A couple of spreadsheets with seed germination times and temperatures, days to maturity, and the minimum temperature that the adult plants will tolerate.
The spreadsheets only contain the plants that:
1. Do well in the Pacific Northwest. That’s where we are.
2. Do well in containers. That’s how we’re gardening.
and
3. Represent plants we’ll potentially eat.
I’ll likely add more plants at a later date, either because I overlooked the plant on the first pass, or because somebody else asks for the info. As it was, I made more manageable spreadsheets (and saved work) by not including most of the root vegetables, as well as the veggies that we’re unlikely to consume.
Much of the information is from the Territorial Seed website. The balance was drawn from various online, reasonably reputable sources (other seed houses, edu sites, etc.)
If you are free on Thursday nights, you should join me at the Populuxe Brewery for their weekly science experiment known as Cask Night. Most Thursdays, they tap a cask of something delicious and interesting for your drinking pleasure and, in most cases, those beers are fun. One of their experiments was with a dry hopped saison. Not a beer that you would normally associate with a cask beer, which meant that I needed to try it. The beer clocked in at 7.3% ABV and was dry hopped with horizon.
The beer pours hazy orange in color with plenty of grain on the nose coupled with lemon and passion fruit accompanied with light hop notes. The beer is dry on the initial taste with lots of grain before transitioning off to a pleasant hop middle coupled with citrus and lemon, before finishing slightly tangy with long notes of passion fruit and citrus. The classic saison earthiness/grassiness runs throughout this beer, but there was a touch of alcohol burn at the back of the throat on the very end of this beer which, while not unpleasant, did distract from the finish.
Populuxe brings in back home with their Dry Hopped Saison, carting in a strong 4 musty barns out of 5.
According to the blog stats, this will be post #1000 for CSE. Coincidentally, it took us almost exactly 4 years to reach that number – our first post was on February 18th, 2010 when AJ Coltrane (who was then just known as Coltrane) posted about the NBA Celebrity All-Star game. Blaidd Drwg then followed it up the next day with a sappy post about retiring baseball players. My first post was a few days later about a controversy in Italy over eating cat (and I still see no reason why they are not a viable protein source). Coltrane’s famous pizza posts began with his base dough recipe on March 11th. Our first comment was posted by loyal reader Junior Joey Jo-Jo Shabadu (somehow I don’t think that is his real name) to Coltrane’s first post on February 19th.
For those of you who were not with us in the beginning days of the blog, the early posts were mildly entertaining and full of charts and graphs, mostly about sports, some about food and rarely about games (our first games post was June 26th, 2010), posted sporadically over the first few months, maybe one or two a week. I am pretty sure the first few months the only people reading the blog were the writers and a handful of people who were married to/related to the writers. There were emails between the writers when we would see comments from people we didn’t recognize trying to figure out who we told about the blog and celebrating that someone new was actually reading our stuff.
We had a few hiccups along the way – who will ever forget the failed WordPress update we had in January of 2013 that crashed the site and led to a frantic call from Coltrane and me spending a couple of hours getting the site back up (we still don’t have any pre-2012 pictures on the site – I should get around to that at some point) without losing any content. There were a few posts that my computer crashed on before I ever saved them and there are the spelling errors which drive Mrs. Iron Chfe nuts (I did that for your Mrs. Iron Chef).
The blog has grown since then in term of quality, quantity, scope and readership. I started posting my beer reviews mostly because I wanted someplace that I could reference them easily and not be completely screwed if I lost my notebook. That had the added side benefit of bringing in a bunch of new readers. Coltrane started urban gardening in earthboxes and his lessons and pictures brought in all sorts of folks doing the same thing. Both Coltrane and I have become better cooks and it shows in what we are posting. Coltrane and Blaidd Drwg have become more analytical about sports and make some pretty rock solid cases for what they are writing about. There are now posts almost daily (granted most of those are from the horrible backlog of beer notes I have), but I would also like to think that we have become better writers because of it.
Despite my usual sarcasm, snark and general obscure sense of humor, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our readers, whether you started reading us at the beginning or just found us last week. We write on this blog to entertain ourselves and I would have never guessed that I would still be doing that 4 years later. Hopefully you find our blog as useful, entertaining and informative as we do. If you are a regular reader (or even an irregular reader), feel free to leave a comment or drop us a line on Facebook, and tell us how you found us – it is still exciting for us when we find out we have picked up a new reader.
Until our next 1000 posts (or my next post, whichever comes first), this is Iron Chef Leftovers signing off and to quote the immortal writing of the great Bartholomew Jo-Jo Simpson:
The current go-to focaccia. This is the one I make when I have three hours to prepare something — short notice by bread standards.
The Recipe:
1. Finely slice 100g of onion. (Red onion, sweet onion, scallions, bunch onions — they all work.) Lightly saute the onion in 100g (7 TBP) of extra virgin olive oil. The idea is to remove the rawness from the onion and to impart that flavor into the oil. Let the oil cool for a few minutes, until the pan is no longer hot to the touch. 64g of the oil is used in the dough, below:
Ingredient
Quantity
Bakers %
Bread Flour
800g
100
Water
600g
75
Ex Virgin Olive Oil
64g
8
Kosher Salt
20g
2.50
Instant Yeast
2 tsp
Thinly Sliced Onion
~100g
2. Combine all ingredients in a KitchenAid and mix with the dough hook, low speed for 15 minutes.
3. Place parchment paper in a 13″ x 18″ sheet pan, leaving enough to go up the sides and hang over a little. Very lightly oil the parchment paper, then scrape the dough out onto the parchment.
4. Oil your fingers and gently stretch the dough towards the edges of the sheet tray. It doesn’t have to go all the way to the edges. It will settle somewhat towards the edges on its own.
5. Cover the dough for 1:45. At the 1:45 mark turn the oven to 425F. Oil your fingers again and dimple the dough. Spread the onion and remaining olive oil over the top of the dough.
6. When the oven is hot, bake the focaccia for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 15 minutes.
—-
Notes:
Halving the recipe will work. Reduce the pan size and the baking time to a total of about 24 minutes.
The crumb has a relatively fine texture, inspired by this Rose Levy Beranbaum recipe. The Beranbaum recipe calls for a very long mixing time (basically 20-30 minutes on medium speed) and an even larger amount of water.
One nice thing about making a focaccia for company rather than a leaner bread, is that the extra oil helps prevent staling while it’s sitting around.
Every year I look forward to the early fall release of my favorite pumpkin beer – Elysian’s Dark O’ the Moon. I love the stout combined with the roasted pumpkin and just a hint of spice to balance and bring the beer to the next level. The best part of this beer is it is available both on tap and in bottles (about $7 for a 22 oz. one), so it is readily accessible. This review is for the beer I had on tap.
From the Elysian website:
TASTING NOTES
Pours dark as night with creamy tan head. A little smokiness on the nose with malty bittersweet chocolate and a little coffee with subtle earthy pumpkin and spices for an overall nice and creamy mouth.
MALTS
Great Western pale, Crisp 77° Crystal, Munich, Cara-Vienne, roasted, chocolate and Special B
HOPS
Bittered with Magnum and finished with Saaz and crushed cinnamon
SPECIAL
Pumpkin in the mash, kettle and fermenter
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 20
The beer pours jet black in color with copious amounts of roasted pumpkin, roasted malt and chocolate on the nose with background notes of allspice and cinnamon. Pumpkin dominates the palate early on before yielding to roast malt and grain with bits of pumpkin pie spice and finally finishing out with a rather intense and moderately long chocolate and cinnamon finish – intense dark chocolate and cocoa nibs (not at all sweet) and a strong burn of cinnamon, with just a hint of bitterness coupled with more pumpkin notes. The chocolate plays hide and seek on the tongue long after the sip, but is eventually overwhelmed by building cinnamon, especially as the beer warms, to the point where the cinnamon becomes the dominant flavor on the finish by the end of the pint. The 2013 version is definitely more cinnamon forward but the chocolate and pumpkin notes are still present and discernable, but the increase in the cinnamon intensity seems to throw the beer out of balance. Still delicious, but not as great as it has been in the past. I am wondering if the cinnamon needed a bit more time to mellow out and integrate into the rest of the beer.
Elysian Dark O’ the Moon draws blood with 3 Warren Zevons out of 5.
I don’t generally like to bake, partially because I hate following recipes and partially because I usually end up eating too much of the finished product. However, when it comes to parties, it is nice to have something sweet on hand that can feed a large number of people easily, and brownies fit that bill very well. The better the chocolate used in these, the better the brownies will be. There are so few other ingredients that you will actually be able to taste the more subtle flavors that the chocolate will carry, so use one that you like the taste of when eating it on its own. The recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
The Recipe
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Make a Foil Sling using the following steps: Cut 18-inch length foil and fold lengthwise to 8-inch width. Fit foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Cut 14-inch length foil and fit into width of pan in the same manner, perpendicular to the first sheet (if using extra-wide foil, fold second sheet lengthwise to 12-inch width). Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Whisk cocoa and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in bittersweet chocolate pieces. (this may seem like a bunch of steps, but it comes together very quickly)
Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours.
Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.
Notes
This is a very easy recipe and makes a big pan of chewy, dense, intensely chocolaty brownies, just prep everything in advance. These are nice with a small sprinkle of sea salt on top, but really just work fine on their own. I like using chocolate in the 70-85% range for this (my preferred chocolate is Kallari), but the original recipe calls for 60%, so you can use that. I wouldn’t use chocolate under 60% (the brownies will be very sweet) or over 85% (never tried this, but I suspect that the chocolate chunks won’t end up melting enough). The notes from the Cook’s Illustrated recipe:
For the chewiest texture, it is important to let the brownies cool thoroughly before cutting. If your baking dish is glass, cool the brownies 10 minutes, then remove them promptly from the pan (otherwise, the superior heat retention of glass can lead to overbaking). While any high-quality chocolate can be used in this recipe, our preferred brands of bittersweet chocolate are Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV and Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar. Our preferred brand of unsweetened chocolate is Scharffen Berger. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
It is strange that many of the European styles of beer have not carried over to the U.S. Sure, the popular ones like lager, pilsner and stout have well established followings, but there are some hyper-regional styles that have never really had a mass following in the U.S. Altbier is one of them. Sure, there are a few out there (I had a blurb about one of them a few years back here), but you have to do some digging if you want to find one. Altbier is in that grouping. Fortunately for us, the fine guys at Reuben’s were kind enough to brew one. The Reuben’s version comes in at 5.1% ABV and 32 IBU. What is Altbier you might ask? Well, from Wikipedia:
Altbier (German for ‘old beer’) is a style of beer originating in Germany. It was first brewed in the historical region of Westphalia and is a speciality of the city of Düsseldorf. Its name comes from its production using the technique of top fermentation, an older method than bottom fermentation, characteristic of lager styles of beer.
The beer pours dark tan in color with a milk white head. Notes of malt and dried fruit dominate the nose with mild hints of citrus supporting. The beer starts out on the palate light and crisp before moving to a quick hit of toffee and stone fruit before finishing mildly bitter but in a very pleasant way – not a hop bitterness, but a coffee like bitterness. Refreshing with a good level of complexity and depth, slightly stronger flavors than a mild, but not as rich and deep as a brown. My only complaint is how quickly the beer moved between its layers – they were delicious and complex and I found myself wanting them to hang around longer. Otherwise, this beer is very easy drinking and refreshing and you could easily sit down with 2 or 3 in a session.
Reuben’s Altbier invades with 4 blitzkriegs out of 5.
8-Bit Arcade Bar first opened on November 22, 2013. We hit it on Friday night. There was a good crowd, though the photos below don’t show it. Here’s what you see when you open the front door:
Defender and Zaxxon on the right. BurgerTime on the immediate left. That’s Princess Peach on the door of the ladies room. The next picture shows maybe 1/2 (or less) of the pinball machines:
They had a few very old games I’d never seen before. Pictured is Sea Devil. It’s a pre-video game really (1969-1970). You look through the periscope and use eight torpedos to try to sink as much tonnage of ships as possible. Here’s a YouTube link to somebody playing it.
There’s a nice selection of cocktail games too, including Q-bert, Joust, and Asteroids. Six cocktail tables in total.
There are four beers on tap and some of the usual suspects available in cans. The tap beer was $5. They also offer small pizzas that are on the spendy side.
The games all cost a quarter. We played Moon Patrol, Tempest, Q-bert, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Galaga, Galaxian, Xevious (which was super hard), Dig-Dug, and a few others. If you’ve seen it in an old-school arcade then it’s probably at 8-Bit. The proprieter said that they’re working to add popular games to the mix — the grand opening was delayed, and it cost them dibs on a few machines. Right now there are maybe 50 video games and 25 pinball machines. It’s a good collection as it is.
So: They have beer, the difficulty levels on the games are reasonable overall, there’s a good selection, and the games are in good condition as a group. And, to repeat, everything is 25 cents!
Skookum is a funny sounding word, but I really solid (albeit small) brewery up in Arlington, WA. For the longest time, if you wanted their beers, you needed to make the trek up I-5 and wind your way through Arlington to get to their brewery, which kept inconsistent hours. Things have changed and their beers occasionally make the trip down to Seattle and show up on tap at various places. Seeing the Imperial Breakfast Stout on tap at Chuck’s, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to try it.
The beer pours jet black in color with a coffee colored head and shows off with lots of dark roasted malt and coffee – definitely reminded me of my morning cup of coffee. The beer starts out slightly sweet before moving on to its heavier flavors of toffee and dark chocolate with a hint of cocoa nibs before finishing with a light bitterness couple with black coffee and roasted grains. The bitterness is just enough to give it a little bite without being off-putting and really made it remind me of a good cup of black coffee (as far as I can tell, there is no actual coffee in the beer). Well balanced with deep and bold flavors, the Imperial Breakfast Stout is a great beer to have with your toast and morning paper instead of your regular cup of joe.
Skookum Brewery’s Imperial Breakfast Stout draws in with a strong 3 double espresso shots out of 5.
I love Rob Neyer. I think he is a great writer and we share many of the same opinions about the game of baseball. He recently wrote about the Shin Soo Choo for Ben Broussard disaster trade in 2006. One of the really cool things about the article is that he actually talked to Bill Bavasi about it. I was surprised by this comment from the former Mariners GM:
When I got there it was made REAL clear they didn’t want any five-year plans … and that I’d get a mulligan in 2004 but, from then on they’d expect consistent improvement toward a postseason. When I say “improvement” I mean relative to our record. So even though we operated under some pressure to tangibly improve on a regular basis, the Choo and Cabrera trades were a product of my own stupidity and good work by the Indians.
When was the last time that a GM admitted that a bad trade was his fault? I give Bavasi credit for laying the blame exactly where it is due. Now if Z would only realize the same thing about the moves he has made…
FlatbreadGarden 