Wine and flowers by biskuit

What can you do in three-and-a-half minutes? In this amount of time you could:

* Watch seven commercials.

* Solve a Rubik’s Cube (I have high hopes for you).

* Make your arms look like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s with incline hammer curls and still have time to collapse afterward.

* Wait for dial-up to load this page (luckily just a distant, unhappy memory for me).

* Audition for and get booted from American Idol (and have a good, on-camera cry).

** You could also increase your wine appreciation by becoming an olfactory expert.

Science News reported on a 2006 study by Northwestern University showing that being exposed to single odors for as little as three-and-a-half minutes resulted in a certain amount of expertise in that odor ~ meaning that people were then able to differentiate different sub-types of the same odor. For wine lovers who are new to the field, this is an important step in being able to discern and remember similarities and differences between wines.

The 2006 study examined the development of expertise in odors such as mint (image courtesy of ndrwfgg)

One of the most common complaints I get from new students and wine customers goes something like this: “You smell and taste that wine, and then you throw out all these descriptive words like jammy or earthy, stone fruit or cassis. I can’t smell/taste/discern the difference between these wines. I’m not tasting the flavors you describe. It just tastes like wine!”

My answer is always simply to practice. Practice smelling, practice tasting, practice noticing. This is not like algebra homework: practicing with wine should be a pleasure, an indulgence, a moment of ease (unless you are studying for your Master of Wine comprehensives, and then I imagine you would feel more of a psychotic meltdown sensation).

The next time you pour a glass of wine, take three-and-a-half minutes to pay attention. Swirl the wine around in the glass. Notice the color, and the way the light plays through the liquid. Take a deep sniff: don’t be afraid to get your nose in there and really smell! Close your eyes and think about what the wine smells like without any external distractions. Repeat this once or twice: do you get the same smells every time? At last, when your mouth is watering in anticipation, take a sip. Let the wine swirl around in your mouth, and notice the texture and the flavor. The rest flows like magic: if you repeat this noticing, you will begin to detect the subtleties of scent and flavor.

Your experience of wine will expand with every bottle you open and every glass you pour. It will deepen with every moment of noticing, and the dimensions of pleasure and appreciation you may encounter are limitless. Three-and-a-half minutes: this tiny investment of time is all it takes to begin unfolding your wine expertise.

Unfolding potential: tiny new grapes by FrenchSelfCatering

.

Hidden treasure beneath the irises

I am sprinkled with dirt, sweat and a bit of mulch, as usual. The blonde hair that falls from beneath my hat is decorated with leaves and the occasional small branch. I pay little attention to these details, though: right now I am focused on weeds. Unwanted residents of the garden, these little plants, flowers, creeping grasses and mysterious vines spring out of nowhere and grow larger by the hour, quickly choking out my desirable plants and challenging my overall Plan.

They must go.

Sometimes I get out a spade or trowel for these naughty bits; sometimes I just pull with my suede gloves. Today, though, I am just going bare-handed, gently twisting my fingers beneath the mulch of the new herb garden and pulling the tiny new green shoots out at the base and tossing them into the yard for mower food. I work into a rhythm, pulling and tossing, slowly letting the adrenaline of the last few days ebb out of me and allowing space for contemplation and peace. Plane rides, cacophonies of voices, decisions, memories all gently relax and organize themselves in the back of my mind, while the front contents itself with “twist, pull, toss.”

Young sage in morning dew

The garden has grown up even since I saw it last Thursday evening before I left town. I am always amazed by the power of my garden, and how it grows, changes, and heals all the little mistakes I make. I suppose it is a reminder to me that when nourished and given a little room, Life will always take care of itself.

Purple blossoms in sunlight

.

Earthworm by Ben Ketaro

Most gardeners are appreciative of the value of worms to the garden. Creeping about in the darkness of your herb gardens and rose beds, these tiny denizens of the earth aerate the soil and provide some of the richest, most potent natural fertilizer known. When soil and rotting materials pass through the worm’s gut, many disease-causing pathogens are destroyed; helpful microorganisms, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and plant hormones are added. Worm castings are so full of nutrients that even when diluted with water (the delicious-sounding “compost tea” or “worm castings tea”) they effectively provide plants with everything they need to grow lush and green. An added benefit is that this type of fertilizer is very natural and safe ~ you need never worry about harmful effects on people or household pets.

Today I see more and more gardeners adding vermicomposting to their garden projects. With a little background reading on worms’ favorite foods and perhaps some ideas on bin styles and sizes, nearly anyone can enjoy virtually-odorless composting ~ even city dwellers. This is one great “small step” along the path of reducing waste through a lifestyle change, and it’s really painless.

Vermicomposting Tips:

~ Vermicomposting bins need not be large, and they can fit well into urban spaces. There should be little to no odor, as the worms will readily consume most of your household organic waste (although there are a few things, like onions, that they don’t appreciate so much).

~ When choosing or designing your bin, you may wish to consider how you will separate the worms from the castings. There are some ingenious designs to accomplish this, but some of the more patient gardeners simply pour all the compost out onto a white tarp or plastic sheet and let the worms exit before removing the compost to the garden.

~ In my readings the general consensus seems to be that tiny red “wiggler” worms (Eisenia foetida) are the best for composting, followed by the larger red worms (Lumbricus rubellas). I would be interested to hear from anyone who has found good results from other kinds of worms.

.
While I ended up revising my original composting plan after learning that worms aren’t crazy about fresh chicken droppings, I am planning to incorporate a vermiculture composting bin for kitchen wastes on the other side of the garage later this summer. The chicken waste-composting bin has worked really well so far, and I expect even more good compost for next spring’s planting.

Terracycle’s products in recycled packaging

Taking vermicomposting to another level: TerraCycle’s eco-capitalism

Vermicomposting has become so popular that is finally earning the attention of business folk as a potentially lucrative market. TerraCycle is a fresh, young company bringing some long-overdue earth-friendly business practices into play with vermiculture ~ and making a great gardening product in the process.

In a nutshell, TerraCycle’s activities include:

~ Using red worms to process organic waste; the processed material is then liquefied and converted into plant food.

~ Sponsoring paid recycling programs for items such as plastic soda bottles, juice drink pouches, yogurt containers, and even foil cookie wrappers.

~ Using these recycled products to package the liquid plant food. Only recycled products are used for every step of the business process.

The whole concept of the company is refreshing and ingenious to me, and it can all be boiled down into the idea that there is no waste. There is no need to generate and discard materials, filling up landfills and creating environmental issues. These young men have proven that eco-capitalism can work, and through their efforts they have become fine examples to the rest of us as to just what we can accomplish on this little planet of ours. It’s amazing what you can grow with a little garbage and a few worms!

Child holding earthworm by bzo

.
If you would like to explore vermicomposting, you might check out some of these links:

Journey to Forever’s article on Vermicomposting
http://journeytoforever.org/compost_worm.html

TerraCycle home page
http://www.terracycle.net/index.htm

Worm Woman’s site full of resources
http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/index.html

and, to be fair, we’ll also include ~

Friendly Worm Guy’s blog out of Ontario, Canada
http://www.friendlywormguy.com/blog/
.

Hotel lobby: the glamor of the Front of the House

When I worked in the hospitality industry in one of my other lives, we referred to the “front of the house” and the “back of the house” with regard to the roles people played in relation to hotel or restaurant guests. Those “in front” were the face of the property: they dealt directly with guests on a daily basis, and included the friendly folks at the front desk, room service, restaurant wait staff, bell staff, and hotel administration. The “back of the house” included those who supported hotel functioning without specific requirements for guest interaction ~ housekeeping staff, maintenance staff, and my favorite crazy kitchen staff. Although I was technically “front of the house,” my job afforded me plenty of interactions with the back ~ most especially the kitchen, my favorite place on the property, the beating heart of the hotel, Source of All Good Things, noisy hub of controlled chaos, temple of sweat and creativity.

During my time there I came to fully appreciate all the work that went on behind the scenes to make a guest’s experience pleasurable and unique. On one side of the wall were imported teak panels lining marble-floored hallways, stunning floral arrangements, delicate music, and well-heeled guests enjoying fine champagne. Just on the other side of the wall, the winding service hallways were abuzz with banquet servers balancing superhuman quantities of food on trays or carrying mountains of fresh table linens; maids clicking pens as they trucked down the passages with their carts and ambitious room lists; catering managers magically balancing radios, clipboards, candelabras, wedding floral arrangements, huge jangling key rings and packs of Menthol Kools. The banquet hallway light would turn on, indicating an event was in progress: the noise in the passage would hush slightly, and like a team of professional dancers everyone slipped smoothly in and out in their respective parts to make the celebration run seamlessly for our fortunate guests.

The majority of guests staying at our property never saw most of the staff who ensured they had a lovely time. But I realized that if even one part of the equation had been missing the whole process would have limped along, only a shadow of its glorious self.

Taking the leap: that moment of pure trust (photo kind courtesy of Jurvetson)

This young blog also has its share of “back of the house” folks making everything work out. As before, I walk the line between “front” and “back,” but I surely know I could not sit by my little bay window dreaming up things to write and magically hitting “Publish” if it weren’t for the work of several creative individuals across the globe.

I am grateful to my main site designers, the folks at JoomlArt.com, for providing great custom templates for my Joomla content management system (CMS) ~ as well as valuable user forums where I gleaned some great tips on working with (and further customizing) my template to fit my needs.

For further customization to match my Joomla main site template to my b2evolution-powered blog, I enlisted the help of Nelson at Deonix Design. I can’t begin to tell you how much Nelson has helped me, tweaked the website repeatedly (a process that is ongoing), and patiently answered a million questions. For both design houses my costs have been minimal, and I have obtained far more value than what I paid out.

I have been fortunate to receive some recognition for this site design by the very man who developed my b2evolution blog software, the creative François Planque (whom we might refer to as “the other François” to differentiate him from François Massialot). My web host, Lunarpages, interviewed François in its April newsletter. Besides offering some great information and insight into the background and capabilities of b2evolution blogging software, François kindly mentioned the Jenotopia blog as an example of creative design. The b2evolution main website also lists Jenotopia on its b2evo user blog roll ~ quite an honor for a baby blog like mine! The story has also been picked up by b2evolution blogger Walter Cruz, who translated it into Portuguese in his May 5 post.

Using free, open source software is important to me, but it brought me an unexpected benefit: it put me in touch with some of the friendliest, most helpful computer users around the world. François, Nelson, and the JoomlArt design team all actively and generously used their time to help me and thousands of others get up and running so they could “speak their pieces” to the world. There are many more “back of the house” folks who have helped me on my blogging path ~ through forums, websites, podcasts, and other e-tools. As in my old hotel days, the event you see here could not have happened without their hard work ~ so to them, and to all the others in the “back of the house” who keep the “front” up and running: thank you, thank you.

I love crème brûlée very, very much. It is a miracle to me that something so very simple can taste so incredible. Custard by itself is a beautiful thing ~ rich and creamy, delightfully decadent. But the layer of singed, caramelized sugar: this is what takes this dish into the ether of culinary masterpieces. The contrasts of flavor and texture between the rich custard with the crisp caramel cap bring such delight . . . ahh, I need a moment of silent reverie and awe.

I can’t get enough of Dame Edna’s beautiful speckled eggs ~ especially in a nice custard!

Now, back to business. There are many variations of caramelized custard in the world, so it is really impossible to determine the exact origins of crème brûlée. And it also likely the custard itself existed for many years before the incredible caramelized pièce de résistance that makes crème brûlée so very special. However, it seems to me that something this inventive ~ and this rich and delicious ~ must surely be French. Culinary students are all familiar with the cookbook of François Massialot, a talented French chef who was in high demand in France’s royal circle during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It is Massialot’s 1691 cookbook that contains the first printed reference to crème brûlée. Whether or not he invented it remains a mystery, but as the rest of his recipes show innovation and creativity, I would like to think that perhaps he did.

Massialot’s crème brûlée was a bit different than the ones generally prepared at today’s restaurants; the custard contained cinnamon, candied fruits, and even ground nuts. The crust that makes the custard unique was there in all its glory, though ~ and I suppose the rest is history.

I have enjoyed crème brûlée in many variations ~ from pumpkin to herb-scented to coffee to ginger, and with many accents and accoutrements ~ from liqueur to fresh or candied berries and fruits. One of my very favorite ways to enjoy crème brûlée, though, is absolutely plain. I developed a delicious, basic crème brûlée recipe that incorporates a small amount of white chocolate. The candy accents the custard’s impossible creaminess without being obtrusive, and it really is even better than plain custard. The addition of one whole egg in addition to the egg yolks adds just a hint of fluffiness to ensure the custard is not cloying. You may find my recipe for White Chocolate Crème Brûlée on the main website in my recipe files.

Beautiful White Chocolate Crème Brûlée ~ our home grown eggs make it extra rich, and extra yellow

For more about creating this delightful dessert ~ including a reprint of Massialot’s original recipe ~ visit my Focus on Food exploration of crème brûlée.