What a Week!

Some Oxford scenesI’m sitting, for the second night in a row, in a rather pleasant restaurant in Oxford, somewhere on the walk between the physics department and my hotel. They pour a pretty good Malbec, and tonight I’ve had the wood-fired Guinea Fowl. I can hear snippets of conversation in the distance, telling me that many people who come here are regulars, and that correlates well with the fact that I liked the place immediately last night and decided I’d come back. The friendly staff remembered me and greeted me like a regular upon my return, which I liked. Gee’s is spacious with a high ceiling, and so I can sit away from everyone in a time where I’d still rather not be too cavalier with regards covid. On another occasion I might have sought out a famous pub with some good pub food and be elbow-to-elbow with students and tourists, but the phrase “too soon” came to mind when I walked by such establishments and glanced into the windows.

However, I am not here to do a restaurant review, although you might have thought that from the previous paragraph (the guinea fowl was excellent though, and the risotto last night was tasty, if a tiny bit over-salted for my tastes). Instead I find myself reflecting on […] Click to continue reading this post

Dairy Diary

Yesterday’s kitchen science experiment was this morning’s breakfast! In explaining to my young son about microorganisms that we live with (in our bodies, and as tools of transformation we deploy in various applications like cuisine) I suddenly remembered trying to make yogurt when I was myself very young (although not … Click to continue reading this post

Custard

When looking for an excuse to have some custard, simply whip up an upside down cake built on a bit of fruit, spices, and whatnot you might have (here: apples cooked in butter, basking on caramel, with toasted walnuts, cinnamon…etc). –cvj

More Pie

Well, you know the saying: When life hands you several apples, some blackberries, and a chunk of pastry left over from your last pie-making… you make another apple-blackberry pie, taking the opportunity to make it even better! (No? Never heard that saying? Huh.) -cvj

Rolling…

And so it began… All this butter had to end up inside this little bit of flour/water mix. But in lots of tasty layers of deliciousness! (And I’ll do this four times, and so that’s my morning.) More later. I love puff pastry! –cvj

Backfire…

So I usually do this joke when I’m in an elevator with someone who Is carrying a gift wrapped item or a bunch of flowers or similar. I do a pretend surprised expression and say “oh is that for me?!”, and receive a variety of responses from the person. Most usually get the joke. This guy, who turned out to be a delivery guy, smiled politely and said “not unless you are Dr. Clifford.” On the back foot, I paused, and then recovered with “er… actually I am!”. I got out my ID and showed it to him. We were both genuinely stunned by how this turned out. Nice little lift after a really unkind day… #hoistedbymyownpetard #theardmore

-cvj Click to continue reading this post

‘Tis the Season…

The fig trees in the garden are in full production mode. (As was my wife on the pancake side of things*.) Made for a delicious combination for family breakfast! There’s something magical about eating figs fresh from the tree that are still warm from the sun.

By the way, there are some major changes coming up for the garden which should allow me to expand some of the variety of things I grow there. I’ll fill you in on this later…

-cvj

*Thanks aef! Click to continue reading this post

The Big USC News You Haven’t Heard…

So here’s some big USC news that you’re probably not hearing about elsewhere. I think it’s the best thing that’s happened on campus for a long time, and it’s well worth noting. As of today (4th August, when I wrote this), there’s a Trader Joe’s on campus!

It opened (relatively quietly) today and I stopped by on my way home to pick up a few things – something I’ve fantasized about doing for some time. It’s a simple thing but it’s also a major thing in my opinion. Leaving aside the fact that I can now sometimes get groceries on the way home (with a subway stop just a couple of blocks away) – and also now more easily stock up my office with long workday essentials like Scottish shortbread and sardines in olive oil, there’s another reason this is big news. This part of the city (and points south) simply don’t have as many good options (when it comes to healthy food) as other parts of the city. It is still big news when a grocery store like this opens south the 10 freeway. In fact, away from over on the West side (where the demographic changes significantly), there were *no* Trader Joe’s stores south of the 10 until this one opened today**. (Yes, in 2017 – I can wait while you check your calendar.) I consider this at least as significant (if not more) as the Whole Foods opening in downtown at […] Click to continue reading this post

When Life Hands You…

When life hands you tomatoes, red onions, a little bit of garlic, ginger, some cardamom pods, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, and a pinch of paprika… make chutney! (It’s about as easy as lemonade, actually.)

chutney_10_mar_2016_montage

Oddly, a carmello tomato plant that had been struggling a bit during the Summer took rather well to the late Fall and Winter months, loved the rain, and kept producing more and more tomatoes. They were all green on the plant for a long while, and then we had a return to some long stretches of sun that […] Click to continue reading this post

Secret Pie

Yesterday’s secret pie. I tried to make it secretly over the course of the day while making a batch of bread at the same time, but my cover was blown when rolling out the pastry in the evening, which is too hard to hide. (Click for larger view.)

steak_onion_mushroom_etc_pie_small

It’s a large (so hopefully will last for a few days) pie of primarily steak, carrots, mushrooms and onions, flavored with herbs (bay leaves*, rosemary, thyme) and tomatoes from the garden. I wonder if this is one of the nine kinds favored by the wielder of the purple crayon? (Yes, children’s book references riddle my discourse these days…)

Roughly finished, but very delicious (I’m happy to report), it reminds me very […] Click to continue reading this post

Back to Basics

back_to_basicsHappy to say that I’m back to regular bread-making! The oven had some problems for a while and since I Was distracted by far too many things, I did not have time to get it fixed until recently. It is working again, and now I can make bread once more, and all is well with the world. Here is some of last week Sunday nights’s batch. (Seven other rolls were made, but those are bagged and frozen already…)

Hurrah!

-cvj Click to continue reading this post