Clean the cupboard Zuppa Tuscana & brown butter mushroom ravioli with bacon parmesan crusted cornbread

It is getting cold. I love hot n’ hearty soups and stews when the cold winds of winter start whistling down the mountains. I had the mise to make one of my favorite winter soups Zuppa Tuscana. This particular recipe I reworked a tiny bit as I incorporated mushroom filled raviolis sauteed in brown butter and parmesan cheese in place of the typical potato soup filler. I also used a median midwestern loose breakfast sausage instead of a typical sweet italian or other style. It touches on my own culinary preferences taste wise plus alot of commercial italian sausages in my mouth’s opinion have weird seasoning. Using the not hot, no sage breakfast sausage allows me the luxury of seasoning the soup myself with what I want instead of having to deal with whacked out commercial flavor profiles.  Plain Jane breakfast sausages typically have a good salt point, mild garlic and black pepper making it a good choice. Anyhow, let’s get going.

1. 1lb pork breakfast sausage or simple ground pork
2. 4C mire poix (2 parts white onion to 1 part  celery and 1 part carrot)
3. 1C kidney beans
4. 1C cannellini beans
5. 1C garbanzo beans
6. 1Bunch kale cleaned w/o stem and rough chopped
7. 3C chicken or pork stock
8. 2C whole milk or heavy cream
9. 1C White wine (anything not sugary sweet)
10. 4clove fresh garlic minced
11. 1Tsp mustard (sauce not powder)
12. 2-3Tbls AP flour
13. 1/2 Tsp thyme dried
14. 1/2 Tsp Basil, dried
15. 1/4 Tsp Oregano
16. S & P to taste

Yanno it’s a kinda big ingredient list but it’s easy to make and darn it your mouth will thank you so let’s get started. Firstly, brown the sausage. Don’t be shy – get a good color on the sausage as the caramelization and fond on the bottom of the pan will release adding body and depth to your soup.

Now, add the garlic and saute until the aroma hits your nose. At this point add your mire poix and saute until the onions are translucent and everything begins to release it juice.

At this point stir in your dry herbs. If you want to cheat a bit, you can get away with using an italian seasoning instead of individual herbs. It’s cost effective to buy one herb mix vs 4 or 5 individual herbs. Anyhow, you may notice that the fond is beginning to lift off the bottom of the pan. Also (only if you choose to use milk and not cream) add the flour and mix in taking care to cook it a bit forming a rough roux. Once the onions become translucent and they start gumming together from the flour, add the mustard, and wine and mix well. At this point, take time to gently scrape any remaining fond from the bottom of the pot. Now add  your stock and wait until it begins to heat up.

When you begin to see steam, add the kale and then the beans on top of that. The beans will help press the kale into the emerging soup, helping to wilt the leaves and cook them down.

Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add your milk or heavy cream. Cover and simmer on low for about 15 minutes to 45 minutes allowing for the flavors to combine. Take care not to boil the soup or you run the risk of breaking the cream/milk.

So that’s the soup. Super flavorful and so much so, we ate it before I could snap some pretty “foodie shots” for the blog finale hah! Anyhow, moving forward, the raviolis are easy breezy. Why? because we buy the fresh ones at a grocery. I don’t know about you but I am too damn busy to take the time to make the dough, rest it, prep and make the filling, roll out the dough … so on and so forth. Thank goodness for Buitoni which is my favorite brand of commercially made and retail available premade pastas and raviolis – very convenient and they freeze well. A quick tip – if you see a short dated special, buy all of them and freeze the ones you don’t use. I often see price drops of 5.99US down to .99/1.50US. A great value there IMO.  That was the situation here – using up the last of one of those short dated +8 package buy ins. Anyhow, for this dish, I used buitoni’s mushroom ravioli. Preparation is simple: boil them in 4-6 quarts of salted water until they puff up and float – usually around 8 minutes or so. While they are boiling, you’re heating up a large saute pan and melting 3-4 table spoons of butter in it with a 1/2 teaspoon of roasted garlic oil in it. I like the following ingredients in my pan.

1. unsalted butter
2.  roasted garlic oil

Heat the butter until it begins to brown and take it off the heat. All that is left is for the raviolis to finish. If you timed it correctly, as the butter browns, the raviolis are floating to the top like fat, happy, puffy clouds. As soon as they come up, with a strainer, catch them, give them a nice tap to remove any excess water and drop them into the pan with the brown butter that you quickly put back over the heat. They will saute quickly maybe 30 seconds a side. Once they’re browned, add about a 3rd cup parmesan a couple tosses in the pan and directly into the serving dish they go. To serve, drop 3 to 4 raviolis into the bottom of a soup dish and then ladle the soup right over the top.

**Again, We were hungry thus my stomach got the better of me/us and I forgot to snap a picture of it. Suffice it to say, it was wonderful 🙂 

Yummo. I served mine with some corn bread. I know a rustic sour dough, baguette or chewy ciabatta (a personal fav) but part of the idea was to clean out the cupboard of aging items, so the boxes of corn meal I had were on the menu. These are easy.

1. 4C fine corn meal\
2. 1/4 Tsp baking soda
3. 1/4 Tsp Baking powder
4. 1Tsp Salt
5. 1/2 Tsp Sugar
6.  2 eggs
7. 2/3C butter milk
8. 1C frozen corn
9. 1/4 C sliced red onion
10. 1/4 C bacon bits (fat reserved)
11. 1/4C parmesan cheese

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add all the liquid ingredients. Add corn and mix. Pour the  batter into a pan , layer the red onions on the top and sprinkle with the bacon bits. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until puffy and golden brown on top. Let rest for 15 minutes or so, un-pan and enjoy.

Eat well my friends.

Awesome $7.00 Clarks shoe sole fix

So, I love Clarks shoes but they’re expensive and the last pair I got, the sole completely disintegrated into a powdery cracked hot mess. It was something akin to dry rot – anyhow without a substantial sole structure, the exterior started cracking and the whole experience was a real pisser. So, instead of pitching these and picking up another pair, I replaced the sole interior with 6 bucks worth of clear, fast drying uber-flexible silicone caulking. This is what I did. The tools you’ll need are simple.

1. Clear silicone caulking – I bought DAP for quick drying, extra flexible, non shrinking etc. properties.

2. Superglue

3. Knife

4. Caulking gun

5. Folded piece of paper to create a straight “scraping” edge.

1.) Ok, first thing is to dig out all the dry rotted or damaged portions of the sole. Just tear the crap out. Once you’re finished here, take a care to knock out all the little pieces and dusty bits, so you get a good adhesion with the silicone. Once, you’re done, the inside will look something like this.

2.) So with this particular pair, where ever the sole interior failed, the exterior sole cracked. Yanno I wanted these cracks to be solid/water tight so no liquid would get in and continue to erode the sole. I used the super glue to reset and stabilize the cracks like so.

Be thorough here as you really don’t want the cracks to come glued down the road. I glued from both the outside and inside of the sole taking care to make sure good contact thus seal was made with the glue.

3.) So once you have any cracks sealed up, test for flexibility at the crack. This pair of shoes responded well to the super glue and did not buckle or separate from the flex test. The next step was to start filling the sole with the silicone caulking. The process was quite simple. I started with the edges of the sole exterior that had separated from the interior sole and filled them with caulking. Be liberal here. A large tube of caulking has more than enough for a couple pairs of shoes. Also, caulking that leaks out will be used for the sole interior as it gets spread around so no biggie! The key is to make sure you have enough caulking to make a great seal/connection between the interior and exterior sole.

Fill away my Clarks loving friends.

Once all of the separated side wall areas are filled, the next step is to start filling the gaps that were made when tearing out the fatigued dry rotted sole bits. Generously fill the gaps with your silicone. Once filled up, take your folded piece of paper and start smoothing it out. Take care to push down a bit when smoothing as this will release any air bubbles that may be present. Add silicone if and where you think it is needed. The folded paper works well as a spreading tool however another option if you have one is a paint paddle/stirrer. These are cheap, work very well for those inner areas that need a bit more leverage to spread the silicone and can be burnt in the fire pit afterwards.

When the major gaps have been filled, spread a nice even coat over the entire sole interior for added stability. I took the time to fill the majority of the pre formed holes in the sole as well. The caulking says it cures in just a few hours however, I would give the silicone a good 24 hours to finish curing and set. Once they’re set string em up, put the insoles back in and you’re crappy pair of Clarks are good to go with a new lease on life.

Total cost for this repair was around $7.00[US] bucks. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me and a fun Saturday morning project over a tasty fresh brewed cup of coffee.

Muted vintage bass sounds: The DIY bass mute.

Everyone knows that vintage 60’s & motown bass tone a’ la James Jamerson, Bob Babbit, Carol Kaye etc. Yanno what Im talking about – that rhythmic, organic, thumpy tone that pushed many 60’s hits along like “Darling Dear” or “What’s goin’ on”. Honestly, it’s pretty easy to get this tone while palm muting but man, that can be a pain in the rear end … or more accurately, a hand ache/cramp. So, many use home-made mutes that free up the right hand and produces a tone similar to the felt (jazz bass) and later rubber mutes of that eras Precision and Jazz basses. Below is a quick How-to on making packing foam and felt bass mutes. They’re really quite easy to make and take anywhere from 2 to  10 minutes tops to manufacture. The tools you’ll need are 1.) A scrap piece of foam and/or felt, 2.) a sharp knife or straight razor blade,

3.) and a bass of course. The methodology is as follows.

1.) Take your piece of foam and gently place it under the bass guitar strings. I like to leave a good 3/4″ at either end of the E and G strings. This can always be trimmed back a bit after the mute is finished.

2.) With the foam in place, gently make one score roughly an 1/8th of an inch next to each string taking care to cut the same side, of every string ensuring even string spacing on the mute. You don’t need to go all the way through, just make enough of a cut that you can finish it when removed from the strings.

3.) At this point, remove the foam and finish making the cuts where the strings will go. I  typically go approximately 1/4″ deep into the foam although a bit deeper (+1/8″) is not a bad thing at all and can be necessary if you prefer lower action.

4.) Now, you can trim up the edges of the mute if it’s a bit long and then carefully slide the completed mute back up and under the strings.

I prefer the mute right up on the bridge however the neat thing about this style of mute is that its position is not static in the sense that you can move it up to the pickup or back down to the bridge for varying tones while playing finger style or with a pick. This really is a useful mute design! Another type of mute that I use is a rolled felt mute. One reason is that I have lots of felt scraps around because many of my wife Amanda’s friends and family are having lil bambinos so we have been a felt baby blanket factory lately. Because of this felt mutes made sense – yanno waste not want not. Another reason is that the tone is slightly different. It could be the material or it could be that the primary point of muting contact is from below vs all around with the foam or a combination of the two – I dont know, but the sound is a nice one none the less. I’ve experimented with a few rolling methods however the one I describe below is to date my preferred means of making one. What you’ll need: 1.) piece of felt wide enough to reach across all four bass strings. That’s it, so lets get going.

1.) fold the top down approximately 1/2 to 3/4″.

2.) Fold the bottom up until it just barely over laps fold 1.

3.) Now begin rolling from the 1st fold side and take care to roll it tightly. A loose roll does not mute well or produce a good sound. 

4. The finished mute looks something like this.

5. Place the finished mute seam side down to the body, under the strings and you’re good to go!

This style mute obviously doesn’t travel well rolled up in the sense that it will unravel, but it is so easy just to roll up again on the fly, before a recording session, or gig that it too is another easy, breezy tool to have in the gig bag. Have fun!

Grandma Schaefer’s Fried Eggs

We all have that short list of foods that when prepared in a specific fashion, illicit a wonderfully nostalgic & emotional trip back to a distant point in our lives. For me, it’s sitting at my grandma’s kitchen table waiting to catch the high school bus for zero hour middle school band eating her fried eggs with some toast and hot chocolate. Grandpa would usually be across the table from me eating Bran Flakes with bananas listening to NPR on the radio while reading the morning paper. Grandma’s technique for fried eggs was very good and the benchmark standard I hold all fried eggs to. Even as a professional chef for many years, my standard for that particular food item was not my own, but hers. Unfortunately, I never asked her how to make such a seemingly mundane thing as fried eggs before she passed on.  So, I was left with rediscovering her process for myself. Frying an egg seems easy enough yanno, egg into hot pan with oil and … well fry it and I suppose I am correct from a mechanical point of view, however when you incorporate your senses of taste, texture, mouth feel, aroma, etc. This is horrifically short sighted. To get that perfect caramelized egg white is easy but then you’re left with an over medium yolk and for the many who like runny egg yolk (my Dad included here) that’s great, but for the firm, over hard egg yolk aficionados such as myself, this simply cannot occur. Conversely, you can cook the yolk to that perfect easter egg yellow and creamy texture but then the white is an over cooked, rubbery and sometimes burnt hot mess. There is quite a bit of finesse and tempered methodology that goes into the humble, over-hard fried egg. So, my Grandma Schaefer’s wonderfully fried eggs rediscovered!

1.) Over medium high heat, melt about 1-1.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter into a hot egg pan or skillet. Take care to coat the pan evenly and well, including about 1 inch up the side of the pan itself.

2. Once coated, crack your desired amount of eggs  into the pan. Take care to space the yolks evenly across the pan for consistent cooking. I chose three as the pan could accommodate them and I was hungry!

3.) The most important part of any dish that is significantly egg laden in my humble opinion is salt. The sodium truly brings out the high points within the flavor profile accentuating the creamy richness of the yolks and caramelized white. Season generously with the salt. Conversely, be sparse with the black pepper as too much will burn in the pan ruining the flavor of your fried eggs when flipped (turned with a spatula for those less adventurous).

4.) Reduce the heat a bit at this point to medium and continue to cook the eggs until the white firms up and becomes opaque. A good test for this is to take a butter knife and gently lift up the edge of the firm egg white. At this point it is a good idea to take a peak and check for browning of the egg white which should have formed. Now, if the pan has alot of egg white uncooked in the pan, it is a convenient technique to lift the egg and allow the uncooked white to run into the pan and cook which reduces the potential for a mess when you turn/flip the egg.  This technique is similar to the technique used for an American or French country-style omelet. The egg is ready to flip when it looks like so.

5.) Flip the egg. I am not going to explain the process as there are many wonderful tutorials on http://www.youtube.com . If you want to learn, watch a few and practice with a piece of bread. Conversely, a simply spatula works fine. The bottom, now top of the flipped egg should have even cooking and nice caramelization though out.

6.) Now to this point, slower cooking over moderate heat has been key to not over cooking the white or undercooking the yolk. The next step is key to producing an evenly cooked, moist fried egg with rich and creamy hard yolks. Slowly add between 1-2 tablespoons of water around the edge of the egg. Gently give the egg a jiggle allowing the water to settle underneath the egg.

7.) This produces steam and we want to capture this as an additional cooking medium. We do this by covering with  a lid or in my grandma’s case, a pie tin which she had many. This whole time, we have been using the fat in the butter and the water in the egg to cook, ie: heating up the water and through the process of cooking, evaporating it away. The additional steam not only aids with that cooking process, but also reintroduces some of that liquid back into the egg making for a tender egg and delicate soft, yet hard-cooked yolk.

A few minutes in this humid, steamy environment and the egg is ready to eat – my favorite part by the way. A white that has wonderful caramelization and flavor yet retains all of its soft and delicate nature and a yolk that is perfectly hard-cooked with a creamy texture and wonderfully rich flavor. My grandma makes the best eggs! 

Yummo!

The useless camera stand made quite useful.

This small camera stand I picked up at my local Dollar Tree for a buck [$1.00 US]. Yanno, I was thinking this would work great for a quick snap of some beautiful vista on the hood of my work car as Im cruising around NM evaluating restaurants. In theory this is true, but there is a crucial flaw in its design. Whoever created this, never actually tried to open up the legs or mount a small digital camera on it. I wasn’t trying to mount a big ass’d heavy SLR or similar as this would be unrealistic, however for a small compact digital camera a’la a Nikon cool pix this would be ideal. Anyhow, the hack was actually quite easy. Tools you’ll need are: 1.) A sharpie and 2.) some type of fine shaving tool like a small file or multi tool like a dremmel.

1.) Turn the stand upside down. Mark (with the sharpie) the point where the legs make contact with the central hub. As there are three legs, you’ll be making three small dots. These are the points where you will be cutting/removing to add room for the legs to flex outwards.

2.) With the stand upside down, in the center, there is a screw; remove it. This releases the leg assembly which you should set to the side.

3.) With the cutting tool or dremmel tool, carefully cut away the silver hub plastic just past the width of the leg joint. This will allow the legs to flex outwards increasing stability thus making a useful stand.  I recommend to start with an 1/8″ inch and move towards a 1/4″ inch.

4.) Once the small cuts have been made, attach the leg assembly and test the spread of the legs. The cuts should allow for the legs to spread out to approximately 6.5″ inches – a very stable triangular position. If the stance is less, repeat step three until the stance is correct. Right-O, this cheap and completely useless camera stand has been made a very useful item to have around.

Have fun.

I phone ear bud hack.

[Iphone earbud hack: pictured above]

I have always liked the sound quality of the ear buds that came with my Iphone 4, however they were packaged without covers and the over all shape does not fit well in my ear[s]. This is especially evident on any road bike tour of decent length as they refuse to stay in once I start sweating. This was/is extremely annoying so I started a fun project to find a solution and make the non fitting but good sounding ear buds work for my funny shaped ears. This was quick to resolve – I found the solutions at my favorite place: My local Dollar Tree. For $3.00US and tax, I upgraded my earbuds to a design that fits my needs perfectly while fitting my ears and still making the mic accessible for those mid drive/ride conference calls. The items purchased for the improvement are:

1.) Super Glue gel [$1.00], 2.) “Mini Fashion” In-ear head phones [$1.00] & 3.) “My Tunes” ear bud cover set [$1.00]

Tools you will need for the 15-25 minute project are: sharp knife,  and tooth pick for the super glue.

The process is as follows:

1.) Pick your favorite color ear bud cover from the “MyTunes” cover set and apply to the Iphone ear buds. Carefully pull away the earbud wire from the moulded ear piece canal and make a 1/2″ cut at the base to remove the ear piece completely.

2.) On each ear, there is a collar that will be left over – a small sleeve that was between the moulded ear piece and the earbud. Once the moulded ear piece has been removed, make a clean cut along the entire length of the sleeve and remove from the earbud wire as well. Repeat for both ears. Set these pieces aside.

3.) Find the end of the moulded ear piece that was connected to the ear bud. Carefully cut about half of it down (making it skinnier – so sorry but I forgot to take a photo of this step). You’ll see that if you try to push the end as-is into the Iphone ear bud, it’s too large. By trimming it down, this will then be small enough to feed snuggly into the end of the Iphone 4 ear bud. This took me some trial and error to get it right, so take your time here. Once trimmed down, carefully push this end + cable all the way in. Repeat for both ears.

4.) With the moulded ear piece end in place, carefully feed the Iphone ear bud cable into and through the canal on the moulded ear piece, taking care not to damage the cut you made in step one nor pull loose step two. A tooth pick is a useful tool to push the wire completely into the canal. With the wire in place, gently pull apart the cut area and using a tooth pick, apply a small amount of super glue. Press and hold for 30 seconds until the glue sets. Repeat for both ears.

5.) Now, With both ends glued, the final step in assembly is to glue on the collars, removed in step one. The process is similar in that you gently pull them apart, apply super glue with the tooth pick, wrap them around the junction/seam between the Iphone ear bud and the moulded ear piece, and hold for 30 seconds to allow the glue to bond. If you are careful, the seam will match up perfectly.

Voila, vastly improved Iphone ear buds for $3.00 bucks and some of your time. I guarantee these guys will stay on the longest of bike rides.