Completely Baked

One of my go to sides for visitors, and also a nice hearty meal for a vegetarian, is the twice baked potato. Although they require a little work, the nice thing is that the bulk of it can be done in the morning, or even the day before. I bake the potatoes simply by washing them, and poking some holes in them with a fork (The Joy says that this is to allow steam to escape, and one of these days I might see exactly what happens if I don't. It will be informative, if not interesting.) and putting them directly into a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes. After they have cooled, it is easy to scoop out the flesh and make the filling, and if by chance you tear the skin, you can buttress the boat with some aluminum foil. My recipe is adopted from the Joy of Cooking, which adds bacon and tabasco. I used chives instead of scallions last night.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Rub 2 large baking potatoes with olive oil. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes. While the potatoes are baking, mix 1/2 cup grated cheddar, 2 scallions, minced, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. dijon mustard.

When the potatoes are done and cool enough to handle, cut in half along the longer side. Scoop out the flesh and mix with the cheese mixture, adding salt and pepper as needed. Fill the shells and bake at 400 for 15 minutes, until the cheese is nicely melted.

The Graduate. A little half-baked? Oh no, dad, it's completely baked.

Morning Routine (Dig 'em)

As we get into the school year, I've been meaning to write more about some of the rituals that help to get us through each day. Naturally, I'll start with breakfast. Although the BG likes a little more variety than her older sister, I think it's fair to say that, like most kids, they prefer predictable and known situations to the unfamiliar and strange. Besides, there is enough stress at school, that seething cauldron of social pressure, authoritarian rule and competition, that I try to do everything I can to make the morning as easy and comfortable as possible. David Brooks' column this morning mentions the influence of childhood stress or trauma on development, and, like anybody, I'm always happy to cite as authority something that confirms my feeling about a particular topic.

Anyway, my approach to the morning means that I let the Gs eat pretty much whatever they want for breakfast. In the early days, I was just concerned about making sure they got enough calories to get them through the morning, but, as they get older, I'm thinking more about nutrition and healthy eating. The OG is--unless I make pancakes--as reliable as the sunrise: Lucky Charms (1% milk) and two strips of bacon, which I make in the microwave. The BG orders a bespoke meal every morning, choosing either Cookie Crisp, Honey Nut Cheerios or Raisin Bran from Column A, and Morningstar vegetarian bacon or sausage (there's a whole other post in there I suspect) from Column B.

Now, presweetened cereals (excluding Raisin Bran) were, to us kids, the ne plus ultra of breakfasts. The combination of seductive advertising (ubiquitous on after school television), enclosed prizes, and parental disdain made the rare bowl of Sugar Smacks (now called "Honey Smacks" although I suspect, otherwise unchanged)  at a friend's house all the more delicious; and, in those rare times when my mother would break down and buy a package of Honeycombs, the contents of the box would be gone the same day, as we raced to gorge ourselves on the forbidden flakes and to get to the loot at the bottom.
But we were allowed to sprinkle a spoonful of sugar on our Cornflakes, and that got me to thinking this morning, about the caloric implications of that largesse. It turns out that a teaspoon of sugar (and I suspect that we were piling a little more on in our youthful exuberance) is about 4.2 grams, and that the Cornflakes themselves contain 2.9, making for a total of 7.1 grams of sugar in a serving at Little D's breakfast table. By contrast, those horrible presweetened cereals have the following sugar content:

• Honey Nut Cheerios, 9g
• Cookie Crisp, 9g
• Lucky Charms. 10g
• Raisin Bran, 17g

In addition, all of the aforementioned cereals have about 100-110 calories per serving, except for the Raisin Bran, which has 160.
Not a lot of differentiation, really. I should also mention that, after granola appeared in the supermarket, we were also allowed something called Harvest Crunch. It turns out that, despite the wholesome name, the current incarnation of that product has 220 calories and 12 grams of sugar, 20% more than the frosted oat cereal with sweet surprises.

This is not the end of the debate about healthy breakfasts obviously, but weighed against smiles and good cheer around the breakfast table, I'm feeling pretty good about our choices.

Sunday Breakfast

As I've said before, Sunday often means pancakes, as well as church for Worldwide and the BG, and the New York Times for me. Although I've pretty much settled on a pancake recipe, there is still plenty of room for experimentation, and today was no exception. There were three new elements tested today, all successful.

1. Separating the egg yolk using a water bottle, and then beating the egg whites and folding them in at the end after the melted butter (result: fluffier)
2. Sifting the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl and then pouring them back into a four cup measure, which then served as the site for combining the wet and dry ingredients (result: one less bowl to clean)
3. adding mini marshmallows to the BG's pancakes (result: gooey and kid friendly)

Worldwide chose bananas for her filling, while the OG opted for her signature chocolate chip.

Continuous improvement. Tim Harford would approve

Four legs good

Daniel Yergin's The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World is a leading candidate for the coveted QB1 award this quarter. In addition to concisely laying out the history of energy use in the modern world, the author looks at all of the potential successors to oil and coal and the practicability and transitional challenge of each. I expected to come away from this book more optimistic, and though I did in a way, it's equally clear that the move from the current energy model is going to be a matter of decades, and that I may never get my hydrogen-powered jet pack.

One of the main points Yergin makes is that the most achievable gains in energy efficiency are to be had from adjusting current use patterns to be more efficient and economic. Properly inflating your tires and turning out the lights when you leave the room may not be as sexy as a solar panel, but they, and their like, are just as important, and attention must be paid.

I was thinking about this as I listened to Tristram Stuart's TED talk on the way to the Y this morning. He lays out, in fascinating detail how much food is wasted in the world (50% of available product in the developed world), and how much more efficient and better fed we could all be if we simply tried to squeeze every available calorie out of the current supply, and fed the remainder to pigs, turning waste into food, as it were. I'm certainly aware, from past experience and current news, how critical our porcine friends are to waste disposal in Egypt, but I hadn't fully understood the impediments to efficiency that are either regulatory, or a result of discerning consumer requirements (apparently lots of edible produce is discarded because it fails to meet certain aesthetic standards). This chart, from thinkprogress, along with the aforementioned 50% waste figure, shows how much available savings are right in front of us (enough in the US alone to feed the world's hungry, Stuart reckons)

So we throw a lot of stuff out in the developed world, and there are a lot of efficiencies to be realized on the production side everywhere. Again, it's not the "peanut butter and jelly capsule" but it does seem like awfully low hanging fruit.

Totally 80s

My boy Brian Ibbott delivers a great podcast of covers of and by 80s icons the Human League. Where else could you hear:

• Covers of songs from the soundtracks of Electric Dreams and The Neverending Story
• Human League covers of Gary Glitter, Iggy Pop and the Righteous Brothers
• An appalling cover of Human by Rick Springfield.

New York, Ice Cream, TV, travel, good times

Uptalk, part II

Right on the heels of my post from earlier this week, the local NPR station does a program on the phonically companion plagues of "uptalk" (also known as the "high rising terminal") and "vocal fry," An entertaining example of the former and a rant against the latter can be found, respectively, here and here.

More than you could possibly want to know, but entertaining nonetheless.

Triangle Biz

One of the reasons Big D is in the house is because I am, like many Americans, seeking employment. In all honesty, after my term with the judiciary ended in April, I didn't look too hard over the summer, preferring to ferry the Gs to various camps and to enjoy another brief sabbatical. Worldwide is busy and peripatetic; the stock market is up; the blog is fun, though not much is happening in the "audience development" department (more on that below).

But with the summer gone, it's time to get serious, and the facts that we don't want to move, and that the U.S. government seems to have decided that short projects to reform the judicial systems of other countries may not produce the intended return on investment, dramatically reduce the number of available opportunities.

Plus, the job search market seems to have changed quite a bit since the last time, in 2004, that I was looking. Craigslist, LinkedIn, Careerbuilder, and a number of service providers masquerading as head hunters have changed the landscape, though, not always for the better, it would seem.

So not getting a lot of return on my investment in the foregoing, Worldwide suggested that I look into a free seminar provided by the Triangle Business Journal, a paper devoted to reporting on local business activity. The ad, which I didn't read all that carefully, looked like the box at right.

About 15 people were there and we were greeted by an "Audience Development Manager." After going around the room for a brief set of introductions, she began the seminar. She was a little hard to take seriously, as she had that habit of ending every statement with an intonation that suggested it was a question, something that I now know is a "High Rise Terminal" and often accompanies nervousness in public: "So, if you're looking for a job? The best place to start is Page 1? There's an article about a Blue Cross expansion, so maybe you could, like, follow up?"

Ever curious (or curmudgeonly, perhaps), I raised my hand, asking politely about the best way to follow up in such a situation. She suggested that maybe I could send the CEO a note introducing myself and asking if we could meet for coffee. Gee, I thought, things would have been so much easier for Bud Fox is he could have just sent Gordon Gekko an email, rather than using his unctuous charm and a box of cigars to gain entree.

She proceeded to walk us through the paper page by page, explaining how bankruptcy filings were red flags, and generally how news is an excellent source of information. And that you can get it by subscribing? But wait. There's more. If you sign up, you also get a directory of all local businesses, organized alphabetically.

Like a lot of newspapers, there doesn't appear to be much to differentiate the paper from its online version, and doubtless that is the motivating force behind the subscription drive and the euphemistically brilliant discipline of "audience development."

Looking back at the ad, it doesn't claim to be doing anything other than it actually did, so I really can't complain. I suspect that the best opportunities are to be found through "soft contacts," 2nd or 3rd level network connections on social media, and LinkedIn seems to offer that possibility. However, I get so many contact requests from people for whom I don't quite understand the connection, I fear it may link itself into irrelevance. The Nigerians don't seem to have found it yet, but it's only a matter of time. I won't be subscribing, but I'll keep looking at the TBJ online. And I have registered for this event later in the week. If I don't identify any opportunities, I still might have something to, you know, write about?

Something for everyone

I have a cookbook called Classic 1000 Chinese recipes. It's a very workmanlike rendition of all of the recipes that the Chinese restaurants in Windsor Ontario offered in the early eighties. It's got a few exotic recipes as well (squid parcels, red-cooked lamb), but when I get the urge for kung pao chicken, or something similar, I pick it up, and it invariably delivers. I bought it at the Olson's book store on F street in 1992 (Yelp suggests it has since closed), and it has survived the several cookbook culls that have precipitated yet another change of venue.

Today I was looking at some leftover whole grain couscous, a couple of servings of leftover farfalle and a resealable container of canned pineapple that was starting to get a little long-in-the-fridge. I decided to make sweet and sour chicken, but a la famiile, which means cooking the sauce, vegetables and chicken separately. Further complicating matters, the OG has cheer and dance tonight, which means a 5:45 pickup at school, followed by a beeline to the studio; and the BG has tae kwan do from 5:15 to 6.

But no problem: you know who's in the house.  I put a couple of boneless chicken thighs (which I had taken out of the freezer this morning, when I got the idea, and quick-thawed in a bowl of hot water) in the toaster oven at 350, and made the sweet and sour sauce. While the sauce was simmering, I put on a cup of white rice, chopped half a small Bermuda onion and the top and bottom parts of a green pepper. I cut up the chicken, and I'll stir fry the vegetables just before I leave to pick up the OG. This means that discriminating diners can choose any combination of chicken, sauce and vegetables, and serve it over rice, couscous or pasta. If my math is correct, that makes 9 possible combinations (or 10 if you're on the Atkins diet, 24 if you include carb only options). You ought to be able to find something to like on that menu, right? Right?

Sweet and Sour Sauce (adapted from Sweet and Sour Chicken Livers recipe)
Bring 1/4 cup of vegetable stock and 4 slices of pineapple, with juice to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend 2 tbs cornstarch, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of wine vinegar, 1/4 cup of water into a paste. Stir into the sauce and simmer until properly thickened.

Muffin Man

We have a big red armchair in the living room. Ten years ago, when we got it, we were really into Blue's Clues, and, consequently, it's been known as the "Thinking Chair" ever since. On weekend mornings, I am usually the first person downstairs, and the BG is often the second. There is just enough room in the chair for both of us, and she will snuggle in with me, waiting a diplomatic five minutes or so before she enquires about her breakfast.

Yesterday she caught me looking at the Dining page of the New York Times. "Which one of these would you like for breakfast?" I asked. She chose the Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal pudding, and I made it, using regular oats, omitting the rose water, and substituting raspberries. She pronounced it "pretty good" (translation: "I don't like it all that much, but I love you.") and I was left with a cup, which I decided to eat after a quick trip to the gym.

The problem is, that, even though I'm crazy for most grains, I have never developed a taste for oatmeal. I've tried it dozens of ways, and it's just too--I'm struggling for the right word--gummy. But I thought that raspberries and coconut milk would win the day.

One bite and I knew I was wrong. I wondered if there were any uses for leftover oatmeal. Despite Worldwide's certainty that there weren't, I decided to check the Internet, where I found many suggestions for quick breads, muffins or pancakes. And sure enough, my first edition Joy of Cooking has a recipe for "Cooked Cereal Muffins," which I made this morning, adding a half cup of chocolate chips to seal the deal. I also used up a little leftover icing from the OG's cupcakes project last week, and the results were pretty spectacular. I didn't grease the muffin tin liners, though, and the product stuck pretty steadfastly to the parchment. Not sure that's avoidable, but next time I've got a cup of leftover raspberry coconut oatmeal, I'll let you know.

Cooked Cereal Muffins
Beat 2 egg yolks. Add 1 cup cooked oatmeal, 1 1/4 cups milk and 2 tbs melted butter. Sift, before measuring, 1 1/2 cups flour, then re-sift with 1 tbs sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp baking powder. Beat 2 egg whites until stiff. Combine liquid and dry ingredients, then fold in the egg whites. Fill well-greased muffin tin and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Note: I stirred half a cup of chocolate chips  into the batter, and iced the muffins. And my oatmeal had raspberries and coconut milk. But all of that seems far to random to put in a recipe.

I am a DJ

For today's booster club car wash fundraiser, the OG put together a playlist. She declined the obvious choice (at least I thought she did, but it seems to be there now), and was also hesitant to include anything that was in any way outside the mainstream, aiming, instead for guaranteed positive feedback over statements of individuality or an attempt at becoming a tastemaker.

I wrote about this awhile ago, citing the elusive "illusion of newness within the confines of the familiar" and, as someone who, in his salad days, communicated with girls mainly through mixtapes, I am painfully aware of how much thought and effort goes into music selection. ITunes may make it easier, but I suspect that the emotion in the game is unchanged.

In case you're not a Spotify user, here's the list of songs:

Rose Royce – Car Wash
Timbaland – All Night Long - featuring Missy Elliott and Timbaland
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
Madonna – 4 Minutes - feat. Justin Timberlake And Timbaland
Flo Rida – Club Can't Handle Me - Feat. David Guetta
Train – Drive By
OutKast – Hey Ya! - Radio Mix/Club Mix
Bobby Brown – My Prerogative
Owl City – Good Time
Havana Brown – We Run The Night - Edited
David Guetta – Who's That Chick ? (feat. Rihanna)
Jessie J – Price Tag
Flo Rida – Wild Ones - feat. Sia
Usher – More - RedOne Jimmy Joker Remix
Britney Spears – Gasoline
Ricki-Lee – Can't Touch It
Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer – Give Me Everything
P!nk – Raise Your Glass - Clean Version
Britney Spears – Till The World Ends
Karmin – Brokenhearted
Katy Perry – Tommie Sunshine's Megasix Smash-Up
Beyoncé – Countdown
David Guetta – Turn Me On - feat. Nicki Minaj
Maroon 5 – Moves Like Jagger - Studio Recording From The Voice Performance
Alex Clare – Too Close
Selena Gomez & The Scene – Hit The Lights
Jessie J – Domino
Calvin Harris – Feel So Close - Radio Edit
Neon Trees – Everybody Talks

Exploited workers

My boy Russ Roberts has a very interesting interview with Stanford's Roger Noll on the economics of sports. The most interesting takeaway for me was that, since the advent of free agency, professional athletes in the U.S. now earn 50-60% of their teams' total revenue. This is just a little below the average of workers in other industries.

Lunchbox verdict

The results are in from yesterday's lunch. 100% consumption rate. <Fist Pump>

But was it enough? Oh dear.

Comparing presidential candidates

People always look at me funny when I call their attention to Scott Adams' (of Dilbert fame) blog, but he is invariably funny and interesting. Yesterday he posted a funny and, in many ways, insightful comparison of the two presidential candidates:

If unemployment is the main thing that matters to you, I think you have to accept the fact that neither candidate has much control over it. But Romney is more likely to get something done, either good or bad. If you assume government inaction will lead to economic doom, the definition of insanity comes into play here. Insanity is doing the same thing you were doing and expecting a different outcome. By that line of reasoning, reelecting President Obama is a sign of mental illness. If you think Romney has only a 10% chance of improving things, but a gridlocked government under President Obama means certain economic doom, the sane person takes the 10% chance of survival. But keep in mind that you're only guessing on the odds.

What's in your lunchbox?

My dad calls my attention to a recent Globe and Mail interview with the author of a book looking at the contents of lunch boxes around the world. The article is a little light on what kids are actually eating, but the book author's anxiety over making sure that her kids get enough healthy, delicious food, while at the same time not incurring the wrath of the nutrition police is certainly familiar to me:

I frankly dread making lunch everyday. Every time I think that we’ve found something they’ll eat and we’re happy with they decide, they don’t like it. Unpacking the lunch at the end of the day when half of the food hasn’t been eaten is so demoralizing.

I try to empty the lunch boxes as soon as the Gs get home, and finding untouched food elicits an awful feeling of rejection and failure; they didn't like what I so lovingly selected, and they were doubtless miserable and starving all day, unable to focus on the lesson, condemned to a place at their safety school, unhappy misanthropes who will never forgiver their father's failures.

Perhaps that's overreacting; there is a dangerous tendency for parents to assign far too much importance to the quotidian details of their children's lives. But that's how things seem to work in the kindergarchy of today.

For the most part, my concern is making sure that the Gs get enough calories, and it is only recently that I have come to get some gentle push back, both from the kids and the teachers. Funny how it's the complete opposite of my own experience, where I was hungrily envious of the kids who had Ho Hos or chips in their lunches; now they exhort me to skew healthier. What's up with that?

We're in a groove right now, though, thanks to the BG's discovery of tofurky and the OG's embracing of pickles and peanuts (as a "healthy" replacement of the peanut butter cup). Here's what they took today:

BG
spaghetti with homemade pesto
strawberries
yogurt bar
smoked tofurky, rolled and stuffed with cream cheese
Entemann's black and white cookie

OG
two slices pastrami
soft pretzel
strawberries
whole grain chocolate chip cookie (recipe)
baby dill pickle
peanuts

Can't wait for the results of another referendum on my performance.

New York Station

My friend Pat is running in the New York City Marathon in November. If you would like to sponsor him by donating to the American Cancer Society, here is the link to his page.

We were talking about running music a couple of days ago, so I put the playlist below together--all songs about New York in some way. I tried not to use the songs already familiar to everyone, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Here is the link on Spotify. Skyscrapers. Everything.

Guru's Jazzmatazz – Transit Ride
Grandmaster Caz – South Bronx Subway Rap
Lloyd Cole – Radio City Music Hall (single-b-side)
Bob Dylan – Hard Times In New York Town - Live
They Might Be Giants – New York City
Beastie Boys – An Open Letter To NYC
Digable Planets – Pacifics (Sdtrk "N.Y. Is Red Hot")
A Tribe Called Quest – Check The Rhime
De La Soul – Wonce Again Long Island
Jill Sobule – Karen By Night
Lloyd Cole – NYC Sunshine
Freedy Johnston – Responsible
Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel #2
Prefab Sprout – Hey Manhattan!
The Notorious B.I.G. – Juicy
Kurtis Blow – 8 Million Stories
Steely Dan – Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)
Stevie Wonder – Living For The City
3rd Bass – Brooklyn-Queens
RUN-DMC – The Ave

Song of the Day

Waking my daughter up again in Chapel Hill.
Searching for another song of the day.
Some people claim that Big D's songs are lame,
But I know... that they're mostly OK.

Is College Worth It?

My girl, Megan McArdle is blogging again, now at the Daily Beast. It's fitting that I discovered this today, as I first started reading her blog in 2001, when she was volunteering at Ground Zero.

Today, in a Newsweek article she's looking at whether college is a good investment, and it's not the slam dunk that it used to be:

Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today, but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and more of the potential return. For borderline students, tuition hikes can push those returns into negative territory.

She articulates various reasons for the declining returns on education, including increased competition, spiraling costs, and the use of a degree as a "signal" of qualification, rather than indicia of actually valuable skills. She hammers this home with me, by looking at English majors with no skills who use law school as the springboard to a career. Today there are 45,000 graduates competing for 30,000 positions, which means that the high-paying, interesting jobs that JDs expect after three years are by no means guaranteed. As a clueless, average student from a pretty good law school, who wanted to relocate, I had a tough time finding a job in 1990, and then felt a lot of financial strain from the now piddling $30,000 of debt I'd incurred; I'm not sure that things would work out similarly for me today. Moreover, I was able to retire my loan debt by way of refinancing our DC mortgage (and then reselling the house) during the height of the housing bubble.

As I mentioned before in my post about Marginal Revolution University, I am hopeful that there will be some changes to the model before the OG is ready to matriculate, but that's just a scant five years away, not a lot of time for a thoroughgoing restructuring of hidebound academia.

So computers are replacing people, who are spending more on girding themselves to race against the machine, convinced that a gazillion dollars for a circle of lifetime friends and a short, cloistered respite from reality is a good "investment." That sounds eerily reminiscent of another bubble:

Just as homeowners took out equity loans to buy themselves spa bathrooms and chef’s kitchens and told themselves that they were really building value with every borrowed dollar, today’s college students can buy themselves a four-year vacation in an increasingly well-upholstered resort, and everyone congratulates them for investing in themselves.

We want to give our kids every chance to succeed, but I think we also have to be wary of buying in to the idea that what worked before is the way to go this time. I'm glad people with data are talking about it.

Pomegranates

The BG is delighted that pomegranates are in season, and a bowl of seeds is part of her lunch or snack most days. Ms. Macedonia (a former Worldwide nom de plume) wrote about the tree in our yard in 1997, and the fruit was also widely available on the Road 9 markets in Maadi.

Not my favourite fruit, in all honesty,but I do enjoy seeding them; it's like extracting treasure from an unlikely source. I cut off the bottom, and then cut the fruit pole-to-pole into 4 sections. Then I scoop out the seeds with my finger into a bowl of water. Since they sink, any of the pith that comes off, will float on top of the bowl and can be easily skimmed off.

Back in the kid-free days, we were challenged to find uses for the giant bag of pomegranates our Macedonian landlord proudly  presented to us, and I recall some clumsy juice extraction, which made for a decent marinade for chicken. There don't seem to be a lot of documented uses for the seeds (beyond sprinkling a few on a salad) that aren't overly labour intensive (jam or juice) for my taste, so we'll just keep eating them like popcorn until the end of the year, when they disappear from the produce section.

Interesting to learn, via Wikipedia and the Internet, that the fruit is a native of Persia, and that California is the major North American source. Also curious that the etymology of pomegranate, um, stems from "apple of Grenada" (the town in Spain) and that "grenades" were so known because of their similarity in shape to the eponymous fruit. They also bring back happy memories of bedtime stories, when D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (a childhood favourite of mine) was a starring performer, and the story of Persephone (and those six delicious forbidden pomegranate seeds) a frequent request of both Gs.

The most entertaining Wizards site ever (currently moribund it would seem) discourses on the existential essence of the Washington Wizards:

Our Wizards are Sisyphus' stone, an absurdest act, our region's ecumenical existentialism. Embrace the endless Emptiness before the emptiness embraces you. Others have heard the mermaids singing, but not you. But fret not, no despair! Buy a foam finger and stare into the abyss! Be a patient etherized upon a table, a box seat, the nosebleeds! Let the season begin! WE DROWN!

Read the whole thing. The tragedy would be epic if it weren't so fundamentally uninteresting.

Cheer it up, G!

Defending conference champions start the 2012 season with an Overtime victory.

The Producer

A recent Economist article reports that Americans throw out 40% of the food they buy. I find fresh produce to be the most challenging part of kitchen management. I like to have it on hand, but I hate throwing away spoiled fruits and vegetables, and I don't want to go to the the farmers market or the grocery store every day.

I am keeping an herb garden, but the ubiquitous deer and my own laziness have kept me from planting a vegetable garden. Nevertheless, in our quest to live better and eat well, I have adopted a couple of  practices to squeeze a little more out of the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen.

I posted awhile ago about smoothies, which I'm still making them regularly. I'm also moving fruit on the edge of ripeness into the freezer, and using it as either a base or a complement in the next smoothie. This works nicely with strawberries, peaches and bananas: their frozen state improves the consistency of the smoothie, and even the supertasters don't notice any difference.

Yesterday, I turned some disappointing Granny Smith apples into a pie. Nothing like the addition of copious quantities of brown sugar and butter to spice things up!

Finally, I'm a big fan of vegetable soup. Using the basic guide of 3 cups of stock for every 2 cups of vegetables, I've made lots of tasty lunches over the last couple of years. I like to simmer the vegetables for ten minutes, and then to puree everything. I'll often add some more cut up potatoes, carrots, leftover rice or the like at this point, and simmer a further ten minutes, until the additional stuff is cooked. I like curry powder, cajun seasoning and smoked paprika as spices, but pretty much anything plausible should work

Mark the Bird...

In my salad days, I paid little attention to birds. My attitude towards feeding them was similar to the banker in Mary Poppins who urges the boy who wants to spend his tuppence on birdseed to open a bank account. "Feed the birds, and you know what you've got? Fat birds."

When I moved in with Worldwide, she had a bird feeder just off the patio, and, since the television and the sofa were close to the door, I couldn't help but be aware of the activity outside. Slowly I developed an interest in identifying the visitors, and, with the help of our Peterson guide, I soon recognized them all, and even grew to appreciate subtleties like the nuthatches' unique approach (upside down) and the woodpeckers' love of peanuts.

As we've moved around, the feeder has accompanied us, and I've enjoyed encountering new species. Although cervine and sciurid interlopers currently consume approximately 90% of our birdseed, we persevere, and have welcomed the Carolina Wren, the Indigo Bunting and the Rufous Towhee into our world. But lately, with the chimney swifts off to Darkest Peru, a new bird has appeared. Largely unremarkable, except for his ground speed, I have pegged him as a brown thrasher, described thusly by Wikipedia:

The Brown Thrasher is bright reddish-brown above with thin, dark streaks on its buffy underparts. It has a whitish-colored chest with distinguished teardrop-shaped markings on its chest. Its long, rufous tail is rounded with paler corners, and eyes are a brilliant yellow. Its bill is brownish, long, and curves downward. 

Check out my "buffy underparts"

Changes at the margin

My boys at Marginal Revolution have been talking a lot over the last few years about the changes coming to higher education, driven by competition, advances in technology and declines in marginal utility, as tuition costs continue into the stratosphere and graduates look for jobs.

Today, they announced the launch of Marginal Revolution University, an online teaching facility designed to teach economics using a series of short videos. The concept is simple, by design, and will evolve as they figure out what works and what doesn't.

Of particular interest to me is the first module, Development Economics:

We will cover theories like the Solow and O-ring models and we will cover the empirical data on development and trade, foreign aid, industrial policy, and corruption. Development Economics will include not just theory but a wealth of historical and factual information on specific countries and topics, everything from watermelon scale economies and the clove monopoly to water privatization in Buenos Aires and cholera in Haiti. A special section in this round will examine India. There are no prerequisites for this course but neither is it dumbed down. We think there will be material in Development Economics that will be of interest to high school students in the United States and Bangladesh and also to PhDs in economics, even to those who specialize in this field.

Sounds like a whisper. I have signed up and encourage you to check it out. Looks like Big D and the Gs might not be crushed by the costs of higher education after all. Time to move money in the 529 plans into the NASDAQ?

Rappin' Basketball

Two songs in heavy rotation in our house are deep cuts from the 1980s, Kurtis Blow's Basketball and One Way's Cutiepie. The OG knows the former by heart and I am prone to sing the latter in the morning, when one of the Gs is looking particularly smart.

Today at the gym, Professor Groove introduced me to the NBA rap, which I later learned is by forgotten rapper "Hurt-em bad." Not too often you hear Jack Sikma, Caldwell Jones and Norm Nixon singled out for praise in the same song.

Simple Gifts

People love presents. That is not news to anyone. But presents are usually associated with holidays, and the excitement and rituals that accompany them sometimes detract from the joy of giving and receiving. Plus, birthdays aside, most gift giving holidays involve a surfeit of stuff, which, in turn, diminishes the individual value of each gift.

Last year, we decided to do a family gift exchange on February 29th, to celebrate the leap year. We drew names a month in advance, and when the day arrived, revealed who we'd drawn, and what we'd got them.

The Gs enjoyed this so much  that they were clamoring to do it again, and we decided to celebrate Labor Day with another draw, setting a limit of $5 in an attempt to combat the evils of materialism and to encourage creativity. Here's the result:

• BG made bath salts and scented oil for Worldwide.
• OG organized a scavenger hunt for the BGs, including trivia and stunts.
• Wordwide made a "Chopped" box for me featuring green apples, pancake mix, green chillies and Cambodian peppercorns.
• I made a Spotify playlist for the OG, and purchased the Stax Record Story, which I found on Amazon for $6.99 (a little bit over the limit, admittedly, but no-one complained).

 A very successful exchange. I made vegetable risotto with green apples and chillies for dinner last night, along with pancake batter-dipped onion rings, and the Gs did a very funny imitation of the judges ("the apples add a nice crunch, but I'm not tasting the chillies;" "the onion rings are very creative, but I'm not sure they belong alongside a rice dish."

I'm also really pleased with the playlist, as it includes a number of deep cuts, which I'd never heard before, and only discovered by browsing on Spotify. For those of you who use it, here's a link to the playlist. Otherwise, here are the songs:

Otis Redding – Trick Or Treat
Sam & Dave – I Thank You
Wilson Pickett – Barefootin'
Rufus Thomas – (Do the) Push and Pull (Part 1)
Booker T. & The MG's – Hip Hug-Her
Carla Thomas – Tramp
Albert King – Kansas City
Eddie Floyd – Big Bird
Arthur Conley – Funky Street
Isaac Hayes – Run Fay Run
Little Milton – Grits Ain't Groceries (All Around The World)
The Emotions – I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love
The Bar-Kays – Shake Your Rump To The Funk -
The Staple Singers – Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)
Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come
Jean Knight – (He Ain't Nothin' But) Dirt
Otis Redding – My Girl [Live in London]
Otis Redding – Stand By Me

Kids Menu

The Gs have reached the age where the maitre'd has to ask them if they want a kids menu, and, as much as they like the idea of being grown up, they also know like being assured of finding something palatable, along with something crayon-related of mild interest to pass the time.

Last night, after a day of riding the waves at an overcast but otherwise delightful Wrightsville Beach, we headed into Wilimington to explore the historic downtown and the restaurants and shops of the Riverwalk. We settled on a riverside restaurant with a broad menu, featuring what I'll call "fancy american" dishes. The Gs were both handed a kids menu, and the OG selected the pasta (marinara sauce on the side, untouched), while the BG went for the same pasta, but with butter instead of sauce (both came with a ridiculously inappropriate sise of french fries, BTW). I had a hummus trio appetizer (which was both bland, and far too large to be so labeled, while Worldwide selected a crab dip, which turned out to be a decadently delicious (and also inappropriately large) bowl of crab, mayonnaise and garlic on toast. Sadly, the dip left her too full to enjoy her grilled salmon over spinach salad, but I had no such problem with a creamy shrimp and grits, which made up for a lack of spices with overly generous gobs of cheese and cream.

After dinner, when the BG asked Worldwide to help her find the bathroom, I summoned our waiter. "It's my wife's birthday." I told him. "Do you have any kind of a birthday-type dessert?" He recommended a double chocolate cake, which I asked him to bring at the appropriate time.

Two minutes later, he was back, telling me that his manager had decreed an end to providing free birthday cakes to patron. That hadn't even occurred to me, and he was decidedly relieved to hear that I was more interested in effecting a surprise than in scoring a freebie.

After the cake (with four forks) arrived, and we were walking back to the car, I asked the BG why she hadn't ordered the artichoke dip, which seemed to be right up her epicurean alley. "They gave me the kids menu" she explained, "so I thought that I should order from it."

In light of this, and in light of the picky eaters of today, as well as those like my grandmother, who frequently asked if she could order a kid-sized portion, we recommended a new approach: that kids meals appear on the full menu, as "light bites" or something similar, and that they be available to all. That way, the kids will not feel shut out of the full menu, the picky eaters can find something acceptable, and everybody walks away happy.

It's not easy being a kid. We think it is, but we're wrong.