Settling in some
Jul. 25th, 2009 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI am back in Calif. I'm spending some time at CG's place, and meeting various people. There was a little get together last night, and I made some bread (when in doubt, make bread). So a cold collation of olives, cheeses (some old gouda, Humboldt Fog, Wisconson muenster [which I'd brought from Tenn.] and buttermilk blue), some flitch bacon; from a local butcher, served raw (it's pefectly safe; one, no one in the US has caught trichinosis from commercial pork since the '50s, and two cured meats are not viable environments for it).
Several belgian beers, and pretty good conversations were had. There were four of us going to be here in the morning, so I lamented that I'd not gotten some back-bacon, to make eggs benedict. The suggestion was put forward to just use some of the stuff I'd gotten from the butcher.
So this morning we ran out of coffee, and three of us (while CG's primary was sleeping the sleep of the blessed, nipped round to a local market and got some coffee, a couple of lemons, some salt butter, and I forget what else.
It was a great market. A hodgepodge of imports (the cheeses were amazing. Not a huge volume, but an amazing variety. Irish hard cheeses, two sorts hard gouda, five sorts of soft, two types of raclette, a pair of georgian style gorluki, Italian soft rind cheeses, argentinian peccorino, and I forget what all sort of Enlglish, US, Spanish, Mexican, Indian, etc.). The aisles were redolent of breads (I was stopped trying to figure out what I was smelling; it was the hearty aroma of New York Rye, with a dark brown-grey crust and the smell of caraway).
Produce (Lord! but the shops in Tenn. were veritable deserts when it came to greens).
Got back, sliced some bacon, and trimmed the rind, set it to cook. Put some water on to simmer; with a dash of vinegar to acidulate it.
Juiced a lemon, strained it into a saucepan, separated an egg, plopped the yolk into the pan. Got a cup of coffe, and the Kerrygold Irish butter. Whisked the lemon juice into the egg yolk, put the heat on low.
I will give this to an electric stove... with an elevating wire; to keep the bottom of the pan from being directly on the element, hollandaise is worry free. Kept adding small bit of butter and tasting. Got about a 1/4 lb in, added a bit more lemon, and switched to unsalted. It was a little too salty for asparagus, but the bread and eggs would stand up to it. A quick dash of fresh pepper and the sauce was done.
The water was ready and the bread was sliced into toast (we used the unused bread I'd made for the night before). Poached the eggs, dressed the plates and we sat down to a pair of eggs benedict each. They were delicious.
In bit we are going to head round to Bayfront and look at birds and ocean. There's a humminbird attacking the trumpet-shaped lavander flowers right outside the window; and another one chasing him off. Tomorrow I see my new digs.
So far, so good.
Several belgian beers, and pretty good conversations were had. There were four of us going to be here in the morning, so I lamented that I'd not gotten some back-bacon, to make eggs benedict. The suggestion was put forward to just use some of the stuff I'd gotten from the butcher.
So this morning we ran out of coffee, and three of us (while CG's primary was sleeping the sleep of the blessed, nipped round to a local market and got some coffee, a couple of lemons, some salt butter, and I forget what else.
It was a great market. A hodgepodge of imports (the cheeses were amazing. Not a huge volume, but an amazing variety. Irish hard cheeses, two sorts hard gouda, five sorts of soft, two types of raclette, a pair of georgian style gorluki, Italian soft rind cheeses, argentinian peccorino, and I forget what all sort of Enlglish, US, Spanish, Mexican, Indian, etc.). The aisles were redolent of breads (I was stopped trying to figure out what I was smelling; it was the hearty aroma of New York Rye, with a dark brown-grey crust and the smell of caraway).
Produce (Lord! but the shops in Tenn. were veritable deserts when it came to greens).
Got back, sliced some bacon, and trimmed the rind, set it to cook. Put some water on to simmer; with a dash of vinegar to acidulate it.
Juiced a lemon, strained it into a saucepan, separated an egg, plopped the yolk into the pan. Got a cup of coffe, and the Kerrygold Irish butter. Whisked the lemon juice into the egg yolk, put the heat on low.
I will give this to an electric stove... with an elevating wire; to keep the bottom of the pan from being directly on the element, hollandaise is worry free. Kept adding small bit of butter and tasting. Got about a 1/4 lb in, added a bit more lemon, and switched to unsalted. It was a little too salty for asparagus, but the bread and eggs would stand up to it. A quick dash of fresh pepper and the sauce was done.
The water was ready and the bread was sliced into toast (we used the unused bread I'd made for the night before). Poached the eggs, dressed the plates and we sat down to a pair of eggs benedict each. They were delicious.
In bit we are going to head round to Bayfront and look at birds and ocean. There's a humminbird attacking the trumpet-shaped lavander flowers right outside the window; and another one chasing him off. Tomorrow I see my new digs.
So far, so good.
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Date: 2009-07-26 09:33 pm (UTC)