Dork Chow

Archive for October, 2008

Even if none of this Chinese candy contains any melamine, it is still poor nutrition.
Is poison only something that will make you sick within 24 hours, or could sugar and transfats in high doses also be declared toxic because of all the diseases they contribute to over time. Halloween is national sugarbuzz day, I know, and I don’t want to be a big Scrooge about it. But please folks, be vigilant, and buy local, or at least domestic, whenever you can. We have the FDA in the USA, such as it is. Many other countries don’t have such an agency, or if they do it is in the pocket of some industrialist and is corrupt as all get out.

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Black-eyed pea salad

Some people don't like black-eyed peas because of their …

See Black-eyed pea salad on Key Ingredient.

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There are plenty of fresh local peppers and onions and even still a few tomatoes left around here this time of year.  This is a high protein salad with plenty of raw goodness and it’s vegan if you omit the cheese.  Have it with some delicious rye and some greens and a piece of fruit for a power meal.

Wolf Fart Puffballs

While running today I found two more rather dilapidated shaggymanes (see my earlier posting on this) and a whole bunch of what I believe to be nice young lycoperdon pyriforme or wolf-fart puffballs.    They smell good, though not so good as the shaggymanes.  These guys are definitely on the way to developing a hole on the top, so that would tend to rule out turning into an Amanita.   I cut one in two and it’s pure white like it’s supposed to be.   The nasty earthballs or poison pigskins that superficially resemble lycoperdon are black in the middle.  They say you’d probably not die of eating an earthball, but you probably wouldn’t want to eat it because it’s  pretty unpalatable.   Of course there’s always the dreaded Amanita which you have to think about when gathering any light-colored ‘shroom.  Amanita’s poison is incredibly lethal, but tasteless. Apparently they smell and taste appetizing,  but according to this website a young amanita ball would have an evil mushroom form embedded inside it, like the alien embeds itself in its human host before bursting forth killing its host.

For years wolf-fart puffballs have been eaten–the latest is that they may contain a substance that could be vaguely toxic if they were ingested habitually. The guide also notes that some people have unpleasant digestive effects from the skin. I’m hoping whatever toxic stuff they might have is in the “skin” and so I scrubbed it off. I only eat these about twice a year. I sauteed some and dried the rest because I really did gather quite a big pile. The sauteed ones are going in an omelette along with peppers, green onions, goat cheese, and maybe black olives. If you wish to dry these, please note that they dry VERY QUICKLY, under an hour.

My nascent foraging skills are going to be critically useful soon if the economy continues along it’s current path.

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Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Delicious satisfying vegetarian entree

See Grilled Portobello Mushrooms on Key Ingredient.

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And here is the eye-candy blow-by-blow for all you visual junkies. This is a very elegant and easy to make option if you’re having a vegetarian over for dinner you can just do one or two of these.

Plastic bags are not our friends! In September 2008 I blogged a snip from the Running the Numbers art exhibit that imparts a strange, static but eerily alien beauty to the pattern of millions of crinkly plastic bags, while being scary to the thinking person. For those of you who are more visceral, here is the gross aftermath of these bags being used all over the world for a couple decades.
Perhaps you’ve heard talk about the huge plastic bag island in a gyre in the middle of the Pacific away from all the major trade routes.  There is a series of 12 videos about a crew of young people and scientists who set out to find it and document it.  I’ve embedded the climactic and most frightening of the 12 episodes.  (Warning:  Colorful language)

I am pleased to note that country after country is jumping on the bandwagon to ban these revolting things in favor of reusables. Ireland banned them nearly a decade ago and businesses did not crash and burn because of it. When will the USA do the smart thing?

Cool thing! I was running in MacDonald Forest near the old growth trailhead and I spotted some fresh young shaggy mane mushrooms popping  right up directly on the gravel road!  That is so typical for shaggy manes — they can push up through concrete and then they are the most fragile thing in the world.  Of course I didn’t have the camera along on a run!  My guys didn’t even survive the trip home in one piece — I had knotted them in a corner of my hoodie and I dropped it and they shattered into several wedges each — complete with inky black gills on the inside.  Curses!  Camera is not here,   It is #2 son’s birthday this weekend and I loaned him the camera to shoot fall foliage, so I had to snag a shot off the web.   My mycologist neighbor confirmed that they were actually shaggy manes and not something ghastly like Death Angel, (amanita)  and so I sauteed them up with garlic and onion.       With such black gills the sautee has kind of a greyish juice, (somehow not as appetizing to look at as brown) but the flavor is delicious.

Here is an easy and tasty way to use those zucchinis that are piling up around August and September.
The video is courtesy of manjulaskitchen.com The modification I made to the recipe was to make it vegan by substituting Promise for the butter.

Did you ever think of brewing your own beer, but got frightened that it is very difficult or you have to have a lot of fancy gear? Relax. There is some investment in gear but if you use your common sense and can follow directions brewing is a lot of fun. I recommend doing it with friends. FYI: It is perfectly legal for people who are under 21 to buy the supplies and to brew beer. We usually have a brewing dinner/brewing session followed by a bottling dinner/bottling session 10 days to two weeks later after the fermentation is complete. I have an ezine article with the list of gear you need and the basic procedure if you really want to do it, but I know most of you voyeurs really just want to gawk.

Here is the eye candy portion of today’s programming. I recommend viewing it with info on if you want to know what’s going on. In this series we brewed a batch of Porter and a batch of Oatmeal stout. Then everybody went away and did a bunch of other stuff for ten days and changed their clothes, several times each. We reunited when the beer was finished fermenting, and bottled it. It will be ready to drink in another ten days. Slan agaibh!