[Sca-cooks] Procrastinating while the caffeine kicks in...

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

So here I am, waiting for the caffeine contained in the enormous thermal
carafe of Iron Goddess of Mercy tea (a very subtle, whole-leaf green
tea, not the kind that dissolves the enamel off your teeth, although
this batch is rather strong) to enter my bloodstream and make a night of
12th-Night-related paperwork possible as it sings through my veins...

...and I think I'll post a fairly inconsequential account of my
adventures at Fairway Foods earlier today. Well, I got some good stuff,
mostly for home use, with one or two really significant items of interest.

Stocked up on good olives again, mostly Cerignolas, firm green ones from
Sicily, that crunch like an apple when you bite them, and whose oil
tastes and smells like fruit.

Some nice full-fat Brie and a wedge of Irish Cashell Blue. So who wants
to live forever?

Anchovies. I can hear you yawning. But these are the real thing, not
just hairy rib bones, grease and salt. You can actually pick up a fillet
with a fork (no, it does not dissolve in the process), put it on bread
or even eat it off the fork. Even the olive oil in the jar tastes good.
It turns out that real anchovies taste like more than just salt and
rancidity. They're extremely rich, which is probably why salting them is
such a good idea. Not only can you keep them for a long time, but you
_want_ to, and it's a built-in reminder not to overdo it.

Baguette. Pretty standard, very light sourdough taste, very crunchy.
Good with anchovies, Brie, and Cerignola olives.

Speck. Air-cured German prosciutto equivalent.

Westphalian ham. This was for my lady wife.

Sopressata for da kid.

Olive oil. Lots of it. In fact, 3 three-liter tins. One for home, one
for EK12N, and one for my mother-in-law, who has finally decided that
there's something Europeans do better than the Southern Chinese. This is
an Umbrian blend, cold-processed extra-virgin. They upped the price to a
sickeningly extravagant $13.99 for the tin.

Various other stuff. Fairway makes their own brand of hot dogs. Good
quality but nothing special, just not as vile as many.

Oh, a small bottle of verjuice for 12th Night, probably to go into the
onion sauce for pork.

And the mother of all amazing discoveries (for today, anyway)...

7-pound loaves of queso de membrillo being sold at the _cheese_ counter.
This after tentatively promising my kingdom cotignac/quince marmalade
for 12th Night, only to discover that quince season seems to have ended
early and rather disappointingly around here. The few quinces I've seen
have been all spotty, small and rather expensive. It turns out, though,
that this commercial product contains quinces, sugar, and not much else,
and isn't significantly more expensive than the weight of quinces I
would need to produce the same weight in a home-made product, while
simultaneously saving me the actual prep and production time, as well as
the cost of the sugar needed. I can either slice it into slabs, or if
overcome by an attack of free time I can heat it up and remold the stuff.

Oh, and a 10% discount if I buy whole loaves...

Could that be light I see at the end of the tunnel?

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98