artichoke on your plate, would you really feel like an honored guest or would you think "jeez what a cheap s.o.b. serving me weeds. where's the steak?"

Piggly Wiggly, The First Self-Service Grocery Store

Piggly Wiggly, The First Self-Service Grocery Store

Schlitz with Vitamin D: Beer Is Good For You, But Schlitz With Sunshine Vitamin D Is Extra Good For You!

Schlitz with Vitamin D: Beer Is Good For You, But Schlitz With Sunshine Vitamin D Is Extra Good For You!

miBook: The Video Player for the Kitchen and Everywhere Else

miBook: The Video Player for the Kitchen and Everywhere Else

From the NY Times:

The miBook from Photoco, for example, is a seven-inch e-book device with a full-color screen. Meant to work more like a media player than a real e-book reader, the $130 device also displays multimedia content like step-by-step recipe instructions, and can play back music through the built-in speakers.

Partnerships with home and garden television channels, including the Food Network, HGTV and ParentsTV, give owners of the miBook multimedia content from cookbooks, parenting guides and travel books. Add-on titles cost about $20, and some electronics stores, like Circuit City, will offer models complete with one or two books built in.

The device has a memory card reader as well as a headphone jack. It can act as a calendar and clock and uses simple graphics to help readers navigate through content.

And from laptopmag.com:

Looking to offer an affordable alternative to pricey e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle, the $129 Photoco miBook lets users watch and listen to content as well as read it. In the same way that SanDisk partnered with music labels to create ready-to-play content for its slotMusic Player, Photoco teamed up with several television channels, including Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network, and ParentsTV, and is selling versions of the miBook that come packaged with branded multimedia tutorials on SD Cards that combine the ease of use of an e-book reader with the video instructions you’d find on the tube. Viewed strictly as a portable media player, the miBook is flawed, but as a device that specializes in playing How To guides to assist you in your cooking, travel, or do-it-yourself household projects, it’s pretty useful.

Those reviews were written a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, Photoco went bust and now all these miBooks are orphans. I just picked up several on eBay for around $20 each. You can rip your own divx movies to it, use it as a photo frame, whatever.

The 1950's Slogan for Franco-American Spaghetti and Meatballs Was La Sauce Est Tout: No Wonder That To This Day, Over 50 Years Later, I Still Have To Think A Second Lest I Confuse France With Italy

The 1950's Slogan for Franco-American Spaghetti and Meatballs Was La Sauce Est Tout: No Wonder That To This Day, Over 50 Years Later, I Still Have To Think A Second Lest I Confuse France With Italy

"Franco"-American, a French slogan, and a (didya notice this on the can?) French flag. All for Spaghetti and Meatballs. Exposure to this during your formative years can screw you up for the rest of your life. Betrayed by June Lockhart on Lassie, no less.

Using Sturgeon-Bladder Powder To Make A Fine Wine

From the WSJ:

PHILO, Calif.—In wine vernacular, "smoky bacon" is a prized flavor for pinot noir. Not so is "wet ashtray," which is where the powdered sturgeon bladders come in.

The 2008 pinot noirs from here in California's Anderson Valley are starting to show up in stores. But severe forest fires during the growing season hit the grape crop that year. The fires left much of the resulting wine with "smoke taint," according to many local winemakers, a condition similar to that in a "corked" bottle in which one unwanted taste overwhelms everything else.

Sturgeon-bladder powder, called isinglass, is what winemaker Larry Londer added to a few gallons of his 2008 pinot noir to try to fix it. Isinglass has long been used to clear wine of unwanted elements, and Mr. Londer hoped it would remove what he and other vintners call the wet-ashtray taste.

It didn't. "We did things that we'd never do" in a typical year, says Mr. Londer, who grows pinot grapes on 15 acres at his Londer Vineyards. With the 2008 vintage, he says, "normal rules didn't prevail."