From Dreams to Soaring

From Dreams to Soaring

My back was to an ocean

Eyes squinting the burning sun

And your wave came so unexpectedly

Crumbling what was foundation

It pulled me underneath

With warm frothy breath

Propelling me to exaltation

Pulling into deep wet sand

For just a moment, scared and breathless

I was lost in the relenting current

But then anchored in assurance

I broke the surface flying

I soared into greatness

Where dreams contemplate

Where dreams are dreaming

And I drift between the wake

Inhaling, I succumb

To a reality in your eyes

Blanketed in their warmth

Reflecting words that wish

Of once finding meaning

With a wanting for nothing

What we share at no end

Revolving through time

-Nick Braxton

Asparagus Sous Vide

Recently watched a video of Heston Blumenthol's technique of combining asparagus with mushroom and truffle. Cooked in olive oil and butter, he prepares it in cast iron. I had some great looking produce, and influenced by Cooking Issues, I decided to try it sous vide. In  What Sous Vide Can Achieve, At a Glance Thomas Keller claims that "the color of green vegetables—broccoli, asparagus, peas, etc.—is harmed" by this method, but for me it turn out great. Without access to fresh truffles, I used white truffle salt and cooked everything for six minutes.

 The texture was perfect, obviously not watery and the flavor? Intense!

CERNstock

"The cannabis experience has greatly improved my appreciation for art, a subject which I had never much appreciated before. [...]  The enjoyment of food is amplified; tastes and aromas emerge that for some reason we ordinarily seem to be too busy to notice. I am able to give my full attention to the sensation. A potato will have a texture, a body, and taste like that of other potatoes, but much more so. [...] Improvement [in] my appreciation of music has [also] occurred with cannabis. For the first time I have been able to hear the separate parts of a three-part harmony and the richness of the counterpoint. I have since discovered that professional musicians can quite easily keep many separate parts going simultaneously in their heads, but this was the first time for me." - Carl Sagan "Marihuana Reconsidered"

Jerk Chicken

New Camera - Unaltered. Which is better?

Some pix I took UT ® °_° ®

œœœo

Harrisburg Family House

Pretty good Greek-style restaurant with your typically huge menu. Everything that I have had has been decent. From breakfast to pork chops, it's a good local place where everyone can get what they want. Most items are made in house so all of their "regular" food has some flavor. It  doesn't seem to taste overly processed like many of these places do.

The chicken parm has to be the best thing that I have had there. It is better than Olive Garden and is only $9. The Marinara sauce is a little paste heavy. Asked the waitress what's the best thing on the menu, and even inquired about a review on the wall, but unfortunately she did the thing I detest; just read the menu to me.

We also tried, this time, the chicken pot pie. It had good flavor, even the gelatinous goo holding it together tasted like chicken. Unfortunately, they covered the pastry (the pie part, no crust) with sauce, so it became soggy.

Everyone in there is always really nice and the service is good. My sister and I eat together all of the time and people assume that we are a couple. The lady at the register had us pegged as siblings in no time, she's the first!

Yelp

Amelie's French Bakery

Best baguette in town. Oh how I love thee let me count the ways;

24hrs, frozen take-home bread, the twice baked croissants, plenty of room(s), wi-fi, coffee, sandwiches, coolness obtained by being there, etc. 5*s for it being in Charlotte.

3.5*s overall because the butter croissants are a little weak and the prices a little high, but it's worth it for that baguette...

Yelp

TRANSGLUTAMINASE

From Will Powder - ACTIVA® RM is a transglutaminase enzyme preparation that may be used for bonding a diverse range of food materials such as red meat, poultry and seafood pieces. It can be added as a pre-hydrated slurry or as a dry powder. ACTIVA® RM is versatile in application and its use can be tailored to fit most processes.
Ways to Apply Product:
1) Sprinkle Method: To join specific pieces, ACTIVA® RM can be sprinkled on product surfaces. The surfaces are then joined and held in place through vacuum packaging or molding. Products must be joined as soon as possible (20-30 minutes, depending on specific conditions) after ACTIVA® application to allow optimal bonding action. Typical usage level: 0.75-1.0% of formula weight.

2) Mixer addition: ACTIVA® RM may be used in chunked and formed applications. Typically, mixing is used to incorporate a marinade into meat trimmings or coarse ground products. After the marinade is adequately absorbed, ACTIVA® RM may be added as a dry powder during mixing. ACTIVA® RM should be mixed with a product until dispersed. Once ACTIVA® RM is added, the product should be formed, stuffed or molded into the desired shape as soon as possible (within 20- 30 minutes depending in specific conditions). Typical usage level: 0.75-1.0% of formula weight.

3) Slurry Method: ACTIVA® RM can be pre-hydrated at about 4 to 4.5 times its weight in water. The slurry is then added to meat chunks, blended and allowed to react in the desired shape under refrigerated conditions. Once mixed with water, the slurry must immediately be applied to the product and formed as soon as possible (within 20-30 minutes depending on specific conditions). Typical usage level: 1.0% of formula weight.

Reaction time and conditions:
After forming, products are generally left under refrigeration for 4-24 hours to allow maximized bonding to take place. After the reaction is complete, the products can be frozen, tempered and portioned. In some cases products can be portioned fresh and then packaged fresh and/or frozen. - From Will Powder

Unusual Cooking Concepts

Directions in food (Meat Pix)

Japanese Pasta Fork Will Change How You Eat Pasta Forever

Link

Foodie

Induction

Induction

I am faith. Listen.
Do you hope for practicality?
Simple sciences need no logical answers
Wood and nails,
  fish, bread and kings, kings and kings.
I know you hope for practicality, but
I am epistemic. Listen children.
Episteme is the game. But because and but because.
But that is what you need, I am what you…


You are a dreamer and I am your poster child,
Please look:
  Fish, bread and wine. Wallah!
Everything you need, all answers with a bow.


(sometimes it is a lot easier when things are easy)

Like, if you leave the light on, then you're not alone
I am the light so don’t think. It’s Easy?
Count your blessings one by one,


  you see you're not alone. Think.

Genesis, Yin and Yang, Existentialism. Whoa stop!
This is what I am saying
I am not technically technical, savvy or avant-garde
  So no, don’t think.
I bare the crown of convention, my burden is necessity and
  the millions nurtured.


I am your mother’s milk. I am your because.

Ballad of Mrs. John Henry - Poem/Lyrics?

For that hammer drivin' man
200 pounds and all
Heaven's grace incarnate
10 times 6 feet tall

And that hard steel splendid
As dark as the sky when
That mill whistle sings
Till the morning we'll spend

Your plow aches my clay
Unadorned and unaltered
Just to pave the way
This steam hammer's conquered

Only one could match the will
To two and engage
A matrimonial tithe
This hearts now ablaze

With a fire acquired
Like engine fueled steam
Hot strength so desired
Or something in between

Mother Espagnole - Food

Experience, which plays such an important part in culinary work, is nowhere so necessary as in the preparation of sauce for not only must the latter flatter the palate, but they must also vary in savor, consistency and viscosity, in accordance with the dishes they accompany.
—Escoffier

Filet de Bœuf Rossini à la Périgueux (Beef tenderloin coated with pâté de foie gras and duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked. The sauce is flavored with Madeira and truffle).

WiZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZard - Art

Dear Martin - Poem

Dear Martin

It's all about the tension
Torqued just so tight
Your voluptuous curves
Oh, your hollow insight
What you bring to the day
Or awaken in night
Breathing the voodoo fire
On knees childlike

On all of your 21 steps
Reverence so true
That so many left abandoned
To untimely à dieu
With fortified callous
To accomplish in time
Like a high wire stumble
A lone guitarist's crime

Planed by mortals crafted from
Hard hands of God
This wood and metal customed
As a poor man's hot rod
Tuned to the precision of
Tones deemed succinct
With the players from Woody
To Herman Li like elite

Smooth to the touch cradled
Like long lost lovers
Between you and the sound
There can be no other
Stroking strings softly
your grain on my lips
Placing the last puzzle piece
All surrounded by fifths

Leaned in the corner like some
Pear split in half
Your core bares the seeds
Of what keeps me intact
For it is from your release
That i can soon atone
This feeling of guilt
For not leaving you alone
Though there is much achieved
By mastering such art
It is what has always been
Keeping us apart

So remember as I hold you in
My tired arms this time
To just listen to the sound
Of notes singing rhymes

_______________________________________________________________-----

Sizzle - Poem

Sizzle

Sizzle like blood spilled on scorched earth
  a plastic bag firestorm into such
  puddles of water
Sizzle like green leaves as tinder and the
  hot smoke in your lungs
Sizzle like my toes on the heater,
  asleep on the floor
Sizzle like red hot slag or the arc eye, you
  with no cover
Sizzle like the forgotten dawn giving way to the
  high-noon asphalt, like the throne of Mahuika
  and the furnace of Auschwitz
Sizzle like young fingers grabbing for cookies,
  the sweet with the sour
Sizzle like the spent casing in a collar or
  quick soles on a fire
Sizzle like in the morning when all
  marshmallows are gone and the bucket
  is empty
Sizzle like the arctic processing of a
  once splendid tuber immersed in
  rendered insulation
Sizzle like a spark extinguished in flesh,
  the fat popped on hands or
  oven brushed forearms
Sizzle like the sword of Vulcan plunged
  to the depths of Poseidon, formed
  by the trials of fire
Sizzle like the hard traveled mind,
  rambled and forlorn
Sizzle like the junkie on the corner, the clouds
  of napalm and the raining acid
Sizzle like cleaning bricks, like milk in
  my krispies, like the noxious fumes of a
  garage born Vesuvius shadowed
  by trifold poster boards
Sizzle like radiation from the weapons
  of Armageddon, like a licked thumb and
  finger closing on a wick