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On Wednesday we invited one of Julian's friends from work, Matt, over for a pot roast dinner. Matt brought four samples of his home brewed beers for us to taste. All were very unique and well balanced in flavor. For a bit of Friday evening frivolity we decided to tackle a board game that had been sitting around unused. Calgary Stampede is the kind of game that gives you a few minutes of novelty while you enjoy the board and setting. Reviewing the game mechanics feels a bit harsh, since it doesn't seem a lot of deliberate design went into it, or at least into the version we were playing. On that note, while the pieces seem intact, the instructions feel very incomplete and openly invite you to try to agree on your own rules, and a photocopied sheet serving as the back cover depicts a version which still had hand written cards. For the sake of completeness, the gameplay problems which quickly emerge are as follows: Play consists of going around the board and getting chances to win, lose and gamble money. A lot of the wins are in the order of 50 dollars, which soon feel irrelevant as others are for 10,000. Gambling gives you the chance at 2,500 dollar wins, but these too start to feel irrelevant as soon as you realise that the game is going to end with raffles for 100,000 and 150,000. To make matters worse, we were at the 2 end of the 2-6 player range, however it soon became clear that the last stage of the playing board, for wild horse and chuck wagon racing, assumes four players, and can't commence until the absent third and fourth players reach the same square. We didn't wait around. Today we broke fast with a batch of crepes spread with nutella and the third episode of Kino's Journey. In the afternoon we set out for the East most stretch of the Blue Hill's skyline trail. The trail started at an ice skating rink and wound up through mixed trees past a small quary. Graffiti there proclaimed that Combo would never be forgotten. The scramble up Rattlesnake Hill (295ft) was easier than the descent. Following the blue blazes, we lowered ourselves through a notch in the steeply angled rock and then scrambled and skidded over stone and wet leaves the rest of the way leaving our quadriceps aching. We're ending our day sipping a cup of hot chocolate while watching World's End. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Mellow |
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An early taste of Winter came on the 18th and we stayed inside to watch the grey swirling of large wet snowflakes. Only traces remained by the next morning. In a strong effort to ignore the weather, we've enjoyed the first seasons of two tv series: Dexter and True Blood. Both were based on novels and a thrill to watch. Julian finished playing Wall-e and is on the third disk of Lost Odyssey. I've been temporarily diverted into the second installation of Sam and Max and also World of Goo. The later is a quirky, highly addictive and humerous physics based stacking game. Experimental cordials have been appearing. I found a supply company, Mountain Rose Herbs, and stocked up on some essentials: bay leaves, whole nutmeg, angelica root, hibiscus flower, hyssop, anise seeds, rose hips, star anise and caraway. We sweetened and already consumed the disappointingly small yield from our almond liqueur. The infusion did succeed in obtaining an apricotty nutty flavor but trying to separate the alcohol from soggy nut powder by successive strainings through kitchen paper was tedious. Three possible solutions involve hand chopping the almonds instead of using the food processor, separating off any resulting dust before use, and racking rather than straining. In any case, the nuts themselves were stashed in the freezer and some already found a home on a mincemeat tart*. Next we made a batch of a Kummel-esque caraway liqueur. Intrestingly, the aromatics (caraway, fennel, aniseed, coriander and angelica root) are infused into a simmering sugar syrup that is then topped with vodka. Although requiring more supplies than the minimalist Limoncello, this cordial also had a good yield and soul warming flavor for little effort. Our fourth attempted recipe was Liqueur of Love; a honey sweetened spice infusion of cardamom, star anise, cloves, rose hips, and hibiscus flowers is currently resting on orange peels to mellow into a final heady and lustful flavor. In the kitchen, our dinners have been creative and ethnically diverse, ranging from Indonesian rendang curry to Portuguese Octopus roasted in red wine, from humble Cajun gumbo to haute bearnaise sauce on beef tenderloin tournedos, and maltese sauce over salmon. Last weekend we invited Naomi and Bryan over and all tucked into a dreamy fish pie of fresh haddock, smoked haddock, shrimp and bay scallops with a lemon pie for dessert. We've also been experimenting to find the perfect cake for our pumpkin tin and so far Nigella's moist lemon almond cake is the winner. Our first batches of Biscotti were a huge sucess and a new after dinner favorite paired with a foamy caffe macchiato. Halloween is this weekend and we haven't decided if we're heading to Salem for the big bash or staying at home for a more traditional horror movie marathon and chocolate O.D. We carved a large pumpkin when Liz was visiting but it didn't last for the date. Instead, we have a small "We Be Little" gourd sized pumpkin from a chuch sale up the road to fend off evil spirts. *I think that it is highly appropriate to create a tradition whereby the first mincemeat pie of the season is eaten immediately following the first snowfall. Current Mood:  silly Current Music: Sleepy Hollow |
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Early last week after dropping Julian at work, I hiked up Cat Rock Hill, an abandoned ski slope in Weston. At the 312 ft summit there is a narrow but enjoyable view and a geological survey marker to find. The ski lift stopped running in 1978 but there are still some scattered remnants of the old tow rope lift. Ferns in the area are losing their lush green color and the once delicate white Queen Ann's Lace has withered into brown, inrolled husks. Milkweed pods have split open, disgorging their fluffy contents to be borne away where the wind will take them. Over the weekend we were visited by Liz, a childhood friend of mine, who flew in from Elkhorn, Wisconsin. After collecting her at Boston Logan we drove up the coast to Halibut Point Park to enjoy the rush of salty sea spray and waves. We continued on to Gloucester and walked along the waterfront past the Fisherman's Memorial statue, to end up at The Whale Center of New England Visitor Center, where we admired the skeletal remains of a young female humpback whale who tragically became entangled in fishing lines. For dinner we squeezed into Causeway, a restaurant popular with locals. The fried seafood platters, as always, were served piping hot and to crisp perfection. On sunday we took the T from Alewife to Boston and walked the full length of the Freedom Trail. We explored the cemetaries, passed historic buildings, saw marching bands in a Columbus Day parade and lunched on a steaming breadbowl clam chowder in Quincy Market where I also had the misfortune of having my wallet stolen. At the end of the day, we only just managed to make the last tour group to board the USS Constitution. Monday, Liz and I went sight seeing in Lexington. We went to the North Bridge on the Minuteman Trail, toured the Alcott's Orchard House, hiked at Walden's Pond and shared a picnic lunch. Rain hit on Tuesday but we braved the elements to take a self guided tour of the Robert Treat Paine estate house Stonehurst. Designed by Henry Richardson and the better known Frederick Olmsted (architect of NYC's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace), the house has an earthy exterior that melds with a landscape of glacial rock and sloping hills and a very modern, open and well lit interior as well as relics of the past owner's love of exotic travel. We shared some lavish dinners over the weekend including demonstrations of making fresh pasta, rolling an uncooperative puff paste, oeufs a la neige and piped meringue nests. We bought three "live 'n' kickin'" lobsters at Shaws and each of us took our turn at competently dispatching one by cutting it in half. The lobster meat was cooked Escoffier style as Homard a la Bordelaise (#2110). Today I spent the morning hiking in Lincoln's Conservation Land, treading in the footsteps of Thoreau. It was chilly and damp but not yet cold enough to see my breath. I skirted along two small ponds before ascending switchbacks to the peak of Mount Misery (262 ft). There was no view but I added a pebble to a cairn marking the highest point. Decending the way I had climbed, I followed the Beech Tree and Kettle Trails past Fairhaven Bay and the Sudbury River to complete the loop. We joined Aminus 3, an online photoblog that allows posting of one picture a day and public comments. Limoncello is running low and supplies are needed to make the next batch. Current Mood:  cold Current Music: Julian on guitar |
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Nights are getting colder. Winterberries have turned red and likewise the spotted wintergreen has transitioned from white flowers to red berries. The forest floor is littered with fallen acorns and vermilion leaves. Pear shaped puffballs flourished briefly last weekend and were seen perched in clumps and rows on fallen logs. Tufts of honey mushrooms have been sprouting at the bases of oak trees. One solitary grifola emerged on Monday and was snatched and rushed home for drying. Then, after miles of unsuccessful hiking in prime locations, an impromptu after-work walk at Stonehurst resulted in a jackpot. We found 18 pounds of hen of the woods. Being caught unprepared without carry bags we loaded our arms full. It was difficult to sneak out unnoticed with our burden and we sent some suspicious dog walkers home happy with a sample of our hoard. Today we returned to the Blue Hills and hiked East to scramble up Chickatawbut Hill (517 ft). One section along this portion of the skyline trail presented what seemed to be a near vertical rock face. Julian assures me that it wasn't . In any case, it felt unreasonably challanging to the unconditioned but we took our time to get good foot and handholds and were happily rewarded with a lovely view. A little bit further along the trail we spotted a spicebush swallowtail caterpillar. This fellow is normally an attractive apple green sporting large black pseudo eyes with yellow lids, lines of flashy blue baubles and a black moustache but just prior to pupating, their color changes to the shocking canary yellow that made us both stare incredulously. Earlier this week we made an Escoffier inspired pork roast with apples, onions, and potatoes. Tonight we marinaded chicken breasts in khmeli-suneli and lemon juice and tossed them on the grill. Our commercially prepared version of this Georgian spice mixture contains coriander seeds, clove buds, cinnamon, fennel seeds, mint, dill, savory, fenugreek leaves and marigold petals. For dessert we whipped up a batch of Nigella's cappucino cupcakes. Julian had hoped to use his new icing tip set but the accompanying frosting was really not the right texture to try piping with. In fact getting the majority to balance on top before hardening seemed a high detail job, but the result was very appetizing. This week we decided that we would return home to England for Christmas and booked our plane tickets. We will be dreaming not only of figgy pudding but also of the Chrismas Ham that Bojan has planned. Current Mood: artistic Current Music: Lizz Wright |
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Today may have been grey and gloomy but inside it was warm and bright with tantalizing smells emanating from the kitchen. Julian concocted another modernized Escoffier recipe, #2550 Filet de Veau Sicilienne, omitting the chicken livers and substituting pork tenderloin for the veal. In our version, the meat was balanced on a layer of matignon (sauted onion, carrot, celery and streaky bacon) and basted frequently with a generous amount of butter. This is our interpretation of poeling. Historically this method once involved smothering a joint of meat in matignon, wrapping with pork fat, securing the whole bundle with kitchen paper and basting with butter while roasting on a spit. Unfortunately, with the severe demands on time and budgeting in the modern world, this method of cooking has become virtually forgotten even in its more modest incarnations. After poeling the meat, it was swaddled between layers of lasagna noodles moistened with chicken veloute and equal amounts of parmesan and gruyere, then coated with a layer of breadcrumbs, and shunted back to the oven to gratinate. We deglazed the matignon with an amount of demiglace with good results for a sauce to be served on the side. Afterwards we realized that, technically, deglazing with broth instead of a flour bound mother would have allowed for the separation of the butter, though to be fair we had omitted Escoffier's additional butter in the lasagna itself. So we ended up about even. Other food exploits have been a demiglace braised duckling with orange (Escoffier #3460, a very pleasing alternative to the standard roast duckling a l'orange), followed by Floyd's duck soup the next day. We also had some lovely sirloin from Costco, which paired well with Floyd's cabbage pie. For dessert, we had large juicy strawberries, which begged for (and got) meringue nests and sabayon one night and Fraises Marquise another (Escoffier #4644, macerated strawberries coated with sugar on an equal mix of chantilly with strawberry puree). After the amazing success of our limoncello, I became intrigued with the idea of making other flavors of vodka infusions. We've ordered a book from amazon, "Cordials From Your Kitchen", and jump started with a recipe for amaretto infusing one cup of vodka and one cup of brandy with a pound of crushed almonds. We'll be agitating the mixture occasionally for the next month before finishing with a sugar syrup. Other projects will probably be based on this book, but I had also wondered if we could make sapin by infusing vodka with white pine needles. Despite weakly giving way to the uncompromising whims of the kitchen, we've managed to make it a somewhat healthy week with large amounts of outdoor exercise. We've visited the Blue Hills three times. With 125 miles of trails, it isn't surprising that each walk was unique. Last weekend we walked at least halfway around Ponkapoag Pond - we backtracked instead of completing the loop as planned due to fading light and branching trail options. We would like to note that the Ponkapoag Bog "boardwalk" may be made of boards but is not for walking nor is it a raised viewing surface as the name might imply. We catwalked along dubious planks resting directly atop the surface of the bog until the planks were flooded even before weightbearing. This geriatric boardwalk was placed in 1949 and despite references to planned closures for repair, seems to be treacherous and neglected. On our second visit we parked on the western side of the park and meandered up the start of the ridge trail to peak on Little Blue Hill (270ft). Yesterday we were more abitious and made a steep ascent up the Eastern slope of Buck Hill (496ft), enjoying views of Boston harbor before decending. On Friday, before making the afore mentioned steak and cabbage pie, we saw very dramatic breakers at Plum Island beach. This week we watched the X-men trilogy. We would like to catch up on Wolverine Origins and hope that the proposed Magneto movie is released as planned. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Honky Cat |
| » We Made Some Limoncello |
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We are deeply saddened that Food Hero and Bristol Restaurateur, Keith Floyd, passed away earlier this week. Floyd was a true gastronome with a poetic grasp of making and enjoying brilliant food. In his memory, we made up a batch of bourdelots, baked apples in pastry, from his book "Floyd on France", though we worried he'd had too much bordeaux to drink when he wrote a shifty puff pastry recipe that had one 'dotting' pastry with bits of butter larger than itself. The cramped kitchen didn't help - it has become our oubliette, burning Julian twice in the space of one week. In other cooking this week, we made further progress in our Cordon Bleu recipes. We made a pork tendrloin in a beer sauce with a garnish of julienned vegetables. We also substituted a halved game hen for quail in a Georgian style sauce of peeled grapes and walnuts. Superficially, it may seem pretentious for a recipe to need peeled grapes, however the grapes absorb the wine that they are macerated in and become tiny explosions of alcohol in a rich meaty sauce. A third recipe was for steak with a bordelaise sauce accompanied by asparagus and artichoke bottoms. Purple asters are blooming and pokeweed has fruited. Mushrooms have been sparse, perhaps owing to the continued lack of rain. A rival hunter did venture into my Acton territory - they cut two growths of honey mushrooms and left the beefsteak fungus growing on the same tree untouched. I noticed that the severed stems though narrow seemed buggy. In keeping with my observation, I read in "In the Company of Mushrooms" that small clusters of honey mushrooms are likely to be stunted due to larval infestation. I found some honey mushrooms of my own today in Harold Parker and brought home a sample for spore printing. The spore print appears white but my samples may also be infested with larvae. I also found a lilac colored mushroom that I thought was a wood blewit until a brown spore print convinced me otherwise. As Fall colours threaten to slowly steal our sunshine, we engaged in the feelgood exercise of our first batch of Limoncello. This involved one cheapass vodka bottle, 1.75l, and the yellow peel of 8 lemons left to soak in it for a week. After that we boiled to a clear syrup 1kg sugar in 375ml water, allowed to cool then stirred into the decanted alcohol. It smoothed within a day to something very satisfying.
Just finished uploading the third episode of The Guild, Season 3.
Sep. 18th, 2009 @ 09:47 pm
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| » Beefeater |
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Pear shaped puffballs have arrived! Unfortunately, the batch I found yesterday had already puffed. This morning I went to Acton. The sulfur shelf tree on Rt 2 has fruited again - if only it wasn't so close to the road! I collected some black trumpets and a few small slabs of Fistulina hepatica, the beefsteak fungus. This is the first time I have found the beefsteak as it is quite uncommon in the Northeast. On my wander, I also recognised a mass of abortive entoloma. This is actually a strange fungal hybrid between a honey mushroom (Armillaria mella) and an Entoloma species. It seems unclear as to which mushroom actually parisitizes the other. On my way home I stopped two lanes of traffic to help a very grumpy snapping turtle across the road. He withdrew into his shell and hissed at me. We wanted to celebrate Julian's successful launch of some new code at work so we picked up a salmon steak at Shaws for dinner. Julian made a chicken veloute based Andalusian sauce which suited the fish. For an unusual accompaniment, and not knowing when I would next get the chance to experiment, I cooked my sample of beefsteak fungus three ways. First, I simply sliced the mushroom and fried it gently in butter. Second, at the suggestion of "The Ultimate Mushroom Book", I soaked thick slices in milk for about an hour (unusually the milk turned purple) and then fried them in olive oil with onions, garlic and fresh basil. Finally, based on a recipe for herb crusted fungus that I found online, I took a third portion and marinated slices in red wine with cloves and parsley before applying an Anglaise style coating and pan frying to golden brown. Of these three methods, we found the wine marinaded version to be superior. This mushroom, especially the upper gelatinous surface, seems to be quite acidic. While the lemony taste seems almost out of place with the unflavored beefsteak, combining with wine seems to compliment and extend the flavor without completely disguising it. Before bed we're enjoying a last espresso and the remains of a victoria sponge filled with damson plum jam and cream.
Sep. 14th, 2009 @ 11:36 pm
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| » Boxford State Forest |
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We've awoken to a grey Saturday, gloomy with plaintive rumbles of thunder. I'm almost disappointed as I had hoped to go hiking in the Blue Hills or maybe make our first trip to the Fells but honestly a long soaking rain will be good encouragement for our fungal friends. Resigned to a day inside, I've set the bread machine to making a loaf for lunch and Julian is on the phone chatting with family. On Tuesday we made an important culinary advance - successful puff pastry! After a massive exploding buttery mess, we decreased the butter from 14 down to 11 tablespoons and also realized that on the first turns, when the dough is folded around the butter, the "arms" of the cross need to stretch as fully across as possible, forming an intact packet so that butter cannot squish out from unsealed edges. We did not notice any ill effects from decreasing the butter; the pastry was light and flakey, superior to store bought. We used our pastry for two Cordon Bleu recipes. On Tuesday we wrapped in puff pastry a pork tenderloin smothered with wild mushroom duxelles and topped with a paprika cream sauce. The dough keeps well refridgerated and on Thursday we made savory cheese puffs shaped like tricorner hats. Having picked up a map from the office at Harold Parker, I went on an exploratory trip to Boxford State Forest. I parked at the end of Sharpners Pond Road and hiked in along a gravel path, entering near an abandoned quarry pond, complete with large "NO SWIMMING" sign, scattered beer bottles and small wooden cross memorial. The surroundings made me feel unsettled but I had driven the better part of an hour to visit this park and it seemed likely that I was the only person around. Unsure of my exact location on the map, I left ad hoc trail markers with stones and twigs to find my way back. After matching a #5 marker to my map I was able to relax a bit and finish the loop back to the car. I did see a variety of boletes, a cluster of black trumpets and a sulfur shelf but pines seemed to be the dominant tree on this Western Loop. On a future walk, I would try parking on the East side to hike to Crooked Pond or around Bald Hill. Back home, I did an internet search and found that this park is interestingly off the radar. Trail maps are available and hunting is allowed but it is missing from an official list of Massachusetts State Parks and was casually tagged for timber harvesting sometime last year. The site www.salicicola.com/boxford documents current plant inventories and advises against logging due to a particulary impressive diversity of plants and a near absence of invasive species. I was impressed with the dedication of this individual to protect Boxford forest but could not find contact information to give them positive feedback.
Sep. 12th, 2009 @ 01:45 pm
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| » Tourte de Poussins |
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We made a pilgramage up to New Hampshire on Saturday, stopping at the State Liquor store on our way to the barn to take Kitt for a walk on Horse Hill. Recently, randomly mixed drinks have been nicknamed "Northbound" or "95 North" as the last drops are emptied out. We couldn't find any Everclear but are still attempting to make a house version of Limoncello using vodka. I slipped the peels of eight lemons stright down into the bottle and now we wait. In about a month's time (or much sooner if impatience prevails), we will strain out the peel and mix in some sugar syrup. Mushrooms have inspired some adventurous cuisine in our kitchen lately. On Friday, some young tender sulfur shelf was treated as follows: Some of our home pancetta was fried up with rosemary, red onion and celery, then some madeira and the juice of a lemon was added and reduced. The sauce was completed with 4tbsp cold butter stirred in quickly, before adding ricotta gnocchi, peas and the fried mushrooms, and some basil for garnish. We ate dinner while watching Deliverance. For Saturday's dinner, Julian made a recipe from Escoffier's Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, recipe #3274 Tourte de Poussins a la Paysanne. Halves of lightly seasoned game hen are browned in butter,layered with sausage meat and duxelles, and blanketed with streaky bacon, and nestled inside a paste crust. A hole in the top facilitates pouring in a few tablespoons of demiglace just before serving. Yesterday we had Naomi and Bryan over for dinner. We made chermoula fish with pita bread and hummus and they brought a lovely flan and rich chocolate dessert. We enjoyed chatting and played two rounds of Carcassonne, which proved itself very different with four players than two. Today Julian was home from work for Labor day. He practiced guitar scales and got further in Half Life and I messed around with my pets on the new Viva Pinata. Out of familiarity we had a stomp round Harold Parker. We gathered a last few yellow foots and black trumpets and I snagged a few small hedgehog mushrooms. I haven't seen Hydnum repandum for a couple of years. we have found their miniature counterpart, Hydnum umbilicatum but they were too few and too small to bother bringing home. Last summer we also had an unfortunate run in with Sarcodon imbricatum, which although non-toxic is bitter and inedible. In comparison, the hedgehog has well earned its second nickname of "sweet tooth", the flesh is firm, sweet and highly palatable.
Sep. 7th, 2009 @ 08:33 pm
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| » Chou Farci |
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We've pulled cordon Bleu off the shelf and, considering ourselves to have completed the entrees in the Intermediaire section to the best of our ability, have entered into the final section: Superieure, Professional Touches. First on the menu was a mousseline of white fish with wild mushrooms. We poached a forcemeat of fish with a hidden pocket of chanterelles in a silicone mold and topped it with a garnish of carrot and zucchini. Next, we made the lamb stew with spring vegetables. This stew is a far cry from a humble one pot meal to warm the soul on a cold night. Lamb is simmered with tomato and turned potato is allowed to join partway through the cooking while turnips, carrots, pearl onions, peas and green beans are cooked in separate pots to be "folded in" at the end. The stew was tasty but sometimes the end does not justify the means - perhaps haute cuisine should be content with sauces and puff pastry and let the simple farmhouse fare be just that. A third recipe, chou farci, turned out to sound more complicated than it actually was. Instead of rolling meat and rice inside individual cabbage leaves as for Polish stuffed cabbage, this version makes a sausage and bread stuffing and layers the filling between multiple leaves to reconstruct a full sized cabbage. Bacon is draped over the structure and it is braised in the oven. My Polish side interpreted the sausage component as kielbasa and didn't regret it. There hasn't been rain since the weekend and the soil seems dry. I snacked on a few ripe blackberries while hiking along the edge of Stearns Pond, which were seedy and quite tart. I brought home a colorful mixture of chanterelles - golden, cinnabar, black and yellow. They made a fabulous dinner in a simple reduced cream sauce with pasta and roast chicken.
Sep. 3rd, 2009 @ 08:41 pm
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| » Pretty Polypores |
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The weather has been excellent so this week has been dedicated to forays and foraging - Monday afternoon, I set off to explore Littleton's Sarah Doublet Forest. I was a bit concerned as the trail map stated that "Since their recent deaths, Richard Roth, and his family have remodeled and occupied the hilltop cabin" - I remained alert for zombies and saw none. The walk up from Nagog Hill parking area is gruellingly steep but the reward is a gem of parkland with plush mosses, blueberry bushes and large glacial erratics. On a subsequent visit, I would be interested in expanding my hike to include a visit to the vernal pool and also Fort Pond. On Tuesday I rushed out to Harold Parker to check on my yellow foot patch which, with careful harvesting and an apparently ideal microclimate, has continued to thrive. With my bag already feeling pleasingly heavy, I then glanced down to find I was surrounded by beautiful, tall black trumpets! After this blissful experience I continued my hike around Salem Pond, topping off my collection with some milkies to combine with leftover roast beef for dinner. Wednesday I went to Acton and brought home a young and tender morsel of sulfur. We pan fried the sliced mushroom in butter and added it to an Allemande sauce for chicken. To christen our new Vev Vigano Kontessa Espresso pot and aerolatte whisk, we made deluxe coffees and sipped them with an accompanying batch of hot madeleines. Yesterday I packed up a dinner of bacon, avocado, tomato sandwiches (B.A.T's) and abducted Julian from a tiring workday. We ate our picnic near the swimming area at Houghton's Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation. After our meal we took a leisurely stroll around the pond before returning home to a game of Puerto Rico and a cup of cappuccino. Today I exhausted myself at Breakheart Reservation. I decided to take part of the Ridge Trail, not thinking that it would be what some have described as "the most challenging in the park". This steep and rocky trail follows across a lovely ridgetop pitch pine - scrub oak community. The plants are all small and stunted: lowbush blueberries, mosses, lichens, brilliant red bearberries and majestic waist-high oak trees. At one of the hill crests there is a scenic vista with glimpses of the ocean. Coming down off the ridge, I continued my amble around parts of Silver Lake and Pearce Lake, stopping to harvest some fresh sulfur shelf from the side of a tree. With September approaching and rain expected tomorrow, I am hopeful for a bountiful supply of matake.
Aug. 28th, 2009 @ 08:49 pm
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| » O Oysters, come and walk with us! |
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Intensive foraging this past week has allowed us to feast on the fruits of the forest . Sulfur shelf dominated with the largest single (although unusable) find, estimated at around five pounds, spotted along a stone wall near the bog at Grassy Pond, and the highest find was spotted in a diseased tree along Route 2 just past the Concord Roundabout. Friday I came home with a pound of fresh oyster mushrooms from Acton. After cleaning and slicing, we layered the mushrooms to roast with potato and onions, sprinkling with parsley, thyme and olive oil. Yesterday we stayed close to home, ushering in the begining of the 2009 North Atlantic hurricane season with "Bill". Beaches were closed, anticipating waves peaking at twenty feet near Nantucket. After all the hype we only had one moderate rain shower in the afternoon and some more overnight. Coastal areas were not as lucky. Today we hit a new park, the Blue Hills Reservation. People seem mostly to stay on a rocky scramble with views and a picnic and pond area, leaving, in this case, five pounds of tasty mushrooms for the taking on the quieter woodland trails. Apart from the ubiquitous sulfur, Julian found our first cluster of Cantharellus lateritius, the smooth chanterelle. This beautiful orange mushroom smells like apricots and tastes somewhere between a porcini and a matake, but with a unique fruity overtone. Sauces have continued to be explored and refined. We have been reading James Peterson's surprisingly prize winning "Sauces: Classical and Contemorary Sauce Making". Some of the broad coverage has been genuinely educational, but we have used our beloved Sokolov's "Saucier's Apprentice" to temper the faddish butter frenzies and flour phobias of a mad man with better direction and taste from gentler times. Recent dinner time renditions have been the soubise, mornay, bordelaise, beurre blanc, integral masala mushroom, and one which challenged my suspicions as it used chicken liver in butter as a liason. We watched the first season of Dollhouse; classic Whedon.
Aug. 23rd, 2009 @ 09:17 pm
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| » Home is the Hunter, Muddy and Knackered |
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The leaves are just starting to hint at their fall colors, with tones of orange and yellow showing through on some maple trees. At Cat Rock Park in Weston, the fields are blooming with mauve sweet joe's pye weed, yellow golden rod, and white fleabane. The persistant trill of crickets is a reminder to enjoy these fading days of summer. To kick off our Friday evening, we drove West to Cochituate State park and ate a picnic of bacon sandwhiches next to the lake. Back at home we played Puerto Rico while listening to Buika's album Nina de Fuego, a Latin fusion mix with elements of flamenco, soul and jazz. For dessert there was chocolate fondant with a coffee sauce. Yesterday we hit up Harold Parker and took another harvest of yellow footed chanterelles. There are more maturing that may be ready for next weekend. There were enough voluminous milkies to add to veal stew for dinner. Today we went over to Spring Hill in Acton hoping for a repeat preformance. Instead, we faced a depressing three mile slog through the swamp. The heat and humidity were opressive, making clothes cling stilsuit like but without the benefit of recycled water. One lone chanterelle was not enough of a reward for crossing a challenging terrain of toe-stubbing roots, ankle-twisting rocks, swarms of mosquitoes and sliding ankle deep into a pit of black goo. Luckily, we're drinking a tall glass of chilled Magic Hat Summer Seasonal Wacko and putting sole fillets in the oven for dinner.
Aug. 16th, 2009 @ 06:22 pm
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| » Sound the Trumpets |
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Although we had intended on going to the art museum in Boston yesterday, we had a late start and found ourselves inexplicably drawn back to Harold Parker Forest. As we sauntered over towards the office to grab a new copy of the trail map I was spotted by a staff member who, after asking if I needed help, bluntly asked me if I was there to pick mushrooms. Was I there to pick mushrooms, was I ever! My face flushed and my hands started to sweat. It must have been the, what I thought rather inconspicuous, tightly folded brown paper bag I was carrying. I cringed and asked if that was okay and was relieved to hear a happy response acknowleging that mushrooms are a renewable resource and to pick away, followed by a few comments on mushroom ID guides - presumably to double check that I wasn't going to be found later in the evening dying of liver failure in the parking lot. Maybe next time Julian should carry the bag. Having recieved benediction, we entered the woods and quickly found that our patch of yellow foots had fruited again in addition to a few more golden chanterelles in the same area. After collecting our first finds, we looped down a rocky side trail with mixed pine and hardwood and saw three snakes coiled and resting together off to the side. Our passage disturbed one and it started to slide away but instead paused for admiration. Sometimes the best photography moments happen when you've left the camera at home. From the start of the trail we hadn't picked any more mushrooms save for a questionable lactarius for identification at home, and we were starting to feel the full fatigue of hiking until Julian paused and said that he smelled mushrooms. I scanned the ground, not too hopeful as we've often smelled what we've been unable to see, and spotted a cluster of black trumpets. We had stumbled into an enormous patch of them that stretched to both sides of the path. Most were slightly too moist to bother with, but a handful of the freshest made it into the bag. Dinner was a pure celebration of flavor. We gently pan fried wild flounder and served it with a green salad and mushroom cream sauce linguini. The slight reduction of cream with an infusion of mixed chanterelles provided a velvety texture and creamy flavor to the pasta. C'est si tres bon. The leftover chanterelles were loaded into the food dehydrator and saved for another day. Our small lactarius was carefully identified as L. volemus, the Voluminous Latex Milky. We fried it in butter and sampled it. The taste was rich and meaty, closest to the flavor of portabella.
Aug. 10th, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
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| » Chanterelles II |
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Harold Parker has become a new favorite hiking spot. This time we went armed with DEET and the mosquitoes mostly left us alone. We found a nice patch of golden chanterelles, a couple of cinnabar chanterelles, hedgehog mushrooms, and a variety of boletes. The yellow foots that were in abundance last weekend were no where to be seen. Strangely, this mushroom diversity has not been reflected in other parks despite similar weather and rainfall. In Acton, the only mushroom fruiting was a small clump of Leotia Lubrica, the "jelly baby" mushroom with its slimy, disproportionatly small, wrinkled, yellowish brown cap perched awkwardly on an equally slimy yellow stem. Julian had a work get together on Friday and we spent Thursday evening baking. We made four onion pies and a double batch of apple strudel. Leftovers didn't last long. Dinner on Saturday was gnocchi in a chanterelle/porcini gorgonzola sauce, and a strawberry bavarian cream. We both finished playing Assassins Creed and I also finished Monkey Island. Our next xbox game to work through is Command and Conquer III. We've still been playing Carcassonne and have ordered another expansion set - Abbey and Mayor. A game that we don't have but would like to play sometime is The Last Night on Earth, a strategy game that pits humans against an overwhelming force of zombies.
Aug. 9th, 2009 @ 10:45 am
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| » Chanterelles |
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What a weekend! Saturday we went to a new park, Breakheart Reservation in Saugus. The major routes are paved for bikes with smaller dirt paths branching out to cross the property and encircle the lakes. Most people were clustered around the swimming area leaving the rest of the property reasonably secluded. We saw a large dark fishing spider near the pond, our second of the Dolomedes genus. The last one we saw was a six spotted triton resting on a board walk in Acton several years ago. The woods had a variety of mushrooms fruiting but what really got our attention were several brightly colored patches of yellow footed chanterelles. We enjoyed these in a gourmet omlette with green salad on the side. After dinner we played Illuminati, a card based strategy game where players attempt to create and hold a power structure while destroying their opponents. Today we took our chances on another new hiking location, Harold Parker State Reservation in Andover. The mosquitos were intense but the pay off was a large handful of golden chanterelles and another of yellow footed chanterelles. These delicate mushrooms were destined for Carluccio's schwammerlsuppe, or chantrelle soup. The soup was simple to make, delicate and creamy. We partnered it with a second course of grilled tandori style chicken thighs that we had set aside to marinade earlier. Dessert was really special, a Cordon Bleu coffee mousse, made using an italian meringue mixed with a gelatin bound sabayon and cream.
Aug. 2nd, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
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| » Millipede Invasion |
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Last Tuesday we went out to the cinema in Lowell to see the long awaited Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The movies always have to truncate the book plots slightly but that said, it was well executed and a good watch. Micheal Gambon as Dumbledoor was very intense, and ironically, now that the character is dead I finally felt that he was a good replacement for Richard Harris. It would be great to read the entire series again but we both still have long lists of books we've commited to reading in the near future; I might have to settle for reading the final book sometime before the release of the next movie. We spent the weekend quietly. We are four episodes off finishing Oz and are playing Assassins Creed in parallel. The graphics are simply amazing and one of the real high points of the game is using free mode to sprint across rooftops. The perspectives are convincing enough that I almost feel a touch of vertigo while climbing. In the virtual city of Acre, one of the scalable buildings is a repleca of the Chartres Cathedral. This weekend we also played Reef Encounter, Ingenious and Carcassonne. Although we've faultered on finishing the last few recipes in Italia, we have still been busy in the kitchen. We feasted on Calabrian stuffed swordfish rolls for dinner last night and finished with a Cordon Bleu style chocolate charlotte. Julian has also continued to work on his sauces including the soubise, maltese, nantua, bordelaise and a mornay. If the weather holds we had planned to throw some sausage on the bbq tonight. Possibly due to the high amounts of rain (at least 11 inches this month), we've been suffering from a plague of milipedes. We had a couple last weekend but last night the party really kicked off. I removed at least ten yesterday and have seen another nine so far this morning. We've also been having obnoxious numbers of house centipedes. And we're still fighting off random infestations of pantry beetles. I had no idea that they would be so happy to eat dried chili peppers. The upside to the rain and heat is that some mushrooms are reluctantly sprouting. Yesterday out in Acton we saw our first sulfur shelf of the year - a small to medium sized conglomerate growing from the base of a tree near the end of the trail. As it so often happens, the slugs and bugs had taken over before we got there. There were also a few painted boletes, some white agarics, and an orange lactarius that we watched white "latex" ooze out of.
Jul. 27th, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
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| » Mystic Aquarium |
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The heat of summer came on suddenly. It has been in the high 80's with full sun this weekend - perfect weather for Jamie and Crystal's trip to visit us from Rochester. On Friday, Julian was left behind for work but the three of us headed up North to Salem. We watched the free video in the visitor center to soak up some AC before heading outside to browse in some of the shops and see the Witch Museum. The museum used life size dioramas to narate the string of events begining in the spring of 1692 that cumulated in the conviction of twenty nine and the death of nineteen residents. Surprisingly, those accused were not absolved and proclaimed innocent of the crime of witchcraft until 2001. Saturday we drove down to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut for a full day of fun with sea creatures. The main attractions were sealions, penguins and beluga whales - all with underwater observation areas. We took turns in an indoor aviary with one of us luring a bird down with millet seed on a stick while the other tried ambitiously to take closeup shots of the moving target. One of my favorite areas was a touch tank to pet rays. The rays are quite shy, but with enough patience they will slide up the sides of the tank to brush against your fingers. They feel cool and velvety. We started Sunday off right with a batch of blueberry pancakes before taking the T into Boston. We walked past the aquarium and spent a few minutes by the docks watching the boats on the water before finding Quincy Market. Also known as Faneuil Marketplace, this building was constructed in the early 1800's and today sits nestled between the North and South Market buildings. The interior has evolved from early beginings of produce and butcher stalls to an ethnically diverse food court flanked by shopping stalls. Fashionable items being hawked included a piece of fabric intended as a wrap around dress for women to wear "more than 100 ways" and a handbag made from a continuous zipper. We sat outside to people watch while snacking on arancini that reminded us of snacking on similar risotto rice balls on the streets of Rome.
Jul. 20th, 2009 @ 10:34 am
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| » red white and blueberry |
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As hoped, the rain tapered off just in time for 4th of July weekend. We invented an unusual dinner of bbq chicken and steak combined with blueberry pancakes topped with sliced strawberries. Although we didn't get out to any firework displays, our neighbors across the creek lit a few that we made out through the trees. On Saturday we tried to go hiking in Wright Woods and were chased off by one of the locals who claimed that we would get a $500 fine for parking on the dirt road by his house and that the police ticketed hourly. A map online does indicate that parking is suggested on the street before this dirt entrance road but the area really has no signs indicating either the park or a suitable parking area. The last time we were wondering about this property I emailed the Concord Land Conservation Trust but they never replied. As this is possibly the largest area of conservation land in Concord, totaling 281 acres, the limited access is both frustrating and unecessary. At some point we may try again, lured by the prospect of a beautiful overlook of the Sudbury River. After fleeing the area we found our way to Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge. The parking spaces were almost all taken. I wasn't sure if there was a deluge of people due to the holiday weekend or if they had all come out to enjoy the sun after a month of rain. The cat tails were high and we saw some young mallard ducks resting along the path. We also saw a piece of shead snake skin, most likely from a water snake. Flooding had occured recently, causing erosive damage and allowing carp into the ponds. We paused to watch the tangled surge of thick bodied fish crowded by the overflow drain that allows one way drainage back into the river. It was ironic that in resisting being drawn into the backward current, some fish were preventing their own salvation into deeper water. Our walk on Sunday was in Acton - still no mushrooms. Summer fruits have come into season. Cantalope is especially sweet and juicy this year and we've also had good watermelon, strawberries and blueberries. For dinner last night we had the last of the steak and Julian whipped up a bernaise sauce. We turned to Larousse to try to understand the difference between bernaise and hollandaise. Our conclusion was that while both are emulsions of egg and butter, the bernaise is flavored with tarragon and the hollandaise with lemon. As both of these sauces have acceptable varriations it's difficult to say exactly why they aren't simply listed as a varriation of eachother with the egg and butter emulsion being called the mother.
Jul. 7th, 2009 @ 09:47 am
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| » vole in my life |
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Last weekend we risked another infamous SuAsCo hike. After eliminating several options cheerfully describing areas that would be unpassable during the wet season, we selected "hike number 8", Weston Town Forest. As usual, the map and trail description did not correlate at all with the trails we were on. We think it's possible that the author of this book did not make it farther than the first field and just laid down in the tall grasses imagining what to write. Aside from the annoyance of being hideously lost, the trails were level with easy terrain, meandering through pines and dense clusters of ferns. At Stonehurst, jewel weed is starting to bloom, adding lanterns of orange to the green undergrowth. Wildflowers are abundant in the fields - black eyed susan, queen anne's lace, yellow goat's beard and purple vetch. I came home from my walk this morning to find a dead vole on the floor. We haven't been breached by rodents since last spring, when two field mice found a way in. There are three species of voles that live in Eastern Massachusetts, the meadow vole, the red-backed vole and the less common pine vole. The latter, claimed by naturalists at Massachusetts Audobon society to be "unlikely to be seen by the non-specialist" seems to match. Notably this vole had grey fur and much smaller eyes and ears than the other two species. As predicted, we've really been enjoying the Carcassonne expansion sets. Julian was a hero and modified our box insert to have a third channel; enough to store all game components in the same box. Adding the river I to river II has led to some interesting game play. If you combine the sets, don't remove any of the end lakes and start with the three way junction, the river can be either short or quite long. We also experimented with playing out river I and then using the three way junction to expand onto a random amount of river II. The number of possible game varriants using these combined sets is fun. There are three meeple types to choose from (pigs, builders or large meeples) and also three special tile types to play (cathedrals, inns, and crafts). Julian has been playing Lost Odyssey and has moved onto disk two. I've been working my way through Sam and Max. Episode five included 3-D characters solving a text based adventure in a fun homage to Zork. I still mean to finish Tomb Raider but diverged into a silly arcade game "Feeding Frenzy", where you control a fish eating other fish in order to grow larger. Last night for dinner we had meatball subs using up some leftover parboiled meat from our stock that we had stashed in the freezer. The meat was fairly bland but we blenderized it and perked it up with egg, salt, pepper, parsley, tomato paste, beef stock granules, and worcester sauce. The final stroke of genious was to coat the meatballs in breadcrumbs before deep frying, adding a lovely surface texture. Although not a top choice for entertaining others, these meat cubes were also acceptable in pasties, lasagna, and pies. Currently the weather is stormy with rumbles of thunder. Hopefully the rain abates so that we can enjoy our 4th of July weekend.
Jul. 1st, 2009 @ 05:54 pm
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