Garlic ideas, good and bad

After watching the above video, it struck me that with a blender, one could easily puree a cup or two of garlic clovess and put the pulp in one of those tiny-cube ice-cube trays and freeze them (probably inside a ziplock freezer bag to minimize odor transmission). You could then pop out the cubes and keep them in the freezer for use when you want. That would also mean you wouldn’t have to let the garlic rest before use, since it will have already rested.

I posted the idea as a comment to the video, and I got a reply:

LO AD

I do this with my entire herb garden every fall. Basil, garlic, mint, sage & parsley. All year round. vacuum seal em too.

A Carefully Constructed Li(f)e

Greg Donahue has an article in The Atavist Magazine for May 2022, “The Fugitive Next Door.” His article begins:

On the morning of December 2, 2020, Tim Brown got up early to start a fire. The night before, an unseasonable cold front had descended on Love’s Landing, Florida, where Brown lived with his wife, Duc Hanh Thi Vu. By 8 a.m., the mercury in the thermometer had yet to reach 40 degrees. At the bottom of the cul-de-sac where the couple lived, a thin layer of frost glistened on the long grass runways that extended through the quiet neighborhood: Love’s Landing is a private aviation community, home to pilots, plane engineers, and flying enthusiasts.

As heat from the fireplace warmed the house, Brown headed to the small hangar he’d built right outside. Nearly everyone in Love’s Landing owned a plane, and Brown was no exception. He’d just had the engine of his gleaming Tecnam P2008 replaced, and despite the chill in the air, the morning was shaping up to be calm and clear. Perfect weather to take the plane up.

A carpenter by trade, Brown had spent much of his life enjoying the outdoors. In his younger days, he was an expert scuba diver and deep-sea fisherman. But now, at 66, his age had finally caught up with him. His close-cropped hair had gone gray, and health issues had him in and out of the hospital. During the past year alone, he’d suffered two heart attacks. Flying offered the chance, as Brown put it, “to continue the fun.” He’d fallen in love with aviation years earlier, after taking a charter trip with friends in Alaska. Flying sure beat staring at the trees on either side of the road, he said. This was the kind of enthusiastic attitude that made Brown popular in Love’s Landing. Soon after moving there in 2017, he and Vu became, as a neighbor put it, “one of the best-liked couples in the airpark.”

Brown had just raised the hangar door when an unmarked Dodge Durango roared into the driveway, along with a Marion County police cruiser. As Brown turned toward the commotion, a law enforcement agent in a tactical vest leapt out of the SUV. He was pointing an MK18 short-barreled automatic rifle at Brown’s face. “Step back! Raise your hands!” the agent shouted.

Brown did as he was told. Officers from a half-dozen federal agencies were fanning out across the property. “Are you Tim Brown?” the lead officer demanded as he approached the hangar. Brown nodded. “I’ve got a warrant for your arrest,” the officer said. Agents moved in formation to clear the hangar and headed toward the main house to execute a search warrant.

Brown’s neighbors would later recount their confusion at the fleet of official vehicles facing every which way in the street. No one knew what Brown had done. But whatever they imagined, the truth was almost certainly stranger.

For the previous 35 years, Tim Brown had been living a carefully constructed lie. He wasn’t just an aging retiree with a passion for aviation. In fact, he wasn’t Tim Brown at all. His real name was Howard Farley Jr., and law enforcement alleged that he’d been the leader of one of the largest drug-trafficking rings in Nebraska history.

As he was placed under arrest, a wry grin spread across his face. “I had mentally prepared myself for being caught,” he would later say. “When it happened, with men pointing guns at me, the only thing to do was smile.”

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PART ONE

Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, Howard Farley was what you might call a gearhead: a blue-collar kid with a knack for the mechanical. He was born in 1948, the . . .

Continue reading.

The Savannah Bananas

Tempeh-Vegetable Merguez

What was left after taking a large bowful

I didn’t know I was going to blog my lunch, but it turned out so tasty I thought I should. I used my Misen 10″ nonstick skillet, which I sprayed with 6-8 sprays of extra-virgin olive oil from my Evo sprayer, which I continue to like a lot. Then I added to the skillet:

• 1 bunch thick scallions, chopped with leaves
• 1 yellow and 2 red cayenne peppers, sliced thinly
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 6-8 thick stalks asparagus chopped
• 6-8 oz soybean and rye tempeh, which I diced fairly small
• 3 medium cremini mushrooms, sliced thick
• 8 cloves garlic, chopped small and allowed to rest for 10 minutes
• 1 tablespoon Merguez spice mix

Once all that was in the skillet, I turned the induction burner to high and started cooking it. After it had cooked down a little, I added:

• 1 cup kale I cooked a couple of days ago
• 1 San Marzano tomato, chopped fairly small — could use 2 Roma tomatoes
• a splash of rice vinegar (about 2 tablespoons) — Marukan, not seasoned
• a good dash of tamari (about 1.5 tablespoons)
• a pinch of MSG

I simmered that until the kale was well heated and the tomatoes somewhat cooked. It’s very good. It has Grain, Beans, Greens, Cruciferous Vegetable, Other Vegetables. Tonight I’ll have some and add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed and a teaspoon of Bragg’s nutritional yeast.

The kale is from a batch I made and didn’t blog — onions, diced lemon, some mushrooms, some MSG…. I don’t remember exactly what went into it, but it’s quite tasty. 

Chana dal and barnyard millet tempeh

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A new batch of tempeh is in my tempeh incubator, following my usual method. I had intended to use kodo millet (as I did in this earlier batch), but I found I had run out of kodo millet, so I substituted barnyard millet, still quite a good millet. Barnyard millet is a good source of iron, as shown in the video at that link.

I use unpolished millet (bran still present) because bran is not merely fiber but also a good source of fiber and minerals. Barnyard millet in particular is a good source of iron, as shown in the video at the link. Some content on the internet warns against eating millet because it hinders iodine uptake — but so do broccoli, kale, and cabbage. It is not a problem so long a you have an adequate amount of iodine in your diet — for example, from iodized salt, from seafood, or from eating a couple of sheets a nori a day. If you don’t get enough iodine in your diet, the problem is not eating millet, the problem is lack of adequate iodine. Make sure you eat foods that are healthful sources of iodine and don’t worry about millet (though I do recommend eating a good type of unpolished millet). 

That earlier batch — soybean and unpolished kodo millet — used 2 cups soybeans and 1 cup kodo millet, measured before cooking (and then cooked separately). In this batch I used 1.5 cups of each.

As usual, I bagged the prepared legume+grain a large Ziploc Fresh Produce bag, since those are perfectly perforated for tempeh cultivation. Judging from past experience I can remove this from the incubator in 24 hours and let it continue on a raised rack at room temperature for another 48 hours, or 72 hours total. 

I finally got around to adding “Tempeh” as a category, so you can do a category search and browse my tempeh posts.

Millet and Diabetes

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After 24 hours

After 24 hours, Rhizopus has clearly taken hold, so I removed the batch from the incubator to a raised rack on the table. By tomorrow the slab will be completely white and reasonably solid, but I will let the mycelium continue its growth for another 24 hours, for a total of 3 days. 

Tempeh production at this point if fairly routine, with each step familiar through repetition and the step’s purpose understood. I continue to be well pleased with the use of large Ziploc Fresh Produce bags. 

In the meantime, I’m just finishing the previous batch of soybean and rye tempeh.

75 Hours and Done

It went a little longer because I had to make a side trip to the hospital, where I got a pacemaker. Both I and this batch of tempeh turned out fine. The post at that link provides more detail on my pacemaker adventure.

I will say that this is a very fine-grained tempeh that cuts and cooks quite well. I’ll definitely repeat this combination, and I’m also thinking that a lentil-and-millet tempeh would be very interesting. Maybe I’ll do that next — perhaps use Black Beluga lentils, which are round like millet but black instead of tan.

I had some of this for dinner — diced small and sautéed the tempeh and some chopped asparagus in a little olive oil, then used that in a salad with a yellow bell pepper, 4 thick scallions, 3 sliced mushrooms, 1/4 head of red cabbage (shredded), an avocado, and 2 tablespoons of walnuts.

I used Hollyhock Salad Dressing I made from a recipe my mail carrier gave me — it’s this one.  But I changed it some (of course). Here’s what I did:

• 3/4 cup Bragg’s nutritional yeast
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup tamari 
• 1/3 cup Bragg’s apple-cider vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard [see note below]
• 3 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced on garlic mandoline
• 1 cup canola oil

In a blender, combine yeast, water, tamari, vinegar, and garlic for one minute. With the blender on high, remove the centre of the lid and SLOWLY drizzle in the oil. Stop the blender as soon as all the oil has been added. Keep in a sealed jar for up to 2 weeks.

I used an immersion blender. I put the first 5 ingredients in the large beaker that came with the blender (or you could use a canning jar), blended, and then added oil slowly.

NOTE: I thought about adding 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard to help with the mix emulsify, and I’ll do that next time. 

It makes a pint. Pick jar accordingly.

A couple of oddities in original recipe: 

1. The recipe said that the tamari could be gluten-free. Could be?! Tamari is gluten free, being made purely from soybeans. (Shoyu/soy sauce does use some wheat. That’s what makes it different from tamari.)
2. The recipe suggested grapeseed or sunflower oil, both of which are terrible oils in terms of their omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Canola’s ratio is 2:1, close to the ideal of 1:1. (Grapeseed oil is 676:1, and sunflower oil is 40:1 — see this post.) Canola oil also has the neutral taste they want. (I was warned that the flavor of extra-virgin olive oil does not work well in this dressing.)

Grog for a sunny day

I do love Tallow + Steel Grog, their take on Bay Rum. They have moved on to other fragrances, however, and this fragrance is vintage. Their soap is excellent, as shown by the superb lather my Edwin Jagger synthetic created today. This knot is very like the Mühle Gen 2 synthetic knot, and it’s a knot I like — it’s not like the Plissoft knots (which also are good, but in a different way), being coarser and more along the lines of a natural bristle.

Three passes with my Feather AS-D1 did a good job, but with a little work, so I’ve replaced the blade. I’ve always used Feather blades in this razor, but this time, just for the sake of variety, I’m trying an Astra Keramik Platinum (another vintage product).

A splash of Grog augmented with two squirts of Hydrating Gel finished the shave, and the day is sunny and clear.

The tea this morning is Murchie’s Keemun Extra Superior: “The Anhui province of China is home of the original tea gardens. The soil and climate conditions create teas that are naturally lower in caffeine than other fully fermented teas. Keemun teas are known for their complex characters and are often referred to as the “Burgundy of Teas”.”