Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fruit Root

Ever heard of ascorbic acid? It is better known as "vitamin C". Ever wonder what "ascorbic" means ?

Here's a hint in the form of a question: what disease is vitamin C famously known for preventing? A hint within a hint: sailors who spent long times at sea without fresh fruit or vegetables (though even fresh meat can prevent it) used to get this disease.

That's right: scurvy.

And, so ascorbic acid is the acid which prevents scurvy. If the scientists who discovered it were inclined to use English names, it could've been called ascurvic acid. Instead, they went with the Latin root of "scurvy", "scorbutus".

For more on vitamin C and scurvy, go read more about scurvy and how the cure was discovered, then lost, then discovered again.

Start Your iPods

My first official iPod Start Your iPod since May!

  1. Wilco - Dark Neon
  2. Spoon - Everything Hits At Once
  3. Mazzy Star - She's My Baby
  4. Liz Phair - Alice Springs
  5. Radiohead - All I Need
  6. Big Star - Stroke It Noel
  7. Sea And Cake - Magic Step
  8. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - We Can't Help You
  9. Bill Monroe, et al - Gotta Travel On
  10. Spoon - Don't Buy The Realistic

It's nice being back on the iPod, where I've hand-picked each album it holds. A shuffle doesn't bring up any of the C-list stuff that lives in the full iTunes collection!

No, really - it actually is exciting to me. I'm easily amused.

The Gremolata

Thanks to Michael Ruhlman, I have discovered the magic of gremolata. What's that? It's basically a chimichurri without oil or vinegar. What's a chimichurri ? It's like pesto without pine nuts or parmesan.

In other words, a gremolata is an herb (typically parsley), lemon zest and raw garlic (in a 3:2:1 ratio), all finely chopped, then mixed. You can put it on hearty beef/veal/lamb dishes - Ruhlman used it with braised short ribs, I put it on a grilled sirloin last night. It works on fish, too. It's strong stuff - raw garlic and lemon zest have a lot to say - so you need something rich and flavorful to put it on. But it's tasty. And dead-simple to make.

All hail the gremolata !

Gah!

So, it turns out this "job" thing is eating up all my time. I wake up, rush off to the "job". I leave the "job" and get home just in time to cook, eat and watch a couple of episodes of Lost (they're better cooked). Then it's right to bed so I can get up and do it all again the next day.

This doesn't seem like a good way to live.