Trip to Rome
So I’ve scheduled all of the side trips, and written up the itinerary for my parents. It feels to me like it’s not covering nearly enough, but when my parents looked at it, they thought it was mostly within their limits possibly a little challenging. Let me know if you have any suggestions of places to see/eat. Or just stuff.

We have flight reservations with British Airways

leaving PHL (BA0068) at 21:00 Saturday
arriving Heathrow 09:30 Sunday

My parents vote not to leave the airport - OMG. I might need to get out and do something.

leaving Heathrow (BA0558) at 18:15 Sunday
arriving Fiumicino 21:45 Sunday-ish

They have hotel reservations at Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora

I also have a reservation at a hostel.

All of the necessary Marriott points have been converted into codes for points redemption on the stay and travel.

Monday
After arriving in Rome at the butt crack of night, we shall spend the morning relaxing. If my father wakes up and feels perky, he and I shall have a jaunt exploring the city and finding restaurants to eat at the rest of the week.

That night at 8pm, we shall all three take a bus tour of Rome by Night

Tuesday
Now that we’ve had a rest, let’s start with the hard part (so if we need to split this is up into multiple days, that’ll be fine.

So I’ll pick up a picnic lunch on the way over to your hotel. You’ll have a leisurely breakfast.

We’ll try the subway and see how stressful it is. We’ll ask the Concierge whether there is an easy path through the Villa Medici grounds to get the to Metro-Spagna stop. Otherwise, we’ll walk about 600 yards to the Metro-Barberini stop (by the Spanish Steps). We’ll transfer at Termini from the A line to the B line, go two more stops, and then get out at the Coliseum.

The alternative bus line is the 117. It runs along the southwest side of Villa Borghese and down a road of many names (Via del Babuino, Via del Due Macelli, Via del Traforo, Via Milano), it will make a right turn onto the Via Panisperma, a left on to the Via del Boschetto, a short right onto the Via Leonina, and a right onto Via dei Serpenti, just after you turn left onto Largo Gaetana Agnesi there’s the stop for the Coliseum.

It’s a couple blocks farther to walk to get the bus than the train, but no tranfer.

We’ll explore the forum (walks card #20-24). If we haven’t seen anywhere with decent food (fairly likely), we’ll pay admission to the Coliseum, find a nook and have a picnic. Maybe more forum after?

Pretty much everywhere is steeply uphill from there. So we might just catch a cab back to the hotel.

If you are up for an uphill walk on the far side of the Coliseum, we can aim for the Via Labicana and San Clemente (open Mon-Sat 9am-12:30pm; 3-6pm), which has Byzantine mosaics. Then, hopefully, there will be food near there, and I can explore the basements of San Clemente (walks card #25, which include a Mithraeum (admission 5 euros).

If you are feeling more energetic, the uphill just to the left of the Via Labicana is the Via della Domus Aurea. It should lead to an entrance to the excavations of the Domus Aurea (walks card #28), open for guided tours (by appointment) Tues-Fri 10am-4pm for 6 euros. (06 3996 7700).

And then either catch a taxi or back downhill to the Coliseum for the ride to dinner.

I’m putting the uphill walk at the end of this trip because I am considering it optional. If you want to change that priority, we can put it first by taking transit to the Coliseum and then immediately catching a taxi. And then walking down the hill to the Forum/Coliseum.

And then an early night.

Wednesday
This is a slightly more laid back day. If you are antsy in the morning, I recommend a stroll around the Borghese gardens or the Spanish steps. Possibly even the nearby Piazza Navona (walks card #12-13), full of bustling tourism with cafes and shops.

We’ll want an early lunch (11ish-11:30) so that we can comfortably be back at the hotel by 1:30pm.

At 2pm, we’ll be waiting for a shuttle pick up before going on a tour of the Roman Countryside.

Thursday
Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel

The 116 bus starts right by your hotel, jiggles all around the city. And then ends at the Vatican Museum. It should be a fun ride.

And then in the evening, we can catch the 116 bus across the river. We’d get off the bus right after it turns off the Lungotevere, to a small road, and then onto the Via Giulia.

And then go to La Taverna Di Martin for dinner

Then we can go back to the Via Guilia and walk along it (walk card #39) touristing until we are tired of walking. The 116 runs all along the street, and goes back very close to the hotel. After the stop we got off, the next pick up is between Via di Sant’Aurea and Via della Barchetta.

Friday
I vote we grab one of the on/off buses and take a full loop around and see what we’ve missed.

We can catch more of the Forum. We can hit the Jewish area (walk card #30) and Isola Tiberina (walk card #31). All sorts of fun.

There’s also the Piazza del Quirinale and the Trevi Fountain (walk card #7)

Saturday
Get picked up very early in the morning for the Tivoli trip.

Sunday
national holiday this day, so many things will be closed

I say we leave the day open for a) wandering the gardens, b) wandering the city, c) getting massages, or d) something else suggested by the concierge. Possibly a day of napping.

If we haven’t yet had a day of rain, than this is the day for the Pantheon (walk card #9-10). Even on holidays, they should be open 9am-1pm. And if they aren’t holding to a holiday schedule, then they should be open until 7:30pm.

early night

Monday
leaving early in the morning for Pompeii

Tuesday

A very early plane departure. Make sure that by Saturday, we have made shuttle/taxi reservations.

leaving Fiumicino (BA2545) at 07:30 Tuesday
arriving Gatwick 09:10 Tuesday

~flail~

leaving Heathrow (BA0069) at 16:15 Tuesday
arriving PHL 19:30 Tuesday

Things not on this specific list:
Ara Pacis

Info about riding the bus
http://www.venere.com/blog/rome-bus-system/

Cooking fish is a milestone for me in the land of cooking.

I grew up with a father who did not like fish, not even the smell of it in the house. And since I’ve moved out on my own, I’ve mostly stuck with cheaper meat options (with a goal price point of $2/lb or less - though, yes, I’ve been reconsidering my ethics lately). Also, Philadelphia is not known for its seafood, so I don’t know of a reliable fish monger near me.

But I just happened to be out today in the vicinity of a reputable source of seafood - Ippolito’s - so I stepped in and professed my cluelessness. I did ask for something a little more challenging that a salmon steak, so I ended up selecting a beautiful 18″-ish striped bass. And since I don’t have fish-worth knives at home, I did ask them to filet it for me, but to also include the head, tail, and bones for stock.

Turns out that I only ended up with the meat. I’m a little disappointed, but I suppose that any day I call ahead and go there asking for a bag of random fish scraps, I’ll be able to get them for fairly cheaply… and I wasn’t going back today because it took a lot of looking to find a decent parking spot that wasn’t on a snow emergency route.

So after I did the dishes and cleared a workspace, the first thing I did was open up my packet and fondle my meat. Erm… I mean notice that there weren’t any miscellaneous bits. And then I pulled out only three tiny bones that the store missed. And, yes, my eyes had been right - the flesh felt smooth and supple and there was no fish smell even this close.

So, being an amateur, the first thing I did was to cut the filets down so that one was 4 ounces and the other 3.5 ounces. I did that by trimming off the thinner flaps on the side and down by the tail so that the filets would have a more even thickness. I have no idea whether that is acceptable in formal fish circles or not, but it seemed logical to me.

I then had about 2.5 ounces of very fresh fish to play with.

Ceviche

So I diced the fish finely, slightly less than 1cm x 1cm x .5cm, and I did not bother with removing the skin except in a couple spots where it wasn’t cutting easily.

I added half a jalapeno, minced. And then I added about 2 tablespoons of finely minced red onion. I stirred that about and tasted it.

Oh, right, I was missing the acid - that’s key to ceviche. So I pulled out a lemon and a lime and ending up that I wanted to use the lime. The juice of a whole lime seemed a bit too much after I added it. Hmmm…

I also minced up some fresh flat-leaf parsley (I love the small salad spinner I got for my birthday!). And I added some salt, pepper, and a chunk of gingerj.

Now I think I’ve covered all of the basics of ceviche, but it still wasn’t tasting any good, even after marinating for half an hour. So I started looking around my kitchen - ah, yes, the persimmons.

I diced up one, and even with their odd skin/flesh texture, the persimmon was the perfect answer. Well, I suspect any particularly strong fruit. But instantly (well, with even more salt, too) the flavors came together and the ceviche was tasty.

So I spent the rest of the day googling recipes for striped bass, calling my mother for advice, and seriously pondering the fail-proof parchment method, which showed up in such a timely fashion on my twitter feed.

And then I sucked it up and reminded myself that I had managed to find exceptionally fresh fish, so I’d better just trust my ingredients.

Pan Seared Striped Bass

So I took out a good, thick skillet, and I heated it up fairly high (medium-high, actually, so not as hot as for steak) with a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan.

When hot, I took my nice, even-thickness 4 ounce filet, and lay it down (I put the skin down first). And then I didn’t let myself look at it or poke at it to monitor.

I just waited 3 minutes. And then I sprinkled salt and pepper on the up side, flipped it, and sprinkled the skin side, too.

Ever so slightly more than three more minutes later (I don’t know why I held off, but it seemed right), I served up onto a plate a perfect piece of fish with nice browning on both sides, easy flake, and just oozing juicy tenderness.

I’d say it was as good as the best fish I’ve had in a restaurant. Wow!

I still have one more filet, so I’ll see if I can duplicate my results and call it skill/intuition or if it was just beginner’s luck.

And how did I manage not to poke at the fish? By assembling a salad for the side. This was my second run with this basic salad frame, but the first one was too acidic, so I was more generous this time with the more oily ingredients.

Persimmon & Arugula Salad

Cold parts
2.5 ounces of arugula, washed - and spun!
2 persimmons, cut up and scattered artfully
a dozen dry roasted almonds (unsalted) roughly broken up with a knife
2 ounces of semi-soft mild flavored cheese

Dressing
1/2 tsp brown mustard
1/2 tsp tamarind sauce/chutney
1 tsp white balsamic vinegar

Many of my food experiments are directly the result of instigation from my friend Meghan. And her latest blog post about eggplant sludge, though not attractively named, was also inspiring.

Luckily, another friend had recently gifted me with an eggplant from her organic produce delivery service, which was getting on in days and needed to be eaten quickly in a dish where appearances didn’t matter.

Eggplant and Pasta

In 1 teaspoon of olive oil, I sauteed 1 diced yellow onion and then 3 minced cloves of garlic.

Once the onions cooked to translucency, I peeled the eggplant and cut out any brown spots, and then I took my box grater and just grated it right into the pan.

In reference to my friend Meghan’s post, I’d been chatting with her about whether or not salting eggplants was useful, and there was googling. The end conclusion was that pre-salting doesn’t ‘draw out bitterness,’ but saltiness does counteract bitterness.

So I salted the hell out of this dish. Erm, buy which I mean that I took three chunks of fancy pink Himalayan salt and ground them down into regular powder and added that to the dish such that I was pleased with the saltiness and there was not noticeable bitterness.

I also cut small and added two dried peppers - one cayenne and one other one I dried, which memory tells me was a red jalapeno but could have been something else similar, too.

When it looked a little dry, I peeled and cut in the edible half of the tomato my friend had also given me for urgent consumption.

And then I cooked it until the eggplant was not only soft, but also releasing liquid, then seasoned with a generous amount of cinnamon and black pepper.

Shamelessly (well, mostly shamelessly), I then added about half a cup of jarred tomato sauce. (Yes, I’ve had bad jarred tomato sauce, and I see why you don’t like it. But Classico rarely has off flavors, has a wonderful product as a base for sauces, and I love the jars for reuse.)

Mixed in 4 ounces of cooked macaroni (selected because that box was in front of the queue, but it was a good pairing for the sauce), and that made two generous portions.

Because I’m back on the Weight Watchers wagon, I topped it with 2 thinly sliced scallions and about a teaspoon of freshly grated parmesan.

So please explain to me what to do with this fancy Himalayan Pink Salt.

The crystals are too large to sprinkle on top to finish.

And when you grind it down, it only looks pink next to other salt.

Is it mostly useful in a pretty, transparent grinder and then used as you would regular salt?

Or is there a way to take advantage of the pretty without having to buy purely decorative hardware?

note: This salt was given to me gratis for review by Marx Foods as a result of the entry I made for their free black garlic. There were many more things in the new sampler, too, so there will be several entries mentioning them in the near future.

So I’ve been having some trouble with my refrigerator, and it just started affecting the freezer, too. It might just be the seals, but I’m worried that it will need a replacement. So I did an inventory of the contents of my fridge and freezer… and then things kind of got out of hand, so there might be an inventory of all the food in my apartment (though I didn’t itemize the spices or the booze. yet.)

Note: There’s a lot of meat there. In about the last six months, I have switched my ethical take on buying meat. Instead of looking for the $2/lb stuff that is ruining the world, I’m now only eating free meat (aside from bacon). In that, over the years my mother has done things like buy a quarter of a cow and then have some of it still sitting in the freezer years later. And so my plan is to not buy meat until we’ve damn well eaten what we’ve already bought. And then I’ll re-evaluate my ethics vs income.

* asterisks mark things that will be more likely to spoil if the refrigerator/freezer fails

Refrigerator
Dairy
*6 8oz packages of neufchatel
3 8oz packages of extra sharp cheddar, 1 fancy 8oz package, 1 pepper jack
7oz parmesan
½ oz prima donna
3 oz chevre
6 6oz nonfat plain yogurt
*some heavy cream
*some low fat sour cream
*some 1/2 & 1/2 creamer packets

Lipids
Butter
7.5 oz creamed coconut
small and quart jar of herbed mayo (see also condiments)
quart jar of plain mayo (see also condiments)
ghee

Produce
Jar of peeled garlic
Jar of poppy seeds
½ a lemon
*salad greens
*arugula
limes
lemons
carrots (bag of baby, 4 purple from farmers market)
1/4 purple cabbage
1 red bell pepper
2 oranges

Prepped stuff
Tiny jar of minced garlic (which I can’t open)
*Tiny jar of pesto
*Ginger juice
Thai red curry paste
3 baked potatoes
*cheese filling for stuffed dates
giant jar of applesauce I don’t know what to do with

Beverages
*Orange juice
Apple cider
Hard apple cider

nuts
halved walnuts
sliced almonds

condiments/sauces
tahini
picante pot sauce base
oyster sauce
kick ass steak sauce
pomegranate molasses
fish sauce
black pepper stir fry sauce
black bean garlic sauce
tamarind honey lime sauce
coriander chutney
mustard
small and quart jar of herbed mayo (see also lipids)
quart jar of plain mayo (see also lipids)
sambal oelek
okonomi sauce
spicy stir fry sauce
Smucker’s apricot jelly
a jar of my own jam

Protein
1 doz eggs
*roasted beef (see also prepared food)
*carnitas (see also prepared food)
bacon
*Mexican chorizo

Rice
Brown
Carolina
Short grain asian
Risotto
*Cooked turmeric basmati (see also prepared food)
there’s also a rice breakfast cereal that needs to be thrown out next time I remember - too glutinous

Flour
Brown
Bread
Rye

Soups
*1 quart vegetable stock
*Cream of butternut squash
*Turkey & lentil
*Beef & bean Chilli

Prepared food
*Roasted beef (see also protein)
*Carnitas (see also protein)
*Cooked turmeric basmati (see also rice)
Beet/cabbage shred
Pie Crust (packaged)
large jar of applesauce (I have no idea what to do with this)
2 packages of flour tortillas

Freezer
random beef products
*filet mignon? 2
*slightly larger/thinner steak: 3
*>1″ chunk of beef: 2
*1lb package of ground beef: 3
*porterhouse steak: 1
*cubed? might be beef might be a dark pork? 1
*thinly sliced beef for stir fry: 1.5 pints
Hebrew National hot dogs

Pork/Chicken
*cubed? 1lb-ish: 1
*1/3 pork loin: 2
*pint container shredded pork: 1
bacon (the rest of the pound from what’s in the fridge)
*turkey meatballs
cubed roast pork shoulder leftovers
fat back
small commercial container of schmaltz (see also lipids)

Bread-ish
4 bagels
wonton wrappers
small quantities of seeds/grains for granola someday
2 boxes of phyllo dough

Produce
slices of lemongrass
*little cubes of cilantro
*stewed tomatoes from my mother’s garden this year
roll of dried tomatoes from my garden (dried by a friend)
*pesto from the previous summer
unsweetened shredded coconut (shredded by me)

nuts
1lb pine nuts
1/3 lb pecan halves

prepared food
*3 packages of my mother’s beef vegetable soup that cures all ills
*1 package of my mother’s chopped liver
*pint of mystery soup
*some lunches to take into work

lipids
3 lbs of butter
schmaltz (see also chicken)
some bacon fat

small bottle of some fancy brand of vodka

On top of the freezer
booze (not really itemized)
red wine
white wine
scotch
white run
spiced rum
gin
unopened cointreau
Manischewitz concord grape wine

soft drinks
ginger ale
tonic

boxed goods
1 cold breakfast cereal
1 box of graham crackers

Baker’s rack
produce
box of dates
4 small red potatoes
1 pomegranate
1 pear
2 rutabegas
1 butternut squash
some few, small straggler tomatoes left from my garden
live rosemary and winter savory

Canned goods
2 cans of cream of chicken
1 can of tomato soup
4 cans of corn
3 big cans of chickpeas
3 big cans of black beans
2 cans tomato sauce

starch
box of oyster crackers (hey, user name=”merisunshine36″>, you want? I forgot to offer them with your chilli)
what’s left of this week’s loaf of bread
basmati rice
whole wheat saltines (possibly my new favorite packaged cracker)

Sugar
1qt brownulated
1qt powdered
1qt demerara
1pt dark brown

condiments/sauces
jar of mustard
2 8oz, 1 4oz jar of my jam left
1 jar of apricot jelly
3 jars of fancipants jam from
1 qt mayonnaise (I bought a lot when it was on sale for $1.88/qt)
1 jar spicy stir fry sauce
ketchup (occasionally it’s useful)
3 jars of Chi-Chi’s hot salsa

Tea
2 boxes of Stash decaffeinated sampler
1 canister of english tea

Chocolate
3.5 bars of semisweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate

cabinet over the stove
canned goods
7 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans chickpeas
3 cans black beans

starch
2 boxes of flat, clear thai noodles

sweeteners
bottle of light Karo
equal (magnetic canister)
splenda (magnetic canister)

spice
whole cloves (magnetic canister)

cabinet over drying rack
starch
2 boxes rotini
1 box macaroni
2 boxes spaghetti
1 box Orzo
1 jar black rice
2 bags Ho Fun noodles
1 package soba noodles
1 package soba-esqe black rice noodles (which I should use for the next food blogger potluck!)

Tea
Mighty Leaf Orchid Oolong
Mighty Leaf Celebration
genmaicha
chinese restaurant tea
random tea swap teas
Republic of Tea Mango Ceylon
Twining’s sampler
Taylors of Harrowgate Assam
green tea sampler

Chocolate
Carnation hot cocoa packets
Lake Champlain cocoa mix
Mexican unsweetened chocolate with cloves for hot chocolate
shaved Santander chocolate

Cabinet under sink
jarred miscellany
Habanero salsa
2 jars roasted red peppers
shrimp paste
adobo sauce
pipian sauce
bartlett pear marmalade
Chipotle Lime Ginger marmalade
Harry & David horseradish & garlic mustard

Cabinet over microwave
grains
barley
popping corn
old fashioned oatmeal
steel cut oatmeal

canned goods
3 cans thai curry (red, green, penang)
3 jars pasta sauce
2 mini coconut milk
1 tomato paste
3 canned tuna in water

baking stuff?
kosher salt
baking powder
baking salt
red food color

produce
cooking dates
jar of dried tomatoes
raisins
onions

sauces
Tabasco (original)
El Yucateco green habanero
El Yucateco chipotle
Worcestershire sauce
browning sauce
bitters (which I have no idea what to do with, since I don’t make cocktails)
harissa

spices
not yet itemized

other bulk goods
lentils
whole roasted (unsalted) almonds
peanut butter
honey
demerara sugar
slightly sweetened shredded coconut

on top of cabinets
jar of kick ass steak sauce
fancy salt (gift from friends)
Lipton’s herbal tea sampler
Stash’s herbal tea sampler
Fancy canister of Oolong tea
dark Karo

Window Sill and behind stove (yes, I know this is the worst place for oils, but it’s the only place that really works in this apartment for me. But if it helps, I feel real guilty about it)

vinegar
Balsamic (good, okay, white)
apple cider
distilled white
chinese black
red wine
rice (not seasoned)

oil
white truffle (gift from friend)
olive (both good and just okay)
roasted sesame
mustard

miscellany
molasses (with sulfur)
good soy sauce

Now I have to plan a schedule for converting the perishables to a more stable form (i.e. lunches to take to work and store in their freezer). There’s already a random piece of meat being turned into pot roast right now.

About a month ago (at the start of December) Marx Foods ran a promotion where they’d offer esoteric food items to food bloggers willing to write up reviews. And, honestly, this was my first ever shot at free food just because I have this hobby, so I gleefully bopped on over and signed up.

And also for full disclosure, I found out about the company in the first place because my friend, Meghan, had been to their site and entered a photo contest that had scored her some vanilla beans, of which she spoke highly.

So of three choices, I asked to try the Black Garlic because earlier in the year there had been a wave of food bloggers trying out this ingredient, too, and it’s appeal seemed to come from its flavor as well as its novelty value.

And right away I had to change my shipping address and had to try out their customer service - and received prompt emails back from Justin Marx on a weekend. Wow! And he was very supportive of my little amateur blog and every welcoming even though many of the things he sells just seem way out of my league / price range. So I am very impressed by them.

But how impressive is the black garlic?

Scent - I had it shipped to my work address, and I could not resist opening the package and poking at it right away. At first it didn’t seem to have much scent, but then I left the office to do something, and I came back to realize that there was quite a strong, dark garlic scent all through my office. Oh, yeah. I am full of professionalism. Luckily, no one has to share the office with me. But it made me very hungry for the rest of the day.

It ended up arriving at a fairly busy time for me, and the first recipe I made from it was born of a need for simplicity. That Friday, was the Philadelphia Food Bloggers pot luck, and I’d been planning to make stuffed dates… and then just didn’t have any time to assemble them. So I went with an incredibly easy cream cheese dip instead.

Recipe 1 - flavored cream cheese with crackers
I made two side-by-side bowls of dip.

Garlic & Parsley Cream Cheese
Garlic (3 cloves minced black garlic in one, 5 cloves mashed roasted garlic in the other)
12 ounces neuchatel cheese
large bunch of flat leaf parsley, minced (the last from the summer garden)
2 Tablespoons finely minced purple onion
pinch of salt

So with exactly the same recipe, I set out to see what people thought the differences were.

First off - after a full day at work, the cream cheese with the black garlic needed to be mixed up with a fork again to be presentable because the brown color had seeped out into the surrounding cheese. (And with the leftovers, it continued to spread and blend into the cream cheese until there was an even mocha color - I might recommend making this 2-3 days ahead for maximum joy)

No one thought there was a licorice flavor to the black garlic spread. Descriptions tended more toward round and dark and complex, but no one could quite name the difference. That said, people loved them both equally, but separately. They were not interchangeable at all.

Recipe #2 - flavored butter
So since it melted to well into the cream cheese, I figured I’d try mixing it with butter, too.

Now, I’d already read Diane’s entry from White on Rice where she found that it didn’t infuse well into oil, but I figured it would not only be useful to confirm her results, but also be useful for extending the experiment - since I’d only acquired 2 heads of garlic.

And, no, the garlic didn’t melt into the butter at all. But it was still tasty spread on bread. My favorite experiment at this stage was making toast with the black garlic butter and a thin smear of thick, smooth Frontera salsa.

Texture: The reason so many descriptions of black garlic evoke licorice is that’s exactly what it looks like coming out of the papery husk. The paper skin is so thin, there’s not more than a single layer between you and the clove, but the clove has shrunk down to a thick black nub. It’s dry and squishy and a bit sticky/tacky as you but into it. Putting it in the freezer doesn’t change its texture much at all and doesn’t make it easier to slice. I ended up resenting the fine layer it would leave behind on my knife because I had so little to work with.

Experiment #3 - Black garlic in mushroom barley
I’d been trying to hold out against a Black Garlic Risotto recipe because that would be too ridiculously easy. How could black garlic not be tasty in that set up? But I caved because the taste matched exactly a Roman barley recipe, which I made for my last Roman cooking workshop (and, huh, never got around to writing up) and had promised myself I would revisit. So a cold night and much starch and there was a tasty, garlicy meal of joy. Guaranteed crowd pleaser. I’ll get my copy of Apicius and try to remember to make a separate entry for that one, but trust me - it’s a lot like risotto.

Taste: So it doesn’t taste quite like garlic, so what does it taste like? Well, darker and rounder and definitely umami… but that’s not helpful. The best description is that it tastes like garlic breath - everything around the flavor of garlic, without the obvious front taste. It’s dark and musky, but it’s all around the edges of flavor without confronting you directly.

Experiment #4 - Chocolate Truffles
Now I was a little dubious about this from the start, but the Marx Food people has promised this would be useful for savories or sweets. And they had even offered up a chocolate truffle recipe. Having read it, I’m kind of dubious about their preparation - which has a regular truffle center, rolled in minced black garlic. I think the garlic would end up too chewy and right there on your tongue.

So I set about to make the garlic part of the filling. I mixed together butter and garlic again, and I added as much chocolate as necessary to keep it from being overwhelmingly butter. I added enough sugar to make it feel like dessert, but I also added some salt and smoked paprika to bring out the smokier notes. I chilled this and dipped it in a pretty dark chocolate coating (a ratio of 2 squares unsweetened to 1 square semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate) and then garnished with a dusting a regular paprika.

And… it turned out bad. Not devastatingly bad, but not something I want to eat. Other people who tried it described it as a flavor explosion. But it wasn’t a pleasing one by my call, and I threw out the untried ones, instead of taking them home with me. (right, and I also need to write up the other, more sucessful, truffle recipes)

Experiment #5 - Black Garlic omelet
So I had just one clove left, and I decided to go with something I knew would be good. I sliced it very thinly, and I fried them crisp in a teaspoon and a half of bacon fat.

note: it was hard to track their cooking progress because they were already black. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before, but yeah worth pointing out.

And then I scrambled together an egg and almost an equal quantity of light cream. Poured in just enough to coat the pan, pulled the garlic slices back into the pan so they were evenly distributed, and rolled out a soft, luscious omelet of pure bliss!

(Note: this same trick of frying slices of garlic was also used in Steamy Kitchen’s experiment, where she made Scallops with Black Garlic)

Conclusion: This was a lot of fun to try, and I’d definitely use them again… but I’m not sure it’s something I’ll feel the need to seek out.

I’m taking off work tomorrow, and I have vague plans to make truffles all day. I suspect I lack most of the useful knowledge, skills, and tools - but I have about 4 pounds of chocolate, and how bad can that be?

So I’m pondering possible flavor combinations. Let me know what you think.

1) Black Garlic. I got some as a free sample from Marx Foods to review on my blog. So far I’ve made three savory things, and I should make a sweet for comparison. Even the sweet recipe sample on their blog is a truffle - only they just roll the chocolate in a coating of garlic, and that sounds nasty.

So here’s the plan - make garlic butter, add extra salt and maybe some hard cheese. Swirl enough semi-melted chocolate into the butter to make it more like a buttery chocolate center than a center of butter. Make rounds, cool. Dip in dark chocolate

Topping to distinguish them from all others: I’m torn between a quarter of a pecan or some sweet paprika.

2) Earl Grey truffles

She recommends enrobing in a dark milk chocolate, so I’d need to buy more chocolate to make that happen. La la la!

If my skill is up to it, I think I want to decorate these with a drippy swirly, rather than a coating.

3) Masala truffles - I have black cardamom, instead of green. So I think I’ll crush a couple instead of steeping them whole.

Dust with curry powder (and toasted mustard seeds?)

4) vegan coconut truffles

I’d need to buy coconut… and then figure out what to do with the rest of the bag.

5) Almonds - smash some almonds, mix them with the filling

dark coating? milk coating?

dust in cinnamon/confectioners sugar

6) Spicy - center with chipotle, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

milk coating

decoration - If I stud it with a clove, do you think people will know not to eat it? Probably not. Ummm… I could tie it with a strip of cayenne pepper like raffia, but that’s still not tasty. Demerara sugar! And the extra sweet will help moderate the spicy.

7) ginger - I have ginger juice and powdered ginger. Does this also need candied ginger?

decoration - I think powdered ginger on the outside might be too strong, so how about these be the ones rolled in cocoa powder?

to buy:

• candy thermometer
• good milk chocolate
• heavy cream
• coconut?
• little paper cups

Okay, so the second try was also a big shameful and full of weird miscellaneous condiment selections. And yet also tasty.

Turkey Squash Lentil Soup

Okay, so roast squash and have some sitting around in your refrigerator all cooled and diced.

Also, leftover turkey, cut into chunks.

And this time, I’m trying it without soaking the lentils first. Rinse/wash them in three vigorous changes of water before using.

Oh, and I’ve made both turkey stock and vegetable stock. You can go with all of one or the other or just water - but they shouldn’t be at least warmed up to room temperature.

So brown 2 teaspoons of flour in a pan. Dice an onion pretty finely and stir that into the browning flour. Once the onions are limp and the flour is getting toasty, add a teaspoon or so of butter (or lipid of choice).

Now add some turkey stock and stir it all together until you have a gravy base. Add a teaspoon of red wine, a shake of Worcestershire sauce, and a little bit of browning sauce.

Add lentils and minced garlic with some vegetable stock. Once it reaches a simmer, add the cubed winter squash. And then a couple minutes later, the turkey leftovers.

Season with ground black pepper, ground ginger (I was bizarrely generous with this, but luckily the soup absorbed it well), a sprinkling of cinnamon, and some hot pepper.

Because these are all leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge, you really should have the soup boil for about 20 minutes, but my lentils were already pretty mushy by the end of that.

So here I am with my 5 pounds of turkey leftovers, and I have visions of a soup I think I’ve had somewhere before - a lovely, brown broth with lentils and pieces of winter squash and turkey. The soup in my head is delicious.

Because I soak legumes, and can not help myself from soaking lentils as well, I started 1 cup of lentils soaking the night before.

The next day, I melted a little butter and a little bacon fat (about 1 teaspoon of each), and once the onions softened I sauteed an onion, some garlic (3 cloves, minced), and some ginger (1 skinny inch, minced). Oh, and I added some asaphoetida - about half a teaspoon.

And then I added turmeric because I’d just been having a conversation with my ex about a bland soup that had been resurrected with turmeric and because the last batch I bought was surprisingly strong scented, so I’m hoping surprisingly flavorful, too.

So cooked that together for about 30 second to a minute, and then I added a scoop of the turkey stock (which had set up all nice and gelatinous) and let that melt in.

And then I added the winter squash. I have no idea what kind of squash this was. It was labeled at the farmers’ market as a sweet roasting squash, was about 5 pounds, and had a blue/green skin that was not as blue as a Hubbard squash. It did not roast up sweet at all. Instead, it had a bit of a sovory poultry-ish flavor, so I figured it’d be perfect for soup. So I rough diced it and dropped it in. Not all of the squash fit because I’ve found that I really can’t go much larger than a 2 quart pot, if I’m still going to like the soup by the last serving (and I only wanted the squash to be a third of the soup).

And then I added the soaked lentils and some more liquid (a mixture of turkey stock, vegetable stock, and water I’d used to cook chicken and onions the day before).

And I added some flavor elements - a whole stalk of celery and a bay leaf (both to be removed after cooking), the last of my buckwheat honey (1 1/2 teaspoon?), thyme, oregano, cinnamon, and freshly ground pepper.

And I let it cook… and it turned to mush, as you’d expect. And adding turkey to it at that point, would have been just gross. So despite having been fairly generous with the seasonings, I had 2 quarts of fairly flavorless mush.

I let the soup sit for a day while I pondered. And I figured that it might lend itself to something spicy/sweet/tangy.

So I came back and started looking through my random condiments. I decided against the tamarind chutney, even though it had a lot of what I was looking for. And I went, instead, with the bottle of Caribbean Savory Sauce that I had been having trouble finding a use for. And a little was good, so I went with a lot. Probably a quarter of a cup would have been the right measurement, but I went ahead and finished off the bottle - and it was not too much.

I also added some paprika (1 teaspoon?) and a lot of cayenne powder (possibly as much as 2 teaspoons, but you might prefer a lot less). And two capfuls of cider vinegar.

So it ended up tasty, but not at all what I’d been aiming for, and it didn’t use up any of my turkey.

I’m putting together a list of charities I like so I can narrow down the ones I’d donate to for the end of the year and/or my birthday.

And I’ve noticed that I don’t have any environmental organizations.

These days, most of the work I’ve been supporting that worries about sustainability and the environment is food-oriented.

So who is helping the trees?

I’m not looking for the Sierra Club. I’m looking for organizations that are smaller and more agile, where more than 50% of their income goes toward the work they are doing, rather than organizational expenses. I want a watchdog for industry. Someone working locally. Doing something specific that makes a difference.

Oh! Just typing this up has reminded me of one! Philadelphia’a Pedal Co-op. I should totally support them.

Any other suggestions?

ETA:

ational but good -

Environmental Working Group - lobbyists and nonprofit activists working to change policy - ewg.org

Trust for Public Land - lobbying and holders of large and small scale sizes of land for conservation tpl.org

10,000 friends - http://10000friends.org/ have national and local (PA specific) plans to promote smart growth in urban development (meaning conservation is part of the larger picture instead of piecemeal)

Center for Health Environment and Justice- started by Lois Gibbs (love canal lady) around keeping communities healthy and safe and advocating for their wellbeing
http://www.chej.org/

(those are the biggies, here are the grassrootsy ones with a greater need for your money)
http://www.ciw-online.org/ Coalition for Imokolee Workers - migrant farmers organizing for rights

Native peoples organizing around environment and climate change (maybe sara has an opinion on them) http://www.ienearth.org/

Rhizome Collective - http://www.rhizomecollective.org/ doing great work anarchist style

Growing power - www.growingpower.org. will allen (macarthur fellow) saves the day by making compost, giving people green jobs, and growing produce in rust belt cities.

Local (PA)-

Any conservation easement organization (means they put farmland or other productive land into sustainably managed forestry, foraging, etc)-
Natural Lands Trust www.naturallandstrust.org
Pennypack Ecological Trust http://www.pennypacktrust.org/

PASA - PA sustainable agriculture www.pasafarming.org

Even more local (Philly)-

Clean Air Council - doing good work around air emissions and pollution http://www.cleanair.org/

Bicycle Coalition - http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/

Community Environmental Defense Fund - http://www.celdf.org/ Really awesome legal services around environmental movements for communities that can’t afford it

UNI - urban nutrition initiative http://www.urbannutrition.org/

Chester County Environmental Justice group - http://energyjustice.ning.com/ or http://www.ejnet.org/chester/ but I don’t know how organized they are

Fair Food Philly - http://fairfoodphilly.org/

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society - http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/home/index.html

If you’re looking for super specific things, a fun website is www.kickstarter.com (like Kiva.org but for whatever and whomever wants to sign up)